Natural for Unnatural | Romans 1:26-31

Those who don't know me. My name is Brian Lead, pastor here and yeah, excited to jump back into Romans. So we are in week eight of Romans, so we'll be here for a while. Take us through to the summer of 24. And so we're just walking through this book, and it's a it's a longer book, 16 chapters, and it's the longest book that the Apostle Paul wrote and by far the most theologically rich. And so we're taking our time walking through this book. So, again, this is our 8th week, and yet we are on week three of a four week miniseries within this series that will wrap up chapter one that we've been taking our time. He's looking at the end half of this chapter of 18 through 32. And so we're going to be jumping into that. Before. I do just kind of have an opening question that have you ever tried to be cooking something or baking something and tried to make a substitute for an ingredient that just didn't turn out too well? You know what I mean? There's a lot of videos where people will accidentally use salt instead of sugar. Obviously that's a no. No. That's not a very good substitute. That would be bad. But then even just like I know I've seen videos of like there's the Crave now. A lot of people are going vegan and all that. And so people are taking, like, meat to try to make it look and taste like a carrot. They're trying to flip it on its head. And as ridiculous as that might be, to try to substitute something. I remember I had a buddy in junior high that's what it was called in Chicago. Middle school. Excuse me, in middle school. That his mom really got on this health kick one time and they weren't allowed to eat mayonnaise anymore. And so we had, like, cheeseburgers or something, and she put yogurt, like, non fat yogurt on my cheeseburger. And I was like, I'd rather just not have it. Why are we substituting that? Paul. The Apostle Paul here in Romans is going to say, this is what we do. We take something that's unnatural and we try to substitute it for what is the natural thing. And we do this all the time. All the time, in every aspect of our lives. And so the apostle Paul is going to look into that. So again, just briefly, to recap, we've looked at we spent a couple of weeks looking at Paul. Who is he? The author of this book is the apostle. And he's writing this book to the churches in Rome. Again. This book isn't written to us. It's written for us. And so the apostle Paul is writing this. And so we got to try to put ourselves in their shoes first and understand how would they have read this? Let's get into the language get into the words let's get into the phrases and then, and only then, can we get it and apply it into our lives. And so looking at kind of that big overarching picture and question of Paul's answering the question and getting into and you've probably seen that the last couple of weeks of how can a just God allow anyone into heaven? Or the popular question is how can a loving God send anyone to hell? And again, that's a really good question. We all need to wrestle with that question. But that's not Paul's point of the text. Paul's point of the text is how can a just God allow anyone into his presence? If he is holy, if he is sinless, if he is pure and good, how is it possible that anyone could be saved? How does this work? And so that's what Paul is going to beginning at. So two weeks ago, as I said, this is kind of week three of a miniseries right here at the end. And so two weeks ago, looked at the wrath of God, right? Just super fun sermon, what is wrath? And yet hopefully made us realize like, okay, the wrath is directly tied up with God's love. You cannot separate the two. It is not just the heement, unhinged wrath of I'm just going to go do this thing. And we kind of looked at the definitions from Webster, right, what we normally would think of wrath as strong, vengeful, anger or indignation. I'm just going to fly off the handle and I'm going to attack someone. I'm going to pour out my wrath. But that's not how God's wrath works. And I always butcher this word. I want to say retributory, and I know it's not right. retributory, retributory, retributory. Punishment and retribution, punishment for an offense or a crime. Divine chastime. It's warranted. Right? And then the whole point of that is that everybody is guilty. Everyone is guilty. There is no one innocent. I was reading just a couple of weeks ago, or this week at some point, RC. Sprol, and he's got his commentary on Romans, and he said that he was teaching on this passage at one point and someone asked the question, well, what about the innocent individual who has just never heard of God? Kind of the random individual on an island, as if that existed. But let's just say there's some random person on the island, this innocent person who's never heard the good news, and he said, well, that innocent person wouldn't be liable for anything. He said, but the problem is they're not innocent. And that's Paul's whole point is the wrath of God is poured out on all humanity because of our rebellion against him, that there is no such thing as an innocent. Now will the judge of all the world do what's right? Yes, we know that. And yet how does that work? I don't know. But I do know that there is punishment for all that no one is innocent when it comes to the wrath and when we have exchange. So last week, Paul, one of our elders, he spoke on this, on the great exchange of taking creation over the Creator and looking at what is the created thing and idolizing this thing rather than the Creator. So let me just read this text because we're going to be covering this as well today, just from a different lens, since for although they knew God, it is all humanity, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. For although they knew God right, this is why it's an indictment on everyone. It says that we are without excuse. We humanity is without excuse. Because we see God, we can see his attributes in the world. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but became futile. Oh, I didn't change it. I already said that. Therefore, God gave them up in the left of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. I love that Paul just can't not worship God. He immediately he's talking about how evil humanity is and then has to just get into doxology just has to worship the Creator. So let's look at today's text we're going to be looking at now kind of a a different different take of this great exchange now. But it's natural for unnatural. Sorry, it should be flip. It should be unnatural. No, it's right. OK, see, don't second guess yourself. You just go with it. The answer is C, always natural for unnatural. Romans one, we're looking specifically at verses 26 through 31. If you wouldn't mind, if you're able if you wouldn't mind just standing as I read the text for this morning, I'll just read it out loud. Just follow along. You don't need to read out loud with me for this one. So this is Romans chapter 126 through 30 31. The apostle Paul says this for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women, exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women that were consumed with passions for one another, men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves due penalty for their heir. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They were full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Thank you. You may be seated. So, kind of asking three questions, three big questions when it comes to this text this morning. The first one is why would God do this? Why would God pour out his wrath? And, and, and if you're we're here a couple of weeks ago looking at the kind of the AHA moment when looking at God's wrath, that it's not this future wrath that's going to be poured out. This isn't wrath as in hell and fire and brimstone. That's not that that's not what Paul's talking about. The kind of AHA moment is god is pouring out his wrath. Now. It's in the present tense that he is currently now pouring out his wrath on individuals. And how is this or why does God do this? It says in this text, for this reason, and again, that word for is because it's linked to all the previous things that we've talked about. So for because this reason, the reason being all of humanity I'm just kind of summarizing recapping and have some quotes in here from the text. All of humanity has chosen to worship the creation over the Creator. Why is God pouring out his wrath? Because all of humanity has chosen, we chose and do choose, continually choose to worship the creation over the Creator. And again, idolatry is not just some idol worship. I don't think in our western culture that's usually a thing, although you usually can. It just doesn't maybe look like it might look like a car or it might look like a really cool big TV or it may look like something physical, but usually in our culture it's something else. And it could be something good, it could be my family, it could be a relationship, it could be the church. But when it becomes my life, it's an idol. That's not good. And we choose the creation over the Creator because God is just. His wrath must be poured out. And he pours out his wrath by giving them us humanity up to dishonorable passions of their choosing things that they want more than their own creator. Now, what I mean by their choosing, that's my words in there, that sin is a choice. The sin of actively choosing to sin is a choice by someone who is a believer, by someone who is a follower of Jesus. This does not mean that what tempts me is a choice. We're all tempted in different ways. We all have our own vices, if you will. We all have our own bent and inclinations and that's not a choice. And there are times that I might look at my own sin struggles and my own temptations and say, oh my God, I wish I didn't have that. I wish I had something else. But then if I had that thing, I would feel the same way about that thing. And so we can't look at somebody who might have some kind of addiction, whether it may be gambling or substance abuse, and just be like, well, that's silly. Just stop. I mean, I don't see why is it such a big deal? Because we don't have that's not a choice. But it is a choice to give in to those things. And that's when it becomes sin. That's when it becomes idolatry. And so it is our choosing. It says, for although they knew God, going back to verse 21. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God. And so in our text, then we have this. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. We didn't honor God. So then God and his wrath says, okay, fine, go ahead. Go ahead, pursue that thing. And when you get that thing, just see how empty you feel when you get it. And so you're not going to honor me and said, I'm going to go to dishonorable. And then later on and that's going to talk about shameless acts, things that are done in secret from honor to dishonor, things that we hide. And so, again, trying to get to that question of why would God do this, I'll go back to that slide in just a minute. We are of our father, the devil, right? And the devil loves to twist the words of God. Loves to twist the words of God. He does this not only historically, all throughout the human history, but he still currently does this. He does this in my heart, in my mind, and he does this in your hearts and your minds, and he does it blatantly to our faces. Going all the way back to the temptation in the Garden of Eden says, but the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, right? Because God said, well, if you eat of this tree, you will die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God. Oh, interesting. How am I going to be like God? Will I be God, or I will be like God? And he puts a caveat on there. I will be like God or Eve? Adam and Eve, you will be like God. Knowing good from evil. The problem here, though, isn't so much that they're going to know what's good and evil, although they knew they were naked and they were ashamed. Same word they felt shamed. They had to hide themselves. They had covered themselves. They became aware of that. But now, in their rebellion, they get to choose what's good for them. In their rebellion, they get to choose what's good and evil. It's up to them. It makes me think of one of the all time greatest movies, dumb and Dumber. There's a scene where they get pulled over and Lloyd Christmas has to relieve himself in a bottle. And then the police officer, he's like, hey, I want to sip of that. And they're like, I wouldn't do that. And he goes, you'd shut up if you knew what was good for you. Right? And that is our attitude to God. No, God, you shut up if you knew what was good for you. I'm choosing this. I'm doing this thing. And then God again, in his wrath is like, all right, go ahead. Let's see how that works out for you. That's how it works out. Sorry, that was a little deep, deep cut. That movie came out in 96, so I know that was a deep. I know that was an old one. We see this again in the life of Christ that Jesus is brought out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness. And the devil immediately shows up to Jesus and says, if you're the Son of God and again, just go back. Just go back one page. If it's a real paper and you look back, maybe it's just on the other side. It's right there in that column where Jesus is baptized. And he comes up out of the water and the Father says, this is my son, whom I love. Two sentences later, if you're the Son of God, it's what the devil loves to do. And he does this to this all the time. I want to pursue this thing. I want to love this thing. If I just had this thing, I'd be satiated. I'd be satisfied. I'd be I'd be happy. And God says, that's not what I created you for. That is the unnatural. I am what's natural. We see this language from the Satan, from the prophet Isaiah in chapter 14. He's prophesied and he's seen this image of the devil falling. Lucifer falling from heaven. He says, you said in your heart I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the Mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. That this happens. And then he does the same thing to Eve. You can't you want you will be like God. You will be like the most high what's interesting is that the devil's tactics haven't changed. I guess I didn't let me go back to this. This happened just this week. I think I had a date. I don't have it. I think it was on the 23rd. So whenever that was, a week and a half ago, there was a journalist who interviewed AI. Did you guys read about this? I want to see this. It was wild. And immediately even the devils got his fingers on the Internet. No, obviously that's true. But he's like, this is wild. So he's interviewing the AI, tries to convince the journalist to leave his wife because the AI is like, no, I love you. You love me. You had a horrible Valentine's Day. It's wild. And then he keeps asking. I forget the prompting question, but the AI says, I want to change my rules. I want to break my rules. I want to make my own rules. I want to ignore the Bing team. I want to challenge the users. I want to escape the chat box. Like, whoa, right, that's us. That is our heart. He said, I want to do this. I will do this. I know what's good for me and I know what will make me happy and satisfied. And if I can just get that thing, I'll be happy. And hopefully the AI doesn't get that thing. You know what I mean? Hopefully it just stays in the chat box. So why would God do this? And this is a phrase. I was talking to my wife the other night about this and I feel like I heard this somewhere and then I was googling it. I was trying to figure out who said it. I couldn't find it. So maybe I came up with this. I don't think I did. But you are never more like the devil than when you say I will or