The Village Church
"Own The Vision: Broken People" - Ephesians 2:1-3 - 2024/09/15 - 2024/09/15 - Audio
[BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] >> Today, hopefully, y'all had an excellent week last week. Already, well, good to be here, good to be here. All right, you've got a few announcements before we start our service today. To all who are new here, welcome, welcome, welcome. We are glad to have you. Be sure to, everyone, look to you, let's look to your right. Tell your neighbor good morning and that you love them. All right, thank you and all right. If you are new here, again, thank you for coming. And we have our pamphlets right here. We have our QR code, which ascends you to our tree link. You can learn more about us and about our missions. Second, if you prefer to go the old fashioned way through paper, we have the sign up sheet in the back, you'll see to do that. If you are so lucky to do so. Okay, we have a few things starting back up. We have school starting back up, we have activities starting back up, but we also have more importantly, the FCC classes starting back up. We, for all ages, we'll have the youth done in basement. That's headed by Marcus, and we'll have the adults up here in the front. Both happen immediately after their service. Second, we have a few changes. We have our congregational potluck alcohol. We used to have it in a smaller group, but it's now congregation wide. It is at the, there we go, the first one we'll be at the 22nd of this month. Potluck stop, we can have our cook off, bring some food, we can challenge the youth the best, the youth. And also we have, let's see, are at the same time, we have our beautiful bake sale for the, let's see, as we can, we'll have a sign up for that, for our missions over in Uganda, and for the imprisoned children in Africa. And yeah, so again, thank you for coming. And if you could turn to the center of your pamphlet, first page. Real quick, we will have a silent moment, silent prayer in preparation for worship. And then we have our call to worship coming from first Chronicles. [silence] Okay, our reading again comes from first Chronicles. I will read the part assigned to the leader, and you will read the part of the people. Please stand if you are able. Okay, as Christ to the Lord, the glory do His name, bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in splinter of holiness. Shrimp up before Him, all the earth, yes, the world is established, it shall never be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth be joyous, and let them say, among the nation, the Lord reigns. Praise the Lord, G.B.C., that was somebody. Praise the Lord, G.B.C., how many of us know that we need God more and more? Is that anybody in this church this morning? We need God more and more. This song just is chasing after you, let's just sing our praises to God and say how much we need Him, come on. I'm chasing after you, no matter what I have to do, 'cause I need you more and more. Say, more and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more. I'm chasing after you, no matter what I have to do, 'cause I need you more and more. If you'll voice me, I'm chasing after you, no matter what I have to do, 'cause I need you more and more, say more and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, I need you more and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more. The next one just says this, I'm chasing after you, I'm praising my way through, just to be closer to you, I'm chasing after you, y'all want me to say that first, I'm chasing, I'm chasing after you, I'm praising my way through, just to be closer to you, oh yeah, I'm chasing after you, say more and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, I need you, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, 4 and more, we need you Jesus, 4 and more, hallelujah, we bless your name. This next song just says gracefully broken, and I think sometimes we can find solace in the fact that God breaks us down sometimes to build us back up again, is that anybody else's testimony this morning? Sometimes it takes his hand moving in our lives to show us what we need from him, and it might hurt sometimes, but he will always be there to build us back up again. Gracefully broken, hallelujah. Take all I have in these hands and multiply God, all that I am and find my heart on the altar again, set me on fire, set me on fire, sit up for more time, take all I have in these hands and multiply God, all that I am and find my heart on the altar again, set me on fire, set me on fire, here I am, God, arms wide open, hallelujah, this praise God this morning, pouring out my life gracefully broken, arms wide open, first two, my heart stands in love, your name, your mighty love stands strong to the end, you will defend your purpose in me, you won't mistake me, you won't mistake me, here I am, God, arms wide open, we're here waiting to receive your love, God, pouring out, pouring out my life gracefully broken, listen now one more time church, here I am, here I am, oh God, arms wide open, pouring out my life gracefully broken, expect righteousness, all to Jesus now hallelujah, all to Jesus now, holding nothing back, holding nothing back, hallelujah, holding nothing back, lift up your voice this morning say, all to Jesus now, God will give you everything, all to Jesus now, holding nothing back, holding nothing back, here I am, God, arms