The Joy of Progress However Small or Slow

So last Sunday we started a brand new series called Unbreakable Joy.

Unbreakable Joy.

And what we're actually doing is going through the book of Philippians.

And book is a little bit of a misnomer.

That's what we tend to call all of the different uh writings that we have that make up the Bible.

It's actually a letter that was written to a church in a city called Philippi.

It was written by a man named Paul, who's one of the leaders of the early church.

He's a man who actually persecuted Christians, and then he encountered Jesus.

His life totally changed, and he becomes one of the foremost leaders of the early church.

He travels around, he plants churches in all these cities that have never heard of Jesus.

And there was a city called Philippi.

It was a Roman city, mostly Greek city.

And Paul started a church there, and it was one of his favorite places.

It's a place that he had deep roots with, a place that he had wonderful relationships with.

And so Paul, in prison later in life, awaiting possible execution, and ultimately he would be executed for his faith in Jesus.

Paul writes to the church at Philippi and he just shares his heart with them.

And even though he's in prison, even though he's in a dire situation, and if prisons are bad today, they were worse in the Roman Empire.

Paul writes over and over again about joy.

If you could give Philippians a theme, it would be joy.

For example, in Philippians 3.1, he says, Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

You will find statement after statement in the book of Philippians of Paul imploring people to be filled with joy.

And he's expressing how much joy he has.

And so, in many ways, Philippians gives us a blueprint for joy, a blueprint for what it's like to have the joy of the Lord.

There's a scripture that says the joy of the Lord is our strength.

We have the ability, as followers of Jesus, and I know all of us here have made that decision, but as followers of Jesus, we have the ability to experience a joy that simply runs deeper than the joy that this world can offer us.

The joy that the world tends to offer us is fleeting.

It is circumstantial.

You have joy when things go well.

When life is enjoyable, you have joy.

But how do you have joy in prison?

How do you have joy in the midst of persecution and in the worst circumstances you can imagine?

There is a deeper and a stronger kind of joy that we can have through our faith in Jesus.

Paul had it, and in Philippians, he essentially gives us a blueprint for how to experience it if we'll read Philippians in that way.

And so last week we started by discussing the joy of others.

The joy of others.

Paul began his letter by saying, When I think of you and when I pray for you, I'm filled with joy.

If we can be people who experience joy through others, our joy sort of multiplies.

Most people only experience joy when something good happens to them.

But if we can lift others up, if we can think of others often, think of others more than we think of ourselves, pray for other people, their joy becomes our joy, and our joy multiplies.

So we talked last week about the joy of others.

Today we're going to talk about the joy of progress.

The joy of progress.

And I would add to that, progress, no matter how small or slow.

Early in Philippians, verses 3 through 6 of chapter 1, Paul writes, and we started here last week, every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God.

Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy.

For you've been my partners in spreading the good news about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.

And I'm certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

Paul says, I'm confident that the work that God has started within you will grow.

That God will ultimately finish what he started.

One of the things that kills joy is the frustration of how long things take, right?

Like, I don't know if you're like me, but many of you who've been following Jesus for a long time, did you think that you'd be better by this point?

That you'd be like more mature?

That you'd have things figured out?

Yeah, like one of the things that kills joy is just how long it takes to grow.

And so very often we live in this world that's fast-paced, and we want things now, we want things fast.

And so slow growth, that's that's no fun at all.

We want things now, we want things fast, and that's not how God tends to work.

And Paul writes that we can experience joy if we can just remember and keep our minds and our thoughts and our hearts grounded on the fact that God is working.

Sometimes it's slow, sometimes it's painfully slow, sometimes the results are small, but if we can remember that God is always working and He's always working on us and within us, we can be filled with joy.

Several years ago, my uh my wife got into gardening.

Does anyone here have gardening as a hobby?

Any like gardeners?

You garden for fun?

Anyone think that that's a strange hobby?

Like, hey, what do you got?

What do you want to do with your free time?

I don't know.

Uh dig around in the dirt and work really hard to grow a plant that maybe produces enough tomatoes for a sandwich, like anybody, you know what I'm talking about?

I'm not being mean to gardeners, I'm joking.

No, my my wife, out of the blue, years ago, she's like, gardening.

I'm gonna get into gardening.

And I was like, that's that's the hobby we're gonna go with like at this stage.

Okay, okay.

And so she told me for Christmas she wanted planter boxes, wooden boxes as a Christmas gift.

And I was almost skeptical.

I'm like, you're telling me that if I just if I buy you wooden boxes, you're gonna say, thank you.

And she said yes, and so I went with it.

And I also got a few other things because again, it felt like a trap.

But uh but she was most excited about the boxes.

