The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: Greater Works

Episode Date: January 19, 2020

The church is God’s treasure. The church is Jesus’s bride. The church is empowered by God the Holy Spirit.

Amen, amen. Good morning, church. I hope everybody's doing well. I'm Ryan Britt. I'm one of the pastors here and I'm excited to open God's word with us today. Man, praise God for Tyler and leave and the work that's happening in Uganda through the ministry of Ocoa. Praise God for all of our missionaries and all the missionary families who have faithfully followed God's calling their life and they're serving all over the world, planting churches, making disciples, being people who are living on the front lines of the gospel's advancement around the world. This is an exciting time to be a part of the Church of 1122, amen. Amen. We are caught up in something supernatural here. We are caught up in something eternal. We are caught up in what God has been doing for thousands of years through his church. In John chapter 14, Jesus the Christ, and make no mistake about it, as you've heard through song and through word already today, that this thing, the church, the church, that this thing is all about one person. His name is Jesus Christ.

It's just about Jesus. Anytime that the church takes its eyes off, Jesus, bad things happen. Our goal is the Church of 1122 is to make as big a deal as we possibly can about Jesus Christ. And we do that through our jobs and through our marriages and our finances and by putting our yes on the table, which is what this teaching series that we're in is all about, that we're saying yes to God. And we're saying, God, we've said yes to you. You ask us the questions now. We're saying yes to you.

We're putting our yes on the table. God, you put it on the map. Whatever relationships you would call me into, whatever culture you would ask me to step into, whatever country you would have me go to. Father, the answer is yes, because Jesus is worth it. We believe that Jesus was a real person

who lived on this earth 2,000 years ago. And he lived a perfect life, and he was arrested and then crucified. And while he was on mission, living his ministry out here on the earth in John chapter 14, Jesus makes these really audacious claims. These are the things that ultimately led to Jesus being arrested. In John 14, Jesus starts in John 14 as it's recorded and he says this, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. And then a few verses later, Jesus makes the ultimate of ultimate claims when he says, I and the Father are one. Ultimately, what Jesus is saying is, I am God. And to everybody listening to Jesus, this would have been earth-shattering that God would have flesh on, that God would be available to us, that God would be incarnate or present among his people. This Jesus's claim to be God is ultimately what turned the world against him and led to his arrest and crucifixion. And a few verses later, after Jesus claims to be God, side note, he proved he was God when he died on the cross and he rose again three days later. Right? So this whole thing is not about religious practice.

It's not about ritual. It's not about gathering on the weekends. Only, it is about a man who died. And then three days later, he wasn't dead anymore. He rose from the grave. And so the resurrected Christ is at the center of the Christian faith. It is the thing that holds all of this together. This Christ, after he claims to be God, he looks at his disciples and he makes this statement. He says, listen. The Bible records it as truly, truly. That means, listen, listen. Truly, truly, I say to you that you will do even greater things than I did.

That you will do greater things than I did because I have to go to the Father. And the Holy Spirit is going to come to you. And by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the direction of the Lord, God the Father, greater things are going to happen than have even happened in my three years of ministry here. Now, we have the luxury of time where we sit thousands of years later and we actually are an expression of those greater things. Think about it. A Jewish man on the other side of the world, 2,000 years ago, says someday some people are going to gather around in a room and they're going to talk about me and they're going to make much of me.

me and they're going to exalt me and they're going to give testimony to all the things that I've done and all the things that I can do that they are going to stake their lives, not just their life, they're going to stake their eternities on my claims and on my accomplishments, thousands of years later. See, Church, we are currently living in the greater things that Jesus promised. We are living in these greater things. The greater things that Jesus promised is the realities of his church. The church is supernatural.

The church is eternal. And so every weekend when we gather in this place, we were reminded that there are eternal things are eternal and temporary things are temporary. And I need that reminder. I so often can get wrapped up around the axle of 401k's and what's for dinner. And I can miss out on the eternal things of God. You see, these greater things that God has been doing through his church, they haven't come without some serious bumps in the road. They haven't come without some serious opposition. That the church, even though it advances God's kingdom and with God's provision, it has enemies, it has opposition against it.

