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Hello and welcome to the Grove Church podcast. I'm Charlie Lofton, the lead pastor

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there. And we are so glad that you are joining us. Whether you are

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a member and you're just catching up on a sermon that you missed or you're

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someone who's brand new, we are really glad that you are joining us. And if

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you are new in some way, and I know that a lot of people will

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do that, will listen to sermons first before they visit, I want you to

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know that we would love to meet you at any point. You can join us

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live in our services on Sunday nine and 1030 or our streaming

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service at 1030. Either way, we would love to be able to get to know

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you. And regardless of why you are here listening to this

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sermon today, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, good

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morning. Hey, if you are new, I'm Charlie, the lead pastor

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here, and really glad you are all worshiping with us today. And as Jason mentioned

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a few minutes ago, we are finishing up a series today called Devoted. We've been

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kind of working our way through this phrase, and what Jesus said is the greatest

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commandment, which is to love the Lord your God, with your heart, your soul, your

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mind and your strength. And we've been taking each of those in turn.

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And we're wrapping up today by talking about strength. And we just kind of

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been talking about, like, if the greatest commandment is to love God, kind

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of, what are all the ways that we do that? What does that really mean?

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What does it mean to love him with your heart, with your soul, with your

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mind? And now today was strength. And if you were here

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a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about soul, it was also the

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Sunday when it was zero. If you remember that, if you don't remember that Sunday,

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you remember when it was zero. And I was actually very pleasantly

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surprised and impressed with how many of us were willing to kind of get out

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and be here on that Sunday. And we joked about,

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long standing joke that it was a double point Sunday, like, you got two

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points for coming instead of the normal one. And it kind of made that joke

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really to kind of talk about this idea that some of us have felt or

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maybe even still feel that I come to church because I have to, to kind

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of earn a God point. But really why we're here.

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And we talked about that real need for

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soul connection. And that really is what draws us

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in a deeper way than just some sense of obligation.

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I circle back to that because I want to ask the question again, maybe

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a little bit differently do you have

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to be here? Do you have to be here? Not

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that God's keeping a spreadsheet of points.

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Do you have to be here? Is it right to be here? Would

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it be wrong to not be? Does it matter

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to God? Does anything really

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matter to God? Do you have to

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do anything? If God says it, if

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he commands it, what is our

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response to that? And I asked this

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question that way because I think the

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older I get and I feel older every

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day. I was at a daddy daughter dance last night with

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our twelve year old, Leila, and there's nothing that makes me feel

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older. And it's not being around twelve year olds, it's being around

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the parents of other twelve year olds. Like, hey, there's all people that

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looks normal for them to have a twelve year old, and then there's me, right?

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So the older I get, the more I become

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convinced that this issue may

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be the number one theological issue that

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we have to grapple with if we are going to

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stay devoted in a committed relationship with God

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for the rest of our lives. How do I take these

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two truths that I do not believe, contradict,

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but complement each other, which is God

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loves you through Jesus Christ,

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unconditionally, not based on what you do. And

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because of what Jesus did for you, you are free.

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And the Bible is full of a lot of

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commandments, not suggestions,

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commandments.

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What do I do with these two things? Because I speak to

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a lot of different groups of people, and as some of you may know, I

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would just came back in the middle of December. About ten of

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us went to Thailand and to speak to a group of

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missionaries who were there kind of on a retreat, on a conference

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from another country in Southeast Asia. And I'm telling you, when you're talking to

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this group of people, you're talking to a group of people who are more

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committed and dedicated than probably anyone we know in real life, and

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they are willing to sacrifice so much to do what they believe is the

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right thing. And I've talked to so many people that have that sort of

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mindset that are doing these really incredible things for God. And you can just

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sense. I can just sense when I'm talking to them, there's a part of them

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that is struggling. And they're doing all of this in part

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because I have to show God and myself and

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the world that I can be good enough. So I'm going to do the

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biggest thing, the most important thing, and they struggle with

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this battle. I can't really accept that God loves me

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unconditionally I've got to be good

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enough. And I see other people who wrestle with

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this, and they've concluded already,

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I'll never be good enough. And they are

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sad, depressed, defeated, and

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slowly just kind of drift away. And there

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are other people to be like that are just kind of like, bro, what are

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you even talking about? Did you hear the first part?

