BECOMING: The Process of Progress

This podcast is the Ministry of Graham Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit GrahamProway.org.

Becoming.

It's a short four-week series.

Last week uh was was the initiation of that, and and and we talked about being changed people, a reborn people, a birth, a rebirth people, refathered from above.

And and and as we talk about being born again and refathered from above, that should produce some results in us.

Today is the process, and we're gonna talk about some of those results.

Uh, and really it's the process of progress.

That's our second week, uh, and that's the subject matter that we're gonna talk about today, the process of progress.

Uh, we're all on a journey.

As Neil mentioned before during announcement, but we're all on a journey.

We are all setting out uh on a course to become someone.

The question is who?

Who are you becoming?

Uh maybe it's a lot of us, and as a young man myself, I remember I said I'm gonna be anybody besides my dad, or I'm gonna be anybody besides my coach who smacked me on the top of the head with his whistle.

I'm gonna be anybody besides that.

And that's a whole lot easier, it takes a whole lot less effort to not be someone than it does to become someone.

And the Bible declares for all of us that we are called to point out with a trajectory and a journey and a destination, and his name is Jesus.

And that's why we read out of Romans 8 that we are all foreknown, predestined to be conformed into the image of the Son.

And so as we set out on this progress, on this process to become more and more like Jesus, it looks completely different for you than it would be for me.

My wife's journey and process is completely different than mine, and we live together.

Okay, we spend more time together than probably anybody else that I would spend time with, and yet hers is vastly different than mine.

And so I can't sit here up here today and compare myself and my journey and where I'm at, and oh, I just wish I was that, or I wish I was becoming this, or I wish I had a better pace.

I am where I'm at, but I'm continually growing, and we're all on this journey to become.

We're all on this journey to become someone that we're not.

It's not just becoming a better us or a better version of yourself, it's becoming a whole different person.

His name is Jesus.

My meditation this week has been out of Hebrews 10, 14, and I'll just read it for you.

It's not going to come up on the screen, it's not gonna be a place where we go, but it's just been one of those things where it's like, what does this look like?

What does the New Testament really scream for us about about this particular passage, this verse, Hebrews 10 14 says this for by single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

For single offering, Jesus' single offering of his life, he has forever perfected you and I in the sight of the Father, those who are being sanctified, those who are being set apart, those who are being made more and more like Jesus, more holy.

What does that look like?

And more importantly, why don't I always experience that?

Why is that not always something that I pursue with my heart, soul, mind, and strength?

Why is it that we may look around, and as we talked about last week, uh, you know, our neighbors don't really want us around if we call ourselves Christians.

What are we doing and why is that?

Uh Dallas Willard wrote a great book, one that I recommend for everybody in this church.

Uh it's called Renovation of the Heart.

Tough reading.

Uh I I uh I taught it last spring, uh, and I'll I'll mention it a couple more times during the sermon, but I taught it last spring.

Uh it's tough.

It's a tough read, but it's not anything that's not worth uh uh digging into.

He says this in Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard.

He's just an unbelievable thinker and a great professor out at the University of Southern California.

But he says this.

He says the problem of spiritual formation, which is really the normal lack thereof, that it doesn't happen.

The problem of spiritual transformation among those who identify themselves as Christians today, is not that it is impossible or the effectual means to it are not available.

The problem is that it is not intended.

People do not see it and its value and decide to carry through with it.

And he says the bottom line is this they do not decide to do the things that Jesus did and said.

I could look at my life on any given moment and say, yeah, I guess you know that that would definitely be me.

And then there are other parts of my life where I go, no way, are you kidding me?

I would never fall away from that.

I'm just gonna keep pursuing, keep tracking with the Lord, we're gonna keep going.

And part of the process of progress is that hopefully more of the good days become more and more normative than the bad.

And we start to intend and we start to decide to do the things that Jesus did and said.

And so today, my encouragement for you all, as you're sitting out here and I get to stand before you and tell you, probably the subject that I'm most passionate about, and it gets all wrapped up into one week, which is probably gonna be the biggest challenge for me, uh, is to talk about all that we want to talk about in one week of process, of spiritual formation, of transformation.

As you sit there and listen, intend to do something different.

Be as Paul did with the Galatians, and and have the pains of childbirth in you, so that you may become more spiritually transformed.

