When You Fast… (Matthew 6:16-18)

Intro / Review:

What is fasting?

Abstaining from food (and/or other things) for measured periods of time in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.

Fasting is NOT:

Fasting IS:

One question to evaluate your fasting (Matthew 6:16-18):

1. Am I hungry for ATTENTION ? (Mat 6:16)

2. ...Or Am I hungry for GOD ? (Mat 6:17-18)

Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:18-00:22

  Open up your Bibles with me please to Matthew chapter 6.

  00:23-00:28

  This is part 3 of a 3-part message from Matthew 6 that we started I think in January.

  00:28-00:33

  And next week we will be back in Revelation for 2 months and finish that book.

  00:33-00:38

  And that will take us all the way to July when we have the Fantastic Four coming in and preaching.

  00:39-00:43

  So people from our own church will be bringing the messages in July.

  00:43-00:52

  In Matthew 6, "When you fast..." And the key to all three of these sermons is really Matthew 6.1.

  00:52-01:23

  Jesus said, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." That word for "seen," reminder, is the Greek word "theotomi," which is where we get the word "theater." Jesus is saying, when you do religious actions, for lack of a better phrase, so that people see you doing them, not for God, but so that people see you, Jesus said you're putting on a performance.

  01:24-01:27

  You want applause, you want pats on the back, you want attention.

  01:27-01:33

  And specifically, Jesus goes after three things that God's people are expected to do.

  01:33-01:36

  And the first one is giving to the needy, right?

  01:36-01:38

  I don't have to give much of a sales pitch for that, do I?

  01:38-01:42

  We see someone in need, it's our responsibility to give to the needy.

  01:42-01:46

  And the second one is praying. I don't have to give much of a sales pitch for praying, right?

  01:46-01:48

  God's people are expected to pray.

  01:49-01:52

  But the third thing on the list is fasting.

  01:53-01:55

  And I gotta be honest with you, I feel like I'm playing from behind here.

  01:55-02:03

  Because while people recognize that giving and praying are normal things for Christians, fasting? Like, really?

  02:04-02:05

  Well, look at verse 16.

  02:05-02:09

  Jesus said, just his first phrase here, but look at his phrase, this is huge.

  02:10-02:17

  Jesus said, "And when you fast," same phrasing he used for giving and praying.

  02:17-02:20

  And it's just as expected.

  02:20-02:24

  Fasting is just as expected as giving and praying.

  02:24-02:29

  We're going to talk about fasting and what it is and what it means, and it's going to be easy for people to tune out.

  02:30-02:34

  But I want you to see what the Bible actually says about fasting, all right?

  02:35-02:42

  It's a hard sell in this culture, because we are absolutely obsessed with food in our culture.

  02:43-02:43

  True or false?

  02:44-02:45

  We're obsessed with food.

  02:45-02:51

  We don't like to eat something unless we first take a picture of it.

  02:52-03:00

  Like, "Oh, this alphabet soup looks so alphabetty." And I know my friends want to know that I'm eating alphabet soup.

  03:00-03:01

  And we take pictures of it.

  03:01-03:04

  And look, if that's your thing, I'm not criticizing you.

  03:04-03:07

  I'm just saying true or false, that's a reality of our culture.

  03:07-03:07

  Don't we do that?

  03:08-03:09

  We do that.

  03:09-03:14

  That's only the thing that completely baffles me about our culture, eating contests.

  03:15-03:20

  And I think, you know, one time I think it was on ESPN, there was an eating contest.

  03:20-03:22

  And I'm like, this is a sport really?

  03:22-03:27

  And what must other countries where you have starving people what must they think when they see that?

  03:28-03:32

  Like we don't have enough money to feed our, or enough food, excuse me, to feed our family.

  03:32-03:35

  But these people are having eating contests.

  03:36-03:39

  I looked this up this week, 'cause I'm familiar like you are.

  03:39-03:44

  We're probably most familiar with the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, right?

  03:44-03:47

  How many of you have at least heard of the Hot Dog Eating Contest, right?

  03:47-03:50

  Most of us have heard of the Hot Dog Eating Contest.

  03:50-03:55

  But you know, that's not the only eating contest that we have in our culture, our food obsessed culture.

  03:56-03:57

  There's a taco eating contest.

  03:58-04:00

  There's a chicken wing eating contest.

  04:01-04:04

  There's a guyoza eating contest.

  04:04-04:05

  Does anybody know what a guyoza is?

  04:06-04:07

  I had to look this one up.

  04:07-04:09

  It's a meat and vegetable filled dumpling.

  04:11-04:18

  There's a gyro eating contest or gyro for the cultured among us, I guess.

  04:18-04:22

  Okay, how about the, there's an oyster eating contest.

  04:22-04:26

  Oysters, Matthew Gates, how many oysters do you think you can get down?

  04:26-04:29

  Three, oh, zero, I thought you were like three.

  04:29-04:31

  He's like, no, no, no, this is the part you look at.

  04:32-04:33

  I was like, wow, that's three more than me.

  04:33-04:35

  Okay, deep fried asparagus.

  04:36-04:38

  There's a deep fried asparagus eating contest.

  04:38-04:42

  And there is a slug burger eating contest.

  04:42-04:44

  And I know what you're thinking.

  04:44-04:45

  What is a slug burger?

  04:46-04:47

  You look that one up on your own time.

  04:47-04:48

  I don't care to know.

  04:49-04:52

  But there is a slug burger eating contest.

  04:52-04:55

  But of all these eating contests, here's the one that really got my attention.

  04:55-05:02

  There's an eating contest for the consumption of a 72 ounce steak, a 72 ounce steak.

  05:03-05:12

  And I read of this individual who took this challenge, a woman, oh, it gets better, a 120 pound woman.

  05:13-05:15

  Yeah, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second, Pastor Jeff.

  05:15-05:19

  You're telling me that 120 pound woman ate a 72 ounce steak?

  05:20-05:22

  I'm not telling you that, she ate three of them.

  05:23-05:25

  Oh, no, no, it gets better, it gets better.

  05:26-05:27

  You're like, "She ate three 72-ounce steaks.

  05:28-05:32

  She ate three 72-ounce steaks in 20 minutes." Oh, no, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait.

  05:33-05:36

  I'm gonna give you time to get your gasp out like for all of it.

  05:36-05:47

  She ate not only three 72-ounce steaks in 20 minutes, but with that, she ate three baked potatoes, three shrimp cocktails, three salads, and three buttered rolls.

  05:47-05:50

  Yeah, we have a food-obsessed culture.

  05:50-05:53

  They're like, "We're gonna talk about fasting today." You're gonna talk about what?

  05:53-05:55

  We have so many TV shows about foods.

  05:56-06:00

  We have TV shows about people that just travel around and eat stuff.

  06:00-06:06

  Look, again, I'm not criticizing if this is your thing, but have you ever sat and watched somebody else eat?

  06:06-06:07

  It's disgusting.

  06:07-06:12

  And we watch people traveling around, you know, eating these weird things.

  06:12-06:16

  And then we have all these TV shows about people that make cakes.

  06:16-06:23

  And so we have this one channel where people are traveling around and eating and they're making all these, you know, cakes the size of a Buick.

  06:24-06:25

  and we have on that channel.

  06:26-06:36

  And then we wonder why the other channel has a TV program on it called "My 600-lb Life" about people that, sad people who can't stop eating.

  06:36-06:42

  America is taught that life is about consuming, not refusing consumption.

  06:43-06:50

  And then we open our Bibles for a word from Jesus, and he says, "When you fast." Notice he didn't say, "If you fast," right?

  06:50-06:51

  He didn't say that.

  06:51-06:57

  He said, "When you fast." assuming that his people were going to fast.

  06:58-07:02

  And we're going to see what Jesus says about fasting.

  07:02-07:08

  The real question isn't even if you fast, the real question is for God's people, how you fast.

  07:09-07:09

  That's the real question.

  07:10-07:12

  Let's all get on the same page definition-wise.

  07:12-07:12

  What is fasting?

  07:13-07:23

  Fasting is abstaining from food and/or other things for measured periods of time in order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.

  07:23-07:26

  Okay, so we're abstaining from food and/or other things, we'll talk about that in a second.

  07:27-07:30

  For measured periods of time, why would I do such a thing?

  07:31-07:34

  This last phrase is huge and you've got to get this or you're going to miss the whole sermon.

  07:34-07:38

  In order to heighten my hunger for the things of God.

  07:39-07:40

  There's different kinds of fasts.

  07:40-07:45

  There's a partial fast where you, maybe for a season you just have vegetables and juice.

  07:46-07:55

  There's the absolute fast where you say, "I'm not going to have anything at all." There's corporate fasts where we are going to fast together.

  07:56-07:59

  Now yes, it is true that you can fast from other things.

  08:00-08:02

  Look, I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV.

  08:02-08:09

  I'm not a doctor, so I can't give you medical advice if you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I have this health condition.

  08:10-08:13

  I'm not sure it's good for me to fast." Talk to your doctor about that, okay?

  08:13-08:21

  But if you have a health condition that you're like, "I absolutely cannot go without eating," you can certainly fast from other things, okay?

  08:21-08:27

  But primarily today, with that said, primarily today, we are going to talk about food.

  08:27-08:33

  Because that's what Jesus is talking about, and that is really the most common expected kind of fasting.

  08:33-08:35

  Through the Bible, fasting is connected with prayer.

  08:35-08:37

  We have so many examples throughout Scripture.

  08:38-08:39

  Jesus Himself fasted.

  08:39-08:43

  It's mentioned over 77 times in God's Word.

  08:43-08:45

  Fasting, various occasions.

  08:45-08:47

  Maybe it's repentance from sin.

  08:47-08:50

  Maybe you're in mourning over the loss of a loved one.

  08:50-08:53

  denying yourself to give to others.

  08:53-08:55

  That's Isaiah 58 type fasting.

  08:55-08:58

  Seeking God's wisdom at critical times.

  08:58-09:01

  That's what the early church did in the book of Acts, chapters 13 and 14.

  09:02-09:04

  We need God's wisdom and direction.

  09:05-09:07

  So we're going to church, we're going to fast.

  09:08-09:12

  And right now, somebody's thinking, I came to church on the wrong day.

  09:12-09:17

  I don't know where he's going with this because fasting is never commanded in the New Testament.

  09:17-09:18

  And that's true.

  09:18-09:21

  fasting is not ever commanded in the New Testament.

  09:21-09:24

  But Jesus just assumed that we would.

  09:24-09:25

  You can't get around that.

  09:26-09:33

  Jesus said, "When you fast." And the Greek tense of that phrase is habitual, customary.

  09:33-09:35

  Jesus says, "This is going to be part of your life.

  09:35-09:41

  So when you do it, our Lord expects that we're going to fast." And the early church did, okay?

  09:42-09:45

  So fasting is not, let's talk about that.

  09:45-09:47

  Fasting is not, everybody say fasting is not.

  09:48-09:52

  Fasting is not, first of all, if you're taking notes, fasting is not self-punishment, okay?

  09:53-10:01

  Like, oh, I was really bad and I committed these sins and I'm going to fast and like it's some sort of a self-punishment thing.

  10:01-10:03

  That's not what fasting is.

  10:03-10:09

  All of the punishment that you deserve, Jesus Christ took that on himself on the cross, okay?

  10:09-10:13

  There's no more punishment to be doled out if you're a born-again believer in Christ.

  10:13-10:15

  So fasting is not self-punishment.

  10:15-10:19

  Fasting is also, it's not, everybody say not.

  10:19-10:21

  Fasting is not self-serving.

  10:22-10:25

  Meaning somebody could hear a message on fasting and say, "Hey, you know what?

  10:26-10:27

  I could stand to lose a couple pounds.

  10:28-10:33

  So maybe I'll do a fast and there are some health benefits." And that's absolutely true.

  10:33-10:41

  There's tremendous health benefits from fasting and you might lose some weight, but that's not a motivation to fast biblically, okay?

  10:42-10:45

  We're talking about spiritual reasons for fasting.

  10:45-10:49

  And if you're like, well, two birds with one stone here, I'm just saying you gotta check your motives there.

  10:49-10:50

  It's not about self-serving.

  10:51-10:53

  The focus is on seeking the Lord.

  10:54-10:58

  Now fasting is not, everybody say not, it's not a bargaining chip.

  10:59-11:00

  Fasting is not a bargaining chip.

  11:00-11:03

  Like, all right, God, look, I really need this job.

  11:04-11:05

  And I'm going in for this job interview.

  11:05-11:07

  So I'm going to fast.

  11:07-11:09

  Now you make sure I get that job.

  11:10-11:20

  Almost like we're bringing some offer to the table and God's like, "Well, I guess I gotta get him that job because he's fasting." That's not what fasting is about.

  11:20-11:21

  It is not a bargaining chip.

  11:22-11:26

  Like, "Look, God, you have to cash in for me because I'm doing something for you." That is not what fasting is about.

  11:27-11:29

  Fasting is not, everybody say not.

  11:29-11:32

  Fasting is not something that makes you holy, okay?

  11:32-11:34

  Fasting does not make you holy.

  11:35-11:36

  Just a little bit of review from last Sunday.

  11:37-11:38

  Jesus Christ makes you holy.

  11:39-11:41

  He gives you his holiness.

  11:41-11:46

  You know, what was the sermon? He was raised for our justification.

  11:46-11:50

  So this idea that fasting makes me a holy person, it does not.

  11:51-11:53

  Jesus Christ makes you a holy person.

  11:53-11:58

  Fasting does not... Everybody say "not." Fasting does not get God's attention.

  11:59-12:07

  Okay, catch this. Fasting is not, "Hey, notice me, God!" Fasting is about me noticing God.

  12:07-12:09

  Fasting doesn't make your prayers more powerful.

  12:10-12:11

  Fasting makes you more focused.

  12:11-12:13

  So that's what fasting is not.

  12:13-12:15

  Here's what fasting is.

  12:15-12:16

  Here's what fasting is.

  12:16-12:20

  First of all, fasting is saying no to the flesh and yes to the spirits.

  12:20-12:23

  It's a way of preferring God over the gifts that God has given.

  12:24-12:25

  This is so important.

  12:25-12:29

  Fasting is, write this down, fasting is a means to an end.

  12:29-12:31

  Fasting is not an end.

  12:31-12:35

  In other words, we don't fast just for the sake of fasting.

  12:36-12:41

  They're like, "Well, then why do we do it?" Because we sort of give for the sake of giving, and we sort of pray for the sake of praying.

  12:41-12:43

  Why don't we fast for the sake of fasting?

  12:43-12:45

  Fasting is a means to an end.

  12:46-12:47

  What end is that?

  12:47-12:49

  Well, here's our problem, Christians.

  12:49-12:53

  Mine too, all of us, individually, Christians.

  12:53-12:55

  We want to focus on God in our lives, right?

  12:56-13:00

  Don't we want to live a God-centered, God-focused life?

  13:00-13:01

  We all want that.

  13:01-13:08

  But the problem is oftentimes, myself included, We want to focus on God, but we want other things more.

  13:08-13:19

  The question is, what do I do when what I want, which is a God-centered mindset, what do I do when what I want isn't what I choose because of all this other stuff?

  13:20-13:21

  Well, fasting is the answer.

  13:21-13:27

  Fasting is stopping the feeding of ourselves with other things in order to focus on our relationship with God.

  13:28-13:32

  Because you only have the capacity to consume so much every day.

  13:33-13:37

  You only have so much capacity for satisfaction.

  13:37-13:40

  So, that was a really long introduction.

  13:40-13:43

  But that's okay, because the sermon is one question.

  13:44-13:49

  One question to evaluate your fasting, because like Jesus, I'm assuming that you're fasting.

  13:49-13:55

  So one question to evaluate your fasting, and we're going to look at the question in two parts, as Jesus presented it.

  13:55-14:01

  Number one, first question is, "Am I hungry for attention?" "Am I hungry for attention?" Look at verse 16.

