SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Community Bible Fellowship Church.
SPEAKER_00: It's a joy to be with you, to worship, to sing.
SPEAKER_00: He will hold us fast until our faith is turned to say he will hold us fast.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're going to be talking about actually today in chapter 23 of 1 Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to find your way to 1 Samuel 23, a copy of God's word, or we have some in the back as well, if you want to grab one.
SPEAKER_00: When I was in middle school, I was a relatively new believer.
SPEAKER_00: I was a young Christian, very immature, and just on fire for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I was so excited.
SPEAKER_00: My church gave me a Bible and I just devoured it, uh, read it every day.
SPEAKER_00: I was excited about spreading the gospel, and I took that to my middle school and to Walmart for some reason with like gospel tracts.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't the most effective, but I was just excited to start conversations with people about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I went to my church's prayer meeting week in and week out until it had dwindled down to just um like the pastor Trent in me for like week in and week out.
SPEAKER_00: And by high school, I had very much run out of steam.
SPEAKER_00: And college was even harder and slower.
SPEAKER_00: And at this point, I think I can honestly say that my Bible reading habits were more intentional and more consistent as a middle schooler than they are now.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, but I did.
SPEAKER_00: My boldness in sharing the gospel was greater in middle school in many ways than it is now.
SPEAKER_00: I was more consistent and devoted to my church's prayer meeting as a middle schooler than I am today with ours.
SPEAKER_00: And I have grown in so many ways.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has matured me immensely.
SPEAKER_00: I've been sanctified greatly by the Holy Spirit, but I've also continued to struggle with sins that I did near the start.
SPEAKER_00: I still find myself going through the motions at times.
SPEAKER_00: I find myself wrestling through uh old habits and temptations and doubts and fears and things I thought I should have conquered by this point.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if there's like a repeated refrain that shows up in my prayers in almost every season of my Christian life, it's it's shouldn't I be further along by now, God?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I not further along in this journey?
SPEAKER_00: It takes work to endure in the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm guessing I'm not alone in these things.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe like me, you sat here last week as the Lord's Supper's being passed around.
SPEAKER_00: Jared's telling us to examine our hearts, and you're confessing the same sins that you did the time before.
SPEAKER_00: And the time before that, and the time before that.
SPEAKER_00: There are a million things that make it difficult to endure.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've buried a spouse, or you're caring for aging parents.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're fighting the same temptation that you have for years.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've you've watched your children wander, or you've been praying for someone to come to Christ for decades with no answer.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're just exhausted going through the motions.
SPEAKER_00: One of the great temptations of the Christian life isn't simply to sin, it's to lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible assumes that that will be a temptation.
SPEAKER_00: Again and again and again, we are told to endure, to stand firm, to hold fast, to run with perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus understands this is hard.
SPEAKER_00: And it's long and it's slow and it's exhausting.
SPEAKER_00: He understands that.
SPEAKER_00: And he understands that we will grow weary on this long road between God's promises and their fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: We will be tempted to lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: We will struggle to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to start a marathon, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's hard to endure all the way through the end.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly where we find David when we come to 1 Samuel 23.
SPEAKER_00: Almost everyone knows the story of chapter 17, right?
SPEAKER_00: David and Goliath.
SPEAKER_00: Believe it or not, we've heard this story.
SPEAKER_00: David's been anointed as the new king of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He's had an incredible victory over Goliath and the Philistines, the nation singing his praises.
SPEAKER_00: God's promises are coming to pass, right?
SPEAKER_00: And then here we are, several chapters later, in unknown, unglamorous times of struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Years have passed.
SPEAKER_00: Still no throne.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, there are caves and wilderness and running and betrayal and hiding and waiting and starving and weeping.
SPEAKER_00: David is living in this long stretch between God's promise and God's fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: And probably thinking, shouldn't I be further along by now?
SPEAKER_00: And that's where many of us live too.
SPEAKER_00: So let's turn our eyes to God's word to find hope in the example of David and to learn to persevere with him on that long road from God's promises to their fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: I invite you to stand with me if you're able, as we read from 1 Samuel 23.
