Rejoice That Your Names Are Recorded In Heaven

We're going to be returning to the Gospel of Luke this morning, but before we get into the text, I want to talk a little bit about what acting by faith looks like. I think there's a common misconception that many of us are susceptible to when it comes to acting by faith, and I think that the misconception is this, that we believe that if we act by faith, we'll get what we want. Give and take, like a contract. If I do this thing, I will get this other thing that I want in return. And I want you to know that that is not how acting by faith works. You're not you as a creature made in the image of God. Don't get to stand before him and negotiate the terms of your service. You don't get to say to God, I'll do this as long as I get this.

We're not in relationship with God in a way that allows us to speak to him, to conceive of him in that way. When we act by faith, we act trusting God, who is good and merciful and loving and kind to us in Christ Jesus, to take care of us as he sees fit. And when we read scripture, or when we look around at other Christians who've gone before us, if our eyes are open, What is said of Abraham in Hebrews is true of universally, that this place, this world, this life, this is not our home. This is not the place where we reap what we've sown. What we sow here bears fruit in heaven. And if we change that around in our minds to say, well, what I sow, what I do now, I want the return on it now, we've lowered God and made him our peer.

He's no longer our father. He's like our buddy. And we cannot interact with God that way. If you think of Abraham, who's a man of faith, what did he do when he left Haran? What was it like when God called him out of that place? I want you to come out of Haran. And I want you to what? I want you to go to the place that I'll show you. I want you to leave your family. I want you to leave. And you can bring your wife. You can bring your cousin and his family. You can bring your stuff. But I want you to leave everything else behind, everything that was familiar to you in life, and I want you to come out where? To a place that I'll show you. And so I want you, at the very beginning of this sermon, I want you to become in touch with the assumptions that we make. What assumptions do we make when we hear that Abraham's called out into a land that God's going to show him? You assume that that's a good land, that that's a profitable land, that he's being called to something that he's going to enjoy more.

than what he has currently. That's the underlying assumption that we make. And we say, oh, well, I can act by faith because faith means that my life's going to get easier, better, more comfortable. Now, was that true of Abraham? Did his life get more comfortable, more easy? Did his wealth increase? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, his wealth increased. But how did he live? He lived in tents. He was a sojourner. He was a wanderer. His whole life, he had no place to call home. And he acted by faith. This is what acting by faith looks like. Now think of a couple of things in your own life that we do by faith. One of the common things that we do by faith is we get married. The vast majority of you, if you're not married, I'd say 95% of you who aren't married are going to get married. And every one of you has expectations for what that's going to mean.

I'm going to get married because the pastor told me, and it's going to look like this. Stop for a second and consider, where did you get those expectations? Where did they come from? Well, they came from the fact that I think I deserve them because that's how it should be. This is how I deserve to be treated. These are the things I deserve to have. These are the things I shouldn't have to deal with or put up with or tolerate. And so when you come into the marriage vows and you get these weird things in there, there's these contrasts in the marriage vows. For richer, Well, absolutely. Or for poorer. What? No, we're going to be richer. Okay? In sickness? No. In health? We're going to be healthy. We're going to be rich and we're going to be healthy. And then generally, for better or for worse? No, it's going to be better. And all you have to do is go to a wedding and look at the couple and they assume it's just going to be so good. It's going to be so nice. We're going to have money. We're going to be healthy. We're going to be happy. We're going to have kids. It's going to be awesome.

These are the things, without even thinking about it, these are the assumptions that we bring to marriage. And then I have job security because things don't always go that way. You guys have problems. You don't always get richer. Sometimes you lose your job. And sometimes you're not healthy. Sometimes you end up in the hospital. And sometimes you sleep in separate rooms because mom and dad, husband and wife, they're not getting along. It's not better. It's worse. And I want to expose, before we even come to our text this morning, I want us to see. that living by faith does not mean getting what you want. Living by faith does not mean getting what you want because God is no man's debtor. He is no man's debtor. He doesn't owe you a thing. You don't get to negotiate with him and say, I'll serve you if you give me this, whatever this is. Anything that he could give you in this world will fade away. Here today, gone tomorrow. Have you guys heard the saying that there's only two things that are guaranteed?

