0:04 Lord, we bow our hearts before you. We thank you that these songs that we sing are not just ideas. They are realities for us because of what Christ has done. Lord, we pray you give us the grace necessary to receive from you in this final evening of this conference. We bless you, we honor you, and we worship you.
0:23 In Christ's name we pray, amen. Hey, before you're seated, just, welcome somebody and, celebrate the fact that this is our final evening together. If you can, before you get comfortable, if there's any seat by you, if you could just please squeeze in because we have a few people that are standing in the back that would love to be able to find a place to sit. You, can you lift your hand so that the ushers can see? Look at that.
1:16 There are so many seats. Always the front row. Always open. So, ushers, if you see anybody that needs a chair wonderful. Wonderful.
1:27 Wonderful. Well, welcome. This is our final evening of this conference. Isn't it amazing how time has just flown? Every year, there's something special about meeting together, and, maybe it's the same thing, but it just intensifies.
1:44 But the love that people have for each other this year has been on full display. And I I pray that if this was your first time here at Maranatha Conference, that you would have been overwhelmed by the the love and the kindness and just the French of a people who love Jesus, and serve him. So God bless you, for for making this an even more experiential and wonderful time together. My time this evening, at least I plan to not be too long with you, but that might change. But I do wanna get to this message right away.
2:17 I don't wanna waste any time. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ here, I I hope you believe that as crucial and as essential as the gospel may be, it is not the complete plan that God has for us in our redemption. It's not the end goal. If you truly understand the gospel, it is the starting point of the Christian journey. And so what happens at justification is that we are instantaneously saved.
2:50 And following that is a day by day progress known as sanctification until we enter into a permanent state of perfection identified as glorification. And so sanctification, if you're in Christ, that is what you're experiencing. That is the part of redemption that you are enjoying day by day, every moment, every second, whether you're conscious of it or not. And we should grow in our awareness of that because that is why you exist as a Christian. Every relationship, every event, every resource that you own in this life serves a supporting role in that goal being realized.
3:33 Your transformation into the image of Christ is the goal of why you are here and will be the goal until you meet your savior face to face. And and so what is sanctification? It's really simple. It's the moment by moment process in which God increasingly frees us from inward and frees us from outward sin and molds us into the image of Jesus Christ. This is God's desire for us, and he is committed to this desire for us being accomplished.
4:06 But have you ever wondered to what degree does the Lord wanna transform each of us? What what is really the full vision that the Lord has in our transformation? And we don't have to guess because Paul tells us exactly what it is. And I invite you to see this with your eyes in our first passage today in first Thessalonians chapter five, and look with me here at verse 23. This is how far God aims to go as he enrolls us in this lifelong process.
4:45 Paul writes, now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this one verse, you have two glorious truths regarding our sanctification that we can't afford to miss. The first thing is the purpose of your sanctification, and the second is the power of your sanctification. So Paul identifies the purpose in saying that the Lord, the God of peace and, really, as he's writing this, he's actually praying this. Now may the God of peace to sanctify us completely.
5:30 Completely. In the Greek, completely is only used here in all of the New Testament. It means to be complete in all respects. Now some come to this verse as a means of debate, and this is what you will debate about if you go to seminary. Is man, tripartite being or bipartite being?
5:51 In other words, is man composed of body, soul, and spirit, or is soul and spirit synonymous? Can I tell you something? Paul didn't write this verse to cause a debate. I don't think he intended for people to take the time to try to figure that out. It's not wrong to have that conversation, but that's not what he is trying to convey.
6:11 What Paul is trying to communicate by the spirit is that the Lord wants to change every single part of your being. That's what he is trying to say. And when you consider that, you have to realize that this is something the Lord will accomplish in us, though it may be a bumpy ride. And what I love about it is that Paul invites us to relish. Not not to be fearful, not to be overwhelmed, but to relish in the thought that god wants to transform your motivations, your ambitions, your meditations, your attitude, your appetites, and every intricate detail in between.
7:01 And if you feel like that that's a little scary, consider the second point of Paul's verse here, and that is the power of your sanctification. What does he say? Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. Who is the one who performs this deep cleansing in us? God himself.
7:22 God himself. And the same one who alone can save you is the same one who alone can change you to this degree at least. And so Paul, in pointing to every part of your being, also wants to point your eyes to the one who's able to do it. And I love how he adds the God of peace himself. He could've just said the God of peace, but he wants to really emphasize that God himself.
7:50 He did not delegate this responsibility to another. He himself took it upon himself to be committed to each of us to seeing that realized more and more. That's how much it means to him. And so when you see it that way, we should rejoice. But But I'm afraid that if we read it in isolation, we might think that God will generate this change apart from our participation, and that might encourage a dangerous passivity in our pursuit of being more like Christ.
8:22 See, again, you can't just take a verse out of context and just make application out of it. You have to understand what he says before and after. So I want us to consider that. What did Paul say before praying for the God of peace to sanctify us completely? Well, scroll back with me at verse 15, to verse 15 of the same chapter, or verse 12 actually.
8:42 He says here, We ask you, brothers, respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always.
9:12 Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast what is good.
