Audio Transcript:

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.

Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new or if you're visiting, we're so glad you're here, welcome. We'd love to connect with you if you'd like to connect with us. We do that through the connection card and the worship guide. If you'd like to fill it out legibly, you can either toss in the offering basket after or redeem it at the welcome center for a gift. We also have an app and you can download at the app store or Google Play, and there's a connection card in there as well. Quick announcement for members and people becoming members. If you'd been notified that you are becoming a member today, we have a members meeting from 1:00 to 3:00 PM. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's word.

Heavenly father, we thank you that you are a loving God. Therefore, you are a giving God. Thank you Lord that you showed us that the heart of love is giving, is generosity. We thank you that you so loved us that you gave us life. And then although we rebelled against you, you gave us your son. We thank you Jesus that you poured yourself out generously, lavishly, extravagantly. You poured out your grace upon us, you offered us grace upon grace. I pray Lord, allow us to receive that grace. Transform us today from one degree of glory to another, from being takers to givers.

Give each one of us a vision for our lives to be as absolutely generous as we can with everything we have and with everything we are in order to reflect you, image you to the world that you are a gracious and giving God. We pray Holy Spirit that you come today and minister to us, speak to us. And even as perhaps we deal with an uncomfortable topic for some I pray, Lord, show us that your plans are so good and that the greatest blessing is to give greater than even the blessing to receive. I speak to anyone that's not a Christian today, I pray, Lord, give them grace to receive grace, to be transformed from being a rebel to a child of God. And I pray all this in Christ's Holy name, Amen.

So we are in a sermon series that we've been calling Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for Life. And we've been looking at the big topics of life through the lens of the lion, lamb paradox that Jesus Christ is both the lion of Judah and the lamb of God. He was the ultimate tough and tender person. And today, we're talking about lion and lambing our finances. And the big is it takes toughness in order to acquire finances and think about them strategically so that we can be as lamb like with our finances as possible, as generous as possible.

I saw an ad, I saw a commercial yesterday watching college football. Yeah, that's a thing. There's nothing else. So I was watching college football and Northwestern Mutual came out with a commercial. And the commercial, it was a lady who quit her job and then she goes and works for herself. And the message was spend your life living. The Christian message is the opposite of this. The Christian message is because of what God has done for you, God has given himself, the son of God sacrificed himself lavishly. Therefore, we are to invest our lives in giving, giving in a way that impacts eternity. Whenever I do premarital counseling one of the questions that I ask as we're in the financial section is, are you a spender or a saver? That's an important question.

Two savers get married, it's okay. It's all right. Go on vacation once in a while. If two spenders get married, big problems ahead. Big, huge, massive problems. Scripture comes in and says, no, there's another category. Not just spender, not just saver, but giver. Well, today we're talking about money, and I don't know how you feel about that. I know some people respond like this in like, "Oh, again, church talking about money wise, church talking about money. They just want my money." We want more than your money. We do want, but we want all of you. We want all of you because God wants all of you, God wants your whole heart. He wants us to worship him with every fiber of our being because that's what he deserves. And here's the other one, scripture talks about finances all the time because finance is money. It's one of the main idols that compete for our affections toward God.

Jesus gives us 38 parables, 17 of them have to do with finances. There's 2,172 verses in the Bible about finances. Compare that with believing, it's 272. Compare that with prayer, 371. Love, 714 times. This is why idolatry was such a big problem in the Old Testament, not because the people of God were attracted to these little statues, these statuettes. That's not where the power of the idols came from. For example, First Kings 17, Baal is the idol that King Ahab begins to worship because he married a Baal worshiper. And the farmers of Israel start worshiping Baal. They build a house to Baal. And the reason was because Baal was the idol of prosperity. He was called the rider of the clouds. He promises economic prosperity. And when you worship him, the rains, so to speak, came down as oil and rivers ran with honey.

And then God sends Elijah. And Elijah says this to the people, he says, "Stop limping between two opinions, between two faiths." It's not that they had rejected God, they just added the idle of prosperity to God as an insurance policy, just added it to the Pantheon. So the reason why we're talking about finances, the scripture talks about finances because greed is such a powerful force. When's the last time that you repented to God of greed? Greed is always subtle, it comes in and blinds us to its own reality. And it's deep down in every single one of our hearts. And Jesus said, "Beware of all covetousness." Colossians 3:5 says, "Put to death therefore, mortify sexual morality, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and covetousness, greed," which is idolatry. So that's one of the reasons why we're talking about it's one of the great competitors to true faith in a true God.

The second reason is God wants you to be blessed. God wants to bless you, he longs to bless you. We as a church, we want to see this church prosper, we want you to be blessed. But blessing from a biblical perspective, it's an upside down idea. Many of us think of blessing as receiving me more and more. Scripture talks about blessings. Jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive. So when you pray, "Lord blessed me", the Lord responds and says, "yeah, I want to bless you, but the greatest blessing is to give." I saw that Shaquille O'Neal bought a house for a family whose son, he was shot at a football game, bought him a house. Whenever I read a story like that, man, my heart just melts like Shaquille O'Neal, oh man. Wow, so generous. I just love the guy now.

Whenever you see stories of just lavish generosity, something in our hearts, it's like, "Oh wow." Someone's pays off a single mom's mortgage, things like a philanthropist comes in and pays off everyone's student debt, just wow. Why? Why? Because generosity is written on our hearts. We are created by God to give. We are to live to give. So I'm going to do something a little different today. Instead of expositing one text, I'm going to exposit lots of texts. And the reason being is because scripture gives us a very multi-layered, very multi-faceted theology when it comes to money. So I'll give you three points and then we'll jump in. First of all, from takers to givers. Second of all, lion your finances. Three, lamb your finances. So first from takers to givers.

Points two and points three, I can give you and it'll be a helpful sermon, but it'll be a self-help sermon. Really practical tips because true spirituality always impacts reality. But the reason why Christianity is so different than any other world religion is because of the Gospel. The Gospel transforms us from takers to givers. And theology begins like this, that God is the original giver, he's given us everything. He's given us the first gift of creation that we live our lives, every breath we take, every experience that we chase, every single dream we have, every single desire is within this reality of the ultimate gift, which is creation. The gift of the universe from the elusive subatomic particles to the cosmos that spans billions of trillions of miles.

It's so mind boggling, it's so vast that we got to use light years. How far does light travel in a year? Our universe is about 13.7 billion light years across. And within this universe, God has created us with the gift of self-consciousness that we can take a step back, we can reflect, analyze, meditate upon the universe that we are in. We can think of the universe as an object, and simultaneously think about the fact that we're thinking about the universe. Trippy. Thinking about the vastness of the universe, and then you realize that you are ... And this is what ... says, "I can't but believe in God because of the universe out there and the universe that's within."

So we don't just inhabit this world, we reflect upon it, we develop it. So in that sense, we share in a creaturely way God's transcendence. God also has given us beauty in creation, he's given us pleasure, he's given us relationship. He's given us the greatest gift, which is a relationship with him, the gift of love, relationship with one another. Creates Adam and Eve, our fore parents, puts them in the Garden of Eden, in paradise, everything is incredible. And God says, "Enjoy everything except this one thing. Take from every tree except this one because I want you to give me the gift of obedience because that's what love entails in a relationship with God."

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." And what do we do? God says, "Don't take, don't eat." Eve takes, she eats. Adam takes, Adam eats. And that's in a sense, we see that is the essence of sin, taking what isn't ours. And then they are transformed into takers. The root of sin, all sin is selfishness, take, I'm entitled, I need, I take, I eat. Then God sees our brokenness, both economic brokenness and all elk. Sends his son, Jesus Christ, the ultimate giver. Jesus Christ gives his life, pours himself out. And before he goes to be crucified and bearing the penalty for our sins, for our rebellion, for our selfishness, he selflessly gives himself on the cross, excruciating physical pain, infinitely more excruciating spiritual pain as he bears the wrath of God.

Then he dies, he's buried. Put before all of that in the last supper, he takes a loaf of bread and he says what? He says, "Take, eat, and do this in remembrance of me." Why? He's saying you took what wasn't yours that led to the fall. I came and I gave what isn't yours in order to save you from the fall. The way that we are saved from our selfishness is Christ lavish, selflessness. And when we come to Christ, we receive grace by just crying out, "God save me. God, I need you. God, forgive me." And he pours out grace upon grace into our needy hearts. And that right there, when you get the gospel, it transforms you from taker to giver. It begins initially and then you grow in that more and more, you mature in that. That's what the Gospel does.

Second Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich every day." Lord, I need you. Lord, I need grace. And it transforms me from taker to giver I receive and now I give. So that's point one that frames our theology of giving. I preached a sermon in our sermon series the beginning of the year in February, I think it was, called Rhythms. And there was a sermon on generosity, really helpful. And if you haven't heard it, I would definitely commend that to you. It's on the app, on the website. And I set up the theology from Second Corinthians 8:9 of generosity. Today, what I'm going to do in points two and three is give some very practical points how we can in our daily walk with the Lord, the lion and lamb, our finances.

Whenever I preach on money, I feel anxiety from some pockets of the room. And one of the reasons is because we have made financial folly. We've made mistakes financially, and perhaps we even sinned financially. So one of the ways that we grow in our financial wisdom in order to give, the way we go, it begins with saying, "Lord, I am a dumb sheep. Lord, speak to me, Lord, guide me." And the Lord is a good shepherd, and he leads. And then also in terms of community, the Lord leads us as we're Christians into a community where we can learn from one another. So we can ask each other, "Hey, I need some wisdom. Hey, help me with my finances." Proverbs 15:22, "Without counsel, plans fail. But with many advisors, they succeed."

One of the things with American culture. If you're from other parts of the world, in some ways it's unique to the Western world. We don't like talking about finances with anybody. We'd rather talk about religion and politics. Let's talk about politics, who'd you vote for? We'd rather talk about that than talk about the real nitty-gritty financial decisions, financial health. And the vision of Christian community from Acts two is that they opened their books with one another. And they say, "Hey, help me with my finances, help me grow in generosity." We practice community systematically through our community groups where you form relationships, study scripture together, pray for one another. And it's also a place where you can ask one another, "Hey, how are you growing in the Gospel of generosity?"

Okay, point two, lion your finances. I'm going to give you seven points here, and you're like, "Hey, what happened to the 10 point format?" I'm already used to it. Don't worry, three more points are coming in with point three. So this is point two with seven sub points, then point three with three sub points. But you get 10 really practical steps. Lion your finances. Number one, be content. Number two, work hard and smart. Number three, live below your means. Four, steward wisely. Five, save wisely. Six, invest wisely. Seven, stay out of debt. First is be content. God calls us to finding satisfaction in him, contentment in him. Now, some people take this a little too far to the point of asceticism. And the pendulum in swung this one this way because people have taken the Gospel and started preaching a prosperity gospel, which is a false gospel that if you give to God, God will give you. It's kind of like a bribe to get God to do your bidding. We don't preach that.

And a lot of people have swung the pendulum over to the austerity gospel where you just live according to what you need and then give everything away. Or to the point where it's like, "I just don't want to talk about money, it doesn't feel spiritual. Let's talk about spiritual things not material things." And it's kind of a skewed perspective. So it begins with spiritual satisfaction with the Lord. Hebrews 13:5-6, "Keep your life free from love of money." He's not saying keep your life free from money, love of money. Money is neural, money is just a tool. But he's saying, "Don't over love it and be content with what you have for he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you." What's that contentment based and rooted and grounded in? It's in the fact that God is our father. So we can constantly say, "The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

My greatest asset in the universe is God. My relationship with God, my greatest treasure, and no one can touch that asset. Second Corinthians 6:0 Saint Paul says, "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything." He's saying financially, I might not be rich, but I'm rich in every single way that matters. And that's how scripture talks about blessing. It's more blessed to give than to receive not because God will bless you in turn financially. Often, he does if you're faithful with the little he's giving you. But his blessing is spiritual, he sends joy, he sends satisfaction.

First Timothy 6:6-10, "But godliness with contentment is great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it, out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these, we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs." He says, "Be careful what your heart is drawn to, be careful where your affections are going. Be careful of what you love." And the fight for faith is a fight for desires to trust God not money. Worship God, not money.

This is the secret to being content. It's worshiping God, it's being thankful to God. That's the secret to contentment. God, thank you for life. God, thank you for creation. And God, thank you for meeting my greatest need on the cross in Jesus Christ. And because you met my greatest need and I'm secure for all of eternity, I will be with God. And you've given me the Holy spirit. Now, obviously, you will provide for my lesser needs. Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" We have an eternal soul, and finite things cannot satisfy our soul.

So we go to God and God says, "I'm an eternal God, only I can satisfy your eternal soul." When you find your satisfaction in God, here's how I practically do it. I wake up every single morning with dissatisfaction, every single morning. It's deep inside. And I sit down and I pray, and I meditate over God's scripture. And I think about the Gospel, and I meditate with the fact that my name is written on his hands. Nothing can pull me away from God. And when you meditate on the scripture, spend time with God, all of a sudden he fills you with the Holy Spirit, and you're satisfied.

You have joy, a joy of salvation. And what this does practically, it curves your appetites. And a lot of us just waste money because our appetites are out of control. That's why I begin with contentment. What do I need? I have everything I need, and God spiritually provide for my physical needs. And this is how I grow in satisfaction. Philippians 4:11-13, "Not that I'm speaking of being in need for I've learned its secret is a skillset to develop. I've learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

Philippians 4:19, "And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus." God promises as a good father to his children, "I will provide for your needs not necessarily your greeds." So my daughter Sophia is 11. She asked me yesterday, "Dad, when can I get a phone?" I said, "When you're 47, 47?" She said, "No." I said, "All right, 46. You don't need a phone yet, not yet. And if we do ever get a phone, it's going to be a flip phone. It's going to be like a $5 burner phone. That's all you're getting." Her needs are met. I know what's best for her. That's how God operates. So finding contentment in the Lord. Number two, work hard and smart. Contentment plus hard work is a powerful combination. And obviously, you've got to qualify this, work in a way where your relationship with the Lord is neglected, where you do not neglect the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is commandment number four right up there with don't murder. Commandment number four is you shall work six days, work hard, but one day you give to the Lord. You rest in the salvation of Jesus Christ and you rest from your own labors. 10% of your time if you calculate it and you take sleep out, 10% of your time you're giving to the Lord, and it's an act of faith. And you're saying, "God, I believe, I trust that you can do more with 90% of my time than I can with 100% of the time." So don't work in a way that neglects to Sabbath the Lord or your health. We are to steward the bodies that God has given us. Proverbs 23:4, "Do not toil to acquire wealth, don't wear yourself out to acquire wealth, but be discerning enough to desist."

Don't work in such a way where you neglect your family. God has given you a family. If he has, then he's entrusted eternal souls for you to disciple and care for and people to care for. So we invest in our families. Don't neglect your church. Don't forget your greater calling as you think about work. Don't neglect the greater ministry that everything that we do is for the glory of God to expand the kingdom of Jesus Christ where we are. And don't forget that your identity isn't in your work. We're rooted and our identity is in God not in our job. Proverbs 14:23, "In all toil, there is profit, but mere talk tends to only poverty." So we are to work, we're to work hard. Ecclesiastes 9:10, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might."

Second Thessalonians 3:10, "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat." We're called to work. I tell my kids that all the time, they haven't learned that yet. I'm getting ROI little by little. You want to eat, wash the dishes. Colossians 3:23-24, "Whatever you do, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." He's talking about work as service. Through our work, whatever our work is, I'm serving Jesus, and I'm serving people. This is my ministry, and I do it with love. I'm providing a service or I provide a product, and I'm adding value to the world. And I do it with love. The other principle here in terms of working hard and smart is that we are to choose a path in terms of work that will lead to most generosity. Most glorify God, and we do that through generosity.

Here's where I get it, Ephesians 4:28, talking about a thief, let the thief steal no longer. Thief was a pagan, thief converts to Christianity, becomes a Christian, transformed from taker to giver. Now, how do you disciple the thief? You tell him, "Don't steal, that's a commandment." But you also say, "Work." Rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands, but you don't even stop there. Like, yeah, provide for your needs, provide for your household. Don't stop there so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. As we mature in the faith, we're to grow as givers. Work hard for a good profit. I'll just mention this, I've always heard all the money in the world is God's, and it doesn't really matter how people make the money. Don't ask where they got this money, it's all God's anyway.

No, there's bad profit, profit made at the expense of people. And there's good profit, profit made as a byproduct of serving the needs of others well. The common view is make as much as you can, to give as much as you can. And the end justifies the means. But Holy scripture says no. Deuteronomy 23:18, there's this principle embedded in Holy scripture, "You shall bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog,: which is a male prostitute, "into the house of the Lord your God in payment for any vow for both of these are in abomination to the Lord your God." This also has to inform the way that we invest. We are to invest in companies that create blessing and avoid companies that cause harm. Avoid investing in companies that engage in predatory behavior and profit at all costs.

Point number three is live below your means, kind of common sense, but it's in scripture so I'll mention it. Proverbs 13:11, "Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it." So the second part of the assumption there is that we are to gather little by little. How do we gather, how do we save? Well, we live under our means. So no faithful Christian, and this is what we're striving for, no faithful Christian lives as comfortably as they could. So I could have nicer clothing, I could have a nicer wardrobe and now go to T.J. Maxx. My kids could have nicer clothing. My philosophy about spending money on kids is, you know how much kids cost? As much as you spend on them, that's how much they cost.

We got four daughters, and my youngest, we haven't purchased one article of clothing for her, only diapers. That's the only thing. She has no idea, it's all brand new to her. I could spend more money on that, but she's not even going to remember. I could have a nicer car, I could have a nicer home, especially if I didn't live in Boston. I could go on more lavish vacations, but I understand that God has called me to be a giver. Therefore, when my needs are met, I set money aside to be generous. Before making a purchase, ask, do I need this? Do I need this? That's a great question. Why am I thinking of making this purchase? Am I thinking of the taker mentality or the giver mentality?

And then Proverbs 13:7 ... By the way, all of these principles are to be held in tension. It's like buoys that keep you financially afloat, so just think about it like that. Proverbs 13:7, "One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing. Another pretends to be poor yet has great wealth." I'd rather be the latter than the former. And not in the terms of I want to trick you, but in terms of this is the lifestyle that I'm content with. And I'm living under my means to be more generous. Four, steward wisely. The idea of stewardship is that obsolete everything belongs to God, everything, and he gives us good gifts. He entrusts things to us so that we work as wise trustees and that we manage everything he's given us well. If you brought in someone, a financial consultant, if you brought them in and say, "Hey, can you help me manage my finances?" What would they say?

Write that down, do that. They'd say something like, "Do you have a budget? Is that in the Bible? Scripture says, "Keep well, "Proverbs 27:23, "keep well the condition of your flocks, give attention to your herds." Obviously, we don't have flocks and herds, but he's talking about your wealth. Do you know how much you're bringing in and how much you're spending? Are you keeping track of your stuff? Are you taking care of everything God has given you? Luke 14 talks about don't build a tower without calculating assumption that we calculate. Proverbs 23:3-4 says, "By wisdom, a house is built and by understanding it is established. By knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches." We are to think strategically about our finances, and that assumes, stewardship assumes priorities.

What are my financial priorities? If I look at my finances, do they reflect, does my spending, does my investing, does all of that reflect my values? If I say that I love God with all of my heart, soul, strength, and mind, if I love neighbor as myself, do my finances reflect that? And so the priority number one is obviously God, it's obviously people. But then practically, scripture talks about investing in prioritization. Proverbs 24:27, "Prepare your work outside, get everything ready for yourself in the field. And after that, build your house." It's a powerful principle. Like don't invest in a house before you invest in a career, the way that you make money. If you don't have money to pay the bills, then don't buy new stuff, pay your bills first. The prioritization, steward your prioritization.

What good is it to build a beautiful house and then you don't have money to carry that cost. And then there's no food on the table. And also we are to steward our financial reputation. Financial reputation is important. Credit score is important. But also in terms of financial reputation, I'll add what do your friends think about your financial decisions? They obviously think something, so ask them what they think. Sit down with your friends, people who know you best, Christians in your life and say, "Hey, what do you think about my finances? Where do you see folly in my decisions?" If you gave me that kind of openness, I've got all kinds of advice for you because this is what greed does. It blinds us to that reality. So that's important. Proverbs 22:1, "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold." What's your financial reputation? Steward it well.

Five, save wisely. Proverbs 21:20, precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. Another translation says, the wise man saves for the future, the fool spends everything they get. you're trapped in this paycheck to paycheck, work, spend, work cycle. and we are to save. We are to have some kind of contingency fund, financial advisors say three to six months of expenses set aside. Proverbs 22:3, "The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it." We are to think, "Okay, this is what the future might bring, I don't know, God is sovereign. But he's given me an intellect, He's given me reason. I should set money aside just in case, I should set money aside for retirement." It's wise to save so that we continue to be in position of givers not takers.

Building wealth is wise according to scripture. Proverbs 14:24, "The crown of the wise is their wealth, but the folly of fools brings folly." And again why we're not hoarding up stores of treasures for ourselves is so that we can be even more generous than we are now continuing to grow in generosity. Examples of incredibly wealthy people in scripture, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, David, Solomon, Job. These people gave generously in their life as they built up wealth and then gave even more generously later on. If you calculate how much David gave to build the temple in Israel, we're talking about over $100 billion, massive amounts of money. Abraham was incredibly wealthy and even before the law came, he tithes to Melchizedek. Why? Because he had saved up, and then he gives to God's work. Jacob promises to God, "If you bless me, I'll give you a 10th." So we see that principle.

Saving also doesn't contradict Matthew 6:19-20. Matthew 6:19-21 says, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal." Don't lay up treasures for yourself here, lay up treasures for yourself in heaven. But one of the ways we do that is by taking earthly treasures and generously giving, generously sacrificing. In Luke 16, it talks about be generous financially, make friends with finances in order like these people, if they get converted, when they see your generosity because that points to the generosity of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, they go to heaven. And in heaven, you have an internal relationship. And verse 21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

It doesn't say where your heart is, that's where your treasure will be, although that's true too. It says where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be also. Meaning your treasures shape your heart, they shape your affections. Where your money goes, that's where your heart follows. If you invest in a company and you're checking your stock every day, and it's like. Or, "Yeah." It does something to your heart. So invest in eternal things, that's what he's saying. We are to invest in save ... Practically, we see this Joseph, God puts him in number two spot in the kingdom of Egypt. And they save for seven years, seven years of plenty in order to store up an emergency fund for seven years of hunger. And Proverbs talks about learning from the aunt that stores food in the summer for the winter.

One thing I will say, don't save out of fear, don't save out of greed. And don't save out of a desire to be financially independent from God. We will never get to a point where we are independent from God. Revelation 3:17, "For you say I am rich, I've prospered, I need nothing." That's a false statement, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. And six says invest wisely. We see the principle of investment in scripture in parable of talents, talks about investing. Matthew 25:27, "Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest." In Proverbs 31, "The wise woman invests in real estate, invests in business." Ecclesiastes 11 talks about cast your bread upon the waters. And the idea is invest in seven to eight ventures because you don't know what kind of disaster will come, it talks about diversification. And God has weaved this principle of sowing and reaping into the universe spiritually and physically.

Second Corinthians 9:6, the point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. In Matthew 13, Jesus gives us two little parables. And he says, "The kingdom of God is like this." And the reason why it's such a powerful parable is because they're based on genuine financial principles. And it goes like this. Matthew 13:44, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." Back before there were banks, secure finances, people sometimes saved treasure in fields. And this guy is just digging all of a sudden, oh wow. And then he goes and he's like, "It's not my field." And he goes and sells everything, liquidates everything to invest in this one field because of the treasure inside.

And the spiritual principle is Jesus is our greatest treasure, therefore he's worth giving up everything to get him. But the financial principle is we are to invest in a potential that we see. In verse 45, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of the find pearls who on finding one pearl of great value went and sold all that he had and bought it." And why do we invest again? It's to be as generous as we can be in the future as well. The good Samaritan sees a person in need and can respond immediately to that need which took finances because he had the finances at hand. Start as early as you can in terms of investment. Why? Because of the eighth wonder of the world.

This is what Einstein called, compound interest. Eighth wonder of the world where your interest off the money that you invested begins to make interest. You're making money off the money, it's a potent force. And then as what we have been entrusted by God, as it grows, we can be more generous. Proverbs 3:27, "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it." Proverbs 13:22, "A good man leaves inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous." Actually, I called my dad yesterday and I was like, "Hey, pops, what are you thinking about a will?" I'm like, "I've been writing a sermon on finances." He's like, "Oh, that's a good idea." And this is the way he's been thinking. It's like, yeah, inheritance, not just for your kids, but for the ... Not just for the next generation, I'm thinking about the one after that.

And it's not just in terms of money, and we'll talk about this in the final sermon of the series, leaving a legacy. But incredible legacy, like I am investing into the next generation both spiritually and physically so that it continues to bring a return on investment. The other thing I'll mention here is that we are to reduce risk as we age. We get this from Ecclesiastes 5:13, "There is a grievous evil that I've seen under the sun, riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is a father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand." And point seven is stay out of debt. Scripture talks about debt as a trap, that it can be debilitating almost in a sense that we handcuff ourselves with golden handcuffs.

Scripture doesn't forbid, prohibit debt, but it characterizes debt as a form of bondage because that comes at a cost. You gotta pay interest on that debt in order to service that debt. And whatever that interest is, that's time of your life that you have given to another entity. I understand there's good debt and bad debt. First of all, be careful, stay out of bad debt. And if you get in debt, you're going to make a plan to get out as quickly as possible because the righteous persons, Psalm 37:21 says the wicked borrows but does not pay back. But the righteous is generous and gives. We are to pay whatever debts we take out. Proverbs 22:7, the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is a slave to the lender. And then also scripture talks about to the best of your ability, stay away from co-signing because you're taking on the debt of another person.

Romans 13:7-8, pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Owe no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. And this also has to do with working honestly at your job. Don't steal time from your bosses. And also has to do with honest pay that bosses are to pay employees what they are worth. Leviticus 19:13 says, "You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning." James 5:4, "Behold the wages are the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts."

First Timothy 5:17-18, "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching," preaching as a labor, "and teaching for the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages." So we have to pay people what they are worth. All of that to say lion your finances. Why? Again, the end goal is we live to give so that we can be as generous as we possibly can be toward God, toward family, and toward people. So first of all, give to the Lord. The Lord has given us everything, he's given us Christ. We are bought at a precious price, it cost him his life and his blood. So we are to give to God.

In the Old Testament, God does give us the principle of the tithe that we are to give 10% of everything God gives us, why? Deuteronomy 14:23, "That you may learn to fear the Lord your God always." That we learn by giving to God a portion proportionately of what he's given us, it deepens our reverence for God. We're saying, God, you've given me everything. This is a reminder that everything is yours, and I'm giving you a portion of it back. Proverbs 3:9, "Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce." It's all God's before it's uncle Sam's, first portion to the Lord. And Lord, why do you? He doesn't need our money. But first of all, what this does is it blesses us because spiritually we're reminded it's more blessed to give than to receive. We honor the Lord in obedience. And then also this is God's incredible plan of getting the Gospel out where he saves people, turns them through the Gospel from takers to givers.

And then they give in order for other takers to become givers. Why do we give? God doesn't need, but God chooses to use this system in order to get the truth out. My youngest daughter, and I talk about taker to giver, it's a process of maturity. That's why I want my kids to learn that they are not the center of the universe, but they're takers. I remember the first time I really realized how much my parents invested in me was when I moved out of college and I moved down to DC, and I was working at my first job. For the very first time in my life, I bought my own groceries and I remember how painful that was, "What, $56 on groceries?" And only then did I begin, "Oh, someone's been paying for my groceries for 22 years."

I try to teach my daughters this, my daughter Milana, she is two and five months. I gave her a lollipop this week. I gave her a lollipop, and she's loving that lolli. She takes it, and I said, "Can I have some lollipop? Can I have a lick?" And she says, "No, mine." And I was like, "Technically, no. I just bought that, it's actually mine." She don't understand that part. Then I said, "Oh, so you don't love me?" And then she's like, she comes up to me and she's like. Meaning I do love you but not enough to tithe the lollipop. So we sing worship songs to God, "God, I love you, I love you." Scripture says they honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.

And this is like, do I really love God when a portion of your finances you give to him? Scripture talks about in Second Corinthians 8:9, talks about giving joyfully because God has lavished his grace. We want to give to God joyfully not under compulsion. I'm not giving because I have to, I'm giving you because I get to. And we do it sacrificially or proportionately. And we do it as a response to the spiritual blessings he's given us. First Corinthians 9:11, "If you have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap spiritual things from you?" So we have to invest in particular in Gospel ministries that bless us and others. Here's how I think about, you're to give to things that you're invested, that you believe in, your spiritually invested in. Here's how I think about my giving.

I believe that the number one way to impact eternity is Gospel ministry where people meet Jesus and for eternity as they will spend with God. So I believe in that. And I believe that strategically, there's strategic ways of getting the Gospel out in an enduring way. And the most effective way of reaching people, enduring way is planting churches. Gospel is proclaimed through churches, the churches remain the root. And then they plant other churches so that ... This is why I give to church, this is why I give to this church. It's hard to make a case you have to give this amount to the local church. But we are as God's kids, we are called to give to build his kingdom here. Here's why I say this, professing Christians in the United States have an annual income of 2.5 trillion. You know how much we give of that as professing Christians in the United States on average? We give 2.5%. Giving among non-Christians to charitable giving in the United States, 2.5%.

And this is all to say that if our hearts have been transformed by God, if we have received the greatest gift that there is, then how are we not more generous than other people? And there's two false extremes when it comes to the tithe. One extreme is I'm going to give 10%, the rest of the money is mine, I can do whatever I want. Within scripture, it says, "No, we are to continue growing in generosity." The other extreme is I'm going to live on necessities, give everything away. And my question is, when does that stop? Do I give away my shower every day? No, definitely not. Am I giving away my coffee? I'm not. Early on in my ministry, I was like, "If you buy a cup of coffee everyday, this is how much money you waste."

It makes me more productive. And more productive makes everything better. God does want us to enjoy life. It brings God pleasure when we enjoy his gifts, and he gives us richly to be enjoyed. John 2, Jesus comes to a wedding and they run out of wine. And he's like, "No, we're not going to waste any more money on wine like that, we're going to give everything away to missions." He's like, "No, fill it up with water." Best wine ever. And if you're a Baptist, grape juice, best grape juice. Nehemiah 8 says, "When we celebrate, eat the fat, drink the wine." John 12, Judas objects, a woman comes in and pours out perfume on Jesus that cost $25,000, and it seems what a waste. And Jesus says, "She will be remembered for all of eternity."

First Timothy 6:17-19, it says, "God richly provides us with everything to enjoy," so we're going to keep that in balance. Number two, we are to provide for our households. First Timothy 5:8, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." So we are to provide for our family because if we don't then someone else has to. So this is the way I think about it, I provide for my kids but I want them to grow into givers. And I think about, okay, I provide for them now, I also got to provide for their education so that they can be givers and grow generosity in the future. Point three is give generously. And this is the final point, the final purpose of why God has given us money is to give.

Luke 6:38, "Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." So we are to give to other people. And one of the ways that we give, and this is for the entrepreneurs and the business owners in the community, one of the ways that we give is building businesses in order to provide jobs for other people. And I get this from Deuteronomy 24:19, "When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it, it shall be for the sojourner, that's the immigrant, the fatherless, the orphan, the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you and all the work of your hands."

So he's saying to business owners who've invested, who've taken all the risk, don't maximize profits. You create opportunities to work for the immigrant, the widow, the orphan. So you're giving them not just money for their needs, but opportunity for work. So the gleaning laws as they are called, they required work from the marginalized and provided jobs for them. Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup says 60 years into our global data collection effort, we may have already found the single most searing, clarifying, helpful world altering fact. What the whole wants is a good job. This is one of the most important discoveries Gallup has ever made, found. Like one of the ways that we grow in generosity is by creating opportunities. So we need to ask if you are a business owner, have I squeezed all the profit out of my proverbial field? Am I treating the employees in my company as labor costs to be controlled or as human beings to be cared for?

And where do we get the wisdom and the power to live like this, live generously, lining our finances and lambing with generosity? We get it from Jesus Christ who gave himself completely. He didn't tithe this blood but gave everything. And that lavish grace empowers us to give. Here at the end, I'll just say this, no one can really tell you exactly what to do in your personal situation. That's why we're so thankful for the Holy Spirit. And when we ask God, God, what would you have, which area in my life do I need to work on so that I can grow in generosity? God gives us that. Brad Hewitt, CEO of Thrivent Financial said, "I describe money as love or service in storable or transferable form." That's what money is, money is a tool to demonstrate love and to serve other people.

Proverbs 11:25, "Whoever brings blessing will be enriched. And the one who waters will himself be watered." Why do we do everything we do motivated by love? First Corinthians 13:3, "If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing." The points real quick, if you missed any line in your finances, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and lamb your finances. Give to the Lord, provide for your household, and give generously. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the Gospel. We thank you that through the Gospel of Jesus Christ who gave himself for takers, takers can be transformed into givers. And I pray that you continue to grow us and generosity as you pour grace upon grace on each one of us. And I pray this in Christ's name, Amen.

Summary:

The question we’re going to wrestle with this week is, “why is trust something that needs to be built at all?” Why is trust so hard to gain, and so easy to lose? More importantly, how can we master the art of not just creating the perception of trust, but actually being stable, reliable, trustworthy and likable people ourselves? How can we, as follower of Jesus, become the kind of people that others like to be with, and want to be like?

Audio Transcript:

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit MosaicBoston.com.

Good morning and welcome again to Mosaic. It's good to see you and if you're new, welcome. So glad you're here. My name is Shane. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic and we'd love to connect you. The way we do that officially is through that little Connection Card in your worship guide. We'd love it if you could fill that out for us and just drop those in the offering baskets later on, or if you turn them in at the Welcome Center out front, we have a little gift we'd love to give to you this morning, as well as some more information about the church.

Just a couple of announcements before we get started. Pastor Jan already mentioned it, but in case you came in late, for the members of Mosaic, there is a members meeting next week and it's a really important one: we're going to be voting on Andy Hoot, our pastoral resident, he's actually completed his residency, but we're going to be voting on him to become a pastor here at Mosaic, and so definitely come and show your support for that. But not only is this a members meeting, it's also a potluck. So make sure you bring something good to eat to share with some people as well.

And then, if you've been coming to Mosaic for a few weeks now and we understand the ebb and flow of the city. A lot of people move here and a lot of people move around, especially throughout the summer and during September, and if you've been coming to Mosaic for a little while and you're looking to get more meaningfully connected, we want to help you with that and the best way to do that is through our community groups. We have a lot of great groups that meet all over the city, throughout the week, in people's homes. We even have a couple groups that meet on Sunday afternoons here at the temple, in case your weekday schedule is just too packed. But it's just a smaller, more intimate environment where you can really begin to build some meaningful relationships with people in the church.

We actually have a bunch of new groups starting up, and so we have groups all over the city and we've got a few new ones starting up. Watertown, Newton, Brighton, here in Brookline, Mission Hill, we've got a group starting even in Medford and Wellesley, so if you're living a little bit farther out from our location here, but definitely check those out and I encourage you to get plugged in.

