I am studying this week for a Mother’s Day Sermon I will be preaching. When I start the message prep process, I always begin with prayer and then find a text in the Bible that I will preach. Since I am preaching on Mother’s Day, I did a study on all the passages of scripture that I might want to preach for a sermon about mothers. The best sermon ideas come from scripture. So here are some Mothers Day sermon ideas for you. My hope is that this list will be helpful to save some of you the time of having to find the passages on your own. Mother’s Day Bible Verses Note: All scripture below is from the ESV translation. Jesus Takes Care Of His Mother John 19:25-27 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. Timothy Is The Product Of Great Mothers 2 Timothy 1:1-7 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Honor Your Mother Ephesians 6:1-3 6 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Exodus 20:12 12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 5:16 16 “‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Consequences For Disobeying Your Mother Deuteronomy 27:16 16 “‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ Proverbs 20:20 20 If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness. Proverbs 30:17 17 The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures. Characteristics Of A Great Wife And Mother Proverbs 31:10-31 10 An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. 11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. 12 She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. 13 She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. 14 She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. 15 She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. 16 She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. 17 She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. 18 She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. 19 She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. 20 She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. 21 She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet. 22 She makes bed coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple. 23 Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. 24 She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant. 25 Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. 26 She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. 27 She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. 28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 29 “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” 30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. 31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. Let The Lord Build Your House Psalm 127 1 Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. 3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. 5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Proverbs for Mothers Proverbs 1:8-9 8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. Proverbs 6:20-21 20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. 21 Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. Proverbs 14:1 14 The wisest of women builds her house, but folly with her own hands tears it down. Proverbs 14:4 4 Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox. Proverbs 15:20 20 A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother. Proverbs 19:26-27 26 He who does violence to his father and chases away his mother is a son who brings shame and reproach. 27 Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. Proverbs 22:6 6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 23:22-25 22 Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. 23 Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding. 24 The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him. 25 Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice. Proverbs 29:15 15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Proverbs 13:24 24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. A Mother’s (and Father’s) Responsibility For The Spiritual Instruction Of Children Deuteronomy 4:9-10 9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children— 10 how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’ Deuteronomy 6:4-9 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Paul’s Surrogate Mother Romans 16:13 13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Hannah Prays To Get Pregnant And Dedicates Her Son To God 1 Samuel 1 1 There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. 2 He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. 3 Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. 4 On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. 6 And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7 So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. 8 And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” 9 After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. 11 And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.” 12 As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. 14 And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” 15 But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. 16 Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” 17 Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” 18 And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. 19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. 20 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.” 21 The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. 22 But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever.” 23 Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems best to you; wait until you have weaned him; only, may the Lord establish his word.” So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. 24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young. 25 Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. 27 For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. 28 Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there. Praise God Who Answers Prayers For Children Psalm 113 1 Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! 2 Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! 3 From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised! 4 The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! 5 Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, 6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, 8 to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. 9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord! No Mother Is Perfect, But Love Will Overcome Mistakes 1 Peter 4:8 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. How To Love Others 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Solomon Identifies The Real Mother 1 Kings 3:16-27 16 Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. 18 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. And we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house; only we two were in the house. 19 And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. 20 And she arose at midnight and took my son from beside me, while your servant slept, and laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. 21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, behold, he was not the child that I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said, “No, the living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine.” Thus they spoke before the king. 23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; and the other says, ‘No; but your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” 24 And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. 25 And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” 26 Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” 27 Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.” This isn’t an exhaustive list of scripture for Mother’s Day, but I hope this helps you in your sermon preparation! Re-printed from  www.pastors.com.  Used by permission

Let me ask you a question. What is your earliest memory? That is the question that the famed psychologist Alfred Adler would ask every patient he counseled at their very first counseling session. Adler would listen as they shared their earliest memory and his response would be the same with every client every time. After they shared their earliest memory, Alfred Adler would say, ‘And so life is.’ Adler believed that our earliest memories leave a unique and powerful imprint on the soul that create a baseline in our lives. For better or for worse, those early memories become emotional and mental default settings, if you will. So let me share three of my earliest memories. I was five years old. I was at my grandparents’ home in Minnesota. I always had a blast at their house. They only had one rule and the rule was this. My grandfather was a professor of the University of Minnesota and one of his prized possessions was a fossil collection. So the rule was do not play with Grandpa’s fossils. Those fossils were the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! You can call me Adam because I remember picking it up with my five year old hands and I remember the fossil falling out of my hands and I remember it cracking on the ground and as it did, my heart cracked in two. My grandfather walked into the room and he assessed the situation. He didn’t scold me. He didn’t spank me. What he did I will remember for the rest of my life. He picked me up and held me close and gave me a bear hug. It was my first taste of grace. It was the first time I experienced an incarnation of grace. I was scared. I knew what I did was wrong but in that moment, that is my first definition of grace. We have a core value as a church, love people when they least expect it and least deserve it. It traces back to that one incident. And so life is. Let me go back a little further. When I was four years old, a neighbor friend rode his bike over to my house and made a little pronouncement. I had a habit of borrowing his bike whenever I wanted to and so evidently he got tired of it and he came down and told me I couldn’t ride his bike any longer because his dad took off the training wheels. And then he biked back to his house five doors down. Well I marched down to his house and I got on his bike and I rode his bike back to my house without training wheels. And I kicked the kickstand down in our driveway. Because I want to tell you something, if you want to get me to do something, tell me it can’t be done. I need a challenge. I have needed a challenge since I was four years old. And so life is. But neither of those are my earliest memory. My earliest memory would be this. I was three years old and I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn’t breathe. And that sensation for a three old, scary experience. I walked into my parents’ room and woke them up and my Dad picked me up and carried me out to the car and drove me to the hospital where I got a shot of epinephrine and as that adrenaline began to flood my bloodstream, my lungs began to open back up and I could breathe again. We went back home and I went back to sleep. That routine was repeated night after night after night, week after week until finally we went and saw the doctor and the doctor diagnosed me with asthma and gave me an inhaler. And that inhaler became my best friend for the next 40 years. Every single day, I would take a puff of that inhaler multiple times. I never went anywhere without it. I was an athlete. I played basketball in high school and college. Everywhere I played, there would be an inhaler in my sock. I would exercise with it. I would sleep with it right next to my bedside. Hardly any nights that I wouldn’t wake up and have to take a puff. I would swim with it. You name it. I never go anywhere without my inhaler. Never. That is my earliest memory. And so life is. So let me ask you a question. What is your earliest memory? I want you to hold that thought and I want you to turn to Deuteronomy 1:6. Let’s stand as I read God’s Word. I think this is a good ending note for the Mountains Move series. 6 “The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: ‘You have dwelt long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn and take your journey, and go to the mountains of the Amorites. You have stayed at this mountain long enough. Turn to your neighbor and say enough is enough. Enough is enough. If you are taking notes, jot this down. I think it is a framing thought. It is hard to imagine what you cannot remember. It is hard to imagine what you cannot remember. Let me explain what I mean. If you grew up without a father, or if you grew up with an abusive father, it is very hard for you to imagine a loving heavenly father because you don’t have a memory of a moment with an earthly father to give you a benchmark, a baseline in your life. Because you don’t have a memory, it is a little bit harder to imagine. I had a dad who had to take me to the hospital night after night after night and he would do it patiently and lovingly and willingly and I hadn’t really thought about it before this weekend but I think that memory of my dad taking me to the hospital helps me imagine a heavenly Father who is an ever-present help in time of need. It is hard to imagine what you cannot remember. What does that have to do with Deuteronomy 1:6? Everything. What was the earliest memory of the Israelites? Their earliest memory, their only memory was slavery. This is all they had known their entire lives. It was all they had known for 10 generations. It was their baseline. It is was their default setting. And so life is. It was hard for them to imagine freedom. What is that? It was hard for them to imagine a promised land, a destiny beyond slavery. It was hard for them to imagine victory. When you have a 400 year losing streak, it tends to create a defeatist mentality. Slavery was their status quo. Their memory was their mountain. And I think that’s true for many of us. Painful memories. Shameful memory. A memory of a mistake made. And the enemy starts playing games with us. God has forgiven it and God doesn’t just forgive, God forgets. But the enemy reminds us over and over and over. So my earliest memory is an asthma attack. It is all I can remember so it is very hard for me to imagine anything else. But something happened seven weeks ago. I’ve been waiting to tell you. We kicked off this series with a challenge. The challenge was this. What is the bravest prayer you can pray? Instead of me re-hashing it, let me go back and show you two minutes from that message and I will come back and show you what happened. So what is the hardest thing that you can believe God? What is the bravest prayer that you could pray? All I know is that Joshua asked the sun to stand still and then Elijah asked an iron axe head to float. Oh, and then Jesus asked his Father to raise a man who had been dead for four days. You can ask God to move that mountain. Oswald Chambers said let God be as original with others as He was with you. When I read the gospels, I don’t see miracles happening the same way every time. They happen in different ways and crazy ways and I think the reason is because God knew that we would try to reduce it down to a formula. It is not a formula that results in healing and it is certainly now any combination of words formulated into the right prayer that becomes some kind of abracadabra. It is about our heart and about being in a posture of humility. It is about consecrating ourselves to God. It is not about telling God how to do, what to do and when to do what He does. It is just about letting God do something in your life. God healed me. God delivered me. And I’m going to back it up with some discipline. I’m going to work like it depends on me. So here we are. I went back and looked at my journal. I keep a gratitude journal and I number them. About every day, it really upped my total over the last fifty days! Every day, day six, no inhaler, day 12, no inhaler. To me it is 365 gratitude's a year. You have stayed at this mountain long enough. And this is says, let’s get back into the text here, you’ve stayed at this mountain long enough, then it is the next two words that are critical, break camp. It seems like a simple command but it is easier said than done and this is where I want to get in your business. Let me come at it from a different angle. How many of you have ever lost your salvation on your way to church? Let me see your hands? C’mon. How many of you have put your marriage in jeopardy and almost got divorced on the way to church? And then how many of you almost put your kids up for adoption on the way to church? I don’t know what it is, it seems like the enemy’s number one tactic is people going to church. He gets in our business. I have found that it is hard to get our family of five anywhere, anytime for anything. And I remember when we had babies! Good luck! You will never be on time for anything. When you go to the bathroom, there is a high chance they will be swimming in the toilet. It is ridiculous trying to get myself from here to there. It is harder with my wife and I. And with a family of five. Here’s my point. Try millions of people camped at Mount Sinai and God says break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites. They had babies. They had flocks and herds and animals. They rode donkeys. There was no air conditioning. How was anybody in a decent mood? Oh and then there was the tabernacle. The Levites were responsible for moving the tabernacle. There were three clans, 8,580 tabernacle movers must to move the tabernacle. What I’m saying is, I bet they were saying can’t we just stay here. Breaking camp is a big deal. But if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you are going to keep getting what you’ve always gotten. If you want God to do something new, you cannot stay camped out at that mountain. You can’t keep tolerating it. You have to stop tolerating and start dominating. That is God’s original commission to you. Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply and increase in number and subdue the earth. I like that word ‘subdue.’ The Greek word is kibosh. It’s a Batman fight word. Bam! Wham! Kibosh! It is a submission move in martial arts. It means to conquer, to thoroughly conquer. You have to take dominion over your attitude. You have to quit complaining. You have to quit making excuses. Quit playing the victim. You’ve stayed at this mountain long enough! You have to take dominion over your thoughts. Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. It is not easy. Is there another option? No, not biblically. You have to take dominion over your body. Paul was not exactly an Olympic athlete. He was probably a 100 pound weakling. That’s my guess. But I love his description in I Corinthians 9:27 I train my body like an athlete. The King James says I bring it into subjection. Don’t tolerate it. Take dominion over it. Some of you need to take dominion over your marriage. It starts with taking some action. I think a lot of people think that going to see a counselor is a sign of weakness, but no, it is a sign of strength. Very few people are strong enough and have enough courage to actually say I have an issue that I need help with. You have stayed at the mountain long enough. How is it working for you? If it is not working, then it may be time to break camp. That is what I want to challenge you to do. We started this series talking about Zachariah speaking to the mountain. I wonder if that was what was going through Jesus’ mind as we look at this last verse, Matthew 21:18 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. Yes, He was talking to a tree! An amazing miracle, one of my favorites. He cursed a barren fig tree. Most of the miracles bring things back to life but this one does the exact opposite. One of my mantras is thou shalt curse barren fig trees. What I mean is, what is not producing fruit in your life? Where are you wasting time, talent and treasure? That is another sermon for another day but at some point, you have to curse the barren fig tree. You have to speak to that part of your life. This isn’t the only instance. He spoke to wind and waves. Peace be still. And the storm went away. Remember Peter’s mother-in-law, he rebuked a fever. Then He took it one step further in this passage. 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Talk to God about your mountain. But then at some point you have to fill the script and you have to start talking to your mountain about your God who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. You have stayed at this mountain long enough. Break camp and advance into the destiny that God has for you. Transcribed by: Ministry Transcription margaretsalyers@gmail.com

STRUGGLE: WHEN LIFE MAKES NO SENSE Getting Through What You’re Going Through – Part 3 Rick Warren August 17-18, 2013 Shock – Sorrow – Struggle – Surrender – Sanctification – Service “Because you (sinned)… all your life you will struggle.” Gen. 3:17 (NLT) LIFE IS A STRUGGLE Jacob’s Example WE STRUGGLE _________________ Jacob struggled: with his brother Gen 25:22 , Hosea 12:3 with two wives Gen. 30:1-24 with his in-laws Gen. 31:1-2 with his 12 sons Gen. 37-50 WE STRUGGLE _________________ “I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate… No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't…But there is a law at work within me that is at war with my mind.” Romans 7:15-23 (NLT) OUR REAL STRUGGLE __________ “As a man Jacob struggled with God.” Hosea 12:3b JACOB’S WRESTLING MATCH “Jacob sent his family across the Jabbok River but he stayed behind, alone. That night, a Man came and wrestled with him until daybreak. When the Man saw that he wasn’t winning the struggle, he hit Jacob on the hip, and it was thrown out of joint. The Man said, ‘Let me go; daylight is coming.’ Jacob said, ‘I WON'T LET GO UNTIL YOU BLESS ME.’ The Man asked ‘What is your name?’ ‘Jacob,’ he replied. The Man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob. You have STRUGGLED WITH GOD and with men, and you have WON; so your name will be ISRAEL.’ Jacob = “deceiver/manipulator” Israel = “struggled with God /Prince with God” Then God blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.’” Genesis 32:23-30 STRUGGLE: WHEN LIFE MAKES NO SENSE Getting Through What You’re Going Through – Part 3 3 - ii HOW TO WRESTLE WITH GOD AND GET BLESSED ________________________________ Examples: Job – Job 13; 14-25 Heman – Psalm 88 Jeremiah – Jeremiah 12:1-4 “I call to the Lord for help; I plead with him. I bring all my complaints to him; I tell him my troubles. When I’m ready to give up, he knows what I should do.” Psalm 142:1-3 (TEV) _________________________________ Examples: Abraham – Genesis 18:22-32 Moses – Exodus 32:9-14 Hezekiah – 1 Kings 19:15-19 David – Psalm 143 Jehoshaphat – 2 Chronicles 20 _________________________________ “Then Jacob prayed, ‘O God of my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac— you toldme to return to my land and to my relatives, and you promised to treat me kindly. I am notworthy of all the faithfulness and unfailing love… but O Lord, please rescue me from mybrother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to kill me… But you promised to treat mekindly and to multiply my descendants…’” Genesis 32:9-12 (NLT) _________________________________ “Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him.” Job 13:15 “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; and even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; and even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will still rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign Lord is my strength!” Habakkuk 3:17-19 (NLT) SERMONTRANSCRIPT Getting Through What You’re Going Through – Part 3 Rick Warren Hello everybody. I want to say hi to all of our campuses and those who are joining us online. We’re glad you’re here, and actually all our Saddlebacks overseas now. We’re in the series called Getting Through What You’re Going Through. And by the way, have I told you lately that I love you? I love you a lot. In this series on Getting Through What You’re Going Through we are looking at the six stages of getting through the major things in life that we face. We looked first at shock. Then when your world collapses. Then we looked at sorrow, when you’ve had a major loss. This weekend we’re going to look at struggle, when life doesn’t make sense. Then we’re going to look at surrender, sanctification and service on the back end of Getting Through What You’re Going Through. Everybody struggles in life. Life is tough; everybody agree with that? Life’s tough. It’s tough because sin has broken everything in the world. When Adam and Eve sinned, God said this in Genesis 3:17, “Because you (sinned)… all your life you will struggle.” All your life you will struggle. Nobody has to tell you that Bible verse; you know that one by personal experience. Life is a struggle. And life is a struggle three ways: we struggle with other people; we struggle with ourselves; and we actually struggle with God. First, we struggle with other people. That means that every relationship is broken by sin. And because nothing works perfectly we have competition, we have conflict, we have misunderstandings. You get disappointed by other people and other people are disappointed in you. One of the great guys in the Bible, Jacob, is an example of the struggles of life. In fact Jacob’s entire life was a struggle. I wrote there on your outline, he struggled with his brother, that was Esau when he stole his birthright and blessing. He struggled with two wives. And by the way, if you ever want to read a case of why there shouldn’t be polygamy go read Genesis 30. And by the way, let me just explain something. Not everything recorded in the Bible is approved by God. Does that make sense? People say, polygamy’s in the Bible. Slavery’s in the Bible. Yes, and so is rape and murder. The Bible tells the truth and it tells the truth even about the sins of people. It doesn’t mean God condones it. In fact, God opposed it from the very beginning. God said, you should have one mate for life. But he had struggles with his wives. He had struggles with his in-laws. They were jealous. They cheated each other. He had struggles with his twelve sons. Very dysfunctional family because of favoritism. Mommy liked one and Daddy liked another and the rest kind of got left off. But there was struggle with other people. Secondly, we struggle with ourselves. Your biggest battle in life really is not with other people. Your biggest battle is inside you. You struggle with your fears. You struggle with your flaws. You struggle with your temptations. You struggle with your insecurities. You struggle with guilt. You struggle with regret. We struggle with resentment, compulsions, weaknesses, sins, addictions. Jacob had this in spades. He was a very insecure person. He struggled with insecurities. He struggled with manipulating other people. He struggled with his conscience constantly. Paul in Romans 7 talks about this kind of struggle we have with ourselves. He said: “I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate… No matter which way I turn, I can’t make myself do right. I want to, but I can’t… But there is a law at work within me that is at war with my mind.” Everybody here can identify with that passage. We often want to do things that we don’t do. We often don’t do the things that we know are right to do. We struggle not just with other people; we struggle with ourselves. But the greatest struggles in life of all are the ones that you and I have with God. We struggle with God all the time, whether you realize it or not. In fact most of your struggles with other people and most of the struggles with yourself are rooted in the struggle that you have with God. Why do we struggle with God? There are really two reasons: one, we doubt his wisdom. And therefore, two, we want to be in control. Whenever you doubt God’s wisdom then you want to be God. Because you think you know better than God does. You think you know what will make you happy more than God does. When God says, don’t do that, and you think, I think that will make me happy, and you do it anyway. Growing up, my kids have never doubted my love. They’ve always known that I loved them. But often they have doubted my wisdom. “I know Dad loves me. I just don’t think he knows the right thing in this situation.” For a lot of you you’ve had that with your heavenly Father. You know God loves you. There’s no doubt in your mind that God loves you. But sometimes you just doubt his wisdom. Why did he allow that? And why did that happen? And why did he say no to this? And why isn’t this prayer being answered? And you’re actually doubting God’s wisdom. Jacob of all people demonstrates struggling with God. In the book of Hosea, chapter 12:3 it says, “As a man Jacob struggled with God.” As a baby he actually struggled with his brothers. In fact, the Bible says when his mother Rachel was pregnant that the two twins Jacob and Esau were fighting inside the womb. That would have been fun for the mom! They fought. But as a man Jacob struggled with God. And he actually had a wrestling match with God. The only person to ever have this. You talk about WWF wrestling. This one takes the cake! In Genesis 32 here’s Jacob’s wrestling match. “Now Jacob sent his family across the Jabbok River but he stayed behind, alone. That night, a Man came and wrestled with him until daybreak.” Let me set this story up. Jacob cheated his brother Esau, his twin brother, out of his blessing, from the family, and birthright. So he got the inheritance. His brother Esau had intended to kill him. So Jacob ran away to another part of the country and married his uncle’s daughter Rachel and also married Leah, and lived there for at least fourteen years maybe close to two decades. After a while God says to Jacob, “Jacob, I want you to go home, back to where you were born.” And he is regretting, because he knows that his brother wants to kill him. On the way going back home Jacob and his whole family, they’re very large now. He’s got servants, he’s got cattle, he’s got sheep, he’s very very wealthy. He hears that his brother Esau is heading toward him with four hundred armed men. This is not a happy family reunion. He’s scared to death. And yet he knows God has told him to go home, to his home country, and yet he knows when he goes back “my brother has said he wants to kill me because I’ve stolen from him.” So when he gets to the Jabbok River, Jacob sends his family on ahead and he stays behind. He’s splitting it up so his family doesn’t get hurt in this encounter he’s going to have the next day. So Jacob goes to the Jabbok River and he wrestles with God. Actually in Hebrew this is pun. The word for “Jacob” is “YAY bok” and the word for “wrestling” is “YAY bek” and the word for the Jabbok River is “YA bok.” So what we’ve got is YAY bok YAY becked God at Yah bok! Jacob wrestles God at the Jabbok River. Jacob has been running from God his entire life. And some of you have been too. You’ve been running from God your entire life. God says “Jacob you’re not going to run anymore. We’re going to settle this issue right now. We’re going to have a little wrestling match. We’re going to the mat.” The Bible says that that night while he’s alone on that side of the Jabbok River he meets this man. And the man is clearly an angel or representing God. God shows up and starts wrestling Jacob. It says, “When the Man saw that he wasn’t winning this struggle, he hit Jacob on the hip, and it was thrown out of joint. The Man said, ‘Let me go; daylight is coming.’ And Jacob said, ‘I won’t let go until you bless me.’” Notice it says the Man says he wasn’t winning the struggle. Have you ever been in a no-win struggle? Yeah. You may be in one right now. There are some things in your life that are just not going to change and you’re going to have those problems the rest of your life. You have to manage them. They’re not going to go away. They are lifetime problems. It may be a health problem. It may be a relational problem. It may be a disability. But there are some problems that are just never going away in your life. They’re unmanageable and you can’t win in that situation. It says here that the Man said he wasn’t winning the struggle. If Jacob is wrestling God, clearly God could have overcome him instantly. Clearly in this wrestling match between God and Jacob, it’s kind of a tie. So what is going on here? God could have easily overwhelmed him. But he let’s this struggle go on. There’s a very important lesson for you right here. Why? Because God loves it when you wrestle with him! Some of you are in a struggle right now with God. God loves it when you struggle with him. Why? Because the opposite of struggling with God is walking away from God. The opposite of struggling with God is running away, avoiding, saying forget you, God. God would rather have you fighting him than fleeing him. Does that make sense? So God loves it when we struggle with God. God that’s not right. When we argue with God. God I don’t like that! God says that’s ok. Why? Because wrestling is a face to face encounter. Wrestling is the most intimate sport. I wrestled in high school. You didn’t want to watch that. It wasn’t nice. It wasn’t pretty. The whole goal of wrestling is to pin a guy down until he goes “Uncle! I give up! You’re in control!” Wrestling is all about who’s in control. And it’s about as intimate a sport as you can get. Because you’re locked in that issue. God says I like that. I like it when you wrestle with me, because at least I’ve got your attention. I love you. So he’s letting this struggle go on even though he could have just instantly ended it. He’s letting Jacob think he’s winning. But Jacob says I’m not going to let go until you bless me. The Man, this represents God, asks “What is your name?” That’s a strange question in the middle of the wrestling match. “‘What’s your name?’ “‘Jacob’ he replied. The man said, ‘You will no longer be Jacob [because…] You have struggled with God and with men, and you’ve won; so your name will be Israel.’” What’s going on here? They’re in this wrestling match. God is wrestling Jacob. Jacob has been a runner. He’s been trying to get away from God his entire life and running from responsibility. And he says “What’s your name?” One of the things we know about God is this: Whenever God asks you a question he already knows the answer. He wants you to know the answer. God knew what Jacob’s name was. God had never missed a day of Jacob’s life. God created Jacob. But what he wants Jacob to do is admit who he is. Because in those days names meant something. You were named for your character. It was your brand. It was your label. Jacob literally means deceiver. It means supplanter. It means manipulator. Jacob had gone his entire life manipulating everybody. Trying to get things to go his way. Trying to control everything. Tying to control his brother. Trying to control his family. Trying to control his uncle. Trying to control his wives. Trying to control his children. Jacob was a manipulator. When God says to Jacob “What’s your name?” He’s saying, “Jacob do you realize you’re the problem. The reason we’re in this struggle is you. Because you won’t give up. You still keep trying to control everything in your life and you’re making a mess of everything in your life because you’re trying to control it. And that’s why you’re struggling.” And Jacob says, “My name is deceiver. My name is manipulator.” I just wonder if every one of us, if our name was our primary sin – what would your name be? Hmmmmm? Hi! What’s your name? Greedy. Really, well I’m lustful. Glad to meet you. What’s your name? Gossip. What’s your name? Insecure manipulator. That would be Jacob. If you had to be named for your number-one sin and everywhere you went in life. What’s your name? Lazy. This is exactly what’s going on here. He’s asking Jacob to admit his biggest fault. The thing I like about Jacob is this: Jacob is willing to struggle. He doesn’t run away from God. He hangs in there. He doesn’t walk away from God. He knows what he wants. He goes, I want to be blessed. “I’m not going to let go until you bless me, God.” Have you ever said that to God? Have you ever said that to God? “God, I’m not going to let go until you bless me. I’m going to struggle with you until you bless me.” He is persistent and he knows what he wants. And he even admits that he’s the problem. I’m Jacob. I’m a manipulator. I’m a deceiver. I’m a control freak. I’ve tried to control everything in life and it’s caused conflict with everybody in my life. Parents, family, friends, daughters, husbands, everybody. God says, “You’ve struggled with [me well in this] and you’ve won.” I want you to circle that on your outline. You have won. We’re going to come back to how to win an argument with God, in just a minute. “You’ve struggled with God… and you have won…” God has never said that about anybody else, and there are some important lessons to learn here. He says “So your name will be Israel.” This is the man who the Israel nation is named after – the Jews. He’s given a new identity. By the way, do you know what Israel means? It has two meanings. Israel means, one, “struggles with God.” That’s what Israel means: struggles with God. If you know the history of Israel, they have struggled with God for a millennia. Struggles with God. But it also has a secondary meaning. It means a “Prince with God.” You’re now a prince with God. God says to Jacob, you used to be a manipulator but now you’re going to be a prince. You used to be a deceiver but now you’re going to be a leader. This whole struggle with God changes his identity. Why is that important? Because when God wants to work in you, God does his deepest work in your life in your identity. When he can change the way you see yourself, it changes you. Anything you want to change in your life, it starts with change in perspective. Until God changes the way you see yourself, nothing much is going to happen in your life. You’re going to struggle the rest of your life. If I were to ask you, fill in this sentence ten times: “It’s just like me to be…” How would you finish that sentence? It’s just like me to always be late… it’s just like me to be insecure… it’s just like me to get angry at the spur of the moment… it’s just like me to feel inferior to everybody else… it’s just like me to run off at the mouth… You’re telling me what your identity is. If you’re going to get through this struggle with God, God’s going to have to change your identity from Jacob to Israel. From whatever your sin is to Prince or Princess of God. As a result of this wrestling match it says, “Then God blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It’s because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared.’” This is a very important story in the Bible because it teaches us how to wrestle with God and win. I think you need to know this one. Because you’re going to go through struggles all through your life. How do you get through the struggles in life and win? How do you get through the struggles in life and have victory? Since you’re going to go through struggles all of your life you may as well get something out of it. Since the struggles that you have with other people and the struggles that you have with yourself are at their deepest level a struggle with God, you need to know how to wrestle with God. How to wrestle with God and be blessed. How to wrestle with God and win. The Bible tells us that every one of the stories in Scripture are there to teach us about how to have a better relationship with God. This is no exception to the rule. So let’s look at how do I go through struggles in my life, particularly when I’m struggling with God. When I’m angry with God, when I’m mad at God, when I’m disappointed with God, when I think God has let me down, when I’ve prayed and haven’t got an answer. That’s called a struggle, friends. I’ve gone through that struggle for years with a son who was mentally ill and then took his life. I prayed for that healing every single day of my life. It was a struggle in my life. How do I deal with that? What should be my response to God who did not answer that prayer? You need to understand that the only reason you can wrestle with God is, as I said, because God loves it and God loves you. God is not an apathetic God who just sets the world in motion and doesn’t care about how you feel. He cares deeply about how you feel. And he loves you and he cares about you and he’s sympathetic, he’s not apathetic and he’s not detached. In fact, the Bible says this, on the screen,1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your cares on him for he cares for you.” What word is used twice in that verse? Cares. Cast all your cares – that’s worries – on him because he cares for you. God is a caring God. If God didn’t care about you, you couldn’t wrestle with him. You couldn’t struggle with him. You couldn’t argue with him. The very fact that God allows you to argue with him, and it’s all through the Bible, examples of this, is because God cares. Because God loves you. Last week, I mentioned to you that the Bible talks about a kind of prayer called a lament. Most people don’t now how to lament. A lament is a passionate complaint to God. God doesn’t want you just to praise him. God wants you to lament to him. God doesn’t want you just to confess to him. God wants you to complain to him. It’s an act of worship when you complain to God. It’s an act of rebellion when you complain about God. I covered this a little bit last week and said that the Bible is full of laments. In fact there’s a entire book called Lamentations. The whole book is basically just Jeremiah complaining to God about why life sucks. That’s what it’s all about. A lot of people, if you start reading through the Psalms, there are a hundred fifty Psalms. They’re not all praise and thanksgiving. In fact, sixtyfive of them are laments. They are complaints to God. This last week I went through and I did an intensive study of all of the laments of the Bible. I discovered there’s a pattern. Whether it’s David or Abraham or Jeremiah or Moses or Elijah or Isaiah or anybody else, and they’re complaining to God, there is a pattern that you see in every one of them. This pattern is the pattern you use to successfully argue with God. Are you ready for this? You need this. This is a form of prayer. To help you remember it, I want you to remember how much God cares about me, I put it in a little acrostic – CARE. Here’s the pattern then we’ll look at it. This is the pattern of lament in the Bible. C – The C stands for Complain. So If I’m going to have a lament prayer, I don’t like what’s going on in my life and I want to complain about it, I want to lament about it, the first thing I do is I complain. You’ll find that in many of the laments of the Bible, the complaints are usually in the form of question. God, why are you allowing this? God, why don’t you do something? God, when are you going to answer my prayer? How long, God is this going to take? What in the world are you doing while our people are falling apart? The complaints often take the form of a question. That’s the first thing. The second, the A in care stands for… A – Appeal. The second thing I do is I appeal to God’s nature. I’ll explain this in a minute. I appeal to God’s character and who he is. His attributes, the character, the nature of God. R – Remind. I complain, I appeal, I remind – this is the third in the pattern. I remind God of his promises. I remind God of his truth. I remind God of what he said. I remind God of his reputation. E – I Express trust in God’s wisdom and the things I don’t understand. I express trust. No matter who it is in the Bible, when they are complaining, when they are lamenting to God, they follow this pattern. I could take you to Proverbs and Psalms and prayers all through Scripture. Complaining, appealing, reminding, expressing. So let’s look at how you could do it. Here’s how you do it. Number one, when I don’t like what’s going on in my life, when I’m in a struggle with God, when my prayers aren’t being answered the first thing I do is this, Tell God what I think is unfair or painful. I tell God what I think is unfair or painful. This is the start of a lament. I’m going to teach you a form of praying that most Christians have no idea how to do. They only know how to do praise and thanksgiving. But this is how you argue with God. You tell God what you think is unfair or painful. Remember I said last week that a lament is actually a complaint. In fact, sometimes when you read them in Psalms, it almost feels like a demand. Do something God! Do something! I’ve given you some examples that you can study on your own. I’m going to read you a few out of the Bible. Listen to this one, from Job 13:14-25, “I’ve lost all hope, so what if God kills me? I’m going to state my case to him… Listen to my words, God, of explanation. I’m ready to state my case, because I know I’m right. Are you coming to accuse me, God? Speak first, O God, and I’ll answer. Or let me speak, and you answer me. What are my sins? What wrongs have I done? What crimes am I charged with? Why do you avoid me? Why do you treat me like an enemy? Are you trying to frighten me? I’m nothing but a leaf; you’re attacking [me like] a piece of dry straw.” That’s a lament. I doubt you’ve ever talked to God that way. But it’s in the Bible. And that’s called a prayer of lament. Let me give you a couple of others. Here’s David, Psalm 13:1-5, “How long, Lord, will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with the sorrow in my heart everyday? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? Turn and answer me, my God!… I trust in your unfailing love.” See what a rapid change there is at the end? Just follow the pattern I just gave you. Here’s Jeremiah 12:1-4, “Lord, if I argued my case with you, you’d prove to be right. Yet still I must question you about matters of justice. Why are the wicked so prosperous? Who do dishonest people succeed?… They don’t really care about you. But, Lord, you know me; You see what I do and you know how I love you… How long will our land be dry? Animals and birds are dying because of the wickedness of our people, who think you don’t really see what we’re doing.” Hear the complaint in his voice? That’s an act of worship. Complaining about God is rebellion. Complaining to God is an act of worship. Here’s one named Heman, Psalm 88:3-18, “My life is full of troubles, and I’m nearly dead. [This is a prayer to God.] I’m like a man with no strength… You’ve taken my friends away from me and made them hate me… My eyes are weak from crying. Lord, I’ve prayed to you every day… I’ve called you for help; Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you hide from me?… I’ve been weak and dying since I was young. You’ve taken away my loved ones and friends. Darkness is my only friend.” Let me just give you one more. A guy name Jehoshaphat, nicked named Fatty for short, I’m sure. 2 Chronicles 20:6-12. He’s the king of Israel and three enemy armies decided to gang up against Israel. They’re going to be overwhelmed. They’re going to be killed. And here’s what Jehoshaphat does. “O Lord, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hands and no one can withstand you. O our God, did you not… give us this land forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? Now three nations are trying to drive us out. O our God, will you not judge them? We don’t have any power to face this vast army that’s attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.” Those three questions. God, are you not? God, did you not? And, God, will you not? He is talking about the pattern I’m giving you right now. He’s appealing to the character of God. He’s reminding God of his promises. And he’s asking God to do it again. That’s how you do a lament. So the first thing I do is I tell God what I think is unfair or painful. Let me give you an example. Psalm 142 David says, “I call to the Lord for help; I plead with him. I bring all my complaints to him; I tell him my troubles. When I’m ready to give up, he knows what I should do.” In a lament, the tone can be very different. You can lament out of anger like some of these I just read. You can lament out of frustration. You can lament out of fatigue. God, I am so tired. And I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. You can lament out of anger. You can lament out of disappointment. You can lament out of fear. I’m scared to death God, help me. I don’t know what’s going to happen this week and I’m scared to death. Help. Let me just ask you a very personal question. What are you tired of tolerating in your life? Whatever that is, you’re tired of tolerating it, you’ve been putting up with it. You need to turn that into a lament. You need to tell God what you think is unfair and what you think is painful. Here is the key. And you’ve got to get this or it won’t work. There are two keys to praying like I’m talking about right now when you’re struggling with God. One of them is you complain to God not about God. Not against God. When Moses complained to God, God answered. When the children of Israel complained, they got stuck in the desert. So there’s a right way and a wrong way to complain to God. What’s the right way? You do it in faith. You complain in faith. In other words, I believe God you’re going to hear me on this. You’re going to hear me. You’re going to listen. God, I believe you can help. The Bible says, “Without faith it’s impossible to please God.” The Bible says, “Whatever is not of faith is sin.” So even in your complaints you have to do it in faith. God, I know you can accept this because you’re a big God. And God I’m going to complain but I’m complaining to you in faith. Here’s an example. Psalms 55:17 David says, “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, [He says I’m doing it three times a day I’m complaining to God three times a day.] and he hears my voice!” That is complaining in faith. That’s lamenting in faith. I tell God what I think is unfair or painful in my life. Here’s the second thing you do if you want to struggle with God and win. Struggle with God and be blessed the way Jacob was. I appeal to God’s nature. That’s the A in CARE. I appeal to God’s nature. When you read the Psalms you read David and other people complaining to God and at the same time saying, but you’re a good God and you’re a loving God and God, you’re kind and God, you’re fair. I don’t like what’s going on but God, you see everything. This isn’t good for me but God you’re all powerful. So then help me! He appeals to God’s nature. God loves it when you do this. When you say, God you know I’m out of work. God, you know I’m infertile. God, you know I want to get married. God you know … and then you say, and I know who you are God. I know you’re a good God. And I know you love me. And I know you’re a just God. And I know you’re fair. And I know you see everything in my life. And I know you’re all powerful. You appeal to the character of God. That’s a strong key to doing this. Abraham was arguing with God over Sodom and Gomorrah. He appealed to God. God, you’re a fair God. Moses complains to God and he appeals to God’s nature. David does it, Hezekiah does it. What a lot of these guys are doing is saying, God I look out and I see everything that’s going on and nothing is really working right. Nothing is working right in my nation, nothing is working right in my family, nothing is working right in my job. And God, when I read the Bible and I hear about you’re good and you’re loving and you’re powerful. Help me with this. Help me. What’s happening to me doesn’t sound like something that you would approve of. Are you not the great God? Did you not help people in the past? Will you not help me? The same things Jehoshaphat said. I appeal to God’s nature. The third thing you do if you want to win the struggle… I remind God of what he said. I remind God of what he has said in his Word. I remind him of his promises. God absolutely loves to be reminded of his promises. When my kids were little and they said, “Daddy, would you take us to Disneyland?” Sure I will. I always say yes to everything. Then I’d never get around to doing it. “But Daddy you promised! Daddy you promised.” You think I’m going to turn that down? No way, Jose! Because I made a promise. I’m going to keep a promise because I’m a loving father. I may not have the time to do it. I may not want to do it. I may be stinking sick of going to Disneyland. But we’re doing it because “you promised.” You can do that with your heavenly Father. You remind God of what he said: “God you said…” Several times in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah goes God, you’ve promised to do this, and you’ve promised to do this, and you’ve promised to do this; and if you don’t do this, you’re going to look bad. He is appealing to God’s reputation. That’s not just Jeremiah. I could give you dozens of examples that say, God if you don’t help us in this God, it’s really going to look bad on your resume. People are going to start saying, “That God is no God. He doesn’t help his people.” They would appeal to God’s promises. They would appeal. They would remind God of what he had said. This is exactly what Jacob did. He’s scared to death to go back home, to have his family reunion with his brother who wants to kill him. Would you be scared? You’ve cheated your brother and he’s coming with four hundred armed soldiers? Yeah. He’s scared to death. Have you ever feared a family reunion? Probably not like that. Notice the prayer that Jacob prays. Genesis 32, he reminds God of what he’s said. He said, you’re the one who told me to go home. So you’ve got to help me God. “Then Jacob prayed,’ O Lord of my grandfather Abraham and my father, Isaac,’ [Why is he doing this? You helped these people in the past. Surely you will help me. He says] God of my grandfather Abraham and the God of my father, Isaac–…you told me [circle “you told me”] to return to my land and to my relatives, and you promised [circle that] to treat me kindly. I’m not worthy of the faithfulness and unfailing love… that you give me but O, Lord, please rescue me from my brother, Esau. I’m afraid that he’s coming to kill me… But you promised to treat me kindly and to multiply my descendants…” In other words how am I going to have multiple descendants and be the father of a great nation if he kills me? It isn’t going to happen. See the CARE here? I complain. I appeal. I remind God of what he said, and then the fourth thing I do in my lament. I express my total trust in God. When you see David’s Psalms, David, almost every Psalm ends with no matter how much he’s railed on God he goes, but I’m still going to trust you. God, I don’t like this and I don’t like that and that didn’t turn out the way I wanted and that hasn’t happened right, and my life really hasn’t been a bed of roses, but I’m still going to trust you. I express my total trust in God. This is what you end your prayer with. Say, Lord, I trust your goodness and I trust your wisdom and I trust your love and I trust your plan even in the bad things that happen that I don’t understand. Let me give you two examples: Job 13:15. You know what happened in Job. He lost it all. “Even though he [talking about God] slay me, yet I will trust in him.” He said, you know what? I don’t have it all figured out. My brain isn’t big enough to know why everything happens the way it does. But even if God kills me I’m still going to trust him. Why? Because I know I’m going to heaven. So even if he lets the cancer take my life, even if he lets me get hit in a car accident, I’m still going to trust him. Why? Because he is God and I’m not. I express my total trust in God. The ultimate example of this is Habakkuk 3:17-19, “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; and even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; and even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, [they’re in a terrible drought, a terrible depression] yet I will still rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. The Sovereign Lord is my strength!” Now you listen to me, very closely. The way you win a fight with God is by surrendering. Because there’s no way you’re going to win it on your own power. The way you win a struggle with God is by surrendering. We’re going to talk about that next week. I surrender all my unanswered questions and in return I get the blessing of God on my life. And I sense his presence. And I feel his love. And I know he cares; and I depend on him. And he gives me comfort and he gives me power that I don’t have on my own. The only way you’re going to win in the struggle of life is give up control. The most dangerous disease you could have is the illusion that you’re in control. You’re not. As long as you think you are, you’re going to have one struggle after another. You’re not in control of your marriage. You’re not in control of your kids. You’re not in control of the weather. You’re not in control of the economy. You’re not even in control of what kind of disease you get in your life. The greatest things in your life are out of your control. So what do I do about the stuff that’s out of control? I give them to the person who does have the power to control. God, you’re in control and I know you care. And because you care I’m going to complain and I’m going to appeal and I’m going to remind you of your promises and I’m going to expect and entrust and I’m going to express my trust in you. And I’m going to declare my declaration of dependence. The last of the story, the story of Jacob, ends in verse 31 of Genesis 32. It says this, “So the sun rose [this is after this big wrestling match] as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.” Do you remember when they were in that wrestling match, it says God reached over and touched his hip and pulled it out of the socket. What is the significance? What is the symbolism in that? Your hip, your thigh muscle is the strongest muscle in your body. It’s the biggest muscle and it’s the strongest muscle in your body. God is going to touch you at the place of your greatest strength. So you’re going to limp the rest of your life as a reminder to depend on him, not your own strength. Jacob had a history of running. He ran from responsibility. He ran from the messes he made. He ran from the struggles he created. He ran, ran, ran. He constantly ran. God said, We’ll fix that! You’re going to limp the rest of your life. No more running for Jacob. What have you been running from your entire life? You see, after you’ve wrestled with God he blesses you. But he gives you the reminder to depend on him the rest of your life, and you’re going to walk with a limp the rest of your life. All of God’s giants walk with a limp. Let’s bow our heads. Prayer: Before I pray let me ask you to consider some questions. In what areas are you struggling with God? Are you struggling with God about your finances? Are you struggling with God about your health? Are you struggling with God about an unrealized dream, an unanswered prayer? Are you struggling with God about something that hasn’t turned out the way you wanted it to turn out? Question number two – where have you been afraid to give up control? You say, it isn’t working. I’ve been trying to manipulate it. I’ve been trying to make it happen. I’ve tried to plan it, program it, work around it, scheme, it isn’t working. I’m going to give up control to God. Question number three – where have you doubted God’s wisdom? You thought, I know you love me Lord but is this really the right thing? Did you really say, No sex outside of marriage? And you’ve doubted God’s wisdom. Did you really say…and you name your sin. Where do you need to admit what you really are? What do you need to admit about yourself? When you can say to God, God I am Jacob. I am a manipulator. God, I am a control nut. I am a perfectionist. I am lazy. Then God can turn a Jacob into an Israel, into a prince of God, a princess of God. Follow me in this prayer as we close. I want you to pray it no matter what campus you’re in or if you’re watching online or in a small group or by yourself. Say Dear God, you know all the things I struggle with – my fears, my weakness, my relationships. You know the regrets I struggle with. You know my addictions and compulsions and my temptations. God, today I’ve realized that all my other struggles are really rooted in my struggle with you. I have doubted your wisdom. And I have tried to play God. Like Jacob I have tried to manipulate things to feel more secure. I realize that your blessing comes not from trying harder but in surrendering the things that I don’t understand and in surrendering the things that I can’t control to you. Thank you that you are a good God. Teach me how to pray the prayer of lament. I thank you God that you care. You said cast your cares on you, for you care for me. So today, Jesus Christ, I give myself one hundred percent to you – the good, the bad, the ugly, the disappointments, the shocks, the sorrows, the highs and the lows, the good and the bad. I give myself completely to you, Jesus Christ. I want you to be the Lord, the manager of every area of my life. I want to live for you from this day forward. I want to trust you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

"The Future Looks Uncertain…but God" Daniel 2 Introduction Predicting the future is big business People have created an industry, from fortune cookies to horoscopes In the US, it's a $2 billion per year industry This includes Christians—seminars and books regarding prophecy are in high demand Why is it that people are so obsessed about knowing their future? They want to know what the future will hold so they can prepare for it Self-preservation is a basic human instinct; we naturally strive to get the information we need in order to know how to survive Knowledge of the future, even if it's incomplete, is power Lack of knowledge creates fear But do you really want to know your future? God wisely withholds such information from us Knowledge of the future would overwhelm us Daniel 2 is the story of a king—Nebuchadnezzar—who wanted to know his future Nebuchadnezzar was, at this time, the world ruler He was wondering about the future—who would take over his position, etc. The Future Is Unknown to Us (vv. 1-2, 10) From a human perspective, it's impossible to predict future events Nebuchadnezzar was having dreams God gave him dreams, but he couldn't remember them His spirit was troubled—the word in Hebrew is  pa'am , which means to beat something persistently Nebuchadnezzar called in the magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans to tell him his dreams and to interpret them They were unable to interpret his dreams because they didn't know what the dreams were No person on earth can read minds or predict the future Ecclesiastes 7:14 125 million people in the US believe in astrology 70 million people read their horoscopes every day; 12 million people change their behavior based on their horoscope According to the Gallup Poll, 10 percent of people who say they are evangelical Christians also believe in astrology to some degree The Future Is Well Known to God (vv. 15-23) Daniel believed that it was possible to know the future if God revealed it to him "The secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision" (v. 19) This was not a dream—Daniel was awake when he saw what the king had seen Because God knows everything, He knows what the future is Psalm 139:1-4 God's knowledge is immediate, comprehensive, and without deterioration God exists outside of time He is not confined by our time-space continuum He dwells in the realm of eternity—the eternal present Because of this, He often predicts what hasn't yet happened by using the past tense, as if it has already happened Daniel believed that God is omniscient, so he activated his faith—the God Daniel knew is the God who knows everything The Future Is Made Known to Us (vv. 26-30) "But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets" (v. 28) Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he couldn't tell him about his dream But Daniel told him that there is a God in heaven who was able to explain Nebuchadnezzar's dream God wants to make known to us the future All of the details of the future would overwhelm us, but He wants to give us a limited amount of knowledge That's essentially what biblical prophecy is—God telling us what's going to happen in the future The Bible reveals future judgment The rapture The great tribulation period Jesus will come back to earth There's going to be an eternal kingdom with a new heaven and a new earth How impressive is biblical prophecy? Some events and people were spoken about and mentioned by name hundreds of years before they existed One quarter of the Bible is predictive prophecy The more detailed the prediction is, the more complicated it becomes With complication comes greater risk, and with risk, the possibility of that prediction being fulfilled decreases; this is known as compound probability The Jewish prophets predicted about 300 to 330 different layers of details with regards to the Messiah: He would be born of a virgin (see Isaiah 7:14) He would be born in Bethlehem (see Micah 5:2) He would be born into the tribe of Judah (see Genesis 49:10) His ministry would begin in Galilee, not Jerusalem (see Isaiah 9:1) He would work miracles (see Isaiah 35:5-6) He would enter Jerusalem on a donkey (see Zechariah 9:9) He would be betrayed by a friend (see Psalm 41:9) He would be sold for thirty pieces of silver (see Zechariah 11:12) He would be wounded and bruised (see Isaiah 53:5) His hands and feet would be pierced (see Psalm 22:16) He would be crucified with thieves (see Isaiah 53:12) His garments would be torn, and lots would be cast for them (see Psalm 22:18) His bones would not be broken (see Psalm 34:20) His side would be pierced (see Zechariah 12:10) He would be buried in a rich man's tomb (see Isaiah 53:9) He would rise from the dead (see Psalm 16:10) These are impossible to arrange from a human level—100 billion years wouldn't be enough time to give us enough chances for those processes to be fulfilled without God Biblical prophecy isn't a good guess—it's good news to a guessing world There's only one explanation: divine authorship The Future Makes God Known to Us (v. 45) God predicts future events in order to make Himself known to us This is the reason for biblical prophecy—so that people will realize that there is only one God God uses prophecy as His business card—to show that other world religions are all a sham and that demonic endeavors don't add up to anything Isaiah 41:21-23 John 14:29 There are three credentials that set Jesus apart from every other religious system or belief system His impact on history is incomparable His resurrection from the dead Fulfilled prophecy Most religions base their beliefs on the philosophical postulates of their founders The things they said—words of wisdom A lifestyle captured by their disciples and written down But of all the books that claim to be scripture, there is something absent in all of them except one—detailed prophecy Conclusion God reveals Himself in prophecy not to make people aware, but to make people adore Not to inform people of His plan, but to conform people to His plan Not just to amaze people, but to get people to worship Him and surrender to His plan You can't see what's ahead in your road, but God does He will be there to meet you when those events occur in your life, to give you the grace to endure them all Because we are limited and God is unlimited, we who are limited should surrender ourselves to the unlimited being who wants to be a part of our lives "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God" —Corrie ten Boom This is the God who wants to reveal Himself to you, walk with you, and have a relationship with you Figures referenced:  Corrie ten Boom Cross references:  Genesis 49:10; Psalm 16:10; 22:16, 18; 34:20; 41:9; 139:1-4; Ecclesiastes 7:14; Isaiah 7:14; 9:1; 35:5-6; 41:21-23; 53:5, 9, 12; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 9:9; 11:12; 12:10; John 14:29 Hebrew words:  pa'am www.skipheitzig.com.

