Delight in Darkness | CJ Kelley

Father, we thank you.

And Father, we just ask that in this moment that you would make us more aware of your presence right now.

Would you call our hearts to reverence you and you in this room and how your spirit, even right now, in our hearts and our minds is moving in this room, oh God.

Father, we know you're here.

We know you're moving in our midst.

But Father, we just ask that you would wake up our hearts right now, oh God.

Whatever is within us, whatever is troubling us, whatever is causing us to not hear from you this morning.

Father, we pray that you would deliver us from it, oh God.

Would you uproot whatever uh things, whatever sin that so easily entangles, would you uproot it out of us this morning, oh God?

And we, you people, would give you the praise, honor, and glory.

And all God's people said, Amen, amen, and amen.

Well, good morning, church.

Um I'm just so happy to be here.

Um, I'm excited.

I love you all.

Um, I feel like every time I'm up here, I give you an update on my life, on my adult life.

So um, I spent my 4th of July.

Uh Friday morning, I went home because uh Stacy Stang, the the the Mustang is what I call her.

Um I had to add the layer to rest.

Yeah, it's sad.

I'm grieving, so pray for me.

I had to layer to rest.

So, but I did come back to Cleveland with a new car.

So we're celebrating that.

But we're making payments though, so that's more part of adult life.

So that's what I'm talking about.

More updates on adult life.

So hey, I'm I'm one step closer to being with y'all, so I'm right there with y'all, you know.

But um, but so we're coming out of last week, uh, we concluded our June Sabbath month with a wonderful potluck.

You know, we're one thing as a church and we don't do nothing else.

We're gonna eat together, amen.

And last week, um, Pastor Drew did a phenomenal job of colluding of concluding us.

Um, wasn't that a wonderful message?

Was anybody touched?

I know I was.

Um, of taking us out of what does it now mean?

What comes after Sabbath?

But I just kind of want to give you a brief little overview in case you weren't here or um you weren't able to be at all the events um for our um June Sabbath ones.

We did a couple of things.

We were a little busy Sabbath and we had a uh fellowship, uh we did a fellowship um day on June 4th.

Um uh Drew's mother hosted us for a wonderful little birthday party get together.

We had a wonderful time there.

Then on June 7th, we had the wonderful joint service with our neighbors right upstairs who share the building with us, Ark of Day Salvation.

Um we had a joint service in celebrating our one risen king together with English and Spanish, and it was great.

It was a wonderful time, and then we fellowshiped together.

We had great American food, we had great Spanish, uh Mexican food, it was a great time.

And then on June 20th, the wonderful Hodges they hosted us at their house and we had a great time spending in the summer fun.

You know, we played some ball, we threw the bag, we had a great time Sabbathing together.

And then last week, we polished off June Sabbath month with a Sabbath meal together.

And we talked about now, what does it mean now?

That after we come out of this intentional time of Sabbath together, what comes after Sabbath?

And the goal of after Sabbath is delight.

That now we delight in the Lord, that now after we spend intentional time of laying away from any new initiatives, any new kind of work, now our goal together as we press on for the rest of this season together is delighting in the Lord together as a church.

So seeing someone say delight this morning.

So if I had a if I had a title uh for this moment for this message, well, it would be delighting in darkness.

I'm gonna challenge this morning your idea of maybe what you think delight might mean.

I don't know about you, when you think about delight, I think about, you know, up on the beach, you know, got my feet kicked up, maybe got a nice cup of coffee, a book, whatever it is.

But in the text that we'll be in today, that's not exactly what this image of delight looks like.

Paul's not up in his cell with his feet kicked up with a nice cup of coffee.

But I do believe that Paul, when he's writing this letter to the church of Philippi, that he is writing it with a smile on his face while he's behind bars.

So our text from this morning, as we read the word of God, can we stand together as we read?

Uh is Philippians chapter 3, and we'll start at verse 7 and we'll read to uh verse 11.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

And it reads, But whatever regains to be now I consider lost for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

Someone say all things.

I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.

The righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

In verse number 10, Paul says, I want to know Christ.