9:24 Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And he goes on and on. So Paul makes this prayer, and in that prayer, there is really a promise after providing a string of commands and instructions for each of us as Christians. And what's meant to be explained here is that after learning of all the things that God desires from us, he then ends by showing us that God is going to help us accomplish it.
9:55 He will help you get to that point. He will help you maintain that way of life. Can you imagine that it is possible for a Christian, for example, to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks to God in all circumstances. And that's just one little snippet out of a large catalog of glorious things that we can walk in. And so this is what he is essentially saying.
10:17 Not that God is gonna do it while you remain robotic and mindless. No. But as you walk in as you realize what the Lord desires from you and you chase it, the Lord is right there to to blow wind into your sails. But there needs to be a hoisted sail for that wind to blow in. So we need to understand what God desires from us and posture ourselves in order to pursue it, and then receive the power to walk in it.
10:44 And if we ever feel disappointed at the amount of work that needs to be done, because that can happen very very quickly as you examine your own life. Or if you're agitated because you're not seeing the results that you would like to, the time that you would like to see it, then there's an added dosage of promise in verse 24. Look what he says here in verse 24. He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it.
11:07 He will. He's not talking about heaven here. He's talking about your life now. He's talking about your tomorrows. He's talking about you in a few months, you in a few years.
11:16 And interestingly, out of all the titles that Paul could have given to the Corinthians concerning God, out of all the attributes, out of all the things that God can do, what does he say about God in verse 23? The God of peace. Why does Paul mention the God of peace connected to our sanctification, our complete sanctification? Well, I think when we look back and realize the last place where Paul mentions peace, it makes a little bit more sense. Look at where he mentions peace back here at the end of verse 14.
11:47 And we urge you brothers and monitor the idol, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. And before that, he speaks about here, and to esteem them very highly, those who are over you, and to have the sense of patience and peace together as a whole understanding of relationships with one another. And so what we have to see here is that there is a glorious explanation concerning God of peace in terms of the most difficult part of our sanctification. It's easy to be holy when you live alone. Holiness is much more accomplishable if you are in an island and you're not interacting with anybody.
12:25 When is holiness hard? When you rub shoulders with others and when you have to face with other people who are also being worked on. That's where it's difficult. And it's as though what Paul is trying to say when he gives all these commands concerning relationships with each other, that the most difficult part about it, harmony with one another is possible because of the God of peace. In other words, there is no change that is too difficult for God to bring you to even in how you deal with others in this life.
12:55 And that's found throughout Thessalonians about love and sacrifice and being patient and honoring. That it's found throughout this epistle. And what Paul wants to say at the end of it is that God can provide peace in your own heart and in your marriage and in your church community and all the relations that you have, even that can be known because of the God of peace. But this message isn't about unity. What I'm trying to convey to you, what I wanna try to bring your attention to is an aspect of our sanctification that is often overlooked.
13:23 That's really the point of this conference because I wanna see things that perhaps we might not consider important, and I want you to consider an aspect of what God wants to change in you that perhaps you have not thought about. Have you ever considered God sanctifying your affections, your feelings, your emotions, your sentiments, what you're passionate about? What gets your heart going? You might be thinking, is that really important? Well, it is when you understand that God wants to sanctify us completely.
14:02 And I believe it is important because when we consider the life of Paul, we not only see rich theology and important doctrine, you see a man who unashamedly pours out his heart and reveals his holy and sanctified affections. This Bible could have been very stale. It could have just been a systematic list of things of do's and don'ts, but what we have here, in Paul at least, is a man who ties truth with a throbbing heart. Do you think that's just random? Do you think that's just for you to see that there's personality behind Paul?
14:37 Or is there something about Paul's affections that we are to imitate? And I am absolutely convinced that there is something about this man's heart posture that we are called to reflect because it's found throughout throughout his writings. We see it through and through, and I wanna see I want you to see one example. Come with me to Philippians one, And look here at verse eight, because I don't want you to dismiss this by saying, what does Paul's personality have to do with my sanctification? It's beyond his personality.
15:17 Look what he says here. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. Do you understand what Paul is saying to this group of believers? That what he feels about them transcends human feelings. He he he says with absolute confidence and transparency, what I feel about you believers is supernatural.
15:47 Imagine a man daring to say what Jesus feels about you. How Jesus feels about you is how I feel about you. Now you can look at that again from a this is an applaud, Paul. What an amazing guy. I'm glad he's one of ours.
16:01 But instead, I see an invitation. If the affections of the Lord Jesus Christ, the same Christ who left heaven, came to earth, walked this world for for thirty years, thirty three years after his death, ascended into heaven after conquering death. If the affections of that God, the true God, can beat in a man, then, Lord, let it beat in me. If it's possible for Paul to feel this way, what would it be like for my heart to know these things as well? I want that.
16:35 You should want that because God wants you to have that because he is determined to sanctify you completely. And notice what he says in Philippians. He says, for God is my witness. So he calls God to witness that this is true, how I yearn for you. Did he say some?
16:50 How I yearn for you all. There's a lot of colorful people in church. Would you agree? A lot. Some a little bit more difficult to relate to, to tolerate, some more enjoyable and easygoing.
17:04 Paul didn't discriminate. He said, what I feel about each of you with your unique personalities, weaknesses, and strengths, I have Jesus' heart for you. That's mind blowing. I mean, we can just end it here and say, Lord, give it to me and that will be a wonderful end to this evening. But I wanna convince you and persuade you even more.
