Friends For The Good Life
TRANSCRIPT:
Awesome. Well, good morning. Good to see all your faces. It's I am it's my privilege to open up God's word with you this morning. My name's Mark.
If you're new here, I'm one of the pastors. we are in the book of Proverbs. I think it's on your bulletin if you have it, but our verse this morning is Proverbs 1717. had the opportunity to spend a couple days with the men up there to preach up there, and now I get to come back down here and wear all the hats. I was running sound this morning and now I'm preaching. So pray for me. Pray for me. I'll read our verse and then I'll pray for us. Proverbs
1717. Listen carefully. This is God's word. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let me pray.
Yeah, Lord, we now come before you and we sit under your word. We pray that your word would wash over us what we know not you teach us, what we have not, you give us, what we are not, you would make us by your spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I want you to think about as we launch out, I want you to think about a friend of yours. It could be any friend, it could be a friend from your past or present, maybe from your school days or high school or college. I want you to think about this friend.
And why were they a friend or are a friend to you? Like what what what are some memories that come to mind when you think about that particular friend? Just think about that for a second.
Ma maybe it's some stories, some adventures you were on, maybe it was a shared heart and desire for something. There was this a season in your life where they walked through it with you. I I just want you to think about that friend. Whatever friend comes to mind.
C.S. Lewis, in his book The The Four Loves, he he says this friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another, What? You two? I thought I was the only one.
There's this camaraderie together. So I was doing the experiment that I just had you do. And what came to mind was friends friends of mine from high school. This is us. Rick showed his picture from a little kid last week. This is me at about age twenty-five. and these are good friends of mine. But I thought about the one in the middle with the big smile. This is Chris. we went on some adventures together.
met Chris in high school. We had a shared love. Again, C.S.O. says you have this shared passion. We found we had a shared passion for several things. One, basketball. We played every day, and we had a shared love for Magic Johnson and the Lakers, and we would talk about that. And then we realized we actually had many passions in common. and so we we went on lots of adventures, and I was not a great student in high school. I I I played basketball with these guys.
guys and did not do my homework. And so and and Rick wasn't a great student either, so your pastors are awesome. Let me just say that. Most of you probably if if we added our GPAs together, it would be your GPA. So so one year, I think it might I don't even know. Well at one point in high school, maybe between my junior and senior year or the year before, Chris and I were in summer school. Now for those of you that don't know, that wasn't because we were extra smart. It was because
We hadn't done well in class and we needed to take some classes. and so but it was an adventure. So we'd get out about noon and we would say, Okay, wh where is this day gonna lead us? And we would we would do things like drive up to Wyoming and buy illegal fireworks and we would get just grosses upon grosses of grosses of bottle rockets and we would go on these bottle rocket sprees just firing fireworks out of the car and and at each other and
Me and many of these friends went to the golf course and at night and we'd have these wars on the golf course. It was amazing. Well, this one particular day after summer school, I'm in Chris's car and his Bronco II and we're going home and he he just rolls through this stop sign and he he rolls through it to take a ride so fast he doesn't see a cop sitting right there. And so we're immediately pulled over. And he looks, this cop comes up to us and he looks in and he sees these bottle rocks.
Like some of them, and he gets very angry. He reaches in the window and grabs the bottle rockets, he's like, You know these are illegal? We're like, Yes, sir, sorry, sir. And then he he he he breaks them because they're little sticks, right? And then he breaks the bottle rocket, and then he does this crazy thing. He throws them on Chris's lap. He's like, get out of here, I better not catch you again. We're like, sweet, okay.
And so I was thinking about that a few weeks ago and I so I texted texted Chris. He lives in New York. We've haven't had a lot of time together after college, but I texted him I said this. I said, I was just telling my family about the time when we got pulled over and the cop broke the bottle rockets and threw them back on your lap. Funny face. He says, I California rolled that stop sign. I had no shoes on, I had no license, and my registration was expired. Ridiculous. I'm shocked that we made it.
I said, it was amazing. Also the bottle rocket wars on South Suburban Golf Course at night were so amazing. He said, Yes. And then he wrote, I'm thankful that we became friends when we did. I am lucky to have had such incredible, albeit crazy, memories. And I said same. Grateful for you, brother. I I hope that you do have and have had some friendships like that in your life.
They are
I hope those are the kind of memories. Well, maybe not those kind, but you had some memories when I said think of a friend. We're in this series through the book of Proverbs, and we call it the good life, because Proverbs is about wisdom, meaning understanding how God's world is created and living in light of that so that you can live wisely, so that you can have what you really want. The good life.
The good life. And in Proverbs, there's there's all these themes that come up on repeat. And starting with chapter 10, they they kind of get shotgunned at you. So there's not like a chapter on this and a chapter on that, but throughout they're scattered. And one of the things that's scattered throughout the book of Proverbs is this idea of friendship. Friendship. So in order to really have the good life, it's necessary to travel.
with some friends along the way. This is the good life. we we might wonder and and and think is friendship really necessary? I mean after all everything else that's going on in our lives is is friendship the thing that we need for the good life?
C. S. Lewis writing in the Four Loves, he he says this, and in a sense he says, Well, it isn't technically necessary, or at least biologically, he'll say. Here's what he says. He says, Friendship is, in a sense, not at all derogatory to it, the least natural of loves, the least instinctive, organic, biological, gregarious, and necessary. He says, without Eros, the romantic love, none of us would have b been begotten. And without affection, kind of
of familial love, none of us would have been reared. But we can live and breed without friendship. The species, biologically considered, has no need of it. He goes on and he says, Where where does he say that? There he goes. He says, Friendship is unnecessary, but listen to what he says. Like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself. For God did not need to create.
It has no survival value. Rather, it is one of those things that things which give value to survival. I like that. Philosophy, art, friendship. Has no survival value. Rather, it's one of those things which give value to survival. So Lewis, writing in 1960, said, Well, it's not necessary, but it it's necessary for essentially the good life, is what he's saying. But we are in a friendship crisis.
In America, and really probably around the world. Let me just give you some statistics real quick. Don't let this numb your mind too quickly, but I'll go quickly. Since 1990, there has been a 600% increase in Americans that report having no close friends. Nearly one in five Americans will say, I have no close friends.
Since 2010. Think about what was happening at 2010, the widespread adoption of the smartphone. Since 2010, time devoted to friends has collapsed. Among young people aged 15 to 29, nearly 50% of their time is spent alone in isolation now. Twenty-one percent of US adults feel report feeling lonely regularly. Of those, 81% experience anxiety and depression. Seventy-five percent report little to no sense of meaning.
Or purpose in life. All of the negative trends are disproportionately affecting men. Is Siri Siri going off over there? seventy-three percent said technology is driving loneliness. This is in spite of the fact that the average American now has over five hundred Facebook friends. Yeah.
In twenty twenty three, the Surgeon General declared loneliness a public health epidemic, with social disconnection carrying the mortality equivalent of smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. It raises heart disease by twenty-nine percent and stroke by thirty-two percent. And no doubt in a room this size, many of you resonate with much of that.
You feel that. And maybe that's why you're here, and we're glad you're here. In fact, I will say later that this is a a great opportunity for us as a church to meet a felt need in the world and connect it with the gospel. Lewis said it's not necessary, but we're finding even scientific scientifically and sociologically, actually, it is necessary for our survival, friendship. It is part of the Imago Day.
triune nature who is triune in friendship. Did you ever think about that? Now we tend to push it aside. Friendship tends to get the last of our energy and effort. Why is that?
Even though every parent in this room knows the the modern parable that that it goes like this show me your friends and I'll show you your future. But we know how it important it is for our kids. We don't necessarily make time for it. It gets pushed aside. There's a lot else going on in our life. Why is friendship a low priority, even when what we're gonna see, the Bible says actually it's necessary for the good life? Why do we push it aside? Namely because truth.
True friendship is costly. It's time consuming. It requires you to have margin in your life. It requires energy and effort and time and and there's so much else in our world vying for all those things, and so we think, I don't have time for friendship. But
My hope this morning is to show you you need to make time. You need to make some margin in your life. So I want to a ask and answer three questions as we look throughout the book of Proverbs this morning. What is true friendship? How is true friendship cultivated and grown? And then where do we find the power to actually be true friends? So those three questions. Number one, what is true friendship? Proverbs 17:17 again says, A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for
adversity. The first thing that is true of friendship is that friendship is a love relationship. Now we live in a culture that cannot conceive of love other than sexual or romantic love, and that's a shame because as Lewis will say in his book, th this is a necessary love that we need in our lives. We will live in a weird culture where it's like if you have any affection for someone that is who's same sex, they're like, that must be sexual. That's not true. In fact
Lewis goes on and and pushes back against that for like ten pages in his book. He said, No, a a friend loves at all times. It's a love relationship. I I wonder if much of what Solomon gets and writes about friendship, he gets that from talking to his dad, David. David and his best friend Jonathan had a love relationship of friends, two dudes on mission together. And so he learned from him. A true friend is committed to
To you in the best and worst of times. There's a commitment. Again, this is where it starts to get costly, right? Proverbs 27:10. Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away. There's a commitment. A companion will say, hey.
if you ever need anything, let me know. You're like, thanks. But a friend? A friend doesn't have to be ass. A friend shows up at your house w when there's a crisis. A friend has a a meal in tow. A friend says, Hey, I I know you and your your spouse need some time. Let me just take the kids for a day for you. They show up, they're committed.
In the best of times and the worst of times, which means a true friend is rare. Well, we don't and can't have many friends because of they are costly. It takes time, it takes investment, it takes energy. A true friend is rare. Proverbs 18:24: a man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Again, we we all have many companions, and that's not a bad thing. They're useful to us, and you're useful to them. Like they meet a need in your life. And often out of companionship, friendship is born. But but a true friend sticks closer than a brother in thick or thin.
A true friend is a fellow traveler, as Lewis says, with a shared vision or purpose. If you have no shared vision or purpose, that that person will not become a friend of yours. Here's what Lewis says about that. He says, he says, that is why those pathetic people, that's kind of rude, those pathetic people who simply want friends can never make any.
The very condition of having friends is that we would want something else besides friends. Where the truthful answer to the question, do you see the same truth, would be, I see nothing, and I don't care about the truth. I only want a friend. No friendship can arise. Though affection, of course, may, there would be nothing for the friendship to be about.
And friendship must be about something, even if it were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice. I love that.
Those who have nothing can share nothing. Those who are going nowhere have no fellow travelers.
So, what is true friendship? It's a love relationship, it's committed, it's rare, and it's a shared vision or purpose. So, then how is it cultivated? How does it grow? I'll say four things. In fact, these are not from me. I got these from Pastor Tim Keller as he talked about this, and so I couldn't come up with better than this, so I just said, let's go with that. so the first thing is that there is constancy. There's constancy to friendship. So again, Proverbs 17:17.
A friend loves at all times. And a brother is born for adversity. For a friend to become a true friend, at some point in that relationship, there was a lot of time spent together. Again, my friend Chris is a dear friend, but we spent a lot of time. We haven't for decades, and we could call each other up and we can hang out and it would be great. But if we had never put in the time before, that friendship would never exist.
Today. So there's a constancy. A friend loves at all times. A brother is born for adversity. What what the what the Proverbs is saying is: hey, there's family, there's brothers and sisters. They're going, especially in the culture in which this was written, they're going to be there for you no matter what. You might not like them.
But your brother will be there for you. But a friend, a friend is a brother or a sister that you choose, and they choose you. And so sometimes our friends are actually dearer to us than our family because of the constancy in our lives. Number two, there's carefulness in friendships.
Proverbs twenty five twenty. Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day and like vinegar on soda. What is he saying? That there's an emotional intelligence within each friendship. Like you you you know
A true friend weeps with those who weep and rejoices with those who rejoices and knows when each one should happen. Knows the emo has enough emotional intelligence for a a particular relationship to know how to speak, how to joke, how to laugh with that person. Like I have a lot of friends that w when I when I belittle them, they see they receive that as love.
But if I do that to some other people in my life, they're like, why is Mark such a jerk? I'm like, I'm just being funny. No, you're not. I'm like, because I'm not emotionally intelligent in those relationships. But with your friends, they could be like, Man, you you burned me. You destroyed me. Yeah, I did, and it was awesome. Or you you you you know what I'm saying. I'm I don't need to keep going. But there is there is a carefulness. There is a there's an awareness of how
To kind of treat this particular relationship. I love what JC Ryle said about friendship. He says this: the world is full of sorrow because it is full of sin. It is a dark place. It is a lonely place. It is a disappointing place. We all feel that. The brightest sunbeam in it is a friend. I love this. Friendship halves our troubles and doubles our joys.
It halves our troubles. Do you feel that ever? I I I I I'm grateful that I am also good friends with the other elders of this church. And I don't take that for granted. I I remember the Davidsons when they first came to the church.
And they were like, hey, we just want to know, we we have one question for you. Are you friends with the other elders? I like, Yeah, what are you talking about? They're like, No, that's important to us because we are we are leaving a church where they're not friends and it's terrible. I was like, well I hope I'm always friends with them.
But I I r I remember s I say to them regularly, I I'm so grateful for them because their friendship has my troubles. I feel like they're carrying the weight that I don't have to carry on my own and it doubles my joys.
I hope that's true for your friends as well. So there's a care constancy, a carefulness, and then this is important. It's intention with carefulness, but there's a candor, a candor to friendship. Proverbs 27, 5 and 6. Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. A true friend has enough credit with you that they can say the hard thing because it's for your good.
Do you have any friends like that? Where they can say, and you've given permission to them in their lives to speak into your life. And even though it might be hard to hear, you know that they have your best in mind. They're for you and not against you. So there's a candor to it. Wounds from a friend can be trusted. Perfect.
So let me yesterday I was I was having lunch with the guys up at the retreat and I was sharing, hey, I have to come back, I have to preach, and they were asking about it. And then so they had some questions. In fact, Kinton Mattoon asked this question. He said, So can do you think a person's best friend can be or should be a spouse? And I said, Well, yes and no. I hope that in your marriage you have an
incredible friendship absolutely but no because a true friend can and should say things in your life that puts the relationship at risk if they need to and you should not say that to your spouse.
Wives make terrible holy spirits. Husbands make terrible holy spirits. You need others, friends, to process, to speak truth into your lives. You have to give them permission. That takes time, it takes all these things. There's a candor. There's a carefulness to it. That doesn't mean you just rip your friend all the time, right? So those things are intention, but there's a candor in it. Have you ever said to anyone, if you ever see in my life something out of whack?
With my character, something that's stunting my growth in Christ, will you gently point that out to me? If you have that kind of friend, that is a gift on the path to the good life. And then finally, to grow and cultivate friendship, there's a counsel involved. Proverbs 27:9: oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel.
Like you're going through something or you're jammed up or you don't know, you're like, man, I really want to talk to him. I really want to talk to them. Because I think they'll be able to see things that I'm not seeing there. If you have those kind of friends, it's a gift.
You know, recently at our house we had our our friends, their their names are the Ratnels. They we we were at the mission field together without babies and we had babies together, we grew up on the mission field, and we just spent time and and and so many times throughout the the decades now there's been moments where we've spoken gentleness and encouragement and candor and rebuke into each other's life that there's just this love for one another.
Th there have been times in our marriage where we we were locked up, jammed up, and we're like, you know, we need to bring over the Rath Mells just to sit in this room and hear us argue. And they even sided with me once. It's true, right? One time.
That was necessary for our relationship in that moment. I hope you have friends like that. Yeah, yeah. So there there's constancy, carefulness, candor, counsel. Now these are the things that help friendship grow out of the soil.
But of course, Proverbs has plenty to say about things that destroy friendship, right? I won't go through all of them, but lying, gossip, Proverbs 16, 28, a perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. Unforgiveness, Proverbs 17:9. Whoever would foster love covers over an offense that's forgives an offense. But whoever repeats the matter separates close friends. There's betrayal.
And when our friends lie to us, when our friends betray us, when they gossip about us, they don't remain friends very long. And when we do that, we don't remain friends very long. If we don't give forgiveness, we don't remain friends very long. And so how do we or where can we find the power to be a true friend? Well, we look to Jesus. Jesus, when he put on flesh and lived among us, his enemies had a derogatory
nickname for him or they thought it was derogatory. They called Jesus the friend of sinners. And they were right. Jesus is the friend of sinners. Praise God for that.
Jesus on the night that he was betrayed, he gathered his disciples in the upper room. And in John chapter thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, he has a message for him. And every word he speaks in those hours before his crucifixion has this weight of urgency to it.
And in John chapter 15, he says this, after washing his disciples' feet and teaching them about the Holy Spirit, and and here's what he says, starting in verse 12: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone laid down his life for his friends. You are my friends.
If you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know the master, what the master is doing, but I have called you friends. Again, when we betray, when we lie, when we gossip about our friends, they're not our friends very long. But Jesus, knowing he's about to be betrayed, he's about to people are gonna lie about him. His these close people.
He doesn't abandon the friendship. In fact, he doubles down. There are 10,000 blessings that come to us in the gospel, and we should celebrate them all. But do you ever celebrate this one? That God calls you friend? Friend. This is amazing. And this is where we get the power to be friends.
While we were sinners, Christ died for us. And so, to the degree that you understand the costliness of the friendship that was purchased for us by Jesus on the cross, then we can understand I if that's how I am loved, if God is my friend, then I now have the power, both by example and by spirit, to be a friend. To be the kind of friend that forgives.
Even when betrayed. To be the kind of friend that loves even when it's difficult. So to have a true friend, you've got to be a true friend. Proverbs 13 20 says, He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm. This is the principle of the path again. Who you walk with will shape your life. This is why friendship is necessary for the good life.
Well, if we want to grow wise to be the kind of friends that we need to be, to have the kind of friends that we want to have, then we should walk with wisdom incarnate. Jesus Christ, He will show us how to be wise, how to be a friend. And so I think we should all do a friendship audit in our life. Just over the next couple minutes, I'm going to ask some questions and just kind of answer them in your mind as I ask these questions. Number one.
Is there margin in your life for your friends? Do you have any time?
Is there any margin in your life for friends? And I get it, we we want to be good, we want we spend time with our family, we got work, and we got all these things, but is there any space in your life for friends? And if not, make space because you want to live the good life. Number two, do you see friendship as a must-have or a merely nice to have? Is it a must-have?
Or is it just nice to have
Number three, are you a true friend to anyone? Is there constancy, carefulness, candor, and counsel in that relationship?
A true friend to anyone. Number four, is anyone a true friend to you?
Is there a friend that you should reach out to this week to show your gratitude to in your life? You just say, hey, my church, my pastor preached on friendship, it was weird, I know, but it just made me think about you. And I just want to thank you for your friendship.
Is there a friend you need to apologize to and ask forgiveness? Maybe someone who was a friend at one time, but because of sin, it's no longer a friend, but in Jesus, he can heal that. So is there a friend you need to apologize to? And then finally, do you feel your need for a friend?
So pray and ask God to provide for you in this area. For a friend. Now at Redemption Parker, we we can't make you friends. But we do try to provide the soil for friendship to grow out of. So for example, right now there's 70 men that are spending time together.
Th they're they're listening to some preaching, but they're also spending time hiking and biking and golfing and frisbee golf and fishing. They're all doing those things. Those are important moments for friendship to grow out of. We have gospel communities, intentional places where you can s begin to do life with people. Again, it won't make you friends, but it could provide the soil. We have a women's retreat coming up in the fall.
If you feel disconnected and want to just get to know some women, that'd be great. Again, we have all sorts of events because we believe that the good life is done with friends. I think of the greatest friend in all the literature. Sam Wise Gamge. Right? There's an example of constancy and candor and sacrifice and time and margin. Yes, this is who we want to be. Well.
We we talk about here at Redemption Parker that we want to be committed to community. That's one of our values. And then another one is on mission. And to be on mission is just hey, we carry the gospel to our world. Well, there is a real felt need among our neighbors. Our neighbors and our coworkers, the world out there is lonely.
Y you ha you have to find a place to be on mission in the world. It could be your next door neighbors. It could be I I in my own life a few years ago I was like, man, all I do is hang out with Christians. No offense to you guys, but I need some time with people that
Just drop F bombs in my presence all the time, like when I was in military ministry, yeah. And I need I need to just grow some friends. And so I joined a tennis team. The only team that would take me all the way out in Kin Carl and I just hang out with them. And I just got invited to a surprise birthday party. I hope th they don't listen to my sermons. I know they don't. so but I just have some time now where we are spending time together. I hope that you have that because the mission matters.
The data is out there. Sociologists and public health agencies are recognizing what we know. People are not meant to live in isolation. It's detrimental to their mental, physical, emotional well-being. And new breakthroughs in technology are not gonna solve the problem but only make the problem worse. Advances in medicine are not gonna solve the problem. There's a felt need among our neighbors that we are uniquely positioned to meet because Jesus has shown his friendship to us. We can offer
His friendship and our friendship to them. We can offer the friend of sinners to sinners like our neighbors and ourselves. We get to introduce people to him and to bef befriend the world. Let us do it, church, for the glory of God and the joy of all people. Amen? Amen. Let me pray for us.
A Cool Head
AI TRANSCRIPT
A|0:04|Good ⁓ to see you guys. And throughout this week, if you guys can be ⁓ praying, ⁓ even fasting ⁓ for the men of RP, there's seventy of us that are gonna be on this men's retreat ⁓ on Friday. So we're super excited for what the Lord will do ⁓ amongst the men of RP. ⁓ I think I'm pretty echo you. A|0:25|All right, well why don't you guys open up your Bibles to ⁓ Proverbs ⁓ sixteen? Proverbs sixteen. Mark, can you turn me down a little bit? A|0:37|Proverbs ⁓ sixteen. A|0:42|Last Sunday, two young ladies ⁓ from our church, ⁓ one in high school, the other in college, ⁓ laughed in my face. ⁓ Told me I was crazy because I had never heard of the artist Noah gone. ⁓ Just a few days prior to that, we were having our elders' retreat, and they gave me a similar look and told me that I'm living under a rock because I had never heard of ⁓ Ozempic. ⁓ Well, maybe they're right. A|1:11|But I'll tell you one thing that I am up to speed on Pixar movies. ⁓ A|1:18|Our weekly Shabbat in the Eisenberg home always kicks off on Friday night, and usually with a movie, and we take turns choosing. Many a Friday night we're we're watching a Pixar film. ⁓ A couple years back we we sat down to to watch ⁓ a movie and I found myself captivated by a story. Pixars inside out. ⁓ A|1:43|Now this movie got my ⁓ attention. I was most intrigued with the character ⁓ Anger. ⁓ There he is. ⁓ Who who lives inside of young Riley. There she is. ⁓ Anger is downright funny. Like when he he tastes broccoli pizza for the first time, he says, Congratulations, San Francisco, you've ruined pizza. ⁓ A|2:07|But they also captured some good truth about our emotion. The movie ⁓ is based off the psychologist Paul Ekman's theory of basic human emotion. For me, it it hit pretty close to home. Riley, when when anger shows up, reminded me a lot of myself as a kid. Should be a picture there. A|2:33|You're laughing now, it gets worse. If if you if you cross this kid you'd get the infamous Eisenberg line. ⁓ A|2:43|You're mean and stupid and God doesn't love you. ⁓ I mean, that that mean mug, usually with like seven t-shirts on, I had some sensory things going on. I would say you're mean ⁓ and stupid and God doesn't love you. The fact that I'm preaching now, one word grace, grace, and ⁓ more grace. And I wish I could say that that when I became a Christian, little ⁓ angry Rick for the last 20 years, nowhere to be found. ⁓ A|3:12|And yet that is not ⁓ the case. Literally last weekend I I ran a half marathon with ⁓ my wife Holly and some folks from RP. And in in less than fifteen seconds into the race, Holly throws me the I love you sign. And it was the last time I saw her until she ⁓ A|3:33|Cheered me on at the finish line. And you'd think, awesome. ⁓ Your wife is faster than you. She she trained at a sub-9-minute mile pace while I trained at a slow ⁓ 11-minute pace, or what I'd call zone two. ⁓ Took some days off as well. And you you parted ways on race day. Great. Not exactly. A|3:54|When she threw up that ⁓ I love you sign, and I haven't told her this. ⁓ It it it it may have well been a gang sign from a rival set. ⁓ I I ran my fastest mile just trying to keep up, which just about gassed me half a mile ⁓ in. Eventually I slowed down and eventually I got over it and calmed down. ⁓ Or two weeks ago, playing tennis with Pastor Mark, when some mom and her little two year old son began playing on the swings right behind. A|4:24|I ⁓ I told Mark as they came, ⁓ advantage me. ⁓ I I got young kids, I'm used to the noise. Well, right away Mark broke my serve, and the only thing going on inside of me was pure ⁓ rage. ⁓ Why would they build a swing set right next to a tennis court? Are you kidding me? ⁓ I ha I have an anger problem. A|4:50|What about you? Do do you ⁓ have ⁓ an anger problem? Don't don't don't answer too quickly. Think about that question seriously. Do ⁓ you have a problem with ⁓ anger? A|5:05|Let me read our passage this morning, then we'll dive into the answer to that question. So if you're not already there, Proverbs sixteen, verse thirty-two will be our text. And this passage, this verse here will will anchor us, but but but eventually we'll be ⁓ all over the book of Proverbs. Proverbs sixteen, verse thirty-two. Whoever ⁓ is slow to anger is better than the mighty. A|5:35|And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Do you have an anger? A|5:47|Dr. David Pallison ⁓ passed away a few years back, but he he was a well-respected counselor, not not only in the biblical counseling world, but in the Christian psychology ⁓ world, even in the secular therapeutic ⁓ world. And he wasn't afraid of psychology. All truth is God's truth. And yet he knew just when and how to apply the gospel in ways that would penetrate the soul, bring actual healing. Well, in his A|6:17|Wonderful book on anger, ⁓ Good ⁓ and Angry. I highly ⁓ recommend it. My favorite chapter was chapter two. ⁓ It was extremely short, the shortest chapter I've ever read, but it but it was packed with a convicting and powerful punch. I'll actually read the whole chapter for us this morning. Chapter two. ⁓ Do you have a serious problem with anger? A|6:46|Answer ⁓ Yes. ⁓ Whoever is slow to anger is A|6:52|Is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Charles Bridges in his Proverbs commentary says this: conquering a city is child's play compared with ruling the turbulent, demanding, upset world inside each one of us. The one ⁓ is only the battle of the day, the other ⁓ is the conflict of a lifetime. A|7:19|This is where ⁓ all of us ⁓ live. The conflict of a lifetime, namely ruling ⁓ our spirits. A|7:30|As we've seen ⁓ in this sermon series so far, Proverbs is this wonderful book of wisdom aimed to get you to see the path that leads you to the good life. This book is about wisdom, wisdom from God that actually works. And like we've already seen, every proverb that you read is going to touch a central theme ⁓ of this book, and that's this: the fear of the Lord. A|8:01|The fear the Lord is at the heart ⁓ of ⁓ wisdom. Everything we're going to see in the Proverbs, every different topic we're going to be preaching on can only be lived out if we're walking in wisdom. Namely, walking in the fear ⁓ of the Lord. And remember, fearing God is simply taking him at his word. Taking God seriously. A|8:29|⁓ The word of God for us this morning, whoever is slow to anger is better ⁓ than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Socrates said the ⁓ unexamined life is not worth living. Solomon would add though the life that cannot rule its own spirit will never know ⁓ true wisdom, and thus never live the life God has. A|8:58|intended. Speaking on anger, the the ancient Romans had a saying, ⁓ Anger is a brief madness. ⁓ I love that. ⁓ Anger is a brief ⁓ madness. ⁓ A|9:15|Few forces have have left a trail of destruction like anger has. ⁓ It has shattered marriages, fractured families, divided churches, destroyed countries, and turned lifelong friends into bitter enemies. It fuels gossip, escalates conflict, ⁓ erupts behind the wheel as you're driving on Parker Road. A|9:41|And in its darkest moments has ended lives. Wherever resentment, hostility, or bitterness takes root, anger is often growing, flourishing underneath. The mistake we often make is assuming anger ⁓ only belongs to the loud, ⁓ to the explosive. ⁓ A|10:02|We say, I I I know folks with an anger problem. ⁓ That's not me. But did you know anger wears many faces? Yes, sometimes it shouts and other times it withdraws. It can sound like harsh words, but it can also hide behind constant criticism, endless complaining, quiet resentment, passive aggression. A|10:30|Yeah, none of us can sit this one out. Yes, you you may indeed have a serious ⁓ anger problem. If you've spent your life quick to argue, quick to react, super defensive, easily offended, quick to lose your temper, this message is for you. A|10:51|And if years of unmet ⁓ expectations, deep hurt or lingering disappointments have quietly settled you into ⁓ bitterness and cynicism, this message is also for you. ⁓ Some people ⁓ vent ⁓ their anger, ⁓ others bottle it up. Some bury it so ⁓ deep that they don't even recognize they still have it. A|11:18|But every one of us knows what it's like to wrestle ⁓ with anger. ⁓ The question isn't whether anger is present, it's whether anger ⁓ is ruling us. ⁓ Or ⁓ whether ⁓ by the grace of God we have learned to rule it. A|11:38|For instance, when you read Paul, the Apostle Paul's vice list in the New Testament, you you quickly discover that that anger has a large family. ⁓ Wrath, rage, malice, slander, ⁓ bitterness, complaining, on and on. These are all branches ⁓ growing from the same root. Which does lead itself to a at least a theological question here in the beginning is ⁓ anger in and of itself. ⁓ A|12:08|Wrong, bad. Back to Pixar's Inside Out. Now let's not get our theology from Disney. But I think we can learn something here about anger. All truth is God's truth. For instance, they make it clear that the character anger is not the villain, that every emotion has a purpose when it functions properly. A|12:33|Anger sees himself as the protector of ⁓ justice ⁓ and fairness. ⁓ His job, he exists to say, this ⁓ is not right. One of the most helpful books I've read ⁓ in the last couple of years is a book called Unoffendable. A|12:55|In it, the the the author argues that that the more we can grasp God's grace toward us, the less ⁓ room there is for offense or ⁓ anger toward others. ⁓ And though this book was extremely convicting and ⁓ practical and helpful for me, and I've highly recommended it to others, I believe this author who who doesn't claim to be a theologian, but I believe his his theological understanding of of human A|13:24|Human anger is flawed. He says, Because God and ⁓ God alone judges perfectly, we have no right to anger. Not even righteous anger. Now I do understand and even appreciate where he's coming from. Anger is a slippery ⁓ slope. ⁓ And it's way too easy, especially for sinners. ⁓ A|13:50|So to return ⁓ evil ⁓ for evil and to justify ourselves in the process. ⁓ So instead of being nuanced about anger, I get it, it's easier to just say no ⁓ anger ever. Period. But again, what ⁓ is anger? Well, at its core, ⁓ anger says that's ⁓ wrong. That's wrong. A|14:16|Namely, it's a response to something we believe should not have happened. Betrayal, injustice, mistreatment, whatever. Anger is a a moral emotion. ⁓ It reveals what we value and what we believe matters most. ⁓ The problem isn't necessarily feeling anger, it's what we choose to do ⁓ with that ⁓ anger. In fact, there are things we should. ⁓ A|14:46|Be angry about. Anger is part of what led Holly and I into foster care. Something in us looks at the brokenness these little image-bearers have experienced and says, this is not how it's supposed to be. Healthy anger recognizes that something is wrong and is not ⁓ okay to call it okay. I mean, isn't this the anger we see in Jesus? A|15:16|The one who were told to imitate. He got ⁓ angry at hypocritical Pharisees. ⁓ He was pissed when his disciples pushed children away. And he was fired up at death itself when he hears that his friend Lazarus passed. A|15:38|When he overturns the tables as he's clearing the temple, the Bible says he made the whip himself. Premeditated. Jesus saw what was wrong, and he refused to make peace with it. This is good ⁓ anger. Not all anger is bad ⁓ anger. And there's a reason Paul tells the church. ⁓ A|16:03|Christians like us in Ephesus, be angry and do not sin. This is a New Testament command. It's an imperative. Good anger is part of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus. But Paul's warning at the end of that verse for sinners like you and I is something we definitely need to take heed. ⁓ Be angry ⁓ and do not. ⁓ A|16:33|Sin. ⁓ Paul says that 'cause it's really easy for you and I to let anger, even good anger, when that happens, turn into sin. Bad anger. A|16:46|Ray Ortland says this: we all feel anger. And not all anger is wrong. In fact, the closer we get to Christ, the angrier we will get at real evil. By nature, we are cowards and compromisers. We need holy anger if we're going to represent the real Jesus to our world. But it is so hard to sort out which anger is good and which anger is bad, isn't it? it is. And why is that? Well, sin. ⁓ A|17:16|Sin and we don't merely sin, ⁓ we ⁓ are sinners. Again, Dr. David Pallison says this anger goes wrong ⁓ when you get ⁓ God like. Your desires become divine law. Poke your way into every example of bad anger and you'll find ⁓ God plain. ⁓ A|17:39|Whether I'm really ticked off or just a little irritated or deeply embittered, it's all about Almighty Me. ⁓ Anger is demanding and entitled. This is what I want. My will be done. The world and all that is in it are subject to me. All persons, objects, and events are subject to my ep opinion and evaluation. Yikes. This is where. A|18:07|think the the psychology behind inside at it can ⁓ fall apart. It doesn't have to. But but when when when you're made up simply of parts, whether that be anger, ⁓ anxiety, embarrassment, fear, joy, so on and so forth, it's it's really easy not ⁓ to be accountable for your actions. A|18:27|The Bible's clear, when you ⁓ get angry, do not sin. Cause if you do sin, don't simply blame that part of you and think you're off the hook. I'm Italian, sorry. ⁓ A|18:45|This is why the book of Proverbs is filled with warnings about anger. ⁓ Be ⁓ slow to ⁓ anger. ⁓ Because this can take you down a slippery slope. Let's look at some of these Proverbs that are dealing with ⁓ anger. Proverbs 14 17. ⁓ A man ⁓ of quick temper acts foolishly. A|19:10|Or Proverbs 14, 29. Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding. But he who is ⁓ who has a hasty temper exalts folly. Proverbs 15:18. A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention. A|19:31|Proverbs nineteen eleven. ⁓ Good sense ⁓ makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. Proverbs nineteen nineteen. A man of great wrath will pay the penalty. A|19:47|Proverbs 25 28. A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. ⁓ Proverbs 29 11 A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. In Proverbs 29:22, ⁓ a man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression. A|20:22|There is. Back to our verse ⁓ this morning. Whoever ⁓ is ⁓ slow ⁓ to anger is better ⁓ than the mighty. And he who rules ⁓ his spirit than he who takes ⁓ a city. Anyone know when the first moment of human anger ⁓ came into the story of Scripture? A|20:47|Cain and Abel, I love it. Cain and Abel. Yeah, back in Genesis four is his brother Abel's offering. It is accepted by God and Cain's is not. Genesis four five tells us Cain was very ⁓ angry, and his face fell. A|21:05|In verse six, God calls out anger. He calls out his anger. He says, Why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? But but what's intriguing is what God tells Cain in verse seven. He's warning him as he's seeing Cain's ⁓ anger rising higher and higher. God tells Cain, Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it. A|21:33|In this moment, God is warning Cain. Whoever is slow to anger is better than the Almighty. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Sin ⁓ is crouching at the door. Be slow to anger, Cain. ⁓ Rule your spirit. Take me ⁓ at my word. Fear the Lord, Cain. Take the path of wisdom. A|22:03|Well, you know the story. By the next verse, verse 8 of chapter 4, Cain's anger turns into rage and culminates in murder. ⁓ He kills his very ⁓ own brother. ⁓ And though this is the first moment in the Bible where we see human anger, anger here that leads to murder, it should not have been this way. A|22:29|What happened with Cain and Abel should never have happened. The first glimpse of anger in human history should have happened ⁓ in the garden. Should have been a good ⁓ anger. Adam and Eve should have looked that serpent, the devil, in the eyes when they told him that they don't need God. Matter of fact, they can be God. A|22:56|They should have recognized the lie, been filled with good and holy and righteous anger and ⁓ killed the snake. But they didn't. And where the first Adam failed, the last ⁓ Adam did not. In the garden, God promised that from the seed of Eve there would come one who would crush the devil's head. A|23:22|And so Jesus came into this world ⁓ on ⁓ a mission to confront the serpent, to defeat ⁓ sin, ⁓ death, ⁓ to crush the head of the enemy. How does righteous anger look in in God's kingdom? Like skull crushing. ⁓ A|23:46|But righteous anger in God's kingdom, skull crushing, doesn't equal ⁓ John Wick. Righteous anger in God's ⁓ upside down kingdom is, well, upside down. Jesus, the seed of the woman, was betrayed by his good friend Judas. He was denied by one of his closest apprentices, Peter. A|24:15|And his entire ⁓ band of disciples, his beloved disciples, his chosen ones, they ⁓ all betrayed him. He's mocked, spit on, beaten, falsely accused, and nailed to a Roman cross, and yet ⁓ he does not lash out. He doesn't even defend himself. Rather, he ⁓ prays. ⁓ A|24:42|He turns the other cheek. He he stays faithful. He forgives. He absorbs evil without himself becoming evil. Kingdom anger is not passive. It is not indifferent, but anger so ⁓ submitted to the Father that it refuses to become the very thing it hates. God shows his love for you. ⁓ A|25:11|In that while you were his enemy, think about that for a second. While you were God's enemy, Christ died for you. Friends, Jesus absorbs the righteous ⁓ wrath, ⁓ anger of God. God is slow to anger for sure. You see that throughout the pages of Scripture, yet God is also just. A|25:40|His wrath towards sin is ⁓ righteous. Remember from our God Is series, wrath and anger are not attributes of God, but they are how a God who is love responds to sin. When my family stood at A|26:00|Book involved ⁓ a concentration camp in Germany last summer and I read the story about ⁓ the US ⁓ bombers who who attacked this place ⁓ in in in August of nineteen forty-four. The the proper reaction to the wrath of that attack ⁓ from the US is a fist bump. A|26:25|Fist bump that needed to happen. This is how ⁓ the wrath of God works, friends. Though he's slow to anger, sin will ⁓ be ⁓ punished. And here's where it gets ⁓ personal. All of us, ⁓ every single one of us, ⁓ have sinned and fallen way short of this ⁓ holy. A|26:53|And righteous God. But because of God's mercy, He does the unimaginable. He aimed that righteous anger. That anger do your sin, ⁓ my sin. He aimed that righteous anger on his perfect, sinless, beloved Son. A|27:23|Have you been? ⁓ A|27:27|By the scandal ⁓ of the gospel. A|27:31|And so the question now remains as I seek to land this plane how then shall we live as God's people? With the proverbs in our hands, how shall we then live in this already and not yet upside down kingdom? ⁓ Anger is being affected deeply by wrong. ⁓ At the core of what anger is, it's this being ⁓ displeased at wrong. A|28:00|Sometimes our perception of reality is wrong, so so we imagine things that aren't true, ⁓ so our anger is out of line from the get-go. ⁓ But sometimes we're angry because we see wrong, real wrong, or we've really been wrong. The path of wisdom knows when something is wrong, can call it wrong, and yet is ⁓ slow to anger. A|28:29|It doesn't ignore what is wrong, but it moves slowly because it also knows sin is crouching at the door. And God says you must rule ⁓ over it. Maybe you're in here this morning and you know you have an anchor problem. A|28:47|Maybe that that that that anger often turns into bad anger. Maybe it's never good anger. But all versions of returning evil ⁓ for evil, whatever that looks like, is bad anger. God calls you this morning to turn away from that. To instead choose the the path of wisdom. This is what repentance is all about. ⁓ A|29:14|In the life of the Christian, in the words of Martin Luther, is the life ⁓ of ⁓ repentance. This week I had to do a lot of repenting from anger. I say this often, but but preaching is the best and the worst. ⁓ God's not gonna let me say anything that He hasn't first wrecked me of. ⁓ A|29:36|Literally last ⁓ this last week, ha Holly and I have been deeply hurt by someone we love. ⁓ Anger has been ⁓ one of my primary emotions for the last nine days. ⁓ Anger at this person. ⁓ At times, Holly and I try not to let anger get between us. ⁓ And then I look at the preaching schedule and I get to preach this text. ⁓ Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty. A|30:06|And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Friends, in the gospel, God has been slow ⁓ to anger with you. And now he calls us to imitate him to be ⁓ slow ⁓ to anger. Lately I've become obsessed with Proverbs 17:27. A|30:31|Especially love the the the CSB translation. It it says, ⁓ One who keeps a cool head is a person of ⁓ understanding. A cool head. This is wisdom. You may not be up to speed on all the latest trends. You might not be a a hip hop head ⁓ or a sneaker head, ⁓ a dead head, a pothead. ⁓ Harry Potter, obviously. ⁓ A|31:01|But the Bible calls you to something far ⁓ greater. A cool head. This is wisdom. And how do we practically do this? How do we become these type of people? The cool heads. ⁓ Like I got two things and then I'm done. Two of our core values here at ⁓ RP. ⁓ Spirit-led. Spirit-led and ⁓ A|31:29|Committed to ⁓ community. First spirit led. I read ⁓ over the course of the summer, ⁓ Holly and I read the Steve Jobs biography. And it was fascinating. ⁓ The former CEO of Pixar and Apple was a genius ⁓ and a lunatic. ⁓ At one point, Steve Jobs was asked towards the end of his life: why are you so angry and mean? ⁓ A|31:59|He says, is just who I am, and I can't do anything about it. And in all reality, he's right. This is a good definition of total depravity. But this is not our story. If you're a follower of Christ this morning, the Spirit of God, ⁓ the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity has come ⁓ and made his home, has taken ⁓ residence ⁓ in ⁓ you. ⁓ A|32:28|Let let's be spirit led and watch him change us from the inside out. ⁓ You want patience, you want self-control. It's not try harder, do better. These are fruit of the spirit. ⁓ Friends, the only way we can even fear the Lord. ⁓ A|32:48|Take him at his word. The only way we can do that, become slow to anger, rule our spirits is if the spirit ⁓ is inside of us. So let's be a church that practices ⁓ the presence of God. Let's be spirit-led. Amen. Amen. And second, committed to community. A|33:09|The Bible talks so much about imitation. Mark will preach a sermon next week ⁓ on this theme, but you will become ⁓ who you spend time with. So we stay with our theme in anger here. Proverbs 22 ⁓ says this: Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare. A|33:38|Bad anger is contagious, but so is the path of wisdom. So do life together with those who are seeking to imitate Christ. If you are not in a GC, get ⁓ in one this semester. Imagine, church, if we were the cool heads. Not afraid to call wrong wrong, not unwilling to fight ⁓ injustice, but ⁓ slow to anger. A|34:07|Able to rule ⁓ our spirits. Imagine what kind of church we can be. Amen. ⁓ Amen. Let me pray.
