8/6/2024 - Charles Zimmerman - Family Week 1

e e e e e e Advance the gospel as a result it has become clear throughout the whole Palace guard and to everyone else that I'm in chains for Christ and because of my chains most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear it is true some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry but others out of Goodwill the latter do so out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the Gospel the former preach Christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in Chains but what does it matter the important thing is that in every way whether from false motives or true Christ is preached and because of this I Rejoice yes and I will continue to Rejoice for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the spirit of Christ Jesus what has happened to me will return out will turn out for my Deliverance I eagerly expect and Hope that I will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain if I am to go on living in the body this will mean fruitful labor for me yet what shall I choose I don't know I'm torn between the two I desire to depart and be with Christ Which is far better but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body convinced of this I know that I will remain and I will continue um with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith so that through my being with you again your boasting in Christ Jesus Will bound on account of me all right what's the reminder we're going to look at for to me to live as Christ and to die as gain right and Elliot and I and a couple others were chatting over in the atrium this afternoon and um he brought up in one of his stories uh sharing one of the evangelism explosion questions remember that it's hard to believe that Jim Kennedy developed that like in the 60s and it's a pretty neat way to conversationally help somebody understand the gospel and the E question goes something like this now if you were to die tonight and you were to stand before God and he were to say to you why should I let you into my heaven what would you say now um I hope you've wrestled with and have come to the biblical answer to that question my guess is most of you have many of you have and that's a significant qu you need to deal with that right I mean eternity is on the line with that if you were to die tonight and stand before God you say why should I let you into my heaven I hope you get the right answer and the answer is not you tried really hard the answer is you're better than your neighbor the answer is he went to church the answer is no because Christ has paid your debt and not just forgiven your sin but he's given you all the favor that he deserves and because of his forgiveness and favor you now can enter Heaven bold I hope you settled that but that's not what I want to talk to you tonight about I want to ask you another question tonight not if you were to die tonight and stand before heaven or stand before God would let you know my heav what would you say here's a question I want to ask suppose you don't die tonight suppose you wake up tomorrow what are you going to live for tomorrow uh if you already settled the Eternal question how about the temporal question tomorrow morning or maybe tonight what are you going to live for tonight so if you don't drop dead during the service or if you don't die during your sleep tonight and you wake up tomorrow you wake up next week you wake up next year what are you going to live for notice Paul addresses both of those in that reminder for to me to live right is Christ to die is gain and maybe you won't find it I find this really fascinating in Greek there are no verbs in that sentence here's what Paul says to live Christ to die gain there's no to be verb there I I don't know why I like that I was thinking we should all get tattoos this week to live Christ to die gain right that that'd be good um then notice he answers both so if you were to die tonight and stand before God and he would say to you why should I let you in my heaven I hope you would get the right answer that Jesus forgiveness and favor has earned your position there but I hope you also address the living side that if you wake up tomorrow if you wake up next week if God gives you 20 30 40 50 more years what are you going to live for notice Paul addresses both of those sometimes our minds only focus on the one side of that so I want to focus on the other side tonight now you would think that since Philippians is a book of joy and right there in chapter one Paul says for me to live as Christ and to die as gain you would think he is his context would be one of super abundance right I mean he's living the High Life he's on the Mountain Top all of his needs are met his circumstances are great everything's no no no what's the context he's suffering he's in he's in prison when he writes the letter and not just in prison um he is physically suffering by being in prison he says that he's in Chains relationally he's suffering he's separated from his friends and you've also got to recognize he's separated from his vocation God called him to be a missionary God called him to be a church planter and he was Faithfully obeying planting churches all around the Mediterranean and he gets arrested and thrown in the pr in the prison for doing what God told him to do he's put on the Shelf he can't fulfill his calling he's out of relationship with friends he's experiencing physical ailment problem and restriction and then he hears that the Philippians took an offering and a neat fact Philippians is really