Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ (Part 3)

This is the third week of our fall sermon series, “Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ” dealing with Romans 12-16. Part 3, this week, is titled “The Life of Genuine Love” and works with Romans 12:9-21 and issues of love, humility, authenticity and 16 characteristcs of of the Christian life and behavior. This sermon was originally preached September 21th, 2008 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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September 21st, 2008
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Series: Viva La Vida | Romans 12-16
“The Life of Genuine Love”
Romans 12:9-21

Introduction

Good morning everyone. Today, we’re three weeks into our fall series, “Viva La Vida Christus: Living the Life of Christ.” It’s our shameless attempt rip off Coldplay’s new album for our own benefit. I talked to Chris Martin about it though and he said it’s cool, so we’re in the clear. J

Today’s sermon is perhaps one of the clearest pictures in the New Testament describing the character of a Christian. You could look at it like a recipe for a great meal or a blueprint for a beautiful building. Good theology leads to good practice and this passage is teaching us how everything we have learned this far in Romans, the high heights of the doctrine of justification and divine sovereignty are to have this result in us. So let’s read our text and pray over it.

Lord God thank you for Jesus. Thank you for a Bible which tells us about him and how he effects our lives. As we study what the genuine love of a Christian is like today, what you call us to and enable us to be…I pray you use your word today to would create a hunger within each of us to be more like this and enjoy living like this for your glory. In the name of Jesus our Lord, I pray, Amen.

There is a song some of you may know. Here are it’s lyrics: Love, Love, Love. Love, Love, Love. Love, Love, Love. All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.

Love. Our passage today begins with a call for love. In many ways the whole passage is all about love. How to love and what love looks like. For the Christian love is central. The Christian gospel begins and ends with love. Jesus summarized the whole Old Testament as being about love and placed love as the central demand of the New Covenant in his blood. Love is preeminent. Verse 9 starts off with, “let love be genuine” and it could almost be considered a title to this whole section, “The Life of Genuine Love.”

There is not a whole lot of structure to it, there’s just one thing listed after another, the firing off of what love looks like once Jesus starts to really get a hold of your heart. Depending on how you put it together there’s about 16 or so different injunctions here…descriptions and commands on how to have genuine, Jesus-like love.

But before we launch into those 16 things…first let me ask you the question raised here. What is the difference between love and genuine love? What makes love genuine?

The word here for “genuine” is literally without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is playacting. The idea is that you are an actor like in a movie. Maybe you just saw some sappy love movie with your wife or your girlfriend. I intentionally Netflix love movies because if all we ever get is action movies my wife starts to get worried about me. When you watch a love movie, do the actor and the actress really love each other? No. Their acting. They might kiss and act like they do. But in real life they’re often married to other people and have no affection for the people they act with whatsoever.

So to let love be genuine is to have real love for someone and not just act like it. 1 Peter 1:22 says to “love one another deeply, from the heart.” Real love. It is so easy just to be “nice” but never have a real love for someone. Have you ever been truly loved? Loved like that? Have you ever given that kind of love? Deep love. Sincere love. Genuine love.

Here is what real love looks like and flows from. 16 characteristics of genuine love.

1. Clinging – v9b Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

This idea of holding fast is clinging, it’s like glue. Real genuine love, clings to the good and abhors evil. It is interesting here that real love is abhorring. Abhorring is a strong word. It is a deep and intense hatred. Hating evil…loathing it. Having an affection toward sin and evil as being horror. That’s intense. Real love fears anything else but what is good.

Here’s a picture for you. A man is drowning in a shark infested ocean and a line is thrown out to him from a boat. With an intense fear of drowning and being eaten he clutches the rope, sets his grip on it and holds on for dear life. This is gospel love. Do you have a love for God and his goodness like that? Do you take sin and evil seriously or just sort of nonchalantly like it’s no big deal? Do you regularly ask yourself the question, is this good or not? Do you love the things you know are good and pursue them diligently?

