Psalm 139:1-24 [NLTse]

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

¹ O Lord, You have examined my heart and know everything about me. ² You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. ³ You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. ⁴ You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. ⁵ You go before me and follow me. You place Your hand of blessing on my head. ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

⁷ I can never escape from Your Spirit! I can never get away from Your presence! ⁸ If I go up to Heaven, You are there; if I go down to the grave, You are there. ⁹ If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, ¹⁰ even there Your hand will guide me, and Your strength will support me. ¹¹ I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—¹² but even in darkness I cannot hide from You. To You the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to You.

¹³ You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. ¹⁵ You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. ¹⁶ You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

¹⁷ How precious are Your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! ¹⁸ I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, You are still with me!

¹⁹ O God, if only You would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers! ²⁰ They blaspheme You; your enemies misuse Your name. ²¹ O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate You? Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose You? ²² Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for Your enemies are my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴ Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

I had just finished preaching and was getting ready to sit down for the pastor to lead the congregation in prayer when this kid in the Youth Group who’d started looking up to me began clapping. And then some of the other kids began clapping, and their parents, and soon the entire church was standing up in applause! And that had never happened in that church before. (And it had certainly never happened to me before.) And although I was a little embarrassed by it, secretly it also made me feel good and special, and I began thinking that I’d even deserved it because it was such a very good sermon. And as the pastor began to lead us in prayer I remember recognizing my pride and silently asking God to humiliate me because I did not know how to be humble. And the Service continued…

After Worship I was chatting with the people around me and some of the kids who’d come over. And this woman – her name was Margaret – came over to me and pulled me aside. And Margaret said, “I don’t know why God wants me to say this to you, but He made very clear to me during the prayer time that I had to let you know He is not going to humiliate you, but that you can trust Him to teach you how to be humble.” And then she turned and hurried away, clearly uncomfortable…

And I remember standing there, looking around me, feeling so exposed: Like I was standing in my underwear right there in the middle of the sanctuary. And I remember looking after the woman as she walked away, and I was scared, wondering, “What else did God show you while He was giving you a tour of my secret thoughts?”

…

Psalm 139, and so many stories out there like I just told, make absolutely clear to us that God knows us intimately. And, of course, the cross shows us that He cares. God knows us and God cares.

As we are focused on Psalm 139 this morning it strikes me that at the heart of even being able to truly care about others is knowing them: Knowing each other’s joys; knowing each other’s sorrows; knowing the good, the bad, and the ugly about one another. Because only in truly knowing one another can we face and overcome the temptation to judge others, either favorably or condemningly. Only in truly knowing each other can we face our fears about the needs of those around us overwhelming us. (Because sometimes we don’t care and we don’t help because we’re afraid it will be too much for us.)

But, sometimes, we keep ourselves to ourselves, afraid that if others truly knew us then they wouldn’t like us or wouldn’t want to hang around us or think as highly of us as they do not knowing. And we can have some pretty dirty laundry in our pasts, and even some pretty unsavory things going on in our lives right now, even as we’ve begun to live for Christ.

The priests and religious leaders in Jerusalem during Ezekiel’s day had some pretty nasty secrets: Ezekiel 8 tells us they had begun worshiping the Babylonian’s gods. (Perhaps because Babylon seemed so great and powerful, so the leaders thought their gods must be great and powerful, too. Whyever…) But these priests and leaders were hiding their worship, doing their heinous secret rites in areas of the Lord’s Temple where the common people couldn’t see them. Ezekiel records that they thought even God wouldn’t see them! But God knew their secrets and what they were doing in their secret places, and He showed their secrets to Ezekiel in a vision, and Ezekiel proclaimed their abominations to all the exiles in Babylon!

God knows every thought, word, and deed of every man, woman, boy, and girl on the planet. He is intimately familiar with our every action and undertaking, our motives and the manner in which we pursue these things, even our thoughts before we’ve fully sorted them out, and our words before they’ve even been spoken! Jesus tells us to give our gifts of charity in secret and to pray in secret where only God can see and hear because God does see and will reward and He does hear and will answer all our prayers…

One of the nice things about knowing that God knows us so completely and loves us anyway is the freedom that can give us with Him (if we can grow content with the knowledge of it), but also the freedom it can give us with others around us, too.

Our headlines are regularly full of the dirty laundry our politicians or celebrities have tried so hard to keep secret. I asked you earlier what your most well-kept secret was. These politicians and celebrities don’t want their secrets known. That knowledge gives the media power over them.

But you and I don’t have to be concerned whether or not others find out about our dirty laundry. Because the politicians and celebrities are all about themselves (most of the ones making the headlines, that is), but you and I are all about Christ! So as the newspapers and newscasters are using the secrets they’ve uncovered to tie these politicians and celebrities in knots, you and I can let our secrets be opportunities to tell the world about Jesus!

As everyone else is trying to “spin” the ugly truth into something flattering, you and I get to tell everyone that, yes, that was how we used to live and, yes, those were some of the things we’ve done, but how Jesus has made us new: How Jesus has died to set us free from all that’s come before, set us free to ask forgiveness and be forgiven, set us free to make restitution and be reconciled; that He’s made us new creations, healing us from all that’s happened and been done to us, made us new creations, washing us clean from shame and abuse and that dirtiness that without Him just won’t go away: Set us free and made us new creations today! [Hold up newspaper]

And, of course, that’s one of the things I like so much about being Jesus’ church together, too. Because together we can share the reality of His setting us free, and the reality of His making us new.

Yesterday morning during the Men’s Bible Study we ended our teaching through Revelation 17 by asking each other: “What are the kings – the powers, the lies, the strongholds, etc… What are the kings – fighting for dominion over your life?” And it was as we began sharing our secrets, our weaknesses, our fears, the things that many men try to keep concealed and pretend are not there, that we broke through some barriers in our relationships. Being vulnerable, we opened up opportunities for us to be God’s agents of caring and healing to each other.

As we share our stories (stories that others try to keep secret) we can help each other trust and see His caring presence with us across our lives and help each other take those first steps of freedom and help each other recognize the healing, the newness, our coming to life again. As we experience Jesus’ care for us we can, in turn, help others experience His care and be a part of that care ourselves!

Yes, God knows us… intimately, and cares about us anyway! God cares! But, because Jesus lives with us and within us Christians, we can know all the good, bad, and ugly about one another, and even about those making headlines out there in the world, too, and (by His Holy Spirit) we can truly care, as well!

God cares! And we care! And it’s not a slogan, but something God has done in giving us human beings His Holy Spirit. But we need to activate Him in us! We need to put His caring presence and power into action! So, who’s been reaching out to you for help but you’ve been shrugging off in your busy-ness or fear? When we go from this Worship Service today let’s go, not concerned about whether or not people are caring for us the way we want them to, but knowing the Lord has sent us out to show the world He cares: Forgiving those who hurt us; helping those in need; serving our wives or husbands or children or parents (instead of demanding they serve us); … looking for opportunities to go out of our way to help, looking for opportunities to go out of our way to heal, looking for opportunities to go out of our way to pray, looking for opportunities to go out of our way to care…

God cares! And in Christ He’s set us free and made us a new creation, and He’s sending us out to care, too!

Revelation 19:6-9 [NLTse]

⁶ Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder: “Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. ⁷ Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to Him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and His bride has prepared herself. ⁸ She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.

⁹ And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.”

Revelation 21:1-5 [NLTse]

21 Then I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the old Heaven and the old Earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

³ I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among His people! He will live with them, and they will be His people. God Himself will be with them. ⁴ He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

⁵ And the One sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then He said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”

Why? What? How? Now!

Sermon

Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic who was paralyzed in a diving accident as a teenager, talks about her wedding day. She says, “I felt awkward as my girlfriends strained to shift my paralyzed body into a cumbersome wedding gown. No amount of corseting and binding my body gave me a perfect shape. The dress just didn’t fit well. Then, as I was wheeling into the church, I glanced down and noticed that I’d accidentally run over the hem of my dress, leaving a greasy tire mark. My paralyzed hands couldn’t hold the bouquet of daisies that lay off-center on my lap. And my chair, though decorated for the wedding, was still a big, clunky gray machine with belts, gears, and ball bearings. I certainly didn’t feel like the picture-perfect bride in a bridal magazine.

I inched my chair closer to the last pew to catch a glimpse of Ken in front. There he was, standing tall and stately in his formal attire. I saw him looking for me, craning his neck to look up the aisle. My face flushed, and I suddenly couldn’t wait to be with him. I had seen my beloved. The love in Ken’s face had washed away all my feelings of unworthiness. I was his pure and perfect bride.

In a moment we are going to be celebrating the Lord’s Supper: Communion. We can often think of this Sacrament in connection with the past: With the Last Supper the Lord Jesus celebrated with His followers the night He would later be arrested, leading up to His crucifixion and sacrifice, or perhaps even with the Passover Supper the Jews celebrated to remember the Exodus and being saved from the Angel of Death there.

But the Lord’s Supper connects our life in Christ to the future, as well. 1 Corinthians 11:26 says, “When you eat and drink you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes back.” And we read, at the end of the book of The Revelation, of a wedding feast celebrating the long-awaited marriage of the Lamb of God and His beautiful bride, the Church.

Those who have accountant-type gifts and love to track such things report that no promise is talked about across the pages of the New Testament more frequently than that Jesus Christ will return at the end of Time to save His Church out of the world and establish a new Heavens and a new Earth where God’s righteousness is the way of the nations, welcome, and “at home”.

Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man will come with His angels in the glory of His Father and will judge all people according to their deeds.

John 14:1-3 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me. There is more than enough room in My Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with Me where I am.

Acts 3:19-21 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and He will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For He must remain in Heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through His holy prophets.

Philippians 3:20 But we are citizens of Heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Savior.

1 Thessalonians 1:9 …you are looking forward to the coming of God’s Son from Heaven—Jesus, Whom God raised from the dead. He is the One Who has rescued us from the terrors of the coming judgment.

Titus 2:12-13 …We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.

Hebrews 9:28 …Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for Him.

James 5:7 Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return.

2 Peter 3:3-4 …in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again?

1 John 2:28 And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when He returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from Him in shame.

Revelation 22:12 “Look, I am coming soon, bringing My reward with Me to repay all people according to their deeds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

The Prophet Hosea sums it up so well (2:16-20) When that day comes,” says the Lord, “you will call Me ‘my Husband’ instead of ‘my master.’ O Israel, I will wipe the many names of [that false “master”] Baal from your lips, and you will never mention them again. On that day I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety. I will make you My Wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you Mine, and you will finally know me as the Lord.

Jesus will return for us and consummate our engagement, and there will be such a dinner party that History has never known! And He will live with us: Not through the ministry of the Holy Spirit as He lives with us now, but in His person: Face to face! And the Bible tells us that with Him there will be no more death or even mourning, no more crying, not even any pain! Things won’t be the way they are now. Everything will be new!

I don’t know about you but I can’t imagine what that will be like. Because that would mean no more misunderstandings. (Since they result in sorrow.) That would mean no more illness. (Because they cause pain.) What would it be like if nobody ever said or did anything hurtful any longer? (Since hurtful words and actions so often result in crying.) No more loved ones dying, nor being afraid of what our lives might be like without them! No more “innocents” being killed or dying. What would a society – a world – be like without anger, without greed, without laziness, without pride, without wanting what others have, without resentment, without gluttony, extravagance, and waste? All the deepest longing of our heart’s satisfied.

What a supper that will be! Finally, we’ll be truly “full”. No more emptiness ever again.

The Lord’s Supper – this ordinary bread, this ordinary cup – is a preview of the eternal bliss that awaits every Christian. And the Lord’s Supper is God’s proof that He loves us unconditionally and is committed to getting us from here to there…

According to John 7:1-16 [NLTse]

7 After this, Jesus traveled around Galilee. He wanted to stay out of Judea, where the Jewish leaders were plotting His death. ² But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters, ³ and Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go to Judea, where Your followers can see Your miracles! ⁴ You can’t become famous if You hide like this! If You can do such wonderful things, show Yourself to the world!” ⁵ For even His brothers didn’t believe in Him.

⁶ Jesus replied, “Now is not the right time for Me to go, but you can go anytime. ⁷ The world can’t hate you, but it does hate Me because I accuse it of doing evil. ⁸ You go on. I’m not going to this festival, because My time has not yet come.” ⁹ After saying these things, Jesus remained in Galilee.

¹⁰ But after His brothers left for the festival, Jesus also went, though secretly, staying out of public view.

The Festival of Tabernacles celebrated God’s taking care of the tribes of Israel during their 40-year journey through the wild lands of (what is now) Saudi Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula following the Exodus from Egypt and as they awaited God’s permission to enter the Promised Land. The Jews lived in huts made of branches decorated with garlands of fruits and flowers during the Festival to remind them of His care then and now.

The Festival of Tabernacles was really several celebrations one after the other: The Feast of Trumpets; the solemn Day of Atonement; with the rest of the week being a time of celebration and reveling. The Temple area was illumined by large candlesticks that reminded the people of the guiding pillar of fire; and each day the priests would carry water from the Pool of Siloam and pour it out from a golden vessel, as a reminder of God’s miraculous provision of water from a rock during the wilderness wandering.

It was one of three Festivals that all faithful Jews were required to return to Jerusalem each year to celebrate.

As we’ve seen, for Jesus Christ it was a difficult time, because it marked the beginning of open and combative opposition to Him and His ministry. Ever since He’d healed the paralytic on the Sabbath Day, Jesus had been targeted by the Jewish leaders for death. He had purposely stayed away from Judea, in Galilee where, because it was under Herod Antipas’ authority rather than that Roman, Pontius Pilate, He was safer for the time. But He couldn’t remain in Galilee and also observe the mandatory Feast.

And yet the opposition He faced wasn’t merely from the Jewish leadership. His brothers (Mary and Joseph’s other – natural – children) taunted and mocked Him, teasing and goading Him that He should attend the “big event” to win back the following He’d lost during what they considered to be  His “My body is real food and My blood is real drink” fiasco.

…

2 Timothy 3:12 says, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” God’s people have always faced opposition and persecution. The prophets were hated, tortured, and killed. History records that ten of Jesus’ disciples were executed for preaching Christ. Tradition says that Simon-Peter insisted on being crucified upside down because he counted himself unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord. Yet he wrote, “Be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.” (1 Peter 4:14)

The apostle Paul was jailed, beaten, shipwrecked, and stoned numerous times for preaching Christ, but he considered suffering not even worth mentioning compared to knowing Christ and the reward He knew awaited him in Paradise. (See Romans 8:18)

Jesus told us to expect persecution from the world, saying that if they persecuted Him that they would surely persecute His followers also.

Has anyone here ever faced opposition to or been teased because of your faith in Jesus Christ? …

Sure. So if we thought we were alone in it we can now see we’re all in this together.

Yup. There’s a price to pay for the glories and the wonders of Jesus desires to bring with Him into our lives. As a matter of fact, Jesus has said that living with Him and trusting Him will cost us our lives. He said, “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow Me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake,” (Jesus said) “you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?”

To follow Jesus Christ – to live trusting Him – means we’ve chosen to die to our own way of doing things. We consider our will, our rights, our passions, and our goals to be crucified on the cross with Him. Our right to direct our own lives is dead to us. And death involves suffering because our “flesh” – our sinful selves – don’t want to die. Dying to self is painful and goes against our natural inclination to seek our own pleasure. But we can’t serve two masters: We can’t follow both Christ and the flesh. (Luke 16:13)

But closely adhering to the teachings of the Bible sets us up for rejection, mockery, loneliness, and even betrayal. If we choose to take a stand for righteousness and biblical truth we all but ensure that we will be misunderstood, mocked, or worse. Even so, Acts 5:41-42 describes the apostles’ reaction after receiving another beating for preaching about Jesus: “The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.”

Following Him will cost us our lives. But that’s not the only cost: Living with Jesus and trusting Him may result in the loss of close friendships and relationships, because His presence often brings division between those who follow Him and their families, friends, and other non-believers around them. We see Jesus Himself facing this in His brothers’ sarcasm. I’ve experienced this in friendships at seminary and at my home church and in our old presbytery as Jesus became less of a biblical figure to me and more of a personal friend.

(The One Who is the reason the universe was created and Who holds the entire universe together – your and my friend! Does anyone else here never get used to the reality of that?!)

Of course, living with and trusting Jesus may result in the loss of all our possessions, too. Do you remember the rich man who thought he was good enough to get to Heaven? Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come, follow Me.” But the young man didn’t invest in Heaven and he didn’t follow Jesus. The Bible says, “He went away, and that he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” (Matthew 19:16-22)

Of course, following Jesus doesn’t mean you will lose all your possessions, your family, your friends, and go through horrible suffering. But what Jesus’ is asking us is: Are we willing to, for Him, if that’s what’s necessary?

…

All that being said, as Christians we need to recognize the value of persecution, and even to rejoice in it, if we would! Because persecution has great spiritual value.

First, persecution allows us to share in a unique fellowship with the Lord. In his letter to the Philippians Paul listed a number of things he’d surrendered for the cause of Christ. But he viewed them all as “rubbish”, “sewage”, “dung” (depending on your translation) when compared to the fellowship he’d come to enjoy with Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:10)

A second value to us in persecution is that the Bible says it’s good for us.

Several of Jesus’ half-brothers came to believe in Him after His resurrection. James and Jude are two who have left us writings among the New Testament letters. And James wrote that trials test our faith, develop endurance in our lives, and help us grow to greater maturity. (1:2-4) Like steel that is tempered in the flames of a forge, trials and persecutions file down the rough edges that tarnish our character.

Yielding graciously to persecution allows us to demonstrate that we are of a superior quality than those coming against us. Like when the Lord teaches us to turn the other cheek or walk a second mile or give away our shirt as well: We may not be able to stop someone from hitting us, but we can show them we are not afraid and that they have not overcome us by offering to let them hit us again; we may not be able to stop someone from making us carry their bags for them, but we can show them they are not our ruler and that we are not their slave by offering to carry their stuff even farther; and, we may not be able to keep someone from stealing our stuff, but we can show them that our stuff doesn’t define us and that they have not taken anything that has any real value to us by offering to give them something else we have as well! (See Matthew 5:38-41)

It’s easy to be hateful. But much more Christ-like to remain calm and to respond in kindness in the face of evil opposition. Of course, this is a tremendous challenge, but we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us and the perfect example of the Lord Jesus and the apostles and many faithful witnesses to encourage us!

