We're going to be looking at Philippians. Let's pray just before we open God's Word.
Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would convict us of our selfishness and pride and draw us to Jesus.
That we might be disciples of Jesus whose confidence and joy is found in who Jesus is and what he accomplished for us on the cross.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Hello folks, my name is George Sinclair, pastor here at Church of the Messiah.
And for some of you, this might be a little bit of a surprise.
If you haven't come to the church, we're not going to really do anything at all about Mother's Day today.
We sort of almost ignore Mother's Day and Father's Day and Thanksgiving and Halloween and a couple of other secular holidays.
It's just who we are. We just sort of keep going.
But for the moms there, a shout out to all the moms.
And so we're looking at Philippians.
And we're not going to explain.
One of the things which is different about us as a church by modern Canadian standards is that we go through books of the Bible.
And one of the good things about, I mean there's lots of good things about that, I'm not going to get into a defense about it,
but if you're watching this and you're not familiar with us as a church,
one of the really good things about going through books of the Bible is it's like going through a complicated contract line by line,
but not as boring.
What it means is that we don't hide fine print.
We walk towards hard things.
Like today there's a text that touches on abortion and a text that touches on hell.
Both of those hard topics, not topics that in my flesh, so to speak, as a good Canadian that I would normally want to walk towards.
But the advantage, it is an advantage for Christians to learn how together to walk towards hard texts and walk towards hard things.
And for those of you who are curious about the Christian faith, maybe in recovery from the Christian faith
and trying to figure out if you can get back into it or had no connection to the Christian tradition, whatever, just a bit curious,
the good news is that we don't hide anything.
We walk towards those difficult topics.
And so that's what we're going to be doing.
So we're going to be looking at Philippians chapter 1, beginning at verse 27,
because we're going through the book of Philippians.
And as some of you find that or, you know, looking it up on your phone or you can just listen because I'm going to read the whole thing.
Philippians chapter 1, verse 27, just a bit of a context.
This began, this was a letter originally to the very first European Christians.
The first place in Europe that heard about the Christian faith, that heard about Jesus was in Philippi.
That's where the gospel entered Europe.
And this is being written, I don't know, maybe about 10 years or so after the gospel came to Europe.
It's written around the year 60.
And it's written by a man named Paul, who was originally a very, very, very bad man, like a real religious fanatic.
He becomes a Christian.
His heart is filled with love for people in the world.
But he's in jail.
He's in jail in Rome or sort of he's under house arrest, but in chains in Rome when he writes this letter.
And what's going on so far?
He's letting people know about what's going on.
He's just shared this wonderful Christian line to live as Christ and to die as gain.
It's been very, very clear that there's different problems in the church.
They're not a perfect church.
And now the letter continues on into sort of a new section beginning at verse 27.
Here's how it goes.
And actually, we're going to get right into one of those hard topics almost immediately.
I'll just read these first few verses and then we'll talk about it.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ,
so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you,
that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind,
striving side by side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened at anything by your opponents.
This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ,
you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake,
engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
So here's one of the first things.
And there will be points if you can't see them in the little comments section later on.
You can go online and you'll see them on our webpage.
You enter the Jesus way alone, but alone in quotes.
You enter the Jesus way alone, but you walk the Jesus way with Jesus and others.
That's an important thing to understand about the Christian faith.
You make it your own personal decision or appropriate, you know, who you are, what you are.
In a sense, you do that by yourself.
It's alone in quotes.
There's a lot of theological reasons why you're not really alone, but it's an individual thing.
But you don't walk the Christian way by yourself.
You walk it with Jesus and others.
And that can be seen here with all of this language about walking together.
But some of you might say, George, there's two really troubling things about that part that you just read.
First of all, what is this?
You all have to think the exact same thing?
Like, are you, you know, if you've watched that Netflix series about the Branch Davidians and David Koresh,
like, George, are you saying that Christians all have to be, like, brainwashed and think the exact same thing?
Like, that's crazy.
Those of you who watch the Netflix series Wild Wild Country about an Indian guru named Osho,
it's one of the interesting things.
They never showed it in the documentary.
But if you go hunting around, you'll see that above the ashram, when you entered into the presence of Osho,
there was a sign that said, leave your shoes and your mind here.
And so some of you might be wondering, George, is that what Christianity is all about?
