[00:00] Speaker 1: (music)

[06:09] Speaker 2: (Instrumental music playing)

[12:19] Speaker 3: (piano music) (crowd murmuring) (church bell rings) (piano music)

[14:39] Speaker 3: (choir sings)

[18:29] Speaker 4: O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He has done. (organ music plays) Great things He has taught us, great things He has done, and great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son. The third person here. O come, to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He has done. (organ music plays) . Amen.

[20:29] Speaker 5: The one who has done and continues to do great things is here, gathered in our midst, and He greets you with these words. Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty and transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

[20:49] Speaker 4: Amen.

[20:57] Speaker 5: We welcome all of you to worship this morning at La Grave Avenue Christian and Reform Church. Whether you're here, gathered in the sanctuary, or whether you are watching online, we are glad that you have joined us in worship. And if you are a visitor this morning, we are so glad you're here. And if you're someone who has worshipped here your entire life or somewhere in between those two, we're glad that you've joined us in worship this morning. And we remind you of the 10 o'clock hour events that happen after the service. They're listed in the bulletin. There's a number of them, and we invite you to plug into one of those, if you're able. This morning, in this season of Lent, we continue our journey through that and through our sermon series focusing on the cross, and we come to God again in our time of confession, and we are called into confession in song. Let us sing together.

[21:50] Speaker 4: (organ music plays) (singing church hymn) Dear Lord, hear us (singing) , love You, Lord, and keep. Love You with all our heart and strength and mind. I see the cross there, teach my heart to faint. Oh, let me see You, and oh, let me know.

[23:01] Speaker 5: Let us pray. Father, we come and seek You as we lay our sins before You. We confess that too often we have done what we should not have done, and we have not done what we should have done. Lord, we ask for Your cleansing as we now confess our sins to You, in a time of silent prayer. Thank You, merciful God, for hearing our prayer and for forgiving our sins. In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who paid the price for us, we pray, amen. Hear these words of assurance from 1 Peter. We'll read them responsively.

[24:07] Speaker 5: "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness."

[24:16] Speaker 4: "By His wounds, we are healed. For we were like sheep going astray. But now we have returned to the shepherd and overseer of our souls."

[24:29] Speaker 5: Thanks be to God.

[24:39] Speaker 6: Oh, let all their tongues be, my redeemer's praise; The glories of my high king, The triumphs of his grace. He breaks the power of death's deceit; He sets the prisoner free; Praise the name of highest King, Praise the name of King. He speaks, and listening to His voice New life the leper receives; The born of broken hearts rejoice; The humble poor believe. O come to Him, the Savior Lord; O come, all you who are in pain; Look and be saved through faith alone; In just and kind heart, believe.

[26:36] Speaker 5: This morning, we have the opportunity to celebrate two boys who will make their declaration for table fellowship. So we're happy to celebrate God's grace in the lives of these two children, Edward Havlichek and Henry Slotsema. When they were baptized, God publicly declared that they are a part of His covenant family. Now, they want to join that family at the Lord's table. Today, they will declare their faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior, a second step on their faith journey. And we are so glad that you want to join God's people in celebrating the Lord's Supper. You have learned about the meaning and importance of the Lord's Supper in your class, and today, you will stand before God and His people to declare that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior and wish to participate in Holy Communion. This is a joyous occasion for all of us. I'm gonna ask Edward and Henry to stand now with their parents. I will ask four questions and then ask for your answer after that.

[27:59] Speaker 5: Do you believe that you are a member of God's covenant family and that your baptism is a sign of your membership? Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for you, and declare that you have accepted Him as your Savior and Lord of your life? Do you understand that the bread and cup of the Lord's Supper are symbols of His body and blood? And do you promise to live your life for Jesus Christ, and desire to grow in your faith as you continue to learn more about what it means to be a child of God? And if your answer to that is yes, you will say, "I do, God helping me." Edward Havlichek, what is your answer?

[28:41] Speaker 6: I do. I do.

[28:42] Speaker 5: Henry Slotsema, what is your answer?

[28:45] Speaker 6: I do. I do.

[28:47] Speaker 5: We now welcome you to the privilege of participating in Holy Communion. May God bless you as you join with His people when the sacrament is celebrated. It is our prayer that you will keep on growing in your love for the Lord Jesus Christ. You may be seated. Let's sing together as we celebrate this together.

