Book: Selected Scriptures

Lesson 2: The Rise of the Papacy
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Summary

This lesson examines the rise of the papacy in the early Middle Ages, exploring how the bishop of Rome accumulated unprecedented spiritual and political authority. Three key factors converged to enable this rise: the evolution of monoepiscopacy (rule by a single bishop), Rome’s geographic isolation as the only western patriarchate, and the political vacuum left by the fall of the Western Roman Empire. We then meet two pivotal early popes—Leo the Great and Gregory the Great—who, despite being likely true believers, significantly advanced papal claims to supreme authority.

Key Lessons:
1. Church government structures can drift far from biblical patterns when pragmatic concerns like unity and efficiency override scriptural instruction, as seen in the shift from a plurality of elders to monoepiscopacy and eventually to the papacy.
2. The Bible does not support Petrine supremacy—Matthew 16:18 uses two different Greek words (Petros and Petra), and the rest of Scripture shows Peter as a fellow elder, not a supreme leader, who was even rebuked by Paul.
3. Even good leaders with genuine faith (like Leo and Gregory) can promote serious errors, reminding us that faithfulness in some areas does not guarantee correctness in all areas.
4. Galatians 1:8 establishes that Scripture holds authority over any church leader—if even an apostle preaches contrary to the gospel, he is to be rejected.
Application: We are called to evaluate all claims of spiritual authority against Scripture, submitting to God’s Word above any human leader. We should be grateful for biblical church government—a plurality of qualified elders—and guard against the temptation to elevate any single leader to unbiblical prominence.

Discussion Questions:
1. How can churches today guard against the gradual drift toward centralizing authority in one leader, similar to what happened in the early centuries of church history?
2. Leo the Great and Gregory the Great were likely genuine believers who nonetheless promoted serious errors. How should we evaluate leaders who are faithful in some areas but wrong in others?
3. Gregory rebuked the idea of a “universal priest” as the work of Antichrist, yet his own effective leadership ironically increased papal authority. How can our good works unintentionally contribute to unhealthy structures?
Scripture Focus: Matthew 16:18 is examined in its Greek context to challenge the claim of Petrine supremacy; Galatians 1:8 establishes that Scripture’s authority supersedes any apostle or church leader; 1 Peter 5 shows Peter calling himself a “fellow elder” rather than claiming supreme authority.

Outline
Introduction

Welcome back to our new series on medieval church history. Church history 102.

You can find your seats, please. Last week we overviewed medieval church history as well as the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam. Today we talk about another important medieval rising to which Islam inadvertently contributed: the rise of the papacy, the consolidation of power and influence in the bishopric of Rome.

I told you last week that not all of Rome’s popes were bad. Some were, from what we can tell, true believers, especially in the early Middle Ages, and we have some reason to be grateful for them.

Some of the later popes, however, were clearly not believers, and they exerted an evil and dispiriting influence on those who were seeking to follow Christ in Western Europe.

Now in today’s class I’m going to focus on the papacy in the early Middle Ages: the emergence of the papacy and specifically the factors encouraging church power in Rome, the centralization of power in the bishopric of Rome, and then two important early popes—Leo the Great and Gregory the Great. We’ll be dipping back a little bit into late antiquity, kind of in that transition space between late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, talking mostly early Middle Ages today.

Let’s pray as we continue. Lord God, I pray that you’d bless this look at church history and that you would enable me to explain it well. And Lord, we would not only understand the world better, but give you thanks for you doing everything perfectly just as you have determined in Jesus’ name.

Factors Encouraging Church Power in Rome

Amen. We begin today by talking about factors encouraging church power in Rome. People like Leo and Gregory, those we’ll talk about today, did not step into a vacuum to bolster the papacy single-handedly. Circumstances were already converging in late antiquity, that would be AD 200 to about 500, and the early Middle Ages, 500 to 1,000, to enable men like them to act as they did, or even independently of them to promote the Roman church’s rise in prominence.

“Circumstances were already converging in late antiquity to enable men like them to act as they did.”

The Evolution of Monoepiscopacy

Let’s look together at the three most important factors encouraging church power in Rome. Some of this we previewed at the end of last week’s lesson.

The first is the evolution of monoepiscopacy. According to the Bible, who should govern in the church? Elders, pastors and elders.

That’s two terms for the same thing. Now, is it one person at the top of a group, or is it a group with shared authority?

It’s a group. It’s a plurality. But we saw that there was an impetus to change this government structure in the early centuries. In particular, there was one apostolic father who encouraged an alteration to church government. Anybody remember who that was?

Ignatius of Antioch, second century. He advocated monoepiscopacy, which means rule by one elder, one overseer, one bishop—episcopos in Greek. Now why did he advocate this? For unity’s sake and for efficiency’s sake. We talked about his arguments. You can see where he’s coming from from a human perspective, even though it’s not biblical.

Because of Ignatius and others, the church gradually did adopt monoepiscopacy. But even then that church government didn’t stay static. It evolved. At first, monoepiscopacy meant that there would be a lead elder who was a leader among equals, the president of a board of presbyters or elders. Presbyter is another Greek term.

Soon, however, the bishop came to have sole authority over the presbyters, who were called priests for short. They then submitted to and served under the bishop in the local church. So we go from a leader among the leaders to one leader, and the other leaders are submitting to him—the bishop over the presbyters or priests.

But that also evolved. Rather than each local church submitting to its own bishop, certain bishops began to exert influence on less important churches in the surrounding area. The bishop in the city, for example, began to have influence on how churches were to be run in the countryside or in the surrounding towns.

“We go from a leader among the leaders to one leader and the other leaders are submitting to him.”

Eventually, certain cities and the churches in them became important enough that they gained authority over entire regions and over all church leaders in those regions. We’re just seeing a hierarchy keep on building. This isn’t too crazy. We could see how this could start even today.

Even today, there are certain churches or certain church leaders that, even though technically they’re equal to every other church or every other church leader, people nonetheless look to them as having a certain degree more authority. Even among Protestant evangelicals, you can think about certain famous pastors or certain famous churches and say, “Well, there’s a reason that they’re so great. We should listen to them.” Even in our own local church, many people will think that way.

This especially happens in situations of church planting. New churches birthed by one or more old churches almost inevitably maintain a degree of respect and submission to those old churches and to their leaders. How could you not be grateful in that way? They birthed you. How could you not follow their direction at least somewhat?

Add to that history and tradition. You’re more likely to have reverence for a church and its pastors if that church has been around and faithful for a hundred years than if that church and pastor have only been around for ten years. It seems to have more prestige, more authority.

These same forces were at work to elevate certain churches in late antiquity. The bishops of these superchurches soon had a different title. Does anybody know what they were called?

The Rise of the Patriarchs

These bishops of the super churches were given a different title. They were called patriarchs. And what does that mean?

Father. It’s the male head of the family. There came to be five patriarchs and thus five patriarchates in the Roman Empire. We did mention these at the end of last lesson: Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Constantinople.

These were the most important cities with the most important churches with the most important bishops, now called patriarchs. The reason why these cities were considered important had to do with that city’s history, especially Christian history.

Rome was the site of many Christian martyrdoms, including Paul’s and Peter’s, and also the place that Peter pastored for a time. Antioch was one of the first major Christian centers, a missionary base for Paul, and said to be founded by Peter.

Alexandria was said to be founded by Mark. It was a very old church with a famous Christian school in the city, known for its scholarship. Jerusalem was the oldest church, led chiefly by the Apostle James at first, and a very significant city in God’s dealings with man throughout history.

Constantinople was added later as the new Christian capital and the seat of the emperor. It was also supposedly the region, if not the city, where Andrew first brought the gospel.

“These were the most important cities with the most important churches with the most important bishops, now called patriarchs.”

While these superbishops, these patriarchs, none of them had unquestioned authority. Even lesser bishops supposedly under them would seek autonomy or elevation of prestige themselves at times.

In late antiquity, church leaders generally came to accept that these five cities had the most important churches and that the other bishops in their regions generally should submit to their leadership.

Geographic Location

These are the guiding lights of the entire church. This change in church hierarchy occurred in the first three to four centuries of the church and was extending into the early middle ages. This contributed to the rise of the papacy in Rome. That’s the first major factor.

A second is geographic location. As we noticed last week, what is it about Rome’s geography that made it conducive to increased authority?

Compared to those other four seats, those other patriarchs, it doesn’t have any other patriarchs near it, patriarchates. The pentarchy—these five leading churches—is the only one more or less in the west. All the other four are in the east. This makes sense from a historical perspective. No major churches were established by the apostles west of Rome.

But this means that the region of Rome’s authority and control as a patriarchate was potentially much larger and uncontested compared to the patriarchates in the east. The other patriarchs in the east often jockeyed for position with one another. They say, “Oh you should follow my leadership or I’m the leader of the leaders.” But there were no other major churches in the west to balance out Rome’s power. It was alone in its authority. It didn’t have another church to check it.

“There were no other major churches in the west to balance out Rome’s power. It was alone in its authority.”

Additionally, I mentioned church planting before. Let’s not forget that Christian missionary work continued even after the first few centuries. I’ll talk more about this in an upcoming lesson.

But for new churches in the west among the various barbarian kingdoms, whom are they going to see as their parent church? Well, who sent the missionaries?

Ultimately Rome did.

The Political Situation

As east and west became more divided by language, culture, and political system over time, and as Islam would spread and subsume three of the five pentarchy seats, Rome would feel more and more independent from the authority of the eastern churches and their patriarchs. Monoepiscopacy and geography both contributed to the rise of the papacy in a major way.

The third factor is the political situation. Going back to last lesson at the beginning of the Middle Ages, what is the biggest difference between the political situation of the east and the west? In the east, we still have strong emperors. In the west, you have weak or non-existent emperors—they are puppets or they’re just gone.

Now the term that comes to define the relationship between the church and the state in the east, notwithstanding Ambrose’s famous showdown with Theodosius in the 4th century, is Caesaropapism.

Caesaropapism vs. Papal Monarchy

Caesarism, which means Caesar is father, Caesar is pope. In other words, the Christian emperor in Constantinople had ultimate authority in the church. Even if he didn’t have or claim the title of pope, he was essentially the head of the Eastern Church. He’s the one who could call church councils. He’s the one who could depose bishops. He’s the one who could outlaw and persecute heretics, etc. Caesar is pope.

“The Christian emperor in Constantinople had ultimate authority in the church.”

But in the west before 476, the Roman emperors are essentially powerless. They don’t have the ability to get anything done.

Much less enforce decisions on the church. Not only is the patriarchy in Rome much more independent than those in the east because of the lack of strong state government, but the disappearance of the Roman Empire in the west created a power vacuum for Roman Christians. Who is going to take care of these ex-Roman Christians in the west when the emperors could not or were non-existent?

Well, what about the next greatest authority in the west? The bishop, the bishop of Rome.

Certainly many Christians were not enthused about looking toward the pagan barbarian kings for leadership or guidance, especially in spiritual things. But they were used to submitting to Rome in matters of religion and spirituality. Could not the bishop of Rome also take care of practical needs of Christians in the west?

Therefore, some refer to what ends up developing in the west as papal monarchy. This is the opposite of what develops in the east. In the east, the king becomes pope. In the west, the pope becomes king. People are used to following his spiritual authority, so they say, why not follow his secular authority? Could he also govern us in secular things? Could he not also hold power?

These three factors—monoepiscopacy, geography, and political situation—all encourage not only the elevation of the spiritual authority of the Roman patriarch but also his political authority.

Now let’s meet two men who built on, who reacted to, and played an important role in response to these factors in the rise of the papacy. They are Leo I and Gregory I. Both of these men, though believing in and promoting some serious errors, nevertheless fall under the category of good popes, even probably true believers who genuinely sought to shepherd faithfully God’s church.

By the way, the title pope is just another word for father. It was used to refer to any of the five patriarchs at first—those five I mentioned earlier—but later it is used to refer just to the patriarch of Rome. So pope just means father.

Now as two of the earliest and greatest popes, many other Catholic popes in history who would come after them would choose to take the name Leo or Gregory upon assuming the papal office.

“In the east, the king becomes pope. In the west, the pope becomes king.”

By doing so, they were essentially saying, “I want to be like that first Leo, or I want to be like that first Gregory.” Interestingly, we just had a newly elected pope. What name did he take? Leo. We have Leo the 14th. So we see the same thing even in our own day.

Leo the Great: Founder of the Papacy

But let’s look at these two popes that so many other popes want to model themselves on. The first is Leo I, or Leo the Great.

While we don’t have too many details of his early life, Leo was apparently first a deacon and later elected bishop of Rome in 440. Leo was a brilliant theologian and a very successful pope. He actively defended the church against heresies while also building the Roman church’s power.

I’d love to take you through some of the more positive things about Leo, but I need to focus on what is most notable about him. That is, he firmly believed in the supremacy of Rome over all other Christian churches. He’s not just one of the patriarchs—he’s the patriarch—and he was going to advocate for that position.

Almost everything Leo did or said was somehow connected with increasing the Roman church’s authority and legitimacy.

So you could say that Leo is the true founder of the papacy. This papal state, this thing that became known as the Catholic Church led by the pope—in many ways Leo is the founder of it. Indeed, the standard Roman Catholic arguments that we hear today about Petrine supremacy, the apostolic succession from Peter that gives Roman popes their consmate authority, that Peter is the rock that Jesus mentions in Matthew 16:18, and therefore you should listen to the popes in Rome—those arguments are first articulated by Leo.

“Almost everything Leo did or said was somehow connected with increasing the Roman church’s authority and legitimacy.”

Leo’s Argument for Petrine Supremacy

He’s the one who promulgates those. For example, we won’t read through this. You can read through it later on the slides when they’re posted to the website, usually on Monday.

In a letter to one of the patriarchs in Alexandria, Dascorus Leo argues to this patriarch that just as John Mark followed and submitted to Peter, so Mark’s successor in Alexandria should submit to Peter’s successor in Rome. This was his argument. Notably, Dasclorist didn’t buy it.

The position of most patriarchs in the east was either okay, Rome, you’re the first among equals or no, we’re just all leaders. Don’t try and get too uppidity. Nevertheless, Leo continued to make these arguments.

And while he didn’t sway the other patriarchs, he did reach many Christian laymen. Here’s a clearer example of Leo’s thinking. And this one I will read to you. If the text is small, don’t worry. Just listen and you can look it up later on the slides.

Here’s a clear example of Leo’s thinking in a sermon that he preached on his birthday and on his anniversary of becoming pope in Rome. Here’s Leo:

“And from God’s overruling and eternal protection, we have received the support of the apostles aid also, which assuredly does not cease from its operation. And the strength of the foundation on which the whole superstructure of the church is reared is not weakened by the weight of the temple that rests upon it. For the solidity of that faith which was praised in the chief of the apostles is perpetual. And as that remains which Peter believed in Christ, so that remains which Christ instituted in Peter.

“For when as has been read in the gospel lesson, the Lord had asked the disciples whom they believed him to be amid the various opinions that were held. And the blessed Peter had replied saying, ‘Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.’ The Lord says, ‘Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my father which is in heaven.

And I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shalt be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall also be loosed in heaven.’

“The dispensation of truth therefore abides. And the blessed Peter persevering in the strength of the rock which he has received has not abandoned the helm of the church which he undertook.

“For he was ordained before the rest in such a way that from his being called the rock. From his being pronounced the foundation. From his being constituted the doorkeeper of the kingdom of heaven. From his being set as the umpire to bind and to loose, whose judgment shall retain their validity in heaven. From all these mystical titles, we might know the nature of his association with Christ.

“And still today, he more fully and effectually performs what is entrusted to him and carries out every part of his duty and charge in him and with him through whom he has been glorified. And so if anything is rightly done and rightly decreed by us, if anything is won from the mercy of God by our daily supplications, it is of his work and merits whose power lives and whose authority prevails in his see.”

So if you followed all that, Leo argues not only does the supreme apostolic authority live on today, but what also continues not just Peter’s authority and his successors, but they head still as heads. That’s right. So it’s not just that he’s the head in authority. He’s received that as a succession from Peter, but Peter’s power continues.

He must have a power that continues because consider all those mystical titles he was granted. That’s not like just while a little while he was on the earth.

“Leo argues not just Peter’s authority continues in his successors, but Peter’s power continues.”

That’s perpetual. His power continues.

So as Leo closes this excerpt, whatever righteousness Leo does, it’s not Christ in Leo, but whom in Leo?

Peter in Leo.

In a strange mystical way. Now, this is an important claim for Leo to make because if he were only to claim the authority and not some kind of extra supernatural power or assistance, then some might accuse Leo or other Roman popes of having the same fallibility as any other bishop, making that extra authority moot. If you’re granted extra authority and not extra power, well, so what? That’s not going to help the church.

So Leo says, “Roman popes have both.” Now Leo was not only able to persuade some laymen with these types of arguments, but he also managed to get the Western Emperor on his side. Now this wasn’t too hard considering how weak the Western emperors were at the end of the Western Roman Empire. But it did help Roman prestige, papal prestige.

Emperor Valentinian III decreed in 445, and again you can read this later, that the Roman church was the highest spiritual authority and that all bishops in Western Roman territory must be subject to the pope or else the secular magistrates will intervene. Now again the emperor didn’t really have much authority to enforce this, but it certainly enhanced the prestige of the pope and it gave him the upper hand when dealing with any uppidity local bishops.

Did Peter Have Special Authority?

Now, it’s worth taking a moment to pause. Could Leo be right? Are the Roman bishops special successors to authority and power from Peter? Well, there are two main issues with Leo’s assertion, and I’ll break it down in several other ways.

First, did Peter really have special authority and power compared to the other apostles?

Second, if Peter did, did that special authority and power pass to the leaders in Rome specifically?

Considering the first issue, we must admit that the interpretation of Matthew 16:18 that Leo provides and that many Roman Catholic popes have provided since then is dubious. Examining the Greek of the passage, we have masculine Petros, Peter’s name, which means stone, set against feminine Petra, which means rock or bedrock.

Not only are they two different terms referring to two different ideas, but they’re in two different genders grammatically. Protestants have made much of this. This continues to be an interpretive battleground between Protestants and Roman Catholics. But the difference in terms suggests that it’s not exactly the same.

When Jesus says, “Peter, I say you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church,” Jesus is making a distinction between Peter and what he’s building on. That suggests that Peter himself is not the foundation. He’s not the one given special authority and power.

It’s also worth noting that this type of defense, specifically from Matthew 16:18, was never used by any other Roman bishop before Leo, which is striking.

“The difference in Greek terms suggests Peter himself is not the foundation Jesus is building on.”

Early church fathers did not assert that they had special apostolic authority or power. Though they did talk about apostolic succession in the sense of receiving the authoritative truth from the apostles, namely the scriptures.

So where did this come from? If this was always true, why did nobody talk about this before? Now certainly Peter was a leader among the apostles. He was often the spokesperson. But the other apostles certainly did not submit to Peter as supreme leader. Otherwise, there’d be no reason for a Jerusalem council.

Actually, Peter calls himself a fellow elder in 1 Peter 5:2 with other elders. Peter also had to be confronted at times—first by Jesus more than once. “Get behind me, Satan.” And we’ll see one later in the sermon today. And then by Paul, opposed to his face because Peter was in the wrong and leading the other Christians in a wrong way.

So even apart from Matthew 16:18, just looking at the rest of the Bible, if you want to argue succession from Peter, that succession must be no different than from any other apostle. Which means it is a meaningless succession unless the teaching and ministry of that new successor of Peter adheres to the scriptures.

You want to say you’re a successor of Peter? Then teach what the scriptures say. That’s the only way your succession is meaningful. You don’t have any special authority from Peter otherwise. In fact, I like what Galatians 1:8 says in light of this discussion.

This is Paul, but relevant to the question. Paul says in Galatians 1:8, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed.” So much for apostolic succession and authority. If even an apostle says something that goes against the scriptures, don’t believe him. Consider him set aside by God for judgment.

In other words, it doesn’t matter if you’re a bishop, a pope, a pastor, or a layman. If what you say is not biblical, but you call me to follow you, I will not. I cannot submit to it.

Galatians 1:8: “Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to what we have preached, he is to be accursed.”

Does Rome Hold Peter’s Succession?

And my resistance to your authority is based on the authority of the apostles who base their words on the authority of Christ. If you truly want to submit to Peter as one of the apostles, then you need to follow Peter and Paul and the other apostles. Then you need to follow Galatians 1:8. You submit to the scriptures before you submit to any church leader.

So then, far from confirming Petrine supremacy, the Bible points away from special authority or power to Peter above the other apostles. But that’s just the first issue. Did Peter have special authority compared to the other apostles? Let’s consider the second issue.

The Bible and simple logic should cause us to object to the claim that Rome is the site of Peter’s apostolic succession. If Petrine supremacy is based on Peter’s founding or pastoring a church, then many other churches could claim Petrine supremacy.

Peter first of all did not begin the church of Rome. Paul does not mention Peter even in the book of Romans. Peter not only ministered in Rome but also in Jerusalem, Caesarea, and Antioch. He wrote letters to the churches in Asia Minor.

Why shouldn’t these church sites also claim Petrine succession? Furthermore, if the line of apostolic succession is Peter ordaining a bishop who then ordains a bishop who then ordains a bishop, and so on, then what happens if a bishop was not ordained before the previous one died?

That line of appointing bishops was broken because we just didn’t know the guy was going to die and so nobody was appointed as a successor. You say, well, maybe he didn’t need to appoint a replacement. It can be appointed after the fact.

If an ordained bishop in the line of Peter didn’t ordain a replacement before his death, then how do you know who really should fit Peter’s office? Who should fulfill Petrine succession? How do you know that any particular bishop in the Roman line isn’t an impostor filling the post?

What if the impostor then appoints bishops after him? If a bad bishop ordains another bishop, whether that bishop is good or bad, is that latter bishop’s appointment valid? Is he truly a successor to Peter?

“If the line of apostolic succession was broken, how do you know any particular bishop isn’t an impostor?”

How could you ever know? How could you resolve the issue of Petrine succession in such a situation? How could you not admit it’s broken?

This issue of lineage that I’m talking about, it’s not theoretical. As we go through church history, we will see this happen multiple times in the Roman papacy, especially with the bad popes.

The Authority of Scripture Over Any Leader

In response to Leo, he did some other good things for the early church and the late antiquity church. Nevertheless, we must reject his assertion that one church leader is meant to have authority over God’s whole church.

Whatever Jesus is saying to Peter in Matthew 16:1, and we can get a fuller investigation another time, Jesus was not creating a papacy or even a system of patriarchs with special authority. Rather than focus on Matthew 16 for our pattern for church government, we would do better to heed the direct instructions from the apostles in their letters.

What is that instruction? Appoint qualified men in every church to serve as a plurality of elders who will teach and shepherd the flock locally and raise up other men afterward to do the same.

In short, the special authority and power of the apostolic office was never explained as something that would continue. The apostles laid the foundation with Christ being the cornerstone and then they passed from the scene.

“The special authority of the apostolic office was never explained as something that would continue.”

Leo’s Actions: Negotiation and Protection

Nevertheless, we must acknowledge historically that Leo really believed this and he worked tirelessly to get people to see that the patriarch of Rome was the most important person in Christianity.

Now, it wasn’t just Leo’s arguments that facilitated this increased power and authority. Leo’s actions also increased Rome’s authority. Leo was an able administrator and a skilled negotiator.

The Western Emperor once called upon Leo to settle a dispute between two senior government officials, which is interesting. Here’s a religious leader being pulled into a secular role to negotiate.

But an even more significant negotiation came later. You ever heard of a guy named Attila the Hun?

Well, the Huns had been pushing various barbarian tribes toward and through Rome’s borders in the 400s. Finally, the Huns themselves arrived looking for plunder from Rome.

In 452, the emperor sent Leo and some other delegates to meet Attila to see if they could persuade the barbarian to call off his invasion of Italy.

Now, there’s no record of what actually was said in the negotiation, but they proved successful. Leo turned the armies of Attila away from Italy.

You can imagine the reaction of fearful Roman Christians to that news. Wow, Leo is quite a guy. Leo’s got power.

“Leo managed to turn a whole army away—increasing the prestige and authority of the Roman popes.”

He managed to turn a whole army away by himself. How did he do it? Maybe there is something to these claims of special authority and power from Peter. I mean, I’m not so convinced biblically, but just look at circumstances. Look what he did.

Now, historians can only speculate as to why Leo was successful in this negotiation. Some say he brought a large sum of money with him. Others say he informed Attila of the sorry state of Rome and its lack of resources. Basically, Attila, you’ll be wasting your time if you try and pillage us. We got nothing.

Others say that it didn’t really matter what Leo said because disease had already greatly weakened Attila’s forces and other Roman troops were on the way. So he wasn’t going to try and invade at all. Probably the answer is some combination of these.

Roman Christians, though, had a different explanation for what happened. Stories circulated—and this is what you see in the painting a little bit. Stories circulated about an angel or a giant warrior with a sword appearing that no one could see except Attila.

Other stories said that Attila was so awed by the humble, righteous demeanor of Leo that he was convicted of his violent attempts and he went away. That’s probably not the case, but that’s what many Roman Christians were saying.

Now, when the Vandals, another barbarian group, came to sack Rome three years later, Leo could not stop them. But he apparently convinced them to go easy on the city’s inhabitants, and they were grateful. Once again, Leo pulled through for us.

Leo and the Council of Chalcedon

Both of these people protecting peace brokering ventures increased the prestige and authority of Leo and of the Roman popes in general. People were saying, “Look at this authority. We should give them our support.”

One other item to mention about Leo is definitely in the positive category. You might remember that Leo was important in the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Again, this is 101 material. This council was about the nature of Christ.

Does Jesus have two disconnected natures? Does he have a human nature and a divine nature which totally don’t interact? Or does he have one hybrid nature? Is he not human or divine but human-divine? Is he a mixture of the two?

These two positions were articulated by leaders from two other patriarchates at that time: Antioch and Alexandria. They were arguing about these two positions, and there was a council called to resolve the issue.

Well, it ended up that the issue was only resolved by the adoption of the explanation of hypostatic union, which was presented by Leo. Even today, you can look up Leo’s tome and you’ll see this explanation of the hypostatic union. It was this explanation that was adopted by the council and resolved the issue.

What is hypostatic union? Does anybody remember? Two natures—two natures but intimately united so that there’s no real competition or separation between the two. He’s not a mixture because otherwise he’s not human. He’s not completely human or he’s not completely divine.

But he’s not so separate in his natures that it’s like, I don’t know, “Am I going to be human today or am I going to be divine?” He’s not schizophrenic. It’s two natures, intimately united, and beyond that, we can’t say anything. There’s a limit to how far our theology can go. That’s where the scriptures lead us.

He’s definitely human. He’s definitely God. He’s totally united in his own person. But beyond that, we can’t really say anything. That was the explanation given by Leo, and it is a biblical explanation to which we still find help and clarity today.

So I don’t want you to just think, “Man, that Leo guy—bad. His thing about Petrine supremacy was really unhelpful.” But he was helpful in other ways, especially in his theology at Chalcedon.

Oh, by the way, this did partially increase the authority of Rome because you had these two patriarchs who couldn’t come to a resolution, and it took this third patriarch from Rome to be like, “Guys, listen to me. I’ll fix it.” And they did listen. That seemed to elevate the bishop of Rome. See, he is the leader among the leaders. Or maybe he’s a leader above the leaders.

Though there was a resolution of the council that slightly undercut whatever authority Leo gained from his tome because specifically they said, “Oh, by the way, yes, Rome has preeminent honor as the greatest city in the empire, but spiritually the Roman bishop is equal to the other bishops.” Leo was not happy about that resolution, but that’s what the council said.

That brings me to the end of our discussion of Leo. What to make of him?

“Two natures, intimately united—beyond that, we can’t say anything. That’s where the scriptures lead us.”

Gregory the Great: Life and Background

Certainly, we are indebted to him for his clear biblical explanation of the relationship between Christ’s humanity and divinity. But he also put a lot of energy into elevating an unbiblical institution and supreme church authority for which the Middle Ages would only increase it.

After Leo, the prestige and authority of the papacy would actually wane somewhat. It’s kind of interesting. He worked so hard to build it up and after him it just started to decline again until the next great pope, Pope Gregory I, born in 540. Gregory the Great.

He also falls under the category of good pope. He’s known as a missionary pope, but he too would increase the power of the Roman bishop. Now it must be admitted that Gregory was definitely doctrinally off in some important areas.

For instance, he believed in and helped popularize for the whole Middle Ages the idea of purgatory. He wasn’t the one who came up with it, but he definitely popularized it. That is a serious error.

But Gregory was nevertheless right on many important points, including in his commitments as a church leader: namely, preaching the word of God, taking the gospel to the lost, and meeting the needs of the poor.

It’s actually partially through Gregory’s commitment to biblical pastoring that he ends up increasing papal authority because Gregory was such a good pastor and he was such a skilled leader that people ended up respecting his church more—the Roman papacy.

Let’s briefly overview Gregory’s life. Born in Rome, Italy to a wealthy aristocratic family, his father served in government as a senator and prefect of Rome.

“It’s partially through Gregory’s commitment to biblical pastoring that he ends up increasing papal authority.”

Prefect is a high position that’s kind of like mayor or governor. Gregory received a very privileged education and though he showed great aptitude in everything he studied—including rhetoric, grammar, literature, science, and law—he pursued a career in government following after his father.

Italy’s Tumultuous Times

Gregory himself became prefect of Rome in 573 at age 33. The situation in Italy and Rome during the mid to late 500s was quite tumultuous. Going back to last lesson, Justinian, the great Eastern Roman Emperor, sought to reconquer Italy for the empire. The battles and sieges between the Romans and the Goths devastated the population and resources of Italy. If that wasn’t enough, plagues and flooding further crushed the people.

In 542, the plague of Justinian—unfortunately named after the emperor, though the disease probably originated in China—reached Italy, causing widespread sickness and death. Plagues in the Middle Ages would come back again and again and again.

Later in 589, heavy rainfall caused the Tiber to flood, destroying many homes, crops, and storehouses. Widespread famine and disease resulted.

One source I read said that Rome became “a very city of the dead.” Business was at a standstill and the streets were deserted save for the wagons which bore countless corpses for burial and common pits beyond the city walls.

“Rome became a very city of the dead—business at a standstill, streets deserted save for wagons bearing corpses.”

Gregory’s Conversion to Monastic Life

The middle to late 500s was a very rough time to be alive in Italy. But these were the circumstances into which Gregory found himself.

Gregory was insulated from much of this turmoil due to his family’s wealth, but he nonetheless must have been affected by the widespread misery that he frequently saw around him. After serving as prefect for only one year, Gregory’s father died and Gregory decided to become a monk.

He converted a number of family estates into monastic communities and left secular life. He and his fellow monks withdrew from society for five years. Though apparently devoted to the Lord since his youth, Gregory really loved monastic life and only very reluctantly rejoined society due to the Pope’s special request.

The Pope made Gregory a deacon in Rome and papal ambassador to Constantinople. During that time, Gregory also began to preach and write, speaking to many aristocrats in Constantinople as well as his fellow monks outside of Rome.

In 590, the pope died and due to Gregory’s obvious Christian devotion and his competence as a servant of the pope, Gregory was selected to be the next pope. Even though he really did not want the job, he was in the end strong-armed into the position and he served as pope until his death apparently from old age in 604.

His body was entombed in Rome and is still there in St. Peter’s Basilica. Now we know a bit about his life. Let’s find out a little about what kind of pope Gregory was.

Gregory was not an outstanding theologian. You won’t find anything like Leo’s tome in Gregory’s writings. He was, however, extremely diligent, meticulous, and the perfect administrator. His skills manifested themselves in three important areas.

“These were the circumstances into which Gregory found himself.”

Reforming the clergy, taking care of the people of Rome, and sending out missionaries.

Reforming the Clergy

First, Gregory sought to correct issues he observed in Western church leaders. Many of them were not actually preaching, or they were not submitting to Rome’s guidance and leadership, or they were not fulfilling their vows of celibacy.

At this time, more and more people expected church leaders to live an ascetic lifestyle, even though that was technically not required. This ascetic lifestyle would include celibacy. Some clergymen were claiming to be celibate when they actually weren’t, and that’s not good.

Seeking to change the situation with the clergy, Gregory wrote hundreds of letters, many of which survive today. He preached many sermons exhorting the clergy to holy living, faithful preaching, faithful shepherding, and also submission to Rome.

Interestingly, almost 900 years later, John Calvin, the reformer, cites Gregory positively in his Institutes as someone looking to reform the church toward true godliness when the seeds of corruption were taking root. You can read what Calvin says later in the slides. Though things would obviously get worse by Calvin’s time, Gregory was successful in getting many Western clergymen back in line toward faithful ministry.

These efforts increased the Roman church’s authority. Moreover, Gregory developed relations with many bishops in Spain and France, places where the church had become more independent. By his frequent correspondence, Gregory was able to bring many of these areas back to following Rome’s lead.

While Gregory may not have been the greatest theologian, he was a great compiler and synthesizer. He studied the early church fathers and harmonized their theological contributions with his own writings. The summary of previous theological work that he produced became what many clergymen studied in the medieval period, along with other works from Gregory. He had an important impact on pastoral practice and medieval theology.

“Gregory exhorted the clergy to holy living, faithful preaching, faithful shepherding, and submission to Rome.”

Caring for the People of Rome

Second, Gregory not only wanted to help Christians spiritually through righteous, educated, and connected clergy, he also sought to take care of people practically. You’ll see some overlap with Leo here a little bit. As you heard, Italy was in great need during Gregory’s time. Because the civil authorities either could not or would not act to change the situation, Gregory stepped up to take care of the people himself.

By Gregory’s pontificate, the church of Rome already owned a good amount of land, property, and money. How did this happen? Pious people were gifting it to the Roman church. By the way, this is something you see throughout the Middle Ages.

These circumstances encouraged church authority and even corruption. Many Christians, looking to express their love for Christ or in a more misguided way seeking to earn favor with God, gave their land or their money to the church. One source estimates that the church of Rome by Gregory’s time had already accumulated 1,300 to 1,800 square miles of land both in Italy and elsewhere.

This generated no less than $1.5 million a year in today’s dollars. And that’s just land income. That doesn’t account for what any accumulated wealth might do. Increased wealth often leads to increased love of wealth, which is a problem that we’ll see throughout the Middle Ages. But not for Gregory.

Gregory saw the accumulated wealth and the income of the Roman papacy as a great opportunity for the church to help the poor and to help the struggling. And he did just that. Using the church’s wealth, Gregory came up with a system of almsgiving that worked extremely well because Gregory did not miss any details. He kept strict accounts of the money and goods coming in and going out for the Roman church with accounting precision that was unusual for the time.

People could not be lazy or corrupt under Gregory’s watchful eye. If they were, they were ousted and Gregory replaced them. Now you can imagine how such an extensive effort to help the Italians would win support for the pope and the Roman church. People are going to be grateful for this kind of action from the papacy.

But it wasn’t just food, clothing, and housing that Gregory provided. He also worked for the people’s protection. As new groups of barbarians threatened Italy, it was Gregory, not the inept Byzantine government centered in Ravenna, that prepared Rome’s defenses and negotiated treaties. Historian Justo González summarizes Gregory’s practical measures in his book, The Story of Christianity.

“Gregory saw the accumulated wealth of the papacy as a great opportunity for the church to help the poor.”

Since there was nobody else to do it, Gregory organized the distribution of food among the needy in Rome, and he also took measures to guarantee the continuing shipments of wheat from Sicily. Likewise, he supervised the rebuilding of the aqueducts and of the defenses of the city, and the garrison was drilled until morale was restored.

Since there was little help to be expected from Constantinople, he then opened direct negotiations with the Lombards, that’s the barbarian group, with whom he secured peace.

So then, even though Gregory is technically only the leader of the Roman church, what is he acting like? A king, a ruler, the leader of Italy or at least part of Italy. And Gonzalez says the same. Thus by default the pope was acting as ruler of Rome and the surrounding area. This is papal monarchy coming into fruition.

Gregory the Missionary Pope

Gregory and his administration provided much practical benefit for the people of Rome and of Italy. We see Gregory reform the clergy and provide for the people of Rome. But we also see Gregory reach out to the people beyond Rome by sending missionaries. Gregory is considered the first great missionary pope.

Some historians say that no one since the Apostle Paul was as deliberate or strategic in missionary efforts.

“Some historians say that no one since the Apostle Paul was as deliberate or strategic in missionary efforts.”

The most notable mission sponsored by Gregory is the mission to Britain, sometimes called the Gregorian Mission.

The Gregorian Mission to Britain

The story goes that Gregory was first inspired to send missionaries to England when, as a deacon, he saw some boy slaves in the Roman forum who stood out because of their paler skin tone. Asking those standing by who they were and learning that they were Angles, Gregory reportedly replied, “Angeli, which means what?”

Not Angles, but angels, reportedly continuing, “Well-named, for they have angelic faces and ought to be co-heirs with the angels in heaven.” Now, we don’t know if that really happened, but it is a story associated with him.

Before becoming pope, Gregory almost went to be a missionary in England himself, but he was recalled soon after he set out due to people wanting him to remain in Rome.

Instead, after Gregory became pope, he sent one named Augustine—not the same one as Augustine of Hippo—later known as Augustine of Canterbury, to bring the gospel to the Anglo-Saxons and Jutes who had settled in England. Remember, there were Christians before in England, but these migrating or more likely invading barbarian tribes were not Christian, and now they’re the ones in control of most of the area that will later become England.

In particular, Augustine was to try to convert the rulers of England, hoping to spread Christianity from the top down. Apparently, Augustine wasn’t the greatest missionary, but somehow his efforts were successful. The strategy worked and Christianity spread among the Angles and Saxons.

By the way, the first place that accepted it was the ruler of Kent in southeast England. The first bishop’s seat was established in Canterbury, which is why you later have the Archbishop of Canterbury in England, which still exists today.

From Britain, missionaries would later bring the message of Jesus into the Netherlands and Germany. There’s a knock-on effect to this missionary effort, and it even extends to our own day, right?

Christianity didn’t emerge in America out of nowhere. It came because of people who migrated from those territories—England, Germany, other places. In a sense, we have to be grateful to Gregory for this specific mission, for this missionary effort. Not only were souls saved at that time, but the gospel tradition eventually spread to even where we live through those missionary efforts.

“The gospel tradition eventually spread to even where we live through those missionary efforts.”

Though we must note that what was spread by those Gregorian missionaries was Roman Christianity—nice in the sense that it was what was believed by Christians throughout the empire but was given special authority and noted to the pope in Rome. This is only going to increase papal authority and influence.

In summary, Gregory’s diligence and zeal displayed itself in clergy reformation, provision for Italian Christians, and successful missionary work. These simultaneously built up Christ’s body, but they also built up the authority of the pope, and that is only going to increase after Gregory’s day.

Two other things to say about Gregory: Gregory is notable for some changes he made to the order of liturgy in the church and also for music.

