Christian-ish: Part 2

Christian-ish: Part 2

1 Samuel 15:7-9, 20-22; 1 John 5:3-4

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Man, we just kicked 2026 off with a bang last week. If you were here, we came out swinging. So I hope your toes have recovered from being bruised by Pastor Chris last week. But I hate to tell you, they're probably going to get a little bruised again today. And that's the Lord, not me. So don't know what to tell you. But we are excited for this Christian-ish series. We are just really believing that God has something for all of us in this series as we learn what it looks like to be surrendered fully to God and to walk in His way rather in this Christian-ish kind of sort of way. So I'm excited for that. I do apologize in advance. We did some bedroom rearranging yesterday and had a dust allergy attack. So my breathing's a little rough today. So if I cough, I apologize. Got my water, so hopefully we'll be okay, but just wanted to give you a heads up on that. You know what? Let's pray. Let's pray as we get started. Jesus, we thank you for this time. God, I just pray that you will give me your words, give me air in my lungs. And I just pray that you will bless our time in your word as we seek to be more like your son Jesus in your name.

Have you ever found yourself tempted to kind of finagle the rules a little bit? Maybe the express check out where you're supposed to have ten items or less, but you only have like 11 or 12. It's only two more. No one's going to know. It's fine, right? So you just kind of slide on in there and hope nobody actually counts all your items. Or the onramp, like getting on the freeway, the onramp meter, maybe you take that as a suggestion rather than like a general rule of the road. Or my personal favorite, or maybe I should say struggle, is keeping my library book just a couple extra days past Tuesday because I'm so close to finishing it and I know they're not actually going to charge me until it's like really, really late. So I don't know about you, but I struggle with that one. But these are all silly examples, but you kind of get the idea that we have a way of justifying some of these small things in our lives. I mean, some of us are rule followers by nature, and some of us think rules are just dares in disguise. Right? We just want to see how far we can push the limits.

But when it comes to the Christian life, when it comes to being obedient to God, the small things matter. And so that's our focus today, is that small choices can keep us stuck in the Christian-ish lifestyle. We tell ourselves that we're a good person, we do mostly good things, sure we mess up, but we're human, it happens, but we're mostly good people. And maybe in general you do do the right thing. But you aren't fully surrendered. You're Christian-ish. If you missed last week, we defined Christian-ish as someone who has a half-hearted faith, but wears the label of Christian without truly following Jesus. It's a kind of sort of Christian, an almost Christian, an if it feels good Christian. Pastor Chris last week talked about different signs that you might be Christian-ish. And for many of us, one of those things that we struggle with is the idea of selective obedience. This is one of those things that can be small. It can be a small thing or small choices that add up over time and make us Christian-ish. Maybe we think we'll obey if it's not too hard or if it's not too inconvenient. We'll obey unless we have a better plan or unless God is asking just too much of us. Maybe we'll only obey if we're not in a hurry. Today we're defining selective obedience as the dangerous illusion that doing some of what God commands is enough when it's really disobedience in disguise. The Bible is really clear on obedience and the consequences of disobedience. We're actually going to be in 1 Samuel 15 here in a bit. If you want to turn there, it will be on the screens, but you're welcome to get there.

First, I want to look at the Bible. I want to look at the Bible as a way to give us a sense of what God commands us to do. I want to look at three verses that talk about obedience. We're going to look at some things these verses have in common. The first one is Deuteronomy 5.33. It says, "Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land you will possess." Walk in obedience to all. How many is all? All that the Lord your God has commanded you. Exodus 19.5. "Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession." If you obey me fully. Job 36:11, "If they obey and serve Him, Him being God, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment." Another translation says, "If they listen and obey, they will be blessed." So two things these verses have in common. One is that God is asking for full obedience. He doesn't want half-heartedness or partial obedience. He wants full. It says, "Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, if they obey and serve Him," full and complete obedience. It matters if we're being fully obedient. The second thing that these verses have in common is that some of God's blessings are conditional. If you look back at the verses, most of them have an implied "if-then." Walk in obedience so that you may live. If you obey me fully, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession. If they obey, an implied "then," they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity.

Now please hear me. I am not saying that our salvation is dependent on our obedience or our actions. If you're sitting there thinking, "Is Pastor Lauren telling me I have to earn my salvation?" Absolutely not. That is bad theology. That is not what we're talking about. We're talking about two different things here. The first one is that with God, there are, I guess both of them, unconditional promises and conditional blessings. So unconditional promises, it's this idea that we are saved by grace. We are offered this gift unconditionally. It is only by the perfect work of Jesus on the cross, His death and resurrection, and His offer of salvation that we get to be free, we get to be saved from sin, put on His righteousness, and have eternity with Him. That is His unconditional promise to anyone who chooses to receive that. The conditional blessings are that when we are, out of our love for God, obedient to Him fully and completely, He will often bless that obedience, that faithfulness to Him. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. I want to be clear on that. But He does want to bless us. He wants to give good gifts to His kids. So there is unconditional promises and conditional blessings. It's like a parent with a child. I love my kids unconditionally. They may frustrate me, they may disobey me, they may make me mad, but I will love them no matter what. But we also have conditional blessings that if they do their homework and they do their chores, they can have a friend over or get some screen time. Those blessings are conditional based on their behavior. Another little caveat for us this morning is that I'm not talking about the prosperity gospel. This is not me saying that you fully obey, you will get everything you ever dreamed of. You will become rich and successful and have everything your little heart could desire. That is not what we're talking about here. Now the Lord does bless us with material things. That is true. But blessings can also look like being more like Jesus. A blessing could look like experiencing His presence in a more tangible way. His blessing could be being able to look at yourself in the mirror with integrity, knowing that you fully obeyed despite the hard or the circumstance or the situation. So I'm not saying that you will become rich or get to buy the new car or get the house because you fully obeyed.

But the thing is, we see being Christian-ish a lot because we think that the Christian life equals the prosperous life. We think that the Christian life, if we do it right, if we're checking all the boxes and doing all the things, that we can have a prosperous life, the American dream, that God will give us everything life. But the reality is that the Bible calls us to take up our cross daily. The cross is an instrument of torture. That's not exactly the prosperous life I was hoping for. The Bible calls us to die to ourselves and live for Christ. We're called to bear each other's burdens. That's the life that we're called to. Is there blessings in following Jesus? 100%. Do those blessings always come in the package we think they will? Nope. Often not. But that's okay. Because if we want to get out of the Christian-ish lifestyle, we must choose full obedience and understand that some blessings are conditional. Real quick, let's look at it this way. In the Bible, theologians talk about covenant theology. Now the covenant, God made the covenant as his plan to redeem mankind. And so he structured his plan around covenant. So throughout the Bible, we see covenants with Abraham, Moses, David, so on and so on. And a covenant is this divine agreement between God and mankind where ultimately, although we're supposed to keep our end of the deal, ultimately it's God who keeps the end of the deal for both of us. And he did that by putting his son on the cross. But we are now under the new covenant through Jesus. When he came and he died and rose again, we have a new covenant that we are under. And so the unconditional promise, as we said, under this new covenant is that he died and rose again and offers us salvation. But the conditional blessing is that our obedience will allow blessings to flow from God to us.

God saved us by grace and then blesses our full obedience. That's why God doesn't want partial obedience. He wants full and complete surrender. And frankly, there's a lot of partial obedience in the global church, but also specifically in the church in the West. We want the benefits of the Christian life without the sacrifice. We want the blessings without the surrender. We pick and choose what feels good to obey, what we think is right and wrong. And we just leave the rest. We compromise, we justify, we excuse, especially the small stuff. But we still call ourselves followers of Christ. And frankly, it is dangerous. It is dangerous to call yourself a Christ follower and live the Christian-ish life. So now that we've set our groundwork for understanding the importance of obedience, I want to get back to that main idea of that small things can leave us stuck in the Christian-ish lifestyle. Because the thing is, small things and small choices can seem insignificant, but they can have really big consequences.

Today we're going to look at the life of Saul in the Old Testament in a story we find in 1 Samuel 15. Now just to give you some background, Saul was the first king of Israel. And to be fair, he started out genuinely wanting to serve God. He loved God. He was humble. He wanted to obey and do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. But then one step at a time, he started choosing partial obedience. He started choosing his own desires and rationalizing his own sin, eventually leading him to listen to the demonic whispers of the enemy instead of the voice of God. It's a slippery slope. It can be just a slow fade. But if a ship or an airplane is one degree off course, they're going to end up miles away from their intended destination. So even if you think you're doing all the things, but you're one degree off course, you're not going to end up where you want to be. Saul wanted to do things his way. So we're going to look at this interesting and honestly pretty devastating story here in 1 Samuel 15. So just again, some back or some context for us. God told Saul to take his army and to go completely destroy the Amalekite people. The Amalekites were a nation that were just evil. So in God's righteous judgment, he used Saul and the army, the Israelite army, to go and completely destroy them. And he told them to destroy everything, every living thing. Man, woman, livestock, everything. But Saul had other ideas. He obeyed at first, but then he made a small choice. Then we pick up in verse 9. It says, "Saul and his men spared Agag's life. Agag was the king. They spared his life and kept the best of the sheep and goats, the cattle, the fat calves and the lambs, everything in fact that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality.”

Saul had selective obedience. He obeyed to an extent by destroying almost the entire nation, but he kept the king alive. We see the problem with this, right? Keeping the leader of the nation alive is kind of a big deal. And they kept the livestock, which they were able to justify in their minds. Perfectly good livestock. It's food. We can trade it. We can kill it. We can use the skin. We can do whatever we need. Why kill perfectly good livestock? But it wasn't full obedience. God gave a clear command and he chose to listen to the whisper of the enemy instead of the voice of his God. And you know, that same whisper I think a lot of us are familiar with. It's the one that rationalizes and justifies and tells us it won't hurt anybody. It's not that big of a deal. No one's going to know. You deserve it. It's just this once. The whispers, the lies, if we listen to those, even in small things over and over and over again, instead of the voice of our heavenly father, we will continue to choose disobedience.

The problem with disobeying in the small choices repeatedly is that it compounds over time. And so what you allow in the moment often owns you in the future. It could be that the small choice is to have one more drink, eat one more serving of dessert even though you were full a long time ago. Look once, just a peek at that website you know is not a good idea. Read that romance novel that's pretty explicit but you heard the story is really good. Yell at your loved one again because they kind of deserved it. It's one small choice. It may not seem like a big deal but it compounds over time in what you allow in the moment often owns you in the future. So I want to ask us, where are we letting the enemy of our soul whisper into our lives? Where are you letting the enemy, letting Satan tell you these lies and whisper to you so that you are tempted to listen to his voice over the voice of your heavenly father? I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal that to you. What areas are not surrendered to him? What things are you not being fully obedient in? And to be honest, it may not even necessarily be a sin issue but maybe you're not being obedient in something that you know God is asking you to do. Maybe you're not taking revenge but you're also not forgiving. Maybe you are trying to spend time in the word, trying to have some, you know, read your Bible or get that verse of the day but it's just a checkbox. You aren't fully surrendered to being with Jesus every day. Maybe you're not maxing out the credit cards but you're getting more and more in debt and not practicing biblical tithing or stewardship. Maybe you're not having an affair but you're getting a little too comfortable with a co-worker or a family friend. It's not full obedience. You're only going part way. It could be whatever area it is for you, it could be different for everyone in this room.

We don't all have the same struggles and honestly we don't necessarily all have the same convictions on non-sin issues but we all know what it's like to justify behavior and choose not to call our sin a sin. We aren't perfect. We're gonna mess up but we do serve a God who is. He already saved us from that sin. He has already put on Christ's righteousness onto us. That is not what is in question here. But we all have struggles. We all have these things that we try to justify and we are called to confess those things to God. I encourage you to also confess them to another person, a Bible believing person, a mentor, a pastor, a friend. We confess to God for forgiveness but we confess to people for healing. So I encourage you to do that but if nothing else confess it to God. He forgives and he restores. Ask him to help you live fully surrendered and fully obedient in that area. See Saul got called out on his disobedience later on in chapter 15. The prophet Samuel came and talked to Saul and called him out on his selective obedience and instead of confessing and asking for forgiveness Saul chose to double down. Let's look at verse 20 through 21. Saul says, "But I did obey the Lord," Saul said. We have different definitions of obedience. "But I did obey the Lord," Saul said. "I went on the mission. The Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

Saul does several things here. First he minimizes his own disobedience by making it seem like it was part of the plan. I completely destroyed them and I brought back their king. That was the plan all along. Then he passes the blame onto his soldiers saying they were the ones who brought the livestock back. It wasn't my decision. They did it on their own. Then he rationalizes and explains that well they're just going to use it to sacrifice to God. That's a good thing, right? And finally, he distanced himself from God by saying that the sacrifices were to the Lord your God. He doesn't say the Lord my God or our God. He says to the Lord your God talking to Samuel. When we minimize, when we pass blame, make excuses, rationalize, when we do those things it puts a wall between us and God. It puts up a barrier. We distance ourselves from Him because nobody wants to be found out. Nobody wants to be called out for their sin or their selective obedience. So we put some distance between us and God. We say I follow God but He's over there and I'm going to do my thing and we'll be fine. We choose to live in our Christian-ish world where we make the decisions and decide what we will and will not obey. But selective obedience is disobedience even in the small things. And it's going to keep us stuck in the Christian-ish lifestyle. Even if it means you're just one degree off course. It's a problem. And once again, to be abundantly clear, we're not talking about your salvation here. God is freely given by God's grace. But you can experience conditional blessings that come from your obedience. And I would say, although He blesses us for a variety of reasons, if you are not being fully obedient, you are missing out on God's blessings.

1 John 5:3-4 says, "Loving God means keeping His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world and we achieve this victory through our faith.” He's not asking too much of us. The boundaries that He's given, the commands that He's given us, they are for our good and His glory. And they are not burdensome. They are not too heavy for us to carry. And in fact, when we are obedient, we get to be active participants in defeating the evil in the world. We get to be part of the victory, which is played out through our obedience. So maybe today it's not a sin issue for you. Maybe it is. Maybe that is something you need to confess to the Lord. But maybe the problem isn't the action. The problem is the lack of action. The problem is the partial obedience and whatever it is that God is calling you to do and to obey. And we know that He's asking us to step out in faith in some area. Small, big. I imagine most of us have something that comes to mind. Maybe it's to be more vocal about your spiritual life around your non-believing friends and coworkers. Maybe it's to quit an unhealthy habit or to start a healthy one. Maybe it's simply to be in the Word more consistently, not out of obligation or to check a box, but because you want to spend time with your Heavenly Father so that His voice is louder than all the other whispers. So whatever that thing is for you, are you willing to fully surrender to it, to God? To stop playing this Christian-ish game and start walking in full obedience? So that's my question. That's my one takeaway for you today. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where you are choosing selective obedience and then go all in on obeying God fully in that area. He is good to gently and kindly convict and to remind us where we are struggling, to help us see where we need to press into Him, where we aren't being fully obedient, where we're choosing selective obedience. So ask Him, ask Him to reveal that to you. It may not be an audible voice, it probably won't, but He'll tell you, He'll show you and then go all in on choosing full obedience. There is goodness and there is blessing on the other side of our obedience, friends.

Pray with me. Jesus, we thank You for who You are, for Your goodness. We thank You that You make a way for us to be obedient. I just pray that You will reveal to us what it is that we are choosing to be selective obedient to. And God, help us to go all in on that. Help us to go all in on You, that we put our faith in You and that we are able to walk in freedom and victory because we are walking in full obedience. Thank You for who You are, in Your name, Amen.

Christian-ish: Part 1

Christian-ish: Part 1

Revelation 3:15-17,19-20

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm so glad you're here. Happy new year. And we're excited to get going on a new series this January to kind of kick off 2026 together. And have you ever had a time or a moment where you were meeting somebody new and you guys were just hitting it off? You ever started that? You're meeting somebody brand new, you've never met them before, and you're just like, you're totally hitting off. You're jiving, things are going great. You're talking about your family. You're talking about life. And things are just going really, really well. And there's times as a pastor, I love meeting new people, but then there comes a moment that I always hate. And that's the question, what do you do for a living? And the problem is with that, is that it always gets weird. No matter what happens, it either gets Christian weird, or it gets unChristian weird. And what do I mean by that? Well, Christian weird is we're having a conversation, things are going, what do you do for a living? Oh, I'm a pastor. And then all of a sudden a switch flips inside of them, and they're like, hallelujah. Praise the Lord, brother. That is such a good word for me this morning, thank you. It just gets weird. I'm like, no, don't do that. Or it gets unChristian weird. And you tell them I'm a pastor, and they're just like, oh, cool. And then sometimes, most likely, they just usually walk away and they won't talk to me again. I will say, I have never lied, but I can't say that I haven't thought about it. I mean, that's, can I be honest with you guys this morning?

So recently I had this opportunity, I met a guy who lives here locally, and I've known him for a little bit, and we were talking, and he's not a Christian. And we were having a good conversation, and we were just talking about life, and he would say how he's a good person, and he tries not to judge people, and he tries to be generous how he can. Maybe it's someone on the street, or a family member, or a friend. And from afar, it's so funny, he loves our church. He talks to me all the time when I see him. He loves our sign on the corner. He loves the jokes. He loves our church. And we're having this conversation, and he literally turns to one of the other guys in the room, and he goes, you know what, if I go to church, I'm going to that pastor's church. He calls me pastor, it's the funniest thing, but he doesn't go to church. I invited him for Christmas candlelight service. This was a good conversation. He was totally open to it, but he did not come.

