Participants:
Series Code: AU
Program Code: AU000101S
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00:00 - Let me ask you this,
00:02 have you ever felt like you're impossibly trapped 00:03 in a meaningless existence 00:05 and you feel helpless to do anything about it? 00:08 Today that's what we're gonna look at, 00:09 and I really think you might wanna hear this. 00:12 That's today's Authentic. 00:16 [high-energy music] 00:36 Depending on your situation, 00:37 a lifetime here on planet Earth 00:38 can feel a little bit like a prison sentence. 00:41 After all, none of us actually asked to be here. 00:45 This life is involuntary. 00:47 You had no say when it came to where you'd be born 00:50 or who your parents would be, 00:51 and you've really got no choice 00:53 but to struggle your way to the finish line, 00:55 where either your body succumbs 00:57 to the harsh reality of aging 00:59 or you're somehow tragically terminated 01:01 before the insurance actuary tables say it's your time. 01:05 So what happens to a lot of people 01:07 once they recognize and accept their own mortality, 01:11 they just begin to mark off time, 01:13 counting down the days to the finish line. 01:16 Ah, sure, we make note of significant milestones 01:18 like we're checking off some kind of list. 01:21 We start school, we leave school, we launch a career, 01:25 we get married, we have kids, we get old, 01:27 we retire, we have grandkids, 01:29 and then, eventually, we draw our last breath 01:32 and close our eyes for the last time. 01:34 And I know I'm sounding kind of defeatist and cynical, 01:37 but stick with me. 01:39 I mean, I've been in the preacher business long enough 01:41 to know that what I just described 01:44 is the daily reality for an awful lot of people. 01:47 They just spend the bulk of their days 01:49 counting the minutes till they die. 01:52 Now, that's not to say that their lives 01:54 aren't punctuated by some incredible moments of joy, 01:57 and I'm not suggesting that these people 01:59 might be depressed or discouraged. 02:01 Some of them, in fact, seem to be fine 02:03 with the way life is playing out, 02:05 and they're happy to put in their time 02:07 doing the very same things that other people do, 02:10 which includes hanging it up in the end zone 02:12 and slipping into your casket. 02:15 Most of us are just resigned to the reality of life. 02:19 But then, you find these other people 02:22 who actually get a little angry 02:23 once they realize how little control 02:26 most of us actually have. 02:28 At a very young age, 02:29 we're told that we can be anything we wanna be, 02:31 we can do anything we wanna do. 02:34 But then the process of actually living in this place 02:37 can begin to make those affirmations seem like a lie. 02:40 We discover unfortunate things like opportunity cost, 02:44 because life is far too short 02:47 to accomplish everything on your bucket list. 02:49 I mean, most of us aren't going to become surgeons 02:53 and lawyers and authors and political leaders 02:56 and accomplished musicians 02:58 and whatever it else it was that you wanted to be. 03:01 I mean, there are those few rare exceptions to the rule, 03:04 those very rare people who are actual polymaths. 03:08 But for the most of us, 03:10 there's not enough time in one lifespan to do everything. 03:13 And for some people, 03:15 that discovery can trigger a little resentment. 03:19 I'm reminded of a passage from the Bible 03:20 where it tells us that one short lifetime 03:23 isn't actually enough to do everything you want to do. 03:26 Ecclesiastes 1:8 says, 03:28 "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, 03:31 "nor the ear filled with hearing." 03:33 That's a statement made by somebody 03:36 who's contemplating the vanity of life. 03:39 He's bemoaning the fact that life seems far too short, 03:42 and then, when it's over far too quickly, 03:45 you'll be powerless to hang on to your own accomplishments. 03:50 Now, at first reading, 03:51 the Book of Ecclesiastes 03:53 can feel like a work of dark pessimism. 03:55 But even the most ironclad Pollyanna 03:58 has to admit that the author kinda has a point. 04:01 Anything that you and I attempt to accomplish in this life 04:05 never seems to last. 04:06 The shelf life of your accomplishments is painfully short. 