Episode Transcript
[00:00:17] Several. Several months ago, I had the opportunity to.
[00:00:21] To go on a trip to Broken Bow. Anybody ever been to Broken Bow? No. Thank you, Sky. Few people have been a Broken Bow. All right, so I had an opportunity to go on a trip to Broken Bow. And I love taking walks.
[00:00:34] It just helps me clear my mind. It's a good opportunity for me to pray and to think deeply. And so sometimes if I feel myself being a little bit absent with my family or those around me, I'm like, I should probably take a walk to just let these thoughts kind of work themselves out.
[00:00:50] So I got up on this particular day and I went for a walk in Broken Boat. I had never been there before, so I did not know the land. I didn't know really anything about where I was other than where I was currently at. And I decided, I'm going to leave my phone at home because I don't want that distraction. Okay. And so I left my phone at home and I just took off walking because that's kind of the way that I live my life most of the time. I don't always necessarily plan things out in advance. Just, I praise God for Taylor. We've talked about this many times. An associate pastor is a wonderful gift for a lead pastor, because lead pastors often aren't the most detailed people, and we just have a lot of ideas. And so I had an idea. I'm like, I'm going to put my phone away. I'm going to go for a walk. And so I take off and I go for a walk in Broken Bow. And I get about 15, 20 minutes into the walk, and I kind of look around and I realize I do not know where I am and I don't know how to get back. And I felt simultaneously both embarrassed because I knew it was going to take me forever to find my way back. And people were going to ask why? And I was going to have to say, because I got lost.
[00:01:50] And then secondarily, I felt a little bit afraid. Like, I was just like, oh, man. Like, that would be a bummer if the sun went down and I was lost out here and start thinking about all these, like, doomsday scenarios. And so I just started walking. I was like, I'm just gonna walk and hope that I see some kind of a landmark that reminds me of where I am. And Lord willing, I found my way back. Obviously, I'm here today. I made it back and all was well. But the point of me sharing this story is to say that I think sometimes in our lives, in our Christian lives. We're not really clear on where we're going.
[00:02:27] And so I heard a pastor say this one time, and I thought, man, that's true. He said, what do you and I do more than anything else when we wake up in the morning? And the answer is, whatever we want.
[00:02:40] That's what we do. We wake up and we do whatever we want to do, get dressed, we brush our teeth, we eat breakfast, we do whatever, get on our phone, we do whatever we want to do, Right? So I wonder how many of us have a clear idea of where we're going. So for you individually, if you're a follower of Jesus, or if you're not, where are you going? Like, what's the aim of your life? What's the North Star, so to speak, of your life?
[00:03:12] What about us as a church? Like, where are we going?
[00:03:15] Okay, well, here's the beautiful thing about the Bible. If you want to know what the will of God is, open up the book.
[00:03:22] Because God. God has given us a North Star individually, as Christians and as a church, like he's told us, hey, this is where I want you to go. And these verses Today, specifically verses 13 to 16, give us this amazing insight. Almost like we're pulling the curtain back and God's saying, hey, these people of faith. And we've defined faith like this. Faith is simply childlike trust in God. That's what faith is. The word faith is a bit ambiguous, and it can mean all sorts of things, and we typically attribute it to big things.
[00:04:01] You have faith that God's going to do big things, and certainly that's part of it. But faith, as we see it throughout the scripture, manifested in small, little ordinary acts of trusting God.
[00:04:16] That's what the people of God do. We have childlike trust in God by the Holy Spirit, in the everyday things of life.
[00:04:25] And so I want to talk to you specifically this morning about Sarah. One person, okay, Abraham's wife, Sarah. We're going to talk about who Sarah was, how what faith looked like in Sarah's life. And honestly, that her faith, just like us, was not what it ought to have been. So there were highlights in Sarah's life, and there were significant lowlights in Sarah's life. Can you imagine if your life was written down in the Bible?
[00:04:54] Can you imagine that for, like, all of the world to see, for all time? That's crazy to think about. And the Bible doesn't pull punches. And I think God does that in kindness to us to remind us that, hey, you don't have it all Together. I don't have it all together. They didn't have it all together. There's one hero to the story, and the hero is Jesus, the risen one, the holy one, the righteous one. And the more you and I become aware from a functional place in our hearts that we're not the righteous one, we're not the holy one, we're not the one holding it all together.
