Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Good morning, church. It's good to see you today.
[00:00:05] I hear we have a heat wave coming this week.
[00:00:09] We might hit 30 degrees.
[00:00:12] We'll take it. Amen. Beggars can't be choosers. Well, it's good to be with you today and if we haven't had the chance to meet, my name is Chet. I'd love to meet you, shake your hand, but we are in a sermon series on the book of Philippians, which is one of the letters in the New Testament written a couple thousand years ago. And we've just been looking through it and learning and hopefully growing through it. And we're gonna continue that today. But before we do, would you bow your head in prayer with me?
[00:00:43] Father, we pray that you would bless our time together, that you would be glorified, that you could show us how to have a faith that is growing, that is joyful, that is representing you well in this world.
[00:01:03] Teach us to live a life worthy of the gospel, Lord, and to feel the weight and the responsibility and the calling of that.
[00:01:14] Bless us as we think about these things, as we strive for these things. And Lord, we can't do any of it without you. And we ask all this in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:01:27] I don't know about you, but I sometimes have trouble, like letting go of a very unrealistic dream in my life.
[00:01:39] I have no musical ability at all.
[00:01:43] Zero. But I still want to be a musician. You get, you know, and I have a hard time like just fully letting that go, you know, Even though it's like life has shown me like there's just don't go for that, you know, but it's still in me. And so a couple years ago I signed up to take drum lessons and I was like, this is my chance, you know. And so I took drum lessons and I'm left handed. Any lefties out there? God bless you. Jesus was left handed.
[00:02:13] The Bible doesn't say that, but I believe it in my heart, you know, so you're special in God's eyes.
[00:02:21] And you know what it's like being left handed. It's like you go to do something and people are like, ah, we don't got it left handed, you just gotta do it righty. And so that's the left hander's life. It's a very difficult thing.
[00:02:34] And so when I showed up to drum lessons, I was like, hey, I'm left handed. Like, do we need to switch this around? And I could tell the guy's like, yeah, I don't got time for that. You're just, let's play right handed. And so I started to learn to play right handed, you know, and you know, it took a little bit of time and I did some lessons and made a little bit of progress. Do you want to hear me play a little bit?
[00:03:01] Yeah.
[00:03:06] The kit's not out, man, I was so ready to.
[00:03:11] Next time maybe. Oh no, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay.
[00:03:15] No, but I took like, you know, a little, some initial lesson, just learned a few things.
[00:03:23] Then we came to one of those, you know, budget moments where we're like, these are kind of expensive and you know, groceries are kind of expensive. Should we fund your dream or should we be responsible? So I stopped the lessons to save a little bit of money. And then some months later, a friend, he said, hey, I can teach you how to play drums. I'll do it for free. And I have a left handed set.
[00:03:56] And I was like, man, this sounds like just the work of God here.
[00:04:01] And so I went and tried. And so then what I had learned, which again wasn't that much, but it was enough to get me going, I learned right handed. Then I went to go back and try and learn left handed and my brain just couldn't have it.
[00:04:16] You ever like learn something one way, then you try to unlearn it and relearn?
[00:04:22] Just couldn't do it. It was like, nope, we're not doing this, I'm out. And I just.
[00:04:28] And so the dream still hasn't happened. Church still chasing it down.
[00:04:36] But one of the challenges of life is unlearning and learning again. And when we think about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, God invites us into a lot of that.
[00:04:51] And what we're gonna see today is that part of what God wants to do in our lives, in your, in my life, is we need to unlearn a lot of things that maybe there's ways we grew up relating to people that we need to unlearn. Cause God says, no, no, no, I have a different way for you. Maybe there's ways we learn to deal with the pain and struggle in life. And God's like, hey, you need to unlearn that way of dealing with it. Cause it's not healthy and it's not good.
