Pastor Jeff's Emotional Sermon: Kauai

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So Romans chapter 1, again, the foundational verse for us, and of course, foundational section as Paul explains the good news.

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I said that people have referred to it as the gospel according to St. Paul because Romans is a systematic unpacking of the good news.

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What makes the good news? Why do we care about good news? And you notice what Paul says here in the beginning, he says,

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Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.

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That's what makes it ultimately such good news. That's why it's a good message, a good report, and that's why it matters to all of us because the message isn't from Paul himself or Peter or John or James or Isaiah or Moses.

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This is a message from God. It's God's good news. This is from the top.

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This is the creator of all things, the universe, the galaxies, everything that's spinning into space right now down to all that is in the deep.

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God is the one who sent this message. It's good news from God, and it's foundational to the gospel.

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And as Paul begins to lay down the foundation to lead you to the beauty and glory of Jesus, he explains to you first the depravity of humanity, the broken condition that we're all in, every single one of us.

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Nobody escapes it. This describes each and every one of us. It's tempting to land on this passage and to understand, yes,

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God says everybody knows Him. He has sent the message of Himself into the heart of every person who's ever lived, and it's tempting for us as believers to look across, away from us, and to say, that describes that person well.

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I can see how they're suppressing the truth. There's the exchange of God for the idol. But the truth is, is

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Romans chapter 1 is my story. Romans chapter 1 is your story. This is all of us before Jesus, knowing the true

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God. Not just an idea of God, the true God, but we suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

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In unrighteousness, we actively hold it down, and God is right to have

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His wrath revealed from heaven against all this ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

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And says this, what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them.

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What? He sent the message of Himself into their lives. They have this census divinitatis,

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John Calvin called it, this knowledge of God as creator. It's inescapable.

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And so our condition, each and every image bearer of God, is they know the true God. They know

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Him, but they don't want Him. Paul says that they don't want Him in their knowledge. They don't want to think about Him.

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They don't want to know Him. They're always in an escape route, finding the escape route to get away from God and His knowledge.

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And it says that God has displayed Himself through everything that has been made, and it testifies to each and every one of us.

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It screams to us about His glory, Him as God. And what does it say happens?

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It says that we suppress this truth with this obvious display of the glory of God around us, so much so that we are left unapologetus, without a reason, defense.

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Nobody stands before God on the last day and has an utterance of an excuse before God.

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They immediately are aware of what they were suppressing the entire time. This is the

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God I've been running from. This is the one I've been rebelling from. But the display of our fallen condition in Romans 1 leads to Paul describing the consequences.

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It says they knew God, and they didn't do something. They didn't honor Him as God. They didn't give

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God the weight. What we don't do as unbelievers is give God the glory, the weight of our lives, of our minds, of our hearts.

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We don't give Him the honor that He deserves, and so what we do is we say no, we rebel, we suppress, we don't want

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Him to enter into our thinking and our minds, and we don't want to honor Him. And God says, this is the display of the person who doesn't know

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Me, the unbeliever who departs from My love, My mercy, My grace. God is the

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Creator wielding everything towards His glory. Everything is shouting to the unbeliever about God, and what is the response?

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They don't give Him honor. They don't want God as God in their lives, and so God gets no honor from them.

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They honor other things, other substandard authorities. They give honor elsewhere, but not to the

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Creator. And then it says this about all of us before God. This is the display of a fallen condition.

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No honor for God, no respect for God, no fear of God of course, but then it says, watch this, they didn't honor

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Him as God or give thanks to Him. You see, it's important for us to recognize as foundational to the heart of the person who doesn't know

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God is a life with no gratitude. It's not just that we don't honor

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God, we are not thankful to Him. You see, you think about the person who rails against God every day of their lives.

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They don't want God in their thinking. They're angry with God. They might run off to the Bible to try to find contradictions in the

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Scriptures. They even work hard in opposition against Christ and His message. At every moment of that person's life, while they don't think about God and they were reject

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God and they suppress God, they don't honor God, what happens? God still causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

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People ask this question, does God love everybody? And the answer is

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God is love and God is preeminently loving to every person in the world.

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The great display of God's loving every single person in the world being loving to them is that all of their lives, even when they are hostile, enemy of God, rebellious against their creator, not wanting to think of God, no honor for God, and not thanking

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God, God still puts food in their bellies. God still causes their heart to pump blood.

