WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:00.719 Good morning. 00:00:00.800 --> 00:00:09.439 If you remember back before Easter, before Lent, before even coronavirus, we were actually studying the book of Joshua. 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:11.199 I know that's been a long time ago. 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:13.839 So if you remember that story, let me give you a little bit of a recap. 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:15.759 Maybe you weren't with us back then. 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:21.280 And so this story is in the Old Testament, it's the epic ancient old story about the people of Israel. 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:22.960 They had been in Egypt. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:25.359 We can read about that story in the book of Exodus. 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:29.280 They had been in the land of Egypt and they've been in slavery. 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:35.280 Then after being in slavery, they're delivered by God out of Egypt and they go into the desert. 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:47.359 And what should take a few weeks to cross this desert to get back to their land in Canaan, a land that was representative of nourishment and safety and restoration, even. 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:49.439 It should have taken a few weeks. 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:51.439 It took 40 years. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:01:05.680 And after 40 years of wandering around in this sort of no man's land, God calls Joshua to lead these people over the Jordan River and back into their land. 00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:08.719 And so we know these feelings, right? 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:12.480 This is what we were talking about back when we were studying Joshua. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:23.599 We know these feelings, we know these realities, even, of slavery and wandering and victory of nourishment and safety and restoration. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:27.040 So 30 years ago, I was a 10-year-old kid. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:28.640 I was an okay tennis player. 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:34.799 We played a lot of tennis in our neighborhood, and so I was down at the neighborhood tennis courts, and we had four tennis courts in our neighborhood. 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:36.000 I was on court number one. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:40.319 I remember it so clearly, I was on court number one, 10-year-old, playing tennis with a few friends. 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:42.480 My dad was over in court number four. 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:49.120 He finished his tennis match, he comes over, he sits on the bench on court number one, inside the court over on the side. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:52.719 And so I'm serving, and I think we're all joking around, we're having a good time. 00:01:52.879 --> 00:01:57.920 I think, as a 10-year-old punk kid, boy, wouldn't it be funny? 00:01:58.079 --> 00:01:59.680 We're all laughing, we're having a good time. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:01.200 Wouldn't it be also funny? 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:11.439 Maybe the funniest thing to do in this situation would be instead of throwing that ball up nice and high for that serve, what if I just sort of let it go and I ripped a forehand over at my dad? 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:14.639 I thought, boy, what a fun, funny thing to do. 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:16.960 And so sure enough, I think that's a great idea to do. 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:17.759 We're all laughing. 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:20.240 I'm not gonna hit him, is what I'm thinking. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:21.520 I'm just gonna hit it near him. 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:24.240 That's gonna be kind of playful, it's gonna be fun, is what I think. 00:02:24.639 --> 00:02:36.159 And so, right when I go to throw that up, I drop that ball down and I rip that forehand over, and I know about halfway toward him that it is on target. 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:45.439 And sure enough, he doesn't even have time to move, and that ball hits him in the corner of his right eye. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:57.840 But he has on eyeglasses, so actually the ball hits the eyeglasses, the eyeglasses hits his face, the eyeglasses fall off his face, his head goes back, eyeglasses fall off his face, fall to the ground, and they break. 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:02.000 And I see all this happen, and I take off, right? 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:03.439 Like I am out of there. 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:07.280 I do not want to know what's about to happen to me or what's gonna happen. 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:12.639 So I need a fence between me and him because certainly I know there's gonna be discipline, right? 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:14.400 Like rightful discipline. 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:15.439 I understand that. 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:24.159 And we were later that afternoon at Lynchcrafter at Gwinnett Place Mall, and I was shelling over my lawn cutting money to pay for new glasses. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.400 So, yes, discipline certainly. 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:30.319 But what I didn't know was how much anger there would be. 00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:31.280 Right? 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:34.400 You know this because you've got in trouble with a parent. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:35.599 Right? 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:38.639 And you know the difference between discipline and anger. 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:45.360 Or maybe you're a parent, you know the difference between discipline, loving discipline, and anger. 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:57.520 You see, discipline is understandable, even formative, and it comes from love, but anger or condemnation toward you is something entirely different. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:01.360 So now that brings us into Joshua chapter 7. 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:03.280 Here's Joshua 7, verse 1. 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:08.400 But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things. 