Fearless: What if I get cancer?

I'm excited to introduce to you all my good friend Chris Craig, who's in the house today leading us some worship.

Can y'all give it up for Chris?

Now uh Jonathan and Haley, Jonathan are worship pastor, they are out this weekend because their little girl, Everly Quinn, was born this week.

And praise the Lord.

We're gonna get to celebrate with them more.

And uh we're just thanking the Lord for a successful surgery or successful delivery that she had.

And uh we're just thanking the Lord for um them and the fact that they're home now and their sweet baby.

I may have gotten to meet Miss Everly Quinn last night, and she is the sweetest, let me tell you.

Um and so we're excited to get to meet her coming soon.

But I'm so thankful that my longtime friend Chris Craig and his family are here this morning to lead worship.

Um Chris is very special uh in their family to Emily and I.

Um over almost two years ago now, when Emily and I were praying about the idea of planting a church in Frankfurt at the time we weren't even living in Kentucky.

We were living in South Carolina at the time.

We've been close to Chris and Timber for a long time.

And they were pretty much the first couple that we started praying with about this idea about planting multiplied church.

And I cannot tell you how thankful I am for their faithfulness in that season to speak life and encouragement and faith and belief into Emily and I saying, God can do this thing.

God can create something from nothing, can plant a church in a town that you don't even live in right now, God can do the impossible.

And so I just want, again, for y'all to give it up for Chris and Timber and the Craig family and the investment they have made here at Multifly.

Y'all know that we have been in this series fearless.

We've talked about a lot of different things, facing financial fears.

We've talked about fear at different times in the New Testament where the disciples were afraid.

And um today we're gonna be talking about uh another topic when it comes to fear that um I've actually never preached about.

Um and I'm excited to get to open the word with you today and to look at what God says and instructs us uh in his word.

You guys remember a few years ago when this uh word, actually an acronym, came into our vernacular, YOLO?

Y'all remember that?

YOLO, everything.

It was like if you had a bad idea and you wanted to do it, as long as you said YOLO before you jumped off the bridge or off the cliff or out of the plane skydiving, like it seemed like everything was okay.

Now, YOLO, what's it stand for?

You only live once, right?

That's the moniker.

Um, and somehow it just like made it into our language and into our mindset to where you would just be doing something and you're like, you know what?

YOLO, I'm going for this.

And it's funny because it's one of those things that get into our mind and to our culture and to maybe even our beliefs that may not actually be true.

And as we look at the word today and look at what God has to say to us about not only our life here on earth, but the fact that our life doesn't end here on earth.

If you're in Christ, if you are in Jesus, if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are a brand new creation in Christ, is what the Bible says.

And it teaches us that our life is not just going to end in the here and now here on earth, but that we're going to live on into eternity in heaven with God if we have received Jesus as our Savior.

Now there's another option for us not to be in Christ, and for us not to receive Jesus, and for us to have an eternity away from God in death.

Place we sang about earlier, a place called hell.

And today we're going to talk about a topic that really hones in on the afterlife and whether we only live once or not.

Now, you all know Kentucky, we have been known for, and we have been number one for eight national championships with UK basketball.

Can I get an amen?

Can I get an amen?

Number one in the country, eight times over, greatness, going for number nine, right?

Strive for nine.

Now, Kentucky is also, unfortunately, though, has been named number one many times over in our country for something not so good, and that is for our cancer rate.

One in four deaths in our state are from cancer.

It's the highest rate of cancer in the nation and has been for many years.

So, because of this, probably you, maybe you yourself, maybe someone that you know, someone that you love, likely has possibly had cancer.

You know someone who has gone through it.

You might have even known someone who has passed away.

You may have known someone who has been healed for cancer.

And you may know someone who has passed.

You know, cancer, it doesn't just take a toll on us physically, it takes a toll on us emotionally and spiritually as well.

You know, for many years I've wanted to preach and teach a message about cancer and how we orient our lives, our thinkings, our beliefs in the face of such a tragic disease.

Now, that's not a normal sermon topic, is it?

But in my now 12 years of local church ministry, and more than that, 14.

Year after year after year, month after month, I know the toll that cancer takes on the families here in Kentucky.

From ministering to family after family after family.

I've seen some people walk through cancer and bring them closer to God.