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God still gives them moments of great beauty and majesty and love in the family.

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God still gives people who don't know Him gifts of children. God still puts roofs over their heads.

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God still protects them from danger at times and preserves their lives. Even someone like Pharaoh in Romans chapter 9,

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God said that He raised him up for this very purpose to display His power in him. And yes, there are vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath, but remember those vessels of wrath still are treated lovingly by God and mercifully by God throughout their lives, not getting what they do deserve.

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Not getting what they do deserve. God still was loving to Pharaoh his entire life as he was rebelling to God.

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But what is the identifying mark of the unbeliever? No honor for God and not giving

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God the thanks. We switch God for idols, we go to substandard authorities and gods to try to get in those things what we can only have in God.

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Sometimes it's a person, sometimes it's a false god through some religious text following some false prophet.

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Sometimes the exchange of God looks a little bit different, maybe it's a different kind of God. It's alcohol, it's heroin, it's sex, it's a person.

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But we all are engaged in this exchange, this dark exchange, switching

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God for an idol. And what does it look like? It looks like a life with no thanksgiving, no gratitude towards God.

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And yet He's so good to us. And yet the Bible describes that something happens through God and His sovereignty, though the condition is completely and entirely broken, though we are such hostile rebels,

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God steps into history in the person of Christ, takes on flesh, lives a life that we have failed, never exchanges the

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Father for some false god. He honors the Father. He gives thanks to God constantly throughout

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His ministry, living the life that we failed to live, and He dies a death that all of us deserve on that cross, taking the wrath of the

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Father in the place of His people and fully exhausting it, and then Jesus conquers death.

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That's the person of Jesus. God steps into history to take us out of darkness and to bring us into His light.

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He transforms us from what we said there a moment ago in Ephesians 2.

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By nature, children of wrath, God takes us from that condition and He raises us to newness of life.

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He actually joins us to His Son. He covers us in His righteousness. He cloaks us in these robes of perfection that we do not deserve, we have not earned, we cannot ever get to its standard.

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And then when the Father looks at us, He looks at us through the eyes of grace, and God looks at us as righteous in His Son, not because we are, we will never be up to God's holiness and standards.

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It's because of Christ that we have standing before God. How can we step into the throne room of a holy and righteous and blameless and perfect judge and have any expectation of love, any expectation of a

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Father before us? The only way we can is because God has stepped into history and He's chased the rebel, the one who doesn't want to think about Him, who does not honor

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Him, who is not grateful to Him. He grabs that rebel and He takes them out of their death and puts them into life in His Son.

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And what does that lead us to in Scripture? You see, over and over and over again, I put it into our bulletin for today, the idea that those who know

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God and now have been pulled out of their death, they give thanks. Paul says in Colossians 317, and whatever you do, like last words, final words, whatever you do in word or deed, do everything, do everything in the name of the

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Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

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The identifying mark of a believer, of course, is faith in Jesus. If you want to know if somebody knows

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God, what do we ask them first as a Christian? Do you know Jesus? Have you repented of your sin and trusted in Christ?

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Are you trusting in Christ? And so yes, faith identifies us with Jesus, of course. And then yes, baptism identifies us with Jesus.

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It's that public display of union with Christ, that we belong to God's people.

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Baptism does that. But in terms of the life of the believer, what does it look like when somebody's been redeemed and made new?

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The answer is thankfulness. We give thanks.

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We are grateful to God. If we can take a contrast, Romans 1 says people suppress the truth about God.

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They don't want God in their knowledge. They switch God for idols. They don't honor Him or give thanks.

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Then the reverse of that is the believer does not work to suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness.

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The believer would honor God in their lives. The believer wants God in their mind and thinking.

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The believer has the law of God written in their hearts. And what does the law say? Shema Yisrael Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh Echad.

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Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your

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God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength,

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Jesus says. The believer wants God in their mind. They want to be thinking about God and honoring

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God. And the believer wants to give thanks. Paul says again, whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the

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Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. And I'll remind you that the Apostle Paul wrote

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Romans 1 and he wrote Colossians. And the Apostle Paul, in his writings throughout

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Scripture, you have a man who was once opposed to the Christian faith. He says in Galatians that he was so zealous for the truth that he was persecuting the church and he was trying to destroy it.

