The Power We All Need

The following is a lightly edited transcript provided by a transcription service. Please check the video before quoting.

David Platt at TGC23

So if you have a Bible, and I hope you or somebody around you do that you can look on with, let me invite you to open with me to Hebrews chapter 13, Hebrews chapter 13.

I love God’s word so much and I love how this conference has been a journey through it specifically through the book of Hebrews I’m pretty confident that your head and hearts are already full, which makes me really hesitant because well, when I was given Hebrews 13, one through 21 as my text, I didn’t realize I could just choose a few verses.

So I’ve planned a sermon to the whole thing and I’m going to go ahead and warn you it’s not a three-point sermon and it’s not a five-point sermon or a 10-point sermon. I have 25 points that I want to cover.

In a matter of a few minutes, you can have lunch. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to put, and no, I’m not joking, so you’re like you serious? So I’m going to put these points up on the screen along with the scripture if it would help you follow along, but I hope it will help us get a sense of how the author of Hebrews ends this book with just a litany of instructions and exhortations and declarations and ultimately a benediction.

So let’s dive right in. I’m going to put a sentence on the screen to set the stage for this journey through Hebrews chapter 13. So here it is. There is an adversary who wants to destroy your intimacy with Jesus and divert you to a mission in the world.

Christ’s Supremacy

So if I could just speak as best as I can, face-to-face with you in this room watching online, there is an adversary who wants to destroy your intimacy with Jesus and divert you from his mission in the world, much like it’s been said in different ways at different points.

This week I believe this is why we have the book of Hebrews, the authors writing to men and women in the first century, most of them with Jewish backgrounds who were tempted to settle for religious activity, devoid of relational intimacy with Jesus as savior and sympathizer and intercessor and mediator, the superior sacrifice, an anointed son who radiates the glory of God.

They were missing him and they were tempted to retreat from the mission he had given them in the world to make disciples of all the nations, particularly when that would mean leaving the safe, comfortable Judaism to risk their lives for the spread of Christ’s supremacy to the ends of the earth.

Intimacy with Jesus

And our situation may be different in many ways today, but mark it down brothers and sisters, there is an adversary who wants you, me to settle for religious activity, devoid of relational intimacy with Jesus.

There is an adversary who wants to rob you and me of the joy and the wonder of walking with and worshiping Jesus as savior and sympathizer and faithful intercessor and he wants to sideline you and me on mission.

There’s an adversary who wants to beat you down to so discourage your heart to so distract your mind that you retreat from the most important mission in the world and God inspires this book to give his people a glimpse of Jesus and all of his beauty and to call this people to spend their lives spreading his supremacy to the ends of the earth. That’s what I’m convinced the last chapter of Hebrews is all about.

God Instructs Us

So coming straight out of Hebrews 1228 through 29, which we have meditated on, we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken, so let’s worship him with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire.

And so coming from this, the kingdom that can’t be shaken, worshiping with him with reverence and awe, our God who’s a consuming fire, God gives us a list of instructions and exhortation, declarations and this benediction that combine together to say don’t hold back, don’t hold back. Love Jesus with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.

Don’t try to manufacture a heart for ministry pastors and church leaders and miss a heart for Jesus, love him and live for the spread of his love in the world. So 20, 25 ways to do that. Here we go. Number one, God says to his people who are tempted to miss intimacy with Jesus and his mission in the world to start here, love the church like your family, love the church like your family.

Brotherly Love

Let brotherly love continue. You need each other. God says, don’t turn on each other. Do not turn on each other. The implication seems to be that brotherly and sisterly bonds in the church were becoming frayed and God says Philadelphia, that’s the word there.

Brotherly love for your family doesn’t mean you always agree on everything. I have four kids, we’re in the process of adopting more. There are plenty of different perspectives and disagreements in our house, but we are family and the church is even more family than that, closer family than that, right?

Because our bond lasts forever. What a privilege to be a part of a church. I think our church family in metro DC has over a hundred countries represented in it. Every single week somebody different sends us out with a great commission in a different language and I get to be family with all of them.

Fellowship In Christ

It’s part of what I love about a conference like this, meeting people for the first time in a hall and there’s just instant fellowship in Christ, the kind of fellowship we do not turn from over tertiary or even secondary theological issues. We let brotherly love continue even when it’s hard to do. Love the church like your family.

