You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian
Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Our passion is to experience and express grace.
Join us.
If you have your Bibles, please.
I think there's a Pew Bible.
It says it's page 902.
And we're going to read John 16, starting in verse 16.
So let's read it.
And I would say this.
Take a deep breath.
Put your cell phones away.
Let your heart slow down.
Let God take care of the world.
And receive the gift of God's written word.
A little while and you will see me no longer.
And again, a little while and you will see me.
So some of his disciples said to one another, what is this that he says to us?
A little while and you will not see me.
And again, a little while you will see me.
And because I am going to the Father.
So they were saying, what does he mean by a little while?
And we do not know what he is talking about.
Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him.
So he said to them,
Is this what you are asking yourselves?
What I meant by saying a little while and you will not see me.
And again, a little while and you will see me.
Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.
You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.
When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come.
But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish.
For joy that a human being has been born into the world.
So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you.
In that day, you will ask nothing of me.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, I will give it to you.
Until now, you have asked nothing in my name.
Ask and you will receive and your joy may be full.
I have said these things to you in figures of speech.
The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
In that day, you will ask in my name.
And I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
For your Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
I came from the Father and have come into the world.
And now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.
His disciples said, ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech.
Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you.
This is why we believe that you came from God.
Jesus answered them, do you now believe me?
Behold, the hour is coming.
Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered each to his own home and will leave me alone.
Yet I am not alone for the Father is with me.
I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.
In the world you will have tribulation.
But take heart, I have overcome the world.
This is the written word of God.
Thanks be to God.
Let's pray.
Father, blaze a trail to the foot of the cross.
That we may look up into the face of Jesus and see your glory.
And once again, and once again decide to live all out for you.
I ask this in Christ's name.
Amen.
Okay.
My wife Sherry and I, over 30 years ago, we had a couple, an older couple.
They were, gosh, essentially our age.
They were 30 years older than us at the time.
He was a PCA pastor.
He was the editor of the PCA magazine at the time.
We were living in Atlanta.
We were fairly new Christians.
At least new Presbyterians.
And they were our small group leaders.
And they discipled us.
We got to be close to them.
I got to be close to him.
It was Bob and Shirley Sweet.
And Shirley used to disciple Sherry.
And one of the great things I loved about them was that they gave us these little short sayings.
They gave us these kind of, you know, memorable one-liners that we still repeat to each other all the time.
Here's one.
Here's one for you.
If you're a parent.
I remember Bob telling me about his older daughter.
And she was really a strong-willed child.
Right?
Who has strong-willed daughters.
Right?
She's a very strong-willed daughter.
And he sat her down one time.
And he said, listen, it's okay that you're strong-willed.
Just not self-willed.
It's like, boom, light bulbs went in my head.
I said, man, that's so good.
Because God gave us a strong-willed daughter too.
I think I said it to her a few times.
But isn't that great?
It's okay to be strong-willed.
It will serve you well.
Just not self-willed.
So write that one down.
He also, another sort of one-liner was, for so often, especially early in our marriage
and as we were, you know, as we kind of walked along with them, we were trying to make decisions.
And it seemed like we were sort of going back and forth on certain things.
We'd go this way and it seemed like God would, we'd have to go over here and do something different.
It was just trying to navigate life.
And for us, it felt like good night.
You know, we just can't seem to know what's going on and what we're doing.
But Bob sat me down and he said, Bill.
And he showed me.
He goes, you know, here's how you sail and you can tack back and forth.
And this is kind of how things are going for you.
He said, but with God, it's always a straight line.
Sherry and I repeat that to ourselves, each other too.
Hey, it's a straight line.
It's this idea that, you know, God is sovereign, right?
And we have, he's sovereign, but we have responsibilities.
And because God is sovereign, I don't have to be anxious about the future because it's a straight line.
But I can't be complacent either.
So I'm going to make a decision, right?
With God, it's always a straight line.
There's another one.
Write that one down.
Now, this one I'm going to give you really applies to the text here.
Because he was telling a story of his older kids.
They were older.
And he was telling me that they were, maybe, I think it may have been like 4th of July or Thanksgiving.
Because all the kids were home and they're all older.
But they were talking about their lives.
And they were explaining and they were kind of complaining.
You know, about, oh, my job is hard.
And this is, you know, I don't, my boss doesn't get me.
And then this other kid was sort of bellyaching about this part of his life.
And he was just hearing this sort of cacophony of just all his complaining.
