And I'm not going to get here
until the end of the hour, but we'll read it, we'll unpack a
few things in application, and then we'll close with it. Hebrews
chapter 4. Therefore, while the promise
of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should
seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us
just as to them. But the message they heard did
not benefit them because they were not united by faith with
those who listened. For we who have believed enter
that rest as he has said, I swore in my wrath they shall not enter
my rest. Although his works were finished
from the foundation of the world, he has somewhere spoken on the
seventh day of the seventh day in this way. And God rested on
the seventh day from all of his works. And again, in this passage,
he said, they shall not enter my rest. Since, therefore, it
remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received
the good news failed to enter it because of disobedience, again
he appoints a certain day, quote, today, saying through David so
long afterward in the words already quoted, today, if you hear his
voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them
rest, God would have not spoken of another day later on. So then
there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever
has entered God's rest has also rested from his own works as
God did also from His. Let us, therefore, strive to
enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of
disobedience. For the word of God is living
and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to
the division of the soul and the spirit, of joints and of
the marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the
heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked
and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account."
Since then, We have a great high priest who has passed through
the heavens, that is Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast
our confession. For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses, but one
who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without
sin. 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. Now, this is an incredible,
explosive outcome of amazing things that Paul has written
to these Hebrew Christians. And there is so much to unpack,
for those of you who know, in the teaching that I've done through
this letter, even though we did it quickly as a reading, it probably
still took two or three months to get to this chapter. Even
more, maybe. So there's a lot there. That's
why it starts with a therefore there in chapter four. And so
we know the context of what Paul is teaching, where he talks about
those who God said will not enter my rest. We see the word disobedience,
and we understand that it's not about what they didn't do correctly
or that they did wrongly in their actions. It's about the fact
that they were not, according even to this text, as the writer
says, they did not enter in by faith. They worked, and worked,
and worked, and worked, and labored, and labored, and labored, and
strived, and strived, and strived, or strove, and strove, and strove.
I don't know which is the correct use of that. But all of these things
were true, and then they just threw their hands in the air
and said, I quit. God, you brought us out here to die. Remember
the story in the Exodus? I'd be better to be a slave in
Egypt than to have to eat this stupid bread, the manna that
came down from heaven. See, in those pictures, as we
see in John chapter 6 even, we see Jesus speaking of that where
he says, I am the bread that come down from heaven. And we
know that the people of Israel forever, they complained and
yet they followed the rules. But none of that, none of the
obedience that any human being can muster can ever give the
assurance that's necessary for us to rest in the presence of
God and his grace. Because the work of Jesus Christ
alone and only ever is sufficient to satisfy God's justice. So
when we're teaching these things like every New Testament letter
does, we're not doing this in mutual exclusivity of the gospel
of sovereign and free grace. We're not saying, oh, well, here's
another add-on. We're not adding circumcision.
We're adding submission to the grace of God through instruction. And for people who say, well,
that's not necessary. Well, it is necessary. It's not necessary
for your justification. It's not necessary for God to
say, you are my beloved child. It's not necessary for us to
be ushered in. And even some of these knuckleheads
around the world today that, you know, in their older age,
they really start pressing, well, you know, if you're 70 and you
haven't started really looking this way, then you're probably
really not born again. That's a sinful thing to say.
It's a blasphemous thing to say. It's the very thing that Paul
talks about and disavows in the writing to the churches of Galatia,
in the writing to the church of Rome, in the writing to the
church of Ephesus, in the writing to the church of Philippi and
Thessalonica. He says it is sufficient that you, as a believer, are
understanding that you are resting in the sovereignty of God by
His grace, because of His love, through the finished work, it
is finished, of Jesus Christ on the cross. That for all these
other things, as we see Jesus say, are added unto you, that
you may live a fulfilling, like Peter would tell the Jewish Christians
there in his two letters, are fulfilling and filling up a life
that is joyful, that is fruitful, and that is profitable and prudent
for not only yourself, but for your conscience and everyone
around you. everyone around you. And so what
I want you to see out of this text in Hebrews 4 today is I
want you to look at the area that I'm going to emphasize,
which starts in verse 14. because of the finished work
of Christ as a high priest to whom all other things pointed,
every act of obedience, every law, every jot, every tittle,
everything that was ever required of God's people written down
was to point to Christ and His sufficiency. Since then we have a great high
priest. who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God. Since then, Jesus Christ has
come through the heavens as our high priest. Let us hold fast. To what? Our confession. What
is a confession? Is that a statement of the truth? A confession is not a lie. A
confession is an outward glory. This is who I am. I rest. It's not an intellectualism.
It's not an academics. It's not an understanding. It's
not a theological principles. The gospel is not theological
principles. The gospel is Jesus and the theological principles
and the precepts of the scripture and the propositions of scripture
show who he is. But God, the spirit causes us
to believe them. And then some smart folks can
come along and cause us to doubt them. And God, the spirit will
bring us back to the center. Jesus Christ, We hold fast to
our confession of Jesus, his word, not our confession. Our
confession is worthless. Our confession is powerless.
