Four People Near the Kingdom

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Fifth graders, you are more than welcome to head on back now with Miss Christie and Mr. Nathan. Life Way Research from 2021 says that most Americans, when asked the question, do you know for sure that you will be with God in heaven? What a question. Do you know for sure that you will be with God in heaven? Here's the results. 48% of them, so yeah, here's our question, do you know for sure? And here we go, 48% are sure or somewhat sure that they're gonna be with God in heaven. 23% less sure, but their hope, fingers crossed, that they're gonna be with God in heaven. 10%, do not expect to make it, or they don't believe there's a God. They're sure there's no God, okay? That's 10%, and then 17 say it's impossible to know, nobody can know, okay? Now there's two ways to look at this information. Either you can say, listen, most people, 71%, the first two right there,

most people mostly believe they'll be in heaven. Okay, that's kind of the optimistic view. Or you could say that half of everybody is not confident in eternity, okay? 52%, the last three combined are not confident about their eternity, they don't understand it. And although we often talk about heaven in the future tense, right, we talk about where we will be one day when we die in heaven, okay, we talk about it in the future tense a lot, Jesus often discussed this place, this thing in the present tense, right? He talked about walking in abundant life now. He talked about walking by faith today. And it often is repeated, the kingdom of God, repent for the kingdom of God is near. Repent for the kingdom of God is near. Now it's really interesting, that near right there. And let me just tell you, I don't know what you think of, but whenever I see this, and I think about

kind of where I see it in culture, I think of sandwich board guy, right? He's a guy on the street corner, he's got a big white sign hanging from his neck and it says repent for the kingdom of God is near. And he's like ringing a bell and saying, you're all going to hell, right? Okay, anybody of my alone on that? Are you guys, yeah, okay, okay, no, not alone, good.

What that guy on the street corner is saying is that that word near is time, chronologically near. Heaven will be here in 15 minutes, near. Does that make sense? That's what he means. That's not what that means. That doesn't mean near in terms of time, it means near in terms of proximity. The kingdom of God is close to you. It's happening next door. When Jesus says repent for the kingdom of God is near, he doesn't mean the end of the world is happening really soon. He meant that the kingdom of God,

what Jesus kind of lived in and ushered in personally was near to them, physically. That's what it means, the kingdom of God is near. So Jesus' message then, if we're gonna kind of understand this message, Jesus' message is not follow me and maybe you will get salvation later. That's not Jesus' message. However, when you poll people, they think, most Americans think that's Jesus' message.

Follow me and maybe you get salvation later. Do right things, do religious things, and maybe, maybe if you're good enough, you'll get into heaven at the end when you die. That's not Jesus' message. Jesus' message is follow me and live in salvation now. Salvation starts today, when you follow me. That's when eternity begins. That's when abundant life starts. And then when you die, and then when you are united with him in heaven, it is a more full sense of what's going on right now, salvation right now. This is where we're gonna be for the next three weeks, going into Easter. We are starting our sermon series, The Kingdom Next Door. The Kingdom Next Door. Jesus goes in depth about his kingdom. Several places. We're gonna be mainly in Luke 18. We're gonna start in Luke 18 today. We're gonna bleed into Luke 19.

We're gonna start in Luke 18:9. We're not there yet, but Jesus, when he's talking about his kingdom, he goes in depth on what it is, on who's in and who's out. He goes in depth on what it is and what it is not. He speaks very frankly about how it's possible to enter his kingdom that is right next door, because the research is in, most people believe that there is a kingdom. And most people, when you ask them, want to be a part of that kingdom. However, there is a lot of confusion and a lot of distraction around it. Let's be clear. Let's understand what Jesus was talking about with his kingdom. Luke 18, Jesus gives us a parable where he is marking out that kingdom next door. And we see it so clearly. It is a clear display of Jesus' kingdom. In fact, it's so clear, okay, in the Gospel of Luke, the author wants it to make it so clear that we have several other interactions that follow this parable,

