All right, we have started a new series. We are out of the book of Revelation. We are out of the comic book of the Bible and I'll say that with reverence, not because I make fun of it. It's a comic book because it's a book of pictures, right? And it was hard to interpret and I would read these fantastical texts and everybody would glaze over and they were still glazed over at the end of the sermon. And so I was never able to remove the glaze. But now we're jumping right back into just some good old concrete history here, some stories about Jesus. And what we're going to study for the next two months, well, six weeks from now until the end of April, is the life and death and resurrection of Jesus for this next three weeks. And then we're going to look at the life of the unbeliever, dead and sin, alive and Christ. What does that mean? So that's kind of where we're going. And what we want to see is that the Lord has given us true grace. It's real. It's not the grace that God has given us is not a fake bandaid. My friend David gave me Jesus bandages one year for Christmas. He always tries to give me something a little christiany that he knows I'll love. And thank you for laughing. They gave me bandages with little pictures of Jesus on them. And I think that's a good symbol for a lot of what we as a church tend to do. We just want to put a smiley Jesus on top of things that really hurt. That's not the gospel, not the gospel is real. And it is God getting involved with broken, ugly lives, coming and living with us, dying for us, being raised to defeat all that harms and threatens us and then drawing us into that life, death and resurrection. And that's what we want to see. We want to see true grace for the real world. So today, what we're going to do is we're going to look at Jesus' teaching as he's walking toward the cross in next week. We'll look at the cross in the week after the resurrection. So please turn with me to Luke chapter 18. Let's look at Jesus going toward the cross beginning with verse nine. I'm really going to teach this whole chapter. It hangs together begins with a story about a tax collector ends with a story about a tax collector. Luke didn't do that on accident. Okay. So this whole story hangs together. And if you know me, you know, I like to teach big texts, not small texts, because it's easier to fill a sermon up. So I'm going to summarize some of this as we go read two sections and summarize the middle basically the beginning with verse nine of chapter 18. He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went into the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee standing by himself pray does God. I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get, but the tax collector would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but he beat his breasts, saying God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Then Jesus goes and he is teaching and these parents are bringing their babies to him and the disciples are worried that the baby is going to make Jesus dirty. And so they say, they say, keep your children away. And Jesus says, no, let them come to me. If you want to come to meet all, you must come to me as a child. And then a rich righteous man comes to Jesus and he says, good teacher, what must I do? What must I do to be saved? And Jesus says, well, you have to follow the law. Keep it perfectly. If you want to be saved. That's what you, if you want to be saved by what you do, keep the law perfectly. And he says, I have. And Jesus says, OK, you're doing great. That's a good start. Why don't you go give all your goods away? Sell them, give that money to the poor and follow me. We have a rare occurrence. The only time in the Bible Jesus looks at someone says, follow me and they don't do it. Turns away. Then Jesus begins to teach about how he's going to go to the cross and his disciples just don't get it completely clueless about the cross. And then he ends, then he's going closer to Jericho. And as he gets there, it's blind man named Bart, Bart, Bartomias calls out and ask what what the commotion is and he finds out that Jesus is walking by and he starts calling out Jesus son of David have mercy on me and people are trying to hush him up, push him up. And he says, no, he will not be hushed. He keeps crying out and Jesus comes to him and says, what do you want me to do? His sermon, I received my site in Jesus restores the site. And then Jesus comes into Jericho and was passing through when pick up there with chapter 19 verse two. And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was. But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sicklemore tree to see him where he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and he said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried and he came down and he received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all grumbled. He's gone in to be the guest of a man who's a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it for fold. And Jesus said to him, today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham for the son of man came to seek and to save the law. As far as the reading of God's word, all men are like grass and all our vile glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and flowers fall with the word of God stands forever. Amen.