All right. I'm going to pray for us and then we'll jump into the sermon this morning. God, we need you. Apart from you, we are all treading water in an endless sea. And yet, with you, you give us the only foundation on which we can plant our feet. You are the rock that we stand on. You are the anchor for our soul. We thank you that you are trustworthy and true. You are faithful.

And you've promised to always be with us and for us, to never leave us or forsake us, and Lord, we ask that as your people that you would make us a people like you. That you would make us a people who are trustworthy, true, a people who are reliable and stable.

We pray right now that you come right now and just through your word, speak to us what we need to hear. If we need encouragement, I pray you would give us encouragement. If we need conviction, I pray that you would give us conviction, Lord, and that you would minister to us by the power of your Spirit and shape us, form us more into the image of your son, Jesus Christ.

It's in his name we pray, amen.

So this fall, we are going through a sermon series called Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for Life. And what we're doing is we're taking a look and we're applying this theme that we see throughout scripture to different practical areas of our life, and it's this theme that God is both/and. He is both just and merciful. He is both truth and love, that Jesus is the lion and the lamb; that is he confident and humble, that he is tough and tender.
And when you look at the life of Jesus Christ, you see that he had this amazing stability and resilience that was extremely, profoundly attractive in his time and yet, if we're honest, it's majorly, majorly lacking in ours. That Jesus had a tough mind. He had thick skin and yet, he also had a tender heart.

So we see that he did hard things and he spoke hard truths and he faced hard opposition, and through it all, he also loved hard people. And as we're going through this series, this is what we want to do: is how can we become more like him? How can we become more like that? What would happen in our church, in our city, in our culture, if more people were tough and tender like Jesus Christ?

And so today, we're going to be looking at a certain quality that tough and tender people have, it's a quality that Jesus had and it's the quality of being reliable, of being trustworthy. Are you a trustworthy person?

We live in a culture where trust is hard to come by and it's actually on the decline. On a broad level, the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer reported sharp declines in trust toward major institutions. That right now, only about one third of Americans trust their government to do what is right. Only about 42% trust what they hear from the media. And now, on a more personal level, we don't need some massive report and statistics to tell us that people are hard to trust.

Trust is not our default, when we begin a relationship. Trust is not our baseline. It's something that needs to be earned; it needs to be kept. It's hard to get and it's easy to lose. And Scripture actually talks about this from the beginning. That in the beginning, trust was the baseline. You read the description of Adam and Eve in the Garden and what it tells us about them is that they were naked but not ashamed.

Now, naked, obviously it's talking about something deeper than just physically, that they were emotionally, factually ... spiritually, they were completely open and vulnerable with one another and yet not afraid. They had no reason to be afraid. Apart from sin, and in the presence of God, they were free. They were free to just fully trust and fully love without fear and then Genesis 3 happens and all of that is lost.

Genesis 3, sin enters the Garden and trust leaves the Garden. All of a sudden, there is reason to fear, and the first thing we see Adam and Eve do is what? They begin sewing leaves together to create garments to cover their nakedness. I'm afraid to let you see me for who I really am, because I don't like who I really am and if you find out who I really am, you're not going to like me, either. They covered themselves.

The next thing they do is they not only do that, but then they run and hide from God. They feel the guilt before this holy God and they're afraid and they know what their sin deserves, so they run and they had and then ultimately, they begin to turn against one another. They begin to blame one another, and in order to build themselves up, they start tearing one another down. They've lost the freedom that came with their innocence. And in its place is this guilt, is this shame that their trust was replaced with suspicious and with contention and they begin competing with one another for justification.

So this is where we are, this is the world that we live in. We're not able to trust without taking risks. Right? In order to trust someone, you're taking the risk that they might hurt you; that they might let you down. In order to trust someone, you're taking the risk that they might find out who you really are, find you out and reject you.

And we all want to be close to people. We want people in our lives who are stable, who are reliable, who are trustworthy, but who can we trust? That's one question to ask. But I think a more important question to ask is this: how can we become the kind of people who can be trusted? How can we become the kind of people that other people actually just like to be with and want to be like because they see that we're reliable, steadfast, trustworthy people? And just imagine what could happen. Imagine if a church full of trustworthy, reliable, likable people, just saturated the city like Boston. That's kind of what we're going to be talking about today.

So, as we do, we're going to be looking at Paul's second letter to his disciple Timothy. 2 Timothy 3, if you want to follow along in your Bibles. And as we do, we've got three points framing up our time. Point number one: afraid to trust. Two: a friend to trust. And then three: a formative trust.

And we're going to start by looking at 2 Timothy 3:1-5, and then also verses 10 and 11. So Paul writing to Timothy, he says this. He says: "But understand this: that in the last days, there will comes times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people."

And going on to verse 10, he says: "But you, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness. My persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all, the Lord rescued me."

This is God's holy word for us this morning. Point number one: afraid to trust. When you look at the first four verses of this chapter, you see this long list of just unstable, unlikable, untrustworthy people. That these are the kind of people that you don't like to be with and you don't want to be like. And in the context of 1 and 2 Timothy, what's going on is Paul is giving this young man Timothy instructions for how to be a good pastor.

And as a pastor of his church, Timothy's job is not to do all the work of the ministry on behalf of the church. He's not a hired gun, which is a common misconception in a lot of churches today, but Timothy's job was instead to equip the church for the work of the ministry, to equip the saints.
In other words, Timothy, as the pastor, he needed to recruit and assess and train and develop people in the church in order to entrust them with the responsibility for the ministry. So his job was to equip and to entrust the church but he was also called to shepherd the church.

And what this means is that Timothy also had the responsibility to guard and to protect the church. And specifically, he needed to guard and protect from false teachers and from false teachings and so as Paul is telling Timothy, "Listen, you need to raise people up and entrust them with ministry, but you need to do so carefully. You need to do so cautiously. You need to use wisdom and discernment, because not everyone is going to be deserving of that trust."

Now, he even says that some are going to have the appearance of godliness but deny its power. There's going to be imposters. There's going to be hypocrites who pose a danger to the church and so even if things look good on the outside, that's not always a good indication of what's going on inside. It's not always a good indication of what is going on behind closed doors, so you need to be cautious. You need to be careful.

He begins by using this phrase 'in the last days.' When we think about that, it might be tempting to be like, "Okay, well, he's talking about something later on in the future and so this doesn't really apply to us right now." But that's now how Scripture uses that phrase. Actually, when Scripture uses this phrase, it's describing the entire period of time between Jesus's resurrection and his return.

And so, in some ways, it does refer to future events, but it does so in a way that also refers to present reality. And it does it with the implications of the way things are right now, things are going to ebb and flow throughout human history, but right before Jesus returns, there's going to be this intensification. Things are going to become a little more extreme, and so yeah, Paul's talking about something in the future, but he's also talking about something that was practically relevant to Timothy at the time.

And if we're honest with ourselves, right? If we read this description carefully, thoughtfully, he's talking about us, as well. Every single one of us finds ourself on this list somewhere. No, we're not going those qualities up on our LinkedIn, but let's be honest, like ... Okay, let's see how far we get.

Number one, lovers of self. I failed already. Why'd you have to start there, Paul? Couldn't you start with murderer or something, like? Lovers of money. This is not looking good. Proud. Arrogant. Abusive. It goes on and on.

And I said earlier, this is a list of people that we don't like to be with and that we don't want to be like. It's too late; we are like this. We're with people like this every day. And so here's the point.

It's not enough to say that other people are hard to trust. I can't even trust myself. I don't even fully know or understand myself. I question my motives. I'm suspicious of my own desires; I can't trust my own heart because I know that it's broken and sick with sin.

Jeremiah 17:9 says that, "The heart is deceitful is above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?" Next time someone says just follow your heart, you just quote that verse back to them. Not a good idea.

Paul wrestles with this himself in Romans 7:18 when he says this, he says, "I know that nothing good dwells in me. That is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing, wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death?" And he says in verse 25, "But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord."

If we can't trust others and we can't even trust ourselves, well then who's left to trust? Who can we trust? Who can deliver us from this body of death, there is only one. There's only one person to have ever lived who did not make this list of vices that Paul gives us at the beginning of Chapter 3.

And actually, if you look at his life, his life was the antithesis of this list. You take this list, you flip it upside down, you read it through the opposite lens and what you begin to see is Jesus Christ. Jesus was not a lover of self, a lover of money. He perfectly loved others. He was generous. He was humble. He was meek. He was compassionate. He honored his earthly parents and his heavenly Father. He was always grateful, holy, tenderhearted, content with what he had. He spoke the truth and he spoke it with love. He practiced self-control. He was gentle. He loved what is good. He was trustworthy, responsible, eager to serve others, he loved God more than worldly comforts or pleasures and had a deep, abiding godliness that he attributed to the power of the Holy Spirit.

And this brings us to point two, that Jesus Christ is the friend that we can trust and he's the friend that we need. Paul begins his list in verse two saying that people will be lovers of self, but then he ends in verse four by saying, "And they will not be lovers of God," and this is the root of the problem. Our biggest problem is not a behavior problem; our biggest problem is a heart problem.

It is a problem of disordered loves and idolatry. That everything listed between the start of verse two and the end of verse four is merely symptomatic of this problem that we don't love others because we don't love God and we don't love God because we're scared.

We're running from fear because we know that we stand guilty before a holy God. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, "This is the judgment." Verse 19: "That the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his work should be exposed."

This part's not nearly as famous as John 3:16, that Jesus said a little bit earlier, but it's true. Adam and Eve ran and hid from God in the Garden and we're still running and hiding from him today.

And this is the question that we need to ask is, well then how and why should we trust and love a God whose justice and law has rightly judged us guilty and deserving of death?

Now, this is where it is helpful to back up to John 3:16, because just a few verses earlier, Jesus also said this. He said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him."

The reason that we should love God is because he first loved us. The reason that we should trust God is Jesus Christ. And so, how can we trust a God whose justice rightly demands that we die? It is only by understanding that his love desires that we live, that his love desires that he somehow show us mercy and that even while we were dead in our sins and enemies of God and running and hiding from him, his love compelled him to send his Son, to seek and to save the lost, to mercifully lay down everything in order to give us life.

So the secret to loving God is to acknowledge that you can't love God, that you don't love God and you won't love God until you accept that he first loved you. This is what John tells us in 1 John, Chapter Four, he says, "And this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. By this is love perfected in us, so that we may have confidence, no longer fear, but confidence for the day of judgment because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us."

Jesus Christ, through his atonement on the cross became the propitiation for our sins, and what that means is that he appeased God's righteous anger toward our sin so that we no longer need to run from him in fear but can run to him for mercy. That Jesus Christ took our sentence, he took our penalty, our punishment, upon himself. He paid the debt and he settled our account. He takes our guilt, he exchanges it for his righteousness.

And this is amazing. What this means is that God in his infinite, eternal wisdom has made a way to show guilty people mercy, without compromising his own holiness or justice. That he remains just and yet, becomes the justifier of all who repent and put their faith in Christ. And this is what Paul tells us in Romans, Chapter 3.

Verse 21: "That now the righteousness of God has been manifest apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believed. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who God put forward as propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins, he was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

This changes everything. When you understand that you are so bad that the only possible solution to your badness is that Jesus Christ, the perfect son of God would come and die for you? That leaves you incredibly contrite, repentant, and humble. It kills your pride and it makes you tender. But when you also understand that you are so loved by God and that he, in his divine character is so merciful that he willingly did that for you? That gives you an unshakeable boldness and confidence and courage as a child of God. That his perfect loves drives out fear and it leaves with you with this lion-like toughness, this confidence.

This is what makes Jesus the friend that we can trust. It's not just that he loves us. It's that he fully knows us and he still chooses to love us. We didn't earn it; we can't lose it, and therefore, we should never doubt it. We should never doubt his faithfulness or love. Jesus is the sure, solid, unshakeable foundation. And when we build our lives on him, his stability begins to add stability to every other aspect of our lives.

Romans 8, one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture. Like, this is one of those passages every Christian should just memorize. But in it, Paul writes this. He says that: "We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Those whom he predestined, he also called and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then, shall we say to these things? For if God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love Christ?"

"Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it's written, for your sake, we're being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our lord."

Proverbs 18:24 says that, "A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." In our world of many companions, Jesus is the true friend. He is the true big brother that our hearts long for and need. He knows us completely. Yet, he loves us sacrificially and the good work that he began in us at the moment of our justification, he is guaranteed to continue on to completion until the moment of our glorification.

And this brings us to point three, that when we put our faith and trust, that when we build our life on him, that trust is a formative trust. It begins to add stability to the rest of our lives as well.

Psalm 25:9 says, "He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humbles his ways. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose."

The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him and he makes known to them his covenant, that the faithfulness and the friendship of Jesus Christ, this should have a formative effect in our lives that makes us faithful, steadfast, trustworthy people as well.

So Paul begins 2 Timothy 3, and he's got this list of like, really vicious people to avoid, but then in verse 10 and 11, he shows us another way. He shows us how we as followers of Jesus can live instead.

And so, 2 Timothy 3:1, he starts out, he says, "Understand this. In the last days, there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive," he goes on and on, but then he gets down to verse 10. And he says, "But you, Timothy, you however, you followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness. My persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra, which persecutions I endured yet from them all, the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from who you learned it and how from childhood, you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able make to wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."

How do you live in a world full of faithless people? How do you live in a world where there's just people you can't trust? Well, Paul's advice to Timothy is not so much about them, it's about him. It's about you, Timothy. You, Timothy, embody the change that you want to see in others and then continue in that no matter what it may cost.

And so, you Timothy, and to us, as disciples of Jesus, what this means is that we need to become the kind of people that are worthy of others' trust. We need to become the kind of people that other people just like to be with and they want to be like because we're reliable, we're stable, we're steadfast. Become the humble, confident, lion/lamb, tough/tender people that we've been called to be in Christ.

And here in this last section, I just want to break down verses 10 through 13 and as I do, I borrowed some wisdom from Pastor Jan. I'm gong to give you 10 marks of a trustworthy person. I don't know if this is going to be a common theme throughout this season, but point three has 10 sub points, some of those points have dove points and so, we're going to rapid, rapid fire. Really quick through this.

But 10 marks of a trustworthy person, as we go through these, this is what we need to ask ourselves. Number one, do I have these qualities in myself and if so, do I have a lion-like toughness to stand firm in them and not waver, no matter what circumstances I might go through in life?

And then, number two: am I also growing in these qualities? Do I have a lamb-like tenderness and teachability in order to continue developing in these areas, because we're never going to be perfect in any of them, at least not in this lifetime.

So those are the questions to ask we go. 10 marks of a trustworthy person. The first one is so intuitive, so you know, obvious that it might seem cliché, but a trustworthy person has integrity. And Paul begins verse 10, he says to his disciple Timothy that, "You have followed my example," in what? "In teaching and in conduct." That Paul talked the talk but he also walked the walk and the things that he taught were integrated, with his lifestyle. He was a man of integrity. And trustworthy people, they need to strive to be people of integrity.

Number two is intention. He says, "You followed me in my aim in life," that Paul was upfront about his motives. His aim was clear. He didn't have a hidden agenda, right? He had a clear mission, a clear purpose and he wore it on his sleeve. People knew what he was about and they knew what he was doing and why he was doing it. And trustworthy people, they make their intentions, their motives clear and they stick to them.

And number three is faith. Paul says, "You followed my example in faith," and Paul's faith was exemplary, actually in a few different ways. First of all, Paul's faith meant that he was a man who was securely anchored. Right? Paul was not a loose cannon. He was not a ship being tossed about in the waves of doubt. He wasn't double-minded. He wasn't one person one day and another person the next. He had this strong faith that kept him anchored. He was unwavering in his convictions and he wasn't swayed by the opinions of others. He wasn't swayed by his own emotions or even by his circumstance.

And so, he was securely anchored. Secondly though, he was also boldly optimistic. Paul was not a cynical or pessimistic person, although we might look at his life and say that he had reason to be. But he boldly trusted God's goodness and sovereignty, even through the suffering and persecution that he faced. He still had hope; he had peace and he had joy because he trusted that God was working it all together for his good. He was boldly optimistic.

And thirdly, he was also courageously ambitious. He set great goals and he attempted great things for God, even when it came at great cost to himself. And Pastor Jan preached an entire sermon last week you can go back and listen to about setting godly goals, but Paul was a man who had a godly ambition.

He wasn't fearful. He wasn't timid. He didn't procrastinate. He had confidence. He set those goals and he worked hard toward them.

Number four is patience. Paul said, "You followed my example in patience." Trustworthy people don't freak out and fly off the handle as soon as things don't go according to plan. Right? Instead, they give stability to everyone else who's freaking out as things don't go according to plan. Patient people are slow to be anxious.

Patient people are not quick to take offense; they don't take things personally. They're not quick to judge; they give people the benefit of the doubt. They don't lose their temper. They're quick to forgive. Things can roll off their back. They keep their emotions in check. They set reasonable expectations for others. They don't honk as soon as the light turns green, they wait a few seconds and then, you tap it. Politely. That's how you do it. Life skills, Boston.

But they live by the Golden Rule. They treat people the way they would want to be treated. Patiently.

Number five is love. You followed my example in love, and trustworthy people don't love, they love and there's a difference and Paul's using a specific word for love here that I think our culture really needs. It's the word 'agape,' it's not a love that's marked by feelings and sentiment. It's a mark, it's a love that's marked by commitment and sacrifice.

Our world loves love but the love that they love, it's a phony love. It's a shallow love. Our love expects us to muster up these sentimental feelings about things and then act on them before those feelings run out but agape love says, "I'm going to take action. I'm going to do the right thing, regardless of how I feel."

Agape love says that I'm not going to do things just because they feel good but because they actually do good. And this is where you begin to see that agape love doesn't always feel like love on the surface. We talked a few weeks ago on the importance of speaking the truth in love. That if you really care about things, sometimes you have to speak truths, things that are hard for people to hear, but you do so motivated by love. And this is the mark of a trustworthy person, because nobody trusts a yes man. Nobody trusts the person who always is ready to tell you what you want to hear.

Now at the same time, nobody likes a critic, but when you have someone who can come to you and offer you constructive, heartfelt criticism, not gossiping behind your back, but actually one-on-one to your face because they genuinely care about you? That's a true friend; that's a person that you can trust. Trustworthy people love.

Number six is steadfastness. You followed my example in being steadfast. Trustworthy people, they're people that you can rely on. If they say they're going to do something; they do it. If they make a promise, they keep it. Their word is their bond. Right? If they make an appointment, they show up ready and on time. This is a life hack, but in Boston, what that means, is that you always leave five minutes earlier than you think you have. Because the T's always going to be late; traffic's always going to be bad. There's always going to be a million excuses, but when that happens, it communicates something to that other person. If you're the person who's always late, who's never prepared.

It's non-verbally telling other people, "My time is more valuable than yours." But when you're consistent, when you show up when you say you're going to show up and you show up ready to go, it communicates like, "I care about you and I value your time." And that creates trust in people.

Steadfast people, they're not afraid of commitment and they're also not fools with commitment, and so what that means is that they count the cost before starting something and then, once they do start something, they carry it on to completion, that they're faithful. They follow through.

And in order to do this, we need to be a people who use our yes and our and meaningfully and thoughtfully and intentionally. Jesus told his disciples that you should let your yes be yes and your no be no and that anything beyond this comes from the evil one, but steadfast people, when they say yes to something, they mean it. And they also have the courage and the wisdom and the humility to know when they need to say no.

And listen, every time you say yes to something, you are automatically saying no to something else. So, are you doing that intentionally? Are you doing that with wisdom? If you're going to say yes to great things in life, you're going to be required to say no to a whole lot of, a 100 million little good things that want to take you and pull you away from that.

But if we're going to be the people that make commitments and follow through on them, that's what we need to do. And so this is a discipline that steadfast people learn.

Number seven is persecution. This one might seem strange to be on the list, but when you think about it, it makes sense. Paul says, "You followed my example in persecution."

If a person actually has integrity and convictions, a clear purpose, if they hold fast to what they believe, in general, that's going to make them more trustworthy and likable. But it's also going to mean there's always going to be a certain group of people that hate them for it.

This is Jesus. Jesus is the most trustworthy, likable person to have ever lived, but much of what made him so also got him crucified because people who are trustworthy, they're often marked by persecution because these are the people who are willing to do the right thing even when it's no longer the popular thing.

These are the ones who stand up to the bullies on the playground. These are the ones who refuse to compromise their integrity under the pressure of their peers. And people aren't always going to like that. Paul actually tells Timothy, "All who desire to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted."

And number eight is similar, but a little bit different. He says, "You followed my example in suffering," as well. It's hard to trust a person who's lived a really cushy life. It's hard to trust a person who's never suffered, because you really don't know the true content of a person's character until you see it tested by the fires of hardship and pain.

Now on the flip side, there are a few things more admirable than watching a person walk through difficulty, walk through suffering, but do so with hope, do so with joy, do so with grace, and this is what Paul did. Paul, you read his life. He lived a life of tremendous suffering for the Gospel. And yet, he was never grumbling, he was never complaining, he wasn't lashing out at people.

What was he doing? He was always rejoicing. He was always trusting that God was in control, that he was sovereignly working all things together for his good, and so he walked faithfully through suffering.

Number nine is endurance. Trustworthy people don't just have bursts of stability in life, they have enduring stability over the long haul, over time and over space. Right? There's a proven track record that they're not just faithful in certain areas of life for certain periods of time. They're faithful across multiple areas of life for long periods of time.

And then number 10, most importantly, is humility. Trustworthy people are humble. And it might not seem so at the surface, when Paul is like, "You have followed my example," and that you should follow my example. It might not sound like an incredibly humble thing to do, that you should imitate me.

But Paul does so and then in the end, he gives all the glory to Jesus Christ. That Jesus is the one who rescued me, that Jesus is the one who's saved me, and 1 Corinthians 11:1 he says, "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ." It's all about Jesus. And he makes this even more clear a few chapters later in Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. He says, "It's only by the grace of God that I am what I am. And his grace for me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."

It's the humility to say yeah, I have grown in my walk with Jesus Christ. There are things about me that are worth imitating and yet, at the end of the day, it's all Jesus. It's him working in me.

I look at this list of characteristics and in the flesh, I am overwhelmed. In the flesh, being a person marked by these qualities, I'm already exhausted. I'm already tired. Like, just thinking about it. In the spirit, though, this is exhilarating.

Because like, imagine what could happen if just one person started living this way perfectly. Well, it did happen. That was Jesus Christ. We've already begun to see and to experience what could happen; it changes the whole world. Now, just imagine if we all started to live this world. Imagine if we had a community of reliable, tough, tender, humble, confident, likable, trustworthy people saturating our city.

Imagine if the streets of Boston were filled with people of integrity, purpose, faith, patience, humility and an enduring love that was steadfast, even in the face of suffering, even in the face of persecution. Now, this is who Christ is and this is who he's called us to be and this is who, by the power of his Spirit, we are to become and when that happens, when that becomes evident in your life, people are going to ask question. People are going to want to know, like, they're going to see the patience. They're going to see the peace. They're going to see the joy and wonder, "Where does that come from?"

Like sooner or later, they're going to come and then they'll say, why don't you join us in the break room when we're all gossiping behind other people's backs? Why aren't you always trash-talking the boss with the rest of us when he's not in the room? Why does there seem to be so little drama in your personal relationships? Why don't you freak out with the rest of us when the rest of us are freaking out? Where do you get this stability in your life to stay so level-headed? And this is something we need to be prepared to give an answer for.

And this is exactly what Peter, he tells us this in 1 Peter, Chapter 3. In verse eight he says, "All of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil, reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness's sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them or be troubled, but in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you, for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet, do it with gentleness and respect, having good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame."

God has gathered us here in this place at this time in this city to be faithful, trustworthy witnesses to his Gospel and the thing that we need to be asking ourselves is when the storms of life hits, when things get crazy, when people's stability is shattered, are they going to come to us? And if they do, are we going to have enough lion-like stability in our lives to help them?

Are we going to have enough lamb-like humility to show them that any stability that they might see in us, it all comes from Jesus Christ, that he is the rock, he is the anchor for our souls? If you're lacking that stability, just look to the cross. Look to the one who knows you completely and yet loves you sacrificially. He chooses to love you with an unfailing love.

If you're not a Christian, like we would love for you to change that today. We would love for you to become a follower of Jesus today and you do that simply by repenting and putting your faith in him. Repenting is turning from away from sin. Stop trying to build life on your own foundations and instead, trust in Jesus. Build your life on the foundation of who he is.

And if you are a Christian, for those of us who are Christians, we need to ask ourselves a couple of questions. First of all, how is your stability? Like, are you a stable, trustworthy person? Are you feeling like a leaf blowing around in the wind?

This is important, because the second question is has God put people in your life who perhaps could benefit from that stability, if you have it? People that you can love, people that you can serve and people that you can point to the source of your stability so that they can find it themselves.

I'm going to close by reading from Hebrews 13:7-8 and then we'll pray together before we continue in worship. "Remember your leaders. Those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Praise God."

Let's pray. Jesus, you have sent us on a mission to proclaim your good news to the ends of the earth and you've also promised to be with us and for us until the end of the age. And we thank you that there is no shadow of turning in you but that you are trustworthy, reliable, steadfast. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God, give us faith to never doubt your power, your goodness, your love, your grace. But grow us to be a people with a magnetic stability, a trustworthy people, a people of intriguing likability, not because of us but because people see you in us. They see the confidence and humility of Christ reflected through our conduct and faith.

Jesus, we praise you. We thank you for being the propitiation for our sins, being the reason that we can have confidence to draw near the throne of God, no longer running in fear of the punishment we deserve but receiving the unfathomable mercy that you have attained for us by your blood shed on the cross.

Father, we thank you for sending your son so that you could be just and the justifier of those who have faith in him, who trust in his name, and to you be all glory and power and honor forever and ever, we pray.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Audio Transcript:

You're listening to audio from Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that are a god who loves us so much that you gave your son, Jesus Christ, for us.

Jesus, we thank you that you were the most goal oriented person who has ever lived. You came with the goal to save us, to transform us, to redeem us from our sins. We thank you for your substitutionary atonement on the cross in our place, bearing the wrath of god for the wickedness and the sin that each one of us commits, sins of omission, sins of commission. We thank you for that, Jesus. We thank you for the gospel, that by grace through faith, your righteousness is transferred to us. We thank you for that.

We thank you Holy Spirit, that you have come and you empower us when we ask for strength, when we ask for a filling, you come and you lead, you guide, you infuse us with wisdom and love. We pray that you continue to do that.

Continue to build your church, Jesus. This is your church, not ours. Continue to use us as well to build your kingdom. Today, remind us that you have a purpose for us, that you have goals for us. The primary goal is to live for the glory of God, and show us how that can practically work itself out in our lives today as we turn our attention to the holy scriptures. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

We're in a sermon series that we're calling Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience For Life. Why this sermon series? First of all, because we are weak. In and of ourselves, we are weak. In particular when it comes to spiritual life. Holy scripture talks about spiritual life as a fight, fight that good fight of faith. We can't do that in and of ourselves, by our own strength or resources. We need strength from the Lord. That's number one.

The second reason why we chose to do this series is because we live in a culture that has, it's grown weak. It's a weak sauce culture. Back in the day, when life was hard, like, before indoor plumbing and electricity, the philosophy of the day was stoicism. The philosophy of the day today is what I affectionately call snowicism.

We melt under the so-called pressures of life. I can't even. Just even coming in a space like this, where it's like, "What's the WiFi password?" We're not telling you. No WiFi. The only invisible force that we connect with us God. That's why we're here.

That's why we're doing the sermon series, to develop this resilience for life that we need because we live in a broken world as broken people. We need the strength of God.

Week one, we talked about the lion-lamb paradox, that Jesus Christ is both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God. When we worship him, we become more like him, both tough and tender simultaneously.

The second week we talked about taking responsibility for ourselves, our lives, our calling. Because we will give an account to God for absolutely everything.

Last week, we talked about speaking and receiving truth in love.

Today we're talking about goals. In a very important way, our lives are the sum of the decisions we make. Are you living by design, or are you living by default? Holy scripture says be careful. Pay attention to what you have received, what you have heard, lest we drift away, lest we coast through life.

The question before us today is should Christians set goals? The answer is yes, but. We are to set goals with a lion-like confidence, set them and pursue them, and simultaneously with a lamb-like humility, because we are not ultimately in control. We are responsible to do everything we possibly can to attain the goals that God has for us, and simultaneously we trust God to do the impossible.

To focus our attention, today we'll look at Proverbs 16:1-9. Would you look at the text with me?

"The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished. By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps."

This is the reading of God's holy and infallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Four points to frame our time together. First we'll look at the lion-lamb paradox of goals. Then we'll look at pursuing goals like a lion. Then pursuing goals like a lamb. And finally, pursuing lion-lamb goals.

Number one, the lion-lamb paradox of goals. Life is paradoxical. It's not dualistic, but it is paradoxical. There are tensions in life and tensions in faith, not to be ironed out, but be embraced. Was Jesus Christ fully man or fully God? Yes. Are the holy scriptures written by people, or was it written by the Holy Spirit? Yes. Is the Church of God comprised of people, or is it the body of Christ? Yes. There are tensions. Is God in control, or are we responsible? Is God sovereign, or do we have jobs to do? Yes.

For example, you see this tension in scripture. When it comes to making plans for our lives, Luke 14:28. The words of Jesus, "For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down, count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?" There, Jesus is saying, if you are going to build something, you should sit down and think about not just the end product, but how you're going to get the resources you'll need. So you've got to plan.

Then Matthew 6:34 also says, "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself, sufficient for the day as its own trouble." Are we to plan for tomorrow, or are we not to be anxious about tomorrow? Yes. Plan, but plan in a way that's not anxiety riddled. Plan in a way that you were completely relying on God. It's a paradoxical tension. We make plans and we know that the outcome is ultimately up to the Lord.

You see this in Proverbs 16:1. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. We're absolutely free to plan in our hearts, but everything is determined at the same time.

Proverbs 16:3. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established by whom? By the Lord. Which is clarified in verse nine, "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps."

Your plans are yours. We are to make plans. No one's forcing you. But the actual result of those plans, what will be accomplished, is totally controlled, totally set, totally planned, fixed, both at the same time. It's not deterministic, it's not fatalistic. It's not just destiny, whatever happens to me, God's already sovereign, I don't have to do anything. We are responsible. It's completely up to the Lord.

This is absolutely incredible, that God is absolutely sovereign, and he gives us freedom to make decisions that actually have real life implications, real eternal implications. On the one hand, praise God for his control.

Some of the most important decisions in your life you make as a teenager. Some of the most important decisions of your life you make in high school, you make in your early 20s. Decisions that impact the rest of your life. If I look back to my early 20s, I had plans for my life. Of those plans, I was probably wrong about 90% of them. In terms of career, in terms of relationships, in term of finances, 90%.

But God guides. I look back, I see the Lord guide there, guide there, guide there, guide there. And I'm so thankful to God, because even today, as we make decisions, if I was wrong about 90% back then, well, what's the percentage today? 50? I don't know. I have no idea.

We make plans, and we give them to the Lord. God relates your choices partially to your destiny, but he is the one who sets everything. God is sovereign, we are responsible. You are responsible, and yet, you can relax. I live my life like an Arminian and I sleep like a Calvinist. I do everything I possibly can. But I give it up to the Lord. God's in control.

How can I make sure that the Lord establishes my plans in a way that is beneficial to me? In a way where I am blessed? We want the Lord to bless us. We want God's best for our lives.

Well, the first step, the first step is you need to be reconciled with Christ. That's the ultimate goal. That we all have fallen short of the glory of God. We have all made plans and made decisions that didn't even have God in the equation. We need to be redeemed from that.

I'll just show you here from Proverbs 16:4-7, about in the context of making plans and fulfilling. Verse four says, "The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble." How does that sit with you? Whenever I read a passage, I'm like, I don't want to be in that category. God gives us verses like this to awaken us from the spiritual stupor, to make us ask ourselves, are we in that category of wicked?

Scripture says if you are not in Christ, you're in that category. How do you get in Christ? You accept his atonement for your sin, for your pride, for yourself, for your goal making, life planning apart from him.

This is verse five. "Everyone who is arrogant in heart," that's the pride, I'm in control of my life. "Everyone is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished."

I love that the next verse is connected to this idea, "By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for." This right here, this is a prophecy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Who's the only one who was completely faithful? The only one who was completely steadfast in love? The only one who could atone for our iniquities? Jesus Christ. By faith in Christ, through repentance, our sin is transferred to Christ on the cross. His righteousness is transferred to us. This is how salvation happens. This is how transformation happens. Iniquity is atoned for.

The first step in thinking about any life goals from a biblical perspective is, goal number one, where do I stand before God? Am I righteous before God, through the righteousness of Christ, or am I wicked? I don't want to be the wicked. Christ paid for my sin on the cross. I want to be in him. I want to be covered in his righteousness. Once you're in, God has plans for you, to bless you, to keep you and protect you, plans for you to glorify him with every ounce of your being.

Psalm 37:23, "The steps of the man are established by the Lord when he delights in his way." I want to be a person, when the Lord looks at my life, he delights in my way, because I am in Christ, abiding in Christ by grace through faith. That's point number one.

If you're not a Christian, the way that you get right with God is just in prayer, asking God, "God, forgive me. Forgive me for living in such a way where I haven't even thought about incorporating you in my plans. Living in such a way where basically God doesn't exist, I've ignored God, been absolutely indifferent to him. Grace through faith. That's point one.

Point two is pursue goals like a lion. Once you're in the Lord, once you're walking with God, God does give us goals to achieve for his glory, for our joy. This has to do with spiritual goals, but also really practical goals. We are to be a productive people for the glory of God. If you aim at nothing, you will hit it with amazing consistency. It's just common sense. If you want your life to be productive, you've got to set goals.

The common sense part, I think some Christians lose the common sense part, because we begin to over-spiritualize everything. Like, you get up in the morning, you're like, "Holy Spirit, should I brush your teeth," yes, it's common sense. "Should I go to my job?" Yeah, go to your job. You got bills to pay. The Holy Spirit does guide, but God also gives us an intellect and free will to make decisions. The Holy Spirit leads, but not only spontaneously.

I think by over-spiritualizing, we often, we use that as an excuse to cover our laziness. Laziness is a sin. Slothfulness is a sin. In the Parable of the Talents, Matthew says to the lazy, the lazy servant, the one who didn't do anything within the talent, he said, "You wicked and slothful servant." It's a sin.

Proverbs 6:6-11, talking about setting goals and productivity. "Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer, gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to eat, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man."

Talking of the person who doesn't have goals, in particular during windows of opportunity. In the summer, the ant prepares for the winter, it's a window of opportunity. We need to plan ahead. A failure to plan ahead leads to poverty in all senses of that word. For some of you, you've got to ask yourself the question, is laziness, slothfulness keeping me from setting goals that God would have for me?

Proverbs 26:13-16, "The sluggard says, There is a lion in the road! There's a lion in the streets!" Excuse. I want to stay in bed, I want to keep sleeping. There's too much risk out there. If I set goals, I might not attain them. There might be some kind of risk.

Verse 14, "AS a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard in his bed." Lion out there, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to keep sleeping.