  14:02-14:11

  Jesus says that when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others.

  14:12-14:15

  Truly I say to you, they have received their reward.

  14:16-14:18

  See, fasting was a part of Jewish culture.

  14:18-14:19

  It's certainly not part of ours.

  14:20-14:22

  You're like, well, then how relevant is this stuff?

  14:22-14:33

  And I would suggest to you, maybe a little more, because since it's not a part of our culture, Even more so today, people who fast are going to stand out.

  14:34-14:37

  Then we become tempted to fast with the wrong motive.

  14:37-14:39

  Like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hang on a second.

  14:40-14:48

  Jesus said, "Don't look gloomy like the hypocrites." I have a question about this. Why in the world is this hypocrisy?

  14:48-14:55

  Okay, like, if you are fasting, and you look like you're fasting, how in the world is that hypocrisy?

  14:56-14:59

  Because fasting is supposed to be about seeking the Lord.

  14:59-15:02

  Fasting is not supposed to be about seeking attention.

  15:02-15:03

  That's the hypocrisy.

  15:03-15:06

  Let's be honest. We love the attention.

  15:06-15:08

  Let's be honest. We love attention.

  15:08-15:10

  That's the whole basis of social media.

  15:10-15:12

  That's the whole basis of selfies.

  15:12-15:14

  We love attention from people.

  15:14-15:17

  How many likes did I get? How many shares did I get?

  15:18-15:20

  How many comments did I get?

  15:21-15:23

  Look, I'm not condemning it. I'm just saying this is a reality.

  15:23-15:28

  And Jesus knew this is a reality, which is why He taught what He taught.

  15:28-15:32

  One of the problems with hypocrisy is how successful it is.

  15:33-15:34

  I mean, we've all been there.

  15:34-15:39

  Someone makes a comment about how devoted we must be to the Lord, and we're so proud of ourselves.

  15:40-15:48

  We're walking around the rest of the day like, "Yeah, I'm like the greatest thing since the Apostle Paul to ever happen to Christendom." And we love the attention.

  15:49-15:51

  And the people in Jesus' day, boy, they made it a show.

  15:52-16:00

  That's why Jesus said, "Don't look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces." Their fasting may be seen by others.

  16:00-16:09

  "They disfigure their faces." They, with their facial expressions, wanted people to know that they were fasting.

  16:10-16:10

  Okay?

  16:11-16:19

  So I want you to turn to your neighbor right now and make your best, "I haven't eaten in six hours and I'm starving to death" face.

  16:19-16:20

  Go ahead.

  16:20-16:22

  Looks like some of you have been practicing this week.

  16:24-16:41

  But Jesus was like, "Don't be like these people, they walk around..." "What's the matter with you?" "I'm fasting." "Oh, why are you making that face then?" But Jesus said that's what they did.

  16:41-16:48

  In fact, I read this week that a lot of Jews would actually take ashes and smear ashes on their eyes when they were fasting.

  16:48-17:02

  It's like, "Dude, why do you look so horrible?" "Because I'm so spiritual, that's why." Jesus said when you do that, when your goal is to make sure that people know that you're fasting, and they notice, there's the reward.

  17:02-17:03

  There's the reward.

  17:04-17:12

  "What's the matter? You look sickly. You look like you're dying." "I'm fasting for spiritual reasons." "Wow, that's really cool." And there it is. There's your reward.

  17:14-17:14

  Yay!

  17:16-17:16

  Pretty lame, right?

  17:17-17:19

  Isn't that lame? It's lame.

  17:19-17:22

  But it's like giving, and it's like praying.

  17:22-17:29

  If you do it to be seen by others, and they applaud you, they pat you on the back, that's all you get. Enjoy that.

  17:30-17:32

  You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Hang on, Pastor Jeff.

  17:32-17:37

  You said there were examples of corporate fasting, like the church fasting.

  17:38-17:42

  I mean, when you're doing that, other people obviously have to know about it." Right on. Right on.

  17:42-17:44

  There are New Testament examples of that.

  17:44-17:48

  Again, Acts chapter 13, Acts chapter 14, you see the church fasting.

  17:48-18:00

  They're like, "Ha ha ha ha, other people had to have known about that." Yeah, but you see, it's not about whether or not they knew, it's about whether you wanted them to know.

  18:00-18:01

  You see the difference?

  18:02-18:05

  It's not about whether they knew, it's about whether you want them to know.

  18:05-18:08

  In other words, it boils down to your motive.

  18:09-18:09

  What's your motive?

  18:10-18:17

  There's a difference between being seen fasting and fasting in order to be seen.

  18:17-18:18

  Huge difference.

  18:19-18:21

  When I fast, I tell Erin.

  18:22-18:22

  Why would I tell Erin?

  18:23-18:25

  Because I want her applause, right?

  18:26-18:28

  Now, next week we will have been married for what, 17 years?

  18:29-18:32

  And I know at this point she's not going to applaud me.

  18:33-18:34

  She deserves applause.

  18:34-18:45

  When I tell her, I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to be fasting starting on Monday." It's not for her attention or her applause or her to, "Oh, let me get on my social media and tell..." It's not that at all. Why would I tell her that?

  18:45-18:47

  Because she feeds a family, right?

  18:47-18:57

  and it's going to get really awkward the next few days if she's making a meal and I'm trying to concoct some sort of excuse why I'm not going to eat it because I don't want her to know I'm fasting.

  18:57-19:08

  She's like, "What's the matter?" I'm like, "Um, all of a sudden I don't like pizza." No, I tell her that because, not for applause, but because she feeds a family.

  19:09-19:11

  It boils down to the motives, church.

  19:11-19:15

  Just like giving, just like praying, applause for man equals no reward from God.

  19:15-19:15

  All right?

  19:16-19:18

  So am I hungry for attention or secondly, am I hungry for God?

  19:19-19:21

  Am I hungry for God? Look at the next two verses.

  19:21-19:27

  Home stretch here. Jesus says, "But when you fast..." Oh, there it is again. That assumption that you will.

  19:28-19:36

  "But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret.

  19:37-19:57

  And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." So Jesus makes a contrast. Instead of making yourself look sickly, "I'm so gloomy and disfigured." Instead of doing that, Jesus said, "Anoint your head and wash your face." In other words, don't leave any physical clue, okay?

  19:57-20:11

  He wasn't, let's say you want to picture this as somebody might misunderstand this and think, "Okay, instead of the sign of a disfigured face, the sign that I let people know that I'm fasting is I'm just constantly washing my face." Like, what are you doing?

  20:11-20:16

  "Oh, Jesus said to do this when I'm fasting and that's exactly what I'm doing because I'm so spiritual.

  20:16-20:17

  No, that's not the point.

  20:18-20:25

  To draw attention to your fasting, the point is, as far as anybody else knows, nothing's different, everything's the same.

  20:25-20:26

  The obvious point, right?

  20:27-20:29

  Like giving, like praying, we've already studied.

  20:29-20:32

  Make fasting a secret between you and God.

  20:32-20:34

  And He sees, and He rewards.

  20:35-20:39

  Again, reward does not mean, "God, You owe me.

  20:39-20:43

  I did this for You, now You have to do this for me." That's not what the reward is.

  20:43-20:45

  Because you know God never works like that.

  20:45-20:48

  Everything that God gives is grace. Everything.

  20:48-20:52

  God never, ever, ever works on some kind of a reward system.

  20:53-20:59

  God doesn't show up at a swap meet and say, "Here's what I'll give, now here's what can you give." God does not work that way.

  21:00-21:06

  So when Jesus says God rewards, we're going to talk about what that means, but it's not a swap meet.

  21:06-21:14

  Your salvation, the gift of the Holy Spirit, your growing sanctification, all of that, It's a gift from God.

  21:14-21:18

  And the reward for fasting is connecting with God.

  21:19-21:28

  You see, with fasting, God is the reward because you are seeking Him in a very deliberate and focused way.

  21:28-21:37

  And you say, well, you're telling me that something spiritual happens if I choose not to eat or if I abstain from something else for a season.

  21:38-21:44

  And instead, I use that time and I use that appetite to seek the Lord.

  21:44-21:48

  You're telling me if I do that, something spiritual is going to happen.

  21:48-21:50

  Yeah, that's exactly what I'm telling you.

  21:51-21:55

  And if you've never done it, it's very hard to understand somebody talk about it.

  21:55-22:02

  But you will understand it better after you do it, if you do it for the right reason.

  22:02-22:04

  And I want to encourage you to try it.

  22:04-22:06

  And you say, "You know what, this week I'm going to skip lunch.

  22:07-22:10

  and instead I'm going to spend that time praying instead.

  22:11-22:16

  You try that for a few days, and tell me there's not an awesome reward of connecting with God during that time.

  22:17-22:18

  Or maybe you say, "You know what?

  22:18-22:36

  I'm going to go one or two days this week with nothing but water, and instead of eating and mealtime, I'm going to spend some time in His Word, and I'm going to spend some time praying for my family." If you do that, and you will see that there is no greater reward that God can offer than the reward of Himself.

  22:36-22:47

  The reward of an experience of sweet fellowship with Jesus Christ that you don't normally have because we're so used to filling ourselves up with this other stuff.

  22:48-22:51

  And pardon the pun, but food is a sacred cow in our culture.

  22:52-22:56

  And as soon as you talk about fasting, some people say, "I just don't think I can skip a meal.

  22:57-23:05

  I hear what you're saying, and I don't have any health issues, but I just don't think I can go without eating for a day or two." I'll do respect.

  23:06-23:12

  If that's what you're saying or thinking right now, that might be a commentary for what appetite really controls you.

  23:12-23:22

  I ask you, are you hungry enough for God that you're willing to forego consuming food and consuming other things to focus solely on seeking Him?

  23:22-23:24

  Are you that hungry for God?

  23:24-23:32

  If you're in a season of your life right now where you've been finding that, you know, focusing on my walk with Christ has been so difficult.

  23:32-23:34

  It's just, there's so many distractions.

  23:34-23:45

  at work and at home and I have sick parents or sick grandparents and my kids require 24 hour attention and there's just so much stuff happening in my life.

  23:45-23:51

  I just feel like in this season of my life, my walk with Christ has not been what I want it to be.

  23:51-23:55

  I'm just gonna be honest, I haven't felt like I've had this appetite for prayer.

  23:56-23:59

  I haven't been seeking God in this season of my life.

  24:00-24:03

  If that's you, I got some wonderful news for you today.

  24:03-24:09

  God has given you a gift to help you get back to a place of sweet fellowship with Him.

  24:10-24:14

  He's given you a gift that allows you to redirect your appetite.

  24:14-24:17

  So when you give, don't blow the trumpet.

  24:17-24:19

  When you pray, don't make it a performance.

  24:19-24:22

  And when you fast, don't look like you're dying.

  24:22-24:25

  Jesus said, don't let the left hand know what the right hand's doing.

  24:26-24:29

  Jesus said, go into your room and shut the door when you pray.

  24:29-24:35

  And Jesus said, "When you fast, wash your face." I gotta confess something to you.

  24:35-24:41

  When I was preparing these messages, maybe this is considered cheating, I don't know.

  24:41-24:43

  I just have to confess this to you.

  24:43-24:47

  With these Matthew 6 sermons, I basically just gave the same sermon three times.

  24:48-24:50

  Just swapped out giving, praying, and fasting.

  24:50-24:51

  You swap out those words.

  24:52-25:00

  But I basically just gave the same exact sermon three times because in all of our religious actions, It's in the text.

  25:00-25:01

  It follows the same formula.

  25:02-25:10

  Jesus said, "If you give pray fast to be seen by others, you're going to miss God's reward." Same formula with all three.

  25:11-25:20

  But same formula, "If you do these things in secret, then God sees and God rewards." And there are rewards, church.

  25:20-25:25

  There are rewards for a faith that says, "I'm not looking for man's applause.

  25:25-25:35

  I'm getting alone and I'm getting real with God And fasting brings the greatest possible reward, and that's drawing closer to God Himself.

  25:35-25:36

  Let's pray.

  25:36-25:40

  Father in heaven, we thank you for the gift of fasting.

  25:40-25:47

  You've given us the gift of giving and the gift of prayer, but Father, we confess in our culture the gift of fasting seems very strange.

  25:48-25:49

  But I pray, Father, for ears to hear.

  25:50-25:51

  These things are spiritually appraised.

  25:52-26:02

  And Father, I know that I have some brothers and sisters right here who are in a period of their life where they feel like they're in a desert place, that their walk with you has been dry.

  26:02-26:11

  They feel like you've been absent when we all know in our heads, God, that you promised to never leave us or forsake us, that when you feel absent, that's on us.

  26:11-26:16

  Father, I pray that we would be a people who fast with pure motives.

  26:16-26:22

  And Father, I pray for the people here that are sitting here right now and say, you know, I need to get closer in my walk with Christ.

  26:23-26:23

  I need to fast.

  26:24-26:30

  Father, I pray that this week they would see the fulfillment of Your Word unfold before their eyes.

  26:31-26:38

  When Jesus said, "Your Father who sees in secret will reward you," I pray they experience that sweet fellowship this week.

  26:39-26:45

  And they might not understand it now, Father, but I know that they will understand it because of the integrity of Your Word.

  26:46-26:48

  They will understand it after they do it.

  26:49-26:50

  Manifest Your glory.

  26:50-26:55

  Draw us closer to You, Father, and teach us how to fast.

  26:55-26:57

  We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 6:16-18

GROUP

1. What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?

BREAKOUT

Pray for one another - to grow as prayers in these areas.

Jesus Christ: Raised for our Justification

Romans 4:25 - ...who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

See: 2 Corinthians 5:21 | Romans 8:31

Five Unanswerable Questions:

1. If God is with us, who can be AGAINST? (Rom 8:31)
2. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously GIVE us all things? (Rom 8:32)
3. Who will bring a CHARGE against God's elect? (Rom 8:33)
4. Who is the one who CONDEMNS? (Rom 8:34)
5. Who shall SEPARATE us from the love of Christ? (Rom 8:35-39)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:18-00:21

  Open your Bibles with me, please, to Romans 4.

  00:22-00:28

  You know, there are things about God and His Word that are just very hard for me to understand.

  00:29-00:31

  You know, like creation? Think about that.

  00:32-00:38

  The Bible says that God created everything just by speaking it into existence.

  00:39-00:48

  All the beautiful and complex things that you see in this world, God just took a few days and just spoke it into existence.

  00:49-00:53

  I believe that, but I'm going to be honest with you, I don't understand it.

  00:53-00:55

  Or like the Trinity, right?

  00:56-01:01

  The Bible says that there's one God, but He's revealed Himself as three persons.

  01:02-01:05

  And I believe that, but I don't understand it.

  01:05-01:24

  And we can talk about eternity, and we can talk about predestination, and all of these All of these things really are kindergarten compared to the one thing in the Bible that I believe is absolutely the most baffling thing, and that is justification.

  01:24-01:26

  That is the hardest thing for me to understand.

  01:27-01:29

  I believe it, but I don't understand it.

  01:29-01:32

  We're looking at Romans 4.25 this year.

  01:33-01:37

  A couple of days ago we talked about the first half of the verse, and today we're going to look at the second half.

  01:37-01:45

  But talking about Jesus Christ, Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses.

  01:46-01:48

  We talked about what that meant.

  01:48-01:55

  The "delivered up" literally means to hand a guilty person over to the authorities in order to be punished.

  01:55-01:59

  And for your sin and for my sin, Jesus was treated as guilty.

  02:00-02:04

  And He was punished on my behalf and on your behalf.

  02:04-02:11

  The second half of this verse says, regarding Jesus, and raised for our justification.

  02:11-02:18

  Today we're going to talk about, again, what is in my opinion, the hardest thing in the Bible for me to wrap my brain around.

  02:19-02:21

  Today we're going to talk about justification.

  02:21-02:23

  Like, what is justification?

  02:24-02:28

  Well, if you go to a theology book and get a definition, it says something like this.

