Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.
Raquel West: Please pray this prayer of illumination with me.
Raquel West: Guide us, O God, by your word and spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find freedom, and in your will discover your peace through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Raquel West: Amen.
Raquel West: Today's scripture reading comes from 2 Timothy 2.
Raquel West: You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
Raquel West: Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Raquel West: No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
Raquel West: An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
Raquel West: It is the hardworking farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.
Raquel West: Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in every way, in everything.
Raquel West: Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal.
Raquel West: But the word of God is not bound.
Raquel West: Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Raquel West: The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him.
Raquel West: If we endure, we will also reign with him.
Raquel West: If we deny him, he also will deny us.
Raquel West: If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
Raquel West: This is God's word.
Raquel West: You may be seated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, happy new year, everyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so you'll see behind me that once we go from the vision series, actually the last week of January, first two weeks of February will be a series called Winter Wisdom.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then we will kick off a series through the parables that will bring us all the way through the spring until we get to summer in the Psalms.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All right.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So you get an idea.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is kind of a where we are, where we're going, and that's a ministry calendar behind you, so you have an idea for that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, not only our congregational space, but our communities and circles kick back off in mid-January.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so if you want to find out more about that, you can again fill out a connect card or go to the connect table in the back, and they can help you get connected as well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The first third of this sermon is going to be recapping 2025, in a way.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Things you've already seen, already heard.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, in order to do that, I just want to point out, I preached this very same passage this Sunday last year.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the reason for that is because last year we started by saying, What is our biblical, robust, simple, compelling, and reproducible definition of a disciple?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we said, a disciple, as you'll see behind me, is united to Jesus in communion with God, community with one another, and co-mission for the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That was last January's vision series.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then in August, we doubled down on, okay, so if that's a definition of a disciple, what does fruitfulness look like for New City?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You know, every organization has to ask and answer the questions, are we succeeding?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Are we doing what we're trying to do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Are we, and if so, how?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what's our plan for it?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so we talked in August about our vision, our call to fruitfulness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so we took that definition and we turned it into not just disciple-defined, but a disciple-defined diagram, which you'll also see behind me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so you'll you'll notice here, this was this was really what we talked about.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And kids, if you will, I know it's family worship Sunday, draw this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come show me afterward.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'd be really pleased.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Adults, you can too.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'd be happy about that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Fine.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Um, so the disciple-defined diagram looks like this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We start with our union with Christ by faith alone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And from that center flows out everything else in the Christian life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So, in order to draw on our union with Christ, we practice communion with Him through receiving from Him and responding to Him ongoingly, continually in all of life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's union and communion with God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, that is the heart, the power source, the hub, if you will, of our community with one another.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our community with one another, where we are known and loved and we know and love, is sustained by our communion with God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And our communion with God is kind of displaced outward through the structure of our community with one another.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then finally, if this is a wheel, the rubber meets the road in our co-mission for the world, where we move towards the world through our work and our witness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Through our work, not just what we get compensated for, but our contribution to the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Not only that, but also our witness, how we bear witness to Jesus in all of life, our who we are, our thoughts, our words, our deeds, those kind of things.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, so that is disciple-defined diagram.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, with that, there is a quote I want to read from a guy named Neil Cole, because this this matters to us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what he says.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Your church is only as good as her disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It doesn't matter how good your praise, preaching, programs, or property are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If your disciples are passive, needy, consumerist, and not moving in the direction of radical obedience, your church is not good.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Full stop.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I believe that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I sincerely believe that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it's one of the reasons why it's a joy to pastor New City is because I do believe that we are moving in the direction of radical obedience.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I believe that that's true of New City, and I'm thankful for that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But it's not only that we would deepen as disciples, but that we would see not yet disciples drawn into this life that we have together in Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, and so the second part of this really is um we said our vision, our mission is to call for him and send disciple makers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What that means is that our desire, our aim, what we're after is you becoming the kind of people who can invite a not yet disciple through your work and witness into your community with one another to receive and respond to Jesus as he's offered in the gospel so that they're united to him by faith, and that's only half of it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then to walk with them, teaching them how do they commune with God?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How do they live in community?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How do they go out and work and witness on commission for the world?