You'd think I wouldn't know better
than to pick that song. Because I can't get through that
song. As I know I've said multiple times as I age, the emotions
come quick. But that song is a gospel message in itself. He surrendered all is such a
powerful statement. We can't understand the all.
I'm sorry. Try to get myself together, I'm
just starting. Got a long ways to go. But the all, the definition
of all to us doesn't cover that. Who he is, where he was. To give that away, for me, it's just incredible. And it was the Father's pleasure
to do that for people like you and me. Just amazing. Okay. Gonna be better this week. Let's pray before we get started.
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you so much for bringing us together
this morning. Thank you that we have a family that you have
brought together to worship you. And we pray, Lord, that you'll
be with us this morning just as you promised. And that's exactly
what we do. I pray that you'll bless the
words I say, that they are not mine, they are yours. That you
take me out of the equation completely. And I know you can. And I know
you will. If your message is to be presented,
it will. And it's a comforting thought.
So I thank you, Lord, that you'll be with us this morning. Thank
you for all you've done. Bless everyone that's here, everyone
that's watching online. And we pray this all in your
name. Amen. All right. So a couple weeks ago, actually
it was probably more than that, I was listening to an audio book. completely secular audio book,
it wasn't a Christian-based audio book by any means, but it was
focusing somewhat on the difficulties of our modern society, especially
focusing on psychological trends. I find that stuff interesting.
It brings up things like the fact that depression and anxiety
have doubled in the last 10 years. I think there are a lot of reasons
behind that. I'm not gonna go into a psychological, social
message this morning by any means, but this is where it all started,
so bear with me. If you'd like, sometime I can
surely sit down and complain like an old man about how things
were better 20 years ago. I can do that for hours. Ask
my kids. But, Oliver's shaking his head. But there are many reasons behind
that. I think a lot of it has to do
with social media. I think it creates a space where people
expect happiness all the time. We compare a lot of our lives,
100% of our lives, to 1% of someone else's. And it creates a picture
where we think, I should be happy every day. When in fact, that
is absolutely untrue. Matter of fact, that's a lie,
and it's a dangerous lie, and I think that's where a lot of the world's
striking uptick in unhappiness comes from, is that we expect
happiness all the time. And that is simply untrue, just
in the fact that we live in a world that's cursed. But then if you
even just look at what we read, it's a promise from God himself
that in this world, we will have trouble. And we aren't, God's
people aren't set aside from the difficulties
of this world. None of them. Matter of fact,
any difficulties that any person can have in this world, whether
it's something you deal with inside your mind or difficulties
that we all deal with in the world itself, we deal with the
same thing that anybody else does. We aren't set aside from
that. We're part of the cursed world.
This world we live in is cursed. We're surrounded by sin. I think
it's very obvious we live in a world that, for the most part,
despises God. Some openly. Some don't even
realize it. Much of modern Christianity presents
a gospel that is just as blasphemous as openly denouncing Christ. Much of the world is pushing
the idea that not only should we accept sin, we should celebrate
it. Other parts of the world preach
a God that just wishes he could save everyone. Everywhere we look is evidence
of a world that we live in that's cursed, and it is. Been cursed
since the sin of Adam, and we've only piled on since. And God's
people are part of that world, both internally and externally. Internally in the fact that it's
not like we're these perfect people living in a sinful world. We are just as cursed as the
world itself. Every aspect of us is tainted with sin. God's people have been shown
mercy to know Christ and the fact that we need him because
of that sin. That's the only difference. but
we're just as sinful, we're just as cursed. We are no longer just the sinful
flesh. That's the difference is that
we've been given, instead of being spiritually dead, we've
been given spiritual life. So we have two aspects of our
being. We have our flesh and we have our spiritual life. And
that flesh is just right at home in this world. Now externally, We live in this
world, we're a part of this world because of the fact that God's
people have been given spiritual life. We've been shown mercy
to know Christ and our need for him. But we are still here. We live in a world that is not
our home. Our sins have been paid for,
but we still experience them every day. We have a perfect home prepared
for us. But for now, we're still here. In a cursed world. So, so many people dealing with
these psychological issues. And this book that I was listening
to, again, very basic book written by some guy that I'm sure had
no idea eventually would become a sermon. Guarantee that, actually,
which I think is actually really cool in the fact that God can
do anything with anything. Nothing is hard for him. I mean,
I'm sure the secular book written by the guy that probably has
no interest in Christ whatsoever had no idea that me listening
to that book would eventually stir thoughts and be an incredible
comfort for me to the point where I thought about it enough and
it ended up where I'm up here telling you about it in my effort
to preach about Christ. because some guy wrote a book
that had nothing to do with Jesus. God can do whatever he wants.
