God's Portion and Our Worship

Big idea: Stay firm in your worship because God keeps His portion.

1. The great portion
2. Marked out before time
3. Freely determined
4. Truly hoped in Christ
5. To the praise of His glory

• Automated Transcription
• 0:21
  We are in the middle of the book of Ephesians, so if you have a paper Bible, turn there. If it's electronic, dial that up, and we're going to read Ephesians 111 and 12, and it has the ultimate aim of which God does everything for the praise of His glory. God is at the center of everything we enjoy, that we relish in, that we rejoice that God is the center. Stand with me for the reading of God's Word, and we will unpack a powerful passage on God's sovereign grace in Him, Jesus Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of His glory. This is the word of the Lord God. Thank you. You are wise, eternal, gracious, forgiving, holy, and upright. And those are just some of the things that are in this section of scripture. We see your plan for the nations. We revel in being able to witness nations playing soccer, and it is a reminder to me of how many places you are sending people. As we see representatives, we see it in our own church, in our city. We have people who are here from many different countries, either here for various immigration reasons or refugee reasons, and we have a chance to build each other up in our faith, and we are so thankful for that. Give us unity in it, Father. We want to be a church that seeks your glory. We, that's what you made us for. Help us do that. So we pray for churches around our city, Turning Point up north, North Church Life Center out west, or real life out east. Pray that you would help them seek your glory above all things, as we in our deepest heart want here as well. The success that we all want is Jesus prized by boys and girls, this week by their parents, by many coming to you. We pray for our own Josh Gilchrist, who's back up in Republic, preaching through Romans. There, pray that you would encourage that church in its difficulties, help Craig Loftus in recovery and in respite. Pray for you to help our VBS this week. We also pray for our brothers and sisters in Venezuela, the churches, especially Catia Lamar, which is barely surviving as a church, and now all of this trouble. Pour out your grace to it, and as we may want to be sending resources, give us wisdom about how they can get there without the graft of government corruption. I pray that you would help us be wise and use Samaritan's Purse, for instance, where Gabriel is helping supply resources, coming alongside the field hospitals, getting a chance to speak the gospel to people injured use all of that for your glory, shining your mercy and grace. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. I grew up in Eastern Washington at the flat land. My only experience with boats were ferries on vacation or a 12 foot fishing boat on Badger Lake. Badger Lake is hardly a fishing mecca, but it's a lovely lake with some good trout fishing. I loved fishing as a kid, so I was probably eight or nine when our family vacation was to go to Westport on the Washington coast, and dad had booked us a charter on a salmon boat. It was probably 30 or 40 minutes in that the seasickness set in, the swells, the chop, the wind. All of a sudden, hooking a big salmon seemed far less exhilarating than holding on. Do I stay inside? Do I stay outside? There was definitely bait in the water, and I definitely fed fish on my own. Yes, yes, there's a lot of vomit references in this week's sermon, I. Uh, but I still love to fish, you know, as an odd, odd thing. I bring that up because I was thinking about storm swells as I was thinking about why God wrote this passage. Paul's writing to the Ephesians to give them faithfulness and stability in their worship and their Christian life. He opens with this thing that's like a hymn of praise, and it is designed to focus our worship and then give us stability in the Christian life.
  