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:09.759 We're gonna make sense of that. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:19.920 For Achan, the son of Carmi, son of Zebdi, son of Zarah of the tribe of Judah, a lot of names I don't know how to pronounce there, took some of the devoted things. 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:25.519 And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel. 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:31.600 So the story goes on, and Joshua sends men up from Jericho, because that's what had just happened, right? 00:04:31.759 --> 00:04:43.199 If you remember back a couple months ago when we were studying this, they had just won this battle of Jericho, the kind of entry city into their land is kind of the foothills moving up into the hills to take back their land. 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:51.279 So they win this battle of Jericho, and there's another city, a town up in those hills named I, but it's not as big as Jericho. 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:54.160 So Joshua sends some spies up there to check it out first. 00:04:54.240 --> 00:04:57.120 Like, how many men need to go up there to take this city? 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:00.639 And the spies come back and say, Oh, it's not as big as Jericho, it's not as big of a deal. 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:03.680 So we just need two to three thousand men to go up there to take this city. 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:06.560 So they send three thousand men up there to take this city. 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:11.759 That's not gonna be a big deal, but what what they didn't plan on happening happened. 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:18.399 They get whooped, they get ran out of there, thirty-six men die. 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:21.120 And then it says this in the text. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:22.959 And I love this sentence. 00:05:23.839 --> 00:05:30.399 The hearts of the people melted and became as water. 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:39.920 And I love that sentence, that emotive language, because I think it is so poetically how we feel so often. 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:44.240 The hearts of the people melted and became as water. 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:46.399 Here's point number one, three points this morning. 00:05:46.560 --> 00:05:52.879 Point number one, our lives are filled with both confidence and despair. 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:53.759 Right? 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:54.800 We we fluctuate. 00:05:54.959 --> 00:05:59.199 I mean, these people of Israel, they just came off this victory in Jericho, everything's great, we're gonna conquer the next city. 00:05:59.519 --> 00:06:00.879 They're so confident, right? 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:08.160 I mean, they and then they have this battle with I, they get whooped and they're in despair to the point of melting. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:11.839 And we know those feelings. 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:14.160 And you know those feelings of the past month. 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:19.360 Certainly we all do to some degree, some of us much larger than others. 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:29.199 The last month, five, six weeks, some of us have experienced really wonderful things of what a slower life can bring us, and that was surprising. 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:32.000 And we enjoy that, we take that in for what that is. 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:38.240 At the same time, there's been other elements of our lives that have been incredibly disappointing or stressful. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:55.519 So we know what it means to go into a season with plans and ideas and what we're gonna conquer and what we're gonna do, and we're gonna have victories, we're gonna do this and go there, and then those things get shut down or they become places of stress instead of places that we were thinking was gonna create so much joy for us. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:59.360 And so we know what it means to go from confidence to despair. 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:05.120 We know this sentence, this poetic language, we've felt it in us over the last month. 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:10.240 At times, the hearts of the people melted and became as water. 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:18.800 So that's just a point to simply say maybe you feel a certain way, and maybe you don't feel it all day, but maybe you felt it at times. 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:26.959 And we all have this range of feelings in life as human beings, even as children of God. 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:32.160 We have this range of confidence at times, and at other times just despair. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:36.079 So let's keep reading, verses six down through verse nine. 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:37.680 I'm actually gonna read these verses. 00:07:37.839 --> 00:07:45.040 Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening. 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:48.800 He and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads. 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:53.040 So they're in a repentant, sorrowful phase of what's going on, God? 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:54.319 We're so sorry for what's going on. 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:55.120 Help us understand. 00:07:55.279 --> 00:07:55.839 Verse 7. 00:07:55.920 --> 00:08:01.199 And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all? 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:04.959 To give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:08.959 Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan? 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:11.680 So he's saying, we'd rather have just even gone back. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:13.360 Like, like this is so horrible. 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:14.879 Why'd we even come here? 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:16.959 Why'd you bring us to this point? 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:26.240 Verse 8, O Lord, what can I say when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies? 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:34.000 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:37.360 And what will you do for your great name? 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:40.240 So he's saying, Everybody's gonna hear about this. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:46.159 They're gonna come after us, and they are going to crush us. 