• Xmas Mission offering Slide
  • 70 have given
  • Friday night Christmas service. Slide?
• Series Slide
• When I was a kid I covered my bedroom wall with posters of all the favorite players on my favorite sports teams.
• My favorites were the Washington Redskins Hall of Fame Receiver Art Monk and Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin. I had them all over my walls.
• I loved those players. I loved to watch them in action. I always dreamed of meeting them and being like them, but never did…and I never was.
• When I got to be a teenager I kept up the sports posters but added posters of exotic fast cars.
• In my day, it was Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche.
• Whether it was sports cars or sports stars…what was happening on the walls of my bedroom was also what was happening in my heart.
• Plastered on my young man cave were images of what I thought the good-life looked like.
• You might call it, …my treasure.
• But, I never played a game for the Washington Redskins or Cincinnati Reds.
• I have never driven a Ferrari, Lamborghini, or a Porsche. Much less owned one.
• I suppose I spent a lot of time envisioning a life for myself that wasn’t really in reach.
• I suppose I never really believed that I’d suit up for a professional sports team or sit in the driver’s seat of an exotic sports car.
• They were just visions…treasures…that were fun to think about…but never really attainable.
• Now, that sounds perfectly fine, right?
• 
  All boys have those sorts of dreams…those pictures of the good life.
• But what if it was different? What if I made it to the next level?
• What if I got drafted by the Redskins?
• What if my parents bought me a Lamborghini and a Porsche?
• What if Art Monk drove a Ferrari to my house and gave the me the keys along with a spot on the team?
• Now…imagine that happens…and I leave the car in my drive way…and I never show up to the stadium to play ball.
• Imagine if though I was finally united with my dream automobile…and my dream job…but still, all I ever did was pose for pictures in front of my Ferrari with my jersey on.
• Imagine if all I did was study my playbook and watch Youtube videos about how much horsepower a Ferrari has.… but I never actually suited up and took a drive.
• …now, that would be CRAZY.
• Unfortunately, that’s exactly the way some of us approach Jesus.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve talked to you about all the ways we are willing to live AROUND GOD…but not really live WITH HIM.