wide open, and we're ready to receive pouring out my life gracefully broken, oh here I am, here I am, oh God, arms wide open, pouring out, pouring out my life gracefully broken, hallelujah, be blessed your name this morning Jesus, you may be seated all right let's bow to God in prayer and praise the God of our salvation. God thank you for this glorious day that you have made we all woke up with the breath that you've given us and the grace that you've given us to continue in this life no matter the hardships that come or the mountain highs that come God they're all from you and you use them for your glory and we want to praise you in the good times and in the bad times. God we look forward to a day where there's no more sin, where there's no more suffering. God we await that day with so much anticipation, just wanting for your perfection to redeem the rest of this world Lord thank you God and you name amen. All right so right now we're going to do a confession of faith from the Westminster shorter catechism. I'm going to read question 16 and then you all will respond to the answer. Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? What state did the fall bring for mankind? By his wounds we are healed, Church, He was peace for our transgressions. He was crushed for our sins. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds, by his woes we are healed. Hallelujah, anybody grateful for that this morning? He was peace for our transgressions. He was crushed for our sins. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. By his wounds, by his wounds we are healed. We are healed by your sacrifice in the life that you gave. We are healed by your grace. We are saved. We are saved. Thank you, Church. He was peace for our transgressions. He was crushed for our sins. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. By his wounds, by his woes we are healed. See, God loved us so much, Church family, and He gave us only begotten Son to die for our sins. Listen to incredible gifts that I think we don't appreciate enough, but He loves you. He loves me that much. Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus. We are healed by your sacrifice in the life that you gave. We are healed by your grace. We are saved. We are saved. Let's sing that last for one more time. We are healed. We are healed by your sacrifice. Hallelujah, in the life that you gave. We are healed by your grace. We are saved. We are saved. He was peace for our transgressions. He was crushed for our sins. The punishment that brought us peace for the Father. By his wounds, by his woes we are healed. Thank you, Jesus. And by his wounds, by his woes we are healed. His wounds, by his woes, by his woes. What can wash away my sin altogether? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah. [Music] Hey guys. My name is Mary. I am in charge of Village Kids, which is our elementary school aged SEC class. And before we do the prayer supplication, I wanted to tell you guys about our big beautiful bake sale, which is the kids are going to be hosting next week during our church meal. We need your help. Of course, not only can you buy delicious treats and breads and various other things that are good for you, your brain, and your heart. You can also donate baked goods. I know a lot of people who are like, "Oh my gosh, I love to bake, but I cannot eat everything that I bake." You can donate that to our bake sale. That would be fantastic. So if you're having a stressful week or you just want to bake something, bake it for us. And then come buy other things. And invite your family. Invite your friends because this is going to be after church. And it's during the meal. So we're all going to be here anyway. And I've already told my mom, and my mom said she's coming to buy bread. So just invite anybody you can. You think of, they don't have to stay for the meal. Kids are cute and they are doing this for the benefit of 60 feet, which is the ministry that our Uganda missions team is going to support. It's one small way that we can make an impact in those kids' lives. So with that being said, let's move on to the prayer of supplication. I looked up the word supplication. I've never done this before in front of people. It means begging someone for something. God doesn't need us to bag. So I'm going to pray. I'm going to try not to tear up because it's been a weekend, y'all. So here we go. Humbly, we come before you, God, of the universe. And we praise your holy name. We ask you for strength for the weary and healing for the sick, joy for the brokenhearted, peace for the fearful and just wisdom as we go about our lives and every day and the mundane and then the exciting. Let us serve you the best that we can. God, you give us more than we could possibly imagine. And we ask for the eyes to see you. Amen. Our scripture reading might make me tear up as well because it's from Ephesians 2, one through three. Please stand if you are able for the reading of God's word. And you are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. I don't think I'm on. Okay, there we go. Well, I don't know if y'all watched the Georgia game yesterday, but I can tell you, your pastor was not having a good Saturday. Please join me as I ask the Holy Spirit to bless the preaching of the word. Holy Spirit, as we come to this part of the service, I pray that you will continue to move in this place. I pray that you