Held... | Let Grace Be Grace

piece of the word faith. But I want to start by asking a question. In my office,

there is kind of the names or titles or attributes of Jesus, that he is the way,

the truth, and the life, and has a little kind of Bible address for where you find

that. But I want to ask you, before I give you mine, what is kind of your favorite

imagery or who Jesus says he is or attribute of Christ that you find in the

Bible? Anybody? The light of the world, absolutely.

Though, huh? Hang on Tom, hold on to that one because you and I have something in

common, so we'll wait on yours. Over here? Savior, absolutely. Yeah. Friend.

Emmanuel, God with us. Healer, up in the balcony. Like, oh wait, he saw us. Yes,

you're up there. Teacher, I'm not gonna continue until the balcony answers. That's

still not the balcony. Oh, a good one. They're all staring at me. You can't see

they're all staring at me. Oh no, I'll wait. There's 50 of you up there. One of

you. Hunter, what about you? I'll start calling more by name. They're testing me.

I have three boys, under 12.

Hope of the world. Was that in the balcony? Thank you, let's give the balcony a

hand. Yes, the balcony woke up. Okay, good. Tom, what was yours? Amen. The good

shepherd. Has been, always will be my favorite imagery of kind of our

relationship with Christ, Christ's relationship with us. Obviously, the 23rd

Psalm is a big one, but I want to jump and start with John 10. So, we're gonna

read the first 11 verses. Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the

sheepfold by the door, but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a

robber. But he who enters the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the

gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name

and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and

the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow,

but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This

figure of speech Jesus uses with them, but they did not understand what he was

saying to them. So, Jesus said to them, truly, truly I say to you, I am the door

of the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did

not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and

will go in and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I

have come that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good

shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. So, not only do we

have Jesus as good shepherd, he's also the door. Now, if you remember, we did

that, Mike, how long ago was that? The door sermon series for Lent. First here,

oh wow, the door, yeah. So, that was during 2020, beginning of 2020. And that

not only is Jesus the door, which, yeah, I'm not surprised a lot of you didn't

say that one, even the balcony, because that's not one that comes to mind, that

Jesus calls himself the door, that he is the door of the sheep pen. He is also the

shepherd. He's a lot of things. But that imagery of being hemmed in, of being

known by the shepherd, the sheep knowing the shepherd's voice, and the part which

is so convicting, that with confidence Jesus says that the sheep hear his voice

and he calls him by their name and he leads them out. He goes before them and

they follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow.

Jesus is confident that his sheep will not follow another voice. Yet, if I asked

each of you this week, did you follow something of another voice that led to

sin, I'm gonna go almost 100% of us would say yes. But Jesus is confident that his

sheep will not follow other voices, but that is the wrestle we have with our

depravity every day. And I don't know what the week was like, and I was thinking

about it during the last song of the set and then the offertory. I would love to

just have all of us one by one talk about the week. There's something, I don't

know what it is, this is a little bit of an audible, that there's someone here or

a few of us here that had really bad weeks. And I don't know about you, but I

needed to hear that I'm hemmed in this morning. That Jesus is the door. That

there are times I want to kick that door open, I want to go do my own thing, and I

want to say enough with you, Shepherd, I'm gonna go. Yet we also know that out

of that 99, and you know I'll be that one for this example, you could be one in

your own example, that we go astray. Guess what? He still goes and finds us too. And

there's something powerful about that, and I think, I really do, I think that's

what Jim Osterhaus was getting at with this last piece. Where in TULIP we call

perseverance of the saints, he's calling it held by God. And the reason why is

because the sheep know his voice. So let's go over just where we've been as we

wrap up. The F, fallen humanity. The A, adopted by God. The T, or the I,

intentional atonement, I know how to spell. T, transformed by the Holy Spirit,

and finally held by God. And being held by God is such a personal thing. And it's

