Calvary Evangelical Free Church in Rochester MN

What brought Jesus joy? How can His joy be in us? Joy is found as we "remain" in Christ, the True Vine, and bear fruit.

Thank you, Josh, and worship team. Just a quick word for those who are watching online. We're going to be coming to the Lord's table shortly after the sermon. So if you don't have your communion elements gathered yet, do it even right now, if you have your Bibles, I hope you do, open them to John.

Chapter 15. We'll be looking at John Chapter 15 in a few minutes, primarily verses 9 through 16.

You know, we have been in a series on Joy, the Christian virtue of Joy the last couple of weeks, really all of this month leading up to Easter. I don't know if you have found the same thing for yourself that I've found for me. Joy doesn't come naturally. Christian joy doesn't come naturally to any of us. But some of us need this more than others. Some of us, by our personality make up, we are not naturally joyful people. So I am truly in this series speaking as one beggar to another beggar about where to find food. This is an area that the Lord is definitely working on my life and in my life. I've had some good conversations with a number of you about the last couple sermons and about joy. One of the themes that I've heard is, is how do we get a bearing on joy? Is it is something that we're supposed to be feeling? Is it an attitude? Is it a mindset? Is it a series of actions?

What actually do we mean when we talk about the virtue of joy? So you may find this helpful, hopefully, as I have Peter Kreeft, who is a well-known Christian philosopher, he is a professor at Boston College. He really helped me bring this a little more into focus as he distinguishes between pleasures and happiness and joy.

Look at what he says. Joy is more than happiness, just as happiness is more than pleasure.

And then and then he brings it into a little more definition. Pleasure is in the body. Pleasures are the bodily pleasures that we experience here in this earth. Happiness is in the mind and feelings. So to some extent, happiness is something we we we have come up in our thought lives, come up in our emotional life.

But Joy, he says joy is deep in the heart. Joy is deep in the spirit. Joy is deep in the very center of the self. One more little focus that he brings to us and he's speaking about everybody who is alive or has ever lived, for that matter, everyone wants pleasure. But more deeply, everyone wants happiness. But most deeply, everyone wants joy.

And I think he's I think he's nailed it there, you know, Sigmund Freud, no friend of Christianity, Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud actually ridiculed the Christian concept of joy. Freud said that joy is really just a substitute for physical pleasure. He's thinking specifically if you know Freud in his writings about sexual pleasure.

In other words, Freud is saying, you Christians, you search after joy because you are not being fulfilled with physical sexual pleasure.

But he has it completely 180 degrees upside down. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote much earlier than Freud, really got it right when he said this No person, no person can live without joy. That is why a person who is deprived of spiritual joy seeks physical pleasures, seeks carnal pleasures. Aquinas goes on to say, Joy is neither a substitute for physical pleasure, but physical pleasure is often a substitute for spiritual joy.

You find that resonating with your experience? I do in my own experience, I do. When I look at the world around me, so many people chasing after physical pleasure, I think of times in my life where I was so motivated to chase after physical pleasure, when what I really want, even though I didn't know it, was joy.

And those in the world who do not know Christ, maybe that some of you watching today or here today, if you find yourself focused on what is bringing you pleasure, even the little things that you continue to habitually go back to, dig down deeper, because really you are trying to feed a hunger that can only be fed when you tap into spiritual joy.

That's why we are focusing on this virtue of joy. We started a couple of weeks ago on March 7th with the last few verses in Zephaniah, that obscure Old Testament Prophet Zephaniah 3, particularly verse 17. And we saw that for one who knows God through Jesus Christ as savior and Lord, the ultimate source of joy is that because of the righteousness of Christ, God rejoices over us.

He is not a stern God ready to zap us for stepping out of line. He is not an angry God. He's not a distant God for his children and Jesus Christ.

He rejoices over us with singing.

And that is where our joy is rooted in this life as a believer. Last week we looked at joy and contentment, comparing it to the stoicism that seems to be making a resurgence in our culture today. Joy and Contentment in Philippians, Chapter four. Today, we're looking at a different aspect of joy, which I'll introduce in a moment. But it comes out of Jesus's words in John 15. If you have your Bible, I invite you to follow along as I read. Back in October, I preached the first eight verses of Chapter 15, so I'm going to pick it up in verse nine. Again, the setting is Jesus is is probably in the upper room. Either that or he and his disciples have left the upper room and they're on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. This is just an hour maybe before he is arrested and which leads on to his suffering and ultimately his crucifixion.

These are his final words to his disciples before he is crucified.

As the father has loved me. Jesus says, so have I loved you.

And just by the way, he's speaking to those who were there at the time who were his followers. But he speaks these words, come down the centuries and speak to all of us. He's speaking to you

if you are a follower of Jesus Christ. As the father has loved me, Jesus says so I have loved you.

Now, remain or abide in my love, if you obey my commands, you will remain, you will abide in my love, just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain or abide in his love.

I have told you this so that my joy, Jesus says, may be in you and that your joy may be complete, may be filled.

My command is this love each other as I have loved you, greater love has no one other than this that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command, I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything I learned from my father I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command.

Love each other.

So much in there, so with little time, we will not get through it all, but I want to take you back to what Jesus says about joy in verse 11 as we are thinking about, again, what is the source of a Christian's joy?

Where is the joy that we experience as we follow Jesus? Verse 11 Jesus says these things

I have spoken to you. He's talking about everything that was in that discourse in the upper room leading up to his crucifixion. All has taught there these things I have spoken to you that my joy, Jesus's joy may be in

you, may be in you and me, if we are followers of Jesus and that your joy may be complete, may be made full.

In other words, Jesus wants his followers, if you're one of his followers, he wants you and me to experience the joy that he experiences.

He wants us to be believers who experience joy in all of its fullness and all of its completeness.

So let me ask an honest question, is that your experience, is that my experience?

I will speak from my experience that is that is not reflective of my life, though I desire it to be. I don't characterize my life as one that is filled with joy, but I'm very drawn to this and convicted that he wants his joy to be in me. He wants his joy to be in you. He wants our joy to be complete. So there's something that gives me a great hunger for this. I'd ask you kind of the follow on question, if we are not experiencing this joy, what are we chasing to try and experience that joy? If what Aquinas says is correct, that that actually when we chase after physical pleasures, when we chase after earthly happiness, we're really trying to, though we don't know it, we're trying to to find that joy. What is the physical pleasure? What is the myth of happiness that you find yourself like a hamster on a wheel chasing after and never, never finding when you really searching after joy. I want to know this, Joy, I want you as my brothers and sisters to know this Joy. Jesus describes it as as his joy. What let me ask you what brought Jesus joy?

Because if we understand what brought him joy, that his joy is the joy he wants in us, that it be filled, maybe that helps us take some steps towards this. There's much we could say in scripture, but just staying immediately in our text verse 10 gives us some indication of what brought Jesus joy.

He says, if you obey my commands, you will remain or abide in my love, just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain and abide in his love.

We see some hints of what gives Jesus joy, obedience, pleasing the father walking in his will gave Jesus joy.

Think of the words of the writer of the letter to the Hebrews. Hebrews Chapter 12 for the joy that lay before him, Jesus endured the cross, disregarding the shame walking in obedience to the father's will, though it took him all the way to crucifixion on the cross, Jesus says, brought him joy.

So obedience as we obey, as we seek to live a life that is pleasing to the father. There is joy in that.

But that's another sermon. That's not today's sermon.

Jesus also indicates another form of joy that we can experience, and that's in that theme of abiding our remaining.

To abide in Christ, to remain and Christ means to rest in him, it means to rely on him, it means to stay with him.

And we touched on that a little bit back in October. That's another sermon. But there is great joy in abiding in Christ, remaining in Christ, relying on Christ. That's another sermon for another day.

The thing that I want to focus in on today that brings Jesus joy and therefore is a source of our joy is what we see in verse 16.

Jesus says to all his followers, You did not choose me, but I chose you and I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit. Fruit that will last.

We are if we are followers of Jesus, we know Jesus as savior and Lord, we are chosen. We did not choose him. No matter what your background, no matter what the details are of how you came to faith in Christ, it was God drawing you to Jesus.

Jesus says this and John six forty four. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them to me.

So out of his sovereign grace. If you know the Lord Jesus, out of God's sovereign grace, he chose you and he drew you to Jesus. He drew you to faith. And why did he do that? That's the next word there. You are not only chosen by by God, you are appointed. You are set apart. In other words, he did not just choose you to save you is significant as our salvation is. Again, if that was all it is, we'd be in heaven now. He chose us and he set us apart. He appointed us. He has a purpose for us, even still being in this world, being on this side of heaven. That is even what was read in the scripture today, the very last verse of that section in Ephesians. We have been created anew in Christ Jesus for good works. He saved us. He created us anew. He gave us new spiritual life because he has work for us to do, because he has a good work for us to do as we walk in it.

So we have been chosen and appointed to do what Jesus tells here, to go and bear fruit.

Jesus earlier in that chapter uses the image of a vineyard, and you and I, if we know Christ, we have been brought into Christ kingdom, we've been brought in to become part of that vineyard. We become branches attached to the vine of Christ.

And why do we know about a vineyard both then and now? A vineyard that doesn't bear fruit has no point. The purpose of a vineyard is to produce fruit. And yes, as we saw earlier in the chapter back in October, fruit is, while it's not defined in those verses, fruit is certainly the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of Christian character, the fruit of Christ's likeness. But notice the wording here in verse 16. Here it is, the fruit that emerges from going from being sent. It is the fruit that emerges from mission, it is the fruit, in other words, just to use two common terms, it is the fruit of evangelism and discipleship. So what kind of joy is Jesus speaking about here? Jesus is speaking about the joy of bearing fruit.

He is offering to you and me a joy that comes from being used by God in the lives of other people to help someone grow in gospel faith, either coming to faith initially or growing and being strengthened in that faith. Jesus is saying there is great joy in being used by God to help someone grow in gospel faith.

Why it is bearing fruit bring Jesus joy?

Why does it gladden the heart of Jesus when you allow yourself? When I allow myself to be used in the lives of others to to bring them to gospel faith and help them grow and gospel faith. Jesus tells us in verse eight. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. It glorifies God when someone comes to faith. It glorifies God when somebody is growing in gospel faith. And so it brings Jesus joy when we allow ourselves to be used in the lives of others, to grow them in gospel faith, because ultimately it glorifies God.

Let me give you just a couple of biblical examples of this, help dial it in on what we are actually talking about here. John the apostle, the one who wrote the gospel that we've just been reading of, he knew the joy of bearing fruit.

John, as you probably know, in addition to the gospel wrote three short letters, we find them almost at the end of the New Testament just before Jude and Revelation. And in third, John 4, John writes this, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. Now let me let me define that just for a moment here. He is not talking about his biological or adopted children. He's not talking about the children that that he may have had as part of his own family. This truth applies to that. But he's talking broader than that. He is most likely he was writing this letter to a man named Gaius. So he is most likely writing to Gaius and some of the other men and women who are part of the small Christian fellowship that Gaius was part of. And really what is happening here is, he is invested in these people's lives.

He spent time with them. He has served them. He has ministered to them. He has taught them, he has his fellowship with them. He has, you know, what we would call discipled them. And then ministry has called him away to some other place, but he hears reports coming back. Hey, Gaius is still going strong. Gaius

is actually become a leader in the church now, and it gives him great joy. Gaius and and the other men and women there walking in the truth.

Walking is that biblical image of our way of living. The Bible uses walking as an image of of like life is a journey. And of course, we can either walk in the way of truth, walk according to gospel truth, walk according to the truth of God's word, or we can walk in the ways of the world.

And he hears that in spite of persecution, in spite of his absence, that these men and women are continuing to walk in the truth.

I had the privilege of having dinner last night with somebody I've not seen for 40 years. He is somebody that we went to high school together who happened to be in town. And he was in the same youth group that I was.

I came to faith in an evangelical free church at about age 13, had the privilege of being in that youth group and growing in that youth group. And so did this man. And as we got together after not seeing each other since high school graduation last night, you know, the conversation, went as it normally would go and when you haven't seen someone in a long time.

Hey, have you heard about you know, and of course, there were people that we could think of that are no longer walking in the truth. But that conversation blessed me so richly because really what we focused on is how many people that were part of that youth group that were part of that church in our age range that we know today are walking in the truth. Some of them are in vocational ministry, but that's not the test, some of them are on the mission field, some of them are in various professions, but they're living for Christ in their professions. Some of them we know are are raising Christian families in small town insignificant settings. But we realize so many of our peers back then are walking in the truth. What caused that? We had a good pastor, but there was no special programming in that church.

We we certainly had great youth pastors during that time, but there were men and women who are youth sponsors, who are our Sunday school teachers. There were others who held no official role, but were just adults in the church who took an interest in many of us.

They were whether they knew it or not, they were bearing fruit. Their investment in us produce a great crop of fruits.

And I rejoice and I believe that those in heaven one day, those who are the pastors and the youth sponsors and the Sunday school teachers, they will one day rejoice as they become aware of how many of the people their lives touched are walking in the truth.

That's what John is saying here.

There's lots of of ways that you can experience joy in this world. There is no greater joy, John says, than seeing those that you have invested in in one way or another walking in the truth. This eclipses all accomplishments. This eclipses all experiences, seeing those that you have spiritually invested in walking in the truth.

Well, not just John, but the apostle Paul as well experienced the joy of bearing fruit. He writes to a number of believers in Thessalonica in the small church there, and he writes again, this is after he's left them. He's spent time with them and after he's left them, First Thessalonians 2:19 for who is our hope or joy

or crown to boast of before the Lord Jesus at His coming? Before I finish his quote there, what is he saying there?

When I stand before the Lord Jesus one day, Paul says, I am nothing to bring before him. I am saved by his grace alone. But what will come to mind as I hear the words good, well done, good and faithful servant, those that I have invested in, those that I have borne fruit in. And so he goes on to say in verse 20

is it not you?

You are our glory, you are our joy. Because Paul had spiritually invested in these people and because at least some of them had responded and they've grown spiritually as a result.

He has joy now and he has joy as he is. He anticipates the future. He knows that he's going to see them in heaven.

There's joy now and there is joy in heaven and there is joy in heaven because he knows that the Lord will reward him for bearing fruit.

I know this goes back a number of years, but maybe some of you recall the Christian song by Ray Bolls. Thank you. Do you remember that song Ray Bolls sings as a songwriter and he sings of being in heaven one day, and he's speaking about someone that he knows who's in heaven alongside with him.

And the verses go on to to describe watching as this friend in heaven has person after person come up to him, a man comes up to him who says, when I was eight years old, I was in your Sunday school class and because you invested in me and you spoke the gospel to me, I came to Faith. Thank you for for doing that. I am here in heaven because of that. He describes another person who his friend does not even recognize coming up to him saying you gave money to support missionaries and those missionaries brought us the gospel. And I am here because I heard the gospel and responded to the gospel. And, you know, that song goes on and on. But one after another, he says he sees coming to him saying thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed.

That's the sentiment here. There is joy now, certainly, as we hear reports of how people that we have invested in, that we have ministered to, that we have served are growing in the Lord. But there is joy to come.

And for everyone here today, if you know Christ as savior and Lord, I just want to underline this. This is not just for those in vocational ministry. This is not just for those who are on the mission field. Bearing fruit is the joy that is available to every believer.

Jesus calls every one of us who follow him to bear fruit and experience this joy. Now how do we, let's say we're not gifted in evangelism, let's say we have no role, no position, how is it that we bear fruit?

Well, I love the very simple image. I'm a simple man. I like simple images.

I think of this simple image in First Corinthians three, where Paul speaks of planting and watering. Paul says there are one or there are some who plant. There is another. There are others who water.

They all work together for the same purpose. By the way, it's not on the screen there, but he goes on to say, and God causes the growth.

But do you get that? There's that image, first of all, of planting.

There is that image of intentionally in the conversations that we have with people in our social circles and in our family circles and work circles who do not know Christ. There is always that opportunity to plant seeds of who Jesus is and of the gospel. But we can't plant those seeds if we keep them in our pockets, can we? There has to be some intentionality. Doesn't mean I have to do a full gospel presentation in every conversation, but am I intentionally sprinkling seeds in the conversations that I have at work and in my extended family gatherings and in my neighborhood and in my other social circles, we bear fruit.

We will one day and heaven see the fruit that comes from planting seeds that we didn't even have the opportunity on this earth to see them sprout and come to maturity.

But there is also opportunities to water the seed. There's opportunities where we are in relationship. We befriend people who they've heard the gospel and they need to be encouraged in the gospel and people who've responded to the gospel who need someone to come alongside them and help them grow in the gospel.

There are opportunities to each one of us every day in the circles that God providentially puts us in to plant and to water. And what does he say? Both those who plant and those who water will one day be rewarded for their hard work.

They will one day see the fruit that they have been part of bringing about and they will be rewarded.

I know we in the evangelical church, we are not comfortable with the concept of rewards. And in one sense I get it. Just like we read in Ephesians two today, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. And even the faith to respond Ephesians 2 says is given to us as a gift.

We don't stir it up in ourselves, but that same passage goes on to say that we are saved, to do good works, good works of planting, good works of watering, which God prepared beforehand when he knew what social circles that you would be in that we should walk in them.

Is it no accident that Jesus gives us the parable of the talents that each one of us have been given seed, each one of us have been given opportunities and relationships, each one of us have been given resources, and each one of us like those different servants in the parable of the talents, will one day come before Jesus. And show what is the result of what what he has given us? How have we invested it? What fruit has it has it born?

What is it that he says to those who who have invested the opportunities and the resources that that God has entrusted to them and it has borne fruit, fruit for the Gospel. They will hear these words from Jesus. Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.

Do you not want to hear those words?

I long to hear those words. Nothing, nothing, brothers and sisters will bring you or I greater joy than to hear those words. Well done. Good and faithful servant.

What we do with the opportunities we've been given, no matter how little or insignificant they may seem, what we do with those little opportunities that God gives us now is directly related to the degree of joy that we will one day experience and heaven. When you bear fruit, when you allow yourself to be used by God to plant or to water, not only do you experience joy now as you see some of the fruit of that, but you will one day experience great joy as you are rewarded in heaven. And you hear those words well done good and faithful servant.

So let me ask you in closing today, are you living on mission?

Do you see mission as just that's what people in vocational ministry or people on the mission field are all about? Or do you see mission as something that we are all on that he has put every one of us in mission fields? That mission field may be your immediate family and maybe your extended family it maybe your work situation it maybe your neighborhood. Whatever social circle it is, it is a mission field. Do you see yourself on mission?

Are you building your kingdom or are you seeking to build Christ's kingdom? I've lived too much of my life building my kingdom.

I've lived too much of my life worrying about accomplishments and achievements and positions, and it's all a pile of dirt.

I want to live for Christ's kingdom. I want to invest, I want to be on mission and bear fruit.

Are you reaching out beyond your comfort zone? It is so easy, especially with the ongoing effects of covid, to want to stay within our comfort zone to not wanting to go outside of our bubble. But are you willing to reach out beyond your comfort zone to befriend and bless lost people?

Seed needs to be spread all around us.

Are you willing to go beyond what is comfortable for you to spread that seed to to befriend, to build relationship with and be used as a blessing in the lives of lost people?

Do you take the great commission seriously?

Do you consider it is not just something that's supposed to be part of a church's mission statement, that it is not something that is just for people in vocational ministry or people on the mission field?

Every one of us is called to make disciples of all the Earth. Do you take the great commission seriously?

Are you willing to do whatever you can with what God entrusts to you the opportunities and resources he gives to you to make disciples of Jesus?

This is what we're called to do, but this is where our joy comes from. This is where joy comes from that eclipses any other joy that you and I will experience here in this life.

Let me close with this, every day is a new opportunity, but every day is one day closer to when we see Jesus face to face and we don't know when that day will come. What are you doing with today? Will you invest, will you allow him to use you in little or in big ways, whatever he puts before you, to bear fruit, to be part of bearing fruit, to invest in people spiritually?

