Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us
that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the
Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do
what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,
checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us
questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things
that you're really struggling with. So God bless. Just bow our heads in prayer. Father, thank you so much
that we can, that you are a God who speaks, that you speak to your people. And we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit
will move with gentle but deep power in our hearts, that we might recognize ourselves in your Word, that we might
hear your profound and beautiful promises, and that we would claim these promises, hold them dear to our hearts.
We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit will bring your Word into our hearts to form us for our good,
for the good of this world, and for your great glory. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our
Saviour. Amen. Please be seated.
It hasn't happened in a couple of years, but I, when I have some of my younger grandchildren come to visit, and they
haven't been to the church for, you know, for maybe a long time, and they come, and there's a set, if they haven't come, like in
January or February. One of the things I like to ask me is if I would take them up on the stage, because they're very
fascinated with the stage. They would find this stage today very, very, very fascinating, actually. And so one of
the things they love to do is they'll come, and depending on their age, they'll take my hand, you know, I tell them I'm not
allowed to run around and all of that. And, you know, I have this curtain here, but they'd love to walk through
that door that way and that door this way and look behind. And they just find it so amazing that it looks so
real. But they just take a step behind it, and it's just all surface. That's all it is. It's all surface,
no depth. It's not real. I mean, it's a real stage, but it's not a real house. And they find that very
fascinating. They get very excited about it. They want to, of course, run around and all that stuff. But
here's the point about it. If you, one of the things that we struggle with in our society today
is being consumed with what's superficial, all the surface of life. You know, when I think last week,
I mentioned that I periodically will have Instagram on my phone, but it doesn't last very long, because
before you know it, I'll have wasted 40 minutes just scrolling through the things. And I have to
take it off, because I don't have... Anyway, I just have to take it off. But as a society, we're very,
very, very consumed with the latest, the most recent, the superficial. We don't think of it that way. We
think every superficial thing is unbelievably important and don't realize that the next superficial thing,
which is different, is just as unbelievably important, which means the first superficial thing
wasn't important at all. And we completely forget that. And while on one hand, there's this powerful
pressure in our society to get caught up in the superficial, to get caught up in the surface,
there are, amongst many people in our society, a longing and a desire to find something which is
solid, something which is real, something which isn't just surface and transient, something
real. I can tell you right now, for those of you, those of us, who are just interested in the
superficial, you will never like the Bible, like you never will. You'll find it completely and utterly
unhelpful, because the Bible talks about things which are very substantial all of the time. And so,
the text that we're going to look at today is a very wise and beautiful text for those of us
who would like to move from being consumed with the superficial, the surface of things, and to begin
to have a life and to be formed in a way that deals with things which are really solid and deep.
And like a lot of things in the Bible, it doesn't look like that at first. And it does a couple of
things that make Canadians uncomfortable. But it could very well be, in fact, I'm going to suggest
that unless we get uncomfortable, we're not going to actually be able to progress and actually find
those things which are deep, not just surface. So, if you take your Bibles and open them, we're
looking at Philippians chapter 3. We're preaching through the book of Philippians. This was originally
a letter written by Paul in around the year 61 or 62, while he's under Roman imprisonment. And he's
writing it to a small church of people who, I mean, they still be Jewish, but they're Jewish and now
Christians and also pagans who are no longer pagans. See, because a Jewish person can become
a Christian and remain Jewish, but you can't really be a pagan and become a Christian and remain pagan.
That's a whole other topic of conversation if you're curious about that. And he's writing this
letter to them from jail, and this is how it goes. We're just preaching through verse 15.
Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if any of you think otherwise, God will reveal that
to you also. Now, just, you know, because I go through the book, I always want to read things,
even if I don't talk about them very much, just so you know I'm not playing fast and loose with the
context. What he's just talked about is how Christians should know that they're not perfect,
they haven't arrived, they have to keep growing and growing and growing and growing. And that's what
he said, you should think this way too. Don't think, never think you're perfect.
Verse 16, only let us hold true to what we have attained. In other words, just keep pressing on.
And then he gets to this thing which is a bit odd, verse 17, brothers and sisters,
join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.
Which sounds a little bit narcissistic, but it isn't. And if I have time at the end,
I'll mention why it's not, within the context, why it's not narcissistic.
And now we get into the nub of the matter about being consumed with the superficial and the surface.