And he finally said, all right, time out.
He goes, listen, let me tell you something.
He said, stop being so surprised.
Because here's the truth.
Here's the one-liner.
He said, all of life is uphill.
All of it.
All of life is uphill.
I think that's right.
Sherry and I repeat that to each other all the time.
It's all uphill when we start complaining.
And I just envision Bob sort of giving it to his kids.
You know, mic drop.
Or if he smoked, you know, put his cigarette down and walk out of the room.
You know, all of life is uphill.
And I get used to it, right?
At the very end of our very long text.
That was a long text to read, wasn't it?
But at the very end in verse 33, Jesus sort of gives this last word, the last word of his farewell discourse before he shifts gears and starts to pray.
The high priestly prayer that we find in John 17.
It's almost sort of like, I don't want to say a mic drop.
But it's really just an amazing summary of everything he's been saying.
When he says, you know, in this world you will have trouble.
Our text says tribulation.
But it's trouble.
Or some places it's trials and sorrows.
In this world you will have trouble.
He says, but take heart.
You know, or cheer up.
I've overcome the world.
That's the last word of this long and amazing farewell discourse he's been giving.
Now, I think all of us get the idea that all of life is uphill.
Like in this world you will have trouble.
Right?
In a room this size with many people out here, there's a whole range of experiences.
Right?
You know that life is trouble.
But you've kind of avoided it for a good long while.
Okay?
And that does happen.
But you know that maybe just over the next ridge there could be something.
Because you just know that's how life is.
We all know that.
There are some people in the room that have had a really difficult time.
And you're embittered at what has happened.
And there's a whole group of us as well that have and understand that it's, you know, because life hasn't been easy.
But in time you've come to see the meaning of what's going on.
In time you've come to see the good that has come out of the trial and the sorrows.
Because God, you know, really empowered you to be able to trust him in it.
And one of the sayings that Bob and Shirley gave to us, and I know it's not original to them, but boy is it true.
He said, you can either get bitter or better.
Right?
You either get bitter or better.
But all of life is uphill.
It's hard.
So if we look at the text, in particular, the front end, like verses 16 through 24, here's what we find.
Here's how Jesus starts to ease into talking about the difficulties of life.
He's telling his disciples about his death and resurrection.
They're a little confused.
They don't know what he means.
What he's going to go away and then he's going to come back.
But he's telling them about his death and resurrection.
They have many questions about what Jesus meant.
Jesus knows this.
And that's happened a few times in John, right?
He knows what's in a man, right?
He knows what people are thinking.
It's amazing.
This Jesus is phenomenal.
He's amazing.
Right?
He knows.
He knows that the questions they're asking even before they ask.
And he tells them, he says, look, there will be a time that you will weep.
Right?
Because death is painful.
They're going to experience Jesus' death.
And they're going to weep.
But there's but the world will rejoice.
They're going to be there.
The world's going to like what happened.
You're not.
And he says, you know, your sorrow will turn to joy.
And he said it will be like giving birth.
Right?
Pain is forgotten when there's a joy of the new life.
And I just thought, just sort of as an aside, I thought, gosh, I wonder, you know, we all can't, not all of us in this room can relate to childbirth.
Maybe we should, maybe what might be good is, you know, passing a kidney stone.
And I thought, well, that doesn't really work.
Because it is painful.
But all you birth is a kidney stone.
So that would be terrible.
I don't know, unless you're a urologist.
Because I've been in a urologist's offices.
And he had framed kidney stones on the wall.
I remember seeing.
I guess it is sort of like a picture of your kid.
I don't know.
But the thing, the point, though, that Jesus makes is that this pain, new life comes from it.
He really, that imagery of new life coming from the pain.
That's what, this pain is not for nothing.
Essentially is what he's saying.
Okay.
And then he says, when you see me again, your sorrow will become joy so deep that it can never be taken from you.
And he's just telling these great, about what's about to happen.
And then, then he says, that day when your pain turns to joy, that day, it will truly be new life.
Because he's talking about his resurrection.
He's talking about when he appears.
And that day ushers in the whole church age.
Right?
But that day when he's there, their joy, all their questions are answered on that day when Jesus appears.
All their questions are answered.
In fact, now the questions will be transformed into prayers.
That they'll go directly to the Father and offer up prayers to the Father.
All their questions will be answered because of the resurrection.
And that day, new life is born.
But although all of life will be uphill, you can have a foundation of joy.