"The sluggard buries his hand in the disk, and wears himself out to bring it back to his mouth." You see this progression, where it's like, excuses out there. I'm going to sleep. Oh, I'm hungry. He takes a dish and literally too lazy to feed himself. It's literally the Uber Eats of Proverbs. It's a business opportunity. I'm too lazy to walk down the street to get food.

"The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly." We have to recognize that there is this simple proclivity in Christians, the flesh that doesn't want to work. Sometimes that's the reason why we don't set goals. Perhaps though it's a lack of vision that keeps you from setting new goals.

Perhaps you've achieved everything you've set your mind to, and now you're like, "What's next?" I don't know. I've been in seasons like this. Okay, you get the degree. Now, what's next? Okay, I've got to set new goals. Sometimes it's a season of suffering. This pain came out of nowhere, and I'm trying to get through life. I can't imagine doing anything more than just getting through.

One example of this is Job 6:11. "What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?" What is my end? He's saying, I have nothing to live for. I don't have a good goal to carry me through.

If we go to the Lord in that season, one of the things the Lord might say to us is, your goal in this season of suffering is to not waste the suffering, to continue glorifying God through the pain despite the pain.

That right there communicates volumes to an unbelieving world. The unbelieving world, it makes sense to them that you worship God because he gives you good things. It doesn't make sense to the world that, hey, even in your suffering, your greatest thing is God.

That right there might be the fresh goal that we need, the new vision that we need. I'm going to glorify God despite the suffering. If you're discouraged, maybe you need to take that to the Lord and say, "Lord, what would you have for me in this season?"

Proverbs 21:5, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes into poverty."

Proverbs 11:27, "Whoever diligently seeks good," whoever sets good goals is another translation, says, "will be honored, but evil comes to him who searches for it." Perhaps you're not setting goals, just goals in general, because there's a lack of faith. "This isn't possible for me, I can't attain that."

The scripture says all things are possible for the one who believes. Because what are goals? Goals are statements of faith. Lord, if you don't show up, if you don't give me power, I can't attain this.

Some of you perhaps, you live so comfortably you don't even need faith. If that's the case, you need new goals. Because without faith, it's impossible to please God. We need to set goals.

Is fear keeping you from setting goals? I'll give you one example. Psalm 3, King David has just lost his kingdom to his son Absalom, and he's sitting down and he's crying out to the Lord, "What do I do? I've lost everything I've worked for."

Psalm 3:1, "O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, There is no salvation for him in God." He's gotten to this place where he's like, people around him are saying, "Why are you a Christian? Why are you a follower of God. He's not providing for you." People are attacking his identity. There is no salvation for him.

As they're attacking his identity, he's reminded of his true identity. That's verse three. "But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head."

What's he doing right here? Commentaries say the reason why he's reminding himself, that's what he's doing, he's reminding himself that his glory is not in his kingdom. That his salvation is not in his kingdom. This identity isn't in his kingdom. His protection, security isn't in his kingdom. It's in God.

"You, O Lord, are a shield about me." His identity is secure in God. Meaning, that's his greatest asset. His greatest asset is that he is saved, he has salvation from the Lord. He has God. He is protected by the shield of God. God is his glory.

So, the point is, he's reminding himself, I've lost everything, but I have everything. There's no real risk to his most real assets. The greatest asset that he has is his relationship with the Lord. Things can come, things can go. There's nothing to fear. That informs our understanding of risk, of volatility. No matter what happens, the Lord is with me.

He continues in verse four, "I cried aloud to the Lord, he answered me from the holy hill. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people."

Perhaps sin is keeping you from pursuing godly goals, goals that God would have for you. This is Proverbs 28:1, "The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as lions." What sin does, is it causes fear.

You see this correlation between wickedness and fear here in general. The correlation of wickedness and fear, and righteousness and boldness. He's talking about boldness in terms of justice.

If you are in Christ, you are covered by the righteousness of Christ, you're ensconced, enveloped of the presence of God. If there is sin in your life, habitual sin, unrepented sin, take it to the Lord. Repent of that sin. Perhaps it's that sin that's pulling you away.

Nothing so ennobles, nothing so fortifies a person as being in the Lord, abiding in Christ, for the person committed to Christ. Lord, no matter what, I know I'm weak, I know I'm a sinner, but I'm believing in Christ, I'm repenting of sin. You're in Christ, and you're clothed in the assurance that God is with you.

Pursue goals like a lion. But pursue goals also like a lamb. Meaning, the goals that we set, lion-like goals, are to be set humbly under the guidance of the Good Shepherd. What are the goals that the Good Shepherd has for me? It's goals set in accordance with God's will, under his leadership, in submission to him.

We get an example of this in Philippians 3:12-14. Saint Paul is saying, I've got one goal. My goal is to be faithful to Christ, I'm going to be faithful to the end. I'm going to pursue this on a daily basis, because I want everything in my life, every single ounce of my energy yielded to Christ.

He says, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own." He said, my ultimate goal is to be faithful to Christ. I don't have any righteousness of my own. Christ is my righteousness. But because Christ is my righteousness, I want to be righteous, so I'm going to do everything I can to do that.

He says, "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind, straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." I've got a goal. I've got one goal. This one thing I do, I'm straining forward. I'm agonizing for it.

He had many goals, multiple goals. He said, but all of my goals are in submission to the one goal of, I want to be faithful to God, I want to glorify God with everything that I have. That goal gives you energy when you're sad. It gives you hope when you're lacking. It gives you inspiration. It gives you the power to endure. They build your character. So whatever the goal is, Lord, help me. I want to glorify you through this means.

As we're working on those goals, God's working on you, because for God, faithfulness is more important than fruitfulness. Saint Paul didn't say, "I have this one goal. I'm going to plant churches all over the Roman Empire." He said, "No, I have this one goal. I want to be faithful to the Lord. As we're faithful to the Lord, he makes us fruitful." That's number one.

Then number two, for the overly rigid goal setters, some of you are overly rigid. You've got your whole life reverse engineered. You have like a detailed business plan for your life. This is where humility comes in. I am just a little lamb following the Good Shepherd.

James 4:13-17, "Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit." This is to us. I'm going to go to Boston for a year, maybe two years. I'm going to get the degree. I'm going to get the experience. Then I'm out.

"Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." You see the balance? You've still got to plan, if the Lord wills. Is this God's will? I'm recognizing, if God gives me more time. If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.

"As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." So yeah. Goals, lion goals, but lamb-like, because it's under Christ and humility, if the Lord wills. James isn't saying, do it, but you do it in submission to the Lord.

Sometimes we have great godly goals for ministry. God sometimes stops and says, "No, that's not my will." One example of this is Acts 16:6-7. "And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia." That's fascinating. Doesn't God want the word of God spoken everywhere? It wasn't the time. It's forbidden by the Holy Spirit.

"And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them." Again, no. Good goals, I've got a better goal for you. Humbly surrender your agendas, your ambitions, your plans to God, and God, this open hand, if this is yours, but in whatever I do, I'm going to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, asking for God's wisdom. And as we do, God gives it to us generously.Proverbs 16:9, "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps."

Finally, point four, pursuing lion-lamb goals. I'm going to give you 10 really practical specific ways that we can use to think through our goal making, goal attaining. Number one, start with prayer. By the way, point four has 10 points. I don't want to scare you. 10 really practical and rapid fire...

Number one, start with prayer. Go to the Lord. Say, "Lord, I'm humbly coming to you. I have this desire in my heart, I have this goal, but I'm bringing it to you." What prayer does is, it sifts through our goals. What prayer does, it doesn't just move the hand of God, it does that, but it also shapes our heart. It moves our heart.

Will this goal honor God? Will this goal increase my faith? Will this goal make me love God more, enlarge my heart, allow me to love people more? It keeps you from planning unrealistically, irresponsibly, and it keeps you focused on the most important goals, which is to honor God, glorify God.

Hebrews 13:20-21, "Now may the God of peace who brought from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of his eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." This is a great prayer to pray in terms of discerning goals.

Psalm 25:4-5, "Make me know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long."

Psalm 32:8, this is the response of the Lord when we pray like that. "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you."

Psalm 37:3-6, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday." Number one, pray.

Number two, check your heart. Check your motivations. What's motivating me in setting these goals? Are these goals motivated by love? God doesn't bless goals that are motivated by greed, by envy, by fear, by worry, by anxiety, et cetera.

He does bless goals motivated by love. 1 Corinthians 16:14, "Let all that you do be done in love." 1 Corinthians 14:1, "Pursue love." Another translation says, "Love should be your greatest goal."

Number three, categorize goals. This is really practical. You have the one goal as a Christian, to be faithful to God, glorify God. Now how does that work itself out practically? Here's the categories that you might have. This is how I think through things in terms of priorities.

Of all my goals, there's got to be spiritual underpinnings obviously. So I have spiritual goals. I need to set a plan for how much time I'm going to spend with God, quantity time, and when I set quantity time, quality time happens. I'm very regimented when it comes to how much scripture intake and times I block off to be with the Lord.

Why? Because all of my other goals have spiritual underpinnings. I have goals when it comes to worshiping God by myself, but worshiping God corporately, I have goals to attend worship services. I have a goal every single Sunday, I'm going to be at a worship services at Mosaic. Not just because I have to.

This is really important. I meet a lot of Christians who take vacations from God, from church. There's a commandment, remember the Lord, your God, and remember the Sabbath day. You take a day. I'm going to be with the Lord.

I see this in particular to the 11:15 service. No offense if you were here last week at the 9:30 service. We had one service last week, and attendance dropped by 150. You know what that communicated to me? That communicated to me there's a lot of people who just go when it's convenient.

This is the coach pep talk, Pastor Jan Bill Belichick talk. I have a commitment to the Lord. I'm going to worship God every Sunday. I have a commitment to communion groups. I'm going to be in the communion because I need Christians in my life to hold me accountable, and I need to serve other Christians as well.

Spiritual underpinnings, then the other categories I have. God is number one, serving the Lord. Number two, family. Family, church, friends, work, financial, health. Family, that's a category in my life. I have a goal for my family. I want to have a healthy family life. I want to honor God with my family.

Tanya and I have been married 13 and change, 13 years and change, praise God. I have a goal to be married until death do us part. That's our goal. That's her goal too I hope. I plan, we plan how we are going to invest in our relationship to make it.

We have four daughters. I have goals for my daughters. I want them to be ferocious women of God, godly women, to make an impact in the world for the Kingdom of God.

There's a guy in the Book of Acts, Philip, he had four daughters, and they were prophets. They would prophesy. That's my goal for my daughters. I want them to know the word of God, just walking around prophesying left and right. My youngest is the best one right now because she's so loud. I've got goals.

Church I already talked about. I've got church goals. Yes, I'm going to plan my faithfulness. I'm going to plan being faithful to God in the future. You do that through commitment.

Friends, always need godly friends. You've got to invest in some godly people who know the Lord and they know you.

Work, financial, health. Work, I have goals to work. I work a lot. I work as hard as I possibly can. If you're new to Mosaic, you think I just get up here and I ramble, that's part of the time. There's a lot of work that goes into preaching. There's a lot of work that goes into pastoring. But there's goals. I want to be the best pastor I possibly can be. I'm always thinking about leveling up. What's the next book I've got to read? What's the next conference? So have goals.

Financial, I have goals to be generous. We are to be generous people. To be generous, I need to make enough to be generous, and we're going to have a sermon on the finances in two weeks.

Health. I want to be as energetic as possible for as many days as the Lord gives me. If the Lord gives me another 40 years, I want to be as energetic as I possibly can as a 66 year old, 76 year old. Second service, 36. 76 year old. Yeah. I want to be the most energetic 76 year old I possibly can be. I'm going to keep deadlifting until I'm dead. That's my goals.

All spiritual underpinnings. This has to do with health, it has to do with taking care of yourself. Why? Because glorify God.

Number four, ASAP. As specific as possible. There it is. As specific as possible. God honors specificity. God honors specific prayers, specific goals. Saint Paul says, "This one thing I do," focuses his time, focuses his energy.

Light is powerful, but if it's diffused, it doesn't have as much power. Magnifying glass focuses light, and you can actually start a fire. You focus the light even more, you get a laser. Same thing with our time, same thing with our energy.

We live in a world of distractions. We are to be a people that don't spend our time or waste our time. We are to be a people that invest our time, invest our lives, so be specific.

Saint Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things," meaning, says no to many things. "They do it to receive a perishable wrath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly," goallessly, I have a goal, he says, I'm pursuing that goal. "I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified."

Number five, write it down. There's something powerful that happens when you verbalize a goal. When you get it in writing. When you get it in front of you. God speaks, but God is also a God that writes things down. God gave us commandments that he wrote with the tip of his finger, scripture tells us, so we have to verbalize our goals, and the verbalization is an act of faith.

Number six, find accountability. Goals are relational glue, and it's just easier when you have people holding you accountable.

Proverbs 12:15, "The way of the fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice."

Ecclesiastes 4:12, "And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken." A great example of this is the Great Commission. The Lord gives his disciples the Great Commission, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to do everything I tell you. That unites them, and they go, they bring other people in, and it keeps them accountable.

One quick example, a study I came across, Gail Matthews, Professor Gail Matthews from Dominican University, she did this study where she wanted to gauge what impacts goal attainment or achievement more than not. She had five categories of people.

Number one were people that just thought about their goals. Here's my thoughts. Number two, people who wrote the goals down. Number three, people who wrote down action steps, so specific. Then the fourth group were action steps, and then these people found supportive friends. The fifth group did all of that, but they sent out weekly progress reports to their friends.

Obviously, the fifth group was the most effective in achieving their goals. It's common sense. Whatever your goals are, get people, get brothers and sisters, get Christians to hold you accountable.

Get in group chats. There's something about group chats, especially if you're good at memes. There's something about it, it just fires you up. Even if your friend has an Android phone, even with the green bubbles, you still love them, you still get them in there.

Number seven, celebrate on the way. We got balloons today. Celebrating Mosaic's birthday, we got balloons. You know why? There's something about balloons. We're celebrating. Back in the day, we used to do cake, but sugar is bad for you, so we cut that out. We have birthday bagels.

There's something about celebrating, and biblically speaking, there's this one example in 1 Samuel 7:12, and the passages in that context, Israel lost to the Philistines, they just got wiped out. Then Samuel pleads with God and repent. Then God gives him a victory. Then Samuel, he takes up a stone. "Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer."

You know that song we sing, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and there's, here I raise my Ebenezer, and all of us sing, we're like, "What's an Ebenezer? Like, Ebenezer Scrooge?" No one has any idea, you just keep singing. It's from the Hebrew, it means, until now, the Lord has helped us. Why? Why are we doing it? God has been faithful, and that reminds me that God will be faithful today, and he will be faithful in the future.

So celebrate. How? I don't know. Think about it, pray about it. If you attain a goal, I don't know, go out to dinner. Get that really expensive steak that you've been eyeing at Whole Foods, you know, grass-fed. Birthday steak, not birthday cake.

Number eight, play the long game. This is so important. Play the long game. Set goals, not just for this year, obviously humbly. We overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, especially when you're younger, you overestimate what you can accomplish in one year, and we underestimate what we can accomplish in 10 years. Where do you want to be in 10 years? Write it out.

Ephesians 3:20-21, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

God is able to do more than our wildest imaginations for his glory and for our joy. So whatever the size of our goal is, there needs to be this X factor, that unless God shows up, unless God's power is coursing through me, unless God gives me, I can't do it. We need to start dreaming about God-sized goals.

I moved to Boston with my wife and Sophia when I was 26 years old. I had goals for 10 years. I heard this line about overestimate, and God's fulfilled it. But also, I didn't just have a 10 year plan. I also have goals like for four years. For the next 30 years.

Why? Because I was 26 at that time, so 66, I'm not going to retire, because I don't believe in that. There's no biblical word for retirement. We don't retire. We serve God until the rest of our days.

But when you start dreaming like that, what can God, God's done amazing things through Mosaic, but imagine what more he can do. Imagine the impact globally that God has in store potentially for us.

William Carey says, "Expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God." God is sovereign, we're still responsible. You've got to believe. There's this interplay where God wants us to believe, and the great faith goal is honor God.

Matthew 9:27-31, this example, "As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, Have mercy on us, Son of David. When he entered the house, the blind men came to him and said to him, Do you believe that I am able to do this?"

Why are you even asking? Why not just heal them? Well, he wants us to participate. We participate through our faith.

They say, "Yes, Lord. Then he touched their eyes saying, According to your faith be it done to you. And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, See that no one knows about it. But they went away and spread his fame through all that district."

According to your faith, according to your faith be it done to you. We believe that God saves people. The same way that Jesus gave physical sight, we believe that God gives spiritual sight, so we believe. We follow Jesus, the ultimate goal setter. No one set goals as great as Jesus set. Jesus literally set out to change the world. I'm going to save the whole world.

It took a sacrifice, scripture says that he set his face like flint. Luke 13:32, talking about King Herod, says, "Go tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day, I'm going to finish my course." His goal is to accomplish the will of the Father in joint mission with the Holy Spirit.

That brings us to point nine, depend on God's spirit. By the way, I hope you noticed, they're not in order of importance, these points. The most important ones are towards the end. We started with prayer.

Holy Spirit, here's what's interesting. In the Old Testament, they had this thing, to discern God's will, they had these two stones, the Urim and Thummim.

There was also this thing of casting lots. Like, we need to figure out what God wants us to do. We're going to cast lots. Whatever it tells us, that's what we're going to... and the last time lots were cast in the Bible is Acts 1, where Judas hangs himself, and the apostles, they decide to replace Judas' place with either Joseph or Matthias. They cast lots.

What happens in Acts 2? The Holy Spirit comes. After the Holy Spirit comes, no more lots. The way that we discern what God's goals are for us, God's plan is for us, God's will for us, we rely on the Holy Spirit.

A. W. Tozer said, "God is looking for those with whom he can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only the things that we can do by ourselves." Zechariah 4:6, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by my might, nor by my power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts." We won't succeed, we won't have success by our own strengths or power, but by the Spirit of God.

Then point 10, be guided by God's word. Joshua 1:8, "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success." Another translation says, "Then you will successfully attain your goals."

Goals keep us going, in particular when it gets hard. In particular when we need to sacrifice. In particular when it hurts. We look to Jesus Christ, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

Hebrews 12:1-2, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him," that's the joy. The joy that he gets when he saves us, "for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." He endured. That goal kept him going, even when his feelings said no.

Did that ever happen? Yes. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus sees, as he's praying, he sees what he's about to endure in absorbing the wrath of God for our sins. He says this, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

Jesus didn't say, I don't have peace about this. He didn't say, I don't feel like doing this. He had the goal of saving us, and he was motivated by love for us, and that compelled him to sacrifice himself, and that's what love in essence is. It's sacrifice.

We as Christians, we're deeply aware of what Christ has done for us, and that motivates us to set godly goals, to glorify him, and to fulfill the mission that he has for us.

We're deeply aware that we are not to squander the time that he has given us, and we are to do everything we possibly can. To glorify him by seeing brothers and sisters grow in the faith, and new people become brothers and sisters. Scripture says, "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?"

At this time, we're going to transition to holy communion. We celebrate holy communion the first Sunday of every month. The way that we celebrate holy communion is through the cup and the bread. The cup symbolizes the blood of Christ that was shed for us to cleanse us from sin. The bread symbolizes the body of Christ, that was broken for us, to heal us from the inside out.

The way that we celebrate at Mosaic is the usher is going to hand out the cup and the bread. Hold on to the elements until everyone has received them. Then we'll partake together. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time in the holy scriptures. We thank you for the gospel. We thank you, Lord, that though we are wicked, you choose to save us through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus, we thank you that you fulfilled your mission, you fulfilled your goal. You attained it. I pray that you make us a people who live in a manner worthy of this gospel of Christ. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Summary:
Why are words as powerful as they are? What is it about a turn of a phrase that can make us laugh or cry? Why can some words start families and other words spark wars? Words have the power to create life and inflict death.

Words are immaterial, yet contain the power to create and shape material reality. Perhaps this begins to scratch the surface of why Jesus is the Word.

Audio Transcript:
This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.

Good morning, welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan, I’m one of the pastors here at Mosaic, and if you're new or if you're visiting, welcome, we're so glad you're here, we'd love to connect with you. If you'd like to connect with us, we do that officially through the connection card in the worship guide. If you fill it out legibly, you can toss it in the offering basket afterwards, or redeem it at the Welcome Center for a gift that we've lovingly, lovingly prepared for you.

I'm really excited about today, first of all because we have one service, we can gather together as a body, and second of all, there's no time limit on this service, so I can preach for as long as I want. I don't usually get that, so we'll see how the Spirit leads. Would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Holy Word?

Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the fact that you, a holy God, did not reject us when we turned from you, when we rebelled from you, when we sought our own ways, when we sought to be our own gods. But Lord, you created a way for us to be redeemed from the evil that is deep within. We thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, who didn't just come to proclaim the way and the truth, but he is the way, the way to meaning and purpose and satisfaction in life. And Jesus, you are truth. We can't make sense of ourselves, we can't make sense of this world apart from you, apart from your person, apart from your work.

So, Lord, I pray today, give us the Word, speak to us, speak in a way that we are transformed, that we can't but be transformed because we have met with the living God. Holy Spirit, we welcome you into this place. Minister to us. Reveal in our hearts where there's sin and pride and selfishness and evil, and show us that apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, apart from Christ on the cross crucified for our sins, there is no salvation, that we need to be saved from ourselves, from our sin, from the wrath of God. We pray today, show us that you call us to be a people with tough minds and tender hearts, just like Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

One of the things that we do here at Mosaic is every single Sunday, we do something extremely countercultural. Someone gets up here and proclaims that there is truth, with a capital T, Truth. Not my truth, not our truth, but the Truth. And in our post-truth culture, talking of something as being true is passé. We live in a culture that doesn't want to accept that there are ultimate truths about ultimate things, and one of the things that we have done as a culture is we have relegated truth, and truth has been relegated to preference. Preference has been promoted over truth. So if you tell someone, "I'm a Christian," "Oh, that's great. That's a great hobby that you have, that you follow God. What a great hobby that you have. I do yoga," or "I jog," or "I watch the NFL," or "I'm in a..." What have you. "I do karaoke." I found out there are 13 karaoke bars just in Boston itself. It's a hobby. Christianity is a hobby.

But we can't get away from the fact that there are ultimate truths. That we exist, that's a truth. That we will die, that's a truth. That we all seek satisfaction in life, that's a truth. That deep inside, there is something missing, that's a truth. And truth has been thrown out the window, it's been jettisoned, and we've replaced the idea of truth with a non-truth, and we redefine the truth. But without truth, we don't know who we are.

And along with a lack of truth, we haven't just lost facts about the world, we've lost something else, we've lost true love. Without truth, without honesty, without trust, there can't be love. And it feels like the animosity in our culture is at a fever pitch, that if you disagree with my truth, we're not just in disagreement, but we hate each other, we're enemies of one another. And by the way, this is the pattern of the Evil One from the very beginning. Satan comes to our foreparents, Adam and Eve, and the first thing he says is, "Did God really say?" Sows doubt, undermines truth, and what happens after? Adam and Eve lose their relationship with God. They lose that love, they lose the relationship with one another. Satan attacks with lies, which always leads to a loss of love.

And lies soften the brain. We don't have a foundation in our mind for a worldview. Our brains are softened by lies and our hearts are hardened. Fragile minds, fragile hearts, that's our culture. Too many people are soft-minded and hard-hearted, and that's why you look around, and people are nasty with those people with whom they disagree. But the way of Jesus is different. Jesus Christ comes, and he has a tough mind and a tender heart. He resists evil with truth, but he does it in a way that's merciful. He gives truth, and he also extends grace and mercy for those who say, "Yes, that is truth. Yes, I am a sinner. Yes, I need salvation. Lord, save me. Lord, help me." And when we do that, we receive grace, and we receive mercy, we receive the love of God.

So today, we're going to talk about how we as a people can receive God's truth, receive God's grace, and then speak truth in love to ourselves and to our neighbors in a way that really transforms the world. We're going to look at Ephesians 4:11 through 16, Ephesians 4:11 through 16. The text will be on the screen. You can follow along either there or in your Bible or on your app.

"And he," Christ, "gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.

Three points to frame up our time. First, we look at God's Word of truth and grace. What are we to do with it? We're to receive the words of truth and grace, and three, we are to counsel one another with words of truth and grace. So, first of all, God's Word of truth and grace. One of the questions that we ask ourselves often is, "Am I the person that I am supposed to be? How can I become the person that I'm supposed to be? How can I become the person I was created to be?" In self-help circles, it's "How do I become the best version of myself? How do I level up?" And people making millions of dollars on becoming gurus and motivational speakers and life coaches.

Well, Scripture comes in and says there is actually a standard of perfection, there is of truth, there is one perfect person who lived, and his name is Jesus Christ. And we grow into the best versions of ourselves by resembling Christ in character and in spirit, and in the way that he lived. This is what's going on in Ephesians 4:11 through 16, that Jesus calls a particular people to minister to one another. That we, as God's followers, are given the prophets, the priests, the pastors, the shepherds, and they are to equip us for the work of the ministry. And what is that work? That work is to be united in faith, to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and we do that by speaking to each other, speaking truth and love, which is courageous and compassionate. And so we grow together in the knowledge of the Son of God.

Why speaking? Why are words so powerful? Why, in Christianity, in faithful churches, why is the sermon at the center of what we do? Why is the Bible at the center of our faith? A book with words, 66 individual books brought together, over 40-plus authors, written over 1,500 years in three-plus languages, in three continents, and we say this is God's Word. Why? Why, God, would you choose to reveal yourself like this, in the Word? Because words are powerful. Why are words as powerful as they are?

I love words, I've always loved words. I grew up speaking Russian at home, and people ask me all the time, "Hey, where'd you learn Russian?" Because I grew up here since I was age six, people ask, "How did you not forget Russian?" I didn't not forget, I had to learn it here, and people are like, "Who taught you?" And honestly, I fell in love with the language. I fell in love with the going back and forth between English and Russian. I fell in love with Russian literature, Russian poetry. I fell in love with Russian rap, and one of my favorite things to do is to pump myself up with Russian rap. My wife says, "You got to stop doing that." I say, "It gets me going, baby. It gets me ready to preach God's Word." I love that there's power in words. I love comedy, the turn of the phrase actually makes people laugh, and sometimes makes people laugh so hard that they cry. That's really the...

Why are words so powerful? The philosopher Heidegger said that words are houses of concepts, that these words bring together concepts, they're full of a concept, and the concept is what shapes reality. So how is it that something immaterial, words, shapes reality, shapes a material reality? People speak, and things happen. Families are created through words: "I do." Wars are started with words. Why are they so powerful? How is something immaterial able to shape that which is material?

And we really begin to understand this by understanding how everything was created, that the immaterial God created the material word. How did he do it? By speaking. God speaks, and things happen, things are created through the immaterial. In Genesis chapter 1, the phrase "God spoke," and things were created, 10 times in chapter 1, "God said," and it happened. Psalm 33:6, it says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host." So God reveals himself in creation by creating through his Word, and then God's Word is also associated with deliverance, salvation, redemption. The world is fallen, so God needs to send his Word to redeem, to re-create, to transform. Psalm 107:20, "He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction." The Word goes, the Word heals.

That's why, when we see that Jesus Christ is revealed in the Gospel of John... And by the way, if you are not a Christian or you're just looking into Christianity, exploring Christianity, there is no better book to start off with than the Gospel of John. Read the Gospel of John, meditate on the Gospel of John with an open mind and an open heart, and see, see if these words are living. In John 1, how is Jesus revealed? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This is Jesus Christ. He is the Word. So when God was creating, when God was speaking, Scripture says that Jesus was there with him, and that all things were created through him, that Jesus is the very Word of God, the extension of God himself. Jesus didn't just come speak words, he embodies words of truth.

Why is that the way that God reshapes the word? Because Satan lies, and the lies destroy love, and Jesus comes, and he embodies both truth and love. So his coming, his working, his teaching, his dying, this is the final decisive message of God that God articulates himself through Christ, through what he said, through what he did, through what he was. That's why in John 8:31, Jesus says, "If you abide in my word," in the very words of the Word, the written Word of God, the living Word of God as attested to in the written Word of God, he says, "you are truly my disciples." And then he says in John 15:7, parallel, "Abide in me." Abide in the Word, abide in me.

Hebrews 1:1 through 2 says, "Long ago, at many times, in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world." So Jesus isn't just deed; deeds can be ambiguous. Jesus isn't just a thought; thoughts can be discombobulated. Jesus isn't just a feeling, because feelings are misleading. Jesus is Word, Jesus is Truth.

In John 1:14 through 18, that same chapter of John 1, it says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." The immaterial becomes material. "And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him, and cried out, 'This was he of whom I said, "He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me."' For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known."

Jesus came, the Word embodied, and he's full of what? He's full of grace and truth. And he comes, and he proclaims this message of the gospel, so we are to listen to him. If we are to develop tough minds and tender hearts, we are to listen to him. Jesus would often say, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." We change by listening, not talking. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes from the Word of God.

Grace and truth. God speaks tough truths with a tender heart. When God speaks, sometimes he speaks blessings, and he often speaks of curses. Those who reject him are under a curse. He speaks words that give life, and he speaks words that actually destroy. He speaks the law at Sinai, and he speaks the gospel from Golgotha. He speaks truth, and he speaks grace. Tough and tender speech flows out of God's tough and tender character. Romans 11:22, "Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off."

So what are we to do with this truth, this tough truth and this tender love that God offers us, truth and grace? We're to receive the words of truth and grace. How do we do that? We set up the theology; now, how do we do that practically? What are we to do with this teaching? I'm going to set up point two, point two is "Receive the words of truth and grace," with a quote from Richard Sibbes, who was a phenomenal preacher and theologian, and about 400 years ago, he wrote The Soul's Conflict and Victory Over Itself by Faith. And he says this: "If it were an easy thing to be a Christian, if religion stood only in a few outward works and duties, but to take the soul to task, and to deal roundly with our own hearts, and to let conscience have its full work, and to bring the soul into spiritual subjection unto God, this is not so easy a matter, because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself. Because the soul out of self-love is loath to enter into itself, lest it should have other thoughts of itself than it would have."

What's he saying? He's saying we don't want to look deep inside of our souls. We don't want to acknowledge what's within. That we all have a tendency of self-hiding, self-blinding. We don't want to come face-to-face with our own sin, with our own evil. Do you recognize this resistance within? And only when you recognize that there is this resistance, that we don't want to look into our sin, acknowledge our sin, until we see that, there is no hope for us.

Until we become spiritually aware that we are deeply broken inside, and that we are responsible for that brokenness. Until we awake to the fact that our nature is evil, that there is a darkness inside that we are deathly afraid to look at. Until we realize that your trouble is that you yourself are wrong, there's something wrong with us. Until we realize this, that we need a Savior from the evil within, that Jesus is not just a counselor, he's not just an advisor, he's not just a comforter, he's not just a consultant to make your life better, that Jesus Christ is a Savior, and that we need salvation. Until you realize that, you won't understand yourself, you won't understand the world.

Modern secular thought from the 19th century or the early 20th century and even today, what they've been doing is probing our resistance to knowing ourselves accurately. Nietzsche, Marx, the psychodynamic psychologists Freud, Jung, Adler, the existentialists, they all agreed that we resist looking in the mirror, we resist knowing our true selves. And they could never agree on what we are avoiding or what the alternative is. What do we avoid when we avoid looking deep within? Is it perverse sexual impulses? Is it murderous hostilities, a cosmic dark side to our souls, craving for power and superiority? A fear of death, perhaps?

And each of them is partly correct, and all these things fester within our souls, but Scripture calls a spade a spade and says there is a truth about us that we need to come face to face with if we are to be saved. Ecclesiastes 9:3 gives us a great explanation of what's going on. Solomon, the great philosopher, Ecclesiastes says, "This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead." There's an evil deep within our hearts. We fiercely resist seeing ourselves as God sees us, because then, we begin to understand that we're helpless.

We can't do anything about that evil, and we fiercely resist seeing God as he is, that God is holy, that God is totally other, that there's nothing evil with him. That he, by his nature, resists evil because he loves so much. He loves you so much that he resists anything that would destroy you. If you've ever had a loved one who's battling with an addiction, you understand just how angry that is to see this person whom you love killing themselves. In the same way, God's wrath resists the evil within ourselves and the evil that's done to us.

People often ask, "If God is good and if God is great, why doesn't he just destroy the evil in the world?" Well, let me ask you a question: If God is to destroy the evil in the world by pressing a magic button, would any of us be here a second after? No. We've all sinned. That's why we have this anti-God bias, because we understand that we are guilty before a holy God.

Matthew 12:33 through 37, the words of Jesus Christ: "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

All these philosophers that we mentioned, every theory about what's wrong with us, why we resist looking inside, every theory tries to propose a way to make right. Either gain insight into personal history with psychodynamics, undergo a reeducation experience, parenting, owning your dark side, make authentic choices. Problem is, every single one of them gives the same exact solution: You got to save yourself. That you can save yourself, that you can do something to make yourself acceptable before God. And this is where Christianity comes in and says, "No, the truth is that we are all evil, but there's a greater truth than that. The God of the universe is offering grace to every single one of us." We got ourselves into this mess, and we can't get ourselves out. That's why we need Jesus Christ.

One last thing, when we talk about the philosophers, we talk about the psychologists, I was listening to Elon Musk this week, and Elon Musk was asked, "What would you tell millennials, millennials who want to transform the world, which field should they go in?" And he said this, he said, "We need to figure out a way to connect our brains to the cloud." To transmit our thoughts to the cloud, our dreams, everything that's going on inside. He said, "We got to figure out a way of recording it." And he said, "That way, we will never forget anything." I'm like, that's trippy, on the one hand. On the other hand, that's ludicrous. Like, that's already happening with the Internet, where people are just like, "These are my thoughts," in 140 characters, in 280... I'm like, "Ah, that's terrifying." I don't want to read that. I don't want to see these images. Imagine if everything is out there. Imagine if everything is recorded.

But it is. It's already connected, not to the cloud, but to God. God sees everything, every thought, every intention, every inclination, every dream, everything. I shudder at the idea of anyone even getting a glimpse, a glimpse of what goes on in here, and I'm a professional Christian. I read the Bible all the time. That's my job. You look and say, "Ooh, no, let's not talk about that."

And this is why I love Christianity. Christianity calls a spade a spade. This is who we are. We're evil. But there's salvation, there's grace that is offered because of Jesus Christ, because of the work of Christ on the cross, that God becomes flesh, that God lives the life that we were supposed to live in Jesus Christ: Perfect love toward God, perfect love toward neighbor, never a sinful thought, never a sinful inclination, never a sinful word. And he does that as a substitute for us, fully God, fully man. He goes to the cross, he's crucified, excruciating pain.

And that's the crux of Christianity, that God's mercy and God's justice come together, that Christ absorbs the penalty that we deserve to pay for our sin. He absorbs the wrath of God, God's resistance to evil in the world. He takes it all upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin, became our evil on the cross, so that we might become the righteousness of God. And we, my friends, we can look into the evil within our hearts, and we can be honest before God about the evil in our hearts, about the sin in our lives, because there is grace. Because God is saying, "I already know. Now receive the grace. Receive the mercy, receive the forgiveness. Become a child of God."

