We've spent our entire summer in a series we've called the most important conversation in history. And so we've only got a couple weeks left in this, but better late than never. It's all good. We're talking about this conversation that Jesus had late one night in the city of Jerusalem with a man named Nicodemus. It happened in some back alley late at night because Nicodemus wasn't sure if he wanted to be seen with Jesus. Jesus was, and really still is, a very controversial person. But Nicodemus was compelled. He wanted to understand what it was that Jesus was doing because Nicodemus would have been considered an expert on God, and yet everything Jesus was doing and saying was pulling the carpet out from under him in terms of what he thought God was all about. And so the result of Nicodemus coming to Jesus is this conversation we have in John chapter 3, where Jesus lays out for us who he is and why he's come and what God values and what God really cares about. This one conversation has changed the way that all of humanity sees God. There has never been a conversation that has so profoundly affected our view of God like this one. That's why it's the most important conversation in history. And if we want to understand God, if we want to be people who feel like we we kind of get God, like we're on the same page with him, and we understand what he values and what he cares about so that our lives can line up with what he values and what he cares about. This conversation is crucial. This conversation is key. We spent the last few weeks in John 3.16, which is like the Bible verse of all Bible verses, right? It's probably the most famous statement that anyone has ever spoken. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. And pretty much everyone who's ever been to a football game or watched one on TV knows that verse. It's not a verse, it's a statement. And we see it in this sort of religious context, and so we see it as verses, and it's written down for us. It's thousands of years old. There's little numbers by it when we read it in the Bible, and so it just kind of puts it in this category that we tend to read and just read it like it's all monotonous and it's all very breathy and airy and deep, you know, like Jesus is saying, For God so loved the world. That he gave, no, no, Jesus was speaking with passion. He's pouring his heart out to Nicodemus, and he's saying, Look, you don't understand. God loves this world so much that he gave everything, that he gives, he gives me, he gives his one and only son, so that everyone can have real life, eternal life. We have to see it as it is. This is Jesus speaking with passion. And what he has just said, what we've just covered for the last two weeks, it's it's pretty epic. And I'll be honest, it's kind of a tough act to follow. So I wish Jesus had just stopped there. Because sometimes you gotta know when when to quit, right? Sometimes you have to you have to know when to stop. You have to know when you're ahead and just leave it there. I kind of wish Jesus had said, you know, the whole John 3.16 thing, he spoke that and just went there. Chew on that for a few thousand years, I'm out. And he just left. And they died on the cross, and we're all good, and we can contemplate that, but Jesus didn't stop talking, he he decided to keep going. And so today we get to talk about what Jesus decided to follow that statement up with. And we're gonna look at two verses, John 3.17 and 3.18. They're connected. Here's what he said. God sent his son into the world, not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him, but anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only Son. This is one of those statements that Jesus makes, and he makes a lot of these, by the way, where I I love, I love part of it. I love, I love half of what Jesus said. The first part, I'm like, yes, yes, he didn't send Jesus to judge the world, to save the world, that's why he came. And and if you have put your trust in Jesus, if you believe in Jesus, there is no judgment, no judgment. I like the ring of that, but then then that second part comes in. I like it a little bit less. I kind of wish Jesus had left that one off. And we can look at verse 18. It says, but anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God's one and only son. That's a big butt. That's a very big butt. I know that sounds, but it really is. I I kind of wish I wish that one wasn't there. I wish I wish that but did not exist. Because then we could just we could just end it there and we're like, man, we're all on a positive frame of mind, everything's good, right? There's there's no judgment, yes, this is good, and then that that whole judgment thing comes back in. And maybe maybe the translation is the problem. Let's look at a different translation. The NIV, that's always a solid choice. Here's what it says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one only Son. Still a big butt in that one, too. And and there's only like a few words in the English language that are worse than judgment. One of