I love and I'm challenged with what C.T. Studd said the great British missionary lived about 100 years ago. "Only one life will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last."

We may accomplish many things in this earthly life, we may have many achievements, we may amass financial security, we may have a lot of relational connections.

All of that will burn away. None of that will be left. Only where we have borne fruit will that last. Only what we do for Christ will continue with us into eternity. Let's pray.

Jesus, once again, I am preaching primarily to myself.

And maybe there our brothers and sisters here who who can identify with me, but I just confess I have spent too much of my life in barrenness and I don't know whether I have years left or days left. But, Lord, I want to use every day, every year that you give me to bear fruit.

And I imagine, Lord, there are some here today who who are at the same place where maybe they've tasted of many good things that life has and they've enjoyed many things in life, but they realize that's not where true

deep joy is and that's certainly not what will be brought before you. But you give us opportunity every day to bear fruits. You give us an opportunity to be used by you in the life of other people, drawing them to and helping them grow in gospel faith. And so would you reorient us today, Jesus, by your spirit? Would you turn our concept of of earthly joy inside out? May we go for this deeper joy, this joy that is known in being part of your kingdom, this joy that we experience in being part of your agenda, the joy of bearing fruit. We want to hear the words one day, Lord Jesus.

Well done good and faithful servant. We pray this in your name and for your glory. Amen.

The book of Philippians is often noted for its expressions of joy. What is the relationship between contentment and joy?

Thank you, worship team, thank you, John. I just underline what John said about praying for the pastoral search team. If you're not aware of this, they are doing their first interview, a video interview of one of the candidates that they're taking a very close look at. They're doing that today at 3:00 p.m. and I know they'd covet your prayers. You pray for them, for wisdom, for discernment, just to hear the Spirit's leading even as they go through this season of very intense interviewing. Now, three o'clock today, if you want to mark that for prayer, if you have your Bible and I hope that you do either in print or on your phone, I invite you to open to Philippians chapter four, the Apostle Paul's letter to the Philippians. We are this month.

looking at the Christian virtue of joy, that aspect of the fruit of the spirit that is to be growing in the life of a genuine believer. This is something the Holy Spirit blossoms as we come to Christ and begins to grow and mature and ripen. Philippians out of really any book in the Bible, particularly the New Testament, is the book that stands out as the book known for Joy. 16 times in the Book of Philippians either the word the noun form joy or the verb form rejoice is used by Paul sprinkled all through the four chapters of this letter. And I think it's particularly noteworthy that that three times he gives an actual exhortation. Actually, that's probably not strong enough. He gives a command. Rejoice in the Lord. In fact, the one you see up on the screen there, verse four, is is really a double command. Rejoice in the Lord. Again, I say rejoice. That word rejoice - the Greek word that Paul uses there - it literally means to be glad. It means to be delighted.

Now, I wonder is if you think back about the last 12 months, I wonder if you feel some dissonance with us talking about Joy this month. I don't know if you realize it, but almost a year ago, I think it was March 10th or 11th. That's in 2020. That's when kind of all the restrictions of this pandemic came down around us. Think of all that you have walked through, all that we have walked through, all that people that you love have walked through and suffered and loss in the last 12 months.

Does that stir up joy in you? Does that stir up being glad and being delighted? Think about our nation has gone through our world, but in particular our nation, with its unrest and its division, the lack of unity that we've seen not only in our nation, but even in the church. Does that stir up that sense of being glad, being delighted? You know, there's a real dissonance, at least that I feel in talking about joy. This again, this would not have been a topic that I naturally in my flesh would have picked. Maybe that's particularly why we need to focus on this virtue of joy this month. The source of joy, when we think about the last 12 months, if we root the source of our joy in our external circumstances, we are going to think about what we've lost and what we've suffered and what we've sacrificed. There isn't going to be that sense of being glad or being delighted.

But here's the truth. Here's the truth of scripture.

The source of this kind of joy that Paul is talking about, that God is speaking to us about through the apostle Paul. It is not rooted in external circumstances. In fact, even as we look at the context in which Paul writes this letter, Paul, whether you realize it or not, Paul is in prison writing this letter. It's probably prison in Ephesus. We have some evidence he is chained on either side to a Roman guard. He doesn't have his liberty. Do you think we were locked down over the last 12 months? He is ultimately locked down. You think that we have been cut off from from our friends and and Christian brothers and sisters and been denied having fellowship over the last 12 months? He is in a prison cell cut off from his friends and his brothers and sisters in Christ. That's where he is when he's writing these words, that is the situation, the external circumstances of his life as he is calling us to rejoice in the Lord. So we need to hear that command, that exhortation to rejoice in the Lord in a different way than we maybe naturally think about it.

I like what A.W. Pink has to say about this command to rejoice in the Lord. A.W. Pink is a devotional writer in England in the 20th century. He writes this about that command Rejoice in the Lord. Does this mean that the Christian, as always, to be happy? No, he says it is actually the very reverse, it is because the Christian finds so much in himself and in what is going on around him to sadden him that he is directed to look above, look above and rejoice not in circumstances. Rejoice in the Lord. He concludes, We are not called to rejoice in our own experiences or our own circumstances, but in the Lord. And more on how we do that a little bit later. Let's look at our particular text this morning. I'm looking at kind of some of the closing verses in Chapter four, beginning with verse 10. In verse 10 Paul writes this - It's kind of the thank you note on the end of this letter. I'll explain that in a minute - "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last you have renewed your care and your concern for me."

So a little background. We learn about the church in Phillipi, the people that he's writing to, we learned about it. And at 16, you may remember that Paul is in Asia Minor and he is attempting to go in different directions in his missionary journey. And he has stopped cold by the Holy Spirit.

And he one night is given a vision of a man in Macedonia saying, come over here, bring the gospel to us over here. So Paul gets on a ship and crosses the Aegean Sea and he makes his way to the first major city, which is Phillipi. He finds a place of prayer. He finds where people are gathering on the Sabbath at the the bank of a river. And there he begins to speak about Christ. And you may know the story, but a woman named Lydia, a very influential woman, God does a work in her heart and converts her. She comes to faith in Christ through Paul's preaching, but because of what God is doing in her heart. And out of that conversion, the little church in Phillipi is born. It begins to grow and more people begin to come to Christ. There is a church, a body of believers. Now, Paul is soon after forced out of Phillipi by by persecution and he moves on in his missionary journey. But that group of believers, the church in Phillipi, they continue to grow and not just in numbers, but in strength. And we get some indication, as Paul writes Second Corinthians, that the church in Phillipi, they are financially funding his missionary work, Second Corinthians eight. He refers to the churches in Macedonia. That's Phillipi, the churches in Macedonia sacrificially supporting him. They were sending him funds to enable to him to continue to go and plant churches, preach the gospel and plant churches.

And they were doing it sacrificially. They were giving money that they didn't have. So when he writes here in verse ten now at last you have renewed your concern or your care for me, that indicates that there's been a break in that. They had been giving faithfully to him in support of him and for some reason were not given details. It had been a while since he had received anything from them. Now he goes right on in the second phrase of verse ten to say you were in fact concerned about me. He's relieving any anxieties, relieving any guilt that they may have about this break and their support. In other words, he's saying, I know you care. I know you have not stopped caring for me, but you lack the opportunity to show it. Again we don't have really a lot of detail. We don't have the facts of why there was this break in their support. This lack of opportunity to show it may have been because of their deep poverty. That's what Second Corinthians eight indicates, that these were people who had little to nothing to begin with. They were already giving sacrificially. And they just may have gotten to a point where they didn't have anything to give or it may have been because they couldn't find him. You know, they didn't have the communication, obviously, that we have today.

Paul went on his journeys. Paul got sucked up in the Roman justice system and found himself in prison in Ephesus. It may have taken them a while to track down what had happened to him and where he is. But he goes on to say it's not on the screen, but in verse eighteen. If you look in your Bible, he says, I am now received from Epaphroditus, the gifts that you sent. And so they send this member of their body Epaphroditus with a financial gift that is ample, as the text indicates. And it is now finally reached Paul as he writes this. So, you know, he's writing this a bit as a thank you, but that's not his main point in writing. This is not just a belated thank you note. He now uses this as an opportunity to encourage them about finding joy and contentment. And this comes back to our theme of joy, where do we find joy? Well we're going to see we find joy in Christ, but one particular way that we find joy in Christ is in contentment, in the contentment that Christ gives. He introduces that in verse 11 when he says, I don't say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. That word content is the Greek word autarkēs. Strongs gives it some definitions here: to be satisfied, to be strong enough to need no aid or support, to be independent of external circumstances.

Now, I don't know what you think about when you think of the word content, but the particular word that Paul uses here as they hear it and their culture with their background, it hits them in a way that I didn't really realize it until I studied this passage again in preparation for this sermon. Sinclair Ferguson probably says it best. Paul's use of this term, and this letter to these people must have been startling to them, shocking to them. Why? Because this is a stoic term. This is a term that is a main significant term in the philosophy, the world view at that time known as stoicism. Now, I don't know what you think about when you think about stoic or stoicism. Somebody told me after the first service today, I think about Bud Grant. You know, you Minnesotans who've been here a few years, do you remember the Vikings back when Bud Grant was the head coach? What was his facial expression when he won? What was his facial expression when they lost, you know, even emotions totally under control, not over reacting. Maybe you think of you know, I think of the the Scandinavians who made up my my first church in central Minnesota, the Norwegians and the Swedes, 90 percent of the church had son or quist on the end of their name, you know, and there was a stoicism because their ancestors had come over and started with nothing in the middle of winter, you know, and so they were known for their stoicism.

Well, that's maybe, you know, maybe what we think of as stoicism that we're familiar with. But stoicism, of course, was a dominant Greek philosophy. There are men like Seneca, philosophers who are famous for it. Even a Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, is known as a teacher of stoicism. But this is not just ancient history. And it's not just, you know, some some cultural significance. Stoicism is making a resurgence today. My three twenty something sons, they're they're reading Jordan Peterson. You know, Jordan Peterson is the clinical psychologist from the University of Toronto. Actually, Jordan Peterson, I think, is being drawn to Christ. But in his writings up to this point, whether he claims it or not, he advocates stoicism in response to all that's going on in our nation. He is a teacher of stoicism. I think about even in the midst of this pandemic, there have been YouTube sites, YouTube sites, YouTube channels that I have seen spring up that are about stoicism. And they're not for academics. They are for me and you, the average person making a case for how do you face the things that we're struggling with in the middle of this pandemic? The philosophy, the mindset of stoicism.

So what is stoicism again?

You know, this is not a sermon on stoicism. But let me give you just kind of what I think are a few main bullets of stoicism. Why? Because I really want to contrast how they may have first heard him use the word content with what he's really teaching here. So here's stoicism in a nutshell. Stoicism says, first of all, recognize what you can and cannot control in life. Stoics say there is so much suffering because we are trying to hang on to and control the things that are out of our control and basically they say about anything that is transient, you can't control your health is transient. I mean, you can do some things about your health, but you don't have ultimate control over it. Your relationships are transient. You don't have ultimate control over your relationships, particularly when people die. Your possessions are transient. You may think you can hang on to them, but, you know, circumstances happen and you lose them. So if you are invested in trying to hang on to the things and control the things that are transient in your life, the Stoics say, you are going to experience needless suffering. So recognize what you can control and let go of what you can't control. Secondly, the Stoics would say you determine your reaction to a crisis. The one thing you do have control over when circumstances roll over you that are painful, that are difficult, that bring suffering and loss, you can control how you respond to them. That's where that kind of moderated emotionalism comes into play. And that folds right into the third one.

Don't let your negative emotions dominate you, the Stoics say. Master yourself and learn to move on. That's stoicism in a very, very condensed down nutshell. So let me ask you is, since Paul is using a term, the main term of stoicism, is Paul here teaching a Christianize version of stoicism? I've seen that out there in some of these YouTube channels that, yeah, this is Christian, Paul taught stoicism. Is that what he's teaching here? Is he is he advocating the Greek philosophy, the world view of stoicism? No. Let's go on. And I think we'll see this verse twelve. He expands on what he's just said about contentment. "I know how to have a little and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content." Now, Paul, preconversion Saul of Tarsus, you would have not describe him as a man who is content, Paul even says looking back to his pre conversion life, he says about himself in Galatians Chapter one, I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my peers. I'm pushing. I'm pushing. I'm never satisfied. I want to continue to get ahead, he says. I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my teachers. I am at work. I am intense about this. I intensely persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it. So this is not a man who naturally knew contentment. Maybe you can relate to him. I know I can. Contentment does not come naturally. Contentment, the kind of Christian contentment that he's talking about here has to be learned.

It has to be learned. And Paul, Saul of Tarsus, through his conversion and then all that he has been through, God was teaching him. He was in the school, God's school of learning contentment so that he can say, now I have learned the secret of being content. And let me tell you that secret is not stoicism. Now, you hear stoicism, somebody said after the first service to me, you know, I realize how much I'm kind of I kind of embrace that stoicism I can relate to. Stoicism is naturally a draw. You go through enough pain and enough hard things and life, and you tend to just naturally move in the direction of stoicism. But here, let me point out the subtle errors of stoicism. Stoicism says that contentment is found in self sufficiency. It's looking within. It's calling on my own resources and calling on my own strength. But it doesn't take long, does it not, to get to an end of our strength? It doesn't take long to find out that we don't have what is sufficient. So Christian contentment, the kind of contentment that brings joy, is just the opposite. It doesn't turn us inward. It turns us upward. Another error, subtle error of stoicism is it advocates seeking to be free from all wants or needs. Deny your needs, deny your wants. Well, that is a subtle form of Platonism, which often leaks into Christianity. Platonism is basically that mindset that says your body is evil, your spirit is good.

Christianity is about your spirit, not your body. Repress your body, deny your needs. That's error. That is error. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus saves both our soul and our body, that ultimate glorification when we meet Christ face to face is a glorified spirit and a glorified body. Stoicism also has the subtle error of advocating seeking emotional detachment and indifference, deny, repress your emotions. But the Bible teaches that God is a God of emotion, and God has created us in his image as emotional creatures. And you read through books like the Psalms and you see that God actually encourages the reverent expression of all of our emotions. There's no denying our emotions in following Christ. So I just simply sum it all up and say this, especially if you're drawn to stoicism, like I'm naturally drawn to stoicism. What stoicism seeks contentment, peace, the gospel of Christ alone provides. And if you're drawn to that peace and you're drawn to that sense of contentment that you hear in stoicism, that you hear in writers like Jordan Peterson, it's actually the gospel that's drawing you. That's where true contentment true peace, true joy is found. We see the gospel in Paul's secret of contentment, and he says it here in verse 13. He's been building to this. I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me. That's how he gets through situations where he's in need, where he's deprived of even the basics of life.

That's how he he subsists even when he has more than he needs. It is right here. Now, let me do a quick aside here, because this is one of the most misused and misinterpreted verses in scripture. This is, I read this week, and this is so accurate, this is a verse that you see trinketized. You know what I mean? You know, you see it on coffee mugs and you see it on bumper stickers and Bible covers, but it is so often misused. And I'll give you a classic example. I am a Tim Tebow fan. Tim Tebow is from Jacksonville, Florida. So I know his family kind of through acquaintances, wonderful Christian family, missionary family. Tim Tebow led the Florida Gators where two of my sons graduated to the SEC championship when he was the quarterback. And so I'm a fan of Tim Tebow. I just need to say that. He's a strong Christian man in our culture. But here is you see up on the screen, you see the cover of the Sports Illustrated in 2009. And this is at the height of his his college fame. And I think you can see it in this picture. But just in case you can't, the blacking that he puts under his eyes, then written in white on it is this verse Philippians 4:13. Well, you can imagine what so many people did with this verse - oh, he's advocating this is the secret to his football success.

That if you just believe that God is able to give you all the strength you need, you can become, you know, a champion in whatever you do.

And that is unfortunately, that is a common misinterpretation of this verse. This is, I'll read you the words of a well-known prosperity preacher who this is his message. He would preach from this verse or he has preached from this verse, don't focus on your limitations. All things are possible if you have enough faith, if you just believe enough, you can overcome any obstacle. You can climb to new heights. You can achieve your destiny. Well, that is a misuse. That is a misinterpretation of this verse. That's unfortunately what probably many of Tim Tebow's fans thought of when they saw him doing this. But in defense of Tim Tebow, he has publicly explained what he meant. And I've got it on the screen and I want to read it. Tebow says this.

He said this publicly. After that, there was the controversy about this Sports Illustrated cover.

"The verse (Philippians 4:13) is actually about contentedness in all circumstances. It's not about being able to throw a better pass or make a better play on the football field.

It's about being content with the victory secured through Christ."

How important that is, you see how we can misuse this verse so easily, can you imagine two football players on opposing teams and they're each riding in their cars to the game that they're going to play against each other? And both of them are are Christians and both of them are praying Philippians 4:13. God, give me the strength to accomplish the victory in this game. And I believe that you will. Well, what happens at the end of that game? Somebody has won and somebody has lost. So what's happening in the car rides home?

Somebody says, God, you came through to me for me. And the answer to that verse, what's what's happening in the other car?

Well, God, you let me down. God, you weren't true to your promise.

You see how we can so easily misinterpret and misuse the verse.

So when Paul says I can do all things through him, through Christ, who strengthens me, he is not teaching that God gives you the strength to do whatever you desire to do, whatever you set your mind to do. This is Paul who says, I have learned the secret of contentment both in need and in abundance. This is Paul who has learned it through persecution, who through being beaten, through going through times where he was starving. Paul is teaching this. It is in the context of serving Christ, doing Christ's will, that this verse is true. This is the assurance that Christ strengthens us to carry out his will, not our own will. That's not necessarily on the football field, but wherever Christ calls you to do your will, you are a young mom and you've got little kids and you are struggling to be a mom in the way that Christ calls you to be a mom and a wife. The way Christ calls you to be a wife, he gives you the strength to be able to do that. You are somebody who works out in the business world or the medical field, and you desire to walk with integrity that glorifies Christ in the middle of situations where it's often hard to be a man or woman of integrity. This is a promise. He strengthens you to do that because that is his will.

So let me finish up with a couple closing comparisons of stoicism's form of contentment and the kind of contentment that Paul is teaching about that leads to joy. Just four simple comparisons, Stoicism says, again, recognize what you can control and what you cannot control. Christian contentment says, recognize that everything, everything, all of your circumstances, all that you have is under God's control.

I love Sinclair Furguson, favorite preacher of mine.

He says this, The contented believer is the one who believes that God's provision is always sufficient and God's appointments are always appropriate.

God's provision is always sufficient for you whether you feel you have enough or whether you are lacking.

He is provided for you out of his love and his wisdom exactly what you need to do, his will in the middle of the situation that you're in and God's appointments for you, where he puts you are always appropriate.

The circumstances that you find yourself in even right today. If they are difficult, if you are going through trials, if you are suffering, he has again in his love and wisdom, put you right in the middle of them.

And he is working in ways that you cannot see. And it is appropriate for how you live out his will that you are in the circumstances that you are in. That's Christian contentment.

Stoicism again teaches seek emotional detachment, seek emotional indifference, deny those emotions, particularly sadness and grief. Christian contentment teaches. Bring all of your emotions. Bring them before the Lord in prayer. I pray every day. I pray through a Psalm. I work my way through the Psalter, get through it a couple of times in the year. I make the Psalm I'm reading into my prayer and the vast majority of Psalms there such great emotion. David starts at this low place in so many psalms or he is confused, he is frustrated, where he is angry, where he is sad he is grieving and he pours that out before the Lord.

And as you go through the psalm, you see how God moves him in prayer to a place of contentment, to a place of peace. That's a model for us, bringing our emotions before the Lord in prayer.