17:23 And if you think for yourself, if you're still, like, I don't know. You're you're touching a a part of my life now that's a little bit uncomfortable. I'm not a I'm not a sentimental person. I'm not emotional. This is not reserved for Paul because I believe he calls us to this as well.
17:37 And if you look at what he says to Timothy in second Timothy three ten, he actually praises Timothy for imitating him in this way. In second Timothy three ten, listen to what he says. You, however, have followed my teaching. I don't mind following Paul's teaching. It's truth.
17:53 Not just my teaching, my conduct. Okay. We've covered that the past couple of sessions. My aim and life. Yes.
17:59 My faith. Sure. My patience. Okay. Now we're getting in dangerous territory.
18:06 My love. So Timothy didn't just hear what Paul had to preach, he saw how this man loved, and he says, I wanna imitate that. And Paul intended for his love to be replicated because he had the affection of Christ Jesus, and Timothy caught it. And he says, you're doing the right thing with your love there, Timothy. So instead of resisting this by trying to explain it away, seek for it.
18:35 What would it look like for us to have the affection of Christ Jesus for our spouses? Not just your attractions, but the affections of Christ for your wife, for your husband. What would it look like to have it for your children, not just the motherly instincts, but Christ's love as a father for your sons, even the difficult ones?
18:58 it look like to have it for our elders? What would it look like to have it for our common members? What would it look like to have it for the lost? What What would it look like for Christ's love to intensify in us as God is sanctifying us even in our affections? Affections reveal a lot about us.
19:14 You know what John said in first John two? Do not love the world nor the things of this world. Then he goes on to say that if you love the world and the things of this world, the love of the father is not in you. Now he's not talking about the cosmos. He's not talking about the beautiful earth that we are in.
19:31 He's antichrist system, the sinful ways of humanity. Do not love the world or the things of the world. And if your affections are on that, then there's a problem because the love of the Father cancels out the things that the father hates. People always ask me, how do I know if I'm born again? Very important questions.
19:52 And I think one of the go to answers is what happened to your heart after you heard the gospel and accepted it? Have your affections changed? Have your desires changed? Because that's what it means to be born again. That what you once hated or were indifferent about or careless about now becomes your priority and your passion and your pursuit.
20:13 That is one of the greatest marks that God has changed you, not necessarily about instant perfection, but change of heart direction. And so this is not this is not, a secondary thing. This is not peripheral. This is not just optional. This is vitally important.
20:30 And once those affections are renewed, God wants to now sanctify even more and strengthen it and mature, and Paul was a wonderful model of that. Imagine saying that. The affections of Christ Jesus, I have here for you, and that's something that you and I are invited to. And I believe Paul provides us glimpses of what happens when this supernatural set of affections takes over, and it's worth examining so that we can yearn for it in our own lives. Let's turn to our main text in first Thessalonians chapter two beginning in verse 17.
21:10 Notice, I just want you to see how this man, yes, an apostle, but he was also a pastor. Look at how this pastor spoke about and to his people. He says, but since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time in person, not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face Because we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again. But Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming?
21:51 Is it not you, for you are our glory and joy? That that's controversial. You are our glory and joy? Oh, we have to hold on before we get there, but let's consider and dissect this a bit by bit. First, Paul tells these believers whom he calls brothers, brothers, brother Saul.
22:12 Remember Ananias told him that? It was the first words he heard from a Christian after he experienced Christ. He he explains that although he's separated from them in person, he is not separated from them in his heart. The believers that Paul knew lived in his heart. They were not just faces that they saw once a week where he just greeted from a distance, and that was the extent of his relationship with Christians.
22:41 No. They abided in his bosom. And he says here that there the pain of separating was like being torn away. And the word there is actually as though somebody was made an orphan, like a mother or father taken from the lives of their children. That's the kind of level of excruciating agony he experienced when he said, out of circumstances beyond his control, he was removed from these believers prematurely.
23:11 And he says, since we were torn away from you, I wanna let you know that you're still in my heart. And listen, when the affections of Jesus live in you, Christians will live in it as well. And if Christians live in your heart, you know where else they're gonna be found? In your supplications, in your thanksgiving to God. Can I ask you something?
23:32 When was the last time you spent a segment of your time in prayer thanking God for the Christians you know? Paul did it all the time. Paul even did it by name, not because he's like, oh, that's the checklist on my prayer. No. No.
23:46 No. It was because the affections of Christ compelled him because these believers lived in his heart. And it says here that because they were in his heart, they were not colleagues, merely. They were his delight. Christians were his delight.
24:04 By the work of the spirit, you begin to genuinely genuinely enjoy Christians, and you begin to cherish them and think about them. And so strong are these affections that they don't even require physical interactions to be realized. This love is alive and well even though you do not see them on those days of the week where you are not in the presence of other Christians. Paul shows us here that there is this desire for them and this passion for them. Can you put your fingers on the pulse of your relationship with other believers and agree with Paul here?
24:36 Or is this is this kind of alien? Is this kind of awkward to you? Because believers abide in your heart, again, they will find a prominent place in those ways where you communicate with God about them. It was so embedded in them that it pained them to be removed from these Christians. But look what he says here.
