Well, it is good to be back up front preaching. It was also good to be just sitting in worship and enjoying worshiping with you guys the last few weeks. Thanks for your patience with us just as elders and with me especially as I'm recovering. We're going to jump back in this week though into our sermon series this fall on Mission Discipleship. Remember, we started out in September and we said we're going to do a series on our mission statement. About, how does this statement shape who we are as a church? And our mission statement is very straightforward, that we are a community of disciples who are seeking to treasure, proclaim, and mature in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the first couple of weeks we looked at the reality that the church is mission central. It's the place where God has ordained to be about the work of His mission in the world, right? And then we looked at the recognition in Matthew 28 that all believers are both disciplers and disciples. We are those who are being formed into the image of Jesus. We are following Jesus, becoming like Jesus, but we're also called in Matthew 28 as we continue to follow Him to be calling others and helping others to become disciples as well. Well, this morning, we're going to focus our attention on that next aspect of the mission statement. That we are a community of disciples who treasure, who treasure the gospel, who treasure the God of the gospel.
Before we start though, let's begin with a word of prayer. Well, Lord, we do want to treasure you this morning. When I was reading in your word just a moment ago in Deuteronomy 6, you have called us as your people to love you, the Lord our God, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And Lord, because you are a gracious, merciful, kind God, you don't just command things and then leave us incapable of following through. You have given us those commands as well as your promise, and your word always accomplishes what you intend it to accomplish. And so this morning we sit on under that call, under that promise, and we ask that you would help us as we sit in your word to grow in our love for you. We pray that you would do that, Jesus, for your glory and for our joy. Amen.
Well, sometimes there's things that are true throughout all of life that become kind of more evident or it's easier to see the example when you kind of focus in on a certain part of life. I think that's helpful when we think about the example of little kids. Little kids love to imitate what they see adults doing, right? The more a little kid knows the adult, the more they want to imitate the adult. If it's mommy and daddy, they really want to imitate. So for instance, Lincoln was super excited this weekend. He had his very first birthday party, not his party, But he got to go to his first party of a little friend from preschool. And so he was all pumped to go to this party. And then he had to go and show me on Saturday morning the present that they were giving to Miles. And so he, he goes and takes it out of the bag and really walked around with it the entire morning. It was all we could do to make sure it stayed in the box and didn't get open. But it was this little tool set. He was so excited to give Miles these tools because Miles would like the tools because Miles could use the tools just like Miles' daddy uses tools. That's the image. That's the picture, right? Little kids love to emulate what they see their parents doing. Little girls do the same thing. They put on makeup. They wear dresses.
That little snapshot is really true of all of life. You fast forward to teenagers and their developing sense of self and identity. As they become teens, they start to associate with a particular group. And as they associate with a particular group of peers, oftentimes you see those teens beginning to look like that group, right? Even the folks who are trying to be countercultural in their group all start to look together in their counterculturalness. Whether they're aware of it or not, they begin to take on the dress code and the language and the posture. The musical tastes of their peers. Their peers follow the trends of their heroes. I can distinctly remember, I wasn't with it enough, I had no idea who they were, but there were kids who liked certain bands. They'd have those band shirts and I didn't know who these bands were, but they would have the shirts and they would wear the clothes and all of a sudden in 6th grade, these kids started looking differently. They were emulating what their band heroes looked like. What we see there is that what a teen values, what they esteem, they slowly become. What they value and what they esteem begins to shape who they are. And that's true for all of us. We reflect what we find ourselves surrounded by.
Greg Beale, in a book that is perfectly titled The The title is "We Become What We Worship." And the book is about idolatry. Not a subject a lot of people necessarily are excited to write books about, but he traces the theme of idolatry in the Scriptures. We become what we worship. That's what idolatry does. And he gets right to the heart of the matter when Beale says this, "What people revere they resemble. What they revere, they resemble either for ruin or for restoration. Listen to how Psalm 135 states this on the negative side. "The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak; they have eyes but do not see; they have ears but do not hear." Nor is there any breath in their mouths. Verse 18, "Those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them." Put simply, we become what we worship. So when we give our hearts or our loyalty or our devotion or our adulation to things that are spiritually void, we ourselves become spiritually void. Void, spiritually numbed.
Martin Luther in his Larger Catechism on the section that's teaching on the Lord's commandment, right? The first commandment he focuses on, right? "You shall have no other gods before Me." Luther goes on to say this: "Whatever your heart clings to and relies upon, that is your god." Whatever your heart clings to, whatever it relies upon, whatever you put your trust in, That's your god. Trust and faith of the heart alone make both god and idol. And the idol is whatever claims the loyalty that belongs to God alone. And so if a man worships sex and sensuality and women's bodies, you can't become shocked when he speaks in vulgar and reprehensible terms about women, when he degrades them and demeans them and speaks of them as if they're pieces of meat. And not fellow image bearers. He is speaking the words of worship, right? Give your heart to stuff, give your heart to things, and you will become materialistic. So many other examples we could use.