And for those of us who have a longing to not live our lives on the surface and superficial,
but to get to things which are real and have substance, the first thing that Paul's going to do
is break a rule, a Canadian rule about what you talk about.
And that rule about what Canadians aren't supposed to talk about is this.
Every single one of you in this room are going to die.
I mean, I'm not saying that there's a bomb outside, you're going to die the next second.
I'm not threatening you.
I'm just saying, if you want to begin to have a serious life,
a life dealing with things that are meaningful,
you need to begin by understanding that you will all die.
Well, let's see, how does he put it?
Verse 18,
Now, there's all sorts of things about this.
And you say, George, okay, this doesn't sound like a very promising way to begin talking about
getting over superficial things and surface things and looking for things which are more substantial.
Well, it actually is.
Begin like at verse, look at verse 19, their end is destruction.
What Paul here is saying is, on one hand, there is a bit of a,
there is a clear hint towards the Christian doctrine of hell,
which I don't have time to talk about today.
But it also is saying something far more immediate.
And one of the most, the most empirical truth there is about human beings,
which is that all of your lives are moving to the end of your life,
where your life will be destroyed, where you will die.
Death isn't something that you can take as much vitamin D as you want.
You can have a perfect diet.
You can exercise in the most rational, wise way.
You can do all sorts of things like that.
Most of it will just mean you have a better looking corpse.
than another person, but you will die.
That's just true.
In fact, if you think about it, how can you be wise if you don't ever think about that?
And just before I go anything further with this list of the five things, right?
Your enemies of the cross of Christ, your end is destruction, your God is your belly,
your glory and your shame, your minds are set on earthly things.
This is just a very basic truth, that the Bible, when it says very hard things about us,
does it not to push us away, but to connect with us, realistically.
Because these are profoundly realistic and wise things to say, which I want to try to show you.
Look at this thing, the thing here.
We'll just jump.
Their end is destruction, their God is their belly.
Well, what does it mean to say their God is their belly?
What it's saying is that human beings very easily fall into being driven by their appetites.
And we get driven by our appetites.
And when we are consumed by an appetite, when we let an appetite have more and more power over us,
that thing which we want to satisfy our appetite becomes almost like a God to us.
It becomes the thing that we organize around, that we think about all of the time,
that we just desire very, very deeply.
And if you think about it for a second, the more that human beings are controlled by their appetites,
the more that human beings become like animals.
And here's the thing about animals.
For an animal, there is no right and wrong.
There is no heaven and hell.
For an animal, there is only breakfast and supper.
And we all know people.
And we all know that there's been times in our lives where we've been controlled by our appetites.
We know how easily it is to slip into this.
Well, what about this other thing?
Here, look again.
Their end is destruction, verse 19.
Their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things.
I'm doing this one next because it helps us to understand the other phrases.
What this is talking about, the word earthly things here.
So one of the things we're going to be doing in September, we're going to go through the book of Ecclesiastes.
And if you're familiar with the book of Ecclesiastes, it keeps going on and on about all things are vanity or all things are meaningless.
But really, the phrase which we're going to look at in the fall, the Hebrew word is actually referring to vapor, to things being transient.
So if you want to understand what it means, just think of what it's like to walk outside in January in Ottawa when it's minus 20.
And when you walk outside when it's minus 20, your breath leaves your mouth and you can see it.
Well, that's what the text is referring to in the book of Ecclesiastes.
That's what life is like.
When you breathe out and you can see your breath for but a second and then your breath disappears.
And earthly is a similar type of idea.
It's the New Testament sort of analogous, closely related idea to the Old Testament word that's translated often as vanity or meaningless.
And that's the word earthly.
It's referring to things which are completely and utterly transient.
Now, so it says here that, what does it say here?
It says our minds are set on earthly things, on transient things.
And we might think that that's a little bit harsh.
But just think about what we people, what Canadians set their minds on, what maybe some of us have set our minds on today before we came here.
If you talk to Canadians and look at how they live, what do they live for?
What do they set their mind on day by day?
Well, some people say all I can do is just get through my day by day.
That's my entire life.
But some of them say I set my mind on the party that I'm going to go to next Friday.
I set my mind on buying really, really nice clothes, nice purses, nice shoes, looking really good.
I set my mind on exercise so my body will look really good.
I set my mind on money.
I set my mind on power.
I set my mind on fame.
I set my mind on being able to create music or writing.
I set my mind on having a good job.