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  When God saves a sinner out of the storm swells of life, we're going to use that picture. Jesus brings him aboard. It is wonderful. It is wonderful. You're rescued from sin, rescued from judgment. You have eternal life and eternal hope set before you. You know that this life isn't all there is. You no longer have judgment in the tyranny of Satan, but there are still storm swells. In fact, Jesus told us in His Gospels that just to trust Christ might be a storm. Some people that you love and know might not go along with you, nor love that you're doing it. Storm swells, storms of life are a very frequent topic or metaphor for the Christian life. Paul writes the letter of Ephesians to help believers navigate worship and life on that journey to heaven. That's why he's writing this. It, it begins with praise to God that informs our worship, stabilizes our hope, and when we get to verse 12 today, you're going to see yet again his purposes, a so that, so that we, who are first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory. The praise of his glory is God's great aim in all that he does. God is ultimate, God is center. We're not. It's not that we don't matter, but He is the one that deserves the praise and glory. In the context we looked at it last week, that God's purpose in Jesus Christ, at the fullness of times, was to gather all things under Christ. In the ESV, it's translated uniting all things in him at the end of the day, Christ will be exalted for his glory in redemption. We just sang about that, the lamb that was slain, and his glory in justice. He will be exalted for all of those things. God's exaltation is the purpose for which he does all things, and so the big idea emerges to me as I was looking at this hope that the believers have had, have, will have this big idea emerged to stay firm in your worship, keeping God central in all things, God exalted and praised in all things, stay firm in your worship, because God keeps his portion, he keeps his inheritance. I'll explain that in a minute, but you're secure, and our praise is due to God, because we're his possession. He has purchased us from sin and guilt to himself, and that is our greatest cause of worship, and that's our greatest security or stability in life. The Bible speaks of challenges to faith and worship as soon as we believe Jesus promised it was coming. It's coming. The Bible's storyline describes multiple examples of it. Go back to the book of Exodus. If you're new to the Bible, just write down a phrase, Exodus 14. You'll know it from some of the famous Hollywood animated movies, like the one about the Exodus. Exodus 14 is this phenomenal story. The people of Israel are fleeing from Egypt. Pharaoh and his chariots and his armies are coming after them. God protects them through a pillar of fire. They get backed up at the Red Sea. God parts the Red Sea, they go across in dry land, as soon as a couple million people get across in dry land, Pharaoh's armies are like, "We're going after them. They go in, and God inundates them. He destroys them in the Red Sea. Chapter 15, a marvelous hymn of praise, and. Is sung and danced. The end of chapter 15. How long do you think the worship lasted? They make it about three days into the wilderness, they can't find water, and I had imagined it going something like this. All the moms and all the dads go to Moses, saying our children are going to die of thirst, and they start grumbling. How long does it take to go from the heights of worship for a god who used water to destroy his enemies before you grumble to complain about not having enough water. Three days, three days after rescue, they're in the mode of grumbling and complaining that that's a reality of living as a new Christian, or a Christian. Do you grumble when you seem to lack basic needs? But here you have these glorious truths about God, but just one little inconvenience, one little extra road delay, a little bit of discomfort, and it's turned to grumbling.
  
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  Joshua and Israel conquered Canaan by God's command and his direct intervention, but within a generation the nation turned back to worshiping idols. Why? Well, the Bible calls the things that idols give us the passing pleasures of sin, physical pleasure, success. Does indulging passing pleasures actually lead to lasting satisfaction, never in fact often indulging a passing pleasure of sin leaves you with great guilt. Is God done with you because you have indulged sin this passage is going to answer a little bit of that. Scores of so-called disciples around Jesus in John chapter six go to the New Testament. John chapter six were suddenly interested in Jesus. He had just fed 5000 people, and all of a sudden there's these people called disciples. Everybody is coming, and Jesus tells them some really encouraging statement, like, if you, unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no part of me. They're like, you're weird, but they get the picture, unless you accept that I, your Messiah, must die, you're not going to have any part of me. Most everybody fled. Why did they flee? We're following winners, not losers. We're following victors, not victims. We want a Messiah that's going to win. Very often Christians get tripped up because they think that following Jesus and faithful living is a success plan, a success plan. Why did Judas turn betrayer to Jesus? It's really one simple reason: Jesus had no plan to get rich or to make his apostles rich. I don't want to follow this guy. He even betrayed him. Last example, remember mr. and mrs. Job. I used them both here because it's helpful to illustrate Job was the most faithful worshiper of the ancient of any ancient saint. Read Job one, and God allowed Satan to strip all family, all wealth, all health from him, except mrs. Job. He still worshiped the Lord. Gives the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. mrs. Job said, "Curse God and die. She lost it all too. You know, how does God secure both our eternity and our worship? How does He do that? This is the text that tells you how. Lisa tells you the why. Next week, Ian's going to tell you the how through the person of the Holy Spirit. He does it because he secures us as his possession. Next week, Ian will talk about him using his holy spirit to keep us in all ways. How does God secure our eternity and our worship this week and now? Next, you're going to find out what I want to look at is really important theology, thoughts about God, truths about God, that is going to anchor your worship and praise, and it's going to be as helpful in the moment of a road construction delay as it will be when you get the easy pass into the carpool lane when things are going great, when things are delayed. It's going to be as helpful to you in those times as it will be to catastrophic times. Let's look at these five realities that are going to anchor our worship and our praise. Number one, the great portion. I'm just going to title this in headings. The great portion, the work of Christ has secured for God a people for His own possession. It's the storyline of the Bible. We talk about it very often as a church. Verse 11 says, in Him we have obtained an inheritance. The in Him is the reference to this union with Christ. You're brand new today, if you're visiting with us today on a Fourth of July weekend, welcome. This phrase, in him has to do with this idea of being united to Christ in an unbreakable loving relationship, it's think marriage, but much better, much more devoted, it's a kind of covenant language, this is this union with Him. We have a permanent relationship that is surrounded by, held fast by, and holding to Jesus in Him, in union with Him. So, if you have trusted Christ, if you've seen your sin, trusted Christ called out for Him to forgive you, surrender to Him as Lord. He unites you to Himself. All the blessings that God has from eternity past to eternity future are conditioned on that. Then comes this phrase, we have obtained an inheritance in Him. We have obtained inheritance.
  