2. Family-ing – v10a Love one another with brotherly/sisterly affection

Genuine love is family love. That is this word here, family-love. Now, this text assumes that you have come from a good, loving, and caring family…because that is the way it is supposed to be. God wants us to have a good and loving family with godly Moms, Dads, Brothers and Sisters. But the reality is many of you have not come from good families huh? Perhaps some of you don’t even have a brother or sister and you don’t have a good relationship with your Dad or your Mom.

But just assume that you did and for those of you who do come from good families then think of how much your family loves you and how much you love them. The Bible here and in several other places says this is what a church is supposed to be like. In a unique way the Bible considers the church, which is people, not a Sunday service…to be family, as close as and even closer than your biological family.

This one of the many reasons we are trying so hard to shift our focus and get everyone involved and committed to a mid-week community group so we can eat at least one meal a week together as a family and talk, because just seeing each other once a week on Sunday doesn’t cut it.

So what’s it mean to love one another as family, with a brotherly or sisterly affection? It means you’re committed to them and would do anything for them and you deeply and genuinely care for them. Big brothers know this. I’m a big brother and I would do anything for my sister. I love her and will always love her, we’re blood. I don’t know if I can say that I feel that way toward many of you. I need to love you more, more like that. Do you love each other like that? Family-ing one another.

3. Honoring – v10b Outdo one another in showing honor

This is a clever one. It takes the idea of competition, outdoing another person and flips it and applies it to showing honor. What’s that mean? To honor someone is to recognize their good qualities and achievements. Last week we talked about pride and how is deviously works in all of us in different ways. Genuine love is humble and seeks not it’s own interests but the interests of others and points them out.

In our fight against pride and strivings not to consider ourselves more highly than we ought, one of the chief weapons we can use is to try and see where God’s grace is at work in another person’s life. God pours out grace on everyone, the just and the unjust. It is so easy to be negative and critical. You’d be surprised if you stop and try and think about another person’s good qualities.

The idea of outdoing one another in this is great. One of the best pieces of pre-marital counseling I got about 8 years ago now, that I have passed down to all the couple I marry, is to try and out serve one another in marriage. I tell them, whenever there are problems it is because one person or both persons have an “I” on the throne of their heart.

If you seek to out serve one another you will avoid that. It is the same thing here. Seek to honor one another. Regularly point out other people’s good qualities. Thank them for what they are and what they do. Ask them questions about their life. Have you ever gone to dinner with a person and you try to express interest in their life by asking them questions, but they never ask you anything. It kind of sucks huh? Honor one another.

4. Boiling – v11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Boiling comes from this word “fervent” here which is the picture of a pot of water over a stove that is bubbling up because it is boiling. The idea with the Christian is that our hearts burn or boil within as it gets filled up with the Lord and his word. Jesus spent a number of hours with a couple of dudes once talking to them about the Bible and afterward, they said, did not our hearts burn within when he opened the Scriptures to us (Lk 24:32).

The Christian is to be a very motivated person. The gospel lights a fire under you as it were. It is a life meant to be lived with passion. The opposite of stoic ritual and fragility. We are to be zealous to serve the Lord Jesus. The great temptation is to be slothful, to be lazy, to be apathetic.

Do you ever find yourself lacking motivation? That is a common experience of Christians. Jean Calvin said God gave us this verse because our flesh is often like an ass/donkey that never wants to move. This torpid feeling is meant to draw us back to the Lord and his word. It happened for me just the other day. I confessed to my wife that I felt apathetic one morning. So she prayed out loud for me. Then I went and read my Bible and prayed and I was re-energized and excited to serve Jesus and his people that day.

5. Rejoicing – v12a Rejoice in hope

Contrary to what many have seemed to teach, that being a Christian is the boring life, filled with following a bunch of rules and restrictions…the Bible teaches that the Christian life is to be a happy life, one filled with joy and immense satisfaction.

It doesn’t mean that life is easy and always goes well. But what gives us our joy is Jesus, that he really did something about the human race and it’s future. We have a security from him for the future and it gives us a sure hope for a better and brighter tomorrow. And because of that we can experience the joy of the future in part, now! I know I am going to heaven and I know that Jesus is working in me and in all my junk and the more he works on me the happier I become.