What do we do when our worst, out of control fears come true? JOB’S WORST FEARS CAME TRUE. JOB 1:1: In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Unbeknownst to Job, behind the scenes, God and Satan are locked in a battle of truth, justice and the Kingdom of God way. Job becomes a pawn in the battle. In a quick and brutal sweep of calamities, allowed by God, but engineered by Satan, Job is left penniless, homeless, helpless, childless—and healthless (Job 13-19). On Day Two, it got personal. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes (Job 2:4-8). Uncontrolled fears have overwhelmed Job: What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me (Job 3:25). For Job, like for many of us, there was no date, there was no warning, there was no understanding why it happened. All he knew was that one day things were fine and the next day they were horrible. One day he was healthy and moments later he was sick unto death—and he never knew why. Mrs. Job is often criticized for encouraging Mr. Job to curse God and die. Let’s not be so hard on her. Like Job, she, too, had just awaken into her worst nightmares. Mrs. Job had great wealth, too—and she also lost everything:…her children, her wealth and security, her reputation, and her husband’s health. She lost it all. Her worst fears came true. The same thing has happened to some of us. Julie—give some examples here. Identify with them and them with you. Man you love leaves you for another woman, etc. ROGER Let’s consider some of the nightmarish fears that actually came true for Job. Unfortunately, these same fears will come true for many of us. ▓ SLIDE #: Job tells us that he feared physical pain . We do not know the disease he suffered, but we know it was so painful, he couldn’t even sleep at night.  It was gory.  It was tormenting. Perhaps it was leprosy. ▓ SLIDE #: Rochelle Terry is in our midst today. She would much rather be home with her parents and her high school friends in Ulan Bator, Outer Mongolia with her family. But, alas, she is not. Several months ago one of her legs began experiencing excruciating pain—so much so that she cannot walk, put any weight on it, or even touch it. The nerves are malfunctioning and sending continual agonizing pain signals to her brain. Now in PT—begins with touching it with a wash cloth—and she cries out in agony—trying to build up endurance so she can stand the pain and begin using her leg before it is completely atrophied and usless. RSD is incurable, but it can be managed, if proper PT is administered in time. We all fear to some level or other a failing body or long-time experience with pain. She never saw it coming. But, it did. Some of you have suffered physical pain in unspeakable ways. I am sorry for what have experienced. JULIE ▓ SLIDE #: Job tells us that he experienced tremendous emotionalpain . Grief overwhelmed him. Sometimes the emotional pain is so great we can’t even begin to process it. Our daughter Bronwyn was raped one night when she was coming home from a meeting.  She was getting ready to leave for Germany to be a foreign exchange student.  The man at the Rotary club who sponsored her wanted to be sure she was safe while walking to her car at night, so he sent an exchange student from South America to escort her to the car to be sure she was safe. Instead, he raped her.  Bronwyn was so horrified, she never told anyone.  She never dated for four years. She took up fencing in college.  She loved to fence men and stab them below the belt. We thought that was a little unusual. Now we know that the pain in her subconscious mind was manifesting against men for what she had experienced. We never learned of her emotional pain. But one day, Bronwyn fell in love and became engaged to be married.  One night, she finally told her fiancée why she was afraid of men.  After months of counseling, Bronwyn began to find emotional healing.  Emotional pain can be very real.   I have found in life, that when I don’t know why I am suffering, the suffering is harder. ROGER Some of you have suffered emotional pain in unspeakable ways. I am sorry for the have experienced. ▓ SLIDE #: Job admits that he dreaded the thought of long-term mental anguish . He couldn’t even comprehend how he and his wife would survive.  He was wondering what terrible calamity or crisis would come next. JULIE Personal fear stories Some of you have suffered mental anguish in unspeakable ways. I am sorry for the pain you have gone through. ROGER ▓ SLIDE #: Spiritual pain was probably Job’s deepest fear come true. He felt that the God he knew and loved and served and worshiped had forsaken him. His wife, his beloved partner, told him to curse God and die. He wondered over and over again why God would let this happen to him. God would not speak to him no matter how much he prayed and begged. It was as if God abandoned him. He was all on his own without God. Fred and Joy Morse: pastor having sexual affair in his office while wife served as his volunteer secretary just outside his office door. He probably never saw it coming. Adultery is feared by every man or woman who speaks for God. But, one day he fell—and one day he was discovered. “How can God ever forgive me? What I have done is so despicable that there is no way God could ever forgive me. He surely has left me forever.” Some of you have suffered spiritual pain in unspeakable ways. Perhaps you feel that God deserted you in your most desperate moment. Perhaps you feel that He has led or left you in some difficulty that was all His doing—and you are having to suffer solutions on your own. I am sorry for what you have gone through. ▓SLIDE #: Now, Let’s Move To The PRACTICAL Side. “WHAT SHALL WE DO WHEN THE THINGS WE FEARED THE MOST RUMBLE TO THE CORE OF OUR SOULS?” ROGER ▓ SLIDE #: 1. WE CAN EXPERIENCE THE LOVING HEART OF gOD THE FATHER THROUGH Jesus Christ. God the Father understands and has experienced fears and the horror of those fears coming true. Was Jesus ever afraid? Matthew 26:36-38” Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."  37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Matthew 26:39: Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will." Was His fear finally realized? Matthew 27:46: About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi,  lama sabachthani?"-which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He took the sin of the world. Led to resurrection for Jesus and for all of us as well. JULIE It reminds me of the little doe being chased by wolves hiding behind the legs of the hunter. That is the image of God as my father that I have in my soul whenever my worst fears are being realized. God’s “perfect love” is able to cast out fear. SLIDE : 1 John 4:18-19; There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear… 19 We love because he first loved us. Missionaries: “The love of Christ constrains us…” Handle their fears because of their love for people. Watts Teenage Mission trips just after riots: Dangerous. Perfect love casts out fear. Sang in black church: “First white people to come into our church. The servant of Elijah2 Kings 6:15-17 SLIDE : 15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked. 16 "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." 17 And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. ROGER through the Bible, prayer and meditation. “Recognizing the thing in hand.” Psalm 91 meditation JULIE ▓ SLIDE #: 2. WE CAN EXPERIENCE PEACE BECAUSE OUR SUFFERING IS FOR SOMETHING. SLIDE : Job 23:10: 10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold SLIDE : Hebrews 12:10-11: Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Let’s put pain in perspective. Consider the following: scientists have found ways of measuring the intensity of the pain we feel. They can measure the fact that a migraine hurts more than a skinned knee. And they have determined that two of the most painful things human beings can experience are giving birth and passing a kidney stone. From a purely physical point of view, these two events both hurt equally, and hardly anything hurts more. But from a human point of view, the two are so different. The pain of passing a kidney stone is simply pointless suffering, the result of a natural malfunction somewhere in our body. But the pain of birth is creative pain. It is pain that has meaning, pain that gives life, that leads to something. That is why the person who passes a kidney stone will usually say, “I’d give anything not to have to go through that again.” But the woman who has given birth to a child, like the runner or mountain climber who has driven his body to reach a goal, can transcend her pain and contemplate repeating the experience. “Honey, I think I am ready to have another one. We don’t want to suffer for nothing. If we are going to suffer we want to suffer for something. No one wants to suffer for nothing (kidney stone). We handle it better if we are suffering for something (having a baby). We handle it best if we understand how we are suffering for Someone (God Himself). ▓ SLIDE #: 3. WE CAN EXPERIENCE CONTENTMENT BECAUSE GOD PROMISES TO POUR IN THE POWER WHEN WE NEED IT. SLIDE : Philippians 4:11-12: I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. SLIDE : Philippians 4:13: I can do everything through him who gives me strength. SLIDE : 2 Corinthians 12:7-9: To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. julie Rochelle I do want to share—with Rochele's permission— the following last paragraph from her message. I hope it blesses you as much as it does me. I really didn't know that God could turn this no walking and no friends thing into something so big in my life. I sit down and read my Bible and pray and I'm really seeking Christ. I'm finding things out on my own. I'm not just asking about things then reading a little bit about it later. I'm learning things and I'm forming my beliefs and its alive in me. I know I don't know very much, and things I think are right might be twisted, but I know I'm not alone. I think its kinda like this therapy thing. I have to learn how to do all this stuff but I can't do it on my own yet. I think its so cool how I can relate all this crap with my leg to the amazing things God is doing. Its like God took my weakness and He said, "Hey, watch this! Want to see what I can do with this?" It's like He came and said "Rochele, I can do something great here—no matter what you choose. I'll still do something great, I just want to know if you want to come for the ride." I could have stayed bitter, but I've done that before. I needed to make this real this time. Daddy, I got this joy. It's like I can feel Him working in me—its amazing. Oh and I think I know what RSD really stands for now: Resting Soundly in Dad. He is my Heavenly Father, and He gave me rest in Him. One word: "Wow." Thanks for all your love and support and help for Rochele and our family during this time.

How do we prepare ourselves to be ready for the return of Christ? Jesus teaches us how in Matthew 24. FAST FORWARD PART FOUR LIVING READY PASTOR JACK SCHULL 1/27/08 Intro: We’ve been going over the Olivet Discourse – the conversation that is recorded in Matthew 24-25 Jesus has with Disciples (best to look at this text as 1 complete conversation) Matthew 24:1 (disc. are in awe of the temple – Jesus changes there perspective) Roger – went over the 3 questions the disciples as about the, spent the last three wks looking and exploring what the Bible has to say about Jesus’ 2nd coming – the signs – prophecy’s in Revelation and Daniel that have connection to this discourse you remember Roger talking about the 70 x 7’s in Daniel concerning the timing of all this happening
he drew that picture of the Metallic Man - how the stone (Jesus) that will come and strike the ten toes alliance of nations predicted in the Daniel prophecy –….i can’t draw like Roger – so, i found a picture… (picture of ten toes) if you haven’t been here or you’re interested – you can check out the pod casts… Today – I want to bring some of this home – into practical expression of what this means to your life, my life and we’ll finish up the Olivet Discourse today…Jesus changes the disciples’ perspective on how things will change – then he goes into giving them some pictures in these parables – changing their perspective to live ready!!! You gotta keep in mind: Prophecy is given as a call to Holy Living – the giving us a glimpse into the future is to motivate our present everyday living… Matthew 24:36, 42 verse 42 is the key verse in the Olivet discourse…chapter 25 could really have begun here… it’s important to note: Your Lord – Christ is telling his followers there is a relationship here one of submission and beauty – we don’t belong solely to ourselves…(you are his & he is yours) this connection is here… Jesus then goes into four quick parables that begin to illuminate this watching – this heart attitude that we’re to have as his followers concerning the end… …It all centers on what I learned in Scouts… Q how many of you were in Girl Scouts – Boy Scouts Q what is the motto of girl scouts (besides: please buy some cookies)? Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.(1912) Q anyone know what the motto of boy scouts is:? (be prepared) -->
there are these 2 camps – as it comes to living and navigating life: prepared or procrastinates Preparation vs Procrastination: (quiz) (elaborate descriptions) getting up in the morning: those of you get up in plenty of time to prepare – those hyper speed to get out… Y2K – how many of you stocked up – how many were ready to stretch 1 can of chunky soup? Paying bills -- how many pay ahead – wait ‘til last minute pay online night before? Renewing you auto registration
--> or going to emissions testing facility – (1st of month / end)? Sign your kids up early for sports – vs -- rolling up to the counter last hour of registration? Doing school/work assignments in advance – vs—all nighter’s / day before? T There is nothing nec. wrong with doing ‘last minute’ in some things. This isn’t about guilt trip theology. But not everything is good to save for the last minute You can put together your wardrobe for the day last minute…but Putting together a family vacation on the last minute doesn’t always work out the best… Pulling off a wedding proposal last minute – I wouldn’t recommended…you’ll want to put some thought into guys! (more than popping the question as you roll thru the jack-n-box drive through on the way to a movie – so, you wanna get married or what?) Perhaps what Jesus is saying to us today – to people who are investigating the spiritual life Jesus invites us too – is don’t wait ‘til the last minute – we’re never really guaranteed a last minute…are we? What you have to notice is: Jesus begins pressing it upon his followers the importance of wisdom to be ready --> to watch for Him & be prepared for THAT day…as you life in THIS DAY… Throughout this Olivet Discourse is this theme: of readiness! 3 stories in Mt 25 ( 2 parables – 1 account) 1 – wedding – presents this theme of wisdom in being prepared for christ’s return 2 – talents – theme of responsibilities entrusted his followers prior to his return 3 – sheeps/goats – (not a parable) clearly a scene that will play out – but it does fit with the 4 parables from Matt 24:43-25:30 emphasizing importance of caring for Jesus’ followers – the same as caring for him… Turn with me to: Matthew 25 – verse 1 I want to look at one of these parables gives to his disciples that hits at this theme – unpack it a bit and then draw some conclusions from this whole text – some applications for everyday living… This is technically the 3rd parable Jesus quickly launches into after verse 24:42… This is about a wedding! Q how many of you have been in a wedding or too a wedding? there are some great things that happen during a wedding (sunsets, carriage rides, boat) – some very moving, beautiful moments // there are also those moments that make memories – am I right?...strange things – things that wind up on America’s Funniest Home video’s… --> I’ve been to a wedding where …groomsmen come in with Mohawks -->
where flowers / stage décor caught on fire …high stress weddings… -->
…bride was wailing/crying… inside your head is just this little voice saying ‘awkward…”
--> where people just fainted on stage – the worst ones, are when no one does anything and you can just feel the tension bldg in the audience of “what are they going to do, should I do anything?” Q turn to the people around you (3-4) people and ask them either: most beautiful memory (girl) at a wedding or strangest thing at a wedding (guy)? T weddings have a lot of beauty and imagery (maybe not all the best)… To understand this parable around a wedding you have to understand weddings back in Jewish times – Palestinian weddings…1st century… We go to our weddings today: cake, songs, rings…You understand that the whole wedding cake – wedding ring on the 3rd finger of left hand – comes from the Romans – from Rome’s influence – you won’t find a verse on rings in the bible (guys, I recommend that you don’t bring that up to your fiancé) There are 3 parts to a Jewish / Palestinian Wedding: 1) Engagement: formal settlement between respective fathers of the bride and groom (2 chickens, goat and a gift card to the local blacksmith) 2) The Betrothal: Ceremony held in home of the bride’s parents. This is where mutual promises were made and recorded by each family and a binding contract was sealed. The bride and the groom were bound to one another legally, though they were not yet married. 3) The Marriage: after about a yr…bridegroom and friends went to fetch the bride from her father’s house and brought her back in the procession home where marriage feast was held…He’d show off his bride at this party that lasted 7 days. Bridegroom’s would give a two week notice for his arrival – then these virgins (or BRIDESMAIDS) would be ready with lanterns/torches to light the way for the bridegroom back to the banquet. This wedding procedure is the backdrop for this parable -->
it gives a perfect picture of Christ and his church. 1) engagement: Christ’s 1st coming – agreement for our salvation was arranged Ephesians 5:25 2) we’re in that betrothal state now: awaiting Christ’s return for his bride (term 4: church often in scripture) 3) Christ’s 2nd Coming is (marriage ceremony) – He returns to bring us home with him, wedding feast… T Let’s read thru this parable – point out some things along the way – draw some applications…. Matthew 25:1-13 (read thru it, then come back and pick it apart) *remember you can’t over analyze a parable – there is usually one main theme/pt… 1-4: these are invited guests – bridesmaids (these lamps are theirs – personal property, not rented) 10 is a complete number of witness – nothing specific about ½ 5 and 5 All went out to meet the bridegroom – wanting to be a part of God’s kingdom Deliberate notation b/t those who are wise and those who are foolish (Greek: fool=moros; where we get our word: moron – to be, inattentive, unthinking) By a lack of preparation in this life, the 5 foolish bridesmaids reveal a lack of respect for the Messiah – reminds us: how a person sees Jesus is the key to his or her eternal destination 5-6 Jesus is perhaps indicating that this is a delay – longer than expected – all 10 fell asleep Sleep is difficult to hold off when you’ve been waiting along time How many of you have ever gotten to that point in driving – where your eyes are heavy? Represents the stretch of history b/t the Messiah’s 1st coming and his return “the cry rang out”…v. 6 The announcement comes as a surprise – remember back to what he said in 24:44… Q have you ever been surprised? Some surprises are good: reach in pocket find $ // breakfast in bed // kids clean their rooms w/out told Some surprises aren’t that good: cell phone bill every month // find a ticket on your car upon your return Jesus is continually calling people to not be caught by surprise…be ready, be prepared… 7-12 -->
If you give away oil – all the lamps will go out in reality – these aren’t lanterns – they’re torches that need continually doused with oil to stay burning… Often in scripture ‘oil’ refers to the Holy Spirit – living in the spirit, being filled, empowered (as Paul often alludes too) You and I can not gain what is necessary from someone else – this is a call to self-preparation…each needs to make up their own mind to be ready for the Messiah’s return – your relationship with him Non-transferable – don’t miss out on your opportunity…your invitation to be a part of the banquet Illustration: a wall sign that reads, "Lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." -->
When it comes to our eternal destiny, you are responsible for you. 13: This closing exhortation is the central application Almost the same wording in v. 13 as 24:42…(constantly be alert, keeping watch)
our preparedness for Christ’s return demonstrates our personal trust and respect for him! You don’t want to wait ‘til it’s too late… Applications: T throughout this whole conversation – throughout all these parables is this theme: of readiness - Jesus is giving a picture of the kind of people we’re to be – the kind of heart we’re to have… b/c: WHEN YOU LIVE WITH THE END IN MIND, IT IMPACTS YOUR LIVING IN THIS PRESENT TIME we’re to be active while we wait: Parable of the talents and the in Matthew 24
there is this reality/focus of the talents we’ve been given – responsibilities we’ve been entrusted with. We’re to be about the work God has for each of us … -->
this is not for us to be a spiritual Golden Retriever starring at the door for it’s owner to return and it doesn’t move from that spot all day… Apostle Paul writes a letter to the church in Thessalonica about some of the believers there who were quitting their jobs, stopping to work, to do anything b/c they were awaiting the return of Jesus…(get back to work – never tire of doing what’s right – god has things for you to do) 2 Thess 3:11-13 Titus 2:11-13
see your insert – some great words for us St/ill: we’re to value what Jesus values – care about what he cares about: end of Matthew 25 – jesus says some haunting words of how we cared for the Jews in particular – but can be extrapolated out to how did we do at caring for the poor and those searching for hope …that God wants to utilize his people today to make inroads of His care and love into people that need it…that He’s searching out… Titus 2:13 // Ephesians 2:10 Acts 1:4, 7-12 *don’t wait around here starring into the sky… -->
we can get so busy looking for Jesus, that we lose focus on what he said for us to be about… ---you will be my witnesses … --> people matter to God and we’re to be living witnesses to that testimony –active in God’s search party for those that are lost…wandering and waiting to be rescued… we’re to invest our lives into loving God – and living ready…
we find ourselves in that engagement/betrothal period – awaiting the return of our King…the one we’re to have a relationship with – to choose know to put our trust in him… Part of living with a prepared heart is continuing to live in a love relationship with God. Ill Put it to you this way: I don’t know any engaged couples – who don’t just naturally keep working on and enjoying their relationship = as they live in expectation of their wedding and how much more their relationship is going to be united. Wouldn’t it be weird to witness a couple that meets, dates, falls in love – gets to the emotion and commitment needed to get engaged – and then never talks to each other, thinks about each other, is around each other until the wedding day 1 year later..? Jesus is hitting through this whole conversation: I’ll give you some pictures of the end of days, but don’t let that distract you away from living today – in relationship with me. Keep your focus on me – keep your heart’s affection toward me… Conclusion: There is always a curiosity factor with discussing end times… (pic of end sign) 6 Illust: (movie: the Bucket List) --> story follows Jack Nickelson and Morgan Freeman on this journey of discovery of cancer, few months to live, these adventures and ultimately this discovery of a deep longing & search their on…thought provoking about the emotions one might have – as they live with the end sight. What really matters? What really is the priority? Jesus begins zeroing in on those answers in this discourse… Matthew 24:42 (perhaps echoes the words of Jesus in matthew) “living with the end in mind, impacts our living in the present time” The purpose of prophecy is always a call to holy living! Getting a glimpse into the future is to motivate our present everyday living… End Times prophecy is also to bring comfort and encouragement to those who are followers of Christ: …endurance for those difficult times right now – b/c he’s coming again and will make it right …perseverance in the now – b/c he promises to strengthen us …hope for present day – b/c he gave a hopeful promise of a future day… I thought it would be good to end with Jesus’ words in the gospel of John…center ourselves here…maybe it would help you to close your eyes and let these words of jesus wash over you… John 14: 16-18, 1-3 Q isn’t it amazing that: He hasn’t left us alone – given us the Spirit to lead us, guide us, empower us,… That the God of the universe thinks you’re worth coming back for… We’re going to close today with some time to reflect through worship…on how amazing God is… Perhaps you sense God is wanting to remind you that all is well …You sense God is wanting to comfort your heart right now You want to sing of His amazing power and precision… Maybe God is tugging at your heart… Song: Amazed OUTLINE: Quick Review Matthew 24:1 Matthew 24:42 Girl Scout/Boy Scout motto’s?
prepared vs procrastinate Matt 24:42
--> followed by 4 quick parables Wedding Parable -current weddings -jewish weddings then Parable – explain things as we go 3 sections of a wedding Bridesmaids job Oil in scripture represents Holy Spirit (be filled with the Spirit) paul talks about this… Wise/Foolish – compare/contrast (eph 5: My sheep know my voice and I know my sheep
as the door is shut – rabbinical saying Application: living ready - with a heart prepared for the end and the present Story of Bucket List – live w/ the end in mind will impact our living in the present time value what Jesus does focus on what He says too – Acts 1 watch for Him with a longing heart to know him better Story of couples engaged – Preached at Casas Church. Used by permission.

