We are so glad to have you here, and I want to say that I'm really glad to be back. If you're newer to Grace, I was on two weeks of sabbatical. You might go, "What is that?" The elders really kindly, every five years, we get a little bit of time. And I took time to sort of refill my tank. I love what I do here, so I tend to work too many hours. And so, a chance just to let my RPMs come down, to seek Jesus, to plan for the future, to do extra reading. I also decluttered around the house. I got rid of four piles that Mary was so happy about. If that's all I would have done, she would have been like, "You won." But you know what I want to say, I want to tell you that you might go, "How do you feel coming back?" I feel renewed, but I also, I love you. I really am grateful to be part of this church family, and it's good to be back.

So glad to be here with you, glad to have you here today. Whether you've been at Grace a long time or you're newer, I want to invite you next week as Vision Sunday. In the morning, I'll be speaking about, just you know, how can we all be a part of the mission God has given us. In the evening, we're going to have our annual meeting. And even if you're brand new at Grace, you're welcome to come. We're going to look back and say, "What has God done the last year?" We're going to look ahead at some of our goals. We're going to have time for Q&A. We're going to elect four elders. You can come and just ask any questions you want. And we're going to start with a light meal. It's optional, but if you want to be a part of that, just sign up on that link on the screen.

And but we thought it'd be just great to have some time like that together. And so, the meal's at five-thirty, the meeting starts at six-fifteen, ends at seven-forty-five. It'd be 90 minutes. And we would love to have you be a part of that.

And one of the ways you can grow this year, we have small groups, classes for all ages, kids, youth, adults. Want to talk about adult classes just for a second. We begin new adult classes every quarter, and the quarter begins March, and then June, etc. And so, we have probably 25 classes that are beginning. Sunday classes begin next week, Wednesday classes begin March 20th because of our global outreach week, we'll talk about in a second. But you're welcome to come to these classes. You don't have to register, bring a friend, and just a great opportunity to dig into a book of the Bible or a topic like maybe parenting or emotionally healthy spirituality or divorce care, or whatever it may be. Lots of options. You can be brand new at Grace. You don't have to be a member. You can choose one, if you don't like it after the first week, you're like, "I'm not sure this is mine." Pick a different one for the next week. And but make it an opportunity to dig in and say, "God, I want to grow in a new way this spring."

After those worship nights, I've often mentioned to you, I've said, "I wish I would have encouraged people even more to come out." So we would love to have you join us March 6th at 7 p.m.

This Saturday is what's called a Walk Worthy Men's Conference. We're live streaming that here. It's by Moody Radio. And you'll see details in your online bulletin. But guys, there's going to be meals by Chick-fil-A and Hatfields. And that's included in your $15 registration. And so, whether you're single or married, kids or not, how do you honor Christ in your relationships, your workplace, every aspect of who you are? That's the theme. So come out, join some other guys this Saturday. You'll see details again in your online bulletin. Great.

Thank you.

Once a month, we take time to remember what Jesus has done for us in communion. And and we remember with gratitude, this is what the Lord has done for us. Tim Keller has said, he's an author, pastor, died several months ago. But he said the church should be more like a waiting room at the doctor's office or the hospital, rather than a waiting room for an interview. What does he mean by that? When you go in for an interview, you know, you maybe you've dressed for success. You're putting out your best like, "I'm competent and competent. And you need me," and you project like, "My life is like, like doing great. You want me on your team." You go into the waiting room of a hospital, you might be a little bit disheveled. You're in crisis, perhaps. And you come in, and you're not trying to hide. If the doctor goes, "How are you doing?" "I'm doing awesome." You go, "No, actually, I need to be honest. I'm here today because something's not right."

We come to the table more in that way, to be able to say, "God, I'm broken. I desperately need you." If you're here today and you think that you deserve what Jesus did for you, you need to wake up calling your life because we'll never earn or deserve what Jesus Christ did for us. This is for people who recognize, "God, I can't do it without you. I'm a broken person who has sinned and dishonored your holiness. And it's only what you've done for me that allows me entrance into your family."

If you've put your trust in him, you're welcome to participate in this time. He doesn't just say he loves you. He shows you. Romans chapter five, verse eight says this, "God showed us his love in this way, that while you and I were still what? Sinners, running away from God, rebellious, broken, Christ, he died for us, right? He died for me, and he died for you. And today, we remember."

So before we take those elements, would you just pray with me?