After high school, I moved to the Midwest, to Indiana for college. And if you've ever been around the Midwest, you know it's an area called the Bible Belt. And it was a culture, I would say a reverse culture shock for me to go back to Indiana after living in California, and to see so many people there in the Bible Belt that would call themselves Christians. I'd have conversations with people, and it would be great. They'd be like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a Christian. I'm like, okay, cool. Like, where do you go to church? Well, you know, it just, my grandma took me to church back in the day, and I probably go like Christmas and Easter. You know, like the big holidays, like the big ones. And it's so funny to me that they would call themselves a spiritual person, but yet you might ask somebody in their lives of, would you say, hey, so-and-so, are they a Christian? And they might answer, I really don't know. And that's how I would probably define this term, Christian-ish.

And as we start a new year in 2026, I wanna give you a new word for your vocabulary, and that is Christian-ish. I would define it this way. Christian-ish is having a half-hearted faith, or wearing the label of Christianity without truly following Jesus. Something like Christian in name only, sort of Christian, Christian-ish. And I will say very honestly, from a pastoral perspective, to be Christian-ish is to embrace a superficial watered-down version of Christianity. It's not the real thing. You get enough of Jesus that it makes you kind of feel better, but not so much of Jesus that it changes your life. Happy New Year. Welcome to church in 2026. My heart and my goal here is to make you feel better about your faith, but I heard a professor quote once, and it said this, it says, "The role of an effective pastor is to comfort those who are afflicted, "and at the same time, afflict those who are comfortable." Ooh. My heart, my desire today, I just want you to know this, is to maybe push you a little bit into 2026, and believe that you can be closer to Jesus this year than you ever have before, and to be more effective for his kingdom than you ever have been in years past.

We're gonna be in Revelation chapter three this morning, and this early in the book, Jesus, he's giving custom messages to seven different churches, and one of these churches is the church that you may know as the church of Laodicea, and when talking to the Laodicean people, Jesus isn't pulling any punches or holding back. He's coming right at him, and he says this in Revelation chapter three, Jesus says, "I know your deeds, that they are neither cold nor hot." I know your deeds, I know your good works, and they're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one of them. So because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, I'm about to spit you out of my mouth. What you wanted to hear is coming to church this morning, right, right? You say, "I am rich, and I have acquired wealth, "and do not need a thing, but you do not realize "that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." Jesus, a few verses later, says, "Those whom I love, "I rebuke and discipline, so be earnest and repent. "Here I am, I stand at the door and I knock. "If anyone hears my voice," Jesus says, "opens the door, "I will come in and eat with that person, "and they with me." Jesus said, "I would rather you be one or the other. "I'd rather you be cold, or I'd rather you be hot. "But the fact that you are lukewarm, I'm going to, "for a lack of a better term, vomit you up." But Jesus isn't playing. I wanna give you a little context. That's why Jesus brought this spiritual intensity to Laodicea. See, Laodicea was one of the wealthiest cities in the entire Roman Empire. And 30 years prior to this, they had a massive earthquake that ruined the city. And unlike what would be custom in that culture, where neighboring towns and families and cities would come together, Laodicea had so much wealth that they just themselves took care of their city. This is completely unheard of. They were loaded. And when they rebuilt their cities, they built extravagant coliseums, theaters, shops, markets. Think of like a modern day Las Vegas. Might as well look something like this. There's a picture I put up here. It would have been extravagant for that time and that age. Modern technology like you'd never seen. But when Jesus says, "You think this wealthy "and your self-sufficient community are," he says, "You are lukewarm.”

And this analogy would have been so striking for this city. Because even with all of their wealth and everything that they had, their biggest problem, their number one thing was they had an inadequate water supply. And so the only solution they had was to actually bring water into the city. And so I got a map here of where Laodicea is. And what they would do is up in Hierapolis, they would bring down hot spring water. And then from Colossae, they would pipe through these kind of old school aqueducts that would bring in this cool spring water from the underground. So might here be thinking about H. Hierapolis, H. hot and Colossae C. being cold. And so they would have to bring in this water. But the problem was, because these cities were so far away, by the time the water, the hot water from Hierapolis would get to the city, it would have cooled. The hot mineral spring water that had these healing capabilities wouldn't be hot anymore. And then the cold water from the underground springs in Colossae, by the time it made it through these aqueducts and this gross piping, it would arrive tepid. It would just be lukewarm. And so these people would understand when Jesus says you are lukewarm, they would very well know exactly what Jesus is talking about. Because this water, by the time it got to them, being lukewarm and going through all these minerals and sediment and all this long travel, it would be gross. It would be filled with sediment. It would be calcified and it would make people sick. Jesus is saying here that you are lukewarm. You're not hot, you're not cold. You are not serving any real purpose and that makes me sick.

See, the spiritual interpretation here for lukewarm is occasionally misunderstood. I think when Jesus says this, you're not cold, you're not hot, he was not just talking about their spiritual passion, but he was also talking about their spiritual purpose and impact because the hot water had purpose to heal and the cool water had purpose to refresh and cleanse. And Jesus is saying you are not fulfilling your purpose. May I say this humbly and with a heart to heal and a desire for hope to bring to your life, as you enter a new year looking back, you may have not fulfilled your spiritual purpose. See, God has given each and every one of you a specialized gifts. He's created you in a special certain way. Some of you are so good with people. Others of you are so other oriented. Some of you are incredibly generous towards others. Others of you know how to organize in a way that is like scientific. Others of you know how to serve in such a great way. Something about you is different. And if you didn't use that gift and the way that God gave it to you to fulfill your spiritual purpose, creating a spiritual impact to make a difference, Jesus might say to you, "You're lukewarm.”

See, there's a word here in the Greek called emeo. And this is the action that Jesus is talking about. And it's a pretty aggressive word, I'm not gonna lie. But the word emeo means to vomit, to throw up, to spew out forcefully. If any of you have ever been around a baby after you fed them, some of them are just like a ticking time bomb, right? You don't handle them too rough. You don't move them around too much. Dare say you ever lay on your back and go, "Wee!" Like this, 'cause it is going to come out. Emeo here is almost to this level of a projectile vomit, a strong visceral response. And Jesus says, "I am vomiting you out." God can't stomach comfortable Christianity. He can't. And it's not just undesirable to God, it's intolerable. Christian-ish. Suggest this half-hearted, convenient, comfortable, committing to receive the benefits of Jesus without fully surrendering to the call of Jesus. Suggest a half-hearted faith that's repugnant to God and reacts in a visceral way.

But Jesus says this in Revelation 3:17. He says, "You say I am rich." That's what the people of Laodicea would say, "I am rich." Well, today, I wanna let you know that maybe this correlation would be you have an iPhone or a smartphone. You can go on Amazon and you can shop and you can get it in two days or less. You came here in a car. From the perspective of the world and the eyes of the world, you are rich. You live in the top percentile of people on this entire planet. You are rich. You have maybe even a house for your car that you go home and you drive and you park it in. It's called a garage. You have not only a house, but a house for your car. Jesus says, "I have acquired," Jesus, that you say, "I have acquired wealth "and do not need a thing." Maybe you know somebody who doesn't need anything from God. Maybe you don't think you need anything from God. You think, "I don't need anything." Maybe you're like this guy that I continue to have these conversations with who says, "I'm just a good person. "I got it figured out. "I went to church when I was a kid. "I got my Jesus. "I'm good. "I don't need that anymore." Or maybe you're one who goes, "I got it figured out. "I don't need anybody to tell me how to live my life. "I don't need some outdated, archaic religion "to make me have to feel better about myself." Maybe you don't need anything from God, but the problem is you may feel that way until you do need something from God, until you get that medical report, or until something happens in your life. And maybe you weren't a person who prayed the day before, but it sure can tell you when you get some bad news, you turn into a praying person, right? Until your spouse leaves you and you don't know what to do, or until you have a broken relationship, maybe with a friend or child or family member, and then you feel broken and hopeless. Or maybe you're a situation where you finally got everything that you wanted. You finally got there. You got the job. You got the house. You got the six-figure income. You got the boat. You got the vocation. You got it all. And you sit there, and then you begin to realize, yeah, I might be rich in stuff, but I'm spiritually empty. I'm poor in spirit.

Revelation 3:17 continues on. It says, "And you do not realize." Don't realize. I may not realize. You do not realize. "Wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked." Have you ever been out to dinner, maybe with some friends, and you're having a good time, you're having a great conversation, and then you go to the restroom, and you look in the mirror, and all of a sudden you realize you've got food in your teeth, right? You got a little piece of meat stuck right here. Maybe you got a little bit of cilantro or pepper or something, and you're just like, "Oh my gosh. "I've got stuff in my teeth." Last year, right up here, one Sunday I led worship. It was great. It was an awesome Sunday. The band was rocking. You guys were worshiping. I didn't make any mistakes, which is impressive. I usually make mistakes every Sunday, just to let you know. I got done, I walked in the back, and what I realized, my zipper was down. I led worship up here for the whole service with my zipper down. I didn't realize. It was recently I got a haircut, and I got my beard trimmed up. I was feeling good. Life was great. I had a big meeting with some other pastors. We were having a good conversation. Was doing just awesome. I felt like a million bucks. I don't know, a new haircut, right? It can just make you feel like you're just killing it. And then I get home, and I look in the mirror, and what happened? I had these nose hairs that I felt like went all the way down to my mustache. They probably didn't go that far. But then there was like a little booger hanging in there. The whole time, I'm so focused on this up here and the sideburns and all the beard and everything. And yet the one hairs that needed to be trimmed didn't get trimmed. I didn't realize.

What if you are lukewarm and you just don't realize? What if you are not fulfilling your God-ordained purpose and you don't even realize it? You think, you know, I'm okay, I'm good. I'm a spiritual person. I believe in God and everything. I'm all right. I got my Jesus, I'm good. But you don't even realize that you're spiritually wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and you got your zipper down. You're naked. Or you got a booger hanging in your nose hairs. See, lukewarm Christian-ish faith is perhaps the greatest and ultimate form of self-deception. It's enough of Jesus to soothe your conscience with some good word and encouragement and some music every Sunday, but it's not enough to make you anew. What if you're lukewarm and you just don't even realize it? Christian-ish. How do you know if you're lukewarm?

I kind of put together five different thoughts and signs that you might be lukewarm. This isn't an exhaustive list, this isn't an end all be all, but this is kind of maybe a place to start to check our hearts. The first of which would be you might be lukewarm if you crave acceptance from people more than acceptance from God. More than trying to live a life that is pleasing to God, you actually just wanna be liked by people. You wanna fit in, you wanna be popular, want everybody to like you, you wanna be long, and that's fine, that's natural. We have that inside of us, but you end up just going along with the crowd. It's easier just to go along than to fight against, right? It's easier to go along than you have to stand out and to do something that Jesus has called you to this. Jesus says this, "Woe to you, "who everyone speaks well of you, "because if you're truly following Jesus, "you will be persecuted." That's the reality. You may be lukewarm if you're seeking acceptance of people more than acceptance from God. Number two, you may be lukewarm if you rationalize sin. If there's sin in your life, something in your life that's displeasing or dishonorable to God, but you explain it away. Hey, everybody else is doing it, so it just, is it really that big of a deal? Nobody needs to be in my business, that's me and my own business, stay out of it. I'm not hurting anybody, but God's word in Isaiah says, "Woe to those people who call good evil and evil good." You might be lukewarm, and you don't even realize it, if you rationalize or explain away your sin.

Third one, you might be lukewarm if you rarely share your faith in Christ. You say, "Oh, I'm a Christian, I believe in Jesus. "I know I'm called to be a light in this world, "but it's just not my gift. I'm just not wired like that. "I'm not very good at it. "I don't want to offend people. "I just, I'm better at other things, "so I'm gonna focus on those things, "so I just, I don't share my faith." Maybe you're so timid in your faith that you've been working with someone in your job for seven years, and they would be surprised to find out that you're a follower of Jesus. I can be convicted of this one as well. Sometimes I myself forget to invite people to church when I'm the one that is kinda doing a lot. You rarely share your faith in Christ. You don't want to offend people. You don't even realize. Number four, you might be lukewarm. You only turn to God when you need something. God is your emergency 911. He's that call when it all hits the fan. Instead of seeking Him every single day and letting His Holy Spirit guide your life, letting His Word come into your heart and build your faith, would you renew your mind? You call on Him when you're in trouble. Maybe like a tool in our toolbox that we pull out when we need it, and then when we're done with it, we put it in the drawer, we close it, and we know it's there when we can go back to it, but we only really use it or pull it out when we need it. Something that we use instead of a God that we truly honor and worship. You might be lukewarm when God is someone you call on when you need something.

The final thought, you might be lukewarm when you're not much different from this world. So you call yourself a Christian, but you talk like you're not. Maybe you gossip just like everybody else at work. Maybe it's under the guise of I'm gonna gossip because I need to pray for my brother or sister in Christ. Or maybe you cuss, I don't know. Maybe you take the Lord's name in vain. Maybe you're critical of other people. You're judgmental with your words. Maybe you're watching the same shows on Netflix and TV, shows that take God's name in vain and are horrible stuff that is just completely dishonoring to God, but you rationalize it. Maybe you're rationalizing some sexual sin and you say, it's just not that big of a deal. I'm not going that far. I'm not hurting anybody. Or maybe you're hanging out with friends and you just have a few too many to drink. Just a little tipsy, just a little buzz. I'm not like pass out drunk. Or maybe, I don't know, you're doing drugs and you know you shouldn't, but you're doing it because everybody else is doing it. You're living for the things of this world. Maybe you're living for money. You're clamoring for success for yourself. And yet at the same time, you claim Jesus is all your success. But your actions say something different. Your actions say that you love the world. What if you're lukewarm and you don't even realize it? You claim Jesus yet. You love this world. 1 John 2:15 reminds us to, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. "If anyone loves the world, "the love of the Father is not in them.”

So you may say, okay, Chris, you're obviously coming out swinging in 2026. You're not holding anything back. But I feel convicted. Is Jesus mad at me? I wanna tell you right now, and I wanna promise to you that Jesus loves you more than you can imagine. He does. He loves you way more than you can even think or fathom in your life. And when Jesus was calling out the Laodiceans as being lukewarm, he was not to shame them or to make them feel guilty. He was loving them. He was loving them. It says this in Revelation 3:19, "I correct and I discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.” Jesus is saying, I'm not angry at you. I'm not mad at you. I love you. Just as if a parent correcting a child. You're loving them. You're trying to help them. You're trying to guide them. You're not mad at them. I got some kids in the audience this morning. Where a parent is guiding them and leading them, loving them. I've been convicted by the Holy Spirit on this story myself. I heard an analogy from a, I think it was an author, a Christian author, and talks about how our heart is like rooms in our house. And I think sometimes that we're good to let like Jesus into the living room, but that's it, right? Maybe he makes it to the kitchen, heaven forbid, maybe the hall bathroom, but he ain't going in the bedroom, right? And he's really not going to the closet and he's really not going for that box that I've got deep back, deep, deep, deep back in there in my heart. I'm not opening that box for him. Newsflash, Jesus knows the box is there. That's the reality. You're not hiding anything from him. But I think there's just something about this word here, this word indifference.

The scripture is saying, Jesus is saying, "Be diligent, turn from your indifference." I find this striking because there's, I think, this one word truly captures a lot of Christian-ish people when it comes to the things of God. They're just indifferent. Take it if it helps, leave if it doesn't. Call on Jesus when you need him. Live comfortably by yourself when you don't. And so maybe you're feeling a little bit of the conviction of the Holy Spirit right now. And that's not because God has managed you. It's because God is loving you. So what do we do? What do we do this? How do we grow out of this Christian-ish life? I was there probably middle school, high school of my life. And I was in church every Sunday. I was there for Bible studies. I was there for youth group. I was there for service projects. I even went to a Christian school. And when I was around all the Christian people, I spoke all the Christian stuff. I lived a life, I said the right things. I do the Jesus stuff. But then when I was around my non-Christian friends, I was so far from Jesus, it wasn't even funny. I was living this lukewarm, hot, cold life. And God got my attention one year at youth camp. And he says, "What are you gonna do, dude? "You gotta choose one. "Either in or you're out. "I'm done with this lukewarm garbage in your life, Chris. "You gotta choose." And I remember sitting on a rock overlooking this lake, having this argument with God. And he said, "You just can't keep living like this. "Can't live over here like this "and then go do this stuff over here." I was living Christian-ish. But I had to make a decision. And God may be like me right now. He might be convicting you in his love.

So what do you gotta do? I have some good news for you this morning. And I could give you a list of 21 things for you to start today to live out of your Christian-ish and step into a Christian faith. And I think there would probably be some pretty good stuff. I talk about reading God's word daily because when you do, it changes and transforms who you are. I would say you need to pray and talk to God every single day. You need to be in Christian community and accountability. You need to get in the Word of God. You need to be in Christian community and accountability. You need to give and to trust God by faith. You need to worship. You need to be in church every single Sunday in 2026. I could give you a whole laundry list, but if you're probably like me, maybe just even a little bit, sometimes when you're given too much, you end up doing nothing at all, right? It's 2026. You're supposed to be doing all this new stuff. You're supposed to be working out, eating better. You're supposed to be going to bed on time. You're supposed to have less blue light at night. You're supposed to be doing this. You're supposed to be doing that. Eat your vegetables, right? No more sugar. Everybody's telling you to do all this stuff, and then what happens? Tomorrow. Right? So I don't wanna do that.