Stoicism says seek to be free from all your wants and all your needs. Christian contentment says no. Rejoice in the Lord, in your wants in your needs and even in your abundance.

Don't forget rejoicing in the Lord when you have abundance. Don't think God has abandoned you when you are in want or you are struggling with needs. A.W. Pink says this "In every circumstance that the Lord has put us in, he's given us abundant cause to rejoice in him, to draw our joy from Christ. He has given us his favor. He has given us his love. He gives us his faithfulness. He gives us his forbearance, his patience with us. He grants us access to the throne of grace. He's given us the privilege of communion with him.

He's given us the promise of eternity in his presence," the place of ultimate joy, the ultimate bliss.

Finally, stoicism teaches, contentment is found in self-sufficiency, Christian contentment teaches contentment, and even joy is found in trusting in Christ's sufficiency. I am not sufficient in myself. No one here, no matter what resources you have, how strong you are, how smart you are, how connected you are, have sufficient resources in and of yourself. It is only through Christ. It is only in Christ, in vital personal union with him that we have, that comes from abiding in him, that we find true contentment and ultimately the deepest joy.

We find deep joy, joy that carries us through whatever it is that the Lord has allowed into our life, no matter how much of a hurricane your circumstances feel like right now, he gives us that deep joy that comes from this form of contentment. It is in the words of the old the old hymn writer like this, Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts, thou fount of life, thou light of men from the best.

Blessed that earth imparts we turn to you unfilled again. Let's pray.

And Lord Jesus, we make that hymn, we make that our prayer. You are the joy of the hearts that love you, not what's going on in our life, not what we have, not what we think we have attained, which is all fleeting - there the Stoics have it right. But you are the joy. You are the source of the joy in our hearts. You are the fountain of life. It's where we find what it really means to live. You are the light of men. You are the one that guides us through the darkness, through the fog and confusion of this world from the best bliss that earth imparts. Lord, we just acknowledge there is no promise of bliss, of happiness, of joy that is offered on this Earth that is anything more than a vapor. And it's from now those false promises that we turn to you again. We ask you to fill us, fill us with contentment, fill us with joy, draw us to abide in you.

Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.

As Christians, how can we be joyful in adverse circumstances? What is the difference between happiness and joy?

Good morning. If you have your Bible today, I Encourage you to open it to the Book of Zephaniah, it's one of those books that's so short and to a certain degree so overlooked, commonly overlooked that you may even struggle with where to find it. It's the fourth book from the end of the Old Testament, just three short chapters. And we'll just be popping through it very briefly and dwelling on Chapter three. I thought it would be helpful to step back for a moment and give you the big picture of in my remaining time here what it is that I hope to do on Sunday mornings. And it begins again with what we believe the mission of Calvary Evangelical Free Church is the mission of Calvary.

Evangelical Free Church is we exist to glorify God by making disciples of Jesus, disciples of Jesus who live our passion for Christ and compassion for people. That phrase make disciples, of course, it's Jesus's final commands to us before he ascends into heaven. It's his mission statement to all the church and every church has to wrestle with - What does that mean? How do we go about making disciples? What even is a disciple? So we have some way of knowing how we're going about it and how we measure how we're doing. We have as Calvary leadership, we have attempted to bring into more of a focus - What does it mean when we talk about discipleship, as we're thinking about making disciples and we are using something called the Christian Life Profile. It is it is a tool that has been used here at Calvary for the last number of years, certainly prior to me coming as part of our leadership development cohorts here at Calvary. And the Christian life profile defines a disciple - at least the way I would condense it - as somebody who is being transformed by Jesus, allowing Jesus to transform them in three ways. First of all, in their beliefs, in their their convictions about what is actually true. We think of that as the head. And then secondly, a disciple is allowing Jesus to transform them in their virtues, their inner disposition, as the Holy Spirit does his transforming work in our hearts. And that's why we use the heart to signify virtues.

And then thirdly, a disciple is someone who is allowing Jesus to transform them in in their practices, in their their behaviors, how they actually go about from their beliefs and their virtues to live out their life. And we signify that by hands, our behaviors, what we do and what we practice. So with that in mind, what I have been doing, at least started in February, is we'll slowly, month by month work through some of these beliefs and some of these virtues and some of these practices. We won't get through all of them in my remaining time here. But it is something that I think even as the next lead pastor comes, that the board is going to ask that that he continue to bring out and the preaching and in a way that is appropriate to him. So the way I've chosen to do it, we started in February as we took the first belief. In February, if you were here during any of those Sundays, we worked through the first belief, and that is our belief in the Trinitarian God. God, the self existent one. God, the creator. God, the one who makes himself known to us as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This month, March, we will be moving from beliefs to virtues, and we will be looking at the first virtue, and that is the virtue, the inner disposition, of joy. And I need to tell you right up front, that is not the one that I would have picked that is not one that I believe is a strength in my life, although it is certainly one that I desire for the Lord to transform me more in.

I took it because its first on the list. But that's what we're going to be looking at in the month of of March: Joy. Joy, Galatians5:22 says is a fruit of the spirit or an aspect of the fruit of the spirit. So it is something we expect to see developing more and more as the Holy Spirit, once a person surrenders their life to Christ and the Holy Spirit fills them, that the Holy Spirit is producing more, is ripening more in their lives, but joy is something that remarkably we see clearly in the early believers. And I think, first of all, I think of of Acts 13:52 that's up there on the screen. This is said about two early disciples, Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas, it says, and the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the spirit. What you have to understand is the context of this. This is not written when everything is going well in Paul and Barnabas Ministry. They have just been kicked out of Antioch of Pisidia. The persecution against what they were preaching against the Christ that they represented rose to the point that a mob formed and physically threw them out of the city.

And yet the very next verse, this is what is said, that even in the midst of that, that opposition, they were filled with joy. That's how people perceive them, filled with joy, I think, as well -

it is not up on the screen here today, but I think of the early believers and the churches that made up the churches in Macedonia, II Corinthians 8. Paul tells us that these believers in these churches in Macedonia, they were being tested by many troubles, by many afflictions. They were very poor. They were suffering extreme poverty. And yet, he says in the very same breath, but they were filled with abundant joy.

So the first thing that I would make an observation about Joy, is is joy is unnatural and by that I mean it does not come to us naturally. I am not joyful when circumstances are hard. I am not joyful, naturally joyful when I am facing opposition or trials.

Joy being filled with joy is unnatural to us. Apart from the work of the spirit in us, it's unnatural in the midst of opposition and affliction and deprivation.

The other thing I would say about joy as an opening observation is it is uncommon and sadly it is uncommon, even in the church, how many Christians that we meet, where their countenance is dour or even angry, where you would not say of them as as they said about the believers in Macedonia, they were filled with joy.

And so when we do meet Christians like that, it stands out. It draws us magnetically to them.

I think about the two most joyful people that I know, Ross and Cathy, husband and wife that have been very dear friends to Cindy and I for many, many years. Humble, simple people, people who, when their only son was six years old, he was killed in a tragic accident. And rather than that embittering them rather than that making them turn inward on themselves and being angry at God, it made them more humble. And now they exhibit a true joy. It draws us to them. They are the most joyful believers that I know. True joy, the kind of joy that that we're talking about here has the virtue that the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us as part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is unnatural and uncommon. So even the last couple of weeks, as I have been preparing for this sermon, I have been trying to get a handle on what exactly is Joy. You know, the word is used out there in our culture, but it's used so lightly it's fluff. What is this kind of joy that we're talking about that the spirit wants to produce in the heart of a follower of Jesus Christ? I've looked back at some of my favorite old writers, one of my favorite devotional writers, J.R.

Miller, wrote in the nineteenth century. He says, this: "Joy is deeper than happiness." He doesn't say that happiness may not be part of joy, but he says that joy is deeper than happiness. In fact, he goes on to say this about happiness: "Happiness is the fruit of prosperous conditions. Happiness is the outcome of favorable circumstances." You and I know that, don't we? When things are going well in our life and we have enough money in our bank accounts and we're healthy and relationally things are going well, it's pretty easy to be happy to feel some kind of sense of happiness, is it not? But what happens when circumstances turn? What happens when there's not enough money and there's relational strife and our health is impacted and we're suffering in various ways? What happens when we face in following Christ opposition and persecution? If happiness is the measure, happiness evaporates in those kinds of circumstances. Miller rightly says joy has to be deeper than happiness. He goes on to say: "Joy is independent of circumstances." Whereas happiness is dependent upon circumstances and wavers and rises and falls based upon circumstances. Joy is independent of circumstances. He says

Joy can grow in any soil. Joy can live under any condition. Joy defies environment. Joy can grow even when you lose your six year old son, Joy can survive. Even when you're suffering from cancer, joy can thrive in your life, even when you don't know how you're going to pay all your bills. Joy, ironically, just in this contradictory way, Joy can actually be the strongest when troubles are coming.

I recently had lunch with an old friend of mine who is down here for a second surgery at the Mayo Clinic, Jim Anderson. He's the former associate superintendent for our north central district here, and I've known Jim and Lois for years, Jim is going through a battle with brain cancer. And a couple of years ago, he had his first surgery and they removed the cancer from his brain but couldn't get it all. And they waited over the next couple of years and the cancer grew back. And just about two months ago, he had to have a second surgery to, again, remove that cancer from his brain. And he doesn't know how much longer he's going to live.

And Jim has always been a person who exudes joy. But I've actually seen as he walks through this, this dark valley of brain cancer that he's even more joyful. It's as if what he is walking through has matured that aspect of the fruit of joy in him. That is the mystery. That is almost the self contradictory nature of true joy. It truly does defy environment. It truly does grow in any soil, even the hardest soil.

So what is Joy?

I have not been satisfied the last couple of weeks with the dictionary definitions of joy, with the cultural definitions of joy. I want to know what that joy is, that when I look back at the first Christians, the accounts of them that we see in scripture, how they were filled with joy, even in the midst of opposition and trials and suffering and persecution, I want to know what it is. And as I look at them and read those accounts, I am convinced of this that joy is more than an emotional state.

Now, I do think there is emotions that we experience with joy, but it is more than an emotional state. I think joy can exist, as I see in the example of the early believers and the lives of people like Jim and Ross and Kathy. Joy can exist even in the midst of grief.

Joy can exist even in the midst of confusion and hurt and pain.

Another writer who has helped me get a little more of a handle on joy back to the 17th century. The Puritan Thomas Watson, Watson says this: "Joy is not mere imagination."

What is he saying there? He's saying that it is not simply an emotion that that we can stir up somehow by an act of our will. It's more than that, he says. Joy is rational. Joy arises from the feeling, from the experience of some good. I'm going to finish that quote. But before I finish that quote and tell you what Watson believes is the basis of joy that we experience, I want to make sure you understand what he's saying here. Joy has a rational basis. It is not some fleeting emotion. Joy has a foundation that it arises from in our life. Joy grows in our hearts out of our conviction and experience of a fundamental truth. What is that truth?

This is really what my whole sermon is about this morning. I want us to understand what the root of joy is for a believer. I want us to understand what that fundamental truth, that foundation, that joy is built upon. And I think it is found in the conclusion of Watson's quote, the rational basis for a Christian's joy, the root from which his or her joy grows and flourishes is this, in the words of Thomas Watson, joy comes from "the sense of God's love and favor."

I want to read this next line to you, because I just want to make sure I get it word for word, right. Because it is so important.

Joy is a deep sense of well-being that is based on the knowledge that because your sin has been forgiven by Christ and you are clothed with his righteousness, God now has only love, compassion and deepest affection for you.

God now looks upon you and treat you with gracious favor, and even where God allows trials and affliction and suffering to come into your life, he does it because he intends to use it for your ultimate and eternal good. That is the basis of a believer's joy, that God has nothing but love and absolute favor for the one who walks in the righteousness of Christ.

So if you are in Christ today, if you know Christ as savior in love, your sense of God's love, your sense of God's favor towards you is your source of joy.

And that's what will cause you to thrive and have joy even in the most bitter soil of circumstances around you. Now, I want to show you the rest of this month. I want to show you from different places in scripture where that is true and how that helps us in bitter soil, how that helps us as we walk through suffering and trials and confusion and even opposition. And this morning, in the remaining minutes that I have, I want to do that in what I think is one of the most unlikely places in scripture to see Joy, and that is Zephaniah.

Zephaniah is one of the minor prophets. And if you've read any of the minor prophets, you've read them all. What is their message? You are rebelling against God and so judgment is coming. These are not books that just exude joy. But Zephaniah, I will show you.

Zephaniah gives us not only a picture of joy, but a picture of joy in the midst of hard circumstances. I'm not going to go through all three chapters, verse by verse. We would not have the time for that. But let me just place it in the setting so you understand the context and what's going on there. Verse one of Chapter one opens up with "The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Kushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah during the reign of Josiah son of Amon, King of Judah."

Zephaniah is prophesying during the reign of the good king Josiah. Josiah was king after a series of evil, rebellious kings over Jerusalem and Judah. And the people, though, of Jerusalem and Judah in those reigns before Josiah, they had largely turned away from the Lord. They rejected the faith of their ancestors of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They turned away from Yahweh, they'd embraced the cultures around them. And what those cultures taught them were the things to run after and follow after. So really the word that we could put on them is apostacy. Zephaniah is called and Josiah is raised up during a period of apostasy, of great apostasy in Israel. And God uses Josiah and Zephaniah faithfully. He uses them to call the people back to him. But ultimately they don't come back to him, at least not most of them. Zephaniah warned the people of Jerusalem and Judah that if they did not turn back to Yahweh, judgment was coming. We see that in verses two and four. "'I will sweep away everything from the face of the earth,' declares the Lord... 'I will stretch out my hand against Judah and all who live in Jerusalem...'" And you know what? In spite of that warning, they didn't turn back. And twenty years after the reign of Josiah had ended in five eighty seven B.C, God allows the Babylonians to to come in and conquer all of Judah and Jerusalem and destroy much of Jerusalem and lead the people off in slavery into exile.

So that's Zephaniah. It is a depressing book until we get to the end of it. Chapter one is all about the coming judgment and the warnings about the coming judgment. Chapter two, it gives an appeal that it is still not too late to repent. I think we have to ask the question, you know, why would the God of Israel bring judgment on his beloved nation? Why would he allow that to happen? Isn't this the nation that he raised up from Abraham?

Well, he tells us in chapter three. As chapter three opens, Zephaniah speaking for the Lord and he's speaking to Jerusalem and Judah collectively as representing the people. So he's speaking to the people and he says this: "Woe to the city of oppressors, rebellious and defiled. She obeys no one. She accepts no correction. She does not trust in the Lord. She does not draw near to her God." Now, at this point, it would be easy to say that happened then what does that have to do with now? But I want you to think about the parallels that exist between what was happening in Jerusalem and Judah and the culture of that time and what is happening in our nation, our world, but particularly since we the nation we live in is what's foremost on our minds, what is happening in our nation today. I think it is undeniable. There are parallels between what is happening with the state our nation is in and the state of Jerusalem and Judah, at that time, there is that same moral rebelliousness, that moral rebelliousness that Zephaniah is prophesying against in Jerusalem and Judah, that pushing off of God's authority over our lives, that God is the one who defines what is right and wrong, that moral rebelliousness has swept over our nation. Maybe in prior periods of history, there were there were pockets that morally rebelled against God. But now it is the majority of our culture. Moral rebelliousness is really rampant. It is really descriptive of our American culture today.

There is that same sense of self-sufficiency just as the people of of Jerusalem and Judah said basically, even if they didn't say it this clearly, we don't need God. We got plenty of other things to choose from. We're responsible for our own happiness. We don't need God. So that is the culture of our nation today, our nation that says we've got it on our own. We are autonomous, we are independent. We don't need God. There is that same sinful spirit of self-sufficiency and there's that same turning away from the Lord. That's the meaning of the word apostasy. And if we think about our nation as a whole, while certainly we all know people who love and follow Jesus, when we look at our nation as a whole, apostasy is the word that I would put upon our nation. Our nation has largely turned away from the Lord.

So what Zephaniah speaks to Jerusalem and Judah. God speaks through Zephaniah to our nation today. And when Zephaniah warns about coming judgment, he uses the phrase the day of the Lord. Yeah, there was a there was an initial fulfillment of that and five eighty seven B.C. when the Babylonians came in and wiped out Judah and Jerusalem. But there is an ultimate fulfillment that is still yet to come. The day of the Lord at the end of times, I believe, as I understand end times and eschatology, that begins with the tribulation period, that could begin at any point, that God will judge all the nations of the world in the ultimate day of the Lord. So the warning that Zephaniah delivers to Jerusalem and Judah is a warning that God speaks to even our nation, all the world, but our nation today. It's hard to read through these any of the minor prophets, but especially Zephaniah. With all the warnings of coming judgment, it's hard to read and not ask, well, what is God going to do?

Didn't God make a covenant? Didn't he make a promise to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob?

How will he honor that covenant if he brings judgment, if he allows judgment to come upon his people? And that's where we have in the light of God's revelation in the New Testament, Romans 9:27. We're told the judgment is coming, but there is a remnant God will preserve a remnant, a remnant will be saved. And Zephaniah calls the people at the beginning of chapter two and verse three. You can be part of that remnant. Look, seek the Lord. Are you humble of the land? You who do what he commands, seek righteousness, seek humility.

Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord's anger and that beseeching that offer was real to anyone at that time who would respond to him. And that offer today is made through Christ.

The offer to become part of the remnant is the offer that through faith in Christ, through turning to Christ as the son of God, the righteous one who deals with our sins at the cross, that we can be grafted into that righteous remnant.

So even today, ahead of the coming day of the Lord, that offer is there to all who respond, who will respond to it, you can be part of the righteous remnant you if you come to Christ with humility, if you come to Christ seeking him with repentance, you can become part of this righteous remnant. That call still goes out today. That call goes to anyone here this morning. Again, just because you're in church, I don't make any assumptions about where you are with the Lord. And if you're here this morning and you know that you you are morally autonomous person, you decide what is right and wrong. You are trying to live life your own way without God. That warning of judgment is there. But that offer that you can come to Christ in humility and repentance and be grafted into his righteous remnant is there. The offer is real. Anyone who repents from their moral rebelliousness, anyone who repents from their self sufficiency, anyone who turns to Christ is grafted in to that righteous remnant and being part of that righteous remnant even as judgment is coming means, first of all, that your sins are forgiven. That's that's the promise we see in 3:11. God forgives the remnant and he cleanses them from their sin. On that day, you will no longer be ashamed. There's no longer the shame of sin for you will no longer be rebels against me. In verse thirteen, the remnant of Israel, their hearts will be changed so that they no longer do do wrong.

They no longer speak lies and no deceit is found in their mouths. And not only that, but the promise to those who turn to Christ as the righteous remnant God promises them security and peace, even in the midst of a world that opposes them. Even in the midst of coming judgement, they will eat and lie down, and no one will make them afraid.

God promises that he will rescue them from their oppressors, that he will shelter them from judgment, that he will protect them with his presence. And again, that's true today.

Even in our culture around us, the opposition that we face, even with coming judgment, if we, if we live through the tribulation period - that's certainly where my eschatology would lead me to believe God promises to shelter us. It's not in doubt.

It's not a perhaps like Zephaniah articulates in Christ, we are perfectly sheltered. Verse fifteen. "The Lord has taken away his judgements against you. He's cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst. You will fear disaster no more."

So I again, I want us to dwell for just a moment on the parallels today. There is just as there was in the time of Zephaniah, there is the certainty of coming judgement.

The day of the Lord is coming. God will not allow the rebelliousness to exist forever. God will call all peoples to account. All moral autonomy will be silenced forever. The day of the Lord is coming. And just as there was in Zephaniah's day, it is true today the call to become part of the remnant. The offer is still extended to to anyone who will come to Christ in humility and repentance.

But now I want to circle back to joy where we began.