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That was his aim. His goal was to destroy this movement of people who follow

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Mashiach. And you'll note, as you read his writings, you'll see

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Paul identifying the struggles that he goes through in Christ now. I want you to see one of those moments of struggle.

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Go to 2 Corinthians 11, 2

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Corinthians 11, 2

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Corinthians 11, 21.

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He says, to my shame I must say we are too weak for that, but whatever anyone else dares to boast of,

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I am speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews?

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So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am

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I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death.

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Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes, less one.

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Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Three times

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I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night in hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure.

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And apart from other things, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak?

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Who is made to fall and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I'll boast of the things that show my weakness.

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The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I'm not lying.

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You see, Paul displays that his life is a life of suffering and hardship. Paul doesn't come into this relationship with Jesus with the expectation that his life is supposed to be a life of comfort and ease.

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And yet he continually calls us, through the inspiration of the Spirit of God, to rejoice in suffering, to live a life of thankfulness.

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Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God.

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I often ask this question when I read 2 Corinthians 11. How many times exactly do you have to get beaten before you say,

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I can't remember how many? Like, how many do you actually say, I've forgotten how many times

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I've been beaten for Jesus? Here's a man that has been destroyed, body broken. He bears in his body, you can see it across his body, the marks of his discipleship and faithfulness to Jesus.

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It's all over. He's been cut and bruised and broken. He is suffering as a believer for the glory of Jesus.

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He's receiving constant accusations and danger and difficulty and heartache and stomach aches and pain and anxiousness and worry for the future.

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He's worried about the churches. He's in danger. People are in pursuit of him. People are trying to take his life, and yet he says, what, rejoice, rejoice in everything.

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Give thanks to God. The heart of the believer who's redeemed by the sovereign

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God who wields the universe for his glory is a heart of gratitude towards God.

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And I think oftentimes we think about gratitude and we think about what we're thankful for. Somebody did this for me.

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This circumstance was great, and so I'm thankful to God for this circumstance. But we don't often think about thankfulness the way that God calls us to think about thankfulness.

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The heart of the believer is a grateful heart because you know God, because you've been redeemed by God, washed by Christ, raised up, seated with him in the heavenly places, no longer guilty, no longer condemned.

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Your life is a life of deep gratitude. Why? Because you know

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God. And that gratitude flows from a redeemed heart, and it flows in every circumstance, not just the gifting circumstances, the good circumstances.

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God calls us to have rejoicing and gratitude in the midst of suffering and danger and deserts.

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That's the heart of the believer. Gratitude toward God when your bank account is empty or in the reverse.

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Gratitude towards God when there is brokenness all around you. Gratitude towards God when you've been betrayed.

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Gratitude towards God when you've been suffering for the cause of the gospel.

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Gratitude towards God and rejoicing when you've been attacked by false brethren and enemies of the faith.

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The heart of the believer, the redeemed child of God, is a heart of gratitude, always abounding in thanksgiving towards God.

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Paul displays that. Well, I think why Paul is my hero, why is Paul my hero? Because he's not fake.

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He's not fake. I'm not impressed with television preachers in $10 ,000 suits with $10 million homes.

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I'm not impressed. When they tell me to trust in Christ during the difficult circumstances,

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I can't believe it. I don't trust what they're saying.

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I don't just disagree with their theology, I disagree with their praxis. I disagree with their life and how they apply biblical faith.

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I disagree with them. I don't believe them. I'm not buying it. Paul receives my respect and my honor because as a follower of Jesus like me, he lives a life that displays that he believes what he's actually saying.

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Don't forget that Paul's life ended under a sword. His head was taken from his body.

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All he has to do is deny the faith. All he has to do is say, Caesar is

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Lord. All he has to do is walk away from this little ragtag bunch of people in the first century in Palestine.

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All he has to do is with his own mouth deny that he knows this, Messiah, and he lives.

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He goes home, he has another meal. He can feel the sun on his face another day.

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He wakes up another day to live a life breathing, and yet Paul endures all this brokenness understanding the full covering he has in his life from a loving father, a sovereign

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God who is controlling all these circumstances. He receives all this brokenness and difficulty in his life.

