Walking and Waiting
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here uh we are in the book of Philippians we're working our way through the book of Philippians and um sorry that pen was going to distract me um just a second I was going to be clicking it it's going to be a problem we're in the book of Philippians we're picking up in verse 17 we're working our way through the book of Philippians studying it together uh as a Church and uh what we're going to do this morning is we're going to read through this entire text as we get started and I'm going to try to help you understand what Paul's doing in this.
Text and then we're going to work our way through it uh kind of verse by verse section by section so we're in Philippians chapter 3 verse 17 it's on page 571 if you grab one of these blue Bibles in front of you Brothers join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us so that's Paul's command join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ their end is destruction their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with Minds set on Earthly things but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious Body by the power power that enables him even to subject all things to himself Paul says walk imitate join those who are walking in the example set by Paul he's saying that you need to intentionally follow this example.
Because there are those who walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ so what Paul is saying is that there is a way to live in line with following Jesus in line with the Gospel and there's a way to live in in contrast in opposition to following Jesus and you ought to be intentional about who you are imitating and and some of the Assumption here is that you are imitating you are learning from other people how to live you're learning from other people what's important and what's good and what's right and you are right.
Now there are people in your life that are teaching you how to handle your money how to be a spouse how to think about romance how to think about politics how to think about parenting how to dress like your whole life has been imitation that's how you learned how to speak that's how you learned how to walk like you you had to see other people doing that's how you learned to trade that's how you learned all the things that you've learned and you're like no I'm original I came up with things on my own I cut Against the Grain.
Okay maybe a little bit maybe a little bit but maybe there's something that you do that's original to you and I'm willing to bet it's the weirdest thing you do the people around you probably want you to stop it most everything we do is something that we have learned by imitation and even the things that we do that are outside of the norm if you're like no we we we we stuck it to the man we were hippies yeah but you were a hippie like all the other hippies you wore the same things.
Listen to the same music and you all grew your hair the same way wait if you're like no I wasn't a part of the mainstream I was goth yeah but you were goth like all the other goth kids y'all shopped at the same goth stores you actually helped the man out as he sold you things as you stuck it to him or whatever like we we learn by imitation and what Paul is saying is be wise and intentional with who you imitate.
Because you're going to imitate you're going to follow you're going to practice things that other people are teaching you to practice and you ought to as a Christian be wise and intentional about that so that's what we're looking at today and we're going to pray and then we're going to walk through this text section by section father you designed us to learn through imitation you designed us to pick up on the habits and mannerisms and actions of those around us.
So Lord we ask that you would help us to be intentional about that wise about that so that we might not be led astray and that we might look more and more like people who really really love you we ask this by your grace from your kindness in Jesus name amen so go back to verse 17 Brothers join in imitating me so he's saying y'all need to see what I'm doing you need to join in in IM ating me you need to copy me.
Now what is what is Paul doing well we read that together a second ago some of that at least that he forgets what lies behind he's pressing on he's straining forward for the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus that he has set his mind on his Hope on he has fixed his heart on the rescue of Christ the hope of Jesus what Jesus has done the eternity is coming that belongs to Christ that his whole life is in line with the hope of the Gospel.
So much so that he's writing this letter from prison for telling people about Jesus and people were like hey stop and he was like hey stop me so they arrested him and then he wrote in his letter hey I'm telling all the guards about Jesus I've infiltrated the prison he's not stopping he's lined up his whole life with this is what is supremely important so that's what he's saying imitate me but I want y'all to notice something about this sentence because there's a lot of people in this sentence he says imitate me keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example.
So those can't be Paul it has to be some other people who walk according to the example you so you're the the Church the Phil Philippians who he's writing to have in us well us includes me but it's bigger than just me and it's not those because those are looking at us yeah a lot of people in this sentence so there's Paul that's the me there's the us at the end of the sentence that's probably Paul and Timothy and aphroditus some of the people he's mentioned.
But also any of Paul and his cohorts his Entourage all the people that are following around and and pursuing Mission the way that he is and proclaiming the Gospel the way that he is and then there's those who aren't the us but that are following and imitating Paul and then there's you the Philippians and you the Church that this letter is written to the reason I wanted to point that out is because you ought to as a Christian have a life that that sentence makes sense in.
Because you belong to the Church and you're in a in an environment where there are those around you who are good examples for what it means to follow Jesus this is one of the reasons why when We Gather on Sundays we say you need to get in a group and then we say you need to get in a group and the next time we see we say you need to get in a group and if we talk to in after there as we're getting coffee sometimes we'll say hey it's nice to meet you have you gotten in a group.
Because we're supposed to live in relationships with other Christians and be able to walk in life together it's not meant to be something we just think about and study on Sundays and then go out into the world and have all of the rest of our actions and imitations be influenced by people who don't know Jesus we're meant to belong in such a way to to the people of Christ that we might have those that we can join in with that we might walk in life with as they follow.
Jesus that we can join in with them and then maybe at some point like Paul be able to say join in with us we're trying to follow Jesus hop in so the the command is to imitate Paul and anyone imitate Paul imitate the US the ones around Paul that are doing that stuff imitate the those that are following Paul basically look for any Christian who lives their life like they really really really believe that Jesus is the king of all things that they spend their time and their money and their energy and their effort that you can punch them in the face and tell them to shut up and they will not that's the type.
Of Christian that you need to line up behind and imitate that's what Paul's saying now he's GNA give a reason why you need to do that intentionally the reason why you should join that line Verse 18 for many and then he gives in a side here of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears so I want you to understand the people that Paul's about to talk about this many that he's going to talk about he doesn't hate them he's heartbroken he he wants something different.
For them that this group Grieves him but he says many walk as enemies of the Cross of Christ now I think that certainly includes all people who aren't Believers are living their life in opposition to the Cross because you're really your only options are submission to the Cross service to the Cross service to Christ or opposition to him that we're we're by Nature his enemies by Nature we're children of Wrath by Nature we don't want God or the things of God.
And so certainly it includes that group but I think it also because of the way this letter has been written it includes the people that Paul were refer to as opponents in chapter 1 it includes the dogs evildoers and those who mutilate the flesh from chapter 3 it includes those who would say they are Christians but then they're bringing in something that's not the Gospel and in that way they are opposing the cross because they're not pointing you to the Cross they're not pointing you to the hope of.
Jesus they're pointing you to something else and here's what he means by the cross in opposition to C to the Cross Christianity is about Christ and what he's done son Jesus Is God who became a man he joined us by taking on flesh but then instead of joining us in our sin he lived a perfect sinless life differentiating himself from us so that when he went to the Cross he might pay our debt he would have credit in his account it'd be like.
If you came out of a poor family and then worked and worked and worked and worked and worked and worked to finally have the finances to pay off all their debt Jesus shows up and he is not sinful like us therefore he can swap places with us he can give us his righteousness and he can pay the debt of our sin and then you would saywell how does one person pay the debt of all these people and the the answer is.
Because he's worth more be like if I had a dollar and my son had 50 pennies and he was like well 50 is more than one it's like nope you're confused and Jesus Is God who's worth more than all of humanity put together but he was perfectly righteous and he dies for us and so we because of this Gospel message that there's hope in Christ and forgiveness in him we then live our life in line with that message in line with the cross in service to the cross in the hope of the Cross where we love.
Jesus because he's so good and so kind and so merciful and so our lives are lined up as people who love Jesus and want Jesus and want to serve Jesus and then there are those who are in opposition to that they're going to lead you astray if you join with them they're going to point you away from Jesus they're going to point you to anything other than Jesus and so they're walking as enemies of the Cross now he's going to tell us what they.
Look like which is very helpful because if they're telling you they're Christians which some of them would and will you can't just base it off of what they say so he's going to give us a profile to tell us what they look like he's going to tell us how to spot them so here's what he says verse 19 their end is destruction their God is their belly and they glory in their shame with Mind Set On Earthly things their end is destruction their.
God is their belly and they glory in their shame with mindset on Earthly things it gives us four things to see the first one is some information but we can't see it their end is destruction but they don't know that and we can't spot that on them he's just telling us where they're headed he's saying don't follow them because that's where they're going so you can't see the destination but he's going to tell us how to identify them with the other three the other way is to spot who's in that line who's pursuing that destination that he's lined up pursuing.
Jesus but there are others who are headed towards destruction have you ever uh you've been at a big event concert a play a sporting event and it's halftime or it's uh intermission and you head out to go to the restroom you see lines of people you don't see the destination you just see the line I walk out if I see two lines I will immediately go to the right line if I see three lines I'll immediately go to the right line.
Because I can see the people in the line and I can guess the destination I've never once lined up with all the ladies gotten to the door and been like what I have accidentally walked into a lady's restroom but not when there was a line if I've got a line with all men I know that's the line I'm getting in line with all ladies not my line line with men and ladies those people are buying drinks and they'll be in these lines later I got it I know how to do this what Paul is saying is I'm going to tell you how to identify the people in the line.
So that you'll get in the right line here are the three things he gives us their end is destruction we can't see that but we can begin to identify them the first thing he says is their God is their belly we need to define God and we need to find belly to understand what this means belly means belly but he's using it to identify consumption the things you can feel and taste and touch what you can enjoy physically so what's a.
God well a God is something you serve a God is something that gives you uh identity tells you who you are and a God is something that gives you Direction and purpose and future and Hope so let's take a moment to consider how a belly can be your God so that we might identify tendencies in ourselves we might some of you might read through this list and get to the end and go oh I'm not a Christian some of you might go I am a Christian.
But I'm I'm off some of us are going to help us identify the people that we're listening to and following even if they say they love Jesus we're going to identify we actually shouldn't be following them because this is what they look like okay let's think about service if your God is your belly you can spend a whole lot of time serving working laboring putting your energy your time your hope pursuing things that just terminate on your belly what we eat what we drink where we sit where we relax our next vacation there's a way.
For us to just spend all of our time on things that go on our on our body or go into our body and we're just serving our bellies y That's most that's the world around us it's in service to their bellies and we can get in this too now you say hold on a second the Bible says we're supposed to work and it's okay to eat and it's okay to Feast yeah yeah yeah but all that is meant to when the Bible calls.
For a feast it's meant to be something that rolls up in praise to God that we're feasting because he's good and he has abundance and He blesses and he's kind and he over he watches over us but so much of our feast is just feasting for feasting feasting for our belly some of us have basically biblical level feasts seven times a week we overeat constantly or we spend our whole week looking forward to this day that we're going to get to rest and have this party and have this celebration or whatever and all of our energy goes towards this service to our bellies.
And so if you're trying to identify someone whose God is their belly you're looking for is the thing they're most worried about most working towards all stuff that they can feel and taste and touch and all stuff that just terminates on them is that what they're serving is that what I'm serving it's not just service it's also identity which we've been sold this lie in the US and we've bought into it that consumption what we put on what we take in tells us who we are tells the world who we are we say things like I'm a man I eat meat.
Okay I drive a truck good I mean I'm for driving trucks and eating meat that sounds great but that doesn't tell us anything about who you are it does not affect your character whatsoever it just doesn't what we wear doesn't announce to the world who we are doesn't change us at all might make us look nicer or less nice or whatever it might Identify some of the things about what we care about but it doesn't actually tell us who we are it doesn't actually work on the person of the heart.
But we've been sold on this this is why our advertisements most of the time don't sell you the product they sell you the type of person you'll be if you get this product if you drive this car you'll go look at trees in the mountains is the car good sh look at those trees you drive this car you'll laugh with your friends and hold a surfboard okay what's the gas mileage like I don't the best example of this this and I use it every once in a.
While because it's so clear to me is abian fit used to be a big deal I don't know if it is now but like when I was coming through school like it was a big deal people there's like a whole song about like a guy who liked girls that wore abian fit in the summer and so like that was a thing but if you went and bought something from abian fit they would put your clothes it's clothing store they would put your clothes in a bag said abian Fitch on it and it had a picture of a guy on the bag and the guy on the bag was not wearing clothes this is a clothing.
Store he's not wearing clothes he's not trying to sell you clothes he's trying to sell you the type of person you can be if you wear these clothes if you are cool enough to wear abian fit's clothes you are cool enough to not wear clothes I was born that cool you know like what are you talking about but that's what they're selling you is some image some thing that you become this is why y'all we gather around people based off of our tastes you.
Listen to this music let's be friends couldn't help but notice you drive the same type of vehicle let's have a secret wave let's hand each other Ducks it's a thing that you've consumed that you've taught yourself makes you a type of person it turns you into a thing I wear these kind of boots I buy this kind of stuff we wear these kind of clothes we're now this type of Club it's nonsense but it's an ex example of us buying into that consumption gives us identity.
So we can serve it we can get our identity from it we can also Place Our Hope in it our purpose in it it can give us direction that we can use consumption to tell us what we're supposed to be doing where we're supposed to be going and some of us all of our hopes and dreams are just belly hopes and dreams y'all a lot of us when we think about the future our vision is just me but with more stuff like what do you developing into what are you growing into I'm gonna grow into a guy whose house is bigger and has a swimming pool what I'm going to be the type of person.
Who vacations more often in nicer places it's just that's your hope that's your dream it's not character development it's not love for Jesus it's not I'm going to be the type of person who cares less about stuff most of us have bought into the American dream which is if I picture myself in the future I just picture me but with more things a nicer vehicle I I can't wait till I get to you'll say things like I thought I'd be further along by.
Now and most of the time what you mean is with stuff thought my job would be better I thought my truck would be bigger I thought my house would be nicer I thought my yard would be larger I thought I would ride on a low mower not push it like a scrub by now because your whole thing you've bought into is belly service Paul says that leads to destruction and if you're following people who love Jesus or tell you they love.
Jesus but that's all the track they're on they're headed towards destruction they don't actually get it that we can have our God be our belly and that we can identify it in other people if that's ultimately what they care about is what they're wearing what they're eating what they're tasting what's in their bank account the next thing he tells us is they glory in their shame this just means that they celebrate the things that will later make them shrink back when they stand before the.
Lord we do this all the time it's any celebration of sin so we celebrate gluttony win a drinking contest we celebrate fighting people breaking the law if you get around people they'll tell stories about times they broke the law and how great it was little things whatever we just celebrate this stuff we have pride parades we have people who are keeping up with their sexual prowess and all these kind of things and we just celebrate we're just trained to celebrate things that ultimately later are going to have us stand before the.
Lord and and bring shame stuff that he ultimately forgives us of stuff that ultimately is good to our souls where he comes in and rescues and redeems and stuff that doesn't keep us from belonging to each other as we walk in Repentance but it's stuff that we as you look into the world you'll see people just celebrating things that ought to bring shame and then he says they glory in their shame with mindset on Earthly things and that that in some ways is a big helpful category that's just what they're thinking about is stuff that they can.
See stuff that they can feel stuff that they can touch stuff that they can uh partake in that it's it's all Earthly it's all aimed here all their goals all your hopes all your dreams are just here they they're temporal they they end up not matter ing 100 years 200 years 5,000 years from now because they don't roll into eternity they're just here and y'all isn't it easy to spend your time just worrying about Earthly things don't we have things to worry about don't we have things that set our way they can take up our whole thought process is it all we're worried about is physical stuff and it's.
