Job. Way to go, Nate. Well, the baby factory continues. Um, I got a call this morning at 6 30. Justin and Megan are actually at the hospital having a baby right now. Yay! I wish we could record that. She would need that right now. Breathe, Bush. Yay! Um, that is just so cool. Congratulations, dude. That's awesome. It's good to have you back. Uh Contra Popular Registin did not call me this morning at 6:30 to say, hey, can you fill in today? Uh he had planned that several weeks in advance, but he did get he did plan very well, actually. And um I am so glad to be back and be a part. And uh he did ask me to make a couple announcements as well. Opportunities, one, a couple opportunities that are pretty regular are going to shift a week away because of some of the stuff going on in the building here. If you're part of foundations here on Wednesday nights, which is kind of a what the foundations of we're all about, that actually it will not meet this Wednesday, nor will midweek, which is kind of the youth version. They will not meet this week on Wednesday either because of some of the stuff going on facilities-wise, but we will pick up the next week. Um, also, I I love the worship. When we say worship, uh, we kind of tend to think about just the music, but we worship through music, absolutely, and I love the worship we do. We also worship when we sit before God right now and we say, okay, God, speak to me through your word. But but one of the most tangible ways, and if you see people uh before and after these different columns, and if you're new here, you're thinking, what are they doing there? Are they playing video games or or video poker? What is that? They're putting their card through. It's actually a way that we worship, it's actually a way that we give. And and God has this kind of this tenet that we give a tithe to not just him and acknowledging him, but he uses that not only for this, but for our community. We give back to the community in several different ways. Um so if you're a part of his hands, I just encourage you to just be a part of that. I I get paid once a month and I tithe at that point, but I always bring, even if it's just a buck, and I just do that every week to just go, God, you own it all. And I just I thank you that I can worship you and connect in this way. Because there's something in our soul that longs to connect with God. And even when we're born, we're born with this innate desire for nurturing and love. And these little babies that we want to know, does somebody care about me? And we're born with that. And it matures over our life. And this week, I these actually next two weeks, we want to look at two essentials that if we're gonna find that fulfillment, that love, that nurturing, that connection, we have to have these two essentials. And we're gonna look at those in a second. If you want to look at the key verse this morning, it's in John chapter one. You can flip there, open your phone to it or whatnot. But there's this desire in our lives, and I think I've kind of put it into at least one phrase that makes sense to me, and that is, I want to get to the end of my life and go, I loved my life. My life, it was fulfilling, it was, it had love, it was, I love my life. It was worth experiencing, it was great, it was significant, it had all the pieces that my soul craves that it has. And as I've thought through that, I've thought, and and this is a little bit of experiential, we'll get to the essentials here in a minute, which we're gonna look at one this week and one next. But I've gotten to the point where I realize I don't want to live a life of regret. I don't want to have more regrets than I have fulfillments or successes. And I realize as I've listened to those who are older than I am, and there's fewer and fewer that are older than I am these days, but as I listen to them and as I look at my own life, I realize that some of the greatest regrets in life are not the regrets of co-mission or those decisions I made that I regret and think, gosh, I wish I didn't do that. But the majority of real harsh regrets are those that I had the opportunity I didn't do. And one of the biggest ones that I came to a fork in a road in my mid-20s that I would I would just say was one of those I don't want to regret moments. I was uh successful in sales and marketing, but I came to this fork in the road where I'm like, I don't think I want to do this the rest of my life. I really feel I have a passion to encourage and and entertain and teach, and and I want to do that, and but what do I do? Do I stick with this or do I go with that? And as I prayed through it, I finally got down to the point where I'm like, I don't want to regret. I don't want to be 40 or 50 and go, I could have, or I should have, or I would have. I physically, literally, mentally made the decision, I'm gonna do this. And at the worst, I'm gonna be 40 and go, I failed. I tried it, I did everything I could, and it didn't work out, but I did it. And I would rather regret trying and failing than never trying at all. And it's that idea of regret, and I know that it's throughout life. My oldest son, a couple