0:07 I thank the Lord for what we've heard. May help us. The The word of the week from the previous Friday um really touched my heart of how good the Father is. 0:26 And Isaiah 51 verses 1 and verse 3 says, "Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness. 0:45 You who seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug." And verse 3, "For the Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places. 1:03 He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in it. Thanksgiving and the voice of melody." I know that in a church like ours, there can be a strong temptation to keep up 1:22 appearances if things are not going well spiritually. To continue to say and do the right things. But spiritually it's like a wilderness. In verse 1, it says the Lord says to those who want to be righteous 1:41 and seek him for them to look and to see the pit where God had pulled them from to be saved for himself. And in verse 3, it says, "He will make your wilderness into Eden and the desert like a garden. 2:01 Uh and not just a regular garden, which would be a miracle in and of itself, but make that desert that dry place like the Garden of Eden. Um there's a song that we used to sing when I was growing was growing up and it says 2:18 the one line says that God specializes in things that are impossible. Uh and he can do what no other power can do and that he can take a wilderness >> [snorts] >> or something that was that is spiritually dry and make it as the 2:37 garden of God, as a rivers of of living water. Uh I praise the Father that there are no lost causes with God. As long as there is life, there is hope. Uh in Matthew 12 and 20, [snorts] >> [snorts] 3:06 >> and it's talking about uh Isaiah who's prophesying about Jesus. And in verse uh Matthew 12, verse 20, it says, "A bruised wheat reed he will not break and smoking flax he will not quench 3:25 till he sends forth justice to victory." And this always blesses me because it says even if a candle uh is about to go out, and it's not giving any light, it's not giving any heat, 3:44 uh basically good for nothing. It's is about to go out. And when most people would just cut their losses and and um put it out and then start over with a new candle. God is not like that. That even if the spiritual dryness is my 4:02 own doing if we are honest and if I am honest with the Lord he can take that spiritual dryness and make it into garden of God, the garden of Eden. And another verse that really blesses me 4:20 is Zechariah 8:13 that even if I've come to a time where my life is not a blessing, is not a blessing to others and as we were hearing today it's it 4:38 hearing the high standards in the church where the standard is very high and there's a temptation even in my heart to keep up appearances specially if things are not spiritually good. I'm in a I'm in a bad place spiritually 4:55 that I can try to keep up appearances and and as Santos was saying today fake it until I make it. If I can just keep up those appearances until it becomes a reality in my life. But there's that honesty that we heard about today 5:12 that I can come to this life. Zechariah 8:13 13 And it says it shall come to pass that just as you were a curse among the nations oh house of Judah and house of Israel so I will save you. 5:30 And you shall be a blessing. Do not fear. Let your hands be strong. And this this blesses this really blesses me to see the great care and concern that the Lord has for those who are honest with this about their spiritual 5:48 condition and seek for his help and come to him and cry out to him for help that this is my spiritual condition and Lord, I need your help. And the Lord is there to help us and because he sees that honesty that we've come to to the end of ourselves 6:08 and that he can help us and take that wilderness and that dryness and make it into a garden of God. Amen. Thank you, brothers, for sharing. And just a few days ago, one of my colleagues at work at work 6:26 asked a group of us a question. Um What would you do if you knew you only had a few years left to live? How would you spend the rest of your days? And I was thinking about the question. I was thinking >> [snorts] >> well, that's not even hypothetical. 6:42 Um not necessarily. Maybe one of us in the circle does have only a few years left. Or even if we have, I don't know, 30, 40 years what difference does that have to make? Um shouldn't we live all our years similarly? And the answers were intriguing as we 7:01 went around the circle. Some of them said, "Well, I would want to go to Greece." Or um or you know, some vacation somewhere. Some of them said "Well, I'll max out all my credit cards cuz I don't have to pay it back." Um 7:13 different answers, I mean, different intriguing things, but it seemed like it and I I don't despise anybody's answers. It was not a condescending time for me to look at all the silly answers people were giving and thinking I was better than all of them. 7:28 But they don't have the hope that that is in me. Um and it was all just a variation of um what Paul said, "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die." Um whatever it is, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years. Let's just make the best of life now. 7:46 And in a worldly sense, that sounds okay, right? If you don't have the hope of everlasting life, of living with Christ for all eternity. Doesn't that sound fine that let's live our best life now anyways, we're going to die. 8:01 But there is something morbid about that, the more I thought about it, that it's like death is an enemy that's lurking. We don't know how close he is. He might be really close. He might be just around the corner. Maybe he's two streets away. Maybe he's 8:15 in in the next town. But [clears throat] he's coming and he's going to get us and he's going to defeat us. And until