What 2020 Revealed About Us

6 · The pastor introduces a two-part structure for the doctrine: challenge and comfort

And it both challenges us, it gets in our face a little bit, but it also, comforts us, right?

The challenging part of it is this, that our lives are not our own, that we don't get to unilaterally decide how we use our lives. We are subject to the Lord's ownership.

7 · Calvin is quoted to amplify the challenge

Calvin says this, he says, "We are God's. Let us therefore live for him and die for him. We are God's. Let his wisdom rule all our actions. We are God's."

Let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal. Oh, how much has that man profited who, having been taught that he's not his own, has taken away dominion and rule from his own reason that he may yield it to God. Right? We are not our own.

And that's by creation ownership, but also by redemption ownership.

8 · Keller is cited with an embedded quotation from a woman to sharpen the challenge further: grace maximizes God's claim on us, not minimizes it

Tim Keller comments this way. Because we're saved by grace, we're not our own. A woman once told me, "If I knew I was saved because of what I did, if I had contributed to my salvation, then God couldn't ask anything of me because I'd made a contribution. But if I'm saved by grace, sheer grace, then there's nothing he cannot ask of me." If that is true of us.

Right? So it challenges us, it gets in our face a little bit, but then, oh church, it brings the best, the sweetest comfort.

9 · The pastor completes the two-part structure introduced earlier

Because in acknowledging that our lives are not our own, that's only half the truth. We also acknowledge our lives belong to the Lord.

10 · The pastor introduces the steering wheel metaphor that will recur throughout the sermon

John 10, Jesus says this about his sheep.

He says this about you and me, brother, sister, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Right? In essence, here's the hard truth.

The challenge is this. We want our hands on the steering wheel of life, and we fight the Lord. It's like, no, no, I got this, I got this, especially in the last year, right? We're like, "No, I got that. I want— no, let me drive.

Let me drive." Right? But here's the good news. When you cede control of the steering wheel to the Lord, when really you acknowledge the fact that he's driving the car anyway, it actually brings incredible comfort. It actually is one of the most rooting and grounding truths that you could hold onto in the midst of all that we are experiencing.

11 · The pastor signals a major structural shift from exposition to application

So that's the principle, right?

We belong to God. Now I wanna take some of the things that I think I've seen in my own heart and even in conversations with folks in the church, some things coming out of our hearts and apply that truth into those areas.

12 · The pastor narrows the focus to anxiety as one of the two dominant heart issues revealed by the pandemic

So first area is our relationship with God. Now, I think a lot of folks this year have fallen into one of two sort of, I think people can go back and forth between these two, but they lean one way or the other. They either lean in the pandemic, they lean anxious, or you lean angry, right?

I would do a show of hands, but I don't want to do that to anybody, right? So some of us, our temperament is like we lean like, oh no, what's going to happen? And others of us, and that's where we've been in a lot of the pandemic. The others of us were like, I just get angrier every week, right? I didn't think I could be angrier than last week, but I am, right?

And so how do we deal with that? I think the same truth is needed in both sort of leans, okay? First, the anxious. This last year, I've been working with a Christian counselor on the issue of anxiety. And like I said, you know, there were years I thought, man, I think I'm doing well, I'm not that anxious.

But this year, it's— I've seen, man, I really— I'm going to need some biblical help on these issues, especially with some of the health issues that one of my kids has gone through this year. And he's been working with me on that. But in the course of that, one day he makes this comment in passing that I was like, wait, wait, wait. I said, "Say that again, what did you say?" Because he was getting at the fact that a lot of anxiety deals at the end of the day that we're afraid of dying. We're afraid of losing people around us to death and so the reason we are afraid somebody could get sick is because what if that and that and that and then they're gone.

Or if something happens to me, then this and this and this and then I'm gone. And so he made this comment in passing and he said, "21st century Americans may be the least prepared people in world history." history to deal with death, or the threat of death. And what he means by that is American culture puts death way back here so none of us can see it or think about it, right? Why are we afraid of aging? Well, we're afraid of aging because we're like, man, I used to look amazing, but now I look like this.