Remember, O My Soul
Summary
This sermon explores how our minds are constantly rehearsing stories that shape our hearts, and how God's provision of songs and promises helps us remember His faithfulness through all seasons of life.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and personal background
02:08 The mind's constant rehearsal and its impact
03:22 The danger of forgetfulness in prosperity and suffering
05:29 God's gift of a song to His people
06:23 The power of songs to form and shape us
07:30 The importance of remembering God's benefits
09:11 David's example of commanding his soul to worship
12:48 Who is God: His attributes and actions
14:52 What God has done and what He promises
16:23 Jesus' institution of communion as a remembrance
18:00 The significance of Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection
19:28 Seasonal tendencies to forget and the call to remember
20:28 The church as a community of rehearsing God's promises
23:10 Trusting in God's faithfulness in suffering
24:22 Practical steps to prioritize worship and remembrance
The Wise Tongue
Summary
In this episode, we explore the profound impact of words on our lives, drawing insights from Proverbs and the life of Jesus to understand how our speech reflects our hearts and influences our world. Discover practical wisdom on speaking life, healing wounds, and aligning our words with God's purpose.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction: The significance of the tongue in Proverbs
02:12 The influence of words on our lives and relationships
03:55 God's view on the power of words in creation and reflection
06:07 The dual nature of the tongue: blessing and tearing down
07:53 The destructive power of careless words and the healing potential of wise speech
09:48 Characteristics of wise words: truth, kindness, and precision
12:00 The importance of timing and context in speech
14:14 The role of the heart in our words: Proverbs and Luke
16:02 The gospel's transformative power over our speech
17:55 Jesus' perfect words and His sacrifice on the cross
20:11 The Spirit's work in healing our tongues at Pentecost
21:58 Our words' purpose: glorifying God and building others
24:01 Practical steps: reflecting on our words and seeking forgiveness
25:54 Encouragement to speak life and trust God's oversight
28:07 Closing prayer: loosing our redeemed tongues for God's purpose
Resources
The Bible, Proverbs, Luke, John, Ephesians - https://www.biblegateway.com/
Proverbs - The Book of Wisdom - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs&version=NIV
Jesus Christ - The Savior - https://www.christianity.com/wiki/jesus-christ
Holy Spirit - The Comforter - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14&version=NIV
Be Attentive
Summary
In this episode, we explore the importance of attention in our lives, how the attention economy manipulates us, and practical wisdom from Proverbs on guarding our hearts and focusing on what truly matters. Discover how to live wisely in a distracted world and the eternal implications of where we place our attention.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Proverbs and the Good Life
01:25 The Attention Economy and Its Manipulation
02:51 Addicted by Design: Casino Strategies and Digital Distraction
06:53 The Impact of Phone Use on Our Lives and Opportunities
08:49 Guarding Our Hearts and Attention in a Distracted World
11:33 The Anatomy of Wisdom: Paying Attention in Proverbs
12:58 Focus Your Eyes and Guard Your Heart
13:58 Ponder the Path and Avoid the Path of Folly
19:16 Warning Against the Path of the Forbidden Woman
21:09 Case Study: The Play of Folly and Temptation
26:04 The Dangers of Following the Heart and the Path to Destruction
27:31 Practical Steps to Guard Your Heart and Attention
30:23 Listening to God's Word and Pondering the Path
32:19 Christ, Our Wisdom and Hope in a Distracted World
Resources
Covenant Eyes - https://www.covenanteyes.com/
The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn - https://www.amazon.com/Purity-Principle-Randy-Alcorn/dp/1601422784
Proverbs - The Good Life Series - https://www.bible.com/series/2384-the-good-life-series
Christ Alone - The Ultimate Wisdom - https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/christ-alone-the-ultimate-wisdom
guest links
Website - https://markoshman.com
Twitter - https://twitter.com/markoshman
The Beginning of Wisdom
Transcript:
good morning. how are we doing? Good? It's good to see all your faces there and back from vacation, some of you. Most of you are still on vacation, but it is good to see you. we are launching into a new series through the book of Proverbs. If you have a Bible, you can begin to make your way there. It's in the middle of your Bible, right after Psalms. So if you've found Psalms, go to the right. We have scripture journals, which are just the book of Proverbs with
some lines for you to take notes if you want as our gift for you. you can get it now or on your way out. maybe over the next month. There's thirty-one chapters in Proverbs. Work your way through a chapter a day and follow along with us as we work our way through the book of Proverbs. We're calling it the good life. And that's simply this this comes out of this reality that all of us are are are constantly searching for, whether we know it or not.
We're we're arranging our lives, we're we're saying our things, we're pursuing and spending our money in pursuit of the good life. In some way, shape, or form, what what what we see as what will be satisfying, will what will bring joy to our soul. We're all on a pursuit. Everyone who has ever lived has been on this pursuit. Now the Eastern worldview and Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism would say
That's the problem. Desire is the problem. If we could just detach from desire and and get lost in the cosmic nirvana, then there'd be no pain and suffering, and that would be a heaven for them, essentially. But the Bible never says that. The Bible says the problem is not your desires. God actually gave us desires, and he desires that we would pursue our joy. The problem is in a broken and fallen world with broken and fallen hearts and minds, our our desires get jumbled. They get missed. They get
they they get often put out of order and so we're we're all trying to pick up the pieces and and and pursue the good life. Now all that for for all of us that looks a little bit different. and in this series we're gonna look at what w what what does God actually say is the good life. And it's not just having a a safe, happy s happy secure life because if if this is the path to that kind of life then
The wisest person who has ever lived, Jesus Christ, didn't achieve it. He was the the wisest person and he followed the path perfectly, and in the end, he's betrayed by his friends. He's beaten, bloodied, bruised, he dies on a cross for us. And so God has something else in mind. God has some eternal purposes for us in this series as we pursue the good life. But we're all on that pursuit. And it's difficult because.
W we we know there's parts to it. And it's a little bit like herding cats, right? You're like, I I've got this cat over here. This is my job. This is my career. I'm gonna spend time and energy and effort, make sure it's good. But I gotta check over here 'cause my marriage now needs some work and and I need some time and energy and effort
my kids, my kids need some time and energy and effort. I need some time and energy and effort in my health in my own mind. Like w once you get one settled down, the others kinda wander off. That's what it feels like sometimes, right? Anyone feel that? Just me? Okay, am I preaching here? Okay. So there we go. Yeah, it's just how do you manage that? How how do you do that? What what what is the path for that? Well, the Bible says there th th that that that's just this part of eternity side of eternity, but there is some
wisdom to follow. There are some things to do. Now, we we live in a time and a culture where there we there is no shortage of opinion out there how to do things. There's no shortage of gurus and experts and and we are obsessed with technique and and and performance and and shortcuts. And so w we curate our our social media and news feeds. We we listen to the right podcasts, read the right books, but but they always overpromise and under deliver. Again it's just
hurting cats. Like and so we we we're like, okay, we're just trying to get on. And everyone's in this room today in some way, shape, or form, because you're on pursuit of the good life. And maybe you're like, maybe I just need to add a little bit of God to my life and and that will help. But but however you're here, I'm glad you're here because we are about to begin a journey, a a path through this book. Now this book we're we're familiar with, usually only in the t in the sense of the the pithy sayings, pulling them
just one and and you can, like Proverbs twenty-seven seventeen. I was thinking, as as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. And you're like, dude, yes, love that. That's gonna be a tattoo, it's gonna be our men's retreat. we we need a sharp we're gonna iron's gonna sharpen iron. Like I you can do that. You can pull this book apart. You you actually don't even have to be a a believer in God at all.
To come to this book and and pull some of these things and apply them to your life and and and see some fruit of that. But but if you were to do that, you you would actually miss the point of the book. You would miss the forest for the trees. Right? It'd be a little bit like, well, do we have any puzzle puzzle people here? You like to do puzzles? Okay, we got a few. Earlier this week, my my wife and one of my daughters was they they they they are they started late, but they laid out the puzzle pieces.
And I was going to bed and it was just all on top of the and and the pieces individually, they were pretty. Like I I was like, I don't know what this makes, but look at this piece. That's cool. That's usually how we approach the book of Proverbs. Like, look at this piece. It's cool. But but that that would be to miss the forest for the trees. And so we we don't want to do that. Let me give us some just some things to think about as we head out on this journey. God wants to give us a vision for and a pathway toward.
the good life, but it may not be the good life that you are thinking. the aim of this book as we walk this path with God and with one another is to behold the good life. But but this book is it's a particular kind of genre. Meaning the Bible has several different different genres. It's called wisdom literature. and that's different and how we understand that and how we interpret that is different than say historical narrative.
Or law, or the prophets, or the gospels, or the epistles, or apocalyptic literature. It has it's its own genre. And so to rightly understand we that we have to understand that it uses poetry and imagery and parallelisms and hyperbole and all all sorts of things. When we start to understand that we'll start to get the book. But I think the puzzle analogy is helpful in this way, especially with this book. everyone that does puzzles knows there's there's a process, right?
Well w you you lay out all the pieces on the table, turn face up so you can actually see them, and then what's the first thing you do? Yeah, you find the corner. Edges is second, but I'm I'm just saying. 'Cause today, in my sermon notes, it says we're gonna set the corners. That's what we're gonna do. And then number two, we're gonna set the edges. That's what that's gonna happen over the next several weeks. And then what do you do? Well well you start to group. You start to group them like
This looks like that tree over here, and that this looks like that bird over there. Well, whatever. You start to group them, you're starting to put them together. And and we'll we'll start to do some of that in this series. We're not gonna put the puzzle together completely. We we couldn't. Like this is this is meant to be a lifelong journey on the pursuit of wisdom. This isn't a book like the book of Romans that we would work verse by verse. It's more like let's set the edges, set the corners, start to understand.
the picture and then pursue it on our own and and in community together. So that's the that's one of the first things. The other thing is you need to know that Proverbs is good news to us. It's good news to us because in God's word it it is telling us that God cares about the details of our lives. Not just the big picture. He he cares and he wants to help us. He wants to come alongside us and and help us in our speech.
To speak wisely to one another and to our spouse and to our kids. He wants to help us in in our our work and our work ethic and and our finances. He wants to help us in our character. He wants to help us in every area of our life because it's all God's world, all of it matters to him. And Proverbs is a help to us. So it's good news to us in that way. It's also good t news to us is because with all scripture, Jesus says this in in John's gospel.
All scripture, including every book of the Old Testament, in some way, shape, or form points to Jesus. So so in a unique way in the the the canon of Scripture, Proverbs is going to show us Jesus. And that is good news indeed. So let's jump in. If you have your Bible, Proverbs chapter one, we'll pick it up in verse one. Listen carefully, this is God's word. Says the Proverbs of Solomon
Son of David, King of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction. Let's pause right there for a moment. Right away we see both the who, who wrote this, and the why. we we see that it's Solomon. We can read about Solomon's life in the book of 1 Kings. He's the third king of Israel. He's the son of David and Bathsheba. And as he takes on the the the throne as a young man, he's overwhelmed by.
it all. He's overwhelmed by that that this is God's people and this is God's nation and God is reigning and ruling. And he set this young man on the throne. And so one night we read about in First Kings three that that God comes to Solomon and says, I will grant your request. And and Solomon essentially says, This is a huge task. This is an important task. And he says, Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil. He's
Asking for wisdom, for who is able to govern this your great people? He says the task is bigger than me. And the only way that this can ha that I can do this well is if you give me wisdom. And God is pleased with his request. And in the subsequent chapters, you see that God grants him wisdom. The scripture says that he has more wisdom than anyone that came before him or after him.
Except for Jesus, he is the wisest person who has ever lived. And we see it work out. He wh what makes him so wise? He's well, he wants wisdom. He we're gonna see later in today in the past like it should be something we want and seek after and and search diligently for. But but he he's a student of reality. He's a philosopher. He studies creation and he says this is all your creation, and it all points to you in some way. And so he studies trees and
And reptiles and fish and rivers and and and the moon and the stars. He he he just says this is all speaking about who God is. Not only that, he's a collector of wisdom and knowledge. So he doesn't just write all these things or come up with these things himself. No, he he's a student of other cultures and other wisdom traditions. And he he takes that and he he he puts it in a compilation in the book. There are there are other sources of wisdom in this book. There are some from Egypt, for example.
He he recognizes that all truth is ultimately God's truth and ultimately points to him. And so he puts that in there. He pursues wisdom. He walks in wisdom. Let's define a few terms. It says the proverbs of Solomon. What's a proverb? Well, a biblical proverb is a generalization about how life usually works in the world that God has ordered. Not a promise or a guarantee. Meaning it doesn't always work this way because the world is.
Broken. And we can't come to Proverbs and claim them as promises over our lives. And and we're tempted to do that because out of context, you can be like, I need this. This is what I really need. let me give you for a few examples. The most common one, anyone who's ever been to a a parenting conference or read a parenting book will read Proverbs twenty two, six. Train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. That's not a promise. It's a generalization.
And so what happens is if you carry it as a promise and your child who has their own will and grows up may have their own rebellion before the Lord, well what happens when they walk away? You're either disillusioned with God, angry with God, or guilty in yourself. I must have done something wrong because you took a promise that was just a proverbial truth. Another one, Proverbs 22 or 10, 3. The Lord
Does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the cravings of the wicked. The Lord never lets the righteous go hungry. That's not true in this world. We just saw a few weeks ago, Psalm 73. That's the problem. It looks like the the wicked are prospering and the the righteous are are suffering. Why is that that Psalmist is wrestling with? And sometimes that is the case. And so if you understand, as you read through Proverbs, these are general truths about
How God has created and ordered the world. There's another word there, the word wisdom, the key word here. Biblical wisdom. Wisdom is, in Proverbs, is skill in the art of living. That could be the short definition. Skill in the art of living. The practical and moral competence to navigate God's world as it actually is. Wisdom is the ability to know what is
To take the information that you know, and only God knows all the information, but the information you know and rightly apply it in any given circumstance. So so wisdom says, I I speak to this child of mine in this way, but this child needs me to speak differently. There's not a verse for that. Wisdom knows how to how and when to speak to your spouse about these things. Wisdom knows about how how money works and and and how work works and all these.
things. It's the pri it's the art of living. Or or to use a a sports illustration a sports illustration for you. So every sport has rules, boundaries, guidelines. And so to play the sport, first thing you you got like, what are the rules? What do I have to do? And you learn the rules and y and usually you understand those. unless it's cricket, I don't think anyone knows those rules. I think they're still making them actually mid game. But
And apparently we don't know what a red card or a yellow card is or when the president can call that in. I don't know. that's a different thing. But for the most part, for the most part, even the fans of the crowd know the rules and they they know what's happening. But th that's not enough. Obviously you need you need the players, you need the the athletes. They train, they they practice, they they work on specific skills and a and and to prepare themselves for the moment. But that's not that's not wisdom either. You you need a game plan. Now you're starting to get into
wisdom of game plan for life, but a as Mike Tyson said, everyone has a game plan until you get punched in the face. wisdom is after you get punched in the face, now what do you do? Now how do you succeed in life? Right? Like, obviously the USA played terrible last week and I don't even watch soccer. I'm like, this looks terrible. and there's lots of blame to go around but but all the commentators and the journalists have pointed out, you know, one of the things is that is clear is
In the midst of the game, the adjustments weren't made. we were outcoached. That's a wisdom issue. How do you apply what you know to the art of sport? So w we need wisdom. And I love what Pastor Theologian, one of one of the wisest guys I know about, Ray Ortlin, ha what he says about this. He says, God does not intend to crush us with layer upon layer of demand. He intends to help us. The priest taught his law.
Prophets declared his word, and the sages or wise men gave his counsel. This is God's grace to us, giving his counsel to us. Wisdom is super important. Again, Ray Orland talking about the importance of wisdom. What if we what if we have other things but we don't have wisdom? What would happen there? Listen to what he says. He says, if we have love but not wisdom.
We will harm people with the best of intentions.
If we have courage but not wisdom, we will blunder boldly. If we have truth, but not wisdom, we will make the gospel ugly to other people. If we have technology but not wisdom, we will use the best communications ever invented to broadcast stupidity. If we have revival but not wisdom, we will use the power of God to throw the church.
into reverse gear. And he says, Wisdom is the grace of Christ beautifying our daily lives. I love that. So wisdom. What is wisdom? We we saw that in in fact in this prologue wisdom kind of he sets it in a in a a spot to define itself. Notice all the synonyms verse two to know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise
Dealing in righteousness, justice, and equ equity, to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. So who needs wisdom? Well, we we saw it here first in verse four.
To give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth. Now that word simple there is not a pejorative term. No one likes to be called a simple, but we don't know what we don't know. We all start off simple. A and so this book was probably first used to train young boys becoming men. Like, hey, as you go out into the world, as you walk the path of life, there's gonna be some dangers along the way, and you can either learn them here or you can learn them on your own.
And it would be much better if you could just learn them here than on your own. And so that's one thing. So it's to equip the youth. You're like, well, I'm not simple and I'm not youth, so I guess that doesn't apply to me. But verse five says, Let the wise hear and increase in learning. And the one who understands obtain guidance. So now we have the wise also. This is for the wise, because here's the first mark of a wise person. A wise person
knows that there's more to know. A wise person knows that they have not arrived. A wise person is not content with, well, everyone should come to me and and ask me because I'm beyond it. A wise person is like, there's more. God is infinite. I'm fine. I have I I might be a couple more steps a on the road in this area than your life, and I can help you, but I haven't arrived. And so this is for the wise, the one who understands. So you have on the one hand
The simple and the youth and the wise and everyone in between. This is an all play. We could all use more wisdom. We all need to learn the art of living well. Well, where do we begin? Well, if this is a journey, you you begin at the trailhead, right? that that's usually where journeys begin. A few days ago or my one of my daughters said, we went on this hike.
But it routed it routed us to the destination and not the trailhead. You can't just arrive. There there is a trailhead, and at the trailhead, it is the first step. And thankfully, the book of Proverbs starts with the trailhead. Now it's a trailhead that none of the gurus, none of the experts will tell you this is how you get wisdom, but it is the spine of the book of Proverbs. And when we explain it, you'll understand why.
This is the beginning. Look what it says, verse seven. The thesis of the book. So the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. At the trailhead, the first step on the path to wisdom is this fear of the Lord. So so think of a passage very famous, Isaiah chapter six. In the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah
goes into the temple and he says, And I saw the Lord high and lifted high, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and the seraphim and the angels were crying out, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And in that moment Isaiah sees reality for the very first time the veil is removed, and he says, Woe is me! I'm finished, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and I have seen the Lord high and lifted up.
And he repents and he gets on his face. He does the first wise thing of his life. He repents before a holy God. Go to the New Testament. Early in the ministry of Jesus. He comes to the sea to the shore at the Sea of Galilee and he sees his disciples, Peter and the boys who had been fishing all night. That's their job, but they hadn't caught anything. And he says, Hey,
Can you take me out and and let's do some more fishing? And they're like, Okay, you you do the rabbi thing, we'll do the fishing thing, but whatever you say, Rabbi, and they get in the boat with him and he goes, he's like, Go out here into the deep part, you know, where there's never any fish, and and and throw out your net. And they're like, Okay. And they do, and it it's immediately full of fish. And in that moment the veil is lifted from Peter's eyes. And he's not celebrating the fish. All of a sudden he's like, Lord, depart from me.
For I'm a sinful man, and I can't be in your presence. He does the first wise thing anyone on the trail could do. Repent. Turn from God. Recognize God is holy and we are not. But what about what about for those of us that are in Christ? This is that that's a fear of the the transcendent holiness of God, but but in Christ, we we know that.
We we don't have to fear in that way because we have the righteousness of Christ. We've been welcomed into the Holy of Holies. We're welcomed in as sons and daughters into the very throne room of God. So the the fear of the Lord for us is not a a a terror like, no, he's going to undo us like Isaiah. The fear of the Lord for us is a is a reverential man. I want my life.
To be lived before your face in everything I do, in everything I say, in in all my dealings, I I want to recognize that I am never in the room alone. You are always with me, and you love me and you died for me and you want the best for me. And so I want my life to honor and glorify you. And I never want to do anything that grieves your heart. This is the fear of the Lord for the followers of Jesus. Immediately, if you had what the reformers called quorum deo, the
The face of God, if you recognize that truth every moment of your life, you would talk differently. You would spend your money differently. You would do your work differently. Your character would be changed. Why? Because have you ever been in a room with someone you have a ton of respect for? That just you just want to honor in their life? Yeah, you do that. And so the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge because we recognize He is always with us in His perfection.
And his holiness, he is for us and not against us. He has covered us with his blood, and we journey this path with him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Twenty times in this book, we're going to be commanded, fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. Proverbs chapter nine. I put it on the bulletin as a a a memory verse. If you come for nine weeks, you'll get nine memory verses. But here it is.
The again the thesis of the book. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. This is it. We keep this before us. Proverbs chapter three. Many of you have verse five and six memorized, but don't forget verse seven. It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding, which is hard because that's all we ever want to do. When when life hits hard, I'm like, I'm gonna lean on my own understanding.
It's like, don't do it. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This is the trailhead. This is the corner pieces of the puzzle. This is the core. This is why you can't just come to this book and pull out little thin nuggets for your life. You have to understand the trailhead. Well, I also said.
That this book will point us to Jesus. And so the question is how does this passage point us to Jesus? I I think there's probably several ways, and maybe you can think of some on your own. but for me, I'm I'm struck with verse one. It says the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David. And the reason that strikes me is because, again, the Bible itself says, hey.
There's no one that's been as wise as Solomon, and no one after him has been as wise as him. he's the wisest man who ever lived. But but we have more of the Bible. And we know this man who taught about the the dangers of sexual immorality and the dangers of pride and the dangers of wealth and the dangers of power and and the dangers of not being humble. The man who
Teaches us all these things, that has all this wisdom, in the end he forgets the fear of the Lord, and he gives in to all of those things.
Again, how does this point us to Jesus? Because the point of Proverbs isn't, hey, let's be like Solomon. Let's be as wise as Solomon. None of us will be as wise as Solomon. The point of Proverbs isn't that we need Solomon, it's that we need someone better than Solomon. Enter Jesus. In Luke chapter five, no rather Matthew chapter twelve, Jesus is teaching.
Verse forty two, it on the screen, it says, The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment. This is a story from Solomon's life. The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold something greater than Solomon is here. Or rather, someone greater than Solomon is here. We don't need Solomon, we need Jesus.
Paul says, First Corinthians 1 30, Jesus is the wisdom of God. This is good news for us because wisdom is a person, wisdom incarnate. It's good news for us because Jesus said, I will never leave you or forsake you. I will be with you to the very end of the age. So as followers of Jesus on the path pursuing the good life, we we get to go hand in hand with the very incarnation of wisdom. Not our wisdom, his wisdom. This is good news.
So Solomon charges us as he starts out his book in chapter two with a charge. But again, we don't do this on our own, hand in hand with Jesus beside us, with Jesus in us, empowering us, receive this charge, redemption Parker. Proverbs chapter two, start in verse one. My son or daughter, if you receive my words and treasure up my commands with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and
And inclining your heart to understanding. Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth, come knowledge and understanding. Amen. Amen. Let's pray as we walk out of here.
True Freedom
summary
In this episode, Mark Oshman explores the biblical understanding of freedom through Galatians 5, contrasting secular and biblical views, and emphasizing the importance of living in the freedom Christ provides. He discusses how true freedom is found in love, faith, and living according to God's design, warning against legalism and license.
keywords
Galatians 5, Christian freedom, biblical freedom, legalism, grace, sanctification, love, faith, Christian life, spiritual growth
key topics
Biblical concept of freedom in Galatians 5
Contrast between secular and biblical freedom
The danger of legalism and license
The role of love and faith in freedom
The importance of standing firm in the gospel
Displacing idols with Christ-centered affections
takeaways
True freedom is found in Christ, not in self-righteousness or license.
Legalism and license are both forms of slavery, not freedom.
We are most free when we love God and others.
Displacing idols in our hearts is key to spiritual freedom.
Standing firm in the gospel helps us resist false paths.
Transcript:
good morning. Welcome to Redemption Park. If you're new, my name is Mark. it's my privilege to open up God's word with you this morning. We're gonna be in Galatians chapter five. You can begin to make your way there. starting next week, we will begin our new summer series nine weeks through the book of Proverbs. And as a gift for you on your way out, you can pick up a a scripture journal if you want. It's the book of Proverbs. Read through it this week. Just get oriented to it so God will prepare your heart to receive that through the series. But
grab one on your way out. We're in Galatians five this morning. Everyone have a good fourth of July, twenty and fiftieth, yeah? Anyone do anything especially fun? Anyone? No? You're like, no, there was a fire ban. We couldn't do anything fun. We had a bunch of families over. We had families over. Okay. What else you guys do? Anything else this weekend? w that was cool. Yes. F sixteens were was it?
I heard about that. Yeah. What else? Anything else? Good?
Eight steak, yes. Yes, I'm here for it all. I mean I had this weekend several brats, several burgers, several steaks. it's what the founding fathers would want. just trying to honor them. but I'm here for it all. Like this is this is a great time of year. USA's still in it, right? In the in the soccer matches. I call it soccer 'cause I'm American. Let's just keep it real. We're not calling it football here. We have football. We're calling it don't don't worry about it.
so all week I've just kind of like, yeah, this is this kind of a big deal, two hundred and fiftieth. and I I've been here for it all. So my daughter Abby and I, she's the only one that will watch good movies with me. So we watched the Patriot. Yeah, that was good. I was reading Nathaniel Philbrook's Valiant Ambition, seventeen seventy six, that was great. I I I'm grateful for I'm grateful for all of it. I'm grateful to to be a citizen of this country.
I'm grateful for those that have come before us and sacrificed so much so that even now, 250 years later, we can be in a a government-owned building and freely worship and proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. This is we should not take this for granted. and so I'm here for for it all. I I think Christians tend to make two mistakes when it comes to their their posture or their thinking of America. And the first one is
Forgetting that we are dual citizens. the the Bible says we are s our citizenship is in heaven. This is our first allegiance, absolutely. And yet he has us here in this time and this place and calls us to be good citizens in the country set he sets us. And I hope wherever you're from, that that you you love and and serve the country for the glory of God and the joy of all people. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing I think we can take for granted.
Take for granted the like the fact that we get to freely and openly worship. and that's not a necessary condition for our worship by any means. there are there are countries the fastest growing church i in the world right now in is in Iran, where it's illegal to be a Christian. It's legal to proclaim Christ, it's illegal to gather and worship, and yet the Spirit of God is still working and moving there. So how much more of those that have been given much
are required much. And so I I hope as as as believers we embrace all of that. So we we love our freedom though as Americans. It's like in our cultural DNA. Like w whatever freedom is, we we're here for it. We we love books, movies about freedom. It's like it doesn't even have to be about American freedom. We'll we love Braveheart, right? Like you're like freedom, yeah, for the Scottish people. Well I don't I don't I'm not Scottish, but we love that, right?
My wife pointed out we love freedom for wills. Free willy, there you go. So we we love it all. We just love the idea of freedom. We love movies, stories, books, songs, all all that stuff. but if if you think if you if you look over the past two hundred and fifty years, the like what we perceive, or at least the secular definition of freedom, has shifted from what even was the world view of seventeen seventy six.
Like the modern idea of freedom is what what I'll call a negative freedom, meaning a freedom from. a freedom from any constraint or impediment that would block me from pursuing what what I desire as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. This is like the ideal, this is the air that we breathe, and this is probably what most of us share. Like, we want a freedom from. But but if you look at even what the founding fathers said, like
It wasn't just a freedom from, it was a freedom for. there there's a freedom from tyranny, yes, but but but they they had a vision for a country that would would provide the the path to flourishing. Obviously they had blind spots as well. and so on this side of eternity there's always going to be holes and and and marks against that. But but they had this idea, and and one of the reasons why it's people say sometimes, well, this is a Christian nation, and others like, no, it isn't. Well, have you studied
You have to define your terms, right? Like the vast majority of the founding fathers would never come to Redemption Parker to worship with us if they fast forwarded 250 years, right? Like like a lot of them were followers of Jesus, others embraced the the the moral worldview. They were deists. They were like, hey, virtu so so they shared a a Christian virtue, but didn't not necessarily our Christian faith. And that's why there's some contrary. Was it Christian or not? But they believed that virtue was the necessary for a free people to govern.
themselves. And if you did not have virtue, that then it would go off the rails pretty quickly. Let me just read a couple quotes for you. And I promise you this is not a sermon about America. I'm just it's my introduction. Okay? Some of you get nervous, but it's an appropriate time. Okay, here we go. Ben Franklin said this only a virtuous people Franklin's not a follower. He's he's at best a deist. He says, But only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.
As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. So they're like, if we're going to be a country, there's got to be a virtue. And now their virtue came from the Christian worldview. John Adams, who was a believer, said this Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. So if we go off the rails there, it's not going to work. George Washington said, Virtue and morality is necess is the necessary spring of popular government.
Again, I think there's lots to be celebrated, and then you're also like, man, you had some blind spots. What what's going on there? They're human, that's why. Okay. But the Bible, now we're going to transition, the Bible actually has a lot to say about freedom. The the the Bible is saturated in the language of freedom. There's these themes of slavery and freedom. In general, you can think of it this way when the Bible talks about sin or rebellion, it talks about being enslaved. but but when the Bible talks about
freedom it talks about salvation in Christ. The Bible's definition of freedom is a freedom from and a freedom for. And so in Galatians chapter five, the kind of a a a a central text on what does it mean to be free, what as followers of Jesus, as we as we think as a nation about our freedom, what should we think of as our freedom in Christ? And what Paul is going to show us is that there are some ditches on the the path of freedom. On the left
And and the right. And and and it's constantly pulling us to one side or the other, constantly trying to enslave us again. So there's freedom from these things, but it's not just that, there's a freedom for something. So if you have your Bible, Galatians chapter five, we'll pick it up in verse one. Paul writes, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Or we are free for freedom. What does Paul mean by that? Let me give you some context to so far to the book of Galatians. So you can read about how the churches came to Christ in Acts chapter 13 and 14. Paul's first missionary journey to this area called Southern Galatia. So it's several different towns where Paul went and he preached the gospel to Gentiles. So pagan Gentiles who were marked by a life of
pagan worship, idolatry, sexual immorality, all of that. Paul comes in and says, that there is Christ has come, here's the gospel, freedom comes into their life, they embrace it and and they love Jesus. But the first heresy to infect the church came shortly after that, after Paul moves on to plant other churches, that the a group called the Judaizers came in and they said to the church at Galatia.
Hey, it's great that you have faith in Jesus, but that's not enough. You need Jesus plus. It's a Jesus plus system. And and we are always tempted, for 2,000 years, tempted to have a Jesus plus system. And it looks different in different cultures and churches and families, but but it's essentially Jesus plus whatever. In in that day it was Jesus plus. Hey, you Gentiles, you need to become Jewish now.