Well, we're going to actually talk about that in a couple of minutes,
because Paul actually addresses the topic to explain what he means.
But some of you might be also wondering, George, like, what is this about destruction?
Is that talking about, like, hell?
Really, George?
So those of you who know me, and we're going to make some reference to it here throughout the sermon,
I spend time in at least one good academic commentary, top-level academic commentary,
as part of my preparation for every sermon.
And sometimes I can share with you how the original language, something isn't like it sounds.
The fact of the matter here is, I have to tell you that if you read the academic commentaries,
the original language, you have to understand both salvation and destruction in their full sense.
Heaven and hell.
Like, in other words, the original language makes it harder for Canadians, not easier.
And I'm going to actually talk about that.
If you just give me a bit of a pause, I'm going to explain a little bit about a way how to understand that
if you look towards the end of the sermon.
And if I forget to do it, because I don't read from a text, I look at notes, but I try to talk directly to you.
Send me an email, give me a phone call, I'll talk about it.
But I'm going to talk about it.
I'm not going to avoid the topic, pretend it's not there.
But here's one of the things about all of this,
is that Jesus will lead you to walk towards and through hard things.
Jesus will lead you to walk towards and through hard things.
And that's what I'm trying to model here.
Not that I'm Jesus, far from it.
But you see in this text, because the text, because the Bible deals with very, very hard things,
it's already talked about the problem of envy and rivalry and strife.
If you read the whole book of Philippians, you'll see that Paul walks towards the problems of opponents, of persecution.
He walks towards the problem of being in jail.
He walks towards the problem of very, very hard, unpopular doctrines like eternal destruction.
But the fact of the matter is, is that when you come to Jesus,
he will help you to walk towards hard things and through hard things.
And this is really profoundly good news, because everybody has to walk towards and through hard things.
And that's yet another reason to just understand how precious Jesus is.
So let's look at the whole issue about brainwashing.
It's going to be dealt with in the very next few verses.
Are Christians brainwashed?
You have to leave your mind behind to become a Christian.
Let's look at chapter 2, verses 1 to 4, where this is addressed.
It goes like this.
Actually, you'll see here it begins with so.
It could also be translated as therefore.
What Paul is doing is he's resuming the argument.
He's pushing us towards how he's going to resolve, unpack, resolve these particular issues.
So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Holy Spirit,
any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love,
being in full accord and of one mind.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
And we'll just sort of pause there.
In the original language, that's all one long sentence.
And actually, one of the interesting things about it is, in that whole long sentence,
if you look at the dominant clause and the dominant verse, the one that governs the whole sentence,
and this is a bit of a surprise to many people about what the Christian faith is,
but the dominant phrase in that long sentence and the dominant verb is the first few words of verse 2.
Complete my joy.
Or more literally, the verb is make my joy complete.
Like, here's a little talking point, a third one.
Jesus rescued you for a fullness of joy.
You know, the Old Testament talks about how in God's presence there is a fullness of joy.
The New Testament talks about how Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross.
And the idea of joy is one of the key ideas in the book of Philippians.
And the fact of the matter is, is that Jesus doesn't deliver us from all that besets us,
so that we will live drab, uninteresting, boring lives.
He rescues us to begin to experience and grow into joy.
And I'm not going to talk about that very much right now.
It's going to become a more important topic in some of the subsequent texts of Scripture,
where it's addressed more completely.
But I want to let you know that's the dominant verb of this sentence.
But how is it that it begins, how is it that it talks with the,
how is it that it talks about the problem of brainwashing?
Well, if you look at it, look at it in verse 3 and 4.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility,
count others more significant than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
So, what this Bible text is telling us is that the problem isn't people thinking different thoughts.
It isn't that people have different perspectives or ideas or nuances.
The problem for a Christian isn't any of those things.
It isn't saying, listen, if you just all exactly learn to say everything that George says,
in the way that George says it, then we're fine.
It's not like that at all.
The problem is not different perspectives, different ideas, different insights.
I mean, obviously there can be an extreme where things are just wrong or evil.
Like to say that Jesus and Satan are the same isn't a different nuance or perspective.
It's just wrong.
So, there can be wrong things.
But the Christian walk, the Christian worldview is very, very big, very, very encompassing,
and very, very fluid and dynamic and developing and growing and deepening.
I talked last week about how in the Christian faith the idea is further up and further in.