I set my mind on having promotions.
I set my mind on having a wife or a husband.
I set my mind on having lots of sex.
I set my mind on having children.
I set my mind on pornography.
I set my mind on having a family.
I set my mind on my country.
I set my mind on developing my mind and having a powerful intellect.
I set my mind on knowledge, on popularity, on applause, on personal transformation,
and everything in that list is transient.
Too bad the Bible doesn't talk about me.
It's just brilliantly described human beings.
It's described the average Canadian, including lots of us, all of us, to differing degrees.
Our minds are set on things which are completely and utterly transient.
I don't know. I've used the analogy before, but I don't know.
About 18, 19, 20 years ago, I buried the man who, for many years, was one of the richest men in Ottawa.
He became a Christian here, and I'd say things like this to him, and he would agree with me 100%,
which is that the second after he died, if there was a street person who died at that exact same second,
on the other side of death, they have the exact same bank account and financial resources, which is zero.
As Flannery O'Connor said, you can't be any poorer than dead.
So, in fact, how does it describe us again?
Their end is destruction.
In other words, we're all going to die.
We don't even want to think about it in Canada.
You're not allowed to talk about it in Canada.
Even in funerals, you don't really talk about it.
Good grief.
You know?
Their God is their belly, their appetites.
They glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things.
Well, what does it mean to say glory in your shame?
You know, one of the ways to help us to understand what it means and why it's true is
when we come time to do communion,
one of the things that we say in the communion service
is we ask God to help us to feed on our hearts by faith in Christ.
Feed on him in, I'll say to you, you know, that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which was given for you,
preserve your body and soul unto everlasting life.
Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died on you, for you.
Feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.
When I go along here saying communion to you, that's what I say.
I'll say it as I'm walking along.
The body of our Lord Jesus Christ given for you.
Preserve your body and soul unto everlasting life.
Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you.
Feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.
Feed on him in your hearts.
So this is a very profound thing to say,
and it's not something that I invented.
It's in this ancient liturgy.
Because what do we feed on in our hearts?
I was really convicted with this a couple of weeks ago.
Well, many of us, if we're honest, we feed on thoughts of revenge.
We think on unforgiveness.
We think on greed.
We think on adultery.
We feed on envy.
Very huge problem in Canada.
If Canada has one besetting sin, it's not our sexual problems, which we have.
It's actually the greatest sin is the sin of envy,
which is thinking, being upset by those who have things that we don't,
that we value, and wanting them to get lowered and destroyed,
even if we don't get enriched in the process.
It's a very huge problem in Canada.
And that's what we feed on in our hearts.
It's what we think about during coffee breaks when we're falling asleep.
I'm not saying we're all completely evil all of the time,
but these are shameful things.
And that's what we feed on.
Isn't it?
More than you think about this,
their end is destruction, their God is their belly,
they glory in their shame.
When they say their glory in their shame,
it's what they feed on it, and they have a confidence in it.
Like, they think it's a good thing.
We think it's a good thing when we think of these things.
And our minds are set on earthly things.
And then why does it say that we're enemies of the cross?
Because most people would say that's not true.
That most people would say, I mean, I never give Jesus a thought.
Why would you say that I'm an enemy to the cross of Christ?
Well, we see that when we come face to face with the Bible saying something,
a no, to something that our appetite desires,
or we want to set our minds on.
So you ask, you tell a very, very rich person,
if I was to tell a very, very rich person,
that it's not that having money is a sin,
but if you earn your money in such a way that people are oppressed,
that's wrong.
You should stop it.
And that the highest form of living is not amassing a fortune,
but being more generous.
So God says you should begin by giving away 10% of your wealth,
and because you can afford it,
maybe it should be 20 or 30 or 40%.
And can you imagine me saying this to a very rich stockbroker or business person?
You expect it to be used as an example about sex.
Let's not use about that.
Let's just talk about anything from forgiveness.
You know, you should forgive.
What do you mean, I should forgive?
And as soon as God's commands intersect in a way which is pointy enough
that we might actually feel, well, how do we feel?
Who is God to say that to me?
We want to go against God with our elbows up.
And we want to stop our elbows up because we want to give him the finger,
which it's hard to do that with your elbows up,
so you have to go back and forward.
You see, at that point in time, you realize that even though God is a God of grace and mercy,
that in fact, if it impinges on it,
we experience him as an enemy, as a threat.
