Seeing Jesus: How to be Dishonored

Morning. Our plan today is to wrap up Matthew chapter 13. So if you got a Bible,

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

you can turn to Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

We've been making our way through Matthew for a little while.

So you can go ahead and open up.

And we're just going to finish out that little final comments in that section there.

But before I do that, I wanted to tell you a story, which if you know me,

I don't do very often. I'm not really a storyteller, but I have a story I need to tell you.

So back in 2012, I lived in Southbury, Connecticut, which is a town you've never heard of.

No one has ever heard of it. And that's okay. But you probably do.

This is funny. You know the smaller town next door to Southbury,

Connecticut, because the smaller town next door is Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

And the reason that we all know that name is because of the really horrific

school shooting that happened there in 2012.

And I was living in Southbury and pastoring, like a worship pastor at a church in Southbury.

And when that thing happened, when that terrible event happened,

my church actually just went all out.

We spent literally three months just focusing on this.

It was the whole church mobilized, responding.

We did a lot of street ministry. We hosted a memorial because there were so many people grieving.

We brought speakers in on Sundays. We brought in a Columbine survivor who's

a Christian who could speak to this tragedy. It was just a huge focus for the church.

And honestly, I don't think I will ever, I pray that I don't ever have to work

through and pastor through that sort of a thing.

Something that is current event that is just so consuming like that one was

for our church at that time.

It was a huge response. And in looking back now, I might think,

well, three months of just like focusing on this thing seems like a lot. But you know what?

Honestly, it was really justified for us to respond in that way because in hindsight,

like thinking about the.

The ways that I would assess, like, response, I would think about four things.

And the Sandy Hook shooting was off the chart in these four things.

One, it was particularly disturbing.

I mean, it was just such a hugely tragic, senseless, crazy thing to have happened, right?

It was nationally significant. I mean, people, you all know where Sandy Hook is.

People still know about it. It's up there on the national tragedy scale.

Is probably in the top 10.

It was a known and relevant to everybody. There was no one, you,

you, you couldn't even live under a rock and not have heard about it.

It was not possible for everyone to know this. And I mean, it was just so in the air at the time.

I mean, the day that it happened, I was at work, I was bivocational,

you know, like part-time pastoring and I was at work and just everybody just

walked around in a daze all day long. Nobody did anything.

So it was relevant to everyone. And then, you know, the fourth thing,

which is probably the biggest factor here is that it was just local.

My pastor was the first first responder in chaplaincy.

So he sat with all the parents while they got the news.

You know, like it was just right there. We had many families in our churches,

had kids in the school, none were in that classroom.

But it was just a crazy thing. So why do I tell that story?

I told that story because I think it's a good way of illustrating,

you know, in an extreme case, the ways that one might assess how and what and

in what way you respond to something that happens in the current event space, right?

I would usually now, like in hindsight, I think through those four areas when

I'm thinking, like, what do I say and what do I do?

So I would think like, how disturbing is this? How nationally significant it

is? How relevant is it to everyone? How hyperlocal is it?

And honestly, I don't ask more questions than that. I don't ask questions about

how political a certain thing is I don't really care I only really care to answer

the question And I think assessing in these four areas,

Helps me answer this question Is this something that weighs in the people who I pastor?

Because as a pastor, that's what matters What are people going through And how

can we shepherd them through it?

That's what matters And so I think you guys get where I'm going So like last

Wednesday before last, excuse me As I'm sure you all know Charlie Kirk was shot

and killed in the middle of a debate at a university in Utah.

And like, there's no question that this is disturbing and tragic.

It is disturbing and tragic that someone would just act so violently and do this in this way.

But you know what? Honestly, I didn't understand beyond how disturbing and tragic it is.

I didn't understand how significant his killing was for some people.

I didn't really know that that many people really even knew who that was.

I'm not sure if you did before last Wednesday, honestly. I didn't know that

so many people on the normie social media saw these graphic videos of him being killed.

I didn't know any of that. And so I just didn't like think about mentioning it.

I'm sorry. I'm going to be able to talk through this, I swear.

But I just have this leftover cold here.

So I didn't mention it directly. And honestly, like,

I don't feel bad about it because I had sick kids and I was like honestly doing

a lot and I didn't spend much time on the internet and I didn't talk to a lot

of people, but it was a pastoral error not to mention it.