6 · Pivots from the general theological principle that we become what we worship to the specific application for Providence Church—the mission statement's call to treasure God is strategic because treasuring God produces Christlikeness
This is why we state so boldly in our mission statement that we as a church are striving to be a a community of disciples who treasure God. Treasure is just another way of saying to be a community of disciples who love and delight, who worship in God, because you become what you worship. And we want to become like God. We want to grow in Christ's likeness. And so we want to treasure Him.
7 · Establishes worship as the fundamental human activity—every person is hardwired to worship—and frames Scripture's purpose as calling believers not to mere outward compliance but to heart-level devotion that transforms them into God's likeness
Every beating heart sitting in this room is a natural worshiper. It is hardwired into what you do. You are worshiping someone or something. It's how God's made you. The most important question of your life is simply this: what do you worship? And by extension, what are you becoming? What do you worship and what are you becoming? Scripture, in a certain sense, is a book about loyalties. It's a book about adoration, about allegiances and consequences. Which God are you loyal to? The true and living God or the gods of the nations? The Bible presses on us the superiority of God to all the other false gods, and it calls us to this exclusive loyalty to Him and to His sovereign rule in the universe. But it's not just satisfied. The Scriptures aren't just satisfied with us being begrudging subjects. We have to stand when the king speaks. We have to bow in his presence whether we like it or not. That's not what the Scriptures are doing. God's words are on a mission to capture our hearts so that when we give our lives in devotion to God, we would become more filled with who God is, that we would become more like God.
8 · Transitions from the broad theological foundation about worship to the specific biblical text that will ground the rest of the sermon—1 Peter 1:8-9 as Peter's description of what it means to treasure God
And so the foundation to our mission as a church in our task of making and multiplying and maturing disciples of Jesus Christ is that the people of Providence would treasure God, would delight in God. I want us to look this morning at 2 verses, a shorter amount of text than we normally look at. In 1 Peter 1:8-9, Peter describes this goal.
9 · Reads the primary text of 1 Peter 1:8-9 establishing Peter's description of believers who, without seeing Christ, love Him with inexpressible joy and receive salvation—the outcome of their faith
Hear God's holy and authoritative word. Peter says this: Though you have not seen Him, Jesus Christ, you love Him. And though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. The Word of the Lord. May He write its truth upon our hearts.
10 · Interprets the text by establishing that Peter is expressing marvel at believers' unseen faith—reversing the typical dynamic where modern believers marvel at biblical figures—and that true belief in Christ necessarily includes loving Christ with a captured heart
Now, these two verses are pregnant with the reality that believers are called to be treasurers. To believe in Christ is to belong to Him. But more than that, it's not just that you belong to Him. To believe in Christ is to love Him. It's to have your heart captured by Him. Now, what would you say if I said that the Apostle Peter marvels, in a certain sense is in awe of you this morning? That's an interesting notion, right? To think that the Apostle Peter marvels at you? Marvels at your faith? It's a strange way to think about it. It's a strange way to say it. But oftentimes, we think of it the other way around, right? We marvel, we are in awe of biblical characters.
11 · Rehearses Peter's extraordinary experiences with Jesus—personal call, family miracles, sermon attendance, walking on water—establishing the depth of Peter's firsthand knowledge that makes his marvel at unseen believers' faith all the more significant
We read Paul describing the riches of Christ in Ephesians and Colossians. We long for a faith like that. We look at Peter himself, right? We consider Peter's life and we think that would have been amazing. I marvel at Peter. I marvel at what he got to experience. Peter knew Jesus. Jesus walked up to Peter and said, "I want you to follow Me." Personal invitation. Personal recruitment. Peter's mother-in-law hosted Jesus. When she gets sick and ill, Jesus heals her. Peter's own family has experienced miracles at Jesus' hand. Peter was there for all the other miracles, right? He's there. He's experienced 3 years of life-changing sermons. He's there for the debates with religious leaders, seeing Jesus' brilliance, His ability to turn the tables on his religious opponents as they try and trap him. Peter's the guy that's in the boat in the storm. Jesus is walking on water and Jesus says to Peter, "Come!" And Peter steps out and for a couple steps, he's walking on water. And even when he sinks and his faith falters, Jesus is the one who rescues him. I'm jealous as a preacher. Like, do you think how cool your sermon illustrations would be if you've lived with Jesus for 3 years? Your personal examples are way better. We should be in awe of Him. People pay thousands of dollars to take vacations to the Holy Land so they can stand on the Mount of Olives 2,000 years after Jesus was there. But Peter was there when it was all happening. He knew the Lord Jesus Christ. And he loved the Lord Jesus Christ.