Jesus, we invite you into our the space right now. Jesus. That we could really commune with you. Lord, would you cleanse us from anything between us? Words spoken in anger or gossip or thoughtlessness. God, something we've done that we just know that was completely dishonoring to the Lord or the person around me. Lord, wash us in a new way today. Thank you for what you did on the cross. We come as broken people to an amazing savior. And we want you to be honored in this time. We love you, Jesus. Where would we be without you? What a great savior you are. And we trust you. We love you, in your name. We pray, and everyone said, amen.

Would you stand together? Service, if you'd come with the bread.

Fascinating book, and with a lot of confusing parts. We're going to talk about that more in a little bit. But I'm really glad you're here as we dive in and look at the gospel according to Leviticus.

And just a quick, if you missed the last two weeks when we began, here's what we looked at. Week number one, we saw how Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice. And His sacrifice is the sacrifice once for all, to which all of the other Old Testament sacrifices pointed. And He takes away all of our shame and sin. Praise His holy name.

Week number two, last week, Pastor Kareem. Wow, what a compelling message. And just so grateful for the team. He reminded us that God is worthy of our worship. And it matters how we do that. It matters. We come to a holy God.

Today, I want us to put on our thinking caps and wrestle with the question that has always been challenging for followers of Jesus, and it's an issue that's actually kept some people from believing. It's been a hurdle to their faith in Christ. And maybe for you, if you're sort of wrestling with like, "I'm here, but I don't really know what I believe. I don't know if I can accept Christianity." And this might be one of the issues right here. And it boils down to this: What about all those strange Old Testament laws? You read through all these regulations in Leviticus. If you've read through the book, and it talks about mildew, and unclean food, and skin diseases, and you find yourself wondering, "Am I supposed to follow all of these rules? Do they still apply for today? And if not, on what scriptural basis can I say that? Can I just sort of tear out the parts that I don't like and say, you know what, that's just clearly it's out of sync, and it doesn't really mesh with our culture? On what basis can you do that? And if you do that for some of them, can you do it for all of them?"

So what do you do with all these strange Old Testament laws? You ready to dive in?

All right, here's the goal for today. This is what I want for you, all right? I want you to feel more confident in interpreting the Bible. I want you to feel better equipped to talk to people who ask you questions about your faith and about Christianity. And I want you to be more sure of God's heart for you, okay? So more confident in interpreting the Bible, more equipped to talk with others, and more sure of God's heart for you.

Really glad to have you on the journey. Let's turn to Leviticus chapter 11.

I just want to say to all of you who are engaging online, guys at Lorraine Correctional, we love you, so grateful for you, glad you're going to be joining a lot of the men here for the Walk Worthy Conference on Saturday, and you'll be live streaming it there as we live stream it here. And then we have a lot of people who are engaging with us. Do you know there's like 1,500 people every week who engage online? And some of you are from different parts around Ohio, like Lily, want to say hi to Lily, who is seven years old, and Lily just finished on Friday a hundred days since her transplant. And would you just express your love to Lily? Lily, we're glad for you.

And some of you are international workers watching from different places around the world. We're glad to have you with us.

One thing before we dive into Leviticus chapter 11, just a reminder about the new resources that we have on the Grace app. This is the first time we've done this, where if you look at the top part there, it says "Clean Series Resources." Every Monday, we're uploading like daily devotionals and application questions and prayers that you can pray, things that help you to dig in a little bit more with the message that we had on, you know, the weekend. So you're welcome to download that. We have a couple thousand people who have downloaded that, and of course, it's free, and you can do that on your phone.

Okay. Maybe you've heard, let's dive in here, maybe you've heard that the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, there are 613 commands according to Jewish rabbis. And according to the Jewish Talmud, which is like a commentary for you know, and synagogues, there are that 613 can be divided into two sections. There's 365 prohibitions, things you can't do, one to correspond to every day of the year. Aren't you glad we're no longer under the old covenant? And then there's 248 positive commands, things you should do, that correspond to the number of bones in your body. You might, some of you in A&P class are going, "There are not 248 bones." You take that up with Jewish rabbis because that's what they believe. And so that's how you come up with 613.

I want us to look at eight of those commands in the book of Leviticus, and maybe you can take score on how many of these commands you're consistently following or breaking, okay? You ready?

Leviticus chapter 11, verse 9 says this, "You may eat anything from the water if it has both fins and scales, whether taken from salt water or from streams." In other words, eat your salmon, your bass, et cetera. But you must never eat animals from the sea or from rivers that do not have both fins and scales. Red lobster, off limits.

