My name is Sam. I'm a partner here at Christchurch for those of you who don't know me.
! This morning I'm actually standing in for Adam Kinnam. He was going to preach, continuing,
! actually finishing out our series on Philippians. But Adam and Carrie just had a newborn baby,
! Hosanna. So I decided to take this off his plate as they take care of their new little baby. Excited
to meet Hosanna soon. Welcome bro. So taking a little bit of a break from Philippians, I wanted
to think about this morning of the idea of worship as warfare. The way that we worship the God that we
serve in a type of focused and intentional, almost militant type way as we live our lives. And
at the beginning of each year, we pray as a church for three words. And this year we got three words
from the Lord, character, family, and order. And I think that this discussion that I'm going to kind
of walk through with you guys is very relevant to those words, especially character and order,
and will benefit us as we pursue those things. So worship as warfare. I'm going to pray and then
kind of dive in here.
Lord, I thank you God for your word. Thank you Lord that it's profitable for teaching
and correction. Thank you Lord that you say it's God breathed. But I pray that you would
speak through me Lord, through your word that you would breathe even this morning on us. God speak to
our hearts. Stir us up Lord to be a church family with good order and good character Lord, serving you
with all fervor as good soldiers. Pray Lord that we would worship you God with that fervency going forward
with even more fervency than we had before up to this point. In Jesus name. Amen. Okay, so
worship as warfare. So disclaimer, when I say worship, I'm not just talking about like when we sing
that kind of worship or like, you know, with with song and instruments, like on a Sunday morning,
that's kind of the contemporary thing that a lot of people think of when you think of worship,
although that's part of it. I'm talking about worship in the sense of how we live our lives at any given
point at any time. Okay, so
unfortunately, I think inadvertently sometimes, especially in the church, the charismatic church,
what's been taught is that this experience of worship, maybe with worship and song or on a Sunday morning,
is the primary place where the kingdom of God comes, heaven invades and demons flee. Okay,
and while that is true, those things do happen when we lift our hands and we sing for the Lord,
that is not the only way that we worship God, or that heaven comes, or that demons flee. Okay, so
partly because
after Sunday, Monday comes around.
What do you need to do if you need the demons to flee on Monday? Right? What do you need to do if you're in your cubicle?
You can't, you know, break out in praise and song, right?
There has to be a way that we live our lives all the time that is Godward and worship. Okay,
so, uh, kind of in keeping with the words that we have received this year, character, order, and family,
I think the, the content of our lives,
after we all go home from our meetings, or from work, or whether we're at work, or wherever we might be,
especially when people don't see what the content of our lives, what does it look like?
You know, is it, is it Godward? Is it focused? Does it have purpose? You know, all these things are things to consider because
how we live our lives either, uh, is a, uh, expression of faithful worship or unfaithful worship.
There's really only those two categories, and you can, you don't have to be a believer to think about worship either.
Um, the secular person, uh, worships many gods, right? Uh, whether it's money or what have you,
uh, same thing in a religious context, right? Um, wherever you are, wherever you find yourself,
your heart will worship something. Okay? So, thinking today about what is the disposition of our lives,
day to day? Okay? Not just on a Sunday morning, although that's important, right? But, uh, when
you wake up on Monday, or Wednesday, right? During the turn of the week. Okay? So, Romans 12, 1 says,
Paul speaks, he says, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your
bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Okay? So, what if your daily monotonous life was lived, uh, in this way, like Paul's saying, uh,
present your bodies to him, to God, in view of his mercies, present your bodies as living sacrifices.
I think it's funny that he put living in there, you know, because a sacrifice usually dies, you know?
But, like, right? We still gotta be alive in this world. But, our life is a, what? It's, he says it's a
sacrifice. And then he says, and this is your spiritual worship. So, what our day, the daily things we do,
the daily sacrifices of our life, um, either is spiritual worship, um, in a faithful way to the Lord,
or in an unfaithful way. And we should consider this. What if, what if when you change the, uh,
the fifth dirty diaper, you know, uh, in, in a faithful way, that you were, uh, assailing the forces of darkness?
You know, uh, that seems a little ridiculous. It's kind of why we all laugh about it. But here's the thing.
