Carols Part 2
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Intro:
Intro:
Welcome/ugly Christmas sweater
Celebrate family dinner
Current series
Recap last week
This week will be a little different
pray
O come all ye faithful was a carol, originally written in Latin like o come o come emmanuel.
It dates back to the 1700’s
But I'm not sure that O Come All Ye Faithful could be any more different than our carol from last week, O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
Emmanuel was a mournful tune of expectant waiting.
O Come All Ye Faithful is more upbeat, uplifting, and celebratory.
The chorus is great, "O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord."
But if I'm being honest, that first phrase, "O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant" can be really hard to identify and connect with sometimes.
if we are honest, As believers, we don't always feel joyful or triumphant. We are often like angry toddlers pitching a fit because something didn’t go our way
And maybe even worse, we are far less than faithful to Jesus than we claim to be.
Because We don’t always get it right
We miss opportunities
We skip days in our devotionals
We don’t always feel like worshipping
We don’t always make church
We know we are supposed to do all those things and we are supposed to be faithful but a lot of times we are pretty unfaithful
But the truth is...that's exactly why the Gospel is such good news.
God's faithfulness to us isn't based on us.
God's faithfulness to us isn't based on us.
God’s character and His ability to follow through on His word is not dictated by our character or our ability to
So I want us to look at 2 timothy this morning.
This is Paul writing to his son in the faith, Timothy.
If you are unfamiliar, Paul was a man who went around killing christians, had an encounter with God, and ended up becoming one of, if not the, greatest missionaries the world has ever seen
Along his journey with the Lord he begins a relationship with a younger guy named Timothy and essentially Paul becomes like a father to Timothy
He trains him, he teaches him, corrects him, and loves him
And so here’s what he writes to Timothy in 2 tim 2
2 Tim 2:8-13
8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. 11 Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
Here, Paul is urging Timothy to remain faithful to Jesus, and not shun away from the suffering and hardship that can come from that.
He’s saying: Timothy, when you are suffering, when you are chained up, when the world is beating you up for what you believe, remember the gospel
Remember Jesus!
I love that Paul says “this is my gospel.”
He takes ownership of it
This gospel he’s talking about isn’t just something he does, it’s been engrained in him. It has penetrated into all that he is
Some of us need to check ourselves here
The gospel of Jesus isn’t something we can just add to our list of things
It’s everything or it’s nothing. Those are our choices.
And Paul understood this. He‘s saying “Yes this is the gospel of Jesus, but you best believe this is my gospel.”
Paul was sold out!
Now, I want us to focus in on "the trustworthy saying" that Paul quotes, starting in verse 11.
There is a rythmic form in which this part is written.
It may be bracketed or spaced differently in your Bible
It was probably part of an old hymn of the early church
Or at the least a creed that they used to recite
This hymn speaks of a future glory that will offset present sufferings
It begins with an idea that is thematic throughout scripture
A dying to self
We see this idea pictured through baptism
illustrated through a carrying of our cross
and lived out through Christ
then the hymn is followed by this idea of an abundant life in Christ
We must die to self to live as Christ intended
And the life Christ intended for us is so much better than any life we could acquire on our own
If we are able to endure this great task then we will reign with Christ.
But if we disown Him, He will disown or deny us
But pay close attention to the last line
“If we are faithless, he remains faithful”
Paul's last point is clear, "if we are faithless, he remains faithful". Why?
Why would God be faithful to us if we are unfaithful to Him?
Because "he cannot deny himself."
His faithfulness to us isn't based on us.
Now, there is a point of tension here that we should probably deal with.
The end of v. 12 says that "if we deny him, he will also deny us".
so, How does that fit with Jesus remaining faithful when we are faithless?
How can He be faithful and yet still deny us?
To understand more clearly I think we need to understand these words more clearly.
The word for deny is a completely different animal.
ἀρνέομαι arnéomai; To deny, refuse (Heb. 11:24). to refuse someone, not to know or recognize him, to reject him either in the face of a former relationship or better knowledge. To deny, decline, reject, give up
Contrast this with the word we translate faithless.
ἀπιστέω apistéō; untrustworthy. To put no confidence in, to disbelieve. To be unfaithful, to doubt or not to acknowledge
To disown/deny is to not recognize.
We see this played out clearly in
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Jesus, in this moment, is not saying I have no knowledge of you
For He knows all things. He knows everyone down to every detail
What He is saying is, I have no relationship with you
He is denying a recognition of relationship
But to be faithless is to be unfaithful
So to deny is based on the relationship
To be unfaithful is based on personal character
To be denied by God is up to you and your relationship with Him
But His faithfulness has nothing to do with you and that is good news!
So all of that summed up: the idea is that while we can walk away from God, Jesus will never walk away from us. Even when we screw up.
This is the heart of the good news of the Gospel.
so It's not "You’re evil, do better." It's "You’re evil, Jesus did for you what you couldn't do for yourself."
2 Cor 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The gospel isn’t something that we can work for it’s something we surrender to
For some of you, that's not just good news, that’s revolutionary!
All your life, all you've heard from church is "Do this. Don't do that.
If you do this and this and this then Jesus will love you
Dont do this and don’t do this and Jesus will love you
Do better. Try harder. It's not good enough."
And maybe for the first time you are understanding that the message of Jesus has nothing to do with what you "do".
It's all about trusting and surrendering to what Jesus alone has already done.
And the reality is you can’t do enough to earn it anyways
But then, for some of you, this good news has become old news, and you've forgotten the relevance of this to your life now.
Hear Paul's words in Galatians 3:1-3
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?