And number two, love strangers like their angels. God says in verse two, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. And it’s interesting, the word he uses, therefore, strangers is Nia, which is a beautiful way to sound in the original language and looks like Philadelphia in the previous verse.

So the picture shows similar love to strangers, to people in need of a home that you may not even know for. Thereby some have entertained. Angels unawares an allusion to Genesis chapter 18 when three men show up and Abraham and Sarah never could have imagined whose presence they had just been in love.

Love Your Brothers & Sisters in Christ

Strangers like they are surprisingly special guests in your home. Keep going. Number three, love the imprisoned and the persecuted. Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them and those who are mistreated since you also are in the body.

It was easy on that day when a brother or sister was arrested or mistreated for other Christians to keep their distance from them so these other Christians wouldn’t be arrested or mistreated along with them. God says, don’t do it. Don’t avoid your brother or sister. You live like you’re in prison with them. Remember them, care for them.

This is a needed word for us, especially in a place where we’re gathered so freely for worship. Are you, are we continually remembering our brothers and sisters in North Korean prisons like we are with them? Are we praying regularly for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Somalia in Afghanistan?

People Risk Their Lives for God

We told the story the other night of one of our radical workers in Afghanistan. He sneaks out of his village every night and goes to a cave to get a bible that’s hidden there. He brings it back, they read it by candlelight with a few other believers.

Then one of them takes it back to the cave before the sun rises because if they’re caught with a Bible, they’ll immediately be killed. We must identify with this, our family must identify with them, love them, care for them in every way we can, and when we do, I guarantee it will change our perspective on the trials we were walking through during these days.

I love the imprisoned and the persecuted. Now the next expectation is interesting. It almost seems like it’s out of left field, but it’s not. So number four, hold marriage and sex high according to God’s word.

Marriage is of the Highest Honors

Hold marriage and sex high. Let marriage be held in honor among all that the marriage bed is undefiled. A picture of a sexual relationship in marriage for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

So we don’t have time to dive into all the reasons why this ex might come at this point, but I would just suffice to say that this one along with the next one is two clear potent displays of the wisdom of God in his word at the end of this book, calling Christians to persevere in close intimacy with Jesus on a costly mission in the world.

God says, the key to doing both of those things. Intimacy with Jesus and mission in the world is holding marriage and sex high according to God’s word. And we know this, we see this all around us today.

You want to experience intimacy with Jesus, honor your spouse, and treasure your marriage bed so every husband and wife and the room, let’s work to make sure that the pressures of these days don’t cause us in any way to neglect love and cherishing and treasuring our spouse, growing in intimacy with our spouse in a way that we flee or fleeing adultery, fleeing sexual immorality, fleeing pornography.

Do Not Dishonor Your Marriage

If you dishonor marriage, you will destroy your intimacy with Jesus and you will denigrate the picture of the gospel that God is designed to display in the world to the world and a husband’s sacrificial love for his wife and a wife’s respect for her husband.

So married brothers and sisters, let’s treasure intimacy with our spouse as a means of intimacy with Jesus and a means of mission in the world and to all of us single and married. Let’s hold marriage high even when it’s costly in the culture around us.

Hold marriage and sex high according to God’s word and the number five, and hold money and possessions loosely in this world. Keep your life free from the love of money. Isn’t this the wisdom of God? Even for us reading this 2000 years later in a culture of rampant sexual confusion and material obsession, God says the love of money will destroy your love for Jesus.

Money Destroys Intimacy With Jesus

I hear this amidst all the wealth that surrounds us. You can’t serve two either, hate one and love the other, be devoted to one, and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Money love destroys intimacy with Jesus and you can’t take the gospel to the ends of the earth if you spend all of your money on yourself or hoard it for a rainy day.

Now we’re starting to see how countercultural, I’d say radical these commands are, and here’s why you can hold money and possessions loosely in this world. Number six, because you can be content and the presence of God with you. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for. He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

This is so good and needed. Be content with what you have with money and with anything else. Philippians four says in any and every circumstance, right, be content with what you have. For God has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Can I be vulnerable with you?

God’s Presence is Enough

I am guessing I’m not alone, but even if I am, I would say this last year has been a constant fight for contentment in my heart and I’ve had to continually ask, is the presence of God with me enough for me When things feel like they’re falling apart and I don’t know how to fix them, is God’s presence with me enough for me at that moment when the criticisms keep coming, is God’s presence with me enough for me when the false accusations keep spreading?