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Free. I'm free, brother.

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Do you all know what free means? Free means I get to do whatever I

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want, and it doesn't matter.

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And that just drifts you off a different way.

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What does it mean in a healthy,

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balanced way to understand

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what obedience is with the freedom that

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we have with Christ. And Paul says it in a really awesome way where he

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says, you are free, but don't use that freedom as an

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opportunity to do whatever you want. And us navigating

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that, I think, is a critical, personal,

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theological struggle, balance issue that we need to

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grapple with if we are going to remain devoted.

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And I love the way that Jesus says it. Love the Lord your God with

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your heart, soul, mind and strength. It begins with love. I need to

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love him. That is the core motivation of all of this.

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I'm not trying to earn anything. I'm not trying to be good enough.

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I want to love God well. And one of the

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ways that we love God well is with our strength, which

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means I love God by doing

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what he says. I love God by doing what he says.

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If God says something, one of the ways

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that I respond to him with love is to do

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it. When someone you love asks you to do

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something, it is an act of love to do it. The relationship

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with God is different because he is not just a friend.

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He is God. He is a Lord. He is a king. He is a

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heavenly father. And so he's not simply

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asking, he's commanding. And so it has a certain weight to it. And that is

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how we show love to someone who has authority over

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us, by responding to what they say. But it is an act of love. And

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I think it is important for us, no matter where you grew up,

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whatever your background was, whatever it is, you came, wherever you came from,

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this idea that somehow we are here today to earn

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something, everything that matters

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in our relationship with God was paid for by

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Jesus Christ and given to you freely through

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him. And now, having

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received that and been made free, I

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respond to him with love. And

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so I want us to be able to build a life, a

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lasting spiritual life with Jesus Christ,

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built on that idea that to love God with

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my strength, it is a love response to do what he

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commands us to do. And there's a verse where Jesus is

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speaking. He exemplifies that pretty well in John

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1421. And if you are the verse

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memorizing kind or on your Bible app or

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whatever you like to favorite, highlight certain verses, I encourage you just kind of

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make put, however it is you do put this

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one on your list, because I think it is an incredibly powerful, important

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verse. John 1421.

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Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves

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me. The one who loves me will be loved by my father,

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and I, too, will love them and show myself

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to them. So what he's describing

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here is really kind of the process of this relationship.

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And again, if you come at this with this negative, sort

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of unbalanced mindset of I have to earn

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God's love, then you're going to see something different than what's being said here.

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God's love has been given to you freely through Jesus Christ. What does a

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relationship with God look like? What does an

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ongoing, deepening relationship look like?

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I respond to the love that God has given me through Jesus Christ,

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through obedience. And when I do that,

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God is pleased with me, and the love

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grows, and I get to know him, and he gets to know

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me. There's a deepening of relationship. There is a reciprocal

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thing that happens here that happens in all of relationships.

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Love is met by more love

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relationally. And

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so one of the significant things that I do

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to show God and to build this depth and love

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relationship with him is through obedience. I'm

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going to do the things that he says.

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And again, putting aside all of the bad

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theological baggage that can come from feeling like we've got to

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earn something or we'll never be good, to put all that aside, this is just

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the way a relationship works,

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especially a relationship with God.

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And so, again, we're going to have to put all of this together. And so

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I want us to just kind of spend some time just kind of breaking some

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of this down. Like, if we love God, if one of the

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primary ways that we can love God is through obedience, what

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does that really mean? And we'll just start here that I want to love God

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by doing what he says. And part of that

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is I have to love him by following his

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code. He has a code, a moral code,

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that he says, this is the way you should live.

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The Bible is full of commandments, some of which we just kind of

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take. We have no objections to.

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Don't murder, don't steal, those sorts of things. Don't lie. We

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object to it, but not, we know it's wrong, we just do it anyway. Right.

