for your steadfast love and for your faithfulness.
God, thank you that you who breathed life into our lungs
and who created the universe,
that you are here in the room with us today.
And though we cannot see you this morning,
we long to see your face.
So Lord, would you illuminate your word for us?
Would you speak through me, your servant,
to all of us, including me,
that each one of us, including myself,
would grow in our vision of who you are,
our awe of you, our love of you,
even our fear of you,
our joy that is found in you,
that we might come to know you more deeply,
more intimately, and more completely.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Please be seated.
I grew up on the west coast of Canada in Vancouver,
British Columbia,
with so many stories of my grandpa, Grandpa Sam.
Grandpa Sam, we were told by my dad,
was a bodybuilder extraordinaire.
The feats that he would do as a young man,
and you wouldn't believe me if I told you them,
but I believe that they're true.
He also was a classical musician,
and a jazz saxophone artist,
and he was quite a renaissance man.
He painted oil canvas paintings,
and just did so much,
and generated so many stories.
He had a personality larger than life,
and a temper that could flare up,
and so there was endless,
hilarious stories to us young Gilmans in my family.
My dad would take care of us on Tuesday nights
as my mom would go Israeli folk dancing,
and so we'd often ask my dad
for more Grandpa Sam stories.
By the time I was a young teen,
I knew so much about my Grandpa Sam,
but I had never met him,
because we lived in Vancouver,
and he lived in Montreal.
I come from a very plentiful family,
so to fly out to Montreal was always something
that was just too costly for us.
But then when I was 13,
my family took that trip and went to Montreal.
We were on a way to Israel,
but we'd stopped in Montreal,
and so we got to spend the afternoon
with Grandpa, Grandpa Sam.
And that afternoon,
just a few hours with Grandpa Sam
were so precious to us.
We'd heard so much about him,
we knew so much about him,
but finally we got to know him.
That afternoon,
we didn't get any more stories about Grandpa Sam,
and any of the stories he told us
we'd already heard before,
but there was something so precious and tender
about getting to spend time
in real life with Grandpa Sam.
Just a few weeks later,
Grandpa Sam passed away.
And as we grieved,
as we missed him,
we also were comforted by the fact
that we got to actually know Grandpa Sam.
If he had died just a few weeks earlier,
and we had never met him,
we could have only ever said
we knew a lot about Grandpa Sam.
We couldn't have said we actually knew him.
But there was something so precious
about those few hours.
And what is it about knowing,
the difference between knowing about someone,
knowing them,
what is so precious about those few hours
we got to spend with Grandpa Sam,
even if we didn't gain any more information about him?
It's because each one of us understands
instinctively that there's something
so much more real and intimate and precious
having met someone,
encountered them,
to be able to say you know them,
rather than that you just know about them.
And I share the story with you this morning,
not because I think that you particularly care
about my personal life
or my relatives or anything like that,
but to illustrate for you,
for all of us,
that we all understand
that there's this distinction
between knowing about someone
and knowing someone.
And this isn't only important
when it comes to the relationships
we have with our friends or our relatives,
but even more importantly
when it comes to actually knowing God.
If you're in church this morning,
I am assuming that you know something about God,
that you know something about Jesus.
But it is of insurmountable importance
that we don't just know about God,
but that we actually know him.
So if you turn in your Bibles
to Philippians chapter 3, verse 10,
that is what we'll be looking at this morning.
And if you can all join me in reading this,
half sentence, that would be great.
Verse 10, Philippians chapter 3.
Believe the words are on the screen.
Say it aloud with me.
That I may know him
and the power of his resurrection
and may share his sufferings
becoming like him in his death.
That I may know him.
Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7
tells a story of how at the end of time
many will come before him
and many will say,
Lord, Lord,
and then recount all these things
that they did in Jesus' name.
These are people who clearly
believe that Jesus is Lord
and they're people who've done
great ministry and service
in the church and in society.
And Jesus' response,
devastatingly so to them,
will be,
get away, depart from me.
I never knew you.
It's of insurmountable importance
that we don't just know about Jesus.
Those people know a lot about Jesus,
but they don't know him.
Why is this so important for us today,
specifically in the 21st century?
Well, throughout the history of the church,
throughout the past 2,000 years,
there has always been
these various heresies,
this wrong thinking about God and life
that creep into the church.
And it seems like there's
different wrong theologies,
different heresies
that will creep in in different periods.
In the past 100 years,
one of the main heresies
that have crept into good churches
in North America
is one that I can illustrate for you best
as told by a pastor and author,
David Platt.