Respect is a key factor in creating a loving family. Here are just a few ways you can make your family stronger and kinder! www.deborahhaddix.com

Grace to You :: esp Unleashing God's Truth, One Verse at a Time The Mystery of Christmas Scripture: Selected Scriptures Code: 81-17 A NOTE ABOUT THIS TRANSCRIPT The following sermon transcript does not match the video version of the sermon—it matches only theaudio version. Here's a brief explanation why. John MacArthur routinely preaches a sermon more than once on the same date, during different worship services at Grace Community Church. Normally, for a given sermon title, our website features the audio and video that were recorded during the same worship service. Very occasionally, though, we will post the audio from one service and the video from another. Such was the case for the sermon titled "I and the Father Are One, Part 2," the transcript of which follows below. The transcript is of the audio version. As you know, we’ve been in a series in Galatians, and we’ll hold off on that until next Lord’s Day. And this morning, just to think a little bit about the Christmas season as we live through it again this year, what comes to my mind is how enigmatic Christmas is, how paradoxical it is, how contradictory Christmas is. I looked up the word “paradox” knowing that it comes from two Greek words: doxa, which essentially means “a fact,” “a truth,” “an idea,” para, “alongside.” Paradox means “two truths laid alongside each other,” which are both realities, and yet are somewhat contradictory. One classic Old English definition would be this, that paradox is something seemingly absurd and yet true. And there are some serious paradoxes around Christmas; it has a split personality for sure. There is Santa Claus, a mythical, supernaturally-empowered, fat elf who slides down chimneys, and whose entire verbal contribution to the world is “ho-ho-ho.” I’m not sure how he’s managed to have such a lasting impact. And juxtaposed to him is none other than the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is supernatural, the God-man whose words are profound and deep and eternal and life-giving. And somehow this culture is caught somewhere between those two very different characters. Mass confusion seems to exist: furious rushing everywhere, traffic madness, crowds; impossible schedules, while we all celebrate peace on earth, find very little of it, so that even suicide rates are at an all-year high at Christmas season. Two thousand years ago one star lit the sky over the spot where the Lord was born; and now so many houses have lights, and so many lights shine in so many places. We’re almost drowning in lights around the Christmas season. And many stores are lit up, you know, places where you can go and buy what isn’t needed and won’t fit. There’s just a kind of Christmas chaos. The first Christmas was a poor one: a manger, a stable. Christmas today is a display of wealth as millions of people spend billions of dollars to indulge in temporal things. First Christmas, wise men came to worship; and today, fools worldwide ignore the One the wise men worshiped. Santa Claus gives you what you want because you deserve it; Jesus Christ gives you what you need even though you don’t deserve it. Very different. Those are sample paradoxes, not the important ones that I want to address this morning. But I do want to show you the paradoxical, enigmatic, apparently contradictory nature of Christianity that demonstrates to us its supernatural character and revelation. And to be able to see this, we need to go to the other side of Christmas, the before Christmas side back in the Old Testament and look at some of the prophecies concerning the Messiah. Now we know that the prophecies concerning the Messiah were very difficult to understand, much more difficult for the prophets who prophesied them than even for us; and they were inspired by the Spirit of God to write what the Lord told them to write. Even at that, they could not understand what they were writing. And we hear Peter say this in 1 Peter 1:10 and 11, “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” The prophecies were about two things: the sufferings of the Messiah, and the glories of the Messiah. And those two juxtaposed throughout the prophecies of the Old Testament made it difficult for even the prophets who wrote the prophecies down to understand, so that they made careful searches and inquiries into what person and what time they themselves were even writing about. The Old Testament presents the coming Messiah as a conqueror; and yet in other passages, it presents Him as a defeated enemy. In some Old Testament prophecies, He is seen as bringing joy to the world; in other Old Testament prophecies, He is seen as a man of sorrows. Sometimes He is seen as the conqueror, sometimes as the one who is rejected. Sometimes He is seen in great triumph and strength, and sometimes in abject weakness. He is the one who will bring life; and yet in other prophecies, He is the one who will die. Some speak of Him as King of glory, King of heaven and earth, eternal King, desire of all nations; and yet other prophets say there will be nothing about Him that men should desire Him. These kinds of enigmatic paradoxical statements need an explanation, because they appear on the surface to present someone who is caught in some level of absurdity because of these kind of contractions. He is to be the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and yet He is a lamb led to slaughter. He is to be the Judge of all the world. He is to come and judge sinners, burning them with unquenchable fire; and yet He is to be unjustly judged by sinners, and executed as a criminal. All of these conundrum like truths are lying side by side in the Old Testament and caused the prophets to search to find out what time, what person could possibly fulfill all of these. This query stretched even into the New Testament. Open your Bible to Matthew 11, and let’s go to chapter 11, verses 1 and following, and come into the curious situation with regard to the last Old Testament prophet, the herald of Jesus Himself, John the Baptist. John the Baptist was really miraculously conceived. Zacharias and Elizabeth were barren into their very old age. The Lord allowed them to have this son who would be the last of the Old Testament prophets really after four hundred years of silence, and he would be the prophet who announced the arrival, not anticipating the coming as the other prophets, but announcing the arrival of the Messiah, which is exactly what John the Baptist did. As we find him here in chapter 11, however, things have not gone the way he thought they would go. He is in prison. He is in a prison that’s part of a Herodian palace about five miles east of the Dead Sea and fifteen miles south of the northern shore. This is a fortress called Machaerus. It is a very desolate place. Apparently he is allowed visitors, and folks have come and given him some information about what the Messiah, Jesus, is doing, and John is highly confused. To understand his confusion turn to Luke chapter 3 and listen to his message. And this is not a message that he developed on his own, this is a message that came to him from God Himself. Chapter 3 of Luke and verse 1: “The fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate is the governor of Judea; Herod is the tetrarch of Galilee; and his brother Philip, tetrarch of the region of Ituraea, Trachonitis, Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene,” – these are the sons of Herod the Great – “in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,” – listen to this – “the word of God came to John.” So John spoke the word of God prophetically about the Messiah. He is still an Old Testament prophet. The Messiah is here, but His real work has not yet culminated in His death and resurrection. So John is still prophesying about the Messiah as prophecies come to him from the Lord Himself. “He came into the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” He’s preaching that because judgment is coming. And the Lord, the word of the Lord comes to him, and he is to speak the words of Isaiah the prophet, and here is what he is to say: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,” – that’s him – ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God.’” He’s preaching millennial glory, millennial kingdom. He’s preaching the restored earth, paradise regained. He’s preaching salvation. And along with that, he’s preaching judgment. “So he began” – in verse 7 – “saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham for our father,” for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’” Further down in that chapter notice verse 16: “John speaking again, ‘As for me, I baptize you with water. One is coming who is mightier than I; I’m not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’ – the fire of judgment – ‘His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; and He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’” This is John’s message. It is a message of repentance, crying out for forgiveness, a message of salvation, a message of the establishment of the kingdom, and the judgment of all sinners. John has seen none of that. There is no great work of salvation being done in Israel. The nation has rejected Him. There is no judgment on them as of yet, there is no fiery holocaust on their heads, and John doesn’t understand what’s going on. Back to Matthew 11, he sends his disciples to Jesus, and in verse 3, having heard of the works of Christ – and they’re not works of judgment, and they don’t even appear to be works of salvation or the establishment of the kingdom, “He sent word by his disciples and said to Him, ‘Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?’” Something isn’t right. He is confused. Notice the Lord’s answer: “Jesus answered and said to them,” – the disciples of John who had come to represent him – ‘Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.’” That is the opposite of judgment. That is benevolence. That is mercy. That is kindness. That is blessing. That is healing like never in the history of the world. And our Lord, by the way, is quoting in those words from Isaiah 35 and Isaiah 61. So He is saying, “The prophets not only prophesied about judgment, fiery judgment, they prophesied as well about mercy and kindness and the relief of suffering.” “So the Messiah is to do both?” And in verse comes our Lord’s direct message to John the Baptist: “Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me. Trust Me. Trust Me. Don’t draw any wrong conclusions. Don’t be offended by what you think is the full picture.” John is facing that same tension that the Old Testament prophets all faced: “What is this going to be like when He comes? Who can do what He has been prophesied to do? And how can these contradictory, enigmatic components come together in one person in one time?” It is a marvelous reality in Scripture that the diverse and seemingly contradictory prophesies regarding Messiah make it impossible for any other person than the true Messiah to fulfill them. They are too contradictory, too paradoxical, too enigmatic, and too complex, and too prolific. All of these Old Testament prophecies are locked treasures to which the key is the New Testament. What was difficult for the prophets to understand, what was well nigh impossible for John the Baptist to understand, you and I understand perfectly, because we have the New Testament, we have the full record. And the New Testament ends with the book of Revelation that stretches to the ultimate fulfillment of all the prophecies of the glories to follow His suffering. Mystery, paradox, enigma make it impossible to counterfeit. They had a hard time getting it; we get it, we see it. Listen to this, Matthew 13. Our Lord said to His disciples, verse 17, “Truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” That was what it was like even to be a righteous person and to be a prophet in the Old Testament; you didn’t have a clear picture, you didn’t have a clear sound. But back up to verse 16, our Lord says to His disciples, “Blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.” These paradoxical things to them are crystal clear to us. Let me show you a handful of them. First of all is the mystery of the incarnation. Go back to Isaiah 7, the mystery of the incarnation. The story of Christmas, the reality of Christmas is the birth of the Son of God and the Son of Man, both man and God in one person. We see that. We understand it on this side because we have the full New Testament revelation of the nature of Christ. But listen to the words of Isaiah 7:14. Ahaz the king is the context, and God wanted to give him a sign, and he refused to receive a sign from God. But the Lord broadened that to a sign for the world really, verse 14: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” A virgin will bear a son; that has never happened. That’s impossible. But that was necessary, because there had to be a human in the equation, but not two humans: a human and God. So the Holy Spirit conceives in Mary the child who is both son of Mary, Son of God. How are they to understand the Old Testament prophets, “A virgin being with child”? Well, they understand a child; that’s normal process. You give birth to a child. And yet this is not just a child, this is a son; and this is a son whose name is Immanuel. The Lord Himself by His own will, by His own power will produce a supernatural sign identifying a king far greater than Ahaz, the great King. The sign is this: “A virgin shall conceive.” The word “virgin” in Hebrew is almah. All Old Testament uses refer to a virgin. The word “behold” is here because it’s a shocking statement in and of itself. There will be a child, but also a son – a child, speaking perhaps of His humanity; and a son, speaking of His deity. And He will be Immanuel, which means “God with us.” And we know in Matthew chapter 1 this prophecy is quoted in verse 23 as fulfilled in Jesus. He is truly God, truly man. Let me say it again: truly God, truly man. This is the ultimate absurdity. This is the ultimate conundrum, enigma that someone would be one hundred percent of one thing and one hundred percent of another indivisible. Go over to chapter 9 of Isaiah. And again Isaiah injects another of these prophecies, verse 6: “For a child will be born,” again speaking of the child; makes reference to natural birth. Everyone is born as a child, of course. But also, that child will be a son given; not just a child born, but a son given. Given by whom? Given by God. So again you have man and God. You have fully man, fully God in one being; born, and yet given; born to a woman, and yet given from heaven, as if He already existed because He did. And the government will rest on His shoulders. Shoulders are the symbol of carrying the weight; and several times in the book of Isaiah, particularly chapter 22, verse 22, you see the use of shoulders to refer to ruling. You carried the weight of rule on your shoulders. You carried the weight of responsibility on your shoulders. This child will have the government on His shoulders. Some of you think you have a lot of responsibility with a family. There are others who have responsibility with a business, or a responsibility with a class of student, or a responsibility for patients in a hospital, or whatever it might be, responsibility for soldiers in a battle, responsibility to lead cities or nations. This, this Ruler, this Child, this fully God, fully man will have on His shoulders the responsibility to rule a kingdom that has no limits and has no end. Go down to verse 7: “There will be no end to the increase of His government,” no end. “On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.” It is a kingdom that encompasses all the universe and all eternity. This is a massive responsibility on the shoulders of this child, this son. That statement, “to the increase of His government there is no end,” means He rules over all, all. His rule will fulfill the promise to David. He will sit on the throne of David, and over his kingdom to fulfill the Davidic covenant, 2 Samuel 7. He will establish His kingdom with justice and righteousness, which means there’s going to be some punishment; that’s laid out in Psalm 89 magnificently. He will come and He will establish His kingdom with justice and righteousness. Psalm 2 says He will rule with a rod of iron – instant justice, instant righteousness, instant punishment. But it will be a kingdom of peace. It’ll be a government of peace. Peace will be established by justice and righteousness, and it will last forever; and the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. God’s plans cannot be altered. So here’s a prophecy about a child to be born, who is also a son given – a child in the earthly sense, a son in the heavenly sense – who will have a kingdom with no limits in terms of space and no limits in terms of time. And to further identify His rule He is given a name. His name is a composite of several things. Back to verse 6: “His name will be called Wonderful Counselor.” That doesn’t mean He’s really helpful when you have a problem; He is that, but that’s not the point. As compared to Solomon who was the wisest man who ever lived, this man is a wonder of a counselor. This is talking about the infinite nature of His wisdom, a wonder of wisdom beyond all rulers, including Solomon. He rules well. He rules over everything well. He rules throughout all eternity because He has wisdom that encompasses all that is required for that. He has the wisdom to rule everything forever flawlessly, and He knows what to do in every situation. Not only does He know what to do in every situation, He has the power to do it. The second part of His name is Mighty God, Mighty God. His wisdom is equal to His power; His power is equal to His wisdom. Always the Mighty God in the book of Isaiah refers to deity in the absolute sense. He has the wisdom and the power to rule the universe forever. He is also eternal Father. What is that supposed to mean? That’s supposed to communicate to us that He cares for His children. He is a father to His children. He eternally loves His children. He eternally provides for His children. He eternally leads His children to prosperity and blessing. And then He is the Prince of Peace. This is the character that causes a kingdom of peace. He is the Prince of Peace. All in His presence will be at peace, because we will all have made peace with God and possess the infinitely perfect peace of God. No king could be said to have been always at peace. No king would be a benevolent, loving, kind, providing, caring father to every single person in his kingdom. This is a king like no other king. What an amazing set of prophecies. A virgin will give birth to a son who made the virgin. A child will be born who is God eternal. He will come into time and space who has always existed. He establishes His kingdom by righteousness and justice, and yet it is a kingdom of peace. Who could possibly fulfill all these prophecies? What person could ever fulfill these prophecies? Listen to the angel in Luke 1. “Says to Mary, ‘Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He’ll be great, be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end. And the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason this holy Child shall be called the Son of God.’” Yes, everything that was prophesied in Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 9 is fulfilled in the Son of God. “And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” He is the child who is the eternal God. In Genesis 3:15 He is said to be the seed of the woman. In Daniel 7:13 He is the Son of Man. In Psalm 2:7 He’s the Son of God. In Genesis 22 He is the son of Abraham, though He existed before Abraham. In 2 Samuel 7 He is the son of David, though in Isaiah 11:10 it says He is the root of Jesse, David’s father. In Matthew 22 He is both David’s son and David’s Lord. Only Jesus Christ fulfills all these prophecies: a father and a son, born of a virgin that He created, the son of Abraham who predates Abraham, the son of David who predates David, the God-man. No wonder He said in John 14:9, “If you’ve seen Me you’ve seen the Father.” It all becomes clear to us in Christ, doesn’t it? Then, secondly, there’s the mystery of the Lion of Judah. Go back to Genesis 49. Fifty chapters in Genesis, so near the end. Here’s a prophecy that’s so important. We all know about the twelve tribes. We know that the Lord had to pick one of those tribes through whom to bring the Messiah, and He selected Judah. Genesis 49:10, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,” – that is, it’ll be someone produced out of that family of Judah that will hold the ruler’s staff all the way through – “till Shiloh comes.” Shiloh is simply a term for “Messiah.” It literally means, “the one whose right it is.” It’s a kind of cryptogram for Messiah. The Messiah then will come from the line of Judah, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. He will rule. He will be from the tribe of Judah. Revelation 5:5 calls Him “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” He had to be born of the line of Judah. If you look at the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 it traces the line through Judah down to David, down all the way till you come to Joseph. Now there’s a problem here. Go back to the thirty-eighth chapter of Genesis. Genesis 38. Judah had lost his wife; she was dead. He had a son named Er, whom God killed. So Judah is now a widower, and his son Er had married a girl named Tamar. Tamar is now a widow. Tamar wants a child, so in Genesis 38 she dresses herself up like a prostitute, and she goes into the places that prostitutes went, and she waits to seduce her father-in-law Judah. She seduces him successfully and becomes pregnant. The story picks up in verse 24 of Genesis 38. “It was about three months later that Judah was informed, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she’s with child by harlotry.’ Then Judah said, ‘Bring her out and let her be burned!’” That’s a pretty radical response. According to Deuteronomy 22, somebody who commits that act of immorality was to be stoned. But later on in Leviticus 20 and 21, God prescribed burning for one who added incest to immorality. “Burn her!” “It was while she was being brought out” – to be burned – “that she sent to her father-in-law, saying, ‘I am with child by the man to whom these things belong.’ And she said, ‘Please examine and see, whose signet ring and cords and staff are these?’” That was the price she exacted from him. She wanted to be paid; that’s what he gave her. She kept it; and now she sends it back to him. “Judah recognizes, and said, ‘She’s more righteous than I, inasmuch as I didn’t give her to my son Shelah. I should have given her to my son Shelah.’” That was the levirate marriage law. If she had lost the husband, the next son in line would take up the responsibility and marry her, carry on the family. He didn’t do that. “He didn’t have relations with her again. It came about at the time she was giving birth there were twins in the womb. And the twins were born” – down in verse 29 – “Perez,” – verse 30 – “Zerah.” So out of Judah come these cursed children. They are cursed. They are illegitimate children. They are cursed to a severe degree. Let me show you the curse that is laid out in Deuteronomy 23 on such illegitimate children. Deuteronomy 23, verse 2: “No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the Lord; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the Lord.” To make people think seriously before they committed incest, the Lord lays down a law that for ten generations you can’t come into the assembly of the Lord, you can’t come to the temple. I mean, that is like the isolation of a leper, for ten generations. How then is it possible that Messiah can come out of a cursed line? How is it possible? Look at Matthew 1, the genealogy. “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah.” Verse 3: “Judah the father of Perez, Zerah by Tamar, Perez,” – the line comes through Perez, comes down to verse 6 – “David, David.” Don’t be surprised. David is the tenth from Judah. At David the curse is removed. David is the tenth from Judah. So David was free from any curse of Judah’s sin, and able to enter the congregation of the Lord to reign as king with full privileges. And the curse is removed at the point of David who is the rightful king and the forefather of the Messiah. The line is purified, David is a legitimate king, the heir to the throne, and so is the later Messiah. By the way, there’s grace in God’s purposes, isn’t there, that Tamar is in the line. She’s not the only prostitute in this line; there’s another one, Rahab. And then there’s a pagan woman by the name of Ruth injected, and she actually was the grandmother of David. Grace and perfect accuracy mark the mystery of Judah. There’s a third mystery and it’s the mystery of the home of the Messiah. I read you Matthew 2 just to have you have it in your mind. Matthew 2 mentions three places: Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth. Micah 5:2 says Jesus the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, and He was. Hosea 11:1 says, “Out of Egypt I called My son.” And that is quoted in Matthew 2:15 as being fulfilled when Jesus came out of Egypt. And then according to Matthew 2:23 the prophets said He would be called a Nazarene from Nazareth. We don’t have a specific prophecy to that regard, but we don’t necessarily have all the prophecies of all the prophets written down. The New Testament writer tells us that it was prophesied He would be from Nazareth. So there is the enigma. He’s supposed to be from Bethlehem, He’s supposed to be from Egypt, and He’s supposed to be a Nazarene. How can all of that come together in one single person? Well, we read how it happens. He goes to Bethlehem because that’s where His family has to register for the census. He goes to Egypt because he is warned in a dream that Herod is going to kill the Messiah while he slaughters all the rest of the two-year-old male children. He comes out of Egypt and He heads back, and He’s going to go back into Judea, but changes his mind, because Herod the Great has given his worst son the rule of Judea, Archelaus; and Archelaus was such a madman that on one occasion he slaughtered three thousand Jews in Jerusalem. He didn’t want to go there if his father Herod was a threat in the slaughter of the infants. He assumed that Archelaus, of the same kind of wretched, corrupt character as his father, would continue to be a threat. So rather than go back to Judea, He goes to Galilee and ends up in Nazareth. Without the story of Jesus somebody in the Old Testament might say, “The prophets don’t know what they’re talking about. Some say that He’s going to come from Bethlehem, some say He’s going to come from Egypt, and some prophets say He’s going to come from Nazareth. How can all of that be true? That’s contradictory.” No, it’s not. Born in Bethlehem, escapes to Egypt, and ends up in Nazareth. Again, God is orchestrating circumstances. Even the appointment by Herod the Great of Archelaus results in the Lord ending up in the place the prophets said He would be. How could the prophets of the Old Testament who wrote those things have any idea what they were speaking about, and even in Hosea 11:1, “Out of Egypt have I called My son,” is such a vague prophesy because it seems to be referring to the nation. They would never be able to unscramble that omelet. But when you get to the New Testament it all becomes clear and it’s all fulfilled in Christ. And then there is a fourth interesting enigma: the mystery of the right to the throne. While you’re in Matthew 1, follow the genealogy: David, verse 6, then Solomon, and it flows down till you come to verse 11. “Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.” Jeconiah. You have these kings from David down to Jeconiah, and then the Babylonian captivity comes. And there were no more kings in Israel. Okay? No more kings. They went into captivity; they came back out of captivity; there were no more kings. But the kingly line kept going, verse 12: “After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel,” and it keeps going and going – the father of, the father of, the father of, the father of, the father of, down to verse 16: “Jacob was the father of Joseph.” So Joseph is in the line of Jeconiah. That was necessary, because the right to rule came through the father, that Jeconiah – or Coniah as he’s called – had a problem. Go back to Jeremiah 22. This is incredibly interesting. God is angry with Jeconiah – sometimes called Jehoiachin or Coniah – and His anger results in an explicit judgment. Verse 24, we’ll look at that. “As I live,” declares the Lord, “even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull you off; I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans,” that’s the Babylonian captivity. “I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die. But as for the land to which they desire to return, they will not return to it. ‘Is this man Coniah’ – or Jeconiah – ‘a despised, shattered jar? Is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out and cast into a land that they had not known? O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Write this man down childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.’” He may have children; none of them will ever be a ruler. No child in the descendant line of Jeconiah will ever rule in Israel. But then you go to Matthew 1 and you see Joseph is in the line of Jeconiah. But that was the line that had the royal right. But notice what verse 16 says: “Jacob was the father of Joseph.” And it doesn’t say, “Joseph was the father of Jesus.” It says, “Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born.” From the line of Jeconiah our Lord received the right to rule, but received no genetic traits. Didn’t come from that line. The only humanity He had was derived from Mary, and she had come through another son of David named Nathan – completely different line. So the curse on Jeconiah is bypassed, while the right to rule is acknowledged. He has the right to rule, but He cannot be a son of Jeconiah. These details in the birth of our Lord are so marvelous as to prove the validity of the Scripture. One final mystery: the mystery of the stone. The Old Testament prophets talked about the Messiah as a stone. Isaiah 8:14 and 15, “A stone to strike, a stone to stumble over.” Isaiah 28:16, “A tested corner stone.” Psalm 118:22, “A rejected stone that becomes the chief corner stone.” Daniel 2:34 and 35, “A stone cut out without hands that smashes all other kingdoms.” Now, what kind of stone is He? Is He a striking stone, a stumbling stone, a smashing stone, a rejected stone, or is He a tested corner stone, a chief corner stone? These seem contradictory. Is He a dangerous stone, or is He a welcoming stone? Is He a rock of refuge, or is He a rock of judgment? Peter pulls all this together for us. Look at 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 4. And here again the New Testament unlocks the seeming paradox of two different, very, very different kinds of stones. First Peter 2:4, “Coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God.” The Messiah is both the rejected stone, and He is the precious stone. He is both the stone of judgment and the stone of blessing. What Peter does in verse 6 is reach back to those stone prophecies in the Old Testament: “This is contained in Scripture: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.’ This precious value, then, is for you who believe;” – now follow this – “but for those who disbelieve, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,’ and, ‘A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense’; for they stumble because they’re disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.” The answer to the dilemma of the stone is given in verse 7: “The precious value is for those who believe; for those who disbelieve, He becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” Jesus is both a rock of refuge to those who believe, and a rock of offense to those who do not believe. The issue is belief and unbelief, obedience and disobedience. You will determine by what you do with Jesus Christ whether He will be a corner stone, and you’ll be a building block in the house of God built eternally on that corner stone; or whether He will be a crushing, smashing stone, obliterating your hope and your life. First time He came, a star marked His arrival; next time He comes, all the stars in heaven will fall. First time He came, wise men and shepherds brought Him honor; the next time He comes, He’ll bring honor to His people. The first time He came, there was no room for Him in the inn; the next time He comes, His glory will not be able to be contained in the universe. The first time He came, only a few saw Him at His arrival; the next time He comes, everyone will see Him. The first time He came as a lamb; the next time He comes as a lion. Father, again we are under the weight and the wonder of Your truth. Your Word, so powerful, so divine; has a glory all it’s own. Thank You for showing us Christ. Thank You for the New Testament, which unlocks all the mysteries, reveals all the parent paradoxes, answers all the riddles, shows us the truth. Those things which were impossible for Old Testament prophets and righteous people to understand are so clear to us that even a child cannot mistake them. We know that You came the first time as the Lamb; You come the next time as a lion. You came the first time as Savior; You come the next time as Judge. You came the first time as a servant; You come the next time as King. May we see the glory of Christ at this Christmas season, the wonder of how He fulfills all that the Old Testament says, and thus unmistakably is to be declared Your great King: King of kings, Lord of lords, Savior and Redeemer of His people. May there be no one here who leaves and does not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. Thank You for the gift of salvation by faith in Christ. Lord, do Your work in every heart, we pray in His name. Amen. Available online at: http://www.gty.org COPYRIGHT (C) 2021 Grace to You You may reproduce this Grace to You content for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Grace to You's Copyright Policy ( https://www.gty.org/about#copyright As you know, we’ve been in a series in Galatians, and we’ll hold off on that until next Lord’s Day. And this morning, just to think a little bit about the Christmas season as we live through it again this year, what comes to my mind is how enigmatic Christmas is, how paradoxical it is, how contradictory Christmas is.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Paul’s Three Preferences About Living and Dying 1. To Be Alive When Christ Returns His first preference was not to die at all but to be alive when Jesus returns and instead of having to experience the separation of soul and body, that he would experience the transformation of his mortal body into an immortal one that would live with Christ forever in the kingdom. He says this in  2 Corinthians 5:4 , “While we are in this tent , we groan, being burdened, because we don’t want to be unclothed , but to be clothed upon, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.” He does not want to be “unclothed” in the sense of being stripped of his body. He wants his body to be swallowed up into the new spiritual, immortal body at the last trumpet when Christ descends from heaven to establish his kingdom and bring this age to a close. That’s Paul’s first preference. 2. To Die and Be with Christ He knows he cannot know, let alone control, when Christ is coming. So he is not sure if that first preference will come true. So he expresses his second preference, namely, to die and be with Christ. In  2 Corinthians 5:8  he says, “We are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” Rather than groan here and bear the struggles and sicknesses and sin of this life, he would rather die and be with the Lord. In  Philippians 1:21  he says, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” He struggles with the need to stay here for the sake of ministry against the longing to be done with the struggle and enjoy the immediate presence of Jesus. He says in verse 23, “I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.” So his second preference is this: if God wills for Christ to be delayed, then Paul would rather go to be with him—if Christ does not yet come to be with us—even if he must be stripped (even painfully stripped) of his body. 3. To Go On Walking by Faith Not by Sight The third preference is that, if God wills, and if it is better for the people of the Lord and the glory of Christ, Paul is willing to remain on the earth and to walk by faith and not by sight. He is willing to postpone the deeper, more immediate intimacy of seeing and being with Jesus if that’s God’s will. In  2 Corinthians 5:6–7  he says, “We are always of good courage and know that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight.” He said to the Philippians that he would remain and continue with them all for the advancement and joy of their faith (1:25). So his third preference is to press on with the ministry and use his time on the earth to advance faith and joy in others as far as he can. Are We Out of Step with These Priorities? Now we need to ask if we are out of step with these three priorities. Do we set our minds on things that are above ( Colossians 3:2 )? Do we live like our citizenship is in heaven and wait eagerly for the Savior to return ( Philippians 3:20 )? Do we feel like death would be more gain than loss ( Philippians 1:21 )? Are we so entangled with this world that leaving it is the worst thing we can think of? When I pray for revival at Bethlehem and in the American Church, this is mainly what I have in mind: Lord pour out your Spirit in such a way that your people desire Christ more than they desire other things and other people. Revival is the inflaming of love to Christ. Revival is not first miracles like healing or prophetic utterances or speaking in tongues—as precious as those things are (and I do mean precious!). It is possible to have the gift of healing, and yet love health more than we love going to be with Christ. It is possible to have the gift of prophecy, and yet crave pornography more than you crave the second coming of Jesus. It is possible to speak in tongues and love your gold rings and $1,200 suits and $40,000 cars more than you believe that death is gain. Which is why when I pray for revival, I pray first for the most radical thing: the utter devotion and allegiance of your hearts to Christ. That you would love him so deeply and long for him so passionately that his coming would be your great hope, and death would be gain, and life would be for Christ and his kingdom. To that end I want to focus here on the resurrection of our bodies as those who are in Christ. I am talking to believers and I am praying that unbelievers who hear me will turn from the dead-end street of self-reliance and believe. “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved”—you will be forgiven and after you die you will be raised to live with Christ forever. Refocusing on Our Final Hope: Bodily Resurrection It seems to me that the hope of resurrection does not have the same place of power and centrality for us today that it had for the early Christians. And I think one of the reasons for that is that we have a wrong view of the age to come. When we talk about the future and the eternal state, we tend to talk about heaven, and heaven tends to imply a place far away characterized by non-material, ethereal, disembodied spirits. In other words, we tend to assume that the condition that the departed saints are in NOW without their bodies is the way it will always be. And we have encouraged ourselves so much with how good it is for them now, we tend to forget that it is an imperfect state and not the way it will be, nor the way Paul wanted it to be for himself. Yes to die is gain, and yes, to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord, but NO this is not our ultimate hope. This is not the final state of our joy. This is not our final or main comfort when we have lost loved ones who believe. The Comfort Paul Offered to the Thessalonians For example, when the church in Thessalonica lost believing loved ones, the main comfort that Paul offered was not that they were with Christ (as true and wonderful as that is), but that they would be raised bodily from the dead in time to participate physically in the coming of Christ. He said (in  1 Thessalonians 4:15 ), “We who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.” “Precede”? What does he mean by that? Precede in what sense? Precede in What Sense? The next verse answers the question: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” “First!” Ah, there’s the key. We will not precede them, for they will rise first. You see how different that is from the way we tend to comfort each other today. We would say, “We won’t precede them, because they are already with the Lord.” We would be thinking merely in terms of going to heaven. They got there first by leaving their bodies behind. But that is not what Paul says. As true as it is, that is not the main hope or the main comfort for us Christians. What Paul does say is this: We will not precede them because they will be raised first. Not because they go to heaven first, which is true, but because they will be raised first. In other words, Paul is not thinking mainly of heaven far away but of the glory of what happens here: their bodies will not be left in the grave while we have the joy of physically meeting the Lord in the air and welcoming him to his kingdom. They won’t stay in the grave while we are changed in the twinkling of an eye and clothed with immortality. No, verse 17 says, “The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.” “With the Lord” And when he says, “with the Lord,” he means with the one whom (because of the resurrection) we can see and hear and touch with our bodies—with eyes and ears and hands something like what we have now. That is our hope—to be with the risen Christ with a body like his glorious body. To know him in a form like his. Our final destiny and our eternal state is not an ethereal, disembodied state in a distant heaven. It is to reign with Christ here on the renewed earth. This hope was so vibrant for the early Christians that they comforted each other not mainly with the joys of the disembodied state after death, but with the hope of resurrection bodies (cf.  Philippians 3:21 ). One of the Greatest Descriptions of the Resurrection Now look at today’s text for one of the greatest descriptions of that event. “Flesh and Blood Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God” Verse 50: “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” What does that mean? Is it a wholesale denial of the bodily resurrection? No. “Flesh and blood” simply means “human nature as we know it”—mortal, perishable, sin-stained, decaying. Something so fragile and temporary as the body we now have will not be the stuff of the eternal, durable, unshakable, indestructible kingdom of God. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be bodies. It means that our bodies will be greater. They will be our bodies, but they will be different and more wonderful. Verse 52: “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” When he says “the dead will be raised” he means we—the dead—will be raised. If God meant to start all over with no continuity between the body I have now and the one I will have, why would Paul say, “The dead will be raised”? Why would he not say, “The dead will not be raised” since they are decomposed and their molecules are scattered into plants and animals for a thousand miles and so God will start from scratch since there are no bodies to raise, and he will make totally new bodies that have no connection with the old ones? He did not say that, because it is not true. The Dead Will Be Raised and They Will Be Changed He said two things; the dead will be raised (that teaches continuity); and he said they will be changed—they will be made imperishable and immortal. The old body will become a new body. But it will be your body. God is able to do what we cannot imagine. The resurrection is not described in terms of a totally new creation but in terms of a change of the old creation. “We shall all be changed” (v. 51b). An Analogy to Seeds and Plants Look back now at verses 37–38. Paul compares the resurrection to what happens to a seed when it goes into the ground. “That which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as he wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.” The point is that there is connection and continuity between the simple seed and the beautiful plant. When you plant a wheat seed, you don’t get a barley plant. But on the other hand there is difference. A plant is more beautiful than a seed. Verses 42–44 apply the analogy to the resurrection body: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” Why Does It Matter? I can hear someone say, “Why bother!” Let it go. Who needs it? All that matters is the spiritual realities of love and joy and peace and righteousness and goodness and truth. Why the big fuss over arms and legs and hands and feet and hair and eyes and ears and tongues? It seems so earthly. The Physical Universe Exists to Glorify God We will see more of the answer in two weeks when we talk about the new earth. But let me close with part of the answer today by pointing you to  1 Corinthians 6:19–20 . God did not create the physical universe willy-nilly. He had a reason, namely, to add to the ways his glory is externalized and made manifest. “The skies are telling the glory of God.” That’s why he made them. Your body fits into that same category of physical things that God created for this reason. He is not going to back out on his plan to glorify himself through human beings and human bodies. So 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” Honoring the Work of Jesus Why does God go to all the trouble to dirty his hands to reestablish your body and clothe it with immortality? Because his Son paid the price of his life so that God could be glorified in your body forever and ever. “You were bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your bodies.” God will not dishonor the work of his Son. That’s why he will raise your body. The sting of death is sin (15:56), but Christ bore the curse of sin. The power of sin is the law (15:56), but Christ satisfied the demands of the law. Therefore Paul cries out, “Thanks be to God who gives the victory through Jesus Christ.” When Christ died, he forgave sin and fulfilled the law and defeated death and obtained not just our souls but also our bodies. Therefore God will honor the work of his Son by raising your body from the dead, and you will use your body to glorify him forever and ever. That is why you have a body now. And that is why it will be raised imperishable. By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website:  http://www.desiringgod.org/ .

When the time was just right–being fulfilled according to God’s Divine decree–God sent His Son into His created world to become the man the rebellious world always needed, but never wanted. In so doing, He did not limit His Godhead, diminish His humanity, nor coax a high-handed humanity into believing in Him. He was the perfect man–the God-man–sent into a broken, dying, and darkened earth. He opened eyes, softened hearts, and prepared the way for a new humanity. His mission was to communicate to this confused world the riches of His grace, to set the example of everyday living for a recalcitrant humanity to follow, and to conquer–once and for all–sin and death through His bodily-sacrifice and grave-resurrection. Although His life was short, it was full. Although His ministry was brief, it was effective. Although His friends abandoned Him in His greatest hour of need, He forgave them. This was the anticipated Messiah–the Anointed One–the Light of the world. No man-made power could stand against His strength. No man-made plan could thwart His mission. No military could out strategize His rescue plan. No political influence could overturn His decree. No darkness could overcome His light. None. Zero. Never. He would fulfill to perfection the Triune God-head’s purposes. No matter how bleak. No matter how hopeless. No matter how seemingly impossible. He would win. His light would shine. He would bring to man his most important solution for his most greatest need. This was the Light sent to shine in the darkness, and no matter the resistance He would prevail…He was the true light which gives light to everyone. “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” –  John 1:11-13 His light shone into darkness, and ignited in His new people a flame that will not flicker…a spark that will not fade…and a magnanimous light that  will  prevail. The Messiah came not to serve, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many…that we might be lights in the darkness…shining until He calls us home or until He returns. Until then…we remember…we celebrate His first advent…we anticipate His second advent!

December 10, 2022 We are going to be in Philippians chapter 2 today, as we talk about this great story, the Christmas story. You know, normally you think about Matthew. You think about Luke. And we will reference a few of those details that we get in those passages. But Philippians has been called the most powerful telling of the Christmas story. And you might not have even realized it was there. But it's truly what we celebrate at Christmas from the mouth of the Apostle Paul. I'm calling this message Christmas State of Mind. That's what I hope that we can get out of this, that we will understand that God wants us all to have a Christmas state of mind. Jay-Z told us how to have an Empire state of mind. And we learned from Billy Joel to have a New York state of mind. But Paul is going to tell us we are to have a Christmas state of mind. And the question I want to ask you... I'm going to ask yo When we talk about a state of mind, we're talking about your emotional state. We're talking about your mood. We're talking about your attitude. That's really a good synonym for state of mind. When we say we want to have a Christmas state of mind, we're saying we won't have a Christmas attitude, a Christmas perspective. What state is your mind in? And depending on what state it's in, you'll get different results, right? My kids have this thing they do whenever, we'll just be walking down the street, and they'll just punch me and say, Maryland, right? Why? Because of the state that license plate's from. Punch. I'm always like confused. Like, why? I did not sign up for this. I did not agree to this game. But it's not a game that ever has a start and a stop. It's just an ongoing, Florida, punch. All right. They punch me because of the state that plate is in. What state is your emotional life in? What state is your mental life in? What state is your attitude in? That's the question that I want to ask you. And depending on the different emotional states you could be in, different attitudes you could have, different perspectives that you could find yourself in, you could find very different things. When you go from state to state geographically, right now especially, everything changes. I mean, you go from Washington to Idaho, which you could just cross the street, and now all of a sudden, it's like, oh, oh this? Oh, oh this. Oh, I can go into a restaurant. Oh, I can't go into a restaurant. And as you look at our country, it is very different. There's divisions. There's different ways that the governors are handling the pandemic and county health officials are responding. And hospitals and population and all those things drive that. But right now we're living at a time when you have to know, oh, I'm in this state. This works. I'm in this state. That doesn't work. Now part of the maturing process is learning that the same thing is true when it comes to your emotional states that depending on what state you find yourself in, what state you're in, what is your mental state, what is your emotional state, different things will come as a result of that. What state are you in? What state is your life in today? What I'm really trying to say is, how's your soul doing? How's your soul doing today, as we are now in the final few days moving towards this Christmas Eve reminder of Jesus coming? How's your soul doing in these final days of 2020? Whatever state your life is in today, I believe that God wants to change your state of mind and help you to see life through a lens called Christmas, a lens called Christmas. Philippians, chapter 2. Here's what Paul says, and literally, the first four words are going to reinforce what I've just said and show you what I have just said is true. As Paul says and we see it on the screen, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus". Pause right there. Your attention, please. There's lots of different minds you could have in you. I told our team a few weeks back during a staff talk, we got together, and I just felt like the Lord wanted me to tell them that the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit. That was my only assignment. We talked for an hour on it, but the assignment that God told me was to just say, just remember the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit. If you don't think that's true, then just drive around town and eventually you'll find a liquor store, and they sell a whole bunch of different spirits. And you can be full of spirits that will intoxicate you, that will fill you. You can find dispensaries. And depending on what state you're in, you now have different options to decide what state you're going to be in, and whether you're in any state to drive, you're in any state to make decisions relationally or financially. There's lots of different states you can be in, lots of different spirits you can be under. And listen to me. There's lots of different minds that can be in you, lots of different ways of seeing, ways of deciding what you value, what you prioritize. And out of all the myriad ways of looking at life, Paul tells this church at Philippi, here's what mind you should allow to be in you. He says, "Let this mind be in you". Here's how to see the world. He says, "the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus". The Christian life is a process of learning to think how Jesus thinks, which is different from how all of us think. So who is this Jesus? And that is how he decides to tell us the Christmas story. Paul says, this mind, which is in Christ Jesus, is the mind of someone who, verse 6, "being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no refutation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on Earth, and of those under the Earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father". Do you not find your Half soaring with these things? I realize the word "Bethlehem" wasn't used. The word "manger" is not to be found. There's not a shepherd or an angel specifically mentioned, although it says of those above the earth and on the earth and under the earth and those in heaven. So angels are implied there. But even though we're not specifically introduced to the wise men and Herod doesn't seem to be doing anything here, what I can assure you is what we have just read is one of the most powerful articulations of the Christmas story to be found anywhere in Scripture. And it has been said that these words amount to some of the most heavenly and majestic and incredible in the entire Bible. And so Father, we ask that you would, in these moments together, breathe on us in a powerful way. Your disciples were afraid. They were scared. They thought their lives were over. But then You appeared. You walked through walls. You walked right into the midst of what they were afraid of. And You breathed on them. And as You did, their eyes were opened. They saw things differently. And the fear was replaced by joy. So Jesus, would you do it again? Would you take our fears right now and replace them with your joy? Would you cause in our hearts to swell the warmth and the passion and the power of this Christmas story? And we ask this in Jesus's name. Amen. Inconvenience, disappointment, confusion, and shame. When you think about these words, well, you might be tempted to think that I'm writing the biography of 2020. What a crappy year. Someone had to say it, right? The year has been full of inconvenience, disappointment, lots of confusion, and for some of us, shame because of how we've responded, shame because of what's been surfaced in our hearts by the inconvenience, disappointment, and the confusion, which has led to even more shame. But when I made that list, I even checked it twice, I didn't write it about 2020. I wrote it about Christmas, that first Christmas. Inconvenience, you want to inconvenience? How about I'm having a baby on behalf of God the Father and I have to go pay taxes? Because nothing screams joy to the world like sorting out your taxes. Oh, you can't mail them. You can't e-file. You have to bring them on foot to the city where you were born, the state that you were born in. So you can't give them in Galilee if you're from Jerusalem. Or you can't give them in Nazareth if you're from Capernaum. You got a hoof it. Because there ain't no Uber, baby, right? And so yes, it's wonderful on the cards and the nativity scenes. But Joseph and his nine-month pregnant wife, dragging her along, I've read, commentaries, man. They're not all created equal. I was reading commentaries this week on Matthew and Philippians and on Luke. And one guy said, O think that God prioritizes rest. Because in the Christmas story, you see rest. Mary and Joseph got to rest on the way to Bethlehem. What? I had to push something over to appropriately articulate my confusion and anger. Having been there for the birth of five tiny human beings, nothing about a trip on a donkey says rest... to pay taxes. Disappointment? Oh, you get to have the baby in a cave. But don't worry there will be lots of strangers there So we were, from Genesis 3, planning this birth. That's the first time we read about Jesus, the snake crusher. God's brewing this plan, but He couldn't go to hotels.com and make a reservation. That's disappointing. The level of precision and planning that went into this thing. And then as they go to the different inns in Bethlehem, no vacancy, no vacancy, no vacancy. All right. I wasn't thinking Ritz Carlton. But at least the Red Lion of the tribe of Judah hotel or... right. That is a vintage joke. I've been using that for years. It's been getting the same chuckle and polite response. But I'm never going to stop because I wrote it and I thought it was funny. And I'm just going to continue with it, all right? Disappointment inconvenience, confusion. When this plan is articulated, Mary is told, you're going to have a baby. And she's like, that's great. I'm down for whatever. Problem, I'm a virgin, right? And I don't know if you know Gabriel, I don't know if they have sex Ed up there in heaven, but here's the thing. And God tells her this is not going to be a problem, that what to her is an objection, what to her is an obstacle, actually was a qualification. And I wonder today, as you think about what God's called you to do, what objections come to mind? And I wonder if you're aware of the fact that, to God, your objection is, in fact, a qualification. Because He loves to use the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has a playbook that almost never makes sense when you look at it. You're like, that doesn't... nah. Right? And He just smiles. Because as He sort of stacks the deck against Himself, when He does something great through it, He will get all the glory from it. So if He wants to take out a Midianite army that numbers in the hundreds of thousands, surely He will whittle down the army down to 300. Doesn't make any sense. And if He wants to reach a city in Nineveh that would be part of the greatest revival ever to take place in human history, of course, He's going to pick somebody who hates Ninevites more than anybody, right? So that's just how God rolls. He doesn't think how a man thinks. He doesn't look at the outward appearance. He looks at the inside. To God, a giant killer looks like a little boy. And so we can easily in our lives miss the very things that He wants to use the most. Because they almost never resemble what the finished product is going to be. So if God wants to bring a baby into the world, of course, He's going to look for a virgin. Because it doesn't make sense. And some of you are even now in your life tempted to check out on the God-given dream. Because as you look at your life, it looks nothing like what God sees inside. But seeds seldom look like the harvests they contain. You just got to plant it. You just got to sew it. You just got to do what Mary did and say, let it be to me according to Your word. Behold the maidservant of the Lord. Because Gabriel unpacks the plan. She's like, that doesn't add up. I'm in. That's what you need to get good at saying if you're going to follow God and watch Him work in your life. Because a lot of us say, that doesn't make sense. I'm out. But if we could actually pivot and in that moment say, I don't understand it cerebrally but tell you what. Spiritually, I'm in. I'm down. I'm yours. Behold the manservant of the Lord. I want your will to come to pass in my life. It's not great gifts that God is looking for. It's great willingness, that you're willing to be a part