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But some of these we're not going to argue

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over, right? And then there's some that we like

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less. But the Bible is full of commands about the way

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that you should be living your life. And some of the biggest

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ones that we tend to struggle with have to do with the things that we

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talk about very often here at the church.

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What is a proper sexual, moral,

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relational ethic and what do we do with our money?

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The Bible is full of commands on those things that are deeply

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personal and have to do with

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the deepest parts of our life and not just simply what we do,

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but really getting out of the core of what some of our heart

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struggles are. And God has laid out a lot

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of these commands. And I'm sure you have come across at least one. You don't

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have to admit this in church because you're in church now, but I'm sure you've

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come across at least one that you look at. I don't like it. I don't

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like it. I'm not in thumbs down.

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And how you respond to that, how you

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respond to a command that you don't particularly

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like really depends very heavily

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on what your perception of God is.

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So I'm a dad. I mentioned that I got a twelve year old,

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Leila, but I also have a 26 year old and a 23 year old

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daughter. I have three daughters. So Leila is twelve, but she's not my first twelve

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year old. So this is my third twelve year old. I'm kind of going through

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all of this again. And now is the time where a particular

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moral code that dad has is coming to the forefront because

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some of her friends are starting to have boyfriends, they're starting to go

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out. I roll. They're dating, they like

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each other and all these things. And she is starting to notice

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boys in ways that she wasn't noticing them, say, three years

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ago. She's always noticed boys, but now we're noticing them differently.

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And we've got boys that we like and we got all these people. And dad

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has had a very hard rule. Twelve year olds don't date. You don't have a

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boyfriend. We're not going to joke about it.

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It's a hard line. And every time this comes up,

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not only have all of the girls questioned, but

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many of you will come up to me and you ask this question

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specifically. Well, when then, when?

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And then I say when it makes sense.

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What does that mean? Tell me about these twelve year olds that are going out.

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Where do they go? Twelve year old can't go anywhere. They don't

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go anyplace. I remember having this conversation with Maley. She was describing

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this relationship that was happening when she was twelve.

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Like, yeah, they're going out. Where do they. What, dad? They don't go anywhere.

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Well, I mean, do they sit together at lunch? No,

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they would never do that. Then what does it mean? It means they like each

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other. Then why don't we just leave it at

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that? But Leila, she was pressing this was over. We talked about

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this a couple of weeks ago. We're sitting over the 3000 piece puzzle working on.

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We're having this deep philosophical conversation. She's like, dad, but

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when, though? But when? Let me explain to you what dating

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is. Dating is a process

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that you go through to figure out who you're going to spend the rest of

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your life with. And she goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, dad, whoa.

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I'm not ready for

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that's.

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And I'm not telling you that you have to have that. That is not the

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point of this. My point of this is not to tell you that

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this should be a part of your code. The point of this is it is

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part of our code in our family. And our girls have struggled with

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it at the time and then even after thinking back

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about it. But the reason where the buy

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in really comes is what do they really believe about me?

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Do they believe that I'm good? Do they believe that

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I love them and that what I want is in their best

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interest? Do they believe that?

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And I think that they do. And so there have been some times where we've

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laid some things out that we've asked them to do that they have not wanted

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to do, but they have gone along because they believe those

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things. Dad is good. He loves me

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and he believes this is in my best interest.

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But unlike me, God is always

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good. God is always full of love. And he

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is not just simply thinks this might be in your

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best interest. He is the creator, designer of the

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universe. And because he loves you and because he

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is good and he is always acting in

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your best interest, then you can know for sure that

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the things that he is asking you to do are

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good for you. Because sometimes I believe that we have

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treated God's commands as

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if we're on some sort of reality show. Anybody ever watched the show

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wipe out? Like, you're just trying to navigate

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some really difficult obstacle course. And if I can make it all the

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way through, I win. And God's

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putting up obstacles in front of you. Just to make it difficult for you,

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just to see if you're strong enough, committed enough, good enough,

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when really he is the creator, designer of the universe,

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who was telling you, you want life,

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believe this, follow this,

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do this. Not because you

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have to, because I have to.

