LBC Annual Bible Conference 2021 Session 1

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

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Well, tonight's the beginning of our Bible conference. I'm not sure what the number is. I think it's like 31, this might be our 30th or 31st annual

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Bible conference. It's our privilege to have Dr. Heath Lambert here. Heath is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida, but I got to know him through ACBC, the

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Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. Heath was the executive director of ACBC from 2012 to 2018.

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And that's kind of how we started to get to know one another. We were teaching together in some things and got to know him as I served on the board.

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But in my view, I appreciate Heath's leadership of ACBC because in my view, he took

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ACBC to dizzying heights that we had never known before. And I've always appreciated his leadership, but we became friends through that whole thing.

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I guess he felt sorry for me, I'm not sure, but it's just a real privilege to have

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Heath here. I'm just thrilled to death and I'm looking forward to the ministry of the Word of God as he brings it to us in these successive days.

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So Heath, bring the Word of God. Well, it's great to be here.

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I'll maybe give three introductory remarks. You can turn to John 17.

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We'll wind up there for the evening, but three introductory remarks on our way there.

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First, it really is an honor to be here. I realize that it's a rule that when you're invited to speak someplace, you're supposed to say that it's an honor to be there, but I really mean it.

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I have, First Baptist has a speaking committee, so I don't get to decide where I go.

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There's a committee of about nine people and they let me go on five trips a year, five outside ministry engagements a year, and I just get one vote.

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I can throw my hand in the air or I can get outvoted and do get outvoted. But when the invitation came to speak here,

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I told those guys, I was like, look, if you don't let me go to LaRue, I'm not going anywhere else you send me. That's all there is to it.

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And so feeling the pressure of that, they decided to let me come. And then I was disappointed when COVID canceled the last one.

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And I believe, as I recall, we were on the phone and I think I asked you if I could redo it. Did I say

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I'd like to come back this year? Did I like pressure you into a re -invite? But I really wanted to be here.

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And the reason I really wanted to be here, honestly, is because I love Pastor Tim. One of the great joys of serving at ACBC was to be able to know him.

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He was a member of the board that held me and the organization accountable. And I just think he's one of the godliest, kindest, most gracious, and wise men

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I've ever met. And so it's a privilege for me to be here for nothing else than just to be able to spend time with him, who

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I love a great deal. So it really is a pleasure to be here. Second thing, I'll just warn you,

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I don't have to warn them of this at First Baptist because they're used to it.

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But I've actually, for the last couple of years, been experiencing a neurological problem.

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I've got a blood vessel that's causing problems with nerves in my brain, and it causes spasms on the right side of my body.

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I had brain surgery back in the fall, and it stopped the spasming of my arm and hand, but my face can still really freak out.

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And so if I'm talking at some point tonight, and you think that I'm making... It's actually one starting to happen now. Oh, it's going away.

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But I won't keep doing that through the evening. You'll just be looking at me, and you'll be like, he's really upset and is making a funny face at me.

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And I'm not upset, probably. And I don't mean to make a funny face. I always look that way.

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But my face scrunches up. And if it's really bad, it's actually... I can't talk. So it could happen that tonight

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I'll start making funny noises and funny faces, and it'll go away eventually. And I'm sorry, but my nerves are going haywire in my brain, and you can pray for me if it happens.

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The third thing is, as we turn to John 17, the theme for tonight,

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Friday and two on Saturday, is I want to look at Bible passages with you that talk about the

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Bible. So the plan is, when we leave here on Saturday, that we would grow up and be encouraged about the

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Scriptures. So the theme that goes through each one of the texts that we'll look at together is, it's something about the

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Bible, something about the usefulness, something about the practicality, something about the helpfulness of Scripture.

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One of the things that shocks me about the Christian life, one of the things that amazes me about being a

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Christian, is the Bible. And I did not know when I got saved.

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I think I knew pretty quickly after I got saved that the Bible was our authority, that it was true, that it told us what to do and we needed to obey it.

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I didn't realize how much of a relevant authority it is.

