Did anyone else have a really stressful week? It's okay, we can admit it. I had a stressful week. Yes. If you're anything like me, we probably deal with stress in a very similar way. And there's actually a sound that I wanted to talk about. There's a sound that you might be familiar with if you're anything like me. If I have a long day at work or I have a stressful task that's ahead of me and I'm just trying to procrastinate on it. This sound it brings me comfort. It's like my almost a coping mechanism, this sound. And so I want to know if this sound sounds familiar to you. Let's play it. Yeah? It's like comfort food. It's comfort food. Yeah, we don't have to listen to the whole thing. I'll get I'll like settle in and start just zoning out if I listen to any more of that. If you don't know what that is, it's the intro theme to the office because I return time and time again to just binge watching the office to avoid my problems in my life. Is anybody else in the same boat with me? Okay, thank you. And if it's not the office for you, then it's then it's something. You have something you return to to help you just get through the day, to help you cope. But what if you didn't have to cope? What if life was about more than just getting through the day? That's what today is about. It's about stepping out of this coping and survival mode and into a life that we can fully enjoy and be present in. It's about letting God, because it is an act of God, move us out of the condition that we were born into a new life, an eternal life that starts today. And it's all because of Jesus. That's what this whole series has been about. It's all because of Jesus. It's something that He provides. And Paul finishes his thought in Romans 5 by saying this. He gives us a solution to this problem. He says, God's law was given so that people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's Paul's solution because he experienced it firsthand. Paul understands that eternal life can be experienced today. That's his solution, but what's the problem? Why do we find ourselves just getting through the day? Why do we find ourselves in this position of just coping? Well, to understand that, we have to go all the way back to the very beginning because it's somebody you're related to. Now, it's not the person you're sitting next to, they're not the problem, but somebody you're related to is the problem. And starts with Adam. And that's where Paul starts. So we'll be in Romans 5 today, looking at verses 12 through 21. Justin said that he was gonna pick up the pace on the All Because of Jesus series, and then did like two verses every week. Sometimes he did like a word, and then he's like, Madison, I'm gonna be out of town. Could you just take the rest of the chapter? I was like, yes, that's picking up the pace. And so we're gonna look at uh a huge chunk of scripture today, but I'm really glad for it because it is all one continuous thought. And it really helps us take this journey. It helps us step out of coping and into something new, into living, into eternal life today. So let's look at Romans chapter 5, verse 12. When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, sin or people sinned even before the law was given, but it wasn't counted as sin because there was not any law to break. Still, everyone died from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even those who didn't disobey an explicit commandment of God as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ who is yet to come. This is what Paul's getting at. Paul is trying to reveal to us or just bring to mind that Adam is our spiritual great, great, great, great, however many greats, grandfather, that we have to deal with the consequences of his decision. His decision has been passed down to us generation after generation after generation, and so we have inherited his problem. It's that problem that causes a disconnect inside of us, it's a problem that causes us to hurt other people. It's that problem that by our own strength we definitely can't overcome at all. And finding out that Adam is your spiritual great-great-great-grandfather is kind of like Luke finding out that Vader is his dad. Yeah, sorry to spoil it if you haven't seen it. It's like 50 years old now. But it's bad news. Luke is in the prime of his life, and he finds out that his dad is a murdering dark space wizard. Like, what do you do with that? What do you do with it? And Luke has every opportunity to live up to his family name. He can join the dark side and just become another evil murdering space wizard, or he has the opportunity to redeem himself, to make a new name for the Skywalker legacy. We don't have the same luxury that Luke has. We have no ability in and of ourselves to overcome our family name. The spiritual darkness that we've inherited, it's who we are. It's our human condition. It leaves us in this position where all we can do, the best we can do, is cope in our own strength by ourselves. And so when we live relying on ourselves, that's what we have to deal with. That spiritual something off that goes on inside of us. But even at this point, there's still hope. Because Paul's not done, and Jesus isn't done either. This is what Romans continues to say. But there's a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. That's you and me. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God's gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam's sin led to condemnation, but God's free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man as Adam caused death to rule over many. That's what it feels like that coping, that getting through, that death is ruling over many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace, and his gift of righteousness for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation to everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and a new life for everyone. Yeah. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners, but because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were, but as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's epic. See you guys next week. Just read Romans 5 over and over and over again. But seriously, our human condition, it means survival, it means getting through, but God offers us so much more. Absolutely offers us so much more. And so often we refuse to really understand it. We refuse to receive it. It is a free gift. But we still live coping. And I do want to address something really quick, because the scripture does say eternal life. It doesn't say like a better life. It doesn't say, you know, like tomorrow will be better or we'll get you through the day. It says eternal life. So isn't that talking about heaven? Like one day we'll see the restoration of our bodies. One day there will be a place of no more tears. One day we'll be able to experience the full and real presence of the God that loves us. Isn't that what Paul's talking about? Am I just taking this out of context to be encouraging? I don't think so. And I'll tell you why. A few weeks ago, Justin talked about the Holy of Holies. This is the place where heaven and earth have crossed over most intensely. But then everything changed when Jesus showed up. Heaven and earth are fully, that crossover is complete in Jesus. Jesus is fully God, and he's fully man. And everywhere that Jesus went on earth, people experienced the love of heaven. It was actually Jesus' mission to bring heaven to earth, to reunite heaven and earth. And so that everywhere he goes, people see the restoration of their bodies. The lame can walk, the blind can see. It's the place of no more tears. The family mourning over Lazarus gets to celebrate at the joy of his resurrection. It's the place where we get to experience the full and real presence of God. Everywhere Jesus went, people experienced the love of heaven where they went. And here's the thing: Jesus didn't just, you know, take heaven with him when he left. He gave it to each and every one of us. And by the power of his Holy Spirit working in us, we are able to continue the mission that Jesus started. We are able to bring the love of heaven to experience the restoration of our bodies, to see the presence of God fully known in our community. That's our job now through Jesus. And so when Paul's talking about eternal life, it's not just one day. We will be very confused and powerless Christians if our faith ever becomes about heaven alone. If we're always just waiting for that one day, I'm waiting to see the restoration of my body. I'm waiting for that place of no more tears. I'm waiting, I'm waiting. And until then, I'll just cope. I'll just get through it. That is not what our faith is about. It's about understanding that heaven is with us. And that's good news. That's the good news. But it still doesn't really feel like good news because we have this heritage that still kind of competes for our attention. It competes for our time. It competes for our emotions. It competes for everything. This thing that we've inherited from Adam. So how do we actually step from coping and into living? How do we receive that gift so that it's not just an expectation or something we understand in our head, but it's an experience. Because you are not just supposed to settle for one day you'll get to meet God. It's not about waiting to take a test where you get all your theology points correct and you answer all the questions right. That's what I make it. It's about experiencing the real and present and satisfying love of God as you live your life. Life is not meant to be about coping, it's about so much more. So how do we get there? Because I don't know about you, but it it can sometimes feel like we're just getting through. And honestly, I I I struggle to communicate the urgency of this. And maybe you feel it too. But as I'm serving the high school students, as I'm living life with my friends and my family, this just seems to be the recurring problem. It's that sin and death reigning over us, and so we're just struggling to get through the day. I think if we start to understand what coping actually looks like, we'll be able to step into that life. But it is just the start. And so, what does coping look like? What are the things that we do? The first thing that I've noticed in myself and in my friends and family, students I serve, is that we avoid. We avoid the problem. We understand that something's off, but we do everything that we can to distract ourselves from having to address it or to even look at it. And so we binge watch the office for hours and hours and hours. Or maybe it's our phones, and it's the first thing we look at and the last thing we look at before we go to bed and as we wake up. Or maybe our distraction is us trying to externalize our problem. We can kind of put the problem into work, like, oh, all the stress about work. If I could just be so distracted with work, then I won't have to look inside. If I could just blame my family for what's going on, my spouse, my kids, then I wouldn't have to look inside. But here's the thing if you're if your family was perfect and your job was a dream, you'd still have this spiritual problem given to us generation after generation by Adam. It's just nothing you can do to