Sermons tagged with Heroes

It's good to see all of you this Sunday. My name is Nate. I'm one of the pastors here. I appreciate you being here on this December Sunday as we continue to gear up for Christmas together. I'm really excited about what we have in store for you, not only for Jingle Jam, but also for our Christmas Eve service. This is our series called Joy. Kyle, our student pastor, opened up the series talking about the joy of the light, of knowing Jesus and of sharing that light with others. Last week, I talked with you about the joy of forgiveness, and I really hope, my sincere prayer is and was, that God used that to bring about maybe some reconciliation in your life and in some of your relationships. I hope that you found that to be a helpful way to think about forgiveness. This morning, I want to talk about the joy of gratitude, the joy that we get when we can be people who are thankful, who are grateful people. The Bible has a lot to say about gratitude in the same way that it has a lot to say about forgiveness as it encourages us to forgive over and over and over again. The Bible encourages us to be grateful many, many times in many ways in many different places. In the Old Testament, David tells us that we are to enter God's courts with thanksgiving in our hearts, that we enter his gates with praise. And so it's kind of gratitude is the posture through which we approach the Lord. In the New Testament, we're told over and over again to be thankful in all things, be thankful always, pray without ceasing, and be grateful for everything. Everyone tells us that. As Jesus tells us how to pray in the Lord's Prayer, He models for us a daily gratitude, thanking God for the blessings that we have in our life. We're even told by at least three different authors in the New Testament to be grateful when life is hard, to be grateful when we are in struggles, to consider it pure joy when we endure trials. So the Bible has a lot to say about gratitude. And I think it's because gratitude is one of the more underrated things or character traits that we could have. Fostering a spirit or a heart or a character of gratitude, I think, is something that we forget to do, but it's underrated in its power and efficacy in our life. And I hope today, as we leave, as you guys go back out into your week, that you have a new appreciation for what it means to be grateful and to have a grateful heart. To do that, I want to first talk about a picture of ingratitude, what the opposite of gratitude looks like. So last week I was doing my weekly Sunday tradition, particularly in the fall, which is to kind of go home and collapse. My whole week, the rhythms of a pastor kind of build up to the sermon. You're stressed about the sermon all day. I hope it doesn't suck and that people aren't disappointed who brought their friends and the whole deal. And I hope this honors God. And I hope that I'm not an apostate and the whole deal. And so you just kind of, you focus on the sermon all week and then I give it and I go home and I'm like, ugh. And I just kind of want to shut down for a while. And so in the fall, it's perfect because I get to watch TV. And so last week I'm watching football and the four o'clock game comes on. It's the Chiefs and the Patriots. And something incredibly interesting happened at halftime of this Patriots game. Now, for those who don't know, you may not know who the Patriots are. You may not be, that's football, by the way. You may not be into football, and that's all right. You don't have to know football to appreciate what I'm about to say. I'm going to kind of lay some groundwork for you, all right? So for those who don't know, the Patriots have had what I think is the best 20-year run of any sports team in the history of sports teams. I'm not talking about the best 20-year run in the last 20 years. I'm talking about besides maybe the 1920s Yankees have had the best 20-year run of any team in the history of teams. It's been amazing. It's been absolutely historic. I went back and counted. In the last 20 years, the Patriots have made it to the Super Bowl nine times. They've played in almost half of the Super Bowls. The other years, they came almost just one game short almost every year. To be a Patriots fan is to over and over and over again get to cheer for a winner. It's an incredible privilege to be a Patriots fan. I know this because I'm a Falcons fan. Okay? It is not a privilege to be a Falcons fan. I'm from Atlanta, and statistically speaking, if you combine all of the seasons without a championship, so you take in Atlanta at one point, that was four seasons in one year, hockey, baseball, basketball, and football going consecutively without a championship. Atlanta is the losingest city in the country. And that's statistics. That's not hyperbole. I have longed to be a Patriots fan. I wish that I could celebrate that sort of success. During those 20 years, they've been to nine Super Bowls. They've won six of them. There's only one other franchise that's won six Super Bowls, and they would even trade their last 20 years for the Patriots' last 20 years. They have the best coach to ever coach a sport. They have the best quarterback to ever play the game, and that pains me to say because Peyton Manning's my favorite football player of all time, but Tom Brady, man, you can't argue with rings. To be a Patriots fan has been an incredible privilege for the past 20 years. Yet, on Sunday, the Patriots are playing, playing the Chiefs, and the Patriots this year are having a good season, not a great season. There's some rumblings in their fan base that they may not be as good as they once were. It's looking like they may not win the Super Bowl this year. And at halftime, the Patriots are running into the locker room down two scores, 21 to seven. And as they're running into the locker room at Gillette Stadium, do you know what those Patriots fans did? Booed. They booed them. Can you believe this? After one bad half of football, and it wasn't even that bad, they booed them. They let them know loudly and clearly, you stink and we're dissatisfied and we deserve more from you. And I sat on my couch in shocked disbelief and I thought, and I'm sorry, you bunch of entitled jerks. Do you have any idea what I would do for the last 20 years that you've just gotten to enjoy as Patriots fan? If you're a 10-year-old Patriots fan, you just figure that they win the Super Bowl. That's just what happens. It's your birthright. Do you know what I would do to trade places with you? Try being a Falcons fan for like a season, you jerks. Like, it made me mad. They were so entitled. And as I thought about that, and listen, we have some Patriots fans at the church. They're lovely people. Steve, our worship pastor, he's kind of a Patriots fan. He's not really a sports guy, but if he were, he claims to be a Patriots. From everything I can tell, he seems to be a great guy. And so I'm not trying to run down all Patriots fans, but the ones in that stadium that day, my goodness, the entitlement on them. And I sat on my couch and I was kind of stewing and calling the names in my head and couldn't get over the audacity of it, texting my friends, did y'all see that? But of course, as I sat there, anytime you cast blame on somebody else, my mind begins to go, well, am I guilty of the same thing? And I realized we all are. We're all of us in that way, this pains me to say, we're all in that way Patriots fans. We all act like that because they were simply entitled. And to be entitled is to be forgetful of the past and desirous of the future. To be entitled is to forget everything that got us here, is to forget all the blessings and all the things I've enjoyed up to this moment, and then to not be aware or cognizant in this moment and just desire us of the future. And isn't that what they were? As they're in the stands and they're watching this one singular bad half of football, totally forgetting the last 20 years that they've had, that they've gotten to enjoy being a fan like nobody else on the face of the planet. In that moment that they booed and expressed their displeasure, aren't they simply forgetting all the things that they've enjoyed up to that point and only thinking about what they want in the future? Haven't they forgotten their past and become desirous of the future? And isn't this what we do? Haven't in our lives, all of us, at different points, been entitled jerks? If you don't think you have, look at your kids at Christmas. Come on, your kids expect stuff, right? They're not like hoping that maybe they get a present. They gave you a list in September. My three-year-old already has this figured out. Everything she saw over the course of the list, can you make sure and tell Santa that that's a thing that I want? Our kids grow up entitled. Entitlement says, I deserve this. It's my birthright. This is something that I've earned. You should give it to me. I don't have to be grateful for it because I deserve this anyways. That's what entitlement is. If our kids aren't enough to help us realize that this is a path that we are all on, how long does it take you and your life right now to get tired of the new shiny thing? How many weeks or months after that promotion, you finally get the job, you finally get the promotion, you finally get the thing, you get the position that you wanted, you've closed the sale that you've wanted, you're so happy about it, praise God, this is great. How many weeks does it take you to resent those coworkers too? How long does it take you to think, I wonder what's next? How long does it take you to forget what got you there and be desirous of what's ahead? How long does it take for the new car to become the one that you want to sell? How long does it take after we buy a new house to put the Zillow app back on our phone and just see what's out there? How about this? How long did it take you after you got married and all the happiness and all the pomp and circumstance around that day to have an evening where you looked across the living room and you thought to yourself, I could have done better than this. For Jen, it was about three days. How long does it take us to be dissatisfied with the blessings that we have, to forget our past, to be totally lost to the present and be desirous of the future and in our own way be booing our life because of a simple bad half? To be shaking our fist at God and saying, God, why do I have to deal with this? Why do I have to go through this? Why can't I have that thing with no mind at all to everything that he's already given us? How long does it take us to become entitled? And the problem with entitlement is it's the antithesis of gratitude. If the Bible tells us to be grateful, to be thankful, to give thanks in all things and at all times and in all circumstances, if that's a characteristic that we're supposed to embody, then we should acknowledge that entitlement is the antithesis of gratitude. It's the exact opposite of gratitude. And we should also acknowledge that there is a natural drift towards it. You haven't all been entitled jerks because just in your soul you're a bunch of jerks and we're a bunch of brats. It's all us. We're all that way. Gratitude is something you have to choose on purpose. We don't naturally drift towards gratitude. We naturally drift towards, I deserve, I earn, this belongs to me. We naturally drift towards being forgetful of our past and desirous of what's in the future with no mind to what's going on in the present. That's a natural drift that we have. I don't think, and I'm not here this morning so that anybody feels badly about it. I'm just here so that we will acknowledge it and understand that entitlement is the antithesis of gratitude. Because entitlement says, I deserve this. And gratitude actually confesses something. I learned this in my research from an Irish monk, and I thought it was a good way to think about gratitude. Gratitude is a confession. To be grateful for something confesses that this is a gift that I do not deserve. Gratitude says, this thing that I have in my life, this person, this relationship, this material possession, this house, this opportunity, this skill set, this location in time and in space and in geography, all the things in my life, gratitude acknowledges this is a gift that I do not deserve. To go back to our original illustration, those Patriots fans have not done anything to win those Super Bowls. Nothing. They've not done anything that any other fan base hasn't done. They just have the luxury of being born in New England and getting to cheer for Patriots. And good for them. But it's a gift that they got that they did not deserve. Being a Falcons fan is a punishment that I've received that I do not deserve. God and I are still working that out. But to be truly grateful for something is to confess, this is a gift that I've received that I do not deserve. If you feel like you deserve it, if you feel like you've earned it, then you can't be grateful for the thing. If you're a salesperson and you go out and you slay the dragon and you get the big commission check that comes from slaying the dragon, you don't walk into your boss's office and go, thank you so much for this check. This is such a sweet thing for you to do. No, it was negotiated. You earned that. You deserve that. The gratitude comes in when we reflect on the skills and abilities that got that deal done, and we thank God for blessing us with those. But gratitude has to confess that the thing that I'm grateful for is a gift that I do not deserve. The other thing that gratitude does that I think is so very powerful is it anchors us in the present as we remember the past. Gratitude anchors us in the present as we remember the past. We're not fast-forwarding ahead. We're not looking to the next thing. We're not anxious or desirous about the future. We haven't forgotten the past. We're reflective on the past, the moments that conspired to bring us here. We're anchored in the present, and we remember the past. The best example of this I've seen that I think of often is, I call him my Uncle Edwin. He's really Jen's Uncle Edwin. Jen's dad, John, has a twin sister named Mary. She married a guy named Edwin, and they live in Dothan, Alabama. If you didn't follow that, Jen's aunt and uncle live in Alabama. And every Thanksgiving, we go down to Dothan, Alabama, and we have Thanksgiving with the Morrises. Jen's family, the Vincennes, go down with the Morrises, and we get together and we have Thanksgiving. And Edwin and Mary have three daughters that are about our age, and they have kids now too, and it's just a really great, sweet time. It's one of the great gifts in my life to have been grafted into that family. I'm very grateful for that. And when we go to Thanksgiving, we have the meal. It's a big, good meal. It's one of the best ones I have of the year. There's still an adult table and a kid's table. The parents sit at one table, and the average age of the kid's table now is like 36, but it's still the kid's table. And we have way more fun at the kid's table. There's always much more laughter going on as we swap stories and catch up and reflect on old ones and things like that. And at one point or another, I've caught Edwin doing this several times. He comes into, he leaves the adult table to have his cup of coffee or a camera or dessert or something, and he'll stand off in the corner. He's not trying to be noticed. He's not trying to speak. He's not trying to get anyone's attention. And he'll look at what's happening in his kitchen, And he'll just grin from ear to ear. And sometimes I'll watch him kind of wipe away a tear. And I've never spoken with him about those moments. But I know that Edwin is a man that loves God very much. And I'm certain that in those moments, he's standing there and he's just soaking in what he considers to be one of the great blessings in his life, of the family that he has. He's anchored in the present and he's thankful for the past. And in that moment, he's grateful, acknowledging this family is a gift that I did not earn. And it's tempting to jump ahead. It's tempting to be desirous of the future. It's tempting to be anxious about what could happen. And there's different times and different seasons of life with the Morrises that he could have jumped ahead. During one of those Thanksgivings, he had a daughter that was going to vet school who dropped out to go to art school, which no parent wants to hear. Now, fast forward that, and it worked out really well for her. Another time, he had a daughter who was dating a guy that he was actively praying against every day. Not in a funny way, even though it is funny, but in a very serious, concerned dad kind of way. And God answered those prayers too. But in that moment, when he's standing there, grinning from ear to ear, grateful for what's going on in front of him, he's not anxious about the future. He hasn't forgotten the moments that have got him there. He's anchored in the present, and he's grateful for God's gifts. But more than those things, more than humbling us so that we acknowledge that things in our life are gifts, more than simply anchoring us in the present and helping us reflect on and be grateful for the past, I think there's something far more powerful that gratitude does. And I think we see that in a story tucked away in one of the gospels, in Luke chapter 17. If you have a Bible, turn to Luke chapter 17. I'm going to start in verse 11, and verses 16 through 19 will be up here on the screen. I want to read it for you. On the way to Jerusalem, he was passing between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 leopards, talking about Jesus, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices saying, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. Okay. So I want to say something very, very clear right here. He's going through Samaria. There's racial tension going on. The racial tension going on there. There's a whole separate set of issues that we could talk about. But there's 10 lepers. And in the ancient world, leprosy was the death knell. It was the death knell. It was the worst possible disease that you could get. It was the worst possible diagnosis that you can receive. If you received leprosy, it was contagious, so you were ostracized. You had to go live in a colony with a bunch of other depressed people who were losing their skin and their limbs and their digits all at once and just marching towards death together. It was a really, really difficult diagnosis. And so there's 10 lepers, and they cry out to Jesus. And look what they cry. They say, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. So what do all 10 of them already know? That's Jesus. He's the Son of God and he has the power to heal us, right? They already are acknowledging that that's Jesus and we believe he's the Son of God. They've admitted that. Then Jesus answered, were not 10 cleansed? Where's everybody else? Didn't I heal 10 of you? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Look at this, this is so powerful. And he said to him, rise and go your way. Your faith has made you well. Let's not miss what's happening in this story as we reflect on gratitude together. These 10 lepers looked at him and they said, Jesus, Master, we believe in you. We believe that you are who you say you are. We believe that you have the power to heal. Will you please heal us? He says, yeah, go and show yourself to the priest and you'll be healed. And so they run off to go to the priest and on their way, they are healed. And as they are healed, we can only assume. Now, we don't know. There's not a lot of details. This is conjecture. But something happened in the minds of nine of them that they didn't think it was important to go back and thank Jesus for what he did. I like to think that their minds immediately became desirous of the future. They became desirous about who they were going to tell and what they were going to do and who they were going to see and all the next things that they wanted to do in light of this healing. Maybe in their head, they went, gosh, that Jesus is a great guy. And they went on and they did their thing. But what they didn't do is express gratitude. What they acted like was that they were entitled, was that they somehow deserved that healing. Jesus is the Savior of the world. He's the Son of God. He has the power to heal. He sees us. He should heal me. He owes this to me. That's what God does. God heals, so heal me. Thanks, great, and then they move on. Only one of them was so moved by his experience with Jesus that he went back to him and he said, thank you. Thank you for healing me. And in that moment, we see gratitude. We see an acknowledgement. This gift of healing is a gift that you gave me that I did not deserve. Thank you. And Jesus' response is fascinating to me. After he notes what the others did, he said, your sins are forgiven. Your faith has made you well. That dude just got saved. You understand that? We call it getting saved when someone is returned to harmony with God. Our souls were created to be in harmony with our creator God. They were designed to be in union with him. Our sin breaks that union. It is forever broken. There is no way to restore us into that union. So God sent his son to die on a cross so that we wouldn't have to, so that by placing our faith in him, we can be restored into union with our creator God. Your soul longs and clamors and claws for harmony with your creator God. That's what it does. If you're here this morning and there is an unease in your soul, if you're not a believer yet, but there is something that you just can't seem to wrap your mind around, if you've clawed for happiness in your life and then gotten there and found that it was empty, it's because your soul was designed to claw for harmony with our Creator God. And Jesus restored the soul of that leper. Gave him what his soul really longs for. And why did he do it? Because the leper was grateful. Don't you see? It wasn't enough to just go, hey, you're Jesus and you can heal me if you want to. Thanks, see you later. No, the leper came back and was grateful. Thank you for what you've done. And Jesus says, your faith, he doesn't say gratitude. He says faith because the faith is implicit in the gratitude. To be truly grateful, you have to admit, you've done something that I couldn't do for myself. Thank you, Jesus. Your faith has made you well. I'm worried as I read this story that we don't understand that gratitude is a gateway to harmony with God. Gratitude is the gateway to harmony with God. Don't you see that these nine lepers did what so many of us do, particularly in the South, just give mental assent, acknowledge, you're Jesus, you're the Son of God, and if you want to, you can do these things for me, but it never goes beyond that. They had the beginnings of faith, but they weren't truly grateful for who Jesus was and what he did. And because of that, they never received the actual blessing that Jesus came to give them. He didn't go through Samaria that day to heal people of leprosy. If he did, we would have seen him healing a lot more people. He walked through Samaria that day to bring some souls back into harmony with God. He walked into Samaria that day to save people. And the only one that got saved was the one that expressed gratitude for what he did. And I worry about how many of us can sometimes be like the lepers. And once we receive the blessing from God, once we receive the taste of Jesus, once we receive a little bit of the blessing, we go, thanks, that's good. And we don't stick around for the true blessing that God has for us because we're entitled. I don't want us to miss the power of gratitude. This guy didn't have to pray the sinner's prayer. He didn't have to have everything figured out. He didn't have to understand the ins and outs of the New Testament. He was from the priest that Jesus sent him to go see wasn't even a Jewish priest. It was a hybrid religion. He didn't even understand what it meant to have faith or to be a believer. He was simply grateful to Jesus for what he did. And to Jesus, that was enough. Your faith has made you well. We cannot miss the power of gratitude. It's a gateway to harmony with God. And I really think that what happens when we're grateful is that all paths lead to God. I think gratitude always leads to God, which in turn always leads to joy. I think gratitude is a gateway to harmony with God, is a guaranteed pathway to joy. That if we can begin to express gratitude in our lives for anything at all, that what that will ultimately bring us to is gratitude. It doesn't take me very long to do that in my life. If I look at the things I'm grateful for in my life, I look at Jen and I look at Lily. It doesn't take me very long to end up thanking God for those things and to find joy and harmony with God. If you look at the things in your life, it doesn't take you very long to think of the things that you're grateful for and find a path that leads us back to God. I think it actually kind of works like this. As I was thinking about it this week, I thought of this map that I remember seeing online. If we can put it up there. This is a map of all of the streams and rivers in the United States and how they all lead to the ocean. Every last one of them. You can pick any tendril that you want to and at one point or another, it's going to end up in the ocean. A brook is going to lead to a stream, is going to lead to a creek, is going to lead to a river, is going to lead to a bigger river, is going to lead to a basin, is going to lead to an ocean. And I think that gratitude works the same way. Even if you think about the things in your life that you think you've done, the accomplishments that you think you've made, the businesses that you think you've built, the children that you think you've raised, who gave you the gifts and abilities to do those things? Who decided in his sovereignty that you were going to be born in the United States in a first world and even have the opportunity to exercise those gifts? Who decided that you weren't going to be born in the slums of Delhi and instead were going to be born here? God did. Our very gifts, our very location, our friends, all of our blessings are a result of God's goodness in our life. That's why I think that all gratitude is simply a path that leads us back to God, that leads us to joy. That's why I think that the Bible tells us over and over again to be grateful in all things, even in the hard things. I think that even if Christmas is difficult, because for some of us, Christmas is a reminder of loss. If we want to find a path to gratitude, even in the midst of a Christmas that reminds us of loss in our life, that loss hurts so much because there were times that were so sweet. And we become grateful for those times. And we see God working in them. And it serves as a pathway that ultimately leads us back to God where our souls will find harmony with Him and we will find joy. Gratitude is incredibly powerful because it is a gateway to harmony with our creator. All paths of gratitude lead to him. And I am convinced that once we are in harmony with our God, once we are grateful to him, all those pathways lead to joy. So let's go and let's be grateful together. Let's be anchored in the present, remembering the past, and be grateful to our God for the things that He has done in our lives. Let's pray. Father, we love You. We truly are grateful to You. We're grateful for the memories that we have. We're grateful for the scars that we bear and the lessons that we learned as a result of those instances. God, we're thankful for all the different blessings that you've placed in our life, for the relationships, for the possessions that bring us joy, for the places that make us feel safe or cozy or happy. God, we're so grateful for all of those. We're thankful for the means to earn those things, to make the sale, to close the deal, to figure out the account. We're grateful for the discipline to go to work and to learn more and to sharpen our sword. We're grateful that you built us all with our gifts that allow us to go out and serve you and enjoy the blessings that you've given us. God, may we actively fight against entitlement. May we be people who acknowledge every day that the things in our life are gifts from you that we have not earned and acknowledge that in your goodness, you've given them to us anyways. It's in your son's name we pray, amen.

Good morning, my name is Nate. They let me be the lead pastor here. If I haven't got a chance to meet you, I would love to get to do that after the service. We are finishing up our summer series called Obscure Heroes. I'm really excited about that. Yesterday, I got home from doing a wedding and then on my TV, there was football and it's less than 70 degrees when I woke up this morning and church is full and schedules are normal and small groups are starting, and all the things in life that I love are happening. Fall is the best, and summer is the worst, and this is the last Sunday of summer. Praise Jesus. And so next week, we do the Grace Serves, and then two services we launch into a series that I'm particularly excited about. It was not my idea. Somebody at the church gave it to me. One of our great partners suggested it. We're going to look at the six festivals that God installed into the Hebrew calendar in the Old Testament to see and remind ourselves that God is a God of remembering. He's a God of celebration. He's a God of commemoration. And all of that is worth learning about and celebrating. We're going to have a really fun, worshipful fall. We're going to have the Hootenanny, second annual one. Get your fanny to the Hootenanny. It's going to be the line there. That's going to be on September 22nd, along with some baptism. So I'm really, really excited about what we have coming up for you in the months of September and October. I think they're going to be huge months for Grace. But this morning, we want to finish up Obscure Heroes. I'm so grateful to Kyle for speaking for me last week, just so that you guys know that was planned for a long time because one of the things that I think is super important as a pastor is that you guys, as the church, get to hear other voices. And don't just hear me beating the same drum and playing the same notes every week. I would get tired of me. I know that you guys probably are already. So we want to have other voices and other perspectives speak into the spiritual life and have some spiritual authority here at Grace. So inviting other people up here to give the sermon is always going to be a part of who we are and part of how we do ministry, just so that doesn't surprise you guys as we move forward. But this week, I get to finish up our summer series. We've been looking at obscure heroes, characters in the Bible, people that we see in Scripture that we may not be familiar with, that we may not have heard of before, people who are a little bit less prominent, whose stories we may not know, and kind of asking the question, God, why are they in the Bible? Why do we hear this story? What can I learn from their story and their example that I can apply to my life? And I've enjoyed doing this series with you. This week, we're going to look at what I believe to be is a collection of the most obscure heroes in the Bible. We don't even get their names. They come at the end of Hebrews chapter 11, one of my favorite passages tucked into the most beautifully written book in the New Testament. If you're not familiar with Hebrews, it's a letter. It's towards the end of the Bible. There's this many pages in front of it and this many pages behind it. So it's towards the end, right? And it's a letter. We don't know who wrote it. We used to think that Paul wrote it, but increasingly we don't think that's the case. Basically, the thinking goes, it's too good for Paul to have written. So we don't think that he wrote it, but it's this incredibly beautifully written book. It has this incredibly high view of Christ as the Messiah, as the priest once and for all, as the sacrifice once and for all. And towards the end of it, in chapter 11, the author breaks into this discourse on faith. And he opens up the chapter and he defines faith and says that faith is the substance of things hoped for, it's the belief in things unseen. And then he chronicles all of these heroes, these heavy hitters of our faith, if you're a believer, of our shared faith, and shows us what they did by faith. And to a lot of folks in the church world and theological circles, Hebrews chapter 11 is actually known as the hall of faith. It chronicles a lot of the heavy hitters in the Old Testament. And he concludes it with this idea in Hebrews 12 that we're surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, and so we should run our race too. But as he goes through the book, he highlights the different people. He starts at the very beginning. He starts with Abel, and he says, by faith, Abel offered the sacrifice that God asked for. He gets to Abraham. He says, by faith, Abraham moved from a place called Ur to a place called Canaan because God told him to. Some of us know the story in Genesis 22. By faith, Abraham offered Isaac when he was asked to. By faith, Joseph served Potiphar and Pharaoh. By faith, Moses led the Hebrew people out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea and brought down the Ten Commandments. By faith, Joshua crossed the Jordan River and conquered Jericho. And then one of our obscure heroes, by faith, Rahab protected the spies and helped the armies of Israel. And so he chronicles all these heroes that we've heard of before. And as he gets to the end of that, the author's kind of made his point. And he says, should I keep going? Should I keep listing off names? And then he offers us some of the judges. Do I need to tell you about the faith of Gideon and of Samson and of Jephthah and of Barak? Do I need to enumerate what they've done as well? And then he starts talking about the prophets and some of the things that they've suffered. And then at the end of the chapter, he doesn't even refer to groups of people anymore. He doesn't even refer to people with titles. He's no longer using names. He just starts telling brief snippets of dozens, if not hundreds of people's stories. And I've always been fascinated by this passage. I think I came across it sometime in high school when I was beginning to read the Bible on my own. And I've always thought about the end of Hebrews 11. Man, who are these people? Because look at what he says about them. It looks like it's on your bulletin. It looks like a typo, like they printed the wrong verses. How could he possibly be preaching from these? But this is what it says. We'll just kind of pick them up mid-thought in verse 35. They wandered around destitute. They gave up their life. They were martyrs. They gave up probably well-being, maybe careers, maybe families for the sake of what we would call the gospel, for the sake of their faith. By faith, they took these steps of obedience that led them down these paths. And what we see, and these are people whose stories are incredible. Probably, if you could know them detail by detail and line by line, on par with any of the heavy hitters that precede them in the chapter, on par with what Moses did or what Abraham did or what Joseph did or what David did, on par with any of that. But there's just too many to enumerate, too many to note. It makes me wonder about all the stories of the people in the Old Testament that we don't even get to hear. And I've always wondered about these stories, about these people. Who were they? Where were they from? How did they come into faith? What did it look like for them? And what we see at the end of this passage, the beginning of chapter 12, when the author wrote the book, there weren't any chapters there. We added those in later. And so it's a continual flow of thought. And he says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us throw off the sin and the weight that so easily entangles and run the race that is set before us, is how chapter 12 begins. And that's the point of the whole chapter 11, is to tell us by faith we should run our race too. But he says, because we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, and he only lists off like 10, 15 people by name, but then a stadium fills the rest of heaven. And it makes me realize, we know the heavy hitters, we know the all-stars of the faith, but do you realize that heaven is populated with obscure heroes? Heaven is populated with obscure heroes. If you're a believer in whatever heaven looks like when we get there one day, we're not going to just walk through seeing all the heroes of the Old Testament that we recognize. It's populated with these obscure heroes, with people that are mentioned in verses 35 through 38 that are wandering around whose names are not mentioned in this book, who just had the simple faith and simple obedience and whose stories we don't ever get to know. And whenever I see this passage or read through it, I always think, man, what are the stories out there of faith happening on other continents or at other times or in our inner cities or just down the road that we'll never hear and we'll never know on this side of eternity? What are all the stories waiting on us of these faithful people who are these obscure heroes that we find out about when we get to heaven? Because I've always wondered that, what are all the things going on in God's kingdom that I don't know about? I was fascinated and felt privileged to meet somebody that I consider an obscure hero that none of us have probably heard about before in Honduras. About 10 years ago, I was with a school. I was a chaplain at the school and they had a mission trip that they took to Honduras, and so I went with them. And I met a man there that I will never forget. To me, he's a hero. A guy named Israel Gonzalez. This is a picture of Israel and I. This is the last time I got to hang out with him. That's like eight years ago, okay? That's baby Nate. This is what you guys are doing to me. I don't know if you realize that. Every time you text me past 5 p.m., I get another gray hair. But that's me. That's me in Israel, and we're in a house on a mountainside somewhere in a village doing some of the ministry that I'm about to tell you about. But Israel is one of the greatest people I've ever met in my life. I go down to Honduras and I get introduced to Israel and I start to learn his story. He grew up in Nicaragua. He was trained as an engineer, but at some point or another, and he married a woman named Floripe, who was a practicing medical doctor. Very successful family, but at one point or another, God laid it on his heart that he needed to be a pastor. So he said, okay. So he started a church. And eventually the church got to be too much responsibility. So he had to quit his job and focus full time on the church. And one of the things that the church did early on, they were based in a city called Saguarapeque in the middle of Honduras. And Saguarapeque is just in central Honduras. It's surrounded by mountains, and in those mountains are different villages. And when I say villages, I'm not talking about like a quaint village term. I'm not trying to minimize what it really was. I'm not talking like Nightdale and Rollsville here. I'm talking they were villages, just hovels, houses that were built out of cinder blocks, some that were just poles in the ground with canvas wrapped around them. Just groups of people who had lived there for generations and probably still will. Honduras is one of the poorest countries in our hemisphere. It's one of the most dangerous countries, most politically volatile countries in our hemisphere. But what Israel would do to spread the gospel, to spread the good news of Jesus, is he would go into these villages that surrounded Swagwatapeki. And he would need to build goodwill because he would want to tell them about Jesus, but you can't just show up and start telling them about Jesus because these villages are Catholic. And I don't have any problem in the world with Catholicism or a Catholic background, but this was a version of Catholicism in Honduras that was incredibly legalistic. That was very much, you are saved based on what you do and how you behave. You earn your way into heaven. And I have a big problem with any time we tell anybody that they have to earn their way into heaven, because that's not the Bible. They didn't know the grace of Jesus that says, you can't earn your way into heaven anyways, man. Just accept Christ. They didn't know that. They had not heard the beauty of the gospel, and he wanted to present them with the beauty and the mystery and the good news of the gospel, but he had to earn a little good faith with the community members before he could do that. So he would go in and he would throw parties. He would take people from his church, and they would go and they would cook hot dogs for the kids and they would do face painting and they would have games and they would give away little gifts. And then some churches from the states would find out about it. Not too many, mind you. He's only associated with probably five or six churches stateside. And start sending teams down there with little gift bags to give to the kids at these parties. And then Israel would always be off in the corner. He would either be talking and playing with the children, or he'd be off in the corner talking with some of the people who were like the village elders. And then when he would go into homes, they're still cooking on wood-burning stoves. So in these very poor villages in the hillsides of Sugatapaki, Honduras, these people are cooking on wood-burning stoves, and because of that, lung disease was rampant. And he looked at that, and he went, it doesn't have to be this way. And with his engineering background, he designed, invented a stove that can be built in these homes that reduces smoke inhalation by 90%. And we know it reduces it by 90% because some of the teams carried the designs back to Duke and the University of Indiana and said, will you look at these and see if these are legit? And they are. 90% reduced smoke inhalation. Vastly increases the quality of life. So he goes to the village elders and he can build these for $100 a pop. He says, hey, I've got enough to build two stoves. Who would you like to have them? And they start with the oldest women and then work their way down. And so while the party's going on, him and a team are over here building a stove. And after building this goodwill and meeting their needs, the village elders come to him and they say, hey, we don't just want your church to have to come visit us. Can you send us a pastor to start a church and we'll rally around him? So Israel thought, okay. So he began to disciple young men in his church and train them to be pastors. And when a village would ask for a church, he would send these young men out to go be their pastors. Do you know that Israel has founded 14 churches out of his church from young men that he's risen up and sent out. He's installed hundreds of stoves. He's done this with virtually no support from the United States. He doesn't have a big moneymaker here. He just does it. They just figure it out. And he does it faithfully. Do you know that Floripe used to, when they would go into the villages, his wife, these people need medical care. So she would treat them. But there was never enough time in a day to treat everybody that they were going to see. So eventually, God made it possible for them to build a permanent medical facility, a clinic that people come to every day. Get dental care, get medical care, take your kids in to get shots. Minor surgeries happen there. And this is the life that they lead. And now here's the thing, and here's why I marvel at Israel. You might not know this because not all y'all are plugged into this or care, nor should you. But there's like a thing, and it might be gross, I don't really know where I'm at with it, to be honest with you, like Christian celebrity. Once you start a church, and that church grows, you get invited to conferences, you get to speak, you write a book, you do a podcast, and everybody starts to know who you are, and then you get more campuses, and then you do a video video projection and you teach at those campuses too. And now I'm a robot pastor everywhere, right? And bigger grows my kingdom. And I don't know, it would be so hard to protect your ego against what that does to you, but it happens in Christian circles. And these people who build churches, who have 14 churches and a medical clinic that their wife runs, we know about them. They're famous. They show up on preachers and sneakers on Instagram. Like we know about them. But not Israel. Because he's working away in Honduras. And he's one of these obscure heroes. That when we get to heaven, we're going to go. I want to meet the Israels. These people who are serving God in obscurity that most of the world will never, ever know about. I marvel at those stories. And you may be thinking, Nate, that's neat, man. Love 35 to 38. It's people at the end of the chapter. They populate heaven. That's wonderful. That's not gonna be me, man. Probably not gonna be so on and to for my faith. Praise God for that. I'm probably not gonna go to Honduras and like start a clinic. So I don't know what you want me to do here. How are these people, these heroes of the faith, these obscure heroes that did stuff and can't even be named, how is Israel, how are they like us? These people that populate heaven, how can we relate to them? And I was thinking about that this week. And as I was looking at it and working through it, one of the things I realized is, what do these heroes all have in common? They all took simple steps of obedience. What do all these people have in common? As you read through chapter 11 and you look at these heavy hitters of our faith, what do they have in common? The people at the end whose names we don't know, what do they have in common? When I tell you the story of Israel and the things that he's done with his life, what do they all have in common? They all took simple steps of obedience. Simple steps of faithful obedience. None of the people in chapter 11 woke up and said, I want to be great. I want to be a great Christian. We have this terrible thing that we do where we think that the better Christian I am, the more known I'll become for my Christianity. Like pastors are the apex of the faith or something. And that's gross. I don't have any marketable skills, so God placed me here, okay? Like it's not a big deal to be a pastor. We think that Christianity should be lived out publicly and that the better you are at it, the more people notice you. And that's just not true. It's just taking a simple step of faith. Abraham didn't wake up and say, God, I want to be great. I want to be written in your Bible and remembered for thousands of years. He wasn't thinking any of that. God said, I want you to move. And he said, okay. Yes, Lord. And he took that step. He said, I want you to offer me your son. Yes, Lord. And he took that step. He didn't have visions of grandeur. In fact, the one person in chapter 11 who did have visions of grandeur, Moses, he grew up in Pharaoh's house. He thought he was really going to be something. You know what God did to him? He sent him to the desert for 40 years until he got rid of those visions. He humbled him. And then out of a burning bush one day, he said, hey, you ready to take that step? And five times Moses said, no, I don't think so. You got the wrong guy. Until God said, Moses, take it. And he took the step of obedience. We've looked at Rahab. We know that she didn't think she was going to be great. She was a prostitute in Jericho. She didn't have high hopes for being a champion of the faith. She just took the step that God put in front of her. Are you going to protect these spies or not? All these people, all they did, and all Israel, if Israel could be with us here today, what he would tell you he did is just simply what God asked him to do. You understand that the kingdom of heaven is built by simple people taking simple steps of obedience. The kingdom of heaven is not built publicly. The Christian life is not lived out publicly. The Christian life is not lived out to applause and everyone noticing you and going, that's so great and you're so godly. That's not how it works. And I'm saying this because I think so many of us here have been living out a quiet and humble faith day in and day out, taking little steps of obedience, being loyal to your God and being loyal to your beliefs. And sometimes in those things we feel forgotten. Sometimes in those things we feel cast aside because people aren't looking at us and giving us credit for who we are and how we're obeying. And I want you to know that based on Hebrews chapter 11 and these people that are listed here, I think that God sees us. I think that God sees you and that the kingdom of heaven is built on your shoulders. The kingdom of heaven is built on the Stephen ministers who just get up and quietly go sit with people who are grieving and they don't say anything. They just listen and they show up. Those are wholly heroic moments. And you might think, man, being obedient doesn't make you heroic, but I would disagree. It might not make you heroic to everyone, but it makes you heroic to someone. I have some friends. They grew up, each of them separately, without great examples in the house of what it meant to have a good godly marriage. They didn't see examples from all of their parents about what it meant to be a wonderful parent. So when they grew up, they had layers of things that they acquired in those homes, and then they looked at each other and they said, let's put our messes together and make a bigger one. So they got married, not knowing how to do any of that because they never had a good example of it. So now they're flying blind trying to figure that out. And they weren't people of faith. I don't know how you navigate that. And then they said, you know what we should do? This is a mess. Let's have kids. Say it too. And then they're trying to figure out how to be parents to those kids. And somewhere along the way, Jesus gets a hold of them. And they started taking these little steps of obedience. They say, you know what we need to do for our family? We need to prioritize church. And even though they're busy and even though they're tired, even though weekends is the only time they have to rest, they prioritize church and so they show up. And even though they're busy and they're tired and they're coming in on two wheels, they prioritize small group. And even though there's a cost to it, they prioritize things that help them be better parents and help their kids be better kids. And I've watched them slowly develop into this household of faith. And I look at that and I go, man, that's heroic. To take those steps when you don't have to, because they're the right thing to do. When you're flying blind, but you're determined to figure it out. So you just take the next step of faith in front of you, and you do it quietly, and no one sees it, but you just do it because you want your kids to have something different than what you had. Listen, we might not ever know about that, this side of heaven, but they're heroes to those kids. My dad grew up without a dad, and he's not a perfect dad to me, but he's a good one. And I'll never know what it is to not have a dad who's not proud of me. You want to tell me that's not heroic? That simple step of faith that he took? The kingdom of heaven is built on people taking obscure steps of faith, taking obscure steps of obedience that we may never see on this side of eternity. It's built in there, holding the crying baby just a little bit longer so that mama can actually hear the sermon and participate in the worship this week. Or maybe just tune out and be sane for a minute. The kingdom of heaven is built by people that we have in this church. I think of Ginger Reith. Some of y'all are not Ginger Reith. I'm sorry, although she's lovely. Ginger Gentry. Just kidding. Ginger Reith is the worst. Let's put that on video. Ginger Gentry. She leads our prayer ministry. And you may have never met her or heard of her. But every week, if you put a prayer request on the card, it goes to staff and elders, but it also goes to Ms. Ginger. And Ms. Ginger lives alone now. And she sits in her house and she puts those things out and she prays for those. And she makes sure that you get a card and she makes sure that people know about it. I had somebody last week come up to me and they're like, man, that Ginger, like she works, man. I said, what do you mean? And he goes, I've been praying for something for months. And so finally I put it in. It hasn't worked out until finally I put it on the connection card so Ms. Ginger could pray for it. And it happened this week. I'm like, yeah, you don't mess around with Ginger, man. And nobody would ever know about that, about the hours that she spends in prayer. I'll tell you some other heroes we have around here. It's about time I publicly embarrassed them anyways. I don't know if y'all know Harris, Winston, or Howard Sauls. If you don't, you're not missing much. But they're married to our children's ministers. And I marvel at them, and I have since I got here. Because let me tell you something about them. Next time we all do something together, on the 22nd, we're going to have the hootenanny. It's going to be great. Look around. While everybody's having fun and talking and laughing, think of what's the cruddiest job that I could be doing right now? What's the thing that nobody here wants to be doing? You figure that out and then you look and one of them's gonna be doing it because they're servants. And we might not otherwise ever notice that or care. Let me tell you something. The kingdom of God is built on those steps of obedience. The Christian life is lived out by just day after day choosing to be obedient to God. Jesus tells us, if you love God, you'll obey me. He makes it as simple as every day taking the next step of obedience. We don't have to have a plan. We don't have to know what the goal is. We don't have to see the whole story arc. All we have to know is, what's my next step of obedience? And so as we finish up the series and we reflect on the heroes that we've learned from for the past eight weeks, I want to put that question in front of you. What's your next step of obedience? What simple heroic act has God placed in front of you? And don't discredit it and don't say, oh, that's not heroic or oh, that's not a big deal. Yes, it is. Whatever that step is, it's a big deal. Maybe it's to get baptized. Maybe it's to make a public profession of a private decision. Maybe God has impressed that upon you, and next month we're going to have a service. If that's you, write that on your card or reach out to me somehow. Let's talk about that. Maybe your next step is to get rid of that thing in your life that doesn't need to be there. To shed some light on some dark places and take that step. Don't tell me that's not heroic. That's hard. Maybe your next step is to have the conversation. It's to volunteer for the thing. Maybe your next step is getting home and putting down your phone and engaging with family. Maybe it's finally developing the discipline of spending time in God's word and time in prayer every day. Some of you know what your next step is, and you're thinking right now, dang it, I didn't want to come today. Sorry, sucker. Now you're here. I don't know what your next step is, but I know that the kingdom of God is built by you taking that simple step that no one may ever see but him. And that heaven is populated with obscure heroes like we have here at Grace, like you probably are. So I'm just hoping that we can commit as we move into the fall, that we can commit to taking those next steps together. Let's pray. Father, we sure do love you. Really and truly, God, thank you for making faith so simple. Sometimes we make it complicated. Sometimes we make it harder than it has to be. And God, a lot of times we want to know more than we need to. Give us the faith to take the next step. God, if there's someone here and they don't know you today, would they would just, I pray that they would just prioritize finding out. We all have roadblocks. We all have things, God. Maybe their next step is simply digging into those and figuring out what's there and why they're hesitant. Give them the courage to do that. Give us all, Father, the strength and the courage to take the next step. Give us the vision to see it. May we be like the people that were written about in Hebrews. May we be like the people that we'll find out about in heaven. I pray that you would fill grace with these obscure heroes of the faith who quietly build your kingdom for your glory. And it's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

This is the, I don't know, the fourth or fifth part of our series called Obscure Heroes. We've been looking at people that exist in kind of the nooks and crannies of the Bible. We all know of some of the main characters, some of the heavy hitters, some of the more prominent players in the Bible that we see, some of the more prominent people through history. One of them is David. We know King David, right? We've heard of him, and we actually spent a couple summers ago, my first summer here, we went through the life of David for 11 weeks. It was one of the more fun series I've ever gotten to do. And we know about Moses, we know about Paul, we know about Abraham, but there's other people tucked away in some of the corners of the Bible that give us incredible examples. And their stories are in there for good reasons. And so this week, the hero that we're looking at is actually my namesake, Nathan the prophet. I double-checked with my parents. I was named after Nathan. Just so you know, the name Nathan means gift from God. So I'm just throwing that out there. But if my aunts and uncles taught me anything at Christmases growing up, it's that not all gifts are good. So you guys can just figure out if I'm good or not. But we're looking at Nathan in a conversation that he has with David in 2 Samuel chapter 12. So if you have a Bible, you can turn there. If you don't, there's one in the seat in front of you, and we'll be looking through that story. To understand what's going on with the conversation with Nathan and David, we have to know what David did. We have to know what's leading into this moment. David was the king of Israel. He was the second king of Israel. The first king was a guy named Saul, but God said some terrible words. He said, I regret making Saul king. And he took the kingdom away from Saul, and he handed it to David. And David, God said himself, was a man after God's own heart. We know about David. There's prophecies that when the Messiah comes, Jesus, that one day he's going to sit on the throne of David. The flag that flies over Israel now bears the star of David. He's the greatest king that Israel has ever seen. But David's human. And like a lot of us, like all of us, he messed up. And he had a lot of mess ups over the years, but this was the worst one, and God in his sovereignty chose to chronicle it in the Bible so that we could see it. So David had been king for a little while, and it says that it was in the spring when kings are off to war. And a lot of people like to make the point that David was in a place that he shouldn't be. Whatever was going on, he probably should have been on the battlefield with his men, leading them into war. And instead, he decided he was going to sit this season out, and he stayed at home. Maybe he was holding out for more money, I'm not sure. But he stayed back at the palace while his men are off to war. And one day, he decides to go out on the rooftop in the evening. And from what I understand, I've done a little bit of research about this, from what I understand, that was kind of like bath time in the ancient world, and that the baths were on the roof, and that it was kind of common practice to not go out there. If you could see on other people's roofs, kind of give people their privacy or whatever. And David chose to go out on his roof to see what he could see. And he knew very well what he could see. There's a woman named Bathsheba who lived next door to him apparently, and he saw her bathing on the roof. Now Bathsheba was the wife of a guy named Uriah the Hittite. Uriah was a bad dude. I don't know the rank, but Uriah is what is called in the Bible one of David's mighty men. Uriah was part of David's SEAL Team 6. He was a bad joker. And this means that David had fought many wars with him, many battles with him. I would be willing to bet that David and Uriah knew each other personally. You don't live next door to the king if he doesn't know who you are, especially if you're in his army. And Bathsheba was married to Uriah, but David was the king. And we know what men in power do. Often, when they're not being responsible, they take what they want. And he wanted Bathsheba. So he sent, he told the guys that worked for him, I don't know, go over there and get Bathsheba for me. Brought Bathsheba over to his quarters, and then he did what men like that do, and they slept together. And he sends her home. Well, word gets back to David somehow. We don't know how. Maybe they're talking. I don't know. Word gets back to David that Bathsheba is pregnant. And so David, you can just see the wheels turning. And it's so human to see this part of David. The actions that he takes, you can see the wheels turning in his head. Oh, shoot. She's pregnant. I have to cover this up. People can't find out about this. I have to make sure this doesn't get out. Because David, man, he's writing psalms. He's singing songs to the Lord. He plays the harp sometimes. He's a spiritual guy. Part of his leadership is established on his moral purity, his moral excellence. So he can't let word get out that behind the scenes he's not what he seems he is. So he starts scrambling, how am I going to cover this up and make Uriah not mad at me? So he hatches a plane and says, I know. He calls Uriah back from the front lines, back from the battlefield. He welcomes him in and he gives him this speech about how great he is and I just value you so much. And because I value you so much, because you're such a loyal servant, I wanted to just give you a night with your, resting at home with your wife, enjoy yourself. We'll send you out to bat on the next day. Very clear what he wants to have happen there. Wants Uriah to go in, spend the night with Bathsheba, leave the next day, and in nine months he thinks that's his kid. The problem is Uriah was so, he had so much integrity that he said, I cannot in good conscience sleep under a roof in a soft bed while my men are on the battlefield sleeping under the stars. So thank you, David. I appreciate this means so much to me, but I'm going to sleep outside. And he slept on the front stoop of his house. So the whole neighborhood knew. Uriah didn't go in there. He didn't see Bathsheba. And then he's about to head back to the front lines the next day. And the wheels turn with David again. He's like, okay, well, plan B. So he writes a letter to his general, Joab, seals it, gives it to Uriah to deliver to Joab. Uriah is so loyal that David didn't even think that he might peek in there to see what this letter said, because if he did, things would have changed. The letter told Joab, tomorrow in battle against the Philistines, I want you to put Uriah in the front lines, which was not typical of the mighty men. You put meat shields in the front lines. You put new people there. You don't put Uriah there, okay? He waits and he cleans up the mess. But he put them in the front lines. He says, then I want you to advance into the Philistine army. And when you give your signal, I want you to withdraw so that they surround him and kill him. Joab was a good soldier. He was a good general. He was trusted by David. So the next day, that's what they did. The army advanced with Uriah in the center, and then they withdrew. I would love to have seen Uriah. I bet Uriah fought the fight, man. But they withdrew, and they murdered him on King David's instruction. When news of Uriah's death gets back to Jerusalem, David, finishing out the plan, totally despicably, plays the part of the grieving king and the magnanimous husband and says, Bathsheba, you poor widow that has no one to provide for you. I will care for you. I will make you my wife, presumably in honor of my friend Uriah. And the sin is covered over. Now, that is a despicable thing that David did. And maybe a month's time, a couple weeks' time, David became a lying, thieving, adulterous murderer. One of, I think, the worst sins recorded in the Bible. And then he covers over it. And that's it. And I would have to imagine, I don't know for sure, I don't know this for sure, okay? This is just, sometimes I walk over here when I'm just making wild guesses and I have nothing to base this on. So pretend I'm talking from right here. David, he wrote most of the Psalms. I would be willing to bet in the time between he sinned with Bathsheba and the time to the story we're about to cover that he didn't do muchm writing. I would be willing to bet he felt pretty distant from his God during that time. I would be willing to bet he woke up most days thinking about how profoundly that act had changed his life, trying to get over it, trying to find a way to look himself in the mirror. I can't imagine how heavily that weighed on him. Maybe it didn't. And if that's the case, I can't imagine all the other stuff he had to do up to that moment to get a conscience that wasn't seared by that, or hurt by that, rather. But in Samuel 12, we see a conversation that Nathan has with David about this sin. Nathan was a prophet. Prophets, we understand in the Old Testament, they're not charged with telling the future. That's a very small percentage of what they do. When we think prophet, we think somebody that tells us what's going to happen at the end of times. And really, a prophet is someone with their ear to God and their mouth to the people. They're listening to God, and then they're telling the truth to the people even when it's hard, and that's what Nathan had to do. He was tasked by God to go and confront David about his sin. So he goes into David humbly, and he tells him a story. He says, David, in your kingdom, there's a rich man. He's got a ton of sheep on a ton of hills. He's got everything he could possibly want. His neighbor was poor. His family had one sheep. And because they only had one sheep, they couldn't bring themselves to slaughter it. It actually became like the family pet. They would bring it in and use it for milk and use it for wool, and they would feed it from their own table. They loved this sheep like a family member. And one day, an unexpected visitor came to see the rich man. And it's important that we understand that in this culture, hospitality is a huge deal. Someone comes to your house, you cook some stuff, you get it ready, like you show them a good time. You want to be hospitable. So it is incumbent upon the rich man to feed his guests. And the rich man, for whatever reason, he's cheap, he must have drove a Nissan Leaf, he decides to go next door and take his neighbor's lamb and murder it and feed that to their guests. And then Nathan says, what should be done to this man? And Scripture tells us in 2 Samuel 12 that it says that David was enraged. And he says, this man surely deserves to die. He should pay back what he took fourfold. And Nathan says, that's interesting, David, because that man is you and the poor man is Uriah, and that's what you did. And then he proceeds to detail to David from God exactly what the punishment for this action is going to be, including losing the child that is a result of this sin. And David responds, and he could have responded in a bunch of different ways. He could have said, get out of here. He could have had Nathan killed. He could have covered it up again. He could have been rebellious. He could have been defiant. But David says, I have sinned against the Lord. And he immediately repents. Now, as a side note, I've long thought that what made David a man after God's own heart is not the lack of sin in his life, is not the perfect moral life that he lived, but it's his repentance and sorrow in the face of sin. Because he went back to Psalm writing after this, most pointedly Psalm 52 as a result of this sin. And we see his brokenness there. And I think that's why David was a man after God's own heart. But I want us to understand as Nathan goes in and confronts David exactly what's at stake when he does this. Think about if you would do this. If you're the prophet in ancient Israel and the king has sinned in this way and God has tasked you with being the one that confronts him about it. Because you're not the only one that knows. All the servants that were around that day, they know. They know good and well what happened. They absolutely know what's going on. But none of them told David, did they? None of them for a second told David, hey, but you probably don't want to do that. Hey, David, wait. You can't do that to Uriah. David, don't send that letter to Joab. They could have, but they didn't. And we can call them cowards for not doing it, but maybe we should call them smart because they can get killed for saying something like that. This is the king, man. There's not a justice system. He's the justice system. I would love to be there when God tells Nathan, hey, I need you to go do this thing. If I were that Nathan, I'd be like, you got to find another guy, man. That does not sound like a good prospect. He could lose his life for this. At the very least, he could lose his position. Think about it. This is his career. This is what he does. This is the empire that he's built. He is so good. I mean, from a human perspective, he's so good at being a prophet, at being a spiritual leader, that he has risen above all the other spiritual leaders in a very spiritual nation to be the advisor to the king, to be the prophet that's allowed in Israel, in Jerusalem, into the palace. He's the guy. And to do this, at the very least, if it doesn't throw away his life, it throws away his career. He might have nothing after this. And I've even thought if I were Nathan, I could make a pretty good argument to justify not doing this. Right? How hard is that? Wouldn't you just have to say, well, you know, I mean, if you had friends around and you say, hey, I felt like God's asking me to do this. I don't know what I should do. Couldn't you convince your friends if you said, listen, my concern is I'm happy to do it. I'm happy to go confront David. But my concern is if I do that, he's going to shut me out. He's not going to listen to me anymore. David doesn't have any other spiritual voices in his life. I'm his pastor. I'm his spiritual leader. He doesn't have anybody else in his life that he's listening to, and he's in a bad place right now. He needs people in his life influencing him towards God. And if I go in and I say something, he's going to shut me out and push me away, and there's not going to be anybody influencing David, and he's just going to run amok with whatever he wants to do. So it is better for the kingdom if I keep my mouth shut and maintain my influence with David? Who's going to tell me I'm wrong? But Nathan doesn't do any of that. He hears the instruction from the Lord, and he goes in, and he confronts him. And he did it. He had to have done it believing this is going to cost him his position. It could cost him his life. It's going to cost him his influence. It's going to cost him everything that he has with David. It's going to cost him his friendship with David and all the perks that come along with it. But what I think is remarkable about Nathan, and the reason that he's the hero today, is that Nathan was somebody who decided that he loved David more than he loved David's friendship. Nathan was someone who had decided that he loved David more than he loved David's friendship. He cared so much for David that he could not bear to see him go down this path. That he loved him enough to jerk him out of it, to hold a mirror up to himself and say, dude, this is you. You've got to stop it. Knowing full well this could cost him his friendship. He loved David more than he loved David's friendship. The easy application for us is that we need to be like Nathan. The people that are in our life that we love and care about, we need to love them more than we love our friendship with them. We need to be willing to say the hard things to them if it's the right thing, even if we don't know what it's going to cost us. And for some of us, this is the right application today. Some of us hate confrontation. Some of you would rather peel your skin off of your body and run away from that lump on the ground than actually confront your friend about sin in their life. That's a super difficult thing. And so for some of us today, we need the application of, man, you need to be like Nathan. We need to love the people in our life more than we love our friendship with them. For some of us, that's a very good application. But I think that there's a better application today. I think the better application is that we need to invite Nathans into our life. Not just like me for lunch and golf, but we need to actually invite Nathans into our life to hold us accountable for things. People who embody the verse. It's in Proverbs. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Our friends, the people who really love you, are willing to hurt you when it's the right thing. We need people in our lives who are willing to hurt us when it's the right thing. Do you know who wrote that verse, by the way? Solomon. Do you know Bathsheba was his mother? That his older sibling died as a result of his father's sin? That his spiritual heritage was a result of Nathan having the guts to go and confront his dad? And then years later, Solomon writes, faithful are the wounds of a friend. You don't think that carries some special impact? And here's why we need Nathans in our life. Nathans are life-changing. People who confront us, who are willing to tell us the truth, who are willing to love us more than they love their friendship with us, they change our lives. I remember when I was 20 or 21 years old, I worked at a summer camp called Look Up Lodge in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. There was a camp director there. He's still there named Greg Boone. Greg is to this day one of the most formative spiritual influences I have in my life. I saw him when I was 17 years old as a camper in the summer that changed my life. I walked in. I sat down. I'd heard things about him. I didn't know who this guy was. He walks out on the stage barefoot. That was his thing. It's Traveler's Rest, South Carolina, man. You can do what you want. So he walks out on the stage barefoot, and I still remember the first words that came out of his mouth over 20 years ago. And so when I had an opportunity to go on staff there, I wanted to work for that guy. I wanted to learn from him. I wanted to be around him. What he thought of me and my still relatively adolescent brain was hugely important to me. And it was the second summer that I was working there, learning from Greg and some of the other people. And time was tight during the summer. You worked 11 weeks. You didn't get any time off. When you got time off, it was like 24 or 36 hours, and you had to be back by a certain time for the meeting because we were kicking off camp. It was really serious, and that's fine. That's the way it should have been. But I had a little girlfriend running around in Charlotte that I wanted to go see, right? And so we get one of these windows where we get some time, and I'm like, I'm out of here. I'm going to go to Charlotte. I'm going to go see somebody. And I went over there, and we hung out. And the next day, I had to come back, and I had to be back at camp at 1030. I still remember. And I was rolling in late. It was like 1045, 11 o'clock. And I come walking into camp. I come walking into the meeting. I'm in the back of the room. Everybody's turning around, seeing me. They're kind of snickering. I'm kind of grinning like, you know, sit down. No big deal. It was a dumb meeting anyways. It was the same thing every week. Like, I get the drill. I've been doing this for two summers. I sit down. We kind of giggle. Meeting picks back up. Whatever. So then at the end of the meeting, I'm leaving, and I hear Greg say, hey, Nate, let me talk to you for a minute. Shoot. And I know the song and dance, right? Like, getting in trouble is not a new thing for me. So I'm like, I know the drill. Like, I'm really sorry. I was late. I shouldn't have been late. You're right. I'm the worst. Like, I know. I'm sorry. You're right. Like, I'm wrong. You're smart. I'm stupid. I get it. My bad. Like, I get it. I know how to do this. And I was ready for that. But he sits me down, and he says, Nate, let me ask you a question. If before this weekend, I would have gone around to all the staff members, there's about 20 of us, and said, hey, somebody's probably going to be late to our Monday meeting. Who do you think it's going to be? He said, how many staff members would have said you? And I said, I mean, probably all of them. He said, yeah. And you know that about yourself. He said, listen to me, son. You don't start taking things seriously and taking your ministry seriously and taking yourself seriously, you're never going to amount to anything. You're probably going to get hired by some church because they'll like you, but you're just going to bounce around from place to place and you're never going to make an impact for the kingdom. You need to get it together. Understand? And I said, yes, sir. And I went up to our dorm and cried for 45 minutes. It broke me down, man. It was hard to hear. But I remember it verbatim 20 years later. The conversation changed my life. It changed how I thought about things. Because Greg loved me enough to tell me the truth about myself. And it hurt. At the end of the summer, we didn't leave it there. We had a nice make-up conversation. But he meant what he said, and he was right. Nathans change our life. It's one of the reasons I've always said that we changed our mission statement to connecting people to Jesus and connecting people to people. And I always say when I'm talking about being connected to people, that we need people in our life who love us, who love Jesus, and who have permission to tell us the truth about ourselves. I think we all need that. And if you've been here for any time, you've heard me say that. We need people in our life who love us, who love Jesus, and who tell us the truth about ourselves. Have permission. We've invited them in to do this. Because if somebody loves us and loves Jesus, we might not have invited them in to call us out on our sin. And that's not for everybody to do, okay? That's a relational thing that's earned. If I don't know you very well and you come up to me after the service and be like, you know, I'm glad you preached that sermon. I've got a couple things I've noticed about you. You can keep it, okay? That's an earned thing. That's a relational thing. So we need permission. Now, if they love you and they have permission, but they don't love Jesus, I'm not saying that they're bad people, that their advice wouldn't even be good. But what I am saying is, if their advice isn't godly, biblical advice that's going to line up with God's priorities for you in your life, then it's not the best advice possible. So they need to love Jesus. And if they just love Jesus and love permission but don't love you, maybe give it a minute, all right? Let them come around and invite them in. We have to do those things. And we have to give people permission to do this. And the way that David responded, he gave Nathan permission. He responded by saying, I have sinned against the Lord. But what if David had nobody in his life that could have gone to him? What if nobody had permission to say anything to David? I thought as I went through the story, what would have happened if nobody ever said anything to him? And I think one of the things that would have happened clearly is that David would have been emboldened in his sin. He would have been callous to the Lord. He would have said, I got away with this. I can get away with whatever I want. And then there goes the ball steamrolling down the hill, right? But I think more importantly is, David, if I'm right about my guess that he wasn't doing much psalm writing right after this sin, I think David would have existed and lived his life with this idea that there was a wedge driven between him and God and that he could no longer be used by God because he had profoundly disappointed him and God would never care to see him used again. I think he would have carried around this guilt that went unresolved, assuming that God wanted nothing to do with him. And Nathan actually fixes this. I love this verse. It's towards the middle of the chapter, verse 13. After Nathan has detailed all these things, he tells him a little parable about the owners of the sheep, and David says he should die, and he said, that's you, and here's your punishment. After all those things, and this is what's said, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, this is great. David is a heap. He's a mess. He is at the height of shame in his life. Nathan the prophet is a representative of God that came to convict him about the wrong thing that he did. And as soon as David repents and says, I have sinned against the Lord, Nathan says, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. David says, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan says, you have. And you need to know that you're forgiven for it. If Nathan doesn't confront David, David never finds out that he's forgiven. And he walks with this sin for the rest of his life without knowing that he's forgiven for what he did. Nathan says, nevertheless, what you did was abhorrent to the Lord, but listen, it was a terrible thing, but you need to know that you're forgiven. And if Nathan never arrives in David's life, I'm not sure that he ever finds that out. The other thing is I thought more about this and inviting Nathans into our life is that we don't just need to invite people who love Jesus and who love us and have permission to tell us the truth. I think a crucial part of this, I want to amend that statement, is not only do we need people with permission, but also with access. Right? It's great to just throw out to your buddies, hey dude, listen, I know that you love me, I know that you love Jesus. Or your girlfriends, I know you love me, I know you love Jesus. If you see anything in my life that I need to fix, you have full permission to tell me the truth. I want to know about those things. Help me see my blind spots. It's one thing to say that. It's another thing to give people access so that they can actually do it. I had somebody one time, we went out to lunch together and he said, hey dude, listen, you're my pastor and I've just been thinking about something. Sometimes in meetings at my workplace, I get a little bit of an attitude. I have a tendency to kind of be mean to people. Sometimes I can steamroll folks. Sometimes I'll kind of say stuff that I regret. And that's really not who I want to be. That's not the witness that I want to have. So can I just, when I'm in these meetings, if I feel that coming on, can I just text you just a word or a phrase? And will you pray for me in those moments I said, man, I'd love to. That's great that God's brought you there. They came to somebody who loved them, who cared about them, who loved Jesus, and they gave me permission to say, hey, listen, I'm praying for you. How's that going? You know what they didn't give me? Access. You know how many texts I got from that guy about that? None. What's it matter? Who cares that we had that conversation? If he never texts me, how can I help? If we don't invite people in and give them access, how can they really speak into our lives with any truth? We need to invite people in to have access. You want to talk about access? How about we send each other screenshots of our screen time at the end of days? How about we start sharing locations with people if we really want to take this seriously? Because here's what I know. David was a good dude. David was a good man. David would have been an elder in any church that he went to. He would have been respected in any group of people that he spent his life with. Everybody that knew David would have looked up to him as a spiritual leader, as a dude with his head screwed on straight. He was the guy in church that when you dealt with your own crap, you'd look at David and be like, maybe someday I could be like him. David messed up. We don't invite people into our lives and give them access and permission because we're doing good. We invite them into our lives and give them access and permission because we know that what was in David is in us. One of the things I always say when I see the sin of other people is I'm two bad weeks away from that. And I think that's generous. What if David had given Nathan access? What if Nathan was like in the palace? What if he had so much access that he was around David all the time as a spiritual advisor and Nathan caught wind that Bathsheba had been invited over and he was able to duck his head into the chambers and be like, David, you good? Like, you just checking up on her because her husband's at war? Like, what's going on, buddy? Mind if I sit in here while you talk to her? Maybe I can bring her some comfort too if that's what you're doing. Maybe we can just do this together, keep everything above board. If Nathan had had access to David, this would have never happened. If people have permission and access for us at our best, then when we have those days and weeks and months and sometimes years when we're not at our best, they can be around us making sure, acting as boundaries, making sure that we don't get to our worst. I hope that if you need some Nathans, that you'll have the courage to ask them. I hope that if some of us are caught up in a sin that is our worst, that we'll have the courage to invite people into that. I have never once, not once, not with me personally, not with people sharing things with me, not hearing stories of other people sharing with others. Heard a story of someone opening up about a sin in their life and not be met with grace and love and kindness. Have the courage to do it. We need Nathans in our life. We need people who love us and who love Jesus and who have permission and access. We don't need them for the good times. We need them for when we're not so strong. And if you don't have them, I would really encourage you to pray about finding some. Let's pray. Father, we love you. You're so good to us. You provide for us in ways that, gosh, we just will never know about on this side of eternity. Lord, if there are folks here who don't have anybody with permission or access in their life, I pray that you would help them even as they think and process. Show them who they can trust. Give us the courage to take steps of radical accountability, of radical permission, of radical access to one another just so we can keep ourselves within some boundaries that we think are good and that you think are good. Father, I pray that if there's anybody here who's caught up in stuff that just isn't good for them, Lord, that you would help them see and find their way out. I know they don't want to be caught up in it. I know that it eats them up. Give them a glimpse of hope this morning that it doesn't have to always be the story. Father, we pray these things in your son's name. Amen.

Good morning. My name is Nate. I'm one of the pastors here. For the unindoctrinated, for those who haven't been a part of the series the whole time, what we've been doing for our intros for every sermon is we have a song that is loosely about heroes because the series is called Obscure Heroes. So if you're like, why in the world are they playing that song? That's why, because adults aren't in charge and we think that that's funny. So that's what we've done. I do have to tell you that my sermon in no way fits with that song. In fact, it is very far out of place. It's why I woke up on Monday of this week. I knew what sermon that we had planned in the series. And I woke up on Monday and I thought, I don't want to do that sermon. That's a hard one. That's a heavy one. It talks about like pain and grief, and that's not like summertime fare. Like we're going to do some stupid song to start off the sermon, and it's supposed to be just light and fun. And so I had myself convinced that I didn't need to do the sermon. And then on Tuesday afternoon, I had, or maybe Monday, I can't remember, I had lunch with another pastor in the area, actually, because they talk to me sometimes. And I said, hey, man, this is what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that I'm going to bail on this, and I'm going to do this instead. What do you think? And he's like, well, what would you talk about? And I kind of told him and he goes, I don't know, man. Sounds like you need to pray about it. People need to hear that. And I thought, darn it, you and the Holy Spirit. So I knew that I needed to do this one. It's a heavy one. It's a hard one. But my hope and my prayer is that it's exactly what some of us need, and that it's exactly what we need to hear. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to pray. I'm just going to pray that this would be a good time and that God's Word will be taught transparently and correctly, and that maybe we can take some comfort out of what we look at today. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for a place where we can have fun. We also thank you for your word. And we understand that life isn't always fun. And it's not always sunshine and lollipops, God. And in those moments, you show up too. And so we just ask that your word would be used to bring comfort to us today as some of us hurt, as some of us grieve, as some of us recover from those things or face those things. Lord, just be with us and in this time today. In Jesus' name, amen. So I want to look today at the story of Eli. We find Eli at the beginning of 1 Samuel. We're going to be specifically looking at a story out of 1 Samuel chapter 3. So if you have a Bible, you can turn there. If you don't, they have free ones on your phone, so you can use those too. Eli was the high priest. Now this is a time in Israel when Israel didn't have a king. They came out of Egypt, led by Moses. They wandered in the desert. Then Moses passes away. Joshua is named the leader. He leads them into Israel. They conquer what we know as the modern nation of Israel. They divide it up amongst the 12 tribes. And now they're living in these territories with God as their king. They have no king. And so the high priest is the mouthpiece of God to the people. So he's the big dog in Israel. He's the guy. If you're the high priest in Israel, you're the most powerful man in the country. And so that's Eli. Eli is the high priest. Now Eli had two sons named Hophni and Phinehas. And they were jerks. Hophni and Phinehas were spoiled, rich kids that were privileged, that took gross advantage of their privilege, okay? Their dad is the most powerful man in the country. I would assume that there was some wealth that went along with it, though I don't know that. I can't back that up with paperwork, but it seems reasonable to make that guess. And they took advantage of their dad's position in their position. They used it to take advantage of women. They threatened, they would steal food from the temple and when the priest tried to stop them, they would threaten to beat up the older priest. Like that's what they did. They were deplorable jerks, okay? And God had decided that he could not trust the priesthood to these two. Because the idea is when the high priest passes away, the next priest comes up was generally his son and it stayed in the family. It was this legacy that the priest would leave behind generation after generation. But there's also this boy named Samuel. Samuel's mom was a woman named Hannah who had a hard time having kids. She went to the temple and she begged God for a kid and she says, if you give me a son, I'll give him back to you. And so that's what she did. She was blessed with a boy named Samuel. And then she gave Samuel back to the temple just as soon as he was old enough to eat food on his own. And he was raised in the temple as like a disciple of Eli. And one night Samuel's asleep and he hears a voice crying out to him. So he wakes up, he assumes it's Eli. He goes into Eli's room. Hey, Eli, what's up, man? And Eli says, I didn't call out to you. Like, go back to bed, kid. You're crazy. So Samuel goes back to bed. This happens a couple more times until finally Eli says, Samuel, that's the Lord speaking to you. Next time you hear that voice, you need to say, speak, Lord, for your servant hears. And so that's what he did. The next time he heard the voice, Samuel said, speak, Lord, for your servant hears. And God told him something. And it was bad news for Eli. So the next morning, Samuel wakes up. And Eli comes and finds him. And he says, tell me what God said to you last night. And Samuel demurs, oh, it was nothing. It was no big deal. It was just about, you know, some cattle and stuff. Don't worry about it. And they kind of keep going back and forth. And finally, Eli says, you tell me what the Lord said or everything that he said that's going to happen is going to happen to you instead. So Samuel, we don't know how old he is, 8, 10, 12 years old. It was terrifying to have to say what he was about to say to Eli, the most powerful man in the country, respected high priest. He didn't want to say it. But under threat, he agrees. And so he tells Eli, the Lord has told me that your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, cannot be trusted with the priesthood, and they're evil in his eyes. So he's going to have them killed. He's going to let them die, and the priesthood is going to be taken from your family. Now, that's the worst news I think any person can receive. It's got to be the worst news. You are going to lose your children. You're going to attend your children's funeral. And the legacy that you want to leave will not be left. I am taking your kids and I am taking your legacy. There is not a more painful thing. I'm convinced after being in the pastorate, after seeing enough life to form this kind of opinion, I've seen these funerals enough times, there is no deeper sadness that I have seen than for a parent to survive a child. I think that's got to be the worst. It breaks my heart. And Eli's just told, you're going to lose both your sons, and you will leave no legacy. I'm going to entrust the priesthood to somebody else. Now, if you were Eli, and you just received that news as the high priest, how would you respond? What would you think? What would you want to say? I know for me, I would want to shake my fist and say, God, that's not fair. That's not right. I serve you, God. I've dedicated my life to serving you. I know that my sons aren't the best, but they're going to come around, God. I pray about them every day. They're going to get there. Just give us a little bit more time, God. This is not fair. This isn't right. I've devoted my life to you, and you're going to let this happen to me. Isn't that what you would say? Isn't that what you would feel? Wouldn't you feel that it was unfair? You have to imagine, and we don't know this to be sure, but don't you think that there's a really good chance that Samuel continued to pray or that Eli continued to pray for his sons? That Eli continued to pray, God, I know that they're not walking with you right now. I know that they're living in sin, but man, they're going to come around. Just please be with them. Please don't forget about them. Don't you think that he hadn't given up hope on them? And then he finds out, I'm going to let them die. And I'm going to take your legacy. Wouldn't you want to shake your fist at God and say, this is not fair. Give me a little more time. And what Eli says is to me one of the most faithful statements in the Bible. If you look, 1 Samuel 3, verse 18, when Eli hears this news, this is his immediate response. It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. He's God. He created this. He's the Lord over everything. I trust him. Let him do what seems best to him. Would that be your response? When you take your place, and we've all had them, when you take yourself to your place of deepest grief, is what you were thinking in that moment, the Lord, it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. So how was Eli, in the face of this kind of pain and anguish, able to respond like that? I think that he understood some principles that we see more pointedly in the New Testament that can help us understand maybe how Eli was able to have this kind of faith and the choices that he was making even in that moment. In John chapter 11, there's one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Of course, I say that about all the stories that I teach. I really like the Bible. I'm sorry. In John chapter 11, we meet this family, Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And we, the historians believe that these were Jesus, the closest thing that Jesus had to besties, okay? These were his closest friends. These were probably his vacation friends. They wanted to go down to the beaches. This is, they probably went together. He loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus. They lived in a town called Bethany, and that's affectionately known as Jesus's favorite place on earth. That's probably where he felt home and safe. And he's a couple days' journey away, and Lazarus is sick. He's going to die. So Mary and Martha send word to Jesus, hey, our brother's going to die. You should come take care of him, because they know that he has the power to heal. So Jesus says, okay. He gets the message. He waits for two days, and then he travels to Bethany. And while he's traveling there, Lazarus passes away. And Mary and Martha are ticked, rightfully so, because they know that Jesus waited. He should be here by now and he's not. What's he doing? And so as he approaches Bethany, Mary runs out to meet him. And she asks him the question that we would ask. Jesus, why didn't you come sooner? We told you that our brother was going to die and you could have come and done something about it and you didn't. Why didn't you come sooner? And if you're paying attention and you're empathizing and you're thinking about your own life, this is the question that we all ask too. Whenever we experience loss or grief, we lean in with Mary and we say, yeah, Jesus, why? Because here's the thing. Mary knew that Jesus had the power to prevent her brother from dying. She knew that he could have swept in at any moment and healed him. She knew that he could have prayed a prayer from two days away and healed Lazarus and that he didn't need to die and that he didn't need to go through this pain. She knew that he could have stopped it and that he chose not to. So she leans in and she says, why'd you do that? And if you've ever prayed for someone to survive that didn't, then you've asked that question too. If you've ever prayed against a diagnosis, you've asked that question too. If you've walked through a divorce or abuse or an irreconcilable situation, then you lean in with Mary and you've asked that question too. Jesus, you could have stopped this and you didn't. Why? And Jesus' response is not what we would expect. It's the shortest verse in the Bible. It may be the most profound, John 11, 35. As soon as she asked him that question, you could have stopped this and you didn't, Jesus. Why not? He says, or the Bible says, that Jesus wept. Jesus wept. And when I imagine that moment, I don't imagine Jesus as standing coldly back from Mary and looking at her as they just stand and weep together. I imagine Jesus as grabbing her shoulders and bringing her in and embracing the sister that he loved and weeping with her. And when you think about the times in your life when you've hurt the most, that's what you need more than anything. You need people to weep with you. You need people's presence. Have you ever sat with somebody who was hurting? You sat with them at a loved one's funeral. You sat with them in the hospital while they hoped against hope. Have you ever sat with somebody who was hurting? You sat with them at a loved one's funeral. You sat with them in the hospital while they hoped against hope. Have you ever sat in the middle of someone's pain and racked your brain for the right thing to say? And you can't come up with anything because there's nothing to be said. There's nothing to be said. And if you remember your own pain and the way that people ministered to you, it was never what they said. You don't remember what people told you. You remember that they were there. Because words don't help. I think Abraham Lincoln said it best. I love the letter. It circulates just about every Memorial Day that he wrote to the mom who lost five sons in the Union Army that year. And he said, he said, I feel the weakness of my words and any attempt to beguile you from the pain that you must feel. He's admitting that his words are impotent. In fact, usually the only things that are said there that we remember are the dumb things, right? I've heard people say before when someone's endured loss, like, well, God must have needed another angel in heaven. Don't say dumb crap like that. No, he doesn't. God can make any angel he wants. He doesn't need to take someone from you so that he can have another one in heaven. That's silly. It's not helpful. That's what someone told us when we had a miscarriage. Get away from me. It's not helpful. The only thing that we remember is people's presence. When we walked through that, Jen and I did together, I remember her Uncle Edwin, four separate times, called me as the dust was settling to see how I was doing, to encourage me, to tell me that he loved me and that he was praying for me. He didn't have to do that. He's not even my biological uncle. He's Jen's, but he cared for me and he kept calling. I don't remember what he said. I have no idea. But I remember that he showed up. When we are hurting, what we need most is people's presence. So when we hurt, Jesus doesn't offer us words because words don't help. He weeps with us. He offers us his presence. And the truth of it is that we have a God who weeps with us. We have a God that when we hurt, he embraces us. He holds us and he weeps with us and he feels our pain with us. He doesn't give us words to try to explain what we're doing because let's be honest, when you're in that moment and you're asking Jesus, why'd you let this happen to me? Why'd you let this happen? You could have stopped us and you didn't. Listen to me, I'm being honest. I was thinking about this this week. If Jesus sat you down and explained to you exactly why he was letting this thing happen in your life and told you all the reasons in light of history and in light of eternity and with the proper view of time and keeping his promises and how it all works out one day, if he explained everything to you and somehow you were able to understand it, would it make that moment hurt any less? No. When we ask Jesus, why'd you let this happen? What we're really saying is, I need you to make this better. I need you to fix this because this sucks. That's what we're saying. And Jesus knows that words are not going to fix it. So he weeps with us. And he weeps with us, I believe, not just for the pain that we're walking through in the moment, but because he knows that we're going to struggle to understand. He doesn't just weep for our pain, but also because we're going to struggle to understand. He knows that we are not going to understand what's going on around us and that we can't. And that hurts his heart. Several months ago, I think it may have even been last year, we woke up on a Friday. Friday is family day at the rector House. I have that one off because technically I'm working right now. And so on Fridays, we get up and we try to protect that for our family. And we got up and we told Lily this day we're going to go to the new park. To her, Sassafras behind Crabtree is the new park, which is amazing. One of the things we love most about Raleigh is the parks. They're incredible. Back home, they're all dumpy. You need a tetanus shot before you go to the park. So here, it's great. And so we get in the car. We load up. We go to the new park. We get her out of the car. She's excited. Lily excited. Yes. And you put her on the ground. And she runs down the sidewalk to go play at the new park. Comes around the corner. And what she finds is that there's a makeshift chain link fence around the whole park and not a soul there. And we looked online and we realized they're repairing the ground. They're replacing the flooring for the park. Can't play that day. Jen and I are brokenhearted. And we're looking at the disappointment on our little girl's face and it's hurting us. And we had taught her this thing. So I think she was two years old at the time. And when they get fixated on something, it's just all that they can think about. And so we had taught her to be patient. So she would see something and she'd be like, mommy, chips, chips. I want chips, mommy. Give me the chips, chips, chips, chips. And we'd be like, oh my gosh, stop it. So we'd pick her up and I'd look at her and I'd go, Lily, sweetheart, you can have the chips in a little bit, but not right now. I need you to be patient. Can you be patient? And she would repeat back to me, I'd be patient. And for us, that was like our first parenting win. Like the first time she said it, we were like, okay, I think that she will survive. I think we can do this. So we were so happy that she understood what it meant to be patient. And so we get down there, and Lily's up against the fence, and we have to say, oh, sweetheart, we're not going to, we can't play on the playground right now. They're working on it. She doesn't understand what's going on. And I'll never forget, it broke my heart. She's up against that chain link fence. It's like from a dang movie. And she turns around and she looks at me and she says, it's okay, Daddy, I'll be patient. Golly, man. Jen and I started crying on the spot. No, baby, you don't understand. Like, it ain't happening today. And there's nothing we can say to help her understand. She's two. She can't process what's going on. I think that sense of helplessness that we felt in the face of her pain is pretty similar to what God feels sometimes. Not helpless, but just the fact that he knows. I can't explain this to you. Oh, sweetheart. I can't make this better for you right now. It's just not how it's going to work. And I know that answer is going to cause you more pain. And I'm so sorry about that. And it'll get better if you're patient. But you're probably going to have to be patient for longer than you realize. I don't think that God weeps with us just because we're hurting, but because he knows that we're going to have to choose faith. We're going to have to choose him when it doesn't make sense. The story that illustrates this to me is in the book of Matthew, I think around chapter 11. John the Baptist is a prophet that prepared the way for Jesus. And John the Baptist, he was a brave man, he was a man of courage, and he spoke truth to power, and he said the wrong thing to the king, and it got him thrown in jail. And he's been in jail for a little while, and he begins to get this sense that he's going to die there, that they're going to execute him. And so he sends message to Jesus. John the Baptist had disciples. He gathers his disciples around, and he sends the message to Jesus, and he tells him, go ask Jesus, are you the one who is to come, or should I expect someone else? He's saying, are you the Messiah, or have I gotten this wrong? Don't need to keep waiting. And he's referencing a passage in Isaiah that was a prophecy about the Messiah. And he knows that Jesus knows his Bible, and that when he hears this question, he's going to know exactly what John the Baptist is talking about. Because there's a prophecy in Isaiah that says, when the coming one arrives, the one who is to come, when they arrive, the deaf will hear and the blind will see and the lame will walk and the prisoners will be set free. And so what John is asking Jesus is, are you the guy? Because when the guy gets here, the prisoners are supposed to be set free. And I'm still here. And I'm going to die here if you don't do something about it. So are you the guy? Same as Mary. You can do something about this. Are you going to? Same as us. God, it feels like you could prevent this. Are you going to? And Jesus responds to John the Baptist. He tells the disciples, you go tell John that I am the one who is to come and that the blind see and the deaf hear and the lame walk and the prisoners are set free, but John the Baptist will not be. And then he says, blessed are those who do not lose faith on account of me. Blessed are those who are not offended by me. Because he knew. This is going to be painful news for John the Baptist, and I am not meeting the expectations that he has for me, and I am not going to do the thing that he is asking me to do, that it is within my power to do, and he's not going to understand why I'm not going to do it and he's just going to have to choose faith. And blessed are those who in the face of pain choose faith. Because it's hard. Because we don't understand it. Because Romans 11 tells us that God's ways are higher than our ways. And that there's going to be some things that almighty God, all-knowing God, all-wise God does that we can't possibly understand. And sometimes the choices that he makes are going to be choices that don't make sense to us, that don't seem fair to us, that make us angry because it seems like he could have prevented it and he chose not to and we don't understand. And in those moments, it is up to us whether or not we want to respond like Eli. It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. And that's a tough thing to say. But here's the deal. When Eli says that, understanding the principles we look at in the New Testament, understanding that we have a God that weeps with us, that offers us his presence because words really aren't what we need. They're not going to fix it at the end of the day. Eli understands that. He understands that sometimes God allows things to happen that seem like he shouldn't let them happen, that we're praying against and he allows them to occur and it frustrates us and we lean in with Mary and say, why'd you do that? And God weeps with us because we hurt and we're not going to understand this pain on this side of eternity. And Eli looks at all of that and he says, it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. And I really believe that choosing faith in the face of this pain really comes down to two questions. Do we choose to believe that God is good? Do you believe that God is good? Do you believe that the God of the universe who knows you, created you, do you believe that he is good? And then do you believe that he will keep his promises? Do you believe that God is good and do you believe that he will keep his promises? Do we trust Romans 8, 28 that says, we know that all things work together for the good of those who love him are called according to his purpose. Do we trust that to work out in eternity? Do we trust that one day when we can understand everything, when we can see as God sees, when we get into heaven, when we're on the other side of this life and we look back on everything, do we trust that if we could understand it like God does, that we will go, okay, I get it now. You are good and I love you and thank you. Do we trust that that's true? Do we trust the most hopeful promise in the Bible in Revelation 21 that one day God will be with his people and we will be with our God and there will be no more weeping and no more crying and no more pain anymore? Do we trust that promise? If we choose to believe that God is good and we choose to believe that he will keep his promises, then we can respond like Eli and have faith in the face of pain. And listen, when we miscarried, and I learned about that after trying to get pregnant for a long time, I went home and I got on my knees and I prayed through tears. And I said, Lord, you're good. Let you do what seems good to you. And can I tell you this? I didn't mean that. I didn't mean it. I said it because I was supposed to, because I'm a pastor and I wanted to be a good soldier and I wanted to say the right thing, but I didn't believe that for a second. I was mad, man. I didn't believe a good God would do that. But I said it. And over time, I believed it. And I still do. And I was listening to a song this morning that says, what is true in the light is still true in the dark. And even if we don't feel like we believe it, we can still choose to trust it. We can still choose to respond to pain with faith like Eli. And so I hope that for those of us facing pain, we'll choose to respond with faith. I hope in a kind and gentle and empathetic way, as we see people around us hurting, we can encourage them towards faith, even when it doesn't make sense. I hope that we won't try to help people make sense of their pain, because even Jesus didn't try to do that. He just offered his presence. And I hope that as we move through life and face pain again that we'll remember the message of Eli. It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. Let's pray. Father, you are good. You are good even when it doesn't seem like you are. You are good even when we don't understand how. You're good when you don't do the thing we want you to do. You're good when it doesn't go the way we want it to go. You're good when we are disappointed. You're good and patient as we shake our fists at you. God, you are good. I pray that you would give us the faith to believe that when it's hard. I pray that you would continue to be patient with us as we learn what it means to be faithful. We thank you for being a God that weeps with us, that is close to the brokenhearted, that comforts those who are crushed in spirit. And I pray particularly for those this morning who are struggling through some pain, that you would be close to them, that they would be comforted by your word. And that somehow, God, if they know you, you would give them the faith of Eli. And that one day they would be able to really believe what they say. It's in your son's name we ask these things. Amen.

Good morning, I'm Doug Bergeson. Wait, wait, you've got to be kidding me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it just a few months ago when Kyle Tolbert, our youth pastor, came up here to speak? And before he uttered a word, before a single word, good or bad, was out of his mouth, you were applauding him. What do I get? I'll tell you what I get. I get bubkis, nada, nothing. Let me tell you something. It's not lost on us, those of us who are asked to speak in the middle of July, but never ever at Christmas time, and for sure not at Easter. It's not lost on us that we're not on God's A-team. We get it. We're not stupid. So given that, it might be nice if you tried to be a little bit more encouraging and supportive. So let's try this again. I would not have done that. You know, the Bible's very clear that we're to test and approve what we hear, to be discerning about what's being taught, not just to accept it willy-nilly. And here you all are already clapping for me, and you haven't the faintest idea what I'm going to say. Come on, people, you're better than that. Anyways, hopefully it's obvious that I'm just goofing around, as I'm not only thrilled to be here, but I feel immense privilege to be sharing this morning. And just for the record, far from expecting applause, my desperate and sincere prayer and hope is that God will make what I say clear and useful to you all. I'm really excited about this new sermon series that we're starting. In the past, when I've been asked to speak, I've always kind of hemmed and hawed, wanted to think about it. But when Nate called me this time and explained that the new series was going to be on the obscure heroes of the Bible, I was, for some strange reason, I was enthused, and I immediately jumped at the chance. A big part of it might be that it's just different than the norm, and different is sometimes really good. Mix it up a little bit, move off the beaten path. But more than simply serving as a nice change of pace, there's a much more consequential reason for studying these obscure heroes. They have a lot to teach us. Now, there are plenty of times when I wish the Bible was easier to understand and didn't avoid so many questions that I'd like answers to. Wish that it explained a whole bunch of things better. A little less ambiguity and mystery would sometimes be nice. But in response to that wish, I've heard it said that God, whose Spirit inspired every word written, must have included what He thought was important, what He thought we needed to know. So rather than worrying about the stuff that wasn't included, we'd be much better served paying attention to the things and those people and those events that God did include in his word to us. And that brings us back to our sermon series. God saw fit to tell us about these characters and their stories. And for that reason, we are not going to ignore or gloss over or relegate these heroes to a footnote any longer. Instead, we're going to exploit them for all their worth and see what they can teach us, what they can reveal to us, how they might strengthen and encourage us. The Apostle Paul said it this way, for everything that was written in the past, even obscure heroes that maybe we've never heard of, was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. As I said, I was surprisingly enthused when Nate called me. Not only was I pumped for the series, but one name immediately popped into my head and I knew that was my guy. That was who I was going to talk about, Gamaliel, the great Pharisee and teacher of the law, and what he wisely concluded when confronted by the incredible boldness and defiance of Peter and the other disciples in the earliest times of the Christian movement. Now, how many of you have heard of Gamaliel? You don't have to raise your hands. You know, just wink or smile as I look around the room. Nothing but a sea of blank, expressionless faces. That's perfect. But before we get to Gamaliel, I need to set the table a bit for you, provide the backdrop to help explain why what he does, what he acknowledges is so valuable to me, that his was the first name in all the Bible that popped into my head. In other words, I need to make sure that we're on the same page with respect to one significant foundational point in order for us to see why Gamaliel, who himself is not even a believer in Jesus Christ, is a hero for us today. The key foundational point is to identify the overarching story of the Bible. Some of you are probably going, oh, sheesh, we're not going to be out of here until Tuesday. Not to worry, not to worry. It's not that daunting a task. In a nutshell, the opening chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, reveal that God's loving intent was to provide all that we, His creations, need. Our job, our part of the bargain, is to trust that He is both able and willing to do that on our behalf, and for us to resist the temptation to want to decide for ourselves what's best. The rest of the Bible is just a long and involved telling of our incredible struggle to trust in God rather than ourselves, as well as the remarkable lengths God goes to to make it possible for us ultimately to place our full and abiding confidence in Him. Now, most of you are probably familiar with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The garden was a fantastic place. Those two have a great life. It's a really sweet setup. There's only one rule, don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, growing up in church, I didn't fully understand the significance of the boundary God established for humankind. My general sense was, you know, God likes rules. He's kind of a stickler about rules. And Adam and Eve got in pretty big trouble because they broke one of them. Well, as I've later come to understand, what actually happened was a much bigger deal than simply breaking a rule. What actually happened struck at the very heart of God's intent for creation. In allowing them to eat from any tree but the one, God was establishing the critical boundary for Adam and Eve and for every human since. God was saying, if you want to enjoy all of the good of my creation and live in my kingdom, you have to trust that I and I alone know what's best for you. And even more than that, you have to trust that I'm both able and willing to provide it to you. And so the questions that's faced Adam and Eve, as well as you and me, is do you believe that? Are you convinced that God knows what's best for you and that He is intent on providing it at all times and in all circumstances? When Eve first faced that question, the fate of all humanity hung in the balance. And what did she decide? Well, it turns out Eve wasn't completely convinced that God could be trusted. And she decided and felt the need to trust in someone else. Eve, that's who she decided to trust. She just trusted in herself instead. And now the serpent was cunning and planted the seed in Eve's mind that although God was certainly able to provide what was best for her, He wasn't willing but was holding something back. The serpent said, come on, Eve, you won't die. God's only worried that if you eat that fruit, you'll be like Him and be able to decide for yourself what's best, then you'll be your own God. And that has been humankind's struggle ever since. In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, it wasn't a question of God was willing to provide for his people, but if he was even able. Written at a time when Christ followers were just undergoing terrific persecution, with their very lives at stake, the facts on the ground were so difficult and so dire that only a nut job would conclude that somehow God was still in control and still in charge. And into that terrifically difficult and stressful situation, the Apostle John shared a vision of being transported up to the throne room of heaven where God sort of pulls back the curtain for a second just to show what's really going on behind the scenes. The message, no matter how things look from your perspective, I am God and there is no other. I have your back now and I have it for all eternity. Nothing can ever separate you from my loving care. Your faith and trust are well placed. God is asking each of us, do you believe, are you completely convinced that I'm both able and willing to provide the very best for you? That's the central question running throughout the entire Bible, and it's the central question of our human existence. But our struggle, our temptation, is to say in all different ways, well, God, to tell you the truth, in this particular area of my life, or in this particular relationship, or in this circumstance at this particular time, I'd like to have a say. I'd rather decide for myself what's best for me, what will make me most content, most comfortable, most safe, most fulfilled, most affirmed, most successful, most happy. After all, wouldn't I know better than anyone else what's in my best interest? That's exactly what Eve did. That's exactly what I do. And that is the root of all sin, a failure to trust in God's promise. We're just not entirely convinced, not enough to give up complete control. A famous passage from Proverbs that many of you probably know by heart is, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. But that's not easy. Our world and our culture constantly bombard us from every conceivable angle with arguments that God, even if he does exist, is neither able or willing to provide what's best for us. That life demands we take charge and we're better off when we do. Non-stop appeals to be our own little lords of our own little lives. Now we're going to do a little audience participation here for just a minute. I'd like you all to close your eyes. Alan, keep your eyes closed. Okay. Imagine that you're on the seventh floor of an office building. You are alone, and it's dark. An electrical short circuit has knocked out the lights and started an intense fire, which has engulfed the entire floor and will soon breach the room you're in. The smoke coming in under the door and through the vents is overwhelming, forcing you to drop to your knees. Your eyes are burning and you're beginning to cough uncontrollably. You can open your eyes now. Suddenly, off to your right, you hear a violent pounding on the outside of the far wall. Then the blade of an axe comes crashing through and soon the shape of a firefighter appears in the opening and he shouts, come on, follow me, I'll get you out. Wouldn't he be surprised if you yelled back, oh, thanks, buddy. I'm good. I got this. Of course, no one would do that. No one trapped and on the brink of perishing would respond that way. We would not only listen to the firefighter's commands, we would literally cling to him. We would follow his every word because we implicitly trust him. Not only does he know what he's doing, but he went to great lengths to find and rescue us. And it's plain as day that we desperately need his help. My illustration borders on the ludicrous because we'd never do that. Yet that's what we say to God all the time. I'm good. I got this. Now maybe some of us hear this illustration and say, that's not me. I'm good at trusting. My faith is rock solid. Maybe that's true, at least on the surface. But even for those of us who trust God fully in most areas of our lives, I bet that there are little nooks and crannies. I appreciated you using that earlier. Little pockets where we don't. A relationship, a decision, a priority, a behavior, perhaps, for which we're not convinced God's preferred course of action serves us best. So we plot the course by our own wisdom. We decide for ourselves what's best. And when we do that, we forfeit some portion of the abundant life that God so desperately wants for us. Sadly, doubting God's promises, not being fully convinced that he is both able and willing to provide the best for me in all of life's situations, happens far more than I even recognize. The decision to trust in my own judgment is typically very subtle. So subtle, in fact, that I don't even realize that I'm doing it much of the time. I'll share an example from my own life, but first I have to give you some context. Twenty-six years ago, we moved down here from New Jersey. I quit a really good job on Wall Street. We sold our dream house that we only lived in for two years. We left our beautiful little town and all our friends. We had a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and a newborn. We moved for a lot of reasons, but chief among them was my concern that it was all too consuming and that only over time does the true cost of that kind of investment in one's career become apparent? And by that point, it's often too late. The damage has been done. I believe back then, as I still do today, that wherever your treasure is, wherever you invest most of your time, your energy, your ambition, that's where your heart will ultimately be found. And I knew that for me, I couldn't keep doing that job in that city for very long without it, for all practical purposes, becoming my treasure and stealing my heart. Okay, so we did everything they tell you not to do all at the same time. Moved to a different part of the country, changed careers, sold houses, bought houses, had another baby. Deb had just turned 33, and I was 35. The plan was that I would invest our modest nest egg in the financial markets to support our new downsized life, and we'd live happily ever after. Now, fast forward 15 years. I'm meeting Jeff Hancock, who is Grace's teaching pastor at Carolina Ale House. I think it was on a Wednesday afternoon because that's when they had their specials. It's true. Jeff and I had a relationship built largely on a strong and abiding shared love of beer and for the places that happen to serve beer. Is there any stronger foundation for a friendship? Nevertheless, that was ours. So we'd get together every so often. And that particular afternoon, as soon as I sat down, Jeff asked if there was something wrong. And I started weeping and began to share with him how I was in the midst of suffering what for me was a breathtaking financial loss in the futures market. How I couldn't sleep, how it had stolen all of my joy, how it affected all of my personal interactions, including my most cherished ones with my wife and kids. Excuse me. With the child in college and two in high school, how it jeopardized everything Deb and I had planned. That loss was wreaking havoc in my life. Now, I shared with Jeff that afternoon that, yes, I was obviously sad to have lost so much of our nest egg at such a critical time. Yes, I was sorry for my stubbornness, my stupidity. Yes, I was sorry for my arrogance not to respect the markets. All that was true. Yet the reason I was weeping, what most undid me, was what the loss revealed about where I placed my trust. How it betrayed the fact that much of my confidence, my security, and my hope was wrapped up in our little nest egg, and that the notion that I trusted God was clearly not true, if not a bald-faced lie. And that is what makes it so tricky, because a lot of the time our struggles to trust are in those gray areas, things which in and of themselves don't strike us being all that bad or sinful. Nevertheless, we are not doing what God is asking us to do, to trust him with everything and in every situation. We simply aren't convinced that his way is always the best way. In answer to his question, do you believe that I am both able and willing to provide all that you need, we are saying no, not always. In the example I just shared from my own life, my answer was clearly no, I'm not completely convinced. In addition to trusting you, I would like my nest egg back. When we worry about things, even very serious things, we are wrestling with the question, will I trust God with my crisis? Is He capable to handle it on my behalf? Once again, our worrying says no, as it reveals that we're simply not convinced that God can handle the situation, or at least not to our satisfaction. According to the Bible, worry is the opposite of trust. When we choose not to forgive someone, contrary to God's clear desire and instruction, what are we doing? In not so many words, we are saying, I don't believe that God knows what's best for me. What about how we spend our money? I like to think that I include God in those discussions. But what I really do is only involve him in the discussion about the small portion that I might realistically earmark for charity. Concerning the other much bigger chunk, the 80, 90, or 95%, I say, wait just a second, God. Stay in your lane, buddy. I gave you some. This over here is for me to decide what to do. Scripture encourages us to confess our sins to one another, even and perhaps especially the deepest, darkest, and most shameful ones. My immediate response is to say, no, thank you, over my dead body. No way can that possibly be in my best interest. We're encouraged as believers to always be prepared to share why our hope is in Jesus Christ. I don't do it. I don't want to offend this person or turn them off. I don't want to be thought a weirdo or a creep. I'm a confident person generally. I'll share my opinion on almost any topic with almost anyone. But for some strange reason, I don't trust that God will have my back if I share my faith. God says be thankful at all times and in all circumstances. But I don't want to always be thankful, and there just so happens to be things in my life that I'm not thankful for. Yet having a spirit of appreciation and thankfulness is one command of God's that I've come to acknowledge clearly leads to joy and abundant life. I think of the people I know who are most pleasant and encouraging to be around, the ones that are most nutritious for me. Almost without exception, there are people who live life in a spirit of thanksgiving. The old saying is true, it's not happy people who are thankful, it's thankful people who are happy. Ironically, even knowing this, there are still times when I choose to defy God's good intent for my life and instead choose the way of the woe-is-me, self-pitting grumpus. Now, I could go on and on, but if each of us took a deep dive into our motivations for doing some things and not others, for worrying about things over which we have little control, for habitually engaging in certain behaviors or responding in certain ways, for placing so much importance on what others think, we would understand more clearly that, at least in those instances, we're not fully convinced that God always has our best interests at heart or that His way is always best, that He is completely trustworthy in all of life's circumstances, that He is intent on giving us life to the full, the life that is truly life, if only we would trust. And that, at long last, brings us to our hero, Gamaliel. What he offers is a simple proof, evidence to bolster our conviction that the God we worship deserves our full confidence and trust. I've never been a fan of belief for belief's sake. Don't care how sincere it might be. In other words, if I'm going to believe that God always has my best interest at heart and is able and willing to provide it to me, I want it to be true. More than that, I need to be convinced that it's true if I'm ever going to fully trust in it. Otherwise, as we've seen this morning, I'm going to succumb to the temptation to lean on my own wisdom and judgment. This is where the battle lines are drawn and the war for my trust is waged. And this is where Gamaliel's cool logic and reasoning come through in the clutch. Now let's go to the story in the book of Acts and jump into the action. Our story takes place in Jerusalem, not long after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Christian church is in its infancy and growing rapidly. The Jewish establishment is nervous and on edge. The disciples, Peter and John, have just healed a beggar who had been crippled from birth. Everyone was amazed, and when Peter saw their reaction, he said, men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if it's by our own power or godliness that we had made this man walk? You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. By faith in the name of Jesus, the man you see and know was made strong. It is in Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see. While they were still speaking, the Jewish leaders, none too pleased with Peter and John's message, arrested them and threw them in jail for the night. The next day, they were brought before their rulers and elders and teachers of the law who questioned them about the healing. By what power or what name did you do this? And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replied, Let me interrupt our story for just a second to point out what remarkable change can happen in the hearts and minds of ordinary men and women when convinced of God's truth and imbued with His Spirit. Just a short time ago, these same disciples were the gang that couldn't shoot straight, timid and wavering, untrusting, unreliable, and unconvinced. Now look, there's hope for all of us. Now back to our story. The Jewish leaders were astonished by the courage of Peter and John, especially when they realized they were ordinary unschooled guys and weren't sure what to do as they had to admit that the healing was a fantastic, outstanding miracle which they couldn't deny. And they couldn't really punish them because everybody was running around praising God because of that miracle. So they issued some threats and ordered Peter and John not to speak about this Jesus. However, even after the imprisonment and threats, the disciples continued to preach, teach, and heal until the high priest and his associates could not stand it any longer and arrested them again. But that night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail in order the disciples to go back to the temple and tell the people the full message of this new life. When all the rulers assembled the next morning and sent for Peter and John, they were surprised to learn that although the jail was locked and secure, nobody was inside. The Bible says they were puzzled by this. I love the understatement. I bet they were puzzled when they later learned that the men were back in the temple court preaching and teaching. They went and got them, but not by force for fear of what the people might do. The high priest again questioned them, and now reading from Acts 5, 28 through 39. This is the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, he said. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood. Peter and John and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. Then he addressed them, men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago, Thudas appeared, claiming to be someone, and about 400 men rallied to him. He was killed, and all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too wasailed, and the apostles were let go. And now here, for you all this morning, is the $64,000 question of the day. If Gamaliel, the wisest and most esteemed teacher of the day, could be here with us this morning, is there any doubt that he would conclude if their purpose is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. You will only find yourselves fighting against God. Well, it hasn't been stopped. There has been nothing like it in all of human history. No other power or movement or belief system has come close. Down through all the centuries, across every people group and culture on earth, and reaching the furthest corners of our planet, God has been on the move, faithful to all his promises. The prophet Isaiah wrote about God's faithfulness this way. and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. And that's why Gamaliel is a hero to me. His wisdom and insight remind me again that God is true to his word always and is going to do what he promised to do. If I'm going to trust God completely and not rely on my own wisdom, but surrender control in all areas of my life, not just some of them, I need that assurance. Our God is both able and willing to provide all that we need. My hope and prayer for all of us this morning is that the words of the Apostle Paul might be our words. I know whom I have believed, and I'm convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. Thank you. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for loving us. Thank you for all these people who carved out time on a hot Sunday morning to come to know you better and to worship you. Lord, thank you for pursuing us. Obviously, forgive us for all the times that we are trust wavers. We're simply not convinced that you're completely trustworthy in all of life's situations. Thank you for the hope that you give us through your son. And it's his name we pray. Amen.