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Former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse: Not Afraid To Die (Here's Why) || SLP653 · The Speak Life Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Ben Sass would like a final word.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: You have five cancers.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, sir.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I assume you've prayed for healing.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, sir.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: God hasn't answered those prayers yet.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Are you angry at God?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what the weaving together of the tapestry of full redemption should look like, but I know going through the period of suffering that I'm going through is a benefit because it is a win-nowing.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm filled with dross.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: And this suffering is not salvific, but it's sanctifying.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm grateful for it.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think you're ready to die?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel ready?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: I don't feel ready, but this is a stunning five minutes on death and mortality and wisdom and sanity and groundedness and God from Ben Sass, who is a former senator in the United States.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: He is bloodied through his cancer treatments as he is facing stage four pancreatic cancer.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: He is bloodied but not bowed down, and he's going to teach us so much.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: In Ecclesiastes chapter 7, it says, It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: The living should take this to heart.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: And Psalm 90 says, Teach us to number our days that we might get a heart of wisdom.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: The wisdom in particular that we're going to learn from Ben Sass is summarized by two words in the New Testament.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: This two-word phrase appears three times, once in the Gospels and twice in the letters of Paul.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: And if we understand these two words, oh my goodness, we will be able to face life and death and get a heart of wisdom.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Let's hear Ben Sass as he rounds out this conversation with Ross Douthit.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: At the end, he'll give us these two words that change everything.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Cancer sucks.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm pretty grateful that cancer is a stake against my delusional self-idolatry.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think you're ready to die?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel ready?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't feel ready, but to whom would I go?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: I I have confidence that when Jesus says to the disciples, he didn't want to be identified as the Messiah yet.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Keep these crowds away.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Don't tell about the the water into wine miracle at the feast.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: How amazing is it that Jesus first um first miracle is a big ass party.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Let's drink more together.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um But he says you can't keep the children from me.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And we're told that we get to approach the Almighty, we get to approach the divine and call him daddy.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's pretty glorious.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that that's what I need.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: Ben sorry.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Happy to get him to open up the ball.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Got me.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Ben Sass, thank you for joining me.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: A brilliant moment of tenderness and heartfelt admiration for one another between Ross Daltit and Ben Sass.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: And what was it that got Ross Daltet in the end?
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: What is it that is sustaining Ben Sass as he is facing his imminent death?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Two words.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Abba Father.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: If we grasp these two words, we can face everything in life and everything beyond.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: And all that is coming in death, because death is the destiny of us all.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore, Ben Sass says, understand that you can call the Almighty Daddy.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: Or in other words, he says, Abba Father.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: What does he mean?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: We've got to go to Mark chapter 14 and the Garden of Gethsemane.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's the night before Jesus dies, and he enters into this place on top of the Mount of Olives, and Gethsemane literally means our oil press.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: So the olives from the olive trees on the Mount of Olives are gathered together in this place and they are crushed.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: And when they are crushed, then the life-giving spirit, the life-giving oil, is seeping out.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: And Jesus goes to this place.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: He will be crushed.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: In this place, as he contemplates the cross, and the next day he will be crushed on that cross, so that the oil of his spirit can flow to the nations.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: And let's just get the sense of the crushing burden of Gethsemane, the crushing burden that Jesus is volunteering for.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: At Easter, here are truths that can comfort the dying, here are truths that will comfort the living, if we take them to heart.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, Sit here while I pray.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: He took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Stay here and keep watch.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: He's not just saying that because he's going to die, he's sad.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: He's saying he's so sad he could die from it.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's the level of sorrow that is gripping the Son of God.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Stay here and keep watch, he says.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Here are the two words.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Abba Father, he said, everything is possible for you.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Here is Jesus contemplating drinking the cup.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: That is the metaphor, that's the scriptural picture for judgment.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: In the Old Testament, there's this picture of a cup that gets passed from person to person, from nation to nation, and we are all lining up to drink from this cup.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Inside the cup is the wrath of God at our sin.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: All hell is distilled in this cup, and we are in the line to take that drink.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: And here at Gethsemane, Jesus cuts in front of us to drink the cup of judgment for us.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's what the cross is all about.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus drinks that cup of judgment so that we might be spared.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: And if he does not drink that cup, then we surely must.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: And the sorrow of drinking this cup of judgment is enough that just the sorrow of the contemplation of drinking down the wrath of God, that is enough to kill Jesus.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: And in the midst of that hellish burden, from the heart of the abyss, Jesus cries out, Abba, Father.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: Now the word Abba is Aramaic, so the heart language of Jesus, Mark, who's recording this for us, records the actual words of the Son of God, and he says it as Jesus of Nazareth, speaking with his distinctive northern accent, said that word Abba.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then Mark translates it into Greek, which is the lingua franca of the ancient world.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Aramaic because Jesus, the King of the Jews, is speaking to God.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: But then Father is written in Greek because this is for everyone.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: The unique and particular relationship of Jesus with the Almighty, as Bensas would say, is a relationship of Jesus with his Abba Father.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: And in Aramaic, as in so many other languages, Abba is the first word that you would sort of say.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: You can you can feel it in your mouth.