There are tough truths in Scripture, that apart from God, apart from the sacrifice of Christ, apart from grace, that we will bear the penalty for our evil for all of eternity. That's truth. A tough truth in Scripture is that not one person is a child of God in their nature. We're creation of God, but we are not children of God until we are adopted into the family of God by grace and faith. All it takes is receiving the gospel. All it takes is believing, "Yes, God, I am a sinner. Yes, God, I repent of my sin, I turn from my sin, I turn to Christ. Jesus, save me, and Jesus, I give my life completely to you." Once you do, you become a Christian. That's all it takes. All you need is to recognize your need. That's all it takes.

And then there are these incredible promises that work themselves out, that God is for us. This is Romans 8:31 through 34. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."

So stop running. Stop running from Christ, stop running from God, and accept the grace that he gives you to face life fearlessly. See yourself in the mirror, and then see God's gaze and God's grace. You don't have to keep denying, you don't have to keep resisting or wallowing. God is with us. And God is also in us, that God gives us this incredible power. Some of you don't want to become a Christian because you're like, "I don't have the power to not sin." In whatever sphere, probably one of the biggest ones that keeps people away from God is, honestly, sexual sin. People are like, "I can't become a Christian because I don't want to give that up." And God says, "Not only do I forgive you, but I give you power to live the life that I've called you to live, a life of freedom, a life of satisfaction, a life of joy."

God gives us the Holy Spirit, Romans 5:5, "and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Why do I believe that Christianity is true? Why do I believe that this... Yes, the objective truth of holy Scripture, the objective truth of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you can study it, there's incredible... There's so much proof. But also, I talked to God this morning. I experienced God today. I experienced the Holy Spirit. I feel God's power coursing through me. He speaks to me. I commune with him, I experience his presence. God is real, he is in us.

That's why in Ephesians, up to this text, over and over, the text tells that there's "surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe in accordance with the strength of his might, strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might."

There's wisdom for the asking to the one that says, "God, I am a fool." There's healing to the asking of the one that says, "God, I need you to intervene." God gives good gifts to those who ask. He says if you ask, if you receive, you will receive good gifts from the Lord. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you.

And also, the grace of God promises that he will come to us. He will finally make all the wrongs in this world right. 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." The Good News isn't just past and present, it's also future, that once you accept Christ, God promises you eternal life that begins now, and you will live forever. This is what Jesus will do, and what he will do reshapes what we are to do. 1 Peter bases the transformational power of God's presence in our lives based on what will happen in the future. 1 Peter 1:13, "Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance."

God's grace also applies to our lives when we recognize that we still are broken people, still living in a broken world, and we need God to come and to give us mercy. Jesus dies for the wicked, but he also defends the innocent. He feeds the hungry, he gives refuge to the broken, he heals the sick. And when we do experience anxiety, when we are in the depths of depression, what we are to do is to cry out to him, and as we do, he hears.

You know how you know that you have experienced the truth and grace of Jesus Christ? This is the ultimate test that you have experienced regeneration, that you are a Christian, that you have a relationship with God. This is the primary test, I'll tell you: It's that you talk to God. You have honest conversations with God directly. You no longer just talk about God, you don't talk to people who know God about God as if God is a friend of a friend, so when you're hanging out with Christians who know God, you can talk about God. When it's you and God, one on one, in silence, you got nothing to say. That means you don't have a true relationship yet. Do you talk to God?

The greatest example of this, and I challenge you to study this chapter this week, Psalm 119. You know Psalm 119? It's the longest chapter in the Bible. It's like when you're reading through Scripture, this is the chapter that you always skip. Like, "Yeah, it's not for me. Too long." It's longer than some books of the Bible. But it's one of the greatest articulations of someone's conversation with God. And by the way, if you study the structure of it, it's a tightly structured acrostic. It has got 22 sections; each section begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and every one of the sections has eight lines, and every single one of those lines begins with that letter. And Psalm 119, it begins with three verses about people in general, about God in general. The fourth verse begins to personalize things, that we stand accountable to God.

And then, for 172 verses, it's just a person having an honest conversation with God. "I, God, your servant, I'm talking to you. Lord, the God who speaks and acts, God whom I need, God whom I love." It's not a person talking about God, it's a person talking to God, because they have experienced the Word of God being planted in their life, and then it's an outpouring of what happens when that Word is planted. It's real talk about how real life meets the real God. Have you had that honest conversation with God? If not, today, today's the day of salvation. Have a conversation with God. "God, I don't know what it is, but I haven't talked to you. I don't know what's keeping me from having a conversation with you." Have that conversation. Truly face yourself, your circumstances, your sin, God, your Savior, and cry out, plead for God's help in life's fundamental troubles, and assert who you are in him, affirm the identity that he has given you.

And point three is that we are then to counsel with words of truth and grace. Because Jesus is full of truth and grace, it's possible to form a community of people who are growing ever more in truth and grace. Ephesians 4:11 and 12, "He," Christ, "gives the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers." Who are these? These are people, equippers of the truth. Apostles are foundational to wake a person up, to build a foundation for the truth. The prophets come in and call people to repentance with hard truth. Evangelists come in, they share the Good News, the tender love of Christ. Pastors and teachers take the truth and feed and protect the flock.

But the job of these truth-tellers and love-bringers isn't to do the ministry, it's to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. This is verse 12, "to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ." Who are the saints? That's every single person who accepted the grace of God. It's a sinner who becomes a saint; you've been set apart for God's work.

This is why church is so important. We don't just gather as a group of strangers to accept a word, and then go live our lives individually; that we are a people to accept the Word and do something with it, and what we do with it is, in verse 15, we speak the truth in love to one another. "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ." So, if you are a Christian, and you are not connected to a body of believers, I'll submit to you, that's exactly why you are not growing in your faith. This is God's plan for growth. "We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."

We speak the truth in love to one another. That takes work. It's actually... It's super countercultural, because when we see people, even Christians in our lives, who are making foolish decisions, who are not submitting to the truth of God, the natural reaction is, "Who am I to meddle? I don't want to get into that." But Christ says that we are to love one another so much, and this is the word love, "speak the truth in love," it's agape, it's a self-sacrificial love, it's hard. And we are to practically speak the truth in love, and have hard conversations with one another when we see that a person is walking away from the Lord. Something like, "I love you and respect you as a person, and I want what's best for you, but you are destroying yourself with what you believe and how you are living."

"I love you, and I have to speak truth to you." It's both. And you do it in a way that's true and loving and personal and appropriate, because that's what God does for us. Here at Mosaic, we talk about creating a culture of congregational care, and most people's... And if you're new to Mosaic and you come from another church background, for a lot of people, this is really alien, because they haven't experienced the idea of congregational care. Most people's church experience rarely aligns with this description from Ephesians 4. This very idea that we are to mutually counsel one another, it's just alien, because a lot of people think that counseling is something you leave to the professionals, so to say that the church has a primary counseling responsibility is to say something like, "The church has a primary brain surgeon responsibility." "No, you do that to... Those are the professionals. We're not going to speak to... We're not going to speak truth, we're not going to counsel one another."

But this is how Jesus teaches that we are to be so closely intertwined with one another that we do speak truth, and we are counselors, because we are a kingdom of priests who minister to one another. Now, the question is, are we wise priests or foolish priests? And the example is Jesus Christ himself, that he didn't just preach the gospel, but through interpersonal relationships, he had conversations in which he pointed out sin, and extended grace, and just did that over and over. Hebrews 4:15, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."

So these are the conversations that Jesus had with people. "What do you live for? What are you living for?" Told a parable of the foolish rich man who just keeps living for money, keeps living for money, had a huge harvest, and just stores himself treasures for himself, just living for himself. What are you living for? Is that making you happy? Where do you try to find your identity? Who are you? How do you explain to someone, who are you? Your essence, the foundation for your life. How do you treat other people? Honestly, how do you treat other people? Not how would you like to treat; how do you treat them?

What do you do with Jesus himself, the most influential person who has ever lived? And if you're not a Christian, it would just be irresponsible not to study the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, who's impacted the world like nobody else. And he conquered the world, he's got a kingdom, not a kingdom of force, but a kingdom of love. What do you do with your anger, your anxiety, your indifference, your passion, your depression? Where do you turn when life is hard? What do you want? What do you want more than anything in the world? Why do you want that? What do you fear? What do you trust? What do you love?

And then Jesus would counsel with Scripture, he would counsel with the Word of God. The most frequent topic in the book of Proverbs, which is the book of... It's a guide of wisdom, and the most frequent topic is how we talk. It talks about money and sex and work and food and drink, but more than any other topic, it's how we talk, and that wise people grow in wisdom by spending time with wise people. As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another, and it's difficult. Like, when iron strikes iron, what happens? Sparks fly, but you get sharper. Something changes.

So, how do we... How does this practically look in our church? The vision is that we have conversations with one another about God. Like, it's cool to talk about how great the Patriots are this year, that's great, we can start there. It's cool to talk about the weather, it's cool to talk about how wonderful autumn is in Boston, it's cool to talk about the... You know, all this stuff. But as Christians, do we talk about Christian things? Do we have, just even in casual conversation, do we talk about Christ? And yeah, in the church, but also in your families. Husbands, do you talk about God with your wife? Do you talk about the gospel, do you talk about pursuing the mission of God? Do you talk about the things of God? Because you always talk about what your heart is filled with, and God says, "I want your heart filled with the presence of God, the truth of God, and speak truth with one another, and connect it to the lives of one another."

2 Timothy 3:16-17, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof." Sometimes speaking about God has to include reproof, which just means rebuke. "For correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." So, dear Christian, when you hear another Christian, perhaps in community group or in a conversation, spout heresy, just false, our job is to say, "I hear what you're saying, and you're wrong. You're absolutely wrong. I love you, but you're wrong. That's not true."

We're commissioned by God to do that, to correct one another. And because there is love, and because there is humility, that allows us to say, "You know what? Yeah, you're right, I am wrong. I am in sin." I accept that reproof, I accept that rebuke. This is what it means to be tough-minded and tender-hearted. "I know you love me, you want the best thing for me, you want me to know God as he is, you want me to live the life that God has called me to live, so thank you for correcting me." Welcome correction of wise Christians into your life. "Please speak into me. What do you see that I'm not seeing? Where are my blind spots?"

And then, when they do, do it with love. Ephesians 4:29 through 32 says, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

Colossians 4:6, "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." Seasoned with salt, what does that mean? I'm not talking about, like, New England salty, like, "Ooh, this person's really..." What it's talking about is like, it's flavorful. It's flavorful. If you're new to Mosaic, I am... I love steak, I just do. I couldn't preach this sermon, historic sermon, without mentioning steak. But you know what makes... Steak in and of itself is phenomenal. You know what makes steak even better? Salt. Just a little salt, just a little pepper. It's flavorful.

Christians who know God are salt. You are salt and light, meaning you're flavorful. It's interesting to be with you, because you speak truth. Nobody does that. In our culture, people speak truth about each other behind their back, to other people. That's our culture. And Christians are saying, "No, no, no, I'm not going to... No, I'm not going to do that behind your back. I'm going to do that to your face, because I love you." It really is, it's absolutely radical, and if you have those people in your life, man, hold on to those people and become like those people. 1 Corinthians 13:6 says, "Love rejoices with the truth."

Now, I'm going to close with this. If you're not a Christian, if you're not a Christian, we, we want you to become a Christian. Like, we are proselytizing you. You know what that means? We're trying to convert you, that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get you to join. That's basically why we exist. And not because we just need more people on the team, it's because this is true. This is the best thing for you. Why would you want to live this life apart from God? Why would you want to live this life apart from the power of God? Why wouldn't you want your sins forgiven? Why wouldn't you love to... Why wouldn't you want to accept the love of God?

1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that's in you; yet do this with gentleness and respect." We have this hope, and this hope is Jesus Christ. What's the reason for the hope that's in me? Thanks to Jesus, the Word of God, who's full of grace and truth, I am fully known, and yet I'm fully loved, and you are too. If you today receive that truth that, "God, yes, I am a sinner, there is evil festering deep within, and I accept the grace," and then that makes the people that extend truth and grace. Amen. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this time you've given us in the Holy Word. We thank you, Lord, that you speak tough truths to us, which soften our hearts, tenderize our hearts. Make us a people who speak truth in love to ourselves and to our neighbors. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

Summary:
Though we shirk our responsibility to live God-honoring lives, Jesus takes responsibility for us. Our sin wasn't His fault, but He took responsibility. Once we receive His free gift of grace, Jesus entrusts us with the responsibility to use our time, talent, and treasure to love God and people.

Transcript:
You're listening to audio from Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.

Heavenly Father, we thank you, that you, the great God of the universe, created us. We thank you for the gift of life. And we thank you, Lord, that you did not leave us in our sinful state we shirked our responsibility of obeying you, of living in a manner worthy of the God who gave us life. Often we live as if we gave ourselves life, as if we sustain our life and we do not. You sustain us every single second of every single day. And we thank you, Lord, that you did not leave us in our rebellion against you, but you gave your son Jesus Christ who took responsibility for our sins. Jesus, you came and you lived the most loving life of anyone who's ever lived, and you embodied that love by sacrificing yourself on the cross to bear the penalty for our law breaking, for our rebellion.

We thank you, Lord, that you provide a means for us to be reconciled with you. And Lord, remind us that once we're reconciled with you, we have a duty, we have an obligation, we have the responsibility, and show us how that plays out in life. Send us the Holy Spirit now and speak to us Lord. We don't just want to talk about you, we want to experience you, the true God of the universe. And we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.

So we're in a sermon series that we're calling, Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for Life. Last week, we talked about Jesus Christ who is lion and lamb. We talked about the lion lamb paradox, that he is both tough and tender. He embodies both of these seemingly diametrically opposed qualities and sets of qualities. Today we're going to start talking about how to develop toughness with ourselves to fulfill the responsibility that God has for us, the purpose that he has for us. Today we are talking about how to fight hypengyophobia. Hypengyophobia as you well know of course.

Let's do linguistic analysis. Phobia, you're scared of something. Hypen, you're really scared of something. What's the word in the middle? Guy. Hypengyophobia. What are guys most scared of? I tried this out twice this morning and both people said, "Women." Close. Responsibility. Hypengyophobia is the fear of responsibility. We live in an age of passivity. We live in an age of victimhood. People want to pass off all the wrong things in life to someone else. "It's not my fault that I had the parents I had. It's not my fault I grew up the neighborhood I grew up in. It's not my fault I went to the schools that I went to. No one taught me." So that's on the one side is passing off this passivity. On the flip side, it's just the idea that we live in a free country, "I'm free to do whatever I want."

There's a problem with the idea that we can have unbridled freedom. And if we live like that, it does lead to irresponsible behavior. Victor E. Franco, who was a Holocaust survivor, he is the Viennese psychiatrist, existential philosopher. He came to the United States, loved the US, but he warned that this freedom, this idea of freedom, unless it's balanced out with responsibility, it threatens to degenerate into license and arbitrariness. This is his quote. "Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented with a statue of responsibility on the West Coast." Love the sentiment, Dr. Franco. I don't think you've ever been to the West Coast. I don't think they're gonna welcome that statue.

But you get the idea. We need both. For freedom to be true freedom, it has to be curbed with responsibility. It's a very biblical idea that freedom isn't a lack of boundaries, throwing off all of the laws. True freedom is knowing the laws that you were designed to live on, to live by, to be curbed by so that you can flourish the most. There has to be a responsibility.

So today we're looking at Genesis 3:1-13. The story of the fall when Adam and Eve shirked the responsibility that God had given, advocated that responsibility. And we'll talk about that. Please look at the text with me either in your Bible or on your phone or on the screen, Genesis 3:1. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?' And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'"

"But the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden."

"But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?' And he said, 'I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I naked and I hid myself.' He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?' And the man said, 'The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.' Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this that you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'" This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts.

Three points to frame up our time together. First, we reject responsibility. Second, Jesus takes responsibility. And three, Jesus gives responsibility.

First, we reject responsibility. When God created humankind, he entrusted us individually and collectively with responsibility, the responsibility of life therefore, we are answerable to God. He gave us a job, Genesis 1:28, "God blessed them ..." And this is a blessing. "God blessed them and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" It's a blessing to live fruitful, productive lives for the glory of God.

Genesis 2, 5 and 7, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden, to work it and to keep it." He gives us jobs to do and we are to keep the garden, the garden that we've been given dominion over. "And the Lord God commanded the man saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.'" He entrusts existence to them, he entrusts a purpose to them, and he also entrusts his word to them. He reveals his will for them. And we'll give account for our life, we'll give account for our work, and we'll give account for the revelation. And the revelation was, God says, "I have created you to exercise dominion, to have authority over the world." And the greater this privilege, the greater the responsibility. That's not just Spider Man, that's actually Jesus Christ, Spider Man stole that from Jesus.

Luke 12:48, "Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required. And from him to whom they entrusted much they will demand the more." And theology responsibility is you are not your own. I'm not my own. God has given us life and we are to live our life according to the purpose that he has for us. And Adam and Eve ceded this authority, the authority over their lives, the authority over their work, they ceded the authority over to Satan. They said, "We're going to reject God's word, we're going to reject God's will." And as they did, they didn't just reject God's authority over them and get just freedom, they replaced God's authority with satanic authority. That's what passivity led to.

And verse 12, what's their reaction? God comes to Adam and says, "Adam, where are you?" God's not asking the question to get information. God's omniscient. He's asking the question to give Adam an opportunity to repent. To confess, to repent, to turn from sin. Instead, Adam does not take responsibility for his sin. He says, "The woman whom you gave to be with me ..." Blames the woman and God in one fell swoop. "She gave me fruit of the tree and I ate." And then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me and I ate." Adam shirks responsibility, Eve abdicates responsibility, and we see this pattern over and over throughout all of scripture.

Cain kills his brother, Abel. God comes to him, he says, "Where's your brother?" Cain says, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The answer is yes you are. You have responsibility over ... Sarah becomes upset because she told Abraham, "Hey, have a child with Hagar." And he does, follows her advice, and then she becomes upset, blames him. Esau complains that Jacob deceived him in taking the birthright though Esau gave it him. Aaron makes the Israelites a golden calf to worship and then blames them for it. Pilate washes his hands of Jesus's death. You see this over and over and over. All throughout Scripture, nobody wants to take responsibility. In our culture, nobody wants to take responsibility. We want to accuse others, it's their fault. And we want to excuse our own issues, it's not my fault. There's a rights mentality, I demand my rights. There's a victimhood mentality, it's not my fault. And an entitlement mentality, I deserve better. The world owes me responsibility.

We have a problem with responsibility. We've had a problem with responsibility from the very beginning. For Christians as well. This is probably one of the biggest sins that we just allow to fester in our lives. Complaining that the lot in life that God has given us isn't the one we deserve. We complain, "God, why is this person living a better life than I am? This person got better talents than I got?" And what we're basically saying is, "God, you gave me a raw deal. I can't do anything with the circumstances that you've given me, with the life that you have given me. I would do a better job at being God than you."

This is actually the issue with the Israelites when God leads them out of captivity. For 40 years, they walk around in circles in the desert. For what? Because of their grumbling, seven times, and the scripture says they murmured. They murmured. Every single one of us, we have this inclination, this proclivity to reject the responsibility that God has for us. That's basically what sin is. Sin is rebel ... "God, I don't want to submit to you. God, I don't want responsibility over the burden of existence that I didn't ask for." And we shirk the responsibility.

The first time I wrote this sermon, I basically ... It was point one, and then it was point three. That was my initial sermon. And point three, I looked at it as a fire. It was like 10 things you got to do, you got to take responsibility for yourself, you got to take responsibility for your soul, for your mind, for your heart, for your ... Like you got to take responsible for your job. And then I was like, it's kind of missing something. It seems like a self-help sermon. Basically just motivational. It was missing the gospel. Now, whoa, whoa, hold on. Jesus has to be in here somehow.

Apart from the gospel ... We'll get to the practical parts of our ... Apart from the gospel, it just doesn't make any sense. Apart from the gospel, this is every single one of us we're trying to make up for the fact that we've shirked responsibility, and we're trying to fix ourselves. We're trying to fix our lives, and we don't have the power to do it. Where do we get the power? It's not just from Jesus' example, it's from Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. So this is point two, that Jesus takes responsibility. This is what makes Christianity different than any other world religion. Any other world religion and any other worldview is that, you need to fix yourself, you need to fix your life, you've made mistakes, stop doing that, stop complaining and make everything better. You need to work for your salvation. That's every other religion. You do to be accepted by God. And scripture says you can't do anything to be accepted by God. You are an enemy of God. You are under God's wrath. That's where scripture starts.

But God has provided a way for you to enter into the acceptance of God. God has given his son Jesus Christ. Jesus has come, and he said, "It's not my fault. Your sins are not my fault." He lives an absolutely sinless holy life, righteous in every respect. And then goes to the cross to bear the penalty that we deserve for our rebellion. And then he comes back from the dead, and this is the heart of Christianity. Is when you place your faith in Jesus Christ, when you accept the work that he's done for you, God forgives all of your sins. Jesus says, "I take responsibility for all of your sins." It's the double imputation of when we trust in Christ, all of our sins go to him, all of his righteousness goes to us. He takes complete responsibility for our sins.

Adam gave up dominion of the earth to Lucifer. There's nothing that we could have done to fix that. So we needed someone to come into our domain who's also outside of the domain, and that's Jesus. Fully God, fully human, did everything by God's authority, fulfilled God's will 100%. And this is why at the start of Jesus' ministry, Satan understood that Jesus came as a threat to his system, as a threat to his hold on the world. What did he promise Jesus in the first temptation? What did he tempt Christ with?

This is in Matthew 4:8. "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, 'All these, I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.' Then Jesus said to him, 'Be gone Satan, for it's written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'" Satan comes, and he tempts Jesus Christ with the same thing that he tempted Adam and Eve with.

You don't need to obey God. You can be your own God. That's the temptation, "You don't need to be responsible to God. You can be your own God. And Jesus says, no. Because that right there, that's idea of worship. So Jesus submits to God the Father and worships God the Father completely. If Jesus had taken up Satan on the offer, Satan would still hold dominion over us, over the world. But Jesus didn't. He submitted to God, fulfilled the responsibility given to him by the Father. He is the true Adam. This is why Jesus Christ is different from Adam. Adam abdicated his responsibility. Jesus fulfilled it completely for us, took our sin upon himself. He dies, he's risen on the third day, and after he's risen, he sits down, meets with the disciples, and he gives them the Great Commission. He says, "All authority on earth and heaven is given unto me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations." Jesus Christ is the true king who submits, who serves in order to save us. Every single one of us. That's the heart of Christianity.

Jesus took responsibility for your sins, accept that responsibility. Jesus served you, allow him to take the sins. And once you understand that, that Jesus paid it all, he gave you every ... Once you understand that's the heart of the gospel, that's the heart of Christianity, that right there is the reason why we are to take responsibility for our lives. God created you, we rebelled, Jesus took responsibility for you. Now we as Christians, we are doubly God's. Not only are you God's because you are his creation, you're God's because he bought you with the price, the price of his blood. Jesus Christ. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.

Have you seen The Lion King, the new Lion King? Since we're talking about my lion and lamb, I'll bring this in. This has nothing to do with the sermon but I'll just share it. The first movie I've ever watched was The Lion King with my dad. In the theaters. The first movie we went to see as a family because I come from an immigrant background. I was like 12 when it came out. No movies ever, and my dad said finally, "I'll take you guys to the movie theater but no snacks." So we like smuggled in tangerines. I don't even remember the movie, all I remember is the tangerine. Like, "This tastes so good, forbidden fruit."

But in the new Lion King, Mufasa has this conversation with Simba. Simba is his son and Simba avoids the responsibility of restoring Pride Rock. This is a quote of Mufasa, and it just rings true. "Everything you see," he says, "exists together in delicate balance. While others search for what they can take, a true king searches for what he can give."

There's a reason why that connects so deeply. It connects at the soul level. Yes, that's what a true king does. A true king gives. Why is that in my soul, though I have never seen it in world history? I have never seen a king like that. I've never seen a ruler of a people like that. Has authority, and uses the authority to serve. Why? Because that's Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate king that comes, and he serves us, takes responsibility for us, for our sins. And because he's such a great king, he gives responsibility to us under his authority. So that's point three, that Jesus gives us responsibility. Are we on point three already? Yes. But this is the long one. So brace yourselves.

Point three, explain the theology why are we taking responsibility not to save ourselves? Because Jesus has saved us, now he gives us responsibility, including responsibility for yourself. We are to take responsibility for ourselves, and the theology behind this is that Jesus calls us sheep. He says, "I am the good shepherd, my sheep follow my voice." And if you grew up in church, and you're like, "Oh, yeah, Jesus is the shepherd, I'm sheep." You just you become so accustomed to it and you don't really feel the offense of what Jesus is doing. Jesus is explaining to us that you're not just cute and cuddly and fluffy. He's saying like, sheep are dumb, and we're dumb. Sheep are helpless, and you're helpless. Like if you knock a sheep over it can't even get up. There's no such thing as wild sheep. Sheep just die. There's no feral sheep. They're dumb. There's an idea of sheeple, where it's like dumb people who just follow a dumb ... And Jesus is saying, yes that's us in and of ourselves. We are not rational beings. We get this idea from the enlightenment, that we are ... No.

Look at all of the mistakes in your life. Look at all the bad decisions in your life. You know who was present for every single one of the bad decisions in your life? You were. I was. Not in your own, in my life. The only constant of all the bad decisions in our life is you. It's us. So when Jesus say, you're a sheep, he's saying, you need a shepard. You need someone to say no little sheep, that's not the way to go. No little sheep, there's danger there. Now what's the idea of responsibility? So a lot of Christians miss this and a lot of people miss this. Yes, Jesus is my shepherd, and I am the sheep, but I do have a responsibility to tell my sheep self to follow Jesus. Jesus is shepherd, I'm a sheep. But I have a responsibility to tell me sheep self, little sheep ... This is the lion's side. You have to have a ... Christian, you need to toughen up, have a lion side where you tell your sheep side, follow Jesus Christ. You see this all in the psalms. They talk to themselves. Like David as he writes psalms he talk ... Why are you so downcast oh my soul? What's he doing? He's talking to his soul. Soul, look to the lord. Soul, follow the shepherd.

I've got four daughters. By God's grace I'm growing in being a good dad. But I like to think ... My daughter Sophia on my birthday, she wrote me a card and said, "Daddy, I really did win the daddy lottery." I was like yeah. The brainwashing worked. But I realized, the way that I care for them, for my little ones, especially my two year old, the way I care for her, there's a sense where I need to care for myself like that. I need to lead myself like that. Like, I need to parent myself. It's time to go to bed Jan. That's enough screen time little Jan. Eat this, don't eat this. It's time for a workout. You need to read your bible little Jan. Do you have a ... You're taking responsibility for yourself. And the fact that God is sovereign does not contradict that. God is sovereign over everything, but he still tells us what to do. He's sovereign over telling us what to do so we are accountable, we are responsible. Moments in your life where you have the most meaning are the moments in your life that have been the most pivotal, where you look back and say, that changed my life. I guarantee you those moments are the moments that you took responsibility for something.

I'm taking responsibility to apply for this job. I'm taking responsibility to start this business. I'm taking responsibility to start this relation. I'm taking responsibility. So we are to lead ourselves. You are the most influential person in your life. You don't listen to any other person more than you listen to yourself. So if we are to grow in our spiritual lives, if we are to grow in our relationship with Christ, if we are to grow in any aspect of life, practical aspects of life, we need to understand that you won't change if you're always blaming someone. So the first step to growth is taking responsibility. Spiritually and physically, financially. Got to take responsibility.

The book of proverbs is so helpful here, talking about financial wisdom. How to make smart financial decisions. By the way, our culture desperately need this. A Forbes article came out in 2018, Four stats that reveal how badly America is failing at financial literacy. 44% of Americans don't have enough cash to cover a $400 emergency. 43% of student loan borrowers are not making payments. 38% of US households have credit card debt. The average of which is $16,048 and at a 16.47 APR. If it takes you 10 years to pay off the average credit card debt, you're going to pay more in interest than actual debt. 33% of American adults have zero saved for retirement and 56% have less than $10,000. Responsibility.

Here's how we use theology. Here's how a lot of people use theology to shirk responsibility for their lives. I'll give you a few examples. The phrase, everything happens for a reason. Oh, everything happens for a reason. Usually people use that in situations where you got yourself in the situation and you want to excuse yourself so you're implying that the reason for the situation is outside of you. So my wife came up to me. She comes up to me after the first sermon and she always has a list for me. She had a list today and she said, "But you got to tell people there's things that they can't control." Yes, that's another sermon. Today the sermon is, you got to take responsibility for what you can control. So for example, credit card debt. Incurring credit card debt. I understand there's situations where you can't get around it. But everything happens for a reason. Yeah, the reason was you using this credit card over and over and over. The reason why is you went on Amazon and it was way too late. You should have said to yourself, little Jan, get back ... You know what I'm saying. Don't use theology to excuse your poor decisions.

I don't know what God's will is for my life. I just don't know. I need to figure out God's will. Holy scripture has 66 books of God revealing his will to your life. His will for your life is for you to obey him. To glorify him. Live for him. Read the new testament. So don't disguise ... I don't know God's will for not doing anything. It's hyper-Calvinism in the most deterministic sense where we explained all the situations in my life just by blaming it on God. There's real world negative consequences for not taking responsibility for yourself. Failed health, poor marriages, children not being parented, careers lost or not advanced. Real life consequences for poor theology, for not taking responsibility. And the whole idea of letting go and letting God or waiting on the Lord as an excuse to not do anything, that's passivity.

And let me just give you one text which reveals how God feels about passivity. This is Mathew 25:24-30, where Jesus tells the parable of the talents. One guy, the talent was a million dollars. And it's a master of a house, so this is a guy who entrusts a million dollars to one guy, $5 million to another guy, $10 million to another guy. And then he says, "I want you to make investments." The guys with $10 million, he made another $10 million. 100% return. The guy with $5 million got another $5 million. 100% return. The guy with $1 million did nothing with it. And then the master returns and this is verse 24. "He also who have received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.'" What's he doing? He's saying, I don't want you to rule over me. "'So I was afraid and then I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant.'" Laziness and wickedness together. You wicked and slothful servant.

"'You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers at my coming. I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has 10 talents for to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" That's how God feels about our passivity when it comes to using what he has given us for him. That's the issue. The wicked and slothful guy, he hid the money, he did nothing with it. But I guarantee you he went and lived his life for himself, not for the master. And this is where the gospel changed everything. Because Jesus has taken responsibility for you, we are to take responsibility for what he has told us to do. I'll show you a balance between God's sovereignty and our responsibility. The interplay between these.

In Philippians 2:12-13, Saint Paul writes and says, "Therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Now upon first reading, it seems as if he's saying, you got to save yourself. You need to fix yourself. But that's not what he's saying because, in verse six of chapter one in the same book he says, "I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." So God begins the work of salvation. So if you're a Christian, you didn't make yourself a Christian. God made you a Christian. He makes you a Christian and he will bring that to fruition, to completion. He will bring you to the end. He will bring you to the completion at the day of Jesus Christ. But in the meantime, we have a responsibility, back to verse 12, of working out our salvation with fear and trembling. He's not saying work for your salvation, he's saying, workout your salvation.

So like when you workout your body, you're not working for a body, you're working out your body, in the same way. He says, "I've saved you, I've given you a brand new heart. Now workout your salvation." That's your job. But recognize it's God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Both to will, he gives you the desire, and to work, he gives you the energy to do it. This is why Christianity's in a different realm than any other world religion, any other self help, anything. Because Christianity says, God is calling you to do something impossible. Love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself, that's impossible. And then God says, "Good, you understand that it's impossible. You need Jesus Christ. He's the only one that did it. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior." And then once you do, you get the holy spirit. You get God's energy in you. You get God changing your heart to do what God created you to do. It changes everything. It's not just the world view, it's the presence of the living God within you. So we do have a responsibility to respond to God's ability working in us.

So, there's a healthy understand ... That's the interplay between God's sovereignty and our responsibility. It's God who works in you for his good pleasure. Both the desire and the energy. He's saying, "I will empower you, I will energize you, I will give you the power to do what I've called you to do." One of my favorite verses in all of scripture that has this balance is 1st Corinthians 15:10. 1st Corinthians 15:10. I said this morning in my sermon that I want this on my tombstone. And then my wife came up to me, she's like, "That's too dark, don't say that." Fine, but I still want it on my tombstone. 1st Corinthians 15:10. "By the grace of God I am what I am." It doesn't stop there. A lot of people say, yeah, yeah, I am what I am. It is what it is. "I am what I am by the grace of God and his grace toward me was not in vain." It wasn't empty. It wasn't useless. God gave me grace and I did something with it. On the contrary he said, "I worked harder than any of them." Who's he talking about? He's talking about the other apostles. He says, "The other apostles, they work okay."

Peter was crucified upside down, and Saint Paul was like, "Yeah, I worked more than that guy." But it wasn't me, but the grace of God that's in me. Grace not in vain, I worked harder than anyone, back to grace. Saint Paul, what drove you? Why did you fulfill all these responsibilities? Were you trying to earn your salvation? No. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. With every ounce of his being he wanted to glorify God as a life of gratitude for what Christ had done for him and through him. So practically taking responsibility. We've got to take responsibility for our thoughts, for our desires, for our actions. Head, heart, hands. Thoughts, desires, actions lead your mind to know Christ, know the truth. Jesus Christ is word. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Look at the pattern of how Satan tempts Adam and Eve. He comes in, and the first thing he does is he questions God's word. He comes to Eve and says in verse one of chapter three, "Did God actually say ..." What's he doing? He's sowing distrust as an air of cynicism. Yeah, did God really say that? Yeah, is that really true? This is air of cynicism.

And if you're not a Christian perhaps you have this air of cynicism about Christianity. Which is fine. Every single one of us, we need to know why we believe what we believe. But what I'm saying is that air of cynicism has no substance to it. So if you are going to question Christianity like that, question the reason why you're even questioning it. And if you're like well, because I don't have ... Then why do you believe what you believe? Be cynical about your cynicism. Question your questions. You need to know exactly why you believe what you believe. Most people just ... They absorb the worldview of the day. This is what everyone around me believes, that's what I'm going to believe. This is what my parents believe, that's what I'm ... This is what my friends believe, that's what I'm going to believe. Satan comes in, he says, "Did God really say", questions God's word. We as Christians need to understand that this is where our spiritual warfare begins in the mind. It's a war of truth where we're told to take every thought captive to Jesus Christ. Jesus didn't just teach truth, he embodied truth. He never spoke a lie, never thought a lie. Not even to himself.

The easiest person for you to deceive is yourself. We often lie to ourselves so it has to start with truth in the mind. And one of the truths that we need to teach ourselves as Christians is 2nd Corinthians 15:10. That we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether good or evil. That's just the truth. We as Christians will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And there are two judgments. The first judgment is, every single human being after death is going to stand before God and God is going to say, "What have you done with my son Jesus Christ? Did you accept him? Did you accept his sacrifice or did you reject it?" If you accepted Jesus Christ as lord and savior now, you are given passage to eternal life. You spend eternity with God. If you rejected Christ, you rejected God. But then Christian, you are going to stand before God and he's going to say, "What did you do with what I gave you? What did you do with the time, the talent and the treasure?" And that's the truth we just need to keep reminding ourselves of. When we die, God is going to hold us responsible. And then lead your heart to love Jesus. Love God's word with your mind and then love Christ with your heart.