Another value of persecution is that it enables us to better appreciate the support of true friends. Conflict sometimes brings faithful Christians together in encouraging and supportive ways they might not have known otherwise. Hardship can move us toward a greater resolve to love and comfort one another and lift one another to God’s throne of grace in prayer. There’s nothing like an unpleasant incident to help the more mature rise toward a greater level of brotherly and sisterly love.

The Lord is especially close to believers during times of persecution, knowing our limits and giving us grace. (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5; and, 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 12:9) The Lord gives the Kingdom of Heaven to the persecuted, promising them great rewards in Heaven. (Matthew 5:10-12) And the Lord assures us that even opposition and our persecutions will work out for our good, shaping our character and bringing Himself glory through us. (Romans 8:28)

Surely the rewards far outweigh the cost of living with, trusting, and following Jesus Christ!

Let’s close with these words from Simon-Peter: “For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in His steps.

“He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when He was insulted, nor threaten revenge when He suffered. He left His case in the hands of God, Who always judges fairly. He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By His wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:21-25)

When evening came after the Lord Jesus fed the five thousand plus, His disciples took a boat to the other of the Lake where Jesus later followed them walking on the water. The next day, the crowds He’d fed looked for Him and, crossing the lake, arrived in Capernaum…

John 6:25-40 [NLTse]

²⁵ They found Him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

²⁶ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with Me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. ²⁷ But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given Me the seal of His approval.”

²⁸ They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

²⁹ Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the One He has sent.”

³⁰ They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if You want us to believe in You. What can you do? ³¹ After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from Heaven to eat.’”

³² Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from Heaven. My Father did. And now He offers you the true bread from Heaven. ³³ The true bread of God is the One Who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

³⁵ Jesus replied, “I AM the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But you haven’t believed in Me even though you have seen Me.³⁷ However, those the Father has given Me will come to Me, and I will never reject them. ³⁸ For I have come down from Heaven to do the will of God Who sent Me, not to do My Own will. ³⁹ And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those He has given Me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For it is My Father’s will that all who see His Son and believe in Him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”

Sermon

Those of you ladies involved in aerobic-type working out will recognize these hand-weights. When you first get started you use these little weights to work you out with, but after a while these weights become too easy for you and you go on to heavier weights so that you keep having to work. And then when they become easy she got these to keep working….

Us men do the same things. To keep our muscles working and growing we start off with one size weight and when those become easy we go to heavier weights to keep us having to work. And all of us, male and female, exercise buffs know that as you keep working out that what used to be work at one time tends to become easy, and then you have to keep increasing the weight and keep increasing the weight to keep yourself working and growing and growing and growing.

…

In our reading this morning from John, the crowds have been following Jesus around. He’s been teaching them, He’s been healing them, He’s been feeding them. And they want more. And Jesus says to them, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with Me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs.” You can hear Him saying, “You don’t want Me, you just want the stuff I can give you!” And so He tells them, “Don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you! For God the Father has given Me the seal of His approval!”

But we human beings can oftentimes hear – not what the one speaking to us is actually saying, but – what we think he or she is saying. And in Jesus’ statement the crowds seem to hear Him saying, “I’m all about giving you stuff! So far I’ve given you physical stuff. But, here, let Me give you spiritual stuff, too!” And so they reply, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

But they’re still just focused on stuff: Whether it’s the cool stuff He’ll give them or the cool stuff He’ll give them to do, it’s still just all about stuff and it’s still just all about them! So Jesus says, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the One He has sent.” And today, we, too, can be tempted to make our relationship with Jesus just all about the stuff He might give us; and we, as well, can be tempted to make it just all about us. But Jesus says, uuu “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness!” Jesus says, “Make it about Me! And when you do I’ll fulfill your deepest desires and you’ll always have everything you need.” “Believe!”

…

Let me take a minute to teach you all a little Greek before we go on from here. Because in English we use words like “believe” one way, usually when talking about something going on in our heads, like giving mental assent, we say: “I believe you.” But we use words like “trust” and say “have faith” to mean something a bit different, usually having to do with our attitudes and our actions: “Trust Him,” we say, and when we do we’re encouraging each other to act differently because of that trust; or we say, “have faith,” but, again, we’re meaning to let our faith change the way we’re acting or responding in a circumstance.

But in Greek uuu “believe”, “trust”, and “have faith” all translate the same verb: ??????? (P?st-yoo-?).

My favorite way of understanding the difference between the way we use these words in English and the way they were used in Jesus’-day is to look at a math equation. Let’s take 4+4. uuu

Now, 4+4=8. And I can believe that. But in Western culture we have this idea that I can believe that 4+4=8 while writing that 4+4=9 on my tax return. And we say that that’s okay “because that’s how I was raised” or “because that feels right to me”. We have this idea in Western culture that one can believe something without our necessarily having to bring our actions into line with it. “Of course I believe in Jesus,” people will say, without being concerned at all about who Jesus is, what Jesus taught, and how Jesus modeled for us to live and has called us to live following Him.

But not in Greek. No. When Jesus calls us to pist-yoo-o

He is calling us to believe Him as well as to believe in Him;

He’s calling us to trust what He’s spoken and to act on His words;

He is calling us to be convinced of what He’s told us and to do our part to have our thoughts, our feelings, our words, and our actions reflect what He’s told us;

trusting Him so that we’ll be what He’s told us to be and do what He’s told us to do!

And that’s why Jesus says that pist-yoo-o-ing can be work, because there is often opposition to believing Him – pist-yoo-o-ing Him. Because our family might not want the truth to come out. Because our boyfriend might not want us to save sex for marriage. Because our business partner might not want us to report everything to the IRS. Because our daughter might want us to buy her immodest clothes. Because our realtor may encourage us to tell a little “white” lie. There can be opposition to pist-yoo-o-ing – to actively believing – as Jesus calls us to. And that’s why He recognizes that it can be work.

Believing can be work when money’s tight and you don’t want to tithe. Believing can be work when you don’t want to forgive the other person or ask for their forgiveness. Believing can be work when others around you seem to have so much and you feel like you have so little, and when everything you worked so hard for is falling apart around you: It can be work to believe.

Because it’s easy for worriers to worry, but it can be work for worriers to cast their cares on the Lord and trust Him through a situation. It’s easy for control-freaks to control, but it can be work for control-freaks to surrender and wait to see what God provides. It’s easy for addicts to work or drink or eat or use or whatever is the addict’s addiction, but it can be work for addicts to face their fears and anxieties and the disappointments of life un-medicated. When we hear that someone’s been talking about us it’s easy to believe that rumor and respond in whatever way, but it can be work to meet with the person or persons involved to get the facts. It’s easy to make a promise and keep it as long as the promise suits us, but it can be work to keep our promises even when they start to be inconvenient and hurt. It’s easy to do those things we want to do or remember to do, but it can be work to do what’s necessary to keep track of our commitments and do every-(even-little)-thing we’ve said we’d do. It can be work, but all of these things and so much more is what believing – pist-yoo-o-iing – in Jesus is all about.

“Don’t just listen to God’s Word,” James writes. “You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” (1:22) That’s pist-yoo-o-ing.  “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to Hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (Matthew 7:14) That’s the way of pist-yoo-o-ing.

And, of course, all of this is why the apostle Paul’s can make his famous statement in his letter To the Romans that, uuu “But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God Who forgives sinners,” (Romans 4:5) because Paul’s not talking about some head-knowledge cut off from attitudes and actions that live it out, Paul is making clear that “people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their pist-yoo-o-ing in God Who forgives sinners.” And so James can write, not that works make one faithful, but uuu that faith, “Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” (2:17) “Pist-yoo-o in Me”, Jesus says.

And it can be tempting to avoid God’s Word – never reading the Bible ourselves, not being a part of a Bible Study, not making a priority of Worship – thinking that then we don’t have to face, thinking we won’t be held accountable for, what “believing in Jesus” really means and calls us to. And yet until we jump in the pool and start practicing swimming, water will always seem too much for us. And until we start doing the work that Jesus has told us that believing in Him can be, it may always seem hard and forbidding.

Of course, what’s work for me may be easy for you, and what’s easy for me might be work for you. So what’s work for each of us may be different.

But with swimming and weightlifting and anything we’re good at, and love doing, now that we had to first work at and apply ourselves to learn how to and grow to be able to do it: What might start out as challenging and frightening and too much for us, over time, as we exercise our faith and grow to more and more have the heart and mind of Christ; as we obey God’s Word and go about the “work of believing”; that which was once “work” grows to be “easy”; and what we once did by sheer duty, we grow to do out of sheer joy; and what we once did fearfully and self-consciously, now we begin doing seeing that it’s part of God’s calling on our lives, and recognizing it’s part of what God made us and called us in Christ to be!

According to John 6:53-69 [NLTse]

⁵³ So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. ⁵⁴ But anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ I live because of the living Father Who sent Me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on Me will live because of Me. ⁵⁸ I am the true bread that came down from Heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”

⁵⁹ He said these things while He was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

⁶⁰ Many of His disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”

⁶¹ Jesus was aware that His disciples were complaining, so He said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to Heaven again? ⁶³ The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. ⁶⁴ But some of you do not believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and He knew who would betray Him.) ⁶⁵ Then He said, “That is why I said that people can’t come to Me unless the Father gives them to Me.”

