Faithbase

Hey, faith-based friends and family. Blessings to you today. Hey, I want to give a small gift, what feels like greater freedom, and it comes in the form of a challenge, but I think the challenge will hopefully be liberating. My challenge is this, is I just want to encourage you to be mindful of little games that we might play. I don't know about you, and I'm not accusing anyone of this, and I'm not shaming anyone who does it. I'm really just confessing, and hopefully it's an invitation for greater freedom, but as Christians, maybe even whether it's pastors or not, we have a way of playing these little games. Pastors play the games where we like to quote how many authors and names of people and quote them, but we like to share how many years we've done ministry, or when I was in seminary, we like to say things like that or make sure people know we have certain degrees or titles, and those things just really don't matter, right? It's a type of false righteousness. Sure, there's value to them, but we know our righteousness comes from Jesus. I've even said it on things like when I'm playing golf, I'll say, well, I don't normally slice the ball quite this much, right? Golf righteousness is what I call it, where I've got a Bible that's really worn and tattered and highlighted and scribbled in. It's like a form of Bible righteousness. I might play basketball, and I might say, well, normally I shoot better than this, right? I even caught myself saying a couple weeks ago when I went to the dentist, I was telling someone that had an appointment, but I said, I do have good dental hygiene. See, that was like dental hygiene righteousness, and those things just don't matter. Have you ever thought on a Sunday before church, like ask yourself, what did I wear to church last week, right? Fear of wearing the same thing twice in a row? I'll just say, wear the same thing twice in a row. Wear what you want to wear. Like a little kid, you know, wearing his favorite football jersey every day. These things just don't matter. Isaiah 61 says that we're clothed in righteousness, and Romans 3 says that Christ's righteousness is given to us, credited to our account. So we have freedom. We don't have to play these games. I don't need to communicate how many years I've done ministry or what degrees I have or don't have. What matters is that I'm given Christ's righteousness. We don't need to impress. We don't need to earn approval. We already have the approval of the one who it matters most from, and he just lavishes us with his love. So again, Romans 3, Isaiah 61, you've been given Christ's righteousness, and I just encourage you to walk in freedom. Thanks.