Is God’s presence with me enough for me when there’s nothing that I can do about a heart-wrenching dynamic in our family? Is God’s presence with me enough for me? Is God’s presence with you enough for you? I don’t want to be content in the presence of God with me no matter what the circumstances are around me.

Be Confident In God’s Helping Hand

And not just content with this presence, but keep going here. I want to be confident in the help of God for me. That’s number seven. Be confident in the help of God for you. One of my favorite verses in this chapter is verse six, so we can confidently say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?

I love this. It’s a quote from Psalm 18 with similar language in places like Psalm 27, and Psalm 56. So in Psalm 56, David talks about how he’s overwhelmed by attacks from others, and three times he uses the phrase all day long.

It’s like he sang one after another. I can’t take a break. It’s one thing after another after another. Do you ever feel like that? Did you feel like that last year? You just can’t get out from under it?

Dealing with Despair

One thing drives you to despair and you’re an attempt to deal with that. You’re actually sometimes just driven into deeper despair or then something else comes up over here that drives you into despair and you’re just thinking, I just want a break, like something good to happen, even just a moment to rest.

That’s David in Psalm 56. He’s overwhelmed, he’s opposed. He writes about people who are trampling on him and attackers who are oppressing him, injuring him, and thinking evil thoughts about him and it’s not a physical attack in that situation as much as it is verbal battles and coordinated plots to harm, David is overwhelmed, opposed and alone and afraid in the middle of it all.

He writes in Psalm 56, 3 when I am afraid and it’s really interesting in the very next verse, Psalm 56 4, David says, what we see here in Hebrews chapter 13, six, he says, what can flesh, what can man do to me? And I read that question and I think well, right man, woman, people can attack and oppose and slander you and ruin your reputation and far worse people can threaten to injure you, people can kill you. It seems like man can do a lot to you,

How Can We Be Confident?

But this is what I love about this verse in Hebrews and these verses in the Psalms, in light of all that man can do to you or me, how can we not fear? How can we not be anxious? How can we not be overwhelmed? How can we be confident?

Here’s how we confidently say the Lord is my helper, the Lord God is my helper. If I were to follow you around at this conference and stand by your side and whenever you needed something, whatever you needed, I would give it to you. I’d be your helper and that is who God is for me.

This hit me at one particular point this last year. I was just meditating on who the Lord is amidst tensions in the church, amidst tensions in our country. And the Lord spoke to me again through those verses we love in Isaiah 40 verses 28 through 31. Don’t you love those verses?

When God’s people were overwhelmed and opposed and weak and afraid and God says, have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn’t grow faint or weary. He gives power to the faint to those who have no might. He increases strength, and use, and grows tired and weary.

Young men fall exhausted, but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, mount up with wings like eagles, run, and not be weary. Walk and not be faint. I’m reading that and thinking I want that and then I start going back before those verses amidst all those tensions and Isaiah 40 says over and over again multiple times, behold your God, behold your God, behold.

It’s like the Bible is saying just look. Isaiah 40 verse 15, I’ll put it up here. Behold the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as dust on the scales. Behold he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

All the nations are nothing before him. They’re accounted for by him as less than nothing and emptiness. And I’m reading that amidst tensions, church tensions in our country and I’m thinking.

God Stay with us Amidst Turmoil

This is my God amidst turmoil in my country. The nations are like a drop from a bucket. So here’s a bucket, here’s a dropper. I just want to give you a picture of the nations before our God-ready. Wait for it.

The nations of the world in my God’s hands, all the nations, all the rulers wipe that off or they are accounted as the dust on the scale. So I got a scale up here, scale, and let’s just imagine this book is full of dust. Maybe it’s because my dissertation has been read by no one, absolutely no one up high aside from the three people that I paid to read it in order to, I didn’t pay them to give me. I mean you can get the point.

They work for the school so full of dust. So I’m just going to blow the dust onto the scale and see if the effect does nothing. I think it went backward for some reason. Behold the nations before our God. Behold, lay open your eyes, David, look at with new eyes, with a new perspective.

Then you keep going. Isaiah 40 verse 25, Tom, will you compare me that I should be like him says the holy one. Lift up your eyes and see who created these, who brings out their number, calling them all by name, talking about the stars by the greatness of his might because he’s strong in power. Not one is missing.