6. Waiting – v12b Patient in affliction

This one is not easy by any means. Patience in affliction. Patience is one of the fruits of the spirits and I don’t know if it’s just me or if others of you struggle with patience like I do but I have a real hard time with it. I want what I want and I want it now. If the light turns green and the person in front of me doesn’t step on the gas immediately I’m blasting my horn at ‘em. I cannot even stand the microwave. I’ll put something in there for like 20 seconds and stand in front of it waiting and it will seem like it is taking an hour just to heat up my freak’n coffee.

Patience. Waiting. Enduring affliction. And affliction here isn’t silly things like traffic lights and microwaves. Affliction is pain and suffering. When you feel like you just can’t take it anymore…what are you supposed to do. You wait patiently for the deliverance of the Lord. Ephesians 6:13 says this, “in the day of evil, after you have done everything (to withstand it…what do you do?) stand firm.” After you have done everything you can to stand, stand. Don’t give up. Don’t bail out. Don’t throw in the towel. Stand. Keep standing. Keep waiting. Jesus will come.

This is huge. I’ve been walking with Jesus seriously for about 12 years now. I’ll be honest with you. There are a lot of ups and downs. Here is what I think my greatest spiritual accomplishment has been. By God’s grace, not giving up. Just being faithful. To just keep going especially at the points when there wasn’t a bone in my body that wanted to.

7. Praying – v12c Constant in Prayer

Praying continually. How do you do this? Praying without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17). You might not have known it but there are all kinds of different ways of praying. There is simple prayer, prayer of examine, prayer of tears, prayer of release, covenant prayer, adoration prayer, public prayer, heart prayer, meditative prayer, questioning prayer, petitionary prayer, intercessory prayer, healing prayer, suffering prayer, authoritative prayer, and unceasing prayer. The best book I’ve seen over viewing them all is Richard Foster’s book simply titled, “Prayer.”

Being in constant prayer is learning how to develop a continual conversation that is going on with you and God throughout the whole day, no matter what you are doing. One way of doing this is to just be talking to God in your head constantly. The other way Christians have done this is to use what is called “breath prayers.” They are simple prayers, two or three words that can be said in just a breath. Like “Jesus help me” “God I need you” “Lord you are good.” You can make up your own. I use these all the time. You can ask my wife, she hears me saying breath prayers regularly.

A man named Brother Lawrence wrote a little book called “The Practice of the Presence of God” a long time ago. He used to work as a chef in a kitchen and he learned how to be in constant prayer even while busy doing a bunch of different things. He writes, “The time of business does not differ with me from the time of prayer. In the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling on me for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”

Being constant in prayer is being devoted to it. Praying about everything all the time. It is developing an inward awareness of God’s continual presence. Breath prayers are simply the whispers which sometimes almost unknowingly escape from the flow of praise and petition in our hearts toward God.

8. Giving – v13a Contribute to the needs of the saints

First off, ever Christian, every believer in Jesus person and work is a saint. Saints are not just those the Catholic church has deemed saints. You are a saint. I am a saint. Saint means holy ones. We have been declared holy through Jesus perfect person and atoning work.

The word for contribute here is literally the word, “community.” It just sounds awkward and confusing if you translate it that way which is probably why most versions don’t. But it could literally be “community to the needs of the saints.”

This is another reason why you all need to be in one of the mid-week community groups. Because how else are you going to get to know what people’s needs are so that you can not only pray for one another in a fitting setting, but also have a place and time to make those needs known. There are always needs. Right now I know of two people in the church who need a car bad. Another of our members house had a plumbing problem and their house flooded making the place unlivable while its being repaired and they need a place to stay. Those are just three things I found out about this week! We have to care for one another. That is real Christian community.

9. Welcoming – v13b Seek to show hospitality

This one is huge for us. Really, really important. Hospitality is literally inviting people into your home and it usually means also feeding them. I quoted from Michael Green monumental work on “Evangelism in the Early Church” a number of weeks ago on this issue. It is worth repeating again. “(During the first century) the house [was] the fundamental unit of society. (It was) one of the most important methods of spreading the gospel in antiquity. It had positive advantages: the comparatively small numbers involved made real interchange of views and informed discussion among the participants possible…The sheer informality and relaxed atmosphere of the home, not to mention the hospitality which must often have gone with it, all helped to make this form of evangelism particularly successful.” Successful? Yes. So much so that people said the world was being turned upside-down with it.