And so I'm sorry about that. So like I can own that.

The reason it's a pastoral error is this, because Romans 12,

15 tells us, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

And as a pastor, I'm here for that.

Like, I'm not going to make a political calculation about what you're sad about

or what's impacted you. Thank you so much, Justin, I appreciate that.

And what's bothering you? Like, it's just not like, that's not my job.

And honestly, like treating people like the things that they're upset about

are crossing lines Like that's a really dehumanizing way to treat people And so,

you know, like I just want to clarify Because like I'm not like taking a stand

here If this is disturbing and if this is reaching the level of significance

for people Then I think we should weep and mourn right along with you That's

what we do And I think it's important for us to do that.

And it's super important for us to do this because Paul doesn't say weep with

those who weep if you kind of like agree with what they're weeping about.

Like if your cousin dies, I'm not going to ask you, was he a good guy?

It's sad. It's sad when we lose people. In this room, we will not agree on every political issue.

But we are saying if we're coming here and we want to be everyday disciples,

then we are opting to be followers of Jesus, which is saying where we are delegating

to Jesus certain ways of thinking and believing. We are taking him at his word.

And so we might not agree on every political issue, but we are opting into being followers of Jesus.

And because of that, because we believe in Jesus, we can agree that every single

person is made in the image of God and is dearly loved by him.

And that murder in any case, in any moment, is an offense not only to the person, but to God himself.

And so we can all agree on that. And so we can all grieve that this happens.

And even though we have different views about politics and different views about

the world, we can all agree because we follow Jesus that there is a spiritual

battle that's playing out all around us all the time.

And we can all agree because Jesus tells us that we have an enemy who wants

to, whose intention, who is going about and enacting a plan to steal, kill, and destroy.

We have an enemy who wants to see families and nations and churches divided.

We can all agree this because Jesus tells us these things.

And so we can all grieve when our nation does become divided.

And when such a tragic thing becomes like a way for political brinksmanship

to play out in the public space. And we can celebrate someone's death. How tragic that is.

It's simply not, it's not right. And it is as part of a spiritual battle.

And so all of us can call on the Lord and we can grieve this together because

it's a tragic thing that happens.

And even though we all have maybe different political views,

we all still believe in Jesus and we can agree that our hope is in him and in his kingdom.

And we can keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus. We cannot get distracted and get

stuck into the schemes that Satan wants to get us into. And we can pursue his kingdom first.

And we can boldly point, be people who are in this age, pointing to the age

to come and pointing to the kingdom which is here among us and pointing to Jesus

who is overcoming this world, even as we still live in the midst of it.

And we can know that Jesus mourns for the brokenness of this world and that

he died to reconcile himself to it.

He died to bear the price for your sin and my sin and all those who are enemies

with God because they simply cannot accept his love and his goodness and his power and his grace.

So we can all grieve like no matter where we're at for these things.

And so what I'm just asking us to do is to take a moment and just pray together.

So if we could do that, I would appreciate it. I think you guys like to pray, so it's good.

So Lord, I just thank you I thank you for my brothers and sisters here And God,

you know, like This world, it's easy to get dismayed It's easy to not understand

what's going on It's easy to get discouraged And to get off track.

But Lord, we just want to look to you We want to be your disciples Before we

want to be anything else, Lord We want to support one another Lord, sharpen one another,

Encourage one another Lord, where we see division, where we see hate,

where we see brokenness in this world, Lord, where we even see it in ourselves.

Lord, we just confess that. We know that it grieves your heart.

And Lord, we ask you to give us your heart.

Lord, that we might look at the tragedy of sin and the tragedy of brokenness,

and we could feel about it the way you feel about it and turn to you,

Lord, the great physician,

for the solution, Lord.

So Lord, we humble ourselves before you. Lord, we come before you.

Lord, if we are grieving, if we're hurting, if we're angry, Lord,

we confess that before you.

And we ask you, Lord, to come in and help us deal with the pain.

Lord, if we're prideful, Lord, if we don't think that people should or shouldn't

react a certain way, Lord, if we are angry, Lord, whatever the thing is,

Lord, we ask you to take that away.