those is condemnation. That's like one of the worst words you could possibly use. So this isn't any better. This is still just as bad. And it's frustrating sometimes to have to deal with stuff like this. It really is, because it'd be a lot easier just to cut it off at the whole no judgment thing and celebrate that. This is challenging. But see, we we want to be people, and I do believe this, I believe this about everyone here. We want to be people who are who are mature in our faith. We want to be people who can handle the challenging aspects of what it means to know God and to follow God. We can't be like children who only want dessert. I have three of those, right? I gotta I gotta work that out of them because man, there's only so much chocolate a human being can have. We need to be people who can look at the things that that are challenging, who can maybe look at some of the stuff that Jesus says that that don't line up perfectly with maybe our culture, maybe the the way we wish things were, and wrestle with that and handle that and come to terms with that, because that's actually how we get to know God. That's how you get to know anyone, by the way. If you have a real relationship with someone, eventually they've said something, they've done something that you didn't expect, maybe something you would prefer they not do, and you have a choice, either cut and run, pretend like it doesn't exist, or deal with it. And actually learn who they are and understand them. And it's just kind of a sad part of church culture, is that so often there's this desire, and I get it, I mean I'm in this role, I understand, there's this desire by churches and church leaders to make sure Jesus is presented to be relevant to the world that we're part of, and the approach that's taken is let's just cut out all the stuff he said that wouldn't be popular with the world that we're part of. Let's just cut all that out. That way, you know, no one no one gets offended, that way no one ever like leaves because Jesus said that. Let's just remove all that stuff, and then we have this Jesus that lines up with the world we're part of, and everyone's gonna be like, all right, I'm cool with Jesus. But here's the problem with that. What makes Jesus relevant to the world we're part of is that he's completely different. He's the solution. And if he looks just like the world we're part of, he can't change the world we're part of. And let's be honest, we don't have to look very hard right now to realize that the world needs to change. And change does not happen without a challenge. It doesn't. Real change in our world will not happen without a challenge. Real change in us, real change in me, it's not gonna happen unless I'm challenged. And so I want to be a Jesus follower who's up for a challenge. I don't want to be someone that uh skips the hard parts because if I skip the hard parts, I don't really know God. If I skip the hard parts in my marriage, I wouldn't really know my wife. If I skip the hard parts as a father, I just would never be there. Because it's it's hard. But but I wanna I want to know what's real. I wanna I want to have a real relationship with God, I want a real understanding of Him. So let's let's be okay with the challenging stuff, okay? See, the truth is, this is one of those verses that gets misunderstood a lot because God is the most misunderstood person in history. There's no doubt. No one's been misunderstood more than Jesus. And sometimes we'll look at verses like this, we'll look at statements like this, and we'll see, we'll see that the glaring word like judgment. That's what we get fixated on. And we think that Jesus is talking about judgment in this verse. Jesus is talking about condemnation, he's talking about judgment, right? Those aren't words that we tend to like to talk about much. But in reality, we've got to see past what's in the forefront, we've got to realize what Jesus is really talking about here, because he's not talking about judgment. He's not talking about condemnation. Jesus ultimately at his at his core is talking about choice. He's talking about the power that God has given us to choose. He says, anyone who chooses to believe will not be judged. There's no judgment for those who believe, who choose to believe in Jesus. And then he says, but anyone who who does not believe, in other words, anyone who has chosen to reject me, chosen not to follow me, not to follow God, well, they've made their choice. At the core of what he's talking about here is is this idea that God has given us the power to choose. He's given us the power to choose him, he's given us the power to choose something other than him. See, that's that's a beautiful part of God's personality. It's very important that we understand this about God because it's absolutely ingrained in who he is and how he interacts with us. God loves us enough to give us a choice. God values choices. He values you and I having a decision to make. He could have created us in a way that we we didn't choose. He could have created you and I