The reality is this that our lives are like a stock market chart, uh, and not the stock market of late, uh, but maybe of the last decade or so, where it was actually going up on a more consistent basis.

And uh, this is this is our life.

And we kind of start at ground zero when we're born again, and over, oh gosh, a lifetime, hopefully we just see this stock market and this stock of our life going up and up, and there may be recessions and there may be dips, there may be days where we're just terrible, but there's also unbelievably good days where we can look back and go, oh man, I remember that day.

I will never forget that day.

It was life-changing lunch that I had.

You didn't think it was gonna be life-changing, but you just showed up and it happened.

That's a characteristic of really all of our lives, that over a lifetime we progressively are going up and up and up.

The starting point is when you became a Christian, the ending point is when we die, we become like Jesus in perfection.

How does all that happen?

How does this process of progress that we're all gonna be changing and be formed into the image of Jesus, how does all of that happen?

That's really what we're talking about today.

How do you get from point A to point B?

From being a baby believer to being able to stand up in front of other people like Paul did and said, Hey, follow me as I follow Christ.

It don't look pretty some days, but we're gonna follow Jesus all the days of our lives.

How do you get from point A to point B?

First point is this, and we'll start in Philippians 2.

Uh, and it's basically this growth happens when you cooperate with God.

Growth happens, progress occurs when you and I cooperate with God.

If you got your Bible, we're gonna be, we're gonna start in Philippians 2, and we're gonna be jumping around the New Testament as we get a good understanding, good biblical understanding of what it looks like in this process of progress.

Philippians 2, 12 and 13 says this.

It's on page 981 of the Bible at the end of your row.

Philippians 2, verse 12 says, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence.

Philippians 2:12

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

The process of progress, spiritual formation, this lifelong process of change happens when you and I cooperate with God.

It basically has two elements.

Number one, God works.

God's role in this is that he's gonna never give up.

I was recently asked, hey, are you just are you aware of what's going on in your life over the last few years?

What's been the difference for you?

And I just I just I just answered, God's never given up on me.

And he will always and continually set his face before you and never give up.

He, like Paul, has the pains of childbirth so that we would be conformed into the image of his son.

1 Thessalonians 5 says that may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

God himself, the God of the universe, has you in mind.

And although he could do all the work, he chooses not to.

He could do all the work to transform you, he could do all the work to transform me and just leave me on my own and just say, Hey, I'm gonna keep, I'm gonna you'll be my work in progress.

You'll keep going.

And although he could do that, he chooses not to, and he invites us into this beautiful participation, this beautiful cooperation, where Philippians 2 says, Hey, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

It's a command.

It's a command, something that we are called to be obedient, and it's not a command to say, hey, you've got to work for your salvation.

That's not at all a biblical idea.

If you do enough good things that you'll position yourself to where God will all of a sudden see you and become affectionate towards you.

Not at all.

Instead, because God has seen you, become affectionate towards you, now he's saying, Hey, now I want you to work out.

I want you to work out.

It's this Greek word, it's hard to pronounce, so perhaps I won't even try.

Uh, but it's a Greek word, it just means this: to dedicate your life to something so as to produce a result.

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

To dedicate your whole life to something in order to produce a result.

I don't know if you noticed, but the Olympics started.

Uh and we just cut cable out of our house, and so the Olympics are pretty much all that we got.

That's what we're doing.

We're doing Olympics.

Uh and so uh after Friday night, we didn't get to watch uh the opening ceremonies.

We don't have DVR anymore.

We were at a friend's house and we came back, we started looking up all online, and I just saw a few of the clips of the opening ceremony, and I just thought, we there's a reason why we rebelled, I think, so many years ago.

This is this is different and weird, and I don't know what's up with the Grim Reaper, uh, and all these kids are frightened.

I'm like, why is this celebration of I'm so confused?

Uh but but the Olympics have started, and and and Ryan Lochte beat Michael Phelps yesterday.

I mean, just whooped him, right?

Uh and he did that because he set out with a purpose.

And he dedicated his entire life over the last four years.

Changed his entire workout regimen to beat one man.

Now we say beat one man, but he was the best in the world, the best that's ever swam, the best that's ever been in the pool.

Work out your own salvation, that Greek word, to dedicate your entire life to something so as to produce a result.

Spiritual maturity is no different.

Whether we have finances or we want to become uh we want to be in better shape or whatever, whatever we want to learn as a new skill, it's no different in spiritual transformation.

