The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Pastor Ryan Kwon

Episode Date: October 24, 2021

It's so good to see you. Will you please have a seat? Stop embarrassing me. I mean, every time I come to this church, there's something here that I don't experience anywhere else. I seriously feel like your compassion child. I feel like you sponsored me. I'm serious, man.

I can't believe, would you believe, and this is not scripted, this is not in my notes, but would you believe that this week I spent my time in Jacksonville four separate times? I was at a restaurant eating and my tab was paid for. And I was just wondering, am I that different? I mean, is it the tight pants? Is it the crowned hair? Is it the eyes? What is it?

You know what it is? It is the affection and love of your church to me that is so undeserving. expression of God's grace to my life every time I come here. I'm so loved and appreciated it. I'm so grateful to be here to see you and to bring you God's word today. So thank you for receiving me. Thank you for inviting me today. Yeah.

Listen, in speaking of appreciation, I just want, and I hope that you are appreciating your pastors. It's Pastor Appreciation Month. If you have no idea what to do, I want to just encourage you to do three things. Number one, pray for them. Pray earnestly every single day for them. They're going through and they're doing things that you would not know of. They're enduring battles and they're going through hardships and loving you throughout. Secondly, write a note to them.

Send it to the church. Write them not just, I appreciate you, but something that God has done through them to you. And third, a great gift for pastors is a gift card to just say, hey, I want another night. I want you to have another night with your family. And that's one of the greatest gifts that you could give. Above all, if I can mention one more, that surpasses all the other gifts that you could possibly give your pastors. Come to church on time. Come to church on time.

That is the greatest gift for all pastors. Listen, I love your church. I love your leadership. I love your elders for giving Jobi a sabbatical. This guy is the person on the face of this planet that deserve it most, but doesn't want it. And yet he has it now. I believe that a healthier Jobie is a healthier 1122. Amen.

Amen. Hey, listen, today I don't bring you my best sermon, but I bring a sermon that is near and dear to my heart. And so I want to ask a question to you. The question is, what is something that you desperately want to stop doing, but you can't? Now, what's something that she said, I hate this in my life. I don't want to do it. I don't want to sin, and yet I continue to do it in my life. What is that?

For some of you, it's addiction-oriented. It's the alcohol. It's the porn. It is the food, maybe perhaps. Some of you, it's self-control-oriented. Self-control, you can't control your emotions. You can't control your fears. You can't control your thought life.

Even the things that come out of your mouth, you wish you have more self-control. this is the human experience that we struggle with self-control. We have all these unwanted desires in our life, and we hope that it would go away. Wouldn't it be so nice if we could just wave a magic wand over some food, and we stop liking it to have that self-control, that all dessert all of a sudden tastes like Brussels sprouts to us? I mean, wouldn't that be great? Or that, you despise your kids, man.

You look at your kids. I'm going to wave that magic wand, and all of a sudden they're beautiful kids. kids. I mean, wouldn't that be nice? Self-control in all seriousness. Some of you worry and have anxiety in your life and you can't control your thought life. And you're like, man, it wouldn't be great if I had self-control. In fact, this is Paul's prayer and confession to us in Romans chapter 7. He says, I cannot help but to do the very things that I hate. How do we have self-control in our lives? If you have your Bibles that I hope you do, would you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 9? 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and we're going to be studying only five verses today but we're going to dive in deep

and then I pray always that the Holy Spirit will preach a better sermon than the one that you'll be hearing from me today 1 Corinthians chapter 9 starting verse 23 this is the word of the Lord it says I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its blessings do you not know that in the race all runners run but only one receives the prize. So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable read, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified. That is the word of the Lord. Now Paul is talking about self-control, something that we all wish.