[29:10] Speaker 6: (organ music playing) (singing) To God all glory, praise and love, Be now given for evermore; Christ is the open door, Which leads to life, the true joy. Amen.

[29:48] Speaker 7: Okay, children. It's time for the children's message. Come on forward, and, uh, have a seat, and we'll talk together as we always do. Good morning, good morning, good morning. All right. Good crowd today. It's great to see you. Come on down. Friends from the balcony. Hello, Clara.

[30:15] Speaker 6: Uh, seat.

[30:16] Speaker 7: All right. So, I wanna talk to you today about habits. You know what a habit is, right? A habit is something you do every day, and, uh, all the time. And sometimes it's something you don't even think about, and sometimes you can't even stop because it's such a habit. And so some habits are bad, right? Sometimes we have habits that are bad habits. Like I have a bad habit. Can I tell you one of my bad habits?I sometimes chew on my, my cuticles. That's the skin around my nails. Like, maybe you've even seen me up there. I'm sometimes, like, doing this, picking at my nails. Pick my nails and I go like this. (nails scratching) That's a bad habit. So if you see me doing that, you can say, "Stop doing that." 'Cause I- I shouldn't do that, but I do that. I can't... It's a habit. I'm not e- I don't even think about it, I'm doing it. But there aren't just bad habits. There are good habits. There are habits that we can have that are really good, like brushing your teeth. Right?

[31:13] Speaker 7: You brush your teeth every night, right? And hardly, you probably hardly think about it. You just do it, and it's really good. It makes your teeth strong. So there's good habits and bad habits. We wanna get rid of our bad habits and we wanna have lots of good habits. I got a list of habits here, and I'm gonna read them and you tell me if you think these are bad habits or good habits. Okay? Ready? Ready for this?

[31:35] Speaker 8: Mm-hmm.

[31:36] Speaker 7: Biting your nails.

[31:37] Speaker 8: No.

[31:38] Speaker 6: No.

[31:38] Speaker 7: Ah, boo. Taking a bath on a Saturday night.

[31:42] Speaker 6: Yes.

[31:43] Speaker 8: Yes.

[31:43] Speaker 7: There was, uh, there was a little tepid... I think it's a good habit. Looking both ways before you cross the street.

[31:51] Speaker 6: Yes.

[31:51] Speaker 8: Yes.

[31:51] Speaker 7: Yeah, obviously. Wiping your nose on your shirt sleeve.

[31:57] Speaker 6: Bad habit.

[31:58] Speaker 8: Bad habit.

[31:58] Speaker 7: Bad habit. Saying please and thank you. Please and-

[32:02] Speaker 6: Yes.

[32:02] Speaker 7: Okay, yeah, you got that one. Good. Picking your nose.

[32:05] Speaker 6: No.

[32:06] Speaker 8: No.

[32:06] Speaker 7: Oh, that's really bad. Talking with your mouth full.

[32:09] Speaker 6: No.

[32:10] Speaker 8: No.

[32:10] Speaker 7: No, I do that one sometimes. Eating vegetables every day.

[32:15] Speaker 8: Good. Yes.

[32:16] Speaker 7: Yeah, you weren't enthusiastic about that at all.

[32:19] Speaker 6: (laughing)

[32:19] Speaker 7: Eating donuts every day.

[32:21] Speaker 6: No.

[32:23] Speaker 8: No.

[32:23] Speaker 7: No, that's a bad habit. I'm glad you got that one. There are some really good habits that are about loving Jesus.

[32:32] Speaker 8: Yes.

[32:32] Speaker 7: When we, when we follow Jesus, we should have habits. So there's just... I wanna finish by telling you some really good habits that we as Christians, our whole life, try to learn, and they're just ways, if we do them every day, help us stay close to Jesus. Going to church every week. Here you are.

[32:50] Speaker 8: Yes.

[32:51] Speaker 7: That's a habit. It's a good habit. Okay? Praying before your meals and praying every day.

[32:57] Speaker 8: Yeah.

[32:57] Speaker 7: Really good habit, yeah. And reading Bible stories, learning about the Bible, learning the stories of Jesus.

[33:04] Speaker 8: Yeah.

[33:05] Speaker 7: Yes.

[33:05] Speaker 8: That's one, that's one of my favorite things.