  02:29-02:34

  Justification is when God declares a sinner as being righteous.

  02:35-02:40

  It's based on the blood of Jesus Christ, and it's appropriated by faith.

  02:41-02:52

  It's when God would look at a sinner like me, because of what Jesus did for me, God would look at me and say, "You're perfect." What does that even mean?

  02:52-03:05

  You know, sometimes we try to come up with little definitions, little illustrations, cute little things to help us understand very hard things, but with justification, I thought of a couple that I've heard over the years, There's ways that people have tried to explain it.

  03:05-03:09

  People say, "Well, justification is like, you know, like in word processing documents, right?

  03:10-03:12

  You know, how you can justify the text.

  03:12-03:13

  You know what I'm talking about?

  03:13-03:14

  You know what I'm talking about?

  03:14-03:25

  Like if it's right justified, that means it's lined up on the right, and if it's left justified, it's lined up on the left." Justification is like when God sort of lines you up, okay?

  03:26-03:26

  Yeah, sure.

  03:27-03:29

  And all God's people said, "Amen," I guess.

  03:30-03:33

  And some people have said, "No, justification, think of it this way.

  03:34-03:38

  Justification, just as if I've never sinned." How many people have heard that one?

  03:38-03:40

  Okay, that's a popular one in here.

  03:40-03:41

  I'm going to break that one down.

  03:41-03:42

  They like that one.

  03:43-03:45

  Okay, now, that's true.

  03:45-03:50

  Look, look, "just as if I've never sinned." That's true, but it's incomplete.

  03:50-03:56

  Because when it comes to salvation, there's a negative aspect and there's a positive aspect.

  03:56-03:57

  And here's what I mean by that.

  03:58-04:01

  is the negative aspect of salvation.

  04:02-04:06

  Which means with forgiveness, God subtracted sin from you.

  04:06-04:08

  Okay? That's forgiveness.

  04:09-04:20

  Justification is the positive aspect, because with justification, God has added something to you, which is His righteousness.

  04:21-04:23

  Is anybody else baffled by this?

  04:23-04:30

  2 Corinthians 5.21 says, "For our sake, He, God, the Father, made Him, God the Son, Jesus.

  04:30-04:34

  God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin.

  04:35-04:39

  That when He was on the cross, Jesus was treated as sin.

  04:40-04:43

  But look at the second half of this verse. This is justification.

  04:43-04:47

  So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

  04:47-04:51

  That when you put your faith in Christ, God sees you as righteous.

  04:52-04:54

  But look at this last phrase. How righteous?

  04:54-04:57

  As righteous as your grandma? No.

  04:57-05:01

  As righteous as the Apostle Paul? No, no, no.

  05:02-05:04

  Greater than that. As righteous as Billy Graham? No.

  05:05-05:14

  Look, when you put your faith in Christ, He sees you as righteous as Himself, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

  05:14-05:19

  That is how perfect God regards you.

  05:19-05:21

  Is there anybody else baffled by this?

  05:22-05:35

  that God would look at a piece of garbage like me, and I've done some things that I'm so ashamed of and embarrassed of, and God would say, "Well, when you receive My Son, you're as perfect as My Son." Baffling.

  05:35-05:40

  An illustration that I like that helps me understand it a little bit more.

  05:41-05:47

  I heard the story of this lady who was speeding through this town, and she got pulled over and she ended up in court.

  05:47-05:50

  I don't think this is a true story, by the way.

  05:50-05:52

  Don't fact-check this, okay?

  05:53-05:55

  Somebody right now is like, "Fake news!

  05:55-05:58

  Fake news in the church!" It's an illustration.

  05:58-06:09

  So as the illustration goes, the woman shows up in court, and the judge says, "You either have to pay a $500 fine, or you go to jail." That doesn't sound right, so I think this is an illustration.

  06:10-06:23

  But anyways, the woman looked at the judge, and she said, "I don't have the money, and I really can't go to jail." And as the story goes, The judge looked down on her from his bench, and he stood up.

  06:23-06:38

  And he took his black robe off, and he put his suit jacket on, and he went and he stood beside the woman, and he pulled out his checkbook from his coat, and he pulled out a pen, and he wrote a check for $500, and he slapped it on the bench.

  06:39-06:47

  Then he took his suit jacket off, and he went and he put his black robe back on, and he sat down on the bench, and he said, listen, the law says you owe $500.

  06:48-06:53

  And then he picked up the check that he just wrote and said, oh, your penalty's been paid.

  06:53-06:54

  You're free to go.

  06:55-06:59

  And you see in that story, what I like about that story, is the judge didn't just say, you know what?

  06:59-07:00

  Just forget about it.

  07:00-07:00

  Get out of here.

  07:01-07:02

  I'm just going to let you off.

  07:03-07:08

  Because if he had done that, there's still a matter of $500 that hasn't been paid.

  07:08-07:17

  But what he did instead was come down to her and actually, from his own account, pay what she owed.

  07:18-07:21

  And church, that's exactly what Jesus Christ has done for you.

  07:21-07:27

  He came down from heaven to stand beside us to pay what we owed, credited to make perfect.

  07:27-07:30

  Jesus was raised for our justification.

  07:31-07:41

  The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, His death, paid the penalty of our sin, and understand that His resurrection is what validated the sacrifice.

  07:41-07:45

  That's what raised for our justification means.

  07:45-07:57

  In other words, if Jesus had just stayed dead, crucified, put in the tomb, and He stayed dead, there would always be this shadow of doubt over the significance of the cross.

  07:57-07:57

  Always.

  07:58-08:10

  We'd still be sitting here today going, "Well, you know, He said He was the Savior of the world, and He said He was going to die for our sins, but how do we really know that sin was conquered?

  08:10-08:16

  How do we really know that He really is who He said He is?" And the answer is the resurrection.

  08:17-08:19

  Jesus was raised for our justification.

  08:19-08:20

  Do you believe that?

  08:21-08:25

  You know, somehow we believe it, but we don't live like we believe it.

  08:25-08:33

  Because even in the church, we still somehow want to think that we contribute to our justification, to our...

  08:33-08:38

  We somehow have to contribute to our right standing before God.

  08:38-08:40

  And I understand why we feel that way.

  08:41-08:44

  It's a very performance-based society, isn't it?

  08:44-08:48

  Some of us grow up feeling like, "If I do a good job, Dad's happy with me.

  08:48-08:50

  If I do a good job, my boss is happy with me.

  08:50-08:55

  If I do a good job, the teacher is happy with me." And we carry that over to God.

  08:55-09:01

  And say, "If I do a good job, God is happy with me." And we think somehow that we contribute.

  09:01-09:12

  Maybe it's the amount of faith that we have, or the amount of good works that we do, or we hope that when we cross over into His presence, hopefully our good outweighs the bad.

  09:13-09:16

  That basis is going to be how God lets us into heaven.

  09:17-09:22

  And we convince ourselves that those things are easier to believe than what the Bible actually says.

  09:23-09:29

  And what the Bible actually says is Jesus was raised for our justification.

  09:29-09:38

  If you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, it is a gift that God has bought for you that He desperately wants to give you.

  09:38-09:40

  And you can receive that today.

  09:40-09:44

  And if you're sitting here today You have received it.

  09:44-09:46

  I want to remind you that you didn't earn it.

  09:47-09:49

  And you can't work to keep it.

  09:49-09:53

  I want to remind you that God doesn't love you less when you have a bad day.

  09:54-09:56

  And God doesn't love you more when you have a good day.

  09:56-09:58

  It's not based on your works.

  09:58-10:00

  It's not based on your church affiliation.

  10:00-10:02

  It's not based on your church attendance.

  10:02-10:05

  It's not based on how much you've suffered here on the earth.

  10:06-10:09

  In Christ, God has pronounced you justified.

  10:10-10:18

  You are perfect because it's not based on what you do, but it's based on what Christ has done for you.

  10:18-10:37

  If your salvation, if your justification was based on you, how many times a day do you think you would get saved and lose your salvation, and get saved, and lose your salvation, and get saved, and you lose your salvation, and "Oh God, I hope I die in a good moment." And some people believe that.

  10:38-10:39

  But it's not based on you.

  10:39-10:42

  based on what Christ has done for you.

  10:42-10:43

  I want you to turn over a couple pages.

  10:44-10:47

  We're gonna stay in Romans, but I want you to turn to Romans 8.

  10:48-11:04

  Romans 8, looking at verse 31, Paul writes, "What then shall we say to these things?" He just spent all this time talking about the crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection of Christ and God's Holy Spirit indwelling God's people, that we are free and we are forgiven.

  11:05-11:14

  And then he gets to Romans 8.31, and he says, "What shall we say to these things?" as in, we have to say something about all of this.

  11:14-11:16

  This is good news for you today.

  11:16-11:26

  For when you're feeling condemned, if you're thinking, you know, I believe in Jesus and I believe all that, but you know, Pastor Jeff, I feel like God is mad at me.

  11:27-11:30

  Or if you've ever struggled with, you know, I just don't know if God really loves me.

  11:31-11:35

  We're gonna look at five questions God's word gives us that we can ask ourselves.

  11:35-11:36

  Five questions.

  11:36-11:42

  I'd encourage you to take this outline, Keep it as a bookmark here, because you're going to want to turn back to it.

  11:42-11:46

  Stick it on your refrigerator, because you're going to want to go back to it.

  11:46-11:55

  But the times that the doubt creeps in, or the self-condemnation creeps in, you need to look at these five questions that God's Word gives you.

  11:55-11:58

  Now, these are easy questions, because they don't have any answer.

  11:58-12:00

  We're going to look at them quickly this morning.

  12:00-12:02

  Five unanswerable questions.

  12:02-12:05

  They come straight from the text. Look at the first one.

  12:05-12:18

  "What then shall we say to these things?" He says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" You see, if Paul would have just said, "Who can be against us?" I don't know about you, but there are days that I feel like the whole world is against me.

  12:19-12:19

  Anybody else?

  12:19-12:22

  Do you just feel like, "Who can be against me?

  12:22-12:26

  "There's like a line forming outside my house.

  12:26-12:29

  "It feels like everything is against me." But that's not what he said.

  12:30-12:43

  He said, "If God is for us." Meaning for those of us who have received Jesus Christ, The cross proved once and for all this glorious truth that God is for us.

  12:44-12:51

  All the powers of earth, all the powers of hell could stand against us and never prevail because God is on our side.

  12:51-13:03

  And whoever could rob us of our salvation, whoever could rob us of our justification, whoever could destroy our relationship with God would have to be more powerful than God Himself.

  13:04-13:06

  The first question is, if God is for us, who can be against us?

  13:06-13:07

  Well, let's answer that.

  13:08-13:11

  Go ahead, shout out the name of somebody that could be against you if God's on your side.

  13:12-13:13

  Shout it out, shout it out.

  13:13-13:16

  Who can be against you if God is for you?

  13:16-13:17

  Who?

  13:17-13:17

  Anybody?

  13:18-13:20

  Can anybody be against you if God is for you?

  13:21-13:21

  Anyone?

  13:22-13:22

  Anyone?

  13:23-13:25

  God is on your side.

  13:25-13:32

  And there are so many people walking around thinking that God's just waiting for me to step out of line so he can smack me back in.

  13:32-13:34

  That's the kind of God that we serve.

  13:34-13:39

  And that's not true, because the cross proved that God is, He's for us.

  13:40-13:41

  He's for us.

  13:42-13:43

  So who can be against us?

  13:43-14:09

  Second question, "He who did not spare his own son, "but gave him up for us all, "how will he not also with him graciously "give us all things?" Again, notice Paul didn't say, "Will God not graciously just give us all things?" Because we can look at that question in that form and say, "How can we be sure that God's going to give us everything that we need?" Also, in the world, what I deserve from God, the answer is nothing.

  14:09-14:13

  But the way that Paul phrases the question takes the doubt away.

  14:13-14:22

  You see, Paul points to the cross, and he says, "Listen, God gave you His Son." That's a big difference between God and me.

  14:22-14:24

  There's a lot of differences, I'm sure you could tell.

  14:24-14:25

  There's one in particular.

  14:25-14:31

  "If giving up my Son meant saving you, I wouldn't do it." Hey, you are loved.

  14:32-14:37

  But I'm just going to be honest with you, if somebody said, "Hey, Pastor Jeff, you can save everybody in this room right now.

  14:38-14:45

  You just have to kill one of your sons." I would say, "I'll see you all in heaven, because I'm not giving up my son for you.

  14:45-14:50

  There is no way that is ever going to happen." But you know, God didn't think like that.

  14:50-14:52

  God says, "I'm willing to give up my son for you.

  14:52-15:01

  I'm willing to allow my son to endure the most horrible, brutal, public execution for you.

  15:01-15:06

  And that's why Paul points to the cross, and he says, "Do you want to know how generous God is?

  15:06-15:19

  He who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all." In other words, if God gave us the most precious thing that He has, He's going to give us anything else that we need.

  15:19-15:21

  In Jesus, God gave us everything.

  15:22-15:25

  And the cross is proof of God's generosity.

  15:26-15:31

  The third question is, "Who will bring a charge against God's elect?" Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

  15:31-15:36

  This question and the next question we're going to look at actually take us to a courtroom scenario.

  15:36-15:42

  And what Paul's saying here is no prosecution can succeed, because the judge has already justified us.

  15:43-15:54

  So stop walking around saying, "You know, I'm just a sinner." I hear people say that, "Well, I'm just a sinner." I'm just a sinner." In Christ, no you are not.

  15:54-15:55

  You used to be.

  15:56-15:58

  But God doesn't see you like that anymore.

  15:59-16:01

  And you need to stop seeing yourself that way.

  16:01-16:05

  Because when you walk around saying, "I'm just a sinner, oh, I'm just a sinner," do you know what you're doing?

  16:06-16:12

  Not only are you contradicting what God has said about you, but you're giving yourself an excuse to sin.

  16:12-16:18

  "Well, God, I can't help it. I'm weak. I'm just a sinner. I'm just a sinner." If you're just a sinner, go sin.

  16:18-16:19

  But that's not who you are.

  16:20-16:23

  You're a blood-bought child of God. You are set free from that.

  16:24-16:25

  The charges were dropped.

  16:25-16:35

  And the next question carries the same courtroom theme when he says, look at verse 34, he says, "Who shall bring," verse 33, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

  16:35-16:37

  It is God who justifies." There's that word again.

  16:38-16:42

  Verse 34, "Who is to condemn?" We've got a lot of people that want to condemn us.

  16:43-16:45

  We have critics, we have enemies, we have the devil.

  16:45-16:49

  Worse than that, I think our biggest problem is our own heart.

  16:49-16:51

  Our own heart wants to condemn us.

  16:51-16:55

  But Paul says, "Who is the one who condemns?" And he gives us right here, it's right there in the text.

  16:56-16:57

  Four reasons there's no condemnation.

  16:58-16:59

  Four reasons. Just look at the text.

  17:00-17:02

  There's four reasons there's no condemnation for you if you're in Christ.

  17:03-17:09

  Look at the first one, "Christ Jesus is the one who died." There's no condemnation for you because Christ took it on Himself.

  17:10-17:12

  He bore a condemnation on the cross.

  17:12-17:14

  He was delivered for our trespasses.

  17:14-17:15

  There's no condemnation.

  17:16-17:18

  That's one reason. Look at the second reason.

  17:18-17:31

  He says, "More than that, who was raised, raised to life by the Father, accepting the sacrifice of His Son for our justification, Jesus defeated death." That's the second reason.

  17:32-17:36

  The third reason, again, look at the text, who is at the right hand of God.

  17:37-17:39

  Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.

  17:39-17:44

  There's no condemnation because Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.

  17:44-17:53

  And you can't miss the significance of this because the work of justification was an event that happened one time, that never needs to be repeated.

  17:54-17:56

  See, that's why Jesus is sitting down.

  17:56-18:00

  Jesus isn't sitting at the right hand of the Father because He's tired.