He shares how it is very normal
for someone today,
say you have a young man,
let's just call him Kyle,
and he comes up to a pastor,
we'll call him Pastor David,
comes up to Pastor David
and he says,
you know,
I'm not a church guy,
I haven't grown up in the church,
but I have this fear
of dying and going to hell.
And I don't want that.
What should I do?
And the pastor,
Pastor David,
would say something like,
well,
would you close your eyes
and repeat after me?
So Kyle closes his eyes
by kind of peering through his eyes
a little bit
so he can see what the pastor is doing.
And the pastor would say something like,
dear Jesus.
So Kyle looks around,
keeps his eyes closed
and says,
dear Jesus.
The pastor says something like,
I know that I'm a sinner.
So Kyle says,
I know that I'm a sinner.
And he leads him in the sinner's prayer
asking Jesus to be his Savior
and his Lord.
And then Kyle looks up
after saying amen
and the pastor would look at him
and say,
Kyle,
you're born again.
You don't need to fear hell anymore.
And that's a very common,
a common phenomenon
in the past hundred years
in North America.
And to some extent,
even though we might not say
that that is the fullness
of what it means to be a Christian,
a lot of us have encountered that
in our own lives.
But in the Gospel of Matthew,
chapter 7,
Jesus is very clear
that we need to not just be people
who have said a prayer
or know about Jesus,
but we actually need to come
to know him.
There's so much more
than just saying a prayer.
As David Platt says,
the Gospel is not an invitation
to say a prayer.
It's a summons to lay down our life.
The Gospel isn't an invitation
to just say a prayer.
If that's what it is,
then Christianity is simply
like some type of superstition
where basically the sinner's prayer
is an incantation that you say
that lets you in the club.
But it's not like that.
No, instead,
instead it's more like how
every one of us is born.
We come into the world
with a throne in our hearts.
And who sits on that throne
is who's in charge of your life.
Who is the one that
you're living your life
in deference to
and in awe of
and making your decisions
based upon.
And every one of us
is born with ourselves
as the king on the throne
of our hearts.
We're the one,
even as little kids.
When we don't get away,
we're just crying
and we're screaming
and we're being quite brutish.
And so many of us
become more polite
as we grow up,
but we're still making decisions
based on the same grid.
But for us to actually
come to know God
is when we say,
we come to God
and we say,
both with our prayers
as with our life,
God,
would you please save me
for myself?
I don't want to be the king
of my life anymore.
I don't want to be the one
in charge.
Would you save me
for myself?
Would you forgive me
for my sin?
And would you be
the king of my life?
And it's not just something
we say with words.
It's something that we're
looking to God
with our life.
Another way to illustrate
this for you
is found in a true story
in the Gospel of Luke
in chapter 13
where you have a woman
who is,
she has a crippling spirit
which means she's bent
over like this
and she's been like that
for 18 years.
She's been like that
for 18 years
and so that means
for 18 years
she hasn't seen the faces
of any of her friends
or family.
She hasn't seen the sun.
She hasn't seen any of that.
She's bound like this.
And when I think
of this woman,
it reminds me
of a girl that came up
to me at church
on Wednesday,
a service that
Church of Messiah does
along with a few
other churches
at the University of Ottawa.
One evening
after preaching,
this girl came up
to me and said,
Daniel,
I heard you talking
about the Gospel
and about our need
for Jesus,
but I know you're right,
but for the past
six months
I've been running
from God,
I've been running
from church
and I'm afraid
that if I surrender
my life to God again
that He's going to
ruin my freedom
and my fun.
And as she spoke to me,
I saw the tension
in her face.
You've ever seen
someone's face
where the skin
on their face
is so taut,
like it's so tight,
you can see
that they're stressed.
I talked to her
about the past six months
and I heard that
even though she's been
living a wild
and crazy life
that she really thinks
is freedom and fun
that she really
is so miserable.
There's such chaos
in her life
and she doesn't
really have freedom
and fun.
And she's like
this woman who,
this woman,
she's bent down
like this for 18 years
and all this woman
can see is her own legs,
her own body.
That's all she can see.
And I spent some time
this past year
when I was preparing
for a message
for Church on Wednesday,
I spent some time
in the self-help section
of chapters
reading through
some of the books,
actually a number
of the books,
some more intimately
than others.
And all these self-help books
that are so popular today,
it's a big section
of chapters indicating
a lot of people
read those books.
And all these books,
and you can go online
and watch all these
TED Talks as well
about how to do the same,
it's all about gaining
control and mastery
of your own life.
It's about getting in touch
with your deep
and natural desires
and learning how
to get those things,
your dreams
and your goals
for yourself.