And so um, I actually found a uh like a Boy Scout, Eagle Scout guy online that had posted that he will build custom boxes, and so I asked him and messaged him and got these custom built planner boxes, and she was over the moon.

And then she goes and she takes me with her to tractor supply.

Any tractor supply people here?

Like that is uh, yeah, again, I'm like, how does it apparently a lot of people are into this?

So I go, like, we don't own a farm, we have a backyard, okay?

And we're at tractor supply, and she's got gloves and boots and dirt, and there's different types of dirt.

Did you know that?

That to grow things, you don't just need dirt, you need like a variety of dirt.

I didn't know this.

So we get all the different types of dirt, and we go home and she's putting it all in the planter boxes, she's planting her seeds, and then several months later, she comes to me like thrilled.

Like as excited as I've seen her in a long time.

And she says, Justin, you got you gotta come.

You gotta come check this out.

And I go outside and I don't know what's about to happen.

Like it must, it must be spectacular, whatever it is, based on the way she's acting.

She takes me over to this box and she goes, Look.

And I look and there's like a leaf.

I mean, like this one tiny leaf, and she's like, Look at that.

And you know when you fake joy because you're because you love someone, like you act, like any of you who have kids know what that's like when you're like when your kids show you a picture they drew and it's not even good at all.

Like they you you see it and you're like, you have no artistic ability, but you have to be like, wow, you know, because you love them, so you lie to them.

And so, but in a you know, an innocent way.

It's the same thing.

Like she shows me a sleeve, and I was like, whoa.

It's happening.

It's happening.

You know, and that continued until she went out of town, and I may or may not have forgotten to water to the hey hold guys.

Okay.

I didn't like kill our dog or anything like that, okay?

We don't even have a dog.

I fed our children, she left me a home of four kids.

So I'm sorry if a few plants died.

I kept the kids alive, I can live with that, okay?

No, I it's it's a lot harder than it seems.

You know, she showed me how to do it, I did it, but then I don't think it was my fault, but it probably was.

But we're good, we're good.

Our marriage is good.

So all that to say, all that to say, there's a point.

She was so excited at the smallest sign of growth.

She was so excited at the smallest sign of growth.

It gave her a deep sense of joy just to see at the smallest stages or the smallest signs of growth.

And we need to learn to be like that.

Because a lot of times we only get excited, we only really get filled with joy when something obvious happens, something great, some obvious win, some big victory in life.

But if we can learn to be people who experience joy at the smallest sign of growth in ourselves and in others, we will live lives defined by joy.

The joy of the Lord is our strength, and I'll even take it a step further.

I believe that God is filled with joy when he sees the smallest signs of growth within us.

I mean, he's essentially the gardener, and we're the we're the plants.

And it may not be that exciting to look at from our perspective, but he looks at us and just the smallest little bit of growth fills him with joy.

He plays an active role in our growth.

And that's what Paul said in Philippians.

I believe that God will finish what he starts.

The book of Hebrews, chapter 12, puts it this way: Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

How do we do this?

We do it by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and now he's seated in the place of honor beside God's throne.

And Jesus, our champion, the one who died and rose again, who's seated at the throne of God the Father, he is the one who not only initiates our faith, he started it, he's the one who perfects it, who grows it, who finishes it.

Like he tends to us.

The Holy Spirit, God's actual spirit inside of us, it's like a gardener tending to us, helping to cultivate any growth that's possible.

And what we have to do is learn how to be filled with joy when we see that growth.

Or at the very least, even when we don't see that growth, we have to learn to be filled with joy knowing that there's growth that's taking place.

Because even before that little shoot came up from the dirt, growth was happening.

Sometimes it's just under the surface.

Now, if you'll nerd out with me for just a second, I want to go a little deeper with what Paul is saying here in Philippians, because he uses some really specific words.

And so back in Philippians chapter 1, verses 3 through 6, where he says, uh, God who begins will bring to completion.

Philippians 1:3–6

I want to put up a few words on the screen.

These are some Greek words that Paul uses here.

It's a different language, and sometimes the Greek language is like hyper-specific, and we can kind of miss that in our translation to English.

And so these are the words that Paul used for begin and finish.

And that second word, uh, that's the word that really just means to finish anything, to bring any project to completion.

It's a word that you would use if you were completing a project at home, completing your tasks at work, but that first word that I'm not going to try to pronounce, uh, that first word, that word for begin is a very specific word in Paul's language.

It is not the word that you would just use to begin any task.

It's a word that specifically relates to sacrifices.

It's a word that you would really only use if you were beginning the process of preparing a sacrifice.

Now, in our in our modern experience, when it comes to worshiping God, we don't tend to make sacrifices.

We might give financially.

Many of you do that, by the way.

You you give on a regular basis to support what's happening here.

Thank you for that.