[00:05:27] We're not. Not that one. Jesus is that one. The more you and I will be put into a place of dependence where we can open our hands and say, oh, Jesus, I need you. And that's the best place to be. That's when the Holy Spirit really starts to work in our life. Okay, so let's look at Sarah's life.
[00:05:45] Let's look at the highlights of her faith, the lowlights of her life, and then we'll look at her North Star, okay? And as well as the others in Hebrews, chapter 11.
[00:05:58] So let me. Let me just start off in verse 11. And we're just going to go. We'll go line by line as we. As we do every week.
[00:06:06] All right? Hebrews 11, starting in verse 11, says, by faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age.
[00:06:21] Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age. So I want you guys to flip with me, if you would, to the book of Genesis.
[00:06:33] So all the way back to Genesis, chapter 11, verses 29 and 30, we're going to. I'm going to kind of walk you through a lot of scripture to kind of walk through Sarah's life together. Okay? So Genesis, chapter 11, verses 29 and 30. Hold your place in Hebrews chapter 11. If you don't know where the book of Genesis is, that is okay. Praise God that you're here. It's all the way at the beginning of your Bible, very first book of the Bible.
[00:07:01] So Genesis, chapter 11, verses 29 and 30. And this is what it says. This is where we're introduced to Sarah. It says, and Abram, that's Sarah's husband, Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai.
[00:07:18] And the name of Nahor's wife, Milka, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milka and Isca. Now, Sarai was barren. She had no child. So the first introduction we get to this woman of faith was that she was barren. She could not have children.
[00:07:36] So we get a little bit of insight into the suffering of this dear sister.
[00:07:42] Spurgeon said this of Sarah, he said, this holy woman is enrolled among these saintly ones. Her faith was not all it ought to have been. But God saw that it was true faith, and he loved it.
[00:07:58] You ever consider that instead of being discouraged at what your faith is, not considering the possibility and the reality that God loves the little faith that you have?
[00:08:08] He loves it just like a loving mom and dad loves it when their little child takes small, little baby steps of obedience. Even if they fall on their face.
[00:08:20] We love it.
[00:08:22] We love the effort, even if it's tiny.
[00:08:26] So does the Father love little faith? He gave you that faith, by the way.
[00:08:34] But God saw it was true faith, and he loved it, Spurgeon says. And he wrote the record of it. And that's what we have. So we're introduced to Sarah in Genesis, chapter 11, 29 and 30. Look at chapter 12. So just one chapter over in verse five says, and Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son. And all their possessions that they had gathered and the people that they had acquired in Haran. And they set out to go to a land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to a place called Shechem, to the oak of Mora. At that time, the Canaanites lived there in the land.
[00:09:16] And then. Look at verses 12 through 13. I'm sorry, 10 through 13, chapter 12, verses 10 through 13. We're just walking down, says now, there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there. For the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, listen to this and allow this picture to sink into your mind of what's about to happen in this sister's life.
[00:09:39] He said to Sarai, his wife, I know that you're a woman, beautiful in appearance.
[00:09:45] And when the Egyptians see you, they will say, this is his wife. Then they will kill me, but they will let you live.
[00:09:55] Say you're my sister, that it may go well with me because of you. And that my life may be spared for your sake.
[00:10:05] There's our Father of faith, displaying to the whole world a glorious moment of absolute depravity.
[00:10:17] Say you're my sister so that they don't hurt me.
[00:10:21] They'll take you, and God knows what they're going to do to you. But I'm going to be fine.
[00:10:28] Now again, we want to be slow to condemn our brother Abraham.
[00:10:32] Because his life is like ours.
[00:10:36] But think about Sarah.
[00:10:39] She follows her husband into a land she does not know, among a dangerous people that she does not know.
[00:10:46] And she doesn't just follow her husband into the land that she doesn't know among the people she doesn't know, but she actually follows her husband's advice to say that she's his sister and then is taken into captivity by the Egyptians.
[00:11:01] Flip with me to 1 Peter, chapter three.
[00:11:05] We're in Genesis. We're going to 1 Peter. If you don't know where 1 Peter is, it's in the very back of the Bible in the New Testament, after the book of Hebrews, First Peter, chapter three.
[00:11:27] First Peter, chapter three says, likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. And when they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, the putting on of gold, jewelry, or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.
[00:12:20] So Sarah provides a wonderfully sweet example of what it looks like to trust God, her father, and the ordinary things of life, even when it put her life at risk.