12 · Explains why Peter marvels—the believers in Asia Minor (and by extension Providence Church) love Jesus without ever seeing Him, which is supernatural because loving Jesus goes against fallen human nature
And yet Peter marvels. He's in awe of these believers scattered across Asia Minor that we encounter in this letter in modern-day Turkey. He marvels that they have never laid their eyes on Jesus. They've never once seen him. And yet, they know Him and they love Him. 1 Peter 1:8-9, "Though you have not seen Him," Jesus Christ, "you love Him." And Peter would say the same thing to us. Though you, saints of Providence, have never seen Jesus, you love Him. He's marveling at their faith. He's marveling at our faith. He's marveling because loving Jesus is not a natural thing to do.
13 · Explains the theological reason loving Jesus is unnatural—the fall corrupted humanity's worship wiring, turning hearts downward toward creation and inward toward self rather than upward toward God, as evidenced in the serpent's temptation exchanging God's glory for man's glory
The human heart is hardwired to worship, but after the fall, all the wires are crossed up. Our hearts are no longer inclined the way they should be. We're not predisposed to cherish Christ. Sin turns our hearts into this downward spiral. It turns our hearts downward away from God and it turns our hearts inward. We worship created things instead of the Creator. We worship ourselves instead of God. The story of Scripture is in part a celebration of God as Creator and Sustainer of the universe and of the obligation of people created in His image to give that Creator honor and praise and adoration and glory. Worship is meant to center totally and fully and absolutely on God. When Satan tempts Eve in the garden, as the serpent whispers in her ear, whispers that the whole reason God forbids you from eating from that tree is because then your eyes will be opened. He doesn't want you to eat that because then you'll see and then you'll know. And then you'll be like God. From the very beginning, sin is about misplaced worship. Satan is turning Eve's heart. He's turning Adam's heart, exchanging the glory of God and the worship of God for the glory of man and the worship of man. And so when Adam and Eve give in to the serpent's temptation, they're changed. It's almost as if their souls shrink. Eve goes from a person whose heart is captured by the most beautiful, adoration-worthy thing possible, her Creator, who she walks with in the garden in the coolest of the day, to now being a heart consumed by the feeble glory of her own self. We carry that own sin in our heart. Because of sin, we all now have a natural propensity, our inclination, our knee-jerk disposition is to collapse inward, to love ourselves and to listen to ourselves instead of loving God and listening to God.
14 · Identifies regeneration as the miracle Peter marvels at—God causing dead hearts to be born again to living hope through Christ's resurrection, reorienting hearts back toward God's love
And that's why Peter marvels at our faith. He's marveling at the miraculous glory of regeneration. This is a miracle. Peter has witnessed hundreds of miracles in his time with Jesus. But he knows every time he encounters a believer, he is in a fresh way encountering a miracle of God. Listen to how he describes it in 1 Peter 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He, God, has done this. He, God, has taken your bent and broken heart and caused it to be born again to a living hope. This is a miracle. Praise God, what was dead is now alive.
15 · Draws an analogy between physical miracles witnessed by first-century believers (Jesus walking on water, Lazarus raised) and the spiritual miracle every believer experiences—the Spirit reorienting hearts toward God's love
Looked at Jesus as he walked on the water. None of us saw Lazarus raised from the grave. We didn't witness those miracles, but we have each been made a part of a great miracle. The Spirit of Christ reorienting our hearts back towards the love of God. To be a disciple is to have your heart consumed by the love of God.
16 · Synthesizes the theological foundation into the church's mission mandate—because regeneration is the miracle of God creating love for Himself in formerly dead hearts, the church must prioritize stirring up delight in God, not as optional programming but as response to what God has done
Peter starts out just regaling us with the mystery of the love of God. People who are children of wrath, Paul says, people who are enslaved in their sin, now have hope, now have joy, now love Jesus. And so it has to be our mission as a church to treasure Christ. That cannot be incidental to what we're about. There's so many good things that we can be doing, but something we have to be doing is about the people gathered here being stirred up to delight in God more fully. We watched this video on Alpha. That's just the miracle happening again and again and again. People's hearts being captured. It's not an optional thing. This is what God has done for us. He's put those crash pads on our dead hearts and he's charged them with life. And so he's given us this renewed taste for his sweetness, a renewed sight for his beauty, renewed pleasure in the glory and supremacy of God himself. As Christians, we're called to love God. That's basically what Peter's saying. You're called to walk out Deuteronomy 6:5, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You now have a love for Jesus in your hearts.