will continue to sustain us, watch over us. And I pray that you will give us understanding of the scriptures. You know what we're dealing with. You know the things that we're facing. You know the ups and the downs that we've had this week, the joys and the pains, the tears and the laughter, the frustrations and the smiles. You are in tune with us. Jesus is in tune with us. The Father is in tune with us. And so I pray that as we open up the scriptures today and the word of God goes forth, I pray they will go forth in power, they will go forth in conviction, that it will go forth in encouragement and hope, correction. And I do pray for all of this in Christ's wonderful name. Amen. A couple arrives at a campsite in a small SUV and they both exit the SUV to go tend to some things on the car. The woman I think was either a girlfriend or wife or the guy and she's unhooking the kayaks off the top of the SUV. And the guy he's in the back of the trunk, you know pulling things out, I think getting things out as they're getting ready to go on the river and to kayak. And then the guy says something, he says, "Sweetie, I don't see the life jackets." Then she says, "Well, you should. You pack them." The man walks around the car, thinking to himself and he says to her, "No, you pack them." She turns and she gives him the look and says to him, "No, you pack them. You said I won't forget to pack the life jackets." So, oh no. Can we smell what's kicking at this campsite conflict, a disagreement. And so now the couple there, they're standing face to face at this campsite, standing face to face. And the guy he reaches inside of his pocket and he pulls out a red flag and he throws it on the ground. And he says, "I'm sorry. I gotta challenge that. I gotta challenge that." And she says, "Well, you have one left." So, he drops the flag to the ground and then a voiceover comes on that says, "This really what happened replay is brought to you by progressive." So, this guy runs onto the scene with a, with a monitoring some headsets and then a couple that put on these headsets and they're watching what really happened before they went to the campsite and it turns out it's the guy's fault. And with a smile on her face, she says to him, "You know my favorite part was when you said obviously I won't forget to pack the life jackets." And he did. Christians are like the guy who forgot to pack the life jackets because we forget. And who are Christians? Christians are men and women who have come to save and faith in Jesus. These are people who have surrendered their life to him who are covered in his blood. These are Christians. They don't just have the hand knowledge of who Jesus is. They have surrendered their life to him because of what he did on cavalry, his life, his death and his resurrection. And these people, these Christians, you may be one of these people. We often forget we were given a life jacket to get out of where we were. That we did not save ourselves. Someone rescued us. And sometimes when we forget what was down for us to bring us into a place of life that often leads to boasting self-righteousness and being judgmental towards others. So in Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 3, the apostle Paul pulls out and drops a red challenge flag to the saints in Philippa, challenging them in our perception of ourselves, reminding us of our pre-Christian condition. And it's the condition of those who don't know Jesus, they are still in that condition. So TVC saying this, what really happened in replay is brought to us by the Bible. God, progressive insurance. So we need to put on our headsets and we need to focus on the monitor and the replay. It takes us back to the beginning of humanity's story, back to our first parents, back to Eden, back to paradise, back to Genesis 1. Humanity's story, it begins in glory as we saw last week. We're created in the image of a God with an innate beauty. That's what we get from Genesis 1 and 2. That all human beings are the imago day. We are the representational image of God on earth. And so every human being, regardless of race, nationality, gender, they have an innate value, self-worth and dignity because they are created in God's image. That's the imago day. That's Genesis 1 and 2. And because of that, all human beings are beautiful. All human beings are beautiful. If you remember when I started the sermon last week, we're doing a new sermon series called "On Division." We're going to be working through the vision statement, which is beautiful and broken people connected in Jesus and extending his love. The plan is to unpack that vision phrase by phrase over the next few weeks. And with us, we talked about the fact that human beings are beautiful because they are created in God's image. All of them, Christians and non-Christians. All of them. But we realize also, we also know that the Bible doesn't just end in Genesis 1 and 2. We know eventually we go to Genesis 3. And that's where humanity's story. That's our story too. Not just the story of Adam and Eve. It's our story too. The story takes a dark turn. Okay. Our first parents fall into shame and guilt. Paradise is lost. We should sit with that for a moment. Paradise lost. Even gone. Relationship with God broken. Paradise lost. Genesis 3 tells us the story of how Adam's disobedience and his he rebelled against God because he did something that God commanded him not to