Our faith is powerless. It does nothing. But hold on
to that and the one who has done everything. See how simple that
is. It actually, for me, as long
as I've been studying, as long as I've been alive, and as long
as I've been working through these things on my own, it still
scratches against my humanity. It scratches against the wall
of sufficiency, the wall of discipline, the wall of stoicism, which I
love to climb. But it's not. For me to figure
out how I rest, it's for me to rest in the resting of Christ
and the sufficiency of Christ. And that's a divine work. It
only happens when we free fall, when we free fall into the promises
of God. 4, verse 15, which is really the
focus of today's topic. Verse 15, we do not have a high
priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Because
isn't that always the excuse? Yeah, but God, you don't understand.
He does understand. He more than understands. He's
experienced it firsthand. Not that he needed to, but he
has. He can sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are. Tempted
to what? Not believe the promises of the Father? Tempted to think, well, what
if this doesn't pan out the way I planned it? Tempted to even
think, and I'm putting words in the mouth of Jesus right now,
but just for the sake of fun. Tempting to maybe even think,
have I relinquished my sovereignty? He didn't know that. He didn't
think that. But I mean, think about it. In his humanity, we don't
know what God the Son has done in his humanity. We can't fathom
that. We can't understand how he learned
and grew and understood and became set apart through obedience and
learned to talk and to walk. And he's the creator of all these
things. We can't understand how he created a body for himself. And this isn't the point. And
all these apologists who have all these right answers, they're
really wasting breath. This is not the point. This doesn't
make me want to worship. It makes me want to work harder
to figure it out more and to get into all these other areas
that could probably help me peel back the layers and look and
find the man behind the curtain that makes it all work. I have.
His name is Jesus. I don't need to understand the
orchestration and the organism and the organization of everything
that he has done. I just need to look at him. Son of God be lifted up as Moses
lifted the serpent in the wilderness and all who look upon him will
live. What kind of gaze did it take, you know? Do we need to
understand about the cones of the eyes and the way the thing
worked and the light and refraction? Do we need to? I mean, I read
Psalm 139 and the psalmist there, David, says, even in the darkness
it is light for you. And if that doesn't resonate
with creation, doesn't resonate in your heart, in your mind,
I pray that the Lord will give you the zeal to get into the
word and just eat it. Quit studying the Bible so hard
in the context of our culture and just eat it. Just enjoy it
for the first time and quit worrying about the recipe. You ever gone
to a really nice restaurant and you order something that you
eat everywhere else. And you know, it's like your
anniversary or whatever, and you've paid way too much for
this piece of meat, but you slice into it and just the look of
it, you forget about what you're eating. You just go, and you
put it in your mouth and you're like, your eyes are closed. You're
probably chewing when your mouth opens, stuff running down your
beard. Just enjoy it, just sit there
and Quit trying to pick it apart. I wonder what season that is.
I better write this down. And I'm going to just eat it.
You know, we need to be in the word of God in that way that
we are consumed by it. And then when we have some free
time, we can just dissect it. And we'll find that the dissection
is not very appealing. Even by the name dissection,
it should bring some images that are not nice to your brain. I
don't think you should do that in the context of scripture either. He has been tempted in every
way. Well, what about this? Yes, that.
Whatever you're thinking of, yes. Has he been tempted to do
this? Absolutely. Has he been tempted?
Because what is temptation except to not rest in the promises of
God? Every single, find one that isn't that, please, because I've
tried. I went through every possible
sin that I could even muster to even know that I do and ask
myself, what is this but not? not resting in the promises of
God. Because everything that is sinful for me is just a way
of me trying to meet a need emotionally, physically, financial, whatever.
It doesn't matter. It's a way of me trying to meet
a need for me that God has already promised to me. And Jesus Christ has sinned not
in that temptation. Let us then, verse 16, with great
confidence I mean, there's no doubt, I know, draw near to the
throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. When is our time of need right
now, right, excuse me, right now? Our time of need is right
now. Our time of need is in two seconds,
in one minute, in a day, in a week, in a month, in a year, in a decade,
in a century, and so on and so forth. Our time of need is every
breath. Sometimes we don't even know it. Sometimes we feel so
confident. We feel so assured of ourself and our standing and
everything and our plans and everything that we see. We know
and we're so we're so organized in our confidence. But yet we
should not have confidence in that because it just takes a
breath in every moment, especially times where we don't think we
are in need. We are in the greatest need. We're in the greatest need
of God's sovereignty operating over our lives. But the trouble
is that we think that Christian living is walking around interjecting
scripture passages into conversations. Would you like plastic or paper?
Oh, the Lord says that the world declares the handiwork of his
hands, and I don't want to mess it up, so paper. I mean, that's
neat. But that's not Christian living.
That's when you leave, people go, what was he talking about? And if you do that, that's fine,
but that's not the point. It's not for everybody to do.