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This is what I want. This is what I want. This is what I want.

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I want life. This is what I want life. I have to do it. Not

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I have to do it. I have to do it because of who he is

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and the life that I want to have. But it's a little

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bit more than that. We're not going to spend a whole lot of time on

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this next one, but it's a little bit more than that. That I want to

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make sure that we understand not only his code, but also his mission.

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He has given you a purpose, a directive in life, and it's

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pretty broad in some areas. We

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work, we have family, we have friends, we have

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community. We worship together. There's a part of that that all is

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encompassing in the mission that God has given us on this life.

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But we do not live a directionless life. We live a life

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with a very specific mission. Jesus said, you're the light of the world.

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He also said that we are to go and make disciples of all nations.

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He has called us to be carriers of hope and life to a world that

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is desperate for it. And it is my hope and desire

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that we would be known as a community that is doing this together,

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that we are partnering together with one another to do what

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we can to bring hope and life to our community and to our

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world. It happens every Sunday. Happens every

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Sunday. Someone new will walk in. Hopefully they are greeted well and loved well

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by someone, and they have a great opportunity to meet some people if they're dropping

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off their kids. And all the people, all the work that is done here behind

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the scenes to make all of this happen and the worship and all

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of that like it a great opportunity for us to one another and to

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new people, to bring the hope of Jesus to people.

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And we use our financial resources, we use our service.

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You are using the influence that you have with people in your neighborhood,

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at your work, in your school, to invite them. And

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we all together, working together, are trying to bring hope

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and life to the world, whether it be from

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community care to our food pantry, to

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just telling people about Jesus, by inviting them to worship, by loving

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them, by meeting the needs around you. This is what we're doing.

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You have a lot of freedom and a lot of the choices that you make

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about how you live your life kind of what your job is and where you

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live, but your mission, regardless is the same.

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We've been called to bring carriers of life and light to a

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world that needs it. And so if I'm going

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to love God well, I'm going to love God by doing what he says, I'm

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going to love him well by following his code.

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I'm going to love God well by following his mission.

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And really I'm going to save this kind of, this one for last. It's kind

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of a bigger idea here that I want to make sure that we all

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understand that really what this means is I love God by

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doing what he says, not just his code, his mission, but really everything. This is

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everything that may feel a little overwhelming at

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first, but really everything that we do

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in one way or another should try to

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reflect the love that we have

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for God. And there's a verse that gets pulled out context, and I'm going to

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00:20:25,979 --> 00:20:27,718
do the same thing. I'm going to pull that out of context. We're just going

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to kind of look at it and we're going to talk about the way that

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people try to misunderstand it and misuse it, and then we're going to put it

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back in its context and try to understand it.

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One corinthians ten, verse 31.

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So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you

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do, do it all for the glory

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of God. So whatever you do, eating, drinking,

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whatever, anything that you do, do it for the glory of God.

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There's a couple of different ways that people will try to use this verse. Some

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people will be like, man, that sounds like freedom to me. Whatever it

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is I do, I'm doing it for God. Glory, God. This is for your

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glory, right? I'm going to eat and drink

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and just do whatever I want as long as I

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say it's for God's glory. Or you can go the other way and

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it can just feel like a really weird, pressuring verse. You get up this morning

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and you start brushing your teeth and it's like, am I brushing my teeth for

348
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the glory of God today? God, I just pray that you'll be glorified by the

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cleanliness of my teeth and good dental care

350
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and you can feel paralyzed.

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I thought I just brushed my teeth, did my hair today, but

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I forgot to do it for the glory of God. And then you can feel

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like, because some of the things I'm just doing, I'm just living

354
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life, I'm failing because I didn't, quote, do it for the glory of God.

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But the context of this is actually a very specific one.

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He's talking to them about this issue that is unique to them.