We've got to work it out, and God will work in us.

That's the promise of Philippians 2, 12 and 13.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you.

Why?

Because it gets pleasure.

This whole process of our cooperation brings God an immense amount of pleasure.

Wouldn't you just love to be able to walk away from here going, I wonder how I can please God today?

Dedicate your life to something so as to produce a result, which is spiritual maturity.

When we work, the Bible says it's uh it's really as simple as changing clothes.

Uh we were in staff meeting, and I think there's probably two or three different comments about, oh, is that a new shirt?

Yes, it's a new shirt.

And it's uh on purpose, really, uh, because the Bible says Ephesians 4, verse 22.

Ephesians 4:22

Actually, I want to turn there.

Just it's one page to the left.

Ephesians 4, and I'm just gonna read the last three verses uh of this passage, 42.

When we work out our salvation, we can look at the Olympic swimmers and go, all right, well, those guys clearly are on a different level.

Uh, I'm not even gonna try to work out.

That could be really one result of seeing that.

The other result would be to say, okay, what can I do?

How can I become more and more like Jesus in the spiritual life?

And Paul would say in Ephesians 4.22, he says, it's as simple as taking off uh as changing clothes.

He says, Hey, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life, and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God and the true righteousness and holiness.

Put off the old and put on the new.

If I stood before you today in my oldest shirt, uh it's like see-through.

I've worn it so many times.

But I love it.

Uh it's like a hand-me-down, it's from YMCA, and I bought it at a thrift store.

Uh but if I stood before you today in an old shirt, you probably wouldn't be offended, and that would be fine.

Uh, but the reality is I'm not trying to impress anybody, but hey, I this is my new shirt.

I want to wear a new shirt.

Spiritual life is much like just taking off the old shirt, which you think is okay.

It's, I think it's okay, it's it's full of maybe good works, but the reality is the Bible describes it like this in Ephesians 4.

He says, it's characterized by futility.

It's in your mind, darkness, that's your spiritual state, alienation from God, ignorance, callousness, sensuality, greed, corruption, deceit.

Old shirt, old clothes.

Sometimes fit a little bit more comfortably.

When we take them off and put on something new, it may feel a little familiar at first, but all of a sudden we start to like the way we look.

Like Mr.

Zimmerman.

These new clothes are characterized as truth, renewal, newness of mind, likeness of God, righteousness, and holiness.

There's a reason why he says, hey, just put all your effort, all your might into this.

Take off the old, just take it off.

I know it's comfortable, but take it off and put on this new garment that I have given you.

It's new life.

It's a process.

Growth happens when you and I cooperate with God, and not only do we need to cooperate with Him, which does produce change, but also the second point is this progress only comes when you and I have a plan.

When you and I have a plan, we can accomplish many, many things.

Progress only comes when you and I have a plan.

If you got your Bible, turn to the left to Luke.

The book of Luke.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Chapter 14.

Verse 27.

And I don't know what your heading says at the top of 25.

Verse 25, mine says the cost of discipleship.

And that's what we're talking about as we talk about this process of progress.

We're in a relationship with Jesus, and he is purifying us and making us more like him.

And verse 27 says this of Luke 14: Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

For which of you, design to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it.

Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.

Only comes when you have a plan, when we're talking about formation and this process.

Everything in life.

If we want to be at point B, we start at point A and we go, okay, point B is out there, how do I get there?

Let's count the cost of what it's going to cost me financially, maybe, what it's going to cost me in my spiritual life, what's going to cost me in my time and effort, everything that we want to pursue in life is out at point B and we're at point A.

And Jesus says, Hey, count the cost.

If you want to come after me, it's going to cost you everything.

It's going to cost you your life.

And so this mark of discipleship is the symbol of discipleship is a cross.

Which in ancient days we put around our neck and maybe have a tattoo, but in ancient days, it's a symbol of execution, of death.

Count the cost of where you're headed, whether it be finances, whatever it be.

Years ago, I set out to uh I just saw a guitar one day and I was like, I want to, I want to play a guitar.

And so I set out and I was like, all right, that's my desire.

I have this idea of playing a guitar, and and then I was I intended to do it.

I went out and I just I told my mom one day, I was like in, I don't know, fifth grade or something.

I want to go play the guitar.

And she said, well, you know, that takes a lot of hard work, and oh, by the way, we don't have any money for that, so you're gonna have to save up for your own.

