Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Pastor Brian: Last week I shared a message about giving our best. Today, the title of my message is The End Game. And it's not because today's the kickoff of the NFL season. But God has an end game in mind for all of us. Last week we talked about giving our best, even though we may suffer at the hands of others when we do. I use the metaphorical expression, even if you get kicked in the teeth, you still should give your best.
But we really have a perfect model of a person who gave the very best in the face of adversity. And his name is Jesus. His name is Jesus. He gave his very best, in spite of the fact that even though he was full of love and purity, he suffered, he suffered greatly, even though he gave his very best. Every day, Jesus taught wonderful truths that people were amazed at his teaching. They said, "Isn't this just the carpenter's son?" Of course, they had judged him. Have you been judged in the past because of maybe your heredity, maybe your lack of schooling, maybe your lack of accomplishments in some people's eyes? Have you been judged by that?
And that was Jesus. He'd been judged by who his father was. Well, he's, his dad's just a carpenter. He can't be-- How does he come up with all this stuff? such wisdom and so forth. And he performed miracles that went beyond the comprehension of others. And of course, the religious leaders got angry because he would do that on a Sabbath. He did it on other days as well, you know, but he did it on a Sabbath. And that was their way of kind of judging him and, and picking on him, kicking him in the teeth, proverbially. And even though he would suffer greatly, he still always gave his very, very best. He gave his very best.
Jesus foretold that those who would follow him would also suffer. Now, that's not a really popular message in America. Hey boys, sign up to follow Jesus and suffer. You know, that's probably not the greatest hook to get people to buy into what you are selling. But we see in John 1520 where Jesus said these words,
Pastor Jacque: So remember what I taught you, that a servant isn't superior to his master, and since they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
Pastor Brian: So why is it that we get shocked when we who follow Jesus might suffer at the hands of others? Why do we get shocked about that? Jesus said it, didn't he? Sometimes I think we have what we describe our children as when they are growing up, and that is they have selective hearing. Sometimes I think we only hear certain things that we want to hear from the scriptures. We don't hear the totality of the scriptures. There is another one in Matthew 10: 38 and 39.
Pastor Jacque: Whoever comes to me must follow in my steps and be willing to share my cross and experience it as his own, or he's not worthy of me. Those who cling to their lives will give up true life. But those who let go of their lives for my sake and surrender it all to me will discover true life.
Pastor Brian: Isn't that what we sang about this morning?
Pastor Jacque: Absolutely right. It's great.
Pastor Brian: I give my life to you. I give my life to you. I surrender to you. we would rather be viewed as conquerors than as people who surrender. Wouldn't we? We'd rather be viewed as someone who has all the answers than someone who's simply just willingly follows without having all the answers. When we take up our crosses, we really will be blessed with spiritual rewards. But sometimes we have to wait for heaven actually to inherit some of those rewards. And the waiting can get very frustrating at times. It just can surrender. That's what Jesus said. There is another one in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus shared, Matthew chapter five, verses 10 through 12, where he kind of really hits the nail on the head here when he says this.
Pastor Jacque: And all these scriptures are taken from the Passion Translation. How enriched you are when persecuted for doing what is right for then you experience the realm of heaven's kingdom.
Pastor Brian: Some of us have a picture in our minds of what God's kingdom is like. And I wouldn't be surprised if most of us felt, myself included, that persecution wasn't part of that. But Jesus said, how enriched you are. I like that word enriched. King James has blessed, blessed are you. But how enriched you are when persecuted for doing what is right. Now, let me ask a question. How many of you have felt enriched when you were persecuted or kicked into teeth for doing something that was right? See, our feelings actually have nothing to do with it, do they? The topic at hand here is an end game. What is God's end game for us? And the end game is that he is trying to bring incredible blessings into our lives, but we have to let the word blessing be defined by God and not by Wall Street. We have to let God define what being blessed is and not Saks Fifth Avenue.
How enriched you are when you are persecuted for doing what is right for then you will experience the realm of heaven's kingdom. And he goes on to say:
Pastor Jacque: How blessed you are when people insult and persecute you and speak all kinds of cruel lies about you because of your love for me.
Pastor Brian: Well, how many of you have felt blessed or enriched when people have told lies about you? I mean, we want to put up our dukes, don't we? We want to fight back. We want to strike back. And yet God says there's a blessing that he has for us when those things happen to us, especially because of our love for him, especially because of our love for him. So he encourages us to do what?
Pastor Jacque: Leap for joy.
Pastor Brian: Leap for joy. We are going to have to take some leaping lessons here. That's kind of not in our DNA very much to leap for joy when things go south, when things go wrong, when things hurt us,
Pastor Jacque: When our emotions are not in joy,
Pastor Brian: When our emotions are not there at all. So leap for joy since what?