And it kind of made sense to them. They're like, Well, he's the Jewish Messiah. And and it's weird that Paul didn't tell us about that, but you're saying what you we have to follow the law. And and the mark in the first century of following the law, the outward mark of following the law, what was circumcision. And so they they taught you men, you need to be circumcised, and they're like, Well, I'm not so sure about this Christianity thing. And the others are like, No, you have to follow the whole law. And they're like, Well, maybe.
And and some fear begins to creep in. So so Paul says it is for freedom that Christ set you free. He set our feet on the path, the narrow path of freedom, but there's a pull for for this these Galatians to step into the law, to to obey all of the law out of an external self righteous motivation. And they're like, Well, we should just we we we don't want to miss like like this like yes, Jesus, but also
Let's cover all our bases. Let's cover the whole thing. And so it's a Jesus plus something, which in the end we're gonna see is not the gospel. For four chapters in the book of Galatians, Paul has been hammering one theme over and over and over and over again, and it is simply this it's Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone. That's it. That's the whole thing. It's not Christ.
Christ plus anything. In fact, the gospel says, and Paul says throughout Galatians, if it's Christ plus anything, then it's nothing. You don't have saving faith if you're trying to, in any way, shape, or form, add to your righteousness through your self-righteousness, because it's a failure to believe the gospel. So it is for freedom that Christ said, verse 2, mark my words. He's warning them.
I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, this is not language of our day, but but whatever it is, whatever it is that you think that you need to add to your faith in Jesus to somehow add to your righteousness, you have failed in that moment. Again, some might be Jesus plus no dancing. You know, Jesus plus no drinking. Jesus plus you know.
Any number of things. Jesus plus this kind of food. Jesus plus this day of worship. Jesus plus like it's a Jesus plus system. And he says, that's no value to you because you're adding or trying to add to the finished work of Christ. He goes on, he says, again, I declare to you every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. It's like you can't just pick and choose.
You can't wake up and say, Well, today I'm gonna add to my self-righteousness by looking at this law that I can't have mixed fibers in my clothing. So I'm gonna not do that today. Good luck with that. Today I'm gonna I can't mix dairy and and meat. So it's just cheese pizza today. Like like you go on, but okay, you wanna try that? Paul says, Good luck with that.
If you're going to abandon the the perfect righteousness of Jesus for your own self-righteousness, do it. But you have to do all of it, and you have to do it perfectly. And you can't. You're dead in your sins. This is why he gets so worked up. These people that had been freed from a life of debauchery, free from idolatry, free from sexual immorality, now just for a moment on the path, but then pulled off to the other side, like, works.
Righteousness He goes on. He says, You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. This is a real warning. The warnings of the New Testament are there to warn us. There is danger down that road. If you stay enslaved to fear based religious righteousness, y there is danger.
For in G in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. We'll come back to that. Faith expressing itself through love. Do you ever feel this pool though? Listen, I've been a follower of Jesus for over thirty years now. But I can still wake up and be like, I'm gonna do these things.
And I don't I don't I don't say it out loud. I don't even say it consciously, but subconsciously, like I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna be this generous, I'm gonna do this thing, I'm gonna serve in this way, I'm gonna did you see me reading my Bible, Lord? Do you see did you see my quiet time? Like, did you see how religious I've been, Lord? Just take note and you know, reward me accordingly. Again, I would never say that, but my heart feels that. Does it do you ever feel pulled to like doing things? Not because
It it flows from the inside out, but because the outside in, if I do these things, then maybe the Lord will do something for me. It's a y you've missed the gospel. It it's trying from the outside to transform the inside. This is just not how it works. This is how what the world thinks religion does. The world looks at at Christianity and is and and even some churches and they and they see, these people.
They look like they just they just can't have any fun. They look like they have to do a lot of things and so God will be happy with them. that that they look like all that God cares about is that we are nice people. And and they rightly reject that. And we should too. Is that all that God is trying to do in the world is to make nice people? No. I I love what C. S. Lewis wrote. This is in the nineteen fifties or forties.
He wrote in Mere Christianity, he says this: a world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world. It might even be more difficult to save. I mean, this is Parker, Colorado. All my neighbors are nice. And they have no felt need for their salvation. Things are going well, they're moral.
They're nice. And and Lewis says, They're difficult to save. He says, For mere improvement is not redemption. Though redemption always improves people, even here and now, and will in the end improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became a man to turn creatures into sons, not simply to produce better men of the old kind, but to produce a new kind of man. Lewis in a half gender inclusive language, forgive him.
But you get it. He didn't come to just make us nice, a new kind of man. It's not like the teaching, it's not like teaching a horse to jump higher and higher. Better and better, but like turning a horse into a winged creature. If anyone is in Christ, he has a new creation. The old is gone, the new is here. And so Paul is just reminding you have freedom from that ditch.
You you don't have to do anything to prove your righteousness. You ha simply have to look to Christ, believe in him, faith expressing itself in love. He goes on. He talks about how this is working a little bit. Verse twelve, I'll just point it out just 'cause it's the most aggressive verse in the whole Bible. I've said some pretty aggressive things from the stage, never like verse twelve. I always look at verse twelve and be like, Whatever I said, it's not as bad as what Paul said in Galatians five twelve.
says as for those agitators, those people that are running in on them, blocking their way to Christ. As for those agitators, those ones that are like, you need to be circumcised. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. Hello?
That's a wild thing to say. It's like this is like he's trying to shake the Galatians through his letter, like, why? How how could you how could you experience the freedom of Christ and then say, I'm gonna step into s the slavery of self righteous religion, fear-based self-righteous religion. But it's not just freedom from that, it's freedom from the other side of the ditch as well. This is where he begins in verse thirteen.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. So so this is the other side. You we we might say legalism on one side you can fall into and abandon the gospel, or license on the other side, which which is just sinful behavior, and you can abandon the gospel as well. He goes on in verse 19 to show well, what is the flesh? He says the acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality.
Impurity, debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. And on and on I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Either way, if you're in legalism or license, you're still enslaved and you're not part of the kingdom of God.
Now, individually we struggle with this, but entire churches can struggle with these things, one way or the other. The Galatian church, having been pagan Gentiles, had renounced all of that. They had stepped on the road for freedom for a minute, but then they had fallen off the other side into self righteous legalism. But the Corinthian church is the opposite. They're like, we are free in Christ. We can sleep with whoever we want.
We can do whatever we want sexually because Jesus has to forgive us. Paul's like, no, that's slavery on the other side. It is for freedom that Christ set you free. Walk in freedom. This is. And sometimes we we can do both, right? Like you feel the pull towards self-righteous legalism, but but we all feel the pull in our culture to indulge the flesh. What is the flesh? The flesh is this that gap.
That that old nature. So in the moment you turn in faith to Christ and trust in his finished work on the cross, the Bible says that you are a new creation, that you have the righteousness of Christ imputed on you so that you are positionally perfect before God. Paul says, We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realm. This is who we are perfectly righteous.
And yet we're on this side of eternity, still in these bodies. We're still trying to make away the gap there that we're trying to close. It's called sanctification. And where we fail, it's the flesh, the old nature coming to the surface. And Paul says, You've been set free from that. That's not who you are anymore. You say, Well, I'm just you know, I'm addicted to these things. I'm like, not in Christ, you're not. That's not who you are. Start to live like who you are.
And and we we can we can go from one slavery to the next in a moment of in just a moment. In any of these things on the list. Let's just take the first one. Where what does he say? The acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality. So you feel in your flesh a growing temptation. Maybe it's through things you've watched on your screen or your computer, your phone. Maybe you you're feeling this with with another person, you're feeling this pull, and what what happens? You you start to justify. Like, well.
This won't hurt anybody. Negative freedom. As long I can do whatever I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Which is a lie, by the way. Or or you tell yourself, well, you know, I kind of deserve this. I've been working so hard. And and and if my spouse understood and treated me the way I should, I wouldn't even be in here. It's really their fault. And and and so you indulge in this sinful nature. And what happens? In a moment, you if you haven't totally seared your conscience, if you haven't totally cut off the
the conviction of the spirit. You're like, my gosh, and and you flip from from the sin of flesh and you go all the way over to the slavery of self-righteous religion. What do you do? You're like, well, I'm gonna feel really bad, God. I'm really gonna show you this time that I feel r I I I'm gonna show you I'm gonna mope around the house for six days this time. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna delight in anything. I'm not I I'm gonna show you how serious I am, Lord, to
Finally break free of this. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna pray more, Lord. I'm gonna read my Bible because I'm gonna show you that I I I'll I've taken this seriously. I might even go to church. I might I might give more, like all these things to try to now earn the favor back from God. Either way, it's slavery. Either way, it's not the gospel. It is for freedom that Christ set us free, is what Paul says. And so any belief that takes the flesh lightly, like
Isn't believing the gospel. But like just look at the cross, see what sin costs. It costs the very life of the Son of God. And so we should never cheapen it. We should never be like, I'll do this because I he's got to forgive me. You're not understanding the gospel. You're enslaved to that. So we were freed from self righteous, fear based religion and the flesh, but we were also freed for. It's not just
Freedom from, but it's a freedom for. Where where do we see this? It says the second half of verse thirteen. Well, I'll read the whole verse. You brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humble humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. We were freed for something.
So the secular definition of freedom, a freedom from, a negative freedom, is insufficient and it falls flat on its head. So, so secular freedom says this I I should be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, then I'll be free. I should be able to follow my heart to do whatever I want, whenever I want, then I'll be free. But it doesn't take long to just think that's not a freedom.
Like like our hearts are in our hearts are all sorts of passions and desires and conflicting wants that actually can lead to our bondage all the time. Right? So let me give you an an example. So let me give you an extreme example. if anyone ever has been around or struggled with or has family member that has struggled with addiction to drugs or alcohol.
So, for example, when I was a senior in high school, my stepfather became addicted to cocaine. And what you see is someone just absolutely pursuing their freedom. When does the drug addict feel most free? When they get the next hit, they get the next high, when the the drugs hit their system and the euphoria comes into their brain. they feel free. But everyone knows from the outside you're not free, you're enslaved. You're enslaved to your own desires, it's killing you.
This is why negative freedom is not enough. Our our hearts are not the guides to whatever we want. That this is not how the Bible sets us up. We are freed from something. What are we from something and then for something? What were we freed for? We are freed for the ability to live as God has created us to live for our purpose. Now you start to think, well, okay, well, what is our purpose? Well, think about this. I think it was Elizabeth Elliott that used this first.
If you take a fish out of the water and you put it in a tree and be like, be free, fish, like that fish isn't free anymore. That fish is about to die. Right? sure, you took him out of the the slavery of water. No. Or take an F one car. An F one car is not free in rush hour traffic, downtown Denver.
Just kind of going. Right? That that's not its design. It's free on the track. So then we have to ask ourselves, as followers of Jesus who have been made into a new creation, when are we most free? When are we most fulfilling our our our purpose in life? We are image bearers of God, remade to reflect God to the world and one another, and if God is love, then we are most free when we are walking in love towards God and towards God.
one another. But think about that. Love is not the secular definition of love of freedom. Freedom from. Love actually has a ton of constraints. Right? Any husband, father that truly loves their family doesn't just do whatever he wants to do. No, no. He is designed to serve and lay down his life and and and to consider the the needs of his wife and kids. He doesn't just go off and do his own thing because he's free. No, he's created to love. You and I were
Created to love. We when we fall in love, we we we willingly subject ourselves and and we love it, right? We love it because we're in love. This is the context where our freedom is meant to thrive. This is true freedom. So then you say, Okay, well, how do I get to there? How do I make sure I walk on the narrow path, not following into self-righteousness and not following into the flesh? Is it just a matter of believing the right things? No.
It's not. That's enlightenment thinking. The enlightenment came along and said, you're just a a thinking thing on a stick. As long as you think the right things, then you'll be good. But but we know that's not true either. Like we all know many things that we should be doing, but we don't do. Why don't you eat better? Why don't you exercise more? Why ha why don't you why aren't you better with your money? You know what's right, you know what you should be doing, but you don't do it. Why? Because
Bible says that the the primary driving force in our life is not our brains but our hearts. That there's a often a disconnect. Like we can look at the cross, be like, I believe Jesus died for me, I believed all this, and and I just want to give myself to any number of idols. That's why Calvin said the human heart is an idol factory, just cranking out new things to worship, new things to pursue, new things to give our lives to, new things to be enslaved to.
This is our hearts. So what do we do? Or or think of nineteen ninety two, Woody Allen. After the firestorm, he got he got caught. He was in a love relationship with his adopted daughter. She was twenty two at the time now. Soon ye and Walter Isaacson of Time Magazine sat sat him down for an interview, and Woody's like, these things, there's no logic to them, you know. The heart wants what the heart wants. As if that was the reason.
It's just my heart wants what the heart wants. The world is rightly horrified? Because you're like, that's terrible. Why are we rightly horrified? Because there's still a little bit of Christian borrowed cath borrowed ethical capital in our culture. That's horrible, right? It's it's it's enslavement. So it's not just believe the right things. That's the start, but but how do we get into our hearts what we say we believe? How how does
Jesus capture our hearts so that we walk on the path of freedom. Well that's that's a lifelong journey. Paul Paul gives us a clue in verse one. After he says, It is for freedom that Christ has set you free, us free, he says, Stand firm then. Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Stand firm. This is intentionally
standing on the path of freedom, intentionally saying, This is freedom. I'm not going to the left or the right. This is that there's some there's some holding ground here. This is even even kind of a military term. This is the ground I'm gonna stand on. I'm gonna do whatever it takes to stand firm on this. I'm gonna rehearse the gospel. Lord, my heart and passions are going this way. I know this tr this is true about you, and so I I need to
Meditate on what you've done for me. I need to meditate on who you are. I need to meditate on the cross. I need to meditate on my sin being taken from me and on you on the cross. I need to see your love. I and I need to see it often and I need to sing it. I I need to memorize it. I need to study it. That's the first thing. We have to rehearse and catechise our own hearts. We we have to go through a liturgy. Like liturgy is meant to shape us.
This is why we have liturgy even on every Sunday morning. But it but did you know you're constantly, constantly being bar bombarded by liturgy? Like there's a cultural liturgy. You go to the mall, and there's a liturgy that will shape your heart to woo you to some certain certain things. And so we have to push back the darkness. We have to stand firm and go through a liturgy just to remind ourselves: here's what's true. And as you do that, it starts to warm your heart.
Heart, it starts to displace. So in 1819, there was a Scottish pastor theologian named Thomas Chalmers. He wrote a sermon. It was entitled The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. So, not the explosive power, the expulsive. So it the pushing out. And and what he said is what many had said before him, Augustine and who's the French guy that was the mathematician? Pascal, he said it like lots of lots of people have said, hey, listen.
As we study the human heart, Calvin, as you study the human heart, the heart is always going to desire something. Something is always going to be on the throne of our hearts. And whatever's on the throne, the heart is going to go after it. It's going to go after it fully. And so it's not enough just to say, well, I I've got this problem with greed. I'm gonna stop being greedy. You you have to displace it. The the greed is powerful. I've got the it could be displaced with lust, but that's just one.
Master for another, it could be displaced with power or safety or comfort. Something is on the throne of your heart and you feel it even now. It's pulling you in a direction. How do we put Christ on the throne? This is you need the expulsive power of a new affection. You need to catechize your heart. You need to intentionally put Christ on the throne. You need to know him and get to know him and so on and so forth. So a couple of weeks ago we were with some friends for dinner.
Jimmy and Kelly Needham. They're he he Jimmy's like Tord some of you might know him, a Christian artist. but we were sitting down and we're talking there the authors and my wife's an author and I write sermons. So we were talking about how we how we write our our how we write. And I'm like, well, I have to I can't have any words when I'm listening to music, I can't have any words or else I'll my ADHD is too much. I'm like, What what did he say? It doesn't matter what the song is, I'll just start listening to that. I have to have like
Who who's the guy that anyway? cool like mu movie soundtracks with no words. That's what I listen to. Okay. And Jin Jen can listen to all sorts of w pop music. It's wild. but Kelly, she she was trained as a classical musician. And she grew up just like studying. She plays the violin. She and she's like, yeah, I cannot listen to this composer
and and this symphony because what happens is I find a half hour forty-five minutes later I'm just I'm not doing any work, I'm just enjoying the music. Why? Because she's she's been catechized into love that that composer. She she's trained her heart to to tune into that so that that she's just captured by it. It takes time. It takes train. Now most of us
Some of you are like that, some of you are like, Yeah, I've I've really developed a taste for really good classical music. But most of us would be like, No, we c I don't even know what that is, right? But we can train ourselves, we catechize ourselves, okay. And the other thing so that Paul says is not only just rehearse the truth, but we we do this for one another. We're we're not on this path alone.
In fact, we're not intended to walk the path of freedom alone. Look at chapter six, verse one. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you may be tempted, may also be tempted, carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. This is why the body of Christ is so important for catechizing our hearts.
Listen, if you're not doing actually doing some life together with other brothers and sisters, if you've not opened your life such that if you fall off to one of these sides, that that no one has permission in your life to help you up, man, you're lost before you even got started. That's why we do life together. That's why we do gospel communities. That's why we we we pour into each other. He says, if anyone has fallen off to the side, to the left or right, gently pull them out. But be careful, don't let them pull you in.
Right? You see a a brother or sister being legalistic, and they're like, No, you should be legalistic with me. There's something that's enticing to that. See a brother and sister indulging the flesh? They're like, Well, maybe I could do that if they're like that too. Like, no, we we walk together. And so we move forward in freedom. One hand holding on to the gospel, remembering, rehearsing the gospel, the other hand holding on to other brothers and sisters walking the path of freedom. It is for freedom.
That Christ set us free. Amen? Let me pray for us to that end.
God is Enough
Transcription
Amen, amen. Well, I am glad that the power is back on because I was sweating so hard up here. So thankful for AC, like probably number two all-time invention. I I think what you just heard, at least to me, is probably one of the most emotionally honest passages in all of the Bible. It's twenty-eight verses, and ASAF never once pretends that he's okay. Like he tells you how close he comes to.
To walking away, and then he tells you where he lands. And so this morning I kind of want to walk the road between these two. Most of you know this. We had a house fire in April. Kenna was out of town in Washington, DC, and so it's just me and our four kids, and I mean, personally, I felt like I was crushing it. Like I'm feeding Ruth with one hand, I'm changing laundry with the other hand, getting ready to take a selfie and send it to Kenna, dad of the year. And then the smoke.
And I hear cracking and popping, and I'm not really in too much of a rush, but I do go out our sliding glass door and walk around the corner, and I see that our playhouse and fence are a wall of fire. And it takes my brain a minute to process what I'm looking at. But but obviously it clicks, and I rush back inside and I see that my neighbor's already at my door, knock, knock, knocking. He's on the phone with 911, and so I rush up the stairs to go get my kids who are doing their rest time.
Say, stop what you're doing, you need to come with me right now. And so we go down the stairs, out our front door. None of my kids have their shoes on, and we walk to our neighbor's driveway. And while we're there, I'm just holding Ruth and nothing else, watching the side of my house go up in flames. There's nothing that I could do. I'll be honest with you, probably the most helpless ten minutes of my life.
Now here's why I tell you that, because there are fires that you can see from the street. The the smoke, the fire trucks, you've you've got all your neighbors out there talking while you're there, and then there's another type of fire. And it happens quietly. It's on the inside. Nobody can see it, where you can still serve and show up and be in this place while something underneath is slowly going up in flames.
And that second kind of fire is exactly what Psalm 73 is all about. Cause have you ever had a season where it feels like you're doing all of the right things spiritually? Again, you're you're praying, you're worshiping, you're you're trying to entrust yourself to God, and still life's falling apart. And somewhere along the way your soul starts to whisper, What's the point? What am I doing here?
And so for weeks we've been walking through these this series, like God is the attributes of God. And we've said that He's holy and good and sovereign. Last week Mark talked about his immutability. And every part of that is true. But here's the question that decides whether any of it holds when everything falls apart. Is he enough? Not as God real or as God powerful.
But when everything you were counting on is gone, is God Himself enough? It is the question that every single one of you will answer. And I'll be honest, typically it's not with your words. It's where you run when the bottom eventually falls out. And so I want to be so clear this morning before we get further into this. God is enough, is not the same thing as everything turns out fine. Enough is not the same thing as fixed.
It's even when the worst thing happens, God Himself is still solid ground underneath your feet. And so this is the claim that Psalm 73 is going to put to the test. It's the story of one man's journey from God is not enough to there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. And so right now, every single one of us is somewhere on that road. And where we're gonna hop in is gonna be verse two. Again, such an honest line.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. So not my feet stumbled and my steps slipped, it's almost in nearly. Which gives us an idea that there is a season where ASAP looks like he's very stable on the outside, while on the inside he's just holding on by a thread. I know that this is how some of you feel right now. Again, you can show up here and sing worship songs.
And be disappointed with God. You can sit where you're sitting right now and and again ask yourself, is any of us even worth it anymore? And the man who's writing this is not some immature rebel. This is ASAF. He's a worship leader. He lives close to the presence of God. And I think that that distinction really does matter because one of the enemy's favorite lies is if you were really mature, you wouldn't struggle like this.
And so where we come is i i and and and so Psalm seventy-three is going to destroy that lie. God puts this psalm in the Bible for struggling people, like you and me, so that you know that you're not alone, you're not crazy, and your struggle does not automatically mean your faith is fake. Because again, eventually all of us will end up in this wrestling match. Like eventually suffering will get intensely personal.
Eventually prayers go unanswered so long that it begins to hurt. Eventually you lose something you are sure that God would protect. And if we're not careful, disappointment slowly becomes disillusionment. And this is exactly what happens to Asaph in verse three. He says, For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Envious.
Envy is is not just admiring what someone else has. Envy is resenting the story that God gave you while craving the story that God gave someone else. And it's spiritually deadly. Because its goal is to turn your eyes sideways until you lose sight of God altogether. And so when ASAF starts scanning sideways, what he sees.
destroys him. He sees that the wicked are wealthy and healthy and comfortable. They they mock God and yet they still seem blessed. Now here's the thing ASAF's envy has a very obvious target. It's the arrogant, like the people who ignore God and still seem to win in life. And so maybe for you this morning that's like, well I'm off the hook, because that's not me. I'm not sitting here wishing I could just live the life of the godless.
But the truth is envy doesn't need a villain. It is thriving just as well in the church as it is outside of the church. It sounds like a brother whose marriage just looks easier than yours. The family whose kids turned out the way that you've been begging God to have yours turn out.
The believer whose faith doesn't seem to require the daily struggle that yours requires every morning.
You can be here this morning again, sing these songs, sit in these chairs, and quietly resent the story of the person who's sitting right next to you. And I think that this envy is even more dangerous because it hides behind a spiritual face. It doesn't feel like sin, it feels like longing. But underneath all of this is the same thing that ASAF just confessed. You are
Resenting your story while craving someone else's. And so in his envy, he looks at himself in verse fourteen and says, All the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. You hearing his frustration? Like I tried to obey, and yet life still hurts. This is the crisis under Psalm seventy three. It's not atheism, it's disappointment with God.
And Tim Keller says this this feels like a spiritual vertigo. Your soul is losing its balance until your eyes start seeing something your theology just can't process. I love the way that he says this. The claims of truth are on audio. Experience is on video. So when suffering gets loud enough, experience starts screaming over your theology.
And here's the danger in that suffering is going to tempt you to reinterpret God through your pain instead of interpreting your pain through God. Again, suffering is going to tempt you to reinterpret the God of the universe through your pain instead of interpreting your pain through God.
And so when he does this, ASAF finally spirals into exhaustion. Look at the first half of verse 26. My flesh and my heart may fail. My flesh, this body weakens. Like everything feels heavy. My heart, I'm emotionally drained, I'm spiritually numb.
Fail, that the Hebrew word here means drained dry. Think a tank full of water with the plug pulled at the bottom. And here's what I want you to hear this morning. The Bible does not shame this struggle. Even Jesus, when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane, he says, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. And yet he still doesn't sin. And so I think this teaches us the presence of
Of pain is not the same thing as the absence of faith. But even then, under all of this, the envy, the comparison, the exhaustion, the same lie that the wit the serpent whispered to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is the same he whispers to us. God is not enough. So you better go find out what is. Now, I want you to hold on to that tension because there is a turn coming. But right before this turn.
What we see is that Asaph tries to think his way to peace. Says, When I thought how to understand this, I it seemed to be a wearisome task. So he wrestles with this over and over, and all it does is wear him out. I think this is how so many of us can stay stuck. You're trying to solve a soul problem with your mind.
And then he enters the sanctuary. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned their end. All of this psalm hangs on this verse. This is the pivot. Before verse seventeen, ASAP is drowning in his envy and resentment and self pity. And then he enters the sanctuary. And I want you to notice what hasn't changed. Like the wicked are still prospering.
His suffering hasn't disappeared. God hasn't answered all of his questions. And I think it l this matters because if you're like me, you can assume that peace will only come when your circumstances change. And yet we learn something deeper in this psalm. The first thing God changes is often not your circumstances, it's your vision. And so he enters the sanctuary, and it's not some quiet place of
Devotion, this is a worship leader. So this is worship and prayer, scripture, the gathered people of God, the manifest presence of God. Maybe you've heard this before. You you can study a storm and still drown in it. Well, what what does that look like? Before verse seventeen, Asaph is talking about God. After verse seventeen, he starts talking to God.
We've been in this series, so you have learned a lot of attributes of God, and you can know all of them to be true and still feel a thousand miles away from Him. There are some things that will only heal in the presence of God. This is why the Psalms are so different than just venting. Like lament doesn't just pour emotion out into the air, it takes all of that and points it at God.
And this is an act of faith in and of itself because it assumes that God exists, that God hears you, and ultimately that God cares. And so once he's in the presence of God, his vision, which is maybe another way of saying his loves, begin to change. He even starts to see himself more clearly. Verse 21: When my soul was embittered, I was like a beast towards you. The
Closer you get to God, the harder it is to pretend. Like the presence of God will expose what's really going on underneath all of your polished church language. And so suddenly he sees the real problem and recognizes that it's not just his suffering, it's just exposing what he loves most. He admits this in verse thirteen All in vain I have have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. Translation
Like, where's my payoff? I was pretty sure that obedience would lead to a certain kind of life. And yet suffering has a way of revealing whether God is your treasure or just your strategy. Corey Tinboom says this famously: You never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. This is Psalm.
Seventy-three, when everything gets stripped away, you finally figure out what you were standing on. So when my house is in flames and I run back inside, I promise you I wasn't going to save my TV. Although if you know me, you know that I do like my TV, or my furniture, or any of my stuff. The fire made it violently obvious in seconds what is precious to me and what is just stuff.
And here's the mercy in it. One of the most loving things God does is expose a false God before it can destroy you. And so now ASAP, he's seeing himself correctly. He he starts also seeing the arrogant correctly. Then I discerned their end. And so for the first time he's seeing past the moment and into eternity. And the prosperity looks a little different. Like their success, their applause, it's all temporary.
You hear that it's like a dream, and then you wake up. And I can just picture Asaph thinking, like, why was I envying people whose whole kingdom is evaporating? Look at verse 27 for behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. The people he had been envying had everything except God. And a life with everything except God is a life with nothing except.
That lasts.
Again, pain wants to pull your eyes down. Envy wants to pull it left and right, but worship lifts your eyes back up. And so it's right here in the sanctuary with his corrected vision that Asaph arrives at verse 25. I think that this is the verse that maybe all of the series has been building towards. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing.
On earth that I desire besides you. I hope you hear how radical that is. It it is this place where you realize when everything is stripped away, the only thing that my soul needs is God. And so at the start of this psalm, like I think many of us, ASAP is just being like, God, please just you seeing what's going on, just make my life better.
By the end of this psalm, he recognizes that God Himself is his life. God is the strength of his heart and his portion forever. This word portion could be the entire sermon series just in one word. We don't have time to go through all of this, but when the Israelites divided up the promised land, everyone gets a tribal piece of ground, all except for the Levites.
They inherit God Himself. He says, I am your portion and your inheritance. This is not some consolation prize. This is by far the better deal. Because when God is your portion, then when the land burns and the body fails, you still have the one thing that no one can take from you. Now, logically, if you're like me, you start thinking, like, well, how can he be so sure?
How can a man who just confessed, when I was embittered, I was like a beast towards you, turn right around in verse twenty-three and say, Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand. Jen alluded to it, but nevertheless is the most beautiful word in this psalm, at least to me. Because nevertheless means I was bitter nevertheless. I was foolish nevertheless.
I almost slipped. Nevertheless, you hold my right hand. I hope you're catching the order here because it's not I held on to God because I finally got so strong. He's saying, God held on to me when I was at my worst. That is grace. It's not God loving some cleaned up version of you, it's Him holding on to you in the middle of your mess.
So again, Asaph says, I was like a beast towards you, and God treats him like a son. I don't want you to rush past how scandalous that really is. A holy God doesn't just wave off sin, He doesn't lower the bar and just look the other way. So, how does a man who's at his worst get pulled in close and then held there without God ceasing to be God? That
Kind of nearness doesn't come cheap. It has to be paid for. And look where Asaph goes to find it. He enters the sanctuary. We've already established this is the place of God's presence, but it's also the place of sacrifice. There's an altar, blood, a priest. There is a way, but it's a very costly way to come near to a holy God. All of it is preaching the same sermon, generation after generation.
God makes a way to bring sinners home. And so hopefully you see that every drop of blood on this altar is pointing forward to a hill in Jerusalem, to a cross, to Jesus. Jesus is the true sanctuary. He's the place where sinners finally meet God. He is the sacrifice that opens the way. He's the priest that brings us.
Near. He is the reason, nevertheless, is even possible. And so on this cross, Jesus enters the deepest darkness of Psalm seventy-three. And he does not do this as a bystander, but as the one who's going to absorb it all. Catch the difference between these two. Asaf felt like God was distant. Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And he meant it because he's
Not performing, he's paying. Asaph watched the wicked prosper. Jesus watched the wicked spit on him, mock him, and gamble over his clothes while he bled. And it wasn't only Rome. It's his own people, like the same crowds who were cheering for him days before the all of the spiritual leaders who know the scripture inside and out. Jesus came to his own and
And they handed him over to die. And so you can imagine that for a moment it looked like the lie was true. It looked like God was not enough. It looked like evil had won. It looked like the Father had abandoned his faithful son. But then, three days later, the grave is empty.
And the resurrection is God's answer to every dark verse in Psalm 73. It is God standing over history and saying, The wicked do not get the final word. Suffering does not get the final word. The grave does not get the final word. I do. And so the cross is telling us that God is good. The resurrection tells us that God wins. And these things together.
It tells us that God Himself is enough.
But a hard truth for you this morning, Jesus did not die to give you a better life. He died to give you God. Not God plus the life I wanted, or God plus the life I've been demanding, or God where everything is finally fixed. God Himself. And because of Jesus, He is yours forever.
And so maybe you're sitting here this morning, and the honest truth is I've just never had a nevertheless in my life. And it's not because you haven't suffered. I know that you have suffered. It's because you've never come to the one who will hold you on the other side of it. And so every fire that comes your way, you have to hold alone.
And so hear me, the same door Asaph walked through is now open to you. You don't have to clean yourself up first. Again, ASAP came in like a beast and walked out with his right hand being held. The blood has already been spilled. The way is already open. Please, please don't fall into the trap that I need to clean myself up. I need to fix my life before I can come to him. Come to Jesus as you are.
So now for all of us, the question is no longer will God ever let go of me. The cross and the empty tomb have answered that. The question now is where are you pointed when everything hurts? Because this is exactly where Psalm 73 is going to land. If God Himself is enough, and if Jesus really has brought us close and near to God forever, then how do we actually
Live like that. Like not just here in Sunday morning, or not in theory, but on Tuesday, when the anxiety is back, when the diagnosis hasn't changed, your kids are still hurting. The prayer you've been praying for so long starts to wonder if anyone's even listening. How do we live then?
And he's about to tell us in this last verse, verse twenty eight, But for me it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
That's the whole Christian life in one sentence. Nearness, refuge, witness. So first you stay near. It's good to be near God. Sounds so simple, but it's not easy. Because when your soul is disappointed with God, your first flinch is to pull back. You stop praying, stop singing, you stop opening your Bible. That's not because you hate God.
Because you're hurt. And then slowly, quietly you begin to drift. And Psalm seventy three says, Don't don't drift. No, take all of that, take all of your envy, all of your resentment, all of your exhaustion, the question that you are too embarrassed to say out loud and bring it into the sanctuary. Because that place is not for people who have no doubts, but it is for the people whose feet have almost slipped.
It's a hard truth. It's hard truth for me this morning. Some of us do not need a new answer today. You need to get back near God. He has not moved, but our gaze has. Come near. Second, you make him your refuge. And again, a refuge is not a place where nothing hard ever happens. It's where you flee when hard things do happen.
And so it means the question is not simply do you believe God is enough? The question is where do you run when you don't believe it?
Because all of us have refuges. Like some of us run to control. Like if can just manage every detail, maybe I'll finally feel safe. Some of us, this one's me, run to distraction. If I can just stay busy enough, scroll enough, buy enough things, then I won't have to feel what's going on underneath. For some of us it's comparison, bitterness, self pity, literally anything to put you far away from the ache. And they may numb you for a moment.
This is true, but but not one of them can hold the weight of your soul. And so maybe if you're honest, you would say this morning, I have literally run to everything except for God. Sorry, guys, I just exited out of my own sermon.
And if that is you this morning, then Psalm 73 is also your invitation. I hope you you hear this because running to God for refuge is not one more thing you have to muster up enough strength to pull off. We get this backwards. We we treat taking refuge in God like an advanced move for the spiritually impressive. It's the exact opposite. Pastor John Piper says, hiding in God is
It's not a work you prove you do to prove you have it together. It is the white flag. It's admitting you are weak, you are cornered, you cannot save yourself, and he can. That is the only condition there is. Not God, look at me, look how faithful I'm trying to be. Just God, I am desperate, and you are all I have. And desperation, it does not demand.
And it does not deserve. It pleads for mercy and reaches out for grace, and the promise under this entire psalm is that the one who runs to God will never be turned away. No one who takes refuge in him is condemned. He is a shield to every soul who hides in him. He knows the ones who run to him, and then he holds them.
Make him your refuge. Lastly, we tell of his works. Psalm seventy three does not end with Asaph getting all of his questions answered. It ends with him becoming a witness. He doesn't get to come out of the sanctuary and be like, Well now life makes sense. I understand all who's got questions. Like that that's not what happens here. What he has is God held me when I almost slipped. God brought me near when I was bitter.
God became my refuge when everything else gave way. That is a testimony. And some of you have one exactly like it or are about to. It's not a polished kind. It's not the kind where you get to pretend like everything doesn't hurt. It's the honest kind. And so let me go first this morning.
At the beginning of this sermon I told you that there are two kinds of fire. Again, the kind that you can see from the street and one that burns quietly on the inside while you keep smiling and serving and showing up. I know that second fire. I've been preaching this whole sermon from within side of it. Most of you know about the house. And and if most of you know about the house, you also know that's not the only thing that our family is carrying.
When I ran out of that house I had Ruth in my arms. Ruth has a very rare genetic disorder, and the first two and a half years of her life have felt like a lifetime.
There have been surgeries. There have been nights that Ken and I have been on our knees praying, and all of the polished language is gone. This is not a testimony I would have chosen. If God gave me the pen, I promise you I would have written a different story for my little girl. That's just the truth. But I'm so glad that I don't have the pen. And here's what I can tell you.
Not from a safe distance, but again inside of the fire of my life that it is right now. He has not let go. My feet have slipped more times than I can count.
I have looked sideways and envied other families and their healthy children. I have laid awake at night wondering if God really cares. Is he really good and
Nevertheless, he has held my hand the entire way through. So I'm not standing up here because I have it figured out. I'm standing up here because when I ran out of things to hold on to, he held on to me. Now, this is not a unique story. Like I know many of you wish that your testimony was not marked by suffering.
But honestly, this is a way for God's glory to help struggling people breathe again. Because the church, it doesn't need more people performing like life never hurts. The church does need people who can say, I know what it is to be confused. My flesh and my heart have failed. But I also know this God is the strength of my heart.
And my portion for ever.
So how then shall we live? You stay near. You make him your refuge, you tell of his works, and when your feet start to slip, you don't run from him, you run to him. It's not because you've held on so well, but because he held on to you, nevertheless. Because one day your flesh and your heart it will fail.
One day every earthly portion will slip through your hands. But not him. Not your God. Not your refuge. Not your portion. He held ASAP. He is holding you right now. He is holding me right now. Because God is enough. Amen? All right, let's pray.