That's what Jesus is saying.
You can have a foundation of joy in an uphill life.
Okay.
So let's try to unpack all that.
So all of life is uphill.
We see this in the mix of sorrow and joy when he's talking to the disciples.
So there's a time of sorrows and there's a time of joy.
That really does represent how life is.
Right?
And so this time of sorrow for the disciples during that time, there are three things that we can look at that we can apply directly to our lives.
These are the types of sorrows that you and I will experience in this world.
Have experienced.
Will experience.
Where the first thing was the disciples experienced personal loss.
Jesus actually died.
It was a painful time.
This person that they loved had become their friend.
Their rabbi had become their friend.
They were following Jesus.
They were really.
And he dies.
And they felt the pain of that loss.
That is part of the uphill life in this world.
If you've ever had anybody in your life die, you know how disorienting that is.
It's painful.
And there's other types of loss.
You may have had ideas that it was a loss of a dream for your family or your children.
And the pain of seeing what they go through, that kind of loss is very painful as a parent to watch.
And so we have deaths of dreams.
All that loss is part of the uphill life, right?
Personal loss.
There's another thing that the disciples went through.
Jesus said the world is going to rejoice when you are in sorrow.
That's our experience as followers of Jesus.
More and more our culture is losing any sense of transcendence.
And we are swimming upstream.
In fact, all of life is uphill and it's also upstream, right?
It's that we're feeling the pull of our culture.
And that is part of all of life being uphill.
And the last thing is disappointments.
The disciples were disappointed.
When Jesus appears in Luke 24 on the road to Amazus and he's talking to the disciples,
they had hoped that Jesus was going to redeem Israel.
So their expectations, they were experiencing disappointment at that time.
And let's look at that.
Let's think about how all of life is uphill.
We experience so many disappointments because we have expectations here and the reality is here.
And all that stuff in between is disappointment.
Now you may find this really hard to believe.
I'm going to give you a one-liner about disappointments, okay?
And it's great.
Hopefully I can do it well.
But you're going to find this really hard to believe that I took a preaching course with Tim Keller.
Are you sure you did?
Yes, I did.
It was a week long.
I audited the class.
Maybe that's why I didn't learn anything.
But it was fantastic.
Tim Keller was there along with someone that had mentored him, Ed Clowney.
It was a great week.
It was fantastic.
But he marched us through the sermon that he had written.
And he was telling us how he did it and what he was thinking.
And this sermon was about Jacob and Rachel, right?
If you know the Old Testament story, you know, Jacob fell in love with Laban's daughter.
Laban was his uncle.
And Rachel was at least one of two daughters.
Her older sister, Leah, compared to her.
Like the Bible tries to describe how beautiful Rachel was.
Like just like wow, like beautiful.
And then Leah, her older sister, I'm not sure, maybe just in comparison.
But like no.
You know, you're going to pick Rachel over Leah every time.
And so he says, I want to marry Rachel.
And Laban, her dad, says, you've got to work for me for seven years.
And he was so in love with her that after seven years, it only felt like seven days.
And then on the night of the marriage, they get married.
It must have been really dark because Laban sends Leah into the tent to consummate the marriage.
And so he ends up, but he doesn't know it's Leah.
Right?
That's the story.
Jacob doesn't know it's Leah.
But he marries their, they consummate the marriage.
And he wakes up married to Leah.
He wakes up.
And his expectations, he was very disappointed it was Leah.
Right?
And so Keller marched her through and he said, now here was my point.
He said, anything you hope for in this life other than God will disappoint.
Anything you hope for other than God, it will disappoint.
And here was his one liner.
He said, it's always Leah in the morning.
And that's, right?
It's always Leah in the morning.
No matter what you're hoping in other than God, you will be disappointed.
It's always Leah in the morning.
All of life is uphill.
And anything you place your hope in, it's always Leah in the morning.
I guess it was Oscar Wilde or Bernard Shaw.
One of them said, the two tragedies in life are not getting what you want.
And the second tragedy is getting what you want.
It's always Leah in the morning.
All of life is uphill.
But there is a day.
There is a day that changes everything about life.
Look at verse 23.
You will ask nothing of me, Jesus says, on that day.
And what he is saying is, all your questions will be answered.
All of them.
In the resurrection.
Because I defeated death.
All of your questions will be answered.
And all of your questions now will be turned into prayers because you can go directly to the Father.
And then when the Holy Spirit comes, right?