Gregory’s Surprising Rejection of Universal Authority

Perhaps you’ve heard of something called Gregorian chant. That is attributed to him, though it’s debated whether he really did that or not. Gregorian chant is marked by all the voices singing in unison.

Before Gregory’s time, it had become popular for voices to go back and forth, but he’s like, “How about we do all in unison?” And that became popular in the Middle Ages. Again, that’s reportedly what he did. We’re not sure if that actually is true.

But one last thing to say about Gregory, and this is kind of amazing in light of everything I’ve shared thus far. Though Gregory was zealous to support submission to the Roman bishop in the West, Gregory apparently did not believe that the Roman pope should be the one supreme leader of Christianity.

Why do I say this? Because in the late 500s, the eastern emperor Maurice bestowed the title of ecumenical patriarch or universal father on the bishop of Constantinople, Bishop John of Constantinople, who wanted preeminence.

Hey, I want to be the most important patriarch. I want everybody to ultimately submit to me. Can I have this title? Emperor’s like, sure.

In response, Gregory wrote letters to both the bishop and the emperor reproving the move. And not because, hey, I’m the supreme leader. No, listen to what Gregory wrote to Emperor Maurice, much to the embarrassment of many later Roman popes.

Now, I confidently say that whosoever calls himself or desires to be called universal priest is in his elation the precursor of Antichrist, because he proudly puts himself above all others. Nor is it by dissimilar pride that he is led into error. For as that perverse one wishes to appear as above all men, so whosoever this one is who covets being called universal priest, he extols himself above all other priests.

To that we should all say amen. Christ by his word is the head of the church, not any human pope.

“Whosoever calls himself universal priest is in his elation the precursor of Antichrist.”

Looking Ahead: The Papacy’s Dramatic Turn

Well then, so far in regard to the papacy, we’ve looked at the early papacy when the popes were relatively good.

Yet the papacy was rapidly growing in power and influence both spiritually and politically. As we move forward into the early Middle Ages, however, the papacy will take a dramatic turn for the worse.

One major catalyst toward this end is a document known as the Donation of Constantine. We’ll take a look at that document next time and what resulted from it, namely the corruption of the papacy and almost ridiculous papal schisms in the later Middle Ages.

Got time for one or two questions?

“The papacy will take a dramatic turn for the worse—one major catalyst is the Donation of Constantine.”

Questions and Answers

Yeah, Dwayne.

If they believe in papal succession, who would they say that Peter ordained as the next pope? And what happened to all the successions between that and Leo, who then all of a sudden started to bring it up?

Yeah, good question, Dwayne. If Petrine succession is a thing, then who do they say succeeded Peter? Do they have a specific name? Actually, they do.

I don’t know if this was known or tabulated in the early Middle Ages, but if you look at what Catholics will say today—Roman Catholics—they’ll say, “Oh yeah, we can say it was this pope and then this pope.” I think the one we’re going to see next time with the Donation of Constantine was apparently Pope Sylvester, who was one of the early successors to Peter. So they’ve got names.

Whether those names are true and whether they’re just reading back into history, that’s certainly an open question. But they’ll at least have some names to trot out.

Another question. Go, Glenda.

If Leo said that he came in succession to Peter, did he quote Matthew 18 where Christ said, “On this rock, I will build my church”? But did he go down into the other part of the scriptures where Peter was married? Where did that come in with the Catholic church saying popes and priests should not be married if he’s following Peter’s line as the first pope?

Good question, Glenda. If Peter was married and popes are supposed to model themselves as successors of Peter, then how does that fit with popes being required to be celibate?

So two things to say. I’m not entirely sure of the Roman Catholic response to this, but I would not be surprised if they said, “Well, he was married, but then after a time he wasn’t married, and that’s when he became the pope of Rome.” Maybe they would make that argument.

But also, we should understand that it was not mandated. It was not required that any bishop, even the Roman bishop, be celibate. It was expected. It was desired, but it wasn’t required.

So even if they said, “Oh yeah, Peter was married,” they would not necessarily say that Peter was wrong for doing that or that it invalidates people being his successor if they are not married. They might see Peter as a special case.

The requirement of celibacy for Roman Catholic priests and bishops doesn’t come until the high Middle Ages, where it’s actually put down as church law that you cannot be married. You must be celibate.

All right, I think we have time for one more. Let’s go, Danny. Can you hear me?

Yeah. So Leo taught that he had the power of Peter. Did that power eventually become the pope making infallible decisions or doctrines?

Good question, Danny. Did the power of Peter translate into papal infallibility for Leo? I need to go back and look at the answer to that.

I don’t think the doctrine of papal infallibility was formulated at Leo’s time because even in his little birthday sermon, he says if anything good comes out of me, it’s Peter’s power in me. So that’s not to say everything I do is perfect and good.

But whatever I do that’s perfect and good comes from Peter. So there seems to be some admission that he’s not completely infallible, though he is the leader to which everyone should look.

Today we should remember that papal infallibility is somewhat of a misnomer or it’s a little bit misleading because it’s only under very particular circumstances. Only when the Roman pope claims to speak ex cathedra is he infallible.

But when he’s just talking with people or leading mass, he’s not necessarily infallible. I believe that doctrine comes out later in the Middle Ages, but I have to double-check that.

Good questions. If you have other ones, come talk with me afterwards or email. Like I said, we have some things that we can be grateful for among these early popes. It’s concerning the way they’re consolidating power.

But what happens in the latter part of the early Middle Ages and in the high and late Middle Ages is very grievous and gets a little ridiculous. We’ll talk about that next time.

And it definitely shatters any real argument for Petrine succession because we’re going to see some bad popes, even multiple popes at the same time. It just becomes a mess.

Closing Prayer

We’ll talk about that next time. Lord, thank you for this time in looking at this history. Thank you, Lord, that you’re the one that we look to for leadership. You are the head of the church, not any person on the earth.

And Lord, we are guided by your word and we follow your directions for church government: a plurality of elders, a plurality of overseers according to the qualifications of scripture. Thank you, Lord, that we can rest on that.

Protect us, Lord, from error and from holding our own ideas or man’s ideas instead of what your word actually says. In Jesus’ name, amen. Thank you everyone.
May 25, 2025
Lesson 1: The “Fall” of Rome and the Rise of Islam
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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

This lesson launches a series on medieval church history by examining the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam. We are reminded that the Middle Ages were not simply a “dark” or unimportant period, but a complex era that shaped the modern world and the Christian church. The common narrative of the Middle Ages as a period of pure decline is challenged — technologically, artistically, and even spiritually, this era had significant bright spots.

We are called to understand the Roman Empire’s transformation (the West falling in 476, the East enduring until 1453) and how the rapid rise of Islam after Muhammad’s death fundamentally reshaped Christianity by shrinking Christian populations, elevating the bishops of Rome and Constantinople, and sparking both fear and apologetic engagement with Muslims.

Key Lessons:
1. The Middle Ages were not a uniformly dark or backward period — the medieval church, especially in the early centuries, contained genuine believers and gospel proclamation.
2. The Roman Catholic Church’s departure from the true gospel was gradual, with the decisive break occurring around 1200 at the Fourth Lateran Council, not at the beginning of the medieval period.
3. Islam’s rapid expansion was driven not only by military conquest but also by trade, diplomatic influence, and incentive structures like the tribute tax that encouraged conversion away from Christianity.
4. God remains sovereign over the rise and fall of empires, and He never leaves Himself without a faithful remnant even in the most challenging periods of church history.
Application: We are called to resist oversimplified narratives about church history, to appreciate how medieval developments shaped our faith today, and to respond to the challenge of Islam not with hatred but with the heart of Christ — seeking to love and evangelize rather than merely to oppose.

Discussion Questions:
1. How does learning that the medieval church contained genuine believers and gospel preachers challenge assumptions you may have held about this period?
2. In what ways do the incentive structures the caliphate used to spread Islam (Quran, tribute, or the sword) parallel pressures Christians face today to compromise their faith?
3. How should Christians today respond to the legacy of Islam’s impact on historically Christian regions — with fear, indifference, or gospel-driven love and mission?
Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes (the past is too deep to discover), Daniel 4:17 (God bestows dominion on whomever He wishes) — teaching that God is sovereign over the rise and fall of nations and empires, and that history ultimately serves His purposes.

Outline
Introduction

Far from no. I’m actually feeling like it’s a little bit of a crime that we only have seven lessons because I feel like there’s so much that I should share with you. But we have to do only seven lessons because Sunday school takes a break starting in July and I don’t want to leave things off until the fall. So we only have seven Sundays until then.

Another reason why we can kind of get away with only seven Sundays, seven lessons series is because I’ve partly covered some issues of medieval church history in our first course in the early church course. So if you want to get the most out of this course, like I wrote in the email, if you saw that yesterday, please go back and make sure you have listened or you do listen to the 101 course. It does overlap with some of the things we’re going to talk about.

If you want to know about my source material, again, see the email I sent yesterday. Just know that primarily this is based off of the seminary course I took with Dr. Nathan Booznet’s historical theology one, but there’s other things that I’ve included.

What’s today’s topic? What’s our first investigation as we go into the Middle Age period? Well, the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam. Now, notice “fall” is in quotes there. I’ll explain that a little bit later.

Here’s my agenda for this first lesson. We are first going to remind ourselves why studying church history and in particular medieval church history is worthwhile. Then we’ll review the fall of Rome and the trajectory of Rome through the medieval period, the Roman Empire that is. And then we will overview the rise of a new transformative force in the seventh and eighth centuries in the middle ages and that is Islam.

Let me pray and ask God’s blessing on this time.

Why Study Medieval Church History?

Heavenly Father, thank you that you are the Lord of history and that you always are faithful. God, I pray that we would be encouraged as well as informed by this study of church history and we would treasure you and your word and your promises even more in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Okay, let’s talk about the first part of our agenda today. Why study medieval church history? This question is like one I asked at the beginning of the church history 101 course: Why study church history in general? Is there any real benefit to be had from this labor? Shouldn’t we just study the Bible instead?

Well, certainly we must never give up the priority of Bible study. However, if you will allow me to remind you briefly of what I said in the 101 class as to why studying church history is also worthwhile and even crucial for Christians, I have four reasons.

First, church history is the history of God’s family, our family, your family. If you are in Jesus Christ, it is the record of our family after the Bible ends and thus should be innately interesting to us. Don’t you want to know your family? Don’t you want to know what happened to them and how you’ve inherited what came from them? Study church history.

Second, church history is a portal of access to sanctifying fellowship with our extended family, even believers in the past. This fellowship is with believers who have a unique perspective because they are unaffected by our own age and biases from our culture. We can’t get this perspective in just the fellowship we have in the world today. So there’s a unique benefit.

These past brethren, these departed brothers and sisters, they can teach and encourage and warn us in a special way by their own perspective and by their own examples.

Third, church history is a clear testimony of God’s faithfulness to everything he says in his word. This is not something that competes with the word of God. This is something that reinforces the word of God because we see God’s word vindicated in many ways in church history. Church history is like a blinking arrow directing us back to the word of God for everything we need for godliness and joy in this life.

“Church history is a clear testimony of God’s faithfulness to everything he says in his word.”

Not only from the testimonies of our brethren, but in the developments that occur in history.

Fourth and finally, church history, like the recorded histories in the Bible, fundamentally helps us better understand origins. Why the world is, why Christianity is the way that we see it today. The circumstances we encounter didn’t just appear out of the sky. No, that’s based on what came before, even what happened in the medieval period.

The Middle Ages: Not Just a ‘Dark’ Period

Now, to these four reasons for a general church history study, someone may still say, “But the Middle Ages really, I mean, I can understand studying early church history that’s close to the time of the apostles, or better reformation church history, but what benefit could there be of studying medieval church history? I mean, shouldn’t we just skip this dull period and get back to the good stuff?” That is a common sentiment.

And maybe you feel that way, too. Especially if you’re well acquainted with the reformers and the way they reacted against what came before them in the Middle Ages.

But here’s where I need to stand up and defend the Middle Ages just a little bit. Just listen to that term for this next period of history: the Middle Ages. By the way, medieval means the same thing from the Latin medium ivam, or middle age.

What do these terms suggest about the period that we’re about to examine? There’s something before and something after. Anything else that these terms suggest?

How important are the middle ages compared to what came before and after? Truly, it is just as important. But with this term, it suggests that it’s not that important. It’s just a transition period.

What are the ages before and after the middle ages? We have the classical period of Greece and Rome. And then we have what comes after: the Renaissance, rebirth. But that’s a little condescending to the people who are in the Middle Ages, right? They didn’t think they were in a mere transition period, something unimportant. They were on the cutting edge. Medieval was modern to them.

An even worse term for this period is the dark ages. Because what does that suggest? Evil. It’s evil. It’s ignorant. It was when the world got worse. It was a backwards time.

“Medieval was modern to them.”

Understandably, medieval historians really don’t like the term dark ages except as an appropriate descriptor of the early Middle Ages. Not because it was a bad time period, but because we don’t know what happened. There are very few records of the early Middle Ages.

So dark ages were kind of in the dark about that period. But it’s not because that period was especially bad.

Indeed, were the Middle Ages really just a dark, depressing, unimportant time? Well, it depends on your point of view.

Correcting Misconceptions About the Middle Ages

It depends on what you value. When we first start to see people use terms like the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages to describe this period, it’s in the Renaissance and in the Enlightenment. What was it that these periods particularly valued? They valued reason. They valued classical literature, classical art, and classical ideas going back to Greece and Rome.

Those in the Enlightenment in particular—and the Enlightenment period would be the 1600s to 1700s—looked back with disdain on the Middle Ages because of the Enlightenment’s emphasis on human ability through reason to understand and solve all the world’s problems. In the Middle Ages, by contrast, while not forgetting the value of reason, they nonetheless asserted greater value in faith. Belief in God. Reason subordinated to faith. So faith came first, reason underneath it, reason only being able to take you so far.

And if we’re familiar with the teaching of scripture as Christians, isn’t this a concept that we should agree with?

“In the Middle Ages, while not forgetting reason, they asserted greater value in faith.”

We probably find it easy to believe the intellectual narratives constructed for us regarding the Middle Ages because those narratives seem so simple. It’s a neat way to divide history: here’s where civilization was great, here’s where it kind of lost itself for a while, and here’s when it became great again in the Renaissance.

Or from a Protestant perspective, it’s very neat and tidy to say, “Here’s when the church was right and the gospel was being proclaimed in the early church. Here’s where everything got lost in that middle period. And then here’s when Protestants rediscovered the gospel in the Protestant Reformation.” It’s very neat and tidy, but history is more complicated than that.

We often think of the Middle Ages as being a downgrade in everything that’s good in science, art, culture, and the gospel, especially compared to the early church or classical period. But the more we find out about the Middle Ages, the more we find out that this is not the case. It was not a downgrade in all areas, but it was a change.

For instance, you may have heard that in the Middle Ages, people thought the earth was flat. But that’s not true. Basically, virtually no scholars after 300 BC expressed belief in a flat earth. That idea about what middle-aged people thought is misinformation from the 19th century—people going back and saying this is what they thought when they didn’t really.

The medieval period saw the invention or adoption of many new important technologies. These people weren’t slouches when it came to their thinking. They were innovative. They discovered and implemented great ideas and technology such as the heavy plow from the fifth century, the stirrup from the sixth century, the horseshoe from the ninth century, the basket wine press from the twelfth century, the rib vault from the twelfth century, and the chimney from the twelfth century, just to name a few.

In terms of art, the style and preferences in the Middle Ages were certainly different than that of classical antiquity. But skilled artistry continued. Even today, we have many beautifully decorated bookbindings and book pages, elaborate tapestries, religious icons, gorgeous but creepy reliquaries, and awe-inspiring buildings.

“It was not a downgrade in all areas, but it was a change.”

These are still some of the most celebrated architecture in Europe. These awe-inspiring cathedrals—you see it in the pictures. Writing continued as well in the Middle Ages, mostly from clergy but also by secular authors. The Middle Ages saw many hymns, hagiographies (that is, stories of saints’ lives), theological treatises, philosophical treatises, histories, poems, and even epics.

Some of the more famous works from this period include Beowulf, the Canterbury Tales, The Song of Roland, and the Summa Theologica. Now, someone might say, “Well, what about safety? Isn’t it true that the Middle Ages were essentially anarchy? People living in fear that roving barbarians or knights might come and slaughter them at any moment?” Well, that’s partially true.

Violence was a big part of the medieval period. But violence has been a part of pretty much every period. Actually, people were more well protected by their feudal lords in the medieval period than by the Roman Empire in the Western Empire’s last two centuries. Indeed, in late antiquity, the Romans, especially in the West, did an increasingly poor job of protecting people on its borders from barbarians.

One source I read claimed that life expectancy actually went up in the Middle Ages rather than down, at least compared to the end of the Roman period. Now, what about spiritually?

The Medieval Church: Not Entirely Corrupt

Weren’t the medieval church corrupt and apostate? Weren’t medieval Christians superstitious and focused only on external righteousness? Weren’t all Christians just raid Muslim haters?

These are oversimplifications. The later Middle Ages were indeed a period in which the Roman Catholic Church became increasingly corrupt and apostate, and many Christian followers consequently were lost and confused. But the early Middle Ages generally speaking were not like that.

In this course, we’re going to speak positively about people like Pope Leo I and Pope Gregory I. Men who in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries were true believers in our Lord Jesus Christ and proclaimers of the true gospel.

Really, the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages is one of very gradual movement away from the true faith with various reformers along the way saying, “Hey, we’re seeing unbiblical things in the church. We need to get back on track.” But these aren’t simply people outside the church. Guess who’s preaching that message most prominently? Early medieval popes.

“The history of the Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages is one of very gradual movement away from the true faith.”

And also bishops and regional councils, different brothers and sisters in the Middle Ages, especially in the early period, are rejecting things like prayers to saints, clergy members not actually preaching in their churches, the adoration of icons and other unbiblical practices.

Truly, when we think about the Middle Ages and the Roman Catholic Church and to some extent the Greek Orthodox Church, I posit to you that we should think of the medieval church as an imperfect yet true body of Christians.

Throughout most of the Middle Ages, the breaking point comes at about the year 1200, though we begin to see some obviously corrupt popes from about 800 to 1000.

The Gradual Departure from the Gospel

It’s really the fourth Lateran Council in 1215 that finally articulates the Roman Catholic Church sacramentalism as we know it today, officially asserting doctrines like transubstantiation and necessary confession to priests, the efficacy of the Eucharist, etc. Thomas Aquinas, the high Middle Ages scholar, would emphasize this movement towards apostasy in his work, the Summa Theologica, and that’s in the later 1200s.

This work officially articulates the Roman Catholic Church’s seven sacraments and explains their saving and sanctifying abilities. Now, were such ideas in the Catholic Church before 1200? Sure, but they were not officially embraced by all congregations or officially asserted as dogma from Rome.

As you build a mental timeline for thinking about when the church goes off track in the Middle Ages and fundamentally departs from the true gospel, we’re really talking about the high and late Middle Ages, not the whole thing.

But even in the latter portion of the Middle Ages, God didn’t leave himself without a remnant. He didn’t leave himself without a witness, without a light of the gospel because he never does. Though the Reformation is thought traditionally to begin in 1517 with Martin Luther, we first start seeing substantial pre-Reformation movements around 1200.

The Waldensians, the first big pre-Reformation movement, appear in 1170, right around the time the official church is obviously embracing apostasy.

“God didn’t leave himself without a remnant. He didn’t leave himself without a witness.”

A Balanced View of the Middle Ages

So, we need to more closely examine some of the things we’ve heard or thought about the Middle Ages. This isn’t to say that everything we’ve heard and been taught before is untrue.

Did international trade decline in Europe in the medieval period? Probably. Europe’s economies apparently did become more regional and self-sufficient, and serfdom was involved in this.

Did literacy decline from what we saw in the classical period? Likely yes, since reading and writing were not important for most people in society whose primary occupations were soldier and farmer. Therefore, the literate were either those who could afford it, or they were clergy or monks.

Did much of Europe change from one ruling power to many ruling powers in the Middle Ages? Yes. But again, whether that’s a good or a bad thing depends on your point of view.

In trying to correct our assumptions about the Middle Ages, I don’t want to paint too rosy of a picture. It’s not like this was a golden age. It was a period that had its bright spots and its dark spots like every other time in human history and in church history.

We sometimes think of the early church as being the golden age of Christianity, but if you were in the 101 course, you realize that is not the case. There are serious problems going on in the early church.

“It was a period that had its bright spots and its dark spots like every other time in human history.”

And we think of it too highly. But I think the Middle Ages has the opposite problem. We think that it’s the dark age, that there’s nothing good happening. No, it wasn’t as bad as we often think, though it did have its dark spots.

Certainly, as we go through and study medieval church history, you will find that so much of the modern world and even today’s Christian church was shaped by medieval developments.

When Did Rome Fall?

All this to say, the study of medieval church history is just as much worth our time as the study of church history in other periods. Now let’s get more specific and learn about the Middle Ages.

We move on to our second agenda point by discussing what happened to the Roman Empire. Before we talk about the what, let’s talk about the when. When did Rome fall?

The most traditional date for Rome’s fall is 476, but there’s a fair amount of debate about which date best represents the real fall of Rome and the beginning of the Middle Ages. In general, historians place the Middle Ages between AD 500 and 1500, with some choosing more specific dates around those times to begin and end the period.

Many historians divide the Middle Ages themselves into three parts, which you see at the bottom of this slide: the early Middle Ages, approximately 500 to 1,000; the high Middle Ages, approximately 1,000 to 1,300; and the late Middle Ages, approximately 1,300 to 1,500. In our church study, I’m generally going to treat the Middle Ages as running from 476 to 1453.

In 476, the last Western Roman emperor is deposed in Rome. In 1453, well, does anyone know what significant event happens in that year? It is the fall of Constantinople. The Ottoman Empire takes over, and the last Eastern Roman emperor is deposed. So that’s the when.

Let’s now clarify the what—what happened to the Roman Empire. In 476, the Western Roman Empire is replaced by a collection of kingdoms. The Western Roman Empire falls, and the Western Roman emperors do not rule again.

But notice I keep saying western because I understand that aside from the emperors Constantine and Theodosius, after the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was continually ruled by not one emperor but two—two different emperors, one in the west and one in the east.

“Historians place the Middle Ages between AD 500 and 1500.”

The Fall of the Western Roman Empire

However, these western emperors gradually lost power and became puppets, symbolic rulers only with real power resting with influential Roman generals or barbarian warlords. The Western Roman Empire consequently got weaker and weaker, gradually ceding territory to barbarians on its borders until the city of Rome itself became vulnerable to attack.

Rome was sacked by Alaric the Goth in 410, which prompted Augustine to write the City of God. Rome was nearly pillaged by Attila the Hun in 452. Rome was plundered by the Vandals around 455. Finally, in 476, Rome was conquered by the barbarian Odoacer.

Rather than taking what wealth he could and just leaving, he decided to set up a kingdom in Italy. So we finally have a barbarian ruling in Rome. What caused the deterioration of the Western Roman Empire? Why did it fall apart?

This is an interesting question and the subject of much debate and many books. I covered this question a little more fully in my 101 class, so I’m not going to rehash the full explanation here. But certainly there are a lot of theories put forward as to why the Roman Empire weakened and fell in the West.

“Rome was sacked by Aleric the Goth in 410, prompting Augustine to write the City of God.”

Why Did Rome Fall?

Did it fail because of a fundamental flaw in Roman society itself? Was there some unlucky factor outside of Rome’s control that doomed the empire? Was there just a perfect storm of pressures that simply overwhelmed an otherwise robust system?

Or did the empire not really fall at all but just undergo a necessary decentralizing transformation? The problem with definitively answering the question as to why Rome fell is that there isn’t much evidence to show us an answer. And what evidence exists is variously interpreted.

It certainly is clear that as we go into the 400s, the Western Roman Empire gradually lost territory. Its city shrank in size, its tax revenues dried up, its military declined in quality, and its trade diminished.

The why exactly this all happened has not yet been settled, and it may never be. I think of Ecclesiastes where Solomon says, “The past is too deep to discover.” There’s so much about the past that has been lost, and it’s difficult to recover.

Daniel 4:17: “God bestows dominion on whomever he wishes.”

But whatever the reason or reasons humanly speaking for the Western Roman Empire’s fall, its decline or transformation was ultimately because it was God’s will. It fit God’s purpose.

As God says to Nebuchadnezzar, God bestows dominion on whomever he wishes. And so God eventually said to the Western Roman Empire, “Your time is up. Your purpose has been fulfilled.” Just as God may one day say to our own nation or to other nations in the world.

Again, with the Western Roman Empire no more, the area was filled up by various kingdoms, some of which would form the basis for nations of the modern world. For instance, the Franks took over Gaul and they called it Frankia, which eventually became modern France.

The Anglo-Saxons ended up setting up shop in Britannia and they called it Angloland, which eventually became modern England. But while the western half of the Roman Empire disappeared, things were different in the east.

The Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire

If Eastern Romans were around today, they’d probably get really annoyed about everybody talking about the fall of Rome in 476 because they’d probably say, “Hello, we’re Romans, too, and we did not fall at that time.” Indeed, the Eastern Roman Empire would survive for another thousand years after the fall of the West, which is pretty incredible when you think about it.

If you take the beginning of the Roman Empire and add it to the longevity of the Eastern Roman Empire, that means Rome lasted for 1,500 years, which is six times longer than the United States has been a nation. And it’s not like those in the East stopped being Roman.

“Rome lasted for 1,500 years — six times longer than the United States has been a nation.”

We often call the Eastern Roman Empire in the medieval period the Byzantine Empire, but the people at the time didn’t call it that. Despite not actually ruling from the city of Rome or speaking Latin after the year 500 or so, people in the Byzantine Empire called themselves Romans, Romoi in Greek.

We called them the Byzantine Empire for the sake of convenience and to emphasize the change in the empire with the loss of its western portion. But let’s remember that’s not the way that they thought of themselves. They thought of themselves as Romans.

By the way, Byzantine comes from the ancient name of the city of Constantinople, which was called Byzántium in Latin or Byzanton in Greek. So that’s where the term Byzantine comes from.

Justinian and Byzantine Legacy

Now this Eastern Roman Empire, which we call the Byzantine Empire, had both periods of prosperity and periods of decline throughout the Middle Ages. This is a long-lasting polity and it has its ups and downs.

Justinian I is someone you need to know. Justinian the First was a great Byzantine emperor who ruled from 527 to 565. He reconquered much western Roman territory during his reign, including most of Italy and much of North Africa.

He also created the Corpus Juris Civilis. This document was a codification and a rewriting of Roman law that became the basis of civil law in many modern nations. He was one of the last emperors to use Latin.

Indeed, the legacy of Rome was continuing through Justinian and through the Byzantine Empire. Additionally, Justinian constructed the Hagia Sophia, the church of holy wisdom in Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul.

By the way, the four towers on the Hagia Sophia that you see in the picture were added later. Does anyone know what they are? They are minarets.

After the Muslim conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque. It was later converted into a museum in 1935, but in 2020 it was made a mosque again and it still is, though there is a museum portion now on the upper floor.

Justinian, in a way, was restoring even more the glory of the Roman Empire, but it was only for a time. After Justinian, the Byzantine Empire declined again, then later improved, then declined, then improved, then declined.

“The legacy of Rome was continuing through Justinian and the Byzantine Empire.”

The Decline and Fall of Byzantium

The Byzantine Empire was a great power through most of the Middle Ages until a mortal blow was struck against them in 1204 in a very unexpected way. The poor Eastern Romans had the unfortunate responsibility of fighting against each Middle Eastern empire that emerged. After the 600s, it was Muslim empires.

First the Romans were fighting against the Sassanid Persians, then the Arab empires, then the Seljuk Turks, and finally the Ottoman Turks. Every great empire in the Middle East kept banging up against Byzantium, the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire generally was holding its own and doing okay until they made the mistake of accepting the help of Western crusaders around the year 1200.

Due to a series of bizarre and unfortunate circumstances, which I’ll describe in a later lesson, the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade ended up fighting not against the Muslims, but against the Christian Byzantines. These crusaders attacked and sacked Constantinople and set up a Latin—that is, a Western—kingdom there.

Though the Byzantines eventually threw off Western control, they never really recovered from this setback. After the 1200s, the Eastern Roman Empire gradually declined until Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

“The crusaders of the fourth crusade ended up fighting not against the Muslims, but against the Christian Byzantines.”

If you really want to talk about the fall of the Roman Empire, a more accurate understanding notes a difference between the fall in the west, traditionally dated to 476, and the fall in the east in 1453. No matter when you date the official fall, the Middle Ages was definitely a time of change for Roman Christians—both in the east, those under the official empire, and those in the west who were under the empire’s successors.

We’re going to track many of those changes in our course together. We’re through two agenda items. We now know what happened to the Roman Empire, generally speaking.

But where did the Muslim empires come from, and how did they get so powerful? Let’s talk about the rise of Islam.

The Rise of Islam: Muhammad’s Early Life

We all know the founder of Islam. Who’s that?

Muhammad. Muhammad was born in 570 in Mecca, modern-day Saudi Arabia. His father died before he was born. His mother died when he was six.

Muhammad was raised by his uncle, a merchant and leader of Muhammad’s clan. Muhammad trained under his uncle and became a wealthy merchant. He obtained a reputation for being an honest man, a good man.

He married his first wife, the wealthy widow Kadaja or Kada—I’ve heard it both ways—when he was 25 and she was 40. Note that Muhammad’s harem would only come later after Kadaja’s death.

Mecca, Muhammad’s hometown, was both a center of pagan worship and a center of trade. Mecca contained many gods and many idols, but the high god in the Arabian pantheon was God—Allah in Arabic.

The Kaba, the square structure that many Muslims still journey to today in Mecca to walk around, existed in Muhammad’s day as a shrine to Allah, the Arabs’ high God. Though it originally had many various idols, gods and goddesses around it.

Think of Mecca as this big pagan worship site. It’s got this structure, this shrine to Allah, but many other gods as well.

Now, Muhammad grew up part of this tribal religion.

“Muhammad was raised by his uncle, a merchant and leader of his clan.”

Muhammad’s Visions and Mission

But he soon encountered Christians and Jews in Mecca and on his travels as a merchant. He even ran into some Christian heretics who had various strange ideas about God. Now Muhammad appears to have eventually adopted his own version of a monotheistic religion, a personal religion. He was very devoted.

As part of his personal devotion, Muhammad often went alone to pray in a cave on Mount Hyra near Mecca. It was there, in 610 at 40 years old, that Muhammad had his first supposed vision from God—a message from the angel Gabriel.

Muhammad was initially terrified by the vision, wondering if he was being oppressed by demons or if the vision really were from God. Would others ever believe him? But Muhammad was encouraged by his wife especially and his other friends that this vision must be from Allah himself. Muhammad ought not to fear this vision or any others, for surely God would not allow such a good man to be deceived by a false vision.

“Muhammad was initially terrified by the vision, wondering if he was being oppressed by demons.”

Muhammad did not receive his next vision until three years later. In that next vision, Gabriel told Muhammad, allegedly, that the one and only God had commanded Muhammad to preach to others new revelation as God’s prophet.

Muhammad’s mission was to restore true religion toward the monotheistic God, not only for the polytheistic pagans, but also for the Jews and Christians.

Now, this isn’t the first time in church history that we hear about someone receiving new revelation supposedly to restore true worship to God, and it won’t be the last. Nevertheless, Muhammad obeyed the visions and began preaching his new message, a combination of Judaism, Christianity, and traditional tribal beliefs in Mecca.

Muhammad’s Persecution and Flight to Medina

Muhammad preaches in Mecca. Though he immediately gained some followers from his preaching, he mostly met with opposition. After all, Mecca was the center of local pagan worship, and it made great money off of its worshippers.

Muhammad therefore began to be persecuted, and some of his followers were tortured and killed.

“Though he gained some followers, he mostly met with opposition. Muhammad began to be persecuted.”

In 622, sensing his own life to be in danger, Muhammad and his followers fled from Mecca to which city? Medina, at that time called Yathreb. The people of Medina were much more receptive to monotheism and to the idea of a new prophet.

They saw in Muhammad a leader who could bring peace between the city’s tribes that had warred against each other in previous years.

The Conquest of Mecca and Unification of Arabia

Soon after Muhammad arrived, he created the Constitution of Medina, a set of religious and practical laws that essentially set up the first Islamic State. Mecca continued to harass Muslim communities after Muhammad’s flight. Muhammad committed himself to conquering the city through skillful political maneuvers and a number of victories over Mecca and its allies. Muhammad built up a strong army.

In 630, Muhammad marched on Mecca with more than 10,000 men. The city surrendered, and when Muhammad offered them mercy, the people there adopted Islam. Muhammad’s followers then destroyed all the city’s idols and rededicated the Kaaba for Islamic worship.

Mecca has remained the holiest site in Islam ever since and is the city to which all Muslims pray and to which they are supposed to go on pilgrimage, or the Hajj. Amazed at Muhammad’s victories and fearful of his power, many of the other Arabian tribes quickly joined with Muhammad and converted to Islam.

By the year 632, the year of Muhammad’s death, most of Arabia was under Muhammad’s control. But at the age of 62 or 63, Muhammad fell ill and died. He was buried beneath his favorite new wife’s room, which later was made part of the Mosque of the Prophet in Medina. His tomb is still there to this day.

So now we see how Islamic power initially started. It was with Muhammad and with his skillful maneuvering and leadership to control Medina, conquer Mecca, and unite the Arabian tribes. But how did Islamic power get to the point that it was the primary threat to Christians in Europe? That answer has to do with the prophet’s successors, or caliphs.

“By the year 632, the year of Muhammad’s death, most of Arabia was under Muhammad’s control.”

The Caliphate: Explosive Expansion

Caliph is the Arabic word that means successor. Despite Muhammad’s eventual harem of 14 plus wives and concubines, Muhammad had no surviving sons. However, Muhammad had created a strong expansion-minded, religiously united state that was stepping into a power vacuum in Europe and in the Middle East.

As we discussed earlier in today’s lesson, the Western Roman Empire had long disintegrated before the arrival of the Islamic Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire had weakened itself trying to reconquer Western Rome’s old territory and fighting against the Sassanid Persians. The Sassanid Empire in turn had weakened itself with its wars against Byzantium. Just before 630, the Sassanids and the Byzantines had just fought an extremely costly war which Byzantium had won, but both sides were exhausted because of the effort.

In addition to this, certain provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire, namely Syria and Egypt, had grown disaffected with Constantinople’s political and religious control. Ever since the Council of Chalcedon, the Christians in Syria and Egypt were never fully on board with what the council had decided and what Constantinople was trying to enforce. There had always remained this tension, and it persisted even into the early 600s.

Therefore, the caliphate, as the Muslim Empire came to be known, found ready and easy expansion into the formerly Persian and Roman lands with the Christians in Syria and Egypt even welcoming Muslim warriors as liberators. Within about a hundred years, the caliphate extended from India to Spain as you can see on the map. If not for the defeat at the Battle of Tours or Poitiers in 732, which took place between those two cities, the caliphate would have gone even further north into France. But it was checked at that battle.

Now, if you’re amazed just looking back at this period at Islam’s rapid expansion, just imagine what it was like to live during those days.

“Within about a hundred years, the caliphate extended from India to Spain.”

How Islam Spread: Quran, Tribute, or the Sword

Such success seemed almost miraculous, as if divinely gifted. We often hear about Muslim religion expanding by the sword. But that is only partly true. The essential motto of the expanding caliphate was summed up well by one Muslim warrior: the Quran, tribute, or the sword. Can anybody explain what those three options are?

If you’re encountering these Muslim armies and they say the Quran, tribute, or the sword, what are your options?

That’s right. You can convert and become Muslim and join the Islamic enterprise. You can not convert, but just submit to Muslim rule and pay a tribute tax as a non-Muslim. Or you can fight and most likely die because that’s what everybody else did who tried to resist the Muslim expansion.

It’s very hard to overcome these Muslim armies. This is primarily how the Muslim religion expanded through this three-fold endeavor because no matter which option you choose—Quran, tribute, or the sword—you will end up aiding the spread of Islam.

Many groups like the various tribes in Arabia following Muhammad’s victories converted out of fear or they saw the Muslim victories as proof of Allah’s existence and of his favor on Muslims. So many took the first option. Others submitted to the Jizya, the tribute tax for non-Muslims.

But why would this also lead to conversions to Islam? People respond to incentives. And monetary incentives can be very powerful. People don’t want to pay a tax and they don’t want to be second-class citizens. Remember, we covered this in the 101 course.

Many Christians in these conquered regions were only half-converts. They were those who were baptized and made part of the church, but they were never really part of Christ. So when these Muslim empires roll over your territory, why stay Christian? Why pay tax when the Christian God clearly cannot stand up to the Islamic God?

If you fought the Muslims, as I said, you probably got defeated or killed since most people did. And that’s not really going to stop the spread of Islam. That’s only going to aid it.

“No matter which option you choose — Quran, tribute, or the sword — you end up aiding the spread of Islam.”

Now, not everyone converted to Islam. Many Christians and Jews continued to practice their religions in the conquered territories, but in segregated communities, and they had to pay a tax.

They had to pay a poll tax. Aside from this tax, life under the caliphate wasn’t too bad for Christians. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t terrible.

Non-Muslims had slightly fewer rights. And every once in a while there were pogroms against Jews or Christians—random massacres, random acts of violence, zealous violence against Christians.

But most significantly, Christians in Muslim-controlled lands were forbidden on pain of death from public displays of worship, from evangelizing Muslims, and from any writing or speech that could be considered offensive to Muhammad. Also, any Muslims who converted to Christianity were to be put to death. That sound familiar?

I should also mention that trade was another important way that Islamic religion spread. Muslim merchants brought their religion with them just as Christian merchants had brought the message of Jesus six centuries earlier.

Furthermore, as some historians have noted, rulers of various kingdoms thought that converting to Islam would increase the ruler’s legitimacy as well as secure favorable diplomatic and trade relations with the mighty caliphate. As we’ve already seen in the 101 course with Constantine, the conversion of a ruler to a religion often goes together with the conversion, or at least the half-conversion, of the ruler’s subjects.

This is partly why we see Islam in many African nations today as well as in far-flung Indonesia. This was not by conquest. This was by trade and by the diplomatic influence of the caliphate.

So caliphate expansion was explosive. Yet the power of Arab and Muslim unity would not last. Not only would Shia Muslims begin splitting from Sunni Muslims in the mid-600s, but also the original caliphate itself would eventually divide into different Muslim polities.

Some of the new Muslim states would continue warring with Christians, especially in Spain, in Sicily, and in the remaining Byzantine Empire of Greece and Turkey. The eastern piece of the caliphate, later becoming the Ottoman Empire, would finally destroy the Byzantine Empire in 1453.

