So good to see you this morning. Thank you for coming out on a little bit of a messy weekend. But no one's going to complain, right? We need the rain. So if you're complaining, we'll us you on out right now.

Just kidding. Turn to Isaiah, chapter 58. Put your finger there. As I was listening to that song, that last song we did, Goodness of God, and it gets the bridge and you start singing, your goodness is running after your. It's running after me.

Started having this image in my head that some of you in this room are trying so hard to live life. You're actually outrunning the goodness of God. Because if you notice, it gets to that point where he says, I lay down, I surrender all. Like, I think some of you today, if you would be honest, you're tired of being tired and you're running. And today is the day to stop.

Just stop running and let the goodness of God come over you like a wave at the ocean and just sit in his goodness. He has been faithful. Right now, you may be going through a time in your life where you just really can't find anything that you would say you're thankful for. But I bet if you dig just a little bit and you start kind of honing in on those things God has done and not what you think God hasn't done. I watched a video this weekend where this guy said, does God always answer prayer?

And the guy said, yes. He said, sometimes the answer is no, but he always answers our prayer. Today, if you were honest, would you say you're trying so hard to be good, to be right, to be perfect, to do everything, that you've just outrun the goodness that God has for you. Lord, I don't know who that might be in here today. It may be somebody joining us online that needs to hear pause, stop.

Like Elijah at the mouth of the cave, hearing all the torrent of wind and fire and volcanic activity. But in the midst of that, that still small voice, God, today somebody needs to stop and yield, to lay down and surrender and stop trying to outpace you. But I pray that you grab them in your arms and hold them close and bring them comfort. Especially on today, like as Fred read those names. There are multiple families today having a first because their soldier didn't come home.

They didn't plan for that. They didn't wish that God bring comfort, bring healing on a day when we remember those who have given their life, that we may have the freedoms we have, because someday we may not. So we'll be thankful for it now. And even when persecution comes, God let us find gratitude in you. We love you in Jesus name, Amen.

So with today being Memorial Day weekend, I kind of chased a squirrel or a rabbit, whichever one. No, seriously, like I started looking at the history of D day. The anniversary, 82nd anniversary of D Day is coming up in about a week and a half. June 6, 1944, when the Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy and shifted and changed the tide of World War II on the European front. What intrigued me though was the history behind what led up to that battle.

It was called Operation Bodyguard and it started really a year before the battle. One historian commented that it took really a year to set up the stage to be able to come to Normandy and take the Germans by surprise. In fact, they even said if they would have been given a 48 hour notice, Normandy would have not been effective. In Operation Bodyguard there was a subpart to that. And what they did was they created an illusion, say illusion.

They created this front where the Allied forces began to set decoys. In Great Britain, in Scotland, of all places, in Edinburgh. Isn't that crazy? I mean, that's a little bit close to our heart, right? And they also went down to Dover, and Dover is down at the southeast corner of the island of Great Britain and it's closest to the European continent.

21 miles from Dover to a city called Calais. They call it the Pas de Calais. They had ferry boats, they had ferry boats that go between these two points to charter people between France and Great Britain. And so over a year time they began to leak to double spies that got to the Germans, that they were amassing forces in Edinburgh and Dover. In Edinburgh they wanted to come over and attack in Norway and they were giving the information that the Allied forces were going to come attack at Calais.

That's not what they did through decoys. They set up barracks in Dover, they set up false tanks, planes, they had all of this equipment, but there was no one there. They even put General Patton over this operation and he wasn't there. It was an absolute illusion. It was a decoy.

And so on June 6, 1944, they attacked 200 miles south of Calais in Normandy and turned the tide. Hitler had sent troops to Calais and even after the attack, they were still convinced somebody was coming across Pas de Calais to attack. And a year later, they won the European front. It all stemmed from one battle based on an illusion, deception. You know, our enemy does us that way.

Did you know that our enemy is a master at giving us false information? In fact, we know from scripture Paul called Satan an angel of light. Are we not talking about illumination? You see, Satan poses himself an illusion. He deceives us.

He threatens us with things that don't exist. He distracts us. He puts decoys in our life to lure us away. Satan excels out of feeding us wrong light, fake light. I mean, even in this room today, Satan poses, excuse me, as false light, false religion and false righteousness.

Some of you sitting here today have put your security of salvation based on your own salvation. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 about parading self righteousness? That they would pray and they would fast and they would give so that other people would see them sometimes at the expense of other people. That's fake light. If you go back and read Matthew 6, what you're reading is false light.