Like it's something you can continue to plunge in and immerse yourself in.
But the problem isn't different ideas or perspectives.
The problem is selfishness.
That's the problem.
Here's how I put it as a talking point.
Verse number four.
On the Jesus way, the problem is not different insights.
The problem is selfishness and pride.
On the Jesus way, the problem is not different insights.
The problem is selfishness and pride.
In fact, one of the things that you could say about this is that, in fact, actually this
could be the fifth point, sort of very closely connected to it, is that pride and selfishness
give temporary pleasure but rob you of joy.
Pride and selfishness give temporary pleasure but rob you of joy.
I could just think about it for a little bit here now.
At the heart of selfishness is the idea of me first.
And if it's me first, because I'm better, that means everybody else is second.
Sucks to be you, me first.
So pride is inherently competitive.
Pride and selfishness is inherently isolating.
And pride and selfishness inherently mean that you lose touch with concern.
You stop having a real concern for what's true.
It inevitably follows.
You see, you just think about it for a second.
If I have a high opinion of myself, I have to have a lower opinion of others.
And that means that in terms of truth, I love truth if it enlarges me.
And I hate truth if it accuses me.
Isn't that true?
You say, yeah, George, that's true for you.
I mean, I should say for you as well.
You love truth if it enlarges you.
You hate it if it accuses you.
You love truth if it reveals faults in others.
You hate truth if it reveals faults in you.
And if that's the case, do you actually love truth?
How can you?
I mean, this is a deep, deep, deep human problem.
It reveals a deep problem.
I have a deep pride problem.
It gets even worse.
Because you see, I'm a bit proud that I recognize I have a pride problem and you don't.
And then I'm proud because I confessed I have a pride problem.
I realize that saying that makes me proud.
And I realize that.
You see what I mean?
You all of a sudden, you go down this like unending spiral or corridor that every type of accomplishment,
even at the moment that you do things that makes you more humble, more humble, more humble, more humble, more humble.
And then you get proud about it.
That, in fact, you can't escape it.
And if you think about it for a second then,
that means that there's not going to be any real solution to the pride problem.
Like more education doesn't solve it.
That can just make you more pride.
New techniques, better ways to meditate, better ways to become mindful,
better ways to do yoga,
better knowledge of religious texts or religious ceremonies,
better knowledge of the Bible.
Everything that you can do can just further this sense of pride,
this enlarging of yourself and the looking down on others.
And if you think about it, it's hard to look the one you love eye to eye,
which is at the heart of friendship and the heart of love,
if you're looking down your nose at them.
It's hard to actually know the true and living God.
It's hard to look up to the true and living God
if you're looking down your nose at other people.
And the fact of the matter is,
is that when we're filled with pride,
we look down our nose at God.
Like there's a deep problem here.
And this leads me to,
in a sense, another point.
Number six,
you cannot escape pride.
You need to be rescued.
I cannot escape pride.
I need to be rescued.
And that's what Paul is pushing us to here.
This very,
very important text in the whole Bible,
which we're going to unpack a little bit this week and a little bit next week.
Because,
you know,
in a sense,
if you look at how the book is written,
there's this argument that leads you to chapter two,
verses six to 11.
In other words,
it's leading you here and bringing you here so that you understand how it solves all these problems
and helps to deal with them.
And then verses six to 11 is going to be something which is going to sort of push you forward into a whole lot of other topics.
And so I'm going to look a little bit at it today and a little bit at it next.
But let's look at verse five first.
Right.
Because in a sense,
the text is posing to us a problem.
And the problem is,
well,
how do you do all of that stuff?
Like,
how is it that you don't get proud of the fact that you have this mind?
How is it you don't get proud of the fact that you look out for other people's interests,
but not your own?
How is it you don't get pride,
proud about how you don't have selfish ambition or conceit?
And you're better at considering others better than yourself.
How is it that that doesn't create just a different,
obnoxious,
hateful,
foul,
reeking stench of religious pride?
You can't escape it.
You need to be rescued.
So look how it begins to talk about what this is.
And this is where it gets into the glory and the beauty of the gospel.
Look at verse five.
Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus.
And in the original language,
it's a,
it's a very,
very interesting phrase because in fact,
in the original language,
it has two senses at the same time and English can't duplicate it.
So what it means is for translators,
they have to choose one or the other form.