I love that. Another example of that, just
off the subject, Derek Webb is a guy who wrote an album 10,
15 years ago called She Must and Shall Go Free, and it is
one of the greatest sovereign grace albums. I love it, and
the music is great as well. If you wanna check it out, I
highly suggest it. I mean, it is fantastic. The text, the lyrics,
they are sovereign grace. It is Christ and him alone. And
15 years later, Derrick Webb thinks he's a girl. That's how far Derrick Webb has
gone from where he was. He's denounced his beliefs, and
now he's transitioning. And I don't care. That doesn't
make me question his songs. It makes me excited about the
fact that God can use someone like that to create music like
this that is such a comfort for someone that's part of his family. It strengthens me even to be
able to come up here. If he can use Derek Webb to create
music like that that's still a comfort for me, then I can't
stop him when I'm up here. Of course, I'm a human, and I
have worries when I come up here. Who wouldn't? I think, man, am
I... Of course, you're nervous. But
if God wants his message to get out, it's gonna get out, and
I can't stop that. I can't get in his way. It's a beautiful
comfort for me. But anyway, this book, What really spurred these thoughts
and the whole idea that this book was trying to get across
is that if you, you know, everyone dealing with these psychological
anxiety and depression in this world, the question that they
brought up is, who are you? And their point is, their point,
which isn't a terrible point, but their point was, you are
not your emotions. Fine. But as I went through this,
it became clear that there is a gospel message here. So the
questions they asked is, who are you? And one of the examples is, well,
if somebody asked me that question, I would say, I'm Eric Van Beek.
Well, those are, if you really think about it, that's just a
name. That doesn't define who I am. Those are just letters.
My mom and dad picked that name, and that's all it was, just a
name. That doesn't define who I am. So who are you? Well, I'm
Katie's husband. Oliver and May's dad. That's
just my role. That can change. Anyone that's
married can become unmarried. I mean, that doesn't define who
you are, right? Well, okay, if that's not the
answer, then, well, I went to school here, and I do this for
a living, and I do this and do that. Those are just aspects
of your life. That doesn't define who you are
either. And bear with me, I definitely don't wanna focus on us. I'm
not focusing on me or you. This message is about Christ,
but I have to get there first. Who are you? Well, I'm a caring
person who does his best, try to be a good dad, I try to be
a good husband, I try to work hard, treat people well. That's
defining your personality. Think about this. Your personality
is basically a definition of the way that you approach situations. You go up to someone that you're
meeting that day, the way that you say hi to them, the way that
you conduct yourself at work, the way you conduct yourself
at social events. That is what defines your personality. Well, if we're sinful, so is
our personality. Think about that. The decisions
we make are tainted. It's kind of a mind-blowing thing
when you think about that. Like, when there's a day that
I'm in heaven with Christ, I will not be this guy. because all this sin will be
taken away from me. I don't know who that is. I don't
know me without sin. So that can't define who I am
either. Something clicked in my head
at that moment as I'm listening to this and going through these
thoughts. All of these definitions that we try to put on ourselves
as to define who we are are part of this world. My name, the people
I'm associated with, the things I do. They're all part of this
world. This world is cursed. This world
is gonna come to an end. So how can something that's going
to end define who I really am? when what I really am doesn't
end. There's eternity waiting for
me. There's eternity waiting for everyone. Just depends where. So how can we define ourselves
according to anything that this world offers when we know this
world will come to a full stop, but we keep going. So that can't
be who we are. So as I was sitting there, a
line of scripture popped in my head. One of my favorites, it
pops in my head a lot. And it was a beautiful example of who we are. We can go back
to Isaiah if you'd like. Isaiah 43 again. Verse one, but now this is what
the Lord says. He who created you, O Jacob.