And I thought, okay, well, let's do it.

So all of a sudden I had to put a financial plan together and a lesson plan together.

And what how was I gonna do this?

Point B was out there, point A was here, I don't know.

But eventually enough months went by that I had enough money to get it, bought my own guitar, and then all of a sudden I picked it up and clang, nothing.

It was terrible.

Like, that's a great start.

And now I've got a whole different thing.

I gotta learn it.

And so I had to set out to take lessons and to practice the most boring days of my life.

I didn't do guitar very long.

I barely play it now.

Because I just got bored.

I was like, what is this?

This is boring.

I just want to know how to play songs.

I just want people to look at me and be like, wow, you can play guitar.

I don't want to put the hard work into it.

But Dallas Willard would say this that if we are going to undergo this change in our hearts, to have a plan is of utmost importance.

He says basically you gotta have there's three questions that you gotta ask yourself when you talk about being changed and having this plan.

The first question is this what's your vision for your life?

Have you asked yourself that lately?

Spring of 2011, I started to teach this Renovation of the Heart series, and I asked the first very first session I asked our classes, I said, Hey, what's your vision for your life?

In five years, what kind of person do you want to be?

What's your vision for your life?

The second question is this uh what do you intend to do to get there?

So the vision for all of our lives is as Romans 8, 29 would say, is that we are conformed into the image of Jesus.

We become more like Him.

And in five years from now, and ten years from now, and 30 years from now, people look at us and go, Man, you look a whole lot more like Jesus today than you did then.

Yes, praise the Lord.

For his good pleasure that he would work in me and I'd work with him and it'd be great.

But how do you intend to get there?

My question, my answer, it's been one of the most fundamentally challenging questions that I asked my class that day.

And a year and a half later, I'm still struggling through it.

I got three and a half years to go in my vision plan for my own life.

But I asked them the question, then I went first in my answer, and I'll just be real honest and open with you guys.

My question, my answer was this in five years, I want to live in such a way so the people around me know that I love them.

But the people around me know that I love them.

I love them, and I think they know I love them, but do I live in such a way that it's unmistakably clear that I love them?

From my wife, to my kids, to my family.

To my family.

You name it.

The people that I'm surrounded with, God has so ordained to put me in the middle of or around, it doesn't matter.

My vision statement for my five years is can I be, I want to live in such a way so the people around me know without a doubt that I love them in word and in deed.

Question number three would be this by what means are you gonna work on these things?

By what means are you going to work on these things?

And actually, Dallas Willard would say this is the Vim model, vision, intention, and then means.

If you want an easy way to remember that.

What's your vision?

What do you intend to do to get there?

And by what means are you going to work on these things?

If I want to become a more loving person, I need to read some books on what it means to be a loving person, why I don't perhaps love people easily.

If I want to become more mature, I need to maybe get involved in a Bible study, surround myself with people that know the Bible, know Jesus, I can point to them, I can join an accountability group or a community group.

And you know what?

More than anything, maybe I need to go serve somewhere.

Maybe I just go to the nursery and hold some babies, and that's somehow God's going to teach me that oh my gosh, my my my faith needs to be childlike, like this little one that I'm holding.

By what means.

Are you going to work on these things?

Yesterday was a big milestone in our family.

And I'll tell you why.

Ree swam yesterday for the first time.

It was great.

She had floaties on and a life jacket, but it was great.

And here's why.

She is deathly afraid of the water.

Will scream when she gets near it, at least when I'm in the pool, because she knows that I'm going to groan inwardly towards her to be a swimmer one day.

And so I will take her off the steps and bring her to the middle and let go, and she flips out.

And I've learned I ain't the best process.

And so my mom was in the pool with her yesterday and she was playing a game with her.

And all of a sudden, I started getting the pool and Reese just started swimming.

And we were looking at it, she went, how did that happen?

What in the world?

What just happened?

And for a girl that was just cemented to the steps of the pool, all of a sudden, you couldn't get her to the steps.

She was in the middle of the pool swimming all day long, so much so that she she had rubbed herself raw with floaties and life jackets.

And all of a sudden, she'd made progress in such a way that we could call her a swimmer.

And we were sitting down having lunch and she was in the middle of the pool.

It was like, this is this is different.

I like this.

I kind of like this new arrangement we got here.

I can sit over here and you can do my thing and you can do that over there.

This is great.