  18:00-18:04

  Like, "Oh, that was a long 33 years on the earth.

  18:04-18:11

  I need to just take a load off for a few thousand years." That's not why Jesus is seated.

  18:11-18:13

  Jesus is seated because He's done.

  18:14-18:16

  The work of salvation doesn't...

  18:16-18:17

  Nothing else needs to happen.

  18:18-18:21

  It's not like Jesus sat down, He's like, "Oh, Father, they're messing up again.

  18:22-18:27

  I'm going to have to go do some more redemptive work." It's over. He's done.

  18:27-18:30

  And He's sitting down, so there's no condemnation.

  18:30-18:35

  And the fourth, look at the next phrase, "Who is indeed interceding for us." This is great news.

  18:35-18:38

  That Jesus Christ is interceding for you right now.

  18:39-18:39

  Do you realize that?

  18:40-19:11

  Do you realize right now, at this very minute, Jesus Christ is praying for you our advocate are to use this courtroom terminology Jesus is our attorney. He's our attorney much better than that. Who's that guy? There's never a fee unless we get money for you Attorney Edgar Snyder. Thank you Much better. We already saw this as we went through Revelation But Satan is called the accuser of the brethren Satan is an accuser of God's people and in this courtroom scenario Satan is accusing you before God.

  19:11-19:21

  Satan is saying, "He's no good. She's just a sinner." Look, I can't believe you have any interest in this piece of garbage, because worthless, okay? Worthless!

  19:21-19:36

  Satan is accusing you, but you have this defense attorney, Jesus Christ, who stands and says, "Your Honor, I hear these accusations, but I present to the court that I died for Him, and that sin He's being accused of, I died for that.

  19:36-19:43

  and every sin that the enemy wants to list and throw up in your face, I'm here to tell you that I died for that.

  19:43-19:47

  I took the condemnation. I gave her my righteousness.

  19:47-19:57

  So often even born-again Christians are tempted to think, "You know, I have to answer for all the wrong that I've done." Not if you're in Christ, because there's no double jeopardy in God's court.

  19:57-20:09

  You see, it's not like God punished Jesus for your sin, and God's like, "I'm still mad, and I'm going to punish that person too." Romans 8.1 says, "There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

  20:10-20:18

  It is forever settled in God's courtroom." And then the last question, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Look at verse 35.

  20:19-20:23

  "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" And then he gives a sample list.

  20:23-20:28

  "Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

  20:28-20:32

  As it is written, 'For your sake we are being killed all the day long.

  20:32-20:34

  we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

  20:35-20:40

  Quoting from the Old Testament, really all he's doing there is saying, you know what, suffering has always been the experience of God's people.

  20:40-20:43

  He says, "Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

  20:44-21:00

  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present or things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else, and all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." We are not just conquerors.

  21:01-21:02

  We are more than conquerors.

  21:03-21:09

  We are not just squeaked out a run in extra innings because the team committed an error.

  21:10-21:12

  Whoo, that was a close one.

  21:12-21:16

  We won eight trillion to nothing and the team forfeited.

  21:16-21:19

  We are more than conquerors.

  21:19-21:20

  So these are the questions.

  21:20-21:23

  If God is for us, who can be against us?

  21:23-21:26

  If God gave us his son, how will he not also give us everything else that we need?

  21:27-21:29

  Who can accuse us when God has justified us?

  21:29-21:32

  Who can condemn us when Christ has already paid the penalty for our sin?

  21:33-21:35

  What can separate us from the love of Christ?

  21:35-21:36

  What's the answer?

  21:36-21:39

  Praise God, none of these questions have an answer.

  21:39-21:40

  There's no condemnation.

  21:41-21:42

  There's no separation.

  21:43-21:48

  There is nothing that can undo your standing with God.

  21:48-21:56

  He has pronounced you perfect because Jesus was raised for our justification.

  21:56-21:57

  Would you bow your heads with me, please?

  21:58-22:01

  Father in heaven, we thank You for the truth of Your Word.

  22:01-22:06

  Father, I confess, this is a hard one for me to understand, because I know my own wickedness.

  22:06-22:10

  I don't know it as well as You do, but I know it a lot better than everybody else does.

  22:10-22:20

  I know my wickedness, and the fact that You would pronounce me not only not guilty, but You would pronounce me perfect and righteous because of what Jesus did on my behalf.

  22:20-22:24

  God, I just can't even wrap my brain around that.

  22:24-22:27

  Father, I pray if there's any here today who don't know You.

  22:27-22:37

  There's any here today that feel like, "I'm not good enough to come to God," or, "I don't deserve anything from God." Maybe that's true, but that certainly isn't how you acted.

  22:37-22:41

  That certainly is not, Father, how you regard that person.

  22:41-22:44

  You sent your Son to die for the worst, like me.

  22:44-22:55

  I pray, Father, today is the day that we stop looking at reasons that we don't think that you would accept us, and instead we look at the truth that because of Christ, you have accepted us.

  22:55-22:59

  You welcome us back. You redeem and transform us.

  22:59-23:01

  You adopt us. You save us.

  23:02-23:04

  Not based on our conduct, but based on Christ's.

  23:05-23:11

  Father, for the believer here who maybe has been struggling, I pray that today is the day of repentance for that person.

  23:11-23:13

  We don't walk as defeated people.

  23:13-23:18

  We walk as people who have been called more than conquerors because of the victory of Jesus Christ.

  23:19-23:20

  It's in His glorious name.

  23:20-23:23

  We pray and we praise You, Father. Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Romans 4:25

1. What was your big “take-away”? What stood out to you from this passage / message?

2. Define justification. How is it different from “forgiveness”?

3. Why do many Christians still feel condemned, despite saying they believe what the Bible says about justification?

BREAKOUT

Pray for one another to live in light of Romans 4:25.

Jesus Christ: Delivered Up for Our Trespasses

4 Truths About Your Sin Diagnosis:

1. You are a sinner by BIRTH. (Rom 5:12-21)
2. You are a sinner by CHOICE. (Rom 1:29-31
3. Sin disqualifies you from HEAVEN. (Rom 3:23)
4. Jesus was DELIVERED for our sin. (Rom 4:25)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:00-00:03

  So I had this doctor's appointment, and the physician's assistant came in.

  00:03-00:07

  And you know the normal things you go through when you go to a doctor's appointment.

  00:07-00:12

  They check your weight, and they check your pulse, and they check my blood pressure.

  00:12-00:18

  I remember the physician's assistant, upon checking my blood pressure, had this completely horrified look on her face.

  00:19-00:26

  She said, "Are you feeling okay?" And I said, "Yeah, I feel great." She said, "Your blood pressure is completely out of control.

  00:26-00:32

  "Look, this is as serious as it gets, and I need to talk to the doctor about this." And then she left the room.

  00:33-00:42

  So I'm sitting there in this room on the little couch with the big sheet of tissue paper on it, and it seemed like she was gone for about three hours.

  00:43-00:59

  And it was a time, I'll be honest with you, it was a time of serious reflection for me as I sat on that, thinking, "You know, I've had a lot of regrets in life, and didn't accomplish everything I've wanted to." you know, the things you reflect about in the face of your impending death.

  00:59-01:04

  I thought about my love, Aaron. I thought about my kids.

  01:05-01:06

  It was serious reflection time.

  01:06-01:40

  And I thought, "What's going to happen to my family when I'm gone?" Well, the doctor comes in with the physician's assistant, and he said, "I'm really worried about your blood pressure." I said, "I wasn't either until, you know, a little bit ago." And he looked over on the cabinet, the little sink/shelf area thing they have there, and he said, "Is that the cuff that they use to take your blood pressure?" I said, "Yeah, it is." He goes, "Oh, that's the cuff they use on like six-year-olds." So he got a big boy blood pressure cuff and he took my blood pressure and I was fine.

  01:41-01:45

  But I want to talk about going to the doctor, because Jesus said something about that.

  01:45-01:58

  In Mark 2.17, Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick..." I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

  01:59-02:04

  And that's something for us to sit down and reflect upon tonight.

  02:04-02:06

  When do people go to the doctor?

  02:07-02:13

  You're like, "Well, when they're sick, right?" No. People go to the doctor when they know that they're sick.

  02:14-02:15

  You see.

  02:15-02:16

  And it's Good Friday.

  02:17-02:24

  And I've got to tell you, as somebody that's been in ministry 20 some odd years, however long it's been, this gets harder every year.

  02:25-02:28

  Not because the message isn't compelling, it's not that.

  02:28-02:32

  It's not because the gospel has gotten old.

  02:33-02:44

  The reason this gets harder and harder is because every year, We are more and more and more and more losing the concept of sin in our culture.

  02:44-02:48

  Just go ask people. Just go ask people. Just go ask random people.

  02:49-02:54

  What is sin? I mean, when you think about it, sexually, anything goes.

  02:55-03:00

  Addiction, which is really a form of idolatry, is called a disease.

  03:01-03:03

  Abortion has been approved by the government.

  03:03-03:08

  Coarse joking and crude language is just normal.

  03:08-03:15

  And today, really, the only thing that the world would agree on as sin is not accepting someone's unbiblical lifestyle.

  03:16-03:30

  The reality is that we're all born sinners, and rather than acknowledge the truth, even in the church sometimes, we're more content to excuse sin or to justify sin, but we are ultra-resistant to confess it.

  03:30-03:35

  because many people believe, in the end, "You know, I'm really not that bad of a person.

  03:35-03:37

  God's just going to ignore my sin.

  03:37-03:47

  Whoops! Nobody's perfect!" That's a terrible mindset, because it minimizes the wickedness of sin, and worse, it minimizes the holiness of God.

  03:48-04:10

  So you see, we come to the cross of Jesus Christ and we miss the significance of the event, and you come to a Good Friday service, as is happening all in this area, and you have preachers standing up, saying, "Jesus died for your sin!" And you have people filling seats everywhere, going, "What does that even mean?" I'd like you to bow your heads with me, please.

  04:11-04:21

  Father, as we turn to Your Word now, I ask that we would allow Your Word to define things, as we are a people unwittingly affected by culture.

  04:21-04:28

  Father, I pray not only for this church, but I pray for every church in this area right now that is proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  04:28-04:32

  I pray, Father, that 2019 would be a year of revival.

  04:33-04:40

  It would be a year of people who are done living for themselves, and instead turn to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  04:41-04:43

  Fathers, we turn to Your Word now.

  04:43-04:47

  May Your Holy Spirit take the seed of Your Word.

  04:47-04:54

  And Father, I pray Your Holy Spirit finds fertile soil right here, so that that seed would take root, and that seed would multiply.

  04:55-04:56

  We pray these things in Jesus' name.

  04:57-04:58

  We're in the book of Romans.

  04:58-05:03

  Romans is the most comprehensive commentary on the significance of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

  05:03-05:13

  Chapters 1-3 generally describe the problem, which is sin, and chapter 4 starts really describing the solution, which is God's grace.

  05:14-05:21

  That salvation, God's grace, is appropriated by faith in the promises of God.

  05:22-05:27

  And to illustrate what that looks like, when we get to Romans 4, Paul uses the story of Abraham.

  05:28-05:34

  God made a promise to Abraham to bring life from death.

  05:34-05:38

  And the promise that God made to Abraham made no human sense whatsoever.

  05:38-05:40

  But Abraham believed God.

  05:40-05:42

  And that's the very essence of faith.

  05:42-05:44

  It's taking God at His word.

  05:45-05:47

  Look at Romans 4.22.

  05:48-05:59

  It says, "This is why Abraham's faith was counted to him as righteousness, but the words it was counted to Him were not for His sake alone, but for ours also.

  06:00-06:08

  It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord." Stop there.

  06:09-06:14

  You see, in Paul talking about Abraham, he's saying that Abraham's story is not a one and done.

  06:15-06:16

  That it's for us today.

  06:17-06:19

  Same God. Same faith.

  06:19-06:24

  and it's faith in what God accomplished through Jesus Christ.

  06:25-06:27

  What did God accomplish through Jesus Christ?

  06:27-06:31

  Well, this year, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, we're taking a little turn from what we normally do.

  06:31-06:38

  Normally we take a giant chunk of text and we work our way through it, but this year we're studying one verse.

  06:38-06:41

  We're going to do half today, and we're going to do the other half on Sunday.

  06:42-06:44

  And that verse is Romans 4.25.

  06:45-06:56

  that says, speaking of Jesus, "who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." What does that mean?

  06:56-07:11

  Let's talk about the word "trespasses." The word literally means "fall beside." And it was used to describe someone who was on a path and deviated from the path that they were supposed to be on.

  07:12-07:13

  That is trespassing.

  07:13-07:17

  In our vernacular, we would say it is to cross the line.

  07:17-07:18

  Here's the line.

  07:19-07:21

  Don't go across that line.

  07:21-07:32

  And trespassing is, "I'm crossing the line." I hear what you say, I see what I'm supposed to do, what I'm not supposed to do, but I'm doing it because I want to.

  07:32-07:34

  That's what a trespass is.

  07:35-07:37

  It falls under the category of sin.

  07:37-07:57

  And when it comes to God, when it comes to the Word of God, God says, "Do this!" And we say, "I'm not going to do that." Or God says, "Listen, don't do this!" And we say, "I'm doing it." Mark 2.17, Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician.

  07:57-08:10

  But those who are sick I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." So simply tonight I want to ask, Can we allow the great physician to rightly diagnose our real issue with sin?

  08:11-08:18

  Can we put away our six-year-old blood pressure cuffs of the culture that are giving us a wrong reading of the problem?

  08:18-08:22

  Can we put the big boy cuff on to get an accurate diagnosis?

  08:22-08:26

  If you're taking notes, I want you to jot down four truths about your sin diagnosis.

  08:27-08:28

  And these all come from the book of Romans.

  08:29-08:31

  The first one, number one, is this.

  08:31-08:32

  You are a sinner by birth.

  08:33-08:40

  The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, and the Bible says that that sin is passed down.

  08:40-08:46

  So understand, people, that you are born a sinner because your parents are sinners.

  08:47-08:52

  You're like, "Wait a second, Pastor Jeff. I don't like you talking about my papa like that." Hang on a second.

  08:53-08:54

  You know why your parents are sinners?

  08:55-08:56

  Because their parents were sinners.

  08:57-08:59

  And you're like, "I knew I shouldn't have come to that church.

  09:00-09:05

  Now Pastor Jeff is ripping on my grandpa." You can trace this all the way back to Adam and Eve.

  09:05-09:10

  And if I didn't offend you yet, I need to tell you, "Parents, guess what you passed on to your children?

  09:11-09:20

  Your children are born with a sin nature." Now see, that might be a little offensive, but when it comes to parents especially, that's an easy sell, honestly.

  09:20-09:30

  Because if you don't have kids, just ask any parent here, "Do your children know how to sin?" Parents, do your children know how to sin?

  09:31-09:39

  Yeah. Do your children naturally know how to lie, how to sneak, how to steal, how to be selfish?

  09:40-09:41

  The question is, who taught them that?

  09:41-09:57

  Parents, have you ever sat down with your kids when they were real young and said, "Listen, listen sweetheart, you're going to find there are situations in life where you're stuck and you're just going to have to learn how to put together a really well-crafted lie to get out of it." Have you ever done that for your kids? I sure hope not.

  09:58-10:01

  Do your kids know how to craft a lie to get out of trouble? Do they?

  10:02-10:05

  Yes! And you didn't teach them. Where did that come from?

  10:07-10:09

  And look, I'm not pointing fingers. I've got two kids myself.

  10:10-10:15

  And I know I didn't teach them how to sin, and I'm pretty sure Aaron didn't.

  10:16-10:18

  But look, it's something you're born with.

  10:18-10:19

  And we inherited that from Adam.

  10:20-10:23

  The reality is you're not a sinner because you sin.

  10:24-10:26

  You sin because you're a sinner.

  10:27-10:29

  You're a sinner by birth.

  10:29-10:31

  And number two, is you're a sinner by choice.

