130: The Cost

[00:00:01] Have you ever taken time to really ponder and think about the cost of our redemption? The scripture says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. He endured the cross. The crown of thorns, the cat of nine tails. [00:00:14] You mean. Think about this. The pain, the suffering suffocating, the agony of nails being driven through your body and pierced through your legs and your. I mean, it's. [00:00:25] And yet we owed that debt. [00:00:28] And Christ, there was a joy set before him that he endured. And I think about back in the garden with Adam and Eve, I mean, God hates sin so much that he sends his son to deal with it, to go to war with it, to. To destroy it and annihilate it, to pay the debt that we owed because of our own sin and turning away. We were never created for sin. We were created for holiness. We were created for righteousness. We were created to live upright. And our lives actually work best when we're in those types of energies and devotions. [00:00:57] There's so much data in the world today. Data, data, data, AI, Google. There's just data everywhere, right? Data content. [00:01:06] And it's not good enough. It's not. It's not going to help us move forward in our growth, in our time with God, in our maturing, to just have more data about God, that's not what it's about. And data is available anywhere. It's kind of cheap nowadays. You don't have to pay for it, you just get it anywhere. But daat Elohim, if you take the letters and you rearrange them, it's daat, the hebrew word for knowledge of God. Now, there's a cost in knowing God, and the scriptures are clear. [00:01:33] It's not the truth that sets us free, it's the knowledge, it's the daat. It's the knowing of the truth that sets us free. There's an intimacy, there's a. [00:01:42] And that's the word, that's how the word's actually used that Adam to a eve had children, and so, you know, they created offspring. And that's not, it's the same. It's an intimacy with the Lord. It's knowing him. It's spending time in terms of the cost of taking time to be with God. So taking time to think about what he did for us, it produces something in us. It produces a heartfelt repentance. You know, I think about David when David said, you know, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. And he's repenting in this, this psalm. He's repenting for a pretty big a big. He blew it big time, right? I mean, adultery, murder. He's. He's. And he gets nailed. He's not telling on himself. He gets nailed by the prophet Nathan. [00:02:30] So there's something about joy. There's something about what Christ endured that if we take time and ponder on it, it will fill us up with joy. It'll actually make our repentance sorrowful, which gives us the confidence and the assurance of our salvation. So I want to challenge you today. Take ten minutes. Literally. Set a timer. Ten minutes, maybe 15. But do a solid ten minutes. And just think about the cross. Just think about what he endured. Maybe write down some things. [00:02:59] Ponder, meditate. Be thankful in this great work of the cross, and may it fill you up with joy. Today.