I don't know what y'all shop talk is like. I guess it's like work. You talk about work. When preachers get together, our shop talk is about raising money. Sorry. Now you know the truth. Because that's part of the job. And we've got two friends who raised money a lot. And they tell two stories that really kind of define their existence as fundraisers. One worked for a seminary named Paul Coistra. And he's kind of renowned in our denomination for being the best fund raiser in the denomination. And he tells this story. He told me this. He said, this is why this is how it changed me. He said when I was first president of covenant seminary, there was a man in town who had been very generous to us. And I was staying with him one night. And we were going to pray together before we went to bed. And I asked him, I said, I need you to pray that the Lord would give us $10,000. We have a $10,000 shortfall. But you pray for us that we would meet that shortfall. And the man said, yes, I'll pray for you. And he prayed for him and went to bed didn't hear anything else out front. And then about three weeks later, Paul found out that there was a missionary from France who was in town raising money. And he stayed with the same generous donor in that donor giving him $20,000. And Mr. Coester was angry. And so he went back and he said, no, what was I mean, I love you. I'm glad. I love that missionary. I'm glad you're so generous to him. But why did you give him $20,000 and you didn't give me anything? And the man looked at him and said, Paul, you didn't ask me for anything. You asked me to pray for you and I prayed for you. You need money. You need to ask.
I have another friend. A lot of y'all know him. His name is Mike Dottson. He used to raise money for a ministry called navigators. And he went in to a donor at one time in Denver, Colorado. And he was a wealthy man, very generous, godly man. And they got together to raise money for their ministry. And they decided they could ask this man for $10,000. And they had reason to believe he would give it. So they went in. And then kind of made their presentation, asked him for $10,000 and the guy's face turned red. And he got angry. And he said, y'all did not do your homework at all. And they asked him, what do you mean, sir? And he said, campus crusade for Christ was in here yesterday. They asked me for $4 million. And I gave it to them. And I was willing to do the same for you. Never got to somebody get mad at you for asking too little. What? What if they weren't just talking to wealthy, generous, godly man? And what about these guys do? They underestimated the generosity of the men they were talking to. They underestimated their hearts. They underestimated how kind they were. What if they weren't talking to somebody who had money? What if they were talking to someone who had life? Who had eternal life? Who had the kingdom of God? Who came to earth with the purpose of giving away the kingdom of God?
What we see in today's text is the story of a man who went home from the temple, still not right with God. And we see the story of a man who comes up to Jesus asking how to inherit eternal life, but went away sad without it. And we see the stories of people who are on the outsides, people who are disenfranchised, who are sinners who are notorious and public with their sin, that people everyone ostracizes them because they're dirty. And we see these men going away justified. And we see one thing in common. Why did the tax collector not get a sense forgiven? I mean, why did the Pharisee and the temple not get a sense forgiven? He didn't ask. He didn't ask. Why did the rich young ruler not have a sense forgiven and receive the eternal life in the kingdom of God? He didn't ask. He asked what I have to do. God has come to earth in Jesus Christ to give. And the only thing he requires is that we ask. You can think of it this way. God fills empty hand. But he only fills empty hand. He only fills empty hand. The illustration I've told you before, but I just can't get away from it. It's just too good as an illustration of the picture of the first Easter egg hunt. I took one of my children on. And there were just dozens and dozens of, we were at an artist's house and had these beautifully decorated eggs. Actually, it was really a fun Easter. And there were dozens of these eggs hidden. He gone to great work to kind of hand make these little nest that he would hide the eggs in all over his property. And my son had there's only three other collectors were dozens to choose from. My son got to. And the reason why he got to was hands were full. And in order to get more, he was going to put one down. So he had one. He got the other one he walked over the third egg. And for the remainder of the Easter egg hunt, he tried to figure out how to get that third one into his hands.