Uh, but that's sort of a between us and God, something that we just do as a uh as a way of thanking God for what He's given to us.

And it is a sacrifice for sure, but not in the context of how sacrifices were made in in the ancient times.

We don't have a sacrificial society.

We see sacrifices as we see it in the context of you know giving something up for a period of time because you want something better later on.

You might you might sacrifice some something you want right now to save up money for something bigger.

You know, if you're gonna have a big meal later on, you're excited about it, you might sacrifice a meal right now to save room for that meal or something like that.

Or like me, just eat both.

Um, whatever.

But we we understand sacrifice like that.

The ancient world was all about sacrifice.

And so this is language that to us is a little foreign, but to the people that Paul was writing to, they live in a sacrificial society.

And I want to explore that a little bit because I think for us to actually understand this joy, the joy of progress, the joy of growth, we have to understand this idea of sacrifice and what Paul is really saying because it ties deeply to what God is doing inside of all of us.

Every one of us that has given our life to Jesus.

Those of us who have said, I have put my faith in him, something is happening in you.

There is growth that is taking place, and if you don't really understand what's happening, it can rob you of a lot of the joy that you're meant to experience.

All right, so let's examine this.

Sacrifice.

A lot of times in the ancient world, when we think of sacrifice, we have these sort of horrific stories of an angry God that demands a sacrifice in order for his anger to be appeased.

That is the way that many ancient societies saw God or the gods.

Angry, don't like humans, mad at humans, and the humans have to bring some type of sacrifice in order for that God's anger to be subsided.

One of the most famous stories, I would say the second most famous story of sacrifice, potentially in all of Scripture, takes place in Genesis chapter 22.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

I'm gonna read that.

Um, Genesis 22.

Actually, I'm just gonna read it from the screens, it's not in my notes here.

So it says, sometime later, God tested Abraham's faith.

Abraham, God called.

Yes, he replied, here I am.

Take your son, your only son, yes, Isaac, whom you love so much, go to the land of Moriah, go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.

The next morning Abraham got up early, he saddled his donkey, and he took two of his servants with him, along with his son Isaac.

And then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering, and set out for the place God had told him about.

On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

Stay here with the donkey, Abraham told the servants.

The boy and I will travel a little farther.

We will worship there, and then we will come right back.

So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac's shoulders while he himself carried the fire and the knife.

And as the two of them walked together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, Father, yes, my son, Abraham replied.

But where's the sheep for the burnt offering?

God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son, Abraham answered, and they both walked on together.

When they arrived at the place where God had told them to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it.

Then he tied his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice.

At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, Abraham, Abraham, yes, Abraham replied, Here I am.

Don't lay a hand on the boy, the angel said.

Do not hurt him in any way, for I now know that you truly fear God.

You have not withheld from me even your own son, your only son.

And then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket.

And so he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

And then Abraham named that place Yahweh Yireh, which means the Lord will provide, and to this day, people still use that name as a proverb.

On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.

Now, uh, we could talk for weeks on this story alone.

It's an incredible story.

In fact, that same mountain range is where Jesus was crucified, and so long time centuries and centuries before Jesus, it says, on the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided, and then a sacrifice in Jesus was provided on that.

There's all these crazy connections, but that's kind of like a freaky story, right?

It's not a story that most people go, love that story.

It's a great one.

I remember I used to be the, I used to be like the children's pastor here.

For years I taught the kids and the teens.

And so I remember one time I was like, let's go through the story of Abraham.

And I was thinking of these like kids' stories.

And then you get to stories like that, and you're like, huh.

Like I saw the movie The Shining when I was a kid, you know, and like Jack Nicholson coming through with the axe, and it freaked me out.

Um, how many of you saw that movie growing up?

Right?

I think that's the reason we were all so scared of our dads.

And so that's what it would do.

You know, I didn't want to create a shining moment with the kids at his hands, and the the parents pick them up, and all the kids are freaked out by their dads, so I didn't really know how to teach that story.

I had to think about it.

Over the years, God has really helped me see that story in a really beautiful way.

Because you have to understand, for Abraham, the idea of sacrificing your child to a God would not have been a foreign concept at all.

Abraham was following the one true God.

And at that point in time, he was one of the only people following the one true God.

The rest of the world, the rest of Abraham's world was pagan, following these false gods, these idols.

And one of the interesting things, and it's brutal and it's horrific, but one of the interesting things about ancient religions, whether it's South America or the kind of Mesopotamia area that Abraham was in, is that child sacrifice was a regular part of their worship.

It's horrible.

And I say interesting from the stance of like, how could that even happen?

How could people even think to do that?

But that was part of the culture.

And so Abraham, he's following the one true God, and this God is kind of a mystery.