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And just about every week, something happens. I'm reading something,

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I'm studying something, I'm preparing to preach something, that just shocks me with how relevant of an authority the

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Bible is. And so we'll try, anyway, in our time together tonight, tomorrow night,

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Saturday, to discover that together. So John 17, verse 17, is where we'll start.

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It's just that one verse. We're going to talk about it tonight. I'm going to make three sorts of comments about it.

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I'll read it, we'll pray, and then I'll make some observations about John 17, 17.

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We'll talk about some implications of those observations from John 17, 17.

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And then we'll talk about a few applications from those observations and implications.

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So observations, implications, applications, and then we'll be done. So John 17, 17, just this one verse, this is

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Jesus' high priestly prayer. He is talking to God about you and I, and this is what he says in John 17, verse 17.

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Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.

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Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are here together tonight.

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And there are all sorts of reasons why we might show up in a room like this.

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And I don't know what all those are. I don't know what all the concerns are. I don't know what all the joys are.

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I don't know what all the life situations are that are represented in this room. But one way or another, for one reason or another, you have brought us all here.

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And I am asking for your grace to be poured out on us.

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I'm asking that the same spirit who inspired the writing of these words from the apostle

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John as he faithfully recorded what Jesus said to you, I'm asking that that same spirit who inspired these words and who faithfully preserved these words to us right on down to 2021,

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I'm asking that that same spirit would empower the preaching of these words, that you would overcome physical and spiritual weaknesses as a man and as a preacher, that you would overcome our physical and spiritual weaknesses as listeners, and that you by miracle of grace would make us different than we were when we came in.

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Would you take a few verses of scripture and some comments from somebody who needs your help every second, and would you do great and powerful things because we were here?

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We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So this is a passage of scripture.

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It's a verse of scripture about the Bible, and it's a verse of scripture about sanctification.

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So I'm going to be bouncing around on those two things as we make our observations, our implications, and our applications.

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So after I give you some of these observations, I'm going to end all of this with a definition of sanctification.

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That's a little bit of a working definition, but we'll make some observations before we get there.

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So observation number one, sanctification is about movement toward Jesus.

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Sanctification, whatever it is, is about movement toward Jesus. I observe this about the text because Jesus' appeal to God the

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Father is that something happen in our life, and namely that that thing that needs to happen is sanctification.

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He wants this thing called sanctification to happen in our life. He's talking about his people.

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He's talking about people who are saved, people who have repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus. So those people have

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Jesus Christ. They have received salvation, and yet something else needs to happen.

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There is something else that yet needs to take place. There is movement that needs to take place, and we learn from the larger teaching in Scripture that that movement that is supposed to happen in the people who already are

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Christians is movement toward Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11, the

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Bible says, Such were some of you. He's talking about the lost state of people.

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He's talking about where sin gets you. He's talking about judgment and being excluded from the kingdom of heaven.

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And he says in verse 11, Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified.

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You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. I want you to just focus in there on sanctification.

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Same word as in John 17, 17. Whatever sanctification is, when it happens to you, it happens in Jesus Christ.

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So this movement that needs to happen, this thing that we yet need after we get saved, happens in Jesus Christ.

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In 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18, which we read together a moment ago, it says,

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But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

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Lord. Are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the

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Lord, the spirit. So this is amazing. This movement, 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18 says,

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It happens from glory to glory. It happens in degrees.

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When you get saved and there is yet something that needs to happen, there's movement that needs to take place.

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That doesn't happen immediately. It's not one gigantic leap. It happens from one degree of glory to another.

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What happens from one degree of glory to another? Well, we are growth in Christ.

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We come to look like Jesus. So when you are saved, when you are justified, and you are pronounced to have the righteousness of Jesus Christ, all of his goodness, everything that he is becomes yours by faith.

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That's a declaration of what is true. But sanctification is when you actually become to look like Jesus a little bit at a time and fits and starts over time.

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How does that happen? Well, 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18 says, It happens by looking at Jesus.