[00:12:34] We see this trust in God displayed in Sarah's life.
[00:12:40] Okay, we talked about this last week, but again, maybe another illustration would help us that, you know, when you think about a child running into their arms of their mom and dad and being embraced and picked up by their mom and dad, the level of trust in that little small act that we take for granted every day, many of us do. That little small act is an act of trust.
[00:13:02] And we need to regain the reality that, that this is a picture of the Christian life.
[00:13:08] If you've put your faith in Jesus, you've been adopted into the family of God. God, who used to be your judge only is now your father. You've gone, as one pastor says, from the courtroom to the living room, and that's where you live. That's where I live with our Father.
[00:13:27] And so the Christian life is growing by the power of the Spirit in us to learn to not just trust God salvifically for the saving of our sins, though that's a major part of it, but to trust him in all things, to throw ourselves into the loving arms of the father, trusting him with everything. With your finances, with your future, with your occupation, with your spouse, with your kid's future, with your singleness, everything.
[00:13:55] And we see this beautifully displayed by the grace of God in the life of God, this sister. But as, and, and so because of this, the writer of Hebrews says that God gave her power to conceive.
[00:14:12] God gave Sarah power. She received power to conceive even though she was past the age Sarah was in her 90s when she conceived.
[00:14:23] I mean, that's just again, we. It's like the story of Noah. We become so familiar with some of these things that we lose an awe of, of the reality of how big and wonderful our God is.
[00:14:33] He can do anything, anything he wants to do.
[00:14:38] And so he gives this 90 year old woman, this 100-year-old man, the power. He doesn't just tell him to go off and do it. They had to receive power to do it.
[00:14:50] This was a supernatural. This was. They could not do it naturally, way past the age of menopause, they couldn't do it naturally. And so God had to bestow upon them power to conceive, even though she was past the age. So even though we see wonderful trust displayed in the life of this woman, her trust, as Spurgeon said, was not what it ought to have been in every circumstance.
[00:15:16] Hebrews 11 reminds us, friends, that while these men and women in this chapter illustrate for us what we're called, that we're all called to a life of childlike trust in the Father through Christ, by the Spirit. Hebrews 11 also reminds us that trust is both necessary and precious to God because we have no righteousness in and of ourselves to boast in. And so Hebrews 11 both shows us what faith looks like and how to imitate it. But it also reminds us that these men and women of faith listed in Hebrews 11 were desperately flawed people as we are.
[00:15:53] James 3:2 says, we all stumble in many ways.
[00:15:58] That that text was given to Sidney and I early in our marriage by an older, wiser biblical counselor, as we were kind of stumbling through the first few years of our marriage and falling on our faces a lot. We ended up in his office a lot. And he would always just kind of sit back as an old wise man does, and just kind of smile at us as if all the things we're talking about are normal things.
[00:16:20] And he would always quote this verse, hey. James 3:2 says, we all stumble in many ways, it's just very encouraging. And so we see Sarah, throughout her life, stumble in her faith. I just want to give you a few examples of that. Genesis, chapter 16, verses 1 through 6. Genesis 16, 1 6. You're getting good exercise this morning by flipping to these chapters, okay? You're. You're getting to see the continuity of the Bible, that the Bible tells one story, okay? It's not just a bunch of isolated books, but it tells one story. So Genesis 16, verses 1 through 6. We're going to see Sarah stumble. Here's what it says.
[00:17:01] Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. So this is before she received power to conceive, borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant or slave whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, behold, now the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go into my servant. It may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. There are certain moments for the husbands in the room that it is wise and absolutely right and holy for you to listen to the voice of your wife. She. Our wives are our helpers. And there are other moments when it is not wise to listen to the voice of our wife, okay? And so we need that. We see this in Adam in Genesis, chapter three. We see it in this particular moment in abram in chapter 16. And so Abram listened to the voice of his wife. And so it says, after Abram had lit. Where AM I at 16, okay? After Abram had lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife. And he went into Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, may the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my servant to. To your embrace. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked upon me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me.
[00:18:37] So Sarah, as many of us do, had an issue with control.
[00:18:41] This is where faith is not demonstrated.
[00:18:45] God had given Abram a promise that through him was going to have offspring as many of the stars as the stars in heaven and the sand on the seashore. And in this particular moment, because it wasn't happening right away, Sarah results to her own devices and tries to take control. And disaster is the result of this.