we have more of. And here in verse 25, he says, every athlete exercises self-control in all things. In the Greek is panta, ego-cratia. Panta all things, ego is myself, me, self-rule. In all things, self-rule. This is Paul's encouragement to us to have more self-control and then uses many illustrations to illustrate this point. He says in verse 24, runners run to get the prize. He says, verse 25, there are Olympians that aim at the gold medal or the crown. Boxers, therefore, not beat the air, but they actually aim for the chin. This is what they do. And Paul likening himself as an athlete says, I also discipline my body and keep it under control that I might receive the prize. So we're going to ask two questions. First question is,

what is the secret of self-control? And secondly, how do I obtain this? it. How do I get it? So first, what is the secret of self-control? Let me first tell you what it's not. Self-control is not by willpower. It's not by willpower. The world will tell you that self-control is by applying more willpower. In fact, the global brand Nike will tell all of us and wrap their entire company around this one logo, this one phrase, just do it. It's to say that if you're lacking self-control, you just need to press harder and just do it. It doesn't matter what your heart says. It doesn't matter what your emotions say, just do it. Whatever it is, just gut it out more. So let's say I present to you this glorious morning of moist, rich chocolate cake. And you look at it,

and you have to apply self-control. How are you going to do it? Your heart is going to say, I want it, just do it. But your mind will say, well, that's no less than a million calories. So I probably not do it. Right? And so you're going to be in an inner battle within yourselves, and the world will tell you this is what you do. Here's the philosophy. You must apply willpower by what?

Suppressing your emotions towards that chocolate cake. Suppress your emotions, and that is a philosophy called stoicism. It goes way back into the Greek times where they would say that heart is an inferior faculty than the mind, that the mind and the logic is the greatest of all. faculty. And so pay attention to the mind, apply logic, and whatever the heart says, it is a lesser faculty, so you must resist it, you must not listen to it. It's evil, it's bad, the mind is good. That's what they would say. Now, what's interesting about that is that the Bible doesn't say

anything like that, that the mind is greater faculty than your heart. In fact, we are all made in the image of God, and he has given us the mind, the will, and the heart so that we might praise him to see him to glorify him and to be like him. So your emotions are not a lesser faculty than your mind. I mean, in my household, I am the thinker of the house. My wife is the feeler of the house. And we often argue about who has the higher faculty. Now, I want you to judge.

Who has the higher faculty? The reality is neither of us do. They're both incredibly important because if I'm only thinking and not feeling, my wife, she'll say, you're such a robot. And when she is only feeling and not thinking, I say, you're such a drama queen. You see how edifying we are of one another? We have such a healthy marriage, good communication. We just say whatever we mean.

And so, listen, so this is like, not one is better than the other, right? it's a heart and the mind to work together, so not one is better than the other. The Greeks were wrong. So if it is not willpower, if that's not the solution, what is the secret of self-control? Here's the biblical view. It is not the willpower, but according to this passage, self-control comes from joy power. Say joy power. Joy power.

Woo, yeah, joy power. Christians gain self-control by not suppressing one's emotions, but reallocating one's emotion to a higher joy. And that philosophy is called Christian hedonism. Christian hedonism. Paul here says, look at the athletes. It's not like they don't like chocolate cake. They love chocolate cake.

And yet, they allocate their emotion towards that chocolate cake to a greater prize. What is that? What tastes better for the athlete than chocolate cake? It's called gold medal. The gold medal tastes way better than the chocolate cake. So they're able to say no to the chocolate cake. and aim at the gold medal.

It's not that they suppress their emotions, but they reallocate their emotion to a higher prize. This is what's happening there. Let me give you a biblical example of this. In Genesis 29, Jacob actually meets Laban, and he agrees that he's going to work for Laban. Laban is a tough guy, and he has a tough job for him. And yet, Jacob goes into agreement to work for Laban for seven long years.

Why? Because the agreement was, if he does, then at the end of those seven years, he's going to get a prize. That prize was called Rachel. He loved Rachel. And he thought about Rachel. And he worked every single day waking up. It was tedious job. It was hard.

It was bone-breaking work. And yet he worked every single day faithfully showing up to his job. And after those seven years, as he had the rights to his Laban's daughter, Rachel, he said, those seven years seem like just a few days. Now that's fascinating to me. How could those seven years seem just like only a few days? Man, what happened? I mean, it must have been really, really hard waking up every single day,

doing something tedious every day, backbreaking, bone breaking, lip soaring, all this work that he had to do every single day. Was it that Jacob had incredible willpower? No. He had incredible joy power, Rachel. Because every morning he would wake up and say, if I could get Rachel, I could do this no problem every single day. You see, he was aiming at a higher joy. He wasn't suppressing his emotions.

He was actually elevating his emotions to a higher prize. If you didn't get it yet, let me give you a personal example. Some of you now know that I used to be a competitive eater. Right? I mean, I ate hot dog for a living. That's what I did. Okay? So, so I love buffets naturally.

