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  Episode #20260927

  I Can Turn From Sin

  Sep 27, 202634 min

  This transcript is AI-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for the accurate information and meaning. Brief Summary In this sermon focused on 1 John 3:4-10, the speaker explores the Christian response to sin and the transforming power of Jesus Christ. The message emphasizes that while believers still wrestle with sin, Jesus came to take away our sin, destroy the work of the devil, and give us a new identity. As children of God, our lives should no longer be defined by a posture of rebellion, but by righteousness and a genuine love for the church. Key Points The Reality of Sin: Sin is defined as lawlessness and a rejection of God’s character and law, placing us in a posture of rebellion against Him. Jesus’ Mission: Jesus incarnated for two primary reasons: to take away our sins and to destroy the works of the devil. A New Identity: Being born of God changes our relationship with sin; true believers do not continue in unrepentant, habitual rebellion because God’s seed remains in them. Relationship Over Religion: True salvation is found in seeing and knowing Jesus personally, not just in performing good works or going through the motions of religion. Love for the Church: A defining mark of God’s children is a genuine love for their brothers and sisters in Christ, demonstrating the inward reality of their faith. Transcript Introduction and Scripture Reading Thank you, Jesse. As we continue in worship, we’ll turn our attention to the book of 1 John, continuing there in chapter 3, starting in verse 4, and we’ll go up to verse 10. The bulletin at one spot says to 12, but it’s actually up to verse 10 this morning. That’s mostly my fault for deciding it stops at 10 rather than continuing on to the next section. As we’ve been going through this book of 1 John, we’ve been discussing these themes of the character of God—that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness. We’ve been talking about His love for us that is lavished on us in the reality that we are adopted as sons and daughters. We’ve been talking about the forgiveness that is ours in Jesus. And as he continues through chapter 3 here, he is further discussing what it is to be a child of God. That it’s not just the reception of the love of God, and it’s not just the new identity that is received in terms of just a mental reality or a faith reality, but that it flows out into our lives. And so as he continues down here through chapter 3, he is describing to the church that he’s writing to what it looks like to be a child of God, and what are the consequences of the work of Christ for them as they are brought into God’s family. With that in mind, let’s turn our attention to the Word of God and give ourselves to its reading. “Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them. They cannot go on sinning because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” This is the Word of God. Let’s pray. Father, I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to you this morning, that we would fix our eyes on Jesus, that you would show us that we can turn from our sin because Jesus came to take away our sin, because Jesus came to destroy the work of the devil, and because we are children of God. We ask all these things in His mighty name. Amen. The Struggle with Sin As we think about this topic of turning from sin, theologically that category is called repentance. If you hear the word repentance, that means a change of mind that leads to a change of action. It’s turning from sin and turning to God. And if you’ve lived for any amount of time—which I think is everybody in this room—you’ve realized that you wrestle with sin. And there’s often a question in your mind when you become aware of your sin of, “Well, how do I deal with this reality? I recognize this thing that I’m doing, this thing that I’m thinking, this thing that I’m believing isn’t good, isn’t in accord with God’s word. But I’m still finding myself drawn to it. I’m still finding myself doing and thinking in those ways.” So what do we do in those realities? I remember growing up, there were times in my life, especially when I was in high school and college, there would be sins that I would be wrestling with, and I’d be praying about it. I’d be in the car, and I’d be asking, “God, take it away. God, take it away.” I’m wrestling, “Why am I a Christian? Are you at work? Are you hearing my prayers? It doesn’t seem like the Holy Spirit is at work in me at all because I’m still wrestling with this thing.” I’d be waking up in the middle of the night in panic hearing a train horn along the tracks in Columbia in Lancaster County, and I would think, “Oh, that’s the last trumpet. My time is up. I didn’t repent enough.” That would happen. Even though that wasn’t my theology at all, I would have that fear of the reality of my sin: “What does the reality of my ongoing struggle with sin mean for me?” Sin as Lawlessness And while John is pretty black and white here, it helps us go through this. The first thing he focuses our attention on as we wrestle with that reality of turning from our sin even as believers, he says this: “Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins, and in him is no sin.” Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness. I think when we talk about sin, we think of a definition of it missing the mark. We think of it as being something that we do that is wrong, something that harms ourselves or harms other people. We think of it in terms of maybe a transactional thing, where sin is stuff that we do that gets us on God’s bad side. But as you look at what he is saying here, he describes sin as lawlessness. And describing sin as lawlessness, it’s pointing our minds back to the Ten Commandments, back to the Sermon on the Mount, back to the commands of God. Sin is the opposite of God’s law. Lawlessness is against the law of God. So when we sin, it’s not just that we’re doing bad stuff, but it’s that we’re rejecting God’s law. Now, what is God’s law? God’s law is a direct reflection of God’s character. So as God tells us to tell the truth, it’s because He is full of truth. When God calls us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, it’s because God shows that sort of love to us and to all of His creation. It’s who He is. And so as we reject God’s law, it’s not just that we’re doing wrong stuff, but we’re rejecting God Himself and the expression of His character that is present in the law of God. And so we’re not just doing bad stuff, but we’re rebellious. We’re enemies of God. We’re saying, “You know what, God? I don’t want you. These things that reflect who you are, these things that reflect your character, I don’t want anything to do with that.” And what that underscores for us is that we don’t just have a behavior problem. We don’t just have an issue with wandering thoughts, we don’t have an issue with misspoken words, we don’t have an issue with a misdeed here or there, but we have an identity issue. We have a root issue. Our sin is a result of a rejection of God. It’s a result of us being in a place of animosity towards God. And that’s where each of us begins, as Paul reminds us, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Jesus Came to Take Away Sin But in our place as enemies of God, as those who reject God Himself by rejecting His law, by rejecting Him in those ways, Jesus comes. Jesus comes to take away our sin. Verse 5: “But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.” The reason for Jesus appearing, the reason for Jesus’s incarnation, for His life, His death, His resurrection, is to take away our sins. Even though we were enemies of God, even though we are rebels by nature, though we are ones who reject God and everything that He is, that we spit in His face, Jesus comes to take away our sin. To take us from a place of lawlessness and instead to a place of sonship. Where we’re rejecting God’s law on one hand, He takes us from that place to the place of the Psalmist where we delight in the law of God because we delight in God Himself. And so we can turn from sin because Jesus came to take our sin away. Jesus came to take us from being rebels to making us sons and daughters. And He can do this because in Him there is no sin. Jesus, being the sinless one, takes our sin on Himself. Jesus, being the perfect obedient one, takes the reality of our rebellion on Himself, and He goes to the cross with our rebellion, with our sin, with our rejection of God, to the point that He is crushed. He is rejected by the Lord for our sake, so that our sins might be forgiven, so that we might be taken from being rebels to being made sons and