In other words,
it's doing the same
that this girl
at Church on Wednesday
was saying she's been
trying to do
for six months,
trying to make yourself
the king of your life,
trying to put yourself
on the throne
of your own heart.
But trying to get
obsessing over the
learning to get in touch
with your own desires
and how to gain control
of your life
is really just being
like this woman
that all you can see
is yourself.
And you might imagine
that would be freedom,
you might imagine
that would be fun,
but really it's binding
and it's crippling.
And even the pleasures
that you're able to get
for yourself,
there's such uncertainty
as to whether or not
you can keep those things
for yourself,
and so no matter
how much riches
and wealth you can get,
you're still miserable.
I've seen this when
I've been working
at Parliament Hill
for the past seven years
and I've had the privilege
of having a few garden parties
at the Prime Minister's house.
I've gotten to meet
not only the Prime Minister
but other Cabinet Ministers,
these Canadians
who are some of the
most powerful,
most prestigious,
in some cases,
the most rich Canadians.
They have so many
of the things
that you and I
would only ever dream of,
the popularity,
the riches,
wealth,
the comfort,
the pleasures.
In addition to all of that
at Parliament Hill,
there's receptions
everywhere you go.
So it's pretty much
unlimited alcohol
and delicious food.
These people have so many,
have all the things
that this young woman
at church on Wednesday
was dreaming about
getting for herself.
Yeah,
as I have had conversations
with these powerful people,
I see in the eyes
of so many
such misery,
such uncertainty.
They're not happy people.
They're not happy.
They certainly don't have joy.
They are just like this woman,
bent like this
for 18 years.
But then after 18 years
like that,
this woman hears
of Jesus.
She hears these stories
about him.
And she thinks,
I don't just want to know
about Jesus,
I want to encounter Jesus.
I want him to heal me
and to free me.
And so she comes to Jesus
and she cries out to him.
And Jesus heals her.
And for the first time
in 18 years,
this woman goes from
being bent down like this
where all she can see
is herself.
And she stands up.
And for the first time
in 18 years,
she sees the faces
of people around her.
She sees the heaven,
and she sees the sky.
And she sees Jesus
face to face.
She encounters God
and she worships God.
She's heard about Jesus.
She knows about Jesus.
But now she knows Jesus.
And in that,
she's found her healing
and her freedom.
And that is the same
for you and for me.
The scriptures teach us
that every single one of us,
until we come to know God,
even if we know a lot about him,
until we come to know God,
we're like this woman.
And we're spiritually dead.
We're like zombies.
We might be awake.
We might be going around
doing stuff.
But until we come to know God,
it's like we're spiritually dead.
But as God takes his rightful places
on the throne of our hearts,
as we surrender to him,
both through prayer
as well as through our lives,
coming to know God,
we encounter him.
And so my passion
for sharing this message
with you,
as with this young woman
at Church on Wednesday,
is both because
I want you to truly
be saved from hell.
And as long as we're living
life like this,
whether you're a cabinet minister
or a student
at the University of Ottawa
or you're here today,
as long as you're living a life
where you are the king
of your life,
then what awaits you
after death
is hell.
But the good news
is that Jesus came,
that we might come
and become reconciled to God
and find life in him
and be saved from hell.
But it's so much more than that.
My passion for sharing
this message with you today
is not simply that
if anyone is here
who simply knows about God
but doesn't know him,
that you'd be saved from hell.
But it's so much more than that.
It's as we come to know God,
not only are we saved from hell,
but so much more than that.
We come into a personal,
thriving, intimate relationship
with the very one
who created desire,
who created pleasure,
who created life itself,
who created life itself.
And so my burden
for sharing this with you
is that,
is not simply that
coming to know God,
becoming truly born again
is not simply
the best life,
but it's the only life.
Until you come to know God,
not just know about him,
but until you come to know God,
you are,
you're living,
you're not even truly living,
you're spiritually dead.
And you might get,
like some of these
cabinet ministers I've met,
you might get,
accumulate for yourself
wealth and popularity
and all these things,
but none of it satisfies.
The only thing that can satisfy
our hearts
in the deepest places
of our life
is God himself.
Not just knowing about him,
but knowing him.
And so as I thought
how to put together,
how to express
the joy
and the beauty
and the certainty
and the life
that is
a life that knows God,
not just knows about him.
I was trying to put it
into words
and I thought of this
YouTube video
I wanted to share with you.
I think that
this pastor does
an even better job
than I can ever do.
So we're going to take
three minutes
and watch him talk
about the beauty
of knowing God
and Jesus being our king.
