last week's thoughts relating to God's grace and His
sovereignty and our joy. Why do we worship? Think about
that for a minute. Why do we worship? Why do you
worship? Is it obligatory? Is it an obligation that you
feel compelled to do? And then if so, what is your
worship? What does worship mean? What is comprised in worship? Worship is, by definition, to
ascribe worth. That's how the word came to be,
worth-ship, to ascribe worth to something. That's why idolatry
is such a natural means of our life, it's such a natural order
of things and that we love things and we ascribe worth to things
and then we have an affection for those things and we talk
about those things and we build up those things and we share
those things and that's worship. But according to the scripture,
God alone is worthy of worship and worthy of all worship and
only He is worthy of worship. So when we worship other things,
we are taking away that which belongs to God and we're placing
it on other things. And beloved, there's no way that
it will ever cease. We will always worship our children.
We will worship our spouses. We will worship the good times.
We will worship our memories. And it's not like we're bowing
down to them, but ultimately they will come to a place where
they will be precious to us to such a degree that when they
may not be in the same place tomorrow, our joy wanes. It happens. It's the natural
reality of the consequence of the fall and the life in which
we live and the world in which we live. And we could do our
due diligence. We could walk and learn and we
could create structure and foundations of behavior and thinking. And we could really mold ourselves
into a pie of piety that would be tasteless and bland and selfish. Because then that very piety
would become our new idol. The very doctrines that we would
so passionately and boldly devour others over, even though they may be real
and true, could very much also be an idol. When we're not ascribing
worth to the one to whom they point. The New Testament was written
to teach us this. The letters that Paul wrote to the elder
Timothy, to the elder Titus, the pastoral epistles where Paul
wrote to the pastors of the churches that they may know what is good
and orderly and how to teach the church. And then as he addressed
these men, he knew that the church would hear these letters because
he commanded it of the elders to read them publicly to the
church. There was no secret conversations in the instruction to the church.
And then as the audience would hear the instruction to these
men, then Paul would say, okay, and you younger women and younger
men and older women and older men and children pay attention
because now I'm going to tell you a few things. So we have
to learn to read the context and read and hear the reality
of what the Bible is teaching as it was intended to be understood
by the very person, Timothy, who received the letter. And
then when we know it that way and when we see this instruction,
it'll inform the whole, the entirety of how we're supposed to read
the New Testament. And to begin with, it is a corrective, encouraging,
rebuking collection of letters and historical record about worshiping God as a people. By His grace, for His namesake, for His revealed
self, for His glory. So that's why we're here. We
are compelled because God is worthy. We are compelled because the
gospel is the power of God for us. Simply, grace upon grace. And so we hear these letters,
we read these letters, and it's difficult because we make application.
Well, beloved, at the minimum, the greatest application we can
have in any instruction is to worship the Lord, is to thank
Him, is to ascribe worth to Him, is to establish a place before
Him to know that it is not we who have become what He needs
us to be, but it is He who has satisfied righteousness for us. and it is His righteousness that
is credited to us. So therefore, in that reality,
in that truth, in that good report, in that historical, amazing story,
the body of Christ gets to stand righteous and worship God without
fear, without falsehood, without fakeness, depression, anger,
and anxiety, but yet it is always present. It is always present. Listen to chapter 1, 1 Timothy,
verse 12. I thank Him who has given me
strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful. appointing me to his service,
though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy, because
I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed
from me with the faith and the love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy. and
deserving of full acknowledgement. That Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received
mercy for this reason, that in me, as the most premier and wicked
foremost sinner, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience
as an example to those who are going to believe in Him for eternal
life. To the King of the ages, immortal,
invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. We'll never get out of this.
I'm telling you, we're never going to get out of this stuff. The letters are hard sometimes
to make application until we learn to hear them rightly. Slow down and listen. Let our brain stop this morning
trying to pick it apart and just, what's he mean there? How's that
line with justification? That's what we do. That's what some
of us do. Some of you don't. What are you talking about? It's
okay. Some of us do that. I do that. Slow down and just hear. Quit
trying to be the professional chef who is dipping his fingers
in the sauce and smelling and snuffing and checking the color
and just eat it and enjoy the taste, you see. Just smell it
and enjoy the experience of hearing the word of God. We don't hear
it enough. We don't hear it enough. We don't
listen enough. And because of that, we don't
understand it enough. I remember in seminary and postgraduate
studies and everything, all the different studies that we do
through the years, I remember having to write papers and outlines
on every letter in the New Testament. Exegetical outline, every letter
in the New Testament. And so I started with, you know,
Third John, stuff like that. You know, get the little ones
out of the way and then you end up with Romans and Hebrews. And
you're like, I don't know how to outline this. So you find
research and you find resources and you go, yeah, that's pretty
good. Cite it. And you think, you say, where'd
they come up with that? How'd they see that? Where'd that point
come from? You know, how does a man get
nine points out of four words? That guy's a genius. He must
have a red phone to Jesus. Hey, just give me your nine points. That's all I'm gonna give you
today. Write them down. And he writes them down. Boy, I'm gonna
really blow the church away this morning. And then y'all do what
we do. Where'd he get that? He must
be really smart. There's no sense in me listening
to the Bible or reading the Bible or studying the Bible. I'll never
get that. It's not the point. It's not how we learn to preach.
