Latest / HBCWestminster / 5.3.20 Luke 6:12-26 Pastor Danny Gardner

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5.3.20 Luke 6:12-26 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, good morning, Highland. We're so thankful that you could gather with us today and worship. Thank you to Carla for leading worship this morning. Thank you to Sam for announcements. We are in Luke chapter six. And so if you want to grab your Bibles and open to Luke chapter six, we continue our study in the gospel of Luke with verses 12 through 26 today. Familiar passage, much of this we've studied before and heard before.
• 0:23
  But allow me to read God's Word, and I would ask that if you're able to stand wherever you are, in honor of God's Word, that you do that now, as I read verses 12 to 26, beginning in verse 12. It says,
• 0:52
  and Matthew, and Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. And he came down with them and stood on a level place with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
• 1:23
  And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for so their fathers did to the prophets.
• 1:52
  But woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you for so their fathers did to the false prophets. Allow me to pray. Lord, we are ready. We're ready to be used. We're ready to be directed. We are ready to be challenged.
• 2:22
  Lord, we are ready to meet the demands of ministry head on. We are ready to see your kingdom come. God, we are ready for your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, we would ask that you bring revival to our city, revival to our state, revival to our country, and Lord, revival to this earth. But we would ask, Father, that you would start that revival in our own hearts.
• 2:52
  Conform us, Lord, to the image of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. Before I begin this message, I want to challenge each of you, beloved members of Highland. I was this last week invited by one of our members and by my very good friend, Clarence Craft, to come to his work to lead a time of prayer for his co-workers, employees, fellow employees that he had arranged.
• 3:17
  This last Tuesday, I and about a dozen of Clarence's co-workers and friends, some of whom are believers but many of whom are not, gathered together in the parking lot of his employer and sought the Lord together. And I honestly thought, I wished so badly that we could invite those men who joined us to our church, into our church doors, to minister to them and to pray with them. And then I realized...
• 3:43
  Even with this crisis, I thought, you know, after meeting many of them, I don't think most of them probably would have come. They're from all over the city, from all walks of life. But they were willing to meet immediately following their shift in the parking lot for prayer. They were willing last Tuesday to meet a pastor. They now know which of their fellow co-workers they can turn to for sound spiritual advice.
• 4:08
  And I hate to quote Rahm Emanuel here or to quote Rahm Emanuel anywhere, but let us not, church, waste this crisis. We know that the Lord often uses times like this for the advancement of His kingdom and His gospel. We will oftentimes, after a crisis, see an outpouring of people into the church, an outpouring of church attendance, because people don't know where else to turn, and so they will turn to the church and ultimately turn to the Lord.
• 4:37
  And I know that the nature of this virus will probably make it difficult for that to happen in large gatherings. That outpouring of church attendance may not happen this time, but we can still have an impact. And so here's my commitment. As we return to work in the coming weeks and as you have opportunity, I would encourage you to invite your co-workers to pray. Ask for whatever permission you need from your bosses.
• 5:05
  ensure that safe protocols are kept, make the meetings brief, make them as easy as possible for your coworkers to attend, and then let us as a church know when and where those groups are meeting. And if you want us to, my commitment to you is that we will make sure that a pastor is there to help. If you want one of the pastors to come to that prayer meeting, we will be there. We'll even run the meeting if you want us to. We will be the ones to open and close in prayer. We will be the ones to hang around.
• 5:33
  and offer to pray with your coworkers. We want the Lord to use this crisis just like he has used so many in the past to advance his kingdom. And so we need to find as a church creative ways to allow his Holy Spirit to do that. And so if you would, let us know where and when you want us to meet. We would be happy to send a pastor there. Well, let's turn our attention now to God's word. As you know, the world has been turned upside down.
• 6:00
  Things that were completely normal only a few weeks ago now take me by surprise. Our family walks every evening after dinner. We have fallen into the habit of walking directly down the center of the street. And it takes us off guard when a car is actually driving through our neighborhood. Like, how dare they? Don't they know? This is our street. My boys and I are now gearing up for summer as the weather gets warmer, which means for our family, fly fishing.