an amazing understanding of God's relationship with us. And I don't know

about you, but I need that today. I need the promise that God is holding me, and

it's something, I know we all probably need daily, weekly, monthly, every moment

that we are alive. If we're honest, we need to be held by God. Yet we struggle

with it. And we see this in the life of our children. That our children desire

independence, we know we've hit a new stage of life. Because as kids are

younger, they follow you everywhere, right? The term locked bathroom does not

apply to them, right? Because they want, they just were ever, and they seem to

want you right when you need to answer nature's call, right? That's something

that happens a lot. But then all of a sudden something happens as we get older,

and this thing called independence happens. When all of a sudden our kids

don't want us around. Now how many of you, be honest because you're in the House of

the Lord, how many of you when you hit that stage of life, you celebrated it

immensely? Yep. That wasn't a lot of you. That's interesting. Maybe you're still

struggling with it. But how many of you when that independence hit, you mourned

it? Ray, you don't have to do this. You can raise it high. And I think there's

half of you that have no idea what I'm talking about because you didn't raise

your hand for either of them. And you're like, wait, independence? Our kids are

supposed to have independence? Let's go. I don't know. But we do the same thing

with God. At some point we develop a sinful independence. At some point it's

no longer in our mind that it's a have to. That our faith can sometimes become

optional. Notice how I said sinful independence. And it's things like this,

things like the doctrine, the third article of the fifth doctrine of the

Canaan's Adore, Perseverance of the Saints, which I'll get to in a second, is

defining how we are to live our life. That you and I are called to live a life

held by God. That when people see our life, they should see someone who has

the security, the confidence, the maturity that we are being held by God.

That come hell or high water, God's got us. But I think we struggle with that, or

at least I do. Because when things don't go my way, yesterday was my wife's

birthday and we had reservations with her folks and we had a assembly to go to.

All the entire, I am not really paying attention at all. For some reason I'm

fixated on there's going to be traffic on 1894 and we're not going to get to

Cooper's Hawk in time. Thank you for laughing at that. But it wasn't funny.

Not only did we get out just fine in time, we were at Cooper's Hawk 20 minutes

early. And I thought to myself, how dumb am I that I allowed a new experience for

my son for me to be so preoccupied with time. Like what is Cooper's Hawk going to

say? No, you can't eat here anymore. No. But I allow myself to have the anxiety

over a situation that I don't have control over because I demand control.

Friends, that is sinful independence when it comes to our relationship with God.

Now, I could also go on the other side and go, God really doesn't care if we go

to Cooper's Hawk or not. I don't think the master of the universe is really

worried about any of that because I don't think he worries. It's fun when you get

it here because there's so much that goes on. And to me, the understanding of

needing to be held by God and understanding that I should be and desire

to be held by God I think is the biggest sin that I struggle with when it comes to

this, that there are times, and if we're honest, maybe you feel the same way, we

don't want to be held by God. Because if we're being held by God, that means he's

the one doing the work. He's the one in control. Or if we're going to look at it

in a sinful way, he's the one controlling us and we don't like it. But what was

Jesus saying to his disciples in John 10? That the sheep know my voice. They will

follow me no matter where I go. And the only time, right, that they would in his

example, but what we do is we hear the voice of the stranger and we say, oh, this

must be our new shepherd. This must be our new God. And we do that every day. The

sin of this or that or whatever will call to you, say, hey, Jim, no, come this

way. Hey, Jim, get out of your situation and worry about getting to Cooper's Hawk

on time and let that anxiety ruin that situation. And my family knows when I

think I'm going to be late for something, how does that normally go? Yeah, they're

all just staring at me. We don't know what to say. It doesn't go well, right? It

doesn't. And I need to let that go. It is a constant reminder that I am not in

control. And that's a good thing. Why? Because we are being called to persevere

in the fact that we are being held by God every day, that he is the one holding

us. Because of these remnants of sin dwelling in us and also in the temptation

of the world and by Satan, those who have been converted could not remain standing

in grace if left on their own resources. This is the canons adored. But God is

faithful, merciful, strengthening them in the grace once conferred on them and

powerfully preserving them till the end. That God is preserving us in everything.

He is telling us no matter what the week you just went through was like or the

week you will be going through, God's got you. God wants you to know that all the

time. That God's the one that's got you. He's the one holding you. And to me,

that is so powerful. And it's hard not to think of being held by God. And there are

days that I just need this and I praise the Lord that he's given me a wife that

will just not say anything and just hug me. Because I know a lot of you aren't,

but I'm a hugger. How many huggers do we have? Everyone else in the room just got

real uncomfortable. But understand, there's so much that can happen in a hug.

