Something is Terribly Wrong | Romans 1:26-27

Well, good morning. My name's Core. I'm like 44 and a half and Yam got started like about a few years ago. Did they have any play? I get in my you're like, we need Core to exit our demographic and then, I don't know, could be just causing or correlation, your choice. Last night we had the chance to watch a bunch of low budget, medium low high. What kind of quality was that? Last night at our Film Fest, we had the chance to do Film Fest. What a great night. If you have not had a chance to view those films, we'll get them to you via the weekly newsletter. If you don't have the weekly newsletter, go to hopecc. ComConnect. Love to get you connected that way. It was just a great time. I bring that up because I want to remind you of the story of Ebenezer's Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. You guys recall this story, right? How many ghosts was he visited by? Four. Do you really need to come to church to be derided from on stage that you didn't know there were four ghosts? This is a story, right, where Jacob Marley comes and visits his old business partner and warns him, hey, you're on the wrong path. You need to get on a different path. And in order to get you on the correct path, I'm going to scare the living hell out of you. I mean, it really is like it's a freaky, freaky scene, right? Visited by these ghosts. The last one is the Ghost of Christmas Future and cemetery graveyard just terror right? Now. I want to utilize this story because I think it's likely well enough known where I think it could be valuable for us for a couple of reasons. Number one, there is a time and a place where we sit like Ebenezer unknowing, not aware of what is true and real. And we need someone else to actually help us see reality as it is. And as Christians in the church, we're going to say that ultimately that's God, god is going to say some things about reality that we need to be aware of. We need to be open to somebody, God and His Word and the church community saying, hey, this is reality and it might be different than what you are seeing and experiencing and believing. And the other reason that I want to grab onto this illustration is because I think what God offers us in His Word, in His Gospel is so markedly different as far as like, how do we solve this whole problem? What is our hopeful end in the midst of this? But I think all of us can attest to being like Scrooge. At one point in their conversation, Jacob Marley says, you don't believe in me. And Scrooge says, I don't. There are moments in our lives, and maybe for some of us, we've never come to that place of saying we believe we trust in God. But even if you have, there are times, there are moments, maybe low moments, dark moments, where our soul just feels abandoned by God and just, do you believe in me? Do you trust me? Is your hope in me? And we say, no, it's not. I don't believe in you. And I think that could be a helpful illustration for us as we come to today's passage from the book of Romans. And so if you're new to church, new to Christianity, new to the Bible, this is a letter that was written to a church shortly after the time of Jesus, and one person in particular, a guy named Paul, gets the chance to share God's message, his gospel, the good news of Jesus, jesus in his death and resurrection. And so we've had the chance to look at this for a few weeks now and we are working our way through it. But again, the divergence with this story from the Christmas Carol is where is the source of our hope? Is it truly seeing a future that's dire and dark and scary? I don't think so. Quick recap. I got like six slides of recap. So if you're new with us, the theme of the entire letter and the entire book is from verses 16 and 17 of the first chapter, where the author Paul says, I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. Paul's not ashamed of this message, this message of Jesus, second person of the Trinity, god himself dying on the cross. Why? Because that's God's power. For what? For salvation, to save people, to rescue people. And in that God's righteousness is revealed. How do we respond? In faith, in trust. And so that's the first example in Romans, at least, at the very least an example for us of Jacob Marley speaking to Ebenezer Scrooge, saying this is God's power, this is God's salvation. This person that lived and died 2000 years ago, yes, brings salvation to us here, now, in this part of the world, at this time, in this place. So we've been for two previous weeks and we're going to be in for a total of four weeks, the second half of chapter one. So this is kind of the breakdown of what we're doing. Weeks one and two revealed wrath of God. And the great exchange is something we've covered. And then today we'll look at natural or unnatural, but just to recap this wrath of God, it says in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and men being used as men and women, all people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. And Davis, two weeks ago talked about the wrath of God, which can seem very scary and maybe for you, was painted in a number of different ways, whether you're part of your past or different church backgrounds. But Davis said, it's actually good news. We actually want this to be true. He defined God's wrath as fueled and funded by God's love. Wrath is God's consistent opposition to evil. You actually want God to have a consistent opposition of evil, not because he's hate filled, but because he's love filled. This is fueled and funded by his love. I read this this week from Fleming Rutledge. He's written just an amazing, amazing book on the crucifixion. He says this consider that the human race, that work of God, so very precious, was wholly ruined. And it was not seemingly that the purpose which God had made concerning man should fall to the ground. And moreover, that this purpose could not be carried into effect