Lesson 3: Four Human Responses to God

Hello, this is Professor Timothy Moore and this is the course Christian spirituality. We're on unit three and this is four human responses to God and the gospel. There are four ways that we as human beings can respond to [snorts] to God's existence and the message of the gospel of Christ.

And our key passage for this unit is Romans chapter 4:es 1-5. And it says, "Abraham was humanly speaking the founder of our Jewish nation. " What did he discover about being made right with God?

If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God's way. For the scriptures tell us Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.

When people work, their wages are not a gift but something they've earned. But people are counted as righteous not because of their work but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you that you're a God who responds to faith. Your word says without faith, it is impossible to please you, but that we must believe that you exist and you reward those who diligently seek you. Father, I pray that you would help us understand the ways people respond to you and that we would see the work of the Holy Spirit in people's lives and understand as we seek to minister the ways that you work in the human heart and mind and the way we can understand the people that we are speaking to, the people that we're preaching to in congregation.

ations, those who assemble and how to have conversations with people and discern where they are in terms of faith. God, give us grace and empower us by the Holy Spirit to lead people into your presence and to help them understand the accomplishments of Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen.

The four responses that human beings can have as it relates to God and the gospel. One is um they can be godless. They can put God out of their minds and they can live according to their cravings, according to their desires.

And by forgetting about God, they lessen the amount of uh shame and guilt that they experience and um and they just live a life of lust and craving. And so the the phrase that encapsulates or captures this type of response to God is simply I will indulge myself. The second way that people can respond to God is uh a self-righteous response where they compare themselves to other people and they actively try to find people who are doing worse than they are.

and they they put on the umpire's mask or the referee's mask and they call pen penalties on other people and they do this to make themselves feel better and in some sense obligate God. It's a it's as if they're saying to God, I'm more righteous than this person over here, so you have to accept me. The third way that people respond to God is simply by by doing so so many things that they consider good that they obligate God.

They're trying to obligate God based on the good works that they do to have him open the kingdom of heaven to them. And so it they they think um my righteousness exceeds my unrighteousness and there's some type of scale. So if I do more righteous things than unrighteous things, then that's going to tip the scale in my favor and God will have to accept me.

Again, they're trying to obligate God by something. And the fourth way that people respond to God is entrusting themselves to the God, as our text said, the God who forgives sinners. And at this time, what I'd like for us to do is listen to my co-pastor here at CTK Hope Church.

His name is Elijah Tatima. And Elijah is going to share a story called the parable of the river. And the sons in this story represent the four ways that we can respond to God.

And so listen carefully to this story from my co-pastor Elijah Tatima. >> I got a story. Are you ready for story time?

I got my sweet little boys in the front row right here. Hi boys. >> You ready for story time with Pastor Elijah?

[laughter] Yeah. Okay. Here we go.

It's going to be a good one. Once upon a time, there were five sons who lived in a beautiful mountain castle in the kingdom of their father. The firstborn was an obedient son, but his four younger brothers were rebellious.

A river ran through the kingdom that was far more powerful than it looked. And the father begged his sons to stay clear of the bank lest they be swept downstream. He told them that the lure of the river and the power of the river was far stronger than they could imagine.

What do you think happened? >> You're right. They went down to the river.

Of course, they were rebellious. They were like, "You touch it. I won't touch it.

You touch it. I'm not going to touch it. I I'll tell you what.

I'll just You hold my hand. You hold his hand. You hold his hand.

I'll just put a finger in it. Just a little finger in it. " And sure enough, they got swept away.

All of them. Whoosh. The river takes them and it takes them not just a mile downstream, not just two miles downstream.

It takes them out of their country until they get washed up and they're in a complete foreign land somewhere that they don't belong at all. And after some time, they gathered their courage and they reentered the waters hoping to walk upstream, but the current was too strong. They attempted to walk along the river's edge, but the terrain was too steep.

They considered climbing the mountains, but the peaks were too high. Plus, they didn't know the way back to the kingdom. Finally, they built a fire and they sat down.