daughters. Remaining in Him Verse 6 there: “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.” Because of our connection to Jesus, if we draw our minds back to John 15 again: He is the vine, we are the branches. As we’re continuing in Jesus, as we’re connected to Jesus, no one who lives in Him, no one who continues on in Jesus, keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. As we consider the reality of our sin, if we continue in Jesus, we will not continue to sin. But you might be looking at your life right now and think, “I’m sinning a whole lot.” And you are, and that’s a reality in your life that you are still wrestling with the sinful realities of a sin-cursed world—the indwelling sin that still remains. But the hope of that passage… I think we can view this in two ways. We can view that word as, “Oh, I guess I’m not in Jesus because I’m still sinning,” right? Or we can view it as a promise: “Those who are in Jesus will not continue to sin.” Do you see the difference there? It’s giving us the hope in the reality that our sin is not going to be the determining reality of our lives. Instead, the determining reality of our lives will be the work of Jesus for us. And in salvation, it’s not just our sins being forgiven, but it’s the continuing reality of salvation that is worked out through the power of the Spirit, which is that we become more like Jesus day after day. That we are sanctified, that our sins are progressively taken away, where we become more and more like Jesus as we are made sons and daughters. And so no one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. And this is pointing to the reality that it is through our vital connection to Jesus, it’s through our relationship to Jesus, that we find relief from our sins. Where we find freedom from the bondage of sin and death. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. Knowing Jesus vs. Empty Religion I think we can confuse the Christian faith with just showing up on Sunday mornings, going to Bible studies, going to prayer group, reading your Bible, and praying. There’s a whole lot of people who will live for eternity apart from Jesus who do all of those things nearly every day. The religious activity of the church, the things that God calls us to do in Scripture in obedience, will not save you. The thing that saves is seeing and knowing Jesus. The thing that brings freedom from sin is seeing and knowing Jesus. And so our lives ought to be, as believers, radically centered around the person and the work of Jesus, not just in abstract, but for you. In Scripture, we think of the miraculous stories of Jesus appearing in His glory to Paul on the road to Damascus, and Paul is knocked off his horse, and he has this personal revelation of Christ. We think of John in Revelation, with Jesus appearing to him and sharing the realities of what is to come in the last days. Most of us aren’t going to see Jesus in those ways until our faith becomes sight, until He returns or until we go to be with Him. The reality is, He calls you to Himself through His Spirit this morning, through His word this morning. And it’s a spiritual reality on this side of heaven, more than anything, that we would rest in Him by prayer, rest in Him by the sacraments, rest in Him by the intake of His word. But what this calls us to is to not be satisfied with mere religiosity. Do not be satisfied with just going through a Bible-in-a-year plan. Don’t be satisfied with just showing up and sitting in a pew. Don’t be satisfied with just going and helping with Kids Fest. Don’t be satisfied with being a missionary or a Sunday school teacher or a leader in the church. Be satisfied in relationship and knowledge of Jesus, because it’s in our seeing and knowing Jesus that we find the forgiveness of sins and right relationship with God. It is through relationship with Jesus that we become God’s children. Destroying the Devil’s Work “Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” The devil throughout the scriptures, we see him popping up in the garden as a snake. We see him as the accuser of the brethren. We see him pictured as a roaring lion wandering around looking for someone to devour. We see him depicted as a dragon in Revelation. He’s kind of this interesting, nebulous character that I think has gained a power and a prestige that is probably not due him through popular culture and the development of those things. But what John is doing here is he’s giving us this word picture of: those who are born of God are this, those who are born of the devil are this. Those who continue to sin are born of the devil. They’re not born of God. Why? Because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. In some ways, the devil, Satan, is the personification of what it looks like to sin. He’s the great rebellious one. He’s the great one who drew humanity into sin through the outward temptation that he offered to Adam and Eve. And so to continue in sin is to be born of the devil rather than to be born of God. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” What is the devil’s work? Sin. Jesus came to destroy sin. To destroy the devil, to destroy death, to destroy sin. And so turning from sin, there’s another practical reality here for us as we consider the indwelling reality of our own sin as we wrestle with temptation imperfectly, as we fail forward towards Jesus. We remind ourselves that Jesus came to destroy this. Jesus is against this reality in my life. This isn’t who I am anymore. I’m in Jesus. If I’m in Jesus, then this is not who I am, and Jesus has victory over this reality. Born of God He didn’t only just come for that, but He also came to take away and destroy sin in general at a cosmic level. There is a day that is coming where sin will be utterly destroyed. St. Augustine talks about the fourfold state of man. That in the garden, we were sinless but able to sin. After the fall, we were sinful and unable to stop sinning. After we’re saved, we still wrestle with sin, but we’re able to choose to not sin through the indwelling work of the Spirit in our lives. And then there’s a final day that is coming in glory when we’re before Jesus face-to-face, where we will not sin and we cannot sin. And that is the promise that is being held out to you right now. That whatever sin you wrestle with, whatever sin has destroyed and misshapen your life, has destroyed and misshapen the lives of the people around you, that reality of sin has a firm expiration date through the work of Jesus. And right now we’re in that place of: if we’re trusting in Jesus, we’re still sinful, but we can choose not to sin. Martin Luther puts it that we’re simultaneously sinful and justified. We’re sinner and saint at the exact same time. And so there’s that tug-of-war that we see happening in our lives. Paul talks about it in Romans 7. There’s the thing I want to do, and I find myself not doing it. And instead, I find myself doing the thing I hate. We live in that reality on this side of heaven. But what this points us to is that there is a day that is coming where that wrestle will be gone, where our struggle with sin will be no more. What is that line to that hymn? “My sin, not in part, but in whole, has been nailed to that cross, and I bear it no more. It is well with my soul.” That’s the reality that is in front of us. That sin will be no more. Sin has been taken away and dealt with by the work of Jesus. The Mark of God’s Children: Faith and Love “No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God’s seed remains in them. They cannot go on sinnin g because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sist er.” The question that might rise to your mind at this point is, “Well, how do I know that I’m a child of God? How do I know that I’m one who is going to continue and progress towards righteousness rather than one who is dead and trespasses in sin and is going to continue on in sin?” How do I know which category I’m in? “No one who is born of God will continue to sin because God’s seed remains in them. They cannot go on sinning because they have been born of God.” If the Spirit of God is in you, as 1 Peter reminds us, if you see the realities of the fruit of the Spirit in your life, and you see those things increasing—maybe it’s a minuscule increase, maybe it’s a mustard seed increase—if you see the reality of the work of the Spirit in your life, then you can trust that the seed of God is within you. And that you cannot go on sinning. That’s a promise. Those who have the seed of God cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.” Ultimately, to be God’s son or daughter, to do what is right, begins with faith in Christ. If we do not trust in Jesus, then nothing we do is right. James reminds us t