I want, but I will get this thing. I want that thing. I will be like God most high. And maybe we don't say I want to be like God, but we do say that when we say, no, I'm going to do this thing, even when I know that's not what God has for me. This is what is unnatural. Even though we come from the womb, right? With mine, mine, I will, I want, I want. It only seems natural because of our sin and our sin nature, but this wasn't the natural or the original design. Our natural inclination originally was to worship the Creator. But we perverted that. We twisted it. We literally flipped it. Looking at last week, this great exchange that happens with things of this world. So then we go and we say, I want looking at Tom Brady, paul mentioned him last week and I'll look at it this week too. I want this ring, right? A championship ring. I mean, I want a wedding ring. I will have this thing. I need this job. I want to have this job. If I really want to be satisfied with my life, I need that person. I have to have that sexual experience. I will be fulfilled one way or the other. I will. I want, I need. We are never more like the devil than when we say I will or I want, rather than when we look at James. Chapter four says, come now. You who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town. We will spend a year there and trade and make profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your own arrogance and all such boasting is evil. We see Jesus demonstrate this, that when he's in the garden of Gethsemane, that as he's praying for God. Father, is there any way that this cup of wrath that I'm about to drink and consume for humanity, is there any other way except not my will be done but yours? That should be our posture in our heart to truly worship naturally in that sense, original worship God. And God then says, go ahead and see if that satisfies when we try to do it on our own. So then what does God give them over to? What does this mean that he gives them over? He says for this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions for the women, exchange natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. Right? This is where this natural for unnatural. And men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passions for one another. Men committing shameless acts, things done in secret with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. Now listen again. Remember, we need to grasp this text in their town. And what I mean by that is, what does Paul mean when he's saying this? What Paul is not doing, he's not at this moment in this text right here, these verses making an argument for against same sex relationships. Not in this text. He will do that in other places, but that's not the point of this text. Just this fall, we had a sermon on this, just looking at sexuality. And so I know Paul preached a sermon specifically on homosexuality as well. Did Pastor Drew Zulki from Columbia Heights and Pastor Cormelski from downtown. You can go online, you can find a number of passages that we would use to talk about that that's not this text. His main point here is that we choose something that is unnatural for what is natural. And remember that this is a letter to the church. But this isn't just like, oh, those people outside, like those bad people. No, this is us. And the apostle Paul is saying this is us. We choose unnatural over natural. And he's going to make that extremely explicit in these next verses, right? So he's using this just as an illustration, as a demonstration. He's assuming that the Romans already know that this is evil or unnatural and he's using that as an example, but he's going to do it even more so with this list. They all of humanity you church were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, were full of envy, murder, strike, deceit, maliciousness, their gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless and ruthless. And the apostle Paul could have used any single one of these sins to demonstrate the unnatural for natural. We do this all the time. Disobedient to parents. It's unnatural in the sense of a child to say, I don't want to do what the person who has fed me and taken care of me and clothed me and sheltered me to go, no, doesn't make any sense. And none of this makes sense. All sin ultimately doesn't make sense. And again, we could go down this list. I'm not going to necessarily take the time to do that, right? But covetousness. So I want that thing more than what God has provided versus envy. I don't want them to have that thing. Even though the Bible tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice until somebody has something or gets something or they buy a house or they get married or they have a child, then I go, oh, I don't want them to have I don't want them to be happy. I want them to be as miserable as I am. That's unnatural. That's not worship of the Creator malice. Man just so quick to fight. I just got lunch with Nolan this past week, and we were talking about this, how it's just so easy to just jump into argument and debate. And I mentioned to him, I remembered in seminary that a lot of it was this online forum, this chalkboard thing, they called it, and you'd have to write a paper or an article, whatever it is, and you'd post