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  Now, there's a lot of ink spilled over this phrase, tricky to translate three ways. It's been done in the King James. It's used just to repeat "chosen" in Him. We have been chosen in newer translations, like the English Standard Bible, ESV, that I read and preach out of, or the NASB, which Sayers reads and preaches out of, it translates it as we've obtained an inheritance, so we've been given something. More recently, the Legacy Standard Version, which is just another version of the New American Standard, translates that we have been made an inheritance. The word is literally translated, we were allotted, but it doesn't say what we were allotted. It's kind of general, so you have to understand the context, you know. only know by context, so the we were chosen doesn't make a lot of sense, because Paul would just be repeating himself, although repetition is fine, but here's what's going on, at least across the Bible, the Bible describes God's people as being his possession or his, his inheritance, the Bible also describes God and all of the benefits of eternal life and the church as our inheritance. In the passage, actually, this is true in 11 and four, and or in 14 and 18. Here are some supporting verses. This, this is all by itself, just worth its own sermon. If we were just to step aside from this, here is a reality. When Christ calls you, opens your eyes, hauls you into the boat, and keeps you, you are His and He is yours. It's all by itself. It's worth extolling and praising God. Here's, here's some other passages. First Peter one, verse three says He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. Peter says all who are born again have a secure inheritance, undefiled. What is that inheritance? It is God, and all His glory, all the blessings that come from Him, and all the people that He has saved, and they will be perfect and eternal. The noun form of what's translated as inheritance is used in verse 14, our inheritance, but there is the other side too. There's God's side. Listen to what God said to Israel. This is Deuteronomy 420 You can just write a text down if you really want to go look at it, says this, but the. Lord has taken you, Israel, and brought you out of the iron furnace, as the difficulty of Egypt, out of Egypt to be a people of His own inheritance, His own portion, His own lot, as you are this day in the New Testament, that same passage of John that I was talking to, John chapter six verse 37 The disciples are troubled that Jesus is talking about his death, and he says this: all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. The Father gives people really come, you have divine sovereignty, God's sovereignty, human responsibility, and Jesus says, I will never cast them out, they're his. Christians have been made God's inheritance, God is our inheritance. Paul would sum it all up really well in First Corinthians 322 through 23 about our relationship with Christ. All are yours, you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. It is the full view. We belong to God because we belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to us. So, what's significant about stability of our worship is the fact that we're God's possession through Christ. That's how I would end up taking it. My take on this is that I would depart from the ESV and the New American Standard, and I would go with the legacy that says we have been made an inheritance. Both are true. It's giving the first part of the relationship. Ian's going to get the R part next week. Have you been tempted by the passing pleasures of sin again and failed. Have you ever has it ever felt to you like this? Something about life is difficult or hard, and suddenly it is as if the whole hallway is dark, a door is opened at the end, brilliant light shines out, and it is a pleasurable, enjoyable, riveting sin. To make matters worse, it feels like that dropped down 10 feet and you're on a slide.
  