No, I used to have hair, but now I look like this, right? That's what I think. But what are we really afraid of when we think of aging? We're afraid those wrinkles tell us the truth that we do not want to hear, which is this: you are fading away. You're not getting stronger, right?

There's a pretty quick curve up, and then it's a long slide down, right? And when we're confronted with those realities, we're like, nope, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want to see that. Not happening, not happening, right? But this year, what's happened? We have been forced to reckon with our own mortality.

We feel more vulnerable than we may maybe ever have in life. I was seeing this, this online exchange at one point where somebody was just, you know, expressing anxiety and fear that, you know, the number of people that have been taken by COVID over, over the year. And then somebody else, I think well-meaning, tries to get in there and say, well, well, well, well, listen, that's not actually that many people. This is how many people die of the flu. This is how many people die of, you know, car accidents.

This is how many people die of you know, boating accidents, there's how many people, you know, are— and it just going through all these other things kill people too all the time. And I read that and I just thought, that's not helping me, right? Like if your solution is like, well, that doesn't kill that many people because all kinds of things kill all kinds of people all the time, and then it's like, what, right? I've been living in this world, but here's the reality, I don't want to see it, I don't want to see it, nope, nope, nope, nope. This year with the, like, yep, this is the number, this is the number, another number, this is the number.

It's sort of, we can't get away from it. And it can lead to this feeling of constant threat, constant anxiety.

13 · The pastor applies the "we belong to God" doctrine directly to anxiety

And that is where we need the truth of this catechism, right? The pandemic lays bare the fact that often we think we trust God, but we really only trust God when we see what he is doing, when we see where he is driving. And this pandemic has taught us he may drive us to a place we don't want to go.

This year, next decade, whatever, it may end with us meeting Jesus or somebody close to us meeting Jesus, right? And we don't want to think about that. But this catechism helps us. It asks us, what is our only hope in life and death? That we are not our own, but belong to God.

This truth confronts us 'cause it reminds us we are not in control of our lives. We do not get to tell God what to do. But then it is a soothing, comforting balm and medicine for anxious hearts. We belong to someone. We belong to God.

We belong, as the catechism says, to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ, right? He shed his blood for us, right? Romans 14 follows all of Romans in which Paul is systematically laying out the salvation plan of God, that we were dead and, and were yet alive in Christ, that we were cut off, we were sinful and yet saved by relentless undeserved grace, and that God has done all of this to bring us to himself. And then he says in Romans 8:32, if God would do this, he who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? Right?

If that is true, if Christ shed his blood for you, he will not treat you cheaply now. He will not forget you now. He will not leave you on the shelf now. You are his. He holds you in the palm of his hand, the object of his constant care and affection.

You are the Lord's. Anxious Christian, hear this today. You are his. You belong to him. He has never failed you.

He is not failing you. He will not fail you. You belong to him.

14 · The pastor shifts to the second major heart issue: anger

But this truth also helps maybe those on the other lean, the angry side of the spectrum. Man, I've seen more anger come out of my heart in 2020 than I thought was in there, right? I thought I'm just, I'm a pretty calm person, you know? Nope, turned out nope. I've seen a lot of anger come out of Facebook, right?

Remember the old days when Facebook was just like pictures of puppies or whatever? I've seen anger come out of people I love, you know, even folks from the church. There's anger at everything from political figures to governing officials to, bosses and workplaces, to family, to friends. And I think one of the reasons that we end up angry is that we, in anger, are trying to take control of the steering wheel. We are faced with a difficult, dangerous, scary situation, and our solution is often to say, "If everybody would just do what I think we should do, we would be fine." Right?

In the last year, we've all become public policy epidemiologist experts. Right? Like in conversation, "Oh, well, this is what we should do." You know, and yeah, that's, you know, and I've done that all the time. Like, "Oh, I can't believe this city's doing this. I can't believe," you know, and I, what am I doing?

In that moment, I'm getting angry because I'm like, "No, no, I should be on the steering wheel. Not that guy, not this person." But underneath all of that, it's not God. Not God. I don't like where he's driving. In fact, I'm gonna take control.

Often we only trust God as far as we agree with Him.