"We shouldn't have disobeyed," they said. "We're a long way from home. " But they determined not to forget their homeland, their kingdom, their father, and their older brother in hopes of returning.

So each day they set about the task of finding food and building shelter. And then each evening they built a fire and told stories about their father and their brother to each other so they wouldn't forget. Then one night one brother failed to come to the fire.

The others found him the next morning in the valley with the foreigners building a mud hut for himself. I'm sick of talking about the kingdom and our father and our brother. I'm building my own kingdom right here.

And his brothers are like, bro, that's not a kingdom. There's a mud hut. The walls are literally you have mud all over your hand.

You're building a mud hut. No, it's my kingdom. It makes me happy and I want it.

Plus, at least I have control over my kingdom. I can make it exactly how I want it. So, some days later, a second brother fails to appear at the campfire.

And the next morning, his siblings found him on a hillside staring down at the brother making the huts. "How disgusting," he tells his brothers as they approached. "Our brother's an utter failure, an insult to our family.

Can you imagine a more despicable deed, building a mud hut and forgetting our father and our brother and our whole kingdom? " And the youngest brother says, "What he's doing is wrong, but what we did was wrong, too. We all disobeyed.

We touched the river. We ignored our father's warnings. Well, we may have made a mistake or two, but compared to that sleas in the mud hut, we are saints.

Father will dismiss our sin and punish him. [snorts] Like, bro, it's a mud hut. Bro, you're just comparing yourself to him.

Come on, let's go back to the fire. No, no, no. I'm not going back to the fire.

I think I'm going to I'm going to keep a record and keep an eye on our brother and write down everything he does wrong and then I'll show this record to the father. And so only two of the brothers returned to the fire, leaving one brother building and the other judging. Then one morning, the youngest son awoke to find he was alone.

He searched for his brother and found him in the river stacking rocks. It's no use, he said. The rock stacking brother explained as he worked.

Father won't come for me. I must go to him. I offended him.

I insulted him. I failed him. There's only one option.

I will build a path up the river and walk into our father's presence. Rock upon rock I will stack until I have enough rocks to travel upstream to the castle. And when he sees how hard I've worked, he'll how diligent I've been.

He'll have no choice but to open the door and let me into his house. The last brother didn't really even know what to say to that. He returned to sit by the fire alone.

One morning, he heard a familiar voice behind him. Father sent me to bring you home. Father sent me to bring you home.

And he turns and he says, it's his oldest brother. The firstborn came back for him. He knew it.

He'd been holding out. So he gives him a big hug and he's like, yes, yes, I knew it. You're going to take me home?

Yes, I'm going to carry you back to the kingdom. It's a long ways, but I'll take you there. You'll get back to the kingdom.

Where's your brothers? Well, uh, one of them's build the mud hut, the other's watching, writing stuff down about him, and the other's in the, uh, river stacking rocks. So, the firstborn sets out to find his siblings.

He went first to the mud hut in the valley and was met with hostility. "Go away, stranger," screams the brother. "You're not welcome here.

I've come to take you home. You have not. You came to take my mud hut.

That's my mansion. You came for my mansion, bro. It's a mud hut.

It's not a mansion. This mud hut is my mansion. and it's the finest in all of these lands.

I built it with my own hands. It's mine. Now go away.

You can't have my mansion. I refuse to surrender it to you. So the firstborn left him and he went to go find the second brother on the hill and said, "How good that you are here to behold the sin of our brother?

Are you aware that he turned his back on the castle, on our whole kingdom? Are you aware that he never speaks of home? I knew you would come.

I've kept a whole careful account of his deeds. Punish him. He deserves it.

Deal with the sins of our brother. And the firstborn spoke softly. We need to deal with your sins first.

My sins. Yeah. You disobeyed father.

You put your finger in the river. Remember? Well, when father sees the record of his sin that I've kept, he will overlook mine.

So, the firstborn left him to it. And he went to go find his other brother kneedeep in the river stacking rocks. And he says, "Father has sent me to take you home now.

