When Being Right is Actually Wrong

We want to welcome everybody at all of our locations and all of you who are joining us online. Thanks for being with us today. We are continuing our series called A Tale of Two Sons and in preparation for that. I've invited my friend Nick to pray for us. Nick is a senior at Prairie High School. He actually serves at our South Gilbert campus. He serves our preteen ministry and leads worship for high school ministry over there. And so Nick's going to lead us in a word of prayer. - Guys, don't mind, bound your heads, opening your palms in a posture of receiving. Holy Spirit, come, God, we thank you so much for today. The fact that we're able to meet in a church and be in a community where we can just worship your name, Lord. We thank you so much for it. Pray that you just continue to move through us. Bring us closer to you, God. I pray for Chad's message, Lord, that it's able to move through these people and we're able to just all come closer to you, Lord. Realize how broken we are and how much we need you, God. Thank you so much for your love for us, the love we don't deserve, but the love that you still give us, God. We thank you so much for it. Pray for safety and protection, Lord. I pray it's all in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen. - Amen. Good job, buddy. Thank you. (audience applauds) - So the past few weeks, we've been talking about the tale of two sons. It's a story that Jesus tells in Luke chapter 15. Usually the story is called the story of the prodigal son. How many of you have always heard it called that if you've heard of this before? Even if you're not a church person, perhaps you've heard that, the story of the prodigal son. And yet, when Jesus tells the story, here's the first line of the story. There was a man who had two sons, and so throughout the ages now, people call this story, the story of the prodigal son, and yet it's a story about a man who had two sons. And so today we're actually gonna talk about the older son. We're gonna talk about the older brother. Now months ago, I was singing with you a moment ago, and then I was trying to think, how many months was that? So I was counting on my fingers. About seven, eight months ago, I started grocery shopping, and it had been, I'm not gonna lie,

a couple of decades since I had gone to the grocery store to buy groceries. I had gone by the store to pick up something, like pick up this on the way home kind of thing. And so I had done that numerous times, but it was the first time I had to buy groceries at the grocery store. And I wanna tell you right now, the grocery store's intimidating. (audience laughing) How many of you, and I'm gonna assume that it's gonna be primarily men who are gonna fill my pain right now, probably not, maybe some of you ladies as well, that sometimes when you are asked to find a particular something in the grocery store, you are just a little bit intimidated. Can I see a show of hands? You're my people. Totally intimidated. But over time, I've gotten better. In fact, Jackson, my son, and I kind of make a game out of it every week. We go to the grocery store, we go to Costco. He likes to go to Costco because at Costco, you can get a hot dog and a drink for $1.50. And he was like, "Dad, you could like bring a date here for $3." (audience laughing) I was like, "Okay, bro, I'll keep that in mind."

But we go to Costco and we lookin' around. Grocery shopping is intimidating, and I just tend to ask the people that work there and they don't know either, right? Where is this? I'm not sure. I'm like, "You're stalking the shelves." And you don't know. Last weekend, I was with some friends and I was supposed to go to the grocery store and get Garadelli chocolate brownie mix. That sounds easy, doesn't it? Do you know how many? Options there are for Garadelli chocolate brownie mix. The chocolate brownie mix. Do you know how many options there are? I'ma help you. There's at least nine that I know of. I wrote "Sun Down." (audience laughing) There's ultimate chocolate. There's double chocolate. There's chocolate supreme. There's dark chocolate. - There's. It's intimidating. I took a picture of all the boxes. I'm like, which one? Many of us, we find the Bible pretty intimidating, right? I mean, some of you, you're new to church,

and we picked this big old book up, and I'm gonna say what I'm gonna say here in a minute, and I'm gonna say, turn here to this chapter in verse. And some of you, you're so new, and I'm so glad that you're here. I'm not teasing you, it just makes sense to me. It's like me trying to find something grocery store. You're like, what's a chapter? What's a verse? What does that mean? The big numbers are the chapters and the little numbers are the verses. If you've never looked in the Bible before, there's no way you would know that. And so I do my best in this room and in these moments to say here's where the book of the Bible is and chapter and verse, it can be so intimidating. And some of us, we've been in church for a long, long time. And how many of you, if you've been in church for more than 10 years, you still find the Bible a little bit intimidating. Would you just help all the new folks out? Yeah, and a bunch of you didn't raise your hand 'cause you're lying in church and you need to repent. It's intimidating, and it's intimidating to me on occasion. And so what we're gonna do today is, I wanna share this passage of scripture, the tale of two sons from Luke 15. Jesus tells this story,