24:57 We endeavor them more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face. When the affections of Christ Jesus live in you, Christian community becomes a priority. And I don't know if that's true for all believers. You begin to be pleased with the idea of being with Christians, and I love to to see this at NBC. When people walk through those doors, whether that be on a Wednesday or a Friday or a Sunday, faces light up.
25:26 I hope that's true in your church, that all it takes is the presence of believers that you know love Christ to change your mood. And Paul was just daydreaming about trying to see these believers face to face. And you know why this is true for those who have the affections of Christ Jesus? Because let me remind you what Jesus prayed to the father when he was ready to go to the cross. In John seventeen twenty four, he prayed this.
25:56 This is what Jesus prayed. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am. So the affections of Christ is not just saving some and then, kinda having an arms length relationship with them. No. It went beyond that.
26:21 He saved them. He saved us with the goal of being with us without filter, without hindrance for all of eternity. If Jesus desires so much so that he prayed to the father to be with Christians, shouldn't that be true of you, Christian? It should. If the affections of Christ live in you, you long to do life with other believers.
26:46 If that's missing in you, then you need your affection sanctified by the Holy Spirit. And if that doesn't stir you, then this thought perhaps will. The treasure of us coming together and advancing god's purposes as a unit is so dynamic that Satan fights against it. What did he say here? He says here, I long to see you.
27:09 Great desire to see you, but what? Satan. Satan tried to stop us again and again. That's what he's mentioning here. Again and again, Satan tried to stop us.
27:23 What does it take for you to not be with Christians? Does it come down to Satan trying to stop you to meet with other believers on a regular basis? Because that's what it took for Paul. Paul had no other excuse not to be with other Christians in a living dynamic, relational, habitual way except for the devil himself trying to stop him. For some people, all it takes is an early Sunday service.
27:50 And other than stop Paul, it had to take the devil himself to change his schedule to stop Paul from getting to the Thessalonians. That's how much Satan believes in the power of when Christians come together. I'm not sure if Christians are convinced of the same. And so Paul says here, I I I'm telling you Thessalonians, I really tried to get to you, but the enemy of our souls hindered me greatly. But what did we hear about this morning again?
28:19 Tell me that p word. Good. We're all awake still. Yeah? I get it.
28:23 Bear with me. We're almost there. Providence. And providence is at work here. Scholars believe that first Thessalonians is the first epistle that Paul ever wrote.
28:35 So let me put it this way. Satan thought that he can stop Paul in his ministry from getting to the Thessalonians, but what Satan didn't realize that he started another ministry, and that was Paul's writing ministry. Because it began with first Thessalonians. Like, he just keeps losing if you haven't got the picture. And so we see here that Paul says, I genuinely try to come to you.
28:58 And this is the most astounding part about Paul spilling his affections for these believers. And it's not just here. He says something, as I mentioned ear earlier, that would almost be controversial to the unfamiliar reader. Look how he ends this in verse 19. For what is our hope?
29:16 He's speaking rhetorically here. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Pause. You would think that he would answer with what? Jesus.
29:30 What's our boast? What's our hope, our joy, or crown? When Christ comes, you think he would say what? Christ. But what does he say instead?
29:40 Is it not you? Then he goes on to say, for you are our glory and joy. So take a deep breath and, step back and brace yourself for this answer because we have to understand this unless we get into some heresy. The way we make sense of this is that Paul, in explaining about the return of Christ and when Christ comes, obviously, that's gonna be a joyous occasion. But in essence, what Paul is communicating is that Christ coming and establishing his kingdom, bringing us to himself is not the only joyful thing that I am looking forward to.
30:22 It is the primary thing. Paul mentions that in other places, but what he's also saying is that when Jesus comes back, one of the things that I am rejoicing at the thought of is the eternal presence of other believers. That's what he's saying. So this man's affections for other Christians was so strong that what got his heart stirring was the thought of being with other Christians forever. This is one of the strongest proof text of how you and I, when we get to heaven, will recognize one another and will recognize other saints.
30:58 Paul says, I can't wait to come to that point where we see your sanctification turn to glorification, and we will rejoice together before the presence of the Lord Jesus. So Christ is our ultimate object of praise and adoration in heaven, but Paul is not ashamed. The Holy Spirit inspired him to say, it's not just gonna be about Christ, it's also gonna be about Christians. It's gonna be about Christians. Like, do you do you see the heightened affection that this man has?
31:24 We're not even talking about Paul's affections for God. We're not even talking about Paul's affections for others who are lost. We're just dealing with Paul's affections for the church. And it's supposed to stand as a mirror to reflect on our own affections to see if this is true. So this is one of the strongest verses that promise us that we're going to enjoy one another, and it's been set here in the Bibles for us to enjoy at the just thought of it.
31:48 The thought of it alone should cause us to rejoice. So the the saints were not just a source of Paul's joy in this life, but in the life to come, and that was one of his greatest anticipations. I wonder if that's true for you. I wonder if that's true for you. I wonder if you look at other Christians and from time to time realize, I'm going to live with these people forever.
32:13 The Holy Spirit wants you to feel that. And when you feel that, it's a lot more difficult to bicker and to bite. Right? With gossip, not physically, I hope. That would be concerning.