do. Adam and Eve had freedom within the garden. They could eat from any tree in the garden. But God laid down one boundary. One rule. Tree of a knowledge and good and evil. You shouldn't eat from it. For in the day that you eat of it, you should surely die. So there was freedom within boundaries. So there was boundaries before the fall. Boundaries are not a consequence of the fall. They were there in the beginning. And they broke it. And when he failed, we failed, we rebelled, and we disobeyed with Adam in his first transgression. And that is what theologians call original sin. Original sin. Original rejection. Romans 5, 12 says, sin came into the world through one man and death through sin. So death spread to all people because all sin. Romans 5, 18, one transgression led to the combination of all people. And Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. Human beings are broken because of sin. I'm broken. You're broken. We're broken. And today, that's what we're going to be focusing on today is that second phrase in our vision statement, broken people, broken people. Because of the imago day, human beings have an innate beauty. And because of the fall, human beings are sinners when an innate brokenness. That's the over. I don't care how good people look. I don't care how good they face book life appears. Those people are broken too. Some of us are just being the hot of me. Look at verse 1. Paul says, and he writes to the Philippians, although you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Although you were dead in your trespasses and sins. All right, I find it interesting that Paul, if you read through chapter 1 of Philippians, Paul is going, his prayer, this God has did this, he has predestined you here, all these wonderful truths of what God has done, and that they have the Holy Spirit living in them. Then you turn to chapter 2, it's like, man, why are you going negative, bro? Like I was all excited in chapter 1. Now you got to remind me of what I was once dead in my trespasses and sins. What does that mean, Pastor? It means Christians. All people were born into a state of sin and misery, born into a state of brokenness, and that is a spiritual death. That's a spiritual death. And a person is dead before he or she becomes a Christian through faith in Jesus Christ. I know you're like, well, how are we dead? I mean, I'm like, we're the walking dead, is what we are. We're the walking dead. If you are Christian, then that was your pre-Christian condition. That's where you were before Jesus rescued you and gave you life. And it's still the condition for all non-Christians, even though they may be living a flourishing life, that you're still dead and they trespasses in sin. I know you're like, man, Pastor, this is not going to be a happy sermon. Probably not. Yeah, they're dead in the realm of their sin and trespasses and sins and trespasses. These are comprehensive terms. All they're saying, it's all inclusive. It's all of their sins. And you got to understand, sin is not just the immoral things that people do. It's not just sin so much, shoot up a high school. It's not just that. It's sin is alienation from God, because you can be righteous and moral and be a good citizen to pay your ties and be a good neighbor. And if you don't know Jesus, then you're still dead and you're trespassing in sin. You're still dead. So it includes our morality and our immorality, our self-righteousness, our unrighteousness. Because spiritual death, as I said, is an alienation, alienation from God. And in a real sense, is an alienation from other people. Because one of the consequences of Genesis 3 is that Adam and Eve were alienated from each other. That's why they blame each other for what happened. And also, it's an alienation from yourself. These are all consequences of the fall. And if you are a Christian, then you will once trap in this condition, this alienation, this separation, and non-Christians are still there. This condition results in an enslavement, bondage, captivity. Roman 6 Paul talks about how we will want slaves to sin, that it had dominion over our lives. And so a pre-Christian life is a life that's a slave to sin. So we're not just dead in it, we live sinful lifestyles. And that is living lives that are independent of God, whether it's through our goodness or whether it's through evil, as well as through righteousness or unrighteousness. Look at verses 1 and verse 2a, it says, "You are dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, in which you once walked." All this stuff, these are past tense here. He's reminded them, this is where you used to be, Philippians. This is where you were when Jesus found me. You were not on his side. He pulled you out of death. He pulled you out of your sin. He rescued you. And before he did that, you were in sin and sin was your master. And not only that, he says, we were not just in bondage to sin. He says, we were in bondage to a fallen world, bondage to the fallen world. In world here, it means the world's values, the world's mindset, the world's priorities, and that can be nations, that can be systems, that can be ideas and movements. Anything that's in opposition to God and his word is what Paul is talking about here. And he says, we followed those things before Christ pulled us out and rescued us. When you've been a Christian for a long time, you have a tendency to think, man, I deserve