but I wanna give it to you in different fashion. There is a ministry called Bible Project. And Bible Project provides resources to help people better understand the scriptures. And you can go to bibleproject.com and there's a lot of things in the Bible like you might read it and you're like, I don't understand, you can go to Bible Project and they will show you a video. If I can be so bold, I'm gonna say this in a cross way, but they'll kind of dumb it down for you. And it really, really helps. I'm gonna be completely honest with you. Sometimes I rip off sermon ideas from watching videos on bibleproject.com 'cause they just kinda condense it and make it simpler. And so here is the story of a man who had two sons from the Bible Project. Watch this. - There was a father who had two sons. - The older son is trustworthy and honors his father. - And the younger son, he's a mess. He rebels and caches in his inheritance to travel far away and blow it all on partying and being stupid. - And then there's a famine in the land and he runs out of money. So he has to scrape by by taking care of somebody's pigs. And he's so hungry he wants to eat the pig slop at which point it occurs to him, if I'm gonna be a farmhand, I might as well go home

and work for my dad. At least I won't be eating pig food. So he tracks back home, rehearsing his apology. - Now the father is certain that his son did not survive the famine. But then one day he sees someone walking down the road, it's his son, he's not dead. And so the father runs to him and embraces his son, kissing him all over. - The son starts his speech, "Dad, I don't deserve "to be your son, maybe I could come and work for you." - But before he can finish, the father calls his servants to go get the nicest robe, new sandals, a fancy ring for his son. There to prepare the best food for a banquet, it is time to celebrate. - Now later that day, the older brother arrives from a long day working in the field to discover his long lost Lucifer brother has come home and they're celebrating. - And he gets angry and think about it. - He's been faithful to his father all of these years. He never got a party like this. And then this disgrace of a family member comes home and they're going to celebrate him, it's disgusting. He refuses to join the banquet. - So the father finds the older brother outside and he says, - Son, you are already in our family. Everything I have is yours,

but we had to celebrate your brother because he was lost and now he's found he was dead, but now he's alive. - When Jesus tells that story, that's exactly how he ends it. It's just abrupt. Boom, and he walks off. So his father who has two sons, younger brother wants his share of the inheritance. He goes off, squanders it. Older brother stays at home. He's responsible, does what he's supposed to do. After the younger brother finds himself in dire straits, he decides to come home. And the father in this act of like inappropriate abundance welcomes him back into the family, full on, throws a party for him. And he's celebrating that the son who was lost has now been found. The older brother, meanwhile, who has always done the right thing, Jesus tells this story and then ends it. The older brothers talk to the father outside the party and Jesus just stops and walks off. You're left going, "Well, does the older brother go into the party?" We don't know. Today, I want to talk to you about the older brother. Anytime Jesus tells a story, the stories he tells are called parables. You want to ask yourself three questions. Because these stories are meant to teach us something and they're painting a picture. When Jesus taught, he was in the east, in the east, eastern part of the world.

They teach differently there than we do in the west. In the west, here's what you guys want me to do every weekend. You want three points and a funny story, right? Give me the three points so that I can know exactly what I'm supposed to know. I can fill in the blank, write the information down, and I've learned it. That's not the way they teach in the east. In the east, in the way that they teach, they very rarely actually give you the answer. And rabbis would do this during the time of Jesus. Jesus would not say, "Point one is this. Point two is this. Point three is this." The bottom line is that's not how he taught. He would tell stories. He would throw out these big ideas. He would ask questions and just let people wrestle with them. And it caused people to think. When Jesus tells a story, you ask yourself these three questions. In the story, in the metaphor, in the picture that he's painting. First question, who is God in the story? Second question, you ask yourself, who am I in the story? And the third question that you ask is, what am I supposed to learn? So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go ahead and give you the spoiler alert, and I'm going to tell you what you're supposed to learn from the tale of two sons. Are you ready? Here it is, biblical Christianity. I'm not talking about the way it's been practiced by most churches over the past two thousand years. I'm talking about what the Bible says. Everybody with me.