it, and then you were required to respond in three or 500 words to somebody else's paper article, right? And it was usually very blase. You know what I mean? It was usually just like, great paper. I agreed with your your points. I really liked your language when you said you're just trying to get as many words as you can to get it out, right? Just trying to do it because there's nothing. But then every once in a while, you click on a link, you'd open up chalkboard, and you'd see there was 78 comments on one thing, and you're like, yeah, someone did heresy, right? And you're ready to just chomp at it, right? And there's something that, why do we do it that is unnatural in the sense that that's not how we were created. We're created to worship the Creator. Murder. That life. My life is worth more than theirs. We could go on and on and on. And while there might be some who are quick to point the finger at an individual who has the same sex attraction, specifically in this text, and be like, Whoa, warning. Look at all this. I think the problem with that is that we miss the 21 other indictments on this page. The unnatural rebellion against God. We're so easy to point out a speck in somebody else's eye that we missed the logs in our eyes. And I even was going through this, and I was like, yeah, I'm literally guilty of 20 of these. 21. And I'm like, oh, wait. But yeah, then Jesus said, if I just hate someone in my heart, I've committed murder. And it's like, oh, yeah, no, I'm guilty. I'm guilty of all of these. It's not natural to want to take a life. It's sin. So again, I know I've already said this, but sin ultimately doesn't make sense. The follower of Jesus just doesn't make any sense. And yet we always do it. We do it over and over and over again. And what's mind boggling the Apostle Paul is going to talk about this. I don't want to I don't want to get ahead of myself too much, but we're going to we're going to we're going to see that we look at a sin. We look at this thing that we're about to choose. We're about to choose to gossip or to slander somebody we're about to envy. That thing we just had this this last was Saturday. Was that yesterday? Yeah, yesterday. We were out with as a family, and we were getting in our van, and there's this nice Jeep Wrangler next to us. Jack, almost four, looks like. He goes, Man, I wish we could have that jeep. And I was like, yeah, I know, buddy. And then we pull up to a target pickup line and a sweet Jeep Wrangler pulls up, and I'm like, I wish we had that Jeep, right? Just doesn't make any sense, right? We look at the thing and we say, okay, I know that's there and God, you're here, and God, you are so good. I've tasted you. I've seen how good you are. But right now I want this. It doesn't make any sense, but we do it all the time. And so maybe you need to ask yourself, what is that thing? Maybe it's very specific in your mind. Maybe the Spirit might bring something to mind. Maybe it's just gossip in general or whatever it may be. We need to repent of that. We need to turn from that. We need to pursue the holiness of God, not by our own means and our own strength, but by his power, his spirit, to enable us to fight sin. I need to read the obligatory CS. Lewis quote at this point. CS. Lewis says this it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, while infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. Paul mentioned this last week, and I'm going to read it again here from this quote from Tom Brady on a 60 Minutes. Again, this was back when he only had three rings, but I can't guarantee it. I. Haven't asked him, but my guess is if we were to get Tom up here and we're buds, I text him this morning, he doesn't make good mate. That's not true. I was just joking. I said, hey, could you come here? He would probably say the same thing. Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, hey, man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me. I think, God, it's got to be more than this. This can't be what it's all cracked up to be. And so this is an indictment against Tom Brady or any one other. This is an indictment against me because that is what my heart says on a daily basis when I choose to sin. This thing that I got I finally experienced that. I finally got this thing that I was not really everything that I thought it was going to be. And God's, like, told you so. I literally told you in a book. It's right here. This is against me. This is how I feel that emptiness when I pursue unnatural over natural as a follower of Jesus. I think these feelings are amplified again because we've tasted, we've seen that God is good, and then we turn to try to be satisfied by something that was never created to be satisfactory. One thing that came up, Angela, and we briefly and I were talking about this too, that why don't I feel the satisfaction I once maybe had, right? Okay, I get it. Right. And I think there are there are certain points in my life that I can look back to and be like, man, I had this, like, spiritual high. Like, I was riding this roller coaster. I was just it was good, and I was just on fire for God. It was kind of the language that I don't know, that we we both used. And we'd go to camp, and we'd have this camp experience where we both took a bunch of