04:11 I mean, just think about the 8 billion people 04:13 who live on this planet right now, 04:16 and suddenly the list 04:17 of historical people we tend to remember seems pretty small. 04:22 The vast majority of us live obscure, 04:24 practically invisible lives. 04:26 And even if you do happen to become famous, 04:29 most folks are only remembered 04:31 for a handful of trivial facts, 04:34 and then only for a generation or two. 04:37 I mean, just let's consider the case of Napoleon Bonaparte. 04:41 How much do you really know about him? 04:43 Most of you know he was French, 04:44 he was ill-tempered and short, 04:47 and you might even remember 04:48 that he had his hand inside his coat 04:49 when he posed for an official portrait. 04:52 You likely know that he invaded Russia 04:54 and got defeated by the brutal winter, 04:56 and you probably know he was defeated, ultimately, 04:59 at the Battle of Waterloo, 05:00 and then spent the rest of his life in exile. 05:03 You might even know the name of his wife, Josephine. 05:07 But then, if you're not a history major, 05:10 what else do you know? 05:12 Not much. 05:13 Napoleon is one of the most infamous names 05:15 in European history, 05:17 and I managed to list off everything that most people know 05:20 in a few seconds. 05:22 You and I? 05:23 Well, 200 years after I die, 05:25 how much do you think people are gonna remember about me? 05:28 Pretty much nothing. 05:30 I mean, I don't really know much 05:31 about my great-grandfathers, 05:33 and that's not even 200 years ago. 05:37 Now, this is a thought that I've explored with you before, 05:40 and I probably gave it the broadest treatment 05:42 when we talked about the 6th century 05:43 Christian philosopher Boethius, 05:46 a very popular and successful man 05:48 who suddenly found himself condemned to die 05:50 for crimes he didn't commit. 05:53 They called him a spy. 05:54 And he discovered that all of his accomplishments 05:57 suddenly meant nothing, 05:59 not when the grim reaper 06:00 is standing outside your prison cell. 06:03 I mean, let's be honest, 06:05 he's hardly alone. 06:07 As a minister, I've had the opportunity 06:09 to sit with an awful lot of dying people. 06:11 And I can tell you that, 06:12 in the last five minutes of your life, 06:15 all that stuff that seems 06:16 so unbelievably important to you right now, 06:20 you'd give it all up on the spot 06:22 if it meant you could buy just a little more time. 06:25 That is, if you're not suffering. 06:27 And the fact that most of what you do 06:29 is just going to vanish, 06:31 that's a reality that makes the practice of marking time 06:34 between your birth and death all the more fascinating. 06:38 You really need to ask yourself, 06:40 is the way that you're living now 06:42 really going to matter when you realize you're out of time? 06:45 Are the things you prize at this moment 06:47 really going to seem valuable 06:49 when you hit that home stretch? 06:51 Or will most of your activities 06:52 just look like tally marks on the wall of a prison cell, 06:56 mindlessly marking the days before death comes to get you? 07:01 I know that, for me, 07:02 some of life's milestones have been incredibly valuable 07:05 because they help me define who I am as a person, 07:08 like my marriage to Jean or the birth of my children. 07:12 Those were such big game changers 07:14 that I can hardly begin to describe 07:16 how much value they added to my life. 07:19 Just those two things, 07:21 or really those three people, 07:23 have infused my life with a sense of purpose. 07:25 They give me something to live for. 07:27 And I'm pretty sure you've got similar things in your life, 07:30 those things that make it seem like life's pretty good. 07:35 But then, outside of those few big highlights, 07:38 a lot of people have this tendency 07:39 to just lurch from one moment to the next, 07:42 hoping that whatever comes next will be pretty good. 07:45 When I was back in high school, 07:47 the next thing would be graduating and going to college. 07:49 And when I arrived at the university, 07:51 it kind of felt like I was just checking a box 07:53 on the life list. 07:55 The same thing happened to you. 07:57 Your first job, check. 07:58 Your first mortgage and house, check. 08:00 Turning 30, check. 08:01 Turning 40, check. 08:02 50, check. 08:03 60, check. 