⁶⁶ At this point many of His disciples turned away and deserted Him. ⁶⁷ Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”

⁶⁸ Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. ⁶⁹ We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”

[Preach from behind the Lord’s Table]

In the middle of the 16^th century, during the brief five-year reign of Queen Mary I of England – whom history has sometimes called, “Bloody Mary” – 288 Protestant Reformers were burned at the stake. Of these, one was an archbishop, four were bishops, twenty-one were clergymen, fifty-five were women, and 4 were children. Why were they burned by the Roman Catholic Queen? There was one central issue: The meaning of the Lord’s Supper.

Here are the words of Anglican Bishop John Charles Ryle to explain: “The doctrine in question was the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated elements of bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. Did they, or did they not believe that the body and blood of Christ were really, that is corporally, literally, locally, and materially, present under the forms of bread and wine after the words of consecration were pronounced? Did they or did they not believe that the real body of Christ, which was born of the Virgin Mary, was present on the so-called altar so soon as the mystical words had passed the lips of the priest? Did they or did they not? That was the simple question. If they did not believe and admit it, they were burned.

I share this history of the martyrdom of those who denied that the physical body of Christ was really there in the form of bread and wine to show that there was once a time when the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper carried meanings that were very important: Worth dying for! And some thought, worth killing for…

Let’s open our Bibles to the passage Joe just read, or, if you’re already there, look with me at those first verses, 53-58…

Jesus is speaking here about His upcoming sacrifice: The Gospel of John does not include Jesus’ dialogue about the Passover bread being His body and the Passover’s Cup of Salvation being His blood the way the other three Gospels do. No. As far as John was concerned, it was during this sermon while Jesus was preaching in Capernaum, that Jesus best made clear the fullness of the meaning of the Passover meal, that He best made clear what He was going to accomplish on the cross, and that He best made clear what would actually be taking place when His followers and brothers and sisters – for centuries to come, even through to today – would be doing when celebrating “Communion”, “Eucharist”, “the Lord’s Supper”. According to John, the Lord Jesus made all that clear here in this sermon even better than He had when He’d told them about it around that Passover table!

John the Baptist called Jesus, “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world”. Though it’s a foreign idea to us today, those listening to Jesus preach in the congregation at Capernaum that Sabbath knew that when you offered a sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem that part of offering your sacrifice was eating the part of the sacrifice the priest gave back to you, as a part of your participation in the sacrifice.

As we’ve already said, Matthew, Mark, and Luke record Jesus’ words during the Passover celebration saying of the Passover bread and cup, “This is My body; this is My blood”. And though Jesus is not referring to the Passover Feast here but to the sacrifices offered at the Temple in Jerusalem, even so, likewise He is calling His disciples to eat Him and drink Him… Only if we eat of Him, only if we drink of Him, He says, can He be our sacrifice, can we participate in His sacrifice and have the fullness of His saving work applied to us.

Now, I’m going to pause for a second here because Jesus seems to pause here. And I want to invite us to wrestle for a second with what Jesus first laid before those worshipers in Capernaum that day, and, by the Holy Spirit, what He lays before us today: [Pick up the bread and the cup] We are not eating bread or drinking grape juice here. I mean, we are, of course. But ultimately, if we have trusted in Jesus Christ and are living our lives for Him, by the Holy Spirit we are eating of His sacrifice and we are drinking of His sacrifice. That’s how we participate in His sacrifice: We share in it by eating the portions the priest gives back to us. And Jesus, our great High Priest, has given back to us this bread and this grape juice. (Or unfermented wine, some have called it.)

So I ask you: When you are served the bread, are you eating the sacrifice Jesus became for you on the cross? When you are served the unfermented wine – the grape juice – and we lift it up into the air, saying, “L’chaim! To abundant Life!” are you drinking the sacrifice Jesus became for you on the cross?

…

Let’s look at the next section of our reading: Verses 59-65…

After dropping this crazy, cannibalistic-sounding bombshell on His followers, only then does Jesus make clear that He’s been talking about spiritual things and not physical things with what He’s been saying. “The Spirit gives life,” He says, “the flesh means nothing.” So it’s not the physical eating of lamb parts, or eating Jesus’ arm or leg, or even eating bread or wine that means anything. What gives life – true, everlasting life – is the spiritual realities these parts and pieces we are eating symbolize!

Why were Protestants martyred by Queen “bloody” Mary? Because they believed the bread and wine to be physical symbols of spiritual grace!

And, just so! The Lord Jesus is making clear here that He’s talking about spiritual things, because only spiritual things can truly give life! But of course, He says, a person must believe these things to be true in order to obtain the abundant, eternal Life they produce. And He makes clear that it’s only the Father Who grants people that kind of faith, the faith to trust in, and live for, Jesus Christ…

And again, let’s stop here, because Jesus seems to, again, have stopped here.

During that first part He said that His flesh was real food and that His blood was real drink. And here in this second part He’s said how that can be so, because it’s not about the bread or unfermented wine, it wasn’t about the bull or the lambs or the goat parts those Temple worshipers offered and ate to participate in, either. Physical things can’t produce the abundant, eternal kind of Life the Father is offering us in Jesus Christ! There’s a spiritual reality going on behind the scenes in this bread and cup we give thanks for and ask the Father’s blessing on. We see bread and wine or juice, but in the heavenly places the angels (and the demons, grinding their yellow teeth about it, I’m sure) they see Jesus’ sacrifice: The Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world!

So I ask you: Once you’ve eaten this bread, after you’ve drunk from this cup, do your sins still worry you? Do you think your sins still separate you from God? If you’ve truly participated in a sacrifice for sins, that cannot be! So I ask you: Once you’ve eaten, after you’ve drunk, do you know your sins have been forgiven? Do you know that you’ve been washed – for today, for all eternity! – white as snow in the eyes of God?

Isn’t that worth dying for? Isn’t that worth living for?

…

John 15:1-17 [NLTse]

“I am the true grapevine, and My Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch of Mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. ³ You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. ⁴ Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me.

⁵ “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. ⁶ Anyone who does not remain in Me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. ⁷ But if you remain in Me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! ⁸ When you produce much fruit, you are My true disciples. This brings great glory to My Father.

⁹ “I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in My love. ¹⁰ When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. ¹¹ I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! ¹² This is My commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. ¹³ There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are My friends, since I have told you everything the Father told Me. ¹⁶ You didn’t choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using My name. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

Last week we read from John 6 and Jesus feeding the 5,000 only we talked about it as “the boy who did the miracle with Jesus by giving Him his five loaves and two fish”. And we talked about what miracles we might do with Jesus if we put our stuff and our time and our abilities into His hands each day as that boy did with his fish and bread?

Since last week I’ve had a number of people approach me to find out about Bible studies they could begin attending and ministry teams they could join. And you’ll see a special insert in the Bulletin that tells about all the Study Groups – some that are going on now, others that will be starting in September – and some of the Ministry Teams needing gifted servants to join them now. In addition, I also had several of you approach me asking if I would spend more time talking about how we can do our work and be at school and live our lives amongst our friends and neighbors in ways that put our selves into Jesus’ hands. And for that reason we’ve jumped from chapter 6 in John here to chapter 15.

When asked about the greatest commandment Jesus said, “To love God with all we have, do, and are, and to love those around us the same way we love ourselves.” Wanting to put our selves into Jesus’ hands, to live our lives in at His direction, to enjoy such close fellowship, and to be the instruments of His miracles has us going beyond just a knowledge of the Scriptures and Christian doctrines: This desire among you is at the heart of abiding in Christ, remaining in Christ, dwelling with and in Christ, seeking to achieve the goal the Scriptures and Christian doctrines are all pointing to: That is, loving God, and our neighbors as ourselves. And that’s where abundant life is found – loving our Father and each other as the Lord teaches us about true love in the Scriptures and Christian doctrine.

At the heart of remaining in Christ is commitment: Have we committed ourselves to Hiim? Are we willing to be boldly known as being Christians at work, at school, and around our communities? Too many Christians are known to live one way in church and when in the company of Christian friends and a completely other way, depending upon who we’re hanging out with at the moment. And too many Christians are known for not acting any differently than unbelievers in the face of hardship or calamity: Giving into worry, anger, greed, controlling people and situations, and never repenting or even hinting that they believed any of these things might be wrong!

But in remaining in Christ, in dwelling in Him, the Lord is calling us to commit to Him alone and to renounce everything that doesn’t lead to Him: No matter who we’re with, and always focused on the prize of growing to be daily more and more like Jesus, Who alone across history perfectly loved God with all He had, did, and was, and Who perfectly loved all those around Him the same way He loved Himself!

Commitment and renouncing all else might lead us to unpopularity, not getting promoted, those we love thinking we’re fools, etc… Yes, sometimes that’s what trusting our loving Father and Savior can lead us to. (It led Jesus to be crucified.) Of course, because He calls us to honesty, pleasantness, excellence, and trustworthiness (among so many other good things), living committed to Jesus may result in great popularity and many promotions as well as all the fun and wonder of doing miracles with Him as we put our lives into His hands!

But regardless, the first thing is, Are we committed? When people around us ask us why we’re doing something or behaving in a certain way, or ask us why we refuse to do something or won’t join in with the rest, are we committed to say, “Because I’m a Christian, and Jesus Christ wants me to be this way, and He forbids me to be that way…” Will we abide in Him? Are we committed?

Our commitment is the foundation because only once we’re focused on pleasing Him in all we do will we start to find that our doubts begin to fall away. Only after we’ve determined to suffer consequences for Him, if necessary, do we find that our long-held fears and apprehensions start to fade. Although at the beginning this kind of commitment can get us thinking that dwelling in Him and with Him is all about obligation and denying ourselves, as we live it daily we experience such peace and pleasures that it all becomes so easy and such a joy!