Two verses before that, verse 7, "The pig has evenly split hooves but does not chew the cud, so it is unclean. You can't eat it." Okay, so that means that both of these right here were off limits according to the laws of Leviticus. You guys want to put up my picture there? Right there. You can't do that. No bacon cheeseburgers, no shrimp, you know. Are you getting hungry right there?

How are you doing so far in the first two? Let's turn over to Leviticus chapter 19. Several tough ones here. We'll put three on the screen together. "Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material." Whether you know the person next to you or not, just go, "Hey, just a second, let me check the tag on your blouse, suit coat there." Looks like a wool-cotton blend, like Jonathan's got on, breaking the law, right? Can't do that.

How about Leviticus 19 verse 27, "It says do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard." A lot of you guys are in trouble, but I see a few guys with beards that maybe are doing okay. I don't know, but the sideburns.

Verse 28, "do not put tattoo marks on yourselves." So these are forbidding right here as well. You can't do these ones right here. That's Pastor Greg Carrick on the bottom right there.

How are you doing now? I do like that tattoo though. That's a pretty bold tattoo right there.

Let's turn over to Leviticus chapter 20. One more chapter over here, gets a little more serious here. Verse 9, "anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put into a time out, put to death." Whoa. I'm glad we don't follow that one anymore, but why? You can't just say, "I don't like it."

Why don't we follow these? We're going to answer that. But before we do, just two more. Number 7 and 8, Leviticus 23. Turn over to Leviticus 23 verse 3, "There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do what? Any work." How did you do yesterday? Did you do any work on Saturday? They couldn't do that then.

And it wasn't just the seventh day, it was the seventh year. Two more chapters over. The last one we'll look at here, Leviticus 25 verse 4, "It says but in the seventh year the land, now I know a lot of us were not farmers, but you might be a gardener. Let me see how you're doing on this one. The seventh year of the land is to have a year of Sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards." You have a garden in your backyard? How many of you are taken every seventh year off?

All right, so how did you do overall? Did anybody score, "I'm doing all eight out of eight"? Anybody here? Any guys with Lorraine Correctional? I see a hand there. No, I'm just teasing. None of us, right? Even if you don't like shrimp, you're like, "I'm cutting my hair. I think my clothing might be..."

Now, we might sort of smile at this or chuckle a little bit, but there's a big and serious question here, right? Can we just choose to ignore certain commands in the Bible? And if we can, if we just go, "Well, that doesn't really make sense. I mean, come on, Jonathan." Can I just discard anything in the Bible I don't like? I mean, when Jesus said, you know, "bless those who persecute you," you know, and "love your enemies," I mean, that's not really... That's sort of ridiculous too. I don't... Can we say that? And if not, why do we say it here?

If we pick and choose on our own, you know what we're doing? We're putting the Word down, and we're making ourselves an authority over the Word of God. And that's a dangerous place to be. Because the Word of God is always preeminent in our lives, right? In fact, I am judged by this Word. This Word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our paths, Psalm 119, right? This book.

So on what basis can we say we follow some parts of it, and we don't follow others? Here's the good news: The Bible tells us. The Bible tells us how to interpret itself. That it's not we who set aside certain commands. It's the Bible that does that. Let's see how.

All right, if you got notes on the way in, you can follow along. We're going to look at those points one at a time. And if you missed them, or those of you engaging online, I just want to welcome you to go to our website, gracecma.org, and you'll see right there a bulletin, and you'll see the notes there that have all the scriptures I'm going to talk about here, and the points we're going to mention.

Here's point number one: Levitical laws were intended for a specific nation at a specific period of time. They were part of God's what? Old covenant. Old covenant with Israel. This covenant, or agreement that God had with them, included a framework for national laws. And so, it helped the people to understand God's holiness. To say, "God is telling his people, he's going, 'You know what? This is the kind of God I am, and this is the kind of people I want you to be. I don't want you to be like all the other nations around you. The way that they dishonor others. The way that they devalue children. The way that they... I want you to be my distinct and holy people. I want you to be set apart. So I'm going to give you laws to help you to be different from all the nations around you.'"

