The Sanctified Affections of Paul | 1 Thes 2:17-20 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh | Maranatha Shabiba 2024

Lord, we bow our hearts before you.

We thank you that these songs that we sing are not just ideas,

they are realities for us because of what Christ has done.

Lord, we pray you give us the grace necessary to receive from

you in this final evening of this conference.

We bless you, we honor you, and we worship you.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Hey, before you're seated, just welcome somebody and celebrate

the fact that this is our final evening together.

If you can, before you get comfortable, if there's any seat

by you, if you could just please squeeze in because we have a few

people that are standing in the back that would love to be able

to find a place to sit. And if you do have a seat beside

you, can you lift your hand so that the ushers can see?

Look at that. There's so many seats, always

the front row always open. So ushers, if you see anybody

that needs a chair, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Well, welcome. This is our final evening of

this conference. Amazing how time has just flown.

Every year there's something special about meeting together

and maybe it's the same thing, but it just intensifies.

But the love that people have for each other this year has

been on full display. And I, I pray that if this was

your first time here at Maranatha Conference that you

would have been overwhelmed by the, the love and the kindness

and just the French of a people who love Jesus and serve him.

So God bless you for for making this an even more experiential

and wonderful time together. My time this evening at least, I

plan to not be too long with you, but that might change.

But I do want to get to this message right away.

I don't want to waste any time. If you are a follower of Jesus

Christ here, I I hope you believe that as crucial and as

essential as the gospel may be, it is not the complete plan that

God has for us in our redemption.

It's not the end goal. If you truly understand the

gospel, it is the starting point of the Christian journey.

And So what happens at justification is that we are

instantaneously saved and following that is a day by day

progress known as sanctification until we enter into a permanent

state of perfection identified as glorification.

And so sanctification, if you're in Christ, that is what you're

experiencing. That is the part of redemption

that you are enjoying day by day, every moment, every second,

whether you're conscious of it or not.

And we should grow in our awareness of that because that

is why you exist as a Christian. Every relationship, every event,

every resource that you own in this life serves a supporting

role in that goal being realized.

Your transformation into the image of Christ is the goal of

why you are here and will be the goal until you meet your Savior

face to face. And So what is sanctification?

It's really simple. It's the moment, my moment

process in which God increasingly frees us from

inward and frees us from outward sin and molds us into the image

of Jesus Christ. This is God's desire for us, and

he is committed to this desire for us being accomplished.

But have you ever wondered to what degree does the Lord want

to transform each of us? What?

What is really the full vision that the Lord has in our

transformation? And we don't have to guess

because Paul tells us exactly what it is.

And I invite you to see this with your eyes in our first

passage today in First Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

And look at me here at verse 23. This is how far God aims to go

as he enrolls us in this lifelong process, Paul writes.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may

your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the

coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this one verse, you have two

glorious truths regarding our sanctification that we can't

afford to miss. The first thing is the purpose

of your sanctification, and the 2nd is the power of your

sanctification. So Paul identifies the purpose

in saying that the Lord the God of peace, and really as he's

writing this, he's actually praying this.

Now may the God of peace to sanctify us completely,

Completely in the Greek completely is only used here in

all of the New Testament. It means to be complete in all

respects. Now some come to this verse as a

means of debate, and this is what you will debate about if

you go to seminary. Is man tripartite being or

bipartite being? In other words, is man composed

of body, soul, and spirit? Or is soul and spirit

synonymous? Can I tell you something?

Paul didn't write this verse to cause a debate.

I don't think he intended for people to take the time to try

to figure that out. It's not wrong to have that

conversation, but that's not what he is trying to convey.

What Paul is trying to communicate by the Spirit is

that the Lord wants to change every single part of your being.

That's what he is trying to say. And when you consider that, you

have to realize that this is something the Lord will

accomplish in us, though it may be a bumpy ride.

And what I love about it is that Paul invites us to relish not,

not to be fearful, not to be overwhelmed, but to relish in

the thought that God wants to transform your motivations, your

ambitions, your meditations, your attitude, your appetites,

and every intricate detail in between.

And if you feel like that's a little scary, consider the

second point of Paul's verse here.

And that is the power of your sanctification.

What does he say? Now may the God of peace himself

sanctify you completely. Who is the one who performs this

deep cleansing in US? God himself.

God himself and the same one who alone can save you is the same

one who alone can change you to this degree at least.

And so Paul and pointing to every part of your being also

wants to point your eyes to the one who's able to do it.

And I love how he adds the God of peace himself.

He could have just said the God of peace, but he wants to really

emphasize that God himself, he did not delegate this

responsibility to another. He himself took it upon himself

to be committed to each of us, to seeing that realized more and

more. That's how much it means to him.

And so when you see it that way, we should rejoice.

But I'm afraid that if we read in isolation, we might think

that God will generate this change apart from our

participation, and that might encourage a dangerous passivity

in our pursuit of being more like Christ.

See again, you can't just take a verse out of context and just

make application out of it. You have to understand what he

says before and after. So I want us to consider that.

What did Paul say before praying for the God of peace to sanctify

us completely? We'll scroll back with me at

verse 15 to verse 15 of the same chapter or verse 12.

Actually, he says here, we ask you, brothers, respect those who

labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you,

and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers,

admonish the idol, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be

patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone

evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to

everyone. Rejoice always, pray without

ceasing. Give thanks in all

circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

For you do not quench the Spirit.

