A Wonderful Treasure - Sunday, March 12, 2023

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Good morning. We are glad that you are here this morning on the time change breakfast. So it kind of feels like we're all here extra into this clock. I thought I was running late, but it turns out I'm actually an hour ahead of time. And the good news is this may be maybe the last time we have to go through this. We'll see. But that would be nice. So all that said, we are glad you're here, and we're excited to worship together as we talk about God's goodness and His grace. And so before we do that, I'm going to have a word of prayer, and then we're going to stand and read some Scripture together, and then we will spend some time in worship. So let's go ahead and... Father in heaven, I thank you for your

grace. I thank you for your mercy. I thank you for how you change and transform our lives. And so I ask this morning that through our time of worship, you would encourage us, that you would empower us, that you would help us to see the goodness of the gospel, and that as we live through the rest of this week, that you would help us to share that good news with the world. And so I just ask that you would replenish us, that you would restore us, that you would strengthen us, and that you would be with us this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And so we're going to stand and we're going to read from Titus chapter 2 about the grace of God and how the grace of God goes to work in our life, transform us and move us in hope. So let's go ahead and read together.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness, and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works. This is the word of the Lord. We're going to begin by singing a song we started with last week, kind of introducing it. So now we've been through it once, we'll know it a little better, so we're going to sing His Mercy is More.

What love could remember, no wrongs we have done Our nations all knowing, ye counsel of their son Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, you every morn Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more What patience would wait as we constantly roam What father so tender is calling us home He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor Our sins they are many, his mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every more Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more What riches of kindness He lavished on us His blood was the payments, His life was the cost We stood neath a debt we could never afford Our sins, they are many, His mercy is poor

Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, pure every more Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more As we've been reading in 1 Peter, we've been reading about living hope And so we are going to move right into Living Hope.

turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night then through the darkness your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul the work is finished the end is written Jesus Christ, my living hope Who could imagine so great a mercy What heart could fathom such boundless grace The God of ages stepped down from glory To wear my sin and bear my shame Jesus has spoken, I am forgiven The King of kings calls me his own Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever Jesus Christ, my living hope Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me You have broken every chain There's salvation in your name Jesus Christ, my living home Then came the morning that sealed the promise Your buried body began to breathe Out of the silence the roaring lion

Declared the grave has no claim on me Then came the morning that sealed the promise Your buried body began to grieve Out of the silence the roaring lion Declare the grave has no claim on me, Jesus yours is the victory, hallelujah, praise the one who set me free, hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me, hallelujah, hallelujah, You have broken every chain There's salvation in your name Jesus Christ, my living hope Hallelujah Praise the one who set me free Hallelujah Death has lost its grip on me You have broken every chain There's salvation in your name Jesus Christ, my living hope Jesus Christ, my living hope You may be seated as we're moving into our prayer and share time. If you're joining us online, we'll be muted here for just a minute for privacy and we'll be right back in just a minute. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, as we prepare to gather together and celebrate together the Lord's Supper, we're going to sing, This is Amazing Grace.

Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger? The King of glory, the King above all kings.

Who shakes the whole earth with holy thunder, who leaves us breathless in awe and wonder, the King of glory, the King above all kings. This is amazing, this is unfair, that you would take my place, that you would bear my cross, you would lay down your life, that I would be set free.

Jesus i sing for all i've done for me chaos back into order who makes the orphan i serve the king of glory the king above all kings

Rules the truth with truth and justice Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance The King of Glory The King above all kings This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place That you would bear my cross You would lay down your life That I would be set free Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me This is amazing grace This is unfailing love That you would take my place You would bear my cross You would lay down your life That I would be set free Jesus, I sing for all that you've done for me.

news of the gospel as he institutes the Lord's Supper, explaining to them that this is his body which was given for them, that it's his blood of the new covenant. And as they finish this meal after instituting the Lord's Supper, what Jesus will do, and recorded in the gospel of John, is he will spend time teaching, encouraging, and preparing the disciples for what is to happen next. Because for these disciples, the next event is going to be earth-shattering. Jesus is going to be arrested. He's going to be crucified. Jesus knows that this will not be a permanent end to his life because Jesus knows of the resurrection, but the disciples don't. And so in doing this, one of the things that Jesus will do as he is teaching the disciples is that he will begin to pray.

