In this sermon, I explored the profound theme of longing, particularly as it relates to our spiritual journey and the challenges of embodying a Christian sexual ethic in a complex world. We delved into the tensions between our earthly desires and heavenly callings, emphasizing the importance of recognizing and navigating these tensions with grace and truth.

We began by acknowledging the diverse experiences and backgrounds present within our congregation, emphasizing that despite our differences, we are united in our need for grace and understanding. This series, "Wonderfully Made," aimed to provide compassionate clarity on issues of body, gender, and sexuality, challenging us to approach these topics with a heart centered on Jesus and Scripture.

A significant part of the discussion focused on the internal and external conflicts faced by early Christians in Galatia, as described in the book of Galatians. The Apostle Paul's teachings reminded us that while we are called to freedom, we must not use this freedom to indulge the flesh but to serve one another in love. This historical context parallels our current struggles with legalism and license, urging us to find a balance that honors God while being true to our convictions.

Throughout the sermon, I highlighted the universal nature of our longings—whether they be for physical healing, reconciliation in relationships, or a deeper sense of purpose and identity. These longings, while often rooted in good intentions, can lead us astray if not aligned with God's will. We discussed the dangers of following our hearts without discernment, as our desires can deceive us and lead to sin.

In addressing the practical implications of these teachings, I encouraged the congregation to consider how we might bridge the gap between our intellectual understanding of faith and its real-life application. This involves recognizing the potential for disconnects between what we know and how we live, and taking intentional steps to align our actions with our beliefs.

Finally, we concluded with a call to embrace the narrow path of following Jesus, which often requires us to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. This path is not about exclusion but about choosing a way of life that leads to true fulfillment and eternal life, even as it challenges us in the present.

**Key Takeaways:**

1. **Embracing Discomfort for Spiritual Growth**: True spiritual growth often involves embracing discomfort and the challenging aspects of faith. As we navigate our personal longings and the teachings of Scripture, we are called to a life of continual self-denial and renewal in Christ. This process is not about achieving perfection but about progressing in our journey with God. [22:30]

2. **Freedom and Service in Christ**: The freedom we receive in Christ is not for self-indulgence but for serving others in love. This principle challenges us to look beyond our desires and consider how we might contribute to the well-being of our community. It's a reminder that our salvation is not just about personal fulfillment but about participating in God's larger redemptive plan. [29:28]

3. **The Deceitfulness of the Heart**: Our hearts can lead us astray if we are not vigilant. The prophet Jeremiah's warning about the heart being deceitful reminds us to critically evaluate our motivations and desires. It calls for a disciplined life of discernment and submission to God's ways, even when it contradicts our natural inclinations. [31:16]

4. **Longings as a Reflection of Divine Discontent**: Our deepest longings can be seen as a reflection of a divine discontent planted within us by God. These unfulfilled desires are not meant to frustrate us but to point us toward a greater fulfillment that can only be found in God. They remind us of the imperfection of this world and the perfection of the heavenly kingdom we are called to seek. [41:03]

5. **The Narrow Path of Faithfulness**: Choosing to follow Jesus means embracing a narrow path marked by faithfulness and sacrifice. This path, while difficult, leads to true life and freedom from the power of sin. It requires a daily commitment to deny ourselves and follow the teachings of Christ, trusting that He will lead us to our ultimate home with Him. [46:21]

**Youtube Chapters:**
- [0:00] - Welcome
- [18:55] - Celebrating Community Achievements
- [20:50] - Introduction to Final Week's Theme
- [23:27] - Prayer and Longings
- [27:36] - Addressing Personal and Collective Longings
- [29:28] - Freedom and Service in Christ
- [31:16] - The Deceitfulness of the Heart
- [36:51] - The Role of Jesus in Our Salvation
- [41:03] - Divine Discontent and Longing
- [46:21] - Concluding Thoughts and Call to Action

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. **Galatians 5:13-14 (ESV)**
> "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

2. **Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV)**
> "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"

3. **Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)**
> "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

#### Observation Questions
1. What does Paul mean by "freedom" in Galatians 5:13-14, and how should it be used according to the passage?
2. How does Jeremiah describe the human heart in Jeremiah 17:9, and what implications does this have for following our desires?
3. In Matthew 7:13-14, what are the characteristics of the narrow and wide gates, and what do they represent in the context of following Jesus?