years ago, we went on a cruise at Christmas, and on Christmas Day, we're in the middle of Gulf of Mexico, and this particular ship had an ice skating rink, and we had put down our names to be able to ice skate on Christmas Day in the middle of Gulf of Mexico. And my oldest son, he's like, I don't want to do that, I don't want to do it. And we're going down, I'm like, dude, but we signed up, he goes, Well, I just I don't want to do it. And I got with him alone. I said, Graham, I said, you know what? Can I ask you something? And he said, Yeah. I said, dude, you don't have to do it. How many times in your life have I told you, I really think you should do this, or you're gonna regret it? And he goes, uh, never. And I said, I never have. But I'm telling you right now, this is the time. You're gonna want to look back and be able to say, I went ice skating in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, and you're gonna want this story. You don't have to, and I'm not gonna look down on you. I'm telling you for your sake, not mine. And so he thought about it, and then I said, We're gonna be down there if you want to come down. Well, he shows up and he puts on the skates and he goes skating and he had a blast, and then we're at dinner that night, and he's like, You're right. That was cool, and I'm like, just, and I believe God is looking at you and I and longing to give us these two essentials to say, I want you to live a life without regret, to the full, with significance and with joy, and to be able to say, I love my life. But it's our choice, and these essentials are critical to that. And Jesus came prepared. Now, God could have created himself any way he wanted, he could have come any way he wanted, but he came as a man, and how he came, he came with these two essentials. And if you and I will grab them, it is the literally the keys to open that life of success and meeting. I want to go ahead and just hit this verse real quick, and then we're gonna unpack one of them this week, one of them next. In John chapter 1, verse 14, it says this the word, this word, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, and here it comes, who came from the Father full of grace and truth. If we want to experience this life, if we want to experience love, if we want to experience fullness, abundance in this life, we have to have grace and truth. This morning, I want us to really just take a look at what that really means. What is grace? How do we experience that? And I've heard, and I want to unpack, I guess, a little bit of a misnomer, and it really does say the word became flesh. He's the one and only son. And I've heard this said, and I've often thought, you're missing something, but now I know what they're missing. I've heard it said that, well, if God is a loving God, he would never send anybody to hell. And I would agree that God, if he is loving, he would not send people to hell. But God is love, the essence of love. And for love to exist, there has to be a choice. Love cannot be demanded, imposed on someone. It has to be a choice, it has to be provided. And God himself said, they're not gonna measure up, they can't get in, they can't experience heaven. So I'm going to make a way. I care that no one should perish. But all would come to a knowledge of who I am and accept me. But I will not force that. You get to choose. If you choose not to accept my will and my way, you don't have to. And I will let you have an eternity separated from me, which is the essence and the most tragic part of hell. And yet, he makes a way. And that way is based on this first critical essential. And I want us to look at that just real quick. In the book of Ephesians, they're gonna put it up on the screen. It says this in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin, which is what Jesus did on the cross. He said, I'm gonna take that. In accordance with the riches of God's grace. It's not something that we earned, it's not something that we deserve. I looked at a definition of grace, and this is the, it's it's pretty accurate, it's kind of high and lofty, but it leads us to the first part of grace that I want us to look at, and it says this a virtue coming from God, unmerited, divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration and sanctification. Those are some big words that simply means this we don't deserve it. But God wanted us to experience love, fulfillment, significance, eternity. And so, although we don't deserve it, he gave it and he gave it to us so that we could regenerate, become what we were meant to be, but he doesn't force it on us. He puts it this way later in Ephesians 2. He says, For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. In other words, we decide that Jesus is God's one and only Son. We decide he died on a cross for our sins, and we decide to accept that. He says, Through faith, it is not from yourself, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. No one. No one is good enough. And he says, but I want to give this to you. If I could put it in a simplistic form, and then you're gonna have to multiply it by a bajillion. My son, my second son, is