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: It is definitely the sort of thing that a child will say.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: And in so many languages around the world, the word for father is papa or abba or baba.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: The word for mother is mama or amma.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's the sort of thing that a baby says, Abba, Amma.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: It is a term of deep intimacy.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's also a term of deep respect because if you grew up speaking Aramaic, you wouldn't just call your father Abba when you're a toddler.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: When you're all grown up and your father is a distinguished elderly gentleman, you still call him Abba.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's a term of deep intimacy, it's a term of deep respect.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: But the question is, who gets to call the God of the cosmos Abba?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Who gets to call on the Emperor of the Cosmos and call him Daddy?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: No one.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: No one, that's who.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: Except the Son of God.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Except the Eternal Son.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: The Eternal Son is in on that intimacy.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: He has always been calling on his Father in the Union of the Holy Spirit.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: What we are overhearing here is a conversation within the Trinity.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: This is the eternal life of God, anchored, earthed into our humanity in Jesus of Nazareth.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: But in the first instance, there is only one person who gets to cry out, Abba Father.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: You don't get to waltz into the throne room of heaven and say, Hey Dad, Jesus does.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the unique, eternal, and original prayer of this prayer, Abba Father.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: And he says it in the midst of our sorrow, suffering, and death.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the first place in the New Testament that we read, Abba Father.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: Here's the next place.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: In Galatians chapter 4, the Apostle Paul writes to people in what we would say is Turkey nowadays, and he says to this mixed congregation of this Jews and this Gentiles, but they have come to trust in Jesus.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: And when you are baptized into Christ, you have clothed yourself with Christ, and you become a child of the same Heavenly Father.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: And notice what Paul says in Galatians 4, verse 6, because you are God's sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out Abba Father.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now, why has Paul maintained the word Abba Father there?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because this is the prayer of Jesus.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: But who is praying the prayer of Jesus now in Galatians chapter 4?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: The one who is praying that prayer is not you, not yet.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: The prayer Abba Father is not yours to pray and it's not mine to pray.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, it is Christ's prayer to pray to the Father.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: Then it is the Spirit of Christ's prayer who is sent into our hearts, and it is the Spirit who calls out Abba Father.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't that amazing?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: That there is a prayer going on in the heart of the believer, and that prayer is not here the prayer of the believer.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's Christ's prayer prayed by the Spirit in the believer.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: So that if you trust in Jesus, you have a new spiritual heartbeat.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: It just says, Abba Father, Abba Father, Abba Father, Abba Father.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's the prayer life you already have in union with Christ.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Before any prayers that you pray, the Holy Spirit is already praying Jesus' prayer in you to the Father.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: That conversation continues in you before you have uttered a word.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: The Spirit of the Son calls out Abba Father.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Who gets to waltz into the Almighty's presence and say Daddy?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: Not you.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Jesus does.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then the Spirit of Jesus comes into you and he starts calling out Abba Father.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: But then beautifully, thirdly, in the New Testament, Romans chapter 8 gives us the third Abba Father, and it's incredible.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: The spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: And by him we cry Abba Father.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Finally, we get to join in, right?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, it's not our prayer to pray.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's Christ's prayer to pray.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Second of all, it's not our prayer to pray.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: It's the Spirit of Christ in us praying.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: But then third of all, we get to join in.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: And by the Spirit of the Son, we cry Abba Father.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's beautiful.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: We join in on the conversation of eternity.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what this means?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: It means you're always late to prayers.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: Did you know that?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: You're always late to prayers, you're always late to worship.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: There has been a worship meeting, there's been a prayer meeting going on for a very, very long time.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: And you're very late to it.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: But you're very welcome.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: And now you, by the Spirit, join in Christ's perfect prayer to the Father.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: And now you get to pray to the Father in Jesus' name.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: You get to pray to the Father as Jesus' brother or sister.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: And this is what will get you through life.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's what will get you through stage four cancer.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's what will get you through death.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's what you will enjoy for all eternity.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: Abba Father, Abba Father, Abba Father.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: And it just makes me think, why do I not pray more?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Why do I not join in more?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: Why do I not do the Romans 8.15 thing more?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: Because the Galatians 4, verse 6 thing is always happening.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm invited.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm invited when life is going well, and I'm invited when life is a crushing burden.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Pray for Ben Sass.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: He has already been such a blessing to us.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: He has taught us such wisdom.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Pray for him as he walks through the darkest of dark valleys, that he will know the presence of the one who has crushed for him, of the one who prayed for him, and the one who still prays for him by the Spirit.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: Pray for Ben Sass, pray for his family.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: But pray for yourself and pray for yourself, knowing that the Spirit of the Son prays within you.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to know more about this beautiful truth about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, why don't you go to 321Course.com and you can find out all about the threeness of God and how in oneness with Jesus you are brought in to enjoy your Abba Father in Christ the Son.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: 321Course.com is the place to go for that.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's totally free, and we would love you to enjoy more of the love of God.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: If you've liked this video, give it a like, share it around the place, and do subscribe so that we can catch you on the next one.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: God bless.