What are they? Okay. So what's that? And concrete cracks. Okay. So only two things in this are guaranteed. But I want you to realize that those things that are guaranteed have their limit. They're temporal. They only exist in this world. You won't have taxes in heaven. And you won't die again after you die here. And so those things, while we know that we'll face them, we'll deal with them, Those are bridges we will cross in this life. Even those things that we all understand to be just pillars in this life, they don't go beyond the grave. There's only one thing that eclipses the grave, that goes beyond the grave. And that is the gift of salvation. That's what we're going to be studying this morning. It's the gift of salvation. Job says, naked I came into this world and naked I will go out. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Anything that you have, Anything that you want in this life, you will not be able to take into the next. The only thing of eternal consequence that happens in this life is that God saves people. That's the only thing that crosses the line of death, that has effect on both sides. This morning we're going to be focusing on that gift of salvation and what our disposition ought to be toward this life.

in light of that truth. Another way of saying it is, what does it look like to act by faith in this life? It doesn't look like, I'll do this if I get what I want, or I'll put up with this for a little while, as long as it's going to be worth it later. We're going to learn what living by faith looks like. Would you please stand for the reading of God's word from Luke chapter 10, verses 17 through 24. This is the word of the Lord. And it is eternally true. The 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.

At that very time, he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and he said, I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son. and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Turning to the disciples, he said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see and did not see them, and to hear the things which you hear and did not hear them. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. So it's been two weeks since we were in Luke, and so I want to give you a little bit of context.

Immediately before this, Jesus commissioned these 70 disciples to go out and to preach his gospel. And he says to them at the beginning of it, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest and send out laborers into the harvest. And if you were here two weeks ago, you remember me saying that's where we stop. And we think of this work as a joyful, happy, safe work. But the very next verse, Jesus tells them what that work's going to be like. He says, behold, go, behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. And so what's he saying to the disciples? He's saying the work I'm giving you to do is dangerous work. In the same way that a lamb being surrounded by wolves would be in danger, so you will be when you go out and do this work for me. I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. And we studied and we realized that these disciples would have been scared.

It would only be natural that they would be afraid to go out into the field, as it were. The field that they're to go out into is not a field with only fruit in it. It's a field full of thistles and thorns and weeds, wolves. So they go out by faith. Now, if you were in their shoes, one of the things when you read Scripture, what you want to do is you want to enter into what's going on here and you think, okay, I'm a normal person. What would I think? What would I feel? What would my expectations be if I was in this situation? So if you were one of these disciples and you were sent out and Jesus says, as lambs among wolves, and don't take any money, don't take any extra clothes, don't take anything. Rely upon me to provide for you. Go and preach my gospel. Eat the food that's given to you with thanks. And then if the people don't listen to you,

curse them, those wolves, curse them, you lambs, what would you feel? You'd be scared. You'd say, this is too much. I'm excited. I want to see this work done. But it would take faith to do it. This is not low-hanging fruit. This isn't easy. This isn't, oh, well, I can do that. No problem. This work takes faith because they don't know how it's going to turn out. And Jesus doesn't tell them. He doesn't say, you go on out there and you preach and it's going to be great. He just says, you go out there and you preach. This is the context of them returning. It says in verse 17, the 70 returned how? With joy. With joy. These lambs who were sent out into the midst of wolves, they come back with joy. They went out with fear by faith and they come back with joy. Because the expectations that they had for their work, were that it was going to be dangerous, hard, miserable. And they come back with joy and they say, man, Lord, you can't even believe it. The demons listen to us. And just in chapter 9 of Luke, Jesus has sent out his disciple, the 12. Not the 70, but the 12. And he sends them out to do the exact same work. You go out. You preach my gospel. You heal the lame. And you cast out demons. I give you authority to do those things. And so the 12 go out.

