Who Is My One? | The Sandhurst Podcast

On this week's episode, Will and Adam discuss this Sunday's sermon, encouraging us to pray about the "one" person we are trying to win for Christ.  Who is your one?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

All right. Welcome to the Sandhurst podcast, Beyond Sunday. We want to equip the Saints to think biblically about God, life, and culture so that our faith goes beyond Sunday. So thanks for joining us, everyone. Uh Memorial Day weekend, beautiful. Staff retreat, beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Okay. Uh Memorial Day weekend was beautiful because of the concept. I love Memorial Day weekend, but it was not beautiful otherwise. But uh had a had a great time. And honestly, uh, I really do, I I've really only learned to appreciate Memorial Day as an adult. You know, we we knew about it as kids, but to me, it was more of like the kickoff of summers when the pool opened. Uh but now as an adult, I look back and I'm like, man, it it really matters. And I'm really thankful that we it gives us that opportunity to stop and think about those things that that matter, like the sacrifices of those who have for us.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Yeah, and I appreciated you, your kind of moment on Sunday. Um that helped me. And actually, before we prayed for the meal on Memorial Day, I did like just a 30-second little redirect of you know all the kids in the room, and for the adults too, redirect of okay, why why are we celebrating this and what is it about? So yeah, and that was because of your moment. So yeah, thank you. Um we uh we had a little adventure on Staff Retreat. Uh we talked about it's the last uh the last last podcast that it was coming up, and uh it was in the beach, and we took some kayaks out. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. So that was one of those adventures that just kind of became an adventure. We took some kayaks out in the intercoastal and decided, hey, let's just take it out into the the ocean. Go straight out. We're we're going like straight Christopher Columbus, Magellan.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

And what was interesting is, you know, so we hadn't pre-planned this. I was in a sea kayak, but Will was in a normal, like a river kayak. And uh, you know, so in your defense, you know, it it they're they're they're they're nimble, but the other word for nimble is tippy. And we're and we're saying, you know, let's just go straight into the waves. And we did, and you know, we realized we were going in this point, and the waves just kept coming again. And I looked out and there were just waves, it's breakers, not just waves, breakers as far as I could see.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

I felt like castaway. You know castaway when he was like trying to get off the island? I felt like I just needed that, what was it, a porta potty thing that you used as a sail? Yeah, that's what it needed. I sink. I sink before we didn't.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Yeah, we ended up back on the shore, dumping number kayaks. Uh, and we realized if we just walk down the shore 200 yards, the breakers are only what, like 50, 50 yards, you know. And we can like, so we just kind of did the old, you know, yeah, and we got through it.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

And uh and then riding waves on a kayak, dude, that's unbelievable. I don't know, I've never done that, but yeah, that was fun.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

It was great. Yeah, that was fun. And then and literally just literally just right up on shore.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Adam, true story. Adam, the the first wave that we caught, uh, he my my my kayak was full of a little bit of water. That's my excuse here. But Adam literally rode on top of my kayak. Well, yeah. Yeah, kind of like watching from shore, you can even see me.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Well, I I you know the thing about a kayak is it they're hard to steer. They have no right. And all of a sudden it starts, you know, you're coming along, and I'm coming because I'm on top of this thing and I'm coming down, and I'm like, oh man, and I was like, there is no stop in it. And I just ran the little porn, you know, and then boom, and and then next thing I know, I'm alone, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yes, and I was thinking again. All right, well, it was a great time. And uh so thanks for bringing in here on the podcast. The um here here's what I want to do in the podcast today. We want to think about the gospel, okay? The content of the gospel, implications of the gospel, and then how the implications of the gospel then impact normal life.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

And I think this is really important because for a lot of people listening, they're gonna hear that and go, yeah, uh, what's the big deal? Like the gospel, John 3 16. I know, I know Jesus. I prayed the prayer. Like, what else is there? And for those people, um, first of all, I was you. I I I was I was that. And as I have kind of moved into the layers of what that means for my life, it has been one of, if not the most enriching thing I've ever done is to drill down on this concept of the gospel, which is so much bigger than it gets credit for.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, and maybe a a better, sort of richer word for than implications of the gospel would be treasures. Yeah. And when you dig into the gospel, you start to find treasures. And then how do those treasures start to impact normal life?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

You know, and and I think one way for me to conceptualize is that we talk about filters, right? A filter through which you, you know, you you view the world or life. And sometimes the gospel is called a filter by which we see everything. And I think that doesn't do it justice. Um uh, you know, Lewis said, you know, I I believe in God like I, you know, as it were believe in the sun. I I I don't, I don't, I don't see light, but I see every single thing because of the light. And I feel like the gospel in is the same way. It's not the filter, it is the light. And it is the it it it it is what we it it creates the way literally that we experience every single thing in our lives.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Yeah. Uh that that's that's really good. The so let me back up just a little bit, kind of frame the context. Why are we talking about this now? And then we'll jump in. Okay, so we're studying through 1 Corinthians in uh the worship gathering, and Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 9 this why, this this reason, this motivation that he has behind so much of what he does. And in one word, his why is win. I want to win you. I want to win people. I'm gonna become all things to all people so that by all means I might save some. So um his why was, well, I want to win people. And we in in um the the the gathering tried to connect his why to his call. That this is what God had called him to do.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah, so what you're saying is, okay, he he wants this role bad, he wants to win people. But why does he want to win people? Like, what's behind that even?