And in John the 17th chapter, Jesus, as he prays, will pray for himself and about what is going to happen to himself. And then he is going to do something remarkable. And I'll read to you from John the 18th chapter, beginning in verse 20. He says, I do not ask for these only, so he's praying. He says, I don't ask just for my disciples who are here right now, but also for those who will believe in me through their words. And I want you to catch what is happening here, because Jesus, as he prays, he says, I don't pray just for those who are with me in this room right now, but I pray for those who will believe in me through the word that these disciples will proclaim. And Jesus, in that moment, he is praying for you.

He's praying for me. He's praying for us as a church. And here is what he specifically prays. I do not ask for these only but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they also may be one just as you father are in me and I in you that they may also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given me I have given to them that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and have loved them even as you loved me. And one of the pictures of the gospel that we see is that it saves us from our sins, it brings us into victory, and saves us from fear, but additionally, as it does these things,

it creates a community. And for the church, one of the ways in which we remember our salvation, and remember that we are not alone, and remember that we are in community, is through this meal. So we're going to pray and then partake together. So, Father in heaven, I thank you for your goodness. I thank you for how you have cared for us. I ask that you would instill in us the good news of the gospel. That you would help us to see the grace that has been poured out in our life. That you would help us to see the community that you have put us into. That you would remind us that we as Christians do not walk through this life alone. And so I ask that you bless this bread, and that you bless this cup,

and that you help us to proclaim your Son. It's in his name we pray. Amen. If you would take the bread with me, as Jesus did with his disciples, just moments before praying for us as a church. and he will tell the disciples that this bread is his body which is given for us. Paul will say in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. We're going to jump into these two verses of this section, moving through over the past two weeks. And then as we move past this, one of the things we're going to do as we get closer to Easter,

we're going to begin to sort of move toward Jerusalem with Jesus to see his sacrifice for us and to celebrate the resurrection together on Easter. So before we jump into this, let's go ahead and have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, I thank you for grace. I thank you for your church and for your people. And so I ask this morning that you would strengthen us in your word, that you would help us to see the treasure that we are seeing this morning in your provision for us and in your grace and in the rejoicing that when we see the gospel explodes out of our life in joy, that you would help us to see this is not a treasure that we put on a shelf. It's not a treasure that we hide and just bring out to show our friends,

but it is a treasure that radically changes us, that it protects us from discouragement and from sin, that it will help us to be humble and that we will see how you have provided and called us to yourself. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So context, I think, for most of us, we would realize, maybe not intentionally realize, but if we think about it for a minute, context is important. The events that surround something help us to understand that a little more deeply. And so if you're one of my neighbors and you come out and you just go, man, that guy is always yelling at his kids, right? Well, the question is, what's the context surrounding the yelling at my kids? Am I just having a bad day, and I'm mad, and I'm yelling

at my kids? Or is it that Amazon is pulling into the parking lot at 45 miles an hour, and they're riding my bikes, they're riding their bikes, and I'm yelling at them to get out of the way because the Amazon driver doesn't see that there's a whole bunch of kids on bikes, right? There's a big difference in that scenario, right? One of those, the yelling is kind of unnecessary and because of a bad mood. And on the other hand, the yelling is necessary and it's a picture of love and protection for the children. And so one of the things that happens when we try to understand something is that we have to pay attention to the context. Because it's very easy for us to sort of zoom in on one particular little piece of information

and miss the larger sort of picture of what is happening. And so these verses, these 1 Peter chapter 1, 10 through 12, these three verses are bigger context. And that bigger context is sort of this run-on sentence that Peter begins back in verse 3. And we've probably learned about those in English where you're writing a sentence and it's like, hey, you need to use a period. You can't write a whole paragraph and just call it a sentence. Peter obviously didn't do that. He didn't learn that lesson because he's so excited in this moment about what God has done. Verse 3 all the way down through verse 12 is just one big giant sentence in Greek. Peter is so excited that he just can't stop talking about what God has done. And in this sentence, there is one main clause that begins in verse 3.

It is, Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And everything else between verse 3 and verse 12 answers the question, why? Because I will hear something like, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And our question might be, why? And Peter is going to go ahead and tell us why. He's going to tell us why by, first of all, unpacking what our salvation looks like. He's going to talk about how our salvation brings us through dark valleys. And now he's going to talk about sort of this explosive rejoicing in terms of our salvation. And so everything in this sentence is meant to tell us why. So let's hear these verses and then dive into them. Concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours

searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed they were serving not themselves but you and the things that have been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Now, the other part of the context that we need to understand is not just how Peter writes, not just that this is part of a giant statement and overflowing of praise in the life of Peter. And Peter here is not simply seeking to engage our intellect with facts, but he's seeking to move a church that is struggling with persecution that they can see coming, And they're wondering, what should I do?

