How to be More Like Jesus | Beatitudes | Righteousness

My name is Jonathan Hill and if I haven't had the privilege of meeting you, I'm a deacon here at New Life Faithville and me and my family have been attending this church for almost 10 years now so it is an honor to be up here teaching y'all this morning. I'm going to read out of the word from 1 Corinthians chapter 2, start in verse 1. "When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness, in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with the demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God's power." You pray with me. Heavenly Father, thank you for this moment in time we get to have corporate worship. Learning more about you, I pray, Lord, that the soil here today is tilled, seeds are planted, and that the harvest is made abundant by workers that are inspired from your word. Not mine would you use this broken vessel, Lord. And I pray, Holy Spirit, let your voice be the loudest. Expand your domain here right now in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, before I teach y'all today, I've got to testify to something. The power of our God, the faithful love that He gives to us. About three weeks ago, my brother Rob shot out my twin. He put me in a group text, a group text where brothers share music that is minister to them, as well as encouraging words, scripture, prayer. And if you've ever been out to a group text, you know that you don't know even half of those numbers in there. A lot of anonymous, right? So two weeks ago, after a long night of parenting young children, traveling, trying to get stuff done around the house, young parents, y'all know what I'm talking about. I was exhausted. And yet I wake up at 3 a.m.

An hour before my alarm goes off, and it's strange. I feel a peace. I feel rested. So I carry on with getting ready for work. And I send a text in that group, a song I've been listening to, and an encouraging word about the presence of the Lord wrapping us in His warm embrace. I send it at 4 a.m. I'm driving the work in the dark, in this storm hidden. And immediately a text responds to what I just sent. This is at 4 a.m. I'm expecting people to read this when they wake up at 7. And this text says, "I don't know who you are, homie, but I appreciate this." He sends another text that says, "I was thinking about ending it." But this really helped, bro. Y'all ever felt that conviction of the Lord where you're like, "Man, do I need to do this?" And parents, y'all know what I mean when your child asks you that and you just give them the look. You don't got to say nothing. You just give them the look. That's what God was giving me in that moment. And so I send another text of encouragement and I call him. This is an unknown number. I don't know who this is. He picks up the phone and this brother just starts reweeping to me. Telling me about an addiction he's relapsed into that's affected his ministry, his family, his work. He's in between jobs and doesn't have health insurance. And this is affecting his ability to get admitted into a rehab center. He's got to wait another week for his insurance to kick in. He's like, "Man, I can't wait another week.

This is the week that I ended, bro. I just bought a new pistol. I'm ready to go." I'm sitting in this moment like, "Man, I've never been here before. Lord, what do I do? I don't even know what to say." And the Lord reminds me, "Johnathan, you may not have been in that exact situation, but you were in the same state of mind, not too long ago. Start ministering to your old self." And so I started encouraging him in his identity in Christ, the value of fighting for his family and offering me as a resource, things that I needed in my darkest hour. And the spirit wasn't done. He said, "Johnathan, you remember that passage that changed your life, that impressively So much so, I've got a tattered right here. So I'm 139 about the inescapable presence of God. Share with him, I share with him. And as this dude is reading this passage aloud, man, I'm hearing myself read the same passage. He reads a part where he says, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, you are there. He's like, dang, I can't bro, I feel that. He gets through the part where it says, darkness is not dark to you, even night shines. Like today, he's like, dang, I can't bro. He gets through the part where it says, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. He's like, wow, I can't.

'Cause I remember when I was in that dark pit that I had dug myself into, it wasn't me that saved myself. I wasn't strong enough. It was a mercy of God holding on to me that whole time. That's the reason that I'm still here. I'm still here able to teach you today because of the mercy of God. And I got a praise report this morning. That same week, that brother got admitted into a Christian rehab facility. He is here right now in the building. He is over 120 hours sober for the first time in years. And if you have ever been to the same place where you look back and you're like, man, I'm still here because the mercy of God held on to me. Y'all better praise him in this place. Give him glory. Come on church, there's soccer stadiums out into y'all being right now. Here are football stadiums, out into y'all being right now. We're not praising men, we're praising God. (audience applauding) Mm, thank you, Jesus. We praise God 'cause he's attuned our palate now for the things of heaven and no longer for the things of earth. His grace is a lifeline when we are drowning. His word is sharper than any double-edged sword. Pinnertrates the soul from the spirit, separates it.