Now, just before we go anything further,
you can begin to see that in some ways,
the whole Bible text today is about two different ways.
And the hope is that you will choose to continue to walk in one way
or move to one way if you aren't already,
and then some advice and beautiful wisdom about how you deepen and walk in that way.
And one way is the way of destruction.
The other way is the way of undeserved kindness from God,
undeserved mercy from God,
undeserved unearned grace from God.
Those are the two ways.
But before we go any further,
Paul here is not othering.
It's far from it.
It's the exact opposite of othering.
He's not pointing a finger.
It's like that old analogy.
If I point a finger at you,
I have three fingers pointing back at myself.
And he would be the first to say,
not only if I could point my thumb backwards,
I would do that too.
I mean, just before this,
he's talked about how he used to boast in the fact
that he persecuted Christians and put them in jail and killed them.
Something for which he's now ashamed.
You see, the Bible would say that all human beings,
in a sense,
when the Bible says,
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
in a sense what the Bible is saying,
for all human beings walk in the way of destruction.
And it's only by God's grace and mercy,
his undeserved kindness,
that Jesus takes me, in a sense,
out of one way and puts me in the other way.
That's what the cross is all about.
The cross is not,
look at all those bad people
and we're the pure people in here.
And hopefully it's come forward in how I'm talking.
It's me, it's me, it's me,
oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer.
It's why Spurgeon so truly said,
the Christian way is not a way of othering,
but it is one beggar telling another beggar
where to get free bread,
the free bread of eternal life.
And that's what I am here to tell you about.
There is a better way.
There is a way that you enter purely and utterly
by God's grace, his mercy, his kindness, and his beauty
coming to you in a way which is unmerited and undeserved.
And that's how it came to me.
It's the only way it comes to anybody
when his grace comes to you,
completely unmerited and undeserved.
And that's the next bit.
Look at verse 20.
One of the things which is really important in the Bible
is the Bible, the New Testament especially,
is the book of big butts.
It's big butts in the sense that there's a but
after something like that.
And it's a big but.
You need to really pay attention to it.
So look at verse 20.
But, he's going to talk about another way.
Our citizenship is in heaven.
And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body
by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
A very dense text.
Let's sort of try to one.
This is the way of undeserved grace.
And it gives us truths to remember and to rehearse
and to tell each other.
And the first thing here is it's not telling us
to be so super spiritually that we don't deal with the real.
The way to deal with those things is all laid out here.
Look at verse 20 again.
Our citizenship is in heaven.
I just want to tell you, for a lot of us in this room,
we don't appreciate that word citizenship.
But I also know that there are people in this room
who came to Canada as refugees.
They understand the importance of citizenship.
There are people here who've come as immigrants.
They understand the value of citizenship in the right place.
And when it says our citizenship is in heaven,
heaven is the place where God rules.
Friends, brothers and sisters,
someday Max Carney will not be the Prime Minister of Canada.
Our citizenship will still be in heaven.
There will be a time when Trump is not...
Even if you don't like Trump,
our citizenship is not in heaven.
Sorry, our citizenship is in heaven.
There will be a time when he's not...
Our citizenship is in heaven.
Heaven is the place where God rules.
He rules from it.
What does Jesus teach us in the Lord's Prayer?
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven.
Heaven.
It's to understand that
while we are to be the best Canadians we could possibly be
and the best Ottawaans we could possibly be,
at the end of the day,
Max Carney is our Prime Minister.
King Charles II or III, I think it is,
is our king.
But our true king,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
is our saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the first thing that it tells you,
that he is our ruler.
And then it tells you that he will return.
Look at this.
But our citizenship is in heaven
and from him we await a saviour.
It's not that we have to wait for him to come.
He's already come.
We're waiting for him to come the second time.
Christians should be deeply uncertain
about when he will return,
but we should be spectacularly certain
that he will return.
It changes how you think.
And he is described as our saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is a profoundly...
You see, people,
as people from the outside of the Christian faith,
you don't understand,
they don't understand,
and Christians don't understand often
when they first become Christians,
or maybe they do at first,
their grasp with the beauty.
But the beauty is deeper
as you get deeper into the Christian faith.
Because when you see this simple phrase,
our saviour, Lord Jesus Christ,
there's something emotionally powerful
and beautiful about it.
Because, you know,
you just think about the average Canadian,
just person just formed by Canada.
We have a particular origin,
which is evolution.