unless the human race were delivered by the Creator himself. Something is terribly wrong and needs to be set right. God arranged for God's own self to step into that place. Jesus, the one person who did not deserve condemnation, stood forward under an unjust sentence and submitted to an unjust penalty. Some have conceived this as divine child abuse, that the Father pours out wrath on his Son. But the Son says, I have the authority to lay down my life and I choose to. I want to so that God's justice might be upheld and God's love might be shared with the world. And so fueled and funded by his love, wrath is God's consistent opposition to evil. And the win. When did that happen? It happened at the cross. Amongst other times it happened at the cross, which Pastor Davis did a great job unpacking for us. So that was week one of kind of this four week miniseries. Week two is last week. Pastor Steve took us through the Great Exchange, where in verse 22 it says, 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. Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Really critical passage, important passage. Pastor Steve talks about verse 25 being just a quintessential definition of sin, that it's not simply just bad behaviors, darkened thoughts. It is those things. But at a foundational level, it's so important for us to see the exchange that takes place. We don't want to worship God as God, and rather than treating Him with the dignity and respect and honor that he deserves, we cast him aside and we trade. We make a trade in every way. We trade down. We trade for lesser things. And that exchange is super important because what we're going to look at today, the two verses we're going to look at today, is an illustration. It's a therefore, this is what comes out of when we make exchanges of God for other things. This is the dominoes that can fall subsequently and the problematic realities that can come forth. So that brings us to today, the natural for the unnatural. So you can even hear in there that exchange motif being carried through our verses for this morning. So let me read verses 26 and 27. It 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 and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. So that's our passage for this morning. I want to ask and answer a few questions about these specific verses. Really important for us to address these verses as it fits within this letter. And Paul talking to the church in Rome, that's going to be the first section. A bigger section of this message is going to be tying this into the grander storyline of the Bible. And if you're new to hope, you might not realize how much we employ Genesis one and two in Genesis three to help us understand the grand story of God. Going to do that today with really answering the question, how does this happen? How does natural get exchanged for unnatural? And then finally, where is the hope? Where is the hope for us, for others in this passage? So if we go back to the start of verse 26 here, I just want to ask and answer a few questions. First one, what is meant by dishonorable passions? What is meant by that? Well, synonyms would be degrading, shameful, vile, improper. And they stand in contrast to, as you might guess, honorable passions, glorious passions, upright passions. We can debate what might fall in whatever category. In a room this size, I'm sure there'd be disagreement about what passion should be categorized where. But essentially what is trying to be established is there are passions consistent with God's people, and there are passions that are inconsistent with being God's people. Perhaps an illustration is helpful here. Any basketball fans out there? You watch the NBA, there's a common visual that's being used right now when one player dominates another player, and it's this. Have you guys seen this? This is a way of signifying, you're beneath me. That's terrible, right? Especially when the shortest guards in the NBA use this. You're five foot nothing, dude. And you are like, no, this person's beneath me. It's like you're beneath everybody. All right? But it is a shorthand form of saying they're just passions that are beneath God's people, that are outside of what God designs us for. There will be things that go through our heart, things that we experience. Feels that God says, that's not you. That's not who I've made you to be. That's inconsistent. That's beneath what I want for. You could spend more time on that. Going to keep going here. What about this? Natural relations or this idea of nature? It says in here, 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. What is that? What does this mean? It's interesting to note, I think, a couple of things. One is just literally para against physics. Physics, physical. So it's against the physical. And when we grab onto the physical or the natural, it's going to get tied back to Genesis one and two. So it's not just maybe natural how you and I conceive of it. And it's not just maybe physical like we see physical and invisible, but rather it's saying nature as was originally established. That which is natural is a way of saying that which God ordained, that which God defined. And in that, I think, for us to say, oh, not just viewing this from like a good bad motif, but a God as creator, a God as designer, a God who actually knows the definition of that which is good. How many times in Genesis one does God make something and goes, and it was good, good, good. Very good, right. And so in this God designed, God ordained God defining what relationships might look like and that they're good. Paul goes to great lengths to tie words here, use the word for man and woman or men and women. And in the entirety of the Greek Bible, same word here is used in Genesis one and two. And so Paul seems to really want to tie those two together. Important for him to do that. So in one sense, it can be true that this passage is speaking of and