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, a disciple maker, there's an old phrase which is each one for each one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A disciple maker is willing to take spiritual responsibility for at least one other person to walk them through this process.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what fruitfulness looks like for New City.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Everything we're doing, congregations, communities, circles, common rhythm, all of our communication, our worship, everything is unto that end.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And if it's not, we probably should prune it for greater greater fruitfulness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So I'm saying all of this, and I said this exact same thing in August.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you don't believe me, believe the man.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: By that I mean C.S.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Lewis.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says this this is the whole of Christianity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There is nothing else.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Lean in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What do you have to say, Lewis?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It is so easy to get muddled about that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's easy to think that the church has a lot of different objects: education, building, missions, holding services, all good things, right?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The church exists for nothing else but to draw men and women into Christ, to make them little Christs.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself are simply a waste of time.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God became man for no other purpose.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This idea of drawing others in and then forming them so that they become little Christs out in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see the movement of centripetal and centrifugal force that we see in the disciple-defined diagram that Lewis is talking about here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, so all of that is a long-winded way of saying we want God's evaluation of New City's fruitfulness to be our evaluation of New City's fruitfulness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the only way that we can know what that is, learn what that is, is by looking at scripture itself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if you have a Bible or device, go ahead and get 2 Timothy out in front of you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, don't look at your worship guide because this is what happens when preachers change their sermon text a little bit too late in the game.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So look at a Bible or device and get 2 Timothy chapter 2 in front of you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, last year I said I preached on this and I really talked about verses 1 through 7.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so I'm actually gonna punt on most of that and say, go back and listen to the sermon exactly a year ago.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you want one through seven.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is my recap.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I said that the grit of disciple making is spiritual parenting, the goal of disciple making is generational discipleship.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The grit of disciple making is that you have to give your life away, and that the grace of disciple making is union and communion with Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so today, all we're gonna do is I want to double-click on that last one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is the grace of disciple making?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does it look like that we are called into communion?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How do we practice that in real life?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What exactly does that mean?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so we're gonna linger over verse one together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 1.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Paul writing to Timothy says this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Many of you maybe know 2 Timothy is Paul's final letter.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: These are the dying words of a spiritual father to a spiritual son.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And as he's about to die, what does Paul say to his disciple, his child in the faith?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, Be strong.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Be strong.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, if you're familiar with the scope of scripture, Moses on his deathbed, if you will, said the exact same thing to Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He said, Be strong, Joshua.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: David to his son Solomon, as he's about to hand off the kingdom of Israel to his son, he says, Be strong, Solomon.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now we get to Paul speaking to Timothy, and he says, You then, my child, be strengthened, be strong.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, there's something important to note here, and I'm only going to fly over verses three through six, but if you read those, you'd see that there's three pictures Paul gives: a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All three, very different vocations in many ways.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All three of them are characterized by a certain amount of strength.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It requires strength to be a soldier and an athlete and a farmer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, discipleship, it is a muscular thing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It requires grit and fortitude and resilience to be a disciple of Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So then does that mean Christianity is not for the faint of heart?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, I think there's a hint in the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look again at verse 1, it says, You then my child.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now it's family worship Sunday.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Kids, I know you're in here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You are known for lots of lovely things, but strength is not one of them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So when he calls Timothy a child, not a man, not some strong, masculine.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not what he says.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, You then my child.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So what is this?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, there's a paradox, lots of paradoxes at the heart of Christianity, but there's one right here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Paul is calling the weak to be strong.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's saying, in order to do what you're called to do, you must be strong, and yet he acknowledges that we are weak.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What do we make of this?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, look again at the verse.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 1, it says, You then, my child, be strengthened.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's translated properly because this is a present passive imperative.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does that mean?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means that strength is not generated from within, but received from outside.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what it means.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Be strengthened.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It means that since he can command this, he's commanding him to open himself up to a strength from outside of himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if you're in this room and you're like, hey, all that you just said about disciple making, all that stuff, I feel too weak to engage in that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Welcome to the club.