Cityview Community Church

Trust & Treaties (Isaiah 30:1-18)

PODCAST TRUST & TREATIES May 10, 2026 | Brandon Cooper Brandon Cooper discusses the biblical text of Isaiah 30:1-18, emphasizing the dangers of binary political choices and the importance of trusting in God rather than worldly powers. He draws parallels between ancient Judah’s reliance on Egypt over God and modern Christians’ tendency to trust political parties over divine guidance. Cooper highlights the need for Christians to fear God first, engage in critical analysis, and maintain prophetic independence. He urges believers to pray for those in authority, trust in God’s power, and rest in His grace, ultimately advocating for a faith-driven approach to politics. TRANSCRIPT_______________________________________________+ The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy. Well, good morning church. Go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Isaiah 30. Isaiah 30, we’ll be in verses 1-18 in what is probably not the favorite text for Mother’s Day or the favorite subject for Mother’s Day, either. So apologies for that in advance, but it’s good to have you all here as we continue in our series, what it means to practice politics, to engage in politics being shaped by Scripture and not by culture. As we’re turning to Isaiah 30, I like weddings. I really do like weddings. Obviously I get to officiate them occasionally, and all that they proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. So, big fan of weddings. I’m not a fan of wedding receptions, knowing I got a few to go to coming up here in a few weeks anyway, not not my favorite thing. You know me, I’m too introverted to be around that many people, and then I’m too curmudgeonly to have music that loud and dancing that long. One other reason I’m not always a fan of weddings is they pick the menu for me, and usually you just kind of put it down in front of me. Sometimes I get two options. You get two options, right? Do you want the beef or the chicken or something like that? And I don’t like that two option thing. They’re like, You want beef or chicken? And I’m thinking to myself, what I really want is salmon. No luck, right? They never bring it to me. And then definitely no substitutions either. We’re going, could I get spinach instead of asparagus? And the waiters just kind of look at you like you’re in the wrong place. So you can tell I like a tapas restaurant. You know? I can just pick and choose whatever I want bring it all together. But no, that’s not wedding receptions. Unfortunately, this is also how it feels in America today. You got two options. You want the Republican meal or the democratic meal? That’s it. No substitutions, either. Could I get this part? But I really would love to switch out climate policy. Is that a possibility? No, absolutely not. And then the more that we choose sides, the more that we’re like, Well, this is the plate that’s been served me. This is what I got to eat. I guess the more that we are squeezed into that party’s mold, the importance of party loyalty, that’s what we’re going to look at today, and the danger of this kind of binary choice thinking for us as Christians. And to get there, we’re going to draw from Israel’s history, really Judah’s history, the southern kingdom, after the nation of Israel divided. What’s happening here, just you’re clear on the context of this prophecy, is that Assyria is the current world superpower. This is the same Assyria that is going to actually wipe out the northern kingdom and take them in to exile, never to return that same Assyria is threatening the southern kingdom Judah, which is a tiny country, weak country, and so they’re understandably panicked, like, what can we do to stave off this threat? Or maybe the better question, to whom will they turn? It’s a question that we face today, because we are also facing real problems, not the threat of invasion, but there are very real issues. To whom will we turn? So we’re looking at three questions that we got to answer and that this text will help us answer as we figure that out. So our first question, what should we trust? What should we trust? Let me look at Isaiah, 30 verses, one to seven. I’ll read it for us. Woe to the obstinate children, declares the Lord. To those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by My Spirit, keeping sin upon sin, who go down to Egypt without consulting me, who look for help, to Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade, for refuge, but Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame. Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace, though they have officials and so on, and their envoys have arrived in Hans, everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them, who bring neither help nor advantage but only shame and disgrace. A prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkeys backs, their treasures on the humps of camels, to their unprofitable nation, to Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the do nothing. Assyria is threatening Judah, as I said, and so the nation looks to Egypt for help. What’s going on here is they’re sending tribute to Egypt to purchase an alliance and military. Very support Egypt, one of the other superpowers, and so maybe the two of us together, at least, can fight off Assyria. Now at the human level, this makes a lot of sense. This is a shrewd move, and the weaker nation needs protection. And often weaker nations get pulled into the orbit of the superpowers. Think of the Cold War, when almost every nation on the planet was like, Well, I’m gonna go with the US, or I’m gonna go with the USSR. And that’s kind of what’s happening here as well. So humanly speaking, it makes a lot of sense, but from God’s