[00:05:23] And I'm gonna show you a different way in unlearning and learning. It's a difficult process, but it's absolutely necessary to be the people that God wants us to be and to be the people God calls us to be. And I wanna Talk to you about that today. And we're gonna look in Philippians as we enter into this topic. And I'm just picking up where we left off from last week. So we're at Philippians chapter one. And. And I'm gonna pick up on verse 24. So we read 24 last week, but I wanna just circle back to it for a minute, and then we're gonna end chapter one. So here's how it goes. It says this. Paul says, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
[00:06:08] Convinced of this, I know I'll remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. Now, just to give you context here, Paul was wrestling with. He's sitting in a jail cell right now, and he's saying, I don't know what God's future is for me. I don't know if I'm gonna stay here, if God's gonna keep me here, or if I'm gonna be able to get out. He said, if I have a choice in the matter, I wanna get out. And I wanna be with you talking to the Philippian Church. I want to be with you because I want to strengthen your faith. I wanna help you grow in your faith. I want your progress and joy in the faith to move forward. So that's what he's saying. So that in me, you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.
[00:07:04] And now here, he's just going in and he's challenging them.
[00:07:08] He's saying, live a life that reflects the goodness and the beauty of what Jesus Christ has done for you.
[00:07:21] Live a life that reflects that, that reverences that, that honors that.
[00:07:27] That is consistent with that.
[00:07:30] And that sentence right there, it's in a tense that's called the imperative tense. And so this sentence is kind of like the center of this section. And. And what an imperative is. It's a command. Paul's saying, look, I'm not asking you to do this. I'm not suggesting you do this. I'm telling you you have to do this. Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear that you're standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God, for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. Engage in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
[00:08:30] Now, there's a lot in these verses, but let's just begin to unpack it.
[00:08:34] So the first thing I want you to see is Paul says, hey, I want to stay. I wanna be with you, and I want you to have a faith marked by progress and joy.
[00:08:48] That's the title of this sermon series, if you haven't caught it. And the reason is, is because that phrase, progress and joy, I think that's actually what the whole letter of Philippians is about.
[00:09:00] That if you use that as a lens to understand this letter, it sort of helps you to see what Paul is trying to do. Everything he's trying to teach them, everything he's trying to challenge them with every insight and example we're gonna see that he brings before them is so that their faith, it progresses, it moves forward, it advances, and that their faith moves forward in them and through them with joy.
[00:09:36] Have you ever noticed in life you can be productive and miserable?
[00:09:43] Like, you ever do, like, a family outing, like, we're gonna do something great, and then you go do it and it's a disaster.
[00:09:49] Like, hey, we went to the park. This is supposed to be fun, and it wasn't fun at all. And the kids are crying and all this. And you're upset with your spouse, or does this just happen to the Beetler family?
[00:10:02] And you're like, well, we checked it off. Yes, but there was no morale in it. You know? Remember, Allie and I have returned from vacations. We're like, we're never vacationing again.
[00:10:13] Amen. It's like, you did it, but there was no joy. And in life, you can be really productive and miserable.
[00:10:22] You're checking all the boxes, you're getting things done, you know? Or if you're like a boss or a leader, you can push the team really hard, but they also need morale at the same time. Right? You also need to find ways to enjoy the grind and enjoy the struggle.
[00:10:42] And the best is when you bring them together.
[00:10:45] When I'm moving forward in my life, but I'm enjoying it as well. You with me?
[00:10:51] When there's actual real progress, but it's not miserable, it's not draining. There's joy that comes with it. And here's what Paul is saying. He's saying, I want you to have a faith that is marked by both.
[00:11:05] See, some of us, we grew up in Church. And it seemed that the more miserable you were, the more spiritual you must be.
[00:11:13] And so a faith marked by joy and progress is kind of a foreign idea. But Paul is saying, no, that's what it's meant to look like. It's meant to progress. Our faith is meant to continue to change us and to have a transforming impact on the people around us. I don't know if you've ever found yourself stalled on, stalled out on a good endeavor. Like, you know, you were doing well and then you just stalled out.
[00:11:44] I remember a couple years ago, I was doing a running plan, 18 week running plan with some people. I don't know why you're already laughing at that.
[00:11:56] And I was getting going and I was doing good. I had it in my notebook and I could cross off each successful run. It felt so good. And church, I was thriving.
[00:12:09] If you saw me, you would have been like, is that Forrest Gump?
[00:12:12] Is that Chet?