#### Interpretation Questions
1. How does the concept of freedom in Christ challenge the idea of self-indulgence, and what does it mean to serve one another in love? ([29:28])
2. Why is it important to recognize the deceitfulness of the heart, and how can this awareness impact our decision-making and spiritual growth? ([31:16])
3. What does it mean to walk the narrow path of faithfulness, and why is it described as difficult yet leading to life? ([46:21])

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you felt a strong longing or desire. How did you navigate it, and what role did your faith play in that process? ([27:36])
2. In what ways can you embrace discomfort for spiritual growth in your current life situation? What specific steps can you take to align your actions with your beliefs? ([22:30])
3. How can you use your freedom in Christ to serve others in your community this week? Identify one practical way to put this into action. ([29:28])
4. Think of a recent decision you made based on your desires. How might you evaluate that decision in light of Jeremiah's warning about the deceitfulness of the heart? ([31:16])
5. What are some practical ways you can pursue the narrow path of faithfulness in your daily life? Consider one specific area where you can deny yourself and follow Jesus more closely. ([46:21])
6. Identify a longing or desire in your life that may be pointing you toward a deeper spiritual hunger. How can you seek fulfillment in God rather than in earthly things? ([41:03])
7. How can you bridge the gap between your intellectual understanding of faith and its real-life application? Share one area where you see a disconnect and discuss steps to align your actions with your beliefs. ([43:46])

Day 1: Embracing Discomfort for Spiritual Growth
Embracing discomfort is a vital part of spiritual growth. Often, the journey of faith involves stepping into areas that challenge our comfort and confront our deepest fears and desires. This process of embracing discomfort is not about seeking pain for its own sake but about allowing God to refine and shape us through our experiences. As we navigate our personal longings and the teachings of Scripture, we are called to a life of continual self-denial and renewal in Christ. This journey is marked not by achieving perfection but by progressing in our relationship with God, learning to depend more fully on His grace and strength each day. [22:30]

James 1:2-4 ESV: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."

Reflection: What discomfort in your life might God be using to grow your faith? How can you more fully embrace this process?


Day 2: Freedom and Service in Christ
The freedom we receive in Christ is a profound gift, not meant for self-indulgence but for serving others in love. This principle challenges us to look beyond our desires and consider how we might contribute to the well-being of our community. In Christ, we find the freedom to serve, to give, and to love without the constraints of selfish desires. This is a reminder that our salvation is not just about personal fulfillment but about participating in God's larger redemptive plan for humanity. As we live out this freedom, we embody the love of Christ in a world in desperate need of compassion and grace. [29:28]

Galatians 5:13-14 ESV: "For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Reflection: How can you use your freedom in Christ to serve someone in your community this week?


Day 3: The Deceitfulness of the Heart
Our hearts can lead us astray if we are not vigilant. The prophet Jeremiah warns us about the deceitfulness of the heart, urging us to critically evaluate our motivations and desires. This calls for a disciplined life of discernment and submission to God's ways, even when it contradicts our natural inclinations. By understanding the treacherous nature of our desires, we can guard against the temptation to follow paths that lead away from God's will. This vigilance is crucial in maintaining a life that is aligned with the truth of Scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit. [31:16]

Jeremiah 17:9-10 ESV: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 'I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.'"

Reflection: In what ways have you experienced the deceitfulness of your heart? How can you cultivate a practice of discernment in your daily life?