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  Passing pleasures of sin often overtake even the Christian you and you slid in, and you participated, you drank it, you ate it, you smoked it, you went with it, and pretty soon you feel like out of the guilt and shame and emptiness of the lie, like you just ate cups of raw sewage, you just swallowed the vomit. Told you there's gonna be vomit references. Is God done with you? I You're his possession. He doesn't give up on those who he has purchased through his son. Next week, Ian might talk about the work of the Holy Spirit. Doesn't mean he won't convict you doesn't mean you won't get chastised, it doesn't mean that you recognize your guilt and shame and confess it and need to turn it means that he is holding you, he will use means what he starts he completes because you're his, so you can stay firm in your worship, because God keeps his inheritance. Come to the second heading, which I just call "marked out before time. It's a way of describing being predestined. So, when did it happen that you became God's inheritance? Well, at belief and hope, but it was in the mind of God from eternity past. It was a decision that He's already made in eternity past. Josh preached on this several weeks back up in verse four, where it says we've been predestined to adoption as sons. Here in verse 11, it simply says having been predestined, which means to mark out ahead of time, and this marking out is really important language. God, who is sovereignly wise and able, knows every. Thing that he's going to create in all of the universe, the order that he's going to create it, the order that he's going to populate it, all the people who ever will be all of the things that ever will be. He has orchestrated it in a plan. We saw that last week as a plan for the fullness of time. God has got a meticulous, detailed plan set in motion what you and I all have in common with the rest of the world is our guilt and sin and God predestined to mark out from a larger group of sinners a people to make his family so long before creation itself, the determination was made. He didn't look ahead at your bloodline, he didn't look ahead at your family heritage, he didn't look ahead at your nationality, he didn't look ahead at special characteristics, and then decide, you know, that'd be, they'd be, they'd be a good set to pick. Only thing certain about you in eternity past, at least the main thing that's certain about you in eternity past, is your sinfulness, because God wants the ability to save for His glory. Put these things, these three things together, and your footing is so firm in worship, and you end up looking to God being the only one, one He existed in eternity past, and before He made everything. By the way, He made everything. That foundation of the world is the indication that He is the creator and sustainer of all things. But put these together, if you were, if you are hoping in Christ now, you were elected to be holy and blameless. You were predestined to adoption. You are predestined to be God's special portion, His heritage. Inheritance has an interesting connotation for us, because you don't usually get your inheritance until you die. So, a better word probably is heritage or portion. You are God's portion. I often say that, and think, man, God gets the short end of the stick. We get him, he gets us, but because what he starts, he finishes when we are finished in glory and perfected in glory. When we are holy and blameless, as His intention is with Him in glory, it's going to be all His glory, because He has made it come to pass. If it was done before time, there's nothing in time that can separate. If it was done before time, there's nothing in time that can separate. So you can stay firm in your worship, because God keeps his inheritance. Third heading: freely determined. Freely determined, so we have God's portion, we have his marking it out, his deciding ahead of time, and then we have his free determination, and this is a massively stabilizing reality. God chooses freely, so he keeps freely.
  