It's not how we prepare sermons. It's not what we need up here
with us. We need this. We need to listen
more. And when we listen more, God
teaches us more. And the more God teaches us,
the more we know Him, and the more intimately involved we are
with the Spirit of God, and the more the truth will satisfy our
souls in the midst of mortal hell. And some of you may be thinking,
especially you children, like, well, I don't really know what that
means. That means that life sometimes is horrible. And we say it's
like hell, but it's not. The worst thing that we could
ever experience on this earth will never be the righteous wrath
of God. Because we'll never experience
that, beloved. And at the darkest of hours, the greatest of opportunities
for us is to worship our Father, who has promised us we'd never
be condemned by Him. So that Paul, as he suffered
in great ways, greater than, I believe, any man ever has suffered
other than the Christ, he was able to say, thank you, Father. I mean, you look, Paul confesses
here. He does so also in Philippians. We're going to be in Philippians
4. You know, we're going to try to get there last week, but we didn't get there. We're
going to be in Philippians 4 for the predominant latter half of the sermon this
morning. Because it's a good carriage text for this that keeps
the tone correct. It's not a proof text. It's one
that goes alongside of it with a little more instruction. But
Paul is suffering. Timothy is suffering. The elders
are suffering, the church is suffering. You know why? Because
that's a promise. It is part of the promises of
God. It is part of the consequence
of the natural consequence of the spiritual consequence of
this world because we are fallen and we are sinful. and the world
is winding down, preparing for destruction and preparing for
renewal because of the reconciliation that is ours in Christ Jesus.
So we can see Paul and Peter, I'm gonna read some of Peter's
first epistle too, where this insanity of rejoicing and fearlessness
and boldness, which is not what we think it is in America, Being
bold is not what we think it is. Being bold is oftentimes
being silent. I have the strength to hurt people,
but we withhold that, right? We have the strength to hurt
people with our mouths, but we withhold those words. Because
we're wise and bold. And we speak the truth in love
as Christ has revealed it, not as we have disseminated it and
decided to systematize it. And so Paul, his response, as
we talked about last week, is he is thankful. He thanks God.
Paul is not the heady, superior authority that we have in our
day. Paul, his humility, I could not
touch it. I couldn't touch any humility. I am not humble. I withdraw to
prevent disaster. I want you to hear that, beloved.
When you hear me make jokes about murderous hearts, I'm not joking. I'm not joking. Paul is not haughty. He's humble. I thank Him. Paul is not living
in his own strength, his own wisdom, his own understanding,
his own academics, his own knowledge. He's not living in his own discipline. He's living by the strength of
Christ. He has given me strength. He said that also, Philippians
4, didn't he? I endure all things by the one
who is my strength. Christ Jesus, I endure all things. I stand in the midst of all things. Beloved, we give up because that's
what we can do. We quit because that's what's
easy and inevitable. Everybody has a point where they
can take no more. And just because someone else
is stronger for longer doesn't make them strong. We're weak. And I'll tell you what, we're
really, really weak in every aspect of our lives. And a lot
of times we've been taught. See, I was taught through culture.
I was taught through mentors. I was taught through positive
thinking that you just keep your chin up and you just keep walking
and you look forward to a better day. Do it. Fake it till you
make it. You ever heard that, salesman?
You know? That works till you go to the
suit store and you can't afford the nice suit. You can wax your car, but there's
no paint on it. What's the purpose, you know?
You can smile, but you have no joy. You can show up, but you're really
not here. You can be married, but you're
really not intimate. And it can go on and on and on.
There's something that's true for all of us. It's that no matter
where we are, no matter how strong we may appear, no matter how
bold in our own minds we have told ourselves we are and how
confident we feel, we're anxious. We're anxious and fearful and
struggling and bitter. Don't believe me? Are you lying to yourself? Yeah,
we do that. Well, no, I'm good. People ask
me this week, are you okay? I'm great. I'm not great. I'm not great. There is more
in my mind and on my shoulders this day that are outside of
my control than I could ever, ever shake a stick at. There
are issues that I could not foresee happening to my family in a million
years. There are some of you who are
experiencing things that I never saw myself here. And we go, why
is this happening? Why are we fearful? Why can't
I have faith? Then what's really crazy is that
this anxiety, this pressure, this buildup that comes on us,
we get the platitudes of the Christian culture. We just got
to trust God. God bless. How does that help
you? Is it true? Yes. But is it power? See, we live in a fast food society. Even when you go to a five-star
restaurant and listen, folks, I love good food. I love food
that I have to close my eyes to eat because I just want to
experience the taste. I'm a poet. I could write poetry
about the taste of certain foods. I'm not kidding. People think,
well, that's a really nice poem about his wife. No, that's about
a steak I ate. I mean, I enjoy it, but I don't
want to wait two hours for it. You see? Chip, chop, chip. Welcome to our, don't sit in
here and give me all this other stuff to eat for an hour and
a half and then come out and say, what do you want for your
main course? Take my order now. I don't care about your specials,
your soup, or your bow tie. Give me my food. I mean, you
know? Because sitting there makes me anxious. Why? Because that's the type of person
that I am. I have to watch, count. How many people left? Where's
that guy that was sitting over there? Why is his bag still on the floor?