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Yes, what was what was behind that? One one thing was, well, this is what God had called him to do. And that and then we saw that's not just what God called Paul to do, this is what God has called all believers to do. That we are ambassadors for God as though God were making it making an appeal through who? Us. And then he says, be we beg you, be reconciled to God. That that is the language of someone who's got a passion. I want to I don't want to just say words. I want to win you. So um his why, win. What was behind that? God's call. This past Sunday we tried to go, okay, well, let's let's go a little bit another layer deeper and tie this motivation to win, not just to God's call, but to God's heart, who God is. And that's why we went to Luke 15 and looked at these three parables of that basically show basically they do they show God's heart. Lost people matter to God. Heaven rejoices when, when one, one sinner repents.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

And I think that's so important because getting to the heart of God, because often a lot of us grew up understanding the gospel as what we believed to get out of hell. In other words, the uh the core motivation was my experience, my future experience. And I was gonna kind of like, you know, choose your own adventure. You can choose a future adventure to be in heaven with God, or you can choose your uh an adventure to be in hell with Satan and his demons. And so the reason that you should believe this and do this is because of your future eternities at stake. And it is, we do believe that. But the main thing that God is offering is not a ticket out of hell. The main thing God is offering is life. Life to know him, to be a part of a family, to be a son or a daughter of God, and to experience fellowship with God, which extends into eternity in what we call heaven.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Yeah. 100%. Totally agree. And so we're looking at uh winning motivation, tying that back into God's heart, lost people matter to God. And so we have encouraged, challenged, asked our church to thoughtfully, prayerfully consider this week who is your one. And and by one, we mean who's the unbeliever you're seeking to win. Okay, so that's that's kind of framing this out. And and in my own heart, just trying to go, okay, um, if there's going to be, if I'm gonna choose my one, the the lost person that the unbeliever that I'm seeking to win to Jesus, then we know that part of winning people is going to be sharing the gospel. And I'm just I started to ask myself, well, I've asked myself this a lot for a lot of years. Why don't I share the gospel more? And here's one reason. Well, it's not usually because of fear, it's not usually because I feel like I'm not equipped. At the end of the day, well, Jesus would say, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so at the end of the day, while unpleasant and um and and I don't like this, at the end of the day, my words are tattletaling on my heart that while I really believe that the gospel is good news, my words are exposing. I actually don't think it's that much of a treasure to me. And so why why don't why don't I share the gospel more with people? Here's why I think it's true for me and for a lot of us. Um at the end of the day, there's a lot of things I love more than God, more than Jesus, more than the gospel. And so what a the the goal for digging into the content of the gospel today and the treasures that come out of the gospel and the impact is to help our church to to think biblically, to go, okay, to help us come to love it because we're going to talk about what we love.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Right. And and I think that's really important to see that God to value this not because you should, you know, um, or because it's right, but to value it because it's what we were made to value. If if we're made in God's image and God values it, we were made to value it. And so when we don't, we are out of alignment with the heart of God. We're out of alignment with who we were made to be. And we've all had that experience, you know, like um when you're trying to explain to someone something that matters and they just can't, they just don't think they don't care about that. So, you know, I'll use an example of, for example, trying to explain to my kids the the the importance and the need to budget, right? Or to have a spending plan with your money. And uh, and maybe they're like, oh, I don't really care about that. And you're thinking, okay, I I know as an adult, this is really important. Like you need to know how to do this and and and it's gonna impact your life. And they're like, uh, whatever. You know, I'm not saying they do that, but I'm just saying that that when when when someone you're talking to just does not seem to click into something that you know is important, and I don't mean it's a preference. Like if you love uh Wolverine and they don't love Wolverine, okay, that's fine. Who who cares about that? Like I might care about that, but but that doesn't matter in the end. But for things that really matter, like for things for which you were made, for your design and the heart of God, to not connect to those things, uh, that matters. And that's gonna be a diminished life in you and through you. So the the the these things matter not just because they're right or good or we should, but because we were made for it. And when we don't uh live into it, then we are really denying part of ourselves, our design.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Yeah. So so if I could wave a magic wand today, we would know the gospel better. Okay, that would be the content. We would treasure the gospel more. Like we could love it. Like this is good. Yeah. Like that moment when you can know something's good, but then when you taste it, it's like this is good. And then um what we treasure, those are gonna that's gonna be the stuff that we talk about. So that's that's why I want to be looking at gospel content, treasure, and um and impact. All right, so let's uh let's jump into gospel content. What is the gospel? All right, um it helped me I it might have been middle school, maybe it was high school, maybe it was college, I don't know. Uh, but to to sort of break the gospel down into four categories. And so I want to start there and then see how how scripture would um would speak to these categories of the gospel. And these categories are the gospel starts with God's intent, God's intent being relationship, then moves to man's problem. Man's problem is sin and therefore separation from God, then God's solution, God's solution in one word, Jesus, his death and resurrection, and then man's response, faith. So those are those are the four sort of categories. Uh God's intent, man's problem, God's solution, man's response. That's uh sort of categories for the gospel. Let's uh let's see it in scripture though, and uh are there any passages that come to mind for you that would go, okay, that this is a passage that really helps um draw out sort of those categories of the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Well, you know, there are passages that explain things really well. Sentences, paragraphs. I mean, if you put it in a sentence, John 3.16 really captures the whole picture. Um paragraphs, you know, you think about I think about Philippians 2 or other paragraphs or Ephesians 2. Um for a s for a phrase, like in talking about man's problem. To me, the the real the the the kicker phrase is Romans 3 23. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Bam, there it is. That's that's a problem.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Why okay, yeah all have sinned fallen short of the glory of God. Break that down a little bit. Why is that a problem? Or what does that even mean and why is that a problem?