this really important parable. And all these interactions point back to the parable. Okay, and you'll kinda see as we go. In fact, with this parable, which is rare, we actually get a prologue. Okay, we get like a little like, hey, this is what this parable is about before we get the parable. And here's what that says in Luke 18, nine. It says, he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Okay, so even in the prologue, we see where Jesus is beginning to draw the line to mark out who's in and who's out of the kingdom. He's talking about people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Jesus draws the line in a place that is different than our culture. Our culture is going to draw the line on other things that don't go deep enough. For example, our culture's gonna draw the line

between the oppressed and the oppressors. It's gonna draw the line between the abused and the abusers, right? It's gonna put white hats and black hats on the various camps of people that they divide into. Okay, and that's how our culture makes sense of morality, of behavior, of people, is that they pick a line, they draw it, and they give everybody on one side white hats and everybody on the other side black hats. Not a lot of room for nuance, okay? With Jesus, he actually goes deeper than that. He actually goes deeper than that because here's the reality. The reality is all of us have been a part of oppression and we have been oppressed. All of us have been abusers and we have been abused, okay? None of us have clean hands, but none of us are totally,

a lot of us are, we're all victims and we're all perpetrators. That's what I'm trying to say. We're all victims, we're all perpetrators when it comes to sin. And so to try to draw that line, okay, these are the oppressed and these are the oppressors, well, no, because sometimes the oppressed are oppressing and sometimes the oppressors are oppressed. Jesus draws the line deeper

and he marks it out with our hearts. So let's read the actual parable. Luke 18:10. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Now, both of these men are disliked, by the way, in Jesus' day. Nobody is loving a Pharisee, nobody's loving a tax collector, but we still get a comparison. And we're gonna take the first half. Verses 11 through 12. It says, the Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. Okay, we're gonna pause on the parable right there. And we're gonna see kinda where Jesus is going here because he's setting this parable as the righteous and the righteous. The righteous in quotes, people who think they're righteous and actually who is righteous.

And the heart of the matter, what we see kinda early on, what we see is the Pharisee in praying kind of condemns himself. He says, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I thank you that I'm not like other men. This is the heart of what this Pharisee is praying. And then later on, just a few verses later, we see this Pharisee in real time. We call him the rich young ruler. So just a few verses later in Luke 18, 18. So you gotta skip down a little bit after the parable. So again, I just wanna set this up. Jesus is telling a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector, and then we get a story about a Pharisee and then we get a story about a tax collector, same as that key is. These stories are all told in succession. Let's pay attention to that. We're getting an object lesson here. So the rich young ruler is kind of displaying this in real time. Somebody who's praying, thank you

that I'm not like these other people. So rich young ruler, Luke 18, 18, and a ruler asked him, this is Jesus, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? That is a very interesting way to phrase that question. What must I do to inherit eternal life? We're gonna come back to it. Jesus' answer, brilliant. And he says, you know the commandments. Don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't bear false witness, honor your mother and father. And I can imagine in this moment right here, the rich young ruler is giddy with excitement. He's just, he can barely hold it in whenever he says in the next verse. And he said, all these I've kept for my youth. As if to say like, look, I knew you were gonna say all that, Jesus, and I've done it. Here's my test, give me 100.

He's over eager because he believes he knows the formula, you see. He's confident, he's excited. And if you're keeping score at home, listen, this guy's young, wealthy, influential, and moral. This guy's keeping the 10 commandments. He's, look, I mean if he ran for president, we'd vote for him, okay? That's what I'm saying. He's young, he's rich, he's moral, he's influential. Okay, so, and so he's really excited, verse 21. I've kept all these for my youth. I've done it all, okay? Jesus says, okay, next verse, next two verses, 22 and 23, it says, when Jesus heard this, he said to him, one thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come and follow me. But when he heard these things, he became very sad for he was extremely rich. Now when you compare this with the Pharisee in the parable, what we learn is that when you and I believe

that we have something in abundance, okay, when we believe we have something in abundance, our temptation is to rely on it as our identity, okay? The Pharisee in the parable had good deeds in abundance. The man was religious, very religious. The man tithed on everything he got. And he was so confident in this assertion. He had been so meticulous to divide out everything and given a tenth of it that he could pray in a prayer to the creator God that he feared. And he could say to him, with no hesitation, I have given a tenth of all that I have received. This Pharisee is abundant in good deeds, but he's relying on them for justification. The rich young ruler is the same. He has good deeds and he has money and he has influence and and and he's got all these things and Jesus tells him to sell it because he relies on it the same way. Remember the prologue of our parable in verse nine