So easy and we can get to the end of this and you can say things like well is it really that bad is it really that bad if I you know thoroughly enjoy Earthly things well there's a way to enjoy stuff that rolls up and praise to the Lord that's not usually what we're fighting for because that helps keep it in its rightful place Paul says it leads to destruction and it makes you in an an enemy of the Cross so yeah it's really that bad.
But y'all this stuff tells us what matters it tells us what is important and it matters who we're listening to it matters who we're following it's very very very very likely that some of the major influences in your life their end is destruction their God is their belly they glory in their shame and they have Minds set on Earthly things it affects what you think is important it affects what you care about some of us listen to financial podcasts political podcast romance we read romance novels and watch romance movies we have all these things that are from people who don't know.
Jesus don't love Jesus and they're telling us how we ought to think about things that are really important let me ask you this if you listen to a a finance podcast an economic podcast a political podcast or if you have a friend who does on a regular basis it's a lot of times easier to see it in other people than in yourself what do they talk about about what do they tell you is important what are they stressed about what are they worried about what are the things that they come and say did you hear this is happening did you hear that they're going to do that did you hear this is going on did.
You hear now's the time that we're supposed to be doing this I'm I'm behind on this financially we're behind on this politically they're they're going to win they're going to get us they're after the children whatever the thing is that they've been soaking in it's been telling them what is important and guess what we have an election this year do you know that neither one of them will be the king King of the universe in eternity I I think anyone in this room could just push both of them down they they're they're not sovereign they're not to pin all our hopes on.
Now we can pay attention to some of these things we can care about some of these things but they got to be cared about in light of that we have a hope and an eternity and something that's coming that's beyond that and if all we listen to our financial podcast and listen to financial radio and read all this stuff or we read about romance or whatever we're being trained and indoctrinated by people who don't love Jesus who don't have the same hope that we have don't have the same eternity that we had and they're telling us how to think and how to act and how to behave and you're like.
Well I don't imitate them you say they're you quote them you say their sentences to other people you say things like well you know what's really important and you just spit without words from some other person what if you listened to foreign missionaries for the same amount of time every week talking about what they were praying about what they were laboring for and what they were hoping to see do you think that over the next course of the next month or three months or five months or six months you might start saying things to people like you know how many people don't know.
Jesus in the ball you know what's going to happen if we don't start sending money to the 1040 window if we don't start sending people somebody's got to go we're being trained by somebody and here's the other thing that we're tempted to do because we're just we're good at it what Paul is saying is not don't follow those who are headed to destruction it's actually not his command his command is imitate me don't find someone who says they're a Christian.
Then acts in such a way that you feel good about your lifestyle and say cool they've made it to where I can act this way find the person that makes you the absolute most uncomfortable about how they spend money and how they spend their time and how they talk about Jesus that's the person to follow let me tell you something Paul would be an uncomfortable person to follow we would say things to him same with Jesus people said things to Jesus.
Jesus just responded like that doesn't matter what are you talking about we would say things to Paul like well you know you got to say for this and he's like do I know that why do we have to say for that why is that a thing that we have to do we actually have to tell people about Jesus you're like yeah but they you know they're going to give us a hard time if we do it yeah I do know that I do know that why are you saying that they're going to give us a hard time let's go like that's Paul like he's this thing matters and he just is focused on it you.
Ever been running late for class you were hustling and then you saw someone else who was running late for the same class so y'all stopped laughed and walked very slowly together to class the Christian life isn't meant to be de the Christian Life is meant to be I'm hustling hustle with me and if you see a Christian who's not hustling you don't go that's who I'm going to set my Pace with you find the person who's making you most uncomfortable pressing most on towards the goal of the upward call of the prize in Christ and you get in line and you go.
Because here's what Paul says but our citizenship is in heaven and from it Heaven from heaven we await a savior the Lord Jesus Christ you know why our minds aren't set on Earthly things because this isn't our home this isn't our hope this isn't where our good things are kept that's why Paul says but our citizenship is in heaven you don't belong here your joy isn't found here your Delight isn't found here it's in Christ and it says we're waiting a savior that's what we're waiting on that's what we're longing.
For so much of the things we say I'm just waiting for I'm just waiting for the day that I can finally retire I'm waiting for the day that I can finally have this I'm waiting for the day that this isn't that you know when when we have a financial problem I don't have to worry about it I'm longing for that I'm waiting for that I'm waiting for that I'm waiting for that and Paul says get that out of here we're waiting on.
Jesus that's what we're waiting for that's where our hope is he says this about Jesus but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious Body by the power that enables him to subject even to subject all things to himself okay Jesus has power where he's made all things his subjects he's the king of all things he has power and everything is in subjection to him he's the king of all things and that power that allows him to be king of all things will be used on those who belong to him to transform them into his glorious.
Body that our bodies will be transformed to be like his glorious body what does that mean I don't know it's going to be glorious I also know that I shouldn't worry about this belly because I've got a glorious one coming that I have a hope and a home and a powerful King who's going to return and renew all things and transform me to be like him and that's what I'm waiting for Paul says in Corinthians that this glorious transformation is going to happen is it's like we we're like seeds and seeds.
Look similar but you can't guess necessarily from a seed what the plant's going to look like that's why I can tell you I don't I don't know exactly what it means that we're going to have glorious bodies I know that we'll have a physical existence I Know that heaven is more real not less real than here that you're if you the best food you've ever eaten here pales in comparison to what's going to happen there I know that I know that we have a reality and an eternity that's coming that is glorious and wonderful and that we're told to know that and act that way and we do it with simple stuff stuff.
If I order a pizza and then my two little boys say hey can we have cereal for supper I don't say yes I say no I ordered a pizza wait if they say I'm hungry now I say the pizza will taste better later because you are hungry now if they keep talking I say hush and go away y so many of us with our kids and our spouses and our friends and our co-workers so many of us by Our Lives by our money by our time by our energy are never ever ever saying no I have a savior coming that's what I'm waiting on our kids want to do something that PS away from Church.
It doesn't lead them towards Christ we want to handle money in a certain way the way we talk about money the way we talk about finances the way we talk about our time our energy our effort is only ever aimed down here and there's never a time where we go we don't handle our money that way because we're awaiting a savior because my home isn't here my hope isn't here that's why I handle my money that way that's why I handle my time that way that's why I'm intentional about being a part of this group that's why I've had to change my job schedule.
So that I could belong to this group of people so that I could serve so that I could give so that I could chase after people and tell them about Jesus because I will tell you one thing I don't have my hope set here I have my hope set there and I'm awaiting a savior who's going to transform my lowly body to be like his glorious Body by the power that allows him even to subject all things to himself that's what I'm waiting on that's where my hope is.
But we don't do that so often we're hoping for the weekend or amount of money so that we can we can finally get extra cheese on everything that we want to add extra cheese I just want to get to where I can order cheese dip at a Mexican restaurant that's my hope it's like what on Earth that's your hope that's your dream that's the thing you're wanting to serve that's the thing you're getting after that's the thing that you've got in your head is like the Glorious future.
For you that's nonsense do you know Christ oh do you know how good he is do you know how wonderful he is do you know the love that he has do you know he's going to transform Us by his glorious power by which he subjects even the world to himself that all things are under his feet and that he's going to rescue us and redeem us and make us his why on Earth are we wasting our time on silly things that don't matter.
When there are people around us who don't know Christ don't have hope don't have joy don't have rescue don't have forgiveness and we're sitting around just walking around with them and we're listening to them tell us how to handle our money nonsense we're listening to them tell us how to think about marriage nonsense we're listening to them tell us how to raise our kids that's insane what so that we can go to destruction find somebody who looks like Paul and figure out how to line your life up that way.
Because there's going to be a day when the king of all Kings returns and so many things just don't matter but whether or not you know him does and whether or not when you see his face his smile Shines on you and your smile reaches back or whether or not you shrink for all the things that you have chased after that only lead to shame and you don't know the king Christians Paul says live like you know Jesus and he says.
If you don't know what that looks like I know Jesus look at me the band's going to come back up I want you to take a moment to consider who you're learning from I want you to take a moment to consider who's training you who are you listening to I'm not saying don't have non-Christian friends I'm not saying don't have people around you that don't know Jesus I'm not saying you're not allowed to listen to the radio but my goodness be intentional with who you're imitating be intentional with how much you're soaking that stuff up be intentional with telling you how to think who's telling you how to think about romance and sex and relation.
Relationships and money and time and energy and effort and the goal of life because there are so many who are headed towards destruction don't get in that L it doesn't take you where you want to go and if you belong to Jesus your home's not here so take a moment right where you are close your eyes pray ask the Lord to help you see by the power of His Spirit Lord we ask for your help it's so easy to serve our bellies it's.
So easy to just gather with the crowd of people who are telling us this is how to live this is what to buy this is how to handle your finances it's so easy to have Minds set on Earthly things Lord help us right now work through your spirit to help us see where we're wrong to help us see how good you are Lord for the person in the room who can only set their mind on Earthly things because they don't know you may they run to you may they run to the Cross not be an enemy of the Cross.
But may they ask for forgiveness and rescue and Lord may they get in line with those who are going to be transformed by your glorious power we ask this in Jesus name amen Church family we're going to take communion together and it's a regular meal that Jesus gave us that reminds our bellies what we really need you're going to take something tangible it's a picture of Christ that you need Christ and that his body was broken for us and that his blood was shed.
For us and we're going to remind ourselves again that I need Christ and I have Christ if he's if I've trusted in him he's a savior for me and he's My Hope and he's my eternity that's what matters that we stand right now in between Jesus coming to rescue us on dying for us on the cross to do what was necessary so that we might be saved in the moment that he returns and transforms our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body even by the power that he has which he subjected all things to himself.
If you are a Christian this is for you take a moment repent and then go remind yourself that you need Jesus and where your hope is and then yeah let's change how we live let's get in let's pursue let's give away money let's live lives in line with people who believe that Jesus will one day return and that we'll have all our good things there and if you're not a Christian then communion is not for you because you don't know Jesus.
But we want you to know Jesus we want you to have the hope that is held secure for us not by our good works or morals or effort but by Christ who is the king and who claims Sinners to be his own when you're ready ask that you take communion and then we'll sing together.
Straining to the Prize (Philippians 3:12-16)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Spencer I'm one of the pastors here we're going to be in Philippians chapter 3: 12-16 so this is my last week uh before I go on sabatical for the next two months and yeah I'm excited uh the we did someone uh wiser than us recommended this a few years ago they said that your pastors should go on sabatical sooner uh than you think and it' be good for your soul and we've done this the last couple years uh Raz has been going sabatical Chad's been able to go on sabatical and uh I'm thankful.
For the opportunity to take two months just to really unplug um to focus on my relationship with Jesus to to be filled up in him and to do some things that are good for my soul um and we're going to be traveling a little bit uh you will not see me here on Sundays uh I'm I'm going to take the opportunity for the next two months and uh I've got some different friends who are Pastors in the city I want to go visit their Church churches some other churches that I've been wanting to visit.
For quite some time to just learn and be filled up so I'm looking forward to that I'll still be with my community group so they'll see me on a regular basis uh and but I won't be here on Sundays but I'm thankful that I get to do this and uh and it's funny I I I'm going to enjoy the time that I have to be able to do this and I know by the end of June I know I'm going to be ready to be back um I.
So deeply love this Church um I love this people I love you deeply um you know I have different friends around the country from my time in seminary that are pastoring in different cities and doing different things different churches and and uh when I catch up with them sometimes it's uh you know pastoring is hard that's just the calling but their situations are are harder um and they're more difficult and uh and I hear that and there's this Awkward Moment every.
Now and then that they say well how are you doing and how's your Church doing and I'm like man I mean it's I we're really blessed and and God's really been good to us and and people are are growing and loving Christ and it's just you know and this just I I I just have good news to report and certainly we're Sinners and certainly we have our mess and certainly we have our things that we walk through that are difficult.
But I think God's been uniquely kind to us in some powerful ways uh and it's been really uh a privilege and a joy to Pastor so I will be looking forward and enjoying the time that I have away but I know that I'll be ready to get back at the end of June because I do deeply love you guys um we're in Philippians 3 um so you can go ahead and flip there it's on page 571 in your blue Bibles and you can follow along there the text will also be on the screen a few weekends ago uh we had a uh a baseball tournament my son's been playing uh rookie ball uh which is.
A league six five and sixy old playing baseball and uh and our we've been winning every game game in our league that we're playing in and our uh head coach was like let's try a tournament uh so that we can kind of get the kids a little more little some some teams that are that are also really good uh that we can play and just kind of see how they're doing uh against some some better talent and some better some older kids.
And so we we played in this tournament and it was a lot of fun and and got to see them challenged in a lot of new ways which is really fun as as a dad and a coach uh and I got to see the kids really fall in love with the game even more but we made it to the championship game at that Sunday night and uh and before the game started uh they had trophies out and the kids got to.
See the trophy that they were playing for that was half the size of Their little bodies I mean these were massive trophies and they're like are we are is that what we're going to get if we win it's like yeah yeah if you win first like that you you're going to take home one of those and they came alive I mean they were amped I saw a level of desire and passion and effort that I hadn't seen all season long I was amped up.
Because I looked at across the other team and I got to see uh who one of their coaches was and it was our very own Raz Bradley uh Nate was on the other side so I'm amped up I'm like let's do this like this was a really fun thing but it was just fun to see those kids just come alive when they saw those trophies when they saw the prize that they were competing for and it was a vivid picture of just seeing the prize and just saying and going all out.
For it which is just it's a general Sports thing you know you see the prize you play wholeheartedly for it and that is the very metaphor that Paul uses In this passage today to describe the effort that we are called to put in to pursuing Christ and the Eternal prize of life with him and it's just a few verses that picture that so I just want to take some time I want to quickly walk through these verses and I want to help.
See three different things that uh should help shape us as Christians as we focus on the Eternal prize of life with God forever so let me pray and then we'll walk through this together heavenly father I help I pray that you would help us see you as glorious as worthy of our faith and worship in a way that would change the way that we live the Christian Life that means for some that it's going to be for the first time seeing you.
For who you are and surrendering to you in faith for all of us it's going to be faith and repentance and pursuing you because you are worthy of our worship and everything that we can put into this life so God help us see that this morning and help us be not just hearers of the word but doers of the word in Jesus name amen all right so before we get to verse 12 I want to provide some context that we were in last week in the previous verses part the way through eight it says.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him that what Chad was helping us see last week is that Paul was presenting this resume that he had this Jewish resume amongst a bunch of uh uh Jewish people that were trying to enforce Jewish law back on to Christians and he was saying you don't understand I was it I was a Pharisee I was a Hebrew of Hebrews I was The Tribe of Benjamin I was zealous I was all these things had this this holy righteous resume and he says I count that as rubbish that's garbage that's.
Filth he says that doesn't matter he says that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith and what he's teaching there is that the heart of the Gospel is that we cannot in our own effort in our own good works do anything to gain the Fai of God that if you think you can gain the favor of.
God by your good works you misunderstand the Gospel your good works are rubbish the only good work that matters is Christ and the perfect righteousness of Christ that we gain through placing our faith in him that's the only hope we have as Christians is Christ and Christ alone and he makes that point going into verse 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and May share his sufferings becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead he said the Gospel saves us.
