Well, welcome. It's so impressive that you have made it this morning, despite all the inclement weather.
So, that's some perseverance. And be of good cheer. The Bibles say that perseverance is a sign of election.
So, be of good cheer.
Well, one of my family's favorite movies is The Princess Bride.
I wonder if any of you have seen that.
And one of our favorite scenes in The Princess Bride is atop the cliffs of insanity.
There, the Spaniard, Inigo Montoya, is engaged in this epic sword fight with the dread pirate Roberts.
And after spectacular sword play, each brandishing their swords left-handed, the Spaniard says in the midst of their fray,
Ah, I admit it, you are better than I am.
To which the dread pirate inquires,
Then why are you still smiling if I am better than you are?
And Inigo Montoya responds,
Because I know something that you do not know.
And what is that?
I am not left-handed.
And then he switches over, and then the thing continues.
So, great scene.
Well, I want to give you three things this morning.
Things that as Christ's disciples, we can know.
And that if we know these things, they should keep us smiling, like the Spaniard.
Even in the midst of the toughest of circumstances.
Okay?
Here's the first.
No matter what the bad is in your life,
If you are a disciple of Christ,
The good will always outweigh the bad.
Okay?
No matter what the bad is in your life,
If you are a disciple of Christ,
The good will always outweigh the bad.
Now, we all know that a lot of bad can happen to us in this world.
Maybe you've read of Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
I don't know if you have that children's book.
Well, from the moment he wakes up, stuff goes wrong.
The chewing gum that kind of starts out in his mouth ends up in his hair.
He trips on the skateboard.
He gets his sweater wet in the sink.
His brothers, Nick and Anthony, find prizes in their cereal.
And he only finds cereal in his cereal.
So, a concatenation of calamities and a myriad of misfortunes.
And, I don't know, maybe you've had such terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days
With stuff a lot worse than gum in your hair.
Pets die.
Friends leave.
Tests get failed.
You don't get into that grad college that you would hope to,
Or even any of them.
Any number of things.
But here's the thing.
And is this not true?
If you have put your trust in Christ,
Whatever the bad,
What is the good that is true of you?
Well, the bad stuff may feel crushing,
But really, Jesus has taken away the things that can really crush you.
You see, Jesus has gone up against your truly deadly enemies.
You think you've got problems?
I'll tell you what your real problem is.
And it's mine too.
We have failed to love God as He deserves.
With all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
We've enjoyed His gifts,
But all too often,
We've ignored the giver.
We have robbed the God of the universe,
Of His rightful place in our life.
We've pushed Him off center stage,
Where He belongs.
Off into the wings.
We owe Him our worship.
Worship from recognizing His worth,
His worthiness.
Yet we don't.
We value other things more.
As Jeremiah, the prophet, puts it,
We have forsaken God,
The spring of living water,
And dug for ourselves,
Cisterns.
Broken cisterns.
That cannot hold water.
Or as the prophet Isaiah puts it,
All we like sheep,
Have gone astray.
Each one has turned to his own way.
And so,
We are rightly,
Justly,
Destined,
For a terrible,
Well-deserved judgment.
Condemnation,
Death,
And hell,
Is our just due.
But,
For everyone in Christ,
Wonder of wonders.
As Isaiah continues,
But the Lord has laid on Him,
Christ,
The iniquity of us all.
He has taken hell for us,
And so,
Taken it out of the way.
He took our death,
And so,
Death will not be for us,
The final chapter.
He took on and overcame for us,
The devil.
Our accuser.
The enemy of our soul.
Who we could never,
Have taken on ourselves.
Never overcome ourselves.
He took our,
Rightful condemnation.
He heard those words,
Depart from me.
So that we are in His place,
Welcomed,
Forever.
In short,
Jesus took our worst,
Sin,
Shame,
Debt,
Death,
Treachery,
Rebellion,
And in exchange,
He gave us,
His best.
Acceptance with God,
A perfect record,
Adoption as sons and daughters,
The promise of resurrection,
A place in the renewed earth,
Where there will be no more death,
No more mourning,
No more pain,
And no more sorrow.
And where He Himself,
Will wipe away,
Every tear.
Oh,
Now,
You throw,
That good,
Into the balance,
And I don't care,
What you have,
In the bad scale.
