Are you in a big hurry? My name's Tony. And you are? Jack. Jack. Good to meet you, Jack. So Jack, let me ask you a question. Um, you know, with what happened last week, as horrific as it was and things like that ought not happen, but they do. Um, I know just from my own experience of other tragedies in that, I know that there are people on the, campus right now who are thinking about their own mortality. What if I was Ariel, or Brian, or Alex, or one of the other five? And I talked to a young man yesterday who was in the MSU when the shots were being fired. My niece, Toni, with an I, she was in her dorm, hunkered down here for four hours, like I'm sure thousands and thousands of others. I'm sorry, your first name again, because I'm old and cold. Okay, Jack. So Jack, if last Monday it turned out it was one of your names on that list, and I thank God it wasn't, and you found yourself standing before God, and God asked, Jack, why should I allow you into heaven? What would you say, based on what you believe? Based on what I believe, I would say because, you know, I've always had faith in you, and I've given you myself, and I always have trust in you. Yeah. Even though, I mean, everyone makes mistakes. I've made plenty of mistakes myself, but everyone knows that God's very forgiving. Yeah. So, Jack, how much faith and trust do you think you have to have in order for God to say that's enough? I think it's unattainable by any human. Okay. So then, if the if God's going to accept the answer because I've had faith in you and I've trusted you, and I think one of the other things you said is that I've given all of me to you, words to that effect, right? So if no one, and I agree with you, I cannot trust God perfectly. My faith is imperfect and there are many times in my life where I choose to go my own way and do my own thing and not follow God. So like you, I can't do it perfectly. So then if the standard is I have faith in you and I trust you and I give myself to you and none of us can do it perfectly, then how much of those things do we have to do for God to say, okay, that's enough, you're in? Well, I mean, God's the final judgment. Sure is, absolutely. I think it's as much as you can, and obviously nobody's perfect, and everyone's gonna make mistakes. I'm 59 years old, I haven't lived a perfect day in my life. So it's just, if you make an, I feel like, and I could be wrong, but I feel like if you make an honest effort, even if it's like you don't, You just completely abandoned God for a week and then you come back or a month or even years of your life but if you make an honest effort to have a relationship with him that I feel like I Mean III it's a hard question to answer because nobody knows what's enough, okay? So there is actually an answer and not because I'm smarter than you or the smartest guy in the world But but there actually is an answer The answer is, it'll never be enough. Because Jesus said this, he said, you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. So if we're going to try to, in a sense, work our way into heaven by having enough faith, by having enough trust, and by giving enough of ourselves to God, then according to God's standard, We have to perfectly trust, perfectly have faith, perfectly give ourselves to him from the moment of birth to the moment of death in thought, word and deed. I think that's impossible for me to do. Right. Okay. So, so if, but if the standard is do the best you can and the best I can do will never be enough, I don't see hope in that. because I live my life knowing I can never do enough and never knowing what enough is. Can you see where that could be hopeless? Okay. The good news, though, Jack, is, and part of the good news is that neither Jack, nor Tony, nor Matt, nor any other human being can ever do enough. That's actually good news because God the Father sent his son to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, truly God, truly man and without sin. He lived a perfect life from cradle to grave for some 33 years that guys like you and me can't live for 33 seconds. Yet even though he never broke God's law, never lied, never stole, never had a lustful thought about a woman, never sinned in any way because he was God in the flesh, Even though he had never sinned, he voluntarily went to that cross. He suffered and died a horrific, bloody death he did not deserve to take upon himself the punishment both Jack and Tony rightly deserve for all the times our faith wasn't enough, our trust wasn't enough, for every time we've lied or stolen or looked with lust, for every time we've taken his name in vain, for every time we've broken his law in any way, Jesus took that punishment upon himself. He died a death he did not deserve to take upon himself the punishment you and I rightly deserve for our sins against God. And then he forever defeated sin and death when he rose from the grave. Now, if God, though, were to judge, were to say, you know what? Jack tried really hard. I'm going to let him in. Tony tried really hard too, but I don't think he tried as hard as Jack. I'm not gonna let him in. That's kind of arbitrary, right? I don't think that would be just. You know, Tony's 59 and bald. Jack's in his 20s and good looking. I'm gonna let Jack in. Or, I'm gonna let Tony in, I'm not gonna let Jack in. That would be arbitrary. We would say that isn't just. Well, God is just. He judges all of us according to the same perfect moral standard, that law that he's written on our heart, he's given us a conscience. And what God commands of us is not to try to have enough faith or try to trust Him enough or try to give ourselves enough to Him so that He will let us in. What God requires of us is to come to the reality that there's nothing good in us, certainly nothing good enough. There's nothing we could do to earn His love or His forgiveness. And we put our faith and our trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. Not Jesus plus Tony trying to have enough faith. Not Jesus plus Tony trying to trust enough. Not Jesus plus Tony trying to do good works. But in Christ alone. In Christ alone. When he died and was buried and rose from the grave, he forever defeated the penalty for sin, which is hell. And he also defeated the power over sin in the lives of his people. And so if we put our faith and our trust in him alone, we can have assurance not in whether or not we've done enough, We can have assurance knowing that Jesus did do enough. So, if you were to ask me that question, hey Tony, why should God allow you into heaven? Why should God allow you into his kingdom? I would say, you shouldn't. Because I've broken your law every day of my life. I've sinned against you. I haven't been faithful. I haven't trusted you perfectly. I haven't obeyed your law perfectly. I've sinned against you. But I know you're going to let me in. Not because I'm good. Not because of who I am, but in spite of who I am. Not because of what I've done, but in spite of what I've done. I know you're going to let me in because I'm not looking into the mirror. I'm looking to Christ. I'm looking to the cross of Christ. My hope and my faith and my trust is in him alone. And if God does that work in you, Jack, if he literally causes you to be born again, then the things you talked about, faith and trust and devoting yourself to Christ, you will want to do those things not to earn God's love or to keep God's love. You'll want to do those things because of the love that you've been given. So let's say you and I were neighbors. And you come knocking on my door one day, and you say, hey Tony, we just got snow, I'm gonna plow your snow so that I could be your son. Yeah, I'm gonna do that. Not in a mocking way, but I'm gonna say, well, well Jack, I think it's cool that you wanna shovel my snow, thank you, go for it. And I'm touched that you wanna be my son, but Jack, plowing my snow, that's not gonna make you my son. But what if you actually were my son? And I come home, and I see Jack plowing the snow. I didn't ask him to, I didn't tell him to, I didn't threaten him to. You're doing it on your own. I'm a skeptical dad and I'm asking, why? Does Jack have a girl to tell me about? Does Jack have a grade to tell me about? Does Jack have a, did he, did he want the keys to my car? Or did he already wreck it? What? You see me, you come running over and you say, dad, dad, yeah, I'm plowing the snow. I know you didn't ask. Dad, I'm plowing the snow, not because I want anything from you, but because I love you and I'm so thankful that you're my dad. See the difference? So when someone comes to genuine repentance and faith in Christ, they'll want to do those things that are pleasing to their Father in heaven, not to earn His love, but because they're so thankful for the love that they received through the gift of Jesus Christ. Does that make sense? So give that some thought. God bless you. Good to meet you too, Jack. You have a great day.