1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,160 By way of a reminder, we do have Nuria White's and Ali Novotny's bibles here. 2 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:16,960 They were baptized last week, Mother's Day. 3 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:21,480 Having a mom and a daughter be baptized on Mother's Day was very special. 4 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:25,120 I know for all of us, I always say that those kind of things will go in the book one day. 5 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:29,960 To be able to baptize a 95-year-old is always a tremendous work of the Holy Spirit. 6 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:36,960 So feel free, they'll be up for this week and next week as far as if you have a little note you want to send them on the inside cover. 7 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:39,960 Or one or two verses that you want to highlight. 8 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:45,960 That would be wonderful for them to have a little keepsake and a study Bible to continue to grow in. 9 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:50,960 We continue now, one of the last two messages in the book of James. 10 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:56,960 And to be honest, we could have probably done James over like a 13-week period. 11 00:00:56,960 --> 00:00:59,960 But we only did it for about a month and a half. 12 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:01,960 Last week we talked about the tongue. 13 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:07,960 And I know that pretty much every one of us was convicted because the majority of you sent me some kind of message. 14 00:01:07,960 --> 00:01:12,960 Thanking me, blaming me, or whatever of how that day or week went for you. 15 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:20,960 And we're going to continue a little bit in that understanding of how we speak when it comes to our understanding of being tested in life. 16 00:01:20,960 --> 00:01:27,960 So let me ask, how many people here love standardized testing? 17 00:01:27,960 --> 00:01:29,960 Nobody? 18 00:01:29,960 --> 00:01:36,960 How many people did well on like their ACT's or the SAT's or? 19 00:01:36,960 --> 00:01:38,960 Okay, alright. 20 00:01:38,960 --> 00:01:40,960 I'm not sure how to take that. 21 00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:42,960 That, yeah, so not a lot of you like it. 22 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:46,960 And how many of you have no idea what I'm talking about? 23 00:01:46,960 --> 00:01:47,960 Okay, alright, one of you. 24 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:51,960 But no one really likes to be tested in this. 25 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:56,960 Some people actually secretly love to be evaluated in all of those kind of things. 26 00:01:56,960 --> 00:01:57,960 And that is great. 27 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:01,960 I remember when I graduated seminary, what we had to do was called an oral defense. 28 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:06,960 And this was first as a three-tier defense of what is the pastorate? 29 00:02:06,960 --> 00:02:08,960 What is your theology of the pastorate? 30 00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:14,960 And you had to kind of give, it was like an hour and 15-minute presentation of all of what you've kind of learned in seminary. 31 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:17,960 And first you had to defend it to your classmates. 32 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:21,960 And they could try to, as iron sharpens iron and all of those things, give you pointers. 33 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:22,960 Like, hey, that was greater. 34 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:25,960 Don't say that again because it didn't make any sense. 35 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:26,960 Or whatever it was. 36 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:31,960 But then you had to defend it to a group of professors and faculty members. 37 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,960 And then the final defense is the one you were graded on. 38 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:39,960 You had to defend it to about a dozen or so ministry leaders in the area. 39 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:40,960 So this was in Lombard. 40 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:49,960 So from all of those suburbs, different pastors or ministry leaders to pretty much defend your understanding of the pastorate. 41 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:53,960 And there was a part of it that I absolutely loved. 42 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:59,960 Because I loved being able to kind of get people to understand my understanding of things is for a grade. 43 00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:06,960 And there was a part of it that terrified me because these were people that had pastored 25, 30, 40 years. 44 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:10,960 That, you know, they've been pastoring at that point longer than I've been alive. 45 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:12,960 They knew a couple of things. 46 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:19,960 And I remember some of the encouragement I got was that is a grand idea that you will never live into. 47 00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:20,960 Wow. 48 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:21,960 Okay. 49 00:03:21,960 --> 00:03:23,960 Like that seemed harsh, but it's true. 50 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:27,960 Or wow, that is just a bunch of naive thought. 51 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:28,960 I mean, it was humbling. 52 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:34,960 But I think it helped me make me the pastor I am today to know that I'm never going to have all the answers. 53 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,960 And I'm never going to reach a top of a spiritual mountain even as a pastor. 54 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:40,960 And I think for a lot of us, we strive for that. 55 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:42,960 We want to have no issues in our life. 56 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:46,960 We would love to just have the paycheck comes and we got stuff to do. 57 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:48,960 And we've got a sense of purpose in life. 58 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:55,960 And we're pretty much just going to coast on this whole faith thing because life is good. 59 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:58,960 But James talks about when life's not good. 60 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:00,960 He starts it. 61 00:04:00,960 --> 00:04:02,960 He starts the whole book with that. 62 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:04,960 He says we're supposed to find joy in trials. 