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It is not unique to mark. If you've ever heard Mark tell stories about being

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in India, it is something that he has firsthand experienced these sorts of

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things, where they were having meals in

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people's homes that were not believers and the food

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that they were using was part of a religious sacrifice

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to an idol. And now they are serving the food that has been

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sacrificed and dedicated to a false God. Is it

364
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okay to eat that? This is a

365
00:22:34,672 --> 00:22:37,840
real question. It's a deep question.

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What do you do? And Paul

367
00:22:42,610 --> 00:22:46,340
fails to give them a direct answer to that.

368
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You're going to choose one or the other. Whichever one you choose, whatever

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00:22:51,096 --> 00:22:54,802
it is you choose to do, you make sure that you are doing

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it with a heart that says, I want God to be

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glorified. I want to honor

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God and love God with the decision that I

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make. Because the reality is the

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Bible. Life is full of things.

375
00:23:13,070 --> 00:23:16,714
Moral questions about what is the right thing to do in this

376
00:23:16,752 --> 00:23:20,250
situation, full of situations that the Bible

377
00:23:20,670 --> 00:23:24,218
does not answer for you. Let's just go back to dating.

378
00:23:24,314 --> 00:23:27,360
What does it mean to honor God in your dating life?

379
00:23:28,210 --> 00:23:31,982
If you look to the Bible and look for

380
00:23:32,036 --> 00:23:35,682
advice on how to date, you're going to be really

381
00:23:35,736 --> 00:23:39,458
disappointed because it's going to tell you that your dad picks out your

382
00:23:39,544 --> 00:23:42,834
spouse, and then that's it, and then nothing else

383
00:23:42,872 --> 00:23:46,466
matters, which, depending on how old you are and how old your kids

384
00:23:46,488 --> 00:23:48,040
are, starts to look pretty good.

385
00:23:50,250 --> 00:23:54,006
Worse ideas, because here's the

386
00:23:54,028 --> 00:23:57,270
thing that we believe. It's been part of the grow from the very beginning.

387
00:23:58,170 --> 00:24:01,766
Everything that the Bible says is true, but not everything that's

388
00:24:01,798 --> 00:24:05,466
true is in the Bible. And so

389
00:24:05,568 --> 00:24:09,306
we don't know. There's certain things that just kind of have a bit

390
00:24:09,328 --> 00:24:13,114
of uncertainty to them, where people draw different lines in different places

391
00:24:13,162 --> 00:24:16,766
about what is appropriate to watch or not watch,

392
00:24:16,868 --> 00:24:20,670
or how should I manage my screen

393
00:24:20,740 --> 00:24:24,306
time or my screen time for my kids, or these sorts of things.

394
00:24:24,488 --> 00:24:28,210
And the Bible gives us some principles about life,

395
00:24:28,360 --> 00:24:30,900
but doesn't specifically address these issues.

396
00:24:32,230 --> 00:24:35,918
What do we do? Do we have freedom to just kind of do

397
00:24:35,944 --> 00:24:39,666
whatever we want? And this is the question that the corinthians are asking that Paul

398
00:24:39,698 --> 00:24:43,366
is answering. It's like, yes, you have freedom, but

399
00:24:43,388 --> 00:24:45,080
really you need to think about

400
00:24:47,390 --> 00:24:50,730
what brings the most honor to

401
00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:54,300
God in this circumstance for you.

402
00:24:55,230 --> 00:24:58,586
Again, let's not take this too far. There are some

403
00:24:58,608 --> 00:25:02,378
things where God has made it very clear. This is right, this

404
00:25:02,384 --> 00:25:05,854
is wrong. But then there's some things where it just seems a little

405
00:25:05,892 --> 00:25:09,662
vague. And I'll use an example. It is a very popular example

406
00:25:09,716 --> 00:25:13,326
to use if you were here last week, I made a joke. It

407
00:25:13,348 --> 00:25:15,498
wasn't really a joke. I guess I said it in a funny way, but it's

408
00:25:15,514 --> 00:25:19,358
true. I don't like coffee. It doesn't

409
00:25:19,374 --> 00:25:22,066
taste good. And somebody over here told me that I need to add sugar to

410
00:25:22,088 --> 00:25:25,858
it. And it was a great little moment. And just bitter. I

411
00:25:25,864 --> 00:25:29,060
don't like it. I don't like it. No matter how hard people try,

412
00:25:29,430 --> 00:25:32,774
no matter what concoction you make, I still don't like it. I could have also

413
00:25:32,812 --> 00:25:35,302
said at that time, I could have also said I feel the same way about

414
00:25:35,356 --> 00:25:38,946
beer or wine or really any alcoholic drink.