  10:32-10:33

  You're a sinner by choice.

  10:34-10:37

  Sin is, at the very essence, it's self-centeredness.

  10:37-10:39

  It's nobody tells me what to do.

  10:40-10:41

  I'm in charge of my life.

  10:41-10:43

  I do what makes me happy.

  10:43-10:47

  And that's why there's a natural resistance to the Gospel.

  10:48-11:13

  That we say, "Hey, get off the throne of your life and allow Jesus Christ, the rightful position, on the throne of your hearts." And we say, "No, because I want to live life on my own terms." You're a sinner by choice, and it's pervasive, it's external, and it's internal, it's acts and it's attitudes, it's what you do, it's what you think, it's what you say.

  11:13-11:18

  We are not only born sinners, but we choose to sin.

  11:18-11:21

  And you understand that's why God gave us the Old Testament.

  11:21-11:27

  The purpose of God's law was to show us that we have a problem with sin.

  11:27-11:28

  We're going to do a little exercise.

  11:29-11:32

  We're going to boil the law down just to the Ten Commandments.

  11:33-11:38

  And if you've ever violated any of these commandments that I'm going to give you, I just want you to give yourself a little checkmark.

  11:38-11:41

  If you've ever violated them, just give yourself a checkmark.

  11:41-11:45

  You know the first four commandments that God gave have to do with our relationship with God.

  11:46-11:48

  God says, "You have no other gods before me.

  11:48-11:50

  You won't make for yourself any idols.

  11:50-11:54

  You won't misuse my name, using the Lord's name in vain." That's the third commandment.

  11:54-11:57

  The fourth commandment is to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

  11:57-12:02

  Make sure that you don't get so consumed with work and life, you never take time to worship.

  12:02-12:07

  So let me ask you, has God always been the priority of your life?

  12:08-12:15

  Has worship and adoration and prayer and thoughts towards God, has He always been a priority?

  12:16-12:19

  If not, then you've violated the first commandment.

  12:19-12:25

  Have you ever had anything in your life that even for a season was more important than your relationship with God?

  12:25-12:27

  You're violating the second commandment.

  12:27-12:31

  Have you ever said anything that misrepresented the name of God?

  12:31-12:33

  You broke the third commandment. You keep in score?

  12:34-12:39

  Have you always made it a priority to set aside time to worship that under the Old Testament law you've broken the fourth commandment?

  12:40-12:42

  And you see, the rest of the commandments have to do with our relationship with one another.

  12:43-12:44

  The fifth commandment is honor your father and mother.

  12:45-12:49

  Have you always obeyed your parents perfectly? Have you? Have you?

  12:50-12:52

  I see some kids looking at their parents right now.

  12:52-12:55

  "Dad, is he serious?" "Yes, I'm serious." Have you?

  12:55-12:59

  If you have not, then you give yourself a checkmark. Guilty.

  12:59-13:08

  The sixth commandment is, "Do not murder." And you're like, "Yes! Yes!" I was feeling so convicted, I've never killed anybody.

  13:08-13:10

  But hang on, hang on. You know what Jesus said about that?

  13:11-13:16

  Jesus said if you've ever hated someone, it's the same as committing murder, because it comes from here.

  13:17-13:21

  Let me ask you, according to Jesus' definition, have you ever murdered someone? Have you ever hated someone?

  13:21-13:24

  If you've ever hated someone, you've got to give yourself a mark.

  13:24-13:26

  The seventh commandment is do not commit adultery.

  13:26-13:31

  And again, there's some people that are like, "Okay, all right, I've always been faithful to my wife.

  13:32-13:35

  I've never committed an adulterous affair. I'm good there." Well, hang on a second.

  13:36-13:38

  Jesus said if you've looked at a woman lustfully, you've committed adultery in your heart.

  13:39-13:40

  Have you ever done that? Then you're guilty.

  13:40-13:42

  The eighth commandment is do not steal.

  13:42-13:44

  Have you ever taken something that doesn't belong to you?

  13:44-13:45

  Give yourself a mark.

  13:46-13:52

  Anybody doing well? Because this last one, there's two more, but these last two will catch you, even if you're doing really good so far.

  13:52-13:55

  The ninth commandment is do not bear false witness.

  13:55-13:56

  In other words, do not lie.

  13:56-13:59

  Have you ever known what the truth is and you deliberately told a lie?

  13:59-13:59

  Have you ever done that?

  14:00-14:03

  Have you ever told a white lie, a magenta lie?

  14:04-14:06

  It doesn't matter what color you call it, it's still a lie.

  14:07-14:07

  Have you ever done that?

  14:08-14:09

  Give yourself a mark.

  14:09-14:15

  And the 10th commandment is "Do not covet." Have you always been totally satisfied with the things that God's provided you?

  14:15-14:23

  Or has there ever been an instance where you've seen something that God gave someone else and you're like, "Man, I wish I had that. I wish my wife was like his wife.

  14:23-14:29

  I wish I had that guy's car. I wish I had that guy's house." Have you ever had that going on? That's called covening.

  14:30-14:31

  So how'd you do? How'd you do?

  14:33-14:39

  According to God's law, according to God's Word, Is it true that you're a sinner by choice? Is it true?

  14:40-14:42

  Number three, sin disqualifies you from heaven.

  14:43-14:52

  Sin disqualifies you from heaven. Romans 3.23 says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Sin disqualifies you from heaven.

  14:52-14:57

  Now I want you to imagine that you're standing on the coast of California.

  14:57-15:01

  It's you, and it's me, and it's...

  15:01-15:03

  Who's like the Pirates ace this year? What's that?

  15:04-15:05

  Who's the Pirates ace this year?

  15:05-15:08

  Jamison Tyon? He's the Pirates ace?

  15:08-15:10

  All right, prayer service for the Pirates will be next Thursday.

  15:11-15:17

  But let's say, Jamison Tyon and you and I, we're standing on the coast of California, and we each have a baseball.

  15:18-15:21

  And we're told we have to throw that baseball and hit Hawaii.

  15:21-15:24

  How far do you think Jamison Tyon can throw that ball?

  15:24-15:26

  Maybe he throws it 300 feet.

  15:27-15:28

  Maybe you step up.

  15:28-15:30

  Maybe you throw it 200 feet.

  15:30-15:33

  And then I step up, bloop, five feet.

  15:33-15:36

  The question is, which one of us made it? None of us.

  15:36-15:45

  "Wait, wait, wait, wait, but James and Tiah made it way further than you did, Pastor Jeff." Yeah, that's absolutely true. He made it way further than I did, but he didn't make it.

  15:46-15:47

  And see, that's what Romans 3.23 tells us.

  15:47-15:52

  We've all sinned, we've all fallen short of the glory of God.

  15:53-16:01

  Whether you've fallen a lot short or you've fallen a little short, you've fallen short. You have and I have.

  16:01-16:04

  And God, you see, He's righteous and He's just.

  16:05-16:10

  And He's not going to just allow an unholy person into His holy presence.

  16:11-16:12

  Think about it this way.

  16:13-16:16

  We did the little check marks here with the Ten Commandments.

  16:16-16:22

  But I just want you to think, over the course of your life, how many sins do you think you've committed over the course of your life?

  16:22-16:26

  Do you think it's in the thousands? Do you think it's in the millions?

  16:27-16:31

  We're talking every word, every thought, every attitude, every action.

  16:31-16:32

  displeases the Lord.

  16:33-16:34

  Is it in the billions?

  16:34-16:36

  How many sins do you think you've committed?

  16:36-16:46

  However many you think you've committed, I want you to take that number, and imagine you showed up in a courtroom on the earth committing that same number of crimes.

  16:47-16:50

  What kind of a judge is going to let you off?

  16:50-16:54

  A really bad and dishonest judge is going to let you off.

  16:55-17:04

  So whether you've sinned once, or a million times a day, every day, You're guilty and you've fallen short, and sin is a debt.

  17:04-17:10

  It's an obligation that you have the inability to pay, and it disqualifies you from heaven.

  17:10-17:21

  At this point it would be really depressing if I said, "You are loved. See you Sunday." But remember I said there's four truths about your sin diagnosis, and I said all that to get to the good news.

  17:21-17:25

  Number four, Jesus was delivered for our sin.

  17:25-17:27

  Look at Romans 4.25 again.

  17:27-17:35

  "Who was delivered up for our trespasses." Stop there. Delivered.

  17:35-17:45

  To be honest with you, when I've read this in the past time, I saw delivered and I just thought about somebody delivering the mail or delivering a message.

  17:45-17:51

  I just thought of deliver as kind of a generic concept that it just meant handing something off to someone.

  17:52-17:57

  But I did some studying this week and found that that word "deliver" in the Greek is a very technical term.

  17:58-18:09

  Get this, the word "deliver" in the Greek literally refers to taking a guilty person and handing them over to the authorities in order to be punished.

  18:09-18:12

  That's what the word "deliver" means in the Greek.

  18:12-18:17

  Taking a guilty person, handing them to the authorities so that they might be punished.

  18:18-18:20

  How is this word used in the Gospels?

  18:20-18:25

  Well, it's used when Judas handed over Jesus to the chief priests.

  18:26-18:26

  Mark 14.10.

  18:27-18:32

  The Sanhedrin handing over Jesus to Pilate. Mark 15.1.

  18:32-18:37

  Pilate handing over Jesus to the will of the people. Luke 23.25.

  18:37-18:43

  And Pilate handing Jesus over to the soldiers. Mark 15.15.

  18:43-18:50

  You're like, "Well, which one is being talked about in Romans 4.25?" And the answer is none of these.

  18:51-19:01

  See, the glorious truth is ultimately the person who handed over Jesus in order to be punished was God Himself.

  19:02-19:04

  We'll see that in Romans 8.32 this Sunday.

  19:05-19:07

  So make sure you come back for that.

  19:07-19:13

  God the Father handed Jesus over to the authorities to be punished.

  19:13-19:19

  And there's also a real sense that Jesus handed Himself over to be punished.

  19:19-19:26

  When you look at what Jesus said in John 10, Jesus said, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

  19:27-19:30

  No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

  19:30-19:34

  I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again.

  19:35-19:43

  This charge I received from my Father." So delivering up Jesus, you look at Pilate, you look at Judas, You look at the soldiers, you look at the crowd.

  19:44-19:51

  They were just simply the mailmen organized by God to deliver His Son over to justice.

  19:52-19:54

  You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, Pastor Jeff. I hear what you're saying.

  19:55-20:05

  But according to your little Greek definition here, you said that delivering was handing a guilty person over to be punished, and Jesus Christ wasn't guilty of anything.

  20:06-20:08

  But I am, and you are.

  20:08-20:14

  We are the guilty who deserved to be handed over for punishment.

  20:14-20:18

  And on the cross, Jesus Christ bore our punishment.

  20:19-20:23

  Every act of sin we've committed was put on Him.

  20:23-20:27

  And God gave Jesus the punishment that you and I deserve.

  20:28-20:35

  Jesus Christ was delivered up for our trespasses.

  20:35-20:36

  Do you believe that?

  20:36-20:40

  Not just do you acknowledge that the event happened?

  20:41-20:46

  Do you have faith in what this event accomplished?

  20:46-20:49

  Because if you do, church, it changes you.

  20:49-20:55

  Can you really look at Jesus Christ on the cross and the love of God being poured out?

  20:56-21:00

  Can you look at that and really just go back to life on your terms?

  21:01-21:04

  Can you really go back to living for your sin?

  21:05-21:08

  Have you found that your sin offers you more than God offers you?

  21:09-21:14

  Can you really walk out this door here tonight in a little bit and say, "God, I understand what you've done.

  21:15-21:33

  You loved me so much that you were willing to hand over your son to brutally die on the cross, taking my punishment so that I would never have to face your judgment." Can you acknowledge that and walk out the door no different than you walked in?

  21:33-21:34

  Can you be unaffected?

  21:34-21:38

  Can you be unmoved? Can you be unchanged?

  21:39-21:40

  And the answer is no, you can't.

  21:41-21:43

  Not if you really get it.

  21:43-21:53

  Not if you put your faith in Him and believe that Jesus Christ was delivered up for our trespasses.

Small Group Discussion
Read Romans 4:25

1. What was your big “take-away”? What stood out to you from this passage / message?

2. Who really delivered Jesus to die? See Romans 8:32. How does this affect the way you look at the cross?

3. What are some ways trespasses (sins) are redefined today? Confession time: Tell of a time you’ve made an excuse for something wrong you’ve done.

Don't Delay - Act Now! A Call For Obedience

Guest Speaker - Daniel Thompson

Don't Delay - Act Now! A Call For Obedience (2 Kings 7:1-20)

1. What's the WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? (2 Kings 7:3-5)
2. GOOD NEWS Must be SHARED (2 Kings 7:5-10)
3. TRUST God or Miss the BLESSING (2 Kings 7:16-20)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:42-00:45

  This morning as Dan Thompson. Dan, would you make your way up here?

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:45-00:47

  Don't welcome him yet, okay?

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:48-00:49

  We're all going to do that at the same time.

  Pastor Jeff:

  00:50-01:13

  But Dan and Alicia have been part of this church since before day one, and they serve faithfully in Arrow, which is our student ministry. They are youth group leaders. You work in the AV ministry, Alicia in the prayer ministry, and is there anything around here you guys are not involved in? And, you know, there church over the last couple of years, haven't there, Dan?

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:13-01:13

  Oh yeah,

  Dan:

  01:14-01:14

  absolutely.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:14-01:22

  And, you know, I was walking down memory lane looking at what the Lord's been doing in our church here, especially these last few weeks.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:22-01:30

  I remember when we were meeting at the chiropractor's office, and you remember we had enough money to buy the trailer.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:30-01:34

  And all we owned as a church, and some of you remember this, all we owned as a church was the trailer.

  Pastor Jeff:

  01:34-02:29

  We didn't have anything to put in it, but we had, it was like $1,200 or something for this trailer because we were doing the church in the box thing at the middle school and we had a trailer. That was it. We're meeting at the chiropractor's office. They were so gracious to let us meet there. And you remember that day, Dan, that they pulled the trailer in. We're all standing in the parking lot, huddled around this empty trailer, and we were like, "Thank you, God, for this empty trailer!" And we were just so thankful, rightfully so. Absolutely. So thankful because we knew that God was going to fill it. And a lot has has changed in our church over the last couple of years, but one thing that hasn't changed and one thing that will never change is our commitment to the Word of God, which is why I couldn't think of a better guy to kick off this exciting new chapter in the Life of Harvest Bible Chapel. So I would say get your Bibles and get ready to let God change you. Now, give a warm welcome to Dan Thompson.

  Dan:

  02:30-03:31

  Thank you, Pastor Jeff. I do want to express my thanks to Pastor Jeff and the elders for asking me to preach again, and especially for being the one to kick us off in this new space. It is a huge privilege. And it's pretty amazing, as Pastor Jeff just outlined, what God has done in such a short period of time. But I have to be honest, I've been pretty nervous leading up to this, but not for the reasons you might think. Because I'm speaking up here, I am totally useless to the AV team in the back, which is kind of a little bit scary for me as the person who's been involved with AV for such a long period in time, on Sunday to be back. But even still, it is truly a great honor to be here with you today. I'm so glad to be part of this church that God is so clearly moving in and that God is moving in and through us. And so let's look at the Word together, but let me open us with a word of prayer. Father God, I pray Lord that your words would be heard today. That you would remove the distractions. The distractions in this room, the distractions in our mind, God.

  Dan:

  03:31-03:50

  the distractions in our heart, God, that prevent us from hearing. I pray that you would use this time to cause us to trust you more and to obey your word. Thank you for this time. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So whether we were willing to admit it or not, everybody loves infomercials.