• We live life Under God, trying to manipulate him with Morality and Ritual.
• We live life Over God, trying to control our world by living according to a distant creator’s principles.
• Or we live life FROM God, using faith to threaten him to give us health and money.
• Or we live life FOR God, where we are all about the mission of God…we are all about being laborers in the harvest...but not really sons and daughters to a Father.
• But today, I want to end this series on a positive note.
• I want to show you, spiritually, how to climb in the Ferrari and drive.
• I want to show you how to not just wear the jersey, but to actually get in the game.
• Today, I want you to see practically HOW to live life WITH GOD.
• Because when Jesus was born in a manger 2000 years ago, he came to us as IMMANUEL…God WITH Us.
• He drove the Ferrari into the gravel driveway of our trailer park… and he handed us the keys and said, “Lets take a drive to the stadium”.
• But too many of us have stood there frustrated…excited (at first) about the possibilities…but then we got angry at God because we never felt the wind in our hair or the roar of the crowd…
• …and after a while, your relationship with God gets boring…kind of like wearing an old football jersey standing by a car you’ve never driven.
• But the problem is not God. He’s done everything he needs to do. The problem is you’ve just never actually sat in the drivers seat and cranked the engine.
• You’ve never really lived life WITH GOD…and that’s what I want to show you today.
• Title Slide
• As a way of disclaimer, today’s sermon is a bit different than I typically do. Usually we stay grounded in one particular text… in other words, there is one passage of Scripture that would be our MAIN focus, but today, we’ve got a little bit more of a survey going on.
• Would love for you to follow along in a copy of the Scripture…but if you can’t keep up flipping the pages, all the Scripture will be on the screen.
• First let me show you a couple of spots in the Bible where God is telling you that he has already given you the keys to the Ferrari.
• 2 Cor 9:8-11
• And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written,
• “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
• his righteousness endures forever.”
• He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.
• There are 4 ALL’s and 3 EVERY’s. In other words, the apostle Paul is trying to tell you…
• You already got the keys to the ‘Rari.
• Not only that….you got a spot on the team. Here is God drafting you…giving you a spot on the team.
• Eph 1:3-14
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
• In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
• Did you hear that?…its all past tense.
• Every spiritual blessing is already yours… He chose you (he drafted you)…he blessed you in Christ. You HAVE redemption…he LAVISHED the riches of his grace.
• “You HAVE obtained” an inheritance.
• you “Were sealed” with the Holy Spirit.
• If you have trusted Jesus as your salvation…you got the keys the ‘Rari and a spot on the team. He chose you.
• Here’s one more, this one is from Peter…the guy we talked about last week that denied Jesus 3 times then Jesus beautifully restored him.
• 2 Peter 1:3-4
• His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
• Did you hear all that? He HAS GRANTED…past tense…ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness.
• Now, you tell me. If in Christ you have all things pertaining to life & Godliness… …what other categories are left?
• Go ahead? What in the universe doesn’t fit into those 2 categories? …and you have ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness. Not Some things.
• In other words, you don’t just have posters…you are a starting Shortstop driving a Lamborghini.
• AND LOOK!
• The goal is that you become PARTAKERS of the divine nature.
• PARTAKERS…Sharers…of the divine nature. The Goal of all these ALLS and EVERYS…the goal of God Drafting you…and giving you an entirely undeserved and non-expiring CONTRACT…to sign you not because you are a valuable player on the team…but because he loves you…
• The goal is that you ARE WITH HIM. That you share in WHO HE IS…that you abide in him and he in you. That you DWELL with him.
• The point is …he is God WITH US…and we are nothing WITHOUT HIM.
• Every thing that God is doing in you and around you and for you is all moving you to BE WITH HIM…unfortunately….
• …a lot of us see the Porsche parked in the driveway....and keys in hand…we go back into our bedrooms…where we’re comfortable…and stare at our posters.
• I’ll explain it like this…look back at Eph 1:3
• Paul uses this phrase “In Christ” 27 times in the book of Ephesians alone.
• Look now at Jesus talking about this same idea.
• John 15:4-5
• Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
• Jesus talks about ABIDING. He in us…us in him.
• And he says…when that type of union is going on…we bear much fruit….in other words…something spiritually delicious and nutritious is coming off of us.
• See…
• 1) Christianity isn’t just treasuring & uniting to Christ…its going 90 with the top down.
• • The very first step in living life WITH God…is Treasuring.
• • If you don’t treasure God…if you don’t want him…if you don’t have a beautiful vision for who he is..
  • …if you aren’t a fan…you’ll never really LIKE being With him.

 

• SO how do you treasure? How do you get a vision of life with God?
• Well, you see something beautiful.
• You see an attribute about him that’s attractive…and you want to know more…you want to think about him more…you want to explore MORE about who he is.

• • Think about those posters on my wall.
• • I didn’t buy a poster of Art Monk, until after I saw him play.
  • I saw the way he played…his humility, his work ethic, his talent, and his joy…and I admired that. So I got a poster.
• • Then, with the car posters…I heard about the power and the beauty of those cars. Then I decided I wanted to see more of them…so I put up their pictures.
• • And the more I looked at those posters…the more I noticed...like…”Oh the Lamborghini’s doors open vertically…” Wow.
• • See I got the posters because of something I saw in those objects…and then I gazed at the posters and saw something even deeper.
• • It works this way with God.
  • Because you are created in God’s image…all of us innately want GOD. In everything we treasure…in everything we pursue…we are actually looking for him.
• Next 2 quotes on the same slide…
  • GK Chesterton said, “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God,”
  • Augustine, was an African bishop in the 4^th..who was a very sexually active ladies’ man before he met God …probably one of those guys that knocked on a few brothel doors…after his conversion…here’s how he famously opens his book “Confessions” where he reflects on how he came to faith in Christ.
    • “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”- Augustine, Confessions
  • • In other words…there is always something in us…in the way we see what God has created…in every desire we have, in every thing we find beautiful… …that is longing for…God himself.