• 6:29
  My 15-year-old son, Zach, and I were messing with my truck a couple of weeks ago trying to figure out how we could camp in the bed of my truck comfortably. And the only way I could figure out how to see if we would both fit back there comfortably was to actually get into the bed of the truck to see if we would both fit, kind of pretend like we were sleeping, laying there side by side. And so I put down my tailgate, we both climbed in, and we laid in the back of my truck side by side.
• 6:58
  You know, because of COVID, there are no more door-to-door salesmen, right? Normally in our neighborhood, we get salesmen every day, every day offering new windows, security systems, roof estimates, whatever, painting, landscaping, but there haven't been any in weeks. And so I wasn't thinking anything of it when we're laying there in my truck side-by-side and surprise, who should come walking up but two men with clipboards with their little lanyards around their neck.
• 7:26
  looking into the bed of my truck and seeing Zach and I laying there side by side. I looked up at him and he said, we're offering roof estimates. I just said, we're good. Thanks, we're good. We don't need it. They kind of shrugged their shoulders and walked away. A beat or two went by and with perfect comedic timing, my son just looked at me and said, well, that was awkward.
• 7:55
  That was awkward. We are living through an era that no one saw coming and an era that has drastically changed our lives quite possibly, at least in some small degree, permanently. When Christ preached the Sermon on the Mount, what we're going to call today the Sermon on the Level, no one saw it coming. It had a dramatic impact on the way his followers thought they were supposed to live and it changed the way
• 8:23
  that all people now for generations to come would think about the kingdom of God even permanently. We use the word catastrophe in relation to a bad event. Our current pandemic would certainly be considered a catastrophe. However, the actual word catastrophic or catastrophe is a compound Greek word, meaning to flip something upside down, to turn something on its head. That's what catastrophe means. And in this regard, the Sermon on the Level
• 8:52
  was maybe the most catastrophic sermon that has ever been preached. Because in his message, and what we're going to study this morning, Jesus actually turned the world upside down. And our passage has two parts. First, it's Christ's choosing of the 12 apostles in verses 12 to 16. These would be the men he would invest in over the next several years. These would be the men to whom he would eventually entrust with the infant church. And then second,
• 9:22
  will be the message itself. What was the sermon's content? Why was it so radically different from the sermons preached by Jesus' contemporaries? And so let's look at these two parts. First, in verses 12 to 16, you'll notice the method of his choosing of the 12 apostles. And our sermon this morning will not be a detailed account of each of these 12 men. Many have...
• 9:44
  preached those, and that's great. I'm simply just going to read their names as they're given, and then we're going to study these men individually as they come up in the remainder of Luke's gospel. If you're interested in the present, in a more documented, detailing account of each of these men's lives, I would recommend to each of you the excellent book on this subject, John MacArthur's Twelve Ordinary Men. It was fantastic.
• 10:12
  He devotes a chapter to each of the apostles. But I'm just going to take a moment to focus our attention on verse 12. And so if you look in your Bibles, I'll read verses 12 to 16. And then we're just going to focus on verse 12 for our study. But it says, in these days, he went out to the mountain to pray. And all night he continued in prayer to God. And day came and he called his disciples. That is this big crowd of people, men and women. And he chose from them 12 whom he named apostles.
• 10:40
  Simon, whom he named Peter, the most famous of them, obviously. Andrew, his brother. James and John. Now, these were the famous sons of Zebedee. These would be the sons of thunder. Philip and Bartholomew. Matthew, Thomas, and James, the son of Alphaeus. Simon, the zealot. Judas, the son of James. And Judas Iscariot, the famous traitor. Here we have, in verse 12, the very first Christian ordination. We've had tens of thousands of them since.
• 11:09
  the setting apart of men and women for Christian ministry. But here we see the very first. In this short section, we see Christ setting apart a group of apostles. Apostles literally meaning sent ones, ambassadors whose job it would be to preach the good news, but not only to preach the good news, to preach the good news of Jesus Christ with his authority. Apostles were a separate and very significant class.