decided he wants to play tennis, and he tried out and he made the team, and it's surprising because he went out there kind of unequipped. He had to borrow a racket from a friend, and he's wearing vans, which are skateboarder shoes, which aren't really good for tennis, but he's such a stinking athlete, he just he made the team. And I told him, I said, if you make the team, I said, you know what? You you need tennis shoes just to be able to move better. And and I and he said, you know what? I'm going to this sporting goods store with uh our next door neighbor, buddy. So I'm going to the store, sporting goods store with Buddy. He said, Uh, maybe I can get some there. And I said, you know what? Hang on a minute. I went out to my car and I found I had a gift card for $50 to that store. And I said, Dude, you need to take this. Now I I am I am up to times. I realize $50 does not buy a pair of good shoes for tennis, so I gave him that, and I gave him my debit card, and I said, Here, go get a good pair of tennis shoes. Did he deserve that? No. But I gave it to him. Now here's the incredible part. Those two cards have great value. They have the ability to get what he needs to be able to experience success in tennis. To the fullest of being able to move around. He's already quick, but this is gonna make him more agile than that. I gave those to him. But here's the deal: the first connection we have to make is to know grace. To know grace. To know grace is not just knowing about it and accepting it, but it's experiencing it. He has to take those cards, what are already there, and he has to go to the store, he has to pick out the shoes, then he has to go buy them. And once he does that, it turns from concept to reality. It turns from, yes, I know, I get it intellectually that this is gonna help, but then he's gonna have the shoes, and then he puts them on, and then he goes in place. And what I've done is I've made a way for him to experience that. That's grace. That grace is what God longs for us to experience and have and use and do. I have to know grace. And I don't know how you are, but I realize that I'm not there overall because I want to earn it. If I could describe it this way. Knowing and experiencing are different. And let me let me make it very obvious for a second. How many of you men, how many men here today are married? Raise your hands if you're married, all right. I've been married 20 years. When I got married, I thought, I love this woman. And you know what? I know there's some parts of this I don't understand. I hear all my friends be groaning and just complaining about marriage, and I'm like, you know what? I'm going to be a student of my wife, and by the time I'm married 20 years, I am going to fully understand women. I mean, I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna be an expert by the time I'm married 20 years. Here's the reality, and if you guys are like me, I did not know what I did not know. There are categories, there are parts of a woman's psyche that I did not know existed, much less know that I did not know. And I've experienced those. I love her more, but how many of you guys like me? I've been married 20 years, and I know less about women than I did 20 years ago. Preach it, yes. Because as I experience life and as we start going through life, we start to experience more and more of what we don't understand, of what we don't get. We start learning more of ourselves and those areas that we can't overcome, that we know are not right, and yet we we can't shake them, that we know and we face that we can't overcome them. That's where we have to know grace. We have to get to that point where like, I don't know what to do. Now, we have one of two forks in this road. We can start rationalizing or we can start reconciling. And when we reconcile with God, we realize what he just said in Ephesians none are worthy, not even one. No matter how hard I try, I'll never be worth it. But yet God says, Grace, I'm gonna make up the difference. I'll use an example of a friend of mine, I'll call him John because that was his name. And John was married to Cheryl. Cheryl has a doctorate in chemistry. She is brilliant. And when they were first married, this brilliant woman, he said they had their checkbook, and he said he started to notice he would go to reconcile the checkbook, and he noticed this NTB. And he knew he didn't put it in there, and he thought, NTB, and it was always a different amount, sometimes big, sometimes small. And he's like, What is this? After several months, he decided I've got to ask her what is NTB, and she said, Well, that's easy. I go through the statement, and that's the amount I need to balance, and I write that in so it's balanced. He said, Okay. Um, are you putting that money in the account? And she said, No, that's just what that just makes it balance. Okay. He said, It's good I know this. And he says, What happens if you don't have the money in there? She goes, Well, I just use my card. The ATM card. He said, I just go and then at the end of the month I do NTB so I can balance it. And he's like, Okay, um, I'll take care of the checkbook from