He did that in the old covenant. And he gave them these all these things that they were to do, and they messed up a lot,
Obsolete and aging will soon disappear. So, it's not we who are saying the old covenant, these laws are obsolete; it's what? It's the Bible saying that. He's saying that the old covenant, all of its laws and ceremonies and sacrifices, has been largely replaced and no longer is in effect. So, God does not require us to bring firstborn animals for sacrifices. You can wear mixed fabrics, you can eat shrimp and bacon, and yes, you can get a tattoo, and you can do all of these things. Why? Because they are limited to the old covenant.

One of the first questions that comes up might be this: Are you telling me, Jonathan, that the Ten Commandments are no longer in effect? We're going to come back to that in a moment; it's a really good question. But here's what we could say in summary: Since the old covenant is obsolete, the only laws that we obey from the old covenant are the ones repeated in the what? The new covenant. I'm not saying that; the Bible says that. Again, Hebrews chapter 8, again: "By calling this covenant 'new,' God has made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear."

So, you could say it this way: The commands that you and I keep today may be in the old covenant, but we don't follow them because they're in the old covenant. We follow them because they're repeated in what? In the new covenant. Does that make sense? To put it another way, all the laws that you read about in Leviticus and Exodus and et cetera, et cetera, are obsolete unless they're repeated in the New Testament or New Covenant. That's the same word in the original language: covenant, testament. And that means that the New Testament is now the—it's the higher authority. This has been set aside. This is obsolete, and this is the covenant by which we live.

So, should we even read and study the Old Testament? For sure, why? Number three: Jesus did not reject the Old Testament; He fulfilled it. Here's what he says in his first sermon in Matthew chapter 5: He says, "Do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets." That is, the law being the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, or the prophets, all the rest. "I've come to not abolish them but to do what? To fulfill them." Fulfill them. So, the Old Testament is inspired scripture. It gives us all of the history of God's redemptive plan. And it all points forward to Jesus. That the sacrifices are fulfilled in Jesus. The laws are replaced by the law of love. He makes food acceptable, Mark chapter 7, verse 19, Jesus himself says that. Remember then, the sheet that comes down from the book of Acts, chapter 10? He changes the view of the Sabbath. We could keep on going. The point is this: You'll see this in your notes. Everything in the Old Testament either predicts or prepares for Jesus' second coming or for his coming in a new covenant.

So, there is a tension between continuity and discontinuity. Here's what that means: You have an old covenant. You have a new covenant. There's a way in which they're connected. And there's a way in which there's like a break. In terms of continuity, what's the same that goes throughout? Jesus says at one point, he goes, "What are the two greatest laws?" He says you can summarize the law and the prophets in these two things: Love the Lord your God with what? All your heart and soul and mind and strength. Like, love God with everything you are. And then, love your neighbor as yourself. There's a continuity all the way through the Bible on that, right?

How about the discontinuity? There's a break. The laws guiding Israel's national life and ceremonial practices have been set aside for believers. That whole system of priests and sacrifices and temple and laws—why this isn't called a temple, why I'm not called a priest—all of that was fulfilled in Jesus. Here's what it says in Hebrews chapter 7: "The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless." The law wasn't bad. It was good. It just was powerless to save anybody. And now we have a better hope that's introduced, by which we draw near to God.

So, the old covenant and all of its laws have been set aside. Again, they're obsolete. They no longer come. Except for—let's come back to this question—does our freedom from the supervision of the law, all these Levitical and Exodus laws, mean that we are simply free to discard all of the Ten Commandments or all the rest of the commandments? The quick answer is no. Again, we follow whatever from here is taught or repeated in what? The New Covenant. And guess what? You find every one of the Ten Commandments is repeated in the New Covenant, except for one. Number four, which is what? The Sabbath.

So, if you're wondering, why aren't we like the Seventh-day Adventists, who all worship on Saturday? Why don't we criticize people who have a job that they work on Saturday? Because that Sabbath law has been fulfilled in Christ. You read in Hebrews that there's now a Sabbath rest for God's people. We just rest in what He's done for us, and we don't follow strict laws of a Sabbath any longer. It's the only one of the Ten Commandments that is specifically set aside in the New Testament.

So, do we follow the Ten Commandments and other Old Testament laws? Again, summary: whatever is repeated in the New Covenant. Galatians chapter three, one more time: "This law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, and now the faith has come. We're no longer under the supervision of the law."