I wanna be honest. I wanna give you one thing today. Here's your one thing to walk away from today. Are you ready? If you wanna grow out of your Christian-ish illusion of self-deception to be truly a follower, devoted disciple of Jesus, I suggest this. Do something every day that requires faith. Do something every single day that requires you to trust in God. And take time each day. I don't know, write it down. Start a note on your phone. And start tracking. And if you miss one day, whoop-de-doo. Start the next day. And then do it again the next day. And do it the next day. Every single day, do something that requires you to put your faith in Jesus more than you did the day before. Maybe for you, it's to do what is right, even if a friend might make fun of you. Maybe it's to worship God even when you don't feel like it. That by faith, you worship Him. Maybe you need to forgive somebody. We just came through the holidays and the season of family and all the fun that comes along with that. Maybe you need to forgive somebody, ask for forgiveness. Maybe it's somebody who hurts you really deeply. Maybe it's a friend, a family member. Maybe you need to give sacrificially above a tithe. Maybe you need to tithe for the very first time, 'cause that's gonna take a whole lot of faith. Maybe you need to invite somebody to church. Maybe you need to share your faith in a way that isn't just like, hey, good to see you, bye. Gave him a little Jesus, didn't know it. Maybe you need to pray to ask God to do something impossible in your life that you're like, why do I even begin to pray this? This isn't gonna happen. Maybe you do.

Do something that requires faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith, it is impossible to please God." Do something that requires faith. Please, God, do something every day that requires faith to put your trust in Jesus. 'Cause when you do that, you won't be Christian-ish. You can't be Christian-ish if you're doing that. You won't be lukewarm. You know what, you won't be tepid. You will be hot in your faith. Why? Because you're serving God. You're glorifying him. And when you do something that requires faith, you're depending upon God, not yourself. You're depending upon God. And suddenly you're just not concerned with the world around you and what they think. Your one concern is an audience of one. I'm glorifying God, I'm honoring God. That is what matters. You're living for his approval. Maybe you'll stop rationalizing your sin because why? You will be confessing your sins to Jesus. And Jesus says, "When you confess your sins, he being God is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all of your unrighteousness." Be empowered by the Holy Spirit to do the will of God. Instead of hiding in your faith, you will be bold. You'll start sharing your faith with others and you won't care what they think. And they will see it. They will be lit up like a light in a dark place and they will be drawn to the savior. Mary, for the very first time, through the power of the gospel. And you don't just turn to God when you need something, but you seek him, you prioritize him. Pastor Andreas said it beautifully before, church on Sunday starts on Saturday. You don't just wake up and accidentally fall into church, right? You made a conscious decision last night or maybe earlier in the week, maybe you need to back it up a few days. You made a conscious decision to be in church today. And I think you are here for a purpose and a reason. And God has a word for your life. You design your life around him. And you know what'll happen? You won't look like the world anymore. You will be different and people will know it. Others will respect it. You are not Christian-ish. You are dead to yourself, but you are alive in Christ.

So what if you find out you got some stuff in your teeth or your zipper's down, or you might be a little bit lukewarm, and you don't even realize it, what do you do? Jesus says here in Revelation 3.20, look, I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we'll share a meal together as friends. Jesus is knocking. You let him into your life. See this word here, this knock in the Greek, it's what they call like a perfect tense. It means it's an active, ongoing thing. Jesus is just knocking. And he's knocking. And he's knocking. He's not trying to sell you anything. Not getting you to sign up for a home warranty. He's just knocking. But in a way that is so loving and caring that says, will you just let me in? You know what's even greater is that there's only even a door there because of Jesus. And that it's only by the grace of Jesus that we can even open the door. But there's a door and Jesus is knocking. And Jesus has created and made a way for you to have a life like you never experienced it. To live life with purpose in the way that you were created. So what do you do? I'd encourage you open the door. I would encourage you to go all in. What if 2026 was the year that you stopped holding anything back? And just see what happens. Just see what happens. Just let God come into your life. Just let him have access as the story I was saying. Your home is like your heart. Have access to everything and just let him do his thing. What would that look like in your life? 'Cause I wanna be a follower of Jesus that's not gonna settle for a faith that looks the part but lacks the power. I wanna be a fully follower of Jesus, a disciple of Jesus in the everyday stuff of life. To let him come and saturate my heart and my life and transform me into the person he has created me to be. Luke Warm doesn't just grieve God, but it robs you of the life that God wants for you. He doesn't want half of your heart. He doesn't want a little bit of your heart. He doesn't want just this over here and this over here and this over here. He wants your entire heart. He wants it all. He's standing at the door, knocking. No one's gonna stop him from knocking. He's just there. The question is, will you let him in? Will you let him come in and bring full purpose and meaning and life to you so that you can experience the life that he desired and created for you? So what if you don't realize it? You might be Luke Warm. What are you gonna do? You're gonna do something every day that requires faith because without faith, it's impossible to please God. And more than anything else, what do we wanna do? We wanna please God with everything that we are and everything that we do.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would stir God deep within us, that we would become the people that you created us to be. And right now, I wanna take a moment. I just wanna, I wanna talk to those in this room who are a Christian. You know you're a Christian. You're not just Christian-ish. You know that you're a Christian and you have maybe become a little comfortable in your life. And I wanna try to help stir you up in your faith. And I wanna challenge you that every day this week, for the next seven days, you would write something down. You would maybe put in your phone, put it somewhere. I don't know where you wanna put it. But I want you to do something that requires faith. And this is for those that you're a Christian and you don't want to become comfortable that every day this week, you're going to look for that moment at least once a day, maybe more. I don't know, but you just are gonna say, "Yes, Chris, I want you to pray for me this week "as I step out in faith." Is that you? I just want you to raise your hand 'cause I wanna pray for you this week. If you would say, "I'm gonna be one. "I wanna step out this week. "Every single day I'm gonna do something in faith." I see you guys, thank you. Yes. God, I pray for those, Jesus, that as they raise their hands, that maybe that was their first step of faith to go, "God, I don't know. "I'm trusting you. "I don't know what this looks like. "I don't know all the details of it, but I'm trusting you. "I am going to step out this week, "and I'm gonna do something every single day "that requires faith." God, I pray that you would be with us, that you would be with those who right now just raised their hands, that you would help them and give them a boldness. They would give them faith, not to live by sight, but God, to depend on you. 'Cause we know without you, we don't have anything. So God, I pray that you would stir up a boldness. You would forgive us, but when we are comfortable, you would teach us, God, to live by faith every single day.

And as we continue to pray, maybe you would say, "Chris, I'm like that guy "that you were talking about. "Maybe I've been coming to church just to be social, "or maybe just be spiritual in general. "I think it's a cool church or whatever." But you're not really walking with Jesus. You have not taken that step of faith to put your full trust and your full self in him. You hear Jesus knocking at the door, and you might've been convicted a little bit this morning, but you would say, "For the very first time, Chris, "I want to let Jesus into my life. "I want to open up the door." If you would say, "That is you, "I wanna put up a salvation prayer on our screen, "and I would encourage you to pray this prayer. "I'm gonna say it out loud. "I want you to pray in your heart, "but I want you, in this prayer, "for you are opening up the door to Jesus." And this is the prayer. It says, "Father in heaven, "I know that I've lived for myself instead of you. "I have sinned against you, "but I believe that Jesus died for my sin, "so I confess my sin, and I ask you to forgive me. "I bow to you as Lord and leader of my life. "Help me to live for you from this day forward. "In Jesus' name." If you were one who prayed that prayer, you would say for the very first time, "I want you to look up. "I wanna be able to celebrate you. "I wanna pray with you. "I wanna lift you up in Jesus' name, "because I am so excited with you "that you're leaving your Christian-ish behind, "and that you're stepping to a relationship with Jesus "for the very first time. "Jesus, we thank you for this morning. "God, I thank you sometimes even for the hard sermons. "God, as you've put this on our hearts "over a month ago, God, "that knowing that this wouldn't be the easiest thing "maybe to hear in the first week of January in 2026, "God, but it was what you wanted us to hear. "So God, I pray that as we step into faith with you, "as we leave our Christian-ish behind, "as we take a step of faith "and to do something each and every day "to trust in you a little bit more in 2026, "God, may this be the year that we go fully all in "in our faith for you, God. "God, transform us. "God, shape us. "God, give us purpose and meaning "for what you have for our life. "We thank you, Jesus. "We love you. "Amen.

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 4

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 4

1 kings 18, Matthew 17:12

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I hope as we've continued in our Advent Series, you can now see how it all makes sense and we've addressed different things throughout our series. We're wrapping up this morning and I want to begin by asking you guys a question, which is this, in our noisy world today, what is it that you are hearing? We live in a information age, more recently, which morphed into a digital revolution where the Internet, the invention of the Internet enabled rapid sharing of information and data. And we're all used to this at this point in our lives. The Internet has only been around publicly since the 90s. And so, when we look at all of history, this digital era is still in its infancy, really, just 30-something years old. It's a shift in our world to an information-based economy driven by computers, the Internet, digital technology that allows for instant access to information, the sharing of that information and the manipulation of that information. And really what that means is that there's so much noise that we have to cipher through day after day. In the last 20 years with the invention of the smartphone giving us apps and Internet and everything at our fingertips, never before has humanity had to try to process so much information day after day. From the moment we wake up and look at our phones to the breaks that we have at work or right after while something's boiling on the stove and we're just scrolling to right before bed, we can just be taking in more and more and more information. Just look at social media. It's not uncommon. In fact, it's quite regular for your algorithms to have everything from funny videos to music and dance trends to cooking recipes to conspiracy theories and historical and trivial facts to journalistic commentary about today's news and events. And that is just quite the spectrum of information that you can get within 30 seconds of this video to the next video. And so again I ask, in our noisy world today, so full of information coming at us from every direction at all different volumes, what is it that we are hearing? And I want to add to that question, what is it that we are hearing and believing? We may hear a lot, but what is it that we are choosing to believe out of all that noise?

We're wrapping up our series where we've looked at the birth of how the birth of Jesus brought the most complete and fullest picture of certain roles that we needed in life as humanity. We are all born with inherent needs and desires that we cannot fulfill ourselves, though we try. And so we are born needing a king, someone to rule over us. And Jesus came as the perfect earthly king, or sorry, heavenly king. We are born needing a savior. We cannot save ourselves, and Jesus came to save. He is our savior. We are born needing a priest, someone to be that connection between us and God. And Jesus is the perfect intermediary, a perfect priest. And today we'll address how we are born needing to hear the truth. And Jesus is our perfect prophet. A prophet is someone who is sent by God to speak truth and life into a situation. God sends a prophet to cut through the noise of the world so that people may know the truth. There's something inside all of us that yearns to know what is true. And in this digital age, it's getting increasingly harder and harder to know with full assurance what is true. One of the problems we face is that so many people seemingly in positions of authority or influence are addressing our biggest questions and telling us the answers, telling us what they believe is true. Again, you just open up your phone and scroll on social media, and sure enough, at some point you'll find someone peddling their truth. This is what really happened. This is truth. And it can leave us in a position of thinking, you know what, that's a lot. I'm hearing a lot of things. I'll just decide. I'll be the decision maker of what is true. I'll be the judge of that. And all of a sudden, we have become our own authority on truth. So we know as Christians that truth is not subjective. Despite what the world says, it doesn't mean that we perfectly understand or comprehend the truth, but there is an objective truth. And thankfully, we as Christians know the source of truth, and that is God. But even as Christians, the temptation can remain to be our own authority. So I want to ask, what can go wrong when a person becomes the ultimate source of truth? Well, when we define truth, we tend to, maybe not at first, but it tends to devolve into this. We can affirm our own sin. We lack repentance and justify our own sin. We don't just say it's okay, we'll actually tell you why our sin is okay. We avoid confrontation of falsities and injustices, and we'll weaponize whatever happened in what we believe as in I told you so, put other people down.

When we listen to God's truth, something different happens. We are transformed to be like Christ. We are convicted of our sin. We are led to repentance and humbly turning towards God in submission to say, "God, I can't do this on my own. I need you." What we really need is someone to tell us the truth, not just anyone, right? We've been down that road. We need someone who will speak truth in love, someone who has eyes to see clearly the earthly realities but from a heavenly perspective. We need someone who's going to tell us in truth the honesty, be honest about our human condition. We need someone to tell us, to give us guidance and instruction from God's word. We need the truth, someone who will tell us the truth that will call us to repentance and help us to be right before God. Enter Jesus as the perfect prophet. He's the perfect priest, king, savior, and prophet. And Jesus came as a prophet to Israel for the world. And he came to give them the truth, to help them see the world from God the Father's perspective, to address the human condition, and to give guidance and to call them to repent and to restore their relationships with Yahweh, God the Father. Many people at the time of Jesus began to see him as a prophet. They started to pick up on the fact that he was different. And during his ministry, they recognized it. And Matthew 21:10 says, "When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, 'Who is this?' And the crowd answered, 'This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth and Galilee.’"

See, this wasn't the first time that Israel had experience with prophets. In fact, God had sent many, many prophets to Israel over the course of their history as a nation. We have over 15 books in the Old Testament from prophets, all of them trying to get Israel's attention to pull them back to God, call them back to God, to help them understand that the noise that they are listening to in the world is not the truth, that they would, prophets would come and ask them to repent, to turn back in humble submission. You see, just like we tend to do, Israel would listen to the wrong things. And there was a lot of noise in their lives, and it was distracting and pulling them away from Yahweh. Israel was used to and had experience with these messengers. The problem was these messengers weren't always received very well. Oftentimes they were rejected and ignored, and the message, if it was received, didn't seem to last that long. The impacts and the call to change seemed to fade over time.

One of Israel's most influential and memorable prophets was Elijah. God used him to do some amazing things, and as influential leaders go, sometimes the first one is that measuring stick. So often the prophets get compared to Elijah. Is he greater? How does he compare to Elijah the prophet? So I want to get into a situation, if you guys want to turn in your Bibles to 1 Kings 18, or it'll be on the screen. I want to look further into Elijah because I think it helps us better understand the role that Jesus fulfilled and was even better than Elijah. But we've got to understand a little bit about Elijah first. So I want to paint this picture of what's happening in the Old Testament. God is sending Elijah, again, to speak the truth, to cut through the noise of the world. And at this time in Israel's history, there was a famine in the land, and there was a bad king who was leading Israel away from God. And the king's wife, also not great, was killing all the prophets. Not good. Not a good situation. Dangerous time to be a prophet. But Elijah is awesome and full of God's strength and mercy. And so we're going to be in 1 Kings 18. It says this, "After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, 'Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.' So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab." So Elijah's going to speak on behalf of God. And God is using these current circumstances to try to get a hold of the king. The famine, the tension that is happening in Israel, this is all like, "Hey, king, are you paying attention? Things aren't good. You should turn to God." Well, Elijah is actually being blamed by the king for a lot of this. And the king's twisted mind. He's like, "Man, Elijah's the source of all my problems." And Elijah's like, "Well, king, I'm about to set you straight. That's not how it is. It's actually your fault. And let me tell you, and let me call you back to God." So if we skip down to verse 18, he goes and meets with Ahab, and he says, "I have not made trouble for Israel," Elijah replied, "but you and your father's family have. You have abandoned the Lord's commands and have followed the Baals.”

Now Baals are false gods. It is a false god, but it's also this umbrella term for all the other little false gods that were under that false god. "Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel, and bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asheroth who eat at Jezebel's table." All right, so Elijah's calling for this showdown between the God of Israel that they abandoned and the gods that they had turned their attention to, that they were listening to now. And Elijah makes it very clear to them, he's like, "This is going to be a showdown, and at the end of this, follow whoever wins. If it's Yahweh, then follow Yahweh. If it ends up being Baal and the false gods, then follow them. But this will be the deciding factor. We're going to make it clear who is God.

Jump down to verse 22, and this is what the showdown is going to look like. "Then Elijah said to them, 'I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bowls for us. Let Baal's prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on wood, but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bowl and put it on wood, but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord, the God who answers by fire. He is God.' Then all the people said, 'What you say is good.'" All right, so we have two altars of wood, two bowls cut into pieces for a sacrifice, which was a very common way to worship whatever God you worship back in that time. And he says, "You guys call out to your God, I'll call out to my God, and whoever lights the altar on fire, divinely, supernaturally, then we know who is God." And all the odds from the human perspective are with Baal. He's got four hundred and fifty prophets to call out to Baal, to one Elijah. And Elijah tips the scales even further by pouring water. He says, "Grab a bunch of buckets of water and just douse my altar with water so that the fire, it's even harder for the fire to catch." And so they do it. There's a little trench that they build around it, and they just keep dumping water and water and water. And then they start calling out. And the prophets to Baal, they're calling and it's taking hours, and nothing's happening, and hours. And Elijah's sitting there, kind of with like a holy smugness. I would say holy smugness. And he's like, "Yeah, is your God there? Is he home?" He starts taunting them. And these priests, these false priests are going to extreme lengths to try to get their God's attention, and just nothing. And then we read, Elijah, what happens next?

Verse thirty-six says, "At the time of the sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed, 'Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.' Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, 'The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.'" I love it. This is incredible. And so we see Elijah being the messenger of God, calling people back, invites them to repentance, and at the end, the people respond well. They bow down and they worship God. Talk about cutting through the noise with the truth and being able to have this great moment for Israel's history, say, "Yes, yes, we messed up, but God called us back and we responded." So you can see why people like Elijah. They're like, "Yeah, Elijah was good. Helped us out, really good guy." But unfortunately, their worship was short-lived, and their hearts and minds, again, strayed from God, even as impactful and amazing as Elijah was and how God used him, they still didn't stay with God for very long. And they would drift away. And what they were hearing and believing was no longer God, but the things of the world. And God sent more prophets and more prophets to try to get Israel back, till finally he said, "You know what, I'm going to put a pause on sending prophets." And there was a time of silence from hearing from God, until John the Baptist.