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:48.320 God, I don't understand this. 00:08:48.480 --> 00:08:49.600 Why couldn't we just go back? 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:52.240 Why'd you bring me to this point only to leave me? 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:53.600 And what are you gonna do? 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:54.000 Right? 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:57.039 You can hear all of the confusion and the doubt. 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:01.759 And here's the point, and we're gonna make sense of this. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:03.440 Point number two is this. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:04.799 This is a big theological point. 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:09.039 I'm gonna go ahead and say that before I read it, but here's the point, and we gotta understand this. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:10.159 It's so good for us. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:17.039 In the cross, we understand both the anger of God and the grace of God. 00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:20.799 In the cross, we understand both the anger of God and the grace of God. 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:26.879 And we say that because the anger of God is toward sin and is put upon Jesus. 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:29.039 That's the good news. 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:37.360 That is actually even the grace of God, that that anger toward sin, righteous anger, is put on God Himself. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:38.879 He takes it. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:41.600 So we look at this story, and there's two men. 00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:43.840 There's Joshua, this military hero. 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:44.559 He's a stud. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:45.519 People know this guy. 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:49.279 I mean, he's a leader of leader, he's a leader of a nation. 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:55.840 And we get to see behind the scenes where he is just on his knees. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:57.039 What's going on? 00:09:57.200 --> 00:09:58.559 Why'd you bring this here? 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:00.879 I mean, he is full of doubt. 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:03.120 He is full of despair. 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:08.399 I mean, this guy is a range of confidence and despair, a range of strength and weakness. 00:10:08.559 --> 00:10:12.879 And here we see him truly doubting God, lacking faith. 00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:15.440 He is not who he should be. 00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:18.399 God, are you for us? 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:20.000 God, what are you doing? 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:24.960 And then there's this other guy at the beginning of the story, Achan, who took the devoted things. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:34.000 Now, what we know from the chapter before is this is talking about items won in the battle that were used in Canaanite worship. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:38.320 And God says, Don't make yourself rich off of those items. 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:47.679 But he decided he was gonna desire personal wealth off those items more than what God had asked him to do. 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:50.639 So he is not who he should be. 00:10:50.879 --> 00:11:00.080 Two different men, neither being who they should be, and yet we see God react differently to each of them because Achan is struck down. 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.519 And with Joshua, God's patient. 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:08.080 So God works with Joshua but strikes down Achan. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:15.039 And Achan, we understand the seriousness of sin, the justice of God, so we get that. 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:18.799 That's how important and huge the grace of God is. 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:22.399 That's how serious our sin is. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:26.080 That God Himself in His grace put it upon the cross. 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:29.440 That's why we talk about the cross, talk about Jesus all the time. 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:32.799 And in Joshua, we understand the graciousness of God. 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:38.000 Now, if this is the only story you have, it's like so many Old Testament stories. 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:43.679 If you're gonna build your life around an Old Testament story like this, you have a manic God. 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:47.440 Because you never know how God's gonna be regarding you or relating to you. 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:50.320 Is he relating to you like he relates to Achan? 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:54.559 And every time you mess up, he strikes you down or is disappointed in you? 00:11:55.679 --> 00:12:02.799 Or does he relate to you and regard you like he does Joshua and he is with you and he is walking with you and forming you? 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:08.320 See, if we only have this story, we have a man at God, but we don't only have this story. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:13.360 This story exists in a larger story of the gospel, the biblical arch. 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:25.200 So we take this story as God is leading us story by story through history to understand the fullness of his character and the importance of the cross. 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:36.000 This story is leading us to the larger story, and that his regard to us is always grace and love, even in discipline. 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:38.720 Listen to Hebrews 12, 7 through 11. 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:41.919 It is for discipline that you have to endure. 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:44.960 God is treating you as sons, or we say children. 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:46.960 God's treating you as children. 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:51.279 For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 00:12:51.519 --> 00:12:58.480 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:03.679 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:08.480 Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:17.919 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:22.480 So his discipline is for our good and for our formation. 