And we about to get into the word today. If you got your Bible, go ahead and pull it out. Your word, your gospel glott, your Bible Blicki, your heavenly heater, whatever you wanna call it, let me stop, let me stop. But listen, listen, listen. I'm not saying this out of ignorance, this is biblical. If you don't believe me, go ahead and read Deuteronomy six, start in verse four. Tells us to keep the word of God on us at all times. Secondly, I don't play with snakes. I'm not like Adam, I killed a king, Cobra, and I ain't never backing down when it's worth time 'cause I was born a soldier. And if you were born again, you were born a soldier too. And soldiers gotta be prepared for battle. Gotta be prepared to catch your body. For us, that's a demon or a flesh. 'Cause we shoot the kill, let me in. All right, let's get into the word, man. I'm continuing the series that we are on in the Beatitudes, the Blessed. I am going to be exegeting from the sixth verse of the fifth chapter of the Book of Matthew, which reads, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Now let me ask you a question this morning. Y'all ever had a true hunger moment or a true thirst moment? Were you really hungry or really thirsty?

You thought to yourself, man, what is true hunger? What is true thirst? I know I have so much so that my day is organized around food. It's an uncomfortable feeling, right? And let me make a distinction real quick. There's a difference between craving and hungering. Craving is something that you want but don't necessarily need. Like, I crave ice cold, topo tico, or my mother-in-law's homemade carrot cake, but I don't necessarily need it. But when my body's hungering and thirsting for something, it's telling me, hey, you're the pride of a nutrient that I need. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness is where these two things intersect to both want and need something, to crave. And today, I'm here to teach you what hungering and thirsting for righteousness is, why we need to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and how we hunger and thirst for righteousness. we cannot be righteous apart from God. It is the blood of Jesus poured out for us and on us, on the cross that makes us righteous. And then, it's through the free gift of salvation we receive, acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior over our lives, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that transforms us by the renewing of our mind and conforms us into the image of God.

And Jesus shows us straight up what this looks like, how we can understand righteous hunger and righteous thirst from the times that He was fasting. There's three moments that I want to highlight right here. The first, this is where Jesus is driven into the wilderness after his baptism, where he rebukes Satan with scripture and demonstrates his obedience to God. Number two, the woman at the will, when Jesus is ministering and prophesying to the Samaritan woman and then proceeds to go and tell His disciples what heavenly nutrition looks like. Number three, the unproofful fig tree. This is where Jesus demonstrates his hunger and thirst for righteousness and distaste for unproofful things. And then these accounts that I just listed, Jesus is showing us the power of fasting and praying. He's also showing us the importance of hungering and thirsting for righteousness. He was victorious over the devil and the weakness of his flesh. He was focused on the value of a soul and his kingdom. And he was zealous for the fruit of the spirit, which is righteousness. Y'all want to level up your walk with Jesus? Fast. And I promise these three things will be cultivated in you. Victory, focus, zeal. But let's go deeper.

What does righteousness mean in the original Hebrew text? There are two core examples that I want to highlight here that are interconnected. The first in Hebrew, Siddhaka. This is right living that actively restores relationships and seeks to well-being of others. This is the standard of covenant faithfulness in action. Number two, in Hebrew, is mishpah. This is the application of justice, the kind that creates a fair and stable society where the vulnerable are protected and everyone is treated equitably. You see, Siddhaka is a tangible action that makes righteousness in the world while mishpah is the system of justice that upholds it. But let's go deeper still. Who does this sound like? King Jesus, who completely and perfectly embodies both of these definitions. Because it's his complete and perfect will. Now in order for us to hunger and thirst for righteousness, we must understand what it means to be sustained with righteousness. In the scriptures, righteousness is anonymous with godliness. Paul breaks this down in his letters to the church in Corinth and to his disciples Timothy. And in his letters of Corinth, he says that our bodies are a temple, a temple for the Holy Spirit. Now for a temple to be godly,