against homosexuality. I'm actually going to maybe put a pin in that and if you're unaware, kind of, of our work in that arena. We spent eight weeks last fall kind of walking through the realities of sexuality, the realities of identity and gender, gender dysphoria, trans identity. We spent eight weeks because it's so important in our culture and because how we want to talk about these things is critical. I've talked often that in faith matter and manner matter, especially as the cultural sensitivity to certain topics goes up. I think our manner, our care, our compassion has to go up. And so we spend eight weeks. We have sermons, we have small group materials, we have resources that I would want to point you to because in actuality, I think Paul's goal in utilizing that as an example falls flat in our culture. What do I mean by that? Let me give you a few reasons. And this is not to say this is why he chose it. I'm going to give you some reasons why he might have chosen, but then I'm going to actually maybe take that example out and put in a different one that might bring a greater impact. So why might he have chosen homosexuality as his example of exchange? Remember, we're still in 18 to 27 here. So the exchange of God for lesser things. So why let me give you three possibilities. It could be because there was widespread agreement within the church that this goes against God's original design. God's original design being covenantal, monogamous marriage between a man and a woman. Could be. It could be because of the idolatry connection. So if you remember last week, Trike discussed this. He talked about how we will kind of see God as other. God is set apart. God is holy, right? And he's right to be worshipped as other. And so idolatry would be turning away from him and connecting with things around us and worshiping those things. Okay? And so he's saying this example of homosexuality could have a correspondence with that, that we turn away from the other to same. And in this case, turning away from the other would be turning a man turning away from a woman toward man. So could be, could be that's what Trika shared on his podcast. One more is just is it the natural realities that come with reproduction and male, female and that which is natural resulting in life? Could be any one of those three. This is what I want to talk about though, and why I want to kind of like pivot a little bit. What Paul intended was this would be an easy sell and maybe in that culture it was, and in our culture it's not. Paul didn't fail Marketing 101, right? Marketing 101 is where you don't get them to say no. You just keep them saying yes. Right? So CenturyLink comes to my door and says, are you paying too much for internet? No, I like paying a lot of money. Right? No, you want them to keep saying yes. So then when you say, will you take our Internet instead of theirs? Then you go, yeah, I want your Internet. Right. Similarly, here he's building an argument through the first three chapters of this letter, and he doesn't want us to pause and say no. And yet in a room this size, with all the differences in the backgrounds and the places that you live in your life, I would guess there's disagreement about where to place this. And we've talked about that, where we're at as a church last fall of where we're at. But you might not be there, and so it might not be a great illustration for you. So in one sense, I can set down this particular illustration for the rest of the message as long as we understand this. Paul is wanting to argue for dishonorable passions, bring forth a consequence and it impacts everything. Dishonorable passions can even impact sexual realities and sexual relationships. And so if it's the case that maybe this one doesn't get us all saying yes, what might we put in there? Well, dishonorable passions might lead to something as extremist, murder, or maybe even one step further genocide. Like if we were to put genocide as the illustration, I think we're more likely to just go, yeah, that's dishonorable passions having a consequence that we might all kind of say, yeah, it's obvious, that's horrible. And while not neglecting the teaching here, but recognizing we spent eight weeks talking about this in the past, and in order to really get this more in line with, I think Paul's intent here, I want to broaden out the scope and talk more broadly about this exchange of natural for unnatural. Because I think it's too easy for church people to point at someone else and go, what's the matter with them? They haven't figured out? And I think all of us, if given the opportunity, are blessed if we sit, pause, say, okay, in faith, I'm going to say, I'm Ebernezer Scrooge. I don't see everything correctly. I don't see everything perfectly. I need someone else to help me. And so that's where I want to go in the next section here is to take some time because Thomas Shriner says the fundamental sin in this passage isn't sexual. The fundamental sin is the failure to worship God. Sexual sin in any kind of sin is a consequence or outworking of the rejection of God and our failure to honor Him. So in Romans, chapter one, it is that that God makes himself clearly known, right, in the things that he's made. We talked about that eternal power, divine nature talked about that a couple of weeks ago. Step two, we suppress that truth. We disagree. We don't honor Him, we don't glorify Him. Step three, God's wrath is revealed. God's wrath is revealed at the cross. But God's wrath is also revealed in a handing over, a giving over, letting us do what we want to do. We pursue sin and we get sin. That's step three. And so I want to broaden it out now and just say, how does that happen? How does that happen in my life? Your life? How does that fit within the grander storyline of Scripture? And in this again, Jacob Marley playing the role of God, every anatomy breaks down. But Jacob Marley is going to be that that divine