He who formed you, O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed
you. I have summoned you by name, and you are mine. I was actually sitting, as I
was listening to this book, I was on a trip with Katie. I was sitting
in a lounge chair by a pool. I was sitting next to Katie,
and I'm like, oh my gosh. I know who I am. I'm Jacob. For those of you that aren't
familiar with Jacob, I know most of you are, but for those of
you that aren't, Jacob was a scoundrel. From the first minute he was
alive, he was grabbing at the heel of his brother Esau. Everything he did through his
life was Questionable to say the least he was the kind of
person by human standards that no one would want to be around
no one trusted He was a snake So is that who I am So God says he who created you
Jacob So Jacob was a scoundrel, but
before he was even born I God said, Jacob have I loved. So who are you? Who am I? I am not a collection of letters
that spells out Eric. I am not Katie's husband. I'm
not Oliver and May's dad. I'm not Fonda's son. I'm not
your friend. I am Jacob, a scoundrel who is
loved by God. a sinner who deserves no love
but receives it all. All. That's the truth because that's
what lasts forever. This world comes to an end, that
promise doesn't. I will shed all of this someday. All of God's people will shed
everything. And what will be left is what
God has loved since before the world was created. Jacob, a sinner saved and loved
by God. That's who we are. We are not
defined by the dying definitions of a dying world. We are Jacob. Then it goes on to say, do not
fear, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name.
You are mine. You belong to him. You are saved,
and no matter what happens in this world, that will never change. This is so similar to what we
read earlier in John. It says, in this world you will
have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world. That
does not mean, I have overcome the world doesn't mean I've taken
care of your path in this world and it's gonna be a lot easier
now. You won't have to deal with the troubles of this world or
even that you'll have to deal with less of the troubles of
this world. It means I have overcome this world. Whatever happens
in this world doesn't matter. It's coming to an end and when
it does, you are mine. Take heart, I have overcome the
world, will not remove the problems that you'll face in this world,
but it will remove the one real everlasting problem, judgment
of God. Problems you have in this world
will come and go. Even the hard ones will come
and go. They'll all come to an end. The one problem that man
faces that doesn't come to an end is the problem we have with
God. The sin that we have in front
of him. But he tells his people, take
heart. I've overcome the world. You are mine. How? How does Jacob become loved? Jacob did nothing to be loved. He lied and cheated his entire
life. It's the perfect example of who we are. We can't do anything
to earn God's love, not even a little bit. But just like that song earlier, Christ surrendered all. more than we can ever even imagine,
to save you, to save His people. Christ died the death that we
deserve. And because of that, Christ's
people never will. You deserve nothing but wrath
under the eyes of God. But because Christ already received
that wrath, you will receive nothing but love under the eyes
of God. He will see you as you really
are. Jacob, who he loved before he was born,
You are Jacob and you are his. And if you're in a spot where
this all rings true to you, and you're like, man, this all makes
sense to me, but I just don't, just don't dare to say that it's
for me, I remember that thought. I remember it well. I remember
thinking that's kinda, I put myself high to say like, yep,
I'm saved. Or yes, I believe. Especially
where we kind of grew up. That was like putting yourself
almost on a pedestal. When in truth, it's the opposite.