This is really huge for us as a church. A church plant in San Diego. A church seeking to be a city within a city. Here’s why it’s so important. There was a time during the last century when a certain type of evangelism, that’s spreading the good news message of Jesus, was particularly successful. This type of evangelism focused primarily on two things. Big events and confronting strangers about truth issues.

Those types of evangelism were particularly successful because of a number of things. After two world wars, the great depression, a national sense of disillusionment and searching…there was a natural openness to the gospel. There no longer is. And we have to wake up to that fact. In the twentieth century, we saw the holocaust, the A-bomb, and civil slavery, we landed on the moon, we discovered rock and roll, medicine, and the computer!

Things are different now. We are living in a post-truth, post-religion, post-experimentation, post-hope, post-modern, post-everything world. We’ve got to wake up. We live in a pagan society and we cannot assume anything anymore. Your neighbor can very easily be as different from you as the person who’s part of the Banpo clan living in South Africa. Nearly everyone is humanists, individualists, spiritualists, and consumer materialists.

The course of gospel history has tended to go like this. The gospel is a big message from a small band of people living in a hostile environment. Through gospel hospitality the message spreads and gains larger and larger hearings to the point where in several era a whole land or even nation almost in whole becomes Christian. But after time, it settles in and things change. Then God raises up a group of people to revive his church and start igniting the fire of the gospel once again. It happened during early church. It happened during The Reformation. It happened with the Puritans. And it can happen again.

Here is how. We have to start opening up our homes to strangers and friends and being hospitable to them…which means two things. Taking care of their basic needs like food and taking care of their spiritual needs, which is talking to them about Jesus. And we are commanded here to purse this. To make an effort to go out of our way and seek out ways to be hospitable. I mean you got to get intentional about this. Amy and I have specifically budgeted in our monthly budget a certain amount of money just to have people over for dinner and be hospitable to them. Who was the last person you had over for dinner in your home? Are you being hospitable?

10. Blessing – v14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them

This one is almost exactly Jesus famous word from the sermon on the mount. What is it to bless someone? Something interesting is that this word “bless” is actually eulogeo, which is where we get our English word “eulogy” from. What is a eulogy? A eulogy is usually that thing said during a funeral when someone shares all the best things about a person and their life. That’s blessing them.

We commanded here to bless and not curse. To curse someone is actually a prayer. It is call or a wish upon God to damn . You are wanting God to inflict his wrath and hell upon a person for their wrong doing, usually that was against you. Cursing people happens all the time, whether it is “damn you” or “f you.” The Bible here says we are never to curse someone but instead do the opposite. Bless them. I have a friend who lives up in Portland Oregon who I’ve known for many years now and one of the most interesting things about it is that in the entire time I’ve known him I’ve noticed this, I’ve never heard him say one bad thing about a single person. He never talks bad about anyone. Always sees the best in everyone. Never curses anyone…just constantly blesses them. It makes him one of the funnest people to be around.

11. Empathizing – v15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep

This too is part of considering others more important then yourself…that practice of humility and beating down pride. This is about being more concerned for others and what they are going through than what is going on with you. It is empathizing.

If someone is happy you enter into their joy with them and are happy for and along with them. You are happy because they are happy. With sadness it is the same. When one is down, you enter into their pain and their suffering with them. You hurt because they hurt. This is what happens when you are a real family a real community…you really care for one another. 1 Corinthians 12:26 says, “If one member suffers, all the members suffer together and if one member is honored, all the members rejoice together.”

Two occasions in the life and ministry of Jesus stand out to me. One was when he saw the crowds and they were hungry and lost and the Bible says he had “compassion” on them. That word compassion doesn’t even come close to the Greek word, which is splanchna. To have splanchna is to hurt in your gut. To hurt in your gut for someone other than yourself. The other occasion is the occasion when Jesus wept. John 11:35, shortest verse in the Bible, two words, “Jesus wept.” He wept because his friend Lazarus had died and everyone was broken-hearted about it. Jesus knew he was going to raise them from the dead, which he tells us. But when he saw how much everyone else was hurting it moved him and he wept. That’s weeping with those who weep.