This God doesn't have statues, so you don't know what this God looks like.

This God doesn't have temples and rituals and all this kind of stuff.

And so Abraham's kind of figuring out who God is, and God is teaching Abraham who he is.

And so when God tells Abraham, hey, go sacrifice your son, I mean, in some ways, we know that Abraham had faith.

He knew God's character.

He believed that his son would live or will be brought back to life.

We know that from the book of Hebrews.

It describes that.

But you also have to imagine that Abraham's probably thinking to some degree, okay, well, this is this is how God is, I guess.

I guess my God is kind of like these other false gods.

An angry God that demands a sacrifice to appease his anger.

For Abraham, this would not have been a strange concept.

He would have been heartbroken, but yeah, this is how all the other gods are.

I guess this is how God really is.

And so he goes along with it, and at the very last moment, God stops him.

And it's like God is saying, Hey, I good job, you passed the test.

In some ways, Abraham could have been like, You could have just taught me this.

You didn't have to make me go through this entire process, but sometimes we need to experience things, I guess.

But it's like God is telling Abraham, I'm not that kind of God.

I'm not the God like all those pagan gods.

I'm not a God that's angry and demands that you sacrifice what you love most in order to make me happy.

That is not who I am.

And Abraham, I've brought you through this whole process.

I've allowed you to go all the way up to this point so that you know and that generations forever will know that that is not who I am.

I am not an angry God who wants to take from you, right?

And so I've I've heard people in sort of an attempt to sort of bash our faith use this story as kind of a, well, look at how evil God is because He asks Abraham to sacrifice his son.

Yeah, he's he doesn't actually ask Abraham to sacrifice his son.

In fact, he provides the sacrifice, which is a picture way in advance of Jesus.

So I say all that to say it's a bit of a rabbit trail, so come back with me.

The ancient people would have understood sacrifice as something you often do to appease an angry God, but that is not our God.

That's not the purpose of sacrificing to him.

Now the Jewish people had this whole system of sacrifice, and it's regulated by the law.

You can read a lot of interesting sacrificial language in Leviticus that tells them exactly how to go about the sacrifice.

But that sacrifice for them was not just, oh, God's mad, do this, or he punishes us.

It was it was a process and it was understood in the context of purification.

And we don't have time to go into all of the details of this, but the idea basically is a recognition that God is holy, that God is greater, he is other, that he's holy.

And you see this by the way, every time someone encounters the presence of God, they they freak out, they fall down.

It's like his holiness, he's so much grander and greater that just being in his presence, you like can't handle it.

And so God is holy, and this isn't a downer, we're not, we're not, not in the same way.

We're we're not.

We're made in his image, he loves us.

We're all deeply loved by God, but we're not we're not holy.

And here's how you know that.

When's the last time someone walked in the room and fell down in your presence?

You know?

Like when's the last time?

Just in and of yourself, like we are not in and of ourselves radiating holiness that people are like, whoa, I just I'm sorry, you know?

That's not how it happens.

But every time people are in God's presence, that's what they do.

And so the idea with all these rituals and these sacrifices is that there's this thing called sin, and it's serious, and it affects us, and we all take part in it.

We all do things all the time that we know aren't right and good, and in doing so, there's this there's this unholiness that's part of our lives.

And so the ancient people had this whole process of sacrificing, and these sacrifices, by the way, weren't just this a quick thing, they they were long processes, lots of preparation, and all of it was to take care of in some way to cover to purify the sin inside of us, not to appease an angry God, but to purify us and to make us right for a time.

And so when Paul uses this language of God will finish what he began, he uses sin.

Sacrificial language.

He's saying he will bring the sacrifice to completion.

And so I know I'm dropping a lot of interesting ideas.

I'm going to do my best to tie them all up in just a second, but this is really important.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14.

Hebrews 10:14

It talks about the most famous sacrifice that we have in the story of Scripture.

I said that the Abraham, Isaac, I believe that would be number two.

But number one is definitely what is hinted at in Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

For by that one offering, he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

Alright.

For by that one offering, and that one offering is talking about the death of Jesus on the cross, this final sacrifice.

A final sacrifice in some ways, and we'll talk about that in a moment.

That he perfected what is being perfected.

Is that confusing to anyone?

Yeah, right?

Like he's he perfected, he made holy what is currently being made holy.

How does that work?

How can you be both perfected and also being perfected at the same time?

This is a really important concept for us to understand if we're going to experience the joy of growth.

Okay, track with me for a minute.

I'm going to put up a word and kind of explain this word in context and give you a picture that I think helps explain it, but this is so big, at least it is for me.

Worst case scenario, we all walk out of here really confused, okay?

So here we go.

There's a word in our faith, it's sanctification.

It's a word you see in scripture every once in a while.