So that the end goal we might one day be with him and the resurrection the end goal being the new Heavens the new Earth and the resurrection the Bly resurrection of Christians who come alive and are made completely new in glorified bodies in the new Heavens the new Earth where we get to finally and fully and wonderfully know God that's it that's the end goal and that's the context that sets up verse 12 not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect.
But I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own he says I haven't gotten there yet we're not perfected yet we're not there in the resurrection with fully perfected bodies we're not there yet I press on to make it my own why because Christ Jesus has made me his own because Christ claims us and saves us and sets us apart towards life with him forever he said we're working that way but we're not there yet in.
Verse 13 He says Brothers I do not consider that I've made it my own just drills the point even further we're not perfect we're not there yet so what awaits us but we're not there yet he's not under the delusion that in his mature State even then as he's writing this that he's a he's arrived no he's not there yet no I I have a some some family members who used to wait tables for a family that owned this restaurant and this family this one of the rare you don't.
See these people much anymore but they're called Christian perfectionists and uh they believe believe that in this life now you can actually arrive at Perfection which is a rare heresy at this point doesn't really you don't see it that much anymore but can you imagine working and waiting tables for a people that don't ever make mistakes they don't have sin so if there's ever a problem you know whose fault it is it's certainly not theirs what a miserable existence there everyone else and themselves.
Because they don't know who Christ is it's like that's delusional Paul's like no we're not perfected yet we're not there yet we've not arrived and it continues but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus and Paul says let me let you in a little bit of secret here this is what I do I forget the past I strain forward I press forward to towards eternity and I make every effort going in that direction towards the upper call of.
God foret the past I'm focused here and I just keep going and then he finishes his thought in verse 15 and 16 he says and those of us who are mature think this way and if any if in anything you think otherwise God will reveal this that also to you only let us hold true to what we have attained so Paul says you you want maturity do you want to press into maturity this is it and then he gives something that may be confusing at.
First when he says if may you think otherwise what he's getting out there is not if you believe a different Gospel he's very clear about that in other places that if you believe a Gospel different than one that I'm preaching you let him be a cursed it's like if you you're going to preach this no no no he's not talking about a different Gospel this is matters of conscience and approach to the Christian life so if you a little bit of a difference in conscience here.
Then God will reveal it to you but the main thing let us hold true to what we have have attained let us press forward into the eternity that awaits us so that's his argument In this passage we get a window into how Paul views himself that in his maturity he understands that this is where we're going but we have not arrived yet that he's in his maturity he sees his own sin and that's true of wise mature Christians wise mature Christians know that they are sinful they it's apparent.
Now all the mistakes that have been made I'm I'm I'm a sinner that's why Paul later in first Timothy he say he calls himself the chief of Sinners and it's like the the chief of Sinners you mean the the the number one sinner really Paul and it's like no he's just so tapped into his he understands his sinfulness and how much uh how much Christ is redeemed and his he's like no I I see my own sin he knows his past he knows his present sense and with that in mind he lays out really a three-part perspective and how to live the Christian life that I want to spend the rest of our time looking.
At this kind of three-part perspective if you want to grow in matur if you want to uh mature in Christian faith there are three things first forget what lies behind second keep the end in mind third strain forward till we arrive so forget what lies behind keep the end of Mind straighten forward till we arrive that's what I want to spend the rest of our time looking at so let's look at that first part forget what lies behind in verse 13 in.
Verse 13 he says but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind so there's two types of forgetting that I think we should have the first is forgetting the sins of our past that if you belong to Christ your sin has been paid for like hear that if you belong to Jesus doesn't matter what you've done doesn't matter what you've done your sin has been paid for it is it is forgotten and Colossians 2 gives the picture of he cancels the record of debt that stood against us with his legal demands like it's just no that's been paid.
For that's been placed like Jesus Takes our sin on the cross it means that all of your sin has been paid for blood has covered Christ dies in our place we should be guilty for the wages of our sin is death but Christ is the one that goes to the cross for us and Paul understood that better than anyone he knows his past I mean he he persecuted Christians he was a part of the mob that murdered stepen in Acts 7.
If anyone understands this it's it's him he understands what it means for you your past actually have some real ghosts some skeletons in your closet he understands what it means for you to have a past and he also knows and believes What God Says through the prophet Isaiah I I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins he understands who our God is that for his people he doesn't hold our sins against us.
So you get to move on from it you get to move forward which is wonderful one we once a year we uh we run uh something called recovery it's 10 weeks long and if you ask anyone that's done it it's 10 very long weeks it's a lot of work and uh brings it's a it's a process of understanding suffering and sin and Brokenness and then experiencing the healing power of Christ and uh towards the end where you start to see really Christ at work in the process one of the things I emphasize is that all right you God's revealed some stuff like y'all feel it like he's revealed some stuff he's shown some stuff that's.
Happened he's revealed some sin some Brokenness some stuff from your past and then Christ gets to work in it and it gets to bring healing and the Gospel comes to bear in our lives in some beautiful ways and then guess what we get to move on one things I say is you get to move on from this you don't have to be marked by this anymore you don't have to have this narrative in your head that says this is who I am it's like no no no no no no no no this is who you are in Christ.
So we get to move on because I mean I think in our culture right now I think there's a lot of um uh currency and and and really own like just being marked by the past being marked by your Brokenness and as Christians we get to say we we we understand the reality of our Brokenness but we also understand the reality of the Gospel and this healing power and we move on it's like no no no we're we're not marked by who we were I think that's one part of of forgetting what lies behind is understanding that I'm not marked by my sin anymore I think another part is that we're also as we forget.
What lies behind as we don't focus on the work that we've already done meaning the the ministry that we've already done the good works in Christ that we've already done that we actually we don't keep looking back we look forward I me that's what Jesus is getting at and he's teaching about discipleship in the New Testament and the in the gospels in Luke in the Gospel Luke he says no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit.
For the kingdom of God and the picture there is an agricultural imagery is that if you're plowing a field you plow in a straight line you don't you don't look back if you look back whether back then it's pulling the reins of an ox or if it's now if it's tractor you don't look back you look back you turn and you Veer off course that's foolishness it's an obvious thing no you you you look straight forward and the what he's getting out there is is no we we.
Look forward not backwards that the the the kingdom momentum is forward it's not backward looking not at all we look forward to the day when Christ returns and establishes the new Heavens the new Earth we look forward it's a forward-looking faith and I think Christians I think we struggle with this because I think I think if we're honest I think sometimes we long for a season of old we long for how things used to be man I just remember when it was.
When it was 50 people in the room and we're just worshiping Jesus and we all knew each other and we all knew each other's stories and it was intimate and I just missed the days when I just knew everyone or I just I I I missed the I miss the days of old I was Miss how worship used to be what I used to have back in that season all I miss our old community group we multiply Community groups for the sake of mission we multiply groups to be able to create space.
For others to see and Savor and know Christ and sometimes like man I just wish we could go back to my old group I wish we go back was just us in the room together we do this fill in the blank there's a lot of different ways where you for all of us we can just look back at at at stuff before and just I just I wish I could go back there and it's like no that we move forward that the the end is better we're moving that way and I don't think that Paul is saying that the past is 100% irrelevant I I don't think he's saying that I don't think he's making.
That argument you can see in his other letters that he mentions things that have happened before I think learning from mistakes is wise I think that there are things you can learn from history in the past but that's not the focus the focus is forward-looking the focus is this way and it's not what lies behind so first thing is forget what lies behind the second is keep the end in mind in verse 12 he says not that I've already obtained this or I'm already perfect.
But I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus made me his own and he goes on to say but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and straing forward to what lies ahead I press on for the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus that he's like no we we keep the end in mind the prize is what we're we're we're running towards like that's why that's why our six-year-old baseball players that's why they came alive they saw that prize they saw a trophy half their size and said we're going to give everything we got to win this y do youall want to.
See how big this trophy was want want me to get it for you so you can see it huh well you have to ask Raz Bradley because we lost 16 to 18 in the most epic dramatic fashion in the bottom of the last inning and I mean it's Nate's trophy but I'm sure it's in raz's office I'm sure he shows all of clients and says this is what I mean so you can take a look at it but that it just this idea of of seeing the prize and coming alive is is is more difficult.
For us because we actually can't see it we we can't we can't see what's ahead we can see the work of our God but we can't see our godun that's the part of Faith here that makes this a little bit difficult and it's trusting God and what has for us and what he says in his word and what awaits us and believing that wholeheartedly that that that's what awaits us and then trying to keep our mind there as much as possible.
Because this life is difficult it just is I mean some some of us you feel the physical Pains of this life you physically suffer you feel the the physical pain on a regular basis and it's hard because that's all mean that's such a present feeling that it's hard to actually realize that there is a day coming where you will have a glorified resurrected body that does not feel pain that does not feel the effects of suffering in this life 1 Corinthians 1553 and picturing this ISS.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this Mortal body must put on immortality and it's this picture of something so much better that awaits us I mean there's so much uh material emphasis on this body and this life billions of dollars and selfworth and all types of thing put into the material here now and it's like do you do you see what's ahead and how that's better we do this with a lot of things some of us feel the really difficult Financial burdens of this life and they're real and they're present and they don't seem to go away it's like you get a pay raise and you're like sweet and you go.
To the grocery store and you're like no there it went I walk out with 10 items for $100 and I'm like what happened the insurance went up 25% what happened and you just can't seem to get above the water and you just feel like you're always treading always trying to get above and you can't ever quite make it and you just just feel tired because of it and that can keep our our our our our Focus here and God's like no no no do do you.
See what's coming there's a day coming where you don't have to worry about financial burdens anymore where God meets every single need and desire I mean the the picture of Revelation 21 is a city where the gates are made of solid Pearl the streets are made of pure of pure gold that Christ is the light that lights up the city of God and the new heavens and the new Earth every single possible need is met so there's a day coming if we.
If we see it and we keep our Focus there by faith it's coming and it's like no I don't have to worry because ultimately that's where I'm going this happens with right now with relational difficulty sometimes you feel the relational difficulty that you have in this life you feel it with in marriage you feel it with your children you feel it with family you feel it with friends you feel it at work you feel it in your group and it's just why is it.
So hard that I've just got this I've got this Brokenness here I've got this person who's cut me out of their life got this person that won't talk to me I got this person I've got relational weirdness here and it's like I just I just so badly want to get a get a house in the country and see three people a year and never talk to anyone ever again because if I open myself up to any more hurt I don't know.
If I can do it and our just our our our that's all we can see is the relation difficulty right here and God said do do you see that one day there's a day coming where there's perfect harmony with one another the dead in Christ are raised to life and that life is beautiful we're described as having in Revelation 19 we're described as having uh fine linen bright and pure the L is the righteous Deeds of the Saints it's the perfect righteousness that we.
Finally get to lay hold of there will be no more sin no more Strife there will be people there there's genuine Christians where you just I mean that you just didn't click with in this life because both of you have sin that just comes to the surface more naturally because of your personalities and one day you'll see that person and you only know love you only know perfect love with one another this that day is is coming I'll give you one more in this life we feel regular consistent crushed hope.
Now some of that's because we worship things in this world and we put our hope in this world we have Idols that we bow down to in this world that we should not our hope should be in Christ and Christ alone and we're just trying to find Ultimate hope and created things that is a reality but sometimes there's just not hope that you've put every everything in so I I wasn't worshiping wanting to get this job I just generally I was a good way to provide.
For my family and I didn't get it I I hope this outcome was going to work out different I hope this person was going to reconcile I hope that this was going I mean there just life is hard because it's one crushed hope after the next in a lot of ways and you feel it over and over and over again there is a day coming where there is no more crushed hope there's only secure Eternal hope Revelation 21 says and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying.
Behold The Dwelling Place of God is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and Death Shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away that's what awaits us No More Tears no more suffering no more pain no more no more crushed hope only secure Eternal hope you can do this with every aspect of life where you feel fallenness and Brokenness and we feel that.
But the problem is we feel it so much that all we do as we look down and we look what's right in front of us and the Gospel reminds us to pick pick your head up and to see what awaits you to see the God that awaits us to see the reality that awaits us and to see that's worth that's worth living for and what this world has to offer is garbage by comparison now I won't I want that it's putting all of our hope there and Paul says that in in doing this in his letter to the Corinthians in.
Second Corinthians he says so we do not lose heart though our outer self is wasted in away our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light momentary Affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of Glory beyond all comparison he calls the sufferings of this present life and him describing this is something because he is this man has been tortured and beaten and spit upon and mocked and arrested in ways that none of us will ever experience and he calls it light momentary Affliction and it's like are you serious and it's like by comparison to the Eternal weight of Glory that awaits us it is this life is brief and it is.
The suffering we feel is momentary but in those moments of suffering as we believe the Gospel it is preparing us for an eternal weight of Glory he goes on to say as we look not to things that are seen but the things that are unseen for the things that are seen are Transit but the things that are unseen are Eternal the Unseen things that we are awaiting the Eternal hope beyond all comparison that awaits us that's worth keeping so firmly fixed in our gaze that it informs every moment of how we live this life and that's the last thing I want us to.
See strain forward till we arrive strain forward till we arrive says in verse 13 but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus so forgetting what lies behind and keeping the end in mind he gives this imagery of Str training for pressing on towards that the language of strain here in the original language is this idea of of of of stretching out of of straining to get through the end it's like the imagery of a runner of a sprinter and a track meet in track in in sprinting uh there's a.
Few different races uh I think the 400 meter is probably the most difficult of all the uh sprint races in track and field I I the 100 meter is I mean it's a dead full-on Sprint with every single ounce of energy but it's only 100 meters the 800 meter is two laps around the track if you do what you do in the 100 meter you won't win that race requires a lot more pacing the 400 meter is one lap around the track and that it it's not you got to have a little bit of pacing like strategic pacing.
But it is pretty much almost a dead Sprint for 400 m i mean if you ever watch a 400 met race and watch them race it it's impressive and you watch a close one it's it's wild I mean because they are for 400 meters they are absolutely giving almost every single ounce of energy they're not conserving hardly anything and they're running full out and when you see them get to the Finish Line after giving everything they can with just a tad bit of pacing to break through and strain through the Finish Line it's impressive and it's a picture of really the Christian Life that we're called to do it's we something we should ask ourselves.
Do I strain for the prize like that is that the picture of the Christian Life that sure it's going to require a little bit of pacing but it is Max effort it is going for it like where we going to stand before God and testify that I strained to the finish line that I gave as as Colossians 1 teaches Colossians 1:29 says for this I toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me knowing that it's not the power within us it's not the power doesn't come from us it comes from the Holy Spirit.
But tapping into the power of the Holy Spirit we strain with every single ounce of energy that comes from him towards the Upper price is is that the life that we live because that's the life that God calls us to which means hear this that means that everything that you do in this life matters every that you do in this life matters because it's Tethered to and tied to Eternity I love what INRI the Theologian says about the resurrection in his book surprised by hope want to condense this quote down it's a little bit longer.
But he says the point of the Resurrection is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die what you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it what you do in the present by painting preaching singing sewing praying teaching building hospitals digging Wells campaigning for justice riding poems caring for the needy loving your neighbor as yourself will last in into God's Future these activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly a little more bearable they are part of what we call building.