And then that Ottoman Empire would last for quite a while. It would participate in World War I and wouldn’t be dissolved until 1923. If you see on this map, the Ottoman Empire eventually made substantial gains into Eastern Europe, even coming to the very gates of Vienna in Austria.

Effects of Islamic Expansion on Christianity

A very powerful and transformative force through the Middle Ages and beyond. The last thing I want to cover in our class today is this: What were the effects of Islamic expansion on medieval Christians and medieval Christianity? We may have time for a few questions afterwards.

I’ll give you eight effects briefly, and many of these will be no surprise to you.

Number one: a steady decline of Christians in Muslim-controlled areas. If you’re not allowed to convert, if people who do convert are to be put to death, if you’re not allowed to evangelize—all those types of things—and there’s a heavy incentive to convert away from Christianity, well, over time, you’re going to lose Christians. There just aren’t going to be very many Christians in that area.

Which is why there are virtually no Christians in many Muslim countries today in North Africa, Arabia, and Central Asia. It’s because of this. This is also why there are only small Christian minorities in otherwise historically Christian regions such as Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Turkey.

This is where the gospel first went. This is where the first churches were established. It’s a huge and ancient tradition of Christianity in these areas. And yet there are so few Christians. Why? Because of the Muslim empires and because of their policies.

“This is where the gospel first went. This is where the first churches were established. And yet there are so few Christians.”

What was another effect?

Christian Soul-Searching and Renewed Unity

Number two, Christian soulsearching.

After Christian military defeats and Muslim religious taunts, one of the things that Muslims criticized Christians for incessantly was belief in the Trinity, veneration of Mary, veneration of icons. And I think there was one other thing that I’m forgetting right now.

Christians had to think, all right, are they right about any of these things? How do we answer that? It is interesting that Muslim mocking of Christians for idolatry did lead, for a short period in the Byzantine Empire, to a period of iconoclasm where the Byzantine emperors made an effort to remove and destroy all Christian images that were being used for worship.

They said this is idolatry. This goes against scripture. We would actually agree with that. But this effort didn’t last.

“Muslim mocking of Christians for idolatry led to a period of iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire.”

In the seventh and last ecumenical council, the second council of Nicaea in 787, icon worship was officially restored as a legitimate worship practice for Christians. We would not agree with that, but that was just an example of some of the turmoil that the Muslims caused and even Christian soulsearching.

Number three, another effect of the Muslim conquest, ironically, was renewed religious unity in non-Muslim controlled Eastern Christianity. As I said earlier, for 200 years after the Council of Chalcedon, Alexandria and Syria, or Egypt and Syria, had opposed Constantinople over describing the nature of Christ. This is called the Monophysite controversy.

But with the loss of these regions to Islam, Eastern Christianity could simply move on without reconciliation. We don’t have to get these guys on board anymore. They’re not part of our territory. Which explains why the Nestorians in the east, Syria and Persia, and the Copts in the south in Egypt, are still separate from the Eastern Church today. There was never any reconciliation.

A fourth effect of the Muslim conquest was apologetic and evangelistic efforts to reach Muslims.

Evangelistic Efforts and Fear of Muslims

Now, this is encouraging, right? This is what we had hoped for. Admittedly, most Christians did not seriously attempt this, especially as doing so within Muslim-controlled territory could get a person killed. But some Christians did. Some Christians outside Muslim territories and even some brave souls who traveled to Muslim territories or were already residing there.

Out of love for Muslims and out of love for the glory of God, they sought to give the gospel even to their conquerors. We see this in people like Raymond Lull, John of Damascus, and Thomas Aquinas. What’s encouraging about these Christians is that they used largely the same Bible-based arguments that Christians use today to defend Christianity and to persuade Muslims of the gospel.

But there is another effect which clashes with what I just shared with you. The fifth effect was a new deep emotional fear and hatred of Muslims among many in Christian lands, especially in the regions without regular interaction with Muslims. This is regrettable, but it is understandable, isn’t it?

“Out of love for Muslims and for the glory of God, they sought to give the gospel even to their conquerors.”

The Arab armies gobbled up so much ancient Christian territory so rapidly, and by their regular ongoing wars with Christians, they seemed intent to force all of Europe to submit to Islam.

Whereas many Eastern Christians came to respect the culture and civilization of the Arab and Turkish empires, many Western Christians fell victim to an almost mindless hostility that simply saw Islam and those who followed it as the enemy to be defeated and destroyed at all costs. Some of this still exists today.

Militarization of Christianity and Preservation of Greek Texts

Also, a sixth and related effect was the militarization of Christianity against the clear and present danger of the Islamic Empire. Between the sword and the pen, many European Christians saw the sword as the more demonstrably effective option for countering Islam.

Thus, not only were many Christian kingdoms determined to defend against Islamic incursion at all costs, they were also intent on reconquering land from the Muslim invaders.

This increased militarization of Christianity would show up in the rise of Christian military orders as well as the later armed pilgrimages to Muslim lands known as the Crusades.

Seventh, another unexpected outcome was the preservation and transmission of important ancient Greek texts to Western Europe. As knowledge of the Greek language disappeared in the west, so did access to many ancient Greek works and authors, including Aristotle.

But as many Islamic rulers became interested in amassing and profiting from ancient knowledge, Greek texts got translated by subject Greek scholars into Arabic. These Arabic texts later became translated into Latin, especially in frontier areas like Spain and Sicily.

This rediscovery of Greek and especially Aristotelian texts via these Latin translations of the Arabic of the Greek would later have a profound effect on medieval theology, philosophy, and science in the high and late Middle Ages.

“The rediscovery of Greek texts via Latin translations of Arabic would have a profound effect on medieval theology.”

The Elevation of Rome and Constantinople

Finally, one more effect: the elevation of the bishops of Rome and Constantinople. The Muslim conquest caused the elevation of the bishops of Rome and Constantinople. Now, if you were part of the 101 course, you may remember something called the pentarchy.

Can anybody tell me what that was?

As there was a drive to monoepiscopacy in the early church—centralization of church authority around one bishop in each church rather than a plurality of elders as scripture teaches—there was also this drive to centralize authority in certain prominent churches. We have one bishop in each church, but some churches are more important than others. They exert more influence. They have more prestige. They have more authority.

Usually these were centered on historic Christian sites or major metropolises. And so there emerged five churches in five cities with the greatest respect, authority, and influence: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch in Syria, and Jerusalem. They were the spiritual leaders of Christianity through the latter part of the early church period.

Sometimes Rome or Constantinople would say, “Hey, we’re the leader of the leaders.” And other leaders would say, “No, you’re just one of the leaders. You need to listen to us as well.” Well, with the Islamic conquests, what just happened to the pentarchy?

Three of the pentarchy seats are gone. They’re under Muslim control. So yes, there are still churches there, but their influence on the rest of Christianity is going to be severely muted. This means the prominence and rivalry between the two remaining seats—Rome and Constantinople—intensifies. Now they’re the two leading lights of Christianity in Europe.

But what do you notice just looking at this map here about the geography of these two sites? If these are the two leaders, what do you notice about the geography of Rome versus Constantinople?

Rome dominates Europe. Constantinople is a very storied site—the site of the Byzantine emperors—but it’s all the way in the east. So maybe some of the people around Constantinople are going to look to the bishop there for spiritual guidance and authority. But if you’re in Frankia or Visigothic Spain or even in Germany, Constantinople is far away.

“If you’re in Frankia or Visigothic Spain, Constantinople is far away. Whom are you going to look to? Rome.”

Whom are you going to look to for leadership? Rome.

And thus we see one of the key factors in the elevation of the Roman papacy in the Middle Ages. Why did the Roman Catholic Church, why did the papacy become so powerful and influential in the Middle Ages? This is one of the main causes: because of the Islamic conquest and the removal of these other pentarchy seats, and the rivalry and distance of Constantinople. All Western Christians, or most Western Christians, are looking to Rome for guidance.

In the next two lessons, we’re going to talk about the elevation of the Roman papacy and how that was good and how that was bad. That does it for today’s lesson.

I have a couple minutes for questions about what you heard today.

Q&A: Bible Availability in the Medieval Period

During that period, the question for people is whether the Bible was available and understandable. Was the Bible available for medieval Christians? We’ve heard that it was not and that it couldn’t even be read in the languages of the people. Is that true?

It’s a little hard to say for the early medieval period. Going into late antiquity, the scriptures are available. In fact, Jerome’s Vulgate in the fifth century is an effort to translate both the Old and New Testaments into Latin, the language of the people. This was meant to be disseminated for people to use in the church, but also to be read to the laity and even by the laity if they had the wealth and resources to acquire it.

This is going to change as the medieval period goes on. As literacy declines and the availability of scriptures declines from a monetary standpoint, books become increasingly expensive. They are costly to produce because they’re not using papyrus. Usually they are made from animal skins that have to be prepared and treated, then fitted together and bound.

This is why surviving books in the medieval period, even Bibles or books of hours or things like that, are often richly decorated. These are treasures. To own a book or a set of books meant that you were a pretty wealthy person. So certainly the availability of the scriptures is going to diminish as the Middle Ages go on, not by official policy at first, but just because it’s difficult to obtain those documents or to purchase or to produce a book.

It’s only in the late Middle Ages, toward the Reformation period around 1200, when you see the Roman Catholic Church definitely becoming apostate and forbidding the Bible to be translated into the languages of the common people. When we talk about the Lollards in the 1300s, that’s one of the reasons why they get persecuted. John Wycliffe and his followers are trying to put the Bible into Middle English, and the Catholic Church is not happy about that.

“Books are expensive — to own a book meant you were a pretty wealthy person.”

They actually come after his followers and try to kill him. So the short answer to your question is that there seems to have been availability of the scriptures, particularly in the early Middle Ages, but it becomes a little bit fuzzy after that. The availability of the scriptures declines as we get through the Middle Ages, mostly because it’s just difficult to obtain, but later by church order.

I think we have time for no more questions. If you have other questions, come talk to me afterwards or send me an email. Next week we’ll talk about the rise of the papacy. Let me close in prayer.

Closing Prayer

Lord, there’s a lot to say about this. Indeed, we might wonder along with the medieval Christians, God, why did you grant such success to a religion, to a people, Lord, who were not following you? Why did you allow your people—ostensibly the people who actually profess to follow Christ—to encounter such defeats, to be conquered by the Muslims? Lord, why?

We don’t know, Lord, except that you have a good purpose in all that you do. Lord, we thank you for the brethren who sought to remain faithful in the midst of that, even sought to evangelize their conquerors.

I pray, God, today that even as we consider maybe the threat that Islamic religion might pose today, it would never get to the point where we say, “I hate these people and I want them to be destroyed.” No. May we have the heart of Christ, which is a saving heart, which is a heart that looks to love first and foremost.

Lord, would you grant—even as you have it seems in various places—would you grant revival in these Muslim nations, in these nations where Christianity has long been strangled? Would you grant revival?

Would you grant boldness to your people?

Would you grant love to your people and a zeal for you to see Muslims saved, see Muslims rescued out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lord, thank you for this series. I pray that you’d bless it going forward and bless the rest of this service today. Amen. Amen.
May 18, 2025
Victory In Christ’s Death
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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

The victory of Christ over death is not merely celebrated in the resurrection but was decisively won at the cross. Through Christ’s substitutionary death, the righteous demands of God’s holy law were fully satisfied, Satan was rendered powerless, and death’s sting was permanently removed.

Key Lessons:
1. Jesus defeated death by satisfying God’s righteous demands through substitution, perfect obedience, and propitiatory sacrifice — paying the full penalty for our sin.
2. On the cross, Christ rendered Satan powerless, destroying his ability to hold people in bondage through the fear of death and false accusation.
3. The resurrection is not where the victory was won, but rather it is the public declaration of the victory already accomplished by Christ’s death.
4. Death’s sting has been permanently removed because Christ drew sin’s poison into himself, freeing believers from fear and condemnation.
Application: We are called to examine whether we are merely religious or truly saved by grace through faith. Those who know Christ should live with boldness, showing faith by works worthy of His name, and preparing for eternity without fear. Those who have not trusted Christ are urged to believe today without delay.

Discussion Questions:
1. How does understanding that Christ’s victory was won at the cross — not just at the resurrection — change the way we view Good Friday and Easter?
2. In what ways does the fear of death still influence our daily decisions, and how can the truth of Christ’s victory free us from that bondage?
3. What practical steps can we take to show our faith in Christ through works worthy of His name, as the sermon exhorts?
Scripture Focus: 2 Corinthians 5:21 (Christ made sin on our behalf), Romans 8:1-3 (no condemnation in Christ), Hebrews 2:14-15 (Christ destroys the power of death and frees from fear), 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 (death’s sting removed through Christ’s victory), Isaiah 53 (the suffering servant satisfies God’s justice), and 1 John 3:8 (Christ appeared to destroy the works of the devil).

Outline
Introduction

It is a day to rejoice as we think of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But this morning I want to look at the scriptures and preach to you the word of God.

I have selected scriptures today, and we want you to listen. Hopefully this scripture will be on the screen so you can read it. If you want to look at your own Bible, that is something that you ought to do.

But let me pray. Father, we thank you so much as your people, as we bow before you, as we come to you. Make us ready to hear the word of God, to again hear what you have done to accomplish so great a salvation that you offer to people.

You have demonstrated your love to them by dying on the cross, by paying the sins of your people, and then by defeating death and rising from the grave. You give eternal life to all those who would truly believe in you.

I pray, Lord, today that you would use me to communicate the word of God. Lord, let people receive it and come to know you. Let them grow in you and become more bold in their faith.

Lord, strengthen them to continue to live their life for the glory of Christ. I pray this in your name.

Amen.

The Christian’s Confidence in Death

Everyone has got to die. But does anyone have the ability to die?

Well, it seems that most people are at a disadvantage when it comes to death and dying.

Death to most people, to people outside of Christ, is hateful and ugly, something that they do not like to think about and they object to being reminded of it. When they meet death, they do not know what to do with it. They are helpless, paralyzed, and filled with fear.

They are unable to say like the apostle Paul, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” To the apostle Paul, there is a way of dying that is glorious and is more beneficial than staying here on the earth. Why is that? Because he knew when the Christian believer dies, he goes in spirit to be with Christ.

“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

He knows death will be but an entrance into a glorious life. He is confident that because he knows Christ, he knows where he’s going. He doesn’t feel alone as he is dying because Christ is with him. The fear of death is gone. He knows where he is going and to whom he is going.

Anyone who realizes the truth of salvation, who realizes what the Lord Jesus has actually done, will have been delivered not only from the power of death, but even from the fear of death and not only from the devil, but from all the fear the devil can raise and has raised in the mind of all of us.

The Christian is one who should be able to face death as the apostle Paul faced it. They should be able to say, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain,” and having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better than staying here.

The person knows that they’re entering their eternal home. They’re going into the presence of God, the God who created them. The Christian not only dies gloriously, they die triumphantly.

“The Christian not only dies gloriously, they die triumphantly.”

The Centrality of Christ’s Death and Resurrection

This is what we need to be reminded of on this Lord’s day: what the Lord Jesus has actually done. The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus on the hill of Golgotha took place many years ago. Millions have been born and have died since then.

But there is one death that is of central interest—more than all of them. Even today, people are deeply stirred by the intensity of Christ’s suffering and shame, especially once the gospel is understood and received and a person rejoices in the knowledge that sin’s penalty was paid in full on the cross.

The genuine Christian also feels an overwhelming sense of gratitude when he’s reminded that Christ has redeemed him from the obligation and the curses of the law. But there is one other glorious truth that must be highlighted on this resurrection morning, and it’s this: Jesus conquered death itself.

He gave his life on the cross. The truth is Jesus vanquished death by dying. That may sound rather strange to you. We usually speak of the resurrection of Christ as his victory over death, but that is really not the case.

“Jesus vanquished death by dying.”

Truly the victory was realized by his dying, and the resurrection became the great public declaration of that victory. So the apostle Paul wrote in Romans, “He was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The resurrection is the declaration. It is the acceptance that everything that has gone before was accomplished. Jesus overthrew death and defeated it. How did he do that?

To gain a greater understanding of the victory we have in Christ’s death, in order to realize this truth and to have confidence, we may be able to say with Paul, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

There are three things I would like you to ponder today on this Lord’s day.

Point 1: Jesus Defeated Death by Satisfying God’s Righteous Demands

And the first one is this: The first thing to ponder is that Jesus defeated death by satisfying the righteous demands of God. How did he do that? By paying the price for sin.

What made it mandatory for the Lord to pronounce the sentence of death upon all who sinned? And that’s everyone. It was his holy nature. His righteousness requires the penalty of death for all sin.

God is holy, and any violation of his commands calls for the death penalty. A holy God cannot tolerate sin.

“Jesus defeated death by satisfying the righteous demands of God.”

God’s Holiness Cannot Tolerate Sin

It even says in Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face, so he does not hear you.” Other passages say this: “Your eyes, Lord, are pure to approve evil. You cannot look at wickedness with favor.”

And then in the wisdom literature it says the devious are an abomination to the Lord. Again, evil plans are an abomination to the Lord. Because of this, God must necessarily, because of his nature, punish sin. He hates all sin and he cannot let sin into his presence.

Nothing exposes the depravity of man’s evil heart and his enmity against God than setting before him the holy nature of God. See, God is a just judge and it says in Psalms that God is angry with the wicked every day. Just think of that.

For one sin, God banished our first parents from Eden. Just for one sin, Moses was excluded from the promised land. For what reason? He did not treat God in one instance as holy.

Isaiah 59:2: “Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.”

So an understanding of God as a holy God should produce in all of us fear—a knee-knocking fear but also a reverential fear. Both should be evident.

It is a traumatic experience for unholy people to understand God in his holiness.

The Father’s Wrath Poured Out on the Son

The greatest demonstration of God’s hatred of sin was when the Father let loose his wrath upon his Son. When God the Father turned his smiling face away from his Son and thrust his sharp knife into his heart because Jesus was bearing the sins of many. That is when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” See, the messianic psalm that records this also adores the perfection of God.

“The greatest demonstration of God’s hatred of sin was when the Father let loose his wrath upon his Son.”

And this is what it says in Psalm 22:3.

Yet you are holy, oh you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.

How does Jesus take care of our sin that separates us from God? How does he take care of the broken law of God that we’ve all broken? How does he take care of the anger of God towards sinners and sin?

He does that by bearing in himself the penalty of the broken law. The sinner is only forgiven on the ground of another having borne that punishment. Like it says in Hebrews 9:28: “So Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Someone had to pay for the broken law.

The Fact of Substitution

And Jesus bearing our sins included at least three additional facts for him to pay the penalty for the broken law. The first fact was this: his substitution. He died in the place of sinners. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Substitution means that one person is put in the place of another. You and I should have been dying in that place for our sin, but Christ is the one who did it instead because we really weren’t able to do that and accomplish anything on our own.

“He died in the place of sinners.”

The substitution must be sufficient. It must be satisfactory, and the person who’s doing it must be able to do it. Jesus was all those things.

For it says there, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. Why? So that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

We are born into this world as sinners. Our hearts are depraved. As we grow up, we sin in words, we sin in thought, and we sin in deeds.

The Law Reveals Our Sinfulness

We do not love the Lord with all our heart, our mind, and all our soul and strength. But God has given us a holy law, the Ten Commandments, and we break them. We are guilty. We deserve eternal punishment. The Bible says the wages of sin is death.

The Apostle Paul brings to our attention that God has given the law of God and the law condemns every human being in sin. For it says there’s none righteous, not one. That’s how God looks at us and sees us. Every person is a sinner as a result of God’s law.

For example, it says in the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” And yet most of us have many things that take precedence over our relationship with God. So we are condemned by that. The second law says you shall not make for yourselves a graven image or a carved image. And yet we create all types of items and things that we idolize above God himself.

The word of God says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain.” How many of us have done that? And then honor your father and mother, kids. How many times have you honored your father and mother and you broke that commandment? See, God forbid stealing and lying and coveting.

These laws continuously point to our sinfulness. The law does not make us sinners. It reveals that we are sinners and that we are condemned and accountable before God. The law brings the knowledge of sin because by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified or declared righteous in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The Bible gives us knowledge of sin and an awareness of how sinful we truly are. For all have sinned, the Bible says, and come short of the glory of God. The standard is not 80%, not 90%. The standard is 100%.

“The law does not make us sinners. It reveals that we are sinners.”

We have to be 100% holy before God every day, every minute, every month, every year, all the time. Can we do that? No, we can’t do that.

The law points out that we fall short. We may not be the worst sinners ever, but we are as bad as the worst because we are sinful human beings. No human being will be made righteous by the law. The law wasn’t given to make us righteous. The law was given to show us we’re sinners.

So if somebody says, “Well, I keep the ten commandments,” well, the ten commandments reveal you’re a sinner. So you should really look at yourselves. Wow, I’m a big sinner.

Good Deeds Cannot Remove Sin

See, one example may be suppose a person committed a murder and then felt terrible about it and decided I will do as many good things as possible for the rest of my life. How many good deeds would it take to undo murder? Nothing can undo murder.

The person would merely become a good intentioned murderer. And by the same token, the best we can be is good sinners. We are sinners by nature and we are sinners by deed.

As a result of that, according to scripture, God must reject us. Our good deeds cannot remove our sin and make us righteous. Nor can they release us from guilt.

“Our good deeds cannot remove our sin and make us righteous.”

That’s bad news. But that is precisely what the Lord Jesus has actually done. That sin was dealt with in the substitute Jesus Christ. And the result of that was that the sins of his people are covered.

The atonement the Bible calls it is the idea of covering. Our sin has to be covered or forgiven. The way God covers sin of the one who comes to believe in and follow Jesus Christ is for Christ as it says in our passage to be sin on our behalf so we might become the righteousness of God in him.

So there must be the fact of substitution.

Christ’s Perfect Obedience and Propitiation

Somebody has to die in your place. You can’t die there yourself because you couldn’t accomplish what Christ did. A second fact is that his perfect obedience in place of disobedient sinners. We could not be perfectly obedient, but Jesus Christ could and he was.

So the law had to be given in order that we might see that we could not keep it. The law could not save us because we could not keep it. The law condemned us in our sin.

And as it says in Romans, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” And then in verse three, it says, “For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did, sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.”

See, that’s what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He fulfilled the law. We couldn’t fulfill the law. He died in our place. We couldn’t have done that ourselves.

But there is a third thing, a third fact about this and that’s the fact of his propitiatory sacrifice on our behalf. Big word. But in this one, it means that the wrath of God is removed.

Romans 8:1: “There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Propitiation: God’s Wrath Satisfied

Propitiation means that on the cross, Jesus bore our sin and guilt and faced the wrath of his Father instead of us, fully paying on our behalf the debt we owed to the broken law of God. Notice what it says here in Hebrews 2:17—this is what God did. He said he died to make propitiation for the sins of his people.

At the cross of Calvary, Jesus made it possible for a holy God to be propitious towards us. What does that mean? It means to be favorably inclined towards the sinner. Even though we are guilty sinners, Jesus satisfied God’s holy justice, enabling him to save a people who deserved only judgment.

Propitiation is something done with a view to God. An offering is made to God that satisfies the demands of God’s law and God’s justice. When Christ gives himself as a propitiatory sacrifice, he satisfies what God requires. Because God requires the death penalty for sin, his justice demands that the life is poured out.

As it says in Isaiah 53, as a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied.

“Jesus satisfied God’s holy justice, enabling him to save a people who deserved only judgment.”

The Father was satisfied with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because of that, he looks at the sinner who comes to Christ in a propitious way and is now inclined favorably towards that person. In other words, the wrath of God is no longer on that person, but it is the kindness and the goodness of God.

This means God’s wrath and justice toward me and you are satisfied for all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. This is precisely what the Lord Jesus has actually done. Jesus had to overthrow death so the resurrection could be the great public declaration of his triumph and our victory. That’s the first thing.

Here’s the second thing I want you to ponder.

Point 2: Jesus Defeated Death by Winning the Battle Against Satan

That Jesus defeated death by winning the decisive battle against Satan. Now, closely related to the truth that Jesus defeated death by dying is the biblical teaching that on the cross he routed Satan, the agent of death.

If you notice what the writer of Hebrews says, he tells us that Christ became a partner in our humanity with this purpose in mind. What is the purpose? Hebrews 2:14 says this: through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil.

Hebrews 2:14: “Through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil.”

And might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Satan’s Power of Death

Certainly the claim that Satan had the power of death would be upon people. It really doesn’t mean that the devil determines either the time of a person’s physical death or the nature of their eternal destiny.

Satan had power of death in two respects. First, he uses the human fear of death to keep a person in bondage to a false religious system and enslave them to believe what is actually false, which he communicates as what is true.

“Satan uses the human fear of death to keep a person in bondage to a false religious system.”

People Fear Death Because They Are Sinners

What causes people to be afraid of dying? Although we do have an instinctive fear of the unknown, that isn’t the principal reason. People fear death because they’re sinners. The consciousness of wrongdoing makes one apprehensive about dying.

A person may say that he doesn’t believe in God and that death is simply the end of existence, but deep down he really doesn’t believe that. There’s a voice within him that tells him he must face a righteous judge and that his sin will be punished.

“People fear death because they’re sinners.”

That’s the truth of things. We suppress that knowledge. We hold it down. But that’s the truth. People know God. They know their creator, but they suppress that truth.

A second way that Satan uses this power is to accuse the brethren. He makes accusations against people, telling them, “You’re no good. You’re worthless. God wouldn’t want you. Nobody wants you.” He constantly does that. He barges people with that.

Christ’s Victory: ‘It Is Finished’

Yet, however, the claim of Satan against God’s redeemed ones was annulled at the cross when Jesus cried out, “It is finished. The war is ended and the devil is a defeated foe.” But there’s another passage of scripture that shows how Jesus actually did this.

If you notice in 1 John 3:8, it says this: “The one who practices sin is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. The son of God appeared for this purpose.” What is it? In order to destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus came into this world for this purpose: to finally put his works to death.

“It is finished. The war is ended and the devil is a defeated foe.”

Satan Is Defeated and Awaiting Judgment

See, God has given Satan no dominion over man. Man is in the domain of Satan only because of sin. And Christ achieved total victory over Satan and his evil host. They are completely disabled at the cross.

Satan is cast out. His power is curbed so that he could no longer deceive the nations with the measure of success that he once was permitted to enjoy. He is unable to stop the gospel of Jesus Christ or the active missionary work of Jesus Christ. He cannot stop it.

Satan is enchained and he’s awaiting judgment. That’s what the Bible says. Someday he will be assigned and confined to the abyss and then finally thrown into the lake of fire forever.

That’s why it says in 1 Corinthians 15:26, the last enemy that will be abolished is death. This is precisely what Jesus actually did for us. The moment that Jesus died, Satan was robbed of his spoil. Praise the Lord.

Jesus had to overthrow death and Satan so that the resurrection could be the outward token of the completeness of his sacrifice, the public declaration of his triumph and of our victory.

“The moment that Jesus died, Satan was robbed of his spoil.”

Point 3: Jesus Defeated Death by Removing Death’s Sting

And then there’s one last thing that I would want to mention. The third thing I want you to ponder this morning is this: Jesus defeated death by removing death’s sting forever.

If there’s one thing about death, when I go to funerals and I talk to people about it, it just doesn’t belong here. Death never belonged here.

When you talk to people about death, they don’t really want to talk about it. They want to ignore it or not think about it. That’s kind of natural to do. But we have to think about it.

So in addition to paying the full price for sin and defeating Satan, the Lord Jesus removed the sting of death.

“Jesus removed the sting of death when he died on the cross.”

O Death, Where Is Your Sting?

He removed the sting of death when he died on the cross. Death comes to all alike. It doesn’t play any favorites. Being righteous or religious does not exempt anyone from death.

Death is an intruder which does not fit into the scheme of human existence. Just as it says in Romans, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, so death passed upon all men. For all have sinned.” Sins are the cause that people are alienated from God, and sins are the cause of why we die.

Well, the resurrection of Jesus Christ changed all that. Because there is a resurrection, the victory is ours in Christ. That’s what we read in 1 Corinthians 15. Notice what it says here.

1 Corinthians 15:55-56: “O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”

“But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus gets the victory because he won all the battles, and then he gives the victory to us.

Christ has dealt with the root infection. Death has had its deadly sting precisely because of sin. What magnifies the sin? The law of God. That’s what it says right here.

Through his death on the cross, sin is paid for. The law’s demands are satisfied. Death is abolished. As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah says, he swallowed up death for all time.

By Christ’s death and resurrection, already the sting of death has been removed. This sting is not some mild irritant, but it is like a scorpion sting that results in death. Christ has drawn out the poison by drawing it out into himself. Christ Jesus has destroyed him who holds the power of death.

Death can already be mocked. That’s what’s happening in this passage. It’s a question: Where’s your victory, death? Where’s your sting? It’s gone. It’s no longer there.

Why is it no longer there? Because Jesus Christ paid for it all. He’s taken care of everything. We can be set free from the fear of death. We can be set free from the condemnation of the law. We can be set free from every sin we ever committed. Jesus sets us free.

Death has lost its poison fangs. It’s lost its sting. That’s precisely what the Lord Jesus has actually done. Because Christ has been raised from the dead, it proves all our enemies have been completely and forever defeated. There’s nothing that can come up against the Christian ever again.

Jesus had to overthrow death and Satan and remove death’s sting by fully emptying the cup of divine wrath and making it possible for God to forgive sinners. The resurrection could then be the outward expression of the completeness of his sacrifice and the public declaration of his triumph and our victory.

The Bee Sting Illustration

There was a story I read of a father who kept bees as a hobby. One day he was walking in his orchard with his two sons near the beehives. As boys will do, they began running around and must have irritated the bees in some way.

One of the bees zeroed in on one of the boys and stung him just above the right eye. He cried out in pain, brushing the bee away. Then the bee flew toward his brother, who waved his arms frantically and fell to the ground in fear. The father ran over to his son and pulled him to his feet.

With a strong voice, he said to him, “Son, listen. That bee who stung your brother cannot hurt you. He can only scare you.” Then he showed him the dark speck still embedded in the flesh above his brother’s eye. “There’s the bee stinger,” the father continued. “He left it in your brother.”

“See, the bee now is harmless. He can scare you by his buzzing, but he has no power to sting you.”

The father, being a Christian man, took the opportunity to teach his sons a lesson. He pointed out that the Bible speaks of sin as the sting of death. He compared it to the bee sting.

“The bee can scare you by his buzzing but he has no power to sting you.”

He explained that even as your older brother had removed the possibility of the bees harming you, our elder brother Jesus Christ took the sting out of death by dying on the cross for our sins.

Death Is Harmless to the Christian

He emphasized that the child of God may still become uneasy in the face of death and may see it as an unwelcomed enemy.

But death to genuine Christians is really harmless and can no longer injure us in any way. Rather, God makes it a blessing, for it becomes the means by which the spirit enters into heaven and into the presence of God.

“Death to genuine Christians is really harmless and can no longer injure us in any way.”

However, the story is much different for those who do not know Christ as savior. They continue in bondage because of the fear of death.

The unsaved person is in bondage through fear of death, whether they know it or not. In that state, some live in slavery to religious systems which oppress them by their unbearable lists of dos and don’ts, trying to work their way to heaven by their own good works and righteousness, which they do not have. This is a lie.

Others bind themselves to a life of study and speculation, hoping for a ray of light to assure them that something good will come after they die. This is a lie.

The Call to Believe

Still others tried to banish from their minds all thoughts of dying, throwing themselves into a frenzy of life as they pursue money and position, possessions and pleasure, and fame or some other empty pursuit.

So how about you? Do you desire freedom from the slavery of fear? Would you like to know where you’re going when you die? Are you religious or are you saved?

There are only two ways: the way of man and the way of God. Man’s way is religion. God’s way is simply through grace and faith in Jesus Christ. God’s way is one of sacrifice and the blood of the lamb. Man’s way is by works. God’s way is by faith.

So what’s the answer? It is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you too can be assured of heaven. If you have not done that, you should do that soon before it’s too late.

Don’t say you’re too old to do it or you’re too busy to do it or maybe I’ll do it when I get older because I’m young and I want to experience life. Don’t think like that. Come to Christ today. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you too can be assured of heaven, assured that your sins are forgiven.

All of you need to know how to admit that you’re lost, a sinner, and in need of a savior. That’s why Jesus came. But if you reject God’s offer and you make all kinds of excuses and insist upon your own terms, then there is only one alternative. The Bible says the only alternative is hell—to be separated in your sin from God forever.

Now, if you have already accepted and received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then Jesus’ invitation to you today is to show your faith in Jesus Christ by works worthy of his name. Show you have a hope of heaven by beginning to prepare for it right now.

Show that you are beginning to love God by obeying him. Here’s the good news: God sent his son Jesus into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit in order to live a perfect life, die a substitutionary death, and rise victoriously from the grave.

This gospel offer is for everyone. It is for you so that all who believe the message are saved from their sins. Christ’s victory over death is declared and celebrated in his resurrection from the dead. Because he rose, we will rise.

“Christ’s victory over death is declared and celebrated in his resurrection. Because he rose, we will rise.”

There will be a resurrection of life and there will be a resurrection of damnation. What resurrection will you be in? That’s the question. But we do have the victory in Christ Jesus, which we celebrate today.

Closing Prayer

Amen. Let me pray. Lord, this morning I thank you again for the goodness of your word and the kindness that you have to communicate it to us. Even though we know it’s hard, it exposes us for who we are. But Lord, it also teaches us how to be rescued, how to have the victory. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that that’s what you’ve done in the word of God. You’ve told us the truth. And Lord, thank you for all you’ve accomplished on our behalf.

We can come by faith, turn from what we’re trusting in and trust in you alone because you accomplished everything that needed to be accomplished so we can have eternal life, be forgiven of our sins, and be made right with God. Knowing that, Lord, when we do die, we know where we’re going to go. We’re going to go in your presence.

So thank you Lord Jesus for the truths of scripture that free us up from all the bondages and fears of this life. And I pray this in Christ’s name.