perspective, it’s utter folly. It is, as he points out, not his alliance, and to enter into it is to heap sin upon sin. So what’s the big deal? Because it’s not that alliances are intrinsically wrong. Israel and Judah make alliances at various points in their history. They’re not always called out for it. The issue, you see it there in verse two, is that they didn’t consult God. They didn’t look to God first, and instead, they looked to Egypt. We see it in verse one, also where it says they carry out plans that aren’t the Lord’s. So Isaiah is asking the question. The Lord’s asking the question like, why would you look to Egypt when you could look to God instead? And if you’re at all familiar with Israel’s history. You know, this is a really good question, like we just did, Exodus, Who you rooting for? Who you think’s got this god or Egypt? The choice is obvious. I mean, Judah is going back to their slave masters to ensure their freedom. The irony would be hilarious if it weren’t so depressing. And why not just ask God to do what he’s done before, deliver his people in power? But no, they don’t, and then we don’t always either, do we? There’s this temptation that we face to magnify our present crisis and minimize God’s past deliverance so that we start to believe our circumstances and doubt His word. Like I know you’ve done it before, Lord, but this time, it’s too much for you, like this time, I’m going to have to take care of myself. We’re going to need to we’re going to need to call in some outside help here. The Lord isn’t enough. Have you ever felt that? Have you ever felt that, politically, with the present crisis in our world, pick which crisis you’re thinking of thinking, well, we’re going to need to do something about this. I don’t think the Lord is enough. You actually see the folly of this belief in the word that’s used for Alliance, the word literally means covering, and that’s how they’re treating Egypt. They see Egypt like a warm blanket that’s going to make them feel safe against the Assyrian storm. You remember when you were a kid and you were scared that there was a monster in your room? What’s the key to surviving a monster attack? You got to pull the blanket over your head. Right? They can’t see you. They can’t eat you. Now there was not a monster in your room. If there had been a monster in your room. How much security Do you think that blanket was offering you very, very little, exactly. And that’s the problem with Egypt here as well. The folly of it, in fact, later on in this chapter, even later than we’ll get to in this passage, the same word is used for an idol, because that’s what it is. An idol is a warm blanket. I think it’s going to protect me, even though it is, in fact, useless. This is why the Lord points out what we already know, what happens when we don’t trust him. It never works, so that they’re going to reap shame and disgrace, not victory and protection. The Lord loves us too much to let us wander away from him and put our hope in worldly powers for help. He won’t, if he if he loves us, if he’s gracious and merciful towards us, he won’t let us keep going down that path forever. It’s like when you’re teaching your kid to drive and they’re starting to veer and you kind of go, how long do I let this go? And then you jerk the wheel back, like, that’s what the Lord will do with his people. Jerk the wheel back, kind of go, nope, we can’t go that way. And usually that involves chastisement, punishment, as the Lord is, you know, the prophecy itself is part of how he’s jerking the wheel back to kind of say, let’s, let’s get back in line here. And Isaiah does so humorously, like he pokes fun at the absurdity of trusting Egypt, starting there in verse six, where you get this a prophecy concerning the animals of the Negev. It’s this very solemn opening, isn’t it, and you read throughout the rest of Isaiah. Get a lot of a prophecy concerning the fall of Babylon. It’s serious stuff. Well, what are we getting here? We’re getting an Oracle about the beasts. What beasts of the Negev, the pack animals who are bringing the tribute to Egypt from Israel. That’s what this prophecy is about. Now you can imagine the officials who are still there in Jerusalem, the one who sent these envoys out to deliver the tribute. And they’re pacing nervously back in the palace in Jerusalem. You know, they got life 360 going on their phone, going, are they almost there? Are they almost there? Is Egypt going to accept our tribute or not? They’re chain smoking because they’re stressed and all of that. And then Isaiah is over here going, Won’t somebody think of the poor pack animals though they’re carrying all this gold and stuff through the desert, these poor beasts. It’s a funny way of making a serious point. I mean, again, Israel is like literally reversing their salvation because they are going from the promised land back to Egypt, refusing their Savior in the process. And for what? What are they going to get? What are all these pack animals bringing back with them they get? Verse seven, Rahab. Rahab often used of Egypt. The word itself means arrogant, like the proud one. So Egypt’s one making big boasts. I can solve all your problems, but actually it’s useless, hence the do nothing. So that’s the big question for us. Then the question that was there for Judah as well. What should we trust. What should we trust? We should trust the Lord’s power. The Lord’s power not the arrogant, empty boasts of armchair big mouths in Alec Mathiers delightful phrase for Egypt there, but we trust the Lord’s power. The world has very real problems, but God is big enough and strong enough to handle them, and so we seek Him first, we look to him first. That’s what Peter says first. Peter 217, he’s given a list of