17 · Transitions from love as supernatural miracle to joy as the natural expression of that love—Peter describes believing not as raw duty but as joy-filled delight that is inexpressible and filled with glory
But Peter's next point is that this isn't the stuff of duty. There's this mysterious love of God that happens in our heart. Through the miracle of regeneration. But it's not just raw duty. It's not the stuff of duty. It's the stuff of delight. He describes to us the joy, the joy-filled glory of believing. 1 Peter 1:8-9, "Though you have not seen Him," Jesus Christ, "you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.
18 · Uses Eeyore as a cultural reference to illustrate the incompatibility of joyless Christianity with Peter's vision—believers can suffer and mourn but should have a ballast of hope that prevents the perpetual gloom of dysthymia
Sadly, I think today there are far too many Eeyore Christians. We all know Eeyore, the character from Winnie the Pooh, the donkey, right? "No bother." Just always sad, always melancholy. But Peter doesn't have a category for the person who's been made alive to the beauty of Christ and then still shuffling through life joyless and disappointed. Now, these are suffering believers. So Peter has a category for people facing hardship. He has a category for people mourning. He has a category for people lamenting difficult things. But he doesn't have a category for people made alive to Christ who have no hope. There's actually a clinical name for this. It's called dysthymia. Clinical name for a person with no joy and happiness in their life. It's just gloom and negativity. Eeyore's life philosophy is a quote from one of the books. "I never get my hopes up, so I never get let down." That's just Eeyore. That's his— "I never hope too much, so I'm never disappointed." It could be worse. I'm not sure how, but it could be. That's how Eeyore goes through life. That's not how Christians are supposed to go through life. Not always chipper and happy. That's not the vision. But with a ballast to their souls. You know what a ballast is? Ballast is rocks in the bottom of a ship. And you fill a ship with ballast so that when the waves crash and pound the ship, it doesn't flip. It doesn't turn over. You have ballast in your soul because you're going to go through hard times. There's going to be waves. There's going to be storms. But the point is there's this joy, this ballast in the soul of a Christian that is able to hope even in the midst of difficulty.
19 · Establishes the context of 1 Peter's recipients as suffering exiles under persecution, yet possessing secure hope and intact joy because Christ preserves their inheritance and will return—a forward-looking confidence that produces inexpressible joy even amid trials
These Christians are scattered. He starts out talking about Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect exiles of the dispersion. These are people who've, under persecution for their faith, been scattered throughout an entire region. Imagine we're just scattered across the Midwest a year from now because of massive persecution breaking out against us and our faith in Christ Jesus. Hard stuff, right? And yet Peter looks at them and he talks to them and he recognizes their hope is secure. Their joy remains intact. Praise God, you, we have a living hope in Christ Jesus, a living hope. The one who's been raised from the grave is the same one who secures your hope. He's actually preserving an inheritance for you. There's this forward-looking sense that dispels the "eor" from our hearts. "I guess it could be worse." No, a Christian, even in the midst of trial and difficulty, Peter shows us in writing to these believers, looks forward in faith to a Jesus they've never seen, filled with hope in the glory of God that there's a day coming when Christ will return. So there's this forward-looking hope being safeguarded by God's own power. You believe in Jesus, Peter says, and so you rejoice in the midst of various trials with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. Inexpressible. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter recognizes the limitations of human language to describe the joy they have in the future glory of Christ. And that is ours. It's the polar opposite of the Eeyore Christian.
20 · Contrasts the Eeyore Christian's begrudging compliance with Peter's vision, then uses personal experience with ACL rehab to illustrate that Christian joy is not pretending suffering is pleasant but recognizing trials make Jesus more precious
Called to love Jesus, the Eeyore Christian responds, "Well, I guess there are worse things I could be told to love. Not sure what they are." but I'm sure there must be. The Eeyore Christian. If you say I have to love Jesus, I guess I will. But I doubt it will bring me any happiness. That's not what Peter envisions for us. Eeyore Christians are chronically nearsighted. The joy of 1 Peter, the happiness of treasuring Christ, isn't that we pretend hard stuff is fun. I'm going through some hard stuff with my ACL right now. And when I'm at the physical therapist, there's no part of me that's thinking, yeah, can we double the length of this appointment? When you bend my knee and it feels like there's a nail going through it and you hold it there for 30 seconds, I'm happy. No, like I'm gripping the table. And then he asked me, do you need a break? Uh-huh. That's not fun. The suffering itself isn't fun. There's nothing super duper exciting about being driven from your home in the face of a hurricane, right? Or just all the other various trials that can come in the midst of life. We rejoice in the midst of these things. Because they fortify our faith. That is, they make Jesus more precious to us.