To me, hugs are powerful. And I have in my notes, sorry if this creeps you all out.

Okay, I guess that's what I was thinking this week. But what do we like about a

hug for the huggers? If you're not a hugger, I don't want to hear from you. But

if you are a hugger, what do we like about hugs? That's my very first point.

Comfort, yep. Security, that was my next point. You don't get to talk anymore.

Okay. Others, yeah. Kindness, yeah. What a great answer, right? That to show

kindness to someone, they give a hug. My wife is kind to me a lot because I need

that and she hugs me a lot and that is a great thing. Anything else? Yeah.

A connection, absolutely. Yeah. Others? There's two more that I have in here.

Huh? I thought you said mercy. I was like, whoa, alright, that just took a turn.

No, personal, absolutely. Yeah, Nancy. Love slash friendship, absolutely.

That was one of mine in here as well. Intimacy, that, okay, now you want to

participate. Go ahead, Patty. Safe, right? You said safe? You just take somebody

else's? That's right, none of you wanted to talk but a minute ago so it's fine.

But, yeah, being safe. That when my wife hugs me, right, I feel safe. I feel

safer. Hopefully when I hug my kids, they feel safe. Anyone else? I'm looking for

one more. Hmm? Accepted, that's a good one in the back. Wanted, absolutely.

Daniel, when the Michigan Wolverines conquered the world and won the

national championship, what did we do? We hugged, right, out of excitement. It was

great and not against our HR policy and understand that we can be excited and

want to hug, right? I mean, Dan, you felt the opposite way yesterday, right, when

Purdue lost. You probably didn't want to hug anybody, right? You didn't. And so

understand that we, there's so much that can happen in a hug. And

four years ago, I told myself I wasn't gonna cry, four years ago there was a

picture of a hug that wrecked me. Because I don't know if it was someone, I think

it was someone from Crown Point. It was after Lynn died and they sent me this

pic. And I practiced this. And the caption was, this is your sister's first

day in heaven.

Just look at it. What do you see in her face? Joy. Anything else? Safe. Relief.

Love. All good things. And then in more of a comical way, after my, and I don't

know if a lot of you ever met Lynn. Lynn was a little bit shorter than me, you

know, and that kind of hug with Jesus would work. And then someone said this to

me when my pa died, who was 6'6 and like 280 pounds, and they sent that to me and

my first thought was poor Jesus. You know, like if that was in fact what's

happened with him. But understand that, I mean, this picture, it means so, I wanted

to print it out but I couldn't because if I saw it in my office or at home

every day I would just cry. But like, there's just so much. You know, a picture

says a thousand words and I think this says a million. And just the

understanding of a hug, the understanding that seeing this picture, I just

wrote my notes that my sister had ran a race. She had fought the good fight of

faith. And though I'll never be fully okay that her race was only 36 years

long, I can guarantee because my sister was a hugger that she hugged Jesus like

this. That it was just pure, unabandoned joy. Joy that we will never know on this

earth. Joy we will never understand no matter how many kids we have, no matter

how great our marriage, no matter how many times our team wins the whatever,

right? That joy, that is something different because that is joy complete. A

completion of a journey. So then on the flip side, I thought to myself, what about

us still here? What about us still running our race? What about us still

fighting our good fights? Still fighting our daily battle against sin and

darkness. I think that's the writer of the Canons of Dort, Jim Osterhaus, in his

book. I think that is what he's trying to convey with this doctrine, with this

understanding that we are still being held by God though the world around us

doesn't want it. The world around us wants to rip us from our relationship

with God. The world around us wants us to just love ourself and that is it. So I'm

gonna move Ken's Bible and where's Jay? Jay, you want to come up? Everyone say

hi Jay. I'm gonna use Jay as a sermon illustration, okay? He has zero idea what

we're gonna do but he was okay with it and so I appreciate that. I did ask his

parents first. So this understanding of being held by God, I need two more

volunteers and I'm just gonna go right in this room. I'm gonna have Jesse and

Jim. Can you guys come up? Why you come on up too? That's fine, you come up too. You