" And the brother didn't even look up. "I can't talk. I must work.

" "Father knows you've fallen, but he will forgive you. " "He may. " The brother interrupted, struggling to keep his balance against the current while he stacked rocks.

"But I have to get to the castle first. I must build a pathway up the river. First, I will show him that I'm worthy.

Then, I will ask for his mercy. " He's already given his mercy, said the older brother. I will carry you up the river.

You'll never be able to build a pathway. The river's too long. The task is too great for your hands.

Father sent me to carry you home. I'm stronger. For the first time, the rock stacking brother looked up.

How dare you speak with such irreverence. My father will not simply forgive. I have sinned.

I've sinned greatly. He told us to avoid the river and we disobeyed. I'm a great sinner.

I need much work. The firstborn said, "It's impossible to do enough rock stacking to get to the kingdom. Either you go with me or you don't go at all.

" His brother lowered his head and continued stacking rocks. The youngest brother was waiting near the fire when Firstborn returned. "The others didn't come," he said.

"No, one is choosing to indulge, the other to judge and compare, and the third to work. None of them chose our father. So, they're going to remain here.

The eldest brother nodded slowly. For now, we will return to the father asked the younger brother. Yes.

Will he forgive me? And the firstborn looks in his younger brother's eyes and he says, "Would he have sent me if he didn't? All four brothers heard the same invitation, right?

Come back to the kingdom. But each one had the opport and each one had the opportunity to be carried home. But they all responded a little differently, right?

The first three brothers chose to justify themselves while the fourth chose to be justified only by faith and believe that the father would forgive. And he went with his older brother back to the kingdom. So, spoiler alert, uh, the father is our father, God.

If you haven't put it together yet, just making sure, right? The firstborn is Jesus, >> right? And we are we're are the brothers.

We're the four brothers. Now, I've believed in Jesus and and he's been running my life for years. But I have a tendency, and you may have this tendency also.

I have the tendency even though faith alone justifies me before God. I have a tendency to try to justify myself in many different ways. I don't make it a habit of just telling long stories like this.

I do it because this story is from the first four chapters of the book of Romans. And in the first four chapters of the book of Romans, it talks about each one of these responses. You can find every one of the four brothers responses.

>> Okay, you've heard Elijah's story, the parable of the river. This parable had five sons. The eldest son represents Christ.

the the next son, the son that built the mud hut in the field, um represents someone who is indulging themselves and making friends with the world. The second son that stationed himself on the hill above that son is keeping a record of that son's sins. And so he is comparing himself and being self-righteous and judgmental.

And then the third son was stacking rocks to build um a pathway back to the father and the father's kingdom. And this river is raging. And so there's absolutely no way that that's going to work.

But he still thinks if he works hard enough for long enough, it will obligate the father to accept him. And then the youngest son encounters the eldest son and um they go and see all of the brothers and then uh that youngest son is the only one that's looking to the the eldest brother for rescue and wondering if the father will really forgive him. And then he ends up entrusting himself to the elder brother that represents Christ.

And and and that elder brother takes him back to the father and to the kingdom. And so what I'd like for us to do is look at the the the four responses to God in the book of Romans. There's several chapters or passages in the Bible where um these responses are highlighted.

And some of them in the passage, all four are there. And in the first four chapters of the book of Romans, we see the four responses to God. And so the first one is I'll indulge myself and make friends with the world.

Uh the word for this in theology is heedenism. And uh we see that in Romans chapter 1 21 through32. But I want to read just a portion of that passage.

Verse 21 says, "Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship him as God or give him thanks. They began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. And as a result, their minds became dark and confused, claiming to be wise.

Instead, they became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious everliving God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.

Now it's talking about the people in the Old Testament, the things that are recorded of the children of Israel basically in the Old Testament. But this is human nature. So human nature is to respond to God in a way that says I'm gonna either change God from the perspective given in the Bible and recreate him in my own image or the image of uh things that he created.

I'm going to worship a bird. I'm going to worship some kind of creature. I'm going to worship the mountains and nature.