08:04 Eventually, if the Lord sees fit 08:07 and your finances somehow allow it, 08:09 you get to retire, another check. 08:11 Maybe take up a hobby, check. 08:13 And then you clutch your chest, 08:15 your heart stops, and you die. 08:17 And that's the final checkmark. 08:20 Now, I don't know if you do this, 08:21 but given the inevitability of death, 08:24 I mean, let's be honest, none of us gets out of here alive, 08:27 sometimes I find myself trying to imagine 08:29 what my final moments are actually going to be like. 08:32 Will I be in the hospital, 08:33 surrounded by friends and family, 08:35 with my wife holding my hand as I slip into the dark? 08:38 Or will I, God forbid, 08:39 be somewhere by myself in a hotel room or a work trip, 08:42 or flying over the ocean in a plane 08:44 that doesn't actually make it? 08:47 As you get older and you start to feel the aches and pains, 08:50 you begin to wonder, is this one gonna heal, 08:52 or am I gonna be stuck with this pain 08:54 for the rest of my life? 08:56 When is a symptom going to escort me to a doctor 08:59 who tells me I'm not gonna make it? 09:02 You know it's gonna happen sometime, somehow. 09:06 Now, to be honest, 09:07 the thought of dying doesn't actually scare me 09:09 because of what I've found in the pages of the Bible. 09:12 But that doesn't mean I don't think about it, 09:14 especially as the calendar keeps pushing me into the future. 09:17 I mean, in some ways, 09:18 it's just a matter of making hash marks on the prison wall, 09:21 counting down the days. 09:23 And if you find that kind of depressing, hang in there 09:26 because it's not as hopeless as it sounds. 09:29 So you start counting the seconds right now 09:31 until the break is over, 09:33 and then we'll reconvene 09:34 to think about this just a little bit more. 09:41 - [Narrator 1] Here at The Voice of Prophecy, 09:42 we're committed to creating top-quality programming 09:45 for the whole family. 09:46 Like our audio adventure series "Discovery Mountain." 09:49 "Discovery Mountain" is a bible-based program 09:52 for kids of all ages and backgrounds. 09:54 Your family will enjoy the faith-building stories 09:57 from this small mountain summer camp and town. 10:00 With 24 seasonal episodes every year 10:02 and fresh content every week, 10:04 there's always a new adventure just on the horizon. 10:10 - Just before the break, 10:11 I mentioned that the thought of dying 10:13 doesn't actually scare me. 10:15 Now, that doesn't mean I have a death wish. 10:17 I would like to put in more time. 10:19 So I don't want to die 10:20 because I find this world just too wonderful 10:23 and interesting to check out now. 10:26 But the thought of mortality, 10:28 knowing that I'm not the one person who isn't gonna die, 10:32 that doesn't scare me. 10:34 And maybe that's because I already had a scare 10:36 quite a few years ago, 10:37 and I was convinced that I'd arrived at the finish line. 10:40 And so I guess in some ways, 10:41 I've already dealt with some of the emotions 10:43 that come from realizing that time is up. 10:46 But my low sense of fear 10:48 actually comes from a principle you find in the Bible 10:51 found in Hebrews 2. 10:53 And some of you who watch the show regularly 10:55 will recognize this 10:57 because I read this at least once a season. 10:59 It's just that good of a thought. 11:01 Listen to what this says. 11:03 It's talking about the incarnation of Christ. 11:05 "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, 11:08 "he himself likewise, partook of the same things, 11:12 "that through death he might destroy the one 11:14 "who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 11:17 "and deliver all those who through fear of death 11:20 "were subject to lifelong slavery." 11:24 The author seems to agree 11:25 that a human lifetime can feel a little like a prison. 11:28 In fact, he goes a step further and calls it slavery. 11:32 None of us asked to be born, 11:35 and absolutely none of us, on the day we were born, 11:38 made a voluntary appointment to die. 11:41 But here we are with the specter of death 11:42 hanging over every second of our lives, 11:45 and that profoundly affects how we live. 11:48 A lot of people panic, 11:49 sensing that life is far too short, 11:51 and they try to cram in so much 11:53 that they become too busy to slow down and enjoy life. 11:57 Other people become paralyzed by fear, 11:59 so they do practically nothing 12:01 and they waste the time they've got. 12:04 Knowing that you're gonna die 12:06 absolutely changes how you live. 12:08 I mean, what would you do differently 12:10 if you knew that life wasn't limited? 