You trusted in Jesus alone to forgive your sins and bring you new life, but at some point since, you've fallen into the trap of thinking that all of this is back on your shoulders.
You’ve heard the gospel, you know the gospel, you believed the true gospel but you’ve let the power of the gospel diminish in your life
You’ve gotten back to trying to buy the grace of Jesus and it’s impossible!
There’s nothing you can “do” to make God love you anymore than He already does
When Dorie and I had our daughters there’s this love that overtook us
They didn’t do anything and they didn’t have to
I just love them because they are mine
Jesus loves us, not because of something we do, but because we are His!
Now I know the next argument and here's where it’s easy for your "but" to get in the way.
"But what about holiness?" "But what about sanctification?" "But what about fruit” “but what about, whatever?"
Listen: I'm not discounting any of those things, they are all integral to the Christian life.
But what I am saying is that one of the reasons the church has lost her humility, and with it her empathy for the lost, is because we have forgotten that our faithfulness to God comes FROM His faithfulness to us, and not the other way around.
God isn’t waiting to see if your going to be faithful to Him to decide whether or not He’s going to be faithful at all
And we can see that we have forgotten this all important order very clearly in the self righteous, holier than thou attitudes that permeate American Christianity today.
God does not need your righteous deeds
They are like filthy rags to Him anyways
God does not need you to look a certain way
God doesn’t need you get your life straightened up
He doesn’t need you to look a certain way or act a certain way
What He wants is your heart
And when we truly understand the power of the gospel everything else will take care of itself
But we have to stop projecting onto others our ideas of what someone must look like or do to be accepted by Jesus
You’ve already been accepted, it’s up to you to believe it.
Everything you need is already done.
You see, The Good News of the Gospel is just that, it’s news, a settled fact
It’s not a suggestion or advice.
It’s not a religion
It’s not a self-help application
Every other religion, at its best, is good advice.
The gospel of Jesus is life changing and it is settled. There’s nothing we can do or not do to change it
God's faithfulness to us isn't based on us. And that's why we adore him.
God cannot be unfaithful. It’s impossible!
So what that means is, when God says He will do something, He will do it
When His Word says something about Him, it is true
He cannot disown or deny himself
He has been, is, and will be faithful through all of eternity
Alright, Now, what does this mean for us today?
The first step is to believe it
The hardest thing we ever do is really believe the Gospel.
The hardest thing we ever do is believe that there is a perfect God in heaven who loves me enough to go to the great length of Him sending His son to die in our place to save me, despite me
And there’s nothing I have to do to earn it
There’s nothing I have to do to receive it, other than believe and repent
Believe it to be true true, and repent/turn away from my sins
That’s it
Secondly, we must understand that the good news isn’t over when you get saved.
For whatever reason, after we get saved we like to think that the gospel is only for the lost
The gospel is only when you’re trying to convert others
No! The gospel is for everyone always
It’s essential to our everyday
The more we understand the gospel, the more we understand Jesus
So, we can not understand, study, and meditate on the gospel enough. No matter how far along you are or how long you’ve been following Jesus.
The gospel never loses it’s power over us
It never get’s weaker, it should never get boring, it should always make you want to worship
The gospel is not good news one time, the gospel is not good news just around Christmas and Easter, the gospel is good news all the time!
The Gospel isn’t the ABC’s of Christianity, it’s the A-Z.
It’s where it begins, yes, but it is where it ends as well and it is what sustains us all the way through.
We can get into the weeds all you want but the gospel is what will be preached from this stage every week.
This week is the faithfulness of God (gospel)
Last week was God working (gospel)
Next week will be the joy found through Christ (gospel)
Every week will just be a different way, a different angle, to see and understand the gospel better.
It’s that important!
Lastly, you need to understand that God isn’t affected by the roller coaster of our life.
God is not affected like we are and therefore does not operate like we do
I’m convinced that we are just people who are in a constant effort to be comfortable
But it’s a very daunting task (especially if you have children)
What we desire is comfort. And so in an aim to achieve the highest level of comfort possible we do things to control the chaos around us because chaos is uncomfortable.
We make decisions based on what would cause us to be most comfortable
We will ask ourselves, is this worth it or not?
because It’s not always what makes us most comfortable in the moment but what will yield the greatest results of comfortableness
Going to work may not be comfortable in the moment
But spending your money to have a roof over your head, a car, and food makes you comfortable so it’s worth it
Going golfing every afternoon may feel very comfortable for the couple hours that I’m playing but it sure won’t be comfortable when I come home
You picking up what I’m putting down?
So here is why this is important
Number 1: Jesus calls us out of our comfort
He’s going to call you to do things that you would not normally do
And the gospel, when we really understand it. changes our desires!
Our goal can longer be to do what makes me comfortable, but rather, to do what makes Him most glorified
Do what pleases the Lord
And I will tell you from experience, when the Lord calls you out of your comfort zone and you don’t listen, there is nothing more uncomfortable than that.
Number 2: Jesus is not after what we are after
He does not desire to be comfortable and His highest goal is not for you to be comfortable
He desires to be worshipped and glorified
and in order to do that He must stay true to Himself
He cannot be changed by your unfaithfulness
So as your faithfulness fluctuates His never does
As your life bounces around, He is unshaken
When you fall and fail, His grace abounds
When we don’t follow through, His gospel stays the same
And since His desire is for us to worship Him and since He is faithful even when we are faithless, we will adore Him!
Just like ”o come all ye faithful states: come let us adore Him.
We adore Him
Not because of our faithfulness
But because of His faithfulness even in the midst of our unfaithfulness
So let’s sing this one more time before we go