15 · The pastor makes the diagnostic claim explicit: our trust in God is often conditional, contingent on our approval of his methods

We see that our trust in God is conditional. If I see it, if I agree with it, if I approve of it. The only solution to that is to take our hands off the steering wheel and say, "We belong to God."

16 · The pastor models the alternative to anger by showing Paul's response to divine sovereignty in Romans 11

Look, Paul, tracing the providence of God, which he is in awe of, which he rejoices over, but also the providence of God in not doing one of the things that Paul deeply wishes that God would do, which is to save more of his particular ethnic group, right? When in saying all of that and laying that out, this is what he says at the end of the day. Rather than moving to anger, he moves to worship, as John preached a few weeks ago.

Romans 11, he says, "Oh, the depth of the riches of wisdom and knowledge of God! For from him and to him," 'And through him are all things. To him be the glory forever.' Right? This is the God who spun the stars out. This is the God that planned redemption.

This is the God that is weaving the details of your life. And this is the God that is bringing us somewhere. This is the God of Romans 8:28 that promises that whatever happens in your life for your good and for his glory. This is the God that you want driving the car. But it's only when you can remove your hands that you can see it and rejoice in it.

17 · The pastor narrows the focus from general anger to a specific pastoral issue: anger at authority and restricted freedoms

Look, let me just drop into one particular area that I've seen a lot of folks struggling, and me too at times, the issue of our freedoms being limited by the pandemic or in certain spheres being under authority and not always agreeing with the decisions made over us.

18 · The pastor uses a conversation with a military brother to illustrate the reality of submission to authority

I was talking to a brother in the Army, and he was like, yeah, that's life. You know, I was asking, man, how you doing with all this stuff? And he was just like, you know, how you doing with, you know, not agreeing with all the things that you're being told to do, and, you know, and still, you know, have that struggle? And he just looked at me, he was like, you've never been in the Army, have you?

Like, that's life. That's what we do. In some ways, that's what we all are experiencing now, right? We push back. We're like, hey, you can't tell me what to do with my life or with my house or with my business or with my face or whatever, right?

I am the one. I decide. I decide.

19 · The pastor applies the "we belong to God" doctrine to the specific issue of restricted freedoms and submission to authority

And it can lead to this sort of buildup of anger at all times. And here's what I think.

Diffuses some of that, right? It doesn't solve everything, but it diffuses so much of it. Your life is not your own. It's not your home. It's not your face.

It's not your business. It is the Lord's, right? Romans 12 opens the whole application section with Paul reminding us to offer— that we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices because we belong to God. He says, listen, the Lord has given you your life, and you give it right back to him and say, let me live for you. So then he goes through some implications.

In Romans 13, he talks about being subject to governing authorities that God puts in place, right? That God works through those authorities. And then later in Romans 13, he talks about how you're going to be subject to governing authorities. You're also going to be subject to the law of love. You're going to love other people.

You might be able to do something or have freedom to do something, but you're going to hold yourself back for the sake of those around you. Constrain yourself, he says, to a life of love for others. Why? Why can Paul say this? Because your freedom, your life, your choices, your decisions, all of it is subject to the truth that you do not belong to yourself.

You belong to God. Right? It's a challenge for us, but it can also be such a comfort.

20 · The pastor uses a personal financial story to illustrate the doctrine of stewardship grounded in God's ownership

You know, a few years ago I was talking with Todd Peterson about some of our finances and he was helping me work on some financial issues and we were looking at things and our savings account had been kind of hit pretty hard and I was just expressing frustration that, man, we used to have this much in savings and now we have this much in savings and, you know, and it was, I think we had, Yeah, I think we had lost a ton of that money basically because I got really sick, ended up in the hospital twice in like a week, both very expensive procedures. You know, your deductible was like— you don't think about your deductible until the day after you get out of the hospital and you're like, what is our deductible, right?

Your deductible is $1 million. And so that's what I was feeling. And so I was just feeling like I was just expressing frustration. Todd, like, man, I'm just so frustrated that this happened. We were trying to save, we're trying to do this.

And he just goes, well, I guess that's what the Lord decided to do with his money.