I've seen some who've walked through cancer and it's pulled them away and taken them away from God.

I've seen some people who have been miraculously healed.

I've seen some people who've been healed by modern medicine.

And I've seen and walked with some families who have lost a loved one because of cancer.

And it just seems like to me that in that time where it's long and many times when cancer is found, and then it leads to chemotherapy, radiation, and hospital visit after hospital visit, it's a long time and a long, drawn-out process.

And in the midst of that, the enemy wants to still kill and destroy not just our bodies, but our minds, our spiritual lives, our hearts, and our joy.

Wants to rob us.

And so today, coming to church this morning, this message is gonna be a little bit like going to the gym.

Okay?

It's gonna take some effort for us.

You may be a little sore this afternoon, but tomorrow you're gonna be stronger.

Tomorrow you're gonna be stronger.

So grab your dumbbells and your sweatbands.

Um as we take a look at the scripture and take a look at what the Bible has to say about this terminal illness, cancer.

Now, before I get into the scripture, I want to talk about one distinction or one difference.

There's a difference between moral evil and natural evil.

Everybody say natural evil.

So moral evil would be what we call sin.

The Bible tells us that there are things that don't glorify God that we can do in our life that takes us away from God.

And those things are sin.

Literally, the word sin, it's a military term, it's actually an archery term that term.

When you would pull back your bow and shoot towards the target, however far the arrow was away from the bullseye, that was the amount of sin that was the difference between where the arrow hit and where the bullseye is.

And so literally, what sin is, is you missing the mark of the holiness of God.

But there's also such a thing as natural evil.

Now we know that in the very beginning that God created this world and he created this earth for it to be perfect.

This place called the Garden of Eden.

He put his first creation, Adam and Eve, the first people, on this planet, put them in this garden.

It was absolute paradise.

And because of their destructive decision to break the one rule that God gave them, sin entered the world.

It entered our planet, it entered the universe.

And from that point, when sin entered the world, natural evil began.

The fact that before Adam and Eve sinned, there was no death.

They were living in perfect unity, harmony, and paradise with God in oneness.

But when sin entered into the world, also entered death and decay and disease.

And so we think about it today, like we saw a few weeks ago, the floods that hit Eastern Kentucky is a repercussion of the sinful world that we're living in.

But that flood had no distinction of whether somebody's house, that they were a good person or if they were a bad person.

We think about the natural evil, the decay of this world that's that is because of sin that has now plagued us and our world.

And we see tsunamis and we see tornadoes and we see hurricanes and these natural disasters and we see disease.

Part of the fact that we live in this fallen world that has fallen away from God's glorious standard is because now we live in a state where there is disease and decay and there's natural evil.

And so we have to make a distinction there.

We have to start at that place because it's going to inform the way that we think about disease and when it comes and what Jesus Himself said about it.

Before we do all this, I want to share with you what has been deemed the cancer verse by some notable uh teachers and pastors.

That if you are in this place where you get the diagnosis of cancer, for you to claim and to hold on to the truth that's in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 9 through 11.

1 Thessalonians 5:9–11

Read this with me.

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our God, Jesus Christ.

He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.

Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath.

Everybody say wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It's important for you to know that if you or a loved one falls into the place of having a diagnosis that is challenging and not going your way, it is so important for you to remember that you have not been appointed for wrath.

You've not been appointed for wrath.

Now we don't talk about the wrath of God very much in our normal everyday lives and in the modern church, but it's this the fact that you and I have sinned, that humans are no longer at this glorious standard of how holy God is.

That because we have missed the mark in sin, that there has to be some kind of punishment for that sin.

And the punishment for that sin is called wrath, the wrath of God.

Do you know this?

That when Jesus 2,000 years ago, the perfect, sinless Son of God, went to the cross to receive and take on his back and on his flesh our sin, past, present, and future, for every single person who might believe and call on him and live in him.

In that moment on the cross, in Jesus' death, he satisfied the wrath of God.

That all the wrath that was meant for you, that was meant for me, that would one day be poured out on us from what we deserve from the way that we've fallen away, that that wrath was poured over onto the sinless, amazing, incredible, most high, almighty King Jesus.

And in his death on the cross and his resurrection, he overcame the death that came from Adam and Eve.

The wrath of God was satisfied.