And then we have a particular way
to try to think of what's right and wrong.
And then we have another particular way
to think about how we're going to be spiritual.
And we have another particular way
to think how about we're going to be practical
in this life.
And we have another way
where we have to deal with the laws.
And then we have another thing about death
and what happens when we die.
And then we have this whole other thing
about longings.
And that longings is sort of a separate thing
from the spiritual thing
or sort of connected
and separate from morals,
but sort of connected.
And then for some Canadians,
there's beauty.
And there's all these completely
and utterly separate categories.
But that's not there in the Bible.
We have, what do we have here?
We have our saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's just one
who will transform our lowly body
to be like his glorious body
and by the power that enables him
even to subject all things to himself.
20 and 21.
There is one God in heaven
who's created all things,
who sustains all things,
who will bring all things
to their proper end.
There is that one God in heaven,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
who have worked together.
They are a God of love
because from all eternity,
the Father has loved the Son
and the Son has loved the Father.
I miss that there's a whole other
separate principle of love for Canadians
and how that love fits with meaning
and beauty and right and wrong.
Those things can be all complicated.
And it can be complicated
for us to figure out how they are.
But at the end of the day,
there is just the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit
with love and beauty
from all eternity.
And it's the same God,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
who has saved us.
And God is good
and goodness comes from that.
And because he's the creator,
how to live wisely and well
comes from understanding his word.
And there is this profound unity
and coherence in all of it.
And that's who we're looking forward
to having come back.
And then there's this whole thing
about our body,
which is just so precious.
You know what it says here?
Look at verse 21,
who will transform our lowly body.
And lowly is a very, very good way
to translate it.
But you know what it literally says?
It says,
the body, our humiliated body.
Now some of you are too young
and too healthy to understand
how your body can be a source
of humiliation.
Others of us have realized
that we're covered with dimples
that aren't cute.
And uncute dimples just grow with age,
as well as a whole pile
of other types of things.
And we become very conscious
of the humiliation of our body,
especially considering
to what God wants to be.
But it says,
who will transform?
He will transform our lowly body
to be like his glorious body.
And you know what that means
literally in the original language?
It's a body.
And so it has matter.
But it's a body of glory.
Glory.
It's made of glory.
And of matter and energy.
Matter and energy
and God's glory
is what our new bodies
will be like.
You see,
this is,
what this is saying,
and when you realize
that this is what
the Bible teaches,
you realize
how you can only be saved
by God doing something,
by putting your faith
in Christ
and he transfers you
out of one way
into another way,
another area
where you are a citizen
of his kingdom,
of his people.
It's a covenant idea
and he is your king.
And what it's saying is this.
In Christ,
what we see here
is the final act
and word about us.
You or I might die in pain.
We might die alone.
We might die with no one grieving.
In some places
where Christians die,
they die with people cheering.
And they think they've won.
Some die in the haze
of Alzheimer's
with terrible diseases.
But what this is saying
is that if you are in Christ,
this death
and the humiliation
of your body
is not the final word
about you.
The moment your eyes
close on this world
will be the moment
your eyes open
in the presence
of the triune God
and you will awake
with a resurrected body,
one made alive
and healed,
suffused
and infused
with the glory of God.
that is the Christian truth.
And we
come into this way
of undeserved,
unearned,
unmerited
beauty
and goodness
and grace
because of what
our Savior Jesus Christ
has done for us
on the cross.
and we are called
to put our faith
and trust in Him
as He transfers us
from one way
to another.
You know,
who better to listen to
than Jesus
on this?
I mean,
He is the one
who died upon the cross
for you
because of His miracles.
If you read His biographies,
the biographies of Him,
you see that
it has to have been
His love
which kept Him
on the cross.
A man who could walk
on water,
a man who could
knock soldiers down
just by a single word
could never have been
held on a cross
unless He willed
to die on the cross,
unless it was His love
that led Him
to die on the cross.
And the grave
is empty,
the body has never
been found
and He has appeared
alive to many people.
And so,
who is there better
to listen to
and trust
than Jesus
who loves you,
Jesus who saves you,
Jesus who
is the Lord Jesus Christ,
sovereign over
all things,
who will transform
your body
into His glorious body,
who is there better
to listen to
and trust
than Him?
And that's why
it says to stand firm
in it.
Look at what it goes
on to say.