It's a very, a very fancy Bible word, the word sanctification.

Okay?

Now, um, I'm gonna put this word up with a few other words uh because this is actually a component of what we often describe as salvation.

If you're new to church, you may have heard people in church say, I got saved.

I gave my life to Jesus, I became a Christian, I got saved.

You're like, saved from what?

What is that all about?

Well, here's really what salvation is.

Salvation is three things it is justification, I'll explain that in a second, really quickly, sanctification, and glorification.

Um, when you give your life to Jesus, you are justified.

And if you guys can keep those words up for a second, that'd be huge.

You're justified.

That means you are declared not guilty, innocent.

So we all have sin, we've all messed up, we've all done a lot of stuff wrong.

Some of us tried really hard to do it the right way.

Some of us, maybe you grew up in church, and you grew up in a church that taught you what was right and good, and you tried your best and you just missed.

You drifted.

Anyone like that?

Anyone willing to admit, yeah, that was me.

I tried my best, but ooh, fell short.

Okay, you don't have to raise your hand, by the way, if you feel uncomfortable.

It's just nice to participate.

Um, some of us didn't even try.

We just were like, woo, let's live life, let's enjoy it, let's do whatever feels good.

Anyone willing to admit, yeah, that was me.

At all?

There's more of you than that.

Some of us lived that way and still went to church and pretended to church, but then did it the other way.

I mean, we've all, point is we've all messed up.

Every single one of us.

And Satan is described in scripture as our accuser.

So he's the one that comes up to God essentially and says, hey, here's all the things they've done.

Look at them.

You can't, Lord, you can't love them.

You can't allow them to be part of your kingdom.

They've done this, this, this, and this.

He's our accuser.

He makes accusations and he has a case.

He has a case.

Like, I know all the things, or I don't even know all the things.

I know many of the things that Satan could say about me, and I'd have to be like, yes, that is true.

Yep, guilty.

But Jesus, by dying on the cross, he was in our place.

He took our place.

So, whatever punishment we might be worthy of, Jesus has already dealt with that, and we are now justified.

And this is a huge deal.

Justified is different than forgiveness.

Forgiveness is when you look at someone and you go, You are guilty, but I'll let it go.

And we have forgiveness through God, absolutely, through Jesus.

But justification is deeper than that.

Justification is you've been declared innocent.

You've actually been declared not guilty.

And that's like a permanent thing.

Like you can wear that.

You are not guilty in the eyes of God.

If you've given your life to Jesus, you got saved, you have been justified.

But that's not where it stops.

It's not that we just get saved and all of our sins have been covered and woo-hoo, and then we just live like we used to live, or we just go about life.

And that's a great thing that happened to me.

No, no, salvation didn't just happen to you, it is currently happening to you, and it will happen to you ultimately in the future.

Let me explain.

Justified, that happened, that's done.

Glorification, that's like the heaven stuff.

You when you go to heaven, when you die and you're in heaven, it's gonna be amazing.

I mean, Paul writes about all kinds of mysterious things we don't have time to get into right now, but you get a new body, who's excited about a new body?

Man, man, I am.

I I just, I really, I'm not just saying this to be goofy like a dad joke.

I just, I really hope it has abs.

I've never I've never seen my abs in my entire life.

They're there, they have to be, but I don't know what they look like, and I would like that.

Um as I get older, I'm more excited about a new body.

Like I'm in my 40s now, and anyone else like this, like every time I sit down or stand up, I make a noise.

I didn't know when this started.

But I I don't even, it's just like I go, ugh, ugh, every time.

And my kids make fun of me, and uh, and my hair is thinning, and that's great.

And so my hair's never been longer than it is right now.

It's because these guys in the front have to play a little help side defense for the back.

You know, just it's all it's good.

So I'm getting older and I'm excited about this new body.

That there's gonna be this glorified place that we get to where in heaven we are going to be weak and feeble, we're not gonna get sick.

It's just our we have this, we experience the fullness of what it is like to be made in God's image.

And that's something we have to look forward to.

So we've got justified, that happened the moment we gave our lives to Jesus.

Jesus accomplished that on the cross.

And then one day we'll be glorified, and it's gonna be amazing.

And in the middle is that word sanctification.

And this is huge.

This is where you're at right now, and this is what progress and growth is all about.

This is how we discover and find the joy of progress.

You are currently being sanctified.

You're bit by bit by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within you, and you can help with this.

There's conditions that can help this all grow, right?

Obedience to God and spending time in the Word and getting your mind focused on Jesus and not all the things of this world.

There's growth that happens.

You're being sanctified, you are being perfected, you're becoming what you already are.

You've been made holy by Jesus.

He has made you holy.

That sacrifice has covered all your sin.