Can I get in the pool for five more minutes?

Absolutely, if it means I don't have to.

That second part, what do you intend to do to get there for Reese?

There's no more going back to the steps.

She's died to life on the steps.

Now she can be in the freedom of the middle of the pool and roam wherever she wants.

She may have moments of panic, but she gets it back together.

You say, calm down, everything's gonna be fine.

So much so that we're floating around on floats last night or yesterday, and she's telling us, don't worry, everything's gonna be just fine.

Thank you, honey.

I appreciate it.

I feel so reassured.

There's no going back to the steps for her.

She's progressed in such a way that we pray going forward.

She never looks back at that and goes, man, I can't wait to go back to the steps.

She just keeps going and she intends to continue to pursue freedom in the middle of the pool for her.

She don't want to be an Olympic swimmer.

She just wants to have fun.

With Ellie, who was already doing it.

She died to that way of life, and she pursues freedom in the middle of the pool.

Vision, intention, means.

Our plans for progress, however, are only as good as the tools which God's given us.

And this has been my question throughout the week as we end on this third point.

My question the other week is this What has been the biggest tool that God has used in your life to grow your faith?

What has been the biggest tool that God has used in your life to grow your faith?

Been unbelievable answers from a smattering of people.

I asked my Starbucks Sandra this morning, and she said, My kids, I was like, oh man, I even thought about that.

That's a great answer.

There's three tools for progress, and we are on this journey to become more like Jesus.

The first, and these all came up in one way or another in every one that I asked, but the first one is this the Word of God.

The Bible.

Clearly, the biggest tool that God is going to use to transform our lives is the standard of truth, and then we can wrap our lives around that standard.

The Word of God, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, say this.

You don't have to turn there.

All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

That the man or woman of God may be complete, equipped for every good work, and competent, equipped for every good work.

What an unbelievable statement about what we hold in our hand.

About what sits in our bag for a week at a time, or maybe becomes a coaster.

What an unbelievable statement that what men and women have literally died for, to preserve, to keep for all of us, that everything in here that we need for godliness and life is contained right here.

And that this book of maybe an inch and a half thick would be a game changer.

A life changer.

We would be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

There's not one thing that you and I will face in life that this doesn't give us guidance and instruction and correction for.

What a great statement.

Great tool for life for sure.

The second one is this: the community of God.

You got the Word of God, great tool, second tool, community of God, people.

People.

Hebrews 10, 24, and 25 say this, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

What's the point?

The point is that if we are not meeting with each other, if we are not consistently just being present in each other's life, and the stirring up to love, stirring up to good deeds, stirring up and encouraging one another, so it doesn't happen as God has intended.

So if you find yourself in despair and alone, it could be because we have disconnected from the community of God.

And those people that God has said, I want this person in your life, and we don't know this yet, I want this person in your life to be able to speak this truth in your life so that you might change, become more like Jesus.

That doesn't happen when we withdraw from the community of God.

Whether it be friends, whether it be in church, whether it be a small group, the word of God, the community of God.

Finally, and I really thought on Friday I was going to preach a whole sermon on this last point, but for your sake, it won't be.

Suffering.

Matter of fact, it's quite popular to avoid it at all costs.

To talk about suffering.

2 Corinthians 1, if you'd turn there with me, this will be my final, our final passage as we look at this.

But as you guys are turning there, the New Testament's the New Testament authors tell us all throughout, well, the Old Testament and the New Testament, tell us all about this instrument of growth that if we could look at in a different perspective, we may not be so quick to want relief from.

And I say that today, perfectly healthy, so it's easy for me to say.

But perhaps suffering is one of God's greatest tools for our progress and our growth.

You could look at Abraham, who was promised a son and didn't have one until he was almost a hundred.

You could look at Job, who had everything stripped away from him.

You look at Joseph, who sat in jail for years.

You could look at Jesus, who came to the earth with one specific purpose, and that was to die.

Paul certainly has a litany of struggles and afflictions that he talks about, and we'll read a little bit about that.

2 Corinthians 1, verses 3 through 11 say this.

2 Corinthians 1:3–11

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in our in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Are you getting a theme here?

Comfort coming only at the result of affliction.

Verse 5, for as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.

And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Verse eight.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.

On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again, and you also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted us through the prayers of many.

Why is hardship and affliction and suffering such an unbelievable tool for growth from God inside the life of believers?