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He experiences it. He's not nullifying it. He's not ignoring it. He's saying that all these things, 2

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Corinthians chapter 4, is a light and momentary affliction.

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He says in verse 16, so we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day for this light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

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For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Notice in that very text as Paul's describing the sufferings that he's experiencing because of the gospel and his labor for the glory of Jesus in the world, he calls it a light and momentary affliction.

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Light and momentary, stoned, shipwrecked, in danger constantly, beaten times without numbers, receiving the 40 lashes minus one, people trying to take his life.

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He's being lowered out of windows in a basket because people are taking oaths to kill him.

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I'm not going to eat until Paul is dead. That's the life that he lives, and he says that this life that I'm living in Jesus is not my own.

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There's a sovereign God who is winning the world, putting all things under his feet, and he says all of these sufferings, he says, we are being renewed day by day.

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And though this is wasting away, all of this is a light and momentary affliction.

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All of your sufferings, all of the death, all of the sadness and disease, all of the heartache, the brokenness,

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Paul says, light and momentary affliction. It's as though the universe, which we don't even understand, the universe that is so far reaching, we can't even begin to quantify, to comprehend, the universe itself just spreads out so far, it seems as though it has no end.

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And this life is like a piece of sand thrown into that vast sea.

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Compared to all of eternity, Paul understands that there is literally no end to this intimacy and joy that we have in God.

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We've been redeemed from death. God has plucked us out of our rebellion. He saved us. We're in Christ now.

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There is no more condemnation. He counts us righteous. He will never count our sins against us.

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And so all that I'm receiving for the cause of the gospel, it's a light and momentary affliction.

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It's just a moment. And notice in that same text, 2 Corinthians 4, notice what

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Paul says again. Verse 13. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written,

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I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the

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Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

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For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, watch, watch, it may increase, what, what, thanksgiving.

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Why? Why? To the glory of God. As Paul describes

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God's purpose, as Paul describes God's purpose in the suffering and the brokenness and this outer shell wasting away, he says

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God's purpose, God's purpose, so that as grace extends more and more to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

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You see, I'm going to show you one last thing to land on. I want you to see it with your own eyes because it's compelling. If you move over to the rites of Philippians, I want you to see this worked out practically in Paul's own life.

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It's so intimate. See, that's what's so beautiful about God's Word is that yes, it's God's Word. Yes, holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the

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Holy Spirit. God is the one inspiring this text. It's God himself, but he's doing it through people, real people, just like you, just like me, who have hurts and pains and hopes and dreams and emotions.

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And here's Paul in his letter to the Philippians. Here's Paul experiencing trial and difficulty and jail, and you would think the believer going to jail might back up a little bit, right?

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Might take a moment to take a breath, right? And yet Paul's like writing in dungeons and he's sending off letters to the churches that are inspired by God, and he's talking about rejoicing, rejoicing, joy while he's in a dungeon.

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It's not like where we might go next week in Tempe, you know, three hots and a cot, you know, it's the room with a cage and, you know, air conditioning and those sorts of things.

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This is something like underground, barely able to stand up and get your head up because you're crouched down.

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This is dirty. It's dingy. It's not being fed well. It's not air conditioned.

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This is the worst of circumstances, and this is how he talks about those worst of circumstances.

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Verse two, Philippians one, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my

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God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, all making my prayer with joy, suffering, broken, in jail, imprisoned, in danger, beaten, whipped, financially strapped.

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At one point he says, to this very hour we go hungry and we're in rags, and he says this,

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I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, and he says this, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus, at Jesus Christ.

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It is right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, for God is my witness, how

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I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus, and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

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Watch, watch. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ, and most of the brothers have become confident in the

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Lord by my imprisonment, so are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Now, this is, of course, the famous passage,

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I hope you know. Move over now to verse 18, the last section.

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He says, yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the

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Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always,

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Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. He is so confident in the glory of Jesus Christ and God's sovereignty in the midst of these sufferings that he can say, with full courage, now as always,

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Christ will be honored in my body, whether I live or I die. I rejoice, and he says this, for to me, to live is

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Christ, and to die is gain. If I'm to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which

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I shall choose, I cannot tell. I'm hard -pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ.

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That's far better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

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Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

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Paul is so grateful to God. Paul is so thankful. Paul is so full of joy because of Jesus, because of Christ at the center of all this, that he says this,

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I don't really know what I want to do. I have this tension inside of me, this conflict, and it's an unresolved conflict.