Because if I asked you what is Christianity, we would get 20,000 different answers this weekend. From all of you in attendance and all of you who are watching online, everybody would have a different flavor, a different way of communicating it, and it would just all be muddled. Okay? Because everybody has this idea of what it actually is, and very few of us are actually thinking about the Bible, we're thinking about our culture, and we're thinking about our experiences. So I'm talking about biblical Christianity. What does it mean to follow Jesus? What did Jesus come to do? What did He provide for us? What does it all mean? Are you guys with me? So biblical Christianity, Jesus is looking for followers, it's something a little different, and we've turned it into something different over time. Biblical Christianity is not a religion. Religion is about earning and self-salvation and working your way to God. So biblical Christianity is actually not a religion. Scripture itself has become a religion over time, but that's not what it is in the Bible. So biblical Christianity, not a religion, listen close. Nor is it the absence of religious devotion. It's something different. Should we all just pray and go home now? Clear? Let's say it again, biblical Christianity, it's not a religion, nor is it the absence of religious devotion. It's something different, and if you're going, "Well Chad, what does that mean?" I'm so glad you asked, let's talk about it here for the next few minutes.

If I were to sit down with you, and we were to have a cup of coffee together, and I were to ask you to define righteousness. What is righteousness? What does it mean to be right before God? Let's take it a step further. What does it mean to be holy? What would you say? What is righteousness? What does it mean to be right before God? What does it mean to be holy? Jesus' whole point in the story is to look at the crowd that He was speaking to, and to tell them it's not what you think it is. Righteousness, holiness, being right before God, it's not what you think it is. Here's who He's speaking to. Here's the context. And any time you read the Bible, you want to know the context. Who was it written to, what was going on at the time? You've got to have some understanding. You don't just want to pluck out a verse. If it's out of context, it's a con. You kind of got to know what's going on to really fully understand it. When Jesus tells the story of a tell of two sons, here's who he's talking to. Look at this, Luke 15 verses one and two. It says, now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. Now everybody's a sinner, but these were obvious sinners, okay? So people who were outcasts in society, people that religious people didn't hang around

because they didn't want their sin rubbing off on them, that kind of thing. These are the people that Jesus hung out with. That's the point. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees, that's like the preachers and the priests and the religious leaders of the day, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. They're literally saying, we can't believe Jesus would hang out with these kinds of people. Okay, so Jesus sees it as a teaching opportunity. You keep reading Luke 15, he tells three stories. There's a shepherd that loses a sheep, goes finds it, brings it back, there's a party. There's a woman who loses a coin, she finds it, gets it back, there's a party. And then there's the man who has two sons, who has a son who winds up lost and is found, comes back, there's a party. There's a theme in each of the stories. And Jesus' crowd is very religious people and very irreligious people. And Jesus is saying, what I'm talking to you about is not a religion, nor is it the absence of religious devotion, it's something different. To be very specific, older brothers, you're out. Younger brothers, you're out. We're talking about something different.

He's crafting here with this metaphor, with this story of what relationship with God, what righteousness, what holiness, what it's all about. So if I were to ask you, what is righteousness, what would you say? What is holiness, what would you say? For those of us who come from a church background, probably if I said, what does it mean to be holy, you would think of all the things you're not supposed to do so that you can be holy, right? There's like a list. When I was a kid, and forgive me for the joke, I've told it before, it was don't smoke, don't drink, don't chew, don't go with girls that do. Does that sound familiar? Okay, and then there was this long list of other things. And the church I grew up in, don't play cards. How many of you had that one? So confusing when I was a kid, 'cause you couldn't play cards with diamonds and hearts on 'em, but you could play Uno in old maid. So confusing when you're eight years old, right? The church I grew up in, you can't dance. Oh, how about this one? This will freak you guys out if you didn't grow up in church. Here, here, here, no mixed bathing. You don't even know what that means, do you? It means when we went to camp, like the boys and the girls, they couldn't be in the swimming pool at the same time.