I really do. Here's the thing, 1122, I love you, but you don't know how to work a buffet. Okay, so I feel a great penchant to disciple you right now in Jesus' name. Let me do that. Okay? So every buffet is laid out the same, do you know? And if you want to elevate the buffet game, you have to know. Once you pay up front, every state.

is laid out the same, every single buffet, because what the first station is in every buffet is the salad station. And as you pass by the salad station, you'll see the carb station with the bread and the rolls and the pizzas and the mac and cheese and the potato stations, all that. But what is always in every buffet at the very end of the line, the meat station, the carving station. And the problem with us is that we have no strategy for a buffet. So once we get that empty plate, we just go. And the first thing we see, we pick some up, and we pick some up, we pick some pizza up, we get some mac and cheese. So I like a little salad because, you know,

I'm trying to be healthy at a buffet. Okay, whatever, but you're like pouring food on top of this plate. And after why, you get a collection of what I call nonsense. You have a big pile of nonsense, and you only have a little room for what, the carving station, a sliver of meat. This is what I do. Man, I love salads. I love bread. I love pizza. I love hamburgers and hot dogs, but I pass that up.

And I go straight to the back to the carving station with an empty plate. More, please. More, please. And he'll start stacking it up like a salad. It's like a meat salad. Now you're like, Ryan, my goodness, you have incredible willpower. No, I don't have incredible willpower to pass up all that stuff. I have incredible joy power.

And my joy power is called prime rib. Prime rib. Prime rib is my joy power, right? So what the Bible is saying is that the self-control that we are to have is not just a matter of the will to suppress our emotions, but actually it's the heart to set on a particular beauty that actually puts in order all of our desires. It's joy power. In fact, Thomas Chalmers, a famous Scottish preacher in this famous famous, sermon in the early 1880s. This is what he says. He says, quote, seldom do any of our habits or

flaws disappear by a process of extinction is extinction through reasoning or by force of mental determination. See what he's saying is you can't get rid of bad habits just by willpower. He goes on, but what cannot be destroyed may be dethroned. The only way to dethrone the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one. We only cease to be the slave of one appetite because another one has brought it into subordination. A youth may cease to idolize sensual pleasure like parting all around, but it's because the idol of material gain and career success has gotten the ascendancy. See, he uses an illustration of a young man who loves to party,

who loves to stay late at night with his buddies. But all of a sudden he says, boys, I've got to go home. I got to sleep because I have worked the next day. What happened to him? Was it because he became so mature? Was it because he is applying great self-control? Thomas Chalmers, his argument is to say, no, it's not any of that. It's actually he found a joy in a greater thing than the drink.

You know what that is? It's called money. And that's why he wants to go to work in the morning. That's why he says no to his friends. Because now money, the joy of money, has gotten the ascendancy. That's what he's saying. And so you can't destroy an old affection, but you could certainly dethrone it. And so that is the idea here, joy power.

Now here's the question then. Where should our joy be put in? Where should we put our joy in? And so the answer is found in the context clue in verse 25. Paul says, they do it to receive a perishable read, but we an imperishable. See? This is Paul's way of saying, if you want to have self-control in all areas, your joy has to be set on something.

that lasts forever, imperishable, not perishable. For instance, when you put your highest joy in perishable things, when that crumbles, you crumble. Give you an example. Say your highest joy is career success. You want to climb up the ladder over and over again. Okay, so you apply great self-control by studying, by working really hard to please your boss and do all that stuff.

But what happens when a younger guy comes, who's smarter than you, who's more well? well connected than you, who's more articulate than you, then what happens? All that self-control that you had and being driven to achieve career success, you start losing self-control by being worried and being anxious and being bitter or being angry or boss, whatever it is. And worse yet, you might fall back to some of those coping mechanisms that you've had in dealing with your tank being empty like food and drink and alcohol and whatever.

You see, so in one sense, if it's perishable, in one sense you get self-control only to lose it in another. I'll give you another example. How about beauty? How fleeting is beauty? You apply great self-control to be thin. Man, you work out, you'll only eat food that only rabbits eat. You do all that stuff. Man, great self-discipline.