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  Episode #20260920

  I Can Be Confident and Unashamed

  Sep 19, 202625 min

  Note: This transcript is AI-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for the accurate information and meaning. This sermon, based on the end of 1 John chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, explores how believers can stand confident and unashamed at the return of Jesus. The speaker emphasizes that this confidence comes from maintaining a vital connection to Christ, receiving God’s lavish love, and embracing the ongoing process of being transformed into His righteous image. Key Points Confident and Unashamed: By continuing in Jesus, believers can face His return with boldness and joy rather than shrinking back in fear or shame. Vital Connection: Staying connected to Jesus through the word, sacraments, prayer, and fellowship is essential for spiritual growth and combating feelings of spiritual depression or disconnection. God’s Lavish Love: God does not sparingly dole out His love; He heaps it generously upon believers, adopting former enemies as His beloved sons and daughters. Transforming Identity: As children of God, believers progressively grow into the likeness of Christ, producing a life that delights in God’s law and is characterized by righteousness. Divine Sanctification: The power to change and live righteously comes not from personal strength, but from God, who faithfully sanctifies believers through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Confident and Unashamed Well, thank you, Jesse. As we continue in worship, let’s turn our attention to the word of God. We’re continuing our series through the Epistle of First John this morning, taking a look at the end of chapter two and bridging over into the beginning of chapter three there. First John is just a wonderful, practical, and encouraging book, reminding us of the forgiveness we have in Christ, reminding us of the love of God, the character of God—that He is light, and there is no darkness within Him at all. And then as he continues on, he focuses on these realities of remaining in Christ, remaining within the church, not denying Jesus but instead continuing in Him and remaining in Him. And now he has a special focus on our adoption as sons and daughters through the work of Jesus. And so, as he begins that discussion there in chapter two, verse 28, he starts with these words. Let’s give ourselves to the reading of God’s word together. “And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” This is the word of God. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your grace to us, that in Jesus we have all that we need. May we fix our eyes on Him, the author and perfecter of our faith this morning, and may you encourage us by these truths that we can be confident and unashamed by our continuing in Him, by our reception of your love, and by living as your children in this world. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. The Struggle with Confidence and Shame You’ll notice there that the title for the sermon is “Confident and Unashamed.” And that’s coming obviously there from verse 28. As John begins this passage, he says, “And now, dear children, continue in him.” Continue in him so that when he appears, we may be confident and unashamed before him. Perhaps it’s true for many of you—it’s been true in my life—where I’ve struggled tremendously with confidence and shame. I think for many of us, we wrestle with those realities as children, as adolescents, as college-age adults, as young adults, as more mature adults. In some ways, we wrestle with these two concepts of confidence and shame all throughout our lives. I remember the earliest moments in my life, being on a soccer field, not being the most athletic person—I know that’s hard for many of you to believe. But growing up and being on the soccer field, not really confident of my ability, of my speed, of my technique, and the ball would come near me and I would freeze. Because I had such little confidence that rather t han just going for it, and missing the ball or not doing it quite right, I just chose to do nothing instead. Maybe some of you can sympathize with that sort of reality in your life. Maybe it’s not sports, mayb e it’s something else. Another time in my life, on a Good Friday service here, Drew was fencing the table right before we took the supper. He was encouraging believers to come forward and warning unbelievers to let it pass by as they continued their exploration of Jesus. And I was probably nine or ten, sitting just right over here, right about where Eleanor and Donna are sitting right now. I was sitting next to my mom and I just had an overwhelming sense and weightiness, a sense of shame over the reality of my sin, that I didn’t come forward. I didn’t take my shame to Jesus, but instead, I sat there and I didn’t do anything. And for many of us in our lives, we have varying moments where we wrestle with confidence, we wrestle with the reality of shame in our lives. I’d say maybe when you hear those words, “you can be confident and unashamed,” you might be like, “I don’t know about that.” Or maybe you have the opposite problem, and confidence and a lack of shame is all too easy for you. But as we look at this passage, I think the reality is for believers living in a sin-cursed world, for unbelievers living in a sin-cursed world, lack of confidence and shame is the water we swim in. And so what is the solution to that reality? How is it that this can be true of us, that we can be confident and unashamed before Jesus at His appearing? When Jesus returns, when the creator of all things, the judge of all things, the one who gave Himself up for our sake—how can we stand before Him and accurately be confident and unashamed? To be confident in this section is not just to stand with a stiff, straight posture and to be bold, but it’s to speak boldly. It’s to have an outward expression of boldness, of confidence at His coming. It’s to not shrink back from Him, but instead to walk into His presence with the knowledge that Jesus has saved us. Continuing in Jesus How is it that we can have that response at His coming? As you look at the various moments throughout redemptive history, as God interacts with believers, as angels come before believers, what happens? They fall on their face. As you see the various moments through redemptive history, they respond in fear. The presence of God’s glory is too much for them. The reality is that when Jesus returns, our great judge, our great redeemer, our great savior, our great king—our response won’t be to hide. Our response will be, “You’re here. Praise God.” We’ll have joy, confidence, a lack of shame. And how is that a reality in our lives? Well, there in verse 28, it says this: “And now, dear children, continue in him.” Continuing from what we talked about last week, echoes of John 15. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. Our ability to stand before Christ when He returns, confident and unashamed, is through our connection with Him. That we’re still connected like a baby in a mother’s womb is connected by the umbilical cord. We’re being nurtured, we’re receiving everything we need to grow, everything we need to be connected to Jesus through that vital connection. And so as we continue in Him, as we stay connected to Jesus, when He appears, there will be a sense perhaps where we’ll be like, “Man, I thought you kind of already were here, but now you really are, in front of me.” Faith has become sight. And so we continue in Jesus first and foremost, as we think about our confidence and our lack of shame as we stand before Him on that last day. And practical realities—we continue in Jesus through continuing to fellowship with the other branches that are attached to that vine. As we continue to fellowship and to live life with other believers, and be encouraged and challenged by believers, to be encouraged and challenged by the words of scripture as we continue to look to Him, we’ll find our faith growing and our awareness of His presence more clear. It strikes me that in our lives we often lose sight of our connection with Jesus because He’s really the one grabbing onto us, right? He’s the one that comes after the lost sheep. He’s the one who delights in the one who was lost but has been found. But often we have varying levels of awareness of that reality in our lives. And when our awareness of God is low, when our awareness of our connection to Jesus is low, our minds wander, our lives wander. The temptations that we have, the persisting sins, the sins that we still wrestle with each day—those voices grow louder, and at times they overpower the reality of our connection with Jesus. And what the scriptures encourage us time and time again is to keep the words of this book ever on your lips. Meditate on it day and night. Keeping the word of God ever on our lips, reminding