And they called it no mixed bathing. I'm like, nobody brought any soap? Like, what is that? And then there's all kinds of rules. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Just weird church rules. Anybody know what I'm talking about there? Okay, so usually when we think about holiness or righteousness, that's what we go with. And the reason that is is because we actually don't know what holiness or righteousness is, so we just make up stuff that's weird. I learned this over time, if you can't be holier righteous, then you have to be weird. That's the only other option. And it's like you have to make up stuff to say, I don't dance so I'm holy. I don't play cards so I'm holy. And we just make up all this goofy stuff to say, ooh, holy. But what is it according to the Bible and how does it play out? Is it actually a list of as long as you don't do these things then you're holy? Is that what it is? Because there is such a thing as sin in the Bible. The word sin means to miss the mark. There is a law of God. And if you break the law, you've sinned. And we've all lied and we've all stolen. And then Jesus comes along and he goes,

actually your righteousness needs to even be better than the law, because if you covet somebody else's stuff, like you really like, I can't believe they have that big screen. I should have that big screen. I love their big screen. My big screen is terrible. I want their big screen TV. That's coveting. And in essence in your heart, you're stealing. but if you lust after somebody and you're married and they're not your spouse, lust after your spouse, all you want, that's good. Go for it, all right? But if they're not your spouse and you lust after them, you're committing adultery in your heart. Jesus like takes God's righteousness and a holiness and brings it up to a whole other level. He even teaches in the sermon on the Mount. He's looking at all the religious leaders who have the rules down and he's going, everybody's righteousness has to be more than these guys who are keeping the rules. And Jesus says, after all, if you hate somebody, you're a murderer in your heart. And he just takes it to a whole other level. He just paints this big, broader picture of what it means to be righteous and holy. So what is it? It's revealed right here.

In the tale of two sons, everything God wants to do in your life is relational. Receive that. Don't have anything to do with cards or dancing. Our whole bunch of other goofy crap that we were probably all taught at some point. Everything God wants to do in your life is relational. Okay, listen close. All righteousness and all holiness plays itself out relationally. I thought really holy people live by themselves on the mountain and never talk to anybody. No, those people are just weird. (congregation laughs) And most likely don't have any friends. Can we all just use our brains for a second? I'll give you one example of hundreds. This is Matthew chapter 22. That would be the big number beginning in verse 34. This would be the little number. You don't have to look it up. I'm just gonna read it for you. Matthew 22, 34 through 40. Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, religious leaders, the Pharisees got together, another group of religious leaders. And one of them, an expert in the law of God, tested Jesus with this question. Have you guys caught that religious people

don't like Jesus very much? Have you guys caught that religious people don't like Jesus very much? Let that sink in. They're testing him, verse 36, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law of God. And Jesus replied, love. The Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Love is a relational word. He's talking about relationship with God. This is the first and greatest commandment, verse 39. And the second is like it. Love, that's relational. Your neighbor as yourself, verse 40, all. All the law, that means all the religious rules. All the things God has said to do, all of it. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Love God perfectly, love people selflessly. There it is. Love God, love people. You know what that is? That's relational. I'll quote you another verse. We quoted it a lot here. Galatians 5, 22, the fruit of the spirits. And when the Holy Spirit is in control of you, the fruit, here's what's going to be evident in your life. Listen to these, listen to these. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. What is righteousness? What is holiness? It's loving God perfectly and loving people selflessly. [BLANK_AUDIO] irreligious to teach them what this thing actually is. The older brother is just as important in the story and the point of the story as the younger brother. Let me remind you what happens with the older brother, Luke 15. And the story's really in two acts. He tells the story of the younger brother and you know he comes home and the father welcomes him and it's extravagant and Robert talked about that last week and it's this amazing picture of amazing grace. What Luke 15 beginning in verse 28 begins act two and it starts talking about the older brother. Follow along with me in your Bible or on the screen. Luke 15 beginning in verse 28. The older brother finds out about the party, you know, in the whole deal. The older brother became angry and refused to go into the party. So his father went out and pleaded with him. Notice that the father goes out to the younger brother in the story and he also goes out to the older brother in the story. If you're not tracking the younger brother represents all the religious people and the older brother represents all the religious people. Did everybody pick that up? And the father in the story represents God. God goes out to both the religious and the irreligious. So his father went out and pleaded with him. Could it be religious person that the father pleads with you?