Pastor Jacque: Since your heavenly reward is great.
Pastor Brian: I don't want to wait for heaven, Lord. I want my reward now. But James talks about being patient, being patient in this journey. Bill sang a song at Sally's father's memorial service: What will it be like? The song is about standing before God in heaven. We'll have to have you sing that real soon again, Bill. What will it be like when we stand before Christ? What will it be like for us when we hear the creator of all say to you, and I, well done. Such a good job. Well done, faithful servant. What will that be like? I think we will probably want to leap for joy when we hear that since your heavenly war reward will be great.
Pastor Jacque: For you are being rejected the same way the prophets were before you.
Pastor Brian: Now, some people have mistakenly thought that Jesus' purpose for coming was to suffer. Suffering was a part of what was going to happen to Jesus. And that was the method of taking away our sin. But it's clear in scripture that Jesus did not seek martyrdom. He wasn't seeking martyrdom when he came. Let's read Matthew 26 39. This is his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Pastor Jacque: Then he walked a short distance away and was overcome with grief. He threw himself face down on the ground and prayed. my Father, if there is any way you can deliver me from this suffering, please take it from me.
Pastor Brian: Jesus isn't saying, oh, I just can't wait to suffer. That's not what Jesus was saying. In fact, he prayed to his father, can you please take the suffering part of this out of the equation? Even though I'm willing to do all this other stuff? Can you take that suffering part out of the equation? So his goal wasn't martyrdom, but what did he finish by saying?
Pastor Jacque: What I want is not important.
Pastor Brian: Can we say that to God? What I want is not important, God. What is important is what you want. Please tell me what you want so that I can do it. Is that the heart that we are being developed before the Lord? Is this where our following Jesus is taking us? Or do we only want to follow Jesus when all of the blessings as we believe blessings should be come to us? So he says--
Pastor Jacque: Yet what I want is not important for I only desire to fulfill your plan for me.
Pastor Brian: God does have a purpose and a plan for all of us. Sometimes he asks us to wait long periods for that plan to come into fulfillment. It's very frustrating. As a person who seems to have waited a long time in my life, for many of the promises of God to happen, I can testify clearly to you that it is frustrating to wait. My personality isn't the kind that likes to wait. I'm not sure what your personality type is like, but mine is when I get an idea that I believe is from God, I want it to happen right now. Let's do it. Let's do it. And yet he said, it's not what is important that I want for. I only desire to fulfill your plan for me. Can we pray that? Can we say that? Father, what I want isn't actually as important as what you want?
Pastor Jacque: I love this last line: Then an angel from heaven appeared to strengthen him. When we can't wait, he will strengthen us.
Pastor Brian: That's right. I've talked with a lot of people through the years and when the subject of an angel comes up, it's like, man, I wish I could see an angel. I'd love to see an angel and so forth. And sometimes I've thought to myself, maybe the best way to see an angel is to completely give up our will and completely do his will. And then those angels will come and minister to us when we are doing his will completely. Jesus was seeking to do God's will. And of course, if following Jesus leads to suffering, then we should face it courageously. We should do that. We should not flinch.
But I should also say that suffering should not be our goal. There is a word that actually describes it, that it's called asceticism. Asceticism is just like suffering for suffering's sake. And there's no purpose in that, but suffering for Jesus' sake, now, there's a purpose in that. And that our goal should be being faithful. And as we live our faith, each of us will have days of discomfort. Have you discovered that? As you live your faith, you will have days of discomfort?
Each of us will have days of pain and maybe even suffering. There will be days where we feel defeated. There will be. There will be days where we have far more questions than we have answers for. There will be days where we even become angry because in our paradigm things were not supposed to turn out this way. Oh, Minnie Mouse is telling me what time it is. I gotta keep on track here.
Pastor Jacque: I had it turned off. I don't know why it came on.
Pastor Brian: Well, at least she's listening. I didn't mean you are not listening. I know you are listening.
Pastor Jacque: I listen very--
Pastor Brian: Where was I now?
Pastor Jacque: I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
Pastor Brian: But there will be days where it just doesn't feel as though our obedience, dare I say, is working. Can I use that expression? Our obedience just doesn't seem to be working because everything seems to be falling apart. In those days, we probably would even feel defeated and maybe not very spiritual. I know that some days I feel like a mighty man of God, and other days, I feel like God, where in this universe are you? Where in my little world are you? I can feel that way. I can feel defeated. I can feel not very spiritual. I can feel not very close to God.