[33:06] Speaker 7: That's one of your favorite things? I hope it always is. It's a really good habit. It's a way that we remind ourselves that Jesus loves us and we belong to him. That's what I wanted to say to you today. Congregation, what is our prayer for these children?

[33:22] Speaker 6: The Lord be with you.

[33:23] Speaker 8: And also with you.

[33:24] Speaker 7: Go in peace.

[33:38] Speaker 8: Let's turn to (...)

[33:45] Speaker 5: Before we go to God in prayer this morning, there is just one update into, in addition to what is already in the bulletin. And that, that is Millie Vriend was able to return home. So she is back home from Mary Free Bed. Also, if you have a prayer request you would like prayed for at any time, the prayer team welcomes those. And you can use the card that you find before you in the pew racks. They are different cards. They're not on the back of sermon note cards anymore. There are new cards there in the pew racks. Yep, you can look and check that out. There's also new welcome brochures there. And so, you can fill out that prayer card any time, drop it in the wood box outside the chapel entrance, and the prayer team welcomes those and will pray for them. As we go to God in prayer this morning, I invite you to listen to these words from Philippians 4.

[34:39] Speaker 5: Paul writes these words to the church at Philippi, and he writes them to us too, and I invite you to listen to them from the New Living Translation. Just a little different take on it. Paul says, "Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and your minds as you live in Christ Jesus." Let us pray. Merciful Father, we come to you, as your word tells us to do, with thanksgiving. Giving thanks for all you have done. Thank you for the way you created the world in such beauty. Thank you for creating us in your image. Thank you for the way you have faithfully led your people, despite our faithlessness to you at times. Thank you for the way you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us and to bring salvation to the world by his death on the cross and by his resurrection from the grave.

[35:56] Speaker 5: And for the way he continues to rule and reign following his ascension. Your word also tells us, oh Lord, not to worry about anything, but to pray about everything. To tell you what we need. And so, we come to you this morning and we lift before you Millie Vriend and Jean DeKryger, and we thank you that both of them have been able to return home. We pray, Father, that you would continue to strengthen them and increase their mobility. Father, we, we pray for Mwami Posma and we pray that you would continue to grant wisdom to her doctors, but also for healing in her body that she so, so needs from that tumor. Father, we pray for Steve Palazzolo, and we thank you that, at long last, he has been able to have that bone marrow transplant...Father, we pray now that You would go before him and that You would heal his body without any complications. And Father, as we think about people who are dealing with cancer, they are in different stages with that battle and in their lives.

[37:04] Speaker 5: Father, we lift before You, Sylvia, George, Carol, Joanne, Dan, Marsha, Andrea, Lloyd, Renee, Sharon, and Barb. And we pray, Father, that You would supply what each one stands in need of. We pray too, oh God, for all those who are grieving, that You would provide the comfort and peace through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, for the Whaley and Visser families in the death of Laura. We pray that You would be with the Colburn and Canton families who we'll remember with services this week. And we think too, of people who have experienced deaths recently in their family- families, the Busker and Grusing families. Lord, as one who is faithful to Your people through all times, we give You thanks for Your faithfulness to Betty Puntz, who will celebrate her 97th birthday next week. Father, thank You for all the ways You have used her to serve so faithfully in Your church, and the way You continue to use her still today.

[38:18] Speaker 5: And we thank You too, for Your faithfulness to Edward Havlicek and Henry Slotsama in their declarations of table fellowship, their next step of their, their walk with Jesus. And we pray that too, for Alex Hizinga and John Hizinga, who will declare that at the 11:00 service. May Your spirit continue to guide them in all that they do. Father, as one who invites us to bring before You all our needs, we lift before You the needs of our community and our world, including our missionaries, Jim and Ruth Padilla DeBorst. We pray that You would bless their ministry to migrants and refugees in Costa Rica, which includes the shelter there at Casa Esperanza. We pray for those who will attend spa day on Tuesday here in our multipurpose room. You already know who that will be. And we pray that You would meet their physical needs, but also their spiritual ones as we have the opportunity to pray for them.