He says, Yes, I want to know the power of his resurrection and also the participation in his sufferings.

Becoming like him in his death, and so somehow attaining the resurrection from the dead.

The word of the Lord.

So, Father, this morning, we your people, we come together to hear a word from you this morning.

And Father, as a church, as we come out of intentionally together, Sabbathing together and intentionally making decisions to Sabbath, this doesn't mean that we stop Sabbathing.

This is something that you call us to do for us.

That you call us to rest for our protection.

So, Father, will we take the rhythms that we learned?

Will we take the ideas that we learned and put those into practice?

But now, together as a church, as we leaning into now what it means to delight in you, would you remind us that you are with us to the very end of the age?

We pray this in Jesus' match in mighty name.

And all God's people say, Amen.

You may take your seats.

So I always think it's pretty crazy.

Like whenever I read, you know, Paul's epistles, especially the three that he writes when he's behind bars, that he's constantly reminding whenever he's writing to the churches, he's writing to them, encouraging them to stay in faith.

He's encouraging them to be of good cheer and to rejoice in the Lord.

And Paul is writing this letter to the church of Philippi, and I'm really thinking that while he's writing, I chose this picture up here for the uh title.

Because when I thought of Paul, when Paul is writing this, like you get the sense of when you're reading this letter that he, though he is persecuted, though he's behind bars, that Paul still has a sense of joy.

And not a joy, a joy that the world can't give and the world can't take away, but he's writing to the church and he says, Rejoice.

I mean, how is it that a man behind bars, a man in prison, a man not knowing whether he's going to live or die, is writing to his friends and saying, Rejoice in the Lord.

And he says in uh Philippians 3, uh verses 1 through 4.

Is that up there?

1 through 3?

Or 1 through 4?

Is it up there?

Is it up there?

And he says, further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

He says, It is no trouble for me to write the same thing to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

But he says, Watch out for those dogs and those evildoers, those manipulators of the flesh.

For it is we who are circum who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh, though I myself have every reason for such confidence.

So we see now that why uh Paul has this confidence, he says, I put no confidence in myself.

I put no confidence in who I am or the skills or the abilities that I have.

This is why, no matter the circumstance, whether Paul is free walking about the temple courts preaching the gospel or behind bars, that Paul still has joy.

Because he says, I have no confidence in me or who I am, but I have confidence in the God of whom I know and believe is with me always until the end of the age.

In the end of Matthew's gospel in the Great Commission, we see when Jesus reappears to his disciples and we see what it is he's calling them to.

He calls them to make disciples of all nations.

And he knows that what it is he's calling them to is not so easy task.

Like this isn't light work, right?

He's and even in Acts, we see that they pray for boldness to do what it is that Jesus calls them to do.

But the last thing that we see in Matthew's gospel is he says, remember that I am with you until the very end of the age.

But I also think it's funny that Paul almost even like brags about like being locked up for this.

Like we see in chapter one that he's like almost talking about like, man, like it's maybe it's better that they lock me up for this if it means that with me being in chains for Christ, that others are brought to Christ.

He says in in chapter one, verses 12 through 14, he says, Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.

As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole place that all the palace guards and to everyone that I am in chains for Christ.

I mean, this is amazing.

We gotta get this.

He says that even in his incarceration, even in behind chains, that it has become so clear to even other people that man, this guy Paul is different.

That even despite being locked up for preaching the gospel and doing and living a life that is worthy of the gospel, that Paul is still living a life behind bars that is evident of his love for Jesus.

In the verse 14, he says, And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.

Paul behind bars has totally forgotten himself.

Paul is living a life that is hidden behind the cross.

Paul has become so intimate and so close to Jesus that he says, if it means that me being locked up and possibly losing my life that others might be brought to Christ, so be it.

He says, I rejoice in the idea that my incarceration, that me being behind bars, has driven others to want to know Christ, to want to live a life that is worthy of the gospel, that he says, even the prison guards, even the ones that got them locked up, is like, man, this dude Paul is different.

And it prompts all of us to ask the question that when persecution comes, that when I'm supposed to delight in the Lord and things ain't going right, and you know, the bills are sitting on the table, right?