When you're in Christ, when you are following Jesus, when you have been saved and bought and purchased by the blood of Christ, you are now not appointed for wrath, but instead you're appointed for abundant life.

You know what that means?

That when disease hits you, it's not because God hates you.

But it's the fact that we are in a fallen world, that on this side of eternity and this side of heaven, we're not gonna receive the perfection.

But on this side, on earth, God wants us to have an abundant life, even in the midst of turmoil.

You know, I've said this several weeks in a row, and I'm gonna keep saying it.

Because I think it's what our generation right now, and the generation coming behind us, generation C, they need to hear this more than ever.

Peace is not the absence of turmoil, but the presence of God in the midst of it.

There's so much right now that's coming from this younger generation where they're so obsessed with protecting their peace.

Oh, this person has bad vibes, I gotta get away from them because I gotta protect my peace.

This situation, this, that, this, this, this, this message, this sermon is just bad vibes.

I gotta get out of this.

You know, peace doesn't mean that you're removing yourself from difficult circumstances because guess what?

You're never gonna be able to outrun every difficult circumstance in your life.

But instead, you need the power and the presence of God in your heart and mind.

So then when you are walking through the flames, God is with you.

His power, his peace is with you.

Speaking of flames, the book of Daniel is this Old Testament story.

The people of God, the Israelites who were living in Israel before Jesus came to earth.

God's chosen Israel as his people, and because of their sin, they are continuing to be judged, and they're continuing to be overthrown by neighboring countries because God's wrath had not been yet satisfied by Jesus on the cross.

And there's a period of time of 70 years where Babylon, this uh nation that was to the north of Israel, came into Israel, occupied it, took it over, and took captives, prisoners of war, and shipped them back to Babylon, the smartest and brightest of the nation, the leaders, they brought them back to Babylon for the purpose of indoctrination.

You know, that's what you do if you want to take over another country, is that you bring them to you and you talk about how great you are and you brainwash them over time to have some Stockholm syndrome.

Which may be what happened with Beauty and the Beast, but we're not gonna, that's a different story.

We're not gonna go there.

We're not gonna go there.

So the first few chapters of Daniel talk about some pretty amazing stories about Daniel and his three friends.

And in Babylon, we see a story where they're thrown into a lion's den, but God saves them.

And in chapter three, this king, this evil king of Babylon, he comes to the nation and he builds a 90-foot golden statue.

And he decrees and he declares that every person in the nation will bow down and worship this golden statue, this golden idol, whenever the musicians and the instruments played.

Which in this evil nation, this oppressor, everyone began to bow down.

But Daniel's three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo, and those are really good ones, aren't they?

Names.

But I don't see those going to the top of the uh new names of 2022 baby names anytime soon.

Though they were in captivity in Babylon, they were remaining faithful to God, to Yahweh, not allowing themselves to be overcome, not allowing themselves to be brainwashed.

And so there came a time where the instruments played and everybody was asked to bow down and worship.

And Shadrach, Beshach, and Abednego, they did not bow down and they did not worship.

And guess what?

Other people snitched on them.

Went right to the king and said, King, these Jews, they're not doing what you told them to do.

See, because Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they knew the truth.

That God had told them in the Ten Commandments that they should make no graven images.

They shouldn't worship any false idols.

And so for them to bow down and bend the knee to a 90-foot golden statue, they knew that's not God.

And so they decided not to.

And so the snitches came to the king and told them that Shadrach, Beshach, and Abednego were not bowing down.

And when he heard this, he was furious.

He brought them before him to tell them once again and to give them one more chance to bow down.

And this is where we enter this story.

Daniel chapter 3, verse 15.

Daniel 3:15

Nebuchadnezzar says, I will give you one more chance to bow down and worship the statue I have made when you hear the sounds of the musical instruments.

But if you refuse, you will be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace.

And then what God will be able to rescue you from my power?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo replied, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you.

Verse 17.

If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us.

He will rescue us from your power, your majesty.

And then verse 18, it's so important.

But even if he doesn't, everybody say, even if he doesn't, even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty, we will never serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.

And here's what happens the rest of the story.

Nebuchadnezzar is furious.

He tells his soldiers to heat the furnace seven times its normal temperature.