We're sitting in a room right now. I don't know what kind of brand these bulbs are, but these bulbs might help you find your reading glasses so you can read this text. But it's not going to grow tomatoes. There's a fusion reactor in the sky that brings us true light, that brings growth. You realize without the sun, like right now, I'd like to see a little sun, but I'm thankful for the rain and the mist.

I don't like these easterly wedges because they're cold. That's why I wore a sweater and now I'm sweating. That's why they call them sweaters. Okay, but you know, if you don't get enough sunlight, you become vitamin D deficient. And some of you in here today, your faith is vitamin D deficient because you're looking at false light.

Satan is parading himself as truth. You see, he convinces the world that he doesn't exist and he convinces the church that he's not a problem. It's false light. And see, he even will let you use things in the name of religion to draw in the ignorant in order to manipulate the truth so that he can steal, kill and destroy. In fact, it's actually ironic that the God of this age blinds the minds of unbelievers, but he does it with light.

Fake light. You and I as Christians need to train ourselves to be able to discern between what's false and what's true. We need to humble ourselves enough to stop for a moment and go, you know, it's not my goodness that matters, it's his goodness working in me that I can shift from being arrogant to being thankful for what the Lord has done for me. Are you thankful for Something this morning God's done for you. Is gratitude welling up in you because of how good God has been for you?

If you have arrived, if you are perfect, you didn't get there on your own. God is working in you. And even Paul said, not that I have already obtained it, but I press forward to the goal today. Are you banking on your own righteousness or on his? You see, and that's the problem that we approach when we look at Isaiah 58, Isaiah 58 and 59 go together and there's a charge that God gives, but then he gives ahove.

I want you to notice something right off the bat. He's going to call them out for sinning in their self righteousness. He's going to call them out for sinning in their self righteousness. Listen to verse number one. I'm not going to ask you to stand today, okay?

So don't worry about standing. We're just going to start in verse one and go all the way to the end of the book of Isaiah. Y' all got a holiday tomorrow, right? We can stay here two hours. Cried loudly.

Do not hold back. I'm going to put that on every sermon from this point on. Raise your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their transgression into the house of Jacob. Their sins. Flip a page for just a moment to 59.

2. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. And your sins have hidden his face that he does not hear.

If you take those as bookends, everything in the middle here, God's about to expound something. He's not going to talk about getting drunk. You know what he's going to talk about? Self righteousness. Follow me in verse number two.

Yet they talking about the Israelites seek me day and day by day and delight to know my ways as a nation that has done righteousness. This is their claim, not God's. This is God. Their claim that has done righteousness has not forsaken the ordinance of their God. They ask me for just decisions and delight in the nearness of God.

In other words, they're boasting in themselves that their appearance of righteousness is good enough. That they're seeking God. But what we're about to find out is that they didn't find him because they didn't find his heart.

You will seek me and find me. Jeremiah wrote, when you seek after me with your whole what heart?

Why, this is the Israelites saying this. Listen to the arrogance of this verse. Why have we fasted and you do not see us, why have we humbled ourselves? But you do not notice. Behold, he says, the day of your fast you'll find desire and drive hard all your workers.

In other words, here's what's happening and we're going to unpack this. These self righteous Israelites were going, you know what, we've got problems. We're under probably most likely a drought. Why would they have drought? If you go back and you study the Old Testament covenant, if they were breaking the covenant, they were assured there would be drought.

So they decide, well, let's do something religious, let's go fast. We're going to fast and seek God's face all the while that they're oppressing their brothers and sisters. You see, Jesus Christ saved you so that you could have a relationship with God. He bridged the gap. Correct.

Would you say that God values relationships? Would you say God values relationships over how right you are?

Yes. You can do religious things and not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And God is calling you to be right in relationship with those who are around you. And if you're not right with those who are around you because of your stubbornness, because of abuse, because of all kinds of sin, it negates the religious. And you may say, hey, I came to church today, it's Memorial Day weekend.

I could have been on the boat, I could have been doing anything else. But I gave, I impressed God by showing up today. I twisted God's arm to do what I wanted to do. That's what they did when they worshiped baal. They think if they worshiped baal, he would send rain twisting Baal's arm, obligated by the God to do what they wanted him to do or the asterisk, same thing.

And they actually, I think they enjoyed the worship. I won't go any further than that because there's kids in the room. They would do sick and disgusting things to elicit these gods who were obligated to respond to them. But we serve a God who's calling us to respond to him. So we cry loud and we declare, if I want in a right relationship with the Lord, I've got to put sin to death.