And everything's just smooth sailing the whole way through for them, right? Except that it wasn't. When Jesus was up on the mountain and he was being transfigured, what did he come back down to? He came back down to his disciples being ridiculed and mocked because they were unable to cast out a demon. And everyone's going, you've been doing it other places, why can't you do it here? They're even wondering, they're saying, Lord, why weren't we able, when they were alone with him, they said, why weren't we able to cast out this demon? And he says, because this is the type that only comes out by prayer. But you see the assumptions that we start to make. We assume he sent those 12 out, smooth sailing the whole way. He told them they could do it, so 100% success rate. But that's not the way it worked. And yet we make the same assumption here. Don't you think that they went out, and they went out as lambs among wolves, and they were scared and they were fearful, but then they got out there, and it was just clear skies. Because you want that to be true. If you're like me,

And your heart's like mine. You want that to be true because that's the circumstance that you require to obey. It has to be as I expect it to be for me to act by faith. I have to be able to go out and be guaranteed success. But we have to remember the context that just, you know, the last chapter, not too long before these guys were sent out, the disciples weren't able to cast out demons. So these guys come back and they're happy and they're excited. Lord, the demons even listen to us. So what do we see from them returning with joy? What do we learn? Well, one of the things we learn is that God went with them. He didn't tell them ahead of time that he would, but he went with them in the work. He blessed them in the work. At the end of the Great Commission in Matthew 28, verse 20, Jesus says at the very end, he says, And lo, I am with you always. Wherever you go, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

This doesn't mean that the work that they went out to do would be without opposition or without resistance or without hardship. But it does mean that God would be with them, that he wouldn't abandon them. Another way of saying this is that in your own life, if you're thinking about yourself right now, is that if you conceive of God as being distant from you, it's not because he's wandered away. You have. You have. Because he says he'll never leave you or forsake you. That he'll go with you to the end of the age. That he sent these lambs out as wool in the midst of wolves. And what can we conclude except that he went with them and was a hedge about them to protect them and care for them. So the disciples come back with joy. They're rejoicing. Lord, we were able to cast out demons in your name. And what does Jesus say? He says, man, I watched Satan fall from heaven. What's that mean?

Literally, I mean, what's that mean? What he's saying is, I saw the fruit. I saw the effect of the work that you did. What you did wasn't a waste of time. It wasn't without consequence. I saw that you engaged faithfully, and I saw Satan's power diminish. The fruit of their ministry, of their faith, was Satan's destruction. His power was diminishing through the faithful work of Jesus' disciples. You know, if you're going out into this work, being sent out into this field full of thorns and thistles and wolves, you're concerned about yourself. You're concerned about your life. This is the thought you have. What about me? And in Ephesians 6, Paul tells us, he says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It's not against the people who can kill us. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers.

against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of darkness in the heavenly places. Jesus says, I saw Satan fall from heaven. I saw the work that you do produce the fruit that I intended it to do. That's what I saw. So what's he doing? He's encouraging them. Good work. Good work. Well done, faithful slave. Well done. So much of what Jesus says, during his earthly ministry, is rebuking, is correcting, is admonishing. But this passage is unique for a couple of reasons. One, we see him encouraging people, saying, good job, you did well. The other reason that we're going to come to later is we see Jesus rejoice. Do you know that Jesus didn't rejoice when he was on earth? Hardly at all. He was not a man that spent his time on earth rejoicing.

He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We're going to come to that. And so this is a very sweet passage to us, one, because he's encouraging his disciples for acting by faith. He's blessed the work that they do, and he rejoices and praises his Father for it. This is a very unique passage of Scripture. When Jesus says to them, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning, what he's doing is he's acknowledging the victory, and the context of the victory is battle. He knows what he sent them out into. He knows that he didn't give them easy work and cushy commands that don't have a cost. He told them ahead of time, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. I know this is dangerous work I'm giving you to do. Satan's fall from heaven, as Jesus describes it, was a result of his loss in battle. Satan is never passive in his resistance to God. When God exerts his power throughout creation through his church, Satan rises up and says no, and he fights, and Jesus wins.