guys stand right over here. Nope, you're not on the stage. So I don't know if,

hopefully this will make sense, but when we talk about having just nasty stuff

going on in the world, right? Things that want to rip us away from our relationship

with God. There is a difference here that I think a lot of us need cleared up and

what our relationship with God is like. So I apologize to all three of you, but you

guys are representing sin and death, so thank you. And in this scenario I'm

representing God. So I don't do this often, but this is the understanding of

what I believe this doctrine actually means. That every day we are on this edge,

whether we believe it or not, that there is a whole force against us that want us

to be completely separated from God. That Satan is there and will send whatever he

can to try to rip us away and try to get us isolated. And I've said it before, not

that Satan wants a relationship with you, he doesn't. He just wants you to not have

a relationship with God. He just wants you to doubt. So Jay, as you live your

life, right? You're what grade? Fifth grade. You go to what school? What are some of

the things you like to do in life? Yeah, I don't buy that. Sports, let's do sports.

Yeah, okay, just sports in general. He just likes sports. But Jay is growing in his

faith. Jay is a leader in Lighthouse. Jay is going to be in junior high next year.

That's scary. And not because you'll be in junior high because my son's the same

age. But understand that he's growing. And one day he will understand that life,

just turn this way, is this way and that there are going to be things that are

going to try to grab a hold. Go ahead. Why get in there? And they're going to try to

pull you. Okay, they're going to try. Not too hard. Okay, we didn't sign a waiver

for this. All right. I mean, that is a strong... No, keep going. That is... I mean,

is that comfortable? You're laughing, but it's kind of more of a nervous laugh,

like I don't know what's going to happen. Are they going to pull my arm off? Are

they going to pull me off the stage? All that kind of stuff. But for a lot of us,

now stick this hand out. For a lot of us, we think that our relationship with God

is like this, right? Hold on. Right? We think God's just standing here allowing

all this to happen, right? You guys can pull. There's three of you and only one

of me. You know, like all that, right? That's uncomfortable, right? And then

unfortunately for some of us, you can let go. You guys can pull. Don't pull them

off though. That we think that happens. We think that all of a sudden God's like,

no, I'm good. I'm going to let you handle that. But what this doctrine, what this

understanding of grace actually is, keep pulling, that it's not Jay holding, right?

And it's not just God doing this, but it's God doing this. That this is a picture

of the Lord going, Jay, I know you're going to go through it, right? I know

you're going to have hard times. You're going to have tribulations. But in the

end, let go. None of that matters. Let's give him a hand, okay? You can go sit

down, thank you. In my head, I had that super dramatic with like smoke machines

and all this kind of stuff and Michael W. Smith, but you get it. You understand

that for a lot of us, we think it's our faith has to do with, our salvation has

to do with, our perseverance in life has to do with how strong our grip is.

Friends, understand it is not about your grip. It has always been about God holding

you. Romans 8 says this, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulations or distress, persecution or famine, nakedness, danger

or sword, as it is written, for your sake we are being killed all day long.

We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. But friends, hear this promise

today. No. In all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure, and hear this, neither life or death nor life, nor angels nor rulers

nor things present or things to come nor powers or height or depth or anything in

all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our

Lord. I want you to walk out today understanding you cannot be separated

from God. But what about all of us that feel like it already has happened?

What about all of us that things have been going not well? Things have been

going very wrong in life. It is time to just come back to center. It is time to

seek that forgiveness. It is time to understand that when you go astray, and

we all do in life, that not only does the shepherd come get you, but he brings you

back within that gate. He wants you to understand that you are hemmed in. So

what does that look like in 2024? No. In all of these things we are more than

conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither issues at work,

issues at home, issues at school, maybe even issues at church, that neighbor who

can't stand you, that family member you have zero relationship with, that sin

that just keeps dangling that carrot of whatever it is that says no, no this

would be much better. Or maybe the anxiety of self, the lack of self-esteem,

the lack of self-awareness, the lack of whatever internally going on in all of

us. All of that is covered in the fact that nothing will ever separate us from

the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. So friends understand today that when

Christ says he is with you always, he is. And now he's gonna...