And in order to get more, he's going to have to empty his hand. In order to receive Jesus, you've got to empty your hand. And I don't care how many times you've received Jesus. You can only come to him with empty hands. I do not care if this is the first time you've been in church in 20 years. I don't care if you've never actually received Jesus and you need to receive him for the first time today. Or if you have been in church every Sunday for the last 20 years. If you want to walk away from this place with him, you've got to come with empty hand. Let's look first at those who miss Jesus. Then secondly, at those who receive him. And finally, let's look at the power of grace. First, the people who miss Jesus. Why do people miss grace? They miss grace because they believe God wants to their righteousness. The Pharisees standing by himself prayed thus, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I'm not like extortioners, unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. A Pharisee is a mature Christian person, someone who's been in the church their whole life. They don't miss a conservative theologically. They are right. They know the truth. And they are convinced that what God wants from them is their obedience. They're convinced that what God wants from them is for them to do for him is what they can do for him. And the Pharisee did everything right. He prayed. He fasted. He went to temple. He gave his tides. And that's what really God wants. He wants your money. That was a joke. Thanks for laughing. He did everything right. And he's not a bad guy. And I don't want you to get in mind that he's a bad guy. He's the kind of person who comes to Jesus and says, I will do anything. All I want is to hear those words well done. You're my good and faithful servant. He's a kind of person who would do anything for Jesus. He sacrificed his money and his body for God, but he went home without being justified. Now justified is a church you word. What does it mean? Taking out a church context helps you understand. What does it mean when you justify your checkbook? You're going through your register and you're making sure that the amount on your register matches the amount that's actually in the account, right? And when those two numbers match, believe it or not, it is possible to make the match. And when those two numbers match, your checkbook is justified. And what it means, theologically or spiritually, to not be justified means this. It means the amount of righteousness that you have, the amount of good works that are on your account matches the amount that are in God's register. What you should have, you actually have, who you should be, you actually are. And we're told that this tax collector who has turned his back, he has betrayed his country for money. He has turned his back on his fellow Jews and served the Romans so that he could get rich. He went home justified, and the Pharisee who was faithful to God and to country did not go home justified, did not go home with the righteousness that God demanded. Why? Because he did not ask for mercy, he did not ask for forgiveness. Why? Because his hands were full with what he had done. If your hands are full with what you have done, you will not receive grace. God gives it to all who ask, but he only fills him to hand.
The second person in this story who misses grace is the ruler. He says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one's good except God alone. You know the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother. He says, all these I've kept from my youth, and Jesus says, well you've done well then. He'll give your goods away and sell them and give the money to the poor and follow me. What does the man want? He wants to do something to enter eternal life. He wants to do it. He wants to trust himself. What do I need to do? All these I've done, but he doesn't ask for grace and he goes away sad. He doesn't ask for grace because this stomach is already full of his own achievement. A couple of weeks ago I took one of my sons out to eat and he ordered chili cheese fries. He likes his father, good man right there he orders chili cheese fries. But he was only able to eat about three fork fulls, why? Because he had been eating candy all afternoon and he was just looking at those great full plate of chili cheese fries going, why did I eat sour gummy worms? And that's us. We have the righteousness of Christ, we have the rich bounty of God in front of us. All of it there for us. But we can't feast on it. Because in our hearts and our minds, all we can think of is what we have done. And what can we do? We don't feel our need. Let me start right here and ask you a couple of practical questions. Mine's well. Let me ask you two questions. Do you feel your need? Do you feel your need for grace? We have a rule come an unwritten rule and a redeemer and if one we need to re-institute us this whenever we have a meeting a prayer meeting or a small group by the study. We don't pray for anybody who's not in the room. Okay. There's a reason for that. I'm sorry. I really am. I don't mean just in any way sound cast. I really am sorry that your aunt Tilda has this work. Sorry. But I need to know what your needs are. Are you willing to share them? If you're not, they will go unmet. And we oftentimes will hide behind our needs behind a kind of a false spirituality of asking grace for everybody else. Are you even aware of what you need? Let's put it even more pointed. When is the last time you asked for forgiveness for something? I don't know. It's very possible that the reason I'm in the ministry is because I'm a worse center than you all because if I don't confess a lot, I would lose my job. It's a kind of this