And that's what we see here. Satan is always waging war. And the church of Jesus Christ is always meeting him in battle. This is our work. This is our place. This is our calling. This is what the disciples were engaged in when Jesus sent them out. Then we find Jesus after he says, I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. He explains after the fact what he had done. He didn't tell them ahead of time, you go out and I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you. He says, you go out. Goodbye. But then they come back, having acted by faith. And he says, I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. He said, behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, casting out demons, and nothing will harm you. But they didn't know that when they went out. They had to act by faith, and then they gained understanding. And that's essential to the nature of faith, is that you act without perfect understanding. If you have to have perfect understanding, you'll never act.

Because you'll always have a what if. Well, what if? Well, what if this happens? Well, what about that? What if I do this and then the other thing and then I'm going to get sucker punched from behind by something I didn't even expect? How can I prepare for something I didn't even know was coming? I can't do anything. That's not faith. That's not faith. You read in scripture people acting by faith and if you're engaged, you think they're idiots. That's what you have to conclude. Here's John the Baptist. He's with Herod. You shouldn't be sleeping with your brother's wife. That's not a very smart thing to do, now is it? He could say that at church when Herod's not there. You guys, don't do like Herod, because the Bible says don't do like Herod, because that's wicked. But no, he's in front of Herod, and he says, you ought not to have your brother's wife. It's shameful. You shouldn't do it. You've got Peter and the other disciples preaching, and the Pharisee's saying, don't you teach in his name.

And they get locked up and thrown in prison, and then they get beaten. And what do they do? Go right on, acting by faith, teaching in Jesus' name. You think, how is that smart? How is that wise? Don't you know what's going to happen, David and Goliath? You know the story? Little guy, little shepherd boy, with his sling and his stone, big giant, big sword, big shield. Little kid says, you defy the... the armies of the living God, and I won't have it. I'm going to get my rocks and I'm going to kill you. You read scripture and you just see people acting by faith and you go, they're just stupid. They're just stupid people. Go out and preach my gospel. I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. You think, I'm going to get torn apart. This isn't going to end well. It's going to destroy my marriage. It's going to ruin my kids. Who's going to provide? I'll end up in prison. Nasty, nasty things happen to people in prison. So they go out by faith.

And when they return, Jesus tells them, I've given you the authority to do what I told you to do. I went with you when you went. And so now we understand what their joy was placed in. What were they rejoicing about? The disciples were rejoicing that they'd been given authority to cast out demons. And Jesus confirms that to them. Yes, I've given you authority to cast out demons. And they're going, this is awesome. This is great. And Jesus encourages them, but then he cautions them. Then he cautions them. And the reason he cautions them is that when God blesses us, when he gives us good things or seasons of blessing in our life, what we do, what the disciples were going to be inclined to do, what we do is we say, life must always be this way. This is good. Life must always be this way. Just like James and John and Peter up on the mountain.

During the transfiguration, they say, Lord, this is a good thing. Let us build some tents and keep this good thing. They didn't understand. And we don't understand. Moses and Elijah, they left. The success that these disciples were enjoying at this time wasn't guaranteed to stay forever. This is like marriage. You get married, and then you have this phase after you get married, and it's called the honeymoon phase. I mean, you go on a honeymoon, but then you come home, and then there's this period of time where everything is richer, healthier, better. And those who are older and who have been married longer, we say rejoice in that time. God bless you. It is a delightful time, but we're waiting for the honeymoon to end. We're waiting for real life to start to happen again.

Because we understand that those things, those kindnesses and those mercies that God extends to us are not guaranteed to last forever. And the same is true of the disciples' power to cast out demons. If they assume that because they acted by faith, they're coming to understand. We acted by faith. God responded to our faith with blessing it in this way. If they assume it'll always be this way, What are they preparing their hearts for if God chooses in his wisdom to remove that blessing? They're preparing their hearts for disappointment and for discouragement because life changes. God's will isn't identical to our will. His desires aren't always our desires. And so we say, we want things to always be this way. We want them always to be good. We want them always to be happy. We expect always to have this power, this blessing. And so we negotiate with God.