They bind, he gets his strongest warriors to bind Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, and they take them to the furnace to be thrown in.

They throw them into the furnace.

The soldiers who threw them into the furnace, they died from the heat.

They threw them into the flames, expecting them to be incinerated, but instead, not only did they see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three bodies in the flames, they saw a fourth.

And then the fourth scholar study is the Christophany, an appearance of Christ Himself in the Old Testament.

That in the midst of the flames, Jesus was with them, and they were not burned up.

The nation couldn't believe their eyes.

Get this?

The only thing that was burned up was the binds.

They were attempting to shackle them and to hold them powerless.

They brought Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of the fiery furnace.

The scripture says that they did not even smell like smoke.

And Nebuchadnezzar recognized the power of the one true God, Yahweh.

A few years back, a good friend of mine, his father, was pretty unexpectedly diagnosed with stage four cancer.

His father, a wonderful man, served the Lord faithfully in his local church, loved Jesus.

I remember talking to his son, his adult son at the time, and just broken for them.

Not knowing what was going to happen.

He was obviously incredibly heavy-hearted about the situation, fearful about what the future would hold.

But he told me this.

He said, I asked my dad about a cancer.

And if he was praying for God to heal him.

And my dad told me this.

Yes, son, I'm praying for God to heal me.

But even if he doesn't, I will not bow down.

His dad knew this story.

His dad had studied this story.

His dad knew that true faith in God is not based on whether the circumstances look bright or bleak.

But instead for us to say, God, I'm submitted to your will.

I'm submitted to who you are.

I know that I'm living in a fallen world and disease and destruction is at my door.

And God, I'm praying for you to rescue me, and you are able.

But even if you do not, I will not bow down because I will be rescued in this next life in heaven.

Fully restored.

Jesus speaks about an ailment in the New Testament and gives us some pretty rich theological implications about how we should see the world and see our present sufferings.

In John chapter 9, verse 5 or verse 1 through 5, the story goes that as Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.

John 9:5

Rabbi, his disciples asked him, why was this man born blind?

Was it because of his own sins or his parents' sins?

And then Jesus says, It was not because of his sins or his parents' sins, Jesus answered.

This happened, so the power of God could be seen in him.

We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us by the one who sent us.

The night is coming, and then no one will work.

But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.

Jesus answers their question.

Diseased, have an ailment, impaired, hurt, because of his sins or his parents' sins?

And Jesus says, No.

Now I know we get into a circumstance where something bad is happening to us, or something has happened to one of our kids, we immediately begin to think, God, are you punishing me?

Jesus right here says this happened not because of his sin or because of his parents' sin, but instead so that I would get the glory.

Passage goes on to Jesus healing this man and professing to the religious leaders.

A statement that you all know.

He said to them, I don't know if this man, Jesus, is the Messiah.

All I know is I once was blind, but now I see.

Jesus speaks to this.

He says, No, it's not because of sin.

But there is a natural evil in this world.

Now, is there not consequences to our actions?

Absolutely.

Emily and I say to each other all the time, we say, hey, everything happens for a reason, and sometimes that reason is because you're stupid and make bad decisions.

So there are some things that are on us.

We know that.

But there are other things that are just outside of our control.

But we know the one who is in control.

Emily and I've friends, Sarah and Phil Robinson, she serves in ministry, women's ministry.

Phil is a teacher, served God faithfully for years and years and years.

And last year, Phil was diagnosed with stage three, colon cancer.

Went through 12 rounds of chemo, of them updating through their social media.

And praise the Lord.

Last week of the week before, they declared on social media that Phil was 100% cancer-free, clean scan.

And then a few days ago, she wrote this on social media.

Starting with the Bible verse.

Today Phil was diagnosed with stage four liver cancer.

Typing that feels horrific.

That's what she wrote.

Last week we received a clean MRI.

Then received a phone call the next day that his blood work was concerning.

We were shocked to receive this news today.

His doctor says it was caught early and the cancer remains both curable and or treatable.

For that, we are so thankful.

We covet your prayers in the days ahead.

Phil will soon have a port placed and begin three months of chemo.

Then have a scan to determine its effectiveness.

Our feelings is that we've been asked to enter the bull riding arena again.

We will saddle up, hold on, and do our best to conquer this beast of cancer.

And then listen to this.