this point forward. And he said, You don't have to worry about the need to balance anymore. I'm going to take care of that. Grace. I I'm going to make up the difference of what you don't have. And and because I want us to be in harmony, and and I have the authority to say, hey, we need to not spend because the NTB account is out of funds right now. Um, he said, I need that, but I'm going to show you grace. I'm going to take this responsibility. And what Jesus did and what God has done is He said, Hey, I know there's going to be the parts you don't understand. I know there's going to be the parts you can't get past. I'm going to challenge at the end to go back and read in these parts, but I I love this knowing God, He wants us to get from conceptual to reality. That these parts go together. And if I could put it this way, as a simple example of needing both these essentials and how it works with the grace. How many of you like chocolate? How many of you like chocolate? Yes. I'm willing to tell you right now, you don't. You like sweetened chocolate. My mother, when I was 11 years old, decided to make brownies. And I went and she had the unsweetened chocolate. I'm like, I love chocolate. And while she looked away, I took a pinch of the chocolate and I ate it. It tastes disgusting. Because in the midst of it, chocolate without sugar combined does not taste good. That's grace and truth. Okay, that has to go together, and then it is sweet and enjoyable, and it's all we desire. But I was just taking one piece. I need to experience both, and for the sake of this knowing grace, I have to experience this grace and say, wait a minute. And I'll use a biblical example in 2 Corinthians 12. Paul writes, he says, You know what? I've got this area in my life I cannot get over. He calls it a thorn in the flesh. We don't know if it was a recurring sin. We don't know if it was a situation or circumstance that he couldn't get past, but he prayed, God, take this away. And he said, I prayed it over and over and over. And he says, God decided, I want you to know me, and I want you to know that I'm bigger than this. And he says, I'm not going to take it away because my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in your weakness. In other words, God's saying, I want to be with you in this, because that's where perspective, significance, fulfillment, success. It's not going to come from just doing a list of do's and don'ts. It's going to come from interacting with me. And my grace is what's going to give you that power. And Paul writes, so I will gladly accept this weakness. I will glory in my weakness so God's power can rest on me. And what I have to face is there's going to be parts of life I can't get. I've already experienced in my life in areas of a besetting sin, one that reoccurs over and over. I finally came like, God, I can't do this. And God's whole time going, I know. Let my power rest on you, because it's not until you rely on me that you're going to overcome this. Circumstances I don't have the answer to. I've got to rely on him. I have to know it, not from a knowledge, but from an experiential basis, to know to know grace. Once I reconcile there, I realize, and I'm going to ask you to read some Romans at the end of this, but in Romans 7 15, I don't know. This is probably the verse of the Bible that I relate to best. It really isn't. It speaks directly to grace. He writes, Paul writes, I Do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I don't do. But what I hate, I do. How many of you are like me and you've experienced that in life? Yes. And he's like, I know what's right and I don't do it. Then I have a decision. Do I start calling wrong right? Or do I start reconciling and saying, God, I don't want to do this, but I can't overcome it. For Jesus to say, My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness. This is where you get to experience grace and power and purpose. But it comes with me.

Wow.

Once I get there, I start to realize and I get to chapter 8 in Romans, where it where he promises, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Once I choose to accept and put my faith in Christ, once I choose, Jesus, you really did die for me. I accept your grace, I accept your love. He says there's no condemnation. You are not condemned by your past, by your failure, by your shortfalls, by your misunderstanding. You're not condemned by it, and you're not condemned to it. You don't have to continue. You don't have to continue to be confused or sinful in that. You're not condemned because my power and my grace are now on you. Know my grace. Rest in that. Experience that grace. Once we do that, then we start to take this second step, this second concept of grace. Not only know grace, but show grace. Show grace. Jesus is amazing the way he did this in John chapter 8. It's not going to come on the screen. There's a story of a woman, and she's brought in front of Jesus, and they're trying to trap him, and it's all about trying to discredit Jesus. And they throw her down in front of Jesus, and she's standing there, and they're like, Teacher, we caught her in the very act