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  In other words, it's not based on any outside coercion or something that we bring to the table, if being chosen from eternity past was done freely, then keeping in time is done freely. God selects you to be his inheritance was done by his sovereign freedom alone. Look at the two accordings in the passage. 111 says this, according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, according to the purpose, according to the counsel. This is how He made the decisions. This is how He makes the plans. Remember, in 110 God had a purpose and plan to unite all things under Christ. Everything will come under Christ, and at the final day in glory in heaven, us perfected the wicked in judgment. God will be exalted for his mercy and his justice for all eternity, for his goodness and his judgment. All things will be under his rule. The context is very specific about redemption. The one who has a purpose for all things has a glorious purpose for his redeemed people. God has a purpose for all his redeemed people in every issue of life. God who works all things after the counsel of his will. This is not one of those all kinds of things, but not everything. It's all kinds of things, but you know, there's a whole bunch of exception clauses. Yeah, I know he generally works suffering for our good, but is he really working? Where is he really working bone cancer for good? My bone cancer, what's the all things have to do? It's comprehensive, it's not all kinds of things, it's all things. God has a purpose for everything. When, when he lets people or demons do evil things. He's got a redemptive purpose for it. When he empowers rescue operations or flood and earthquake relief, he has a purpose for it. When someone is sent to preach the gospel and no one believes, he has a purpose for it. When someone is sent to preach the gospel and it looks like massive revival, he has a purpose when he commands you to pray, but doesn't answer your prayers the way you think he should. He has a purpose when he commands you to pray, and your prayers are answered to the details. He has a purpose. The all things are comprehensive. When one nation goes to war against another nation and commits unspeakable and massive atrocities, God still has redeeming purposes in play. He has justice purposes in play all things notice the according to the counsel of his will, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit take no outside consulting, the Father, Son, and the Spirit, in their own internal councils, with their own eternal wisdom and power and ability, have made all the decisions about all the things that will ever happen. God doesn't do what we all do is make a plan, and then make contingencies. So, what happens if we miss the bus? What happens if what happens if it rains during the picnic next week? Like, we have to make contingencies. God never makes contingencies. He doesn't have to work out plan B's, and he, he doesn't, he doesn't look to some famous leader or general or administrator and says, you know, we've got this thing we want to do, and so can we hire you as a consultant. God has no consultants. Why can he do that? He is eternal, all knowing, all powerful, all wise, good, and just. He needs no counsel. You have nothing to offer, and if you want to just think about how you see it, take the Illard Creek Trail above where we live, overlooking Glen Rose, and you can take the Illard Creek Trail if you would have done it last night in the dark illegally, but if you would have done it, not saying I did not say I didn't, I'm just saying if you did, you could have watched fireworks shows at a certain vantage point from Liberty Lake to West Plains, you could see them all in the panorama there. God is over that whole panorama, He has it held under his care and control. You want to take it to another level.
  
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  Step back to one of those photos of our galaxy, or the 1000s and 1000s of galaxies, which God created with a word and sustains with his power and never gets tired if he can do all of that planning how you're going to navigate through your job recruiter failing to call you back, telling you whether you're going to get another interview or not, like, doesn't that happen over and over? Your job recruiter, the company's supposed to call you back and let you know, and then they don't, and then eventually they just never call back, and you're wondering what's going on. Do you think if God can handle all of the cosmos that he can manage when you get word about the next step you want to take, and how much more true is he going to bring forward his redeeming purposes for his beloved sons and daughters. I read 17, I've. Reading 1776 by David McCullough, great history writer. George Washington was not permitted to go to battle without convening his war council, his chief generals, and they took it to a vote. He had to take counsel, and it was a really good idea. God takes no counsel, God is superior. Each attribute is infinite. He needs no help. So, if there's one thing that's going to keep you stable in your worship, this has got to be it. God is free, able, wise, all powerful, and good. He has no mixed motives and cannot and will not be manipulated, he that will keep you firm in worship, because he who is determined that way will keep his inheritance. Lest you think there's no reality for humans like there's no responsibility. Paul wants to include this fourth heading: Truly Hoped in Christ. Truly hoped in Christ. Lest you think we're mere robots or AI chat bots with pre-programmed responses, Paul makes it crystal clear that we have real faith and real hope. Look at what he says, so that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of His glory. The we who are the first to hope in Christ, many I'm with them, think that Paul is talking about Jewish believers who got saved first in Jerusalem, maybe people like the apostles, because the book is going to unpack a lot about Jew and Gentile faith. Next week, we're gonna see how the Gentiles would be folded in. Some people think that it's just we were believers before you and we brought you the gospel. Both are fine, but what I want you to focus on is the first hope in Christ. This idea is that Jesus Christ, through His messengers, sent people to give us the good news that He is the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord, and He's calling us to faith and repentance, and we look to Him, believe, and hope on Him for eternal life. We really do that. It's part of the glorious mystery of the gospel. God is sovereign, and we really believe. Now, I want you to hear the words from Jesus, because if you're here this morning, God is offering you through Jesus Christ a response for an eternal relationship with eternal life. That's been His plan from all eternity. If you are still in your sin, know that you're guilty, know that judgment's coming, and you are ready to relinquish the control of your life to the Lordship of Christ and worship Him. Then you need to hear these things, the very familiar John 316 for, for Christians, so familiar that it, it gets on placards at ball games, because Christians will use anything as an opportunity to proclaim the gospel. Listen to John 316 for God so loved the world, he loved it in this way that he gave his only son. What do you mean? Gave gave him up to death, gave him up to Roman brutality and his own nation's rejection. He gave him up to a cross where he shed his blood, and God poured out his wrath. The curse landed on Jesus instead of landing on his people. God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And there you have faith and hope in that sense, belief, putting your unrestricted trust in Him alone, and you should have eternal life.
  