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He's not resolved with the conflict. To live is Christ, to die is gain. I don't know what

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I want, because you see, I want to weigh the anchor to sail away to be with Jesus, which is the word he uses there for depart to be with Christ.

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It's a naval term, and it has to do with weighing the anchor, pulling the anchor up so that you can sail away to your destination.

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That's what depart and be with Christ means. Paul says this, I'm longing, I'm longing just to weigh the anchor and just to sail away to be with Jesus.

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That's what I want. He says, but I'm struggling, because on the other hand, to live on in the body means more fruitful labor for your sake, all abounding in more praise to God and glory to Jesus and thankfulness and joy.

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He says, so I don't know what I want to do. I'm hard pressed between both, but here's what

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I know, I'm rejoicing. To live is Christ, to die is gain.

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God teaches us in his word that he wields his sovereignty in the world in the midst of deep, deep suffering.

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The premier example for all of us has to be Jesus. The premier example has to be

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Jesus, God in the flesh, the second person of the Trinity sent by the Father to redeem a particular people in Jesus.

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He enters into the world, and it's not a life before of ease and comfort.

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It's a life where Jesus enters into our existence, and he experiences all that you have to experience.

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He knows what betrayal feels like. Jesus knows what it's like to have people that you love not understand you or even walk away from you.

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Jesus knows what it's like to be falsely accused at the highest level in a court of law.

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He watches people lie about him. They can't even keep their stories straight. He knows what that's like.

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Jesus knows what it's like to have people attempting to trap him. Jesus knows what it's like to be hungry in a way that I guarantee you none of you have experienced.

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Walking into the wilderness and going through that trial is experiencing hunger pains that you've never tasted and you probably never will.

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Jesus knows what it's like to see death and people that he loves die. Jesus sat in the midst of funerals and watched people grieve over the loss of loved ones.

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Jesus suffered not just for us on that cross, absorbing what we deserve into his own body.

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Jesus suffered among us. He's our premier example.

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But yet what does the text say about Jesus? It teaches that God predestined these things to happen to Jesus.

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It wasn't out of God's control. It wasn't something that took him by surprise. It was the plan of God to send the

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Son of Man into the world to save that which was lost. And in the midst of saving you, to purchase you and to redeem you, he tasted and suffered in all the ways that you have.

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He knows what it's like to be beaten physically. Jesus knows what it's like to be put up on a tree and to experience the deepest, most indescribable kind of pain.

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And yet the Bible says, as all these people were gathered against God's holy servant

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Jesus, it was to do whatever his hand predestined to occur. God gives us the premier example in his word with the object of our faith,

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Jesus. This is how he works out his plan in history. It's not through ease and comfort, but through suffering.

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You know, this is where it's going to get hard.

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God, he raised up this church through people that are truly unworthy.

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Not strong. We didn't have anything.

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We didn't have perfect plans and a goal for the future. We just knew what

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God was calling us to do. We didn't have any way to provide for ourselves or the people that we were serving.

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And God kept pushing us. He kept pushing us and giving us people that would speak into our lives and say, you have to plant this church.

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And we were saying, no. And he kept pushing us and sending people to us to tell us,

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Jeff, you are called to plant this church. You must plant this church. And he finally sent a man that knew me well, a pastor, said,

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Jeff, if you don't plant this church, you're sinning against God. And we asked God, Lord, if you're in this, we don't want to be the ones that are doing this in our own hands.

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We know that unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers build, they labor in vain when they do it.

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So you have to build this. So God, give us this. And he would do it. God, give us this. And he would do it. And he would ask for the stupidest things, expecting him to finally give up.

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And he would show up. And he finally gave us confirmation. And so we entered into this ministry.

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And I have to confess, I deeply struggled. I deeply struggled because I looked at my family.

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I looked at Luke's family. And I thought to myself, I don't know through what

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I see that it looks like God is in this. I don't know how

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I'm going to feed my children. I don't know how I'm going to be a faithful man who provides for my family. Am I being stupid?

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Am I being unwise? Am I taking risks with my family? Am I not being a good husband and provider for my family by doing something so unbelievably risky with my family?