being, right, that speaks truth, speaks reality. And I think we, as Scrooge, need to sit underneath it and in this God. And Jacob Marley might say to Scrooge and to you and to me, you are fettered, you're chained, right? Scrooge trembles before Jacob and says, tell me why? Why did this happen? Right? I wear the chain I forged in life, replied the ghost. I made it linked by link and yard by yard. I girded it on my own free will. And of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you, Jacob? He said, imploringly old Jacob Marley, tell me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob. I have none to give. The ghost replied, pretty hopeless. But now I want to just ask and answer question. How does this happen? How does this happen not just in Romans one, but how does this happen in our life? So this is where we tie into the grand storyline of Scripture. We've used this image maybe as much or more than any other at hope. Roughly speaking, you can break down Scripture into four major themes, major movements from creation to fall, redemption to restoration. Creation first two chapters of your Bible. Only the first two chapters give us an unsullied view of God's divine order, of God's design, nature for things. Genesis three is the fall of humanity that Adam and Eve sin turn from God. And it's not unlike Romans one. And that's an important connection that I want to ask you to make. Genesis three. Romans one, it's almost like Genesis three is like the details of the story. And then Romans one is the commentary. But it's not just commentary about Adam and Eve, it's commentary about you and me as well. And then we get to redemption. Jesus entering the story, bringing forth salvation, bringing forth rescue. What did Fleming Rutledge Shay? She says, something has gone terribly wrong and we need it to be made right. And Jesus Christ is that solution. And then the restoration, the glory. It's not that we get back into the garden of Eden, of Genesis one and two, but rather God says, I will bring Eden everywhere. And that is the great hope that we have. So how does this happen? Trying to get as practical as possible. You on a Monday in your workspace, you in relationship with your roommates or your spouse or your kids. How does this happen? Where we exchange natural for unnatural. I'm going to give you five examples, five examples of how this can happen to us. So let me take you to Genesis one, verse three. So that's in that first quarter, right, that's the creation, genesis one, verse three. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. The phrase God said is used eleven times in the two chapters. When scripture repeats something, it's important. When Scripture repeats something that was unnecessary, right? God said eleven times, okay? And in the midst of that, the man says a few words at the end of chapter two. And then the next character in our Bible, in our story at the start of Genesis, chapter three, what are the words that first come out of the serpent's mouth? He the serpent said to the woman, did God actually say? God said. God said. God said. God said. Did God actually say? That's how this gets started, right? It's, it's jacob Marley saying to Ebenezer, this is reality. And ebenezer saying really? Why does Scrooge doubt remember his line, what he gives? Why does he doubt Jacob's existence? He says, you could be a bit of undigested beef. You could be a blood of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There is more of gravy than of grave about you. Right. I do that, though. I feel like maybe God's saying something. God's impressing something. God's spirit is prompting me. My wife is saying something to me, right? Maybe my boss is saying to you, I got a coworker saying, what's my resistance? I don't know if I believed it. I don't know if I think that when we hear something in God's word, when we hear something in our church community and those people that we've identified as trusted voice, when we see something and we hear something, maybe things we disagree with, maybe especially those things we disagree with, we need to pause and say, okay, did God really say that? Because this is where it starts. A mistrust at a very foundational critical level. Doubting God, doubting God's word. It's a big part of how this ball gets rolling down the hill. Another one. And the Lord God commanded the man saying you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. Look at all these trees. Not that one. Look at all that. I give you all that you can eat from anything and just not that. Ye, look at that. What a bounty. What a feast. No, not that one. Just look. Take, eat, feast, including the tree of life. Take, eat, live forever. Not that one, right? Genesis three six. She took of it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. I mean, it's just that plain. The exchanging of God's truth for lie the worship of creature or creation rather than in creator. God says eat, don't eat. Bah. Bah. Right? That's screws his line. That's my line. That's our line. When faced with some of God's truth bah. Wrath of God is revealed. Bah. That's so archaic. Bah. Against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of people, including me. Bah. We don't want to believe it. Another example. And the Lord God command the man saying in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. What did the serpent say? You will not surely die. Right? It's like it's exchange of nature. God for that which is unnatural. God is natural, god is true, god is real. You're going to die. You won't surely die. I've made the mistake. I'm wondering if you've made the mistake of sinning, maybe sinning boldly and then nothing happens and you're like, no big deal, I guess, right? There was a line in one of the film Fest videos that I just loved it. I don't know why. Maybe it's my sinful nature, maybe not. Maybe it's just good comedy. But in the movie Terms and Conditions, the