It’s important to begin with commitment to Christ and renouncing all else because doing everything because of God’s love and out of love for God transforms even the most hated of responsibilities and work into joys and pure pleasure! And, as we become more and more aware of God’s goodness and gifts, we grow less and less anxious and insecure, growing instead to expect His presence, protection, provision, and care. Remaining in Him, abiding in Him, dwelling with and in Him.

So, the first thing is to commit to making all the business we’re about His business, giving ourselves to all things in His name and with the intention of acting in His place. And entrusting to Him every outcome and completion, no matter how easy or impossible the task!

The second thing for remaining in Christ and putting our selves into His hands is to “feed upon” and nourish ourselves on the high and awe-inspiring realities of God’s character: His love, His joy, His peace, His patience, His kindness, His goodness, His faithfulness, His gentleness, His self-discipline and resolve. That way, during those times when we question our commitment and have doubts about our chosen path, we will be so filled with the knowledge of His absolute goodness, His unconditional love toward us, that He is all-knowing, has perfect wisdom, that He is all-powerful, and, so-filled-with-all-the-wonders-we’ve-read-about, heard-about, and-have-experienced-Him-doing-in-our-lives that it will all lead us away from any questioning to begin celebrating our devotion to Him!

After His resurrection, as a part of commissioning those first disciples (and us who follow after them), the Lord Jesus said, “Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) So after committing to Him, and after “feeding on” His goodness and lovingkindness and all that He is, the life of remaining and abiding and dwelling with and in Him is simply establishing ourselves in His presence. “I am with you always,” Jesus has promised: We need to keep our minds aware that God is always with us and within us!

He is Emmanuel – “God is with us,” that means. And the apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Christ lives in you to give you assurance of sharing His glory.” (Colossians 1:27) That’s the wonder! That’s what makes Jesus Christ different from all others who would claim our lives: He is with us; He is within us. And so to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to live putting our very selves into His hands to do miracles with Him, we simply need to keep our minds aware that He is always with and within us.

One way of doing this is by continually talking with Him throughout our days: Thanking Him in the morning, and for the day ahead and those He’s given us to share it with; perhaps in the shower we thank Him for our baptisms – for washing us clean!; giving Him thanks and asking His blessing on our food, even our snacks, as we eat our different meals; praying for situations we watch on the news; praying for the drivers around us on the road or the students around us in the bus; asking His forgiveness if we lose our temper or take some selfish action; sitting next to and befriending the kid nobody wants to sit next to, and giving the Lord thanks for opportunities to be like Him in loving and making friends of the outcasts; seeking His empowering grace for each project or assignment, His help to listen and do our work well…

We’re not talking about flowery talk; not pretty-sounding prayers: Those often just cause our minds to wander. We’re talking about plain words, simple prayers, to the point, just like talking to a friend.

When we find ourselves doing, or about to begin, something difficult – remaining in Him, focusing on His presence – is then askin Him for empowerment. And how joyful we’ll be when we find Him giving it! We too often pray, “Take the difficult things away!” But so much better to ask, “Lord, take it away or grant us the grace to do it well,” or “to bear up under it well, so that You’ll look good in us, Lord!”

Maybe we’ll realize that a good bit of time has gone by without our thinking about God or remembering Him with us. Don’t make too big a deal out of it – don’t let it distract you, don’t condemn yourself over it or worse, even, give up! No, just confess it as part of your sinfulness, accept and believe Him for your forgiveness, and go on to begin enjoying Him with you again!

When you go to read your Bible, set your mind on going because you love Him and know you will meet Him there! Again, as you’re praying and worshiping, talk to Him and adore Him, knowing He is right there with you! Too many “faithful” Christians don’t grow very much because they are stuck in the performance of the spiritual disciplines – like reading their Bibles and praying and attending Worship – but have lost sight of the goal of these precious practices, which is loving God!

Remaining in Him; abiding with Him; dwelling with and in Him: It’s all about recognizing that He’s present with us always, offering Him every act before we do it and thanking Him for it all afterwards; it’s all about having endless conversation with Him filled with endless praising, adoring, and loving; it’s all about asking for His grace (and not letting ourselves be distracted and doubt because of our sins, but trusting the love He’s shown us and all He’s done for us in of Jesus)…

At the end of the day, if we carried out our responsibilities and duties well, then we thank God. If we made many mistakes and fallen very short of all He’s called us to, then we ask His forgiveness and then trust His forgiveness, and have a good night’s sleep as forgiven as if we’d never sinned and committed to give ourselves to Him more fully the next day…

As we repeat these acts, as we think and live in these ways – God with us; Christ in us – just as in other areas of our lives, they’ll become habit, and so more and more a part of our daily activities and awareness. It may take much work and concentration at the beginning, but after a while we will find His love within us enabling us to it without much difficulty at all.

You see, Christ tells us that the secret of our sanctification – growing holy, growing to be more like Christ – isn’t primarily about us changing our words or our deeds (though we may find ourselves needing to do a good bit of that), but it’s primarily about beginning to do for Christ’s sake – for the love of God – what we used to do for ourselves.

And as we keep Him our focus, keep Him our center (as we sang in one of our songs last week) – as we abide with Him and remain in Him and dwell with and in Him and welcome His presence with and within us – we will experience joys and delights … well, like those described in the Psalms and elsewhere in Scripture…

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him!” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

According to John 6:1-15 (NLTse)

6:1 After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A huge crowd kept following Him wherever He went, because they saw His miraculous signs as He healed the sick. 3 Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with His disciples around Him. 4 (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.) 5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for Him. Turning to Philip, He asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 He was testing Philip, for He already knew what He was going to do.

7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”

8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”

10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward He did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. ¹² After everyone was full, Jesus told His disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” ¹³ So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

¹⁴ When the people saw Him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, He is the Prophet we have been expecting!” ¹⁵ When Jesus saw that they were ready to force Him to be their king, He slipped away into the hills by Himself.

He begged his mother for permission to make a day of it. He’d heard about the Man; everyone was talking about Him! At first she told him he was too young; that he wouldn’t understand, and he’d go all that way and find himself bored and wish he’d never gone. But he’d pestered her! and she had finally given him his way. So she’d packed him a little bundle of food – enough to see him through the day – and sent him on his way.

It wasn’t hard to find the Man. Many from his village were going to see Him, too, and it was simple to just follow the throngs crowding the roadways. With Passover near, Jews from all over the Empire had come to Jerusalem to celebrate, and having heard the stories about Jesus’ wisdom and teaching, and about His miracles and healings, they’d come to see for themselves: Could He be the One, “the prophet” Moses and the Lord had promised them so long ago?

He’d been able to get surprisingly close to the Man once he’d found Him. And one of the Man’s followers – his name was Andrew – was really friendly and helped him find a place to sit nearer still!

He hadn’t thought it was a big deal that he’d told Andrew about the food he’d brought. He was proud he had it since he could hear many of those around him concerned that they hadn’t thought to bring anything for themselves.

When Andrew came back over to him and told him that the Man was asking if the boy would give Him his dinner, he was sure his mom wouldn’t mind and so he handed it over. (It didn’t occur to him that it was the only food he had and that he might want it when he got hungry later.)

The Man had opened up his bundle and lifted it over His head giving God thanks for it. (Only the Man called God His father which was different from the way the boy had grown up hearing his own dad pray.) And then Andrew and the Man’s other followers each took some of the fish and bread and started handing it out to all the people. And Andrew came over to him first and gave him a great big hunk of the bread and section of the fish. And after he’d finished that another one of the Man’s followers was nearby and gave him another big hunk and section of fish. And he ate and ate and was deliciously full. And he looked around and noticed that everyone else seemed like they were pleasantly full, as well. Everyone had eaten. And all from his dinner! He couldn’t believe it. Did you see what happened, he looked around to tell Andrew or anybody. He couldn’t wait to get home to tell his mom about the miracle that he and the Man had done!

Child-like faith, Jesus calls us to! The Lord asks, and the boy gives, and there’s more food left over afterwards than there was to begin with! Jesus wants us to do miracles with Him.

But how are you when it comes to “your stuff”? John tells us that this boy was the only one among this crowd of 5,000 who had brought any food with him. If it were you and me, perhaps we’d be thinking, “Well, everyone should’ve planned ahead. I’ve got to keep this for me. Who knows what’ll happen to me if I give it to the Lord to use?”

You and I, if we’re in Christ, we’re new creations. And as our old nature would have us judge things, it is the all-important “I” that is first among the personal pronouns; that holds the center of the stage in our lives; that must be primarily considered in all things. Those ‘round about us only come second, and those farther off, occupying a not even close third: I, first; then you, next; and lastly he and she and them. All the saints across the centuries have warned us about this temptation toward thinking this way, thinking again like our old self, the “us” Jesus put to death when He came and gave us His Life, calling them the devil’s pronouns, this “I” and “me” and “mine”!

In the parable of the talents the Lord Jesus makes plain that it is “one-talent” thinkers who are most likely to falter and fail Him, because people with a “one-talent” mindset think they need to hold on to what they’ve got; hoarding, keeping what they have and what they are for themselves, just in case… Others with a “one-talent” mindset think that anything they could do is so trivial as to be not worth doing! What can we do that can make any noticeable difference for the Kingdom of Heaven, they think? Better left undone; our gift will never be missed. “One-talent” believers can’t comprehend of the possibilities in Jesus’ hands.