I bet they're thinking that I'm doing something. They're probably
spitting in my food. You think I'm joking. I get a feeling like
that sometimes. I'll just stare at stuff. I can't
tell. I'm crazy, y'all. Anxious, anxiety. Anxiety has been so bad for me
over the last two years to a degree that I've never experienced that
it's shut me down mentally, emotionally, physically caused me to have
issues in my GI, to where I developed an infection, to where I developed
a lifelong now disease, that if I'm not careful, could kill
me in an hour. Talk about no stress. Well, the
reason you're having these problems, sir, is that you're too stressed.
And if you don't stop being stressed, you're going to die. Thanks. This is helping me. I appreciate
that. Just trust God. Just God bless. That doesn't
help. So what's the answer? What's the answer? God has prescribed
it. Paul's like, I thank God he's given me strength. I was
a blasphemer, I was an unbeliever, and I thought I was a believer.
I thought I knew, but I knew a lot of stuff, but I did not
know Him. But Christ knew Paul. God knew
Paul when Paul didn't know Him. And God called Paul out of darkness
and gave him sight. And God saved Paul, the worst
of sinners, in order to show his patience with his people. The worst, wicked, vile blasphemer
that you know in life, the worst false teacher that you've ever
come across may actually be the one that God is going to bring
to faith and blow your mind. And the most bold, stern, pious,
I'll never, may fall away tomorrow. It's not about us who labor,
it's about Him who is faithful and gives mercy. Christ came
to save sinners. Not every sinner, not all sinners,
but all that He saves are all sinners. We are all sinners. We are all by nature objects
of wrath. We are all enemies of God. And
then God makes His love known to us. By the Spirit. Through the hearing of the words
of Christ. Who says, I am the only way,
I am the only ultimate and all truth, and I am the life. And no one can come to God, the
Father. No one can come to righteousness.
No one can come to glory. No one can know the truth. No
one can live well enough. No one can be theologically sound
enough. No one ever, ever can be alive
if they don't come through me. And the gate through which Christ
opened to righteousness and to life is His body and His blood. And it tore down the walls of
separation. And we are at one with God the
Father in righteousness. Not of our own, but in alien
righteousness. And the perfection and the obedience
and the righteousness and the glory of Christ has been credited
to our account. And we're anxious. We're anxious. And this isn't
the first season of my life where I've had utter anxiety. It's
sort of like the norm. Wake up, brush your teeth, drink
your coffee, get anxious. It's like a little shot. The way I think is probably different
than the way you think, but the way I feel is probably different
than the way you feel. So I can't begin to know what
you're feeling or thinking, but I can promise you the outcome
is the same. It produces fear, it produces bitterness, it produces
anger, it produces self-righteousness. It produces, for some of us,
a manic expression, like, oh, everything's great, everything's
great, because we fake it. And for others, it produces a
depressive action where we just hide and surrender to the thoughts
and to the despair. And for some of us, we become
generals in an army of our own making. And we're gonna charge
through the gates of hell with a water pistol and put the fire
out. I mean, water pistols are my day. You know, you dipped
them in a bucket and they went bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop,
and you had like six shots. That'd be a good toy to bring, David.
Summertime. There we go, all you parents
are going, you're gonna die, Pastor. This is the last sermon
you'll ever preach. But now the Super Circus, you
know, $700, you gotta get a loan. That's not a water pistol. We're
gonna charge through hell, we're gonna put down the fires of the
world, we're gonna change the life of everyone, we're gonna
make a difference, and now it's over. We're not gonna make a
difference at all. Some of us are like that. Some of us are
just, we pretend like nothing's wrong, and then we put things
out of our minds, we don't wanna worry about it, we don't think
about it. You know what, I'm good, I'm gonna think about that. I'm not gonna think
about that. That's how some people act. I'm like, well, I wish I
could do that. I've learned to schedule my thinking, I really
do. I schedule it, start a timer, Apple Watch, best thing I ever
owned, because it has a timer that vibrates. I love it. I use it all day long. I got
to go do this. I'm going to do it for 30 minutes.
I'm going to do six minutes here. It's great. Don't look at me
that way. I have to schedule like that or I just get lost.
What are you doing? I'm watering the grass and I
ran out of water. The water tower is empty. And my grass is dead. Got to have a hard stop on everything. Open-ended questions becomes
verbose nonsense. Hard stop. Christ came to save
sinners, and he's going to save his people from their sin. He
has saved them, he is saving them, and he will save them. And the grace of God is established
and expressed in God's work to redeem his people. That's what
God's grace is. It's a merciful act of God that
he decreed eternally. That means it didn't have a beginning.