  Dan:

  03:50-05:42

  You have the super convenient products like the Snuggie or the George Foreman Grill or OxiClean or Ronco Showtime rotisserie, set it and forget it. Right, that's right. Then there's the merchandise that can actually change your life from Proactiv to P90X, from the Clapper to the Bowflex, not available in stores. And my personal favorite are the absolutely absurd things like the Chia Pet or the ShamWow or the ever popular Shake Weight, each one with a money back guarantee. And on all those, you probably will need to use that money back guarantee. So why is it that we get sucked into these quagmires of marketing on those late nights? What is it about them that renders us paralyzed to change the channel on lazy Saturday mornings? Well, there's definitely a science behind all of it. But for the purposes of our time today, I am proposing that at least one of the reasons that infomercials work is that they promise immediate results and insist that you must act now. Deep down inside of us, each one of us is looking for a call to action. The call to action that I am raising for us today is that we should seek to obey God as often and as quickly as we can. I titled this sermon "Don't Delay, Act Now" and to demonstrate just a few reasons that we should strive for prompt obedience, we are going to look at 2 Kings 7. So open your Bibles with me to 2 Kings 7. And since that's a weird passage, I've got to probably give you a little bit of background on that. I figured in my other times preaching in the church. I preached on Romans 5, pretty basic, Genesis 3, all relatively understandable passages. This one's a little bit weirder. But the books of 1st and 2nd Kings are history books. They describe a time when God's people had kings. They begin with the end of David's reign, detail all of Solomon's reign, and then cover when the kingdom split in two.

  Dan:

  05:43-05:54

  The northern kingdom was Israel, which eventually became the Samaritans, and the southern kingdom was Judah. And 2 Kings, that book ends after both kingdoms have gone into exile of their enemies.

  Dan:

  05:54-06:02

  And not surprising from the name, these books focus on the kings of those two nations, most of whom are described as having done evil in the sight of the Lord.

  Dan:

  06:03-06:14

  Our text picks up around 850 years before Christ, and we are in the reigns of Jehoram in the northern kingdom, Israel, and conveniently, a different Jehoram, in the south, in Judah.

  Dan:

  06:14-06:24

  Well, these homonym kings may not ring any bells for most of us, but it may help to know that the northern Jehoram was the son of the infamous King Ahab and Queen Jezebel.

  Dan:

  06:24-06:30

  We know a lot about these two wicked monarchs because of their interaction with God's mighty prophet, Elijah.

  Dan:

  06:30-06:40

  In addition to miracles, Elijah brought the typical message of repentance to the northern kingdom of Israel, and he was hated by Ahab and Jezebel for it.

  Dan:

  06:40-06:55

  But by the time our story starts, Ahab has been killed in battle by a random arrow, Elijah has already been charioted up into heaven, and Jezebel was anxiously awaiting the fulfillment of the prophecy that she would be eaten by dogs because of her evil decision making.

  Dan:

  06:55-06:59

  So Elisha, with an "sh", is now the prophet on the scene.

  Dan:

  06:59-07:02

  He was the protege of Elijah with a "j".

  Dan:

  07:02-07:06

  Before his mentor ascended on high, he asked for a double portion of miracles.

  Dan:

  07:07-07:08

  and eventually he gets exactly that.

  Dan:

  07:08-07:11

  Twice as many miracles as Elijah, which is saying something.

  Dan:

  07:12-07:19

  We pick up in chapter seven with Elisha and Jehoram, the northern king, in Samaria, which is the capital city of Israel.

  Dan:

  07:20-07:22

  And it was literally under siege by the Syrians.

  Dan:

  07:23-07:27

  As a result of the siege, this city is in the midst of a great famine.

  Dan:

  07:27-07:33

  It was actually so bad that for food, the going rate for a head of a donkey, mm, appetizing, right?

  Dan:

  07:34-08:02

  The going rate for a head of a donkey two pounds of silver. You just carry that in your back pocket, right? So that's a pretty terrible situation. And like his predecessor, Elisha wasn't typically winning friends or influencing people. In the previous chapter, the king actually cursed himself saying that he would be eaten for food if he didn't kill Elisha that day. Well, neither side of that promise actually happened. But all that is to say that by this point, when we pick up in our story, the people have given up hope of this siege ending. They just all think they're going to die.

  Dan:

  08:02-08:08

  So with all that as introduction, let me ask Alexa to come and read this chapter for us because you're going to hear enough from me.

  Speaker 3:

  08:09-08:11

  "Aleisha replied, 'Hear the word of the Lord.

  Speaker 3:

  08:11-08:12

  This is what the Lord says.

  Speaker 3:

  08:12-08:35

  About this time tomorrow, a say of the finest flower will sell for a shekel, and two say as of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.' The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, 'Look, even if the Lord should have opened the gates of the heavens, could this happen?' 'You will see it with your own eyes,' answered Aleisha, 'but you will not eat any of it.' Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate.

  Speaker 3:

  08:35-08:37

  They said to each other, "Why stay here until we die?

  Speaker 3:

  08:38-08:41

  If we say we'll go into the city, the famine is there, and we will die.

  Speaker 3:

  08:41-08:43

  And if we stay here, we will die.

  Speaker 3:

  08:43-08:46

  So let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender.

  Speaker 3:

  08:46-08:48

  If they spare us, we will live.

  Speaker 3:

  08:48-08:52

  If they kill us, then we will die." At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans.

  Speaker 3:

  08:53-09:01

  When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, "Look!

  Speaker 3:

  09:02-09:05

  The king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us.

  Speaker 3:

  09:05-09:10

  So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys.

  Speaker 3:

  09:10-09:12

  They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.

  Speaker 3:

  09:13-09:17

  The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank.

  Speaker 3:

  09:17-09:21

  Then they took silver, gold, and clothes and went off and hid them.

  Speaker 3:

  09:21-09:25

  Then they returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.

  Speaker 3:

  09:26-09:29

  Then they said to each other, 'What we are doing is not right.

  Speaker 3:

  09:29-09:32

  This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.

  Speaker 3:

  09:32-09:35

  If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us.

  Speaker 3:

  09:35-09:41

  Let's go at once and report this to the royal palace." So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them.

  Speaker 3:

  09:41-09:49

  We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there, not a sound of anyone, only tethered horses and donkeys and the tents left just as they were.

  Speaker 3:

  09:49-09:52

  The gatekeepers shouted the news and it was reported within the palace.

  Speaker 3:

  09:52-09:57

  The king got up in the night and said to his officers, "I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us.

  Speaker 3:

  09:58-10:05

  They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking, they will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.

  Speaker 3:

  10:06-10:10

  One of the officers answered, 'Make some men take five of the horses that are left in the city.

  Speaker 3:

  10:10-10:14

  Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here.

  Speaker 3:

  10:15-10:18

  Yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed.

  Speaker 3:

  10:19-10:25

  So let us send them to find out what happened.' So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army.

  Speaker 3:

  10:26-10:36

  He commanded the drivers, "Go and find out what had happened." They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight.

  Speaker 3:

  10:37-10:39

  So the messengers returned and reported to the king.

  Speaker 3:

  10:39-10:42

  Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans.

  Speaker 3:

  10:43-10:48

  So a say of the finest flowers sold for a shekel, and the two say of barley sold for the shekel, as the Lord had said.

  Speaker 3:

  10:49-10:59

  Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the The people trampled him in the gateway, and he died just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.

  Speaker 3:

  11:00-11:23

  It happened as the man of God had said to the king, 'About this time tomorrow, a say of the finest flower will sell for a shekel, and two sayers of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.' The officer had said to the man of God, 'Even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?' The man of God had replied, 'You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it.' And this is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, Thanks,

  Dan:

  11:23-11:38

  Alexa. That's a mouthful, right? That's one of those passages that you're like, "Did I ever read that before?" And with history, it's sometimes difficult to figure out, "Why did God record this?" But this passage does have examples of things that we should do and some things that we shouldn't do.

  Dan:

  11:38-11:45

  The text begins with a promise. If we look back at verse 1, now she read from the NIV, I'll read from the ESV, so there will be some differences.

  Dan:

  11:45-11:54

  But Elisha said, "Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord, 'Tomorrow about this time, a sea of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel.'" And he goes on.

  Dan:

  11:55-12:11

  So since we're not experts in ancient currency, Elisha actually prophesied that there was going to be food available at a discounted price, right? Food so abundant that it actually could be sold cheaper than it normally would be. We just talked about how bad the famine was, right?

  Dan:

  12:11-12:15

  So Elisha actually was prophesying that the famine was going to be over by tomorrow.

  Dan:

  12:16-12:21

  Not only that the siege would be lifted, but that food would be so abundant, as I said, that it would be sold at a discounted price.

  Dan:

  12:21-12:24

  This is not the way a siege typically ends, right?

  Dan:

  12:25-12:45

  If the enemy should decide that they're done with the siege, right, they would leave, and then you would go out, you'd restore the fields, wait for the crops to grow, and eventually you'd have food again, but nothing was going to happen by tomorrow, let alone discounted flour. So what Elisha is promising here is a miracle from God.

  Dan:

  12:46-13:04

  So it's not surprising then in verse 2 when we see some doubt from the king's advisor, that guy who's referred to as the captain on whom whose hand the king leaned. But we'll get back to him later. Here's where we get our first reason to act now. What's the worst that can happen? We pick up with the main characters of our story here. Look in verses 3 and 4 again.

  Dan:

  13:04-13:08

  Now, there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate.

  Dan:

  13:08-13:11

  They said to one another, "Why are we sitting here till we die?

  Dan:

  13:11-13:17

  If we say, 'Let us enter the city,' the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. If we sit here, we'll die here.

  Dan:

  13:18-13:20

  So now let us go over to the camp of the Syrians or the Arameans.

  Dan:

  13:21-13:28

  If they spare our lives, we shall live. If they kill us, we shall but die." These guys are in one of those moments of true clarity.

  Dan:

  13:29-13:35

  Given their choices, the only real option that isn't guaranteed death is going and asking their enemies for help.

  Dan:

  13:36-13:43

  Now, devoid of the context of their situation, asking your besieging enemies to give you some food doesn't sound like all that great of an idea.

  Dan:

  13:43-13:53

  But when they assess the situation fully, they realize that in crossing enemy lines, the worst thing that can happen to them, well, they're gonna die, which is going to happen to them if they do nothing.

  Dan:

  13:54-13:55

  And the best case scenario is that they live.

  Dan:

  13:56-14:00

  That makes it a really easy choice to do something that on the surface sounds really hard.

  Dan:

  14:01-14:02

  Well, how's this related to obedience?

  Dan:

  14:02-14:04

  First, what is obedience?

  Dan:

  14:04-14:07

  Well, obedience is a willingness to submit to the authority of God.

  Dan:

  14:08-14:15

  And sometimes, maybe even a lot of times, when God asks us to do something or to not do something, it doesn't sound like all that great of an idea.

  Dan:

  14:16-14:21

  But these lepers remind us that if you assess the totality of what's going on, the choice becomes a lot easier to make.

  Dan:

  14:21-14:22

  We all struggle with obeying God.

  Dan:

  14:23-14:26

  I get that, because God asks us to do some pretty hard things.

  Dan:

  14:26-14:29

  He commands us to admit that we are sinners in desperate need of a Savior.

  Dan:

  14:30-14:32

  What an attack on my pride and my self-reliance.

  Dan:

  14:32-14:35

  He desires that we put others first and die to ourselves.

  Dan:

  14:36-14:37

  What about me and my needs?

  Dan:

  14:38-14:42

  He calls us to live a life of purity in a totally impure and debaucherous world.

  Dan:

  14:43-14:44

  Why can't I join in on all that fun?

  Dan:

  14:45-14:53

  He wants us to be a bold light in an increasingly darkening domain and to speak out for what is right among those who love what is wrong.

  Dan:

  14:53-14:54

  What will people think of me?

  Dan:

  14:54-14:56

  And who am I to tell others that they're wrong?

  Dan:

  14:56-14:58

  These are impossible asks of God.

  Dan:

  14:59-15:02

  But look, in our broken world, we are sinners destined to die.

  Dan:

  15:03-15:04

  If we do nothing, we will still die.

  Dan:

  15:05-15:06

  If we live for ourselves, we still die.

  Dan:

  15:07-15:10

  If we try to be good people without including God, we still die.

  Dan:

  15:10-15:15

  So why are we resistant to obeying God, who offers so many promises of blessing, when we do obey Him?

  Dan:

  15:15-15:19

  The worst thing that anyone can do to us is to cause us to die.

  Dan:

  15:19-15:22

  And if we are believers in Christ, that sends us directly to heaven.

  Dan:

  15:22-15:23

  That's not even that bad.

  Dan:

  15:23-15:27

  Matthew 10, 28 says, "And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.

  Dan:

  15:27-15:30

  rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

  Dan:

  15:31-15:40

  When considering whether to obey God or not, act now by asking yourself, "What's the worst that could happen?" But most of our decisions to obey God don't come down to life and death decisions, right?

  Dan:

  15:40-15:44

  So we don't always have that logical clarity that these lepers have of life versus death.

  Dan:

  15:44-15:49

  Most of our decisions are good versus bad or good versus best.

  Dan:

  15:49-15:54

  For these, I think it helps to take any aspect of God's character and add it into the equation.

  Dan:

  15:54-15:55

  Start with his love.

  Dan:

  15:56-16:01

  Romans says, I think we have it up there, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

  Dan:

  16:01-16:07

  Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

  Dan:

  16:07-16:10

  As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

  Dan:

  16:10-16:13

  We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

  Dan:

  16:13-16:17

  No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

  Dan:

  16:17-16:30

  For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

  Dan:

  16:31-16:36

  God's perfect, sacrificial, and protective love is certainly more than enough reason to trust Him.

  Dan:

  16:36-16:39

  His commandments are for our benefit because He loves us.

  Dan:

  16:40-16:43

  No one can stand against us when we obey Him because He loves us.

  Dan:

  16:43-16:44

  What about His wisdom?

  Dan:

  16:44-16:50

  Proverbs says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." God literally created everything out of nothing in the universe.

  Dan:

  16:50-17:53

  And you want to call into question His decision-making abilities as to whether He's capable of being trusted or not? And we could go on and on and look at his justice, his power, his mercy, his holiness. But it comes down to two options. Obey the sound of broken, sinful man, both deceptive and deceived, finite and powerless, or obey the voice of a perfect and holy creator of all things, both loving and lovable, infinite and all-powerful. The choice to act now and to do the hard things that God calls us to do becomes much easier when we consider what's the worst that can happen. In our story here in 2 Kings, that's what the lepers did. So they went to the camp of their enemies and this is where we find our second reason to act now. Good news must be shared. These lepers were greatly rewarded for their decision to act now. They went to seek help from the Syrians but they find that their enemies have actually left overnight and the Bible tells us why. In verse 6 it says, "They thought they heard the sound of armies and fled." But there were no actual armies out there. Kind of reminds me of the first half of Proverbs 28.1, the wicked flee when no one pursues, which we talked a lot about before.

  Dan:

  17:53-17:57

  Our friends find that the enemies have left and they're cashing in on the spoils.

  Dan:

  17:57-18:01

  But eventually they come to their senses and realize the second reason to act now.

  Dan:

  18:02-18:04

  Good news must be shared.

  Dan:

  18:04-18:05

  Look back at verse 9.

  Dan:

  18:06-18:07

  They said to one another, "We are not doing right.

  Dan:

  18:08-18:10

  This day is a day of good news.

  Dan:

  18:10-18:14

  If we are silent and wait until morning, punishment will overtake us.

  Dan:

  18:14-18:30

  Now therefore, let us go and tell the king's household." Proverbs 15.30 says, "Good news refreshes the bones." And in 25.25, it says, "Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Think about how good news works in your own life.

  Dan:

  18:31-18:33

  When you get that promotion, what makes it sweeter?

  Dan:

  18:33-18:37

  When your kid says that hilarious thing, how do you get the deepest laughs?

  Dan:

  18:37-18:40

  When you get that good report back from the doctor, do you keep that to yourself?

  Dan:

  18:40-18:43

  No, good news is better when it is shared.