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This means that sanctification is a Christ -centered thing. It's a

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Jesus -centered reality. Over time, you come to look like Jesus by looking at Jesus.

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The Christian life is a life of staring at, beholding, obsessing over Jesus.

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And the more you look at this man, the more you worship him, the more you see him, the more you become like him.

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So sanctification is about movement toward Jesus. That's the first observation.

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Second observation. Sanctification is the goal for the people of Jesus.

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This is the goal for us. John 17, 17. Jesus prays this for you and I.

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Now, look, this is the man. This is the God -man.

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This is the Son of God. This is the King of Kings. He is perfect and righteous. He comes from heaven and is returning there.

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And as we listen to him, as we eavesdrop on his conversation with God, the

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Father, it's fascinating. We should be interested in every single word he has to say. And he could ask the

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Father for anything. He could ask the Father for anything for us.

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He could ask for us to have a lot of money. He could ask for us to have superpowers.

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I have these kids and they watch these Marvel superpower movies. I actually can't stand them. I go because I love them, but I'm like, okay, so Spider -Man is going to get exposed and he's going to become in danger and there's going to become some cosmic being from the outer reaches that's going to threaten the safety of the entire cosmos.

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And he's going to have a purple crystal that when you stab the black box, the world isn't going to be annihilated and all will be well.

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And I'm like, okay, I know how this ends. Like that's probably not the actual storyline because I blacked out, but it's something like that.

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It's this like crazy thing. We're like right to the brink and then it's all over. And thank you, Spider -Man and crystals and black holes and whatever.

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Until the next time. We love those movies, even though they're meaningless movies.

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We love them because we're fascinated by these superpowers. Jesus could give them superpower, give them super strength, give them laser vision, let them fly.

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Jesus doesn't think we need it. He doesn't think we need superpowers. He doesn't think we need super wealth. He thinks that we need to be sanctified.

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He could pray for anything for us that he wants, but this is what he thinks we need. So this is a crucial goal for Christians.

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This is a crucial goal for you and I, whatever this sanctification is. If Jesus Christ is praying it for us, we should really want it.

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That's the second observation. Here's the third. Sanctification has already happened and still needs to happen.

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So if sanctification is movement towards Jesus, if there's this thing that still needs to take place, it has already happened in the lives of believers.

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You can see this when you back up just a little bit, just one verse in verse 16. Jesus says to the father, they are not his disciples.

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They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. So something has happened in the lives of these people to change their status.

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There has been a definitive change of status in their lives and they are not what they once were.

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They are different than who they were and they're different than everybody else that's out there.

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So there has already been movement, but there is yet movement that needs to happen because right after he says in verse 16, they are different, he prays in verse 17.

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Essentially, let them be different still. Sanctify them. Make them different.

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Help this movement to continue. That's the third observation.

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Here's the fourth. Sanctification is God's work. Something that the

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Lord has to do. It's something that the father has to accomplish. Now, it is clear, we know from other places in the

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Bible and in part from 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, which we read a moment ago, that there's something that has to take place on our part.

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We have to look to the Lord at least. Philippians chapter 2 verses 12 to 13 says, so then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

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So this movement, this working out of your salvation, absolutely the

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Bible teaches has something to do with our effort. We are commanded to work this out, to think this through.

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There is effort that is required on our part. I'm not intending to deny that. In fact, when you read on in Philippians chapter 2 verse 13, it says, for it's

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God who's at work within you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And that part, that verse 13 is the emphasis of Jesus in John chapter 17 verse 17.

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He's making clear that this movement towards Jesus is the father's work because he prays, father, you sanctify them.

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This is something you need to do. This is very encouraging.

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I'll bet there's people here who are discouraged. We're thinking about movement towards Jesus. We're thinking about Jesus changed me, but there's change that still needs to happen.

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And a lot of you, if you're not right now, I've had moments in your life when you're really aware that there is a large gap between where you are and the movement that yet needs to happen in your life.