instructions, and he says, Fear God, honor the Emperor, and that order is all important. Fear God first. Then let’s talk about the Emperor. The order is absolutely crucial, because we know, if you’ve read the book of Proverbs, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You want to get wise, you start by fearing the Lord. We need wisdom for political engagement. It’s the most important thing we can do is fear God so that it reorients our hearts, and in the process, will diminish the other fears that so often drive the political process. In so many ways, politics is driven by fear. Our political views are driven by fear. Maybe it’s a fear of a foreign power, maybe it’s a fear of poverty, maybe it’s a fear of the other. We got to put those fears in right context, subordinate to the fear of the Lord, plus another reason we need to fear the Lord first is because the fear of man will keep us from calling out sin otherwise, which is scary. I mean, who wants to criticize Trump on Twitter today? It doesn’t be a pile on that’s gonna be a pile on. Probably not the best place to engage in politics anyway. You’ve heard me say that 1000 times, but you get the point. It would take courage to criticize leaders. We need courage to speak God’s truth to whatever powers are in the world, or else we’ll pander to it. It takes courage to be John the Baptist, who famously called out King Herod for his sin and paid for it with his life after years in prison. It takes courage, but as Jonathan Lehman reminds us, me, we may well need to offend the mighty on behalf of the Almighty, because we have been given a prophetic role so the church’s task. We’ve been given the role of proclamation. We speak truth. We’re ambassadors speaking the King’s message, which means we should be the loudest voices, the kindest voices, the most loving voices, absolutely, but the loudest voices critiquing corruption, immorality and folly within our own parties. If you belong to a party or if you voted for somebody, you should be the one most loudly critiquing them to say, I voted for you. I didn’t vote for this. And you need to know that. So the question we got to ask ourselves, have you formed an unholy alliance with a political party? Have you consulted the Lord in the matter? And one of the ways to test this, because that’s a hard question to ask, no, I don’t think I have. I think the Lord is first in my heart. That’s tough to see. One of the tests is, have you made peace with your party’s sins? So you’re looking at them like Egypt, which was throughout Israel’s history, not only Israel’s enemy, but God’s enemy as well. But you kind of got this lesser of two evils mentality going on, as the famous saying goes, lesser of two evils is still evil, right? Got to have that in our heads, of course. So if you made peace with your party’s sins so that you’re now defending the indefensible and excusing the inexcusable, that’s how you would know you’ve made an unholy alliance. Can I just give you an example? Let’s step on toes here. What I do? It’s easy to point to the party in power, because they’re the ones giving us the examples. Right now, if we’re years ago, I could have done the other party also. Okay, just hear that. But like we who voted for the Republican Party who elected Trump? If that’s you, should be the ones not excusing things like calling for genocide on Easter Sunday of all days, and then later posting a blasphemous image of himself as Jesus, like I just want to give you permission to say you should call that out, even if you vote Republican, especially if you vote Republican again. I could do that with the other party too. I could probably do that with the little parties, libertarians, green, you name it. We could. We could pick because we’re all sinners, okay, but that’s what I mean here. But if you’ve made peace of that, if you’re making excuses, well, he’s a Red Cross worker. No, he wasn’t. We’re not stupid. We don’t need to pretend to be stupid here. Okay, don’t make excuses. Fulfill your prophetic role. Fear God. Give the Emperor the honor he deserves. You don’t have to choose beef or chicken. You can absolutely make substitutions, and you can criticize the chef when he makes it wrong. This is supposed to be filet. This is shoe leather, you know, like, that’s okay. We can say that. Why? Because we trust in the Lord’s power ultimately, and not in any alliance that we make in the short term for limited goals. The word that came to mind here was allegiance. A lot of us would pledge allegiance to the flag like you, the only allegiance you pledge unconditionally is to God. Second question we gotta answer, what should we listen to? What should we listen to? May keep reading verses eight to 14 go now. Write it on a tablet for them. Inscribe it on a scroll that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness. For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction. They say to the seers, see no more visions, and to the prophets, give us no more visions of what is right. Tell us pleasant things, Prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path and stop confronting us with a holy one of Israel. Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says, Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall cracked and bulging that collapses suddenly. In an instant, it will break in pieces like pottery shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces, not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern. Isaiah writes God’s word to Judah down. He does so twice. He writes it publicly on the tablet. The idea there would be almost like a billboard, like so everybody can see what God’s Word says. He writes it down privately on the scroll. That’s the one that he’s going to seal up and stick in a safe. Both of them are a witness against Judah, like you heard it, you saw it. It was up on a billboard, and I got the proof here in my safe What’s ironic is that he writes down that they don’t care what he writes down. They reject God’s word and are unwilling to listen to his instruction. In fact, they’re not just ignoring his instruction, which would be bad. They’re actively opposing it. Which is worse, stop sending us visions. Tell your prophets to stop talking, please like just shut up already. I mean, did you see that phrase? Stop confronting us. Us with the Holy One of Israel? Could there be sadder words spoken? I don’t care what God thinks. It’s not pagans who are saying that it’s God’s people who are saying that this is the word to the church, not to the world, and that’s the reminder then that that could be true of us. We might actually be saying that in our hearts. You come to church thinking, I just want you to reaffirm my preconceived notions. And if you’re not going to do that, would you just shut up already? You’ll see it today. It’s common to see somebody post on social media, some political pundit or other, if your pastor doesn’t talk about fill in the blank this Sunday, find a different church, like, just shut up. If you’re not with us, you need to find a church that’s with us politically. I’ll even take it a step further. I quoted somebody last week. I won’t tell you which one I quoted somebody last week. They’re on a do not quote list, so a prominent political organization, if I were to say the name of it, every single one of you would know which organization it is. You’ll have heard of it has a list of pastors you’re not supposed to quote. Now I quoted one of them, and so that’s your cue to find a different church. Doesn’t that feel so dangerous, because at that point, you’re not in submission to the church, to the Word of God, to the people God has appointed to instruct you in the Word of God. You’re in submission to a political party that is a slippery slope leading straight to hell. Can I just say here I’m so glad that’s not you guys like I just want to affirm you here. I believe wholeheartedly that this is a congregation that cares what God thinks, that wants to hear the word of the Lord. I don’t think you’d be here otherwise. Honestly, my spiritual gift is bluntness. I am happy to confront you with the Holy One of Israel, and you’re all here for it, and that’s good. I’ve never had somebody say, How come you didn’t bring this up politically spoken in anger, at least maybe once or twice, out of grief. But why are they so opposed? Why are they so opposed to God’s word? It’s because they found God’s word simultaneously unhelpful and demanding, and that’s a rough combination. It’s one thing for it to be unhelpful if it doesn’t cost me anything, but if it’s unhelpful and it costs me a lot, well, then why would I listen to it like I can’t see how a far off, invisible God could help me here and now with this immediate need. So I’m unwilling to count the cost again. I don’t know why you would find this unhelpful, because the Exodus, like you know, he’s got the boat, you know, he can help here. How about the conquest, the fact that they’re in the promised land at all. Do you remember David and Goliath? You remember Gideon? Any of these stories, but still they had forgotten, as we so often forget as well. And so there’s that temptation for us today also. We’ve got immediate problems. We need to take action. We can’t debate Romans guys. We need we need to fix the problems. Enough talk well, trusting Egypt in the last section we saw brought not victory, but shame and disgrace, the opposite effect of what they’d been hoping for. It’s the same thing here, instead of this secure wall, which they would need against the threat of invasion, they get what we see, starting in verse 12. Verse 13, the sin will become for you like a high wall cracked and bulging. So it’s like a wall that’s been struck once with a wrecking ball and part of it’s already knocked out. You can just kind of see every day you go and you look at it, and it looks like it’s tipping a little bit more and a little bit more, and it’s teetering, and ultimately toppling, which means that Assyria can just walk right in. They don’t even need to build siege works or anything like that. You remember how God beat Jericho? All he did was knock the walls down, and that was it. Battle’s over. Well, here they’re knocking their own walls down so Syria can walk right in. It seems better to listen then better to listen to listen to what? What should we listen to? You could have filled this blank in on your own. I’m sure it’s right there in the text, we should listen to the Lord’s instruction, to the Lord’s instruction. And can I say there is just immediate application for us here? Leader, politically speaking, where do you get your political views? Be honest. Where do you get your political views? Is it the party platform? Is it cable TV, a particular podcaster or blogger that you like political parties and partisan pundits should not set your political agenda. Jonathan Lehman said it like this, I like it. He said political parties, they make good servants and bad masters, or even better. He said they’re useful instruments, but awful identities. That’s right. So let me ask you this. Then where should you get your political views, not cable news. I can promise that. Where should you get political perspective? The counterintuitive answer, I think, is that you should get your political perspective from the church, not which policies to support. You know that, you know I’m not giving you that, but we should get our political perspective by listening to his instruction, getting the principles that will then shape our policy positions. And