Jesus shows us by taking one little boy’s meal how disastrous that way of thinking is to His work here in the world. What if that little boy had been thinking about “I”, “me”, “mine” and kept it all to himself? Or what if that little boy had been too self-conscious that he was just “little old me” and had held it back demanding that it wouldn’t make any difference! “One-talent” thinking, “I”, “me”, “mine” thinking, it robs the Lord, and slows His work.

When we give what we have and what we can do to Christ, He multiplies it, He sanctifies it, He transforms it once it has become “His” into so much more than what it was when it was only “ours”.

Perhaps we don’t trust He’ll take care of us if we’re giving to Him what we’ve worked for to take care of ourselves? Worse yet, what if we’re so full of activity and to-do’s that we justify saying no to helping, no to giving, because it would be a pain, because I’ve already got too much on my plate, because that’s the night of my favorite TV show. And we don’t think to say no to other things that might be overflowing us – things that have nothing to do with the Kingdom of Heaven and eternity and truly loving those around us… And we rationalize it thinking that somebody else can probably do a better job anyway.

What are we holding back from Jesus? Where are we holding back from God? It is my strong conviction that each and every Christian needs to be involved in at least one Bible study, growing in the Lord, learning His ways that are so very different from our ways, getting to recognize His voice so we can answer when His Spirit speaks to us… And it is my strong conviction that each and every Christian needs to be involved in at least one ministry, nurturing servanthood, practicing walking with Him with the support of others, getting to experience the fun as well as doing the hard work, of doing miracles with Him: Seeing lives changed and families healed and communities transformed by the steady spread of the gospel – like yeast through dough or like a virus across the internet – working God’s wonders as it goes.

If you’re not involved in a study, now’s the time to begin looking as many of our small groups will start up again in September and October. If you’re not involved in ministry, now’s the time to begin letting me know you want to get involved, letting Jeanne Newell in the Church Office know you want to get involved, letting Elder Joe Bell who’s working with different ones of us to help us identify the gifts the Lord has given us so that we can use them for Him!

Poet T. E. Brown, musing on the beach one day over an empty shell, penned this:

If thou couldst empty all thyself of self,

Like to a shell disinhabited,

Then might He find thee on the Ocean shelf, And say – “This is not dead,” –

And fill thee with Himself instead.

But thou art all replete with very thou,

And hast such shrewd activity,

That, when He comes, He says, This is enow

Unto itself – ‘Twere better let it be:

It is so small and full, there is no room for Me.

According to John 5:31-47 [NLTse]

³¹ “If I were to testify on My Own behalf, My testimony would not be valid. ³² But Someone Else is also testifying about Me, and I assure you that everything He says about Me is true. ³³ In fact, you sent investigators to listen to John the Baptist, and his testimony about Me was true. ³⁴ Of course, I have no need of human witnesses, but I say these things so you might be saved. ³⁵ John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message. ³⁶ But I have a greater witness than John—My teachings and My miracles. The Father gave Me these works to accomplish, and they prove that He sent Me. ³⁷ And the Father Who sent Me has testified about Me Himself. You have never heard His voice or seen Him face to face, ³⁸ and you do not have His message in your hearts, because you do not believe Me—the One He sent to you.

³⁹ “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to Me! ⁴⁰ Yet you refuse to come to Me to receive this life.

⁴¹ “Your approval means nothing to Me, ⁴² because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. ⁴³ For I have come to you in My Father’s name, and you have rejected Me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. ⁴⁴ No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the One Who alone is God.

⁴⁵ “Yet it isn’t I Who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. ⁴⁶ If you really believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷ But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”

Sermon

Deuteronomy 17:6 says, “Never put a person to death on the testimony of only one witness. There must always be two or three witnesses.” This requirement for always having two or more eyewitnesses to a capital offense was originally established to protect the Israelites from unverifiable accusations. After all, what better way to get rid of an enemy or competitor or to get somebody’s land or wife or other things you’d like of theirs than to make up a story about something they supposedly did, accuse them in such a way that they can’t defend themselves, get the community stirred up against them, have them put to death, and then move in?

And so, though it is first mentioned in the Book of Numbers, Deuteronomy 17:6 codified for Israel this practice of requiring two or three eyewitnesses to any crime that would result in the death sentence.

We see this requirement invoked during the Lord Jesus’ trial, when Matthew writes: “The leading priests and the entire high council were trying to find witnesses who would lie about Jesus, so they could put Him to death. But even though they found many who agreed to give false witness, they could not use anyone’s testimony. Finally, two men came forward who declared, “This Man said, ‘I am able to destroy the Temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” (26:59-61)

The apostle Paul expands the use of this requirement to non-death penalty-related offenses when he writes to Pastor Timothy, saying, “Do not listen to an accusation against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses.” (1 Timothy 5:19) And it is likely behind the picture, in chapter 11 of The Revelation, of the Two Witnesses ministry of signs and wonders and proclamation to the peoples of the earth, making clear that God’s judgment of unbelievers – those who’ve rejected the testimony of the Two Witnesses – is fair and just.

In our reading this morning, the Lord Jesus, aware that the religious leaders had begun plotting His death, seems to be alluding to this practice, too, when He says, “If I were to testify on My Own behalf, My testimony would not be valid.” And so He goes on to point out three eyewitnesses – John the Baptist, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, and the Scriptures themselves – that prove His innocence.

John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry proclaiming Him to be “the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world”; to be “the Son of God”; and, to be “the Lord / Adonai / Yahweh Himself! Jesus describes the religious leaders’ response to John, saying, “John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message.” But the religious leaders didn’t believe that God had sent John: They were excited to follow and be a part of the crowd John was calling to Christ and calling to repentance, but they refused to obey the truth of John’s message and repent!

The second witness Jesus called to His defense was God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, Whose presence with Jesus was demonstrated in His many healings, exorcisms, and miracles.

When Elder Nicodemus, who was a part of the Jewish Ruling Council, came to meet Jesus at night he said to Him, “Rabbi, we all know that God has sent You to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with You.” So the religious leaders knew that God was with the Lord Jesus, and yet they didn’t believe Jesus’ claims to be “God with us”. Of course, these religious leaders would have known that God had granted others before Jesus the ability to perform healings and wonders and drive out demons, and those folks hadn’t claimed to be God! And yet, perhaps that’s just the difference: That just as the works and words of the prophets showed that God was with them, and they never claimed to be God; surely the works and words of Jesus, showing that God was likewise with Him, should have equally demonstrated that because He did claim to be God that He truly was!

The Scriptures themselves were the third witness Jesus called upon in His defense.

The Bible of Jesus’ day was simply the Old Testament writings, of course. And these were recorded on scrolls since the idea of books was only then, in the first century, just being invented. The religious leaders of Jesus day were known for knowing the Scriptures so well that it was said that if you pierced a biblical scroll with a pin and told any religious leader what the first word was that you stuck the pin through, that they could tell you every other word that pin went through as it penetrated the scroll. Clearly an exaggeration, but it makes the point of how well these leaders were reputed to have known the Word of God! And yet clearly they didn’t know the God of the Word.

Books have been written about all the Messianic prophecies from across the Old Testament that have been fulfilled by Jesus Christ: Prophecies of His pre-existence; prophecies of His ancestry; prophecies of His birth; prophecies of His character; prophecies of His ministry; prophecies of His dual nature (as fully God while fully human); prophesies of His death; prophecies of His resurrection; prophecies of His ascension and exaltation; prophecies of His second coming; symbols of Jesus seen in the lives of various individuals across the Old Testament and offices mentioned across the Old Testament and from historical events mentioned there and from religious rituals and levitical offerings and from Israel’s various feasts and festivals. As Jesus Himself said, “The Scriptures point to Me!” And later Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9) And these religious leaders knew the Word but didn’t recognize Christ in it nor the Father in Christ.

A commentator once said of such leaders: “It is unfortunate when our study of the Bible makes us arrogant and militant instead of humble and anxious to serve others, even those who disagree with us. The mark of true Bible study is not knowledge that puffs up, but love that builds up. (1 Corinthians 8:1)” And the Lord Jesus said to these leaders, “You don’t have the love of God in you.” They enjoyed being honored by others but did not seek the honor that comes from God alone.

As we come to celebrate the Lord’s Supper this morning, let’s ask ourselves these questions:

• Have we committed and begun living our lives in obedience to God’s message, repenting of our sin out of gratitude for the good news of Jesus Christ? Have we?
• Have we committed to taking God at His Word and believing all He’s said about Himself there, and believing all He’s said about us there, and believing all He’s said about eternal life and Heaven, and all He’s said about judgment and sin and Hell, and letting such truth shape our thoughts and how we respond to events and experiences, to use Paul’s words, “Taking every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ?” (2 Corinthians 10:5) Have we?
• Lastly, have we committed to let the Holy Spirit fill our hearts with God’s love? To see in every page and parable, in every psalm and statute, in every offering and historical account, even in the proclamations of judgment and wrath, God the Father’s love for the peoples of the earth for whom He sent Christ to die? Have we?