it must actually help the presence of God, right? Through his spirit. But I'm sure each one of us know people who look pretty on the outside, families, schools, businesses, churches, governments. They look pretty on the outside. What's going on in here? They may be depraved on healthy, sick, rotting. Therefore, godliness cannot be accomplished through the vain efforts of man. But through a supernatural working of the Holy Spirit. So when Paul says, "Train yourselves in godliness." First Timothy, four, seven. He's talking about how we actually live out Matthew 28, 19, a great commission. The go therefore make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I've commanded you and Jesus promises that he'll be with us to the end of the age. Well, how do we do that practically? In first Timothy four, Paul breaks it down. He says through public reading, exhortation and teaching of the Word of God. And let me just tell you, you don't need no platform to do that. You need a posture of surrender. Y'all don't hear me though. I said, you don't need a platform. You need a posture of surrender.

One more time. You don't need a platform. You need a posture of surrender. This is the calling that Jesus has to every faithful follower of his. And didn't Jesus do the same thing? This is the command and imperative. one person that also does the same thing. Our pastor says, God bless him, tells us to examine our righteousness from Monday to Saturday, not just Sunday. How do we do this? Inviting people into our home with your family, going out and serving, getting coffee, lunch or dinner with somebody. It doesn't have to be complicated. So, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, right? So, godliness, what we've just learned, this is what validates our bodies being, the temple of the Holy Spirit. And in this beatitude, Jesus is promising that we will be filled. Our temples will be filled. Y'all know that full feeling when you have a good meal, right? Y'all know that sustained feeling, that sustenance feeling of having a good community. Well, satiation is something that we long for. It's innately human, both physically and spiritually. But let me tell you what true sustenance is. The fruit of the Holy Spirit. Y'all know those nine attributes, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faith, self-control. This is what righteousness looks like. Now, we're talking about satiation because Jesus ain't no supplement. He's a bread of life. Y'all like to eat food, right? So, if I ask you a question and say, if I offered you a protein shake or a brisket smoke by the best pit master in the world, which one would you choose? Facts. So, if we keep it in the book, obviously Jesus is far greater, far more sustaining, far more fooling, feeling, excuse me, than we could ever receive from a physical sustenance. Yet, while we treat him like a snack, a supplement, a protein bar, while we treat him Jesus like a side piece, only good for one moment, one day, one night, when he is far greater and demands far greater from us. And y'all know some people out here, they doing some would argue the most to get certain nutrients that they need. They go outside and stand barefoot but naked in the sun. But how about this church family? How about we root ourselves in the Word of God, make ourselves vulnerable and stare at the strength and glory of the real

son, Jesus Christ. Y'all know people with cabinets full of supplements and those long pill boxes, I don't even know what those are called. But why don't we keep our spiritual cabinet full with the Word of God? Jesus must increase and we need to decrease. More of him and less of me. We've got to keep our eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ. But hey, if you want some supplements, Scripture got plenty of them for you. We're going to get into it. Y'all know those supplement commercials, they'd be giving you a long list of all the symptoms that you need to take a supplement. Scripture got that too. It says, "The person who lacks these things is blind and short-sighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins." So let's get into it, the supps we need to take. Second Peter 1, starting verse 5, "Make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection and brotherly affection with love. So if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they would keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." What am I trying to say here? This right here, this book right here, it's got everything that you need. You don't need to look no further. This is that freshly baked artesian bread or sourdough. This is that beautifully rubbed, brisket or cut of meat smoked to perfection, taking out the rest and ready to eat. This is that freshly squeezed juice, ice cold on a hot summer day. The real question is, how bad do you want it? Now there's a brother in the word, go by the name of David, King David, who was hungering and thirsting for the presence of God and His Word. And this is during a period of time where He's lost most of His family. His status, reputation, possessions, gone. He's out in the wilderness where substance is not guaranteed. And can I be real with y'all today, man? When I'm pressed like that or going through a situation, my first inclination isn't to look upward, it's to look inward. I'm on pride and selfishness. This is convicting to me. Says, look at David, as in spite of his current situation,