of adultery. The law says stone her. What do you say? Now, I read this story, and Jesus is so wise because he knows what they're doing. If he reacted, I guarantee you what he would say is like, okay, you caught her in the act of adultery, caught her in a very act of adultery. Where's the dude? Must stone him too. That's what he would have said, but he's not me. He's much, he's God. So what he said was he said, Wow, you caught her in a very act of adultery, and they start picking up stones. They're like, What should we say? And they just keep talking. They're like, Yeah, and the law says this, and the law says, and then it says this, and this, and this. And Jesus knows before the law always comes grace. And it says he reached, he went down, he kneeled down, he started writing in the sand. He started writing, and they keep talking, they keep talking, they keep talking. And finally they start noticing, and he rises up and he said, Um, if any of you is without sin, you you throw the first rock. And then he reached down and started writing again. And when he looked up again, they were all gone. And she was standing there alone. I do not know what he wrote in the sand. It does not say. But I would speculate this. This is a guess. It is not, it's not in this passage, but I I have the sneaky suspicion that he just kneeled down and started writing. It would not surprise me if what he wrote was her initials. And then a plus, and then the initials of the dude that they set up to go do that that wasn't there. And then it equals adultery. And then he looked around, and while they're talking, he just started writing their initials. And then plus, and then he said, if you don't, if you don't were without sin, throw a first rock, and then he started filling in their sins. And they started figuring it out. And they're like, oh, okay, I'm out of here. Jesus always leads with grace. He does not look at our faults, our sins without a solution. He says, I'm gonna show you grace. And he looked at her and he said, Who condemns you? She said, Nobody. He says, Neither do I. Go and sin no more. My grace and my power on you. We have to experience that. But when we show that grace, that's where life changes. That's where our whole heart changes. If I could be very personal with how this grace was shown, because once we know grace and experience it, then we long to show it more. My aunt and uncle are in town from Montana. They live in Ohio now, but when I was growing up, they lived in Montana, and we would go visit. And I was I wasn't a horrible kid, I didn't get in a ton of trouble, but I had a short fuse, and I was I was I lacked confidence, I was insecure, and I was unappreciative. And that's not a good combination. And I I hate that looking back. But my uncle, who's just the he's one of the funniest people I've ever met, and all he did was show grace. Every time he would share an experience, I felt the need to tell him how I had it better or I knew more. And I think every kid at around 13 is like that. I believe we should elect a 13-year-old president because that's the only time you know everything. So um, and I did, and I'm I'm embarrassed about it, but all he did was show grace. And I'll never forget this one experience, and uh, it's one of my favorite memories. Uh, we went to the upper Montana, the northern part of Montana, this lake, and we were gonna go water skiing. I'd never water skied before, and he decided I'm gonna show you how to water ski. I'm like, all right, and so he walked me through. He goes, Well, you need to do this, put the tips up, keep the rope between it, let the boat pull you up. And I'm like, okay, okay, I'm trying to get all this in. And it sounds good, but then you have to do it. Experience it versus know it. And so as we're I'm getting in the lake, he goes, Oh, and the biggest tip, never let go of the rope. And uh now, if you if you've been so after about the third time of getting jerked out of the skis and just go, and the lake level lowered, I thought, okay, I can't do that anymore. And he goes, 'Yeah, I was kidding about that hold the rope thing. That just let that go if you fall down.' I'm like, okay, okay. But but I learned how to water ski. And in this grace, here's the cool part. We we had a great day. We start driving back. And as we're driving, the sky lit up. I mean, it was like a wave of green across the entire sky. And then it would just stay there for a minute, and it was like waves, and then it just disappeared. I'm like, what was that? And they're like, what? And I'm like, did you not see that? And then it happened again. The sky turns, and I and I'm not doing it justice. The entire sky, it wasn't like lightning, it flashes green and it's gone. It just came up green and it was like waves. And then it just slowly disappeared again. I'm like, that? What is that? And they're like, oh, that you you you've never seen the northern lights. And I'm like, what are the northern lights? And they explained to me the Aurora Borealis, where there's a reflection of the atmosphere at a certain time of year where you'll see the reflection of the polar caps, and it lights up the