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And I struggled. I was on my knees constantly asking God, show up. God, talk to me.

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Tell me to go. Show me. And he kept doing it. He kept doing it. And I kept questioning, God, are you sure?

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And he would show up over and over. There was deep suffering in the beginning.

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We had moments where for weeks at a time, Pastor Luke and I were serving people around the clock.

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We were going out at two o 'clock in the morning to take somebody and scoop them off the sidewalk and bring them to a hospital who had gone back into their addiction.

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Our phone was ringing 24 hours a day. We were constantly in people's lives. We had dealt with such heartache where we'd see people in front of us that we loved so desperately and poured into their life so much.

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And the next day they would go back to their addiction and our hearts are broken. And we felt like, what's happening?

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Is God even in this? And you felt like afraid to let your heart go anymore because you'd invested so much in people. And it was just heartache after heartache.

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We had numerous instances of church discipline we had to do. And we had to decide, am I going to be faithful to God or am

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I going to just placate to people and let them do whatever they want? And so we struggled and we were being sanctified.

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And throughout these years, God has drawn this body together with no resources, nothing mighty about ourselves.

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And he's added people that he's drawn to himself. People have come together with this perfect little united family.

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And we've had moments together where we've suffered together. We experienced moments of tragedy and heartache where we've all been up here together, weeping together.

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We've lost people. We all experienced the tragedy of Ezra's being taken to the

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Lord together. We experienced moments of deep pain together.

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And yet in the midst of all of this pain and all of this suffering, God had these glimmers of light.

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More than glimmers, he had these beacons. And he had just so many things happening around us where people are coming to Christ, constantly being redeemed from darkness.

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People all over the world that are saying their lives have been totally transformed through what God is doing in this ministry. In the midst of suffering and tragedy and difficulty,

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God was doing things to change the world through this very small body of believers.

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If you consider this, through all the sufferings that have got us to this place, there are literally thousands of children walking on this earth today alive because of this church, because of the work that God is doing for this church.

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There are countless people around the world today that know Jesus in a profound and meaningful way because of the life and labor of this body.

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In the midst of trial and difficulty and suffering, God has done something in this church that's incomprehensible.

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When I first met Christian and Esther, I told you guys, we were at our other church building,

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Gethsemane Lutheran Church. It was a Thursday night. For about two years, the most people we had in the church was maybe 30 to 50 people.

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So everybody knew everybody. It was a small body of believers. And one night on a Thursday, door opens, two strangers come in, and Christian walks up to me and he says, first words out of his mouth,

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I'm here for Colts. I didn't know what that meant.

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Kind of a weird thing to say. Apparently, he was super nervous because he had been watching stuff online.

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And so that's the first thing that he could say and blurt out. And we got to know them and walk with them.

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And I began to discover the true treasure that they are to our body. They've served the people of God here at Apologia Church faithfully.

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They've suffered well. We experienced a moment of deep tragedy together with them as a body.

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And all of us grieved together with them and continue to grieve. I got to watch

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God shape Christian and Esther and make them into the perfect instrument that he needed to plant this church in Kauai.

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I never thought that I'd be saying goodbye.

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But I know that God's plans for them are so much better than mine.

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And I'm just grateful that we had the gift of all this time we've had together.

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Even in the midst of the suffering, God has brought so much beauty out of it.

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I remember at the beginning of this church plant, God had done something that I didn't expect.

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We went off to Kauai. I won't do the whole story for you guys, but we went to Kauai just to do a wedding for somebody for a couple of days and come home.

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And then he did something in me. He overwhelmed me with an inescapable burden for that island that I'd never felt before and to this day

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I've never experienced. And we placed stuff before God and he showed up in ways that can only be

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God. And so we went out to discover the island and introduce Luke to the island. Luke was as convinced as me that this is where God is calling us.

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We came back and as we presented it before the church, the church was overwhelmingly excited, except at the beginning there was this trial we had to experience in this work.

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As we presented this before the church, we discovered that there was sin in the camp and there were about two or three people that had been working for about a year building factions within the church and gossiping and causing great difficulty.

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And when all of this came together for Kauai and God was blessing it and he was just increasing it, there was a moment where there was this ultimately demonic opposition.

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And that's what it was. And so I remember that in the midst of this difficulty,

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I called a meeting of the church to come and ask any questions about this mission and what was going to happen in the island.