But in the original language,
the original hearers would have heard this double message that on one hand,
when it says,
need to find it here,
have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus.
Jesus,
it's talking about being in Jesus.
And so you have this.
On the other hand,
it can also be understood as the message that shapes you.
That in other words,
if you,
if you listen to this and remember this,
which you have in terms of who Jesus is,
this truth will shape you.
So the,
in the original language and some,
if you're looking at it with,
if you go online and look at a really good place like YouVersion or Bible Gateway,
and you get lots of different translations,
you'll see that those two things are reflected because the original language,
both are being implied at the same time.
So it's something in and something that shapes you.
But once again,
that doesn't really deal with the pride.
But here's how we get to the rescue.
I'm going to read it.
And then we're going to,
I'll say a few things about it.
And then I'm going to read it again.
Verses six to 11.
Who,
read verse five again,
Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who,
though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men,
and being found in human form.
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore,
God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God,
the Father.
Now,
just,
here's,
in a sense,
the big picture idea.
We're going to spend a bit of time here with this.
And the big picture idea is this.
The gospel is the good news that the triune God has acted to rescue you.
I'm not going to talk much about the Trinity in this talk.
Next week,
when we look at these same verses,
I'm going to talk a little bit about the Trinity,
and how this undergirds the whole idea and the significance in terms of what follows next.
But,
there's no way that you can,
I was saying to one person,
one of the academic commentaries that I have spends 80 pages
on chapter two,
verses one to here,
almost all of it on this,
because it's a very,
very,
very deep thing.
And,
and,
and in the original language,
one of the things to understand is in the original language,
this is usually called something like a hymn.
It has a very,
very,
very interesting structure.
That's obviously,
it's like a hymn.
It's like a creed.
It's very poetic with very,
very powerful,
pithy little sayings.
And probably what it is,
is something that Paul didn't write,
but that he's just going from memory with,
whether he does it exactly word for word for how it's used.
But,
see,
one of the interesting things about the Christian faith is people wonder about this,
is that the early Christians,
they had the message of Jesus,
and they had what we now call the Old Testament.
Our Jewish friends call it the Tanakh.
We call it the Old Testament.
So how is it that the Christian faith was taught?
Well,
there's different hints in first Corinthians and,
and here,
and in other passages in the New Testament,
that probably what they did is they came up with these types of memorable teaching aids or structures to help the,
communicate the Christian faith.
So,
for instance,
our,
our church has started a seminary called Ryle Seminary.
One of the things I have is that we have is a mission statement for that seminary.
And the mission statement is to equip unashamed workers,
unashamed of the gospel,
and unashamed of the whole counsel of God.
For those of you who know the Bible very well,
you go,
oh,
that's a reference to Ephesians 4,
and this text,
and this text.
And it's,
it's something that,
on one level,
I can just say and communicate something,
but if I wanted to unpack that to describe what is,
that it should be involved to be equipped for ministry,
to learn what it means to be a minister,
I could take that,
that little framework,
and I could do four talks,
or eight talks,
or 12 talks,
because I could go to Ephesians,
and I could go to the pastoral epistles,
and I could go to the book of Acts.
You know,
and all of a sudden,
you have something which is very,
very memorable,
but you could go and you could teach from.
Every Sunday,
we do colics,
and one of the things to understand about a colic,
is it's the same thing.
It's a concise theology,
and a prayer that you can pray.
And in a sense,
then it becomes a bit of a teaching aid,
if you were to memorize it.
Like the thing that we begin with at the beginning,
the colic for purity,
Almighty God,
and to whom all hearts be open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hid.
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love thee,
and worthily magnify thy holy name.
If you were to take that,
go back and see it from the thing,
and you look at it,
that's an unbelievably packed,
comprehensive theology of worship.
You could write several books unpacking that.
Just like you could take any colic,
you could pray it,
you could also use it as an outline of theology.
You could use it then as a springboard
to add your other prayers.
And that's what we see here with this hymn.
I'm going to read it again,
and I'm going to read it in a version
which is almost perfectly literal.
So you can follow along on your own,
but what I'm reading,
it comes from one of the academic scholars,
and it's been grouped in little groups of three,
because that's one of the ways that you can group it
to try to have it as a teaching aid.
And here it is,
almost word for word literal.
So it's not going to be as grammatic,
but it's a literal way of understanding.
You can follow along and see how our version
tries to smooth it out.