And in time, he established the execution of this grace by creating
the world and everything in it and separating and dividing and
showing that he is the life giver, he is the divider, he is the
gospel bringer, he is the condemnation bringer. He is the one who is
just in all righteousness and all wrath. He is life. And the point of life is that
Christ would become like us and take on flesh, just as we are
without sin, and live a life according to the righteousness
of God, as the righteousness of God, and that His death might
be satisfactory unto wrath and justice. And that's why God saved
Paul. Not for Paul. For Himself. To
the praise of His glorious grace. That's why Paul ends this little
phrase here at verse 17. That's why he ends it this way.
To the king of ages. This is a doxology. It's just
a praise. It's a worship. It's an expression of glorious
knowledge and affirmation and intimacy. I mean, gentlemen, when we're
out in public and we're at the gas station or we're out on a
date with our spouse, you know, when we see a waitress come up
and we don't thank her in a way that's inappropriate when she
refills our glasses. Thank you, you're the most beautiful
waitress I've ever seen. You're glorious, you're awesome.
I just, you know, it's just amazing. You're more amazing than any
woman I've ever known. And your wife's over there going. And
you're gonna be washing dishes, cause she left you there. Why? Because that praise is not
for every woman. It's just for your wife. Husbands,
wives, same thing. You don't go on. I mean, it's
nonsense. Of course I wouldn't do that. And some of you are
going, I'm going to try it now. Please film it. We'll get some hits on that on
our whatever your TikTok or Tic Tac or whatever it is. That's
a breath mint. Never mind. Paul gives praise to God. He says,
"...to the king of ages." Know what that means? To the ruler
over all things. To the ruler over every age.
To the one who created time and began it and sustains it. Colossians
1. Who Christ, by the word of power,
upholds the cosmos. The infinite cosmos, which I
have an incredibly fun time watching them measure. I'm overcome by
it. I'm scared to death of outer space. I will never go out. I
will never be shot off the atmosphere. Not happening. I'll just watch
your videos when you get stuck out there. It's scary, but it's
awesome at the same time. To the God, to the king of ages,
the immortal, the invisible, the only God. What is He saying
about this God? He's saying He's giving Him something.
He's ascribing something to Him. This is worship. To this God
be honor and glory forever and ever. Transliterated word, amen.
Amen means it is so. It is so. So what do we do with anxiety?
We look to that, see. So when we come together to worship,
we're to look to that, we're to be reminded of that. No matter
how practical the application is, no matter how sensitive,
we may have to deal, we may have to turn off the cameras some
Sundays and say, hey, we're not gonna be preaching to anybody
but who's here? Because this is sensitive. You know, we've
had to do that type of stuff. We've had to have real conversations
about real things and those who are in the body and local and
with us are privy to that information. So even when we have those types
of meetings and gatherings, we still can look beyond all of
these little things once we deal with the dustpan and get it all
up. We can look up and just go, wow,
look at our God. Because God is still the God
of the king and of the ages, the immortal, the invisible God
of glory. To all praise and honor and glory is due and is his and
will be his forever. He is still that God over the
dust in our pan. when we're cleaning up our lives,
when we're dealing with anxiety, when we're dealing with the stress
of the then and now, when we're worried about whether or not
we're a good enough parent, or a good enough spouse, or a good
enough friend, or a good enough brother, or a good enough Christian,
when we're thinking that we actually really are pretty good, and we're
doing everything pretty well, and we're going along, when we
make judgments against people, and then we realize, wow, we're
sinful, we're murderers at heart. You know we're murderers at heart,
right? I'm not the only one. And then we start feeling guilty,
or then we start getting angry, or that somebody upsets us, or
that we hear something about politics, or that we hear some
nonsense from, you know, the internet. And then we realize who we really
are. We realize what we're really in. We still have a God over
all of it. And it's not just here. It's
not just here in this little introduction to Timothy. It's
also shown in a lot of the letters in the New Testament. It's shown
in the gospel narratives, the historical records of the teaching
of Jesus to four different people groups, four different focuses,
with the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in their gospel accounts,
where we see Jesus teaching. He says, why are you worrying
about what you're going to eat? See, our worrying about what
we're going to eat is Where are we going to eat? What are we
going to buy? Do we have the money to buy roast?
No, we're about to go bankrupt eating meat. We're going to eat
rice, you know. But I don't know anybody in my lifetime that's been so
displaced as a people, as a group, that they're thinking, are we
going to eat? We have no clothes except what
we came out of the house with. And that was first century Christian
living. Hallelujah, right? The mega churches
of the first century were half-naked nomadic hungry people. Who were hated by everybody who
was in the true faith of Judaism. Jesus says, why are you worrying
about what you're going to eat? Look at the sparrows. You ever
seen sparrows? You ever try to count sparrows?
As a little boy, I would remember that. I'd try to count those
things. You can't count sparrows. You can count ducks. You can
count geese. You can count dove. You can count things that fly
in some sense of unity and fly. Sparrows are like crack addicts
of the sky. They're everywhere, all the time,
in and out, doing all sorts of things, spazzing everywhere. There's millions and billions
and trillions of them, probably not. But God establishes their
food and they eat every single day. And they get water every
single day. And Jesus says, do you see the
sparrows? They're not worried about what they're going to eat.