What he answered his father, look, which is like saying, look you. It's completely disrespectful, especially in a patriarchal society like the one Jesus is representing here. Look you, you idiot, you fool, can't you see, don't you get it. Look you. That's what he's saying. Look all these years, I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. All right, well first off, somebody's not self-aware. Don't you wish you could give away that gift, the gift of self-awareness? How many of you you used to, or maybe you still do, I think it's still on, watch American Idol? None of you. This illustration is going to fall flat. If you've never watched it, there's these people that come on there and they're trying out for a talent show, it's a singing competition. And there's people that show up that cannot sing. I mean anything, it's bad. And they're just up there off key and they're terrible. By the way, I always sing like that when my son has friends in the truck. A song will come on and I will sing it as bad and as loud as I possibly can. It's so fun. I suggest you try it. Looking for love in all the wrong places. And I just go as bad as I possibly can. On American Idol, right? People are completely unaware. Have you ever wanted to give away the gift of self-awareness? You know who I want to give that gift to the most? I want to give that gift to me because so many times I'm completely not aware. And the son has no self-awareness.

And the son I've always been slaving, I've never disobeyed. You know what he is? He's self-righteous. And self-righteous people are always blind to their own reality. Self-righteous people are like the person trying out for American Idol who cannot sing a lick and they don't know it. They think they're amazing and they don't understand why the judge of the universe isn't singing and dancing with them because they're so fantastic. And they have no idea that they're terrible. The older brother is not self-aware. So he says, "I've been slaving for you, never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me even a young goat." Also not true. He's been living at the house the whole time eating daddy's food, right? You never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fat and calf for him. and everything I have is yours." But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. All right, Jesus is looking at the religious crowd, and he's looking at the irreligious crowd, and he looks at the religious crowd, all the older brothers, and says, there's something bigger than rules going on here. There is a relational component to this whole thing between religious people, you and the Father, and religious people, you and everybody else. And if you do not understand the heart of the Father,

you will miss out on the party of amazing grace that is for you and for everyone else, and you will stay outside the party forevermore. You will stay outside the presence of God forevermore because you think it's just about the rules, and you are misled, and you are confused, and you are distracted to the real thing, that the heart of the Father is for everybody, including you in all your lack of self-awareness. And there's this self-righteousness that keeps the older brother from going into the party, that keeps the older brother, listen from experiencing the love of the Father, not just when it comes to his love for the younger brother, but the older brother's missing it when it comes to the Father's love for him. He can't see it. This is what self-righteousness does. It blinds us, and it kills love. All right, here's the big thing, and then I'm gonna break it down for you quickly. The younger brother repents of his badness, and you see it, and it's this beautiful thing, and the younger brother, because he was so broken, because he was so busted, because he was so humbled, and because there's no pride, and all he gets from the Father is love, he realizes it. He answers the clue of phone. His heart and his life is changed

by the amazing grace of the Father. The younger brother repents of his badness. The older brother needs to repent of trusting in his goodness. The older brother's whole life is about the older brother, and trying to earn all the blessings of the Father. The younger brother wants the Father's stuff, not the Father. The older brother wants the Father's stuff, not the Father. The younger brother tries to get the Father's stuff by being very, very bad. The older brother tries to get the Father's stuff by being very, very good, and neither one wants the Father. That's Jesus's point. It's not this way, it's not this way, it's a different way. It's relationship with God, and how that affects every other relationship in your life, because righteousness and holiness is relational. Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law, all the prophets, hang on those two commandments. Self-righteousness will do four things for all the older brothers, and if you're asking yourself, if you're an older brother, yes, you are. And if you're asking yourself, if you're a younger brother, yes, you are, because none of us are either or we are all, both and.

So for all of you younger brothers who think that you're not self-righteous, I just want to tell you, you are self-righteous about your thinking that you're not self-righteous. (congregation laughing) Some of the people that preach tolerance are some of the most intolerant people in the universe. It's tolerance as long as you agree with me, right? Everybody's got self-righteousness going on, okay? Self-righteousness will do four things. First off, it closes the door on love. Because self-righteousness is not about love, it's about being right. It's not about love, you know what it's about? Competition. This is why self-righteous people are so judgmental. This is why if you are married and your goal is to win the argument, you are going to lose no matter who wins the argument. Because the goal is not to win the argument, the goal is to win the relationship and the person. And all the married people said, there you go. You have to redefine the win. It closes the door on love because you can't love somebody that you feel superior to. And you cannot receive love from them either. I need you to think self-righteousness kills love because it's about competing and keeping score. And any relationship you're doing that in,