Behold Our God

Behold your God. Think about the last time I was in the middle of unreached villages in the Himalayas. One of the guys I was with took this picture of the stars. That was our view one night. Then one night he did one of those time-lapse things.

Watch this. So this was our view and here’s what it was all throughout the night. Did you see that one? I’m going to circle it here. I got to show you this. Alright, so it’s going to be watched on the bottom right, what happened in the middle of the night there?

Okay, here we go. Right on there. Just like smoke. Who did that? My God did that. He did it. This was that moment frozen. Isaiah 40 says, my God brings out these stars one by one and calls them each by name. Are you serious Bob? There’s Mary.

God Loves All Nations

Oh, there is Z 1, 4, 3, 6, 9. I dunno what their names are, but God does and this God who holds the nations in his hand, they’re like dust on the scales before him. He brings out the star host one by one and he calls the mech by name. This God says to me and he says to you, fear not I am with you.

Do not be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. I am the Lord your God. I hold your hand. He’s holding your hand. Praise this God.

He’s holding your hand all year long this next year, whatever may come, he holds your hand. He says, I am not. I’m the one who helps you fear not indeed. What can man do to me? What can man do to me when God is my defender? What can man do to me when this God is my provider? What can man do to me when this God is my friend and my father?

God is Our Friend

Lord is my helper. So I will not fear What man can do to me? Can I just speak that word over you, brother, or sister, in Christ, wherever you are amidst whatever you’re walking through, God is your defender. Receive that God is your provider. God is your friend. God is what we’re talking about.

God is your friend. God is your Father who loves you as his son or daughter. The Lord is your helper. So be confident in the help of God for you. So number eight, I got to pick up the pace. We’re going to start to speed it up after this next one.

So number eight, imitate those who proclaim the word and finish the race. Imitate those who proclaim the word and finish the race. Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you, the word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

God’s Word Will Always Hold Its Weight

This is so good. Most commentators believe this is a reference. The leaders in the church who taught God’s word held fast to it all the way to the end. They faithfully finished the race, they have died and God is saying you won’t experience intimacy with Jesus.

Follow him on a mission in the world. You need to remember, don’t forget, you need to think about men and women whose faith carried them all the way to the end. I think about an older brother and close friend of mine in the faith, Jonathan B., we served alongside each other as pastors in the church.

Spreading the Gospel in Afghanistan

This brother taught me more about the mission in God’s word than anyone else in my life. Jonathan spent years of his life spreading the gospel in countries like Afghanistan.

Then one day they found a tumor on his brain and they did surgeries over time, but his condition eventually worsened and I was overseas on a trip flying back in when I got word that he wasn’t doing well. So I switched connecting flights.

Once I got back to the States, flew to Birmingham where he lived, and went to his house, to see his wife Carla and their three amazing kids. And I went into his room and I just got to sit by Jonathan’s bedside and talk with him for about three hours late into the night.

He whispered most of the time. It took tons of energy just for him to have a conversation. But we reminisced, we laughed, we cried, we prayed. We talked about God’s word and family and mission. And there was one point when I had to step out so that the people from palliative care could come talk to him and he could sign some papers saying that they could basically let him die.

And I came back in while they were setting up a bed for him and his room to die on and he just looked at me and he whispered, he said, David, God is good. He said God is good.

God is Good

He told me about calling his three kids in the room earlier in the day when they were 14, 12, and nine, and explained to them what it means to bring in hospice for their dad. But he looked at his kids who were now crying with him and he said, kids, God is good.

And a few weeks after that, Jonathan went to be with the Lord and it’s good. It’s good on hard days when you’re tired, when you’re waning in intimacy with Jesus or you’re tempted to throw in the towel. It’s good to remember the Jonathans, it’s good to remember their love for Jesus, and their devotion to mission all the way to their death, and say, I want to imitate their faith. I don’t want to shrink back. I want to hold fast all the way to the end.

It’s a Cloud of witnesses. Remember the Jonathan’s in your life. Think about them often. Knowing that number nine, we cling to the one who rules the world and conquers the grave. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So brothers and sisters, people, even people we love come and go and people change in so many ways, but not him, not our savior, not our king. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever the same. Jesus who died on the cross and love for us is the same Jesus who rose from the grave, the same Jesus who ascended to the Father’s right hand, where right now he is interceding for you and me with all authority in heaven and earth. The one with all authority in heaven and on earth lives to intercede for you.