32:29 And and harm and hurt and bruise and demean and gossip and these affections stifle those things. They put out fires that can destroy what God wants to maintain and make beautiful. Time does not permit me to talk about Paul's affections in other areas. But what I do wanna say is that this is something that we should pursue. Don't write it off because your wiring is different.
33:01 Don't allow yourself to justify the awkwardness that you sense in the language that Paul uses to keep you from saying this is something that I perhaps should reconsider. Embrace it. In fact, if you are still hesitant in believing that this is something that we should all share, these affections that are polished by the power of God, then realize Paul actually asked Christians for them to feel what he felt. Do you know that Paul did that before? And who do you think Paul asked to feel certain things for him as he did for them?
33:36 Oh, it was the Corinthians. The troublesome Corinthians. Look what he says. I mean, again, these are verses that we kinda brush over, but look what he says in second Corinthians. Let's turn there because we're almost done, believe it or not.
33:49 Look what he says in second Corinthians six verse 11. Paul says, We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. So what's Paul saying?
34:19 Paul's criticism about these believers is Can I simplify it? Can I interpret it? Translate it in modern language? You're cold. You're cold towards us.
34:29 We're we haven't been cold towards you. We've given our hearts to you. We've widened our hearts
34:35 to you. Would you not give us the same?
34:36 And so this tells me that, listen, Christians, by the power of God's work in us, should be the most approachable, warm, loving individuals on the face of the earth. Paul didn't allow the Corinthians to remain stoic, indifferent, careless, shallow in their affections for him and other Christians. You're cold. And so what he says here as he speaks to them, he doesn't give them any excuse because he realizes that the God of peace wants to sanctify us completely. And look what he says here in verse 11 of the same chapter.
35:16 Second Corinthians six eleven to 13, we read here in 13, In return, I speak as to children, widen your hearts also. Widen your hearts. So he puts the responsibility on them. Open your hearts even more, and make room for Christ's feelings to live and breathe and move in you. And so I'm telling you as I as I open this conference with studying Paul has been a beautifully painful experience.
35:50 Because he he doesn't he doesn't want you by the Spirit, he doesn't want you to be content with little change in your walk with the Lord. He doesn't want you to even think that sanctification is merely about your external and observable patterns in life. No. He wants to get to the the soul. He wants to get to the deepest parts of who you are, the things that you even feel.
36:11 Paul says, God is after that. God is after that. And God can widen your heart in every direction. He can widen your heart for your fellow believers, all of them as he told the Philippians. He can widen your heart towards him.
36:27 Do you struggle expressing your affections for God? Do you struggle even can I say this? Do you struggle to sing to God? I I've met Christians who who love the Lord by their own admission, but they say, I I can't sing to him though. I can't express my that's just not who I am.
36:48 You know what Paul would say? I believe he would say this. Widen your hearts. Give that heart that is restricted in your affections and place it before the throne and say, lord, do something with this. Listen to what the psalmist said in Psalm fifty one fifteen.
37:02 Oh, lord. He didn't say wide in my heart. He said, open my lips. Because out of the abundance of your heart, the mouth speaks. So he says, oh, lord, in Psalm fifty one fifteen, open my lips.
37:12 Why open my lips? And my mouth will declare your praise. Guess what? There's no excuse, my fellow Christian. Whether it's this mouth or your affections or your actions, whatever part of you is restricted and is not conforming to Christ likeness, you can bring that before the God of peace, and he can sanctify it.
37:32 He can sanctify it. I'm gonna end in a different way. I wanna end in preaching the gospel. I wanna I want to just simply come to this point and just highlight to you how the Bible wants to deal with the deepest parts of who you are and to just come before the Lord sweetly and say, Lord, come after my affections. But I wanna make sure that every person here at least hears the gospel.
37:58 Because everything that you've heard please pay attention to this. I know it's been a long day, a long weekend, but this is the most important message you will hear, not just this weekend, for the rest of your life. Everything that you heard means absolutely zero, nothing, if you first have not grasped the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that you've heard you can put aside if you have not first confirmed your understanding and your decision about the person and the work of Jesus Christ. The most important question in this life is who is Jesus Christ?
38:40 And the next one is who is he to you? Who is Jesus Christ and who is he to you? Or do you know him? Do you know him? So let me remind you that, you're not a bag of skin stuffed with meat.
39:01 You're not the result of some combustion in the universe, and all this order just happened by chance. And now you live to just make enough money so that you can go on two or three vacations a year, try not to get sick, and to live the longest, and embrace death with a seventy year resume of pleasure and joy and memories. That's not the reason why you're here. You are created in the image of God. You have been created by God, and you have been created to walk with God and know your God, fellowship with your God.
39:35 But something happened in the early phases of creation. The very first ones who were created had a choice to either obey God and remain in that relationship with him or disobey God and fracture that relationship, And they chose the latter. They chose to sin, and in sinning, they created a problem for the rest of humanity, a problem that you and I are very familiar with. Why is it that we do evil? Why is it that we hurt each other?
40:05 Why is it that we are attracted to perversions and selfishness and lying and immorality? Where did that come from? Why is there not one part of the world, one culture that is not infected with this issue? It's because we have all been tainted by sin. We all have a disposition to rebel.