You might illustrate it this way: Mary and I used to live in the 1990s in the wonderful state of New Jersey. We were there last weekend to visit our daughter Anna, who's in grad school, and you drive through parts of the state, you're reminded why it's the Garden State. So, we used to live in New Jersey; we were there for several years until we moved to the amazing state of Ohio. And now we're in this place, Cleveland, Ohio. Do you know that Cleveland, this last week, they had 50 places to visit in the world, and Cleveland was one of 50 places in the world to visit? Some of us need our self-esteem for Cleveland to be up a notch, right?

So, we moved to Cleveland, so here's what you have to think about: Do I, living in Ohio now, do I have to follow the statutes and laws of New Jersey? No, because I'm no longer in New Jersey. That's part of my Old Covenant, right? I'm now under the laws of the state of Ohio, the promised land, right? And so, let's say there was a statute in New Jersey that said you're not allowed to steal ice cream from the store. That was in New Jersey; am I responsible to follow that here in Ohio? Not because it was in New Jersey, but because there happens to be a statute also in my new place of Ohio that says you cannot steal ice cream from the store without paying for it, right? So, I, because I live in Ohio, I'm no longer responsible for the laws of New Jersey, unless those statutes happen to be repeated here, but I don't follow them because they're in New Jersey. I follow them because they're repeated where? In the state of Ohio. Does that make sense?

That's the same thing with this Old and New Covenant: that if someone comes to you and says, "You know what, Christians are inconsistent because there's all these things about mildew, and I know your house, you guys had mildew in your basement, you told me, you tried to take care of it, it came back. Leviticus says you're supposed to do what? Tear the house down." And he didn't do it. And so, you Christians pick and choose what you want to follow, and that's why I don't really buy Christianity. How do you respond to that? I said, I want you to be better equipped to talk with other people. You know, you can say, you can tell them, say, "That's a really good question. People have wrestled with that, and here's what the Bible teaches, and this might surprise you, but none of those laws apply to us today any longer. Not to you and not to me. The only ones that still matter are the ones that are repeated in the New Testament." And that's the way of Jesus, and he's given us a New Covenant. I can just tell you, they're following him. For me, it's the best way to live. And all God's people said what? Amen.

Now, you might ask, so what's the point of all these laws then? Why even read them? That's a great question. Remember what we said a couple of weeks ago? We said that Leviticus is not a destination; it's a what? It's a signpost. It's pointing—all of these things are a shadow of the things to come. They all point to Jesus. And Jesus himself, he's talking to a couple of followers after his resurrection in Luke chapter 24, and here's what he says: "And beginning with Moses and the prophets," so with Leviticus and Exodus and Numbers, "he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself."

So, you see all these themes in Leviticus that you can trace to their fulfillment in Jesus. He's the better and once-for-all sacrifice to which Leviticus pointed. He's our great high priest to which all of these priests, who died and were faulty people, pointed. He's the true and living tabernacle, the presence of God in Jesus, to which the tabernacle pointed. It all points to Jesus.

You say, what about these laws? What was the point of the laws? What are the point of the commands in the new covenant? This is where I want us to go from just thinking about how to interpret the Bible, how to be equipped to talk to people, to say, what is God's heart for us? Remember that we said one of the ways to find the themes in any book of the Bible, including Leviticus, is to see the frequency of words that are mentioned, sometimes over and over again. Like in 1 John, you see "love," "obey," and "believe," just over and over. You've got to pay attention to those words. Leviticus, it's the same thing. On the screen, you're going to see the words that appear in Leviticus more than they appear in any other book of the Bible. For instance, "clean" appears 57 times in Leviticus, "blood" 65 times, and that word "holy," more than any other book in the Bible, 56 times.

Friends, that right there is God's heart for you and for me. He wants us to reflect his character. He wants us to be like him. That was true in the Old Covenant, and it's true today. He's saying, "I want you to be different from the people around you. I want you to value those who are disenfranchised. I want you to care for those in need. I want people to feel safe when they're not in your presence, that you're not going to gossip about them. I want you to care for this body then, and I want you to care for this body now. I want you to be holy, set apart from my purposes."

This week, I was working out at the gym, and someone was talking about the workplace, and I said, "Oh, I know so-and-so who works there as well," and I wonder sometimes how people are going to respond when I say that. And her face lit up; she goes, "That guy is great. I love that guy." I've never been like, "Oh, how do you know him?" I'd be like, "He goes to the Baptist church down the street. I think I met him one time or something like that." I wouldn't lie. But I thought, you know what? There's a person who's living holy in their workplace, distinctive, not in a weird way, but in a compelling way.