12:13 What if you didn't have to live your whole life 12:15 as if you were wolfing down a quick sandwich over the sink 12:17 so you could get back to work? 12:19 What if life was more like slowly relishing 12:22 an expensive four-star dinner? 12:25 What would you do differently 12:27 if you didn't have this sense 12:28 that you were being carried along 12:30 too quickly to the finish line? 12:32 How many of those painful regrets that haunt you 12:35 were the result of hasty decisions 12:37 that came out of a sense of panic? 12:39 What if life wasn't a prison sentence, 12:42 but a big opportunity? 12:44 Let me show you something 12:46 that I find absolutely fascinating, 12:48 and it's the way that Jesus introduced his public ministry 12:50 to the whole world. 12:52 This took place on Sabbath 12:53 and so, of course, the Bible tells us 12:55 that Jesus was in the synagogue. 12:57 It tells us that was his custom. 13:00 And by some remarkable coincidence, 13:02 when it was Jesus' turn to read scripture, 13:05 they gave him the Isaiah Scroll, 13:07 and here's what he read. 13:09 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 13:11 "because he has anointed me 13:12 "to proclaim good news to the poor. 13:15 "He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives 13:17 "and recovering of sight to the blind, 13:20 "to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 13:22 "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 13:25 Now, if I'm reading that right, 13:27 it would seem like God himself 13:28 thinks that a human lifetime is a bit of a prison sentence, 13:32 at least in a broken world. 13:34 And one of the key promises of the long awaited Messiah 13:37 was to set us free from that penitentiary. 13:42 There's no way that Jesus read that passage by accident. 13:45 It wasn't a coincidence because he was the anointed one 13:48 Isaiah was predicting when he wrote it 700 years earlier. 13:55 So let's consider the magnitude of what Jesus said. 13:56 He is, of course, the most influential person of all time. 14:00 I mean, there's a good reason 14:02 the whole world seems to be aware of him. 14:05 The people who knew Jesus personally 14:08 insist that he was the Son of God, 14:09 God in human flesh. 14:12 They tell us that he not only died 14:14 an unimaginably cruel death on a Roman cross, 14:17 but he actually came back. 14:18 He rose from the dead. 14:21 That's the person who's telling us 14:23 that he knows how to release you 14:25 from the prison yard of life. 14:27 So try to imagine no more tally marks on the walls 14:30 marking the days of predictable drudgery till you're gone. 14:34 Imagine not having to worry about the briefness of life 14:37 or having to wrestle with the disappointment that comes 14:39 from not being able to do everything you wanna do. 14:42 Imagine actually getting to the finish line 14:45 knowing it's not over, 14:47 knowing that you haven't just wasted a few decades 14:49 on a meaningless existence. 14:51 Imagine knowing that someone, in fact, 14:53 the source of all life, 14:56 actually knows your name and thinks you're significant. 15:01 And imagine being able to take your regrets, 15:03 those painful moments when you know you blew it, 15:06 when you know you left a messy divot 15:08 on the golf course of life, 15:10 imagine being able to find peace of mind over that. 15:13 I mean, it's not that God's gonna just take away 15:15 all the consequences of your bad choices, 15:17 because he doesn't always do that, trust me. 15:20 I mean, the Bible's full of examples of people 15:23 who had to live with what they did. 15:25 King David, for example, his affair with Bathsheba 15:28 wreaked absolute havoc on the rest of his family. 15:31 But now instead of being chained to what you were, 15:34 instead of being trapped 15:35 by what you really don't like about yourself, 15:37 instead of being locked in a prison cell of regret, 15:41 try to imagine knowing 15:42 that you are no longer what you once were. 15:45 Imagine being able to look 15:47 at the mess you've made of the past 15:48 and you can smile because you know for sure 15:52 that God's okay with you. 15:54 Instead of living for nothing, 15:55 instead of casting about looking for some kind of purpose, 15:58 imagine knowing that your life's agenda 16:01 is actually starting to harmonize 16:03 with the priorities of God himself. 