2 Corinthians would tell us that.

The first one is in verses 3 and 4.

Basically, this hey, if there's no comfort, then there's no hardship.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.

What an unbelievable truth.

That when we face affliction in this world, and the when we face affliction in this world, God will come alongside us and comfort us.

For He is the source of comfort, He is the source of mercy.

And it's only in that affliction do we experience comfort.

God's comfort.

Comfort that comes from Him.

If all we knew was an easy life, we'd rarely run to God.

Second one is this with these comforts we comfort others.

The end of verse 4 says this.

I'll just read all who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

I was telling somebody this week that I was uh for some reason felt like God was telling me to just share more of our story, Melissa and I's story, is before we got here.

Uh and we were in Dallas uh before we got here, and we were in seminary, and I remember there was a day, it was Easter weekend, uh, talking about comforting and and suffering.

It was Easter weekend, and uh I was off hanging out with a buddy of mine at Panera Bread.

I'll I'll always remember where I was, and I was there, and my wife called me, and uh she just said, Hey, I think you need to come home.

And I said, Okay, well, what's going on?

I'm happy, you know, what's what's the deal?

And she goes, I think I'm I'm having a miscarriage.

And uh I'll always remember where I was and who I was with that day, and I you know rushed home and picked her up, and we went to the hospital and it was confirmed, and uh, you know, our lives were forever changed because of it.

And I just remember walking away from that day.

It was a it was a weird weekend.

It was Easter weekend, it was in April, and it was snowing.

And it was in Dallas, and though it was just a weird, weird, off weekend.

Uh, and then we had experienced what we'd experienced.

And I remember walking away from that and and just trying to be strong for Melissa, trying to be strong for her, and and just weeping privately, and then also just having crazy dreams.

Uh, me in front of God, kind of like Lieutenant Dan at the top of the mass, and just saying, You bring it on.

Just weird dreams.

Dreams I'd never had before, dreams I'd never had since.

And I talked about it with friends, and all of a sudden it became very clear that I was very angry about the whole thing.

I remember giving a presentation in class, and I uh I just burned hot the whole time, and the whole class was like, okay, turn it down, buddy.

I remember walking away from that going, man, I'm angry, I don't even know it.

I'm angry, I don't even know why.

It was through other people who had experienced the same thing that all of a sudden I started to receive comfort.

All of a sudden I started to receive healing.

I remember I was meeting with a professor of mine, Dr.

Allman, great, great man.

Uh and I would, we'd have breakfast every once in a while.

And I just remember sharing him, sharing with him our experience, what had happened, what was going on, what we were journeying through, and how in the world are we gonna get through this?

And he just put his hand on my shoulder and just with a gentle but very straightforward way, just said, true healing will only come in the context of community.

I just took that, and that was one man speaking to another man in the context of community, and all of a sudden healing started to change my heart, started to change my life, and all of a sudden that's been, and I wouldn't want to go through that again, don't want to go through that again, don't wish that upon anybody, but all of a sudden we can, well, listen, I can now empathize.

Anybody that's gone through that can now empathize with someone else who's gone through that.

Not just sympathize, but empathize.

We can we can sympathize with those that have a hard, hard time having kids.

There are many things that you and I could experience.

We look back at our life and go, man, that was, I don't ever want to go through that again, but because I did, I can now comfort you with my experience.

I can comfort you with what God has done through me.

That's the second reason why suffering is such an unbelievable tool for our growth.

Perhaps the greatest tool for our growth, I love what he says in verse 9.

He says, verse 9, indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death.

That's Paul speaking, saying, Hey, we were in Asia and it was so bad, I literally thought we were dying.

But that was to make us, and this is the purpose here, why all that happened for him, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

I don't know about you, but I have a supreme, just right at the core center of who I used to be and I'm dying to and trying to live in Christ.

At the center of all that is this guy that just really wants to rely upon himself.

I don't delegate well, because I can do it, I can do it.

And in my mind, I hate to say it out loud, especially in front of everybody.

In my mind, I can do it better.

I can do it quicker, more efficiently, I can do it better, which is not true on all accounts.

And so at the center of me is this self-reliant person.

And Paul says, perhaps there's suffering in your life, perhaps you feel like you're at the point of death emotionally or spiritually or physically or financially or whatever it may be.

And he's saying, perhaps all that is there to wean you off of yourself and to produce in you greater faith because of the comfort that God longs to give you in the midst of suffering.