SPEAKER_00: Beginning in verse 1, the word of God reads, Now they told David, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack these Philistines?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to David, Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.
SPEAKER_00: But David's men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah, how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?
SPEAKER_00: Then David inquired of the Lord again.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord answered him, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.
SPEAKER_00: And David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their livestock, and struck them with a great blow.
SPEAKER_00: So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
SPEAKER_00: When Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, had fled to David to Kilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul said, God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul summoned all the people to war to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men.
SPEAKER_00: David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him, and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring the Ephod here.
SPEAKER_00: Then David said, O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant, has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account.
SPEAKER_00: Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand?
SPEAKER_00: Will Saul come down as your servant has heard?
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to him, He will come down.
SPEAKER_00: Then David said, Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, They will surrender you.
SPEAKER_00: Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go.
SPEAKER_00: When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition.
SPEAKER_00: And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Zith, and Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.
SPEAKER_00: Then David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life.
SPEAKER_00: David was in the wilderness of Zith at Horash.
SPEAKER_00: And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horash, and strengthened his hand in God.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, Do not fear, for the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you.
SPEAKER_00: You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you.
SPEAKER_00: Saul, my father, also knows this.
SPEAKER_00: And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: David remained at Horash, and Jonathan went home.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds of Horash, at Horash, on the hill of Hakilah, which is south of Jeshurman.
SPEAKER_00: Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul said, May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me.
SPEAKER_00: Go, make yet more shore, know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there, for it is told me that he is very cunning.
SPEAKER_00: See, therefore, and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with shore information.
SPEAKER_00: Then I will go with you.
SPEAKER_00: And if he is in the land I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.
SPEAKER_00: And they arose and went to Zith ahead of Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshemon, and Saul and his men went to seek him, and David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon.
SPEAKER_00: And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon.
SPEAKER_00: Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain, and David was hurrying to get away from Saul.
SPEAKER_00: As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul and said, Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.
SPEAKER_00: So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape.
SPEAKER_00: And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Engedi.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's word.
SPEAKER_00: May be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with me now.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious Lord, would you speak to us now by your word to preserve us with your promises?
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, use our lives to cause one another in this room to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: Make us a means of each other's eternal salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, strengthen us in this long process on the road to your kingdom and to glory.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: As we walk through this chapter together, we're gonna discover that David does not persevere and make it to the throne because he's tougher than everyone else, or because he simply tries harder.
SPEAKER_00: He makes it because God's hand is preserving him every step of the way.
SPEAKER_00: And the wonderful news for us is that God preserves us in much the same ways that we'll see in David.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us his promises in his word to guide us when we can't see the way ahead.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us his people to strengthen us when our hands grow weak, and he gives, he uses the very process, the long, difficult road of waiting and suffering and struggle, not to destroy us, but to shape us into the people he has promised we will become.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the roadmap we're gonna use to navigate this text this morning as we walk through 1 Samuel 23 together.
SPEAKER_00: Promise, people, and process.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin with promise.
SPEAKER_00: David faces a whole variety of difficulties in this chapter, and throughout it all, he repeatedly returns to God's revelation for direction.
SPEAKER_00: The Philistines attack the city of Keilah in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And what does David do?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, David inquired of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then his men object, they're afraid, they say, This is crazy, like it's a terrible idea.
SPEAKER_00: We've already been fugitives being hunted by Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Now you want us to go fight the Philistines too.
SPEAKER_00: So what does David do?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Then David inquired of the Lord again.
SPEAKER_00: And now the people, unified around God's word, go out boldly to Battle and are given a massive victory over the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: But now David's in another predicament.
SPEAKER_00: He's in this walled-in city.
SPEAKER_00: Saul's approaching, trying to besiege it, and trap David inside and kill him and his men.
SPEAKER_00: So what does David do?
SPEAKER_00: He seeks God's will again.