40:28 And if it's not for the common grace of God that provides restrictions in this life, including your conscience that says this is good and this is bad, by the way, where did that come from? Goo in the universe, apparently? If we didn't have a government that exercises the sword, we didn't have families that are meant to train us, this world would go wild. And one day it will in the great tribulation. So we are all sinful beings, and because of that, in light of the holiness of God, we all deserve the wrath of God.
41:05 We all deserve to be judged by God. We all deserve to be swept into eternal wrath. You say, well, I'm not that bad of a person. Perhaps in comparison to your neighbor, but in light of the holiness of God, you and I are filthy, Filthy. Somebody gave this wonderful illustration of driving by in her daily routine to work.
41:32 She was in a rural area and she would always see these sheep, these fluffy clouds with little black legs. Right? And they seem to stand out in those grassy hills. They seem to just be little, you know, bots of white, and they would always get her attention as she would drive by. But when it came to the wintertime, those sheep same sheep that seemed to stand out to see so clean and pure, because of the whiteness of the snow, they didn't seem so white anymore.
41:57 She saw the imperfections and the blotchiness and and the insects even. And that's just a simple illustration of us in our righteousness. Yeah. Compared to each other, we may seem good, but once you stand in the backdrop of God's holiness, we stand out. We stand out.
42:14 So don't compare yourself to your neighbor. Don't compare yourself to the criminals on the nightly news. Compare yourself to God, and things will change in your self estimation. So what does that mean? That's the bad news.
42:26 The bad news is that God is good. That's bad because in his goodness and his holiness, he will not allow sin to run rampant without it colliding with his justice. So people say, oh, well, if God is good, why doesn't he deal with all this evil in the world? Do you understand the implications of that? If God is good, which he is good, and you wanted to deal with the evil in this world, guess who he has to deal with?
42:51 You. Where do you think evil comes from? The thin air? No. No.
42:56 No. No. According to the Bible, it comes from the sewage of your heart and mine. That's where it comes from. That's the source of it.
43:03 God is good, which is a terrifying thing if we think about his justice, but God is good in that he is also love. And so though this world is a cesspool of evil and iniquity and hatred, the Lord, the Lord of hosts looks down on this creation, looks down on those that are created in his image and says, I want them. I want to restore my relationship with them. I want to redeem them. I want to take them and not just justify them, but sanctify them, and one day, glorify them.
43:38 I God wanted us in his love so greatly that not only does he save your soul, your spirit, he actually is going to redeem your body. Do you understand that? This same body that did horrible things, that hurt so many people, that's hurt even myself, even this body that was once tainted, God says, I'm gonna even redeem that. That's why your body will be resurrected as a testament of the God's glory in wanting to save all of you. How did he do it?
44:06 Did he sweep your sin underneath the rock? Did he say, You know what? Let's just forget about all this, and let's just move on together. No. He's too holy for that.
44:13 God, in his great love, takes on human flesh, enters into this world in the person of Jesus Christ, and he walks a perfect life, free from sin, free from from anything. Even his imaginations were holy. No deceit found on his tongue. Not a hint of wrong was found in him, and that was necessary because this perfect one would die. How could a perfect one die?
44:47 He died voluntarily. He died in your place. You know, it's amazing. I I used to go evangelizing on the streets, and one of my go to things was to find people who had cross necklaces or cross tattoos. And I would go up there and be like, I love your necklace.
45:03 They say, oh, thanks. Yeah. Was it a gift? Yeah. Yeah.
45:06 It was a gift. You know? So, you know, my girlfriend gave it to me or something. I'm like, wonderful. I said, when were you born again?
45:13 And you should see their faces. You know, the cross has become fashion these days. It's been romanticized. Do you understand what it means for Jesus Christ to have died on a cross? Have you ever thought about that?
45:32 Or do you just put it on your skin and put it on a shirt because it looks cool? He died on the cross laying his own life because you deserve to be on that cross. And more than just a cross, you deserve to experience the eternal judgment of God. And instead of you experiencing that Christ, the son of God, gets on that cross and drinks every drop of judgment that was aimed for you. And as he hung there suspended between heaven and earth, because of his person, because of who he is, he satisfied the righteous demands of God.
46:13 But he didn't remain on that cross. He was buried and he didn't remain buried. He rose again. Do you realize what it means for Jesus Christ to rise from the dead? Jesus Christ rose from the dead as a signal of God the Father's amen for his sacrifice.
46:31 I approve that this sacrifice satisfies my wrath, and Christ ascends into heaven in victory. He is today seated at the right hand of God, and one day he is coming back. Are you ready to meet him? How are you ready to meet him? Here's the gospel.
46:50 Then realizing what Christ has done for your sin, you humbly realize that you are the sinner, that your sin placed him on the cross, but you also recognize that he made a payment for you. And so you say, if this is what my sin has done, I repent from it. And if he has purchased my forgiveness, I receive it. So you receive a gift. You embrace this gift.