a thank you letter for the collection that was taken in Philippi and Paul's writing back say thanks for the gift but the guy that they sent to deliver the gift his name was aitis and that's a good don't name your kids weird biblical names don't ever name your kid a patis or something like that right um there there's enough of that nonsense going on well patis is sent with the gift he gets sick and almost dies on his way to deliver the gift Paul probably saying oh my goodness he's delivering the gift to me he almost died trying to come and ease my suffering Paul is in the midst of suffering and in the midst of the prison cell physically suffering relation relationally put on put on the Shelf vocationally all out of his business out of what God called him to do worried about apodius he says to live Christ to die gain he kind of gets it now here's my guess though bunch of sufferers in the room tonight maybe not to the degree of Paul or at least maybe not at this season um but uh you know what suffering is like right so uh we're among friends so let's uh just take a little poll and if you want you could even look around how many of you um WR today this situation of your life are experiencing some kind of relational Brokenness separate just raise your hand yeah right separation from kids from parents uh from a good friend maybe distance they moved away and you feel like your life's not complete anymore how about um a physical suffering of some kind bad report from the doctor maybe it's just aches and pains uh or maybe maybe a loved one um got a really bad report maybe there's been a death of a family member a parent a child a close friend um one of the reasons I have to go home late tomorrow night is I've got a funeral Saturday morning one of my neighbors and a close friend um diagnosed with cancer a few months ago and done quickly and his wife they've lived alone they don't have any kids they've lived I mean she is just grief stricken um a lot of suffering in life right how about find Financial suffering pain um vocational or occupational suff we know what suffering is like right and um so we need to understand the context in which Paul writes to live Christ to die gain he's not on the Mountaintop where he's got life exactly the way he wants he's in a dark Valley and he says you know what even in the valley to live Christ to die gain um I don't often feel that way but Paul writes it and his life kind of proves that he means it now what I'm going to do I was I was tempted not to do sometimes I get in trouble but here here's I I'm sitting uh I guess a couple days ago and I thought you know what I I'll tell them and I this afternoon I decided I put the slide in um sometimes I get a little nervous not not a lot right God's got this he doesn't need my help um sometimes I get a little nervous because it seems the church sometimes Majors on therapy nothing wrong with that right therapy means care Majors on therapy but minors on theology now here's what I mean by that we want to Major on care without a Biblical or gospel understanding well you know what your therapy can run off the rails pretty quickly if there's not a gospel understanding as the foundation to the care you're giving right so there's a correlation between therapy and theology but the problem is you know theology sometimes hard to fur it out and we'd rather do well we're going to because we love people we want to care for people we want to support them and encourage them and so we Maj you on therapy which is good we need to be give therapy care for people but you need a theology that's accurate and gospel centered in order to support that so here's we're going to do I'm going to take this is not well well blown out right well nuanced but here is a simple five minute sit down at my computer here's a therapy or not a therapy a Theology of suffering so here put it up there all right here we go I I didn't know how to put one up at a time so they all come up together I hate that because I know you're already reading all of them I do know in Latin that's called iter AUM but I'm not sure how to do it on on PowerPoint and some of you so here's my simple attempt in just a few minutes at providing a Theology of therapy that supports the care we give so here's one suffering this right out of the Bible right suffering cannot be avoided suffering they're the required courses of Life they're not electives you can't say well you know what I'm not going to take the suffering courses no no no no no they they come in the general requirement section right you have to take those but here's the flip side of that suffering should not be pursued any Martyrs out there right or you know some of these people right they in their suffering they somehow feel like they're earning no no no this isn't Merit theology suffering can't be avoided but it should not be pursued you're not gaining brownie points by pursuing suffering here's another one suffering is not necess necessarily punishment for sin but it might be right and so I'm not the judge of that and so yet Jesus disciples you remember the story well Jesus who sin this guy or his dad well neither now all suffering comes from the fall from sin but all suffering may not come from your individual personal sin and so you have to be careful about that here's another one but suffering is not an excuse for sin it's not like you you don't have to obey anymore because you're suffering you know you ever feel like that you know I'm really going through it here so I I don't have to obey this stuff right I can seek comfort and I can pursue