SPEAKER_00: He seeks God's revelation and guidance through his word.
SPEAKER_00: First times were probably through the prophet Gad that we're told about in chapter 22 that God brought to David.
SPEAKER_00: Here it's through the priest Abby Athar, who, in God's mysterious, incredible providence, through the wickedness and violence of Saul, has been brought to David with the high priest Ephod.
SPEAKER_00: Ephod was a sort of sacred garment, like the holy priest uniform thing that the priest would have.
SPEAKER_00: And the high priest's Ephod.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I'm saying that right.
SPEAKER_00: Does anyone know how to say Ephod, Ephod, Ephod?
SPEAKER_00: Something like that.
SPEAKER_00: But the high priest one had a pocket in it containing the Urim and Thummim, which were these stones of some sort that we saw back in chapter 14, which were given by God to the priests as these holy instruments for discerning the will of God, for getting direction from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know exactly how it worked, but the point that we should take here is not necessarily all of the ins and outs of how God spoke through the prophet Gad or how God spoke through the Yurm and Themim, but that God had provided David, his chosen one, with every means necessary to hear God's word and to respond to it in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: That's how David perseveres to the end, because God had provided him with every means necessary to hear his word and to respond to it in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: God has provided us in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the contrast, though.
SPEAKER_00: So David, unlike Saul, is not just drifting through the wilderness, making educated guesses, trying to receive intel from his different spies and messengers.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just following his instincts, he's not ruled by fear or shame or pride, but again and again, he stops and asks, Lord, what do you say?
SPEAKER_00: What does God say?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, what would you have me do?
SPEAKER_00: And God doesn't simply give David information.
SPEAKER_00: He gives him his promises.
SPEAKER_00: Notice verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't merely say, Go, fight the Philistines.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Go, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.
SPEAKER_00: The command comes attached to a promise.
SPEAKER_00: And that's so often how God works.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the great commission in Matthew 28, where Jesus says, Go and make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't just say that.
SPEAKER_00: If that's all we had, we'd be prone to despair and give up.
SPEAKER_00: But he also says, first of all, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_00: And then he adds, and I will be with you always, even to the end of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't just say to us, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just say, Press on and be holy as I am holy, and finish the race.
SPEAKER_00: He says, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is God's promise for those who have trusted in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The commands of God are sustained by the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice God's word doesn't remove David's wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: He still has to flee from Keila.
SPEAKER_00: He still gets betrayed by the people he saved, which is a defining mark of the suffering anointed one, pointing ultimately to Jesus and his betrayal.
SPEAKER_00: He still sleeps in caves, he's still running for his life, he still isn't king.
SPEAKER_00: We often want a map for the next 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: God usually gives us what we need for today.
SPEAKER_00: His word doesn't take away the difficult road, but it gives David enough light for the next faithful step.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 119 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
SPEAKER_00: Not a stadium floodlight that lets you see 50 miles ahead, but a lamp.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Enough for the next step.
SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest dangers for weary Christians is that we can slowly stop placing ourselves under God's voice, under God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And then that lamp dims and the path darkens, and we can't see, and it's dark, and we're confused and scared.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder we struggle to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: We're running through the woods in the dark.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, God's word is given to us as a gift to navigate the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: We're not left to do it alone.
SPEAKER_00: David had a prophet and a priest.
SPEAKER_00: We have something far greater.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to understand and believe that it is far greater.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Peter, in 2 Peter 1, he explains that he had walked with Jesus personally.
SPEAKER_00: He had seen him, he had heard his teaching, and he saw his glory, he calls it his majestic glory that was manifested on the Mount of Transfiguration, and he heard the voice of the Father speak and say, This is my beloved Son, with whom I'm well pleased, listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says that despite me having all of this, we have something fuller in God's word, the Scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Something fuller, a greater promise, a greater prophetic word, a greater revelation.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Peter 119.
SPEAKER_00: We have a fuller confirmation in the prophetic word, the scriptures, to which you will do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns.
SPEAKER_00: We have the fullness of God's word, by which he holds us fast.