of Him working through you. How about shame? When I think about Joseph, I think about the shame he had to carry his entire natural life. I've been, this year, really just feeling for Joseph and proud of Joseph and inspired by Joseph. Because, yes, Mary had this sort of glorious assignment. But Joseph had to shoulder and carry a massive amount of shame. And Joseph had to deal with the snickers and deal with the ridicule and the mockery of someone that he was willing to marry, who was pregnant with a baby that was not his. And this beautiful spirit of adoption, I'm willing to love a child that's not biologically related to me. I love that. And it's really incredible, if you think about it, the examples that you can think of in your life where a mother or father has chosen to adopt a child and love a child that's not "theirs" when you talk about 23andMe but is theirs in every other sense of the word. And Joseph was an incredible dad to Jesus while he was on the Earth. And if you don't believe me, the thing that got me almost crying today was you'll actually read, if you look into the story where Jesus got lost in the temple when he was 12, there's this little detail that says, now Joseph and Mary took Jesus every year to Jerusalem for the Passover. And when you actually look into the way you celebrated Passover in that custom and in that culture, it amounted to a camping trip. And I just got to thinking about how, because we don't know a lot about Jesus's early years and his upbringing really. But we do actually when you think about, we know 12 times a year, Mom and Dad took Jesus camping. And it was a camping trip with a purpose. It was a camping trip that pointed to a bigger story. It was a camping trip that pointed to the goodness of a God who allowed a sacrificial lamb to be sent to this world So. That our sins could be covered. Now Jesus was not only being told about this by Joseph and Mary, pointing to this in his Father. He was also that sacrificial lamb. But I love that Jesus's entire life, for 12 years in a row, Joseph dutifully not only was present as a father and engaged but took him on these trips, took the time off from work in the carpenter shop and prioritized family time that pointed to Jesus, prioritized vacations, so to speak, believing they were going to really, in this feast, encounter God together as a family. And just that phrase, Joseph yearly took his family and Mary to Jerusalem for this feast of Passover. I just wonder what in the New Year you're going to prioritize. I just wonder if you're starting to even now think about what you're going to choose to do and what's going to be the most important to you. And I hope as you think it through that the most important thing is that you would say, as for me and my house, we will seek God. Father, Mother, let this be an important thing for your family, gathering together as a church, your children learning about God. Some families will watch the worship experience in one time and then sit down and be able to focus on the kid's programming. And I just think it's so important. And whether it's a youth small group or being to a Fresh Life group on Zoom, making sure your kids get into it. And we're working so hard to make sure there's quality programming from Fresh Life Kids to Fresh Life Students, Fresh Life Leadership College, I'm just telling you something. I've looked into the eyes of too many tear-streaked faces of parents of children who say, I don't believe anymore. And I don't want anything to do with church or Jesus. And I'm always saying, well, let's pray. Let's believe. It's never over until God says it's over. But sometimes they say, as I look back, there's regret. As I look back, I wish I would have done things differently. These things weren't important to me. These things weren't a priority to me. And so my encouragement to you is to be like Joseph, who shouldered that shame and the fact that people are like, oh yeah, Mary was sleeping around before you got together. He didn't care. He let them laugh. He let it just run off him. People are going to talk. People are going to do what they do. He was a man with a single-minded vision. I got a job to do. I got to raise this boy. God has given every single parent that kind of responsibility, of course, not to raise the Messiah but to believe there is God-given greatness and destiny in the hearts of our children. And we got to raise them in the house. We got to raise them to know God. Come on. Spurgeon used to say, before a child reaches the age of seven, teach them all the way to heaven. And better yet, the work will thrive if it's done before age five. So have you asked your child, you know, what do they know about Jesus? What questions do they have? And I'm really excited. One of the things I'm most excited for about Christmas this year is when we have the kids in to be able to have an invitation moment. And I'm a little nervous. You know, I don't often do that. That's normally done in Fresh Life Kids. But I'm excited for there to be an invitation moment where we invite every person, 80 down to 8, you know, whatever age they would be, would you like to give your life to Jesus Christ? We always center our gatherings around that moment. We're going to have one in just a little bit. You be thinking about what you're going to do if you don't know Christ. But that's so important. And Joseph inspires me. A lot of that wasn't planned for me to say. I just felt it so much. And I feel like God is even right now causing some of you sitting there to go, dang it, that was for me. And next year, there's going to be some changes I'm going to make to my schedule and to our planning and to how we're going to arrange things. And God's not going to get our leftovers, not financially not with time, not with energy. He's going to get our first fruits. We're going to seek God first and believe that he's going to add all these other things unto me. We're not going to put soccer first. We're not going to put the bottom line first. We're going to put the kingdom of God first. Because when we are on our deathbed, we will give anything for the chance to go back and make sure that the priorities are in order. But we have the chance now to let what will be hindsight be our foresight. And so I pray that you don't miss what the Spirit is saying to you. Now Paul chose to use these words about the Christmas story in this book of Philippians for a very specific reason. And that reason is this, that oftentimes we miss the full scope of what Christmas is meant to do. Because we think about, at our worst, just as sappy story of a baby. And it's not as feel-good and all the rest. But if we backed up a bit, we remember that this child was born to die, right? And death is a part of the Christmas story. He was born that men no more may die, born to raise the sons of Earth, born to give them second birth. So this manger he was in would be replaced. An unusual instrument, the manger, it was not meant for a baby. It was not meant for him. It was meant to feed cows in. And the manger, which was an unusual instrument repurposed, would give way to a cross not meant for him, a cross meant for Barabbas, a cross meant for another, a cross meant for a guilty party. Christ died on a borrowed cross just like He was laid in a borrowed feeding trough. And that cross ultimately speaks to our guilt and you and I and the wrong things we've done. Christ died on a cross not his own for the sins of another, the sins of Barabbas but the sins of me and the sins of you. And so yes, I think we know, OK, so Christmas is meant to be a solution for our sin. And that's an accurate theological way to put it. Paul, in fact, tells us very clearly that He not only died, He died the death of the cross. And that's powerful. I'll tell you in a moment why he would use that statement. But I want you to understand there's more than just rescue from the punishment of sin, which is death and hell. Here's how I wrote it. Christmas is not just a solution for your sin but also for your selfishness and your sadness and your struggles, too. An that means then that in a year where we feel like we've dealt with more than our share of inconveniences and disappointments and confusion and shame that the solution is truly a Christmas state of mind, that we need to look at our year, we need to look at our hardships, we need to look at our pain and to do so through a lens called Christmas. And that's why Paul brought this up in Philippians 2. Because in the church of Philippi, which was an amazing church, a church that was doing a lot of great stuff: supporting Paul's ministry full of joy. So he wrote them in one of the most upbeat letters he ever wrote. It's positive. It's encouraging. It's K-Love, right? No. It's a very... I can't say the word "positive" without thinking about, you know, I love K-Love. But he writes this letter. And he's almost all like, you guys are the best. Keep doing it. You're fantastic. Way to go. But there is one thing that he knew he needed to correct. And he comes out with it in chapter 4 because he had been told how things were going. And apparently, there was a conflict in the church. Apparently, there was a difficulty and discord in the church. And it was two Christians who were all fighting because they saw things differently. They wanted things differently. And maybe they didn't like how things were being done or whatever it was. So they were causing a dysfunction in the church. And Paul addresses them like point-blank, man. The guy names names. He goes in verse 2, "I implore Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord". So you guys are great. But man, Euodia and Syntyche, y'all need to just get along. And what does he say to them? The solution is to be of the same mind, which is the same phrase he uses in chapter 2, verse 5 when he says, "Let this mind be in you". What he was saying is, the way you're looking at life, your attitude, the way you are making decisions is using Euodia's mind and Syntyche's mind. And if we do that, when we do that, it's always going to be friction. It's always going to be fighting. It's always going to be, we end up passive aggressive or mercurial or triggered or always waiting to get wounded, hoping to get hurt, noticing what, oh, didn't do that again. Oh well. Didn't invite me. And oh, wel, I can't believe Euodia would do that, Euodia. So he said, and the reason he gave this Christmas telling, was for them and anyone like them in the church to remember we're supposed to have a mind in us. And it's the mind of Christ Jesus. That's the mind we're to let be in us. What I'm trying to get you to see is that Christmas is full of conflict. And Christmas causes conflict, right? Some of us are conflicted in this Christmas season because of pain, because of bad things we've been through. And this isn't a happy thing. Or we're all alone, and we don't get to be with people we want to be with. Or we are hoping that the decorations and the cookies and the carols will fill an emptiness inside of us. I've never noticed so many lights on houses as I have this year. On our street, almost every single house. We were joking. There's only one house that doesn't have lights up. We were joking like, do we put some lights on their porch and just with a note that says, you know, come on, get the program a little bit here? But literally this year, it's like almost everybody. And I get it. We just like, we're looking, and we're hoping. But listen to me. Lights can't fill up any sense of perceived emptiness inside of you. And gingerbread can't. And all of those things that we would hope would bring warmth will only disappoint. Because they're going back into the box in just a week and a half or so, or March if you're like me last year. It's like, coronavirus. Now I finally can get the lights off the house, right? Can't go anywhere, so we just finally take the lights down. But that's a different conversation. But listen to me carefully. Christmas is not just full of conflict, and not only does it cause conflict, but it's also the cure for it. In this conflict in the church, Paul chose to give them a great big old dose of "ho ho ho". And that's why he told the Christmas story, to help Euodia and Syntyche work out their issues. If they would just have that mind in them, it will work out these other problems. Now it's always counterintuitive. Because in fights, we tend to double down and think about how we're right and focus on what they did. Well, I'd do apologize if they would. Well, they did this first. You don't understand. I realize I'm a little bit of a jerk sometimes. But man, you don't understand what my family's like. And you don't have any idea what I've been through. And what he's saying is that the thing to do is to humble yourself. And he says, if you just humble yourself, it'll actually work itself out. And again, when using the word "humility," I have to clear up confusion. Because we have such a wrong connotation. We think, oh, just someone's just humble. And they just kind of walk around, ah. I'm just so humble. You know, it's like, what's wrong with your mouth? Ah. Like, wait. Why would you talk like that? Yeah. I'm just so humble Oh no. Don't worry about me. No. That's not at all humility. One of the best definitions I've ever read of humility was from CS Lewis, who said "True humility is evident when a man designs the most beautiful cathedral in the world and knows it as the most beautiful cathedral in the world, but he would be just as pleased if someone else had designed it". So confident and aware, you can hold your head up high but not self-possessed, not self-obsessed, which is clearly what Euodia and Syntyche and Levi and maybe just maybe you struggle with as well. And Paul says man, it just only going to lead to problems. Why? Well, James put it this way. "God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble". And that is what we read, that Jesus was God of heaven. It wasn't robbery for Him to think He was equal with God because He was fully God. But He chose to empty Himself. He chose to renounce the privileges that went along with deity. He maintained His identity as God and could not cease to be God, for He always was God, always will be God. But while He was on the Earth, taking on the appearance of man, He chose to not have the use of any of His divine privileges or the glory that has always been His and to do so by choice. No one took His life from Him. On His own, He laid it down when He laid in that manger, as He was rocked in Mary's arms and as those same arms of His were stretched out on the cross. It's the upside-down kingdom. Because the result of Him doing that was high exaltation, super exultation. The name that has been given to Him, it's name above all names, that He's not just God. That He's also Lord, Lord of any who would call on Him in faith, Lord to anybody who would believe in Him. And it's that that makes no sense in our culture where we celebrate power. And we think that to be great you have to assert your dominance. You have to put yourself out there. You have to tear down anybody in your way. To be great, you have to do the opposite of what the disciples thought you had to do to be great, which was to cling to power. Just a couple of days before Jesus died on the cross, several of his disciples got into a fight about who was the greatest. They were basically replacing Euodia and Syntyche's fight ahead of time. And then two of the disciples sent their mom to ask Jesus if they could have the most preeminent position in the kingdom of God. And this took place, by the way, if you read in Matthew chapter 20, literally the next verse after He told the disciples about the cross. He said, you guys, I got to die on the cross. It's what I came to do. And they go, got it. Mom, can you ask Jesus if we could be, it's like the literal next verse. And they weren't getting it. And that explains Jesus's mysterious actions at the Last Supper, when he did the same thing Paul said he did in Philippians 2. Notice verse 2 of John 13. "And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him, Jesus", here we go, here we go, "knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, He rose from supper and laid aside", this is Philippians 2. He had deity from always and ever. But He "laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded Himself". The appearance of a servant. "After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded". And essentially, He said to them, this is what real greatness looks like. Who am I? Where am I going? And what have I been given? These are questions that must be answered. Who am I? What have I been given? And where am I going? These are questions that I want you to ask yourself at some point this week. For it is the neglect of and the search for answers to these questions that drive almost all of our behavior. Who am I? What have I been given? And where am I going? Jesus knew the answers to these questions. The text says He laid aside his garments and took up the apparel of a servant because He knew who He was. He knew what He had been given. And He knew where He was going. You see, you don't have to cling to what you know can't be taken away from you. And many of us don't understand our identity. Our soul doesn't know its worth. And we don't know our great destiny that God has for us. And so we're insecure, and we're frantic, and we're anxious, and we're worried about many things. And we're territorial, and we're possessive, and we think we ought to put ourselves out there. And we manipulate people. And we're always working. We're always scheming. We always have an angle. And we're exhausted. Because we don't know who we are, and we don't know where we're going, and we don't understand, truly, what we've been given. So like the disciples, we think we need to send our mom to Jesus to get us a good position. And we think we need someone to give us a favor and someone to put a good word in for us. And we're always worried. We're always anxious. Because we don't know who we are, what we've been given, and where we're headed. It comes back down to a state of mind, a state of mind. And Christmas will cure the anxiousness that's going on in our minds, the problems, many of these things that are masquerading as mental health issues, which are really just spiritual dysfunction issues because we don't have the attitude of Christ in us. So what do we need to alter our state of mind? Here we go. Nothing will alter your state of mind more than how you frame things in your mind, how you frame things in your mind. So you need a frame. Look at this. This is what we have written out. Faith, risk, awe, memory, example, frame. Faith, risk, awe, memory, example. Yes, the Christmas story was full of shame and inconvenience and disappointment. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But every single character whose story we celebrate in the Christmas account, they chose to respond by framing things in their mind correctly. They put a frame up. So let's think about Joseph and Mary and the faith it took to say, let it be to me according to Your word. What is that? I don't understand how this is going to work, but God, I choose to believe this is how this is going to work. They responded to what didn't make sense to them with faith. And then risk. I see risk all over the Christmas story, risk in Joseph stepping out and being willing to be the adopted father, risk of the wise men stepping out and giving a sacrificial gift when there was a King who was sort of scheming. They stepped out and risked everything in going back home a different way. There was risk. There was faith. We frame things in our mind correctly. There was awe. We learned last week about the shepherds in awe of the glory of God, as the angels praised the Lord and told them what was happening, as they came and looked into this manger and saw that their King was a shepherd just like them, born in the city of David. Awe. Memory. Mary did what you need to do. Take snapshots and memories of beautiful moments. And choose to put those things into the frame. "And Mary pondered these things in her heart". This is Luke chapter 2, verse 19. The moment the shepherds left, Mary took a snapshot. "And she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart". You get to choose what goes into the frame. Mary could have chosen to obsess over the difficulties and the darkness and the hardships. And there's someone trying to hunt me and kill me. No, Mary chose to frame her heart with faith and with awe and with a spirit of adventure and risk. And she chose to make the memories that spoke of God's goodness. She chose to ponder these things in her heart. And it would be the memory of this moment that would give her faith as she stood looking up at the cross seeing her son's arms spread wide. She chose to take some snapshots. Listen to me. You get to choose what goes in your frame. I have a frame here with my daughters in it, three of my daughters in it. And Alivia in it, and Lenya's in it, and Daisy's in it. And today, December 20, 2020, it's a weird thing that it's 12/20/2020. It's the eight-year anniversary to the day of Lenya, in the middle, going to heaven. And you know, yes, is there disappointment and is there the shame and is there pain? Yeah, absolutely. But I have this picture here because it's a memory of her giving me knuckles and saying, preach the word, Dad, before I got to preach. And so today as I preach, I'm choosing to remember what I ponder in my heart, that my daughter's with Jesus, the birthday boy. And as I think about 2,922 days since she died, I also think to 2,922 days to being closer with her. I've moved forward to her every single time another day comes. And so I get to choose what goes in the frame. I'm not framing and holding up just pain and difficult and darkness. I'm saying God was there. He was with me. And you can choose to do this. You can alter your state of mind if you choose to specifically frame things in your mind. You need to choose to frame them the truth. And then E: example. Example is what we find in Philippians 2. He's like, "Let this mind be in you". You're like,I can't do that. It's like, well, Jesus did. And you're like, well, but He was God. It's like, oh no, he wasn't. Yes, he was, but, it's complicated. But He was also a man just like we were. And that was the point, that we have a God who put skin on, a God who had acne, a God who dealt with every temptation that you and I could deal with. And He passed it magnificently to give us an example and to give us encouragement and to give us hope to let this mind be in you. And as we begin to frame things properly in our mind, what are we doing? We're building our lives on the solid bedrock of God's Word. And this is so important to understand. If you want His mind in your head, you need to hide His Word in your heart. And so that's what we're doing. We're hiding His Word. We're building a frame. We're choosing a way that we're going to see the world. We're not just going to respond by our reactions or our feelings or by culture or by what our cousin, who's worked at 10 different places, telling, well, you should do this. Like, well, really? Here's what God's Word says. That's what I'm framing my life on. That's how I choose to see things. A Christmas state of mind isn't jingle bells or a one horse open sleigh. It's facing things that could potentially bring out your darkest, shadowy side, make you want to snap or attack or escape, and choosing grace, humility, and in the process, laying down your ego and laying down control so you can find true life and participate in God's plan to bring joy to the world one day at a time. What I'm trying to say is don't just celebrate Christmas. Be Christmas. Live Christmas. Choose Christmas. Accept Christmas. Let this mind be in you. Let this mind be in you. What does that imply? He's there trying to. Let someone in. That means they're knocking. I'll get the door. Let them in. There was a knock at the door. I was upstairs. I heard it. I said, Daisy, open the door. Let them in. I can see who it is. Let them in. They were trying to get in is the point. When Paul says, "Let the mind be in you," that implies that God is right there trying to get in. Don't think of Him as cold and far off and busy and up to so many things that you've got to track Him down. He is standing at the door of your heart and your mind and knocking. And if you open it up, He'll come in. And we normally think of that in terms of salvation. And that's true. But it's also true in every other area of your life. I'm going to give you three quick tools, and then I have one final question for you. And these are tools to help us build our life on that foundation of His Word. Those words are worship, service, and confession. These things, these are tools that we can use. Like, if you had a screwdriver and you have a hammer, you buy a... well, I have a saw now and now I have a drill and I have always these different tools. OK. These are tools that'll help you build that frame to alter your state of mind, so you have a Christmas state of mind. So what do we do? We worship. That's singing, but it's also pointing our entire lives to God's glory, orienting everything in our lives to magnify his name. Service of our fellow man, service in the church, service in this world. And then confession, and when we hear the word confession, I think a lot of us think about just the negative side of it. I'm confessing a sin I've committed. And that certainly is a part of it, both to God and to each other. Because the Bible says, if you ask God for forgiveness and confess your sins to Him, you'll be forgiven. But if you confess your sins to one another, you'll be healed. Many Christians have been forgiven but not healed because they have missed out on the power of being in the body of Christ in community. But there's another definition of the word confession than just confessing wrong things. You also have to confess right things. And that's why we read Philippians 2, which has been called the Christ hymn, which is essentially a creed, which contains within it the oldest creed the church. And a creed is just a declaration of a faith confession. And we have on our website a confession statement, what we believe that we labored over, sought the Scriptures in, sought wise counsels we crafted. But have you nailed down your beliefs? Have you chosen to write in your journal, this is what I believe? This is what I believe about God. This is what I believe about life. This is what I believe about death. This is what I believe about family. This is what I believe and to base that on Scripture. s is incredible weight and power to doing so. But the most important thing that you could contain within your confession of your faith is the four words Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is King. Jesus Christ is Lord. For that is what the Scripture says everybody ultimately will have to admit, will have no option but to admit. Everything on Earth, under the Earth, above the Earth, at some point is going to have to come face-to-face with the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord. So here's my question that I promised you. The question I want to end with us ringing in our hearts is this, if Jesus is indeed knocking, trying to get in, if we have to let this mind be in us, what part of your life is Jesus trying to get into today? What part of your schedule, what part of your thought life, what part of your week is Jesus right now knocking, wanting permission into? How can you allow this Christmas state of mind to be true for you? Now as I think about the fact that there are no doubt people watching this and you're here today, you maybe for the first time have clicked on to our service or maybe you've gone to church many, many, many times, but you've never allowed Jesus to come into your heart in the most important way, the most essential way, and that is to be your Savior, to forgive you, to change you, to give you the hope of heaven, to give you the promise of life eternally. And I want to encourage you from this text that you only have one verb to play in that. And if you read the passage we read, and you could for homework or extra credit or whatever, read it this week and circle any verbs you find. I circled eight verbs that belonged to Jesus. I circled four verbs that belong to God the Father. But I only circled three verbs that belonged to you and to me. And it all starts with this idea of "let", let this in, let this in you. And then the two other verbs that belong to us in the passage are "bow" and "confess". Let, bow, confess. Now His verbs are much harder. They involve dying on the cross. They involve giving up privileges. They involve all these crazy things. He's done, the point is, all these verbs, these 12 verbs, God has taken care of. He's done the heavy lifting. He's done the hard work. He died even the death on the cross, which in the Roman culture, they said to die on the cross was to die a thousand deaths. It was so painful and shameful. That's why it says, He didn't just die. He died even the death on the cross, a thousand deaths. Jesus has dealt with every death imaginable, every shame imaginable, all the guilt imaginable. Your part to play is let him into your heart. How? By bowing your knee and confessing with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord. He'll save you. He'll change you. He'll heal you. He'll make you new. Eternal life can start right now for you. And it would be an honor and a privilege to get to pray with you as you accept Jesus into your soul. Listen to me. God drew you to this moment. And there's no guarantee there will be another like it. December 6, 2024 So we would love to have you… no matter where you are out in the globe, to relocate your life to beautiful northwest Montana and take part in what God is doing right here at Fresh Life Church as He builds His church all across the world. Go to freshlife.church/college for more information. I also want to throw out there that we released a Christmas single. And you can listen to that on Spotify and on iTunes. It’s called “Do You Hear What I Hear”? It’s a special version of it that we put out as we celebrated the idea of we, the church, being the sound of heaven, the sound of heaven in our lives, this beautiful glow and glory. We heard that from my wife, Jennie, as she preached it up last weekend. So check out that single. It’s a great version. Check that out. If you missed that message, please listen. Because our Christmas series, our Christmas season, it began last week as we did that. Also, I want to let you know that the Spitfire Fund is still open. And we’re seeing people all over the country and world contribute towards the Spitfire Fund. And we’re off to a great start. But we’re not going to let off the gas for a minute. Because many of us still haven’t given yet. So it’s still your opportunity. Go to Fresh