It goes like this,
referring to Jesus Christ,
who in the form of God existing,
not an advantage considered,
his being equal with God.
Next group.
But nothing he made himself,
the form of a servant slash save adopting,
in likeness of men becoming.
Next phrase.
In the appearance,
sorry,
and in appearance being found as man,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
and death of a cross.
And just pause.
There's different ways that this can be grouped
into sort of stanzas.
Stanzas.
And one of the interesting things about this,
and it was probably a design feature,
is that whatever way you group it into stanzas,
which would mean that you could teach it
in different contexts as a schema,
there's always one line that doesn't fit.
And the one line that doesn't fit
is,
and death of a cross.
It's the jarring note.
It's the slamming door in the middle of a song
that makes you jump up and listen to a particular message.
It has this,
it's an out-of-place,
an intentional out-of-place design feature.
The next group.
Therefore also exalted him God,
and granted him the name
that's above every name.
Number five.
Or grouping five.
So that in the name of Jesus,
every knee may bow of those in heaven,
and on earth and under the earth,
and the last.
And every tongue may confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to God the Father's glory.
So in the original language,
it's very clear that there's this type of a teaching aid
that would have been used
as they took their Old Testaments,
as they tell you about Jesus.
And it's a very, very, very interesting teaching aid.
If you go back,
you want to look at some of the academic commentaries,
because it's a teaching aid
that allows you to connect
to a whole range of Old Testament texts,
and the overarching story of the Old Testament.
It's a teaching aid
that allows you to go and look at the Gospels,
and see all of the different incidents
in the life of Jesus,
and see how they fit together.
It's a teaching aid
that allows them to be evangelistic.
It shares the Gospel with people.
It's a teaching aid
that allows them to connect
the difference and the similarities
and the differences of the Christian faith
to the other religions in the world.
And it's a teaching aid in its language
that allows you to connect the Gospel
with different philosophical systems and worldviews.
It's an unbelievably rich
and fruitful teaching aid.
But at the very, very heart of it
is that there's this one act of God.
And this one act of God
is that God, the Son of God,
taking and setting aside
all of his appearance of God,
but remaining fully and utterly God,
takes into himself our human nature.
He doesn't, in a sense,
hold on to all of the privileges
and the prerogatives
and looking like God,
but he sets them all aside,
but he still never stops being God.
And he takes into himself
our human nature.
And he continues to humble himself.
It's the opposite of selfishness,
the reverse of pride.
And he continues to humble himself
in terms of a fully human life
and even humbles himself to that
which the entire ancient world
saw as a shameful and cursed death,
which is death on a cross.
Because he's bearing our shame,
he's bearing our curse,
he's bearing our sin,
he's bearing our pride.
He, in his person,
is reversing
the bent nature of human beings
towards pride and selfishness.
And then the response
is this great exaltation,
which is in verses 9 to 11,
of this vindication
and recognition by God
so that the name,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
is above every name.
And it leads to this profound feeling
of exaltation and joy.
And it touches on the abortion issue here.
And I, you know,
I don't like,
as a Canadian,
I don't like talking about it.
And for those of you
who are listening
who have had abortions,
I'm not talking this
to try to shame you.
The fact of the matter is
is that Jesus loves you
and the way forward in your life
is to know Jesus.
But here's the thing.
From both a philosophical
and a scientific point of view,
once the egg
within your mother's womb
was fertilized
and attaches to the wall
of the womb,
from a scientific point of view,
everything that is you
is there.
The fact that I have
the skull shape
of my mom's father,
the fact that I have eyes
more like my dad
than like my mom
who needed glasses
at an early age.
The fact that I got
my mom's allergies.
Like,
everything about it,
even whether or not
I was going to have
heart problems
or high cholesterol,
all of that
is scientifically encoded.
No different
in that moment
in the womb
than it is for me right now.
Even though
from a human,
like from how we understand
what human beings look like,
you couldn't even see it
with your eyes
and it wouldn't look
anything like human,
but it is.
And from a philosophical
point of view,
it's the same type of thing
and that's what you see here
in a sense in a reverse
is that all of
the appearance of God,
the Son of God,
all of the power,
all of the prerogatives,
they're all set aside,
but his fundamental identity
as deity has remained
and he takes into himself
our human nature
and he does it
to rescue us.
That the gospel
is the good news
that the triune God
has acted
to rescue you.