where it talks about the parable is for those who put their confidence in righteousness. Those who believe they're righteous on their own. And again, if we just draw lines between the oppressor there's always a way, always a way to put yourself in the oppressed camp. Okay, and look, let me just say just right here, I'm not minimizing anybody's pain even, okay. I'm not saying that you've never been oppressed. I'm not saying you've never been abused. And if you have, I'm so sorry. That's it's a really, it's a really terrible thing to experience and I'm not trying to minimize it. I'm just trying to tell you it's common that a lot of people can share that pain with you. A lot of people understand what it is to be on the business end of a stacked deck. Of an imbalance of power where you're just getting it all. You're just receiving all kinds of abuse, oppression, injustice, et cetera.

And if you live long enough, you will find yourself there in some capacity. And if we do draw the lines there we're always going to find a way to put ourselves in the oppressed camp. And we're always gonna find a way to hate the 1%. Always, if that's where we draw the lines. But that's not where Jesus draws the line. Jesus draws the line with a question. What do you rely on for your justification? What do you rely on for your justification? There are several answers to this. I will only give you seven. You're welcome. Okay, you can find justification in being religious or punctual, okay. This is really funny when two of these people are going to the same meeting and one arrives like 15 minutes early and the other arrives 16 minutes early and then they're like, oh, I was here before you. It's pretty great. That's not me. Standard bearer, yeah, I'm not being early to any meeting, sorry.

If you're a standard bearer, right, if you're a standard bearer, then you're reliable, right. These are things that, these aren't bad things at all. Actually, all these things are either benign or good. But they're just things that if you rely on them for your identity, you know, it becomes a slippery slope, right. You can say that like, I'm authentic. That's my identity. I'm intelligent or I have a lot of education or I'm beautiful or modest, right. I'm pretty the right way, whatever that is, right. I have money, I'm financially stable, right. That's me, you know, like I'm family oriented. My family is my life, okay. Like I said, all these things are either benign or just fine. But as an identity, they're terrible. They're terrible, they don't work. And if you wanna discover kind of maybe where you are or what you do, you might not be on this list and that's okay.

But if you wanna discover how you believe, you believe how you are not like other people, ask yourself the question, what makes you way sad or way mad? Okay, what pushes you to extreme sadness, despair even, and what pushes you to extreme anger? Which one of those things is happening, right? And I will tell you, when you can say, okay, like if you're really mad when people make you look dumb, not a little mad but really mad, if you're really sensitive about it, it's probably because you need to feel smarter than other people. That you rely on that as your identity, your justification, you're relying on your intelligence or you need to be more punctual than other people. Like if somebody accuses you of being lazy or something and you, boy, you just blow a fuse on that. You get, oh, don't you dare say I don't love my family. Don't you dare say I'm not there for my friends.

Don't you dare say that I'm, okay, that there it is, there's your button. Whatever you get inordinately upset about or inordinately sad about if you think you've lost it, that's probably where you begin to put your identity because look at the rich young ruler, it says he went away sad, why? Because he relied on being more rich, more moral, more influential than other people. And Jesus said, okay, you wanna follow me, then you have to be less than all of those things. You have to admit that you're not moral. You have to admit or be less in all of these categories for you to understand what it is to follow me. Because look, he asked the question, he asked the question, what must I do knowing that he had done it? What must I do, he says, knowing that he'd done it and really what he's asking, the question what he's asking is, really, don't you agree, Jesus, that I'm good enough to make it into the kingdom?

Jesus, isn't it obvious that I'm good enough to make it to heaven? What must I do to inherit when I die eternal life? This is the question that the Pharisee is asking and this is the message that gets confused with Jesus' gospel all the time. What must I do, what moral feat must I achieve to make it to heaven when I die? So much so that when we ask survey questions, we phrase it with, are you sure that you are going to be with God in heaven? The assumption is that it's later. The assumption is they're not asking, are you with God now? They're not phrasing the question that way because people don't understand it. Everyone knows down deep that they are not good enough. We're all looking for something that says validate me. Tell me I'm beautiful enough, tell me I'm good enough, tell me I'm smart enough, tell me I make enough money, tell me I'm dedicated to my family enough.