in a way that we would only choose the things that he would choose for us. But if he had done it that way, we wouldn't be people, we'd be puppets. And he wants a real relationship with you. I mean, think about that. God, the God of the universe, the God who created everything, he wants a real relationship with you. And if you don't have the ability to choose him or the ability to reject him, that's not a real relationship. Like I love my wife. We are so close, we're best friends. And and I trust her. I trust her. I trust that she's gonna keep her vows. I trust that she's gonna stand by my side. But if I if I didn't trust her, if I said, hey, I love you, honey, I'm leaving, I'm going to work, um, you know, I hope you're here when I get back. I'm sure you will be, but just in case I've locked all the doors so you can't leave. Um, that would not be a marriage. That'd be a crime, actually. That'd be something like, I could go to jail for that, and I should. Because that would basically say, I don't really trust you. I know if you have the chance, you'll run. But here's what's crazy. When God created you and I, he knew that that we might run from him. And many have. Most have. So God created a world that he knew would reject him. No one's dealt with rejection like God. No one's felt the hurt of rejection like God has. But still, he gives us choice. I mean, if you go back to the very first stories in the Bible, if you're not familiar with the story of Adam and Eve, just open up a Bible to the first few pages, it's pretty quick. God creates Adam and Eve, he puts them in this garden, it's beautiful, it's wonderful, it's picturesque, weather's perfect. There's all these trees, like thousands of trees they can eat from. And he tells them, just eat freely, whatever you see, eat it, except except for this one tree. This one tree in the middle of the garden called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't eat from that tree. If you eat from that tree, just bad things will happen. And guess what happens? They do it. And like that's not a shocker. I don't want to be one that advises God and like tells God how to do things, although a lot of my prayers fall into that category. But I don't, I don't want to tell God how to do his job. But I'm a dad and I haven't even been a dad for very long. And I know that if I put my kids in the basement and I say, hey, all these toys in here, it's all yours, you can play with all of it, it's all good. Um, except there's this one box in the middle of the room, don't open that box. And then I leave. They're gonna open the box. They're gonna, if I'd put the box in the room and just not talked about it, they'd probably be less likely to open the box than if I told them not to. And so again, I don't want to tell God how to do things, but sometimes I think about that story and I'm like, hey, God, just an idea. What if you just didn't put that tree in the garden? What if you put the tree like way up high on a mountain or or you locked it up or something like that? I mean, why put it in the garden if it was so important that they not eat it? And God could have done it that way. He absolutely could have. He could have created a world where we could not choose anything other than what he wanted, but he didn't do it that way. Why? He values decisions and choices. He created us for relationship. And he trusts us and he gives us a choice. And that's really what Jesus is echoing here in this statement. He's like, look, you have a choice. You can choose to believe, you can choose not to believe, but that's up to you. Your choice has consequences, but you still have the choice. God's not gonna take that away from you because, see, not only does God value choices, he honors choices. God he honors the decisions that we make. And that shows that he's given us a great amount of respect. Because it would not be a God who respects us if he said, Hey, I'm giving you the choice, but whatever we choose, he said, Nah, I'm just gonna make it what I want it anyway. The fact that he lets us make decisions and then actually honors those decisions and lets those decisions play out, that that shows that he has a tremendous amount of love and respect for you and I. But it's also hard because we don't always make the right choices. And we live in this world that loves the freedom to make decisions. We all love our freedom. No one wants to give away the freedom to choose, but not many people want to live with their choices at the same time. And so we both want the freedom to choose, but we don't want to deal with the consequences of our choices. It's a dynamic that we face every day. We see it in all different aspects of life. When I was in college, like 15, 16 years ago, I waited tables. And I loved, I loved being a waiter. I tell I tell a lot of stories from when I waited tables because you just you learn a lot about human nature when you have a meal with someone, and when you have a meal with someone and they kind of forget that you're there, you learn a lot about human nature. And that's