[00:12:14] Cause this dude, he's just killing it. And I was crushing it for the first eight weeks.
[00:12:21] And then week nine hit, and I don't know what happened. I stalled out and just no more progress. And to this day, you can look in my journal, and it's still no progress there. Just week nine stalled out. Good. Eight weeks, week nine, nothing.
[00:12:37] And maybe for some of us, our faith journey is a little bit like that.
[00:12:43] There was a time where we were growing.
[00:12:46] There was a time where we were learning. There was a time where the cylinders were firing up and things were growing. But then maybe life and challenge and distraction and all these kinds of things, maybe it's. It stalled us out a little bit. But Paul says, I want for you a faith that continues to grow and grow and grow and grow.
[00:13:13] It continues to move forward. And he says, and I want a faith that becomes a joy in your life, that not only is your faith growing, but you enjoy your relationship with God.
[00:13:30] You enjoy serving him, you enjoy learning about him.
[00:13:37] This joy becomes a center of strength in your life. When we look through this book of Philippians, you're gonna see this incredible theme of joy.
[00:13:48] And if you don't remember the context of this, Paul's life isn't going great right now, but yet this ladder is.
[00:13:57] He's in prison.
[00:13:59] How he thought things were gonna happen hasn't quite happened at all. It's gone the other way. But yet in the midst of that, he says, but that all has not ruined my sense of joy in life and church. Sometimes we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, how fragile is my Sense of joy.
[00:14:24] What does it take to discourage me?
[00:14:26] Is it like, just not really much at all, and then the joy is just robbed from my life?
[00:14:33] And if that's the case, then we might be trying to find our joy from life instead of from faith.
[00:14:44] These are two very different places to draw a sense of joy from.
[00:14:49] See, if you try to draw your joy just from life, it's gonna be a hit or miss game.
[00:14:57] There's some days I can do it. I wake up and the sun is shining, and it's like 70 degrees and the grass is green. But I don't even remember the last time that happened.
[00:15:12] I think it was 18 years ago.
[00:15:15] And if I'm waiting for that and I live in Northeast Ohio, I got a problem. Amen.
[00:15:22] And if my joy is from the circumstances of my life, we know how that goes.
[00:15:30] It's a roll of the dice.
[00:15:32] Yes. There's things that happen that I'm like, man, that's great. But then there's a lot of pain in this life.
[00:15:39] There's a lot of uncertainty. There's a lot of things that you and I can't control.
[00:15:44] And if our joy is primarily connected to that, we're at best living a roller coaster of well being.
[00:15:53] At best.
[00:15:55] But I bet there's more dips than highs. Amen.
[00:15:58] Here's what Paul says, and he's gonna explain this more. But his joy comes from his faith, not from life. And it doesn't mean he can't find it there. It doesn't mean that there are not things that to enjoy in life. Yes, God gives us those things, but those aren't what my joy is anchored to.
[00:16:20] Paul says he's gonna say this in Philippians. He's gonna say, look, I can be content in any circumstance because I trust God is gonna provide for me. You with me, that's his anchor.
[00:16:36] My circumstances, they're gonna be all over. But my joy is anchored to my faith.
[00:16:44] And what Paul says. He says, I want a faith for you that brings to your life this anchor of joy that can shape you as you go through the challenges. You with me, And I don't know about you, but I want that kind of faith, too.
[00:17:03] I want that to be the type of man that can draw on that reserve and live from it. And Paul says, this is what I want for you. This is what I'm teaching you. And when you look at the book of Philippians and you use joy and progress as a lens, you can see areas where he's saying, look, if you do These things, this is how God's work progresses in the human soul. This is how God's work progresses through you. And then you can read different sections that say, and this is how joy. This is how you draw on that joy, that this is how you experience it. This is how you live from it. And there are some things that bring both of those together.
[00:17:43] So Paul says, that's what I want for you. And so how do we do it? Well, first he says, let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. How do we have a growing faith? How do we have a faith that is enriched by joy?
[00:18:05] Well, one of the beginning points, and I think there's many points to this, but one of the beginning points Paul is showing us here today is that the way I do that is I need a new standard for how to live my life.