Perhaps, if we’ve ignored these things or taken these things too lightly or rationalized to ourselves that these things don’t matter, perhaps we should not participate in the Lord’s Supper today and perhaps eat and drink God’s judgment upon ourselves. And yet, perhaps we see our failure in some or, perhaps, every single one of these areas today. But the Holy Spirit is moving us to recommit to these things today, and yet we know that apart from Him we can do nothing. So, perhaps, even so very aware of our unworthiness, we come forward this morning and eat and drink, trusting Christ that His grace will indeed be sufficient!

Our Scripture Reading this morning comes from the gospel According to John 5:16-30. As we begin this reading the Lord Jesus has just finished healing a man who’d been sick for 38 years: So sick that he couldn’t walk. It was a wonderful healing and miracle! Except that the Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath, and the Jewish leaders hated Him for it…

John 5:16-30 [NLTse]

¹⁶ So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. ¹⁷ But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” ¹⁸ So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill Him. For He not only broke the Sabbath, He called God His Father, thereby making Himself equal with God.

¹⁹ So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself. He does only what He sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing. In fact, the Father will show Him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. ²¹ For just as the Father gives life to those He raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone He wants. ²² In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, He has given the Son absolute authority to judge, ²³ so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father Who sent Him.

²⁴ “I tell you the truth, those who listen to My message and believe in God Who sent Me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

²⁵ “And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear My voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. ²⁶ The Father has life in Himself, and He has granted that same life-giving power to His Son. ²⁷ And He has given Him authority to judge everyone because He is the Son of Man. ²⁸ Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, ²⁹ and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment. ³⁰ I can do nothing on My Own. I judge as God tells Me. Therefore, My judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the One Who sent Me, not My Own will.

Sermon – “Who’s Your Daddy?”

R.C. Sproul tells of a German scholar who was doing research in New Testament literature and discovered that in the entire history of Judaism—across the existing books of the Old Testament and all existing books of extra-biblical Jewish writings, dating from the beginning of Judaism until the tenth century A.D.—that there is not a single reference to a Jewish person addressing God directly in the first person as Father. The first Jewish rabbi to call God “Father” directly was Jesus of Nazareth. In every recorded prayer we have from the lips of Jesus save one, He calls God “Father.”

And that seems to me to be such a key. Because I think of other names of God: Fortress, Master, Refuge, Lord of Heaven’s Armies, King of glory, Most High, Holy One, Righteous Judge, Consuming Fire, … all describing God’s abilities and character and His relationship to others beings and powers in the universe. But what brings all that He is home to me, what connects all of that omniscience and omnipotence and omnipresence and majesty to me, is that Jesus tells me He’s my Father. He’s not just a great and powerful being; He’s not just the God above all gods and the Lord over all other lords; He’s my Father! He’s our Father! And it seems to me that that was such a key.

Because you have to look to others to know how to interact with a deity: How to worship; how to pray; what kinds of offerings and sacrifices to make. But every kid knows how to interact with their father. As you get older and relationships get more complicated we need help living out all our relationships, but nobody has to teach a child how to be in relationship with his or her daddy: You just are!

And so Jesus did the works it was foretold that Messiah would do, and the Holy Spirit empowered His teaching, and so He got the people’s attention. So that when He revealed God to them as a “Father” people either hated Him (like the Jewish officials: It was ludicrous, blasphemy!) or it provided the missing piece that made everything else make sense, the bridge to personally connect them to all of God’s fairly impersonal attributes and other titles.

…

In our reading the Lord Jesus tells us that one of the things our Father does to show us His love for us is showing us what He does, what He’s done, what He’s going to do, so that we can do it too. This underlines to me our need to spend time reading the Bible. When we read the Scriptures we see God at work across history. And as we read about His character and His desires for human lifestyles and relationships we can become more aware of His hand at work around us even right here and now. And, of course, the Scriptures are filled with promises about what He’s committed to do in the future, and as we read we prepare ourselves to see Him at work in days to come.

So as we commit ourselves to read the Bible we literally see Him at work. And because the Lord Jesus has told us, “Since you’ve seen Me then you’ve seen the Father,” as we read the gospels and Acts and see Jesus at work, we are seeing the Father in Him at work, as well.

Even so, I think we get a little selfish when we read the Word and see what God is doing there. We see Jesus teach and we too often think: Oh, He wants to teach me. We see Him heal and we think: Oh, He wants to heal me. We see Him drive away fear and set people free and show mercy and kindness and we too often think: Oh, hooray, Jesus wants to do all those things for me! And perhaps He does. (As a matter of fact, I know He does.) But the point I’m making here is that Jesus tells us that when we see God at work in the Scriptures it’s not just there to tell us what He wants to do for us, it’s there to tell us what He wants us to be doing! He’s trying to get us on the move: Instead of always looking at what the Lord’s going to be doing for me I ought to instead be looking for what God wants me to do for Him and others. (I think about a fellow in our congregation who recently shared with me how his life turned upside down once he stopped asking God to do things for him and began offering himself to God for God’s work in the lives of others around him. Upside down!)

We need to be in God’s Word to see our Father working. After all, how do we know to pray for someone, visit someone, get involved in this work or that ministry, or trust our Father for this or that miracle if we’re not in His Word to see Him having done and doing these things?

…

Anybody see the very first Spiderman movie with Tobey Maguire? Towards the end of the movie Peter Parker (who is Spiderman’s alter ego) is at the Daily Bugle newspaper selling some pictures he took of himself as Spiderman. The woman at the desk is paying him for the pictures, and he says, “I’m a photographer”. She gives him his payment, saying, “Yes you are.” I bring up that part of the flick because Peter Parker wasn’t a photographer because he had a camera. He was a photographer, and he knew he was a photographer!, when he was doing it, living it, taking pictures. In the same way, Jesus tells us that when we know the Almighty is our Father, and when we’re out there doing what we’ve seen Him doing, we’ll know that we’ve passed from death to life!

But I know too many times Christians say “no” to God when the Holy Spirit prompts us to do what we’ve seen Him doing. And as long as we keep saying “no” to God we’re not going to know if we’re truly His. Doubts will overwhelm us. We may want to be with the Lord, we may want to be for the Lord, we may think He’s our dad, but as long as we keep saying “no” to Him we’ll never gain that assurance He wants us to have that we are His and that He is ours, our Father; and that we have passed from death to everlasting life!

…

J.I. Packer in his book Knowing God wrote, “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all” (Intervarsity Press, p. 182).

To know God as our Father is to know life as He intended it to be.

Our Identity – In Christ

I want to open with a fun story from my time here in Milford working with the students of DV.  Early on when we were tying to get Young Life going here I didn’t know much of what that meant.  What I did know was that I was supposed to at the high school and involved in the lives of the students there.  So I was coaching soccer which was a fun fit for me and I remember being at a home football game to earn the right to be heard by going where the students are.  So I boldly put on my coaches warm up, and walked boldly into the stands to sit where the students sit, not to simply hang around the fence like the rest if the adults.  So I find a student I know from the team and sit down next to him.  I don’t realize how this is perceived from his vantage point, here he is wanting to have some fun with his friends and one of his coaches sits down next to him.  But in my mind I am the cool young coach who he definitely wants to hang out with After some awkward chit chat and some silence between us as he talks with his other friends…He turns to me and asks this question, “Don’t you have any friends your own age?”  That hurt.  And this was when I had just moved here all by myself.  I thought about his questions and answered painfully and honestly, ‘ No I don’t.”  This is fun to look back on now that I have friends but the point is that in that moment and many others I have to ask myself who am I, where does my identity lie, because in that moment I was exposed and If I didn’t know who I was or whose I was then I could have cried myself to sleep that night, and that was minor.  Going back into the high school I am out there and can be knocked down quick.

God wants for us to be rooted in Him, to find our identity in Him, not just in the easy or the hard or the common place or the extraordinary, but at all times and in all circumstances.

Do you ever feel like you aren’t anchored to anything, that the slightest wave of life tosses you up and down? Or as if you don’t know who you are at times, as the world asks us to be many different things at many different times?  God is calling all of us to Him, to find our rest in Him, to live each moment for Him.  This morning we are going to look at having our identity in Jesus and why it is vital.

Sometimes we get caught up in placing our identity where we shouldn’t in things that God does not want for us.  We let circumstances and all else dictate who we are rather than having our identity constantly in Jesus to dictate who we are in all situations, and not the other way around.   God longs for us to come to him and place our whole self in His car.

This morning we are going to look at our identity in the Lord.

First and foremast we need to know who Jesus is so that we can know why it is vital to put our trust and all we are into him and a relationship with Him. We come up short many times because we get caught up in placing our identity in so many things that come up short, that lie to us, that can’t deliver.  Clothes go out of style, money gets lost, friends and family let us down, jobs can be lost, everything in our lives can change, and nothing is constant, except Jesus.  Jesus is the only constant and that is what we need for our identity a constant, and anchor.

This morning we are going to be looking at Joseph as an example in looking at identity in the Lord.  We will be reading from Genesis chapter 37 and bouncing forward a bit.  Here is a little background on Joseph.

-He was the youngest son of Jacob also called Israel.

-This angered his brothers so much so that they could not speak a kind word to him. (he needed to know where his identity was from an early age.

-He has some intense dreams which pointed towards his brother and even his mother and father bowing down to him.  (not to pleasant at the diner table for Joseph)

-Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brother who were tending their flocks.

-We will pick it up at chapter 37: verse 18

We will start in Genesis 37

The First point this morning is that we need to have our identity in the Lord because trials will come.

1)  Anyone ever had a bad day?