Um, and it's really an excuse just to do what is in the human heart, the shameful desires that exist in fallen human nature. And so this is that first son building the mud hut, making his home in the world, making friends with the savages there in the parable of the river. The second way, um, well, let me say this.

Um, I actually picked a, uh, a type of seat that represents the different ways that we respond to God. And, uh, the the seat that I chose for this is the bar stool. So, the bar stool represents, uh, heathenism or I'll indulge myself and make friends with the world.

The second way was to uh, compare. And so keeping a record of other people's wrongs to make yourself look better and in some way obligate God to um receive you, accept you, let you into his kingdom. And so the word for this is judgmentalism.

And the key passage in the book of Romans is Romans 2 1-1. I'm going to read a portion of that as well. It says this, "You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad.

And you have no excuse. When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you're condemning yourself. For you who judge others do these very same things.

" And we know that God in his justice will punish anyone who does such things. And since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God's judgment when you do the same things? Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you?

Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sins? And so chapter one is about indulging yourself and forgetting God or changing God.

Chapter two of the book of Romans is um referring to those u the Jewish religious leaders especially. If you think about the Jewish religious leaders called the Pharisees and the Sadducees that made up the ruling uh body for the Jewish people and the ruling body together made up of Pharisees and Sadducees is called the Sanhedrin. And so the Sanhedrin often encountered Jesus.

They were very judgmental of people who didn't keep their rules and they were known for making rules and they made rules that were nowhere in the Bible and they made applications of things in the Bible that weren't in the Bible. And so um they knew the scriptures but instead of just focusing on the scriptures and the applications that are there, they wrote extra biblical scrolls called the Mishna and the Tishna. And so um and they also wrote something called the Talmud.

The Talmud was not the Bible. It was their commentary on the Bible. And then the Mishna and Tishna were all of these applications.

They had hundreds and hundreds and of applications to all of the rules and they expected everyone to keep their rules in even in a culture that was primarily illiterate. Uh it kept the people dependent dependent on these judgmental um self-righteous religious leaders. And when Jesus spoke about them in Matthew chap 23, he he spoke to them and he said, "You are brood of vipers," which means you're a bunch of snakes and he said, "You go to and fro throughout the earth to make a convict uh a convert.

And when you make that convert, you make that person twice the son of hell that you are. " And so Jesus did not mince words. He was very direct to these judgmentalist, these religious leaders who controlled and manipulated people by being very judgmental.

They thought they were right with God. But Romans chapter 2 is the response of the Apostle Paul who knew the grace of God in Christ Jesus. And he's saying and and you're you're talk we're talking about a man the apostle Paul who was a leader of the Pharisees and yet he encountered Christ in Acts chapter nine and Christ changed his heart and his mind he received the grace of God through faith in Christ.

And so this is the person who's speaking to those Pharisees, to those religious leaders, saying, "You condemn such people, but you're just as bad. " Which is what Jesus was teaching in Matthew 23 and also in the sermon on the mount where he said, "You're condemning people, but in your heart, you're doing it. In your heart, you're thinking about murder.

In your heart, you're thinking about lust. " And Jesus made it a heart matter and not just what you do. And so he's saying, you condemn people outwardly, but in your heart you are guilty of the same things.

And so this is the response also of the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 2. So this response is, I'll compare myself. I'll keep a record of other people's wrongs and somehow that will obligate God to accept me.

And so the chair that I've chosen to represent this um response to God is the judge's bench. So they're casting judgment on people. And the next response is I'll save myself through good works.

I'll do enough things that are good and my good work will outweigh my unrighteous thoughts or deeds and God will be obligated to accept me. The the passage uh for this, it begins in Romans 2:17 and goes uh all the way up to chapter 3 20. And I'm going to read a portion of that.

Romans 3:19 through20 which says obviously the law applies to those to whom it was given for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.

Now, the law that's being spoken about here is the Mosaic law. The law given to God uh given to Moses by God which contains 63 commandments. And so what it's saying here is that law given to Moses with 613 commands from God to human beings was not given to human beings to save them or or make them right before God.