It's just not,
Going to tip it.
It can't,
It can't.
You remember,
The apostle Paul's balance,
Remember the,
Light,
Momentary affliction,
Which,
Phrase uses,
To kind of sum up,
Anything that we might,
Might be aggrieved by,
Light,
Momentary affliction,
Versus,
The eternal,
Weight of glory,
Eternal weight of glory,
And,
This is,
Assuredly true,
For the one,
For whom,
Christ is the Savior.
No matter what the bad is,
In your life,
The good,
Will always,
Outweigh the bad.
And if you know that,
Really,
Deep down,
You know that,
Like the Spaniard,
Even in the midst,
Of the bad,
You will keep smiling.
You'll keep smiling.
I mean,
Uh,
How bad could things get?
How bad can things get,
In our life?
Well,
Um,
Your problem could,
Kill you.
Say that's pretty bad.
Problem could kill you.
But,
Uh,
As we said,
Christ has trampled down death.
So death will not be the end.
Uh,
We will,
Merely pass through it,
Into a deeper,
Fuller life.
Death,
No longer a dungeon,
But a doorway to eternity.
Thus,
Even the ultimate threat,
Is neutralized for the believer.
Uh,
The Romans,
Who persecuted the early Christians,
Discovered this to their astonishment,
As they would try to threaten,
The early Christians,
With the sword,
Which was kind of their ultimate threat.
Um,
Uh,
The Christians,
Responded to the Romans,
Uh,
And to their great befuddlement.
The Christians would say,
You can't hurt us.
All you can do is kill us.
And the Romans would think,
What?
Wait,
Say that again?
Uh,
You see,
They knew,
However bad the bad,
The good,
For the Christian,
Always outweighs it.
It always outweighs it.
So they just kept smiling.
Uh,
To the great irritation of the Romans.
They just kept smiling.
So there's the first thing we know.
There's the first thing we know.
And here's the second thing.
Not only,
Does the good,
For the believer,
Always outweigh the bad.
But,
For the believer,
God actually works the bad,
For,
Our good.
For our good.
Uh,
This is the plain and prized promise of scripture.
Uh,
Paul writes in,
In,
In Romans 8.28.
Some of you may know this.
I'm sure it's precious to you if you do.
And we know,
Writes Paul.
Notice,
Not surmise,
Or conjecture,
Or presume,
Or speculate,
Or hope.
We know.
We know,
That God,
That God causes all things,
To work together,
For the good of those,
Who love him,
And are called according to his purpose.
That's us.
That's those who have put their trust,
In Christ.
God causes all things,
Including the bad things.
The things,
So bad,
That,
We think,
Well,
Nothing good,
Could possibly,
Come out of this.
Yes,
Those things too,
God causes,
To work for our good.
Now,
This is not to say,
That the bad things aren't bad.
They are.
But God uses them,
In our life,
To produce,
Good.
Remember the story of Joseph.
The terrible,
Horrible,
No good,
Very bad stuff,
That happened to him.
His brothers sell him into slavery.
He's falsely accused.
He's sent to prison.
The guy who was supposed to help him,
By remembering him,
And putting in a good word for him,
Forgets him.
Completely.
And on and on.
But,
God uses,
All of you,
All these bad things,
To get him to a place,
Where he was able to save his family.
As he,
Joseph,
Told his brothers,
Kind of at the unfolding of this,
You intended it for evil,
But God,
Intended it for good,
And for a great,
Great rescue.
Okay,
You say,
Well,
In that case,
God was able to work good out of it.
But,
Is he really able to do it with all things?
Can he really turn every bad,
Into some good,
For us,
His people?
I mean,
Some things are so bad,
We just can't imagine,
Any good at all coming out of it.
We just can't imagine.
Okay,
So let's take,
As our test case,
The absolute worst bad,
The greatest,
Most horrific evil,
In all human history.
Okay,
That'll be our test case.
Now,
The worst evil,
Is not,
The holocaust,
It's not,
It's not mass genocide,
It's not ethnic cleansing,
It's not lynchings,
It's not sex trafficking,
Not infanticide,
Terrible,
And horrific,
As all these things are.
No,
Indisputably,
The worst evil,
Is when God,
Out of love,
Sent His only son,
Into the world,
The only,
Truly,
Innocent,
All good person,
That there ever was,
And we,
Hated him without cause,
And screamed,
Crucify him,
And nailed him to a cross,
Torturing him,
Until he died.