You see the flowers out there? They're not saying, oh gosh,
am I going to come up with a pretty flower? Oh, what am I going to
do with my leaves? No, they just come up. They're
not worried about the stuff. They're not worried about what
they're going to wear. So why then, he says, are you
worried when your Father in heaven loves you? Because that's what
we are. And it's not a rebuke. See, it's
not Jesus going, stop worrying, dummy. It's Jesus equipping us
with a prescription to help us in our worry, to help us in our
anxiety. Because the greatest point of
depression that I ever experienced was in 2005. My family that are
here know what I'm talking about. And it was a catalyst that spiraled
me into a psychotic existence of not knowing where I was in
the world, nor did I care. because what I was trying to
do is get rid of the feelings and overcome the anxiety and
fear and sadness and overcome the stress of not being certain
by removing everything in my life that was causing me any
kind of possible anxiety and guess what I found? The only
thing left was me. And I was the only thing left
there and then I was the main reason I was so anxious and so
now what do I do? And as someone who is compulsive
and obsessive about everything, to a fault, I used to count steps and touch
my fingers and symmetrical tactile experiences. And if I'm not careful,
that's good. That feels good. Not on this
hand, not on this hand, but both. That's a disease, guys. Now what am I going to do? So
I open up my Bible, after I trashed my study, I threw my CRT monitor
on the ground and it made a pop. You know what a CRT monitor is?
Yeah, that's back in the days where you had to call a buddy
to help you get your monitor off your desk. Hey Trey, can
you come help me move the monitor? Oh sure, let me put my brace
on. Like 50 jillion volts still stored
in that thing. I cleared my desk. I threw everything. I just went, I had a fit of rage. I pick up my Bible, I'm gonna
throw it, and I'm like, wait a minute, this is an expensive Bible. OCD. I'm gonna tear, this one's nice. I'm gonna tear this one up. And
I open it up, and I say, God, I haven't read anything. I mean, I don't know what have
I not read in a while. I haven't read Hebrews in some
time. So I open Hebrews 1, and you know what I saw there? I
saw not me. That's it. And I'll tell you
right now, beloved, I'm not in that picture because it's not
about me and it's not about you. And that's where the most of
our anxiety comes from is that we're so self-interested, self-concerned,
concerned about others and how we feel about it or how we feel
for them. And we don't want them to suffer.
See, a long time I thought I was going to be a surgeon. I wanted
to go into medical school. Chemistry changed that, so I
went into music school. Medicine music starts with M. Funny as I was looking for a
Bachelor of Music and the abbreviation is a BM, no kidding. But for
those of you old enough to get that. And then I'm not going to be
a doctor because I can't do this work. I don't want to do this
work. That's really what it was all about. And then now more
recently in the last few years, I've realized I can't stand to
see people hurt. I can't stand to see people in
pain. I want to punch the nurses when
they give my kids shots. You made them cry. I made my
child cry. He's going to die if I don't
give him a shot. Well, I'm going to hit you. That's not how I
am, but that's what you think. I don't want it. Combing hair?
Look at infant pictures and young little toddler pictures of Ruby.
And I was responsible for getting her ready in the mornings and
getting everybody to school, and Ruby looked like a firecracker had
gone off in her head every day. Because I was combing her hair
and brushing her hair, and she's a non-responsive pain receiver.
And I looked at her one day and she's got these tears rolling
down her little face. I said, honey, what's wrong?
You hurt me. Never combed her hair again. So she looked like,
I don't know, a homeless rat. Beautiful homeless rat with her
hair is what I'm saying. It's just not beautiful. And
the teachers at school said, Mr. Tippins, do you have a brush?
Seriously, they sent a letter home. I had to take it back.
I said, you can do her hair. I'm not doing her hair. I can't stand
to see people hurt. And you know what happens when I see pain?
I'm mad. Why am I mad? I don't know. But it's how it makes me feel.
You see? What do you think Paul was going
through? What do you think Timothy was
going through? What do you think all these people? They're going
through worse stuff than that. I'm upset because my daughter's hair
is tangled. I'm frustrated because gas is high. Woo. Did y'all walk here? Some of you did by choice, but
you know what I mean. So what's the prescription? We look, we
look. We look at the glory of God.
We look at the glory of Christ. That's why we come to worship,
so that we may be reminded of this revelation. We may be reminded
of who God is, and we may learn the discipline. Do you know,
I had this conversation with a brother of mine in Virginia,
the discipline of forgiveness. There's an example here. You
might think, where's this sermon going? I promise you, it's working
just fine. It's working just fine. I don't
have to tell as many stories, but it's important. And we're talking, and he says,
you know, there's people that haven't come back to church since
COVID, he's a pastor. And he says, and I don't really
want to call them. Because I don't want them to come back. Because
I haven't forgiven them for the mess they made. And I'm scared
if I call them, they will come back and make more messes. And
they made a mess. It was bad. Tried to get him
fired. Tried to ruin his marriage. I
mean, there's a lot of nasty stuff that goes on sometimes.