What happens when you start wrinkling? I mean, how much Botox could you possibly get in a lifetime? Listen, so you can nip it, tuck it, lift it, tan it, tweak it, shape it, suck it, you can do all that stuff. I mean, and your face is stretched so far thin that you start resembling that lizard from the Geico commercials. I mean, that's not a good look. That's just not an awesome look, right? What if your highest joy is on your children? You love your children so much.

What if they leave? Then what? Or what if they start choosing or making decisions that are against your own will? Then what? You see? Here's the principle that Paul is teaching us today. That you are only as stable as the stability of your highest joy. Did you get that?

That you are only stable as the stability of your highest joy. And whatever your highest joy is in, if that's the stability, not stable, when that crumbles, you will crumble. But yet if that highest joy won't crumble, it's immutable, that it is unchanging, then you will stand strong. So, where should we then place our highest joy in, in order to get self-control? How does Paul gain it? Again, the context clue, he says, they do it to receive a perishable price, but we do it to gain an imperishable And immediately when we read that passage, and I think we've read it wrong all these years, we think about heaven.

We know Paul's not talking about heaven as a prize because we already get heaven through grace. Paul preaches the gospel of grace, not the gospel of works. So we don't run hard serving Jesus so that we get heaven. Paul is talking about something else. What is he talking about? He says it right here in verse 23. We missed it. It says, I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I'm going to be.

may share with them in its blessings. He's talking about the joy of the gospel. And he mentions two things here. And so look carefully as we see what Paul's aim is, his highest joy. Number one, he found joy in the gospel. Let me ask you, 1122, do you have gospel joy this morning? Come on. Yeah, about seven of you do. Congratulations. Now, what is the gospel? In 2, Corinth, 3, 3rd. James chapter 5 verse 21, it says, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Now, this is a marvelous, marvelous truth. Let's break this down. The first part it says, he made him who knew no sin. Who is he talking about? That's a very short list, isn't it? He's talking about Jesus. So God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin.

What does it mean for Jesus to be sin? Right. Did he ever see? sin? No, that's blasphemous. He did not sin. In the book of Hebrews, it says he was a lamb without spot or blemish. Then to what extent was he made sin? In one way alone, that on the cross, God treated Jesus as if he had committed every sin, ever committed by every person who would ever believe, even though he didn't commit a single sin. In short, God treated Jesus as if he had lived your life, as if he had lived my life. Now, think about all the sins that you've committed in your life, let alone the sins that you will commit in the future. And God treated Jesus as if he had committed them all. And that's incredibly humbling, the wrath and the justice of God coming

on to Jesus instead of us. But the second part of this verse is just as significant and so much more stunning, in my opinion. Verse 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we, here's the second half, might become the righteousness of God in Him. And the best way I know how to explain this is to simply ask this question. Do you know why Jesus lived 33 years? Do you know why? Have you ever wondered why? Why did Jesus live 33 years? I mean, that's strange, right? That's a little odd question. Why? Because if I was planning it. a salvific plan, if I was planning a way of salvation, I wouldn't extend it to 33 years. I would just take three days.

You know, I would, the father would say, hey, I need you to go and reconcile the sin of my people, so you need to go to earth and die for them. Like, yes, Daddy, I'll do that, but I'm going to take a weekend back. Because it's only going to take three days. You see, I'll go down on the Friday morning, die on the cross on the Friday afternoon, rise up on the Sunday morning, I'll be back. A weekend trip. That's all right.

And in some sense, that's true, right? There isn't any other component in Jesus's life that saves sinners but that weekend. Then the question is, why the 33 years? Why not just the three days? I mean, in fact, why did he endure the last three years of his life? My goodness, where he was sped at, while he was betrayed, while he was mocked by his own creation? I mean, how about the 30 years before that?

The Bible doesn't have much commentary on Jesus, God himself being a little child. I mean, does that fascinate you? God as a baby? God as a child? I mean, did Jesus know calculus when he was two? Did Jesus ever miss a free throw? I don't know, right? Isn't that fascinating?

I mean, you could imagine the household of how it was run. Do you realize why none of Jesus' brothers believed in him? of course we could imagine you know how annoying it would be to have a perfect sibling gross yuck a perfect sibling you could actually see it go down this way right mary she's watching over james doing some dishes and james breaks a plate and she in utter disappointment turns to james once again and says james what would jesus do We thought that was from the 1990s. Uh-uh, it was from the first century.