fight it. We've all sinned, we all fall short of the glory of God. And the only way we can bridge that gap is through Jesus. But what else do we do to cope? So we avoid and we indulge. We indulge. And honestly, like we do this in a couple of ways. We do it publicly, where we embrace our sin. We know something's off. We might understand that it's Adam or we might call it something else, but we embrace it publicly, and when we embrace it publicly, we actually get celebrated for it. And that makes a ton of sense because everyone's in the same boat. The world approves of you when you embrace your sin publicly because they can recognize themselves in you. They're like, yes, they're just like me, and just brave enough to do it in the middle of the street, whatever it is. But that celebration won't solve anything. Or you indulge privately. And because of that, you you you carry around the guilt and the shame, because you're the only one that knows about it. Your sin might inspire you to indulge in substances, drugs, alcohol, even food. You might indulge in media, watch endless YouTube videos or Netflix, something just to feel something. It might be pornography. We indulge in our relationships, we indulge in our emotions. Anything that we can do to feel something, to distract us from the problem that we might not have even named yet. And here's the thing avoidance doesn't work. At the end of the day, you'll be sitting with yourself, reminded of that, and indulgence doesn't last. So when avoidance doesn't work and indulgence doesn't last, where does that leave us? It leaves us giving up. So we avoid, we indulge, and we give up. And it's in this dark place that we find ourselves unable to do anything at all. And let me just make this really clear. None of you are too far gone for God. Seriously. None of you are pathetic, none of you are useless. And I'm reminding myself of this too. None of you are unloved. Giving up won't solve the problems you'll think it solves, or think it might solve. Giving up won't help your marriage or make your kids happier. Giving up won't stop the pain. Giving up won't address the problems you have in your workplace or at school. Do not give up. But know that you're not alone in this darkness. This is this is a place that we have felt for hundreds and hundreds of years, ever since Adam. Humans have felt this darkness and this hopelessness, but even in this hopeless spot, even as dark as it might seem, there's hope. I like the way that uh David puts it in Psalm 139. Let's see if I can find it. He says, Surely the dark darkness will hide me, and the light will become night around me. But even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. There is no darkness that can overcome the light and life of Jesus. None of it. Absolutely nothing. And we might be seeking to be satisfied by stuff that is just so much less than God. We satisfy our need for God with something that's so much less. You might know the story of Jesus as he's traveling. He's thirsty, and he asks this woman to get him a drink. And this is what happens in John 4. The woman was surprised, for the Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, You're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink? Jesus replied, If only you knew the gift that God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water. But, sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket, and this well's very deep. Where are you gonna get this living water? And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer any better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed? Jesus replied, Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again, but those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. It is all because of Jesus. And you'll notice, Jesus doesn't offer her water that will one day satisfy her. She's not offered, like, hey, here's some water, I'll offer you something, but one day your life's gonna be changed. One day you'll experience the full and satisfying love of God. He offers her water that'll satisfy her now and forever. And he offers us the same exact thing. You see, this woman did go out for her physical needs. She lives in the Middle East, she's thirsty, she needs water to drink. But if you know anything about that woman, and if you know how the story goes, you you know that she's not only trying to satisfy a physical need, but there's a spiritual one there too. One she's been struggling with. She's been in relationship after relationship after relationship, husband after husband after husband, and she's returning to that same well, trying to satisfy the need for God with a relationship that is far less than Him. But what happens? God offers her that eternal life today, and her life is changed that day. It does become a well that bubbles up inside of her and overflows because many people in her community also believed in Jesus that very day. That's the day that she stepped from coping to living, where all she can focus on is satisfying her spiritual, physical needs, getting through the day. But because of Jesus, she steps into something much, much greater. Much, much greater. So, how do we do it? And there are probably two camps in the room. The first camp is we've been following Jesus forever, but we've kind of got comfortable in our identity as children of Adam. It's kind of easy to cope because. There's a practical step to follow, and it feels good. And so if you're in that camp, my hope is that these next couple minutes will just be really practical steps to help grow your faith and to remind yourself of the gift that you've already been