All this stuff starts to add up.
But on that day, all your questions will be answered.
And so, two ways that your questions get answered, even in this life.
Whatever your questions are about life.
First of all, it's the event of the resurrection that changes everything.
The event, right?
Many people, maybe some of your, maybe you, maybe someone you know,
might be, have pushed away from the faith.
You know, have walked away.
They believed at one time, but now they don't.
Again, Tim Keller says, one of the things you can do that's really helpful is really listen.
Really listen intently to people that are struggling with their faith or have walked away from their faith.
But after you've listened for a while, a good thing to do is this.
Ask them why they originally believed that Jesus rose from the dead.
You know, why did you originally believe that?
Because bring them back to the resurrection.
That's so important.
But ask, why did you originally believe that Jesus rose from the dead?
And how did you come to decide now that he didn't?
Keller says, they usually say this is a very helpful question.
Because the resurrection of Jesus, everything changes.
This is, that true event is significant.
It answers all your questions.
Now, it's an event, but this is what's even more important about this.
The resurrection is a person.
Remember the story of Jesus' good friend, Lazarus, when he died.
Even Jesus felt the pain of the loss.
He cried, right?
But Martha, Lazarus' sister, came to Jesus and said to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
And that's how, you know, Jesus was never in a hurry, right?
He was in full control.
But she said, look, if you had just, and she had questions.
Like, why, you know, why did you lay?
How come you didn't come quicker?
Or she had all kinds of questions.
But she says, but even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.
And then Jesus says, your brother will rise again.
Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.
See, Martha had her theology right.
She knew lots of things about Jesus, and she could spout them off.
And she knew lots of things about theology, that there was a day coming when everyone would be resurrected.
She said, she had that right, but she was missing something, and Jesus goes right for it.
And he said to her, yeah, you're talking about the resurrection.
He said, I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
I love what Jesus was doing there.
This is what we all need to be doing.
The resurrection is an event.
It's true.
And there's lots of implications for that.
But Jesus said, look, here's what's at the bottom line of it.
I am the resurrection and the life.
We come to Jesus.
We may know the truth about the resurrection, but do you know Jesus?
Do you know the resurrection?
I love how he's done that in this passage.
All of our questions, all of our theology is absorbed and wrapped up in Jesus.
It's him.
It's always Jesus.
Now here's one liner that fits here.
And it's the bonus one liner that's in your outline.
I love this one so much.
I just want to pass it on.
Because it fits here.
If you look at the book of Job, right?
And you know that story.
This is a guy who had everything.
He had wealth.
He had a family that loved him.
And God said he was a righteous man.
He loved God with every ounce of his being, right?
And so, so much so that Satan came to God and said, yeah, let me, Adam.
If I take everything away from him, I bet you he will curse you.
He will forget your name.
He'll walk away from you.
And God said, nope, he won't.
Go ahead.
Let's watch.
And so, Satan takes everything away from him, right?
And so, in the meantime, all his friends come around to sort of console him.
And they're always asking why.
Why do you think God did this to you?
Why do you think, you know, this happened?
Why, why, why, why?
They're just sitting there trying to figure this out.
They're asking why.
And they're trying to, they think they have the answers.
And, you know, Job does pretty well.
But it gets to the point towards the end where God starts to really speak.
He speaks out.
And he says this in Job 38, 4.
Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth, Job?
Tell me, if you have understanding, tell me all your answers to why.
Right?
And then Job finally goes, all right.
He says this in Job 42.
I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear.
Right?
It's almost like I know a bunch of stuff about you.
You know, I know a bunch of things about you.
But then he says, but now my eyes see you.
Job is saying, now I know you.
I know you.
And so, here's the one-liner.
I don't know who came up with it.
But if you ever want to understand what the book of Job is about,
here's your summary of the book of Job.
It's fantastic.
I love it.
You ready?
Here's, here it is.
It is better to know God than to know why.
All the questions that you have are wrapped up and absorbed up in a person.
It's Jesus.
It is better to know Jesus than to know why.
It is.
I can tell you.
It is.
And all of your questions get transformed into prayers.
Right?
Jesus said these things to you.
Right?
Because, see, it's about a person.
It's Jesus.
Jesus said this.
Because he says, in me, you might have peace.
In me, you will have peace.
All of life is uphill.
But he preceded that by saying, in me, you will have peace.
Now, that very last line, Jesus has been saying many, many times through the farewell discourse.