Day 4: Longings as a Reflection of Divine Discontent
Our deepest longings can be seen as a reflection of a divine discontent planted within us by God. These unfulfilled desires are not meant to frustrate us but to point us toward a greater fulfillment that can only be found in God. They remind us of the imperfection of this world and the perfection of the heavenly kingdom we are called to seek. By recognizing these longings as signposts, we can navigate our lives with a clearer sense of purpose and direction, always moving towards the ultimate fulfillment found only in God's presence. [41:03]

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV: "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end."

Reflection: What are some of the deeper longings in your life that might be pointing you towards God? How can you pursue these in a way that aligns with His will?


Day 5: The Narrow Path of Faithfulness
Choosing to follow Jesus means embracing a narrow path marked by faithfulness and sacrifice. This path, while difficult, leads to true life and freedom from the power of sin. It requires a daily commitment to deny ourselves and follow the teachings of Christ, trusting that He will lead us to our ultimate home with Him. As we walk this path, we discover the true meaning of freedom and life, which are found not in the broad ways of the world but in the narrow way of Christ. [46:21]

Matthew 7:13-14 ESV: "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

Reflection: What does taking up your cross and following Jesus look like in your current life circumstances? What might you need to deny in order to follow Him more closely?

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "When I was in high school, the moment that I got my driver's license, I was free. I was free of an abusive father. I was free of an overwhelmed mother. I spent as little time as possible from that moment forward at my house as I could. And I was going to get as far away from there and as fast as I could as possible, which I took a little too literally based on my high school driving record, right? I wanted an adventure with safe people that wanted to know me. I wanted to be known." [32:04](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)

2. "We live in a culture that is regularly evangelizing you to this worldview. This isn't about any single group, by the way. We all face this temptation, all of us. And really, here's just a quick caution in maximizing pleasure. It will never be enough. Whatever pleasure you think you can get through that action, activity, identity, it's like chasing the sun." [43:46](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)

3. "Our lives are supposed to show the forever promise of living with longings today that can never be satisfied without eternity. I want to finish with an excerpt from Ruth Cho Simon's book, Now and Not Yet, in which she provides a liturgy for when expectations are unmet." [46:21](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)

### Quotes for Members

1. "Our deepest desires, usually to become people of goodness and love, are often sabotaged by the stronger surface-level desires of our flesh. All healthy, free people self-edit this inner mix of desires." [32:48](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)

2. "All earthly longings point to heavenly hunger. Now, in the same letter, the Apostle Paul, he expounds on the concept of how we make a choice about which desire we will honor in our lives. Not just our instant appetite, but our heavenly hunger, which can only be satisfied in God." [33:54](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)

3. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it? We are all sexually broken. And this list reminds us that we are all completely broken without Jesus. That without Jesus, there is no performing to the level necessary to get to God on our own." [31:16](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | )

4. "For you are called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. The flesh here is one of the three enemies that the New Testament describes that we really should be cognizant and looking out for as we're trying to follow Jesus." [29:28](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Make vertical captioned clip)

5. "Your desire for more of God than you have right now, your longing for love, your need for deeper levels of spiritual transformation than you have experienced so far is the truest thing about you. You might think that your woundedness or your sinfulness is the truest thing about you, or that your giftedness or your personality type or your job title, your identity as a husband, wife, mother, father. Somehow defines you. But in reality, it is your desire for God and your capacity to reach for more of God than you have right now that is your deepest essence of who you are." [42:20](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Make vertical captioned clip)

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Anyway, Keith got his doctorate in leadership and spiritual formation, which if you know Keith, it's close to his heart. So I just want to say, man, let's congratulate Keith for this huge accomplishment.

Well, hey, good morning, Menlo Church, and welcome to our final week in our Wonderfully Made series, where we've been trying to offer compassionate clarity around the body, gender, and sexuality. Some of you are like, wait, this is the last week? And some of you are like, thank God, this is the last week.