16:05 What if you could wake up every morning 16:07 and know that you're not gonna waste the day? 16:09 What if every moment, every single breath you take, 16:12 is saturated with purpose or even joy? 16:16 Just listen to this amazing passage 16:18 that Paul wrote to the church in Galatia. 16:21 He says, "I have been crucified with Christ. 16:25 "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 16:28 "And the life I now live in the flesh 16:30 "I live by faith in the Son of God, 16:32 "who loved me and gave himself for me." 16:36 Now, at first glance, that doesn't sound very attractive, 16:39 because who in the world wants to be crucified? 16:41 Crucifixion was an incredibly cruel form of punishment 16:44 and it was humiliating. 16:46 It was the worst thing the Romans could do to you. 16:49 But this is not talking about physical death, 16:52 it's talking about taking your meaningless existence, 16:55 the one that's racked with pain and regret, 16:58 and exchanging it for something far more meaningful. 17:01 The old you dies, 17:03 and there's a new, more authentic you. 17:06 In our natural everyday state, 17:08 you and I really are prisoners. 17:10 We're just marking time till we disappear. 17:12 We live with pain, with remorse, 17:15 and we're helpless to change it. 17:17 But then we see this rabbi from Nazareth 17:19 open the Isaiah Scroll, 17:21 and he tells us it doesn't have to be like this. 17:23 Why? 17:25 Because he's one of us now. 17:27 And now you suddenly have a choice. 17:30 You live for self, 17:31 which does nothing but underline the fact 17:33 that we're prisoners, 17:35 or you can crucify that hopeless, self-centered person 17:38 and start to live differently. 17:41 Nobody who has ever taken a serious look 17:43 at the biography and teachings of Christ 17:45 would ever suggest that he wasted his life. 17:48 I mean, look at the way he changed the whole world. 17:51 And Paul says that Christ is willing 17:53 to live that same kind of profoundly meaningful life 17:56 all over again through you. 17:59 I'll be right back after this. 18:05 - [Narrator 2] Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues. 18:09 Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. 18:14 If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation 18:16 and come away scratching your head, 18:18 you're not alone. 18:19 Our free "Focus on Prophecy" guides 18:21 are designed to help you unlock the mysteries of the Bible 18:24 and deepen your understanding of God's plan 18:26 for you and our world. 18:28 Study online or request them by mail 18:31 and start bringing prophecy into focus today. 18:34 - You know, when you read John's gospel, 18:36 there's this almost painful sense of urgency 18:38 in the background of the story. 18:41 The entire narrative kind of feels 18:43 like you're being carried along uncontrollably 18:45 toward that moment when Christ gets murdered. 18:49 The language is saturated with foreshadowing, 18:52 giving you constant reminders 18:54 that Jesus has this unavoidable appointment with death. 18:58 I'll give you just one example 18:59 from one of my favorite stories in John 4, 19:02 where Jesus meets that woman at the well. 19:05 Here's what it says. 19:06 "So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, 19:09 "near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 19:13 "Jacob's well was there; 19:14 "so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, 19:17 "was sitting beside the well. 19:19 "It was about the sixth hour. 19:21 "A woman from Samaria came to draw water. 19:23 "Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.'" 19:27 The sixth hour of the day back in biblical times was noon. 19:30 And honestly, most people didn't draw their water 19:33 that time of day because it was so hot out, 19:35 and it was a lot more pleasant first thing in the morning. 19:39 But in this story, 19:40 we're talking about a woman who lived 19:42 with an awful lot of shame. 19:43 She'd been married five times, 19:45 and now she's shacked up 19:46 with some guy who's not her husband. 