[00:19:05] We see in Genesis 18, verse 22. Genesis 18, verse 22. Another example of Sarah's weakness.
[00:19:21] Genesis 18:22 says, so the men turned from there and went towards Sodom.
[00:19:31] That's not the right verse. Don't know why I put that one down. We see In Genesis 18, we see Sarah demonstrate because of a lack of faith in a particular moment.
[00:19:42] SHE laughs okay, this is a famous story for anybody who's been around the Bible for any amount of time, that when Sarah overhears the three men, which I believe is the Trinity, talking to Abram or Abraham, and hears God give Abraham a promise to say that you're going to have a physical offspring, she overhears this and she laughs. Okay, this is a form of cynicism. How often do you and I, when we spend an extended amount of time praying over a particular thing and we don't see that thing come to fruition, how often is cynicism the result that eventually you and I end up in a place where we say, well, he hasn't answered it yet, hasn't answered it before. What's the point?
[00:20:24] What's the point? Like, that's not going to happen now. We can't fault her for laughing. I mean, she was in her 90s and she's being told that she's going to conceive like that is a bit of a humorous thing to consider, right? But I do think that there's a little bit of cynicism in Sarah's heart in light of her. Her current suffering. We see her develop contempt toward Hagar in Genesis chapter 21. We've talked about this before, where when unresolved frustration, which leads to bitterness and then resentment, is not repented of, it inevitably leads to contempt. And contempt is the belief. It's the fundamental belief that you and I are better than another person.
[00:21:07] So when a marriage gets to the point where a husband or a wife or both have contempt toward one another, it's a really difficult thing to overcome.
[00:21:17] If there's a rooted belief in your heart that you're better than somebody else, you have contempt toward that person. That's a really difficult thing to overcome. But nothing is impossible for God, as we'll see in just a moment. God can do all things.
[00:21:31] So Sarah.
[00:21:33] Sarah was not a perfect person. Sarah did not have faith. She didn't have perfect faith. She had flawed faith. And though Sarah had faith in God, it was not the strength of her trust in God, which was often weak, but it was in the faithfulness of the one who made the promise to her. Look at what the rest of Hebrews 11 has to say to us says that since she considered him faithful, who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many of the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.
[00:22:16] Our faithful God promised this elderly couple, long past their natural time of conception, a child. And that child's name was Isaac. And through that child, many descendants, thousands of descendants over thousands of years would be, would be the result of that promise. But this, this wasn't the innumerable number of descendants that the author of Hebrews is talking about through that natural lineage of Sarah and Abram. We read in the New Testament the Book of Matthew chapter one and Luke chapter two. This is why genealogies are so important. Even though you want to gloss over them, don't do it, okay? Because the genealogies remind you of the faithfulness of God.
[00:22:59] These are real, actual people in these genealogies who lived in real time, who in real time had to trust in the promise of God. You and I get to see, on the other side of redemptive history, this amazing narrative play out by which God promises one child to look at that promises one promises one child to two elderly people far past the age of conception. And then we get to see those. We get to see that promise played out. Person after person after person after person, leading all the way to the one who is absolutely perfect, the Promised One, the snake crusher himself.
[00:23:42] The most glorious thing about Sarah was not her faith. It was the one whom she had faith in.
[00:23:48] Isn't that amazing?
[00:23:50] It's not going to be said of you and I when we come to our death, hopefully, by God's grace, you're a Christian, that wow, look at their amazing faith.
[00:24:01] Look at how flawless their faith was. Look at how they trusted God at all times. That won't be said because it isn't true.
[00:24:08] But what will be true is that on that day, those who are remembering us, we'll be able to celebrate the faithfulness of the one who redeemed us.
[00:24:19] That's what was beautiful about Sarah, was not her faith. It was the faithful one, the one who gave the promise that through her, though childless, facing immense impossibility, it is biologically impossible for her to conceive.
[00:24:40] In the midst of that impossible situation, God shows his power and he gives her power to conceive so that there would be descendants one day, as many as the stars and the heavens and the grain on the seashore. You and I sit in a church building in 2025 as the result of this promise that through her lineage would come a promised one.
[00:25:06] A savior, totally God, totally man.
[00:25:13] He didn't just go to die.
[00:25:16] He lived a life in perfect obedience to the law of God.
[00:25:22] Not just in deed, but in heart and mind.