But Lord, Lord, let us grieve as you grieve, Lord.

Let us support one another, Lord. Let us hold on to the bond of unity, Lord.

And let us be filled with your spirit, Lord. Let us be focused on your word

and focused on you, Jesus, Lord.

May your kingdom come among us, Lord.

May something that the enemy intends for evil, for division,

Lord, may we take it as an opportunity for good, Lord, to go more boldly back

to your gospel, to proclaim your gospel all the more, and to love those who are enemies, Lord.

Lord, those who hurt us, Lord, to do what you taught us to do, Jesus.

Lord, teach us to do those things and walk with us, we pray.

Give us a calm and steady hope in you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, man, I'm sorry you have to listen to me talk like this.

Back to Matthew 13, okay? So we're picking up in verse 51 and 52.

And what we've been doing, you know, I mean, you can go back and listen,

but we've been looking at parables.

Jesus gives a series of, I think, thematically related parables all throughout Matthew 13.

And then as he's concluding, Jesus says this to his disciples.

He says, have you understood all these things? And they answered him, yes.

Therefore, he said to them, every teacher of the law who's become a disciple

in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his

storeroom treasures new and old.

So, right. So, so having fascinated his disciples, right, because they're so

curious and so engaged and so interested, having fascinated the crowds with his parables,

Jesus explains them to some of his disciples and he concludes with this funny

little charge to them about how to be teachers of the law in the kingdom,

how to be as disciples, people who are taking his word, you know, and working with it.

And he uses this imagery of someone bringing out from a storehouse treasures old and new.

Now, like, this is not anything I've ever experienced, right?

And I was like thinking about it and I'm like, oh, this is kind of weird.

Like you go over to somebody's house and he's like, would you like to see my treasures?

And it's a little, it's not a common cultural thing anymore, right?

But I guess this is at least a familiar enough practice in Jesus's time.

It actually it's actually very similar to in second

kings 20 so hezekiah king hezekiah he

receives a delegation from babylon not

like just a bunch of people who are coming to check out his kingdom and

he says would you like to see all my treasures right and because he because

he has this sense that well if i show this other king and his ambassadors my

treasures he'll be really impressed with how great i am you know because all

this gold and all this silver and all these beautiful this beautiful finery,

like, I'm going to show it off.

And I'm going to show him how great Israel is, you know.

And actually, if you go on and read the story, it doesn't go very well with

Hezekiah having done that.

But I guess this is a tradition, right? A tradition where for us,

it's a little bit hard to relate to.

But what Jesus is saying, he's telling his disciples that if you internalize these parables,

like if they become things that you've really chewed on and you digest them

and you've pondered them,

then they're going to be things that are like treasures to you,

treasures that you can come out, treasures that as you show them to people are

just going to put the glory and power and beauty of God and his word on display for people.

And that's a good thing, right? Again, when you come over, I'm not going to

put out of my pantry all my really cool stuff, right?

But this is a way of saying, like when we take God's word into ourselves,

then we can have the fullness of it and we can be like people who find new and

old and beautiful things, things that speak to the love and the grace and the

power and the justice of our God, right?

And I say that there's those things which oftentimes are kind of like contradictory

things because what we've seen in these parables and we've talked about it the

last several weeks as we've gone over.

And then these parables of the kingdom, they're all about like tension.

They're stepping into this tension.

It's a surprising tension because in the kingdom, there's this tension between

the broadness and graciousness of the kingdom.

You know, many of the parables are just about how crazy it is that Jesus is here.

He says, I'm king, and you get to all be a part of it.

Gentiles, Jews don't really care. Everybody, because Jesus is Lord.

And if Jesus is Lord, then that means everybody is under his lordship.

And Jesus says, so it is. I'm not going to discriminate against a bunch of different

types of people who aren't on my side, who aren't on my team.

He's emphasizing in these parables the broadness and the openness of the kingdom.

On one end, there's this thing that's really like culturally like we like to hear, right?

But then, of course, Jesus is also emphasizing the fact that there is judgment

going to be coming on the world.

That as he repeatedly says both in the parable of the dragnet that we looked

at last week, that at the end of the age, judgment is coming.

The righteousness and the wicked will be separated. And he literally says,

and the wicked will be thrown into a place where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Like this obvious is imagery of hell.

