Fear Not, God Uses Costly Obedience, Part 2

God indeed loves each one of us and has a wonderful plan that brings great joy, new life, requires radical, costly obedience. But somehow when your expectation, like those Jews who thought the Messiah is going to come and they rejected Jesus – why? Because He didn’t fit their box! I want a Jesus that does what I want Jesus to do to make my life work on my terms in my way. And when you don’t get that, you can reject the very Jesus of the gospel. That’s what the Jews did.

At what degree have you and I unconsciously bought into that line of reasoning to where, you know what? You don’t volunteer, you’re not in the Scriptures, you are not all in. Because part of it is, well, you know? I’m not getting what I want. And if I’m not getting what I want, as though life was all about me, isn’t Jesus here to make my life happy and comfortable and better? And didn’t they tell me that there’s a wonderful plan for my life and didn’t I translate “wonderful” to mean easy, what I want? See, what Joseph is saying to us: I have a wonderful life but there is a price of radical, costly obedience, which is the path.

The little Bible study is the price, Jesus would say in John 16, this is His last words on the last night to His disciples. “In the world,” not if, “in the world you will have trouble,” difficulty, pain, tribulation, “but be of good cheer! I have overcome the world.” They persecuted Me, they’re going to persecute you. It was hard for Me; it’s going to be hard for you. I ended up going to the cross; you’ll end up going to the cross. I have a resurrected life; you’ll experience a resurrected life. Your life isn’t about getting better or improving or being nicer. It’s a whole new life that I promise. But it comes with a price. After it is received completely by the grace of God. And then it says: here’s the path. John 12:24, “Unless a grain of wheat fall unto the earth and die, it remains by itself…but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit.”

It’s the upside-down kingdom. Get, keep, control, me, mine: loss. Give, share, sacrifice, others-centered: gain. “If any man will come after Me,” Luke 9, “let him deny himself, take up his cross, her cross, and follow Me. For what will it profit a man or a woman to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul?”

The path is a very counterintuitive journey - Aren’t I just supposed to come to a few meetings and sing a couple songs and try harder to be a nicer person and, God, aren’t You supposed to make my life work out? That’s not what the disciples heard.

Notice there’s not just a path, but there’s a process. I put it on the screen because, Verse 1 of [Romans] chapter 5 is one of the most magnificent verses in all Scripture. “Therefore, having been justified” – how? “through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained by faith in this grace in which we now stand. And we boast,” or exult or glorify, “in hope of the glory of God.”

In other words, there is a day coming, it’s eternal, and we will be with Him and God has promised it. And we boast also in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. This is the process. Everyone goes through suffering.

Perseverance produces character. It’s what God uses. The hard times, difficult times. Character produces hope because you realize I’m changing and I’m seeing things differently and there’s power. And hope doesn’t disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

That’s the process.

James chapter 1, same process. It’s to consider it all joy, not if but when, external, unfair, unjust, painful trials. Drunk drivers, downturns, abandonment, sexual immorality by someone that you love. Ungrateful kids, uncaring parents. You do understand that whether you’re a follower of Jesus or not, everyone is experiencing, in a fallen world, pain and suffering and difficulty and injustice. What God says as you follow Jesus: I’ll redeem it. I will use it, but you have to be in the process.

And then finally, I love the last part. It’s the product or the reward. Ephesians 2:10 says, “You,” regular you, just like a Joseph, just a Mary, elderly couple, regular people, “you are His work of art,” or, “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto a good work and a purpose from the foundations of the earth,” God has a plan to use you in your world, in your relationships, with your personality, with your background, with your baggage, with your pain, and with your struggles. I mean, the reason I talked about the wonder of those first few people – were they regular or what?

A priest who couldn’t get his wife pregnant, a peasant girl, a blue-collar worker. We’ve got a whole group of people thinking, I need to know more or be more or have more for God to ever use me. Or you think that you have so blown it in the past, that’s why the genealogy. Rahab: prostitute. She’s in the line. Tamar, sleeping with her father-in-law to get back at him and - I mean, this is a book of reality, not of romantic idealism.

And then at the very end, “Now, to Him,” chapter 3 of Ephesians, “who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that you could ask or think, to Him be the glory and in the Church.”

In other words, when you go through that process, you know what the wonderful life is? It’s the wonderful thing first He does in you. That you are so different over time. And then the wonderful thing He does through you that you’re just shocked, you’re amazed.

We had an anniversary coming up. So, we went out to dinner. But we sat there for a couple hours and we, I don’t, I’m not old, but I’m older. Okay? Old is when you give up on life, only look in the rearview mirror, whine about everything that hurts, and complain, and blame. Older is you’ve got a lot more tread on you than most people and it’s a little bit harder to stay focused and keep going hard.

But I will tell you, after forty-five years of marriage, we – the blessing of older, we went back and, boy, the struggles we had in our marriage. Big ones. Rebellious child, miscarriage, cancer, made a big move, and betrayal. And there’s not a single thing after forty-five years - here’s the blessing of older. When you’re on the front end of it, it’s: Where is God? And the will of God is: persevere. And you don’t know how it’s going to come out.

You get older, there wasn’t a single thing that we talked for two hours where we could look back at the difficulty, the pain, the injustice, our own mistakes - that God has not used for good. But you’ve got to take that by faith. I mean, apart from a commitment, I would have given up on my marriage. I can’t even tell you how many times I was going to quit the ministry.

When I left high school, I went away to school and I really, my parents relocated so I really didn’t go back, so I don’t have, like, high school friends. I still knew a few people, but last September, I got a note. They said, “We are having our fifty-year reunion.” So, I thought, Every fifty years I should go. And so, a number of my classmates, to my shock and to theirs, is we had become Christians, followers of Jesus.