The Lord chose a faithful servant to walk this journey.

Feel as calm, determined, faithful, and ready to go to battle.

I'm honored to be his wife.

May God be praised through it all.

When we're in Christ, we're a new creation.

If you're in Christ, you never die.

Though these external bodies may be dying, we who are followers of Jesus will always be alive.

And so that being said, the one thing to take away from today is this as I'm asking you to live as if you will never die.

When you're tempted to be overcome and overwhelmed by fear in the face of a tragic trial and difficulty in your life, you have the perspective and need to have the perspective and the and the maturity in Christ to push back those fears and to be fearless because Jesus is on the other side.

Jesus is walking with you.

Can you imagine with me for a second?

Just imagine with me.

Imagine with me that your faith is so strong and the fact that Jesus is your Savior and Lord, and what he did for you on the cross, and the truth that you are no longer dead in your sins, but you are alive in Christ.

That though you may be walking to that day where you pass on an eternity, and none of us know how it's gonna go.

I don't know how I'm gonna die.

I have no idea.

God does.

And the fact that we all will.

When that happens, will you be overcome and debilitated and paralyzed by fear of the here and now and the loss?

Or would you set your mind on the glorious riches that one day we will receive in Christ Jesus?

If we are in him, imagine what your life would be like that in the face of peril and tragedy, you could say, like Sarah did, all praise be to God.

All praise be to the Lord.

Worship team is going to come back.

I want to ask you this.

For you, you may be in the house today, and you have not yet crossed over from death to life.

You've been thinking about following Jesus, you've been wrestling with it, you've been wondering if it's the right thing to do.

There's all kinds of different ways and pathways and ways to live.

Is this Jesus thing really what it's all about?

Let me tell you, it is.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Nobody comes to the Father but by him.

He said himself.

Jesus loves you so much that he wants to see you live forever with him.

And when you say yes to Jesus, you say no to everything else.

When I got married to my wife Emily, I said yes to her, and in doing so, I said no to three billion other women.

And I'm lucky for it, let me tell you.

The same way, we say yes to Jesus.

He's just not another idea, another philosophy, another God, another golden statue that you put on your shelf.

He is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

When we receive Jesus as our Savior, he's not just our Savior, he is our King.

It'd been the need to Him and Him only.

Maybe that's what you need to do today.

You've been paralyzed in fear, you've been held back by despair.

God wants peace in your life.

God wants to forgive you.

You may think, I can't come to God.

I'm not worthy.

I've got all this.

I'm so messed up.

God knows.

God knows what you've done, and He died for you anyway.

He loves you.

Today may be the day of your salvation for you to say, Yes, I am going to follow Jesus.

You came to the door, you got a connect card, there's a little space on there.

It says, I want to follow Jesus.

You can check mark that.

And that in itself won't save you.

It'll put you in a heart pasture, heart posture for you to ask God to save your soul.

Maybe you're in the house today.

And the thought of illness, a disease like cancer or something like that, it's just can't even let your mind go there because so much fear.

You know that Jesus wants to set you free from that fear?

He wants you to be free today.

That you love and trust Him.

Would y'all join me in prayer right now?

I want to pray over all of us, our families, over myself.

Father, I pray right now, Lord.

I don't know a message that's been on my heart for some time, Lord.

I just pray right now, God, Lord, that the instruction of your word, God, we would see the fact that, Lord, you love us, you care for us, that on this side of heaven, that we're not going to receive the perfection, the purity, the full healing until we meet you on the other side.

So, God, I pray right now over the person in this room that's following you, that God, that they would live as though they are not going to die, but instead that their soul will live on with you in heaven, a new body, a new life, a new place.

Father, I pray right now over anybody in this room today that have not yet received you as Savior and has not asked you to save them, forgive them, and for you to be Lord over their life.

God, I pray right now that you would do that.

And if that's you in the room, heads bowed, just you can pray something as simple as this.

Jesus, save me.

I believe that you're Son of that you are the Son of God.

Truly believe it.

That you died on the cross for me.

Forgive me.

Wash me as white as snow so that I can be in heaven one day with you.

I give my life to you.

You gave your life for mine.

Thank you for saving me.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Can we stand together and worship?

No matter we're in a storm, a mountain, or a valley, can we just return the praise to God together right now?