For God's kingdom every that you do in this life matters it's not to make it a little less beastly and a little more a little less burdensome a little more pleasurable time it's not no everything you do matters because it's Tethered to an eternal reality which means we do everything to the glory of God we do everything with that end in mind with all his power that works within us we strain towards that end no matter what God calls us to do we do it to the glory of.
God straining for the prize a few years ago I've read this book it's called The Gospel comes to the house key by Rosaria Butterfield and that book has always been very convicting for me she's teaching about hospitality and God has GI her with hospitality it's evident when you read the book but when she just describes a general week it's just wild to me I just like it just kind on a Monday you know we've got uh you know she homeschools and she has uh she Fosters kids and she talks about some of the complexities that they had on Monday.
And then these people come home her husband's a pastor these people come from the Church to her house and they spend some time together then on Tuesday you know they they they're missional in their streets they invite people from their street to come over then Wednesday uh this family came over then Thursday they ended up doing this and then Friday they open their home up to this person who was hurting this woman who was in an abusive situation and then on Saturday.
And then on Sunday and I just read it and I'm like what but she gets it she she knows the prize and everything she does to the glory of God she will strength and like I I I I I read that I'm like that it's a life worth living and that should call us to be reflective of the lives that we live now and we should respond we we should some of you should consider hosting your community group like you've seen how hard hosting a group can be you've seen what happens.
When eight children come into a play area and just make it their own by murdering everything inside and then you have to go in and you have to correct them and say don't do this respect the place ah you've SE you've seen what happens when like just all of a sudden there's spaghetti on the wall and it's how did that get there and it's been there for days and who did it but you should you should some of you should consider leading a group which is even harder.
Because leading a group is not it's not easy but what a beautiful thing to give your life to how many testimonies in our Church of people who jumped into a community group group who did not know Christ but then came to see the Gospel lived out in beautiful ways and place of faith in Christ that are one day going to be with him forever you should consider it some of you should consider leader in training you should consider becoming a leader in training and a and and that's an opportunity.
For you to grow yeah it's going to require more of you but you get to know more of Christ in it you should strain I mean really strain to whatever God has in front of you some of you should consider consider finally becoming members some people have been around for a bit and it's like you you should consider finally becoming a member and and submitting to the authority of one another in the local Church you should some some of you should strain in whatever way.
God is calling you to some of you that that means giving yourself away to others I mean some of you should consistently and regularly share the Gospel like I mean consistently and regularly in your workplace share the Gospel and it's like I I don't want to come off as preachy I want to you know let them see it in my life and it's like but the the Gospel is not a life it's a message and it's like they need to hear it and it's like who cares.
If you're there's there's a bad way of being preachy the self-righteous preachy and no don't do that don't but I know a lot of you and you are not in danger of being that guy or that girl okay but who cares if you're known as being preachy every let me let let me let you in a secret everyone is preaching everyone's preaching about something okay just literally if you ever worked in an office they're preaching about the favorite show that they love they're preaching about their children they're preaching about whatever new thing that they're into whatever new podcast they're into they're cats I mean just everyone's excited about something and they're an evangelist.
For something they're going to tell you about it and a lot of times what they're doing is they're they're selling you on some type of hope that they found and you you know better it's like you know that I mean just being blunt and honest that that hope is stupid it's just that hope is never going to satisfy and from a completely humble non-condescending way because the only way that we know that is by grace through faith you lovingly and winsomely get to declare the mystery of Christ and compel them to a better hope.
And so what if a few if you do it a few times and you get known as like they love Jesus and if you go to launch with them then you might hear about it who cares everyone's preaching we just have something better to preach about you should strain you should strain towards the prize growing in evangelism we should do this we should strain which means sometimes bearing burdens with difficult people there's some people they can be described as clingy or dramatic or difficult or weird and no one else in the world wants to give them any attention at all and the most Christ exalting.
God glorifying obedient thing you can do is give them love and attention and focus and energy let me tell you something if you do that at some point once you've won their ear you can say hey did she know when you do this that's really weird and enough pudding and no and like there's a reason why like people like don't want to eat lunch with you and the most like Jesus exalting humble wise way of saying it hey did you know.
When you get like really clingy it's like like you shouldn't but again like in the most Gospel centered thoughtful like Wise Way of but you can do but a lot of times like no I've got to draw my boundaries here and I got to make sure that I'm taken care of and it's like yeah you can take care of yourself you can walk and Sh Gum as a Christian by the power of the Holy Spirit you can you can get away like.
Jesus and know Christ and then strain to love others well as we press on towards that eternity some of you need to serve like you need to actually serve we make make jokes all the time and you should serve in Kid City because we have such a yes because we have such a need there but you should I mean even if you're serving in another area even you're serving in Hospitality or connected or any other area of the Church you put in one once a month once every two months to Kid City it totally changes the game you you can do both some of you are not serving you should serve the Church.
Because we got a pile of children that I mean just keeps growing like one of our big concerns in growing right now we got parking it's like we got to figure out our parking situation so some of you should Park further away but we also got a lot of kids we we got to make more room for more children which means we need to serve some of you s should serve some of you should strain and missing out on the newest and nicest things in life that means the newest and nicest vehicle that means the the the greatest vacation you might actually progress in a tax bracket that is above working class.
But the way you live your life is working class because your extra money goes towards missions it goes towards clothing orphans it goes towards the local Church because you understand that every single dime you make in this world ends up in the dirt but the effort that you put into eternity lasts and we should strain towards that some of you should pray and and and receive the calling and aspire to missions to pastoring to Church planning to revitalizing because that straining is worth it we should strain we should forget what lies behind we should keep the end in mind and we should strain and press forward into eternity.
Listen that's exhausting at times it is that's long weeks and sometimes longer weekends and emotionally Laden Seasons but the straining is worth it because one day in the Eternal Feast of God the there will be a table where there will be people right now in your life that did not know Christ because you decided to make it awkward one day and you shared Christ with them they're going to be at that table praising God and enjoying life with him for eternity there will be people that nobody cared to love that had a lot of burdens that were doubting whether.
Jesus was good but because you chose to love them and bear burdens with them and walk with them even when it was difficult and even when they were difficult they in their perfected State have no more burdens and they'll be at that table rejoicing with the King there is a day coming where people that you walk with that struggle with addiction the struggle with pornography the struggle with all types of sins that you got into the mess with and po them to Christ over and over again saw that put to death and it did not choke out the seed of Faith.
But they bore fruit because you lever your life for the mission of God it is worth the straining with every ounce of energy within us that comes from God brothers and sisters we forget the past we keep the end in mind and we strain towards that eternity it's worth it let's pray heavenly father I pray that you might help us see this life as compelling and worthy of Our Lives that for some of us means that we need to believe there are some men here have not surrender to you to live that life.
God I pray that right now they would not delay that they would lay down their life and surrender to you they would see their past paid for on the cross and they would see their future redefined as a new person in Christ but God that requires you breaking through their heart right now in faith and I pray that you would God I pray that you'd help each of us help us repent of the sin in our lives that keeps us from straining towards the prize of the upward call of life with you and that we'd believe that is better and more compelling than anything in this life in.
Jesus name amen the band's going to come up and we're going to take uh communion on the night that Jesus was betrayed he took bread he broke it he said this is my body that was broken for you and he took the cup of the New Covenant he said this is my blood that was shed for you that is often as you eat and drink this you Proclaim my death until I return so for Christians that's a reminder of what Christ did.
For us on the cross but also what awaits us so we come to the table in Repentance and in worship being reminded of the prize that we're straining for if you're not a Christian please do not take part in this but Surrender Your Life to him now and take part in Christ.
Doxology (Jude 24-25)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We are finishing up the book of Jude. It is near the back of your Bible. If you start at the end, run through Revelation, you'll run into Jude.
If you have one of these blue Bibles, it's on page 594. If you don't own a Bible, take one of these with you. That's our gift to you, but we want you to own a Bible. I don't need that, so I'm going to just kick it over here. All right.
My parents go on vacation to the beach in September, and they always want their children and grandchildren to come, and so I just got to go to the beach for a couple of days. And one of the things that happens if you spend time around little children is that everybody, adults and children, point out everything that they think is even remotely interesting. The children are going, hey, look at this, look at this, look at this rock, look at this. I had multiple children constantly running up to me going, hey, is this a shark's tooth? It never was. It was always just some sort of black thing.
And I'd be like, no, but it's cool. I handed one back to my nephew, and he was all excited. I was like, ah. Part of me wanted to be like, yeah, it's a shark's tooth, but that was not true. So I said, no, but it's a cool rock.
And he went, ah, and threw it on the ground and ran off. That was all he wanted was a shark's tooth. But you just point out everything. Look at that cloud. Look at this shell. Well, we were at the gas station on the way up, and I'm in line at the gas station.
And my youngest son, who's four, busts the door open. His older brother's behind him, and they go, daddy, daddy, daddy, there's a leaf bug out here. And they just turn around and run back out. The door closes behind them. Everybody looks at them. I'm in line.
And then four or five seconds later, they bust back in like, did you not hear us? Why are you still in line? They bust the door back open. A leaf bug. You come with me. Like just incredulous that I would not have already dropped what I was doing or run outside.
And I'm excited this morning because we're looking at Jude verses 24 and 25, and I get to do that. I get to say, hey, look at this. Look at how wonderful this is. Take this in. Don't miss this with something infinitely more exciting than a leaf bug, which consequently turned out to be a grasshopper. This is wonderful, wonderful news.
It is joyous and hope-filled. And so for the believers in the room, I think this will be encouraging, worshipful, the way Jude ends this letter. And for anybody in the room who is not a Christian, that you're trying to figure this out. I've got people that hang out with our community group, and that's kind of where they are. It's like just trying to figure this out, trying to see what I believe, trying to see what the Bible says. If that's the zone you're in, we're excited that you're here this morning, as we would be any Sunday.
But I think this Sunday is a good morning for you to see what we believe. And so for the Christians in the room, I hope this is some encouragement. And for anyone who's not a Christian, I want you to see this as an invitation. This is an invitation for you to today decide, no, I'm going to follow Jesus because of how wonderful he is. So let's read the text and then pray together, and then we'll start walking through it.
We've already read this once this morning. Jude, verses 24 and 25. Let's pray. God, as we draw our attention to this text this morning, help us to realize it. Help us to grasp the beauty of this. Help us to take this in and to respond in faith and worship at you, our God, our Savior, our Lord, who is glorious, majestic, and rules forever.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So the way this passage breaks down is that he says now, he's turning and he's saying, to him who is able, to the only God, be. To him, to the only God, be. That's kind of how this breaks up. So it's to, and he's describing.
He's just kind of pausing and saying things about Jesus, about God. And then he says to, and he's describing and pausing and saying things about God. And then he's saying be, belong, be given to. And so that's kind of how we're going to walk through it. We're going to walk through those two phrases and then the B sentence. So the first thing he says is, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.
The first thing we're going to look at is that him who is able to keep you from stumbling. It's the first thing we want to look at. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Honestly, him who is able is a good way to describe God. He's able. He's capable.
But it says to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. Praise the Lord. Isn't that good? That he keeps us from stumbling. The TV show The Office is one of my favorite TV shows. And I've probably since college just kind of watched it at all times.
It's off and off. And if there's ever anything, like we just don't have anything to watch, we'll just watch The Office and be thoroughly entertained. Even though we know it's coming. It's still hilarious. But one of the main premises of The Office is that the boss is an idiot.
And there's a scene in The Office where he's got to go negotiate something. And he's in a good position to negotiate except for there's one thing that he can't say. If he says this, it'll ruin everything. And he's got a couple people with him and they're getting on an elevator and they're looking at him. Because they know he's an idiot and they're going, just don't say it. Just don't bring it up.
Just don't. We're not going to mention this one thing. He's like, no, we're not going to mention it. We're not going to mention it. Elevator closes. They go up like two levels.
And it shows the elevator door open and he's like this. I'm just really afraid I'm going to mention it. I just, I think I'm going to say it. Like he just knows himself and he's like, there's a real good chance that it'll just come out. And I'll ruin everything. And I feel that way with following Jesus.
That there are times where I'm like, I got this. I got this. I got this. And then a month later, a week later, a moment later, I'm going, I really feel like I might mess this up. I really feel like I might just ruin this. Like there are those moments when you just see there's something wrong with me.
There's something deep inside of me that is broken. And I really just feel like there's a chance that I'm going to derail this. That if you fast forward five years from now, there's something in me that might just choose sin. And it's terrifying. Oh, praise Jesus that he's able to keep us from stumbling. That that's the hope we have in him.
Not that he saves you and he takes you and he cleans you and he says, okay, here's your life. Your sins are forgiven. You're cleaned up. Now I'll meet you at the finish line. Keep your record clean. I've cleaned everything off.
I'll meet you at the finish line, but you've got to finish it out. No, he's the one who keeps us from stumbling. Like a father holding hands with a child. That at any moment that child can just pitch forward about to lose it and immediately be brought back to safety. That he keeps us from stumbling. And that's wonderful news that our hope is in him.
Not in ourselves. I want you to see this. This is in John six. I'm going to show you two passages where Jesus is talking about this idea. John six, 37 through 39. He says, all that the father gives me will come to me.
And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. So if you come to Jesus, if you trust in him, if you place your faith in him, he will never cast you out. This idea that maybe I'll send so much, maybe I'll fail so much. Maybe he says, no, I'm, I'm going to keep you for I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. The idea that I might fail at this is the idea that Jesus might lose me.
But he says he's not going to lose anything. The father's given him. That he is able to keep us from stumbling. John 10, a few chapters later, Jesus is talking again. He says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My father who has given them to me is greater than I, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. If we have trusted in Jesus, he keeps us. The father keeps us and he is able to keep us from stumbling. So Christian, brother, sister, that right now is seeing your sin, can feel it, can know it, and is fearful. Cling to this promise that he will keep you and run back to him. Use his hand to steady yourself and trust in the fact that he is the one who is good, who keeps you, who redeems you, who brings you to the finish line.
That's wonderful news. On my sabbatical, I started listening to some audio books and it was a three book long trilogy and it was, each of these books was very long. But they were like sword fights and magic and time travel and people who could see the future. It was very nerdy stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But one of the things, one of the main storyline plot things of the story was that one of the characters you meet when they're like 17, you're kind of following through and then you learn that they had traveled back in time and died.
But people know this because it already happened. So you meet them here, you're following them through time, but you know that they're going to travel back in time and die. So what happened in the story was that this character would get into a lot of really bad situations and be like, this might go poorly for me, but I don't die here. Because I know where I die. It's already happened in time, but not for me. It's kind of confusing.
But he would just know, like I'm getting in this situation, it's difficult, but I don't die here. This isn't the end for me. And so he would just lean into, he still had to fight, he still had to show courage, he still had to do everything he could to get out of the situation, but he knew this isn't how it ends. And I find that that's what we get to do with Jesus. I don't lose to this. Jesus is going to keep me.
I know how this ends for me. And so I can cling to that promise to give me hope as I trust in Jesus to see me through. So for Christians, this is wildly encouraging that our hope is that Jesus is the one who gets us to the finish line. And if you're not a Christian and you think, I can't be a Christian, I'd mess it all up. No. Because if you trust Jesus, he takes you and he keeps you and he brings you to the end.