There's a category, I think, that has been, uh, brushed over for the mundane in Christianity. Okay?
The, the, what we would call the unspiritual, right? But I would propose to you today that nothing is not
spiritual. Everything is. Okay? That doesn't mean that we need to get weird about, you know, when
you're changing the diaper, making sure that you do it in a spiritual way, right? But that the way that
we live our lives, the attitudes of our heart makes its way back to God. Are we grateful? Are we ungrateful?
You know, like God, God sees all those things. And so whether it's the diapers, whether it's the dishes,
maybe you stay late at work, maybe you open your home to a stranger or somebody that's really difficult,
right? God sees your heart and he either gets worship from that or he says, you know what?
I think there's an offense against me, you know? And one of the, one of the key things here,
why, why we should acknowledge God in all these areas is because the very first portion of this
verse in Romans 12, it says, I appeal to you by what? By the mercies of God. Okay? Or in view of God's
mercies, another translation says. Um, we don't think about God's mercies only on Sunday mornings,
uh, only during, uh, you know, our quarterly fast breaks, you know, at the spiritual times,
God's mercy is perpetual towards us at all times, which means that we live in a perpetual state
of worship towards God. Okay? And so when you say like, there can't possibly be something so powerful
in something so unspiritual, you know, like going to work or doing the dishes, right? Um, but there's numerous
examples in scripture of people living their lives in very ordinary ways, um, that I don't think, uh, the scriptures
never allude to that being unimportant or, uh, unspiritual even. And actually, it's the ordinary people,
oftentimes in scripture, time and time again, that God uses to accomplish his will. Okay? Uh,
David and Moses were both shepherds. Okay? David shepherded when he was a boy all the way up until,
uh, he fought Goliath, right? And then God called him to be king. Moses, after he left Egypt, was
shepherding for 40 years. That's such like a blip. If you read Exodus, it's like 40 years blip. Moses
shepherded in Midian, you know? And it's kind of like, whoa. Okay? And then God called him. He was
80 years old, right? Um, pretty much all of Jesus' disciples were ordinary men, right? Fishermen.
Luke was a doctor. Um, the reason I bring all these things up, I mean, most of you know this already,
but the truth is we lose heart very easily in the mundane, everyday things. You know? A lot of us,
if we're honest, experience this kind of like, uh, uh, temptation to be like, am I really living for
God? You know? Am I really doing it? Am I, uh, doing what I ought to be? Um, is this thing that I'm
doing really important? You know? And sometimes it gets really hard to, uh, get faith in those moments,
especially when you do that for a long time, especially when no one sees.
But the truth is the Lord sees all the time. I think it's Psalm 32 says, behold, the eye of the
Lord is on those who fear him. Okay. Uh, how often do you believe that you have the Lord's eye,
uh, when no one else sees, right? And you're doing the things, um, that people may never hear about,
right? Um, so everything, everything is spiritual. Luke, Luke 16, 10, Jesus says,
the one who is faithful in a very little will also be faithful in much. Or the one who is trusted with,
uh, or is faithful in a little will be entrusted with much. Okay. So there's, there's this idea of,
of starting small, um, and being faithful in that. And you might say, okay, well, how long do I have to
be faithful in the little? Right. And there's no description of how long it will take, right?
It's just be faithful. Okay. Uh, and you will be entrusted with more, more what, you know,
there's not even description on that per se, but you will be entrusted. That's the promise.
Okay. How much do we believe that when we're, when we're really bent, uh, about waking up early again,
when we're, you know, when the kitchen's dirty, you get what I'm saying. Okay. Um, one example in
here that I thought was cool that I actually was just reading about last night, um, was in Ezra 4,
um, Zerubbabel takes on this task of rebuilding the temple of God. Okay. Uh, the Babylonians had come
and destroyed the temple and it was destroyed for quite some time. And this guy named Zerubbabel,
uh, decided to restore what was once lost, right? Under a different king and rebuild the temple. But,
uh, some locals in the process saw that he wanted to do that and didn't really jive with his plan.