That's fine. I know some people like that. I know some people
are going to say Jesus in the middle of everything. A Christian living is by faith,
by the spirit, applying the scripture in every conversation, in every
situation, in every circumstance. Sometimes without the knowledge
of anybody else around us. And you just can't get away from
the gospel, right? But you can surely become a geek of the gospel,
a nerd of the gospel, a student of the gospel. I'd rather be
a worshiper of the one who is the good report. Nothing wrong
with these things, but beloved, you know what I'm talking about.
They take precedence over being. Our time of need is now. And
so I told you I was going to be talking about persecution,
talking about suffering. And I've decided just to focus
in this premise and this idea that Jesus Christ suffered greatly.
And the scripture teaches us in many ways that we suffer as
he suffered. And I would just say this because
I don't need a sermon to fix the error of what some people
have applied to what they think is persecution. When we are persecuted for quiet,
resolved hope, We are being persecuted for Christ. We are persecuted
because of our loud platforms. We are being persecuted because
of our loudness. Name one loud platform that Christ
was known for in the New Testament. I didn't think so. Where did
he get persecuted? When he quoted the scripture.
in Luke's gospel. It's one of my favorite places
to see this. When he quoted the scripture in Luke's gospel, and
a matter of fact, I might have even said something about this
last week. If I did, I apologize. You're going to hear it again. And he goes into the temple. Oh, there it is. And he says to them, he reads
the scroll of Isaiah, he talks about the year of Jubilee, he
talks about the restoration and all these things. And the scripture says that everybody
was in awe with what he was saying. They were hung on every word.
And they were hearing the words and they were going, oh, wow,
this is for us. And then Jesus says, but it's not for you. The God of the universe said
that he's the word and he spoke the words and then they were
excited because they were entitled to the words. And then he says,
no, you're not entitled to the words. It's not for you. And just like God shut up the
wounds of these and didn't pour rain here and destroyed the kingdoms
over here and he could have added all sorts of things like Nebuchadnezzar. Such is it for you because you
think it's for you. It's not for you. And what do
they do? They try to push him off the
cliff and kill him. So he walked supernaturally through the crowd,
just like he walked through the wall to present himself to the
disciples in the upper room, through the locked door. And when it comes to these things,
we know that Jesus was persecuted not for the platforms that he
stood on, but for the promises that he made, for the humility
that he had. Oh, look at you, you're gonna
save yourself, right? See, that was prophesied. Oh, you think you're something
else. No, I'm just, I'm nothing. I'm just speaking the Father's
words. How dare you claim to be speaking for God? But I mean,
even if one of us were called to be prophets, I mean, come
on, ladies and gentlemen. Would we not flout that prophet title?
We'd probably get a T-shirt made, probably start a Facebook group.
Probably have a website, sticker on the back of the car, da prof. I mean, you know, I had some
professors in seminary that they'd have done well to take that approach.
But yeah, we wouldn't have come in there humbly. I mean, I always,
always, you know, growing up and being younger, I'm still
young, but I'm not younger. You know, you think, I just want
to be Jeremiah. I just want to be like Jeremiah. I feel like
Jeremiah. I'm not Jeremiah, I'm Jonah.
I'm Jonah all day long, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. I'll be
Jonah when I'm 70. I'll be Jonah when I'm 90. I'll be Jonah. I'll
be Jonah. Now, by the mercy of God, I've
gained some wisdom to see that and go, oh, okay. You know, I
got the 2% wisdom, so I got the 98% to go. I got the 2% wisdom
to know that I need to just arrest that, and I need to breathe a
little bit, and I need to focus, I need to pray, and do the things
that are good for me so that it would be good for God's people,
and then everybody goes, yeah, that's what I thought, just gonna
lay down. I don't wanna put up a lounge chair and wait for the
fire. Let's just be honest, don't you? And then I feel bad about
it, and I feel guilty, and then I'm in a time of need that I
see when I was in a time of need before I ever stepped out. The joys of suffering will. The
Bible, there's so much. There's so many areas. I mean,
you know, I could go into the writing where Paul says, I pray
that I may fill up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ for
your sake, for the body. And I've talked about those things.
And there's always some good theologian that's out there just
opining and just, you know, poetically really just causing us to rest
in the poetry of suffering and know that, oh man, we're This
is powerful, it's got some teeth, there's a purpose in it. And
that's good, and you should know that. But I think you know that
already, right? So this morning, I want you to see the joys of
suffering well. Not just that you should suffer
well, we know that. But the joys of suffering well. The joys of
suffering well. Paul tells the church of Philippi,
he says, you know, I wanna know Christ. Yes, to know the power
of his resurrection and participate in his sufferings, becoming like
him in his death. I mean, when you hear people
say that, it's sort of like, what was it, Thomas? After Jesus
was gonna go, we see in John's narrative that Thomas, they're
like, Jesus, you can't go, you can't go there, you can't go
to town because they're looking for you, they're trying to kill
you. He's like, dude, I'm going. And so Thomas goes, well, I'm
just gonna die with him. That's what he says, because
that's all he could fathom. That's not what Paul's talking
about in Philippians. I'm just going to die for him. Paul's
like, I'm just going to live for him in the midst of chaos,
in the midst of rejection, in the midst of hatred, in the midst
of false accusation, in the midst of error and mistakes and lack
of wisdom on my part, Romans 6 and 7. Don't pretend like these
disciples weren't men who had it all right, who didn't have
problems. They had a lot wrong. but the truth they knew was spiritually
given without error. Don't even think the application.