Why? Because we always do what we want to do. A lot of people think that we are rational beings, everything that we do is logical. False. That's false. If you're starting marketing, you know they market to the subconscious. Like the most effective marketing is always to the subconscious. It's always to your desires. It's always to your feelings. So you need to just discern. Hey little sheep, me, why do you want what you want? Why are you being pulled in this direction? And this is ... Satan attacks truth with the mind and then with Eve and Adam, he attacks the heart as well. Pulls the heart away from God. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, the tree was to be desired to make one wise. It was desire. Why do you want what you want? Why do we desire immediate over the ultimate? Proverbs 4:23, "Keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flow the springs of life." Guard your heart. And then lead your body to follow Jesus Christ.

We are not called just to think about our souls, we live in embodied spirituality. We have physical bodies. And with those physical bodies we either live for the lord or we sin. And so Genesis 3:6, mind, heart, and then there's the action. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate and also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. Any other worldview is all about behavior modification. If there's something in your life you need to change, just change it. Christianity comes in and says no, it's change of mind that leads to a change of heart that then leads to action, but the action is in the body. Saint Paul talks about imitating Christ. Be imitators of me as I am of Christ, 1st Corinthians 11:1. He's talking about imitating Christ and knowing him, loving him, but also living as Christ lived. And to do that, he disciplined his body. He had a theology of the body, not just of the soul, not just of the mind but of the body. And he talked about disciplining his body to keep it in submission to God.

1st Corinthians 9:24 and 27, and look at the analogies that he uses, included athletes. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable, so I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified." I discipline my body, the Greek word soma. Not sarx, not flesh, he's not talking about the sinful part of our being. He's talking about his physical body. He's like there's physical things I do to keep myself disciplined. Self discipline meaning, I do things that my body does not naturally want to do. Saint Paul, what are you talking about? He's talking about, like physical things. And to get an idea of what he's talking about, you look at his life, but you also study what biblical wisdom is. In biblical wisdom, you read the book of proverbs, it has to do with things that we do in the body.

So by body I mean body. Like what we eat, how we eat, how we sleep. For example, sleep. What does the scripture say about sleep? Sleep is a gift that God gives to those whom he loves. That's a bible verse. In the book of proverbs, it also says, be careful to not sleep too much. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and you're poor. That's from the bible. So getting up, getting stuff done. Limiting your sugar intake. It's a real thing. Do I have a bible verse for that? Yeah. It says, honey is sweet, enjoy it, don't eat too much or you might puke. Like physical things. Limiting entertainment. Limiting consumption. Limiting screen time. Fasting. It's a physical ... Prayer and fasting. It's a physical thing that we do when you say no, I'm going to abstain in order to spend more time with God. That's part of disciplining the body. Taking care of yourself. Taking care of your health. In the first sermon I just said, lift weights, do cardio. And my wife's like, you got explain, it's health. Because the body is a temple of the holy spirit. We are to care for our self. We have a responsibility to God.

I'm sure you've heard of the famous marshmallow experiment. The experiment was, people had gotten these little kids together and they told the little kids, you can have one marshmallow now or you can have two in 15 minutes. And then they followed up with the kids after, like years after. Like how did they do in life? And this is the conclusion, the follow up studied that the children who were willing to delay gratification and waited to receive the second marshmallow ended up having higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, better social skills as reported by their parents and generally better scores in a range of life measures. Success they say, usually comes down to choosing the pain of discipline over the ease of distraction. That's exactly what delayed gratification's all about. It's true in life because it's a godly principle. He's wired into the universe. So we take responsibility for ourselves and then in order to be able to more successfully, more effectively, take responsibility for other people as well.

All throughout the scripture, this is the great commandments. Love God and then also love your neighbor as yourself. Meaning we take responsibility for the people in our lives who need help. In particular, 1st Corinthians 10:24, "Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor." Practically, who's my neighbor? Practically I live with five females. My five female roommates. My wife and my four daughters. Those are my closest neighbors. I have a responsibility before God for my family. If you have a family, you have a responsibility before God for your family. Adam sinned after Eve sinned. Eve sinned first with taking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Then Adam does. But God doesn't come looking for Eve. He comes looking for Adam because Adam actually didn't fulfill his responsibility of protecting the garden from the evil one and he was there with his wife as the wife was being tempted by Satan. So we have a responsibility, husbands, for our wives, fathers, for your children. We have a responsibility in our families. Biblically speaking, where do you get this? Honor thy father and mother. That's a biblical commandment that there is a responsibility for our family. And then also Jesus Christ on the cross, he's dying and he's still thinking about his mother.

He's on the cross being crucified and this is Mathew 9:26. "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby. He said to his mother, 'Woman behold your son.' And then he said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother.' And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home." He was caring for his mom even as he's dying on the cross under the weight of our sin. First Timothy 5:8, "But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." If you're not physically providing for your family that whom you are responsible, we are unfaithful. And then responsibility for your church. We as Christians take responsibility for the church that God leads us to and we do that by attending regularly, praying consistently, living communally, submitting humbly, preserving unity, giving generously, serving faithfully, and pursuing holiness because Jesus Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it. And then, we are responsible for people in our lives who are in need. People who God leads into our lives who are in need.

And the great parable that Jesus tells is the parable of the good Samaritan. This man gets mugged. He's lying there on the path. A Levite, a religious person walks by, sees him, says, "Not my responsibility." Keeps going. Going to church. And he says a priest walks by, looks at the guy, not my responsibility, goes to church. Then a Samaritan comes by. They were hated by the Jews. Says, "That's my responsibility." We take responsibility. Jesus took responsibility for us, so that we take responsibility for ourselves so that we are in a better position to take responsibility for others. I'll close with this. Victor Franco. In the beginning he said, "We need a statue of responsibility." Good idea, but we already have one. The greatest statue of responsibility is the cross of Jesus Christ. Where he takes responsibility for us, saves us, then commissions us to be agents of change in the world.

Amen, let's pray. Lord we thank you for this time that you've given us. I pray if anyone here is not yet a Christian, has not been reconciled with you, has not accepted the free gift of grace, I pray today Lord, convert them. Regenerate them. Fill them with the holy spirit and show them just how incredible it was that you the God of the universe took responsibility for our sins. And continue to empower us to live the lives that you've called us to live. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.

Summary:

In Matthew 10:16, Jesus said, "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." Jesus often mixed metaphors to describe the nuanced profundity of the Truth. Jesus calls Christians to live like sheep who follow the Good Shepherd, which in turn, makes us a special sort of sheep. Sheep are proverbially stupid, yet Jesus calls us to be wise as serpents. Christians are to develop a dove-like innocence, and snake-like intelligence. What kind of sheep is this? We are to be sheep like Jesus, the Lamb of God, who is also the Lion of Judah.

Jesus is a Lion-like Lamb, and by worshipping Him, we begin to resemble Him, because as G.K. Beale writes, "What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration."

Worshipping Jesus is the key to becoming like Jesus, the Lion-like Lamb.

Transcript:

You're listening to audio for Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit MosiacBoston.com.

Lord, we thank you that you have created us in your image, and show us today that that image, because of sin and our rebellion, because of our pride, it has been splintered. It has been fractured. Show us that Jesus Christ, the perfect image of God, the perfect human being who had the perfect mixture of lion and lamblike qualities, that he is the perfect image. When we realize what Christ did on the cross for us, that he died for our sins, that that's what it took to save us, that humbles us, and he was willing to take it. That gives us incredible confidence that we can be clothed in the love of Christ. I pray that you'd make us a people who'd now worship Christ. As we worship him, that we are conformed to this image of perfect humility and confidence, both lion and lamblike qualities. Holy Spirit, come to this place. Prepare us to hear from you, hear your words, apply it to our lives. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

We're really excited. We're starting a brand new sermon series today that we are calling Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for Life. Why resilience? Life is hard. I don't need to make the case of why life is hard. As you grow older, it just gets harder. I was always under the impression that if I just graduated, if I get this degree, if I get into this next stage of life, it just gets easier and gets easier. It does not, especially if you have kids and especially if you keep having kids. Life is hard. Life in this area is hard. Being a Christian is hard. Now can you take one of two paths. You can have one of two responses. It's either you grow harder, tougher, just toughen up. You just grit your teeth, white-knuckle it, and you get through. You power through or you soften up. You're just overwhelmed with everything. There's a victimhood mentality. Then, you turn to coping mechanisms, maybe substance abuse.

Sometimes you're tough all day in public, and then you come home, and you're in a fetal position. That's the softness. It's one of two ways. There's got to be another way. There's got to be a way that's not just too hard, not just too soft. If you're too soft, you can't make it in life. If you're too hard, you can't enjoy life. You truncate your emotion. You don't feel anything. You just keep going. That's not how we're created to live. We need a third way, and that third way is the path of resilience. What does resilience mean? It means you're looking at life eyes wide open. You realize that life is hard, but you realize there is suffering, but you adapt. You bounce back. You roll with the punches. You're knocked down. You come back stronger. Nothing can crush your spirit. You're resilient. No accident. No misstep. No trauma. You don't succumb to stress. You surmount it. There's resilience.

How do we develop resilience? I'll give you this phrase, and this is a powerful phrase. It's called humble confidence. Actually, there's a lot of literature out there, secular literature, that's realized that there is power in this. This is one of the keys to success in life, developing humble confidence. The problem is, in the secular world, they can't figure out how to give you both. They'll teach you how to be humble or at least pretend to be, and they'll teach you how to be confident or at least pretend to be, pose, posture, but often they can't do both at the same time. What do we need? We need someone who's done it, someone who's the epitome of humble confidence, someone who is both a lion, fierce and toughness, and a lamb, soft and tenderness. That's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is both lion and lamb. He's both strong and compassionate. He's meek, which is not weakness. Meekness is strength under control. He's both.

Humble confidence, it's not a paradox to be resolved. It's a tension to be embraced. It's the opposite to prideful insecurity, where you present this confidence, but deep inside you're deeply insecure. It's confidence that's balanced with humility, so it doesn't turn into arrogance, and it's humility that's balanced with confidence, so it doesn't turn into self-deprecation. This is what CS Lewis talked about in Mere Christianity. His famous quote is that true humility isn't thinking less of yourself. It's actually thinking of yourself less. It's a powerful, powerful idea, where humility isn't, "Oh, I'm so terrible. I'm so terrible. I'm so terrible," and you stay there, and it just turns into this self-deprecation. It actually gives you incredible confidence when you truly understand what it is.

His quote is, "Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble person that he will be what most people call humble nowadays. He will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person who is always telling you that, of course, he's a nobody. Probably all you'll think about when you meet him is that he seemed cheerful and intelligent. He took a real interest in what you said. If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a little envious of someone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility. He will not be thinking about himself at all." True humility is knowing who you are. It's knowing who God created you to be because you know whose you are. It's both humility and confidence. It's a powerful, powerful combination.

To frame up our time in this study, today I'm going to do a lot of theology to present who Christ is as both lion and lamb. The reason why I'm going to do that, someone came up to me after the service, and they're like, "I wish there was some more practical application." It's coming for the next 10 weeks. Today I just want to frame up the theology of who Christ is, perfect mixture of lion and lamb, and how do we develop practically? That's a mixture by worshiping him. Then, for the next 10 or so weeks, up until Advent, we're going to talk about how this applies in every single most important area of our lives. Today, we're in Revelation five. I love the book of Revelation. Today the chapter's a glimpse into heaven. It's a glimpse into the supernatural realm. We get a picture of heaven, and heaven is real because Jesus is real. The historical Jesus is proof that this is real.

Today we're in Revelation chapter five. Would you please look at the text with me? Revelation five, "Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?' And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.'

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they began a new song, saying, 'Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.'

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, 'Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.' And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.' And the four living creatures said, 'Amen,' and the elders fell down and worshiped." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. What a text.

I preached this once, and after, I'm like, "I just didn't do this thing justice. We need like a full-blown sermon series just on Revelation." One day. One day we'll get there. Three points to frame up our time together. We'll look at our longing for the lion, our need for the lamb, and then our need to worship the lion-like lamb. First of all, our longing for the lion. Revelation five, we get a glimpse of the revelation that God has given to John, the apostle John, as he's exiled on the island of Patmos. This is what John sees. He said, "I saw on the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals." What's the scroll? The scroll is a record of God's plan for the world. It's a plan that includes salvation and restoration but also judgment of the wicked. Everyone who receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will be saved by grace through faith. Those who reject that grace will be judged. Judgment, salvation, restoration, we see that as the scroll is opened up, history is coming to consummation.

It's sealed with seven seals. Why seven? Seven is the number of completeness. The contents are completely hidden. No one has access to it. Breaking of the seals, which happens in chapter six and chapter eight and so on, brings to pass the events, meaning they don't just reveal what God's will is. It's not just a disclosure. It actually sets God's will in motion to accomplish his purposes. The scroll is written on both front and back. This is important, meaning that no one can add anything to it. God's plan is completely written. The same takes place in Ezekiel two when God gives a scroll to Ezekiel with his word, with his plan. It's written on both sides. Verse two, "And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?'" Who in all of the created order has the sovereign authority to open up God's plan of judgment and redemption?

Verse three, "And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it." Why isn't anyone found to do it? Who has the sovereign authority to open up the scroll? Well, there's only one. It's God himself. Well, why doesn't God himself open the scroll? Why is he asking someone else to do it? Because as we see the scroll opened up later on, we see that God's plan for the redeemed, for the elect, for the saints, God's plan is full of such incredible blessing and privilege and bliss and happiness and rewards that it would make God unrighteous to give that level of blessing and bliss to sinners. This is what heaven is asking. God, how can you give that to them, to sinners?

The end of history is so incredible, so astounding that it would be unrighteous for God to bring it to pass by himself. It's as if he doesn't care that we have trampled his glory. It's as if he doesn't care that we have swept our sin under the rug of the universe. Someone has to open it. Something has to demonstrate the righteousness of God and his justice and his mercy simultaneously. If God were to open it without a mediator, without a go-between and deal directly with sinful men, it would make him unjust, and we would be consumed by his holiness. No one can open it. That's why John is weeping. He's longing for a lion. He's longing for someone to stand between us and the justice of God, the judgment that we deserve, condemnation.

Verse five, "And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.'" The Lion of Judah, this is the Messiah, messianic title from Genesis 49. He's also the Root of David, another messianic title from Isaiah 11 and Jeremiah 23. This is the Messiah King will arise from the seed of David, and he has triumphed. He has conquered. Conquered what? Satan, sin, and death, our greatest enemies. He stood in the gap. He is the mediator between us and God's wrath. We're looking for that great, mighty King. The elder says, "John, weep no more. The lion is here. Look to the lion." Throughout scripture, lions are portrayed as ferociously terrifying, 600 pounds of muscle and ferocity, utterly fearless and merciless. They never retreat. They're always advancing. They dominate everything that surrounds them. They tear victims limb from limb. Their roar can be heard five miles away.

Isaiah talks about a lion approaching a group of shepherds and prowling. It's just waiting for the right moment to attack. The shepherds are trying to make noise, and they can't save themselves from this lion. Jesus Christ is presented as this lion, attacking our greatest enemies, sin and death. John, stop weeping. Look to the throne. The lion is right there, the Lion of Judah, so John looks. Verse six, "And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth." He said, "Look to the lion. Weep no more." He looks, and the lion is actually a lamb.

Eugene Boring commentated on this text. He says, "This is the most mind-wrenching rebirth of images in all of literature. The reader is set up to see an image of power and might, a lion. Instead, the reader discovers a lamb that was slain." It brings us to point two, our need for the lamb. If you study a holy scripture, the cannon of scripture, the lamb is the most beloved and the most pervasive symbol of atonement, of sacrifice, mentioned about 750 times all throughout the Bible in a variety of terms. You remember Abraham and Isaac. God promises a son to Abraham. It's the son of the promise. Finally, he's given a son, and God comes to him and says, "Take your son, your only son, your beloved son, and sacrifice him." Abraham goes three days journey. He's about to do it, and the angel stops him. What does the angel say? "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering."

The whole Passover holiday, you take a lamb, a lamb without blemish, and sacrifice. You paint your doorway with its blood so that the angel of death passes over. Isaiah 53, the servant of the Lord, he was a lamb led to the slaughter. John 1:29, John the Baptist said, "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." It's important to note that the word used here for lamb, and I don't do this often. I don't throw in Greek in sermons because I remember John Piper, the patron saint of the Protestant church, John Piper said, he's like, "Don't pull rank." That's what he said, but this is really important about the Greek. The word used here is the word arnion. It's a special word for lamb. It's only used one time outside the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation, it's used 29 times. One time outside, and it's used in John 21:15 where Jesus comes to Peter and said, "Feed my lambs," arnion. The resurrected Christ used that.

In the book of Revelation 28 times this word is used to describe Jesus Christ. This is important. The only other time that it's not used to describe Christ, it's used to describe Satan who comes as if he's an arnion lamb, but he's actually a wolf in sheep's clothing. This is Revelation 13:11, "Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon." Arnion. 29 times the book of Revelation. 28 times it's used to describe Jesus Christ. Peculiar choice for lamb since it's not used outside of Revelation except for once. John could have used more appropriate words like paschal. 1 Corinthians 5:7, the Saint Paul uses the word paschal, which from the Old Testament, "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb," paschal, "has been sacrificed."

John 1:29 uses amnos, which is a different word, "Behold, the Lamb of God," amnos of God, "who takes away the sin of the world." Amnos is also used in Acts 8:32, where Philip quotes Isaiah 53, "Like a sheep," probaton, "he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb," amnos, "before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth." That seems like a more appropriate fit. Amnos, you're talking about a lamb that was slain. That's the context in Isaiah. 1 Peter 1:18 and 19 uses the same word, "Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb," amnos, "without blemish or spot." Luke 10:3 uses a different word, aren, "Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs," aren, "in the midst of wolves." Any of these choices, paschal, amnos, or aren, could have been used. Obvious choices, but they're not used. Why? Because Jesus here isn't just presented as a typical lamb.

This is crucial. He's presented as a lion who is the lamb. It's such a revolutionary idea they had to coin a new word. They had to bring a completely different word to explain what's going on. This is a lamb, not as a victim. He's standing. There's something different about him too. He says in Revelation 5:6, we look at this lamb standing as though it had been slain. It had been slain, but it's not crumpled over. It's standing because it had been resurrected, he, Christ, and seven horns. Seven is perfection. Horns is omnipotence, strength. It's perfect strength. He's omnipotent, and he's seven eyes. Perfect, sees everything, he's omniscience, and there's seven spirits of God sent out into the earth, the Holy Spirit here. It's John's way of speaking about the fullness of the Holy Spirit that works at the behest of this lamblike lion, lion-like lamb.

1 Corinthians 1:24, "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." He's a lamb. There's humility. He's humiliated because he was slain, but the marks of death, though visible, are not debilitating. He's come back from the dead. John hears a lion, sees a lamb, hears strength, sees weakness, hears a conqueror, sees the quintessential victim, but he's not just a victim. He's the lamb who has conquered, the lamb that destined for sacrifice but actually triumphs. This is also important, that the lion isn't temporarily a lamb. All throughout the book of Revelation now, Christ is just referred to as the lamb. When the new heavens and the new earth descend in Revelation 19, the lamb is the light of the city. When he's talking about the marriage supper, it's the marriage supper not of the lion but of the lamb. He's never again called the lion in the book of Revelation.

Even when he goes to war against God's enemies, he goes to war as this omnipotent, omniscience lamb. This is Revelation 6:15, "Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves, among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us. Hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?'" It's a lamb who brings the wrath of God for all those who reject his sacrifice. It's a lamb who leads in Revelation seven. It's a lamb who's actually a general in Revelation 12 and 17. Revelation 17:14, "They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful."

To the enemies, he comes as a lamb with wrath. He comes like a lion, a lamb that acts like a lion, but to the elect, to the children of God, to those who accept his sacrifice by grace through faith, he's tenderhearted. He's merciful. He's lowly. He's meek in everything he does. CS Lewis, in The Lamb... Sorry. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I ruined my punchline. The punchline is it's the only thing that I think CS Lewis ever got wrong. I was about to call him out, but you get the point. Aslan, who's actually Jesus, like he's the lion, and he's the tenderhearted, he acts like a lamb. In Revelation, it's vice versa. He comes as a lamb who's got the horns, and he conquers. It should be called The Lamb, the Witch, and the... Keep going. He's both. It's the lion and the lamb. Jesus is both.

This is why I say this, because Jesus is the quintessential human being. Jesus is the perfect image of God. He's the perfect representation of God. When God says, "I want you to be perfect," he's saying, "I want you to be the perfect human being that I've created you to be." Do we have an example? Yes. It's Christ. In his personality, it's both. He's lion and lamb. There's glory, and there's humility. There's transcendence, and there's condescension. There's justice, and there's mercy. There's majesty, and there's meekness. Equality with God and yet deep reverence for God. He's all-sufficient and completely relying. He's good and yet patient when he endures evil, sovereign and yet submits, calmed the storm but would refuse to get off that cross. Infinite holiness, and he takes our sin, becomes our sin. He's the mighty captain, the tender lover. He's the rock and the pearl. He's both tough and tender.

He is the conqueror because the Lion of Judah was willing to be killed as a lamb. He entered Jerusalem as a king on Palm Sunday, and then on Good Friday he was slaughtered as a lamb. He drove out the robbers from the temple like a lion, and then he gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins. Augustine said, "Who is this, both lamb and lion? He endured death as a lamb. He devoured it as a lion. Who is this, both lamb and lion, gentle and strong, lovable and terrifying, innocent and mighty, silent when he was being judged, roaring when he comes to judge?" Here's why this is important, to understand that Jesus is the fusion of both perfect harmony of this paradox, of this tension. The reason is because sometimes we lean naturally one way or the other. I naturally lean lion. I naturally, like I lean hardness. I lean truncate my emotion, keep going. I come from a Russian background, and I grew up in New England. That's why. It's a miracle I can smile ever.

Some of us naturally are more tender. We're naturally more lamblike. What happens is when we read holy scripture, we sometimes read our own personalities into Christ. Someone once said, "God created us in his own image, and ever since, we've been trying to return the favor," meaning that's what we do with Christ. For me, I'm naturally drawn to lion Jesus, when Jesus walks into the temple and just starts tossing stuff. I love that Jesus. I call that a thug life Jesus. There's hug life Jesus and thug life Jesus. He actually, you read the text, he's sitting there, and he's making the whip, just cold, calculating, just making it as robust as possible with his carpenter hands. Then, he just goes in and just goes ham. I like that Jesus. I'm naturally drawn to Jesus debating, throwing it down with the Pharisees, making them look like idiots. I love that.

I love Jesus coming back in Revelation at the very end where Jesus comes back in white clothing. He's about to go to war with white clothing. If you go to war, and you're dressed in white, you already know what the result's going to be. You're pretty sure of yourself. I like that Jesus, got a flaming sword. I can worship a God that can kill me. I'll worship that guy. I'll sing songs. Then, there's the tender Jesus, where he's tender with children. I think this the reason why God's given me all daughters. I've got four daughters. He's like, "You got to work on the tenderness part, more lamb." He's tender. When sinners come to him, he's gracious. He's tender. The woman caught in adultery was brought to him. He's tender with her. It's the lamblike Jesus. He meets people's practical needs. He's both. When he calls us to come to him, he calls us to become like him.

Now, practically, how does that happen? It happens through worship, and this is really important. This is point three. Worship the lion-like lamb. What does the world do? What does everyone in the scene do as soon as they see the lamb who is a lion, the lion who is lamb? Revelation 5:8, "When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." After witnessing this transfer of power, that this scroll is given to the Son of God, all heaven breaks out in song. They've got musical instruments, the harpist traditionally used to praise God, and they're worshiping with song. They're worshiping with prayer. The incense is assembled for prayer. The heavenly choir breaks out in joyful song. They start worshiping him. The angels, everything in existence starts worshiping.

If you're new to Christianity, some of you might be uncomfortable with the singing part of our service. The band is great, and the music is loud, and it's on purpose. Part of why, because it's very good, and we want everyone to sing, but also for those of you who can't sing that well, we just drown you out. I'm putting myself in. There's a reason why we sing. People sing when they celebrate. Even people who are not Christians, song is such an important part of being a human being. Karaoke is a thing. People go to places where they're given a mic, and they can't sing, but everyone cheers them on anyway. The Red Sox stink this year, and everyone's still singing during the seventh inning stretch. People sing. When your song comes on, your jam comes on, you sing. You go to concerts to sing. That's why we sing at church.

We sing at church to celebrate God. We sing to worship God. He's worthy of our worship. We sing because God himself sings. God is a singing God. Zephaniah 3:17 says that God sings over his beloved. We're created in the image of a singing God. Therefore, we sing. You see all of heaven singing. What are they doing? They're worshiping. What does it mean to worship? Verse nine, they sing this new song, and they're saying, "Worthy are you." It's not just emotion. It's truth. It's not just a feeling. This is truth. This is what we know, not just what we feel. You're worthy. "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God." It's a done deal.

You have ransomed so that people that do repent, that do follow Jesus, that do become Christians, they do so because the effective work of his ransom, of his salvific act of substitutionary atonement, ransomed people for God. What kind of people? From every tribe, every language, every people, every nation, a true mosaic, and they become a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. They're worshiping. What is worship? It's to ascribe worth. It's the first word, and they say that multiple times. Worthy is the lamb. The lamb has worth, and I'm just agree... Yes, you have worth. You are precious. You are a treasure. That's what it means to worship. The word worship comes from the word worth, to ascribe worth to something. Even if you're not a Christianity, you're still worshiping. We can't but worship. We're created by God to worship.

"The opposite of Christianity is not atheism," Peter Kreeft said, "The opposite of Christianity isn't atheism. It's idolatry." What he means is that every single person alive is driven by something that they find precious. Whatever you find most precious, whatever you find most valuable, whatever you ascribe most worth to, that's what you're driven by. That's what dominates your thoughts. This is what your dreams are filled with. It can be all kinds of things, from sex, money, power, jobs, career, things, houses, parking spots, whatever it is, worship. I'll just give you a parable that Jesus tells in Matthew 13. He tells this parable, and he's like, "This is what the kingdom of God is like." He says a guy who sees a field, and it looks like an ordinary field to everyone, but this guy gets a treasure map. He understands that someone hid their treasure in this field. Whoever owns the field owns the treasure.

No one sees the treasure, but this guy sees the treasure. He goes. He sells everything he has to buy this field. Everyone thinks he's crazy, "You're crazy. You're going to pay $90,000 for a parking spot. You're crazy," but he knows that underneath that parking spot is a suitcase with $1 million cash. Now he's not so crazy. Jesus says that's what it means to become a Christian. No one sees the treasure, but you see the treasure because the Holy Spirit has revealed it to your heart. You see that Christ is worthy, worthy of your life, worthy of your time, worthy of your treasure and talent, everything, because of what he has done. Why is he worthy? Because of his sacrifice, and the saints are made into a kingdom of priests. We'll get into what that means at the end here.

Here's why it's important to focus on worshiping Jesus. Remember what we started with? Jesus is the lamb, and he's the lion. Together, humble confidence. How do we develop both humble confidence? Here's how. It's worship. Why? Because whatever we worship we begin to reflect, resemble. I get this from GK Beale who wrote this phenomenal work, by the way, called We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry. Phenomenal work. This is his thesis. He says, "What people revere they resemble either for ruin or for restoration." Whatever you worship, you become like that. Small example like celebrities. You don't use the word, but celebrities that you admire, and you're following them, and you're like, "I wonder what they eat. I wonder what their workout regimen is like. I wonder where do they get their clothes." Whoever you follow you begin to resemble.

It starts like an early age. How many kids today in New England are named Brady? Like every other kid I meet, Brady, Brady, Brady. Why not Tom? I don't know. Brady. Back in the day, it was Michael Jordan. There's a family on my street. They had two sons, Michael and Jordan. How does that work itself out in our lives? Whatever you're driven by, you begin to look like that. Now, back to humble confidence. We want to develop humble confidence. We do that by worshiping the one who is ultimately, quintessentially humble and confident at the same time, Jesus Christ. The theology behind all this, I'll just summarize GK Beale's argument real quick. He says we're created in the image of God. Sin has splintered the image of God because we worship creature instead of creator. When we worship that, we become conformed to the image of whatever we worship. That's Romans 1:21. It's the word for image is eikṓn or icon. We get the word icon from it. "Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."

You start to resemble, he's saying, you start to resemble whatever it is that you worship. How do we counter that? We start worshiping Christ, the ultimate object of our worship, and that's how we grow into being the person that we're created to be. Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed," or transformed, "conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among brothers." God's going to work all things together for the good of those who what? Love him, are called to be his, love him. As we love him, what happens? We're conformed into his image. Loving Christ is how we conform to his image. 2 Corinthians 3:18, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

How do we become transformed? We behold his glory. How do we do that? By looking at the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ, that's what shapes us to become more like Christ. It's all about the gospel. Humility and confidence. Humility, I look at the cross of Jesus Christ, and I realize the only way for God to forgive my sins, the only way for God to save me, I am so wicked that the only way for me to be redeemed is for the Son of God to die on the cross. That can't but humble you, but I'm also so loved at the same time that the Son of God was willing to take it. He's willing to go to the cross. If that doesn't give you confidence, nothing will. You are clothed in the love and acceptance and approval of God. It's both. That's what leads us to worship. How do you know that you're worshiping? I'll give you two just really practical things.

Number one, you give up control. You're willing to give up control to God, who is lion. Jesus, you are my lion. I'm going to follow you. You know how you see people on the street sometimes, and they just have this massive dog, just walking around? Those people, they walk around like bosses. You got a mini horse next to you just walking. Imagine if you had a lion. You're just walking down the street, down Beacon Street, here's my lion, my pet lion. You want to start something? No, you can't not... Why wouldn't you give up control to God who is omnipotent? He is good, and he is great. Now, relinquish control. Sometimes we're like, "Yeah, God. I agree with your plans. I'm not happy with it." Relinquish control. This is what we see in Revelation 4:19.

This is what they do when they see Christ, "Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 'Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.'" We give him control. You're kings. This is incredible. He says, "You're my kings. I give you authority. I confer authority to you." What do the kings do? They humble themselves before Christ. They do the same thing that Christ did, the kingdom of the universe who humbles himself. Once in all of the scripture Jesus points to one guy, and he says, "That's the greatest guy who ever lived. That's the GOAT, the greatest of all time. That's him." He said that about John the Baptist.

This is in Luke 7:28, "I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John," not one. What made John so great? His whole ministry revolved around deferring glory to Christ. John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." This is incredible. He must increase. I must decrease. As we do that, what does Jesus say? That's the greatest guy ever. That's the greatest one who ever lived. In Christ's eyes, Christ esteems him as great because of his humility. This is the way that God works. Old Testament, Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, they're barren, and God uses them powerfully. David was the youngest. Moses was fearful. Jonah was hesitant. Ruth and Naomi, sorrowful. Gideon was cowardly, and God uses them powerfully because of their humility. They were humble enough to say, "God, you are in control, and I surrender myself, and I humbly surrender myself to you."

Then, how does this work this work itself practically? You relinquish control, but you also begin to live as a priest and a king. This is incredible. You become a priest and a king. Priests, humble. Kings, confident. Revelation five, you get this in verse nine and 10. What does he do after he redeems them? "You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God." So much there I can't unpack it all. That's why you got to come back next week and the week after that, but you're a priest. That means you are bringing, you're ministering with the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people around you. What do priests do? They pray for people. They serve people. They care for people. They think of other people. You're priests. Incredible job, but also you're a king. What does it mean to be a king? That means you are helping submit things in the universe that have not been submitted yet to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is Lord over everything, but there's still chaos in the universe. We do this through our jobs. We do this through our professions. What are we doing? We're submitting every square inch of the universe to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. We're priests and kings. You can't but be confident knowing that this is the purpose of God for you. You're so humbled that God would choose you to do this. Submitting to Jesus, the lion, makes you a lamb. Accepting Jesus the lamb makes you a lion. It's both humility and confidence, and your heart is full of joy because the gospel transforms prideful insecurity into humble confidence. If you're not yet a Christian today, we welcome you. We welcome you to come to the throne of Jesus Christ. You could do that with confidence. Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Come with confidence, accepting the mercy, accepting the grace with humility, and the Lord gives it to you. If you are a Christian, ask the Lord, even today and through these next couple months as we study what it means to apply humble confidence in every single area of our life, ask the Holy Spirit, "Lord, where do I need to grow? Where in my life do I need to grow in being more of a lion and being more of a lamb? Where in my life do I need to grow and be more Christlike?" The Lord will give you grace to do that. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this time that you've given us in the holy scriptures. Lord, we love the holy scriptures. They reveal who you are, they reveal your plan, they reveal the future, and they reveal our great need for you. We thank you for nourishing our souls with the word. We pray, Holy Spirit, help us to grow into the image of Christ. Give us more grace to do that. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

Summary:
The God of the Universe, literally kneels to wash the filthy crud off his disciples' feet. This is one of the most shocking and scandalous texts in all of Scripture.

Then Jesus says, "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet." At the end of that scene, Jesus says in John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We are called to love one another humbly, selflessly, practically, in such a way, that our tangible love serves as one of the most powerful apologetics for a watching world that desperately longs for the same love.

Audio Transcript:
This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit Mosaicboston.com.

Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church. My name is Jan. I'm one of the pastors here at Mosaic. And if you're new or if you're visiting, we're so glad you're here. And we'd love to connect with you if you'd like to connect with us, and we do that officially through the connection card, and the worship guide if you filled out legibly. You can either toss it into the offering basket when it comes around after, or redeem it at the Welcome Center for a little gift that we prepared for you.

We also have an app that you can download in the App Store or Google Play, where you can keep up to date with what's going on Mosaic. The sermons are in their community, community group discussions, and then also there's a connection card in there as well. With that said, would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's Word.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift that is to gather as your people. And LORD, we pray that you continue to work in our hearts, a powerful work of humility. LORD, let us not just understand the gospel theoretically or just with our minds, let us understand the gospel with our hearts. Well, what does it mean that the God of the universe stooped so low as to become one of us, stoop so low as to meet our greatest need on the cross by dying for us instead of us, in our place, and coming back to life through the resurrection.

We thank you, LORD, that you didn't just give us an example of how to love you, embodied love. You didn't just teach us words of love, you showed us the greatest act of love, the greatest sacrifice. You came to serve our greatest need, and then with that you meet all of our other needs, and show us that you want us after we accept the Gospel to now also meet the needs of our brothers and sisters, fellow Christians, and also our neighbors. And you showed us that we never graduate beyond meeting tangible needs. And you showed us this graphically by washing the feet of your disciples, and you told us, “Go and do likewise.”

So remind us today of the basics, and let us master the basics, never graduate beyond the basics; never think that we no longer need grace, no longer need to extend grace. And Holy Spirit, come to the space, work deep, work in our hearts, and make us a people who are radically, sacrificially loving as we serve one another and as we serve our neighbor. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

If you're new at Mosaic, last Sunday we held our annual vision sermon, our value sermon; Love. Jesus. Simple. This is what Mosaic is all about. And today, we're going to talk about how that practically manifest itself through service. That's what we're going to do today.