He is able to keep you from stumbling. But then it says this, to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. He's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. So we're going to walk through and just look at these different words that are here and just try to unpack them a little bit. So let's start with blameless.
Blameless means without blame. Without accusation. With nothing that anybody could say bad about you. Now, if you are self-aware at all, that is a poor description of you. And if you are not self-aware but have friends, which is difficult to do if you have no self-awareness, ask them. They will tell you.
This is a bad description of you. Have you ever been in the situation where you were the one to blame? Just give you some examples. But you had blame. A teacher starts to take up homework and you don't have it. Or something that happened to me all throughout my school career.
Someone would look at you at lunch and say, man, are you ready for that test? Or were you able to finish your project? And you would respond, what project? And they would look at you like, oh, buddy, life's going to be hard for you. That amount of fear. Or somebody's looking for the person who stole something and it's in your pocket.
You know that type of blame that you have? Your dad's coming home and you're the one who broke the thing and you understand how this is going to go? So, the idea that we would stand before the God of the universe in the presence of his glory, the glory of the one who tests hearts, who knows minds, who can see through us and be blameless, is shocking. And it's wonderful. Because the blamelessness does not come from us, but it comes from the one who is presenting us. Do you see that?
That he would present us blameless. 2 Corinthians 5.21, I want you to see this in another place where it talks about this idea. It says, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. Okay, so, for our sake, he, that's God the Father, made him, that's Jesus, to be sin. So, Jesus became sin. Jesus, who knew no sin.
He was sinless, but he becomes sinful. He takes on our sin. He doesn't actually sin, but he takes our sin and he puts it on himself, so that in him we might become, what? The righteousness of God. That through Jesus, we are righteous because he took our sin and he gives us his righteousness, so that he might present us blameless. And that picture of him presenting us, him bringing us into the glory of the Father, that's what he says, before the presence of his glory.
In the Old Testament, you don't get to enter the presence of his glory. Everybody who even comes into, brushes into contact with the presence of his glory, he shows up just in a burning bush and he says, take your shoes off. This is holy ground. You're not welcome here as you are. If there was only, was the high priest able to go once a year into the holy of holies, into the presence of his glory, and even that with sacrifices made on his behalf before he went. That Moses, who was the closest to God, asked, can I see your glory?
And God says, no, it would kill you. But you can see the back of it. That Isaiah gets brought into the presence of the Lord and he falls down and he says, I'm sinful, I don't belong here. You ever been in a situation where you felt dirty? You felt shameful? You felt like, I should not be here.
There's something wrong with me. I'm the one who's ruining everything. Peter meets Jesus. Jesus performs a miracle and Peter falls down and says, get off my boat. I shouldn't be in your presence. You're holy and there's something wrong with me.
The idea that we get to be presented blameless is wonderful and it points to the glory of Christ who took our sin and gave us his righteousness. And he joyously presents us. Picture this. He comes into the glory of his father, into the glory of the Holy Spirit, into the glory of the Trinity. And he says, look. Look at them.
Aren't they beautiful? Look at how clean they are. Look at how blameless. Look at these sons and daughters, these brothers and sisters who belong here. And it's all to the praise of his glory. Some of you go, I'm too dirty.
I wouldn't be able to be there. But that does not degrade you. It degrades him. That he is incapable of cleaning you. Oh, to the praise of his glorious grace will we be presented blameless before the father. Will we be presented blameless in the presence of his glory.
And we will stand there awestruck to be welcomed into a place that we should have no business being. But because of the blood of Christ. Because of this exchange that took place. That he took our sinfulness. That he gave us his righteousness. That we have the righteousness of God.
That we are now able to be there. That's wonderful. And he says, present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. Whose joy? Well, ours certainly. Can you imagine the freedom, the delight to be in the presence of God.
To be in the presence of his glory and belong. I think we can kind of wrap our head around being in the presence of his glory and not belonging. Like a moment of just this is amazing and now I'm going to die. But to be there and that to be our home. That to be where we're supposed to be. And that to be where we're supposed to enjoy being.
Because it brings glory to Jesus who's the one who redeemed us. Who's the one who presents us joyously. That we are overwhelmed. By joy. That every little bit. Every time you've laughed and laughed until your face and stomach hurt.
Every time you've been in a place where you were so at peace. That you just kind of could feel yourself just relax. That you felt safe. That you felt at home. Every time you've been around the people. Where you just have this moment of this is how life is supposed to be.
Every single one of those was just like a sniff of the meal that we're going to get to partake in. That's here and gone. Every one of those is like a drop of water on a parched tongue. Of what the joy will be like in the presence of his glory. That he cleans sinners like us. That he brings us to him.
And do you know how else's joy it is? It's his joy. That great joy is not just ours. It's his. He delights to do this. I love we were studying through Psalm and it says our God reigns in the heaven.
He does whatever he pleases. Which means that it pleases him to redeem sinners like us. That's what Jesus says in Luke 15. He says just so I tell you. There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents. I was reading that book Gentle and Lowly.
While I was on my sabbatical. And a lot of you were like didn't we read that way earlier? Y'all did. I didn't. But it was good.
So I caught up. And if you'll remember. So those of y'all who walked through it. There's this illustration that he gives. It's written by a guy named Dane Ortlund. There's this illustration that he gives.
He says imagine if you will. A doctor. Who's independently wealthy. He's able to go on this. And he decides he's going to go. Halfway across the globe.
To reach out to some tribal people. And to offer vaccinations. Help them. You know things like polio. Help them with things. That would absolutely destroy them.
But there's a vaccination for it. They cannot have smallpox. If they'll just kind of go through this. They can get past pertussis. If they'll just take this vaccination. He's going to go and help save.
He says imagine that he goes. But they don't trust him. They don't know what he's talking about. It takes a long time to build trust. He says but imagine. The day.
That finally. One brave. Person. Steps forward. And receives the vaccination. He says.
What does that doctor feel? Joy. He said it's the whole reason he came. He feels joy. And that made so much sense to me. I remember sitting in my office.
Thinking. Yeah. Of course he does. Of course he delights to do that. Of course he's ecstatic that day. And how dare I.
Fail to see. The great delight. Of the God of the universe. Who since eternity past. Purposed. To redeem a people for himself.
And then came. To live. And to die. And to rescue. So that he might one day.
Present a people. To belong to him forever. That he might rescue a people for himself. To belong to him. And how I fail to miss. How joyous that is for him.
If you're in here. And you're not a believer. And you think. I can't come to him. I'm too broken. I'm too dirty.
I'm too messed up. Oh. Hear. Hear how happy he will be. To save you. Hear how much joy there is.
For you to walk forward. And say I'm a sinner. In need of cleansing. I need somebody to rescue. Can you see the smile crack. Across his face.
And he says. That's why I came. That's what this was all about. So that people. Who could not rescue themselves. Might be rescued.
And redeemed. Come. I sing to my boys. In the evenings. And one of my favorite songs. Is softly and tenderly.
And it says. Softly and tenderly. Jesus is calling. Calling. Oh sinner. Come home.
That's what he came to do. There's delight. That's what Hebrews 12. 2 says. Look. To Jesus.
That we ought to be looking to Jesus. The founder and perfecter. Of our faith. Who for the joy. That was set before him. Endured the cross.
Despising the shame. And is seated at the right hand. Of the throne of God. It is his delight. To redeem. Sinners.
So that one day. If you placed your faith in Jesus. He's going to keep you from stumbling. He's not going to lose you. And then there's going to be a day. When he brings you into the presence of his glory.
And we celebrate. A day of overwhelming joy. That Jesus can save sinners like us. A day where he receives so much glory. That he can redeem someone as broken and as busted as you. Someone whose thoughts.
Even when you're trying. Are so twisted and mangled. There are times where I think. I'm so messed up. And I'm trying. This is the Holy Spirit at work in me version.
That is trying. And I'm still like this. And to be able to stand. And know that he's going to keep me. And to be ushered into his glory. And that that day will be joyous.
Don't miss this. That's the first thing he says. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling. And to present you blameless. Before the presence of his glory with great joy. To the only God.
Our Savior. Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. That's his next statement. To the only God. Our Savior.
Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. Okay. People argue. That all religions are the same. We all believe the same thing.
And I just want you to know. Christianity makes exclusive claims. That there's. He's the only God. There is no other God. And he's the only God.
Who saves us. Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. That there is no other Savior. There's no other way to the Father. But through Christ.
So if you want to argue. That Christianity is wrong. Well the Bible. Logically will fit with that. You can say it's wrong. But it won't fit with.
It's kind of right. It's right. They're all right. It won't do that. Because it says no. There's only one God.
And there's only one Savior. But I want you to see this. To the only God. Our Savior. Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord.
That through Jesus Christ. We receive salvation. And it's just so encouraging. You need a Savior. And if you become a Christian. You don't cease to need a Savior.
There's not going to be a time. Where you think. I've graduated. I'm no longer a sinner. I'm no longer in need of a Savior. High five Jesus.
I don't need you anymore. That's not how it works. He delights to redeem sinners. Now. He's also our Lord. So we repent.
We obey. We follow. We follow. But we follow. Because he's our Savior. Who's rescued us out of sin.
And given us hope. And if you're not. A Christian. You need a Savior. One of the things that. That Spencer pointed out.
When we first started Jude. Is that Jude. He highlights for us. That there is great judgment. And great joy. There's judgment for sin.
There's a. He calls it the great day. There's a day of wrath. There's a day of judgment. And that everyone. Will either receive judgment.
Or they'll receive joy. But you'll get one or the other. Either Jesus will receive your judgment. For your sin. On your behalf. And then you'll be a recipient of joy.
Through Jesus. Or you will receive judgment. And if you say. I don't need Jesus. What you are saying is. I'll stand on my own.
In that day. And be held accountable. For my sin. But the invitation. Is that you would come to him. Who delights to save.
Delights to keep. And delights to rejoice with. Eternally. Through the work of Jesus. That you would trust him. To save.
You. So he's our only God. Our savior. Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord. Be.
So now he's saying. Be. This belongs to him. Give it to him. That's kind of what it means. It's his.
So we ought to respond. By giving it to him. We ought to respond. By. So he's.
Praising him. By both saying. It's his. And also. We. We acknowledge that.
We give it to him. Says. Be glory. Majesty. Dominion. And authority.
Authority. Before all time. And now. And forever. Amen. So these things belong to him.
Before all time. If we ever say the phrase. Eternity past. That's what we're talking about. That there was a time. Before time.
God invented time. There was. Something before that. It messes up. Because you have to use the word. Before.
Before. But I guess that's time. So then it was before. But then you can't use before anymore. Because there's no time. So we just say eternity past.
Before all time. He was in charge. He creates time. So now. He's in charge. And then.
Forever. Which is. We don't say. Eternity. Future. Sometimes you can say that.
You just say. Eternity. Forever works. What happens after time. Be glory. Meaning that all praise and honor.
Belongs to him. There is no boasting. For us. That when we're presented. Blameless. Before him.
We don't go. I know you're glad I'm here. Feel free to clap. If you would like. We don't do that. We're joyous.
But we're joyous. Based off of his work. Not ours. There is no boasting. There's no swagger. There's delight.
Certainly. There's tears. Certainly. There's a feeling of. Welcome. And belonging.
Certainly. But there is no boasting. The glory is his. And this. This has helped my brain so much. When I sin.
To help me know. That I turn to him. And I ask for forgiveness. And I delight in the fact. That he receives glory. From saving sinners.
Like me. I don't pursue sin. Because of that. I pursue him. Because of that. Majesty.
I looked that up. One of the definitions. Was. Regal impressiveness. He's impressive. Not us.
He has dignity. And honor. He's a king. That it belongs to him. That's his. And he's had it.
Forever. Dominion. Meaning he is. Over all things. He rules. Over all things.
That he is in charge. Over all things. That he works out. Everything. According to his. Will.
That there is not. A square. Millimeter. Of existence. In the ocean. On the earth.
In the sky. In outer space. In some sort of. Spiritual realm. We don't understand. There's not a square.
Inch. That doesn't belong to him. That isn't under his rule. That isn't under his care. That it is under his domain. When we look out.
Into the sky. And we see. Infinite stars. Like we just. We're baffled by it. That does not.
Declare to us. Our place in the universe. It declares his. Majesty. And goodness. And his.
Greatness. Authority. He's a king. And he does. As he pleases. But praise be to his name.
That it pleases him. To redeem sinners. To forgive. And to welcome. Before all time. And now.
And forever. Amen. Brothers and sisters. In the room. Cling to this. Remember this.
Believe this. That he'll keep you. That he'll guard you. That he'll. Make you reach the end. And that that day.
Will be. Joyous. And if you have not placed your faith in Jesus. Don't say no to this. But come to him and say.
Please. Save me. And he will. That all who come to him. He will not lose. One of them.
But trust in him. The band's going to come back up. We're going to join. Jude. Jude ends this by saying. Look at how wonderful.
Jesus is. Look at how wonderful. God is. To him be glory. And majesty. And dominion.
And authority. Before all time. And now. And forever. And for a moment. We're just going to let our voices.
Join an eternal chorus. Of those who understand this infinitely more than we do. We're going to join Jude in saying. Isn't he wonderful. Isn't he good. To him be the praise.
It's not about me. It's about him. And he's so good to redeem. A sinner. Like me. Let's pray.
And then let's sing. God we thank you. That it is your delight. To save sinners. We thank you. That you are able.
To keep us. From stumbling. And for those in the room. Who feel like they're stumbling. That they're going to. Fall.
That they're going to lose this. They're going to fall into sin. Lord. That you're going to. Lose them to sin. That it's going to engulf them.
Lord. May you hold them. And draw them back. In forgiveness. And redemption. That you rescue sinners.
That that does not mean. That we will never sin. It just means. That we'll never lose to it. And so Lord. May we cling tightly.
To you. Who keep us. May we hold firmly. To that promise. And Lord. May we look forward.
To the day. When we are presented. Into the presence. Of your glory. Made blameless. By the work.
Of Jesus. And may there not. Be a soul. In this room. Who enters that day. On their own account.
Lord. May there not be someone. In this room. Who stands before you. On that day. In their sin.
But may we stand. In the righteousness. Of Christ. Through the blood. Of his sacrifice. And so Lord.
I ask that through your Holy Spirit. You would help. Anyone who has not trusted in you. To believe. To run to you. And to say.
Forgive me. And to receive that forgiveness. And to receive this promise. As they might stand. With your people. On that day.
Made blameless. Through your son. To the praise. Of his glory. And his wonder. And his name.
In Jesus name. Amen.
From the Prison to the Palace
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. We are going to be in Genesis 40 and 41 today. So go ahead and grab a Bible, follow along with us.
If you don't have a Bible, there's a blue Bible on the road. It'll be on page 20. I love stories that are told in a way where everything comes full circle. Movies that do this well are really good. I remember Slumdog Millionaire, which is kind of a movie that celebrates Indian culture. It's told in a way where everything comes full circle.
The beginning starts where this guy, he's a contestant on the Indian version of who wants to be a millionaire. He's getting ready to answer the final question, the 20 million rupee dollar question. And they're like wondering, how does this guy who comes from like the lower parts of Mumbai, how has this guy gotten all this way? And they think that he's cheating. So they walk through all the questions with him to see how he answered these.