And look, I just say this because I think what Jesus is doing as he's concluding

is he's saying, there are things old and new in what I'm saying.

I'm bringing together the old and the new, both the graciousness,

kindness, broadness, of the gospel as it is revealed, that it is for all people,

it is God's mercy and his reconciliation for anyone who would have it.

And yet there is also just a reality that the judgment is not off the table.

It's deferred for the sake of mercy, but it is going to come.

Ultimately, Jesus will judge this world and everything in it.

And everything that hasn't been washed clean by his grace, it will be tested

by fire. I mean, this is like the consistent word.

I mean, we talked a lot about 1 and 2 Peter last week. And there's so much of

that imagery, just like trial by fire.

Like everything that isn't of the Lord, everything that is offensive to him,

it's going to burn. And we don't say that like, ah, looking forward to it.

Like God presents this as like the tragic destiny of all that is against him.

And yet he's offering reconciliation now.

So I think what he's telling his disciples is that they need to be people who

are holding both of these things up.

Bringing the old and the new together. They're being people who actually care

to present the full counsel of God.

And I think even now, like we have trouble with this. We have trouble with this

tension, but it's a very old tension.

His disciples probably had trouble with this tension, but they shouldn't because

it's a very old tension that Christians have held with for a long time.

Look, if you go back to Exodus 34, Exodus 34 is in the wilderness at Sinai.

Israel has gone out, and Moses has gone up, and he's tried to bring down the

tablets, and then they're all worshiping idols, and it doesn't go well.

And he drops them and they shatter.

And then he's like, oh, I got to go back up and get some new ones.

And so he goes back up and gets some new tablets from the Lord,

you know, with the 10 commandments.

And then God approaches him and there's this scene in Exodus 34,

5, where God, Yahweh speaks his name.

And it goes like this. The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there and

proclaimed his name, the Lord.

And the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed, The Lord,

the Lord is compassionate and a gracious God.

He's slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,

maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.

But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the

father's iniquity on the children and the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

This tension between God's justice and his mercy is longstanding and it is part of God's character.

He is loving, compassionate, gracious, but he's no pushover.

John Mark Comer comments on this passage this way. He says, Yahweh is compassionate

and gracious and slow to anger.

That's his nature. That's how he's wired.

But there comes a time when God says enough is enough. No more violence,

no more injustice, and it goes on.

See, as we think about Jesus and the kingdom, and as we speak about it,

I do think we're called to be people who step into this tension,

who present both in the appropriate time, and who can give to people and answer

their questions and teach them what it is that God is asking us to do.

We want to keep love and mercy and grace, grace of God right at the forefront,

because that is what is so on display in the cross of Jesus Christ.

But we also need to, and I think we need to keep in mind that God is not blind to evil.

He's not blind to my wickedness. He's not blind to my sin.

The grace of God is not a license to do whatever I want, to be selfish.

The grace of God actually brings me into this relationship where I fear the

Lord in the way that I fear my father because I want to honor him.

It's a healthy kind of fear because I understand that God is a serious God,

that God cares about this world.

He wants actually not only for me not to just avoid bad things,

but to be a part of his mission to reconcile the world.

And I can't do that indulging in my own selfish desires.

I can't do that when I am so focused on myself. I can only do that when I look to his grace and mercy.

And when I just say, I realize that he set me free from sin.

And so now I'm going to live for him in a way that honors him.

Because I realize that anything in my life that isn't towards him is going to burn up in the end.

C.T. Studd, old missionary guy, he says How does it go?

I should remember a phrase before I say that I'm about to tell you what it is

Only one life, this too shall pass Only what's done for Christ will last.

I think that is, like this world is going to be judged, and it's not just that

God will set every wrong, right?

But he also will just say, hey, what'd you do with your life?

And it's not like we go to heaven or not on the basis of that.

We come into eternal life on the basis of our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, only and ever.

But simply because that's true doesn't mean that what I do with my life doesn't matter at all.

We need to be people who step into this tension, who proclaim it,

who teach others to do so.

So, as this chapter ends, because I wanted to get to the end of chapter 13,

and this lesson on parables concludes, we are back into the life story,

the narrative part, right?