what it's kind of like to be a waiter. And so one of the things I would deal with a lot as a waiter were people making decisions, choosing something that they wanted to eat, and then regretting their choice and saying, Hey, I I know I chose this, but I actually don't want this. Please bring me something else. And that may not seem like it's a big deal if you've never worked at a restaurant, but like the cooks, they're busy. And so if you go back to the cook and you're like, hey, I know that you made exactly what I asked you to make, but they don't want it, and then they say words to you, certain words. And because you it's not your fault, but it's not their fault either. I mean, and sometimes it would be so it would be so frustrating, like this this one woman ordered a burger and I brought it to her, and she said, Oh, um, there's a problem. Like, oh, do we not do we not cook it to the right temperature? I'm so sorry to get your order wrong. She's like, No, no, no. I didn't realize this had mushrooms. I'm like, it's the portobello Swiss burger. And she's like, Yeah, I thought portobello was a kind of cheese. Like, Swiss is a kind of cheese. And she said, I thought it was a kind of Swiss cheese. And I was like, all right, okay, fine. You know, you don't say like, well, that's not my fault. Just take the mushroom off. Just take it off and eat it, okay? You can't do that. You say, not a problem, totally understandable. And you walk back and you mumble things under your breath. That's what you do. I worked at this Mexican restaurant called Abuelos, the closest one is in Chattanooga. I've recommended you guys go and eat there. It's worth the hour and a half drive. It's amazing. If you do go, by the way, there is one thing I recommend you not get. It's the only thing on the menu I didn't like, and this is like 13, 14 years ago, probably not even on the menu anymore. But they have this one dish called the quesadilla aorno. Now, ayorno, I'm probably mispronouncing that, but it was spelled A-L-H-O-R-N-O, Al Horno. And that's what most people called it when they ordered it. But when you hear quesadilla, you think you think like an American quesadilla, right? Like a tortilla, it's grilled, it's kind of crispy, it's got cheese, it's got other stuff in the middle of it. That is not what this was. This was some like really traditional dish, and it was it was this giant tortilla, it was baked in an oven, so it wasn't crispy at all, and it was just huge, it was like a it was like a pie, really, and and it was super cheesy, and I love cheese, but this was like way too much cheese. And this was just, it was, it was, it was like gooey, and that's a gross word. And and if you describe food as gooey, no one will eat it, you would think. But one day I had this dude, and he sat down at my table, and he said, I'm gonna get this quesadilla alhorno, and I just let that go. And uh, I didn't correct his pronunciation or anything like that. That's rude. I didn't know until I worked there anyway. And so I said, Well, sir, excuse me, um, I just want I just want you to understand that it's probably not what you're expecting. It's probably not what you have in mind, because when we hear quesadilla, and I went through the whole spiel, and I described it to him, I said, here's what it's like, and I even used the word gooey. I used that word, in fact, I know that because my manager heard me and he said, Never use that word again when describing our food. I said, Okay, loud and clear. And so, you know, I put the order in, he ignores me, I said gooey. He's like, nah, I'm good. I this is what I want. I'm like, okay, and I put the order in, I bring it back to him, and guess who didn't like his food after like one or two bites? That guy. And he came up to me, he said, Oh, hey, um, yeah, this isn't really doing it for me. Can I get something else? And part of me wanted to be like, oh no, no, oh no, no, no, no, mister, I know better than you. You're gonna eat the quesadilla al horno, you're gonna eat this, okay? You're gonna like it. You have made your decision, you're gonna live with it. But no, I just said, Absolutely, no problem, what would you like? And he said, What was that one thing you suggested to me? And I'm just like, oh, it's so frustrating. But that's the world we live in, right? We all love the decisions that we have to make, we just we just don't like living with those decisions. And so we we live in a world where people make decisions and then try to figure out a way that they shouldn't be held responsible for those same decisions. But see, God, he he honors our choices. He values giving us a choice. He loves us enough to do that, then he actually honors the choices that he gives us. And if you read the Bible and you read certain stories through the wrong lens, you get this idea of God that's very harsh. God is very angry, he's upset, he's always given people consequences. You know, if you only saw me interact with my children when they're they're not being well behaved, you would have a very different picture of me