The Lord Conquers the Grave

So clinging to the one who rules the world and conquers the grave. I should mention I wasn’t in Birmingham when Jonathan went to be with the Lord, but I quickly heard the story of how he was surrounded by Carla and their kids and close family and friends, brothers, and sisters in Christ.

One of those friends called me immediately afterward and told me they were gathered around his bed. They’re praying, they’re reading scripture singing and they could tell he was getting close and they sang because he lives and they got to that last verse and then one day I’ll cross the river, I’ll fight life’s final war with pain and then his death gives way to victory. I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know he reigns. They sang that last chorus and Jonathan breathed his last breath.

How do We Remain Faithful?

That’s how to remain faithful to the end. The intimacy with Jesus on a mission in the world, you clinging to those who rule the world and conquering the grave. Number 10, feast every day, especially on the hardest days at the table of his grace verses nine and 10, don’t be let away by diverse and strange teachings.

For it’s good for the hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by foods which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

There’s so much here but just get this phrase. It is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. Oh, don’t you want that? Don’t you want a strong heart? How do you have a strong heart these days? During any day, how do you have a strong heart? You feast at the table of grace.

We Make Sacrifices

You don’t go to the old covenant sacrifices. The author here is saying you have a new altar, you have a new table at which to feast this table of grace that will strengthen your soul. So brothers and sisters, every day and especially on the heart of days when our hearts and minds and bodies are most weak, you and I have been invited to feast at the table of God to have our hearts strengthened personally by his grace. Is that not awesome?

I can think of so many mornings after long days this last year when I woke up, went into my room, closed the door, opened the word, began journaling in prayer and a meal full of grace was just waiting to strengthen my heart. God is so good. It’s a feast every day, especially on the hardest days at the table of his grace.

The Holy Places

Then go everywhere. Number 11, especially the hardest places for the spread of the gospel for the bodies. Verse 11 says that those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priests, the sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate. So this is the second time we see it used. S

see it in the second order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured outside the camp. This phrase refers to the dirty, the despised and the dangerous places. Based on all the pictures we’ve seen in the Old Testament, the author of Hebrews couldn’t be any clearer. You cannot follow Jesus and stay in the safe, comfortable confines of Judaism. You want intimacy with Jesus, you go with him into hard places for the spread of this grace.

Spreading the Gospel

So brothers and sisters, let’s do this. Let’s go everywhere with him, especially to the hardest places, knowing there are over 3 billion people and over 7,000 people, groups who have little to no access to this gospel of grace right now, we must go to them as the church. That’s where Jesus is.

He’s commissioned us to make disciples not just of some people groups, not just right around us, of all the people groups and all the nations. We must go knowing that unreached people groups are hard and difficult and dangerous to reach in countries like Afghanistan Yemen Pakistan Syria or Sudan.

But we cannot shrink back pastors, and church leaders, press on and persevere. Don’t throw in the towel. There are still 3 billion people who haven’t even heard his name. This is not the time to retreat. This is the time for resolve to go to sin from our churches and to work together to reach every nation particularly the hardest nations with the gospel.

The Stratus Strategy

Just this last week in an event here at TTC, radical launched a new tool and we’re diving into it even deeper next week, but working on it for a couple of years called Stratus Strategy for unreached synergy.

Just highlighting the countries of the world where the greatest spiritual, spiritual, and physical needs are and saying what barriers do we have to overcome in order to get the gospel to these places? This is not just for a few missionaries to figure out, this is for the church of Jesus Christ to do.

Jesus is in these places. He died to purchase people for God from every nation, tribe, people, and language. So the question is, are we going to stay in the safe, comfortable confines of our church buildings?

Are we going to go outside the camp with Jesus to all the nations, especially the hardest ones for the spread of his grace and mercy to those who haven’t even heard his name, knowing that reproach and suffering will come but never forgetting?

This World is Not Your Home

Number 12, never forget this world is not your home. We will gladly bear the approach of reproach he endured into verse 13. For here we have no lasting city. Verse 14, we seek the city that is to come my kids. It is time to stop caring about the good of our nation more than we care about getting the gospel to other nations.

We are not ultimately living for the preservation of our country. We are living for the promise of another country. This world is not our home.