Do not despise prophecies, but test everything.

Hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

And he goes on and on. So Paul makes this prayer.

In that prayer there is really a promise after providing a string

of commands and instructions for each of us as Christians.

And what's meant to be explained here is that after learning of

all the things that God desires from us, he then ends by showing

us that God is going to help us accomplish it.

He will help you get to that point.

He will help you maintain that way of life.

Can you imagine that it is possible for a Christian, for

example, to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, to give

thanks to God in all circumstances?

And that's just one little snippet out of a large catalogue

of glorious things that we can walk in.

And so this is what he is essentially saying.

Not that God is going to do it while you remain robotic and

mindless. No, But as you walk in, as you

realize what the Lord desires for me and you chase it, the

Lord is right there to to blow wind into your sails.

But there needs to be a hoisted sail for that wind to blow in.

So we need to understand what God desires from us and posture

ourselves in order to pursue it and then receive the power to

walk in it. And if we ever feel disappointed

at the amount of work that needs to be done, because that can

happen very, very quickly as you examine your own life, or if

you're agitated because you're not seeing the results that you

would like to the time that you would like to see it, then

there's an added dosage of promise in verse 24.

Look what he says here in verse 24.

He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it.

He will. He's not talking about heaven

here. He's talking about your life

now, He's talking about your tomorrow's, He's talking about

you in a few months, you in a few years.

And interestingly, out of all the titles that Paul could have

given to the Corinthians concerning God, out of all the

attributes, out of all the things that God can do, what

does he say about God in verse 23, the God of peace?

Why does Paul mention the God of peace connected to our

sanctification or complete sanctification?

Well, I think when we look back and realize the last place where

Paul mentions peace and makes a little bit more sense.

Look at where he mentions peace back here at the end of verse

14. And we urge you brothers and

monitor the idol, encourage the faint hearted, help the week, be

patient with them all. And before that he speaks about

here and to steam the very highly those who are over you

and to have this sense of patience and peace together as a

whole understanding of relationships with one another.

And So what we have to see here is that there is a glorious

explanation concerning God of peace in terms of the most

difficult part of our sanctification.

It's easy to be holy when you live alone.

Holiness is much more accomplishable if you are in an

island and you're not interacting with anybody.

When is holiness hard? When you rub shoulders with

others and we have to face with other people who are also being

worked on, that's where it's difficult.

And it's as though what Paul is trying to say when he gives all

these commands concerning relationships with each other,

that the most difficult part about it, harmony with one

another is possible because of the God of peace.

In other words, there is no change that is too difficult for

God to bring you to even in how you deal with others in this

life. And that's found throughout

Thessalonians about love and sacrifice and being patient and

honoring that. It's found throughout this

epistle. And what Paul wants to say at

the end of it is that God can provide peace in your own heart

and in your marriage and in your church community and all the

relations that you have. Even that can be known because

of the God of peace. But this message isn't about

unity. What I'm trying to convey to

you, what I want to try to bring your attention to, is an aspect

of our sanctification that is often overlooked.

That's really the point of this conference, because I want to

see things that perhaps we might not consider important, and I

want you to consider an aspect of what God wants to change in

you that perhaps you've not thought about.

Have you ever considered God sanctifying your affections,

your feelings, your emotions, your sentiments, what you're

passionate about, what gets your heart going?

You might be thinking, is that really important?

Well, it is when you understand that God wants to sanctify us

completely. And I believe it is important

because when we consider the life of Paul, we not only see

rich theology and important doctrine, you see a man who

unashamedly pours out his heart and reveals his holy and

sanctified affections. This Bible could have been very

stale. It could have just been a

systematic list of things of do's and don'ts.

But what we have here in Paul at least, is a man who ties truth

with a throbbing heart. Do you think that's just random?

Do you think that's just for you to see that there's personality

behind Paul, or is there something about Paul's

affections that we are to imitate?

And I am absolutely convinced that there is something about

this man's heart posture that we are called to reflect because

it's found throughout, throughout his writings.

We see it through and through. And I want to see, I want you to

see one example. Come with me to Philippians 1

and look here at verse 8, because I don't want you to

dismiss this by saying, what does Paul's personality have to

do with my sanctification? It's beyond his personality.

Look what he says here. For God is my witness, how I

yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Do you understand what Paul is saying to this group of

believers? That what he feels about them

transcends human feelings? He he, he says with absolute

confidence and transparency. What I feel about you believers

is supernatural. Imagine a man daring to say what

Jesus feels about you. How Jesus feels about you is how

I feel about you. Now you can look at that again

from a this is an applaud Paul. What an amazing guy.

I'm glad he's one of ours. But instead I see an invitation.

If the affections of the Lord Jesus Christ, the same Christ

who left heaven, came to earth, walked this world for for 30

years, 33 years after his death, ascended into heaven after

conquering death. If the affections of that God,

the true God, can beat in a man, then Lord, let it beat in me.

If it's possible for Paul to feel this way, what would it be

like for my heart to know these things as well?

I want that. You should want that because God

wants you to have that because he is determined to sanctify you

completely. And notice what he says in

Philippians, he says for God is my witness.

So he calls God to witness that this is true.

How I yearn for you. Did he say some how I yearn for

you all. There's a lot of colorful people

in church. Would you agree a lot, some a

little bit more difficult to relate to, to tolerate, some

more enjoyable and easygoing. Paul didn't discriminate.