• 11:37
  of men whose job it was to preach the word of God and the first generation of the church, along with the proving of that word of God through the working of miraculous signs. These apostles would speak on behalf of the Lord Jesus and with his authority, and some of them would even become the first pastors of the first Christian churches. And what a profound statement found here in verse 12, that Jesus, the Son of God,
• 12:06
  Co-equal with God, second person of the Trinity, Jesus, the co-creator of heaven and earth, prayed. Jesus was the knower of all things. He was the maker of all things. Powerful beyond measure. And he spent the night in prayer. You know, I actually looked up the wording here when it says,
• 12:34
  That he spent all night, verse 12 says, in continual prayer to God. Because I thought, well, maybe this is an exaggeration. Like when we say, well, I was up all night. I wasn't feeling well. I was up all night. Or I worked all night on my homework. I pulled an all-nighter. When really we just meant that we worked until 2 a.m. and then went to bed. But that's not what the text is saying. There's no hyperbole here. There's no...
• 12:59
  exaggerated language this language actually says that christ spent all night in prayer and that's exactly what happened before making this vital decision what 12 men he would hand off the infant church to christ sought the face of his father and i love that it even says how long he did that because not only did christ pray but he actually gave his father plenty of time to speak
• 13:28
  My prayer life is a funny thing. Most often, my prayer time is filled with my prayer, completely filled with it. I think in my own prayer time, the Lord can't get a word in edgewise. Can you imagine if we spoke to our spouses the same way that we speak to the Lord? Hallie, let me know what you think I should do. Let me know where you think I should go. Let me know how you think I should handle this. Well, bye.
• 13:58
  right? And then I leave. I mean, I just speak to her, but there's no opportunity for her to speak back. You look at verse 12. He goes up onto the mountainside to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. The Lord prayed. And how casually we treat prayer in our daily lives. I think we've determined prayer to be a burden. We even call it a spiritual discipline, like it's a hard thing to do. We equate it with jogging and sit-ups.
• 14:28
  It's high on our list of Christian chores, and yet prayer is often the very last thing we want to do. One man has said, if you want to humble a man, ask him about his prayer life. Another has said, what you are on your knees before God, that you are, and nothing else. And yet how casually we treat prayer in the selection of important choices. In the face of important choices, even in the selection of spiritual leaders. Christ here was choosing the first pastors.
• 15:00
  And he made those selections by prayer. It is fitting that the choosing of the twelve, those to whom the reigns of the first church would be handed, and those by whom the very first Christian sermons would ever be preached, those who would become the first under-shepherds of Christ's bride, would be chosen by prayer. And Christ prayed because he knew that spiritual leaders come from the Lord.
• 15:27
  J.C. Ryle has said this, we need not doubt that there is a deep significance in this special mention of our Lord's praying upon this occasion. It was intended to be a perpetual lesson to the church. In other words, the church should choose their pastors by prayer. And yet, consider for a moment the other methods employed by churches to fill this most sacred ecclesiastical office. Search committees,
• 15:59
  Pulpit committees. Our denomination, Converge, what was the Baptist General Conference, now called Converge, uses something called the CPN, Converge Placement Network, where they find pastors, they find churches, and they put these two things together. And that's just ours. Every denomination and church association has their own version of that. There are even outside companies that you can go to or hire, something like the Vanderbloomen Group.
• 16:27
  Whose job it is to find pastors for churches. Now, are those things inherently wrong? I don't think so. But they are indicative of some serious problems. So just stay with me for a moment, church. First, what's the problem with these agencies pairing together churches and pastors? First...
• 16:49
  The pastor's job, and by extension, the job of the elders of every church, because they are the pastors and spiritual overseers of the church, their job is to ensure that the sheep are being fed by the accurate and diligent preaching of God's Word. Their job is to ensure that the sheep are being exercised by participating in ministry and outreach. And their job is to ensure that the sheep are being trained
• 17:18
  In the use of spiritual gifts within the body, it should not be the goal of the pastor to create a dependence upon him, but rather to train up others, other pastors, other elders, other leaders, other teachers who could actually step into his place at any moment.
• 17:40
  And pastors, I have no idea if any other pastors are watching this. I don't think that they probably are. But if any are, pastors, if you are the only one who can do your job, then may I just humbly suggest that you're not doing your job. As a church grows and as additional vocational shepherds are needed to care for the body, there should be no question at all in your congregants' minds.
• 18:11
  Who should fill that role? I wholeheartedly believe that if the church is doing its job, if the elders, if the pastors, if the teachers, the leaders of the church are doing their job, if the church is feeding, exercising, and training the way it is designed to do, I honestly and wholeheartedly believe that the Lord will raise up people from within the body to fill the needs of the church as they arise.