[39:19] Speaker 5: And Father, as we think about the situation in the Middle East, we pray for an end to the war in Iran. We pray for wisdom and humility for leaders in power, that they would make decisions that would lead to lasting peace, as well as justice and freedom for all, especially freedom of religion. Father, we pray that for the people of Iran who have, for so long, not experienced that freedom. We pray too, for safety for those serving in the military, as well as all the vulnerable people caught up in the midst of the fighting. Finally, Father, we pray for renewal for all of us, that we would fix our eyes on Jesus, the one who fixed His eyes on us when He went to the cross in our place. We ask this all in His most precious name, while also thanking You for the peace that exceeds anything we can understand. Peace that we can know because You have heard our prayers and can do beyond what we can think or imagine. Amen.

[40:27] Speaker 5: (footsteps) (paper rustling (paper rustling)

[40:28] Speaker 9: (instrumental music plays)

[40:41] Speaker 6: By His wounds, we are healed. By His stripes, we are saved. He was pierced for all our wrongs. Jesus, wash our sin away. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned to our own way. Jesus, took our punishment. And He washed our sin away. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Jesus, wash our sin away. (instrumental music plays) (choir sings) By His wounds we are healed. By His stripes we are saved. He was pierced for all our wrongs. Jesus washed our sins away. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Jesus washed our sins away.

[43:41] Speaker 6: He washed our sins away. Jesus washed our sins away.

[43:49] Speaker 10: (instrumental music plays)

[49:07] Speaker 6: (singing) Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heav'nly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

[50:53] Speaker 7: Our Bible reading this morning is from Paul's letter to the Romans, Romans Chapter 7. I'll be reading verses 7 through 25, and that is found on page 1,753 in your pew Bibles. This is the next sermon in our series for Lent, which is on, uh, cross words, words about the cross, teachings about the cross in Scripture, trying to deepen our sense of what the cross means in our life. And, uh, I'm gonna just say a few words before I read the passage. And I, I know the window series is over, but I, I invite you, uh, to take a look at the, um, the cross window, if you can see it, right there. Um, because there's something about that window that's interesting to me that, that has to do with what I wanna say today. And if you can't see the window, uh, it is, handily, on the front cover of your bulletin. So take a look at that, and that has the parts that I'm really sort of curious about. And you see, if you look at your bulletin or the window, right, there's Jesus.

[51:50] Speaker 7: He's got the crown of thorns, His arms are outspread, His head is hung. But then, sort of under His arms, you see two things. What does that look like to you? I think it looks like, to me and, and others, it looks like the moon and the sun, right? The moon and the sun. And then, you got all this red lightning all around Him. Now what's going on there? Why did the, the artist of the stained glass put the moon and the sun under Jesus' arms, and all that red lightning? Well, I don't know, because the artist who did that is dead and I can't ask 'em. But, I have a pretty good idea. And I think it has to do with what I'm trying to teach you about the cross today. So I'll explain further, uh, later in the sermon why I think the, that, the moon and the sun are there. Uh, but for now, let's go to Romans 7 and hear what Paul has to say there. Let's read it. "What shall we say then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not. Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.

[53:02] Speaker 7: For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Thou shalt not covet,' or, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by that commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from me, for from apart from the law, sin was dead. Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. Did that which is good then become death to me? By no means. Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it is used, it used what is good to bring about my death so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

[54:16] Speaker 7: I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do not do what I want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer myself who do it, but it's sin living in me. For I know that the law, for I know that the good itself does not dwell in me, that is in my sinful nature, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I can't carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do, this I keep doing. Now, if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work..."Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being, I delight in God's law, but I see another law at work a- in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law which, uh, the law of sin at work in me. What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

[55:33] Speaker 7: Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin. This is the word of the Lord.

[55:49] Speaker 6: Thanks be to God.

[55:55] Speaker 7: I wonder if you've ever known or loved someone who is a hoarder, or had a contact with someone who's a hoarder. Um, it's an extremely complicated condition, if you have had someone in your life who's afflicted with it. A hoarder, and I think all of you know this but I'll go through it anyway for the sake of the younger people, a hoarder is someone who's a sort of ex- extreme collector, right? They collect all kinds of stuff, they buy all kinds of stuff, but they have a terrible time getting rid of stuff. So as a result, your whole house starts to fill up with that stuff, right? At first in your closets, and then it's in your bedrooms and it's in the basement and then it's in the hallways and then it's in the living spaces. And pretty soon, you'd, you can't hardly move around the house without knocking someone over. It becomes a hazard. Hoarding is more common than you think.