[00:25:26] No spot or blemish or sin in him.
[00:25:31] He brought the kingdom of God to earth. In his person was filled with the Spirit, glorified the Father in all that he did.
[00:25:42] And though he knew no sin, he became sin on our behalf, on behalf of his people, those whom before the foundation of the earth, he had set his love and affection upon.
[00:25:57] He became sin so that in him we, unrighteous though we are, would become the righteousness of God.
[00:26:09] So that God the Father would look upon you and not see a measuring scale of your good and bad behavior. But the righteousness of Christ himself.
[00:26:19] Isn't that the best news in the world?
[00:26:22] And then after he died, he was buried. And then he was raised by the power of God, saying, death no longer has sting over me.
[00:26:31] I've defeated death. I've defeated sin. Your sin has been taken care of. My sin has been taken care of. That indwelling sin that you and I still experience and fight, I hope on a day by day basis, by the power of the Holy Spirit has already been crucified.
[00:26:48] So you don't fight a battle uphill.
[00:26:52] It's already been taken care of at the cross.
[00:26:56] Jesus has already conquered it in the resurrection. He's king over all things. No king is higher than King Jesus. He's high and lifted up on his throne.
[00:27:07] He's in control of all things. Nothing happening in the United States. No tariff is outside of his control. No. Stop looking at the stock market so much.
[00:27:17] Spend more time in your Bible being reminded that Jesus is king over all things.
[00:27:26] This is the gospel. This is the promise. And it's through that gospel, through that good news that descendants as many as the stars in heaven will one day rejoice at this King Jesus.
[00:27:42] See him face to face. Can you imagine that day? Here's what I want us to stop asking. I want us to stop asking the question. I want to encourage us pastorally to stop asking the question, why is everybody not saved?
[00:27:57] I want to encourage you to ask this question, why is anybody?
[00:28:02] Why is anybody saved? Why are any of us saved?
[00:28:06] And here's the reality of heaven. It's not going to be a few people.
[00:28:11] It's going to be innumerable.
[00:28:15] Isn't that amazing?
[00:28:17] Innumerable numbers of people in heaven redeemed, praising their God and King forever enjoying fellowship with one another in a body, the body that you and I were always created to have, but we don't today.
[00:28:37] It won't be subject to death. It won't be subject to illness or sickness anymore. It'll be a glorified body as King Jesus today has a glorified body.
[00:28:48] We'll eat, we'll work, we'll talk, we'll laugh, we'll hug, we'll get to sit at the. At the banquet table with Jesus.
[00:29:02] Going to be amazing.
[00:29:09] This is the promise given to Sarah and Abraham that one day I'm going to send a savior through your line.
[00:29:18] This perfect, ridiculous, dysfunctional family line is going to come a savior.
[00:29:26] And through that Savior will be innumerable descendants beyond anything you can imagine. This is an impossible promise. But nothing is impossible for God. And that's how God responds to Sarah's laughter.
[00:29:41] Is anything impossible for me?
[00:29:45] All the promises of God find their yes in Jesus Christ. And there is no more impossible feat that God could ever do in our life. Ever. I'm talking. What I'm about to say is more impossible than God healing cancer.
[00:30:01] It's more impossible than God restoring a broken marriage. It's more impossible than God breaking somebody free from strongholds or addictions.
[00:30:13] The most impossible thing. And the reason we can know that God can do all those other things is the reality of reconciliation. It's salvation. It is the most impossible thing that you and I could ever fathom.
[00:30:25] How God could take a spiritually dead person who's a rebel against him and soften their heart in such a way, give them a heart of flesh in such a way by his spirit as to write his law on their heart and his law on their minds, that that rebel might become a lover of God. That's impossible.
[00:30:45] And so when Jesus is talking to his disciples, you guys remember the rich young ruler, how he comes to Jesus and he's like, hey, what do I need to do to enter eternal life to inherit eternal life? Jesus says, hey, obey these commands. It's interesting. Interesting thing that Jesus does that. He doesn't preach the gospel to the guy, at least overtly, but he says, obey these commands. And the guy's like, hey, I've done all those things. And Jesus like, all right, great, yeah, I know you have. Cause I'm God and I know this. I know you have. Now I want you to sell everything you have and come and follow me.
[00:31:19] And he can't do it.
[00:31:23] And so Jesus disciples, after Jesus makes a joke and says, hey, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus. The disciples say, who can be saved?