Amen.
April 20, 2025
Lesson 14: Giving Thanks Always

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I think are really helpful for us that you might not have thought about together um but he makes a great connection for us in everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus anyone struggle with this to give thanks in everything right and then in Romans 1:21 to to just emphasize the importance of Thanksgiving right um which is our theme today for even though they knew God they did not glorify him as God or give thanks but they became feudal in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened that’s in Romans 1:21 and we see kind of the the cycle or the or the um the downward spiral of sin biblically starts with a lack of Thanksgiving and I find that personally challenging and we are commanded to it and so we want to dive into um the application of that today uh as we end this series and then I love this verse that talks about uh how we’re to be how we are to live as Believers therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him having been firmly rooted and being built up in him and having been established in your faith just as you were instructed and abounding with Thanksgiving well how have we received Christ Jesus right we we receive him in Repentance and faith we continue to to walk in Repentance and faith and as our walk deepens we overflow with Thanksgiving so I think it’s it’s uh important to say and I think right to say that the extent of our depth in our walk will impact the Overflow of Thanksgiving in our lives so uh we have uh well before we continue let me go ahead and pray for us father we just um we’re just so thankful for this journey that you’ve had us on these last few months uh we ask you to work in us that which is pleasing to you as only you can help us to see the beauty of Thanksgiving the warnings of a lack of Thanksgiving and may we be so rooted and built up by you and in your word that it overflows more and more in our lives we think of our brothers rich and Freddy today who’ve had a rough week of um uh physical challenges and we lift them up and ask that you would grant them healing restoration and yes even thankfulness uh we pray for comfort and strength of this holiday season for those who have lost loved ones in the last year we know this can be particularly difficult and may we truly ride the wave of your Providence now and into the future as we think of all that you’ve done in the past and all that you’re going to do in the future we pray this in Jesus name amen amen well uh speaking of waves you all just kind of came in like a wave this morning that was kind of fun to watch well what a journey we’ve been on uh I just I took a look at all the chapters and I’ve listed them for us um and we’ve we’ve really focused on just the idea of can you trust God and we’re going to going to end with that question on two different levels today is God really in control right um many doubt that we are tempted to doubt that in our lives and so we are we sought to be really grounded in that reality and then we talked about three primary attributes of God what I call kind of anchor attributes of God his sovereignty his love and his wisdom and you may recall we put a triangle out there I didn’t put that out here today but if you take any one of those out you’ve got a God who is not the god of the Bible and you’ve got something very very dangerous and very bad for us so his sovereignty his love and his wisdom don’t compete with one another but they work with one another one of the things that we discovered in Iron Man as we went through the attributes of God is that some of the attributes of God for example his loving kindness and his wrath for example they they seem to be intention for us it’s hard for us sometimes to reconcile those things but they are in Perfect Harmony in the mind and the Heart of God and that’s a wonderful thing to think about because sometimes when we talk about them we talk about them as if they compete but God is is perfect in his unity and his Perfection so so we need to think about and talk about him in that way so sovereignty love and wisdom and we spend a little more time on sovereignty a little more time on love anyone here struggle to really understand or appreciate or accept the love of God right I think I think we all do to a certain extent Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that we would know the love of God which surpasses knowledge we might be filled up to all the fullness of God how do we know that which surpasses knowledge it’s a supernatural act of his spirit and then growing through adversity um there are many challenges in life small and big one of the things I I think is really interesting and I try to be very sensitive to during the holid holiday season is sometimes it’s very easy to both receive and give Comfort when someone’s going through a crisis something that’s very visible but there are many underlying struggles that people have that are unseen that I think God would have us to be sensitive to as we uh as we interact with one another and so ask questions and be prepared for the answers and prepared to to give and receive the comfort of God I think God will have us to be transparent with one another and you know this time of year I I I alluded to it in my prayer the intensity is high during the holidays have you found that the highs are really high the lows are really low that’s just how it goes and so let’s be sensitive to and encourage one another I’ll just say this I was thinking about um our last lesson in Iron Man we talked about the discipline of tongue and how we use our words and I was reminded of a verse that I don’t think we mentioned in that lesson and that’s Isaiah 50:4 which talks about God giving us the tongue of disciples not only to learn from him but it says to sustain the weary one with a word right sometimes just a good word to help encourage and sustain is all we need so let’s let’s really take hold of that as Brothers and Sisters in Christ and then choosing to trust God it it is something of a discipline sometimes we have to work against our natural inclinations and our emotions to trust him and then today um giving thanks always and we’ll dive into that so our outline the chief end is God’s glory and I think even if we just park on that that settles our Minds right Psalm 46:10 I think is a familiar verse for us cease striving and know that I’m God I will be exalted among the Nations I will be exalted in the earth God’s agenda for him to glorify himself in all things will be accomplished and we can be settled in that to the extent that we get on board with that in our lives the more at peace we will be to the extent that we fight that the less peace we will have and so this leads us into some a deeper Thanksgiving worship humility forgiveness that was something I wasn’t quite expecting in this chapter we’re going to talk a little bit about that how big of an issue that is for many of us um praying praying for deliverance right uh even while accepting the adversity um and then I’ll give a little hint toward the end can you trust God we’re we’re going to ask in two different ways can you trust God right and then can you trust God and as I said earlier we’re going to U try to give some generous time for Q&A at the end so um I’m going to kind of not welcome interruptions as I usually do as I present the content we’re going to save that for the end okay and I’m confident that you all will participate really well as you always do the chief end God’s glory Psalm 100 uh was the first Psalm that I memorize as a young person the first scripture uh that I memorized as a young person so it’s precious to me make a loud Shout with the psalm of Thanksgiving make a loud shout to Yahweh all the Earth serve Yahweh with gladness come before him with joyful songs know that Yahweh he is God it is he who has made us and not we ourselves we are his people and the Sheep of his pasture enter his gates with Thanksgiving and his courts with praise give thanks to him bless his name for Yahweh is good you convinced in that this morning that God is good it’s hard sometimes to receive that his loving kindness endures forever and his faithfulness generation unto generation as I mentioned before we ride that wave of Providence uh I think that’s a quote from John MacArthur someone shared that with me recently and I keep thinking about it all that God has done from eternity past and we’re just part of it and we’re following that that wave as he rolls forward um and accomplishes his purposes into the future the verse we opened with in everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus and Jerry Bridges had us compare that with this verse and I’m going to challenge our thinking a little bit uh in this way in a way that you might not have thought of before and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose these are absolute statements in everything give thanks right and God causes all things to work together for good so are we to be thankful merely in all circumstances or actually for them it’s interesting as I processed this and I remember a conver a conversation I had years ago with a fellow leader at at a at a church that we were attending and I and I said I might have even been teaching this lesson because we did this years ago I said you know it’s so important that we thank God in all things but we don’t necessarily have to thank him for all things and he stopped me said well hold on wait a minute Mark if God is in control of all things and he’s using all of those things for your good and His glory can’t you give thanks for them and I thought I’m just going to let that land with you I don’t know that I fully solved that but it challenges Us in in terms of how we receive very difficult things in our lives and there are things that are you know some of you that that I’ve talked to some of the things you’ve experienced I don’t know how you would necessarily thank God for that but certainly for his work in that so I just want to challenge our thinking in that is this true for us in everything do we really see that in things where people mean evil we’ll talk about that that God is doing something good that he could not do any other way in your life that’s brothers and sisters that’s true um and so you you see how we have to keep going back to that truth as we process the very difficult things that are going on around us brid says this we can see a very close connection between the promise of Romans 8:28 and the command of 1 Thessalonians 518 when we understand that the literal translation of the words in all circumstances is in everything in the Greek as in the English language the words and meanings are very very close we are to give thanks in everything because we know that in all things God is at work for our good as I like to say and I think I’ve said this before the difficult things that God brings into your life he brings not because he doesn’t love you but because he does right and we see we have to keep reminding ourselves of that Lord I may I may not see this I may not understand it but I trust that you are good and you love me help me to receive this as a gift you know in James 1 when it talks about count it all joy when you encounter various circumstances our brother Rich Monte perto taught us on this several weeks ago count it all joy and then in Romans 5 it says we are to exalt in or boast in our tribulations that just sounds like insane language doesn’t it why knowing what it produces I don’t want to be trit about this but we need to really think through what are these things that God is producing in our lives one translation of James 1 says consider it a sheer gift when these trials come and don’t try to get out of those things prematurely let God do his full work right John M uh John Piper had an article years ago I think when he or a friend had cancer and and the the title of the article was don’t waste your cancer right get the full benefit what God is doing through it that’s hard but in God’s Providence we can do that by his Spirit Worship um we’ve talked a good bit about job in our time together after job lost everything but his wife you can sit and think about that for a bit then job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and he fell to the ground and worshiped and he said naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return there Yahweh gave and Yahweh is taken away blessed be the name of Yahweh through all this job did not sin nor did he give offense to God amazing he was encouraged to give offense to God wasn’t he remember what his wife said Curse God and die that’s not the partner that’s that helpful right yeah we must recognize the reality of what we deserve job had to be brought along through a long process say toward the end I spoke that which I did not know I Repent in thust and Ashes right he needed to do that when we recognize what we deserve compared to what we get we deserve an eternity in hell right what we get is so much better than that even in this life and we need to think about that and then the right of God to do what he will with his own right that that’s his choice so we need to be just settled in that um if I were God I wouldn’t do it that way well then it’s a good thing you’re not God it’s a good thing I’m not God right um so we need to really these can be harsh truths but in reality they can be very comforting truths right we understand what we deserve and what God has the right to do thankfully with that will he is perfectly sovereign he is perfectly loving and perfectly wise as we’ve discussed brtish says this as we bow in worship before his Almighty power we can also bow in confidence that he exercises that power for us not against us well that’s so important have you ever felt like God is conspiring against you that God is not for you that he doesn’t have your very best in mind keep in mind that biblical love agape love is not g it’s it’s seeking our highest good and that is not necessarily what we want God knows that what we want can often be very destructive for us he loves us too much for that so do you need to be reminded of that today I need to be reminded of this constantly God is not against me but for me so we should bow in an attitude of humility accepting his dealings in our lives but we can also know bow in love knowing that those dealings however severe and painful they may be come from a wise and a loving heavenly father and you you know you may be in a place today where this really lands well with you and you’re you’re saying yes amen um I’m sure there are some of us who are saying I I really struggle to believe that that God is for me right um how many of you have looked at things in your lives that you’ve hated maybe even would have done anything to get out of but now you look back and you say wow God was doing something that I didn’t see right for me I I talked about it my mom’s death she was she was 47 years old I was 26 this to me this is like one of the worst things that can happen to you but I look back and I had to have brothers come alongside me and point out the things that God was working in my life through that I could not see it I knew these things to be true you you could have given me this lesson and I would have been like you know I just I don’t see it sometimes we need the word of God ministered by the people of God to help us see that and so I I am convinced now um that God was working in my life things that he couldn’t do any other way through something that I never would have chosen and that’s important for us to take comfort in and to respond to with humility right therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you you know if you humble yourself you you can legitimately think to yourself well who’s who’s looking out for me you know um who’s really really loving me um one of the things I I take great comfort in is um Psalm 23 and in verse 6 the last verse of Psalm 23 says this surely goodness and loving kindness will pursue me not follow me is the standard translation but the idea it’s going to it’s chasing you it’s pursuing you you loveing goodness and loving kindness will pursue me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of Yahweh forever and think about that in light of what job said in job 3:25 for the dread that I dread comes upon me and what what I am afraid of befalls me right the worst that could happen in his mind actually happened to him and yet we know from the perspective of Providence that was actually God’s loving kindness pursuing him when we went through the book of Exodus as our uh in our in Iron Man we recognize that there were Earthly realities of the slavery and and The Exodus and all that but behind that there were Heavenly realities dictating all of that and so that’s something that we need to think about that the reality is if you are in Christ goodness and loveing kindness are pursuing you even in these circumstances and so we humble ourselves under that reality so think about this whose will are you s seeking are you seeking what you want or what God wants right when they conflict where will you go and so God’s God’s will as we as we noticed in Psalm 4610 is that he exalt himself right are you committed to that purpose right so often we’re not we want what we want praise the Lord that in the gospel he transforms our desires that’s the only way that can happen and then whose Glory are you seeking you know when you when you see humble yourselves right I I think of that the um that I think it’s Winston Churchill quote described someone as a humble man with much to be humble about right uh humility is not um is not something that NE necessarily we enjoy right it means less recognition it means maybe being treated in a lowly way right but when that happens his strength is put on display his glory is put on display where do you want the attention to go right as the casting crown song goes only Jesus only Jesus and so this challenges our desires and our motives and if we seek his will and his glory he will always accomplish that so it’s to our benefit and to our peace to our joy to really receive that with humility and not exalt ourselves he must increase we must decrease as John the Baptist said Isaiah 66 um so precious so helpful to us thus says Yahweh Heaven is my throne and the Earth is the foot stol of my feet where then is a house you could build for me and where is a place that I may rest for my hand made all these things thus all these things came into being declares Yahweh but to this one I will look to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word would you like the the attention of God the intimacy with God this is the path to it right humble contrite trembling at his word eager to hear from him him having your full attention and let’s face it folks when we’re more comfortable he doesn’t always have our full attention does he but when things get hard it sharpens our Focus puts us in a different place draws Us close to him we want to invite his attention his favor on our lives um with the humble wisdom with the humble he is far from the proud the scriptures say and if we know what the scriptures say that The Nearness of God is my good I think it says that in psalm 16 then what is distance from God it’s pretty terrifying and so we want to seek humility as a means to be as close with God as we can so whose strength are you seeking you know one of the things that I really struggle with is just um not seemingly not having the strength to do all that I want to to do all that I want to do if you hear that right he’ll give me the strength to do what he wants me to do um his power is perfected in weakness and I’m noticing this more and more as I get older it’s very humbling to me to recognize that I just can’t seem to push through in ways that I used to right and this is forcing me to humble myself in ways that maybe I haven’t before for and that’s a good thing because as it says in John 15:5 apart from me you can do nothing nothing means nothing it’s emphatic and so he sustains the very fiber of our being and so for us to recognize this and to walk in that reality it’s a very very good thing and then whose attention are you seeking are you good if you serve and you do something and nobody notices nobody says anything you good with that yeah our reward is in heaven if we do that but if we seek attention and reward from others we lose it right we see this in the Beatitudes and so this is something to really think about right um we want to be strong or at least to be seen as strong we want others to be impressed with us are you seeking great things for yourself the prophet said seek them not right put that aside give all attention all attention to him him from the book on the one hand we are to Humble ourselves under God’s Mighty hand an expression equivalent to submitting with a spirit of humility to God’s Sovereign dealings with you and on the other hand we are to cast our I’m going to look over here because it’s hard to see that we are to cast our anxieties on him knowing that he cares for us the anxieties of course arise out of the adversities that God’s Mighty hand brings into our lives we are to accept the adversities but not the anxieties our tendency is just the opposite can we relate to that I thought that was so helpful we seek to escape from or resist the adversities but all the while cling to the anxieties that they produce the way to cast our anxieties on the Lord is through humbling ourselves under his sovereignty and then trusting him in his wisdom and love humility should be both response to adversity and a fruit of it right I don’t know about you but I’m not yet humble enough I’m not yet holy enough and so these adversities help me with both you know my uh my standard response my my probably established pattern through most of my life is to if something difficult happens to work myself up into a panic right and then when I’m exhausted then I’ll go to the Lord anybody I’m not the only one who does this right that’s been more often what I what I’ll do um we watched the movie forged recently and um I don’t know if you’ve seen it but there’s a woman who was from the movie War Room she’s kind of the the prayer Warrior and she said something that I thought was really helpful she said prayer isn’t like a spare tire we pull out in an emergency prayer is the steering wheel you know with the analogy of the car and I thought you know maybe we should try that first right uh and so I thought that was really really helpful all right forgiveness now in my experience um no other topic tends to penetrate the heart or get people’s attention more than forgiveness because I think it’s an issue uh for most of us both in receiving God’s forgiveness fully and not withholding forgiveness from those who have offended us right Bridget said this adversity often comes to us through the actions of other people sometimes those hurtful actions are deliberately directed at us at other times we may be the victim of another person’s irresponsible actions that though not deliberately aimed at us nevertheless affect us seriously how are we to respond in those to those who are the instruments of our adversity the answer of course is with love and forgiveness true difficult simp simple but difficult right and so the question is why why do we forgive and then there we go and then how how do we forgive I’ve heard some Christian teachers say well just just forgive just just just do it well there’s got to be a basis for it a fountain from which we draw right uh it’s I think impossible when we look at the horrible things that are often done that we just just choose to forgive with no real basis and so the Lord gives us one in the Cross I’d like us to dive into this a little bit this is where God’s sovereignty gets applied very personally to us Joseph with his brothers right they sold him into slavery you know they metant evil for him no doubt as for you you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to do what has happened on this day to keep many people alive this enabled Joseph to forgive his brothers you may remember in the narrative that um once they were reunited with Joseph in Egypt and then their father died the brothers were convinced that Joseph would now exact his revenge on them and they approached him and this is one of those wonderful examples of where we see for shading of the Gospel in the Old Testament they approached him and they said we know that we cannot justify ourselves does that sound familiar right so Joseph was very much a Christ figure pre- shadowing of Christ’s forgiveness but he could only do that knowing that God’s purpose were behind it Lamentations 3 who is there who speaks and it happens unless the Lord has commanded it is it not from the mouth of the most high that both calamities and good go forth why should any living person or any man complain because of his sins right we get back to that reality of what do we really deserve knowing that we should not we should not complain and what’s so interesting you think about Joseph you think about job I mean job literally had the attention the personal attention of Satan the most powerful evil force in the universe and yet God’s purposes were accomplished think about that this is how Sovereign God is that kind of effort doesn’t matter because God has a purpose in it in the garden right from the very beginning right the the Temptation and the fall was all part of God’s salvation purpose so God’s salvation is our basis in instead be kind to one another tender-hearted graciously forgiving each other just as God in Christ graciously has graciously forgiven you and this is worth a lot of thought a lot of consideration how has God in Christ forgiven you you know in the gospels when there’s that woman who washed Jesus feet with her hair do you remember what Jesus said about her they were in a a Jewish I think a Pharisees house and he said you you didn’t you didn’t honor me in any way but she has not stopped honoring me why he was forgiven much loves much but he was forgiven little little loves little always kept kept in front of us should be the depth to which God has forgiven us always always so as we saw in that last verse we must not complain because of our sins right just that’s a hard that may be a harsh word for you today we need to understand that that’s the reality we must not complain because of our sins and we dare not withhold forgiveness because of our Salvation time doesn’t allow us to go through Matthew 18 but it’s the parable of the unforgiving slave who was forgiven to death that in his whole lifetime he would never be able to repay and yet he would not forgive a relatively small debt from someone else right this is the reality that we face when we think about forgiving others I want to be sensitive here the horrible things that people can do and have done to us as horrible as they are and my mind is just swimming with things that are just unspeakable that does not compare to the depth to which you and I even at our best have offended God and the depth to which he has forgiven us so may God grow us in our understanding of this so that when we understand that when it penetrates our heart how can we possibly withhold a heart of forgiveness from anyone and I said heart of forgiveness very specifically because sometimes people who’ have done us wrong will not apologize will not repent and yet we are to forgive them we to have a heart of forgiveness toward them there’s a lot to unpack there but I think going back to the reality the reality of our s salvation helps us okay um let’s bring it home prayers for deliverance sometimes when we go through something hard um all we want is out right and that’s okay to pray for that Jesus did that um my father if it is possible let this cup pass from me yet not as I will but as you will right okay I mean our Lord wonderfully set an example for us that it’s okay to ask for that but yet subject everything to the father’s perfect will right so history teaches us that God uses evil for good I think we’ve established that through many chapters and through our lesson today but Faith produces hope in future Glory so in Hebrews 12 it said what it say about Jesus who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame right he saw the future of what was going and that fueled him in the presence Romans 8 gives us this as well in the verses that lead up to Romans 8:28 it says for hope that is seen is not hope for why does one hope for what he sees but if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance we wait eagerly for it the hope of the future that we do not yet see but it but but in one sense see with the eyes of Faith fuels Us in the present the fact that we don’t yet have it is meant to help keep us going there’s a lot that can be said there but that’s just a wonderful thing so we look at the history of how God has worked we take hold of the promises of how God will work in the future and we can ask for deliverance and that’s that’s okay but but keeping it under under the Sovereign hand of God I you know I I talked earlier about my um my my mom’s passing and and I was amazed at how the Lord really worked in me in this that um I felt that it was important to to ask even in a hospice situation ask that God would healer acknowledge that he had the power and the ability to do that if you so wished uh but yet release that to him and that was a that was a hard thing to work through but I think both are necessary God you could you could change this in an instant if you wanted to but you may have a purpose in it so our author says this we should pray for deliverance and we should learn to resist the attacks of Satan in the power of Jesus Christ but we should always pray in an attitude of humble acceptance of that which is God’s will sometimes God’s will is deliverance from the adversity sometimes it is the provision of Grace to accept the adversity trusting God for the grace to accept adversity is as much an Act of Faith as in trusting him for deliverance from it we just have to recognize that we grow a lot more through adversity don’t we yeah that’s just God’s pattern um and comfort sometimes to be honest scares me you know especially around the holidays you know like if if things are a little I I I’m not saying don’t enjoy the holidays but sometimes if I’m a little too comfortable I’m a little LAX right in in my spiritual life and I don’t want that I don’t want that I want to to keep that that Focus Comfort can be a curse sometimes and then seeking God’s glory Paul said this according to my Earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything but that with all boldness Christ will even now as always be magnified in my body whether by life or by death he noted that in his imprisonment the gospel was advancing and Christ was being glorified and that’s God’s agenda so Paul getting on board with God’s agenda enabled him to endure and then the verse that I’ve quoted several times for us already cease striving and know that I am God I will be exalted among the Nations I will be exalted in the earth you want to get on board with a mission that will be accomplished this is it this is it so can you trust God right I hope that we’ve established that really well from the word of God in our Contex these past few months for I proclaim the name of Yahweh ascribe greatness to our god The Rock his work is perfect for all his ways are just a god of faithfulness and without Injustice righteous and upright is he that’s a rock for us to take hold of do we believe that so we’ve seen that God is trustworthy he is absolutely Sovereign over for every event in the universe and he exert exercises that sovereignty in an infinitely wise and loving way for our good in that sense we have answered the main question raised by this book can you trust God he will never fail you nor forsake you but can you trust God right I love Psalm 655 by awesome Deeds you answer us in righteousness oh god of our Salvation you who are the trust of all the ends of the Earth and of the farthest sea in Jeremiah 17:7 blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh and whose trust is Yahweh you notice something unique in those verses we’re not simply called to trust God but to make him our trust that makes sense that’s a little bit stronger he is our absolute Foundation right and if and if we understand those passages correctly you can’t TR trust God and something else right cursed is a man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength and his heart turns away from the Lord right it says earlier in Jeremiah we can either trust in self and circumstances or trust in him make him our exclusive trust and I think that’s what the scriptures and what our author are calling us to is God your exclusive trust today all right I’m not going to read that quote hopefully you’ve read the chapter um I would like to just open it up for uh just some comments I’d love to hear we’ve got maybe we’ve got to end a little bit early today because we’ve got the kids choir coming up so we’ve got maybe 10 minutes or so just to interact a little bit around uh trusting God so I’d love to hear um maybe some testimonies of of how this Ian’s got on the mic back there U maybe some testimonies of how this has impacted you or some questions you have so Leela thank you good morning everybody um so Michael and I were just talking last night and um what Mark you said about the holiday season and um we were just thoroughly enjoying all the blessings that God has surrounded us with and um I personally am trying to stay really close to God in all of this time knowing that this is all from him it’s all from his hand um it’ll come it’ll go uh but not focusing on the going necessarily just enjoying it now so that like you said not to be frightened when things are good and comfortable because you think you know something else bad is going to happen or and there’s dire situations that are still in our lives present right now but just going through it with God the the the Blessed times as well as the difficult times yeah we live in a world that’s trying to experience the blessings of Christmas while eliminating The God Who provided them right and I it’s a little crazy yeah Steve that’s right I can be loud well the online folks can’t hear you so uh we want them to hear you Steve okay yeah so I think um unless you actually go through these things they don’t become real right I mean it’s great to have all this you know Doctrine and teaching and know it up there but unless you go through it it doesn’t become real and then you know you have to you almost have to want to do this to actually be able to grow you know um it’s not easy but you know it’s it’s it’s easy up here it’s hard you know when you go through it but if you don’t go through it you don’t experience it and you don’t get that closer connection with the Lord amen yeah I I’m really eager to hear to people who’ve been through some things um people who’ve had it easy I’m honestly I’m just not really interested and um what there’s a credibility there I think that comes through adversity yeah I’ll give an example I mean I I know one things I’ve observed is is people who have had families who have had special needs kids have a level of character that I just find amazing compelling I’m like wow I mean I just want to sit there and just ask you questions and observe because that’s yeah and and and with rare exception those are people of very high character yeah Glenda um what I got from the last chapter giving thanks I I see where Jer said we seek to escape from and resist adversity but all the while clinging to our anxiety I’m really good at that I’m so good at that and that’s when we cling to our anxiety it makes us like feel like oh like we the victim right but then if we stop and think why are you clinging to this when God said I am Sovereign and I know what you need I know what you’re going through but because we are so much in the flesh it rise up and cause us it’s only when things happen where we say you know I’ve got to get out of this MH so then that’s when we learn to say well why am I sitting here moping and moping when God say I’m Sovereign and he knows what you’re going through he knows that’s a beautiful thing right our God through Christ is not a stranger to suffering H okay I wanted to share from 2 Corinthians chapter 1 where Paul says we do not want you to be unaware Brethren of our Affliction which came to us in Asia that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength so that we despaired even of Life indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead and you know when you reflect on this you realize there’s a time lag from the time that they were despairing of life I mean that actually I think means it been better to be dead in the moment he thought it it’s better to be dead and there’s a time lag between this Affliction and then when Paul writes this and I just think about that God will teach us the lessons we need to do so we don’t actually even have to beat ourselves up for the fact that we’re despairing of life that it’s a process that God brings us through from the beginning to end and you know I often think about people who do have a more light-hearted picture of Life who didn’t grow up in all kinds of adversity and I don’t I used to be jealous of that you know I had a very good friend who had the life that I thought if I had a life like hers I would be farther along in this Christian life but the fact is wherever God places us he accomplishes his perfect will in us and rather than being upset that I experience anxiety or I despair of life I do think we have to remember that he brings us out of it and and accomplishes his work in us and that you know it’s often only by looking back that we realize that we came through it you yeah that’s beautiful Cheryl thank you I I think of the phrase I don’t know if it’s in that passage or not where it says sorrowful yet always rejoicing and I that’s a great reminder Cheryl that it’s okay to struggle and to suffer and to strive in our emotions and just to work these things through it’s it’s evidence that we’re alive and the evidence evidence that we’re seeking him Jay yes I had um two many thoughts but two I think that um first one was um you know do we thank God in adversity in Trials do we thank him for it and I say a resounding yes to both of them because I think that’s right um when we’re in the trial if we let our emotions take control of us we’re not going to feel like saying thank you to God but we know um that God allows the trials the adversity he is Sovereign over everything he allows those things in our lives so you know we know just from that doctrine that we say okay thank you God for this but we don’t really feel it has nothing to to do with our feelings it’s a decision that we make I will trust you yeah that’s right God gives us Faith but trust is something that we have to consciously exercise we have to make a decision and say Lord I do trust you and that’s where I think um um you you know I’m not sure about this I I don’t know that the verse that you said um um the verse about sustain uh the weary one with the word it says Isaiah 50:4 is the word that they’re talking about with our words or God’s word it’s I think it’s our stewardship of God’s word with one another that’s how I would view that so you know so I say the more of God’s word that we can hide in our hearts as we know but that’s what keeps us from the sin of not trusting yeah because we need to just keep going back to his word and meditating and when we’re laying in bed and we’re struggling with anxiety and worry or whatever is going on in our lives we all have things going on in our lives I just know from being the age that I am and having gone through many things and being able to look back and God did mean it for good always always every single time so you know when we’re struggling with having anxiety when we’re struggling with our feelings our feelings have nothing to do with it amen doesn’t matter what we feel it matters what God has to say about it and I can promise you that it is always for our good amen so just you know stay in the word memorize appropriate scripture and meditate you know when you’re going through a struggle with your it’s it’s really with our our feelings it’s in our mind yeah amen God never changes we do amen well guys we uh we have to cut you short I’m sorry we’re going to let the kids um go ahead and rehearse I’m going to you know Cheryl as you were talking it reminded me of a passage that I’m just going to end with and pray I think it’s just so helpful for us um Isaiah 50:4 I encourage you to maybe spend a little time in that Jay you unfolded some of that truth so well 2 Corinthians chapter 4 starting at verse 6 for God who said light shall shine out of Darkness is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ but we have this treasure and Earth and vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves in every way Afflicted but not crushed perplexed but not despairing persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus Also may be manifested in in our body that’s what it’s all about father thank you for this journey that we’ve been on thank you for the the struggles thank you that lives have that our lives have not gone according to our plans but according to yours may we rejoice and encourage one another in Jesus name amen amen thank you

December 15, 2024
Lesson 13: Choosing to Trust God

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as we get ready to jump into this uh penultimate chapter Let’s uh open up in a word of prayer uh Lord uh we thank you for giving us breath this morning we thank you for awakening us and allowing us to come together as a family once again as a body of Believers we thank you for your grace and for your goodness and uh just for everything that you’ve been teaching us through this book this year I pray that these words would be yours Lord and that that they would affect the hearts and minds of your people and that they would teach us to grow closer in our trust for you that we would decide these things Lord that you would guide us and enable us to look at things from history past from the truth and evidence of things that you’ve done in our own lives and the lives of those around us that we may grow deeper in our trust and love for you praise in Jesus name amen am okay so like I said this is the penal ultimate chapter uh Mark’s going to be bringing us home next week but Jerry Bridges goes through this concept of choosing to trust God he emphasizes the importance of actively choosing to trust particularly in difficult or uncertain times and he argues that trust in God is Not merely a passive state but a deliberate decision an act of the will something that we need to choose over and over and over again he discusses how trusting God is a fundamental aspect of the Christian faith and how it influences Believers respond are responding to Life’s challenges and his adversities he uses biblical examples and personal anecdotes to illustrate how choosing to trust God Can Transform one’s approach to life leading to peace and to resilience the chapter delves into practical aspects of building and maintaining trust in God Bridges offers guidance on how to nurture this trust through prayer meditation on scripture and the cultivation of a heart that is attuned to God’s presence and promises he encourages readers to reflect on God’s sovereignty wisdom and love as reasons to trust him fully choosing to trust God ultimately calls readers to reflect on their own faith Journeys challenging them to make a conscious choice to trust God in all circumstances thereby deepening their relationship with him and finding comfort in his Sovereign control over all aspects of life and the primary verse for this one was Psalm 56:34 when I am afraid I put my trust in you in God whose word I Praise In God I trust I shall not be afraid what can flesh do to me incredibly comforting so let’s get a little bit into the nature of trust and again if you guys have any questions comments I I know you’re not afraid to be interactive but I I’ll give you the reminder um in this part so we have the opportunity to look at two things here trust is an active Choice it’s not passive right it’s a deliberate decision to rely on God’s promises he explains that it’s not just this feeling right we we can’t be held captive or Hostage to our feelings or to our hearts right they’re they’re wickedly deceitful Trust involves a deliberate decision and he contrasts that with human trust which for us often depends on seeing right with spiritual trust which must be exercised even when physical evidence is lacking we’ll get to that a little bit um for active trust the verse that I thought was really great for this was Proverbs 35 to6 trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding feel like every little kid knows that one all these truths are so simple yet so difficult to live out and then leaning on God we choose to depend on God’s character even when it’s challenging God’s immutable character he’s consistent we are fickle and change but he doesn’t he’s omnicient he’s all knowing he’s always loving he’s always just he’s holy he’s the only one that is the way he is and because of that we can rely on him uh Hebrews 11:1 now Faith is the Assurance of things hoped for the conviction of Things Not Seen and he never leaves us Hebrews 13:5 never will I leave you never will I forsake you no matter what life brings God is always just God is always true and he is steady so we’ll talk a little bit more about what does it mean to have faith Beyond sight can’t just be physical evidence right we’ve just talked about that it must be something deeper right there’s a spiritual layer to trust and then how do you walk in that we often seek tangible proof in our daily lives that something’s real you show me the money I got to see to believe it you know if you’re going to go buy a car you’re going to go see the car right you want to test drive it you want to feel it does it does it work the way it’s going to if you’re going to buy a house you want to get it ready you want to see what it’s like is it this is this the space but it’s not that way with God we have to trust but like Thomas we all doubt John 20 24-25 now Thomas one of the 12 called the twin was not with them when Jesus came so the other disciples told him we have seen the Lord but he said to them unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side I will never believe and that’s so much us we want to see we want to touch we want to be able to verify for ourselves but what happens when you can’t how do you trust in God when you can’t see the outcome when it’s cancer or you don’t know where you’re going to live next or you don’t know where your next breath is going to come from because you feel like the weight of the world is just on top of you Faith calls us to trust beyond what we can see or touch spiritual trust is necessary even when physical evidence is lacking we think about Moses Hebrews 11:27 by faith he left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king for he endured as seeing him who is invisible this invisible hand moving in the background we know it is the holy spirit right God moves in incredible ways and he pulls us forward we have a responsibility to walk in that to be diligent in his Commandments and we’ll get into the disciplines of Grace again in a little bit but we have to maintain those disciplines those things help to propel us forward by God working in and through us and in and through the people around us 2 Corinthians 57 we walk by faith not by sight overcoming trust challenges seems throughout the book that there were there were three main ways that Bridges wanted to tackle challenges in trust I think the most basic for all of us is Trials and suffering that typically leads to some type of doubt and then there’s the mundane there’s the the little problems that aren’t that big right we’re not going to necessarily bring it to God but we should he tells us to bring everything to him and in those cases there’s this self-reliance self-determination where we tend to just sort of say excuse me we tend to sort of say we can just go through it on our own do I really need to bring that to God I don’t even know if half of us think about it I know I don’t so oh that’s just a little problem but God tells us to bring everything to him a challenges do test our trust they also provide opportunities for growth and for deeper Faith challenges like suffering like loss they test it James 1 2:4 count it all joy my brothers when you meet Trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing Romans 5 3: 5 not only that but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces prod endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us God will never forsake us even in the darkest of days 1 Peter 5:7 casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you trials they they’re tough they’re not meant to be easy but God says he’ll always be with us I remember was it 5 years ago my mom had cancer for the first time wow that was a shock F super super fast moving two weeks later it’s okay we’re going in for surgery and we’ve got a plan forward and watching her say no matter what God’s got me so encouraging and then for her to be in remission for 5 years fantastic and then when it came back last year or earlier this year still she Praises him through and through and it is such a blessing and encouragement to our family we don’t need to be cast down Psalm 425 why are you cast down oh my soul and why are you in turmoil within me hope in God for I shall again praise him my salvation he is our hope right 1 Peter 1:6-7 in this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuiness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in Praise and glory and honor at the revelation of who of Jesus Christ it’s all for his glory that’s why we exist another thing to be reminded of is that God must receive the honor that’s due to him he is the object of our trust he can work through or without the aid of man if he does work through man we should be mindful that he is not dependent on man right we we’ve talked about his sovereignty over and over again again uh in the first few chapters of this book God doesn’t need us but he brings us along for the ride and he makes us the instruments of his work for the glory of others and for the for the for his glory and for the good of others so we are to trust in God and not the instruments of his Deliverance really loved this quote from the end of the chapter by Philip Bennett power the daily circumstances of life will afford US opportunities enough glorifying God in trust without our wanting or sorry waiting for any extraordinary calls upon our faith let us remember that the extraordinary circumstances of Life are but few that much of life may slip past without their occurrence and that it is we uh sorry gosh I can’t read it up there is that uh that is and that is we may not be faithful and trusting in that which is little we are not likely to do so or be to we are not likely to be so in that which is great let our trust be reared in the humble Nursery of our own daily experience with its ever recurring little wants and trials and sorrows and then when need be it will come forth to do such great things as are required of it trust God in the little things be diligent in the little things because that’s the majority of life it’s the mundane it’s the getting ready every morning having breakfast it’s the having dinner with your family it’s showing up at work it’s those little moments of the day where we don’t necessarily think twice about it but where we have the opportunity to show our continual trust in God and to show that to the people around us and as you grow in the little things in life God gives you more and more and more right it should be then that when the big challenges in life come you’ve already sustained and built up such a trust in God with the daily walk that that trust shines deep and you can rely heavily on the power of God and your Reliance on him instead of self you we see that time and time again in The Parables where someone who’s given a little has a little someone who’s given much has much more responsibility it’s a muscle that gets built up over time so don’t rely on God to just get you through most of the difficult circumstances or the greatest crisises but rather Trust on him for all things in all times we as people have a tendency to seek the Lord as we should and our troubles we must remember to be just as diligent in seeking him and depending on him through the minor Troubles of the day and through the mundane and especially in times of abundance when things are bad how quick are we to drop to our knees we have to remember when life is good he controls that too we have to thank him for everything that he’s given us whether we like it or not there there’s a reason for everything whether it’s for you or for the people that he’s going to bring around you in order that they may grow in their gifts that they may grow in their Walk we’re not the protagonists of our own stories right we are side players we are the tools and the instruments that God uses this is his story this is his world we’re just playing in it let’s get into a couple examples of biblical trust Abraham and his sacrifice we’ve got job’s perseverance and David’s resilience with Abraham he was willing to offer Isaac demonstrating ultimate trust in God’s plan um I’m going to read uh Genesis 221 to18 little lengthy so bear with me for a moment after these things God tested Abraham and I said to him Abraham and he said here I am he said take take your son your only son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Mariah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you so Abraham Rose early in the morning saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac and he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar then Abraham said to his young men stay here with the donkey and I am the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son and he took in his hand the fire and the knife so they went both of them together and Isaac said to his father Abraham my father and he said here I am my son he said behold the fire in the wood but but where is the Lamb for a burnt offering and Abraham said God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son so they went both of them together when they came to the place of which God had told him Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood I cannot imagine how difficult that must have been I love my boy cannot imagine then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son but the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said Abraham Abraham and he said here I am he saido not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God seeing you have not withheld your son your only son from me and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind him was a ram caught in a Thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the RAM and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son so Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide as it is said to this day on the Mount of the Lord it has uh it shall be provided and the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said by myself I have sworn declares the Lord because you have done this and have not withheld your son your only son I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your Offspring as the stars of heaven and as a sand that is on the seashore and your Offspring shall possess the Gate of his enemies and in your Offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice so I ask you a question how did Abraham so trust in God or show trust to God rather Cory ten Boom or different people that you can’t look at someone else and go Sten yeah who Sten Stephen he will give you he doesn’t give it to you ahead of time but even if you have the strength it came from him at that moment to act in a way that you’re just like wow that where did that come from because it’s we’re not able to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps it we have to be dependent on God even for everything for everything everything we have comes from him so while he gave us these wonderful examples it’s it’s also uh be the Bible’s a reality because he also showed us all the flaws and that is US yeah and so we preach that gospel to ourselves all the time because if it isn’t by his grace we can’t muster it up in the midst of the crisis we can walk by faith in that we deny our feelings and we battle like David did like what talk to yourself why am I so downcast this is my God he gave me his word he gave me the spirit he gave me the church he gave me so you’re battling your flesh that’s our responsibility because we’re prone to do that so I just think we look at it that our God will provide for us in those situations if we’re willing to receive it and be open to that and and trust that and make a deliberate choice and battle our own own flesh it’s a battle amen oh see not good hi every oh I’m sorry my voice um first thing I wanted to say is that the gospel is written all over this passage um it’s a sermon in itself but um um in terms of how Abraham was showing his trust in God um the first indication was when he said to the men that were traveling with him to wait here and he and his son will return so that in itself showed that um Abraham had some understanding of the Resurrection because he believed that he was going to return with his son most people missed that the second thing was when um Isaac’s noticed that it’s his father has the wood he’s there and and the only thing that was missing was the the the animal or the sacrifice itself and Abraham said to his son God will provide the sacrifice um or the lamb and then um when he the fact that another thing that we may miss is that um we don’t realize that Isaac the age of Isaac at that time you could have probably knowing the age of Abraham easily have overpowered his father but he willingly allowed his father to put him um on the wood to be ready to be sacrificed and um the the last thing was that um we see um Abraham’s trust in God because um again pointing to um uh the Messianic promise um where Abraham said that God would provide the lamb we see the substitute of Isaac for the lamb itself the lamb became the sacrifice and um when God used the word you know offer of his only son his only begotten son and whom you love that’s the first time love is actually mentioned um in the Bible so again it it shows Abraham’s trust in God that even though he loved his son he showed his love for God to be more yeah it’s a wonderful foreshadowing isn’t it yes and Jody to your point before I mean we’ve got three guys on this sled we’ve got an adulterer a murderer and then I mean I don’t know what sin job specifically had other than challenging God directly and you know is that idolatry I suppose Steve did you have something you want to say yeah just real quick you know Abraham had a life that loed with failure you know I mean God made him the promise and then what does he do he hides behind his wife because he’s afraid he’s going to get killed yet God already made him the promise and if he died he couldn’t have fulfilled that promise so you know all along the way I think Abraham learned to trust God you know I mean through his failures he got to a point where he said I can trust what God has to say and you know lot of times we forget the successes and the amount that God has helped us and and and even just um you know delivered us from uh you know uh what could have happened to us you know so God has been faithful to Abraham all throughout the way and I think by this point in his life he just says you know and that’s not to say he didn’t have anguish you know but you know he had learned all along the way that God is faithful amen yeah so much of life is learning to trust in every aspect of God for everything in our lives go GL yeah he’s got the microphone for you Glenda um sometime we look at these mens Abraham job David and all these Patriarchs in the word of God and then when we think that they had a small portion of the scripture but we have the whole Bible and we can look back and see not only they was perseverance in what they did and trust God we look at a new Testament we see Paul we see Timothy and we see all these men so we make our flesh rise up and cause us not to trust God and as he say we choose we have to choose to trust him because we have a lot of examples from the Bible and as arur was saying Abraham said to him um to the PE the young the men I’m going and sacrifice and come back so he knew something was going to happen maybe he didn’t know how God is going to deliver his son but he knew exactly in telling them wait here we going to come back so we have to choose to trust God because we have the whole word of God that we can look and see example from the Old Testament and from the New Testament yeah not only do we have the word of God we have the Holy Spirit God indwells in us that’s incredible it’s an in literal incredible power that we don’t know that they had and we we see with David the spirit of God coming upon him but only for a period of time right this is as Christians the Holy Spirit lives in us and once he’s with you he’s never leaving you that’s an incredible Comfort let’s look at Job his perseverance he maintained Faith through immense suffering and loss and yet we look at job 1: 20-22 then job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped and he said naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked shall I return the lord gave and the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord in all this job did not sin or charge god with wrong he understood his place and he understood that that incredible blessing he had was a wonderful gift but rightfully job uh calls out that God gave and can take away and then Job 13:15 though he slay me I will hope in him you can take my body but I’ll be with you and David his Reliance during his flight from Saul in 1st Samuel 24:15 may the Lord therefore be judg and give sentence between me and you and see to it and and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand sorry I had a little something this week and we look at Psalm 571 be merciful to me oh God be merciful to me for in you my soul takes refuge in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge till the storms of Destruction pass by I think my favorite Psalm was my grandfather’s favorite Psalm Psalm 27 uh verses 1 to5 here the Lord is is my light in my salvation Whom Shall I Fear the Lord is the stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid when the wicked Advance against me to devour My Flesh it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall though an army besiege me my heart will not fear the War break out against me even then I will be confident one thing I ask from the Lord this only do I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to Gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his Temple for in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock all of this Echoes back to that original verse that we looked at at Psalm 56 he relies so deeply on God and he’s a skilled Warrior right David’s a man of war and how many times could he have taken Saul Hees doesn’t he trusts in the Lord he doesn’t raise his hand to the Lord’s anointed and he waits he’s patient he’s he’s anointed as a young man young teenager and he doesn’t become king for what 20 years patience and long suffering a long time of traveling the the countryside and being hunted down and he despite his great physical capabilities and his great mental PR when it comes to the Art of War in the battlefield he doesn’t rely on that he trusts in God can you think of any other people in scripture who chose to trust God despite their emotions I don’t know if that’s trusting emotions or just uh being foolish but yeah no incredible Peter she approached the king when she could have been killed yeah fearful right but doing what she can to to help God’s people and becoming that instrument what you say stepen and sometimes it doesn’t turn out all Rosy right he stands up for God and he’s martyred and you guys are going through Ruth and Esther right now and side by side right um again faithful even the even in the fear of going back to another country place where that wasn’t home I don’t think I could have gone through this entire uh chapter without constantly being reminded about the Hall of faith and Hebrews 11 um I don’t want to spend too too much time here but I definitely wanted to look at it um it hits through Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Moses Rahab and again we’ve got an innocent Survivor someone that’s so holy that or that God deems uh faithful enough rather that he gets taken away Noah has children problems Abraham’s an adulterer Moses is a murderer and rahab’s a prostitute and yet she’s in the genealogy of Christ God can use anyone for anything right um I’m going to read real quick uh Verses 4 to7 from Hebrews 11 by faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain through which he was commended as a righteous God commending him by accepting his gifts and through his faith though he died he still speaks by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death and he was not found because God had taken him now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God and with without faith it is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him by faith Noah being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that comes by faith and if we look at verses uh 23 to 31 you’ve got Moses and Rahab there uh we go to verses 32 to 28 and what more shall I say for time would fail me to tell of Gideon Barack Samson jefa of David and Samuel and the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms enforced Justice obtained promise stopped the mouths of lions quenched the power of fire escaped the edge of the sword were made strong out of weakness became Mighty in war put foreign armies to flight women receive back their dead by Resurrection some were tortured sorry I lost my spot refusing to accept release so they might rise again to a better life others suffered mocking and fogging and even chains and imprisonment they were stoned they were saw in two they were killed with the sword they went about in skins of sheep and goats destitute Afflicted mistreated of whom the world was not worthy wandering about in deserts and mountains and in the dens and caves of the earth so whether God puts you in a situation and Deans it so that you you should have great success or if you are dying for his name you are malnourished and fleeing he’s glorified in all of it through our faithfulness and not our trust in him faith and trust form the Bedrock of our relationship with God Ephesians 2:8-9 for by Grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of work so that one may boast Hebrews 6 uh sorry Hebrews 11:6 and without faith it is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him so living out our faith requires active trust in God’s promises like we talked about before active trust it’s an AC of choice Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me second Timothy 1 12 which is why I suffer as I do but I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I’m convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me he’s got us and we get example after example after example so that we don’t have to just believe without seeing we have so many examples of faithfulness of Wonder of people who were upright of people who were broken more broken I know I am so what are some practical steps that we can take to deepen our trust in God consistent communication with God builds that Foundation of trust so we need to be in regular prayer something I struggled with a lot earlier in my life but regular prayer God asks us to speak with him he wants to know what’s on our hearts and our minds yes he’s omniscient yes he already knows but how do you have a relationship with somebody that you don’t communicate with right this is far more for us than it is for him Philippians 4:6-7 do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus Psalm 55:17 evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan and he hears my voice he hears our groanings he knows us but he wants you to talk to him he wants us to tell him what we need the kids version that is morning noon and night the Lord hears my voice simple simple but powerful truths scripture meditation right meditate on his scripture be in his word dwelling on God’s word reinforces his faithfulness and his promises gives you the opportunity to continually see all those examples to see how God works to read his word to hear his voice don’t shut him out Joshua 1 18 this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to it all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success Deuteronomy 111 18-20 you shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes you shall teach them to your children talking to them when you are sitting in your house when you’re walking along the way when you lie down and when you rise you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your Gates the word of the Lord is never to be far from us should always be with us write it on your minds write it on your hearts memorize it love it be in it all the time there has never been a season of my life that went well where I wasn’t in the word every single time in my life that I felt far from God it’s because I for I lacked the disciplines of Grace and I let those things slip it’s incredible how God can put a shield around you with his word because his not that knowledge of him is constantly flowing through you day in and day out so even in the passive moments when you’re doing the mundane thing washing the dishes cening the car vacuuming changing diapers uh whatever it might be right that word is with you and it’s never far from you so keep it close learn it well and then recounting God’s faithfulness and we’ve talked about that quite a bit here but it is a wonderful tool to bolster or trust during current trials remembering PL past blessings makes it so much easier to walk through the the difficulties that you’re in in any given moment Psalm 77 11-12 I will remember the Deeds of the Lord yes I will remember your wonders of old I will ponder all your work and meditate on your Mighty Deeds Lamentations 3 21:23 but this I call to mind and therefore I have hope the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning great is your faithfulness he upholds us and he wants to remind us time and time again yeah what a wonderful gift that is so what are the benefits of trusting God Peace of Mind spiritual growth Spiritual armor the armor of God Isaiah 263 you keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you that sounds pretty good to me peace in the world that we live in in an election year Psalm 32:10 many are the Sorrows of the wicked but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord peace sounds good it also encourages viewing trust as Spiritual armor Ephesians 6:16 in all circumstances take up the shield of the Faith with which you can extinguish all the Flaming darts of the evil one being in the word trusting God again it puts up this wall around you right if if he’s the one that you seek for Refuge nothing’s getting in nothing that he won’t allow Psalm 287 the Lord is my strength and my shield in him my heart trusts and I am helped my heart exalts and with my song I give thanks to him these are awesome things that it produces because all of this is not of us right it all comes from him these are all gifts so what do we do we have to go on trust how do we do that we talked about it a bit we have to act L decide to trust God in all aspects of Life make it an active choice to trust God it’s not always easy and sometimes it’s frustrating but it becomes sweeter and sweeter the more you do it and the more you do it the stronger the muscle gets and the stronger the muscle gets the easier it becomes Joshua 24:15 V but as for me in my house we will serve the Lord he made a decision I know that that thing’s been plered everywhere pretty sure the church gave it out to all the men last year for Father’s day but we choose to serve God and yes there’s the whole uh election piece but we still have to wake up every day and choose Mark 5:36 but overhearing what they said Jesus said to the rulers of the synagogue of the synagogue do not fear only believe Jesus tells us to believe we can use that as the Baseline and then once you’ve decided equip yourself with the word use trust as part of your Spiritual armor Psalm 914 right he will cover you with his pinions and under his wings you will find Refuge his faithfulness is a shield and a buckler he’s got us 2 Corinthians 10: 4-5 for the weapons of our Warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds we destroy AR arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ he’s talking about strongholds there he’s not talking about things made of stone he’s talking about the sin that’s so deeply entangled in our hearts in our lives that he can break that apart and give it over to him and all of those thoughts will obey Christ he is the Lord of everything so allow your trust to deepen in your relationship with God to grow daily anyone have any final thoughts you want to share yeah Arthur let got a microphone for you yeah oh I’m sorry about my voice I’m I’m right there with had laryngitis this week it was really bad but um one of the things that was on my mind um that I wanted to say um when we’re talking about trust um trust goes two ways if you’re married it it’s it’s no longer just an individual decision it’s you and your spouse or um and what I mean by that is that if you look in the Scriptures it starts with Adam and then you look at Abraham and his and his decision to to hearken to the voice of his wife to his wife and and have a child from her from his handmade from her handmade um which would be an example and then David and his first wife Saul’s daughter um how she reacted when David was rejoicing because they were bringing the Ark of the Covenant when you see these examples of husbands and wives where and job is a very good example because his wife said why not why don’t you curse God and die um it just brings up that scripture it says um two is better than one because when one Falls the other is there to help pick them up um that um and that special kind of relationship between a husband and a wife we um don’t realize that um how um if the partner is lacking in faith it can um affect the faith of the other partner so I think that’s important to keep that in mind and it was something else I wanted to say but I forgot so I went there yeah yeah it’s incredible like God gives us those instruments right go get to Jody he gives us spouses that can walk alongside us and encourage us when we’re low building on something that Steve said and Glenda said you know as you look at back at your life and your journey I don’t know how biblical this is but I I had a mentor and I really admired her she was an older woman and I think she knew she was going to move away and I tended to pick up the phone all the time to talk to her when when there was an issue going on I was a new believer and I didn’t know how to handle things and then at some point I called her one time and she just firmly said to me did you go to the Lord and I said no and she hung up the phone and I didn’t understand it at the time but you know we talked later and she said um you know you have to build your faith and by that it is an exercise like a muscle and I want you to do the opposite of what you’re doing that’s probably the spirit I mean if you don’t want to forgive you forgive if you she said you know you’ve come out of the world and you’ve operated in these ruts for so long and I found that to be very practical to just she said you go to the Lord first and then you can seek confirmation but practice going to him instead of talking about it and for me I she did move away and we’re we’re friends today but I just thought oh how cruel how mean but I I I understood it in time she was weaning me off her and pointing me to the Lord because you can talk about your issues forever but you have to develop that faith and and the way the faith I think gets developed is you are denying yourself one experience at a time you’re denying your comfort you’re denying your feelings you’re denying and then your faith is increasing before you don’t even know that it’s increasing but it is so it’s like that muscle and I I just felt that was very practical that she did that with me although I didn’t understand it in that moment I did come to understand it day by day right and he wants us to go to him first absolutely time and time again if something’s bothering you if something’s wrong go to the word go to the Lord in prayer and then go to the brother or sister that you might have that issue with but arm yourself with the word did anyone else um I don’t remember if this was in the chapter but this is a passage that um reminds me that trust is a choice um Psalm 56 3 and4 when I’m afraid I will trust in you in God whose word I Praise In God I trust I shall not be afraid what can flesh do to me and that’s all about the decision I when I’m afraid like we are afraid but you choose to trust and um and it comes from what we know about God’s word that’s right amen I remember yeah going to be very careful how I say this but when I was reading the chapter understanding that we say trust is a choice um I kind of modified that to say trust is not just a choice it’s an absolute necessity if you’re going to have a relationship with God and when um when when when talking about you know what are the benefits of trust um I think one of the areas where it it can be troubling for a Christian is if we always think when we always think that trust is always and you mentioned this that trust is always going to to show itself in uh something good or you know having a great life or whatever but personally I think when we talk about trust how it really manifests itself in your life is when things are really going bad um when life is very difficult and what I mean by that is that um one of the things that I’ve done is I’ve made a a practice I never leave my home without praying that God will not only protect me uh when I’m driving or whatever when I’m out but to protect the people around me because they can affect me this world is really dangerous very dangerous you can be driving someone another driver can be distracted and they hit you and then you ask the question God why did this happen well did you make a practice of praying when you’re driving that um you would not be the victim of someone that is a distracted driver so um what I’m saying is is that when we talk about trust and praying um we have to realize that that um until Christ comes back we’re not safe we’re not safe um in the sense that we can just leave our home or even be in our home and expect fact that you know everything’s going to be what is it Wine and Roses I whatever the expression is so um that’s an area where I would emphasize is that when we are praying that we re that we realize again that this world is very dangerous the safest place you can be is in your home and even that may not be safe if there’s an earthquake or whatever thanks Arthur all right just oh go ahead last one let make a quick it was just something that I had thought about as we talk about adversity and um just going through these troubles and how it builds your faith and I had written down um uh an observance of mine um I’m more PL I’m more malleable when humbled through adversity more willing to listen more willing to bend against my desire for Comfort y I think that’s all of us it’s so much easier to uh to bend the knee when things are tough can we do it when things are good let’s pray for us um Lord we thank you for for this time together for the ability to to look at how you have worked through your Saints throughout the ages and how we can develop better habits in order to strengthen our resolve and to build our trust in you Lord help us to grow our faith help us to hold and lift one another up so that as we go through this life we would bring you the honor and Glory that is Du your name that we would be an encouragement to each other and to those around us and that all this would work for our good that we would trust in you in the difficult circumstances of life that we would trust in you when things are going great we know there is nothing that we can’t bring before you Lord help us to be diligent in our in our prayer to be diligent in the way that we seek you to be diligent in the way in which we walk with one another thank you again for this time would you uh bless Pastor Bobby this morning as he preaches and continue to work in our hearts as we go out the rest of this week in Jesus name we pray amen