He said what I feel about each of you with your unique

personalities, weaknesses and strengths, I have Jesus heart

for you. That's mind blowing.

I mean, we can just end it here and say, Lord, give it to me and

that would be a wonderful end to this evening.

But I want to convince you, persuade you even more.

And if you think for yourself, if you're still like, I don't

know, you're touching a a part of my life now that's a little

bit uncomfortable. I'm not a I'm not a sentimental

person. I'm not emotional.

This is not reserved for Paul because I believe he calls us to

this as well. And if you look at what he says

to Timothy in Second Timothy 310, he actually praises Timothy

for imitating him in this way in Second Timothy 310.

Listen to what he says. You, however, have followed my

teaching. I don't mind following Paul's

teaching. It's truth.

Not just my teaching. My conduct.

OK, we've covered that the past couple of sessions.

My aim and life, yes. My faith, sure.

My patience, OK. Now we're getting on dangerous

territory, my love. So Timothy didn't just hear what

Paul had to preach. He saw how this man loved.

And he says, I want to imitate that.

And Paul intended for his love to be replicated because he had

the affection of Christ Jesus. And Timothy caught it.

And he says, you're doing the right thing with your love

there, Timothy. So instead of resisting this by

trying to explain it away, seek for it.

What would it look like for us to have the affection of Christ

Jesus for our spouses? Not just your attractions, but

the affections of Christ for your wife, for your husband.

What would it look like to have it for your children?

Not just the motherly instincts, but Christ's love as a father

for your sons, even the difficult ones.

What would it look like to have it for our elders?

What would it look like to have it for our common members?

What it look like to have it for the lost?

What would it look like for Christ's love to intensify in us

as God is sanctifying us even in our affections?

Affections reveal a lot about us.

You know what John said in first John to do not love the world

nor the things of this world. Then he goes on to say that if

you love the world and the things of this world, the love

of the Father is not in you. Now he's not talking about the

cosmos, he's not talking about the beautiful earth that we are

in. He's not talking about even

humanity. He's talking about the evil

system, the Antichrist system. The sinful ways of humanity do

not love the world or the things of the world.

And if your affections are on that, then there's a problem

because the love of the Father cancels out the things that the

Father hates. People always ask me how do I

know if I'm born again? Very important questions.

And I think one of the go to answers is what happened to your

heart after you heard the gospel and accepted it.

Have your affections changed? Have your desires changed?

Because that's what it means to be born again.

That what you once hated or were indifferent about or careless

about now becomes your priority and your passion and your

pursuit. That is one of the greatest

marks that God has changed you, not necessarily about instant

perfection, but change of heart direction.

So this is not, this is not the secondary thing, it's not

peripheral, this is not just optional.

This is vitally important. And once those affections are

renewed, God wants to now sanctify even more and

strengthen it and mature. And Paul was a wonderful model

of that. Imagine saying that the

affections of Christ Jesus I have here for you, and that's

something that you and I are invited to.

And I believe Paul provides us glimpses of what happens when

this supernatural set of affections takes over, and it's

worth examining so that we can year for it in our own lives.

Let's turn to our main text in First Thessalonians chapter 2,

1 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 17. Notice, I just want you to see

how this man, yes, an apostle, but he was also a pastor.

Look at how this pastor spoke about and to his people, he

says. But since we were torn away from

you, brothers, for a short time in person, not in heart, we

endeavoured the more eagerly and with great desire to see you

face to face, because we wanted to come to you, I Paul, again

and again. But Satan hindered us.

For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our

Lord Jesus at His coming? Is it not you?

For you are our glory and joy, that that's controversial.

You are our glory and joy. Oh, we have to hold on before we

get there. But let's consider and dissect

this a bit by bit. First, Paul tells these

believers, whom he calls brothers, brothers, brother

Saul, remember? And I told him that was the

first words he heard from a Christian after he experienced

Christ. He he explains that although

he's separated from them in person, he is not separated from

them in his heart. The believers that Paul knew

lived in his heart. They were not just faces that

they saw once a week where we just greeted from a distance.

And that was the extent of his relationship with Christians.

No, they abided in his bosom. And he says here that there the

pain of separate was like being torn away.

And the word there is actually as though somebody was made an

orphan, like a mother or father, taken from the lives of their

children. That's the kind of level of

excruciating agony he experienced when he said, out of

circumstances beyond his control, he was removed from

these believers prematurely. And he says, since we were torn

away from you, I want to let you know that you're still in my

heart. And listen, when the affections

of Jesus live in you, Christians will live in it as well.

And if Christians live in your heart, you know where else

they're going to be found in your supplications, in your

Thanksgiving to God. Can I ask you something?

When was the last time you spent a segment of your time in prayer

thanking God for the Christians? You know, Paul did it all the

time. Paul even did it by name, not

because he's like, only that's the checklist on my prayer.

No, no, no. It was because the affections of

Christ compelled him, because these believers lived in his

heart. And it says here that because

they were in his heart, they were not colleagues merely they

were his delight. Christians were his delight.

By the work of the Spirit you begin to genuinely, genuinely

enjoy Christians, and you begin to cherish them and think about

them. And so strong are these

affections that they don't even require physical interactions to

be realized. This love is alive and well even

though you do not see them on those days of the week where you

are not in the presence of other Christians.

Paul shows us here that there is this desire for them and there's

passion for them. Can you put your fingers on the

pulse of your relationship with other believers and agree with

Paul here? Or is this is this kind of

alien? Is this kind of awkward to you

because believers abide in your heart?