We have been commissioned to take the gospel to every tribe and tongue and people in advance of the day when every tribe and tongue and people will gather around his throne and sing his phrases. This is what we live for. Never forget this world is not our home. So number 13, praise God continually with your lips in this world.

We Must Sacrifice to God

Verse 15 through him, then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Yes. Now we’re talking about a new covenant sacrifice, continually praising God with our lips in our worship and in our witness proclaiming his name, the number 14, do good selflessly in your life.

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices. Here’s another picture of sacrifice. What’s the sacrifice here? Sacrifice for our lips. Verse before this. Now the sacrifice of our lives selflessly sharing what we have, which then leads to verse 17. And I know I’m speaking primarily to pastors and church leaders today, so I’m going to actually flip this around and exhort us with what God is saying to leaders through this text. So number 15, humbly keep watch over other souls. Obey your leaders.

We Must Care for Our Souls

Submit to them what they’re keeping. Watch over your souls as those who will have to give a pastor to church leaders even when it’s hard. Let’s humbly care for whatever souls God entrusts to us. And as we keep watch over other souls. Number 16 daily, fight for joy in your own soul. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning.

For that would be of no advantage to you. The implications here are clear. God intends for leaders in the church to lead with joy. Yet leaders in the church are prone to groan under the weight of leadership, particularly on hard days.

But this is why we must fight for joy in our lives because it would be no advantage to the people we lead if we don’t lead them with joy. Their advantage, their growth in Christ hinges on in part our joy in Christ.

So in the pressures of leadership in the church that threaten to steal our joy, we must fight to live with that joy and lead with that joy so that others as they face pressures in their lives, how will they experience joy if they don’t see that joy that supersedes circumstances in us?

Your Soul is Happy With God

This is why George Mueller said the first and great primary, the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in God.

The first thing to be concerned about is not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state and how my inner man might be nourished.

I received a message recently from a member of our church after a particularly challenging day in the church and he said to me, pastor, keep it up and don’t be discouraged. We need you now more than ever to keep us focused on Christ and the gospel not distracted by the turmoil around us.

And then he said this and it struck me to the core. He said, please lead us by not letting the enemy rob you or us of the joy we have in Christ.

Fight for Joy

He was asking me, pastor, please, please fight for joy. Don’t let the adversary rob you of it and don’t let the adversary rob us of it as we follow your leadership. So God help us. It’s a fight many times. Help us to daily fight for joy in our own souls as we lead those in the church to do the same. Number 17, act honorably with a clear conscience.

Pray for us for we assure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably and all things. So God helps us to act honorably. God helps us to honor everyone in everything with our thoughts, with our words, particularly our words behind the scenes about others with our posts in front of the scenes to or about others, and everything.

Help us to honor everyone with a clear conscience before God and before brothers and sisters in Christ and before our watching world act honorably with a clear conscience. Number 18, pray earnestly for coming. Restoration. I urge you more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you sooner, oh, the author here is looking forward to the day when they’re restored to one another.

We Follow Jesus

Don’t we all long for restoration in different ways across the church as we follow Jesus together on a mission in the world? So pray earnestly for that. Don’t stop praying for that knowing that day is coming, which leads right into one of the most beautiful benedictions in all the Bible. So I’ll read it and then I’ll list out these final ex expectations.

Now, may the God of peace who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do. His will working in us, that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Just think about what the author’s praying for them here. It’s so beautiful. He’s praying that they would number 19, receive God’s other worldly peace.

The Peace of God is Yours to Receive

What Jesus said in John 14, my peace I give you, receive it, I give it to you. The peace of God is not yours to earn. The peace of God is yours to receive every moment of every day and every circumstance. He says I give you my peace. Receive God’s otherworldly peace. Number 20, rejoice in God’s death-defying power.

Again, think about it. The one who brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead. He’s your helper. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives in you pastor that power lives in you, lives in you. Mom lives with you. Single brother or sister lives in you amidst whatever you are going through, you have death-defying power inside of you. So number 21, follow God’s shepherd-like leadership. He’s the good, Jesus is the good, the great shepherd who leads and guides and provides and lays down his life for you, his sheep.

And he’ll do this all the way to the end. Revelation seven makes clear he will quench your thirst and satisfy your soul on that day when we gather with every nation, tribe, and tongue. And he will wipe every tear from your eyes as your shepherd.