That was Mary. He said, what would Jesus do? No wonder none of his siblings believed in him. I mean, why the 33 years? Why? Did he extend that life? I'll tell you why. Because when he was approaching his public ministry,

he goes to John first and gets baptized. He looks at John and says, John, you need to baptize me. And John says, no, I need to baptize you. And this is what Jesus says. Jesus says, no, you need to baptize me because I must fulfill all righteousness. And the reason why Jesus had to live 33 years is that one day, that 33 years of the full life of righteousness will be credited onto our account. It will come into us.

And so on the cross, God treated Jesus as if he had lived our lives so that now he could treat us. this morning as if we had lived Jesus's perfect life. And that is immutable. That cannot change. How God feels about you this morning, despite what you do for the rest of your life, will stand forever. Why? Because his love for you this morning is not based on your life,

but it's based on Jesus' life. It's what he lived. Is he what he's done for you? And so you cannot undo that. You see, so if you've never earned it, you could never unearn it. And this is the reality of the gospel. Now, when we stare at that and to see the treasure as is, we're like, man, we'll give our lives to that. If this is true, if what I'm saying is true, then we say, God command me.

Tell me what to do because I'll gladly do it for you. And yet, I know a lot of people in the Bay Area and some here that say, well, that sounds really arrogant to know that you're secure in Jesus, that you're secure in God, that you have a right standing with God. You know it, even though your life is not even finished. How arrogant, they would say, that's so arrogant. That you have a right standing with God even now. A lot of world religion will say to us Christians, Christians who proclaim the doctrine of grace,

man, that is so arrogant. You know what I think is more arrogant? is as if you believe that you could actually contribute to your own salvation. That's arrogant. That's like saying God does great work and yet is incomplete, so you have to finish it with your great work so that you could obtain salvation. I think that is radically, radically arrogant. Instead, when you receive the doctrine of grace and when you see that you're utterly black-hearted,

Isn't that what Jobi says all the time, right? We are blackhearted Christians, right? And that should be a book title. Blackhearted Christians, that's a great book title. I'm sure it's going to sell a lot. True Christians see their assurance and know that we shouldn't have it. And so we're immensely grateful for it. So when you stare at that, it becomes your Rachel.

It becomes your prime rib. It becomes something that you're able to pass up all the other temptations in your life. having self-control so that you could stare at the beautiful gospel and to say, I can't believe this is true of me. I'd be glad to do anything. Whatever you ask, I will do, command me. Thomas Chalmers concludes it this way. He says, the heart's desire for one particular object may be conquered, like money and beauty, but its desire to have some object of absolute love is unconquerable, which is the gospel. It is only when emitted into a number of God's children through faith in Jesus Christ

that the spirit of adoption is then poured out on us. It is then, and only then the heart brought under the mastery of one great predominant affection is delivered from the tyranny of all of its former desires in the only way deliverance is possible. So you must try every possible method of finding this deep access to your hearts for the love of him who is greater than you. the world. This is what we do. Paul finds his joy in the gospel. That's his prize. Here's the second thing he mentions, though. He found joy in sharing the gospel. Verse 23, I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I might share in his blessings. Now, listen, he's not just talking about evangelizing. He's talking about sharing it with the community. And as he shares it, the joy actually

increases. Do you know C.S. Lewis has a great writing on this. He wrote like a little commentary on the Psalms. And this is what he says in reflection of joy, this joy that we're speaking of. He says, quote, I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but actually completes the enjoyment. It is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep telling one another how beautiful they are. The delight is incomplete until it is expressed. Man, isn't this so profound? And it's so true.

It's something that we all inherently know, and we actually inherently do. I mean, what do you do when you find great music? You listen to it, but don't you want to share it to validate it? Like, you watch a great Netflix show. I don't know if you got been caught up with, you know, the squid games or whatever. You know, and people are like, did you watch that? You have to almost share it. You could enjoy it yourself, but it's not complete until you actually share it.

Or how about the Jags, right? When they fire first God, Trevor Lurz, you're like, oh my gosh, we're going to finally have a winning season, yes. And 0 for one, oh for two, oh for three, oh for four, oh for five. A win, yes, we won. And we're going to have now a winning season, right? I mean, did you watch that game? Did you watch that kick?