he is breaking himself before the Lord. It's since Psalm 63. So on to verse one, My body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. So I gaze on you in the sanctuary to see your strength and your glory. My lips will glorify you because your faithful love is better than life. So I will bless you as long as I live. At your name, I will lift up my hands. You satisfy me as with rich food. My mouth will praise you with joyful lips. David is talking here about how much more desperate he is for the man of heaven, and I'm talking about righteousness and godliness here, rather than his fleshly desires and cravings for materialism and food. Family, sometimes we get a little delusional or ignorant about our own soul's thirst and hunger. Sometimes we need to get driven into the wilderness for us to wake up and become aware of our soul's longing and thirsting. Now, ask yourself, how do you feel when you're extremely hungry? How do you feel when you're extremely thirsty? How do you know? You eagerly seek it. Whether that's like me is open a fridge and just stand there. No, it ain't nothing in there.

Or maybe it's a pantry in your kitchen. Or maybe it's a door-dash app. What are we looking for? Something to sustain us, to satisfy us. Because thirst and hunger are non-exclusive, they affect everybody. And once you get a drink of that water, or whatever you drink in, or hot meal, doesn't it feel so good? Don't you get a little giddy? My one and a half year old, man. When she gets some food, she be doing her little dance, spinning in circles, I know y'all can relate. But don't you get hungry again? Don't you get thirsty again? I want y'all to go with me here. Imagine yourself stranded in a desert. And I did a little research 'cause I wanted to know what the hottest desert was in the world. And in true Google fashion, instead of one answer, it gave me three. So pick your boys. The first option is the Lut Desert in Iran, which surface temperatures reach above 170 degrees. Or maybe you want the Mojave Desert in California where the air temperature goes above 130. Or maybe you want the biggest hottest desert, which is the Sahara. Whatever you pick, research goes to say that depending on your clothing

and the amount of activity walking that you're doing, a human wouldn't last more than 12 hours at the most in that environment. Because of rapid dehydration, organ failure, and heat exhaustion. So put yourself in this moment real quick. How desperate would you be for a drop of water to hit your tongue? Knowing that your life was limited in time. How hopeless would you feel if that sustenance that you're desperately needing is at a cost that you can't even afford? You got nothing to offer to acquire that. But then out of nowhere, a man looking like the son of God walks up and pays in full for what you could never. And the only thing that he is off or to be asking of you is to follow him. To put everything, cast everything aside that is tying you to the world. Family, this is the gospel. God's grace demonstrated in the cross. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, we are saved. We are adopted into his family, grafted to the tree. We inherit, we are co-heirs with him of his kingdom. Hear me, salvation is impartial. So is the essence of food and water. Everybody needs it. I've never known a single person

who's not gotten hungry or thirsty. And Jesus knew this. He knew how fallible we are. He knew how frequently we would get hungry and thirsty. World cultures center around food. Jesus understood the assignment when he's painting these pictures for us, so we can understand that instead of food, our lives need to be centered around. This is word. Now, this reminds me of my little girl's man, they're always acting for something. Whether it's a snack or a special drink, my little one, man, she is incessant about a God bless her. "Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, ee, ee," and she won't let you get a single word in until her request is fulfilled. And that girl can eat, she got her daddy appetite. But even after the fact, they still get hungry. They still get thirsty. So, let me paint for you a biblical example of this as well. We're going to be in John 4. Jesus, with the woman at the well. He's speaking to her, verse 13. "Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again, but whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water, springing up in him for eternal life." "Sir," the woman said to him, "give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water." So, after this, Jesus continues to minister to her, prophesied to her, and she is so filled with joy and hope that she goes to evangelize to her town,