So they're like, you know, we're going to kind of conspire and work against them. They sowed discord
and, uh, essentially for years, uh, Zerubbabel would try to build and then people would tear it down
and he would try to build, people would screw up the process. And then, uh, it was just like this
thing after thing. And it was monotonous. It was unyielding, right? Maybe it was a big task,
uh, to rebuild the temple, but daily he was being fought against. Okay. And then nearly 17 years later,
we get this word and Zechariah. So two prophets come to Zerubbabel, Haggai and Zechariah. And
Zechariah delivered a word from the Lord, uh, saying, um, that he would finish the project.
That Zerubbabel, this guy who started it, the Lord, the Lord says to the prophet Zechariah that
you're going to, you're going to finish this project. We'll see it through. But then he says this,
this other phrase after that, which is for whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice
and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel or other translations say the capstone
in the hand of Zerubbabel basically mean like the finished product, the thing that, that seals it.
Right. But he says for whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice. In other words,
saying like, it might've been a large undertaking. It might've been years, you know, of just, you know,
maybe he laid the foundation just started and then boom, everything's destroyed again or everything's
stopped. They're halted. Right. Um, don't despise the day. Don't despise the days of small things.
That's, that's the point of this. Okay. Don't despise the mundane. You know, the Lord,
the Lord uses it and even said, says that that person should rejoice who doesn't despise small
things. Right. We likewise should take heed from that, uh, in Christ church. You know,
this is a very small beginning still, you know, small, a lot of small things going on. Um,
and don't despise the day, but rejoice, you know, the Lord can use literally anything. Okay. So
Romans 12, Paul calls us to present our bodies as living sacrifices. And it's our, it's our spiritual
worship that he calls, uh, doing that. And so, uh, Christ church, do, do, do we live in a way,
uh, in the secret parts of our life or the public? Um, I emphasize the secret because it's easy to lack
in those areas. Do we live in a way that brings worship to God, um, in our hearts? You know, maybe,
maybe practically in what we do. Do we believe that the Lord delights when we, when we hunker down
with steadfastness, with steadfast labors? Um, Acts 20, uh, when, uh, Paul is about to leave and he
speaks to the Ephesian elders, Acts 20 verse 18 says, for you yourselves know how I lived among you the
whole time from the first time that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with
tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how he did not shrink from
declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house.
Okay. So first, very first thing he says, what he says for yourselves know how I, what lived among
you. Okay. Um, he expected them not only to see how he lived, but the, the, the kind of life that he
lived as an example. Okay. You yourselves know how I lived among you. Do we, do we think that way
of one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, uh, as being examples to one, one another, or not even
just in an example sense, uh, but in a God word sense, uh, do we think, how am I living period?
How am I living among these people? You know, is it, is it God word? Paul, Paul expects the
Ephesian elders to, to see that, right? It's, it shines. Okay. And he said, I did not shrink from
declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you in public. Okay. So that's the public
eye. Right. And what else from house to house. Okay. The private eye, you might, you might say.
Okay. So Paul says, you yourselves know how I lived. My life was lived in sacrificial worship to God.
Right. You know, William Wallace said, every man dies, but not every man lives.
Maybe Paul said at first, we don't know, but, uh, you know, it's true. It's it, it, when we're born
again through the spirit of God, uh, although we still live in sinful bodies, uh, maybe our
circumstances don't change. We are actually alive as opposed to how we were, which were, which the
Bible says, uh, that we were spiritually dead. This is something like, it's like a mystery to us,
but it's as powerful and daily you can meditate on it and it would never grow old. Okay. So when
I don't, I don't know all of the content of your guys' life. I know some of, some of you more than
others, but each person in this room knows their own life, right? You know, your own thoughts,
you know what you do daily. Um, so I, I'm not here to say, you know, this, this, and this.
I believe that the spirit of God will lead this body into a more worshipful place. Right. And,
and even as I speak, I think it's good to also, um, hear that I don't think our body is, uh, bad at
worshiping God, uh, per se. Uh, this is, I don't think this is a knock on us. Um, however, I would love
through this word to encourage us to worship all the more, to have more character in how we do that
in the hidden areas of our life. And so we even see that when Jesus, uh, says that the greatest
commandment is what? To love the Lord, your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Essentially all of you, right? All of your person, whatever you do, wherever that person goes,
all of your heart, all of your strength, all of your soul, all those things to love God in that way.