How in the midst of a world that opposes God, how in the midst of the looming threat of judgement, the coming day of the Lord, how can we find joy? How could the remnant back in Zephaniah's day find joy, knowing that they live in the period of great apostasy, knowing that judgment is coming upon them, how could they live with any joy?

And that's that question is for us today. How do we find joy in the midst of a culture that has largely turned away from God that rejects God? How can we live with joy? How can we find joy when we live with the anxiety that judgment is coming? I want to come back to what I said about Joy earlier. Here's where Joy comes. Your sense of God's love and favor towards you is your source of joy, even in the midst of apostasy, even in the midst of oppression, even in the midst of suffering. And I draw that from the verse in Zephaniah that I will never forget, after studying at the last two weeks from chapter three, verse 17, listen to this, let this envelop you if you are in Christ, let this wash over you, even as you think about the world around us, even as you feel the anxiety of of coming judgment. "The Lord, your God is with you.

He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you,

he will quiet you with his love. he will rejoice over you with singing." Let me get very direct with you just for a moment.

Christian, do you believe that God takes great delight in you? Is that your picture of God? He delights in you. Do you believe, Christian, that God rejoices over you so much that it comes out as God singing over you?

That is the experience that he wants you to have. That is the foundation of joy.

Why is this so hard for us to believe that God rejoices over us, even in singing? Why is that so hard for us to believe?

I think it's hard for us to believe, first of all, because of our own sense of ourselves, I think most of us, we are conscious and we are burdened by our own sinfulness, even in our walk with Christ. We know the areas that still have to be surrendered fully to him. We are conscious and we are burden of the many areas in our life where we know we are still unfaithful. And so we look at ourselves as unworthy. We look at ourselves as undeserving. It is so hard for us to bring ourselves to think that God actually rejoices over us.

I think another reason this is so hard for us to believe is our experience with other people. While we experience love, hopefully from other people, it's always imperfect in this world on the side of of Christ's return. And so because of that, we experience people's disappointment with us. We experience people's sometimes rejection of us. It's hard for us to believe that other people rejoice in us and delight in us. And then I think this is hard for us to believe because we believe Satan's lie, though he constantly whispers in our ears that God's heart towards us is actually somewhat begrudging.

It is disapproving, it is stern, it is ready to come down on us when we mess up. Here's the reality. The truth is here in Zephaniah 3:17, nowhere else in the Bible is it recorded that God sings over his creation as it says here, that he sings over the one who is grafted into his righteous remnant.

Do you hear this in the strongest possible way? God expresses his delight in those who become his remnant people. Do you believe he delights in you?

Do you believe he rejoices in you?

It's the same language that we see in the beautiful image in Isaiah 62:5. Listen to this. Let this wash over you as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride. So shall your God rejoice over you.

Do you remember the joy of your wedding day? I hope you if you are married, I hope you had a joyful wedding day. And regardless of what has happened since your wedding day, can you put yourself back there at the altar? I remember nothing else about my wedding ceremony than that part of the ceremony when I saw Cindy begin to walk down the aisle.

And I'm still overwhelmed as I think about what I experienced that day. Do you remember whether you were the bride or the groom? Do you remember looking at your partner and thinking, this person delights in me? This person wants to give their life to me, this person rejoices in me.

And whatever is passed since then, that sense that you got at the altar of this person rejoicing over you, wanting to bless you with all of their favor delighting in you, that's the picture that Isaiah gives of how God perfectly looks at us. It's not marred by circumstances. It's not

marred by what's happened in marriage like it is in our lives, the joy of our wedding day is when we look at the one that we are about to marry and we say, I am loved, I am valued, I am treasured.

This person rejoices over me. And that's what God says to everyone who is grafted into his righteous remnant.

You are loved. I love you. I rejoice over you. I am for you. I want to pour out my favor upon you.

That's where the foundation of our joy is. That's what helps us survive in the harshest possible life circumstances. When we can come back to that foundational truth, that rational basis that we are loved. And he is for us and he rejoices over us and everything that he allows in our lives, he allows because it will ultimately be for our ultimate good, our eternal good, that enables joy to grow and thrive no matter what we face.

So if you are in Christ this morning and I hope you are, I hope you have become part of his righteous remnant, God now has only love, compassion and deepest affection for you. I want you to hear the words again of Zephaniah 3:17. God takes great delight in you. God quiets you with His love. He wants you to rest in how much he loves you. God rejoices over you so much so that he cannot help but sing in his rejoicing over you. That is the foundation of your true experience of joy, your experience of joy, even in the midst of suffering and loss, even in the midst of a world that seems out of control. So as we go forward this month, from that rational basis, from that foundation, we will we will look at how scripture teaches us in the midst of the hardest circumstances that we face and the confusing circumstances of our lives. How do we come back to that root? How do we come back to that foundation? How can we be people who, like those early believers, were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I come as a beggar, I I need to know your joy and experience more of your joy.

And I imagine there's many of my brothers and sisters here today who similarly feel the same way. Lord, would you bring us to that place beyond what we think of ourselves, beyond maybe the the rejections of other people, beyond even the lives that we so easily believe about how you look at us? And would you bring us to this place where we begin to see ourselves as the bride being looked at by our bridegroom who rejoices over her? Would you bring us, Lord, to this place where more and more we would see in the midst the hardest circumstances that we face? You rejoice over us, you delight in us, you sing over us. And may that change us. Lord, may that be something that not only fills us with joy, but radiates out to a world that is is so joyless and so thirsty and hungry for a true source of joy. We pray this Lord in the name of the one who makes this all possible. Our Savior, our Lord, our King. Jesus the Christ. Amen.

We consider how all three Persons of the Trinity have a role in our salvation.

Good morning. Well, you've heard it said, "Don't forget from where you've come," There are life lessons back there that you need today to get you where you want to go. And we all forget important things, don't we? Car, house keys, wallet, cell phone, maybe a birthday or an anniversary. And because we forget even more important things than these, God through the early Christian leader Paul writes to his mentee Titus on the island of Crete, some 300 miles north of Libya. And he says Titus keep reminding the several churches scattered on the island of most important things. He talked about godly lives of the leaders, Chapter one, Chapter two, how do we navigate together until Jesus comes?

And Chapter three today, how do we live out there in the world purposefully? And so to live purposefully, Paul says to to Titus, remember who you were before you knew Jesus first.

It's easy to rail on the culture and to lament at how far we've fallen over the past 60 or so years. But we have to understand that every culture and nation is a composite of people who were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending their life in malice, envy, hateful, hating one another.

Now, if you're a guest, we don't usually begin our message by insulting people, but that's really who you are, apart from God. That's who I am apart from God.

And so let's look briefly at those seven words used here to describe us. Foolish means ignorant. It means without spiritual understanding. Ephesians 4:18 says that the masses were darkened in their understanding. They were essentially blown along by life, excluded from the life of God because of their

darkened, hardened hearts.

Sin turns off the lights on the spiritual realities around us, and so therefore they were disobedient to God because he was a nonentity.

They were resentful toward human authority because there is no Holy Spirit leading. We were deceived. We were actively straying like sheep from the shepherds true best course. Instead, we were driven along by a plethora of personal passions and pleasures, eventually enslaved by them. We were told, "If it feels good, do it", but not finding real fulfillment. There was this diminishing return pursuit that we felt, which led to malice, a deep evil and envy for anyone who hindered us, anyone who is more fortunate than us.

And I was there in my teens, early 20s.

We were hateful, that means repulsive and disgusting, and this climaxed in mutual antagonism, hatred toward one another, and it really sounds like today's news, right? Sounds like it's happening in the culture. Paul had said earlier to Titus in the letter, he said, Cretans, according to one of your own prophets, are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. So he is quoting one of their experts. The source of our disobedience, though, is that we were spiritually dead, and dead people can't do good things, at least not for right reasons. Ephesians 5:8 says that you were formerly darkness, not just that you were in darkness, but you contributed to the moral darkness of your world. And you say, well, Larry, I'm not that bad. Aren't you being a little hard on us? And it actually depends - do we compare ourselves with each other or with the one in whom there is no darkness at all? So Paul says to Titus, Tell the churches that to live purposefully before you pick up stones to throw at them, whether in the church or those out in the culture, remember who you were before you met Jesus. It was really bad news. And Ephesians two, though, is going to continue saying, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. And that really leads to our second point here.

So not only do we need to remember - Well actually, this is Ephesians two here that we should talk about briefly. It's reinforcing what he says here to Timothy, reinforcing Titus, you are dead because of your disobedience. You are living in sin as the rest of the world, obeying the devil, the commander, the powers of the unseen world. He's the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. And all of us used to live that way. So notice it's all of us following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful hearts. We were by very nature subject to God's anger or wrath, just like everyone else. And so secondly, though, he wants us to remember God's awesome salvation, and that's verses four through seven. So, Titus, tell the churches not only remember back then who you were, but remember, God's awesome salvation. But when the kindness of God our savior and his love for mankind appeared, He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ, that being justified by his grace will be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

So just as there were seven descriptors of what we were before we knew Jesus, there are seven marvels of God's awesome salvation. So now notice first in verse four, who initiates the Salvation? God, our savior.

It's the father's compassion, his kindness, seeing us in our pathetic, bankrupt condition. It's his love or philanthropia for humankind. Seeing us in our misery, seeing us in our

helplessness. Well, when does he save?

How does he save? His incarnation when God becomes a man? He leaves the glories of heaven. He limits himself to the body of a baby and a man and then a slave carrying our sin to a Roman cross 2000 years ago. You know, I used to despise Jesus for his weakness. And then I learned that it was for me, for you that he became weak and was despised as he was led like a sheep to be slaughtered, carrying my sin, death to the cross.

Have you ever thought that as God, Jesus could have annihilated the human race? He could have said, "Father, this is too hard. They're not worth it. I give them my best.

They hate me." Even on your worst day, you were worth it. He saved us not on the basis of deeds, which we've done in righteousness, but according to his mercy. Jesus, the rescuer saved us. We couldn't contribute. Think about your last funeral. As spiritually dead. We have no capacity to contribute, Life-Giving

Source. So we see it's - salvation is - by grace, it's not by our good deeds. I recall sharing this idea with my friend Elaine and she responded, "Then why do good works if they don't save us?" Well, Elaine, we'll get to that point next, but salvation is by God's mercy, which means God withholds what we justly deserve. And isn't that the word on the street justice? People say I want justice. Do you realize if we got justice, we would all be condemned by the standards of a perfectly just judge? What's this washing of regeneration renewing by the Holy Spirit through Jesus?

Well, God used his word and his spirit to make us clean and forgiven, to give us a new birth. Remember when Jesus told the most religious man in the city, unless you're reborn, you will not see heaven. You have to be born of God. And here, Paul's colleague Peter said your new life did not come from earthly parents because the life they gave you is going to end in death. That's pretty obvious. But the new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal living word of God. James concurs. God gave us birth by the word of truth. Well, how so?

Well, God's word centers on the rescue where Jesus and his rescue plan and those who partake of the plan. All of us are held accountable for what we do. with the rescuer. If we believe in him and his good news, we have eternal life.

But practically speaking, at the moment we believe Jesus is when the Spirit made us a new. He poured out his life on us, his washing because the original language asserts that this washing, this cleansing from sin came from this instantaneous change at our new birth. And you can't contribute to your own birth, right? How many of us caused ourself to be born? This is a work of God. And so look at verses six and seven whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ, our savior, that being justified by his grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. In other words, we were justified. That means we were made and declared righteous. By his grace, that's undeserved favor. Why? So that we would be made heirs inheritors of this eternal life so we could bring others with us on life's journey. Have you ever considered the Trinitarian context of our salvation? It's a really wild. God, the father sent, Jesus, the son, to live and to die on this Earth as an atonement for our every sin. And after Jesus's resurrection return to the father; father sends this life giving spirit to everyone who would be a member of his family, giving himself and giving his sonship to us as a gift for the asking. Piper, John Piper said that it's not the good things God gives us, like forgiveness or adoption that are the good news, it's God giving himself to us.

And so he gave himself. Well, the quiz for today is how many saviors are in the Bible? We see in Isaiah 43:11, Hosea 13:4 one savior Yahweh, God, Why in this little book of Titus does he say God, our savior in 1:3; 1:4 Christ, Jesus our savior, 2:10 God our savior 2:13, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ; 3:4 God our Savior and 3:6, Christ Jesus our Savior. How can the father and the son both be singularly called our savior? Because they have the one essence, the nature of God. They are the creator, the savior of the world. They made; our statement of faith, says holy, infinitely perfect, eternally existing in loving unity of three equally divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Notice the work of all three in verses four through six. The kindness of God, our savior, it's a mercy by the washing and renewing by the Holy Spirit richly given to us through Jesus.

Well, a few years ago, I had the privilege of sitting in a teaching conference by Dr. Sanders, Fred Sanders from Biola, theology professor, writing on the deep things of God, how the Trinity changes everything. Let me give you a 30 thousand foot view, some of his highlights. But he says the gospel is Trinitarian, the trinity is the gospel. Christian salvation comes from the Trinity, happens through the Trinity and brings us home to the Trinity. And so when you look at this diagram here, the triangle represents God, and if drawn to scale, it would be infinitely large. And the square depicts the Son's incarnation becoming a man without ceasing to be who he is or was eternal in fellowship with the spirit

and the father, added to himself a completed human nature and experience. That's Christmas. And in his perfect life and in his death, that's Easter, is applied to your life, becomes your salvation, and notice that your salvation is really small in context. It's all about God. It's his plan, initiative, execution, his invitation into relationship with God, by God, We normally draw our salvation map with us in the center. But God is center. He is bigger than us. He is more important than us. I am saved by coming into the orbit of his theological reality at his doing from beginning to end. Your salvation is participation in relationship with the Father, the Son, Holy Spirit and from our perspective, we're saved by Jesus. Yes, but how or what did Jesus do to bring about our salvation, his incarnation, or becoming fully man dying for us to atone for our sin. Who must Jesus then be to save us in this way? He must be God because only God can save. Well who must God be if Jesus is God? Trinity. So in his love, God sends the son in the spirit. God works through the son and the spirit to give us life. Our problem is that we were godless and God solved the problem by giving us the son and the spirit. The work of the son serves the work of the spirit. The work of the spirit serves the work of the Son, the Father, Son, Holy Spirit have this perfect sharing and the Son and the Spirit work under the headship and mission of the father. And we are invited in - awesome salvation.

Here is a slide from Dr. Sanders of the terms that are appropriate for the work of his son in the spirit, so the son's incarnation takes on a human body, Jesus of Nazareth, whereas the spirit lives in every true Christian, he indwells. The son is the living word, hypostatic union. God, man in one. The spirit inspires the written word.

The son.

assumes a human nature; the spirit enlivens, verse 5, spiritually dead people, the son bears your sin, brings his righteousness before the father on your behalf. One man said that Jesus is the ultimate coach. He comes in, makes the perfect play, wins the game for you, whereas the spirit says, stay on the field, I'll help you win.

The son completes our redemption, the spirit applies our redemption, the son's work is all or nothing - you're sanctified or not. The spirit says you're a work in progress through many trials, many afflictions with my help.

Awesome salvation. Well, Titus also remember why God saved you, tell them why God saved you.

His purpose is to reach others with the very same rescuer and rescue plan that saved you, and that's the main point of this morning's message. God gave his life for you, Jesus, so he can live his life through you on mission. I like to think of Titus 3:1-8 as a big ice cream sandwich. So missional cookie verses one and two, awesome God, awesome salvation enveloping sinners like us. That's three through seven. Missional cookie, verse eight. And God gave his life for you so he can give it through you, live through you on mission. And so we do good not to earn God's love, but because we have God's love. Well, living out verse one may be the toughest assignment of our day, remind them to be subject to rulers, authorities obedient for every good deed.

Every week I hear of someone unfriending or cutting off another person because of how differently we view the news or politics. And what if the rulers and authorities are really bad people? What if they're evil, immoral? What if they're not of my political persuasion? What do I do? Verse one. Subject yourself to rulers, to authorities. Be obedient. Be ready for every good deed. Followers of Jesus should be an influence for good in every possible way for the benefit of those around us?

So let's travel back in time for a moment to the Greco Roman world of Paul's letter to Titus. Crete, especially, was as bad as you can get in every moral category.

The leaders there were abusive, murderous tyrants. Society was engulfed in sexual perversion, broken homes, idolatry, unjust laws, heavy taxation, terrorism. And the early Christians were little lights. There were little candles. There one purpose was to have their good works.

their good words, shine so people could come to know the same God. Salvation in Jesus, so we're not interested in putting Christianized Cosmetics on a corpse.

We're not interested even in externally moral policy or law change. Because if people die without Jesus, does it matter how moral they were? And I'm not saying don't get involved in your government if you have the calling, the ability, but we are salt and light reflectors of God's moral nature to our culture. So our goal, though, is that people would know Jesus crucified for their sin, alive from the dead as Lord, inside-out transformation one life at a time. Verse two - slander no one, be peaceable, gentle, showing mercy every consideration for all people. So my advice is pause, think before you post, send or unfriend.

Don't have a bad attitude about the government expressed in slanderous words or fighting actions, God opposes the resist/anarchist culture. Gentleness means a sweet reasonableness, how refreshing would that be. Wiersbe says the only evidence the unsaved world has that we belong to God is our godly lives. And so beloved, if we live to exalt the person, the word of God, to show his life saving, changing person purpose. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world, we put no hope in presidents, prime ministers or the governments to save us, we live on God's resources and mission. Peter concurs. He says, Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors, even if they accuse you of doing wrong. They'll see your honorable behavior. They will give honor to God when he judges the world soon. For the Lord's sake, submit to all human authority, whether the king or the officials he's appointed, the king sent them to punish those who do wrong and to honor those who do right. That last sentence is probably the key role of government. According to the Bible, he continues. It's God's will that your honorable lives should silence ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you.

Respect everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, respect the king.

Is there ever a time we disobey? Once - when authorities forbid what God commands. Remember Acts 4:18, the apostles were told, don't speak or teach about Jesus.

The following chapter they kept right on receiving the consequences. In covid, many wrestle with Hebrews 10:25 don't abandon meeting together. In Nevada. the state Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled with Calvary Chapel against the governor, who had limited churches to 50 people, while businesses, casinos and bars could operate at 50 percent. So there is some residual justice in the culture, but that's rare through church history.

What do we do when God says meet but the government says you cannot. We do what our brothers and sisters around the world do - we face these decisions with prayer and humility, often at great cost. And if possible, we submit graciously. We don't malign them, but we pray for them. We're not to be combative, but to be peaceful, gentle, kind, considerate of human weaknesses and sin. Not argumentative, not cantankerous or angry or hostile. Where there's legal recourse, we pursue it with humility, prayer, grace, but also pursuing every opportunity to do good to those around us. In so doing, we demonstrate that salvation is of God, only God indwelled, people could live like that.

This scripture, if applied, would eliminate a lot of social media posts and violent activities and also divisions and conflicts. Notice in verse eight, he says be careful to engage in good deeds, these are profitable for everyone, beneficial for all people. In what way? What way are they beneficial? Well, John 3:16, God's saving purpose is for all people, right? He loves all. Titus 2:11. He sent Jesus to rescue all men and then in first Timothy 2:1-5 up here. God gives all of us this evangelistic mission. He says, I urge you first of all to pray for all people. Ask God to help them intercede on their behalf, give thanks for them, pray in this way for kings, for all of our authority, so we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good. This pleases God, our savior.

He wants everyone to be saved, to come to the knowledge of the truth, for there's one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. So God desires all to be saved. He wants us to pray for all people. He wants you to live your life so people can see gospel transformation. Your life lived with words and works to Christ, your salvation lived. When God initiated our salvation, he brought us from the depths and hopelessness of darkness and brought us into his blessing and glory of heaven. He transferred us from the Kingdom of Darkness to the kingdom of his dear son. It's the only reason we're different is that God saved us.