God is Immutable
Transcription
And happy Father's Day. Welcome, welcome. If you are new or you've been here the last month or so, welcome. My name is Mark. I'm I've been here before, but it's been a while. So I'm one of the pastors here. we had this incredible privilege and opportunity in the month of May to go to Italy and to work with churches across the whole boot there. so on the weekends we were doing conferences
my wife spoke about eight times. I think I spoke eight times and preached a couple times in Slovenia even and it was an incredible experience. And during the week we were driving from place to place and being tourists and got no down days at all, but it was awesome. And and eventually the last week we we needed to be in Salerno, Italy, that which is a few hours south of Rome and and on the way th it it crosses this place that my daughters had been asked, my daughter
Abby had been asking, hey, can we please, please, please go to Pompeii? I'm like, why are you so interested in Pompeii? Because of the song? How's it go? I don't know. Ayo, Ayo. but no, we want to go to K Pompeii. I'm like, okay, I all I knew about Pompeii was like, isn't that the place for Mount Vesuvius and the you know the earth the the lava, all is that what happened? And actually no, like that that was an amazing, amazing experience. We we got there, so
Pompeii sits at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. And by the way, it's still an active volcano. And we were listening to podcasts on the way down to learn about what was going on there. And the geologists that study it, like they have an active go bag in their car to get out of there in case this thing goes off again. So that didn't make my wife feel too comfortable. but i in the first century and and even now that there there's earthquakes and tremors and and all all these things going on. And so
The archaeologists have found that the the citizens of Pompeii they would make their offerings to the god Vulcan and and they would have these household gods and and they would make offerings and sacrifices to their household gods for protection and prosperity and health and and safety, like all the things that we we want in our lives, right? But th that they were looking to these household idols for that. And so a as as
As the year seventy-nine AD approached, more and more earthquakes were were happening, but of course they didn't have knowledge of what was going on. They just thought Vulcan was mad and eventually in October of seventy-nine the thing went off. It shot rock and pumice and ash thirty miles in the air. This massive mushroom cloud blots out the the sun for twenty-four hours.
And a few hours after the eruption, as the citizens of Pompeii are staring up at it, the the wind brings it over and it begins to rain down like an apocalyptic snowstorm. Ash and pumice. Begins to fill the streets and and and people are are are saying, What should we do? Some go inside and and hide out there, others put pillows on their head and and try to make it down to the port to escape. But the ash starts
piling up the the little lava stones start piling up, they cover the streets, they cover the doors. people go inside and and it's on the roofs. Many of the roofs collapse and that's how a lot of the people died for twenty-four hours. This is falling on the city. It was the next day that a pyroclastic blast, that is h superheated gas from the volcano, comes down the side of the volcano and and like hurricane force winds at five hundred degrees
blows through Pompeii, that's what takes out the most of the citizens. It was horrific. The ash continues to fall and it falls to ten to twenty feet deep so that the entire city gets covered and preserved in this ash and dust and and and all the things. For seventeen hundred years it it doesn't get uncovered. Now, even today only about two-thirds of it is. So they had to dig down
fifteen feet and take it out. But but unlike anywhere else in the ancient world, na you you get this picture now of of what life could be like was like in the first century Roman Empire. They they take it down all the way down to the streets and you can see the the Roman carts their their tracks in the streets and and you walk you literally walk the streets of this city full of houses and bakeries and taverns and places of worship and
temples and theaters a and you are walking around and y you're like, this is unbelievable. It's massive, by the way. Like it's far bigger than Parker. You're just walking around and there's this y you're walking the streets of this place. And and you begin to think about what life was like then.
And as we left there, I began to think, hmm, was there were there any believers here? And so we just did some research. And there there is actually good evidence that there were believers in Pompeii in 79 A.D. Because in the year 59 or 60 A.D., we we read in Acts chapter 28 that the Apostle Paul lands on the on Italy. And where he lands is is right outside of modern-day Naples, about 15 miles away from Pompeii. And when he lands there,
Believers from that area come and greet him. This is amazing. So this is twenty, twenty-five years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, that fifteen hundred miles away that there are churches being established. That says a couple things. One, it it shows that early Christians really believed and obeyed the Great Commission. Like, no, we are supposed to make disciples. We are supposed to go. This is our life. What else would we do? We're not to live for ourselves.
And so it goes fifteen hundred miles away and and churches are established and and even in Pompeii there's some evidence. There's there there's early Christian graffiti, there's there's evidence that the church would would meet in the bakeries there. And and so I began to think, well, what was that like? What was that like in seventy nine AD when when they saw the volcanoes erupt and they saw their neighbors freak out? What what what were they doing?
What would you do? I mean, there had to be some temptation, even as their their neighbors went into their homes and started bowing down to their household gods, be like, please give us safety and security and comfort. There had to be some temptation, like maybe maybe we should do that just to cover all the basis, right? Like what what do you do in that moment when the earth literally is shaking under you and all is falling down on your
world, I I don't know what they did. I I know that I would have been afraid. I know that my wife would have been terrified 'cause she hates earthquakes because we lived in Asia for ten years and within two hours of us landing there we were in a six point nine earthquake on a seventh floor of a hotel that was made for earthquakes. So it swayed about ten, fifteen feet. And she hated it every single time. I kinda liked it.
But it's understandable. Even if you're a follower of Jesus. Yes, you've given up your household gods, but in the moment when life shakes the most, what do you do? What do you look for? Where do you run? I mean, some of the citizens try to go down to the port and escape, but by then the the ash, the the the lava rocks were floating on the water and the the port was blocked. They were just all blocked in. But it it's it's this reality that.
On this side of eternity, there are moments in life. In fact, all of creation is in flux. All of creation is instable. All of creation is going from order to disorder. And that's true physically, that's true scientifically. It's called the second law of thermodynamics, but that's true in our own lives. Like the th there are things that we
look to and hope for and we think are secure that that in the end reveal themselves that's not secure. And good things, right? Like if you're looking to anything in creation, eventually you will be disappointed by it. If you're looking to the people around your dinner table on Thanksgiving, no matter how good your family is, a day will come where someone will be the last and all else will have gone, either from conflict or death.
Like that's just the way it is. If you're looking towards a number on your computer screen that says, I have this much money and therefore I'm safe and secure, you're not nearly as safe and secure as you think. No matter what you're looking at, if you're looking to success or or your your kids, like on any level, these are good things, but when they become God things, eventually you will be disappointed, right? Because if you're looking to your health, no matter how much
You work out and do all that, you might it prolong some days, but eventually it will break down and your life will be shaken. If you're looking to your spouse, no matter, even if you have the best marriage and it goes to the end, one of you will bury the other one. If you're looking to your success and you get prestige and you serve a company for 50 years, at the end they're gonna have a party and give you a watch and forget about you in about a month.
Like eventually you're they're gonna paint you up like a clown and put you in a box and in the ground. Happy Father's Day. Did I say? They're like, Well, welcome back, Mark. Wow. That's this is awesome. No, you're you're making me feel bad about myself. My my aim is not to make you feel bad. This is a reality that all of you know. Some of you know it acutely right now in your life that the the world is unstable, that your life is unstable, that
Your your your faith is unstable like some of you know that but all of us will know it. I'm just telling you the truth. And so my aim is not to make you feel bad this morning. My aim is actually for your joy to to find an enduring joy, to turn our eyes to that which we can hope in. And so if you have your Bible, we're in Psalm one two this morning. We're in this series, this week and next week we'll we'll close it out.
but this series w it's called God Is and and it's from a theological perspective it's called Theology Proper. It's this idea of we as finite humans trying as best we could from what God has revealed about Himself through creation and through His Word and through His Spirit about who He is. But this is not this is not an academic pursuit. Like this isn't so that you can win some weird Bible Jeopardy thing and and know the things about God.
Right, like to behold the attributes of God is to give yourself a an anchor for the the future, not just for your worship today, but for what the Bible calls in the day of trouble you will have a foundation. And my hope this morning, even as as we've talked about, the day of trouble is coming, has come, maybe is in your life right now, where can we look to find a a a solid ground?
put our feet on. So that's where we're at in in in Psalm one two. We're gonna look at it. And now I I love this Psalm because it there's there's this just some progressive realization by the psalmist of where to look in the day of trouble. So Psalm one two listen carefully this is God's word. Now in verse one it says hear my prayer but you might notice above that there's there's kind of a
a subtitle to the psalm. That's actually in the original Hebrew. that God wants us to know the sub not just the verses, but the subtitle. But look at what the psalmist writes. It says a prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord. The Lord, L-O-R-D, all caps, before the personal God of the universe, before Yahweh.
It's a prayer of an afflicted person. Again, this is a very human experience. We we've all been there, we all will be there. and and this person has grown weak. And they pour out a lament. What I love about the Psalms is it it it gives us language and permission to bring our everything to God. See, God knows that that we are finite.
And that he's infinite. God knows that we can't possibly understand all that he is doing, and and he can't even answer all that he is doing to us. And yet we feel the brokenness of the world. We feel the brokenness of our our own souls and our families and our nation. We feel all that. And so God in the Psalms gives us language to come and complain to God, to cry out to God, to to question God.
Like we don't have to be super pious all the time. We we can be honest. This is what the Psalms do. And so this is the the frame by which the psalmist comes to God and he says to God, Hear my prayer, Lord, hear my prayer, Yahweh. Let my cry for help come to you. Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me when I call, answer me quickly. Man, that isn't that what we want all of our prayers, right?
Like we all want like to say amen and then see the the results, right? Like he's just honest. Like, okay, I'm praying, and now let's go, God. And then you pray again and you pray again and you pray for years and years, and you're like, Answer me quickly. I don't feel like you're answering me at all. This is what what he's feeling. Now now in the next verse, we we kind of see what's the reason for this distress? Verse three.
For my days vanish like smoke. It's this transitory nature of life. It's the temporariness of his life. It's the disintegrating of his life that is causing him all sorts of anguish and angst and anxiety. He says, My burnt bones burn like glowing embers. He's probably sick. He's probably got just a severe fever. He's feeling the the the joints and the bones like are on fire. My heart is blighted and withered like grass.
Down in verse 11, my days are like the evening shadow. How long does that last? Not long. I wither away like grass. The Bible uses grass as this picture of the very temporariness of this life. And he's feeling that. He's feeling the unsubtleness that this world can sometimes present to us. He says, I forget to eat my food. I am distressed. I groan aloud.
I am reduced to skin and bones. I'm like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. I lie awake, I have become like a bird alone on a roof. All day long my enemies taunt me. Those who rail against me use my name as a curse, for I eat ashes as my food, and mingle my drink with tears. He is describing what we would now diagnose as clinical depression.
He is distraught. He's not eating, he's he's sick, he's he he's collapsed in on himself, he can only see the brokenness of his life. And so in verse ten he says, Because of your great wrath, for you have taken me up and thrown me aside. Now is that true?
I mean, I think w when we feel the brokenness of this world, we can say things to God and about God that are not true, even though we feel them deeply. He he says to God, you where was it? Because of your great wrath, you have taken me up and thrown me aside. That that's why my life is the way it is. God, I I blame you, God, essentially, is what what the psalmist is saying. He's he's forgetting who God is.
He's forgetting what for example Malachi 3 1 says that where God says to his people, Though you are faithless, I will always be faithful. He's forgetting that. He he's interpreting the circumstances of his life as God somehow punishing him, but we we tend to do that when things are not going our way. Verse 11, My days are like the evening shadow, I wither away like grass, and he's sitting in that, but
But something happens in verse twelve. A turn happens. Now I don't know if this just happens in a few moments or minutes as he's writing this, or if there's a like years between verse eleven and verse twelve. But but a turn begins to happen, which begins to change the way he looks. He says, But you, Lord, sit enthrone forever. Your renown endures through all generations. You will rise.
And have compassion on Zion. Do you see what he's doing? He's doing some theology. He's like, I don't feel this. I I I feel like discarded. I th there's nothing in me that feels this, but but I am starting to remember who you are, or at least who I learned about who you are when I was a little boy, or in the temple. That that you Lord are are enthroned forever. You you you reign and rule over all things.
Your renown endures in this transitory life that is like smoke, you alone endure. You will arise and have compassion. He's remembering what God said to Moses, that I am compassionate, God, even if he's not feeling it yet. For it is time to show favor on her, the appointed time has come. Verse 17. He will respond to the prayer of the destitute, which is good news for him, because that's where he's at.
He remembers, for example, in Exodus, when the the prayers of the people of God in slavery in Egypt rise up and in the bi and in chapter one it says God heard their prayers and remembered them. He's rehearsing the truth. He's rehearsing the good news. He he's he's believing the truth before he feels the truth. And so he's remembering you will hear, you respond to the prayers of the destitute. He will not despise their plea. Verse eighteen.
Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord. The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high. From heaven he viewed the earth. He hears the groans of the prisoners and releases those condemned to death. So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion. He's remembering the promises of God. This is a consistent promise of God that the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion.
Zion and his praises in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the Lord. In the course of my life, he broke my strength, he cut short my days. So I said, Do not take away take me away, my God, in the midst of my days. Your years go through all generations. He's remembering the eternal nature of who God is. And he's rehearsing the truth. But now he's starting to connect.
The dots to his own life. Verse twenty-five. In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. You are the creator. This is the creation. You stand above and beyond your creation. You are above and beyond time. You reign over it all. He says this they will perish. All of creation will perish. It's what we already talked about.
But you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like clothing, you will change them, and they will be discarded. This is the disintegration of creation. But you remain the same. There it is. And your years will never end. He comes to this theological truth, this theological truth that theologians call the immutability of
God. I'll put the definition up on the screen here. The immutability of God. God does not change in his being, character, attributes, purposes, promises, or perfections. This is the attribute we're looking at this morning. Now here's the thing: when you first hear about the immutability of God, you might say, hmm, so what? Let's talk about the other attributes, the more exciting ones. But let me show you.
Why this attribute in particular is a glorious attribute worthy of praise and worthy of confidence for us. The glory of God's immutability means that all of the other attributes that we've celebrated in this series, all of the other attributes and we've marveled at together in this series, are eternally secure, eternally perfect, eternally unchanging. Think about that.
This means that God is holy forever. Has always been, is, and will always be forever. It will never change. God is love forever, has always been, is now, and will always be. God is good forever. God is sovereign and in control of all things forever. God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent forever. God is patient, faithful, and just forever.
Forever God does not change. This is incredibly good news in a world that is always changing. This means God's life doesn't change. He's the creator. We are the creation. We have a beginning and an end. He does not and never will. God's character does not change. God cannot change in his love for you. He won't love you more or less. His love is perfect.
He will not change in his mercy, he will not change in his majesty, he will not change in his compassion. God's truth does not change. This is important in a world that is always redefining truth and what we should value and all that. See, God is eternal. That means God stands behind all of his promises and demands and statements of purposes and words of warning. These are eternal.
You say, well, that that was written a long time ago, in a different place, 2,000. You know, we've we've grown and matured as a culture. No, because God isn't changing. What he says is sin at 2,000 years ago is still sin today. What he says is good is still good today. This is our connection. God's truth doesn't change. God's ways do not change. The way he pursues
Sinners, the way that He is faithful when we are faithless, the way that that He responds to His people do not change. God's purposes do not change ever. Psalm thirty three, verse eleven the plans of the Lord stand forever, the purpose of his heart through all generations.
So again, now the psalmist has come to this realization that though his life is on shifting sand, God stands above and is the foundation of all things. But so far he's realized yes, I I have believed the truth about you that you you will be praised in Zion, you will be praised in Jerusalem, but but but we have to make it personal. It's not just about God in general how he responds to his people. We have to make it personal, and this is what he does.
Verse twenty eight, the children of your servants will live in your presence. Their descendants will be established before you. He he knows that he's going to live in the presence of the eternal one forever. How does he know that? Well, I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion, but I know how we can come to that conclusion. We actually have more than the psalmist had for this.
See, in in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, in chapter one, it's difficult to understand because you you're trying you're saying what what is the author doing? What the author does in Hebrews chapter one, he goes to seven passages in the Old Testament and he points to those passages and he shows in all those passages that that those are are fulfilled in Jesus. That that these passages, for example, Psalm 102, so if you can look it up, Hebrews.
1 verse 10. He's quoting Psalm 102. And what the what the author of Hebrews is saying is: hey, when you read Psalm 102, you should know that it's ultimate fulfillment, that it is pointing to Jesus. You'll say, okay, how is that? This is the whole point of the book of Hebrews, but but but think about it. If God is immutable in all his ways, that means, let's just give an example. That means that he is immutable.
Forever always God is love. We celebrate that. That also means that he is forever always God is just. Now do you feel some tension there?
How does God, who will never change in his love and and never change in his perfect righteousness and justice, how do we reconcile the two for people that are in rebellion and worthy we saw it in our catechism? Worthy of God's just wrath against sin. How does God remain loving at all times without changing and justice at all times without changing? The answer, of course, is Jesus.
The second person of the Trinity. He who stands above and beyond all, he who is immortal takes on mortality in this as he takes on a second nature. He who is imperishable becomes perishable as he goes on a rescue mission of love. He enters into our world because God is love.
And he lives among us a perfect life that you and I could never live. He he show us shows us the way, the truth, and the life which is him. And he goes to the cross in love, Hebrews says, for the joy set before him to rescue and redeem. He is always love. But on the cross, on the cross, he receives the justified wrath of God against the sin of the world, against your sin and mine. God's love is
And justice come and they are unchanging, they are immutable, and they meet in the person of Jesus. This is how God can be always loving and always just in Christ, and He conquers sin, death, and the grave, and so we make it personal. When we think of it this way, we can we can now think of what Paul writes in for example in Romans chapter eight.
Romans chapter eight, he starts it off, therefore there is now no condemnation for those in who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Well, some might say, Well, you know, I I used to believe that, but then I did this thing, or or you don't know my past, you don't know how how bad things got. There's no way God could possibly love me or continue to love me. I've messed up too bad.
Remember, God is immutable. God stands outside of time. Let me ask you this. When Jesus died for you on the cross, were your sins all in the future at that point? Yes. That means he saw all of you. He saw all of your rebellion. He saw all of your failure. And Romans 5 says, While we were still enemies, Christ died for us. You cannot.
Changed the love of God for you. If He set His love on you, it's immutable. It's unshakable. He's not gonna love you anymore or less. Ephesians 1, 4 and 5. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to adoption, to sonship. God knows all of our days, and he still set his affection and love on you, and it is
Unchangeable. This is why Paul will go on in Romans chapter eight, and he'll say these glorious truths. What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Down in verse thirty seven he says, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced
That neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation. Think about that. Everything that is apart from God is creation. And then you have God outside of creation. So he's saying anything in this world, including yourself, anything in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God.
That is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the hope for God's people. And it has always been in his immutable nature. Where will we find eternal safety and security? In Christ alone. Everything else will falter and fail us. Everything else is shifting sand. Christ alone is the solid rock upon which we stand. Amen. So when when you have Christ alone.
You you can make it through the storms. In fact, when you have Christ alone, even when life is good, you can enjoy it properly. You don't have to look to your spouse as your rock. You can enjoy the time that you have. You don't have to look to your kids as gods for you. You don't have to look to your bank account or your success or or your prestige with people. You can enjoy all those things, but not not rely on them to be your God. Christ alone, the solid rock on which we stand. See, hope for God's
People has always been in the immutability of Christ of Christ alone. Friends, Jesus alone offers an unshakable hope. Turn to him. For the first time, for the thousandth time, every day, turn to him. Turn to him forever. Rehearse the truth. Remind yourself when when life hits hardest, remind yourself of what is ultimately true. We will live with the Lord forever, as the psalmist says.
So I don't know what the Christians in Pompeii did in the moments before they died.
Maybe their faith faltered. But Jesus didn't. And we can talk we we can ask him about it in heaven. Amen? Let me pray for us to that end.
God is Patient, Faithful, and Just
AI Transcript
Apart from Jesus, who is the person in in all of the Bible? Who is the person if you can spend an entire day with? Like from coffee shop to coffee shop to your favorite restaurants or breweries or going on a hike or whatever your thing is that that makes up a special day with the special person? If you got an entire day with anyone in the Bible, an actual human, so not
God and like we said, apart from Jesus, who would it be? Let's hear it.
Barnabas, David, John, Esther, Love It, Esther, who else? Moses.
Anyone else?
David, nice. Paul. Eve, that's the Eve. That's what I'm talking about. Or Mary like the mother of Jesus? Like first thing I'd ask her is Mary, did you know?
For me, this one's tough cause I cause I love the Apostle Paul. I got a huge copy of of Rembrandt's Paul sitting right above my desk. I I I have a word that's only used one time in all of the New Testament by Paul tatted on my wrist. I literally just spent four years, way too long, writing a dissertation on one verse in one of Paul's letters. I I say all this because I don't want to upset Paul.
He's my dude. But my honest answer, Moses. Moses. Now of course, as someone who who is a pastor, a shepherd of God's people, and also lives with a speech impediment, Moses is my guy.
Often when when I feel like maybe ministry is not my thing after I hit a w wall or two, I turn to Exodus four. When Moses approaches God and says, Lord, thanks for revealing yourself to me and all but I'm not your guy. I don't talk too good. God's word to Moses is comfort to my insecure soul when he says Who made your mouth? I got you.
But more than that, think about what Moses experienced. Man, I'd want to ask Moses, what was it like when you heard God calling your name from that bush that was on fire? Or tell me about watching, what was it like watching the ten plagues go down in Egypt where you were once prince? Or Moses, what was the atmosphere in the home of a Jew on the night of Passover?
Course I'd want to know how big was that wall of water as they passed through the Red Sea on dry ground? Or how did bread falling from heaven, breakfast being served from the sky ever get old?
I mean you can go on and on. It'd be real tough to get through all of this in a day. I mean you got the hiking pole turned to a snake, water shooting from a rock, God descending upon Mount Sinai, being led by fire, clouds, having your face light up after your morning quiet time. Watching people healed as the bronze serpent was lifted up in the wilderness.
I'd want to know how fired up he was when he saw the golden calf for the first time as he came down that mountain. I may even hit some trauma triggers asking about how what it was like seeing the promised land, but not being able to enter in because of your own disobedience. Or what was it like as a leader to see the entire generation you led wander and die in the wilderness?
What was it like to take a man's life and spend forty years isolated? I mean we can go on and on, and certainly you'd need more than one day, but but here's something I'd make sure to ask him. Maybe after handing him a cigar, I'd say, yo Mo
What was the most powerful encounter you experienced with God? And though I could totally be wrong here, I believe he would tell me about the time he prayed that bold prayer. Lord, please show me your glory. And then God answered him.
Now, God didn't just give Moses a warm, fuzzy feeling that lasted a minute. No, when God showed Moses his glory, God revealed to Moses himself. If you were to pray that prayer, Lord, show me your glory. And God were to answer you, like really answer you, what would you want him to answer with?
Would you want to see something you've never seen before so that your faith could grow in strength? Would you want him to to give you something that you feel like you need? Maybe it's health for yourself, for someone you love, peace in your mind, wealth in your bank accounts, reconciliation with an estranged loved one, salvation for a family member.
Well what he gives to Moses is as Moses is hiding in the cleft of a rock is what Moses needed more than anything, whether he knew it or not, and that was God himself. And my hope is that glory revealed to Moses, namely some of God's attributes. And remember, God doesn't have attributes, he
Is, yes, he is his attributes. And then this morning we're gonna see a God who is patient, a God who is faithful, and a God who is just. My hope is that as we encounter these attributes, that we would encounter God and realize that that God likewise is what we need most.
If you your Bibles, and I hope you do, why don't you turn it to Exodus 34? Exodus 34 is where we will be this morning.
quick context so we don't need
To spend too much time here. We were in a different place in Exodus 34 when we looked at God is jealous just a couple weeks back. And if you remember, this is a scene where Israel, the people of God, commit adultery on their honeymoon. God just delivered them from slavery in Egypt. As God is meeting with Moses on the mountain, the people of God think He's taking way too long. So they take matters into their own.
own hands and they go ahead and make another god. So they think they create the golden calf and worship it. Well God is done with them.
He's finished. He's gonna start new with Moses and Moses alone, which would have been completely just. But Moses instead, as a good leader, intercedes for the people of God. And he finds favor with God. Well, he wants some more of that favor. And so he asks God in Exodus 33 18 please show me your glory.
God says, Moses, nobody, nobody, not even you, can see my face and live. But I'll tell you what, I'll hide you in a rock, I'll cover your face, and as I pass by, you can see my backside. And as I pass before you, he says, I will proclaim my name the Lord. That's our context as we come to Exodus 34, starting in verse 5.
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed The Lord, the Lord the Lord.
A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty and
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God, Amen. Well, like Mark said early on in this series, the the name of God is a big deal.
Here in Exodus 34, Moses hears the name the Lord, the Lord, or Yahweh, Yahweh, and then his name is followed by a sermon. This isn't just information about God. This is God. What does Moses hear? A God merciful and gracious. Slow to anger.
Now we could probably look at maybe seven attributes of God here. I'm gonna condense them and lock in on three, which nicely gives us a three-point sermon. So first, God is patient. Or like he's revealed here, slow to anger.
Some theologians like to call it God's long suffering or his forbearance. What this attribute of God means is that God, unlike us, is not impulsive. He's not irritable. He's not even quick to execute righteous judgment. Rather, he endures. God is long suffering.
Instead of giving people what they deserve right when they deserve it, he's patient. God is thick.
anger. But he's also quick. He's quick to be merciful and gracious. Friends, this is why God is patient, because he's also merciful and gracious.
Remember, God is not made up of parts. Some some patience here, a little justice here, of course lots of love and mercy up here, no. Rather, all that is in God, these attributes are God. So this means that his patience is not a patience that's opposed to his justice, and we'll get to justice soon, but this means his patience is just and
And he's patient because he's also gracious and merciful to sinners. Sinners like me. Sinners like you.
Man, I've been a Christian now for almost 20 years, and I've often looked around and seen the brokenness of this world, and looked inside and see the brokenness of my own life, and prayed that prayer we see in Revelation come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Twenty years later, he still hasn't come. This prayer has been prayed.
Prayed by saints for two thousand years with the promise from Jesus Himself. I'm coming back soon. Soon. Well what is going on? The apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3 says this. Do not overlook this one fact, beloved.
That with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as one day. Hm, I guess God who created time and lives outside sees things a bit differently. He continues, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient. Patient toward you and
Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. If you're a Christian in here this morning, if you've been saved from your sin, if you've received the mercy and grace of God from the gospel, it is because God is patient. God is patient. Can I get an amen?
But my prayer for us as a church is that his patience would not end with us. That it would give us a passion for the lost, for our neighbors, and for the nations. Will we be a church that just puts our own Christian spin on the American dream? Live our lives to be cozy and comfortable? Or would we be a church?
Where God's patience becomes our fuel for the dying world around us. Like Lucas Farlan reminded us last week, let's be a church that says one more.
One more neighbor who hasn't heard the gospel, one more co worker who does it know Christ, one more friend who's honestly to hell. One more. Like Charles Spurgeon said, if sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. Amen? Well let's move to our next attribute. God is faithful.
Look with me at verse six. Verse six. The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God is faithful.
This word that comes before his faithfulness, the steadfast love. It's this Hebrew word chesed. We won't talk much about it here because Mark addressed this in his sermon, God is Love. But chesed is is speaking of his covenantal love.
That the God of all creation doesn't just save people from their sin, doesn't just save people from hell. He calls them into a covenant with him. A relationship, a covenant of love. This is scandalous. Like the pastor theologian Jack Miller used to say: cheer up. You're a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, and you're more loved than you ever dared hope.
Cheer up indeed. And though God's love puts sinners into a covenant with them, God's faithfulness, the Hebrew emet, keeps them there. God is faithful.
This means God is utterly reliable because he at his core, in his essence, is true. He's unchanging, he's covenant-keeping, and he is unable to deny himself. Like the Apostle Paul says, even if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny.
Himself. His faithfulness simply flows from who he eternally is. His faithfulness means he always keeps his word. Have you ever wanted like a quick word from God? Almost like a biblical fortune cookie. So you open up your Bible and close your eyes and you just pick a verse. I used to do that a lot when I first got saved.
God moves that way sometimes. But but if you were to open to the perfect center of your Bible, you would land on Psalm 117. There's 594 chapters before it, and five hundred and ninety-four chapters after it. And funny enough, theologians say Psalm 117 is not only a tiny summary of the entire Psalms, which it is, but also a summary of God. Here's what it says.
Praise the Lord, all nations. Extol him, all peoples, for great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.
Hasid and Emet at the center of our Bibles. This is God, His covenant love and His faithfulness. And friends, God is faithful means that His character can be trusted. God's faithfulness means that we can trust Him.
This is really good news. It means God will finish the work he started in you individually and in us as a church. It means God keeps his word. My question to you this morning is: do you know his word? Do you know his word?
Sometimes we we wonder why our faith is weak, but we can rattle off wild stats from our favorite sports team and have nothing to recite when life gets hard. We can quote our favorite movies when joking with friends and yet have no fighter verses in our arsenal, even though a real enemy, Satan, is trying to kill us.
We will literally scroll ourselves to death and not even open up our Bibles, which contain the words of life and death. God is faithful. Will we take him at his word? Well, last but not least, God's justice. God is just. Look with me at verse seven.
Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and then there it is. But who will by no means clear the guilty? Visiting the inequity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.
Now it's verses like this that have caused many to walk away from Christianity. They will say things like, if there is a God of love, then there's no way He would punish people. For instance, a God of love would never send someone to hell for all eternity. Well, before we answer that, let's unpack what God's justice is.
God's justice as an attribute means that God is perfectly righteous in himself and in all of his ways. This means everything he does is just, is right. This means God gives his judgment according to truth. Ultimate truth. Herman Bobbing
Old theologian said God's justice belongs among his moral attributes, sitting right there alongside God's holiness and his goodness. This means that God's own being is the standard of righteousness in which He judges. Justice is the just consequence of missing God's standard.
Justice is getting what one deserves. And we all deep down long for justice, right? You look at some injustice going on in the world, or you look at some injustice done to you, and when we we cry out, How long, O Lord? The God of vengeance, how long?
We say yes and amen with MLK's I have a dream speech where he says no, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream, quoting Amos five, of course. We rejoice when we read in Luke four where Jesus quotes Isaiah The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring justice.
We long for justice for the world to be made right, for the wrongs to be paid in full, for everything sad to become untrue. Don't you long for justice? Well, as well as as is as long as it's not aimed at us, right?
Justice is getting what we deserve. So so going back to that false dichotomy, a god of love cannot punish people. Well, what if wrath is a part of love?
Th there is such thing as as as righteous anger. It's what you feel inside with things like child abuse, sex, trafficking, infidelity. This list is endless. Well wrath is how love responds to sin.
Matter of fact, did you know wrath is not an attribute of God at all? Again, wrath is how the attribute love responds to sin. Because love is also just and justice is getting what we deserve. Sometimes we assume that God owes us mercy. But by definition, mercy is never owed. Justice is owed.
So not only does a God of love punish sin, he wouldn't be a god of love if he didn't. We all want justice, but do we really? But we all want it for for other people, especially really, really, really evil people and those who sin against us, and even those on I-25 that make us mad.
We don't want what our sin deserves. And yet we have all sinned and fallen short of a God who is just, a God who is righteous, a God who is holy, holy, holy. God's wrath is the way his just and righteous love respond to our sin. Full s full stop.
When when you understand our grim plight, do you see how radical the gospel is? How good the good news is. That though justice is owed to you, sin has to be punished. God extends mercy to you.
I teach my kids one of the things that grace is. Grace is multifaceted, but one of the things grace is is God's riches at Christ's expense. God's riches at Christ's expense. Your sin, my sin could not have just been looked over, forgiven. Justice needed to be paid.
For forgiveness to be given. The penalty of sin is death. That could not have been overlooked, slid under the table. Here's how the Apostle Paul says what happens in the cross of Jesus Christ in Jeruthal Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. But now
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. There is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift.
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith, and then check this out. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, his patience, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier.
Of the one who has faith in Jesus. Through the cross and what Jesus did for us, God is not only just friends, he's the justifier. He's our justifier. Anyone who has placed their faith in him. Is Jesus your only hope in life?
And in debt. God is patient, He's faithful, and He's just. And so the question we have to ask after experiencing God and the way He revealed Himself to Moses, in the way He still reveals Himself to us, is how then shall we live?
In light of God's patience, his faithfulness, his justice, how then shall we live? Two quick points of application and we're done. First, worship. If you're still in Exodus thirty four, look with me at our final verse. Verse eight.
And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. When you experience the glory of God, namely God Himself, you respond accordingly. You live a life in awe of this marvelous God.
You live a life blown away by the gospel of grace. He saved me. You live a life realizing you are no longer your own, but that you belong to Him. This is at the heart of worship of God word life. And second, imitation.
We're told, we're commanded to imitate God as his beloved children. Now we don't imitate God in our own strength and by our own power. This is why we always say, preach the gospel to yourself. Preach the gospel to yourself. The point of doing this is so that the gospel can actually transform your life.
But the g the the gospel gives us more than just eternal life someday, friends. The gospel is for life today. For instance, as God has been patient with us, we we look to the gospel. We see his patience, his forbearance, his long suffering, and then we live our lives patient with others.
Like let me get real practical. Tomorrow Holly and I will jump on a plane in the morning and head for California to hopefully get reconciliation with some dear friends of ours. It's been two hard years.
We need the gospel. There's going to be so many moments where I am not going to want to be patient. And so I must remember the gospel that God was patient with me. Why? For reconciliation. And so I must remember that. And certainly by the power of the Spirit, we can do that with others. We also covet your prayers.
Or as God has been faithful to us, again, seen most clearly in the gospel, his His faithfulness took him all the way to Calvary's cross. And his faithfulness isn't finished. It will hold us till the end. He says, Nobody can snatch you out of my hand. Jesus has a tight grip.
And so we pledge our allegiance to King Jesus. And we, by the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit, strive to live faithful to him. I didn't say without sin or perfectly, we still live in this body of death. But but we live in such a way where we long, we long to hear the words well done. Well done. Good and good.
Faithful servant, enter into glory. And of course God is just, and as God is just, we as his people long to be a people of justice.
And I don't mean throw up a hashtag or make a post when some real justice issue is going on out there. I know this makes us feel good, but but virtual signaling has no real sacrifice. There's no costly love. There's no call to action. But the prophet Micah says, do justice.
Do justice. Jesus says, When you love the least of these, you did it to me. And again, we see God's justice in the gospel. Christ came to right all wrongs, to make everything sad come untrue. And so empowered by him, filled with his spirit, we get busy now in his already not yet kingdom.
Advocating for justice for the least of these. Whether that's in local government or local schools or the foster care system or loving on widows or single moms or vulnerable families, caring about people with disabilities, you should definitely be at theology on the ground this evening. And yes, this is a guilt trip.
From from prison ministry to safe families, leaning into elderly care and refugees, the list is endless. You can't do everything. But if you study church history, this is where the church gets busy. Members, members doing the work of ministry. God is patient. God is faithful.
God is just imagine, imagine if we really encountered this God. Let me pray.
God is Omni
God is Omni
AI Transcript
Amen, amen. Good morning, Redemption Parker. Good morning. So good to see you guys and
Happy Trinity Sunday. This is where the global church celebrates the Trinity, that our God is three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. One God, the mystery of the Trinity. And for us, it's also Family Sunday. So it is so good to see you kiddos all over the place. So glad you are with us today. ⁓ Every fifth Sunday of the month, we we we try to have a family Sunday.
Where we're all of us together in one room can worship our triune God. Well, today in our God is series, we're gonna be looking at a God who is omni. That word simply means all. But we're not pantheists. They claim that God is everything. We're definitely not saying that. We are saying that God is omni.
All-present, all-powerful, all knowing. So, kids, we got three big words. I know you guys got the things to draw on, but right now lock in for a second. Kids, we got three big words that we're gonna walk out here with, okay? We're gonna learn three big words. Why don't you throw them on the screen? There they are: omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. Why don't you say them after me? Omnipresent.
Lucas. Omnipotent? Omnipotent. Okay, I see you, Logan. Omniscient? Okay, so so om omnipresent. God is omnipresent means that God is everywhere. Pay attention here, kids. I'm gonna ask you a little like a quiz here in a second. Omnipresent means that God is everywhere. Omnipotent means that God is all powerful.
And and omniscient means that God is all knowing. Okay, ready for that pop quiz? I got Snickers. You guys thought I was just gonna be eating these Snickers while I preach, but Lucas already has his hand up. Okay. Questi questi questi I'm gonna you you can keep these up here, but this is for the kids. I know some of you ⁓ hangry adults are like, Come on, I w I want to answer these questions. But
The first question can someone give me the word that means God is all powerful?
Omnipotent dude, good job. You ready to catch this? Annie's got screw it up for that Okay, what about what about God is all knowing? Holdin', yeah, holding. ⁓ get it. Give it up for holding and last last I mean this last one should be the easiest. God is everywhere.
You got it.