So you pick up in verse number five and God begins this if then structure. We're going to see it again when we get to verse number eight. Is this a fast like the one I would choose for a day for a man to. What does that say in your Bible? Humble himself?

When you're going to humble yourself, you're not Just humbling yourself in one part. You're humbling yourself across the board. You're divorcing yourself that you actually know perfectly, that you do perfectly. Are you with me? Like, we divorce ourselves from that when we truly come before God.

Humble. Humble means that I am physically placing myself before the Lord and saying, God, I am empty. I am ignorant. I can't. I need you.

He says, is it for bowing one's head like a reed? Y' all remember Leo Mazzoni when he coached with the Braves? If you looked at dugout, he's sitting here doing this. It's kind of like what they looked like. It's like they were at a baseball game.

They're sitting there rocking back and forth. I guess to think that makes the fast even more. But what it was doing was going, look at me. Are y' all following me? Like, look at me.

When you do works of righteousness for the public to see, that is your reward.

And spreading out sackcloth and ashes like a bed, like publicly laying these things out, going, look at me, people. But they're saying they want God to see it. But if they wanted God to see it, then they would take in his entire council about the way they were living. Look what he says. Is this not a fast?

Which I would choose Verse six to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke. What's he saying there? You're fasting, but you're abusing your neighbor. You're abusing your brother and sister. They're in bondage.

And here you are self righteously, arrogantly coming forward to God saying, God, you owe me because I'm fasting. Verse 7. This is where it's going to hit hard. Ready, is it not? To divide your bread with the hungry.

What were they doing? Say it. They were fasting to bring the homeless poor into the house. And when you see the naked, you cover him. And not to hide yourself from your kinsmen.

Basically, what God was saying was this. You've pushed the food away from your plate, but you're not generous enough to go out there and give it to somebody who's starving. There's a word for that. It's called hypocrisy. That I would flaunt my righteousness at the expense of turning a blind eye even to my own brother or sister.

No one in this room stands innocent in that. Now you know the weight of the humility that God was calling for them. And when I read Verse six and seven, you should have. Should have sounded familiar. I think Jesus said something about sheep and goats one time and he said to them when he separated, for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger. You invited me in naked and you clothed me. I was sick. You visited me.

I was in prison and you came to me. To the goats, he said, depart from me to the sheep. He said, come on in. Because what you did to the least of these, you did to me also. Church, right outside these doors there is a statement that said, our mission is to lead the broken to hope in Christ.

And when we in our self righteousness elevate our religiosity over concern for the broken, we've missed it. We've missed it. See, here's the thing. Remember I said the enemy parades himself. It's like he wants you to go over there and fast in your own little cubby room and ignore the needs of your neighbor.

He wants you to say, you know what? I've been praying five hours this week. But to turn a blind eye to someone who has been struggling, kind of like the man that comes to the altar in Luke 18 says, God, I thank you. I'm not like this other man. I fast weekly and I give like he's taunting.

And what y' all remember, y' all remember what, what the tax collector says, he says just a very short phrase, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner who left justified, not the man who was proclaiming his righteousness. You see, we're talking about light and light shining through us, the hope of Christ living through us. That light can either be true light coming from Christ or it could be false light. It won't grow a single tomato if you tried. So follow me in verse 8 I'm going to give you three points about this light.

And these words come straight from the text. And yes, Kevin was impressed with my triple alliteration.

There's going to be RRR C C C R R R. He's going to love it. It's going to be beautiful. Number one, light is released when I am concerned for true righteousness and that righteousness does not come from me. If my worship is shallow, self centered, drawing attention to myself, then I will never find the true righteousness that comes from the Lord. Case in point six four six says that my righteousness is filthy garments and your righteousness is filthy garments, stained rags, polluted and dirty.

We are righteously bankrupt. Zip, nada. We don't have Anything to stand on. So he became sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And that's something we can't muster up.

Being perfect in religion does not make you perfect in relationship. I want to get this right. I want to get relationship right. If I'm right with the Lord and he's changed my heart, then I will, like Christ, look at the people and see them scattered, abused sheep without a shepherd. And if I die to myself, then I'll realize this front, this illusion that I'm trying to live out is just fake life.

What would it look like today if you said, you know what, I'm going to die to the illusion that Satan has convinced me that I'm alright in and of myself, that I stand absolutely needed before the Lord today. Look at what he says here in verse 8. Then your light will break out like the dawn. I love watching a sunrise. You get that ember glow as it starts to come up.