But in those moments, when we are in that place of borderline unbelief, shall we say, that is when we have the best opportunity to show the world our steadfastness of faith and who we are and what we believe. It's not when everything is going right for us, that we are able to be such a demonstration to the world. How great our faith is. It's when everything seems to be going wrong. When you get that bad diagnosis from the doctor, when you don't get that job promotion, or maybe when you lose that job, or maybe you lose a relationship or a loved one, and everything seems to be falling apart, proverbially. It's in those seasons that we have the best opportunity to actually demonstrate to the world who we believe in and what we believe.
It's the same for worship. The truth of the matter is none of us will ever be able to worship in heaven in pain. None of us will be ever be able to worship the Lord in heaven after a loss because there is no pain. There is no loss in heaven. The only time we actually have to worship God with broken hearts and unanswered questions in our minds, but still worship with all of our heart to a God who's worthy of our praise, the only time we can do that is here.
I would suggest to you that especially when things in your life aren't going as you have planned and things aren't falling into place as you would wish, and the news that you are getting from family and friends and physicians is not the best news that you could ever want to receive, when you worship the Lord in those seasons, that is the purest of worship we can ever give him. That is the purest of worship we can ever give him. And it has nothing to do with our feelings. It has everything to do with what is simply what I call doing what is right, giving our best.
Even in the very darkest hours that we have, those are the best opportunities to follow the example of Christ. And let me add a little addendum onto that. Let's not only, not only worship, but let's also walk in grace and forgiveness of those who might have caused our pain and our suffering as well.
Pastor Jacque: When you speak worship, you are not just speaking of singing. You are speaking of how we live. How we live.
Pastor Brian: That's very good. The scripture also says, worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness, living a life that's consecrated to him, to do it for him. When we walk with Christ, nothing is wasted. When we walk with Christ even your pain is not wasted if we walk with Christ. He brings beauty out of ashes, doesn't he? He will bring a resurrection of lost dreams. And oftentimes, I've said throughout the years, so many people's dreamers have been broken because of disappointments or sorrows or what they were believing for didn't quite happen in the way that they wanted it to have happen. What they were expecting didn't actually turn out to be what ended up happening. And their dreamers have gotten broken.
But God is more than able to bring joy out of sorrow. He can bring beauty out of the ashes of lost dreams. When we walk with him, he can even bring peace during the middle of adversity in our lives. I'd like to just kind of finish by reading a couple scriptures. One is found in Hebrews chapter 12 verses two and three. I call this a recalibrating verse. This kind of recalibrates our thinking a little bit here.
Pastor Jacque: We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and our expectation onto Jesus, who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith's perfection.
Pastor Brian: If you want your faith to be perfected, just follow Jesus.
Pastor Jacque: Focus on him.
Pastor Brian: Focus on him and let him lead us. Let him lead you into faith's perfection. So oftentimes we, we, we look at walking with Christ as he's kind of way up here observing. And we are down here trying to prove to him that we are committed. That that's a bad picture because Jesus is walking with us. Yes. Hand in hand. He's our partner. He's our king, but he's also our best friend and he wants to lead us. He's kind of like a half a step in front of us, just leading us where to go.
Pastor Jacque: I love that verse. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. And then the thought of he's yoked with us, moving with us, helping us, carrying the burden.
Pastor Brian: I always kind of get the picture, you know what a yolk is like. It goes over the neck of oxens. I kind of look at Jesus having this yoke on him. And then there's this big yoke that's like five times bigger than my head, and I kind of just stick my head through it. But he's actually carrying the weight of it all right. He's kind of carrying the weight of it all. I'm just kind of walking with my head through the yoke. But the weight of it all is being carried by him.
Pastor Jacque: His example is this because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his. He endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God.
Pastor Brian: Let me say this. Thank you. When Jesus was on the cross, there's a couple things that I believe happened. Many things happened, but a couple that stick out to me was just a couple days earlier. Mary had broken this alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, perfume and had put it on his head and it just kind of seeped down through. It was worth a year's wages, so it obviously had to be very powerful, retaining its fragrance. When Jesus was on the cross, I believe there was still a residual leftover effect of some of that perfume that was on him. Or you are kind of manly, you would call it cologne. But I believe that part of what inspired Jesus to follow through with all of the suffering he endured was the memory of that act of worship that she did that day.
The other thing that kept Jesus going is what is spoken of in this verse. It says, because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his for the joy set before him. He endured the cross. That's King James version. He focused on all those people. And I believe he could see down through history, I believe God gave him a revelation, a picture. And maybe it was very, very specific, maybe so specific that he showed him a picture of Hope Community Church with all of you sitting here today and those of you watching by livestream. And he would say, these are people who will be mine in the future. These are people who will worship me. These are people who will serve me, who will be dedicated to me. These are people who will say, not my will, but yours be done.