That's why Paul was brave enough to say in later writings, this
is not me telling you the Lord's telling you, this is just me
giving you some advice. Don't take this to the bank. See, if
most pastors would say, don't take this to the bank, this is
how I would handle it, but you know, you got to decide. But
that's not how Christian culture has given us answers. This is
God's way and God's way only. I mean, you know, And I've been
a proponent of perpetrating that abuse. Didn't know it. But suffering. Peter even mentions
this, but rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings
of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
So the sufferings of Christ was when he quietly resolved to trust
in the Father and spoke the Father's truth. Not in theological divisions,
not in the distinctions that were polarizing, but in really
this passive way of just expressing himself humbly for the sake of
those who had ears to hear to hear. But it enrages those who
don't have ears to hear because they're going to impose on you.
So if we suffer as Christ suffered, we suffer only for the same reasons
He suffered. Beloved, there's not a cultural,
political, or social issue that Christians are suffering for
right now or because of. It's nonsense. It's not there.
And if you want to talk privately about that or in small groups,
I'm happy to do it. We'll open the Bible. We'll talk
about the thing. But I tell you where Christians
are, or so-called Christians are suffering, because they claim
to have the divine love of God. through grace, but they hate
everybody and they hate everything. And they're known for what they
hate. They're known for what they don't believe. They're known for what they're
not going to do. And quite honestly, it's exhausting. And it's not
found in scripture. It's found in culture. It's found
in history. But if there's one thing we know
about history of humanity, it's always wrong. It's an evidence
of what we've always messed up on. inasmuch as you participate in
the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when
his glory is revealed. We identify with Christ when we suffer. That's
how we, that's the joy, that's one of the joys of suffering
well. We identify with Christ. Now think about it for a second. And I'll talk about identifying
with others in a second. But we identify with Christ because
suffering allows us to enter into a deeper communion with
Christ. to sit in a place of going, okay, this is the God
who created me, who became like me and suffered for me. I want
you to personalize the gospel that way. I want you to personalize
Christ's mission in that context. That's why we have the synoptics,
the Matthew, Mark, and Luke gospel accounts, and they sort of go
together with story. But we have the gospel of John,
and the gospel of John is different in many ways, but one particular
way that it's different is that John records a lot of one-on-one
conversations that Jesus had with people, with individuals.
And there were more people that he talked to individually than
we'll ever see. Just like there are more sermons
that he did broadly that will never be written down. And so that is okay because Jesus
spoke to one-on-one people. He went to the pool of Bethesda
and healed one man out of thousands and got up and vanished. The
Bible says he vanished because there were many invalids there.
Because, I mean, you can imagine what happened. There's this 38-year-old
man who's never walked, just stood up and ran away. And there's
this Jesus standing there. There's this guy going, oh, no.
I mean, he would have been like a zombie attack. I mean, it would
have been rough. And his purpose there was not
to give them all legs. His purpose there was to submit
to the will of the Father and to reveal the Father's gospel
so that this man would go back to the Pharisees to show the
insufficiency and the blasphemy of religious
leaders and their laws, their culture. And it's only by grace
Christ has set us free. See, we grow in faith, and suffering
tests that faith and refines that faith. I mean, it's easy
to believe when there's no reason to believe. It's easy to trust
when there's no reason to trust. It's easy to, you know, do things. I mean, you may have a business
and it may be doing well, and when things are going well, you
don't even hardly worry about it. But when things get bad,
it even starts to suffer. Your performance starts to suffer
because you're scared of something, all right? The same thing is
true spiritually. Suffering refines us, leads us to a stronger commitment
to being a follower of Christ. It deepens our relationship with
Christ. It helps us recognize that suffering can bring us closer
to the Lord. Embracing it as an opportunity to grow and to
be comforted and to share the testimony. Utilizing personal
suffering as a testimony of faith, and more importantly, the testimony
of the faithfulness of God who cannot deny himself. And that
leads me to my second way, or second joy of suffering, and
that suffering helps us identify with others in empathy and sympathy.
The scripture says that Jesus sympathizes us with us in our
weaknesses because he's gone through every temptation in those
weaknesses. 2 Corinthians, he comforts us,
this is chapter 1, verse 4, he comforts us in all our troubles
so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort
we ourselves receive from God. Hebrews 4, 15, we do not have
a high priest who is unable, what does it say there? But who
in every, what does it say? In some ways, no, every way. Understands us, feels us, knows
us, and in a greater way, because he has not sinned, he has not
sinned. So what does this teach us? That
in our building of relationships, these personal experiences of
suffering helps us relate to other people. We can give support
to others. We can give encouragement. We
can love people. We can minister to others in ways that people
who have not experienced it can minister to them. I mean, I've
got formal education and counseling and some psychological things
and some other stuff and theological stuff and epistemology and application,
all these different things. And there's a lot to say to someone
when they come and say, I have X. And you go, okay, X. You go
to the database of X. But until you've experienced
it, you don't even know what the heck you're talking about.