[56:49] Speaker 7: Um, there are, according to what I read this week, 14 to 19 million people who have some level of that affliction in our society. And they're super attached to their stuff, so if you go to a hoarder, and some of you are experienced with this, and you love them and you say, "Well," they got a stack of newspapers, say 30 old newspapers in their living room and you say to them, "You know, I, you could recycle these. You probably don't need 'em." They, they will say, "Oh, no, no." And they will explain to you very carefully why these are important and why they should be kept around. Here's a question. For those of you who've known a hoarder, and if you want to help them, if you go to them and say, "You just gotta stop. You gotta change. You can't collect all this stuff, it's dangerous. You gotta throw stuff away and you gotta stop collecting stuff." Will that be a successful strategy for changing them? Not so much. Right?

[57:48] Speaker 7: Simply going at them and telling them to change their behavior will not work because they are not in control of this behavior anymore. They can't control what they're doing. It is a fixation. Something has a hold of them. It's bigger than them. They are enslaved. This, I think you know, is a typical dynamic in all addiction, right? So alcoholism, for instance, if someone gets hooked on alcohol, w- let's say they start drinking in college, they go to parties, start drinking heavily. Early on, you know, when they're first making that decision to drink, you as a friend can go to them and say, "You, you gotta cut back. This is not good." And they, they possibly could listen to you and change. But you also know that at a certain point when the addiction starts, it starts to become beyond their control. Right? You can talk to them all they want, all you want and they won't change. They are enslaved. I once, uh, talked to a young man who had been addicted to heroin and didn't overcome it.

[58:55] Speaker 7: He told me how it started. He went to a party when he was 19 and some friends, peer pressure, said, "You should try this stuff." He tried it once and he was hopelessly hooked. It took him six months of rehab to get out of that addiction. So the first time he tried it, that was his choice. After that, slavery. Maybe you see where I'm going with this because in our passage, Paul is trying to show us the deep dynamics of sin. The deep dynamics of sin. Sin is more than just an individual choice. Sin is more than just, so there's a rule that you know like you shouldn't lie and you go out there and you lie, you break God's law. That's a sin. That's a huge part of sin, but sin is bigger than that. Sin is an evil power that oppresses our life and has the power to enslave. We make choices that are sinful. We, we commit these sins and this dark power can become engaged in our life, this enslaving power. That's what Paul's talking about in Romans 7, from verse 14 on.

[01:00:14] Speaker 7: He's trying to explain to us, based on his own experience, what it is like, not just to break rules, but to have this enslaving power take over your life. From verse 14 on, Paul says, "You know, in my brain, I know the law. I know what I'm supposed to do, and I know what I'm not supposed to do. And I tell myself, I'm gonna do what is right, but there's something deeper within me, some power that has a hold of my soul that I keep doing what is wrong even though I know better." And if you've ever loved someone who's an addict, that's exactly how they talk about their addiction, right? "I don't wanna drink anymore. I'm tired of drinking. I don't wanna drink. It's terrible. I'm gonna stop." And then they don't. "I have the desire to do good, but I cannot carry it out," says Paul. "Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

[01:01:12] Speaker 7: Something has a hold on my will."Now comparing sin and addiction helps us, um, understand all the stuff that Paul says about the law at the beginning of this passage. In this passage and other places in Paul, sometimes Paul talks about the law and when he talks about it, he almost talks about it like it's a bad thing, like the law is somehow causing sin, and there's a couple phrases in our passage that sound that way. Paul says, "I have the desire to do good..." No, excuse me. Paul says, "I would never have known what sin was if it wasn't for the law." And then he also says, "When the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died." So it's almost like the commandment itself, the Ten Commandments and the law, caused Paul to be led into all this sin. Almost makes it sound like the commandment is the cause of sin. That's not what Paul means. Paul is saying that the law is like an intervention. The law functions like an intervention in our life.