I heard it put this way: this week, we want to offer the widest welcome to the narrow path of following Jesus. That's our heart as a community. A special welcome to all of our Bay Area campuses in San Mateo, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Saratoga, and those of you joining us online. We're so thankful that you have chosen to continue with us in this conversation, not just in our weekends together and services and messages, but through all the other resources and events that you can learn more about at menlo.church.

Wonderfully made.

Now, a couple of reminders as we finish up this series today. Number one, we don't have to agree in order to show respect. There are lots of people who will see and understand this differently, and we want to be a community that brings hope to everyone. With that in mind, please don't clap at any point. What encourages you may be actually painful for someone else to hear, and we don't want to create an unnecessary barrier to them listening and processing this in their life.

Number two, we are a community centered. We're centered on Jesus and the Bible. This conversation represents our best understanding of those topics through the whole of Scripture, not a handful of passages that we've pulled out of context to prove a point or to take a side. I'm not trying to debate or argue. I believe that clarity is kindness, and this has been our approach to model that.

And then number three, we are trying to build bridges, not walls. In our church, we recognize regularly that we are all sinners in need of grace. If you think you hear me single out a person or a group, just listen again, because I'm aiming to make sure that we are all at the foot of the cross together, myself included. I've needed grace in this series. We are wonderfully made and broken by sin together at the same time in need of a Savior universally. So I hope that that's been made clear over these five weeks together.

So with that in mind, kind of as our disclaimer today, we are talking about longing. Some of this series, so much of this series points to the brokenness of our world and the longing that we have collectively and individually for connection, community, and fulfillment, that even in the best earthly circumstances, even if your life is going great, it will fall short of these deeper heavenly longings that we're going to take a look at.

Before we begin, I'm going to pray for us. And if you've never been here or never heard me speak, before I speak, I pray kneeling. Part of the reason that I do that is to serve as a reminder to myself about those deepest, truest longings inside of me, that I want God to be more deeply the thing that's driving my life and the lesser longings of my life to submit more fully to him. Would you pray with me?

God, all of us came into this room with expectations met and unmet from the week past and the weeks to come. And so I pray, God, that you would work in the circumstances of our life, that we would see you, that we would understand we can only be fully and finally satisfied in you, and that over the next few minutes together, you would help all of us to come to the foot of the cross and to see our need for a savior, not just one time, some time, but every time, every moment of our lives. It's in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now, as we get older, we all have kind of like the glory days moment that we can think back to, right? Like all of us have some version of that. For some people, it's high school. Maybe there was like a peak moment. Maybe it was a sport or a club that you were a part of. It was like a varsity jacket that every now and then you pull out to see if it still fits. Maybe it was a peak moment in your career and you have that plaque above you, behind you as you're on every Zoom call, just so people can see it, right? Maybe it's a huge athletic feat that you experienced as an adult or some milestone in your family.

We can all look back, but I actually think it's bigger than even that. For years, my wife, Alyssa, was a CrossFit trainer and she would talk about the people that were the most difficult to coach as the glory days athletes. It wasn't the inexperienced people; they knew that they needed help. They were open to it. They were coachable. It was the people who were trying to, after not working out for a decade, immediately return to their decade-old maxes in whatever lift they were doing for the day.

But whether you can relate to that or not, I think we all have glory days that don't just point back to peak moments in our life. We all have actually the same glory day, in a sense, in the Garden of Eden. Genesis, the first book in the Hebrew Scriptures, records it this way.

It says, now, we are not going back to the sexuality talk. That's week two. You can go back and listen to it if you missed it. But in this moment, beyond the reminder and the description of marriage, we see the last described moment when humanity existed without sin and without shame. Ever since the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, we have longed for this moment inside of us, whether we're people of faith or not. I believe that you have a longing. I have a longing to live in harmony with the world, with other people, and with God. But we can never seem to quite reach it.

For some of you, it always feels like it's just a little bit of a reach out in front of you. For others, it feels like this massive reach that's completely unattainable. But see, God is bringing something better than Eden because we can't get back to that one. And for that reason, we're going to look at this idea. This idea that all earthly longings point to heavenly hunger. This appetite, this deeper hunger and longing that you have inside of you is on purpose and for a purpose.