I mean,
That's,
The plus,
Ultra evil,
The above and beyond evil,
That there could ever be,
That there ever was.
So,
I ask you,
And let's take sober stock,
Was God,
Able,
To bring any good out of it?
The crucifixion of his son.
You know,
I'm sure,
That the disciples,
And the devotees,
Around the cross,
All thought,
As they watched,
Jesus expire on the cross.
There is,
Nothing,
Good,
That could come out of this.
No way.
Now this is,
Unmitigated,
Irredeemable,
Tragedy.
And you know,
You couldn't fault them,
For thinking so,
Could you?
But they were wrong.
So wrong.
For out of the most horrendous evil,
God brought an unspeakable good.
The eternal rescue of his people.
A number that no one can count.
The salvation of the world.
And that's the kind of God he is.
Who brings good out of evil.
And he has promised to do just that.
For his people.
To work every bad.
For the good of those who love him.
As Jonathan Edwards,
An American theologian,
Actually,
Yealy.
As he expressed it.
Every atom in the universe,
Is managed by Christ,
So as to be most to the advantage,
Of the Christian.
Did you get that?
Every atom of the universe.
Every particle of air.
Or every ray of the sun.
So that the Christian,
In the other world,
When he comes to see it,
Shall sit and enjoy
All this vast inheritance,
With surprising,
Amazing joy.
Isn't that wonderful?
That some of the chief delight
And felicity of heaven,
Some of it,
Will be seeing
All of the incredible unfolding of good
That he has brought out
Of all the suffering
That we went through.
So knowing this,
That the bad in our life,
God works for good,
We can carry an indestructible smile
In our hearts
For what possible upheaval
Could dislodge it
If we remember this.
So,
No matter what the bad,
For the believer,
The good always outweighs the bad.
And,
Even the bad,
For the believer,
God works for good.
And,
Finally,
One more thing we know,
For the believer,
No matter how good the good,
In her life,
The best,
Is always ahead.
No matter how good the good,
In your life,
The best,
Is always ahead.
You know,
Some moments or seasons in our lives,
Are unspeakably wonderful.
Golden moments.
And,
We wonder if it will ever be so good again.
Will a wistful nostalgia be our lot?
A looking back with longing,
Where the very best has for us come and gone?
You know,
In our culture,
We might be influenced to think so.
As youth slips away,
And as beauty fades,
We might think we would reach a time
When our glory days were behind us.
But it can never be so,
For the believer.
For however good the good,
The best is always ahead for her.
Indeed,
Our very best moments,
Of beauty,
Of ecstasy,
Of epiphany,
Are couriers,
From a far off country,
The home to which we are heading.
And this nostalgia for these moments,
Should not face us back,
But should face us ahead.
Nostalgia.
Literally,
The word literally means,
A pain for home.
And that home,
For which we so poignantly yearn,
Is ahead of us.
It's not behind us.
These joys,
That are strewn along our way,
Are whispers from a home,
That is beckoning us.
There,
In that far country,
Which comes us,
Through these pangs of beauty,
Joy,
And love,
There,
All these bits and beams of glory,
Shall come together,
In us,
Around us,
And before us.
In us,
Around us,
And before us.
In us.
Duh.
It was said of the king of Rohan,
In the Lord of the Rings,
I wonder if you've,
Read that,
That upon his brow,
In death,
Was united,
The beauty of youth,
The vigor of manhood,
And the wisdom of old age,
Upon his funeral pyre,
You know,
These things,
Barely meet,
Are only tantalizingly so,
In this life.
Just,
Maybe meet in passing.
By the time we have a little bit of the vigor of manhood,
The beauty of youth is almost gone,
And the wisdom is still a ways away.
But,
Don't we sense,
That our true flourishing,
Shall be when all of those come together,
Which they shall,
At the last.
As the apostle John writes,
1 John 3, 2,
What we shall be,
Has not yet appeared.
So we look forward,
To a glory,
In us,
That is still ahead.
And this glory,
Shall also be,
All around us.
Heaven on earth.
Heaven and earth,
Come together.
As Paul describes it,
Creation,
Set free,
From its bondage to corruption.