premise is that nobody reads the terms and conditions but Mama and Daddy. Terms and Conditions, they give birth to a child. And now that child is going to be Terms and Conditions, her own document of terms and conditions. And she's in school learning about this. And one of her peers is like, why are you taking all these notes? What are you doing? This is madness. Nobody's going to read these terms and conditions. You're working too hard. People are just going to skimpass and click. I agree. And that's it. The actress, Kara, she's playing the role and she just says, no, they'll read it. My parents told me. And then Noah, he responds, your parents are liars. Your parents are liars. And I was just like, oh, my gosh, I left so hard. Right? We can say that about God. Like, God's a liar. Why? He said I would die. I sinned. I didn't die. Everything's going to be okay. There's no consequence. No big deal. Is God the Father a liar? He's not friends. He's not. Give me another example. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And the man became a living being. This shows God is independent. He is above all things, and we are dependent. We need him for life. What happens in Genesis three eight? They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden of the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden, just separating themselves as though they could have life without Him, right? That's an example of the fall. That's an example of something very unnatural. What's natural to be in ongoing relationship with God. Why? Because he gives us life. So it's very unnatural to think we can hide ourselves from his presence, that we don't need Him one more. Therefore a man shall leave father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed, as the story goes. They took a bite of the fruit and there are consequences. The man says, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. He said, who told you that you were naked? Right. He's been naked this whole time. He just didn't know that was a thing. Why? Because he hadn't eaten. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He eats. And all of a sudden like, Whoa, what's going on here? And fear, on account of that disobedience enters in. Something very, very unnatural comes into God's. World and God's design. What does he want? He wants him to be in fellowship with himself and fellowship with his spouse, to be naked and unashamed, to be able to be truly vulnerable, truly naked, truly intimate. And now there's this hiddenness, there's this hiding out of fear that's entered in by this point, you might be thinking to yourself like scrooge, dreadful apparition. Why do you trouble me dreadful preacher? Why do you trouble me with all these things? Here's the summary, right? Creation, genesis one and two. God creating everything and it is good. That's natural. That's, friends, is natural. Genesis three, Romans, one your in my daily life is unnatural. So much of it's unnatural. Look at this quick summary here, right? God speaking to us. God giving us so much. Maybe save the one so much, right, to enjoy the promise that you will die, but that I am the one who gives life, that we might be naked out of you. That's natural. That's God's good design. That's how he orchestrated things. But now look how much unnatural has just been funneled into our world. It might be that we can say just on the left side, that natural, that's life. And on the right side, that's death. If you want to boil it down. What is natural for you and I to have life. Life, eternal life with God abundant, full, enjoyable life, but consequentially the reality the world we live in could be summarized as death. But this hasn't just happened on an individual level. What I've tried to show us is how it can happen at an individual level. That we just start to doubt what God says, to doubt the realities of God's boundaries, to doubt the fact that sin has consequences like death, right? That's how it can go about an individual. This has taken place at a corporate level. How so? We just have basically crossed all that off, taken one list, moved it, recategorized it and said this is actually natural, this is what is real, this is what is true. And we've used a line that is often used at funerals that we disagree with. Some will say death, it's just a natural part of life. And we say, no, it's not that's you believing this, believing that death is a natural part of life and it should be so unnatural to us. Like we have that right? That angst of like I'll never get to see them, I'll never get to talk to them, I'll never get to hug them, right? That feels unnatural because it is unnatural. We were created for that. And if this weren't enough, we actually get categorized in the unnatural the things of God. So now what's natural is death, and what is unnatural is life. God, God's goodness, god's god is creator, god creating us. It's very hopeless message. Where is the hope in all this? I'm going to quote Jacob Marley one last time, but I quote him for the reason that I've never actually heard this line before. I apologize. I've seen the plays. I don't think I've read every line of the story. Some of you can feel me on that, right? You've seen the movies. You haven't read the books. That would be me with this play, I guess because I've watched this play twelve times. Never heard this line. What is Jacob's hope? He didn't go after it. He didn't follow it. He didn't find that hope. But what does he articulate was his hope. I've never read this. Never heard this. At this time of the rolling year, the ghost said, I suffer most. Why did I walk through the crowds of fellow beings with my eyes turned down and never raise them to that blessed star which led the wise men to a poor abode? Somebody going to have to come up to me afterwards and actually affirm confirm if this is in the story. I've never heard this. Never read this. This has never been offered in the plays that