And Peter doesn't begin by engaging their intellect or giving them a to-do list. He begins by pointing their hearts to the goodness of God. And so he is seeking to encourage the struggling by moving us to worship. And he's going to do so in this whole thing by telling us thing after thing about how wonderful the salvation of God is. And so that's what I want to do just very briefly this morning. Take a look at like a diamond, some of the facets of the salvation that Peter is describing in this text. And the first thing that we see in these verses is that salvation is not an accident and it's not an afterthought. So maybe you're familiar with Bob Ross where he has that very, probably a lot of us know it, very famous quotation where he says, happy little accidents.

You're painting a picture and you make a little mistake and you turn it into a little happy tree because it was a happy little accident. And he talks about how sometimes the mistakes are turned into something that look good. It's one of his misquotes, but he also had another one. He said, ever make mistakes in life, make them into little birds. So you're up there painting the sky and you make a mistake, so turn it into a bird. and this happy little accident, mistake that you made, turns into something good. And we've probably all experienced at some point in our life maybe a happy accident, something unexpected that sort of comes into our life that turns out good. And as I was reading through my notes last night in preparation, I was thinking about our day yesterday.

We had gone for lunch with the kids. It had been a really crazy busy week. And so we went out to get some pizza, and we're sitting there, and we got our appetizers, and we ate. And I kept looking at my watch, and the pizza wasn't there, and the pizza wasn't there, and the pizza wasn't there. And I look over, and the guy who had been serving us and bringing our food was kind of angrily talking to the kitchen. And he comes back to us, and he goes, well, they had your pizza, and they really overcooked it. And he says, I told him to make it again, because I understand sometimes kids don't want to eat pizza that's burnt to a crisp. I was like, well, neither do adults, but thank you very much. And so he goes back, they remake the pizza and bring it back.

And he says, all right, we're just going to take one of these completely off your bill. And at that point, I was like, oh, that's a happy little accident, right? You know, we all got good pizza. I didn't have to fight with my kids because the pizza was charcoal. And they ended up paying a whole bunch less than what I had originally planned. And you and I are familiar with those moments that maybe things don't turn out quite like we think. But then all of a sudden, something good happens, right? You go to Target, just expecting to go in and grab what you need, and then you meet a friend, and you end up being encouraged. It's just a happy little accident. Now, when it comes to our salvation, our salvation isn't just an unplanned event that just so happens to turn out well.

It's not that God says, oops, this happened. How can I turn this into something good? And we'll see that in just a moment in this text. I would also add that your salvation is not an afterthought. And what I mean by that is we've all experienced this where maybe we have somewhere to go, and at the last minute we realized there was something we needed to bring with us. And so it's like running around trying to figure it out. I remember my first Halloween that I was here, and I was not expecting any trick-or-treaters. In fact, I don't even remember if I knew it was Halloween. I'm a bachelor. I had lived here for like a month and a half. And all of a sudden there's like kids knocking on my door and I'm like, what do I have?

I was like, here's a can of soup for you, a can of chili for you, here's some bacon for you, I got an onion for you, right? Just a complete afterthought because I had no idea that anybody was going to be showing up at my door. Your salvation in God's eyes is not God going, oh no, I got to get them something, what can I do? What can I give them? Your salvation is not an accident and it's not an afterthought. And the reason that this matters so deeply for us is because it demonstrates to us the greatness of the love of God. And I want you to see how we see this reflected in this text. Listen to what Peter says. I'm going to read basically two verses and one phrase of verse 1.

He'll start like this, concerning this salvation. And when Peter says concerning this salvation, he's bringing us back to the beginning of verse 3 where he talks about that salvation. that we are given a new life, we're born again, a living hope, an inheritance. We are guarded for the salvation of our souls. And just as he calls our mind back to those words about salvation and Peter's sort of song of praise here, he's reminding us that all of these things, that the new birth, the living hope, the being guarded, the inheritance, the salvation of your soul is not something that was unplanned or accidental, but rather God intended for this to happen. And the way that you see that is the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,

inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed they were not serving themselves, but you. And then he'll go on to talk about things in which the angels long to look. The simplest definition as we think about a prophet is a prophet is somebody who speaks for God. And sometimes that can be calling to repentance, people who are doing wrong. Sometimes that can be encouraging people who are struggling, but it can also mean speaking about the future. And there's a really fascinating thing happening here as Peter talks about prophecy. And what he's saying is the prophecy wasn't mainly for the prophets. The prophecy is mainly for those who look back and see how God was working in history to fulfill that prophecy.