John the Baptist, as you may know, was tasked with preparing the way, preparing the way for Jesus. Even John the Baptist, though, was compared to Elijah. It says in Matthew 17, Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come." And they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands, then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist. See, Jesus was addressing the fact that a prophet came, because the last prophet that Israel had ever heard of, Malachi in the Old Testament, says in chapter 4, verse 5, "I will send the prophet Elijah to you." So Israel's been waiting. They're like, "This prophet, some prophet is going to come, like Elijah." And they're waiting. And John the Baptist shows up, but not everyone believed. And in fact, it says, "They have done to him everything they wished." And Jesus is referring to the fact that they beheaded John the Baptist. A prophet came preparing the way for Jesus, and they killed him. And Jesus says, "The Son of Man is going to suffer in the same way. He's going to die." So the question remained for Israel, who are they listening to? Who will they believe? And sometimes we think we want to hear the truth. We think we do. We think we're ready to accept the truth. But when the truth actually comes, our response is one of indifference, or blatant disregard, or even hatred to the message, or hatred to the messenger. And this is most true in the life of Jesus, who is the most perfect prophet. So God said, "The time has come, enough with prophets, I'm going to send my Son, the perfect prophet.”

And Hebrews chapter 1 says this, "In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through him also he made the universe." So God said, "All right, you ignored my other prophets, the messengers that came on behalf of me, now I'm sending my Son, and he's going to speak the truth. And I want him to cut through the noise of the world." And Jesus came to fulfill all the things that we need from a prophet, and he does these things so perfectly. Jesus speaks truth in love. John 18:37 says, "The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." Jesus speaks the truth. Everything that comes out of his mouth is truth. As a prophet, Jesus helps us see earthly realities from a heavenly perspective. Just read any of the Beatitudes. Go to Matthew 5:6-7, and just read how Jesus is calling us to live in this world, but with a heavenly perspective. That the realities that we face, that everyone faces, are still true, but how we go about them, our approach, our mindset, is different when we have that heavenly perspective.

So we call it the upside-down kingdom. It's kind of a nickname we have for God's kingdom, because it's so upside-down, it's so inverse of what the world would say makes sense. You need these things in life. You need shelter, you need clothing, you need food. And the world would say, "Prioritize that. Make that the number one thing in life. Make sure you have those things before everything else." But Jesus says, Matthew 6:19, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also." Or Matthew 6:31, says, "So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. So take first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Jesus helps us see the heavenly perspective of our earthly reality, saying, "Those things are important. You do need them, but it's not number one. The first thing is to love God, to pursue God, to give God your everything, and he will take care of you." Jesus as a prophet speaks truth and love, helps us see it, earth's realities from a heavenly perspective, and he's also honest and addresses our spiritual condition. John 8:34 says, "Jesus replied, 'Verily I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.'" We are all sinners, all of humanity, and he came to save us. He didn't come down from heaven to comfort us and say, "Oh, you're doing great. You just do you. I totally understand." He didn't come to coddle us. No, he told us, "You guys are sinners. You're enslaved to it, and I'm here to set you free." He came to free us from sin through his sacrifice. So he gives us, he addresses our spiritual condition, and he also gives us instruction from God's word. He gives us guidance. It says in Luke 24:27, "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures." He took time with his disciples and said, "This is what it means to follow God. It says all this. This is a lot to work through to understand. Let me help you. Let me give you some instruction. Let me give you some guidance for your everyday life and help you understand what it means to live righteously." He summarizes it concisely with the command that you've probably heard. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself.”

So we want to sum up all of Jesus' teachings. Maybe we take that as the most important thing. But he gives us those instructions for us today. This is what Jesus does as a prophet, speaking truth. He also calls us to repentance and restoration. Mark 1:15 says, "Jesus went to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. The time has come," he said, "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news." He wants us to turn away from sin and be in right relationship with God the Father. John 3:17 says, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." I love that Jesus was sent in order that we would repent, that we could have right relationship. He didn't just come to punish and say, "You guys are all sinners. You deserve hell. Let's make this happen." No. He wants us to be in heaven with God the Father, and he provides the way for that to happen. And so he calls us to repent and then to follow God with our lives. So he calls us to repentance and restoration. But it gets even better. Because not only does Jesus speak the truth, but church, Jesus is the truth. Says in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." To know Jesus, to have a personal relationship with him, is to know the truth. What better way to answer that question that people ask today, "Hey, how do I know what is truth?" And respond in a way, it's actually more, "Who is the truth?" And it's Jesus Christ. John 1:14 says, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

This is what Christmas is all about. The Word becoming flesh. The truth wrapped in flesh, born a priestly king, born to save the world. Jesus come down as a baby who is the truth. I asked a question at the beginning, "What is it that you are hearing and believing?" And so I want to ask you now, do you hear Jesus today? And do you believe him? Are you listening because Jesus is calling out to you? And he does this in different ways. He calls you to himself, who is the truth. And he calls you to live in the truth through the Holy Spirit. He does this through his Word, as we read through prayer, through his voice, through the Spirit in our hearts, through people in our lives speaking exhortations to us. And are we listening? So are you able to hear Jesus? And if you are ready to listen, do you believe and follow that call? Because the way that we respond to hearing the truth reveals where our hearts are at. If we are ready and we're able, then we will listen. But if we're not, then our hearts are closed, and that kind of reveals where we're at in our relationship with God.

Are you able to hear Jesus? If you're sitting and you're like, "I try. I'm trying to hear Jesus, but I just, I don't, I can't." And I would say maybe there's too much noise in your life. Maybe you're struggling with some noise pollution. There's just too much going on, too much that you're paying attention to. And maybe you need to turn the volume down on some things. Maybe you need to turn the volume down on the time that you spend on your phone, scrolling, social media. Maybe you need to turn down the volume on listening to talk radio or podcasts or how much time you spend watching movies or shows, playing video games, watching the news. If you're saying, "Man, I can't hear God. It might be time to evaluate what is it that I'm spending my time listening to, though? And maybe that's the reason why I cannot hear God." If you are hearing his voice, then are you ready to receive his truth, to follow and obey? I want to ask, what is he calling you to do? Those things that a prophet fulfills, that a prophet does, that he fulfills, what is he calling you to do? Is he calling you to see your world through a heavenly perspective? Maybe you're going through stuff right now and you're facing some greed, some selfishness, and he's saying, "Hey, I need you to understand this from my point of view." Is he calling you to look at your spiritual condition? Is there some sin going on in your life that he wants you to look at and say, "Hey, I need you to surrender this over to me"? Is he calling you to repentance and restoration? Say, "Hey, you know that you've been living with this sin, but I need you to turn away from it, to surrender it to me, to follow me"? Your relationship with God isn't what it's supposed to be, so let's address that. Or is he calling you to heed his words and instructions? Maybe he's saying, "Hey, I've got a word for you. There's some things in this Bible. I've sent some friends that were trying to talk to you and you're not listening. I've got some instruction for how you should be living your life and I want you to follow it." Whatever it may be, church, listen to God this Christmas season. Treasure his words. And remember that Jesus speaks truth to set us free, not to condemn us, not to shame us, not to cast us out as failures, but to prepare us for his kingdom, to transform us into the likeness of Christ in order that we can love him better and love others like Jesus.

So this Christmas season, as we approach the final days before Christmas, I can't, like Pastor Lauren said, it is just days away that hits me like every morning. We're, "Oh my goodness, I still got to wrap things. I got to buy things too. Oh my God. Okay. I just thought of two more people that... Okay. See, God, I hear you. You heard me. Tell me. Yep." As we approach the final days before Christmas, I want us to be aware that the noise around us will only increase. The stress and hectic schedule will only get more stressful and more hectic. The voice of the consumer within us will only get more selfish and greedier. Or for some of us, the silence of loneliness and despair and isolation around the holidays will ring even more loudly. But church, we have the truth to cut through the noise or the silence because we have Christ. We have Christ to speak truth into our lives and into our hearts, guiding us to what truly matters. We have Christ to speak truth over us, to protect us and ensure that we remain with him. And we have Christ to speak truth through us, encouraging us to share the love of Jesus with the people that we come in contact with this Christmas season. So this Christmas, we pray that you know the truth, that you hear the truth from God above everything else. We can't completely turn off the noise from this world, but we can try and make sure that Jesus is the loudest thing that we're hearing around this season. And in moments that the Spirit ordains, we pray that you would share that truth for the real reason for the season. The incarnation of our perfect prophet, priest, king, our Savior. And so in that, we, church, the weary world can rejoice. Amen?

Let's pray. God, thank you again for your word, for sending your son, for sending the truth wrapped up as a baby, because God, without your son, Jesus, without the truth, we are lost. We have no hope. But this Christmas, we rejoice because through you, we have hope, we have assurance of eternity with you. God, I pray that you would help our hearts and ears to be sensitive to your voice this Christmas. And God, however you are trying to speak to us, through your word, through prayer, through times of silence, maybe an audible voice through our friends and loved ones. But God, I pray that you would make us attentive to your spirit. Tune our hearts to follow you. And God, may we be encouraged to give you everything that we have, that we would see the world we live in through your eyes, that we would love others the way that you have loved us, that we would take our sin and lay it before you and say, "God, take this. Make my heart clean again." God, thank you for your truth. And God, I pray that our attention would not just be given to you for an hour on a candlelight Christmas service, but every day through whatever we're going through, all the parties and gatherings and times at home, watching a Christmas movie, walking the neighborhood for Christmas lights, God, that we would be open to what you are doing in that very moment. Because we know that you work through all things in every situation. So God, we give our lives to you, we give our hearts to you, and we look forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior this Christmas. We pray this in your name. Amen.

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 3

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 3

Exodus 20:1–3, Hebrews 4 & 7

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are in week three of our Weary World Rejoices series. I have been loving this series, I don't know about you, but even before we started, when we were planning this, and we were talking to the staff, we were just kind of working through it. And I was just hit by the poignancy of it, and I love the idea of getting to talk about how we as a people are weary. We are tired, we work hard, we strive, even trying to just walk the Christian life can be tiresome sometimes. And so I thought it was such an important topic for us to talk about and acknowledge that we are weary. And this can be a weary season, but we still get to rejoice. We still can rejoice in Jesus. So, so far in our series, we've talked about Jesus as King. And then last week we talked about Jesus as our Savior. And this week we'll be talking about Jesus as Priest. And really, each week we focused on the need, or something that we as humanity desire or need, and then how we have, in our own striving, have distorted that or perverted that in some way. We've tried to fix the problem ourselves. And then how Jesus, in the person and character of who He is, is truly the answer to what we need. As we look at the biblical examples each week, we see how we've been weary since the fall. We have strived to fix our problems. We've all had things, humanity, since the beginning of time, has longed for things and tried to meet that need on our own. But we couldn't do it. We couldn't do it in our own strength. We've messed up the real answer, what we thought was the answer to our problem. We screwed it up. But we get to rejoice. This is the weary world rejoices, and we get to rejoice because of who Jesus is and how He meets that need in our lives. So, again, today we are going to be talking about Jesus as Priest.

Throughout Scripture, and specifically with the nation of Israel, we see the role of priests. We see the priesthood. Now, maybe for some of you, we might all have different responses to this idea of priests, especially maybe if you have a Catholic background or have experience with that. And there are many religions and faith beliefs that have priests that serve in that faith. We here in Spring Valley, in a Protestant belief system, we have pastors or ministry leaders. And so some of the roles and responsibilities have some crossover, but we see in Scripture what a priest was meant to do. And their role, their main role, they had many responsibilities, but their main role was to be the connection between God or Yahweh and the people. They were the go-between. They were the intermediary between Yahweh and the people of God. Today, the human desire and need we're going to talk about is connection. We all have this innate need to be connected. God actually put it in our DNA. We all need to feel connected, both to God and to humans, but He gave it to us. But God being perfect could not be in relationship with an imperfect people. And the Israelites were not perfect. We are not perfect. So He created a system that would allow an imperfect people to be connected to God.

And the priesthood that we'll see here was part of that plan, that was part of that system. So the priest represented the people to God and God to the people. And one person that we see exemplify this role is Moses, who actually wasn't officially a priest. He led the people of Israel. He helped establish them as a nation. He was the guy who went into Egypt. God used him with all the plagues. They got out of Egypt, divided the Red Sea, crossed through, wandered around for a while. Right, that guy, that Moses. He was the leader and God used him to establish the nation of Israel, to learn about God, to learn who He was and that they could trust Him. And although the priesthood hadn't been created officially yet, he served in that role. He offered sacrifices on behalf of the people. He would pray for them. He would communicate with God and bring the people, metaphorically, to God, and then bring the message of God back to the people. So he really was a priest in his role. And then later, he actually implemented the priesthood through his brother, Aaron. We see the formal establishment of the priesthood in Exodus. We're actually going to be in Hebrews mostly later this morning. But real quick, I want us to look at Exodus 40. It'll be on the screens. You're welcome to turn there. But I want to see how Moses established the formal priesthood for the Israelites. So Exodus 40, verse 12, it says, "Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest. Bring his sons and dress them in tunics. Anoint them just as you anointed their father so they may serve me as priest. Their anointing will be a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations. Moses did everything just as the Lord commanded him.”

So although Moses kind of acted as the priest for a long time, God had him establish the priesthood through his brother, Aaron, and it would continue through their lineage. It was specifically from the tribe of Levi. And the priests had many responsibilities. They would make sacrifices on behalf of the people to atone for their sin. They didn't have--Jesus hadn't died on the cross yet. They needed a system to make them right again with God after they sinned, so they would offer sacrifices. They would keep the lamps burning in the tabernacle and later in the temple as a symbol of God's presence with them. They would bring offerings and burn incense and say prayers. They would lead worship and fast and national repentance. They would preside over their worship. But ultimately, all of these responsibilities were them interceding on behalf of the people of God. And if you'll notice here in this verse, they lived by different standards. They had different practices. They had rituals and cleansing practices that they had to follow because they were going into the presence of God. Now, they were still human. They were still imperfect, but they had these guidelines that God gave them in order to get them as close to perfect as possible so that they could enter His presence and represent the people. The people of Israel wanted to be connected to God. They wanted to have a relationship with Him. They wanted Him to be present, to lead and guide and protect them. But the best way that they could do that was through being connected by the priests. As I said, humans have this innate desire for connection.

Even now, not just the Israelites, but us too, we want to know God and be known by Him. He's our Creator. He's the one who made us. We want to be known by God. And unfortunately, we as humans often try to do this in our own strength. We try to push and manufacture and make it work for us, and we usually mess it up. So that's the problem that we face, that our own way causes disconnection. Even in our striving to bring about some sort of connection, it can usually end up causing more disconnection. I think there's a few ways or a few reasons why we do this. We're going to talk about a few of those. The first one is I think that often it's because of our own impatience. We don't want to wait on God's timing. We want to feel connected right now. The Israelites were also impatient. We'll see that here in a minute. They also had impatience. They didn't even have microwaves. We have microwaves and fast food, and so we're really impatient. So we want to move things along faster than God's timing. The second one is that we have a need for control. We're not willing to trust in God's sovereignty because we think we know best. We want to have control. Or maybe it's because we want something that we can see, feel, touch. Something tangible, something earthly, something this side of heaven that we can feel tangibly connected to. We can't see God, so maybe it doesn't feel very connected. We want something tangible, but in striving for these things, we mess it up.

There's a story in Exodus 32 where the Israelites grew impatient. They tried to take things into their own hands. Moses had gone up on a mountain to talk with God, and God even told Moses, "You cannot let the people touch the mountain. "That's too close," because God's presence was on the mountain. So the people were down waiting for Moses to come back, and apparently he was taking longer than they liked. So they got Aaron, yes, the priest, to build them or create for them a calf. They gathered their gold, their jewelry, and they created a golden calf to worship. Interestingly enough, when they left Egypt, God allowed them to plunder the Egyptians so that they would have resources to build the tabernacle one day. But instead of waiting on God's timing, they used that to create a golden calf. They weren't willing to wait on God's timing. They weren't willing to wait for Moses to come down the mountain. They wanted control of the situation. They wanted to be able to see. They wanted something tangible that they could see and touch and they couldn't even touch the mountain that God was on. So they wanted to have something that they could worship and they could touch with their own hands and see with their own eyes. And often we do the same thing. This endeavor to manufacture connection out of our own ideas, our own strengths, our own need for control or impatience. It can lead to disconnection or worse, sin. It can lead to sinful behaviors, selfishness, idolatry. We begin to idolize and worship other things. In our desire to create connection, we pervert it and put other things above God. It could look different for all of us. Maybe it's your work. Maybe you think if I work hard enough and I see so much success, I will be appreciated, I will be seen. I will experience connection in that way. Maybe it's your relationship with things or items like your phone or food or shopping, things you can consume like content, Amazon purchases. Perhaps it's elevating pastors or speakers or influencers on the internet, on YouTube. We think if I just listen to one more teaching on YouTube or one more podcast, I will feel more connected to God. Now hear me, there are really great preachers and teachers out there that have good biblical things to say. But when we elevate them too high and we put them above God and we don't even open our Bible, that becomes a problem. Maybe it's human relationships that we idolize. Again, God gave us relationships.

Those are good things, but they can be distorted. We could put unhealthy relationships above God. We could put a lack of boundaries with someone above God. We could put expectations on a relationship and expect this person to meet our need for connection that only God can meet. And it becomes a problem. There are good things. Some of these are really good things that do actually bring connection in a lot of ways, but they don't replace our connection to God. We think that if we feel disconnected or we don't feel like God's close or hearing us, that we can force it, we can manufacture it with earthly means. But the problem is our connection with God is not an earthly thing. We can't have earthly answers to spiritual problems. There are no earthly solutions to our spiritual questions. We need an intermediary. What we actually need to solve this problem of feeling disconnected is a true intermediary who never fails, who forgives and cleanses us from our sin, who brings reconciliation and peace both with others and with our relationship with God, and who facilitates an ongoing connection with God. We need Jesus as our priest. So let's look at that here.