So follow God’s shepherd-like leadership. Don’t go astray. Follow his leadership in your life as your number 22, and lean on God’s never-ending faithfulness to you. God has made an everlasting blood-bought covenant with you that nothing in this world can shake.

So learn every single day. Learn every single moment in the middle of that meeting when you get that email, whatever’s happening, lean on God’s never-ending faithfulness to you. Number 23, trust in God’s supernatural work in you.

God promises to supernaturally equip you with everything you need to be the man, the woman, the husband, the wife, the dad, the grandparent, the pastor, the church leader, the worker, the student, whoever you are, whatever you do, the supernatural spirit of God lives in you to help you, equip you to accomplish his goodwill for you.

So trust in his supernatural work inside of you as you. Number 24, live for God’s pleasure no matter what it costs. I love this phrase, God is working for us. That which is pleasing in his sight,

God’s Grace is Always in You

My brothers and sisters, when it’s all said and done when these difficult days have come and gone, you may not be able to say that you did everything perfectly and you won’t be able to say that you pleased every person or group of people.

But don’t you want it to be said that by God’s grace in you, you lived to please him no matter what that means for you, no matter what that means for your reputation, no matter what that means for your future, anything live for God’s pleasure no matter what it costs?

And as you do. Number 25, look to God’s son knowing he is your reward. All of this, all of it, all of it through and for Jesus Christ to whom belongings glory forever and ever. Keep your eyes on God’s son knowing he’s your reward. Can I close with a story?

My favorite sport is baseball. I played baseball growing up and was on the high school baseball team, which may cause you to think that I was good at baseball, but our team was just really bad.

And so that’s part of why I was a starter on the team. In my senior year, we didn’t win many games at all. In fact, I remember one particular game, it was near the end of the season, we had not won a game at that point and we were playing another team that was also really, really, really bad. And so it was a close game between two bad baseball teams and it was tight all throughout.

An Analogy: Baseball

He got to the last inning and we were the home team. So the batting game was tied up. We kept them from scoring, which meant we were running off the field in the bottom of the last inning with a chance to win the game.

And our coach meets us out in front of the dugout. He would always do this when he wanted us to give him a pep talk, an important moment, never worked. But he met us out there and he said, listen guys, he said, we’ve actually got a chance to win a game.

And he said this is the bottom of the last inning. If we don’t do it here, we’re going to go into extra innings and what’s probably going to happen, we’re all like we’ll lose. He’s like, that’s right, we’ll lose.

This is our chance. So he said, here’s the plan. He pointed his finger in my face. He said, David, you’re up first. He said we need you to get to first base. Once you get to first, we’re going to steal you over to second. Then once you’re on second, all we need is one hit you round. Third, come home, we win the game.

I’m thinking, yeah, right, we win the game. That doesn’t happen, coach. And it’s dependent on me getting to first base also does not happen. So all the other guys were like, this is it. Come on David, you got to do this. So they start cheering me on. I go into the dugout nervous as can be. I grab a how and I grab a bat. I start walking out.

They’re like, come on David, just get to first. Get to first. So I walk up there and I’m praying and I know God, I know you love everyone in this field, but would you use this moment for their sanctification? And I just pray you’re not going to get to first base. So I step up into the batter’s box and by the grace of almighty God, I draw a walk. So

Run with The Lord

The Lord saw to it that I wouldn’t even get to swing because he knew what would happen if I did. So I get four miles, I go walking down the first phase, I get to the first phase, I look over to the third base coach and he is giving me the steel sign. I like the walking thing better. Now I have to actually run.

So I take my lead off first base pitcher, wines and he throws, I turn and I start breaking toward second base, running as hard as I can. And I get about five feet away and I start this beautiful headfirst slide in the second place and the guy catches the ball and he tags me. What do you think? Safer out? Who’s out over there? I got wheels, man.

So besides the story would be horrible if it ended at that point. So anyway, I was safe. I was safe. So I’ve won second base, I’ve done my job, I’m in second base. Now the next guy up to bat strikes out at the big loser who didn’t walk like I did.

So now we got one out. And if you know anything about baseball, if it’s going to happen, this is what it needs to happen. If they get a second out, they don’t have to worry about me as much. They’re just focused on that runner. So this is when it needs to happen.

So I take my lead off the second base pitcher, whines and throws the guy, and hits the ball in between the third baseman and the shortstop. And I turn and I watch the ball go in front of me into left field. And I start running toward third base.