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And I remember that night, everybody was so excited to hear about the island and the opportunities.

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Here's what we knew. Addiction is the big thing on the island. We're fit for that. The cults are the big thing on the island.

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We're fit for that. There's no solid reform body alive on that island.

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As representative of the reform faith to that island, it's perfect for us. There's a homeless problem and we're so excited together.

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And I remember that that night I was grieving over this difficulty we're experiencing.

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But here's what happened. I remember looking to the back of the room and there was a new couple that I didn't really know very well.

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And honestly, I don't know why they came that night, why they thought they were invited. And I remember looking across the room and I'm in tears talking about this great opportunity

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God has given to us. And I look across the room to a man that I had really not known at all.

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And he's in the back of the room and he is covered in tears.

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Just face full of tears. And I don't even know the man. I don't know him.

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And yet he's here now in this place of struggle and suffering in our body. He's in the back of the room hearing about this island and what

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God has for us. And he's covered in tears. And I don't even know him. I'll never forget that moment.

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And I never knew in that moment that God was raising him to go.

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He had such an emotional connection to this work before he even understood what

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God was doing. And it was such a beautiful thing to reflect on all this this week and think about all that God has done to get us here.

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And the treasures that he's allowed us to experience and the treasures that he's sending away to the island.

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And to consider the people that he had prepared to come. I'm telling him about the addiction on the island, the homelessness on the island, the cults on the island.

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And it turns out that Claudia and Shelley had already been for years ministering in the area of homelessness and addiction.

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That had been their passion. Nobody told them to do it. They had just been doing it in difficult circumstances.

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God had just brought them to our church and plant them right with us, right in the midst of when

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God was telling us, you're going to Kauai. It's been an adventure.

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It's been amazing. I can't wait for the future. And when God has in store for us, he's walked with us every step of the way.

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He's given us everything we needed. He's given us the greatest treasures, all of us, to love one another, to use our gifts together.

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In these moments like this, you see these lives that have been prepared by God to do his work for Christ's glory.

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Now, they probably wouldn't want me to say this, but I'm not saying it for their boasting. I want you to know.

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These families have literally sold everything they own.

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They're going over the ocean to a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, and they've left everything.

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The only thing they sent was stuff. They shipped in boxes through like FedEx. They're going to the island with no furniture, nothing.

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They're walking onto an island to preach the gospel, and they literally, they codify

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Jesus' message when he says to the rich young ruler, you have to sell everything you own and come follow me naked.

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They're going to plant a church and bring the gospel to that island, and they've left everything behind to suffer for the cause of Christ for the people in Kauai.

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It's truly a tremendous and glorious thing, so pray for them. I wanted to share something with you.

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We're going to put it up here. Joy, you can start to get it ready. So, when we were in the midst of planning

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Apologia Church, and I'm struggling as a pastor. I was already a pastor at a church.

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I was fine to stay there. I was pastoring at the hospital at the same time. I'm struggling and struggling, and so I got to the point where I finally asked

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God. I said, God, I need you to answer my deepest struggle right now, and that's do you want us to suffer in this way for the gospel with Apologia Church?

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That was my question. Are you asking us to suffer for you? And then this got sent to me.

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I want you to hear it. It's about 10 minutes long, but I need you to hear it because the truth is, of course,

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God is sovereign over every aspect of what brought us here, but I don't think

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John Piper will ever know or that he intended that this little video here was what

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God used to convince me to go. After I watched this video,

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I got on my knees and I said yes. It was this message from Piper.

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So I want you guys, I want you to hear it. Give us a mind, oh

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God. Give us a mind. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant and being found in human form, became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

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Let this mind be in us, oh God. Create this mind in this room right now, I pray.

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In Jesus name, amen. So the

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USA has the headlines, they're alive. They're not alive, dead.

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All of them except one and he's in critical condition. 52 dead in Iraq yesterday.

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32 of them at a funeral. Floods in California.

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Fires burning houses down. Across the Southwest. And what phone call did you get yesterday?

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If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross.

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Thank you for the cross, his and ours. Matthew 10, 21, brother will deliver up brother to death and father his child.

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Children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And they will be hated by all for my name's sake.