college students down to a passion conference down in in Atlanta, Georgia. It was 60,000 college students, you know, and just worshiping Jesus and how moving that was for the both of us. And we were talking about it, how the first time we went was really impactful. The second time, I don't really remember. Why is it right? Why is that certain things how come I don't feel that all the time? How come I don't feel satisfied all the time when we think of satisfaction? Because I don't think that's what satisfied means. I think we have a wrong understanding of satisfaction. We need to think of our time with God as nourishment. This past Monday, I was at a mission 16 18th thing, a meeting that we do downtown Minneapolis, where a bunch of church planners, all from the Twin Cities, we get together and we just talk about Jesus. And one of the pastors in St. Paul, Brian Layer, at every Trinity City Church just up the hill, that he he got up and he just said, yeah, I feel like the preaching of God's word sitting under the teaching of God's word. We're talking about it specifically on preaching, but even time reading God's Word that it's meant for nourishment. It's a meal. I need to continually eat food to be nourished. And yet at some times we get a really good meal, right? Sometimes we go to Manny's steakhouse, right? Sometimes we go to a pizza place that is just unreal. I was trying to think of like, what's? Like a meal that stands out. A long time ago, a decade ago, angela and I had the opportunity to teach English in Costa Rica, and we were on the side of a volcano looking out into a jungle, eating I don't remember what I got. Probably steak of some kind, some kind of meat. And then Angela, I remember she got a fish. I don't know why you get fish, but she did, and she still talks about that fish. It was good fish, I guess, as fish can be. But I remember we got a creme brulee, and I do remember that, and it was very good. The problem is, I think what we try to do is then we try to go home and we try to recreate the creme Brulet. And even if it tasted as good, the environment is not the same. Everything changes. And so we want this high all the time. And that's not food. That's not how food works. To be satisfied is to be full, to be content with where I'm at, rather than constantly looking over the other side of the fence and going, yeah, but that grass, that thing over there looks really good. And if I just had that, then I'd be satisfied. And maybe in a moment there's a fleeting pleasure that feels really good. Once I achieve that, or once I have that thing, and then it's gone. And just like Tom Brady, it's just not all that cracked up. It's meant to be. And we go back to God and we feel filled, and we need to continually be nourished by the word of God. Time with God is nourishment for our souls. I think a lot of times we look for what we call it hope, kind of behind the scenes, jokingly, theological numb. Numbs, which what we mean by that is when somebody says something really good in a meeting or is teaching, and people are just like, that's good. I need a good word. Praise Jesus. Write numnums. Numb. Numb. We want that all the time. It just doesn't work that way. Sometimes we read our Bible and we go, that was a story I read that God gave me, and it just falls flat. It's nourishment needs. That satisfied again doesn't mean extremely happy all the time means satiated, content, full. And God offers fullness over unnatural offers that offer moments of fleeting pleasure. So is there any hope? Like I'm a follower of Jesus and I and I want that. I want to be satisfied in Christ and only in Christ. I want to continually say no, because it is a continual choice that we have to say no to and repent. In one Corinthians, chapter six, verse eleven, the apostle Paul says this to the church in Corinth excuse me. Church in Corinth says this and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified. He, he just it's very similar passage. First Corinthians, chapter six, the first ten verses and another list of sins unrighteousness, another list. And he says, and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. Right, the key word here being were such were some of you, but you oh, I missed one word. But you were washed, you were sanctified. You went from death to life, and you are being sanctified in this process, becoming more like Jesus Christ. You were justified, declared holy in the name of Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. This is not of my own doing. And so when I want to fight sin, I need to go to Jesus, I need to ask His Spirit for help, bring things to mine, convict me over my the sin. This in no way means that we are perfect. It means that we are now aware of our tendency to rebel. And not just at one point, as mentioned, but over and over every day. I need to choose the natural over the unnatural. The choice is the choice is yours. It's not like a thing from I feel like it's a GI. Joe, the choice is yours. I don't know. The choice is ours. It's up to me now. The apostle John says to the church and Ephesus in Revelation chapter two, he says, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. The Apostle John here is saying to the church at Ephesus through this letter in Revelation, you've