• 18:38
  Rare is the time, and I think probably indicative of this problem that I'm describing, that a church should be forced to look outside of its own walls in order to find a pastor to care for its people. Perhaps one of the most dangerous things a church can do, and a problem that shouldn't even exist, I think, if a pastor is really doing his job, is to hire a complete stranger to care for the souls of the church's people. And this is why
• 19:08
  Our church, Highland, is so serious about giving its people opportunities for training and leadership if that is their aspiration. One of the things I think that makes Highland distinct, and I think there are a lot of things that make Highland distinct, but one of the things that makes Highland distinct is the idea of hiring from within. Many teachers, many worship leaders, many counselors, many shepherds. Highland, praise God, and to God be the glory, is not a top-heavy church.
• 19:40
  Hiring from within. Another problem, I think, that these types of networks, pairing together networks, probably indicate is just a lack of prayer and fasting in general within the church. When the church has problems, we don't often go to the Lord, or at least not enough. We will often go to others for help. And this is not meant to be a judgment. Listen, I know that there are churches from all over the U.S. watching these.
• 20:07
  worship Highland services online at this point. We praise God for that. We're so, so thankful that you are joining us. We want you to join us. We really do. We want you to participate. And it's not meant to be a judgment on anybody's church or leadership. If a church lacks the means and foresight to have leaders trained and in place as they are needed, because this does take some foresight. If you're thinking, man, we're going to need a youth pastor six years from now, then you got to start training them because it takes six years to train a youth pastor. It does.
• 20:36
  I do think that if you don't have those leaders trained and in place as they are needed, then you should use whatever outside means you have at your disposal. And I don't want to criticize any church who has been forced to handle these things this way. I want to be careful here to say that I believe the Lord uses these systems that we have inherited for his glory. Absolutely. But how much prayer and fasting in the selection of our leaders, in the selection of even things like Sunday school teachers, how much prayer?
• 21:04
  And fasting. How much actual seeking of the Lord. We find in verse 12 that our Lord prayed before He chose because He knew it is the Lord who calls. It is the Lord who anoints. It is the Lord who provides under shepherds for His sheep. And so that is first the method of choosing or the method of selection of the 12. And then notice second, and this is the remainder of our text, is the message of change.
• 21:35
  the message of change and i think probably what needs to be answered first just by way of introduction is is this the same sermon as the sermon on the mount the sermon on the mount is the famous one matthew 5 6 and 7 is this the exact same occasion if you look at the center column referencing or end notes in your bibles or study bibles it probably suggests that it is the same occasion but i don't think it probably has to be
• 22:02
  Notice in verses 17 to 20 that these sermons were given in different locations. Look at verse 17. It says,
• 22:21
  These sermons were actually given in different locations. Luke's account says he came down off of the mountain onto a level place. Matthew says he went up onto a hillside to preach, and thus the name in Matthew's account of the Sermon on the Mount, and thus the name of my selection for Luke's gospel, the Sermon on the Level. It should also be noted that these two sermons, Matthew and Luke's accounts, actually include a different content.
• 22:49
  Luke includes an entire series of woes in verses 24 to 26, which Matthew's account does not. And Matthew includes two whole chapters that Luke excludes. Matthew includes things like, you have heard that it was said, but I tell you this, right? And so Matthew's account includes all kinds of things that Luke's does not. And Luke's includes things that Matthew's does not. It should also be noted that Jesus...
• 23:18
  During his great Galilean ministry, during that time where he was in the region of Galilee, traveling from town to town, preaching, healing, going to synagogues, Jesus actually was an itinerant preacher. Which means that early in his ministry, Jesus actually traveled to all of these different towns, was basically the same thing to say. He certainly would have given the same sermon more than once. Those sermons certainly would have used some of the same language with slight variations each time.
• 23:47
  He gave it. Anybody who practices preaching and has taken that ministry on, a preaching ministry on, knows that there are times when you will preach the same sermon twice. And when you do, you kind of fall into certain verbal habits on purpose because you find a way that works. You find a phrase that is impactful. And so you'll use the same phrase twice. Just because we have recorded some of the same words doesn't necessarily mean that this is...