forced confession and repentance lifestyle that I have. But I just can't pray for anything else. I can't get very far. I was in the office this morning praying over my sermon. I thought it ended up being just this long time of confession because last week was horrible. You know, the rain and the clouds and the break all met together in this mess. Did y'all feel that? Our kids were home all day and we were together under a cloud. And what started out as a meteorological truth became a spiritual truth in my house. We were under daddy's cloud. And I had to confess that. I had to confess that. I had a repent of that. I had to repent of that with my session last week. We had a session meeting. And we were supposed to be talking about building issues and things like that. But I had to hijack the meeting to confess sin and ask them to pray for me. Is that part of your prayer line? Maybe you're not feasting and enjoying the joy of your salvation because you're not confessing your sin and asking for. Or maybe it's just me. People who miss grace don't have empty hands because they're filled with what they have done or can do. And therefore they can't imagine the cross. And taking the 12, he said to them, see, we're going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written about the son of man by the prophets will be accomplished where he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him and on the third day he will rise. But they understood none of these things. The saying was hidden from them and they did not grasp what is said. When we focus on our works, when we believe what God really wants from us is our good deeds, when we focus on what we've done and the cross all of a sudden starts to make no sense. Right? It makes no sense to us. Why would God have to go to all that trouble? I just needed a second chance. I just needed some teaching. I just need to be told what I must do to inherit eternal life. I just need some instruction. A good example. I didn't need God to die. If you don't feel your need for the cross and I would encourage you as we get ready for Easter to be focusing on it. Asking yourself the question, what is it in my life that would require the Lord of the universe to come to earth and die on my behalf? What is it about me? You're really brave. Ask him to show you. He will. And that's a bad week or bad month or a bad year. The cross doesn't inspire us to do our best. It reminds us that we need to be healed. We need grace. We need empty hands so that God can fill them. And he does. And that's the point of this talk. And I want to encourage you with that. There's a posture that receives grace receives grace. Empty hands embrace their sin. Empty hands embrace their sin. The tax collector standing far off would not even lift up his eyes to have a beat on his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. This man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. But the one who humbles himself will be exalted. We come to Christ. We have to come every time. Again, when I say that, I'm tempted. I'm worried that you're going to think this is an evangelistic sermon and you really wish some unbeliever were here to hear it. And I want you to know it's for you right now, as you prepare to come to this table. To come and truly feast upon Jesus at this table, you have to embrace your sin. It's you need you require God to be merciful to you a sinner. I saw a video today. He's one of my favorite authors. It's a guy named Nate Larkin. He was a pastor. His ministry lasted all five years. He was just extremely a legalistic. He said he had this belief that what he was what God required of him was to be Saint Nate. And on the outside, he was Saint Nate. And he was perfect. But in reality, he was a terrible center. Addicted could not stop. And what he realized, he said was God did not love Saint Nate. God loved me. The real me. And the only way you're going to find that out is realize that God is a confess your sins and embrace that this center is who you are. That's the real you. And God loves the real you. He does not love the perfect you that you portray yourself to be when you come to church. He loves the real you. The mass. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus died to save center. Not saying he loves that you embrace that admit that and enjoy the grace that comes to empty hand. And embrace your weakness. You have to speed up just a little bit. I'm not not too much. Well, I'm barred Tim Bartomias. What did he do? He wouldn't be quiet because he knew that he was blind and he wanted to see. God uses our weaknesses to call to make us call out to him. It's our weaknesses are what you hate about you. And God loves you with your weakness. Remember the apostle Paul talked about his weakness. He called it a thorn in his flesh. And he prayed three times for God to take it away and Jesus said no. I like you better with it. Because with your weakness, you lean upon me and my grace has made great in your weakness. Nate Larkin describes he was he was he was. He describes driving back from places he should not have been pounding on his steering wheel screaming at God. Change me. Make me not like this anymore. And he says I'm so glad God did not answer that prayer. You learn to reach out to God with his weakness and with his weakness. He has ministered to tens of thousands with his weakness. He has been delivered from that sin. But he's not delivered from the weakness. He is painfully aware that he could go back into it at any second. Embrace your weakness. If you want to, you know, the best way to embrace your weakness. Just stop. You want to embrace your weakness. You want to feel your weakness. Well, just stop. I mean, what's your what's your