19:49 Chances are she's the talk of the town, 19:51 the victim of gossip. 19:53 And so the odds are pretty good 19:54 that she's visiting this well in the heat of the day 19:57 to avoid making personal contact. 20:00 It's just too painful. 20:02 I think it's a relatively safe assumption 20:04 because John goes out of his way 20:06 to give us all those details about her life. 20:10 But then I want you to notice what Jesus says 20:12 when he meets her at the sixth hour, right at noon. 20:15 He tells her he's thirsty. 20:17 And those of you who have read 20:19 the rest of John's gospel 20:20 know that Jesus says the same thing 20:22 when he's hanging on a cross. 20:24 He says, "I thirst." 20:26 And when did Pilate deliver him to be crucified? 20:29 John 19 tells us it was the sixth hour, 20:32 the same moment that Jesus made that statement at the well. 20:36 Now, that's the kind of foreshadowing 20:39 you find all the way through the gospel of John. 20:41 There's this dark sense that the cross is unavoidable, 20:44 that it has to happen, 20:45 and the sand in Jesus' hourglass is running out very fast. 20:50 And there's something kind of familiar 20:51 about the pace of the story. 20:53 It reminds me of that dark sense that you and I have, 20:56 that life is carrying us along far too quickly, 20:59 taking us to our doom. 21:01 And we can suddenly see that Jesus really does identify 21:05 with how we feel, 21:06 what it means to live here. 21:08 He also lived under the shadow of death, 21:11 feeling that same relentless march to the end, 21:14 the one that compromises our ability 21:17 to live the way we wish we could. 21:19 When the Bible says that Jesus lived a real human life, 21:22 when it says he became sin for us, 21:25 it also means he experienced that same dark sense of doom 21:29 that we tend to feel 21:30 when we suddenly realize that we're not just in prison, 21:34 but on death row, 21:35 and we've run out of appeals. 21:37 I mean, how else do you explain the cry from the cross, 21:40 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 21:45 Jesus was feeling what you feel. 21:47 And in that moment we can see 21:49 that God has not only noticed our problem, 21:51 he's also felt it, 21:53 and he knows that this is not the way he created us. 21:56 He did not design this planet as a prison cell. 22:00 So watch the Son of God 22:02 as he joins us right here in our miserable existence, 22:05 as he experiences what it means 22:08 to mark those painful moments 22:10 that carry you forward to that disappointing end. 22:14 "On the evening of that day," the Bible tells us, 22:16 "the first day of the week, 22:18 "the doors being locked where the disciples were 22:20 "for fear of the Jews, 22:22 "Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, 22:26 "'Peace be with you.'" 22:28 You know, sometimes people tell me that that verse 22:31 is the reason that Christians changed the Sabbath to Sunday, 22:34 because it mentions the first day of the week 22:36 and it seems like it's at worship service. 22:39 But I've discovered it's really hard to build that case 22:42 because that's clearly not a worship service. 22:44 The disciples are terrified that they might be the next ones 22:47 to get nailed to a cross, 22:49 so they're hiding. 22:51 They're marking time, waiting for the worst, 22:53 which could come at any moment. 22:56 And then, Jesus who experienced 22:57 that same angst we tend to feel, only worse, 23:01 suddenly appears and tells them 23:03 there's nothing to worry about. 23:05 "Peace be with you," he said. 23:08 So, what does that mean for you? 23:10 That means you're no longer 23:11 on a hopeless slide to the grave, 23:13 marking the moments of a meaningless life 23:15 until death comes knocking. 23:18 God took human form and defeated death, 23:20 and you no longer have to live in a prison yard, 23:22 captive to fear. 23:24 I mean, you will have to suffer a little 23:27 as you get to the end. 23:28 We all do. 23:29 But honestly, that thought no longer bothers me 23:32 like it used to. 23:34 From the Bible's perspective, 23:35 from the perspective of a risen Christ, 23:38 I can now have what Paul calls, 23:40 "The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding." 23:43 I'll be right back after this. 23:51 - [Narrator 3] Are you searching for answers 23:53 to life's toughest questions, 23:54 like, where is God when we suffer? 