21 · Expounds the purpose of trials from 1 Peter 1:6-7—they test and purify faith, increasing capacity to love Jesus at His return
Just before our passage, Peter writes this: In this you rejoice. In this, this inheritance in Christ Jesus being kept and preserved for you in heaven. You rejoice in this inheritance, though now for a little while, if necessary, if God wills it, You have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We rejoice in this inheritance in the midst of various trials because it's purifying our faith. It's strengthening our ability to love Jesus so that when Jesus returns, our hearts have more capacity to know him and love him on that day. ACL surgery and rehab sucks, but it's a reminder that this world is fallen, that it's fading. That my life is a vapor, just like the cartilage in my knee, and that Jesus is more precious. He's more precious than being able to run. And I can say that during 9 months of rehab, and a woman like Joni Eareckson Tada, quadriplegic, can say it her whole life. Jesus is more precious than being able to, to walk or dress myself or use the restroom on my own. This is how believers think. It's this joy-filled glory of believing. And Peter marvels at it. We don't see Jesus now, but there's a day coming when we will, when faith will become sight. And on that day, Everything broken and bent and misshapen because of the fall will be made right. To be in Christ means there is something in our soul that leaps at the beauty of Christ. To be a believer means there is something in your soul that just jumps and rejoices when you consider Jesus, even and especially in the midst of great hardship.
22 · Analogies from classical music and baseball fandom illustrate that true love naturally produces delight without external compulsion—when you love something, your heart naturally moves toward it
You don't have to tell someone who loves classical music, right? You put on Yo-Yo Ma for someone who loves classical music, and you have to tell them, now I really want you to try hard to enjoy this. Okay, no, I'm not even a connoisseur of classical music, and I enjoy Yo-Yo Ma, right? You don't have to tell a baseball fan, You have to cheer when your team hits a home run. Come on, Joe, you need to cheer for that hit. It won the game. Oh, fine, I guess I have to stand up and clap a little. No, the person who loves baseball naturally cheers for it. Their heart rejoices in it. The grumpiest people in the world, when they sit there and watch their team, are excited. Glasses completely empty people, when they're doing the thing they worship, their hearts move.
23 · Synthesizes the theological claim that regeneration solves humanity's core problem—seeking happiness in empty things—by making hearts happy in God, citing Tozer's definition of worship as heart-felt awe and wonder in God's presence that produces lasting joy unlike temporal pleasures
And if you've been born again, if you've been made alive to Christ, it means your heart, by a miracle of God, has been brought to life and it's been made happy in God. The main problem of your life, the fact that you were finding happiness in all the wrong things and in empty things and it was going to bring you eternal punishment, that problem has been solved. Worship, A.W. Tozer says, is to feel in your heart. Worship is to feel in your heart and express in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonishing wonder and overpowering love in the presence of the most ancient mystery, God. Father, Spirit, Son. That's what the miracle of regeneration is meant to do in our hearts. That worship would happen. That's the joy-filled glory of believing. We were made for this. Our souls can find no true joy until they find it in astonished wonder and overpowering love, as Tozer says, in the presence of the triune God. You can cheer for the home run, and then you're going to be empty tomorrow.
24 · Questions what Peter means by 'salvation of your souls' in 1 Peter 1:9, listing common answers (forgiveness, eternal life, freedom from sin, belonging) and warning that treating these benefits as the final goal reduces salvation to a spiritual version of the prosperity gospel rather than recognizing God Himself as the gift
1 Peter 1:8-9, though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith. Faith, the salvation of your souls. This inexpressible joy filled with glory, this happens through believing in Christ and it results in the outcome of that very faith, the salvation of your souls. But what does he mean by the salvation of your souls? What's the great goal and reward of being saved? Sunday school time, how would you answer if you were sitting there? How are our kids answering? Our kids are probably answering in really interesting ways, right? What is salvation of souls about? What's the great goal? Is it forgiveness of sins? Is it the promise of life after death? Is it not just forgiveness of sins, but freedom from sin? I'm no longer in bondage to it. Is it belonging to the people of God, the family of God? Going from loneliness and broken relationships to people who love you with an eye towards grace and overlooking flaws because of Jesus? Those are all parts and aspects of salvation, but none of those is the final goal. And if we aren't careful, each of these can become a thinly veiled version of the health and wealth gospel. I'm believing in Jesus in the hope that I get some goodies. Now, forgiveness of sins is a lot better goodie than a bigger house, right? That's the perversion of the health and wealth gospel, but if we're not careful, we can still cherish of the gift more than the giver. Be more happy about the fact that I'm not going to hell than the reality heaven isn't just the opposite destination from hell. It's the place where God exists and where God lives.