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Well, this is really encouraging because Jesus Christ prayed for you that you would be sanctified. So if you're trusting in Jesus, if you've repented of your sins and fallen on his mercy by faith, then he is praying for you and he is asking the father to make you different.

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He's asking the father to grow you in grace. And that is a prayer that the father in heaven is going to answer.

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You got your work to do. But the emphasis of this verse that we're talking about tonight is this is the father's work.

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This is the father's initiation and you can trust him. Fifth observation, sanctification is accomplished by the truth.

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So this is right on the surface of the text, sanctify them in the truth, the movement that needs to happen in your life from wherever you are to be more like Jesus.

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That movement happens according to a mechanism. There's a mechanism in life that brings that movement about.

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We talked about the grace of the father, but there is another mechanism in life that the father uses to bring about that change.

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And the mechanism we're told here that God, the father uses to accomplish that movement, to accomplish that sanctification is the truth.

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There is reality. There is the actuality of the way things are that helps you to grow in the grace of sanctification.

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It makes you more like Jesus, but we can say more than that.

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And that's the sixth observation is that sanctification is accomplished, not by truth in general, but by truth contained in the word of God.

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Sanctification is accomplished by the truth contained in the word of God.

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Jesus says, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is true. What kind of truth? What is the reality that moves me towards Jesus?

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What is the mechanism that the father uses to press me more and more into Jesus and make me more like him?

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Well, that is the truth that's found in the word of God. It is the Bible.

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It is the Christian scriptures that makes you more like Jesus, slowly but surely, one degree of glory to another, a few steps at a time.

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But it's the word of God that does that. And so based on those observations, here is my definition of sanctification.

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It's the movement in your life from sin and self towards Jesus that God accomplishes through the work of his word, the

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Bible. Sanctification is the movement in your life from sin and self.

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That's where we start. That's what we're saved from when we're initially saved.

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And that's the nature of indwelling sin that we're fighting against, sin and self. I want what

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I want when I want. I don't care what you want. I don't care what God wants. I want what

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I want, and I want it exactly when I want it. Sanctification is the movement in your life from that towards Jesus.

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I want what Jesus wants. I want to be like Jesus. I want to do what Jesus wants me to do. I want to be the man

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Jesus wants me to be or the woman Jesus wants me to be. And God accomplishes that through the work of his word, the

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Bible. It's so important because actually Pastor Tim and I were talking when we were eating just a little bit earlier that everybody has their ideas about what is

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Christian. Everybody has their ideas about what is nice or what is merciful.

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There's actually sectors of Christianity right now that are tearing in two over that. But the only way we know is from the

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Bible. And so ultimately we know from the Bible who Jesus is and what he is like and therefore what we should be.

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And so it's crucial, indispensable in our sanctification. Okay, that's observations about sanctification from John 17 verse 17.

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Now let's talk about some implications of those observations. I'll mention four.

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First, sanctification will require you and me to think and act differently.

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Require you to think and act differently. That is to say that sanctification is movement from where you are to where you need to be.

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All of us, regardless of whether we're feeling the weight of a problem in our life right now, all of us, because we're not in heaven with Jesus, because we're still living life on planet earth, all of us have areas where we need to grow.

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All of us are someplace where we ought not to be. You are not,

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I'm not, you're not, nobody you know is right now today fully formed as a

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Christian. And so there's areas where you need to grow. This is so humbling.

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And if you really appreciate it, it will make you very careful as you live life with other people.

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It is so easy to look at other people and see all the things that's wrong with them, all the areas where they need to change.

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And if they would just see it the way you see it, things would be a whole lot better. But the reality is the problem is in our heart.

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We have to turn the truth on and realize that we are not where we need to be.

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When I am, in fact, I was, I was talking with Pastor Jim about this a little earlier too.

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When we get in the car and our family, I'm always driving. Our oldest son is this close to having the option to drive.

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He actually could drive with me in the car, but I don't, I've got to be sanctified. I don't trust the Lord enough yet, but, but I'm always driving.

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Lauren doesn't like, my wife's name is Lauren. She does not like to drive and I like to drive.