63 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:07,960 Remember that a couple of weeks ago, almost a month ago now? 64 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:13,960 That in trials we're supposed to actually find joy in the testing and the growth of God. 65 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:20,960 But I submit today that for a lot of us, if not all of us, we can get tired of that really fast. 66 00:04:20,960 --> 00:04:26,960 But what we have to understand is transformation is the process of the Holy Spirit. 67 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:28,960 It is the work of the Holy Spirit. 68 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:33,960 And I'm saying not on my best day could I ever plan this because I planned this sermon series four years ago 69 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:37,960 that it would land on Pentecost Sunday. 70 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:45,960 But the transformation of the Holy Spirit is the key work of all of your life and all of my life. 71 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:51,960 That Jesus said I need to go up to the Father and the Advocate, the Paracletos, the Spirit, 72 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:55,960 will come and guide you into all truth. 73 00:04:55,960 --> 00:05:01,960 So what is the goal of all of our days is to grow in the truth of God's Word. 74 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:07,960 And we get a very clear taste that this isn't going to go well all the time. 75 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:16,960 That there's going to be a direct conflict in the world called sin against what we should have as kind of our modus operandi 76 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,960 or the goal of living our life in all truth. 77 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:23,960 We have a world that wants to just be lies and deception. 78 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:25,960 So right off the bat there's testing. 79 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:34,960 You cannot live even in the most remote small towns of rural Midwest where the church actually is the center of the town, 80 00:05:34,960 --> 00:05:41,960 where pastors are more revered in there and get asked to be on school boards and all of those things, 81 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:47,960 all the way to the most progressive city that have very much want the separation of church and state. 82 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:52,960 And all in between there's going to be conflict in faith. 83 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:58,960 Even if we all believe we think the same, we look the same, we act the same, there's going to be conflict. 84 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:00,960 And nor do I ever want that in a church. 85 00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:02,960 That sounds like the most boring church ever. 86 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:11,960 We all agree on salvation through Christ alone and that in of itself will cause conflict in life. 87 00:06:11,960 --> 00:06:19,960 Why? Because we have to understand the nature of human desires and conflicts. 88 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:22,960 Because here's something we all have in common. 89 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:28,960 We all find ourselves in conflict in one way or the other. 90 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:31,960 Oh, pastor, I don't get in conflict in life. 91 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:33,960 I'm really easy going, I'm pretty passive. 92 00:06:33,960 --> 00:06:36,960 Though there are times I may kind of get aggressive. 93 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:38,960 Well, good thing there's a term for that. 94 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,960 It's called passive aggressive and that's conflict too. 95 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:47,960 Sweeping it under the rug does not mean you are not a conflictual person 96 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:52,960 because what happens when you sweep everything under the rug? 97 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:54,960 Eventually it what? 98 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:58,960 It irritates, eventually you trip over it and it all comes spilling out. 99 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:01,960 And instead of dealing with the elephant when it's two pounds, 100 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:06,960 we deal with it when it's 2,000 pounds and no one wants to and it hurts. 101 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:12,960 Understand that we need to understand that we have a very much internal conflict 102 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:16,960 when it comes to walking out the life of faith. 103 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:19,960 We have conflict for when testing and trials come. 104 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:24,960 In James 4, the beginning kind of points us to the right place. 105 00:07:24,960 --> 00:07:26,960 So chapter 4 starting with verse 1. 106 00:07:26,960 --> 00:07:32,960 What causes, going to verse 3, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? 107 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:36,960 Is it not this that your passions are at war within you? 108 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:39,960 You desire and do not have so you murder. 109 00:07:39,960 --> 00:07:42,960 You covet and cannot obtain so you fight and quarrel. 110 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:45,960 You do not have because you do not ask. 111 00:07:45,960 --> 00:07:52,960 You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. 112 00:07:52,960 --> 00:07:55,960 So he's asking some pretty big questions here. 113 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:58,960 What's causing the issues? 114 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:03,960 Hey Jews, Gentiles, believers in Jesus, why do you have fights? 115 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:04,960 Why do you have quarrels? 116 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:08,960 Why is all of this drama going on? 117 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:11,960 Because we want to appease the flesh. 118 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:13,960 We need to be honest this morning. 119 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:17,960 But there are times that sin looks just far more appealing. 120 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:20,960 And I think life's going to go better if I dive into it. 121 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:22,960 I'm going to allow it to define who I am. 122 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:25,960 And I'm going to get it to the point, even though it's lies, 123 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:30,960 I'm going to say it to myself enough to where all of a sudden I'm going to start to believe it. 124 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,960 And you've just deteriorated in your faith. 