Vindictive people are hard. But the conversation, the question
was this. How do I really know I've forgiven? I, and just like some of you,
you're trying to get rid of the emotions, get rid of the thoughts,
get rid of the feelings, and you think when that is all settled,
then you've settled the issue. But that's not what the Bible
teaches. The Bible says to be thankful in the midst of these
things. The Bible says to pay attention to these warning lights
in your life, to know that our flesh is still active and fighting
against the spirit that is within us, but that Christ is greater,
that the Lord is greater than our hearts, 1 John. And when
our hearts condemn us, He's greater than our hearts. We have not
been, as Paul tells the Thessalonians, he reminds them, we have not
been destined unto wrath, but unto life through Jesus Christ.
And so we see all of these things and we've got to say, well, what
is the prescription? The prescription is to effectively trust God in
what He has told us will work. Do not forsake the assembly.
Why? Because together, we actually
have everything we need to satisfy each one of our needs. We do. Culturally, we're accustomed
to that share being a protective bubble, and then when we're done,
we bubble ourself right on out. And it's okay. Don't feel guilty
for that. That's just who some people are.
Some people don't tell that they have any needs, and then they're
upset that nobody helps them. Some people don't have any needs,
but they seem like they have all needs. You see? And we're
all in this together. So that's the first step, because
this is the launching pad to ministry. This gathering each
week is the doorway to us getting what we need in our lives every
day. And if we're not here, we will not receive it. Why? Because God hasn't promised that.
When we're not intimate in worship, How are we ever going to be intimate
in ministry? And so we come to this idea of
discipline, like forgiveness. It's a discipline. There's a
lot of people who've done a lot of bad things. There are people,
there was some people in a church before who threatened to kill
my children. Stuck a note on my office door.
It said, I know where your kids are in the afternoons. Watch
out. So what'd I do? Well, I had 20
FBI agents in my church, so I just took it to them. Oh, yeah, we'll
find out. So how do you forgive that? You
forget about it. How do you forgive it? It's a
discipline. It's a discipline. We pray for
people who hurt us. We truly ask God, instead of
laboring so much, God, take away this bitterness, take away this
stuff, take away, what are we doing when we're doing that?
What are we doing when we're praying that way? It's not a bad request,
but we labor focusing on our sin and on our flesh and asking
God to take our mind off our flesh while we're constantly
putting our mind on our flesh. It's not the prescription and
the discipline that's shown in the Bible. Go to Philippians
4. Verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord
always. This is what he says. Rejoice in the Lord always. Now
let's take that command. Let's take that command because
that's what it is. It's a command. Paul is telling, so the Lord
is telling through Paul, commanding his people to rejoice. When?
Always. But is it said to rejoice about
all things? No. It's said to rejoice in the
Lord always. and in all circumstances. But we don't say, thank you God
that I lost my leg. But yes, some people will tell
you, you need to thank God for that. Well, I don't want to thank God for
the loss of my leg. Thank you God that I'm going
blind. Praying for a brother who's losing his eyesight. And I'm certain that somebody
along the way, just thank God for it, just thank God for it.
Now, it's not a bad thing to say, but how do you really thank
somebody for something you're not thankful for? It's just silly. I'm not thankful for the death
and destruction in my life. I'm thankful for the Lord in
the midst of it. I'm thankful for the circumstances being in
His sovereign hand. I'm thankful that every dumb
thing I've ever done that has caused me pain, God is greater
than that. God is greater than my stupidity.
And He's greater than yours. And He will work it all out for
our good. So look at what Paul says. Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again, I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known
to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be
anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So here
we get a deeper picture of how Paul can write to Timothy that
he just thanks God for being his strength. and how he can
throw a doxology in the midst of all things. How he can go
on to these Philippians and say, I rejoice in the Lord, I did
this, I did that, I thank God always in my remembrance of you.