 

• And when we see it in creation…we want more.
• But those glimpses of God in his creation aren’t enough.
• We need a poster. We need something to gaze at. We need something to see him from another angle…a more complete revelation…and he gave that to us in Jesus Christ.

• • Hebrews 1:3 & Luke 24:44
  • In Jesus Christ…God in the flesh…Immanuel…we see his nature and his character more surely.
  • He is the RADIANCE of the GLORY of God…the EXACT representation of his nature.
  • In Jesus, we don’t just get a vague kind of longing…that’s all mixed up with our sinful desires…like the man knocking on the door of a brothel.
  • …we get a pure, more sure revelations…. An unadulterated RADIANCE of God in the flesh.
• • Then Jesus himself said that “All the Scriptures point to me”.

 

• In other words, the Bible is a poster of Jesus.
• And the way we get deeper into…the way we get more of a longing for him…is to look more deeply FOR HIM in the Scriptures that reveal HIM.

• Back to 1)
  • But it can’t stop there.
  • We have to act on that.
• • We go from TREASURING…to UNITING.
  • This happens by faith. You believe all that the Bible is revealing to you about this God.
  • The Scripture says, when you do this… you don’t just admire Jesus…you become one with him.
  • You don’t just think he’s a good teacher…you understand he’s God With Us.

 

• He abides in you and you in him. Something relational happens. You meet him in the Driveway…and..he hands you the keys and says, “Take a ride.”
• He gives you the deposit of the Holy Spirit…a kind of guarantee of a future inheritance.