Now here I have to be
wrapping it up.
I told you I was going
to talk about hell
and so I'll try to do that
in just a couple of moments.
I'm also going to talk
about heaven.
You see this odd phrase here
that if you look at
verse 9 and 10,
therefore God has highly
exalted him
and bestowed on him
the name that is above
every name
so that at the name
of Jesus
every knee should bow
in heaven
and on earth
and under the earth
and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord
to the glory of God
the Father.
What this is talking
about here
is that at the end
of the day
coming face to face
to the triune God
is unavoidable.
It's unavoidable.
And God always respects
your freedom.
But to meet
the triune God
when you don't want
to be in his presence,
when pride and selfishness
is still a key aspect
of who you are
and you want to be above
and everything else below,
to come into the presence
of the triune God
where that illusion
will only cause you pain
and suffering
in the presence of that
which is undeniably God
and greater,
the presence of the fact
that your mind
and your whole being
is acknowledging
that there is in fact
a greater one
is causing you
destruction and pain.
So George,
are you saying
that you don't have that?
No, no, far from it.
You see,
the heart of the Christian faith
is being in Christ.
See,
it offends our pride
to think that you have
to be rescued.
It offends my pride
that I have to be rescued,
that I don't contribute
anything to it at all,
that I am,
in a sense,
completely and utterly
trusting
in the pity
and the mercy
and the love
of the triune God.
And all I can do,
you see,
here's my final point.
It is,
the gospel proclaims,
it is a rescue
that shapes you,
draws you,
and brings you
into a new relationship
with the rescuer.
It is a rescue
that shapes you,
draws you,
and brings you in
to a new relationship
with the rescuer.
I take some time
to try to
completely unpack that,
and it's time
that I don't have.
But,
you know,
you have this mind
in Christ.
Remember I said
it's something
that gets you
into Christ.
And the justice
that my pride
and vain glory
and selfishness,
that the,
in a sense,
the consequences
of that falls on him.
The curse that comes
from that falls on him.
The shame
that comes from that
falls on him.
And when I am in him,
I share in his
unraveling
and unbending.
It becomes mine
because I am in him,
because he has rescued me.
And that means
that when that time
comes when I appear
before God
face to face,
I stand before him
in Christ.
I stand before him
fully and truly known.
I stand before him
fully and truly judged.
I stand for him
before him
fully and truly rescued.
I stand before him
fully and truly
enwrapped
in the love
and mercy
and kindness
and goodness
of God.
And so it is
that that gospel
and that presence
of the rescuer
that is beginning
to work within me
and shape me
and bring me
into a new way
of starting to be able
to die to pride
and selfishness.
when that day
finally comes
that with all
the other redeemed
and with angels
and archangels
and all the company
of heaven
that I bow
the knee
and proclaim
that Jesus Christ
is Lord
to the glory
of God the Father.
Welling from deep
within me
will be this
profound joy.
Free at last.
Praise God almighty.
I'm free at last.
And I share this
with you
and Paul shares
this with you
because our desire
is that that will be
your cry
with us.
You, like me,
need to be rescued.
And it's not just
that you are rescued
in him
but that you walk
towards hard things
with your rescuer.
That the picture
and the shape
of the rescue
shapes you.
The picture
and the shape
of the rescue
and what it will
culminate at the end
draws you.
And what the rescue
has done for you
is that upon which
you begin to stand
which is why
the mission statement
is to be confident
joyful disciples
of Jesus Christ
where our confidence
is in the rescue
and our joy
is in the rescue
and the rescuer.
And we want
to be shaped
by it
and walk out of it
and live out of it.
Friends,
consider Jesus.
Here's the wonderful thing
as this grips you.
Are you scared
of the faults
the truth will reveal?
So am I.
I hate it.
But there is no fault
that Jesus didn't know
and there's no fault
that he hasn't dealt with.
In fact,
the fact of the matter
is that the faults
in you and me
are vastly more
than we know
or anybody else knows.
But still you're loved
and rescued
in Christ.
And the promise
of glory
which you're almost
that you're vastly
too embarrassed
to even consider
because it would seem
like the height of pride
is your promise
in Christ.
Let's pray.
Father,
make us
disciples
of Jesus
whose confidence
is in our rescue
and the rescuer
and whose joy
is in the rescue
and the rescuer.
And we ask this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.