We prepare our hearts for disappointment if he and his wisdom removes something that's good. And so Jesus cautions them. He says, nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you. Don't rejoice in this. Why? Because it's not a big deal? Because it's not a good thing? No. Because it's not guaranteed to last forever. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you. Okay, so no joy. No joy for Christians. You can't have any joy. Even when God blesses you, you can't be thankful for it because he might take it away. Jesus says, no, do not rejoice in this, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. Rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. Now, why does he tell them that? He tells them that because that is the one thing. You remember at the beginning, I said there's one thing that eclipses the grave. There's one thing that will never, ever change.

And that is the gift of salvation. It never changes. Your life will change. Your circumstances will change. Sometimes you'll be richer and sometimes you'll be poorer. Sometimes faith will require you to be poorer. Sometimes you'll be healthy and sometimes you'll be sick. Sometimes things will be better and sometimes things will be worse. This is how God works his will out in this world. He expects of his people that they not put their hope and their treasure here. but rather with him hidden in Christ in glory. And so Jesus calls them to rejoice in their salvation. There's lots of things that will change. There's lots of things that will happen. Jesus is being well-received for the most part right now, other than when they went through Samaria. He's being well-received, but he's on his way to Jerusalem where he's going to be rejected and killed. And everyone's going, this is great. Can you believe it? The kingdom of heaven, here it is, the power, the glory of it. Look at this. And just before this, Jesus has said to them, these guys are going to kill me.

And the disciples just couldn't even conceive of Jesus being killed. And what he's saying to them is life's going to change. Circumstances are going to change. But there's only one thing that won't change. And so if you want to rejoice, if you want joy in your life that's lasting, that's solid, that doesn't shift and waver, you must fix your joy on the kindness of God in saving you. That's the only thing that won't change. That's the only thing that won't change. You say, but if I'm Christian and I get married and my marriage, we're going to have a good marriage. I do hope so. And I will help you to do that. That is what I want. That's a good thing for you to want. Let's say you have a good marriage and then your spouse dies. Vanessa and I had an acquaintance. She's not even 30 and she's a widow. Her husband got really aggressive cancer and he died. It's not what she was planning on. They were married, what, a year?

maybe a year, and he died. And so Jesus says, don't rejoice in your circumstances. Don't rejoice in what's going on right now. Rejoice in salvation. Rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven, that your name is written in the book of life. In effect, what he's doing is he's cautioning them against pride. It's very easy. When people become Christians, they become Christians. You can't accept the kingdom of God unless you accept it like a child. And so humility attends conversion. Proud people don't come to Jesus. They can't. They don't need him. In their mind, they don't need Jesus Christ. And so those who come to Christ come in a state of humility. And that state of humility might be their marriage is falling apart, someone just died, their kids are doing awfully, they're flat broken about to lose their house, they're filing bankruptcy. There's something humiliating going on in their life. This is common. And in that state of humiliation, They come to Jesus Christ. The sad thing is we don't stay in that state. We find things. We're brought low, and then we find things to become proud about. We can cast out demons in Jesus' name. It's just an example of one thing that we can become proud of, that God's people have become proud about. We could stay here for three hours, and we could talk about the countless things people become proud about.

Their marriages, their theology, their kids, their schooling, their nursing, how they feed their kids, how they educate their kids, how they keep their house, how they spend their money, how long their hair is, whether they wear head coverings or not. What is it? Find it. Pick it. We can be proud about it. Rejoice in our good theology. Rejoice in our kids. Rejoice in our good financial practices. Rejoice in whatever you want. What if God takes it away? Will you have anything to rejoice about then? Will you be willing to return to a state of humiliation, a state of humility? Will you become humble? If you won't become humble, if you won't be humble before God, you won't have any joy. You look at your circumstances and you go, well, that's not fair. Well, that's not how it should be. That's not how I want it to be. That's not what I was working for. That's not what I expected it to be like.