And the best counsel is to go, I do not know how you feel. Here's
a couple of ropes to pull and a couple of harnesses to carry.
And by golly, I'll walk with you. But until you slide off
that mountain, Until you fall into that hole, until you find
that darkness, until you felt that pain, you cannot truly understand. You can understand someone's
pain, but you can't understand the journey in it. You can understand
that someone is hurting, but you can't feel what that hurt's
like. So our suffering, it opens it up for us to actually
not, not feel like we know it all. It cultivates compassion. What
does that do? What does that mean? It means
it educates our heart to feel for others. It nurtures empathy
and compassion within the community of Christ's suffering. But you see, culture has lied
to us, hasn't it? Christian culture has said a
good Christian is one that's always happy, always holy, always
healthy. But life isn't like that. And
beloved, think of the most solid Christian you know that's got
it all together and you would say, I would love for my life
to be like theirs. If God made you a fly for a day,
how horrible. you would be aghast at the reality
of that life. If we could focus and peer into
the thoughts and the fears and the stresses and the anxieties
of other people that we think have it all together, if you
could have peered, if we could peer into their hearts, our head
would probably just pop off our neck and roll down the alley. What happened? He saw the truth
of me and his head flew off. We're all the same. And those
of us who posture are typically worse off than those who are
constantly, you know, don't really have it together. Why is it important to identify
with others and empathize and sympathize? Because that's a
demonstration of God's love. It says there Christ has sympathy
for his people. It produces opportunities to
show the love of Christ by comforting them, embodying, living out,
being present, the call for us to love one another. How are we going to do that?
We've got to build relationships with intention. We don't need to build relationships
based on obligation according to the last
25 years of examples. You ever had that laid on you?
Well, you must not love me because you didn't do this, you didn't
do that, you didn't say this, you weren't here during this
time. Well, how about I love you based
on the giftedness that God's given me? And you love based
on the giftedness God's given you. I talked about that last
week. If we all have the same gifts, we're worthless. If we're
all a bag of eyeballs or a bag of toenails, I mean, who wants
that? Gross! Nobody wants that. I'm glad I've
got two eyes, but I don't want three. I certainly don't want six. I'd
look like an angel. I've seen those drawings. The third joy of suffering well
is that suffering gains wisdom and insight on how to serve others. James commands us, consider it
pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any
kind, consider it pure joy because you know that the testing of
your faith produces perseverance, and so on and so forth. Romans,
Paul reiterates that very same thing. The irony behind that
in an academic circle is that people try to put Romans and
James against each other in theology. They're saying the exact same
thing. Context is different. Suffering produces endurance,
endurance produces character, character produces hope. See, personal growth, refinement
of character, all these things are necessary. We've really messed
up, you know, since the big expansion, the big move over the sea, the
big pond, and the western expansion, and all the spiritual nonsense
that's grown since colonization. that we brought over here, my
ancestors. We've created this new religion. We've created all sorts of disciplines
that we love, because we love history. You know what, I love
all history. Why, because I'm nosy, I like
to know things. But I'm not a busybody, I'm not
gonna get in your business. But I love information, it's just fascinating.
I don't care if it's good information or bad information. I love, when
we travel, man, Robin will put a playlist on of the craziest,
wildest stories of antiquity. The three-toed hobbit or something
crazy. I mean, you know, it's usually some murder mystery or
some schism or something like that. I'm like, well, my goodness,
in the 1700s, man, they were bad. Were they bad in 2023? We love that stuff, but if history
doesn't show us anything, it shows us what not to do. not
to emulate the nonsense that continues to put people in a
place of not growing personally. And I'm going to say that to
say this, is that part of my role and Brother Trey's role
as elders and teachers are to instruct the church to do the
work of the ministry, which includes the individual instruction to
renew our minds, to take care of our bodies, and to do things
in a prudent and well thought out disciplined manner so that
we can grow personally. Husbands, you can't love your
wife as Christ loved the church, as your own body, if you don't
love your own body. You can't. And that's just almost a misapplication
there. We've got to take some interest
in growing personally, embracing suffering as an avenue for personal
growth and spiritual maturity. We've got to grow spiritually,
we have to grow physically, we have to grow emotionally, we
have to grow in these areas. If not, our relationships are
going to destroy themselves. And we won't be serving others. Suffering provides understanding
and wisdom on how to minister others effectively. And the wisdom
that we gain there, and the insight that we gain there, it teaches
us to creatively serve others and meet unique needs. Unique needs. Specialized needs. And some of those specialized
needs are experienced by you. Suffering, though painful, serves
as a vital aspect of Christian living. It offers means to identify
with Christ, to empathize with others, to gain wisdom for the
service and the love for others. And this paradigm encourages
us to view our hardships not as negative experiences, but
as unique experiences to grow, to live, to give. It affirms
that even in suffering, there lies a divine purpose and a pathway
to a deeper love, to understanding, and to ministry to others. So
when we embrace this, when we embrace this according to scripture,
we can transform personal suffering into a rich source of power and
blessing for ourselves and for one another. I don't know what benefit that
my teaching has been this year to you, but I will tell you that
100% of it has come from my suffering. all of it. Am I finished with my suffering?