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So I think it's been years since we were in the car together and I wasn't driving.

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But today that happened. She, we were driving to the Jacksonville airport and she was driving. And I was sitting there and I was so frustrated.

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I'm like, oh my goodness, why are we going 10 miles under the speed limit?

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Why are we doing that? And why are we driving in the left lane? Everybody's driving, they're looking in the window while they pass us on the right.

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And she was talking about whatever, and I wasn't paying any attention. I'm like trying to figure out how to be like, step on it or change lanes or both, but stop doing whatever you're doing.

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She's being very halting. And I'm like, why is she doing this wrong? And I realized, oh no, I gotta go talk to these people about John 17, 17.

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And it's me, it's me. I'm sitting here, like my poor wife is trying to serve me to get to the,

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I found out when I finally clued in that it's all this stuff that she's got to do, all this stuff she's figuring out while I'm away. And I'm like, hit it, mama, come on.

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Not caring. Like, this is so humbling. If we would all realize that there's so much growth that we need.

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This is actually really important for Christians who have been Christians for a little while. You know what

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I realized early in ministry? I realized this in my life, and I realized this in pastoral ministry with other people.

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When people get saved, and maybe they've got a lot of trash going on in their life. They've got a lot of situations that they're dealing with.

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And in the kindness of God, you can clear the decks of those big sins. And I know people that felt like they were fine.

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Hey, I'm not sleeping around anymore. I'm not abusing alcohol anymore.

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I'm good. But the reality is, until we are with Jesus, we are not what we ought to be.

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And we need to humble ourselves and look for opportunities. The Bible will shine light on our heart in this regard.

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We're not fully formed as a Christian. And so we need to seek where this movement needs to happen in our lives.

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So it's worth even pausing for a moment. Where does the movement need to happen in your life?

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I mentioned my own marriage. This marriage is a remarkable gift. If you just think about the sources of frustration in your marriage.

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Parenting is another thing. You think about the relationship with your mom and dad, with your kids.

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The sources of frustration is probably shining a light on an area where you need to change.

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And it's probably not a good idea for you to assume that it's all the other person. All right. Sanctification will require you to think and act differently.

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Here's a second implication. Sanctification will hurt since its movement from sin and self to Jesus.

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Sanctification will hurt because it's movement from sin and self to Jesus.

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The reason we sin is because we like it. The reason we do things is because it seems good to us.

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The reason we pop off in anger is because we think the other person deserves it.

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And it's fine if we just let off a little steam. The reason we indulge in sexual immorality is because we think it's fine and it feels good and nobody gets hurt.

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The reason we gossip with our mouths or with our ears, you know, it takes both.

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You can gossip with your ears, you can gossip with your mouth. It's because it just feels so good. It just feels so good to get the scoop.

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It just feels so good to be the one to let everybody know that, you know, what the thing is that happened. I don't even know if it's true, but I want to let you know that I know about it.

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The reason we do it is because it feels good. Sin feels good.

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And there is a reason why one really popular piece of language in the

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Bible for sanctification is death. Death. That part of you that loves it has to die.

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Sanctification hurts because we have to put to death this sin.

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We have to put to death this part of our life that feels good. And it can feel very unpleasant to do the righteous thing.

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It can feel very unpleasant to live soberly and to live in a chaste way and to live in a circumspect and in a wise way.

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It can feel very painful to do that thing. It actually, so much of the time, it feels like loss in your life when you do it.

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But only for a little while, only for a little while. But in the short term, it's going to hurt.

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Third implication. Sanctification requires you to be more invested in the

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Bible than you are. So this is an amazing thing because we live in a culture that is sort of built on the economy of experts.

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So you graduate to a certain level of knowledge. You get a certain number of degrees. You get a certain amount of experience.

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And now you know. Now you're at the top. And I'm not even saying that's not true.

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It might be true in every area except the Bible and theology. So it doesn't matter how many degrees in theology you have or how many degrees in theology

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I have. It doesn't matter how many years we've been a Christian and how many years we've read through the

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Bible. We always need more of the Bible than we've got. That is true if two things are true.