415
00:25:39,058 --> 00:25:42,266
I didn't bring it up then because it would have been overwhelmingly distracting. Not that

416
00:25:42,288 --> 00:25:45,706
me bringing up coffee wasn't also distracting because some of you got really mad at

417
00:25:45,728 --> 00:25:47,290
me. I apologize.

418
00:25:50,350 --> 00:25:54,026
I can say singing. I take a drink of beer, that bitterness,

419
00:25:54,058 --> 00:25:57,818
it just gets me. I don't like it. And I'll try this wine, though. It's

420
00:25:57,834 --> 00:26:01,406
really sweet. And you and I have very different definitions of the

421
00:26:01,428 --> 00:26:05,130
word sweet. It's not sweet. It is bitter.

422
00:26:05,290 --> 00:26:08,306
No. I can make you something. I can make you something. And they'll make me

423
00:26:08,328 --> 00:26:12,178
something that is akin to some sort of fruit punch. And I'll take it. And

424
00:26:12,184 --> 00:26:14,370
I'll take a drink and, like, fruit punch

425
00:26:16,070 --> 00:26:19,560
and. Can I just have the fruit punch, please? Right.

426
00:26:20,410 --> 00:26:24,134
I don't like it. And even in me just

427
00:26:24,172 --> 00:26:27,654
kind of telling you this story about my certain adventures I've had with

428
00:26:27,692 --> 00:26:30,666
alcohol and telling you that there are people who are trying to get me to

429
00:26:30,688 --> 00:26:34,086
want to drink alcohol has made a few of you uncomfortable.

430
00:26:34,278 --> 00:26:37,594
Pastor, getting up there, talking about, very freely about

431
00:26:37,632 --> 00:26:41,326
alcohol. I thought we're supposed to be weird about this. And we've chosen as

432
00:26:41,348 --> 00:26:44,430
a church, we're not going to be weird about it. We have a very clear,

433
00:26:44,500 --> 00:26:45,630
yet vague

434
00:26:48,530 --> 00:26:52,142
idea about what alcohol is. Here's our policy.

435
00:26:52,196 --> 00:26:55,070
Always has been, alcohol is fine until it isn't.

436
00:26:56,130 --> 00:26:59,586
What does that mean, bro? You know what it means. Everybody knows what it means.

437
00:26:59,608 --> 00:27:01,906
I don't have to explain that. I could. You know what it means. It's fine

438
00:27:01,928 --> 00:27:05,362
till it's not. And a lot of us have made a lot of different

439
00:27:05,416 --> 00:27:09,094
choices around it. And honestly, we make different choices based on different

440
00:27:09,132 --> 00:27:12,082
circumstances. Pastored a church in St. Louis,

441
00:27:12,146 --> 00:27:14,760
Missouri for a few years.

442
00:27:15,850 --> 00:27:19,530
I don't know if you've ever spent a lot of time with midwestern Catholics,

443
00:27:20,190 --> 00:27:22,490
but they have a different perspective

444
00:27:24,590 --> 00:27:27,882
about alcohol than they do in the church that we came in before in

445
00:27:27,936 --> 00:27:31,670
Cabot, Arkansas, it's a dry county. If you

446
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:33,600
don't know what that is, look it up.

447
00:27:35,890 --> 00:27:39,326
And so there were a lot of places where I got offered a lot of

448
00:27:39,348 --> 00:27:43,086
beer and a lot of alcohol in places where

449
00:27:43,108 --> 00:27:46,786
they, hey, come to their house here and they would just hand it to

450
00:27:46,808 --> 00:27:49,940
me, what is the right thing to do there?