SPEAKER_00 13:47

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God means that we have fallen short uh when when it's the the those two um those two phrases aren't different, they're the same, right? So for all have sinned and we have missed the mark, right? To sin means to miss the mark, and falling short of the glory of God means to uh disqualify yourself from fellowship with God, literally. That that we that if God is holy and uh to be intimate with God, to be personal with God, to be loved and loving God back requires uh a holiness that we don't have, a purity that we don't have. And therefore we have fallen short and we are disqualified from fellowship with God.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Uh disqualified, yeah. That that language really resonates with me. And and disqualified from fellowship with God is damning.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

So um yeah, that that articulates man's problem. If we're gonna back up even before that and go, okay, before there was a problem, there was actually God's intent. Because God we have God's intent, man's problem, God's solution, man's response. I I think it really matters in terms of understanding the gospel that uh the good news actually didn't start with a problem, it started with goodness, it started with bliss. Like what was God's intent before we had a problem? And one passage that comes to mind is we got Genesis one and two. That that is going to give us a window into how God intended things to be. And and then when when we look at God's command in Genesis 1 and 2, then I think most of us would think, okay, well, what was the command God gave Adam and Eve? Don't eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That's true, but it's not the first command God gave. That command came later. Uh the the first command God gave them is what's called uh the creation mandate. And it's in Genesis 1, 28, and it says this. It's not it says, well, back up to verse 27. It says, God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Okay, so we we're starting. God's intent to have image-bearing creatures, okay? But image-bearing creatures that do what? Verse 28. God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So uh creation mandate starts with God's intent that says, uh, I've created you, man and woman, in my image, so that to experience these image-bearing creatures would be able to you'd be able to see God in people in a way that was unique from the rest of creation. And that, you know, the Psalms will talk about the the glory of God filling the earth. May the whole earth be filled with the glory of God. How does that happen? Here's here's how it happens according to the creation mandate in Genesis 1, 27 and 28. Is as image-bearing creatures do exactly what creation fill the earth, and as image bearers fill the earth, then then God's nature is filling the earth, and that gives glory to him. So God's intent is for people in his image to fill the earth, and when that happens, the whole earth is filled with the glory of God.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

And I and I think it cannot be overlooked that while many things could fill the earth, like vines, like weeds, other animal ants, okay, many things can fill the earth. One thing they cannot do, and you you you kept saying it that there as as image bearers, what we were given part of the the the main part of the mandate I see here is to yes, fill the earth and rule over it. To to you're to be the vice regents. You're to to to lead it in my place. You're to literally be my ambassadors with my authority to lead and and govern the earth, to to demonstrate my nature and to maintain my order. So, like that's what what I mean, it says, fill the earth, yes, and subdue it, rule over the fish of the sea and over every um bird of the air and every living creature that moves on the ground. And so, so he's like, I'm I'm I'm making you the rulers of my creation.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah, this is God's intent. Yeah. Um, that the whole earth would be filled with the glory of God. Yeah. How does that happen? When people who are made his in his image are fruitful and multiply and live in love and obedience to him, and that is the way things were meant to be. This is God's intent. Amen. Moving on to man's problem. Yep. You read Romans 3.23. Yep. So we've hit that. Um, I want to read some some some of the things.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

And so um one thing about Romans 3.23, now in the context of Genesis 4 and 2. Uh, so so now what we see is to be disqualified is to act, to rule unjustly, you know, to rule without love, to rule without kindness, to rule without peace, to rule without all the elements of God's nature that are put in us. And so that disqualifies us for the role that he gave us. And that's that's what's sad and breaks God's heart. And that's he longs for humanity to come back to our design and to come back to the nature that he gave us in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Yeah. Amen. Yes. So this is man's problem, and I want to read some some passages that are really for me have helped uh understand the content of the gospel because they speak to man's problem and they speak to God's solution and they speak to man uh man's response. Uh Ephesians 2, Colossians 2, Romans 3. All right, so let me let me read some of those. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. That's called a problem. Yeah. You're dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. This is Ephesians 2. According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. So you talked about like falling short of the glory of God from Romans 3 23. Uh, yes. And what does that make us by nature children of wrath? Not because God is mean, but because he's so holy that that by his nature, it's like light. What does light do? It burns away the darkness. That is the holiness of God cannot um come upon sin without destroying it.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Yeah, and imagine the reason, again, this is so important. It's the heart of God. It's not that he's just some mean taskmaster who's just ready to zap you and and and it's that imagine that that you left on vacation for a week and you left your kids with uh a babysitter who comes and stays at your house and abuses your house, abuses your kids. When you came back, how would you feel about that? You wouldn't be indifferent and go, well, I'm not gonna be a mean person. No, you would want justice and and you would want them to have ruled in alignment with your heart, with your values, in a way that was loving and kind and and would bring life, not death. And uh, and and what humanity has done is we have taken the life of God, abused it, turned it inwardly, like when Adam and Eve ate the apple, and then all of a sudden, like it's about me, it's not about you. And I'm gonna go my own way, not your way, I'm gonna go the way of death, not life. Now we've led in a direction that brings more and more death, not life. And so God's call, God's heart is for us to experience his life and to multiply his life. And that's why this is so critical, so important, because we have those two paths. It's not, yes, the path of heaven and hell are the destinations, but they're only the destination of the journey of a journey of life or a journey of death. And God is calling us from one to the other.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah. So in gener generally speaking, what we've said so far, uh at least generally, most religions and most people are going to agree with that there's this sense things are not the way they're supposed to be. People in the world, we are broken in some way. Uh now Scripture is going to direct us to, okay, what is that problem? Well, that problem is sin, um, and that we fall short of the glory of God. Where the big twist happens is what is the solution to this problem? So if we if I sense there's something broken in me. Uh if if you're watching a good sort of movie, then you know the person sees the brokenness and then they decide to make a change, and you know, and Rocky starts working out or something, and you know, it's just like he makes the change. And it's like I there's brokenness, and here's here's the next phrases that would come out of that. So I fill in the blank. So I started getting up earlier. So I started, so I started making a change. And that is just not what Ephesians 2 says in response to man's problem. It's not a so I, here's what he says, verse 4, right after he says, children of wrath, even as the rest. Not so I, but verse 4 says, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. It's not obligation, it's love. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, here's what he did. He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. God's solution to the sin problem in one word, Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Now he's going to give us some. Okay, so what's man's response to this?