We got work eight to five eight to five Monday through Friday.

The kids is acting crazy.

You got car trouble, you got that one person in your family that's wilding out.

You just lost your job.

I don't know what it is.

He says, How are you still able to live a life that is worthy to exemplify the gospel?

This letter to the church of Philippi is the famous letter we see often where Paul um Paul says, I didn't have this, this, uh, I don't think I had this scripture up there, y'all.

So forgive me for this.

But this is the famous scripture, you've probably heard this before, but he says, Yes, and uh Philippians, this is Philippians 1, starting at verse 19.

He says, For I know that your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me, will turn out for my deliverance.

And I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but I will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death.

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

For if I'm to go on living in the body, this means I will have continual fruitful labor.

He says, I really, I truly desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.

But it's necessary that I stay here with you and remain in the body.

Convinced of this, I know I will remember and remain and I will continue with you all in progress and joy.

Paul says, he says, I don't know what's better.

Paul has become so close to Jesus that he says, truly, I don't know what's better.

That I may die and be and live with my risen Savior, my friend Jesus, or that I get to be released and continue to preach and live out this gospel that I know is so true to me.

This is what intimacy with Jesus and delighting in the Lord looks like.

That it says, no matter my circumstance, that I have this joy that the world did not give me and the world cannot take away.

Paul has truly learned to glorify God and simply delight in him even in the midst of persecution.

And to Paul, there's like there's no better joy than to be imprisoned for the sake of Christ.

Paul has clearly spent enough time with Jesus to have this intimacy and friendship with him.

We see that in John 15, he says, he says to the disciples, I no longer call you servants.

That we're no longer just people after we Sabbath with him and we sat with him and we've sat in our word and we've sat in prayer, he says, we no longer, I no longer call you servants.

We're no longer just people following the directions of our pastor and following the directions of a preacher.

We're no longer people who just know how to read scripture, we're people who know how to spend time with Jesus.

Does anybody desire this?

Does anyone desire to be a people that just knows how to spend time with Jesus?

Going back to our main text, he says, knowing Christ has proven to be the richest thing in this life.

He says it's richer, it's the richest thing that I could ever experience, and everything else in comparison is simply garbage.

Someone say garbage.

He calls it garbage, rubbish.

He says, I count, he says, whatever were gains to me I now consider a loss for the sake of Christ.

He says, what is more I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, who is my Lord.

For the sake I have lost all things and I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

How many want to be found in him?

I guess it's just me and you, that.

How many want to be found in Christ that when he cracks the sky that he's coming and he will see a bride that is coming and waiting, delighting in him?

And he says, to be found in him.

He says, I want to know Christ.

He says, I want to know him.

He says, I want to know the power of his resurrection.

He says, but I also want to know and participate in his suffering.

How many know when you have a friend, when you got that one friend that you're really tight with, you say, which what you call them?

Your ride or die, right?

That you say, no matter what, like, you know, this is your bestie, y'all like this.

Like, no matter what, through the ups and the downs, through the trouble, through the trife, like you have this one friend, Dre, I'm sure you got a friend like that.

That it's like, no matter what, like y'all been through the ups and the downs, y'all been through the ugly, the good, baggage, and the ugly, the pretty.

But you say, no matter what, I'm rolling with you.

This is what Paul is saying.

It's like, no matter what, I want to participate in the joy of knowing Jesus.

I want to participate in the joy of his resurrection, but I also want to participate in his suffering.

Because Paul has so closely known Jesus, because Paul has a friendship with Jesus.

I don't want to just be there with my friend, with my homie when things are going great.

I want to be like, Jesus, I want to know what troubles your heart as well.

Jesus, I want to know how my what things within me offend you.

What things am I doing that you don't like?

What things am I doing?

What things am I saying?

What thoughts do I have that offend you?

You have that one friend that's like, man, no matter what, like, I don't want anything coming in between us.

And this is what Paul is saying.

He says, I want to know both parts.

I want to know the God, man that is Jesus.

I want to know his divinity.