And we think that our anger is directed at this situation. And the situations are often unfair and awful and all the rest. But our issue is not with the situation. Our issue is with God. With our Father who's chosen to give some things and to withhold other things. Or to give them and then to take them away. And so Jesus cautions his disciples. Don't rejoice in the circumstance. Don't rejoice in what's going on in your life right now. Only. But rejoice in my gift to you. Don't become proud. Remain humble. Remember who you are. Remember what you're like. Remember what you needed Jesus to do for you. Do you remember what your life was like? Do you remember who you were? If you don't, ask someone who's close to you. They remember. They'll tell you. The only person a part of my life regularly now that knows who I was before I was a Christian is Vanessa. She's the only person. None of you knew me.

No one from our ascending church knew me. She's the only person who knew what I was like. And you have people who know what you were like. Remember what you did. Remember how you thought. Remember how you behaved. Jesus calls them to remember. Not to wallow in the misery of it, but to rejoice in God's salvation, bringing them out of it. Do you remember what kind of sinner you were? Do you remember how there was no fear before your eyes? No fear of God. None. Do you remember the pride? Do you remember how you justified your sin and your actions and no one could ever tell you anything? Because you had to be right. You had to be vindicated. Do you remember how you could never say you were sorry? You could never admit you were wrong. Ever. It's always somebody else's fault. Always some extenuating circumstance. Everyone else is too stupid to understand how it was never your fault. You weren't really a sinner. Do you remember? Do you remember how painful it was when you finally saw yourself?

As God sees you. I remember. When you see that, when you remember that, then you have joy. Then you have joy because you realize you live in a state different than that. God's changed you. He's brought you out of that. He's made you new. He's recorded your name in heaven. This is the ground of our joy. Every other part of your life will change. Your marriages will change. Your work will change. Your kids will change. Your houses will change. Your cars will change. Your money will change. Your body will change. Your health will change. Your parents will die. Your kids might die. Everything else about your life is fluid. It can change. So the humility that Jesus calls them to, the joy that he calls them to, should always be before our minds. We ought always to remember how God has dealt with us.

You ought to remember who you were, what you were like, and how God was merciful to you, if he has been merciful to you. So these disciples come back to Jesus Christ and they say, we can't believe it. We can cast out demons in your name. And Jesus says, that's right and it's awesome and I gave you power to do it, but don't rejoice in that. Rejoice in your gift of salvation. And then Jesus prays. And this is this unique thing going on where Jesus is often burdened. He's tired. He describes himself as, is a man without a home. Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. This is his description of himself. Isaiah 53 says that he was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. This is the description that we have of Jesus Christ when he was in the flesh. And yet here,

In our text, Jesus rejoices, and he prays to his Father, and he praises him. At that very time, it says, So what does he rejoice in? He rejoices in his Father's wisdom. He rejoices that he's hidden it. Did you catch it? He rejoices that there are people that... didn't get it, and he rejoices in those who do get it. He is encouraged. He rejoices. He praises his Father because he sees other people act by faith. He sees these disciples act by faith, and he praises God for it. Amen, and thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father, for these infants, these children, these disciples. Thank you for their faith.

Those who are wise and those who are intelligent in the world, they cannot see the wisdom of God. They have nothing to rejoice in. 1 Corinthians 1, 21 and following says this, For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh. Thank you, Jesus, for these infants. There were not many wise according to the flesh.

not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. Jesus Christ and his Father in heaven honor humility, and humility must attend. the people of God. If you have no joy, it's because you're proud. To put it simply and boil it down, that's it. If you have no joy, it's because you're proud. You've strayed away from God for whatever reason. He hasn't given you what you wanted in life. Life's not what you thought it would be. My marriage isn't what I thought it would be. My health isn't what I thought it would be. My kids aren't what I thought it would be. My work's not what I thought it would be. Life's not what I thought it would be. And I say to you, where did you get this

of what your life should be like. Abraham wandered in tents for his whole life without an heir until the end, near the end. Where did you get this idea of what life was supposed to be like? You didn't get it from Jesus. And so my call to you, Jesus' call to you, is to come to him. Come to Jesus Christ. All of you who are weary and heavy laden, come to Jesus Christ. You'll find rest for your souls. I know a number of you are just worn out, tired, ready to quit. That's Satan's way. He will push and poke and prod and cause all kinds of strife and divisions and anger until you're ready to quit. Until you're ready to say, you know what? I'm not willing to wait for joy. I'm not willing to wait for satisfaction. I'm not willing to wait for joy and ease and comfort and the things that I deserve. I want them now. Give them to me now. And if you won't give them to me now, I won't serve you. That is pride.