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So did Timothy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So was Paul.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Paul said three times to Jesus, Would you take away this thorn in my flesh?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what did Jesus say to him?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: My grace is sufficient for you in your weakness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In your weakness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So weakness, far from barring you from being a disciple or a disciple maker, is the only thing really in this text that qualifies you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But it's not just weakness, it is an active passivity, as Francis Schaefer called it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I prefer an active receptivity towards receiving a strength from outside you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We say that communion with God is receiving and responding.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It starts with receiving, it starts with acknowledging your limits, your weakness, and receiving a strength from outside of you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This isn't resignation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not inactivity, it's not let go and let God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's actually more like Mary, who yielded herself, her very body, to the work of God in her life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a good way to describe what discipleship is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's yielding our hearts, souls, minds, and strength to the work of God, to the strength of God passing into our lives.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so rather than strengthening yourself, this isn't about fitness, although statistically, 79% of resolutions for the new year are fitness related.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is not a fitness goal here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not about that so much.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's more about placing yourself in the place where strength can be found.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Where is that?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look again at verse 1.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says, You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus Himself is the place where the resources of strength can be found.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And this is actually exactly what we see in Deuteronomy 31.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When Moses is dying, he says, Joshua, be strong.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, Be strong, for the Lord your God is with you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the rest of that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in 1 Samuel 30, which you'll read on Wednesday in the Seeing Jesus Together Bible reading plan.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I'd encourage you to underline this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's this moment when all goes bad for David.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So people come in, they capture their wives and their things, and they go out, and David's own people are about to kill him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And David is distressed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then it says in 1 Samuel 30, verse 6, but David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to touch that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to know that in lived experience.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I will not settle for anything less than empirically proving by my discipleship to Jesus that there is a strength accessible to normal people like me that is outside of me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I want that for you too.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why we're being called into communion.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to know what David knew when he said he strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does that mean?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does that look like for us?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, I believe Paul knew it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I believe Paul knew it because he says to the Ephesian church in Ephesians 6.10, he says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: An energy, a power that's accessible, available to us, to those who would receive it from Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, what does that actually mean?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does that look like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why I cued you a little bit to this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It has to do with the nearness of Jesus, the presence of Jesus, right?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In the Great Commission, Jesus tells us to go do the thing that every church ought to be doing, making disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he ends the whole thing by saying, I will be with you always.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, the presence, the nearness, the closeness of Jesus is the source of our strength.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, how do we do this?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How do we do this practically?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does it actually look like to do this in real life?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As I said, normal, ordinary people who just happen to be united to the creator of the universe.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does that look like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to give you three things from our text, starting with the first one, which is I believe that being called into communion is a moment by moment practicing of the presence of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse 8.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 2 Timothy 2.8 says this: remember Jesus Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Remember Jesus Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The idea of remembering or reminding or redirecting your attention over and over and over again to the living, resurrected Lord who is in our midst.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what Paul tells Timothy to do.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, not in the tomb anymore, alive and well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hudson Taylor had this beautiful prayer that I pray sometimes, Lord, be to me today a bright, living reality.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is alive and well, and he's active in our midst, and he's with you in the mundane, ordinary minutiae of everyday life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so this moment by moment practicing of the presence of God, I think is important because it it recognizes human nature.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you spend much time with humans, like yourself, you realize that we actually have pretty limited control.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Even our willpower is pretty finite.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's why all the literature around this time of year is about habits.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And how do you build habits and how do you sustain habits?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because your willpower is pretty weak.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But here's one thing you do have willpower over to direct your attention.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You get to you get to choose what to focus your mind on.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, I I I know enough psychology to know your mind gets grabbed and ensnared and entangled and pulled in a thousand different directions.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And yet you can unhook your mind and draw it back to a focal point of attention.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's one of the things we do have active control over.