[01:02:15] Speaker 7: For an addict, and I think most of you know this too, an intervention is a tool that can be used to bring an addict to their senses, and the way it works is people who love that person, they all come around that person and they gently challenge that person, or maybe not so gently. They all tell stories of how the addiction of that person has impacted their life, and the idea is with all those stories that suddenly the a- addict will say, "Oh my goodness, this is worse than I thought. I have a problem. I need help," and they will go and seek help. Paul is saying that that's how the law functions in our life. When we hear the law, we get this picture of righteousness, but then we try to live up to it and we realize, "Oh, I can't do this. Like, I'm so far from this. This is worse than I thought. Sin has a deep hold on me. Something has gone wrong deep within my soul." If sin is more than bad choices, if sin is a kind of outside power that takes hold of us, what is that power?

[01:03:19] Speaker 7: What is that power? Paul talks about that too in other places. Now this is complicated, right? Because addiction is a complicated phenomenon. It includes genetics, it includes social causes, right? It includes trauma, all of that stuff. But what Paul teaches and what I firmly believe to be true is that under those things and using those things is something else. It's what Paul talks about in Ephesians 6:12, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Whenever you and I sin, we are not simply doing what is wrong. We are opening a small door that allows this dark power to have influence in our life. And that's something that's confirmed in other places. Paul talks about it in Ephesians 4 when he talks about anger. Paul says, you remember this passage, "Do not let the sun go down on your anger." Right? Don't stay angry until after you go to bed.

[01:04:35] Speaker 7: But do you remember what he says after that? "Do not give the devil a foothold." Right? It's almost like if you stay angry, if you let this into your life, you're not just doing a wrong thing, you're opening this small door for this dark power to work its enslavement on you. Another example, one more example, the story of Cain and Abel. Right? Cain is jealous of Abel. He's got this simmering anger. God comes to him to warn him. You remember what God says? "Cain, you better watch out because sin is crouching at your door and it desires to have you." Right? Again, this sense that these things that we do, they're not simply breaking rules, they're an engagement with a dark power that can enslave us. On the cross, Jesus did so much more than come to forgive us of our sins, against those individual acts that we commit. Last week we talked about that, right?

[01:05:38] Speaker 7: Said that the center of the story, a really important part of the story is that Jesus washed away our sins, paid the debt of our sins, washed us clean. But that is not the whole of the story of what Christ did on the cross. If, if the whole story is, is a book, Jesus forgiving our sins is just one chapter in the book. The true story, the big story is something larger. The big story of what Jesus came to do on the cross is to defeat the power of the evil one, to break his enslaving hold. The whole drama of history is that evil power, and you see it right from the beginning of scripture, right? Trying to take control of us and trying to take control of this world, trying to enslave it. And on the cross, Jesus wins the decisive victory to make sure that that will never happen. Jesus breaks evil's hold on us.

[01:06:41] Speaker 7: "There is therefore," Romans 8, "now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit which gives life has set us free from the law of sin and death." Broken that dark power's hold. Galatians 1, "Through Jesus we have been rescued from the present evil age." And not only the power o- over us, it's also the power over all creation, because ultimately Satan wants all of creation. That power has been broken too, Colossians 1, "He has reconciled to himself through the cross all things, whether on earth below or in heaven above."... whole creation. "Creation itself is liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glory and freedom of the children of God," Romans 8. It's not just forgiveness that we get on the cross, it's liberation. It's the destruction of all things that are against us. And that gets us to why I think the moon and the stars are under Jesus' arms in this image, and the red lightning.

[01:07:54] Speaker 7: His cross is a decisive victory over the powers of evil and a liberation of us and all of creation. His death has com- has cosmic implications. It is the turning point of history. And you can see why that is, right? If the drama of creation or the drama of history is the evil one trying to take control, the moment when Jesus died, the evil one must have thought, "I've got it. I'm gonna win." Right? All of Jesus' followers had left Him. One had betrayed, another denied. That must have felt like an amazing victory for the evil one. Jesus Himself crying out in pain, saying that He feels abandoned. The devil must have thought, "This is it. I got it. I'm gonna win." But what the evil one doesn't understand, and what evil never understands, is that the true power of this world is not domination and ruthlessness and lording it over people and controlling them. The true power of this world is suffering love, sacrifice.