So we don't hate anyone. We don't demean anyone, attack or abuse anyone. We don't fight. We don't look down. We don't treat them with contempt or unkindness. We don't feel superior.

But we're grateful. We're grateful that God saved us.

It was his father's kindness, his mercy, his love. It was the washing, the regeneration. It was his grace through the son and the spirit. Remember why God saved you? He gave his life for you so he can live his life through you. My dear friend Elaine, we do good because we have God's love not to earn God's love. So what are you doing with the new life that God is giving you? And don't overcomplicate this. Double your brownie or soup recipe for a neighbor.

Shovel a driveway. Ask the spirit as you go through each day, Lord, show me what what to do, how to make people's lives around me better.

A few years ago we joined with eight community partners and we made it a goal that all of us would serve four to eight hours a week or a month out in the community. So 4 to 8 hours a month. And it could look like babysitting for a single mom with Together for Good or mentoring a prisoner released through Network for Life. If you go to our website under Serve and Community Engagement, you'll find those opportunities. Be eager to do good not just for us in here, but for your neighbors. Those outside helping our city, serving in Christ name.

So the next few minutes, the worship team is going to play an instrumental and I want you to think about who you were before Jesus. Think of God's awesome salvation. I'm going to put these missional verses on the screen. I'd like you just to prayerfully ask Lord, show me show me what needs to change in my life to line up with this,

your word. Maybe it's obeying tax or traffic laws. Maybe it's being more gracious when you post something, social media. Could be quit complaining about the government or maybe find a community partner to serve or might just be Lord, make me more aware of people around me, their needs, whether it's a stranger or co-worker, neighbor, student, and then write down one or two things that the Lord lays in your heart and then write down the name of a person who can pray for you and support you, maybe a small group or your spouse or friend. I'll come up and pray in a moment.

Heavenly Father, we commit to you the things that your spirit has laid on our hearts, Lord, apart from you, there will be no real change.

So please lead. Please empower us to live this scripture. Lord, help us to be better neighbors, better citizens on mission, living purposefully so our lives will draw others to know and love you Father. In Jesus name.

The doctrine of the Trinity is foundational to the Christianity. We look at how it matters to virtually every aspect of our faith.

Good morning.

This picture that you see up on the screen, I don't know if I'm pronouncing this exactly right, but it is a place called Yardenit. It it is along the Jordan River, just south of the Sea of Galilee. So it's in the area of Palestine known as Galilee. I was there a couple of summers ago when we had the privilege of a trip to Israel. And it is a baptismal site. It is operated by a Jewish communal community and tour group stopped there and baptize people. There were several people, including one of my good friends, who was baptized there, Yardenit, that you're seeing the most scenic part of it. It is a little more developed where the baptisms actually occurred to make sure it's a safe place to baptize people. We don't know for sure that this is the site on the Jordan River where John baptized Jesus.

But this is probably representative of what it looked like very, very similar to what it looked like if it wasn't the exact site. You just heard Dennis and Carol read about that account at the end of Matthew, Chapter three, and I won't repeat it word for word. I will just note that John rightly questioned having some awareness of who Jesus was, whether he should be the one doing the baptism. But notice where Jesus says it is necessary to do this to fulfill all righteousness. That's a whole other sermon. Not for today, but it applies even as we come to the Lord's table today, that the righteousness, the perfect righteousness of Christ, that is the basis for him to be a sacrifice in our place, as our substitute is in part linked to his perfect obedience of his father all throughout his earthly life, including being baptized. There's more to that. But again, that is another sermon. What I really want to go to today is what happened upon him being baptized. And we see it particularly in verses 16 and 17. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water and at that moment heaven was opened, which is a biblical phrase of the eternal glory is revealed to humanize in some way - heaven was opened. And what does John see? He, John, saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him, coming upon Jesus, the son and a voice from heaven. This is the voice of God, the father saying, This is my son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased.

And again, even what the father speaks, that anointing of the son is worthy of more study than I have time to go into this morning. But if you look at your discussion questions today in the Bulletin that you may use individually or as a small group, there are some Old Testament and New Testament references that that help you even pull in the significance of what God the father says, an anointing the son here.

But when I really want to focus on today in our continued study this month of understanding who God is is the picture that we get here of God the father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, all present at Jesus's baptism. We see Christ the Son being baptized, submitting to being baptized as part of his perfectly righteous life. We see God, the father speaking from heaven, anointing the son, commissioning the son as king, as Messiah.

And we see the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus as part of that anointing like a dove. Not that there was a dove. John just used the most present image that he could think of to describe what he was seeing of the Holy Spirit descending upon the Lord Jesus.

This is, by the way, this is directly tied into how we baptize, as we were instructed by our Lord Jesus in Matthew twenty eight, nineteen we baptized. How do we baptize in the name not names plural in the name singular of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. So we follow the pattern of what we see here, acknowledging God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit as we baptize. Well, this is just one of the numerous texts in the Bible where we see God reveal himself to us. And what I would say is a tri-personal existence as the father, as the son and as the spirit. And there are places in the Old Testament that I don't have time to go to today. There are other references in the New Testament where we see evidences of this is who God is. It's what we call the Trinity. In fact, our church's statement of faith as well as the evangelical Free Churches of America Statement of Faith - it begins, the first article in our Statement of Faith says this: "We believe in one God creator of all things." That was last week's sermon. "Infinitely perfect." And here it is, "eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine persons the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."

We believe in one God. That's that's that's what our Old Testament faith was built upon. Deuteronomy six for the Lord is one. We believe that God is one undivided essence.

And at the same time, though it seems contradictory, we believe, and three equally divine persons making up the Godhead. Three. In other words, distinctive personalities, three distinctive consciousnesses. They each - each of these - equally possess all of the divine attributes at the same time. They each equally possess the the divine essence. They share it fully and simultaneously. And we believe they have eternally existed as the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Trinity is not something that happens somewhere in human history. It has always been from the very beginning before creation, that God is father, son and spirit relating with each other. Now, if this seems hard to put all together, you're in good company. Great minds cannot fully comprehend this. I remember my my my first systematic theology class in seminary and probably the most intelligent professor that I ever had, John Feinberg at Trinity. And as he taught on this, he said this. I wrote it in my notes, The doctrine of the Trinity is ultimately a mystery. It is incomprehensible to human understanding. So it is one of those things that we accept is a mystery and we accept on faith.

There are many illustrations. There are many bad illustrations of the Trinity that that that are off just enough to not be the truth. I'll give you the closest one that makes sense to me. And and it uses the historic representation of the Trinity in the picture of a triangle. If you think of three equal sides of a triangle being father, son and spirit, think of a triangle with three equal sides. All three sides are equal and yet they're distinct. They're different sides. And yet each of those sides of the triangle, they share the interior equally and simultaneously. Well, in some way, that is an image of the Trinity. There are three distinct yet equal persons the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And yet all three share the same essence, divine essence, the same attributes of God. They all share all the attributes of God, and they don't take turns sharing these. They share them at the same time. They share them fully. They share them simultaneously.

Now know why. Again, this is part of the mystery. I don't have a good or certainly not a complete answer to why the Trinity I would make this one observation is the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit each have different primary functions in the way that they relate to the world. And we'll see some of that excuse me, as we go forward with the sermon. This is where we go from. Just that the Trinity is is is something academic that we need to understand and be able to to to explain to other people to where it becomes practical. And really, with my remaining time here, that's where I want to go - I want to answer the question, why does the Trinity matter? Or more specifically, why does the Trinity matter to us? And again, I have a few thoughts. They're far from exhaustive, but I want to speak to that. Why does the Trinity matter to you? Why does the Trinity matter to me? Well, the first point, I'm not going to go to much in depth on because Pastor Larry is going to be addressing it next week. But the Trinity matters, first of all, for our salvation. And I've got up on the screen the text that is part of the text that Pastor Larry will be preaching on next Sunday from Titus Chapter three. But without me commenting on it, just notice the trinity in our salvation, God saves us God. God the father saves "us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out generously on us through Jesus Christ the Son, our savior."

You see all three in our salvation. You see all three necessary to our salvation. Another text if you want to write it down and look it up later. Ephesians Chapter one you read through Ephesians. Chapter one. What do we see? The father chooses us. The father predestined us to salvation. The son we see redeems us by his blood, forgiving our sins and the Holy Spirit we see in Ephesians one. Sealing us, sealing us for heaven, sealing us for glory. Now there is much more, and I encourage you to come or tune in next week. And Pastor Larry will dig in deeper on why the Trinity matters for our salvation. But I will go on to the second one. The the Trinity matters for our assurance. And I'm not necessarily talking about assurance of faith. Am I saved? I am I am not saved. I'm not using the word in that sense. I'm using the word really in the sense of the power of divine presence. How do I know that God is in my life? How do I know being in Christ that I am connected to the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? Well, we see throughout Scripture, we see the power of God's divine presence emphasized for each member of the trinity. We see as you see up on the screen there, we see the trinity, the presence of the father in passages like Joshua one nine, "the Lord, your God, God, the father will be with you wherever you go."

We have the presence of God, the father. We see the presence of God, the son in Matthew. Twenty eight twenty. When Jesus says "I am with you always." We have the presence of the son and we even see the presence of the Holy Spirit in passages like John Fourteen Seventeen where Jesus teaches us the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, "the spirit of truth ... dwells in you and will be with you." So the fact that these are all persons, distinctive persons, personalities, with distinctive consciousness means that they are each able to relate to you personally as a person. You can know the father, you can know the son, you can know the spirit. And there, I think, is great assurance in that that each one, because they share the divine attribute of omnipresence, they are always with us. There is never a place where we can be in the Christian life where the father, the son or the spirit are not present with us and accessible to us. There's never a time. There's never a place where that occurs. Do you know practically what this means? It means as lonely as you might feel right now, maybe you're watching at home and you have been isolated by covid. Maybe you are isolated in other ways, isolated relationally, and you feel alone. You are never alone. That is the truth of the trinity. The father, the son and the spirit are always present, always accessible.

I am praying for a group of believers in China right now. Their church is being persecuted by the Chinese government. Their pastor is in prison. Two of their elders are imprisoned.

The pastor's wife is in house arrest. And of course, we don't know details, but I imagine that pastor and those elders in a cell. And some cold, dark prison feeling very isolated, very alone.

And this is one of the ways that I pray for them that they would know the presence of the father, they would know the presence of the son, they would know the presence of the spirit that they would never feel alone.

So the truth for you and me of the Trinity is you have the assurance that the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are always present for you. Well, moving on, why else does the Trinity matter? The Trinity matters for our prayer. So Silverio Gonzalez has this wonderful praise. Prayer, he says, has a Trinitarian flow. We pray to the father in the name of the son with the help of the Holy Spirit. Let me break that down. We pray to the father. That's how Jesus taught us to pray. Matthew 6:9 tells us this is how you should pray our father. Now, are you in trouble if you pray directly to the son? No, no, no. God hears that. But this is this is the way that we're taught to pray. We pray to the father, our father, but we pray in the name of the son. Jesus taught us. John, 14, 13. I will do whatever you ask in my name.

And that's not an unqualified give me your wish list, because the very next phrase goes on to say so that the son may bring glory to the father.

When we pray for something that will glorify the father, that will bring glory to the father, and we pray in the name of the son, we have the assurance that our prayer is heard. And the third member of the Trinity is also present in our prayer. We pray to the father in the name of the son with the help of the Holy Spirit, and I fall upon Romans eight twenty six so many times in my prayer. We do not know what we ought to pray for. Do you ever get to that place where you're agonizing in prayer and you can't even put words together? Maybe you're so wrought with emotion, maybe you are so confused about the situation and you don't know how to pray to the father in the name of the son. What is the promise that we're given in Romans? Eight twenty six. "The spirit himself intercedes for us." The spirit helps us to pray. The spirit communicates even when we can't get the words out, communicates what's in our heart and what's in our mind. The spirit takes those feelings - maybe they're grief, maybe they're confusion, maybe they're fear and anxiety and communicates those to the father.

The spirit helps us as we pray. We need the Trinity. The Trinity matters to our prayers. Why else does the Trinity matter? The Trinity matters for our relationships.

The Trinity models relationship to us. Has has the isolation of covid taught us anything more than the fact that we are not designed to be isolated, that we're not designed to be alone, that we need each other? I think that is one of the great lessons of covid that that God is emphasizing to us individually and as the church that we were made to be connected with each other in relationship. And why? Because that is the Trinity. Notice what John 17:24 says Jesus teaches us. The last line is key. Father, "you loved me before the creation of the world."

Now think of the implications of that. Before God ever began to create anything, there was already the father, the son and the spirit in a perfect, loving relationship with each other.

God didn't create us because he was lonely. God was in perfect communion with himself as father, son and spirit. Father, son and spirit, their eternal relationship models, modeled and models, perfect unity, perfect diversity in love, united in love, and they - we see in creation - they related with each other. They plan together. They work together in perfect community, perfect harmony.

And that is the picture of relationship. That is the picture of community. And because we were made in the image of God, we were made in that way to have that kind of relationship.

Now we're under the the effects of the fall and none of our relationships are perfect like that yet on this side of heaven. But that is what God desires to remake in us by the sanctifying work of his Holy Spirit. We were in other words, you and I were designed for this kind of community. We're designed for the kind of community that we see in the Trinity, in our marriages, if we're married, in our families and certainly in our relationships with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ and the local church. Ephesians four really to me, is an exposition of what this perfect relationship modeled in in the Trinity looks like in the community of the local church. "Be completely humble and patient", Paul says, "be gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace." Why? These all sound like good things. But why is it that we're to do this? Because there is one body, he says. There is one spirit. There is one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all. You see how the Trinity is a model of relationship to us. One father, one son, one spirit, existing and relating in perfect unity, diversity, love and purpose.

And there is our picture of what our marriages are designed to look like, what our families are designed to look like, what our church community is designed to look like.

Why else does the Trinity matter? The Trinity matters for our outreach and by outreach, I just remind us all of the fact that the church was not created for the church just for us to serve each other. The church is created to complete, to accomplish the great commission to go out into the world. That's what we come here for, to become equipped and to minister to each other so that we go out into the world and we accomplish the great commission. We make disciples, we make followers of Jesus who make disciples. And the Trinity matters for our outreach. Let me give you one example of many that I could give you. Think of the growing Muslim community, even here in Rochester, just the way the world has changed in the last several decades. The world is coming to us. And in a place like Rochester, where the medical community and the engineering community, we have the Lord bringing people of the Muslim faith to right to our community. But think about what it means when we interact with them. They with their - what they think is God - Allah. And we were the one true God who who relates to us as a trinity. The Muslims reject the trinity. You may know that if you if you studied it or, you know, any Muslims, they maintain that there is one God, Allah.

But as you have conversations with people who are Muslims, what you find is (they won't say it), but I've heard someone say it's Allah is a hermit God. Allah is all alone. Allah is solitary. Allah has never been in relationship, and so never being in relationship. What kind of God is presented by the Muslims?

It's a God who who creates to rule. It's a God who who administers autocratic control and that permeates the Muslim faith.

That means, in fact, Islam means submit or submission. And so being one solo solitary God not in relationship, Allah demands submission and that that colors the whole Muslim faith. That colors really the way they look at government and the way they look at marriage and the way they look at families in. The way they look at every institution, it is about submission, it is about subjection, it is about control.

Now contrast that with what the Trinity teaches us about God. Think about John - first John 4:16, God as many things. But but what is John the apostle represent him here as foremost? God is love.

And when we understand that love flows out of the fact that we have a Trinitarian God who eternally has been in relationship, father, son and spirit in perfect, loving, united relationship, unity and diversity all bound together in love. Do you see how that transforms our culture? Do you see how that shapes how we think about marriage. If we were created in the image of this God who's in relationship.

Do you see how that transforms how we think about the family, how we think about government, how we think about all human institutions rather than submission, rather than control, rather than autocratic rule, the Christian faith and the Trinitarian God presents in all of our relationships the model of mutual respect, of honor, of sacrificial love.

What a contrast that is. And if you don't think that Muslim people are thirsty for that kind of relational truth, you're mistaken. They are hungry for it, especially when they see the contrast.

First, John, 4:19, a few verses later, we love because he first loved us, rather than being about control and subjection and and demanding submission in the Trinity, that is the model for all of our relationships, we see the loving relationship between the father and the son and the spirit. And so it teaches us what relationships are to look like. It teaches us what our marriage should look like, what our government should look like, what our church should look like. And that is the message of hope, along with the gospel that we take as we do outreach in the world. Well, there's more I could say about that, but let's move on. The Trinity matters for our worship. We have already and the selection of what we've sung today and what we're going to be singing and in the selection of the scripture that was already read, we've seen that theme of the Trinity highlighted. And obviously that is not accidental, but it is significant and it is important because the Trinity matters directly to how you and I worship. We see something of the central city of the Trinity and worship in Ephesians 2:18 for through him. That's the son Christ. We have access by one spirit to the father.

You see that even as we come before God and worship, true worship is defined and enabled by the Trinity. It is through the Trinity that we are able to even come before God in worship. And John in John 4:24 teaches a similar truth. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. And so what does that mean? As we come to worship, we come to the father because the spirit draws our hearts to the son, to Christ. We would not even desire to worship if the spirit was not working, drawing us through Christ and how he has saved us to the father. We are absolutely dependent upon the Trinity for our worship. And not only that, but the spirit draws our hearts to each other again. This gets back to a relationship. You see how these all of these truths overlap with each other. But we don't worship as solitary people. We worship together in community because we were created in the image of God who is in community. That's why in just a moment when we go to the Lord's table and take communion, we will take it together.

We are acknowledging that Trinitarian truth of what true relationship looks like and how that relationship is to characterise God's people, the church. So we are going to come to the Lord's table. We're going to sing a song in just a moment and prepare our hearts. And then we're going to come to the Lord's table and in coming to the Lord's table to celebrate communion, we have an opportunity to worship the father, to worship the son, to worship the spirit for each of their work and our salvation. We don't come to the table unless we know the truth of salvation. And it is the father, the son and the spirit working together that have made our salvation possible. We acknowledge and we worship that as we come to the table, we come to the table seeing it as an opportunity to acknowledge that the relational nature of our triune God calls us together in love and unity and purpose, however different we are, whatever differences we have about politics or covid or you name it, the table represents what the trinity, the truth of the Trinity that we are called together in Christ to demonstrate perfect unity in diversity, bound together in love.

And that's what we acknowledge as well.

When we come to the table. Let me pray and use this as the beginning of preparing your hearts and then we'll sing and we'll continue to worship, we'll worship the God, the three in one as we come to the table.

Let's pray, Father, again.

As Dr. Feinberg said, this is an incomprehensible mystery and you call us to embrace it by faith because you reveal at least some of it in your word. Maybe one day when we see you face to face we'll understand fully. But now we take it in faith. And we don't just take it as an academic doctrine, Lord as something to memorize as part of our systematic theology framework, we embrace it Lord because we see that it matters.

We see how the truth of the Trinity Lord matters. And in our salvation, it matters. In our prayer. It matters in our experience of your presence. It matters in our outreach. It matters in our worship. And so we take this opportunity at your table, Lord, to worship you, God, the father, God the son, God, the Spirit, God, the three in one.

Amen.

What does the creation account in Genesis tell us about the nature of God? How does the truth of creation remind us that all that we are and all that we have we owe to Him?

Good morning. Well, you are the hardy ones this morning! I texted a picture from the Weather Channel of 18 below to friend in Memphis this morning and I got back. Gasp! But you are a long time Minnesotans, many of you. This is this is more normal for the course. But we open God's word this morning. I want to open it just in a bit of a different way. This morning I saw this quote. It's not attributed to anyone, so I can't tell you the source.