And I was like, wait, what do you mean? He's like, well, you know, we've been talking about stewardship, right? You know, all your money is the Lord's. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm tracking with you. And so the Lord, yes, decided, yes, to give that money, OK, to the hospital.

No, no, no, no, don't like that, right? Just again, like, the Lord decided The Lord decided to give his money to the— why? And then you see the real issues. Like, I don't like the way the Lord decided to use his money. But if you back off and see, oh, that is what the Lord decided to do with his money, it puts us back in the position of just being stewards, right?

We're just stewarding our lives. We're just trying to steward our health. We're trying to steward our businesses as faithfully as we can in our current environment. And at times, there may be— restrictions or things happen either circumstantially or from a boss or a governing official or something that we do not like. And we then say, okay, what would stewardship look like in this case?

It helps you go from nobody tells me what to do to, okay, Lord, what do you want to do? Right? It may be like if you're in communist China, the government says use your mouth and stop speaking. You say, no, I'm going to keep telling people about Jesus. Other times you may have to follow certain restrictions.

Restrictions, right? But it's the Lord's decision. If you're trying to be as faithful as you can, you're trying to be subject to what he's put in place, you then can be freed from anger and just go, okay, great, it's just a stewardship thing. Let's see what the Lord wants to do.

21 · The pastor summarizes the first major section of the sermon

So this is what I'm trying to say.

If we are willing to embrace this truth that we belong to God, it both challenges us and comforts us.

22 · The pastor signals a major structural shift from applying the doctrine to our relationship with God to applying it to our relationship with the church

All right, second category I want to talk about for a minute is relationship to the church. That's actually the primary sort of application of Romans 14:7-9. It's talking about relationships within the church.

23 · The pastor diagnoses a cultural disease in the American church: consumeristic ecclesiology

Now, I want to deal with two things that I think have been revealed about ourselves.

One of the things— and here's what I'm going to try to sum it up before we drop into the details here. I think very often we as American Christians default to seeing involvement in the church as happening when it directly benefits us. What I mean is, we are part of the church because of what we get. We're part of the church because of what it makes us feel, part of the church because what we receive from it. And that's why you end up with Christians that are, and I'm not saying anybody in this room has done this, but You've all talked to Christians that are like, they have a checklist of kind of services they're looking for from a Christian.

I like this. I don't like this. I don't really like the music. I like this a little bit more. The coffee's a little weak.

And kids ministry, I don't like the moose thing. I don't know what the moose thing is. What is the moose? And so you end up going, OK, this is what I need to benefit me. Can you do that?

OK, no. Yes. No. OK, great. But that's a product of our culture, right?

We're a consumeristic culture. We think of ourselves primarily as, a exchange of goods and services. I give you this, you give me this. I show up, you give me that, right? That's what happens.

24 · The pastor uses extended personal testimony to illustrate how the pandemic exposed consumeristic motives in his own heart

But I think this pandemic, this last 12 months has pushed on us in that area. And I think what's come out at times is, okay, we would, you know, maybe, and let me just be really real for a second. And this is like my own personal life. After we got back from the pandemic, I thought it would feel better subjectively to be in church. You know, sitting at home, I'm like, I can't wait to be at church, can't wait to be at church, can't wait to be at church.

You know what I experienced when I showed up for church? There were no donuts. There were no coffees available, right? I couldn't even see anybody smiling. Like, I don't know if this guy— this guy's walking in, I'm like, are you angry, sad, confused, scared?

You know, I have no idea. And then you end up doing the weird, like, you know, trying to see an older saint and you're trying to stay 6 feet away and you're like, hello, brother, how are you? And they're like, what's that? How are you? Like, how are— oh, I'm well.

How are you? You know, and you're trying to yell back and forth. And you're just like, I don't like this. This doesn't make me feel great. I don't like— and I realized underneath maybe some of the good reasons— why do you go to church?

Oh, I go to church because this and this and this. There's underneath that a layer of I like to see people. I like to see people and be seen. I like the way it makes me feel. I like experiencing this.

I like it being comfortable. I like the chairs we have. You know, I like— having somebody watch my children for 45 minutes. I'd like, you know, it's attractive. And yet, that's I think what happens, that's what gets squeezed out of us.