as a father than if you saw me 24-7. So sometimes we can pick up on certain stories in the Bible and we see God in this improper way, and we we sort of miss what's really going on. But if we could see God as a loving father, who loves his children and his people enough to give them the ability to choose. And then beyond that, he he gives them the information they need to make the right decision. He tells them, look, this is what you need to know, this is what you need to do, this will work, this won't work, do this. And then he not only does that, but he empowers them and encourages them to make the right decision. But at the end of the day, he still gives them that choice and he lets them know that he will honor the choices they make. If we could see him in that context, it totally changes the perspective we have of God. So we can take a story from the Old Testament, like we get in 2 Chronicles 7. It's this story where Solomon, who's the son of David, who's the king of Israel, Solomon's the new king, he's he's built this awesome temple. And he's praying that God will bless the temple. He's built it, now he's praying that God will bless it. That's kind of the order we usually go in, by the way. Like I did something, and then I prayed God would bless it. Probably should have just prayed beforehand. Like when we eat food, right? We do that. We pray that God blesses our food after we've ordered it. And I realize sometimes, like, man, maybe before I ordered the double cheeseburger with french fries, I should have prayed when I ordered, like, God give me the strength to order something smart. Instead of praying, God magically transformed this into salad after I eat it. I should have prayed on the front end, not the back end, but whatever. God loves us, and Solomon's praying on the back end, it's okay. So here's what here's what God says to Solomon. He says, I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this temple as the place for making sacrifices. And this part, this part reads pretty, pretty crazy. But just think about it again as a loving dad. You know, at times I might shut up the heavens so that no rain falls, or command grasshoppers to devour your crops, or, you know, send plagues among you. Normal dad giving consequences stuff. And then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I'll hear from heaven and I'll forgive their sins and restore the land. Really, what he's saying is, look, if you guys get way off track, I'm gonna give you consequences. I'm not gonna kill you, I'm not gonna break you, but I'm I'm gonna get your attention because I want you to change your way so that you're back on track, so that you're where you need to be. This is this is called being a good dad. He said, My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place, for I've chosen this temple and set it apart to be holy, a place where my name will be honored forever. I will always watch over it, for it's dear to my heart. As for you, he's talking to Solomon here, if you faithfully follow me as David your father did, obeying all my commands and decrees and regulations, then I will establish the throne of your dynasty. For I made this covenant with your father David when I said, One of your descendants will always rule over Israel. But if your descendants or you disobey and abandon me, if you disobey the decrees and the commands I've given you, if you serve and worship other gods, then I will uproot the people from this land that I've given them. I will reject this temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I'll make it an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. And though this temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled. They will ask, Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land, to this temple? And the answer will be because his people abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and they worshipped other gods instead, and they bowed down to them. That is why he has brought all these disasters on them. And again, we read that, and if we get fixated on the whole judgment part, we miss it. Just like with these verses, Jesus says. Spoke. The whole no judgment and judgment thing. If we focus on the judgment, we miss it. What we should see is the choice. This is God saying to Solomon, like he says to all of us, you choose. I'm giving you information, I'm even telling you how it will play out, depending on the choices you make. Because I love you. But you choose. You choose. You see, we might hear this and we might kind of go, oh no, God honors choices. That's not good news for me. Because I've made some terrible choices. I've made some selfish choices. I've made some sinful choices. I've made some stupid choices. Selfish, sinful, and stupid. All of us have fallen into one of those categories at some point in time, right? You might hear this and go, no, no, God honors our choices. This is this is bad news because I'm making some decisions right now that I know are not the best, and I kind of wish God wouldn't honor my choice. I kind