What do you get on Christmas? Lots of omni present? Come up here and grab your Snickers. Alright, well hey kids, why don't you actually come up? We're gonna read a story. So why don't you guys come up? We t we we like to do this on Family Sunday. So kiddos, you guys can make your way to the stage.
And parents, this is actually not the time to tune out. This is not like the story before the sermon. Today this is part of the sermon. So you guys need to lock in. Why don't you turn to Daniel chapter four? That's where we'll be. Daniel four. You guys can sit right here. I'll I'll sit on this drum set. actually got what I did. Good job.
Sweet. Alright, these are small pictures, so you gotta really lock in. Daniel four. Once again Nebuchadnezzar had a dream.
Once again his wise men could not tell him the meaning of the dream. And once again Daniel went to the king to interpret the dream. The dream was simple. Nebuchadnezzar saw a tree that grew and became strong, and its top reached to the heaven. The whole earth could see it. It had beautiful leaves and a lot of fruit. You see all that fruit?
Animals rested in its shade, birds lived in the branches, and it gave food to all. Then a watcher, a holy one, or a messenger, came down from heaven and ordered that the tree be chopped down.
its branches and leaves cut off, and the fruits scattered around, but the stump and roots would be left in the ground. Then the dream went on like this Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him. This sentence is to the end, that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he will. You guys are locked in. Once again
God gave Daniel the meaning of the dream. The tree in the dream was about a real person. The tree was Nebuchadnezzar, a king whose greatness and power reached very far. He was also very proud and an ungrateful king. So God would cause him to be driven from among men to live with animals.
He would eat grass like an ox for seven years until he understood that the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar to turn away from his sins and do what is right. Some good advice, right?
But Nebuchadnezzar didn't take Daniel's advice. Instead he became prouder and more ungrateful to God. A year after his dream the king was walking on the roof of his palace, looking around at the great city of Babylon,
It was a beautiful city with fancy palaces, large temples, walls, bridges, and amazing gardens. King Nebuchadnezzar said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty. While the proud boasting words were still in Nebuchadnezzar's mouth.
A voice came from heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar, the
To you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you, and it shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. Immediately, right away, these words came to pass.
His dream came true. Look at him. Nebuchadnezzar became mentally ill, sick in his mind. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox. He thought he was an animal and acted like one. He grew hair wild and his nails became like
Bird's claws. God had given Nebuchadnezzar a whole year to listen to Daniel's warning, a year to decide to follow Daniel's advice, a year to repent, to turn away from his sin, but Nebuchadnezzar was proud and stubborn. He refused to honor God, so for seven years Nebuchadnezzar behaved like an animal. Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for your grace. Thank you for these kids who you have made in your image. God, I pray that as you know them, God, they would know you. That they would come to find their greatest satisfaction in you, God, that you would do a work in their hearts, that you would use our church. God, that you would be glorified in each one of their lives, Lord.
That we pray as we now jump into your word, as we see the story of Nebuchadnezzar, and we look at the character and person and attributes of God that we would be changed. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. right, you guys can head to your seats. Let's give it up for these kiddos.
oldest Eden came home from school a few months ago and without me even a having to ask her, hey Eden, what'd you learn today on this particular day? She was eager to tell me, Daddy, today as we're learning about ancient Babylon, I'm like, what?
Miss Sparks told us the story of King Nebuchadnezzar. She continued. She she told the whole class that the king turned into an animal, looked like a goat, slept under trees, ate grass, and went coo-coo, koo-koo. I mean, what a wild story, right, kids?
⁓ imagine the most powerful person in the world. So think about a president of a powerful nation or your favorite athlete or musician or artist or like the owner of some big company like Apple or Tesla. Imagine one day if they left their office and instead of jumping into their sports car and headed toward their mansion, they instead got on all fours and took off for the boonies. Where for seven years
Years they ate grass, s snuggled with the cows, and slept under the stars. Well, this happened to the king of one of the most powerful nations in human history. The Bible tells us why King Nebuchadnezzar went, coo-coo, coo-coo. This is our verse this morning.
Daniel four, it's actually four twenty-five. So if you're opening up your Bible, Daniel four twenty-five, you will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like the ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High.
is sovereign over all the kingdoms on earth, and gives them to anyone he wishes.
Up until this point the the king had already seen the powerful working of Israel's God. He he had seen the fiery furnace just one chapter ago where God protected his people. Out of his own mouth he proclaimed there is no other God, and yet somewhere amidst the success, comfort, power.
Phrase, he believed his own press. I mean, he was the king of the most powerful nation in the world. So he started living like he was omni, all powerful, all powerful.
Glorious, all important, and answerable to no one. But Daniel 4 shows us that there is only one true omni king, the most high God. What Nebuchadnezzar lost sight of, and what we're going to get our eyes on this morning, is a God who is omnipresent.
Omnipotent and omniscient. But my goal this morning is not just to laugh at King Nebuchadnezzar, though it is a wild story. The goal is for us to look ourselves in the mirror. Because maybe we are not eating grass in a field, but we are exhausted from trying to be everywhere. We are anxious from trying to know everything. We are crushed.
From trying to control in our own strength the outcome of our lives. Friends, you are not omni. But there's good news. You were never meant to be. This morning we're gonna take off from Daniel 4 and scan the scriptures to see a God who is omni.
And before we we circle back to land the plane in Daniel 4, my hope is we live in a culture where we are told that we ought to be all, to have all, where we are tempted to strive to be superhuman. that this morning we would take a sigh of relief.
Because we are only human. And this is a good thing, especially when we can rest in a God who is all, all present, all powerful, and all knowing. Well, let's start with our first omni, omnipresence. King David in Psalm 139 says this to God. Where can I go from your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast.
In the ancient world, gods ruled over specific territories, over specific regions. For instance, when when God calls Abram out of the land of Ur to somewhere else, this was unheard of in that culture. No pagan gods would would ever have one of their worshippers get up and go somewhere else. Why?
Well, they thought the gods could not protect them if they did. These these so called gods were local deities whose rule and reign was was ⁓ restricted to permitted areas. For instance, if you remember that story in the Old Testament where Nahem or Naaman, the the Thessyrian general was compelled to make his way to Israel. Why? Well, he had leprosy and he heard
That there was a prophet in Israel who could heal him. The prophet Elijah tells him to go into the Jordan River and take a bath. He isn't just going to heal this pagan. He's going to challenge his theology. Of course, Naaman gets upset because he doesn't want to offend the gods of his river back in Syria. But eventually he does it anyways. And after he gets healed, what he does is telling. He wants to take.
Some of the earth from the land of Israel. He wants to take the dirt and go back home so he can use it for an altar of worship. Like all his pagan counterparts, he did not believe that God was omnipresent.
everywhere. But we we but you can't put God in a bag, you can't put God in a box. I mean even the temple itself where God dwelled could not contain the one true God. In first Kings after Samuel builds the temple, the the dwelling place of God, he prays this prayer.
But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built.
Prophet Jeremiah says, I, or am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them, declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.
The omnipresence of God means that that not only, like the theologian Abraham Kuyper says, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence, over which God, who is sovereign over all, does not cry mine. But it also means that there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which God, who is sovereign over all, does not cry any.
here. And why is this good news in a world where we are suffering with compassion, fatigue?
Where I can feel like like a failure as a pastor if I'm not up to speed on every single current event all over the world happening constantly. And then the the pressure to feel like I have to have an opinion about it and take a stance on whatever issue it is and then post it on social media. Well, if God is omnipresent, it means I don't have to
You don't have to have FOMO if you're not up to speed on everything that is taking place in the world. You can just be present where God has you. Maybe we we stop endlessly scrolling and we get to know our actual neighbors.
And if God is omnipresent, think about whose presence we are always in. Imagine if we actually believed the presence of God is everywhere. Not just knew that theologically, but believed the presence of God is everywhere.
Proverbs says, the eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good. Second Chronicles says, For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.
And what's amazing about the age that we are now in, the church age, is not only is God still everywhere, he's still omnipresent, but but Matthew 18 says, where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.
Yes, God's presence is everywhere, but there is a particular special presence, the the ordinary means of grace that we get to experience in, you guessed it, the local church. Where God shows up in sacramental ways through things like congregational worship.
The preached word of God, the real spiritual presence in the Lord's Supper, union with Christ in baptism, church discipline, which is what Matthew 18 is all about, prayer, the fellowship of the saints. As Christians, the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity, this Trinity Sunday dwells in us.
This is why we do life on life with each other at RP through our GCs, our men's and women's ministry, our youth group, and our core groups. Because when the body of Christ shows up in your life, God shows up in your life. Are you connected to the body of Christ? Are you known? Like deeply known.
And do you know others? Well, God is not just omnipresent, he's also omnipotent. God is all powerful. The prophet Jeremiah says, ⁓ sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.
Maybe someone in here is going through some things right now, and you just needed to be reminded that your God is all powerful. Whatever you're experiencing this morning, nothing, nothing is too hard for him. God's omnipotence means that he and he alone possesses perfect power.
Th th this power has no limits. I mean think about for I mean think about that for a second. Limitless power. Like we've talked about in this series, it's not just that God has power, but God is power. I remember when I was
In college I came back from Oklahoma for summer break and one of the first things I had to do when I got home was get to the beach and go surfing. I my home at that time was Southern California. And so I did with a friend of mine. Well, the waves were pretty decent size that day at Huntington Beach. I was a bit rusty and the rip current was moving.
As I dropped in on a wave, I absolutely ate it. But worse than that, my leash broke. And so for the next fifteen minutes, though it felt like an eternity, I was fighting for my life. My friend had drifted so far north that he didn't even know I was dying, but I was.
Here I was, this Division I athlete who thought he was something, and yet in a fight with the ocean, fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes in, I was ready to quit. I was done. I thought I was about to die, and somehow my feet touched the sand. As I sat on the shore and waited 30 minutes or so for my exhausted friend to finally paddle in, I sat there worshiping the God.
Whose ocean is only a glimpse of the power he contains. Our God is all powerful. The prophet Isaiah says, Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can.
Fathom, or like the psalmist says, Our God is in the heavens, he does all that he pleases. The question is, will you release the grip on your life and trust in your power?
It's not only tempting, it is a respectable sin in Douglas County to be in control. We want to be the ones in power. Power over our worries, control over every aspect of our lives, but until we realize that we are not in control.
That w that we are not as strong and impressive as we think we are, can we lean into a God who is Himself? Power. Weakness is the way.
Isaiah speaking to the the future exiled Israelites in Babylon under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, telling them to look to the one who's all power powerful, encourages them with these words. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. Weakness is the way of the kingdom.
⁓ let us let go of our control, our closed fist, and then let us open our hands to the God who is all powerful. Not my will, but yours be done. Amen. Amen. Well, last but not least, omniscience. God is omniscient.
He is all knowing. In other words, God doesn't learn or discover or remember or figure things out. He eternally knows all things in one pure act of knowledge. This is God's omniscience. Now I can make a prediction.
And I often do, I'll make a prediction. Like I think the Dodgers are gonna win their third World Series in a row. And and and though I I probably would be right, that's just a good guess. God doesn't guess. He he he he's never had a new thought.
God's never learned a new fact. He's never been surprised, confused, scared, mistaken, or caught off guard. Unlike ChatGPT, he's never been wrong. Before a word comes out of your mouth this afternoon, God already knows it. Before tomorrow comes our way, God reigns over it. And why is this good news?
Well before your story begins to ever unfold, God knows the end from the beginning. The hairs on your head are all numbered.
And like we talked about a couple weeks ago, God loves you. He works out everything for your good and his glory. ⁓ this is such good news. When God finally shows up to Job after all the pain and suffering, the confusion from Job and all his friends, after all the why and how come questions, what does God say?
Job, did you forget? I'm the omniscient one. Where were you when I laid the earth foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know who stretched a measuring line across it, on what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone? This passage goes on and on for actually a couple chapters.
Isaiah 46, 9 and 10 says, Remember the former things, those of long ago. I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. God is omniscient.
Or in the words of the Apostle John, he knows everything. And though this is a glorious attribute of God, one that ought to cause us to trust the omniscient one even more, it's also a scary doctrine. This is a scary doctrine. Hebrews says this: Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. That includes us.
Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. There will be a day of reckoning, a day when we will be judged for our lives. And the penalty of our sin is death.
Eternal separation from God, and this God knows everything. We can fool a lot of people, but this God sees your thoughts and knows the motives of your heart. And the news only gets worse. There is none who is righteous, no not one. And one day we will all
Be uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we will give an account. Let's not be a church that forgets what our plight was. To understand how bad the bad news was makes us rejoice and be so gospel centered.
We know how good the good news is that the one who is omni, omnipresent, omni omnipotent, omniscient took on limitations, finitude, humanity,
This is why Philippians says, Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing.
By taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he, the eternal son of God, humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. The all-present, all-powerful, all-knowing Son of God became a man.
With all the frailty that we live with, yet without sin, so that he could make the greatest exchange ever. Our rags for his riches, our sin for his righteousness. The God who is the omni king became the crucified king.
For you. And anyone, yes, anyone can get in on this for free.
We repent, we we turn from our sins and we put our hope, our trust, our faith, our everything in the one who is omni, all and all. Well, let's end where we started, back at the story of the one who went coo coo, coo coo, 'cause he thought he was omni. Thankfully that wasn't the end of the story for
King Nebuchadnezzar. He finally did come to his senses. Daniel chapter four, starting in verse thirty four.
At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven. Took him seven years to get here. And my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.
He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, What have you done? And then he ends in verse 37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right, and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride, he is able to humble.
So I end where I began with us looking in the mirror.
Where are you trying to be omni? Where are you trying to be omni? I know I can feel this as one of your pastors. I want to be an omni pastor. I want to do everything and be everything to everyone. But that's a recipe not only for burnout, but for destruction, because I'm not God. Maybe you're trying to be omni.
To your spouse. And though you probably make a a wonderful husband or wife, you are a poor God. Maybe your omni isn't found in yourself, but it's in your money, your hobbies, your retirement accounts, your upcoming vacation, your job, your health, your school, your sports, your kids' sports.
Of course, none of these things are bad in and of themselves, but they are counterfeit gods. But imagine
Imagine in the midst of this culture where we are told that we ought to be all in all self-made men and women, boys and girls, where we are tempted to strive to be superhuman. Imagine if we, God's people, would rest, would rest deeply in our God who is used.
All present, all powerful, and all knowing. Amen. Amen. Let me pray.
God is Jealous
AI Transcript
Amen. Amen. Thank you, Ryan. Good morning, Redemption Parker. So good to see you guys. why don't you begin opening your Bibles to Exodus thirty four? That's where we'll be this morning, Exodus thirty four.
When Oprah Winfrey was in her late twenties, she was going to church. And her church affirmed historic Orthodox Christianity. Her her church seemed to be doing a series like ours, looking at the attributes of God. Oprah was enjoying, learning all about how great God is.
is. As she heard God is omniscient, that that he's all knowing. Oprah says, Amen. As she hears he's omnipotent, all powerful, again,
Amen. Then this pastor begins to explain his omnipresence that God is everywhere. Young Oprah again says, Amen, preacher. Then everything changed. Here's why Oprah says she left the Christian faith. Quote Then the great minister said, The Lord your God is a jealous God.
And I was, you know, caught up in the rapture of that moment until he said jealous. And something struck me. I was, I think, about 27 or 28. I was thinking God is all. God is omnipresent. God is everything. And God is also jealous. God is jealous. Jealous of me? Hmm. Something about that didn't feel right in my spirit. God is jealous.
Jealous. And Oprah is not alone. Brad Pitt left his childhood faith because he heard something similar and thought to himself, God's got an ego problem. I want nothing to do with this narcissistic Christian God. How do those three words hit you? God is jealous.
God is jealous. There may be no attribute of God more offensive, at least to modern ears, than his jealousy. We're down with a God of love. We're grateful for a God of mercy. We can even tolerate a God of justice. But a God obsessed
With his own glory? A God who commands worship? A God who is so committed to himself, a God who is constantly seeking his own praise, a God who is jealous for you. Now if this is what the Bible teaches and if this is what
historic Christianity claims, then why does what Oprah says resonate somewhere in many of us? Why when we hear God is jealous for his own glory, something in us feels off if we're honest. Well, when a a king demands absolute loyalty, we call him a tyrant.
If the husband says to his wife, I want all your worship, all your affection. We might call him a psycho. So yeah, I get why God is jealous, doesn't sit well with many. But maybe the reason that this rubs against us so deeply is because we've never seen God.
Truly who this God is. Maybe the issue is not that God thinks too high of himself, but that we see him too lightly. Maybe the reason his jealousy feels offensive is because we've spent our entire lives at the center of our universe.
But what if God's jealousy is not that of an insecure king, but the holy zeal of the most glorious being in existence? This is what I want us to wrestle with this morning. And I believe when we understand and delight in a jealous God, we begin to understand why we were created. So
If you're not already there, Exodus 34. Exodus 34. We're gonna pick it up in verse 10 this morning. A little context before we just jump into the end of Exodus. we jump into these seven verses. So rewind two chapters. We have Exodus 32. This is when Israel creates the golden calf. This is where the the people of God.
commit idolatry against God while their leader Moses is literally in a meeting with God on the mountain. God just rescued them from slavery in Egypt. In in in in recent memory, these folks were walking on dry ground.
As God had parted the Red Sea and destroyed their enemies. These people have seen and heard God in ways that we can only imagine. So as they worship this lifeless image, this golden calf that they create, instead of worshiping the God whose image they are, who created them, it's not unreasonable when God's anger burns.
burns hot against them. This would be like committing adultery on your honeymoon. And so God is finished with them.
Until Moses intercedes for them. This is all Exodus thirty-two. Well, by chapter thirty-three, God answers his prayer as he intercedes for Israel, and Moses wants more of God. So he prays in chapter thirty-three, God, show me your glory. Chapter thirty-four is God's answer to that prayer. Now verses one through nine.
God tells Moses to come back up to the mountain. He gives him the ten commandments all over again. And he reveals to Moses who he is, that God is faithful, that God is patient, and God is just. This is where we'll we'll pick up our passage starting in verse 10. And he said, Behold, I am making a covenant.
Before all your people. I will do marvels such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care.
Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst, you shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their ashram. For you shall worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is jealous, is a jealous God. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.
People will often ask the question when struggling with the doctrine of hell, what about the innocent man on the island who has never heard of Jesus? Will he go to hell even though he's never heard of Jesus? And the biblical answer is no. If there were an innocent man.
On an island, who had never sinned against God, he would not be condemned. He doesn't even need to hear about Jesus. But the problem, according to Scripture, is there is no such man. None are innocent, no not one. All have sinned and fallen short of.
Glory of God. And the reason I bring that up here is because when dealing with a passage like the one we just read, I've heard people say things like Sucks to be an Amorite. I guess it's cool for God to destroy random innocent people because he prefers Israel. Okay, God.
Your world, we're just living in it. The problem with this logic is these are not innocent people. For instance, these Canaanites, those dwelling in the land of Canaan. God tells Abraham back in Genesis 15 that Abraham is not going to get to to inherit the promised land yet. Why? The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
These people dwelling in Canaan were not morally neutral. Their sin had been building for centuries. God has been delaying judgment for generations. Talk about slow to anger.
Impatient, but but at some point their evil reached its fullness. Their practices included idolatry, sexual immorality, cult worship, and child sacrifice. It's important you understand this about God as you're reading your Bibles. These people hate God.
They're in rebellion against him. And you can see from this passage that God destroys false worship because false worship destroys people.
People made in his image. Be careful where you get your theology from. Many, like Oprah, we go with our gut and we create a God who gives us good vibes, and before long we're worshiping another God. Look at verse 14 again. For you shall worship no other God.
For the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God.
A jealous God rubs us the wrong way, especially in the West, because I I think we we spend our entire lives being at the center of our universe. When we hear when we have a a small God theology, in other words, when we're at the center, when we're at the top, God is jealous, sounds ridiculous, like he's some megalomaniac.
This is why theology matters. For most of human history, people assumed that the sun revolved around the earth. Why? Because from where they stood, it looked that way. Every morning the sun would rise and at evening it would set. So A plus B equals C. Everything revolves around us. Until this.
Dude Gopernicus. And with a name like Copernicus, of course he was gonna turn the world upside down. He he came along and said, I think we missed this one. The earth revolves around the sun. Of course, people resisted it. It shattered their entire system.
And it dethroned humanity its center. Now I wonder, I wonder if we make the same mistake with God. When we hear that God is jealous for His glory, that God demands worship, that God does everything for His name. Something inside of us says, mm, that feels wrong.
Because from where we stand, if any of us said that about ourselves, it would be narcissism, self-obsession, pride, things that we rightfully despise. But if God, like we've been seeing in this God is series, if God is utterly other,
Then maybe how we understand something like his divine jealousy needs to be seen from a different vantage point. I just watched Project Hail Mary last week. And so I'm on a space kick right now. I wish I would have paid more attention in school as a kid. Awesome.
Well, in the un in the universe, things don't just orbit randomly. They orbit around what has the greatest mass, the the greatest weight, the strongest gravitational pull. The reason planets orbit the sun is because the sun is massive. Its weight or glory, and that's what
Glory means weight. It's weight holds everything together. So when God insists that everything revolve around him, that's not divine narcissism. If God is a being whom none greater can be conceived, then it's simply reality. There's nothing in existence more beautiful, more
Weighty, more glorious, more worthy than God Himself.
Jonathan Edwards wrote a book called The End for Which God Created the World. I read it years ago, but I picked it up again last week. Wow, wow, wow. We're talking about a big God theology. And this book's all about what we're talking about right now, the weight of God's weight.
Glory. He wrote it to answer one huge question. Why did God create anything at all? Why did God create anything? His answer: God created the world for himself. God created the world for himself. Not because he's
Deficient, not because he needs worship, but because there is literally nothing higher, better, or more beautiful than God himself. And if Edwards is right and that God created the world for his own glory, then anything that competes with his glory is cosmic rebellion. God's jealousy.
Is his holy refusal to allow his glory to be traded, his worth to be diminished, and his people to destroy themselves or
with idols. When you realize the earth revolves around the sun, it changes everything. And the same is true when you see God for who he is. Instead of God is jealous, I don't like that, it doesn't sit well with me, it becomes God is glorious. And I can't believe he allows me to orbit around
him. And what's crazy is that God is most glorified in you when you are orbiting around.
Him when you are satisfied in him. Friends, the the human soul will orbit whatever it believes has the greatest worth. The question is not whether you will worship or orbit. The question is what does your life revolve around?
Ask yourself that question even now. Be honest with yourself. What does your life revolve around? What are you orbiting? God is jealous. And this is not an attribute we should seek to imitate. You should not be jealous for your own glory.
But there is also a righteous jealousy all throughout the Old Testament. The relationship that God has with Israel is one of husband and wife. Israel is his bride, his spouse.
Isaiah says, For the maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name. This is the picture that we see all throughout Scripture. God calls his covenant people his bride. And like any marriage, when when entering into a covenant like this, there is a promise of exclusivity.
God, as Israel's husband, for instance, expects his bride to be faithful. This is why in Exodus twenty, at the marriage covenant ceremony on Mount Sinai, we get in one of the ten commandments, you shall have no other gods before me, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.
No, righteous jealousy within the confines of marriage is a good thing. Shame on the wife who's totally okay with her husband's porn addiction. Or a husband who doesn't burn with jealous anger that his wife, whom he is in a marriage covenant with, is sleeping with another man, does not understand his covenant of marriage.
So yes, as a husband, God is jealous for his bride. This is a good thing. Any Francine Rivers fans in the house?
Ryan and me, that's okay. Andy, a a few. You guys gotta read some Francine Rivers. I've only read one of her books, actually, but I highly recommend it. Redeeming Love. it wrecked me. like Ryan, probably I was a sobbing mess. It's histor it's a historical fiction. It's it's basically the retelling of Hosea, set in the eighteen fifties in California. There's this man named
Michael Hosea, and God tells him to marry a prostitute, Angel. Angel doesn't know how to receive love, so she runs and runs and runs from her husband who loves her. She resists his pursuit of her, and instead she goes back to what has enslaved her. But Michael keeps
Pursuing her. It's quite inspiring. He doesn't pursue her because she's faithful or lovely. He doesn't give her love because she shows him respect. If you know the story of Hosea in the Bible, it's the it it's it's that exactly. God trying to show Israel what they are doing to him.
God calls the prophet Hosea to marry a wife of Hordom, Gomer. And as she keeps abandoning their covenant, God tells Hosea, Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and
And is an adulteress. I'm sure Hosea is like, Man, I thought being a prophet was gonna feel a little bit more like my childhood hero Elijah. I wanna throw down some fire from heaven. This is brutal. But God uses Hosea to show Israel what God's jealousy looks like.
To show Israel as you decide to have other gods besides me, this is what you're doing to me. You're breaking my heart. So when God has Hosea named one of his kids, not my people. Must have been rough in middle school. And and another kid, no mercy. God is not being jealous like an insecure boyfriend.
God is being jealous like a faithful husband whose bride keeps running back into the arms of another lover. He's telling them what their unfaithfulness has done to their marriage covenant. It has broken it.
God through the prophet Jeremiah goes so far to say, I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. And yet and yet even that is not the end of the story. Hosea two twenty-three says, and I will have mercy on no mercy.
And I will say to not my people, You are my people, and he shall say, You are my God. Well, how does that happen? The hymn by Samuel Stone called the The Church's One Foundation says it like this. The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.
She is his new creation by water and the word. From heaven he came and sought her. To be his holy bride with his own blood he bought her and for her life he died. From heaven he came and
And sought her. Or again, Jonathan Edwards, God created the world. Edwards is obsessed with this idea. God created the world for his son, that he might prepare a spouse or bride for him to bestow his love upon, so that the mutual joys between this bride and bridegroom are the end of the creation. God created the world to get a bride.
His son. In other words, God has mercy on no mercy and says to not my people, you are my people through Jesus and what he did on our behalf.
God shows his love to us and that while we're still sinners, Christ dies for us. And he doesn't just live the life you couldn't live and die the death that you deserve and rise from the dead. He does all of this to make you his blameless bride.
Now by faith and faith alone as his bride we can orbit orbit the sun. S-O-N. This is why you exist. God is jealous. He's jealous for his own glory. He's jealous for his bride's affection. Is this how you understand who God?
Is. Church history has always viewed the Song of Songs or the Song of Solomon not as a guide for a healthy marriage or a great sex life, but as John Owen calls it, the Holy of Holies. Next time you read this book in your Bible about the intimacy of two lovers, know that this is a picture of Christ and his bride. The church.
You. When you hear the words, I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine, ask yourself, is this how you view your relationship to Jesus? Friends, you were made for so much more. To be united to your Lord, your Savior, and your bridegroom.
Well, in light of this idea that that God is jealous, how then shall we live? The Apostle Paul says this in his own jealous words, for I feel a divine jealousy for you.
Since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ, how shall we then live? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. let's live out our days faithful to our bridegroom. Imperfect, of course, but faithful to our
to our bridegroom longing to see his face at the great wedding feast. Amen. Amen. Let me pray.
God is Sovereign
Ai Transcript
Amen, amen, thank you Ryan. Good morning Redemption Parker. Good morning, good to see you guys. If you would, you can begin making your way to Genesis chapter 50. Genesis chapter 50.
What feels like a lifetime ago, was sitting outside a coffee shop in town, reading the works of Jonathan Edwards, volume one. And I came across a line. went something like a leaf doesn't fall to the ground except that God ordained it.
Many of y'all know my story. As I read this line, I was right in the thick of my dark night of the soul. A season where I experienced the deepest kind of
abandonment and betrayal. A season where I related most to the Psalmist who says, darkness is my only companion. A season where my prayer walks often didn't have many words, but had many tears.
In the season I was living in my pastor's basement with a couple of items to my name, a stack of books written by some old dead guys and a few outfits. And as I read one of those lines from one of those old dead guys, a leaf doesn't fall to the ground except that God ordains it. It gave me a strange, peculiar comfort to my weary
soul. many the doctrine of God's sovereignty, his complete control of all things, that nothing comes to pass unless God himself decrees it, makes us mad.
argumentative even. We argue against God because we don't like the idea of God being that in control. We've experienced enough pain in our lives and in lives of others. We've seen the brokenness, the suffering and the evil in this world. So we struggle coming to grips with this idea of God's sovereignty.
On the total other side of the spectrum. I've seen this topic make folks mad and argumentative because they love the topic. The cage stage Calvinist more of a Calvinist than John Calvin himself. All they want to do is get into an argument with an Armenian. Those who don't believe he's that in control of all things.
What about you? When you hear these three words, God is sovereign. What, what emotions evoke in you? love what one pastor says. The doctrine of God's sovereignty is not so I can win a free will debate. is for my survival. Friends, God's sovereignty.
If understood rightly can be the pillow we rest our head on in this broken world filled with pain, suffering, evil. And that's my aim this morning. I don't want to get overly theological. have Institute classes for that, but at the same time, unless we understand big doctrines like God's sovereignty, we could miss out on the comfort from God.
and the trust in God that we so desperately need, especially when life hurts. If you're not already there, Genesis 50 this morning, our main verse we're to look at is verse 20. Genesis 50 verse 20. We'll start here and then we'll actually be all over the book of Genesis looking at the account of Joseph.
With this topic, God is sovereign. There are so many places we could turn from Job to Esther, from Abraham to Ruth.
Could also just hang out with Jesus, our good shepherd whose sheep hear his voice. Of course we could turn to the apostle Paul and his many words on God's sovereignty, but the account of Joseph is where we're going to find ourselves this morning. So Genesis 50, I'm going to read the first half of verse 20. As for you, you meant evil against me.
But God meant it for good. This is the word of God. When you think of the book of Genesis, much comes to mind, right? So many important moments and key characters from the creation account itself to our great great grandparents, Adam and Eve, the tragedy of their kids, Cain and Abel, to Noah and his family.
the ark, the animals, and the flood of God's judgment, to the Tower of Babel and humanity being scattered over the ends of the earth, to Father Abraham and elderly Sarah and their miracle son Isaac, after well, Hagar and Ishmael.
to Jacob and Esau and that wild story when Jacob with the help of his mom stole his brother's blessing. Then Jacob, the deceiver himself gets deceived. He works seven years for the love of his life. Rachel only to wake up to a bad dream. Married to her ugly sister, Leah. That's what the Bible says. So he worked seven more years only to leave there with four baby mamas.
Jacob then wrestles with God and God renamed him Israel. Genesis is packed with drama and brutally honest about life's brokenness. But you know who gets more screen time than anyone in Genesis? It's Joseph. Joseph.
Joseph first gets brought up in chapter 30 and then from chapter 37 all the way to the end of Genesis chapter 50, he's the main character or so we think at first glance. We don't have time to read 14 chapters. So we're to be doing a lot of summarizing this morning and I'll be throwing verses from his story all over the place. But, but, but try to stay with me because the point this morning is in.
His story. It's through the Joseph story that you see God's sovereignty. And when you see God as sovereign, you can't unsee it. And we so need it. Like I mentioned, Jacob gets renamed Israel and then Israel has 12 sons.
through four different ladies. These 12 boys are also known as the 12 tribes of Israel. Rachel, the wife, Jacob, loved the most, because though you're not supposed to have favorite kids, I guess you can have a favorite wife. Now Rachel had to wait to become a mom as God was blessing others with her husband's sons. And then we hear, God remembered Rachel.
And God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph saying, may the Lord add to me another son. Joseph, whose name literally means may God add.
Well, by Genesis 35, God does add another son, Benjamin, Joseph's little brother. And unfortunately, trauma ensues as Rachel dies giving birth. This is life east of Eden. Obviously, Joseph is tight with Benjamin, but what about his other 10 brothers? Well, the Bible says now Israel loves Joseph.
more than any of his sons." Told you the Bible was honest. Because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to them. Just like every modern film when you get to understand that the f-
villain, you can start to grow maybe a little sympathetic. It's not just that Joseph was loved more by his father, how painful would that be? But he loved to rub it in.
going around everywhere in that rainbow robe of his. And by telling them all about his dreams, his dreams through symbols like the sun and the moon and the stars, that he was telling them that one day he would rule over them. How would you feel being one of his brothers?
The Bible tells us his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the dreams in mind. Well, we know from a little earlier in Genesis with Cain and Abel, what can happen if we don't kill the sin of jealousy in our lives. As the story continues, Israel sends out Joseph to check on his brothers. Go now, he says. See if it is well with your brothers and with the flock and bring me word.
His dad didn't know what was about to take place. Joseph brothers see Joseph from a distance, can't miss that rainbow jumpsuit, they start salivating. I'm not thrown away.
my shot. This is our chance. We're done with this guy. Finally, they think dad might look at me and finally be proud of what he sees. Here comes this dreamer. say, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Let's see what becomes of his dreams. Ruben, the oldest and probably a six on the Enneagram sees what's about to go down. He tries his best to stop this nonsense.
Don't take his life guys. Do whatever you got to do. Do not kill him. We're God's people for crying out loud. It is written, do not shed innocent blood. says, throw him in the pit, but, do not kill him. That is what they do.
As a brother approaches, they yank off daddy's robe and throw him naked into this empty pit. this moment, Judah, one of the brothers has a brilliant idea. Yo, what, what profit is it if we leave him dead and cover it up? Let's, let's, let's sell this clown so at least we can make some money. And so they do for 20 shekels of silver or around 500 bucks split 10 ways.
As Father Israel hears the news from his lying sons that a fierce animal has come and devoured his beloved, he is crushed.
As you would expect, he begins mourning. The Bible tells us he cannot be comforted. Grief often hits in waves, one wave after another. Lord, why? First you take my wife. Now my beloved son. Why, Lord?
And you'd imagine the same prayer from Joseph now in Egypt all alone, betrayed by his family, by his own brothers. God, we're supposed to be as numerous as the stars in heaven. That's what grandpa Abraham said. How's that going to pan out now? Why? God, why? As he finds himself in the unknown land of Egypt, he's purchased to be a slave by Potiphar.
the officer of the king. Then we read the Lord was with Joseph. Joseph friends is about to find out what suffering is all about. As Tim Keller says, only when God is all you have, do you realize he's all you need.
As the Lord begins to bless everything that Joseph touches and even his master takes notice of God's hand, God's favor on Joseph, his master's wife wants some of Joseph. Alone in his master's home, his master's wife puts him in a corner. Sleep with me, she says. I can't, he says.
And after explaining to her how, good her husband has been to him, says this, how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Though Joseph is a long way from the people of God, he has not forgotten his God.
Reminds me of when Job's wife looks at her broken, beat down husband and says, curse God and die, honey. Job says, naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Though you slay me, God, I will trust in you.
Now I'm sure Joseph had thoughts like, dude, wake up. Where has God been for you curse God and just sleep with her. You deserve this. And yet even Joseph doesn't know. And even Joseph, though he does not know what his future holds, he knows who holds it. Later. She tries again, sleep with me.
But who knows what she's wearing or lack thereof. What we do know is this time Joseph doesn't even try to have a conversation. He gone. Dude runs out of the room. Some of us can learn something from Joseph right here. If you don't put sin to death, it will kill you. So run. Well, Ms. Potiphar had grabbed part.
of his outfit during the escape, all the evidence she needed to tell her husband quote, this Hebrew servant whom you have brought into our home came in to violate me. as soon as I screamed for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside. wonder if Potiphar really even believed his wife will never know, but he did throw Joseph into prison.
And so here he is alone and in prison, his life not working out the way him and his dad had planned. Could you imagine why? Lord, maybe you've felt this before, like God, what are you doing?
I'm serving you. I'm putting you first. Why are you not answering my prayers? But again, like Tim Keller says, God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knows.
prison starts off promising for Joseph. Again, we read, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.
And he's figuring out what his new normal is in jail. Some cats come rolling in who have been in the company of the king, the king's chief cup bearer and the king's Baker.
Well, one night they, they both have wild dreams and as they're tripping out in their jail cell, wondering who can bring meaning to their dreams. Joseph says, do not interpretations belong to God? Let's hear what you guys got. As they shared, Joseph gives them the interpretation. And now unlike the Baker, the cup bearer is given a good interpretation.
One that will get him out of prison and back to his royal post. So Joseph in his own desperation reaches out to the cupbearer and says, remember me when it is well with you. Please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh. And so get me out of this house.
For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews. And here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit. As the dreams pan out exactly how Joseph interprets them. The chapter ends by telling us yet the chief cut bear did not remember Joseph, but forgot him when it rains. pours another blow.
for Joseph, forgotten yet again. Too bad Joseph didn't have the Psalms, they weren't written yet. Yet a third of the Psalms are these prayers of laments, like Psalm 13. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
These prayers, these prayers of lament that we see all over scripture teach us that we can be honest with God. They also tend to end in a deeper trust of God, even amidst pain and suffering. They hope in a God they cannot see and yet know that he knows everything.