The Bible says
my king
is the king of the Jews.
He's the king
of Israel.
He's the king
of righteousness.
He's the king
of the ages.
He's the king
of heaven.
He's the king
of glory.
He's the king
of kings
and he's the lord
of lords.
That's my king.
I wonder,
do you know him?
My king
is a sovereign king.
No means of measure
can define
his limitless love.
He's enduringly strong.
He's entirely sincere.
He's eternally
steadfast.
He's immortally
graceful.
He's empirically
powerful.
He's impartially
merciful.
Do you know him?
He's the greatest
phenomenon
that has ever
crossed the horizon
of this world.
He's God's son.
He's a sinner's savior.
He's the centerpiece
of civilization.
He's unparalleled.
He's unprecedented.
He is the loftiest idea
in literature.
He's the highest
personality
in philosophy.
He's the fundamental
doctrine
of truth theology.
He's the only one
qualified
to be
an all-sufficient
savior.
I wonder
if you know him today.
He supplies
strength
for the weak.
He's available
for the tempted
and the tried.
He sympathizes
and he saves.
He strengthens
and sustains.
He guards
and he guides.
He heals
the sick.
He cleanses
the lepers.
He forgives
sinners.
He discharges
debtors.
He delivers
the captive.
He defends
the feeble.
He blesses
the young.
He serves
the unfortunate.
He regards
the age.
He rewards
the diligent
and he purifies
the meek.
I wonder
if you know him.
He's a key
to knowledge.
He's a well-trained
of wisdom.
He's a doorway
of deliverance.
He's a pathway
of peace.
He's a roadway
of righteousness.
He's a highway
of holiness.
He's a gateway
of glory.
Do you know him?
Well,
his life
is massless.
His goodness
is limitless.
His mercy
is everlasting.
His love
never changes.
His word
is enough.
His grace
is sufficient.
His reign
is righteous.
And a yoke
is easy.
And his burden
is lighter.
I wish I could
describe him
for yet he's
indescribable.
He's incomprehensible.
He's invincible.
He's irresistible.
Well,
you can't get him
out of your mind.
You see,
you can't get him
off of your head.
You can't outlive him
and you can't live
without him.
Well,
the Pharisees
couldn't stand him.
When they found out
they couldn't stop him.
Pilots
couldn't find
any fault in him.
Terrors
couldn't kill him.
Death
couldn't handle him.
And the rage
couldn't hold him.
Yeah!
That's my king!
Amen!
Proverbs 4.18
says that the path
of the righteous
is like the first gleam
of dawn,
shining ever brighter
till the full light
of day.
That truly,
when it talks about
shining ever brighter
till the full light
of day,
it's not talking
about the path
of the righteous
being a path
necessarily of wealth
or of comfort.
But it's saying that
no matter what life
throws at you,
no matter what comes
down the pipe,
that if you are someone
who doesn't just know
a boat,
but you know him,
then you are,
that is your path.
You have the path
of the righteous.
And it truly is
a path that is growing
ever in its awe
and its joy,
the sense of meaning
and purpose
and life everlasting.
Jesus says
in John chapter 17
that eternal life
is this,
that you know God.
Eternal life
is not just about
being saved from hell,
though that's part of it,
but that forever,
beyond death,
as well as today,
that you know God.
There's a passage
that gripped me
the other day.
I was reading,
I'm reading through
the Gospel of John
and so it was a few
weeks ago now
because I just finished
the Gospel of John,
but a few weeks ago
I was reading in the Bible
John chapter 5.
Jesus is standing
before these men
who know so much
about God.
They know the scriptures
so well,
they long for eternal life
so much
that these men
actually write
parts of the Bible
in little boxes
and tie that to their heads
so the Bible
is always on their forehead
and they write the parts,
beautiful parts of the Bible
and they put it on
the doorposts of their house
so that whenever they walk
through any door of their house,
not just into the house
but through their house,
on every door frame
they will be reminded
of the scriptures
and they're people
who actually have
the scriptures memorized
more than any one of us
including Pastor George,
St. and Claire.
These people long,
they long for eternal life
and Jesus is standing
before them.
Jesus in the body,
he's right there
standing before them
and he says to them,
he looks and says
one of the most devastating things,
one of the most haunting things
that is anywhere
in the scripture
and he says to them
that you search the scriptures
because you believe
that in them
you have eternal life
but then he says
but basically
he who is eternal life,
he who the scriptures speak
is standing before you.
I hope that image
haunts us today
and for the rest of our lives.
That haunting image
brings healing to us
as it grips our heart
and leads us to pray
saying God,
don't let me be one
who simply knows about you
but let me be someone
who knows you.