You've been made holy, but through sanctification, you are being made holy.

So that's what was talking about in Hebrews.

That which has been perfected is being perfected.

Let me explain this just a little bit more, and I think this will help it make sense.

Um let me show you a picture of some people that I love very much.

This is my family, okay?

Um, that's a picture we had.

I know, I know.

Oh, someone someone's always gonna say, Oh, that's my family.

Those are my people.

That's my one daughter, Lily.

How many of you have daughters?

Any men with daughters?

Oh, isn't it awesome having daughters?

Yeah.

It's so good.

She's 11.

And uh there's like emotions coming out of her that I've never experienced before.

Um and and it's just now happened.

I recognized it this last weekend, actually yesterday.

She was hanging out with one of her friends, and I was there, and I I realized I have crossed over into thee, Dad, you embarrass me, please stay away from me, stage of life.

And so it's okay.

It's been a long time coming.

It's all good.

Uh, I love having a daughter.

I love having one daughter, and my joke is always that um like having, if you want to know the difference between having sons and daughters, as many of you have both, you'll know this.

I would kill, I would die for my sons.

I would kill for my daughter, right?

It's like, you know what I'm saying?

Like when you have a daughter, there's this different sort of feeling you have.

You're like, I get murdered, okay.

Um and I'm being honest, because you're like, I have this desire to protect her.

If at home one of my boys falls down, I'm like, get up.

And if she falls down, I'm like, what do you need?

How can I help you?

You want me to carry you?

It's just how it is when you have girls.

Okay, so that's my one daughter.

And then there's my wife, and she is she's my high school sweetheart, she's my best friend, she's everything.

Okay, but then you have on the the other side of the picture where it starts to get less attractive, okay?

It's where the boys come in.

And there's four, there are four men in this picture.

Four men.

It's just all at different stages of what it means to be a man.

And so you've got me, fully grown, best I could I could muster.

That's that's it.

This is me, this is all I got until the whole glorified thing comes.

That's me.

That's what a man looks like.

Sorry.

And then you've got my oldest, and he's now taller than me.

Um, and man, it feels like just a few days ago that he was like my middle son Judah there, and then there's Eli.

And what's it's amazing for me to watch as a dad is I'm watching all of these guys bit by bit become men.

But they already are men.

Like they're men, but they're also becoming men.

And I watch that on a daily basis.

I watch these men become who they already are.

They're growing into the full version of who they are.

And I get excited about the growth.

There's physical growth, like we measure it.

We've got a little thing at home, and we we we do the whole like put a notch and how tall they are and write the date down, and they compete and see who's taller at what point in time.

But it's also the growth of character, maturity, the growth that I see in their hearts as they grow closer to the Lord.

In fact, on the way here this morning, my middle son Judah was singing a worship song and with like passion to the point where we kind of turn the volume down and we're listening to him worship, and it was what it was genuinely amazing.

And that's growth.

So I live daily, we can take that picture down, but I live daily watching these young men become who they already are.

That's that's kind of like what sanctification is.

I know this is a weird idea, but it's like spiritual puberty.

Like you're becoming who you already are.

Jesus did something that affected you deeply when you gave your life to him.

And you were immediately justified.

Totally justified.

And one day you'll be glorified, but right now you're being sanctified.

And that means bit by bit, you are growing into who you already are.

Into the incredible, godly, mature, powerful, in the faith person that you you are, but you are also becoming.

Does that make sense?

All right, so with that out of the way, that understood, this is what I want to sort of wrap up with.

That growth, that sanctification growth, in my experience, is more often than not slower than we would like it to be.

Now, there are times where it can be fast.

I mean, it's like growth spurts.

I feel like my oldest grew four or five inches in like a couple months, and I think that's because he did.

Sometimes you're like, whoa, what happened?

Sometimes people can grow really fast.

I have known people that give their life to Jesus, and it's like instantaneous growth.

Like, who are you?

They're a whole new person.

That happens.

And then sometimes even in their lives, there's there's setbacks and challenges.

But most of the time, most of the time, the growth it's it's slow.

And that's frustrating, right?

Slow growth is frustrating.

Like a lot of us, if we're honest, we would just look at God and say, hey, hurry up, please.

Like I want to get to the point where this stuff doesn't bother me anymore.

I want to get to the point where I'm not tempted in this way anymore.

Can you get me to the point where where I don't get triggered by these things and I'm more come on, just like make it happen.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I want it all and I want it right now.

Give all of it to me.

My joke always for me is that self-control comes last, right?

That's the last one listed.

I guess it comes in that order, but no, it's slow.

And that's I think that's actually a good thing.

You know, slow growth is, it's hard to live in it because we want things now, but ultimately we know that it's best.

It's best.

Like, okay, look at it this way.