then, let's try to live the best life we can and that would be a terrible life to live just expecting death to come at any time. We don't know 8:31 when. Nobody tells us when we're going to die. But until then, I'm just going to enjoy my life and I was thinking of where that phrase first appeared in Isaiah 22. Um, and verse 13. So, Isaiah is This is an oracle concerning Jerusalem. He takes a break 8:49 from um, talking to other countries like Egypt and Babylon and he comes to Jerusalem. And Isaiah is actually trying to bring their attention to judgment that's coming. Death is coming. And instead of turning to the Lord, 9:05 um, the people living in Jerusalem um, I'll I'll read from verse 8 onwards. In that day, you looked at the weapons of the house of the forest. And you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower 9:24 pool and you counted the houses of Jerusalem. And you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it or see him who planned it long ago. 9:39 In that day the Lord of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness, and wearing sackcloth. And behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we 9:53 die. And Isaiah was trying to trying to tell them, "Judgment is coming. It's time for mourning." But the people said, "Well, tomorrow we die. We're going to die anyway. This judgment's going to come. There's no escaping it. So we're going to eat and 10:08 drink." >> [snorts] >> And I was thinking of Paul repeated that verse in in 1 Corinthians 15. Um and verse 32. Uh [snorts] what do I gain if humanly 10:26 speaking I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. And he was saying that if death is all we're waiting for, that's the end, there's no hope of the resurrection 10:41 beyond it. If death is a lurking enemy who's going to get us at some point, then yeah, it's right. Let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. But and also in verse 15 he says, "When we are found um we are even found to be misrepresenting 11:00 God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom if he did not raise, and the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised." And verse 19, "If in Christ we have hope 11:16 >> [snorts] >> in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." But verse 20, "But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by one man came death, 11:30 by one man has also come the resurrection of the dead. And [snorts] I was thinking that even as Santosh was speaking this morning that the hope that I have or the life that I'm living from now till the time Jesus comes or till I die 11:43 is not just is not just end in death. Death is not an enemy that I have to fear. There's another verse in this chapter that says that uh in fact I can read that verse. Um Verse 54, when the perishable puts on imperishable and the mortal puts on 11:59 immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God 12:13 who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus our Lord." And death is referred to as the last enemy. That for us, for me as a believer in Christ, I don't I don't just live until my life ends. I don't just wait for the enemy death to 12:27 get me. I wait for the resurrection. I remember I was once on a flight that was about to land here in Denver and um I think it took three or four attempts for the pilot because he was not able to get it right. And at one point he twisted the flight 12:40 in a weird angle. I was sitting towards the window. And as I looked out the window I could see the ground. It was it was dark so I could see the lights of the city and it seemed like it was getting closer and closer although it 12:52 probably wasn't it's probably just my um paranoia but seemed like we were getting closer and closer and I was like, "Wow, feel like I'm getting closer and closer to death." And at that moment the Lord reminded me, "No, you're getting closer 13:03 and closer to seeing me, to seeing my face, to seeing the scars on my hands and my feet, to walking with me through the streets of gold." And when the moment that thought came into my mind I was like, "Lord, I don't care if 13:16 this flight goes down. Death is not an enemy I fear. Even death has been defeated by you, Lord." And I was blessed also by what brother Olu shared yesterday about not getting tired um enduring till the end. And sometimes [snorts] 13:35 even as Santosh was speaking this morning, I thought you know my when Paul was writing to the Ephesians Christians, Ephesians were very good church. They're not like the Corinthians. But even to them Paul in verse Ephesians 1 13:50 and verse 18 says, his prayer is that the eyes of their hearts might be enlightened all over again. The Ephesians, they were good Christians. They were already living a very at a very high spiritual standard, but even to them Paul says, 14:03 may the eyes of your heart be enlightened. That you may see what is the hope to which you were called. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in saint saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power 14:16 towards us to believe? That I don't have to live this life by my own strength. What I want to do, what I want to accomplish here to fulfill God's purpose, I don't have to do it by my own strength. There's great power that's 14:27 given to me. >> [snorts] >> And what is my answer finally to that question? I was thinking in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58. 57 says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus our Lord. And 58, therefore my beloved 14:42 brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. I don't know how many years, I don't know where death is, but I know I don't look forward to 14:55 death. I look forward to the face of my savior. I look forward to living eternally with him. And until then my labor is not in vain. Amen. >> [music]