125 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:38,960 Well, but you know, as long as, you know, it's salvation, then everything's going to go my way. 126 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:39,960 No, it's not. 127 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:42,960 If you're reading the Bible that way, then you're wanting to read it that way 128 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:44,960 and you're reading it in a true way. 129 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:46,960 That we are going to have convictions. 130 00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:48,960 We are going to be persecuted. 131 00:08:48,960 --> 00:08:51,960 We are going to have a war inside of us always. 132 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:52,960 And here's the kicker. 133 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:57,960 We all lean into that war in the good way and the bad way every day. 134 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:01,960 It's one of the reasons that I've said this before, that Martin Luther had a little baptismal by his bed, 135 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:08,960 because he needed to feel that justification for his sins that he committed every day. 136 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:09,960 And he would do that. 137 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:10,960 He writes about it. 138 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:16,960 I'm not saying we need to do that, but in order to understand and make sense of the conflicts 139 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:22,960 and the fights among us is to understand the grace of God. 140 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:28,960 That if I've been shown grace for all the junk that I have done in my life and you have, 141 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,960 then we ought to A, show grace to ourselves. 142 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:32,960 That is okay. 143 00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:35,960 But also show grace and forgiveness to others. 144 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:38,960 But therein lies the rub. 145 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:40,960 Because you know what? 146 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:44,960 You've already forgiven that person once and they've gone back to the well and hurt you again. 147 00:09:44,960 --> 00:09:47,960 Or the church you were at just hurt you again. 148 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:53,960 Or whatever it is, what system or individual or groups or whatever. 149 00:09:53,960 --> 00:09:56,960 So I'm supposed to forgive them again? 150 00:09:56,960 --> 00:09:58,960 I just know they're going to do it again. 151 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:02,960 So you're already prejudging that this person's not going to figure it out 152 00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:05,960 because it's the third time now that they've hurt you with the same thing. 153 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,960 And I'm just sick of forgiving. 154 00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:09,960 Okay. 155 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:14,960 Then I think you struggle in the understanding of how often do we forgive. 156 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:16,960 We're supposed to forgive always. 157 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:20,960 Because we've been always forgiven in that sense. 158 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:26,960 That we have been forgiven to show grace as Paul and Peter and John say in all of their writings. 159 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:31,960 Yet these trials and temptations, they're supposed to teach us something. 160 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:35,960 And it's not to teach us to not trust people. 161 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:41,960 To just stay sequestered by ourselves, kind of hermit in life because we're afraid of the outside world. 162 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:46,960 No, we need to, a Christian engages these things to help bring peace. 163 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:49,960 Remember Jesus said bless are the peacemakers. 164 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:56,960 So we have to understand that the fall of humanity is always going to be in each and every one of us. 165 00:10:56,960 --> 00:10:58,960 And there's always going to be a battle. 166 00:10:58,960 --> 00:11:01,960 And we pull this from the Belgian Confession. 167 00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:04,960 Article 14, the creation and the fall of humanity. 168 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:08,960 That we believe that God created human beings from the dust of the earth 169 00:11:08,960 --> 00:11:13,960 and made and formed them in his image and likeness, good, just, holy, 170 00:11:13,960 --> 00:11:17,960 able by their will to conform in all things to the will of God. 171 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:19,960 Beautiful stuff. 172 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:24,960 But when they were in honor, they did not understand it and did not recognize their excellence. 173 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:30,960 But they subjected themselves willfully or willingly to sin and consequently to death 174 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:34,960 and the curse lending their ear to the word of the devil. 175 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:37,960 For they transgressed the commandment of life. 176 00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:40,960 You shall eat all of these things except that one. 177 00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:45,960 That was the first perfect commandment given, pre-sin, which they had received. 178 00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:53,960 And by their sin, they separated themselves from God, who was their true life, having corrupted their entire nature. 179 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:58,960 So they made themselves guilty and subject to physical and spiritual death, 180 00:11:58,960 --> 00:12:01,960 having become wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all their ways. 181 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:05,960 They lost all their excellent gifts, which they had received from God, 182 00:12:05,960 --> 00:12:12,960 and retained none of them except for small traces, which are enough to make them inexcusable. 183 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:19,960 So we understand from our Belgian Confession that we were made good, we are now wicked because of sin. 184 00:12:19,960 --> 00:12:21,960 That's nothing new. 185 00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:24,960 If that's the first time you've heard that, maybe you haven't been to church in a while, 186 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:26,960 but we're so thankful that you're here. 187 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:33,960 But the intended kind of relationship was what God created, and sin ruined it. 188 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:36,960 And we are now bent against God for eternity. 