-The Lord does not promise easy sailing.  I have had quite a few bad days, terrible moments, but this one is up there for Joseph.  Here he is trying to just do what his dad has asked him and he ends up in a pit.

So this is Ruben being a big brother, saving Joseph from death and yet not fully going to bat for him, instead offering up the idea that they will sell him as a slave.

The Lord promises us that He will be with us, that he will work our sufferings and challenges into good.  That is so easy to adhere to when it is smooth sailing, but so hard to own when the fight is raging, when the finances don’t add up, when we are in a cistern with our family not only in ear shot, but the ones that put us there.  We must remember who is in charge when the lights go out and we find ourselves in a dark pit.

Remember back in 2010 the miners who were stuck in a cave collapse underground in Chile? They were there for 69 days thousands of feet below ground.  These guys were in need.  I had followed the story and I read that one miner said that they could hear the rescue drills searching for them, but the drills kept missing the open area where they were.  Can you imagine?  I do not like being in very confined spaces.  I once was in the trunk of a car and although I got in willingly and it was only for a short time I started to freak out and was yelling to my friends to open the seat from the car.

These guys were in real need.  This was a pretty hopeless situation, there was no light to see at then end of the tunnel.  This was nearly impossible to imagine a way out.

These are the moments that we need to choose hope.  That God wants us to choose Him when it doesn’t make sense, when we might not have an answer for why it is we are going through what we are going through.  Maybe some of us are in a pit today, put there wrongly by others, or even by ourselves or maybe we believe we deserve it.  The point is that no matter what the Lord wants you to choose hope and loves us in the pit, even thought it may not feel like it, the Lord is in the ditch with us when we are, and when it seems only a miracle can change things.

Jesus longs for us to take refuge in Him.  The psalms talk about it because God knew there would be storms.  You don’t seek refuge when things are easy or going well.

Genesis 39:1-6

We need to have our identity in Christ, in the Lord when things are going well, we need to know who we belong to and who is the Giver of anything good.

-Joseph was a hard working and trustworthy man because he kept his eyes on the Lord, it says it all came from the Lord.  I would not do well in Joseph’s situation.  First of all, it seems as thought he kept his eyes on Jesus and didn’t let his situation break him.  No one would have judged him for struggling to find hope let alone work hard at what he was thrown into.

I would also struggle with having success at everything I put my hand to, the Lord humbles me by keeping this from being true.  But Joseph knew it all came from the Lord, the Lord got the credit.

Success is hard; it is hard to remain humble and to not steal the light from the Lord.

Joseph’s identity was not in the success, it was not in the stuff, the status or anything else.

The world would have us believe the opposite, that when things are going well that it is because of how great we are or how hard we work, don’t get me wrong the Lord has gifted us all in different ways and we should work hard, that just shouldn’t be the end all.  Often times we think, well if I just had a little bit more, or a lot more or some success in this area then I would be happy or feel complete because that would be my identity.

A couple of years ago Tom Brady was interviewed on 60 minutes by Steve Kroft.  Tom Brady is the quarterback of the New England Patriots.  Here are some facts about him:

-2x MVP

-8X pro Bowler

-3x super bowl champ

-2x super bowl mvp

-Married to a super model and get millions in football and endorsements.  The world would say he has it all.

BRADY: Well, I put incredible amounts of pressure on me. When you feel like you’re ultimately responsible for everyone and everything, even though you have no control over it, and you still blame yourself if things don’t go right — I mean, there’s a lot of pressure. A lot of times I think I get very frustrated and introverted, and there’s times where I’m not the person that I want to be.

Why do I have three Super Bowl rings, and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, “Hey man, this is what is.” I reached my goal, my dream, my life. Me, I think: God, it’s gotta be more than this. I mean this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be. I mean I’ve done it. I’m 27. And what else is there for me?

KROFT: What’s the answer?

BRADY: I wish I knew. I wish I knew. I mean I think that’s part of me trying to go out and experience other things. I love playing football, and I love being a quarterback for this team, but, at the same time, I think there’s a lot of other parts about me that I’m trying to find. I know what ultimately makes me happy are family and friends, and positive relationships with great people. I think I get more out of that than anything.

There is much more to life and to who we are, who we are in Christ than the success measurements of the world, that stuff, success and impressing others.

Identity in anything outside of the Lord leaves us empty and longing.

1 Samuel 16:7 – But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

Genesis 39:6-23

When we are wrongfully accused, we need to have our identity in Jesus when what others have the wrong idea and rest in the Lord to take care of us.  We need to know what is True, what the Lord says about us and act with integrity – Jesus and many others are watching.

I was traveling home from college my freshman year for Thanksgiving break.  I was driving my 1989 ford escort.  In college I had a bug wooden bead necklace, and bi afro and large sideburns.  I looked like a hippie.  I was driving along on 84 and all of a sudden a state trooper followed behind me really closely and then another one rode in the lane next to me for a while.  I remember making sure I was going the exact speed limit, having my hand in the correct places on the steering wheel and I even turned the radio off.  The state trooper that was in the lane next to me sped on and out of sight.  Then a couple of moments later I saw him up ahead waiting on the side of the road.  The trooper behind me pulled me over.  I remember feeling like I was in a movie as I asked the standard question when they came to my door, “Is there a problem officer?”  They told me it was illegal to have anything hanging from the rear view mirror in the state of PA.  I said I didn’t know sir, and immediately took it down.  They then started asking me if I had any drugs or alcohol in the car, I did not.  They made some funny remarks about my necklace and some of the sticker on my car.  They were fishing for me, they profiled me because I looked like someone who would have drugs on me or in my car.  They were wrong and after searching through my stuff for a while they let me go.  The funny part is that when I would pack to go home in college I would just take the cleanest pile of clothes from the floor of my dorm room and throw it in the back seat of my car.  They had the wrong idea of me.  I was wrongfully accused.  This pails in comparison as to what Joseph was accused of and what he was facing.

Have you ever been wrongly accused, or accused someone wrongly?

Now this pails in comparison to Joseph.  I had nothing to hide.  Joseph was a man who lived his life with integrity, he has nothing to hide.  He ran from the situation.  Maybe there are situations we need to run from in order to live with integrity, not simply well I will slowly walk away or work at taking a couple of steps each day, not we need to run from stuff that we know will wreck our identity being in Christ because we will place things there that aren’t meant to be there.

The rest of the Joseph story Joseph goes on to gain favor back with the Pharaoh and gets put in charge of Egypt.  He then plans really well through being prompted by the Lord to store up food for the people because of a famine that is coming.  The famine brings Joseph’s brother looking for food and Joseph is able to help that hands that hurt him.  Talk about forgiveness – but that is a whole other sermon, one that Jesus exemplifies really well.

Joseph says in Gen 45:4-7.

It is scary having our identity in someone else, it means we have to let go of control.  But if we draw close and know more fully who it is that we are giving control to, the only true Constant, it is freeing instead of scary and we don’t have to ultimately prove ourselves or care and worry about what others think and say.

Don’t let the word tell you your identity, go to Jesus for it, for all of it.

My Boss Rick one time challenged us at a staff time with Peter’s denial of Jesus.  It has really stuck with me.  Peter a bold disciple of Jesus gets de-railed by the questions of a couple of 15 year old girls.  No this is nothing against 15 year old girls, but Peter should be more secure in his identity than as to let 15 year old girls derail him to the point off lying.  And they weren’t even wrongfully accusing him, they were telling the truth when they said, weren’t you on of Jesus’ disciples.  Rick asks us, what is that 15 year old girl in your life?  What is it that we let derail us or take our identity of Jesus, stop giving in to it.

Peter lets his identity shift towards and be overrun with fear.  And yet Jesus re-instates him as the Rock of the church.

Don’t let the world dictate your identity boldly go in what is true, that Jesus is our identity and nothing else matters.

Sometimes we don’t get to see right away or at all how God is working things together for good.  Joseph probably didn’t see it all coming when he was sitting in that cistern or when he was locked up in jail.  But God used him in powerful ways through his life and circled back with his family in it all.  I believe that Joseph was so blessed by God and was used by Him in so many way because he lived his life with his Identity being rooted in the Lord.

This idea of identity for me has been a struggle going back as far as I can remember.  I still struggle with it today.  It isn’t all bad we try and put good things in our identity spot, working hard, being a good person etc.  But no matter what non of it works, because only Jesus fits.  You are not what you do.  You are who you are because of your heritage, you are heirs of Jesus.

If I were to come up to you on the street and say, who are you?  Or identify yourself, you would probably give your name, your name carries with it a heritage, a family, many different things about you are in your name.  Mark Driscoll says that our identity is how we see ourselves.  We need to see ourselves as Jesus does.  We need to realize that before we are a Pearson or a Smith or an O’Neil, that we are God’s.  We are first and foremost of the line of the Lord, as His sons and daughters.  This point would work better of God has a last name.  We are His kids, that is our identity.

We can all have our identity in The Lord by having a relationship with Jesus.

Closing Prayer

Lord, you are all that truly matters.  Lord I pray that we would find our identity in you Lord, in a relationship with You.  Lord I am in desperate need of you and of you telling me who I am in a world that is shouting in opposition of that.  Please give us the strength to cling to you and walk boldly through life with the claim of knowing who we truly are in you.

Our identity should be based of off who we are in Jesus and so we need to check our hearts and let Jesus dwelling in our hearts dictate our decisions and our actions and our character.