But I also want to know the Jesus that was left and and left by his friends and left alone to hang on a cross.

I want to know that Jesus as well.

Because we we I I think so often we we participate in the Easter morning joy that is the resurrection, and we know that and we feel that, and we're gonna jump and we're gonna praise about that, and that's great.

We shouldn't lose that.

But it's also knowing that because I delight in the Lord, because the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Now, no matter what the weather looks like outside, no matter what's coming in on the table, no matter what the situation is, I've made a decision that the Lord is my portion.

I've made a decision that I will wait.

I've said to myself, I will wait on the Lord.

Because the joy of the Lord is my strength.

We say this, Chris, we say this in youth like almost every Sunday, right?

What do we say?

We talk about the difference between joy and happiness.

So get up.

They they talk we talk about this every week, don't we?

Y'all probably getting tired of me saying it probably by now.

We talk about the difference between having happiness, which like happiness is like, you know, that's what it's like the emotions that we have, right?

Yeah, it's temporary.

See, he got it, okay.

Versus joy is a decision.

It says I choose to have joy.

That even in the midst of the hardship that I'm going through, even in the midst of the trouble, even in the midst of a world that I'm in that's saying, I ought to worry about this and I ought to worry about that, and you better get that figured out and you better worry about this.

We live in a world that's teaching us how to worry.

We live in a world that's teaching us to worship worry.

It's teaching us to worship hurry, to always be in a hurry.

That's why we like have every like drive-thru coffee shopping mirroring, because like, you know, like I love, don't get me wrong, y'all.

I love Seven Brews.

Seven Brews cool, I love Dutch Bros, I love Starbucks.

But like we live in a world that's we live in this drive thru world of ours that's saying we get it, go, grab, and get going.

Yeah.

But we have to be a church.

We have to be a body that's willing to wait and sit and wait on the Lord and say, Lord, I won't leave here until you bless me.

And say, Lord, I'm going to sit here and I'm going to wait on you.

That despite what the world is doing, despite what the world outside of me is doing, I'm going to choose to trust in you.

That when the world is telling me all the worry about this and all the worry about that, and I gotta get this figured out right now because I know my kids is wobbling out and my kids are doing this, and I gotta get them involved in this, and you know the internet saying that they should be involved in this, or you know, everything that's telling us that we should do this and should do that, what is Jesus telling us to do?

Have you had the moment to go and sit with Jesus with this thing?

Have you had a moment to sit and wonder, Jesus, what do you think about this?

Come on now.

This is the kind of faith that Paul is having, sitting in this cell, writing this letter.

He's saying, despite not knowing whether I live or die, I choose to rejoice in the Lord.

Now Paul has this joy because he has sat with Jesus, and because he has known the goodness of who Jesus is.

And once we experience the goodness of God, once we truly have that face-to-face experience with God, and we feel the breath of God, and we feel his Holy Spirit feel our lungs, it says that everything else becomes like filthy rags, everything becomes like garbage in comparison to truly knowing Christ.

And to Paul, there's truly nothing richer than knowing Christ.

But Paul, it doesn't just like make this up like out of the blue.

Paul gets this from the disciples in the Gospels.

We see this in John chapter 6 after Jesus has just been done preaching.

John 6 · chapter mention

And he says, unless you eat of my body and drink of my blood, you can't be a part of me.

And like some people are like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What's this guy talking about?

Jesus is talking about the counting the cost of being a disciple of him, and he's saying, Unless you eat of my body and drink of my blood, like you have no part of me.

And some people are like, wait a minute, hold on.

What's this dude talking about?

Like I was rocking with it up until this point, but he's talking about like suffering and all this, like that we're gonna go through, and whoa, they like, wait a minute, I think I'm out.

So he was like, and then Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, To Jesus, this is no surprise, right?

Like he knows all this is happening, he knows all this is coming.

And he looks at him and he says, Y'all gonna go off with them too?

He looks to his church and he says, Y'all gonna go off and do what they're doing too?

He says, Hold on, let me let me get back to my notes, y'all.

I'm getting ahead of myself.

He says, aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus says, Does this offend you?

Oof.