  Dan:

  18:43-18:46

  And when we are the bearers of that good news, then we're better off for it.

  Dan:

  18:47-18:57

  for sharing it. We live in a world based upon the principle of sharing. Take breathing as an example. With every breath, we exhale carbon dioxide and we share that with the plants.

  Dan:

  18:57-19:02

  And likewise, plants share oxygen with us in return. Well, you don't have to share.

  Dan:

  19:02-19:09

  You could choose to put a bag over your head and selfishly keep all the carbon dioxide for yourself, but all you'd be doing is proving that the wages of sin is death.

  Dan:

  19:10-19:21

  In all the ways that we are called to obey God, there is a theme that is prominent. God yourself and share with those in need. Go make disciples by sharing the good news.

  Dan:

  19:22-19:37

  We need to understand that the reason that God blesses us is so that we can share with others, spiritually, physically, whatever blessings that we have received. So, act now in obeying God, because the good news must be shared. The lepers did this, and they sent a report back to the king.

  Dan:

  19:38-20:07

  And the king's response is funny to me. Look at verse 12 again. "And the king arose in the night and said to his servants, 'I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are hungry and therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in open country thinking when they come out of the city we shall take them alive and get into the city." Remember, literally hours before, Elisha has promised that God is going to supernaturally end this siege, right? So when he actually sees, hears the good news, what's his response? Doubt.

  Dan:

  20:07-20:16

  Complete conspiracy theory, in fact. It sounds crazy. He believes the whole thing is a trap, But thankfully, at least somebody's able to convince him that maybe we should check this thing out.

  Dan:

  20:16-20:21

  And just like those infomercials, this sermon has an added bonus thrown in for free.

  Dan:

  20:21-20:24

  I'll have an extra sub point. That is, doubt only wastes time.

  Dan:

  20:25-20:33

  Instead of immediately rejoicing in the miracle that God provided, the king's doubt keeps the entire city locked up for a couple of hours.

  Dan:

  20:33-21:15

  Those people are facing starvation. Like, being locked up for 10 minutes when you're hungry is torture. To be locked up for hours whenever you are starving is almost unbearable. So doubt really just wastes time and ultimately sometimes it can lead to disobedience. So here's three doubt signs that you're about to not obey. First doubt sign, you can't do the math. If we go back to verse 2, remember what the king's advisor said. He couldn't understand the promise of the siege ending and this abundance of food and how that was all going to add up. But remember, God is better at math than If you always need to understand the details of how God is going to work things out, then you're in danger of not obeying.

  Dan:

  21:15-21:18

  Second doubt sign that you're about to not obey is you forget the past.

  Dan:

  21:18-21:24

  The Jews had a history of God literally providing bread from heaven for them to sustain them for over 40 years.

  Dan:

  21:24-21:32

  So in verse 2, when the king's advisor said that, "How could God do this even if he opened a window in heaven?" Did that whole manna thing escape him? He forgot all about that?

  Dan:

  21:32-21:40

  As another example, as I just mentioned, the king heard Elijah's promise of the miracle only hours before, and yet when it's actually happening, he can't remember the past.

  Dan:

  21:41-21:43

  So if you forget the past, then you're in danger of not obeying.

  Dan:

  21:44-21:48

  And the last doubt sign that you're about to not obey is that you need to see it to believe it.

  Dan:

  21:48-21:51

  The king was only able to open the city after he saw the proof.

  Dan:

  21:51-21:58

  And I do acknowledge that there are times when we find ourselves needing confirmation from God about decisions that we need to make.

  Dan:

  21:59-22:01

  But typically, obedience is not one of those things.

  Dan:

  22:02-22:09

  If God said to do something or to not do something, then you don't need any further confirmation. You don't need to pray about that. Just do it.

  Dan:

  22:09-22:14

  Just do what he says. So, if you need to see it to believe it, you are in danger of not obeying.

  Dan:

  22:15-22:50

  All those points are to say is that don't delay, act now, obey God, and stop wasting everyone's time. This brings me to the final point. Trust God or miss the blessing. Let's look at verses 18 through 20 at the very end. "For when the man of God had said to the king," that's Elisha, "Two sieves of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a sieve of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria." The captain had answered the man of God, "If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?" And he had said, "You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it." And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate, and he died.

  Dan:

  22:51-22:58

  The king's advisor refused to trust God, and not only did he not get to share in any of the blessing of the food, but he was actually trampled to death by his own people.

  Dan:

  22:58-23:06

  As a much less gruesome example of this point, I recently, about a month ago, took Ellie and Evie, my older two daughters, to go ice skating for the first time.

  Dan:

  23:06-23:08

  I figured that both of them would absolutely love it.

  Dan:

  23:08-23:10

  They love to dance, they love hockey.

  Dan:

  23:11-23:14

  How could this be wrong? This is a great win. Shows what I know.

  Dan:

  23:14-23:23

  My strong-willed child, my strong-willed four-year-old, Evie, was so worried that she would fall that she refused to even put a skate on the ice for most of the time that we were there.

  Dan:

  23:23-23:28

  With some patient prodding, I did get her to put the skate on the ice, but then she wouldn't leave the door.

  Dan:

  23:28-23:30

  She just looked like this. Sad little face looking up at me.

  Dan:

  23:31-23:42

  So we stood there for about an hour. As it became closer and closer for the us for the time for us to leave, she finally decided to put both skates on the ice and to trust me to lead her around the rink.

  Dan:

  23:42-23:51

  Well, not only did she not fall, but she really loved it. In the car on the way home, she said to me, "When's the next time we're going ice skating?" Because this was her favorite thing to do.

  Dan:

  23:52-24:28

  My response was, "Well, just imagine how much more fun it would have been had you been on the ice for more than 10 minutes." So I don't know what obedience dilemma you find yourself in today, but in all those situations the principle still stands Trust God or miss the blessing There are different levels of this. Maybe you're struggling with elementary level obedience You're having difficulty humbling yourself by repenting and acknowledging your need for a Savior This is a hard thing But the great part about elementary level obedience is that the real hard work of a lifetime of perfectly obeying God has already been done Jesus already did this for us, and that's why we are able to receive the gift of forgiveness that He offers.

  Dan:

  24:29-24:31

  The most known verse in the Bible is John 3.16.

  Dan:

  24:32-24:43

  "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life." A much lesser known verse is the other side of that coin, two verses later in John 3.18.

  Dan:

  24:43-24:55

  "Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." God made this world such that you don't have to obey. You don't.

  Dan:

  24:55-24:58

  But just don't expect heaven if you won't believe in Christ.

  Dan:

  24:59-25:00

  Trust God or miss the blessing.

  Dan:

  25:01-25:04

  In this case, if you won't believe in Christ, then you will not get heaven.

  Dan:

  25:05-25:07

  But the inverse is true. If you believe in Christ, then you receive heaven.

  Dan:

  25:07-25:11

  Or maybe you're past the elementary level and are learning high school level obedience.

  Dan:

  25:12-25:12

  Today is Palm Sunday.

  Dan:

  25:13-25:27

  Palm Sunday is the day where we remember how Jerusalem welcomed the King of Kings with shouts of "Hosanna in the highest." But Palm Sunday is also the day where we are warned about how quickly a person can go from saying "Glory to God" at the start of the week to "Crucify Him" before the week is over.

  Dan:

  25:27-25:35

  I recently heard somebody say an interesting phrase. He said, "Most people in the church are vampire Christians." Vampire Christians? What does that mean?

  Dan:

  25:36-25:50

  They're only interested in Christ's blood. This means that people are willing to submit to Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord. It isn't enough to worship God on Sunday and to abandon Him and his commandments throughout our week, unwilling to put our own sin to death.

  Dan:

  25:50-25:53

  It's hard to give up our own personal sin monument.

  Dan:

  25:53-25:57

  My gossip isn't really that big of a deal. I'd rather complain about it than doing something.

  Dan:

  25:57-26:01

  Or I'm not going to give up my bitterness until they deserve forgiveness.

  Dan:

  26:01-26:08

  Look, there are any number of choices here of sin that I could mention, but it all comes down to, do I do it my way or do I do it God's way?

  Dan:

  26:08-26:11

  Moses said that he set before the people of God a blessing or a curse.

  Dan:

  26:12-26:16

  A blessing for obedience and a curse for disobedience. It's really simple.

  Dan:

  26:16-26:20

  The consequences of disobedience will always catch up with you. The Bible promises that.

  Dan:

  26:20-26:23

  But I will attest to you that you will never be disappointed in obeying God.

  Dan:

  26:24-26:30

  God is always faithful to bless our decisions when we obey Him, and especially when those are really hard decisions to make.

  Dan:

  26:31-26:35

  But past that high school level obedience is graduate level obedience.

  Dan:

  26:36-27:15

  Graduate level obedience is listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in all aspects of our lives. I think here in this story, because God had promised the supernatural end of the famine, just the way that he was going to interact this thing and use these lepers who were essentially nobodies. It is my belief that the lepers in our story were spurred by the Holy Spirit to discover something God had already done. They didn't have to listen. They didn't have to go and come up with this plan. They could have just been totally hopeless and stayed there and died. 1 Corinthians 2 says, "Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

  Dan:

  27:16-27:22

  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

  Dan:

  27:22-27:37

  God is speaking to us every single day as He is working out His plan of salvation in this world. He wants us to be a part of that. He wants us to share the gospel with others, to love sacrificially, and to trust Him in every moment that His ways are better than ours.

  Dan:

  27:37-27:41

  He leads us in our conversations. He leads us in how we should spend our time and our money.

  Dan:

  27:42-27:46

  He leads us to make the most of every opportunity. He even creates those opportunities.

  Dan:

  27:46-27:55

  I had a friend at work who one day he was trying to really find ways that he could obey God, and he's trying to look for opportunities to trust that prompting of the Holy Spirit.

  Dan:

  27:55-29:09

  And he was driving, and it was pouring down rain, and there was a guy just randomly standing out in the rain. And he said, "Oh man, I should go give that guy an umbrella." And he drove past. He's to go back and give that guy an umbrella. And he drove around, turned around and went back to the guy. By the time he did, somebody else had given him an umbrella. And the principle has stuck with me. If you don't want to listen to God, He doesn't need us, right? If we don't want to take part, the loss is ours, not God's. He doesn't need us at all. But He loves us too much to let us live without experiencing the blessings that He wants to give us. He to act now. If it is entrusting in God for salvation, do it. Get out of your own way and trust what Christ has done for you. Repent and turn to him. If there's some conviction over sin that's still a part of your life that you continue to struggle with, stop sinning. Stop doing that. Obey God. If you have this feeling, this nudge from the Holy Spirit to do something radically outside of your comfort zone, but completely in line with the character of God, Don't delay any longer. You will experience the blessing of God if you trust and obey him.

  Dan:

  29:09-30:28

  And you will miss out if you don't. So my sales pitch to you today is don't delay, act now, obey God in everything. Consider what's the worst that can happen. Remember, good news must be shared and choose for yourself, trust God or miss the blessings that he desires to pour out on you. This isn't your typical limited time offer, but it's definitely one that you do not want to miss out on. Let's pray. Mighty God, you are so worthy to be trusted and obeyed, God. You could easily command obedience from heaven with all the power and all the authority that you have. You could make the rocks cry out praise as your word says, but God, you choose to allow us to obey. You want us to have a choice in our obedience. You want us to lovingly choose to trust you. God, I pray that you would change our hearts, remove our own selfish desires that are blocking us from trusting and obeying you. God, deal with us where we are. Whatever level of obedience we need to do, God, I pray that we would take a step of faith today. I pray that you would change our hearts to give us clarity as to what your voice is saying, that we would be in your word to understand it and not hear the cloud of lies that are around us in the I pray that we would obey your voice and yours alone.

  Dan:

  30:29-30:31

  God, I thank you that you have given me this opportunity to speak.

  Dan:

  30:32-30:37

  God, I pray that anything that I said was yours, God, and that people would only retain the things that are from you.

  Dan:

  30:37-30:41

  God, thank you for this church, and I pray that you would just bless the rest of our service.

  Dan:

  30:41-30:41

  In

  Pastor Jeff:

  30:41-30:43

  your name we pray. Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Kings 7

1. Why do you think obedience is so hard?  Why do you think it is so important to God?

2. Which of the reasons to act now is most convincing/convicting to you?  Why?

3. Do you have any personal examples of how doubt has wasted time?

Breakout:
What specific obedience do you need to act now upon?  Or phrased in reverse, what disobedience do you need to repent of?

The Fight for Hope

How to Fight Against Spiritual Depression (Psalm 42):

1. Be HONEST WITH GOD ABOUT IT
2. Desire and Seek after the LORD
3. Remember PAST FAITHFULLNESS
4. Preach THE TRUTH TO YOURSLEF and hope IN THE PROMISE OF GOD

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  00:42-00:45

  So we're all gonna do a mental exercise this morning to get ready for this sermon.

  00:46-00:46

  Are you all ready for this?

  00:47-00:52

  I want you all to try and remember how you saw and experienced the world as a young child.

  00:53-00:56

  Place yourself in the mindset of a five to seven year old.

  00:56-01:00

  As some psychologists would say, get in touch with your inner child.

  01:00-01:03

  I don't really know what that means, but try to do that this morning.

  01:03-01:08

  I'm gonna give you a few scenarios and you're gonna tell me how you would have felt as a young child, all right?

  01:09-01:12

  So imagine that your friend just broke your favorite toy.

  01:12-01:13

  How do you feel?

  01:13-01:15

  You feel angry, right?

  01:15-01:19

  I remember when one of my friends broke my favorite Batman mask.

  01:19-01:21

  He stepped on it and broke it right in half.

  01:21-01:23

  And this wasn't just a minor deal.

  01:23-01:30

  This was a huge thing to me because this was my precious possession and it made me feel like Batman.

  01:30-01:34

  I remember when my friend irreparably broke my precious mask.

  01:34-01:38

  I was filled with intense anger It went far beyond what was appropriate.

  01:39-01:39

  All right, next scenario.

  01:40-01:43

  Imagine that you just got grounded on a very nice summer day.

  01:44-01:44

  How do you feel?

  01:45-01:46

  What emotion are you experiencing?

  01:46-01:47

  Angry, anything else?

  01:48-01:48

  Frustrated?

  01:48-01:49

  I would think sadness, right?

  01:50-01:54

  You may be so overcome with your sadness that you may cry or beg your parents to let you go back outside.

  01:55-02:00

  When I was seven years old, my dad caught me watching a Nickelodeon cartoon that I wasn't allowed to watch.

  02:00-02:01

  And so he grounded me for several days.

  02:02-02:09

  I remember just looking out my bedroom window with all the kids playing in the beautiful sunshine and rollerblading, and to be honest, I was devastated.

  02:09-02:13

  I felt like I had been sentenced to prison for 20 years.

  02:13-02:17

  All right, so go back to your teenage or your adult mind because you'll need it for the rest of this message.

  02:17-02:20

  When we were kids, our emotions are very intense.

  02:20-02:21

  They're very clear cut.

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  They're very simple.

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  We felt things very deeply, but we got over these emotions rather quickly.

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  One minute you throw a temper tantrum on the floor, maybe you're pounding on your bed or pounding on the floor because you're really mad, And the next you're perfectly happy.

  02:34-02:39

  But as you get older, your emotions become more nuanced, more complex.

  02:39-02:42

  You may not even understand how you feel at times.

  02:43-02:50

  Even though we experience the various emotions in different degrees, we've all experienced spiritual depression in some way.

  02:50-02:57

  We've all had days when we felt emotionally numb, miserable, and maybe even hopeless.

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  Am I the only one?

  02:58-03:00

  Please don't leave me hanging up here by myself.

  03:01-03:02

  Let me ask you an important question.

  03:02-03:07

  Is it wrong for a believer to struggle with sadness and depression?

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  What do we think?

  03:08-03:09

  No, it is not.

  03:10-03:13

  Seasons of sadness are to be expected in a fallen and broken world.