December 8, 2024
Lesson 12: Growing through Adversity

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the Lord has blessed us today with the uh with the lesson uh from Jerry Bridges book uh trusting God this will be chapter 12 you as I did last time uh all scripture I have quote quotes from the nasb he used apparently another Bible I don’t remember which U so we’ll start but uh before we start I’ll just ask the Lord to to to be with us in this endeavor my Lord Jesus Christ we thank you for this morning that you’ve given us we thank you for the health that you have given us to enable us to be here with you and and celebrate you and worship you and glorify you with through our our meeting here with the Brethren I thank you Lord for this lesson from uh from Jerry Bridges I thank you Lord for the opportunity you’ve given me to to expound on his message here I pray Lord that it is that it all is done for your glory and that your name would be glorified and magnified um so just thank you Lord for this time now in this word I pray it it also edifies your people and gives you glory and I pray this in the holy and precious name of Jesus Christ amen amen all right well uh we’ll start off quoting from James 1 veres 2-4 consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing so as I said the uh the title of this today’s lesson is uh growing through adversity and as I was reading this particular chapter and working on it uh particular a scene from a movie uh the Fiddler on the Roof came to mind you know and I have to say that one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in that movie was as the the authorities were ransacking and destroying T’s the wedding of t daughter and son-in-law you have the one scene where near the end he’s standing with all this destruction going on around him and his arms raised up his hands raised up and he’s just looking up into the heaven a God you know you see him saying why and you know who’s not stood in teva’s place when we’re when we’re in adversity when we’re in in a trial and particularly severe ones you know who’s not looked up to him and asked that question why why is this happening you know why did I lose my job why did you give me a disabled child to raise why haven’t I found a wife or a husband yet so this chapter attempts to answer give us answers for that like how we would answer tavier how we would answer ourselves and more importantly how do we respond to this trial in which we find ourselves how do we respond to it in a Christ honoring way I mean we don’t want to do it as the world does just throws up its hands or gets angry or whatever you know we want to practice God’s command from this from this version verse we just read you know we want to consider it all joy that’s a tough that’s a tough call you know we have to accept adversity and trials in this life uh they are the means god uses to develop christlikeness in us to conform us to the image of his son the Lord Jesus Christ and pardon me for a second I have to uh put my phone in airplane mode one of the uh distractions of having your phone go through your ear your hearing aids I hear every bleep yeah so so to get back to this so you know we obviously how do we practice God’s command as I said to consider all adversities all trials Joy joyful you know and let’s face it we’ll have to accept adversity in this life it’s just the way it happens you know and we learn from Jerry Bridges that adversities are the means god uses to develop christlikeness in us to conform us to the image of his son the Lord Jesus Christ we have to remember that even the Lord himself while he was on this Earth he faced adversity and trials even before the cross I mean obviously the cross was a was a huge Tri immeasurable in its it’s an intensity you know especially for him you know when he had to be he he he was subjected to that as we find out later on in Hebrews you know just because he had to be perfected in his sunship so we’ll read there Hebrews 2 chap chapter 2:1 for it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of this salvation through suffering so as the father perfected his son through suffering so too he will do with us for his glory and for our benefit now face it Brethren I hate to tell you we signed up for this when he gave us new life he drafted you into his army now that’s okay because uh for me I’d rather have it no other way you know I let’s face it I served in in my country in the Air Force so now I’m serving the lord and I’d rather be doing that all day long even in the midst of Trials and adversities because we know the end result of that eventually you know I betrayed all my honor all my glory you know that I attained apart from God and I’ll suffer whatever trials and adversities he calls me to and I’m sure we all wish to do the same but you know we do need to encourage one another in that all the time so the question though remains what does he wish to accomplish in us with these trials so I guess I should so let’s uh we’ll go on to Galatians Chapter 5 Verse 22 but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such things there is no law now these can only be developed and matured by the workings of adversities and trials no one likes adversity we shrink from it we try to mitigate its effects on our life I let’s face it even our lord Jesus in his hour hour of severe trial in in the garden he asked the father could not this cup pass from me now fortunately for us he accepted it without question but and the other so we learn from Galatians that that there’s a a goal for these trials a reason for them and is to produce the spiritual fruit that we just read you know there’s about eight fruits there that are listed and of course there’s there’s going to there’s others but Paul and a chose to to talk about those and so we need adversity to bring these out they’re not going to come naturally to us especially if they’re going to be born of God I mean we all have to some degree a measure of that you know we are born created in the image of God so we have some of those but they again they need to be developed you know and both James and Paul in the in the Book of Romans tells us to rejoice in our sufferings so like I said earlier I mean when you hear this you know I’m sure for many of us it was for me the first time you read that you’re like come on you got to be kidding me that’s like telling me to to you know punch myself in the face repeatedly because I feels so good after I stop you know but nevertheless in the face of that he does tell us we’re going to suffer and to suffer to count of Joy now what does he mean by that though why would we obey his command to joyfully endure a trial now because he’s not asking us to enjoy the actual trial itself you know the loss of a job a loved one broken bone whatever you know we’re not to say oh that feels so good because you know he didn’t make us to be masochists but we embrace the trial because of the goal that we have in mind for that trial how what’s it going to do for us what’s it going to do but primarily to what’s it going to do for him and how is his glory going to be further shown in us through the trial when we do get through it and you know again we have to look to Jesus for the prime example I mean we we read in Hebrews that you know he he suffered gladly because he faced he saw what was going to happen in the future you know and we read then from Hebrews 12 verse two fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of Faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God so our Lord endured the shame humiliation and agony not of the Cross and also of the horror and the infinite suffering he faced when he bore the Wrath of the father against our sin Collective sin too for all of his people it wasn’t just for one person obviously it was for for his whole church that he’s called out the billions and billions of people he’s called across the span of time and space and he did that because again he was looking past the pain past the suffering because he to accomplish the goal and it was a goal he felt was a good one and a worthy one to do and this is how we’re to face adversities and trials and calamities in our life and again we have him as our example you know it’s one thing I I personally had to learn you know you know we can sit back and say you know how can this happen to me you know I shouldn’t be doing this it shouldn’t happen but wait a minute it happened to our lord Jesus so guess what folks again you know we signed on WE drafted and he’s our exam you know all of us have you know we like it when a when a boss is willing to go through the same thing we’re going through you know like a general on a field you know one of the famous things about General Patton is he was there in the field you know he didn’t just sit back way back from the uh the action you know hiding somewhere he was there you know and men and women in battle will more willingly die even for such a commander so again this is how we are to face the adversities because we our commanderin-chief willingly did this and as in everything in life he’s the template we follow he’s our great example and like I said I I had to learn this lesson in a very personal way with the with my wife Susan you know I’ve even you know one of the scriptures that’s always been in my mind with my wife is said I have to love her as Christ loves the church and look how he did it I mean he was always there for for his people and anybody for the most part we we always read how he traveled everywhere and he was always healing you know he was always just doing things for people always no matter what time of day I mean he frequently went to bed I’m sure exhausted from that and he even did menial them he washed the feet of his disciples I mean I don’t even know if I want to do that for my wife to be honest but but he did and so you know as a husband I have to sacrificially do things for for Susan you know it’s no matter what it is you know her needs her desires her wants have to come ahead of mine and I confess that that’s going to be very hard sometimes you know and I there’s been times I quite frankly have exploded because I just get you know you get tired of having to do it but you know I just I I Repent hopefully many times and uh and keep going so maybe I’ll stop here for a moment U any thoughts comments questions to move forward yeah it doesn’t sound like it’s on yeah just speak it’s pretty quiet I forgot what I was going to say no but if you’re born again in realize that even you know the very breaths that we’re breathing right now are given from God and that we don’t even deserve that so if we endure suffering we rejoice in him always because he could have just condemned us forever and we’re still grateful that you chose to give us life and better than that offer us the best in his son so um and then the Bible obviously teaches us in terms of what these sufferings can do in terms of building our building our patience building our experience so that we can Comfort others as they go through these trials yeah that’s good Mike we need to remember just yeah that God is the one who created us for all these things and to give him thanks for that so okay I’m moving on so uh so I was going to read Hebrews 12:11 all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness so you know adversities of course by their very nature they spoil our peace and they sorely try up patients especially when you say how often you you how often do you think oh great I’ve arrived I finally got this nailed and then someone cuts you up in traffic you know I I I drive you know since they brought us back to work again you know I put about 100 miles a day on my car and so I have plenty of opportunities on 78 287 to try to learn to practice patience uh it’s not working folks I’ll tell you right now but you know it’s every day is a new a new day to learn so as we learned though adversity in God’s train is in God’s training to develop our spiritual biceps to strengthen our faith and our walk with our Lord Jesus Christ I mean he uses adversities to reveal where we need to grow you know and let’s as we know we’re all going to need to grow here the and it’s it never stops unfortunately you know like I said we don’t come to the end and each and that’s it you know I mean I know there are some groups that that think you can attain to perfect Holiness in this life and I would really love to see those passages where they can claim that but for the time being you know we must train ourselves to fixate on the prize in any adversity rather than the present pain you know just like athletes you know we know how they train you know you watch a guy playing football he didn’t just wake up in the morning and and just get on the field you know he’s he’s on that field from from years of training every day and so he needs and they endure the pain and the exhaustion because they there’s a prize they have in mind you know we even SE it in one of the scriptures he talks about the runner running his race and that’s what this is for us folks and the race is ended when we have our final breath so and again always look to the prime example we have who is our lord Jesus himself again who looked while he was on that cross even with all the agony he was going through he was able to endure that suffering because he knew what was coming and he knew it because of course he was God but he also had faith in the father to follow through on whatever plan they had worked out you know in eternity passed so we’ll do the questions uh what areas if anybody wants to answer you know of your life you feel you need to patiently endure to allow the trial in which you find yourself to have its perfect outcome if anyone okay uh Glenda I think wait wait hold on okay I think about adversity why do we go adversity you know as I love Gard a lot and um every year I look at my RO bushes and I them because the reason why prun the Roose push andge he spoke about that pruning in the book why we prun the Roose because in the spring we really want beautiful roses so God has put us through every win I would prone them and then in the spring when I look such beautiful roses so take that and put it to what God put us through when we go to the trials and everything is over how we enjoy the trial what is coming out in our lives in the trial so we have to really go to adversity because if he went to adversity we as his children would yep thank you Glenda yes as you said you know when you prune rose wishes to to produce better better flowers and that’s what God is doing with us and for you know again for our benefit and also for his glory well here’s another question how can we learn to trust God in our trials because that’s also another ultimate question for us Jody don’t mayap it’s not there it is oh is it okay that God is enough and I’m reading them sitting here in America as a younger person just going but when people like that when we have these great Cloud witnesses that have gone before and have gone through these trials I’m thinking if he was enough during those atrocities and he doesn’t prepare you ahead of time except when you’re in it it comes upon you his grace and so sometimes um The Joy again is not you don’t get it instantly it’s something it’s the joy of knowing you’re in this Valley but you do have something greater you have the Lord and you know we we have we know people have had suicides and in those situations you have to um really not be like job’s friend and let them come through with God and God’s Grace and they read about lament and they read about his mercy and it’s just knowing you have the Lord and they know they couldn’t get through it without the Lord so sometimes I really do like to read other people’s testimonies and stories and not that it’s you know just thinking I haven’t suffered to the point of death or shedding my blood or like the Lord has done yet because it just kind of just brings me up a little bit like just count you know he’s in it whether I feel it or not he’s in it and he’s there with me and um so I I I just really appreciate reading other testimonies on how they get through things that was good point that Jody about that we have to remember he is there in our trials and it’s because of our flesh we can’t always feel that or accept it you know because let’s face it if we even if somebody’s there in front of you you know I I confess I’m not a big uh proponent of you know misery loves company quite frankly when I’m in misery I don’t want company and I don’t because you know the only thing I want is for the misery to go away but you know that’s a good point and that’s something we have to train ourselves too to remember he is there because we have to look with the eye of Faith to see that and that’s what’s being developed in in the trial whatever atrocity even is being perpetrated upon us so thank you for that okay so and you know I used Jerry Bridges U subheadings I figured it was a easier way to do things uh more especially you know it follows the book so people who have read you know you can hopefully I’m I’m doing this the right way so you can follow so he uh subing God works through adversity uh for those in the book it’s Pages 175 to 177 uh reading from psalm 94:12 blessed is the man whom you chasen oh Lord and whom you teach out of your law so got to remember this God does not ask us how to or when where to be grown he’s the master teacher he’ll train us when and how he deems best it’s just the way it is folks and as branches in Vine we do require nourishment and pruning you know like the rose bush that Glenda mentioned and the word is our nourishment so we need to be in that but then on when we’re in that then adversity the pruning tool is going to come along and do its work you know again it’s just a necessary part of who we are and the fact that you know we’re we’re Fallen fallible human beings with a sin nature that still exists in us you know you know we have the to the the Dual nature that is always going to be our our blessing and curse until uh until we’re received up in glory and he BR he brings up Philippians 1:6 I’m confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus so you know we’re blessed by adversity brought on by God it is a blessing hard to say that when you’re in the middle of it but it is and one of the you know let’s it’s it’s a blessing because first of all we know who’s bringing it on us and it’s it’s the Lord himself it’s not blind chance you know so we because of who he is we know that there’s being this going to be worked out for our good and again that’s where the the trials and adversities come in is to refine that so you know we know to do to look for that we also know that his purpose for the adversity will come to pass because he he cannot fail we can rest secure that he will grant us relief from The Trial once its work has been completed and his work is to conform us to the image of his son and that will be completed unfortunately again for us it’s not just a one shot job it will be a life time and that’s a that is something marvelous to think about that you know we’re being formed to the image of his son I can think of No Greater honor than to be told I’m like I look like Jesus I mean if you remember you know I think it’s in the book of Acts when the uh when Peter and and and John were facing this and hedin and they looked and they knew that he had been with Jesus I mean I hope that I’m like that like for instance at my work and I I think I am I remember one time when a bunch of us were coming back from a sales conference out in California a bunch of sales guys sitting around in the airport waiting and they started you know talking and the language was getting a bit runchy and suddenly one guy said wait a minut we got to stop this you know rich is here and I’m not known for preaching the gospel at work so but I guess somehow my my the way I conduct myself that it it’s apparent and I you know I’m hoping that it and I’m sure with many of us we’ve experienced that too you know that you don’t just because you’re not always sitting up there on your Pulpit so to speak it at work or whatever social organization you’re part of you know if in our daily Walk we’re going to be different from the world but it just can’t and they’ll pick they’ll notice they’ll pick it up immediately you know that hey he doesn’t talk the way I do you know you know so and and in Philippians no I read that already I’m sorry no it didn’t I’m rid getting it in myself so we go to Philippians we told that he’s confident of this very thing he began a good work and you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus so then we’ll move on to Lamentations I I did go through I’m sorry sometimes I lose things folks so every adversity that comes into our lives with the large or small it’s intended to help us grow in some way if it’s not beneficial God would not allow us send it and we see this from the book of Lamentations 3: 31-33 for the Lord will not reject forever for if he causes grief then he will have compassion according to His abundant loving kindness for he does not afflict willingly or grieve the sons of men now remember God doesn’t Delight in our sufferings also he’s only allowing the be the the adversities the trials that will benefit us and glorify him and it won’t continue forever it will just it will continue until his purpose purpose is accomplished I mean he’s he’s a loving father who disciplines his children in a loving manner it’s one of things I’m grateful for you know because um he’s not a tyrant you know you get people obviously you know sick Psychopaths that Delight in torturing people you know unfortunately all too often in human history there’s been leaders of Nations that are like that you know and even in human when humans create Gods you know since the gods are created basically in human’s image you know those Gods can be very Petty and mindful you know I’ll just visit you know this person here with the whatever you know some kind of Calamity you know why it’s just because that’s the God’s pleasure Our God isn’t like that and we have to remember that you know we you know he he our lord Jesus died on the cross for us so therefore we know that he loves us to the uttermost those of us who are his people he’s not a vengeful sick sick twisted creature I’m glad he’s not because you know with a God who was all powerful that would be a I couldn’t even comprehend that I don’t want to comprehend something like that that would be horrible because you couldn’t even commit you couldn’t there’s no way you can get away from such a God so I’m so grateful he’s not like that but any now remember this too since God cannot fail and he will accomplish whatever he intends if we fail in the trial God hasn’t fa failed plus fact sometimes failure is a used to grow humility in us which means if that was God’s intention that means the trial had its intended effect you let’s face it you know I’m sure all of us have it self have a degree of a of inflated ego you know I’m I know I can get that way and it’s one of my Prime fears I don’t want to become inflated so much that I’m not useful at all uh and so God you knocked me down many times that’s okay again because I’m being conformed to the image of his son I and I know the end goal when I remember it okay this is for my good this is for your glory Lord I’ll just keep moving on you know I let’s face it you know if I have to go back to my days in basic training you know you know there’s a goal in mind even through all the uh through everything you go through in something like that God knows us better better than we know ourselves he knows what is what are our greatest needs and he’s the great and wise pruner and that’s one of the things we have to remember so you know and I wanted Jerry mentioned uh Horatio Bonar he was a Scottish pastor and a hmw writer of the 19th century and Horatio Bonar was he wrote that you know God will accomplish that which he intends through the unlikeliest of circumstances against the most Resolute resistance basically what he’s saying there you remember a movie your arms are too short to box with God you ain’t GNA you’re not going to win folks nobody wins I mean Nebuchadnezzar learned that even you know it’s the mighty power of God at work within us and upon us and his training is no random work it is carried on with exquisite skill he is the master pruner as I’ve said he’s the master surgeon you know a scalpel in his hands will cut and slice exactly where it’s needed and for how long it’s needed so we come to the questions again you think we really want to be molded in shaped by God and then I would even say do our thoughts and actions show we actually trust in God in adversity so any comments questions on that Mark I remember years ago um learning from a Christian leader speaker that I had admired and in one of his radio programs he mentioned that he had never really gone through much in terms of Trials and immediately lost credibility with me and I stopped listening to him because why are you you know there’s just not the depth that I I would want to see you know and I think for us God that’s how the the value of our faith is made known you know H how could it possibly how can strength be compelling if it’s through good circumstances you know so I I think a lot about that I was thinking about um what you mentioned from Hebrews about um he disciplines us for our good that we would share his Holiness and I thought about what what jod said there about those um suffering I remember reading about um Richard warmbrand tortured for Christ and and also a guy named brother Yun who was a Chinese house pastor and they both said something very similar that when they got out of prison and they were back in Freedom they longed to go back because they struggled to maintain the intimacy with God that they had when they were suffering which I think is the whole point of our lives right that we would share his holiness draw close to him and so you know thinking about what Jerry said in the book is our agenda his agenda that we would draw close to him and be like him it’s amazing when you hear that the people suffered horribly for him and they stayed the course too even after that and were willing to do it again and again and again and you know when you hear that somebody says he I wish I can go back to prison for that I mean that that’s such a depth of feeling for for his majesty you know maybe that’s one thing that we have Americans have kind of lost as the idea of a of a ma you know a king a Majesty I mean you know you know let’s we don’t have a king I mean I know one of the rallying cries in the Revolution was no King but Jesus uh but sometimes it’s good to have I got to be careful here represent physical representation in front of us so uh I guess I better start moving on a little here uh we learn from adversity Pages 177 to 181 uh God teaches us through adversity we must seek to learn from it and we we see that from Deuteronomy uh verse chapter 8 veres 2-3 you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years that he might humble you test in you to know what was in your heart whether you that you would keep his Commandments or not he humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manner which you did not know nor did your fathers know that he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord so one of the things we also learn here is God’s Sovereign work never negates our responsibility and and several things that we have to learn from adversity to further glorify God and to enjoy him one is to submit voluntarily and not reluctantly you know be a good patient not a conquer General I mean let’s face it you know like you know I’m sure we’ve all seen movie clips of the surrender of the Japanese in you know in 1945 on the decks of the Missouri I’m sure they were not happy you know there was no way especially you know they were a proud people and they they had been beaten very thoroughly by an enemy they had considered weak and effeminate and we can’t be like that though in a trial you know we can’t have that attit we have that attitude then then we really have to examine ourselves I think you know not again no yes again you know again as we’re learning this is done well first for his glory you know I always Place God’s glory first and foremost in anything I’m going through that’s my this my own personal thing because yes it’s good that it’s also for my benefit but everything God does is primarily for his glory which is fine I mean he’s he deserves it so as far again so and we have to use we can use all legitimate means though when you’re you know going through a trial you know don’t look for Marty om opportunities you know as we once were taught by by Pastor David a few years ago you know you know we don’t don’t rush into the lion’s den if you don’t you know if you don’t have to I mean yes if you’re presented with it then you then you suffer as will be a lot you always have to respond to a trial in one of two ways there several ways there humble obedience and humble Faith you know you have to remember again remember who’s doing this to you you again we have to remember because it’s so hard to remember that you know who’s doing this you know it’s not blind chance you know we have to stop thinking the way the world does because of course the world but just happens no it doesn’t you know we have a God that has numbered every single hair on a person’s head every single my beard every single hair here he knows it I he knows every all the stars in the universe he knows every single atom that he’s created so you know we just have to walk by faith and not by sight in any trials that we’re facing you also have to bring God’s word to bear on the situation you know what verses he will bring verses from his word into your mind especially that’s one of the reasons you also need to be in the word constantly even if it’s just reading it and you know frankly that’s what I’ve had to learn to do I’m not a great one for study you know I I sit there and I okay what are you showing me but I know if I keep reading it and reading it and filling my mind with it going to be there you know somewhere it’ll he’ll be able to pull it out of this big giant black hole I got between my ears that’s what you do you know you got to be in the word and he will bring to mind his word that that’s already been there you know he’s not going to give you fresh Revelation no it’s already there he we know the scriptures are profitable for all sorts of this for training for education and we have to remember that and we have to bring that into the Forefront of our minds in any adversity and trial and we have to remember the adversities and the trials and and the lessons that we learned and don’t just endure them but you know remember these are he’s using this this is his pruning tool to bring growth in you so you know you don’t just I’m going through this again no stop that thought when it happens and it’s it’s tough that’s one of the reasons we need to be in fellowship with one another too because you know you can’t do this on your own it’s impossible sooner or later you will just fall you’ll drop to the ground and that’s it your story is done so we need to be in constant communication with each other and remember we’re always dependent upon God for everything and anything because anything we have that we rely on that’s not him can be taken away in an instant you know rich men you know you think of folks like you know Bloomberg you know Warren I forget his last name now anybody Donald Trump Elon Musk their their wealth could be gone in an instant you know we saw it happen many times in in our countryes you know the Great Depression hundreds of people with thousands were out of work you know you heard stories about you know wealthy men jumping out of buildings because suddenly everything they had was gone we don’t have that if we remember who it is we serve we have everything still even if we have nothing in this world even if we don’t have our health or our wealth or whatever our family we we have him and we got to cling to that rock so it comes to our questions you know what lessons have we have any of us learned from a particular trial and I I’ll jump in here for myself but you know I had to learn that God will provide work for instance I mean I remember you know I’m working uh my job before P Andy as a little company in in Edison New Jersey I was out of work for a year and a half I literally it was December of I think 2013 I was down to my last unemployment check and I was telling Susan and Jessica girls we’re going to have to pack it up because I knew somebody in North Carolina who could give me a job working in his bagel shop and I got I got a call that this company wanted to hire me so January I started new right like I said the LA that was it my unemployment was gone friends I’d been honored a year and a half all the extensions were finished and I was working now I left that job seven months later but one of that was another trial I had to endure uh you know the I was the the epitome of you don’t you don’t run from a job you run from a boss but I learned something there and I’ve been very grateful the 10 years I’m I’m at my president company yeah they’re paining next sometimes where I work but you know what you learn that’s okay I have worked they’ve done well by me and the Lord did well by me and my family with this and so if anyone else uh any trials maybe you want to share that you faced okay we move on oh okay Jan um I don’t want to share the details of the particular trial but years ago I went [Music] through a a a very major trial in my life and um it was like everything had been taken away and what I learned has been invaluable and I I think um this is something that makes adversity and trials in my life bearable because I look back and I remember how God supplied all my needs and how he drew me so close and that intimacy is worth any trial um and I just think it’s a um maybe it’s a blessing of being older um that we have endured um probably many things that maybe younger people have not endured yet but I think um to be able to look back and to see that God was trustworthy and faithful and to be able to even see the growth and the and the how he drew you close is a real blessing and um I think that helps us also to trust him when we’re going through something if we can look back and remember like the Israelites yeah he puts us through these it’s good because again he’s not doing it in a vindictive way there is a purpose and it’s a it’s a good purpose because even for if he’s doing it for his glory it’s still we get the benefit of that too you know so oh Lea thank you um I could go on forever about the ways that God has um come through and uh in Trials um but from the very beginning financially when I was newly born again and and struggling on my own how he came through and provided every time I was in the the the crisis that you were at where you’re finally you know at the end this is this is the last few moments here this is all I’ve got left and as Jay was saying that that each time Builds on the other so that when you’re prepared for the whatever trials God has for the rest of my life I can always rely on what what’s already happened that he’s he’s done it so many times and the giant things like what jod was talking about being imprisoned being raped and prisoned so um from that to I need help getting dressed in the morning I can’t figure out what to wear on my own honestly and I pray to the Lord and he guides me and even when I Stray um what he had directed was better it’s it sounds silly but he cares about every every little detail and um and this is one thing I want to say so two times in my life God sent me a lawyer that didn’t charge me anything so if that’s not that’s not miraculous yeah I I think one of the the biggest trials that I have to do with deal with today is the loss of my memory when I had my stroke besides um the the other problems that it caused the biggest one was my memory I lost 25 years of memory it was just wiped out and um how I reacted to it in the beginning was I um I forgot how I re I’m only joking wanted to put that in but it is kind of true though but but um how I reacted to it because some of you know that you know I I was a pastor I stepped down from the role of being a pastor because um the the people that knew me the one thing they could tell you about me is they would say wow he really new scripture I could quote Bible verses I could tell you the books of the Bible backwards I could tell you the number of chapters in each book talk about learning from God I was vain believe me you know um I don’t know about some of you but we can take pride in something give God credit for it and not realize that maybe that’s not the way God is looking at it um what saved me from the fact that I had lost so many years of my memory I mean I went to Israel um people talk to me about it it’s like I’m hearing it for the first time and then I forget even what it is they’re telling me but um what I was going to say is is that is that what um what I learned from this trial that I’m going through is that there’s other ways that God can continue to help me with his word I’ve got my phone and and how I use it is that even though I don’t remember I can’t tell you the verses because I have the verse in my head it’s just the the text how it’s numbered I don’t so the scripture comes up in my head I can go on my phone put those words in and immediately it goes right to the verse and um I I see that as as a blessing um in spite of the fact that you know my my memory had been really damaged so um you know I I I thank God for that trial because it really it really brought me down on my knees yeah thank you brother wow that was I’m glad that he’s that you stol in the faith brother that something like that can be a very uh you know people have left on things like that you know like Where’s God in all of my troubles he he deserted me so I’m going to thank you brother it’s grateful to have you here so I see time is uh running away from us so I’m going to have to kind of truncate some some of this so let’s just say there’s a Jerry went on to say there’s a number of thing reasons why uh what What’s Happening I’ll just do some highlights so we have to remember that the adversity is used by God to loosen our grip first of all and false fruit know it’s easy enough for us to grab Arthur was even just relating with maybe his knowledge of of scripture Etc pued him up to the point where you know so maybe that was some of the this false fruit that uh you know that Jerry’s bringing up here God disciplines us through adversity because he also wants to make us holy as he is Holy and by that obviously we’re not going to be like God you know the way he is but we’re going to more more fully emulate his character and one thing we have to remember you know people we I do this constantly too many times we behave like an unrepentant Thief who receives a pardon from the judge you know rather than thank you Lord you know for for building me up you know it’s like Grand it’s done you know like I said we we’ve heard many stories you know thieves you know a criminal comes before a judge and he receives a pardon rather than penalty and that’s it he goes back to doing what he’s doing well we have to remember from the adversity don’t do that it’s a hard lesson to learn for us many times you know and we have to be careful that we don’t rely on ourselves to get us out of whatever trial or adversity he put in our lives I mean it’s there to make us more dep to make us more dependent on him and that that that greats that really you know rubs against the grain you know it’s like when you’re trying to rub sandpaper you just really especially for us as I guess you know as Americans in a way that’s tough because again you know it’s in our national character you know that we did it by our Own Strength you know you know we conquered the Prairies and the west and everything we well you have to remember you know everything that we any good that’s been done in our lives that’s because of God you know I I remember once uh I learned a long time ago to thank him for every little thing and that’s hard because you know especially I remember I was telling that to my father once and unfortunately my father you he’s not a Christian and he’s like that’s stupid you know little of course the things happen just normal coures of events you know that you’ll you a job and you’ll you’ll do well and you get you you know you you’ll prosper and what happens if I get sick you know and my health is a gift from God you know we have to remember to thank him even for the small things because again all that you know Arthur he had a stroke instant gone 20 I mean I had a father-in-law very very accomplished man and yet he had he had a some kind of a a brain bleed and he went downhill from there doesn’t take much you know we’re so pupped up in our own arrogance you know how how how powerful we think we are sometimes you know and we can just be laid low in an instant and we got to remember that and that’s why when Trials come in we have okay accept it learn from it realize you’re not the captain of my soul nor the master of your fate that that’s just uh you know somebody screaming at the dark you know with the with the with the with the Tyrannosaurus rex on on the other side of the wall you know it it doesn’t happen folks you know and we have to learn this lesson and let’s face it even someone like Paul wasn’t immune he despaired for his life on occasions he was given a thorn in his flesh he needed to relearn upon God and not his own intellect you know Jerry mentions in the book that if Paul had not been a become a Christian he might have been recognized as one of the great philosophers of of of antiquity so we have to remember to be content with weakness insults and distresses persecutions and difficulties for Christ’s sake you know as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians because he said for when I am weak then I’m strong you know we’ve heard that from several people here today that when they relied upon God that’s when they were strong that’s when we’re strong we’re again we’re we’re so foolish many times I’m grateful that God you know brings me and others out of that I mean let’s face it there was even a couple of men who were blighted by God to learn greater dependence upon him first one we mentioned was Paul the other was Moses and Moses 40 years he was a she a Shepherd before God used him and he was 80 years old when God used him then to lead the his people out of bondage 80 years old I mean I don’t know we’ll see if that happens to me I don’t know ah so I guess we’ll just end here I mean it’s already yeah it’s getting late but I got a final question uh just keep it in your minds have you learned yet to depend upon God first that when something comes up you know for instance a money M you don’t whip out the credit card you know that’s one of my failings I have to confess and I I have to learn to reain that in uh you just got to sit and be part of patience and trust in the Lord himself self remember who it is we serve you we don’t serve Zeus we don’t serve Odin and we Ser unfortunately all too often we serve ourselves you know we Elevate ourselves to godhood in that way we have to remember who it is who bought us for the price and well yes he owns us but again he’s not he’s not a harsh Taskmaster you know he’s not only named us as his bond service we’re Sons and Daughters we are we are of royal blood put aside our americanism for a minute let that sink in we our royalty but not in our own right not in our own way but we did it through the Lord Jesus for what he did on the cross and he made us his sons and daughters of the most high I mean not even the angels have that you know we are the Pinnacle of his creation and we have to remember that especially in the world we face today where at best we’re on par with with animals I despise that teaching we’re above the animals and not because I’m saying that as a prideful man into myself but because it takes away Glory from my God and we have to remember that depend on him first I know it’s a hard lesson to learn but we’ll learn it eventually so I’m going to you know I wish I had time to have talked about William car’s sister who persevered in prayer for her brother you know she was she was apparently a bedridden all the time and yet look at the tremendous thing she did with that with her brother so but I’m going to close because like I said we’re running yeah we’re out of time I I’m going to close with a verse like I closed the last time I taught from habach I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to use this first how many situations so habac 3 17-9 though the Fig Tree may not blossom nor fruit be on the vines though the labor of the olive May Fail and the fields yield no food though the flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the Stalls yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the god of my salvation the Lord God is my strength he will make my feet like deer’s feet and he will make me walk on my high hills I am so grateful for that again my strength when I remember it rightly doesn’t come from me I’m a weak guy I’m a stupid and foolish man I I’ve had a past that I cringe from I am so grateful he he yanked me out of all of that and put my feet on on a solid footing and I pray the same for all here and anyone in the sound of my voice however they hear it in this day and age of electronic communication he is a God who is worthy to be served he is a god who’s worthy to be loved and it’s because he loved us first and that’s just he loved us first and we see that even all the way in the Old Testament from habc who was facing the annihilation of his country who was God’s chosen people and yet he could say this in the midst of that he saw it coming thank you Lord I guess we’ll we’ll close in prayer Lord thank you for teaching Us in adversity thank you Lord for the trials you do bring to us because again we know you’re not a vindictive Petty Tyrant who’s doing this just for his own pleasure you’re doing this for your glory and we benefit from that and that’s why you do it too Lord it is for our benefit you’re conforming us with every trial large and small to be further conformed to the image of your blessed son Lord Jesus we thank you that you went to the cross and we thank you for the example you have provided us for Lord you took off your godhood in many ways and dwelt Among Us in flesh you you suffered as we did did the even the daily travails of life you know getting dressed having to find food and shelter and clothing you know you you went through all of that no doubt you were even sick I’m sure there were times you had fever and you suffered through all of that for us and Lord I just have to thank you and as you faced adversity you gave us the be a prime example how to face any adversity and trial Lord give us that faith that we need to do so give us the faith of the people we’ve heard about who have been in prisoned for their faith who left prison and wanted to go back because they they they said they they didn’t have the intimacy with you that they had in prison Lord please help us to with to to to Foster that that attitude and belief so it’s the warp and woof of our very being Lord that any time a trial comes up our first response is thank you and how do I get through this Lord so that you it glorifies you and benefits me thank you Lord for this teaching in this time and I pray Lord Lord that the words you have given me have gone out and and produced fruit for you and I ask for this that you bless all the in hearing of my voice that you would glor that they would glorify you today Lord and that they would benefit from your presence in their lives and I pray this in your holy and precious name amen thank you brethren