And everywhere you look, he's thanking God for everything that
he's in and everything that he has and everything that he doesn't
have. Because his perspective and the
discipline of looking at the promises of God in the Bible
change how we look at the circumstances we're in. And some people say, well, this
isn't gospel preaching. Then don't listen. It is gospel preaching. But because
of God's redemptive work in Christ Jesus, we have the precious promise
to approach our Father. We have the precious promise
and the command to petition Him for our needs. We have the precious
promise of His power in our lives to give us joy in the midst of
great trial. So let's unpack this a little bit. Verse 8 also. Finally, brothers, whatever is
true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, has excellence,
worthy of praise. Think about these things. And
what you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, you
see those things? Practice these things. So we're
to think on these things that we've learned and practice these
things that we've been taught. And you know what that does? It wipes away all the platitudes
of a nonchalant Christian culture that just says God is good all
the time and all the time. God is good, which means nothing
to almost everyone who says it. God is good in the birth of a
new child, and God is good in the bad report from the doctor,
and God is good when we die, and God is good when we live. So we rejoice. We rejoice in
the gospel of free and sovereign grace. That's the first part
of this discipline, of overcoming the despair of anxiety. It's
not going to overcome anxiety in the sense that it won't be
there. But just like with forgiveness as a discipline, I didn't finish
that example. You think you've forgiven someone until they knock
on your door. Somebody gets in your face, somebody
says something ugly, somebody spreads rumors and lies or whatever,
and then they knock on your door. And you're talking all spiritual
and good, and you know, I just, I forgive them, I forgive them,
and then they knock on the door and you're going, oh, see? Oh, and then you've got this
weird thing, like, why is he here? Oh, I don't forgive him. Hey. Because now you're ashamed,
like, oh, gosh, you hope the children don't repeat what they
heard you say about them. I hate that guy, you know? Who? Shh, he's outside. That's what
we do. That's what culture does. And
then the world would say, well, you know, you're just this sinful
guy that has not forgiven. You got that right. But in that
moment, forgiveness is possible. Forgiveness is possible by greeting
sincerely and saying, what can I do for you? And in my circumstance, a lot
of times that comes back where people who have taken and taken
and taken and stolen and stolen and stolen, literally stolen,
and then they come back wanting more for free. You know, you get those breathing
exercises, you do a martial arts to just sort of find your, the
right use of your diaphragm before you pass out. That's what it's
really for. And you sort of breathe and you
say, okay, God, I have to serve this person. I love them in you
and that's forgiveness in that moment even though the feelings
are still gnawing at you or still frustrating you or still you
have this why do I want to do this and don't want to do this
and don't want to do this and then I do this why do we have this Romans
6 and 7 going all the time? Oh God who's going to deliver
me from this body of death? Do I even believe enough? No,
we don't believe enough. Rejoice in the Lord always, in
the gospel always, in the sufficiency of His sovereignty always. We
find our joy. Peter makes that really amazingly
clear in his letter to the Jews. What does he say? He says that
you are suffering and blessed to be the God and the Father
of the Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused
us to be born again. See, this is the rejoicing in
the Lord part. through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
to an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and unfading that
is kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded
through faith for salvation ready to be revealed to the last time.
In this you rejoice. See that's where rejoicing is
in the gospel. Not in the circumstances, not
in the outcome. It's easy to rejoice. Like I
got good news last night on some things that have just been weighing
on me so hard that I could die. And I got some resolution on
that. And I woke up this morning feeling like I had just turned
20. Look at this sinner. That's a
real fun opportunity to have an exercise right before you
come to preach to God's people. Your joy was more dependent upon
the circumstances being reconciled rather than me. But that's not what God says
to us, is it? Our Father says to us, stand up. Stand up. Put this robe on. Here's my name. Put this ring on. Put on these
sandals and come in here and feast upon the bread of life,
which is yours and my son. Shh. You're at rest. Holy moly. Is it even good to say those
two words together? You know, what is happening? This is the
joy of Christ. We're being guarded, so we rejoice
in this. Though, 1 Peter 1.6, now, for
a little while, if necessary, you are grieved. Isn't that opposite of joy? Grieved? What's wrong, Peter? Get up on
the wrong side of the bed? Hit your head? Did you drink
too much wine the night before? Peter, what is wrong with you?
Rejoice! You're grieved. Rejoice! You're
grieved. That's the life we live in. That's the life we live. That's why it's important for
us to come here and talk about these things in the context of
the letter that we're in, so that we are instructed on how
we ought to see the day that we've been given, which is the
Lord's. Why grieve in the first place?
By what? By various trials? Why? So that the tested genuineness
of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes
when burned, that the tested genuineness of your faith, and
see here's the cool thing, your faith is not your faithfulness,
your faith is a gift of God that looks at His faithfulness. And the faithfulness of God that
He gives you the ability to look at may be found to result, here
we go, into the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of
Jesus Christ when you see Him face to face. Though you've not
seen Him, you love Him. Though you still do not now see
Him, you believe in Him and you rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible. That means you might not have
a smile, you may not feel good, you may not kick up your jump
like I had a V8 or I bought a Toyota or whatever the TV's shown us
through the years. We may not high-five, dap, diggity-dog
or whatever, moonwalk or do backflips. We may fall on the floor and
weep and cry in our own sweat and tears. Inexpressible. But in the midst
of that joy that is inexpressible, we rejoice with the joy that
is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome
of your faith, the salvation of your soul. So we look to,
Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we look to that which is eternal,
not to that which is temporal. We look to that which is not
going to pass away, not to that which is passing away now. 1
John 2, verses 15-17, that we do not love the world or the
things of the world because the things of the world are garbage already
and they're rotting. But we look to that which is eternal. We
rejoice because Christ is Lord of everybody. Unbelievers, atheists,
Satanists, everybody. At all times, forever, since,
let there be light. and beyond. But He's not the
Savior of everybody. And those who are being saved,
it's not because they did the right thing, had the right attitude,
or were done with the anxiety in their lives. You want to really
feel anxiety? Work out your own salvation in
your own power. The Lord is at hand, be reasonable
with everyone. Let there never be a person in
this world who says to another, that person's not reasonable. Do not be anxious about anything.