Life church and give there on the website. You can contribute and be a part of making a difference through the Spitfire Fund, all the outreach initiatives and all the things that God has put into our heart in the coming year. And it really is a powerful way to launch into a new year just supercharged in your spiritual faith, which is what giving does, which is what generosity does. You talk about a runner’s high. There’s an endorphin that comes from giving. There’s a grace that comes from giving. And quite frankly, there’s not a better way to celebrate the birth of Jesus than by giving something towards. That’s what the wise men knew. They gave towards him. They brought gold. They brought frankincense. And so as you think about the year end and you’re making decisions, many of us, with taxes and all the rest of that, prioritize God’s kingdom. As you build His house, let me just tell you something, He will take care of yours. And so join the cause. Join the great Spitfire Fund that’s already ongoing. Two quick things and then we’ll jump into our time of Bible study. We are going to be having church on December 27. Normally, we take the Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s off. But we’ve taken enough church off this year. So we’re having church on December 27. Join us for the last Sunday of the year. Worship Jesus. We’d love to have you online, on our YouTube, I actually joke because we haven’t taken church off at all. But we are going to have church. God put it in my heart. We’re having church on December 27. We’re going to end the year worshiping God. It’s going to be great. So I’d love to have you out for that. Of course, we have Christmas Eve first. Y’all, Christmas Eve is going to be incredible. Christmas Eve, December 24. We have three opportunities, 2 PM, 4 PM, 6 PM. Everywhere that you are is where church is: YouTube, Facebook, Church Online Platform, our app, all that. We have put together a very special worship experience, different from what you’re going to experience today, something for the whole family. So we thought, man, we got to have the kids together. Because normally we do a kids thing, which is amazing. First Life Kids is fantastic. Sometimes, I watch it. I’m like, I want to go to that more than I want to do what I’m doing. But Mr. Sky is a part of it. He’s incredible. There’s a lot to love about Fresh Life Kids. But we decided to put a program together for everybody. And so Fresh Life Christmas, there’s going to be music. There’s going to be a special story that weaves throughout it. The challenge I gave to our team was that a little kid like Lennox wouldn’t be tuned out watching it. He’d be mesmerized, you know. So that’s a high bar. So I’m probably the weakest link in that. Because everything else is shiny and lights. And then I get up here. So I’m to keep my comments brief. Say good luck with that to your neighbor. Good luck with that. And yet it’s going to be special. So please, here’s what I want to challenge you with. Think about someone in your life that you can specifically invite. The targeting everyone approach is awesome. Put it on your wall. Hey, you’re invited, Christmas. Throwing out an invitation, that’s great to everybody, in general. But would you really pray about who God would have you to specifically invite and that you could make it easy for them? You could say come to my home, and we’re going to have hot cocoa and gingerbread and then watch this presentation. And then afterwards, we’ll do this. We’ll go drive around and look get lights, or we’ll go caroling, or whatever you would do that would be fun. Just attach something that’s a mission to what you’re doing. Use your home as a mission field. Use your life and your Facebook wall as a way to get the Gospel out. And I think if we all do that, God will do a great work, and we’ll see many people added to the faith as a result of this Christmas. We’ll see people truly saying, this Christmas, I gave Him my heart. Anybody with me? That’s our prayer. That’s our hope. So let’s all think… I’ve been thinking. I’ve really just, Jennie and I have even just sent some people like, man, God wants us to bless this person. God wants us to target this person, to reach out and come along this person. So if we all do that, it’s really incredible to think what God could do. All right. And then last but certainly not least, on the New Year, we always start with 21 days of prayer and fasting. That’s become one of our favorite traditions. It’s lovely. We end the year a certain way. We begin the year a certain way. As I talk about these rhythms and things we do, I’d love to always invite you to take part in Crash Course, a three-step journey in becoming a part of what God’s doing here. And you can get all the information for that on our website freshlife.church. But we end the year with generosity and evangelism. We begin the year with fasting and a declaration of our weakness and our need for God’s power. And that’s going to be kicking off on, I think, January 4. That’s when that starts. So 21 days, I’ll be preaching alongside it. It’s going to be really powerful. So a lot to look forward to. Come on. Thank the worship team with me. Have you guys have a seat. If you’re already seated, then you beat me to the punch. So good job. And if you have a Bible, we are going to be in Philippians chapter 2 today, as we talk about this great story, the Christmas story. You know, normally you think about Matthew. You think about Luke. And we will reference a few of those details that we get in those passages. But Philippians has been called the most powerful telling of the Christmas story. And you might not have even realized it was there. But it’s truly what we celebrate at Christmas from the mouth of the Apostle Paul. I’m calling this message Christmas State of Mind. That’s what I hope that we can get out of this, that we will understand that God wants us all to have a Christmas state of mind. Jay-Z told us how to have an Empire state of mind. And we learned from Billy Joel to have a New York state of mind. But Paul is going to tell us we are to have a Christmas state of mind. And the question I want to ask you… I’m going to ask you a series of questions today. And the question that I want to ask you first is this. What state is your mind in? What state is your mind in? When we talk about a state of mind, we’re talking about your emotional state. We’re talking about your mood. We’re talking about your attitude. That’s really a good synonym for state of mind. When we say we want to have a Christmas state of mind, we’re saying we won’t have a Christmas attitude, a Christmas perspective. What state is your mind in? And depending on what state it’s in, you’ll get different results, right? My kids have this thing they do whenever, we’ll just be walking down the street, and they’ll just punch me and say, Maryland, right? Why? Because of the state that license plate’s from. Punch. I’m always like confused. Like, why? I did not sign up for this. I did not agree to this game. But it’s not a game that ever has a start and a stop. It’s just an ongoing, Florida, punch. All right. They punch me because of the state that plate is in. What state is your emotional life in? What state is your mental life in? What state is your attitude in? That’s the question that I want to ask you. And depending on the different emotional states you could be in, different attitudes you could have, different perspectives that you could find yourself in, you could find very different things. When you go from state to state geographically, right now especially, everything changes. I mean, you go from Washington to Idaho, which you could just cross the street, and now all of a sudden, it’s like, oh, oh this? Oh, oh this. Oh, I can go into a restaurant. Oh, I can’t go into a restaurant. And as you look at our country, it is very different. There’s divisions. There’s different ways that the governors are handling the pandemic and county health officials are responding. And hospitals and population and all those things drive that. But right now we’re living at a time when you have to know, oh, I’m in this state. This works. I’m in this state. That doesn’t work. Now part of the maturing process is learning that the same thing is true when it comes to your emotional states that depending on what state you find yourself in, what state you’re in, what is your mental state, what is your emotional state, different things will come as a result of that. What state are you in? What state is your life in today? What I’m really trying to say is, how’s your soul doing? How’s your soul doing today, as we are now in the final few days moving towards this Christmas Eve reminder of Jesus coming? How’s your soul doing in these final days of 2020? Whatever state your life is in today, I believe that God wants to change your state of mind and help you to see life through a lens called Christmas, a lens called Christmas. Philippians, chapter 2. Here’s what Paul says, and literally, the first four words are going to reinforce what I’ve just said and show you what I have just said is true. As Paul says and we see it on the screen, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. Pause right there. Your attention, please. There’s lots of different minds you could have in you. I told our team a few weeks back during a staff talk, we got together, and I just felt like the Lord wanted me to tell them that the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit. That was my only assignment. We talked for an hour on it, but the assignment that God told me was to just say, just remember the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit. If you don’t think that’s true, then just drive around town and eventually you’ll find a liquor store, and they sell a whole bunch of different spirits. And you can be full of spirits that will intoxicate you, that will fill you. You can find dispensaries. And depending on what state you’re in, you now have different options to decide what state you’re going to be in, and whether you’re in any state to drive, you’re in any state to make decisions relationally or financially. There’s lots of different states you can be in, lots of different spirits you can be under. And listen to me. There’s lots of different minds that can be in you, lots of different ways of seeing, ways of deciding what you value, what you prioritize. And out of all the myriad ways of looking at life, Paul tells this church at Philippi, here’s what mind you should allow to be in you. He says, “Let this mind be in you”. Here’s how to see the world. He says, “the same mind which was also in Christ Jesus”. The Christian life is a process of learning to think how Jesus thinks, which is different from how all of us think. So who is this Jesus? And that is how he decides to tell us the Christmas story. Paul says, this mind, which is in Christ Jesus, is the mind of someone who, verse 6, “being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no refutation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on Earth, and of those under the Earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. Do you not find your Half soaring with these things? I realize the word “Bethlehem” wasn’t used. The word “manger” is not to be found. There’s not a shepherd or an angel specifically mentioned, although it says of those above the earth and on the earth and under the earth and those in heaven. So angels are implied there. But even though we’re not specifically introduced to the wise men and Herod doesn’t seem to be doing anything here, what I can assure you is what we have just read is one of the most powerful articulations of the Christmas story to be found anywhere in Scripture. And it has been said that these words amount to some of the most heavenly and majestic and incredible in the entire Bible. And so Father, we ask that you would, in these moments together, breathe on us in a powerful way. Your disciples were afraid. They were scared. They thought their lives were over. But then You appeared. You walked through walls. You walked right into the midst of what they were afraid of. And You breathed on them. And as You did, their eyes were opened. They saw things differently. And the fear was replaced by joy. So Jesus, would you do it again? Would you take our fears right now and replace them with your joy? Would you cause in our hearts to swell the warmth and the passion and the power of this Christmas story? And we ask this in Jesus’s name. Amen. Inconvenience, disappointment, confusion, and shame. When you think about these words, well, you might be tempted to think that I’m writing the biography of 2020. What a crappy year. Someone had to say it, right? The year has been full of inconvenience, disappointment, lots of confusion, and for some of us, shame because of how we’ve responded, shame because of what’s been surfaced in our hearts by the inconvenience, disappointment, and the confusion, which has led to even more shame. But when I made that list, I even checked it twice, I didn’t write it about 2020. I wrote it about Christmas, that first Christmas. Inconvenience, you want to inconvenience? How about I’m having a baby on behalf of God the Father and I have to go pay taxes? Because nothing screams joy to the world like sorting out your taxes. Oh, you can’t mail them. You can’t e-file. You have to bring them on foot to the city where you were born, the state that you were born in. So you can’t give them in Galilee if you’re from Jerusalem. Or you can’t give them in Nazareth if you’re from Capernaum. You got a hoof it. Because there ain’t no Uber, baby, right? And so yes, it’s wonderful on the cards and the nativity scenes. But Joseph and his nine-month pregnant wife, dragging her along, I’ve read, commentaries, man. They’re not all created equal. I was reading commentaries this week on Matthew and Philippians and on Luke. And one guy said, O think that God prioritizes rest. Because in the Christmas story, you see rest. Mary and Joseph got to rest on the way to Bethlehem. What? I had to push something over to appropriately articulate my confusion and anger. Having been there for the birth of five tiny human beings, nothing about a trip on a donkey says rest… to pay taxes. Disappointment? Oh, you get to have the baby in a cave. But don’t worry there will be lots of strangers there. So we were, from Genesis 3, planning this birth. That’s the first time we read about Jesus, the snake crusher. God’s brewing this plan, but He couldn’t go to hotels.com and make a reservation. That’s disappointing. The level of precision and planning that went into this thing. And then as they go to the different inns in Bethlehem, no vacancy, no vacancy, no vacancy. All right. I wasn’t thinking Ritz Carlton. But at least the Red Lion of the tribe of Judah hotel or… right. That is a vintage joke. I’ve been using that for years. It’s been getting the same chuckle and polite response. But I’m never going to stop because I wrote it and I thought it was funny. And I’m just going to continue with it, all right? Disappointment inconvenience, confusion. When this plan is articulated, Mary is told, you’re going to have a baby. And she’s like, that’s great. I’m down for whatever. Problem, I’m a virgin, right? And I don’t know if you know Gabriel, I don’t know if they have sex Ed up there in heaven, but here’s the thing. And God tells her this is not going to be a problem, that what to her is an objection, what to her is an obstacle, actually was a qualification. And I wonder today, as you think about what God’s called you to do, what objections come to mind? And I wonder if you’re aware of the fact that, to God, your objection is, in fact, a qualification. Because He loves to use the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has a playbook that almost never makes sense when you look at it. You’re like, that doesn’t… nah. Right? And He just smiles. Because as He sort of stacks the deck against Himself, when He does something great through it, He will get all the glory from it. So if He wants to take out a Midianite army that numbers in the hundreds of thousands, surely He will whittle down the army down to 300. Doesn’t make any sense. And if He wants to reach a city in Nineveh that would be part of the greatest revival ever to take place in human history, of course, He’s going to pick somebody who hates Ninevites more than anybody, right? So that’s just how God rolls. He doesn’t think how a man thinks. He doesn’t look at the outward appearance. He looks at the inside. To God, a giant killer looks like a little boy. And so we can easily in our lives miss the very things that He wants to use the most. Because they almost never resemble what the finished product is going to be. So if God wants to bring a baby into the world, of course, He’s going to look for a virgin. Because it doesn’t make sense. And some of you are even now in your life tempted to check out on the God-given dream. Because as you look at your life, it looks nothing like what God sees inside. But seeds seldom look like the harvests they contain. You just got to plant it. You just got to sew it. You just got to do what Mary did and say, let it be to me according to Your word. Behold the maidservant of the Lord. Because Gabriel unpacks the plan. She’s like, that doesn’t add up. I’m in. That’s what you need to get good at saying if you’re going to follow God and watch Him work in your life. Because a lot of us say, that doesn’t make sense. I’m out. But if we could actually pivot and in that moment say, I don’t understand it cerebrally but tell you what. Spiritually, I’m in. I’m down. I’m yours. Behold the manservant of the Lord. I want your will to come to pass in my life. It’s not great gifts that God is looking for. It’s great willingness, that you’re willing to be a part of Him working through you. How about shame? When I think about Joseph, I think about the shame he had to carry his entire natural life. I’ve been, this year, really just feeling for Joseph and proud of Joseph and inspired by Joseph. Because, yes, Mary had this sort of glorious assignment. But Joseph had to shoulder and carry a massive amount of shame. And Joseph had to deal with the snickers and deal with the ridicule and the mockery of someone that he was willing to marry, who was pregnant with a baby that was not his. And this beautiful spirit of adoption, I’m willing to love a child that’s not biologically related to me. I love that. And it’s really incredible, if you think about it, the examples that you can think of in your life where a mother or father has chosen to adopt a child and love a child that’s not “theirs” when you talk about 23andMe but is theirs in every other sense of the word. And Joseph was an incredible dad to Jesus while he was on the Earth. And if you don’t believe me, the thing that got me almost crying today was you’ll actually read, if you look into the story where Jesus got lost in the temple when he was 12, there’s this little detail that says, now Joseph and Mary took Jesus every year to Jerusalem for the Passover. And when you actually look into the way you celebrated Passover in that custom and in that culture, it amounted to a camping trip. And I just got to thinking about how, because we don’t know a lot about Jesus’s early years and his upbringing really. But we do actually when you think about, we know 12 times a year, Mom and Dad took Jesus camping. And it was a camping trip with a purpose. It was a camping trip that pointed to a bigger story. It was a camping trip that pointed to the goodness of a God who allowed a sacrificial lamb to be sent to this world So. That our sins could be covered. Now Jesus was not only being told about this by Joseph and Mary, pointing to this in his Father. He was also that sacrificial lamb. But I love that Jesus’s entire life, for 12 years in a row, Joseph dutifully not only was present as a father and engaged but took him on these trips, took the time off from work in the carpenter shop and prioritized family time that pointed to Jesus, prioritized vacations, so to speak, believing they were going to really, in this feast, encounter God together as a family. And just that phrase, Joseph yearly took his family and Mary to Jerusalem for this feast of Passover. I just wonder what in the New Year you’re going to prioritize. I just wonder if you’re starting to even now think about what you’re going to choose to do and what’s going to be the most important to you. And I hope as you think it through that the most important thing is that you would say, as for me and my house, we will seek God. Father, Mother, let this be an important thing for your family, gathering together as a church, your children learning about God. Some families will watch the worship experience in one time and then sit down and be able to focus on the kid’s programming. And I just think it’s so important. And whether it’s a youth small group or being to a Fresh Life group on Zoom, making sure your kids get into it. And we’re working so hard to make sure there’s quality programming from Fresh Life Kids to Fresh Life Students, Fresh Life Leadership College, I’m just telling you something. I’ve looked into the eyes of too many tear-streaked faces of parents of children who say, I don’t believe anymore. And I don’t want anything to do with church or Jesus. And I’m always saying, well, let’s pray. Let’s believe. It’s never over until God says it’s over. But sometimes they say, as I look back, there’s regret. As I look back, I wish I would have done things differently. These things weren’t important to me. These things weren’t a priority to me. And so my encouragement to you is to be like Joseph, who shouldered that shame and the fact that people are like, oh yeah, Mary was sleeping around before you got together. He didn’t care. He let them laugh. He let it just run off him. People are going to talk. People are going to do what they do. He was a man with a single-minded vision. I got a job to do. I got to raise this boy. God has given every single parent that kind of responsibility, of course, not to raise the Messiah but to believe there is God-given greatness and destiny in the hearts of our children. And we got to raise them in the house. We got to raise them to know God. Come on. Spurgeon used to say, before a child reaches the age of seven, teach them all the way to heaven. And better yet, the work will thrive if it’s done before age five. So have you asked your child, you know, what do they know about Jesus? What questions do they have? And I’m really excited. One of the things I’m most excited for about Christmas this year is when we have the kids in to be able to have an invitation moment. And I’m a little nervous. You know, I don’t often do that. That’s normally done in Fresh Life Kids. But I’m excited for there to be an invitation moment where we invite every person, 80 down to 8, you know, whatever age they would be, would you like to give your life to Jesus Christ? We always center our gatherings around that moment. We’re going to have one in just a little bit. You be thinking about what you’re going to do if you don’t know Christ. But that’s so important. And Joseph inspires me. A lot of that wasn’t planned for me to say. I just felt it so much. And I feel like God is even right now causing some of you sitting there to go, dang it, that was for me. And next year, there’s going to be some changes I’m going to make to my schedule and to our planning and to how we’re going to arrange things. And God’s not going to get our leftovers, not financially not with time, not with energy. He’s going to get our first fruits. We’re going to seek God first and believe that he’s going to add all these other things unto me. We’re not going to put soccer first. We’re not going to put the bottom line first. We’re going to put the kingdom of God first. Because when we are on our deathbed, we will give anything for the chance to go back and make sure that the priorities are in order. But we have the chance now to let what will be hindsight be our foresight. And so I pray that you don’t miss what the Spirit is saying to you. Now Paul chose to use these words about the Christmas story in this book of Philippians for a very specific reason. And that reason is this, that oftentimes we miss the full scope of what Christmas is meant to do. Because we think about, at our worst, just as sappy story of a baby. And it’s not as feel-good and all the rest. But if we backed up a bit, we remember that this child was born to die, right? And death is a part of the Christmas story. He was born that men no more may die, born to raise the sons of Earth, born to give them second birth. So this manger he was in would be replaced. An unusual instrument, the manger, it was not meant for a baby. It was not meant for him. It was meant to feed cows in. And the manger, which was an unusual instrument repurposed, would give way to a cross not meant for him, a cross meant for Barabbas, a cross meant for another, a cross meant for a guilty party. Christ died on a borrowed cross just like He was laid in a borrowed feeding trough. And that cross ultimately speaks to our guilt and you and I and the wrong things we’ve done. Christ died on a cross not his own for the sins of another, the sins of Barabbas but the sins of me and the sins of you. And so yes, I think we know, OK, so Christmas is meant to be a solution for our sin. And that’s an accurate theological way to put it. Paul, in fact, tells us very clearly that He not only died, He died the death of the cross. And that’s powerful. I’ll tell you in a moment why he would use that statement. But I want you to understand there’s more than just rescue from the punishment of sin, which is death and hell. Here’s how I wrote it. Christmas is not just a solution for your sin but also for your selfishness and your sadness and your struggles, too. An that means then that in a year where we feel like we’ve dealt with more than our share of inconveniences and disappointments and confusion and shame that the solution is truly a Christmas state of mind, that we need to look at our year, we need to look at our hardships, we need to look at our pain and to do so through a lens called Christmas. And that’s why Paul brought this up in Philippians 2. Because in the church of Philippi, which was an amazing church, a church that was doing a lot of great stuff: supporting Paul’s ministry full of joy. So he wrote them in one of the most upbeat letters he ever wrote. It’s positive. It’s encouraging. It’s K-Love, right? No. It’s a very… I can’t say the word “positive” without thinking about, you know, I love K-Love. But he writes this letter. And he’s almost all like, you guys are the best. Keep doing it. You’re fantastic. Way to go. But there is one thing that he knew he needed to correct. And he comes out with it in chapter 4 because he had been told how things were going. And apparently, there was a conflict in the church. Apparently, there was a difficulty and discord in the church. And it was two Christians who were all fighting because they saw things differently. They wanted things differently. And maybe they didn’t like how things were being done or whatever it was. So they were causing a dysfunction in the church. And Paul addresses them like point-blank, man. The guy names names. He goes in verse 2, “I implore Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord”. So you guys are great. But man, Euodia and Syntyche, y’all need to just get along. And what does he say to them? The solution is to be of the same mind, which is the same phrase he uses in chapter 2, verse 5 when he says, “Let this mind be in you”. What he was saying is, the way you’re looking at life, your attitude, the way you are making decisions is using Euodia’s mind and Syntyche’s mind. And if we do that, when we do that, it’s always going to be friction. It’s always going to be fighting. It’s always going to be, we end up passive aggressive or mercurial or triggered or always waiting to get wounded, hoping to get hurt, noticing what, oh, didn’t do that again. Oh well. Didn’t invite me. And oh, wel, I can’t believe Euodia would do that, Euodia. So he said, and the reason he gave this Christmas telling, was for them and anyone like them in the church to remember we’re supposed to have a mind in us. And it’s the mind of Christ Jesus. That’s the mind we’re to let be in us. What I’m trying to get you to see is that Christmas is full of conflict. And Christmas causes conflict, right? Some of us are conflicted in this Christmas season because of pain, because of bad things we’ve been through. And this isn’t a happy thing. Or we’re all alone, and we don’t get to be with people we want to be with. Or we are hoping that the decorations and the cookies and the carols will fill an emptiness inside of us. I’ve never noticed so many lights on houses as I have this year. On our street, almost every single house. We were joking. There’s only one house that doesn’t have lights up. We were joking like, do we put some lights on their porch and just with a note that says, you know, come on, get the program a little bit here? But literally this year, it’s like almost everybody. And I get it. We just like, we’re looking, and we’re hoping. But listen to me. Lights can’t fill up any sense of perceived emptiness inside of you. And gingerbread can’t. And all of those things that we would hope would bring warmth will only disappoint. Because they’re going back into the box in just a week and a half or so, or March if you’re like me last year. It’s like, coronavirus. Now I finally can get the lights off the house, right? Can’t go anywhere, so we just finally take the lights down. But that’s a different conversation. But listen to me carefully. Christmas is not just full of conflict, and not only does it cause conflict, but it’s also the cure for it. In this conflict in the church, Paul chose to give them a great big old dose of “ho ho ho”. And that’s why he told the Christmas story, to help Euodia and Syntyche work out their issues. If they would just have that mind in them, it will work out these other problems. Now it’s always counterintuitive. Because in fights, we tend to double down and think about how we’re right and focus on what they did. Well, I’d do apologize if they would. Well, they did this first. You don’t understand. I realize I’m a little bit of a jerk sometimes. But man, you don’t understand what my family’s like. And you don’t have any idea what I’ve been through. And what he’s saying is that the thing to do is to humble yourself. And he says, if you just humble yourself, it’ll actually work itself out. And again, when using the word “humility,” I have to clear up confusion. Because we have such a wrong connotation. We think, oh, just someone’s just humble. And they just kind of walk around, ah. I’m just so humble. You know, it’s like, what’s wrong with your mouth? Ah. Like, wait. Why