what I want outside of God's uh you know area where I'm supposed to no no no uh you don't get to color Outside the Lines because you're suffering in fact one of the things I often think of you ever notice that when the baseball player is in the in the on Deck Circle well they don't even stand in the on Deck Circle anymore but they're near it um what do they put on the bat when they're um in the on the on De or what do they put on the bat yeah a donut right or it's a weight it's a weight and they swing the bat while while they're in the on Deck Circle right but you ever notice they never go into the batter's box with the weight on you know if you read the Bi Bible you kind of suffering is kind of like the weight and God sometimes allows those things to be weights in our lives so that when they're removed we can live with speed and we can live in ways that are pursuing God in a more forceful and direct way so suffering is not an excuse for sin suffering is not an act of atonement so it's not like when you're suffering you're working sin off no no no and the whole Karma deal yeah that is not a Biblical idea so you know if if you do something bad oh now you got to pay no no no suffering is not an active atonement you're not working off Bad Karma in it but it's often sanctification it's often God's using it to grow you suffering will not be fully understand understood in this life you know every once in a while and I I don't say this to people but I sometimes think it when somebody will say you know one day one day I'll understand all of this well maybe I mean God never promises omniscience to us right so you're not going to be now maybe we'll understand a lot better but I'm not sure you're going to understand all the details and every and the answer to every question you ever have we may not understand all of that suffering is used by God often to show us and grow us isn't that what tests do right what I know I I used to be a teacher right and let me if you don't believe this I know there are a few teachers in the room isn't this the truth teachers tests are more painful for teachers then the students who have to take it we have to make up those things and then we have to grade those suckers right um and so but what do tests do tests show what the students know and don't know tests also grow the student as they prepare for the test right you're preparing you're growing now there's a difference between suffering in a showing growing way and suffering because you're a jerk so so let me give you some examples of suffering that really don't come from God's hand uh and in some refining way if you show disrespect to your boss you'll suffer unemployment that that's because you're a jerk if you act arrogant and promise and and pompus you'll suffer loneliness if you are cruel to your spouse you'll suffer divorce if you eat and drink too much you'll suffer lots of physical problem that has nothing to do with somehow being God may be removing things from your life but you're not suffering for some righteous reason you're suffering because you're being stupid all right so so that's kind of my uh little Excursion of a theology some of what undergirds uh th we need therapy but we also need a theology on now here here's why that's important to me as you look around the room right we raised hands everybody's suffering and you look around at the world the world's a mess so here's what I was thinking you already admitted this earlier our bodies are running down and wasting away it's incredibly how quick it's going um you look around all politicians are slimy and crooked right I I don't care what color they are that's right the world is on the verge of War inflation is through the roof the market came back a little today but it was in the in the tank America is polarized by political opposition the world's a mess right you look at that you think oh my goodness but the opportunities are great right and so the world's opportunities are great so here's the flip side of that we can serve people because the needs are so great because of those because of the lostness of the world and the consequences coming from the opportunities are great to serve we can give generously by faith and know that those gifts are actually making a difference whether it's Time treasure Talent we can trust God in the midst of chaos and see what he's going to do we can create real Community like we talked about today community that is centered right community that is H humble and community that has a priority in Christ and we can pray for each other so as the darkness of suffering seems to be invading our worlds and our lives we can um use that as great opportunity to make a difference all right well let's move on from suffering because that's getting painful what does Paul say in those and the one reason I wanted to read the context is this um Paul says but God is transforming the suffering he's got that perspective he's he's in a wretched situation physically relationally vocationally um in with other Paul's life is full of suffering and pain right but he says but God's using it God is transitioning he's turning it um have you ever heard of a Alchemy you know what Alchemy is yeah well like in in the Middle Ages um it it it's not real right it's charlatan did it but originally the thought was how could we turn base metals like lead because there are lots of it how can we take base metals and transform them into valuable Metals how could we make lead into gold and so we're all these Alchemists saying oh we figured out the secret of doing this well they weren't