This is a lesson we must learn. When people are hurting, it is not the time when you give them a lesson on the Sovereignty of God and tell them it’s all going to work out or their some sin in their life they need to repent of. This was the mistake of Job’s friends in the Bible. When people are hurting there is one thing you do…you shut your mouth and you cry with them and tell them you love them.

12. One-anothering – v16 Live in harmony with one-another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

A strict literal translation of the first part of this verse is really interesting. It goes like this: “The self into one another be ones who are thinking.” Think of yourselves as into one another. This is harmony. This is being of one mind together.

Haughty means thinking of yourself as superior. Some of you, there’s a few of you out there, and whenever you talk to people, you talk down to them. Like you are the one who is always in the know and everyone else is just stupid. That’s being haughty.

Associating with the lowly means having the same attitude toward everyone regardless of their educational, experiential, social or economic status. Do you think of yourself as better than a bum? Do you have any homeless friends, where you know their names? Or maybe not just homeless people but what about other people who are societal outcasts? Jesus was always fraternizing with the outcasts. What about gay people, they are somewhat outcasts today. Do you have gay friends? How about drug addicts? Or prostitutes? You have any of those kinds of friends? Never think of yourself as being too good or trying to protect yourself so much that you refuse to welcome those kinds of people into your life.

If we think we are too good we are just being wise in our own sight. It’s pride and haughtiness coming up again not recognizing that God’s grace may be at work in anyone if we are willing to be teachable and learn from them. You know you can learn something from almost anyone regardless of whether or not they are a Christian.

R.C. Sproul is phenomenal on this particular command, not to be wise in our own sight, to not be haughty, and to be of one mind…so I just want to quote a chunk of him here. He says this, “It is so easy to disagree and debate. There is no way we are always going to agree with everybody on everything. But if we do disagree we should have a certain attitude in the context of disagreement an attitude of charity. Disagreements can be over important issues. There is nothing wrong with a godly agrument..when it is to get at truth. But it is one things to have a good, healthy, positive argument. It is another to have an argumentative spirit that seems to thrive on disunity, discord, and conflict. Pride is seen where we are not interested in anybody else’s opinion and where we just assume that anybody that disagrees with us must be wrong. Paul is saying we need to be teachable. convictions based on a humble heart and humble attitude. Humility is being able to listen to people and give an honest hearing and consideration to what they are saying.”

13. Restraining – v17 Repay no one for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

With this we move to the last four injunction which all have to do with how you deal with people who are hostile to you or people you don’t like or have a hard time getting along with. First is this one, restraining.

Not repaying evil for evil. So many people today are embroiled in resentment and hurt and they hold it in. Grudges. Maybe you know that phrase, “I don’t get mad I get even.” They have been so hurt and mistreated that the only possible way they can see of alleviating that pain is retaliating. It happens among people of all types and statuses. From the global level in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden to the personal level where there are particular people we may have deep seated grievances against.

At the group home I work at, I hear story after story of gang violence. What always happens is someone gets jumped by one gang and then that gang is waiting and looking to get back at them and jump one of their guys. It is just a cycle. I’ve seen some of the gnarlist stuff. One resident with scars from 7 different stab wounds in his back. He almost bled to death and had to have surgery and now has scars from his lower throat to his abdomen and from his peck to his back. Another resident who have scars on their cheek bones from being hit so many times in the face.

The Bible calls here for us not to hold grudges, but to restrain ourselves, to consider that we as Christians represent Jesus Christ and we are putting him on display. We must consider what is honorable in the sight of the world. The gospel norms, the gospel way, the gospel response will always be adorned and look beautiful to people. When we respond without vile when we are clearly mistreated, that says something to people.