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If you have areas in your life where you still need to change. Movement that needs to take place to be more like Jesus.

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Which is true by the time you're in the room. And if that movement happens by the grace of God according to the scriptures.

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There's areas in your life where you need to grow and that growth happens by the Bible. Then you need lots more Bible than you're getting. No matter how much you're getting.

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You need lots more. You need to up your game. This is amazing. I have a commitment to read through the

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Bible in a year. Every year I've been doing this. I don't even know how long. And I'm a preacher.

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So right now at First Baptist I preach. We're preaching through Matthew on Sunday morning and through Revelation on Sunday night.

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So I've got my Bible reading through the year. I've got my sermon prep in the morning.

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I've got my sermon prep in the evening. There's always something else going on. I got to do something like this. And it never fails when

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I get exposed to the word. I'm like, oh no. There's that. And you know this.

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You know this. You've read something a hundred times. And it hits you sideways.

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The 150th time you read it. Like I have not been obeying that. I have not been living that. I have not been believing that.

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I've not been trusting that. Whatever you're doing. It doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter how much you have memorized.

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It doesn't matter how much you've studied. It doesn't matter how many sermons you listen to. You need more of the

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Bible in your life. If that's what the Lord is using to sanctify you. And that's the way it is.

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Fourth implication. Sanctification requires your increased trust in God since this is his work.

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If Jesus prays, Father, would you sanctify them in the truth?

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For your word is truth. Then this gives you an opportunity, a specific way that you can lay hold of Jesus and trust in him and trust in the

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Father. This comes back to real encouragement. Whatever your struggle is. Whatever's going on in your life.

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Whatever sin you've been dealing with. In fact, more than that. Whatever struggle you observe in the life of someone you're close with.

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There's a family I'm really close with right now. And it's a marriage that is super strained.

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And it's a married couple where all of us are involved in it, are really persuaded that they both have repented of their sins.

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They're both trusting in Jesus. But the husband has just had a lot of struggle. Sanctification has been slow in a specific area.

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And what we bumped into in the last couple of months is this wife is like one part discouraged and like four parts like really ticked.

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Like, how long do I have to put up with this?

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And she says things like he's never changing. It's never going to be different than it is.

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That makes a certain kind of sense. If you are carefully studying history.

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She got a case. She carefully studies the history of her marriage. She's got a case. Looks like he's never changing. But when you carefully study the

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Bible, when you carefully study the words of Jesus, there's all hope in the world.

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Because the son of God prays to his father, the king of heaven and earth and says, would you do this?

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Would you do this with your people? Would you sanctify them in the truth? Your word is truth. Eventually, sooner or later, the grace of the father and the truth of the word is going to explode in the life of the person you're frustrated with.

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And they will be different. Isn't that wonderful? It's a guarantee. You can't stay the way you are.

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And the person you're frustrated with or discouraged about can't stay the way they are. That's only true if God isn't real.

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It's only true if the father doesn't listen to the son's prayers. It's only true if the

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Bible isn't true. But God is a

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God of grace. And he does listen to the son's prayers. And the Bible is true. And things are going to be different.

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Things are going to be different. You need to believe the Lord. Don't be an expert in history. Don't be an expert in your problem to the exclusion of being an expert in who

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God is and what he's doing. All right. Observations about sanctification.

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Implications of these observations about sanctification. And now, finally, some applications.

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All right. So here's the hard part, because we could go in all sorts of different directions about this.

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And there is... Honestly, we could have a list of applications that would keep us busy through Saturday afternoon and into Sunday morning.

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And it's really hard to know how to talk about this. And I thought, maybe

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I'll pick just like the most controversial thing I can think of. And like unpack that for a few minutes.

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And then I was like, well, I'm going to think of some pretty controversial stuff. So maybe I won't do that. Maybe what I'll do is, since as I already said,

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I want this to be like... I want you to see how practical the Bible is.

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Maybe I'll pick like one of the most practical things I can think about. And we'll talk about that for a few minutes.