Where would your relationship today be with the Lord if you hadn't experienced loneliness?

If your best friends hadn't moved away or betrayed you?

Where would you be today if you didn't have a chronic pain, constantly reminding you that, hey, this world is not all it one day will be?

And Lord, I'm gonna pray right now and thank you that one day it will be.

It'll all be put together.

What kind of prayer life if you never had arguments, if you never had disagreements or divorce or pain or illness or the death of a loved one?

I'm not saying we wish it upon anyone, and I'm not even making out God to be a cruel guy that says, see, I'm gonna do this, you'll rely on me.

Not at all.

All that exists because sin is in the world, and we live in a fallen, fallen world.

It's easy, like I said, it's easy for me to stand up here.

I'm pretty healthy.

I haven't had a lot of affliction, no real pain.

Easy for me to say that.

I want you to hear from words of a woman who certainly has experienced more pain than most of us.

Her name is Joni Erickson Tata.

And uh, if you don't know who Joni Erickson Tata is, she uh was in a diving accident at the age of 17.

She uh in that diving accident she became a quadriplegic.

She injured her spinal cord and at the age of 17 was constricted to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

She has now chronic pain for the past 10 or 12 years.

She's in her 60s, and in 2010 she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Wow.

What an unbelievable life.

And this is a woman who is clearly not bitter.

Clearly understands 2 Corinthians chapter 1.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

And they asked her, hey, man, has your perspective on suffering and healing, has it changed at all since you were now all of a sudden just heaping more and more suffering on this woman?

How much more shit can she take?

And has your perspective changed at all?

And they asked her this How's your perspective changed on healing and suffering since you were diagnosed with breast cancer?

This is what she says.

2010, she says this.

Thankfully it hasn't changed at all.

You examine Scripture again and again and follow every passage regarding healing.

I did that with my quadruplegia, and I did that 10 years ago when I embarked on a whole new life of chronic pain.

Just a month ago, getting diagnosed with breast cancer, I looked at those same scriptures, and God's words do not change.

Even though it seems like a lot is being pulled on, is being piled on, excuse me.

In a way, I've been drawn closer to the Savior, even with this breast cancer.

There are things about his character that I wasn't seeing a year ago or even six months ago.

That tells me that I'm still growing and still being transformed.

This woman has taken her life and she can't do anything about how her life has ended up physically.

But she can do, continue to work out her salvation with fear and trembling as God works in her to give her the will, the desire, and the works for the pleasure of God.

And now through her suffering, millions upon millions upon millions of people are comforted.

Comforted through her trials, comforted through her perspective.

She's written book after book and article after article on what it looks like to grow, what it looks like to process as a woman, a quadriplegic in a wheelchair.

She gives us some of the most profound perspectives on this life of progress.

God's given us a lot of different tools.

The Word of God, which, man, what an unbelievable gift.

The community of God.

You can look at your wife or your husband or your kids and say, man, they they all have formed and changed me in one way or another.

And we can look at our experiences where we would never want to go through them again.

But we've received God's comfort in ways that we never would have received them.

And so as we look at this process of progress, becoming more holy, I just want to end by saying, God's never gonna give up on you.

There's not a day as I started this sermon, there's not a day that goes by that he looks at you and says, you know what, that's too much for me today.

Go sit in the corner.

You're not progressing at the pace that I would like, Reese, so I'm gonna put you in the middle of the pool and you're gonna have to do it by yourself.

There's not a day that he does that.

Instead, he just patiently waits with you, nudges you, pushes you, draws you.

Look how fun it is out here.

Come on.

Drawing and wooing, letting you see that what is so comfortable really is old.

And although it may be foreign and unknown, the newness that's before you is so worth the step to get there.

If you could, please stand with me.

I want to speak a word of blessing over you.

And as you do, just please be reminded if God tugged on your heart or uh maybe you need answers to some questions that you have, come up front, we'll be up front, uh just here for you, uh, really to receive you and just to answer any questions or maybe to process uh whatever you've heard today.

Well, with that, would you lift up your hands?

The God of perfection knows where you are, meets you where you are, accepts you where you are, and yet sees what you can become and rejoices.

Go now and leave here as a people, as children of God, with a Father who rejoices over you.

Live in that.

It's big enough and deep enough to swim in.

Go now and enjoy in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.