November 24, 2024
Lesson 11: Trusting God for Who You Are

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hi everyone I’m Cliff I’ve been coming here to Calvary for about 4 and A2 years with my wife and our children and uh this has been the first opportunity to come before you and share things from the word of God and obviously we’ve been going through Jerry Bridge’s trust in God and today we’re going to go through trusting God for who you are and I’m really excited to go through that with you but let’s open up with a word of prayer and we’ll go from there uh dear Lord thank you so much for uh bringing us together as a body for the joy that we can share with one another and for the ability to walk in life with one another in your word uh as iron sharpens iron Lord uh would you bless this time would it be profitable for your people and would it be glorifying to your name Lord uh pray that you would uh make these words fly through our ears and uh penetrate into our hearts Lord the only way that you can through your spirit we pray this all in Jesus’s name amen all right so trust in God for who you are God has created us all with our abilities and disabilities and ultimately all those things work for his glory how incredible is that all these things that we get caught up on in our day-to-day lives we must accept ourselves and trust God fully in his wisdom for creating us the way we are for creating us who we are and for guiding us into the future I figured I’d start off with uh heidleberg catechism uh I grew up in the Christian reform church and this was a huge part for me growing up uh Lord’s day three question and answer six just going through the the answer here no on the contrary God created man good and in His image that is in true righteousness and Holiness so that he must rightly know God his cre hardly love him and live with him in Eternal blessedness to praise and glorify him we do a smaller version of this with our kids with the new city catechism and it’s why were you created to glorify God that’s that’s why we’re here and that’s what we’re going to dig in deeper to today uh the main verse for this entire chapter was Psalm 19 3 13-9 there and uh just Mo this out the way so I can read it to you for you formed my inward Parts you knitted me together in my mother’s womb I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made wonderful are your Works my soul knows it very well my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my my unformed substance in your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there were none of them God has known all of us far before the beginning of time how powerful is that he knows every part of your being he’s planned every moment everything works together for his glory because he is Sovereign and good oh this is incredible Comfort to me and I hope it is to you as well I think what we should take away from that is an immense sense of gratitude that every step is already planned in ordained now we have a duty and a diligence to walk forward in that in a way that honors God that follows his precepts that holds us tight to his Commandments you know we are not um without responsibility but we can rest in that Blessed assurance that this is something that he has already created for us we don’t need to long or want for things in a way that is uh sinful or Covetous or uh just being the unknown right we can rest in him all right so Main three items we’re going to go through today again who we are what we are and God’s guidance who we are we are created with purpose jeremiah: 15 before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you I appointed you a prophet to the Nations Ephesians 2 we are God’s Masterpiece for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them another one that I love in there is uh Psalm 1973 your hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn your Commandments we all have are picadillos right nothing’s perfect Bridges talks about his uh difficulty with having monocular vision so he doesn’t have depth perception um I too have an eye issue and it’s it was really incredible I I never knew what was wrong but as a kid growing up like why can’t I see why can’t I see and I think it was maybe a couple months before Aaron and I uh got married that a doctor find finally diagnosed me with this conative disease in my eye can’t fix it like okay well there’s an experimental procedure it’s not FDA approved yet but you could go try it like wow a doctor finally found this thing there’s a way to fix it had this experimental procedure and by the time we got married I could see 2020 by the grace of God right the miracle of modern science you know like a blind man I can now see I think about Pastor Dave teaching Us in John lately and incredible I remember walking out of that procedure them giving me my new contacts and uh I looked up at the trees and the sun was coming through the leaves and I could see all the little ventricles in the leaves with the sun shining through was incredible but the fact that God had already planned that so that finally by the time I got married I could see my wife uh in full vision like how beautiful is that it’s not just those little things right God plans everything about us and he has it all unfold in a way that is best for us even though we might not understand it at the time praise be to God it’s not just our appearance but our personalities that he creates he creates our likes and our dislikes our our abilities and inabilities our preferences our families where we live I’ve had the great pleasure like many of you growing up here in the States but uh I’m not from here originally I grew up in uh the Netherlands when I was a little kid and by an unhappy circumstance of my parents getting divorced I end up in America I get to grow up here it’s pretty darn good right we live in a land where God is praised openly and worshiped openly and we can be free to do so it’s not like that a lot of Western Europe it’s a postchristian culture and here we can go we get to grow up and raise our children in places where people still love God and call out his name that’s all he’s doing that’s a beautiful thing curious if any of you have uh any stories that you’d like to share with the group as well in a moment here Gonda here Mar got the mic for you I remember leaving the Caribbean at the age of 15 I went to England I went to school in England and I really really loved England and I said that’s where I would always live in England I would live there I will die there in my middle 30s my husband say oh we going back to the islands I said going back to the islands that was not my dream to go back to the islands no I didn’t want that cuz then after things went really bad in the islands and here I am in America I never thought that my change my life would change from England to America America cuz I really love England I want to be wanted to be there but that was not God’s plan for my life so now I see way down before I was born God had it planned for me to be in America so that’s my story Amen to that and thanks for being here you’ve been such an encouragement to so many of us I think you’ve lived like seven lives uh anyone else um so if you look at the the radius on a map of where I lived in my life um it’s very small born in Elizabeth grew up in rawe had houses in Westfield and Cranford and now we’re out here a little bit so the radius expanded but uh through it all uh and and through a secular upbringing there have been so many lives packed in this life and uh not all of it is Jo joyful but I can say uh that God brought me through it he he was with me all the way uh and eventually I recognized his truth in my heart and so that’s being born again but leading up to that in the radius and with my family and with friends and other experiences yes uh he knew me and that’s uh that’s the best I can say is that he knew me and he eventually made me know that I am his amen yeah what a blessing it is to know that we are his right no matter what the trials to your point like we’re chosen people right 1 Peter 2:9 but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and Into His Marvelous Light we got a pretty good taste of that over the last few weeks with uh keep harping on Dave because his uh sermons have been right on point with a lot of this so thanks um but he pulls us into the sheep fold right he is the door he is the Good Shepherd he’s the one that cares for us and once you’re his you’re never going to let go or rather he’s never going to let go I’m a again grew up calvinist so uh perseverance of the Saints once you’re in you’re in yeah there there ain’t no resist in God so what’s the power of that intimate knowledge that Psalm 190 uh uh rather uh verse it speaks so deeply to everything that he has within us he was involved in our formation he knows every detail of Our Lives he knows what abilities and disabilities we’re going to have if you’re not going to have that proper gate in your step and not be able to walk right or if you’re going to have 2010 vision and become a fighter pilot right he he’s got all that planned out but not just that it’s our thoughts it’s our fears it’s our desires he knows all of that better than we do there’s no hiding from God he knows us intimately he knows us better than our spouses do better than than our siblings do better than our friends do he’s the ultimate friend right he’s in our minds and not just that he created them the way they are for purpose we’re not just a random collection of thoughts and experiences we are planned that’s incredible like I can’t we’ve got three little ones right I cannot imagine a life without Seb Naomi or Josephine but wow four years ago 5 years ago if you told me we’re going to have three kids and what life would be like after that uh short period of time I could never imagine but now can’t I can’t go back gosh he planted all how crazy is that he knew we’re just two dumb 30-year-olds trying to figure life out and now we got kids it was still trying to figure life out um but in all of that he’s got it planned he’s holding it all together and he knows us and he guides us we’ll get to The Guiding part in a bit our unique traits and qualities align perfectly with God’s plan and purpose for our lives again we are purposefully designed um would someone read 1 Corinthians 4:7 it’s going to be a fun race to see who gets there first go ahead Cheryl uh Mark’s got a a mic for you Cheryl 1 Corinthians 4:7 yes for who sees anything different in you what do you have that you did not receive if then you received it why do you boast as if you did not receive it thank you everything we have comes from God everything capability intelligence speed strength humor ignorance selfishness all of it all right yall the good and the bad and uh we all tend to at least if I’m speaking for myself uh gfy yourself a little bit too much in the good stuff and I think we could all remember to be a bit more humble about it because we’re merely using the gifts and talents that we were gifted we did nothing to earn them just the luck of the draw no it’s it’s the way God designed us and we should use those gifts and abilities to the best of our ability for his glory really love this quote um that was in the chapter by George McDonald and I think this goes back to the humility piece I’d rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of for to have been thought about born in God’s thought and then made by God is the dearest grandest and most precious thing into all thinking we are so insignificant the only thing that matters is God and the fact that the almighty all powerful all- knowing being of the universe who transcends place and time would spend the energy if we could even think of it in those terms to think of us each individual to think out every moment moment of our lives every fiber of our being and then to execute that thought how are we even worth it I don’t even know but it’s all for his glory too highly do we think of ourselves and not enough of God oh we think so much of the individual especially here in the West and if we can continually be in his word with in community with one another and praying I think that’s an incredible usage of right the gifts of Grace but it’s an incredible way to drive humility back into the heart of this because we are not the stars of the show we are not the protagonists in this story we are the side pieces we are the hands and feet we are the tools of the the Potter but it does make you think about that inner character again I know I’m blessed you know God has given me a fairly Keen mind but that means for someone like me I need to know and learn to lean deeper into God’s strength in instead of trying to always do it on my own um and I I’ve seen so many of my friends in similar situations but then my best friend uh growing up his little brother I think’s like two days younger than my brother uh so two years younger than me and completely incapable born without the ability to walk without the ability to talk without the ability to eat without a feeding tube and watching a family take care of a child like that you learn so deeply that the strength cannot come from you alone from your own will I mean plenty of times I saw his mom break down crying single mom with three kids in the middle one being so handicapped told that he was never going to walk again or never be able to walk rather and then I think by the time he was like 11 he was walking like incredible right and granted he need someone’s help to do so but he could move his own legs but you go back and think like what is the glory and all that why does God design someone like that and over a period of years I could see it right it’s the resilience that that builds up in someone the uh continual building of the muscle of the Reliance on God and not in ourselves not in the social construct around us not in the government not in even our families because at some point in time all of those things pass away but God never does yeah that he’s still kicking Adam is still kicking around these days which is incredible he was never supposed to live past like five and he’s what how old’s my brother now 36 so and again all for the blessing of those around him so that just like the blind man in in John was a nine or 10 there um the rest of the world could be Sanctified and honored and be brought up to uh love and honor God glorify God what we are we’re recognizing go uh we’re recognizing God’s design right God created man from the dust of the earth Genesis 2:7 right then the Lord God formed man to the dust of the ground and breathed in his nostrils and the breath of life and Man became a living Soul he made us man I I know we keep going back to that but it’s so fundamental we are to trust in God’s plan for who we are we’re we’re Made In His Image the IMO day no other creature is like us the Angels Envy us for we are made in the image of God and because of that our identity can come from him alone as people and as Christians even more so as Christians because we have his spirit inside of us it’s an incredible blessing again none of us deserve it none of us have earned it but we’re all called to be children of God so stinking cool uh the verse at the bottom there might be hard for you guys to see it’s 2 Corinthians 5:17 therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed away behold the new has come we’re a new baby we get to die to our old selves and put on that new robe and it’s tough I falter every day okay lose lose some patience get annoyed at something we all do it i’ definitely say I’m the chief among them but he’s made us new and we get to rest in that trusting in God’s design so there’s a unique design and there’s a unique purpose God creates each person with distinct qualities and when we compare ourselves to one another it diminishes his craftsmanship and sadly it robs our joy he’s designed us to be different not every piece can play the same part not everyone can be a wheel not everyone can be a steering wheel not everyone can be an engine right some of us need to be axles and rods and some of those need to be door panels I like cars um but we are all made in the image of God Genesis 1 127 right God created man in his own image and the image of God he created him male and female he created him yes male and female I know we live in a world that says otherwise but he created us and he’s accepted us right Romans 15:7 you are accepted therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God again the underlying theme Here consistently is this is all for God’s glory not our own and he controls all of it even our days right job 145 since his days are determined and the number of his months is with you and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass everyone wants to know when are we going to die how are we going to die what’s life going to be about oh I’m 38 I’m like halfway there am I 40% of the way there oh gosh there’s only half of it left how do I what have I done with my life or I think of Glenda like you’ve got a you’ve lived a long and wonderful life so many wonderful stories you’re going to be able to tell them all gosh we need to get you like a subscription to something so you can but none of us knows could be today could be tomorrow could be 100 years from now especially with the way modern medicine is going but how do we make the most of the time that we do have how do we stay focused on things that are of Eternal worth and eternal glory instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day the mundane the uh the trivial every time I think about that little next thing I want to get done or got to get the kids to bed or I got to get this report done I got to get this proposal out the door or hockey starts in half an hour uh sorry right every time we we sort of focus on something else that doesn’t necessarily matter we’re robbing ourselves of joy and we get frustrated at least I do and uh I think that’s a great lesson for all of us to take away from this is to slow down and think about what is the Eternal impact what am I doing dayto day to help Drive the kingdom forward and to continue to grow in Christ’s likeness because ultimately after all this goes away that’s the only thing that matters these clothes fade away this body will fade away my house is going to fade away doesn’t matter how much I build it so we’ve all been uniquely designed and we all have a unique purpose John 15:16 you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask I think I forgot the rest of the verse on there sorry um whatever shall ask of father name it to you thanks Mike that’s beautiful again we didn’t choose him he chose us why Beyond me but we know from his word that it’s for his glory and we know that he’s prepared good works for us to do in his name and again we live in a country where we can go out and do that so let’s not be afraid let’s go do it I’m preaching to myself here just as much as I am to all of you so Corinthians 7:21 our uh our work is in his hands so doesn’t matter what you do for work doesn’t matter if you’re a stay-at home mom doesn’t matter if you’re a a garbage man if you’re a general a CEO if you’re Donald Trump or Elon Musk or if you’re the guy down the street that’s uh delivering the mail everything we need to do we need to do for his glory to the best of our ability be the best spouse you can be be the best sibling child parent coworker all of it for his glory he’s placed Us in these places Bridges talks about wanting to be out in the mission field and yearning and pining for it and then realizing wait a minute I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be I wonder how many times that’s happened to any of us I’ve been I’m I’m in sales right I’ve been fired and let go from jobs more times than I can count part of part of the game and uh I remember so distinctly it was right after we came to Calvary and we had a femon old at the time and we had just bought a new house in Hillsboro and my company did a restructuring like what am I going to do and he opens up another door and it’s been one of the best parts of my career but we trusted in him and we had a plan from the very beginning of Aaron leave your job stay home with the kids uh and that would that took a lot of trust took a lot of trust she was definitely making more money than I was at the time and uh we wanted to make sure that we raised our children in a way that would be in fear of the Lord because those Eternal things matter and that was definitely a stretch of trust and a lot of hoping and praying but uh in that particular case God came through and he delivered as he often does in this case not in a way I thought it was going to happen I’ll start working for some really smart 20-year-old kid definitely not where I thought my career was going but it worked out but through all of it trying to maintain biblical principes right how do you do life in a way that honors God that upholds Integrity um and hard work there’s nothing wrong with hard work we’re we’re made to toil the ground for our for our food for our for our sustenance right part of the punishment of sin but hard work is good even before the fall Adam and Eve worked in the garden and God has ordained all of our work whether it’s in the church or your dayto day it all comes from him Psalm 31:15 my times are in your hand rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors again purpose he owns our time I think of David uh running away from Saul time and time and time again it’s funny I was actually in the shower this morning thinking about David and David Gets anointed doesn’t become king for what like two decades like that’s an incredible amount of trust and patience while someone’s trying to kill you and to have the wherewithal to not go and kill Saul those multiple times that he could have in the cave and elsewhere um God is the one who controls time and Destiny he’s the one that sets up rulers all of that’s in his hands we need to learn to be patient with it he does not count time the way that we do and gosh we are impatient we want everything now cuz it’s still not even 10:00 yet and I can order something on Amazon will be at my house by 5:00 p.m. we’re impatient people and we’ve built a culture around it everything in our culture is fairly antithetical to the Christian Life we need to teach ourselves patience and Reliance on God because we are children of God it says in John 1:12 but to all who did receive him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God so for his and our identity is in him and he is designed us and he’s given us our purpose we should trust in him the name of the book is so simple it’s such a simple concept but why is it so hard we belong to him 1 Corinthians 3:23 and you are Christ and Christ is God’s yeah it’s pretty awesome we have to continually preach that to ourselves day after day it’s so important to be praying and reading every day to not forget these little truths build a shield around your hearts and your minds to block out the world and to focus and rely on God all right so we’re going to be trusting in God’s guidance that’s a little bit of a scary thing how do you do that we’ve talked about it a little practically in Mark since this is your favorite Psalm you want to read uh verse 105 your your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path thanks brother many people here could have done that yeah you got a special touch um Galatians 2:20 I think plays along this line too I’ve been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me he guides us but he doesn’t in the most intimate of ways his Spirit dwells within us he died for us that’s how he bought us we are his think about that we are his he plants his spirit inside of each and every one of us you know that nagging voice in the back of your head that sort of starts preaching go uh verses to you you know the ones that are etched on your heart and written on your mind when you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing or when you’re having a thought you shouldn’t have or about 5 minutes after you said that thing you shouldn’t have said to your spouse or 30 seconds after you said that thing you should have said to your spouse that’s God guiding you it’s him using his word that’s why it’s so important to be in it day in and day out because it lives in you it’s the Living Word of God Christ is the word the logo right in the beginning was the word he dwells in us and prods us and reminds us and encourages us and sometimes that happens through songs enjoyed what Mike shared a couple weeks ago I love music I think you guys know that you see me singing there enough um but there’s so many ways that God can break into you and crack you open but you have to surrender to him and let him guide you and we read about that a bit in Psalm 23 in the book right the shepherd is leading we are sheep and sheep are stupid like really stupid they get scared of everything they don’t eat unless it’s like perfect conditions they don’t sleep or drink unless it’s great right otherwise they’re skittish they’re all over the place but our Shepherd knows where to take us the calmest of waters the quiet cool pasture with the green Lush grass that’s good for eating that’s nourishing he knows where to place us but sometimes to get from place to place you got to walk through places that are Rocky and Dusty and scary I’m just a dumb little sheep there’s all kinds of things flying overhead but you follow your master voice the only way to keep hearing that voice again stay in the disciplines of Grace I’m going to keep like just hammering on that one you got to stay in the disciplines of Grace because if Christ is not actively leading you someone else or something else will there’s no neutral ground in this life you’re either with God or you’re not either he’s guiding you or it’s the prince of the powers of the air or one of his people or beings or however you want to think of it we’re either moving closer to what it looks like to be in Christ’s likeness or moving away from it so that’s why we have to be so diligent follow the signposts listen to his word walk with one another there’s no neutral ground either you’re going to be sheep or you’re going to be goats it would terrify me at the end of my life to hear that dep depart from me I never knew you after saying Lord Lord right we know it comes so make sure it’s not you be diligent be in prayer and then we need to plan well I think this is it’s a really good reminder proverbs 4 5-9 get wisdom get understanding forget it not neither decline from the words of my mouth forsake her not and Sh shall and she shall preserve thee love her and she shall keep thee wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom and with all thy getting get understanding I like Old English sometimes man it sounds so cool but it it’s very straightforward right like we need to understand and we are dumb sheep we don’t have the capability on our own there’s one place we can go for that and that’s God that’s his word so we know it’s infallible we know it’s true it’s lasted centuries Millennia some cases Proverbs 16:16 how much better to get wisdom than gold to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver true wisdom comes from the Lord there’s a a wonderful uh book that we all went through was it two years ago we did uh the Proverbs uh with with the men in Iron Men and I think we spent maybe 3/4 of the time talking about wisdom there’s so much to be gained in the fear of the Lord and and in his wisdom but it must start there we have to recognize again that we are made in His image that we are his that he’s designed us that he’s given us purpose and then we have to trust in him to guide us we need to desire wisdom need to ask for wisdom james5 if any of you lacks wisdom let them ask God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him we need to study and learn from God’s word Psalm 19:7 the law of the Lord is perfect Reviving The Soul the testimony of of the Lord is sure making wise the simple what are what are some other ways that God’s guided you we’re on while we’re on Proverbs I think of um a verse that I think drives Us in Iron Man is Proverbs 2:20 which says you shall walk in the way of good men and keep to the path of the righteous we not only need the content of the word we need to see people living it out as example for us um that’s just so powerful you know we need to know hey how what does this look like M yeah yeah the law of the Lord is perfect Reviving The Soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple yeah it doesn’t need to be complicated feel we we have a tendency to do that as a people try to figure everything out yeah go a come out right um be still and know that I am God we think about that scripture um mostly when we’re suffering and and stress um but we were talking about hard work and doing everything to the glory of God and um God gave me a job then I didn’t expect to have to change jobs um but he wanted that and he did it and blessed me in it um much better pay and we have Bible studies there um so but I’ve been struggling not wanting to be there and um partly because sometimes it’s really slow and I want to if I have to be somewhere I just want to be doing something um but in going through that uh with the Lord this week was great week I was nice and busy except for Friday and there was a point and there was Bible study that day and God used it he he lifted my spirits and um it was a blessing and I know he has me there for that purpose but there was a point in the day when there was nothing to do so I just sat there and I thought oh I’m giving God glory in just sitting here right now and so sometimes I think that we have to do that too yeah that’s beautiful yeah go ahead going back to what you’re talking about the Sheep at the Sheep needs a Shepherd the story is told of a young young school boy um he took care of his that his past his dad’s flock of sheep and one day at school the teacher asked him if you have a 100 sheep and one go astray how many how much do you have everybody in the class put up their hand and say oh we 99.99 so the young boy said the teacher asked him what do you say he say teacher I know sheep you know mathematics but I know sheep if you have one go stray 100 go so that’s the point is that he is telling them don’t matter how much how much you think you know the Sheep the Sheep would be there he is telling the Headmaster no you know mathematics but I took care of my dad sheep if one go down the hill a whole hundred go down the hill so that’s where I come back to know that we really need a shepherd and Christ is our Shepherd and we we should not take our salvation for granted because as you was talking about the angel the angel desired to look into our salvation but they couldn’t understand it but we have the opportunity to understand God’s word amen that’s little like a little 111 the whole WF right h never knew that about the Sheep thanks Glenda anyone else and ways that God has guided us maybe when we have to make a difficult decision yeah go for it Danny so when God first saved me uh I was a young police officer and uh one of the first assignments I had as a Christian I was uh a assigned to the cell block so there’s 50 cells and my job was to uh feed the prisoners and uh walk around with a portable phone so they can make phone calls and I must have shared the gospel 100 times with different prisoners and they couldn’t go anywhere so they had to listen to me and uh it’s funny you think they would be guilty but most of them weren’t guilty either they were uh not not put there on the because of something they did wrong but it was a great job and all of a sudden out of nowhere I they pulled me out of there and put me in an administrative position and I just couldn’t understand I said Lord why are you doing this I’m having such a great time here this is incredible but down the road we God revealed it by his grace that now I’m doing more administrative stuff but still preaching the gospel but really was shocked why he pulled me out of there the time getting to run the reverse Paul is sort of nice isn’t it but yeah I can understand that could be difficult you’re enjoying the moment and then all of a sudden like oh God why now but to your point it’s it’s it’s it’s shown to be the place that God has designed for you to be right amen even when it’s not what we would choose for ourselves he is glorified he knows far better than any of us ever could we live in Christ his Spirit indwells us searing his word onto our hearts and Minds so that it is never far from us and thus comes on as a comfort and guide in times of distress I feel like uh as a church we’ve seen more hard times in the last like 2 years 18 months I think than we had in the last three or four before then I think remember hearing khif say uh last year when someone passed it was the first time someone had ever passed in the church that since he had been here and there’s been plenty of bouts of cancer plenty of accidents right there’s many difficult things that have happened in this body over the last year and a half two years but God is using all of that to grow us to help us to be reminded of our Reliance on him so that we do not fight through in our own strength or by our own will but through his Supernatural strength so that we can look more like him and that we can uphold one another we are again the hands and feet right when someone’s hurting God uses us to help God uses us to teach and to coach to mentor and to guide to love and to care for that’s what a body is it’s why we have a local body we are created to exist in community with one another that’s a beautiful thing it’s a picture of the Triune God he exists in perfect Community with himself right the Father the Son the Holy Spirit they are one I don’t get it but it’s true I can’t explain it but because we are made in the image of God we have that desire to be Community with one another to walk with each other and we have a duty to do so because it’s what brings glory to God and it’s a beautiful thing when we do that’s why a 38-year-old kid from Amsterdam who lives in New Jersey you can love and be friends with a I don’t even know how old you are Glenda I’m not even going to guess but you know a woman woman from the islands so it’s a beautiful thing how do we walk forward in that we serve with love we have to use our unique abilities to meet the needs of our church and our community I can sing so I get to go up there every once in a while which is an amazing blessing for me and hopefully uh the music that the music team puts out every week is uh glorifying and edifying to you to help you learn and to continue to repeat the truths of God to yourself but there’s so many other ways right the evangelism Team all the different Ministries we have at the church and then the things that you can be doing in your community whether that’s with other families um helping out with food pantries I mean there’s there’s a ton of things out there that we can be doing to be the hands and feet of God Walk with other Christians side by side and Iron Man are awesome I think they’re very useful Ministries here at the church and they’re very beneficial to everybody but don’t for sake don’t just do that right there has to be that one-on-one connection to really be known and to know each other so that we can meet each other in our need in those moments of distress the moments of Joy all of it do life with each other and then we need to evangelize we have to share the amazing ways in which God has created us has put us together and share that with the world it’s not uh it’s not always easy any thoughts on how we can encourage one another to trust God well this is part of it here you know we we we come together on Sunday but you’re right Cliff we uh do need to spend time with each other during the week and other ways the the church I think does a good job of promoting that through the the uh corporate prayer and through promoting uh meals with one another uh but yeah there and then we all should recognize those who have been given the gift of exhortation and and encouragement and uh let them uh work to within the church too uh just on little conversations that we have in the fellowship or outside of the church but um but yeah today is a day of worship and and we’re going to do that together and we’re going to lift each other up as we praise our God Amen so there’s a lot lot there go ahead cat I think by encouraging one another and sharing how you see how you see the spirit of God at work in them um whether that’s when they confess their sin uh to you acknowledging just how the spirit of of God is at work there um or when you see them using the gifts that God is giving them yeah hey Mark get Arthur over here you’re giving me my exercise brother hey how else you can hit those 10,000 steps um I I think I think one of the I may be biased towards this but I think one of the best ways we can encourage each other I know it’s kind of been said being here when being here may be very difficult especially when you’re going through trials of Health I’ll tell you um that to answer the other question about what led me here was I have a particular diet for God’s word and Dwayne made it so I keep telling him he he made it so easy for me to want to come here but when we’re talking about health and you have Brethren that are coming up to you and asking you how you’re doing and it’s not like one of those how you’re doing and you’re just EXP oh I’m doing okay but they’re willing to listen and truly hear how you’re doing and afterwards they say wow you’re a real encouragement to me I think everyone I’ve shared my issue with my health has said to me um I’m an encouragement to them and I I really appreciate that no one likes being sick I’m telling you it’s it’s it’s not a trial that I would wish on anyone but um I keep saying this I think we in America we we have it too easy way too easy you know do we really understand what faith is it’s when we’re challenged to um to live our faith when things are difficult that’s when we really know it’s genuine so so I just want to thank everyone for um their words of encouragement I tell them they’re too kind when they say it to me but it really makes a difference so yeah thank you thanks for sharing that I think we’ve had uh from my family’s perspective uh several guests come through the church over the last few years and one consistent comment that we’ve always gotten is how warm and inviting uh this place is so thank you for that it’s it’s incredible to see what God is doing here this is not normal I’ve been to many churches um and there’s seemingly no divisiveness here um feels like everyone is pulling in the same direction we’re all for each other and that is an incredible blessing so let’s close up with a word of prayer and then uh you guys can head out to the back and go sneak a bagel if that’s your uh you’re you’re choosing Lord thank you so much for this time time together as a family as a body thank you for your word and for its ability to shape and form us thank you for for knowing us for Designing us for creating us to be who we are and what we are for that unique design in our lives God and for The Unique purpose in which you’ve placed each and every one of us in this world in this time and in this place in this body help us to look to your word for your guidance on how to live our lives in a way that brings glory and honor to you help us to die to ourselves daily to lift one another up to Bear one another’s burdens to be the hands and feet that you’ve called us to be Lord that you’ve designed us to be and help us to do all of that with increasing joy and humility knowing that we are just a part of your design that you are the one who this story is about Lord that all of this is for your glory and pray that we’d all be able to walk together in that and that we can all look forward to the day when we kneel before your throne and give you the praise and honor to your name as we spend eternity with you uh bless the preaching later today would you watch over all of us as we go out into the world in this coming week and help us to exercise these things to stay in your disciplines of Grace Lord to stay in your word to stay in prayer and to stay in community with one another that we may go forth and Make Disciples of Nations Lord all of it For Your Glory we pray this in Jesus name amen