I'm talking about on a clear day. And then you start seeing the rays of sunlight just kind of starting to paint the sky and stretching across the horizon and up to the top. It's beautiful, is it not? And you're waiting. You're waiting for that moment when the sun just begins to inch just above the horizon.

It's beautiful. You realize though that even when sometimes I'm looking at the horizon after the sun has come up, I can see fake light. When I was a kid, we'd ride to the beach and I'd be looking across that long stretch between Silver Springs and Daytona. It was real flat. And you'd see the heat coming up in front of you.

And I'd be like, are we at the ocean yet? It looks like the ocean. No, we're not there yet. Five minutes later. Hey, are we there yet?

No. 10 minutes later. Are we there yet? No. 15 minutes later.

I mean, I'm a seven year old. Are we there yet? I see it. I thought I saw it. It's called a Fata Morgana.

It's based off the character Morgan le Fay, who was connected, a fictitious character who sometimes was like in some stories, was the queen with King Arthur, sometimes was his sister, sometimes was an assistant to Merlin. Good and bad, just back and forth. Never knew what it was. And that's the illusion that you'll see sometimes at the horizon. It paints a mirage.

This is not a mirage. The sun comes up. It's a promise. And it will be. It says your recovery will.

Will spring forth speedily. How many of you really are tending gardens this year. Is there nothing more pleasurable? Putting a seed in the ground and going out there every day and looking at that dirt, looking at the dirt, looking at the dirt, and then you start seeing the dirt push up and then that green stem just pops out of the ground. That's satisfying, isn't is satisfying.

That's the same thing that this recovery, this redemption is coming speedily. What hope do I put in that, that God promised to make it happen? It's not of myself. He said that your righteousness will go before you. And when I receive his righteousness, now I've got a beam that shines out from me.

It's not mine, it's his. And he promised in that verse that the glory of the Lord would be my rear guard, that he would lead me and he would protect me. Some of you are running so hard, you're outrunning the protection of God and you're not following his direction. And then you stop and you're like, where in the world am I, God? You've left me alone.

And God says, no, I haven't left you. I haven't left you. You left me. Well, what's the answer? It's a six letter word.

It's called repent. To turn back. When I got lost at Six Flags as a young kid, all I could remember was where the bus was parked. So I went to the bus and I sat down because I could open the door back then and I sat down. I just went right back to where I started.

Folks, we need to do the same way if we're going to have this kind of hopeful light that lends us to this place where we can claim the promise. In verse nine, it says, then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry and he will say, here I am. Remember what he charged. They charged him.

In verse three, we've fasted and you do not see it. This is different. This is, you will cry out and I will hear you. But wait a minute, there's a key here. Verse 2 of 59.

Your iniquities have made a separation between you and God. And your sins has hidden his face that he will not. What hear. Do you want the Lord to hear you today? Then we need to consider this idea about how am I elevating religion?

Look at me over relationship. How am I connecting with those who are around me? You're here today, you're gathered together today, you're sitting around a lot of people. If God entered into a relationship with you through Jesus Christ. Now he's inviting the people of God to do the same.

The light of the world isn't here. The light of the world is sitting at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for you and me, you and I, who are spirit filled, faith filled, saved people are the lights of this world that are proclaiming the goodness of Christ.

So what is it for you? Because, see, here's the. Listen to how he reprimands them. Verse 9. Kind of halfway through that verse, if you remove the yoke from your midst.

Notice it says, if. We're going to get another if, then statement here. If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. What does all that mean? Well, first, removing the yoke.

They had oppressed people in their midst, and it was their brothers and their sisters. They were treating them as slaves. They were abusing them for selfish gain. The second one, they were pointing of the finger to get ahead in life. They were looking and blaming people for things they didn't do, calling out them publicly and then speaking wickedness.

Not only were they speaking wickedness in the sense of inviting others to sin, but they were speaking wickedness in the sense of slandering. They were going behind other people's back and speaking derogatory about them. Folks, if we think today we stand before the Lord guiltless, we're not. He's saying, look, this is. If you want, you can fast.

Fasting is not a bad thing, is it? It's not a bad thing. It is a great thing. But they weren't doing it from the heart because of the way they were treating other people. John Oswald said, oppression of the poor and the weak will not stop ultimately until they are no longer seen as objects of scorn, contempt and pitiful victims.