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:27.759 Verse 11, for the moment of all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. 00:13:27.919 --> 00:13:29.679 I love that admission there. 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:38.320 But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:47.440 Point number three is this in Jesus, we know God is not angry with us, nor does he condemn us. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:49.039 That's the first part of the point. 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:53.519 In Jesus, we know God is not angry with us, nor does he condemn us. 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:54.799 Second part of this point. 00:13:54.960 --> 00:14:00.240 Rather, God lovingly pursues you and forms you. 00:14:01.679 --> 00:14:04.480 This word discipline in this passage, here's what this word means. 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:20.720 This word discipline, intense training or formation of your soul to cultivate and bring new life and curb you away from things of darkness and death. 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:27.440 Who doesn't want a loving God who is committed to that inside of us? 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:31.679 God may form you. 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:36.159 He will form you, but he is never belittling you. 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:39.120 And he's not angry with you. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:47.759 The fathering of the story, the glimpse of the gospel shows up there in verses 10 through 13 as he begins to speak to Joshua. 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:49.679 The Lord tells Joshua to get up. 00:14:49.840 --> 00:14:51.120 The people have sinned, get up. 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:53.200 The people have sinned, get rid of the devoted things. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:54.720 They need to consecrate themselves. 00:14:54.799 --> 00:15:00.559 So that word consecrate, other key word in the passage, it means to be set apart unto God. 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:03.440 Now, this is the law of all religions. 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:09.679 Set yourself apart, get yourself good enough, and then I will be with you. 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:14.080 It's even the law of the Old Testament, the law. 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:30.639 But God uses the law to drive us to the grace of God, to Jesus who fulfills the law, so that we can understand the holiness and justice of God, but live in the grace and the love of God that we have in Jesus. 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:37.200 That's the beauty of the biblical art, our big story that we are a part of. 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:51.519 So the question is never, the question is never whether you're suffering, you're losing your job, your salary's being reduced, you get sick, you know somebody who's sick, all sorts of different sufferings or disappointments or sadness and stress, all of that. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:55.519 The question, all of that is never is God angry with me? 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:57.600 That's not the question. 00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:07.600 The question is always, and all of this discomfort and in all this suffering, and all the victory, the question is actually, I think three questions. 00:16:08.480 --> 00:16:09.519 Three questions. 00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:15.200 Abba Father, how are you lovingly fathering me in this? 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:17.039 That'd be a good question to ask. 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:20.240 How are you lovingly fathering me in this? 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:24.559 How are you, question number two, how are you forming me in this? 00:16:25.919 --> 00:16:30.320 That's that discipline, that formation, that intense training of the soul. 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:34.960 How are you forming the inside parts of who I am in this? 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:41.200 Question number three, in your kindness, what are you calling me to surrender? 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:48.159 Last Sunday was the strangest Easter I've ever had. 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:49.360 I don't know about you. 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:50.960 It was just a strange day, right? 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:52.320 I mean, that's a strange Easter. 00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:56.639 We pre-recorded Easter early on and we posted it for everybody. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:58.399 So I woke up like you. 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:04.799 I just woke up to have a Sunday Easter at home with my family. 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:06.720 So I woke up and I went for a walk. 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:08.799 Like this is like a normal person Sunday. 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:10.319 It was kind of amazing in a way. 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:12.079 I went for a walk, came home. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:16.000 We had breakfast, we did Easter baskets. 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:21.920 So it was amazing in a way that I actually had an Easter Sunday morning. 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:27.599 I mean, for people in ministry and for pastors, they don't get a lot of Easter Sunday mornings that are low stress. 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:29.519 Just got to be with my family. 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:31.680 It's still weird not to be together, though, right? 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:34.000 Like that was the weirdness and the strange part of it. 00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:41.119 And then our little family, we sat around and we watched our Redeemer online worship and we watched Sam lead us in worship. 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:46.640 We did not watch the sermon because I think that's odd to make your children watch you preach to them. 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:47.920 So we didn't do that. 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:50.160 We did the children's lesson. 00:17:50.400 --> 00:17:52.640 And I was doing yard work by 11 a.m. 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:53.759 What a weird day. 00:17:53.839 --> 00:17:55.839 What a weird Easter. 