That's a haunting image.
They know the Bible so well.
They know so much about God
but they do not know him.
And one of the fears
that grips my heart
in a good way
is the concern
that not only would
I never be someone
that simply knows about God
but that my knowing of God,
that those encounters with God
would never ever be something
just of the past.
I think in some ways
more haunting than an image
of those men
who have never known God
but know so much about him
is an image that
comes home for some of us
that we've had some amazing
encounters with God
in the past.
There's been times
where we really spend
real quality time with God.
We've encountered the living God
and yet it's simply
something of the past.
May we ever be people
who are praying and longing
to come to know God
deeper and deeper today.
These words that Paul writes
in Philippians chapter 3,
that I may know him.
In some ways,
we think that this might be
a prayer for non-believers,
non-Christians,
those who are spiritually dead
to pray,
God, I want to know you.
But the Apostle Paul
is saying this
as the ultimate prayer
of his life
and he is someone
who knows God so well,
so much better
than a lot of us,
probably any of us,
know God.
He knew God so well.
You see that still
the ultimate longing
of his heart is,
God, I want to know you.
And the letter he's writing,
this letter of Philippians,
he's writing to
the most mature
and godly church.
Every one of Paul's letters
includes some type of rebuke,
in many cases,
a lot of rebukes
about a lot of
very important things.
But in this letter of Philippians
to the church in Philippi,
Paul only has good things,
encouragement to say.
I mean, rebuke is a good thing
to say too,
but in this case,
it's only positive encouragement.
And so he's writing
to someone who knows God so well
to a city where they know God so well
and he's saying that
this ultimate prayer for them
is,
God, I want to know you.
And so I want to encourage you,
however well you know God,
even if you feel you know him so well,
to not grow satisfied
with where you're at,
but to continue to ask God
to bring you into a deeper
relationship with him.
And so one way to make this your own
is to pray a prayer like this.
Dear God,
may I never be satisfied
with only knowing about you.
Would you grow in me
an ever-increasing desire
to know and be known by you?
Dear God,
may I never be satisfied
with only knowing about you.
Would you grow in me
an ever-increasing desire
to know you
and be known by you?
I encourage you to make this
your own prayer.
That's not where the verse ends,
and so let's read it again together.
Philippians 3, verse 10.
That I may know him
and the power of his resurrection
and may share his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death.
So part of what it means
to know Jesus
is that you share in the power
of his resurrection.
The power of the resurrection
is the power that brought Jesus
from the dead to life again.
It's the power that we know one day
for anyone who knows God,
who is looking to Jesus
as a savior and as our king,
that each one of us knows
that it's that power
that will one day raise us
back from the dead
and we'll be with God
on the earth forever.
And it's that power
that breathes life
into our lungs spiritually
and makes us people
who don't just know about God,
but actually know him.
It's that power
that when this woman
was bound over like this
for 18 years
that strained her out
and allowed her
not only to be healed,
but to know God.
It's that power of resurrection.
The power over death.
Power over failure
to breathe life
into that which has failed,
decayed, or died.
One of the best ways
that I can illustrate this
for us this morning
is from a movie
I watched this past year
called Edge of Tomorrow.
In this film,
this soldier,
played by Tom Cruise,
he's not really a soldier,
but he's sent into battle
as a soldier.
And so he starts off
very afraid.
But something has happened
to him early in the film,
not to ruin it for you,
but to ruin it for you.
Something happens to him
where every time he dies,
he gets rebooted.
So he gets to start
the day again.
And so this soldier gets to,
they're fighting
a ferocious battle
of robot alien things.
And so all these other soldiers
are getting just
absolutely dusted.
But he keeps getting rebooted
and gets to keep on
with the fight.
So as the film goes on,
he becomes this ultimate soldier.
Not simply because
he gets amazing training,
but because he's no longer
afraid of the enemy
in any way.
He's not afraid of death
at all.
And so he's able to just
walk right past the bullets,
just do his thing,
and be this incredible,
courageous,
ferocious soldier.
And when you're not afraid
of what's coming at you,
you can live life all in.
And I'm part of a ministry
where we live among the poor
a few blocks from here
in Lower Town.
And sometimes in the summer,
the kids love to have
water fights.
I know as a kid,
like I used to,
you're trying to not get
hit by the water.
But there was some point
in my life a couple years ago
where I realized,
like, what can water do?
If you're honest.
And so the kids would be
shooting their water guns
at me.
And I'm not afraid of water,
so I'll just walk right up
to the kids,
and they're getting me wet.