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  There's life beyond the grave, there's life beyond the next sin. There is life in Him now, and there is a perfection ahead. In the chapter that we're in, says in Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I would plead with you, turn to him today. If you turn to him today, the hope is him and eternal life. If you've not called on Jesus, don't delay. John 2031 says these, these are written, the whole Gospel of John. These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by and that by believing you may have life in His name and. So God set in motion in eternity past to call people to himself. He's calling you, he's calling you. Respond to him when you choose him. He gives you life, eternal life and eternal hope. Tanya Kamek shared a story with me, because we were dialoguing online about boat stories. The Cammicks, as I understand the story, were boating on Priest Lake, you know, probably camping season, and they came across an overturned canoe and three guys clinging to it, and they looked like they were about to drown. They pull up to the boat, they offer a hand, they pull them in. What had happened is the night before they got terribly drunk, and they decided for a lark that they would paddle across Priest Lake and camp across, which they did, and continued to drink, and they woke up with a terrible hangover, and they decided to cross back. On the crossing back, the stormy winds came up, which is frequent in on Priest Lake, and it turned over their boat, drunken, hungover, stupor, and they nearly drowned. They were all pulled in with hypothermia, and the cammocks didn't start with, well, what did you do to get in the water. I don't know. I mean, you should have thought about that before you had all that to drink. What did they just said? Come into the boat. It was all their fault that they were in the water, all their fault that they had hypothermia, and what a picture of what God does with sinners dead in their sin brings them to Himself, gives forgiveness, and sets them on course. Remember, boats, boats are usually always on journeys, and if you're traveling on a boat, it has a manifest numbering the people and naming the people on the manifest that is true about Jesus Christ, who knows his sheep and the sheep know him. He knows their name, and he continues to get them across to eternity. Stay firm in your worship, because God keeps his inheritance. Those who have hoped in him, what's the purpose? What we've been getting at all along is that we would be to the praise of his glory. Heading number five, to the praise of his glory. What keeps you firm in your worship is the constant reminder the end for which you were saved, the purpose you were saved, that is, you would exalt and extol God in all His glory, His mercy, His majesty, His justice, His salvation. It's to worship Him, that we might be to the praise of His glory, and marking you out by his determination, according to his free choice, is proof of the end. He's the only one who deserves praise, honor, glory. There's no one else to give credit to. Glory, what is glory? That we would, that we would be to the praise of His glory. Glory is the brilliant display of some magnificent truth, attribute, or achievement. Athletes in these weeks gain great glory by a particular play, a spectacular free kick, or or a impossible goal, soldiers get glory for victories on the battlefield, generals get glory for their wisdom and ability and and we're happy, aren't you? All still ecstatic. I mean, didn't all of your hopes come true and stay true because the Seahawks won the Super Bowl? You know what, some people are still getting up in the morning, putting on their Seahawks jersey, going walking on sunshine. Actually, none of you remembered that God is supreme in His, in His glory, in His saving power, He. Deserves the praise. Why must we give God glory? He's the only one who is eternal. He is the only wise God. He is the creator. He is purposeful, able.
  