25 · Defines salvation through John 17:3 where Jesus identifies eternal life as knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ—not merely receiving benefits but possessing God Himself as the gift of salvation
In John 17, it's this chapter of your Bible called the High Priestly Prayer. And Jesus puts on the mantle full Hebrew style, right? In the book of Hebrews, it talks about how Jesus is the priest to end all priests, the high priest who perpetually and eternally intercedes before God for us. So Jesus is before the throne of God praying like a high priest. He's also the perfect high priest in himself. He's made perfect sacrifice. Well, John 17, it's the high priestly prayer. Jesus prays to the Father on our behalf. You could preach a fall's worth of sermons from just John 17. But in that passage, as He's praying to God the Father, He's praying that God the Father would glorify Him, the Son, in His work on the earth, but also that the Father would give eternal life to every one of His followers. That they would be preserved, that they would be held up. But listen to how He describes this salvation, eternal life. Another way of talking about salvation. John's language of talking about salvation. John 17:3. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And this is the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. This is eternal life, that you know God the Father through the work of the Spirit, and you know His Son Christ Jesus. God is the gift. God is the gift.
26 · Cites Jonathan Edwards extensively to establish that God is the highest good and sole source of ultimate happiness—all earthly joys are shadows, beams, streams, and drops compared to God as substance, sun, fountain, and ocean
Jonathan Edwards is exactly right when he tells us, God is the highest good of the reasonable creature. Reasonable creature. God is the highest good of every breathing person. The enjoyment of him, God, is our proper and is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. There is nothing in the world that can bring you more joy than God. Nothing exists that can bring you more happiness than God. "To go to heaven," Edwards says, "fully to enjoy God is infinitely," there's no comparison mathematically, "is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here." To go to heaven and fully enjoy God is better than fathers and mothers. It's better than husbands and wives or children or the company of any or all earthly friends. These, Edwards says, are but shadows, but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean. God is the gift. This is eternal life. This is the outcome of your faith. This is what being saved is all about, to know Christ Jesus, and that in knowing him, our hearts would be full and our hearts would be joyful and our hearts would love him.
27 · Pivots from theological exposition to application by connecting the doctrine that God is the gift to Providence's mission—disciples at the very beginning must treasure God, making this the foundation of the church's discipleship work
We want this to be part of our mission at Providence. We want it to be at the front of our mission about making disciples, and disciples at the very beginning treasure God. They love Jesus. They delight in the gospel.
28 · Direct pastoral address to those experiencing spiritual lukewarmness, calling them to cultivate godly discontent with 'so-so Christianity' and dim experiences of God, insisting believers are missing out on joy-filled glory when satisfied with vague knowledge of God's love
If you don't long for more of God, then my heartfelt prayer for you is that you this morning would begin to cultivate a godly discontent. If you came in and were just, you know, things have been so-so spiritually, but things are going pretty well at work, things are going pretty well at home, so I'm okay with so-so. You are missing out. On the joy-filled glory of believing in Christ Jesus. God wants so much more for your faith in Christ, and I hope that you have a sense of godly discontent in that. Don't be satisfied this morning with a dim experience of God. Don't be placated with a vague sense of God's word, of God's love. I sort of know on paper God loves me. Day to day, I really don't know what difference that makes, but I know Sunday school version. Yep, God loves me. Jesus died for me. Our mission as a body is that we would all together treasure God, that we would delight in Christ Jesus, that we would be about the work of purging our souls of your Christianity and so-so Christianity.
29 · Uses Edwards' distinction between intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge to call believers beyond rational assent about God's goodness to experiential tasting, invoking Psalm 27:4's prayer as the model of single-minded desire to dwell in God's presence
Edwards again tells it right when he says there is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet and having a sense of its sweetness. There's a difference between being able to pull out your pen and select correctly true or false, honey is sweet. True. And actually knowing what honey tastes like. Actually wanting to go all Pooh Bear and stick your paw in the pot. We got a lot of Winnie the Pooh. That was a little off the cuff. There's a difference between those two. Don't be content, Peter is saying, with a rational judgment of God's goodness, with a rational knowledge that I guess there's something good waiting for us. I guess there's possibility of being joy-filled in the midst of life in a fallen world. Peter is saying, I'm saying, the Word of God is saying, Jesus in John 17 is saying, plunge your heart into the honey jar and taste the goodness for yourself. Make Psalm 27:4 your heartfelt prayer. 'One thing I ask of the Lord.' You hear his heart. 'There is one thing I desire. This alone is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.' There's one thing that I want. I want to taste. I want to see. I want to savor. I want to smell. I want to experience the love of Christ in all of its fullness. I hope you want that.