And the way the story is told is that each question is a point that points back to a different part of his life, a different memory, a different experience. And the story is told where it's all of it comes together at the end. It all points and converges to him being able to answer a question that's going to change his life forever. I love seeing this in stories that we get to watch, we get to read. I love seeing this when it happens in your own life. I got to see this recently.
I was in seminary. And in seminary, I started taking extra counseling classes. I started taking extra counseling coursework of the church I was a part of. I started shadowing different counseling pastors and learning. And at the time, I could not have told you why I wanted to take all this extra work. It wasn't a part of my degree program.
It wasn't something I was thinking I was going to be doing a whole lot of when I got into ministry. But there was something that drew me to it. As I think back now, I think part of that was that so much of my life has been connected to suffering, to loss, to death, to all different kinds of experiences. And I think part of it maybe was me wanting to have an answer, to me being able to want to walk people through the Bible and walk them through suffering. What I didn't realize is that stepping into my leadership here in this church, the two things that I would help oversee are teaching and counseling.
And I just love in my office now, I see this whole bookshelf, and there's a whole bunch of books that are a reflection of that, that everything has come full circle for me and how God is using me in our church. I love stories that come full circle, and I love this story of Joseph, because it's going to start coming full circle as we walk through the last parts of this story. We've been walking through the story of Joseph and seeing at the very beginning that he is gifted in dreams, that he's gifted in helping interpret dreams, that that's something that God has gifted him in, and when he uses it the first time that we see it, it does not end well for him. His brothers end up selling him into slavery, which leads to the situation we walked through last week, where he is falsely accused of rape, and now he is in prison.
He is in the pit, and he is suffering. But we're going to see his story start to come full circle with the giftings that God has given him. And as we see this come full circle, there's a question that still remains. Is he going to continue to be faithful to God? Is he going to, in the midst of everything that he has suffered, still going to trust God? We're going to see that answer today as we walk through his story, and we're going to see a picture of faithfulness, a faithfulness that we are all called to as God's people in spite of circumstance.
That in the mess and suffering of life that we face, God still calls us to faithfulness. That because God is sovereign, he still calls us to be faithful, trusting him with our lives, and ultimately trusting him with the reward. So we're going to see that as we walk through this. Let me pray, and then we'll jump into the story. God, I'm thankful that through the trials of life, we are not alone. That through suffering, you do not abandon us.
God, I pray you would help us see that faithfulness to you is better than anything else in this world. I pray that you would make that clear to us this morning as we walk through this story. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so, Joseph, as we walked through the end of last week, is in prison, but he's, like his other work, has been blessed in his work in the prison, so he's kind of become this honorary warden who's helping take care of the prison. So he's in prison, he's helping take care of the prisoners, of the prisoners, and then he gets two new prisoners, which is where we pick up today in Genesis 40, verse 1.
So it says, sometime after this. Now, that's a commentary note from Moses. We don't know how long he's been in prison, but if it's going to say sometime after this, it's probably been years. So he's years in prison, looking over the prisoners, sometime after this. The cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against the Lord, the king of Egypt. All right, so we've got two positions, two high-ranking positions in Pharaoh's government.
They're now in prison. We've got the cupbearer and the baker. All right, so the cupbearer in ancient Near East government was a very important position. If you were going to assassinate a king, you did it by poisoning. That was the way to get away with it. So they had cupbearers who would drink the wine, who would drink the drink to make sure it wasn't poison.
So they would take a bullet for them. So that was part of their job. Because they were such a trusted official, they had other responsibilities that were important as well. And then we have the chief baker, also a very important position in the kingdom. He makes the food, which also needs to not be poisoned. It also needs to taste good.
Because if it doesn't, it will end up like an episode of Chopped, and his head will be on the chopping block at the end. And that is where we are at. Both of them are in prison. Both of them have committed offense. We don't know what they did. It doesn't tell us.
Maybe Joseph came to them and said, hey, what did you do to get here? And they just said, unspoken. Like, we don't know. But they've committed offense. They're in prison. And it picks up in verse 2, when Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined.
The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them, and they continued for some time in custody. So again, Joseph is overseeing these guys. These guys are part of his watch. And it picks up in verse 5. And one night, they both dreamed, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined to prison, each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. All right, so they have some dreams that need some interpreting.
Now, we take a step back for a second. We talked about this a few weeks back. I just want to reiterate it. Dreams have value. All right, they have importance.
There's about three different categories we walked through a few weeks back of dreams. Some of them are just random and weird. Just what they are. Like, if in your dream, your dog becomes a person and starts talking to you about your favorite TV show and then turns back into a dog. That's weird. You don't have to read any more into it.
That's just our brain processing things. It's just odd. There's a second category of dreams that has value because it's the working out of different anxieties, fears, experiences, memories. This is what psychology likes to deal in. This is what Froy, one of the fathers of psychology, liked to help interpret, to figure out what our dreams are telling us. And that has value because that is part of what happens in dreams.
We are working through anxieties, fears, all of that. When I was a kid, I had a reoccurring nightmare of these. We were, I remember I was at my house and there was a party going on and then I look up and everyone's gone. And then all of a sudden, these demons start coming down the street to get me. And you may be thinking, wait, that seems a little more spiritual. It wasn't.
It wasn't spiritual because those demons were from the movie Ghost. Ghost. Because my parents thought it was a good idea at five years old to let me watch Ghost. And I don't know if you've ever seen Ghost. That is not an appropriate movie in any form or fashion for a five-year-old. But there are these little demons that are in the movie that would come up and take people to hell.
And it scared the mess out of me. And I had this reoccurring nightmare that those demons from the movie Ghost were coming to get me. So we have nightmares, dreams like that that are sorting out memories, sorting out fears. And there's a third category where dreams can be very spiritual. That God gives them to us and that He's speaking through them. And what we said a few weeks back is as Christians, whatever dreams we have that trouble us, we bring them into community.
We bring them into the church. We have the Holy Spirit as the church and we help sort them out together to see what's going on there. That's how we respond. That is not how they would respond. In their culture, they had specific people who were gifted in dream interpretation. And these men were troubled because they didn't think they had access to anybody like that in prison.
It picks up in verse 6. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, why are your faces downcast today? So he sees them and he sees that they're troubled and he could have just kept walking. He didn't have to ask. In the same way that if you're in the office and you see a co-worker who is obviously upset, whose eyes are, you can tell they've been crying, they're red, you could walk past them because you know if you ask them how they're doing, it may turn into a 20 or 30 minute conversation.
Or, you can be a Christian. You can respond in grace and ask them, hey, how are you doing? And that's what Joseph does. He sees that they're dismayed. He asks them how they are doing. Why are you troubled?
And in verse 8 it says, they said to him, we have had dreams and there's no one to interpret them. And Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong to God. Please, tell them to me. So Joseph has trusted God with this gift. With this gift of interpreting dreams and it has earned him suffering. He had a dream that his family one day would bow down to him, he shares it, he ends up in slavery.
He eventually ends up in prison. That his life has been suffering because of his dreams. So it would be understandable if they said that and he went, hmm, I wish you had somebody who could help. Like hard pass, like I don't want any part of this. It would be understandable because all of his experiences thus far of trusting the gift that God has given him has earned him suffering. But that's not what he does.
He has faith. Throughout all the suffering, throughout all the mess, he still trusts God with the gift that he has been giving. He still has a healthy relationship with God. So he asks them. He offers help. And it picks up in verse 9.
So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, in my dream, there was a vine before me. And on the vine, there were three branches. So in dreams and in the Bible, Numbers are significant. So this three sticks out. It has significance. And as soon as it budded, it blossoms, as soon as it budded, it blossoms, its blossoms shot forth and the clusters ripened into grapes.
So this is a dream that he can understand. This is wine, grapes language for a cupbearer. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. All right, so that was his dream. Now Joseph jumps in with the interpretation.
Then Joseph said to him, this is his interpretation. The three branches are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office. And you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly when you were his cupbearer. So he had to have, I'd like to think, a huge sigh of relief at this point.
He's been troubled, which means he's been trying to sort out what this dream is. What does three mean? It's going to be cut into three pieces. It's going to be pressed out like wine. There's all kinds of fears and in that moment, Joseph steps in and helps relieve him. No, no, no.
You will be restored. You are going to be restored to where you were. But this is what Joseph adds. He says, only remember me when it is well with you and 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've done nothing that they should put me in the pit. So he makes a plea.
He understands that this is one of the high-ranking officials that serves under Pharaoh. He says, remember me. When you are restored, please remember me because my whole life I've been snatched out of my own land, sold into slavery. I'm in this prison, in this pit for doing nothing wrong. And how many of us feel that? How many of us, that's your story?
That so much of your life has been trying to honor God, has been doing the right thing and you've been passed over. Whether it was a job promotion, you get passed over. Whether it was a sale, whether it was an opportunity, you did what was right and those who were faithless pursued and cheated and did all kinds of things to get ahead of you and you are left behind. We can feel how Joseph feels in the pit, hoping to be remembered, hoping that faithfulness might actually be rewarded. So this is Joseph.
He makes the plea. And while the cupbearer is getting good news, the baker hears it and he's like, oh, how about me? He says, when the chief baker saw the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream. There were three cake baskets on my head. And the utmost basket, there were all sorts of baked food. There was all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.
And Joseph answered and said, this is his interpretation. The three baskets are three days. He's got some good news. And in three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head. Seemingly good news. From you.
And hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you. And that's his interpretation. The chief baker was so excited. He's like, man, the cupbearer got good news. I've got to get in on this action.
Tell me, dreamer, what you got? I have number three. That's good news, right? I've got three baskets on my head. And I've baked goods. And there's birds eating it.
And they're flying. Am I going to fly up out of here? How is this going to end for me? Tell me, dreamer, what do you have for me? Now, Joseph is good at a lot of things. He helped build a business empire.
He's obviously a good warden. He's taking care of the prison. He is gifted in dream interpretation. He is not good at giving bad news. Because he says it just like you did the cupbearer. In three days, your head will be lifted up.
And it's like, oh, yes. No, no, no. Lift it up from your head. You will be hung. This ends badly for you. And he gives the bad news and it goes down exactly how he interpreted.
On the third day, verse 20, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him. So it goes down like he said it would and another disappointment happens for Joseph.
Hoping that maybe he might be remembered. That his faithfulness here might pay off. How many days you think he was waiting for someone to come through the prison to come and get him? How many days was he hoping to maybe see the cupbearer maybe see someone that the cupbearer would send hoping that he might be lifted up out of the pit? And at what point did he finally just say I don't know if someone is coming. This is my life.
I am used. I am discarded. I am forgotten. Flip over to chapter 41. After two whole years. He has been in prison for years and two more years of waiting.
That just shows that our timing is not God's timing. It is not God's timing at all. After two whole years Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile and behold there came up out of the Nile seven cows attractive and plump and they fed in the reed grass. And behold seven other cows ugly and thin came up out of the Nile after them and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile and the ugly thin cows ate up the seven attractive plump cows and Pharaoh awoke. Alright so by dream that's a nightmare.
That's fairly terrifying. My dreams don't ever get that graphic. My typical nightmares are I show up on a Sunday and I don't think I'm preaching and somebody says hey you're preaching today and I'm like no I'm not preaching. And it's like no you are and my reoccurring nightmare is I show up and I am unprepared and I have to preach. That is my naked in the office dream that happens regularly and that pales in comparison to the horrors of what he just saw. I don't know if you heard that.
There were seven fat cows eating, drinking, just being cows and seven thin mangy looking cows came up and ate them. Cows don't eat. The only thing they eat is grass and corn. That's terrifying to see these thin cows attack these fat cows and there's blood and it's horrifying and it's a nightmare and Pharaoh awakes and he somehow gets back to sleep. And in verse 5 he has a second dream that says he fell asleep and dreamed a second time and behold seven ears of grain plump and good were growing on one stalk. So again Numbers are significant the seven matters here. and behold after them sprouted seven ears thin and blighted by the east wind and the thin ears swallowed up the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump full ears and Pharaoh awoke and behold it was a dream.
So in the morning his spirit was troubled and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh. Some of you all felt this. You have nightmares night terrors things that disturb you and when that happens the appropriate response is you need to find somebody. You need to sort it out. You need to figure out what happened and that is what happens with Pharaoh.
He has this nightmare these back to back dreams and they're significant and he needs help. So he reaches out to his magicians he reaches out to his wise men and there's no one who can help him until finally somebody remembers. Verse 9 it says Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh I remember my offenses today. When Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief baker in the custody of the house of the captain of the guard we dreamed on the same night he and I each having a dream with its own interpretation. A young Hebrew was there with us a servant of the captain of the guard.
When we told him he interpreted our dreams to us giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. And as he interpreted to us so it came about. I was restored to my office and the baker was hanged. Two years later finally the cupbearer remembers. He tells what happened to Pharaoh how he interpreted the dream correctly and we're starting to see that everything in Joseph's life is starting to converge that all that God has prepared him for is for this moment that dreams for the majority of his life have been his downfall have been his suffering but now they're actually going to be his redemption.
That God is orchestrating it all for this moment and Joseph through it all has not given up on hope has not given up on faith in God that he has been given this gift for a reason. In verse 14 it says then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they quickly brought him out of the pit and when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes he came in before Pharaoh. So after years in prison Joseph he's got nasty prison garments he's got to be cleaned up. He goes and he changes out his clothes he gets shaved he gets cleaned up he's being brought before Pharaoh and when he's being brought before Pharaoh he gets it.
He has got one shot at this. He's seen what happens to people in the kingdom that do not please Pharaoh. He has one shot one opportunity to seize everything he ever wanted. Will he capture it? Or will he let it slip? You're welcome to everyone under 40 who listen to hip hop.
Verse 15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph I've had a dream and there's no one who can interpret it. I've heard it said of you when you hear a dream you can interpret it. Joseph answered Pharaoh It is not in me God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. Joseph hear this he is standing before one of the most powerful men in the world. He is a slave a prisoner I mean there's a lot on the line here and Joseph looks at a man who is worshipped like a God amongst his people and says no you're mistaken no it is God my God that is going to give the favorable news. He looks at this king and he doesn't waver.
He still wholeheartedly believes in God trusts in him but through all the suffering his hope is still secure in him. He stares down this powerful man declares who is actually going to give the news here. So then Pharaoh recounts the dream he tells it again we're not going to read it. Joseph gives the interpretation skip down to verse 25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh the dreams of Pharaoh are one God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven cows are seven years and the seven good ears are seven years the dreams are one the seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine.
It is as I told Pharaoh God has shown Pharaoh what he's about to do there will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt but after them there will arise seven years of famine and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt the famine will consume the land and plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow for it will be very severe and the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means this thing is fixed by God and God will shortly bring it about.
Suffering Well
Transcript
It's good to see y'all this morning. We are going to be in Genesis chapter 29 and Genesis chapter 30 today. We've been walking through the book of Genesis and we've been following the story of Jacob. We're going to pick right up where we left off and here's what we're going to see today. Jacob is, in some ways, he's on the run. They dressed it up as nicely as they could, but he stole his brother Esau's birthright.