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  He is a father who is an adopter. He is a redeemer from sin, from Satan, from judgment by the death of Christ, purchasing people not only out of something but into an eternal relationship. He is supremely worthy of glory and so how do we praise him? How do we praise him? Lots of ways, the songs that we sing are some of them. You should always have a collection of those songs to be looking at how rich a treasure we possess, all the things we talked about and sang about this morning, for the nations, for us, for our nation. Let's just think about the daily delays and the daily necessities. You run out of something, there's suddenly a delay, and it seems like you went from some kind of elevated worship to fury with somebody who caused the delay. Do you mind if we put you on hold? No, I don't have anything to do but hear phone music today. Somebody sent me this from Paul Tripp. He says this: if God intended for all the days of your life to be easy, they would be. No, in grace He intends for your days to be His tools of refinement. End quote. His plan of making us holy and blameless is by the refining daily delays, details, the lack of things that we really need, the traumas, the trials, and I make a prediction, I am a prophet in this God will likely have a divine interruption to your agenda and your plan tomorrow. You have a plan, God has another plan. Can you say, like Paul, through those interruptions, that they are for my good and His glory? That's a way to praise Him. What about those powerful pleasures of sin that I described? We might call them addiction, when the moment of temptation suddenly transports you and you indulge, it's all the sin is all you can see, and you have then this massive regret. What does God's possession of you mean? He doesn't throw you away for indulging a passing pleasure of sin. You're his possession. Well, it might mean guilt. It might mean you need to confess. It certainly means he is doing his work of sanctification in you, but because you're his, you are not cast aside. That's why you praise the glory of his grace. If you know it's coming, you're one of those who knows what you're drawn to, and that scene shows up, the lights go out, you're in that long dark hallway, and all you can see is this wide open door to some pleasurable sin. What you can do before the slide is call out to God, give me a door of escape, and He promises, according to First Corinthians 1013 that He makes a way of escape. You can look to Him in faith during that temptation and be rescued by his grace he keeps his possession in failures, thinking of the John six story, where so many disciples left Jesus when he said, "You have to drink my blood and eat my flesh. You know, the great American temptation is to think that aligning with Christ will make us profitable and successful. Jesus promised that when we trust Him, one of the things that we can guarantee. Is not everybody's going to love it or treat us well. What are the beatitudes? Blessed are those who pour in spirit, who mourn, who are persecuted. What's the guarantee if you put your faith and hope in Christ? The world around you not going to love it. It was actually Jesus' failure, his death for sinners, that was prelude to the success, the resurrection, not a bounce back of worldly success, but a total recreation of the world. I listened to Metaxas talk about his new book on the revolution, and he is convinced that America won because it was more spiritual and more moral. The British lost because they were not spiritual and they were very immoral. That may be true. Now we just have health and wealth and prosperity gospel stamped onto American history. I am certainly thankful. At 250 years, I have never thanked God so much for the freedoms we have to be able to say what we need to say and experience what we need to experience. I am so thankful, but in the face of a failure, you or the nation has God let go of his inheritance.
  
  51:34
  Let's think about the face of catastrophe, mr. and mrs. Job. I think we're dealt the personally most catastrophic blow of anybody in the Bible. All their wealth, all their family, all his health were stripped away in hours, he worshiped, she cursed over time his frustration with what appeared to be the injustice of God, because everybody in Job argued, like Eric McTaxis. If you do good, you're going to be blessed. If you don't do good, you're going to be cursed. When he started to question God's justice, what did God do to keep him? Because God was committed to keeping job, he displayed the full glory of his wisdom and power and might that has had enacted all of creation, that was caring for all of the natural world. God showed himself as supreme over all things, and that truth brought Job to repentance and faith and restoration. Are you facing a catastrophe? What's the difference between mr. Job and mrs. Job, she cursed. He worshiped. It was clear sight of the glory and purposes of God. And you have them right here in this powerful, pithy passage. This is how God keeps you by revealing His glory to you by using his spirit in you. You step into the Christian life, and it's wonderful, but you could be seasick with the troubles that come. God does his job, keeping his own. We praise him, that's our job. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this beautiful passage, for the truths that are here to encourage and inspire us. I pray that we would be to the praise of your glory. We ask all this in Christ's name. Amen.

Dan Jarms

Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.

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