God's heart is for us, as Colossians 3, holy and dearly loved people, that we say yes to Jesus in every area of life. That was God's heart for the people back in the day, under the old covenant. He said, "I want you to be different from the people around you. I want them to see my light expressed through you," and it's what he wants for you and me today, under the new covenant, that Jesus says, "I want people, when they're in your presence, I want them to sense me, that you're holy as I am holy. You're set apart from my purposes."

Here's how the Apostle Peter expresses it. He actually quotes the book of Leviticus. Would you read this aloud with me together? We're going to read 1 Peter chapter 1. Let's say this together. Are you ready? "So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, 'You must be holy because I am holy.'"

Why am I to be holy? Because he's holy. He wants my heart to be like his heart. When he says, "as the Scriptures say," where is he talking about? He's talking about Leviticus, multiple times in that book. Friends, that's God's heart for you. That we say yes to him in every sphere of our lives and say, "Jesus, would you make me more and more like you?"

Friends, that's the Gospel. If we were to summarize the wonder of what we took in communion today, is this: We're not saved by obeying laws, but by faith in Jesus Christ. If you and I had to obey perfectly all 613, plus the ones in the New Covenant, our ship would be what? I mean, we're sunk. But here's what Jesus made possible, Romans chapter 3: "People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood." So, we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

Friends, that's the best gift that you and I could ever receive. We're all a mess, right? No offense, I'm a mess. But spiritually, you're a mess too. Every one of us fails in some way to obey God's commands, but Jesus lived a perfect life, and that means that he, and he alone, could be a perfect sacrifice. And more than that, he didn't just save us to give us some kind of fire insurance, not to go to hell. He saved you to make you like him. He wants my heart and your heart to be shaped in his image, so that more and more, you and I are a pure reflection of him, for people to see him in us, that we'll model integrity, we'll be people known for generosity, we'll care for those who are in need, we'll be different, set apart in the best way, be holy because I am holy. That's what he's telling us.

Friends, God's intent then and today was not to be difficult or harsh. He simply wants us to be his, set apart, living for his purposes, making an impact for him until that day we see him face to face. He longs for that in you.

Let me close with this: Eugene Peterson, some of you know that name. He authored dozens of books. He was the one who did the message translation, if you're familiar with that, very colloquial English. He's also the one whose writings attracted the attention of this singer, some of you may have heard of, named Bono. Bono, this world-renowned—you know, lead singer for U2—wanted to—he had been moved by Eugene Peterson's books, and he asked if he'd come visit Peterson in the state of Washington, and Eugene Peterson's response was, "Who's Bono? Never heard of him." This was just several years ago, and you can still watch that video of them discussing the Psalms together at Eugene Peterson's kitchen table.

Anyhow, at Peterson's funeral, his son Leaf spoke, and he said this: he said, "29 years of pastoral ministry, and my dad had every one fooled. 29 years, and he only had one sermon. For all those books he wrote, he only had one message." It was a secret that my dad had let me in on early in life, and he said, "My dad would come into my bedroom, sneak in at night before I went to bed, and he would whisper to my ear, and he's been doing that for 50 years of my life." My dad would press this on my heart: "Son, God loves you. God is on your side. He's coming after you. He is relentless."

Friends, can you hear that today? Not in a scary way, but in a way that your father says this to you: "I love you. I'm on your side. I'm coming after you. I am relentless." He wants you to be like him more than you ever want that, and he's calling you to be holy as he is holy.

Let's respond to him. Would you pray with me? I'm going to lead us in a prayer here, and if you want to make this yours: "Lord Jesus, in every area of my life, I'm saying yes to you. I want to be holy like you are holy, set apart for your purposes. So, Lord, shape me. Root out anything from my life that is dishonoring to you. Do surgery in my heart, my life. And by your Spirit's work in me, make me a holy instrument in your hands, for your purposes. Until that day I see you face to face, Lord, that's what I want: to honor you, to be holy like you." And all of us followers said, "Amen, may it be."

Hey, let's stand together and make this our prayer. I'm so glad to be on mission with you. We're not holy because of what we do; we're holy because He makes us holy. May we live into that.

Hey, let me introduce you to one of our new teammates. John Lano took a camp director position a couple of months ago. We love John. And today, Youth Worship Director, Indy Burton. Welcome to Indy, right here. And so, really glad to have you. You'll be hearing more from her. Her family attends Grace, and we just really want to welcome her to the team.