He's been saying things like, I said these things.
And here's a series of them.
John 15, 11.
He said, I tell you these things.
These things I have spoken to you.
That my joy may be in you.
And that your joy may be full.
He wants people to be joyful.
He's been telling them things.
And he wants them to experience joy.
But John 16, 1 and 16, 4.
It's in the form of a warning.
I don't want you to fall away.
I don't want you to get so overwhelmed with life that you walk away.
So I'm telling you these things that you don't walk away.
I'm telling you these things that you can be joyful.
I'm telling you these things that you don't walk away.
And then we get to John 16, 33.
He said, I'm telling you these things to you.
That in me, you will have peace.
In the world, you will have trouble.
Tribulation.
But cheer up.
I have overcome the world.
So what are these things that he's been telling us?
Telling his disciples and then telling us.
There are lots.
There's many things.
But it's things like, I go to prepare a place for you.
Right?
Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you.
Jesus said, I'm sending the Holy Spirit.
Will preached on that last week.
I'm sending the Holy Spirit.
So you have power to live in an uphill world.
I love you.
And the Father loves you.
We see that in verse 27 in our text.
And he says, I'm sending you into the world to do good things in my name.
But the one final climax that he tells them is, I've overcome the world.
I've overcome the world.
How did Jesus overcome the world?
Well, remember that day.
The resurrection.
On that day when he appeared to his disciples.
On that day, that glorious day.
Tragedy became victory.
Death is not the end now.
It goes on.
He overcame the world through the resurrection.
He's overcoming the world continually.
By sending the Holy Spirit.
You know, on the day of Pentecost.
The Holy Spirit.
The power to live in a disappointing uphill world.
Is what this Holy Spirit resides in us.
Because all of life is uphill.
It's always Leah in the morning.
And it is better to know God than to know why.
So he sends the Holy Spirit to fill us.
So that we can know God.
This is eternal life.
That they may know you.
The only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
It's joyful power for the uphill journey.
Resurrection.
Sending of the Holy Spirit.
And finally when he returns.
When the new heavens and new earth.
Are in its fullness.
And so what Jesus is saying.
That the best is yet to come.
The best is yet to come.
So let me.
A couple more one-liners.
To sort of finish this off.
I think I stole this from Steve Brown.
But in light of.
Jesus' resurrection.
The coming of the Holy Spirit.
The new heavens and new earth.
Where you know.
It.
You know.
The best is yet to come.
All of that.
In light of that.
We live in Jesus.
And in Jesus.
We have nothing to prove.
Protect.
Or lose.
That's the last word on your outline.
We have nothing to prove.
Protect.
Or lose.
So we can bring everything into the light.
We can confess our sins.
We can bring everything into the light.
So that we can be free.
And we can follow Jesus.
Because of the resurrection.
Because the spirit is indwelling us.
And because the best is yet to come.
We.
There's no problem sacrificing in this life.
You will miss out on nothing.
Because.
We have Jesus.
We have all we need in him.
And so.
One of the things that Shirley.
Used to tell Sherry all the time.
Was that.
When.
In an uphill world.
Where things are difficult.
She used to say.
You can do anything for an hour.
You can sort of hang in there.
Just for an hour.
And those hours add up.
And the week will be over.
Right.
You can trust God.
In that hour.
Just turn your thoughts to him.
And you can do anything.
For the next hour.
And I think that's how we sort of become like Jacob.
In this life.
Right.
We have Jesus.
It's not Leah.
You know.
It's Jesus.
And we have him.
And so we can do anything.
For a lifetime.
We can sacrifice anything.
Because the best is yet to come.
And the other one line or two.
Along those lines.
That when we would go to Bob.
Or to Shirley.
We'd be talking to them.
They used to always say to us.
Well have you taken it up?
Have you taken this up?
To God.
Have you prayed about this?
Why are you coming to us and complain?
We told you.
All of life is uphill.
Have you taken it up to him?
And I think that's.
When Jesus is saying.
Have you asked in my name?
Have you taken it up to him?
Have you laid it at his feet?
And so that you can be.
Like your rabbi Jesus.
And say.
Not as I will.
But as you will.
That's the full life of surrender.
That comes from.
You have Jesus.
You have the resurrection.
You don't look at your life.
The way it's going.
You look at the one who is life.
Because it's all uphill.
All of it.
You have Jesus.
If you're in Christ.
So you take your eyes off of your life.
And you put it on the one who is life.