Because we have this teaching section when he's focusing on the parables,

but back into the narrative.

And it's kind of an abrupt transition. And so, here you go. There's an abrupt

transition for you into a new section.

Segway. So picking up in verse 53, the chapter wraps up this way.

When Jesus had finished these parables, he left there and he went to his hometown

and he began to teach them in their synagogue.

So that they were astonished and said, where did this man get this wisdom and

these miraculous powers?

Isn't this the carpenter's son?

Isn't his mother called Mary and his brothers James, Joseph,

Simon, and Judas and his sisters, aren't they all with us?

So where does he get all these things? And they were offended by him.

Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his household.

And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

So Jesus has been, we've been going through Matthew. We've made it all the way

up to chapter 13. And we've seen him do like a big ministry tour all over northern

Israel, traveling all around different villages.

He's teaching with authority. People are following everywhere he goes.

He's just like loved and admired. They're excited. They're anticipating,

thinking that he's probably the Messiah. There's whispers going around.

At the very least, people are fascinated by him. They're curious by him.

He's going around not only just teaching with authority, but he's performing

miracles like everywhere he goes.

And we've looked at different chapters, like he's healing people.

He's letting the blind see he's casting out demons like everybody is coming

to him with their sick and with their afflicted and he's just healing them. And it's awesome.

And then he goes back to his hometown, the town that he grew up in Nazareth, also up there.

And what happens? I mean, they see Jesus and they've been hearing about this

Jesus and then they think, that guy?

We saw that guy pee his pants when he was a little kid, you know?

We saw him be a normal person and we see his brothers and sisters here and he's not that impressive.

I mean, they just like moved here from Egypt or something like that.

Like, I think there's probably a backstory with that Jesus this guy.

I don't know if they were really married when they had that baby.

There's rumors going around, and there's this dishonor going around.

They remember him as a teenager. They remember his family, and they're just not impressed.

People just are not wanting to be impressed by Jesus because they're thinking he's coming here.

He's trying to teach us. He thinks he's better than us. There's this jealousy

going around, and they're so skeptical.

They won't believe in him, and he just doesn't do many miracles because he basically

says, look, I mean, you can believe in me or not. It's your choice.

There's just this huge dishonor.

And yeah, you kind of have to wonder why this little scene is here.

And honestly, I think it's because it's important for us to remember that Jesus

faced all the life circumstances and every difficulty that we've ever gone through.

He's faced something like it. He knew what it was to be dishonored, and so do we at times.

At times, we know what it is to be dishonored.

Hebrews 4.15 says this about Jesus. We don't have a high priest who is unable

to sympathize with our weakness, but who has been tempted in every way just

as we are and yet is without sin.

You know, over the past week, I think a lot of people have been stirred,

and it makes sense with anxiety, but I've actually had a couple of conversations

with people, a few of you guys who basically are saying like,

like all the craziness in the world.

Is making me want to be more upfront and vocal and straightforward about my faith.

You know, like to care less about what I perceive as dishonor,

you know, to care less about what I perceive as animosity and to just be more

direct and more upfront.

And I honestly think that's great. I mean, if that is what we can come away

with in this time that we just want to be more vocal about the gospel, then I say, awesome.

I think that is the right lesson. I think it's pretty consistent because I think

that really what we need to figure out is how do we do this thing?

How do we do this thing of dealing with dishonor?

Because Jesus really shows us how to deal with dishonor.

And I mean, he's just, he's taking life as it comes.

He's sharing the gospel. He's not being deterred. He's sticking with people.

He's going back over and over and over again.

And I just like actually want to like look a little bit as we're thinking about

this question, as we're thinking about Jesus' example, I actually want to look

at Paul's words in Ephesians 6.

And that's where we're going to wrap up here. Just focusing on Ephesians 6,

because I think if we want to be people who can step into a world that is oftentimes

skeptical, that can sometimes, there can feel like there's some animosity.

There's a lot of like judging about Christians and all the crazy things that

they believe, you know, and I think it can create some insecurity in us.

And I think like we were dealing with that insecurity and we're stepping into

places and we're just moving past it.

And I think what Paul reminds us in Ephesians 6 is like a good way to equip

ourselves to deal with dishonor in the way that Jesus does here.