Imagine today that you go home and and let's say on the way home, you go to the grocery store, and you go get the best cut of steak that you can find.

Like the best, nicest, I don't know what your steak cut is, like maybe it's filet, maybe it's ribeye, you know, whatever it is.

And then you go home, you pop that baby in the microwave.

You know what I mean?

Come on, I mean you want that steak now, right?

Yeah, right?

You eat some of you like blasphemy.

I've got a really good buddy that's like, he, his favorite thing is to slow cook and smoke meat.

And so whenever we're gonna eat steak and we're hanging out with him, he puts it on like the morning that we're gonna eat it.

And he's like, I'm cooking it at 112 degrees for 17 hours, you know, something silly like that.

It's just because it's better.

Like the longer it takes, the better that it is.

How many of you are coffee drinkers?

You love coffee, you're like big coffee people.

Yeah, instant coffee's the best, right?

That's your favorite?

No.

It's like somehow we know that instant isn't good most of the time.

We know that that shortcuts don't really work.

We know that something that's painfully handcrafted is of higher quality than something that is mass-produced.

And we have to realize that in our own lives it's the same.

God is working in you.

The Holy Spirit is working in you.

Now I will challenge all of you, don't resist the work of the Spirit, don't ignore the work of the Spirit, don't fix your eyes and your minds on things that are unholy and aren't good and slow that down arbitrarily.

You can do that.

Just like if you're gardening, you can do things that help the plants grow faster, you can do things that that stunt their growth.

There are there are things that we should do as believers, and one of those things, by the way, is happening right now.

You're here.

And I know many of you are watching from home, you can't be here, we're glad you're watching, but being together with other believers and worshiping and learning and reading your scriptures and all of that, that's that's part of helping the growth along.

But God, make no mistake, God is working in you.

You are growing, you are being sanctified.

If you've given your life to Jesus, it's happening, it's just happening kind of slow.

And so what you've got to do is find joy in the tiniest sign of growth.

The tiniest sign of growth.

And sometimes those victories are from many people's perspectives silly, but they're huge.

I had one recently.

So exciting.

I was playing basketball.

You thought I wasn't gonna mention that.

No, it's been, I think, every Sunday this year I've mentioned, but I'm so sorry.

It's just basketball season.

Um, I was playing basketball like two weeks ago, and I got I got hit in the face really hard by this this guy that I play with.

He's a nice guy, he's just six foot four, and um he he's he's what you should be to play basketball.

I'm not.

And so I went up for a layup and his arm was there, and it hit me right in the face, and he was like, I'm so sorry, and I was so excited because while I thought cuss words in my mind, they did not come out of my mouth.

Like the words in my mind, very bad words.

All of them, like all the bad words, whatever bad word you're imagining, yes, that was it.

And it's just like, and I was like, because you know when you get hit in the face, it just makes you angry.

But I didn't say it.

And I was like, yes.

Like this is it's like Megan showing me that tiny little leaf and being like, wow, but that's how I felt.

I was like, I got home.

I was like, I didn't say I didn't say the words.

I got hit in the face, I didn't say any words.

I'm a pastor for 15 years.

Like, I mean, you think by now, but no, this is growth for me, and I'll take it.

Okay.

And I'm serious, I didn't, like, that's a sign of growth.

I'll take it.

I'll take it.

We have to train ourselves to be excited by the smallest sign of growth in our lives and in the lines of others, in the lives of others.

Because it's happening.

And so, worship team, you can make your way out.

We'll wrap up with this.

God is working on you all the time.

All the time.

In fact, Jesus says in in John chapter 5, My Father is always working, and so am I.

John 5 · chapter mention

There is not a moment where God is not working on you and in you.

He's working.

You may not always be aware of it, but it's happening.

Find joy in a few things.

Number one, the knowledge of that.

When you're frustrated with yourself, because even as you grow in your faith, there's gonna be setbacks.

There's gonna be times where you surprise yourself in your immaturity, in your selfishness, or your sin.

That's going to happen.

You will have setbacks.

But when those setbacks happen, find joy in the knowledge that God isn't done with you.

Some of you right now, you might be struggling because you feel like you're not in a good place, and you can think of times where it's been going much better, not just in life circumstantially, but even in your faith.

You're like, man, I used to be further along than I feel like I am right now.

You've experienced some setbacks.

That's okay.

That's okay.

There's story after story in scripture of people who went through some pretty major setbacks.

You know, their trajectory was like this, and then boom, goes way down, and God didn't quit on them, and then they they continued to grow.

That's okay.

God is working.

Remember that when it comes to how you think about yourself.

God is working.

Remember that when it comes to how you think of others, because God's working on them too.

They're not finished.

We're all unfinished products, but God is working on us.