30 · Acknowledges the congregation's anticipated objection—desiring to treasure God but not knowing how—and transitions to concrete application by affirming the struggle of hearts at war while promising practical instruction
And I also recognize that some of you are saying, "I do want it, but how?" Right? That's part of our experience in a fallen world. Is these hearts that have been miraculously made alive are still at war. The issue isn't that I don't want to love God more, it's I'm just not sure how to do it. The application, I don't think, is rocket science.
31 · First application point: recognize the inseparable connection between God's glory and personal joy—seeking joy apart from God leads to emptiness, while seeking God's glory produces delight, making the two a single passion as stated in the Westminster Catechism's chief end of man
First, I think it starts by recognizing that God's glory and your joy are inherently tied together. God's glory and your joy are inherently tied. If you don't believe that, you will seek your joy by glorying in other things. And at the same time, by seeking God's glory, you should recognize it's meant to create delight in your heart. God has designed you to worship him. So if you worship anything besides him, You're eventually going to be empty. You can't fill the hole. You'll never know rest until you find joy in Christ. Again, to summarize Edwards, God has purpose that we have a passion for His glory and a passion for your own joy in that glory, and that the two are one passion. That's Peter's point as well. True happiness is in loving God. If you don't believe that, you won't pursue it. You'll worship other things. You'll live for other things. The chief end of man, the Catechism says, Right. Chief end of man, to be oriented towards his glory and to enjoy him forever.
32 · Second application point: surround yourself with others (living and dead through books) who love God passionately, using the analogy of car enthusiasts gathering at car shows to demonstrate how affections are naturally stirred through fellowship with those who share your passion
Second, how do you, how do you experience this? You surround yourself with others who love God joyfully and passionately. You surround yourself with others who want to love God joyfully and passionately. We do this naturally in every other part of our lives, right? Car enthusiasts, they gather for car shows so they can pop the hood and rev up the engine. Oh yeah, oh man, that's '69 400 Hemi, right? They just— they gather, and then they're gathering, they marvel, and they talk, and they sit there all weekend, and they drive up and down the street, right? And these long lines of old cars and they go home with their hearts more full of love for gears. You could think of a million other applications for how guys do that and how people do that. It's no different here. If you long to love God more or you simply wish you longed for the longing, then pursue fellowship. Share a common life with others who long to love God. And I'll put a caveat on that too. Surround yourself with dead people who loved God joyfully and passionately. There is a treasure trove of— we live in a day and age where there are just books at our fingertips. You don't have to pay for them. So many of the classics are free online. The reason why these are classics, if you would dip your toe in the water of them, is that these are people who have experienced the joy and the glory of loving God in Christ Jesus. And you can fellowship with them and then take that fellowship and fellowship with your living friends. God has designed us to be like gearheads and stirred up in our affections.
33 · Third application point: prioritize gathered worship by recognizing the church as the New Testament fulfillment of the temple—where God's Spirit promised to dwell among His gathered people—making corporate worship the most strategic weekly time commitment for growing in love for God
Third, do as the psalmist suggests, dwell in the house of the Lord. Now, He's speaking of the temple, not because the building was special, but because the temple is the place where God's Spirit dwells. There's this whole biblical theology of God's place, God's Spirit, God's people. Tabernacle in the wilderness, God's place, God's Spirit's there, His people gather around it. It becomes the temple, God's place, God's Spirit comes on it, His people gather. The great sense of loss that happens when Jerusalem is conquered, you see it in Exodus. Or you see it in Ezekiel. He envisions the Spirit of God leaving the temple and mourning breaks out. They've lost the place. Well, where is that now? It's here. Not in this oddly geometrically designed room, but here in the midst of these people. God has promised us as we gather, His Spirit is present. Prioritize this. This is the most strategic hour and a half you can spend your entire week. I promise you that. That's not me trying to promote this so there's more people and I feel better about myself when I go home on Sunday afternoon. That is God saying, when they gather, My Spirit is there to Fill them with love for Jesus. So prioritize this. God has promised to be here when you're here. God wants to stir up your love and affection. He's promised to fill your heart with love through the means of grace that we celebrate every single Lord's Day.