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, because of that, I believe that we can choose what we want to think about.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, this is a habitual thing over time.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And this is what Dallas Willard says about it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says the first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is the fundamental secret of caring for our souls.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our part in practicing the presence of God is to direct and redirect our minds constantly to God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In the early time of our practicing, we may well be challenged by our burdensome habits of dwelling on things that are less than God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Anybody say amen?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Your mind draws towards things that are less than God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a burdensomeness to that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But he says it like this: but these are habits, not the law of gravity, and they can be broken.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He goes on to say, a new grace-filled habit will replace the former ones as we take intentional steps toward keeping God before us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Soon our minds will return to God as the needle of a compass constantly returns to the north.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If God is the great longing of our souls, he will become the pole star of our inward beings.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This was David's spiritual secret in Psalm 1680, he says, I have set the Lord always before me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because he's at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You want to be resilient?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You want to be unshakable?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Set the Lord always before you, David says.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How do we do that?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here's a few ideas.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pay attention to the transitions in your day.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're coming out of a meeting, you're going into class, you're in car line, you're getting a phone call.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And take those moments as opportunities, invitations, if you will, to redirect your attention towards God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I have uh one of those old school Casio watches, it beeps every hour.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I used to hate that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I turned it back on recently because I wanted to do this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That beep is now a church bell reminding me to pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's saying, draw your attention.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Attend to the fact that you are not alone in this universe.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, you are in Christ Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's one of the ways that we get to do this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Another one is the moments when you feel weak can be cues that you are weak and you need strength from outside yourself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I can't tell you how many meetings I have on a regular basis that I never feel capable for.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I always feel out of my depth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That doesn't go away.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You will be discipling people and they will say this phrase.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a beautiful phrase.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I almost want to take off my shoes and honor them because I say this is holy ground when people say this to me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've never told anyone that before.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Powerful moment of being known and loved in community, and yet most of us feel way out of our depth to handle that moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in fact, as soon as you feel like you're like, oh, I can crush these moments, you're in bad shape.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Use that moment of weakness to respond by going, Lord, would you have mercy?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Help me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Give me wisdom, give me strength, give me words.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I don't have them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm just a little child.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But you have them, and you open yourself, you direct your attention towards God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You practice moment by moment the presence of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me tell you two stories.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There was a hospital chaplain who was kind of thrown into the deep end in his first year of chaplaincy, and he said, I saw more death in the first two weeks of my chaplaincy than I'd ever imagined or ever seen in my life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He said, I was weary, I was overwhelmed, I was receiving what's called vicarious trauma.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It was too much.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he said, He learned, actually.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When he walked into a room, not knowing what to expect, he was he was able to offer his very thoughts and feelings to God and thereby to die to them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He said, Lord, I'm tired of death, but these people need a chaplain who can be present and attentive and serve them well.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to run away and finish quickly, so I die to that desire, and I trust that you will strengthen me to serve them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Help me to be attentive to your spirit and your people in this next encounter.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I don't know what you're gonna go through or what you're gonna walk into this upcoming week, but I promise you there will be things that are outside of your ability to master and to control, and that's a good place to be as a human being.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's an invitation to practice the presence of God in that moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Another story, because I think that asking and answering these questions of communion that are on your worship guide that we say every Sunday, which is, Lord, what are you saying and doing?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And given who I am, how can I respond?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Uh there's a story of a man, many of you will know him uh right away, which is George Washington Carver.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's famous for being the inventor of peanut butter.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But I hope you know the backstory.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's actually an amazing human being.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Um, you see, George Washington Carver was born in slavery in Missouri in 1864.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he was so brilliant that he excelled beyond his peers in his day, but he constantly faced ridicule.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is why.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Not only because he was a black man, but also because he believed that science and faith were integrally connected, never to be separated.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He called his lab God's Little Workshop, where he did his experiments.