And the Apostle Paul writes about these opposing forces in Ephesians chapter 6. If you have your notes grab them, it's in there. We're going to read it together. Ephesians chapter 6. Paul writes this. He says, for we, the church, those who follow Jesus Christ, those who have professed him as their Lord, those who are trying to practice the way of the teachings of Jesus in his life, for we, the church.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Maybe that's a reminder we need today. Have you ever been in that place in life where you feel like you're just everywhere you look or everywhere you try, you're pushing boulders uphill? Just things don't seem to make sense. It just can't come together. Your relationships just seemingly don't work. Have you ever been in that place where you find your?

yourself, just very, very frustrated all the time. You got a lot of angst, you got a lot of worry, you can't really quite figure out what's going on. And in the temporary, you were, and in the physical, you were trying everything you know to try to solve these problems. But yet, even with all of your best efforts, you were surrounded by problems with seemingly very little solutions. Maybe, just maybe, it's because the things that are working against you in your life, they're not flesh and blood things. They're not temporary things. They're eternal forces. that are trying to rob God's purposes from your life. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, is what Paul says.

But against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. You ever been in a fight? Anybody here ever been in a fight? Some of y'all are brave and put your hands up. The rest of y'all are like, we're at church. Are we supposed to say?

like the statute of limitations, I don't know. All right. So the Brit family, we got a little bit of a fight going on at the Brit house right now. A little bit of a fight. Started over the Christmas holidays. I'm sitting in my living room late one night. Everybody else has gone to bed and I'm there just meditating on the things of the Lord. I was watching Netflix.

And I hear this like scratching and rummaging around what sounds like. like on my roof and I think, well, that's weird. It sounds like a cat or a raccoon or a squirrel or whatever. It's just like scratching. It doesn't last very long and then it's gone. Don't think much of it. The next night, around the same time, I hear the same thing, the scratching and the rummaging and then it's gone. It's like 10, 15 seconds, and then it's gone. Third night, same thing around the same time. And I thought, well, that's weird. Fourth night, I hear the scratching and the rummaging and it's a bit louder on the fourth night. And then all of a sudden I just hear, bang! And then it goes dead silent.

And I thought, well, whatever it was, just took one for the team. And so that's pretty much over. And the next morning, my family and I, we wake up, we pack our bags, and we head out of town to go spend some time with family. And after a few days, we returned back to our home. And as I opened the door to go into our house, I am nasally assaulted by the stench of death. in putrid rotting flesh. It's just awful. I ain't talking like, it ain't stinks.

It is just stank, like sinus burning, nose hair, singeing, just bad deal. Stinking, right? And my wife, who has the strongest sense of smell of any human I have ever met in the world, which historically hasn't really worked out well for me. So you do what you want with that. But that's it. She can't deal. The smell is just too much.

She can't deal. And she's like, we got to do something about it. And I'm like, well, let me call the expert. So I call my buddy Aston, who is an expert in all things wildlife environment from the pit of hell. And he's like, bro, I'd love to help you out, but I can't. I'm out of town for a couple of days. And I'm like, babe, Aston's out of town, the expert can't come. What do you want me to do?

And she's like, I want you to take care of it. I'm like, I can't. The opening to get back into the crawl space of our attic is about this big. and so I have just predetermined, I'm too big, I can't fit back there. Like, I'm not that flexible. I'm not that versatile. It's just not going to happen. And so my wife, being the saint that she is, she's like, fine, I can't live like this.

She braves up, and sure enough, up into the attic, she goes. She goes into the attic. Husband of the Year Award, thank you. Send all your letters, that's fine. So she goes up into the attic. And sure enough, she's back in there for like a minute. minute, a minute and a half, and then I hear her kind of rummaging around, and all of a sudden I just hear, and she comes flying down out of the attic. I mean, faster than fast. She fast.