Okay. Okay. Now we can't do that on our own. We can't just muster it up. Right. Many of us,
many of us have tried and failed. We probably slip into areas of trying again, but that's to remind us
that we rest not on our own strength, but God richly supplies spirit to us. Right. That's the daily
thing. If you wake up on Monday, you know, before you do anything, you know, confessing what's true
about God is a very good thing. Saying, God, you have richly supplied your spirit to me to do all
things. I have all things in Christ, uh, to face whatever, whether it's a thousand dirty diapers
or whether it's preaching to somebody who I won't expect to, you know, whatever it may be.
Um, we got, we have to live in a type of reverence, uh, uh, a, uh, disposition towards God that
remembers him. It's really easy to forget God. You know, it's really easy to wake up and say,
you know what, I'm just kind of a robot. I know how to do life. I just do my own thing, you know,
uh, go to work, come home, clock out, go to sleep, repeat, you know, and, uh,
God wants us not only to acknowledge him, but more than that, to live in a way that,
that basically says, God, my life is yours. It's not my own. I don't deserve anything.
You know, a type of rejoicing and gratefulness for everything that we've received. A lot of prayers
this morning, uh, were prayers of gratefulness, which is so true and very glorifying to God.
Sometimes it seems like, you know, whether I pray that or whether I think that doesn't matter,
you know, God's going to get glory either way. It's just like, no, wrong. We, we don't naturally
glorify God. Okay. We, we naturally, uh, uh, glorify the things that God has made. We naturally,
uh, heap up idols for ourselves, which means that we have to be focused. Okay. Which brings me to my
next part of the title, which is the warfare aspect of worship. Okay. Um, we forget God all the time,
which means in order to remember, it takes work. It takes being focused. It takes planning. Okay.
Some of us like to live more frivolously and spontaneously than others. And that's useful
and great in some areas, but not to where we never plan and we never actually focus on God,
you know, whether in the private, um, or the, uh, uh, out in the public or whatever with,
in the groups, right? We, we have to, we have to have intentionality, a warlike mindset that basically
says the world, the flesh and the devil are against us and want us to grow dull. Uh, but in Timothy,
uh, he exhorts, uh, Paul exhorts Timothy, he says, fan into flame, the gift of God, fan it in,
fuel it up, right? Uh, as you go into your week thinking, Lord, how am I going to keep this lamp
that you gave me that you lit a flame through the new birth of your spirit, uh, uh, fueled,
lit a flame, right? Maybe some weeks it's a little dwindling wick, you know, but he won't snuff it out.
He wants us to regularly come to him to keep that flame burning. And that takes a war,
a warfare like mindset. It takes being disciplined. All these things that it takes, God has richly
supplied for us in Christ. Okay. And, um, when we, when we think about it, um, let us think with it,
with intentionality, you know, a lot of times we just think of passing, you know, when you rise in
the morning and you go down to bed, I give thanks to the Lord, you know, give thanks when you, when you
eat or you drink, right? Cause he's always watching. Psalm 113, uh, verse three says that
from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. Okay. So when
the sun comes up, when the sun goes down, it's all praise, right? And again, I'm not suggesting that
we, uh, alter the way we, we do things so that we make sure the Lord's name gets sneaked into
everything. Right. And, uh, in a weird unspiritual way or over spiritual way, I should say, but that
we live as grateful people. We live with our hearts, um, always thanking God for what he's given us.
It's so easy to think that we deserve the things that we have, you know, or we deserve more than we
have. Maybe we've been gypped. Maybe we live with this kind of mentality of like, I always need more
than I have. I don't, I never have enough. It's just like, if you're, if you're in price, that is a lie.