SPEAKER_00 23:18

He raised and I'll say one thing about that in in your in Ephesians 2. Yep. So good. So good. Um, because uh I before we get to the solution, and you're right, the the twist is most evident when it comes to the solution, like that between Christianity, what separates Christianity from every single other religion or anti-religion in the world. And it's and it truly is alone in this. But it the solution is different because the way that we perceive the problem is different. I think we all, you're right, that we all perceive that there's something broken in the world, even broken in us. There's lots of problems. But I think one thing that Christianity does is it actually correctly diagnoses the problem as completely to the core. Like that man is sinful to his core.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Yeah, that's a great point.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

And and so uh band-aids won't help, uh uh behavior modification won't help. Like you say, if you just uh, you know, whether it's Eastern detachment, whether it's Western goal setting, you know, whether whatever your solution to this problem is, it will not go deep enough because you can't dig that deep.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Only God can and yeah, when when you say it like that correctly, diagnosing the problem, then you can appreciate that I I start to go I'm already starting to sense, yeah, this is a treasure. Yeah. This is not just a message. It is a message.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

And if you've ever been to a doctor that got something that like if you've been in pain and you know, solution after solution, not nothing worked. And then finally you got the real diagnosis, and it was much worse than you think. But that's the best news you've ever had. Now you have something you can work with. And I think that's what Christianity actually is.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Yeah, it's it's good news if there's a solution to it. Yeah, yeah. There is.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yeah, and and that that's that is the beautiful thing is that God is correctly diagnosed. It is a horrible problem, far worse than any other religion gives it credit for, and it's only something God can fix. You just can't, humans just can't dig that deep.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Correct. So uh we've looked at God's intent, man's problem, God's solution, and now what is man's response? Ephesians 2 tells us. For by grace you have been saved. Okay, so man's response is not work hard, merit. It comes by grace, God's solution comes by grace, but for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no man may boast. Man's response to God's solution is in one word, faith. Faith, believe, uh, same Greek root word there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

And I and I I'm gonna uh steal yours, because actually, back in, I don't know, college, high school, I memorized these verses, Ephesians 2, 8, 9. They're famous for a reason. Uh, for by grace you have been saved through faith. It is the gift of God, not by works. It just it's like piles it on, just so you know, God did this so that no one can boast. And what I love is, and I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but I love is that the next verse takes us right back to the beginning of God's heart. Four, yeah, you are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, like Genesis 1 and 2. You're created in Christ Jesus to do good work, to do beautiful things, wonderful things, strong things, godly things, holy things created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God Himself has prepared in advance for us to do. We don't even have to do it. We just have to live out what he has prepared for us. So he has dug that deep. He has brought us a well of living water that we couldn't reach, but he reached it and gave it to us. And so now we drink from that well of divine strength, power, glory. Uh Ephesians 2 calls it grace. And uh and it's beautiful, it's wonderful, it's healing, and it's life.

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Amen. So um before we just dig more into this for some of the treasures that come out of this. One treasure is that you mentioned earlier, one treasure that comes out of the gospel is eternal life. Scripture speaks to that, John 3.16, you know, uh, so that those who believe in him would not perish but have eternal life. That's one treasure. But I want to get to what are some other treasures? Before that, I we just read Ephesians 2. I want to read one more passage just to maybe actually I want to read two more passages with less commentary, but just to let scripture speak to these um to the gospel. We just read Ephesians 2, here's Colossians 2. When you were dead in your transgressions, okay, man's problem. Yeah. And the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him. God's solution is Jesus. Here's how. Having forgiven us all our transgressions, having, this is so good, canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us. Like you we all have a sin debt, and it's not just a couple things, a couple like bullet points long, it is reams long. And what did God do? It says that the um the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. So um the gospel, the good news that uh that this certificate of debt of decrees against me that are condemning me rightly have been nailed to the cross. This is the gospel. One more passage. Romans three. Verse 20, because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. That's called problem. There's nothing I can do to save myself. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. So I, nope. Verse 21 says, But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Hmm, where have we heard that before? Adam, you already read that verse. Being justified, that means declared righteous, as a gift by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation, that means um where where God's wrath is satisfied, in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration I say of this righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. This is the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