would you talk like that? Yeah. I’m just so humble Oh no. Don’t worry about me. No. That’s not at all humility. One of the best definitions I’ve ever read of humility was from CS Lewis, who said “True humility is evident when a man designs the most beautiful cathedral in the world and knows it as the most beautiful cathedral in the world, but he would be just as pleased if someone else had designed it”. So confident and aware, you can hold your head up high but not self-possessed, not self-obsessed, which is clearly what Euodia and Syntyche and Levi and maybe just maybe you struggle with as well. And Paul says man, it just only going to lead to problems. Why? Well, James put it this way. “God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble”. And that is what we read, that Jesus was God of heaven. It wasn’t robbery for Him to think He was equal with God because He was fully God. But He chose to empty Himself. He chose to renounce the privileges that went along with deity. He maintained His identity as God and could not cease to be God, for He always was God, always will be God. But while He was on the Earth, taking on the appearance of man, He chose to not have the use of any of His divine privileges or the glory that has always been His and to do so by choice. No one took His life from Him. On His own, He laid it down when He laid in that manger, as He was rocked in Mary’s arms and as those same arms of His were stretched out on the cross. It’s the upsidedown kingdom. Because the result of Him doing that was high exaltation, super exultation. The name that has been given to Him, it’s name above all names, that He’s not just God. That He’s also Lord, Lord of any who would call on Him in faith, Lord to anybody who would believe in Him. And it’s that that makes no sense in our culture where we celebrate power. And we think that to be great you have to assert your dominance. You have to put yourself out there. You have to tear down anybody in your way. To be great, you have to do the opposite of what the disciples thought you had to do to be great, which was to cling to power. Just a couple of days before Jesus died on the cross, several of his disciples got into a fight about who was the greatest. They were basically replacing Euodia and Syntyche’s fight ahead of time. And then two of the disciples sent their mom to ask Jesus if they could have the most preeminent position in the kingdom of God. And this took place, by the way, if you read in Matthew chapter 20, literally the next verse after He told the disciples about the cross. He said, you guys, I got to die on the cross. It’s what I came to do. And they go, got it. Mom, can you ask Jesus if we could be, it’s like the literal next verse. And they weren’t getting it. And that explains Jesus’s mysterious actions at the Last Supper, when he did the same thing Paul said he did in Philippians 2. Notice verse 2 of John 13. “And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus”, here we go, here we go, “knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, He rose from supper and laid aside”, this is Philippians 2. He had deity from always and ever. But He “laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded Himself”. The appearance of a servant. “After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded”. And essentially, He said to them, this is what real greatness looks like. Who am I? Where am I going? And what have I been given? These are questions that must be answered. Who am I? What have I been given? And where am I going? These are questions that I want you to ask yourself at some point this week. For it is the neglect of and the search for answers to these questions that drive almost all of our behavior. Who am I? What have I been given? And where am I going? Jesus knew the answers to these questions. The text says He laid aside his garments and took up the apparel of a servant because He knew who He was. He knew what He had been given. And He knew where He was going. You see, you don’t have to cling to what you know can’t be taken away from you. And many of us don’t understand our identity. Our soul doesn’t know its worth. And we don’t know our great destiny that God has for us. And so we’re insecure, and we’re frantic, and we’re anxious, and we’re worried about many things. And we’re territorial, and we’re possessive, and we think we ought to put ourselves out there. And we manipulate people. And we’re always working. We’re always scheming. We always have an angle. And we’re exhausted. Because we don’t know who we are, and we don’t know where we’re going, and we don’t understand, truly, what we’ve been given. So like the disciples, we think we need to send our mom to Jesus to get us a good position. And we think we need someone to give us a favor and someone to put a good word in for us. And we’re always worried. We’re always anxious. Because we don’t know who we are, what we’ve been given, and where we’re headed. It comes back down to a state of mind, a state of mind. And Christmas will cure the anxiousness that’s going on in our minds, the problems, many of these things that are masquerading as mental health issues, which are really just spiritual dysfunction issues because we don’t have the attitude of Christ in us. So what do we need to alter our state of mind? Here we go. Nothing will alter your state of mind more than how you frame things in your mind, how you frame things in your mind. So you need a frame. Look at this. This is what we have written out. Faith, risk, awe, memory, example, frame. Faith, risk, awe, memory, example. Yes, the Christmas story was full of shame and inconvenience and disappointment. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But every single character whose story we celebrate in the Christmas account, they chose to respond by framing things in their mind correctly. They put a frame up. So let’s think about Joseph and Mary and the faith it took to say, let it be to me according to Your word. What is that? I don’t understand how this is going to work, but God, I choose to believe this is how this is going to work. They responded to what didn’t make sense to them with faith. And then risk. I see risk all over the Christmas story, risk in Joseph stepping out and being willing to be the adopted father, risk of the wise men stepping out and giving a sacrificial gift when there was a King who was sort of scheming. They stepped out and risked everything in going back home a different way. There was risk. There was faith. We frame things in our mind correctly. There was awe. We learned last week about the shepherds in awe of the glory of God, as the angels praised the Lord and told them what was happening, as they came and looked into this manger and saw that their King was a shepherd just like them, born in the city of David. Awe. Memory. Mary did what you need to do. Take snapshots and memories of beautiful moments. And choose to put those things into the frame. “And Mary pondered these things in her heart”. This is Luke chapter 2, verse 19. The moment the shepherds left, Mary took a snapshot. “And she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart”. You get to choose what goes into the frame. Mary could have chosen to obsess over the difficulties and the darkness and the hardships. And there’s someone trying to hunt me and kill me. No, Mary chose to frame her heart with faith and with awe and with a spirit of adventure and risk. And she chose to make the memories that spoke of God’s goodness. She chose to ponder these things in her heart. And it would be the memory of this moment that would give her faith as she stood looking up at the cross seeing her son’s arms spread wide. She chose to take some snapshots. Listen to me. You get to choose what goes in your frame. I have a frame here with my daughters in it, three of my daughters in it. And Alivia in it, and Lenya’s in it, and Daisy’s in it. And today, December 20, 2020, it’s a weird thing that it’s 12/20/2020. It’s the eight-year anniversary to the day of Lenya, in the middle, going to heaven. And you know, yes, is there disappointment and is there the shame and is there pain? Yeah, absolutely. But I have this picture here because it’s a memory of her giving me knuckles and saying, preach the word, Dad, before I got to preach. And so today as I preach, I’m choosing to remember what I ponder in my heart, that my daughter’s with Jesus, the birthday boy. And as I think about 2,922 days since she died, I also think to 2,922 days to being closer with her. I’ve moved forward to her every single time another day comes. And so I get to choose what goes in the frame. I’m not framing and holding up just pain and difficult and darkness. I’m saying God was there. He was with me. And you can choose to do this. You can alter your state of mind if you choose to specifically frame things in your mind. You need to choose to frame them the truth. And then E: example. Example is what we find in Philippians 2. He’s like, “Let this mind be in you”. You’re like,I can’t do that. It’s like, well, Jesus did. And you’re like, well, but He was God. It’s like, oh no, he wasn’t. Yes, he was, but, it’s complicated. But He was also a man just like we were. And that was the point, that we have a God who put skin on, a God who had acne, a God who dealt with every temptation that you and I could deal with. And He passed it magnificently to give us an example and to give us encouragement and to give us hope to let this mind be in you. And as we begin to frame things properly in our mind, what are we doing? We’re building our lives on the solid bedrock of God’s Word. And this is so important to understand. If you want His mind in your head, you need to hide His Word in your heart. And so that’s what we’re doing. We’re hiding His Word. We’re building a frame. We’re choosing a way that we’re going to see the world. We’re not just going to respond by our reactions or our feelings or by culture or by what our cousin, who’s worked at 10 different places, telling, well, you should do this. Like, well, really? Here’s what God’s Word says. That’s what I’m framing my life on. That’s how I choose to see things. A Christmas state of mind isn’t jingle bells or a one horse open sleigh. It’s facing things that could potentially bring out your darkest, shadowy side, make you want to snap or attack or escape, and choosing grace, humility, and in the process, laying down your ego and laying down control so you can find true life and participate in God’s plan to bring joy to the world one day at a time. What I’m trying to say is don’t just celebrate Christmas. Be Christmas. Live Christmas. Choose Christmas. Accept Christmas. Let this mind be in you. Let this mind be in you. What does that imply? He’s there trying to. Let someone in. That means they’re knocking. I’ll get the door. Let them in. There was a knock at the door. I was upstairs. I heard it. I said, Daisy, open the door. Let them in. I can see who it is. Let them in. They were trying to get in is the point. When Paul says, “Let the mind be in you,” that implies that God is right there trying to get in. Don’t think of Him as cold and far off and busy and up to so many things that you’ve got to track Him down. He is standing at the door of your heart and your mind and knocking. And if you open it up, He’ll come in. And we normally think of that in terms of salvation. And that’s true. But it’s also true in every other area of your life. I’m going to give you three quick tools, and then I have one final question for you. And these are tools to help us build our life on that foundation of His Word. Those words are worship, service, and confession. These things, these are tools that we can use. Like, if you had a screwdriver and you have a hammer, you buy a… well, I have a saw now and now I have a drill and I have always these different tools. OK. These are tools that’ll help you build that frame to alter your state of mind, so you have a Christmas state of mind. So what do we do? We worship. That’s singing, but it’s also pointing our entire lives to God’s glory, orienting everything in our lives to magnify his name. Service of our fellow man, service in the church, service in this world. And then confession, and when we hear the word confession, I think a lot of us think about just the negative side of it. I’m confessing a sin I’ve committed. And that certainly is a part of it, both to God and to each other. Because the Bible says, if you ask God for forgiveness and confess your sins to Him, you’ll be forgiven. But if you confess your sins to one another, you’ll be healed. Many Christians have been forgiven but not healed because they have missed out on the power of being in the body of Christ in community. But there’s another definition of the word confession than just confessing wrong things. You also have to confess right things. And that’s why we read Philippians 2, which has been called the Christ hymn, which is essentially a creed, which contains within it the oldest creed the church. And a creed is just a declaration of a faith confession. And we have on our website a confession statement, what we believe that we labored over, sought the Scriptures in, sought wise counsels we crafted. But have you nailed down your beliefs? Have you chosen to write in your journal, this is what I believe? This is what I believe about God. This is what I believe about life. This is what I believe about death. This is what I believe about family. This is what I believe and to base that on Scripture. s is incredible weight and power to doing so. But the most important thing that you could contain within your confession of your faith is the four words Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is King. Jesus Christ is Lord. For that is what the Scripture says everybody ultimately will have to admit, will have no option but to admit. Everything on Earth, under the Earth, above the Earth, at some point is going to have to come face-to-face with the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord. So here’s my question that I promised you. The question I want to end with us ringing in our hearts is this, if Jesus is indeed knocking, trying to get in, if we have to let this mind be in us, what part of your life is Jesus trying to get into today? What part of your schedule, what part of your thought life, what part of your week is Jesus right now knocking, wanting permission into? How can you allow this Christmas state of mind to be true for you? Now as I think about the fact that there are no doubt people watching this and you’re here today, you maybe for the first time have clicked on to our service or maybe you’ve gone to church many, many, many times, but you’ve never allowed Jesus to come into your heart in the most important way, the most essential way, and that is to be your Savior, to forgive you, to change you, to give you the hope of heaven, to give you the promise of life eternally. And I want to encourage you from this text that you only have one verb to play in that. And if you read the passage we read, and you could for homework or extra credit or whatever, read it this week and circle any verbs you find. I circled eight verbs that belonged to Jesus. I circled four verbs that belong to God the Father. But I only circled three verbs that belonged to you and to me. And it all starts with this idea of “let”, let this in, let this in you. And then the two other verbs that belong to us in the passage are “bow” and “confess”. Let, bow, confess. Now His verbs are much harder. They involve dying on the cross. They involve giving up privileges. They involve all these crazy things. He’s done, the point is, all these verbs, these 12 verbs, God has taken care of. He’s done the heavy lifting. He’s done the hard work. He died even the death on the cross, which in the Roman culture, they said to die on the cross was to die a thousand deaths. It was so painful and shameful. That’s why it says, He didn’t just die. He died even the death on the cross, a thousand deaths. Jesus has dealt with every death imaginable, every shame imaginable, all the guilt imaginable. Your part to play is let him into your heart. How? By bowing your knee and confessing with your lips that Jesus Christ is Lord. He’ll save you. He’ll change you. He’ll heal you. He’ll make you new. Eternal life can start right now for you. And it would be an honor and a privilege to get to pray with you as you accept Jesus into your soul. Listen to me. God drew you to this moment. And there’s no guarantee there will be another like it. So if you’re today sensing the conviction of the Holy Spirit, if you’ve committed sins and you don’t have an answer for that because you’re going to stand before Him one day, let Him come into your heart. Let this Christmas become for you a brand new state of mind, a brand new way of being human. Let’s pray together. Father, thank You. Now save those who Your Spirit is working on. Help them to see that You love them, that You care for them, that You will forgive them right now.

Watch Out for Those Who Lead You Away from the Truth November 5, 2006 | by John Piper | Romans 16:17–20 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. Such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. I recall talking to a wise leader of a large missions organization about doctrinal faithfulness. He said something to this effect, “It’s crucial. And so is unity. Some people emphasize one, and some the other. Our organization is made of two kinds of people: purity boys and unity boys.” The unity boys naturally emphasize the preciousness of personal relationships and tend to neglect an emphasis on truth. The purity boys naturally emphasize the preciousness of truth and tend to neglect the nurture of personal relationships. In fact, you could probably categorize people and churches and denominations and institutions and movements in the evangelical church today (or even in society in general) along these lines: There are those who emphasize doctrinal purity, and there are those that emphasize relational unity. Loving People and Loving Truth I hope you are feeling uncomfortable with that description. A good impulse inside of you would be saying right now: “Do we have to choose? Can’t it be both? Can’t you love truth and love people?” In fact, it would be an even more biblical impulse if you found yourself thinking, “I don’t even think you can love people if you don’t love truth. How can you do what is ultimately good for people if you don’t have any strong convictions about what is ultimately good?” And yet there is no escaping the reality that people and churches and denominations and schools and even whole periods in history lean one way or the other. I think the period of history we live in is not an easy time to be a lover of truth. The most common criticism, if you stand for an important truth and imply by that stand that others should believe it, is that you are arrogant, which is the opposite of being loving (1 Corinthians 13:4), and therefore you are undermining relationships. For many thoughtful people today the only path to peaceful relationships in a pluralistic world is the path of no truth that deserves assent from everyone. It seems on the face of it to make sense. If no one claims that what he believes deserves assent from anyone else, then we can live together in peace. Right? So peaceful pluralism and diminished truth claims go hand in hand. But it doesn’t work like that. When there is no truth that deserves assent from everybody, the only arbiter in our competing desires is power. Where truth doesn’t define what’s right, might makes right. And where might makes right, weak people pay with their lives. When the universal claim of truth disappears, what you get is not peaceful pluralism or loving relationships; what you get is concentration camps and gulags. Purity for the Sake of Unity I want you to see from the Bible—and feel in your bones—the importance of being a purity boy for the sake of being a unity boy. I want you to see and feel how out of step this text is with today’s Western culture. It pictures a way of thinking and living that most of our fellow Americans would consider offensive, unloving, fundamentalistic, and out of date. It’s mainly a purity text—a text calling for vigilance in matters of truth and doctrine. But it’s not only that. In a striking way, it is a unity text. The goal of the vigilance for right teaching is to avoid Christ-belittling, self-exalting dissension. So my hope in preaching from verses 17 and 18 is that you will be freed from any blindness or bondage to this truth-diminishing period of time in which we live. And I pray that, because of this liberty, you would know what it is to love your adversaries and that you would have fresh power from the gospel to magnify Christ in showing that love. Let’s read again Romans 16:17-18 , I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. Verse 17 gives two commands that seem contradictory, but they are joined by a phrase that shows why they are not contradictory. And verse 18 gives two reasons why these two commands are so crucial. Let’s look first at the commands in verse 17. Watch Out for Those Who Cause Divisions The first command in verse 17 is to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles or stumbling blocks. “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles.” So it is clear from this command that Paul is concerned about unity. He wants to promote unity. Watch out for those who cause divisions. These are enemies of unity. Watch out for them. I don’t want them to have that effect on you. Avoid Them The second command in verse 17 is to avoid these people. The last phrase in the verse: “Avoid them.” Stay away from them. Now the reason I said these two commands sound contradictory is that the first one is driven by a passion for unity: Watch out for those who cause divisions. And the second one is, in fact, a call for division. When you spot such a division-causing person, divide from him. Avoid him. The Dividing Line of Doctrine What is it then between these two commands that helps us see how they are not in fact contradictory? It’s Paul’s reference to doctrine. Verse 17: “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.” The issue here is not the same as in chapter 14 where Paul is dealing with different convictions about non-essential things. There he said, in verse 5, “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” There was no talk in chapter 14 about avoiding people. The whole point was to help the strong and the weak Christians live together in mutual respect and understanding. But now here in Romans 16:17, the approach is dramatically different. Here Paul says: Avoid them. Divide from them. Why? Because they are promoting doctrine contrary to what they had been taught. Now Paul’s response to this could have been: Well, nobody has all the truth, and everybody has a piece of it, and unity is more important than truth, and so don’t divide. And we would say: That impulse would not be all bad, would it? Unity is a good thing. Paul cares about it. His first command is: “Watch out for those who cause divisions.” Truth-Based Division for the Sake of Truth-Based Unity But that is not the way he responded to this situation. Instead, for the sake of unity—that is, truth-based unity—Paul calls for truth-based division. Avoid them. I don’t know how Paul could make any clearer how he relates doctrine and unity. For Paul, doctrine is the basis of unity. Without the common doctrine they had been taught, the unity would not have been Christian unity. So he is willing to call for truth-based disunity (“Avoid them.” “Divide from them.”) for the sake of truth-based unity. In other words, when a person departs from the doctrine that the apostles had taught, Paul sees this as a greater threat to unity than the disunity caused by avoiding such people. If we say: How can that be? How can dividing from a false teacher who rises up in the church promote unity in the church? The answer is that the only unity that counts for unity in the church is rooted in a common apostolic teaching. Isolating false teachers—avoiding them—is Paul’s strategy for preserving unity that is based on true teaching. Joy in the Truth Is Dominant Now let’s pause here before looking at the reasons for these commands in verse 18. I want to make a clarifying comment about both of these commands and the doctrine that connects them. First, with regard to the command to “watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught,” it is possible to go overboard on this. I hesitate even to say it, since I don’t think this is the temptation of most churches or most Christians today. But it is possible, and there are churches and people that do go overboard. What I mean is that they become so obsessed with spotting doctrinal error that they lose their ability to rejoice in doctrinal truth. They’re like dogs that are trained so completely to sniff out drugs at the airport, that even when they’re off duty they greet everybody that way. It doesn’t make for a very welcoming atmosphere. The book of Romans does not make this mistake. Periodically Paul warns against doctrinal or ethical error. But most of Romans is a glorious display of the work of Christ for us and in us. So let’s ask the Lord to help us get the balance right here. We must do this: “Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.” But this is not the main thing we do. Vigilance over error is necessary, but joy in the truth is dominant. There Is a Defined Body of Doctrine Second, with regard to the doctrine, don’t miss the obvious: There is such a thing—a body of doctrine that someone can go against. Verse 17: “Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.” There is a doctrinal standard. There is something you can depart from. Paul refers to it in several ways. In Romans 6:17, he calls it the standard of teaching: “[You] have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” In 2 Timothy 1:13-14, he calls it the pattern of sound words and the good deposit. “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” In Acts 20:27, he calls it the whole counsel of God. “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” So there is a body or standard or pattern of sound doctrine. The caution here, of course, is that we must not put every minor opinion about hundreds of Bible verses in this category so that there is no room for any disagreement at all (cf. Philippians 3:15). The pattern of sound doctrine would be a faithful summary of biblical essentials determined by how crucial they are in expressing and preserving the history of redemption, the nature and condition of man, the nature and work of Christ, the nature and word of the Holy Spirit, and the nature and work of God the Father. One of the greatest challenges in the quest for unity is deciding what belongs in this body of doctrine when Paul says, if someone departs from it, avoid him. That’s part of what the elders were working on last year in the baptism question. And which we are still working on. Leave Room for Enemy Love Third, with regard to the second command at the end of verse 17 (avoid them), we need to be sure we leave room for obedience to the teaching in Romans 12 that says we should “Bless those who curse you” (v. 14), and, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (v. 18), and so on. Avoiding someone does not mean: Stop caring about him, or stop praying for him, or even stop talking to them. When Peter acted contrary to the gospel in Galatians 2, Paul did not first avoid him. He first confronted him with a view to winning him back. That kind of contact is not forbidden. What Paul commands with the words avoid them, is not no contact at all, but rather avoid the kind of contact that communicates life can go on as usual between us. It can’t. If you, as a professing Christian, persist in departing from the doctrine the apostles taught, we can’t simply hang out together like we used to. False Teachers Seem Nice That brings us finally to verse 18 and the two reasons Paul gives for why doctrinal vigilance is so important. Verse 18: “For such persons [that is, the persons who depart from the doctrine] do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.” Let’s take the second one first. Verse 18b: “By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.” The word for flattery is simply blessing. And smooth talk doesn’t necessarily mean manifestly slippery. It just means pleasant and plausible. So the reason we must be so vigilant over biblical doctrine is that those who depart from it take simple people with them by pleasant, plausible speech that presents itself as a blessing. False teachers don’t get a following by being rough and harsh. They get a following by being nice. Just take two examples from history: Arius (d. 336) and Socinus (d. 1604)—both of whom denied the deity of Christ. Parker Williamson describes Arius like this: Here was a bright, energetic, attractive fellow, the kind of citizen whom any Rotary Club would welcome. Singing sea chanties in dockside pubs and teaching Bible stories to the Wednesday night faithful, this was an immensely popular man. His story reminds us that heresy does not bludgeon us into belief. We are seduced. (Parker T. Williamson, Standing Firm: Reclaiming the Chastain Faith in Times of Controversy [Lenoir, North Carolina: PLC Publications, 1996], p. 31.) And another writer describes Socinus like this: He was a gentleman. His morals were above reproach and he distinguished himself by his unfailing courtesy. Unfailing courtesy was remarkable in an age when even the great Protestant leaders, Luther and Calvin would use vile street language when arguing with their opponents. This means that it will seldom be popular to resist false teachers in the church because they are almost always perceived as bringing a blessing and speaking with winsome words. They are gentlemen. And Paul says the innocent are carried away. Hence he says, “Watch out for them. And avoid them.” False Teachers Serve Their Own Appetites The other reason why doctrinal vigilance is so crucial, Paul says, is (verse 18a) because “such persons [the false teachers] do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites”—literally their own belly. In other words, the issue in false teaching is not a simple intellectual mistake. Behind the plausible speech and the smooth gentlemanly demeanor is idolatry, and the idol is the belly—the appetite for food or sex or human approval. Behind serious false teaching, we almost always find not merely intellectual mistakes, but worldly passions enslaving the mind. Watch Out So I close with a pointed call to vigilance: Watch out for smooth talkers who pastor large churches, write many books, lead wide ministries, and do not manifestly prize above their earthly good the whole counsel of God. ©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Used by Permission