We need Jesus as our perfect and eternal priest. We're going to look at Hebrews 4. We're going to start with verse 14. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. The priests in the Bible were simply temporary shadows. They were foreshadowing of what was to come of our great high priest, Jesus. They were broken humans, too. They did their best, as far as we know, but they were still broken humans. They could offer sacrifices for sin according to the law, but they couldn't take anyone's sin away from them. They couldn't redeem them permanently. They had a role to bring connection, but they could not do it in a perfect way. It was temporal. It was imperfect. But we have Jesus who can do it perfectly, and it will last forever. Turn in the page into chapter 7, verse 23. It says, “Now there have been many of those priests since death prevented them from continuing in office, but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” He's sinless. He knows what it means to be human. He experienced that, but he remained sinless. He can empathize with us, but he maintained his righteousness. His priesthood will never end because he reigns forever. He won't die. He won't have some moral failure that we'll see on social media or the newsfeed. His priesthood will last forever. He offered himself as the ultimate sacrifice. He does not need to offer sacrifices day after day after day every time we mess up because he was the ultimate sacrifice.

Going on in chapter 7, verse 27, it says, “Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness, but the oath which came after the law appointed the son who has been made perfect forever.” So not only was he the perfect priest, but he was also the sacrifice. John 1:29 says, "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.’" He was or is the perfect priest who offers the sacrifices and the Lamb who is the sacrifice. No priest in history could ever do that. He can never save humanity. But he made a way for us to get back into connection with God and put us in right relationship with him.

The second thing I want us to understand is that Jesus' priesthood actually makes us a royal priesthood. 1 Peter 2:9 says, Back when we talked about relationships, I mentioned that they're good. They're gifts from God. They're beautiful. We need people. We need to be in community. He created us for that. And for those of us who have chosen to follow Jesus, he has made us into a royal priesthood. He has chosen us. He has set us apart to do his kingdom work. We model our priesthood after our great high priest. We do this through spiritual conversations, through making decisions differently than maybe the world would expect us to, living with integrity, looking different than the culture around us. That is us representing God to the people. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.” Our actions, our behaviors, our words are us being the royal priesthood and representing God to the people, pointing them to Jesus, encouraging them to be reconciled back to God. We can't do that work because we are also imperfect, but we can point them to the high priest who is.

We are Christ's ambassadors. It's a high calling. It can feel like pressure. And truthfully, it can be distorted too. We can elevate ourselves. We can think we've got it figured out. Once again, we can cause more problems. But if we are modeling after our great high priest, we can be used as ambassadors and priests for the kingdom, allowing God to use us to create that connection between God and his people. I want us to go back to Hebrews 4 and just look at verse 16 real quick. I think this is important, and I don't want us to miss this part. Verse 16 says, "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." As the royal priesthood, we represent God to the people, but we also represent the people to God. We do this through prayer, through interceding, through bringing people to the throne of grace. We bring them to God on their behalf. This is why we pray for each other. This is why we take care of each other. We operate in community as best we can so that we can bring each other. Galatians talks about bearing each other's burdens. We do that by taking each other to God. But here in verse 16, we see that it's not just for others. It is also for ourselves. That we can approach the throne with confidence. Some of us want a connection with God, but maybe we don't think that we are good enough. We haven't done enough. We know intellectually that He loves us and that He wants us around, but not that He wants a close, intimate relationship with Him. We try. We read our Bible. We go to church. We pray. But we think that God is putting up with us. He's allowing us to sit nearby or follow Him around like a puppy dog. We know He loves us, but He wouldn't want a close relationship with me. He doesn't actually care about knowing me. So we're resigned to just be near, see Him from a distance, and not have any expectations of any sort of reciprocated relationship or connection. But church, Jesus is our high priest. And we, the Bible says it, so we believe it. We approach the throne of grace with confidence. We're not sneaking in. We're not crawling on our hands and knees. We are walking in to the throne of grace with confidence. Who walks into a throne room with confidence? The king's kids. The sons and the daughters. He may be the king, but he's still dad. And they can walk in with confidence because they are sons and daughters. They are heirs. We, too, can approach the throne of the living God with confidence. We go to His throne for grace and mercy in our time of need because He does want a connection with us. He wants that connection to be restored. It's so much more than taking the leftovers or the scraps.

There's a scene in "The Miracle on 34th Street," at least in the '90s version, where a mom brings up a little girl to sit on Santa's lap at the department store. And I get choked up every stinking time I watch this scene because the mom puts her on Santa's lap and said, "She's deaf. You don't have to talk to her, but she just wanted to see you." And so she's happily sitting there getting to see Santa. And Santa starts to talk to her through sign language. And her face just lights up, and she's so excited. He asks her her name, and they sing jingle bells, and he asks what she wants for Christmas, and he connects with her. She was resigned to just seeing him, just sitting on his lap. She had no expectations of any sort of reciprocated relationship, of any sort of connection. But Santa saw her. He knew her in a different way and connected with her in a different way than probably most people had. God isn't simply putting up with us. He isn't just letting us be in His presence, although that would be enough. He's saying, "I want a relationship with you. I want you to have this need for connection met in me." And because He is our great high priest, we get to have that. We get to have this connection, and we get to go tell other people about this connection too.

So this Christmas season, if you are feeling lonely or isolated or invisible, I want you to know that our perfect and eternal priest sees and knows you. He meets you where you're at. He fulfills that desire for connection and wants to have a relationship with you. If you've never received Jesus' gift of salvation, I would encourage you to consider that today. I invite you to receive and accept His gift of salvation and connection with Him. I invite you to consider surrendering your life and making Jesus your Lord, your high priest. We're going to have a prayer up on the screen, and I'm going to pray it out loud for us. But if you've never prayed this prayer and you feel like you are ready to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, would you just pray along in your hearts with me? Let's all bow our heads and we'll pray together. Father in heaven, I know that I have lived for myself instead of you. I have sinned against you, but I believe Jesus died for my sin. I confess my sin and ask you to forgive me. I bow to you as Lord and leader of my life. Help me to live for you from this day forward in Jesus' name. If everyone would just keep their eyes closed, if you prayed this prayer for the first time, would you just raise your hand and declare that today so that we can celebrate with you? That you decided that you want that connection with Jesus? Thank you.

Father, we thank you that you are our great high priest, that you are the one who made the way for us to be connected back to you, that you saw our problem, you saw the disconnection, and you made a way. You didn't leave us in our sin and our brokenness. You didn't leave us to our own devices. God, you made a way for us to be back into right relationship with you. Thank you for that, Jesus. Thank you for those today who have decided to allow you to restore that connection in their lives. We praise you for that. We thank you. God, this Christmas season, help us to walk with joy and confidence because of who you have made us to be and that we are connected to you, our great high priest. We love you, Jesus. We praise you for who you are. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 2

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 2

Isaiah 7, Matthew 1:22-23

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm excited for today. Today is going to be fun. We're doing our Christmas Sweater Sunday. It's just for the fun of it and we have some enjoyment with each other. I want to continue in our Christmas series today. We've been in now week two of the series called The Weary World Rejoices. Say that 12 times fast, right? I'm excited because this is a little bit of a different take on Christmas maybe than what you might be used to or what you might seem as a regular Advent series. But we wanted to take a moment and to really focus in on and look through the four aspects of what Jesus fulfills when he came as a baby all those years ago. And Pastor Andre started us off last week and we began to walk through of understanding who the fulfillment of Jesus is. And I love this because sometimes we think about Christmas and it's just one aspect. We just see like baby Jesus in the manger, right? And we think, "Oh, that's so cute. That's so sweet." But there's so much more that came with Jesus' arrival.

And so I got a question for you this morning and that is have you ever found yourself in a place where you needed to be rescued? Maybe it was a situation, maybe it was a tragic moment. Maybe it was an accident, a car accident or something. Maybe it was more of a situation that was financial. Maybe it was an illness or a health crisis that you walked through. Maybe it was a relationship, maybe your marriage. Maybe you lost your job or you were trying to find a job. Maybe it was a family hardship or a depression or an addiction. And sometimes, especially when we think about and being in a place of that tragedy, Christmas and the holidays are an even greater weight. But what if I told you that what you might see as a burden in the holidays in the midst of your situation or whatever you're going through is actually exactly what you needed to be rescued? In this season that we call Advent, it's a quiet buildup to Christmas where we read specific scriptures, we celebrate special moments, we sing songs that we only sing during this season about a baby who changed absolutely everything. But I want to cut through the tinsel a little bit and Christmas isn't the story about a big guy in a red suit. Sorry to bust the news there for you, but it's about a savior showing up for the very first time to rescue the mess that we're in.

And from the very first pages of the Bible, Genesis in the beginning, we see about this humanity that's been crying out to be saved or ignoring the cry within their souls. And the reality of the deliverance needed from sin, death, and the chaos that the world finds themselves in. And yet either we hide from it or we try to fight it. We bury our head in the sand or we think that we've got this. This is where today's message starts, talking about Jesus as our savior. If you would with me, let's pray before we continue moving on. Jesus, we recognize who you are. You are our savior. And God, we celebrate the fact that that very first Christmas you showed up in a super unconventional way on this earth to walk a humble path, to live a life as a servant, and to show us that Jesus, what it ultimately means to love one another. So God, this morning I pray that our hearts would be open, we'd be recognizing of who you are and you with the title of savior in our lives, Jesus. Open our eyes, show us the need that we need to be rescued. In Jesus' name, amen. There's a myth in this world that's been around since the garden. And that myth is that we can provide ourself salvation, that we can take care of it, that we can be the one that's got it all under control. Picture this, ain't nobody but a sharp guy, takes big risks and bam, he makes it. He built his career from scratch, no handouts, just hustle, all him. We love those stories, right? How many Hollywood stories and movies have we seen of that being the case? A theatrical storytelling of somebody who came from nothing to everything, right? And yet though in the middle of that, the lone ranger who pulls himself up or the one who conquers the dragon solo, it's the dream that we chase, it's the real that we scroll until one day, cracks begin to show, sleepless nights come, they begin to snap at the ones that they love, wondering why this quote, self-made life feels so empty. But the gospel tells a different story. It says that no one is the hero in this fight. Not you, not me, only one person.

And it all began when it went sideways in the garden back in Genesis chapter three. And he says this starting in verse six, "When a woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. And the eyes of both of them were open and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." One choice, one moment, paradise broken. They grab for wisdom, for control, thinking that they could save themselves from whatever better looked like. And yet, it left them feeling exposed, hiding from God, stitching up shame with leaves that wouldn't hold together. It's this myth that we inherit. We'll just cover it up. We'll figure it out. I'll be fine. Fake it till I make it, right? That's the world tells us. That's what they say. Just fake it till you make it, you'll be all right. But that's not true. An advent flips this on its head and it's God's rescue mission launched into our broken world. Think about it. The prophets were told, the stars announced, and the teenage couple treads to a stable because of it. Jesus didn't just come to applaud our bootstraps. He came to carry our load. So here's a question I have for you to think about for a little bit. What do you really need saving from? You probably all have something in our mind right now, right? Of something that we need to be rescued from. Maybe it's a grudge, you're nursing. Maybe it's that anxiety that wakes you up at 3 a.m. Maybe it's the sin that sneaks in and steals your joy during the holidays. Think about that for a moment. Because I think if we're honest, we don't want to face it, right? We don't like what it shows deep down inside of us. But too often, we just skip it and we chase something else completely different. We go after something that helps us forget what's truly going on inside.

And I call this the me syndrome. It's what we want instead. It's our perverse deep desire down inside of us that we can't just overlook rescue. We want to rewrite the script. Maybe we say, "I can be my own savior." It's that inner voice whispering to us, "Just try harder. Just plan better. Just work your way out." But remember Adam and Eve? That fruit grab was the original DIY kit, the do-it-yourself kit, where they thought they knew better. They thought they could figure it out better than God had set up paradise to be. And it echoes within us to this day. As it says, Paul, he writes in Romans 3:23, he says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Or maybe we think of it like this. I'll be somebody else's savior, the hero complex. We pour ourselves into maybe fixing our spouse or our kids or our friends. It's noble, sure, yeah, but it dodges our own mirror deep down inside. The mom running herself ragged playing hero at home, but inside shame eats her alive. She fixes everyone else's lunch but forgets her own hunger for grace. Or maybe you're the, "I'll decide how God will save me." We pray for the promotion. You think about it, "If I could just have this, everything will be good. God, I need fill in the blank." We have our own timeline, our own schedule. We're the director of our own life movie. Isaiah, it throws cold water on that when it says the world is waiting for a flashy sign, a big, strong, manly warrior of a king, but God gives a quiet promise of a child. It's not our script. It's His story. Or maybe you're the, "I don't need saving. I'm all right. I'm fine." This is pride's cruelest lie to us. We scroll past the news and we're convinced that our perfect, tidy little life just proves that we're fine. But deep down inside, we know that's not true. These desires that twist us up because it's not freedom. They're actual chains that hold us down. And as Roman puts it, "We all fall short of the glory." There's no exceptions. Think of it this way. You're caught in a riptide out in the water. The waves are crashing around you. You're doing everything you can to keep your head above water. Your lungs are burning. You need to be rescued. And Jesus comes up in a tiny, little tired, weathered rowboat. And He says, "Hop in." But we're so focused on how we think we're gonna be rescued. It's gonna be a helicopter. It's gonna be the SEAL Team 6 coming in hot. It's gonna be everything, this flashy, big boom of a moment of how we're gonna be lifted out of the water and rescued. But Jesus is right there offering rescue. But it's not the way that we planned. It's just too basic. It's too not enough. So we wave off Jesus and we sit there and continue to struggle. So here's the thing about God's rescue plan. It arrives on His terms, not ours.

And my friends, that's where the trouble lies, is that we will forever be lost until we see our true need. And what we actually need is God's provision. What we're starving for isn't control or applause, but it's truly a rescue from evil, sin, and death. It's the three that kicked off in Genesis when it all broke. See, sin just isn't like this oops moment in our life from time to time, but it's a root poisoning everything within us, turning neighbors into enemies, hearts and horrendous pits of selfishness. We need deliverance from chaos and this inner turmoil that spins us like laundry in a dryer over and over and over and over again. Life's just not these random breakdowns. It's a world groaning under fracture and our souls that feel it first, right? We're restless, we're divided, and we chase peace in all the wrong places. The world gives us these promises of if you just had this, right? Every commercial on TV right now is trying to sell you on the next best thing that will give you peace, it will give you happiness, it'll fulfill your life, it'll give you everything that you need if you just buy blank. We make wish lists out of it. We ask for gifts from friends and family and parents because we think if we could just have that, everything will be right. And yet, next Christmas, we think if I just had that, and we do it over and over and over. There's guilt and there's shame or these like silent chains and they whisper to us that we're too far gone, that we're too broken to fix. And we lug them around in our backpacks full of weights, slowing every single one of our steps. I love what David says, King David, he writes this in Psalm 51. He says, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me." If we were to get real in here, we all have a raw egg deep down inside of us, similar to King David here. That just because he was one of the big three kings of the Old Testament, that he was still a person. He was still a human. He was still someone like you and me struggling in life, crying out for cleansing. And this true salvation that David longed for, the kind that actually sticks, is nothing that we can manufacture. No amount of good deeds or therapy sessions can touch what it actually is. It's got to come from outside of us. It's only from the one who knit us together in our mother's womb.

In this Advent, we see this in Mary and Joseph, who for fleeting rumors and dodging Herod and birthing hope outside in a stall made for livestock, God's provision shows up in the ordinary way, providing he knows our mess better than we do. And it's not these temporary fixes that we hope for, but it is a true, full freedom if we'll receive it. And so who steps into this? Jesus. Jesus steps in as our Savior, our perfect rescue. Plain and simple. There was a Savior figure or character from the Old Testament that kind of foreshadowed Jesus coming himself, but there was a guy by the name of Joseph. And his life plays like a movie. He was one of 12 sons. He was the great-grandson of Father Abraham. And he was betrayed by his family. Maybe some of you have had that happen to you. He was thrown into a pit. He was sold into slavery. He was accused falsely. He was forgotten in jail. And yet he rises to save Egypt and the region from a famine. And years later, after Joseph had been sold, he gets an opportunity to show up in Pharaoh's court and he gives an interpretation of a dream from God of what is to come and how they are to prepare for the famine that will be a long time. And so Joseph oversees a collection of food, of storage, of backups to have when this famine hits. And the famine comes and Egypt is good. They don't have any problems. They've got plenty of food. They've got it stored up. They've got reserves. They're set. But who doesn't have reserves? Joseph's family. And so they hear about Egypt and this guy over there who's got food. And so they travel all the way to Egypt and they show up before Joseph, not knowing it's Joseph Joseph, thinking that their brother is long gone, dead, forgotten, somewhere else, maybe six feet under the ground. And they humbly approach and ask to have food to feed their family. And Joseph recognizes them. And he helps his brother. He saves his family by providing rescue through food. And amazed and humbled, his brothers bow down before him to honor and to show their gratitude. And Joseph weeping, tears running down his face, he says, "Brothers, it's me, Joseph. What you meant for evil, God meant for good." Does that sound familiar? Jesus sold for silver, nailed to a wooden cross, dies for our sins, rises from death, comes out of the grave, saves us from our eternal famine and destruction, the starvation of our soul without God.