And so what we're seeing here is that God gave us the solution to a debt that we could not pay because we were we as humans had a debt against God. Who can pay a debt to a God? Only a God. But who needed to pay it? A man. And so a God, man, came and paid the debt to, and he had the power, Jesus Christ had the power to dig that deep, to offer to God a full sacrifice, God to God, but on behalf of man, man to man. And so it's a beautiful and amazing solution that God gave us. I think of it, uh, the there's a story that kind of helps capture this for me that if you've um, you know, as a driver, if I had had a wreck in a certain town and the the I'm sitting before the judge, and the judge says, you know, for various reasons, this there's going to be a million dollar payment on this. And I don't have a million dollars. I'm just, I just don't have the funds. Um, but he takes off his robe, comes down, writes a check for a million dollars, gives it to me, goes back up to the judge and says, paid in full with his own uh with his own funds. And so it's like God paid our debt with his funds, but it wasn't funds, it was life, life for life. He paid his life for ours so that we could be free. So to me, that that's the beauty and the wonder, the glory of the gospel.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Yeah. And I think one one thing that the passages that we read didn't they talked specifically about Jesus, but they didn't with these passages didn't specifically references both the the death and resurrection of Jesus. And I guess Colossians 2 talks about having nailed it to the cross. Right. But death and resurrection being so essential to the gospel, the death being the sacrifice that you just referenced, but also his resurrection. That who presents that sacrifice then to God? Well, what does Hebrews say? Jesus. He's the one who goes before God with his own blood and um presents that sacrifice. And so uh the the death of Jesus that removes sin, the life of Jesus that's uh his his resurrection life that gives us that allows us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. So both when we're talking the good news of the gospel content, it is Jesus, his death and his resurrection. Yeah. Um I appreciate stories really help kind of flesh out or help us capture the significance of the gospel. You just shared one. And one of the things that's helped me go from understanding or kind of hearing gospel concepts to kind of starting to get it has been Old Testament shadows. Okay, in Colossians 2, actually, right after where I stopped reading, uh, Paul talks about the the the shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. And so the the Old Testament gives us all these shadows, and then when Jesus comes on the scene, Paul's like, yep, Jesus was the substance of that shadow. And so there's there's old testament shadows. Oh, I want to share one that just kind of helps me get the gospel. Uh, and it's actually one that Jesus used to help somebody else, a religious person, get the gospel, and that is Nicodemus in John 3. Um, he's trying to help Nicodemus get the gospel of new life, of being born again, and Nicodemus, he's just not getting it. And so Jesus references in John 3 in his conversation with Nicodemus um an old testament shadow, and that is when Israel's wandering in the wilderness, they begin to grumble, and so in response to their grumbling, God sends some serpents, and I want to read it to you, and then uh and then I'll read something that just like really, really impacted my understanding of faith. It's from A. W. Tozer. So here's the passage that Jesus references in his conversation with Nicodemus. It says, The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. Man's problem. So the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and you. Intercede with the Lord, that he may remove the serpents from us. We need someone outside ourselves to help us, intercede for us. Okay. Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard, and it shall come about that everyone who is bit is that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live. So Moses does it, and it happens. Let me read now what A. W. Tozer says, and this is uh from the book, The Pursuit of God, chapter seven, is called The Gaze of the Soul. And this really helped me understand, especially the fourth part of okay, man's response, this whole idea of faith, and how this Old Testament shadow that Jesus used in John 3 helps me understand faith. This is what it says. In the New Testament, this is a this important bit of history is interpreted for us by no less an authority than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is explaining to his hearers how they may be saved. He tells them that it is by believing. John 3, 16, we've already referenced it. Then to make it clear, he refers to this incident in the book of Numbers. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. Our pl our plain man in reading this would make an important discovery. I think this is so good. He would notice that look and believe were synonymous terms. Looking on the Old Testament serpent is identical with believing on the New Testament Christ. That is, the looking and the believing are the same thing. And he would understand that while Israel looked with external eyes, believing, uh believing is done with the heart. I think he would conclude that faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God. He later says, faith is the least that this actually sounds very similar to what you're saying about light that you don't see it, but um helps you see. Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself. Faith is occupied with the object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves blessed ridden riddance. Faith is not in itself a meritorious act. The merit is on the one toward whom it is directed. Faith is redirectoring of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus. Last sentence. Sin has twisted our vision inward and made it self-regarding. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

Yeah. Mic drop. Yeah, I mean, but the I think one thing that stuck out to me and so important for our modern world is the statement that faith is not a meritorious act. Uh, there was a book recently um called Just Have a Little Faith. And um, it mentioned that the important thing was just to have faith and to believe, no matter what it was. And it really switched the virtue from the object of your faith to you having faith. But we all know that in reality, having faith is nothing if the object of your faith can't sustain it. Uh, and so for us as I think one of common mistakes that Christians who think they're Christians and may not be are often thinking, well, I believe in my mind that Jesus, you know, lived and died and rose from the dead. Well, guess what? Satan believes that. So what's the difference between Satan's faith and your faith? And I think one or two things stands out. First, the the idea that you uh are actually believing not just with your mind, but with your heart and your life. You have to believe with your life. You can't just accept the offer in your mind. You accept the offer with your life and follow Jesus as a disciple. You're not just a believer, you're a disciple. And the second thing is that uh you that you you love this object of your of your faith. You you you embrace the Christ and and pursue him and that that realize that the faith is is not what's great. That God is what's great. You know, like the eye doesn't see itself, it sees what's in front of it. And the faith doesn't uh embrace itself, it embraces the object. And so that we as Christians embrace Christ as the object of our faith.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Now, okay, so I mean this is just really good. And now as we begin to see that just as I am saved by grace through faith, and faith is the gaze of the soul upon a living God, a saving God, then and I understand then that I'm not just saved by faith, I'm called to live by faith. Now the gospel and the content of the gospel starts to um not not unravel in a bad way, but starts to uh come to life as I take um the realities of the gospel and continue to look to God in um in whatever's happening in life. So uh I want to dig into the treasures here, but give kind of a quick example that fleshes out what I'm saying. Um let's say in the in the service, you know, I'm singing, and in the back of my mind, um maybe I'm just not in it for whatever reason. I maybe got in a fight with my wife, you know, on the way to church. We don't drive to church together, so but uh whatever it is. What what is what does faith do? Looks the gaze of the soul upon God and and what he has done as articulated in the gospel, that what the rescue that he has accomplished, the forgiveness that he has offered, the certificate of debt that he nailed to the cross. And then what does that do to my heart when I'm starting to sing? It gives me legitimate, legitimate reasons to open my mouth that that my lips would declare his praise.