able to do it but they often told people they were able to do it and you could invest in this scheme right they would take your money and they were making lots of gold taking people's money doing this and um well anyway Matthew Henry who's a pastor toward the end of the 1600s into the 1700s in his um commentary on this passage he says God is the only and the great Alchemist and I thought what the heck is I'm not like a Matthew Henry guy but but that quote kind of is interesting right right but then he had descriptions um let me give you a few you know the name Joseph like from Genesis you ever heard of that guy um let let me just remind you this a reminder remind you of a few twists and turns in Joseph's story Joseph's a spoiled brat right whose brothers hate him with reason right so he's not like even a neutral character right I mean he he deserves to be hated well so his dad is showing favoritism which is part of the reason his brothers hate him right they're all out working Joseph's home with Dad right he's just kind of hanging out and he's got the special coat right he's got all all these Privileges and the brothers they don't like that so anyway dad stupidly says hey why don't you go check on your brothers and bring back a report now how would all the older siblings feel about this right yeah here comes right here he comes uh he's coming to bring a report dad already loves a more this report is not going to be good well one of the brothers has an idea hey this is our chance right dad's not around let's kill them we get rid of the problem right Dad won't know he's far away right and and we can take his coat well you know we'll kill one of the sheep we got here and we'll put the blood on it they didn't have DNA testing back then and so we'll take the coat back and say wait we found it do you recognize this robe we found it out in the field does look look familiar to you Dad um another brother actually Judah who becomes uh interesting later in the story he says uh yeah but then we we we're not making anything on it right we can have a win-win deal here here's the win let's sell him as a slave we can make money and get rid of him at the same time so we go home with a little jingle in our pocket we get rid of the problem right win-win they sell their brother as a slave right now look I don't know what sibling rival thing you got going on my guess is it hasn't come to selling one of your siblings yet right they sell their brother oh yeah but it gets worse he gets to Egypt the Israelites they sell him to a guy named pitifer pitifer takes him in and you know cream rides to the top Joseph's a pretty bright guy eventually Joseph is over all of P Piper's household Piper's wife falsely accuses him of rape he tried to rape me attempted rape well what's potier going to do right there's a sneaking suspicion potier doesn't fully believe her though in this story and you know you know the prison he gets put in Piper's over that prison um so it so he he really what's he gonna do he's got to kind of believe his wife he puts Joseph so now Joseph him sold by his brothers falsely accused of rape put in prison well a couple of Pharaoh's servants they get thrown in prison too a cup Bearer and the Baker and uh they each have a dream and they tell Joseph the dreams he interprets a dream and he says the the cup Bearer says hey Joseph I had this dream and um I I'm squeezing grapes into Pharaoh's cup and I take it back and Pharaoh drinks it Joseph oh I know what that means and that means in 3 days you're going to return to your job and you'll be squeezing grapes for fair you'll be you'll be the wne M you be the wine guy again the baker says Oh I like that interpret I got a dream too in my dream I have all loaves of bread see I'm going back to work I've all these loaves of bread but they're on my head and the birds are kind of eating it and Joseph said oh I know what that dream it means too H you're going to lose your head uh Pharaoh's whether you did it or not doesn't matter Pharaoh is going to have your head cut off I always find it interesting fa Joseph says to the cup bear now remember me he doesn't ask the baker to remember him he doesn't have to remember right so anywhere the cup Bearer goes back to work for pharaoh and either intentionally unintentionally he forgets to tell Pharaoh about Joseph in the dream until Pharaoh has a dream but eventually Pharaoh has a dream and the cup Bearer says uhoh I better tell him and he says there was this Jewish guy in prison and he told exactly what my dream meant and he told the baker too what his dream meant and both of them happened exactly Pharaoh calls him in by the time you come to the end of Genesis like Genesis 50 Joseph's the prime minister of Egypt his brothers and Dad come down from the promised land because there's a there's a famine there Joseph is not only the prime minister of Egypt that is dispensing grain so lots of people can remain alive Joseph's the reason that Israel continues oh yeah Joseph is the reason that his brother Judah survives and Judah becomes the ancestor of the Messiah it's through Joseph that Jesus line is maintained um a little bit of alchemy going on right God takes all of those worse than lead events and turns them into pure gold Joseph is refined the promises go on and the Messianic kingdom is ushered in here another one how how about this is this a story of alchemy H Naomi and Ruth you know that story right short little book one of the best written short stories like ever right very cool four chapters read that that's homework read that well Naomi