And if this is true, and we can all acknowledge that there is an unsettled aspect of our lives, it begs an important question, which is, what are you longing for? Is it as simple as a superficial bump at work, right? Oh, I got that promotion. I got that pay raise. Maybe for you, it's the special someone that you hope will notice you. Maybe you're a student and the thing you're hoping for is to just survive the next few weeks.

Some of us, we're longing to go back in time to change a critical decision that now we see as a mistake that we made somewhere in our life. You're longing maybe to be physically restored or to be healed from something that you are not in control of. You feel no power. Maybe you're longing to have your kids talk to you again, or you're longing for your marriage. Maybe you're longing to feel like more than a roommate.

Some of you, you're processing longings around the vision of gender and sexuality from the scriptures that we've been talking about in this series, and it feels impossible. Maybe you even agree that it's what we find in the pages of scripture, but you can't imagine living that way. And I can't imagine what that feels like.

In scripture, we are all called to die to ourselves piece by piece as we follow Jesus. But you feel like you have to do it all at once. You aren't dying to yourself; it feels like yourself is dying, and I don't want to minimize that, but I want to highlight how universal this need is for all of us. Even if you have maybe felt singled out through church world, through a conversation like this one, which I'm so sorry, like we all have longings that are unsettled and unsolved.

I want to open a letter with you written to a group of churches in the first century in the region of Galatia, what we now know to be modern Turkey. As Paul addresses a young group of Jesus followers who were battling, on the one hand, legalism and on the other side, license, this battle that actually we still have today. These early Christians, they had been doing so well, beginning to follow Jesus until a group known as the Judaizers came in and disrupted this movement.

They were insisting that Gentiles or non-Jewish people that were trying to follow Jesus had to also follow the Jewish law in order to follow Jesus, especially circumcision. Now, let me be very clear. When you come to a next step environment at Menlo, we want you to take a step. We have lots of opportunities for you to get engaged and for next steps for you to take. I want to be very upfront. Circumcision is not on that list here at Menlo Church, right?

Paul is trying to help them understand that Jesus came to set them free. He fulfilled the ceremonial and civil laws so that we don't have to, and he makes such a strong case in the Bible. He makes such a strong case in the book of Galatians that now he's actually writing to retort the extremes of his own argument. He says it this way:

"For you are called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."

The flesh here is one of the three enemies that the New Testament describes that we really should be cognizant and looking out for as we're trying to follow Jesus. Our internal longings, which are rooted in the flesh, are the ones that we should be cognizant and looking out for as we're trying to follow Jesus. Our internal longings, which are rooted in earthly desires, they have divine roots, but the tangible appetite is often very dangerous and damaging for all of us.

One of the things that's said a lot in our culture is the sense in which God didn't make a mistake on me, or something like, follow your heart. It's this sense in which if you feel it, if you want it, you should do it. It's this rationalization for approving the temptations of our flesh, and we see it everywhere. It's true, by the way, that God didn't make a mistake on you. That's very true. It is also true that humanity made a mistake on humanity.

In the Garden of Eden and ever since, we are simultaneously created in the image of God with infinite dignity, value, and worth, and terminally ill with the cancer of sin. We are both of those things at the same time. It's the grace and truth of Jesus, like we talked about last week. We aren't all as bad as we could possibly be, but we're also not all good either. And evil has infected us at levels as human beings that we aren't even aware of.

Jeremiah, a prophet known so clearly for sharing for God's people, Israel, what it meant to understand really the bad news of who we are in some ways, he actually was known as the weeping prophet. He described it so clearly. He said it this way: "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?"

And then you think about that cultural statement, just follow your heart. That's the heart we're talking about. When I was in high school, the moment that I got my driver's license, I was free. I was free of an abusive father. I was free of an overwhelmed mother. I spent as little time as possible from that moment forward at my house as I could. And I was going to get as far away from there and as fast as I could as possible, which I took a little too literally based on my high school driving record, right?