She comes down, and she gets down on the ground, and she's just like shaking and doing this number. She's like, nope, nope. I'm like, babe, are you all right? And she's like, nope. And I'm like, what happened? She's like, dead rat. Can't do it. Dead rat. And I'm like, well, babe, at least we know what it is. And she goes, she's like, yeah, now that we know what it is, you're going up there to get it. I'm like, you were just up there. Why don't you just grab it? And she just looks at me. And I've come, I know this look. And so somehow from this look, I miraculously find myself putting on my tennis shoes and heading up into the attic. And so here we go into the attic. And with me, I have a trash bag in this pocket in case I find something. I have a cell phone in this pocket.

in case I need to call the police. I have a flashlight, and I have grill prongs as a weapon. I'm ready. I'm ready. I go up in there. I contort my body like a Cirque de Soleil performer to get through the small passageway, and I get back into the crawl space, and here I am, walking around. I find myself, as a grown man, tiptoeing on the beam in my attic.

I got my flashlight out, and I got my grill prongs, and I look to my left, and there he is. his little devil eyes, just looking at me. And I lean in a little bit and I realized that his head is squashed. Just not squashed, squashed, squashed. I mean, just, this rat is dead. He has found a rat trap and his head has been squashed to the glory of God. And so he's a dead rat.

He's in a trap. So I start making my way over there to him and the craziest thing starts to happen. As I begin to approach this trapped, dead rat, I start to get nervous. I get like anxiety in my stomach. I'm feeling all weird and I'm having crazy thoughts. I'm like, well, what if he's not dead? What if he's just messing around? What if he's going to hop up and bite me?

And that's how the zombie pocket lift starts. Like, what are we going to do? Right? And so I make my way over to him and I'm like, I'm nervous, right? I'm sweating. And I take my grill prongs and I poke him and then I tits him my pants and jump back a little bit. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. But I was scared. I was nervous. I poked him. Confirmation of death was received.

I grab him. I throw him in a trash bag and I'm headed out of the attic. Only to realize that this rat is not what's smelling. Something else is smelling. So sure enough, I make my way through the crawl space all the way back up in there and I find two more dead rats and rat traps. And so from that point and to this point, my friend Aspen, Aston, who is the expert, came back in town and we had been waging war. against these demons from the seventh level. So I think about this experience, and I reflect upon it. And what it reminds me of, and what it makes me think about, is often how we as believers treat spiritual things,

specifically spiritual warfare. That we know, and we've taught and we preach here regularly, that we have a defeated enemy. He is defeated by Jesus Christ, victory on the cross. And that he is trapped. He specifically, in the fullness of time, is dead. God is advancing his kingdom and establishing a new earth that he will bring to this place. And at that time, the enemy will be forever removed from God's people and banished for all of eternity.

We have a defeated enemy. He's trapped. We have the most powerful weapons in the world and the Holy Spirit and God's word. But yet, somehow, when it comes to spiritual realities, when it comes to things of supernatural, We get timid. We get afraid. Instead of getting on the front lines in the battle of Jesus through prayer

and through sharing the gospel and through advancing God's kingdom and going wherever God would have us go, we sink back into what is comfortable. Instead of stepping out on the front lines and making war through prayer and intercession and believing God that he can do miracles still and that there are greater things he's still up to,

somehow, instead of living in the victory of Jesus Christ, we sink back into. the comfortable things of this world. And we think, you know what? We'll just call the experts and let the experts do all the fighting, and we'll stay back here. We'll stay back here. This is what Apostle Paul's talking about in Ephesians chapter 6.

The truth is that the testimony of the Bible is that there is no neutral in the war of the heavenlies. There's no neutral ground. That the Bible is the story of God versus his enemies. And that the enemies of God manifest in three ways throughout Scripture. scripture. Number one is the world. The spirit, the spirit's alive in this world at work against God's purposes. The second is the devil and demons. And the third is the flesh. All three of these enemies of God work together certainly. Their ultimate aim is to steal glory from God and to

steal joy from God's people. This is the mission of the enemies of God. They are at work against God's purposes. They are work against God's plan and they are ultimately glory thieves. They are trying to steal glory from God and to steal joy from God's people. Anywhere, anything, whether it be an ideology or a person, is trying to make itself the center of attention, trying to get glory for itself, then it is operating under a different rule than that of God. This is why church planting and missionary sending teaching series like the one we're in, visions like the one we have for this year for our church, this is why these things are

So important because everywhere in the world, people gather together and they declare the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and they practice together the way of Jesus Christ. Anywhere the preaching and practicing of Jesus Christ is happening, anywhere in the world people gather to do that, they are at a kingdom outpost in enemy territory, taking back for the kingdom of God all that humanity has lost through sin and death. This is the local church. This is the church of Jesus Christ. Right in the middle of this glory war is God's most proposition, which is his church. You see, the church is a supernatural entity purposed for supernatural realities. The church is a redeemed people. It's not first a place we attend on the weekends.