Like, it's just not true. And the truth is we're lied to all the time by Satan, by our own flesh,
and by this world. Okay. Those three enemies are always lying to us. Okay. And a lot of the times
it looks like something really simple, which is just our own thoughts, you know, our own thoughts
sneak its way into our heart. And we actually start to believe that. But my exhortation to you is to
make war on those things, you know, don't settle for, for those subtle ways that, uh, you say, you
know, the Lord's not really that great. You know, I don't really need to pay much heed, you know, uh,
it's just a diaper, you know, I don't even like changing diapers. I keep using this diaper analogy, but
it's so normal. Uh, whatever it is, like we, we have to make war against lies. Okay. There's, there's,
there's people that, uh, believe things about this church that have worries about this church. Right. Uh, and
those things come from hell. They don't come from heaven. Right. So we need to send them back where
they came, you know, by the power of the spirit and say, you know what, uh, I'm going to choose to
be grateful, thankful, content, and rejoice in what God has given. And whatever we don't have,
we look forward in faith with a expectation that God always will do what he promised. Okay. Um,
so make, make war on this. And, uh, a lot of times we're not battling the things without
as much as it is the things within. Okay. Jesus said out of, out of our own hearts come all these
things, right? It's easy to just cash blame on like, well, this out here wasn't such a rough thing or
wasn't done in such a rough way. Or if this person only led this way, or if I only had this,
all external things, right? Well, primarily when I look at examples in the new Testament of people
who live their lives in light of the present circumstances and odds against them, I'm astounded
about how the attitude of their hearts remains steadfast. You know, Paul was shipwrecked,
encountered many dangers, beaten, right? And he's just focused. He's like, he's like,
it's all, it's all for Christ. You know, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss. Um, we, we too can
have this mentality, not because of everything out here, but because of, we have an abiding
possession, Hebrew says, right? We have something from within. Um, so we don't wrestle against our,
our circumstances. That's Ephesians 6, 12 says we, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers and against the authorities and the cosmic powers over this present darkness.
Okay. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. There are spiritual forces as maybe as crazy
some of you may sound. There are things that we do not see in the heavenlies that are against us,
not just Christianity as a whole, but actually, actually against this church. Uh, there are forces
of darkness that don't want to see us flourish. Uh, and they don't just attack us on Sunday mornings,
right? They attack us during the week and the mundane things to bog us down and make us lose faith,
right? But we, we don't wrestle against what we do see, but against the things that are unseen.
And then Ephesians there later, it says, so then put on the full armor of God, right?
Clothe yourself with God's armor. So you might be able to fight against those things. Okay.
Um,
practically, you know, uh,
a lot of this just comes down to our hearts. Practically, we have, we have only a couple of
means of grace, you might call them, um, by which we draw near to God and abide with him,
uh, uh, reading his word, coming to the Lord in prayer, and then actually living your life among
the body of Christ church. Okay. Those three areas are God's agents. I believe
to, uh, keep us in regular worship rather regular rhythms of worship, but here's those things. Not
all those things happen all the time. You can't, you can't pray all the time, right? You can pray
probably a lot of the time, but, uh, you can't read your Bible all the time, right? You can read it
sometimes, sometimes more than others, and you can't be with everybody in the body all the time.
But what you can do all the time is wherever your heart goes, it can be either in a Godward sense
saying, Lord, my life is yours or not, right? So there is, wherever your heart goes, it's going to
be either Godward or not. And this comes down to believing, I think, a very simple truth, which is
that the Lord Jesus Christ resides in that heart that goes wherever it wills, okay? And you wrestle
with a, a old man, the Bible says, that is also against that new man, Jesus Christ, who lives in you.
And we can, we can give airtime, we can give, uh, uh, a, uh, little seat to that old man more than we
can, uh, the, the man actually who is greater than that old man, okay? First John says, greater is he
who is in you than he who is in the world, right? Very simple. It's not complicated, okay? Um, but
give yourself to acknowledging who that man is, Jesus Christ, right? And I, I mean that on a personal
level that each, each one of us, uh, some of us are older believers in this room than, uh, than others,
but we all serve the same Lord and Christ, right?
Um, gee, uh, who was it? I think it was in one of Brennan Manning's books. He said that, uh,
um, you know, when Jesus asked his disciples, who do you say that I am? You know, some say this,
some say that, and then Peter, of course, answers like everyone knows you are the Christ, right? Son of
the living God. And Brennan Manning points out basically that, um, when we are asked this question,
Christ's church, who do you say Jesus is? Or if Jesus were to ask you, who do you say that I am?