There in Romans 8,
To 21.
And do we not,
Catch,
Glimpses of it,
Nature,
Creation,
Straining to break out,
In the streaks of a sunset,
Or the,
Or the gurgle of a stream.
Its glory,
And splendor,
Will be all around us.
But,
Supremely,
It will be before us.
As the apostle says,
Then,
Face to face,
1 Corinthians 13,
Face to face,
With the one,
Whose whispers,
Were these,
Pangs of beauty,
And joy,
All along,
They were his whispers.
Then,
Then we shall discover,
That it was his face,
That we yearned for,
In all of our earthly longings.
They were but shadows,
Of which,
He is the substance.
They but the scattered beams,
He the sun.
The earthly delights,
Were but the streams,
The little rivulets,
But he,
Is the ocean.
But not only shall there be,
In,
The far country,
To which we head,
A coming together,
Of all the bits,
And beams of glory,
That we have,
That have,
That have caressed us,
And sometimes ravished us,
In our hearts,
In this life.
There,
Will also be,
A continued,
An eternally continued,
Culmination,
Of all of these joys.
Welcome.
A forever drinking,
Of what shall forever,
Quench our thirst,
But in ever deeper,
Drafts,
Of an ever fuller,
Quenching.
Do you,
Remember how,
C.S. Lewis,
Put it,
At the end of his last book,
In the Narnia series,
Went like this,
From his last battle.
Now at last,
They were beginning,
Chapter one,
Of the great story,
Which no one on earth,
Has read,
Which goes on forever,
In which,
Every chapter,
Is better,
Than the one before.
Is that not wonderful?
Is that not,
Full of wonder?
That for the Christian,
However good,
Their experience,
The best,
Will always,
Be ahead,
Forever,
Theirs,
Ours,
Will be,
An ever fuller,
Deeper,
More expansive,
Joy.
If it had not been told,
As it had not been told,
Something so,
Unimaginably fantastic,
As the apostle writes,
In first Corinthians 2,
Nine,
I has not seen,
Nor has ear heard,
Nor has the heart of man,
Imagined,
What God has prepared,
For those,
Who love him.
Oh friends,
If you can,
If you can put,
These truths,
These three truths,
Into your soul's pocket,
Even if your present sword fights,
Seem to be going against you,
You can yet smile,
Like the Spaniard,
Because there is something,
That you know,
That makes all the difference,
In the world.
Both in this one,
And in the one to come.
However bad the bad,
For the one in Christ,
The good,
Will always outweigh the bad.
And,
For those in Christ,
The bad in their lives,
God works for good,
For them.
And no matter how good the good,
Gets in this life,
For the one in Christ,
The best,
Is always ahead.
Wear these truths,
As a garland about your head,
And no one,
Or nothing,
Can take away your smile.
Well,
We've,
We've said,
Get these truths,
Into your soul's pocket,
And carry them with you.
A brief,
And concluding word,
On how to do so.
And these truths,
Are of course,
Simply a bit,
Of the architecture,
Of the edifice,
That is God's story,
Given to us,
In the scriptures.
And let me,
Let me call you,
To do two things.
First,
Steep yourself,
In the story.
Steep yourself,
In the story.
Attend,
And absorb,
Its majestic,
Sweep.
Creation,
Fall,
Incarnation,
Cross,
Resurrection,
Renewal of all things.
It's a story,
So full of wonder.
Peter tells us,
That the very angels,
Long to look into it.
They're ravished by it.
First Peter 1.12.
So let this story,
God's wonderful story,
Supply,
Your categories of thought.
Let it,
This story,
Shape your imaginary.
Be captivated by it.
Let it become,
The lens,
Through which you see,
All things.
Let,
The word of Christ,
This word about Christ,
The story,
As Paul tells us,
Come,
To dwell in you,
Make its home in you,
Richly,
Richly.
Colossians 3.16.
Pray its truths,
Down into your heart,
Until they catch fire,
And it becomes for you,
The burning bush,
In which the presence of God,
Is made known to you.
Steep yourself in the story.
And second,
I propose,
Give yourself to the story.
Let it be your drama,
From which you discover your role.
And answer it,
What it calls you.
Go where it sends you.
Live in the story.
If you live the story,
You will experience its truth.