November 17, 2024
Lesson 10: Experiencing God’s Love

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all right good morning everyone welcome back to our Sunday school series on trust in God where we have been going through this book by Jerry Bridges and I think by the end of today we’ll have covered about three quarters of the book and yeah so in today’s lesson we’ll be looking at chapter 10 experiencing God’s love and before we start let me pray for us father thank you for this time that you’ve blessed us with to um study your word to understand the truth of your love that revealed to us in scripture help us to experience it in a real way and and help us to turn that into worship Lord in Christ’s name I pray amen amen all right so I want to start off with a question um so question one does the bible teach that God loves those of us who are in Christ who says yes yeah and es especially if you were here for last week’s lesson then the answer is obvious right the I think Mike papers brought us through a series of different uh passages in Scripture that backs up this answer to to the question and it’s clear that the Bible um emphasizes the fact that uh God loves us if we are in Christ and so a follow-up question to that is this question to since it’s true that God loves us who who are in Christ does it always feel that way or does it always seem that way to us now who still says yes to this question and I think it’s clear why this is true because there’s a clear dis discrepancy between the experience of God’s love and the truth of God’s love that’s revealed to us in scripture and we may know for a fact that God loves us but when going through difficult times in life it may not always appear to us that God loves us and that’s the point of today’s lesson so let me start off with an analogy so this is a piece of drinking straw right and it appears relatively straight to the eye right but what happens when you place it in a glass of water so now it appears to be bent right not straight as you have seen before and for those of you who know this is just due to an optical illusion the reflection of light and water so in a similar way um our experience of God’s love may not always agree with what we know of God’s love has revealed to us in scripture and in those instances it’s our experience that has to be subject to what we know in the truth of scripture and I hope to be able to um bring us through a couple of passages in today’s lesson to help to iron this down and help us to have greater confidence when we go through difficult times to rely on God to truly experience uh the joy of uh knowing God’s love so let’s uh begin with a passage from the book of Ephesians and for those of us who are familiar with the book we know that in the first two chapters um it’s emphasized um Paul emphasizes the election that we have in Christ Our justification and the glories of our Salvation in Christ so it’s clear that the people the Christians at Ephesus knew about the love of God that um yeah that God had for them yet in the third chapter which is where our verses are drawn from here he still emphasizes his desire for them to fully comprehend the love of God for them so there’s a clear difference between um intellectual understanding of God’s love and an actual experience of uh that truth the passage uh for this reason I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on Earth derived its name that he would Grant you according to the reaches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the Inner Man so that Christ May dwell in your heart’s through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the bread and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God so we see that Paul desires for the Christians at Ephesus to comprehend the love of God and not only the love of God but the extensiveness of God love where here he talks about it as the breath and length and height and depth so it’s just the the the extent of God’s love is something that is really beyond our comprehension right we try to grasp bits of it in our daily experiences as we study the word we see glimpses of it but we’ve never fully grasped that whole extensiveness of God’s love for us and he prays for the Christians of Ephesus to on top of knowing that God loves them but to experience it in a very deep way and I pray that this is true for each one of us here today as well right so then this brings us to a short summary of what we’ve talked about in the first couple of slides we know that God loves us who are in Christ but many times it really doesn’t feel that way especially in difficult times and truly experiencing God’s love is more than intellectual understanding of God’s God love taught in scripture experience is more than a mere intellectual Ascent yet it’s important to stress that it’s no less than knowing what God says about his love in scripture right um our experiences are one thing but we should not um think of our experiences as validating what’s true right we should always go back to the word of God which is which is what we know as the only infallible source of Truth uh and let me bring us to an example of the Prophet Jeremiah doing exactly this so here um in the book of Lamentations and specifically in chapter 3 uh the Prophet Jeremiah is lamenting the state of Jerusalem right so he says remember my Affliction and my wandering the wormwood and bitterness surely my soul remembers and is bow down within me so here we see his state of distress and dis depression really about the dire state of that Jerusalem is in and yet in the very next couple of verses this is what he says this I recall to mine and therefore I have hope the Lord’s loving kindness indeed never cease for his compassions never fail they are new every morning great is your faithfulness notice that he recalls to mind something and that something gives him hope right and and the thing that Jeremiah um calls to mind is the Lord’s loving kind kindness his faithful love for his people and he refers to this love as a faithful love right this is what he knows of the character of God so even in the midst of such a dire circumstance he recalled he brought to mind what he knew about God and that changed his whole outlook of the situation even though the circumstance really remained the same right all the physical circumstances were exactly the same but what he knew about God changed the way he viewed his circumstances so we should likewise view our circumstances in light of what God has revealed to us so the truth of God is really a spark to um how we experience God’s love so it’s one thing to know God’s love as revealed in scripture but that should be the spark that allows us to truly experience God’s love even when the circumstances seem completely dire and this brings me to the outline for the rest of today’s lesson um I’m going to follow the main subsections in the chapter as uh talked about by the author Jerry Bridges so there we know that there are many aspects of experiencing God’s love and we’re not going to cover all of them in the course of one lesson especially not in this hour right but um I think uh the author wisely focused on experiencing God’s love in the midst of difficult circumstances and that’s what I aim to do as well so these are the four points that we’ll be looking at Lord willing in today’s lesson the first is God God’s love in discipline the second is God’s unfailing love the third is God’s presence with us and if we have time we’ll look at some application questions and have some time of discussion all right so let’s move on to the first point God’s love in discipline and I want to bring our attention to this passage from Romans chapter 5 verse 3 to 5 and not only this but we also exalt in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance proven character and proven character hope and hope does not disappoint because of the love of God that has been poured out within our hearts through the holy spirit that has who has been given to us here here there’s a call for us as Christians to exalt in our tribulations and in other translations it says rejoice in suffering it seems counterintuitive for us to be able to find joy in the midst of suffering especially for us I’m sure many of us have gone through suffering of our own and during those times it’s hard to draw strength even from from God right so if we we know that we ought to lean on God in those times and God does bring comfort in those times yet it’s so difficult at times but we are given a reason why we can as Christians rejoice in our sufferings uh it’s because of the hope that we have that does not disappoint as you can see in um the next verse right and the reason why the Hope does not disappoint is because of the love of God that has been placed in our hearts through the spirit and if you know what’s the next verse after this in verse six it says for when we were still helpless at the right time Christ died for the ungodly right so it’s really the gospel message of Grace that allows us to experience the love of God through the power of the spirit in our lives and that gives us the ability to have hope and because of that hope that we know is true and we’re not disappoint that we are able to then rejoice in our Affliction it’s not that we are foolishly optimistic that and thinking of a specific bad situation as being good in in and of itself but it’s because we are looking forward to the ultimate hope that we are able to go through this suffering with joy yet it’s also true that we often experience God’s love only through our happiness and what I mean here is that when life seem pretty comfortable when things are going fine and dandy and uh there’s no real relationship problems that you have with your family members your boss is treating you well you have um yeah no issues with your co-workers and in these times you say thank you God for all that you’ve given me and we should do that for the many blessings that God has given us in our life yet it’s still important for us to see the hand of God the loving hand of God through his work in conforming us to Christ and this often involves discipline and discipline we know can be painful and let’s look at this chap uh passage from the book of Hebrews 12 5-6 and you have forgotten the exaltation which is addressed to you as Sons my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are reproved by him for those Those whom the Lord loves he disciplines and he scourges every son whom he receives so here we see a connection between the ones whom the Lord disciplines and the ones whom the Lord loves and there is really no distinction between the two right it’s clear from this passage that who the lord loves he also disciplines and what kind of discipline does one receive here a very strong word is used he scourges in other words he whips and when I looked at this passage it remind reminded me of uh what Jesus went through before he was nailed to the cross he was whipped and scourged right so this is not some light beating on the hand is scourging which is a very brutal way of beating so we can expect discipline to be painful and very painful in fact right and yet the Lord says that the one who he whom he disciplines in this manner is the one whom he loves so we can draw comfort in the fact that even when going through very severe discipline and correction is the Lord does it out of love not out of condemnation right we know in Romans 8:1 that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus so I think it’s very comforting to know that this is true especially when we go through difficult times you know that this is a process of refining and it’s ultimately for our good and we’ve learned in the previous few lessons that our good is ultimately to be conformed to the image of Christ right so we should look forward to that even as we go through our sufferings so this brings me to my next point that discipline is painful we’ve looked about looked at that in the passage from Hebrews and God often brings various adversity in our lives to discipline us to refine us and this we know to be painful and many times the painful circumstances do not have inherent good in and of themselves right so let’s say I get some I contract some form of illness or I me made a car accident for example these things do not in and of themselves have any good really we could objectively look at these things as bad things right but some people may push back and say then what about Romans 8:28 don’t we know from scripture that all things work together for good so how would you reconcile the the two the some things that are objectively bad and evil like the the the devil tempting people for example yet we know that all things work together for our good uh I think the author explains this very well in the book so specifically on on page 150 there’s this uh analogy to uh the baking of of biscuit right so for those who’ve read the book you’re familiar with this and we know that the individual ingredients that I used to make bake a biscuit is may not be tasteful by themselves right if you were to like grab some um flour and eat it it’s not going to be tast and you probably sped it out and in in a similar way um the painful experiences in our lives may not be good by themselves right we can think of them as bad but in God’s infinite wisdom and Grace and perfect timing he orchestrates all these things that are bad in and of himself and to have them work together for our ultimate good which is Conformity to the image of God and back to our biscuit analogy um these ingredients they are not tasteful by themselves are mixed together and when baked to Perfection it comes up as a fantastic product that is delicious to the taste so yeah let us remember this when we go through Affliction let’s look ahead and let’s hope uh in God who is ultimately wise Sovereign all powerful and all knowing and he’s able to orchestrate all these little things that may be painful during the time and trust that in his perfect timing in in his will he would bring that into fruition and make you more like Christ and I think often times people see that in you right if you have been a Christian for some time now you have gone through your share of disciplining and you see the product of that discipline you see godliness Holiness the fruit of the spirit produced in your life and people can see that right and and in these times we give God the glory but when we Face the next set of Trials we may not always uh have that in mind and we do not often um have faith that God would be able to do good ultimate good in our lives during those trials but yet it’s important for us to do that because that’s it’s a very um attitude that God gives us that enables us to go through those trials in a in a Joyful Way and because that ultimately gives him glory and that’s our purpose to worship God and to give him glory um yeah so I think at this point I want to just share about some personal experience that I have I think how God often disciplines me is to uh injury really I’m for some reason very injury prone even though I’m not particularly clumsy um yeah but um I think in times where I get injured I it really crushes my pride because like for example like two years ago I tore my Meniscus and had difficulty walking for example and then um I’m someone who likes to carry out things quickly to do things by myself and get things done but in times of sickness and injury God really puts me in my place and humbles me and say that you are finite you’re not able to do this and through the various instances where he put me through this form of discipline I’ve grown in Greater Reliance on him knowing that I really cannot do anything apart from him and this um strengthens my faith in him then very next time he puts me through a very similar situation growing from obedience to obedience all right so and this brings me to the next Point U the connection between discipline sin and personal sin so I have a question so who thinks that whenever you’re disciplined it’s always connected to a particular sin in your life who says yes right so I think it’s clear that no one agrees so yeah it it’s not always true so it may not always be the case that we are able to link discipline to a specific personal sin right but I think a a better question to to ask is uh we know that discipline is often uh corrective though not always the case then the question to ask is does more discipline imply greater personal sin does anyone say yes I would I would say that it depends yeah I think there have been times when um a sharp discipline would point out a specific sin in my life often Maybe in my thoughts um that I need to deal with um but not always I I think one of the things that I’ve heard Jerry bries talk about although I don’t know if we did in this chapter it’s not just our sin but our sinfulness right there’s always things that need to be Sanctified out of us right there’s always room for sanctification and so for that kind of General reason um if we got what we deserve it would be a lot worse yeah so we can be maybe just thankful for that because I think for Me Maybe it’s true for a lot of you as well if I’m too comfortable I’m not going to be as focused on the Lord or as humble as I need to be yeah so Mike Mark rightly pointed out that yeah many times um the Lord reveals our sinfulness to discipline like at least in my case the the experience that I shared about really revealed the pride and the lack of Reliance in my own heart and it’s good for us that God brings us through difficult times because in those times we may it may reveal to us sins in our heart that may not be immediately obvious to us and people around us but in periods of Affliction these sin sinful behavior and desires may arise and may be revealed to us and we get the opportunity to then deal with it um and grow in Holiness yet it’s also true that many times um more discipline does not necessarily imply greater personal sin for example there have been many instances throughout scripture where relatively Christlike people have experienced periods of extreme adversity which uh resulted in their discipline right which resulted in their growth towards uh greater Holiness greater trust in God for example uh job and uh Joseph right so job was referred to in chapter one of the Book of Job as an upright man he was not perfect like the rest of us he’s also a sinner yet there was no specific personal sin that was um connected to the fact that he was disciplined by God and unknown to job um it was really part of uh challenged by Satan uh toward God that um job underwent uh the afflictions that he did and uh for Joseph it was a similar case right the um the Lord chose to use Joseph in this way to bring him through the periods of Affliction in Egypt in order to bring out ultimate good for Israel um and another example that is I think more interesting is that Jesus himself underwent discipline and yet he never sinned right which is a clear example of how we may be disciplined but not for any particular sin that that we did so here in Hebrews 5: 8 it says although he was a son he learned obedience from the things which he suffered so here in the verse when it says that Jesus learned obedience it’s not referring to the fact that it’s not referring to uh Jesus not being obedient before undergoing suffering and somehow being obedient after because we know that he’s God and he’s he he never sinned so what does it mean when they say that Jesus learned obedience here I think it’s really about how the father ordained suffering and trials like uh he’s testing in the wilderness for example which enabled the Christ to um obey the father willingly perfectly in Greater degrees culminating in Gethsemane and finally the cross right so there was greater degrees of obedience that the son was called to during his Earthly Ministry and this is what discipline is really all about right so it’s about refining us making us more like Christ and Christ showed us the perfect example during his Earthly Ministry so yeah the point here is that we ought not to always connect a a period of discipline with a personal sin yet it’s important for us to examine ourselves daily to see if there’s any hidden fults within us to examine our hearts to ask people for counsel if they see any sinful ways in us that we may repent and turn from that and um yeah so and there’s an aspect of discipline that is preventive to prevent us from falling into sin we need to put safe Gods around us we have the body of Christ Brothers and Sisters in Christ to keep us accountable and and uh but there’s also a corrective aspect of sin where we fall into sin and then the Lord graciously extends his hand of discipline often times that’s painful experience but it’s ultimately for our good Ganda personal sin and it as Mark was said it depends on if we are his child child it depends on how much we yield in the discipline so you may have to add more discipline sometime it takes a while for us to say well look something is wrong why I’m being chastised this way but then you looking just are you healing to what he’s showing you so it takes sometime it takes discipline and discipline for us to yield to him especially if we are his children or his child he’s not going to leave us in that St so that’s sometime puts more on US US Open our eyes to see discipline really works yeah I’ll say too um Pro Proverbs 29:1 says that he who hardens his neck after much reprove will suddenly be broken Beyond remedy and so I I think God is sparing us I think the harshness of reprove or discipline is nothing compared to the devastation that awaits us if we don’t follow it right both from a a Salvation persp effective and even in consequences in this one right yeah thanks Mark and glender for your comments right it’s true that um as both of you mentioned that the correction in discipline is often used to wake us up right is we we do not often um change our ways on at the first instance of discipline and often takes a lot for us to finally realize our sinful ways and turn and as Mark mentioned um the discipline of Correction although painful does not outweigh the consequences that sin brings about so it’s really God’s grace and love for us that he brings about this painful discipline to turn us from our sinful ways to prevent the potential consequences that could come if we do not change our ways and continue continue in our sinful patterns and this is only true for those of us who are in Christ who are dearly loved by God that we receive this discipline those people those of us who are out of the condemnation of God okay so yeah then this brings me to the next subo uh which is also brought about uh brought out in in the book so this is God’s unfailing love um there are two passages that I want to read here uh from Lamentations 332 for if we for if he causes grief then he will have compassion according to His abundant loving kindness so uh this loving kindness is uh sometimes referred to as the unfailing love of God where it’s um so in this case we see that um God brings about grief maybe through discipline for example and yet this in this grief he brings his compassion and this is an Evidence of the Abundant loving kindness and unfailing love of God that he has for his people um in the next passage uh from Isaiah 54:10 it says for the mountains may be removed and the hills May Shake but my loving kindness will not be removed from you and my Covenant of Peace will not be shaken says the Lord who has compassion on you so here um the Lord parallels his unfailing love with uh the mountains and the hills which are symbols of permanence and stability right so the physical objects that we are familiar with that are expected to be there for the next centuries pale in comparison to the faithfulness of God’s love even these permanent seemingly permanent objects may be removed and yet the Lord says that his love will not be removed and that’s comforting for us who are part of God’s family because that’s exactly the way he deals with us maybe through discipline through his Providence which we will look at later but the point is that his love is a constant and consistent love that we could rely on and have hope so and yeah so God’s unfailing love is really repeated throughout scripture these are not the only verses that talk about it right but how do we experience it in our our daily lives and that’s the point of the next couple of slides so the first I think um is God’s gracious and daily provision and the first example that I want to talk about is from the book of Exodus which uh the man went through in our previous study at Iron Man so we are familiar with this and it’s God’s daily provision of manner for Israel in the wilderness and I read from Exodus 16: 19- 21 Moses said to them let no man leave any of it until morning so this it refers to the manner but they did not listen to Moses and left part of it until morning and it bred worms and became foul and Moses was angry with them they gathered it morning by morning every man as much as he should eat but when the sun grew hot it would melt so in this uh part of their wandering in the wilderness Israel was provided food by God and specifically in the form of Mana which is a kind of bread and God provided Mana for his people each morning and the people of Israel were commanded not to store up for uh the future and collect enough just for the day but what happened is uh they were stiff necked and stubborn like many of us right and they chose to store up for the future even though they were commanded not to and the manner which they sought up for the future spoiled and did not last so here we see that we are called like Israel to trust in the faithful provision of God because the fact that they were storing up despite being commanded not to was showing that they did not really trust the character and the faithfulness of God they were trying to take things into their own hands even though they just witness a miraculous provision of food from the sky from God right and but many times we are similar we can point fingers fingers at Israel and say that oh why did you do this but many times we have seen the gracious provision of God in our own lives and yet in the very next second we could turn around and say oh I I I have done this all by myself so this is really Pride that we have to examine our hearts for and deal with severely and I think it’s also comforting to know that uh we have a God that provides for us so Faithfully morning by morning is does he provide for us and we do not have to worry about the future for this very reason because he gives us Grace and provision consistently and uh that’s reason for us to pray for daily bread right so as commanded by our Lord in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 611 he says give us this day our daily bread and it’s because we have a God that is so faithful in the way he provides for our physical needs our spiritual needs can we confidently come before him and ask for our daily bread and then this reminds should remind us if we are actually doing it right are we actually relying on God for daily provision are we prayerfully um asking God for all that we need for the day or are we trying to deal with uh the problems of the day seemingly by ourselves with no acknowledgement of uh God’s provision for us daily and even today so yeah just a question to throw it out there uh can you think of some daily needs that God has Faithfully provided for you just as an exercise for us to put this into practice just a really basic thing U my daily prayer seems to be father thank you for waking us up into this day that you’ve created so our our our very lives uh the ground that we stand on the air that we breath uh all these things are the life that he gives us and then we go from there yeah Mark I think one thing I often think about is just food and drink especially after teaching through the The Book of Ecclesiastes which talks so much about food and drink being a a basic need but also Joy of life it’s it’s it can be it’s funny that we have this tradition in in Christianity that you always pray before meals and you thank God for the food but it can become rope not really actually sincere but it’s something we should do from the heart because it is a sign of God’s love his unfailing love that he provides us food every day thank you yeah yeah thanks for sharing because I I think it’s important for us to put this into practice as the man uh mentioned right so yeah let’s try to be more conscious about doing this because this is really what uh brings glory to God ultimately um the next point is that um God provides daily grace for us even as we go through adversity we’ve learned previously that the Lord puts adversity in our lives to sharpen us to discipline us but yet he provides Grace for us through adversity so here from 2 Corinthians 12: 79 it says because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations for this reason to Keep Me From exalting Myself referring to Paul there was given to me a thorn in in my flesh a messenger of Satan to torment me to Keep Me From exalting Myself concerning this I implore the Lord three times that it might leave me and he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for power my power is made perfect in weakness most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ May dwell in me so we see that the Lord is the one who gives Paul The Thorn In the Flesh we don’t know exactly what the thorn is but we know that it was clearly painful and Paul want it to be removed yet the Lord in his wisdom says you keep going through it but I’ll give you the grace that is sufficient for you to endure this uh painful circumstance and the Lord used this to uh magnify his power in Paul’s life and to Humble him as well and yeah in a similar way here is from uh the book of Lamentations once again uh chapter 3 21-23 this I recall to my mind and therefore I have hope the Lord’s loving kindness indeed never cease for his compassions never fail they are new Every Morning greatest your faithfulness so we see here that God gives us Grace To Face adversity day by day from uh the phrase they are new every morning right the faithful love of God Is With Us each morning but yet at the same time we get anxious and frustrated when God doesn’t give us all the grace uh for all our problems all at once and we cannot see how the problem will ultimately we resolved and we start panicking and say oh God yeah you’re not like you don’t see the go love of God in those times because you don’t see how everything will pan out but that’s exactly how the Lord chooses to operate right he enables us to trust him enables us to know more of his character his faithfulness by exactly giving us the grace that we need for the present circumstance and that’s really all we need and we can trust that even if we cannot see the end we know that first God is working for our good and second is in in love that he really does what he does and and that we can trust that he would provide for us what we need for the problems of the day because there’s enough problems in a single day and we do not have to worry for tomorrow as Jesus commanded us and yes we should expect we we should look at this expectantly not in a spirit of fear or anxiety or frustration but we should be expectant in uh toward the the provision of God and to pray in faith knowing that the Lord is a God who is glad to provide and is able to provide and to trust God for his faithful provision of Grace I’m sure that all of us if you have been in the faith know and tasted and seen this gracious provision of God come coming in in very timely manner just at the right instance to meet your needs and so why not trust God in the future when you face similar trials because we know that we have a God that can be trusted we know his character as revealed to us in scripture and we’ll move on to the final section of the book God’s unfailing love sorry um yeah before that let’s look at um uh how we would combat um the lack of trust uh in God and the lack of uh recog of his provision so one way we could do that is to recognize um his provision and to be uh content and to have an attitude of gratitude toward it so here in first Thessalonians 5 16-8 it says Rejoice always pray without ceasing in everything give thanks for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus so we see that um God’s love is magnified in our lives when he provides us comfort and relief from our afflictions so we ought to recognize and to recall these things when in periods of relative comfort in order to develop an attitude of Thanksgiving knowing that God has provided in the past and in difficult times and therefore uh we can trust that he will provide for us in the future as well and not only that gratitude is appropriate and is worshipful and it’s uh what we ought to do but it’s also something that helps us to um go through trials in the future right when you recall the loving hand of God in your lives you understand that his character and therefore are able to trust him more as you face similar adversities in the future all right so yeah then now moving on to the last section of the chapter God’s presence with us so first Isaiah 43:2 it says when you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers they will not overflow you when you walk through the fire you will not be scorched nor will the flame burn you and it’s true that uh as brought up by the author Jerry Bridges in the book that it’s often in the very midst of our adversities that we experience the most delightful manifestations of his love uh I think we know this experience of uh God’s care and provision to his word to his people that um he brings to us especially in periods of Affliction adversity I know this is true for myself um going through periods of difficult times is when I’m um claing the most to God I experienced most the most joy in those times and sometimes when I’m brought of the Affliction you kind of want to go back to those times because that’s when you experience most greatly the care and love of God even though God loves me and cares for me in the same way at yeah just throughout my life but you just experience it more during the times of affliction um yeah in second passage uh Isaiah 63:9 in all their afflictions he was afflicted and the angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his Mercy he redeemed them and he lifted them and carried them all the days of all so here uh he is referring to God or Christ right so uh and the point here is that um we have a God that does not merely send us Grace from a distance we talked about how God graciously provide for us but he goes further and beyond that right he is a God who comes alongside us in our suffering and he’s familiar with the Temptations that we undergo familiar with the afflictions that we go through and it’s able to sympathize with us and even identify with us and that’s the next Point Christ identifies with us in our distress here is from the book of Acts where uh Jesus was talking to Paul on when Paul was on the road to Damascus so and he Paul uh and he Saul fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him Saul Saul why are you persecuting me and he said who are you Lord and he said I am Jesus whom you are persecuting so here we know that Saul was persecuting the Church of God right he phys at least in the Physical Realm realm he was not not directly persecuting Jesus yet Jesus said that Saul was persecuting him for the and the reason is that um Christ identifies with his church and to persecute the church is to persecute Christ himself and Christ people are in Union with Christ so we have a God that identifies in our difficulties be persecution or Affliction Christ is with us and is and he shares in our ition we see in Hebrews 4:15 it says for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but one who have been tempted in all things as we are and yet without sin so God is a God who knows the intensity of our afflictions the pain that we go through in um our in persecution because that’s that’s the god he uh that that that he is and we can take comfort in that and next point is that uh God’s presence is experienced through the indwelling of God’s holy spirit um so from John 14:17 it says there is the spirit of Truth which whom the world world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him but you know him because he abides with you and will be with will be in you and in John 16:3 it says but when he the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all Truth for he will not speak of his own initiative but whatever he hears he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come so there are two points here right first is that we for those of us who are in Christ for us for us who are part of the family of God we have the spirit of God indwelling us and sometimes it’s it’s just so amazing to think about and to reflect that the the the third person of the Trinity indwell us gives us the strength to go through the trials that God has ordained for us and he promises to guide us according to the truth that is found in scripture we’re not left to fend on our own um we know that it’s important for us to um understand deeply the truth of scripture and allow that to spark our experience of God’s love and that’s exactly what the spirit of God does he reminds us of the truth of scripture and when times get tough you recall scripture that you have memorized or you have learned hymns that reflect the truth of scripture that are recalled to mind and these things give us hope and joy and we truly experience God’s love even in the midst of Affliction and this is what the world cannot uh do right they’re unable to do that because there’s really no hope for them outside of Christ but for us who are in Christ we have that hope because of the spirit that dwells in us so right so after all is said and done what should I then do when God feels distant right so after this entire lesson you would still face difficulties in your life you would still face discipline that will be extremely painful and these times what do we what should we do I think the Psalms model for us very clearly how we ought to react in the face of adversity um so I have a couple over here um Psalm 1 Psalm 13 ver1 for the choir director a Psalm of David how long oh Lord will you forget me forever how long will you hide your face from me so we see here here that David was in distress and he cannot see how God is acting in a loving way toward him in this particular instance and he even says that the Lord appears to be hiding his face from David the one whom the Lord loves right and sometimes he can feel that way to us and yet uh the Lord wants us to cry out to him not in a faithless manner but in in faith and we can do that by waiting in silence as um talked about in Psalm 62 my soul wait in silence for God only for him is my salvation he only is my rock and my salvation my stronghold I shall not greatly be shaken and it sounds really model for us how we rightly should cry out to God in our Affliction it’s not acting in a faithless manner to cry out to God in fact is because we have faith that God can and will provide in his time that we cry out in faith and we wait for him to act in his perfect time and so let me end with Psalm 13 and I’ll read the whole of it for us to see how we ought to be um to to cry out to God in a way that’s in faith and in a way that trust the faithful character of God during our pain so Psalm 13 for the choir choir director s of David how long oh Lord will you forget me forever how long will you hide your face from me how long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart all the day how long will my enemy be exalted over me consider and answer me oh Lord my God Enlighten my eyes or I will sleep the sleep of death and my enemy will say I have over overcome him and my adversaries would rejoice when I am shaken but I have trusted in your loving kindness my heart shall rejoice in your salvation I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me so yeah so this is a model among many other Psalms in scripture which shows us models for us how we should cry out to God who so dearly cares for his own we have seen that he shows his love to us when he disciplines us he spares us from the consequences of sin by disciplining us harshly he has shown us his love through his gracious daily provision through even material and spiritual blessings he shown us his love through his presence with us uh and we experience it through our knowledge of who God is and that’s revealed to us in scripture so the Lord has provided us enough sufficient Grace to be able to rightly experience God’s love as revealed to us in scripture so let us pray that we would be able to do so for his glory and as he continues to sanctify us discipline us will we be able to go through that joyfully knowing what his ultimate purposes purposes are to conform us to the image of Christ to bring himself glory and to make us yeah more like Christ and that’s such a blessing and and it’s such a blessing to see people Brothers and Sisters in Christ grow in godliness as well so let’s look at some application questions uh to end so these are some things that I hope we can think about in the coming week we might not have too much time to talk about it now but uh yeah so the first question is when have you doubted God’s love and what has helped you regain your confidence in his love because it’s important to uh reflect on um times in your life where you have not often experienced God’s love the way you should at least it doesn’t line up with how God Reveals His love his love to be in scripture and I I’m sure there are times where there are some things that God has brought to mind or people that he has brought in your life which helped you to regain confidence in his love and the second question is has there been a time where when it was especially especially important for you to focus on God’s daily grace without looking ahead we are often tempted to look ahead and try to see how the problems will be solved but that’s not how God often chooses to operate and what happened when you tried to look down the road to see how you would cope tomorrow it often brings me an anxiety but yeah so it’s something that we should all think about and lastly what can we do to remind one another of God’s love for us and I put it here because this is not something that we should be doing on our own we have the Church of God to come alongside us to um spur us on toward Holiness and to keep us accountable so will we help one another to uh more rightly experience God’s love Yeah and with that I end for questions or comments Glenda I think most times as Christian we rest so much on our feelings I feel this way if I’m feeling this way God is not with me and we leave the word of God out we rest so much on our feelings that we wanted we want that feeling to pass we want we want it in our own way and in our own time that’s why sometime we get so frustrated but when we turn to the word of God then that’s where we get the peace and the joy that we can live a Christian life and stop resting on feeling because he said I will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory amen yeah yeah along with that I noticed in Psalm 13 it says how long will I take counsel in my own soul right right we shouldn’t we shouldn’t be caught up on our own thoughts we should go to What God Says in his word oh Arthur you brother yeah um give me one second I um I I waited to the end your application questions um I’ve got a good example that covers all the questions first of all I’m sorry first of all one of the things I always try to remind um members of my church is that we have to take God’s word in context and I know we teach that here um EX for example the word discipline um that’s the problem with English um in the original language um discipline can mean many different things and um um when we understand that we can understand how God disciplines us because it’s not always um where it has to be correction or or pain where there’s pain involved but what I wanted to talk about was the the um the word love um some of you probably already noce that the first place where love is mentioned is in Genesis chap 22 22 chapters before the word love is mentioned and if if you know that then you know that it was in connection with Abraham when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son and um I just wanted to read the verse it says um I think this is new inter I’m sorry New International Version because I rushed take your son he said your only son Isaac whom you love go to the land of Mariah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about so here when the word love is mentioned it’s mentioned in connection to sacrifice when we go to John it talks about God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son if we start there in our understanding of love then we can understand how God works in our life and I I I I I give people it’s like an acronym I’m into acronyms so I use the gospel letters of gopel and if you want to understand love I always say understand it’s God’s response to the problem of evil in our lives because when we I’m talking too much but when we when we go back to the Garden of Eden remember um God put the tree good and evil so those are the issues good and evil God’s love is always connected to good evil is what we find ourselves encountering every days of our life so how God responds to that even in our lives is how he shows us how he loves us yeah amen thank you Arthur yeah yeah I think with that we are out of time but yeah so let me pray for us as we close father thank you for the lesson today reminding us of the need to experience your love in a right manner help us to look back to Calvary where you died for for our sins help us to uh rightly experience your love according to your word what you say about it in your word Lord and help us to uh keep each other accountable as well in Christ’s name I pray amen amen thank you