What can happen is we regurgitate what's been said. Well, Peter says you're the Christ,
you know? Augustine says you're the Christ. Luther says you're the Christ, right? But none,
nonetheless, Jesus looks you in the eye and says, but who do you say that I am?
Is he Christ for you? Is he Christ in your life, in your mundane, everyday life, right?
And some of you, I know that he is the Christ for you. You know him, you've experienced him,
but I'm encouraging you all the more to seek that out. Seek more of who Christ is for you
and his saving work, right? Don't underestimate, uh, the power of seeking after him and knowing him,
okay? Don't underestimate the, the availing power of, uh, small things, the availing power of,
of a woman's secret prayer life, okay? Of a mother's regular petitions before God. I say this
because I've underestimated that. My mom may be one of the most praying women, like she has prayed so
much for me. I have, I have, uh, many memories of waking up early and she's just in her prayer closet,
okay? Don't underestimate faithfulness unto God, okay? Don't underestimate, uh, the, a father's
regular and consistent shepherding, okay? Day in and day out, teaching his children, okay? Uh, this type
of consistency is what we need all the more in today's culture. The type of consistency that says,
uh, that doesn't give up when it's hard, right? That pushes through and says, you know what? Um,
what I see right now, the struggle, the wrestlings is nothing compared to what I see in faith,
you know, according to what God has promised to do, right? Don't underestimate the, the witness of
one man preaching the good news only once, but with spirit-filled boldness so as to summon a thousand
angel armies on the forces of darkness that someone could be saved, okay? Someone could speak with such
few words and maybe not like glamorous, like eloquent words, but, but these, the forces in the heavenlies
are assaulted, okay? This is the warfare I'm talking about. We can live our lives in a way that
underestimates the power of God and really discounts what we've received. Don't do that,
Christ Church. I don't think we do on massive scales, but let this be a building up. Let this
be an encouragement to keep going, keep fighting for that. We just had our one-year anniversary
as a church, and, uh, we still have need for endurance, you know, since we started.
Uh, but I know that the Lord is faithful to do what he promised, okay?
Okay? And don't underestimate a man who waits on the Lord and keeps on waiting. Okay? There's
a promise in Isaiah that says, he who waits will renew his strength, you know? I think there's,
it's very possible that in present day Christianity, what's been lost is the, uh, gift of waiting.
Of dwelling, of dwelling, of resting. I say that even as somebody who doesn't rest well all the time,
but the promise is there. He who waits on the Lord will renew his strength, okay? So come what may
with, you know, how Christ's church flourishes, are we patient to wait what the Lord will do?
Because he will give us strength. He'll renew it, okay? Um, okay, last couple points. I've got three
closing points here. Um, the very first one is really simple, and we've, we've talked a lot about
this, but it's, um, walking by faith and not our senses or not our feelings, okay? Let's not walk by
faith or let's walk by faith, excuse me, and not our feelings. I think if there were ever like a day
and age where you could tangibly see like the, uh, the God of this age, maybe one of the false gods of
this age is feelings, okay? With individualism and, uh, the rise of a modern self, right? Uh, it's just
like the self is like everything, you know? It's like however you feel, you know, you just go with that.
And, um, a lot of us know this, but the thing is we, we live in this generation. We live with, uh, uh,
those principalities and powers, the God of feelings at war against us, you know? And maybe even you grew
up in a different generation. Well, unfortunately, you're alive in this generation fighting the same
powers. So we also, however old or young we are, have to resist these things because they want us to
believe other things, other things about God, other things about ourself. Uh, so whether it's the
feelings of apathy or doubt or, uh, discontentment, you know, there's reasons why we feel, I'm not saying
that feelings are bad, but, but when we know that our feelings are wrong, that they're not true,
right? What do we do? We have to fight against them and say the thing that they actually are,
just feelings, you know, like, okay, I see, I see feelings that you want me to feel one way,
but you're, that's all you are. You're just a feeling. I know what the truth is. Okay. Consider
this real quick. Romans 4 20, speaking about Abraham says no unbelief made him waver concerning
the promise of God, but he was strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that the
Lord was able to do what he had promised. Okay. It says no unbelief made him waver, which means
he must've encountered unbelief. Okay. Must've looked like feelings of some sort, right? Must've
looked like circumstances of some sort, like coming up against him saying like, you know, maybe the Lord
isn't going to come through. Right. But what did he do? It says, it says no unbelief made him
waver concerning the promise because he knew that God was able to do what he promised. Okay.