• 24:16
  the same exact occurrence. And so you can imagine after calling his disciples, Jesus leaves the hill that they were on and goes down to a level place. There were huge crowds, verse 17 says, a great multitude of people from all of Judea and Jerusalem. That's south. That is dozens and dozens of miles south. Tyre and Sidon are even mentioned, verse 17. Now that's dozens and dozens of miles north.
• 24:43
  who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases, verse 18 says, and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowds, you can imagine this vast multitude sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all. Huge crowds made up of some disciples, but some who had maybe never even heard him before flooded around them. They sought teaching and healing. They sought freedom from demon possession. There was a dramatic energy surrounding this crowd.
• 25:12
  You can imagine curious onlookers just trying to get close enough. People from all over the area now there, maybe even multiple languages represented. The power that emanated out from Christ would not be the centerpiece of the day. However, the miracles we find are only the setup for the main attraction, and that was this famous sermon.
• 25:36
  With Jesus as he begins to preach are these newly appointed apostles. You can imagine them maybe timid at first, not sure what they're doing there, not sure what they're supposed to do, but now becoming more and more confident as the day is going on. This is the first time they had ever appeared with him in public in their new roles. You can imagine this is like the first time they're now wearing their brand new deputy badges. They want to show them off. As the sun got higher, so did their opinion of themselves.
• 26:04
  Now maybe almost cocky, thinking they were something because this powerful man had chosen them. He could have chosen anybody, but he chose me, and I must be something special. As the crowd is increasing curious about what he represents, and now as his own apostles are maybe becoming more and more egotistical, Jesus defines what true discipleship is by using and repeating two very powerful words.
• 26:33
  Blessed are you and woe to you. Blessed. The Greek word makarios, supremely blessed. Fortunate. Well off are you. Supremely happy. That's what that word means. Supremely happy. And then woe, uai, is kind of a funny Greek word. It almost sounds like woe. It's an exclamation of grief.
• 27:01
  Weeping over something. Mourning over something. Alas, something bad is going to happen to you. You're cursed. So on one hand, supremely happy. And on the other hand, cursed. You notice first the blessing of poverty and then the curse of riches. Look at verse 20. And He lifted up His eyes on His disciples and said, Blessed are you who are poor.
• 27:27
  Are you who are poor the blessing of poverty? For yours is the kingdom. And look at verse 24, kind of the opposite, the reciprocal. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. It would be very easy for us here, American church, to excuse ourselves, especially during this economic freefall. Are we rich? Maybe six months ago, but not now. Certainly not now. What a crazy couple of months.
• 28:00
  You know, America's first quarter, January, February, and March, saw a 4%, 4% reduction in the economy. That's pretty normal for a first quarter. And then COVID hit. Experts are now calculating that by the end of May, by the end of this month, we will have had a 40% reduction nationwide. That has never happened in the history of our country. Never. 200 some years. Never before. That should have caused a complete collapse. We should have imploded.
• 28:31
  No nation should be able to survive that. And yet, here we are. This 40% reduction will hurt us, no doubt. But it won't kill us. Why? Well, the answer is because we're rich. That's why we started rich. And so we could afford this.
• 28:52
  trying to diminish that at all because it hurts. It hurts people I love. It hurts this church. It does, but it won't kill us. Why? Because we are rich. We live in the wealthiest economy in the history of the world. That is now. 2019 America was the richest people in the history of the world. 2020, we'll see a reduction, but even with the 2020 40% reduction, we're still the wealthiest nation on earth. We are...
• 29:22
  when he says, blessed are you who are poor, and then woe to you who are rich. American church, our ears should perk up. He's talking about us. Why would Christ call the poor blessed and the rich cursed? Jesus began his ministry with a statement in the synagogue in his own hometown, which nearly got him killed. Luke 4, verse 18. He said, the spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. To the poor.
• 29:54
  And the folks in Nazareth knew that he wasn't talking about them. And so they got angry at him. They tried to throw him off a cliff and kill him. The poor that he was making reference to there were those exiles in Babylon who had not tainted themselves with pagan culture. Those exiles in Babylon who knew that they could not save themselves. The poor in Babylon during the exile had not become ensconced in the wicked Babylonian culture. And they longed for the time.
• 30:24
  When they would return to the promised land, those were the poor. We can't wait to go home. We don't belong here. We can't wait to go home. They longed for the Messiah, the Christ. They longed for His salvation. Being poor, according to Jesus' definition, has less to do with your net worth. It's not about your bank account. You can be very wealthy and yet poor. You can be very wealthy.