That your salvation was not an accident. That God had planned this. And he spoke about it. And people looked forward to it and they sought it. I want you to understand that your salvation, When God saves you, he doesn't save you sort of accidentally, and he doesn't save you as an afterthought. The second thing that we see as these prophets are prophesying is that God is active in our salvation. God doesn't just simply walk out and set out something and say, there you go, much like how we feed our dogs. We don't necessarily actively feed our dogs. We fill up a dish with dog food, set it down, and we say, there you go. One dog wants to eat it all at once, the other dog wants to eat it sort of at his leisure,

but all we do is simply set it in front of them and say, there you go. When it comes to our salvation, God doesn't simply announce it and go, all right, there you go, good luck, maybe you can eat it, maybe you can find it, maybe you will be saved, but rather God is active in our salvation. Look at the sort of the middle of verse 12. In the things that have now been announced to you from those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. And I want you to see God's activity. First of all, He announces it. But He doesn't announce it in an impersonal way because there's announcements that I miss all the time. People are constantly in our world announcing things. Big things, small things, some things that don't even need announcements.

And in this, we miss a lot of announcements. So notice God doesn't simply announce it in an impersonal way, but He announces it to you. Listen to what Peter says. In the things that have now been to you, and then he will talk about how His Spirit empowers that announcement by those who preach the good news. So this is an active movement, preaching the good news to you by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. And I want you to see that we see God announcing here the good news, that he's not hiding it, it's not secret. One of the things that happened, and this is going to be a revelation for my children, is that when we're on a road trip sometimes, mom and I get the good snacks. And those good snacks, when the kids aren't looking,

what we do is like Rachel will get into the good snacks and she'll sort of sneak a snack across where the kids can't see. And then you get to eat that snack without the kids knowing. When it comes to the announcement of your salvation, not just that God has planned it, prepared it, and brought it to pass, but now God has announced it. There's not a hidden thing where He says, here, I'll sneak it across to you. But God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, has announced it personally to us. And we begin to see this picture that God loves and cares enough about us to not treat us as an afterthought or an accident, that He actively pursues us, and then we see this, that this salvation is by grace. Peter says it this way, the grace that was to be yours.

Now, I don't know about you, but I struggle sometimes to understand grace. And one of the things that happens when you and I struggle to understand something, one of the best ways for us to understand is by comparison. So if you're trying to describe what a food tastes like, one of the things we say is, well, that tastes like chicken, right? That's our sort of universal comparison. We know that you know what chicken tastes like, and so this tastes like chicken helps us to understand a little deeply. The other way that we sort of use comparison to help us understand is whether something is better or worse than something else. And so we will say perhaps of a cup of coffee, how good is that cup of coffee? Well, I'm better than the gas station who hasn't cleaned its coffee makers in 20 years,

but it's probably not as good as another type of coffee. And so we use both a good and a bad comparison to help us understand where something falls along a spectrum. Now, grace is difficult because when we come to it, we don't have a lot of things to compare grace to. Grace is not a natural thing that happens in our world. So by definition, grace is free. And the problem with our world is that we generally don't find free things. And when we do find free things, what happens? There's conditions attached. You're eating at IHOP, and your kids who can now read, look at the little thing that's sitting on the table and go, look, you can get free pancakes. It's like, yeah, I can sign up to get free pancakes. And then they're going to email me 17 times a day

telling me about all these pancake flavors that I don't care about. Yeah, they're going to give me like three little pieces for free, but it's going to cost me some personal information, right? And so, so many times when we have free in this world, we hear, yeah, what's the catch? Because free things in our world are not even free. In fact, if you begin to look at some of these contests that people win I mean, we might desire to win. So many times along with those things are taxes included. So right, you may win a new car, but then you're going to order, you're going to owe taxes on that car viewed as income. In one case, I remember, I think it was in Market Watch, she was saying, yeah, I won this brand new car and now I owe $13,000 on the new car, right? So yeah, you got

a free car. Great. But yeah, I also got a bill to the government that I now have to pay. And so in our world, often don't mean free. And so when it comes to grace, and we hear the word free, our struggle is, well, I've never seen that in this world. And so we struggle to understand grace. And so by definition, grace is simply a free, and here's the other part, undeserved gift. Often in close conjunction with mercy, not getting the bad thing you do deserve, grace is getting the good thing that you don't deserve. And there aren't very many examples in our world of grace. But in Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells the story of a father who has two sons. Right, the older son is good and he's responsible. The younger son is just a huge mess.