Psalm 13 will eventually end by saying, I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation, which is what we're going to see next in the story of Joseph. So then we read, after two whole years pass.
Sometimes we can read our Bibles too quickly and miss so much. If you know anything about being in a hard season, each day is filled with its own pain, despair, discouragement, anger, sadness, regret, only to do it all over again the next day. And here Joseph is in prison for two whole years.
Imagine how many times he replayed that final scene with his brothers or how often he would dream of seeing his dad and little brother Benjamin again. How much he would long to trade in his prison garb for that old rainbow robe day in, day out. Pain.
Welcome to the dark night of the soul. But, as one pastor theologian puts it, life is hard and God is good. As Joseph is for sure wondering what this is all for. He's about to see like the title of Elizabeth Elliott's book, suffering is never for nothing.
After those two long years, Joseph gets a call from the pen and he's ready. And so I have to ask, are you walking with God only when he's blessing you in the ways you want to be blessed? Are you walking with God because he's well, God.
Pharaoh the king of Egypt was having a dream nobody could interpret the cup bearer remembers good old Joseph and the king calls Joseph into his throne I'll tell you one thing Joseph has not been spending the last two years scrolling reels on YouTube His mouth speaks what is in his heart Pharaoh
I don't have the power to interpret dreams, he says. But I know the one who does. And I've been spending a lot of time with him over the last few years. And that him is God. The one true God. Yeah, I serve him. And yes, he'll give you the answer you need. As Joseph interprets the dream and in it warns the king about
The future, the king, Pharaoh is blown away by this God fearing man. And so he calls Joseph to power quote, see, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. What a turn of events.
fresh out the slammer to the right hand of the king. Joseph is now calling the shots. He runs the play from the dream, save food, during the seven years of plenty, and then you will have abundance for Egypt and for the ends of the earth in the coming seven years of famine. During the years of plenty, Joseph settles down,
and marries. He even has some children of his own.
named his first manatha, which means God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house. His second Ephraim translation for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. And though he hopes to never think of his family again, to sail off into the sunset of the King's royal cabinet, never to endure any more
pain from this life. The sovereign God has other plans. I'd encourage you to read Genesis 42 to 50 on your own. It's so good. Talk about drama. Let's not settle just for Netflix when we have the drama of redemption at our fingertips.
But the short of it is that the famine happens just as God reveals. And because Joseph has been storing up grain, Egypt becomes the place where starving nations come for food. And one of these nations is his very own, which means Joseph comes face to face with the brothers who betrayed him.
By Genesis 45, he finally reveals himself to them. He tells them not to be distressed, not to even be angry at themselves. As he's weeping over them, he begins to kiss his brothers. This is radical forgiveness, And then he explains to them, brothers,
God has sent me here to preserve life.
Don't be distressed. Don't be mad at yourselves. God sent me here to preserve life. That's one way to look at it. His brother is probably thinking, what do you mean? We did this to you. Well, eventually his entire family gets to settle into the suburbs of Egypt. His dad even gets to meet and bless his grandkids and then their father Israel in the land of Egypt takes his final breath.
If you're still in Genesis 50, look with me at verse 15.
Genesis 50 verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying,
Your father gave this command before he died still lying. Verse 17, say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Think about all that trauma. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. I guess those dreams were right after all. Oh, but look at verse 19. But Joseph said to them,
Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Wow.
would end to the story. But that line, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. This verse is hard for us. But because of the Bible, we have to make it a category in our finite minds for the total sovereignty of God.
and real human agency responsibility. What they did was wrong. And throughout human history, humanity, men and women will be held accountable for what they do. But at the same time,
God meant it for good. A leaf doesn't fall to the ground unless God himself ordains it. reminds me of Job at the end of his suffering. Job says, I know speaking to God, I know that you could do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
No purpose of yours can be thwarted. had heard of you before, but now my eyes have seen you. Oh God. This is why Charles Spurgeon says there's nothing like the school of affliction. God is suffering. God.
is sovereign as R.C. Sproul used to say there are no maverick molecules in the universe. Last week as we looked at the question if God is good. Why is this place so bad? And then though we had some answers ultimately we can't answer every why and how question regarding the problem of evil but but we did note one thing is for certain.
It's not because God does not care. He cares so much that He enters the suffering Himself. Well, this morning, I want us to see that same truth from the vantage point of God's sovereignty. When the Son of God took on flesh and became a man,
Because like I said, we will be held accountable for everything we do. And we have all, every one of us, we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory. The penalty of our sin is death. And so the Son of God incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth, came to die.
But even his death for sinners wasn't a roll of the dice. Remember, God is sovereign. Here's how Luke tells us how sovereign he is in the book of Acts.
for truly in this city in Jerusalem. They were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. Did Herod Pilate?
Gentiles and the Jews crucified Jesus. Yes. Did we because of our sin, crucify Jesus? Yes. And at the same time, God did whatever his hand and his plan predestined to take place. God is sovereign friends. And this is good news.
Just imagine if he wasn't sovereign. Imagine life if God wasn't in control. And not only is he in control, but like we saw last week, he's good. In his sovereignty, all things work together for our good. Now we named our only son Joseph.
And to be honest, it wasn't my first choice. wanted Zion. Holly, on the other hand, was tired of naming our kids after land from the Bible. But if you go on the Israel trip, you'll get it. You might even name some of your own.
When our little guy came into this world on August 28th, I couldn't help but to think of one of my favorite Bible verses, Romans 8 28. And for me, the best picture of what Romans 8 28 looks like is the story of Joseph. Romans 8 28 says this, and we know that for those who love God, all things.
All things, whatever situation you find yourself in right now, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Sometimes we get to see how things play out and praise God for those moments. I've gotten to witness some of those in my own life. Other times we just have to trust God.
Even when life hurts one day like Joseph will know why. but, but I hope when you hear those words, God is sovereign. wouldn't just be some cliche phrase, so some throw away attribute of God, but you would know.
You would know deep in your knower that God's sovereignty is for your good, your joy, and your survival. Amen. Amen. Let me pray.
God is Good
Ai Transcript
Amen. Thanks Holly. Happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day you guys. If you would, why don't you make your way to Psalm 34. Psalm 34 is where it will be this morning, this Mother's Day.
We're entering into a strange new world, you haven't noticed. Mark Sayers, an Australian pastor and cultural analyst, argues that we are living in a gray zone. A cultural moment where the old world, what we know, is breaking apart. All the while, the new world has not yet been fully formed.
rewind to 2008, pre-COVID, pre-AI, and in the thick of that old world, Pastor Tim Keller wrote, The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Skepticism. became a New York Times bestseller.
That book met a very particular cultural moment. As people in the old world were asking the question, can Christianity be intellectually credible? Can belief in God make sense in this secular age? Keller was helping skeptics see that that faith was more than reasonable. It was compelling.
This was the world we all once lived. It was post-Christian and very secular. Well, this new world we're heading toward is still post-Christian, but it's becoming post-secular as well. We're in the midst of what some are calling the shaking of secularism. In other words, the old secular story is beginning to break down.
People are realizing that they cannot live without meaning, transcendence, and hope. Even among cultural elites, there is a renewed openness to spirituality. The University of Harvard, for instance, offers classes now on happiness. Because in this anxious generation, nobody has it.
and everybody wants it. Some of those lectures include the happiness non-negotiable to transcend yourself. Whatever your higher power is, the happiness scholars are saying, find one because you can't be happy without it.
And yet, even though more people are spiritual and atheism is on the decline, the age old question remains when people begin talking about God. If there is a God and if this God is good, why is there so much evil? Maybe you've had the same question.
I remember being at Auschwitz a couple years ago and just having a pit in my stomach all day long looking face to face in this place where evil, so much evil took place. You can't help but to ask the question, why? Why God? Why?
Maybe you're in a season right now where you're experiencing the brokenness of this world and you're questioning the goodness of God. You look outside and you see wars, abuse, natural disasters. You look inside and you find a body that is not what it once was. A job you hate. A hard marriage.
Maybe for you, you long to be a mother. And that's just not happening. Mother's Day is brutally hard. It took so much courage just to be here this morning.
I'm so glad you came. Or you're struggling to trust God because life is just hard. You thought the abundant life that Jesus promised would be a little more, I don't know, abundant.
I'm glad you're here this morning because this is where we are headed. If God is good, what does it mean not only to explain the world around you, but what does it mean as you try to find meaning to your own existence? So if you're not already there, Psalm 34 is where we are going to be.
And if you're able, why don't we stand this morning for the reading of God's word. I'll read the whole chapter.
Amen. Psalm 34. I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant.
Their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles. The angel, the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weary and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, my children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good.
Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil to blot out their name from the earth. The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them. He delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. He protects all his bones. Not one of them will be broken. Evil will slay the wicked. The foes of the righteous will be condemned. The Lord will rescue his servants. No one takes refuge in him will be condemned. This is the word of God. Amen. You guys may be seated.
Tov, tov, tov, tov. This is the Hebrew word that gets translated good four times here in Psalm 34. Taste and see that the Lord is tov. Those who seek the Lord lack no tov thing. Verse 12, to see many tov days in verse 14, turn from evil and do.
Tov. Last week I read Psalm 34 to my oldest before I dropped her off at school. We got to school early and it was a late start day. And so we just sat in the car. She was eating her morning popcorn, aka her snack. Sorry, Holly. And I asked her as I read this, want you to listen.
psalm closely. I want to know what pops out to you. Maybe the Lord is speaking something to you. Maybe you just have some question about this psalm. After I finished the psalm with popcorn coming out of her mouth, she said, taste and see that the Lord is good. And then she said, how do we taste God, I said, kind of like popcorn, but not really.
This is what I hope to do with our time this morning. We're not going to tackle this whole song, but we're going to launch off from verse eight. Taste and see that the Lord is good. And my hope is that as we walk out of here in just a bit, that our souls would be full. Full of the goodness of God.
I think the most helpful way we can attempt to not only look at the God who is good, but to also see Him in light of this world which is broken is to span what theologians call the fourfold storyline of Scripture. Creation, fall, redemption.
New creations. So that's our outline this morning. Creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. We'll start with creation. Genesis 1.1 says, the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Right away, we find out that God, and God alone is the creator of all things. Out of nothing, God creates everything.
And by the fourth verse of chapter one, we get the word tov for the first time. God saw the light was good. If you read Genesis one and two, you're going to keep seeing that word all over the place. Tov or.
After God creates this world with all its animals, Genesis tells us, God saw that it was good. But he's not finished the pinnacle of his creation, verse 26. Then God said, us make mankind in our image.
in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea the birds in the sky over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground. God created mankind in his image in the image of God he created them male and female he created them God blessed them and said to them be fruitful and increase in number celebrate lots of Mother's Day's fill the earth and subdue it.
And by verse 31 of chapter one in our Bibles, says, God saw all that he had made and it was very good. Not just tove, it's very tove. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Now we'll get to Genesis three here in a second, cause that is where we live. East of Eden post fall. But for a minute, I just want us to recognize how good his creation was. Everywhere you look in the creation account, Tove, Tove, Tove, Tove, Tove.
This word is defined by scholars to mean all sorts of things. Good, pleasant, right, beautiful, flourishing, most excellent of its kind. I like how Dr. Ryan Tafelowski explained it to us a couple years ago when he came and did a theology on the ground on the topic of work. says the word tov means something more like all systems go.
I love that. All systems go. When God calls creation good or very good, he's not merely saying, looks nice. Good job me, that Grand Canyon there. Wow. Now he's saying this is a perfect fit. Wonderfully ordered, majestically fruitful, beautiful.
functioning exactly according to my design all systems go. Now if you do look hard enough in the creation account there is one thing that is not tov. Be up on the screen here. Genesis 2 18 the Lord God said it is not good for the man to be alone I will make a helper.
suitable for him. The cultural mandate that God gave to humanity to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to have dominion could not be accomplished. The man needed someone and not just anyone. Man needed woman.
Before you read this text on Mother's Day and think, Eve's a little less than Adam. She's just his helper. Well, this word helper or in the Hebrew, Ezer, is what God also calls, well, himself. So yes, happy Mother's Day. Once you notice one more thing from the creation account, that's the seventh day. By the seventh day, God had finished
the work he had been doing. So on the seventh day, he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, set it apart.
What's wild about what we call Sabbath is there's not an evening and a morning on the seventh day like there was on the other six. What does this mean? It means that the climax of creation, the culmination of all of creation is Sabbath.
Sabbath being this good God dwelling with his good people in his good creation Tov all systems Go now we'll come back to this idea of Sabbath, but but just know the goal of creation Shabbat Shalom
Well, we're done with creation, but before we jump right into the fall, I have to spend a minute talking about the God of creation. Remember we're in this series. God is, and if we're going to taste and see that the Lord is good this morning, we need to see that that God is good even prior to creation in the beginning.
In other words, before God started speaking galaxies into existence, He was. God is. Well, if we can, let's get a little theological here on the Trinity for a minute. I promise you this is going to help, especially when we get to the problem of evil. Now, God's goodness, friends, is not something that... It is not something that began.
in time. Like once he created the world rather it is always who he has eternally been. God doesn't have goodness. God is. We're getting it. God is good.
Now, if God were a solitary, single person God, if God were a solitary, single person God, not a Trinity, so think like Allah. He would need creation to love. He would need folks like Muhammad to show goodness to, which means love and goodness, for instance, would not be eternal to his very being. But the Christian God is Father.
Son and Spirit. Three persons, one God. And in this trinity, the unbegotten Father for all eternity loves and does good to the eternally begotten Son. In the fellowship of the Spirit. So when we say God is good, we do not mean God became good.
The moment he made us or helped us, we mean that from all eternity, God has been a fountain of self-giving life, delight, and love. Creation and as we'll get to redemption are just an overflow of that goodness. Augustine says that the Holy Spirit, this is how he pictures who God is.
It's hard to say who God is apart from creation. But Augustine, the church father, says the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son. I love that picture of God. Or Jonathan Edwards says the Father eternally beholds His perfect image of His...
Sorry, let me just stick to the actual quote. Jonathan Edwards says, Father eternally beholds His perfect image in the Son. And the love and delight between them is the Spirit.
C.S. Lewis calls the Trinity something like an eternal dance, a living communion of love, joy, and self-giving life. In other words, before God ever created the world, He is not lonely or needy or empty. Rather, He was Father, Son, and Spirit, eternally full of life, love.
and goodness. God is eternally and infinitely good. So keep this in mind now as we transition into the fall. A Barnapole asked the question, if you could ask God only one question and you knew he would give you an answer, what would you ask? It's a good question.
anyone brave enough to throw theirs out.
the most common response from this poll, why is there pain and suffering in the world? Well, by Genesis 3, we begin to get an answer. And this won't answer everyone's question, everyone's questions about the problem of evil. But the awesome part about the Bible is that it is honest.
with these questions itself. Like there are prayers of lament all over the scriptures dealing with these types of problems. Here's a few of them. How long, Lord, must I call for help but you do not listen or cry out to you? Violence, but you do not save. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Wow.
Or the Psalms, why, oh Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? Psalm 44, awake, awake. Imagine saying that to God, awake. Why are you sleeping, oh Lord? Rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? Is this how you talk to God? Because you can. He's a big boy.
He can handle it and he already knows you're thinking it.
And just FYI, this sermon is going to be a part one to the reality of pain and suffering. Next week will be part two as we look at God is sovereign. So God is good. God is sovereign. He's totally in control, even amidst our pain.
even amidst the evil that we see in this world. So you're not going to want to miss next week. But for right now, Genesis 3, here we go, the fall. After God creates this good world, his good people doubt God's own goodness. Like what a sequence. The one who is himself, Tov, is thought to be depriving his creation of Tov.
This is where things begin to go downhill. God gives them commands to obey and they listen to Satan instead. They believe this good God is holding out on them and so they take matters into their own hands. And just like that, sin enters into the world.
Read Genesis three at some point this week. really does answer the question as to why things aren't the way they should be. Why things aren't all systems go. And now you're like, okay, I get the fall happened, but you didn't answer a question pastor. Why? If God is good, why would he allow this? Can he be all good?
all powerful, all knowing, and allow all that we see from the Rwandan genocide to the Cambodian killing fields, from the transatlantic slave trade to the Armenian genocide, from sex trafficking to child abuse to the broken foster care systems.
From a car accident that takes a loved one to cancer which does the same. From rejection to criticism, the list goes on and on and we all have things that we can throw into this list. If God is good, why? Why would He allow this?
I was leaving the coffee shop the other day and I saw an acquaintance of mine who's currently writing a book on philosophy. He literally sits at this coffee shop for 12 hours a day and he reads and reads and reads and writes. I've learned to only get into the conversations with him if I have at least 30 minutes of spare time.
But the dude can really think. I thought I'd ask him what he thought about my topic for this sermon. We've often talked about Augustine and Aquinas and all these big thinkers. Well, after a few F bombs, he told me that he's got a buddy who always tells him, man, when I see God, I have a bone to pick with the man upstairs. I hope they serve beer in hell.
My philosopher friend said, pastor, I always tell him, bro, if there is a God and you were even able to see him, if he's God, he would be a being so good that you and I would not be able to take him in, let alone question him. I don't know if he knew how good that answer was, but that's a good answer.
And I do think some of these questions are above our pay grade. Now God does have reasons, good reasons for doing everything that he does. We'll talk next week about what God can, what this sovereign God can and does accomplish through suffering. But we also need to humble ourselves and understand who we are. Finite creatures.
finite creatures trying to understand the deep things of this infinite God. Like the question, how did evil originate? Obviously God sovereignly allowed it. You could even say He ordained it.
And yet God does not evil and has. God is not evil and has never done evil. When the angel Lucifer turned on God and became who we know as Satan and likewise when God's people listen to Satan and brought sin. And sickness.
and suffering and evil and death into his good world. We might have to be okay, not knowing all the answers of how and why evil came to be. Randy Alcorn in his wonderful book, If God is Good, Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil says this, scripture addresses when evil came into being, but not how.
Deuteronomy 29, 29 seems to apply here. The secret things belong to the Lord our God. God has chosen to remain silent on this question, which may mean something significant. If evil is irrational, how can its point of origin be rationally explained? Perhaps God does not offer any explanation because evil...
defies explanation. It might make sense to an all-knowing God, but no sense at all to us. Every parent of small children knows that giving no explanation is sometimes better than a partial explanation that misleads little minds. Perhaps then we should interpret God's silence about the origin of evil not as a refusal to explain, but as kindness.
As our children will one day understand things we don't try to explain now. So one day in God's presence, we will have the reference points to understand what now remains a mystery. God is good. That's certain. This world is fallen. That's certain as well. And we see this in Genesis three.
And not only is this world marked by sin and suffering, evil and death, but Sabbath, remember Sabbath, where this good God was dwelling with his good people on his good creation, Sabbath ended in the fall. You will now die physically in.
Spiritually, all this happens at the fall. The goal of creation, Sabbath, lasts a whopping two chapters. But by the grace of God leads to our next section, redemption. Sabbath is lost. Will Sabbath be restored?
It doesn't take long after the fall for this good God to answer that question. And in talking to Satan, God is giving out the curse and he says this in Genesis three. I will put enmity between you, Satan and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He, seed of this woman, will crush your head.
and you will strike his heel. Well, what we have here is actually the first proclamation of the gospel that there's coming a Mother's Day that will be unlike any Mother's Day. This mother will give birth to the one who will crush, defeat Satan.
sin and death once and for all who will bring back Sabbath God dwelling with his people.
systems go.
Again, I can't even begin to answer on behalf of God how and why.
every how and why question that we might have regarding the problem of evil. But I will say two things because I just can't leave you with mystery, mystery. First, we learn from 1 Peter that the gospel is so glorious that even angels long to look into it. In other words, angels know of God's goodness. They know
God is holy, holy, holy. They know of God's love. They know nothing through experience of His mercy and grace. To experience the mercy and the grace of God is to taste and see that the Lord is good on a level even the angels bend down in heavenly curiosity.
That is no small thing. And second, though we might not have all the answers, we know one thing. God cares. God really cares. He cares so much that He enters the evil and the suffering Himself. He takes on flesh.
The only one who knew no sin, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God incarnate, becomes sin for you, dies in your place so that you might enjoy Sabbath with God.
Friends, Christ, Sabbath is not a day we observe. Rather, according to Hebrews 4, Sabbath is a rest we enter. By faith in the Gospel, we receive true Shabbat Shalom. Peace. Wholeness.
Meaning and if that's not enough we ourselves through our union with Christ get to experience being connected to the inner life of our good God to know the love of Christ that surpasses our finite understanding. Talk about tov all.
systems go east of Eden. And yet in this place, we find ourselves in this this era of redemption, like we know it's an already and not yet redemption. We still long for new creation. But while we're here, check this out, everything we do recognize as tov or good from a beautiful sunset.
to the laughter of your kid, to the connection of a relationship, to climbing a 14-er. From good wine to getting a job done at work, to intimacy with your spouse. According to Jonathan Edwards, these are but scattered beams. God is the sun.
These are but streams. God is the fountain. These are but drops. God is the ocean. Even east of Eden, you exist to treasure God by enjoying Him and the good gifts He gives. All systems go, which points us to our final point this morning, new creation.
The Bible could be summed up in four words, Sabbath lost, Sabbath restored. And if you were with us in our Revelation series, you know that the new Eden is coming. Sabbath will be restored. So as I close this morning, church, let's get our eyes on that day. On that day when everything sad becomes untrue.
And until that day, imagine if we lived out our calling as Jesus had hoped for the church to be a city on a hill in this broken world east of Eden. In Scott McKnight's book, A Church Called Tove, he says, the gospel is about God's tove coming to us in Jesus who is tove and thus making us into agents of tove.
O Church, as we taste and see that the Lord is good, let us be a Tove people. Amen? Amen. Let me pray.
God is Love
AI Transcript
Good morning. Welcome. If you have a Bible, are going to be in 1 John chapter 4 this morning. If you can begin to make your way there. We are in this series. God is it's a series on theology proper just to lift our eyes to help our minds expand a little bit to behold who God is, his glory, his majesty, the truth of who he is. And we've begun to look at some things that he's self-existent in.
self-sufficient. Last week we looked at God is holy and not only are we beholding God but we're seeing that in every way that affects how we not only know Him but how we live. And in all of His attributes they are perfect and infinite. And in all of His attributes they are not contradicting one another. They work in unison and they complement one another. Now that's important to keep in mind
when we come to today's topic. Today, you might think this is an easy one. is God is love. Like if there's anything you can just kind of rest in, if there's anything you can go to your unbelieving friends and family and neighbors and be like, God is love. They'll say, I agree with that. God is love. Great. This is like a three minute sermon. Let's wrap it up, get a couple extra songs here, get some donuts. We're good to go.
until you start to realize, well, maybe when I say God is love and my unbelieving neighbor agrees with me, maybe we are thinking of different things. Maybe we're not saying the same thing. Maybe when we start to define the terms, there's some difficulty there. We can think about how that works. And so before we even get into our passage this morning, we've actually got to do some deconstructing and then
reconstructing of what this idea means before we jump into the passage in the New Testament that actually says God is love. Think about our culture. Think about what you hear and see and listen to in the culture at large. Our culture loves love. But think about how they determine what that means, what they say. Think about the songs that are popular or the
The movies, Jerry Maguire, You Complete Me, The Notebook. Think about all the ways that our culture pumps the message, love, God is love. Often it gets reduced to kind of a sentimental, emotional feeling. It means that God is a means to an end to get to that kind of high that we call love. We think about, if God is love, He just wants me to be happy.
Which is actually half true. The problem is in the culture, happiness is self-determined and whatever we determine is our happiness. If God is love, he's got to give us that thing. Sometimes love is, well, oftentimes love is reduced to the affirmation of self. It is whatever you determine, love is affirming whatever the other person self-determines.
them to be. So if you're really going to love someone then whatever they believe or think or do you must affirm. That's what our culture would say about love. If God is loved then God must affirm whatever I believe about myself or sometimes love is this idea of this is ultimate. It's this nebulous force in the universe. It is ultimate and it's detached from God's other attributes. Remember what I said in the beginning.
None of his attributes contradict. They all are who God is. So if God is love and God is holy, how do we work those two things out? If God is love and God is just, how do we work those things out? If God is love and he also has righteous wrath, our culture does not know what to do with that. And so they talk about love as the ultimate, even above and beyond outside of God. It is...
Ultimate like a Jedi force or something. They'll say all that matters is love or they'll say something like love is love this that's supposed to mean something Like try that with anything That doesn't make any sense it if it feels like love it can't be wrong This is what our culture says so when they hear us say God is love. They're like, yes agree with that But this is also the cultural air we breathe, right?
We consume the same media, the same songs, and read the same books and all these things. And so often this can begin to work its way into our hearts and minds in thinking about God and adopt these views. And so we can neglect what the Bible has to say about the love of God. We can project on the Bible a view of God that is not true. So again, as I was beginning to work a couple of weeks ago on this sermon, I was like, this will be easy. God is love.
But then I realized, this is not so easy. And so I came across this book. I don't always say this, this is super helpful. It's a book by D.A. Carson called The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. Again, even the title of it, you're like, no, if there's one doctrine that's not difficult, it is the love of God until you start to think about it. And so if you will with me, just for the next five, seven minutes, I want us to now reconstruct some things.
Think about a biblical spectrum of how or rather the five aspects of how God's love is portrayed throughout the Bible. So it's going to take some we're going to have to do some engagement here in our minds for a moment and then we'll get to the text and we'll see how this all works out. But D.A. Carson says there's five aspects. I'll put them on the screen. The first aspect that the Bible talks about in love is God's intra-Trinitarian love.
That from eternity pass, the reason there is love in the universe is because our God is triune. And there is love between father and son and son and father. And the bond of love is the spirit of God. It is the source. And remember, he is self-sufficient and self-existent. There is no need in God. So there is this no idea that God created the universe and created us because he needed
to express his love. That's not why God did any of that. It's out of the overflow of this perfect intra-trinitarian love that he creates, that he made you and me. Why this matters? If you lose this, God's love becomes dependent or reactive on creation rather than intrinsic to his nature. Jesus talks about this often in the Gospel of John, this love between Father, Son, and Sending of the Spirit.
Secondly is God's providential love. This is God who has love for all and all things and all all molecules in the universe. is his creating love that has made the universe and made all people and it is for all people. So for example a couple of verses Psalm 145 verse 9 the Lord is good to all. He has compassion on all he has made.
Jesus says it this way in Matthew 5 45 God causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sins reign on right on the righteous and the unrighteous. is a real sense where God does love all and he sustains all even those in rebellion to him. He's keeping their hearts pumping right now. This is his providential love. Why this matters without this category you cannot account for real.
goodness in the world extended to believers and unbelievers alike. The third aspect of God's multi aspect of love is God's salvific stance toward a fallen world. God's salvific stance toward a fallen world. So out of his providential love he does have this concern for the whole world for all peoples. This is John 3 16 for God so loved the world.
that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Peter talks about this. Paul talks about this in First Timothy 2 for God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Why this matters. This guards against a cold overly narrow view of God that minimizes his genuine compassion.
toward the lost. See, we can lock in on one of these to the exclusion of the others and miss the full-orbed view of God's love, which leads to number four. God's particular, effective, electing love. The Bible from Old Covenant to New Covenant often says God has set his electing affection on sinners. Not because they were worthy, not because
They had enough information to choose God. No, we were dead in our sins and transgressions, unable to make any choice. Children of wrath, deserving His judgment, and yet God in His love, elects and redeems and saves some. So Ephesians 1, 4, 5, for He chose us in Him, us, the church, those who believe. He chose us in Him before the creation of the world.
to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will. Again, this matters because God's love for His people is able to rescue people who are dead in their sins and transgressions, who are unable to make any choice in of themselves. God's love isn't
vague or wishful that he hopes some will come? No, he is effective in his saving power to save sinners. And because of this one, we are secure in his love. Paul will write about this in Romans 8. What can separate us from the love of God? And he goes to this long list. Nothing in all of creation because God's electing effective love. Why it matters. Well, I just said why it matters, which leads to number five.
God's conditional relational love. Now, Mark, didn't you just say, didn't you just quote Romans 8, for nothing shall separate us from the love of God. That is true. This is where the Bible speaks about his relational, covenantal love. This is where the Bible repeatedly calls believers to obey his commands. And when we disobey, we...
relationally are stepping away from His love. Jesus talks about this again in John, but in Jude 21, He says this, keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Keep yourselves in that.
It's this idea of being in relationships, submitting to God in relationships. This does not mean God's love is fickle, but there is a relational experience of His love that can deepen or diminish based on our obedience to His commands. Now, let me help you understand maybe by illustration, because this is a hard one. What do you mean God's love is conditional? Now, every illustration and analogy breaks down, especially when we're talking about God, but
Parents understand this. You have an unconditional love for your children. It's unconditional. Absolutely. Imagine you have a teenager. In a teenager, you have a good relationship. And this teenager is making good choices and they have good friends. And they come to you and they say, hey, dad, I want to go on this trip with my friends, but I can't quite afford it. Could I have a couple hundred dollars so I could go?
And there's this good relationship. You're like, yes, I want to love you in that way. I want to give that to you. Yeah, absolutely. It's a relational love. But let's say that the teenager is in rebellion, making poor choices, having bad friends, maybe getting into drugs and alcohol and is on a destructive path. And the teenager says, hey, dad, I need a couple hundred bucks to go on a trip with my friends. And you, because you love your son, say no.
I'm not going to do that. Now, what that son received doesn't feel like the same kind of love that the other son received, but it is out of an unconditional love. But our relationship to God can deepen or diminish based on our submission to His authority in our lives. Why this matters. Without this, you flatten the biblical warnings and calls to abide, to obey, and to remain in God's love.
I think sometimes we can be so enamored by the grace of God and we should be that we can then come to the passages where God warns us. God calls us to obedience. We're like, well, I'll just go do it because God is love and he has to forgive me. That's what he does. Yes, you can quench the spirit and hurt your relationship. So there is a danger to overemphasizing or
neglecting any of these. So let's think about this for a moment. If we focus on number three alone, God's salvific stance toward a fallen world. We may strengthen the hand of those that are Arminians, like God loves the world. He just is kind of out there inviting everyone. We can increase a sentimental view of God, but we can also diminish a view of His holiness.
It's the doctrine of God's love is difficult because what do do with God is also righteously wrathful against sin? God, what do you do with judgment? What do you do with holiness? If we focus and emphasize only on number four, God's electing love, then we have a narrow sovereignty. We're like, well, because God from eternity past has only chosen some, therefore.
We don't need to. fact, we shouldn't even go evangelize the world because after all, God is going to accomplish what he's going to accomplish. Now, I don't think most of us that are even in this like focus on this category believe that. But practically we do. We think, well, because God's, you know, God's sovereign over salvation, I'm not going to go tell my friend.
my neighbor, my co-worker about Jesus. Because he's got it. Even though God commands us to do that and commissions us to do that. See, we can kind of hide behind some of these. And if we neglect some, we miss it as well. we neglect number five, for example, we talked about this, obedience to his commands.
are irrelevant, then why are they in the Bible? Why is God's people called to obey Him, both in the Old Covenant and New Covenant? If we neglect, number one, that God's intratrinitarian love, then love becomes this force outside of who God is. It's this disconnected, impersonal force. Okay, so it's harder than you think is all I'm getting at. All right? Let's turn in our Bibles to
1st John chapter 4 and we're gonna see how some of these aspects are worked out in our lives and in who God is. So we'll pick it up in verse 7. This is God's Word. Listen carefully. John writes, Dear friends, let us love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God. And here it is because God is love. There it is. God is love and he'll say it again and down in verse 16. God is love. Now we've already talked about a little bit but let's explore a little bit more. What does this not mean? What does it not mean that God is love? It doesn't mean that love is God. The sentence isn't reversible.
Whatever the culture determines is love. What we'll say, well, that's God. That's not what the Bible means when it says God is love. does not mean that the only definition for God is love. Again, we can so focus on this to the neglect of the other attributes. Some will say, well, it says right there, God is love. And some of these other attributes, it doesn't say that God is these things. And so this must be it. This is the ultimate. This is
This is what it means. God is love. Well, in the New Testament, there are four things that says God is. It says God is love. God is light. God is spirit. And we're like, OK, we can we could deal with all that. But Hebrews 12 29 says God is a consuming fire. No one in the culture is saying that. Right. God is a consumer. And no one would say that's all God is. But when it comes to this one, they're like, yeah, that's all.
God is. No. So that isn't, that's what love is not. What is love then? Well, he begins to define it for us in the next couple verses. says, this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. Again, it's an echo of John 3.16 and 1 John 3.16, which says this.
This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. He says love is costly and sacrificial. He goes on. This is love. Verse 10. Not that we loved God. Not that it started with us, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice.
for our sins. This is the idea that there wasn't anything necessarily lovely in us that God would choose us. This is the fourth aspect of his love. He just loved us. This is where God time and time again comes to the people of Israel in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 7 verse 7 he says,
It wasn't because you were more numerous. It wasn't because you were better. It wasn't because you were more moral. It wasn't because of anything in you, Israelites. It was because of me that I chose you out of all the nations. Not that we loved God. Romans 5, 8. This is how God demonstrates His love that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is love that the world...
doesn't understand that the world thinks love is ultimate and supreme, but the worldly view of love is too flat and too shallow. In fact, it's bankrupt compared to this love. He says, no, this is love. I sent my son, it was a costly, bleeding kind of love as an atoning sacrifice. This is what the world gets wrong. Well, after defining it, he says, now how does this begin to work its way?
In the next few verses he shows that his love is both the model and motivation and the source for our own love. We've already seen this command a few times in here, let us love one another, let us love one another, let us love one another, but the gospel never commands you to do something that it doesn't also empower you to do. And so this is what he says, dear friends, since God so loved us, there's the model.
We look to Jesus. We look to Him putting on flesh, going to a cross because He loved us. We also ought to love one another. There's the motivation. But again, we can't just do it with a model and motivation. We need more. Verse 12. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us. There's the source. And His love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in Him.
and He in us, He has given us His Spirit.
So there it.
Everyone is difficult to love sometimes. You are difficult to love sometimes. Everyone that's been married more than a month knows this truth. Like, thought it was just going to keep going like this, right? No, we get it. it is people are difficult to love. So how do we do it? Well, we can try to muster up the strength and do it, but...
that tank runs dry very quickly. And so what this model of love is, like, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. There's the model. You're like, okay, but I don't always feel like loving my wife as Christ loved the church. I need something else. I need something outside of me or rather in me to do that. And good news.
If you're a follower of Christ, the Holy Spirit loves to love through you. You can love your spouse, you can love your neighbor, you can love your coworker. Jesus will even call us to love our enemies. None of us want to do that. None of us are motivated to do that in and of ourselves, but we can through Him who has put the source of love in our lives.
And God's love, we'll see, not, God's love through us is not only the basis of our salvation, we'll see it's an evidence of our salvation. Look at verse 16. so we know and rely on the love of God, the love God has for us. We rely on it. We live in it. We, we behold it. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us.
that we will have confidence on the day of judgment in this world we are like Jesus. Here's the thing, we should be able to look at our lives and say, man, nothing in me wants to love that person and yet by God I can love that person.
Our loving of people does not save us, but it is evidence that we are saved. It is evidence that the Spirit lives in us. And so this is what he's saying. We will have confidence on the day of judgment when we love, empowered by the Spirit like Jesus. Verse 19. We love because He first loved. Just again rehearsing and reminding us of the gospel. We love not because we just ought to love.
We love because we have been loved by God. Whoever claims to love God yet hates his brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command. Again, here's a command. Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. Which leads us to just one question. I'll put it on the screen.
kind of just wrestle with here. Who am I struggling to love right now and what would it look like to love them with God's love?
Only you can answer that. Who am I struggling to love right now? And what would it look like to love them with God's love? Now, let me be clear. This question is not trying to keep you in a situation where you're being abused or being hurt. What it would look like to love that person in that situation is to set up good boundaries.
But for many of us, we know God has a person on our mind, maybe a family member, a coworker, a friend. What would it look like to love them? Like, there's nothing in me that wants to love them right now. Exactly. But what if the spirit in you wanted to love them? What would it look like? And so you begin to pray. Do you know how hard it is to keep hating someone you're praying for every day? It's so hard. Because
You feel like a hypocrite praying for him. Now the first time you can come to God and be like, Lord, I have no love in my heart for this person. You can deal with that. You can begin to pour into that. What would it look like? Imagine how this kind of deep, rich and sacrificial love could transform a marriage.
Imagine how it could transform a friendship.
neighborhood and a city. This is what God is calling his people to. This is why we are the hope in the world because his spirit lives in us and lives on our streets with us. My prayer is Lord make us a church that fixes our eyes on Jesus. Always remembering this is love that he came first and loved us and died.
for us. Lord, make us a church that understands that God not only loves us, but He loves through us. Lord, make us a church that loves one another. Jesus says, when you love one another, you will show the world that you're my disciples and something in that transforms the world. Friends, God is love. So let's love one another. Amen.