It is,
As you launch out,
And live it,
Live it as a disciple,
That you will come to know,
The story's truth.
In all of its splendor.
If you abide in my word,
Says Jesus,
You will know the truth.
John 8.31.32.
Living this story,
Jesus once said,
Is like food.
My food,
Is to do the Father's will.
John 4.34.
Food.
That is what nourishes,
And satisfies our soul.
Soul.
So come.
Taste and see.
Give yourself to the story.
And the one who is its center,
An author.
Steep yourself in the story.
Give yourself to it.
That's how you get these things,
Into,
And carry them around,
In your soul's pocket.
Do that.
And your heart,
Will never,
Lack for a smile.
Never lack for a smile.
Well,
This,
Concludes our series,
On the fundamentals,
Of following Christ.
For those of you,
Who have persevered,
In this adventure,
You will recall,
That we commenced with,
The call of the disciple.
The call,
To launch out,
Into the deep,
At Christ's bidding,
And to cast out a net,
For a catch.
Then we,
Considered,
The course,
Of the disciple.
What is,
The path,
That this call,
Casts us upon.
And we discovered,
That it was a path,
Of an ongoing death,
To self.
And yet,
Simultaneously,
And paradoxically,
Of an upwelling life,
The Christ life,
Through us.
We then,
Soberly confronted,
The conflict,
Of the disciple.
That fearsome fight,
Of our fallen flesh,
Which hankers,
To be indulged,
And is only,
Successfully engaged,
As we walk,
In the power,
Of the Holy Spirit.
And we unfolded that.
And then we took up,
Consideration of the,
Contemplation,
Of the disciple.
That,
Discipline at the very,
Heart,
Of our spiritual health.
Meditation.
In the,
Conquering,
Of the disciple,
We doubled down,
On the,
Concrete practicals,
Of sin slaying.
And the,
Indispensable,
Rule,
Of scripture,
In that slaying,
Of sin.
If by the spirit,
You put to death,
The deeds of the body.
That is,
Using scripture.
And finally,
We concluded this morning,
With the great comfort,
Of the disciple.
The treasured truths,
That will keep,
A smile,
Upon the soul's heart,
For every follower,
Of Christ.
Well,
In the time that remains,
And,
I shall be happy,
To take up,
Any questions you have,
On this,
Or any of the,
The topics.
I finally was able,
To be good to my promise,
To leave some time,
For questions,
And answers.
So,
Thank you for your,
Gracious attendance,
And your attention.
And may the good seed,
That is sown,
Produce an abundant,
Harvest,
In your life,
For the glory of Christ.
Thank you.
Any,
Any questions,
Or comments,
About these or anything?
We've got a good,
Ten minutes.
Yes,
Matt!
I agree,
With your three points today.
Oh,
Good.
I'm glad.
That encourages me.
I was sweating there,
For a moment,
When you raised your hand.
I'm smiling.
Is it,
It seems to me,
That the Bible makes clear,
That God doesn't expect us,
To always have a smile on it.
Yeah,
Good question.
Yeah,
Great point.
Yeah.
So Matt,
Yeah,
Great question.
And here's an amazing thing.
In the world,
Typically,
Our sorrow,
And our happiness,
Are mutually displacing.
Why,
If we get sad,
Or something makes us sad,
We lose our joy,
Our happiness.
And,
So,
You know,
It's either one or the other.
But the wonder,
That the Bible gives us,
Is that these things,
Can exist,
Simultaneously.
I'm sorry?
No,
You just really preach.
Oh,
Well,
Thank you.
I was in the back,
Listening.
Oh,
Good.
Keep listening.
Let me just,
Just let me finish this,
Because he's got a good question going here.
I don't,
It's a,
So,
Paul,
Paul has this marvelous phrase,
Sorrowful,
Yet rejoicing.
So,
We can be,
We are,
We're in the midst,
Of tribulation,
And,
And that's a reality.
And,
And Jesus says,
In this world,
You shall have much tribulation,
But,
Be of good cheer,
For I have overcome the world.
So,
He's suggesting,
That even in the midst of tribulation,
Because of this hope that we have,
And because these truths,
That we know,
We can even have a joy,
Even in the midst of our tribulation.