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So here is sort of a set of applications about one thing that seems to me to be really practical and really important.

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God intends to use the pain in your background for good. God intends to use the pain in your background for good.

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Okay. Now, I pick that one out of all...

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I've just said there's so many things we could talk about, but I picked that one for a couple of different reasons. A lot of times when we think about sanctification, we're thinking about sin, right?

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I think about the bad things I'm doing that I need to stop doing and the good things I need to do in its place.

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Or we think about the bad things you're doing that I really want you to stop doing and the good things

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I think you should do in its place. So I want to come at you kind of out of left field a little bit and think about what sanctification has to do with your suffering, with the pain that you experience.

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Because there's areas you need to grow in Jesus that has to do not with anything you've done wrong, but maybe with a wrong response to bad things that have happened.

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Okay. There's another reason I picked this. And that is because it seems to me that our culture is really messed up on suffering.

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Our culture is so messed up on bad things that happen and what they mean. And that's what

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I'm gonna talk about for the next few minutes. And let's just use a passage of scripture to do this. Let's look at Genesis chapter 50, verses 18 to 20.

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So we'll read it in just a moment, but just to catch up on the story, this is the famous story of Joseph.

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And Joseph is sold by his brothers into slavery.

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Now, it's not like he gets to win the award for best brother. All right.

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He was a little proud. He was a little arrogant. He was his daddy's favorite. And he was kind of happy about that and was happy to show off the coat.

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And look at this. And so he was not perfect, but he did get sold into slavery.

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So this is a pretty significant cost for being a little arrogant, okay?

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But on the bright side, he almost got murdered over the deal. So, we'll thank the

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Lord for small favors here. He is sold into slavery. He winds up in the home of Egypt of the captain of the guard.

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And Potiphar, his wife, thinks

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Joseph is really awesome. And wants to commit adultery with him. Is persuading him to do it.

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He won't do it. Finally, one day grabs him by the cloak and tries to get him to come to bed with her.

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And he runs out naked from the situation and is wrongly accused of trying to persuade her to commit adultery.

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He's thrown in the slammer and rots. But the Lord's kind Pharaoh king of Egypt hears about the amazing miraculous ability he has to interpret dreams.

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He's pulled out of the hole. He comes second in command over all of Egypt and presides over a massive economic boom in Egypt.

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And then presides over seven years of famine. But because of his wisdom, because of his leadership, the

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Lord uses him to preserve the people of Egypt and by implication, the people of Israel. So that they can inherit the promise that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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Now, his brothers come to him having terribly mistreated him.

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And they're going to ask him for food. But you know the story, they don't know it's him. And then they find out the hard way that it is.

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And they, in the Hebrew, freak out. They know that this guy, they've messed with the wrong dude.

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And they know that this guy is going to give it just as good as he got it.

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And they think the only thing that's keeping him alive is that their daddy is alive and he don't want to do anything to upset him while he's alive, but then dad dies.

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And they're going to tell him a lie. Hey, you know, we just want you to know our dad said that you're supposed to take good care of us.

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So they come to him. This is where we come in, in chapter 50, verse 18. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we're your servants.

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Oh, Joseph, we always liked you. And we're going to do anything you want us to do. Just don't kill us.

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That's what's behind that. But Joseph said to them, do not be afraid. For am I in God's place.

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As for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good.

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In order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. So therefore do not be afraid.

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I will provide for you and your little ones. So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

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Now I want you to think how different this is in terms of a response to suffering than what we are told should be our response to suffering in the world we live in today.

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And there's all sorts of ways this works out. This works out personally. So you are supposed to be defined by every bad thing that happened to you.

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And for most of us, every bad thing that happened to us isn't quite as bad as being sold into slavery and wrongly accused of rape and thrown in prison for years and years.

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The whole ordeal was 11, 12, 13 years, something like that. Most of us don't have a 13 year span of our life that was inflicted upon us because of the sinful efforts of our own family.

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But that was true of Joseph. And if Joseph were on the news tonight, if he were being interviewed by a news magazine, we would say he is defined by that and anything he wants to do is an overflow of that is totally fine.

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If you wanna be angry at those people, you can be angry at them. But Joseph isn't.

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Joseph isn't angry. Joseph doesn't want them to be afraid. He doesn't even string them along.

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He says, don't be afraid, don't worry about it. And the reason he's not is because of what he believes about the

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Lord. He believes that the sovereign God has orchestrated these events for good.

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Even though they meant it for evil, God meant it for good. And because he trusts in the grace of the

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Father, he's able to extend grace to them. This is worlds apart from anything goes after you've been mistreated.

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We need the truth of the word of God to speak into our hearts on this point.

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There's another implication for this. Another application for this as it relates to suffering. It's not just our personal lives, but it's our cultural existence.

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Everybody talks about cancel culture. You hear about this? Because everybody gets canceled. I mean, one mess up, it doesn't even have to be a very big deal.

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It can even be debatable whether it's an actual mess up or not. But if you just do the wrong things in the eyes of the culture, your life is over.

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They'll take away your Twitter. They'll say bad things about you. That's it.

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You lose your job. It is really bad. We live in a graceless culture that when you color outside the lines or are perceived to color outside the lines, you're canceled and we're done with you.

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That is a culture that does not understand the Bible.

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It's a culture that doesn't understand the gospel of grace. Because among other things, in the gospel of Jesus Christ, all of our sins are forgiven when we repent and trust in Jesus.

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God the Father doesn't cancel us when we are in Jesus. And a culture that cancels everybody else is a culture that just doesn't know what it means to be recipients of grace.

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But in Genesis, we learn that Joseph is able to extend grace to people who've mistreated him.

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These guys have really colored outside the lines. They've really sinned, but he doesn't cancel them. He extends grace to them.

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Why? Again, because of what he knows about the Father, what he knows about the good, kind power of the

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Lord to preserve and protect and do good things even in the midst of wickedness.

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And here's one other application of this as it relates to suffering. When you suffer, have you ever noticed that it's way better?

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You just listen to the arguments that people make. It's way better to be a sufferer than it is to be a sinner.

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Have you noticed this? Somebody does the most horrible, vile thing ever. And what they do is they blame it on some bad thing that happened.

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And the instinct seems to be, well, I gotta get people feeling sorry for me. If I can get people feeling sorry for me, then that's better than being guilty.

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Joseph, God in the Joseph narrative, teaches us a different way.

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This gets back to being defined by our suffering. Joseph isn't defined by suffering.

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He doesn't grovel and have a pity party. Joseph points to the goodness of God. He points to the good power of God and says, yeah, you know what?

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It was hard. I bet when we're hanging out on the other side, he's gonna have some horrible stories to tell us about what a terrible tragedy it was to be in prison, to be wrongly accused, to be on a slave wagon to Egypt, to know that it's because of the betrayal of the people that you grew up with.

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It's gotta be horribly painful. But he doesn't pump that up. He doesn't promote that as a reason to feel sorry for him.

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He talks about the good, kind, loving power of the Lord to care for him.

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This is the truth of the word of God that changes you and I, and it changes our culture. The way our culture thinks about trouble and pain and suffering is all messed up.

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And it's an area where we need the salt and the light of the truth of scripture. And it's an area where we need to be reminded, we better not learn from this crazy, messed up culture how to think about the bad things that happened to us.

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We need to learn from the word of God. We need to be sanctified. We need to be sanctified in the truth.

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We need to be more like Jesus. So let's pray. Father in heaven, we're thankful for your truth.

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We confess that your word is truth. And Father, we wanna ask you that you would use your word to correct us, to push us, to prod us, to make us more like Jesus.

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We know we need more of Jesus. And so Father, we pray that you give us more of your word.

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We pray that you do that tomorrow night and pray you do it on Saturday, on Sunday.

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And Father, we pray you do it for the rest of our lives until we are fully like Jesus. And we pray in his name, amen.