[00:18:21] Paul says, let your manner of life, meaning how you live every day, how you make decisions, how you treat people, how you carry yourself.
[00:18:33] Right? That's your manner of life. Like how you do life. We all have a way of doing life.
[00:18:40] Now, here's the problem.
[00:18:43] In our journey of life, we have picked up good ways of doing life that honor God, and we have picked up bad ways of doing life that don't honor God. You with me?
[00:18:55] Are there any broken people that I can speak with today? Right. We're a mixed bag. Amen.
[00:19:01] And there's a lot of unlearning that has to happen, Right? Some of us, you know, the way you grew up, you got some good things taught to you, but then you also got things that are natural to you, that are normal to you. But you're like, I need to unlearn those things because those are not consistent with the life God is calling me to live. You with me. And that's a hard process.
[00:19:25] And I need God to teach me different ways of doing this. So this is what Paul's saying. And I just wanna be really, really clear about this. Paul is not saying, if we get our act together, we can live in the love and grace and forgiveness of God.
[00:19:45] Don't hear that this way at all. I just wanna make this clear. Paul is not saying that if you get your manner of life good enough, then you can experience the love and forgiveness and mercy and grace of God. See what Paul's saying? He's saying, no, no, no, you already have that.
[00:20:08] You've experienced the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. He's forgiven all your sin.
[00:20:16] You've experienced the mercy of God. You've experienced the eternal commitment of God, in the good news of the gospel, you have all that you've been given. That this is the beauty of Christianity. It's not about what we do. It's about recognizing and receiving what God has done for us.
[00:20:37] And so Paul's saying, now that you see what you've been given, now let your life match that gift. You with me?
[00:20:47] Not to earn it. You already have it.
[00:20:49] But to live differently because of gratitude, because of reverence, because you don't take it for granted. See, why should I live for God today?
[00:21:03] Not to get brownie points with him.
[00:21:06] He already loves you as much as he ever could through Jesus Christ. Today, already, he cannot love you more. That's the good news of the gospel. But why should I live different today?
[00:21:22] Because I want to honor that great God that's done that for me. You with me?
[00:21:27] Because I want to reverence it. I don't want to take that for granted.
[00:21:33] And I believe his ways are wise and good. You with me on this church? And so this is what Paul is saying. One of the ways I like to think about this verse is, I love the movie Saving Private Ryan. Anybody else? That movie, it gets my soul every time I watch it. It's just so powerful.
[00:21:51] And if you haven't seen the movie, I'm gonna spoil it for you. But it's been out for, like, 30 years.
[00:21:58] But Saving Private Ryan, it's a World War II story, and it's about this young soldier named Private Ryan who gets lost in the Normandy invasion. He's a paratrooper, gets blown in the wrong area, and the army decides that they want to bring him back home because he's lost several brothers. His family has lost several of his siblings already. So they send out a search party to get them. And the search party is led by Tom Hanks. And it's like a platoon of soldiers, and they're on this mission to go find him, which is really, really hard. And to make a long story short, they find Private Ryan. But in the process of rescuing him, they all die. They all give their lives to bring him back home.
[00:22:45] And in their dying moment, Tom Hanks, who's kind of the leader of the pack, in his dying moment, he pulls Private Ryan closer, and he says, earn this.
[00:22:57] Earn this. In other words, you've been given this gift of life.
[00:23:02] Now live a life worthy of the sacrifice that's been given for you.
[00:23:07] And at the end of the movie, he's standing as an old man before Tom Hanks grave, and tears fill his eyes, and he asks his wife.
[00:23:17] Have I lived a good life?
[00:23:21] Have I lived in a manner worthy of what those men did for me?
[00:23:26] This is what Paul is saying. He's saying, look. Look what Christ has done.
[00:23:31] Don't take it for granted.
[00:23:34] Let it change how you live your life every single day.
[00:23:40] See his sacrifice, see his love, and become a different person with his help every day because of it. That's what Paul is saying here. Now, what's really cool about this verse is there's a word in it that is connected to this idea of citizenship.
[00:24:00] And what's interesting about this is that Philippi, this ancient city that this letter is written to, they were a very proud city.