given. To remind yourself how you can live that eternal life today. But there's another camp who you might not know who Jesus is. This might be the very first time you've ever sat long enough to listen. Or you might be the first time that he's stirring inside you and you feel something happening. And my encouragement is that you choose him. Choose him. Because he'll give you an eternal life that starts today, that bubbles up and overflows. Not about coping, not about getting through, not about surviving. But something much, much more. But how do we step from coping to living? If we're already following Jesus, we know we've received it. It's making sense in our brain, but how do we live it out? It sounds really simple, but we just do the opposite of our coping mechanisms. So, first one was that we avoid, and the opposite of avoiding would be to confess. We confess our sins specifically and to the right people. If you're like me, you you've walked around for years buying the lie that if you do confess your sin, if people knew about this, then everything would fall apart. It's like we've kept it secret for long enough, and if someone finds out about this, then it's all gonna fall apart. My boss will fire me, my wife will leave me, my kids will hate me, my friends will ostracize me. That's a lie. Confession only leads to freedom, and this is what I mean. This is the truth that comes from 1 John. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. That's the truth. I walked around for years with unconfessed sin, and I bought the lie that I'd be fired, that my wife would leave me, that everyone would hate me. And I just I hated myself. I was surviving. That's where I was. But when I finally was given the courage, and I do believe it was by God, to confess that sin, guess what happened? The truth of Scripture stood to the test. God's word proved true. Did my life fall apart? No. Were there consequences? Absolutely. Was it challenging? Yes. But God was faithful to forgive me and is still, slowly but surely, purifying me of all my unrighteousness. And so you might have something to confess today. And it might be something that you thought you would take to the grave. Seriously. And again, the goal of this is to help us step out of coping, to address the problem that we try to avoid. It might be a sin that weighs you down daily, or something that keeps you up at night. Confess it and confess it to the Lord first. Take God seriously at his word that he is faithful to forgive. Confess it to the Lord right now. And then ask him. Who else needs to know? Who else needs to know? And it might be the people you've hurt. It might be your husband or your wife. It might be your employer or a coworker. It might be your teacher or your parent. But ask him who else needs to know. But it might stop there. It might be just between you and God. But ask him who else needs to know and then pray for the courage to confess. Understand he is faithful to forgive. And also confess it specifically. It's really easy to say, I'm, I'm, I'm Adam, I'm terrible, I'm bad. No, name the sin because then you've named it for yourself. You can actually see what's happening in your spirit because of that problem we've inherited for Adam. But if we want to experience eternal life today, we need to name our sin and confess it to the Lord and confess it to who we need to confess it to. And that might be the most challenging thing you've ever done. I'm not going to underestimate that. But know that we'll come alongside you. That we'll help you through that process. If you need the courage to confess, we'll pray for you. Stick around after the service and pray. If there's fallout from that confession, if you experience the consequences of your sin, we'll walk alongside you through that process. We want to be with you and experience that as we can help you and do whatever we can. But confess it, confess it specifically. What's the opposite of indulging? We control ourselves. We control ourselves. And I'll be honest, this is my least favorite thing that pastors and preachers and health gurus and you know, fitness people, they are always talking about discipline, always talking about controlling ourselves. It's like, okay, try harder. Cool. It's like telling me not to like, or it's telling me to enjoy olives on my pizza when I hate olives. It's like, they just taste like rotten mushrooms. Like, I don't know. You just telling me to try harder to like it isn't gonna change anything. Maybe one day I'll like it, but it's gonna be a process, and it's like a very, very slow process. And so in one camp, you've got people telling you to try harder, and then the other camp, which I've also experienced, it seems like this thing that only comes from God, and that it's just his job to give it to you. Like that's also not helpful because I'm still struggling. Galatians 5 says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And that self-controlled piece always seems to be the one that I'm waiting for. It's like, Holy Spirit, right at the moment of sin, please stay my hand. It's like that's what you want to happen. And so is it from our own effort or if is it a gift from the spirit? It's both. And so hopefully that this conversation is more helpful than it's frustrating. I remember years ago, Justin and I had a conversation that really helps me see it as walking. When you walk, like which foot do you put first? Your left or your right? It doesn't matter. You just walk. So is it from God or is it human effort? It doesn't matter. Maybe you put your best foot forward. Maybe you know you can start by trying really hard and