We're all looking for that and Jesus is pointing a clear way to the kingdom next door but it's not by becoming better than somebody else. It's not about comparison at all because there's a dark side of this thinking, right? So on one side, you might think like, I'm a moral person, I'm a stand up person, I'm a punctual, I'm authentic, I'm on time to things, right? But there's a dark side to that because it's not only about you, it's also how you see other people. Remember our prologue, verse nine, it says it wasn't just that people believed in their own righteousness, it's that they treated others with contempt, okay? This is the other reason why Jesus tells us parable because it's easy to treat people with contempt. This is the sport of our day. I actually don't even need an illustration for this because it's so prevalent. Just get on social media, turn on the TV,

have a political conversation with somebody because what happens? The right, the political right, they point to the political left and they say, look at how ridiculous they are. And the left do the exact same thing to the right. And the old do the exact same thing to the young and the young do it right back. And the poor talk about the rich and how greedy they are and the rich look at the poor and say how lazy they are. And round and round it goes. It is so easy to find.

In your own life, it's so easy to find. In my life, it's easy to find. To point and laugh. To be sarcastic, oh yeah, I bet they really needed that money. Those oil barons. I mean, how many times have you said that like this week, maybe not about oil barons, but about something? What that stems from is us all needing validation to become better than somebody else. And look, what I've just laid down is a lot of bad news. Okay, a lot of bad news. In fact, I truly hope that in reading about the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, I really hope that you understand that you have a Pharisee tendency in your heart, right? The last thing I wanna do is read a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector because spoiler alert, the tax collector's the good guy, right? So bad guy and a good guy. And the last thing I wanna do is to read that parable and go, oh, aren't we glad we're all like the tax collector?

Pharisee, pfft, kind of missing the point. We're not really getting it. We're not there, right? You don't have to be religious to be a Pharisee. You can look down on somebody for how they view climate change. You can look down on somebody for how they raise their children. You can look down on somebody for the clothes they're wearing, for the businesses that they frequent, for the amount of money that they pay for an online subscription for something. I mean, you can look down on somebody for where they shop it for groceries, man. You can look down on something. If you're gonna look down on somebody, you got options, is what I'm saying. It's there, it's open to you. And it's the sport of our day. You will receive a lot of encouragement to do so. So this is a lot of the bad news. It's important. It's not encouraging, it's important. Let's look at the other side of the parable.

We're back in early Luke 18, verse 13. So we've just looked at the Pharisee, and then the rich young ruler, and now we'll look at the tax collector. Verse 13 says, but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breasts, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And this is, that's the heart of the matter, right? His prayer is, have mercy on me, a sinner. And just a few verses later, we meet a tax collector, same idea, but Zacchaeus, there's a couple of interesting differences here. Luke 19, so a little bit further down. Luke 19, verses one and two. Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, and he was a chief tax collector, and was rich. So he fits the bill. He's a tax collector. Luke 19, three through four. It says, and he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd,

he could not because he was small in stature. So he ran out, he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. So we see his desire to see who Jesus was. So he's kind of on a mission of discovery. He doesn't know who Jesus is. He's curious, but he's a short king, so he needs to climb on a sycamore tree. Okay, so he's up there on the sycamore tree. He's looking down. People probably see him and at least teasing him, but we don't know. Luke 19, five, it says, when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down. From us, stay at your house today. Now Zacchaeus here is displaying, will display, the same kind of heart that we see in the parable of the tax collector, except something is very different here. There's a few things that are very different because although he has that desire,

Zacchaeus isn't the one who finds Jesus. Jesus is the one who finds Zacchaeus. He stops, wouldn't even know that Jesus knows Zacchaeus' name, but he stops where Zacchaeus is, he looks up and he says, okay, Zacchaeus, come down, we're going to your house. And that's what's more, is that Jesus, Zacchaeus didn't say, hey, hey, I'm so glad that you've introduced yourself to me, Jesus. Please come over to my house. No, no, Jesus says, hey, person I've probably never met before, I know your name, I want you to come down from the tree and we're going to your house. Jesus is inviting himself over. I try to tell my wife that you can invite yourself over to people's houses. Jesus did it, she doesn't always agree with that, but here we have scriptural proof, I don't know. Luke 19, six through seven, it says, so he hurried and came down and received him joyfully and when they saw it, they all grumbled.