No. I'm not out of it. But by the mercy of God, I'm
learning from it. For your sake and for mine. When it comes to emotions, When
it comes to emotions, we see the idea of Jesus when you think
about He's been tempted in every way. You know the stories, right?
You know the stories of the gospel accounts. I mean, He was born. That's trauma. Birth is trauma. You don't know
it, but it's trauma. It's tough. That's rough. He
was born in a... For a lack of really explaining
the ideas of first century livestock preparation, he was born in an
animal shed. Not a real sterile environment
like the field outside the house or, you know, the dirt floor
of the back bedroom. I don't think there's any difference,
honestly. It was more of an issue of humility that the king of
glory was born where animals were kept. rather than it being unsanitary. But he was born. He was God in
the flesh as an infant, as a toddler, as a child, as a boy, as a teenager. See, that would be a book I'd
buy. The Angst of Jesus. He had angst, but no sin. I'm
like, what? Can you do that? Is that possible? Somebody's going to write that
book. I can feel it. Fan fiction. That's most sermons on Sunday
mornings, right? Fan fiction. So I started to think about Jesus.
What was he thinking? What was he feeling? What was he feeling
when he was baptized? What was he feeling afterward
when he went into the temptation 40 days? What was he feeling
when he was confronted with the enemy? What was he feeling in
his flesh? What was he thinking in his body,
in his physical body? When he had the power and the
authority to make himself bread and eat, but he did not do so.
When he had the power and the authority to speak to rocks, to call water
from the atmosphere, he created it, but he did not do so. He had the power and the authority
to hurl himself off of the Temple Mount, yet he would not die.
I mean, you know what kind of popularity he would have gained? So I'm a Marvel fan. I was a
Marvel fan when it was in ink. And I know all the illustrators,
their names, their stories. I know all the different editors
of all the different versions of so many of the heroes because
I went right over to that little sub shop, it was not a sub shop,
it was a soda stand in a pharmacy and I bought the new release
of several comics every single week. There's always something powerful
about this hero that looked like us and lived like us but they
could fall from the sky and land on the ground. It's like, wow,
that's pretty impressive. See, Jesus would have been impressive,
but the Bible says to Isaiah, God says that he was not impressive
to even look at. He was not a handsome fella,
wasn't at all, wasn't Thor-ish, you know? Didn't have that blue-eyed,
blonde-haired look that we see in those pictures. Not much of nothing. But man,
had he jumped off the Temple Mount and just landed, did you
see that guy? Do it again. I mean, you know,
people would have followed him to the moon. And he could have
taken them. But he did it. Because it wasn't
about his self-glory and his fame. It wasn't about proving
God's sufficiency. See, I'm making jokes about that.
But it wasn't about proving God's promises. You don't have to prove
them. And he was taken out to whatever
place and giving the opportunity to see the vast horizon and the
atmosphere of Jerusalem in that Palestinian place. That's where
it was, Palestine. And the enemy said, if you just
bow down before me, just bow. You don't even have to commit
anything. Just get on your knee. I just want to see the Son of
God on His knees before me. I'll give you all. The silliness
of the enemy is that all of that was owned by Jesus anyway, including
him. So his reign over any of it was
Jesus to take and give. It's just like when Jesus. But
what was he thinking? What was he feeling? What emotions were there? See,
this is where I waste so much time. Wonder if he. And I have a talk about it. I'm
like, holy cow, I was trying to brush my teeth, I better,
see? What was he feeling when he preached
to his own people and they tried to kill him? What was he feeling
when he would share the truth? What was he thinking when he said to Judas Iscariot,
go and do what you're gonna do? What was he thinking when he
prayed in the garden We know what he was thinking there. We
know what he was feeling there. He came back out and said, I'm
in angst. I'm in terror. I'm about to die in my flesh
from the stress, from the anxiety. I didn't know what anxiety was
until really last year. Look, am I having a heart attack? Do I have a tumor? What is happening
to me? Oh, I can't breathe. Oh my God,
I don't know what's going on. It's called panic. And you know
what is over? You don't know. That's why it's
panic. Anxiety. And some of you have
shared with me that you've had the same experiences in the last
year or so. What was Jesus thinking? Look
at the temptation. What do we do there? We escape.
We fight, we freeze, we get upset, we get withdrawn, we do all sorts
of things. He did none of that. He stood
still and he accepted the call of the Father for us. And he
walked out and said, Behold, my accuser comes. So if Jesus expressly shows that
he sympathizes with us in our weakness, one of those weaknesses,
and I think is the root of all of them, is what we think and
what we feel in our minds and bodies. Yet the Christian culture
has put all of that under a rug, rolled it up, swept it back in
the rug, because if you roll it up, it's on the ground still.