• 30:56
  and yet rely on those riches in order to save you. That's what he's saying is the problem. It is less about your net worth and more about the hope that you cling to. And so church, let us take this lesson from Christ and be reminded that it is not our wealth that will save us. We look forward. We look forward to Jesus and the salvation that he offers.
• 31:26
  Blessed are you who are poor, and woe to you who are rich. Notice second, the blessing of hunger and the curse of being full. Look at verse 21. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Look down at verse 25, the reciprocal here. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Hunger there, pineo, where we get the English word pine, to pine after something, to be famished, to crave. Literally, it means to ache.
• 31:55
  To have a desire for something or someone who isn't present. Let me say that again. To pine, to hunger for something. He's not talking about here a physical hunger. Blessed are you if you're starving. That's not what he's saying. He's saying blessed are you if you're pining after something. If you ache for someone's presence who isn't here now. Isn't that interesting? The follower of Jesus is to ache for someone who is not present.
• 32:25
  Danish theologian and philosopher Soren Kierkegaard tells a story. He calls it the wild duck of Denmark. And let me just read you the story. It's awesome. He said one day a wild duck was flying northward with his mates across Europe during the springtime. En route, he happened to land in a barnyard in Denmark where he quickly made friends with the tame ducks that lived there. The wild duck enjoyed the corn and fresh water. He decided to stay for an hour.
• 32:55
  then for a day, then for a week, finally for a month. At the end of that time, he contemplated flying to join his friends in the vast Northland, but he had begun to enjoy the safety of the barnyard and the tame ducks had made him feel so welcomed. And so he stayed for the summer. One autumn day, when his wild mates were flying south, he heard their quacking. It stirred him with delight. He enthusiastically flapped his wings. He rose into the air to join them.
• 33:24
  Much to his dismay, he found that he could rise no higher than the eaves of the barn. As he waddled back to the safety of the barnyard, he muttered to himself, I'm satisfied here. I have plenty of food. The area is good. Why should I leave? And so he spent the winter on the farm. In the spring, when the wild ducks flew overhead again, he felt a strange stirring within his breast, but he did not even try to fly up to meet them. When they returned in the fall, they again invited him to rejoin them, but this time,
• 33:54
  The duck did not even notice them. There was no stirring within his breast. He simply kept on eating corn, which had made him fat. Kierkegaard goes on to say, Christians are destined to fly the highest heights of the world toward heaven. And sadly, we can see the things the world offers and we get distracted from flying. We walk, we waddle among the barnyard, but we were created to fly.
• 34:23
  We may hear our friends from time to time flying over. We may want to rejoin them, but we can't quite make it up there. We go back to being satisfied with muck and mud and our wings begin to atrophy a little more and a little more and time passes and we die a little more without even realizing it. And perhaps we're able to fly for a time. We get back into the flock, so to speak, but we're not used to the rigors anymore.
• 34:49
  We don't have the gifts needed for flying anymore. And so we fall back to the spiritual barnyard. People might say or do the things they used to, but now we have no idea what they mean. Occasionally, we as Christians may feel this stirring in our breast, that spiritual hunger that Augustine wrote about a thousand years ago when he said our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee, O God. But it gets weaker the longer we stay here.
• 35:20
  And nothing will quench that stirring but the Spirit of God in Christ. But eventually, church, the most tragic thing happens. We don't even feel that stirring anymore. When our friends fly by, we don't even notice their quacking anymore. And even worse, we forget what quacking even is. We forget words like life and redemption and forgiveness, salvation, what it means to mount up on wings like eagles. And we are content with pecking and digging.