ourselves of the reality of the gospel and who Jesus is and what He has done for us. Filling our minds with that as the other things fill our minds outside. It’s through prayer, it’s through the intake of scripture that we hear the voice of God grow louder in our lives and the other voices grow quieter. I’ve experienced that in my own life as I went to Bible college, went to seminary, and have been involved in church work my entire adult life. There are these moments where you start to get into routines, and you’re just doing the next thing, doing the next thing, doing the next thing. And you feel connected and close to Jesus, and then you start to feel a bit of that slide happening. As the slide begins to happen, you start to feel, “Man, I’m feeling off. I’m feeling more disconnected. I’m feeling more depressed. I feel less satisfied in the work of Jesus for me.” And as you go on through that, maybe there’s a moment where you suddenly go to church and you read a passage of scripture that’s encouraging, you read Romans 8, you read Jeremiah 31, and you feel your tank fill back up. Oftentimes when we are feeling the most disconnected from Jesus, it’s because our tank of awareness, so to speak, has dropped really low, and we haven’t been reminded about who Jesus is and what He’s done for us. And so if we’re going to be confident and unashamed at His coming, it’s being connected to Jesus. As we’re connected to Him, He’s going to help us grow, He’s going to give us all the nutrients and the support we need. And He gives us that in the means of grace: in the word, in the sacraments, in prayer. So use those things, go to those things. Those are good. Receiving God’s Lavish Love And then next, as we continue in Jesus, we recognize that as we’re connected to Him, as we’re being nurtured and perfected by His work in our lives through the application of it by the Spirit in chapter 3, verse 1: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Because as we’re connected to Jesus, as we’re finding our way back to Him and emphasizing His presence in our lives over these other realities, our connection to Jesus leads us to the reception of God’s love that He lavishes upon us. And I think sometimes when we think about God’s love for us, we think not of it being lavish, but instead, we think of it as being minuscule and miserly. That God is just doling out little bits of His love. He’s hesitantly, begrudgingly giving us His love. He’s not giving it to us in heaps. As I’ve been trying to make sure that there’s less of me going into 2027—when I have breakfast meetings, I’ll use one little packet of jam on my toast, one of those two pieces, and I’ll spread it nice and thin just so I have a taste of that sweetness, right? It’s barely any jam on there. And I think that’s often how we think about God’s love for us. It’s just barely there, spread on super thin. God really doesn’t want to give us His love. But what this verse shows us instead is that God lavishes His grace. He takes a whole big spoonful of jam and He dumps it on that toast and spreads it on thick. God is not in a place where He is holding back His love from us as His believers, as we’re connected to Jesus, but instead, He’s heaping it on top of us. And we see that in its fullness there in this verse: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” God’s lavish love is most accurately and most powerfully seen in the reality that we were enemies, we were enemies of God, and He made us sons and daughters. We weren’t just strangers, we weren’t just orphans, but we were enemies. We hated Him, we did what was evil in His sight. We rejected who He was, we rejected His Son. And yet, through His love, through the call of His Spirit, He draws us to Himself, and He makes us sons and daughters. Growing into the Likeness of Christ And so this morning, friends, you can be a son or a daughter. You can receive the love of God that finds its pinnacle in that adoption of enemies, that adoption of sinners into sonship. Because that is what we are. “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him.” And it’s not just that we’re children, but it’s that we’re going to become more and more like Jesus. Just as a natural child—as my children grow up, as your children grew up, as you grew up—you’ve got the DNA mix of your parents. And so the more you grow, and often you see it a little bit as people are babies, you see it a little bit when they’re toddlers, but you really start to see it as they’re adults. There’s a couple of times in different churches I’ve been in where there have been multi-generations of families, where you’ve got a patriarch of the family who’s in his 80s or 90s, and then his son is in his 70s, and they’re like the exact same looking person. And you get them confused, because if they’re sitting next to each other, especially from behind, it’s like they dress the same, they have the same mannerisms, their voices are super similar—they’re different people, but there’s such a resemblance that exists there, right? And the same is true for us as spiritual children of God. Is that we are going to grow up more and more and more into the likeness of our Lord Jesus, into the likeness of God. He doesn’t just leave us to be as we are, He doesn’t just leave us to exist in our sin and in our grossness and our weakness, but instead, He grows and develops us. And so this is true: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” And that’s a beautiful thought, isn’t it? That whatever sin you wrestle with now, whatever shame you feel right now, whatever lack of confidence you are experiencing in this moment, when Jesus appears, you will become like Him. You’ll see Him as He is. You will not be in fear, you will not be in shame, you will not be in a lack of confidence because of the work that He is doing even now in you through the love of God. And so friends this morning, you can receive the love of God. Rather than running from it in your lack of confidence, rather than hiding from it in your reality of shame, receive it. It’s for you. He desires for you to come and be a son and a daughter, He desires for you to be more like Jesus this morning. And then as we receive the love of God and become sons and daughters, the reality of that has implications for our life, doesn’t it? Because who we are is the foundation for everything that we do. Right? And so you might have gotten hung up there in the latter part of verse 29: “If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.” You know that He is righteous. Therefore you know that everyone who does what is right is born of Him. The reality of being born of God, being a son or a daughter of God, being born again, if we think of John 3, is that we are no longer living according to the world, we’re no longer living according to our sin, but instead we’re living according to righteousness. And that righteousness is rooted in the character of Jesus. That Jesus is upright, Jesus does what is right, Jesus is the one who kept the law for our sake, who lived the perfect life that we should have lived, He died the death we ought to have died, and He rose again for our justification, our sanctification, our glorification. And so those who are born of Him do what is right because He’s righteous. We take on that shape, right? And if we’re asking the question, “What does it look like to become more like Jesus? What does it look like to grow into His image?” It’s to grow increasingly in that reality that those who are born of Him do what is right. We love and begin to love, and we can sing with the Psalmist, “I delight in the law of the Lord. On it I meditate day and night.” Not out of obligation, not out of fear, right? Because God has already lavished His love on us, we’re already sons, we’re already daughters, we’re already connected to Jesus who is the vine, who nurtures us. But now that we are in that place, we are in God’s family, He’s given us what we need, and He is growing us, our relationship to the law changes. It’s no longer this taskmaster that destroys, but instead, it’s a guide that points us to Jesus, our need for salvation, and points us to the character of God—that this is who God is. If we’re going to be righteous, if Christ is righteous, that’s what we’re going to become. Not perfectly on this side of heaven, but progressively as the Spirit shapes us and grows us towards Him. And so we can live as children of God, those who actually have a new identity, who have a new nature, who have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light through the work of Jesus. No Condemnation Verse 3: “All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” All of those who have this hope in Him. At the end of the day, friends, we can stand confident and unashamed. We can receive the love of God, we can live as children of God because of the hope we have in Jesus. That when we stand there before the judgment seat of God, we will not be condemned. But