23:57 Can I find real happiness? 23:58 Or, is there any hope for our chaotic world? 24:02 The "Discover Bible" guides 24:03 will help you find the answers you are looking for. 24:05 Visit us at BibleStudies.com, 24:08 or give us a call at 888-456-7933 24:13 for your free "Discover Bible" guides. 24:16 Study online on our secure website, 24:19 or have the free guides mailed right to your home. 24:21 There is never a cost or obligation. 24:24 The "Discover Bible" guides are our free gift to you. 24:27 Find answers in guides like 24:28 "Does My Life Really Matter to God?" 24:31 and "A Second Chance at Life." 24:33 You'll find answers to the things that matter most to you 24:35 in each of the 26 "Discover Bible" guides. 24:38 Visit BibleStudies.com and begin your journey today 24:42 to discover answers to life's deepest questions. 24:50 - Right before we took that break, 24:51 I quoted from the Book of Philippians, 24:53 where Paul tells us that we can actually have peace of mind. 24:58 But let me put that statement 25:00 in its proper context for you now, 25:02 because what Paul promises is really pretty astonishing. 25:06 And as we read this together, 25:08 I want you to compare what we're reading 25:10 to that awful sense that most of us have, 25:13 that we're trapped in some kind of meaningless life. 25:17 Here's what Paul writes, 25:18 and we're gonna begin in verse four. 25:20 He says this, "Rejoice in the Lord always; 25:24 "again I say, rejoice. 25:26 "Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. 25:29 "The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, 25:33 "but in everything by prayer 25:34 "and supplication with thanksgiving 25:37 "let your requests be made known to God. 25:39 "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, 25:43 "will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." 25:49 Many years ago, Hugh Latimer, 25:52 the one-time chaplain to King Edward the VI, 25:55 was condemned to die under the brutal reign of Mary Tudor, 25:59 sometimes called Bloody Mary. 26:02 And as he was waiting to be executed, 26:04 it got really, really, really cold 26:06 one night in his jail cell. 26:08 Imagine, it's made out of stone, it's damp. 26:10 He's freezing. 26:11 So he asked the jailer, 26:12 "Hey, can I have a fire to warm myself at?" 26:17 The jailer got irritated, 26:18 "No fire for the heretics." 26:20 "Well, but you don't understand," Latimer told the jailer. 26:23 "If you don't let me build a fire, 26:25 "I'm gonna die of exposure. 26:26 "And if I die of exposure, 26:28 "you're gonna lose the chance to burn me at the stake." 26:32 Now, that's funny, 26:34 and it makes me wonder, 26:35 how can somebody make a joke like that 26:37 under such horrible circumstances? 26:39 Would you be joking 26:41 if you know they're gonna burn you at the stake? 26:43 How does he do that? 26:45 It doesn't seem right. 26:47 Unless Latimer had already been set free 26:50 from the prison of life 26:52 by someone who has suffered more than any of us has. 26:56 When they finally burned Latimer at the stake, 26:58 he turned to his friend Nicholas Ridley, 27:00 who'd also been condemned for so-called heresy. 27:03 He was tied to the next stake. 27:05 And Latimer shouted these words, they're famous, 27:08 "Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man. 27:11 "We shall this day, by God's grace, 27:13 "light up such a candle in England, 27:15 "as I trust will never be put out." 27:19 Wouldn't you know it? 27:20 That's exactly what happened. 27:22 Their deaths sparked a revival across the land. 27:27 So try to imagine having that kind of peace of mind, 27:31 that kind of presence. 27:32 Imagine knowing that your life is meaningful, 27:35 that you're living for something bigger than you, 27:38 living for someone who will not let your lifetime, 27:41 your existence, just mean nothing. 27:45 I don't know about you, 27:47 but that thought helps me realize 27:49 I'm gonna make it through 27:50 whatever life throws in my direction. 27:53 Yeah, life is brutal, 27:55 and reading the Bible will assure you 27:57 that everybody suffers. 27:59 "But whoever loses his life for my sake," Jesus promised, 28:02 "will find it." 28:04 Thanks for joining me today. 28:05 I'm Shawn Boonstra, and this has been "Authentic 28:10 [high-energy music] |
Revised 2024-05-14