that she's encountered the Messiah. The disciples, they piddled up. They ran to the local corner store, grabbed some food and snacks for Jesus. They know he's hungry. They know they ain't packing on the heat. They say, "Rabbi, you got to eat some." He's like, "Nah, I got food you don't even know about." They're like, "What?" "Huh?" "We know we didn't pack food. There's nobody else here. Does somebody feed him?" He's like, "Nah, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." Now, I ain't talking down to nobody who's doing a fast from media or a fast for their health, but today I'm talking about a biblical fast, a fast of no food and only water or as close to that as you can get. I believe there's levels of spiritual maturity we don't even know about until we actually starve our body of what it needs physically. But not just fasting, praying too. You can't have one without the other, otherwise it's just a diet. You see, fasting reduces us and increases his presence in our lives. So Jesus is telling us here that hungering and thirsting for righteousness is desiring or obsessing to do the will of God. And the will of God was accomplished through Jesus Christ. So why don't I tell you, to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to hunger and thirst for Jesus Christ. As simple as that. Let me tell you, if you go down this road of fasting, which you should, we are called to, you'll start to see that a new hunger is being cultivated in you

when you starve your carnal desires. You'll start seeing that the world around us, especially in our culture here in America of consumerism and clickbait and me and mine, you'll see that we are being low to sleep and our ears dulled because there's so many voices competing for the loudest. Compete it against the one voice that should be the loudest. Family, we gotta wake up. How can we call ourselves followers of Christ willing to even know the voice of our good shepherd? We've walked ourselves into this lukewarm culture Christianity built on infidelity to Jesus. And we don't even realize it. What does Scripture have to say about this? 1 John 2, 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. For the things in the world, excuse me, for those who love the world, the love of the Father is not in them. This is what I would tell my clients and my participants, these are empty calories, you don't need them. Let's see what they are. And the world with this lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever. Y'all, if we took a good, hard-long look at the immeasurable value of our salvation, we went in belittle it with lukewarm tendencies. We would actually begin to start hungering and thirsting for the righteousness of God, fulfilled through the person that Jesus Christ. Amen? If you can't say amen, I'd say, "Ouch." Now, if you're playing a wedding before or a birthday or an event, you know that sometimes you've got to, for budget's sake, you've got to cut the invitation list a little bit. Whether that's your crash-out cousin or your ratchet auntie or uncle, or maybe it's that friend that's not really your friend, but they insist they are and they put you in this opera situation. Y'all know what I'm talking about. Hear this. Jesus gives an invitation to all to quench their thirst. He gives an invitation to all, but not all will accept the invitation. The prophet Isaiah prophesies the same thing in Isaiah 55.

Let's get into it. Starting at verse 1. Everyone who is thirsty, come to the water and you without silver, come by and eat, come by wine and milk without silver and without cost. Y'all way is not partial to anyone. You want to know why? As it says here, come who? Everyone. Y'all way calls everyone to himself, everyone, because he sent his son to die for everyone to be saved. Salvation is not exclusive. And not only do we get to drink the living water, but we also get to drink milk and wine, things that strengthen, cheer, and nourish us. Family, the righteousness of God is something to long for because the righteousness of God is Jesus, and only Jesus can make us righteous. Y'all hear me? Let's get into verse 2. Why do you spend silver on what is not food and your wages on what is not satisfied? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and you will enjoy the choicest of foods. In other words, why are we wasting our faith equity on false idols? This is how we start to become bankrupt, starved in our spirit, our ribs start touching in the spirit. What y'all way got for us is far greater than the malnutritioned fast food that we're lapping up at a whim. Let me put this into perspective on a real world example. Fast food, whether it be sweets or something savory, the industry is only successful based off of addiction. There are things put in foods in order to make you less satisfied, to make you want to come back and eat more. If you don't believe me, look deeper. Most people don't realize this until they look deeper. Most people don't realize that they're stuck in sin or a toxic cycle or a bad relationship or an addiction until they look deeper. You see addiction rewrites the brain and this isn't just a biblical idea, this is psychology. It gives us an unnecessary hunger, excuse me, unhealthy hunger and thirst for what we don't need. And listen man, please know I'm not up here to talk down to you or to make myself look a certain way or to use this platform to absorb myself. I'm here to tell you I'm human too. I'm broken too. I had addictions too, but this is what I learned when God pulled me out of those things. I was addicted to drugs, but guess what?