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  Episode #20260913

  Better Than We Deserve

  Sep 12, 202659 min

  Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for the accurate information and meaning. Quick Summary A look at the life of King Asa from 2 Chronicles 14–16, exploring how despite a righteous beginning and a deeply flawed ending, Asa is still remembered as a good king because of the unimaginable grace of God, pointing us to the ultimate perfection and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Key Points The Divided Kingdom: After Solomon’s reign, the people of God split into the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah). King Asa was one of the few good kings to rule over Judah. The Good: For the first 35 years of his reign, Asa relied heavily on the Lord. He sought God’s help to defeat a massive Ethiopian army and led his people in renewing their covenant with God. The Bad: In his final six years, Asa turned away from God. He relied on a foreign king during a civil war, imprisoned a prophet who rebuked him, and refused to seek the Lord even when afflicted with a severe disease. The Unimaginable: Despite Asa’s bitter end, scripture declares his heart was “wholly true” all his days. This paradox illustrates the Gospel: because of Jesus’ perfect life and sacrifice, God looks at our broken lives and credits us with Christ’s perfect righteousness. Sermon Transcript Introduction and Prayer I am Colby Brewer’s brother, and also uncle to these three girls and one young man, as well as brother-in-law to Angela, and former campus minister to Amanda Cooper at Penn State University. So that’s really my claim to fame if I were to have one. I wanted to say I am so sorry about Drew’s passing. That has been really sad for me. I was at the University of Missouri doing campus ministry with RUF, and in 2003, I was called to come here to start the RUF campus ministry at Penn State. The guy who called me was Andy Phillips. He was the head of the committee, and he recruited me to come back to the East and start the RUF at Penn State. Andy was wanting me to get connected to the Presbytery, so he said, “You’ve got to meet my good friend, Drew Darith.” One of the first meetings that I had moving back from Missouri to Pennsylvania was to have coffee with Drew. Drew was a real friend to me. I was here for five years in the Presbytery at Penn State. He’s very kind and would get together with me on occasion, and I think he even did some stuff with RUF at Penn State. I appreciate Drew and our time that we had together, but what I really appreciate about Drew most is that he is such a good pastor to Colby, Angela, my nephew and nieces, and to Coop. I know he was to you, too. So I am sorry for your loss. I knew that was going to happen. Let me pray for us, and then I’ll tell you what we’re going to look at this morning. Lord, it is good to be here with these people who I know about from Colby, and I get to pray for. I am glad to be here. Lord, I do pray that you would lift them up. I pray that they would feel your care. Lord, I pray that you would be with the session, be with Noah as they lead without Drew being here. Lord, lift them up, remind them that you are for them. Would you even use the sermon, your scripture this morning, to do that? I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. The Divided Kingdom This morning, we’re going to look at the story of Asa. Asa was a king in the Old Testament. Asa is a name that’s become pretty popular with Christian families naming their sons Asa. When I was a campus minister at the University of California, Irvine, I had an Asa in my group. I have an RUF International campus minister that I oversee; he has a son named Asa. I believe there’s even an Asa here in this church. The name Asa comes from a king in the Old Testament, and he was a good king. Now, this is important: the people of God were divided. You had a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom. Still Israelites, still the people of God, but now they are divided. In the Northern Kingdom, which was called Israel, you had 19 kings. All 19 kings were not good kings. The Bible says they were bad kings, unfaithful to the Lord. Then you have the Southern Kingdom, which was called Judah. In the Southern Kingdom, you had 20 kings. Eight of those 20 kings were good kings, and one of the better kings out of those eight was Asa. So we’re going to look at his story this morning. If you are feeling a bit stuck in your relationship with the Lord, I think the story of Asa could help you this morning. If you feel like it’s been a while since you’ve seen or even been reminded of the kindness of God, I think the story of Asa could be helpful for you. If you have been frustrated or even angry with the Lord, I think the story of Asa could be helpful. If you feel disappointed with the Lord, or maybe if you feel like the Lord is disappointed with you, I think the story of Asa could be helpful to you this morning. We’re going to be in 2 Chronicles, chapters 14, 15, and 16. The life of Asa is recorded in these three chapters. I’m not going to read the whole chapters, though I will reference it if you want to open up a Bible, but I am going to read a few parts for you. I want you to look at, as we are reading, what God says about Asa and how he celebrated Asa. The Good: Relying on the Lord Second Chronicles, chapter 14: Abijah, who is the father of Asa, slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa, his son, reigned in his place. In his days, the land had rest for ten years. And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places, broke down the pillars, and cut down the Asherim, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment. He also took out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the incense altars. And the kingdom had rest under him. He built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest. He had no war in those years, for the Lord gave him peace. Now to chapter 15, verse 16: Even Maacah, his mother, King Asa removed from being queen mother because she had made a detestable image for Asherah. Asa cut down her false image or her idol that she was worshiping, and he crushed it and burned it in the brook Kidron. But the high places were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true all his days. And he brought into the house of God the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels. And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa. Now we come to the end of Asa’s life, 2 Chronicles chapter 16, verses 13 and 14: And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign. They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a bier that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer’s art, and they made a very great fire in his honor. Did you hear those statements that I read? First in chapter 14: And Asa did what was right and was good in the eyes of God. That’s a statement of who Asa was and where he stood with the Lord. Then verse 15: The heart of Asa was wholly true all the days of his life. And then finally in chapter 16, you see the people of Judah celebrating Asa and his life there in Jerusalem after his death. There are wonderful things said of Asa. But we will see this: the end of Asa’s life was not so wonderful. I want us to look at three things this morning: the good, the bad, and the unimaginable. The good starts in chapters 14 and 15. What we have are the first 35 years of Asa and his reign. Theologians believe he began his reign as king somewhere in his late teenage years—ages 15 to 20. So we have his first 35 years, and here, Asa is at his best. I want to look at a war, a rebuke, and a covenant during these two chapters. First, a war. The king of Ethiopia, Zerah, invades Judah. The army that comes from Ethiopia to Judah is an army of one million men, and this army has 300 chariots. It’s like having 300 tanks today. The army of Judah had 580,000 men and no chariots. They were significantly outmatched by the army of Ethiopia. Here is King Asa, preparing for battle, looking at the Ethiopian army, knowing he is overmatched. He begins to call out to the Lord, and he says, “Oh Lord, you are the God who helps the weak. That is who we are. Lord, we are here fighting in your name. We need your help. Now more than ever, would you, for the sake of your glory, deliver a victory so that the world might know that you are King?” Asa prays that prayer, depending on the Lord, and the Lord defeats the army of Ethiopia, which was significantly stronger than the army of Judah. Asa in Judah is growing in wealth, growing in prosperity, growing in strength. The second thing we look at is a rebuke that comes to Asa in chapters 14 and 15. After this time of thriving, there is a man of God, a