Who's they? The crowd, people just looking on, it says they all grumbled. He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. Why is everybody rolling their eyes? Everybody's rolling their eyes because they're treating him with contempt. They're treating the tax collector with contempt. They think they're better than him. Why did Jesus go with him? The people around there are just like the Pharisee. They're probably praying like, God, thank you, I'm not like Zacchaeus. Thank you, I'm not like this guy. Look, you've even made him short, you're punishing him. But they are, that's the irony is that the Pharisee who's praying this in the prayer, the crowd that's looking on, they're praying, they're hoping, Jesus, thank you that I'm not like this man, but they are, they are. You are, I am, we are all like that man. We're all like that tax collector, undeserving of an introduction with Jesus,

undeserving of him coming into our lives. We're all sinners. Luke 19, eight. Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, we're at Zacchaeus' house now. He stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus, I'm sure, is happy that he is doing this. But there's no calculator out. Jesus isn't on his phone going, okay, okay, I think that's enough, okay. Yeah, no, you know what, I did the math. Go ahead and sell everything you have and give it to the poor. Jesus didn't say that. Interesting, because he was just talking to the rich young ruler and told that guy to sell everything to the poor. But then you have a tax collector who's probably got it from dishonest gain, and Jesus isn't telling him to sell everything. He didn't say, no, no, no, that's not enough. Sell all of it you have and give to the poor.

Why? Why different standards? Well, it's not about standards of money, that's why. The line that Jesus is drawing is not between the rich and the poor, or between people who defraud, you know, defraud people and people who are defrauded. Jesus is drawing the line between people who understand that they need his righteousness or people that think they have enough righteousness on their own. It's even different in approach. The rich young ruler is coming to Jesus with fistfuls of his own justification. The rich young ruler, excuse me, Zacchaeus is not. The rich young ruler is looking for righteousness, excuse me, the rich young ruler is not looking for righteousness because he believes he already has it. And he's looking for Jesus to stamp it as good. Zacchaeus comes in, understanding full well, he's an idiot. He doesn't deserve anything. He's not coming, he's not saying,

what must I do to inherit eternal life? He's just coming, spilling his heart on the floor and just saying, Jesus, look, look, here, here's everything. I'm just, here, I did all these things and I don't wanna do them anymore. I've lived this life, I've built this wealth, I don't want it anymore, I want you to save me from all of this. Zacchaeus readily admits a sin. He demonstrates that for penance. And Jesus responds in kind, Luke 19, nine and 10. And Jesus said to him, today, salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save the lost. Oh, and that's the good news. We got a lot of bad news, that's the good news. Jesus seeks out sinners. If you come to him full of your own justification, if you come to him, look, look, look, look, Jesus, I'm so religious, I'm so moral, I'm so good, I'm so influential, I have so many things

that you can use, I'm so, I'm such a deal, Jesus. If we think that, then we're not approaching it the right way. Jesus seeks out sinners, people who know their sinners. He invites himself over to their house. He puts things and people in their lives that point to him, Jesus pursues sinners. The son of man came to seek and to save what was lost. There's one more story, and it's wedged between these two stories for a reason. So we have the parable, and then we have a little story about children, and then we have the rich young ruler. Then we have another story that I wanna go into in just a second, then we have the story of Zacchaeus, the story in between those two is the story of a blind beggar. We know from other gospel accounts that his name is Bartimaeus, blind Bartimaeus.

And if Zacchaeus is a good illustration of the tax collector, and the rich young ruler is a good illustration of the Pharisee, then the blind man is a good illustration of really of our spiritual state. Luke 18, 35, so we're gonna kinda go in between those two stories that we just looked at. Luke 18, 35 through 37, it says, as he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant, and they told him Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. Now look, this man, this blind beggar, has nothing to offer, he has no way out, but he also has nothing to hold him back from acting a fool. And that's exactly what he does. Next two verses, 38, 39, it says, and he cried out, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Now remember, this is a guy sitting on a roadside, and Jesus walking kinda through a procession, right?