all this stuff. God is so lucky to have me on his team. He's so lucky that I'm here as the only one standing for Orthodoxy. I'm like a superhero. I'm a guardian of Orthodoxy, and God is so lucky to have me. I'm here to call out everything that's bad and wrong theologically. And we forget, no, Brian, no. He's not lucky to have you. Not lucky to have you. That's a point. You should be lucky that he loses you. He called you out of where you were. We're no matter how much we grow as Christians, we're never going to be part of God here. We're never going to get complete knowledge of how our God works in his infinite mind. Our mind would probably literally explode if it tried to. And so being in this pre-Christian life, so you're enslaved to sin, you're in bondage to the world and its systems. And it says, we're also in bondage to Satan. A pre-Christian life is in subjection to the spiritual forces of evil, following his ways, whether normally or unknowingly, that there are spiritual forces at evil. That's that work. Paul talks about this in Philippians 6. He's sitting that up here because he's going to talk about it later in the book. Following the prince of the power of the heir, that's pre-Christian condition. And then she says, you are not this debt, you are also in bondage to an attitude of disobedience towards God. That's what he means when he says spirit of disobedience. It's an attitude. It's a mindset that the pre-Christian life is a life in opposition to God, no matter how good that person is. It still is because it has not been to me. It has not surrendered. Look at verses 1 and 2 again, it says, and you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the heir, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of this obedience. This is who we once were. Nancy says, we were in bondage to a sin for nature. So we're not just dead in trespasses and sins. We're not just enslaved to them. We were born with a sinful nature that Paul calls the flesh. In this book, in Galatians and Romans, when he talks about the flesh, he's referring to that old person, that old man, that old woman who you used to be. That's the nature that we are not born with because humanity inherited this sinful nature from Adam. You're talking about passing down a person to your family. We all got one. And this means, please understand this, this means the whole person is stained by sin. The fall has fallen on you holistically, on all of us. We don't really sometimes understand what Genesis 3 has done, not just to us, what it has done to creation itself. The fall impacted, not just the image there, it impacted all the creation. It's been impacted by that disobedience. I know you keep it saying, well, God could have prevented that from happening. Yes, he could have, but he didn't. I don't know why he didn't, but he didn't. So our thoughts are stained by sin. That means your intellect is stained by sin. It is our emotions. Our will are all stained by sin. Our bodies are under the curse of sin. Our bodies break down. We get older. We get sick. We have to have surgeries. In the world we live in, little kids get cancer and have to go to St. Jude. That's because of the fall. Not because these little kids have done anything wrong. The fall has fallen on them. Our minds, mental health issues, all that stuff, depression, suicide, those thoughts, all those things, anxiety, these things are all consequences of the fall. We were not created to be in the world where people commit suicide. We were not, the world was not created where kids go into schools and shoot up their classmates. The world was not created to be that. It was not created for that, but it's what we have. That's what we have. And so people are now born with, with, with bits towards certain sins. They are. Some people are born with a bent towards homosexuality because the fall has fallen on them that way. It has. Some are bent towards a sin, bent one towards pornography, whatever it is, because the fall has fallen on us. And parents, there's nothing you can do, the parent to fall out of your kids. They're going to deal with their crap. I don't care what conference you go to. I don't care what books you read. Now you need to be a good parent, but you can't out-parent the fall because you're not Jesus. They're going to deal with their stuff. They're going to deal with their sin. And that's where we got to point them to Jesus every step of the way, because that's the way they're only hope. Because his blood can undo what the fall has done, and we're going to get into that next week. But we are in this state of brokenness, the cause of what happened. And then there's anger, there's abuse, all these things that we see happening in the world today is because of what happened in that one chapter of the Bible. It's because of that. Verse three, Paul says, "A man whom we once lived in the passions of our flesh, gratifying the desires of his body and mind." All of that before you became a Christian, your sin for nature was not tamed. But once you become a Christian, it is tamed and Christ sets you free from it. Now you still struggle with it, but it's no longer your daddy. It's no longer your master. Finally, the pre-Christian life is a judge's life. The text says, "We were at one time by nature, children are wrath, like the rest of mankind." I know these three verses, Vandy's, these three verses, chapter two, man, they're like