25 · The pastor narrows the focus to the first of two areas where consumerism manifests: the church gathering

And I think that happens in two areas. I think one is the church gathering, right? When it's not comfortable, it's hard to be like, yeah, I'm gonna be super committed to this. It's much easier to be committed to church when coming every week makes you feel good. And I think what can happen is maybe somewhere deep down in our hearts is this belief that I come to church, I come to the gathering because of how it makes me feel.

26 · The pastor applies the "we belong to God" doctrine to correct consumeristic motives for gathering

This is what I think this truth, this catechism truth does to that. It turns it on its head and says, no, we come to church because we belong to God. We gather because we belong to God. Maybe you're a senior saint and you're watching online and you would love to be here, but you can't because it would not be good stewardship as you talk to your spouse and family. And you're thinking, man, nobody's gonna know if I don't turn on the message this week, right?

Right, if nobody even knows if I'm in church, do I really have to go to church this week, right? And maybe you're a Packers fan and you're like, I could go to church or I could just you know, do my elaborate 3-hour rituals of support for Aaron Rodgers, right? And nobody will know whether you do one or the other. Why stay committed to watching the service and engaging where you can? Why stay committed to coming?

Because we belong to God. We, our reason for coming to church cannot be first how it makes us feel. It must be God himself. God has called us together as his body. God says he is the head of the church.

We are his body. And then he charges us in Hebrews 10 not to forsake the gathering together of the believers. We gather because we belong to God. If all we could do was gather outside in the freezing rain for 30 minutes trying to struggle through a hymn that we could barely hear and a guy teaching the Bible that we could hear every other sentence, would it be worth coming to church? Yes.

Would it be worth coming if it's just, oh, well, how do I, make me feel? No. It would be worth coming to church because you belong to God and gathering with those saints is a testimony and witness and saying, God, you own this, you own me, you own us, we are here for you, we are your people.

27 · The pastor shifts to the second area where consumerism manifests: relational commitment within the church

And it also applies, I think, to just raw relationships, right? It's harder to keep up with folks in the church. It's harder just logistically to figure out how you can keep up with them.

It's also harder, let me just say this, it's also harder that maybe you find out you disagree with people a little bit more in the church than you expected. It's a lot easier to show up to your community group before you knew what everyone thought.

Right? Right? It's a community group. When you show up, you don't usually, as you're going in the door, be like, what's your opinion on politician Donald J. Trump? Like, oh, okay.

Right? But that's what Facebook is. Like, brrr, you know? And you're like, I don't know if I agree with that. You know?

Or what's your opinion on vaccines or pandemics or whatever? All right? It's a lot harder once you know those things. And so then you can find yourself backing off a little bit relationally. Like, I don't know.

I don't know. And here's what happens subtly. As you take a step back and take a step back and take a step back, you find yourself totally disconnected from relationships in the body of Christ because they take work and they are hard to do in our current climate. And often what it reveals is underneath, we love people because people love us back. We care for people because people care for us back.

We serve people because we know eventually those people will serve us back,

28 · The pastor applies the "we belong to God" doctrine to relational commitment in the church

why do we stay together as the people of God? Why do we care? Why do we love? Why do we serve? Because we belong to God.

Our commitment to people in Christ's body cannot first be based on their commitment to us. It must be based on our commitment to God, which leads us to our commitment to them. And by the way, under what underlies all of that is God's commitment to us, meaning Our relationships horizontally are actually first relationships vertically. When I love you when you're difficult to love, I do so not because you reciprocate my affection, but because God, he owns me, he's called me to love you.

29 · The pastor pivots from challenge to comfort

That is what I think we have the opportunity to change in our paradigms in this year.

And this is good news. This is actually wonderful news because when we do this, when we give ourselves over to self-giving love, when we give ourselves over to commitment to people in the church as God would have us, it actually is incredibly comforting. And the reason it's incredibly comforting is this, our love for others, our commitment to others, our sacrifice to others to build the church will not be in vain. This church, not this, you know, local church, I'm not saying that, The church globally is the only institution in world history backed by the promise of Jesus Christ that he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. When you have a dollar bill, that bill has value because it's backed by what?