451
00:27:50,710 --> 00:27:54,482
What is the right way to honor and love God in that situation is different

452
00:27:54,536 --> 00:27:58,086
than the way that I honor and love God in Cabot, Arkansas, is different than

453
00:27:58,108 --> 00:28:01,894
the way that we do it here. Whether I choose to eat or choose

454
00:28:01,932 --> 00:28:04,600
to drink, yes or no,

455
00:28:05,770 --> 00:28:09,414
isn't the question. The question is

456
00:28:09,532 --> 00:28:13,206
in the decision that I make, am I making this decision

457
00:28:13,238 --> 00:28:17,034
to bring honor and glory to God, or am I just doing what I

458
00:28:17,072 --> 00:28:20,880
want to do, what feels good to me?

459
00:28:21,810 --> 00:28:25,022
And if we are going to love God with all of our

460
00:28:25,076 --> 00:28:28,894
strength, then we're going to have just a different

461
00:28:29,012 --> 00:28:32,766
reasoning process by which we decide how

462
00:28:32,788 --> 00:28:36,466
we're going to live again. There are certain things where God has

463
00:28:36,488 --> 00:28:39,540
made himself very clear. He's got a code,

464
00:28:40,470 --> 00:28:43,380
and I want to honor and love him by living that out.

465
00:28:44,150 --> 00:28:47,894
He has given me a mission, and I want to spend my

466
00:28:47,932 --> 00:28:51,394
life figuring out what my particular role and his big picture

467
00:28:51,442 --> 00:28:55,174
mission is, and I want to do that. But

468
00:28:55,212 --> 00:28:58,682
in reality, if I'm going to love

469
00:28:58,736 --> 00:29:01,930
God with all of my strength,

470
00:29:04,110 --> 00:29:07,130
then even in the places where I seem to have freedom,

471
00:29:08,430 --> 00:29:12,094
I want to do it in a way that brings honor to this

472
00:29:12,132 --> 00:29:15,454
relationship. I want to show God that I love

473
00:29:15,492 --> 00:29:19,230
him. Even in areas where there's a little ambiguity,

474
00:29:19,730 --> 00:29:23,358
a little bit of freedom, I'm not going to be somebody who's

475
00:29:23,374 --> 00:29:26,866
like, I'm going to tighten up all the

476
00:29:26,888 --> 00:29:30,180
rules and be as strict on myself as I can

477
00:29:30,870 --> 00:29:33,730
to show God in the world that I'm serious.

478
00:29:35,590 --> 00:29:38,294
But I'm also not going to be like, man, you get to do whatever you

479
00:29:38,332 --> 00:29:39,960
want. It doesn't even matter.

480
00:29:43,820 --> 00:29:46,810
Whatever I choose, in whatever situation,

481
00:29:47,420 --> 00:29:50,540
no matter how vague or complex or uncertain,

482
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:56,636
with God, I'm going to attempt to do the

483
00:29:56,658 --> 00:29:59,996
thing that I believe brings the most honor and glory to him. Why? Because I

484
00:30:00,018 --> 00:30:03,836
love him. Because he has given me everything through

485
00:30:03,858 --> 00:30:07,264
his son, Jesus Christ. He has given it to me for

486
00:30:07,302 --> 00:30:10,816
free, and he has set me free from a life that was

487
00:30:10,838 --> 00:30:14,284
overwhelmed and burdened by sin. And now I have

488
00:30:14,422 --> 00:30:16,310
life and freedom in him,

489
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:22,004
and I don't have to. I

490
00:30:22,042 --> 00:30:25,844
have to. I have to respond. I have to show him.

491
00:30:26,042 --> 00:30:29,752
I want to show him. I need to show him. Maybe

492
00:30:29,806 --> 00:30:33,544
we'll say that I don't have to obey. I

493
00:30:33,582 --> 00:30:36,730
need to. I need to for me.

494
00:30:37,820 --> 00:30:41,464
And I need to as a love response to the one who has

495
00:30:41,502 --> 00:30:45,188
loved me so much. So if he

496
00:30:45,214 --> 00:30:48,188
says, this is what I'm supposed to do, I'm going to try to do it.