Fast forward from that story in Joseph to Isaiah, we hear the prophet proclaim that therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to his son and they will call him Emmanuel. Matthew, all of this took place for what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will conceive and give birth to his son, they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. This isn't a vague hope or a patchwork to just be a temporary. This is flesh and blood rescue from heaven. God crashing down into our lives and our chaos as Emmanuel. God is with us in the dirt, in our doubt, in our darkness. I'm reminded of the life of John Newton. He was a rough dude. He was a slave ship captain and he was hardened by the trade. One night, 1748, he's out at sea and a storm comes along and begins to tear apart his ship. They can see Ireland in the horizon but they know that they can't make it there. The crew's panicking, the ship begins to fail and death is staring them down. Newton himself, he's no saint, he's no Jesus follower, he's no Christian. But he cries out to God anyway and he says, "Lord, have mercy." And the storm begins to let up and the ship limps into port and he starts reading the Bible and he starts wrestling with this life that he's living and the life that he's seeing Jesus calling him to in scripture. And years later, he writes this song that is sung in churches all over the world for generations. It's a song called "Amazing Grace." There's a line in there that says, "For I once was lost but now I'm found." From a chaotic life to a rescued musician. Newton's rowboat in the middle of the night, a plea to God in the midst of winded waves. And Jesus met him there, not in a throne room but in the midst of his rack. That's salvation's reach. It finds us in the middle of life's storm.

Jesus writes, "My command is this, love one another as I have loved you. Your love has no one than this, to lay down one life for one's friends. You are my friends and if you do what I command, I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you." Jesus doesn't whisper advice from afar. He swims the riptide with us. And he's betrayed, he's beaten, he's buried, but he comes out from the grave. Isaiah further writes, "Surely he," being Jesus, "took up our pain and bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that was brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds we are healed. We all sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned our own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." From the lowly manger to the humble cross to the heavenly throne, Jesus is that thread that redeems all of humanity as the Savior. So Jesus paddles up, the boat's ready, but do we climb in? Do we drop our act? Do we first acknowledge the reality of our life and the sin that so entangles us? Not sugarcoating anything. It's real. It's life. It's like the prodigal son hitting rock bottom. But that's where grace floods into our lives. Ephesians says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and it is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast." It's not us. It's a gift. It's faith that says, "I can't, but Jesus, you can.”

Maybe you need to stop minimizing the chaos in your life. Maybe you just need to receive Jesus today. Knowing that you're not going to fix whatever you're walking through. Knowing that you can't figure it out, you don't need another self-help book, you don't need another podcast, you don't need another YouTube training series. What you need is Jesus. This Christmas, Jesus comes like he does every single year and shows up and says, "I'm here for you. I want to save you. I want to rescue you. I have a better plan for you than the one that you've been trying to write for your life." David Paul Tripp writes this. He says, "Because we minimize our sin, seeing ourselves as righteous, we don't cry out for the rescuing grace that is ours in Christ." We can't save ourselves. Not even halfway, not even a little bit, not at all. Jesus came that very first Christmas to save completely, start to finish, top to bottom. It may look different than what we had planned, but it is the salvation and the Savior that we all need. So this Christmas, may you pray, "Jesus, Savior, I need you. Pull me close. I say yes to you today. Let me tell you, you'll watch the waves and the wind of your life part, just like Jesus did for the Israelites in the Red Sea. He'll part the waters for you.”

This morning, we're going to be taking communion together to kind of wrap up this reminder of Jesus as our Savior. But maybe for some of us, we've never had that opportunity to accept Jesus as our Savior. And so we're going to put a salvation prayer on the screen, and maybe this morning, as you were thinking, as I was talking, and you go, "Chris, I need rescue. I got turmoil in my life. I got things that aren't right. I got depression. I got anxiety. I got all of these things that are coming at me. Life's hit me hard, and you're talking about a rescue for me. I need that." And there's a lot of us in this room that at some point before, we have accepted Christ into our lives, and it's changed us. And so I want to encourage you this morning, maybe you would want to say, "I need this Jesus, Chris. I want to pray a prayer. I want to invite Him in. I want to climb into His rowboat. I'm drowning." And so I want to read the prayer on screen, and if that is you, would you pray that in your heart? And after that, if that was you and you have accepted that, we celebrate that with you, and we want you to join us in having communed together as a church family. But first, I want to pray. Jesus, we thank you for today. God, we thank you for you who are our Savior. You are our redemption. You are our salvation. And so God, this morning, I pray for someone maybe in this room who would say, "I don't have that Savior Jesus in my life. And I want to accept Him. I want to climb into the rowboat. I want to accept His rescue in my life." And so if that would be you, then I would, as I read this prayer, follow along, pray this in your heart to Jesus. He's there to rescue you.

Pray along. Pray, "Father in heaven, I know that I have lived for myself instead of you. I have sinned against you, but I believe that Jesus died for my sin. So I confess my sin and ask you to forgive me. I bow to you as Lord and leader of my life. Help me to live for you from this day forward. In Jesus' name." God, we thank you for your salvation and your rescue. And God, as the elements come forward and we continue in this posture of prayer, God, I pray that you would be with these elements, God, that as they're passed out, as we accept them and receive them, Jesus, that we would be reminded of the sacrifice on the cross for you as our Savior. Jesus, we thank you for another incredible, amazing Sunday to gather together to worship. Jesus, we continue to worship through communion today. And so as the ushers pass out the elements, I want us to be reminded of Jesus, our Savior. Jesus who came that very first Christmas as a gift, a salvation for our lives. And so as they pass out the elements, take a moment and have a little bit of a conversation with God. We give to him what you need rescue from today. Take a moment, ponder in your heart the rescue that Jesus provides for us. We'll be back in a moment to take the elements together. Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week. week.

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 1

The Weary World Rejoices: Part 1

Isaiah 9:1-6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are very excited for our Advent Series that we're starting this week. I want to give you just a hint of what is to come. In this series we're going to take a deeper look at how the birth of Jesus surpassed all expectations for those who were waiting for His arrival, and how the frameworks for which they thought He would fit into paled in comparison to who He truly was and is. Through Scriptures we'll see how Jesus addresses humanity's desire for stability, rescue, reconciliation, and truth, and each week we're going to look at how humanity's attempts to address these on their own power always falls short. That's why we called our series "The Weary World Rejoices," because of all of our efforts to attain stability, rescue, reconciliation, and truth all on our own. To find those in the world always leaves us tired and weary. The series is all about how Jesus is the fulfillment for what humanity longs for. In Jesus' birth so many answers were provided, so many promises were fulfilled. It's what Advent is all about, remembering. While we wait to celebrate the day of His birth, we remember what Jesus brought to this earth. In the biblical story, preparation for Jesus is synonymous with bringing our hearts and daily lives into alignment with His kingdom. Waiting helps us slow down and become aware of what we're waiting for and just as importantly how we are waiting for it. That's our goal in this series, that you are reminded each week of who you are waiting for, who you're waiting to celebrate, and as we slow down in the waiting that God would work in us. Throughout our series we're going to look at how Jesus is the perfect prophet, priest, king, and savior. And these frameworks that Israel was expecting Him to fulfill did come to pass, but they weren't able to comprehend just how perfect He was in embodying all of these things.

So today we're going to look at Jesus as the perfect king. I want to start by asking, what are we looking for? Advent is often a season where our attention is drawn towards our desires, our needs, our wants. We want a new appliance for the house. Our kids want, and the list can go on and on and on, a new toy, a new Barbie set, new Legos, new Xbox, the Switch 2, there's already a second one I think. Maybe you have some time off work or extra family time so you want to go somewhere, you want, you need, you desire, maybe it's a trip to the mountains or a trip to Disneyland, both of those sound amazing by the way. We constantly have conversations, what do I want? What do I need? Around this time of year. And there's nothing wrong with that, but I think it's also a perfect time to be reminded of what are we searching for in our hearts. Deep down everyone desires one or more of the following in their lives, and these are what motivate us and drive us our deepest desires, and those are security, we want to know that we are safe, we want peace, we want harmony in life, we want provision, we want to know that our needs are going to be met, and we want some kind of order, we don't like the chaos, we want to know that life is going to be structured to some degree, but we all seek these things, we all want and desire these things. And whether we seek these out from someone or something else or we try to create and provide these ourselves, we want these to be true, we want to have them. And when we pursue security, peace, provision, and order in our lives, we often do that by looking for and pursuing success, control, and influence. We think if we have success, then I'll be able to provide for myself. If we have control, then there will be order in my life, if I can control everything. And if I have influence over my environment, then I'll have the security I look for and the peace that I want. But the pursuit of success and control and influence and even acquiring these things, more often than not, just leaves us more restless and empty. So if we know that we can't provide what we truly desire, then we are left to think of someone else providing that for us. And we're looking for someone to bring us peace, security, provision, and order in life.

Almost since the beginning of time, humanity has lived in a world where there is a leader over a people, whether it's a king, a ruler, some sort, and that ruler and king have been responsible to provide these things for their people. The king has to provide the peace and the security and the provision and the order of life. Unfortunately, that has not always gone well. The execution of that plan for earthly leaders to provide those things often falters. It's looked like some benefiting at the expense of others. More often than not, slavery or corruption and greed have played a role in how a ruler has ruled over their people. Every once in a while, a good leader comes along and stands in stark contrast to the rest, but they too ultimately have their shortcomings. The reality for us is that we continue to search for someone who will rule and reign in perfect love and justice and righteousness. So who can rule over us and give us what we truly desire? The other reality that we have to acknowledge is that we don't always want what's best. Our desires can look like the fact that we want a king, but we want a king that serves our agenda. We want control, but we'll disguise it as surrender. I'm giving up, but really, I still want it to go my way. I want control over this situation. Or we want power, but we don't want to submit. We are selfish people. Our desires can be skewed towards what we think is right, what we think is best, but you know the problem with that, right? We are sinners too. We lack perspective. We can't see everything from everyone's perspective, and sometimes what's best for some may end up hurting others. We lack wisdom. We don't always know how to solve every problem that comes up in the best way possible. We don't know how to love well in every situation or speak truth in every situation. We lack empathy. There are limits to our compassion, our love, our kindness. We lack what it takes.

Every human, as hard as they try and as well-suited as they may seem for the job of leading other people, there is no perfect human leader. Again, we are all sinful, and we live in a sinful world. So what do we actually need? Well, we need true, a righteous leader who reigns with perfect justice and love, who defends and protects everyone from the chaos, whether the chaos that the world brings or the chaos that we cause ourselves. We need someone who will provide provision and flourishing, divine opportunities and environments where we don't just exist, but where we truly grow and thrive. And we need provision. We need someone to take care of us, to look after us, to give us what we need to live to the fullest extent. And we need wisdom and peace, someone who will give us that wisdom and peace that we can't provide for ourselves. We need someone who knows all, who sees all, who can speak truth in all situations and bring peace and wisdom to every circumstance. So who can provide all this? Who can do this all the time, perfectly? If you have that Sunday school answer in your head, you'd be correct. But this question is not a new question, it's a very old one and it's one that Israel had for themselves. And they were asking and wondering this, who is going to lead and rule perfectly? They had human rulers that God had helped put in place, the judges, prophets, kings, but these rulers always left them wanting more. And they were waiting and waiting for a true king. And in their waiting, they received many messages of hope from God.

And one of them is found in our passage this morning. So we're going to be in Isaiah 9. You can turn there in your Bibles if you want, it'll be on the screen as well. But this is a message from God as Israel is waiting and they've received message after message of hope, of a future hope, of someone who would bring all these things that they were wanting, that they were desiring. As in verse, starting in verse one, "Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future, he will honor Galilee of the nations by way of the sea beyond the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us, a child is born. To us, a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called a wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness. From that time on and forever, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

Isaiah was a prophet and sent to speak truth, to encourage and to bring hope, to steer God's people back to him, to keep their focus on him and to have them anticipate the culmination of his rescue plan involving a king. Isaiah speaks of this future king in Israel hearing this. They wanted one of their former kings, King David. You see, King David represented the best king in Israel's mind. David defeated his enemies, so in a way he brought peace. David brought provision and enabled the people to flourish in the land. David brought a certain amount of order to the chaos that Israel had been accustomed to. And so, in their minds, David was it. David was the best king that you could get. But it was short-lived. David made plenty of mistakes as well. But still, that's all the people had to go off. So of course, they just wanted another King David. And because they had heard God's promise, great things for David and from David's family, they had this picture that was starting to build of when the Savior would come, when the Messiah would come, it would look like David. There's a verse in 2 Samuel 7:16, it says, "God speaking to David," and he says, "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever." So even David's reign was built up by God to say, "This is special. This is different." And the people also hearing that elevated David's reign above all the other kings. And so you imagine hearing this if you're an Israelite, knowing that the king, this future king, is going to come from David's family, from David's descendants. And it starts to frame the image of a king in a certain light. God promised them a king that would lead Israel towards faithfulness and rule over nations forever and ever. But David was not that king, nor was his son Solomon or any of the kings after as it just got worse and worse. And there was a few good ones in there, but Israel kept waiting and waiting. And when we open our Bibles to Isaiah, we're in the part of their history where they are anticipating this promised king from the line of David, who will fulfill all the promises that God made to their forefathers.

And that's the key theme of the book of Isaiah is a future hope in the anticipated king. And so we read our passage today, "For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and he will be called a wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace." And you might be tempted to think just as Israel was thinking, "All right, David 2.0, a little fewer mistakes, but bring back this David figure and we'll have another great leader. So usher in another great time for the people of Israel." But they didn't get it. They didn't get that just imagining David 2.0 was so short and just a glimpse of who Jesus actually was as king. It's like, it'd be like this, it'd be like settling for sparkling water when you can have a drink of real fruit juice. Do you guys know these flavors of sparkling water and how like lights they are? They're so grapefruit, mango, orange, blackberry, cucumber, whatever your favorite is. And you've probably heard the jokes that maybe this can of water was canned in a room that had fruit in it. It's just like the lightest hint or that it was a hint of a hint of fruit that's in the can of sparkling water. I Googled some of these, by the way. People have joked that someone just drops a single skittle in every can and that's what you get is just like a little fruit flavoring or someone put a scratch and sniff sticker on the bottom of the can, scratched it and just left it there and that's what you drink. My favorite is these drinks are just like tasting the memory of fruit. It's just water but you read the label and you're like, "Yes, that is somewhat what grapefruit tastes like.”

That's what these Old Testament kings were. They were just a glimpse. They were the best available taste of what a king could be. They didn't have anything else to go off of. But Israel didn't know that there was a better option to come. Imagine having a sparkling water of lemon or lime, those are my favorites, without ever having tasted a real lemon or lime. And you just take the can and you're like, "Great, this is what lemon or lime must taste like, this very faint, barely tastable thing. Love it. This is fantastic." But then you hear that there's actually lemonade or limeade that will be coming soon, this future drink that you're like, "Okay, that's cool. Don't know what that is, but it must be like my sparkling water 2.0, just a little bit more." You can't know what lemonade will taste like fully. You just have to base it off your sparkling water. And you just imagine it just a little bit more. So imagine how blown away you would be if you had a lifetime of sparkling water and one day you get a cold glass of lemonade. You would flip your lid. That would be amazing. Your taste buds would explode. It'd be incredible. And this is, I'd share all that, that very long metaphor, to say that's what Israel was like with Jesus. And they kind of missed it, but that's who Jesus was. They could not imagine the king that Jesus would be. Whatever flavor you can imagine, those were the kings of Israel's past, some of them good, some of them bad. Even the greatest king of all time, King David, was just a hint, a glimpse, a shadow of the king that Jesus would be. And so what our passage this morning is telling Israel and is also telling us is that Jesus is the real deal. This is the real fruit juice, not just sparkling water. Jesus as king is better than any king that has ever existed. Even the best one that you can imagine, he's better. He is worth waiting for. Jesus is the true king and he's the heavenly king that the world needs. And the prophets try to help people understand over and over again, there is more to come. There is better ahead. Do not settle for what you have right now. It says in verse two of our passage, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep darkness. A light has dawned." Speaking of the hope that will be in Christ, the prophet is saying, "This is the one that you'll have been searching for. This is the one.”

And in verse six, it says, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah is describing a ruler, a king who will provide counsel, order and direction, who will provide peace, who will provide, who will give provision and security like a father for his family does. Isaiah is trying to paint the picture. God is giving words to help Israel understand and connect the dots. That Jesus as king does more, is more, will reign and will not have shortcomings. His reign will not come to an end. Verse seven says, "Of the greatness of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness." Remember from 2 Samuel 7, Jesus will be the fulfillment of that prophecy from the line of David. And he will reign forever and ever, upholding his kingdom with justice and righteousness. Jesus will be the perfect king, ruling and reigning like no human could. Jesus will not only provide all this in his heavenly kingdom, as he teaches over and over again in his ministry, but he does this for us individually even now. He rules and brings order to our inner chaos. He brings peace to our divided hearts. Under him and through him, we can have provision and we can flourish. We can be who God intended us to be. And in him is found the truest and deepest wisdom and peace. And he also brings one more thing that I didn't mention at the beginning, but I know that we all desire this. On top of security, peace, provision and order, we all desire to be loved. And Jesus came to love us. A kingly love, a royal love where we are seen and known. There's an Advent meditation out there from Practicing the Way and it says this, "For some of us, it's easier to believe that God is coming to establish his rule and restore creation than it is to believe that he is coming to be near to us. But it's true. God is after more than behavior change or earnest activity for his kingdom. His name is Emmanuel, God with us. And so it may be that the most important thing we can do in preparing for the king is to open our hearts to him with vulnerability and trust. The king comes with unexpected kindness, healing and affection and we are invited to submit to this love. The way of this king, the way of Jesus is unlike any other king. And his name, Emmanuel, God with us, speaks so much to his purpose that he wants to come live with us. Not just reign over us and be from afar, but he wants to walk every day with us. What kind of king do you know that would do that? And with all of us individually, take the time and the intention to say, "I want to be in your life." Through his personal presence in our lives, he wants to then also bring the peace and the provision and security and the order. But he wants us ultimately to know that we are loved by him. Jesus as our king is the answer to what we truly desire. And it comes by submitting to him and surrendering to him. Not out of fear, not out of some nationalistic loyalty, not out of selfish greed for what we stand to gain, but out of love and adoration for the king of kings. This is the king that we need. And this is the king our hearts should be fixed on this Advent season.