prophet of God named Azariah. He comes to the Lord and says, “Asa, you’ve taken your eyes off of the Lord. If you will seek the Lord, you will find Him. If you forsake the Lord, know this: the Lord will forsake you.” Asa hears those words, and as soon as he hears them, he takes courage and begins to put away the detestable idols. In other words, his focus was not on the Lord like it had been, and now Azariah is calling him back to the carpet: You need to change your ways, King Asa. Asa responds quickly and positively. He hears the words, repents, realizes it is true, and begins to change his ways. He puts away the idols and makes God a priority in his life again, even though God may have been slipping away for a bit of time. That brings us to a covenant. A covenant is a promise you make with someone else—like when you get married. Here, Asa is calling all the people of the nation of Judah to gather in Jerusalem so they can make a covenant with the Lord. Asa is leading his people into putting God first in their lives again. So you have a war, a rebuke, and a covenant, and Asa is doing the same thing every time: he is seeking the Lord. He seeks the Lord when there’s a war. He seeks the Lord after he’s been rebuked by Azariah by acknowledging he hasn’t been living for the Lord, and he turns his face back in a different direction towards God. And he seeks the Lord by making Him first in his life through this covenant. In the Old Testament, we are told to seek the Lord some 30 times. First Chronicles 15:11 says, Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence continually. Isaiah 55 says, Seek the Lord while he may be found. The measurement of whether a king was faithful and good to the Lord was if he would seek the Lord. Then we come to the New Testament, and we’re told to seek the Kingdom of God and all of His righteousness. What does it look like to seek the Lord? During the war, Asa sought the Lord through prayer. He was depending on the Lord; he called out in prayer for help. During the rebuke, Asa responded by seeking the Lord through repentance. He turned his face a different direction, towards the Lord. And with the covenant, he seeks the Lord by making Him first in his life. We do that by prioritizing worship, opening up His word, and considering who He is. The Bad: Turning Away The good in Asa’s life is when he is seeking the Lord. But now we come to the bad in chapter 16. In chapter 16, we have the last six years of Asa’s life and his reign as king. This is where we see Asa at his worst. He is not seeking God at this point in his life. All the good that Asa had accomplished in those first 35 years, he begins to undo. Let’s look at the bad through a war, a covenant, and a rebuke—the same words, just a slightly different order. Now there’s a different war. It’s a civil war. The king of Israel is preparing to fight Judah. He sets up a fortified city called Ramah on the border. He blocks off the main transportation route to bring goods from the north into Judah, effectively cutting off trade. People from the Northern Kingdom were also moving into the Southern Kingdom because it was thriving under Asa, but the main road into Judah is now blocked. It’s time to go to war again, and Asa begins to call out. But this time, he calls out not to the Lord, but to the King of Syria. He says, “Would you come and help? I am desperate, I need help.” So he asks a foreign king—a king who did not serve the Lord God—to come and rescue him. Last time, he asked the Lord to rescue. This time, it’s the King of Syria. That moves into a covenant. Asa reaches out to the King of Syria to make a covenant, this time not with the Lord, but to renew a covenant with the King of Syria. He says, “Do you remember our fathers, who were both kings before us? They had a covenant. I am saying that covenant still stands, so you must come and rescue us.” The King of Syria comes, beats the nation of Israel, and then Asa takes the silver and gold he had put into the temple during his first 35 years—dedicated for worship—and pays Syria with it. Finally, we come to a rebuke. This time it’s a different prophet named Hanani. He comes to Asa and says, “Asa, you have done something terrible. Don’t you remember years ago when there was a much stronger foe in Ethiopia, and you cried out to the Lord, and He delivered you? But now you have this battle, and you don’t even think to cry out to the Lord, and you get the King of Syria involved. Asa, you should not have done that. You’ve sinned against the Lord.” Asa hears these words, and his response is to throw Hanani in prison. He throws a prophet of God, with the words of God, into prison. After this, it says that Asa continued to inflict cruelty on his own people. Then it ends with this story: Asa is feeling disease in his feet. It was very painful. And it says he did not seek the help of the Lord, but he only sought the help from physicians. Why don’t people seek the Lord? God calls us to be a people who seek Him in prayer, in hearing true words that often make us turn and repent, and in putting Him first. I think sometimes we don’t seek the Lord because we’re disappointed with Him. We feel like He’s failed us, and we’re angry. I think sometimes we don’t seek the Lord because it feels like He hasn’t done enough for us. We’ve asked and prayed, and He hasn’t moved in our time. Now we’re frustrated and upset, and perhaps we don’t seek Him like we once used to. Maybe you’re in a season of life where you remember those days when you were alive in Christ, and that walk with the Lord was so special and beautiful to you, and now if you’re honest, you look back and feel like you’re not where you were. I encourage you to seek the Lord if that is true. It may be that we don’t seek the Lord because we’ve underestimated just how good He is. We’ve underestimated all that He has done for us. The Unimaginable: Grace and the Gospel That takes us to the unimaginable. Remember those verses about what God said regarding Asa? Chapter 14: Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord God. Chapter 15: The heart of Asa was wholly true all his days. That is not true of Asa. Asa’s heart was not wholly true to the Lord all his days. He didn’t always do what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord. It wasn’t that he just had six bad days, six bad weeks, or six bad months. Asa had six bad years . It was as if Asa had forgotten the Lord. He was wrestling deeply with sin, and yet God can somehow say about Asa, he was good and right in my eyes, and his heart was wholly true all the days of his life , and his life was worthy of celebration at the end. Is this a mistake? Does God have it wrong here? No. The only person this could truly be said of is Jesus. Jesus’s life was always good. It was always right. It was wholly true unto the Lord. It is the only life worth celebrating completely and fully. And the unimaginable here is for the person who looks to Jesus Christ to take away their sin. For the person who looks to Jesus on the cross, seeing that He is on the cross because He is paying for your sin—to break the power of sin in your life and to make a way forward with God. For the person who believes that, they are credited as good, as right, as wholly faithful, and worthy of celebrating. Not because of what you have done, but because of what Jesus has done for you. This is what Asa believed. Have you ever driven through North Dakota? Some of you have. Everything is named Theodore Roosevelt in North Dakota. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Theodore Roosevelt Expressway, the library. Do you know why? Because when someone of great significance says something of significance about you, it matters a great deal. Theodore Roosevelt said of North Dakota, “I would not have been President had it not been for my experience in North Dakota.” That means so much to the people of North Dakota. The greatest person of significance, the King of Creation who made this world, says about you: You are good and right in my eyes. For the person who belongs to Him, you are wholly true all the days of your life. Why? Because it’s not your record, your standing, or your status. It is Jesus’s. That’s what we rest in. With that statement—if it’s true, if the King of Creation says that about you—we stake our life on it, and we seek the Lord. If you are not there yet, I encourage you to give your life to Jesus. Let’s pray. Lord, thank you for the life of Asa. We relate to it. We long to do good, and sometimes we do, but often we don’t. Yet your grace is better than we can imagine. Your kindness in Jesus helps us to believe it, to stake our lives on it. Thank you for loving us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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  Episode #20260906