It's a people we belong to. So long before the church is a place that we choose to attend, it is a people that God has called us to belong to. It's supernatural. You see, the bottom line measures of success for the church are completely otherworldly. Everything inside the church doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the context of the dominant culture that we live in.

The church is just different. The church has been saved and redeemed by the merciful work of Jesus Christ. The church has been purposed by God to advance his kingdom around the world to live out the greater things that he has called them to. The Church of Jesus Christ is beautiful. God loves his church. God has plans for his church.

God makes a huge deal about being our dad. So for the rest of our time today, we're just going to talk about God's heart for his church, for me and for you. What God wants, the way God feels about his church, and then what that means for us as we work it out in our lives. If you have your Bibles turned to Matthew 13, chapter 13. Verse 44 is also in your notes. Jesus tells us a parable. A parable is a story with a point.

And Jesus tells us this short parable in Matthew 13. He says this, the kingdom of heaven. Now, what makes a kingdom a kingdom? What does a kingdom need in order to be a kingdom? It needs a king, right? And so the kingdom of heaven, the king is Jesus. And so anywhere Jesus rules and reigns, then the kingdom of heaven is at work. Jesus says this, the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then, and I want you to underline these three words,

in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. We're going to look at this from two perspectives. First, from our perspective. You see, from our perspective, what Jesus is doing is reminding us of the gospel's worth in our lives. He is saying that to have been given faith in Jesus Christ, to have received the gift of faith, to surrender your life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, which is to say that Jesus's way is better, whatever Jesus says is what we ultimately want. To be given the gift of faith, to have found this is to have found the most valuable thing in all the world. It is to have found the highest affection, the most supreme love, to found unconditional acceptance. When we find the most fundamental acceptance, when we find the most most, the highest affection, the most supreme love, to found unconditional acceptance. mind a relationship with Jesus Christ by faith when it's given to us and we receive it,

then we have found the most valuable thing in the world. That is why Jesus says the words, in his joy. He doesn't say in his dutiful obligation. He doesn't say in his moral sense of begrudging submission that the man goes and sells everything. He says, in his joy, he goes and sells everything. Now, that sounds nice, right? In his joy. Who in here would say, I don't want joy in my life. Some of you may be some crudgy old, you know what, but for the rest of us, we want joy. We want to live with joy. It sounds nice to say in his joy. However, my testimony is that I have often found this joy as a struggle. I have often found myself in a fight for joy in my life. I believe that joy is a gift given to us that comes through the means of Jesus, certainly.

I believe it is a gift of God's grace, and it comes with being a child of God and the family of God. Absolutely, I believe that, but I also believe it's something that is cultivated by us. And I can give testimony that more times than I can count and would like to admit that I have found myself in seasons of life where I am ultimately operating joylessly. King David praised this prayer. He says, Restore to me, O God. the joy of my salvation. This fight for joy is something that's real in our lives, even for the most passionate of God lovers.

You see, this struggle to live out joyfully for me. It comes from bad thinking that results in bad living. So often in my life, unhealthy thinking always leads to unhealthy behavior. It just does. And I've had some bad thinking. for many, many, many years. And this bad thinking is rooted in this image that I've had of my relationship with God. And I don't know if I was trained this, or I don't know if I was just taught this,

or somehow I just stumbled upon it. But primarily for years, honestly, for decades, my primary image in my mind of my relationship with God is that I've always seen myself as a tool in God's hand to be used by him. That that is my primary value to God. that I'm a tool to be used by him, however he wants to, wherever he wants to. The problem with this is that it's fundamentally flawed. And what God has been doing in my life, by his grace,

peeling back layer by layer by layer of bad thinking, what he has been showing me is that I am not primarily a tool in God's hand to be used by him, but I am a son in God's family that is loved by him. These are fundamentally different things. You see, one produces like an achievement-based existence, that my worth is wrapped up around my accomplishments, and my worth is wrapped up around approval. And I get this like approval-based anxiety in my life. That's what one produces. The other produces this deep desire to have meaningful, abiding relationship with my father. One produces legalism and criticism and a life full of not good enough so nobody can live up, including me. The other produces the joy that comes from confession and repentance and true authentic relationships. These things are fundamentally different. And this bad thinking that I've had, like I said, it's manifested in bad behavior.