And the younger son will say to his rich father, give me the inheritance that is mine. And in doing so, what is he saying to his dad? I wish you were dead. Split up the property, give me what I have. I don't want to wait for you to die. I don't want to be around from near you. He takes that money, and then he goes as far from his father as possible, both geographically and morally. And then he will spend his time and his money doing everything opposite from his father. And eventually that younger son will hit rock bottom. And after feeding pigs, will sit there and say, even the servants back home have better food, and they have better clothes, and they have better things. So he goes back to his father, and he has this speech in his mind that's all prepared,

that I'm not worthy to be called your son and I want you to come and hire me as a servant and I will work my way back into your life. And if you remember what Jesus says in Luke 15, the father, when he looks up and sees him from a long way off, will run to him and he will wrap him up in his arms. The son doesn't even get to explain. The father leaps off the porch, grabs his son who is covered in filth both morally and physically and brings his arms around him, brings him into his home, gives him a new robe, a new ring which is saying this is my son and he's brought back into my life and all of that happens by grace. The younger son, the only thing that he did was wrong.

The only thing that he brought into his father's life was brokenness but by grace, the father welcomes the son back in. Now, part of me really loves that because God gives grace to the unworthy and then part of me goes, yeah, but he really could have done some repenting first, right? Part of me goes, man, maybe he could have cleaned himself up. Maybe he could have been a little more responsible. And that's the struggle of grace because when we see it in the lives of others, we begin to be like the other brother in the story. The one who thinks they've got it all together and we've forgotten the grace that the Father has shown to us. And here's the thing. The reality is that grace is uncomfortable. For us who receive it, grace is free.

But to those who offer it, grace is so very costly. Think of the story of the prodigal son. And as the father welcomes the son back and understand the cost of this grace to the father, right? He's risking that this son will do the exact same thing again, right? And it's not just a risk financial, but it's a bad bet because this kid has proved himself to be nothing but trouble and you're going to extend your heart back to him and wrap him up in your arms and bring him back into the family and throw a feast for him. For the father, this is costly, right? It's the risk of his heart. It's the risk of his reputation. It's the risk of more of his estate. For the Son, grace is free, but for the Father, the grace is so very costly. And Peter will even draw our

attention to that as he talks about how these prophets, as they prophesied two things about Jesus. What time or person the Spirit of Christ in them was indicated when he predicted the sufferings of Christ. The suffering servant passages in Isaiah. Psalm 22, oh my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? There is suffering involved in the grace that was given to us, not by us but by God. But also they point to the triumph. Psalm 2, he would set his king on the holy hill and the resurrection of Jesus. He will rule with the rod of iron in Isaiah 9. The government will be on His shoulders and the end of His kingdom there will be no end. The picture here is that Jesus would both suffer and He would triumph and that God would take our sin

and give us the victory of Jesus. The third or fourth facet of this that Peter points to is that salvation is wonderful and he says it in a very strange way. Things into which angels long to look, right? Your amazement often depends on how big your experience is, right? So depending on what you see, maybe if you're very sheltered, you're amazed by little things. If you've seen a lot of things, you're amazed at big things. And I remember the very first time, I was probably like 11 or 12, and we were at a cousin's house, and they had Microsoft Flight Simulator. Like, this is early 90s Microsoft Flight Simulator, right? He has like three bell rings in the whole thing. And we're playing this, and my mind is just exploding, right? Here we are, flying a plane with a mouse and a keyboard,

and then they got a joystick. It's like, oh, I'm flying a real plane, right? And 11-year-old Brandon's mind just exploded. Now, if 11-year-old Brandon's mind could have seen what 42-year-old Brandon sees now, where you can get online and you can order yourself a whole bunch of screens that wrap all the way around you, a full set of realistic airplane controls, and this setup that will allow you, as you fly flight simulator, to go down and up and side to side. You're going to spend some money on it. But, right, my amazement when I see with no experience one thing and another thing. And so what Peter is doing here is saying that here are people who've seen everything that's amazing, right? Brandon, who sees, 42-year-old Brandon, who looks back on 11-year-old Brandon's flight simulator experience