trusting that the Lord will give you what you need. Or maybe the Lord just has to provide it and you take that next step by trying hard. My son's first birthday was yesterday. Made it through a year. And he's been learning to walk, which has been a very interesting season for us. It's been, I mean, even yesterday he took a tumble and busted his head on the corner. I was like, you can't bust your head on the corner of the wall on your birthday. But he did, because he's still learning how to walk. And in that process, he's needed a physical structure to help him. He had this little zebra walker that he'd kind of like lean forward and then catch up to. And sometimes he needs us to hold his hand. For you, self-control might look a lot like learning to walk. You might need a physical structure in your life to help you get to the next thing. If you struggle with substances, getting those substances out of your house isn't weakness, it's wisdom. If you struggle with pornography, locking down your technology isn't weakness, it's wisdom. You might need a physical structure around you to help you learn how to walk as you're trying, as you're letting the Spirit empower you. You might need somebody to hold your hand. And again, that's not weakness, that's wisdom. Somebody that's been further down the road with this issue than you. Someone who's seen freedom in Jesus. They might need to hold your hand and help you get back up when you fall. Because we will fall. We do, and the temptation there is to give up. When we make a mistake, to say, you know what, I sinned a little bit, might as well sin a lot, but never give up. Because the opposite of giving up is enduring. We endure. Eternal life today is a life that lasts forever, so we should never stop living it. We should never stop pushing to the next thing, trusting that Jesus will give us all that we need. The author of Hebrews has this like iconic Hebrews 11, where it's just like person after person of like Hall of Famers from the Old Testament. And they're not all like 100% great people, but they have these moments of faith that just redefined their life. And then the very next conversation that that author wants to have with us is an encouragement. Hebrews chapter 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. It is all because of Jesus. If we want to step out of our life of getting through and coping and surviving, we need to receive the free gift that God has given to us. Because on the cross, Jesus defeated all darkness. On the cross, Jesus crossed out the name of Adam and gave you a new name. So when he looks at you, he no longer sees a sinner. So you do not have to carry the shame and the guilt. He doesn't see a failure because Jesus accomplished his mission. It is finished. Understand that you do not have to cope because of the hope that you have. Eternal life today. Don't settle in for one day. Expect it now. But this is just the start. This is like, I've kind of been picturing myself in like a little cocoon, so to speak, of coping and then stepping out. This is just the start. This isn't our whole life. Once we step from coping, there's so much more ahead of us. And next week we'll we'll talk about what it means to rule and reign with authority, the same authority that Jesus has, to have that authority be present in our life. But until then, I pray for all of us and pray for me. That we have the courage to confess, that God would give us a spirit of self-control, and that we would endure to the end. Do not buy the lies that Satan has told you. Because he only comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and destroy. But Jesus came so that we may experience life and experience it to the full. Step into that life by receiving what he's given you. And here in just a minute, we have somebody who's who's just about to do that through the symbol and ritual of baptism, which is super amazing. They are stepping into that water as a child of Adam and coming out as a child of God. Baptism is all about what we talked about today. That's why it's so beautiful. It's about understanding that that well of water that springs up within us is within grasp. And so if you haven't made that decision, all that it is, very simply put, is a conversation. It's a very simple conversation between you and God where you acknowledge who you are and you accept the gift that He's given. You say, Lord, I can't do this on my own. I have no power to overcome whatever's wrong. I need you. And he comes, he shows up, and he gives you that eternal life today. In Revelation, Jesus says that he stands at the door and he knocks. And that anybody that opens the door, Jesus would come in and have a meal with them, and they would be together. He's knocking. Answer the door. And maybe you answered the door 20 years ago. And maybe you forgot. Like, oh, you're here. Okay. You're not too far gone for God. Step back into that life. Because it's waiting for you. Let's pray, and then we'll celebrate Hoswe, whose 29th birthday is today, and they're getting baptized on their birthday. So let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are so good. I just pray that whatever we walked in here with, if we feel like we were struggling just to survive and just to get through, that you would give us a new and abundant life, that we would experience that life today. We trust you with our problems. We trust you with our sin. We trust you with everything that we are. That you'd give us eyes to see ourselves as you see us. As children, as conquerors, as friends. Lord, be with us and let us overflow. Love you, and it's in your name we pray. Amen.