And as I’m running toward third base, I look up and I see the third base coach and does anybody know what he’s doing? He’s doing this all the way down the line faster than I could ever run. And I’m like, coach, why don’t you do this? So he’s like, come on, come on.

The Joy in Sports

And so I thought to myself, alright, touch third base touch, third base. And then I looked up and about 90 feet away from me, I saw a dude who’s much bigger than I am, wearing all kinds of equipment, throwing off his mask, standing over that plate just waiting for me. And I decided on a side. This is my moment.

I start running as hard as I can just to watch a movie. All the guys are out of the dugout cheering me on, jumping up and down. All the fans are going nuts. There are only two people there, but they’re going nuts. I’m telling you, we were bad. Not even our parents would come to watch us play. We were so bad. So anyway, I’m running as hard as I can.

I get again a few feet away from home plate and I start this headfirst slide it was a movie like I dove and my hand brushes past the plate as the catcher catches the ball, puts it on my arm and we look up in the dust at the umpire and he yells, I’m not going to ask you what you think. He yells safe. Safe. The guys go nuts. They come running out of the dugout, they jump on top of me. You’d think we’d won the World Series, we’d won a game. But it was one of the best, actually, it was the only glorious moment in my entire sports career.

Pure Joy

And there was pure joy reliving it with you. So lemme ask you a question though. Lemme ask you a question. What would you think of me as a baseball player if when I was rounding third base, I thought I’m kind of hungry right now, I could use a hot dog and I just went running over to the concession stand instead?

Or what would you think of me if as I was rounding third base I were to look up and see over in the stands? Maybe some cute girls come to watch us play or to think, huh, she looks better than he does. So I just go running over to her and start a conversation about my amazing walk or whatever.

Or what would you think of me if when I’m rounding third base, I look up and I see the coach passionately going down the line? And I think I’ve not really talked a lot with a coach recently, and I just stopped, put my arm around, and was like, calm down bro. How are you? It’s your wife and your kids. You think, well of course you can’t win a game.

The Advisers to Intimacy with Jesus

Why? Because when it comes down to what is most important, keeping your eyes on where you’re going, you get distracted, and let something divert you. So I’m looking at a room full of people, others online who are running the race of life and ministry on hard days. And I know there is an adversary who wants to destroy your intimacy with Jesus.

\He wants you to miss it, totally miss him. He wants you to fall on your face on the third base line, or at the very least, he wants you on the sidelines, out of the game, diverted from mission in a world that desperately needs what only he can give.

So I just want to exhort you in a fresh way today to fix your eyes on the sun of God, your reward, your savior, your sympathizer, your intercessor, your great high priest who covers over all your sins, and the great shepherd who oversees your soul.

And to say, I want intimacy with you more than ever. And if all these things crashing down around me bring me closer to you, then may it be so. You are the goal. I want you. I want you and I want to spend my life on a mission for your glory in this world, even when it’s hard and even when it’s discouraging.

I want to keep running the race that you’ve called me to by your grace until the day when I see your face and I fall at your feet and I enjoy and exalt you and all of your glory forever and ever and ever. I just want to call you to keep running with your eyes fixed on him.

Pray that We Are Stronger Together

So Would you stand with me? I want to pray and then let this prayer lead us into song together where we worship and we say together Jesus, we want you to be exalted, us gracious and glorious and worthy. And these days we’re in, we want you to be lifted high in our lives. We want you to be lifted high in the world. So, God, we pray in awe of your grace toward us and all of the fact that we’re talking to you right now, the Lord who holds the nations in your hand and

Call the stars by name. And you’re listening to us right now and you’re inhabiting our praise right now and you’re speaking to each of our hearts right now and you’re comforting us and encouraging us. We just thank you.

Thank you for helping us. We praise you as our helper and we want to respond to you now in song. And we want to say the theme of this conference, Jesus is greater. We want to say we want Jesus to be lifted high in our lives.

Jesus, we want you to be lifted high in our churches. We want the name of Jesus to be lifted high, our country and the world among the nations, among every tribe and tongue and people. May the name of Jesus be lifted high and we in a fresh way today, just lay our lives down before you and we say, use our lives toward that end.

Use us to cause your name to be lifted high as we enjoy intimacy with you every step of the way. God, may it be so. I pray this over every single brother and sister listening right now over my own life.