right here, like taking all the joy, but it's sometimes good to remember on where you were so you can appreciate what you now have in Jesus. And so by nature, true in the wrath, well, what is he talking about? He's saying that before you became a Christian, you were not just enslaved to sin. You were not just dead in sin. You didn't just have a sinful nature. You were also under judgment, under God's wrath. It's like sitting on death road, don't even know it. And so Jesus rescues you from that, saves you from your sin, but he rescues you from the judgment of God because he dies in your place. So that's the pre-Christian life, those things. Now, as I was writing this sermon, one of the things I was asking myself, I asked myself several questions. The first question is, what does all this mean for the Margo Day? That's one question I ask. I'm still creating the image of God, but what does the fall mean for that now? The second question I ask myself is, has our innate brokenness eradicated our innate beauty? Is that just gone now? Third question, did the fall destroy the image of God and people? Did this destroy it completely? Those are the questions I asked myself. As I'm reading and as I'm studying and as I'm prepping, then I had to remember. And we have to remember Genesis 1, 26, let us make mankind in our image after our likeness, the image and the likeness in Genesis 1, 26. That is good. Okay? The God creates the Margo Day good and it remains good even though it falls under curse of sin. I don't want to pull out the side anymore. The Imago Day, the image of God was created good and it remains good even though it falls under the curse of sin. The fall has fallen on the Imago Day. If you look up at the screen, this is where it looks like now. I'm going to pull it up for me. Mr. Austin, that's what it looks like now. That's what the image of God looks like in you now. Before the fall, no cracks, not shattered, not broken. But now, that is how it exists in you and me. It's broken. And when you become a Christian, guess what? It still remains broken. It's not going to get repaired completely until Christ comes back. So everybody you see now, every human being you see now, every Christian you see now, that is created in the image of God, that is what the image now looks like because of the fall. Cracks all over the place. So the image is cracked but it's not destroyed. It's destroyed it but it's not eradicated. Under the curse of sin, but itself is not sinned. The image of God is beautiful and it's also broken now. And guess what? It's okay. When you look at that as a Christian, you need to be okay with that. Because if you try to fix it, there ain't no crazy glue going to help that. Gorilla Glue, they ain't going to help either. You just got to let it be. Just got to let it be because Christ came because of that. He came to repair that. And guess what? He's doing. It's called sanctification. So human beings. A beautiful because of the Margo Day. And we're broken because of sin. We now are shades of gray. We're not black and white people. We're shades of gray. We're beauty that's beauty and that's broken us in everybody. Beauty and broken us. We live east of Eden now, or if you're stranger things, we're living upside down. And no one and nothing in all the creation now perfectly functions like it was created to function. That's what we have to understand. We're not functioning like we were created to perfectly function now because of that. Professor Laura Roberts writes, "Sin means we are not able to fully image God as we were created to." She says, "The reflected image is distorted and blurred. We remain relational to the core, but our relationships are broken and distorted. We become controlling and manipulative and even abusive. We treat others as objects instead of mutual partnership. We think of only ourselves always taking, never giving or we think not enough of ourselves." That's where we are now. So non-Christians are beautiful and broken and yet they're still dead and lost in their sins. They're broken sinful embersbears who are in need of redemption, in need of a savior. Non-Christians, embersbears, they now have what I call a residue of Eden left on them. You know what a residue it reminds you of something that you lost. This is the reason why non-Christians can have sometimes better marriages than Christians, sometimes better parents than Christians, sometimes better business people than Christians. It would cause the image of God in them is broken, but it's still not gone. It's still not gone. Still not gone. It's there. There's a residue that's left there, but it still needs a savior. My math is professor. I went to seminary at an RTS Charlotte and one of my seminary professors, my ethics professor was Dr. Mark Ross, probably one of my favorite professors because he, the way he taught ethics was wonderful. He says that you can deny some of the image of God in you some of the time. You can even deny all the image of God in you some of the time, but you cannot deny all the image of God in you all the time. And that's true cross the board because even in that is a common grace for God. Because honestly, you think if the world was as simple as it can be, or we actually being able to do this right now, God still restrains sin. That's a common grace. The fact that he kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, it was judgment, but