Let me pray for us.
God Is Holy
Ai Transcript
Amen. Thank you, Mark.
If you would, why don't we stay in Isaiah, open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 6. That's where we'll be this morning. Isaiah chapter 6.
When we kicked off this series a couple weeks back, asked the question, what comes to your mind when you think about God? I said, finish the sentence. God is... We had all sorts of wonderful answers. God is holy. God is love. God is awesome.
said God is infinite. God is merciful. Well, the next day we talked about this same question at my GC. We went around and filled in the blank. God is, and again, a lot of really strong theological answers. God is merciful. God is good. God is consistent. I like that one.
But then we had a couple answers that were raw. I love raw. God is distant. God is small.
God is not my priority. The more I thought about that, that A.W. Tozer quote from a couple of weeks ago, what comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. I just don't know if I think it's true. The Bible says even the demons have good theology and yet they tremble.
The more I've thought about it, the most important thing about you may be not be what you think, but what you believe deep down in your heart. Like the Christian philosopher James K.A. Smith says, we are not just thinking things. We are not brains on a stick. We are what we love. You are what you love.
you love. So what comes out of your heart when you ponder God that may just be the most important thing about you. Ask yourself that question. I'll give you a minute. Write it down.
Be honest with yourself that this isn't a theology quiz. What comes up out of the depths of your heart in your deepest place? What comes out when you contemplate God?
Is he really good?
Is he near? Is he distant? Can he be trusted?
Is he angry? What comes up from the deepest place within you as you contemplate? And then here's the second question. Is he holy?
Is he holy? How you answer that last question, is God holy, I believe has massive implications for your life.
Jackie Hill Perry goes so far to say this, and I think she's spot on. What is lurking behind our unbelief, so our lack of trust, what is lurking behind our unbelief is the idea that God is not holy. I mean, think about this for a second. If God is holy, if he is holy, well then he cannot sin.
If God cannot sin, he cannot sin against you. And if God cannot sin against you, then can't he be fully trusted? Again, it's so easy when we contemplate God for many of us, especially for those of us who have been hurt by people. We find it hard to trust people. It's quite natural to project that on God.
We may say God is awesome, we may even think it, but in all reality, many of us believe deep down that God is really just maybe a better image of ourselves.
So yeah, in your mind, you might know all the right answers. He is loving, infinite and good. He is self sufficient and self existent. But, sometimes the longest journey is that 18 inches from your head to your heart. My hope this morning is that we would behold a holy God.
And as we behold God in His holiness, we would believe in our deepest place that God is holy, holy, holy. And by the grace of God, as we behold and believe this holy God that we ourselves would become holy.
So if you're not already there, Isaiah 6 is where we will begin this morning. We'll start here in verse 1. And that's my outline for you note takers. Behold, believe, and become. We'll spend most of our time beholding.
Verse one, in the year that King Uzziah died, let's pause here for a minute. I want to give a little context before we jump into what the prophet Isaiah is about to share. He's about to share a lot.
I want to pick up from where we left off last week before we come into the context of King Uzziah and the story of Israel. Last week, if you remember, Moses encountered God, the self-existent one, the one who needs nothing. After Moses sees a bush on fire, yet not burning, as he curiously makes his way over, he's told to take his
sandals off because the place he is standing is holy ground. God is holy. This is where we're headed this morning.
The holiness of God, so buckle up. The holiness of God, wrecked me this week. John Calvin says this, if a preacher is not first preaching to himself, better that he falls on the steps of the pulpit and breaks his neck than preaches that sermon. Friends, I am first preaching to myself this morning.
Well, that's your God revealed to Moses who he is, namely, I am who I am or another way to say God is. Moses goes back to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery. The great I am doesn't just talk the talk. He walks.
the walk. He does what he says. And so, yes, God rescues his people. And after they cross the Red Sea, Moses finds himself back at the mountain where he first encountered God at the bush. As God meets Moses on the mountain, this scene is terrifying.
Mount Sinai is trembling, thunder, lightning, dark and threatening clouds, fire, smoke, and the sound of a loud trumpet. This is no ordinary earthquake. The people of God, Israel, are warned to not even touch this mountain because the God that just saved them is utterly holy. Then Moses goes up.
the mountain before this holy God and there the Lord gives Israel his law. This is not basic instruction before leaving earth like how some people understand the BIBLE. No, it is covenantal revelation from the God whose holiness shakes the earth. And this holy God tells Israel that if they obey his covenant, if...
They follow his law. Then they themselves will become God's own holy nation. Later in Moses's life, he's so captivated by the holiness of God that he prays this bold, audacious prayer. Lord, show me your glory. And God's like, yo, Mo.
Can't do that. You can't see my face, for no one can see me and live. But he does set him up in a rock, covers him with his hand, and lets him glimpse just the backside of his glory. Even Moses, the friend of God himself, cannot stand to be fully exposed before the fullness of divine holiness.
Often when Moses would come down from the mountain after meeting with God, his face was radiant, shining brightly with reflected glory. Israel wasn't able to handle it. So Moses would put a veil over his face. That is how weighty, fearsome, holy the presence of God is.
And most of us know how the story of Israel ends up, right? They don't keep the law. They don't live up to the covenant. They don't obey God. They fail and they fail and they fail some more. Fast forward to 1 Samuel after the Ark of God has been captured. Phineas's wife, she gives birth to a child. And on this baby dedication, she names him.
meaning God's glory has departed from Israel.
Well, the glory of God eventually comes back through people like David and his son Solomon. Eventually they build the temple. But again, it's not long before even the kingdom is divided. And apart from a few solid kings who understand God's holiness and call to people and call the people to serve this God, to become...
a holy nation. Most of these kings from the north to the south are just brutal. Brutal. They worship the gods of their surrounding nations. They don't see God as holy and so they do not become God's holy nation. And then this 16 year old cat, Uzziah, shows up on the scene.
I mean, what were you doing at age 16? I was just trying to stay eligible in school so I could play baseball. But even that was hard because I was trying to memorize and play Madden on my PS2 and watch Shaq and Comey dominate the NBA. had too much going on. Not Uzaya. Uzaya at age 16 becomes king. King of Israel.
Back to our passage in the year that King Uzziah died. This was a big deal. King Uzziah probably makes the top five of the list for Israel's greatest kings. So this year that this king died would have thrown this nation into a frenzy.
political turmoil. He reigned over Israel for 52 years. Could you imagine? It's like Queen Elizabeth longevity. Early in his life, he was marked by nothing but godliness. This was a holy man.
zealous for the God of his forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He brought innovation and prosperity to the land of Israel, only second to people like David and Solomon themselves. But unfortunately, his life didn't end the way it began. At the end of his life, he lost sight of the holiness of God.
He decided, I'm a pretty good king. The priest needs some help. Why don't I take the role of what the priest should do? I can go in there. Fearing God simply means to take God at His word, to take God serious.
Proverbs says that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. At some point in Uzziah's life, he stopped fearing God. He got too comfortable with God. That's what wrecked me this week. He forgot, and I pray we don't, that God is holy.
And because of that, his final days were marked with shame and disgrace as God struck him with leprosy. A bad end to an otherwise great life. But like Tiger Woods, even with a tragic ending, everyone still remembers who Uzziah once was. And so in his passing, Israel is grieving. And then God shows up to the prophet Isaiah.
in a vision. Look with me at verse one again. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings.
With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew, and one called to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with...
Smoke.
The prophet Isaiah is given a vision of the Lord high and exalted on his throne. If you were here with us during our revelation series, maybe some of this sounds familiar.
And what this meant to, to Isaiah is that the Lord in verse one, capital L lowercase O R D this is Adonai or the sovereign Lord showing Isaiah and us that even amidst political turmoil, God reigns in majesty over all things.
Then the train of his robe fills the temple. This stresses the overwhelming weight of his glory and his presence. We also see the seraphim standing above him as heavenly attendants, emphasizing that even the most exalted creatures are not self-existent.
They exist to serve this self-existent sovereign king. And as they cover their faces, because even they can't look at God's holiness, it's that bright. God doesn't have light. God is light. And what does one of them do? The only thing you can do in the presence of God. Praise him. Holy.
Holy... Holy...
Then the thresholds shake while the temple fills with smoke. Picture the scene, this vision, showing us loud and clear that Isaiah is standing before the Holy Lord. Verse three, L-O-R-D, all caps. The covenant name of God, Yahweh. Holy, holy.
pastor theologian. This was his wheelhouse and I've listened to many asproul sermons over the years. And though like we said in our first sermon in this God is series, we are not called to rank the attributes of God. Remember, all that is in God is God. But I do love what Dr. R.C. brings out.
There's no other attribute in the Bible that is given this thrice language. Never do we see love, love, love is the Lord God Almighty or justice, justice, justice is the Lord of hosts. But we do have this phrase, holy, holy, holy is the Lord.
Now, if you know me and you get texts from me, if I'm ever excited and want to emphasize something, I may throw down like 50 exclamation marks as my high school teacher rolls over in her grave.
But we have ways to emphasize things in our culture, to say this is important. Maybe for you, you embolden your font, or you use italics, or you begin to speak real slow when you're about to say something.
Well, in ancient Judaism, happens when words get put on repeat. And in big moments of redemptive history, this is what we see. Awake, awake.
Moses, Peace, peace. Abraham, Abraham. If you read in the gospels, you'll see this with Christ Jesus himself. Right, he says, truly.
Truly, it's the Greek word, amen. Jesus is such a good preacher, he's not gonna wait for the crowd to say amen. Real talk, I don't even know if Jesus would get an amen if he preached in this church. Just saying.
So what does he do? He says it prior to the sermon. Amen, amen. What we translate truly, truly. He's saying lock in. Lock in. What I'm about to say is going to transform your life.
But get three repeats. Now this is more than an emphasis. It's the highest amplification. So when we hear holy, holy, holy, we know this is a holiness in which nothing can compare. Now what does holy mean?
Great question. Again, R.C. Sproul says, term holy, as it is used in the Bible to describe God, refers to both his nature and his character. So let's flesh that out. Regarding God's nature, holy, holy, holy refers to his greatness, his transcendence, his otherness.
Regarding his character, holiness refers to his purity, his ethical and moral excellence. Theologian Matthew Barrett says, his holiness is the supreme, highest, greatest good that can be imagined.
And if Anselm is right, which I quoted a couple of weeks back, that God is a being in whom none greater can be conceived. And it's also true that God is a being in which, in whom none holier can be conceived. Holy, holy, holy. This word literally means set apart.
Set apart. Set apart. Set apart.
wife, Holly is the best neighbor. know we have, we know so many of our neighbors because of Holly. Well, this week I got a ring on the doorbell and I opened the door to meet one of my neighbors for the first time, an older gentleman who lives down our street, Terry. He came to drop off his mom's China.
She she she's been passed for some time and though he's never used them, he also has felt weird about selling them to a stranger. So of course, give them to Holly. Now these dishes are no ordinary dishes. I don't know how many times we are going to eat off these plates or drink out of these cups, but let me tell you, it will only be for a special occasion. These dishes are set apart.
Not for Joey to eat his mac and cheese and hot dogs on. Well, God is set apart on a whole nother level. God is holy par excellence. In His transcendence, His holiness is utterly other. Holy, holy, holy. And in His purity, His holiness is moral and ethical perfection.
God is light in him. There is no darkness at all. Holy, holy, holy. And like Mark mentioned last week, when we see God rightly, we begin to see ourselves rightly. And friends, there's nothing that threatens us more than the holiness of God.
But unless you behold God as holy, you can't truly believe deep down in your heart, in your deepest place, that He is holy. Which takes us to our second point. Believe. We behold, then we believe. Look with me at verse five. Isaiah six, verse five.
After Isaiah encounters the Holy God, verse five, I said, woe is me for I am lost. From a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Like I said, nothing threatens us more than the holiness of God.
Because when you encounter this God, holy, holy, holy, you also see how much you fall short of His glory. In His light, our darkness exposed. Do remember when Peter becomes a follower of Christ?
Peter, who becomes this apostle and amazing leader in the early church, he's fishing all night, catches nothing. Then Jesus is on the shore, tells him, put out your net for a catch. Peter, probably so frustrated, like, dude, I fish for a living. You're a rabbi. Are you telling me how to do my job? But like a respectful Jew that Peter was, he says, at your word, rabbi. I'll do it.
And in that moment, if you remember, he catches so many fish that the weight of them causes his boat to begin to sink. But that's not the only thing sinking in this moment. Do you remember what Peter says to Jesus? Jesus, who is the exact imprint of God, holy, holy, holy, like Isaiah before him, Peter says, depart from me.
Leave. Get away from me, for I am a sinful man.
Have you encountered the Holy God?
Have you encountered this holy God? Have you seen God rightly and in doing so see yourself rightly? One of my fears in the American church and is one of its pastors is that so many people sitting in the pews and preaching from the pulpits have never experienced God as holy, holy, holy.
We might have all the right answers as to who God is, but our hearts have not been undone by his holiness. But when we behold God in all his holiness, we begin to believe deep down in our hearts, our deepest place that God is holy.
Holy, and this, changes everything. Which leads to our third point, our application this morning. Become. Look with me at verse six. Become.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth and said, behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for. The burning coal is a sign that sinners like Isaiah.
like you, like I cannot survive the holiness of God unless God himself provides atonement. The altar points to sacrifice, the cleansing points to forgiveness, and then this whole scene, is merely a shadow pointing us to the fulfillment that we have in Jesus.
who as the holy, holy, holy Son of God becomes a man, takes on flesh, and by his sinless life and sacrificial death on the cross brings atonement once and for all. Atonement at one.
with God, in other words, making sinful people like you and I stand in the presence of Almighty God.
you
And as we behold God in His holiness and then we believe that God is holy, we become. By faith and faith alone, we become God's holy people.
Be holy as I am holy. That's what Peter says.
Yet that is our application. But the problem, I think, is people see a text like this, pull up their bootstraps, and in their own strength try really, really hard to be holy. And praise God for striving after holiness. The author of Hebrews says, without it, no one will see the Lord.
But we must realize because of the gospel friends, we are already God's holy people. Peter says, you are a holy nation. Paul calls Christians saints, holy ones because of the gospel. have been sanctified. We have been set apart. We are holy.
And yes, we're called to more holiness. We're called to continue to be sanctified. God wants to see radical transformation in all of our lives. By the grace of God, we'll look more like Jesus tomorrow than we did today. But all of this is possible because you are already set apart. You are holy.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are spirit-filled saints. Would you look at yourself in the mirror and see? Saint. The call now is to be who we already are in Christ.
Imagine if we lived out our calling as God's holy nation, a church who didn't just know the right things about God, but believed in our hearts that God is holy.
Because of that, he can be taken at his word. He can be trusted. A holy people who rightly fear their holy God. The people who, like the author of Hebrews says, are grateful because we've received a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus, a people who offered to this holy God.
acceptable worship with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire. Let's behold, believe, and become. Amen. Amen. Let me pray.
God Is Self-Existent and Self-Sufficient
AI Transcript
Good morning. It's good to see all the smiling faces.
Last Monday, two weeks ago, I was so looking forward to saying Amen on Easter and then just relaxing. Like, full cards on the table. The last six months have been probably the hardest, the most work I've ever done in ministry. And so after seven weeks of preaching in a row, after going through compelled, after all that, like I was just so looking forward to just...
relaxing and to looking forward to catching up on so many years of my life that I've just let go by the wayside and But God had other plans because after saying amen on Easter on Monday You get that feeling where you're like, oh, I feel like I'm getting sick here, but I ignored it and Got hit. I don't know. I got a hit by the doctor said the flu walking pneumonia, whatever I had a fever for eight days straight. So
I was just laid up in bed like I was like, this going to break? I'm going to break. So that was not awesome at all. And I was so bummed to not be able to join you guys last week as we had baptisms and just to be able to celebrate all that God is doing there. even now, even now as I stand, like it's still there. Like I just, I'm tired. So I might pass out, but.
I tried this week to turn my attention to, okay, what am I preaching on? And as I was beginning to unpack that in very small bits, because I didn't have enough energy to really dig into it, I was just reminded of the gift of sickness, the gift of weakness. We are in this series where we're lifting our eyes and beholding the
the majesty of the person of God. I was reminded this week as we look at this topic, and you can begin to look, go to Exodus 3 is where we're going to be at. But I was reminded in this topic that we're going to look at what theologians call the aseity of God. It simply means this, that God is eternally self-existent and God is eternally self-sufficient.
the weakness of sickness and not being able to get out of bed is just this, contrast there couldn't be more contrasted. Like where I am totally weak, which is true every day, I just don't live like it. God is not. God is eternally self-existent and self-sufficient. And he is the only one who is that. So a couple charts to help you just get that in your head. So the first one here is
What is created? Go to the next slide. So uncreated, only God. What is crea... That should say created, sorry. That's bad theology.
The second one should say, created. I was sick. I need some grace.
What's that? Anathema. know. You should walk out now. All right. So this simple chart, what's uncreated? God. Who made God? No one made God. God is eternally self-examined. What else is created? Everything else. Everything we see in the whole universe. Okay. Let's see if the next chart is wrong. Next one. What is self-sufficient? Only God. What is totally dependent? Every molecule of the cosmos is totally dependent on God's sustaining work.
And so as I was just realizing my weakness, my sickness, I just realized that this is a gift. It is always a gift to realize that we aren't what we think we are. We aren't as strong as we think we are. We're not as capable as we think we are. We're not... In every way, we are limited. And that's a good thing. We are finite. This is kind of a gift. Because most of my days, I live like you live.
with this idea that I'm in control. I decide what's going on. I decide what good things are going to come in my life. And I look through the trie... And I'm like, yeah, I can do some things. Most of my days, I am self-focused and believing I'm in control. It's the air that we breathe, right? Post-enlightenment, post-modern, post-everything world. We have this idea in our culture that...
Well, whatever you say, you can define yourself in any way you want to define yourself. Whatever you want to be, you could be like just go out, put in the work, put in the grind and you can have like, this is the air that we breathe, right? And it sounds like because it's the air we breathe, we're like, yeah, that's right. And true. We got to create our own identity. We got to create our own worth and value and, and, and show the world that we're worthy. And, and on the surface, that sounds good, but, but, but in reality is
It's absolutely exhausting. Like when we are just doing everything we can to make a name for ourselves, doing everything we can to show the world and to show ourselves that we are valuable and worth it. Like to live under that pressure, it's too much pressure. And this is why so many people just feel so burdened. And so it is a gift whenever we can wake up to our finitude, to our weakness. We can't do it all.
There's no one in here that wears a cape even though we think we can. Calvin, at the very beginning of his most famous work, The Institutes, he opens up the work like this. says, nearly all wisdom we possess, that is to say true and sound wisdom, consist of two parts. The knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves.
The knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. When we see God clearly and we see ourselves clearly, now we can begin to walk in wisdom. Now we can live as God created us to live. But there's a problem in this world, It is the problem of sin that distorts and twists everything. Augustine had this theology in the city of God and Confessions that Martin Luther later
came along and in Latin it means this, Incurvatus Inse. It means sin is a life curved in on itself. Where your whole focus just starts to become your self. And so we don't love God rightly because we're not related. We don't love others rightly because we're curved in on our self. Incurvatus Inse. And this is a huge problem for us.
If we aren't intentional, we will live life as if the only thing that matters is what I'm dealing with, what I want, what other people will make much of me. Like this is just the default of the sin-filled heart. I want to give a shout out to my wife, her first book of eight, Enough About Me, Finding Lasting Joy in the Age of Self.
The solution, if the problem is curved in on yourself, then we've got to somehow uncurl ourselves, unfocus on ourselves, somehow lift our eyes. This is the path to actual joy, actual life for us. You can take that down, but get the book so I can get some money.
Thanks for writing that book. Many years ago I heard Pastor John Piper use this illustration. I think it's so helpful that helps me understand this incurbitous insight, how we live our lives, and the need to kind of open up. He says it's the difference between a microscope and a telescope. Maybe you've heard this before, a microscope and a telescope. And if you think about it,
What does a microscope do? A microscope takes that which is infinitesimally small and it blows it up. So you can see it. But like when we live our lives oriented towards the microscope, what we're doing is we're looking through the lens and we're seeing the stuff of our lives. The problems, the successes, the challenges, the relations. Like everything just seems massive. Like look how big this problem is. Because we're looking through the microscope.
theology done well is looking through the telescope. The telescope does what? It takes that which is massive, that which is almost incomprehensible, and it brings it into perspective. It helps us order things rightly. so to live rightly, to know who we are, to know who God is, we've got to move away from the microscope.
focusing on our own lives and take some time to look through the telescope. That's what this God is series is about. It's just a, it's an uncurling, it's a beholding who God is. What we need to know is that all theology, all theology you know is a gift from God. But like if you know anything true about God, it's first and foremost because it was a gift from God.
to you. It is God revealing Him. Like God didn't have to reveal anything. And to be sure, God is infinite and we are finite. So as Pastor Rick said last week, there will never be a moment in eternity where we will have arrived at all the knowledge of God. This is the glory of eternity. There will never be a moment where we aren't just filled with more awe, more wonder, more knowledge.
More discovery like this goes on and on and on and on forever. This is the beauty of eternity with God. But God has revealed some things about himself in different ways that we get to study. We get to look through the telescope if you will. And how has God revealed himself? Let me give you some examples through general revelation and special revelation. What is that? So general revelation is God reveals himself to
creation through his creation. This is Romans chapter one for the for since the beginning of the world the things that have been seen point to as a divine nature and eternal nature. So we can behold the heavens declare the glory of God for example Psalm 19. We can see God's providence directing the course of human history. This is another part of general revelation that the conscious that God has given to humans and human nature.
Just that there is some right and there is some wrong. This is what theologians call general revelation. We can know something about God just by observing the world that he's created and put us in. But that general revelation is not sufficient to come to know him personally, to know specifically what it is God like. We needed special revelation for that. So the special revelation is a few things.
God's redemptive acts in the world. So redemptive acts of God where he intervenes into his creation. What we're going to read about one of them in Exodus chapter three. When God reveals his word either by himself or through his prophets or or apostles these are divinely given words that special revelation. So we learn something. Ultimately the way we see who God is we look to Jesus.
in the incarnation as He came and lived among us and loved. Like what is God like? Look to Jesus. This is the whole point of the book of Hebrews. Like He is the exact image of who God is. So as we behold Jesus, we see who God is. And then captured in all that is the Word of God. These 66 books to you and to me and to God's people too.
capture that, to study that. So we as God's people, we as people can look at creation, we can look at special revelation, and we can know something of God. And we should know something of God. We don't know all the things for sure, but God has revealed Himself to us. So if you have your Bible, Exodus chapter three is where we're going to be at today. Exodus chapter three, Genesis, Exodus, the second book of the Bible. Let me set this up here. So at this point,
salvation history. God's people have been enslaved in Egypt. 400 years, their cries are going up to a God that they don't even really know. But we read in chapter 1 that God hears their cries and he begins to move. Well Moses is born, but Moses, you may remember his life is preserved. He grows up as a prince of Egypt.
Though he's Hebrew, he grows up in Pharaoh's household with all the wealth and the prestige and the power that is afforded to that, the most powerful man on the planet at that time with the most powerful army in human history up until this point. But Moses also comes to find out and realizes he's also a Hebrew and he sees this disconnect between his life, his comfortable, opulent life. And then you've got his people just being oppressed.
And so when he's about 40 years old, he sees an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew and he's like, oh, I'm the guy. I've got power. I'm going to take things in my own hand. And he murders the Egyptian, buries him in the sand, and he feels pretty good about himself until he's caught and they seek his life. And he has to run for his life. And he spends the next 40 years in the wilderness, gets married, and for 40 years, from age 40 to 80,
His job is just to look at the backside of sheep all day. I mean, is he's like, how did I go from Prince of Egypt to here? And in Exodus, chapter three, he's on the side of this mountain Mount Horeb or later gets called Mount Sinai. He sees this bush on fire that's not burning up and it catches his attention and he turns to to to see what is going on. And in that he hears God's special revelation.
revealed to him the voice of God. in verse four of chapter three says listen carefully this is God's word says when the Lord saw that he had gone over to look God called to him from within the bush Moses Moses as Moses said here I am he's calling to him but but then verse five do not come any closer God said take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is
holy ground. It's this picture of God who is both transcendent above and beyond everything and imminent close here now. It's this picture of like come close don't come too close. Like this is the tension we have with God right? Come close don't come too close. And so as he comes close God begins to reveal and says I have
I've seen the suffering of my people. And in fact, I'm going to do something about it. It's time to act Moses. And in verse 10, he says to Moses, so now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt. This is, this is crazy, right? You go.
He has this encounter with the living God and he gives Moses this great commission. You're going to go. But Moses does what you and I do. When God calls us to something great, we're like, well, who am I? Don't you know my failures? Don't you know my past? Don't you know my weakness? I can't go, Lord. I know you've given me a commission to go and make disciples, but that's...
That's for the extra credit Christians. That's for other people like not me. I'm too weak. I'm too frail. I'm too broken. I have too much sin. My past. You can't use me. And God's like what do you what are you talking about? You go. And so he asked this question of of God. Verse 11. It's a question we ask. Moses said to God who am I. Who am I. Who am I to do anything for God. Now remember
God is eternally self-existent and self-sufficient. What that means is that God has no needs. So what that means, sometimes people will say stuff to me like, God just really needs me to do this one thing. I'm like, no. God does not need you to do anything. God doesn't need Redemption Parker to do anything. Get that very clear. Sometimes people are like, well, God needs me to No, he does not.
That's blasphemy to think that God has any need, any deficiency. Like sometimes people will be like, well, God created people because he was lonely. No, he has no need. He's eternally self existent and self sufficient. is in the Trinity is perfect unity love like zero need. And so then we have to ask the question, if God has no need, then why does he give us commission?
Because he's inviting us to a life of purpose and meaning to join our story with his eternal story. It's a gift to us to be invited in. It's a gift to Moses to receive this commission. But Moses does what we do. He's in curvidus in say, he's like, who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? It's a question of identity.
And the answer to that, God gives, is the answer that He gives throughout Scripture. Verse 12. God said, will be with you. Who am I? Don't worry, I'm with you. Listen, if we understand who God is, the eternally self-existent, eternally self-sufficient, all that God is, when God says, I will be with you, that should be the end of the story. sweet, we're good. Let's go.
But sometimes it takes some growth in our faith, right? It says, will be with you and this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. It'll be the same place where they receive the law of God. Look how God speaks. He speaks with absolute certainty because why? He stands outside of time. He knows this will happen and this will happen.
We think we know, we live like that, and then I'm going to do this and I'm going to accomplish this, but we don't know. We think we're going to have a great time after Easter and then we're just in bed for eight days. It's just how it is. We don't know, but God knows. So, when God says, will be with you, it is this promise of God for the people of God. God with us, verse 13. Moses said to...
God suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they asked me what is his name then what shall I tell them so that the question moves on from a question of who am I to someone saying well I'm to be with you then okay well then who are you who are you what am I going to tell them and he's asking for the name of this God now in the ancient Near East he's not just asking to exchange business cards
He's not like, I just need a label. Names were your family heritage. It was your background. It spoke to your capacity and ability, your nature. And so he's like, I need to know who you are. What do I tell these Israelites that I'm going to lead out of Egypt? And this verse, verse 14, becomes the central verse in our understanding of who...
God is throughout the rest of the Bible. In fact, the rest of the Bible is an exposition on verse 14. It explains and unpacks what is verse 14. God said to Moses, I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites. I am has sent me to you.
Moses' brain blows up a little bit. Like, I was asking for a noun and you gave me a verb. More than that, you gave me a verbal phrase. What do you mean? I'm looking for a label and you gave me a whole theology. I am who I am. It is, am who I am. Or it is the verb to be, I be. It encapsulates past, present, and future. I was.
I am, I will be, I am who I am. And Moses is like, I don't understand what you're saying. This is too much. Let me help explain this. on the next slide, the Hebrew is at the top. The little dots below the Hebrew, so you would read that right to left, the little dots below the Hebrew were added in the sixth century. They're vowels. Hebrew as a language doesn't have vowels.
And so in the sixth century, they're like, well, how do we actually pronounce some things? And so the best they could possibly do is come up with vowels and we transliterate that Y-H-W-H. This would be where we get the words. Some translations say Jehovah. They're adding a whole bunch of vowels in that. Others, sometimes we say, Yahweh. But we don't know. We honestly don't know. This is the I am who I am to be.
You got to understand in the history of God's people how sacred the name is. Like in Hebrew class when we would be reading, we would not say the name out loud. We would take on the the Messianic Jewish tradition where we would replace the name Yahweh with Adonai, a generic name. just we wanted to be sacred with that. If there was a Messianic Jew in our class.
And for whatever reason in a test or something you had to write the divine name in Hebrew. They would take that piece of paper and keep it safe for the rest of their lives. The name is sacred. I don't know what you do with a PowerPoint. I guess I'll keep the USB for the rest of my life. But this name I am who I am is packed with theology. We get I am from.
In your Bibles if you see the word Lord all caps it's the divine name. It's it's this I am sent you. That's who you are to tell him. It's it and it has this Hebrew emphasis again they don't have exclamation points so it's I am who I am. It's emphasizing God's freedom. He alone has absolute freedom in the universe to do whatever he wants. It emphasizes his consistency. I was I am I will be.
forever and ever and ever. There is no changing in who God is. It emphasizes a call to us to complete trust and hope. What is God saying to Moses and by extension to us? He's saying, I am the center of everything. I am running the show. I am the same today, tomorrow and forever. I am the Lord.
everything. am the Lord. I am the owner of everything. I am the creator and sustainer of all life in the universe. I am the Savior. I am more than enough. I am inexhaustible and immeasurable. I am God. That's how he answers Moses question. Well who are you?
And did you notice in answering the second question, who are you? God also answers the first question. Well, who am I? Did you see that in that name? Let me help you. I am not the center of everything. I am not running the show. I am not in control. I am not the solution. I am not the owner of anything.
I am not all powerful. I am not the savior. I am not the Lord. It's important to understand because then we see things rightly. All wisdom begins with knowing who God is and who we are and then living in light of reality. So there are aspects of the character and nature of God that we are called to emulate to.
model to try to become. But then there are other aspects that we are not called to emulate. Theologians break it up in these ways. The communicable and incommunicable attributes of God. We get in trouble when we don't understand which one they are. So let me give you some... let's get... So incommunicable attributes. Only God has these and he does not expect us to in any way try to be these things. We are not infinite.
So embrace your finiteness. We are not, we are comprehensible. God is incomprehensible. God is self-existent. We are not self-existent. God is self-sufficient. We are not self-sufficient. God is eternal. We are not eternal. God is immutable, unchangeable. And we change every day. Every day my eyes get a little worse now.
We are not omnipresent. can't be everywhere. But God is. We are not omniscient. No matter what you think, Jack GPT is telling you. We do not know all things. We are not omnipotent. We do not have all power. God never asks us to be any of these things. In fact, it's when we try to be these things that the world gets broken.
This was the first set that you can be like God if you eat this fruit. You can have power and all authority. It's a lie. We can't but we can be and should be the communicable. We are called to be holy like God is holy. We were called to love imagine if we just leverage our life to love like God loves. We are called to be just and good and merciful and gracious long suffering wise jealous.
for His glory, because He is worthy of all praise, honor, and worship. We are called to be faithful, righteous, truthful. This is why we study these things. We understand this is what the Lord is calling us to and empowering us to do. So God is eternally self-existent and self-sufficient. Throughout this whole series, as we look at God, we should end with this question. So what? What does it mean
that God is eternally self-existent and self-sufficient. What does that mean for us? Here's what it means. And some of you need to hear this. We all need to hear this. It means the pressure's off. The pressure's off. You're not God. And that's a good thing. The world is exhausted trying to define themselves and prove their worth. It's exhausting to always try to show
the world you're worthy. God says you're worthy. I am saying, who said you had to create your own identity? God is the only one who creates his own identity. We don't. We can rest in who he says we are.
So I am not. But here's the beautiful thing in Christ in a relationship with him which by the way you read John's gospel it's a whole exhibition on this. Nine times Jesus says I am in John's gospel. I am the bread of life. I am the way the truth in life. I am I am I am. So I am not. But in Christ I know I am. I am not.
but I get to know I am. This is the beauty of what we're invited into, the story of God. And so it means you're off the hook. You don't have to prove yourself. You don't have to show the world that you're worthy of praise and worth. Here's the thing. Don't take this the wrong way. You and I and everyone in this room, we're average. Your kids are average.
What? Not my kids. We're average. Our marriages are average. Let's just even say you're not average compared to God. We're nothing. We're just here for a very limited time and that's okay. God sees.
Again, I know the call you average is not the way to build a big church in America. The way to build a big church is like, man, you guys are so awesome. You got this. You're going to go out and just absolutely crush it this week. And here's a couple of God pieces for you to help you out. Like, God, some divine CrossFit coach cheering you on. No. No, that's not the way to build a big church. But there's two problems with that. That message of you got this, you're awesome, you're going to crush it.
That becomes crushing to ourselves, first of all. And secondly, it's not true. The message of Bible isn't that you're awesome, you got this, you're going to crush it. The message of the Bible is God is awesome. God's got this. He's crushing it. And He's with us. Amen? Amen. So, what if we were a church that held out before us or looked through the telescope constantly just reminded that God
is self-existent, self-sufficient. What if we didn't expect ourselves or others to be what only God can be in our lives? Man, how much better would your marriage be if you didn't expect your spouse to be God in your life? How much more freedom would you give yourself to be like, man, I am, I'm limited, I'm frail, I don't have it all together. That's okay. I know who does.
I know who does. So theology again is meant to give us freedom, give us peace. It's meant to recalibrate our hearts and our minds and our lives. And so if you got a bulletin on your way and you can see on the back there's just some questions for reflection. Hopefully sometime this week maybe you have a meal with your spouse or with your kids or at your gospel community and just think about these things. In light of who God is, in light of who we are, what does this mean?
Well, I want to pray and then we're going to do communion and then I'm going to come up and give some update on on compelled. But let's just go before the God who is with us, the God who is eternal. Now, what a gift it is that he invites us to this. Let's pray. Amen.
Amen. Well I wanted to celebrate with you. I to give an update if you're just joining us welcome. If you've just been here for a couple of weeks welcome but for six weeks we turned our attention to this idea. What does it look like for a body of Christ to be compelled by the love of Christ. Second Corinthians 4 5 14 where Christ writes where Paul writes
Christ's compels us. As a church at this crossroads moment, what does that mean for us? This two-year discipleship journey. We said it looks like this, and we're just at the beginning of it, but it looks like continuing to go deeper in our love for Christ, our relationship with Christ, spurring one another on, encouraging one another, doing life together. It's just what God has already called us to.
It means going wider on mission with Christ. What would it look like if we together leaned in and sacrificed together to go wider, to reach one more person for Christ, to reach one more generation for Christ, to live in such a way that ten generations are blessed by our faith and our sacrifice here and now. And so many of you have sent so many stories of encouragement and love like
Different parts of this journey have spoken to different people. Some are like, man, I am just compelled for one more. Like Jesus was compelled. Others are like, man, I think it's really important that our youngest image bearers have a place where they can grow up and hear the gospel. And others are like, I've never thought about living a life that 10 generations from now will be blessed by my faith. I'm so encouraged by that. Yeah. And then forward together.
One of the hardest, hardest, hardest things for a church to do is to come from that stage of church plant set up and tear down every week to have a place where they can call home and establish an outpost of light in the kingdom of darkness. And so part of this is just a call. We've bought land. We're going to build a building. But that's incredibly difficult to get to. It's so expensive for...
For a church to get to that point, but we believe that God was calling us to it So, let me just remind you our primary goal was just 100 % engagement that all who in whatever way shape or form called this church your church home That you would lean in Compelled by the love of Christ. And so we we sought the Lord we fasted we prayed And to have absolutely everyone at RP play a role in compelled. We've asked you to lean in
Now, as covenant members, you've already committed to give sacrificially and you've done that. You do that. I just want to say it's such a privilege and honor as we step back to see our people go above and beyond what we've asked. Paul writes, if you remember my last message, compelled by generosity, Paul writes to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 8, that the Macedonians gave not only what they could
up to the limit that they were able to give, but beyond. And that's what you guys have done. Like that's what is just blowing, like the evidences of God's grace are so huge in our midst right now. We should all be encouraged. But engagement is not just something that can be merely quantified. Engagement is something that will continue through the next two years of this initiative.
and is better celebrated as an illustration in the Numbers. So before I get to any Numbers, our team has just done an incredible job of just kind of capturing some of the ways that God has been moving in people's heart as people press on to go deeper, wider, and forward. And so I have a short video that we'll share here with you on
There are moments in the life of a church when God brings his people to a crossroads. These are moments when God calls his people to courageous faith to step forward into what he is doing next. God has brought us to another defining moment because God has exceeded our hopes, grown his church, and is now calling us to take the next step of faith at this crossroads. This moment is not accidental. It is part of a much larger story, God's story, and in this season and in this place,
It is our turn. I would say the culture of RRP is authentic people trying to authentically follow Jesus Christ. It's a place where you can know others deeply and be known and people truly care and see one another on a daily basis. I'm compelled and driven by the need to build a Christian kingdom and community that the next generation can be excited to.