But someone has said that your worldview is like an umpire at a ball game. Now think about an umpire. If you go to a ball game while you're watching the game, he seems relatively unimportant. In fact, you probably are hardly aware of the umpire while you're watching all the action at a ball game. But we know the reality, don't we? That umpire may decide - does decide - the whole game.

And that's what's true, that's what can be accurately said about your worldview. You may be hardly aware of your worldview. I think most people in our culture are not even aware they have a worldview. But ultimately, your worldview decides what you believe. And when you think just about the issues facing our culture today, think about how your worldview helps you or causes you to decide issues like what is gender and what is sex, like same sex marriage, transgender rights, abortion, euthanasia. I could go on and on. But the way that you think about those issues, the way people all around us in our culture think about these issues is determined. It is decided by your worldview. I've been using that term. Let me define that just in case you don't have a real clear handle on what I mean by worldview. Lots of definitions out there, but I just simply define it like this.

Your worldview is your fundamental beliefs and assumptions about life, about how you got here, about who you are, about why you exist. About what it is to live a good life. About where you're going, your eventual destiny, all of those things and more - your beliefs, your assumptions that again, for the most part you're not even aware of, they are what make up your worldview and my assertion to you this morning:

Those of you who are here and watching, who are followers of Jesus Christ Christians in the most genuine sense for Christians, Christians determine their worldview from the truth of who God is, the truth of how God made us. We answer those questions fundamentally from what God has revealed to us and his word, and they therefore give us the grid to look at issues like I mentioned, like sex and gender, like same sex marriage, like transgender rights, like abortion, like euthanasia. So that and much more is why we are this month, this month of February, we are working through a very short series on who God is because of our worldview is ultimately built upon the assumptions of who God is and how he has made us, we need to know accurately who he is. And that you couldn't do in a dozen sermons. But we're taking little chunk. And this morning (Last week we we looked at at at God as he reveals himself as the great I am) This morning we look in Genesis one and two primarily at God as he reveals himself as the creator. And I would encourage you, I am not going to read all of Genesis Chapter one and two. But if you have your Bible either in paper or you have it on an phone or some electronic device, I encourage you to open it up to Genesis one and two. I'll be making reference in there. There are discussion notes attached to the the bulletin that you can get you can print online and they help you go a little further. So I would encourage you even after today, whether you do it by yourself or as a family unit or in a small group to work through those discussion questions, which will take you a little bit further through Genesis one and two.

When we think about God as creator, we we think about, especially if we've been raised up in the public schools, what we know is, is a primary wall that we hit right away. When we think about what the culture tries to shape as our worldview that could easily or quickly be summed up as creationism versus materialism, creationism as well defined in a moment in Genesis one and two, that there is a God who made everything that there is; materialism, that there is no God, that all that exists is is just is just matter. That's all that there is, that matter has always been there, that matter will always continue. There is no divine mind behind all of it. And encompassed in that is even the theory. I underline the word theory of evolution. And here's what I would say to you. Even as you think about those those two poles, creationism versus evolution, we often are put in the situation maybe on the defense as Christians where we are challenged that evolution is science and creationism is myth. I would assert to you, especially if you read on evolution, it is a theory. It is a theory. It is not something that can be established by hard evidentiary proof. And so I would tell you this - all answers which you attempt to explain the origin of the universe are essentially faith positions. We as as Christians, we embrace that creationism is a faith position. It takes faith. What the the world around us that that rejects that that holds on evolution does not acknowledge. But I would tell you it is true is that equally is a faith position. It takes as much faith to believe the theory of evolution as it does in creationism.

In my opinion, it takes more faith to believe in that.

So how is it that we as Christians, we look at what we have as the accounts of of the origins of the universe, we would start with this assertion. We don't have to prove scientifically what we stand upon. We acknowledge that because we are creatures and we are limited as creatures, we are limited. And what we know, we are limited in our abilities to perceive and think because of our limitations as creatures, we acknowledge that we must receive this knowledge of of the origins of the universe by revelation from the creator that we cannot know. We can read. And there's lots to read and there's lots to bring into an apologetic argument, no doubt. But fundamentally, we acknowledge we need to receive truth about this, about this subject by revelation from the creator.

And we'd go one step further because we are fallen, because of the effects of sin, we acknowledge that we must be reborn before we can even comprehend that revelation.

Why is it that somebody who doesn't follow Jesus, why is it that somebody who who doesn't believe that God exists can read the same accounts in Genesis one and two that that we read and and write it off as myth because that that work of rebirth has not been done in their heart, because they do not have the spirit who enables them to understand and perceive what truth is. So I start fundamentally with this this morning. I'm not making an apologetic argument to you this morning. I'm coming saying we're absolutely dependent upon the God who reveals himself to us and we are absolutely dependent upon the spirit of God.

If we have been reborn, who helps us to comprehend God's revelation.

Well, God made himself known to us. He reveals himself to us and as the creator and again in Genesis one and two, there are other places, including the texts that were read just a couple of minutes ago. But but fundamentally and primarily, he reveals himself to us as the creator in Genesis one and two. And I'm not going to dive real deep in this. But even as you read, start reading in Genesis one, how do you how do you make sense of that information you may have heard if you've read or heard anything, any teaching on this - There is as Genesis one opens, there's different theories about what's happening there. Is it is it a gap in time? Is it another theory is called the initial chaos theory that that God is creating out of chaos. I don't have time to go into those this morning. I will just tell you where I come from. I come from what's called a summary statement view in that summary statement view starts out with this: Verse one of chapter one gives us a summary statement of all of creation. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth", and that is a summary statement. And then moving into verse two. "And the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters." That describes the pre creation statement as God begins to create. That is the situation that he creates out of and then, moving on from verse two, really all the rest of chapter one, and I would argue to the end of Chapter two is really a narrative account of description or a narrative account of creation. And notice it describes in multiple ways how it is that God brought everything into existence, he said.

In other words, he spoke it into existence. He called it into existence.

He made what exists. He separated things so that what exists exists. He placed things into existence. He created things. He formed things. He caused things.

And he blessed what he created. So all of those two chapters after verse two are a narrative account.

One other if you read it. And I hope if you haven't read it recently, (If you've never read it, I especially hope that you read these two chapters today.) But if it's been some time since you have read them, I would encourage you even this afternoon, mark out some time and read them. And one of the things that you will notice, that is often noticed, is chapter one seems different than Chapter two. There seems to be two almost different accounts. And again, there's various theories on that. But I would give you my explanation, which I think is the plain reading explanation. Chapter one, you'll notice is a chronological account.

You will see the seven days of creation are really the six days of creation and then the day of rest. So it's a chronological overview of creation.

Chapter two is is not a different account in the sense that some different author wrote it. So it has a different purpose.

Chapter two gives us a much more detailed account of God's creation of humanity, of man. So we get the overview chronologically in chapter one. And then because, as we're going to see in a few minutes, man is the pinnacle of God's creation we get a detailed account, a more detailed account, in Chapter two of the creation of Man. What does God reveal about himself in Genesis one and two?

You know, there's so much again, in the limited time I have, I had to kind of pick and choose what is it that Lord, that in particular, as we're looking at you, is created or what is it that you what is it that you want me to point out this morning? So this is by no means exhaustive. But I would start with what is the intent? Moses is the writer of Genesis one and two. And that's been the historic position. That is the position of all credible Bible scholars, at least Bible believing Bible scholars today. What was it that Moses, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, was intending to do as he opens up Genesis one and two to, first of all, the Israelites?

But to you and to me and I would tell you, it's two things.

I think there is a positive intent that he has. And then I think there was a negative intent that he has. And that positive intent intent is, is that he wants to give us truth about the nature of God. He wants to increase our faith in God by showing us something of God's nature in his creation. But then there is the negative. There is the negative in that he is setting this creator God and how God brought everything into existence. He's setting that against all the other myths, all the other accounts out there in the ancient Near East for how things came into being. And so in a way that we can't appreciate unless we read about all those different cultures that existed at that time,

what he is presenting here is a radically different creation account from any that exists.

Now, let me just bring that up to the 21st century, we need both of those. We need for our own faith, first of all, but we need as well as we go out into the world, we need to be able to represent the nature of our God as he presents himself in his creation. And that is, as I think we'll see as we go through it, that is, that is a powerful testimony. That is something that should - it doesn't because of the effects of sin - but that is something that should draw men and women to him. But we also need that negative. We need to see how this account of who God is as creator God and how he has created it. It stands radically apart from all the other explanations in our culture. We may not have all the pagan creation myths, although many of those reoccur even today in various forms. But even as we stand against secularism, against materialism, against the belief that there is no God and everything is random, we need to be grounded and who God is as creator to be able to speak into those who are lost in the lies of materialism, of pantheism, of dualism, as we'll see. Well, let's let's look at some of these truths that I've been able to pick out here for the time that we have. First of all, in the opening words of verse one in the beginning

God. In the beginning God.

What is what is Moses want us to see there? He just presents God is already there at the beginning of creation. There is no mention that he makes; there's not even really an inference that there was a time when God was not. He presents God, he makes the makes the assumption and what he writes there, that God has always been. All the other ancient Near East creation accounts - they had in their God and their deity - they had some kind of birth account or metamorphosis story that where something this deity that wasn't suddenly comes into existence or changes form and then creates. Only the one true God, the God of Israel, is the God who has always existed, who is eternal, who is above and before all of his creative work. God we represent was not born. God was not created. The true God - our positive and negative presentation is - is both eternal and uncreated. And not only is is that a powerful testimony, but for me and I hope for you, that gives great assurance. I don't know if you have a positive associations about your earthly father. I do of mine. And he is still living.

And what I remember - he was certainly not a perfect father, like I've not been a perfect father, but what I remember growing up is he was always there. It was just always assumed, I could always assume and count on the fact that he would always be there. He was there before I came into the world and all through my childhood. Sure, there were times where he was gone on a business trip or something like that. But even then he was available to me. And so my confidence never wavered that my earthly father was there for me. That may not be your experience. I know today that is not the experience of many, but you can probably think of someone who, if it wasn't your father or your wasn't your mother, who has been consistently there for you. Well, that's a dim example of what it is to have the assurance that comes from the fact that our God is eternal, that he has always existed. There's never been a time when when he either wasn't there or he was in some lesser form. There's never been a time where it's wavered his presence.

That gives great confidence and great assurance, especially in the moments where we don't feel them, where we don't subjectively experience his presence.

He has always been there. He is eternal and he is always there.

So that's one truth that I think Moses intends for us to teach.

Secondly, if we go just a little bit further and verse one there "In the beginning, God created" and the Hebrew word there is bara and that word is is incredibly significant. There's many words to Genesis one and two that that speak to how God brings things into an existence. This word stands out uniquely and it's in the very first sentence. This word is a word that is whenever it is used, God is always the subject.

So man or woman does not bara, does not create. And this sense. This is a word that has implied in it effortless production, that he brings things into existence without toiling, without without sweating. This is a word that conveys the idea of putting into a form which did not previously exist. All that is packed into that one word that that Moses opens with. And then even the heavens in the earth. We see heavens, that word, used in some places in Scripture and earth and others.

But heavens, the heavens and the earth are often used together. It is a phrase that has significant meaning, particularly in the Hebrew. Whenever you see that phrase, it is generally referring to everything that's in existence. Or we could say the entire universe is encompassed by that phrase, the heavens and the earth.

And so what is Moses telling us here, Moses is telling us what we read just a few minutes ago in John Chapter one, that all things were made through him, that apart from him, nothing was made that presently exist. Nothing previously existed before God created, in other words. God is the cause of everything that existed.

So there's no room for materialism. There is no room for. Yes, there's been something in some some cellular form that's that through evolution and millions of years has developed into something else. No, there was a time when there was nothing and that is when God created. There's no place for materialism.

And with it evolutionary theory.

This means that there is no place for dualism. Many of the myths out there that even that even come down to us in the 21st century in one form or another, hold to a dualistic belief that, you know, there have been these forces of of good in these forces of evil. I know this is dated a few years, but think about Star Wars and the force and the dark side of the force and the light side of the force. No, there's no place for that. There was never a time where there was not just God, but there was some parallel evil evil force as well. This leaves no room for pantheism, pantheism, the belief that, well God is in all of creation and all of creation is God, that that would presume that that God really didn't exist until creation existed.

No, there was a time when there was nothing and everything that has been created came out of nothing by God.

As we go through the the Genesis one and two, you will see that that multiple times we see the same phrase - we see, then God said, "let there be".

And then a little bit later in the sentence. "And it was so" We see that in verse three, "let there be light".

"And it was so" In verse six, "let there be an expanse", in other words, the atmosphere around us. "And it was so" In verse nine, "let there be dry land." "And it was so" In verse 11, "let there be vegetation and plants and trees". "And it was so" and verse 15, "let there be the sun and the moon". "And it was so" In verse 20 "let there be living creatures and birds". "And it was so". What do we see there? We see that God speaks and it comes into being. We see that the creative process is initiated by the will of God. He decides to bring something new in existence and then it's expressed through his word.

He speaks it into existence and it comes into existence.

So from this, we know that nothing exists, not only that God didn't create, but nothing exists that God didn't intentionally create, there's nothing that presently is or ever has been that somehow is something that came into the world except by God's intentional creative hand. And then this powerful truth of creation by his word that he speaks, he wills it and he speaks it, that stands in stark contrast to so many of the other creation myths that are out there that all start with their deity was in this cosmic struggle with forces of chaos or forces of darkness. And it's through triumphing in that cosmic struggle that things come into being; no, God effortlessly speaks it and it comes into existence. And then the fact that he wills it - that stands in stark contrast to evolutionary theory, that all is dependent on randomness, nothing is here except for just random chance. No, this is the exact opposite of that. This is intentionality. This this is God planning it, designing it, willing it, speaking it into existence.

Notice as the creation account goes on, notice the limits and the boundaries that he establishes: verse four God separated the light from the darkness. He creates boundaries between the light and the darkness that we come to know as day and night. Notice the order and the structure

He establishes: verse 14 He establishes the movement of the celestial bodies of sun and moon and stars, and verse 14 says as signs for seasons and for days and for years. The reason we have a calendar, the reason we invented watches is because of the order and the structure that God built into creation. Notice the order that he creates and the animal kingdom: verse twenty one, every winged bird he created after its kind, a significant phrase, there's twenty four, cattle and beasts of the earth he created

after their kind. He determined all of the animal kingdom.

I'm not a zoologist. I don't even know the terms for how you figure out the trees of how we got animals in the families and genuses of animals. But all of that is by his design. All of that order, all of that structure was part of his intentional plan.

All of this, I believe, reveals how intentional, how purposeful God is. And again, that stands in stark contrast to what we hear around us today and what is taught predominantly in the public schools. Evolutionary theory teaches randomness. The reason we have anything is is, again, millions of years of chance.

And in stark contrast to that, we worship a God who the driving force of creation is his intelligent design. And that intelligent design it gives me, it gives me great assurance, gives me even great joy to to look at something even as intricate as the human hand and all the ways that just the hand alone functions and everything it does, everything that exists in the hand with its muscles and its bones and its veins to to make that hand work just right. That hand; it is so crucial to all that we do. All of that is by God's intelligent design.

Well, the pinnacle of God's intelligent design is man is woman is the human being, and Genesis reveals that that God uniquely created human beings.

And again, that is a revolutionary message in today's culture, is it not, that would raise animals up and make them equal with human beings. That would say that there is no inherent uniqueness, much less dignity in human beings. It is a message that that speaks into even the culture of death, that that undergirds the abortion industry, that God uniquely created human beings. We see this in a couple places. Skipping ahead into chapter two, verse seven, "The Lord God formed man out of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being." That that term living being is the Hebrew nephesh. It can be translated as soul. It can be translated as self. And what is God? What is Moses, under the inspiration of God, telling us here that God made human beings uniquely in that we are a unified person with body and soul, living and abiding together. That, well, we will see if we if we dip back into Chapter one for a moment and one verse twenty seven "And God created man in his own image in the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them." And by the way, that last phrase means that the image of God is both male and female. It's not just male and it's not just female.

The image of God is a male and female, together. Though we have similarities with certain animals in the animal kingdom, we are uniquely different. We are at the pinnacle. We are uniquely different because we are the only ones that are made in the image of God.

And again, there's a multitude of sermons that could be preached just on what is the image of God. But that is a term that that biblical scholars have a hard time getting a full handle on. But the image of God, at least I can say this this morning: it enables us to relate to him like animals cannot.

It enables us to think about eternity, like animals cannot; it enables us to be saved through Christ, like animals cannot. Well, there is much more I could say, but in these last few minutes, let me shift. If these things are true of God as our creator, how are to we regard God our creator.

I would suggest to you that perhaps for at least for me, the most powerful statement in all of scripture for how we are to look at the one who creates us is is uttered by the beings around the throne in that vision and revelation four: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things.

And it's by your will that they were created. It is by your will that they have their being." You see what these beings are doing, they are acknowledging the rightful dominion, the ownership that he has over all that he's created, including all of us, the rightful dominion that he has because he sustains us. The fact that we are alive and breathing this morning is because of his will. In other words, because God made it all. He is Lord of all.

But do people acknowledge this?

No. Certainly there was a time when I did not acknowledge this and we're told about really the scene of all of humanity and Romans Chapter one, since the creation of the world, God's eternal power and divine nature has been clearly seen. We can look in creation and we can see all of creation. We can see the intricacy in the human hand, and it points us to God as creator.

So we have, Paul says to the Romans, no excuse for not knowing God, but even though that is true, Paul goes on in the very next breath. But they (we) do not honor him as God or give him thanks. That's the response of the unbelieving world. It is to ignore. It is to make up different accounts.

It is to twist that truth so that all we see and creation around us can be written off, can be disregarded. So we do not have to bow before the one who has dominion over us because he is our creator and he is our sustainer. So what is if we are followers of Jesus, what is the message that we must proclaim?

And again, I can't speak exhaustively here, but Paul's approach, an Act 17 when he goes to the city of Athens, a city much like ours today, a city that had great wealth city that had great intellect, a city that was represented by all the world views that were known probably at the time, a city that prided itself on how modern they were.

And when he goes to the place where all the intellectuals gather, having observed all of this, what is it that he decides that the Lord impresses him, that he should represent and he should proclaim here it is: "The God who made the world and everything in it. He is the Lord of heaven and Earth." He asserts God is creator. He asserts that there's one true God, the God who is the creator. "He himself gives everyone life and breath and all things." So we begin by representing that that who is who God is, that whether people recognize it or not, he made us. He sustains us.

He has dominion over us.

But then Paul goes on a little later, because of this truth, Paul says, "God now commands all people everywhere to repent because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world and righteousness by a man that he has appointed." And that is our message, as unpopular as it is, as rejected as it may be, that you can only reject God for so long, you can only refuse to acknowledge him as your creator in your sustainer for so long, there is coming a day when he will judge.

And he will judge, he will execute that judgment by the Man - capital M, the Son of Man whom he has appointed, and Paul goes on to say he has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead. The one true God, our creator, our sustainer, he has dared to incarnate himself with us as the son, Christ Jesus.

So how is it that we come humbly to our creator and our sustainer, we come to the one in whom God now is bringing everything and heaven and earth under the authority of, putting it under His feet.

We come to the one for whom there is coming a day when all will bow before him, some willingly, some by force, and all will proclaim him as Savior and Lord. So let me close with this and this I realize this is blunt: God created you, God sustains you. You would not be here breathing this morning if it were not for the will of God. And because of those truths, he has dominion over you. He has lordship over you, whether you recognize it and acknowledge it or not. And you will one day stand before him in judgment.

And the creator of the universe will judge you based upon whether you have bowed to him through his son, Jesus Christ. But here is the good news, here is the gospel, the creator of the universe, the one who will one day judge you for whether you recognize that he, even today, can do a work of new creation in your heart. I love the fact that Paul draws from God as creator under the inspiration of God in Second Corinthians 5:17. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old

things passed away. New things have come." Just as God brought from nothing into existence all of physical creation God can take from the blackness, the sinfulness of our hearts. He can take from that nothingness and he can produce in us new life, new creation in Christ.