Next week, we're starting a brand new sermon series that we're calling Tough and Tender: Developing Resilience for Life. We're excited about the sermon of Jesus Christ, the Lion of Judah, and the Lamb of God, both tough and tender. We live in a city that does toughen us up at the expense of our tenderness, so we need both. And also, we live in a culture where many of us are too tender when it comes to the tough subjects of life.

So we're going to talk about the balance, that Jesus wants us to be both confident, knowing who we are in Christ, that our identity is rooted in him; and also humbled by the fact that the God of the universe stooped down to serve us and make us his.

Today, we're talking about, Love. Jesus. Simple, how it manifests itself practically that we are called to sacrifice and serve, just like Jesus did. We want to love. What does love mean? Love means to sacrifice, specifically tangibly.

Rod Dreher is a senior editor of The American Conservative. Two years ago, he wrote this book called The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. And in it, this is what he says. He says, “The culture has so de-censored Christianity socially, and politically and in all different ways. It's so hard to be a Christian in our current American culture, we need a different strategy.

“The idea is a serious Christian conservative can no longer live business-as-usual lives in America, that we have to develop creative communal solutions to help us hold on to our faith and our values, in a world growing even more hostile to them. We'd have to choose to make a decisive leap into a truly counter-cultural way of living Christianity, or we would doom our children and our children's children to assimilation.”

I understand what he's saying, and I feel the heart behind his argument. The heart is, “Hey, the culture is overwhelming the church.” And unless we go back and figure out exactly what we believe, unless we're rooted in the Gospel, in our traditions, in our Christian faith, orthodox historic Christianity; unless we do that, we won't have a counterculture with which to curb the stave off the water.

And he's saying, a lot of us, we see the floodwaters of culture change coming, and instead of piling up sand bags to keep the flood at bay of the culture change, he said we need to build an arc and we need to retreat, and we need to build strong communities, just like St. Benedict did. St. Benedict of Nursia, the early medieval monk. He retreated to the forest after Rome's fall. And I understand what he's saying, because he wants us to remain Christian.

And I also understand how difficult it is to remain a Christian when everyone around you isn't. I understand that difficulty. I understand the temptation to go where there are more Christians, where it's easier to remain a Christian. However, Jesus Christ did not call us to be monks, he called us to be missionaries. He said, “I want you to be a city set on a hill, in order to shine the light of the Gospel.”

So instead of heading to the hills, as he says metaphorically or literally, we need to remain, and perhaps even as missionaries called to advance the Gospel, go in the darkest places of the world, and be rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we need the cleansing effect of the Gospel to continue sanctify us even when the world around us wants to sully us with sin of the culture.

My other big problem with what he's saying is this, that it can create an isolation mentality. And it's so tempting in our individualistic American culture. We already as Christians have this idea of having a personal relationship with Christ, which translates into having a private relationship with Christ. Therefore, we bifurcate between our private life, pietistic, spirituality and our public life. I don't think that's what the Lord is calling us to.

Therefore, how does this work itself out? Many of you church as just the place you go to. Many of you church as just like going to the movies. And this was actually a bigger problem for us when, for three years, we met at the Regal movie theater in Fenway. I had to tell people all the time, like, “Church is different than just going to the movies.”

How often do you go to the movies? When something really good is playing. When you walk into the theater, you find a spot as far away from anyone as possible. As you walk in, you give people a head nod, I acknowledge that you exist. And then you go to your seat, you take your popcorn, and you just enjoy the show. As soon as it's done, you're out and you don't want to talk to anybody.

Unfortunately, a lot of people view church like that. So maybe we don't withdraw to the mountains, but we withdraw to our personal lives. This is where my Christianity is. Jesus does not call us to do that. Jesus calls us to be on mission. He calls us to live out our faith. How does it practically? He calls us to serve. As Jesus Christ served you, serve one another. By this, the world will know that you are my disciples because of the love that you have for one another.

Many of you church as a last option. And if that's why you're here because life is just falling apart, we're glad you're here, we want to minister to you. But I would submit to you, that it's much more effective to invest in church, invest in community, invest in relationships before you try to draw dividends, and we do that just through serving one another.

The text for our time in the Word, today, is John 13:1-17. This is the night before Jesus Christ was crucified. And before he's crucified, instead of thinking about his own needs that he's about to experience unimaginable suffering, at the Last Supper he serves as disciples, and he serves them by washing their feet. Would you look at the text with me? John 13:1-17.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.

He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”

Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

And when he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I've done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. And if I then, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these, blessed are you if you do them.

This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative Word. May He write these eternal truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time together. We're going to look at the God who washes his feet, then we'll talk about receiving that washing, and then in return to extend that washing to one another.

First of all, the God who washes feet. How is Christianity different? What makes Christianity different from any of the other world religions and it does stand in a league all its own? This is what makes Christianity different. We worship a god who kneels. We worship a god who gets on his knees to wash the filth off the feet of his disciples. That's what makes Christianity different. God comes to us. He makes us clean. He provides a means for us to be purified, healed.

All the other religions say, “You need to purify yourself, cleanse yourself, and then you will be accepted.” Christianity says, “No, because of Christ's work of purification on the cross, all you need to do is accept it. And that's what makes you acceptable, just receiving the gift.”

Romans 4:5. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

We're not saved through our works; not even our works of cleansing ourselves, we're saved through the cleansing, salvific gospel of Jesus Christ. This foot-washing took place when? During the Passover. This is crucial. Why? This is the Last Supper that's taking place during the Passover. During the Passover, what was celebrated? The celebration was that the angel of death is coming, and the only thing that can save you from the angel of death is the blood of the lamb painted over your doorway.

And Jesus Christ comes, and he is the ultimate Passover lamb, who takes away the sin of the world; slain to spare us from God's judgment. And we need to accept that sacrifice by grace through faith, so to speak, paint the doorway of our heart with the blood of Jesus Christ, so that we do not experience the judgment that we deserve for our sins. And we see that everything Jesus does here is motivated by love.

John 13:1. Before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

So he loved them to the very moment of his death. And he also loved them completely; completely and up to the end, even though he's facing the most horrible suffering imaginable, he's not thinking of his own needs, he's thinking of his disciples needs. Who are these disciples? Were they faithful to the end as he was to them? No. Did they love him to the end like he loved them to the end? No. And here, we see that he's actually washing the fee of Judas, the one who betrayed him and sold him.

In John 13:26. Jesus answered, “It is he whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

Before the Lord's Supper, before saying, “This is the one who's betraying me,” he washed Judas' feet. And Jesus already knew that his disciples were going to deny him, that Peter was going to betray him. Still, he washed their feet. They didn't deserve it, that's the point, just like we didn't deserve the work of Christ on the cross as he poured out his blood to cleanse us.

John 13:3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper, laid aside his outer garments, taking a towel, tied it around his waist, then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

I love how verse three reminds us of who this is who's about to do what he's about to do. This is the Son of God, who gave up the glory of being in heaven to come down to live with us in the incarnation. And he didn't just come live with us, he didn't just experience all of the human experience, what he does, that he goes in and he actually serves his disciples by washing their dirty feet.

Here's why this is important. As you progress in Christianity and as you progress in your career, there's two temptations. The temptation is, I have grown beyond meeting people's practical needs. Here's how the practical works. You get an education, and then you work for a few years in your career, you're like, “I know how much my hour is worth. My hourly charge is $600 an hour.” Not mine. I'm saying some of you.

And you're like, “Any work that I do outside of my job, if it's under that, I'm going to outsource it.” And there's this temptation to outsource all of the basic stuff in our lives, and there's an app for absolutely everything you can imagine, just to outsource everything. And that mindset, it creeps into like the practical relational stuff as well.

I've got four daughters. The youngest is two. The oldest is 11. 11 years I've been a father. I've got a PhD-and-a-half in fatherhood in everything that that entails, including changing diapers. And as I was changing a diaper this week, I'm like, “Man, I wish I had an app for this.” Like I wish someone would just come and do. I just want to... “Get that done.”

And in the church we see this as well, where it's like, I've been a Christian long enough, I don't need to be doing X, Y, and Z. I'm so glad that God did not do that. I'm so glad that God wasn't tempted to outsource meeting our greatest need. By the way, he couldn't; he was the only one who could meet that.

So we see this incredible humility, that the same God who upholds the universe, who holds everything together as Colossians 1 says, that the one who tells the angelic host what to do, this same God humbly gets on his knees and washes the dirty, filthy feet of 12 undeserving disciples.

And I don't need to get into the graphic details of how their feet were a lot dirtier and nastier than our feet. I'll just say two words; no indoor plumbing and animals on the streets, and everybody walked everywhere. They walked on those streets, they walk into that house, and they expect someone to wash their feet. They're looking around and no one's doing it, there's no servant here; it's just Jesus and the disciples. And Jesus gets down and washes their... By the way, he's on his knees. I think this is important.

It doesn't say that he's on his knees, but you can't do what he did without getting on your knees. You can't just wash someone else's feet by stooping over. You got to get down and you got to get your hands dirty. This is important, that the God of the universe gets on his knees. He humbles himself to the point where he kneels before us to meet our need.

The shepherds when they heard that Jesus was coming, they were on their knees. The Magi when they brought treasures to Christ to honor him were on their knees. Peter when he realizes that he is in the presence of the Son of God gets on his knees. The woman who snuck into Simon the Pharisee's house in order to wash Jesus' feet from the alabaster jar, she gets on her feet.

In just a few hours, Pilate's soldiers who placed the crown of thorns on Jesus' head gave him a shepherd staff as his “scepter”, and they beat him to a bloody pulp. Then they got on his knees in mocking worship, crying out, “This is the King of the Jews. Hours before that, Jesus gets on his knees, holds out his hands, and with his hands; the same hands with which he fashioned the same feet that he's about to wash, he cleanses the filth and the dirt.

By the way, the progression of this text is the same progression as Philippians 2:5-11. And there's a parallel between these two texts.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In the same way that Jesus rose from the throne next to God the Father and came down, he rose from his chair and he laid aside his garments of glory, and he laid aside his garments in the same way that he took on this towel; he took on, clothed himself in humility, girded himself with a towel that did a servant's lowly job. And by the way, that's whose job this was. This is a job for the lowliest of the servants. Friends didn't wash friends' feet. There is no example in all of ancient literature of a superior washing the feet of an inferior.

And Jesus pours water into a basin in the same way that a few hours later has his blood will be poured out in order to cleanse us from the grime of our hearts, the guilt, and the defilement. And after he washed his disciples' feet, he wipes them. And what does he do? He takes his garments back up, and he sits at the table in the same way that Jesus Christ after his resurrection ascends to the right hand of God, the Father, and resumes his place in glory.

In verse 31 of John 13, toward the end of the chapter, it says that what Jesus did here, it uses a very interesting word to describe his service. It uses the word glory. Verse 31. When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.

Jesus, how are you glorifying the Father? Jesus, how are you glorifying yourself? In John 12:32, the verse prior to our verse, we see a hint. Jesus answered them. He said, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

When Jesus talks about glorifying his name, glorifying the name of the Father, glorify and the Holy Spirit, he's talking about the service. He's talking about the sacrifice that's at the heart of the cross. Jesus was glorified through the cross. Jesus glorified the name of the Father through the cross. And this is absolutely counterintuitive, because the cross is the opposite of glory. The cross is the epitome of humiliation. The cross is the epitome of shame. There's no worse way to die than to be stripped, to be flogged, to be scorched, to be given a splintered cross to carry, to be nailed to that splintered cross, and then hung up as a public spectacle to everyone, a spectacle of humiliation.

And Jesus says, “This is the way that I'm going to glorify God the Father. Why? Because what does it mean to glorify God? It means to magnify his attributes. It means to show people what God is like. Then at the cross, we see what God is like. God is love. We see Christ on the cross, the Son of God saying, “This is how much I love you.” And we also see his justice, the justice of God, that that's what it took for our sins to be forgiven. Justice had to be paid; justice and love merging together at the cross. Love and grace shine forth.

Hebrews 1:3. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. And after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High.

So what he did with his disciples' feet is a picture, it's a metaphor, an analogy of what he's ultimately going to do on the cross. In the same way that he washed his disciples' feet, he's saying, “I'm going to the cross in order to provide purification for the greatest filth,” the filter of our hearts, the filth of our sin.

Now, what do we need to do with that? And God does command that we do something with that. This isn't just theory. This isn't just theology to stimulate us intellectually. Christ says, if this is true and it is, he proved it through his resurrection, then we are to respond. If he provided a means for our hearts to be cleansed, we are to receive that cleansing. And we see that in this point to receiving the washing, we see that the story stops abruptly when Jesus comes to wash Peter's feet.

In John 13:6. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” And the pronouns here are emphatic, showing Peter's utter shock. Look at Jesus' response, and it's fascinating.

Verse seven. Jesus answered him, “What I'm doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head.” And Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”

By the way, this is the way that Jesus communicates. I remember I had a preaching professor in seminary who said, “If you're not clear, then that wasn't a good sermon.” And my response to him was, “Have you ever read Jesus' sermons?” Like texts like this where it's like multilayered communication, like multidimensional.

What's going on here is that Jesus, as he's having a conversation with Peter, and it's a physical, tangible act of service, but it's also a metaphor for what he's doing on the cross. As he's doing the washing, he talks about two different meanings of the washing. “I'm washing your feet, which is a sign of washing your heart, but there's two ways that I wash the heart. The first is justification where I wash you. I wash you from the guilt of your sin and you're washed forever. The second is the washing of sanctification.”

So in our salvation process, there's three categories that every single Christian needs to know. Justification is the moment that you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you've repented of your sins. You are washed completely of the shame, and guilt and the condemnation. Justification; you're justified, “I have been saved.”

Now begins the process of sanctification, where the Lord, day by day cleanses us from any remnant or vestige of sin. And when we die, we get a glorified body, no sin, and we will live in an embodied future in the new heavens and the new earth. We'll be glorifying God and rejoicing forever.

This is what he's talking about here. So first, he says, “Peter, if you don't receive my washing, if you don't receive my purification, you have no part of me.” Unless Jesus is your Passover lamb, unless you have applied his blood by grace through faith to your sins, you are under the curse of death. You were separated from God. “So accept it,” he says. And that's why he says in verse 8, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”

But then there's a second understanding of the washing. The first is washing of water regeneration. That's Titus 3:5. The second is the blood of Jesus cleanses us, continues to cleanse us from sin. That's 1 John 1:7. The first is all washing of regeneration. The second is that the Lord cleanses us as we walk in this world, and as our souls get sullied with the dirt of the culture around us.

Jesus doesn't tell us to retreat into the mountains, metaphorically or literally, he tells us to follow the way, follow the path, be missionaries in this world; missionaries, not monks. And as we walk in this dirty world, our feet get dirty, our souls get dirty on a daily basis. And you know what I'm talking about; things you see, things you think, and it's coming at us at just a breakneck speed, so we need the once for all cleansing, but then we also need the ongoing application of that cleansing, and that's what Jesus is talking about.

John 13:10. Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but now every one of you.

And that's where he's talking about Judas. Here, he's talking about the fact that the gospel isn't the way that we just become a Christian. The gospel is also the way we continue in the faith. You enter the Kingdom of God; you start a relationship with God by trusting him through the gospel. Then you take every step by continually being washed by his grace.

2 Timothy 2:1. You then my child be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. At first glance, Peter's refusal when he says, “Jesus, you're not washing my feet,” at first glance, it sounds a very humble. And actually if I were there, I'd probably do the same thing. Like, “No, no, no. I'm good, Jesus. My feet are nasty.”

I actually, whenever I come to someone's house and they're like, “You got to take your shoes off,” this is a house where you got to take your shoes off, I'm like, “No, you don't want me to do that.” I carry an extra pair of socks with me, just in case. I want to be a good neighbor. You know what I'm saying? It was like, “No.” It sounds almost like, “Jesus, I don't want you to get into my filth. I don't want you to get into my mess. What if you see something else there?”

It looks like it's humble, but it actually stems from pride. Here's what I mean. Peter wasn't comfortable with just accepting something from Jesus without reciprocating, you know what I'm saying? Like when someone gives you a birthday present and you're like, “I didn't know we were on that level relationally. Now I got to figure out how much this cost, and I got to figure out when your birthday is, and I got to I got to reciprocate.”

That's what's going on here. Where if, Jesus, if I receive this, then you can call me to do whatever you want to call me to do. And that's part of how the Gospel works. Like Jesus paid it all, he can ask you to do whatever, like all to him I owe. Like, “We'd rather pay for the salvation,” or like, “Jesus, I'll accept as a loan, and then I'll pay it back with interest.” And part of it is because we want to take credit for our own cleansing process, our own salvation process, or our own healing process. And Jesus says, “No, you can't pay back salvation. You can't earn salvation.”

All of our righteousness is as filthy rags. Holy Scripture says, the only thing we can actually offer God is our dirty feet, which is a symbol of our dirty hearts, and pride often masks itself under humility.

In verse eight, Peter say, “You shall never wash my feet.” “Jesus, you can wash them to the other disciples' feet. They definitely need some cleansing. Their feet really stink. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like them or like you, not like me.” It's sounds humble but it's very prideful. The reason why Jesus did this, I don't even think it's about the feet. It's the whole of like, to receive grace, you need humility. Like sit there, rest, and know that I am God and I will cleanse you. That takes so much humility.

And Peter is actually embarrassed by Jesus doing this. It seems beneath his dignity to have the God of the universe come so close, get so tender and wash filth that that's so close. Pride sometimes drives us to serve Christ. And any service we render Christ should always stem from gratitude, not from pride. Not, Jesus, look, I've received this free gift, but now I'm going to repay. That's a prideful mindset.

Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So have you been humbled by receiving this washing? If not, what's in the way? And I'll tell you what's in the way. You know, it's in the way, it's pride. I find this text so important. Before we get into serving others, this is where we got to start, because you can serve others out of pride and you can serve others out of wrong motivation, but we got to get started here. Is your heart humbled by the cross? Does God's love cause you to hate sin? Does God's love motivate you with love so much so that you are willing to serve others?

This is crucial in our city in particular. I've lived in the city for 10 years, and in my whole time, I have never met a humble person. Never. I've met a lot of self-righteous people. I've met a lot of pretentious people. I've met a lot of arrogant. I'm right there with you. There's not one humble human being. Some people are growing in humility. That's the only difference. We need to grow in humility. And we do that by receiving washing every day. Lord, cleanse me. Lord, wash me. I need your gospel. And then as we do that, we have the grace to then extend washing to others.

Jesus says in verse 14, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you.” What does he mean, literally? No, of course not. Some churches do take this to mean literally. They actually have foot washing ceremonies and kicked that around at Mosaic, grow the church one way or another. No, that would never work here.

And by the way, when churches do that, you're not really washing dirty feet. Because if I knew that a foot-washing ceremony is coming up at church, I'm going to get my first pedicure ever. Ever. I'm going to make things easier.

Now, what he's talking about is meeting practical needs of people in several different categories. And I'll just give you a few examples. And this is the way we truly love one another by meeting practical needs. And this is why we can't retreat. This is why we have remain where we are and reach the people around us, love the people around us, so that the watching world sees us love one another.

Jesus didn't say, “Go and make monastic communities where you're loving one another, washing each other's feet where no one sees that.” He says, “I want you loving each other here now, so that the unbelieving world sees it.” That's John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you,” in the context, washed your feet, “You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.”

This is one of our greatest apologetics to the unbelieving world, that this is a community of people that loves one another practically. What do I mean by washing each other's feet? I mean, practical service. We'll get there. It starts with realizing that we live in close proximity with one another. There's always relational gunk. There's always relational dirt, filth, whatever, stuff that accumulates. And how do we deal with that? We need to forgive.

The blood of Jesus cleanses us by procuring forgiveness. Jesus said, “I cleanse you,” therefore, “And I forgive you.” So the way that we wash one another's feet, spiritually speaking, is we forgive one another when people sin against us. Assumption, they will sin against us because we're living in such close proximity with one another in community, where we need to extend forgiveness. And the great parable of this where Jesus tells a parable of a guy who owes the king 10,000 talent debt, and this is 150,000 years of wages for a working person.

They guy can't pay it back. The king forgives him. That guy then who's forgiven goes and finds a guy who owes him 100 days of wages; 150,000, 100 days of wages, and starts choking him out and says, “If you don't pay me back, I'm going to send you to prison.” The king hears about that and he's not happy. And the point is that God has forgiven us an incalculable debt. How can we not... how can but forgive others?

Another way that we wash each other's feet, metaphorically, is correction. We live in close proximity. We see other people's sins. We see their mistakes. We see their folly. And God commands us to call one another out, to speak truth to one another lovingly. This is so counter-cultural. We are so non-confrontational, personally; online, different story. But personally, we don't want to... like live and let live. Like, “I don't want to know.” Scripture says, if you love one another, you speak truth in love. It's washing of the crud of this world through the word. We speak the word to one another.

Ephesians 5:26, talking about Jesus, “...that he might sanctify her,” the church, “having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” We received Jesus' graceful correction, and that gives us power to then extend graceful correction and receive graceful correction. Those are all aspects of foot washing. Galatians 6:1. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you be tempted.

So forgiveness, correction, and practically just serving one another. When you see someone's practical needs as brothers and sisters, we are to meet those practical needs, however that looks. And when you've received the Lord's serving you, you can serve others from the right motives and with the right expectations.

Right motive is, I'm not trying to get something from you. And with the right expectations, even if I don't get a thank you, I'm still going to do this because Jesus Christ commands me to. And it requires less focused on our own rights and needs, and more on others.

Generosity is another example. When we recognize that God has given us everything, it frees you to give generously. 1 Corinthians 4:7. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Matthew 10:8b. You received without paying, give without pay. 2 Corinthians 9:8. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

And then the final practical way before we close out with explaining why those little cards are in front of you and why the greeters were extra emphatic in making sure you got a bulletin today. We'll get there. Refreshment. When you come home after an exhausting day, and there's nothing more refreshing than washing up. There's a spiritual sense in like we get exhausted in the Christian life. Living the Christian life, in particular in a place like Boston, it's hard.

And we need to encourage one another, and we do that by refreshing one another with God's Word. And that's done with time. That's done with margin in your life, where you have time for other people, where you can sit with them, and listen and speak a positive word of encouragement to their life.

Even St Paul, the great Apostle needed this. 1 Corinthians 16:17. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.

What does it mean to refresh another spirit? I don't know. But after you're done spending time, they're like, “Duh. That was great. I feel so much better. I feel so I feel refreshed. I feel encouraged. There's something there.” Philemon 7. For I've derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Why do we serve at Mosaic? We serve at Mosaic, and we talk about service at Mosaic because it's more blessed to give than to receive. It's more blessed to bless than to be blessed. It's more blessed to serve than to be served. It actually is really good for you.

Health professionals have been telling this for a while. The BMC Public Health cohort studies, it took 40 papers that selected five randomized controlled trials and 17 cohort studies. And one of the things that they said was that when you serve other people, when you volunteer, when you give up your time, up your energy, what happens is, it actually has favorable effects on your health. It lowers depression, increases life satisfaction, and actually lowers the risk of mortality, but... big caveat, you actually have to love the people that you're serving. That's the big caveat.

And this is Dr. Michael Poulin, professor of psychology, University of Buffalo. He says, “Helping appears to only be good for you if you really care about those you're helping.” In two separate studies, he says, “I found that volunteering on behalf of strangers also weakens the link between stress and health, but only for volunteers who have generally positive views of other people. In other words, helping may be good for you specifically to the extent you're likely to experience compassion for those you help.”

So here's the practical side of everything we just talked about. Obviously, wash one other feet. You do as Jesus did. Here's how we do it practically at Mosaic as a church body. We are a church plant, meaning we don't own our building, we're brand new church. So everything that you see that happens here is setup and teared down. This church is run by an army of incredible volunteers, and has been from the beginning. One of the reasons why we service practically, we just need people to serve. The second reason is it reminds us of what the Lord calls us to.

In the hustle and bustle of the crazy speed and pace of the city, sometimes we forget. So what I talk about when you serve at Mosaic, I talk about it as a recalibration, where it's like, “Oh yeah, the Lord called me to serve. Oh yeah, the Lord called me wash feet. Oh yeah, the Lord called me to do as he did.” So that's one of the reasons why we call people to serve at Mosaic.

The second just really practical reason is Jesus told us to. And the third is that this church just can't run apart from volunteers. The average church in America engages 43% of their attenders in some volunteer role. Average church in the US, 43% of attenders serve. The top 10% of churches engage 72% of their attenders. Pretty good. Where's Mosaic at? If you don't count kids, which I'm not that comfortable with because I think our kids need to be serving, we're at 60%, which is pretty good. That's pretty good. We're still not magna cum laude. We're still not up there in the top 10%, so there's room for growth.

But here's why that statistic isn't really accurate. Because a lot of our volunteers, volunteer in multiple roles. So if you count unique volunteers, it's only 46% of attenders; barely above the average of 43%. And Mosaic Boston, we don't like being average. I mean, you know what average is? Average is like a 2.5 GPA. Average is like C. That's not us.

I believe in you. I think we can get into that top 10% this year. And we have multiple needs. I'm going to read off the needs. If the Lord leads you to serve at this church, the way that we'd love to follow up with you is fill out the card that's in front of you. It's either in the pew or in the worship guide, and you can toss it in the offering basket when it comes around.

Here's where we have some needs. In terms of our music ministry, our band by the way is incredible, is so gifted. Before I say the needs, let me just say, you hear the level of music here that we have been gifted with. So if you are at that level. This is important to say because there is like a try-out process. And if you try it out and you don't make it, don't get mad at me. I'm not even there. And we still love you. And there's other ways to serve. We need to female singers. We need three guitarists, two basses, two drummers, and two keyboard players.

For the morning greeting team, we need 12 new volunteers. The greeting team is the really happy, energetic looking people. So if you are an extrovert or can fake it, we'd love for you to sign up. And I know in this city, those people... like you guys are unicorns. So we need 12 unicorns for the greeting team.

Morning setup, we need six new volunteers. By the way, set up is incredible time to just get your cardio in on a Sunday morning. You just get here, you got to carry stuff, so you're welcome. Morning tear down, we need eight new volunteers. Evening Service, our 5:00 PM, we need greeters and tear down, accommodation of 10 new volunteers. Morning security, we need 12 new volunteers.

For the Mosaic teens ministry, we have a thriving teens ministry. We need three volunteers in the morning, and four in the evening, so seven total. Mini Mosaic, we need four front-table greeters, and then for flexible floaters. I think that's people who can do absolutely everything; so the Julian Edelman of service.

And then the video slide team, we need some volunteers. And then also community groups and community group hosts, we need hosts and leaders, co-leaders. So if you're interested in that, if you're blessed with the spiritual gift of a living room, that would be helpful.

So with that all said, you can respond on that little card, be like, “Yeah, I want to practically serve and help out the church. Even if I'm here for like a year, even if I'm here for six months, I want to invest while I'm here in order to see the kingdom of God expand.” With that said, would you please pray with me over the conclusion of the preaching of God's Word?

Lord, we thank you for this church. I thank you Jesus that you promise to build your church and that the gates of hell will not overcome it. I thank you for every single person who has sacrificially invested in this church by giving time, and treasure, and talent. And I pray that you draw many more to serve and continue to fill our hearts with this incredible love, and spirit of generosity and sacrifice, so much so that we're willing to wash one another's feet, however that may look. I pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

Summary
Several years ago the executive leadership team of Chick-fil-a had worked for quite some time on how to keep up with the competitive challenge created in their industry by Boston Chicken (later known as Boston Market). After a period of intense research and market studies, a group of young visionary leaders with big ideas and bright strategies found themselves in a committee room of frenzied debate over how to get bigger faster!

At the height of the dialogue, Truett Cathy the founder of Chick-fil-a began to pound on the table, which was very uncharacteristic of this admirable leader. When every eye in the room turned to him, he exclaimed that he was sick and tired of all this talk about getting bigger. Then he said:

“Gentlemen, I am sick and tired of hearing you talk about us getting bigger! What we need to be talking about is getting BETTER! If we get better our customers will demand we get bigger!”

Join us tomorrow for our annual vision sermon. We don't serve chicken sandwiches, so what do we need to get better at, as a church family? Love. Jesus. Simple.

Transcript:
You're listening to audio from Mosaic Boston church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit Mosaicboston.com

Heavenly father, holy God, we thank you that you know our greatest need through your son Jesus Christ through the holy gospel. And I pray Holy Spirit that you come into this place, apply that gospel to us and plant in our hearts a holy ambition to proclaim the gospel. To speak the gospel. To speak the gospel in word and to embody the gospel in deed.

I pray, Lord, for everyone here who has been at Mosaic for a while, maybe even from the beginning. I pray that you renew our holy ambition. Why are we here? Why are we doing this? Remind us Lord. Give us a fresh zeal, fresh fervency. And Lord, for those who are visiting or looking for a church, I pray Lord today also give them this holy ambition. What is the greatest goal? What is the greatest ambition for our lives? And show us that it's not just career.

It's not a GPA. It's not getting those degrees. It's not money. It's not status. It's not reputation. There's a greater ambition that you have for us, an eternal ambition with eternal implications for eternal souls. Lord, show us also today that you called us to an embodied spirituality. That you don't want us to compartmentalize our Christianity and our private lives and then live a public life that has nothing to do with our faith.

But show us that you want integration, private, public, every sphere of life, and you want the gospel at the center permeating everything. I pray today renew our vision as a church as well. We pray this in Christ's Holy name, Amen. Popeye's chicken or Chick-fil-A? This is a church after all. I'm sure you've heard of the frenzy debate the past couple of weeks.

Popeye's chicken came out with a brand new chicken sandwich that suspiciously resembled the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich. The famous one, the first one, the best one. Chick-fil-A actually sparked the chicken war debate with a tweet. The tweet was just the image of the recipe and it was the same exact recipe as Popeye's. And Popeye's Twitter handle responded by saying, “Y'all good?”

And that's what spatted the war on all fronts including memetic communication, memes. My favorite meme was the Lord's supper with Jesus and the disciples. Everyone had Chick-fil-A except for one guy. So be careful. It was actually so big the guy in Tennessee named Craig Barr actually sued Popeye's for running out of chicken. He sued them for $5,000 because he spent like weeks looking for the sandwich, driving around everywhere.

And because he was so distracted he broke one of his rims on his car and it cost $1,500. I've got all kinds of questions there. Your priority is just not... And so he's suing them for the rim and then his friends laughed at him to the point that he's now humiliated and that he can't be happy without the Popeye's chicken sandwich. Why do I even bring that up? I bring that up about what made Chick-fil-A, Chick-fil-A?

Why is that even a thing? It dominates the cultural conversation in the United States. Well, Chick-fil-A actually for four years in a row it's been rated America's favorite restaurant. How did that happen? Well, in the early 2000s Chick-fil-A was actually competing with a restaurant called Boston Chicken which later was renamed to Boston Market.

And Boston Market was growing rapidly and the managers at Chick-fil-A, the executives got together and they said, "How can we counter that growth? How can we compete with Boston Market?” They brought in these young visionaries and with bright ideas, bright strategies, etc. And they're all talking about growing faster, growing faster, growing bigger.

And then Truett Cathy, who was the founder of Chick-fil-A, started pounding the table with his fist which is out of character because he was a really humble guy. And every eye turned and looked at him and he said, “Gentlemen, I'm sick and tired of all the talk about us getting bigger. We need to be talking about getting better. If we get better our customers will demand that we get bigger.”

Why is that important to us today? This today is the annual Mosaic Boston vision sermon. Vision sermon of 2019, what do we as a church need to get better at? Love Jesus. Simple. We need to understand those values and understand that our vision in a very granular way and as it applies to everything that we do. Lots of Christians have an anti-vision for their life. This is what Christians do not do. Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this.

A lot of churches have an anti-vision for themselves as well. We are against this cause. We're against that cause. We at Mosaic need to have an active and positive vision. What are we all about? And why do we do this beginning of September every year? We do this to remind ourselves a fresh, who are we? We're a church plant.

We started from scratch in the YMCA 316 Huntington Avenue in 2011. Every fall is so exciting. Fall in Boston is amazing and everyone's excited. There's an influx of energy in the city. Every fall I want to remind our church that we are still a church plant and every year we are replanting. Our core group is just a little bigger. We may have more resources at disposal.

Same vision, same values. We're the same church. love Jesus, simple. To focus our attention today on these three points, we're going to look at Romans 15:18-24. Saint Paul writes this epistle to the church in Rome which is the most influential city in the Roman empire. This epistle transformed Rome which then led to transformation to all of the Roman empire.

Romans 15:18, “For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed. By the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named lest I build on someone else's foundation.”

“But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see and those who have never heard will understand. This is the reason why I've so often been hindered from coming to you, but now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I've longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you once I've enjoyed your company for a while.”

This is the reading of God's holy narrative, infallible authoritative word. May you write these truths upon our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. It's just our values at Mosaic but in reverse order, simple Jesus and love. Why do I start with simple? Look at Saint Paul, this is his driving force. This is the thing that's driving everything that he does.
It's his life manifesto. Romans 15:20, “I make it my ambition to preach the gospel.” I love this word ambition. It means to aspire. Have a cherished desire or a lofty goal. It's a holy ambition that keeps you focused on the most important thing and the primary thing. Keeps you focused on the greatest thing so that you don't spend your life just doing good things. I love the fact that he's ambitious.

We're a church full of many ambitious people in a city of many ambitious people. Ambitious for what? Many for themselves. What are your greatest desires? What are your greatest goals? What drew you to the city? Getting an education, your GPA. Is that what's driving you? Getting a job after college and your career, progressing up the career. What are your ambitions?

I love that Saint Paul is so fired up about the gospel. Too many Christians are passive. Yeah, I'm a Christian. I go to church once in a while. Yeah, I'm just here to find some friends. Saint Paul says no. This is my ambition. There's nothing that's driving him more than preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the joy of people. Saint Paul wanted to go to Rome.

He writes to them and he says, “I've been stuck. I wanted to see you for a few years but I'm focused on preaching the gospel here. Once I'm done with that I'll go elsewhere.” It keeps him focused. And as an organization, as a church, we need to also be focused to create unity around the mission, around the vision, which is to preach the gospel. Saint Paul, how did you change the Roman empire? Jesus Christ, how did you change the world?

Disciples, how did you spark the greatest movement in all of human history? That's what Christianity is. How did that happen? One itinerant preaching rabbi, carpenter turned rabbi, gets some disciples and then those disciples proclaimed this gospel that he lived a perfect life, died a death that we deserve to die on the cross. Came back from the dead and then those disciples go and they proclaim this gospel to the point of death.

Every single one of them except for the apostle John, who was isolated on the Island of Patmos, exiled there, transformed the world. Christianity grew by 40% per decade, so much so that in the fourth century where 50% of the Roman empire were Christians. And Constantine says, “How do we consolidate power? We need to become Christian.” What did you do to make that happen?

They preached the gospel. That's what Saint Paul is saying. How did the reformation happen? Martin Luther was asked at the end of his life, this is the guy who nailed the Ninety-five Theses October 31st, 1517 to the church doors in Wittenberg. And he was asked at the end of his life, “How do you transform the spiritual world of Europe so much so that it transformed all of Europe.”

This is what he said at the end of his life. “I opposed intelligences and all the papers but never with force. I simply taught, preached, wrote God's word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenburg beer with my friends Philip Amsdorf, the word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing. The word did everything.”