• • This is the moment you realize the Ferrari is in the garage.
  • That you have everything for life and godliness.
  • That you’ve been drafted to the team.
• • And there are A LOT of Christians that GET THAT….
• • [PAUSE]…but that’s as far as they ever get.
  • And they spend a lifetime going from the garage…to the bedroom to look at the posters…back out to the garage to see the car…back into the bedroom to look at the posters…
• • You read the Bible. And tell yourself that you are saved. Then you fall into cycles of sin and spiritual dryness…And then you read the Bible again tell yourself that you are eternally secure….and before long…the posters don’t become about appreciating the beauty of Jesus…but just seeing how much you aren’t like him…how much you have failed to become what you were supposed to become.
• • …and as you live a flat, joyless life full of compromise and sin…you love saying things like “well, nobody’s perfect”
  • “Well, everybody sins.”
  • Which is all true…but never the focus of our union with Christ.
• • And so you live in this weak sort of halfway relationship with Jesus that rejoices NOT in righteousness and beauty and everything your soul found wonderful about God…but in this barely-making-it sort of limping along mentality that acts like you haven’t been given everything you need for life and godliness...that lives like you don’t have a locked-up-tight inheritance…and every spiritual blessing.
• • Like you don’t have a God who is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
• • …and so,
  • …[PAUSE] you never live in the truth that you’re a partaker in the divine nature…
  • You live your life like you’re simply an owner of a relationship with Christ…instead of someone who EXPERIENCES a relationship with God.
• • You live life NEAR Christ…but not IN CHRIST.
  • You live life AROUND a Ferrari…but you’ve never driven it going 90 miles an hour.
• Transition: I know what you’re thinking.
  • Trev- this is why I don’t like you.
  • You are all metaphor.
  • Cool story, bro…but what exactly am I supposed to DO about this?
  • I’m confused…Last week you told me not to get a private Jet and this week you tell me to get a Ferrari.
• • So…lets get practical…right after we get naked.
  • See…
• 2) Living life WITH GOD means getting naked…throwing off the stuff that holds you back.
• • Here’s what so many of us want to know.
  • If being with Christ is supposed to be full of joy…how exactly do I get there?
• • Ok, here it is…you ready…?
  • Keep your reading your Bible…meditate on what God says…pray….surround yourself with people that tell you the truth in love…and give yourself away to love others.
• • Now…you might be terribly disappointed, now… because you think “I’ve tried that…and it doesn’t work.”
  • “And reading my Bible, meditating, living in Christian community, praying…all that stuff…it doesn’t really EVER feel like driving a Ferrari with the top down.”
• • I get that.
  • But here’s what I’d say to you.
• • Have you ever tried to do all that stuff naked?
  • And…just to be CRYSTAL CLEAR this is VERY MUCH a metaphor…
• • When we say “ADULT BIBLE STUDY” it doesn’t mean “NAKED BIBLE STUDY” it means “grown ups.” Ok…
• • But look, if you are offended by that, your beef is with God, not me.
  • Because I didn’t make that metaphor up…its in the Bible.
• • Take a look in 2 places. First is our Fighter Verse from last month.
  • 1 Tim 4:7-8
  • Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
• • The first thing Paul says to Timothy…a young guy he’s trying to teach how to LIVE WITH GOD…he says to STOP DOING SOMETHING.
• • He says to GET RID OF SOMETHING.
  • He says to LEAVE SOMETHING BEHIND.
  • He says, “Stop living in and believing things that aren’t true.”
  • That’s what irreverent and silly myths are.
  • Those are worldviews…ways of understanding life…that try to find ultimate joy and pleasure in things LESS than God…like sex…money…power...
  • He says, “Put those things away. Get ‘em off of you.”
  • Then he says, instead…TRAIN YOURSELF for godliness.
• • Now, here’s where (as my kids say) it gets funky.
  • Paul says to Timothy, “Instead of believing these stories that your culture is feeding you about where your ultimate joy and satisfaction is…RATHER…get naked and work out.
• • That is LITERALLY what that word “TRAIN” means in the original Greek language.
• • It's the word “GOOM-NAZO” “gymnazo”…its where we get the word gymnasium from.
  • It means to “Exercise Naked”
• • See, in those days, there was no under armor… no yoga pants…
  • So when you went to exercise…you tossed aside your tunic… before you started working out…
  • HUMOR: (again…I’m emphasizing that this is a metaphor…please do not show up naked to the gym and start doing squats… ain’t nobody trying to look at that)
• • Because…look…if you tried to run a sprint in a tunic…you know what’s gonna happen? You’re gonna trip and fall.
  • Can you imagine Usain Bolt running the 100m sprint in a tunic?
• • Can you imagine a wide receiver on a go route…in a 1^st century man-robe? He wouldn’t get 10 yards before he was flat on his face.
• • This is why before you ever climb in the Ferrari…you need to throw off your clothes.
  • Too much wind resistance.
• • I’ll explain that with the next verse we look at…but before we leave this one…notice 2 more things here.
• • First, the command is to TRAIN for GODLINESS.
  • Remember that? We are partakers of the DIVINE NATURE?
  • Train for being WITH GOD…and being LIKE GOD.
• • So when we throw off the lies that something else will bring us ultimate joy…we’re doing it SO THAT we can be partakers in the DIVINE NATURE.
  • See…that’s the idea behind holding promise for this life and the life to come.
  • Its not just JOY later…its JOY NOW too.
  • Godliness…being like God and with GOD…is not just our ultimate or final source of joy in the life to come…its also where we draw our deepest happiness NOW.
• • Ok…now here’s the last thing I want to show you from this verse.
  • Who is doing the training?