November 10, 2024
Lesson 9: Knowing God’s Love

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you would correct me through a brother or sister that’s here Jesus name amen amen this is the uh second time that I’ve had a chance to be a part of the team to teach one of the lessons uh the book trusting God has been uh quite an experience for me in preparing for these two lessons these two chapters the first one that I did was about a month ago it’s about U God’s rule over our Nations and today it’s about um knowing God’s love I um I approached preparation for this lesson a bit differently than I did the first one and I came to the realization that we each hopefully as Christians do have some way of knowing God’s love and Jerry Bridges who is the author of this book talked about his reason reasoning or the the burden that he felt to study the sovereignty of God and uh I felt both for him and and a few other people that you’ll see in this presentation that he quoted uh I felt I was reminded that we each uh have a role to play in God’s family and certainly uh his contribution uh in my growth uh has been pretty significant because of what he has shared um just a little bit about him he’s was born in Texas he had a degree in engineering he was in the US Navy during the Korean War as an officer and beginning in 1955 he was with The Navigators and on that slide it lists several books that he has written in addition to this one and he went home to be with the Lord in 2016 uh in the book’s preface Jerry Bridges wrote learning to trust God in adversity has been a slow and difficult process for me it is a process proc still underway and I’m assuming you like I can identify with that he wrote that it took him four years in the study to write this book and he did reference various people and their life experiences to illustrate the need to trust in God during today’s lesson I will highlight several scripture point points made by Jerry Bridges and individuals that made themselves available to serve God some were quoted by Mr bridges in this book I’ll also feature a few songs and lyrics that are based on scripture that he emphasized in this book all of these have been particularly meaningful to me and help help have helped me to know God’s love as I work as I worked on this lesson I was deeply moved my sense of knowing God’s love would sometimes fill my heart and mind the scriptures that he included the commentary as I said the lyrics to some of the songs that I’ll reference based upon the scriptures that he included in the lesson um where an incredible learning moment for me in being reminded of how I’ve been able to know God’s love in my life a week ago yesterday I uh Was preparing reviewing my PowerPoint that I had started literally the day after my last uh lesson that I taught and a week ago yesterday sitting at our kitchen table and I lost several of the slides being technologically challenged um Sage was I’m the technologically challenged one not Sage she tried to help and I uh I was pretty distraught but came to realize that that was not material I was to share here we go s Sage we go the opening scripture for chapter 4 Romans 83537 who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword no in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us a central idea of this chapter was summarized in the following excerpt by Bridges we can trust God’s love because he loves us loves us with a perfect and infinite love which was demonstrated on Calvary because of our Union with Christ we are secure in that love we can trust God’s love I look in the dictionary for the definition of the word trust definition is as follows assured Reliance on the character ability and strength or truth of someone or something thank you Jackson do you trust God do I trust God do we trust God the way that Jerry Bridges urged us to in the book he loves us with a perfect love definition of the word perfect being entirely without fault or defect he loves us with an infinite love definition of the word infinite extending indefinitely endless immeasurably or inconceivably great or extensive ensive inexhaustible subject to no limitation wow Bridges wrote that God’s holiness is one of his essential characteristics just as is as just as it is impossible in the very nature of God for him to be anything but perfectly holy so it is impossible POS for him to be anything but perfectly good as I read that I found some scriptures that I want to share with you 1st Samuel 2:2 there is none holy like the Lord for there is none besides you there is no Rock like our God Psalm 993 let them praise your great and awesome name he is Holy 1 Peter 1:15-16 but just as he who called you is Holy so be ye holy in all n in all manner of conversation Revelation 15:4 who will not fear O Lord and glorify your name for you alone Are Holy concluding comment in his in this on this page because God is love it is an essential part of his nature to be good and show Mercy to his creatures 1 John 4:8 another one of the scriptures he included in the chapter he who does not love does not know God for God is love Bridges suggested that examining our trust in God is important and God’s plan of Christ’s sacrifice was obviously a critical component to his plan he wrote there is no doubt that the most convincing evidence of God’s love in all of scripture is his giving his son to die for our sins anytime we are tempted to doubt God’s love for us we should go back to the Cross we should reason somewhat in this fashion if God loved me enough to give his son to die for me when I was his enemy surely he loved me enough to care for me now that I am his child let that last Point sink in I’ll repeat it if God loved me enough to give his son to die for me when I was his enemy surely he loved me enough to care for me now that I am his child amen God loves us he created us before we were redeemed he sent his son as a sacrifice that we might be saved from Eternal Eternal punishment punishment that we deserved can you really absorb that anyone here the infinite measure the infinite infinite measureless love of God is poured out upon us not because of who we are or what we are but because we are in Christ Jesus it is very important that we grasp this grasp this crucial concept that God’s love to us is in Christ just as God’s love to his son cannot change so his love to us cannot change because we are in Union with Christ Jesus with the one he loves God’s love to us can no more waver than his love to his son can waver God does not look within us for a reason to love us he loves us because we are in Christ Jesus as I read read through the chap this chapter chapter 4 in scriptures I did think as I mentioned my opening of several songs or hymns that are based upon these verses all pointing to God’s love certain songs have particularly impacted people’s lives and this has been the case for me I um I attend um God loves us because we are in Christ this vital Point reminded me of the song everything’s going to be all right in Christ it was sung by The Haven of Rest quartet some of you may remember this radio program where they were featured I was fortunate to attend one of their concerts with friends from the church we used to attend where I was a member of a men’s quartet and we often sang some of their Arrangements uh Sage’s mother uh has been a genuine encouragement to Sage and I as we have faced a few trials and some of them have been very significant she regularly makes the statement with her very pleasant Southern draw everything’s going to be all right because some of the things we have faced are pretty significant um sometimes we might I can be candid with you at least I’ll speak for myself thought is that a bit simplistic is it childish but we are to approach faith in Christ as children uh join me now in listening to everything’s going to be all right in Christ [Music] o going be all right [Music] now when you need a hand to hold everything’s going to be all right in Christ take his word and fill your soul everything’s going to be all right give praise lift your hands lift your hands and praise His name your heart for eternity the same his mercies we Proclaim don’t you know everything all right in Christ W everything’s going to be all right in Christ when you’re leave you everything’s going to be all Christ by his will everything’s going to be [Music] all and praise His name we everything going to be everything going to be all everything is going to be everything going to be going to be feel s everything going to be all in Christ he will give everything’s going to be all INR your pra his Mercy weim don’t you know everything’s going to be in ch everything’s going to be everything’s going to be everything’s going to be everything’s going to be everything going to be everything going to be all everything going to be everything going to be allr it’s going to be all right in Christ going to be everything going to be all it’s going to be all right oh it’s going to be everything’s going to be all right right in praise God God cannot forsake us because we are his children in blessed Union with his son we cannot be cut off from his sight but we can be cut off from the Assurance of his love when we allow doubt and unbelief to gain a foothold in our hearts knowing God’s love is the theme of this chapter and the following verses which Bridges featured emphasize God’s love John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life Romans 83839 for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our lord that scripture made me think of another song the love of God I think you’re familiar with it was written by Frederick H excuse me Fredick M Layman he was born in Germany he was a minister and publisher he immigrated with his family when he was four settling in Iowa he pursued theological education at Northwestern College in neille Illinois and ministered in Iowa and Indiana he devoted he devoted much of his life to writing sacred songs and compiled Five song books in 1917 he wrote the love of God based upon the scriptures that I just read and now we’re going to hear the love of God sung by George Beverly Shay when he was well into his 90s he sang The billag Graham Crusades for many years we can only we stand there’s more there’s more we can only see a few rich but there there’s there love of [Music] God it goes beyond [Music] the ever more and the sa this is their [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] on Earth will and every [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] nor and [Music] [Music] you this is song [Music] [Applause] [Applause] we can we now I included that not to elicit emotional response as I show it but I think sometimes for me the thought the emotion that might well up helps me remember the significance of God’s love Psalm 14579 and 17 they shall utter the me memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness the Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and great in Mercy the Lord is good to all and his Tender Mercies are over all his works the Lord is righteous in all his Works philippus was often quoted in this book by Jerry Bridges and as I saw his quotes a number of times I want to know something about him he’s from South Africa came to the US in 1964 taught in several seminaries Columbia Theological Seminary Westminster Theological Seminary Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary he was um exceptionally skilled in Greek language and he wrote um books commentaries on Corinthians 2 Hebrews in the Book of Revelation Bridges wrote my own experience suggests that Satan attacks us far more in the area of God’s love than either his sovereignty or his wisdom we cannot keep from being tempted but if we are to honor God by trusting in Him we must not allow such thoughts to Lodge in our minds as Philip Hughes again said quote to question the goodness of God is in essence to imply that man is more concerned about goodness than God is to suggest that man is Kinder than God is to subvert the very nature of God it is to deny God and this is precisely the thrust of the temptation to question the goodness of God I find these found these comments particularly challenging because we tend to think that we’re just terrific people we’re not um you know you see sometimes um the last few years signs people post in front of their homes hate has no home here has anyone seen those you ever encountered any of those folks yes I I have found that most don’t see seem to uh appreciate God’s role in the world and they feel that they can take control and make things better through treating people better and it’s good to treat people good well but uh it’s not sufficient anyone care to share anything Mark yeah to your point I uh I don’t I don’t really feel love when I talk to to people toote that because it tends to be a a definition of love that’s demanding of others to accept things that God does not accept um and it’s a challenge I think to communicate wisely with these people that God is not against this particular lifestyle this defition of marriage or gender because he doesn’t he does that his design is best and it’s loving and um yeah it’s interesting because you see the real battle there that people are love doesn’t necessarily mean you support everything that someone’s doing and that seems to be the notion of the sentiment of Love is anyway you get you get the idea that um get to your point in this is love not that we love God God us so it’s so important I Mike to let God def love for us it’s it’s what is best for us not what we want necessarily that make sense sure does thank you Mark uh yes Glenda I think we our emotions override everything and when we go into circumstances we don’t fully understand that what I what I take from it I understand that Christ came to this world he was perfect but he went struggles and when I look back and see what I am going is nothing to compare with what he went through and because he went through it to di for me when I was an enemy and now I’m his child I look forward to see where one day going to to me and I that’s what I look on because God said I love you with an everlasting love can Everlasting anything Everlasting go out and that’s where I look at my life in Christ he loves me because I’m in Christ and because I’m in Christ he can never dis own Christ loving him and I stand on that ground because he said he loves me with an everlasting love and I know Everlasting can never go so that’s I take courage in knowing the god always always be there thank you so much uh Magna I really appr 137 mle paragraph our emotions must become subservient to the truth this does not mean that we do not feel the pain of adversity and heartache we feel it keenly nor does it me that we should our emotional pain and a stoic like attitude we are meant to feel the pain of adversity but we must resist allowing that pain to cause us to lapse into hard thoughts about God thank you for sharing that um over the years I’ve heard different uh preachers and it’s a very really important point that sometimes is not mentioned that God created us with with emotions as well as with a brain and they all are important parts of who we are as he has made us uh Steve he Chas so when you’re chasing you don’t think that God is Ling you he is he wants you to partake in his Hol hard to get through that though sometimes isn’t it Romans 8:32 he did not spare his own son but delivered but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things of course all things is all things that are good for us right couple of um comments from the book and scripture God’s love at Calvary there is no doubt that the most convincing evidence of God’s love in all scriptures is his giving his son to die for our sins 1 John 4:9 and10 this is how God showed his love for us he sent his one and only son into the world world that we might live through him this is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins he went on to write if we want proof of God’s love for us then we must look first at the cross where God offered up his son as a sacrifice for our sins Calvary is the one objective absolute irrefutable proof of God’s love for us one of the essential characteristics of Love is the element of self-sacrifice and this was demonstrated for us to its ultimate in God’s love at Calvary the next slide slide that I’m going to show is a screenshot please tell me if you recognize it this is the opening scene of Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ what you see is a raindrop falling from the sky but I think it was also meant to depict a tear falling from the eye of God this is another screenshot portraying Jesus on the cross with the very same raindrop you can see falling to the ground for as far as the heavens are above the Earth so great is his love for those that fear him Psalm 10311 do I Fear God do you did the people that condemned Jesus to death hate him or did they fear Him or were they jealous surely they witnessed his love but it didn’t seem to have any impact on their actions or did it this is another screenshot from the same film where you see the actor portraying Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate with all the religious leaders there’s one man among all those people and they feared him Romans 8: 37-39 again yet in all these things we are are more than conquerors through him who loved us for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our lord has anyone experienced U being able to conquer something because of Christ in you I’ll share something in a moment yes Mark I think just just the sins that seem to be set us that we seem to struggle with over the years I think some of us have ones that we think we’re never going to get victory over over and um I think I’ve recognized over time as I as I listen to these verses and let them wash over me that it’s not so much a matter of my self-effort uhu but it’s what is submitting to the work of God in Me you’ve mentioned in Christ a few times in Christ in Christ and it’s all those resources that we have in him this is why Paul prayed in Ephesians 1 that we our eyes would be open to see those things and in Ephesians 3 that you and I talked about that um that we would know the love of of Christ which surpasses knowledge so it’s I I find it’s it’s um if there’s any effort it’s an effort of surrender and submission and acceptance of it and asking God to do what only he can do thanks Mark it um at U certainly I have experienced that some of the lowest points in my life is when uh surrender takes place and I hope to think that now it’s not the last um it’s not my last reaction it’s my initial reaction Isaiah 4010 to11 behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand and his arm shall rule for him behold his reward is with him and his work before him he will feed his flock Like a Shepherd he will gather the Lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young Psalm 11 1911 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not that I might not sin against you surely Mark you have something to say about this verse since you wrote a book about Psalm 119 only to say that God’s transforming power is incredible I mean um we’ve been talking an Iron Man about the disciplines of a Godly Man and and that and the time that we we spend in the word and sometimes it seems dry sometimes it seems um like it’s not bearing any fruit um but you know the word of God is like a seed that bears fruit in God’s time and in God’s way and so um what I love about this verse is God changes our affections and our desires by the means of his word um and his word is a means by which he expresses his love to your point Mike that God would these aren’t just words on a page we know this right um Psalm 1941 says you are near and all your words are truth so what that tells us is is that when God gives us his word he’s coming to us personally speaking to us personally he’s with us and he’s giving us everything that we need so that that verse is one that a lot of us may memorize as a kid but it becomes more precious to me the more I think about it thank you thank you for that book I’m sure each of us have read that book thoroughly and have studied it could comment as much as Mark but really appreciate that I I remember uh one of the first memories I have of this verse is uh again the hymn Thy word have I hid in my heart I remember hearing it sung by a Mixed Quartet at a funeral well this is the man that wrote the song Ernest Orlando sers was born in Michigan in 1869 he was a surveyor and civil engineer he went to M A Moody Bible in Institute in Chicago was involved with the YMCA and ended up as the Director of the music department at Baptist Bible Institute in New Orleans where the music building was named in his honor and I I I as I read about him again thought here’s a man who was an engineer God used him to write a hym that has touched many many people over the years Ephesians 3:18 I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is the John MacArthur Study Bible has a note about this verse which I’d like to share a Believer cannot understand the fullness of God’s love apart from from genuine Spirit owered love in his own life love is both granted to and commanded of every Christian not just those who have a natural a naturally Pleasant temperament or have great spiritual maturity width length depth height not four different features of love but an effort to suggest its vastness and completeness that verse made me think of this song How Deep The Father’s Love For Us was written by steuart townend around 8 uh 1995 was probably first sung at a church of Christ the King in Brighton England where townend was worship leader Matthew 10:31 fear not therefore ye are of more value than many sparrows look at the birds of the air they do not sew or reap or store away in Barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them are you not much more valuable than they Matthew 6:26 beautiful picture of sparrows made me think of the song his ey Is On The Sparrow whenever I see a sparrow hear about it hear the verse think of the verse I think of the song many of us uh remember Ethel Waters singing this again at Billy Graham Crusades well this is the lady that wrote it this is going to be hard for me to read but I read wrote this because you’ll understand why it was written by Sevilla dery Martin who was born in Nova Scotia she wrote this song in 1905 one writer remarked as I was doing research about her this has been one of the most influential and often recorded in sung gospel hymns of the 20th century her husband Walter Martin was a Baptist Min Minister I will now read her account of how she came to write it early in the spring of 1905 my husband and I were sojourning in Elmyra New York we contracted a deep friendship for a couple by the name of Mr and Mrs D true saints of God Mrs dou had been bedridden for n 20 years her husband was an incurable [ __ ] who had to propel himself to and from his business in a wheelchair despite their afflictions they lived happy Christian lives bringing inspiration and comfort to all who knew them one day one day while we were visiting with the dittles my husband commented on their bright hopefulness and asked them for their secret of it Mrs Doodle’s Mrs D’s response was simple His Eye Is on the Sparrow and I know he watches me the beauty of the simple Faith gripped the hearts and fired the imagination of Dr Martin in me the hym his eyes on the sparrow was the outcome of that experience some of you know my wife Sage was quite ill a few years ago she endured a lengthy Hospital stay where at the most critical point she was cared for by these people I saw God’s love through the retentive care of sage each day for the 76 days she was there I viewed them as His Hands and Feet they cared for her when I could not God showed us Mercy God showed us love in so many ways in many ways I was the greater recipient of that love and mercy many of these people were Believers and ministered to her and to me in countless ways that photo was taken about a year and a half after she had been released from their care we wanted to go back and thank them many of them had never heard her voice because she had been on a respirator while she was there I’m going to point out a few of them the first is the woman to the right the second from the right with gray hair Lauren the director of nursing who on the first day I visited Sage greeted me with a hug the man with the light colored shirt behind Sage is Dr Michael Rodricks who directed her care if I didn’t see him when I was there he would call me on the phone every day give me a detailed progress report of her condition so many people were praying and every day every day except for two days every day there was stability or slow incremental progress there were nurses that seemed to have a deep attachment to her sage and they were such a blessing later we come to find out that those that visited her when they were not assigned to care for her came to see her because she was one of the few people that they were caring for that was actually improving and they were inspired that what they did mattered there was a team of respiratory therapists that even seemed to have a more deeper attachment to Sage there are three of them pictured Justin who’s the young man at the back row in the center Matt who is to the left the beard and Maria next to him Matt is a Christian and is a member of a worship team in a local church and uh he was present when Sage came out of her sedation he was with her when one other story about Matt is after she was discharged from this hospital she went to another hospital to St Peters and uh 22 days later she was off the ventilator and uh since I had been visiting her every day and got to know these folks uh Matt was one of the people that wanted me to keep in touch to let him know how she did and uh when I texted him 22 days later he said that I’ll share this with you now that when she was admitted with a group of other people and put on a ventilator she was the only person that survived there’s uh one other person who’s not pictured that I want to mention and that is uh a lady by the name of Emily bricks Emily was a custodian elderly woman from Jama and a few days before Sage was discharged she told me that she was going home for Christmas and that she wanted me to know that every day when she cleaned Sage’s room she was praying for her his eyes on the sparrow is one of Sage’s favorite songs and I’d like to share this with you [Music] now should I feel discouraged and why should the Shadows come why should my heart be [Music] lonely and long and home when Jesus is my [Music] my his eye His Eye Is on [Music] the I know I know he watches me his is home a SP and I know he watches so I Sing Because [Music] sing because I free is he is all he watches [Music] [Music] your heart [Music] TR resting I lo the doubt and the fear I call [Music] and I know you want [Music] [Music] his is [Music] [Music] know he want me [Music] [Applause] so that concludes my thoughts for today I uh just hope that if I’ve done anything today is to highlight the scripture that uh Jerry Bridges highlighted added a few scripture myself and that I would hope that through some of the sharing that I did that would cause you to reflect upon how some time in your life you have known God’s love any closing thoughts from anyone if not I’ll um pray Lord thank you for the opportunity to speak uh to these folks to share my heart and to share most importantly your scripture and the repetition throughout your word where it speaks to your love for us thank you for that love in Jesus name amen amen next week um Ian Pang will be teaching and his topic will be experiencing God’s love look forward to that God

November 3, 2024
Lesson 8: The Wisdom of God

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well good morning everyone and welcome to another Sunday school it’s nice to be with you again my second time H teaching this Sunday school series and uh today we’re going to go through chapter eight of our book trus in God uh the title is the wisdom of God so let me pray in order to start the the lesson God uh thank you for H this time this morning that we can spend together to go over this um lesson thank you for this Sunday school and for this church and for all the brothers and sisters who are here the ones who are also connected online I ask you that you please bless this lesson uh bless U my words that uh I will speak and uh this H lesson um can be a blessing for for all of us that we can uh feel your your word and can make it part of our lives in Jesus name amen okay so uh the title is the wisdom of God and um I’m going to start the lesson making a brief recap of some Concepts that we have uh seen in the in Prior lessons starting with this this picture here do you remember this picture piure yeah we saw this in lesson number two Mar presented this this picture here this triangle where we see how the wisdom of God um operates along with the sovereignty of God and the love of God uh we see here this triangle and all of these three concepts were together and uh we saw that um if any of those is missing then this does not operate properly uh for example if there is no wisdom of if what is not fully fully wise then what happens that means that God Can Make Mistakes if God is not fully Sovereign then what happens yeah he’s he’s weak and that means that he does not control everything right and if uh God is not love then means that we there is no forgiveness for us right we would uh be punished and we would disappear so all of these three concepts were together and um there is also a a purpose these Concepts were together to accomplish a purpose and what is the purpose we can see that in the bottom of the of the screen the purpose is that God exercises his sovereignty for his glory and the good of his people so all these three concepts were together side by side towards that purpose the glory of God and the good of his people so the good of us right now let’s look at some definitions of wisdom I think uh we all kind of know what wisdom is we can identify it we can have our definitions we can see when someone is is wise we can identify people in our lives that we can say oh that uh person has a lot of wisdom that uh um relative that Professor that brother or sister his wise um but let’s see what um our book says in um in the in the book y riches provide us two definitions the first one it says wisdom is commonly defined as God judgment on the ability to develop the best course of action or the best response to a given situation the second definition Brides takes it from Theologian JL dag who described wisdom as consisting in the selection of the best end of action and the adoption of the best means for accomplishments of this end so overall I think we can summarize it with um that wisdom is really making the best decisions out of something right and um in the second definition we can see extra step there and uh making actions taking the best actions to towards accomplish that purpose right any other has any ideas of what wisdom is I think it to express what you have learned and put into action yeah what what uh Miss lenda says what you have learned and put it into action yeah use our past experiences to um put it into into action in order to achieve the best result out of that right so now let’s see what the Bible says about the wisdom of God we have seen what the definitions are of wisdom in general now let’s see what um the Bible says about the the wisdom of God I have here three Bible passages the first one Psalm 1475 great is our Lord and abundant in strength his understanding understanding is infinite infinite Jeremiah 10:12 it is he who made the Earth by his power who established the World by his wisdom and by his understanding he has stretched out the heavens Romans 11: 33:34 oh the Deep of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor so when we see these passages we see words or we see expressions like infinite right creator of the world unsearchable on faom takes no counil from anybody and when we compare these definitions to the definition that we can have as human wisdom we see that wisdom that we can achieve as humans is not anywhere near what we have here right it is in fact the opposite of what we see here our wisdom is not infinite it’s not unsearchable it’s not unfathomable and we do take counsel from other people right I mean even prominent people Kings rulers they have counselors they have people who advise them what to do in certain circumstances so the wisdom of God is very different of what we as uh humans can can can have as wisdom now as um we were commenting in the beginning all this has a purpose right and the purpose is the glory of God and the good of his people so let’s see now some passages about um the purpose the purpose that expresses the glor the glory of God I have here Romans 11:36 for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever amen 1 Corinthians 10:31 therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all things for the glory of God Revelation 411 worthy are you our Lord and our God to receive Glory and honor and power you created all things and because of your will they existed and were created Can See Clearly here Express this this U idea of everything for the glory of God is expressed in this in these Bible verses right um now um there is also good point here that uh Jerry bres mentions in the book um going a little bit back to comparing the God’s wisdom versus human wisdom um it says uh which is on page 112 in the in the middle of the page it says that God never agonizes God never has to agonize over a decision he does not even have to deliver it within himself or conso others outside of himself his wisdom is intuitive infinite and infallible his understanding has no limit s475 um so this again contrast with our wisdom because as humans I think uh we all have fac some situations where we come to a point when we say oh I don’t know what to yeah have you been through that point that situation uh I I have been yeah um several times you came to that point that I don’t know what to do but you don’t see that in the scripture about God he never gets to that point that oh I don’t know what to do oh my plane failed now I have to go to another plan I have to implement the plan B I have to have a backup plan I have to change the course of action no he he you don’t see that in the scripture he proceeds always along his plan right he doesn’t change the course of action um now we said that all this is going to a purpose the glory of God as we see here and the second purpose um do you remember what is the second purpose the good of his people right so let’s see um how this uh purpose can be accomplished and in this case I’m going to take a a paragraph from Bridges that you can see there in the screen this paragraph is on page um this is in the discussion guide section so it’s not part of the lesson it’s towards the end of the book in these sections you have a summary of each lesson and there are also some questions and exercises that you can do in order to go deeper in the lesson and in this uh page in um riches um writes this paragraph the good that uh God works for in our lives is Conformity to the likeness of his son it is not necessarily Comfort or happiness but Conformity to Christ in never increasing measure of in his life most Godly character can only be developed through adversity God In His Infinite Wisdom knows exactly what adversity we need to grow into the likeness of his son he knows when we need it and how to best to bring it to pass on our lives so according to this passage to this paragraph what is the god that God works in our lives what is the the what God is trying to do with us to conform us to his son’s image conform us to his son’s image yeah right um that is um sometimes not um so easy to process right because in our lives we are used to to visualize the good as something that uh will make us happy that provide us Comfort but that’s not necessarily what God is is is um trying to do with us his purpose is to conform us to to cry see much and um how can this be developed through adversity through adversity right in this paragraph it says through adversity so if we want to become like Christ then H we have to go through adversity that’s a a reality that we have to face and um that’s how God um designed it and if God designed it this way then it means it is good um even though sometimes it’s it’s hard I mean it’s not easy but that’s the the purpose that go that God had so in the in the book um then um riches goes through different points on how God works in adversity with us with our lives so I will go through some of these points and then we’ll we’ll explore this u in the lesson so the first point that he makes he um he names this point Beauty out of ashes and we can illustrate this point with this Bible verse Luke 22 3132 uh this is Jesus talking to Peter Simon Simon behold Satan has demanded to sift you men like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith will not fail and you and when you uh have turned back strengthen your brothers so in this paragraph in this in this verse um as I mentioned Jesus is talking to Peter and this uh conversation happened just be Peter just before Peter denied Jesus right um and Jesus is saying to Peter I mean you’re going to to suffer you’re are going to go through this adversity Peter replied no no no I am ready I’m I’m ready to face anything but we know the story shortly after that Peter denied Jesus not only once but three times so um I think um this situation is like uh God was going to bring Peter to Ashes to bring out a new Peter to bring the Peter the Great apostle that we all know but uh he had to go through through this process it was not going to be easy but he had to go through it another illustration that I think it’s interesting is on the book on page 113 here um riches makes um interesting comment about um how the wisdom of God is displayed so the second from the bottom to top it says the wisdom of a chess player is is play more in winning over a capable opponent than over an noice the wisdom of the journalist is play more in Def defeating a superior Army than in sud doing an inferior one even more so the wisdom of God is display when he brings good to us and glory to himself out of confusion and Calamity rather than our Pleasant times I think we all can agree with this right what good is to um win a chess tournament when the opponent is doesn’t really know how to play chess I mean there is no no no glory on that and when I Was preparing this lesson I remember um my father he U passed away several years ago he was a Believer and um the last um two or three years of his life uh were pretty bad for him he started to develop um a mental illness dementia and then other illness also fell upon him um and we pray for him but um he didn’t get better he only got worse and the last time I visited him he didn’t recognize me he sat in front of me and he asked me who are you was pretty sad but um in the middle of this tragic situation I remember that he used to still sing a couple of verses of a hymn that I think it was his favorite hymn and uh he just started to sing it like randomly out of nothing and uh I was wow impressed by by that uh um other people who visited people from the church that used to visit him they were also Amazed by that because he didn’t recognize anything he was totally gone but in the middle of that hearing him to to sing those couple of verses of that himym was really very comforting it’s like he what was saying hey this is tragic this is sad but I’m still here um he says um I see this as um God who was bringing Beauty out of the ashes shortly after that um my father uh went to the Lord he passed away but still remember that memory of of him of his last days singing those verses of of that that hym so that’s the beauty the beauty of of fases and um as mention is it’s not easy it’s difficult and uh yes we all have our personal stories about that but um that’s that’s that’s a concept um I don’t know if uh anybody would like to comment or have a question about this yeah we yeah just in general uh all of our lives here is an examp are examples of Beauty out of Ashes if you’re born again our Our Lives before that were just death and destruction in ashes and he is raised us out of that yep uh it’s never good to question God as it was saying here God never explained and when we think about job all that job was going through God never explained to job and we can take example from that when we are going through it he don’t have to explain to us but then in the end we can see the outcome and you say you would say to yourself yes this is not this was done done of me but it was done of God so that’s where God get the beauty when we go through it without asking him why or questioning but the outcome we can see it was God that did the work yeah sure and um yeah I think je is a very good example about this and we we’ll talk a little bit more about javah the next points y I remember when first reading through this chapter this point really stuck out to me the whole Beauty out of Ashes thing because I think one of the questions that we often have comes to our minds in the midst of a severe trial is how could this possibly turn to good like I don’t see any way for this to be redeemed but that’s the point of God’s infinite wisdom as you said with the whole chess analogy that when God makes it as he ordains it the circumstance seem like it’s impossible to bring out any good but then he does bring out good then he accomplishes his purpose right his glory and then of course the sanctification of his people even as we see God’s wisdom on display and we learn to trust him so it really is such a practical truth when you say I don’t see how this could work out well that’s the point God brings you there so that he can glorify himself so even for me in some Ministry situations or counseling situations where I’m like God I don’t see how how could this possibly turn around but I’m like but this is an opportunity for God to display his power and his wisdom so that’s a point that I think that we should continue to take with us yeah okay the next point that bries um comments in the book is Holiness out of adversity and I have here um couple of verses from uh Psalm 119 um Psalm 11 119 I think we know is favorite of our brother Mark and in his book he titled this section of Psalm 119 that goes from verse 62 to 71 as treasuring Affliction which I think it’s very proper to to describe this and um verse 67 says before I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep your word verse 71 it is good for me that I was afflicted so that I may learn your EST statutes so Affliction here H has a has a good purpose and we see the purpose in generally is to confirm us to Christ Image and here ER we see that um working towards that purpose it prevent us from going astray and it helps us to keep his word and it help us to keep his statutes right I think um when we go through these trials as you were all commenting we do learn about God and we do learn about uh his his word his his EST statutes um Brides also mentions in the book um commenting about this he Compares this to also to a father who is uh teaching um a son right and he refers to Hebrews um 1210 ER Hebrews 10 I mean 1210 and it says for they discipline us for a short time I seem best to them but uh he deciple he disciplines he disciplines us for our good so that we make sure his Holiness um so yeah we try to also do the same with our children to discipline them to teach them but uh we know as parents evidently I mean we’re not perfect we make mistakes and uh even though we do our best and we prepare as best as we can to educate our children but we are not perfect with make mistakes yet God is doing the same with us when we going through these adversities through these afflictions but uh the difference is that he’s unlike us he is perfect he doesn’t make mistakes now the next um point we have here is probably one of the most uh difficult uh for us to to understand God never explains God never explains and I hear I have here a passage from Isaiah 89 it says for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways declar the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so I so are my my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts so dispers expresses clearly my thoughts are higher than your thoughts reading this passage I can think of a child who is just uh learning mathematics and he’s just learning arithmetics and he demands an explanation to um complex problems that requires to know calculus to explain the problem so if you explain that to a child is he going to understand no right I mean it’s impossible for a young child who is just learning to two basic arithmetics to understand a complex situation that requires calculus is is is useless um but um sometimes um we can kind of know what U what is going on on the situation and we can kind of know what happen why God put us on on a trial and usually we can see that after after the situation has has gone right some time after for example uh in the story of Joseph you remember the story Joseph was sold by his own Brothers into slavery he ended up in Egypt and in Egypt um he became a prominent person he was the second in command just just after faroh and then um when there was a famine in his homeland his brothers had to go to Egypt to get food and then ER they met again his brother the brother that has they have So Into Slavery and after that uh this um family drama that we can see in in Genesis Joseph uh in Genesis 458 he expresses now therefore it was not you who sent me but God and he has made me a father to pharaoh and Lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt at that point he understood right he he was able to to see okay everything that happened to me um why they sold me into slavery and why I ended up here it had a purpose I mean the the purpose of my brothers was an evil purpose but God transformed that purpose and made it a good purpose and now we are all together and now they com to here and now I can help them right so we can see also there the beauty out of fascist and and and and then Joseph um understood why that happened to him that tragic moment in in his life um but some other Mo in some other circumstances there is not really an explanation and uh you were commenting about the Book of Job right in the Book of Job um make a quick recap here of the Book of Job job is a racious man who has a lot of children very nice family he’s a very wealthy man has a lot of possession he’s rich and then all of a sudden he loses everything he loses his children they all die they are killed he loses all his wealth all his possessions and um he loses also his health he gets sick so he’s in a terrible situation and um initially how does job respond he initially he responded properly right he says this outstanding declaration in job 1:21 naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return there the lord gave and the Lord has taken a way blessed be the name of the Lord so that that’s one of the most amazing passages that I think we can find in the Bible in the middle of all the trial and the terrible tragedy he can still say this and express this um but then the situation starts to to change and it changes when three of his friends go and visit him and they go with good intentions they want to come for job and spend time with him because he’s his friend and and he’s going through a terrible time but um the problem with job’s friends um is that um they want to explain why job is going through this difficult situation right and what is the explanation that they gave to to job do you remember that yeah Miss l say yeah they explain to job that he has seen right and that’s explanation they can they can find no I mean if you job are going through this very difficult situation it must be because you are in sin and you have to confess and then you have to repent right and job says no I mean that’s that’s not right I I am I am not in sin um I I you are you are wrong and um doesn’t mean that job was not a sinner I mean he he was a sinner like us but what job is saying the reason for these afflictions is not because I am in I was in sin oh it must must be something else now we know the story when we read the book we know what happened behind the scenes we know that it was was part of a spiritual war and that’s why job was suffering this this trial but job doesn’t know right so now job goes um through different emotions and now job is starts to lament the situation we see for example in JV um 311 job says now after issuing that out the signing declaration now job says in job 311 why did that not die at Birth come out of a womb passes away you see now now he’s lamenting situation he’s going from thirsting and they go to lamenting now lamenting is is not bad and we have seen this in in in Prior lessons of this series lamenting is is not bad you can express your your sorrow to the Lord you can lament your situation that is okay and there are a lot of Psalms that talk about that so lamenting is fine but um after lamenting joob goes to question God sorry um for example in jof Chapter 10: 2 and three um Can someone read that um that passage Job 10 2 and three two and three yes please I will say to God do not condemn me let me know why you contend against me does it seem good to you to oppose to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked thank you yeah now we see here job um is telling God you are condemning me right you are um oppressing me in other words um um you are not being fair with me because now in relation to the claim that job friends were doing to him I mean job’s friends were telling job I mean this happened to you because you sin and he says no I didn’t sin and now job says now um God you are not fair with me because I didn’t sin and then in Des spite of that you are bringing this upon me and you are oppressing me and um and it’s not fair so goes to the love section you remember the three parts of God’s work uh it’s like if job is saying to to love I mean you are not loving me God you are not fair because you’re bringing this upon me and then because of that it means that you are not a loving God because how can a loving God bring this such tragedy on me no I haven’t done anything to deserve this now um in job 169 we can see here another um complaint of God of of I mean of job before God someone would like to read job 169 he has torn me in his wrath and hated me he has nashed his teeth at me my adversary sharpens his eye against me thank you now now he we also hear job um questioning God and he’s saying to God you have turned me and hunted me down my enemies clear at me so now here job we see Job saying to God um not only you were not fair to me you were not loving to me but you are turning me down you are um giving me more than what I can stand understand I mean God I understand that you you can you can send trials to me but uh in this case you are giving me more than what I deserve you are giving me more than what I can stand so in other words I would say Jo uh job is saying to God God you are making a mistake because you are going too far with me so we see here now job is questioning God’s love and go and God’s God’s wisdom and um I want to make a a pause here because about questioning god um bres also has a good comment in the book page um when we think about questioning God it’s also kind of related to uh expressing our sorrow to to God no when it’s and we said it’s okay to express our Ling to God um but um expressing our complaint to God is a little bit different and uh on the book on page 118 Brides says in like in the middle of the page um it says um so we should never ask why in the sense of demanding that God explained or Justified his actions or what he permits in our lives then he continues in the next paragraph when I say we should never ask why I am not talking about the reactive and spontaneous Cry of Anguish when Calamity first befalls us or one we love rather I am speaking of a persistent and demanding why that has an accusatory tone towards God in it so I think uh we have a good explanation there right of how we can question God and why uh and and in what circumstances it is somehow fine to question God and but on on what circumstances we may cross the line on questioning God no so going back to the example of job I think uh in the last two verses that we just read job was kind of crossing the line right of questioning God saying God you are you are unfair with me God you are making a mistake with me you are giving me more than than what I deserve and I think uh that explains what happened next in the book of Jo after all this um dialogue between job and his friends that extends for several chapters um basically takes most of a book and um becomes sometimes very philosophical not so much of an easy reading but um very interesting so uh God Appears and then God shows to to job and um does God answers jobs claims all right does God provide an explanation no what does God do with yob he questions job now God is questioning job and um he’s questioning um um basically asking job are you wiser than me yob are you stronger than me yob are you better than me and the series of question is a long series of questions that are really overwhelming and job at the end of all those rhetorical questions job is is totally humbled and uh What uh does job uh says that uh at the end um well we can see job 42 versus uh 4- six and job then finally replies to God and he says uh god listen and I will speak I will ask you and you instruct me I have heard of you by the hearing of the year but now my eyes sees you therefore I retract and I Repent sitting on D and ases so after all this then job goes back to where he was before he circles back to that the first out understanding declaration when he says God uh gave and God took away blessed be the name of the Lord now after all this he basically ends up more or less in the same concept right after being humbled by by God goes back and he says okay God I mean yes you are God and and I still trust in you so in the end there was no explanation for job and um and job was fine with it I was um once he also um some comment from um I think it was Pastor B bman he says that God um will give us what we need he will he will give us what we need and if he doesn’t give us something is because we don’t need it because otherwise if we need something and he doesn’t give it to us then means that he’s either uncapable of giving it to us or he just doesn’t want to give it to us so if God doesn’t give us an explanation then very much it maybe because we don’t need explanation right this is where um then faith comes in place right we don’t need an explanation we just need Faith so I don’t know if would you like to make a comment or question about this story of Job like you know the the the title or the heading here is that God never explains and yes and no I think because he obviously has given us us his word which is the best explanation it’s a complete explanation of everything we need for our lives so he does maybe not explain every particular to job why he’s being Afflicted but he’s given us this story and he’s already he’s given uh job obviously didn’t have the Bible at that point but um but we do and he so therefore he has given us the best explanation and sometimes you know for job uh yes he was a righteous man a famous man very wealthy uh but that verse 13 uh chapter uh 13 verse1 15 was always intriguing to me because it says though he slay me yet shall I worship him but I will maintain my own ways before him so it it did show a bit of a rebellion and a bit of a an arrog an well not an arrogance so much but um but uh yeah it shows us our hearts against God we we are quick to rebel against him and and we’re going to stand firm against God but yeah and and so in the end even the righteous job needed to repent so it’s a lesson for all of us and you know just touching back on Pastor Dave’s comments yeah you know we all have situations in our lives that look Hope hopeless and um you know how how is this going to work out out but sometimes and for most times I think it’s just the process God wants us to go through the process with him to walk Our Lives before him let him handle the outcome we don’t always get to see the finished product but it is the process that we walk in faith with him yeah thank you m we a working process definitely says yeah that’s right who did that all that was in the God right you on the page of page 119 Pastor Baker says I have long since quit seeking the answer to that question why in my own life God owes me no explanation he has the right to do what he wants when he wants and how he wants why because he’s God mhm yeah I think sometimes um it causes you to examine yourself and to get away from this feeling of entitlement or feel like oh I deserve better from God and we really don’t and as Magna says at the end of it is not about why it’s about who who are you talking into who do you think is in charge why do you feel like you’re entitled to have this or that done I am the one that’s in charge end of statement and so it causes us to reexamine yourself to see that you’re coming before a holy Sovereign God humble yourself and allow him to do what he needs to do in your heart and in your life to conform you to his son yeah right that’s the OB objective in the end conforming to his I have to admit that there’s times often that I ask why and I think I’m asking why because I want to make sure there’s no sin in my life that I haven’t been have wrong motives or disobeyed and once I understand that a little clear then no reason to ask why what he does is always good mhm yeah okay yeah interesting topic the next point it’s somehow related to to this one God’s um ways are incomprehensible here I have a passage of Romans 11:33 on the depth of um the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways so um I think here also bres makes a good comment on page one 121 121 on um the middle of a of the page um bries Brides writes um God’s wisdom is fathomless his decisions are unsearchable his methods are mysterious and untraceable no one has ever understood his mind let alone advise him on the purpose on the proper course of action how fule and even arrogant for us to seek to determine what H is doing in a particular event or circumstance we simply cannot search out the reasons behinds his decisions or Trace out the ways by which he bring those decisions to pass so I think this illustrates um very well the the idea God God’s ways are incomprehensible and related to to the paragraph that um to the point that we saw before that uh does not provide explanations what ways are incomprehensible um going back to job and he didn’t have the rational explanation but he was fine and now in the end we saw the purpose the purpose I mean of everything that happened to to Jo was to U bring him closer to and make him more like like God right so we saw we saw that also the the way to to do that was um somehow um incomprehensible for for god um now here this there is also a good point for for discussion because um this sounds also kind of um um dogmatic idea that um okay you just have to believe and accept and understand that everything is God’s Will and and so on and that’s one of the points that um critics of Christianity of the Bible can say no I mean you just believe it because you just believe it and there is no no rational rational on that um and here while I just um like to to say two points I mean um I would say okay but um if uh you claim that then where are you going to find the truth where are you going to find uh rational explanation for everything that happens in the world and the reality is that uh there is not anyone any man any philosophy any religion any world view that can provide can provide a explanation of what happens in the world there is no one who can who can do that and if we go through human history and we review the people who claim to be the wisest people in human history for example the Greek philosophers we don’t see any any any idea or anyone that can claim that hey this is the full truth and I have the explanation for everything if we move centuries forward to the enlightment of the 18 19th centuries all this group of uh famous philosophers World thinkers scientists claim that um they were going to to fix humanity and and they didn’t either I mean nobody can answer these questions and if we come now to our current time our present time and we see all these these ideas that are going on in the world like uh the the cult cultural marxis Marxist idea the critical race Theory the humanistic worldview that is now going out through this war all the all these ideas pretend to explain this this these questions that humankind has had for forever and uh none of them can do it I mean there is not really an explanation for for anything God does not provide an explanation but uh not any other human or any other idea can provide an explanation and if we see also where this ideas that the world is now promoting uh if we see how they are impacting the society we see that they are not really bringing the society to a better place now we see nowadays ER violence is still ramping up uh there are no world wars in this Century there’s been known but uh there are two major Wars going on um and there is crime social unrest um people rioting on the streets and um drug crime and that is happening in this country and also in many other countries around the world um and um we see the moral decadence we see ER the family breaking down so when we compare the ideas the ideologies that the world is is is putting in place uh we see not only they don’t have an explanation but they are not making the world better they are really making the the the world uh worth and I every time I think about this I uh think of uh that um a verse in in Romans in Romans one where it says that uh when Paul is talking about the the worldly ideas and he says claiming to to be wise um they became full right because those other ideas I mean they they just um don’t explain and they only make the situation worse um but um also I mean it’s not that uh God want so just to believe and and believe and and that’s it and my ways are my ways and and that’s it because on the other hand God also invite us to explore his word to understand his word to go deeper in his word he um invite us to look for wisdom right and if we see the Book of Proverbs there is a lot of invitations from God to seek his wisdom um to explore his his word and in fact what we are doing here Sunday school there’s a reason why it is called the Sunday school because it’s a school it’s it’s a way for us to to learn to uh understand the word of God to grow in his name so it’s not that oh okay you just believe it and that no there are a lot of things that are revealed to us there are a lot of things that we can learn um but we also have to understand that there are some things that are not revealed and and uh can think about that verse in Deuteronomy where it says that uh um there are things that are just for the Lord no and and that’s that’s the way it is his ways are past finding out you know we those of us who have kids and we say to them do this do that and they say to you why and then you say again do this why and then you say because I say to do it so that’s what is that verse is saying his ways are un fathomable we can understand so if he said to do it just as we said to CH because I said to do it he say my word is what you obey so that that’s what I get from that verse his ways a past finding out yep right way yep that um Psalm he quotes Psalm 1311 is I found really helpful he says my heart is not proud O Lord my eyes are not haunty I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me it seems like the root when he examine ourselves could be pride and most times it’s Pride yep good um the last point that I have here is God’s wisdom is greater than our adversary and uh for this I have Proverbs 21:30 for there is no wisdom no understanding and no plan against the Lord um no adversity no enemy not a a man another person or um the nature or the circumstances can be greater than than God right sometimes it feels like but um they are not uh we see examples in the Bible how um for example David was persecuted by Saul and Saul wanted to kill David ER but he didn’t Prevail God still managed to protect David and continue with with his plan um Paul was afflicted uh the Bible says was afflicted with a thorn and um Paul asked the Lord to to have it removed and uh God said no my grace is enough so he didn’t um conceed to Paul with his petition but um still Paul was able to continue his ministry and uh that adversity was not greater than than God and and his plan um so there is U no one that um can can can be greater no adversity that can be greater than God and as um Romans says uh if God is with us no one can be against against us now all we have uh commented here all these points um have to remember they they have the purpose the purpose of all these adversities of all these situations that we face in our day-to-day lives have the purpose of getting more into Christ like right and um if these adversities are going through that purpose then and what do we have to do well have to trust God right the title of the book trus in God that’s that’s um what we have to do in the middle of these adversities and um understand that everything is for our good and for the glory of God um yeah life is difficult but um I Heard once um an analogy that I think it’s it’s nice I mean uh when you when you go to see a movie do you go to see a movie where um the main character has a perfect life and uh he wakes up in the morning goes to work and work is perfect goes back home uh home is perfect family is perfect wife is perfect husband is perfect children are perfect perfect goes to church on Sundays church is perfect and everything is perfect the next day wakes up again and it’s the same and it’s the same and it’s the same at the end of the movie you would say oh what a boring movie right you don’t go to see a movie like that you go to see a movie where the main character faces drama faces adversity faces problems but overcomes all these problems overcomes all these adversities so I guess that’s a nice analogy for our lives and to think what going God is doing in our lives any final questions or comments he He blesses us in every circumstance so we’re going um the Lord blesses us in every circumstance when we’re going through adversity which is what none of us want to go through he Comforts us he guides us he lifts us he carries us through it and brings us closer to himh and and when we’re um he he doesn’t we’re not going constantly through adversity he gives us relief and then those times of um of more seeming peace and Harmony um he’s with us through those two but then he draws us even closer when we’re going through the tough times so no matter what it is he’s still blessing us right got I also was just thinking that there’s also a proper place for lament that leads to trust and praise in the Lord so asking those questions why but not in a way of I have to have these answers but Lord why is this happening um and then turning that to praise yeah right turning into praise okay well thank you let me close in prayer God thank you for this time that we could spend together going through this lesson thank you for all the ER teaching and all the ER ideas the comments the questions everything that we have on through thank you for for um your wisdom and uh we ask that you continue blessing us in the rest of the the service in the worship service in Jesus name

October 27, 2024