Instead, it was given to show that all of us are guilty before God because no one can keep all of those commands. In essence, what happened is Moses took those 613 commands and then he he uh he brought them down under the leadership of God to ten commandments in Exodus 20. And when we go through those ten commandments, half of them have to do with loving God.

Half of them have to do with loving people. And uh no one no one's ever been able to keep all the ten commandments that are listed in Exodus 20. And so we're incapable of doing that.

And then and then furthermore in Deuteronomy chapter 6, Moses uh under the leadership of the Holy Spirit takes the 613 to 10. And then in J Deuteronomy 6, he takes them to two commandments, just two. And those two commandments are love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

And when we apply those commandments to our lives at any given time, none of us can keep even two commandments perfectly. So the 613 commandments brought down to 10, brought down to two, they do what Romans 3 here in 19 and 20 tell us. It shows us that we are guilty before God.

It shows the entire world that we're guilty before God because we can't even keep two commandments consistently. And it says, "No one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. " And so the law is good.

The law is perfect. The law is from God. But the purpose of the law is not to save us.

It's to show us that we are guilty before God. And so the idea that we can somehow save ourselves by keeping commandments um biblically does not make sense. And experientially it doesn't work out.

We can't save ourselves. We can't rescue ourselves through keeping the righteous requirements of the law. It's an impossibility.

And so the seat that I have chosen to represent this type of response to God is the church pew. Because people think they can come to church and be righteous. Uh come to church and give money.

come to church and teach Sunday school or be a greeter or any other job in the church. And somehow that is tipping the scale uh in their favor and they're going to have more good works than unrighteous deeds and it's going to cause God to have to accept them. And that's simply not what the Bible teaches.

Um we don't serve God in order to be accepted by God. We serve God because he loves us and accepts us. We're going to see that in the last way that people respond to God.

And the fourth response, I'll entrust myself to Christ. Romans 3:22-26. It says, "We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ.

" And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned and we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God in his grace freely makes us right in his sight.

He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty of our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.

This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past. For he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness.

for he himself is fair and just and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. This is an incredible passage of scripture that focuses us on the fact that we are made right by putting our faith in trusting ourselves to Christ and his accomplishments. And that's the only way to be made right with God.

And it also addresses the question of well, how were people saved in the Old Testament? How did people get redeemed in the Old Testament times? It said there in verse 26, he God was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time.

And so all of the law of Moses, all of the sacrifices of the Old Testament, and even if we go beyond that, all the way back to the Garden of Eden when God made the sacrifice and covered Adam and Eve with the skins of animals and Genesis 3:15 when God's pronouncing the judgment and he says, "The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. " All of that was done looking forward to picturing what Christ would do in his perfect life, his death as the perfect lamb of God on the cross, the shedding of his blood for our forgiveness. And in the Old Testament, it says without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness for the life of the flesh is in the blood.

and all of that reference. And here it talks about the shedding of blood for our forgiveness. That that blood sacrifice is meant to be gruesome because when we look at the blood sacrifice, we see something that is awful.

It's grotesque. And and what that represents is how awful our sin is before a holy God. And then God's son himself shed his blood as the sacrifice for our sins.

And all of that in the Old Testament pictured Christ. And so people were made right with God. In the same way that we're made right with God, they were in essence looking forward in faith to what God would do in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we look back in faith to what he accomplished through his death, his burial, his resurrection, his perfect life. They look forward, we look back, and all of us are rescued and redeemed through entrusting ourselves to Christ, having faith in Christ. And the seat that I chose is a biblical seat, and we're going to see that.

And that is we are seated with Christ. When we entrust ourselves with Christ, there is a seat with Christ according to the scriptures. Um, and uh, we're going to look at that.

Ephesians chapter 2 6 and 7. It says, "For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. " Now, this happens spiritually when we put our faith in Christ.

Spiritually we have a position in heaven. It is as if we are seated with Christ. And someday in a physical glorified body, we will be seated with Christ in heaven.