• 35:49
  and waddling and dirt we become spiritually dead and we even begin to think we're better off we begin to see normal life outside the flock when the birds that we're hanging around with are nothing like we are on the outside yes on the inside they don't have a clue we keep on eating the worldly corn more corn becoming fat with the cares of the world and oh that the ducks that have dropped out of the holy flock would fly
• 36:21
  Again, we were made to fly. Church, may we never become domesticated. May we never become so well-fed that we stop being hungry for things above because when Christ calls, we may be too fat to hear Him. Colossians 3 verse 1 says, Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
• 36:53
  psalm chapter 63 verse 1 psalm 63 oh god you are my god earnestly i seek you listen to the language here my soul thirsts for you my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water my soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods with singing lips my mouth will praise you blessed are you jesus says when you're hungry for you shall be satisfied
• 37:23
  Woe to you who are full. Don't become satisfied, church, with the things of the earth because we'll no longer be able to fly the way that Christians were designed to. Notice third, the blessing of sorrow and the curse of fake laughter. Look at verse 21. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. And then down again at verse 25. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
• 37:52
  You ever been caught laughing about the wrong things? You ever been caught wasting your laughter? You know, laughter is actually, I believe, a divine gift. I've actually had congregants over the years, congregants criticize my use of humor from the pulpit, calling it irreverent. I've been told by some of these same people, I'm not kidding, these are real conversations. I was one time told that a pastor must never laugh when he's standing in front of the Word of God.
• 38:21
  I would say that I respectfully disagree, but I'm not sure I would mean that. I think I just disagree, whether it's respectful or not. Proverbs 17 verse 22 says that a cheerful heart is good medicine. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 4, there is a time to mourn and a time to laugh. Psalm 126, listen to this, this is awesome. When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.
• 38:50
  Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy. You can't go through the book of Philippians without seeing joy. Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice, rejoice. He says it again, rejoice. Abraham Lincoln was quoted one time as saying, if I can't laugh, I'll die.
• 39:20
  Jesus here, I don't think, is leveling an attack on laughter itself. He is not saying, blessed are the grim and cheerless Christians. What was he attacking then? He was attacking, I think, the shallow, superficial laughter that characterizes the world and honestly characterizes many believers. Beloved church, we have been given laughter as a gift. Let's use it. But let us also not waste it.
• 39:50
  The way that the world does. Laughing at things which the Savior came to die for. And that, I think, is the difference. When the Christians laugh, that laughter, sanctified laughter, is laughter over things which Christ provides. Wasted, unsanctified laughter, unholy laughter, is laughter over things which Christ came to die for. Let us laugh.
• 40:20
  even rejoice over the fact that we know the Savior, that we know the shepherd of our souls, because in his presence is fullness of joy. Notice finally, the blessing of rejection and the curse of acceptance. Look at verse 22. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For so their fathers did to the prophets. And look at verse 26.
• 40:49
  Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. We are so concerned about acceptance, even willing to change the very fabric of our being in order to fit in. We're willing to throw away the person God made us to be in order to become who the world expects us to be. We are literally in so doing conforming to the image of the world.
• 41:18
  And yet scripture says to do the exact opposite. It says to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. In other words, think differently than the world, act differently than the world. And granted, if you do, you will probably be rejected by the world, maybe even endure persecution. But don't lose heart, church, because you will also be received by the Lord. In John 15 and verse 20, Jesus said, remember the words I spoke to you. No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they'll persecute you.
• 41:48
  Listen to 1 Peter 4 and verse 12. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you're suffering as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. At church, the sermon on the level was a bombshell. Its effect, catastrophic, because it turned the Christian world upside down.
• 42:17
  This morning's takeaway is pretty simple. Let us not neglect the privilege of prayer. The Lord is our hope. The Lord is our provider. The Lord is our sustenance. The Lord is even our destination. And so let us focus our eyes heavenward. Let us not forget that we were made to fly. Let us be more concerned with the acceptance of our heavenly Father who loves us than with the world who does not. And God, I pray again.
• 42:46
  For the people of Highland Baptist Church, and I pray for the people even outside of our community who have joined us for worship this morning, Lord, that you would turn our eyes to you. That we would fix our eyes on Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith. God, we lay hold to that promise that you who began a work in us will be faithful to complete it. Nothing can sidetrack or thwart your plan.
• 43:13
  No amount of politics, no agendas, no bailouts, no virus can change what you have predestined. And so, Lord, we look forward with joy because we want to walk in your presence. We know indeed that we even have your presence through Jesus Christ. And in your presence is fullness of joy. And so may we live as those wild ducks who are here but momentarily.
• 43:45
  who are in the barnyard only for a moment, may we not forget what we were destined to do, to fly heavenward. And Lord, make that our goal and aim. And it is in Jesus Christ's name we pray. And amen.