So that, again, bluntly is my question to you, has that work of new creation occurred in your heart? You will never even be able to acknowledge God as the ultimate creator if that work, a new creation, has not been done in your heart, but you can hope in your heart even today.

And that is the message that we take into the world, whether the world hears it, whether the world rejects it or not, we represent God is creator and sustainer, but we also represent him as the one who comes among us incarnate, as the one who does the work of new creation in our hearts, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

Oh, Lord, we are about to worship you, singing. May, it be, Lord, a time where we respond in worship to who you are. Worthy are you, O Lord, to receive all glory and honor and power for you created us and in you we have our being.

You sustain us and we praise you that we can know you through the one who does the new creation in our heart. Our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

What can we learn about who God is from Moses' encounter with the great 'I AM' at a burning bush? How does Jesus deepen this understanding?

Good morning. I am not one who normally uses props, but I didn't know what this was until somebody explained it to me. It looks like an instrument of torture. In some ways it is. It's actually something used in exercise. It's a kettle bell. It's a kind of weight. It was what was recommended to me this year as I was approaching a new year, approaching my 60s, wanting to be able to continue to live life on a somewhat normal basis, wanting to continue to hike like I enjoy. And the person who is advising me said, why don't you work out with kettle bells? Because kettle bells and the various exercises that you can do with them help strengthen your core. Strengthening your core - that was a bit of a new concept for me. And that may be something that you're already familiar with. But here's basically what your core is. According to the Mayo Clinic, your core, our cores are the the muscles that make up our our abdomen and our back and the muscles around our pelvis. And the reason that is significant is because if you have a strong core that enables you to continue to keep doing the normal activities of life. When somebody ages or becomes ill and they lose the ability to pick themselves up off the floor or sit up or some have just what we would consider you and I in normal activities, that that usually is a problem of a weak core. So a strong core enables you to to do all those activities of normal, everyday life, to keep doing things like I enjoy, like hiking a weak core not only works against that, but can bring on back pain.

It can even make you susceptible to muscle issues. So why is that significant? Because again, physically, to keep functioning, to keep doing the things that I enjoy, I want to strengthen my physical core. But that makes me recall what Paul the Apostle says to young Timothy in First Timothy four. He reminds Timothy physical training is of some value. It's not something we should ignore. But he says, training yourself to be godly, in other words, strengthening your physical core or your spiritual core. Training yourself to be godly, strengthening your spiritual core, Paul says, is much better because it not only has benefits in this life, it has benefits in the life to come. So, that is really the theme of this series that we are into for the next couple months, strengthening your core. And by that we mean strengthening our spiritual core. Really, another term that we could use to describe what it means to strengthen our spiritual core is discipleship. And that's one of those churchy words that that maybe we do or don't have a handle on. But a disciple is very simply a learner, somebody who is a learner and a follower of Jesus; a disciple of Jesus is a learner and a follower of Jesus.

And when we think about that idea of strengthening our spiritual core - discipleship, we're essentially asking the question: "What does a disciple of Jesus look like? What does he or she think? Does he or she think like Jesus? How is he developing or she developing and thinking like Jesus? Does he or she act like Jesus in the way that they are living? Is that person growing and more in their conduct in a way that mirrors Jesus? And is he or she becoming more like Jesus? Is the heart changing in such a way that it resembles more and more Jesus?"

That's really the measurement of discipleship. That's really the measurement of strengthening our spiritual core. It is: Are we being transformed in our thinking? Are we being transformed in our actions? Are we being transformed in our being who we are in our heart? You can think of it in very easy terms of our head - what we're believing; our hearts - our virtues, in other words, what's happening internally in the control center of our lives; and our hands - what we're practicing, what we're actually doing. And so that's really what we have been focusing on, even as church leadership, what does it mean to be a disciple who's being transformed in head and heart and hands and belief in virtues and practices? And we're using something right now. We're looking at something right now called the Christian Life Profile. It's something that's been used in our leadership training for some time here at Calvary. And it identifies 30 characteristics, 10 characteristics of belief, 10 characteristics of virtues, 10 characteristics of practices that we see over and over again in the Bible. And we're looking at how do we incorporate that into our intentional efforts to help people strengthen their spiritual core, to grow as disciples. So over the next couple of months, we're going to look at some of these. We are going to start working our way through. And today and this month, we begin with the first core beliefs. So this is this is, again, of the head. Not that everything is about belief, but this is where we're beginning. And that first belief is very simply this.

It is the belief in God: a disciple of Jesus believes in the God of the Bible. And by that we mean the one true God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Now, you may think this is academic, especially if you've been in church for a while, but let's talk about the very real relevance of this, why this is so critical. Just think about what happened in 2020. One of the realizations for me is 2020, and all the events that happened during 2020 brought to the surface. So it is undeniable what has been happening in our culture for some time. And that very simply is the world has been slowly and subtlely but undeniably changing right beneath us. And I don't mean necessarily the physical world.

I mean what is happening in our culture. Most of us, if we're 40 or over, we were we were raised, we were steeped, in what's called modernism, which which depends on rational thought and the scientific method and reason. And yet what has been going on in the last number of years and really came to the surface in all of the events that I think we've seen in 2020 is rationalism has been eclipsed by postmodernism. And postmodernism rejects rationality; it rejects reason; it even to some degree rejects or wants to change the use of the scientific method.

And why this is so crucial for us is, at its core, postmodernism - what what people who are now growing up in their elementary school age up into their 20s and 30s and 40s, and it's leaking even up above that. What is there is a rejection of this very idea that there is any absolute. Even if there's some acknowledgement of God, he is rejected as the one who is absolute reality, who establishes absolute truth, who establishes the standard that determines what is right or wrong, what is moral or immoral for all times and all places. In all cultures. Postmodernism rejects the idea that there is - what we are learning in our leadership class in here at Calvary - a metanarrative that there is a story that God is in control and working towards everything, towards his aims all throughout human history, that that he has a point and purpose for all of our lives. So into this postmodern culture, we step if we are followers of Jesus and we say: no, we believe in one true God, we believe in the God of the Bible, we believe in the God of the Bible who reveals himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And we'll be looking at that the next couple of weeks, but today I want to come to what what I think for me is become a foundational text in all of this. And it's the one you heard read earlier. I'm not going to read the whole text, but it is the account of God appearing to Moses in Exodus, chapter three. And in verse one, we see the context. Moses is leading the flock, the flocks that belonged to his father in law, Jethro, and he's leading them into the far side of the wilderness. And he comes to Horeb, the mountain of God. Now, this location is unknown.

We don't know where this is. All we know is it's way out in the middle of nowhere.

He was probably wandering to find some fresh grazing for his sheep. He was probably going far beyond he'd ever gone before. Horeb - that word in Hebrew means wilderness. So it is out in the middle of nowhere. There's no hint that Moses was aware that there was a mountain out there identified as the mountain of God.

What's the significance of that? When God reveals himself, as we're going to see, is probably one of the most significant revelations of himself in all of scripture. God does it in a non-traditional, non-religious setting. That's not the last time in scripture that we'll see a significant revelation of God, not in some kind of church or sanctuary, but in a non traditional, non religious setting. And what does he see? How does God begin this revelation? Moses isn't looking for this, but we read in verse two, the angel of the Lord appeared to him not in a burning bush, but literally the Hebrew here would be like this: In a flame of fire from the midst of a bush that was not consuming the bush.

Now, that's significant, a flame of fire is an Old Testament symbol of what we call a theophany, when when God reveals himself in some visible way, you think of the pillar of fire. There is a theophany, that God appeared leading the Israelites in during the exodus.

You think of God appearing to Moses at Mount Sinai to give him the law. He did it, Deuteronomy records, out of the midst of a fire. So this fire is God just giving a visual representation of himself. That's why the bush is not consumed. This is not somebody simply lighting a bush on fire. And even as we read Angel, Angel is probably better translated here as messenger. This this is God in some visual form appearing before man. And this is actually God speaking. This is not some angel of God speaking. We see instances of the Angel of the Lord throughout the Old Testament, meaning God is in some way visually showing up to speak.

Jumping ahead a little bit in verse six, what is it that God says to Moses at its core?: I am the God of your father.

Notice that singular, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Israel and the God of Jacob. That is singular because God is identifying himself with with Moses and Moses's family who are in slavery in Egypt. I don't have time to go through all the context of that. But if you read the first two chapters of Exodus, you see the setting, the situation that the Israelites are in. And he mentions Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the three great patriarchal fathers. So what is God doing here? God is identifying himself with the faith of Moses's people, the nation of Israel who are enslaved in Egypt.

Now, I think there is a real challenge for Moses, first of all, to believe this, but but really, anyone who would have been there at that time. Yes, Moses can recall at least hearing about times where God showed up to appear to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and various places.

But it's been a long time.

It's been four hundred years that the Israelites have been in Egypt under slavery, crying out with no real evidence that God has shown up for them at all. Four hundred years. And not only has it been a long time, but this is a very new situation, the nation of Egypt. This is probably the first world's great power. The pharaoh had power over every aspect of the Egyptians lives and of course, the Israelites slaves. It had an international influence. It was the first probably great world power. And not only was there Pharaoh with all of his power, the power of the state, we might think of it, but there was a pantheon of gods. I've read of at least eight Egyptian deities. So as an Egyptian, you know, you had all you had these choices of all these deities. And if you somebody came along and told you about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, you're like, oh, that's that's just one other choice that I could possibly make. I guess he fits in somewhere, even if he's real. I guess he fits in somewhere with the other pantheon of gods. So Moses has some, probably some, at least tentativeness, if not doubt about this, leading him to ask the question in verse thirteen. If I go to the Israelites, notice the hesitation - if - if I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they ask me, what is his name? What should I tell them?

You see the significance of that question, what is his name? What is your name? Moses is not asking about God's identity. He's not right at this point asking what you're like.

Somebody meets me on the street. What is your what's your name?

What's your first name? He is not asking that. It is a question of authority. Moses is essentially asking, if I go to them, how am I going to explain to them where you have been for the last four hundred years?

If I go to them and I say this, how am I going to answer when they ask me and even my own question, can he really accomplish what he is promising?

If I go to them, how am I going to explain to them that you are really present in their situation, that you really have the power over this culture, this dominant world power of Egypt?

Again I think about the relevance of that today.

If we are followers of Jesus, we know Jesus sends us out into the world, that is the great commission, Matthew twenty eight. And when we think about Jesus sending us out into our postmodern culture. We, or at least I'll speak honestly for me, we/I have the same struggles as Moses. You know, postmodernism has not totally wiped out the memory of the God of our fathers.

I mean, most even probably people down into their 20s at least know the concept of God, but they don't know him as as God. So there is the memory of the God of our fathers. But even when they hear that, they ask with skepticism and often with scoffing. Well, what is his name? Again, not necessarily asking about identity, they're asking, is he real, is he really present?

Does he really care? Can he really affect things? Does he really have power?

And why does he seem so absent, why does he seem so distant?

I wonder if you feel that struggle when you and I face a culture that is increasingly secular, that increasingly rejects any authority, that hangs on to personal autonomy.

A culture that is becoming more and more tribal - we all have our little gods, small g gods. A culture that is becoming more and more polarized.

A culture that increasingly rejects any moral absolutes, any ultimate voice, saying this is right and this is wrong, this is true and this is false. As we face that culture,

what do you say?

What do you say when they ask you what is his name, what should you tell them? You see how relevant this is to us.

Well, God answers Moses, he answers, Moses's real question in verse 14. "I am who I am, this is what you are to say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you". Now

you probably picked it up there three times. He uses the same - It's actually one word in Hebrew - It's the verb to be I am in the first singular there. He repeats it twice, right together. I am who I am. And then there is the third time added on. The most common translations of this. Other than I am who I am. You might find this in various translations of the Bible. I am who I am. Other translations "I will cause to be what I cause to be." I've seen that one.

"I will be who I am." "I am who I will be."

The one thing that is for certain that is absolutely clear by the even the tense of and the form of these verbs "I am who I am" - is the past tense is not appropriate.

It is not appropriate to speak of God as he was like so many in our postmodern situation would say today. Oh, yeah, God's dead. God was. God was you know, God is something from the past. God is is an archaic belief here. There's no sense of the past other than the eternal past that God always has been. There's no sense of the past tense in here. This is the present tense. It is God is representing himself as actively existing.

He is saying, I am. I always have been. I always will be.

I don't often quote commentators, but John Durham, a commentator, this just stuck out to me, he says, "This answer is not by any stretch of the imagination a name. It is an assertion of authority. It is a confession of reality."

In essence, God is saying to them, and he's saying to us, by the way, as well, I am the God who is with and for my people at all times and all places, including in twenty, twenty one. He is saying, I will be God for you, I have always been this and I will be God for you right in the middle of your situation. This is God saying he is real, this is God saying he is present, this is God saying he is sovereign, this is God saying he is faithful, this is God saying he is at work even if you can't see it.

So now that God has established who he is, I am who I am, and all of that means now he makes his proper name known, I am who I am is not his proper name. I am who I am, explains the name that he now gives in verse 15 Yahweh.

This is my name forever, Yahweh is my name forever, Yahweh is how I am to be recognized in every generation.

And that Hebrew word Yahweh, it comes from the same form of I am, the Hebrew word h-y-h so so God has built the foundation with the three items in verse 14, and now he gives the proper name that comes out of that Yahweh.

God has been up to this point - to Moses and to you and me - revealing the meaning of his true name, his personal name, this is the name that appears over sixty eight hundred times in the Old Testament, but you don't see it.

I'll explain why in a moment. It appears over and over in the Old Testament whenever you see Lord capitalized LORD, why is that? Why is not Yahweh in there?

Because first of all, this is the most sacred name for God. And so the Jews honoring that sacredness, they would not pronounce it. And so instead, what they did, they did a little kind of a trick. I don't mean that in the negative sense.

When they translated it, when they spoke it, they would substitute another name for God - Adonai, which means, my lord, that's why you see LORD that and as well as the Septuagint, which is just simply the the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, uses a similar translation, kyrios, which also means Lord. So every time you read your Old Testament and you see the capitalized word, all caps, LORD, what you're actually seeing there is the Hebrew word Yahweh. And I understand how that all came about. But it is a little confusing when you hear the real explanation of it. And again, I'm not on the level of any Bible translator, but I find it a little unsatisfactory because LORD is a title, but his name is Yahweh.

So LORD really doesn't capture his name.

Now, one more thing before I move on from his name - the Hebrew Old Testament is we have consonants, we don't have vowel markings. And so what we do know when we look at the Hebrew is the consonants which transliterated would be YHWH. So there's a lot of speculation when you add the vowels in, how do you actually say it? One very common practice was to take in the vowels from Adonai. I'm not really sure the reason and add them to YHWH and that produces Jehova. If you have the King James version of the Bible that you may see Jehovah referenced a number of times, that's where that comes from, adding the vowels from Adonai into the consonants of your way. There's no evidence that that's the right pronunciation of it. But we don't know. I think a very good translation is simply Yahweh adding in the the A and the E to say Yahweh. And that's one of the reasons I like the Holman Christian Standard Bible is occasionally they will use the word Yahweh. Now I don't mean to get academic here, because really the significance of this is that all of the verses leading up to verse 15, God has been providing an interpretation of his name.

If we want to know who he is, if Moses wants to know who he is, God has been explaining that Yahweh is the great I am, Yahweh is, or as Francis Schaffer says, the God who is there. Yahweh is real whether people recognize him or not. He is eternal. He always is. He always has been. He always will be. And he is present. He is even when we can't see him. Even when we don't understand where he is. So for the Israelites and for us. Even in the midst of this postmodern culture that we now find ourselves in, God is the ultimate reality. God is the ultimate authority because he always has been and he always will be.

This is going to be tested. It's going to be tested, we see in verse 15, when they go to Egypt, when Moses goes to Egypt and says, we want to worship, it's going to be tested, really his authority and whether they will follow him, it's going to be tested, verse 19, we see in the confrontation with Pharaoh, it's going to be tested, verse 20, through the series of plagues, the wonders that God will bring, but ultimately God will demonstrate to the Israelites, and to us: he is who he says he is.

He is the ultimate authority. Let me close with this, how do we experience the great I am? How do we experience Yahweh where you heard it read earlier and in John eight Jesus inflames those listening to him, the Pharisees and Sadducees with that statement: "before Abraham even was born, I AM!." And their reaction to him shows that they got exactly where he was drawing that from. He's drawing that from God's revelation of himself here in Exodus three. But that's who Jesus is.

He is the great I AM wrapped up in human nature.

And that's why he makes himself known to us and those I am statements of the gospel of John, I am the bread of life.

I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the true and living way.

And my question for you as we close is, do you know this God, the one true God?

Do you know the great I AM?

We know him as we approach him through how he reveals himself most perfectly to us through the great I AM - Jesus the Christ.

And as we come to him, recognizing his authority, recognizing him as savior, him as king, him as Lord, that is how we come and we embrace the great I AM.

That is how we enter into a relationship where the great I AM, who is existed eternally, who is all powerful, who is all authority, knows and loves us and accepts us and forgives us and changes us.

Do you know the great I AM through Jesus the Christ? Let's pray.

Our God, there's no way I can fully do this justice of how you reveal who you truly are, but I pray, Lord Jesus, as your spirit works and our hearts, that this this would grow on us - the revelation of who you are and all of your reality, the revelation of your absolute authority, the revelation that you are here and you are present, and that determines how we go not just in our own lives, but out into the world. That rejects you. That does not believe in you. So, Lord Jesus, I pray that if there is anyone here who does not know the great I AM, that they would approach you as savior, as king, as LORD, as God incarnate, that they would come to know you as they bow before you, in repentance and faith as they embrace you, as savior, as LORD, as King.

I pray this in your name. Amen.

What God's part in a believer's spiritual growth, and what is the believer's part? What does it mean to "work out your salvation"?

Thank you, worship team, good morning. If I could have the screen on back there, too, please, I have been thinking a lot about storms lately, coming storms, I don't at all claim to have a gift of prophecy. And what I'm about to share with you take no way as me representing a word from the Lord, it may be an impression by the Holy Spirit, but you will have to test it.

I've been thinking a lot about storms. It is an image, first of all, that we see Jesus using when he was approached and confronted by Pharisees and Sadducees who are challenging his ministry and they demand some kind of authenticating sign, he says. And Matthew, 16 three, do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky? But you cannot discern the signs of the times. What is he saying to them there? He's saying, you know, you you look at the morning, the morning horizon and you see the sky is red, you see clouds building, and you discern from that sign that weather is coming that a physical storm is coming. You know how to do that, you know how to read signs in the natural realm, but you you miss being able to read signs in the spiritual realm. You cannot see the signs right in front of your face. He challenges them of what God is doing, of even the storm that is coming upon Israel, that that rejects its savior. Now, that's a negative image in scripture of storms and storms is a sign there. There is a positive image as well. And that is in First Chronicles. First Chronicles twelve thirty two. This is of the men of Issachar. And just to give you a brief context to this, this is in the transition from from the reign of Saul King Saul to the reign of David. David has been anointed by God, but he's not yet recognized as King. And Saul is opposing him. Saul is actually trying to eliminate him. And there are different parts of the twelve tribes, different military units that are defecting from Saul, and they are coming over in support of David. And it said specifically about a group of military, a military unit from the tribe of Issachar. It says of them the men of Issachar.

They understood the times and they knew what Israel should do.

Think about that, they understood the times, they recognized what was happening, even though it wasn't publicly recognized, they recognized that God was raising David up to be the king and they knew what Israel should do.

They knew that even though it was at that time still politically and culturally unpopular, they knew that they had to reject the status quo of Saul being king and they had to recognize the one that God was raising up as king.