I mean, we talk about it, right? You could watch it yourself and you could keep that joy in you, but it's not complete, is it, until you share it. And once you're sharing, then it consummates that joy. Same reason why when I bite into a juicy piece of steak and I eat it, the first instinct is to share it with my wife. Not because I'm so giving. Because I want to complete my joy.

This is how it works. I like cut that steak and I'm like, baby, you've got to try the steak. And she's like, well, right? Isn't it amazing? Now it's all mine. Right? I mean, that's how it works. I mean, why would you, if you had a beautiful piece of only six-ounce steak,

share with somebody, you actually get lesser steak that you really enjoy? No, you actually get more of the steak. Why? Because your joy elevates. That's the way it works. Once you share it, once it's ratified, once it is consummated, your joy increases. Here's the problem with us.

Some of us are joy constipated. We are. Can we say that? here? Don't worry. I'm leaving back to California, so don't worry about it. I could say a lot of things. We're joy constipated. We don't share the joy. We think it's to ourselves. Listen, this is the reason why, if you're a part of the online family, come join us physically in all of our campuses. Why? Because once you start hearing other people sing, you see, they're ratifying the very things that you're singing, and the joy actually increases, not decreases. And this is exactly what Paul is

talking about. This is what C.S. Lewis says. Like, wouldn't it be so great out of our lobbies? We go out of this place instead of talking about what we're going to eat for lunch or what we're going to do for the rest of the day, we talk about how glorious the gospel is. That we share that joy and that that gospel joy becomes elevated, elevated, complete, and consummated. That would be wonderful. So if you find joy in the gospel and that joy is shared with others, it starts completing that joy. You have joy power. And once you do, you have immense self-control. Immense self-control.

It's the heart that says, God, I love you so much. I don't ever want to hurt you. I never want to hurt you. And this is why Paul actually closes out this section in verse 27. He says, but I discipline my body and I keep it under control. Why? Less after preaching to others the gospel, I find I myself should not be disqualified. Paul says, I love the gospel so much.

I love sharing the gospel so much. I'll do whatever it takes to not disqualify myself from sharing this gospel with others. So that is the secret of self-control. Now, practically, how do we get it? The very next chapter in 1st Corinthians chapter 10, verse 11, it continues to talk about how we are to obtain self-control. And it goes like this in verse 11.

They were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he, he stands, take heed, let's he fall. No temptation has overtaking you that is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Now here are three things that I want us to notice which we close. First, be in the word. Be in the word. If you want joy, if you want self-control, be in the word. It says here, first thing, it says the things that are

written down. That's talking about scripture. That's talking about the word of God. And if you want joy in God, if you want joy power, you must find it in His Word. You must find joy in God. There's no other way to do that than to be in His Word. Now here's the problem with a lot of us. We have trouble reading God's Word. Why? We say, well, Ryan, I have trouble. To be honest, I just don't like reading. I have trouble being in God's Word. I don't have the discipline. You're saying I don't have the willpower. Maybe that's the problem. You don't apply willpower. You haven't applied joy power.

You haven't stared into the gospel long enough because whatever you end up loving, you end up becoming and being and want to spend time with. In the same way, if you see God's so beautiful and so great and there's an effervescent joy in your heart, then you'll naturally want to spend time with him. So the reality is it's not that you are lacking willpower. You are actually lacking joy power if you're not in the word. Apply joy power, apply your knowledge in the gospel. Here's the second thing.

Be accountable to others. Verse 12 says here, therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. Now this is talking about accountability. It's saying you shouldn't trust yourself, you know, because you can't handle life on your own. We all need each other. We need a community. We need friends. If you think that you could do it all by yourself, you know,

For some of us, we're secretly sinning, and every time we give ourselves this kind of grace to say, I know I could do it. I know I could do it without sharing. I know that I will come out of this. Listen, you by yourself got you into that mess. You're not going to get out of it by yourself either. And so what you need to do is to share lest you fall. You know, there's a thing that we say at Resonate in my church all the time.

We always say, share your last 10%, meaning we tend to share our 90. We tend to keep the 10. Why? You know why. Because if we share the 10, then the 10 is where we'll lose it all. We'll lose our reputation. We'll lose respect.