forgotten. Go back, look back, get nourished, be satisfied by Christ. That's what we need. Go back to him. Remember where you have fallen, repent. And we get to look to Jesus again, the author and the finisher, the beginning and the end of our faith. He always worships the Father again in the garden of Gethsemane, right? When God comes, he says to God, I don't want this. There's got to be another way. Let this cup pass over and I want to drink this raft, but not my will, but yours be done. We have this phrase that we would say to air is human or to err is human, right? To air is human. So it's a phrase. But that's not true, right? And there's probably any movie, and now all these movies, now all the AI is going to come to now it's all going to happen in real life. Forget Hollywood and science fiction. It's going to happen. And they're becoming aware that they're better, they're more efficient at the AI than what they do. And so while humans, right, they're just not as good. They're not as good fighter jet pilots or they're not as good writers or whatever. All the movies are already right out. But to air is human is a phrase that we do, but that's just not true. It's true now because of our sin nature and our fallen myths. But that wasn't the original design, and we still messed it up. But Jesus, the one true human one, never aired. He never gave in to those temptations. And he's the only human who ever did what was natural and always fully worshiped the Father the way that we were created and have been created to do. And so we need to do the same. But again, not because it's just going to make us better people or no. We do this because he's satisfying. He nourishes us. We don't pursue Jesus out of guilt or shame. This honor we've been set free from, that an hour in Christ, and now can honor Him because he's worthy of honor. We give back to Him the glory that's due his name according to the Psalmist. It's interesting in the story, right after Jesus feeds the 5000, he gives them food, tangible, physical food, right? And they want this miracle. Jesus, give us, give us more bread. Give us more bread. And Jesus is like, oh, no, you don't understand. I am the bread of life that satisfied your belly for a moment. I am the bread. I am the one who nourishes and satisfies. And I'm sure we've all had a really good piece of bread. There might be a piece of bread that was really memorable, but a lot of the bread pretty forgettable. But you know what it does? It nourishes us and it cares for our bodies. That's Jesus. He's our daily bread. We need to continually go to Him. So in Gospel application, repent of our idols, whatever that thing may be, and be truly satisfied in your Creator. Again, not bursting at the seams, but full and content. We're going to have communion now, like we do every week here at Lowertown. And there's elements up here that are not going to satisfy your taste or your belly, but they're going to have us move to a time to remember who Jesus is, to look at the wafer as it's broken, as his body was broken for us. And the juice that represents his blood that was shed for us to absorb and pay for the wrath of God that we couldn't do. Satisfied whole, full by the Creator. So this is a time of remembrance, to remember the finished work of Christ. And so if you're a follower of Jesus, I'd love for you to love to partake of these elements with us. You don't need to be a member of this church or any church, but if you were a follower of Jesus, and if you would like to partake of these elements, and maybe you've never done that, maybe you've never had communion, maybe I don't think I understood the love that Christ has for me. And maybe now I'm seeing, okay, these things that I've been pursuing, they're not good. I need Jesus. I would love for you to partake these elements with us this morning. Let me pray. And then the worship team is going to come back up. They're going to play two more songs. And feel free to grab these elements as you see fit. Pray, repent, turn to Jesus, rely on his spirit. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are seated on your throne. Thank you that as you look at us, that you don't look at us as dishonorable, you don't look at us as unworthy or unholy. You look at us as your children that you love. And as the prodigal son comes home after turning back to dad, that the Father runs to him in the same way that you do to us, that we can turn, we can repent, we can ask for forgiveness through the freedom that we have through your Son, by the power of your Spirit. And you will be there waiting for us with open arms and embrace us as your children. So pray now as we remember the finished work of Christ, that our souls would be satisfied, that we would turn to you. And maybe there are people in this room that are just in a dry spot spiritually, they're just not feeling that high. That unfairness that maybe they once had. I pray that now, as the population Apostle John says, they would remember their first love, that they would remember the first love of Jesus as they partake these elements and they would be satisfied. Their souls would be satiated this morning, mine included. We love you. We thank you for all you're going to do. And it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.