I wanted an adventure with safe people that wanted to know me. I wanted to be known. I wanted to be known by a community of people that I could discover over time. My longings, they were rooted in good things, but I settled for something less than what I was made for. And we all do that. I wanted wholeness, not holiness.

Now, they are related, but they are not the same. And oftentimes we will settle for the lesser of the two. When we aim at our appetites, we miss the substance that God has really given to fuel us. Author John Mark Comer puts it this way: "My point is simply this. Our deepest desires, usually to become people of goodness and love, are often sabotaged by the stronger surface-level desires of our flesh."

All healthy, free people self-edit this inner mix of desires. We all have these what sometimes get called intrusive thoughts. We all have these desires that are true desires. And if we were following our heart, we would follow them, but we know they're not good for us, and so we don't. We just inform those sometimes culturally entirely different, not only by our inner desires, but also by our desires entirely by our desires, and not God.

Again, I don't want to minimize your desires. I think that we actually often desire too little and in the wrong direction, myself included. Whether we have made maybe our present or maybe for you a future marriage into an idol that it can't withstand the pressure of your life, or maybe a vision of sexual fulfillment that will never leave us fully satisfied. Because remember, all earthly longings point to heavenly hunger.

Now, in the same letter, the Apostle Paul, he expounds on the concept of how we make a choice about which desire we will honor in our lives. Not just our instant appetite, but our heavenly hunger, which can only be satisfied in God. And it asks the question, what's the destination of your desires? If everything that you wanted in your life and you just kept following it, where is it taking you? What is the end result of it?

Have you ever gotten what you wanted only to realize that it didn't have the power to fully and finally satisfy you? We often forget about it because we're so quick to think about the next thing. But maybe it was that girl or that guy that you just knew they were going to complete you until they completely frustrated you. For some of you, that's how you feel about me, and that's hurtful. But all of our relationships, if we ask them to be divine, we're going to be disappointed.

If we ask that person to be Jesus, they will disappoint us. We feel this way if we think back at any point in our lives about a decade. Think back a decade ago and think about the decisions that you were making. Can you even remember? Can you remember what you desperately had to have? Here's what I'll tell you. There are things that a decade ago God said no to, and you are saying now, if you can think of them, you're saying, thank you, God, for saying no to that request.

Because we are terrible judges of what's good for us. That's why God shows us a path, this narrow way, to follow him into this better life and kingdom. It couldn't hold the weight of our expectations because your expectations are divine. They're longing for something deeper. Paul warns the churches in Galatia, in the region, about following their flesh and what it can do. He says it this way:

"Now, the works of the flesh are evident. They're obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies."

And if you're thinking, my thing's not on the list, he says, "and things like these." Like whatever you're thinking about right now, he's going, that one too. He says, "I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit. It's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

Now, I want you to notice something. There are multiple desires in this list. The flesh that focus on sexuality, but they aren't specifically calling out any single community. Remember, we are all sexually broken. And this list reminds us that we are all completely broken without Jesus. That without Jesus, there is no performing to the level necessary to get to God on our own. That's why Jesus had to come.

As a matter of fact, one of the things that we said was we're going to follow Jesus, and we're going to remember that He is the only means by which any of us can be saved. He's the only means by which any of us can grow and change over time. Paul says that if we want to grow, we have to remember that we have crucified the flesh, those natural impulses and instincts of broken self.

We said that we wouldn't pursue the destinations of our desires when we said we would pursue Jesus instead. That saying yes to Jesus means saying no to many other things. It's the widest welcome to the narrow way. We want to commit to letting Jesus change our appetites every single day. That's true for all of us.

As a matter of fact, the good news of that is that God gives us our entire lives. Now, we know that because maybe you made a decision to follow Jesus, and you thought everything in my life is going to be fixed. And you discovered the truth, which is when we make a decision to follow Jesus, not everything in our life is all better. It's a lifelong process of transformation.