So first off, we're going to deal with Ephesians 6, picking up in verse, what did I say?

Picking up in verse 10, okay?

A famous passage that you're probably familiar with.

And the first thing I think that Paul tells us as we're being sent out,

as we're being people who are going out with the gospel and who are going out

into difficult circumstances, into dishonorable circumstances that were to be strong.

You know, his advice in Ephesians 10 to the church. The Ephesian church is to

be strengthened by the Lord with his vast strength.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and

the authorities and against the cosmic powers of this darkness,

against evil, against spiritual forces in the heavens.

For this reason, we take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to

resist in the evil day and having prepared everything to take your stand.

Like Paul and Jesus anticipate difficulty.

And I honestly think if we are going to be people who can deal with a world

that likes to dishonor us and discourage us and call us idiots for believing

in Jesus or whatever for believing in Jesus, then like we just need to be people who are strong.

And I think what Paul is saying here is that strength begins by knowing that

we will need to be strengthened.

It comes from this humility to understand that if we're going to be facing an

evil, a dishonoring day, a difficult time, and we want to take a stand,

then we need to understand that our strength needs to come from the Lord.

Our strength needs to come from the Lord.

If you read the Old Testament, there is this constant refrain of like.

Trust in the Lord, don't trust in your own might.

This was Israel's primary area of struggle.

They wanted to believe in God. They were going through adverse circumstances.

And over and over again, God says, no, you've got to trust in me.

You've got to honor me. You've got to find your strength in me.

And you've got to stop trying to replace me with some other source of strength.

If you're going to go out into the world and you're going to be strong in it,

then you need to be strengthened in the Lord with his vast might.

You need to turn to him daily for

your encouragement for your equipping you need to turn to his word and understand

that you are coming up against not against people but you're coming up against

like a whole world that is that is at war with the lord and that there's a spiritual

element going on here and i don't think it plays out in ways that we expect.

So we can't anticipate what's going to come at us, but we can anticipate our need for his strength.

So first is we can turn to the Lord. We can be strong.

And the second thing, and I'm sort of commenting here by saying,

I think the thing is what we can do in Dex is be weak, which is to say,

I think recognizing our weakness and recognizing our need for his word and his

power in our life and making room for it.

Paul goes on, he says, Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your

waist, righteousness like armor on

your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.

In every situation, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish

all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

I say be weak because, lookit, I have to understand this, that a helmet is much better than a hard head.

You know, like if I'm going to step into a difficult situation and I'm going

to survive in the midst of a world that is, there's a lot of animosity towards the gospel.

And I don't just mean survive. Like I'm not talking about some existential thing,

but just like continue to be a joyful, hopeful Christian in the midst of a difficult place.

Then I don't need a harder head. I need better armor. I need better defenses.

I need something that is stronger than my bones, which are so easily broken,

and my heart, which is so easily broken, my own spirit, which is so easily broken.

I need a constant supply that comes from the Lord.

And we have this in our faith, which is to say, Jesus has overcome the world,

so I don't have to in my own strength. I can rest in his strength.

It is a readiness to go with a gospel of peace. And so I don't have to make

war when God is offering reconciliation to people.

Like, I can know that people are in desperate need of this peace.

And I can urgently and...

Intentionally set my words to be proclaiming of that gospel of peace,

but I don't have to come up with and be smarter than everybody else.

I have a message. I can go out and rely on that.

And I can take the helmet of salvation. I can take the confidence that God has my back.

He knows my days. He knows when I'll die.

And he knows where I'll be eternally. And so I can rest in that Not thinking

that I have to manage every outcome in my life,

I can accept my weakness My dependence upon God And I think that will make me

far more bold It'll make me far more able to deal with dishonor Because I can

look at people Who are against me and I can just say That's fine That's fine,

In the end I don't live or die by your opinion of me What a freeing thing I

would like to walk in that freedom more Third thing we can do is we can kneel. We can kneel.

Paul says, pray at all times in the Spirit, in every prayer,

with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

Again, it's not plan harder, do more, be more competent.

It's, oh man, get ahead of things by going to the Lord who sees them before

you see them. Get ahead of things by making intercession for your brothers and sisters.

Stay alert, and stay alert in perseverant prayer.