  03:14-03:21

  Throughout the Psalms, we see David and the other psalmist being brutally honest about their struggles with depression and sadness.

  03:21-03:26

  The Apostle Paul said that he once despaired of life itself.

  03:26-03:34

  Even our Savior, Jesus Christ, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was so stressed out, He was so anxious that literal drops of blood came from his forehead.

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  Imagine having that kind of anxiety.

  03:37-03:46

  So if our greatest spiritual heroes and our Savior Himself experience this kind of sadness, then we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will as well.

  03:47-03:50

  The question is, how will we handle this depression when it comes into our lives?

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  Will we let it rule our hearts and our minds, or will we handle it God's way?

  03:55-04:01

  Thankfully, the Bible has a lot to say about spiritual depression, where it comes from and how we should handle it.

  04:01-04:03

  This morning we're going to dig into Psalm chapter 42.

  04:03-04:13

  So if you have your Bibles, please open to Psalm chapter 42, which beautifully and honestly presents how we can find hope in the midst of feeling hopeless.

  04:14-04:15

  All right, Psalm chapter 42.

  04:16-04:20

  "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

  04:21-04:23

  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

  04:23-04:25

  When shall I come and appear before God?

  04:26-04:41

  My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?" These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

  04:42-04:46

  Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

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  Hope in God, fresh elegant praise Him, my salvation and my God.

  04:51-05:00

  "My soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon from Mount Miser, deep calls to deep at the roars of your waterfalls.

  05:00-05:03

  All of your breakers and your waves have gone over me.

  05:03-05:10

  By day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

  05:10-05:13

  I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me?

  05:14-05:17

  Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of my enemy?

  05:17-05:54

  Out of the deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me while they say to me, 'All this day long, where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." So the heading of this psalm lets us know that it was written and performed by one of the sons of Korah. These were a group of priests who were assigned to the ministry of singing. So this psalm was most likely performed in public worship. And this song is also called a "mascal" in the heading. We're not exactly sure what a masculine is, but it means to make someone wise or to instruct in Hebrew.

  05:55-06:02

  So through this psalm, God wants to instruct our minds about spiritual depression as well as engage our emotions.

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  This background information reveals that God doesn't want us to keep silent when we struggle with depression.

  06:08-06:13

  Instead, he wants us to lift up our hearts to him and in prayer and in psalm.

  06:13-06:40

  But a question that we need to deal with before we move on to the text is where does depression come from? What are the sources of depression? So first I'm going to talk about the sources of depression that we will not be covering for the rest of this message even though they're very important. First there is personal sin. Personal sin. As a Christian, if you're living in habitual and unrepentant sin, you will experience a sense of sadness, grief, and maybe even depression.

  06:40-06:51

  If you can constantly make the same sinful choice on an endless loop without even caring or feeling bad about it at all, you need to check your heart to see if you even know Christ and have been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

  06:52-06:54

  So what is the solution to this kind of depression?

  06:54-06:56

  Stop pretending like everything is okay.

  06:56-07:00

  Confess your sin to the Lord and other believers and repent.

  07:00-07:07

  Turn your back on your sinful thinking and sinful living and ask the Lord for His grace so you can change.

  07:07-07:14

  It's important to understand that sin isn't always the source of depression, it is simply a common source of depression.

  07:14-07:20

  Another source of depression that we will not be covering in this sermon is mental or psychological issues.

  07:21-07:25

  I've talked to many Christians who don't believe in mental illness or clinical depression.

  07:25-07:28

  And I have to really disagree with this line of thinking.

  07:28-07:34

  If our body feels the effects of the fall and suffers various illnesses, so can our minds.

  07:34-07:41

  In some cases, it would be beneficial for a believer to be prescribed medication for their bowels with clinical depression.

  07:41-07:43

  So please, do not be ashamed.

  07:43-08:36

  you need to travel down that pharmaceutical route in order to deal with your issues. However, I do believe that many doctors misdiagnose clinical depression and they're over eager in prescribing drugs. For someone suffering the spiritual depression, this medication will only mask that problem and it will actually get to the root of it. So, identifying the differences between spiritual depression and clinical depression is very difficult and it requires great wisdom. If some people actually struggle with both forms of depression at the same exact time. I don't want to spend much more time on this but let me just say that there are Christians who would greatly benefit from seeking help from a medical professional. So let's now talk about the sources of depression that this Psalm is speaking to. There's the unexpected trials and hardships of life. Maybe you experience a sudden death of a loved one and this loss just rocks your world and throws your emotional life into chaos.

  08:36-08:46

  You have no idea what to do. You don't know how you can move on without this Maybe you're going through a marital problem or a financial issue right now and the future seems very uncertain.

  08:47-08:51

  Another source of depression is the pressure and anxieties of life.

  08:51-08:54

  I don't know about you, but for me, sometimes the weekly grind can just be soul crushing.

  08:55-08:59

  You can just feel like you're crumbling under the intense weight of your busy schedule.

  08:59-09:04

  Maybe work is really hectic for you right now and it seems like there's no end in sight to this busy season.

  09:04-09:12

  Maybe you even wake up in the morning and you just want to go right back to sleep you don't want to deal with your endless list of responsibilities and tasks.

  09:13-09:59

  Whatever the source may be in your life, you will have days, weeks, maybe even months where your soul feels cast down as this psalm describes. You may even feel like God has forgotten about you. You may feel like God has totally abandoned you. That life is pure chaos and God isn't in control. So what do you do when you experience these feelings? The psalm lays out four ways to fight against spiritual depression and we have them on your outline. First, how to fight against spiritual depression. Be honest with God about it. Be honest with God about it. Throughout this psalm, the writer is really honest with God about what he is feeling and experiencing. Listen to what he says in verse 9, "I say to God my rock, why have you forgotten?" Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever said that to God?

  09:59-10:06

  God, do you even remember me? You know what's going on in my life right now? Now, obviously God never abandons us. He never forsakes us, but it can feel like that.

  10:06-10:10

  at a time. There may be some days where it feels like you're just talking to no one.

  10:10-12:01

  You're just praying to the ceiling and God isn't listening. Instead of suffering in silence or putting on that fake church smile on Sunday morning, be honest with God about what you're going through. Cry out to Him and tell Him how you feel because you know what? He already knows how you feel. He knows what emotions you're experiencing and what thoughts are already swirling around in your mind. You cannot find God's solution to your problem until you admit that there actually is a problem. And don't just keep your problem between you and the Lord. God has gifted you with an amazing church family. He wants you to share your struggles with them. If you're struggling with this kind of sadness today, at least talk to one other believer about it. The Christian life isn't a solo homework assignment. It's a community project. We aren't meant to grow or suffer alone. Never forget how much you need every single person in this room. You cannot do your life on your own no matter how much you might want to at times. Secondly, how to fight against depression. Desire and seek after the Lord. We have to desire and seek after the Lord. My favorite part of the psalm is the first two verses. "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God, my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" According to these verses, this psalmist actually desires to know God more than to have his difficult circumstances solved. More than anything he wants to grow closer to his God and become more like him. Sadly we can often treat God like a divine vending machine. We hit the right buttons in prayer so we expect him to give us whatever we want and to solve all of our issues very easily. Instead we should passionately seek after the Lord in the midst of our struggles, ask him to make us more like him. Of course it's acceptable and encouraged to ask God to solve our problems and bring our requests to him.

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  We're called in 1 Peter 5, 7 to cast all of our cares, all of our anxieties upon the capable shoulders of the Lord because he cares for us and he's the only one who can truly bear them on our behalf. At the same time, we must recognize that God has a purpose for what we are going. Your pain is not meaningless. God brings trials, suffering, and pain into our lives to smooth out our sinful edges and mold us into the image of Jesus Christ. Reject your natural instinct which is to lean back from this, resist it, get angry about it.

  12:37-13:22

  Instead, lean into it. Lean in to God's discipline and to God's change and ask for his grace that you can become more like your Savior. The Lord will not always solve your problems the way that you want him to, but he will always pull you into an intimate and personal relationship with him if you're willing and submissive. So thirdly, how to fight against spiritual depression. Remember God's past faithfulness. Remember God's past faithfulness. We see this in verses 3 through 4. "My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long, 'Where is your God?' These things I'll remember as I pour out my soul, how I go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shout and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

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  So what is the psalmist doing here?

  13:24-13:29

  He's looking back at the awesome times of fellowship and worship that he experienced in the past.

  13:29-13:35

  He's remembering the many times he walked into the temple to worship his God with his fellow Israelites.

  13:35-13:41

  These joyful and uplifting memories from the past give him hope and encouragement in the present.

  13:41-13:49

  Jay already said I am the youth pastor at North Park Church in Wexford, And one of my jobs is to lead a summer missions trip every single July.

  13:49-13:52

  And to be honest with you, this really stresses me out.

  13:52-13:57

  And to be clear, I have a lot of fun doing it and I really have a great time with my students.

  13:57-14:04

  But being responsible for like 30 teenage lives for a whole week isn't the most relaxing activity in the world.

  14:04-14:12

  Every single time I'm driving that 15 passenger van out of the church parking lot, I feel like I have to take in a huge breath that I can't let out until we get back.

  14:13-14:17

  And I have all these anxieties and worries swirling around in my mind.

  14:17-14:19

  Like what if I forget a kid at a rest stop?

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  What if they get hurt on the work site?

  14:22-14:23

  What if we get in a car accident?

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  What if?

  14:24-14:24

  What if?

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  What if?

  14:25-14:25

  What if?

  14:25-14:27

  I have all these worries going on.

  14:27-14:34

  And to help myself fight these anxieties, I look back at how God has provided for every single trip that we have embarked upon.

  14:34-14:41

  Even though they didn't always work out the way I wanted or expected, God came through for us and He had a much better plan.

  14:41-14:48

  This walk down memory lane helps to ease my anxiety and give me a peace that surpasses all understanding.

  14:48-14:51

  It's the same with fighting against the depression that we feel a ton.

  14:51-15:00

  Instead of wallowing in sadness and misery, we need to look back to see how God has provided for us and taken care of us every step along the way.

  15:00-15:05

  We need to remember the good times of happiness and joy that we experienced with the Lord.

  15:05-15:15

  When you feel like God has abandoned you or forgotten you, remember the closeness you you once felt as you engaged with Him in your personal devotions or on Sunday morning during worship.

  15:15-15:24

  We need to remind ourselves that God has pulled us out of the pit of despair a countless number of times throughout our lives and He will continue to do so until the day of our death.

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  Looking back at God's past faithfulness is the greatest way to build up your confidence in His present and future faithfulness.

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  So finally, how to fight against spiritual depression?

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  Preach the truth to yourself and hope in the promises of God.

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  the truth to yourself and hope in the promises of God.

  15:43-15:50

  This psalmist actually preaches an important message to himself in order to get himself out of this spiritual and emotional funk.

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  Listen to what he says again in verse 5, "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

  15:56-16:08

  Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Now, this short sermon must be really important because he repeats it word for word in verse 11 to close out the psalm.

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  So what is the point of this important message that the psalmist is giving himself?

  16:12-16:16

  He's essentially saying this to himself, "Why are you so depressed?

  16:16-16:19

  Why are you giving yourself over to misery and hopelessness?

  16:20-16:31

  Choose to hope in the character and promises of your great God and Savior." We need to preach a similar message to ourselves when we're struggling with spiritual depression and sadness.

  16:31-16:36

  Because instead of preaching the truth to ourselves, we tend to listen to the lies of our inner critic.

  16:36-16:37

  Do you know what I mean by our inner critic?

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  We all have one.

  16:39-16:44

  It's that voice that constantly tries to condemn you and make you feel like garbage.

  16:44-16:52

  It's that voice whenever you're going through a spiritual dry spell and God feels very distant that says to you, "God doesn't care about you.

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  He is not here for you.

  16:54-17:03

  You are on your own." When you're going through a trial and you feel like your faith is hanging on by a thread, the inner critic gets in your face and says, "Just give up.

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  There is no point behind your pain.

  17:05-17:06

  It's meaningless.

  17:06-17:07

  Life is chaos.

  17:08-19:33

  nothing. Whenever you make a mistake, whenever you sin and do something you know you shouldn't do, the inner critic just rubs this mistake in your face, says you're such a failure, you're never gonna change. God's disgusted with you, he wants nothing to do with you. These false messages, these lies can be debilitating and disheartening if we let them. In the 1960s, one of my favorite preachers of all time, Martin Lloyd-Jones, wrote a very helpful book called Spiritual Depression. Listen to what he has to say about dealing with your inner critic and preaching the truth to yourself. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? The essence of this matter is to understand this self of ours, this other man within us, this inner critic has got to be handled. Do not listen to him. Instead, speak to him, condemn him, exhort him, encourage him, remind him of what you know instead of listening placidly to him and allowing him to drag you down and depress you. For this is what he will always do if you allow him to be in control. Please do not listen to the lies of Satan and your inner critic. Shut them down with the truth of God's Word and drown out their worthless voices with the beautiful and life-giving words of Scripture. When you hear the inner critic, throw a Bible verse back in his face. The word in your mind so you can be ready to do the spiritual battle. We need to constantly remind ourselves of the simple yet deep gospel message and the unbreakable promises of God. Never forget that you are a loved child of God, has been cleansed from your sins by the blood of Christ. You've been adopted into his family. That God promises to never leave you or forsake you. He promises to do everything for your ultimate good. He even uses those bad things to make you more like Christ. That is your ultimate good. He has given you the Holy Spirit to strengthen you in these moments of weakness and comfort you in the midst of disappointments of life. You know it's hard for me to say this as a preacher but the most important sermons you will ever hear are the ones you preach to yourself in the midst of trial and hardship. So instead of giving in, teach yourself the truth. I know in a room this size that many of us are struggling with spiritual sadness and depression right now. You may feel like you're sinking in sorrow and you can't swim back up to the surface to catch your breath.

  19:33-20:09

  But please know this morning, there is hope in Jesus Christ and you will make it the other side of this struggle. I don't want to minimize your pain but I also don't want to maximize the fears and the false messages that you're believing right now. I instead want to point you to Christ and the never-ending supply of joy that he provides. Instead of focusing on the magnitude of your problems, choose to fix your eyes upon the immensity of your God. We'll have a more accurate view of our problems when we begin to comprehend the bigness of our God. When we have a small view of God, our problems are blown out of proportion.

  20:10-21:10

  But when we have a big view of a God that we cannot completely understand, our problems begin to shrink down and seem much more manageable. Small God, big problems. Big God, small problems. Do that with me. Small God, big problems. Big God, small problem. Others of us aren't struggling with this kind of sadness right now, but I can guarantee you that it's coming. I don't know when it is. It could be next week, it could be next month, it could be next year. Regardless of when it comes, you have to be ready. You need to root yourself on the solid rock of Christ and His gospel that the rough ways of circumstances and emotions will not be able to move you. Let's pray. Father, all of us are going through something right now, whether it's big or whether it's small. We all struggle with trusting in you. We all struggle with believing that you are enough even though you are more than enough for us. It would help us to remember that we are your children and you love us more than we can possibly imagine. Your word tells us that you love us with the same intense love that you have for your one and only son.

  21:10-21:22

  How awesome is that? Well, there may be someone in this room who's thinking about suicide, Lord. Maybe someone in this room who doesn't think they can make it another day. I pray that you would come alongside them, point them to the truth, and you'd comfort them.

  21:23-21:25

  There's many people in this room who are struggling with depression, Lord.

  21:25-21:29

  I pray they would take this sermon to heart, and walk in the joy that you alone provide.

  21:29-21:31

  We thank you for all that you do for us.

  21:31-21:33

  In Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Psalm 42

1. What stood out to you from the message? What convicted or encouraged you?

2. According to Psalm 42, how can we find hope in the midst of feeling hopeless?

3. What does it mean/look like to preach the gospel to yourself on a daily basis? Why is this so important?

4. Why are we often tempted to act fake around other Christians and pretend like everything is fine? How can we become a more transparent group of believers?