I'm not afraid of the water.
So I become this ultimate
water fighting soldier.
And I want to have
a massive bucket,
and these kids
get absolutely drenched.
It's a good thing
I have a good relationship
with their parents.
When you're not afraid
of what is coming at you,
you're able to live life
boldly and all in.
I know what it's like
to not live that way.
As a young teen
and as a kid,
I was so gripped
by the fear of failure
that I couldn't do anything
in life that required risk.
I could never have come up
and sit in front of people
and preach with them.
Like, I couldn't have been done.
I would just,
I'd be so afraid I'd fail.
Actually, I'd arrive at church
and I'd go into the washroom
and I'd just hide in the stall
until the service started
so I wouldn't have to interact
with anybody.
Then I'd come into the service
and when the service ended,
I'd slip out back
into the washroom,
hiding there
so I wouldn't have
any need to interact
with people
and maybe say something stupid.
I was so afraid.
But then as the reality
of God came into my life,
as I encountered the power
of the resurrection
and realized that
as a Christian,
you're able to fail.
You're able to fall flat
on your face
knowing that the power
of the resurrection
really flows in your veins
as sons and daughters
of the Most High King.
That fear of failure
began to slip away.
You see, like with Abraham,
Abraham had this call
in his life
to be a blessing
to the nations
through his descendants.
But his descendant,
his son,
God called him
to put to death.
How is Abraham
going to obey God?
His very calling,
his ministry is on the line.
But the scriptures are clear
that Abraham
had such confidence in God
in his faithfulness
and in his power
for resurrection
that he is able
to obey God
and take his son
and he actually gets ready
to sacrifice his son's life.
Then God comes through for him.
But Abraham knew
that he's able to risk,
risk big time
because of God's
power of resurrection.
So I want to encourage us today
to live in that power,
to live in that power
of the resurrection,
to be able to be people
who can risk,
who can live boldly
because that is part
of what it means
to know God,
to live the adventure
of life with him,
alive in him.
And there's a scene
in Edge of Tomorrow
where Tom Cruise,
the person he's playing,
where he loses the ability
to get rebooted,
to keep on living
after he's killed.
And so as a result,
this guy who's
this amazing soldier,
so inspiring,
all of a sudden
becomes very timid again.
And he's hiding so much
and he can't really
fight the enemy
because he has to be
preserving his own self.
And as long as we're
in that situation
where self-preservation
is our greatest priority,
we're not able to live
like the way
it was made to be lived.
You and I both know that.
But Tom Cruise
would be a fool
if he wasn't trying
to preserve himself
because truly
if a bullet went
through his chest,
he'd be destroyed forever.
And I share this with you
not to simply ruin
the film for you,
but also because
if any one of us here
simply knows a lot
about God
but we don't know him,
if Jesus is not
our savior and our king,
then we have every reason
to be afraid.
We have every reason
to never risk.
We have every reason
to try to stay alive
for as long as possible
because this is
as good as it gets
and it's not very good.
If we simply are people
who are church people
but we're not actually
children of God,
then we have every reason
to fear,
to be haunted
by that fear.
But the good news is
there's no reason
to stay in that place.
We need to be honest
with where we're at
but I encourage you
if you're someone
that has not surrendered
your life to Jesus,
if he is not your king,
if you're not looking
to him to save you,
then I plead with you
this morning,
do that.
Cry out to him.
Cry out to him
that he would save you
and that you would
not just know about him
but that you would know him.
But I think most of us
are better illustrated
by one other scene
in the film
which is that
there's a good portion
of the movie
where Tom Cruise
has that power
of being rebooted
but he doesn't know it.
So you know
as someone watching
the movie
that if a bullet
goes through him
he's going to be able
to keep on fighting
and he's able
to keep on thriving
but he doesn't know it.
And so he's living
that timid,
unable to risk,
unable to fulfill
his calling kind of way
but you know
that he really can
just go and live all in.
And as you watch that,
I can't help but think
that's how so many
of us live.
We know God.
We have his power
flowing through our veins.
If we were to fail,
if we were to risk
and go wrong,
we know that he can
breathe new life
into that very calling,
into our very lives.
And yet we're living life
as if we don't even know him.
It's the confidence
and the power
of the resurrection
that famously led
Jim Elliot,
a young man,
younger than me,
to leave his comfortable
home in North America
and go down to Ecuador
and be a missionary
among some of the most
deadly people
on planet Earth.
It was a tribe
where they're always
killing each other,
cannibals.
No one has grandparents
because no one lives that long.
They're always killing each other.