There's people that are kinda getting around him, trying to touch him, I'm sure, at least asking questions. Lord, you know, Jesus, come heal my daughter, come heal my lame son, touch my leprosy, do something. Words out, Jesus can heal people, and so people are around him. And this guy's on the side of the road, far, we're talking at least, I don't know, five feet at the most. He might be 30 feet away, but he's far enough away so that he has to yell to get Jesus' attention. And he yells pretty loudly, because in verse 39 it says, and those who were in front of him rebuked him, telling him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. I don't know if you've ever seen, I've never seen a blind beggar being really loud, trying to get somebody's attention, and five other people going like, shut up! Don't say anything, quit it!

What were they concerned about? Were they worried that he would embarrass them? I don't know, we don't really get that explanation, but you have somebody, you have a blind beggar, desperate enough, because what does he have to lose? Status, money, dignity, nothing. He didn't have anything to lose, zero. And so he's not letting the shushers win, he cries out, verses 40 and 41 of Luke 18, and Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you? Now let's just contrast that with what the Pharisee, what the rich young ruler asked him is, what must I do to inherit eternal life? To inherit eternal life. What Jesus says is, what do you want me to do for you? He says to the beggar who's yelling in a street, hey brother, what's in your heart? What can I do? How can I help you? I need you to say it.

And he said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And if there is a picture of our sin, our loneliness, it's this blind beggar. Verses 42 and 43, and Jesus said to him, recover your sight, your faith has made you well, and immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. And this is so poignant that it's between these two parables because I think sometimes we look at a tax collector who's been an idiot but knows he's been an idiot and kind of comes to the, that's good, and it shows the right heart posture. And then also in our hearts, sometimes we're Pharisees. Sometimes we're tax collectors, sometimes we're Pharisees. Sometimes we think we're good enough and we look down on other people because they're not like us. We're enough, they're not enough. The parable, if we're gonna go back to that at the very end,

I just wanna kinda look at that at the very last verse of the parable, Luke 18, 14. So a couple of verses before, I know we're jumping around a lot. It says, I tell you, this man, this man, the tax collector who beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Look, we're gonna move into our time of response, but here's what I wanna help you kind of understand, that in our hearts, sometimes we're tax collectors,

sometimes we're Pharisees, but in reality, the actual state of where we are is that we are blind beggars. And here's my encouragement to you. Man, yell as loud as you can to the Lord Jesus as he passes by. Just don't hold back. Don't hold back because you got too much dignity. Don't hold back because you got too much to lose because of how people might think about you, because of your history, because you already got this thing already built over here, you got all of these, you got all this credibility to lose, whatever. Man, whatever you think you got, it is nothing. It is nothing compared to what Jesus has in store for you. And I don't mean money, fame, and wealth. I mean salvation, eternity, purpose, hope, life.

Jesus offers that to us in spades, but if we sit there, a blind beggar pretended to be a prince or princess, then we're never gonna yell out. We're never gonna call. We're never gonna ask. We're never gonna seek. We're gonna move into a time of prayer. After we pray, and I'm gonna invite Shane up. After we pray, I'm gonna be back there where those lamps are turned on, just a couple of chairs and a couch, and I'm just gonna be kinda sitting there hanging out. And don't worry, I won't have my microphone on. Nobody will hear. And man, that's just for you to make a decision, to ask for help, to, man, if you just wanna receive prayer, man, just, that's cool, come on back, and just receive prayer, and then you can go sit back down. We can do this during the last song. You can do it after the service. I'm gonna be hanging out there for a bit. But I just wanna encourage you, man,

it is never too late to cry out. It's never too late to look dumb for Jesus and just say, yeah, yes, yes, Lord, help me, son of David. I can't do anything on my own. I can't fix it, I can't, I can't. I've been looking down on other people for too long. I've been hiding from you for too long. Jesus, thank you for the ways that you reach out to us and love us, care for us. I pray that as we consider your goodness, as we consider you, all that you give to us freely, I pray you help us to just call.