SPEAKER_00: We have our great high priest, Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit who indwells us.
SPEAKER_00: The God who preserved David has graciously given us everything we need in his word to keep walking until his promises become sight.
SPEAKER_00: Same God who sustained David through his word still sustains his people today.
SPEAKER_00: That's our first point.
SPEAKER_00: God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: The second way that God preserves David on this long road to the throne is through his people.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horash and strengthened his hand in God.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember what the verses leading up to this have just told us.
SPEAKER_00: They say that David is in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: They say that Saul has been seeking his life every single day, trying to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: He's been running for his life for years at this point.
SPEAKER_00: We can imagine how exhausted he must have been and how how weak of a grip David must have had on God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: And just then a friend appears to strengthen his hand in God.
SPEAKER_00: Notice, first of all, that Jonathan sought David out.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They didn't just run into each other at church on a Sunday morning and strike up a conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan has been paying attention to his friend, David.
SPEAKER_00: He sees that he's struggling.
SPEAKER_00: He knows David's soul is weak and needs strengthening, and so he leaves his home.
SPEAKER_00: He goes out, he seeks out David to comfort him.
SPEAKER_00: And notice also how he comforts him.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't tell him, You've got this, be strong, be brave.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, you're almost there.
SPEAKER_00: It's right around the corner.
SPEAKER_00: David's on mile three of a marathon.
SPEAKER_00: That would not be helpful.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, you're an overcomer.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he reminds David of God's word, God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Do not fear, you shall be king.
SPEAKER_00: It's striking that after all of David's inquiries of the Lord in the first half of this story, the next thing that God provides David is not another revelation, it's another believer.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God and the people of God belong together.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the New Testament, to my knowledge, perseverance is almost never presented as an individual project.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 3 says, Exhort one another every day, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
SPEAKER_00: There's a real possibility that our hearts can become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And so God's word says, We need one another.
SPEAKER_00: We need to exhort and encourage and admonish and uplift one another in order for that not to happen.
SPEAKER_00: To persevere, we need one another.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 10 says, Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
SPEAKER_00: The day is drawing near.
SPEAKER_00: Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together.
SPEAKER_00: God knows that we will get weary.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that there will be days when our faith is weak, when our hands hang limp, when we struggle to grasp and hold tightly to his promises.
SPEAKER_00: So what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He gives us one another.
SPEAKER_00: And that fellowship and encouragement of fellow believers is one of the most powerful instruments that God uses to preserve his people as they struggle to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: We can sing, he will hold me fast, because we are singing.
SPEAKER_00: It together.
SPEAKER_00: And that takes a variety of forms.
SPEAKER_00: It can look like Hugh Latimer in 1555 to his fellow pastor Nicholas Ridley as they are chained to the stake, about to be burned for their faith, given one last chance to recant, to take back what they've been preaching, and to say, We'll let you go.
SPEAKER_00: And Latimere turns to the man, chained next to him, and he says, Play the man, Master Ridley.
SPEAKER_00: We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust shall never be put out.
SPEAKER_00: And they remain faithful and they are burned.
SPEAKER_00: That's Christian encouragement and brotherly fellowship as God's grace for perseverance in hard times.
SPEAKER_00: Or it can look like my friend Landon in college who sat me down at a McDonald's and said, How's your faith, man?
SPEAKER_00: You seem off.
SPEAKER_00: You doing okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't, and I needed him to ask me that.
SPEAKER_00: Or the woman I saw the other day hug her friend and say, You will be okay through this season.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is with you.
SPEAKER_00: That's Christian encouragement and sibling fellowship as God's grace in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It can be in a moment of life and death, or it can be at a McDonald's, but God's people are one of his primary means of sustaining us on this long road between his promises and their fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: That's why fellowship on Sunday mornings is so important.