How often do we believe that about the promises granted to us in Jesus, right? That, um, when our
feelings rise up, we just say feelings are wrong. You know, look at these promises from God directly
from the mouth of God in his word, right? You know, we, we have to actually read the word to know
the promises. That's why we call it a sword because we can use it, right? But to fight against those,
those wrong ideas. Um, he grew strong in his faith. Abraham did as he, what gave glory to God.
Do you believe that when you say no to your feelings, that that gives God glory? When you say, you know,
how I feel right now, it doesn't actually matter. I'd say that feelings don't matter altogether. Don't
hear it. I'm not saying, but a lot of times our feelings are lies, right? God gets glory when we,
when we rest on promise on his promise, right? Uh, James says in James chapter one, that the testing
of our faith produces steadfastness, but not only that, he says that let steadfastness have its full
effect. In other words, like Abraham, the trial, maybe even of unbelief, uh, doesn't make him waver,
right? Because he knows he's letting it have its full effect that he's going to see God's promise.
He's being steadfast to see the promise revealed. So let, let God be true and every man a liar,
right? We need to have that in our secret hearts, right? When we think, when we reason, right?
Okay. That's point number one. Point number two, let us worship God with all of Christ,
with all of our life. Okay. This is one of our values, uh, the kingdom of God and all of life
together at Christ Church.
Christ Church, how many of you already know, but need to know again that you have all of Christ?
I'm serious. Like seriously, not, not an ounce of Christ has been withheld from us.
If we have believed on Jesus, then we have him in his fullness. Okay. Do we wake up thinking that way?
Lord, I have all of you. Not one ounce of you is withheld from me. Okay. So that's one thing you
might say another. Yeah. I think I have all of Christ that, that makes sense. Maybe in scripture,
I see that, but like, what about my sin? Okay. Even more so that's why he's called Christ, right?
Is not your sin in part that he mailed to the promise, but the whole of your sin, all of your sin,
right? Such that, uh, whether it's your regular daily shortcomings or your most heinous sins,
all of those things were driven into the son of God on that cross. We need to believe that we need
to believe that we have all of Christ and that none of our sin is counted against us, but all of it was
buried with him, right? Paul says in light in Romans 12, he says in light of the mercies of God.
Okay. So when we believe what I just said, when we actually believe all of Christ has been given to
me, I have literally everything I need, not announced that Christ is withheld. All of my sin has been
extinguished into the body of the son of God, buried and risen anew for me. In light of those things,
Paul says in light of the mercies of God, present our bodies as worship, right? This is our spiritual
worship. Last point, point number three, which I think is probably the most easy to do. It's don't grow
weary. It comes from Galatians 6. You're just reading this as a missional community, but it's so relevant
relevant in the daily. Do not grow weary in doing good for in due season. If we don't give up,
if we continue, we press on when we want to give up. If we fight that thing that says,
just throw in the towel. If we don't, we will reap. That's a promise. We will receive what God has
promised. Keep running, keep fighting Christchurch, keep making every effort to
live your lives pleasing to God as worthy of the gospel, whether anyone sees or no one does.
The Lord sees everything. Make every effort to make disciples for his kingdom.
You know, always, always counting on God's power to do something that you and your flesh think that
it's not possible, right? This interaction, this thing, this person, whatever it may be,
always resting on God. Revelation 22, 12 says,
Look, I am coming soon and my reward is with me to repay each person according to his work.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash
their robes so that they may have their right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.
It'll all be worth it, right? It'll all be worth it in the end.
Consider how great the object of our worship is. Consider God who is high and lifted up and yet
came down and was despised and rejected by men and then crucified for our sins. And then Romans 4 says
that he was raised for our justification. Okay. I'm going to pray.