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The one who endures to the end will be saved. John 16, one, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

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Every radical Muslim believes that when he kills a Christian. Romans 8, 16, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and children and heirs, heirs of God fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him so that we may be glorified with him.

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I count the sufferings of this present time unworthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed.

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It's coming. If you haven't had it yet, it's coming. If you walk with him, if you walk with him.

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Philippians 1, 29, for it has been granted to you that for your sake, you should not only believe but suffer.

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It's granted to you. It's given to you. It's a gift to you with the big bow that you will suffer.

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2 Timothy 1, 8, therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our

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Lord or me, his prisoner but share in suffering for the gospel, for the power of God.

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One more, Acts 5, 41. They left the presence of the council,

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Peter, John. They left the presence of the council rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to be shamed for the name.

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The purpose of God in creating the universe is to display the greatness of the glory of his grace supremely in the suffering of his son.

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That's yesterday. Today, the summons. Will you join the son in displaying the supreme satisfaction of the glory of grace in joining him on the

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Calvary road of suffering because there's no other way the world is going to see the supreme glory of Christ today except that we break free from the

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Disneyland of America and begin to live lifestyles of missionary sacrifice that looks to the world like our treasure is in heaven and not on the earth.

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It's the only way. The prosperity gospel will not make anybody praise

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Jesus. It will make people praise prosperity. Of course, I'll have a

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Jesus who'll give me a car. Who wouldn't want a Jesus who gives me health, a car, a fine marriage?

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I'll take your Jesus if the payoff is right. That's not the way you're going to win your campuses.

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Dressing the coolest, driving the coolest, typing on the coolest.

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It's not going to get any praise for the suffering Christ. He calls you in this service, in this conference, in this life, in this world, in that newspaper world.

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He calls you to another way. Isn't it the good life?

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Isn't Christianity the good life? And if it's a delusion, it doesn't really matter. We're gone.

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So who cares if it's a delusion? It's the good life. Wrong!

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It's not the good life. Paul could not possibly have said, if we have hoped in Christ only for this life, we are most to be pitied if this is the good life.

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Oh, how wrong we've been. Got it in America. It's really hard to be a

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Christian in America. Really hard. It's about the hardest place in the world. So he says two things.

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I'm in peril every hour and I die every day. I choose. I make so many choices to magnify

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Jesus in hard places. It hurts me every day. I would not choose this if it weren't true.

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If I couldn't expect a resurrection from the dead, where everything would be paid back to me a thousand fold that I have laid down in the service of Jesus, I wouldn't go this way.

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Christ died for millions of people all over the world. People on your campus, people in the unreached peoples of the world, their debt has been paid.

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And they don't know it. They can't taste it.

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They can't feel it. They can't sing that song. I thank you for the cross, my friend.

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I thank you for the cross. There's something missing in this suffering. It's not showing up.

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It's not showing up in 639 unreached people groups, over 100 ,000 in the population that have zero testimony from the people in this room or me.

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It's not connecting. There's something lacking in the sufferings, namely the presentation of the sufferings.

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It's an amazing statement. And just think about the history of missions for a moment.

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If you have any inkling of how we got to where we are today with 1 .3 or 4 billion people professing faith in Jesus Christ when it started from 12, how did we get there?

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You know what the answer is? Suffering. There never has been a breakthrough into an unreached place or people without suffering.

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If you're going to be a missionary, mark it down. Pain, loss of a child, malaria, marital strife, tensions on the team, demonic opposition, martyrdom.

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It's going to come. Don't think it's strange when it comes. It's the price.

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He paid his life for our salvation.

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We join him in that suffering to display the nature of it.

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How are they going to see how satisfying he is in us if we look like it's the computer toy that is really satisfying?

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It is wonderful, I think, that Paul in this verse says, now I rejoice in the sufferings for your sake.

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I'm not summoning you to a miserable life. I am summoning you to a painful life.

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But in this pain, all over the Bible, you find Christians rejoicing in tribulation.

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Rejoice in tribulation, for tribulation works. Patience and patience works.

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A provenness and a provenness works. Hope and hope will not put us to shame because the love of God is poured out in our heart.

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You want to experience the deep joy of knowing yourself loved by God. Lay out your life for another person.

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Take a risk with your body. Take a risk with your mind. Take a risk with your money, your schooling.

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What an amazing thing