and goes, that's not that amazing. Look at what we have now. That's our tendency. Here are the angels who have seen God create. They have seen God work. They have seen God save. They have seen things beyond our imagination and they look at the good news of the gospel and go, I can't stop looking at it. And the reason that they long to look into it is not because they're prohibited from it, but rather because they have not sinned and they don't need it. But the angels who have seen all of God's work stand in amazement at the salvation you and I so often take for granted. And what Peter is trying to say is that angels have seen some amazing things, and yet they still long to see the wonder of the gospel. So there's people who, when they tell us something is good,

we should believe. One of the things that I like to have is I like to have somebody who I know who knows more about something than I do. And so I have a steak guy, a guy who knows more about steak, whether it's cuts or cooking, than I do. And so when I go to buy a steak, I'll text him and be like, hey, is this good? Is this bad? How do I cook this? How do I make this taste amazing? And so when he tells me, the guy who I know who's the stake expert, that this is good and it's the best thing he's ever had, I can't wait to see it because he's seen more than I have, more experience than I have, and I trust what he has to say. What Peter is saying with the angels is that when they say

they can't stop looking at the gospel, when they are amazed at the gospel, here are beings who are bigger and greater in every way and they're looking at what you have and they say, I can't believe the love and the mercy and the grace of God and they respond in worship and so many of us, we just say, oh yeah, it's the gospel. Yeah, Jesus died in my place for my sins, rose again for my victory. We're missing the worship and the bigness and the power of the gospel. Just like when we have a friend who's an expert in something and they say, this is good, we go, oh yeah, that's good. Peter is saying the same thing should happen here when we consider the angels and the Gospel. And the Gospel is this treasure.

It's a treasure that is brought to us. It's not an afterthought or an accident. It's a treasure that is brought to us through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's a treasure full of grace and it's a treasure full of wonder, but it is not designed to sit on the shelf of our life. So I want you to see what this treasure in the Gospel does. And the first thing I want you to see is this treasure of the Gospel. The good news about what Jesus has done is that it will shield you from discouragement. And you know and you live and you're actively refreshing your heart in the Gospel. It's going to do good things in your life. So for example, when we hear about good things, many times we say, well that's not for me

or I couldn't have that or I don't qualify for that. And if you think about the roots of some of our discouraging thoughts, especially about our faith, right? I'm not good enough. I'm not wanted enough. And then we come to the Gospel and we say, yeah, there's grace. Yeah, God saves these people, but what about me? And in our dark moments, we find ourselves discouraged and we find ourselves hopeless. Let me show you how the Gospel shields your heart. You see, God knows you. And he's not upset that he saved you. And he does not regret that you saved you. On Wednesday night, we're going through the book of James. And one of the things that has stuck with me is that Matt Chandler says that God knew what he was getting into when he bought you.

That he doesn't have buyer's remorse about you. You ever had buyer's remorse? I remember I was probably eight or nine. And I'd been in Cub Scouts for like a year and a half. I kept the magazine, though, Boy's Life. And in the back of that magazine, there was this, like, amazing survival watch, right? It was big and bulky and military-looking. And you could take the top off. And there was, like, a fishing kit and all these supplies and a compass built in. And so I got my change together. I got Mom to write a check, sent it off. And, like, eight or nine weeks later, after I had forgotten that I ordered it, it showed up. And I opened it up. And while externally I appeared probably to be excited, my first thought was, wow, this is a piece of junk.

right you know nothing lined up you went to screw in the waterproof capsule with the fishing line and it doesn't quite line up and it doesn't look like it lines up right and the fishing line like yeah you can probably fish with it if your water is about this deep right and it was just disappointing and i've regretted all of my expectation and all of my joy and there are times as a Christian where I feel like God must look at my life and go, man, that guy? Did I really save that guy? Look at what he's doing. And maybe you feel the same, that you look at your life and you think that, how could God want me? How could God use me? The gospel here in this text is pointing to this to you as a fact that

there is encouragement. That when those dark doubts of depression and discouragement come, that God wouldn't want me. We go back to the fact that your salvation is not an accident. That it's by grace that God actively pursued you. And what you find is that when you preach the gospel to yourself, it will be a shield against the discouraging darts of the devil. But also as you move into the gospel, you'll find that this is going to be a shield against sin. And if you think about how sin forms in our life, it comes in a lot of different ways, but I want you to think about two different ways, right? Sometimes we sin out of fear, right? I don't want this to happen, so if I do this, and it may be lie, maybe it's hide, maybe it's take something, right? Because we're afraid if

something's going to happen, so we move into sin over here to try to prevent that. The other way that we move into sin, and there's a lot of ways we move into sin, but one of the other ways you and I move into sin is through desire, right? We see something that we want, and we take it. That's why in the commandments it talks about don't covet your neighbor's land or your neighbor's stuff, your neighbor's wife, because so many times we see that desire, and then we just take it. And then what happens strangely in our life is this thing where we have fear, and we have desire, and they come together. So we're both running from something in sin, and we're running towards something we think will fix the problem, and we say, you know what?