SPEAKER_00: Like reel, sit together, cry together, pray together, open your hearts to one another kind of fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: That's why our small groups are so important, being in each other's homes, in each other's lives throughout the week.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we have Monday morning prayer meetings that I go to sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And Tuesday ladies' Bible study and Thursday men's Bible study and tailgating fellowship for the men, like we had yesterday, and consistent opportunities to be in each other's lives and strengthen one another's hands in God.
SPEAKER_00: We need this.
SPEAKER_00: So don't miss what this chapter is teaching us.
SPEAKER_00: It can be really difficult to be a Jonathan and to see another friend, a brother or sister struggling and seek them out to strengthen them.
SPEAKER_00: And it can be awkward, but we just need to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And it can be difficult to be a David, too.
SPEAKER_00: And to refuse to isolate, to refuse to avoid the closeness of community and vulnerability that God uses to preserve us, to choose to accept the encouragement and support of others, but we need to do it.
SPEAKER_00: God preserves weary saints through the voices, the encouragement, the prayers, the singing, the faithful presence of other weary saints.
SPEAKER_00: On the long road between God's promises and their fulfillment, he doesn't simply give us his word, he gives us one another, strengthening our hands in God until faith finally becomes sight.
SPEAKER_00: That's how God preserves his people through his promises and through his people.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look now at how he does this through the process itself.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the rest of the chapter.
SPEAKER_00: The Zipites now also betray David, the anointed one, the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Saul comes after him again to kill him and again.
SPEAKER_00: David's running through the wilderness, experiencing another narrow escape by God's providence, using God's enemies to save David?
SPEAKER_00: David's hiding in another cave, he's still not a king.
SPEAKER_00: Could God have put David on the throne immediately after David and Goliath?
SPEAKER_00: Of course.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that would have made a lot of sense to me if I was reading the story.
SPEAKER_00: God had already anointed him, he'd chosen him, he'd promised him the kingdom, he'd given him incredible victory and the support of the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So why years in caves?
SPEAKER_00: Years of fear and fighting and struggle and waiting and waiting and waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Because God wasn't merely crowning a king, he was forming one.
SPEAKER_00: The throne was God's destination, but the wilderness was his workshop.
SPEAKER_00: Christian perseverance is not merely about the end result.
SPEAKER_00: It is about how God forms us into that in the process.
SPEAKER_00: Through the process.
SPEAKER_00: But I remember him looking into my eyes and saying, Daniel, God is glorified in you wrestling with sin, not just conquering it.
SPEAKER_00: And that changed everything for me.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, it's not that God wants us to keep fooling around with sin.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Be perfect, I'm perfect, be holy, I am holy, kill sin.
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, God is glorified in us, not only in our conquering of sin, but even in the midst of the battle.
SPEAKER_00: Even in our daily efforts, as we struggle and fail and then repent and get back up again to keep fighting, even when it feels like we're losing, even when we are losing, even in our conviction and our guilt and our shame, the confusing mixture of complicated emotions that comes with going against the will of God, God magnifies himself in our lives through that battle.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 2, God's word says that we are his workmanship, created to do good works.
SPEAKER_00: His craftsmanship.
SPEAKER_00: I find that ideal idea helpful of God being a craftsman and us being his craftsmanship.
SPEAKER_00: Because there are different types of workmanship, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's a noticeable difference between a factory-produced piece of furniture from IKEA and a handcrafted, personally designed rocking chair from an old Amish man in Lancaster who's been making rocking chairs his whole life.
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference.
SPEAKER_00: The IKEA chair was made almost immediately in an afternoon, and it's identical to thousands of others that are just like it.
SPEAKER_00: But the one made by the real craftsman has the personal touch of countless, grueling hours of individual hands-on work and years of experience and personally selected materials.
SPEAKER_00: It has all of the unique marks and subtle imperfections that come with any real work of art.
SPEAKER_00: And it's actually these imperfections that make it so valuable, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's why AI art is so repulsive.
SPEAKER_00: But there's there's struggle involved in the craftsman's project.
SPEAKER_00: It's real wood.
SPEAKER_00: Trees died to make it.
SPEAKER_00: There's risk involved in the craftsman's work.