I've seen. What was the hope that Jacob neglected this blessed star which led the wise men to a poor tumble down stable where the birth of the Savior happened? It's a Christian hope in this story. So piggy backing off of that. Where is the hope? Hope for us is that blessed star that leads the wise men to that poor abode where the birth of the Savior takes place. And that Savior, not just the fact that he's born or lives or teaches, but the fact that he goes to the cross and says, I will take all that is unnatural upon myself. Every unnatural thought, every unnatural action, every unnatural behavior. Put it on me so that my people might experience blessing, forgiveness, grace, love. So rewalking through very I'm going to go very quickly through this, rewalking these passages. There is life and there's new life. Hebrews one says this long ago, at many times and in many ways, god spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken. He's spoken to us again by his son. How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? God said. God said. God said. God said. Now God has said, my son, trust, believe in my son. He is salvation. His gospel is the power of God for salvation. Next one. Galatians 313 says, christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written cursed as everyone who is hanging on a tree. We struggled in that original garden, all these trees, not that one. God says, okay, I'm going to make this real easy. Just eat from the one tree, the one who hung on that cross. The one who hung from that tree. Get life from that one tree. From John six we read this. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that 1 may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread, Jesus says, that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. We take, we eat of the bread of life, that we may never die. Friends, God said, God created God provided life, and he is doing so again through his Son, who is the bread of life. Take. Eat. John 521 says this for as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. God gave life to Adam. God can give life to you and to me. If we but turn to him, trust in him, believe in Him. Last one. For in this tent we groaned longing to put on our heavenly dwelling. Clothing is used throughout Scripture. Not just to be physically clothed, but clothe yourselves with Christ. Let your nakedness and any shame, any brokenness, any vulnerability associated with it, clothe yourselves with Christ. That is for us what is natural been trying to highlight, help us understand how does this happen and where do we find hope? We find hope in Christ. I want to close by quoting a Scottish Baptist minister. Trike can't be here this morning, but I'm thinking he'd approve. Scottish Baptist minister? I mean, that would be all he needs to hear. He lived in the 18 hundreds, and he shares in two slides maybe a perfect summary of this idea of natural and unnatural. Let me read for us before we come to the communion table, my text brings us face to face with that solemn thought that there are conditions of human nature in which the God who ought to be our dearest joy and most ardent desire becomes our ghastliest dread. The root of such an unnatural perversion of all that a creature ought to feel toward its loving creator lies in the single consciousness of discordance. A gap, right? There's a barrier. There's a wall between us and God, which is the shadow cast over the heart by the reality, by the fact of sin. God is righteous. God righteously administers his universe. Therefore, there lies dormant for the most part, but present in every heart and active in the measure in which that heart is informed as to itself. The slumbering, cold dread that between it and God, things are not as they ought to be. Things between us and God. There's a gap. There's a barrier. There's a chasm. It's unnatural. Don't call it natural. It's unnatural. That's not supposed to be there. I believe, for my part, that such a dumb, dim consciousness of discord attaches to all of us, though it is often smothered or often ignored or often denied. But there it is. The snake hibernates but is coiled in the heart all the same, and warmth will awake it. Then it lifts its crested head and shoots out its fork tongue and venom passes into the veins. A dread of God is the ghastliest thing, the most unnatural thing in the world. But it's universal unless expelled by perfect love. Friends, that's why we point to the cross. That's why we come to this table. Jesus Christ is perfect love, casting aside all fear, pushing out all that is unnatural, that we might return to our Creator. Something has gone horribly wrong. Yes, and Jesus Christ has gone too. Tremendous lengths to restore, to bring back, to reconcile, to save you and me that we might be in our most natural don't let that ghastly dread of having, that discomfort, that gap, that chasm between in you and God. This table. Come to this table. Run to this table. It is for us, our most natural and our greatest hope. As we sing these two songs, maybe some questions to discuss are on the lunch table. Do you believe that something is terribly wrong and needs to be set right? And if so, will you raise your eyes up to that blessed hope? The one who gives redemption by his perfect love? Let's pray together. God, I think of each person, there's so much in this world that it's tough for us to know, figure out, agree on, not just outside the church in our world and our politics and our governance and our economics, in our classrooms, in our law courts. So much disagreement. There's disagreement in here, in this room, about what might qualify as natural, unnatural, honorable or dishonorable. And yet I pray, God, that we can agree something has gone terribly wrong. And ultimately, you, you are the one who can put things to right. God, help us. Help us to see that, to believe in that, to trust in that. Today we pray. In Jesus name, amen.