47:14 And now upon that confession, the Bible tells us that you are in that moment justified in the sight of God, made perfect in the sight of God, becoming a child of God, not just a forgiven fugitive, but a friend. You become a son, a daughter. And this Jesus who died for you now can claim you. And after you confess that, after you if you're sitting here today and you've never made that confession, listen to me very carefully. If you make that confession and say, I'm a sinner and I repent, and I believe that this Jesus Christ of Nazareth is indeed God who came in his love to rescue me from my sin and my judgment, the moment you make that confession, you will know something of a supernatural transaction where there's a burden that's rolled off your shoulder and your heart now is changed, and there is a deposit of new affections.
48:14 And then now the same God who saves you indwells you by his spirit, and he walks with you day by day on this journey of transforming you and chiseling you and convicting you and comforting you so that you can look more and more like him until the day he calls you home, and he says, the journey is now done. Let's make you like me forever. Have you made a conscious decision where you have bend the knee and accepted this Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior? If you have not, give me the reason why. Like, persuade me why you think this is not good.
48:56 Tell me what's better than knowing that the God who made you, who could have easily judged you and been totally justified in doing so instead wants you, And so he pays a high price to save you. You're gonna tell me today that you're gonna swat away that invitation? That's remarkable to me. So today, I wanna give you the invitation an invitation unlike any other. An invitation that if you accept, it doesn't matter what else you experience in this life, you have reached the treasure of all treasures.
49:28 You've reached the joy of all joys. Repent and believe. In this moment right now, in God's providence, he allowed you to come to this conference this year on this night, more importantly, to hear the gospel and for you to be saved. I am making an invitation for you to give your life to Jesus Christ. So what does it take?
49:52 What does it take for me? Here's what I'm telling you. You acknowledge your sin, and you give that sin over in repentance, and you say, Lord, now forgive me. Please forgive me. And he will forgive you.
50:03 You don't need to jump through any other hoop. You don't need to memorize a certain decree or creed. It's just you hearing this truth, understanding that comes from this book, and then you responding to it. And listen to this. I'm ending it here.
50:16 If you refuse to respond to it and remain neutral in your own mind, you've already responded to it. You've rejected it. I have nothing personally to gain for you to say yes to Christ. You have everything to gain and everything to lose. I don't I'm like like, we don't keep a scorecard at our church.
50:35 We don't go and figure out who made a superficial answer. In fact, many times when people come to Christ, we don't even realize it until months or years later. What's mattering more is your name being written in the Lamb's book of life. That's what matters more than anything else. This is listen.
50:49 This is between you and God. This is not between you and Maranatha Conference and Jesus. It's you and Jesus Christ. Believer, I'm gonna make this invitation as I make an invitation for people who are lost to be saved. Would you take those little snippets of Paul's affections and say, Lord, widen my heart.
51:05 Let me leave Maranatha twenty twenty four with a greater set of affections for you, your people, and everything in between. Let's bow our heads and thank the Lord. Lord, we thank you for this evening. We thank you that you've allowed us to come not just to receive from your word instruction and guidance and insight, but, Lord, you've allowed us to be refreshed by the gospel itself. And so, Lord, we just pray even now that for the person here who has maybe heard this a 100 times or maybe for the first time, we ask that they would not ignore the conviction that may be in their hearts.
51:42 Instead, Lord, we pray that this would be the moment that they would give their lives over to the one who gave them life to begin with. We pray, Lord, for every other believer here, understanding that we might be weary in the flesh, but give us enough energy now to simply speak to you and say, Lord, sanctify me completely. If there's any corner of my life that needs to be conformed to you, please, Lord, if I love the world in a degree, in a way that is not right and befitting of me, Lord, change that love for a love for you and the things of God. I cannot do what you've called me to do unless you change my desires. So, Lord, I come to you, the God of peace, and I ask that you sanctify me completely.
52:20 We ask these things in the mighty, glorious, living name of Jesus Christ. Amen and amen. If you need to give your life to Jesus Christ, I will be standing there. If you wanna do that on your own, good. You don't have to go through any person.
52:38 You can go directly to him. But if you need questions answered, if you need prayer for specific things, whatever it may be to help assist you to come closer to him, it would be my great privilege and honor to help you come a little closer to the savior. I'll be standing right there, and the praise team will be singing. Believers, sing, pray, seek the Lord, thank him, and God will be glorified. Let's Let's do it.
53:28 Amazing grace how sweet the sound I'd say the wretch like me my
54:10 fears my The earth shall soon dissolve like snow. A sun
57:38 Do you remember when you were born again? Do you remember when you were born again? Yeah. I remember. Do you remember when you were born again?
57:43 Do you remember? I remember when I was born again. Yeah. I remember I was 20 years old, a college student studying creative advertising in Toronto, Ontario. And what led me to Christ was the misery of my sin.
57:59 Unhinged. No parental supervision. My parents are here, but they know this story already. Unhinged. And I thought, this is what I've been missing out on.
58:11 And so I splurged in the flesh. But I praise God that I didn't have to wait until my 40s or 50s to have a midlife crisis. I experienced it at 20 when I realized very early on the world lied to me. It lied to me. And I just saw the rat race I was in, and I saw how the chains were only getting stronger and tighter around me.
58:38 This world that promised me freedom and liberty and joy deceived me because I'm more bound than ever. I'm more empty than ever. I'm more confused than ever. And praise God, because of my upbringing in that dark place, I saw a flickering light. It was the name of Jesus.