SPEAKER_00 40:55

You know, uh it makes me think about the analogy probably breaks down, but just you know, the idea of the gospel being something that we embrace, we believe, we we love. And then it begins to, as you say, unfold and begins to color everything in our lives in a way that brings life to all of those areas. You think about going to have a good meal, a nutritious meal. You know, let's say uh you go to the steakhouse and you get the good one. What's the what's the good steak? Uh filet, filet, fillet, yeah. Porter house, a little bit of everything, yeah. All in one. You have this beautiful steak. You have some broccoli, maybe a sweet potato, whatever it is, and you get these nutrients. A lot of if you think about the gospel in terms of the nutrients we take in, now that meal becomes the energy by which you do everything else in your life. You that becomes the energy by which you relate to your kids and love your wife and do the lawn work or go to work or whatever you do. But that those nutrients begin to uh to empower you to do all these other things. And it's like the gospel is this treasure that we have that begins to to nourish our souls and bring life to all the other areas of our souls, of our of our lives.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Yeah. Yeah. So those those nutrients, those treasures that are that come from the gospel. Let's let's dig into that a little bit. Yeah. Talked about the content of the gospel. What are some treasures? Eternal life is one of them. And don't want to underestimate that. First Corinthians 15 is going to uh talk a lot about the glorified body that we get to be able to enjoy forever with God in heaven, uh in the new heaven and new earth because of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So that that that is a treasure. And I think the older you get, and and the honestly, the more people that we just have we have a lot of hurting people in our church in terms of cancer. I don't want to discount that as well, well, you know, that's that's no. The the the hope of eternal life is a treasure and an eternal life of a glorified state enjoying God forever. That that's a treasure.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Yeah. Yeah. I have a friend who passed away um recently, and you know, he went from full speed to passing away from cancer in about uh an under six months, and it was just heartbreaking. And but um, and and that grief is real and it matters to him, to his family, to me. But the grief is swallowed up in a greater hope, a living hope, that for eternity he will have a glorified body which can stand in the presence of God, which is another gift from God, to be able to enjoy uh complete fellowship and perfect fellowship with God and all the saints who've gone before. And I look forward to that day too. And what a beautiful and glorious uh existence that will be when that time comes.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Yeah. Eternal life as a treasure that uh guess dug out of the gospel, and uh a slice of that, and then an additional slice comes out of Second Corinthians four. There's another gospel treasure. Therefore, we do not lose heart. But though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day for momentary light affliction. Cancer, hardship, difficulty, unemployment, this light momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look, ah, gaze of the soul, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. So digging into the gospel, and I see that the gospel is the good news that I have an eternity with God, and that the hardships that I go through now are actually they're not meaningless. They're producing what he says, an eternal weight of glory. So, therefore, verse 16, we do not lose heart. We don't give up, we don't throw in the towel. We have so a treasure that comes out of the out of the gospel, a real reason for endurance.

SPEAKER_00 45:24

Yeah, that's good. Yeah, absolutely. And uh, you know, you can't say weight of glory, not reference to us uh who one of his most famous essays, The Weight of Glory, uh, is uh is on on this very on this very passage. But um, for for me, when I think of one of the implications or sort of resonances of the gospel in life comes from uh Ephesians 5. Uh and I mean uh Paul just puts it right there on the low shelf. He says, Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, making her holy, cleansing her by washing of the water in the word, to present her to himself a radiant church. So husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. At the core of our faith is a Savior who died and rose again, like you say, death and resurrection, so that we might die to sin and live to God's life. So at the core of our faith is life comes out of death. Now, everybody likes to talk about it, Phoenix out of the ashes, this kind of thing. But God actually did it and gave it to us as a gift. And this pattern of life out of death, when you run it out into your whole life, um, you know, Jesus said, if you'd come after me, uh let him uh die to himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would lose his life would find it, and whoever would find his life would lose it. So if we if we if we follow that pattern and die to our sin, to live to God's life, God's life will begin to permeate each area of our lives, our marriages, our parenting, our work. Everything takes on new meaning when it is done in the image of God by his power for his glory. Everything now is restored to Genesis 1. It's actually not going backwards, it's going forwards to a new creation. And it's beginning to reflect uh the uh the the idea that of the restoration of the kingdom of God in our hearts and um taking us towards uh the the life that God gave us initially in Genesis one and will one day do again in Revelation 22. Um, but until that day, it is a process of growing uh in the life and the power and the grace of God in each area of our life.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

So, yeah, so there's there's a lot that you said there that's good that that we could respond to. Uh one of them is empowerment. So uh there's all sorts of treasures that come out of the gospel. Yeah. Uh eternal life, a real reason for joyful endurance from 2 Corinthians 4, um, a confident hope of life that comes out of death, even the little deaths that um that happen in like dying to myself and then the life that comes out of that. But then but then the power. Uh I believe a way to articulate the purpose of the Krishna life is to love and obey God by the power of his spirit. Yeah. And and there's a real um, I'd say promise, a real possibility of because of the gospel, living a kind of life that could only be explained by God. Yeah. That that's not that God makes um I think my dad said one time that God's spirit in us, uh He doesn't give us His Spirit to make the hard easy, but to make the impossible possible. Yeah. And that that really helped me. And that now the gospel says that I can, Colossians one here says, be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. Joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints and light. That's gospel language. And and so out of the gospel comes empowerment. So because of the good news of Jesus, I can really I can actually come to the un to the end of myself in those days when I feel like I got nothing left into the tank. Um I'm discouraged, I'm disappointed, I'm frustrated, I am you fill in the blank and and can actually experience the power of God acting on acting on behalf or um in spite of my weakness to actually love and obey him.