[00:24:10] And the reason was is that they were granted special status by Rome.
[00:24:17] Philippi is quite a bit aways from Rome. But they were, because of military victories and the generals that were part. And the city's role in it, the city was given this special privilege where they were considered a mini Rome. And that meant they got all these tax benefits and things like that, all these kinds of perks. And so Philippi was known to be a very proud place, that people were proud to be there. They were privileged to be there. It's like when I meet people from Texas, they love Texas. They're like, it's the greatest thing ever.
[00:24:51] I don't get it. But, hey, you know, they're proud of it, and people get a certain sense of pride. And so Paul says. Paul says, look, you might be a citizen of Philippi, but your real citizenship is in the kingdom of God.
[00:25:10] And although you're living in Philippi, you can't forget where you're really from, because that's the place that you represent.
[00:25:21] We were on vacation some years ago in San Diego, and we were trying to, like, find this little beach, and there are just people standing there. And I went up to them, and I said, it was a lady and her teenage daughter. And I said, hey, excuse me, ma', am, do you know where such and such a place is? And her teenage daughter looked at her with this crazy look.
[00:25:43] And the mom kind of looked at her and smiled, and she said, hey to me. She said, where are you from?
[00:25:49] And I said, I'm from Ohio. And she's like, oh, that makes sense.
[00:25:55] And then she looked at her daughter and she said, people from the Midwest talk like that.
[00:26:01] Cause I said, ma', am.
[00:26:03] I was like, listen, lady, we can be real mean, too.
[00:26:06] Don't let this fool you. I'm on my best behavior right now. Cause I need to know where I'm Going, but it's kind of a funny moment. But in other words, she was saying, look, people from different parts, they live different ways. This is what Paul is saying. He's saying people who are part of God's kingdom, they talk and they live different. You with me?
[00:26:30] Paul said, let your manner of life not be defined by the culture around us, but from what God has made us part of. You with me on this church. See, maybe we have a really bad work environment.
[00:26:50] Maybe we work in a toxic place. Maybe we working in a place where people don't treat each other right and it's nasty. Here's what Paul was saying. Paul said, listen, don't take your cues from that environment.
[00:27:07] Don't just reflect. I don't.
[00:27:09] I don't care if that's how they talk and treat each other and deal with conflict. You take your cues from the kingdom that you're part of, which is the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and you bring that to wherever you live.
[00:27:27] Because church, when we do, man, God is glorified and our faith grows and we're challenged. You know what the easiest thing in the world to do is just to reflect the unhealthy environment around you.
[00:27:45] To just go in and to be absorbed by it.
[00:27:50] We've all, I'm sure, fallen prey to that, and I'm sure we know what that. But hear the call of Paul. Hear what he's asking us to do. He's saying, no, no, you don't go in and reflect it. You go in and you reflect the kingdom that you're really part of, which is the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
[00:28:09] And guess what? When you do that, you might actually change the tone and the temperature of that room.
[00:28:15] You might be surprised what God does through you and how he glorifies his name. And so Paul says, let your life, Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:28:34] And if you hear those words and you feel challenged by those, then that's exactly how you're supposed to feel.
[00:28:43] I don't think there will ever come a time in our life if you're a follower of Jesus, where you read those words. You're like, yeah, I could grow in this area.
[00:28:52] I could reflect God better here. And that's what we're meant to do. To keep striving for that again, not to earn God's love, but to appreciate it and to reverence it. You with me on this church? And so Paul says that. And then he goes into this whole thing about unity.
[00:29:12] He says, standing firm in one spirit with One mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. Get this. So how does God grow our faith in a way that is marked by progress and joy? When we set a new standard for our life? Here's the second thing.
[00:29:31] We allow God to bring us side by side with other people and to face the challenges of life together.
[00:29:45] God is a unifier church.
[00:29:49] This is so ingrained in the book of Philippians, unity that God wants. I love this image of standing side by side with brothers and sisters in facing challenges together. Cause here's what life does. It doesn't naturally pull us side by side. It pulls us into each other's faces. You with me, it naturally makes us want to stand against each other.