And I can sum up this joy-robbing behavior that has played out in my life time and time again in one word. One word that has consistently stolen joy for me and robbed for me. me what has been gifted to me through Jesus Christ. And the one word is this. Busy. I'm not good at very many things, but I am a boss at making busy an identity. How you doing, Pastor Britt? Man, doing really, really good. Busy. Pastor Britt, how are you doing? Oh, it's great, man. Things are busy. How's your family, Pastor Britt? Busy, busy, busy. Right? And busy, busy. And busy, busy, for me easily becomes an identity. And instead of finding myself in an abiding relationship with my father,

I find myself on the hamster wheel of hurry chasing the approval of man. And what God has been teaching me is that there are these things flesh, the enemies of God, that are tempting me consistently to resist God's rhythms for living by resisting things like Sabbath, resisting devoted times of prayer, resisting alone time with God, that I am consistently tempted to resist. these things, ultimately rejecting the fullness of joy in my life and that I am so often tempted to settle for things that are temporary when eternal things are available to me.

See, what Jesus is showing us in this parable is that ultimately to walk in the fullness of joy that has been gifted us through the kingdom of God, that oftentimes we have to say no to things in the temporary in order to be able to say yes to things in the eternal. So from our perspective, this is super helpful and it's a great reminder. But also in this text is what does it look like from God's perspective? From God's perspective, the treasure in the field is his church. From God's perspective, the treasure in the field, what he sent Jesus to reclaim.

The thing he sent Jesus to find, the reason Jesus left all the glories of heaven, He left all the honor and all the riches of his rightful place at the right hand of God. He left all of that behind to step into this world to reclaim for God God's most prized possession, which is his church. If you're taking notes, the first thing you want to write down is this, that the church is God's treasure. The church is God's treasure. You see, when Jesus Christ went to the cross, he went there for the glory of God and for the joy of God's people. So that the treasure of God could live in the fullness of God's promises. It was for joy that Jesus went to the cross.

Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, say it like this. Hebrews 12, 1 and 2 is in your notes. It says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the founder and perfector of our faith who for the joy who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross

despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God it was for joy that Jesus went to the cross for his joy that he would be returned to his rightful place at the right hand of God and for our joy. Because if Jesus is exalted in the heavenlies, he has decided that it would be so for his church. And so if he is exalted in the heavenlies, he has decided that wherever he goes, we go. And so therefore, we will also be exalted with him for all of eternity. You see, at the foundation of joy is this truth. Our passion for God is the result of his passion for us.

Our passion for God is the result of his passion for us. Let this land on you today, church. God does not need our love. He desires our love. God doesn't need our love. He desires our love. And the reason he wants us to love him is because he knows that in loving him, this is where we will realize our ultimate joy.

It was for joy that God sent Jesus to reclaim his treasure. there's another visual the Bible gives over and over and over and over again to help us understand the church our relationship to God. And the imagery is the imagery of a wedding or a marriage. The second point in your note is this. The church is Jesus's bride. The church is Jesus's bride. She's Jesus's wife.

And again, when I say the church, I mean the people of God redeemed by God through the merciful work of Jesus Christ, those who have surrendered to Jesus' Lord Jesus' Lord's, in their life, that they are Jesus's wife. In Revelation chapter 19, you're welcome. In Revelation chapter 19, John, the Apostle, is being given visions from Jesus of the fullness of time. And he is showing John all things that will come. And in this vision, John sees what is going to look like one day when all the saints

throughout all of history are gathered around their king. They're gathered around Jesus being fully come. consummated, being fully brought back together. This means an uncontested, unattacked reality with Jesus and his church. And John writes about it in Revelation 19. It's beautiful, and this is what he says. He says, then, I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude. This is the saints, the church.