189 00:12:36,960 --> 00:12:42,960 So no, not for eternity, for in this life, in eternity, when we get there, we won't be. 190 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:46,960 What we see dimly in a mirror, we will see face to face. 191 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:55,960 And so understanding that God's grace now is going to be transformative from death to life. 192 00:12:55,960 --> 00:12:58,960 And you know what? That's really easy to say. 193 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:03,960 That's really nice. It's very hallmarky to understand that I have been brought from death to life. 194 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:08,960 But what does that mean when the death is still very active in the world? 195 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:14,960 Though you may be saved and though you may be raised to new life and you have professed and you believe, 196 00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:21,960 that doesn't mean you have this force field around you where everything's going to be great. 197 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:23,960 That life's going to be good, I'm going to have no problems. 198 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:26,960 I'm going to not deal with any sickness, I'm not going to deal with any death. 199 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:31,960 No, because those are still very present in life. 200 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:35,960 It's one reason why our dear sister Peg, though she is mourning, 201 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:39,960 she is praising God for her mom's 95 years of faithfulness. 202 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:42,960 What if we didn't have that hope? 203 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:48,960 Think about that. What if we didn't know the hope of glory that we have in Jesus? 204 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:52,960 Anyone want to react to that? What if you didn't have that hope? 205 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:57,960 What if Peg does not have that reassurance that mom is now in glory with Jesus? 206 00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:02,960 What if that hope wasn't there? How would life be to live? 207 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:09,960 Empty, good word. Despair. Anyone else? 208 00:14:09,960 --> 00:14:12,960 You would find it in something else. Thank you, Matt. 209 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:16,960 That is a great answer. The first two were good, but the third one was better. 210 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:22,960 And understanding that we are people that need that hope. 211 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:26,960 And how do we know that we get attracted to hope, even on an artificial level, 212 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:30,960 because of the things we have in the world, because of the belief systems in the world, 213 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:35,960 because of the worship that even the church can do, not of things of God. 214 00:14:35,960 --> 00:14:39,960 And friends, we come by it honestly, but that is no excuse. 215 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:45,960 As Moses is up getting the tablets from God himself, what is Aaron and the pastors doing? 216 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:47,960 They are creating a golden calf. 217 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:56,960 Because they went back to the environment they knew before their encounter with God. 218 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:01,960 How much should I just define some of our, if not all of our stories? 219 00:15:01,960 --> 00:15:06,960 That before our encounter with Jesus, whatever point of life that was for you, 220 00:15:06,960 --> 00:15:11,960 in whatever faith, understanding you had, maybe you grew up in the Baptist church, 221 00:15:11,960 --> 00:15:15,960 where you make that decision, you get baptized in the Reformed church, 222 00:15:15,960 --> 00:15:19,960 where you recognize that God's always got you, and now you recognize that 223 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:23,960 because of the work of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in your life, 224 00:15:23,960 --> 00:15:27,960 and you profess, or maybe you are on your deathbed, 225 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:33,960 and that connection finally makes because you had unrest in your soul, in zero peace. 226 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:36,960 Talk to Nuria White, though she is not on her deathbed, 227 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:40,960 that is one of the things that brought about that spiritual transformation. 228 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:49,960 And everywhere in between, that we struggle that we want to go back at times to our old life. 229 00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:53,960 We want to go back to what we thought we knew, 230 00:15:53,960 --> 00:16:01,960 because submission to God's sovereignty is hard, but that is the call of every believer. 231 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:05,960 And let me just ask it, to me it is a simple question with not a simple answer. 232 00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:10,960 If God is all-knowing, if God is sovereign, and he has our best, his best for us, 233 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:17,960 which is way better than ours all day, why wouldn't we want to submit to him? 234 00:16:17,960 --> 00:16:21,960 Because there is a force in the world that tells you you don't need to and you shouldn't. 235 00:16:21,960 --> 00:16:29,960 And James urges us, he urges believers to submit, starting in verse 7. 236 00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:34,960 Submit yourselves therefore to God, going to verse 10. 237 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:36,960 Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 238 00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:39,960 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. 239 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:43,960 Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 240 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:46,960 Be wretched and mourn and weep. 241 00:16:46,960 --> 00:16:49,960 Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom. 242 00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:55,960 Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you. 243 00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:57,960 Whoa! 244 00:16:57,960 --> 00:17:02,960 James is calling it out now that if you're not going to submit to God, 245 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:07,960 then how in the world can you have joy? 246 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:11,960 Submit yourselves and resist the devil. 247 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:13,960 Resisting, right, is a verb. 248 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:18,960 That we are going to be actively tempted, we're going to be actively tested by Satan, 249 00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:23,960 by the evil one, in all of our daily living. 