and her husband and Sons they live in Bethlehem and just for reference um Bethlehem means House of Bread like Beth red right lots of things are named bethl right um House of Bread but there's no bread in the House of Bread which kind of interesting no bread in the House of Bread there's a famine in Bethlehem so IMC takes his wife and sons and they moved out of the promised land into the country of Moab right they leave the pro famine come they leave the pro I'm not saying that's good doesn't seem right leave the promised land goes to Moab soon after they're in Moab now that that's suffering right there's nothing to eat there's a famine that's suffering they're not in Moab long when limc dies now Naomi is a widow in AAL strange country that her husband brought her to her two sons marry moabit girls so now her daughters-in-law will never be able to go back to the temple right they're not allowed in so you know this is a mess already right soon after IMC dies both the sons die so now all the men are dead the three women are in Moab uh sounds like suffering right huh funny how that works um but then Naomi hears that once again there's bread in the House of Bread and she says uh you you girls stay here um go back to your families you know go back and they'll take care of you for a little while and maybe you'll meet some other guy and marry a moik guy you'll be happy I'm going back um orpa goes back and we never hear from her again Ruth says no no no I'm going back with you no no Ruth don't I'm going back with you I I said I'm going don't I'm not changing mind they go back um to show how bad the suffering is when Naomi gets back um and word spreads in the town right Naomi's back Naomi's you see noi and we got some strange Foreigner with her right uh we don't know who that girl is but Naomi's back and what does she say don't call me Naomi call me Mara bitter and here's here she says God has made my life bitter wow famine lose your husband lose your two sons daughters law from Moab one goes back this other one comes back with you now you got to take care of her um suffering yeah but as you read the rest of the book and there's kind of a a change in the story um Ruth goes out to glean in a field and she meets Boaz who becomes her kinsman redeemer it's kind of interesting she becomes kinsman redeemer and by the time you get to the end of the book to fast forward Boaz marries Ruth and they have a kid and Naomi has a grandson and Ruth has a baby and the baby born from a girl from Moab is just a couple Generations removed from King David and King David if you read Matthew chapter 1 is in the genealogical line of Jesus huh maybe God is an alchemist after all right so look I'm not saying suffering doesn't hurt suffering hurts right and don't pretend it doesn't hurt but the reality is that God can take that suffering and that's what Paul's saying in chapter one God can take that suffering and not remove it but transform it and us through it so the required courses of life that can't be forgotten or can't be excused actually can be part of the process that God uses to show us and grow us that's what Paul's saying here I'm trusting God to use this wretched situation to change me into the image of Jesus oh and if you read a little further into the next chapter you read about the ultimate suffering where Jesus becomes a human human being suffers to the point of death on a cross is buried and rises again and through that suffering we get to experience salvation and the world will be redeemed God is this alchemist that changes it yeah but does it always happen that way does it happen well not always there's a dynamic that has to come into play and uh I'll try to say this nicely but I know you're going to agree with me even though you probably wouldn't say it and you may be upset I say um I'll start out nicely some of the nicest sweetest most generous gracious kindest people I know are Christians I mean it's amazing right um if you've ever gone to visit one of these nice beautiful wonderful gracious people in like a nursing home or you leave and and you can't you're the one en courage right that they like ministered to you you didn't do anything right you but you leave your flying high right uh here's the other side of that some of the meanest most critical judgmental condemning nasty people I know are Christians I'm I'm I'm I'm just telling you the truth right and you know some I'm not saying if any's in the room but um you know some of these people right some of the kindest sweetest most they're Christian and some of the most nasty condemning judgmental people are Christians well how can they both it's all the dynamic right um illustration the same heat and Sun that makes wax soft makes clay hard isn't that weird when you think like the Heat and in the sun would make them both soft or hard but it has different effects right well there's a different Dynamic well what's the dynamic and how's it work um that's what Paul says here's the dynamic to live Christ to die gain if Christ is the priority if your answer to both of the questions if I were to die and S before God and say why should I in my heaven because of Jesus not because of me that's the right answer and if you were to say and if I don't die tomorrow and if I wake up what am I going to live for I'm not going to live for money I'm not going to live for Comfort I'm not going to live for sex I'm not going to leave live for and building a reputation I'm going to live for G the same answer to the question is the answer that makes soft Hearts kind rather than hard hearts and the