We love some offense, don't we?

We love some offense.

He says, Then what if the Son of Man ascends where he was before?

The Spirit gives life.

The Spirit counts nothing, the words I have spoken to you, they are full of the Spirit and of life.

Yet there are some who do not believe.

For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.

And he went on to say, This is why I have told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.

And from that time, many of the disciples that were walking with Jesus no longer followed him.

He says to them, Do you want to leave as well?

Then Peter, he says, Where else can we go?

He says, Lord, to whom shall we go?

He says, only you have the words of eternal life, and we have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.

He says, Where else can we go, O Lord?

Where else can we go?

We've already experienced and know that you are who you say we are.

We have seen you, we have seen your face.

Why will we ever leave?

And we know that this journey with Jesus has suffering, it has trials.

A lot of us are going through trials right now.

A lot of us are thinking about the trials that we're facing right now in this moment.

And yet, I'm willing to bet that it's much better to suffer with Jesus than to suffer without Jesus.

I'm willing to bet that in this world it's better to suffer with the hope that is found in Jesus.

That it's better to have a hope set in an eternal gospel than to have no hope and to suffer without any hope by myself.

Does anybody believe that it's better to have a hope that is grounded and anchored in Jesus than to have a suffering out here by myself?

So all of us today, we're suffering with something.

All of us today have a cross that we're carrying with us this morning.

And all those who are called to suffering something, suffer for something.

But I believe this isn't just a call just for some, like only the VIP top of the line Christians have to suffer for something.

I believe that every disciple, everyone who calls them a disciple of Jesus has to suffer for something.

But we see that knowing Jesus and knowing the goodness of who he is, once we truly know, it's like, why would I want to choose anything else?

Like, yes, the problem and the thing that I'm in now, the trail that I'm in is hard.

But it's it's worse off out here in the world.

People living without hope, people stuck in addiction, people stuck in a world where they don't have hope than to have a hope in Jesus.

And then we see how Paul writes in Romans 6.

He writes, saying, I'm using an example for everyday life for you because of your human limitations.

Let me tell you, Paul be writing crazy, y'all.

Like, Paul is like writing, and he's like, I know y'all are a little slow, so I'm gonna break it down to you.

I'm gonna put it in the example that y'all can understand, right?

He says, I'm using uh everyday life examples because of your human limitations, but he says, Just as you once offered yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness, which leads to holiness.

Now I want to be careful with this.

Because in the world that we live in and the history that we have, we we think slavery, we hear the word slavery.

I want to phrase this and put this in the mind that we can see.

But he says, when you were slaves to sin, you were free from control.

You were free from control of righteousness.

What benefit did you reap in that time from the things of which you are now ashamed of?

He says, those things we know resulted in death, but now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God with the benefit that reaps and leads to holiness, and the result which is eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He says that you were once slaves.

We were once all slaves to the sin of which we once lived in, like pigs whirling around in their mud and their dirt, that we were once without any help.

That you know, you know that life, you know, before your Christ days, you know.

We we was all there, you know, right?

You had a desire, like, man, I want to get out of this life.

I want to not live this way anymore, but you did not, you didn't know.

You didn't know, you didn't have any hope of getting out of the life of which you once lived.

You had no control over the sin of which you once lived.

But he says, now, now that you know and you've realized and you have the revelation of who Jesus is and the power that you now have to say no to temptation.

He says, You have like what other choice do you have?

So you have the choice to either choose the life of which you once lived or to now walk and continue to follow Jesus.

Now we know that life with Jesus, it has its sufferings and its trials.

But be assured that suffering with Jesus is much better than any suffering that we have without him.

So as I close is here today, and I'm gonna invite the worship team back up.

We're gonna worship, um, and then we're gonna have prayer as well.

We'll have prayer on both sides of um up here for us.

And then as we worship, I just want us to establish ourselves in this morning and let our heart posture be that we are rooted in Jesus.

Scripture says that as a deer pants after water, so my soul longs after you, oh Lord.

And all of us who are called to something, we suffer for something.

For all of the sufferers and the trials produce good fruit and faith, oh God.