of wish He'd just ignore it. I know how you feel. I feel the same way. I feel the same way so often. But we have to understand this is this is extremely good news. The fact that God values you having a choice, the fact that he honors the choices you make, this is the best news possible for every single one of us in our lives. Because you know what that means when it comes to our relationship with God and how close we are to him? It means that every single one of us, we're only one choice away from God at all times. That's it. You ever feel far away from God? I'm a pastor, so I never do, because um that's just the way it works. When you work at a church, you just never, you never struggle. You never, you I mean, when I go to when I go home, all I want to do is read the Bible. That's it. My wife's like, you want to watch Netflix? No, I don't. I just want to watch sports? No, I just I just want to read the Bible, I want to pray. That's all I want to do. Um actually, the last month I have felt really far from God all month long. And and here's the thing, I learned a long time ago that God is much more than a feeling. And so I've learned to not let those feelings carry too much weight in my life. But at the same time, I still don't like feeling far from God. I have just felt that way. I have not I have not felt like reading the Bible for the last month. I know that's a horrible thing to say to you. I've done it, but I haven't enjoyed it. I uh I haven't felt like praying a whole lot, even. I I wake up in the morning and I'm like, I want to pray. I'm I'm up to pray. I get up early. Let's pray, let's do this. And then I do it and I'm I'm doing it, but I'm my heart hasn't been in it. The last month I have just felt like in a funk. And I have felt really far from God. I even got to go to this amazing concert. I got to see Hillsong United in concert, they're an amazing worship band. And the whole time I'm like, this is this is I should feel amazing right now. I should just be like, wow. And I was kind of like, wow, this is come on, Justin, what's wrong with you? This whole month I've just felt like that. And here's the thing, God's so good. I pray, and He's still He still shows me things every week. I pray, God, give me something to speak on Sunday, show me something. He's faithful. He's faithful through my feelings, but I want to feel close to him. And I haven't for the last month or so. And sometimes, whenever I'm in that that mindset, I I go, oh man, I must be so far from you. What do I need to do? God, do I need to fast for three days? Would that would that make me feel close to you? Do I need to sacrifice something big in my life? Do I just need to like lock myself in a room and pray for seven hours or something like that? Do I need to do something crazy? I feel far from you, so I must need to do something huge to you know prove to you and show to you that I want to be close to you again. And and it's never that complicated. That's not how it is. It's just it's just choosing him. He is never more than one choice away, ever, no matter where you're at in life. You feel far from him now, you're not. You're not, you're one choice away. Because in reality, you you can't be far from God. Like it's impossible. When my son was two years old, we only had him at the time, and so I'd bring him up to this building quite a bit when I'd be working, maybe on a weekend or something like that. And there's something about these big giant hallways here that just communicate to a child, run. Right? When we designed it this way, we didn't know that. But kids see it and they're just like, ah, I gotta go. And so you see parents every Sunday chasing their children, and it's just something in it makes a child run. And my son would love to run, and he'd want to run away from me. And he liked to run and race me, and he'd love to feel like he could beat me. He was two. And so I'd let him go. You know, and he's not covering much ground at two. It's kind of like this thing. And I'd kind of be lagging behind, you know, like acting like he was way out in front, and he'd look back and he'd smile and laugh. But then all of a sudden, I'd just be there. And in his mind, he probably thought it was magic. Like he'd turn and I'm way far away, and then he turns again two seconds later, and he's like, whoa, he'd be scared. You ever do that to your kids? He just didn't expect me. He thought I'd be even further. In his mind, he's like, I'm winning. I'm so far ahead of him. And then he turns and I'm like, right there. And it's just because my steps cover a lot more ground than his. And so he might have felt like he was running away from me, but no. No, I was I was right there. And see, that's this is how it is with God. You're not you're not far from God. If you feel far from God this morning, I want you to understand that you're you're not. You're one choice away. I mean, he's he's one step away. He's closer than you think. In fact, in the Bible, it's really interesting. A lot of times we'll read stories and it'll say that God spoke from heaven. You'll hear that phrase. You'll read that a lot. And then a voice came from heaven. In fact, like Acts chapter 11. It's a story of Peter, and Peter's kind of being a stick in the mud, and he's being real uptight about some things, and so God gives him this vision, and it says, But the voice from heaven spoke again. Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean. It's this conversation that God's having with Peter. But the key part is that a voice from heaven spoke, and we hear that and we think like heaven, we know a lot more about the world we live in and the universe than the people 2,000 years ago did. We know what a light year is, we know how far away galaxies are, we know how how big the universe is. We we understand this stuff. We live in a space exploration stage of humanity. So we hear heaven and we're like, whoa, okay, if the sun is 93 million miles away, how far must heaven be? And so if a voice came from heaven, that that means a voice came from a faraway distance, like God's got a megaphone or something, and some booming voice is screaming and yelling. But it's interesting because the phrase that we might translate from heaven, that same phrase sometimes gets translated from the air, from the atmosphere. We have phrases in our in our world like something appeared as if out of thin air, right? It just thin air, it just was there. You see a magic show and something just appears out of thin air, and you're like, whoa, well that that's that's that would be just as accurate. We could literally say a voice came out of thin air. And it would be just as accurate as translating it, a voice from heaven. The idea being that someone was walking along and all of a sudden they just heard a voice, a voice that might as well have been a millimeter from their ear. Because God's not far away. He's not on some distant throne just watching us. He is He is here. Jesus said the kingdom of God is is near, it is here. You are not far from God. You are one choice away. And that's that's big because it doesn't matter what choices you have made up to this point, doesn't matter what choices you've made this week, doesn't matter what choices you've made this month, when it comes to your relationship with God, one choice. The choice to honor Him, the choice to follow Him, the choice to count yourself as one of His children, that choice that covers all. 1 Peter 4:8 says, love covers a multitude of sin. The choice to stand with Jesus, the choice to be with Jesus, that choice, it covers it all. It's one choice that totally, completely in God's eyes, makes up for every other choice. It's kind of like when you have a relationship with someone and you have a few bad days, you're frustrated, you're fighting, and you finally, you finally swallow your pride, you get humble, and you go to that person and say, Look, I'm really sorry. Let's be right. Let's let's let's be good again. And that person may accept your apology and they may say, No, no, no, I forgive you, but we're people, right? We have holdups, we can hold grudges. So maybe they say, just give me a little time though. Like, Megan will do that with me sometimes. Like, baby, I'm so sorry. And then I'll snuggle up on the couch. She's like, I've forgiven you, but we are not in like a snuggling stage yet. I need a little bit more time to just process how you were yesterday before you're snuggling up next to me. And that that's that's normal. We we need some time to like warm up to the idea of a restored relationship most times. God does not. You may have been making, let's say you let's say you've made some bad choices. Let's say you let's say you're struggling. Maybe you've made a series of choices, maybe you're dealing with the consequences of those, or maybe you you've been making choices no one knows about, and you don't deal with the consequences yet, but you're fearful every day of being found out. I was a secret addict for 10 years. I understand that. That's worse than actually being found out. And so you've been making choices. You feel far from God because you feel like your decisions have not been what God wants, and he must be upset with you, and you have all this stuff in your mind, and you just made it out to be this huge thing, like God is just so frustrated with you. And if you were to come to God and say, God, I'm so sorry. I just want to be near you, I want to be close to you, God would say, Hey, hold on. Just let me warm up to that idea for a few minutes, okay? That's not how he is. In Luke 23, we get to see Jesus on the cross, and he's in his last moments, and he's not being crucified alone. There's a couple other guys there with him. Luke 23, we see this conversation that happens between all three of these people. One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffs, so you're the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself. And us too, while you're at it. But the other criminal protested, don't you fear God, even when you've been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes. But this man hasn't