there is no love, it's just competition. Second thing, self-righteousness increases pride. I'm really, really good, you're really, really bad. That's classic older brother looking at young brother and not understanding the heart of the father, not being self-aware, not getting it at all. The Bible says God opposes the proud that gives grace to the humble. What is humility? Here's what humility is, you ready? It's reality. It's honesty. The only way to experience the real love of God and the real love of people is to be courageous enough to be the real you. For all the men, know what a real man is? It's a man who is real. Do you know any? There are very few because it takes a ton of courage to be real. I have a new friend who's dealing with some sin, he's coming out with it, he's walking in the light, he's confessed to his wife, he's doing great and I send him a text this week and I'm like, "Dude, most people will never experience the kind of love you're about to experience 'cause most people don't have the courage to do so." Way to be honest. The only way to experience the real love of God and the real love of people is to be courageous enough

to be the real you and pride will never let you be real. Hypocrisy never works in the kingdom of God but boy, is it common in the church. Everybody here is messed up, beginning with me and God specializes in working in and through messed up people 'cause after all, that's all he has to work with. Third thing about self-righteousness, it causes bitterness towards God and others. Here's the definition of bitterness. Bitterness says, "You owe me." That's exactly what the older brother says to the father. You owe me. You owe me more than the younger brother. By the way, he's gonna get more anyway, he's gonna get double what the younger brother's gonna get no matter what happens 'cause he's the older brother and that's the way it happened in that culture. He's getting more no matter what, twice as much but it's not enough. It's not enough. Self-righteousness causes bitterness. You can't forgive somebody you feel superior to. Let that sink in. But you know what forgiven people can do? They can forgive people. Right smack dab in the middle of the Lord's prayer, Lord forgive me my debts as I also forgive my debtors. Bitterness says, "You owe me." Forgiveness says, "God has canceled my debt, "so I'm going to cancel yours."

To forgive is to agree with heaven. To forgive is to go with God. To forgive is to be free. It's to release a prisoner and realize the prisoner was you and go into the party. You gotta get over it. And let God take care of the justice of it. Didn't say it was easy. I'm just telling you what it is. Number four, self-righteousness keeps you outside the party of amazing grace. Let me ask you a question. Do you really want God to give you what you deserve? 'Cause the requirement is holiness. Righteousness, perfection. And if you really want God to give you what you deserve, you are completely unaware of reality. I mean, you live in crazyville because your center is like me. It's like the rest of us. Do you know what the word grace actually means? It's unmerited favor. You didn't merit it. Grace is literally getting what you don't deserve. I don't want what I deserve. I want amazing grace. And I want it poured out in like torrential rain all over me and my life just bring a beautiful, violent, wonderful storm of grace upon me, Lord God. 'Cause I am hopeless and helpless without it.

And when you and I realize that truth, there is a heart of gratitude that begins to show up Appreciation, thankfulness, praise. Here it is, love. And there's nothing like it. And so, this whole thing is not a religion. Nor is it the absence of religious devotion. It's a relationship. You don't earn your way into it, you just receive it. But in all relationship, there are rules. Can't just do whatever you want. You wanna build trust, there's honesty, there's a mutual exchange, there's all those kinds of things. This is what biblical Christianity is. He loves you no matter where you've been, what you've done or what's been done to you. You do not deserve his love. He does not love you because you're awesome. He loves you because he's awesome. And the more that you understand that, the more that you receive that, the more it transforms you from the inside out and it causes you to love people differently. And the more you surrender that flow, the more you'll begin to grow and the more you'll begin to reflect the heart of Jesus. And this is what biblical Christianity actually is. We're gonna keep going next week. We'll talk about the Father. And there are layers to this thing.

It's beautiful, it will help you. Come back and together we're gonna learn to walk in the beautiful reality of amazing grace. Will you guys pray with me? Let's pray together. Nick prayed it well at the beginning, father. And so I just wanna echo his prayer and ask you to teach us by the power of your spirit. (gentle piano music) Teach us that it's not rules and it's also not the absence of rules, it's something different. Holy Spirit, I can't really teach that. You have to reveal it to our hearts. And so give us wisdom of the inappropriately abundant love of the Father in Christ Jesus. Maybe for some of us, give us wisdom of our own sin and how undeserving we actually are. So that we may dance in the party and in the rain and in the joy of amazing grace. Give us wisdom of these things. Jesus, for your glory and our good, we pray. Amen. (gentle music)