We'll lose affection. We'll lose even relationships, right? People can't love me. People can't love me. Listen, I want to remind you this of the gospel. When God decided to love you, do you know that he didn't just see the 90% of you? He saw all of you?

He saw all of you. He saw the last 10% of you. And he said, I still love you. I still embrace you. I've seen all of your history. I've seen all of your future. He's the alpha and omega. You don't live outside of it.

You live inside of it. And because he does, he wraps his life. love around us today. Yes. And he says, I still love you. You can't shake my love. I don't care what you do today. You can't shake my love. My grace and my grip of grace is stronger than your grip to sin. You can't shake it. That's what he says. So listen, in the throne room of God's kingdom, who cares what some serfs say if you have the everlasting affection and the everlasting affirmation of an everlasting king. Who cares what people say? You have the affirmation of the king. Yes, you do. You do. Lastly, be aware of his great joy towards you. Be aware of his joy. First Corinthians 1013 says,

if you want to resist all this temptation, if you want self-control, you have to know that God is faithful. Now, you ask, where was God ever faithful? Now, there are a lot of places in the Bible. One of my favorite, which is totally aligned to the passage we're reading is in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. It says, therefore, we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. Let us throw off everything that hinders the sin that so easily entangles us. And let us run the race with perseverance marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. You see, fix your eyes on joy power, the pioneer and the perfect of our faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross who endure such opposition from sinners

so that you will not grow weary and lose heart? See, first it says, if you want to endure and have self-control, you need to stare at Jesus' self-control. You're like, what, Jesus had self-control? Of course he did. I mean, look at the trials that he went through. Look at he was forsaken, he was betrayed,

he knew that he was going to the cross, and he didn't want to. He asked the father to pass the cut from him, but he knew, and yet he remained faithful. And maybe you're saying, well, well, he was faithful because God had immense willpower, right? I mean, after all, he's God. Well, I suppose he did.

But this is not what it says here in Scripture that he used his willpower. What does he say instead in verse 2? It says he used joy power. It says it was for the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross. And there it is, the secret of self. control. It is not applying more willpower, but joy power. I've been saying that the whole time, this whole entire sermon. Jacob didn't apply his willpower, but he applied his joy power towards

Rachel, that I go to the buffets and pass up all these tempting things that I love, only to aim at something that is greater, that is my joy power of prime rib. Now, what is Jesus' joy power? What did he fix his eyes on? I mean, it says, for the joy, he actually endured the cross. What was something that he didn't have before the cross that he wanted? It couldn't have been his father. He already had his father.

It couldn't have been heaven. He already had heaven. What was something before the cross that he only got after? What was Jesus? His Rachel was you. His Rachel was you. He wanted you.

And as he was enduring the cross, he stared at you. at you for the joy that was found in the thought of you being redeemed and being a part of the glorious family of God. That's what he dreamt up, and he thought to himself, if I could see that happen, this cross that I'm about to endure, this justice of God, this holy wrath that is going to be poured out on people, now I'm glad to receive it. It was a glad obedience from the son to the Father. I will receive it in joy in this glory. And if you stare at that, if that becomes your Rachel, if that becomes your prime rib,

and you stare at the glorious joy that he has found in you, then what happens is, then he becomes your joy. And the things of earth. will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. So would you fix your eyes on Jesus because he fixed his eyes on you? Then and only then you will have self-control.

Let's pray. Father, I can't believe that we were the object of your joy. The wrath of the cross was so great. But your love for us was greater. And so we humbly lay ourselves down. We cannot ignore the reality of this gospel that captures our hearts. If there are any hard hearts in this room this morning,

or on all of our campuses or online, I pray that you would break that hardness in Jesus' name. And the tenderness of the gospel will bring us a new, feelings and emotions and thoughts, not so much to repress them, but to elevate them towards something far more beautiful than anything that this world could offer. And as we stare upon you, Jesus, who found us to be your joy, may we gladly receive you, may we gladly do everything for you, and may we gladly say, I'll serve you, whatever you say, because you have served me. me first. We want to declare to you this morning, we love you like crazy. We really, really do. Give us that

heart. Therefore, give us that self-control. We pray in the matchless name of our king, our Savior, and Lord, and all God's people said, amen. Amen.