done anything wrong. And then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into this kingdom. And Jesus replied, I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise. Here's this man that knows what he's done. He admits it. He's not even trying to justify his action. He says, I deserve to die. My choices have brought me here. The decisions I've made, they have led me to this cross. And the choices he must have made throughout his life to put him to that point, they must have been pretty terrible to deserve execution. And when he comes to Jesus, and when he says, Jesus, I put my trust in you, Jesus, will you forgive me? Jesus doesn't say, I mean, hey man, too little, too late. He doesn't go, Oh, hold on, you can't just you can't just wait till you're on your deathbed and all of a sudden want to know me. That's not how this works. No, no, no, no, no. You don't get to make choice after choice after choice in your life that puts you further and further from my will for you, and then at the end just come in and be like, I love you, and everything's okay. That's not what happens. He makes one choice. One choice to turn to Jesus. And Jesus says, Today you will be with me in paradise. You are never far from God. You are you are never far from God. He's like that, that father that's behind you sometimes. He's maybe letting you think you're further away than you are because he honors you and values your choices, and he's letting you do your thing, and he's never gonna let you go. You're never you're never too far away from him. You're only one choice away. Always. If you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus, you're one choice away. You're one choice away from a relationship that will change your entire life. You're one choice away from absolute forgiveness, from mercy, from grace. Things that this world doesn't even talk about. Grace, there's no such thing as grace in this world apart from Jesus. We live in a world that's designed to try to give us what we deserve. Grace is being given what you do not deserve. It's showing up to work and someone saying, Here's a bonus, and you're like, I just got here, and they're like, it's okay, take the day off. Here's your bonus. No, no, you get a bonus when you earn it, you get a bonus when you perform. Not before you do anything. Grace is being given what you don't deserve. And you are one choice away from having a love and a relationship with God that you don't deserve, you couldn't deserve it, but it's being given to you if you choose to accept it. It's one choice. You can make that choice today. All you gotta do is give your heart to Him. And you've given it to other things before, so what's the big deal? Just give it to Him. Say, Jesus, I'm yours. One choice. And it's no different than that thief on the cross. He's not gonna be like, well, before we we get to this, I gotta go through some choices you've made in the past. You need to understand some things. No, no, no. He's like, yeah, I love you. And if if you have made that choice before, you are a Jesus follower, but maybe you feel far from him because maybe you've been making some decisions lately that you just know that you know they're not right, you know they're not what God wants, and you worry that somehow he's kind of done with you. You worry that somehow the choices you've made have maybe excluded you from his love. Maybe it's undone the relationship you have with him. No, no, no, no, no. You are one choice away. You just gotta choose him. You just choose Jesus right now, choose him today, choose him tomorrow. One choice. Love covers a multitude of sin. The choice to follow Jesus covers all. He loves you enough to give you the choice, he values your relationship with him enough to give you the freedom to choose. He's gonna honor your choices, but he is only one choice away, so choose Jesus. Choose Jesus. That should be our way of life. How you living today? I'm choosing Jesus. You choose Jesus every day, he's already chosen you, you're good. One choice away, choose them. Please pray with me. Jesus, thank you so much for how much you love us. Thank you so much, Father, for being so close to us, for loving us so much. You don't let us get away from you. You don't let us, you don't let us go. We might feel like we're far from you. We might feel like our decisions have placed some great distance between us and you. But there is no distance that you have not already crossed. And Jesus, your death on the cross, it it covered that distance. It it completely and totally bridged that gap, Lord Jesus, and we have access to you at all times because of the sacrifice that you've made for us. And Lord, we just pray in your name that you would give us the strength and the courage to remember this morning that we are never far from you. We are one choice away at all times from being in your presence and from being in your will. Give us the courage to choose you in our lives today. Give us the courage to choose you in our lives this week. And we pray all this in your name, Jesus. Amen.