So I want to take some time to ask some questions of us as we reflect on Jesus being king over our lives. And so that question, what are you desiring this Advent season? And to help us acknowledge that we truly need Jesus as king, I want to first reflect on Jesus as our kingly provider. I want to ask this question of you. If you have an answer, great, don't say it out loud. But if you need this week, I would say think on this. What is a gift that Jesus has provided for you? What's something good that God has given you? And you've seen, you've experienced his kingly provision in your life. I would even encourage you to spend time talking about this question with community, whether it's your family around the dinner table or a group of friends. And simply ponder a gift from God, however big or maybe however small it was. But share that with someone this week. This is a gift that God had given me recently in the past, big, small, and spend time together thanking God for that gift. But it's important this Christmas season to see that Jesus is our kingly provider.

Next I want to reflect on Jesus as our kingly peacemaker. How has Jesus brought you peace in your life? Same similar question, whether now, recently, or in the past. But think of a moment that you were in chaos, that life was hectic, the busyness, the stress, anxiety, brokenness, and Jesus brought peace. You may also be in a place where you need the peace of Jesus right now. And I would ask you to think of this. Think of if you are leaning heavily on forms of peace, however good they may be, that actually fall short of the peace of Christ. When I say forms of peace, maybe that's coping with something, and you have a coping mechanism that maybe it's good. Maybe you go for walks, and maybe you have quiet time, but it's not with God. And so it falls short from the peace that God truly provides. But what are you doing? You are in need of peace right now. Are you getting that peace from Jesus? And then I'd ask, where might the Spirit be inviting you to surrender the self-directed strategies for peace and say, "I need to stop doing this. This is how I'm trying to give myself peace. This is how I'm trying to do it. But God, I need to give this up, and I need to rely on you." This Advent season can be full of joy, but can also be full of things that rob us of that joy and peace. So how can Jesus be the source of peace this Advent season for you?

And then lastly, I want to ask, I want us to reflect on Jesus as our kingly protector and counselor. How can you seek Jesus for wisdom and security? And I would encourage you this week, again, to take some extended time of quiet with God and offer yourself in surrender. Find a distraction-free place and just wait in God's presence and ask, "Father, what do I need to do to surrender to you?" And write down whatever comes to mind, whatever the Spirit reveals to you and says, "This is the thing that is keeping you from getting closer to God to receiving his wisdom and security." And ask that God would help release those things into his gentle care and that you would receive his protection and wisdom. We have to, in order to accept God's protection and wisdom, we have to submit, and submitting to him means surrendering to him. We can't have both. We can't say, "God, I'm going to do it my way, but I'm submitting to you, and you can also do it your way." And we can just, sometimes we live like that. We're like, "God, I'm going to try mine. You do yours and we'll see whichever one works out, and we'll just, hopefully in the end, I have peace, or I have provision, or I have protection." And Jesus says, "This doesn't work that way. You can't do your thing and then also expect me to do it. You need to surrender to me. If you want what I have, which is here for the taking, you have to lay down what you are doing to be able to receive what God gives." So if God is saying something to you through the Spirit, and he's saying, "Hey, I'm here. I have the wisdom. I have security. You can be secure in me, but your hands are full right now with your efforts." Take some time this week to lay that before God and say, "God, I do surrender. I'm going to rely on you fully." The great thing about this King is that submission to King Jesus leads not to oppression, but to the truest freedom and joy that there is. Subsiding to the King is the only way to true peace, to heavenly provision, to divine order and security. So this Christmas season, if you find yourself weary, take refuge in Christ. Take comfort in Jesus. Rest in Emmanuel, God with you, and worship the King. We'll close with this.

We notice that we sing many songs that speak of Jesus as our King. We sung some of them this morning, and they have lines that mention the royalty of Jesus, like "O come all ye faithful, come and behold Him, born the King of angels." Charles Wesley wrote one of my favorites, which is "Come thou long expected Jesus." It's an old hymn. I want to read it for you, and it'll be up on the screens. As you read this and hear this, I want you to notice the kingly tones, the royal words, and see how this hymn captures Jesus as the King that we need, as the King that we're waiting for, waiting to celebrate this Christmas. So it goes like this. It says, "Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free. From our fears and sins release us. Let us find our rest in thee. Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art, dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart. Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King, born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring. By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone. By thine all sufficient merit raise us to thy glorious throne." We the weary world church can rejoice in Christ our King this Christmas.

Let's go ahead and pray. God, we praise you for sending your son to be born into this world, to enter the story. And as we enter into Advent season where we wait to celebrate the birth of Jesus, I pray that we would remember who Jesus is, and he is our King. And God, I pray that through your spirit, you would work in our hearts to submit to God, to submit to Jesus if we need to, if we are struggling because we're trying to live life on our own. I pray that you would help us to surrender and to submit. God, I pray that we would seek you for our provision, our security, for order and for peace, and that we would be able to see that all the things in this earth that say and advertise that they provide any of those things ultimately fall short of you. God, we pray that you would reign in us and over us. And as a response to that, God, that we would praise you with everything that we have. So be with us this Advent season, be with us this week, and may we see and rest and rejoice in the fact that you are King in our lives. Amen.

Rhythms of Thanks: Part 4

Rhythms of Thanks: Part 4

Colossians 3:15-17

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, Pastor Chris and I, we love doing this. We get to co-preach to you today. We are wrapping up our Rhythms of Thanks series. So this is a part four of a four-part series. And so far we've covered week one, which is why we give thanks about who God is and what He does. That is the reason why it's not our circumstances. It's not just when we find ourselves in a good season that we praise God for that. It is all the time. And for who He is and what He does. Week two, Pastor Lauren preached on practical rhythms that we can weave into our lives. And just some more habits that we can have of constantly giving thanks. Again, not just when we feel like it, but constantly doing it so that even when we don't, we are still praising God. And then last week we talked about giving thanks in the midst of trials. Some of the hardest things to do is not just giving thanks when things are good, but having that rhythm when things get hard and we have challenges when we suffer, that we are still giving thanks, not for being in hard times, but again, for who He is and that He is with us.

And today we kind of want it as we wrap up our series to focus in more as a corporate togetherness. Because when I look at Scripture, specifically Colossians 3, starting in verse 15, it says this. It says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you are called to peace and be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, through psalms, hymns, songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

We did this this morning. You guys catch that? We did that this morning in our singing of songs. Sometimes as a pastor you get asked, "Why do we do karaoke at church?" You've probably never thought of it that way before. But it's group karaoke, right? And we're here all singing together. Why? Because we are to give thanks together. It's a worshiping all collectively. We are all members of one body, as the Scripture says. We don't live life in isolation. We are created for community. We are created for relationships. We are created to live with one another. And I think one of the greatest lies from Satan is that he tells people, "You can do this Christianity thing on your own." It's one of the strongest lies from the pit of hell. That you can do this whole Jesus thing on your own. You can listen to podcasts. You can listen to a sermon online. You can have your little personal Spotify playlist of worship. And yes, there are elements of that as we worship together, or we worship individually, and we grow in our relationship with Christ. There's another level that God desires for each of us as we step into living this life out in community. We're not created to live life alone. And gospel community is the glue that holds our Christianity walked together. And when we step outside of that, we lose a beautiful gift that God has given to us. We truly do. I love what it says in verse 16. It says, "Let the message of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another in all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts." You can't do that by yourself. You can't. You just can't do that by yourself. It is one of the main reasons why we gather each and every week to encourage each other, to worship with one another, to give thanks in community as we enter into the pinnacle of our earthly relationships. This is a beautiful gift that God has given us this side of heaven. And when we live life without that, we don't have a full picture of the life that Jesus Christ desires for us to live.

So we were prepping this week. We asked the question, "So where in Scripture do we see this? Where in Scripture is it supported that this is a community event, this giving thanks and this rhythm of thanks?" And so I did some studying this week, and I found three aspects of communal thanksgiving that stand out and inform us of how we should live today. So the first one is that communal thanksgiving stemmed from a communal experience. Communal thanksgiving stemmed from a communal experience. I think of in the Old Testament, Exodus 15, after Israel had gone through the parted Red Sea, it was something they all did. And on the other side, they all give thanks. So it's something they all experienced, and they all praise God. Or I think of 1 Chronicles 16, where David is leading the people in thanksgiving because the Ark of the Covenant has returned. And it says in verse 34, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever." I'm sure you guys are familiar with that. It's been put into many songs that we sing. But again, that is all of Israel experiencing something, and then they are all giving thanks together. Number two, communal thanksgiving occurred around community practices. We talk about rhythms and seasons that we experience together as a church. Well, Israel, too, had rhythms and seasons and instituted feast days that they would practice. And so they had built-in calendar communal thanksgiving rituals and feasts that God ordained and said, "This is going to be important in your life, that you need to regularly give praise." And so I'm going to put it in, and it's going to be around food. Much of what we're doing today, we're going to be around food, and we're going to be giving thanks.

Another one of those practices was singing, as Pastor Chris said. So many songs are individual songs that the author wrote to say, "This is how I feel." But there are also songs that were made to be sung by the whole of Israel altogether. Psalm 95, 100, 107, 118 are just some of them. But all these songs were meant to be sung by the congregation, almost like songs that we used to have. If you grew up in church and you used to sing a song in the round where the men would sing one part and the women would sing one part, you can't do that by yourself. You need other people to sing that with you. That's how these songs were meant to be sung. So to have community practices involved in our rhythms is important. The third thing is communal thanksgiving was a witness to the world. There's a time in the Old Testament when Israel is returning to land, and they're building up the walls in Ezra and Nehemiah, and they're rebuilding everything. And as different phases get completed, they stop and they sing and they praise God. And it says, "With praise and thanksgiving," this is Ezra 3, "they sang to the Lord, 'He is good, his love toward Israel endures forever.' And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, and the sound was heard far away." Or in Nehemiah it says, "The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away." The people beyond the walls of Israel, beyond Israel, could hear Israel praising God, whether through song or shouting praises. Also in Acts 2, when we get to the New Testament and the early church, it says in Acts 2:42, "They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." And there is no doubt that this is how the gospel spreads so quickly, is that the people outside of those gatherings were starting to hear and wonder, "What is happening over there?" The world around the church, around believers, saw praise and thanksgiving. They saw these rhythms being practiced. So scripture is full of insight of having communal rhythms of thanks and praise.

So then we ask the question, "What does that look like for us today?" What is this kind of like, we read from the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see that example, what does that mean today? 2025, Spring Valley Church, Rocklin, Roseville, Northern California, what does that look like? Well, we see this modeling as a church is this amazing gift that communal thanksgiving is actually a gift to the next generation. We have multiple generations in this room gathered together, and we're going to have, when we move to baptism, actually the kids are going to come back in with us because we want to celebrate together as a gift with one another. And I love what it says in Psalm 79. It says, "Then we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever. We will declare your praise to generation after generation." Communal thanksgiving is an echo into eternity. This isn't something that is just here right now in this moment, but it is a gift that we can pass on. Again, we don't do this in isolation. This isn't just a singular moment, but it is a rippling effect. You ever throw a rock into a lake or a body of water? Those ripples, they continue to go out and go out and go out and go out. That is how our communal praise goes forward. Just like Andre said, it is a witness to the world. And today we get to celebrate with those being baptized, celebrating and seeing their thankful hearts for the salvation that they have accepted and received through Jesus Christ. Baptism is a thanksgiving party that we all get to experience together. And here's the reality for us as Christ followers. We are going to give thanks in eternity forever. You guys ever think about that? It says this in Revelation 19:6-7. It says, "Then I heard something that sounded like a vast multitude, like the boom of many pounding waves, like the roar of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord your God, the Almighty, the omnipotent, ruler of all reigns, let us rejoice and shout for joy. Let us give thanks or give Him glory and honor.'" This is the image that John receives of eternity, of everybody gathering around the throne in heaven praising God. See, our communal thanksgiving is actually practice. It's our practice for what we are going to do for all of eternity. Our hearts of gratitude and praise here on earth is practice. Practice makes—okay, let me try that again. Let me try that again. You weren't ready for it. You weren't—no, it's okay. It's okay. Practice makes— perfect! We have just a short time to learn how to give thanks and praise and gratitude in community so that when we get to heaven, we're ready to praise God. Practice.

So as we wrap up this Rhythm of Thanks series, hope you guys have enjoyed. I hope you've used these gratitude calendars each day, risen up to the challenge to read a Scripture and write something down that you're thankful for. But we need to ask ourselves individually, but also collectively, as will we be individuals together, a community marked by gratitude? Will we be a church that when people come and see us and interact with us, maybe visit on a Sunday morning, maybe run into us at Bel Air or at the mall shopping, they go, "Don't you go to that little church that's in the back of that business complex behind Primo's Pizza? Aren't you behind Edwin's?" Like, "Yeah, I am." He's like, "You guys are always so grateful. You always have glad and sincere and gratitude in your heart. Why?" And as we live that out, we show to the world around us who Jesus is. Because communal thanksgiving begins in our own hearts. We have to individually commit and say daily, "I am going to be grateful for today." That no matter what comes, I'm not going to complain. We sang a song about that last week. That we will live out our gratitude every single day. Will people see us living on the daily a rhythm of gratitude and thankfulness? Or will they see angry, bitter, hard-hearted people? Will they see people who just can find the worst in the world at any single moment? If it was up for me, I would make the choice for everybody. I would say I'd rather be grateful. Because bitterness in our heart left unchecked takes us to a real bad place. So which community would you rather be a part of? A bitter, hard-hearted, or a grateful, thankful community of believers? So how can we further step into gratitude each and every day, acknowledging who God is and giving witness to the world around us, and practicing our thankful praise before we get to heaven for eternity? That's what we have to answer.

Let's go ahead and pray one more time. God, thank you for your word that encourages us, that exhorts us to live a life of gratitude. God, thank you for the examples that we see of giving thanks as a community. Yes, we individually want to be people who are grateful to you and praising you, but we also want that to be true of our church, of this body of believers. That that would be one of our core values, our strongest characteristics that people see, even outside these walls, that that would be known of us. That we are a church that praises you and gives thanks. So God, I pray that you would do the work through your spirit in us to make that true, continue to transform us, make us more like you. And as you do that individually, that you would transform this church as a whole, to be a church that glorifies you in all situations, that praises you no matter what is happening, and gives thanks in all seasons of life. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Rhythms of Thanks: Part 3

Rhythms of Thanks: Part 3

James 1:2-4

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are in our Rhythm of Thanks series and I hope that you have been following along and this is week three. I really appreciate Lauren's sermon last week which was very practical in encouraging us to have some habits and rhythms that we can implement in daily life to exercise that muscle of gratitude. I hope you've been using the gratitude calendars. If you're just joining us, you can take one of those calendars, use it for the next, you know, rest of the month and just write something down that you're grateful for.

Today we're going to be shifting gears a little bit and we're going to be talking about what happens when life gets difficult. What do we do when trials come, when trauma, pain, misfortune arise and what happens to our rhythm of thanks at that point? We know that these are realities of life, suffering, facing trials, challenges and there are different kinds of trials. There are things that maybe what I would say external things that happen to us, outer circumstances like natural disasters or losing a job or some kind of car accident. There's internal things, our own mental health, psychological trauma, emotional unhealth. Maybe there's family hurt, generational sin, trauma, tragedy, also physical health, physical trials like sickness, cancer, diseases and maybe even we're not the ones that are directly affected by those things but we are in close proximity. Maybe a loved one has those and so while we may not be in facing it directly, we still feel the weight of those challenges in people's life. What do we do then?

Well, the Bible tells us that suffering and trials go hand in hand with our faith. Some are surprised by this. They think that once God is a part of our lives, we no longer deal with hardships. As believers, if you've been walking with God, you can kind of chuckle at that. That is not true. Jesus' words are very clear to us in 1 Peter 4:12, it says, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange was happening to you." Don't be surprised. Thankfully, the Bible doesn't just tell us that it's a part of our life but it also tells us how we are to continue worshiping God. What do we do when we fall on hard moments? Just a quick Google search about suffering in the Bible will lead you to some stories that you're probably familiar with. You can think of Job, who was a famous story in the Old Testament who lost everything. You can think of the life of Paul, who after coming to believe in Jesus was shipwrecked, he was imprisoned. You can even think, obviously, of Jesus, right, who was wrongfully accused, beaten, crucified. And I can summarize all of those in relation to our series in this way, that the Bible says that we don't stop giving thanks. We don't stop giving thanks. In the midst of whatever is happening, we continue to give thanks to God.

Today we're going to be in the New Testament book of James. If you'd like to turn there in your own Bibles, we'll have it on the screen. But we're going to be in James 1:2-4, which read this, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." I don't know how recently all of you have been through something challenging, a trial in your life. For some of you, it may seem like a never-ending slew of just one thing after another, hardship after hardship. For others, maybe you have to think back to the beginning of this year or last year sometime for the last serious difficulty that you faced. But whenever it was, I want you to spend a couple moments reflecting here. I want you to think of your emotions in the midst of that trial. What were some of the most common emotional stages that you were in, feelings that you felt? I want you to think of your mental headspace in that point. What were you feeling most often during that trial, that hardship? I even want you to think of your body's physical reaction. And would you say that there was any joy as one of the most common things that you felt through any of that? Was there any joy in your emotions? Were you feeling good mentally? Was your body feeling great, best it's ever felt? Adventure to say, probably not. No more naturally, we are prone to stress, to anxiety. Our bodies even get tense. Our minds are fraught. We can become short with other people. Just all of us, all of who we are is affected by a trial and a challenge that we go through. Trials and hardships more commonly elicit a negative reaction rather than joy. And if that's the case, then why does the Bible say consider it pure joy? What is God wanting from us in order that we have a response of joy and thanksgiving in the midst of suffering? Is God tone deaf? Is he like, "Hey, I know it sucks, but suck it up and just be happy." No, he's not. If that's what you thought, I'm here to really... That's not what God is saying. But in order to consider it pure joy, we may need to do a couple of things.