SPEAKER_00: There's work, there's a process, there's artistry, and the unique touch of something real that a factory can't reproduce.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, the IKEA chair may be cheaper and it may be quicker.
SPEAKER_00: You may know exactly what to expect from it every time, but the workman's handcrafted work of art is more beautiful and more valuable because the workman himself is put on display through the process, not merely the end result.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's the long, slow process of his artistry with all of its struggle and risk and uniqueness and imperfection along the way that showcases his craftsmanship.
SPEAKER_00: It's the hours and hours of sanding out the roughness by hand that displays his unique gifts as the creator.
SPEAKER_00: And in a similar way, church, God, in raising up sons and daughters and in crafting us to be glorious kings and queens, reflecting his majesty and divinity throughout the universe, God is not primarily concerned with quick, immediate, perfect results.
SPEAKER_00: He is magnified in and through the process.
SPEAKER_00: His craftsmanship is displayed in the struggle.
SPEAKER_00: To say that you are God's workmanship is to say that God doesn't immediately solve all of our sin issues and remove all of our imperfections and struggles instantly, but that he works with us through hours and hours and decades of sanding out the roughness by hand because his workmanship is put on display for his glory in the process, not just in a perfect cookie cutter end result.
SPEAKER_00: Have you found yourself thinking, shouldn't I be further along by now?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I still struggling with this?
SPEAKER_00: Why is this taking so long?
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps because the process itself is the place where God's craftsmanship is most clearly displayed.
SPEAKER_00: James tells us to count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
SPEAKER_00: It produces something.
SPEAKER_00: Romans says that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
SPEAKER_00: God isn't wasting your wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: He's using it, he's producing something from it.
SPEAKER_00: He's using this season and this struggle and this process for your good, for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And one day, Christian, you who have trusted in Christ, repented of your sins, been baptized, you will reign with Jesus Christ in a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's promise.
SPEAKER_00: You will reign with him as kings and queens, conformed to his image.
SPEAKER_00: Until then, don't despise his process.
SPEAKER_00: The long road isn't evidence that God has forgotten you.
SPEAKER_00: It might be the clearest evidence that he is still faithfully shaping you into the man or woman that he has promised that you will become.
SPEAKER_00: Persevere.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest way to persevere is to look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was God's true anointed one, the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He too walked the long road to the throne, and he too was rejected, betrayed, hunted, surrounded by enemies.
SPEAKER_00: He too suffered greatly, cried out to God, trusted God's word, and endured the greatest suffering before entering into glory.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this from Hebrews 12.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, this is right after Hebrews 11, he's just laid out all of these great saints, brothers and sisters who follow Jesus around us.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, he says, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, that's the saints around you in this room right now.
SPEAKER_00: Let us therefore 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 perfecter of our faith, 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.
SPEAKER_00: Church, because Jesus endured to the end, endured the cross, the most violent death, and the wrath of God for our sins, he now sits resurrected and ascended, enthroned at the Father's right hand, where he continues to do for us exactly what he did for David.
SPEAKER_00: He preserves his people by his word, by his spirit through his church, through every joy and every trial, until the day our faith is turned to sight.
SPEAKER_00: So if you are weary this morning, do not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: The road may be long, but the throne is certain, and he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.
SPEAKER_00: The God who made you a promise is the God who will hold you fast to the very end.
SPEAKER_00: Keep listening to his promises, keep leaning on his people.
SPEAKER_00: Don't despise his process, and above all, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: The one who calls you as faithful.
SPEAKER_00: He will surely do it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, you are the one and true Christ who endured the greatest suffering, greater than any other we could even imagine, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Out of your love for us and for the joy that was set before you, may we now, as your people, for the joy set before us, take up our cross daily, follow you in your suffering, follow you in your death, that we may follow you in your resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we long for that day when you will return and make all things new.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that you would comfort us by your Holy Spirit this morning, by your word, by one another.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, fill our hearts with joy as we sing these praises to you, that you would be magnified.