250 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:27,960 Now, understand that Satan is not omnipotent, he's not omnipresent, 251 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:31,960 he is not on power with God, like a lot of people do that. 252 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:33,960 They go, God v. Satan. 253 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:35,960 No, God's up here, right? 254 00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:37,960 Satan's never on God's level. 255 00:17:37,960 --> 00:17:42,960 Yet he still sends those demons out to you and me to try to get us off track, 256 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:46,960 to get us to take away our joy, because the minute our joy gets taken away, 257 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,960 who do we blame? 258 00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:56,960 Other people, systems, our job, the garbage man, but God. 259 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,960 That without this understanding of joy, we will blame God all day 260 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:02,960 and twice on Sundays. 261 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:05,960 That we will blame God for the things going on in our life, 262 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:10,960 when really what God is offering you in those moments is His grace. 263 00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:14,960 I don't know how many verses that we have to read where Jesus says, 264 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:17,960 I will never leave you or forsake you. 265 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,960 I go back to Isaiah 43, when you walk through the waters, 266 00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:23,960 I will be with you, the flames, the waves will not overwhelm me. 267 00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:26,960 When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, 268 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:33,960 for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. 269 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,960 And that understanding of Jesus being our Savior should be a two-fold blessing. 270 00:18:37,960 --> 00:18:42,960 It should be the comfort that we have in life, that there is a plan there, 271 00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:46,960 and a hope that there is something better. 272 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:51,960 But not as a dangling carrot, but as our understanding of how to live this life. 273 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:57,960 Because when God says, I got it, He does. 274 00:18:57,960 --> 00:19:01,960 The temptation and the trials come from when we doubt that. 275 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,960 Because we are always drawing for these comforts in life. 276 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:08,960 Because if it isn't God, we are going to put something else in there, 277 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:15,960 some vice, some pride, some sin is going to want to take that place. 278 00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:18,960 That's why the truth of Lord's Day 1 of the Heideberg Catechism 279 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:23,960 that we can draw upon today, and consider these comforting truths, 280 00:19:23,960 --> 00:19:28,960 where the question is, what is our only comfort in life and in death? 281 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:30,960 And many of you know it, but I am going to read it anyway, 282 00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:34,960 that I am not my own, but belong, body and soul, 283 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:38,960 in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. 284 00:19:38,960 --> 00:19:39,960 Friends, that should be enough. 285 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:45,960 We should be able to stop there and go, I get it, I am good, let's go. 286 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:48,960 But even the writer of the Heideberg doubles down to remind us 287 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,960 that he has fully paid for all of my sins with his precious blood 288 00:19:51,960 --> 00:19:55,960 and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. 289 00:19:55,960 --> 00:19:58,960 He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head 290 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:00,960 without the will of my Father in heaven. 291 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:03,960 In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. 292 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:09,960 And I love this, because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, 293 00:20:09,960 --> 00:20:13,960 assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready 294 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:16,960 from now on to live for him. 295 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:18,960 There it is. 296 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,960 That should be enough. 297 00:20:21,960 --> 00:20:23,960 But we struggle. 298 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:26,960 We struggle because we get caught up in the very beginning, 299 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:29,960 this understanding of life and death. 300 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:32,960 Probably the number one, tied for probably in the top three questions 301 00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:36,960 I get all the time, outside of why does a good God allow bad things to happen 302 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:39,960 or why does a good God do bad things, different question, 303 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:46,960 but similar conversation, is, pastor, what happens in the afterlife? 304 00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:51,960 Walk me through my death. 305 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:55,960 I can't, I've never been there, I've never done that, I don't have the T-shirt. 306 00:20:55,960 --> 00:21:00,960 But we can read in God's Word that those who belong 307 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:04,960 have nothing to worry about. 308 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:08,960 That there is not going to be any pain, or there is not going to be any 309 00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:11,960 forever pain, if you will. 310 00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:15,960 We may go through pain on this life, and I look out at all of you, 311 00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:18,960 and I can't see you online, but I'm sure it's the truth for some of you, 312 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:20,960 you have felt pain. 313 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:22,960 You may be in pain right now. 314 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:29,960 You may be going through an active test of your faith right now. 315 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:35,960 My guess is that that probably won't cost your life, but it might. 