To say that you're one of God's people is to admit that you have
nothing to offer. Because you don't. It's to say,
I can do nothing for myself. It's to go to Christ and to say,
don't pass me by. Take me with you. Because I can't. I can't do it on my own. So if you're ever in that spot,
young people, old people, if you're ever in that spot where
you're just like, man, I believe this, I do, but I just don't
have the, do I believe enough? Am I in touch with my sin enough?
Have I reached a certain point? Let go of all that. It means nothing. Go to Him and
say, do not pass me by. And the beautiful promise is
that He will not pass you by. He will not. Go to Him now, ask Him to save
you. Don't think, am I sincere enough? You never will be. Go to Him now. All of God's promises
are true, and one of them that he says is that he will never
say no. If you come to him and ask to
be saved, he will never turn you away. In both scriptures I've read
today, it tells us not to fear and to take heart. Do not fear,
for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name, you are
mine. And the other one, it says, in this world you will have trouble,
but take heart, I have overcome the world. If there was nothing
to fear or to take heart about, those things wouldn't have to
be said. But we still live in this world, so there are things,
lots of things to deal with. There will be difficulties, there
will be trouble, both internal and external. But do not fear. Take heart. He has overcome this
world. This world has no consequence
on a believer. We have to deal with it. But
in the big picture, in eternity, this world has no consequence
on you as a believer. None. It's all coming to an end. There will be difficulties, there
will be trouble. The troubles will come and go, just like the
world itself. But the salvation given through
Christ is forever. You have nothing to fear. Who are you? You're Jacob. You're a scoundrel. who is loved
by God. What else matters? And it's a guarantee. God is so perfect and Christ
is so powerful, whatever he puts into place cannot be moved. If he died to save you, that
can never change. Never. And you'll still have
to deal with the ups and downs of this world, and that includes
feeling some days like you're so close to him, and other days
like you're so far away, because we're messed up. But he's not. Your salvation depends on Christ's
strength. Where else would you want it?
It's perfect. No matter how we feel or deal
with this world, that can never change. God doesn't change. The things he does don't change. And one of those things is making
his people Jacob, sinners who deserve nothing but have been
given everything through Christ, the ultimate stamp of, this is
going to happen. You put Christ's name on it,
it is solid. Yes, you are a sinner, but you
are a sinner who has been set free. We won't experience that true
freedom until we leave the world that we're a part of, but man,
someday, we will be set free. And I don't think, well I know,
we don't really understand that. Can't wait to find out. I mean, your best day here. doesn't even compare to what
it will be like when we get to be rid of this sin and be in
the presence of the one who made that happen. That's what it means to be Jacob,
and that's who you are if you are one of Christ's people. That's
what defines you. Because that's the only part
of you that will never change. Everything else is gonna come
and go. It's so easy to forget that each day. I forget it, I'll
forget it in an hour. But it still comes back. And
what a comfort to go through this world knowing, despite everything that I am,
I am Jacob. I am told that I've been called
by my name and that I belong to him. And no matter what difficulties
you're dealing with in this world, that is everything. Again, I don't suppose the guy
who wrote that book had any idea that it would spur a sermon.
But God works however He wants to, and I'm very glad for that. I'm very glad that it was His
will and His pleasure that His own Son would surrender everything. And everything in a way that
we can't understand, to save a scoundrel. I'm so thankful that He would
do that, because we wouldn't. But we have such a glorious God
and such an amazing Savior. And all we are is Jacob. We've
done nothing to earn any of that. We were born sinning and have
never stopped. But here we are. Jacob's name
eventually became Israel. God's chosen people by nothing to do with Jacob,
purely by the will of God and his good pleasure. When you really think about it,
it's hard to fathom, but it's easy to be thankful. So for me, I try to remember
this, that I am Jacob. I am a sinner, but I am loved
by God, and It's a wonderful way to go through the world that
we're currently a part of. Let's pray.