It's been said that when we choose to follow Jesus, we are freed from the eternal penalty of sin. It's this word justification, that when God sees you, he sees Jesus in your place. That as we grow in Jesus, we are increasingly freed from the power of sin. That's the word sanctification. It's a process that God is faithful, and he will work on you, and work to redeem you, and change you to look more and more like the best vision of you following him every single day of your life.

And in heaven, the new heavens and the new earth, eternity with him, we will be free from the presence of sin. And understanding that over time, this is not once done, and if something's wrong, I must have done it wrong. It's that this was always the path that God had in front of us.

Now, again, it's easy for me to say, right? The cisgendered, heterosexual, married pastor is telling me to just remember heaven's coming. Yay, thanks, Phil. And here's the thing. I'll say to those areas, they're absolutely easier for me than someone in the LGBT community. Or maybe you're facing a season of unwanted singleness and a longing in this area. I don't know why God has allowed that season for you, those desires for you, that dysphoria for you, that discomfort for you.

I have my own story, my own pain, my own temptation to battle with, but for so many of you, the sexual ethic of Jesus, it feels like a weight you can't carry. And I wish that I could give you a more emotionally satisfying answer, but I hope that what you've seen is a compassionate community that says, we want to walk with you in it together.

This side of heaven, we may never feel wholeness, but we can pursue holiness more and more every day toward a deeper wholeness than the world has to offer. Even if it's incomplete, it will look much closer to the one God's made us to experience. Classic pastor and author Charles Spurgeon puts it this way. He says, "We must strive after holiness with an agony of desire."

We have such instant satisfaction culture around us all the time. And this idea that there is something we would long for and pursue that would take a long time to get feels totally counterintuitive, but we're built for it. Remember the words of Jesus about this unique and special call to a life that is impossible without him. He says, "Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life. And only a few find it."

Look, we can offer the widest welcome to the most people, and I hope we do, but we offer the widest welcome to the narrow way. There are desires that God has allowed, I think, in all of us whose primary purpose may be to remind us of our dissatisfaction with the broken world and the promise of a restored one.

Even if you're not a person of faith, even if you wouldn't call yourself a Christian, that longing inside of you that no matter what you've achieved, no matter what you've chased, no matter what you've found, hasn't satisfied you. I think that's a divine discontentment. Jesus isn't using this language to condemn people, but to highlight the true cost of pursuing the way of this better kingdom.

For many that had come to see, they were always receiving the invitation from Jesus to come and die. They'd come and see, but they would need to come and die. And I think that transition of come and see to come and die, we have not always done a great job of communicating. But that is always the path of the follower of Jesus.

Author Ruth Haley Barton, she points to this deeper longing this way. She says, "Your desire for more of God than you have right now, your longing for love, your need for deeper levels of spiritual transformation than you have experienced so far is the truest thing about you. You might think that your woundedness or your sinfulness is the truest thing about you, or that your giftedness or your personality type or your job title, your identity as a husband, wife, mother, father somehow defines you. But in reality, it is your desire for God and your capacity to reach for more of God than you have right now that is your deepest essence of who you are."

One of the things that I love about you, Menlo Church, is how much you think about and ponder the ways of God in your life and in the world. I'll mention a book, and you've read like every book of that author the next week. It's crazy. It's amazing. In this series specifically, I've had many conversations over coffee and email, everything in between about how you're processing and praying through what you're learning and what we're talking about. I'm so thankful for that. I'm like that too, actually.

But there is a shadow to being introspective that I want to make sure we are clear about. The shadow of a deep faith of the mind is that there can be a barrier between the faith of our mind and the faith of our life. We think very deeply, but we don't live as deep as we think. We have become educated beyond our obedience.

And so I want to make sure that we take just a few moments as we wrap this to be able to say, what are the next steps that I might want to take, especially if God has revealed in me a disconnect, a gap between this biblical ethic we've been talking about and my own impulses, temptations, and desires?