316 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:40,960 The call of Jesus might actually go that far in your life. 317 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:44,960 And the question I have for us today is are we okay with that? 318 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:49,960 Are we really bought in that we believe this with every fiber of our being, 319 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:55,960 or do we hold just a little bit of our control freak in us? 320 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,960 No, I need to, I know, life, yeah, God could give me life great, 321 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:00,960 hallelujah, amen. 322 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:04,960 But this death thing, I'm going to need more. 323 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:07,960 I need to know what the next step of my life is going to be. 324 00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:11,960 I'd love to see a mile down the road when sometimes God gives you just one foot, 325 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:15,960 one step, but we don't like that. 326 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:20,960 We don't like that because we need to understand that in order to receive the 327 00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:26,960 grace of Christ, there needs to be a humility, because the prideful do not 328 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:28,960 believe they need grace. 329 00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:33,960 And James is going to talk about that too, that we need to depend not only on 330 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:38,960 God's sovereignty, but understand that God is working for us, not for us the 331 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:43,960 way we want to define it, but the us the way God's already defined you. 332 00:22:43,960 --> 00:22:46,960 There's some conviction there, that's a whole other sermon. 333 00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:52,960 But what we need to understand is that God's providence trumps all of our say. 334 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,960 And I guarantee you there are some of you today that don't like that, that want 335 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:04,960 to throw something at me or are going to try extra hard to dunk me this afternoon. 336 00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:07,960 But I think that's where life starts. 337 00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:14,960 Life truly starts for the believer when they understand and accept the providence 338 00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:15,960 of God. 339 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:19,960 Now, in our reform circles, we don't like that word accept, that God has sovereignty 340 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,960 already done it, and I get that his providence is all over our life. 341 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:25,960 Are you going to see it? 342 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:26,960 Are you going to engage it? 343 00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:31,960 Are you going to say my good is God's top priority, but not my good the way I 344 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:33,960 want to be good? 345 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:36,960 Because if it's defined by our good, then how are we defining it? 346 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:38,960 What are we using to define good then in life? 347 00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:40,960 Anybody want to take a guess? 348 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:48,960 If it's the world according to Jim, right, how do I want to define life then? 349 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:50,960 If it feels good, do it, right? 350 00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:55,960 Maybe I could become six feet, something, right, that we have these desires, we 351 00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:59,960 want to put all of that, and it becomes the gospel according to me. 352 00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:00,960 Guess what? 353 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:03,960 The gospel according to Jim never saved anybody. 354 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,960 The gospel according to Jim never brought anybody new life. 355 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:12,960 The gospel according to Jim never brought God's providence because it's about me. 356 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:17,960 And there are some of us that we struggle with the me because the me takes a real 357 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:19,960 big role in your life. 358 00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:22,960 But God's providence tells us otherwise. 359 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:26,960 And the doctrine of God's providence can be found in a good way to kind of wrap 360 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:31,960 it up is Article 13 of the Belgian Confession that we understand. 361 00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:33,960 Or do I have to read James first? 362 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:35,960 Thank you, April, I have to read James first. 363 00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:42,960 So James 13, come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and 364 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:47,960 such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit that you do not 365 00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:49,960 know what tomorrow will bring. 366 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:51,960 What is your life? 367 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:56,960 For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 368 00:24:56,960 --> 00:25:01,960 Instead you ought to say if the Lord wills we will live and do this and that as it 369 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,960 is you boast in your arrogance. 370 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:06,960 All such boasting is evil. 371 00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:13,960 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him it is sin. 372 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:16,960 How many planners do we have in the congregation today? 373 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:19,960 Don't lie, Jesus is watching. 374 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:20,960 Okay. 375 00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:21,960 All right. 376 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:24,960 I judge a third of you because I know you and you didn't raise your hand. 377 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:26,960 No, a lot of us are planners. 378 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:28,960 I can be a planner. 