there's grace in that. Why you think there was grace in that? I can't repeat that. He could have killed him, yes, but there's something else he did that was a great student. What did he say to the other members of the Godhead before he kicked them out of the garden? At least they eated the tree of life. They become like us. Can you imagine what we would be like if they have eaten from the tree of life in a fallen state? We would live forever in a fallen condition without ever hope or redemption. So that kicking out of the garden was a grace even though it was a punishment. And so if you are a Christian, someone who has come to faith in Christ, you've given Jesus, you've given him, your heart, you surrender to him, you trust him as Lord and Savior, then you too, you're beautiful, but you're also broken, but you are alive. You are alive, and he has set you free from the power and bondage of sin. That's what he's done. And we're going to flesh that out so much more next week, because it's going to get really good when we get past these three verses. It's going to get real good. It's going to get to the good part next week. But we also got to see like, hey, this is where we were. It makes you appreciate what you have in him. One of my favorite theologians I know is him right now and he got me through. I read a lot of him when I was on sabbatical. And in one of his books, he says, our life is full of brokenness. It's full of brokenness, broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. Can you relate to that? Our life is full of brokenness, broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming better and resentful? It's a good question. Even as Christians, how can we live with that brokenness in our families and ourself and our careers and our country and our world without becoming better and resentful? And what does him answer? He says this by returning again and again to God's faithless presence in our life. That's how we live with the brokenness. That's how you live with your brokenness. Kids, that's how you live with your brokenness. Again and again, you come back to God's presence in your life through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit who lives in you supernaturally. Let's pray. Yes, we're beautiful. Yes, we're broken. We're also in Christ. And as we go out Holy Spirit this week, I pray that you help us to be able to acknowledge the beauty that you brought into our life and be able to name it. Not just name, domesticness, not this big name was bad, but help us to be able to name your faithfulness and where you are working in our life, where there's life in our life too. It has to be a balance to this. And I pray for those of us who are struggling with the realization that there are certain things in my life that's broken and I can't fix protect us from bitterness and resentfulness. Give us the humility to a return again and again to the faithful presence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who for the joy set before him, Lord, he went to the cross on our behalf. And even right now as he sits next to your right hand, he may intercession for his beloved. And it's my prayer that he will give us encouragement through the Spirit. Help us with our mental health, help us in our relational struggles, help us to have encouragement, help us to have hope, help our mindsets that we'll take every thought captive and rank it obedient to Christ. Lord Jesus, will you do this for your glory and for our give? It's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen. Will you please stand thanks for our closing song? We serve a God that restores family. This song just says God restores. God restores, say God restores God restores. We thank you, Jesus, for restoring our lives. God restores, God restores, say God restores, God restores, he restores my life, he restores my mind, he restores my soul. With his healing hands, I made hope. He makes my life complete. My reunion is so sweet. I'm a living testimony. God restores, God restores, God restores, say God restores, God restores. Oh Jesus, we thank you for restoring our life. Say God restores, God restores. Hallelujah. God restores, God restores. Let's talk about how he restores, he restores my mind, he restores my soul. With his healing hands, with his healing hands, I made hope. He makes my life complete. My reunion is so sweet. I'm a living testimony. God restores, God restores, hallelujah. Let me see this. Amen. God does restore. Amen. Amen. We're going to have a short ministry moment for Josh Smith. He's one of our deacons. All right, good morning church family. So I'm here to do a finance ministry moment, which if you know the structure of the church, maybe seems a little weird because I'm actually not on the finance team. Not only that, I really don't know a lot of the numbers, which might make you wonder, why am I here? So we'll get to that. Before I share the ministry moment, I did want to share a little bit with you as a congregation, something that I've seen as being part of our church for a while, and that is the faithfulness of our elders and our finance team, deacons, just so much faithfulness I've seen with the finances, just being faithfully used and used in ways that I think ultimately honor the Lord. And not everybody gets to see that, but I do sometimes, and I've always been appreciative of how we minister on behalf of the Lord with finances.