[00:31:34] And Jesus says, hey, with you it is impossible.
[00:31:38] You can't do it. I can't do it.
[00:31:43] This is one of the many reasons, and I'm going to just be specific here, that at Redemption Hill we're reformed because the Bible has such a clear teaching on this.
[00:31:52] You can't do it. God has to do it.
[00:31:58] That doesn't mean you and I don't have a responsibility to repent and believe upon the gospel. We absolutely do.
[00:32:04] But God has to do it. God has to quicken your heart by the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says, what's impossible with man is possible with God.
[00:32:22] Because God was faithful to send the Savior, Jesus Christ, his only begotten and precious Son, to live, die, rise on behalf of his people. How much more can we trust him by faith to do anything?
[00:32:37] So as we prepare to close, let's read the last three verses so that we gain a greater clarity at what Sarah's North Star was.
[00:32:47] What was her aim? What was the aim of the people of Hebrews chapter 11 that gave them the courage and the faith and the joy to press on with Jesus through the midst of suffering and trial?
[00:32:58] Verses 13 to 16 sorry. Hebrews 11, 13, 16.
[00:33:07] These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
[00:33:21] For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
[00:33:26] If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
[00:33:45] We know the means by which God has prepared for them and us a city. It's found in John 14 when Jesus says, I go to prepare a place for you. That place is this city. It's this heavenly city. How is Jesus going to do that? Through the death of himself.
[00:34:02] That's how he went to prepare the place for us.
[00:34:06] So what was Sarah's north star?
[00:34:10] What, though imperfectly drove her and all of these other men and women listed in Hebrews chapter 11 to endure suffering with Jesus with confidence and courage and joy. It was eyes and hearts set on God and his kingdom.
[00:34:28] That was the North Star.
[00:34:31] Eyes and hearts set fixed beholding of God and his kingdom.
[00:34:42] They sought first the kingdom of God, knowing that all these other things that they had to worry about would be given to them.
[00:34:58] It was eyes set on the heavenly city to come. They knew that their citizenship was not here on this side of heaven.
[00:35:11] They knew that their citizenship was in another world, in a world to come where heaven and Earth collide into the new heavens and the new earth.
[00:35:24] That's where their citizenship was.
[00:35:27] And if their citizenship was there, if that was their homeland, if that was their place of rest, if that was the place that they truly belonged with God, then here, that had to make them strangers and exiles.
[00:35:42] First John.
[00:35:45] First John.
[00:35:47] And this is how I want to, I want to conclude. I want to conclude with this. I want to read a quote to you in just a moment. But first, John couldn't put it more starkly when he says, anyone who loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him.
[00:36:12] In other words, anyone who belongs to the world, that's the ways of the world. Anyone who is in love with the ways of this world right now, anyone who belongs to this world cannot at the same time belong to God.
[00:36:34] So if they're home here, then they're strangers and aliens to God.
[00:36:43] But if they're at home in God through faith in Jesus, then they're strangers and aliens here.
[00:36:53] It has to be one or the other. And it does not mean, as we just saw in Sarah's life, that you and I won't experience a daily, moment by moment, tug to be in love with the things of the world.
[00:37:08] And that at times we won't absolutely fall on our face in failure loving the things of the world over God, we will.
[00:37:18] So take heart. Not in your ability to do all that right, take heart in the finished work of Jesus.
[00:37:25] And as you set your eyes on the finished work of Jesus and what he's accomplished on your behalf, praying as you're beholding Jesus, that the Spirit of God would give you a greater awareness that your home, your citizenship, is in heaven, that you and I might learn by the grace of God to live as strangers and exiles here. Now I do want to end with this, with this quote from a character named Puddleglum from the Silver Chair in the Chronicles of Narnia. If you've never read that book, you should read it. Puddleglum is a made up character who C.S. lewis wrote after he was inspired by his gardener. So he said his gardener was a perpetual pessimist. So he's the kind of guy that he said if you walked outside and you're like, hey, it's sunny and beautiful outside. He'd be like, yeah, I think rain's on the forecast tomorrow kind of a thing. Like, just can't really, you know, see the positive kind of a thing. So he creates this character called Puddleglum. And in the middle of the book, Puddleglum has this amazing moment, just I think it's the best part of the whole series of Narnia, honestly. This amazing moment of faith where they're trapped down in this place called the Underworld, where everything is gray and everything is dark and gloom. They're trapped in this place called the Underworld and they can't figure out a way to get out. And this witch comes and she wants to essentially put a spell on them that's going to keep them in the underworld. Her objective is to try to make them believe that there is no Narnia, that there is no Aslan, that the only reality is the reality of the underworld. That's her objective. That is the objective of Satan, by the way.