The full faith and surety of the United States of America. Right? This promise is backed not by a nation, not by a business, but by the risen, resurrected Son of God himself who holds all things in his hands. And so we give ourselves because this is not a lost cause. We give ourselves because God has promised to work his plan through the local church.

Expressing the body of Christ in 1,000 cities, in 1,000 ways, in 100 countries across the globe. And we are part of that. And listen, church, we have seen this. Listen, if you would have described what we would go through over the last year and say, do you think the church is gonna make it through that? I would, let me just be honest, if you had taken me January 2020 and said, these are the events that are going to happen, and said, what do you think's gonna happen?

I would be tempted in my flesh to say, we're not gonna make it, that doesn't look good, right? We're not gonna make it through isolation or conflict or disagreement or cultural turmoil or whatever, there's too much, there's just too many things. You know what? We've made it. And we believe that we will in the days to come not just survive but thrive because this church and the church is backed by the promise of Jesus Christ.

This church is why we do this, because Jesus has promised to build his church and we join him in his commitment. Why? Because we belong to him.

30 · The pastor signals a shift to the sermon's final illustration and summary

Let me just sum this up by saying this, okay?

31 · The pastor uses a naval watch illustration to visualize the comfort of God's sovereignty over the church

So in the Navy, I've said several complimentary things about the Navy recently, and I'm sorry for the Army guys.

I need you guys to feed me some stuff, okay? You need to feed me stuff, feed me jokes about the Navy. I'm happy to use it. Send it to my inbox. But another complementary illustration on the Navy that will make probably only John Morales happy, but here we go.

On a naval ship, there's a concept called the watch, right? It's usually, it's on the bridge with navigation and usually in the engine room. And so what happens is that the officer that has the watch, essentially his job is to be aware of what's going on around the ship and make sure it's steered safely where it's supposed to go. Right? He's the guy looking at different things.

He's looking at the orders, he's looking at the situation. And then there's also a helmsman who does the actual steering of the boat. Now here's the thing. If we, as the church people, were the officer on the watch, I don't have a ton of confidence, to be frank with you, right? We even— look, I'm a church leader, I'm one of the elders, and I don't even— there's days that we walk into elders' meetings, I'm like, "Lord, please help us." 'cause I do not know, I don't know, right?

If it was up to us to navigate through 2021 or 2020, I'm not sure I would have level 10 confidence. But here's the good news, we belong to God. This ship, this boat is the Lord's. And here's what that means about us. He has the watch.

He is looking out, He sees the danger, He sees the mission, He sees the dynamics and he will steer us through it. And you know who we are then as the helmsman? He gives us orders through this word and we are the helmsman. We're the guy of the low rank that's, and he says, "Turn a little bit that way." And we're like, "Yes, sir." "Now go back." "Yes, sir." Right? That's us.

And there is such comfort and confidence in that that it's not like, okay, we need to know everything. We gotta know weather patterns, we gotta know this, we gotta know that, we gotta do enemy threats, Testaments, just be faithful. Just do what he has asked us to do in his Word and he will never leave us or forsake us. He will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Amen?

32 · The pastor concludes by reading the full Heidelberg Catechism Question 1, which has functioned as the sermon's theological anchor

So in closing, I want to read you— I read you a truncated version of the Heidelberg Catechism at the beginning, but I want you to hear the whole thing because I think This is the Lord's word for us today. And by the way, this is up on the church blog if you want to read it and meditate on it this week. Let's do this. Why don't we stand up? Why don't we stand up and let's hear this as a prayer.

Let's hear this and make this as our prayer today.

Question: What is your only? Comfort in life and death? Answer: That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has paid fully for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head.

Indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.

33 · The pastor closes in prayer, asking God to re-anchor the congregation in the truth that they belong to him

Father, this is our prayer today. Lord, I pray that as we end, as we sing this final song, God, if there are things that have been revealed in our hearts over the last year, especially in this area of being anxious or angry or battered and storm-tossed, God, I pray that we would be re-anchored, re-grounded today in this truth. Truth.

God, may we be joyfully willing to cede the steering wheel of our lives over to one who navigates far better than us. We ask for your grace to do it, in Jesus' name. Amen.