Jesus.
And so have you taken it up?
Do you take it up to him in prayer?
Do you lay it at his feet?
And trust.
Having palms up.
Receive and surrender completely to him.
That's what it means to be in him.
Be in him is absolute total dependence.
And so when Shirley would say.
You can make it through an hour.
Yeah I can make it through an hour.
If I redirect and direct my thoughts to Jesus.
Peace.
Who is the life.
I can have peace.
In the difficult uphill world.
And it will feel like.
It's just seven days.
In the new heavens and new earth.
All right.
So here's the thing.
I have a final conclusion.
I might have to go pretty far for this.
But I was thinking.
Of sort of one liners.
Maybe that's how I was trying to do that with this.
Hopefully it went okay.
Hopefully you've got a lot of one liners you can take with you.
And just sort of work on those.
Right.
But there was this article in Southern Living.
This past summer.
I ran across it on the internet.
And it's that line.
That sort of stereotypically is said.
By the old ladies in the church.
About other people.
Which is you know.
Bless her heart.
You know that line.
You know.
Bless your heart.
In that article.
It listed out a bunch of different ways that can be said.
Most of them were bad.
You know.
Bless your heart.
Which means.
Well you're not very smart.
You know.
But.
I want to rescue that phrase.
And there's one other one I want to rescue too.
Because.
In an uphill world.
Where it's always Leah in the morning.
You know.
Everything's hard.
It's difficult.
I want us to be sympathetic to those around us.
And when we see pain.
Acknowledge it.
And go and bless them.
By just acknowledging the pain.
It is hard.
Don't dismiss.
Don't bless your heart.
No.
It's.
Bless your heart.
The other phrase I want to rescue.
Is the one that could be said the same way.
Right.
You run across somebody that's just making really bad decisions.
And just go.
You need Jesus.
You know.
But it's true.
It's true.
We need Jesus.
And that's what we all need.
That's what all of us need to be.
We need to be pointing each other back to Jesus.
Have you taken it up?
Oh life is uphill.
What are you hoping in?
Man.
You need Jesus.
You need a relationship with him.
You need to be close with him.
So here's a translation.
Here's where we'll close with this.
So I want to have a new translation for John 16.33.
Right.
So when it says.
You know.
In me you will.
You may have peace.
Why don't we just say.
You need Jesus.
All right.
So that's part of the.
How we're going to translate it.
Where he says.
In this world you will have tribulation.
Let's just say all of life is uphill.
Right.
So we'll say.
Here's Jesus speaking.
Man.
You need me.
Why?
Because life is.
All of life is uphill.
And then he says.
But take heart.
I want to say cheer up.
Okay.
When he says.
I have overcome the world.
Why don't we say this.
So Jesus is speaking.
He says.
You need me.
Why?
Because all of life is uphill.
And it's always Leah in the morning.
Right.
But cheer up.
I have climbed that hill for you.
All of life is uphill.
But cheer up.
I have climbed that hill for you.
I live the life you couldn't live.
Jesus.
You know.
In Hebrews.
It says that Jesus was tempted in.
Every way as we are.
Yet without sin.
So he lived the life you couldn't live.
He walked uphill for you.
He walked that life.
But you know he walked the last hill too.
That last hill to the cross.
That was a hill that you deserve to climb.
You deserve to go and receive God's wrath.
But Jesus climbed that hill for you.
And scripture says he's the propitiation for our sins.
You know what that word means?
It means all of God's wrath was exhausted on Jesus.
He climbed that last hill.
All of God's wrath was exhausted on Jesus.
There's none left for you.
And so here's how we'll translate this last verse.
You need Jesus because all of life is uphill.
Cheer up.
I climbed the hill for you.
And I climbed that last hill too.
That's joy.
That's our joy.
He's our joy.
Let's just bask in that and let's pray.
Father.
Oh Jesus.
We need you.
That's it.
You're the resurrection.
You're the life.
We need you.
Why?
All of life is uphill.
It's hard.
But you climbed that hill for us.
And you went the extra mile.
You climbed that last hill.
The hill we deserved.
Thank you.
Now in that freedom.
We truly have nothing to prove.
Protect or lose.
So Father give us a vision.
For the well-being of others.
To love them well.
As you have loved us.
Teach us not to hoard or covet or anything.
But to let go of everything.
So that we can love well.
It's in Jesus name.
Amen.
For more information.
Visit us online at southwood.org.
Thank you.