Why is this point one? Because it sounds so simple. What else did you guys do? They did a lot of other things but they focused on this one thing that actually empowered them to do all of the other things. Why is this a Holy ambition? This is our ambition as a church. Mosaic Boston's holy ambition is to see people who are far from the Lord become Christians. Why is it holy? Because it comes from a holy God.

It's written in a Holy word empowered by the Holy Spirit. What did the early church focus on? Whatever they did, it worked. They permeated a secular society, a secular empire. What did they do? Acts 2:42-47, “The early Christians devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.”

“And all who believed were together and had all things in common and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

What did they focus on? They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. That's the holy scriptures. The gospel. They had fellowship. They met in the temple to study the scriptures, to worship God. This is why you're here. We're just doing what the early church did. We're gathering in a temple, Ohabei Shalom, in order to worship God. That's the first step. Mosaic, what do we do? We worship God together corporately.

And then what else did they do? They had fellowship together in homes breaking bread. They would meet in homes around different nights of the week, different neighborhoods in apartments, and they would meet to study the Holy scriptures together, pray, have some fellowship. Break bread together, get to know one another, get to know each other's needs. And as you get to know other people and you know their needs, you say, you know what? Maybe I have some resources to meet these people's needs.

So they start sharing. What are they doing? Worship, community and service. That transformed the Roman empire. What are we at Mosaic? What do we focus on? This is the simplicity of our model. This is our distinctive. If your church shopping, what makes Mosaic Boston different? It's this. It's simplicity. That's why I started with this. This is point one. Point one, we do three things.

We're like Chipotle. Chipotle does three things, burritos, quesadillas and bowls. We do three things. We do worship services, community groups and service teams. Why? Because that allows you to have enough margin in your life to actually live the Christian life amongst those who are not yet Christians. It gives you bandwidth. It gives you margin. You gather together and worship service is on Sundays.

You become a disciple worshiping God. That's how we discipled. Then community groups, the disciples gathering community to disciple one another. And then service teams. Disciples are not just consumers, they're producers. First week of September or last week of August I preached the vision sermon and other years I have said this. I said we do only three things because of the challenges of the city.

It's very transient. 30% of the population moves in and out every year. It's very expensive. Our resources are limited and people are really busy, etc. That's why we only do three things. I don't say that anymore. Even if we had $1 billion. Even God sends us the gospel patron who's like, "Here's a check, $4 billion. Who do I make it out to? Mosaic Boston." We will still do three things.

We would still primarily do three things because this is what the early church did. That was the recipe of simplicity. And I say that because a lot of churches in the United States have lost the vision from the very beginning. They keep adding ministry after ministry, adding this service or that service. And why do they do that? Because it's an attractional model. Comes to us. Here's our goods and services.

Here's the services that we provide. Come to us we're going to meet your needs, etc. And what's happened is Christianity in the United States has turned people from being disciples of Jesus Christ. We're sacrificing to consumers that are just consuming. Consumers do not change the world, disciples do. We do three things so that we have actually as a church the bandwidth to plant more churches.

Why? Because that's what the early church did. They did these three things as they planted churches in particular in urban contexts. Why do we want to plant a church and we planted this church? We planted Mosaic to make a plant. We're helping other church plants start around the city. We love church plants. I get pictures all the time when people are like, "Hey, this church is advertising on a T and their advertisements look suspiciously like ours."

Good. Get the name of Jesus out there. Do it. Jesus is the greatest brand name in the history of the universe. Great. I want to see Jesus everywhere. Statistically, why do we do this? New churches reach three to six times more non-Christians than older churches. They reach new generations of young adults who disproportionately are drawn to start up churches. And new churches are more entrepreneurial as they innovate, bringing new ideas, training new leaders that spark renewal in other churches all in expanding the kingdom of God.

Saint Paul says, what's my ambition? I make it my ambition. I continually do this. I make it my ambition to preach the gospel at Mosaic Boston. We make it our ambition to preach the gospel. Why? Because Jesus changes everything, and that's point two. Jesus Christ. Jesus is at the center of everything that we do at Mosaic. Why? Because Jesus is the living word of God. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

Jesus the living word as attested to in the written word. This is why the Holy scriptures are fundamental to everything that we do. Where did Saint Paul get his passion for proclaiming the gospel? Where did he get his marching orders for the mission? He got it from Jesus Christ. He was on the road to Damascus. He was going to persecute Christians. Jesus meets him. The living Christ resurrected, meets him and says, "Saul, why are you persecuting me?" And Saint Paul shares his testimony in Acts 22 and then Acts 26.

And Acts 26:15, this is his account, "And I said, 'Who are you Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to point you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me."

What's fascinating, Romans 15, is that Saint Paul does not say, though he could have, I make it my ambition to proclaim the gospel because that's what Jesus told me. He could have said that. Every other world religion starts like that. I got a word from God. Follow me. It's not what he does. He could have done that. He says, I have this ambition because, this is Romans 15:20. Look at that text with me. "And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as is written."

And then he quotes Isaiah 52:15, "Those who have never been told of him , Christ, will see in those who have never heard will understand." He doesn't just point to his experience on the Damascus road, something we don't have. He refers to God's written word, something that we do have. Why? He says what I'm doing now, this gospel that I'm proclaiming, it was prophesied centuries before Christ even appeared in Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53 is one of the clearest prophecies of Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, his sacrifice as the lamb of God for our sins. He grounds his mission not just in the subjective experience of what God told him, though he could have. Though that was legitimate, he grounds it in the word of God. This is why we love the Holy scripture at Mosaic. It's why the center of our time together is someone getting up here and proclaiming the word of God for 40 to 45 to 50, depends on the level of inspiration that week, proclaiming God's word.

Why? This is what sanctifies our hearts and also what nourishes our souls and our hearts. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. What we do at Mosaic, we want to do God's work God's way as it is attested to in God's word. Jesus is at the center. The focus is on Christ because that's how the Trinity has set things up. Obviously we believe in the Trinity, but Romans 15:15-18 he has the Trinity in the text.

But on some points I've written to you very boldly by way of reminder because of the grace given me by God. That's God the father, they us. To be a minister of Christ Jesus, God the son, to the Gentiles and priestly service of the gospel of God so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable sanctified by the Holy spirit. He's got the Trinity right here but he's proclaiming Christ. Why is he doing that? Because Christ makes God defined. Christ defines God.

This is who God is. This God is like. This is what God wants from us. Christ embodied spirituality. This is why we put Jesus in all of our marketing and Jesus at the center of everything that we do because a lot of churches in the city they're fine with talking about God in general or spirituality in general. As soon as you say the name of Jesus Christ, that makes everything clear. This is what we're all about. We're about Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:19-21 Saint Paul emphasizes the gospel over and over. He says, "By the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and all the way around Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where Christ has already been named, less I build on someone else's foundation. But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see and those who have never heard of him will understand."

Saint Paul, why the gospel? Why do you got to talk about the gospel? Because this is the way that God saves people. Romans 10:17, "Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ." Let's proclaim the gospel because this is the means that God has chosen in order to save you. When they hear the truth of the gospel and it permeates their heart, transforms them from the inside out, not ashamed of the gospel which is the power of God onto salvation.

Why is it the power of God on salvation? Because it saves us. You hear it, you believe it, and it saves you. Why is it so important for us to emphasize the gospel of Jesus Christ? Because we need to know what it took to save us. We need to know that this is what it took. Our sin is so grave. Our depravity is so utter. It's so dark. Our darkness is so dark that this is what it took. It took God becoming one of us, living the perfect life that he demands from each one of us.

The life that we should have lived but couldn't or wouldn't. And then Jesus Christ the son of God goes to the cross dying an excruciating death, absorbing the wrath of God on the cross as our substitutionary atonement for us instead of us, in our place. And dies and he's raised on the third day and by grace through faith in that work we are saved. When people hear this, those who are far from God, the spirit applies it to them and then they are saved. They are transformed.

This is why at Mosaic we do talk specifically about sin. Because in order to proclaim the gospel, the good news, you got to talk about the bad news. We just spent three months in the 1st Corinthians which made explicitly clear what sin is. It didn't just talk about sin, it talked about sins. When you talk about sins, when you talk about our need for salvation in specific areas of our lives. We do talk about the bad news and then we bring in the good news and the good news seems so good.

Why is that distinctive for us? If you're from another part of the country, you're like, "Why is the gospel? Why are you defining that Jesus at the center of this church?" Because we're in Boston, Massachusetts. There are a lot of church buildings here and Christianity used to be thriving. The great awakenings transformed this city years ago. This is what happened over time and we've seen this cycle over and over.

People proclaim the gospel, proclaim the gospel, proclaim the gospel. After a while culture begins to change and you're like, ooh, it's getting really hard to talk about sin. And whoever the preacher is stops talking about sin because he's trying to make the message more palatable because he's trying to grow the church and the people and the pews are like, "I don't want to talk about sin. Let's fire this guy. Let's bring another guy in."

And what happens in an attempt to make the message of God palatable. Let's talk about God. Let's talk about his love. Let's talk about grace in general. Let's not talk about sin specifically. You lose the power that transforms people. If you just keep patting people on the head as they're walking in waywordly into sin, what happens is they just walk away and then churches are empty.

They've emptied themselves of the power of the gospel and then they end up empty. Saint Paul says Romans 15:20, "I make it my ambition to preach the gospel." At Mosaic, what do we do? We make it our ambition to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ because Jesus changes everything. And by doing so, we are motivated by love and we spread God's love. Holy ambitions are never about self exaltation.

They're always a form of love because what love does is it tries to meet people's greatest needs. And that brings us to point 3, love. A Christ instrument in Paul's mission wasn't just proclaiming the gospel. That was front and center. That was the most important thing. But when the gospel is proclaimed it all always brings with it love. What's at the center of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Love.

What is the gospel? It's God giving himself, sacrificing himself. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. What is love? Love is sacrifice. If you proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and you accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, you accept God's sacrificial love. What does that do to you? You start sacrificially loving the people around you.

That's why Saint Paul connects word and deed. Look at verse 18, "For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience." How? By word and deed. The truth of love you speak it and you also act. Love entails words and sacrificial acts. We do those two things and then the Holy Spirit takes it and empowers it. In verse 19, "By the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the spirit of God."

As we do these things we understand that it does take the miraculous work of the spirit of God to empower us. As I stand up here and I proclaim the most counter-cultural message that you will hear anywhere in modern America and I'm doing in Boston, Massachusetts, September 1st, 2019. I know that unless the spirit of God shows up and unless the spirit of God moves in your heart, all I'm doing is I'm gathering kindling.

But as we gather kindling, as we gather logs and we pray for the Holy Spirit to send fire from heaven. That's the story of Mosaic Boston. Mosaic Boston's literally a miracle. Every Christian is a walking miracle. That means you are regenerated. Your brought from death to life, transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. You're a walking miracle. And then God brings these walking miracles together and brings some more walking miracles and it forms a church.

Mosaic Boston is a miracle. I was at a pastors meeting this weekend. One of the pastors asked me, "Hey, how are you?" My only response is I'm still here. Praise God. Still love the Lord, still married. My kids love the Lord most days and I still get to be pastor. Praise God. Mosaic is a miracle. The fact that we exist here with the resources that we have with understanding who I am, how fallen of a man I am, how much I need Jesus every single day. Walking miracle.

That Mosaic exists as a miracle so it does attest to the power of God. Why has God chosen to pour his grace out on a Mosaic? Well, he's given us pattern in the Holy scriptures. He says when churches devote themselves to the following things: to doing God's word God's way and in particular ways, God pours out his blessing. That's my only explanation. What are those three things? It's love in three forms.

It's the great commandment, the great compassion and the great commission. A great church is formed when there's a great commitment to the great commandment, the great compassion and the great commission. I'll just go through each one. The great commandment is Matthew 21:36. A gentleman comes to Jesus and said, "Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?"

And he said to them, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets." The great commandment, love God, love people with everything that you got and then he defines it with the great compassion.

What does it mean to love my neighbor as myself? That's Matthew 25:34-40. Then the King will say to those on his right, this is at the second judgment, "Come you who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me."

Then the righteous will answer him saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?" The King will answer them, "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers did it to me."

Great compassion has come to every single Christian. Jesus says when there's someone in need and you see that someone is in need, God's brought this person into your life or you here of someone in need. Jesus is saying when you serve that person, when you meet that need, you're actually serving me. The great commandment always leads to a desire to be part of the great compassion and then the great commission.

Matthew 28:18-20, "And Jesus came and said, 'All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, of the son of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age." When we as believers are committed together to the great commandment, great compassion, great commission that makes for a great church and movement of God.

Here's the temptation. Here's why I started with point one about the simplicity of the model of Mosaic because here's what happens often. You hear texts like this, in particular about the great compassion or even the great commission. And you start saying, man, that is so awesome. That's great. I've got a passion for this. Let's start a Mosaic Boston soup kitchen for example, or a Mosaic Boston X ministry. Fill in the X. I love the heartbeat item.

But here's what was happening and let me just analyze this. You're mixing categories. Here's what I mean. These commandments are given directly to Christians and the commandments are so weighty that often it's tempting to shirk personal responsibility and put the onus of that responsibility on the pastoral staff. Let's start this thing and what I mean is you guys start it and I'll come once in a while.

But then I move away and then this thing is still going. And who's managing this thing? I have my personal responsibilities as a Christian to the great commandment and the great compassion and the great commission. That's my personal responsibility as a Christian. Those are things I got to do even outside of being a pastor. But I also have pastoral responsibilities. My pastoral responsibilities, mine and pastor Jan's.

Our responsibilities, our job is not to do the ministry for you. It's not to fulfill the great commandment, great compassion and great commission for you. Our job as pastors is Ephesians 4:11-12 and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers. Jesus gave them to the church to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ.

God gives pastoral staff in order to equip the church, the Christians, in order to fulfill the mission that God has for each one individually. How do we equip? How did Saint Paul equip? How did the apostles equip? Through the gospel. We teach the gospel. You think through absolutely every single area of your life how the gospel impacts those areas. Therefore, you do not need our permission to be a Christian.

If you are called to help in a significant way to alleviate hunger or to help the homeless population. Whatever you call it, go do it. Join other people in the city that are already doing it. You're just doing it out of a heart of gratitude for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me connect the two using just a little exegesis built on one word. A theology built on one word from scripture. It's the word palingenesia.

Palingenesia is the word for regeneration. It's used twice in Holy scripture. Wants to talk about personal regeneration and wants to talk about the regeneration of the physical world. Titus 3:5 he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration, palingenesia, and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is we had hearts of stone toward God, hardened and desensitized.

The Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the gospel gives a new heart that is sensitive toward God, regeneration. Matthew 19:28 the second time in scripture that this word is used. Jesus said to them truly I say to you in the new world, same word palingenesia. In the new world or in the regeneration. When the son of man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 Thrones joining the 12 tribes of Israel.

He's talking about the new heavens and the new world, a physical reality. It's the same word for regeneration and the theology behind it is God created a physical world and it was perfect. Sin corrupts everything, taints everything. God regenerates individual Christians who then empowered by the Holy Spirit work together to bring restoration and renewal to the world now to make it as it will be in the new heavens and the new earth which was also the same way it was intended from the beginning.

In your theology of Christianity if you only have the idea of spiritual palingenesia, me, personally, individualistic, by myself. If it's all about just personal regeneration, then your Christianity becomes individualistic. It becomes focused on self exclusively. My sins have been forgiven. I'm going to spend eternity with God and now I'm going to do whatever I want until that day when I go to heaven.

If you only have the second idea of palingenesia to change the world, you're focusing on the recreation of the heaven earth apart from a personal understanding of rebirth. You so emphasized cultural engagement that you have no salt and light to offer the world. Without a unified understanding of palingenesia this warped dualism emerges. I think this is one of the biggest problems with the church in the United States today.

This is dualism of this is my Christian life, my privatized spiritual, my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with my public life. Or we need to do good work. We need to fight for social justice, for racial reconciliation, for economic redemption, etc. We need to do all this stuff and you're trying to do apart from the spiritual resource, apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ redeems us and then he gives us wisdom and power to work for renewal in our physical lives. Here's what I mean. What is culture? Culture in a city, culture in a country is the result of a societies core beliefs, core values. The things that the world finds sacred. It's what you believe about the meaning of life. It's what you believe about right and wrong. It's what you believe about what it means to be human and that's fleshed out in what we do and the things that we produce.

When people say, "I'm not religious, I'm spiritual." Everybody's religious. Every single person is religious. Why? Because every single person finds something sacred. You have sacred values for which you're willing to sacrifice whatever those are. Whatever the most sacred thing in your life is, that's your religion. That's why for many people today their religion really is politics. It's politics or it might be money or career, etc.

Let's just take politics in general. Why is politics in the United States so antagonistic? Like people hate each other. Because when you're on one side and you meet someone on the other side, that person isn't just wrong, that person's a heretic. That person's blaspheming. What do you do with heretics? You kill heretics. The thing that you are willing to give your life for easily morphs into the thing you are willing to kill for. That's religion.

Then the gospel comes in and say you know what the gospel is? We deserve death, but Jesus Christ comes and he takes the debt that we deserve to give us life. He infuses our hearts with love and grace. Now we take those values and they absolutely transform everything that we do. Everything we do, we do with kindness. We have a different definition of tolerance and forgiveness and grace and generosity.

The gospel changes our worldview, our inner motives, and gives us power to live that out in the culture. When Christians now do their work, the bulk of our life, 80% of our life we spend working. Many churches and a lot of Christians they have this false understanding of what it means to be spiritual. There's this idea of a vocational pyramid. At the very top of the vocational pyramid is Mother Teresa.

And then you got missionaries in different countries and then you got pastors, church planners. And then you got people in the helping professions, doctors and nurses. And then you got people who do academic work. And then you've got people who arts and music. At the very bottom you've got people who do business. Do you do business but the way that connects to your faith is you better make enough money to then tithe significantly, become a gospel patron and help the church.

Or medicine's important but what's more important is a person's soul and spiritual work. And you know what's forgotten completely? Is blue collar work. Blue collar work it's a separate pyramid. What did Jesus do for 17 years before he started even his gospel ministry from age 13 to age 30? He was a carpenter. This is all to say that when we do the work that we do and it's infused with the values that God has given to us through the gospel, we're recreating the world. It's palingenesia from the inside that's leading to renewal in the physical world.

We do it to the glory of God and to the joy of all people. The better that we do that we create plausibility structures. What do I mean by plausibility structure? Your life creates something that makes what you say plausible. If you do good work and you do it so well that now people can't but pay attention to what you're saying, that's a plausibility structure. For example, Mother Teresa, she got invited to the Clinton White House.

And what does she do when she got invited to the Clinton White House? She berated the Clinton administration for supporting abortion and they couldn't but listen to her because of her work in Calcutta. Another example is Alexander Solzhenitsyn who lived through the Soviet gulags. Before he went to the Gulags he was an author. After he came out from the gulags he continued to write and because his writing was so phenomenal he won a Nobel Prize in literature.

A lot of other people lived through the gulags but didn't have even close to the same platform as Alexander Solzhenitsyn because of the symbolic capital that Nobel Prize brought with it. It's all to say do good work. As Christians do good work for the renewal of the culture. When you see something in the world, this should not be the way it is. This is not God's will in the economy. In health this isn't God's will.

Now go as the Lord leads, go bring the gospel into that. And the increase in philanthropy, mercy, justice, racial reconciliation, integrity. This right here makes the world a better place. This is one of the reasons why Boston is so strategically important. This is why it's important to plant a church here and continue planting churches here because this is the place where minds and hearts are shaped.

People from all over the world come here. They're coming here to get educated, they're coming here to get jobs. And as they do their minds and hearts are shaped with human secularism and then they take that worldview and they export it to the world. What do we do? We're here to say, you know that worldview, it doesn't satisfy. That worldview it doesn't fill your heart with joy. It doesn't answer the most important questions.

That worldview is vapid and it's actually empty because it's not true. There's something better. There's the way of Jesus Christ. There's the gospel. That's why we make it our ambition to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why we've been here for the past, in October will be eight years. When I was in seminary I thought I was going to go and do international mission work.

My wife and I this is why we had our first baby Sophia our first year in seminary, which is crazy. But that's because I was like, I don't know where we're going to go in the world and I don't know what those hospitals are like so let's have a baby now. That was my daughter Sophia and that's why she's given a word as a name because that's what seminarians do. Sophia means wisdom. And then my second year in seminary I learned about church planting.

I was like church planting sounds amazing. I found out that church planting is statistically the most effective way of getting the gospel out. You plant the gospel in an area, you plant a church and it just statistically do more evangelism because what I said about new churches. And what did Saint Paul do? He planted churches in urban context like places of influence, places where people go and then they'd leave.

And at that time Boston was the least church city in the United States. That was 2009. If you Google least church city and there's all kinds of studies, Boston was number one. By God's grace God's been moving in the city. Through Mosaic it's a miracle, through other gospel proclaiming churches. The Barna study came out in June 5th, 2019. The most post-Christian cities in America 2019, Springfield Massachusetts, Portland Auburn Maine, Providence Rhode Island, still got this. Number four, Burlington, Vermont. Boston's number five. Praise God. It used to be number one.

This stuff pumps me up. I love numbers. I love stats. I've also seen this in real life like real life change. Now, why are we still number five? Is my question. Here's what I just want to say with this. 25 years ago Boston Massachusetts, under 1% of Bostonians were in gospel centered churches. 10 years ago it was around 2%. Now it's 3.6% almost 4% of people that have some kind of connection to a gospel centered church.

By 2026, if we remain on this trajectory Lord willing, we're on trajectory to hit 15%. Why is that important? Because sociologists have noticed that when a certain minority population in a community increases to anywhere between 10% and 20%, then the culture of the entire community begins to change. We keep going Mosaic. By 2026 we can reach a tipping point where now we can transform a city.

Where Bostonians are not plugged into gospel centered churches, but they express gospel values of mercy and friendship and grace and kindness and generosity and justice and hope and they express it in their lives which transforms the city, transforms the region, and you know the influence of Boston we can transform the world. What am I trying to say with all that? I'm trying to say, if you've been here at Mosaic from the beginning I'm praying for the Lord to rekindle in your heart a holy ambition.

I pray that for myself. I've got to do this every Sunday. Once in a while you got to pray. But every time pump yourself up. How? This is how, when I see people passionate for God it's so counter-cultural love. But then also like if you're new to the city and you're church shopping and you're here today, this is a sign from God that you should join Mosaic or another gospel center church but you're already here.

We're not just calling you like I want to go to Mosaic once in a while. No. What does Paul say? I make it my ambition to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Join us in our ambition here at Mosaic in that holy ambition. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we thank you for the gospel and we thank you for this church. I thank you Holy Spirit for everything that you're doing, continue doing, continue glorify the name of Jesus Christ.

Lord, we are sinners and we are wicked and we are depraved but you are such a glorious and generous God and gracious to us. We thank you Jesus for your sacrifice on the cross. As we take the bread and cup right now I pray that we repent of all sin and give you all glory and meditate upon what it took to save us and that you are God that was willing to take it. We thank you for that. We pray this in Christs' name, Amen.

Summary:
The new clarity with which I was able to see the world when I got my glasses was very similar to how my life was changed when I became a Christian. I was overwhelmed with the things that I saw, some really ugly and some really beautiful, amazed by the change it brought to my life and was given an exciting vision for a mission for the glory of God’s kingdom. Join me tomorrow as we celebrate my ordination as a Pastor and address the question “How do you see?”

Transcript:
This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry please visit mosaicboston.com.

Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic. My name is Andy. I thought Pastor Jan was going to be up here a second ago. Sorry for the delay. We had my ordination service, actually, last service. I wasn't sure if we were going to walk through it again, but you can call me pastor now. I've been pastoral resident at Mosaic since last September. I'm not technically a pastor here of Mosaic. I'm not a pastor of Mosaic. The pastors have put it before the church last service that in October when we have a members meeting the church will be deciding my direction and my path, and whether or not the members want to keep me here as a pastor. Pastor Jan is finally here.

Welcome to Mosaic. If you're new to Mosaic I've served as pastoral resident, and we're happy to have you. Those who have been here all year I just want to ... I have a thank you prepared before getting off the plan here. Just thank you all for welcoming me, my wife, and my son, Drew, this past year. It's just been a thrill to be here, to learn through all the work under Pastor Jan, and Pastor Shane. My wife and I we both moved away from our families, but we don't regret it at all. We have a family here at Mosaic, and we just love it. So thank you for the many ways that you've served us.

Today we're going to be reading a text from Mark, chapter eight, verses 11 through 38. The primary focus will be verses 22 to 38, but we'll bounce around. It's a lot of text. If you just follow along with me as I read God's word. And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man, and begged him to touch him. And he, Jesus, took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on the eyes, and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?" And he looked up and said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. And he sent him to his home saying, "Do not even enter the village."

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they told him, "John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets." And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, but turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels." This is the word of our Lord.

Please bow your heads in prayer with me. Heavenly father, Lord forgive us for we are sheep. We're prone to wander, prone to stray, prone to just leave you, leave your direction, and put your word aside. Lord, in doing so our hearts are hardened. Our vision goes. We cannot discern your lead. We cannot discern your word. We cannot discern your spirit, and Lord we pray that you may give us a spirit of wisdom today, a revelation of the knowledge of you. Lord, we pray that you would enlighten the eyes of our heart. Let us know what it is the hope that we've been called to. Lord, let us know the glorious greatness, the immeasurable greatness of your power towards us who believe. Lord, we just pray as we follow you let us have faith. Let us take up our cross with boldness following in the path of our savior, Jesus Christ.

What is the primary issue that man faces today? I'm not talking about something that if you just chose to address that it would just be like a Band-Aid, but I'm talking about something that would cause a cascade effect. You address this issue, and all of the other ones, big ones are still addressed. They get caught down the line. They get addressed down the line. I was walking through social media this week, and I saw a graphic that had a big tidal wave. It had several houses that the tidal wave was about to crash into. The tidal wave was labeled climate change. On the other houses that were about to get crushed there was health care, immigration, guns, free school, justice, and legal weed. This was certainly a graphic showing that if climate change was not addressed then all of these other issues, though, they are large issues to many people would not be relevant.

Is climate change our biggest issue? Do you think any of the others mentioned are man's greatest problem? If you asked me before August 2011, when I first came to Mosaic I would have been all over this graphic fresh out of liberal arts college, and I would have just been weighing each option. I worked in a social justice education organization, probably would have argued for them. If you're in my family I probably would have emailed you just telling you of my passion to tackle these issues to save the world, and those were the worst emails. Which one do you think of these issues Jesus would pick? I vouch the answer is none of them. Jesus would have said blindness, not physical blindness, but spiritual blindness. Today our passage is all about spiritual vision. I'll address the question how do you see? And to come up with an answer we'll discuss blindness, corrected vision, mission vision, and blurry vision, so blindness. Where do I get the answer that man's biggest problem is blindness?

This comes from the context of our passage. This is Matthew 8. This passage beginning with the healing of a blind man. Sorry, did I say Matthew? Mark 8. Mark one through eight reads like a comic book. It's Jesus calling his disciples with two words, follow me. It's Jesus on the boat in the storm and he says, "Peace, be still." And the storm stops. It's Jesus feeding the 5,000 with a few loaves and a few fish. It's Jesus feeding the 4,000 with a few loaves, and a few fish. It's Jesus raising a girl to life from death. At this point if I were one of the disciples I would just be thinking, "Man, life is good. I've got this dude on my side. I have everything I need. Let's stay here forever."

The passage after this it's the transfiguration. Peter, James, and John see Peter in all their glory, and Peter just wants to stay there. I understand that, but this is a crucial point in the gospel. This is along with Luke this is one of the gospels geared towards the gentiles. The gentiles of the day they were pagans. They believed in spirits. They were happy to hear of this God man, Jesus, who exhibited the almighty power of a God, so the first half of the book exhibits his power. The second half exhibits his passion, his path to the cross. It's at this point Jesus is talking to his disciples. Right before the verses that we read in Mark 14 to 21 Jesus is on a boat with the disciples shortly after feeding the 4,000. They run out of bread and Jesus says, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." And they say, "Jesus, we don't have any bread." And he says, "Do you guys not yet understand?"

At this point Jesus is making it clear to the disciples if you want to follow me you have to see me entirely for who I am. You have to see me not just as superman, not just as this almighty, all powerful deity, but you have to love me, and want to glorify my name for the suffering I'm going to endure for you. In going that way he addresses their blindness. We're saved by placing our faith in Jesus Christ going to the cross. To get rid of our spiritual blindness we need to place our faith in Christ. We need to see our need for him in that regard. This issue of blindness this goes all the way back to Genesis. When tempted by Satan, Eve ... Tempting Eve, Satan says in Genesis 3:4 "You shall not surely die when you eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil."

This is a partial truth. This is how Satan he's rarely going to insert himself with a blatant lie. He's going to tweak the truth. Adam and Eve we all know the story they ate the fruit, and they did see themselves. They saw that they were naked. Their whole just form of rationality, their whole system was tweaked, but they didn't see like God. In fact, they became blind by their sin. They became blind, and they could no longer properly see God for who he is as their sustainer, their creator, their provider, and their source of peace, and joy, and hope. That's the darkness. That's the blindness that we all still walk in today. Apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ how do we get out of this blindness?

In the text it shows us Jesus extends a hand to the blind man. The blind man's friends bring him up. Jesus offers his hand. Jesus initiates the relationship to us. However, we have to be willing. There's a part of Mark where Jesus is in his hometown and they're skeptical. They're like, "Who is this guy?" This is Jesus. This is Joseph's son, and because of the unbelief he stops healing there. So this is a situation we need to see Jesus. We need to see our blindness, see our need for him, and ask for him to come to us. We have to be willing to receive him into our hearts. That's the gospel, but blindness is an issue that we're still wrestling with. The thing about blindness is that upon salvation we have to fight for the vision that we do get. We don't just wake up each day, and keep that sight. We have to remind ourselves of the gospel over and over again.

Who exhibited just a quick study of what that blindness looks like in regular life? The perfect example, of course, was the Pharisees. In Mark 8, 11 to 13 we get a sense of how the blind function. The Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation." And he left them, got into a boat again, and went to the other side.

I've read this over and over again throughout my life. When the Pharisees asked for a sign that seems reasonable, but you have to remember the context. The Pharisees, this is Bethsaida. This is very close to the region where Jesus fed the 5,000, and it was really probably 20,000 to 25,000 when you consider women and children. The number that the text gives is men. So they would have known. They would have heard about this man. They might have been there, and been fed by him. Just this text, this seeking for a sign, this is all of us apart from Christ. We just want to use him for what we can get from him. So the Pharisees they were never really interested in getting God. They're interested in what he could get for them.

They just wanted to test him. They wanted to find holes in his arguments. They wanted to find weakness in his power because they just wanted to go back to their regular life. They wanted to maintain their traditions, maintain their culture, maintain the status quo. The worst part about the Pharisees, the most mind-boggling part of the Pharisees is that they tried to cover up themselves. We're born as image bearers of God. We know there's something wrong with us. We try to atone for it. If it's not Jesus it's something else, and the Pharisees it was religion. It was adding rule and rule and rule on top of the Jewish law. They put on frames a lot like the people it's common now people walk around with glasses frames without lenses. They think that it's doing something for them. They think that it helps them to fit in with a crowd better, but really they kind of look foolish. What do you want to do with those people? You just want to poke them through the lenses to wake them up. That's us. I mean, it's easy to laugh at the Pharisees, but that's all of us when we're living, we're walking in our blindness, we're covering ourselves up with religion with means to attain self-righteousness.

For me, I'm going to share a little bit about my testimony throughout this service to fit the occasion, but this was my life. I grew up in the church. I went to the church probably 95% of my childhood Sundays. I was baptized, confirmed. Went to church service, worship service, Sunday school, youth group, all in one day for most of my childhood. If you asked me if I was blind as I got older into my early 20s I would have said, no way. I'm a Christian. I go to church. I need Jesus, and he loves me because my sin is not as bad as everyone else's around me. My story is I had that attitude, but I was blind like the Pharisees. There came a point really the first challenge of my faith came in the week after I graduated high school. I went to a missions trip, and the message of the week was leave the American dream to follow God's plan.

It sounds so simplistic, but I remember it today. I remember just hardening my heart against this idea. I saw my parents just climb up the middle class scale a little bit, and I wanted to continue that. I said, "No." I approached college without considering my faith. I went through college without pursuing Christian community. I went to church on Sunday mainly to feel better about what I did Saturday night. I just went there and felt guiltier. When I came to Mosaic, though, I came a year after college, August 2011, and just my eyes were opened. It's just shocking. This is shocking when you think of me I'm just a guy. Maybe I didn't hear the best preaching. We see in the text the disciples they walked with Jesus for about three years at this point. They saw him heal people. He even gave them the power to heal people. And they did not believe who he truly was that he was the God man, the Christ, and were working to that point with Peter. It's possible to be here. It's possible to go to church. It's possible to go through the motions, and still be blind.

How do you tell if you're blind? Do you understand the song Amazing Grace? I heard that song thousands of times. I normally associated it with civil rights movies growing up, but it's one of the most popular songs of history. I went through church for 23 years not knowing what Amazing Grace was. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I never thought of myself as a wretch. If you have never thought of yourself as a wretch in need of God's grace you might be blind. Really ask yourself if you find yourself just going through the motions, if you are new to come to church you might be walking in this blindness. If you think you've been saved, but you've been stagnant for a while really just be honest with yourself, and really if you don't have the eyes to see we pray the Lord Jesus give us the eyes to see. Give us ears to hear, to know your word, know your love, know your voice amongst all the competing voices out there. I just encourage you to do that.

One of the great things about just moving from blindness to life is that we get corrected vision. Again, this is focused on the blind man in verse 24. And he looked up after Jesus touched him the first time, and he said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. So I want to focus on it's trippy seeing people that look like trees. It reminds me of the ents in Lord of the Rings, and seeing things clearly.

This is what happens with our life story when we come to faith. When your eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit, your heart is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, the scariest part of conversion is just realizing that you didn't know you were blind until Jesus gave you sight. So it's scary to think about the depth of the sin you went into. The things that you justified, the things that you felt were okay. It's scary to think about the depths of sin that you could have continued to pursue if Jesus did not call you out of it and open your eyes. It's embarrassing to think about those previous wanderings, but when you get to that point this is why grace is so amazing. You see how God has preserved you. You see how he didn't let you wander as far as you could have. You see that he taught you different lessons along the way. Lessons that you often didn't know you need. Lessons you often didn't desire, but they were only to bring you to see him properly as Lord and savior.

My story picks up after that missions trip it was five years of frustration. I went to college, and when I graduated high school I was on a peak. I was valedictorian of my class. I was captain of my school's best soccer team ever. I was lead off hitter for the school's best baseball team in history. I was homecoming king, dating the homecoming queen. Voted most likely to succeed. It's just silly stuff to think about now, but just in the flesh this is just the kind of stuff that boosts your sense of self-worth. College was rough. I played soccer, and four years of getting injury after injury after injury. In a two, three month season you get injured once it's so hard to make that up to get back in the season. That part of my identity was crushed.