If we want to find ourselves going into the world, sharing the gospel in the

midst of dishonor and seeing things happen, seeing breakthrough happens,

then we are going to be prayerful.

We're going to be tuned into what the Lord is doing.

We're going to be pliable and listening to Him.

And that kind of obedience only comes from learning day by day to come back and to listen to Him.

And it is difficult and we get off track and I get off track and I go through

months and maybe even years where I don't pray like I should and I don't listen

and then I come back and I just say, why have I been trying so hard to do it such a stupid way?

To just in my flesh when I could have just been relying on the Lord.

And then finally, speak. Speak.

What Paul asks is for them to pray for him as he is going out proclaiming his message.

He says, pray also for me that the message may be given to me when I open my

mouth to make known with boldness, the mystery of the gospel.

For this, I am an ambassador in chains.

Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.

And I just love that prayer. Because of course, if we go in the Bible and we're

asking ourselves, who is the boldest of them all?

Like probably we're going to come up with Paul because Paul is just like known

for his boldness. And yet Paul is here saying to the church,

I need strength to do this thing which to you looks like so natural and easy.

But I need strength to preach the gospel boldly as I should,

even in the midst of my chains.

I love that humility. So if you think, oh, I'm not bold enough,

and I don't know how the words, I'm no Paul.

Well, honestly, by your assessment, Paul was no Paul. None of us are like Paul.

People are people who come and who recognize the gravity of the world that we

live in, and they just say, well, I guess I need to be bold,

and they turn to the Lord for that strength to be bold.

It's not just bold people and timid people. It doesn't have anything to do with

your temperament or not.

It has to do with, do we look at the gospel, and do we look at the brokenness

of this world, and are we willing to just say, okay, God, I mean, I see a need.

I see the dishonor. I see all the brokenness in this world.

Lord, would you give me words? Would you make me bold?

And I mean, I just, I love this because, of course, Paul is writing in prison.

I mean, he's writing to them, chained up.

And he says, the chains aren't the problem.

The urgent need is that I would speak boldly. I think about his words later

to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, 8 through 9, it says, remember Jesus Christ,

risen from the dead and descended from David, according to my gospel,

for which I suffer to the point of being bound like a criminal.

But the word of God is not bound.

I am not unconcerned about the political environment that we live in.

I'm a pretty politically knowledgeable person. I have a lot of opinions about politics.

And I do believe that to have a world where there is a lot of freedom is the

best arrangement of things.

Where people can be free to speak as they will without threat of violence,

without fear of appraisals, all that stuff. But the reality is that Paul didn't live in such a world.

He lived in a world where if you said the wrong things, you would be locked up in a prison.

Or if the wrong person decided that they wanted to extort you, then they could do that.

He lived in a place where Roman power was trampling all over his independence

and where there was lots of abuse and all that stuff.

And even in the midst of an environment like that, Paul just says,

they can chain me up, but the gospel will never be chained.

The gospel will never be changed. The word of God is not going to be bowed up.

They can put me in change all along. And then all I am is an ambassador sent here as stuck in chains.

And I'm going to continue to be an ambassador no matter what happens.

Have your political opinions all you want. I have mine, you have yours. God bless us.

God bless us. But in the end, whether we have freedom,

which I think we do in this country, and I think it's great,

or whether we live in a country where we suffer political and physical consequences

for speaking the gospel, the gospel cannot be changed.

And it especially cannot be changed when people are willing to be ambassadors of it.

And so, yes, like if you've been stirred the last couple of weeks to be bold

in your faith, I say, go ahead and be bold.

Like the social stigma or whatever you were feeling before, are like,

I'm happy that those things would break.

So go and be bold because the word is never going to be bound.

So if God has sent you out as an ambassador, then receive that and be bold in

going out and speaking those things.

I should have invited the worship team up before, but now I'm going to do this

awkward thing where I drag things out. The worship team is going to come up

right now, right? Because I'm wrapping up.

Okay. I just want to stop for a minute. And I just want to tell you this.

The gospel is the good news that

God who created everything sees the brokenness. He sees the sin in it.

Nothing misses his attention.

And he can rightly weigh all of it. And he said, instead of wiping this place

out in all of its brokenness, my plan is to redeem it and to reconcile it.