And God is opposed to the proud. But he gives grace to the humble. Will you humble yourself before God? Or will you continue to fight with him? I'll act by faith if. I'll do this thing if. Or, I did these things, so you owe me this. God is no man's debtor. He doesn't owe you anything. And yet he's given you all things through Jesus Christ. Jesus rejoices in the simple faith of these disciples. told to do something, who did it, who acted by faith, who did their father's will. No one knows the father except the son. Remember in the passage, verse 22, all things have been handed over to me, says Jesus, by my father, and no one knows the son except the father, and who the father is except the son, and anyone to whom the son's will is to reveal him.

Jesus willed to reveal his father and his will to these disciples and they received it by faith and the result was their salvation. And the thing that attended their salvation was joy. What a blessing. What a sweet kindness. What a privilege. This is what Jesus ends with when he's talking to them. He says, blessed are the eyes, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. What a privilege it is for the disciples and for us to see the things that we see, to hear the things that we hear, to have Jesus Christ in his... And his infinite mercy revealed to us in the way that we have. There were men who served God by faith like Abraham who did not know the things that we know about God. And yet God gave them faith. And they acted on it. And they were blessed. And that's the call to you this morning. To live by faith. Faith that doesn't have qualifications. The call to you is to live by faith. You want joy? You want to be joyful.

Do you know when Vanessa and I found out we were having a daughter, there was real consideration about naming her Joy. And not because I particularly like the name Joy, but because I have a really hard time being joyful. And I thought the one daughter, if God's only going to give me one daughter, what better thing to do than to name her Joy as a perpetual reminder to me to be joyful. And don't we all need those kinds of reminders? So the application is this. You should rejoice in the things that Jesus rejoices in. You should rejoice in the things that Jesus rejoices in. You should put your hope in him. Not in this life. This life will change. This life won't be what you expect. Whatever you expect to happen from here on out, I don't know what will happen, but I know that what you expect probably will not. Will you roll with it by faith? Will you adjust your expectations when God changes your circumstances? Or will you become bitter? That's what Satan would have you do. He'd have you become bitter.

Jesus is encouraged. He's strengthened. He's happy that his disciples acted by faith. He's glorified by their action. Why would you not want to be a part of that? It's stupid, isn't it? Kind of foolish. I'm going to sit there and look at all that joy and that good and all that stuff, and actually what I'm going to do is I'm going to despise those people who actually have joy because I don't have joy. And I say, the door's open. Come on in. Come on in. But you can't bring all your expectations for this life in with you. In this building, you're not allowed to have guns. In heaven, you're not allowed to have disappointments. And if you're going to be prepared for heaven, you can't live a life of disappointment now. It won't prepare you for it. So you have to check all of your disappointments and your bitterness at the door of heaven. And you'll find joy. Joy that will sustain you through all of life's ups and downs. And you'll glorify God. And Jesus will be happy to see you do it.

Father, you could have left us in our sin. You could have kept your son that you love in heaven with you. And you could have sent him to this earth just once to destroy all that hates you. But with the great love that you have loved us with, you sent your son into this world to be the propitiation for our sins, to take them away, nailing them to the cross, satisfying your wrath, your righteous wrath against us. Father, we pray for humility. We pray for joy. We pray for the knowledge of your love and mercy through Jesus Christ to us to be ever before our eyes. Help us to serve you by faith, just as these disciples did. And Father, would you show us the fruit of our labors? Would you confirm in our hearts what we read here in Scripture, that Jesus rejoices and is pleased, that you are pleased when we act by the faith that you've given to us? Glorify yourself in our lives, Father.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen.