Latest / PAMOJA PODCAST | PAMOJA MINISTRY, A LIFE OF CHRIST INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES / FORGED FOR YOUR FUTURE ASSIGNMENT | Episode 6 The Greatest Forge in History

Transcript

FORGED FOR YOUR FUTURE ASSIGNMENT | Episode 6 The Greatest Forge in History · PAMOJA PODCAST | PAMOJA MINISTRY, A LIFE OF CHRIST INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES

• 0:00
  Welcome to Pamoja Podcast, the place where stronger
• 0:03
  lives are built, faith is strengthened, hearts
• 0:06
  are encouraged, and Christ -centered homes are
• 0:09
  shaped through ordinary conversations that become
• 0:12
  extraordinary encounters with God's truth. One
• 0:15
  conversation, one story, one revelation at a
• 0:20
  time. I'm your host, Barry Mwamba. As we arrive
• 0:24
  at this conversation, I cannot help but look
• 0:27
  back over the incredible journey we have shared
• 0:30
  together. We stood beside Joseph in the prison
• 0:34
  and discovered that God's promises are not canceled
• 0:38
  by injustice. We walked with Moses through the
• 0:42
  wilderness and learned that God's delays are
• 0:45
  often seasons of divine preparation. We entered
• 0:49
  Esther's palace and realized that God's providence
• 0:53
  is already positioning His servants long before
• 0:56
  the assignment becomes visible. We followed Daniel
• 1:01
  into Babylon and discovered that God can prepare
• 1:04
  His people even while the world is trying to
• 1:08
  redefine them. We watched Paul disappear into
• 1:12
  hidden years and learned that heaven often builds
• 1:16
  the servant before revealing the ministry. We
• 1:20
  wept with Peter in the courtyard and rejoiced
• 1:23
  with him beside the Sea of Galilee as we discovered
• 1:26
  that failure surrendered to Christ can become
• 1:30
  another instrument in God's forge. Every one
• 1:34
  of those stories has taught us something beautiful
• 1:37
  about the way God prepares his servants. Yet
• 1:40
  every one of those stories has also been pointing
• 1:43
  beyond itself. Because Joseph was not the final
• 1:47
  Joseph. Moses was not the final deliverer. David
• 1:52
  was not the final king. Esther was not the final
• 1:56
  savior of God's people. Daniel was not the final
• 1:59
  faithful witness. Paul was not the final apostle.
• 2:04
  Peter was not the final shepherd. Every one of
• 2:07
  them was pointing us toward Jesus Christ. Today
• 2:11
  we arrive at the greatest forge in history. Not
• 2:15
  because Jesus needed to become holy. Not because
• 2:19
  he needed to become worthy. Not because he needed
• 2:22
  to be refined. Jesus entered the forge because
• 2:27
  the salvation of the world require perfect obedience.
• 2:31
  That changes the entire conversation, because
• 2:35
  everything we have studied until now has been
• 2:38
  about servants being prepared for their assignment.
• 2:42
  Today we discover the servant whose assignment
• 2:46
  was established before the foundation of the
• 2:49
  world. And perhaps we will understand something
• 2:52
  that has amazed believers for centuries. The
• 2:56
  cross was never Satan's greatest victory. It
• 3:00
  became his greatest defeat. The darkest day in
• 3:04
  human history became the brightest day in God's
• 3:08
  redemptive plan. The place that looked like complete
• 3:12
  humiliation became the place of Christ's greatest
• 3:15
  exaltation. The enemy believed he had won. Heaven
• 3:19
  knew redemption had arrived. And that is where
• 3:23
  our journey truly begins. As I continue reflecting
• 3:29
  on the life of Jesus, I realize that his story
• 3:33
  is fundamentally different from every servant
• 3:36
  we have studied so far. Joseph needed the prison.
• 3:40
  Moses needed the wilderness. Esther needed the
• 3:44
  palace. Daniel needed Babylon. Paul needed the
• 3:48
  hidden years. Peter needed restoration after
• 3:51
  failure. Every one of them entered the forge
• 3:55
  because God was preparing them for the assignment
• 3:58
  that lay ahead. But when we arrive at Jesus,
• 4:02
  everything changes. Jesus did not need to become
• 4:06
  wiser. He did not need to become holier. He did
• 4:10
  not need to become more obedient. He did not
• 4:13
  need to be purified from sin. The Bible describes
• 4:17
  him as the spotless lamb of God. The one who
• 4:21
  was tempted in every way as we are, yet without
• 4:24
  sin. His life was already perfect. His obedience
• 4:28
  was already complete. His relationship with the
• 4:32
  Father had never been broken. So the question
• 4:35
  naturally arises. Why the cross? Why the betrayal?
• 4:40
  Why Gethsemane? Why the false accusations? Why
• 4:43
  the scourging? Why the crown of thorns? Why the
• 4:47
  nails? Why the abandonment? Why would the only
• 4:51
  perfect man who ever lived walk willingly into
• 4:54
  the greatest suffering history has ever witnessed?
• 4:58
  The answer changes everything. Jesus did not
• 5:02
  enter the forge because he needed to be transformed.
• 5:06
  He entered the forge because we needed to be
• 5:09
  redeemed. That is one of the greatest distinctions
• 5:12
  in all of scripture. Every servant we have studied
• 5:15
  was shaped by the fire. Jesus entered the fire
• 5:20
  to rescue those who could never survive it on
• 5:23
  their own. He walked into our judgment. He carried
• 5:27
  our condemnation. He bore our sin. He endured
• 5:31
  the separation that we deserved. The forge that
• 5:35
  should have consumed us fell upon him. That is
• 5:39
  the gospel. Sometimes we become so familiar with
• 5:43
  the cross, that we forget how astonishing it
• 5:46
  really is. The king of glory willingly exchanged
• 5:50
  his throne for a manger. The creator entered
• 5:54
  his own creation. The judge stood before human
• 5:58
  judges. The one who spoke the universe into existence
• 6:02
  remained silent while false witnesses accused
• 6:05
  him. The author of life allowed himself to be
• 6:09
  nailed to a cross by the very people he had come
• 6:13
  to save. None of that happened because events
• 6:16
  had slipped out of God's control. Every step
• 6:20
  was intentional. Every moment fulfilled what
• 6:24
  had already been written. Every wound carried
• 6:27
  purpose. This was not heaven reacting to Satan.
• 6:32
  This was heaven fulfilling redemption. Peter
• 6:36
  would later preach that Jesus was handed over
• 6:38
  by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. Isaiah
• 6:43
  had already seen it centuries before. He was
• 6:47
  pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed
• 6:50
  for our iniquities. The punishment that brought
• 6:54
  us peace was upon him. Long before Bethlehem,
• 6:59
  long before Calvary, long before Pilate, the
• 7:02
  Father already knew. The cross was never an emergency
• 7:06
  plan. It was the eternal plan. That changes the
• 7:11
  way we read the entire Bible Joseph suffering
• 7:15
  begins pointing toward Christ Moses's deliverance
• 7:19
  begins pointing toward Christ the Passover lamb
• 7:23
  begins pointing toward Christ the sacrifices
• 7:26
  begin pointing toward Christ David's rejected
• 7:30
  kingship begins pointing toward Christ Isaiah's
• 7:34
  suffering servant begins pointing toward Christ
• 7:37
  everything has been quietly leading us here.
• 7:41
  The cross is not simply another story in the
• 7:44
  Bible. It is the center of the Bible. It is the
• 7:48
  place where every promise, every prophecy, every
• 7:52
  sacrifice, every covenant, and every forge finally
• 7:56
  meet. And perhaps that is why every servant we
• 7:59
  have studied has felt strangely familiar. Because
• 8:04
  none of them were the destination. They were
• 8:07
  signposts. Every one of them was whispering the
• 8:11
  same name, Jesus. If the cross was always God's
• 8:17
  plan, another question immediately follows. When
• 8:20
  Jesus stood before Pilate, when he remained silent
• 8:24
  before his accusers, when the crowds mocked him,
• 8:28
  when Satan believed he had finally won, who was
• 8:31
  really in control? Because what appeared to be
• 8:34
  the greatest defeat in history was, in reality,
• 8:38
  the greatest victory heaven had ever planned.
• 8:42
  That is where our journey continues. As I continue
• 8:49
  reflecting on the cross, I cannot help but imagine
• 8:52
  what it must have looked like from heaven and
• 8:55
  what it must have looked like from hell. To everyone
• 9:00
  standing around Calvary, it appeared that evil
• 9:03
  had finally triumphed. The religious leaders
• 9:07
  believed they had silenced Jesus forever. Pilate
• 9:12
  believed he had solved a political problem. The
• 9:15
  Roman soldiers believed they were carrying out
• 9:19
  another execution. The crowds believed they had
• 9:23
  eliminated a false prophet. Even the disciples
• 9:26
  believed everything was over. Darkness covered
• 9:30
  the land. Hope appeared to have died. And I cannot
• 9:35
  help but wonder what Satan himself thought. Perhaps
• 9:39
  he believed this was his greatest victory. After
• 9:42
  all, from the very beginning, he had tried to
• 9:45
  stop God's plan. He tempted Adam and Eve in the
• 9:50
  garden. He stirred Pharaoh to kill Hebrew children.
• 9:54
  He sought to destroy Israel throughout its history.
• 9:58
  He moved Herod to slaughter the infants of Bethlehem
• 10:02
  in an attempt to eliminate the promised Messiah.
• 10:05
  Again and again, he fought against the unfolding
• 10:09
  purposes of God. Now the son of God was hanging
• 10:13
  on a cross, mocked, rejected, bleeding, surrounded
• 10:18
  by people who believed he had failed. From every
• 10:22
  human perspective, this looked like complete
• 10:25
  defeat. Perhaps hell celebrated. Perhaps the
• 10:31
  kingdom of darkness believed the battle was finally
• 10:33
  over. But what Satan could not see was that God
• 10:38
  was accomplishing his greatest work precisely
• 10:41
  through the event the enemy believed he had orchestrated.
• 10:45
  That is the mystery of the cross. The very instrument
• 10:49
  Satan imagined would destroy God's plan became
• 10:52
  the instrument through which God's plan was fulfilled.
• 10:56
  The cross did not interrupt redemption. The cross
• 11:00
  accomplished redemption. Think about how extraordinary
• 11:04
  that is. The nails did not prevent Jesus from
• 11:08
  becoming king. They became part of his coronation.
• 11:12
  The crown of thorns did not rob him of his authority.
• 11:17
  It exposed the blindness of those who mocked
• 11:20
  the true king. The cross did not reveal God's
• 11:24
  weakness. It revealed a love so powerful that
• 11:28
  it willingly absorbed hatred without returning
• 11:31
  it. Even death itself believed it had finally
• 11:35
  closed its gates around the Son of God. Yet death
• 11:39
  was unknowingly opening the doorway to its own
• 11:43
  defeat. The Apostle Paul would later declare
• 11:47
  that if the rulers of this age had understood
• 11:50
  God's wisdom, they would not have crucified the
• 11:53
  Lord of Glory. What an astonishing statement.
• 11:58
  The enemy acted without realizing he was serving
• 12:02
  the very purpose he was trying to prevent. That
• 12:06
  has always been God's pattern. Joseph's brothers
• 12:09
  sold him into slavery, believing they had ended
• 12:12
  his dreams. God used their betrayal to preserve
• 12:17
  nations. Pharaoh oppressed Israel, believing
• 12:21
  he was securing Egypt. God used that oppression
• 12:25
  to reveal his glory through the Exodus. Haman
• 12:28
  built the gallows for Mordecai, believing he
• 12:32
  would destroy God's covenant people. The gallows
• 12:36
  became the place of Haman's own judgment. The
• 12:39
  religious leaders condemned Jesus, believing
• 12:42
  they were protecting their position. Instead,
• 12:46
  they became unwilling participants in the greatest
• 12:49
  act of redemption the world has ever known. Do
• 12:54
  you see the pattern? The enemy repeatedly mistakes
• 12:57
  God's silence for God's absence. He mistakes
• 13:01
  apparent weakness for defeat. He mistakes waiting
• 13:04
  for surrender. And every time, God is writing
• 13:08
  another chapter that completely overturns his
• 13:12
  expectations. That is why I hear these words
• 13:16
  echoing through the cross, when the devil thought
• 13:19
  he was humiliating Jesus. He was walking into
• 13:24
  his own greatest humiliation. When he thought
• 13:28
  he had finally silenced the Son of God, he was
• 13:32
  opening the door through which salvation would
• 13:35
  be preached to every nation. When he thought
• 13:38
  death had won, death itself began losing its
• 13:42
  authority. When he thought he had secured victory,
• 13:46
  he sealed his own defeat. Because on the third
• 13:50
  day, The stone was rolled away, the grave was
• 13:53
  empty, the lamb became the lion. The crucified
• 13:58
  Savior stood alive forevermore, and the one who
• 14:01
  had humbled himself unto death was exalted by
• 14:05
  the Father, and given the name that is above
• 14:08
  every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
• 14:11
  should bow, in heaven and on earth and under
• 14:16
  the earth. and every tongue confess that Jesus
• 14:19
  Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
• 14:24
  That is why the cross is not simply another forge.
• 14:28
  It is the greatest forge in history because what
• 14:31
  looked like the greatest defeat became the greatest
• 14:35
  victory. If the cross revealed that God can transform
• 14:40
  what appears to be absolute defeat into eternal
• 14:44
  victory, Then one final question remains. What
• 14:48
  does that mean for us? Because if every forge
• 14:52
  we have studied has ultimately pointed to Christ,
• 14:56
  then Christ's forge must now shape the way we
• 15:00
  understand every trial we face. That is where
• 15:04
  we bring this entire journey to its breathtaking
• 15:07
  conclusion. As we come to the end of this journey,
• 15:12
  I cannot help but see my own life differently.
• 15:16
  When we began this series, we asked one simple
• 15:19
  question. Why does God prepare His servants through
• 15:23
  the fire before entrusting them with the assignment?
• 15:27
  Along the way, we stood beside Joseph in prison.
• 15:31
  We walked with Moses through the wilderness.
• 15:34
  We entered the palace with Esther. We lived with
• 15:38
  Daniel in Babylon. We waited with Paul during
• 15:42
  the hidden years. We wept with Peter after his
• 15:45
  failure. Every one of those servants teaches
• 15:48
  us something extraordinary. But none of them
• 15:52
  is the reason we can have hope today. Our hope
• 15:56
  is not found in Joseph. Our hope is not found
• 15:59
  in Moses. Our hope is not found in Esther. Our
• 16:04
  hope is not found in Daniel. Our hope is not
• 16:08
  found in Paul. Our hope is not found in Peter.
• 16:12
  Our hope is found in Jesus Christ. Because every
• 16:16
  forge before Calvary was preparing God's servants.
• 16:21
  The forge of Calvary prepared salvation for the
• 16:23
  world. That changes everything. It means that
• 16:26
  when I enter a difficult season, I no longer
• 16:29
  interpret it through fear, I interpret it through
• 16:32
  the cross. If God could take the darkest day
• 16:35
  in human history and transform it into the greatest
• 16:38
  victory eternity has ever known, then what circumstance
• 16:42
  could possibly be beyond his ability to redeem?
• 16:46
  If God could bring life out of death, hope out
• 16:50
  of despair, victory out of apparent defeat. Then
• 16:54
  he can also write redemption into every chapter
• 16:58
  that we have not yet understood. That does not
• 17:02
  mean every trial is easy. It does not mean every
• 17:06
  question receives an immediate answer. Joseph
• 17:09
  still cried. Moses still wrestled. David still
• 17:13
  wept. Esther still risked her life. Daniel still
• 17:18
  entered the lion's den. Paul still carried chains.