And so with that plan in mind, Jesus Christ, God himself, came down,

took on flesh, lived a perfect, sinless life, and then he stood, was crucified,

though he did nothing wrong.

He died and he rose again. And all of that symbolizes and secures salvation

and life for those who would trust in him.

Because what he is doing is he is shaming the wisdom of the world.

Shaming the violence and sin of people who stand against God and who want to

be justified by their own power and their own oppressiveness and their own evil.

And they want to just feel good about themselves.

And what he's saying is, even when I've come to you with love and wisdom and

perfect holiness, you kill me and you crucify me.

And it is an indictment against this world. and

Jesus is showing and exposing the

weakness of the enemy who's trying to destroy things and he's overcoming it

all and it is an assurance to us who put our hope in him that one day he will

finally enact all of his goodness and his mercy and his justice.

He will overcome the world.

He will set everything right and we who just trust in him are not being saved,

are not being accepted into his life Because we're so great But because he is

so great But because he is so merciful.

But because he has seen all of our weakness and our inability.

And he just said, that's okay. I can work with that.

I can work with those who come just repentant, which is to just say,

to understand that the world does not function according to my greatness or

my talent or my skill, but it functions according to the kindness and goodness of God.

The gospel is that it's a message of good news that God is kind and he's gracious

and he's compassionate, so

much so that he died for you, even when you didn't care about him at all.

And not so that you could somehow earn your way into his favor after he sort of put you on probation.

No, instead it's he's washed away your sin.

He's taken it as far as the east is from the west. And he says,

and because people who know that kind of grace and know that kind of forgiveness

and know that kind of mercy, they actually become people who become fascinated

by God and his plan and his reconciling power.

And that gospel can make its way into every part of this world.

It cannot be chained. So if you have never put your trust in Jesus,

if you've never thrown your life upon him, your hope upon him,

your future upon him, that's what it is. That's what faith is.

It's just say, whatever I have, I just throw it at Jesus.

Because he says that I can safely abandon myself here at the foot of the cross

and not try to justify myself and not try to impress everyone with my life and

not try to be the smartest or the best or whatever thing that I think makes

me better than other people.

And I could just say, no, God, I have nothing else to offer.

I only can receive your grace.

I don't deserve any of your love. I could never earn it.

And yet you're so gracious to me. To be a person of faith is just somebody who

surrenders to Jesus in that way.

And so if you've never heard that or if you haven't heard it in a while you

need to remember it I need to remember it all the time because I come up with

my schemes that I think oh God will like me more if I do this or that or the other thing and he won't,

I didn't earn my way into salvation and I won't continue on into some earning

scheme in order to make God happier you know what we are only ever people who

look to Jesus and we just say,

how could someone as undeserving as me ever have a relationship with a God who created the universe?

That message cannot be chained. The love of God cannot be chained and especially will not be chained.

And it will go out all the more when we become people who.

Internalize it so deeply and who understand how little we have to offer.

So that's what, that's, that's my, that's my encouraging takeaway for you.

You have so little to offer.

You have so little to offer. And yet God offers his whole self.

He offers his whole self to, to do what you never could do, to be what you never could be.

And he simply asks us by faith to come to, to turn our whole lives to him,

to turn away from sin, to turn to him, to be filled with him, to be saved by him.

And that is the free gift of grace that's on offer.

And that grace doesn't just set us free to do whatever we want.

It sends us into the world as people's ambassadors, ambassadors of that grace.

So Lord, would you send us out as ambassadors of that grace, Lord?

Whatever we fear, Lord, would we not fear it any longer? Would we be sent out

as people who love you, Lord, who love what you've done for us,

your kindness and your mercy to us, Jesus?

Lord, would that never become an old, dusty treasure that we never think about any longer?

Lord, would you show us what a great prize it is to be loved by you and how

your love for this broken world, even people who are just so lost and so confused

and so hurting and so angry.

Lord, how that love is just so very much alive today and that we are sent out

as people who can proclaim it, Lord.

And Lord, we're not in despair about the state of the world because we know,

Lord, you are at work in it and you will finally weigh all things and you will

bring all things to their right and just conclusion.

And so we put our hope in you now for ourselves and for this world, Lord Jesus.

Lord, make us bold to preach your gospel, we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.