And some of them had read, you know, a few books or something that I had done. And they said, “You know, we, it’s really astonishing - if you don’t mind, we’re going to have the big party and all that stuff, but we’re gonna, we’ve got two-hours blocked, would you come and tell your story, because actually, as we have been talking, none of us can believe. I mean, you were that arrogant, mouthy, insecure, foul-mouthed jerk!”

One guy, I was, about fifteen years after, you know, I got involved in ministry, literally, he calls and he goes, he saw something on the Internet, “This isn’t the same Chip Ingram from Gahanna Lincoln High School, is it?” And I said, “Well, yes, it is.” Next line, “Are you still as arrogant now as you were then?” He was just being honest.

All I can tell you is I had never opened this book, I had never met the risen Savior, I had no idea what He could do. I wanted to quit my marriage, quit the ministry, I have had so many struggles. And all I can tell you is God keeps His word.

And we clung to one another and now forty-five years, I can look back and go, “Amazing.” High cost, greater reward.

Don’t believe the lie: Follow Jesus, everything will be easy, everything will be great. Jesus said, “I come so they could have real life,” eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed, but I want you to know the journey is challenging. And it is so, so worth it.

As you get to the back page, let me just highlight some real application to put this into practice. So many of us have had very, very sincere people and a lot of teaching roaming out there that subtly have planted seeds into your mind, into your heart - why should it be? I had one guy say to me, “Why does it have to be this hard?” And I wanted to get theological, “Well, your own flesh, sin, the devil, fallen world. You need more?”

It’s going to be really, really hard. But you are more than a conqueror through Christ. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. As you absorb His Word into your heart, He will change your thinking. He will give you power to overcome temptations. He’ll give you power to break addictions. He’ll give you power as you persevere and you’ll desperately need the community of God’s people. And as you do, your life will become astonishing, miraculous, wonderful. And there are no shortcuts.

What was Matthew’s not-so-subtle message by including the Gentile woman and morally flawed people in the genealogy of the Messiah?

And for those of you that feel like, I just don’t measure up and I’m too far gone or I’ve made big mistakes, that maybe there are still secrets, could I just tell you, there’s not a big enough mistake, there’s nothing in your past.

Remember, the first line is, the Christmas message, “God loves you.” Not if – He loves you. He is for you. His lineage is filled with messed up people like you and me.

Second is when and where have you been disappointed with God? And how have your expectations, of what a wonderful life looks like from God, changed as we have studied Joseph?

Some of you just need to get a set of glasses off. God didn’t do that and I didn’t get that and this hasn’t worked out. Just throw those rose-colored glasses away and put on some Bible glasses to say it’s normal, it’s difficult, it’s painful, I need God’s grace, I need God’s people, I need God’s Word. I refuse to give up and we are going to see the wonderful thing He is going to do in me and through me. And I just need grace for this moment because I can’t even think about next week or next year and all the issues I have in my life. And that’s what Joseph did; that’s what the early disciples did.

What fears are holding you back from immediately, radically obeying what God wants you to do?

By the way, memo, you’re going to suffer. Think of this. It’s a fallen world. So, you can say, “I’m going to do relationships my way and make it about me. I’m going to do money my way and try and try and create my own security, I’m going to do work my way and try and get all the credit.” And guess what, you will get the consequences, you’ll suffer, people will say you’re a selfish, arrogant person, do your own thing, we don’t want to be around you, and you’ll suffer.

And you’ll have the normal stuff that we all have, right? A little cancer here and there, a little downtrodden situation there, a rebellious child over here, singleness when you don’t want to be single over there, a divorce. Right?

Or you can say, “Since I’m going to suffer, I want to suffer for doing what is right, I want to be righteous, I’m going to swim upstream, I’m going to do life God’s way, I’m going to do relationships God’s way – imperfectly. My money God’s way, imperfectly. Serve Him imperfectly. And in the midst of that, guess what, you will suffer.

And He’ll change you and He’ll love you and you’ll have an intimacy with Him and people will see how He changes your life, and He will use you in ways that as you, little by little by little, take these tiny baby steps of those promptings and little by little by little by little you’ll go to a high school reunion and people will go, “This is a miracle.” Because that’s what it’s all about.

It's not some idealized life where everything goes your way. That’s a myth. It’s a wonderful, challenging, supernatural, awesome life. Don’t let your fears hold you back.

Fourth question was how does God’s wonderful provision, protection, power, and blessing on Joseph inspire you?

You think, Well, Chip, you know, this is scary. Well, who will take care of me? Well, if you’re Joseph, a few magi showed up with some coin. And if you don’t know what to do, a dream, hey, guess what, you know, better go to Egypt because they are going to wipe this group out. By the way, it’s time to come back. Herod is dead. Direction, provision, protection. Didn’t Jesus promise you if you’re a follower of Jesus, “I will never, ever leave you or forsake you.” Trust Me. Just trust Me.

Probably the most important question you could ask as we wrap this up and go into our Christmas season is: Lord, what, what baby step of obedience? Where have You kind of prompted me? Who did You ask me to talk to? What did You say I should do? Who do I need to forgive? Just, you know, it’s not like some big thing. It’s just like when you just say: The moment I hear God’s voice, I’m going to obey. I’m going to obey when I feel like it, I’m going to obey when I don’t feel like it, I’m going to obey when it’s popular, I’m going to obey when it’s unpopular, I’m going to obey when it’s super costly and I have no idea how God will work it out. And you will never, ever regret it.