And he and some of his
young friends,
all these guys
in their young 20s,
went down there
to bring the gospel.
They brought the gospel.
They were killed.
They were cannibalized.
But even in their death,
we saw the power
of the resurrection
in two ways.
One,
Jim Elliot knew
that even if he was
to be killed
by these cannibals,
that that would not
be the end of his life,
that God would bring him
back from the dead
at the end of time
and he'd spend
forever with God.
You see that bold,
that gutsy confidence
in him.
But he also knew
that even if their mission
failed,
that God could breathe
new life into it.
And I had the privilege
a few years ago
of meeting the very man
that killed Jim
and his friends.
And this man
and the entire people group
of these cannibals
are no longer cannibals.
They know God.
These people now
have grandparents.
He's a grandparent
to the children
of Jim Elliot
because they don't
have a grandpa.
He's now their grandfather.
We've seen the power
of the resurrection
breathe life
into a mission
that failed.
For a lot of us,
living in the power
of the resurrection
is not going to mean
going to another part
of the world.
But it might mean
speaking up
in the classroom
or at work
about the goodness
of a life with God.
It might mean
sacrificing some
of our selfish dreams
for a greater dream
that God gives us.
I just want to encourage
you this morning,
if there is a burden
that God has given you,
if there is a dream
that God has given you,
if there is something
that you know
is the right thing to do
but you're afraid
of doing it
for fear of failure,
that because of the power
of the resurrection,
if you know God,
to go for it,
to live life boldly,
risky,
live life all in
because we know
that God is faithful
and he is power
over death.
Truly he is power
over death.
There is something
that you and I have
that is so much more
than what Tom Cruise
in Edge of Tomorrow had
in that Tom Cruise
simply had the power
of being rebooted
but you and I
actually share
in the power
of the resurrection.
So in this movie,
even though he gets rebooted
and can live life
pretty confidently,
death is still
such a key ingredient
and all of that.
Death still has
kind of mastery
over him.
But because of Jesus'
resurrection,
in his death,
defeating death,
and then even more so
through his resurrection,
as 1 Corinthians 15 says,
Paul writes,
he says,
O death,
where is your sting?
O death,
where is your victory?
For truly,
Jesus,
life,
has victory over death.
And so you and I
can live a life
not only being rebooted,
but you and I
can live a life
in the confidence
that death
is no longer in charge.
Death no longer
has the final word.
The final word
in our life
will never be failure
or death
or decay,
but is life,
is resurrection,
is Jesus.
He has the final word.
And so truly in him
we can live a life
that's all in,
boldly and risky.
You can make this
your own by living it out
and it's part of that
by praying these words.
Dear God,
help me to live boldly,
able to risk,
confident in the power
that raised Jesus
from the dead.
Dear God,
help me to live boldly,
able to risk,
confident in the power
that raised Jesus
from the dead.
I want to encourage you
this morning,
if you feel,
if you see any part
of your life
that's not living
in that boldness
that comes from the power
that raised Jesus
from the dead,
to make these words
your own.
The slides,
these prayers
will be put up
on the website
on Monday
and encourage you
to pray these words.
But that's not all.
Would you say
this verse again with me?
Philippians 3.10
That I may know him
and the power
of his resurrection
and may share
his sufferings
becoming like him
in his death.
I feel like me
when I was reading
through this
preparing for the message
I saw that I may know him
and that filled me
with such joy
and just pumped me up
and then I read
and may share
in his power
the power
of the resurrection
and get even more stoked.
Come on.
I can live life
boldly and confidently.
And then we read
and may share
his sufferings
becoming like him
in his death.
I would have been
more pumped
if it had said
sharing his sufferings
becoming like him
in his death
and then said
and the power
of the resurrection
because I'd look at like
okay so if I die
with him
I also live with him
as it says
also in the Bible.
But instead
it says
this positive thing
sharing the power
of the resurrection
and then a seemingly
more negative thing
and sharing his sufferings
and death.
But I believe
that Paul wrote it
this way
for a very specific reason
and that is that
there is a certain
type of suffering
that only those
who have shared
in the power
of the resurrection
have come to life
in God
get to experience.
Earlier in Philippians
Paul writes
that it is a gift
to believe in God
and to suffer with him.
That it is a gift
to both believe in God
and share in his suffering
with him.
And that doesn't make
a lot of sense to us
because sharing
and suffering
tends not to be
something we think of
as a gift
but Paul sees it
as a gift.
Why is that?
Well we know
that our God
is a God of compassion.
We know through
through the
through Jesus coming
into the brokenness
and the pain
and the death
of the human condition
taking all of that
upon himself
on the cross.