So you have to put it in the middle of the rug, then roll
the rug up, and then throw the rug off a cliff. Where's the
rug? Don't talk about the rug. We
don't need a rug. But I put some dust. The dust did not exist.
You don't know what you're talking about. That's called spiritual
gaslighting. No, we need to talk about these
things. We need to learn and get instruction in these things.
And we need to be discriminating and discerning with what we hear
according to the scripture if it's us inferring things or imposing
things or if it's truly there. So do that today. Don't take
my word for what I'm saying. I could be crazy. on this issue. The Bible says Jesus sympathizes
with us in every way and sin not. And the narrative shows
us many ways in which Jesus suffered. Then the apostles came along
and they suffered in the same way for the same purpose, trying
to live in peace, trying to just proclaim the gospel, trying to
get into the communities of people who wanted to hear it and learn
more about it and live it out effectively. And people wouldn't
leave them alone. So there's some four-part application
as we close this out today about this emotion. Understanding and
managing emotions. I mean, Galatians 5.22. I think there are emotions and
feelings. Kindness. Yeah, can we apply
that? Absolutely. Peace, love, gentleness. I mean, when I'm ready to bust
down a wall, I'm not thinking about gentleness. When I'm hating
on somebody, I'm not thinking about kindness. I mean, Solomon
had some things to say about that in his writing to Lemuel, Proverbs 17, I think
it is. Sometimes I quote things and
they're completely in the wrong. I quote something I think is
in Proverbs and it's in Ecclesiastes. It doesn't matter. The Bible
stands on its own. Paul did the same thing just then. It's written
somewhere that this and then somewhere else is written there.
It doesn't really matter the address. Whoever restrains his
words has knowledge, but he who has a cool spirit is a man of
understanding. And that's the exact opposite
of what we're being taught to be as people. The Bible emphasizes self-control,
patience, peace. Christians are called to emulate
the character of Christ because we have the mind of Christ. Though
he was God, he did not take God something to be made much of,
but he became nothing, a slave, obedient unto death, even as
a criminal on a cross. There we go. We reflect the love
and the compassion of Christ in every circumstance. And that
requires patience. Patience is birthed out of emotional
intelligence. Understanding what we're feeling
and thinking and working to act accordingly rather than letting
emotions drive us. I went and let my grandson drive
the golf cart the other day. Didn't even know he'd want to.
We were riding around and all of a sudden the whole thing just
goes left. What? He reached up and went,
Like, yep, you're not going to have to drive now so I'm holding
him up here, you know, to get back home. You don't let children
drive. You don't let your emotions drive
either. You don't let your thoughts drive. You drive them. This requires
an understanding about how we think and feel. It requires management
of what we feel, not merely an intellectual grasp. So we need to engage in personal
reflection. We need to think. We need to pray. We need to seek
the Holy Spirit's guidance in helping us identify what we feel
and control our emotions. We need to strive to model Christ's
patience in love and personal interactions. Second out of the
four, we need to understand empathy. This is huge for me. We need
to identify with others through compassion. Rejoice with those
who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. And
I have a bad habit, and we had this conversation very recently.
Someone tells me something, I want to say I'm sorry. Sometimes it's
just better to say nothing and to listen, you know? Empathy,
compassion. But we get into practices that
aren't necessarily effective. And that's just an example. Weeping with those who weep,
rejoicing with those who rejoice. It's not always about trying
to fix the issue or help someone through it. Sometimes it's just
being there with them. I'm here, I hear you. Jesus' ministry was
marked by empathy and compassion. Emotional intelligence then demands
an ability to understand and feel what others are experiencing.
Because if we aren't doing that, if we're not, listen to me, if
we're not growing to understand and experience what other people
are feeling, then we're not really understanding the mind of Christ.
He sympathizes with us in all things. So we've got to make intentional
efforts to listen, to empathize with other people's feelings
and give support and love. Consider their suffering as joys,
like your own suffering, as an opportunity to reflect Christ's
empathy. I have a horrible empathy response.
It's hyper. And it comes off sometimes as
taking things personal, but it's not. It's overwhelming. When
I see a report on the news that there's somebody got shot, or
there's a war, or there's a fire like is going on, I just, I go
through this little script in my head, and their suffering
is so real. And I could right now open my
mind and make up a scenario about someone in pain, and it could
destroy me if I wanted it to. It's a curse. Or is it? It's
a joy. Suffering is an opportunity.
We're not going to escape it, right? How many times have I
said that? Third application. Wisdom in relationships. Serving
others through emotional insight. The scripture says that wisdom
from above is peaceable and gentle. James says that. Paul says, look
after not only your own interests, you look after those, but also
the interests of others, Philippians 2. So emotional intelligence means
employing wisdom in relationships, recognizing the needs of others
and the way they feel and think, and responding with Christ-like
gentleness and respect. So how do we do that? We cultivate
emotional insight. We study the life and the teachings
of Jesus. We listen and we pay attention to the lives of others.