34 · Explains the intentional design of Providence's worship liturgy as a gospel-proclaiming feast of grace—moving from call to worship declaring God's holiness, through confession of sin, assurance of pardon, thanksgiving, preaching, and the Lord's Table—each element designed to stir affection for Christ
This whole service is meant to be a feast of grace, and grace is meant to stir up affection for Christ. We design the liturgy, we try to be intentional with the liturgy, the order of things in the service, so that the liturgy itself actually proclaims the gospel to you. So when we do the call to worship, the call to worship is a call that points us every week to God's words showing us his glory and his holiness and his majesty. Lift up your heads, O you gates. Be lifted up, you ancient doors. The King of glory may come in. Elevate your hearts that God is holy. And then each week we try to have a recognition of that holiness in our sin. And so a song or a scripture, or like this morning, a congregational reading where we confess our sins before God's holiness. And then a scripture or a prayer or a song that gives us the assurance of pardon. You are forgiven in Christ Jesus. You once were lost, and now you are a son and a daughter. We follow that up with, with a song of thanksgiving and then preaching in God's word so our hearts can be fed. And then we go to the Lord's table so that we together can feast on God's provision for us. God has promised to renew our joy and sustain our faith. Every week because He knows we need it.
35 · Fourth application point: pray continually like the psalmist asking repeatedly for the one thing—to dwell in God's house and gaze on His beauty—recognizing that desiring God requires asking God for more of Himself
Fourth, pray. If you want more of God, then you have to be like the psalmist. You have to cry out, "One thing I ask of the Lord." It's not just this one time I'm asking it, God. No, there's a sense in the psalmist, the one thing I pray continually, the one thing I cry out continually is that I may dwell in Your house. That I might gaze on the beauty of the Lord. Pray for that. If you want to love Jesus, pray.
36 · Fifth application point: sing to the Lord both privately and corporately, recognizing singing as a means of making hearts glad in Jesus and telling the gospel to one another, with practical instruction to sing before arriving on Sunday and engage from the first verse
Fifth, I think this one gets overlooked. Sing to the Lord. Christianity is a singing faith. Saved people love to sing. Where else do people gather to sing songs? Sing on your own. Get a hymnal. Look up songs on the internet. Listen to them. Hannah yells at me because I put on the noise-canceling headphones, and when you put the noise-canceling headphones on, my out-of-tuneness gets turned up way more. But there's a reason I do it. Because when I sing, my heart becomes glad in Jesus. And when we gather here, we're singing to make our hearts glad in Jesus. We're telling the gospel to each other. If you are hungry for more of Jesus, then sing on Sunday morning before you get here and come early, ready from the very first word, the very first verse, to hear God's word and to respond, because a saved soul loves to sing.
37 · Sixth application point: spend time in Scripture before God, using the analogy of marriage to demonstrate that love grows cold without time spent with the beloved, and announcing upcoming discipleship groups designed to cultivate this habit
Finally, finally, just— it's so obvious we forget it. I'm excited, we're going to talk about it more in a few weeks. We're going to start these discipleship groups. We'll talk more about it in the weeks to come. But the reason we're starting these groups is because we want you to be in your word before the face of God. And if you want to love God more, then spend more time before Him. We wonder why our love grows cold, but a husband who spends no time with his wife can't be surprised when his love for her diminishes. It's not enough for a husband to hear other men describe how they love their own wives. If he's spending no time contemplating the love of his own wife, if he spends no time with her cultivating and celebrating that love, his love for her will also grow cold. And it's the same thing for us. Make a habit of meeting with the Lord.
38 · Concludes by repeating Edwards' declaration that God is the highest good and only source of soul satisfaction, using his imagery of shadows/substance, beams/sun, streams/fountain, drops/ocean, then issuing final charge for Providence to treasure God together and lose themselves in His beauty
Let's listen again in conclusion to the words of Edwards, his call to delight in God. God is the highest good. The enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven fully to enjoy God is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here, better than fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, children, or the company of any earthly friends. Anything you can put in there, God is better. These are but shadows, but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These but drops, but God is the ocean. And so, Providence, let us treasure God together. Let us together lose ourselves in the ocean of his beauty.
39 · Closing prayer asking the Spirit to strengthen belief, grant fresh sight of Jesus, stir renewed affections through the preached word, and grow understanding of joy in God's glory, concluding with the dual purpose of God's glory and the congregation's joy
Would you bow your heads? Lord God, we pray by your Spirit that you would give us strength in our believing. Lord, help us to see Jesus with fresh eyes this morning. Stir up through your Spirit, through the preaching of your word, renewed affections for your Son. And then, Lord, we ask and we pray you would help us to understand and grow in the knowledge of what it means to be happy and filled with joy in your glory. Lord, we want to become like what we worship. We want to become like Jesus. Pray that you would do these things in his name, for your glory, and for our joy. Amen.