379 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,960 Sometimes in my job I have to be. 380 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:35,960 And for a lot of us we know exactly what this week is going to do. 381 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,960 We have planned it down and we have enough authority over our life that I know what 382 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:40,960 Monday is going to bring. 383 00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:42,960 I know what Tuesday is going to bring. 384 00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:45,960 We try to do our best just like the weatherman to understand what our week is 385 00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:46,960 going to bring. 386 00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:50,960 But I guarantee you none of you actually know. 387 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:51,960 How do I know? 388 00:25:51,960 --> 00:25:53,960 Because the Bible tells me so. 389 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:54,960 And none of us know. 390 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,960 We can plan all day, right? 391 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:01,960 Lisa, the team, you all planned for a beautiful day and I am not sure what 392 00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:08,960 sacrifice you made to get this because I was playing real hard for rain. 393 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:10,960 But you got a beautiful day, right? 394 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:13,960 So you must be higher in God's eyes than me and I submit to that. 395 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:18,960 But understand that we all fall into this. 396 00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:19,960 Don't look away. 397 00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:21,960 Don't go, no, I depend fully on God. 398 00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:23,960 I frog my life fully relying on God. 399 00:26:23,960 --> 00:26:26,960 You remember that from 2002? 400 00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:31,960 That we understand that we don't all the time. 401 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:36,960 Sometimes we stink at relying on God because we know God is going to show up 402 00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:38,960 not in the way we want him to. 403 00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:43,960 Because we know what we desire in our life is actually sinful. 404 00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:44,960 Ever think about that? 405 00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:48,960 That there are aspects of your life that you desire to happen that probably 406 00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:50,960 have sinful tendencies. 407 00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:53,960 Because you are making it about what is good for you. 408 00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:54,960 What feels good for you. 409 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:55,960 What you want. 410 00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:59,960 Maybe you have made enough money where you can have all your wants and needs 411 00:26:59,960 --> 00:27:01,960 ever met. 412 00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:04,960 But you still don't have that ultimate control. 413 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:05,960 How do I know? 414 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:09,960 Because I will get random phone calls of things that happen randomly in your 415 00:27:09,960 --> 00:27:12,960 life and you want to make sense of it. 416 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,960 And sometimes I don't offer much of a word. 417 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:17,960 It is sit in it. 418 00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:19,960 What is God trying to teach you? 419 00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:24,960 I was talking with Paul Katz yesterday about kind of where we are going as far 420 00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:26,960 as the future of Munster Church. 421 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:27,960 We are going to talk about it. 422 00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:29,960 The family meeting first weekend in June. 423 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:31,960 Then we are going to have our congregational meeting. 424 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:35,960 You are here all about that in the coming week or two. 425 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:38,960 But Paul and I both, we both feel like God is doing something unique and we 426 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:40,960 don't know what it is. 427 00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:41,960 We are excited. 428 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:43,960 We want to stay humbled. 429 00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:46,960 As I tell my leaders and you all the time, stay a little terrified because God 430 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:48,960 can do big things. 431 00:27:48,960 --> 00:27:52,960 But there is just something there and we are really excited about it. 432 00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:54,960 We don't know why. 433 00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:57,960 Paul, you and I are both kind of planners. 434 00:27:57,960 --> 00:27:58,960 Let me not ask you. 435 00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:00,960 Lois, he is kind of a planner. 436 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:01,960 I have office hours. 437 00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,960 That will get me out of the dunk tank if you guys have conflict. 438 00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:07,960 So start fighting and then we will meet in my office. 439 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:09,960 Sorry, Lisa. 440 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,960 But understand that we are planners and we would love to see our plans come to 441 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:14,960 be. 442 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:19,960 But the believer submits all things to Christ first. 443 00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:24,960 The plans you have for your house, for those secret feelings of terror you have 444 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:27,960 that the school year is going to be ending and you have absolutely no idea what 445 00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:31,960 to do with your kids all summer. 446 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,960 I see parents shaking their heads. 447 00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:37,960 We need to submit it all to Jesus first. 448 00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:40,960 The plans of this church, the plans of the council, the plans of the ministries, 449 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:44,960 the committees, all of these things, we have to submit it to Jesus first. 