And because of that, they understood what Israel should do. They knew they had to act and faith and that led them to take that step, that very risky step of defecting from Saul and coming over to David. Now, as you think about those two examples, here's the questions that run through my mind and I want to present to you, are we more like the Pharisees in the Sadducees?

Are we more like the men of Issachar?

And by that, I mean, are we discerning the signs of the times? This pandemic we're in, it's a sign. I don't claim to be able to fully read it or understand it or discern it, but it is a sign. It is a sign that God is moving. This cultural upheaval that we are in the middle of, it is a sign, it is a sign of the times and we're called to discern it. We are called to ask, what is God doing in the midst of this?

The growing secularism in our culture, in our world, it is a sign and again, we are called to be discerning of it.

So do we understand the times, are we asking, what is God doing, what is God doing in the midst of the pandemic? That's it shuts everything down, including so much about church life that we love and appreciate. What is God doing in the midst of all this cultural upheaval that is going on? What is God doing in this growing tide of secularism that is sweeping across our culture? Do we understand what God is doing? Are we seeking to understand that or are we simply trying to preserve the status quo?

Are we thinking in terms of if we could just get back to where we were, if things could just return to normal?

Preserving the status quo is the mindset and thinking of the Pharisees and the Sadducees seeking to understand what God is doing in the midst of all of these signs.

That's what the men of Issachar were doing. Do we know what Israel should do? Do we know what the people of God should do as we discern the signs? How, in other words, we should be asking, how does God want us to prepare as a church, as a community of faith, when when we think about the the changing conditions from the pandemic and from all the cultural upheaval and from the growing tide of secularism, how is it that God would have us prepare as the church, as Calvary, the church, but even the greater church, the people of God, and then individually, are we asking how does God want me to prepare as an individual follower of Christ?

Well, that really is all I've been thinking and praying as as I've been contemplating where we're going to go for the next couple months and are in the preaching and even in when I'm when I'm distributing to small groups for discussion that idea of preparing, that idea of seeking to understand the signs of the times and preparing. And today, I just kind of want to introduce that by talking about preparing as we discern the signs of the times by strengthening our core. You may know that term if you've ever worked out at all. I am approaching that age of life or I have I'm thinking very intentionally what do I need to do to just preserve my flexibility and my strength and my endurance? What do I need to do physically and through exercise and diet to be able to preserve my health in any way that I can? And I've gotten some advice on that lately. And that advice, that was the phrase giving it to me. Dan, you need to strengthen your core. You know, there are certain essential I won't go into detail. I'm not a physical trainer, but there are certain parts of our body that that are essential, that not that every part of our body isn't important, but there are certain parts of our body that are absolutely essential to keep strong, to keep flexible. If we're going to preserve the ability to to be able to function and to be able to keep doing what we're doing. And spiritually, I think that's true as well.

That is, we discern the signs of the times and we try to understand what God is doing and therefore how we should respond individually. And as a church, there is this this need to strengthen our core.

What, in other words, are the essential beliefs that we need to make sure we individually hold on to tightly, but that we as a congregation hold on to tightly? What are the initial or what are the essential virtues, the the characteristics of a follower of Christ that I want to make sure are true of me that I'm growing in, but that we want to make sure as a church that we are growing in. And what are the essential practices, what what is it that we, as followers of Jesus must be sure that we are doing in our lives and in our community all of those those essential beliefs and virtues and practices I would define as strengthening our core. And that's what I would be looking at over the next couple of months. But I want to introduce that today with our text, our text. I'm just taking a snippet out of Philippians, chapter two, verse 12 and 13. But listen to this. When you think of strengthening your core, listen to this as you think about what it means to discern the times and and to prepare, continue to work out your salvation.

Paul says with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work his good pleasure.

Now, let me pick that apart just a little bit for us this morning, what does it mean to work out your salvation? I can tell you, first of all what it doesn't mean. It does not mean that we contribute to our being saved in any way. In fact, I can prove that right from the text. Just one chapter earlier. You if you have Philippians open, if you look at Philippians, chapter one, verse six, Paul is writing clearly to Christians for he says he praises them that God has already begun a good work, the good work of salvation in them. So he is writing to people who are already saved. And if you're here this morning and you are saved, you know Christ as savior and Lord and you've responded to him in faith and repentance. This passage is for you. If you are here this morning and that's not true of you, this passage doesn't apply and there's in danger that you may misinterpreted as somehow that you can by doing enough good works, merits your salvation, which is not true, which is heresy. This is not about working for salvation. This is about being saved, working out that salvation. We are Ephesians two eight nine. We are saved by grace, through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast. So that's first of all, we have to understand that this is not about working for salvation.

So what does it mean for somebody who is already following Christ, someone who has already responded to the gospel to work out their salvation, work out that even the the Greek term that Paul uses there has the meaning of living out live out the faith that you have in Christ, live out the further realization of the benefits of the gospel that you have responded to, live out the implications of following Jesus. It has this idea of us being intentional that salvation is not just a decision we made at some point in the past vacation Bible school or maybe in high school or college. And we've passed that mark. And so everything else is clear and we can just live any way we want, know it to be intentional, be diligent. It's it's the idea that that was that was came up in the text that was read by Nancy earlier. And second, Peter, one, be diligent to make your calling and your election. Sure. And one more thing about working work out, it is in the present tense, which means it is continuous. This is something that we continue to do all through our Christian lives from the moment that we first respond to the gospel and God saves us to the day that we see Jesus face to face, either in death or at his coming, we are to be intentionally, diligently working out, living out the realization of the benefits of the gospel, the implications of what it means to follow Jesus and where to do this with fear and trembling.

Now, people sometimes hear that word fear and what comes to mind naturally, the fear, that is anxiety, fear, that is dread, that is not this kind of fear. This is this is reverence. This is as you even look at the context and in just a couple verses earlier, in verses six through 11, we see this wonderful recitation of what Christ has done for us coming down from heaven and humbling himself all the way to the cross, and then God raising him up, exalting him to the place of highest honor and authority in all of reality. And it ends at the name of Jesus. Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And then it goes to where we are now, it is a view of that, that that we bow the knee to Christ as Lord, it is view of the fact that he is highly exalted. That's the meaning of the reverence. How do we respond to that? If that really is the state of our heart, if we are on bended knee before Christ in our heart, then we work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, said this about fear and trembling, It is to have a right sense of the sin that still indwells us that we're still trying to rid ourselves of by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is to have a right sense of the snares and the temptations around us that make us live carefully and cautiously.

It's the idea that the apostle John talks about and second, John eight.

Watch out that you do not lose what you have work for, but that you may be fully rewarded.

And he's not talking there about a genuine believer being able to lose their salvation. He's talking about a genuine believer who just gets Lack's, who gets lazy, who doesn't really care, who is not diligent and what happens to their faith. One of the houses we were living in a number of years ago, I remember there was a construction project, a new house being built across the street, and they got the foundation poured and they put up the framing. I think the roof was on, but it wasn't shingled yet.

And all of a sudden construction stopped. I can only assume that funding dried up or something like that. And so for well over a year, that shell just sat there. No further construction was happening. Did it stay in the same state as the last day the workmen were working on it? No, you know the answer to that.

The weather and time in the midst of that inactivity began to make that house deteriorate. And when finally construction restarted, I don't know, something like 18 months later, they had to tear down much of what they had already started. They had to put up put a new roof on because all the plywood had become warped. Other modifications of the house that is much like a genuine believer who being saved is not diligent is is, as the Bible calls slothful, is not diligent in working out his or her Christian faith. His or her salvation, that there can be a decline, not a losing of the faith, but there can be a decline.

You know, that is, I know that if you've been reading your Bible, if you've been praying, if you've been in Christian fellowship on somewhat of a regular basis and then you let it go, you let it lapse, what happens?

You lose ground. And that's what we're being warned against here by John and in our text, Paul.

And so, as Thomas Watson says, we need this this fear, this reverence, he says. Fear is a remedy against presumption. We would presume that just because we've taken care of our justification, that that, you know, everything's going to be fine, it is a fear. Fear, he says, is an antidote to sloth.

If we really, in our heart see ourselves as bowing the knee before the ultimate authority of the universe, we will not be lazy out of reverence for that king.

Watson says fear is a preservative against apostacy, and that's a whole another sermon, but the New Testament is full of examples of individuals who seem to believe and then and then go off and deny the faith or deny the essentials of the faith. Fear this reverence that that keeps us working out. Our salvation is an antidote against apostasy. Now, you may still be struggling at this point, putting together this whole idea of working and salvation. And if you're there and for a long time in this passage, I struggled with this. Let me just give you this. I hope this is helpful to you. Think of salvation as in three phases. There is salvation as an accomplished fact. There is salvation as a present process, and there is salvation as a future prospect.

Salvation as an accomplished fact is our justification.

That is the moment when God saved us, and usually that aligns with when we respond to the gospel and repentance and faith and we are fully and finally saved and justification. Salvation as an accomplished fact is really to say we have been saved, but there is another stage, another phase that that it doesn't cancel out the first one, it's ongoing. And that is salvation as a present process. And that is what's called sanctification. And if you're a believer, that's the stage that you are in. If you're here this morning and you've not responded, you are right before that first stage. But if you're here this morning and you know Christ as savior and Lord, you're in that present process of sanctification. You have been saved. You are being saved. The Holy Spirit is at work in you, making you more and more into the image of Jesus.

And then there is salvation as a future prospect. This is called glorification.

This is when we stand before Jesus one day, either upon our death or if he comes before our death when he comes and all of his glory and the process of our salvation is finished, we are glorified. We are made like Christ. We will be saved. We have been saved. We are being saved.

We will be saved.

Another way to think about it is our justification is being saved from the penalty of sin. We we no longer under the guilt of sin, our sanctification.

The present stage is we are being saved from the power of sin, rooting out the flesh in us and our glorification is we will one day be saved from the very presence of sin.

All sin will be rooted out in us.

Now, I say that to give you the context of Philippians two, 12 and 13, it is in that middle stage working out your salvation is not in the first stage.

All right. Being saved justification, working out your salvation will be all done at the final stage. Glorification, working out your salvation is in the second stage, the present process of sanctification that is presently happening and every believer. If you're still struggling with with this idea of working and salvation, putting those two into the same sentence, look at verse 13 in Philippians two, because I think that that removes all doubt. You can't read Philippians 2:12 without reading verse 13. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it. Is God working and you it is God who works.

And you. What is Paul saying there? We are saved only by God's powerful work, even in being saved initially.

It's because he changes us inwardly. He does that imparting of spiritual life to us.

When we were dead in sin, Ephesians two, again, we were dead and our transgressions. But God has made us alive in Christ well in the same way God works in us to accomplish this our sanctification.

He is saying here he's the energizing power that enables you to work out your salvation.

It would be totally despairing if we had to work out our salvation, if we had to try to be more like Christ in our own power.

But Paul says here, we depend entirely upon God to sanctify us, and it's in that dependence upon him that we obey him and all he says and that we take active steps to live out that obedience.

God works and you too will and to work for his good pleasure. I love this.

He works in us to will, in other words, God, cause he changes our will, he causes us to want to do this. Who of us from our flesh would want to live a more holy life, would want to be more Christlike all on our own. God gives us that desire. He changes our will.

And not only does he change our will, he works in us to work for it, he gives us the ability and the power to obey his will, you see that he gives you the desire to live out his will and he gives you the power and the ability to do so. Well, how do we go about working out your salvation? I want to give you just a few thoughts this morning. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But I need to say right at the beginning, here's where it begins.

It begins by trusting in the gospel.

In fact, if we miss this, if we if we don't understand that this all is the overflow of the gospel in our lives, it is so easy to fall into the trap of legalism. It is so easy to fall into the pit of thinking that somehow we justify ourselves, that we work in some way that is meritorious in God's eyes.

So it begins with trusting in the gospel.

And again, this is a whole other sermon that I don't have time to go into today, but if you are not clear on what do we mean by the gospel, I would direct you to Romans three. Many writers call it the heart of the gospel versus starting with verse 19 and verse 20. Paul says no one will be declared righteous by keeping the law. Let me translate into our modern day English. You can't be saved by being a good person. We can't do enough of the good things, the law that God has told us to do to be right before him. It is absolutely impossible. No one of us can perfectly keep the law. So what do we do, Paul says. Well, God has answered that now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known. He has revealed to us through the gospel, he has revealed, you can't be good enough. But I present to you one who has been perfectly good, the Lord Jesus, who came and lived an absolutely perfect life keeping the law in every every, every jot and tittle, keeping the law perfectly. And it's in him that righteousness is imputed to you as you trust in him and believe in him. And so verse twenty to this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. You trust in who Jesus is and what he has done, you trust in God's provision, by his grace of this righteousness, not your righteousness, but Christ righteousness, and you are saved that's imputed to you. You are covered by his righteousness. All your sin is covered. And you you are fully pure in his eyes, in the righteousness and Christ, the heart of the gospel.

I love Jerry Bridges, who often used the phrase preach the gospel to yourself every day, we have to begin here and working out our salvation.

We have to every day preach the gospel to ourselves.

But having preach the gospel, there are other areas that that were called on to in working out our salvation, and the first one would be to make every effort to be diligent, to grow in Christ likeness. Again, that was the passage read earlier. But notice what Peter says, the same idea as Paul.

There's a need to make effort. There's a need to be diligent. There's a need to actually act. And on what we are obeying from God's word. And if you notice, those were read earlier. But if you notice all of those attributes, what are they describing? They're describing Christ. It is to be active and growing in Christ's likeness. That's part of working out our salvation. And then there is the writer of Hebrews says part of working out our salvation is to make every effort to be holy without holiness. No one will see the Lord now. Only one is holy, only one is totally holy. But again, this is that idea of I don't want my thoughts or my words or my actions to be formed by anything except Christ, anything but what God reveals in his word.

And as his spirit works in me, I want to grow more and more like this. So I am becoming holy like he is becoming holy. Working out your salvation is pursuing holiness.

Those would be the positive aspects. Here's here's a negative aspect. He says make abstain from sexual immorality.

He writes to the Thessalonians and to us.

And this is that idea of purity and it extends beyond sexual immorality. There are many ways that we can be immoral in our culture. And Paul is saying here that that part of what it means to work out your salvation is to root out every area of immorality in your life. Remember, for those of you who may be discouraged, especially in the eye in this area of sexual immorality, remember, this is a lifelong project of working out your salvation. So we stumble and fall and what do we do? We get back up again and we continue with the help of God's and dwelling Holy Spirit. We continue to to to pursue this. We don't let the fact that we have stumbled and fall trip us and keep us down lying there forever.

Discipline yourself, there is there's over and over again, Paul uses these images of discipline that he uses the image of a boxer, he uses the image of a runner. You're not going to be a good boxer. You're not going to be a good runner unless you are disciplined and you practice and you exercise. And Paul says in the same way, all those things are good.

It's good to work out, but discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. So working out your salvation is actually practically thinking through what do I need to do to become more self disciplined?

We talked a couple of weeks ago about reading the Bible and then meditating on scripture and then praying through scripture. And some of you may have thought, yeah, that's what the Lord wants me to do. Have you followed through on that?

Have you established the disciplines that you're going to need to do that?

All right. That's just one little example. But exercising self discipline and how I'm going to grow and godliness is essential.

And then discernment.

Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, urges us to work at being discerning believers, being increasingly able to discern between good and evil. Remember that image of the storm coming, that image of weather, that the signs of the times of the rising secularism in our culture, of just the cultural upheaval we need the ability as followers of Jesus to discern what is good and what is evil, what is true and what is false. And you notice what the writer of Hebrews says that involves that involves practice. He says the practice of those who have their senses trained. We train ourselves, we take advantage of opportunities within the body of Christ to be trained in that. Do you see, again, that theme of diligent effort? Last thing.

Community.

It is interesting, I know Philippians two, 12 and 13 are not up on the screen right at the moment, but if you look back at that, when Paul writes, work out your salvation the form of that, that those words are second person, plural. So what's the significance of that? Yes, what he's saying implies to each of us individually, but he's saying and I think even louder, this is something we do as the community of faith. This is something that we do together. Working out your salvation. Sanctification is not just something we pursue ourselves, although we do. It is something that happens in community. And that's why, again, the writer of Hebrews says, don't neglect meeting together, there is a need to meet together where we can do it in person or, you know, second best online. We have to come together because we pursue working out our salvation most effectively in community. He says, let us encourage one another. We need each other picking us up when we fall, when we stumble and fall, we need each other encouraging us on as we develop the discipline and the habits as we practice and we train to grow and Christ likeness.

I want to close with this.

Some of the forms of community that have been most invaluable in my personal life and my sanctification up to this moment, my growing, my working out, my salvation, at times, God has used accountability groups where struggling with a particular sin. I got together in a covenant relationship with a couple other men, and we wrestled through what scripture had to say about that area of temptation. And we held each other accountable and we encouraged each other. And out of that accountability and that kind of Covenant Group relationship, God freed me from some of that sin.

Accountability groups may be something that you need in community and working out your salvation, discipleship groups.

There are many forms of discipleship groups. One that I know a number of you, because you've talked to me about, have been part of that. I've also been part of the Navigator to seven discipleship group type of series that's been really significant in my life as a young believer. There's many other forms, but a discipleship group being we are going to intentionally work through what it means to be a follower of Christ together.

I'm running out of time. Small groups, small groups, not just people getting together for fellowship, but people getting together to to focus on the word and to have some forms of accountability and support groups.

Sometimes we have a particular area of need. May maybe a single parents, maybe somebody has gone through divorce or are going through grief. And they need to bring that need together with unbelievers and working out their salvation.

What does it mean to follow Christ and their circumstances?

Here are, I think, the elements, the essential elements of an effective form of community for working out your salvation. There needs to be intimacy. We need to be able to know that we can be vulnerable and we can be real and we can trust the people that we are with. And that will be held in confidence.

There needs to be truth.

All right, a group that comes together and doesn't open the word the Bible is deluding themselves, so any form of these groups need to be rooted in scripture and opening the scripture together. There needs to be accountability, not the parole officer type of accountability. But but that that where we share what we're struggling with and we expect people to ask about it and and help us walk through that.

And there needs to be mission.

There needs to be that idea that we don't just exist for ourselves.

We actually are growing in Christ, that we may reach out outside of ourselves to people who do not yet know Christ.

Are you in some form of community that has these elements, it may be one of these groups I have up there, it may be some other kind of group. Do you have that in your life? That would be my desire for you. And even as you hear some of tonight, if you tune in to the town hall webinar, you're going to hear what the board and the pastors have been thinking and praying through and discussing about how can we more intentionally create that kind of community that will help us as a church and us individually work out your salvation.

Continue to work out your salvation, thinking of what is coming.

Thinking of the signs of the times and what they may mean.

Thinking of what Israel what the people of God should do, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work his good pleasure. Let's pray.

Oh, Heavenly Father, where would we be, by your grace? Where would we be without your mercy? If you did not first work in us, none of us would even genuinely be here.

We so thank you for your grace and Christ to us, we so thank we're so thankful for you taking dead people and making them alive in Christ, we are so thankful for your justification.

And Lord, we look forward to your glorification, we long for the culmination of the age when Jesus will return and all of his glory and we will be made like him as we see him face to face.

And now, Lord, help us in our sanctification.

Help us not to be slothful, help us to be diligent, help us to make effort, empowered by you, by your spirit, living in us to work out our salvation, to become more and more like Christ. We pray this Lord in Jesus name and for his glory. Amen.

Part 3 of a 3-part series on grounding ourselves in God’s Word. We look at five reasons that praying Scripture itself is important.

https://www.calvaryefree.church/blog/pastor-dan-werthman/resources-for-praying-gods-word/

Part 2 of a 3-part series on grounding ourselves in God's Word. Learn about the importance of, as well as methods for, meditating on the Scriptures.

https://www.calvaryefree.church/blog/pastor-dan-werthman/resources-for-scripture-meditation-memorization/