It was that picture that gave Christ the endurance to go through the suffering of the cross and give his very, very best and not give up. So consider then--
Pastor Jacque: I think we need to stop and say, thank you, Jesus.
Pastor Brian: Yes. That's good. Thank you, Jesus.
Pastor Jacque: Thank you, Jesus. So consider carefully how Jesus faced such intense opposition from sinners who opposed their own souls so that you won't become worn down and cave in under life's pressures.
Pastor Brian: The scriptures talk about taking captive your thoughts and when everything seems to be falling apart and going wrong, how many know how easy it is for your imaginations to run away with you?
So that's when we have to take captive of our thoughts and look at this verse where it says this. So consider carefully how Jesus faced such intense opposition. We have to remember the opposition Jesus faced on our behalf, so that we won't become worn down and cave in under life's pressures, so that we'll keep doing our very best. We've gotta keep our minds focused.
Pastor Jacque: Remember his sacrifice strengthens us.
Pastor Brian: That's right. One more verse in James, chapter 1, verse 12.
Pastor Jacque: If your faith remains strong, even while surrounded by life's difficulties, you will continue to experience the untold blessings of God.
Pastor Brian: How do we maintain our faith? I believe it's by doing our very best. Just doing the very best that God puts in front of you to do.
Pastor Jacque: What's the next right thing to do? I love that.
Pastor Brian: What's the next right thing to do? Let's just do it with the best of our ability.
Pastor Jacque: Absolutely. One choice at a time. True happiness comes as you pass the test with faith and receive the victorious crown of life promised to every lover of God.
Pastor Brian: I want to tell you, talk to you just briefly, just a couple minutes here about a person who has already received this victorious crown of life. His name was CT Stud. He was born in 1860. He ultimately became one of England's greatest missionaries. He was also one of England's greatest cricket players. He was born into a very wealthy family, a family of means. But he gave it all up to follow the leading, not my will, but dine be done of the Lord. He became a missionary to China. He became a missionary to India and he also became a missionary to Africa. And it was in Africa that he passed away in 1931 in the Congo.
It was C.T Studd that coined this little phrase that I remember my mom and dad had a kind of a plaque with this phrase on it and we had this picture box in our kitchen right near our telephone. This plaque was in this picture box. The plaque said this, only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Lemme say it again. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.
The life that you have is the life that you've been given by God. And it's amazing to me how often so many of us wish our lives were different. I wish my life was like that person or I wish I looked like this person or whatever. But God has made you distinctly how he wanted you to be made with your giftings, with your abilities, with your personalities. Sometimes there are strengths and weaknesses to our personalities and we have to make sure our strengths dominate our personality, not our weaknesses.
But the fact of the matter is we must make the most out of this life that we have because we only have one life. None of us have nine. We only have one. We only have one. And you know what? It will soon pass. We have a friend in our church, she watches online now and she said this to me once. She said, "Brian, life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer to you get to the end of it, the faster it spins."
Well, there are a few of us here that I think the roll is spinning pretty fast. It's spinning pretty fast, and we've lived a lot more life than we have left to live. I just implore all of us to redeem the time. However much time we have left, let's make the most of it. And even if things are tough, and even if we get the proverbial kicked in the teeth, we can still give our very best because Jesus deserves it and the world needs it. That's what Jesus did. It's what we are here to do. It's in giving our best that we find the deepest meaning and happiness in life. It's in giving our very best that we can really glorify God in the greatest way and we can grow towards perfection, the perfection that the Lord intends for each of us to have.
Let me encourage you with one thing. If you forget everything else I said today, please remember this. Let me encourage you to go beyond being a nibbler on the cookie of the possible and become a grabber of the impossible. Let me say that again. I want you all to go beyond being simply a nibbler on the cookie of what is possible. There are all sorts of things that are possible for all of us to do. Let's not just be a nibbler on what is possible, but let's completely throw ourselves with all of our might and grasping onto what we might call the impossible. The impossible because we are placing our faith in the omnipotence of a living God. We are placing our faith in the wisdom of the King of kings. We are placing our faith in the faithfulness of this God. And it's because he is faithful. It's because he is all wise. It is because he is omnipotent, that if we place our faith in him, we actually can do that, which is impossible for us to do otherwise.
Pastor Jacque: That's so good. I heard this quote once and it just challenges me that we were born to do hard things. We can do hard things. I just think our culture sometimes and just our humanity wants to take the easy way out. But we were born, we can do hard things. Especially with Christ living in us, we can do hard things.