That our God
is a God
that cares for the lost
cares for the broken
cares for the marginalized
those who are hurting
and suffering.
He's a compassionate God
but the word compassion
passion means to suffer
and C-O-M
is a prefix
that means with.
The word compassion
means to suffer with
those who are suffering.
That's what it means
to be compassionate.
God doesn't just have pity on us
he has compassion for us.
So if we're people
who are going to join God
in the work
and the ministry
that God is doing
bringing light
to the darkness
and life to the dead
healing to the broken
then we're joining
him
in being compassionate people
which necessitates
that we're suffering
with those who are suffering
that we're sharing
in their pain.
When I was a little kid
I was about five years old
I think
I
a bunch of my friends
dads
did a
take your child
to work day
so all my little friends
all went off
with their dads
to work
and for whatever reason
my dad
he's an amazing dad
didn't
wasn't part of that program
and so I remember
just selfishly
going to my room
I was feeling really bad
for myself
and I sat on my bed
come from a big family
so it was a bunk bed
a lot of siblings
so I sat on my bed
and I just prayed something like
we just learned the Lord's Prayer
as a family
so I was sitting on my bed
and I said
God if you're my Heavenly Father
can you have a
take your child
to work day
and I prayed the prayer
just because I wanted
to go to work
with somebody
I didn't want to be left out
but in a very real way
just a few weeks later
my church was
doing work
in one of the poorest
the poorest
area in all of Canada
in East Hastings
Vancouver
and I got to
go with my family
and be part of
what they were doing
and there was some sense
that day
where I realized
as we went to
care for the poor
like that
I knew that God
was answering that prayer
even in a small way
that I was going to work
with my Heavenly Father
that He was caring
for the poor
and I was getting
to join Him in that
and as I've grown up
in my life
it's meant getting to
work among victims
of human trafficking
helping people find freedom
from actual slave traffickers
in my life
it's meant being a light
at Parliament Hill
where I get to be
with some of the richest
most comfortable
powerful people
yet they're miserable
and we try to
get to share
the truth
and the hope
we have
in Jesus
with them
it's been amazing
in everyone's life
it's going to look
like different things
but in every person
who knows God
in every one of our lives
it's going to mean
something
it's going to mean
joining God
some way
in the work
He's doing
bringing light
into the darkness
and so as Paul writes
about sharing
and suffering
I don't think
he's simply telling us
I don't think
he's simply telling us
that knowing God
is worth suffering for
it's as if he's saying
it's not simply
that he's saying
knowing God
is such a treasure
and if the ticket
to know God
is suffering
then it's worth
paying that ticket
so you can know Him
He's actually so
so captured
he's so captivated
by the joy
and the meaning
and the gift
of knowing God
that if suffering
is our getting
to go to work
with God
then he's pumped
up for it
the reason you have
a take your child
to work day
isn't so that your child
can be exposed
to some job
prospect in the future
but so that your child
can get to know you
because as we spend
time with people
and see what they do
and go to their workplace
we get to know
a whole dimension
to who they are
it's a whole other dimension
of who they are
is what they do for work
and the work
that our Heavenly Father
is doing
is the most
purpose driven
hope filled
life giving work
imaginable
and so I want
to encourage you
to pray that prayer
that I prayed
as a little kid
that I still pray
to this day
still to this day
I pray
God
would you take me
to work with you
when I get up in the morning
I'm like
God
I want to join you
in the ministry
you're doing
bringing light
to the darkness
bringing light
to those who are dead
I want to encourage you
to pray that prayer
you may not say
like I did
as a five year old
but maybe it would
sound more like this
the words are on the slide
dear God
thank you
that you suffer
with those
who are suffering
may I join you
in suffering
for the gospel
that I may know
you more completely
dear God
thank you
that you suffer
with those
who are suffering
may I join you
in suffering
for the gospel
that I may know
you more completely
truly there's
no greater joy
there's no greater life
life itself
comes
as we come
to know God, as we share the power of the resurrection, and as we join God in being
compassionate people together with God. Would you join me in praying? Heavenly Father, thank you
that you are a God who has not abandoned us to the darkness and the brokenness of the human
condition. God, thank you that you haven't simply called us to be people who study you and know a
lot about you, but you've called us to know you in the deepest, most intimate parts of our life,
in every part of our life. God, thank you for Jesus. We long to know you, and so I pray that you
would grow in us an ever-increasing desire to know you, and that you would bring us into that
deeper and more personal relationship with you day after day after day for the rest of our lives,
and that you would give us the joy of getting to help bring that to others. In Jesus' name,
Amen.