• 17:22
  Peter still remembered the courtyard, and Jesus
• 17:25
  still carried the cross. The forge is real. The
• 17:29
  pain is real. The tears are real. But because
• 17:32
  of Christ, they are never meaningless. The cross
• 17:36
  forever changed the way believers understand
• 17:40
  suffering. Before Calvary, suffering often looked
• 17:44
  like defeat. After the resurrection, suffering
• 17:47
  became a place where God's glory could be revealed.
• 17:51
  The resurrection became God's eternal declaration
• 17:55
  that no darkness is final when He is writing
• 17:58
  the story, no grave is permanent, no prison is
• 18:01
  ultimate, no wilderness lasts forever, no Babylon
• 18:05
  has the final word, no failure is beyond redemption,
• 18:09
  and even death itself has lost its victory because
• 18:13
  Jesus walked out of the tomb. tomb alive forevermore.
• 18:16
  That is why I believe the greatest miracle of
• 18:19
  the cross was not simply that Jesus died for
• 18:22
  us. The greatest miracle is that because he lives,
• 18:27
  our story can never be defined by its darkest
• 18:30
  chapter. The resurrection rewrote the ending,
• 18:33
  and because it rewrote his story, it can rewrite
• 18:36
  ours. Perhaps that is why Romans tells us that
• 18:41
  God works all things together. for the good of
• 18:45
  those who love Him and are called according to
• 18:48
  His purpose." Notice what Paul does not say.
• 18:51
  He does not say that all things are good. Betrayal
• 18:55
  is not good. Loss is not good. Injustice is not
• 18:59
  good. Failure is not good. The cross itself was
• 19:04
  not good because of the suffering it involved.
• 19:07
  Yet God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereign
• 19:10
  love, has the power to weave even the darkest
• 19:14
  threads into a masterpiece that reveals His glory.
• 19:18
  That has been the message of this entire series.
• 19:21
  God never wastes the prison. God never wastes
• 19:24
  the wilderness. God never wastes the palace.
• 19:28
  God never wastes Babylon. God never wastes the
• 19:32
  hidden years. God never wastes failure. And because
• 19:36
  of Jesus Christ, God never wastes the cross.
• 19:41
  So wherever you find yourself today, perhaps
• 19:45
  you are in your prison, perhaps you are in your
• 19:48
  wilderness, perhaps you are living in your Babylon,
• 19:52
  perhaps heaven feels silent, perhaps you are
• 19:55
  carrying the weight of a failure that no one
• 19:58
  else knows, or perhaps you are standing at the
• 20:02
  foot of a cross you never expected to bear. Do
• 20:05
  not lose heart. The same God who forged Joseph,
• 20:09
  who forged Moses, who forged Esther, who forged
• 20:14
  Daniel, who forged Paul, who restored Peter,
• 20:19
  and who fulfilled his eternal purpose through
• 20:21
  Jesus Christ is still writing stories today.
• 20:25
  He has not forgotten you. He has not abandoned
• 20:29
  his promise. He has not canceled your assignment.
• 20:32
  He is still forging. He is still shaping. He
• 20:36
  is still preparing because God's greatest work.
• 20:40
  has never been producing comfortable people.
• 20:44
  His greatest work has always been producing people
• 20:48
  who reflect his son. And when the day comes that
• 20:52
  you finally step into the assignment he has prepared
• 20:55
  for you, you will look back over every prison,
• 20:59
  every wilderness, every hidden year, every disappointment,
• 21:05
  every tear, and even every failure. and you will
• 21:09
  say what heaven has been declaring all along.
• 21:13
  Nothing was wasted. Thank you for joining me
• 21:17
  on this journey through Forge for your future
• 21:20
  assignment. Until next time, keep walking with
• 21:24
  Christ, keep trusting his timing, keep believing
• 21:29
  his promises, because the master is still at
• 21:32
  the Forge and what he is shaping today. will
• 21:36
  one day reveal his glory.