Like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, saying this, hallelujah. For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready it was granted her to clothe herself

it was gifted her it was graced upon her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints Jesus has made it such that when God the Father looks at his church looks at Jesus' wife he does not see sinners

he sees saints who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. He sees people who are covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and it is in this righteousness that the church does the works of the greater things, these righteous deeds of the saints that will one day be what we wear standing before our gods. This picture of marriage, you see, marriage in this life important, certainly. It matters, certainly, but it was given to the church so that it could serve as a picture of God. God's relationship to his church. So marriage in and of itself is not the point.

It's a picture. But marriage, as defined by the Bible, is one man, one woman, one lifetime, and it is known as a marriage as a covenant union. A covenant union. I have entered into a covenant union with my wife Jennifer, whom tested it a little bit with that whole rat thing. You know what I mean? But I have entered into a covenant union with my wife, Jennifer.

We've been married for almost 14 years. It's going pretty good. We have our days, certainly, but overall, it's going good. And after 14 years of marriage, I've learned some things. But primarily, my big takeaway so far is that marriage, it's a lot like golf. It's a lot like golf. Anybody, any golfers out there? All right.

Glory to God for you. I love some golf, man. I'm into it. It's like my hobby. I love it. I love it. I'm not very good at it. The lowest round I've ever shot is a 78.

I've shot it three times. all at the same course on the back end of like a three or four day golf bender where I've done nothing but golf. So usually after about a hundred holes in a row with nothing else, I can make a putt. And so I've started in the 70s three times, not all that impressive. However, I normally shoot higher than that, but it doesn't even matter. I love golf. Here's the thing about golf. Golf is a golf course, golf ball, golf clubs, and a golfer.

It's not a team activity. These are the things that it takes to play golf. All the golf courses in the world are pretty much the same. They got par threes. They got par fours. They got par five. Some are harder than others, but pretty much a golf course is a golf course. A golf ball, on the other hand, is one of the technological wonders of the modern era.

What these things can do is simply unbelievable. You can hit them far. You can roll them straight and short. You can make them turn right, turn left. You can stop those things on a dime and make them come backward. It's unbelievable what a golf ball can do. A golf ball will always do what a golf ball is engineered to do, right? It does what the golf club tells it to do.

And the golf clubs, they're not. unbelievable in of themselves. Some of them you can hit 50 yards, 100 yards, 150 yards, 200 yards. There are some really good golfers in the world who can use one club and hit it more than 300 yards every time, right? Golf clubs, unbelievable what they can do. They're light, fast, they work. The idea of golf is that there's this little white golf ball and you hit it with the golf club. And if that thing hits square, then the golf ball flies through the air for the glory of your life legacy down the golf course. Okay? It's not all that hard, right? Course, clubs, ball. None of those things make golf difficult. So what's the challenge?

It's the golfer. Right? Somehow, somewhere between the time that I stand over the ball, gripping my club, and I go from here to here, all hell breaks loose. How's that possible? See, the thing golf in and of itself as a game, design that's not all that difficult. What makes golf difficult is all the stuff I bring to the

game. I bring a bunch of baggage. I bring bad swing thoughts. I bring bad ideas. I bring bad mechanics. I bring a bad burrito I had for lunch. Whatever it is, I am what makes golf so difficult. And oftentimes, not oftentimes, all the time I found this to be true in my marriage. The marriage in idea is given to us by God is perfect. The challenge with marriage is that we bring a bunch of baggage to it. I bring a bunch of baggage. My wife brings a bunch of baggage. And in the same way, the church, Jesus's wife, she brings a bunch of baggage to her relationship with Jesus Christ. But good news for us, unlike me, Jesus, he's the perfect husband. He's the perfect husband. If you have your Bibles turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, we're going to look at this quickly. First

Corinthians 13. As pastors, we get asked to do a lot of weddings. And this chapter of scripture is synonymously attached to weddings, where Jesus teaches us what love is supposed to look like specifically in the context of the church, but it certainly applies to the context of marriage. In 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4, it's a pretty familiar passage that says this, love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy and unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