Well, the first thing is your choice would be with this dissonance that you have with God. And so I want to make sure that we take just a few moments as we wrap this to be is to maximize pleasure. It's what our world is telling you to do. It's the oppression and repression conversation that we had in the second week of the series. We live in a culture that is regularly evangelizing you to this worldview. This isn't about any single group, by the way. We all face this temptation, all of us.

And really, here's just a quick caution in maximizing pleasure. It will never be enough. Whatever pleasure you think you can get through that action, activity, identity, it's like chasing the sun. It's like chasing the sun. It's like chasing the sun. It's like chasing a high that neurologically we know every time you chase it, you need more of it to get the same thing that you experienced before.

And if you want to hear how the Bible might describe that, go to the book of James written by Jesus' baby brother. James chapter 1 verses 13 through 15 will give you the spiritual trajectory of what happens when we chase this unfulfilling path on our own. So that's one option.

The second choice is to minimize the problems. It's not really that big of a deal. It's not really that big of a deal. It's not really that big of a deal. They're exaggerating. It can't really be that problematic in my life. I can just pretend. I can pretend that I don't have these desires. I can live separated and bifurcated in my life where I do this over here and do that over there. It's not that big of a deal.

I would say this usually leads to self-hatred, and it's marked by false senses of self-righteousness. As you see people choosing other options, you feel very, very bitter and angry.

And then finally, we could choose to magnify the promise. We can choose to magnify the promise. We can choose to magnify the promise. We can choose to magnify the promise. We can choose to magnify the promise. We can choose to magnify the promise.

With this choice, we choose to live surrendered lives where we submit our immediate desires to point to God's eternal promises, promises of eternal wholeness and holiness that are offered in one incredible vision from God, a return to Eden that waits for followers of Jesus. And this time, there are no trees that are off limits. There are no decisions you could make that would get you banished, because the same thing that qualifies you for entrance is the same thing that keeps you in. That's no longer your obedience, but the obedience, standing, and status of Jesus.

The same Jesus that saved you will keep you forever. For some of you, there are big questions that you're bringing to the Press and Sprinkle events this week, and I'm so glad for that. For others, you've signed up at menlo.church slash wonderfullymade to indicate interest in specific groups or other events that you're going to be a part of. I'm so glad for that, too.

Remember, this series was designed not to build a wall, but to build bridges, to open up a conversation, to make this to be a place that you can be open and honest about what you're experiencing, thinking, and enduring, that through the pain and the shortcomings that we all face, we can find Jesus together.

Our lives are supposed to show the forever promise of living with longings today that can never be satisfied without eternity. I want to finish with an excerpt from Ruth Cho Simon's book, Now and Not Yet, in which she provides a liturgy for when expectations are unmet.

And then I want to play a spoken word video for you from Brie Erb, a single woman who beautifully describes some of her own pain in this journey. Some of this may be helpful for you. So maybe as I read this, I would just encourage you to steady yourself. Maybe that's turn off your phone right now. If you're taking notes, set those aside. If there's distractions, remove them. I know that might mean you got to get up and sit down. I'm just playing.

Maybe just put your palms up if you feel comfortable, eyes open, eyes closed, whatever allows you to be present in this moment as I read this excerpt for you.

"I have expectations, Lord, buried so deep inside me that most friends and family will never fully know until my expectations erupt, boil over, and spread to reveal my secret longings. I am neither the master nor the ruler of my life. So teach me to acknowledge what is true and to submit to your rule and reign, your wise ways, your perfect timing in all things, your purpose in pain, your allowance for disappointments, your delay in deliverance.

Right now may not be what I want, but tune my heart to sing your grace. Even here, where I feel the dissonance of being out of tune, let me lean in and listen to the melody of your faithfulness today so that even my expectations are transformed into longings that reflect your heart for me. Do what feels impossible for me, but it's more than feasible by your hand, oh Lord. Amen."