 

• Paul says, “TRAIN YOURSELF”.
• Not “TREAT Yo’ self”…. “Train Yourself”

• • In other words, this is action on your part.
  • You da one gonna have to get up early and read the Scripture.
  • You da one gonna have to make an intentional effort to pray.
  • You da one gonna have to seek out that friend and ask for help, or forgiveness, or encouragement.
• • TRAIN YOURSELF.
  • Now, let me show you where all the training yourself for Godliness comes into play…and how that godliness HOLDS PROMISE FOR THE LIFE TO COME.
• • Hebrews 11:39-40
  • And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

 

• • Hebrews 11 is full of people who were living LIFE WITH GOD…that got naked…they threw off their pitiful understandings of where real joy comes from and embraced this idea that God was making a way to PARTAKE IN THE DIVINE NATURE…in other words…by faith, they united to God…and they took the keys…got in the Ferrari, got naked, put the top down and put the pedal to the floor…
• • And the writer of Hebrews says, “in all this they still didn’t fully receive what was promised…they were trainging for something…they were getting ready…”
• • But they DID, put on the uniform and get in the game.
  • He tells you some of them were worldly successes…they were kings that conqured.
  • And some of them, according to the silly and irreverent myths that their culture told them…they were failures…they went around destitute in caves…they were killed with the word…they were homeless..
• • BUT he says…they were driving the ‘Rari…they were playing on the team…and even though they didn’t quite YET win the game…they’ve played their part…and now…he says in Hebrews 12…they are all in the stands waiting for the final gun to sound…and then…with every Christian in history…who likewise will throw off their close and put the pedal to the medal and get in the game…we’re all gonna tear down the goalposts… together.
• • Look…that’s exactly what he says next…
  • Hebrews 12:1-2
  • Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

• First he says, since we are in the middle of a stadium surrounded by all the people who have played the game before us…all the people who have put their faith in God’s promise…lets get naked!
• Throw off every weight…and throw off your sin that clings to you.
• SO you can PLAY!
• SO you can run and not trip.

• • And then he tells you how.
  • He says, “While you’re playing in the game…don’t forget those posters. And don’t forget how you got drafted in the first place”
  • He says, “Jesus is the one who started this…look at him. Look deep into the scriptures and see him dying for your sin…then…look to his return…look to his second coming…look to the victory he won when he resurrected. Remember, he’s the one who is really winning this thing for us.”
  • Play the game, but don’t leave the posters behind.
• • In other words, the STRENGTH TO THROW OFF the sin the entangles you comes from remembering the grace of God.
• • NOW, we’re getting somewhere.
  • See, whenever I hear a Xian say, “I can’t be perfect…I’m just relying on God’s grace. And I’ll sin again…and I’ll just keep loving God for his grace and forgiveness.”
• • BUT THAT’S NOT THE RESULT OF LOOKING AT THE GRACE OF GOD IN THE FACE OF THE CRUCIFIED AND RESURRECTED JESUS CHRIST.
• • Titus 2:11-12
  • For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age
• • Now what’s training you?
  • You aren’t training yourself here…
  • IN JESUS CHRIST…GRACE is training you..
• • And its not training you to KEEP SINNING…its training you to trhow off sin…to kill it…to live self-controlled…to partake in godliness…and not just IN THE LIFE TO COME…but IN THIS PRESENT AGE…
  • For godliness is of value RIGHT NOW!!!!!!
• • Now look back to Hebrews 12
  • Now the encouragement is when the game gets tough…when you want to quit…when you start to complain about how hard it is…
• • Once again..you are pointed to Christ..
• • Hebrews 12:3-4
  • Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
• • When it's the 4^th quarter…and you don’t have the strength to run…you think back to the poster…you think back to JESUS dying for you…you think back to WHAT YOU TREASURE…and remember…my struggle isn’t THAT HARD.
  • My struggle is made perfect in my weakness…because HE has in all his godliness and perfection became weak all the way to a birth in a manger a crucifixion.