Again, they will find a prominent place in those ways

where you communicate with God about them.

It was so embedded in them that it pained them to be removed

from these Christians. But look what he says here.

We endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you

face to face when the affections of Christ Jesus live in you.

Christian community becomes a priority.

And I don't know if that's true for all believers.

You begin to be pleased with the idea of being with Christians.

And I love to to see this at NBC.

When people walk through those doors, whether that be on a

Wednesday or Friday or Sunday, faces light up.

I hope that's true in your church, that all it takes is the

presence of believers that, you know, love Christ to change your

mood. And Paul was just daydreaming

about trying to see these believers face to face.

And you know why this is true for those who have the

affections of Christ Jesus, because let me remind you what

Jesus prayed to the Father when He was ready to go to the cross

in John 1724. He prayed this.

This is what Jesus prayed. Father, I desire that they also

whom you have given me, may be with me where I am.

So the affections of Christ is not just saving some and then

kind of having an arm's length relationship with them?

No, it went beyond that. He saved them.

He saved us with the goal of being with us without filter,

without hindrance, for all of eternity.

If Jesus desires so much so that he prayed to the Father to be

with Christians, shouldn't that be true of you, Christian?

It should. If the affections of Christ live

in you, you long to do life with other believers.

If that's missing in you, then you need your affection

sanctified by the Holy Spirit. If that doesn't stir you, then

this thought perhaps will. The treasure of us coming

together and advancing God's purposes as a unit is so dynamic

that Satan fights against it. What did he say here?

He says here, I long to see a great desire to see you.

But what Satan? Satan tried to stop us again and

again. That's what he's mentioning

here. Again and again, Satan tried to

stop us. What does it take for you to not

be with Christians? Does it come down to Satan

trying to stop you to meet with other believers on a regular

basis? Because that's what it took for

Paul. Paul had no other excuse not to

be with other Christians in a living, dynamic, relational,

habitual way. Except for the devil himself

trying to stop him. For some people, all it takes is

an early Sunday service. Other than stop Paul, it had to

take the devil himself to change his schedule to stop Paul from

getting to the Thessalonians. That's how much Satan believes

in the power of when Christians come together.

I'm not sure if Christians are convinced of the same.

And so Paul says here, I, I I'm telling you, Thessalonians, I

really tried to get to you, but the enemy of our souls hindered

me greatly. But what did we hear about this

morning? And tell me that P word.

Good. We're all awake still.

Yeah, I get it. Bear with me.

We're almost there. Providence.

And Providence is at work here. Scholars believe that First

Thessalonians is the first epistle that Paul ever wrote.

So let me put it this way. Satan thought that he can stop

Paul in his ministry from getting to the Thessalonians.

But what Satan didn't realize that he started another

ministry. That was Paul's writing ministry

because it began with First Thessalonians.

Like he just keeps losing if you haven't got the picture.

And so we see here that Paul says, I genuinely try to come to

you. And this is the most astounding

part about Paul spilling his affections for these believers.

And it's not just here he says something, as I mentioned

earlier, that would almost be controversial to the unfamiliar

reader. Look how he ends this in verse

19. For what is our hope?

He's speaking rhetorically here. For what is our hope or joy or

crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming pause?

You would think that he would answer with what Jesus?

What's our boast? What's our hope, our joy or

crown? When Christ comes?

You think he would say what Christ?

But what does he say instead? Is it not you?

He goes on to say, for you are our glory and joy.

So take a deep breath and step back and brace yourself for this

answer because we have to understand this.

Unless we get into some heresy, the way we make sense of this is

that Paul, in explaining about the return of Christ and when

Christ comes, obviously that's going to be a joyous occasion.

But in essence, what Paul is communicating is that Christ

coming and establishing his Kingdom, bringing us to Himself,

is not the only joyful thing that I am looking forward to.

It is the primary thing. Paul mentions that in other

places, but what he's also saying is that when Jesus comes

back, one of the things that I am rejoicing at the thought of

is the eternal presence of other believers.

That's what he's saying. So this man's affections for

other Christians was so strong that what got his heart stirring

was the thought of being with other Christians forever.

This is one of the strongest proof text of how you and I,

when we get to heaven, we'll recognize one another and we'll

recognize other Saints. Paul says, I can't wait to come

to that point where we see your sanctification turn to

glorification and we'll rejoice together before the presence of

the Lord Jesus. So Christ is our ultimate object

of praise and adoration in heaven.

But Paul is not ashamed. The Holy Spirit inspired us say

is not just going to be about Christ, It's also going to be

about Christians. It's gonna be about Christians.

Like do you, do you see the heightened affection that this

man has? We're not even talking about

Paul's affections for God. We're not even talking about

Paul's affections for others who are lost.

We're just dealing with Paul's affections for the church.

And it's supposed to stand as a mirror to reflect on our own

affections and see if this is true.

So this is one of the strongest verses that promise us that

we're going to enjoy one another.

And it's been set here in the Bibles for us to enjoy at the

just thought of it. The thought of it alone should

cause us to rejoice. So this, the Saints were not

just a source of Paul's joy in this life, but in the life to

come. And that was one of his greatest

anticipations. I wonder if that's true for you.

I wonder if that's true for you. I wonder if you look at other

Christians and from time to time realize I'm going to live with

these people forever. The Holy Spirit wants you to

feel that and when you feel that it's a lot more difficult to

bicker and to bite right with gossip, not physically.