You see, that's a command too. The command to rejoice, the command
not to be anxious. And beloved, that command makes me anxious. It makes me anxious. I'm anxious
about the command not to be anxious and to rejoice. And I could easily
just segue into an incredible 30-minute comedy routine and
just move right along. And we could play a song and
throw balloons. We got some. And we could just
have a good time and leave and go, what did we just talk about?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But we feel better, right? We
laughed. We sang. We played with balloons.
It was a party. But that's not the prescription.
Do not be anxious about anything because the Lord is at hand.
See, it goes back to the sufficiency and the sovereignty of God. And
the sufficiency of the Word of God is the prescriptive order
of our lives so that we may have joy. Let's stop looking to get
rid of all the fear and the sadness and the brokenness and the anxiety.
Let's look to look to that which is opposite of those things,
which is the beauty of our Savior. And then let's do it together.
Let's tell one another. But here is what the Scripture
teaches us in everything. In everything that causes us
strife and fear and pain. In everything that bothers us.
In everything that weighs us down. In everything that gives
us grief and frustration and anger. Everything. What does
he say? By prayer. Talking to our Father
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And supplication with earnest
pleading. That's what that means. We request,
we ask, we say, oh, Father, please. What, what should we ask? Well,
first he says, Hal, with thanksgiving. Be thankful to God for who he
is. Worship, that's why we started
our service this morning. We worship God by ascribing our
gratefulness to him and his, about his gratefulness. Two different
uses of the term. about His greatness, sorry. Our
gratefulness about His greatness. So we let our requests be known
to God. In verse 7, look at the result
of these things. Look at the result of these things,
of putting our thoughts to prayers. I think about it. I talk to myself.
I hear my own voice. I think and think and think and
talk and talk and talk and think and think. You do the same thing. Instead
of that, internally, do it externally. Let those mind games be requests
to God. Praying is the hardest discipline
that the believer can do when it's truly supplication. It's
easy to remember the rote prayers of our childhood. It's easy to
remember the same old phrases and think that it's just like, Click the bell or ring a bell,
check the box, and we're just moving right along. It's easy
to look at these things in such a way that we just pray out of
practice and principle rather than pleading with our Father
who is in heaven, who is readily there to answer our prayers.
We thank Him. Let our requests be known to
God. And when this is done, God promises that His peace, not
the peace the world has, which the world does not know, not
the peace that you and I could come up with with our structured
answer to any particular life problem, not the expression of
even what authorities can do. We'll have this protocol in place.
It'll bring peace. It will not. What peace? The peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding. What will it do? Guard our hearts?
Isn't that what we're looking for? We're looking for protection
from our own emotions, protection from our own thoughts and feelings
and our minds in Jesus Christ. Heart and mind, same thing. We're
looking to see peace. How? We'll be guarded just like
the promise that Peter said. Through a promise, eternal life,
the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Friends,
this is a discipline that is a gift of God. If we do otherwise, what can
we expect from God? What does James say to the believers? He says, if we ask and then ignore,
we can expect nothing from God. So, we've been asking, how can
I work this out in my life? How can I find peace? If we don't
do this, we'll never have it. Now I'm not talking about salvation.
Salvation is the point to which we look, is the promise to which
we hold. This is where peace comes from.
But if we're not listening to the promises of God in Scripture
and trusting in His promises, we're just like the people coming
from Egypt. Where we see God's provision
and we go, there's got to be something else to eat. Did you bring us out here to
die, God? And God's like, yeah, I did.
You said it, not me. We call that a self-fulfilling
prophecy. And those final instructions.
What are we doing? We're thinking with our minds. We're playing
in our minds. We've got a playground going
on and we're not playing spiritually. We're playing fleshly games. Whatever is true. Whatever is true. Whatever is
honorable. Whatever is just. Now you'd see
the thing. Well, let me ask you this. Are those things causing
us anxiety? I mean, the true things, the
honorable things, the beautiful things, the pleasant things,
commendable things, the things that have excellence, are those
things causing us anxiety? No, then why are we not thinking
about them? That's driving me crazy. No. Practice these things and
the God of peace will be with you. Practice these things, beloved. Remember this gospel truth. Christ
in His body and His death has established peace with God. And
we are here together to work that out with fear and trembling,
trusting in the one who is faithful. You notice that we don't work
it out with easy-go-lucky. Then why are we looking for that?
Let's look to Christ. Let's look to His work and let's
rejoice. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for your everlasting love, for the hope that we have in Christ. And Lord, this this day has been
your day. And we can all relate to these things
of Lord, it's just been a good opportunity to remember the gospel
that we know already, to be reminded of our hope, which is in Christ
Jesus, to to to grasp hold of the surreal just unreal truth
that this world is not what it's all about, yet this is the most
tangible thing we've ever experienced. Help us to let go and to hold
this world loosely for all that it is and all that is in it and
all that you have put us through. has been your providence and
your purpose for your glory, to the praise of your name, for
the joy of your people. Father, we need each other. Draw
us close. Help us to seek reconciliation. Cause us to pray for one another.
Bring us to the place where we're listening to your word. over
and over again that you may teach us. And we thank you for the
peace that you've given us in Christ. In his name we pray.
Amen.