I went to a top three liberal arts school in the country, and just faced every overachiever's nightmare realizing that I was just average when the playing field got more difficult. Then that relationship, the storybook relationship with the homecoming queen it didn't work out. As many times as we watched The Notebook together it just didn't last. I was heartbroken for several reasons. I went through this process. It was just depressing. The way that I responded it was not just sit and be depressed all the time. It was like I'm going to muster up. This is who I am. I'm going to work harder. I'm going to study harder. I'm going to train harder. I got another relationship, and I wanted to fill myself. I had this void in my heart that I just needed to fill.

I graduated, finally. I got a job right away, but I never got satisfied, and the hole in my heart grew even larger. I was just constantly asking why God why? One of the hardest parts about that process is I grew up in a good family, awesome parents who were rocks, and just going to them with this frustration, this brokenness, this sadness, and they couldn't help me. I just looked at my life in that period just why God? Why? Why me? Just self-loathing, self-pity, but the thing about the gospel is that when our eyes are opened it all makes sense. He corrects our vision.

I view that process. I'm not just here to give you a sob story about my fall from small town glory to larger city larger realm sadness. I truly see God used that process to strip me, take out all the idols in my life that kept me from worshiping him as Lord. Also, in the process as I clung to idols and fell into deeper sin he revealed just the depths of the darkness within me. Some of you could be listening to this and saying this is a guy a big fish in a small pond, but just when your eyes are corrected you really begin to see how the Lord works like this. He loves his children. He disciplines them. He's going to extend irresistible grace until they submit to him.

This is in Hebrews 10, five to 13. The first three verses come from Proverbs 3. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you're left without discipline in which all have participated then you are illegitimate children, and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best for them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. When we have corrected vision if we're not waking up each day, and just reminding ourselves of our need for the Lord, need for him as savior and Lord, we don't strive for holiness out of thanksgiving for what he has done for us. We won't see the Lord.

We won't see him properly, and our story, that corrected vision will slowly go away, and the self-pity, the self-loathing will continue. It's my experience, it's God's word that says he disciplines his children because he loves them. Those who have eyes to see know this. You get to this point when you realized every life experience, every triumph, every failure, every test, every sorrow is one that he's used to prepare us to see him properly. When the Holy Spirit gives us those eyes we don't just get clear vision. We just don't get corrected vision. We get mission vision.

This is in Mark 34 to 38. What does this mission look like? And calling the crowd to him with his disciples he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels."

Now over the years I've watched a lot of war movies. Some of my favorite characters are Richard Winters in Band of Brothers, Legolas and Gimli, Aragorn, even Merry and Pippin, and even just reading the Bible. Young King David seeing Goliath and just challenging him there at the battlefront when men are all sitting on the side. The thing about these guys for years I just didn't understand what is driving them to be at the front? What is causing them to want to be there in the center of the action? The thing is when you see that the Lord uses you, he prepares you, he uses every good and bad moment in your life you can trust that he's going to use every future moment to prune you, to shape you, to mold you, to get you to continue to see Christ. You have this vision. You want to be like these guys.

We don't become bloodthirsty ogres, but we don't become people that sit around and think about all the time what they gave up for the Lord. The house they could have outside of Boston. The comfort they would have if they lived at home closer to their parents, but the Christians should be like these guys. Who doesn't like Aragorn? Who doesn't like Gimli and Legolas? These guys who just sacrifice their comfort for a greater cause. They could have sat aside, but they didn't. So we're people like the disciples when they suffer for the word shortly after Pentecost they're praising God. They cannot but continue to speak of what they've seen and heard regarding Jesus.

I have to admit this is the ideal. This is the strong call. I pray that some of you just feel emboldened to just hear this, to think about it, to use your vision to guide you, and motivate you to step forward into the battle field for the Lord. I still struggle with this. When I first came to Mosaic I think it's just little subtle ways we back off. When I first came to Mosaic I was working downtown and the lunchtime conversation is, hey, how was your weekend? I always had a response for Saturday, and I'd always tell people about Saturday, but never about Sunday when I went to work, when I spent time in fellowship, when I really felt alive, felt like my life was transforming. It's just little subtle ways that we back off. These are the ways we need to stand firm. We need to tell people of our joy, our love of Christ, our love of the church.

This is where we derive much joy, and I think just good reminders that we're to be a priesthood of believers, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you are not of people, but now you're of God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. We're motivated by God's mercy and God's grace. Imagine a church that fulfills this vision. The Israelites fell, and now here in the church it's our opportunity to carry on this vision. It's not just the pastors who are the Aragorns, the Gimlis, the Legolases, it's all believers. Just today I want to clarify one thing I don't want to say is that the end goal for everybody is vocational ministry. I don't want to imply that.

That scripture we just went through, 1 Corinthians 12, in our sermon series talking about the body. Everybody is given different body parts, different spiritual gifts for the benefit of the church, and the upbuilding of each other, but if it's not vocational ministry a lot of people struggle with, well, what is it? The answer is what has the Holy Spirit given you eyes to see to improve the church? How has the Holy Spirit impressed it upon your heart to represent Christians outside of the church throughout the week? Those are simple things, but when you really think about them they can bring profound change. I was talking to a guy he's been at Mosaic for a couple of months. He's a naturally introverted guy. For his work he's bouncing around across the country. I sense a true love for the Lord.

He was telling me one thing that I see in church is I've been in community groups at several different places. The community group leaders, the small group leaders, the hosts, those two in every group they're always great. They always reach out to everybody, but very few people, very rarely do the rest of the people come and approach me. In that moment I want to console him, but that vision that he has that he sees that happening that's a gift from the Lord. How do you pick up your cross? You see a need and you fill a need. I think the best part about Mosaic is that a lot of people get this. I think we have 80 plus people involved in setup, tear down, and greeting, and security. Just amazing, not including minimal. We have it's not just the 10% doing 90% of the work at this church.

We have people that have come to life. They've been given eyes to see. Their vision has been corrected, and they're just praising God, and they're motivated to tell people of the work that God has done in their life. They're on mission, and you just don't get this feel at a lot of churches. That's why my wife and I we moved up here to be here to be where the spirit is clearly moving, but I do think some of you might not be with me. You might not be Christian you're just questioning, but some of you probably have your born again card, but you're just stagnant. There's this confusing part of the text where the man Jesus seemingly, partially heals the guy that has blurry vision. I want to talk about blurry vision.

Verse 23, again. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes, and laid his hands on him, he asked him, "Do you see anything?" And he looked up and said, "I see people, but they look like trees, walking." Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. What's going on here? Why not a full healing? Jesus fed 4,000 at the beginning of chapter eight. He did all those other miracles that I mention throughout the first eight chapters of Mark. Was there something wrong with the fish that he ate when he served the 4,000? What's going on here? Can we trust him as an almighty, all powerful God?

Yes, this is a story where we should gaze in awe and wonder about Jesus that he does after the second step actually heal the guy of blindness, but this is really a lesson to his disciples. Remember before this verse 14 to 21 they're still thinking, "Jesus, we need bread from you." And he says, verse one, "Do you not yet understand?" So there's a reason this blindness story, two step healing story is right next to Peter's admission of Jesus as the Christ paired with his rebuke. Jesus is teaching the disciples that their view of him is not sufficient. It's inadequate. They're just like the blind man with only partial vision. I just want to explain this. Verse 29 and he asked them Jesus asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ."

This seems like a great moment. Peter is saying you are the Christ. You are the fulfillment of all of the scriptures. You're the messiah, the king of kings, the Lord of Lords, the one we've waited for. This seems like a great moment, but verse 31 things take a turn. And he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, but turning and seeing his disciples, he rebukes Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."

So this seems like this great moment, and then Peter is rebuked, and called Satan. So what's going on here? Jesus knows that at the back of Peter's mind not that Peter was following Jesus because he saw him as Lord, the savior. Peter just like the Pharisees the Pharisees wanted Jesus to help them anything it was to overthrow the Romans. Get rid of Roman occupation that plagued the Jews for decades and decades. So Peter like the Pharisees, like the disciples, the rest of the disciples when they only want bread he doesn't want Jesus. He wants what Jesus can bring to him. He wants what he can get from God. Peter's view of Jesus is inadequate. It wasn't complete, and that's why Jesus says, "Get behind me Satan." This partial view of Christ's identity was bad, it was evil. It was just as useful as that blind man with partial vision. And in that day you think there's no medicine, no glasses, like that blind man really couldn't do much if people looked like trees.

So a partial view of Christ is condemned in Matthew 7, 21 to 23. Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness." So Peter likes the idea of a Lord this all powerful guy. He doesn't see his need for a savior. There's something inherent since the fall our flesh pushes against this need, this dependency on another being that being God. Peter just does want God himself, and believing that Jesus was the atonement for his sins. He gets God. He's not satisfied with that. He just wants freedom from the Romans.

So this was me. This is my testimony. At Mosaic the light switched. Again, I had that church background. I didn't know I was a wretch, and just that conviction that I finally got at Mosaic that the Lord had prepared. He had primed my heart to finally get into that position after 23 years of being in the church. I saw him as Lord all those years. I finally saw him as savior. The ultimate prize that we get in this life is God himself, peace with him, hope in him, love from him. So I've talked about Peter saw him as Lord, and didn't see him as savior. I had the same experience, but there are a lot of ways that we can have blurry vision.

Just the different inadequacies can lead to different problems in our life. So if you see Jesus as Lord, but not savior that is just like the Pharisees. You don't see your name for him you're not going to have the affection, you're not going to have the love to follow him with a pure heart, with love, with thankfulness. It's going to eventually turn into cold, dry religion with those lensless glasses on, but you can also see him as a savior, but not Lord, and these are the people they just love the idea. It really appeals to their emotions to have somebody love them to the point that they would go to the cross for them, but when push comes to shove when it's hard to follow Jesus, when it's not culturally common, when it's not popular you just shove Jesus into the corner. This was me at college at times as well. I was guilty of this. He's your homeboy on Sunday, maybe when you go to CG, but the rest of the week you're just not representing him at all.

How else can we be blurry? You can be distracted. This comes from Jesus saying, verse 14, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod." This is saying remember a little leaven ... He's talking about bread. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. There are plenty of woke social media influencers, plenty of news personalities, life coaches, professional coaches, even doctors, and therapists who are completely blind. They don't know Jesus yet we let our guard down, and let them have a voice in our lives. That day it was the Pharisees. It was Herod, the local governor who reported to the Romans. Jesus warns against letting them in.

Another way your vision can be blurry is you can be farsighted. In Boston, we don't have a lot of people like this. If you identify as Christian you're normally legit because there's no cultural benefit, and nobody's going to like you in the office because these are people that's it. They acknowledge Jesus as one. I've been reborn. He's risen from the dead ascended to the right hand of God. It's just a matter of time before he comes back. It doesn't matter what I do between now and then. I don't have to evangelize. I don't have to share the gospel. I'm saved and I'm good. That's sinful, that's evil, that's an inadequate view. Just the son of man Jesus calls himself the son of man in this text that was an indirect way of reminding the disciples that he would come back. The son of man is a term from Daniel 7 where Jesus talks about a figure that's going to come back at the end of time, make all things new, bring true justice.

Some people can forget that son of man, and the next way to be blurry is you can be nearsighted. So like the disciples you've seen Jesus work miraculously in your life, but all you care about is getting bread on the table. You forget how powerful he is. You forget he's your savior. You forget that he's going to come back. He's going to make all things new, so you just get scared. You get paralyzed. You don't do anything with this nearsightedness, but if Jesus is who he says he is, if he is our Lord, he is our savior, he is going to come back one day to make all things new what do we have to lose? That's why I'm here. That's why I've taken the steps along the ministry. I've embarrassed myself over and over again trying out different activities in the church. Put myself out there within friendships for the sake of God's kingdom, and it doesn't always work out well, but when we place ourselves as a lamb, a sheep for the slaughter the Holy Spirit uses our humble efforts.

So how is your vision? Do you see? Are you blind? Is your vision blurry? Are you nearsighted? Farsighted? Distracted? Is your view of Christ inadequate? You only see him as Lord or a savior? You need that full vision. To get that full vision you ask the Lord, Lord give me eyes to see. Give me ears to ear. Like I said you want that concentrated that missional vision. You have to wake up each day and put your gospel glasses on.

Imagine somebody with glasses a big prescription for really weak eyes waking up and saying, "I don't need these today. I'm just going to go to work without them." That would be ridiculous, but what about in pursuing our heavenly mission? If you're not waking up each day reminding yourself of your need for Jesus as savior and Lord. Not finding peace in the fact that he will come back you're going to be blind. You can drift. You'll lose the vision. The more people who wake up each day, and put on their gospel glasses, the more people who constantly remind themselves of their need for the Lord, need for a savior, the more will bring about a cascade effect of change. Whether that happens in our day all praise and glory, and honor to be God, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit.

Please pray with me now. Heavenly father, we praise you for just your patience, for your long suffering love. Lord, we know your love. We know your grace. We know your mercy, yet we still sin against you. We still don't trust you. We don't long for your return, and we tend to check out when things get difficult. Lord, give us eyes, open our eyes to see our need for you. Give us a mission for our lives in and through the church, and outside of it. And, Lord, God, just keep us concentrated. Help us to see you developing our story for the sake of your name. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Summary:
What if the solution to death was not to escape it, but to face and defeat it? The claim of Christianity is that someone has done just that, and done so for us. Many of us grew up imagining we would spend eternity as disembodied souls, but the true hope of Scriptures is something far deeper and more satisfying. This weekend we will conclude our series “Prodigal Church” by looking at 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul lays out a vision of Christian hope for the future, that fills us with courage and strength for today.

Transcript:
This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com

Right now, before we begin with the sermon, would you please join me in prayer? Jesus, we thank you for being our Lord and our Savior. That you are both merciful and powerful. You have the desire to save, and you have the ability to save, and to save completely. And if there are any here today who are lacking purpose or meaning in their life, if there are any lacking hope, if there are any finding it hard to persevere, tempted to give up, I pray that you would show us today, that your gospel changes everything. It gives us a sure and certain and unshakeable hope for tomorrow, that manifests into strength for today, so that we know that nothing we walk through in this life will be in vain. So long as it is done by your spirit, motivated by your love, it will be eternal. So we pray that you'd speak to us now through the preaching of your word. Amen.

The author of Ecclesiastes famously wrote that, "God has placed eternity in the hearts of men." And if you've read the book of Ecclesiastes, you know that he's wrote far more often, "Vanity, vanity, everything is vanity. Life is absurd and meaningless." There's this tension where on the one hand he sees this reality, we're all gonna die, and all of our accomplishments, everything we lived for, it seems as if in one moment, death is going to swallow it all up. We're born, we live, we die. Time marches on, and we're slowly forgotten. Now, on the other hand, as we live these seemingly meaningless lives, we do so with this aching in our souls. It's as if we are homesick for some place that we've never been, and deep down we know that there has to be more to life than what we see with our eyes.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go back to the Midwest and spend some time with my family. And I've been... It's been interesting, the last few times I've been home, I have two younger sisters. And you know, you get together with family and you start to reminisce about the past. And what's been interesting to me though is that, at times they'll say something like, "Hey, remember that time?" And they'll go on to share a story. I'm like, "Yeah, I remember that. "And yet other times, and this has been happening, it's happened several times. So like, "Hey, remember that time?" And they'll go on to describe something in vivid detail that I have absolutely no memory of. Like they could just be totally making it up. I don't know. But if you think about your own memory, it's interesting, we have these very vivid memories at different points throughout our lives, and then we have these others that are kind of dim. And then we talk to other people and realize that it seems as if there's even some, we've just totally forgotten, as if they've just been deleted.

And one of the most vivid memories I have from my childhood was, it happened in third grade. Like I can see myself, I can see the room, I can see the people around me vividly. And it was at my grandfather's funeral. I remember sitting there and just feeling that, it just didn't seem real. Like we just saw grandpa not too long ago, and he's there, but that's not him. Like this doesn't seem real. It doesn't seem right. And I remember sitting there with this growing frustration that kind of turned into almost an anger. And then I very vividly remember when my grandmother walked into the ceremony, she was just weeping. And as soon as I saw her, I started weeping. And this is one of the only memories I have from my childhood where I, as a child, I just wept.

And if death is totally natural, and if life is totally meaningless, then why does it bother us the way that it does? Why do we rage against death? It's not enough to say that we desire immortality. It's deeper than that. There's a sense of injustice in its absence, as if we had it, but it's been taken or lost. And so the author, he looks and he sees death's gonna win. All of our accomplishments will be lost. Our names will be forgotten. Time is going to make fools of us all, so what have I to do but just drink, eat, and for tomorrow, we die. The life is just a vapor, vanishing in the wind.

We're looking at 1 Corinthians 15 today, and you know, before we all get too utterly depressed, this is actually not the focus or the point of the text. Paul's not going to focus on the bleak absurdity of death, but that is going to be the background. Death is going to be the black canvas upon which Paul paints this bright and glorious vision of Christian hope. But as we begin this, we need to understand, that if this is not true, then none of it really matters. But if it is, then that changes everything.

What we're about to read today is really at the crux of our faith. If this is true, as Christians, we have a blessed assurance and hope that begins right now, and reaches into eternity. And if it's not, if this is false, then our lives are really just absurdly meaningless, and we might as well stop right now. Like class dismissed. Everybody go home. Let's stop wasting our time.

And that's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 16, he says, "Listen, if the dead are not raised, if death is the end of it, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is feudal and you're still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ, we have hope in this life only, we are of all people, most to be pitied." See, Paul understood. I didn't come to Jesus because I thought he was gonna make my life easier or more comfortable. In fact, following Jesus has made things a lot more difficult for me, and that's going to be true of us as well. Following Jesus means you will face greater temptation. Nobody knows the strength of a temptation until they have tried to stand against it.

That's why Jesus knew temptation better than anyone else, because he never gave into it. He experienced its full strength. Following Jesus means that you're going to have to deny yourself earthly pleasures, and it's the idea of delayed gratification for eternal rewards. And following Jesus may even mean facing persecution for your faith. It meant that for Paul, and it meant that for many of the people that he was writing to. He kind of alludes to this in verse 32, where he says, "What do I gain, if death is all there is? What do I gain humanly speaking, if I fought with beasts at Ephesus. If the dead are not raised." And then he quotes the Ecclesiastes, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Then he says this, "Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right, and do not go on sinning."

Paul's saying the life of following Jesus Christ is absolutely, utterly absurd. Unless it's true. If it's true, then the whole world is stumbling around in a drunken stupor and needs to be woke up. If this is true, and Paul says that it is.

That's why he begins in the very beginning of the chapter. He says, "Listen, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12, then to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive. You can go talk to them, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me."

Paul saying this is impossible, but it happened, and we saw it with our own eyes, and this changes everything. This is what caused CS Lewis to write that, "If Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true of infinite importance. The only thing that it cannot be is moderately important."

Now the goal of today's sermon is not to argue for the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as important as that is, but I actually preached that sermon a year ago, the first sermon in our Jesus among other gods series. We looked at the first half of 1 Corinthians 15. And what we did there was, we looked at the evidence, historical evidence, scriptural evidence. We looked at it all in order to show that it really is reasonable to believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. In fact, that's the most probable explanation for what happened in the first three centuries after the birth of Christ.

But the goal today is not to convince you that Jesus rose from the dead. The goal today is to ask, why does it even matter? And that's what Paul focuses on in the second half of the chapter. That's what we're going to be looking at this morning.

So three big ideas, three points that we're going to be looking at today is, first of all in Christ, we as Christians, we have hope and a life after life after death. And Paul is going to show us that this life after life after death, is immaculately immortal. And thirdly, it is also presently significant. So if you have your Bibles open up to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'd love to have you follow along. There's a lot of text today. And we're going to be looking at verse 35 through 58. If you don't have a Bible, the words will be up here on the screen.

1 Corinthians 15, starting at verse 35. But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" You foolish person. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there's a natural body, there's also a spiritual body. Thus it is written. The first man, Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, when the mortal puts on immortality, then she'll come to pass, the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.

And this is the reading of God's Holy word for us this morning. Point number one: Life after life after death. What if I told you that not all Christians go to heaven? What if I told you that you and I will not be spending eternity in heaven? Obviously I'm trying to be provocative here. It is true that Christians go to heaven when they die, but it's not true to say that that's where scripture leaves it. It has more to say.

Paul told the Philippians, "For me to live as Christ, then to die is gain." Because if I die, I go to be with Jesus in heaven. But the full hope of scripture is not merely in life after death. The full hope of scripture is not that we would escape from these physical bodies and that our souls would fly away to some ethereal existence for the rest of eternity. The full hope of scripture is in full redemption, which means bodily resurrection, and new creation. There's a life after life after death that we look forward to. And so Paul says, "When Christ returns, the dead will be raised." And those Christians who are still alive, they will be transformed, and the broader scope of scripture shows us, to inherit the new earth, the new creation.

This is important because this is a very common misconception that people have about Christianity. Myself included, most of us, what we grew up.... When we think about eternity, when we think about heaven, most of our ideas come more from like Renaissance paintings or even episodes of the Simpsons than they do from scripture. Like we picture ourselves floating around on clouds, playing harps with like angels wings, and that's not what we see.

This is important. If the gospel is an evacuation plan, where our bodies die and our souls escape this mortal coil to spend eternity in some ethereal existence, that presents a few problems.

First of all, if that's the truth, why does anything I do right now in my body, in this life, matter. It results in this dualism that was present in Paul's day, and that's why he's writing this. But this dualism that, well, the spiritual is good, and that's what matters, and the physical is bad, and it's inconsequential. But that's not Christianity. God's creation is good.

Second, if this is true, then wouldn't that mean that death kind of won, and that God kind of lost. The gospel's not an evacuation plan. It's about redemption. It's about victory. Jesus came, he took on flesh, he lived and he died, not so that he could cut his losses and go home. He didn't come just to deflect death. He came to face it head on, experience, and defeat death, to turn it back upon itself and destroy it. Total victory. That's what Paul is writing about. He's trying to correct this dualism that was influencing that culture.

Because at the time, the idea of a bodily resurrection from the dead was just utter nonsense in the pagan world. But for Paul, it was absolutely essential to the gospel. And so what would happen is, people would scoff at Christians, they would ridicule, they would mock Christians for their belief in a resurrection of the dead because they would say things like, "Well, hold on, hold on, first of all, dead people don't come back to life. I've never met a dead person who's come back to life." Of course, the Christians could say, "Well, yeah, but I kind of know a guy. You should meet him." But more so, what they would say is like, "We know, we know what happens. It doesn't take very long before a body begins to decompose. It rots away and given enough time, it turns to dust. How are you gonna raise that up?"

And then if they were, you know, more cruel, they'd say, "What of your Christians that we've burned at the stake, whose bodies have become ash and floated away in the wind? What of those that we fed to our beasts? There is no body left to raise. So how is your God going to do that?"

And Paul says, "Don't be so foolish." Jesus isn't going to come back just to resuscitate our corpses into some kind of zombie apocalypse. That's not what we're talking about. He's coming back to recreate, new creation. He's not just going to resuscitate us, he's going to resurrect us and those are very different things.

And so to help us wrap our minds around this, Paul gives us an illustration, and this is what he says in verse 35, he says, "Some are going to ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of bodies do they come?" And his answer, "You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain."

A few years ago, I was visiting San Francisco, and while I was there, I got the opportunity to spend an afternoon in the Muir Woods, one of the famous redwood forests in the area. And if you've ever been there, it's just, it's a very surreal experience. Like as soon as you get out of your car, the first thing you notice is the air just has... just the smell of it smells like life, and it's just hard to explain there's this sweetness in the air.

But then as you begin to walk into the woods, you're just awestruck by how massively impressive these trees are. And you go there, and I remember, I took so many pictures that day, and just none of them could do justice to what I saw with my eyes. And while I was there, I learned that the largest redwoods today, are as tall as a 37 story building, and that in the past they've been known to get as tall as 400 feet. But just to put that into perspective, if you look at the pinnacle of the dome, we're talking about something four times higher than that. And not only that, these trees are extremely old. Like some of these trees are up to 2500 years old, meaning that they started their life and they started growing before Jesus was even born. And they're still alive growing to this day. It's just, a very surreal experience.

And as I was walking through these woods, if you've been there, you probably saw this, but you come to this place called the Cathedral Grove. And there's a sign that says, "Everyone who enters, remain silent as you walk through this section of the forest." And there's kind of this semi-circle of trees that reach up, and they kind of resemble like a Gothic cathedral. And I said, "Well, if God planted a cathedral here, this is as good a place as any to just kind of like camp out for a while and spend some time." I spent some time praying. And so that's what I did.

And after a while, I'm looking down, and I realized just everywhere I look, the ground is just absolutely covered with thousands and thousands of these. I don't often use visual aids, but when I do, they're too small for you to even see what they are, so. But what this is, it's a pine cone. It's like barely larger than a penny, and it had fallen from one of these trees. Inside this tiny little pine cone, are 50 to 60 redwood seeds. Like theoretically I'm holding a redwood forest right here in the tips of my fingers. And you put a seed in the ground and then it comes back up. But it doesn't come back up as it was. And yet it's still itself. It's still the seed, but it's undergone this glorious transformation, and it's still what it was. It's still itself, but it's now so much more of itself.

And Paul's trying to help us. I think in some sense, this is what we're talking about with the resurrection. When Jesus returns, he's not merely going to bring our dead bodies back to life. He's not merely going to put an end to trials and temptations, to the sufferings and the weaknesses that we experience in this life. He's not even merely going to fix things up and make them the way they were before the fall. What scripture shows us is actually far bigger and better than that. The hope of scripture is that he's actually going to redeem and recreate creation in such a way, that what is found, is now more valuable for having once been lost. That what is restored, is now more precious and beautiful for having once been broken, better than it was before.

You think about the Bible, Genesis to Revelation. The book of Genesis opens with the creation account, and we see two people in paradise with God. But when you get to the end of the book of revelation, it's not just a return to Eden. It's not just two people in paradise with God. Now Eden is surrounded by this radiant, glorious city, filled with a multitude of people greater than anyone can count from every tribe, tongue, and nation, from all the corners of the earth, brought together, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, worshiping God. It says that heaven and earth have become one, and we're told that God is going to dwell with his people forever.

As Christians, we have a hope in life after death, but we need to understand that even more significantly, we have a hope in a resurrected life after life after death. And as Paul goes on, he goes into more detail to give us a glimpse of just how immaculately immortal these resurrected bodies will be. Immaculate in the sense that they're pure, they're clean, they're holy. They are completely without sin. And immortal in the sense that they're eternal, imperishable, powerful, glorious. This is what he says in verse 42, "So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It's raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. And if there is a natural body, there's also a spiritual body."

Thus it is written. The first man, Adam, became a living being, the last Adam, referring to Jesus Christ became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

When you read the gospel accounts of Jesus' resurrection, there's like all this weird like trippy stuff that happens to him, right, in his resurrected body. Like sometimes people see him, and they recognize him right away. Other times he'll spend a few hours with someone, and it's as if his identity is being concealed. There's times where it seems like he's teleporting from place to place. He walks through locked doors, through walls, and then as soon as everyone starts freaking out and saying, "Oh, it's a ghost." He says, "Hold on, I'm not a ghost. Come here." Said, "Put your finger in my hand. Put your hand in my wounded side. I'm real. I'm here. I have a body. But it's one full of surprises."

And this section, it can be a little bit confusing, because if Paul is trying to argue for a bodily physical resurrection, then why all of a sudden is he talking about us being raised in spiritual bodies? It almost seems like he's contradicting himself. Well, he's not. What he's doing is he's expanding on this idea that he hinted that with the seed and the plant, and he's trying to reveal some of the specific ways in which these bodies are going to be transformed, in which they're going to be different.

And so the first thing we need to understand is what he means by natural and spiritual. He's not saying that right now we have a body, but then we're going to be spending eternity as disembodied spirits. There's still a body. The focus is on what kind of body, and the distinction is between the natural and the spiritual. And so right now we have what he calls natural bodies. We have bodies that are born with a sinful nature, inherited from the fall. And because of this, our bodies are perishable, they are weak, they are corrupted, and Paul says, "They bear the image of Adam, the man of dust."

Now, when Christ returns, it's not that we're not going to have a body, or use for a body any longer. It's that we're going to have what he calls a spiritual body, and the emphasis is on this. It's that it's going to be a body that is so perfectly filled, and energized with the Holy Spirit of God, that we will be bearing the image of Jesus, the man of heaven. Just try to imagine what this means. Like for those in Christ, in eternity, you will be so filled with the Holy Spirit, so filled with the love and the presence and the joy and the power of God, that not only will you never sin again, but your immediate constant internal inclination in every circumstance will be to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And the same is going to be true for everyone else there. Shame replaced with glory, weakness, replaced with power, sickness and death, replaced with eternal vitality in life, sin and temptation replaced with holiness and with a deep unshakable abiding satisfaction in Jesus Christ.

This is amazing. I'd encourage you, just seriously, just carve some time out this week, and just think about that. Try to wrap your mind around that. As you do though, realize that that's not where Paul ends. He doesn't stop there. In fact, the big idea is not just that this is how things are going to be some time in the future, and so we might as well just kill some time now until we get there. The goal, the big idea, is that when Jesus saves us right now, that same Holy Spirit begins to dwell in us right now, and we are empowered and gifted in that spirit right now, so that we can begin living in alignment with that glorious future right now.

Now, do we do that perfectly? No, obviously, of course not. We still have that sinful nature alive in us, and it is at war against the spirit within us. But what this means is we get up every day and we fight. We repent. We rely on God's grace, and we strive. We strive to put sin to death in our body. We strive to walk in the Holy Spirit. We strive to keep our eyes fixed on Christ, fixed on this hope, knowing that everything we do right now is presently and eternally significant. And that brings us to point three.

At the beginning of chapter 15, near the beginning, Paul says this, in verse 10, says, "By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." And then at end of the chapter, after laying out this rich theology of the resurrection, he concludes with this in verse 58, "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor, your labor is not in vain."

Life in Christ is an inverted Ecclesiastes, where nothing is vanity, everything is meaningful. And compare this to what pastor Jan preached on a few weeks ago, when we looked at 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, because in chapter 13 Paul said this, said, "Listen, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give away all I have, and I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Apart from Christ, everything is nothing."

In Christ, nothing is meaningless, nothing is vanity, everything will be accounted for. And there's this... And he's trying to help us see. Everything that we do in the flesh. Everything done without faith. Everything that is not done in the spirit, motivated by God's love is vanity, and yet everything we do in faith, hope, love, by the spirit of God, is eternal. None of our work, none of our labor, none of our suffering will be in vain. Why? Because Christ's work toward us was not in vain, and he is actually the one working in us right now, empowering us. Every good thing in us is him alive, his life in us.

So your pursuit of holiness, every time you wake up and open your Bible, every time you call out to God in prayer, every time you say yes to the Holy Spirit and no to temptation, every time you lay down your life, pick up your cross, and follow Jesus, it will not go unnoticed. It will never be in vain. Your brotherly love for one another, every time you sacrificially give, every time you selflessly serve to build others up in the church, it will not go unnoticed. It will never be in vain. You're faithful perseverance, as you joyfully and patiently endure the trials and sufferings of this life, as you are insulted and slandered and mocked for your faith, and as you choose to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, it will not go unnoticed, it will never be in vain. Your bold, faithful, witness, every time you testify to what Jesus Christ has done in your life before others, every time you share the gospel, even if it seems as if it's falling on deaf ears, it will not go unnoticed. It will never be in vain.

Paul says, "Even if you lay down your life, give up your body to be burned." Listen, countless Christians in the first century, including Paul, and all the apostles, except for the apostle John, died as martyrs for their faith, because they refused to deny that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, and their deaths were not in vain. They did not go unnoticed. They did not die meaningless deaths. Jesus said, "If you lose yourself, if you die to yourself, and if you pick up your cross, and follow me, that's when I actually, for the first time in your life, you're going to see what it means to truly live, and I promise you that in the next life you will be eternally rewarded, because I have come to give life. I've come to give abundant life, eternal life, and it's a life that begins right now.

In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 5:17, Paul said this, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he will become a new creation." No, that's not what he said. He said, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold the new has come. It starts right now."

Ah, this is the last sermon in our Prodigal Church series. We've been going through the book of 1 Corinthians all summer long. And we called this series Prodigal Church, because like the infamous prodigal son, this was a church that had a lot of problems, and we've seen that every week. There's a new issue that the church is needing to deal with. That this church was young, it was arrogant, it was immature, they were short sighted and foolish. They were presuming on God's kindness and his patience and his grace. And this was a church full of sexual immorality, it was a church full of division and pride.

And Paul says, "All of that is just because at the base of it there's this overall lack of love for God and for one another." And like the prodigal son, it seems as if this church was squandering it's inheritance in Christ, and yet also like the prodigal son, this is a church that was loved by the Father and unlike the prodigal son, this was a church with an older brother who hadn't given up on them yet, who had begun a good work in them, and was going to carry it out to completion.

And so Paul comes to them and it says, if he's coming to the prodigal son in the far off country, when he's there hitting rock bottom, he says, "Listen, wake up from you're drunken stupor." Like it's time to get up. It's time to walk back home to the father. It's time to stop following Jesus half-heartedly and get all in. Every single moment of this life is significant, and every single moment will be accounted for when Jesus Christ returns. So wake up. Remember who you are. You were not saved for sin, you were saved from sin. You are saints. You are the church, the bride of Jesus Christ. You have been purchased, redeemed by his blood. You are the children of the living God. You're treasured, loved, filled, and powered by the Holy spirit and you are destined for unfathomable glory.

So you need to live a life worthy of that good news right now. Some of us, some of you, your lives are like leaves, spinning, flying, being tossed about in the wind, ungrounded, unstable, unpredictable, because you're not sure of who you are, haven't placed your identity firmly in Jesus Christ. And for some of you, this is because you've been running away from God your whole life. For some of you it's because you've been living in the world, and just trying to kind of dabble and Christianity. You're afraid to go all in because you know what it's gonna cost you to do so. And some of you have been trying to live the Christian life while continuing to dabble in the world, and you've been quenching the spirit, trying to follow Jesus in the flesh, and it's time to wake up. Jesus died for you so that through faith you could have a life in him and be filled with his spirit.

2000 years ago, God became a man that really happened. Paul saying, "Gun to my head, go ahead, I'm not going to deny it. I've seen him with my own eyes." Jesus lived a perfect life. He died for our sins. He rose in victory over Satan, sin, and death, and now he invites us to repent, to stop trying to live life in our flesh, and to trust that we can share in this victory of his, not because of something we've done to achieve it, but because of what he has done for us completely by grace, through faith in him, and his work.

If you are here this morning and you have not experienced that life, you've not given your life to Christ, you've not been filled with his Holy Spirit, I pray that you would do that today. Repent and put your faith in Jesus. And I pray right now that you just join me in prayer as we conclude this message.

Jesus, to you be all glory and power and dominion and authority and praise. In your death, you have given us life and in your resurrection you have given us eternal hope. God, I pray that you would give grace to your children, that we would be able to love you and trust you. That we would be steadfast, immovable, abounding in your work, walking in holiness. Patiently waiting, and eagerly hastening the day of Christ's return. What for those here who have not yet been reconciled to you, I pray that you would reveal yourself to them now, that you'd show them their need for a savior, that your kindness and patience would lead them to repentance, and that they would put their faith in Jesus Christ. They would experience your love today, and even now, be filled with your Holy Spirit. I ask this in the name of your son, our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.