In verse 8, love never ends. Be encouraged by this today, church. Who Jesus is to you as the perfect husband. As the one who has perfectly atoned for sins and has covered us with a perfect righteousness. If you want to think about the perfect husband that is Jesus, all you've got to do is replace the word love in 1 Corinthians 13 with the name Jesus. He is all of these things. You see, Jesus is patient. Jesus is not frustrated with us. He's not frustrated with our lack of progress as we would seemingly define it in life. Jesus is patient. He is kind. He is God's

tone of voice toward us. Jesus does not envy. He is not boastful. He is not arrogant. Jesus is not rude, he's not self-seeking, he's not irritable. This is the best part. Jesus does not keep a record of wrongs. Listen to me, church, when Jesus died on the cross, he pushed up on those nail-pierced hands and feet and he said it is finished. He did not just forgive your sins. He removed your sins. As far as the east is from the west is what the Bible tells us, that our sins had been removed from the people who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, his church.

He holds no record of wrongs. He finds no joy and unrighteousness. That's why he came to defeat it, but rejoices in truth, which he is. He bears all things. He believes all things. Nobody hopes, has more hopes, plans, and dreams for your future than Jesus does. He hopes all things and endures all things. Jesus never ends.

And so the church is Jesus' bride, and she has a perfect husband. in Matthew chapter 28 verse 19 Jesus gives his wife some instruction a command known as the great commission he says go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father of the son and the holy spirit bringing them into this beautiful covenant union

baptizing them in the name of the father of the son and the holy spirit teaching them to obey all that I have commanded and lo I will be with you even until the end of the age see the church doesn't want to just walk out and fulfill the Great Commission. We actually want to see the Great Commission fulfilled. We want every nation, every tribe, every tongue, every people on this earth to declare the glory of God through the Son, Jesus Christ. We want everybody to be surrendered unto Jesus Christ

and experience the ultimate joy that is found in that salvation. That's what we want. And Jesus tells us that the way that this is possible, these greater realities, these greater things, he says in Acts chapter one, before he ascends back into the right hand of the father, he looks at his disciples, who would be the church fathers, if you will, they would birth this movement. He looks at them and says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes to you. And you will be, comes upon you is what he says, and you will receive, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and even into the end of the earth. And within like a chapter and a half, in a short amount of time, the Holy Spirit falls at the day of Pentecost and empowers the Church of Jesus Christ.

And from that day to this day, the church has been a miraculous supernatural force at work in this world. Jesus says he'll be with us and he gives us the Holy Spirit to make this promise true. The last and final point is this, that the church is empowered by God, the Holy Spirit. The church is empowered by God, the Holy Spirit. You see, Jesus says you'll receive power. This idea of power is an interesting one. You see, in the kingdom of God, power is defined completely opposite of how we define power in this world. You see, power in this world is about attention.

It's about achievement. It's about self-exaltation. It's about a hierarchy and dominance. and control. That's what power, according to the way of this world is. The power in the kingdom of God, it is the complete opposite. The enemies of God are at work against his church, against us. And they are peddling lies in the spirits of this world. This world peddles lies to us over and over and over again. The chief of which is, you know what you need to do? You need to help yourself. You need to buckle up your bootstraps. You need to toughen up and you need to help yourself.

This is why self-help is the largest section of the bookstore. Because the world is trying to tell you, you know what you need to do? You need to help yourself. But the Holy Spirit empowers us. In this other power, in this opposite power, the Holy Spirit teaches us the way of the kingdom and gives us gifts and talents and desire to walk in the way of the kingdom. And so where the world would look at us and say, you know what you need to do? You need to help yourself. The Spirit of God looks at us and says, no, hold on. No, wait, wait, wait. You don't need to help yourself. You need to deny yourself.

You see, the world will petal us lies and say, you know what? You need to be happy. You need more. You need more stuff. You need more attention. You need more. You need to be addicted to more is what the world says. But the Holy Spirit says, no, be content in all things. It's completely opposite. The world says that we need to chase pleasure, fleeting momentary instances of happiness. We need to chase pleasure, and the Holy Spirit says, no.