Pastor Brian: When we remember the hard thing Jesus did, we can be motivated to do the hard things that we need to do because it's the very best that we can do. Let's just be a grabber of the impossible by placing our faith in the omnipotence, the faithfulness, the love, the wisdom of the King of kings who is all of our best friend. He is our best friend. Let's do our very, very best because Jesus did. And if he did it, then that's the Jesus way, isn't it? If Jesus did it, that's the Jesus way. And we want to be followers of Jesus. We want to do it the Jesus way. Pastor Robert, would you come?
Pastor Robert: Praise the Lord. I think the last time the Lord had placed upon my spirit, the word, perspective. It's sitting there again. Perspective is so important. It's because of our perspective that we can either keep our eyes on the prize or we can take our eyes off of the prize and focus on things that are more destructive for us than rewarding. To put it scripturally as we listen to the message of even going through the hard things, even thriving through the hard times, it's all about perspective. To put it scripturally, the scripture says that those that keep their minds on Jesus shall be kept in perfect peace.
If the scripture says those that keep their mind, keep your perspective, keep your eyes on Jesus, then that's how you've kept in perfect peace. Because even in the midst of hardship and trial, you are not putting your eyes upon the trial, you are keeping your eyes on Jesus. That's the only way. That's why it's so important for us to foster that authentic relationship with Jesus. You have to know who he is. The more you know who he is, the more you can trust him. The more you can trust him, then you can live a life of contentment knowing that no matter what, I keep my eyes on Jesus. I can make it through. Another point of perspective is about destiny. Where am I going? My ultimate goal is to be with him. And so if my ultimate goal is to be with him, then I'm going to do my best for him no matter what because he's always with me.
So Lord, as we come to prayer today, Lord, we just first say, we surrender now in praying that what do we surrender? We just surrender our thoughts. We surrender our desires, we'd surrender our will to yours. And Lord, as we surrender those things to you, we don't have to wonder about is it the right way to go? Because if we surrender everything to you, we already know that we are in the perfect place.
So Lord, as we surrender to you, as we keep our minds steadfast on you, then we want that perfect peace to manifest in our lives. And that perfect peace keeps us in the midst of storms, in the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of doubt, in the midst of our weakness, because we know who you are. We know that in all of those things, you are made strong and you carry us. So I don't have to worry, I don't have to doubt, we don't have to worry. We don't have to doubt before we place our lives in your hands and we surrender to your guidance.
Even me praying that prayer saying those words brings a sense of peace and freedom. It's freeing. Jesus said that we would enter into a rest with him. And I prophesied to a lot of you today, it's time to enter into that rest. It's time for you to be freed up from every false burden, from depression, from strife, from contention, from unforgiveness, from bitterness, from anger, from resentment, and surrender it all to Jesus.
And even as you take a breath and let it out, you surrender it all to Jesus. Let him take it. Let him take it. Let him have it. And through the power of God, through the power of God, La puissance de Dieu, he will free us up in our hearts and minds and we will come alive with fruit. And so we pray this, Lord, tha as we give it to you, we thank you that we should be kept in perfect peace. Au nom de Jésus. Amen.
Pastor Brian: I think we've all faced things that we felt were impossible in our lives at one time or another. Maybe many things. I can't think of a better example of the impossible becoming possible than my Haitian family being here. We tried for years and years and years to bring them into America. And then God took the most unbelievable of circumstances, chaos and unrest, killing indiscriminately and took that circumstance to create a way to bring our family here.
Whenever the circumstances look bleak, look as though there's no answer. Let's remember the words of the angel to Marythe mother of Jesus when she said, "How can this be?" With God, all things are possible. We only think in the realm of the possible. We only think in that realm. God thinks above and beyond the realm of the possible. And he will make a way where there seems to be no way.
Let's not nibble on the cookie of just the possible, just kind of nibble around the edges of that cookie. But let's just grab a hold of what is impossible for us to do. But with God, he will empower us and make circumstances fall into place for it to happen. Yes, thank you. And then let's just do our very best for the King of Kings because he is worthy, and he deserves it. Do you believe this today? Do you receive this today? Amen. Let's raise our hands together.
And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. May you grab onto that which you think is impossible, but with the other hand, hold on to the King of Kings and Lord of lords and you will see miraculous things begin to unfold in front of your very eyes. This, we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.
Please stay for lunch today and then we would love to have as many of you as possible come out to the baptism and just join these people who are being baptized today. God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. We will have communion served today. John and Tina will be serving communion as well as we have people to pray for you at the altar here. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 9-10-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.