And just like it would be foolish to go and criticize some painting that a painter is painting when it's not done, it's foolish of us oftentimes to criticize other people when God's not done with them either.

Like we have to remember that.

God's not done.

And it gets complicated in personal relationships that affect us, and I know all that, but but we have to remember that God is working and he's not done with them, and he's not done with me.

So find joy in the knowledge that God isn't finished.

If you're not happy with where you are, he's not done with you.

And train yourself to find joy, to hyperfocus on the smallest sign of growth within yourself and within others.

And something that might actually help you with this is ask.

Ask the people close to you, hey, have you have you seen any growth in me?

Have you seen any growth in me?

That's a question that is a little bit uh, I mean, that's it's a little bit vulnerable if you ask that question.

Hey, I just want to, have you seen any growth in me?

I actually asked that to my wife a few months ago.

I was just struggling, frustrated with myself, and I just asked her, hey, have you seen me grow?

And she looked at me like I was crazy.

Um, and it was like kind of caught me off guard.

She's like, Of course I have.

And I said, Do you mind explaining it?

Would you mind listing some of the signs of growth you've seen?

Because I don't really feel like I've grown that much.

And she listed some things that I hadn't thought of, and it brought me some joy.

I was like, Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have grown.

That's right.

You might need some help to identify those things.

Don't be afraid to ask the people close to you who who might be able to speak into that.

But celebrate it.

You're growing.

No matter how slow, no matter how small, growth should be celebrated.

So thank God and be filled with joy for the smallest sign of growth.

And that will that will bless you, that will give you a deep joy.

Just like my wife was filled with deep joy for a tiny little leaf.

Train yourself to be filled with that amount of joy for small growth in you and small growth in others.

That said, we're gonna wrap up by taking Lord's Supper.

And since I am such a pro at this, I forgot my Lord's Supper Cup.

And uh, here we go.

Doug?

It's alright?

It's not your fault, Doug.

I'm half blind here anyway, the lights are my eyes.

Uh, can someone grab Doug a Lord's Supper Cup?

And by the way, if you're if you're new, you got extras?

You're like, okay.

For just just just to have them?

Just to be like, you never know when someone needs.

All right, just for me.

Let's hear it for Doug Hyde, by the way.

Good job, Doug.

Funny thing, that's not the first time Doug has had to do that for me.

Um, I'd say it's like five or six in the last few years, so thank you, Doug.

Um, if you're new, we take this little meal together at the end of every gathering.

And uh when you walked in, there were tables with with these cups.

And if you missed it, by the way, because sometimes when you walk in, it's easy to miss it.

Feel free to go grab one now.

I don't want anyone to miss out on this if you want to.

Um we take this little meal to celebrate what Jesus has done for us.

And it's a piece of bread and a little bit of juice, and it represents his death on the cross.

The bread is his body that was broken for us, that sacrifice we talked about that that made us holy and allowed this process of continuing to be made holy, start, and the juice represents his blood that was spilled.

We're reminded every week that Jesus did something incredible for all of us.

This growth that we can experience, it's not by our own strength.

This this growth in your faith, this sanctification process where God is bit by bit making you into who you already are, this is not something that happens by our own strength.

This is something that Jesus initiated, right, on the cross.

He started this, and the Holy Spirit will bring to completion.

And that sacrifice that Jesus made allows us to live differently.

This meal that we're about to take and what it symbolizes, it allows us to live differently.

And we're told in Romans chapter 12, dear brothers and sisters, give your bodies to God because of all that he's done for you, all that Jesus has done for us.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice.

Because Jesus died on the cross and sacrificed for us.

Now we can live as living sacrifices.

Just daily giving our lives to Him, surrendering to Him, and saying, Holy Spirit, work within me, sanctify me, make me holy, keep finishing the work that you started, and I trust that one day you will bring it to completion.

And every day in that journey, I give myself to you.

Without in mind, let's take this bread.

Father, we thank you for this piece of bread and what it represents, what it means.

This is your body broken for us.

An offering, a sacrifice to pay a price that we couldn't pay.

And this began a process that is happening within us, a process of growth that is often slow and hard to discern, but we trust it, we believe it, and we see it, and we celebrate it.

But it wouldn't be possible if you hadn't started it for us, Jesus.

So thank you.

Let's take the bread.

Now the juice.

This is your blood spilled for us.

It purifies us, makes us clean, makes us holy.

And it's not just a one-time thing, Lord.

This is a process, this is happening, and this is continuing to happen in our lives on a daily basis.

Help us, Lord, be aware of that, help us celebrate that, help us find faith in that, be grounded in our faith in that, Lord, that even when it feels like something's not happening in us that should be, that it is, bit by bit, make us aware of that and help us be grateful to you for it all.

We pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.