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he says when he would go out and study and explore nature, he described nature as full of broadcast stations whereby God is constantly communicating to him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He was asking questions like, Lord, what are you saying and doing in this peanut right here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now he tells the story of going out one morning and praying, and he said it like this All my life I've risen regularly at four in the morning to go into the woods and talk with God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's where he reveals his secrets to me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When everybody else is asleep, I hear God best and learn my plan.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, what's he doing in this moment?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's going out to be alone with God and God alone, and God reveals his secrets to him about the peanut.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He tells his story, he says, God told me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Uh he told me that that my task is to explore the peanut because anything bigger than that would just be too big for me to handle.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he came up with 300 different uses for the peanut, which might not seem like that big of a deal now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We love peanut butter, blah, blah, blah.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This changed the lives of countless people who were stuck in poverty because the peanut was accessible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now they could use it for shampoo and food and different things like that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All because God worked through this man who was willing to show up moment by moment and ask the question, Lord, what are you saying and doing?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, so communion with God is about creativity for the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not just about you in your cloister, having good feelings with your cup of coffee and a candle lit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's about bettering the world, it's about making a difference.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what was said about George Washington Carver inscribed on the Roosevelt Medal that he was awarded in 1939 to a scientist humbly seeking the guidance of God and a liberator to men of the white race as well as the black.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This man was an advocate for justice in his time, and it all started in one place: communion with God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And it flowed from that place to change the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: George Washington Carvers, this beautiful picture of what it means to moment by moment practice the presence of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the first one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The second one is that we want to day by day feed on the word of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Day by day feed on the word of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 9 with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Second Timothy 2 9 says this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's talking about preaching the gospel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says, for which I am suffering.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the word of God is not bound.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Paul's in chains, the word of God is not.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what he's saying here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Charles Spurgeon said it like this The Word of God is like a lion.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You don't have to defend a lion, you just let it out of its cage, takes care of the rest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The word of God is not bound, it has a potency, a power.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But one of the primary sources of power for us, strength for us, is when we feed on the word of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Psalm 104, it says that God gave man bread to strengthen him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And in Matthew 4, Jesus says to the devil, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a way to engage with Scripture, and I'm calling it feeding on the Word of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's actually nourishing and strengthening.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, the study that Chris Moore referenced a little bit ago, this 2009 study from the Center for Bible Engagement, had about over 40,000 participants in this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So this is not like some JV study.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is a big deal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 40,000 participants, and they found that if you engaged in the Bible, you had uh, additional to the ones that Chris mentioned, 50% lower odds of being uh drunkenness and alcoholism.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He said, they said 68% less likely to engage in sexual sin and teens, by the way, uh lowers your chances of risky behavior more than worshiping and praying, reading the Bible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, those are the kind of things that staves off, but here's the keystone habit things, the things that it improves.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you read the scriptures, it says sharing your faith goes up 200%.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So here's the thing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you want to share your faith more, read your Bible more.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what this is saying.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Not only that, discipling others goes up 230%.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Can you see why we're making a big deal about this scripture practice in the common rhythm?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We say scripture practice is hearing God's voice in scripture before any others.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's intentional.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a tech discipline there.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Saying no to text messages and social media and news apps and email, saying no to those things.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They don't get first voice into your life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The word of God gets the first voice into your life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now here's the kicker.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All of those amazing stats about reading the Bible are only true of people who read the Bible four or more days a week.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen to this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you read the scriptures, reading, listening, doesn't matter, either one's fine.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you read the scriptures three days or less, it does basically nothing to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Isn't that insane?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Four is the threshold, four's the inflection point, four is the moment when it goes from basically null to exponential growth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what the data shows.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, why do I think that is?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, why do you eat four or more days a week?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because it's nourishing and strengthening, and it does something to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the word of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, not only that, but I think four or more is a saturation point.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now you go from being somebody who sometimes reads the Bible to being a Bible reader.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You are engaged in the ta in the text of scripture more often than not.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the key.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: More often than not.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so day by day, as we're reading the word, as we're engaging with it, um, this is the this is the promise: consistency over intensity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It doesn't say if they memorized it, meditated, studied it, they simply read four days a week.