[01:09:04] Speaker 7: And so at the moment when the devil thinks he's won, God puts a stake in his heart and he is defeated forever. As Revelation sees it, the sacrificed lamb, the wounded lamb, becomes a lion of Judah and is worthy to receive all power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. The moment of His sacrifice is what makes Him king of kings. At the beginning of this sermon when I talk about how every single one of our sins opens us up to a power that can engage us, I know that that's scary talk. I think it's true. I- I- I absolutely think it's true, and I know it also sounds scary, right? Wow, dark forces after us. And it is scary. I think as we experience the power of sin in this world, that- that- that sense of that- the- the weight of evil is always the scariest thing, right? Our- our sin and guilt is bad, right? I don't want to underplay that. It feels terrible. But what really is terrifying is when you see someone you love, right, just trapped.

[01:10:16] Speaker 7: Or you look at the situations out on the street and the lives of the people out there, and you have a sense of that there's just this, they're just trapped. How do you, how do you liberate them from this? Or you look at our culture, and you see how anger and fear and mistrust are just growing and it feels like this, this force, right? This dark power. And your goodness feels small and your evil f- the evil feels so strong. Don't let the evil one fool you. His power is noise. His power is deception. Remember what happened on Good Friday. Remember what happened on that day where evil thought that it had won and it looked to the whole world like evil had won, when in fact, it was the moment of victory. Evil may be crouching at your door and may desire to have you, but evil cannot have you, because if Jesus has put His hand on you, you do not belong to the evil one. You belong, body and soul and in life and in death, to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

[01:11:23] Speaker 7: And He has set you free from the tyranny of the devil.

[01:11:27] Speaker 6: Amen.

[01:11:29] Speaker 7: Evil makes a lot of noise in this world, a lot of noise, a lot of noise. But Jesus is Lord. And because we know that and because we see that, what we do as Christians is we go out into the world and we lift up the cross and we light candles of hope. The apostle Paul shows us a good example of how to do that in his letter to the Philippians. Um, I think the whole letter is an example of that. Philippians, I think you know where Paul was when he wrote it. He was in jail, right? And he was literally not sure whether he would live or die. But while he's in jail, he has to write a letter to this church, and he writes Philippians. Philippians is an amazing letter. It's so joyful, right? It's- it's the most cheerful, the most upbeat of all Paul's letters, even though he's in jail. That's the one where he says, "Rejoice in the Lord always.

[01:12:18] Speaker 7: I say it again, rejoice." Or, "I've learned the secret of being content no matter what's going on, I can do all things through Christ who saved me." Paul is in jail facing death and he, he's just so full of joy. He goes out in the face of the world's fears and he holds up the cross and lights a fire of hope. That's how I want to carry myself in the world. That's the song I want to sing in the face of the devil's noise. I think it is the song we sing every time that you come here Sunday morning and worship and sing, right? All of us come out of a world and in your life you feel the weight of evil in your life. You feel it. But you come here and you sing and you hope, and you lift up the cross. That's the song I think we're planning to sing next door, right, with that building. And the programs are going to start here. It's really easy to look at all those problems out there and say, "Oh, it's hopeless." Right? You can't do anything about it.

[01:13:22] Speaker 7: No, we're going to hold up the cross and light a candle of hope in the face of the world's angers and miseries.Evil is strong, but Jesus is stronger. Just go out there and be careful, be careful, but don't be afraid. Amen. Lord, when we think about the weight of trouble and struggle and evil in this world, it is intimidating, Lord. It is far bigger than us and our power, but it's not far bigger than you. Thank you, Lord, that at the foot of the cross we know that you are victorious over all things, that you have defeated the power of the evil one. Lord, I pray that that good news will go all the way down to the center of our beings this week and we may walk out into the world whatever we face with joyful hope. Amen.

[01:14:53] Speaker 6: Hear our prayer. Turn not your pain, O dearest Love. May they come rather full. Send to me just a love that knows. From this love returns. They could not know as we do now. How glorious is that crown. That rose that from the pine did grow. For sorrows healed on the wood. Did not the pain, O Gracious Lord. Make sense the purple glow. Your passion turned for all they came into a soldier's job. They could not know as we do now. That lonely parent pain. Who with your robe of mercy clothed. Around your weakness changed. God said to me, O patient one. He trusts me to the end. And I did offer him suffering. To which the point he'll end. They could not know as we do now. Though it was as their fault. Your kingdom shall not cease to grow. Till all embraces fall.

[01:17:56] Speaker 7: Receive the blessing of your Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be and abide with you all.

[01:18:06] Speaker 6: Amen. (applause)

[01:18:45] Speaker 6: (bell tolls(peaceful music)