[00:39:08] That's what he wants to do more than anything else in the world is lead you and I to believe that Christ is not who he says he is.
[00:39:18] That really what we see and experience here in this world now is all there is.
[00:39:23] Here's what Puddle Guam says. He says one word. Ma'am, he said, coming back from the fire, limping because of the pain.
[00:39:33] One word. All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder.
[00:39:38] I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it.
[00:39:45] So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one more thing to be said Even so.
[00:39:51] Suppose we have only dreamed or made up all those things. Trees and grass and sun and moon and stars, and Aslan himself. Suppose we have.
[00:40:03] Then all I can say is that in that case the made up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones.
[00:40:12] Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world.
[00:40:16] Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one.
[00:40:20] And that's a funny thing when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play world which licks your real world hollow.
[00:40:33] That's why I'm going to stand by the play world.
[00:40:36] I'm on Aslan's side, even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it.
[00:40:41] I'm going to live as a Narnian, as Narnian as I can, even if there isn't any Narnia.
[00:40:49] So, thanking you kindly for our supper. If these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think. But that's a small loss. If the world's as dull a place as you say.
[00:41:09] If this world is all there is, we are people, most to be pitied. But it isn't.
[00:41:13] Jesus has risen. We have a better hope than that.
[00:41:18] There's no body in the tomb anymore. He's risen. And so he's rescued us to a better land, a better world. A world to come. That's where your identity is. Your identity is there. So live like a Narnian.
[00:41:34] Live like a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, with all the power in the cosmos living in you. By the person of the Holy Spirit. He's given us a guarantee of our inheritance to come right now. So what addiction in your life are you enslaving yourself to like? I just want to lovingly exhort you for a moment. And I know that there are kids in the room, so I want to be vague.
[00:42:03] There are some of us in the room who are swimming in sin.
[00:42:10] And you haven't told anybody about it.
[00:42:15] Your spouse doesn't know about it.
[00:42:18] Your community group doesn't know about it.
[00:42:21] And here's the thing, friends.
[00:42:24] You and I cannot defeat and overcome this sin that has already been crucified on our own.
[00:42:32] Sin dies in the light, and it dies in the light of community, with brothers and sisters who love you, who walk with you and show grace to you, and be the hands and feet of Jesus to you. That's where sin dies. Don't let this sin. And you know what I'm talking about. Don't let this sin kill you in your marriage.
[00:42:59] Live like a Narnian.
[00:43:03] Set your hope fully on the grace to come. Remember your dignity and value as a beloved son or daughter of God. That's how you fight that sin in particular.
[00:43:17] Not by shaming yourself more, but by remembering how dignified you are.
[00:43:25] You are, as Ray Ortland says, gospel royalty. That's how you defeat that sin.
[00:43:31] Those people that you're watching are dignified, made in the image of God.
[00:43:41] Some of us are absolutely enslaved to Instagram and living in a world of perpetual envy as you watch other people's fake lives.
[00:43:57] You know that's not the real life, right?
[00:44:02] And we spend hours on this thing just soaking it in, allowing it to disciple us to think a certain way and feel a certain way, live like a Narnian.
[00:44:18] Some of us are enraptured in anger and bitterness and unforgiveness.
[00:44:28] We're debilitated by anxiety and worry.
[00:44:34] These are common problems by which all of us struggle with in varying degrees. And that's why Jesus is the hero.
[00:44:42] Remind yourself that Jesus is the hero. And fight by the power of the Holy Spirit, by bringing these things to the light. Your citizenship is in heaven, not here right now.
[00:44:56] You don't have to be depressed when the stock market crashes again tomorrow.
[00:45:01] You don't have to be because your citizenship isn't here.
[00:45:07] Donald Trump is not your king.
[00:45:10] Jesus is your king.
[00:45:12] Rejoice.
[00:45:14] Rejoice in that. What it looks like to be a people of joy and a people of confidence and courage, because we have a king who's risen and our citizenship is in heaven. Amen. Let's pray.