450 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:48,960 Because what happens when we do that and then we take time to actually reflect 451 00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,960 and listen, he will guide. 452 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,960 It is a great way to keep our personal opinions, our personal agendas that we 453 00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,960 all have out of it. 454 00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:00,960 Are we going to do it perfectly? 455 00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:01,960 No. 456 00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:06,960 But we need to embrace the humility and our dependence we need to have not only 457 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:08,960 on God but God's providence. 458 00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:12,960 And I close with this from the Belgian Confession Article 13. 459 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:18,960 We believe that this good God after creating all things did not abandon them 460 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:23,960 to chance or fortune but leads and governs them according to his holy will 461 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:27,960 in such a way that nothing happens in this world without God's orderly 462 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:28,960 arrangement. 463 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:33,960 Yet God is not the author of and cannot be charged with the sin that occurs. 464 00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:38,960 For God's power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that God arranges 465 00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:44,960 and does all his works very well and justly even when the devil and the wicked 466 00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:48,960 act unjustly. 467 00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:53,960 We do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what God does that surpasses 468 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,960 human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend. 469 00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:02,960 And finally, but in all humility and reverence we adore the just judgments of 470 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:03,960 God. 471 00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:04,960 Stop there. 472 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:11,960 That doesn't mean we adore when God smites and God still does but that we 473 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:13,960 understand that God does this for a purpose. 474 00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:18,960 That if we believe that God is orderly and God is just then we need to believe 475 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:21,960 that God is orderly and God is just. 476 00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:26,960 Which are hidden from us being content to be Christ's disciples so as to learn 477 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:33,960 only what God shows us in the Word without going beyond those limits. 478 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,960 Next week we're going to come and we're going to experience a little different 479 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:39,960 of a service. 480 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:43,960 And I want you to lead into it because next week we're going to have a service 481 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:44,960 of prayer. 482 00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:45,960 We are still going to do a sermon. 483 00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:48,960 We are going to still worship, right? 484 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:52,960 But what chapter five is going to tell us is that not only is the spirit 485 00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:56,960 constantly transforming you and bringing you to new understandings of yourself, 486 00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:00,960 of God's Word, your giftings and all of those things, but one of the things that 487 00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:05,960 chapter five is going to implore us to do is to give our ideas, our thoughts, 488 00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:10,960 our everything to God and to leave it there. 489 00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:13,960 And there's no better way to do that than through prayer. 490 00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:20,960 To pray to God and leave our fears, our anxieties, our worries, our curiosities, 491 00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:24,960 all of that at the foot of the cross. 492 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:30,960 So the worship committee, myself, we're going to weave us through chapter five 493 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:35,960 while taking time to pray for very specific things. 494 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:40,960 Tomorrow night the council meets to propose and recommend a budget, right? 495 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,960 A budget is what a church needs to continue its ministry. 496 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:45,960 But we're going to talk about the future. 497 00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:47,960 We're going to talk about the horizon in the month of June. 498 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:52,960 We're going to talk as a church family many times about these things. 499 00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:57,960 And the first thing we want to do is we want to give it to God first and have the 500 00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:06,960 audacity to have the faith, to have the understanding of grace to say your will 501 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,960 be done. 502 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:12,960 Because as a church that's where we need to sit. 503 00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:16,960 So I'm going to ask you and we're going to email it again this week, come with all 504 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:21,960 of that crazy, I know I have it, I know you guys have it, with those questions, 505 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:25,960 with those wonderings, with those worries, those anxieties, those things that we 506 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:26,960 feel great about. 507 00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:33,960 Let us offer together as a church not only the day but the future and to someone 508 00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:39,960 who's already told us today through the prophet Jeremiah, I know the plans I 509 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:42,960 have for you. 510 00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:52,960 Let us come next week to trust and to give that collectively.