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If this is you, start with five minutes in the morning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Start with ten minutes, whatever it takes to get going, to get four or more, and begin now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, if you're wondering how, what does it actually look like?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've got a common rhythm workshop for you to come to next Sunday, led by our elders.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's gonna be amazing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You can find out more on our app.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, so moment by moment we practice the presence of God day by day.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We feed on the word of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is where I'm gonna land the plane.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In all of life, we participate in the Son of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verses 11 through 13 with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what it says.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The saying is trustworthy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In other words, you could build your life on this saying right here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The saying is trustworthy, for if we have died with him, we will also live with him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If we endure with him, we will also reign with him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One of my favorite definitions of discipleship is training for reigning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You will reign with King Jesus one day.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you endure, if you die.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because he wants to entrust his power to people who are trustworthy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The people he can trust are those who die to themselves, just like Jesus died to himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Those who endure with him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is the good news of this text right here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If we don't give up, we win.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That changes your life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Doesn't matter how low things are, if you don't give up, you win if you're in Christ.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That is incredible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But if we do give up, there's a warning here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says, if we deny him, he also will deny us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus was very clear about this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you deny me before others, I will deny you before my Father who is in heaven.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The point of this is, is how can Jesus advocate for you in eternity if you denied him in time?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If things got so bad that you gave up, dipped out, abandoned ship.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, here's the last part, which I think is encouraging.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says in verse 13, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, there's two possible interpretations of that verse.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm giving them to you because I don't want to try to pull a fast one on you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Both are biblical, but this text is only saying one and not the other.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here's the two possibilities.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When it says if we are faithless, it means that we have abandoned the faith.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If that's the case, God is faithful to not only his promises, but his warnings, and you will depart from him into the outer darkness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's one possible interpretation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not the one I hold.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The one I hold is that when it says if we are faithless, it means weak, wobbly, weary, easily swayed, fickle, but still saying yes to Jesus in the end.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If that's you, if you're faithless, you say, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If that's you, when we're faithless, he remains faithful.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because he cannot deny himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here's my exegetical rationale for that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God cannot deny himself, and it says at the beginning of the text that you are in Christ Jesus, you belong to him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He cannot deny Jesus, the head cannot say to his arm, nah, not me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He cannot deny himself, even if that arm needs to do some bicep curls.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is good news for those of us who are weak and faltering.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's said differently.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a world of difference, people who get knocked off of a ship overboard in the midst of a hurricane versus those who abandon ships so they don't have to take the helm.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Those are two different categories of people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so even if this morning you're feeling faithless, weak.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Psalm 63, verse 8, one of my favorite texts in all of scripture says this my soul clings to you, your right hand upholds me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Which is more important, your clinging or his holding?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me tell you a quick story.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When my boy Augustine was two years old, took him to the new Smyrna, walked him out into the waves, ankle, knee, waist, it's getting deeper and deeper and deeper.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And eventually I picked him up and held him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I could feel his little two-year-old hands gripping me with all his might because he's nervous.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you've been in the ocean, you're not in control.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He knows that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I've got my arms underneath him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now let me ask you this: which arms are more important?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The two-year-olds or the 32-year-olds?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: My soul clings to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But underneath are the everlasting arms, upholding me in all things.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, brothers and sisters, if if you then, my brothers and sisters, want to live the life of faith, discipleship to Jesus, to make disciples, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, moment by moment, by practicing the presence of God, day by day, by feeding on the word of God, and in all of life, by participating in the Son of God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Father, we pause before you now and we say, We are weak and needy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We are not strong.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We do not have it all together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But oh, thanks be to God that you that that doesn't qualify us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What qualifies us is our willingness to come to you with open hands to receive.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Strengthen us, Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Strengthen us through your word, strengthen us at this table as we come and feast with you and on you by faith.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We pray these things in your name.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Amen.