sky all the way down to northern Montana, and it's the whole sky, it's indescribable. And it's amazing, and I'll never forget it. And that is grace. When we decide to experience and listen and let God love us where we are not lovable, where he shows us where we don't see, and we experience him in reality through his truth in those areas of life where we don't know, he will literally show us that which we cannot fathom. And it will overwhelm us in the best possible way. But then we have to stop and say, okay, I want to know grace, but I want to show grace. If you want to see the perfect example of showing grace, go find a grandparent. I don't think they should call them grandparents, they should call them graceparents because they're ridiculous with children. They're just like, oh my gosh, this is a perfect child. It's the most perfect child ever. It is. Oh my gosh, look. Oh, he's looking at me all day. He's the smartest. He's brilliant. He's two days old and he's brilliant. It's unbelievable. And oh my gosh, the list. Oh, do you smell that? Oh, it's a little poopy. It's the best, it's the most precious poopy ever. It's just like, no, it's really not. But all they can see is the potential. All they want to do is love. All they want to do is overwhelm this child. And that is grace. That is what God longs for us. And if we are going to experience life to the full, we have to experience God to the full. And the first essential piece is to let Him overwhelm us with grace. Grace and forgiveness. Grace where we fall short. Grace where we don't understand. And we have to experience that. This week, for those of you who are like, this is big. If I'm a man and I want to find significance, I have to experience this. If I'm a woman and I want to have relations the way that relationships the way God wants, I have to have this. I want to give a couple very simple ways to rest in this this week. And I would encourage you to take them. They're very simple. The first one is read. Read Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8. It takes about five minutes to read one chapter. But read it. And I promise you're going to go, oh my goodness, that's me. That's me. That's me. Read it. Secondly, experience it this week when you fall short. Whatever that is, maybe it's a sin, maybe it's an overwhelming, maybe it's a misunderstanding. When that moment comes this week, grace. Experience it. Literally go, God, I don't know what to do. Falling short again, or maybe this, I just grace. Need to balance. Grace. You've already covered this, it's already done. Experience it. One time this week, I want you to show grace. Show it. I've prayed and asked God that someone would be a jerk to you this week, and I know what's gonna happen. I didn't really pray that, but I know what's gonna happen. Show grace. Ask God to remind you this is your moment of grace. And if you're like, what do I do? If you can't think of what to do, what to say, here's what you do. Smile. Just smile and just go, hi. Grace. And show it, whether they accept it or not, whether it turns out or not, just show grace. It's what comes from the inside out. They will probably be affected in a positive way. Even if they're not, you will never be the same. And then finally, thank God. Thank God for grace every day. Just God, thank you for your grace. That I live here, that I'm I have this friend, this spouse, this, these kids. Just thank God for grace. And if I will rest in that, I promise you will start to experience that essential that our hearts have to have to experience the fullness that this life was meant to have. I'm gonna pray, and I want you to be thinking about that resting in grace while we sing this last song and commit that to memory. And I'll go through it one more time very quickly, and then I want to encourage you about next week. Let's pray. God, thank you for grace. Help us rest in it. Lord, it comes only from you. We don't know what to do, but our eyes, when they're on you, are overwhelmed with your grace and your provision. Lord, thank you for today. Well, I just ask right now your extra grace on Megan and Justin right now and that precious baby. And I pray that you would just usher in and just protect both of them. And that you would just let that be a day of joy. God, we love you and thank you. And it is only through your precious Son we can pray. And the power of your spirit we get to. Amen. Rest or read, read Romans 5 through 8. E. Experience. Experience God. That overwhelmed part, that fall short part. Just literally, you can put your hands and just go, God, shower me with grace because it's there. Show, show grace. And if you don't know how, when that moment happens, just smile. And then tea, thank God. Thank God for just inventing grace. It's incredible. There's another essential that we have to have, and they go together. Grace is always first, but then there's truth. And there's some pieces of truth that are critical to really grabbing and getting a hold of. And next week I'm going to share that. So I hope you can make it back. Go ahead and stand up and be thinking through the resting part as we do this last song.