He tricked his, he stole his blessing. He stole his birthright and his blessing, although Esau signed off on the birthright thing very foolishly. And then he tricked his father and he tricked his brother Esau and he dressed up like his brother Esau and he stole the blessing from Isaac whose eyesight had failed him. And so he was able to, by smelling like his brother and by putting on goat's skin hair, be as hairy as his brother, which again, extremely hairy. And so he was able to do that. And he, they found out that Esau said, I'm going to kill him.
As soon as my dad passes away, then I'm going to kill Jacob. And so Rebecca finds out that is their mother. And she says, Hey, you've got to go. You've got to get out of here. And they come up with this idea and it kind of fits with what's going on. But they say, Jacob needs a wife and he doesn't need to marry a Hittite.
So they bless him and he hits the road. Now they dress it up a little bit with the blessing and the send off, but he doesn't really take anything with him. He's on his own. And in some ways he's leaving behind him, busted up family. And he's headed off to go find a wife. As we read this story today, we're going to see the wheels fall off of Jacob's life.
And in so many ways, what, what's going to look like it's going to turn out really well is just going to hit a wall and fall apart. And so as we read through this, we're going to see how they respond. And I want us to ask a question. I want us to look at this and try to see how are we meant to respond in the midst of suffering? How are we supposed to walk out life in pain and suffering and difficulty? And I will tell you that America, that we as Americans are poorly equipped to handle suffering.
We're poorly equipped to handle pain and difficulty. We, our founding fathers started us off with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And by and large, we've bought into that. Well, the goal in life is happiness, that the point in life is happiness. And whether or not you think about that all the time, it's an undercurrent in how we walk through life that I'm supposed to be happy. This is why we say things like, well, we know God wants me to be happy.
Therefore, and then we'll immediately follow that up with, I can kind of do whatever I want because his, his primary goal is my happiness. And we've bought into this idea and that kind of runs underneath everything. And the truth is this, if your goal in life is happiness, we are poorly equipped to handle suffering because every time suffering and happiness step into the ring, it's a no contest. Suffering destroys happiness. Pain destroys happiness. When suffering and happiness face off, suffering is undefeated.
And so what happens in the midst of our suffering, our happiness flees, and we suddenly have the question of how, what am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to move forward? Tim Keller, who's a pastor and an author, in his book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering, he says this, he says, in a secular view, suffering is never seen as a meaningful part of life, but only as an interruption. If you think about that, most of us, we've bought into that idea that suffering is an interruption in the midst of our good life. Suffering, difficulty, pain are causing us to have what we're going for be not achievable.
It's taking happiness away. It's an interruption. It's messing us up. It's removing from us what the point of life is. He says, with that understanding, there are only two things to do when pain and suffering occur. The first one is to manage and lessen the pain.
Then he says, this is why professionals now primarily talk about stress management. This is why we have high medication rates. This is why we have the primary goal is to just manage and lessen the suffering. He says, the second way, the first one is to manage it. The second way, the second way to handle suffering in this framework is to look for the cause of the pain and eliminate it, to fix it, find the problem and fix it. And I'm an American and that sounds smart.
You're in the middle of suffering. Make it manageable. And if it's fixable, fix it. The problem with that is there are some seasons of suffering, there are some types of pain that are not manageable and that are not fixable. And that biblically, we're invited into some things that there are times where we have to choose between obedience and suffering, disobedience and pursuit of happiness. There are going to be seasons in life where you get to choose obedience and difficulty, obedience and pain or disobedience and pursuit of happiness.
And we are ill-equipped to think that this is good, to think that obedience paired with suffering and obedience paired with pain is a good and loving thing for God to give us. As Americans, we're ill-equipped for that. We honestly need something, a purpose in life beyond the pursuit of happiness, something that's a little bit more resilient because happiness is too weak. The truth is you will face inevitable suffering and inevitable pain. There will be seasons in life where you are meant to walk in obedience in the midst of pain and in the midst of suffering and not to try to abort what is going on and not to try to just escape and not to just look to something to fix the problem and not just try to find a way to manage it and lessen it and get past it, but you're supposed to find a way to walk in it.
So we're going to read this story today and we're going to watch Jacob and his family respond the way we want to. Manage it, lessen it, fix it, find something to satisfy, find something to get past, and it's not going to work. And then we're going to finish our time looking to see if there's something better, if the Bible holds out something to us better, bigger, more meaningful, if it gives us a better answer to suffering. So let's pray and then we'll start reading. God, we have a heavy task at hand, and in so many ways we're trying to look at your word and swim against the current of our culture, and in so many ways we are going to translate this poorly as we filter it through the way we want to think about the world.
And we ask that your Holy Spirit would enliven us to see your word, to respond well to it. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Starts off happy. So that'll be good.
Then Jacob went on his journey, chapter 29, verse 1, and came to the land of the people of the east. So his journey is to go find a wife. They specifically told him, go find your uncle Laban, marry one of his daughters. Culturally, that's not uncommon or weird. Culturally for us, that's terrible advice. So don't go find your uncle and marry one of his daughters.
But for them, this is fine. Let's keep moving. He's looking for his cousin. As he looked, he saw a well in a field and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it. For out of that well, the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large.
And when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep and put the stone back in the place over the mouth of the well. So Jacob said to them, he shows up, he's some shepherds. He says, my brothers, where do you come from? And they said, we are from Haran. That's where he's supposed to go find his uncle. He said to them, do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?
That's his uncle. They said, we know him. He said to them, is it well with him? How's he doing? They said, it is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep.
Okay. Prime, marriable, lady. He's, he's made it to the right place, about 500 miles from where he was. It took a month or more. It seems as if he just walked. That's what I said.
They, they dressed it up like they were blessing him and sending him out. But last time they went to get a wife, there was 10 camels and a bunch of people and a bunch of clothes. And there was like a big caravan. And they were like, go find a wife. Boy, bye. Like that was it.
They just sent him out. He, he walks off, you know, he took his nice rock pillow and went and took a nap. And that's, that's where he is. So he shows up, but it's worked out. He's in the right place. She's coming towards him.
And so he says, he said, behold, it is still high day. It's not time for the livestock to be gathered together, water the sheep and go pasture them. But they said, we cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well. Then we water the sheep. So, he gets the information he needs from them. They say, that's your cousin.
He says, well, y'all need to go on somewhere. It's basically, he's trying to get a little bit of alone time. He wants to talk to her. He wants to have this, not have an audience. And they say, no, no, no, we got to wait for all the shepherds to get here and move that big rock. So, while he was still speaking with them, this is verse nine, Rachel came with her father's sheep for she was a shepherdess.
Now, as soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, we find out later that she's pretty, his mother's brother and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. He got pretty girl strength. And a lot of the guys in the room understand what that is. I once carried a two, it was a two man Job, but I carried it upstairs by myself because I thought my now wife was pretty. And she doesn't realize this, but she married me and I won. Halfway up the stairs, I almost fell.
And I was like, you better not. That's what happens. He sees her and he walks over and he's like, let me pick this stone up. Oh, flex a little bit. I got this. Oh, what?
A bunch of men have to do it. Watch this. And then he waters her sheep. He's trying to make a good impression. And then it says this, it gets weird. And I love that.
I think he kind of did this out of order and it was probably fun. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud. First of all, it's not a romantic kiss. This is a normal greeting. It wasn't like, he was like, do you like that? Watch this.
It wasn't like that. Normal warm greeting. Uh, they still do this. They still practice this, uh, uh, overseas. Ben Johnson, who went to Lebanon for about 10 years. Uh, they practice it there.
It said it took him a while to get used to it. But then one of the first times he came home, he had just gotten off of a long flight. He had to run by his home church to do something real quick. He saw the facilities guy. And without thinking, he grabbed him and kissed him on the cheek. He said, the guy about threw him across the hall.
So what are you doing boy? And so, uh, normal here, normal Middle East, not normal in our culture, but that's a normal thing for him to do. So he kisses her. It's a warm greeting after serving. And then it says he wept aloud. Now they're a little bit more emotionally involved.
They respond more emotionally than Westerners do, but it's still kind of weird for him to just start crying. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman, that he was Rebecca's son. And she ran and told her father. So he goes to, he goes to kiss her. And it's like, he's overwhelmed with how well this has worked and how he's come to the right place and met the right person. He just starts weeping out loud, which had to be weird for her.
And she's like staring at him. And he's like, no, I'm your cousin. It's cool. I was came from so far away, but bro's going to kill me. Like she runs and tells her, her dad. And it says, Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son.
He ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him. And brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, surely you are my bone and my flesh. And he stayed with him a month. We don't know what all these things are, but he told him all the things.
So how, how much he included. I have the birthright. I was the younger son and all that stuff. We don't really know, but he at least tells him enough to know. I am Rebecca's son. So he stayed with him a month.
So it's been a month. Then Laban said to Jacob, because you are my kinsman, should you therefore serve me for nothing? So Jacob's just been living there and working. Tell me what shall your wages be? So he's saying you should earn something.
You should be able to begin to grow your own personal wealth. It shouldn't just be, you are treated like my servant. You're one of my kinsmen. Now, Laban had two daughters. So, this is the marriable group. This is what he was sent to do.
The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance. There is some question as to what it means by Leah's eyes were weak. This isn't a super common phrase. Some argue that it's a compliment.
It's saying that her eyes were tender. They were distinct from others. They were like a beautiful look. And so there, if that was the way you took it, it would be saying, Leah had pretty eyes, but Rachel was pretty from head to toe. That's what it would be saying. Most commentators and most people believe that it is saying something negative about Leah, because what it says about Rachel after but is something really nice.
So it thinks it's saying she needed glasses. She squinted a lot. Her eyes didn't line up correctly. She had some kind of eye malformation or difficulty or sickness that made him really watery or puffy or something. So it's saying Leah was older, but Rachel.
That's kind of the tone of the text. Leah, but Rachel. And for those of you who grew up with siblings, maybe you feel a distinct pain when that's phrased that way. Because there's something about having siblings that make you consistently just compared to one another. And it's hard for parents to not have some amount of this one, but this one in different categories. And I know, I'm sure that was really tough for my brothers growing up.
They're not here. I can say what I want. But that's what's happening. And so it says, Leah, but Rachel. And so it says, Jacob loved Rachel. And he said, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel.
And Laban said, it is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man. Stay with me. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him, but a few days because of the love he had for her. Now that is one of the nicest things that has been written in the book of Genesis. This has been a rough book. That was sweet, y'all.
He said, it seems like just a few days because of the love he had for her. He said, I'll serve you seven years. Now it was normal for someone who was going to marry to pay a bride price for the bride, to offer something to the parents of the bride, because you're removing them, removing the bride from their household. And so he offers seven years of labor. He says, seven years. My energy, my effort.
You're not paying me anything. I get some room and board, and I want to marry Rachel. And Laban says, yes. If this were an American story, if this were a Disney movie, we're getting real close to the end. They're about to ride off. It's going to say, happily ever after.
The sort of bird or teapot is going to sing something at us. This is real life. It's not a Disney story. And this is not going to work out well. Verse 21. Then Jacob.
Oh, because it's been seven years. It seemed like just a few days. It's been seven years. Then Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife that I may go into her, for my time is completed. Bruh. Maybe word that differently next time.
Not a super gracious way. Say the thing about how it didn't feel long, because you love her so much. Like, you know, lead with that. But he says, give me my wife. So Laban gathered together all the people of the place, and made a feast.
But in the evening, he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to Jacob, and he went in to her. Laban gave his female servant Zilpah to his daughter Leah, to be her servant. That's going to come up later. And in the morning, behold, it was Leah. Okay, so there's a big feast. It's fair to assume there's alcohol.
It does not lean hard into that. It's not saying that Jacob was blind, drunk, or anything, but it's fair to assume there's some alcohol. When it gets dark, depending on the time of year, depending on the moon, it's dark. She would have been veiled. And also, given the way Jacob worded his, let me have my wife, I don't think he was super talkative. when she was brought into the tent. So what happens, is at some point, Laban worked out this plan, I think, assuming, seven years gave him plenty of time to marry Leah off, and then not so much.
Nobody seems very interested in marrying Leah. I think if he had some actual other offers, he might have done something different. He comes up with the idea to get a bride price for Leah, and to marry her off. You could argue that he was trying to be kind to Leah. I think, as we see Laban's character play out, not so much. He's trying to be kind to himself.
And he's setting his daughters up for some difficulty. And in some ways, Jacob's met his match. So he swaps Leah out. He had to tell Rachel, nope, Leah, veil up, you're on deck, let's go. And in the morning, behold, it was Leah. And Jacob said to Laban, what is this you have done to me?
Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me? Now, if we'll just think about being Leah for a second. Seems like nobody wants to marry you. Jacob shows up. He does not choose you.
He chooses Rachel. And by the way the text is written, that seems common. Leah, but Rachel. Then, you have one night with him where he would have been, in some ways, passionate, in some ways, loving. And you know, she has to be nervous and anxious about what's going to happen in the morning. And what happens, I'm assuming the look on her face was never forgotten.
The look on his face was never forgotten by her. When he saw that it was her, and the first thing he did was run out of the tent to go talk to Laban. And I assume that the pain there, and the pain for Rachel, who, as best we can guess, probably appreciated. Jacob probably loved him, and we're never told, but we know that he loved her, and a lot of times, when someone loves you, that's a very attractive quality. Would have been looking forward to getting married, and wasn't able to, and this is a mess. Laban said, this is verse 26, it is not so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn.
Ooh. If you know Jacob's story, that's a sick burn. He says, oh, maybe where you're from, the younger gets to be treated like the firstborn. But we're 500 miles from your mama's house, and that's not what we do here. So he swapped Leah out.
He says, complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also, in return for serving me another seven years. That's part of the reason why he views them as property, this one, the other one. And he's not super loving towards his daughters, gracious or setting them up for anything good. So there would have been a week where they would have kind of been a honeymoon week. He says, finish your week, and then you can have Rachel. Jacob did so, and he completed her week.
Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his female servant, Bilhah, to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and served Laban for another seven years. What could have been beautiful is now set up to be a train wreck. What could have been joy filled, and the truth is, that's so often how life works. We think we're on the right track, we think everything's going well, we think we've done what we needed to do to be headed in the right direction, and then in a night, over the course of a few weeks, this fell apart, and now he's married to sisters.
He loves one, he doesn't love the other, and there's no way at this point it's set up to be difficult and painful and hurtful for everybody, and that's the way we feel. So many of us can look back and go, it was all going well until, that's when it fell apart, and that's when the pain happened, and that's where everything came in that got messed up, and from that moment, so many of us have been trying to manage and to fix. If I could just get past it, if I could just get to this, if I could just have this happen, if this would just go away, if this could just be like this, and we're going to see that's what they do for the rest of the story. Verse 31, when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
Much of the rest of this story is going to deal with child birth, and we're going to see some joy and some pain and hurtfulness mixed in here, and what we see in this very first sentence is that God is in charge of conception, and that's going to be pulled through the rest of this story, that God rules and reigns sovereignly over conception. This is why we ought to take life from conception very seriously, and this is why it can be so painful for those who struggle with infertility, and those who have struggled with poor choices here, and abortion, and those who have conceived a child, but not been able to carry the child full term, and have lost babies. This is painful. So I would just ask that as we continue to read through this, that you would stay, that you would listen, that you would see the pain here, and that hopefully we can reach some redemption on the other side.