We understand that just as we do, posture this all's well attitude
that others are doing the same. And so even when someone doesn't
expressly share, we can go ahead and understand that there's probably
some suffering there and we can pray to that end. And if there
is something that we have gone through, that they're going through,
and we find out, we are in a great position to then what? Minister. So we practice selflessness. Placing other people's needs
as important as our own. Now, that's not able to be done.
Let me give this caveat here. That can't be done all the time.
And when we have needs, we don't need to go, oh, let me just put
mine down and then just deal with everybody else. That's a
death sentence. That's dangerous. When we're in a place where we
need to focus and we need to comfort and we need ministry,
we need to not try to overcome those needs. We need to let those
needs serve the cycle, the love cycle of the church and neighbors
and relationships. They need to work through the
cycle. We need to go through. these
experiences, at the same time knowing one day I'm going to
be able to return this. See what I'm saying? Sometimes
we get so overcome with, I've got to not worry about me, that
we actually can't help anybody because we're destroyed. Finally,
we need to grow and we need to mature. Growing in Christ through
developing our understanding of how we think and feel. Paul
talks to the Ephesians in chapter 4, he says that we are to grow
to maturity to the measure and the stature of the fullness of
Christ. So if this is the case, then the fullness of Christ is
understanding and serving and loving according to the needs
which includes our thoughts and feelings. Spiritual maturity
involves growing in emotional intelligence. And you're going
to hear me talk about this a lot in the years to come, moving
beyond just academic knowledge to really embodying Christ's
love, His empathy, and His wisdom. And beloved, I'm learning that,
but I have yet and am nowhere close to have learned it. What am I doing? I am committed
to personal emotional growth, personal physical growth. as a person, as an individual. Prayer, study, outside resources,
community, seeking mentorship and accountability and growing
in my relationship with the Lord, in my relationship with myself,
in my relationship with you. And so when these things are
true for us, when we are walking in this way, we are able to come
to a place to not quickly But eventually, we don't even know
we're there. We look around and we go, wow,
you know, I'm a little less shakable than I was a year ago. I'm in a place that I almost
feel immovable, but warn you now, you are not immovable. And beloved, believe it or not,
we are not irreplaceable. None of us are the answer. Moses
died, Joshua died, Rahab died, Ruth died. Look at all these
people in the Bible. They're not. There's always someone
else. Jesus died, but he rose again. So as we suffer in this life,
we identify with Christ, as Paul would say, then I will also identify
with him in his death. What did his death do? Listen
to this. The death of Jesus, the suffering
of Jesus, is the catalyst to life. Jesus died that we might live. He even uses this metaphor that
unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it cannot live and
produce. We are dead in the death of Christ,
that our sins are no more, that God's wrath is satisfied, that
justice reigns and that righteousness is ours because of Christ. And so when we suffer in this
life, when we suffer together, when we work together, we are
in a place of identifying with Christ, identifying with others,
growing and maturing and learning to serve in such a way that we
then begin to become personally more in touch with who we are
and who Christ is and whose we are in him that we might share
that together as the church. This might be new for you. It
may be way over the top for us to think about these things.
But beloved, we have to think about these things, because if
we're not, we don't understand when Paul says, let us then with
confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive
mercy and find grace and to help in time of need. If we don't
understand these things, we aren't understanding how to live there. Because if we're not relating
to ourselves in this way or to others in this way, then we haven't
understood how God himself has related to us in this way. And
so then our faith is always this juggled ball on fire with a lion
running after us. I mean, it's always this catastrophic
stress. And that is not what it means
to live in the church. It should not be the evangelical
way to live under bondage and fear and brokenness. but to live in the midst of all
those things that are true for the culture in freedom, and more
importantly, in joy. And I am determined to show in
the weeks to come that joy comes through contentment. And contentment comes through
the knowledge of grace. There's no other place to find
solid foundation. With all that said, Christ, who
has passed through the heavens, is our high priest, and he loves
you. How do you know? Because his
love is his death. The efficacy of that love is
his life raised again. And that is the only thing that
we have to stand on when it comes to our assurance, to our confidence,
and to our joy. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for your word. And Lord, over the last hour,
I have said many words. May yours reign true and powerful
over all my thoughts. Father, I am flawed. I am chaotic. And I am not able to see everything
or not able to see anything sometimes the way they should be. Father,
you know all things at all times. You've known us before there
was a world. In all eternity, you have known us as your people. Plant that in our hearts. Plant
that in our minds. Help us to see the application
because of the gospel of grace. to live it out. And Lord, there
are many who are running from you, running from us, running
from the world, running and trying to escape. Lord, put us in a
place that we may embrace and endure. And Father, ultimately
enjoy this life, even in the hard times, because darkness
will not overcome the light. And as we saw in your word this
morning, Lord, the darkness for you is light. You are immovable, always the Most High. And you love us with an everlasting
love that we have the confidence to approach the throne, to arrest
the worship of the angels in heaven, that you would lend your
ear to us and say, what is it, my child?