14. Peacing – v18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

This one goes the next step. We are not only to not retaliate but we are to try and make peace as much as possible. The early Christians were pacifists. They did not pick up swords and fight, but prayed and laid down their human rights for the sake of the gospel. Paul wrote this command to the church in Rome. Shortly afterward a ruler came named Nero. Nero did crazy things to the Chrsitians, he hated them. One time he captured a bunch of them and tied them up, dipped them in oil and then lit them on fire to light up his garden. Did the Christians retaliate? No. But they did pray for Nero and for Rome and eventually one of Nero’s successor’s years later, Constantine, became a Christian and the whole nation ended up following suit.

Is there anyone you are not at peace with? Some with whom there is unsettled issues and you haven’t really tried to work it out with them? We are call here to try and live peaceable with all. The truth is because of sin in us and in others, we are not always going to be at peace. And when conflict happens the Bible has a lot to say about how to handle it.

15. Entrusting – v19-20 Beloved, never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Entrusting people to God. The consequences for sin are not ours to deal with or to hand out, they are God’s alone. A second ago we talked about not retaliating. This one tells us another reason why…not just because we represent Jesus and the gospel in how we handle things, but also because we believe that God is the ultimate judge.

The Bible in unison teaches that God is a good and true and upright just judge and that at the end of everyone’s life they will have to give an account to God. All of our accounts will be guilty. We are all guilty. Only those who have their guilt atoned and taken away by Jesus will escape the sentencing. For those who reject God’s provision in Jesus their will be wrath and the vengeance of God.

Here, this verse tells us we need to remind people of that. Some have thought this burning coals thing is referring to an enemies repentance because how could we wish hell upon anyone. But that totally ignores the context of God’s judgment and burning coals in the Old Testament is always a sign of that judgment. The idea, is that you ought to do good to your enemy. Meet his needs, show him love and forgiveness. His sin will become so plain and obvious that God’s judgment will surely and swiftly come or he will repent turn toward God in need.

You can pray and act that way to the enemies of the gospel. There are a ton of Psalms in the Bible that have prayers like this. They’re called imprecatory Psalms, where David prays and asks God to either kill or convert his enemies. God is a judge, it’s okay to treat him like one and ask him to judge. That is entrusting people to him.

16. Overcoming – v21 Do not be overcome with evil but overcome evil with good.

Lastly, overcoming. In a twist, we are reminded that life on this side of becoming a Christian is a spiritual battle. Ephesians 6:12 says, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” And the way we wrestle, the way we fight is the upside-down way. When evil befalls us we respond with the goodness of the Lord.

Our Lord Jesus is the clearest example. When he and his family were mocked. When he was illegally tried and sentenced. Rather than curse. Rather than retaliate. Rather than judging. He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Jesus overcame and because he overcame all evil, we can too through him. Colossians 2:15 says Jesus disarmed the evil rulers and triumphed over them on the cross. It is the backwards way. For hate we give love. For anger we give forgiveness. For insults we give blessings. Instead of fighting we offer peace.

Conclusion

Let’s conclude. That is a full full picture of real and true genuine love. Sixteen different aspects. Clinging, family-ing, honoring, boiling, rejoicing, waiting, praying, giving, welcoming, blessing, empathizing, one-anothering, restraining, peacing, entrusting, and overcoming.

Let me ask you one final question. In many ways as I have meditated on this all week, it has been inspiring. I have seen areas of sin in my life where I have not lived and loved like this and God has used this text to change my heart and help me try and make some repairs. But here’s my question. For some of you does this whole picture of genuine love just seem overwhelming and impossible?

It should. And here is the secret. If you think you can do all of this and be all of this, the truth is we can’t. We will fail miserably. But there is one who was exactly like this. I didn’t do it with everyone but with several of them…but you could, with each one of these you could look to the life of Jesus and see how this is exactly who he was and what he did.

This is why the gospel is such good news. Because we know the good we ought to do and we fail miserably at it…but there is one who has not failed. There is one who loves perfectly. And his name is Jesus and Jesus offers himself, all of himself to us freely. In so far as we embrace and live in and through and for him, we will begin to see our lives shift and change and we will become more and more like this. More and more like him.

Let’s go to Jesus today and ask for his help, his forgiveness, and his grace.