And here's why. In verse seven, it says, "So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. " And so our very existence in heaven with God is it's as if we are trophies of the grace of God and what has been accomplished for us through the works of Christ Jesus.

We are physical reminders of the work of Christ throughout all eternity in heaven. That is an incredible concept. seated with Christ.

And so if that's true, if all of that is true and that we're made right with God through faith, through entrusting ourselves to Jesus, then how does that affect our day-to-day living? Ephe Ephesians 2:8-10, we see an answer to that. First, it reiterates the fact that we're not saved by our own works.

We can't keep the law and be saved. We can't obligate God in any way by the way that we live to let us into his kingdom. Verse eight says, "God saved you by his grace when you believed and you can't take credit for it.

It is the gift from God. " That's what the scripture says. Verse 9, "Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done.

So none of us can boast about it. " So you see how over and over there's this repetition. And this is not Romans.

This is Ephesians. But there's the repetition that we can't earn our salvation. That salvation is not the reward for the good things that we do.

It is simply the grace of God demonstrated through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf that we can only receive by faith. And it is a gift. It's an undeserved gift so that no one can boast about it.

However, we're told that we're created for something. In verse 10, it says, "We are God's masterpiece, and he has created us a new in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. " So right here in the passage in one of these passages which over and over emphasizes that we cannot be made with right with God by doing good deeds.

We cannot earn our salvation. It's only through Christ. And then God says we're his masterpiece.

We're created for good deeds. We're created for good works. So is that a contradiction?

No. Not at all. All that it is saying is there's a different motivation.

The motivation for the good deeds that we do is the understanding of the grace of God and the love of God for us as his children. And so when we know that God loves us, when we know that God's love caused him to take action, and that action required great sacrifice so that we could be forgiven of our sins and have a place in heaven, that love, the Bible says, constrains us. It changes us.

And we love him because he first loved us. And love is the greatest transforming element in the universe in all of God's creation. When you love someone, you change.

If you know that the person you love likes a particular thing or feels loved when you do a particular action, you change your attitude. You change your actions in order to demonstrate love for that person. even if it requires sacrifice.

And Jesus is the ultimate example of that. He's the full demonstration of the love of God for us. Love, real love takes action.

It serves, it sacrifices. Jesus said, "I have not come to be served, but to serve and give my life a ransom for many. " The love of God is real serving and sacrificial love.

And when we receive Christ into our lives, Romans chapter 8 says the Holy Spirit sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts and it changes us. And our motivation now has changed. Our motivation is I want to love God, my maker, my creator, my father, my savior.

I want to love him by doing the good things that he planned for me long ago. I want to do these good deeds not because it saves me, but because it's an expression of love for God who first loved me. So, it's human nature.

Even after we have entrusted ourselves to Christ, even after we've put our full faith in what Christ accomplished for us, it's human nature to slip back into the first three things. We can slip back into indulging ourselves. We can slip back into comparing oursel.

we can slip back in to thinking we can do good works that obligate God in some way to receive us. And that's why in the Bible in First Peter, it says we we need to be stirred up by way of reminder of what God has done for us. And that's why it's extremely important to have a devotional life with God where you're encountering the gospel, the good news that God, by God's grace, we are saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You need to encounter the gospel and be reminded of what Christ has done for you. And you do that by being in God's word consistently, praying and focusing your your mind's attention and your heart's affection on the Lord and then moment by moment and day by day acknowledging that you're in his presence. Proverbs 3:5 and 6.

In all your ways acknowledge him. Don't lean on your own understanding. He will direct your path.

Jesus said, "If you abide in me, I abide in you. Uh you'll know the truth. The truth will set you free.

" And so, it's the presence of the Lord, time in his word with him, and prayer, acknowledging his presence with you, and having the motivation that I want to show uh my love for God by doing the things that he has planned for me to do. So, I hope you'll do this. I hope you will intentionally stay away from indulging yourself, comparing yourself, thinking that you can save yourself and always rest in what Christ has accomplished for you.

and trusting yourself to him.