And I think,
Matt,
That this,
This allows us,
This gives us a heavier keel,
The joy that we can have,
And Peter writes about this,
In 1 Peter also,
Where he says,
Even though we've got all these hard things,
That are happening,
Yet we joy and rejoice,
And,
And that gives us a heavy keel,
That allows us,
To kind of go full sail,
Into a lot of the hard stuff in life.
We can go right in,
And I think this is what Jesus means,
In part,
Where he says,
We're to be salt,
That's to go in,
Where things are going off,
And kind of going rotten,
As a preservative.
So,
We can go in,
And,
And we can endure,
Some of the most sorrowful things,
Because we have this heavy keel,
This ballast of joy,
That doesn't go away.
It's beautiful.
It is.
And,
So that allows us to,
To experience that.
So then we,
You know,
When somebody dies,
I'm heading down this afternoon,
To a memorial,
Of a precious,
Precious person.
And Paul writes,
We do sorrow,
Yet not as those,
Who have no hope.
So there's always,
This commingling,
Of joy,
With whatever it is.
So,
Whether that expresses itself,
As a smile,
Or a tear,
At any one moment,
No,
You're absolutely right,
Matt.
I'm not,
I'm not talking about,
That's why I said,
A smile in our soul.
Jesus wept.
And there are a lot of,
There are a lot of sorrowful things,
And that's going to be,
One side of the reality,
You know,
In a fallen world,
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah,
Thank you.
Great question.
My wife always suspects,
That I,
I'm just happy.
She thinks I'm Pollyannaish.
But no,
No,
It's a good keel of truths,
I think.
Yeah,
Any other questions,
Or comments?
Yes,
Elizabeth.
So how do you,
You're talking with someone,
And they're totally in depression,
Poor me,
Victim,
Pity.
Thing.
How do you,
How can you express this,
Quickly,
Yeah,
And convincingly,
To such a person?
Mm-hmm,
Mm-hmm.
Um,
Well,
I think,
Um,
Sometimes,
Uh,
You do,
You don't want,
You don't want to trivialize it.
If I just start talking about,
Good,
True,
Wonderful things,
Uh,
And it doesn't,
It doesn't,
Then it doesn't feel like,
I've really entered into,
The reality of their sorrow,
And that's true,
So it's fine,
You can't understand this,
You don't know what depression is,
It's not just feeling sad,
It's,
The chemical imbalance,
You know,
On and on they go.
Could,
Could be any number of those things,
So I think it's fine,
To sit with them,
And don't,
Don't feel like you have to,
You have to put in a salutary word right away,
Maybe just sit with them,
In the sorrow of it,
Uh,
For,
For some time,
Maybe even just the gift of your presence,
Uh,
A,
A wordless presence,
And just hug them,
Or,
Or hold their hand,
And,
This is part of the sorrow,
Of,
Of this life,
But,
It's not the final word,
We do not weep,
As those who have,
We do not sorrow,
As those who have no hope,
So,
The hope,
Uh,
The hope should,
Should tinge this,
The hope should tinge this,
Um,
So,
Um,
I,
Uh,
Um,
Sometimes,
I'll just read scripture,
Uh,
To them,
These glorious passages,
Romans 8,
What have you,
But sometimes,
We're as deaf as an adder,
Yeah,
I,
Uh,
I sometimes,
We'll come,
And I'll sit next to somebody,
And I'll try to tell them the encouraging things,
And they just can't hear a word of it,
Uh,
You know,
They,
It's like,
Uh,
It's like,
Uh,
John 4,
You know,
The well is deep,
John,
And you have nothing to draw with,
You know,
So,
Uh,
But,
I can trust that God's word will,
And that if he,
Touches people,
He's the God of all comfort,
Who comforts us in our afflictions,
But he delights to use us,
So,
We try,
We just seek to be faithful,
And try to give them truths,
Encouragingly,
That,
That can,
And don't let them,
See,
What the problem is for,
For many is,
They just let their souls,
Uh,
They just listen to their souls,
And we need to,
Like,
Like David does in the Psalms,
We need to speak to our soul,
Say to your soul,
Soul,
Are you,
Are you right to be downcast?
Or as God says to Jonah,
Do you have a right?
Does this make sense?
Given this,
The way he speaks to,
Um,
Uh,
To Job also,
So we need to,
We shouldn't just listen to our souls,
We should speak,
Speak to our souls,
And process that.