SPEAKER_00 49:21

Well, and I and I hope, you know, to kind of put it on the ground. Yesterday, Memorial Day, right? Um we had a plan. Uh Heather and I had a plan to make a day trip out of town. And um we couldn't do that because through no fault of her own, uh Heather had a cold, she wasn't feeling well, and so she's she was recovering from that. And so we canceled that plan. Amazingly, I was I got a little rankled over that. I'm like, I had a plan. We were gonna go do this thing, and now we can't do it because you know, and and I'm like, How dare you get sick? Exactly. And nonetheless, um uh being human, being me, a man, being me, whatever, I was like, and I could I can and I could hear myself just murmuring in my heart. And I was like, this is ridiculous. And and I didn't I didn't go, okay, Adam, you know, you do better. I was like, you know, it's like Lord save me, like Peter under the water. You know, it's like, and in in that moment, I feel like that God was able to bring life from death, right? The death being the just the the like you say, death with a little D. Just this moment, like, oh, we couldn't do what we wanted to do. And instead um to find value in something else and in in recognizing that the priority was on her health and and and and and to lay that down and to find new life out of that moment in a different way um was actually uh not human. It's it's divine. It's it's a gift from God to be able to do that. And can people without the Spirit of God decide to do something different on a memorial day when uh their spouse is sick? Of course they can. Um, but is there a heart transformation behind it? I don't think so. Yeah. So I I think that was a small example. And the, you know, you could run it out on a bunch of examples. And when you're when your kid talks back to you instead of getting angry, um, you know, you you you see that kid in light of the gospel, that kid who you feel compassion for that kid instead of anger against that kid. Um, and you begin to align your heart with God's. And in your better moments, you respond the way God would respond. And in our worst moments, we respond the way that our selfishness and our sinfulness would respond, and we bring death or we can bring life. And it kind of goes back to that um that moment in Exodus or uh Deuteronomy when Moses was calling the people to go into the promised land and to choose life. I set before this day, life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose life. And so God is offering that same, those same two paths in the New Testament, the the life of grace and the life of sort of self-interest. And we have to choose which path are we gonna take? Are we gonna take the path of grace, the path of life, or are we gonna take the path of of self and death and and see which path we take?

SPEAKER_01 51:50

Yeah, and the language of Moses and inward transformation makes me think of uh 2 Corinthians 3, like what what a gospel treasure that is unique to, you know, just kind of or qualitatively and categorically different from just well, I'm gonna change my perspective. 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. Um so it's not just I'm gonna change my perspective, it is God transforming us into his image. What what what a gift to have God doing that in us.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

And and I want to say something to the people that really struggle. Um I think God's grace in us, it's not like the Popeye spinach where you just like squeeze the can and all of a sudden spiritual muscles like all right, I can do anything, I can take any anger and be kind. It's not like this like zap. Um, it is still a struggle. It is still a wrestling in our own hearts. And there are many days when I feel defeated and I feel like why couldn't I choose the right? And and I feel like that God has offered me this grace, and somehow, for some reason, somehow I wanted it but couldn't take it, and I don't always know why. And I just want to to throw out a word for this for the strugglers, for the wrestlers, for the discouraged, that it's not easy. And like you say, it doesn't make the it doesn't make the hard easy, it makes the impossible possible, but it's still hard. And the best people failed at it. Peter the we have so many examples in the testament, Peter himself, the the chief apostle, falling and failing. And while that's unfortunate, it's in a dark way an encouragement to all of us to recognize it's hard for everybody and it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 53:38

Yeah. And then when I fail, there's a gospel treasure here. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That Jesus on the cross said, it is finished. To telestai, debt has been fully paid. And so there's no room to boast, there's no room for shame as long as it is finished is really true. So um the goal in trying to go through, okay, what are the what what is the content of the gospel and what are these treasures that come out of the gospel is to help us go, man, God, you're really good. And I love you, and I love the gospel. And then the more the the more of a treasure it becomes, the more I want to share it. You taste some good food, you want to share it as long as there's enough to go around. And and there's enough grace to go around. Yeah. Um, and so that that's that's what I hope for our church in terms of thinking biblically about God, life, and culture. This this podcast, it's not so much about, it's not just about thinking biblically, it's about uh treasuring something that uh that actually is worth sharing.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

Yeah. If you've ever been to a place that's glorious, beautiful, whatever, and you want to take someone there to share to share that with you, you know, it's like this is the place. God is the place that we we hope that we would see him for his glory and that we would embrace that for ourselves and want to share that life with other people, that it would be an overflow of of the life of God in us. And while we don't always naturally feel that, it uh it is nonetheless, it is it is true. And it and and when we see clearly, that is, he becomes the uh the true satisfaction of our souls.