Be patient. Be patient. Because whatever God has planned for you is better than anything this world could ever offer you. Be patient. The world says, make yourself important. Be first. The Holy Spirit says, no. don't consider yourself more important than others

the enemies of God will lie to us over and over again and through shame and through guilt of the flesh they will tell us that we are our past and the Holy Spirit says nope you're not your past you've been covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ you've been covered by the righteousness of Jesus Christ and you have been redeemed by his blood

you are no longer a sinner a slave to the things of this world you are now a saint purpose for things in the kingdom of God. The world will tell us, be busy. I've heard this one a lot. Be busy. Get busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. Be busy. And the Holy Spirit says, nah, be still. Jesus says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Be still and rest in the love of God and the promises of God in your life. The world says, be comfortable, back away from the front lines, fall into the monotony of the temporary. Don't give your life for things that eternally matter. Stay back in the things that temporarily matter. Don't get out on the front lines. Don't make war through prayer

and intercession. Don't go wherever God would have you go. Don't step into those relationships. It's going to cost you too much. It's going to be too hard. You don't have the skills. You don't have the tools. You don't have the right words to say. Don't get on the front lines. Don't walk out in the fullness of obedience to God in your life. Don't stay back in what's comfortable. The world says stay comfortable. The Holy Spirit of God looks at his church and says, no, you risk it all for the glory of God. You risk it all for the glory of God. God loves his church. God has redeemed his church. God has purposed his church. And I'll end with this. I don't know what you're facing in your life. I don't know what lies and whispers have been coming at you. I don't know what attacks have been

mounting. I don't know what is happening around you, the things that you're facing. But here's what I will tell you, if you are here and you've surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and you have been indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God, here's the truth you may need to hear today. If that's you, you've been indelled by the Holy Spirit of God that there is no weapon. formed against you that shall prosper. There is no weapon formed against you that will prosper. You have everything you need for life and godliness through God's spirit within you. So you can walk boldly and you can walk confidently into whatever mission field,

into whatever context God is calling you. You can go with confidence knowing that God, the Holy Spirit, is empowering you every step of the way. So church, we stand confident on the words of Jesus when Jesus launched the church. He did this at a place called Cessori of Philippi, and he says these words, he says, listen, the gates of hell with all their lies and all their devious ways and all their expertise and all their misconception and distortion, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against Jesus Christ in his church. And so we are a victorious people because our king has made a way toward victory. We love Christ. We follow Christ and we know that we go in the same power that resurrected Jesus Christ from the,

the dead is the same power that lives in us. Amen. Amen. If you will, at all of our campuses, stand with me. We're going to pray and we're going to respond to Jesus, our king. We do this in worship through singing. We do this in worship through prayer. We do this in worship through giving. We give our first and our best because God gave his first and his best to us. So however, God would lead you to respond. We would invite you to respond. Maybe you're here today and you like me have found yourself in a season that I have walked through many times where you are in a fight for joy, where you're fighting for joy in your relationships, you're fighting for joy in your finances or in your business, or whatever the context is, you're fighting for joy.

You've seemingly lost it. You're just surrounded with frustration. And maybe all the things that you've been trying to figure out in the temporary, maybe those are not the solutions you're looking for. And today would be the day where you would come and you would make war in the heavenlies claiming the victory and the joy that Jesus has given you in your life. maybe today is the day you turn your eyes to the eternal and off the things in the temporary. However, God would lead you, we would invite you to come and respond to him. Let's pray together. God, I pray for my brothers and sisters. I thank you for them. Across all of our city right now, I pray, Jesus, that you would comfort us, Holy Spirit, as only you can do. I pray that you would call us to step out.

convict our hearts that you would help us to set our eyes on the things that are above. Whatever anxieties my brothers and sisters are facing, whatever worries, whatever attacks have manifested in their life.

Father, I pray that right now, I pray the peace of the kingdom of God over them, mind, body, heart, and soul. Jesus, you are the prince of peace and your kingdom is a kingdom of peace. And so I pray that the peace of God would fill our lives. I pray that as we respond to you, Father, we do so knowing that we have victory.

We don't have to be timid or afraid, but we can walk in confidence boldly approaching your throne. We thank you for sending Jesus. We thank you for setting your heart on our redemption and for making it possible for us to be in your family forever. We love you, Jesus. We pray all these things by the power of your blood. And all of God's people said, amen. Amen. Let's respond together, church.