They must be seen as persons of worth and dignity. Brothers and sisters under God, how do you see the people around you? Do you look at them that way? If somebody comes in and sits down next to you and isn't dressed in their Sunday best, are you sitting there quietly judging them or even going out in the lobby going, man, did you see what that guy had on? That's not Ebenezer.

If we're going to lead the broken to hope in Christ, guess where we need to be? Right in the very ditch where they're broken. You know, we talk a lot about revival. We're going to pray a revival in. We're going to sing a revival in.

You want to see revival? Get in the ditch with the people who are hurting get in the ditch where people are. Care be concerned where they are. And if we're not concerned, repent today and say, lord, forgive me for my inability to help other people. Look at what he says in verse 10.

Give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted. I love this verse because let me, let me propose a different way to read it. And give your soul to the hungry and satisfy the soul of the afflicted. That's a little bit different than going and dropping a canned food in a box. This means I'm giving my life over for the benefit of somebody else.

As Fred quoted in his prayer, Jesus said, greater love has no one than this. That he would lay down his life for his friends. Second to that would be laying down my life for my friends, giving of myself. See, second point here is when it's exposed, when I really am laying transparent before the Lord, that light will raise me up if I'm convicted of selfish refusal. What I mean by selfish refusal when I say, well, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm not changing my ways. I'm going to keep abusing the oppressed. I'm going to keep pointing my finger. I'm going to keep speaking wickedness rather than dividing my bread. I'm bringing the homeless into my house.

Or he's going into verse 10. He says, if you give yourself to the hungry, satisfy the desires of the afflicted, what will happen then? Light will rise in darkness. You realize if this whole room was pitch black and I had one little candle up here, everyone's eyes would be fixed on this candle. A little speck of light can dispel a whole bunch of darkness.

And then look at the last one there, he says, and your gloom will become like midday. What does. Why is midday different? Because that's when the sun is at its apex in its full fullness. I was in Ecuador a week after spring, the first day of spring, when the sun was directly over the equator.

And so of course, you know, we did all the fun stuff. We went, tried to walk on the equator and we're all, you know, you can't keep your balance. And we did the whole run some water. And you see it run this way and then you see it run the other way. It's really cool.

But at that moment in the midday, we're standing there and you could only see a sliver of a shadow.

When we find that hope in us, when we lay ourselves exposed before God and that light begins to raise me up because I'm refusing to Misuse the people around me, I then can stand free. Don't you want to be free? See, I'm afraid that we don't realize that the more I abuse, put down gossip, slander other people, the more I actually put myself back in bondage of darkness. So let me give you a commercial next week. I'm going to talk a lot about darkness and I'm also going to talk about some other things you don't want to miss.

Pretty cool announcements coming next week.

Do you want to be bound or do you want to live in this idea that your gloom, that depressed state where you feel like darkness just can't seem to let up? When I tap into that hopeful light that God has put inside of me, it's like full length. Come on, give me some suntan lotion. I want to soak up every bit of it. Is that where you are today?

Let me ask you this question. Application. How am I elevating sacrifice, personal sacrifice, giving myself to somebody else over my own security? Or am I continuing in this illusion of righteousness, misusing and abusing and neglecting others for the sake of other people seeing me be religious? You want to find life in Christ?

Die to that side of yourself that religion gets you anywhere. Point number three, all this is leading up to promise. See, Satan's lies is just an illusion to the actual promise. That light then is restored in me and in the people of God when we're convinced that that his renewal is assured. God keeps his promises.

And listen to this string of promises in verse 11. The Lord will continually guide you. In other words, it won't be us leading ourselves. Remember, he said his righteousness would go before us. That's our guide, that's our direction.

And he says, and satisfy your desire in scorched places. I mean, he's saying, look, don't stay in that gloomy place. Don't stay in that dead place. Come out of that and live in a place of real life, he says, and it'll give strength to your bones like on a day like today. I think every joint in my body popped this morning.

Some of you stood up. You're not going, oh man, I just can't stand up. But when you stand erect, your bones are strengthened. You've got security and stability. He said he would give strength to your bones, give you the ability to get out of that darkness, give you the ability to get out of that gloom and bask in the joy of the hope of the Lord.

Listen, this is the good part. And you will be like a Watered garden. Some of you are going to look at your garden next week and you'll be like, oh, wow, I got to pop beans in a few weeks. This kind of rain we're getting right now, it's perfect for gardens. Tomatoes are going to start budding.

You're going to see the blooms. Cucumber plants are going to have those yellow blooms, the squash. All right, I'm making you hungry. It's lunchtime. A well watered.