But this is painful. And Leah conceived and bore a son and called his name Reuben. For she said, Because the Lord has looked upon my affliction, for now my husband will love me. She conceived again and bore a son and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also, and she called his name Simeon. Again she conceived and bore a son and said, Now this time my husband will be attached to me because I have borne him three sons. Therefore his name was called Levi.
And as she conceived again and bore a son, she said, This time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing. There's a few short verses, but it drags out over the course of at least about five years. Maybe longer. What we see is that she kept saying, she has the first one and she says, Now my husband will love me.
But then she has another one, several years later, and says basically the same thing. Because the first one didn't fix it, so she says, Now. Now God's seen I'm hated this one. And she has a third son years later and says, Now. Finally she reaches the fourth one and she says, This time I'm just going to praise the Lord. And it seems as if she's reached a little bit of a place of peace, a little bit of understanding that this idea that if I can just have this, this will fix it, this will solve the problem.
She's looking ahead every time she has a child and says, This will be it. She's looking to some sort of circumstantial fix to the pain that she is in. And a lot of times when we talk as church family, we'll say, You're going through a season of difficulty. And sometimes what we don't mean by season is summer, spring, fall. We mean this. She's walking through six years, five years, ten years.
And every time she gets pregnant, this hope swells in her heart. This time. This time he'll care about me. He's certainly sleeping with her. This time he'll love me. This time he'll be attached to me.
This time he'll care about me. And it doesn't work. Never happens. Chapter 30, verse 1. When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, Give me children or I shall die.
And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel and he said, Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? She looks, She has Jacob's love, but she doesn't have any children and that meant a lot culturally. It still does. There's a lot of hope and life wrapped up in that. But she, there it meant that you were honored, that you were blessed, and she has no children.
She says, Give me children or I'm going to die. You see, she has his love, but she wants children. Leah has children, but she wants his love and everybody's looking for a circumstantial fix. They're looking to something and saying, If I could just have this, then I'd be okay. Then I'd be at peace.
Then my heart would settle. She's looking and saying, If I don't have this, I'm going to die. I have to have this to live. I have to have this to be okay. It's not worth living if I don't. And how often do we do that?
My whole life is hanging on this. I've just got to have this. And if I can't, I don't know what the point is. And if I can't, I don't know how to move forward. Verse 3. Then she said, Here is my servant Bilhah.
Go into her so that she may give birth on my behalf that even I may have children through her. So she's looking for a circumstantial fix. This is not coming from a place of faith. This is not coming from a place of hope. It's just that I need children. I've got to have them.
She goes through this process which was common culturally. There's a lot to the Bible just tells us happens without telling us how to think about it and how to approach it. And a lot of times, especially in Genesis, we're just going to hear some stories. The Bible's going to keep moving. There are places later in Scripture where we see this is not a good idea. This is not the way to go about this.
Not to have multiple wives. Not to approach it this way. But she does this. It's common. So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife.
And Jacob went into her and Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, God has judged me and has also heard my voice and given me a son. Do y'all see that? She said, he's also heard my voice. That's pointing back to Reuben where she said, God heard me. And she says, yeah, God also heard me.
Which means that Jacob knows that these names meant something. It was common that all the names of these children were saying, Jacob will love me now. And it still didn't work for Leah. Each child she named was a cry for help and he doesn't even care. And then Rachel says, ha ha ha, he heard me too. You're not the only person who can pray.
Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, with mighty wrestlings, I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed. So she called his name Naphtali. This is a terrible home to live in. She named her child Wrestle because she's fighting with her sister. The amount of unrest, venom, pain here is overwhelming.
And some of you can picture this so clearly because you know what it's like to live in a house like this. When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Then Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son and Leah said, good fortune, has come. She called his name Gav. Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son and Leah said, happy am I for women have called me happy. So she called his name Asher.
So at this point, Leah seems that she's no longer just pointing back and saying, these children will give me love. These children will draw Jacob to me. She's just saying, I just want children. They make me happy. They're where life is and she's putting her hope in them. In the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben, that's the oldest, went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother, Leah.
I'm not sure how many botanists and horticulturalists we have in the room. I think many of you were like, wait, I've only heard about mandrakes in Harry Potter. Are they real? They are. They look similar to the little things they pull out. They're all twisted up and rudy and they're all little people and they've been treated to have special powers since forever.
I think too much of them. They're kind of a hallucinogen and they can kill you. The Bible is not advocating the way they think about this but they understood mandrakes. They call them love apples. So they understood when they found this and it was a rare find that this was some sort of fertility drug, some sort of aphrodisiac and so it was much appreciated especially in the middle of the fight that these two sisters are having.
Then Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your son's mandrakes. But she said to her, is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also? I can't imagine living in this house. Her response is, you took my husband, which I'm assuming that Rachel would feel like, no, you took my husband. She says, you want my mandrakes also?
You want my super special fertility? I'm going to help you have babies? But she said to her, is it a small matter that you've taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also? Rachel said, then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes. So he spent most of his time with Rachel.
She says, you can have him for the night. Give me the mandrakes. She believes that's going to help her in her infertility. When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, you must come into me for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes. So he lay with her that night.
This is healthy. Jacob is not leading his family, is not setting them up for any amount of joy. He got pushed into this by Laban who deceived him, who tricked him. And then Jacob at this point is just, it seems, one of the ladies in our teaching team said that it seems like his goal is happy wife, happy life. Like he's just this kind of, whatever they say, he's not trusting in, hoping in the Lord. He's not trying to lead here.
He's just doing whatever they say. He's mostly silent. I think he's just trying to manage the circumstances that he's in. Later, we see later in Genesis when he meets the Pharaoh, he says that his days were few and evil. He's not joyous. He's not trusting.
He's not walking with the Lord. He just is here. He's kind of dead inside. That's what it seems like. So he lay with her that night, verse 17, and God listened to Leah and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
And Leah said, God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband. So she called his name Issachar. Now that statement she says there, God has given me my wages because I gave him my servant to my husband. The Bible is not saying that's a good theology. It's just saying that's what she said. Also, the theology defined here is that mandrakes don't help you with conception.
God does. And again, for those who struggle with infertility, that truth that God is sovereign over that can bring more pain than to just think it was random. It can be more hurtful than to just think there's, you know, it is what it is. But that's the truth that's found here. And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. And Leah said, God has endowed me with a good endowment.
Now my husband will honor me because I have born him six sons. She hasn't fully moved off of the idea that children are going to make her husband love her, appreciate her, honor her. She's still clinging to this, longing for this, and it has been years. And in some ways, who can blame her? But nobody's joyous, nobody's hope-filled, and everybody's looking for something else to fix the situation.
Verse 21, After she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah, then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. It's helpful to note that when Rebecca could not conceive, we were told that Isaac prayed for her. It doesn't seem like Jacob's praying. It seems like it's just intentionally kind of saying, listen to Rachel, listen to Leah. Jacob is just there playing no real part in any of this, except for the conception part when they pass him back and forth from 10 to 10. 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. That's one of the saddest lines in this to me. Rachel has been hurting and pleading and wanting to have a child. She has a son. He's born. She says, God's taken away my reproach.
And you're like, yes, praise him. Yes, trust him. Yes, see that he's good. And what she says is, may I have another. Her heart, even in the moment of naming this child, has not settled. She is not satisfied.
There is no joy. There is no hope. And that's the way it works. When we hang everything on our circumstances, we will not find satisfaction. It will always be short-lived. And the truth is, as you read this story out, and we'll see it in chapter 35, she has another son, and she dies in childbirth.
The thing that she thought would give her life and purpose and meaning ultimately is what kills her. We're going to stop there. Nobody here does anything for us other than model for us over, in short verses, but over a long period of time, how we so often walk through life. If I can just have this, then I'll be satisfied. If I can just make it here, then I'll be okay. Nobody's happy.
Everybody's chasing it. We have to have something more resilient than happiness because we are going to walk through pain and suffering and hurt, sickness. Should the Bible give us any help here? First thing I want to show you is that what just happened here, and then when she does have her next son, Benjamin, is that the twelve tribes of Israel were born. God's promise that He made early on that I'm going to make you into a great nation, that in the midst of this pain and in the midst of this difficulty, He is accomplishing that. In the midst of two wives and two extra wives, He is accomplishing His promise.
In the midst of what is brokenness and sin, God is working towards His glory, towards His accomplishment of His promise, towards ultimately everyone's good in the midst of. He's working actually through it. It has not derailed His plans. That this is ultimately the tribes that will be the nation of Israel. And this is where God shows us how He works in and through suffering. And ultimately as Christians, we know and hold that to be true.
That Jesus Christ suffers. That He's the suffering servant. That He's a man of sorrows. That He's acquainted with grief. That God does not sit far away from our pain. He does not sit far away from our suffering.
It is not just an interruption, but He uses it and works through it for redemption and for good and for His glory and for His purposes. That if we are Christians, if we are people of the cross, we cannot just believe that suffering and pain and difficulty are an interruption to our otherwise meant to be happy lives because that is a false understanding of who God is and what He does and how He works in suffering and what His ultimate purpose is in the world. It is not our temporal happiness. It is His eternal glory. And the beauty of the gospel and the beauty of the scriptures and the beauty of this story is that when we are caught up in His eternal glory, we will have unending satisfaction and unending joy.
And when we aim at temporal happiness, we will never get it. We will have glimpses of it. We will have moments of it. We will have tastes of it. We will get to what we think we see other people having and enjoying it. But what ultimately happens is what happened with Leah and Rachel.
Well, Rachel is looking at Leah and saying, see, she has got the happiness. And Leah is looking at Rachel and saying, see, she has got the happiness. And the truth is we will spend our time looking into the dirt at temporal things that will not satisfy, that will not fill us up, that will not fix the problem. And ultimately, we will die and we will have missed the point, which is that God works for His glory and in that, we get joy and we get good. It's what Romans 8 says. We're going to pull it up on the screen.
I want to read that to you quickly. It says, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him, that we might be swept up in His glory, that we might be brought in to His glory and it says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. The sufferings of this time are not worth comparing to the glory. Do you know what defeats suffering? God's glory.
Happiness can't do it. Your temporal, circumstantial satisfaction will not satisfy, will not fix the problem, but if we get swept up in God's glory, in His story, in His purpose, if we get brought into what He is accomplishing in the world, if we lean into His eternal purpose and His glory, then we are equipped and we are prepared for all of the temporal suffering that we will face because it's not worth comparing to the glory that is to come. That what we face here on a daily basis and that what we walk through for seasons of life, for decades, when we get the diagnosis back and we are staring down the barrel of pain and torment and torture and death, if our goal is happiness, we are not prepared. When we get the news that our spouse has cheated on us that they are leaving, we are not prepared.
If we get the news, if we find out that our parents have passed, if we pull through an intersection and are hit by a truck and we stand and weep over the graves of our children, we are not prepared unless we know that there is a God who joined us in our suffering and in the midst of suffering brings about purpose and sweeps us up into His glory and gives us an eternity filled with hope and gives us something bigger to lean into and something stronger to hold on to. 2 Corinthians 4, Paul's talking about the suffering that they're facing as they try to proclaim the gospel and he says, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us into Your presence. That life lived for God's glory gives us hope beyond our suffering and purpose in our suffering. And this is the hope beyond our suffering.
That this will not last. This is not eternal. This will not win. And if you are in Christ, you will rise. That the God who raised Christ from the dead will raise us from the dead and this death that works in our bodies will be conquered and we will stand in glory forever. He keeps going.
He says, for it is all for your sake so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God. He's actually saying that they, the apostles, are suffering so that more people might know Christ and ultimately be brought into His glory. so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away. Our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. He says, we are not crushed even though our outer self is wasting away.
Some of us are in situations where we feel like we are wasting away. We are decaying. We are being crushed. We are being destroyed. And He says, even though that's happening, God's Spirit works in us and He enlivens us daily and He gives us hope and He gives us meaning beyond this. He gives us a way to work through it and ultimately He gives us purpose in it because He is preparing in our sufferings.
He is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory. That there will not be a tear shed. That there will not be a drop of blood that hits the ground. That there will not be a moment of anguish for a Christian that does not roll into God's divine purpose that you might be able to handle how wonderful it is to be in His presence. That it is through our suffering we are prepared to enter into the glory that He has. That we are brought into and swept up into His better purposes that we might be able to handle it through His suffering.
Because Jesus walked through suffering to bring us into glory and we follow Him in suffering so that we might enter in as well. As we, verse 18, look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient. Meaning they'll pass. But the things that are unseen are eternal.
He's saying that the way that we are able to stand in this is that we fix our eyes beyond our circumstances. And this is so difficult to do. Paul at the beginning of this chapter says that they're afflicted, they're perplexed, they're persecuted, they carry around death in their bodies, that they're struck down. But we have to remind ourselves of the glory and the good that is to come. We have to look towards what is eternal and where our hope is found that we might rest in Him. I'm going to pray and we're going to sing more songs at the end than we normally do that we might walk our minds towards the Lord, that we might fix our eyes on Him, that we might see Him in His glory and be brought along with Him.
And then during this next song we will take communion that those of us in the room who have placed our faith in Jesus might sit for a moment, talk with the Lord about where we have trusted other things, talk to the Lord where we have been looking towards our circumstances to solve our problems and help set our minds on what is eternal, on where our hope is and where God's glory is that we might be brought along into a bigger purpose that creates in us a resiliency in the midst of suffering and pain. That you would come and take communion where we celebrate that Jesus' body was broken and His blood was shed, that it was His suffering where God twisted and bent the course of history towards His glory and His fame and His name that He had been working towards that as the pinnacle of history and that we as Christians are prepared to walk through what we're walking through. I don't know what you're going through right now and I don't know what you're going to face in the days to come and I don't know what you're trying to live down in your past but I know that God does and I know that it is not wasted because God works in suffering that we might know Him and that we might be prepared to be in His presence. We don't know why we suffer the way we do and we don't know why you suffer in one way and someone else in another way but we know that God is good and that He loves us and that He has a purpose in suffering and therefore we can trust Him and we can walk through the darkest of days with a hope that will not die.
We will weep. We will doubt. We will hurt. We will have moments when we feel we cannot move forward. Paul says that they were crushed beyond what they could bear and then we will lean into an eternal God who has an eternal glory and trust that it's for His name and for His good and that in that we will be brought into what matters. We fix our eyes on what's eternal.
So sit, pray, lean into the Lord, try to fix your eyes on Him. If you've been looking towards something to say, if I could just have this then I'll be okay. If I could just have this then I'll be satisfied. Repent and trust in the Lord and then we'll take communion. Let's pray.
God, we thank You for Your grace. We thank You for Your goodness. We thank You that our suffering has meaning and purpose and hope. That it is not an interruption, that it does not mean that the good plan for our life has fallen apart but that You work in suffering, that You work through suffering for Your glory and for our good and that we can look beyond our suffering because our hope is fixed in a resurrected Christ and that we can have purpose in our suffering because You are preparing for us a glory that is not worth comparing. Look what we're going through now. We pray that we would point to You well in our suffering as we weep as we're broken and as we trust.
In Jesus' name. as they do nothing. Let's keep it.