  Living in the End Times

  Sep 6, 202632 min

  Note: This transcript is AI-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for accurate information and meaning. Sermon Summary In this message based on 1 John 2:18-27, the speaker explores what it means to live in the “last hour.” The sermon addresses the reality of people walking away from the faith, the assurance believers have through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and the vital importance of resting and remaining steadfast in Jesus rather than relying on our own strength. Key Points Living in the Last Hour: Believers have been living in the end times since Christ’s earthly ministry; it is not just a future event, but our current reality. The Departure of Antichrists: Those who deny Christ may arise from within the church, and their departure reveals that they never truly belonged to the body of Christ. Intentionally Sharing Jesus: Christians should maintain steady, loving connections and share the gospel with those who have walked away from the faith in their everyday lives. The Anointing of the Holy Spirit: Believers are equipped with the Holy Spirit, who dwells within them, illuminates the truth, and preserves their faith. Remaining in Christ: Christians are called to abide in Jesus, trusting in the Holy Spirit’s power to perfectly guide their spiritual lives rather than constantly relying on their own exhausting efforts. Sermon Transcript Introduction to 1 John As we continue in worship, let’s turn our attention to the word of God as we continue through our series in the Epistle of First John. You’ll notice we are just continuing straight on through that epistle that John is writing to a church about various topics concerning the Christian faith, about the person and the work of Jesus for them, and different considerations that he has for that church. This morning, we turn our attention to a section where he’s encouraging the believers there to look to Jesus, to rest in Jesus, and to remain in Jesus. As he’s doing that, he’s describing the reality that as they are in the last days, or as they’re in the last hours of the world, there are those who are going to leave the church. There are those who are not going to remain with the body of Christ but are going to go out. This is one of those passages where the end times are talked about. As we’ll get into as we go along, the end times aren’t always what we read about in popular culture, but the apostles had a slightly different understanding of it. With that in mind, let’s turn our attention to verse 18 of First John chapter 2. Scripture Reading: 1 John 2:18-27 “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. As for you, see that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—eternal life. I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not n eed anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.” This is the word of God. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for your grace that you love us. I pray that you would open o ur hearts and our minds to you, that you would help us to consider what it looks like for us to live in this last hour, these last days, as we anticipate and look with expectation to your return to us. May you give us tender hearts. May you help us to rest in the Spirit and look to Jesus. We ask all these things in His name. Amen. Living in the Last Hour If you’ve heard about the end times growing up in the church, or being part of different church ministries over the years, maybe you’ve interacted with a series of books and later movie adaptations called the Left Behind series. They kind of talk about this idea of the rapture and what it would be like if Jesus came back, took the church with him, and left people behind in horrific, terrifying situations where they’d have to work through those hardships. Sometimes when we talk about the end times, we have a weird view of it that’s not necessarily biblical. But what we do see in the Bible—as you look through Thessalonians with Paul, the epistles of Peter, John, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to John—you see time and time again that the end times are spoken of in terms of we are already in them . Some of us are in this place where we’re thinking we’re in the church age and the end times haven’t quite caught up to us yet. But Jesus is clear in the Olivet Discourse, and the apostles are clear: we are in the end times right now. The final days started all the way back with Christ’s earthly ministry, and they are continuing on to today and into the future. If John’s writing about “the last hour” 2,000 years ago, maybe we’re in the last 30 seconds. I don’t know. Jesus is clear that no man is going to know when He’s going to return. But there is a sense of urgency as John writes this: We’re in the last hour. Jesus is coming. Jesus’s work has been completed on the cross. He lived, He died, He rose again for our justification. So now, let’s look ahead to what’s in front of us. He’s coming. Let’s look to Him and do as He commands and asks us. The Departure of the Antichrists As he’s in that conversation, he starts with a section talking about a character that shows up in our combined collective consciousness referred to as the Antichrist. When you think of the Antichrist, you might think of a demonic figure, kind of like a boogeyman personality. But how does John describe that concept here? He says, “As you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” John is recognizing that there are going to be individuals who were part of the church, connected, volunteering, attending every week, part of Bible studies, who had heard the gospel and made some outward profession of faith, yet walked away from it all. They ended up in a place where they not only left the church but actively denied Jesus as who He says He is—denying that He is the Savior, that He is the Messiah. These are the folks who are understood as “the antichrists” in Scripture. Rather than being Christians, they are anti-Christians. They are the opposite of what a believer is. I say all that to help lower the temperature on that term, because sometimes we have a very elevated view of that phrase. John is talking about ordinary people—people who were part of the church, had relationships, and left, ultimately denying Christ. Intentionally Sharing Jesus Each of us probably knows folks in our lives who wrestle with the reality of Christ and being engaged in the church. We all know people who have come into the church, been very involved for a time, and then kind of faded away. Are those the people John’s talking about? Perhaps in some cases. In other cases, we experience people who leave the church and we just don’t know where they’re at. At the end of the day, can any of us accurately pinpoint who is going to finally end up rejecting Jesus? No. Only God knows the heart of man. As my pastor in York would say, “That question is above my pay grade.” God will determine that; we can’t. So what do we do with this reality? It shows us that we should expect people to walk away from the faith. When we hear in the news about public-facing Christian leaders or influencers leaving the faith, it shouldn’t be a surprise to us. The apostles remind us that it is going to happen. But it should also encourage us to intentionally share Jesus with people. When people leave the church, sometimes they give good reasons, sometimes they have good conversations, but more often than not, they just peace out. They slowly start to leave, or they just leave, and we don’t really have good conversations. We don’t know why they’ve stopped coming. Maybe there’s a struggle happening in their life that we’re unclear about. This reminds me that as people do leave the church—and as we notice people who haven’t been here for a couple of months—we need to be intentionally sharing Jesus with them. Maintain steady connections so that you build relationships and can remind them of the truth of Jesus: His life, His death, and His resurrection to save sinners. A Story of Persistent Faith I was thinking about this recently. I heard a story about Dr. Frank Barker, who planted Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was the church where our first General Assembly was held back in 1973. He was a very committed evangelist. He would talk about riding the ring road around Birmingham as a young pastor—a very quiet, subdued guy—looking for hitchhikers to pick up just so he could practice his evangelistic conversations with them. He said sometimes it went great, other times they’d say, “Get me out of here,” and he’d drop them off and go find another one. There was a young man in their church who grew up under the ministry and, as he got older, left the church and started to dabble in aspects of life that are not healthy, drifting into sin. Dr. Barker kind of wrote him off. But his wife, Mrs. Barker, was very persistent. She said, “God’s not done with this young man.” In humility, she recounted how she told her husband that he was never going to be saved, but she still went out of her way to check on him. The young man worked at a clothing store while in college, and Mrs. Barker would go in once a month to buy a cheap little handkerchief just so she could maintain a relational connection with him. As a mother in the faith to a younger man, she’d say, “Hey, how are you doing? How are your classes going? How are your relationships going? What’s going on?” Over the years, she maintained that personal connection. Eventually, he called their house drunk at 2:00 AM. He asked to talk to Mrs. Barker, and they talked about relationships, girl problems, and all the situations in his life. After a couple of years, he called again and said, “I gave my life to Christ. Jesus has grabbed a hold of me. Can you help me with that?” What I love about that story is that it represents everyday life for most of us. We experience closeness with people, we’re in relationships with people in church and family, we get a sense that they know the gospel, and then they drift off. We wonder, What do we do? Do we just go in guns blazing with John 3:16? Do we throw the Bible at them every chance we get? Where she settled in the relational rhythm was simply showing up. “How are you doing?” Making a regular connection part of life. That requires intentionality. For you and I to share Jesus in these last hours, it requires us to be intentional. Our lives are busy, but as we look at Mrs. Barker’s example, it doesn’t have to be anything crazy. Stop in the store you were already going to go to. Send a text. Send a Facebook message. Call a couple of times a year. Maintain connections because we never know who God is going to draw back to the church. The Anointing of the Holy Spirit We also must consider how we remain in Jesus ourselves. In verse 20 it says, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.” When you see the word “anointing” in the Old Testament in particular, it is closely associated with the Spirit of God coming down and indwelling a person. We see that with Saul as he’s anointed king, with David, and at Pentecost. Here, he is speaking of the fact that as you believe in Jesus, the Spirit of God dwells within you. You have received the Spirit of God as you trust in Jesus, and as far as that’s real, He reveals the truth to you. You clinging to Jesus is because of the work of the Spirit in your life. This means we can rest in the power of the Holy Spirit. As we are saved, it’s not us that moves the needle forward in terms of our faith and growth; it is the anointing that comes from Christ. It is the Spirit that comes from Christ that indwells us, giving us those realities, helping us grow, transforming us, and sanctifying us until we are finally glorified on that last day. Our own salvation is a continuous application of that salvation to our lives through the Spirit. Sometimes we think we have to keep tinkering. We have to keep working. We have to keep moving the needle. If we’re going to stay in the church, we have to keep trying and doing in our own power. I was replacing the AC compressor in one of our vehicles this week. When you take the alternator out to put the new AC compressor in, you deal with a pulley tensioner. In most cars, there’s an automatic tensioner—you just crank it back, release the tension on the belt, move everything out, pop the drive belt back on, put the tension back, and it automatically sets the tension where it needs to be so the engine and belt run smoothly. The car I was working on doesn’t have that. Instead, it has a bracket where you manually adjust a bolt that swings the alternator up and down to adjust the tension on the belt. I got it all put back together, drove it down the block, and as soon as I hit the throttle, it was squealing like nobody’s business. The battery died shortly after. I had to get in there with a ratchet, asking myself, “Is it good now? Is it good now?” Finally, I got it right. Remaining in Jesus I think most of us view the Christian life that way. We think our spiritual life essentially has a manually adjusted alternator. We’ve got to tweak it just so. We’re always in a spot of, “Oh, it’s out of alignment, I’ve got to tweak it now.” But what the Scriptures show us is that the Spirit is that automatic tensioner pulley. As soon as that lever is pressed, it snaps into alignment. Everything is at the perfect tension. Everything is moving smoothly, not because of what we did, but because of what the Spirit has done. We don’t have to manually adjust it; it’s the Spirit at work within us, growing and shaping us. Yes, there’s activity on our part, but why is that occurring? Because the Spirit is powering it. Our own knowledge of Jesus does not come from us; it comes from the work of the Spirit. If we compare ourselves with those who reject Christ, we shouldn’t do it from a place of superiority or pride, but from a place of humility. I got in the car, and it drove today, and I have no idea how it all works or why the tension is the way it is, but it’s working. I thank God for that, and I pray that others experience that too. We must interact with those around us with deep humility, resting in the power of the Spirit to give us what we need. As for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you. So remain in Jesus. Rest in the work of the Spirit. Recognize that it is through the work of Jesus for you—His body and blood—that you are spiritually fed and nourished. Remain in Him, because Jesus is where all this comes from. Closing Prayer Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your grace, that you love us. I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds to you. Show us that we can intentionally share Jesus in these last times. Help us to rest in the power of the Spirit and to remain in Jesus through the indwelling power of your Spirit. May we look to Him for all things—for life, for godliness, and for salvation. May we not rest in our own strength, but in His alone. May that empower us toward greater obedience and love for you and love for our neighbor. We ask all these things in Jesus’ mighty and precious name. Amen.