What comes out of a garden? Fruit. Vegetables.

When you and I get this right about the righteousness of God, then we see fruit in our life. You want fruit in your life? You're not going to get it by going, well, came to church, checked. I read one and a half chapters. They checked, I gave, check.

What God is saying is if I do all these things, this list of self righteousness, but I neglect my brother or sister in need, I've missed it.

And I love this part. And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail, Jesus told the woman, the Samaritan woman at the well, everyone who drinks your water will thirst again. But whoever drinks the water that I'll give him will never thirst. And the water I give him will become in him. Listen.

A well of water springing up into eternal life. I got a river of life flowing out. Some of y' all know that song.

John 7, 37, 38. He repeats it on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles. He said, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Are you parched today? Are you dry?

Are you in gloom? Why don't you come and drink from the Savior? Cause he said in that verse, he made a promise that whoever will believe in him, as the scripture said, he's quoting the Old Testament. From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. That's more than just getting by in life, ladies and gentlemen, that's making an impact.

The last verse, he says, those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins. You will raise up the age old foundations. That's not talking about going doing church the way we did 50 years ago. He's talking about that city was destroyed because of the promise of God. He told them, I will scatter you, but I'll bring you back.

You'll have your home replaced. You'll have your reputation, your identity and your gathering will be restored. You know, we're living for another city, the one that Abraham talked about. A city that has no foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Can I remind you, God's sending Jesus back Someday.

Y' all need to think on that one for a moment. I bet some of you have some wonderful homes. Probably a lazy boy recliner somewhere in your living room. But it does not compare to what's going to happen when Jesus Christ returns. And as John said, he looked up and he saw the city of God coming down out of heaven.

God, I can't wait for that city. Streets of gold. Look at the way that verse was worded. He said, you will be called repairer of the breach. Some of you that are going through hard times know how to fix your wall.

And you need to be a source of hope for other people whose walls are broken.

The restorer of the streets in which you dwell. You know, streets is what leads us to those who are around us. I think it's time for some of us to realize God's called us to go out on the streets, not stay in our homes. See, if we withhold the light, if I withhold the light that God's given me, it negatively impacts this world. But if I would release that light, then people will see the light of Christ in my life.

Listen to what Peter said in 1st Peter 3:15. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your heart. Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. And you cannot give an account when hope is gone. Who need today needs some hope.

Well, I'm going to give you some advice. Number one, how are you elevating religion over relationship, even regarding Christ? Are you humbly submitting yourself to the Gospel? Do you understand that no matter what you've done, God, Christ is always willing, holding out his hand, saying, come, come sometimes. Again next week we're going to talk about hiding in the dark.

Are you hiding from him or are you running to him? How am I elevating sacrifice over security? Some of us need to step out of our comfort zone. Some of us may need to make a sacrifice for the benefit of those who are around us. Stop living in this Christian silo and look around you that the fields are white until harvest.

Let the light of the hope of Christ exude out of you. And then how are you elevating faith over function? Yes, we need to pray. Yes, we should fast. We need to read our Bible.

We need to come to church. But if the function becomes the focus rather than the faith. This is an idol that separates me from my God. Don't let church become your idol. Don't let your practice become an idol or your self righteousness may we be people, as Paul said, that are looking for the blessed hope.

If I'm looking for that blessed hope, then that hope is living within me. So I want you to bow your heads. Close your Bible up. Just bow your heads. Lord, I want to pray today for my friends and my family in this room.

Father, I really am broken even in myself, over how sometimes I even shame myself because I feel like I'm not doing enough or I'm not good enough. Lord, thank you for the reminder that I'm not. Because the moment that I'm good enough, then I don't need you. So, Lord, I pray that you would break me from self righteousness and religiosity, from this idea that I can twist your arm rather than me trying to draw a response from you, that I would respond to you. Father, how am I in my life?

And how are my friends in their life elevating security? Like, I gotta stay safe. I can't step out too far and not be willing to sacrifice. You said if we give that you would return it. It would just pile up in our lap and run over.

Lord, let us test you in that. And finally, Lord, how am I focused so much on the rules and the steps and the have to's and the want to's that I don't just come simply to you like a child trusting and believing that you have me in your hands? Lord, whatever the need is. Today, I pray, God, that you speak loudly and boldly as we do recall this Memorial Day, those that have fallen, but recalling today what you did and what you've called us to do, that we may be dispensers of the hope that should be in us. In Jesus name, amen.