[00:30:20] And we actually need God's help to learn to stand with each other. You get me? But I'm telling you, there is more joy and more progress in life when we allow God's spirit to bring us into deeper and more healthy relationships with the people around us.
[00:30:44] Now, we're gonna spend a lot of time on this next week, so I'm not gonna talk too much about it today. But Paul's gonna say the main thing that will keep us from standing side by side is our egos.
[00:31:02] I know that's really hard to believe.
[00:31:06] It's our pride, it's our sense of. And one of the things that I've learned in my life is to recognize. One of the ways I try to recognize my ego is when it's always being dinged by things like everything's bothering me, everything's sticking out to me. You ever get like that? The way I think about it is this. My family got young kids.
[00:31:35] We've been sick for like a month.
[00:31:38] Anybody else? And this is typical January, February type stuff for the Beetler family. So we've been sick and, you know, the kids get it, and then they just so generously give it to mom and dad. And then, you know, and on and on the cycle goes. We've been in that for a little while now. And a couple weeks ago, I had a terrible sore throat for like two weeks. It felt like, could not get rid of it. And it was so swollen that, like, everything was miserable. You know, like talking, drinking, anything, eating, sleeping.
[00:32:12] It all just like everything irritated it because it was so swollen.
[00:32:18] And when our egos get swollen, everything irritates those.
[00:32:25] And what it does is it gets in the way of God drawing us together. See, when you're at that point in life where like, someone looks at you and you're like, what do they mean, how dare they look at me like that?
[00:32:39] And then they weren't even looking at you. They were, like, looking at the sign behind you.
[00:32:44] Like someone says something. And it had. Like, there's no context to it, but all of a sudden you're putting this horrible context to it.
[00:32:51] Gosh, what a terrible person they are.
[00:32:55] And, like, when you recognize yourself where everything hurts you, that's a swollen ego.
[00:33:05] That's a sore throat.
[00:33:08] And what that does, church is it gets in the way of God drawing us into relationship and into standing side by side for his work and part of healthy relationships in our life. Here's the deal. Here's what Paul's gonna say. He's gonna say, you know what the key is?
[00:33:34] The key is a humble mind.
[00:33:36] You're like, yeah, I know this other person. They really need it.
[00:33:40] Thank God Paul said that. Well, no, here's the bad news. Paul's talking about you, not them.
[00:33:47] That we need a humble mind. We need to hunt and say, all right, Lord, give me your perspective.
[00:33:54] And just what I would say today. If maybe you feel like maybe you're in a season where the ego's a little bit swollen, or maybe you're just. You're not standing side by side or that something missing your life, just say a dangerous prayer and say, lord, change my mind the way you want it changed.
[00:34:17] And ask him to do it. And just say, lord, show me. Lord, teach me.
[00:34:22] Lord, guide me.
[00:34:24] And he will, and he'll help us. And there may be some things we need to unlearn.
[00:34:30] Maybe this way of relating. Yeah, that's what I learned it. That's what's natural.
[00:34:35] But part of how God wants to grow my faith is I need to unlearn it and I need to learn a better way. You with me on this church. And then here's the last thing I wanna share with you today. And Paul says this. I've just. I'm fascinated by this. He says, it has been granted to you. This is verse 29.
[00:34:54] Now check this out. Granted to you. Here, that word is the word graced to you.
[00:35:03] Graced to you. It has been graced to you not only to believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.
[00:35:19] Now, did you catch that? God said, I am giving you grace.
[00:35:24] Here's some suffering.
[00:35:27] God says, I have a gift for you.
[00:35:30] Hear some suffering. And you're like, lord, do you have the receipt? I'd like to take that back.
[00:35:36] You with me.
[00:35:38] That's what these verses are saying, that. That God graces us with Suffering for his sake. Now there is suffering. That's not for his sake. There's suffering we can bring into our lives by just making bad decisions and doing foolish things. And don't blame that on God. You get what I'm saying?
[00:36:02] This is something different. It's something unique. And Paul says God graces us with suffering. Now, I think in our culture today, we do everything we can to avoid suffering.