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  Episode #20260830

  What Kind of Father?

  Aug 30, 202633 min

  Note: This transcript is AI-generated and may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for the accurate information and meaning. Summary In this sermon, the speaker wrestles with the difficult reality of unanswered prayers and the grief of losing a close friend named Drew. By examining Jesus’s teachings on prayer in Luke 11, the message challenges the congregation to shift their perspective of God from a transactional manager to a loving, welcoming Father—much like the father of the prodigal son—who invites our raw honesty and offers us the ultimate gift of His enduring presence. Key Points The Struggle of Unanswered Prayer: The speaker acknowledges the deep difficulty of prayer, especially when requests seem ignored during times of tragedy and loss. Questioning God’s Character: When prayers go unanswered, it forces us to ask the harder question: “What kind of God are we praying to?” God as the “Father of the Prodigal”: Jesus instructs us to address God as “Father.” This is not a distant patriarch, but a Father who runs to embrace His messy, broken child, even in their “stink.” The Invitation to Radical Honesty: True faith allows for raw honesty with God, including expressions of anger, frustration, and feelings of abandonment, much like we see throughout the Psalms. The Ultimate Answer: The promise of prayer is not that we will always get exactly what we ask for, but that the Father gives us Himself—His Holy Spirit and His presence to hold us in the midst of our suffering. Transcript Introduction and Gratitude All right. There’s an aura. It’s awesome. Great to be here, it really is. I’ve been tied in with Hanover Valley for 25 years. Forever, however long. I remember meeting in the basement of Drew and Becky’s house, and a lot of fun memories. A lot of fun memories with Drew. Before I go any further, I’ve been asked to thank you all from the staff and team at Logos Academy Harrisburg. I’m no longer part of the leadership team. They didn’t fire me; they just got smart and transferred the leadership to a much more competent bunch. They are actually doing really, really well. In fact, people ask me to give a report, and every time I report on it, I stop and go, “Oh yeah, they’re really doing a whole lot better than when I was there.” There is more money, a stable staff, and we started this school year with everybody actually showing up—I mean teachers! We’ve had years where teachers just don’t show. We’ve been hiring, and some of you in the business world know that. But in any case, it has been a great year, and I just wanted to express my thanks personally, and certainly from the staff, for your prayers, your support, and your efforts on behalf of what’s going on up there. Currently, pre-K through third grade, serving inner-city kids in Harrisburg primarily, making a Christ-centered education possible for them by underwriting about 90% of the tuition cost. So it’s an incredible mission. I am super proud of what’s going on, and I appreciate your support. The Struggle with Prayer This morning, we are going to look at a passage, and it’s one of these passages that, frankly, made me mad. Linda said, “Why don’t you preach on something easier?” It’s Drew’s fault, frankly. I blame Drew, and he’s probably laughing, but I’ve been wrestling with this topic for several years. Once you step out of full-time pastoral ministry, you can start asking some really honest questions. Maybe you all do that, I don’t know. I get in my head pretty bad, and Linda knows that and suffers through it, but this whole idea of prayer—and then it comes to a point when we wrestle through the loss of Drew. So I wrestle with this passage, and I think we’ve got to look at it. We’ve got to see what’s going on here. So if you don’t like it, it’s Drew’s fault. Reading the Word: Luke 11 Hear the word of the Lord, from Luke 11, beginning in verse 1: He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.” And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Don’t bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if a child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” By your grace and mercy, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. What Kind of God Do We Pray To? As I mentioned, I’ve struggled with prayer. I’ve wrestled with it. I’ve mainly struggled with the question: “Why aren’t there answers?” One of the reasons this is Drew’s fault is because there was a group of us that would get together and work on sermons pretty regularly. We did that for years. We’d preach on the same text in different churches, and we’d wrestle, do some initial work, and then go preach sermons that ended up being very different depending on the context. It was in that context that Drew made this famous statement that we harassed him about forever. He denied it most of the time, but at one point we were talking about prayer, and he said, “Prayer doesn’t really work anyway.” A very Drew-like statement, and I love that about him. I love that he wasn’t afraid to doubt, and he was very transparent, but he took the Bible seriously. I’ve run into people who aren’t afraid to doubt, but then they don’t take the Bible seriously. He had th at great balance. It frustrates me as I’m wrestling and struggling, as you are I suppose, with the loss of Drew. He’s the guy I’d sit down with and start asking some of these hard questions that I wouldn’t ask other people. As you come to this passage, you read, “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and everyone who knocks the do or will be opened.” What? These sound like promises! My reaction is: I’ve got to scramble and fix this, and kind of bail God out on this one. Does He really mean that? I kept sitt ing with this and wrestling with this, and what I realized—and in some ways it’s even more troubling than the struggle with the issue of prayer—is a tougher question: What kind of God? That’s what’s unnerving. Why doesn’t God answer a prayer that should be answered? Over the last several years, there have been a number of those that should be answered! If I was God, I would have answered them! And all of you, I know, experience that to some degree. What kind of God? Can we trust Him to ask, seek, and knock? Frankly, when I read verses 9 through 10, I go, “You know, that’s the kind of God I want.” When I ask, I receive; when I seek, I find; when I knock, the door is opened. I’ve got it. That’s the kind of God I want—a God I can manage, that will manage my life, that will fix my problems, that will arrange things the way I want them to be. The Father of the Prodigal But notice what Jesus’s very first word is in these instructions on prayer. The disciples ask him, “Teach us to pray.” What’s the first word? I know we’re Presbyterian and we don’t shout out. What’s the first word? Father. I think that’s the key to all of this. Father. Not a God we can manage, but a Father with whom we have a relationship. A real relationship. You’ll notice that’s where Jesus takes us in verses 10 and 11. Not a God to manage, but a Father. Which Father? A “how much more” Father. I have to pause there for a couple of reasons. I had coffee with a supporter of the school not too long ago, and we were talking about God the Father, and she said, “Oh, you know, the patriarchy with that. Why Father? Can’t we do parent?” If you’re struggling with that, put that aside. Then there are those of you whose situation in life when it comes to fathers is not pleasant. It’s painful. Many of my students in Harrisburg have missing fathers, or fathers who are in prison. When they hear the word “Father,” it’s anything but comfort. But what’s the kind of Father that Jesus has in view here? It’s the Father of the prodigal. When you hear that word, you need to think of the Father of the prodigal. You know the story. The prodigal comes to dad: “Dad, give me my inheritance. I’m tired of hanging out here, I want to go off and live a life of fun.” So dad graciously gives him his inheritance. A horrible insult, kind of like asking the dad to be dead. The prodigal takes the funds, parties, and eventually finds himself working with pigs, eating pig food, stinky and dirty. He says, “You know, I could go back to dad’s house and live as a servant and be even better than this.” So off he goes. The picture of a Father in view here is that prodigal’s Father. He is apparently watching, because the text tells us in Luke 15 he sees him when he was a long way off. And he goes running towards him. He’s not sitting back and going, “This guy took all my cash, he ripped me off, he insulted me. I’m going to see how really sorry this guy is.” That’s certainly what I would do! But not that kind of Father. He runs towards him and embraces him. Think of that! Here’s a guy that’s been rolling in the pig slop. He had to stink! I love that imagery. This is a Father who is hugging a stinky son. Hugging someone who hasn’t even mentioned a word of repentance yet, who simply was coming toward him, and the Father runs. That’s the image you need to embrace in your brain. That’s what the cross shows us about the kind of God we have. A good Father. A Father who hears, who invites us to ask, who invites persistence like the pesky neighbor. Radical Honesty in Prayer Prayer isn’t learning how to get something from God, and that’s starting to make sense to me. It’s about learning how to live as a child with our Father. If you want a distant relationship, that’s not the kind of Father Jesus has in view here. It’s a real relationship with a real Father, a Father we can pester, a Father we can annoy. Sometimes I pray for open parking spaces. I go, “Should I bother the God of the universe with that?” Yeah! Sure! Ask freely, ask boldly! And the great thing is, we know if it’s not something that’s good, He’s not going to give it to us. You can think of prayers that you prayed earnestly for, and then, if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll go, “Oh yeah, I’m really glad God didn’t give me what I wanted there.” But if it’s a real relationship, it’s a Father you can be honest with. Drew again—see, it’s his fault. He went through some pretty terrible things. I remember saying, “Drew, what happens if it happens again?” You know what he said to me? He said, “I’m done with God.” This is a pastor saying that! I’m going, “Oh my goodness! Lightning, watch out!” But can you say that to God? That wasn’t unbelief; that wasn’t heresy. That was somebody who had a real relationship with a real Father. A Father you can be totally honest with. I’ve talked to people who have said, “I could never say anything like that to God.” What does your prayer life tell you about your relationship with God? Can you be that honest? “Oh, but that’s not biblical!” Have you not read the Psalms? There is not a single human emotion that’s not picked up in the Psalms. The psalmist accuses God of things! Look at Psalm 89. “God, you made this covenant, and you’re not delivering.” The psalmist is accusing God of lying! And then read Job. “You’ve abandoned me, you’ve forgotten me.” That’s a relationship with the kind of Father Jesus has in view here. Why do we keep secrets from the one who knows every secret thought? He knows anyway! But for us to articulate it makes it real. When you’re able to do that, it draws you in. You wonder why there’s a barrier, that you’re not connecting with God? Could it be you’re too afraid to be honest? I was talking to a lady in our church who lost her husband. I said something very pastoral like, “Now, don’t forget, God is with you and loves you.” She said, “It doesn’t feel that way.” But then the very next line was, “I don’t know how people get through this kind of thing without God.” I love that realness. There’s an intimacy that sustains. Trusting the Father’s Heart We’ve got a Father who can be trusted even when He cannot be explained. What about those things that we’ve prayed for? Prayed for Drew, prayed for others. There’s been tragedy, heartache, things that make no sense. What do you do with that? Why keep asking? Jesus doesn’t answer that. He points back to the character of the Father. What kind of Father do you have? It’s a “how much more” Father. A Father that when you ask for a fish, doesn’t give you a snake. I want the “why.” But what I’ve realized is if I can figure out a “why”—part of God’s plan, God makes everything work out—that’s not the same thing as trusting a good Father. It’s trusting a design, a plan, but not the Father. Jesus doesn’t give us a “why.” Trust begins when I don’t need to know why. This is what Drew was so good at: he’d point to the cross. God loved us so much that He gave His son. The cross shows us the kind of love the Father has for us. Look at Jesus’s ministry. He weeps. He enters into our suffering. When I can’t understand His ways, I can look at the Father’s heart. I may not understand what the Father permits, but I know the Father’s heart because I’ve seen it in the Son, I’ve seen it on the cross, and we rest in that. The Ultimate Answer to Prayer What is it that the Father gives? Look how it ends: The Father gives Himself. Matthew says “good gifts,” Luke says “the Holy Spirit.” He gives Himself especially in the valleys. We often imagine prayer working like this: I ask, and God gives me the outcome I prayed for. The ultimate gift of prayer is not an outcome! It’s God Himself. His Spirit, His presence, His strength, His life in the middle of death. The greatest promise of prayer is not that the Father will always change what’s happening, it’s that the Father will meet us in what’s happening. I brought up Drew’s statement, “Prayer doesn’t really work anyway,” in a small group. One person who was horribly abused as a kid said, “I prayed that God would stop the abuse. And it didn’t. But when I prayed, I sensed God’s presence with me.” Another guy who lost his spouse said something very similar: “I prayed, and God was there.” We miss how much of a central part of the scriptures is the very presence of God. What does Jesus say to his disciples right before the ascension? “I will be with you always, to the end of the age.” The ultimate gift, the good gift, is God Himself. Our Father’s presence can be known, not merely believed. Sometimes His presence takes place in flesh—casseroles, a text, a call. Other times, it’s this sense that God is holding us. I have moments where, frankly, I don’t want God. I want my friend back. I don’t want to live by faith. I don’t want Becky to hurt. I don’t want Hanover Valley to be without their founding pastor. Those are real. But then there are other moments in the dry bones of darkness and grief where God brings life and is holding me. What I’ve learned over the years in pastoral ministry is that’s when God seems to draw the closest. When did Jesus take hold of Peter? When he begins to sink. I was helped by a friend going through a terminal illness. We asked her if she prays for healing. She said, “You know, I know He loves me, and I know He’s with me, and that’s enough. But I still ask, because He tells me to.” The greatest gift is not what we get from God, but God Himself. His presence, His nearness. He is the “how much more” Father. That’s the kind of Father we have, and that’s the kind of Father that Jesus showed us. Closing Prayer Let’s pray. Our gracious God, we are so thankful that You are the “how much more” Father. You’re not stingy, You’re not far from us, You’re near us. And yet there’s so much of our lives where we just feel that You’re distant, that You don’t hear. We get angry or hesitant to express it. Help us to see the Father that is defined by Jesus, the ultimate revelation of You. Help us to see the Father that embraces us and holds us even in our smelliness, even in our worst moments, even when we are overcome by doubt or we’re furious with You. Help us to be able to see Your love, Your grace, and mercy on the cross. And we pray that You would bless, grow us in grace, might we know Your nearness, might You draw near to us, and might You bless us. We ask in Christ’s name. Amen.

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