497
00:30:48,354 --> 00:30:51,676
If he says don't do that, I'm going to try not to do it. If

498
00:30:51,698 --> 00:30:55,136
he says, this is my mission, I'm going to try to live it. And I

499
00:30:55,158 --> 00:30:59,008
find myself in weird situations, I'm going to give it the

500
00:30:59,014 --> 00:31:02,864
thoughtfulness it deserves, to figure out what is best

501
00:31:02,902 --> 00:31:06,724
to honor him. And

502
00:31:06,762 --> 00:31:09,990
I'm not going to allow my brain to crush me

503
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,884
when I fail that somehow I've lost something with

504
00:31:14,922 --> 00:31:18,632
God. And I'm not going to think that I'm better than anybody else because

505
00:31:18,686 --> 00:31:22,184
I succeeded. But with

506
00:31:22,222 --> 00:31:25,700
humility and trust and a heart desire

507
00:31:25,780 --> 00:31:27,210
to love him,

508
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:32,876
I'm going to love him with all of my strength. Let me

509
00:31:32,898 --> 00:31:33,580
pray.

510
00:31:46,310 --> 00:31:50,114
God, that feels easy to explain and hard

511
00:31:50,152 --> 00:31:53,986
to live. It's not as just hard for those truths to kind

512
00:31:54,008 --> 00:31:57,814
of sink in. God, we're not great with

513
00:31:57,852 --> 00:32:01,554
freedom, but we're not great with rules

514
00:32:01,602 --> 00:32:04,614
either. And we

515
00:32:04,652 --> 00:32:08,374
battle. And so, God, I do

516
00:32:08,412 --> 00:32:10,540
pray that we would just get to the heart of it,

517
00:32:12,270 --> 00:32:15,642
that our lives need to be love

518
00:32:15,696 --> 00:32:17,100
responses to you.

519
00:32:21,870 --> 00:32:25,594
That if you ask, we'll do it not because

520
00:32:25,632 --> 00:32:29,386
we have to, but because we get to. And that

521
00:32:29,408 --> 00:32:33,246
God, through that response, that God, that we would experience your love in deeper and

522
00:32:33,268 --> 00:32:36,046
deeper ways, that we would get to know you in deeper and deeper ways, that

523
00:32:36,068 --> 00:32:39,380
we would be known in deeper ways.

524
00:32:45,730 --> 00:32:49,470
And that God, we could experience real

525
00:32:49,540 --> 00:32:53,374
life with you by

526
00:32:53,412 --> 00:32:57,074
submitting our freedom to the life that you have called

527
00:32:57,112 --> 00:33:00,898
us to God, I pray that we could

528
00:33:00,904 --> 00:33:04,594
be people who do it with joy. And

529
00:33:04,632 --> 00:33:08,354
as always, we are so thankful for your son, Jesus Christ, who makes

530
00:33:08,392 --> 00:33:10,950
this possible. And it's in his name we pray. Amen.

531
00:33:12,810 --> 00:33:16,582
Thanks again for joining us on our sermon podcast and you can learn more about

532
00:33:16,636 --> 00:33:20,194
us@thegrovechurch.org. And if you go to thegrovechurch.org

533
00:33:20,242 --> 00:33:23,266
slash connect, there's a form you could fill out. Just let us know that you've

534
00:33:23,298 --> 00:33:26,918
been listening. And if you want to dig deeper on some of these topics that

535
00:33:26,924 --> 00:33:30,662
we cover in our sermon podcast or just in other issues of

536
00:33:30,716 --> 00:33:34,414
dealing with culture or theology, those kinds of things, you can check out our

537
00:33:34,452 --> 00:33:38,190
cultivate podcast. It's on the same feed, however

538
00:33:38,260 --> 00:33:42,026
you found this particular podcast. So again, this is Charlie,

539
00:33:42,058 --> 00:33:44,540
the lead pastor at the Grove, and thank you so much for joining us.