weakness? Are you doing worrying worrying sin? Well, just stop them. Oh, you have to do just stop. Your weakness concern for your appearance. I just don't do that anymore. Okay, don't just don't worry about how what you look like anymore. Just stop it. It doesn't take long. Does it? It doesn't take long to realize that you're broken. And you have empty hand. And God needs to fill them. Embrace your weakness and embrace your shame. I love these story of Zacchaeus. I love it because I identify with him. Zacchaeus were told seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small and stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sicklemore tree to see him for he was about to pass that way. Now, what do I mean when I say identify was Zacchaeus? Well, you can't tell now because my physique is perfect. No, because I'm average. I have average right now, but I became average at a very late age. I'm actually now presently have the exact same measurements as a mannequin, which is kind of weird. But so if you want to know, you know, are you tall or short? Just stand up next to me. If you're taller than me, you're tall. If you're shorter than me, you're short. That's just because I'm like the standard somehow. You think I'm kidding. Three times. I've been told I'm the exact same measurements as a mannequin. So I'm kind of weird. But I was very short all through high school. I grew three inches in college. I went to college 110 pounds, 115 pounds. And so I know what it's like to not be able to see because you're small and stature. But the thing is I never climbed up into a tree to see a parade. I just asked my friends if I could stand in front of him. Right? Why didn't Zacchaeus ask his friends if he could stand in front of him? He didn't have any friend. He didn't have one. People hated him because he had betrayed them. And he did something. I don't want to be gross here, but it's true. And you missed the story if you don't get this. He did something terribly undignified in a day when they wore robes in a day before fruit of the loom and their kin were available at every store. He climbed up in a tree. He did something in a culture that worshiped dignity. Or a man would never run, would never act like a child, would never be loud, would never call attention to himself. He climbed up in a tree, embarrassing, humiliating. And it was kind of screaming to everybody. Oh yeah, I'm the guy that doesn't have any friends. I'm the guy who is a joke. I know you all hate me. Here, make fun of me too. Just wanted to see Jesus. Just wanted to see him. And Jesus saw it. And his heart was melted. And he ran over to him. And he said, I'm eating with you today. He didn't even wait for an invitation. He loved this picture of someone who would humiliate themselves to get near him who just wanted to see him. And we see how empty hands embrace shame and are willing to say, yeah, as a matter of fact, I am weak. I am weak. And the only way you get any grace, the only way you get any help, the only way you get any strength is by admitting, yes, I am weak. You have to do that. As you embrace it, as you admit it, the Lord heals it. And he brings your community around you. And he loves you. I wish you believe that. I wish you had the glorious thing to watch the Lord heal your weakness and come up around you in your weakness. Some of y'all mad at me. Okay, I'm getting the summer sabbatical. I think three months where I don't have to come to work, be working sort of, be resting a lot. And some people are mad about it. They want to say, why I don't get to summer all. And there's all this defensiveness in me that wants to raise up its head and go, you know, different college professors get to summer all by sitting there. You want to know the truth? I'll tell you the truth. This is why I'm getting a sabbatical. I have to have one. I'm just done. I wish I were strong enough to work 70 hours a week, add in the night, but I am not. I need a break. If I don't admit that, I'm not going to get it. I'm getting a sabbatical because the session is gracious to me and they see the weakness. That's the truth. Grace comes to those who admit their weakness. Jesus comes to those who embrace their shame. They watch finally. They all, but what do they all have in common? They believe that God's grace was deep enough for them. They believe that Jesus would receive them. You believe that. You believe that if you were to embrace your shame and tell people what you're really like, they would receive you. You believe that if you were to embrace your sin and tell people what you really do, God would pour his grace out upon you. What lies are keeping you from believing that God wants to stay away from you. What lies are you keep you from believing that God wants you. I said again because I messed it up the first time. What lie keeps you from believing that God wants you. He wants to know you. He wants you in his family. He wants you in his house. He wants you. God fills empty hands. Don't let your hands be filled with lies. Very briefly. I won't include by showing you the power of grace because it's fascinating. There's this false, it's kind of crazy teaching out there that says if you use too much grace, if you teach too much grace, if you talk too much about God's grace, people are just going to sin rampantly. I won't tell you. I don't know that person. I've never met him. I don't know the wife who is so confident that her husband loves her dearly that she goes out and commits adultery regularly. I just don't know that person. She might exist. And I don't know the Christian who is so overwhelmed with the grace of God showing him on the cross that he goes since regularly. He might exist. I don't think so. I want to