And therefore,
my brothers and sisters,
verse chapter 4,
verse 1,
whom I love
and long for
my joy
and my crown,
stand firm thus
in the Lord
and be saved.
So,
there is this
constant sociological
and cultural pressure
to forget these things
if you're in Christ,
to think of other things,
to move towards
superficiality
or to move
to false gods.
And Paul is here
saying,
stand firm
in thinking
and remembering
about this
and walking
on the way.
And then,
we need to get
to this other thing
in terms of
how you live
this way.
We'll read
verses 2 and 3
to get to this
in closing.
But,
I entreat
Iodia
and I entreat
Syntica
to agree
in the Lord.
Yes,
I ask you
also,
true companions,
to help those
women who have
labored side by side
with me in the gospel
together with Clement
and the rest of my
fellow workers
whose names
are in the book of life.
And that's just,
for our purposes
right now,
reminding us that
just because these
things are true
in us doesn't mean
we're instantly
transformed.
Our life in Christ
is a quest,
a continuing,
pressing into
these things
in a way
that changes us
because we aren't
perfect.
And that's why
we have to have
penitent,
humble hearts.
But here's the
primary lesson
I want to leave you
with.
Verse 4,
Rejoice in the Lord
always,
again I will say
rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord
always,
again I will say
rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord
always,
again I will say
rejoice.
So what's going on
here with this
particular text?
The Bible is not
being foolish.
The Bible is not
saying that you
all,
you can only have
one emotion
which is
rejoicing.
The Bible isn't
naive.
It's not telling
you just be,
just rejoice.
It's not trying
to manipulate you.
It's not saying
listen if something
just terribly tragic
has just happened
to you,
you're not allowed
to be sad,
you've got to
think happy thoughts.
You've got to
think rejoicing
thoughts.
The Bible isn't
telling you that
this type of
emotion is the
emotion that real
Christians have
that overwhelms
all of your
other emotions.
The Bible
understands that
you can have
things which are
sad and tragic
and conditions
in your life
that are very,
very,
very hard
and very,
very,
very difficult.
And it's not
telling you to
ignore all of
these things
and turn away
from them.
But it is telling
you to rejoice
in the Lord.
And what does
that mean?
Ten times I think
it is in the book
of Philippians
it tells you to
rejoice.
I think it's the
same number of
times that the
book tells you
to glory or boast
in the Lord.
And those 20
times they're
connected.
It's the same
type of idea.
And what is
it?
Why did the
Leafs,
why did the
Leaf fans think
the Leafs were
going to win
the Stanley Cup?
Sorry if I'm
touching a wound.
Well, what
would they tell
you?
We're going to
win a Stanley
Cup.
We got
Marner.
We got
Austin Matthews.
We got
Nylander.
We got a
great coach.
We got a
great jersey.
We're going
to win.
Why did the
Liberals think
they were going
to win the
election?
We don't got
Trudeau.
We got the
man with the
terrible orange
hair frightening
all of Canada.
We got Max
Carney.
We're going
to win.
Rejoice and
glory and
boasting is
saying, what
do you put
your confidence
in for success?
What do you
think will
help you, will
make you
succeed and
win?
So the
text is not
telling you to
try to manipulate
yourself into
feeling certain
emotions.
It's telling
you to
think about
the greatness
and the
goodness of
God and
what the
kindness and
what he's
done for
us.
In a sense,
what it is,
you know,
there's an old
hymn that
says, count
your blessings,
name them one
by one, and
it will surprise
you what the
Lord has
done.
And what
you could
almost say
here is that
the text is
saying, count
his character,
count his
attributes, count
his promises
one by one.
Count them
every day.
In the
moment of
your greatest
sadness, in
the moment
when you're
having to
consider whether
you're going
to take on
a new job,
whether you're
going to move
to another
country,
whether you're
going to deal
with huge
disappointments or
consider taking
big opportunities.
What you
obviously think
about all of
these things
practically, but
what you need
to think about
most of
all, if
you want
to be on
the way
of undeserved
mercy and
kindness and
grace, is
I do have a
Savior who's
triumphed over
death.
Yes, I have
this cancer
diagnosis, yes,
I have this
Alzheimer's
diagnosis, but
I have a
Savior who's
triumphed over
death.
I have the
promise of a
resurrected body.
Political
leaders will
come and go,
but my
Lord and
Savior Jesus
Christ will
return.