59:01 And I told myself, you know what? Let's see if what I thought was actually lying to me all my life growing up in the church is actually true. And so I began to read my Bible in the year of 2012 as a New Year's resolution. And as I was reading it, mind you, I didn't know how to read it. I didn't know where to read it.
59:20 So I googled it. How to read the Bible. And I still have the Word document. Told me to go to the gospel of Mark. So I read Mark, and I remember my advertising journal that our teachers told us to always carry.
59:32 In case you have any spontaneous ideas for a brand that you're working with, you need to jot it down. Your brain might forget but paper doesn't forget. And so all these little caricatures and all these different ideas and slogans began to be replaced with verses from Mark saying, That's me. And one of the ones that struck me, one of the ones that shot out of that page like an arrow right into my soul was when Jesus looked at the Pharisees and he says, You honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. And he said, That's me.
1:00:03 And I had such a difficulty grasping how a guy like me claiming to be a Christian can actually converse. Me even pray. I couldn't even pray because I was like, I've been misrepresenting you for so many years. Do you actually want to deal with me? And so I remember one of the verses that I put on a post it note, and I put it above my laptop.
1:00:23 This is still in my journey discovering who Christ is, where in Romans eight one we're told that therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And, man, did I rehearse that when doubts try to creep in, I would just look up and read that verse. And so finally, the love of Jesus Christ was persuading me and wooing me, and then there was one particular long weekend where I sensed it in my heart. There was no audible voice. There was no manifestation of any kind.
1:00:48 It was just the crevice of my soul, the conscience that God has given us where I heard this thought. You cannot merely appreciate me. You must follow me. You cannot merely admire me. You must make a decision to surrender to me.
1:01:05 And in that particular long weekend, my my roommate was not there in that apartment, and I made a decision. Lord, I've tried the world. It has failed me. I tried to do the the worldly Christianity, you know, where you have a little bit of this, and from time to time, you get a little bit of that. I'm I'm sold.
1:01:21 And if you're willing to forgive me, then I'll receive that forgiveness. I don't just want forgiveness, though. I want your lordship. Take over my life. It was a lot less sophisticated than how I explained it just now.
1:01:33 It was more snotty. Can I tell you something? No altar call, no beautiful music, no speaker, just an apartment in January, February with a Bible, an IKEA desk with a cheap lamp, and a leather chair, but the presence of God flooding that room. I was born again. How were you born again?
1:02:04 Can I tell you how? When I woke up, everything was different. I mean everything. I mean everything. Like, the snow looked different.
1:02:13 The air smelled different. More importantly, sin looked different. That's how I knew. That was it. That's how I knew.
1:02:22 So the thing that I tried to justify and argue and enjoy, now it was repulsive to me. I don't want this. I don't want this. I want him. I want to be holy.
1:02:32 If he saves me, then I want to live for him. So nobody needed to tell me, Read your Bible. I wanted to read my Bible. Nobody told me, You need to pray. I wanted to pray.
1:02:45 Nobody told me, Delete the junk on your playlist. I wanted to delete the junk on what I was watching and listening to. Why? Because when he saves you, he changes your affections. He changes your affect it's supernatural, man.
1:02:58 This is not you signing up to go to church every Sunday. This is you dying and then coming to life in Christ. How do I know if I'm born again? You'll know. You'll know.
1:03:10 And if you don't know if you're born again, I would not waste a moment questioning it. I would try to figure it out as soon as possible. And one way you know you're born again is not only do you have a new relationship with Christ, you have a new relationship with sin. So I wanna pray in closing that for all the born again people in this place who have their own stories that the Lord would rekindle your affections and grow those affections. For the person here who is not born again, I'm gonna pray that the Lord and his goodness would haunt you with conviction.
1:03:46 Well, I remember I prayed that for a guy. We were out evangelizing, and there was a group of guy, and he was a little intoxicated. And so I prayed, and I said, Lord, I never said those words before. I said, Lord, I pray that you haunt him with conviction. And he stopped me.
1:03:59 He says, why would you pray for God to haunt me with conviction, man? I said, it's a good thing. Don't worry. I'm gonna pray sincerely. I don't wanna be too lighthearted about this.
1:04:10 I wanna pray that God in his power and that I I pray we all pray this, that if there's anybody in here who's not saved, that it'd be very difficult for them to remain unsaved. Amen? Can we pray and rejoice? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for reminding us that when you saved us, you're not done with us.
1:04:26 You wanna change us over and over. So, Lord, we pray that, we would have this passion to see our lives conformed to Christ even in the parts that we didn't think you cared about. But, Lord, we also pray for the person here. We, as believers, come together, and we pray for the soul of the one or the ones who don't know you, Lord. We pray that you do something miraculous in them, and that, Lord, they would not leave this campground.
1:04:49 They would not leave this state. They would not go back home the same. We've done our part. We've sang. We've prayed.
1:04:56 We've preached. But, Lord, we commit the supernatural to you, and we ask that you would do it. And whether we hear it on this side of heaven or not, we pray that these souls would be met in heaven and that we would be able to recognize that from Maranatha 2024, you did a work that glorified you. So we love you, and we thank you for this evening. We bless your name.
1:05:15 In Jesus' name, amen and amen and amen. You may be seated for a moment as you receive some instructions for the rest of this evening.