Uh,
A lot of times,
Uh,
You know,
The,
The world will say,
Um,
We,
These,
These emotions that we have,
That are,
That are just,
Just so titanic,
And massive,
Uh,
The world says,
Vent those things,
Just spew them,
Spew them.
Sometimes,
I think a mistaken piety can say,
Well,
That's irreverent,
So you gotta stuff it,
You gotta stuff it.
Uh,
Well,
That's not right either.
You know,
You look at the Psalms,
And it seems,
We don't just spew,
Okay,
Neither do we stuff,
What we do is,
Like the,
You know,
Um,
King Hezekiah,
He gets the letter,
And he spreads it before the Lord.
So our sorrows,
We take it,
And we don't spew it,
Or stuff it,
But we spread it.
That is,
We,
We process it before the Lord,
And in the light of his reality,
We speak to our soul,
And that,
You know,
Often when you're going through the Psalms,
They'll start out,
In a,
In a nader,
But they'll,
They'll move to another place,
And you're processing these things,
Uh,
Before,
Before God,
And I think that that's,
Right,
Uh,
The,
Uh,
The,
The academic work on emotions,
Thinks of them,
Is something that we just kind of passively experience,
And that's not how the Bible speaks about emotions,
You know,
You think of things like,
Uh,
The command,
Don't be afraid,
Oh,
Well,
Emotions of fear,
And yet,
We're commanded,
In other words,
We can't just be totally passive,
There's something we can do,
And it's,
Uh,
An,
An emotion involves a,
A concerned,
It's a concerned construal,
We're only going to be emotional about something that concerns us,
But then there's a construal that we put on it,
And we can challenge both of those things,
Why am I so concerned about this?
Why am I so concerned about death?
Why am I so afraid about this?
I can talk myself back from the ledge,
Okay,
If I die,
He'll raise me up,
Eh,
No biggie,
All right,
Over concerned here,
What sort of construal am I putting on,
On these things?
Yeah,
We miscon,
We,
We misconstrue these things,
Exactly,
Yeah,
So we need to put a right construal,
As we're thinking about these things,
And what,
Yes,
How does truth frame this?
So I put the right construal on these things,
And then,
Our emotions will,
Will be rightly adjusted,
To these spiritual realities that should,
So sometimes we can walk people through these things,
And that can be helpful,
Yeah,
So,
They know how that works,
They are,
Pastor,
I never heard your name,
John,
Nice to meet you,
John,
It's good to meet you,
It's my first time here,
Well,
You're welcome,
We're glad you're here,
Any other,
I guess we got a couple,
Maybe one more question,
If anybody has a question,
Yes,
I'd like to thank you,
Thank you,
You're welcome,
For being a teacher,
But,
Tell me your,
Tell me your name,
Harry,
I know we all,
Here,
Are for me,
With,
The last room,
If I said,
The last room,
Well,
I want you to feel it home,
You know it by the power,
The feel it home power,
But the workers,
We know it by the last room,
The last room,
Because it was the last room,
That you'd be in,
Before you,
Or put,
Your presence was put away,
Yep,
You know,
And in that room,
You hear,
The workers,
That was my job,
To keep it straight up,
And you hear,
About these conflicts,
In life,
And everything,
While you're there,
You know,
Because I'm in the background,
And you hear,
We have to,
We have to think,
The conflict,
The comfort,
And the conqueror thing,
That you hear,
In people's lives,
That they are saying,
To you,
Which dad,
They let you know,
What comfort you brought to them,
And things like this right here,
That,
That you never would get to,
To know,
Unless,
You have a position,
To just hear it,
From,
Hear it from people talking,
To your presence,
Yeah,
Their presence,
What a great vantage point in life,
Harry,
To be right there,
In the midst of reality of death,
Uh,
That,
Is,
A wonderful blessing,
I think,
Because it's easy for us,
To just,
Imagine that,
That's such a distant reality,
And that's an illusion,
So,
Yeah,
Great,
Wonderful team,
Well thank you so much,
Um,
And,
God bless,
And we will,
I,
I don't know what the next,
Uh,
Series is to announce,
But I'm sure that you'll,
I'm sure it will be,
Announced soon enough,
Thank you,
Alright,
Master John,
Thank you.