I have a
Father in
Heaven who
loves me, who
hears my
prayers.
And that even
if I have a
very hard time
here between
the moment
now and my
death, none
of those hard
times are the
true word about
me because my
Father in
Heaven loves me
and I will
spend eternity
with Him.
Those are the
things which we
are to remember
and have form
us, to
remember and
to form us.
Just in the
final little
bit about
this, why
is this text
so helpful?
I mean, obviously
it's telling us
to think and
rejoice.
You see, the
rejoicing comes
sideways when
you think about
this.
If you try to
force yourself
to have a
smile on the
face of
sadness and
heartbreak and
disappointment,
that's emotional
manipulation.
But it might
very well be
that in the
midst of your
sadness, when
you remember
Jesus and what
He's done for
you on the
cross, when
you remember
that you have
a Father in
Heaven who
rules over
all, when
you remember
the promises
of the Bible,
before you
know it,
unbidden, the
corner of a
smile appears
on your face.
And there's a
bit of a
lightness that
comes to
your step,
unbidden,
indirectly,
sideways.
So part of
the big
problem in
life is this.
I was a
humongous
hockey fan,
true confession,
it was before,
of course, the
Ottawa Senators.
I was a huge
Toronto Maple
Leafs fan.
And I remember
I'd become a
Christian, I
remember walking
to school one
day, and I
was devastated
that the Leafs
had lost, and
it was as if
the Holy Spirit
said to me,
why do you
care so much
about a
hockey team?
Like, George,
really?
The Holy Spirit
didn't say that,
but sort of.
You see, when
it says about
earthly things,
the Bible isn't
saying that you
should never care
about having a
really good cup of
coffee or a
really delicious
chocolate milkshake
or a well-done
steak or having
a good job or
being able to
have good clothes
or provide for
your family or
have friends, it's
not saying that you
shouldn't care about
all of those
things.
What it's saying is
a little bit about
what I talked about
last week, that the
human problem is our
loves are disordered,
and we were made to
have our loves
ordered.
And what happens
for human beings is
when the thing which
should be their
biggest love isn't in
that biggest love
place, and here
obviously the biggest
love should be the
triune God, it
should be our Lord
and Savior Jesus
Christ, and if we
don't have something
to put in that
biggest spot, all
these other smaller
loves will scurry up
to take that biggest
spot, and then all
of our loves are
going to be
disordered.
We end up loving
the maple leafs too
much, or the
senators too much, or
food too much, or
sex too much, because
we were made to love
the biggest thing the
biggest amount, and
not that we don't
love anything else, but
that you love small
things a small amount,
and medium things a
medium amount, and
big things a big amount,
and the biggest
thing the biggest
amount, and part of
what discipleship is, is
walking with Jesus and
reading the word, and
being with other
Christians, not just in
a local church, but
from a global
perspective, because we
need the help of
Christians from around
the world, and from the
past, is the slow
process of having our
loves ordered the way
they should be ordered,
and it begins by putting
the biggest love, the
biggest thing that you
should love, and having
that as your biggest
love.
Please stand.
Bow our heads in
prayer.
Father, we give you
thanks and praise that
your word addresses the
real us in the real
world, that it's not a
hallmark book, but
confronts us about real
things that both
delight us, and that we
long for, but also
things that we should
be ashamed of, and
repent of.
We thank you that it
speaks about the real
us in the real world, and
we thank you, Father,
that your word speaks to
us in such a realistic
way, but also in a way
of deep love, that it
comes, Father, from your
heart, that you do not
delight that anyone would
perish.
Your longing and yearning
is that all would repent
and call out to you,
Father, to Jesus to be
their Savior, that we
might begin to walk that
way, that path of
undeserved mercy, of
undeserved beauty, of
undeserved goodness and
grace and kindness that
comes from you.
And we ask, Father, that
your Holy Spirit would do
a gentle but deep work in
us, that day by day we
might remember your
greatness, your goodness,
your kindness, your
promises, that those
might be the things that
we think about the most,
that we feed on in our
hearts, that we might
think about them in our
own minds and share them
with others and come
Sunday by Sunday to be
reminded of the greatest
things.
And so now, Father, as
this service, this part of
the service comes to the
end and we prepare for
the next part of the
service when we receive
communion, we ask that you
would help us to feed on
Jesus in our hearts by
faith with thanksgiving.
And we ask these things in
Jesus' name and all God's
people said, Amen.