I am compelled to continue to invest in Redemption Parker because of the impact I've already seen it make in the lives of its members and also children specifically. What excites me about the future of RP and this compel specifically for our youth is that you can point to pretty much any person who is a believer and say that at some point someone decided to invest in them. This is a place where you can be seen, known, and loved.
And at the same time, we're pointing them back to the truth and the goodness of the gospel. As I look at Redemption Parker and the next two years in this compelled initiative, I'm definitely convicted on how am I giving? Am I giving sacrificially? Am I giving generously? You know, can I give more? I stirred up some really great conversation with my wife and I, just how do we be more involved and engaged with what we're doing at RP, and how do we dig in just deeper? It's such a delight to see people who love the gospel and love Christ.
But they don't stop at being welcomed in by him. They work hard laying down their lives to welcome in others. And I think that's what's gonna compel us forward.
How I want to grow deeper in my relationship with Jesus is getting baptized and reading the Bible every day. I can be generous by bringing an offering each week. I want to give generously by giving toys away when people have none. I want to give generously by giving money to the church. I want to spread the gospel by teaching people about Jesus and praying for them.
Our compelled commitment means putting down roots where our kids and family will be known and loved and poured into and getting to provide that opportunity for many more families to come. The compelled initiative to us just means a place for us to call home. We've been searching for home and a place for our kids to feel at home. That's what Redemption Parker has been for us. This compelled commitment means to us a place to know and be known, a place to establish roots for our
children and their children and future generations. One year ago, almost to the exact date, we walked into RP not knowing what to expect and we were greeted with an amount of warmth and kindness that compelled us to come back and standing here one year later, we have been compelled to give back to this church hoping that future generations are able to feel the same way that we have felt for the past year.
As we step into this season together, Christ is calling us to go deeper in our discipleship, trusting Him with every part of our lives, to reach wider in our mission, living as sent people for the sake of others, to move forward in faith, building for generations we will never see. We move forward together compelled by the love of Christ. This is God's story, and in this moment and in this place, it is our turn.
All right, let me share some numbers with you, first of all. So let me remind you, if you've been around, know our normal operating budget is about a million dollars a year. So that covers our missions, it covers our staff, it covers renting this facility, it covers everything we normally do. And so that number itself is actually an amazing number. Like you guys have grown in your generosity over the years.
just as a testimony of God's grace. So a million dollars a year is amazing. If you were to do that over two years, you could say like, we would expect to receive about $2 million in operating expenses over the next two years. But we've grown a ton in that. So.
Now it's time to reveal the number, right? Is that the next slide? wait, I didn't tell the households, sorry. I got ahead of myself. I wanna share some numbers here, first of all. So total households and singles who are committed to this compelled journey. So we had 124 households make a compelled commitment. Let's praise God for that. That's huge.
That represents over 412 men, women, and children made in God's image saying, we are leaning in, we're all in on this place. That's an amazing number that, that, cause again, our primary goal was 100 % engagement, the people to lean in. Now of that number of the 124 households, we had some that
for the very first time that it took a step of discipleship and say, yeah, I've never given here before, but I'm going to start giving. was 34 households that first time give it. Let's praise God for that.
Again, that's like over a hundred people that are like, okay, we're in. We're for that. We believe that Christ's love should compel us. So excited for all that God has done in us and through us in this. Again, what we believe God is calling us to is not easy. It takes all of us. And some of you are going to jump in and join us even today. There's still time, right? But for most of us, this has been an incredible journey together as we've seen.
God move in ways we have not seen him do before. But God gets all the glory. Again, our normal budget's a million a year. Over two years, that would be two million. And so, are you ready for our total commitments and expected gifts over the next few years? Go ahead click on that. So we got, in commitments, we got...
Four million. Let's praise the Lord for that.
Just again, like what Paul said about the Macedonians, they gave to what they could give and they gave beyond that. Let me tell you why I'm just so excited about this. This is such an amazing number for a church like us and a stage where I just want to, as your pastor, thank you. Thank you for taking a huge and significant step of faith in partnership with your brothers and sisters, in partnership with the family of God. I cannot wait to see what God will continue to do in us.
and through us as we take bold steps. here's the thing. You might remember our secondary goal for compel was actually 4.5 million over the next two years. But let me just say this. It's a two year journey. There's still time to join us. Others will join us. I think we'll actually probably crush our goal. And I praise God for that. Some of you may join us. In fact, we got a commitment today. I'm like, man.
You can do that even today. You can make a commitment. You can go online. But let me tell you why I'm super, super, super encouraged by this. I have a friend, church in Texas, they were doing an expansion on their church. It's Texas. So they needed 50 million dollars for their expansion. But I know something that the church doesn't know. I know that he's got these connections to these young oil guys and he went off and had a retreat with them and the oil guys committed 50 million dollars.
before the church did anything. I was like, well, that's nice for you. Doesn't take any faith for you, pastor.
Let me tell you why this number is so, so, so, so encouraging. Some of you know like, often times churches are funded by the few. Where 10 % give 90 % of the budget. Where then they make their goal and they have a celebration. That's not our church. Here's why this number is so exciting. Because so many of you are sacrificing so
But there's a question in your mind. There's a question in my mind who sacrificing a lot is if I make this sacrifice will others and the resounding answer for the from your brothers and sisters your fellow covenant church members is yes Yes, they are sacrificing this like like we don't have any very large gifts, but what we have is everyone Holding hands together saying we will do this together. Can we just praise the Lord for that?
Tricia, I'm sorry I'm cutting into your time. me just, let me try to, she's like, yeah, we have no time left. So again, this is just the beginning of the journey. We call it today our first big give. Some of you have already started and have given. If you haven't, now would be a great time to begin to fulfill that commitment. Let me explain why it's so important to start even sooner rather than later. I do want you to know that the elders, all of their families, Jen and I,
Like we're sacrificing more than we've ever sacrificed before. And I only say that to say, hey, we would not ask you to do what we're not willing to do ourselves. We believe that there's a scriptural precedent. We need to lead the way. So Jen and I are going to write the largest check we've ever written before because we believe a couple of things. That giving is not only God's grace through us, it is God's grace to us. Like we get to invest in eternity. We get to reap eternal rewards for that.
gonna give. Now let me give you a quick update on the land, the building, all that stuff. we had hoped to close on the land in December, but then there was a little hang up with the county. They're gonna have a hearing in May, should go through smooth, pray for us. Once that gets closed, we have the money you've already given to pay cash for that. The architects and the builders are working together right now doing the construction documents. That's where they pick the actual like stones and lights and all that stuff and getting bids on all that.
by the end of the summer, we could be breaking ground. Which is praise God for that.
We're dealing with church lenders because again even that doesn't cover all that. But so this is why we say if possible if you're able to give up front just like you going to get a mortgage we want to show the best financials possible to get the best deal possible. So if you could if you have that capacity begin now to do that. So the best response and the reminder from David and everything anything we give is only because God first gave it to us.
Like we don't pat ourselves on the back actually. All the glory goes to God. So I'm going to pray and we're going to worship and we're going have some ice cream. Amen? Amen. Let me pray.
God Is…
AI Transcript
Man, thank you Ryan. Yes, and you guys should sign up for that church history class. I believe Lainey will be teaching that class as a 12 week class at Denver Seminary in the fall. So she's going to do it in four weeks for us. There's no required reading or homework. So you can just come in and hear about the history of our history, our brothers and our sisters, a class on church history. We do have a big...
Institute season ahead we got a theology on the ground. Remember those. They're back starting next week. So we're bringing out the world renowned New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg and he's going to talk about a faith that can answer apologetics in a world of competing truth. Obviously that there's not.
competing truths there is one truth but but but but but this is gonna be a fun time where we can engage this is a time that that you can bring your unbelieving friends and family members skeptics where we walk through apologetics why do we believe what we believe how to give an answer to our faith because we can so mark your calendars for that that's next week from 4 to 6 p.m.
here at the Pace Center and we do have child care for that as well. Well, you can begin making your way to First Corinthians chapter eight. That's where we will be this morning. First Corinthians chapter eight.
God is. How would you finish that sentence? God is. Seriously, what's the first thing that comes into your mind when you think about God? God is. Let's hear it. Good, awesome. Rock. Anyone else? Merciful.
Love, I love it. A.W. Tozer starts off his classic, The Knowledge of the Holy with this line, What comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. Now the reason I think it's the most important thing about you is because, well, everyone's a theologian. I'm not sure you woke up this morning and looked.
yourself in the mirror and said you my friend are a theologian but you are whether you want to be one or not theology simply means words about God we we all have them you have them your kids have them your your neighbors we all have words about God the Jew the Hindu Muslim the spiritual the the Christian the the atheist we all have words
about God. And how we think about God has massive implications. For sure for all of eternity, and that's a sobering thought. For ourselves, our family, our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, the unreached nations. How we finish that sentence, God is, is a matter of eternal life and death. But it's not just about heaven or hell.
Being a good theologian affects your experience of life here and now. For instance, theology is practical. How you understand who God is has massive implications for how you live your life. You are a theologian. Are you a good one?
If you're like me, you're feeling a ton of pressure right now. Man, I better get this figured out, be a good theologian, and you should be. But the cool thing is God has revealed himself to us. In the words of Tim Keller, what you think about God is not nearly as important as what God says about himself. I love that. What you think about God is not nearly as important as what God says about himself.
God has spoken. He has revealed himself to us. So for the next nine weeks, we're going to be doing just that. We're going to be getting our eyes on the one who, in the words of Anselm, there is none greater. The one who is transcendent, utterly other than, has become imminent, made himself known to us.
Now according to Jude 3, Christians are called to confess the faith once delivered to the saints. This is our aim. So we're calling this series God is. God is. And so for the next two months, we're going to do what the psalmist says in Psalm 27. We're going to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. There's a term called theology.
proper and it sounds fancy, it simply means the study of God himself, his nature, his attributes, his character. This series God is, will be all about that. We're going to look at God. We're going to try to figure out who he is. We're going to see some things about him that are nothing like us. And in my prayer is that we would realize how
big this God is, like his sovereignty. Or next week, his self-existence, his presence, his unchanging nature, his incomprehensibility. Often we live as if people are big and our problems are big and God is, well, rather small. My prayer is that during this series, that would get reversed.
that we would experience the total revolution of a big God theology in our lives. And we're gonna see some things about God that at some level we can relate to and yet we also desperately need from Him things like love, wisdom, faithfulness, goodness. My hope is that as we see God's character,
we would be encouraged that our God is not just big, He's good. And He's for you. Our hope is that this series would cause adoration and imitation. Worship and transformation. That we would behold God, And as we behold God, we would become
So that's where we're headed. you're not already there, 1 Corinthians chapter 8 is where we'll begin this morning.
just gonna read verse six.
yet for us, apostle Paul speaking, yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from Him and we exist for Him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through Him and we exist through Him. This is the word of God. Amen.
And if you were to come to my house, may wonder what's on the doorframe of our home. There it is. That's our mezusa. If you know the Shema from Deuteronomy, this is where the mezusa gets its credibility from. So Moses in Deuteronomy says, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart.
with all your soul, with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be as a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates. Well...
When our mezuzah came from Jerusalem, I mean Amazon, me and my oldest opened it up and we found this scroll inside the Shema, Deuteronomy 6 in Hebrew. And then we proceeded to do what would get you expelled for in Jewish school. We wrote on the back of that scroll. And what we wrote is the verse I just read for you out of 1 Corinthians chapter.
This verse is what New Testament scholars called the New Covenant Shema. Maybe you notice some similarities. Yet for us there is one God, the Father. All things are from Him and we exist for Him. Every faithful Jew will say yes and amen to that. But then the Apostle Paul, this New Covenant Jew, continues. And there is one Lord.
Paul using this word, Lord, or in the Greek, Kyrios is shocking. This would definitely get you thrown out of a synagogue. What's so shocking is that this is the same word that's used when the Hebrew Old Testament is getting translated into Greek. Anytime the Hebrew word Yahweh or Adonai came up, was translated Kyrios, or what we would translate as
Lord, so when you come to first Corinthians 8 6 and Paul says there is one curious one Lord Jesus Christ all things are through him and we exist Through him. Do you see what Paul is doing? Remember Christianity is not some new religion with the coming of Christ Christianity is the fulfillment of what we have from the beginning of
The story from Genesis three online from Genesis three onward. This story has an arc pointing toward a Messiah. I would even challenge you whenever you read the name Jesus Christ in your Bibles substitute Christ for Messiah. Christ is not Jesus's last name rather it's a title Jesus the Christ.
Jesus the Messiah, the King, the anointed one. And whose Messiah? Israel's. Christianity is the fulfillment of God's plan of redemption that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve in the garden, Abraham and Sarah, Moses and the Israelites. So when Paul gives this new covenant Shema in first Corinthians eight, he's not changing the oneness of God.
He's not starting some new religion. Yet for us, he says, there is one God, the Father. All things are from Him and we exist for Him and there is one Lord, the Messiah. All things are through Him and we exist through Him. He's saying Jesus, Israel's long anticipated Messiah is also God.
Jesus is Adonai. Jesus is Yahweh Himself. Jesus is the one God we see in both Shema's, Deuteronomy and 1st Corinthians. We'll see from other passages that the Holy Spirit is also God. We have three persons, yet one God.
mystery as we jump into this God is series, it would be wise for us to begin laying down this foundation, the Trinity. Now there's a lot that we could say about the Trinity, but for this sermon this morning, don't miss this. There is one God, one God who exists in three persons, Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. God isn't made up of parts. In other words, God's not one third father, one third son, and one third Holy Spirit. All the pieces of the pie making one God. No. Rather, the father is fully God. The son is fully God. The Holy Spirit is fully God. And yet there are not three gods, but one God.
We'll stop there. This is not a class on the Trinity. And yet we can't even begin to say God is without defining God. And as we define God as Father, Son, and Spirit, and in the weeks ahead move into who He is as self-existent, love,
faithful, good, sovereign on and on and on. It's vital we understand that God is a being unlike us. God is a being utterly other. We have attributes. In some ways we're made up of parts. Maybe some of you guys right now are doing some parts work in therapy. For instance, some days I have patients.
Other days I don't, I can get quite impatient. have awesome moments of love where I truly feel like I'm walking by the spirit. And yet I easily have these moments of selfishness. In a matter of minutes, I can have wisdom in one decision and the next I can act extremely unwise. Not with God. God doesn't have attributes.
Even good ones like love, goodness, wisdom, justice. We're tempted to think that this way about God because we don't understand he's other worldly. We want to say things like God has justice. God has righteousness. God has faithfulness. But most of all, God has love. We want to rank out his attribute.
But this series is called God is not God has because all that is in God, his attributes is God. Let me say that again. All that is in God is God. For instance, God doesn't have love. First John says God is love. He doesn't have goodness. He
is goodness. doesn't possess faithfulness like you and I might possess it in a given moment. He is faithful. And I know I'm asking you to use your brains this morning, but are you starting to track with me just how great this God is? He is a being in which none greater could be conceived. And if these things are true, that means that all that He is
He is fully. So he's not just love, he's wise, perfect, faithful love. He's not just just, he's loving justice. We can go on and on. I think you get the point. And this God cannot change. Malachi says, I the Lord do not change. James says, he's the one with whom there is no shadow or variation.
due to no variation or shadow due to change. only can God not change, which is very good news to us, but God is also infinite. It's not that God is just love or that God is good, but even that love and that goodness is to a degree that we could never fathom. Infinite.
For all of eternity, we will never plumb the depths of God. In my house, we love Forrest Frank. We play his music all the time. And he's got that song, God is good. And he keeps getting better. And he keeps getting better. That's actually not true. God is. He doesn't change. If he could get better, he would not be
God but I actually don't think the song's wrong. I think what Forrest does mean is that our experience of God as finite creatures means he continues in our experience to get better and better and better and better forever. I hope you're beginning to feel quite small. I think that's a good thing because we are. Imagine if we could
truly and fully understand God. At that point, he wouldn't be a being in which there is none greater. Rather, all we as his creatures can do is fall on our knees and lift up our hands and say like Paul in Romans 11, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways for who has known
the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
John Calvin says all we can really say about God as, as finite creature, speaking of the infinite is mere baby talk. love that baby talk. And yet if you're a parent in here, even our littlest kiddos know us. Joey, my, three year old would not be able to tell you where I'm from. What college I.
went to explain to you my life story, my personality type, but if you ask him who his daddy is, he knows.
And over the course of his life, he'll continue to know me in deeper and deeper ways that the same is true in our relationship with God. And all of this is possible friends, not only because God is, but that God is the gospel. John Piper wrote a book with that title years ago. God is the gospel and in it, his basic argument is simply the gospel.
The good news of Jesus is not just that we get forgiveness of sins, not just that we get eternal life or justification. We can go on and on and on. There are so many benefits of the gospel. But ultimately, the best news of the gospel, the greatest benefit of the gospel, friends, is that we get God Himself. We get God.
Maybe you're in here this morning and you don't know God. You've yet to jump on this journey with Him. Maybe you think, hey, I'm a decent person. I have more good than I have bad. I think God will be just fine with me. Well, if I could add to that Tim Keller quote from earlier, I'd add this. He says, what you think about God is not nearly as important as what God says about Himself. And I'll add,
and what he says about you. We've been talking about what God says about himself, but here's what God says about us. Before we get to the good news that God is the gospel, the bad news is that we are sinners. Born in sin. Our nature is one where we rebel against our
Creator like like Adam and Eve. We don't want to follow God We want to be God We want to be number one Do whatever makes us happy the Bible says there is none who is righteous No, not one that that apart from him our destination is eternal separation from him and yet God shows his love to us in that while
We are still sinners. The Lord, the Kyrios, Jesus, the Messiah died for you. The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity took on flesh, became a man and not just any man, the God man. He came here to live the life that we could not live and die the death that we deserve because of our sin.
So that by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, you can have God himself. Every one of us comes into this world looking for somebody looking for us. We all feel this. At our core, we are created to be known.
And we can spend our entire lives longing to fill this void, sometimes without realizing that because of the gospel, we can have what our souls long for. To be fully seen, to be truly known, to be utterly loved beyond comprehension by the one to whom there is none greater, God himself. Amen.
Amen. So for us, there is one God, the Father. All things are from him and we exist for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things are through him and we exist through him. This morning, we've done a little theology. Thanks for rolling your sleeves up with me. We've looked at who God is and for the next eight weeks, we're going to continue to
gaze on the beauty of our Lord. But as we close this morning, have two points of application that are right from this passage here in first Corinthians eight in light of who God is. How then shall we live? Not, not that one. That's bad timing. It's a verse passage. There it is. We exist for him. We
exist through him. First, we exist for God and we exist through God. It sounds simple, but this is the call for all Christians. You exist for God. You belong to him. You're no longer your own. You've been bought with a price. And how do we exist for him? Well, by living.
through him. As we get our eyes on who God is, I hope we see as a church how glorious God is. And it would cause us to worship. Our God is better than we ever dared imagine. And yet we're called not just to adoration, but we're called to imitation. Paul in Ephesians says, imitate God as
beloved children Paul in first Corinthians is gonna say imitate me as I imitate Christ this is now our Calling Church to imitate Jesus so so what does this actually look like existing for him and Existing through him sound sounds great, but but what does this look like on a Monday morning? I'm so glad you asked
There's how I would answer that question. The Holy Spirit dwells in every single Christian. So if you're a follower of Christ in here this morning, God the Spirit lives in you. should just pause on that for a second. The Holy Spirit lives in you. And in a very real way, He unites us to
Jesus we're gonna do our baptisms here shortly and that's what baptism is all about us in Christ Christ in us through our Union with Jesus we die with Jesus We're raised with Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit Imagine come Monday morning if we actually believed the power we possess Christ lives in you
with the purpose of making you look like Christ.
I finished an interesting book this year. Only God can judge me. The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur by Jeff Perlman. know Pastor Mark reads great novels like Thew of Golden and I read Tupac. But what's, what's fascinating to me about Tupac that I didn't know was I just figured he was all West coast thug life, but is actually more nuanced than that. Tupac wasn't raised in the streets of LA like his image portrays.
He attended Baltimore school for the arts where he studied acting, poetry and ballet. Let's throw the picture there with his ballet suit on in high school. That's Tupac. But when he got his first acting role in this movie, Jews, he played this character Bishop. Now this dude Bishop was a gangster and getting into the character Bishop changed Tupac's entire persona.
After he finished the movie, he never stopped being bishoped. In his imitation of this made-up character, Tupac goes on to becoming an icon, a rap legend, thug life, his mantra. Now imagine.
Imagine if we realize the role we get to play in what John Calvin calls God's theater, namely our lives here on earth, lived out before our director, God, called to exist for him and through him. Imagine if we actually believe that God is in us.
And by the power of God in us, we can put on Christ. can imitate Jesus. We can walk as Jesus walks.
Imagine what this would mean for you and for your family, for your neighbor and for the nations. Redemption Parker together by the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's exist for Him and through Him. Amen. Amen. Let me pray.
What Happened?
AI Transcript
Amen. Well, welcome. It's good to be here before we jump into the word with you. We'll be in John chapter 20, but I want you to imagine a scenario where somehow we were able to gather all the world's greatest thinkers, philosophers, people of power. And we asked them this one question 2000 years from now. What would be the factors in play in a person's life for that person to become the most famous person and the most influential person in the history of the world?
As they gather in that room, they would argue about some things, but there would be some things that come to the surface for sure. That person would have to be born in the right place, have the right opportunities, have the right education, have the right career trajectory, have the right political influence, maybe introduce a new thought or philosophy that would be embraced by the world. And then that person, 2000 years from now, would be the most...
influential famous person in the world. they would not say is that this person would be born in obscurity, in poverty. He would live his whole life within a hundred miles of where he was born. They would not say he would have no formal education, that he was a common laborer with his hands for his first 30 years of life. And when he did try to go public, he gathered 12 other common laborers, fishermen and farmers and even a tax collector.
They would not say just after three years that he would be abandoned by those same men. He would be betrayed by the religious leaders of his country and handed over to the most oppressive foreign government in the history of the world to be tortured and murdered on a cross. It's just not how you would draw it up. Now, pause there because what you need to know is on that first Sunday morning there were no Christians, right?
I always want to remind you of that, that there were no Christians, there was no anticipation, that there was no scheduled sunrise service, there was no grandstands at the garden. Like there was no no Christian, none that were writing themselves into the story saying, well, everyone else abandoned him, but I held out faith. I remembered what he said. No, there was none of that. There was Pontius Pilate, who was just relieved that there wasn't a religious uproar.
uprising in a major Jewish festival and he's now headed with his entourage back to his seaside palace. There's the religious leaders who are sleepy-eyed and satisfied from their Passover meal. There was that thing with Jesus and his followers that caused a little bit of ruckus, but they dealt with that. They got rid of him and when they got rid of him, they got rid of all of his followers. There were some women that were
absolutely devastated. The mother of Jesus, was Mary and others, they were at the cross the whole time. They watched in this, her case, their son and their best friend and everyone, everything to them, breathe out his last breath. Mary followed at a distance as they wrapped his body and took it to a tomb and sealed it behind a stone. They were
They are devastated, dejected. The disciples were disillusioned. They had left everything to follow Jesus. They have left their families, their businesses, and now their hope was dead. Their future was buried. There was no expectation, no hope. They were wondering what they were going to do. Matthew, or rather, John and Peter and others were thinking we could go back to
Galilee and maybe re-enter the family business of fishing Matthew had no prospects as a tax collector And so this is the moment that first Easter morning If you pause right there and now fast forward with me 350 years There's a guy named Theodosus. He's the Roman Emperor and he's in Thessalonica on February 24th 380 AD
He gets baptized as a Christian and he gets out of the water and proclaims Jesus Christ is Lord and King over all kings. And then three days later, he issues what's called the Edict of Thessalonica, where he makes Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire and he ends state sponsored support for the pagan priesthood. Now, fast forward again to today.
where over four billion people will gather to worship a crucified man. And if that's all you knew of the story, the first Easter, what was going on, and then 380 AD and today, if that's all you knew, there'd be one question that would come to your mind. It'd be simply this question, what happened? What happened? What happened that we could get from there to...
380 to today. What happened and what happened is the reason we're here. What happened is the reason we gather every week. What happened is the reason for our entire lives and what we believe as followers of Jesus means everything to us. These are the undisputed facts of history. What happened changes everything. It has the opportunity even today to change.
your life personally, but it doesn't just stop there. What happened is changing the world persistently and changing our lives pervasively every area of our lives. What happened, what was witnessed by multiple people in multiple places, in multiple settings, in houses, and on a road, and in a field, and sometimes with small groups of people, and sometimes with hundreds of people. What happened?
happened over a period of 40 days and what happened changed everything. I want to look through the eyes of the very first person to see what happened. If you have your Bible it's John chapter 20 verses 1 through 18 we're going to be this morning. What happened was recorded by reliable eyewitnesses and what happened
has changed the world. happened is the reason four billion people will gather today. This is what happened. So listen carefully. This is God's says this early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, before the sun had even crested the horizon, although there was a glow in the sky, says Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. Again, Mary was at the cross.
Mary was crying her eyes out as they took his body down as they wrapped him as they took him to the garden tomb. She was there. She knew exactly where he was. And now after the Passover she's she's devastated but she wants to honor the body of the person that radically changed her life. Luke tells us that Jesus had cast out seven demons from Mary. She was spiritually physically mentally emotionally afflicted.
And Jesus had set her free and she had put all her hope in Jesus. So she is headed to the tomb. Now the other Gospels tell us it's not just her there. are other women with there. but John laser focuses on Mary says Mary went to the tomb and they were wondering how they were going to remove the stone. But they hadn't really thought through the logistics. But as she goes it says and she saw that the stone had been
removed from the entrance. Implication also she saw into the tomb and she saw that the tomb was empty. And this shocked her. As I say every Easter Sunday nobody expected no body. Nobody expected no body. She didn't look in and she's like well Christ is risen. No she's even more distraught. What.
is happening here. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple. The other disciple is John's way of writing himself in the story. It's he's trying to be humble, but as you'll see, maybe not so much. He says the other disciples. So Simon and John are just wondering how they're going to make it back safely to Galilee without.
Maybe being caught by anyone and being crucified like Jesus was crucified and also a frantic knocking is on the door and they're like, what is that? Is that the authorities? But they hear they hear Mary's voice. Let me in. Let me in. And and they open it up and she comes running and says to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. I love that. I just imagine in heaven every Easter.
John and Peter are together and Peter's like, dude, what's wrong with you? He loved all of us. Like, yeah, Peter, he did, but he did love others more than others. So and he's like, and I'm the one Jesus. Why didn't you just put your name, John? I was trying to be humble. OK, so the other disciple and the one Jesus loved and said, they have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him.
She doesn't say, hey, Christ is risen and Peter say he is risen indeed. No, they're like, what is going on? The tomb is empty. We don't know where they have put him. And so Peter and the other disciple, that's the one Jesus loved in case you weren't keeping track, started for the tomb and both were running. But the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, outran Peter and reached the tomb first. Again, Peter's got to be like, dude,
What are you talking? Well, I can't bear false witness. That's how it happened. Peter, you're the rock. You're slow, but I was fast. And he's like, that's not an important detail. I thought it was. I thought it was. he got to the tomb first, but he stops at the tomb. says, both were running, but the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in. The word looked in there. You're going to see various...
renditions of the word to see, to look, to behold throughout this whole passage. But the word looked in here is blepo. He's just observing. It's the most common word. looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, big old Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. Now it says he saw the strips of linen lying there.
as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus' head, the cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Now, when John says, saw, it's a different word. It's not bleppo, it's threo. We get the word theorize. It's when you come across something that does not make sense and your mind is trying to make sense of it. Because here's the deal. If it's common grave robbers,
The valuable thing is the strips of linen, not the body. If it's common grave robbers, they wouldn't leave the tomb in an orderly fashion. Furthermore, he sees the strips of linen. Some say that it is like a locust shell after the locust leaves. It's empty. But then there's this head covering. And that's not just discarded, thrown on the floor. It's neatly folded up and put on.
the shelf. This does not make sense. But he's theorizing he's trying to make sense of it. says finally the other disciple the one Jesus loved who had reached the tomb first also went in and he saw that's another different word he now sees not just with his eyes but with his heart and his soul he sees and believes.
There's something that unlocks in his mind. He believes Jesus is alive. That word believe is one of the most important words in the whole New Testament. The word is pistis. It doesn't just mean I think something is true. It means with my whole being I trust that something is true. He believes. It says they still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.
Then the disciples went back to where they're staying. Imagine that conversation on the way back. John is saying. I don't think someone stole his body. It doesn't make sense, right, Peter? It's like, no, it doesn't make sense. I think he might be alive. Like, how is that possible? John, you were there. You saw Jesus take his last breath. You saw the Roman soldiers put the spear in his side and pierced his heart. How can it be dead people?
don't come back to life, at least not on their own. And so they're theorizing and as they're making their way back, apparently there's multiple ways through the city to the garden. And Mary now is on her way back, but they don't pass each other. Mary's just devastated. She says, I got to go see this again. And so as she's walking back to the city, we pick up the story in verse 11. Now, Mary stood outside the tomb crying.
We're crying there is is a loud weeping and wailing. Ever cried like that? Where it is a whole body experience where you can't get your breath, where there's snot coming out of your nose and it's in your eyes. And this is how devastated there is no hope for her in this moment. So that she wept. She bent over to look into the tomb. She's so distraught that
Even what she sees next doesn't clue her into something that's happening here. She says she looks into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus's body had been. One at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, woman, why are you crying? The angels are always perplexed by our response because this should be the greatest
day in Mary's life and they know what's happened and they also know that Jesus told everybody this is going to happen and when it happens everyone's devastated and the angels are like what is wrong with you why are you crying this is not a time to cry she says they have taken my lord away and I don't know where they have put him at this
She turned and saw there's the word again. She saw but she didn't see. She saw Jesus standing there but she did not realize that it was Jesus. There may be many reasons for this. The whole snot and tears covering the whole eyes that that that could be one reason. The other one is that that maybe Jesus is intentionally like on the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter four hasn't revealed himself.
Truly to her. Maybe it's because he's got a physical resurrected spiritual body that's so glorious she can't connect the dots. Maybe it's just because it's so far outside of her thinking and all Jewish thinking that one man in the middle of history would resurrect. The Jews did believe that there would be a resurrection at the very end of time of all the righteous. But now one man in the middle of history. So she does not recognize him.
He asked her, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for? It's a good question. It's a good question for all of us this morning. If we're honest with our hearts, with our lives, who is it that you're looking for? Who or what is it that you're looking for? What do you think? What will bring you satisfaction in life? Who is it that you're looking for? Then it says, thinking he was.
the gardener. And I love that because she's not that far off. Right. She thinks it's just the gardener. But humanity's story begins in a garden. And they were tasked, Adam and Eve, with God in fellowship, perfect fellowship, to live together and to tend the garden. And now she thinks the gardener is here. The gardener is here. He's come to renew and redeem all of the cosmos and make the garden come back.
Again, thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him and I will get him. I will get him.
Salvation, if it is anything, first and foremost, has got to be personal. That's not the only thing, as we'll see, but it has to be personal. We don't get saved. We don't enter the kingdom of God on our nationality. We don't get saved on the faith of our parents. We don't get saved because we're Americans. We don't get saved because I had a grand, granddaddy that was a Baptist. No, it has to be.
apprehended personally. And this is what happens to Mary. Jesus said to her, Mary, she's heard that voice before. And it's in that moment where the son of God resurrected from the dead, having conquered sin, death in the grave stands before her. But I suspect not directly before her.
He's in the garden, but he's a ways away. he says, Mary, in that moment it clicked. She turned toward him. And I imagine it doesn't sit. John doesn't tell us this, but I imagine in that moment she runs at full speed across the garden. She gives the greatest bear hug the world has ever seen. Wraps her arms around Jesus and she cries out, rabboni! My teacher, my savior, my Lord. She's just.
Clinging to him now there there's more tears, but they're tears of joy and Jesus with a smile on his face and laughter in his voice says do not hold on to me Don't cling on to me. It's not over yet. I still I have to have not yet descended ascended to my father Go instead To my brothers and tell them I am ascending to my father and your father to my God and your God salvation is
first and foremost, personal. You have to hear the voice of Jesus wooing you in saying, come to me, come to me. But it doesn't end there. Did you see that? It's not just personal. We hope that you have a very personal encounter with Jesus. But even in the very first encounter with Jesus' resurrected body, it goes beyond that. It goes public. Did you see what he said? Go instead. He immediately fills her life
with mission and with purpose. And he will do it for the rest of her life. And he will do it for our life. It's personal, but it's also pervasive. It's to go through our whole life. When he says go, he's sending her. The Greek word for sent is apostelo. We get the word apostle. The apostles are sent. This is where Augustine says Mary Magdalene was the apostle, the sent one to the apostles.
She goes and tells the apostles. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news, I have seen the Lord. She told them that he had said these things to her. Now, here's the thing. We know from the other gospels when she tells them, they're like, we don't think so. But that really wasn't her calling. She didn't have to convince them. She was just a witness.
Here's what the Lord has done. That's true for all of us. We're so worried that people will reject us if we tell them about Jesus. They will. And that's OK. But some won't. And it will become personal for them. And then Jesus will become pervasive in their life and his rescuing work will be persistent forever and ever for two thousand years. This is how Christians have understood rightly their relationship with the Lord.
that it comes first personal. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes, whoever trusts in him shall not perish but have eternal life. That's not just when you die you get to go to heaven. Eternal life is immediately and now you are transferred from the domain of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the sun God loves. Eternal life is a quality of life.
here and now and forever. it doesn't stop there. It's pervasive. Christians have understood like Theodosus that Jesus is Lord of all. is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That means he's Lord over every single area of our lives. Every item on our calendars, every check, everything in our bank account, everything in our dreams and our plans. He is Lord over all.
He's not Lord at all if he's not Lord overall in your life. You can't come to Jesus as only savior and not as Lord. That'd be like saying, Mark, you can come over to my house, but I don't want Ashman to come into your house, to my house. I'm like, no, I'm Mark Ashman. Well, I don't want the Ashman part. No, I am. This is what Jesus saying. I'm Lord and savior. I'm so worried that we have so personalized
Jesus in the American church that we have actually not worshiped the true Jesus We've actually just come to a fire insurance policy that Jesus gets us into heaven when we die But we won't go to heaven when we die because he's not Lord of our lives so Christians have always understood. It's personal. It's pervasive and it's persistent What Jesus begun on that first? Easter Sunday morning. He is continuing it was
the down payment of the resurrection, not just of his body, but of the entire cosmos. Here's what Paul says in Colossians chapter one. Jesus is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. Why? To reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, things visible and invisible. Jesus's resurrection was the down payment on our eternal future in a renewed.
cosmos in the Lord of the Rings at the very end after the ring is destroyed Samwise Gamgee realizes that darkness is being reversed and he says this to Gandalf everything sad is going to come untrue everything sad is going to come untrue that's true that's what happened what happened Christ conquered sin death in the grave
Christ reigns over all. And when the disciples encounter the resurrected Christ, they go from these timid, fearful men to lions of the faith. They immediately reengage with the mission of Christ. And they take this name and this story to their graves. Often because of this story, they are martyred for it.
It's an unstoppable movement that was launched and this is why we gather. So my story was when I was 18, God wooed me to himself, rescued and redeemed me, gave me new life, turned me from a life of self-centered rebellion and to following him. Now, immediately things didn't look that much different, but he is continuing to work pervasively in my life. I have a long way to go, but it's been the greatest.
adventure and journey ever that I've ever had. And so my prayer this morning and this week for you is if you've already encountered the Lord Jesus Christ and you've made it personal and it is pervasive in your life, growing in your life, and it is through your life persistently renewing the world, then today would just be a day that fuels your faith. That you would hear Jesus call you and say,
love you, but you would also hear Jesus call you and say, now go, go tell the world of what has happened. If you're not a believer, well, today is a day that you can. Today is a day that you can hear a voice, Lord willing, other than my voice, the voice of the Spirit of God, wooing you, calling you, saying, you can come to me, put your trust in me, believe in me. And today, by the
authority of the Word of God and by the Spirit of God, you can enter into new life. In a moment, I'm going to pray. You can confess your sins. You can turn to Jesus. You can tell someone who brought you or invited you or talked to one of the pastors, but do not miss this opportunity to encounter the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me pray for us to that end.