[00:36:18] And I think today, even when we talk about this, it's hard for us to have a category in our mind where suffering and grace come together.
[00:36:29] Like, no, no, no, no. If. If God's blessing me, that means there's no suffering.
[00:36:34] But do you hear what Paul's saying? He's saying, sometimes God will bless you with suffering.
[00:36:41] Like, what?
[00:36:43] What?
[00:36:45] And yet.
[00:36:47] And yet, I bet many of us, if you follow Jesus for some time, you're like, I think I get what Paul is saying.
[00:36:57] I think I've seen his grace in suffering and in pain and in hurt. It's a weird thing.
[00:37:07] And my mind struggles, but I think I know what he's talking about.
[00:37:12] And if you haven't experienced it, then here's the good news, that the pain in your life and my life is laced with God's grace.
[00:37:26] And there is grace in it. And in fact, I would say some of the way God teaches us in ways that truly transform us is through pain.
[00:37:38] I wish I could learn everything I needed to learn by just life going awesome.
[00:37:44] But that just doesn't seem to be the way it works or the way God works.
[00:37:52] There are lessons in the valley.
[00:37:56] There are transformations in the wounds.
[00:38:02] There is God's purpose in the pain.
[00:38:07] And so Paul is saying. He's saying, listen, you have to be open to finding God's grace in the pain in your life.
[00:38:17] Maybe that's how he's teaching us.
[00:38:20] Maybe that's where the lesson is that we need in our life today.
[00:38:28] And we need a category for it. We need an open heart for it. And most of all, we need to trust God in the midst of it.
[00:38:39] He's at work, church.
[00:38:41] Paul says there is grace in pain.
[00:38:46] My daughters go to this cool school, and it's called Acton. And in this school, they have, like, a lot of really cool ways. They teach lessons about life that I really appreciate. And one of their big stories that they teach, it's called the Story of the Buffalo.
[00:39:06] And the story is basically that buffaloes are a little bit different from cows and bulls and other bovines. I don't know, what are those called? Yeah, okay. Thank you. Whatever those things are, they act a little bit different. And in particular, what they say is that when they're on the plains of the Dakotas or wherever buffalo roam, that when the storm clouds come, the other animals run away from the storm, but the buffaloes turn directly face it and move towards it.
[00:39:49] Because what they realize is actually the quickest way out of it is through it.
[00:39:56] And the more you run, the more you just delay it.
[00:40:00] And how many times in life have we delayed problems and issues?
[00:40:05] Cause we just kept trying to get away from them.
[00:40:09] This kind of hope. All right, I'm gonna close my eyes and I hope they disappear and they don't.
[00:40:16] And how many times do we try to just curse the pain and numb ourselves to the pain and all those things? But the story is really cool. It says, no, no, they go to it because they know that if they're moving towards it and it's moving over them, that they will get through it even quicker.
[00:40:36] And I thought in our lives, it's maybe a good thought to think about today.
[00:40:41] Maybe we are in the pain of learning the pain of change.
[00:40:47] And maybe we need to just say, all right, Lord, I'm going to trust you for your grace in this.
[00:40:56] Because you are the one who brings life from death, who redeems the craziest, darkest, most broken situations and brings life. And I'm going to move towards it, trusting that if I move towards it, the quicker I get to you, and if I get to you, it's all good.
[00:41:20] Because he won't fail you or forsake you. Let's pray.
[00:41:25] Father, we thank you for Paul's words, for Paul's example, for the time to just think about these things and to open our hearts and minds. And Father, I pray that we could have a faith that is ever growing.
[00:41:45] That, Lord, you could bless us from those seasons where we stall out, we get stagnant, we get complacent. And I pray, Father, we just continue to grow.
[00:42:01] I pray, Lord, we could also grow with joy that you would not be duty to us, but. But delight that when life is just wringing us dry, we could say, I know where the living water is.
[00:42:21] And we could come to you and be refreshed.
[00:42:23] Father, grant us these gifts. Help us to aim for a higher standard.
[00:42:28] Bring the right people into our lives, send us into others, and help us not to fear the pain, but to find your grace in it. We ask all this in Jesus good name, Amen.