And first, if you're taking notes, the first thing is we may need to reframe the trial or the challenge that we are going through. It says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds." That joy comes through perspective, not denial. We don't just ignore and force ourselves to be happy. That's not healthy. God isn't calling us to white-knuckle our way through hardships. Suffering is a part of our fallen world. And while most everyone can agree with that, the difference lies within our perspective of suffering. Secular modernity would say that suffering is a meaningless disruption. It's an annoyance. It gets in the way. It's something to work through and move past as quickly as possible. Eastern thought would believe in karma. It's deserved for some reason. You must have done something. Or it's an illusion that can be thought away. Christianity says that suffering is real, but it's not ultimate. It's painful, but it's capable of redemption.

Tim Keller, a former pastor, great author, says this, "While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life's joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of the world's sorrows, tasting the coming joy." We have to reframe the way we understand and experience the trials that we face. Not as a nuisance or a meaningless experience, but to be willing to sit in them with Jesus and be curious about what He might be transforming inside of us through what's happening. And we do that with a foundation of hope that this world isn't where things end, but we have a glorious future with Him in eternity. We have to reframe the trial. Part of reframing the trial is also being okay with not knowing why it's happening. It's easy to reframe a hardship or a pain once we see some redemptive quality to the suffering. Sometimes, not always, we can see what God might be doing and we're thankful. We're like, "Hey, God, I know that this is hard right now, but I see what you're doing and I praise you for that." And maybe elsewhere in life, you see this in working out, and it hurts to work out. You're sore afterwards, but you understand that that is necessary to be fit, to be healthy, so you're like, "Hey, that's worth it. That pain, that suffering, that is worth it.”

Or maybe financially, you have to not buy some things, and that's hard because you're like, "I really want that, but I'm not going to." But you understand it's to be wise financially. It's helping you get out of debt. You understand that suffering that you're in in that moment. Maybe something tougher. Maybe it's the pain of letting a friendship go is better for your soul and your overall well-being because without their negativity, their gossip, whatever it is about that friendship, you understand that you're going to be better able to live the way that God has called you to live. Those are still tough things. Those are still sufferings and trials that we go through, but they're easier when we know why we experience the pain and the suffering. But what if we don't know? What if we don't understand any good in that moment? How are we to reframe the trial then? How are we to consider it, as our passage says, "pure joy" whenever you face these trials? Something that we need to work to understand, maybe one of the biggest reframings that we need to have, is that God doesn't often give explanations, but he always gives himself. He doesn't always give an explanation to us, but he always gives himself to us. We can be so desperate for an explanation, for a reason, for the why, that we miss God giving himself and his presence, which is exactly what we need. He is the source of peace.

Paul writes in Philippians 4:7, "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." And he says in verse 9, "And the God of peace will be with you." God often doesn't give explanations, but he always gives himself. C.S. Lewis wrote, "God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." Yet so often, we find ourselves looking for those things outside of God, in the world around us. This is especially humbling and challenging for me. I'm preaching to myself. I have sought reasons in the midst of trials. I've sought the why. I've asked God why, and I've done it for a long time, and I've done it to the point where I'm bordering becoming bitter at God, because I'm not getting the why. And maybe you've been there too. And I miss at times that he's right there with me, and that is the greater gift.

I was having a conversation with John Thomas, who helps out with youth. He was a former youth student. Now he's helping out with youth, and we were having a conversation recently about the hardest times in our life. We're just going back and forth. What a great conversation, right? Like, what's the hardest thing you've ever gone through? And then he asked me, and I said, probably the year 2020, as it was hard for so many of you. For me, in that time you heard some of the story before, it was the beginning of our church closing, the church that I worked at, that I grew up in, the church that I was a pastor at for eight years. We began the process of closing. And I was a church family, much like this church family, that I had come to love and adore. Most of that church was at my wedding. We brought Kinsley home to that church family. And so I was losing a job, my income. I was losing a church family, and I was entering into the unknown. And I kept asking God why. I did not understand. And most of my prayers were, I was just frustrated. I didn't get it. And in time, in the years that followed, and yes, it took me years to process all that, I began to see that God may be wanting me more than to have an intellectual understanding of why. He wanted me to experience deep relational intimacy and inner transformation, as I learned to trust the person and character of God, even when I couldn't find a trace of his plan in my life. None of the things made sense to me, but I had to learn to trust him. That was a reframing of the entire situation. It didn't give answers, but it reframed my expectations in the midst of my trial. And so maybe more important than us understanding what's happening, God wants us to experience deep relational intimacy with him and wants us to learn to trust him, simply based on who he is, not always just for what he does. Sometimes we don't understand that it's him doing it, and we just think, "God, are you even there?" And he's sitting there saying, "Are you still going to trust me? I'm right here with you. Are you going to trust me?" Tim Keller again says, "When we stop demanding to understand and start trusting the one who does, thanksgiving becomes possible again." That's obviously easier said than done, but it's so true and so good. So that's the first adjustment. We may need to reframe the trials that we go through, may need to reframe our mind and our heart as we enter into those trials and struggles and pains. We'll be one step closer if we do that to considering it pure joy and to keeping a rhythm of thanks in our life.

The second thing is to recognize the process. Verse three says, "Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance." Recognize the process. Testing and trials refine our faith. We often want the process to be deny the pain, move past it as quickly as possible, avoid pain at all costs. Let's just get past this, get back to the good times. We tend to think of trials and pains as opposites of praise and gratitude, that they don't occur at the same time. "God, I want to praise you, but I'm in this hard time, so I can't. If you were to just deliver me from this, then I would praise you for being in a good place again." But the Bible shares and encourages us to hold lament and praise together. The Bible project actually says, "Lament is not the opposite of praise, it's the pathway to it." Sometimes the process of us getting to the place where we can praise God and be in His presence fully is going through the trial and through the pain, not around it, not avoiding it. And really, if you were to look at so many of the biblical characters, they go through different hardships and trials, and oftentimes they are closer to God in the midst of that trial than even after it, when God is right there for them. The truth is, honest grief and deep gratitude can coexist together. Honest grief or sorrow, mourning, whatever you're feeling about the hardship you're going through, and deep gratitude can coexist together. And when they do, when we are holding both of those things before God and just saying, "I'm feeling these things, God, this is who I am right now," the process of our hearts being refined is at maximum efficiency. That's where God is working in our hearts the most, when we're honest with Him about what we're feeling.

In fact, biblical lament is an act of faith and gratitude. To echo the writers of the Psalter, in the midst of pain and suffering, Psalm 13, the author wrote, "How long, O God, this crying out for, how long must I suffer?" Cries out in pain and agony, but also he cries out in faith because crying out, "How long, O God," means it assumes that God is still there. It assumes that God is still listening. It assumes that God can do something about the pain and the trial. So there is faith in crying out. That's why the Psalms of Lament always turn towards praising God and trust. That Psalm 13 that starts with, "How long, O God," ends with, "But I trust in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord's praises for he has been good to me." Psalm 22, which is another lament, which begins with the famous line that Jesus quotes while dying on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That is a Psalm of deep and dark agony. And the Psalm ends with many verses acknowledging God is Lord over all. Verse 29 of that Psalm says, "All will feast and will worship and will kneel before him." Psalm 44, which is a communal lament, ends with a cry for help that calls upon God's unfailing love. They turn from lament in the midst of suffering towards praising God, not because their feelings have changed and they're suddenly happy and they're like, "Oh, just writing this was all I needed. Everything's different now." Their circumstances haven't even changed, but because they are remembering who God is and his faithfulness to them, they rest in that. And they're present in that thought of, "I know God. I know who he is. I know how good he is. I know what he can do. I know what he has done. And he is good.”

We need to recognize that the process of enduring trials, of being tested, is important. It has its place in our life. It's how we are refined. You have to go through fire to be refined. And when you go through fire, you get burned a little bit. So we need to reframe the trial. We need to recognize the process. So then we need to remain through perseverance. Verse four says, "Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." Let God finish his work. As we've said, we tend to be adverse to pain and trials. We don't like it. We want it to end as quickly as possible. But we need to remain with God through the fire and through the trials. This is often the hardest part, to remain in something faithful. This is counter to our natural reaction, right? If you're in the kitchen, you touch a hot pan or pot on the stove, you flinch, you withdraw. You don't go back to it and be like, "Oh, that's probably good for me. Let me just keep my hand there." No. But the Bible says if trials refine us and they help mature our faith, then we need to get that full experience. Let's not stunt our spiritual growth by just begging God the entire time and being fixated on God as soon as this can end. This would be great. Now, I do want to say this. This doesn't mean that we don't pray for hard things to end. God is very much, church hear me in saying this, God is very much in the business of healing, of restoration, of redemption. We can pray those prayers. We should pray those prayers. But it also means that we should strive to have a certain endurance. Understanding that until God relieves whatever it is we're going through, it doesn't mean that he's not listening. It doesn't mean that what we're going through doesn't have a purpose. And so we need to be attentive to what he's doing within us in the midst of that suffering. We continue to pray, God, please heal, please restore, please take this, whatever it is away. But while I'm in it, God, also do your work. As we remain in the process, letting God finish his work in us, we realize that the most important thing is that God is with us. And when we do that, it's only then that we can realize that the most important thing of God being with us is also that he's the only thing that we really need. When we can get to the point that no matter how the trial ends or when it ends, we are thankful for God's presence with us. That is a beautiful place. You can never learn that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have.

That was Corrie Ten Boom. If you don't know Corrie Ten Boom, she was a Dutch woman, a daughter of a watchmaker in World War II. Her and her family decided to help hide Jews who were trying to escape from the Holocaust. Their family famously put up a false wall in their house and had a system of helping hide Jews who were trying to flee with the Dutch resistance. During this time, food was in short supply and there were ration cards that everyone had to have to get food. And she knew the civil servant who was in charge of the distribution of these ration cards. She had done work with the man's daughter who was mentally disabled. And when she went to him to ask for ration cards that she needed, she writes in her book, The Hiding Place, "I opened my mouth to say five, but the number that unexpectedly and astonishingly came out instead was 100." And he gave them to her. And she provided cards to every Jew that she met, helping them be able to eat during this time. Someone informed the Gestapo about the Ten Booms work and the entire family was arrested. The father died in prison shortly thereafter. Cory was held in solitary confinement for three months before her first hearing. At her trial, Cory Ten Boom spoke about her work with people with mental and physical disabilities and the Nazis who were at the time killing anyone with a mental and physical disability. They scoffed at her. And Ten Boom defended her work by saying that in the eyes of God, a mentally disabled person might have more value than a watchmaker, and then looked at them and said, "Or a lieutenant in the army." Well, Cory and her sister, Betsy, were sent to a political concentration camp, then a women's labor camp in Germany, where they began holding worship services with a Bible that they smuggled in. And many prisoners came to believe in Jesus. Betsy, her sister, however, died on December 16th, 1944. But before she died, she said to her sister, "There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still." Twelve days later, Cory was released. It wasn't until afterwards, sometime later, she found out that she was only released because of a clerical error, and that all the women in her age group one week later were sent to the gas chamber. And she writes, "You can never learn that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you have." There is so much freedom to be found in the place where Christ is all you have. And you know that He is all you need. And I think in our time, in our lives, that's very hard. We're surrounded with a consumerist world that says, "The more you have, the happier you are. The more you don't, you're not happy until you have this. Your life is not complete." But the truth is, Christ is all we need.

Once we realize that Christ is all we need and that He is with us, this is where gratitude can really come to the forefront of our beings. We need to respond with gratitude. We thank God not for the pain, but for His presence and purpose within it. Thank God that you are not alone in whatever you are going through. You can thank God that He is the power to redeem and rescue you. Furthermore, gratitude and suffering happens when we realize that God suffers with us. And that His suffering on the cross through His Son Jesus changes the meaning of our suffering. If we see that God brought the greatest good through the most unjust, the worst suffering and unfair suffering a person has ever endured in Christ, He can surely do the same in ours. Tim Keller again says, "Giving thanks doesn't trivialize our pain. It honors the one who entered it and will one day undo it." We have to understand that without the cross, there would be no thanksgiving and suffering. It would just mean suffering to suffer, pain for pain's sake. And thankfully, praise God, that is not the case for us. Actually, when we give thanks in the midst of trials, a couple things are happening. One, it's a spiritual act of defiance against despair, fighting against the victim mentality. It says, "My pain is real, but my redeemer is greater." Gratitude becomes a form of hope, believing that everything sad will come untrue.

Gratitude is an act of defiance against despair. It also does this, gratitude is a way of joining God's story of restoration before it's fully realized. It anticipates the resurrection and new life that Jesus brings. As believers, we have hope of eternity with Him, where there is no more suffering. Revelation 21:4 says, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Bible Project says, "Hope is not naive optimism, it is confidence in what is already underway through the power of Jesus." We can appreciate God for giving us that hope and for the promise of the future that we have, and we can respond with gratitude.

As we wrap up our time this morning, we're going to have some table discussions. Hopefully these questions will help you as you figure out your rhythm of things in the midst of whatever trial you're going through. So I just want to walk through these really quickly. Number one is, how can you differently define your trials in light of scripture? Are you defining your trials correctly? Remember God giving thanks in trials is not about denying them, but looking at them from the right perspective. So do you need to reframe your approach to whatever you're experiencing, that struggle, that challenge, the trial? Do you need to reframe your expectations of God? Do you need to reframe how the trial you are in is an opportunity to grow closer to Him? Number two, what would it look like personally to recognize and remain in God's refining process? Do you see that what you are going through can mature you and grow you deeper in your faith? And instead of holding only two options out in front of you and before God saying, "God, it's either this trial or no trial or pain or no pain, suffering or no suffering," and demanding that God answer you in the way that you deem best, can you hold it all before God and simply ask, "How do I glorify you in this season with what I'm going through?" Remain in the process. We can feel and experience various emotions, even seemingly contrasting emotions at the same time, grief and joy, mourning and thanksgiving. Recognizing that you are in a refining process, and while it might be painful, it would be helpful because it helps to see that the Godly work that is happening within us. So don't become so fixated on getting past the hardship and the struggle that you miss what God is trying to do within you. And then number three, how can you increase your gratitude toward God in the midst of your trials? It might start with, are you even giving thanks at all when you are in a hard time? Are you fighting despair with gratitude? Are you thankful for the joy that comes from suffering? Not joy from what suffering takes from us, but what God gives us in the midst of that suffering. Endurance, wisdom, Christ-likeness, intimacy with God. So go ahead right now, whatever question you're feeling, maybe all three of them, but we'll just give you a few minutes and then we'll circle back up in a few minutes here.

All right, I hope those discussions have been good and sorry to interrupt you at this time and feel free to continue afterwards after church ends, but I also want to say this very important thing that I mentioned that you guys, that God is with you in the midst of whatever you're facing. Maybe you feel that, maybe you don't. And I think oftentimes we feel God's presence through other believers that we know that we're not alone through God, through our church community. And so I just want to remind you of that, that you are not alone and that you don't have to face anything that you are going through alone. And I know that maybe being vulnerable is hard, but this church is a place where you can be free and safe and to share whatever you are going through and we are here for you. As pastors too, I want to make sure that you know that you can always call, email, text. Part of our job is to care for our congregation. And so we walk through all of you in whatever you're going through in life, the joys, but also the hardships. So please take advantage of that and never feel alone, but you can always call and there's always someone here at this church that is going to be there for you.

Last, I just want to say this. I was listening to a song this week, "Come Thou Fount," maybe you know it, an old hymn. And I love the line that says, "Tune my heart to sing thy praise." And I think that's our prayer, that in whatever season we find ourselves in, whether a joyful one and we're praising God or in the midst of a turbulent season, and that idea of tuning, it's just a little adjustment. And maybe we were in a season that was good and now we're in a different season, so we just need to be tuned a little bit. And when God tunes us, then we can sing his praises again. It doesn't mean that the circumstance changed, but our heart is in a place where we can worship God. So let's go ahead and pray right now.

God, that is our prayer, that you would tune our hearts to sing your praises. We want to thank you, God, that we do not walk down this road of life alone, but that this journey toward eternity and towards your heart has been from the very beginning ordained by you. And therefore we praise you, even in our sadness, knowing that the sorrows we steward in this life will be redeemed. God, we ask that you would use our pain and suffering in the trials as tools in your hand, shaping our hearts into a truer imitation of Christ. God, we pray that you would help reframe our minds this week. If that's what's needed, that we would just have a different perspective and be seeking to know not necessarily why it's happening, but just how you are with us to be present with you. And God, that you would use whatever we're going through as a process to refine us. And that when it's hard, that we would remain, until you have restored and redeemed and rescued us God, that we would remain with perseverance in that just sitting with you. And God, I pray that you would help us to learn how to give thanks in the midst of trials. And ultimately give thanks because you are with us in them. Help us Lord. And we do pray. We pray right now for all of us are going through different things. We pray that you would be working to relieve us of that. And we know that you can, and we know that you will in your timing and in your perfect way. And so we pray that that would come true as well. And so God, we pray this. We pray that you would illuminate our way, that you would kindle our hope, that you would be our healing, that you would grant us peace, that you would be our righteousness, be our salvation and be our God. Amen.