I hope that would be concerning and and harm and hurt and bruise

and demean and gossip and these affections stifle those things.

They put out fires that can destroy what God wants to

maintain and make beautiful Time does not permit to talk about

pause affections in other areas. But what I do want to say is

that this is something that we should pursue.

Don't write it off because your wiring is different.

Don't allow yourself to justify the awkwardness that you sense

in the language that Paul uses to keep you from saying this is

something that I perhaps should reconsider.

Embrace it. In fact, if you are still

hesitant in believing that this is something that we should all

share, these affections that are polished by the power of God,

then realize Paul actually asked Christians for them to feel what

he felt. Do you know that Paul did that

before? And who do you think Paul asked

to feel certain things for him as he did for them?

Oh, it was the Corinthians, the troublesome Corinthians.

Look what he says. I mean, again, these are verses

that we kind of brush over, but look what he says in Second

Corinthians. Let's turn there because we're

almost done. Believe it or not.

Look what he says in 2nd Corinthians 6 verse 11.

Paul says we have spoken freely to you, Corinthians.

Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us,

but you are restricted in your own affections.

So what's Paul saying? Paul's criticism about these

believers is, can I simplify? Can I interpret it, translate it

in modern language? You're cold.

You're cold towards us. We haven't been cold towards

you. We've given our hearts to you.

We've widened our hearts to you. Would you not give us the same?

And so this tells me that, listen, Christians, by the power

of God's work in us, should be the most approachable, warm,

loving individuals on the face of the earth.

Paul didn't allow the Corinthians to remain stoic,

indifferent, careless, shallow in their affections for him and

other Christians. You're cold.

And So what he says here as he speaks to them, he doesn't give

them any excuse because he realizes that the God of peace

wants to sanctify us completely. And look what he says here in

verse 11 of the same chapter, second Corinthians 611 to 13, we

read here in 13. In return, I speak as to

children. Widen your hearts also wide in

your heart so he puts the responsibility on them.

Open your hearts even more and make room for Christ feelings to

live and breathe and move in you as I'm telling you as I as I

open this conference with studying Paul's been a

beautifully painful experience because he he doesn't he doesn't

want you by the spirit. He doesn't want you to be

content with little change in your walk with the Lord.

He doesn't want you to even think that sanctification is

merely about your external and observable patterns in life.

Now he wants to get to the the soul.

He wants to get to the deepest parts of who you are, the things

that you even feel. Paul says God is after that, God

is after that, and God can widen your heart in every direction.

He can widen your heart for your fellow believers, all of them.

As he told the Philippians, he can widen your heart towards

him. Do you struggle expressing your

affections for God? Do you struggle even, can I say

this? Do you struggle to sing to God?

I've met Christians who love the Lord by their own admission, but

they say I Can't Sing to him, though I can't express my that's

just not who I am. You know what Paul would say?

I believe he would say this, widen your hearts, give that

heart that is restricted in your affections and place it before

the throne and say, Lord, do something with this.

Listen to what the psalmist said in Psalm 51150.

Lord, he didn't say widen my heart.

He said open my lips because out of the abundance of your heart,

the mouth speaks. So he says, oh Lord, in Psalm

5115, open my lips. Why open my lips and my mouth

will declare your praise. I guess what?

There's no excuse, my fellow Christian.

Whether it's this mouth or your affections or your actions,

whatever part of you is restricted, it is not conforming

to Christ's likeness. You can bring that before the

God of peace and He can sanctify it.

He can sanctify it. I'm going to end in a different

way. I'm going to end in preaching

the gospel. I want to, I want to just simply

come to this point and just highlight to you how the Bible

wants to deal with the deepest parts of who you are and to just

come before the Lord sweetly and say, Lord, come after my

affections. But I want to make sure that

every person here at least hears the gospel because everything

that you've heard, please pay attention to this.

I know it's been a long day, a long weekend, but this is the

most important message you'll hear, not just this weekend for

the rest of your life. Everything that you heard means

absolutely 0. Nothing if you first have not

grasped the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything that you've heard you can put aside if you have not

first confirmed your understanding and your decision

about the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

The most important question in this life is who is Jesus

Christ? And the next one is who is he to

you? Who is Jesus Christ and who is

he to you? Or do you know him?

Do you know Him? So let me remind you that you

are not a bag of skin stuffed with meat.

You're not the result of some combustion in the universe.

And all this order just happened by chance and now you live to

just make enough money so that you can go on two or three

vacations a year, try not to get sick and to live the longest and

embrace death with a 70 year resume of pleasure and joy and

memories. That's not the reason why you're

here. You are created in the image of

God. You have been created by God,

and you've been created to walk with God and know your God,

fellowship with your God. But something happened in the

early phases of creation. The very first ones who were

created had a choice to either obey God and remain in that

relationship with Him, or disobey God and fracture that

relationship, and they chose the latter.

They chose to sin, and in sinning they created a problem

for the rest of humanity, a problem that you and I are very

familiar with. Why is it that we do evil?

Why is it that we hurt each other?

Why is it that we are attracted to perversions and selfishness

and lying and immorality? Where did that come from?

Why is there not one part of the world, one culture, that is not

infected with this issue? It's because we have all been

tainted by sin. We all have a disposition to

rebel. And if it's not for the common

grace of God that provides restrictions in this life,

including your conscience that says this is good and this is

bad, by the way, where did that come from?

Goo in the universe? Apparently if we didn't have a

government that exercises the sword, we didn't have families

that are meant to train us, this world would go wild.

And one day it will in the great tribulation.

So we are all sinful beings. And because of that, in light of

the holiness of God, we all deserve the wrath of God.

We all deserve to be judged by God.

We all deserve to be swept into eternal wrath.

You say, well, I'm not that bad of a person, perhaps in

comparison to your neighbor, but in light of the holiness of God,

you and I are filthy. Filthy.

Somebody gave this wonderful illustration of driving by and

her daily routine to work. She was in a rural area and she

would always see these sheep, these fluffy clouds with little

black legs, right? And they seem to stand out in

those grassy hills. They seem to just be a little,

you know, bots of white and they would always get her attention

as she would drive by. But when it came to the winter

time, those see same sheep that seemed to stand out to see so

clean and pure because of the whiteness of the snow, they

didn't seem so white anymore. She saw the imperfections and

the blotchiness and and the insects even that's just a

simple illustration of us and our righteousness.

Yeah. Compared to each other, we may

seem good, but once you stand in the backroom of God's holiness,

we stand out. We stand out.

So don't compare yourself to your neighbor.

Don't compare yourself to the criminals on the nightly news.

Compare yourself to God and things will change in yourself

estimation. So what does that mean?

That's the bad news. The bad news is that God is

good. That's bad because in His

goodness and His Holiness, He will not allow sin to run

rampant without it colliding with His justice.

So people say, oh, well, if God is good, why doesn't He deal

with all this evil in the world? Do you understand the

implications of that? If God is good, which He is

good, and you wanted to deal with the evil in this world,

guess who he has to deal with? You.

What do you think evil comes from the thin air?

No, no, no, no, no. According to the Bible, it comes

from the sewage of your heart and mind.

That's where it comes from. That's the source of it.

God is good, which is a terrifying thing if we think

about his justice. But God is good in that he is

also love. And so though this world is a

cesspool of evil and iniquity and hatred, the Lord, the Lord

of hosts, looks down in this creation, looks down on those

that are created in his image that says I want them.

I want to restore my relationship with them.

I want to redeem them. I want to take them and not just

justify them, but sanctify them and one day glorify them.

I God wanted to us in his love so greatly that not only does he

save your soul, your spirit, He actually is going to redeem your

body. Do you understand that?

This same body that did horrible things that hurt so many people,

that's hurt even myself, even this body that was once tainted,

God says I'm going to even redeem that.

That's why your body will be resurrected as a testament of

the God's glory and wanting to save all of you.

How did he do it? Did he sweep your sin underneath

the rug? Did he say, you know what, let's

just forget about all this and let's just move on together?

No, He's too holy for that. God in his great love takes on

human flesh, enters into this world in the person of Jesus

Christ, and he walks a perfect life, free from sin, free from

from anything. Even his imaginations were holy.

No deceit found on his tongue. Not a hint of wrong was found in

him. And that was necessary because

this perfect one would die. How could a perfect one die?

He died voluntarily. He died in your place.

You know, it's amazing. I I used to go evangelizing on

the streets and one of my go to things was to find people who

had crossed necklaces or cross tattoos.

And I would go up there and be like, I love your necklace and

say, oh, thanks. Yeah.

Was it a gift? Yeah.

Yeah, it was a gift, You know, So, you know, my girlfriend gave

it to me something like wonderful.

I said when were you born again? And you should see their faces.

You know, the cross has become fashion these days.

It's been romanticized. Do you understand what it means

for Jesus Christ to have died on a cross?

Have you ever thought about that?

Or do you just put it on your skin and put it on a shirt

because it looks cool? He died on the cross, laying his

own life. Because you deserve to be on

that cross. And more than just a cross, you

deserve to experience the eternal judgement of God.

And instead of you experiencing that, Christ, the Son of God

gets on that cross and drinks every drop of judgment that was

aimed for you. And as he hung there, suspended

between heaven and earth, because of his person, because

of who he is, he satisfied the righteous demands of God.

But he didn't remain on that cross.

He was buried. And he didn't remain buried, He

rose again. Do you realize what it means for

Jesus Christ to rise from the dead?

Jesus Christ rose from the dead as a signal of God the Father's

Amen for His sacrifice. I approve that this sacrifice

satisfies my wrath, and Christ ascends into heaven in victory.

He is today seated at the right hand of God, and one day He is

coming back. Are you ready to meet Him?

How Are you ready to meet Him? Here's the gospel than realizing

what Christ has done for your sin, you humbly realize that you

are the Sinner, that your sin place them on the cross.

But you also recognize that he made a payment for you.

And so you say, if this is what my sin has done, I repent from

it. And if he has purchased my

forgiveness, I receive it. So you receive a gift.

You embrace this gift. And now upon that confession,

the Bible tells us that you are in that moment justified in the

sight of God, made perfect in the sight of God, becoming a

child of God, not just a forgiven fugitive, but a friend,

become a son, a daughter. And this Jesus who died for you

now can claim you. And after you confess that after

you. If you're sitting here today and

you've never made that confession, listen to me very

carefully. If you make that confession and

say I'm a Sinner and I repent and I believe that this Jesus

Christ of Nazareth is indeed God who came in his love to rescue

me from my sin. In my judgment, the moment you

make that confession, you will know something of a supernatural

transaction where there's a burden that's rolled off your

shoulder and your heart now is changed and there is a deposit

of new affections. And then now the same God who

saves you indwells you by His Spirit, and he walks with you

day by day on this journey of transforming you and chiseling

you and convicting you and comforting you so that you can

look more and more like Him. Until the day he calls you home

and he says the journey is now done.

Let's make you like me forever. Have you made a conscious

decision where you have bend the knee and accepted this Jesus

Christ as your Lord and Savior? If you have not, give me the

reason why. Like persuade me why you think

this is not good. Tell me what's better than

knowing that the God who made you, who could have easily

judged you and been totally justified in doing so, instead

wants you, and so he pays a high price to save you?

You're going to tell me today that you're going to swat away

that invitation. That's remarkable to me.

So today I want to give you the invitation, an invitation unlike

any other invitation that if you accept, it doesn't matter what

else you experience in this life, you have reached the

treasure of all treasures. You've reached the joy of all

joys. Repent and belief in this moment

right now. In God's Providence, he allowed

you to come to this conference this year, on this night, more

importantly, to hear the gospel and for you to be saved.

I'm making an invitation for you to give your life to Jesus

Christ. So what does it take?

What does it take for me? Here's what I'm telling you.

You acknowledge your sin and you give that sin over in

repentance. And you say, Lord, now forgive

me, please forgive me and he will forgive you.

You don't need to jump through any other hoop.

You need to memorize a certain decree or or creed.

It's just you hearing this truth.

I understand that comes from this book and then you

responding to it and listen to this.

I'm ending it here. If you refuse to respond to it

and remain neutral in your own mind, you've already responded

to it. You've rejected it.

I have nothing personally to gain for you to say yes to

Christ. You have everything to gain and

everything to lose. I don't.

I like like we don't keep a scorecard at our church.

We don't go and figure out who made a superficial answer.

In fact, many times when people come to Christ, we don't ever

realize that until months or years later.

What's mattering more is your name being written in the Lamb's

book of life. That's what matters more than

anything else. This is listen, this is between

you and God. This is not between you and

Maranatha Conference and Jesus. It's you and Jesus Christ,

believer, I'm going to make this invitation as I make an

invitation for people who are lost to be saved.

Would you take those little snippets of Paul's affection to

say, Lord, widen my heart. Let me leave Maranatha 2024 with

a greater set of affections for you, your people, and everything

in between. Let's bow our heads and thank

the Lord. Lord, we thank you for this

evening. We thank you that you've allowed

us to come, not just to receive from your word, instruction and

guidance and insight, but Lord, you've allowed us to be

refreshed by the gospel itself. And so we just pray even now

that for the person here who has maybe heard this 100 times or

maybe for the first time, we ask that they would not ignore the

conviction that may be in their hearts.

Instead, Lord, we pray that this would be the moment that they

would give their lives over to the one who gave them life to

begin with. We pray, Lord, for every other

believer here, understanding that we might be weary in the

flesh, but give us enough energy now to simply speak to you and

say, Lord, sanctify me completely.

There's any corner of my life that needs to be conformed to

you. Please, Lord, if I love the

world in a degree, in a way that is not right and befitting of

me, Lord, change that love for a love for you and the things of

God. I cannot do what you've called

me to do unless you change my desires.

So, Lord, I come to you, the God of peace, and I ask that you

sanctify me completely. We ask these things in the

mighty, glorious living name of Jesus Christ, Amen and Amen.

If you need to give your life to Jesus Christ, I will be standing

there. If you want to do that on your

own, good. You don't have to go through any

person. You can go directly to him, but

if you need questions answered, if you need prayer for specific

things, whatever it may be to help assist you to come closer

to him. It would be my great privilege

and honor to help you come a little closer to the Savior.

I'll be standing right there and the praise team will be singing.

Believers sing, pray, seek the Lord, thank him, and God will be

glorified. Let's do it.

Thank you, praise team. Amazing Grace, how sweet the

sound. I save the Reds like we I was

was lost but I was fine. But now I see Twas grace.

Twas grace that taught my heart fear and raise my fears.

Really I should say that I grace to fear me.

I I first feel me. My chains are gone, my chains

are gone. I've been saved.

My God, my Savior has where I saw me and light up his mercy

reigns my landing hands. Amazing race

the world has come it is good to me.

Here's where my home secures here and am my sheep and person

as long as life is my chains are gone, I've been to every night.

God my Savior has ransomed me and I come on.

His mercy reigns on everything. Amazing Grace.

My chains are gone, my chains are gone, I've been set free.

My God, my save gone has rest on me, and my God the His mercy

makes unending love amazing ways.

The earth shall soon the earth shall soon dissolve like snow,

the sun for bear to shine by. God, who called will be forever

will you will be forever. You are mine.

You are forever. Do you remember when you were

born again? Do you remember when you were

born again? Yeah, I remember.

Do you remember when you were born again?

Do you remember? I remember when I was born

again? Yeah, I remember.

I was 20 years old, a college student studying creative

advertising in Toronto, ON. And what led me to Christ was

the misery of my sin. Unhinged.

No parental supervision. My parents are here, but they

know the story already. Unhinged.

And I thought, this is what I've been missing out on.

And so I splurged in the flesh. But I praise God that I didn't

have to wait until my 40s or 50s to have a midlife crisis.

I experienced it at 20 when I realized very early on the world

lied to me. It lied to me and I just saw the

rat race I was in and I saw how the chains were only getting

stronger and tighter around me. This world that promised me

freedom and liberty and joy deceived me because I'm more

bound than ever. I'm more empty than ever.