show you what the power of grace does to people. Because Jesus came to them and showed them grace, you got to remember the context. He's just talked to Rich Young Ruler. He told Rich Young Ruler, you've got to leave everything. Sell everything and give it to the poor. And the Rich Young Ruler goes away sad. And Peter is kind of speaks up and goes, oh by the way, Jesus, we did do that. What does Jesus say? Peter says we left our homes and followed you. And Jesus said to them, truly I say to you there is no one who's left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times more in this age, time and in the age to calm eternal life. God's grace makes us do things that the desire to be righteous and follow his law could never make us do. And Jesus came to these disciples, these men who were working, who at one time in their life had wanted to follow a rabbi, but the rabbi told them they hadn't made the cut. And they had become workers, second class citizens in their culture. And Jesus came to them and said, I want you to follow me. And that grace melted their hearts and they left everything for him. It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful ends to the story, right? The story begins with a tax collector receiving grace and then we see a rich man who would not give away as goes to follow Jesus. And the story ends with a rich tax collector. And Jesus looks at the tax collector and all he says is I'm going to eat in your house today. He says look, I'm giving my goods away to the poor. Look, if I've defrauded anyone of anything, I'm restoring it for fault. Grace does what the law could not make the rich young ruler do. Grace says, I've sinned against people. No one had to take the exact kiss by the hand and say, okay, we have to go back and say I'm sorry to everyone you sinned again. He immediately jumps out and does it. Jesus never says, you know, if you love me, you really need to give your goods to the poor. Why is the only give half as goes to the poor? Well, I'm sorry, but if you've ever made the public announcement that you're going to restore fourfold anything you defrauded someone of, you're going to lose the other half of your goods pretty quickly. He would have had a line in his house at eight o'clock the next morning. It was like, you know, black Friday sale. I just imagine if the IRS, this is equivalent, if the IRS stood up and said, we're going to restore four. If anybody feels like they've paid too much in taxes, line up at the door, we'll restore it fourfold. You'd probably get in that line, wouldn't you? The tax collector just said he's going to pay it back. He's going to have nothing left into that, but he doesn't care. He has Jesus. He got the kingdom. He got it all. He let go of his idol. He betrayed his neighbor for the love of money, but now he's giving away his money for the good of his neighbor. Grace changes our hearts and then powers our hearts. We never outgrow it. Because it's the power of grace that makes us generous. It's the power of grace that makes us to worship. It's the power of grace that makes us different. That's why it's so beautiful when I see it. Beautiful when we see it in each other. When we see people changing and growing and becoming more like Jesus. It's the power of grace being present. And as we get ready to come to the Lord's top table, all I want to ask you is, have you outgrown grace? Is this a story that you heard 15 years ago and you responded to it? But you really need more theology than that now? Are you over this now? The truth, you know this? I mean, the more theology you know, the longer you go to church, all that does is it kind of raises your standard, right? Now you expect more of yourself than you used to. And you feel your need for grace more than you used to. And it used to be, I didn't have a sin to confess if I hadn't punched somebody, right? I mean, you know, my standard comment was, if you all knew all the things I wanted to say but didn't, now I feel bad about wanting to think. And so my need for grace has grown as I've come up like Jesus. And we never outgrow it. There's a story of two preachers conducting business those meetings always go longer than they should. And they were at each other. The younger man's name was Alexander White and the older pastor had come over to his study and they were working and they went into the night. And Dr. White was ready for the man to leave and the guy just would not leave. And so, you know, I don't know if you're as practiced at this as I am. You start giving out the non-verbal signals that it's time to go. And, you know, the final non-verbal is when you unlock the door and open it. And so, he opens the door and the man looks at him and says, well, Pastor White, what word of encouragement would you have for an old sinner like me? And he kind of laughed, but Alexander White said, I could tell there was some hurt in those words. So, he quoted Micah 718, who was a God like you who pardoned sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance. You do not stay angry forever because you delight to show mercy. It's, sir, you don't need a word of encouragement for me. You need to go home and deal with the God who delights to show mercy. A few days later, Alexander White received this letter. Dear friend, I will never doubt him again. Guilt had hold of me. I was near the gates of hell, but that word of God comforted me, and I will never doubt him again. I will never despair again. If the devil casts my sin in my teeth, I will say, yes, it's all true, and you don't know the half of it. But I have to deal with the one who delights to show mercy. Jesus loves to fill empty handed. Will you come empty handed and let him fill me? Please pray with me.