SPEAKER_01 55:26

Yeah. And so we challenged the church. We asked the church, would you take some time prayerfully to consider who's your one? Who's the the unbeliever you're seeking to win? Part of that's gonna be sharing the gospel, and we're gonna talk next week more about like, okay, how do you win your one? But um, but let's start with treasuring the gospel, uh, so that because out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth is gonna speak. So with with choosing our one, maybe Adam, if you'll tell us a little bit about your experience on the staff retreats, we took two kind of sessions of silence before the Lord and listening. And I think you your first one was kind of like meh, it was second one was better. I had a similar experience um in terms of that. But but I wanna I want people to hear sort of our stories of trying to prayerfully consider and and so we can help our people maybe either know what to expect or just help our people in it. So I'll start. Um I it was actually in a prayer time last this time last year, we were was when we were memorizing Psalm 51, and we just took some time to um pray instead of with the staff together, we just took some time by ourselves to pray. So I was praying up in in the sanctuary balcony, and I I felt thumped on my heart that my world was too much just church people, um, and felt thumped on my heart to go back playing frisbee. And that's not like some like oh burden, you know, oh boo-hoo me, God wants me to go play frisbee. It's actually a quite quite a great thing, uh but but with a different motivation. I think in the past I I went because I like to play. It was it's just fun. But to God God thumped my heart to go back to Frisbee and and get around some people who can become your one, even though I didn't have that language for it then. Um and so I did. And uh it's been in that context now meeting people. I just went to Frisbee. I I think I in my better moments always wanted to have a missional aspect or missional mindset there. I didn't always uh succeed in that. Uh but I went with a different mentality. I'm here to find uh lost people and I I want to win them. And so that that was in a prayer time for me, and and I have greater confidence now in prayer, God to for for for people in our church who are gonna give themselves to this, for God to thump their heart and go, if if you don't have a name or if your world is so church world like mine was, to maybe if you don't have a face to to put yourself in an environment where you can find your one.

SPEAKER_00 58:25

Absolutely. And um, you know, finding your your your one or understanding your one, if if you don't have uh someone who comes to mind immediately that you could share the gospel with, yeah, you you need to you need to grow your world. You know, and and uh Yeah, and that and that's what that was me. And and and I think the the whole frisbeat is, you know, God we're we're supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. And I think so oftentimes we decide we shouldn't be in both, yeah. Forget it. You know, we're we're not in the world or of the world, you know. And and and and God says, no, we you you you have to be in the world in and in missiology, good missiology says that before someone is gonna trust Christ, they have to trust a Christian. And to trust a Christian, they have to know one. So from our perspective, if someone uh in our circles is gonna believe, they have to know us and trust us. And so we have to build bridges to people that are the way that we used to live together, but now our individualistic lives allow us to separate. And so that's great to get to get to get back re-engaged like that.

SPEAKER_01 59:19

Yeah. So how did that um what was it like for you trying to um find or identify your one?

SPEAKER_00 59:28

Yeah. So, you know, for all the for all the people out there who are kind of either introverted or uh uh have that in them, I I have that in me. And I'm not the kind of person who wants to go knocking on doors or or talking to the person in the gym next to me. I tend to sort of keep to myself, keep to my lane, and I prefer that. I prefer my inner privacy, whether I'm with people or with uh uh not among them. And that's not always good. I mean, and and that that is a personality trait, but it it I need to sometimes get outside of that. And so actually, um, God did me a great favor, and I was working out in the the driveway doing a wood project, and literally uh a neighbor walked over and began talking to me and asking me questions. And, you know, to thankfully I had you know not thrown my leaves, blowing my leaves over onto his yard and whatever neighbors uh and and he was asking me some things that were really big questions, and I realized this this is this is his heart is really stirred. And you God didn't let me miss that moment. So he he is my one to really pursue that. And I didn't go looking for him, God brought him to me. Um, and but I could just say, okay, good luck, and call me back if you if you want. No, but now I know to pursue that one because that's clearly someone that God is stirring in.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:44

You have your one, I've got my one, and by God's grace, every single saint at Sandhurst will um give prayerful thought to identify who's their one, who's who's the unbeliever they are seeking to win, and that we'll be able to join efforts in it. I I think we're gonna experience this the the joy of the of a unified effort that when um when you're hanging out with your one, you know what I'm gonna do? Pray. Because I know I know what you're trying to do. Um, you're trying to win them. And uh we'll talk more about that next week. But want to end in a prayer for our ones. Uh, this is a prayer that uh we wrote on staff retreat and have tweaked, and uh it's just the language of scripture. So uh let's let's close in prayer. Father, you are worthy of worship from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. You're desiring that none should perish, but that all would come to repentance. But right now, our one is dead in their trespasses and sins and is by nature a child of wrath. They're separate from Christ, a stranger to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. And while Satan is a murderous liar prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking to steal, kill, and destroy our one, you came that he might have life and have it abundantly. Pray for him, asking that the eyes of his heart would be enlightened, that he would know the hope of your calling, the riches of your inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of your power towards him who believes. By your doing become righteousness and sanctification and redemption to them, so that their boast would be in you alone. Wash, sanctify, and justify him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can he call on him whom he has not believed? How can he believe without a preacher? Here am I, send me in an in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, speaking not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in a demonstration of the spirit of power, so that his faith would not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Here am I, send me, as a servant who plants as others water, trusting you to bring the growth. I know that out of the overflow of my heart my mouth speaks. Help me to love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and let me be known by my love. Strengthen me with all power according to your glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, believing that the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of those who believe. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Thanks, everyone.