I'm more confused than ever and praise God because of my

upbringing. In that dark place, I saw a

flickering light. It was the name of Jesus.

And I told myself, you know what, let's see if what I

thought was actually lying to me all my life growing up in the

church is actually true. And so I began to read my Bible

in the year of 2012 as a New Year's resolution.

And as I was reading it, mind you, I didn't know how to read

it. I don't know where to read it.

So I googled it, how to read the Bible, and I still have the Word

document told me to go to the Gospel of Mark.

So I read Mark and I remember my advertising journal that our

teachers told us to always carry In case you have any spontaneous

ideas for a brand that you're working with, you need to jot it

down. Your brain might forget, but

paper doesn't forget. And so all these little

caricatures and all these different ideas and slogans

began to be replaced with verses from Mark saying, that's me.

And one of the ones that struck me, one of the ones that shot

out of that page like an arrow right into my soul, was when

Jesus looked at the Pharisees and he says, you honor me with

your lips, but your hearts are far from me.

And so that's me. And I had such a difficulty

grasping how a guy like me claiming to be a Christian can

actually converse me, even pray. I couldn't even pray because I

was like, I've been misrepresenting you for so many

years. Do you actually want to deal

with me? And so I remember one of the

verses that I put on a post note and I put it above my laptop.

This is still on my journey discovering who Christ is.

We're in Romans 8 when we're told that therefore there is now

no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and men that

I rehearse that when doubts try to creep it, I would just look

up and read that verse. And so finally the love of Jesus

Christ was persuading me and wooing me.

And then there was one particular long weekend where I

sensed it in my heart. There was no audible voice.

There was no manifestation of any kind.

It was just the crevice of my soul, the conscience that God

has given us. Where I heard this thought, you

cannot merely appreciate me, you must follow me.

You cannot merely admire me, You must make a decision to

surrender to me. And in that particular long

weekend, my, my roommate was not there in that apartment and I

made a decision. Lord, I've tried the world.

It has failed me. I tried to do the, the worldly

Christianity. You know, we have a little bit

of this and from time to time you get a little bit of that.

I'm I'm sold. And if you're willing to forgive

me, then I receive that forgiveness.

I don't just want forgiveness, though.

I want your Lordship take over my life.

It was a lot less sophisticated than how I explained it just

now. It is more snotty.

Can I tell you something? No altar call, no beautiful

music, no speaker. Just an apartment in January,

beginning of February, with a Bible and IKEA desk, with a

cheap lamp and a leather chair. But the presence of God flooding

that room, I was born again. How are you born again?

Can I tell you how? When I woke up everything was

different. I mean everything.

I mean everything. Like the snow looked different,

the air smelt different. More importantly, sin looked

different. That's how I knew that was it.

That's how I knew. So the thing that I try to

justify and argue and enjoy now, it was repulsive to me.

I don't want this. I don't want this.

I want him. I want to be holy.

If he saved me, then I want to live for him.

So nobody needed to tell me, read your Bible.

I wanted to read my Bible. Nobody told me you need to pray.

I wanted to pray. Nobody told me.

Delete the junk on your playlist.

I wanted to delete the junk and what I was watching and

listening to. Why?

Because when He saves you, he changes your affections.

He changes your. It's supernatural, man.

This is not you signing up to go to church every Sunday.

This is you dying and then coming to life in Christ.

How do I know if I'm born again? You'll know, you'll know.

And if you don't know if you're born again, I would not waste a

moment questioning it. I would try to figure it out as

soon as possible. And one way you know you're born

again is not only do you have a new relationship with Christ,

you have a new relationship with sin.

So I want to pray in closing that for all the born again

people in this place who have their own stories, that the Lord

would rekindle your affections and grow those affections for

the person who is not born again.

I'm going to pray that the Lord and his goodness would haunt you

with conviction. Well, I remember I prayed that

for a guy. We were out evangelizing.

There was a group of guy and he was a little intoxicated.

And so I prayed and I said, Lord, I never said those words

before. I said, Lord, I pray that you

haunt him with conviction. And he stopped me, says, why

would you pray for God to haunt me with conviction, man?

I said, it's a good thing. Don't worry.

I'm going to pray sincerely. I don't want to be too

lighthearted about this. I'm going to pray that God in

his power and that I pray, we all pray this, that if there's

anybody in here who's not saved, that it would be very difficult

for them to remain unsaved. Amen.

Can we pray, rejoice, let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for reminding us that when you saved us,

you're not done with us. You want to change us over and

over. So Lord, we pray that we would

have this passion to see our lives conform to Christ even in

the parts that we didn't think you cared about.

But Lord, we also pray for the person here.

We as believers come together and we pray for the soul of the

one or the ones who don't know you.

Lord, we pray that you do something miraculous in them and

that Lord, they would not leave this campground, they would not

leave this state, they would not go back home the same.

We've done our part, we've sang, we've prayed, we've preached.

But Lord, we commit the supernatural to you, and we ask

that you would do it. And whether we hear it on this

side of heaven or not, we pray that these souls would be met in

heaven and that we would be able to recognize that from Maranatha

2024 you did a work that glorified you.

So we love you and we thank you for this evening.

We bless your name in Jesus name, Amen, and Amen and Amen.

You may be seated for a moment as you receive some instructions

for the rest of this evening.