God taught me that the Holy Spirit got a high that is far greater and lasts longer. I was addicted to alcohol, but let me tell you, being drunk on the love of Jesus hits harder and they don't leave no hangover. I was addicted to relationships, sex, pornography. What I learned is intimacy with Jesus can fill you in ways that those things cannot. You have to come back the lies of the enemy with the truth of God. Jesus is trying to share this truth with us, this wagyu beef, this grass-fed beef, this free-range chicken. What am I trying to say here? He's trying to share with us his unconditional love, his everlasting peace, his unfading hope in order to receive these things we must relinquish control and replace it with desperation. And even after today, there's going to be people here in this room that still don't believe that they're desperate for Jesus. Like, you still don't believe that you are desperate for Jesus. We got to wake up. What does Scripture say about it? Let's look at the script. First John chapter 1, starting in verse 8. If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. It doesn't stop there. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have no sin, we make him a liar. And his word is not in us. We have to relinquish our control, family. Aren't we thankful this morning that Jesus is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins?

Fully cleanses from unrighteousness, fully. Let's give him some praise this morning, family. Now, y'all want to hear some really good news? Let's take a look into the love letter from our king and Savior to his people, called by his name, written by the apostle John towards the end of his life. I call it a love letter because I used to look at this book with the unhealthy, horrific fear of the wrath and judgment of God. But now when I read this book, I can't help but be dorfully expecting on the groom to come collect his bride and ride off into eternal glory. The book that I'm talking about is Revelation. We're going to be in chapter 7, and we're going to start at verse 16. They were no longer hunger. They were no longer thirst. That sound familiar? The sun would no longer strike them, nor will any scorching heat. For the lamb who is at the center of the throne will shepherd them. He will guide them to springs of the waters of life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This is good news. Jesus ain't stiff-arming you. I believe that lie. No, I was actually stiff-arming Jesus. But guess what? He's calling you. He's holding out his hand waiting on you to receive it. He's not trying to belittle you or talk down to you.

No, he loves you. How? He is the unblemished lamb, the atoning sacrifice, the only one who could take on all of our sins on that cross and wipe them away. Now, family, I pray you're encouraged, but also pray that you offended a little bit. Let that offense lead to conviction, not condemnation. Conviction to turn to the Lord, not condemnation to hell. Conviction has the hope of rehabilitation. Condemnation has no hope at all. And guess what? There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. So what is true hunger? What is true thirst? Let's spend back on that. It is the desire, the craving, to be with Jesus, to be obedient to Jesus, to be like Jesus, to be sustained by Jesus. And I pray this over you, Church. I sincerely do that you would hunger in thirst for the will of God, for the righteousness of God, which is Jesus Christ. He came down to this earth and experienced all of our shortcomings and human limitations. And yet, without sin, he fulfilled God's will perfectly. If Jesus can give up his body, so can I. If he can give up his will, so can I. But don't get it twisted.

This is not accomplished through your own measure of strength or effort. No, this is the power of God in you through the Holy Spirit. Now, we're about to get into a time of work. And we're about to listen to a song that we don't normally sing here. It's a song that has convicted me. It has encouraged me and it's really given me clarity and ton of vision for the purposes of God. The title of the song is Living On. It's by an artist named Sonday. As we get into this posture of worship, I invite you to come to the altar, to lay down anything that is hindering your appetite for Jesus, a worldly lust, an addiction, a relationship, a stronghold on your life, Jesus is calling you. He's calling all of us to have an attitude and a posture of repentance. You ain't got to be an unbeliever to repent. He calls all of us to repent. That's how we stay close to Jesus. And when he's calling you, don't rush past it because I guarantee he can do one more in one instance of obedience. You can do more in one instance of obedience than you could ever do in a lifetime of striving. And if you're scared, that's okay. Come trembling. Come weak. Come heavily laden and burdened. Do you want to know the truth? We serve the living God, the one true God, Yahweh, and you know who He is? The comforter, our refuge, our strength, our shield, the everlasting rock, our strong tower. So it's okay to break yourself before Him. He's going to wrap you in that tight embrace.

We'll see you next time.