00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:00.400 And then that night, Christy and I were watching the NBC News, right? 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:05.680 And that dramatic music, every headline, like the headline's always worse than the data or the news afterward. 00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:07.599 The headline's awful with that dramatic news. 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:13.599 I'm just all my anxiousness is building up, and then I calm a little bit down as they kind of break down that news report. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:18.240 And then the next headline, you know, after the commercial comes up and all that, you know, huge dramatic news. 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:22.240 I'm just growing in sadness over some of this data and some of these stories. 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:23.519 I'm growing in anxiousness. 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:25.119 I'm scared to get out of my recliner. 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:28.720 I'm pretty sure coronavirus is on every doorknob in my house, it's on the remote. 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:30.079 I'm scared to change the volume. 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:33.279 I'm just in my chair getting more and more anxious, right? 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:38.400 Because you've watched the news, you know this legitimate sadness and anxiousness and stress. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:45.599 And I'm just stuck in that recliner, going, you know, this was supposed to be Easter, and I'm just stuck in all this anxiousness and all this stress. 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:51.039 And then the end of the NBC, national news, at the end of it. 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:59.119 They go to Andre Bacelli's concert in Milan, Italy, in the Duomo Cathedral. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:02.880 That morning, Easter Sunday morning, he does an online worship. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:09.039 22 million people watch this concert as he sings to an empty cathedral. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:15.920 I think at this point, I've just looked, I think 38 million people have watched it on YouTube, but the clips have been cut up and put up. 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:23.519 Hundreds of millions of people have seen different clips of him seeing this empty cathedral on Easter Sunday morning. 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:26.640 And then the last song, he walks outside of the cathedral. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:27.599 Maybe you saw it. 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:34.640 He walks outside of the cathedral to a lone microphone there in the plaza, and the plaza is empty. 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:41.359 Nobody, and he sings to an empty plaza, but he sings to the entire world, and he only sings one song out there. 00:19:41.440 --> 00:19:43.279 And what song does he sing? 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:45.519 And it's the song NBC showed. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:47.440 They showed it on national television. 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:52.400 He sings amazing grace to the entire world. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:58.000 Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. 00:19:58.160 --> 00:20:02.079 You see, that is our story, and all that anxiety and that stress inside of me. 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:03.920 It didn't totally go away, I'll be honest. 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:09.599 But it did lessen a little bit, and certainly I started to tear up a little bit hearing him sing. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:12.160 Because that's our story. 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:16.559 That's our story more than circumstances is our story. 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:23.599 Circumstances are a part of our story, but it is not our story that defines us and who we are. 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:29.599 See, one moment our hearts feel like water. 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:37.680 And in another moment, our hearts can be fierce in love and in strength. 00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:46.240 And that movement does not come because we become strong all of a sudden. 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:56.799 That movement actually comes because in our weakness we find that we have greater and greater strength in a God who has us in all moments, whether in confidence or despair. 00:20:57.119 --> 00:21:02.880 That's the goodness of God, the strength of God, the faithfulness of God that we have. 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:07.599 Not that we are strong, but that He is strong for us. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:14.319 That's the goodness of the gospel story, the biblical arc, our story. 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:15.839 Let's pray together. 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:20.000 God, thank you for your graciousness. 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:29.839 Thank you for the biblical story that we have from Genesis to Revelation to understand the fullness of your character, that you are fully just. 00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:38.480 And yes, you hold anger toward that which causes destruction in this world, known as sin, even destruction inside of us. 00:21:41.359 --> 00:21:58.319 But that that wrath has been put upon yourself, that you are both just and you are fully gracious, and that you're not angry with us as we are imperfect, but you are committed to us for the formation of our souls. 00:21:59.039 --> 00:22:01.759 Thank you that you're a loving father in that way. 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:15.680 May we, in any disappointment and sadness and stress, anxiety, suffering, even our mistakes, may we not say, God, are you angry with me? 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:26.640 But would we come into greater repentance, greater surrender, and say, loving Father, how are you wanting to form me in these days of difficulty? 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:35.599 And we thank you for the story that though we are weak, we are made strong in Jesus. 00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:38.799 How amazing your grace is to us. 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:47.200 Let this be the story that we rest in while circumstances all around us are fragile. 00:22:49.039 --> 00:22:56.240 Help us to rest again more and deeper in the goodness and the work of Jesus for us. 00:22:56.480 --> 00:22:56.960 Amen.