Yeah, I know God said, don't do this, but I'm going to do it because I see it as the only way out. I want you to see how the gospel changes this. I don't have to hide anymore because of the gospel. My sins are taken away. Those things that maybe I was afraid of And for example, maybe we sin by lying to hide the truth, right? The Gospel says you don't have to hide anymore. You don't have to fear those things because the Gospel allows you to safely tell the truth. The Gospel allows you to safely depend upon God. The Gospel allows you to have those desires that are in the depth of your heart that we try to fill with all these superficial things. Entertainment, enjoyment, food, sex, all of these things that we say,

this is going to fill the emptiness of my life and it's going to satisfy my desires. The good news about Jesus is the only thing that will do that. And so when you come to the gospel, it's going to be a shield against the discouragement that wars against you. And it's going to be a shield against the sin that seeks to help you run from your fear and pull you towards your desires. And third, the Gospel will shield you from pride. That idea that I am great and I am good and I have accomplished that in the Gospel, what do you find? That you're not good, you're not great. And pride says, look at me. And the Gospel says, yeah, look at you. The one who was such a sinner that Jesus, the Son of God,

had to come and die in place for your sins in order to save you. Pride and the gospel cannot exist in the same place. And when the gospel comes in, it will destroy your pride. And it doesn't replace it with discouragement. It replaces it with joy. And rather than look at what I have done, it becomes look at what Jesus has done for me. If you can see the treasure of the gospel, and you take it off the shelf, and you bring it into your life, What you're going to see is that the Gospel, if you live in the Gospel, will shield you from discouragement. It's going to shield you from those desires of sin. And it's going to shield you from that arrogance that puts yourself as the focus. The other thing that happens as we begin talking about context is we need to realize that context isn't just for books,

for yelling at our kids in the parking lot, making sure the neighbors understand why and the context of our yelling. The world you and I live in needs context, right? And we've struggled to find one, right? We've tried to explain away the brokenness and the futility and the hurt in our world because we're trying to find the context into which all of these things make sense. And the problem is we're looking in the wrong direction and in the wrong places. And the problem of the brokenness in this world is ultimately us. In the beginning, literally how the Bible starts, God creates everything and it is good, right? The world is good. Marriage is good. Work is good. Family is good. Your vocation and your calling is good. And our relationship with God is good. And in seeking the good

in the One who has created all things and who sustains all things. You and I, we turn to ourselves. Not just our first parents in Genesis, but every one of us after. We've sought the context of this world in our desires. We've sought the context in this world by following those desires. And those desires will lead us into brokenness in every area of our life. And God, who is both great and good, He could have simply, in his justice, said, you know what? They broke it. It's their problem. But God does not do that. He literally steps into human history. He walks on this earth. He's arrested and he dies for our brokenness. And in victory, he rises again and gives that victory to us. You see, he takes our sin, our brokenness. and He gives us a brand new life.

And the context that you and I are looking for isn't going to be found in some sort of big fix out there, but it's a big fix in here. Because the context of brokenness in the world, the source of the hurt and the pain, is in the sinfulness of our lives, and the only way that that is addressed is by turning to the One who can save you. And then, when we have been saved, God calls us to join Him on this mission. To share the good news with the world. The context for your brokenness is sin. And the healing and restoration that brings you home is found in Jesus. And so we hear these things. And as Christians, you and I need to realize the context that this world needs for the hurt and the brokenness they are experiencing is the good news of the gospel.