only difference is Jesus now here's a problem we all have right I'm assuming you have it because I sometimes have the solution and the answer to both of us question is the same here's the here's the answer Jesus plus nothing did you ever notice nothing is the hardest thing to bring right I mean I want to bring something I want to bring my church attendance I'm going to bring my good mothering I'm going to bring the fact I'm a good spouse I'm going to bring my Bible memory I'm going to bring my prayer life I'm going to bring my church I'm going to bring my pastor I'm going to we want well no if you bring something you can't come it's Jesus plus nothing and whatever you add after the plus sign is the problem it's not Jesus plus whatever it's Jesus plus nothing now here's I I read a couple in interesting articles in the past few months written by um some mythologists that have looked at kind of the American church and here's what they say and tell me if if I'm not naming any denominations or groups tell me if if this isn't true he say usually in the first generation of a group of Christians or a denomination the first generation the gospel is Center Jesus is the priority it's Jesus plus Nothing But as time goes on I'm not saying this is a problem it has to go this way right as time goes you know what but there are entailments that go with that gospel right I mean there are issues of Justice there are issues of um caring for the poor there are issues of standing up against abortion there are issues of right L and we add now um I'm not saying any of those are all good entailments right and there are good entailments in the Democratic party there are good entailments in the Republican Party the problem is neither party has the whole book on the gospel right some are over here some are over there the so we have the gospel and then next well we have entailments the next generation is the entailments get prioritized and the gospel gets demoted have you you can I can think of four or five denominations right now where that's happened starts out gospel only gospel priority gospel oh but it has these entailment and it's true gospel has entailments but eventually next turn now the entailments become like the main thing and the gospel become Next Generation fourth generation here's what happens the gospel's gone and only the entailments remain and so now they stand protest for the entailment but Jesus somehow got lost in the generations um some of you know the name and maybe you even know aliser B aliser and I normally cross paths at different places alist aliser is a Scottish Pastor has Park City Church in Ohio and normally we cross paths at different conferences and stuff and I like to teas aler he's got this Scottish accent you know I say it's that accent that makes you sound profound right I come from Philly I sound like an idiot right you I we can say the same thing it just sounds more profound than you say but um but of of all of all the conversations I've had with Alister the one that I'm I'm reminded of most he told a story um the theology isn't great but his theology but theology is not great here's what he said he said one of the first things I want to do when I get to heaven I want to find that thief on the cross that eventually trusts Christ and I want to find out what it was like when he showed up at Heaven's gate cuz I'd have like to been there for that interview and Alis says maybe it happened like this so we showed up and I'm not sure if there's an attendant or an angel well what are you doing here the thief I I don't know well why are you here I don't know well I got a call the manager here I'm not sure if angels yell or not I got to call the manager you don't even know why you're here he he didn't do the E course right I don't know why you're here So eventually the manager come he's got a clipboard what are you here for I don't know well do you understand justification by faith no do you know the difference between justification and San I don't even know what those words mean do you believe in the inherency the veracity and the perspicuity of scripture I don't know what you just said well then why are you here the guy on the middle cross told me I can come there's no baptism there's no theology it'ses Jesus plus nothing now look we need to develop entailments we call them convictions this morning and you'd live them out make no mistake the gate swings open and we live tomorrow and the next day in ways that please God when it's Jesus plus nothing and our biggest problem my biggest problem I want to add a whole bunch of my stuff to that and worse I want to then add my stuff to your life and require you to jump through my Hoops Jesus plus nothing I don't know about you I regularly need the reminder because um I want to bring stuff come with nothing you get Jesus everything come with something you get nothing to live Christ to die gain we don't even need verbs let's pray father thanks for uh the reminders but thanks for people like Paul that didn't just write a reminder they lived the reminder because you and your spirit reminded them of the truth and so Lord I pray that we wouldn't just he to live Christ to Die game help us to wrestle with what that means and help us to if we wake up tomorrow and the next day say to live Christ today and one day when we uh wake up on the other side help us to make sure it's Christ then because that's the only reason the door will swing open thanks for your grace Jesus thanks for pursuing you for pursuing us when we weren't interested in you at all we pray in your name amen