 

• I can keep going, because HE HAS MADE ME LIKE HIM…able to persevere…able to keep playing.
• That’s why at the end of every worship gathering here we say “GO, and remember the gospel”

• • Because there is no going…there is no running…there is no catching touchdowns…there is no 90 mph in the Ferrari without FIRST REMEMBERING what you treasure…without first REMEMBERING THE GOOD NEWS THAT JESUS DIED in your place, rose from the DEAD and is coming back to gather up all the cloud of witnesses that have worn his JERSEY and THEN…we’ll all celebrate the victory in the life to come.
• • Ok…now to the end of Hebrews 12:11
  • For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
• • There’s that word again.
  • Train…exercise naked.
  • Now, we’re getting a glimpse of the joy.
  • For those who trained by the grace of God, by the suffering and difficulty and trial…by applying the gospel to the suffering in our life…LATER it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
• • See, on one hand, like Paul told Timothy, we train ourselves…that’s like practice.
  • We throw off sin…and we put our face in his word and we read about HIM…about his grace…about his love…we see more deeply how beautiful he is.
• • But you really don’t experience God, not in a 90 mph in a Ferrari kind of way…until all of the gazing into his beauty in his word starts being applied in your own suffering.
• • You can’t just look at Jesus in a manger and say “that’s nice”.
  • You can’t read his teaching and say, “that’s wonderful”
  • You can’t just see him dying on a cross and say, “that’s heartbreaking”
  • You can’t just see him resurrecting and say, “that’s inspiring”.
  • There’s more to this than JUST TRAINING YOURSELF…
  • You have to let suffering…let difficulty…let discipline TRAIN YOU.
• • If not…you are stuck in your bedroom looking at posters and never driving the Ferrari.
• • Being WITH GOD means experiencing him, partaking in his divine nature in the MIDDLE of the WORST that the world can throw at you.
  • It means in all the denying yourself, in all of the cross bearing and dying he calls you to…that all along the way, you are telling yourself, and believing the voices of those that love you, and all the voices of the cloud of witnesses cheering you on from the grandstand…
• • …you are believing that Jesus is coming back…and he’s fixing everything…and he’s going to dwell with us.
  • …and in the deepest moments of your trials and suffering…the comfort comes…the joy slips in…and the peaceful fruit of righteousness says, “its all worth it…I’m losing nothing…and gaining everything.”
  • The peace with God that the angels sang about to the shepherds only happened because…
• 3) Jesus was naked to clothe you forever.
  • Christmas reminds us that The God who created the universe came into our world, naked in a manger. Helpless. Dependent on a mother to clothe him.
• • Then, he lived a perfect righteous life…he was the exact imprint and the radiant glory of God the Father.
  • He resisted temptation through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
  • He was everything we think is beautiful…everything we long for...all the joy we are chasing knocking on doors of brothels and scanning websites for something to fill us…whether that’s pornography or shopping for just ONE MORE THING on Amazon.
• • But we rejected him. Instead of the beauty of beholding the Word incarnate…we were threatened by him.
  • On the cross…he was stripped naked again.
  • They cast lots for his robes.
• • …and on the cross he bore the weight of our sin. All the sin we are now called to throw off…it landed on Jesus…naked and dying on the cross.
• • And when he died…when he was naked on the cross…he was taking our sin away..
  • So that he could forever clothe us in his righteousness.
• • See, when the game is over…when the clock expires…when the cloud of witnesses rushes the field and tears down the goal posts…
• • We’ll lift Jesus up on our shoulders…and finally…we’ll look down and see we’re all wearing clothes again…not ours…HIS.
  • And listen to the joy…listen to celebration.
  • Watch the wind blowing through our hair…
  • …watch the pile in the end zone…when Jesus comes back and makes all things new!
• • Isaiah 61:10
  • I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
• my soul shall exult in my God,
• for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
• he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
• as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
• and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
• • To be with GOD in Christ is to ever and always be on the brink of bursting out in praise…because it's the 4^th quarter…his return is soon…the finish line is close…as the church…as his people…we are in the victory formation…taking a knee…
  • Not just to run the clock out…but to bow before this Christ…that has done all that there is to do to save us.