That Jesus is the one who saved you. That Jesus changes how you live. He changes how you live from forgiveness to love to how you deal with family, work, and money that is found in the answers that you seek are in Jesus. That's our message to this world. But there's also a call here that if you're not a Christian, if you're trying to find that context into which your life fits, the way that it only makes sense is through Jesus. We're going to go ahead and have a word of prayer and then we're going to sing together. Father in heaven, thank you for grace and for Jesus. Just be with us as we consider the gospel. That it would not just simply be an intellectual or emotional thing, but that you would drive it deep into our hearts,

that you would put it deep into our minds, and that you would let it flow out in our hands. That this week as we encounter discouragement, you would remind us the gospel. And as we encounter those who are hurting and discouraged that you would bring that love that you have shown in us out of our life and into theirs that you would help us as we fight sin that we would see your goodness and your grace and you would strengthen us through your spirit to fight sin and to stand for righteousness and that you would help see that it's not us who have achieved anything but you may we join you on mission to share the good news of Jesus and the world in which we live. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

We're going to stand and sing 10,000 Reasons. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. oh my soul worship his holy name sin like never before oh my soul i worship your holy name

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning, it's time to sing your song again. Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening dawns. Bless the Lord, O my soul O my soul Worship His holy name Sin like never before O my soul I'll worship Your holy name you're rich in love and you're slow to end up your name is great and your heart is kind For all your goodness I will keep on singing Ten thousand reasons for my heart to apply Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul Worship His holy name Sin like never before Oh my soul I'll worship Your holy name And on that day When my strength is failing, the end draws me And my time has come Still my soul will sing your praise unending Ten thousand years and then forevermore

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul, Worship His holy name. Sing like never before, O my soul, I'll worship Your holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul, worship His holy name. Sin like never before, oh my soul, I'll worship Your holy, yes I will worship Your holy. I want to thank you all for joining us this morning. We'll be back Wednesday night. We have been moving through the book of James. I think we're on, finished up chapter four, so we're moving into chapter five this Wednesday. If you would like to watch the video sessions that we have been going through together, the email we sent out yesterday has the link, but you can also let me know, and I can just text you the link. And it's just a playlist.

You can click through. You can start at number one or click over to whichever one you would like to watch, but those are available for you to watch as well. Also, after we have our closing prayer and sing the doxology, are we going to grab any kids? We're going to gather them in this front area. We have a couple things we're going to do with them. So send the little people to that area. So we're going to go ahead and pray. I'll read a Scripture and we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for how you love us and how you have saved us. Help us to not just simply know this, but help us to live it. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In Romans 15, Paul said this,

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm going to go. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, you know, you're actually... You're actually... You're like... You're not a little broken. You're not a broken. You're not a broken. You're not a broken. I can't get them from a car police. Because I think it's true. You're not a broken child. I have my own hell of a year now. I mean, so the safe girl is hot. In Southern States, did somebody emerge? - We're lucky to see that. - We don't have to do that. - We don't have to do that. - We don't have to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I know.

Yeah, if you have me get them things out, you'd rather watch that thing I want to get it off of that thing in line. I've got to find out. If I go back, if I take Tommy, I can get it back on mine. They can send a good picture on me. - The monster, you never forget things. Yeah.

I'm going to go to the next slide. I got to walk in and get some stuff done. There's none of that thing where they have to do. You know, you got to get 100% of the work. You got to get 100% of the work. They need to get out of the work. I mean, it's going to be in the work. Yeah. So that way, then I can get out of the work. I'm going to get out of the work. I'm just thinking about it's a lot of work. I'm coming down, George. Are you ready? Oh, yeah. I'm going to get out of the way. I'm going to get out of the way. - Oh yeah.

I don't want to take a little bit of time. Eventually, I don't want to get out of it. I don't want to get out of it. I don't want to get out of it. I don't want to get out of it. talking about. Oh, hey, we're going to Austin for you. Thank you. Thank you. .

We get $200,000 out of the house and $330,000. This is the last one. I'm just going to spend it here for like three or four months. - I love it. - I love it. All right. Why are you like the same thing as the rock? I don't know. .

And uh, so she wrote a song and sang the song, "Hey, they're really over to, now I'm gonna treat you like this. Just uh, so, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm pretty proud, I think this is going to be my show. And it's really like in 2019, but it's very close to you. I don't know how to do a dream up there. I don't know how to do a dream up there. I don't know how to do a dream up there. Thank you. Thank you. What do you got?

Today, I ate the ice cream. I guess that's why we're not like this thing. I think where it's like, I really overestimated it. I don't know, I think I had on my mind for a hundred and a hundred, and a dollar or a hundred, and then you probably got the $8 that you knew, and you know, you know, we're going to rip everything out, because, yeah, so we're pretty close. We just hit a minute. Yeah. It was last number I saw. Yeah, so we're getting close. The big thing now is the logistics of... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.