the church. I do mean the church, not just the preacher in the church, but the church in conversations with each other, even especially your brothers and sisters in Christ who don’t agree with you on different issues. That would be so helpful. Do you remember the proverb that says in a lawsuit, the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross examines you. Ever done that like a true crime show or something? You like, get the first bit of the evidence and you’re like, Oh, he’s guilty, and then they do the second set of evidence, and you’re like, oh, okay, more complicated than I thought. That’s what conversation should do for us when brothers and sister in Christ, we should go, Look, I obviously this is the only way intelligent Bible believing people think on this issue. Oh, oh, okay. There’s nuance. There’s nuance to this view. In Colossians two eight, Paul tells us see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world, rather than on Christ. And you’ve read that before, if you’ve read through your Bible, and when you read that, you thought about New Age spirituality, but tell me how that doesn’t apply to political platforms. We absolutely could be taken captive by them, and they depend on human tradition and elemental spiritual forces, rather than on Christ. And again, we get squeezed. You want beef or chicken? We’re taught that it is. We are taught every day, in 100 different ways, that it is a zero sum winner take all contest, so you have to back your party every time. Can’t critique corruption because she could lose her seat in the next election, then the stakes are too high. Got to trust Egypt. Gotta trust Egypt far better. The perspective of Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and devout Christian, who said, I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong, that’s a man who’s standing on the Word of God, immovable, unshakable. Let’s take it a step further, though, even if we are listening to his instruction, it means that we will be able to instruct others, which is important because we’ve been given a proclaiming role. Again, we are ambassadors. I think this is important for us, because there are some in this room who are going to take a lot of this series as rebuke in the sense of, like, Okay, I probably need to talk less about politics, that kind of stuff. You know who you are. It’s fine. A lot of the rest of us, I would count myself in this group, we’ve washed our hands of politics, hate politics. Don’t want to think about politics. Don’t want to talk about politics. And so a sermon series like this could maybe teach us to disengage even more. I’m just trusting Jesus even so, Lord Jesus, quickly come like tomorrow, be fine, and then I don’t have to worry about this anymore. And so, no, I think we actually do need to engage that will look different for different people. Of course, that’s a jagged line issue how we engage, but certainly it means we speak truth. We know we’re called to engage in that way we instruct others. So Justin gaboni in his wonderful book, Don’t let nobody turn you around. Says this, If we’re always choosing a side, it means we’re never leading. The church should be leading like No wonder we’re stuck in this morass, because we’re not leading. We’re letting political parties and partisan pundits set the agenda and then just passively co signing whatever they put before us, and so doing, we’re putting the cult in culture war. We quote Gaboni At length here. He says, If cultural influencers can get us to base our opinions on ideological identity rather than critical analysis, analysis and conviction, then they control our public witness, which they are absolutely by the way, once we start proudly wearing the label critical thinking is no longer necessary, they’ll do all the thinking for us, and we’ll simply rubber stamp their conclusions. But the church must be convicted and thoughtful enough to have prophetic independence. That’s the point I’m trying to make prophetic independence. Like, if you agree with a party on three issues out of four, then by all means, vote for that party, but never stop calling out the fourth issue, especially if it’s a straight line issue, like if you vote democratic. Three issues out of four are fine. Never stop calling out the progressive view on sexuality, which is unbiblical if you vote Republican. Three issues out of four, All right, great. Never stop calling out the cruelty, especially shown toward the foreigner in this country at this point. That’s what it looks like to listen to the Lord’s instruction and then instruct others in light of it. Third question, what should we hope in rest of the passage? Verses 15 to 18? This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says, in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, No, we will flee on horses. Therefore you will flee. You said, we will ride off on swift horses. Therefore your pursuers will be swift. 1000 will flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five. You will all flee away till you are left like a Flagstaff on a mountain top, like a banner on a hill. Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Therefore he will rise up to show you compassion for the Lord. Is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him. God knows what Judah faces, and he offers the perfect solution, repentance, rest, quietness and trust, counter intuitive, but the Lord works in counterintuitive ways. You remember what he said to Israel when they were stuck between the Red Sea and the approaching Egyptian army, just stand there. That’s what he said, literally, just stand there. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. That’s what he’s saying here again, if you want salvation and strength, you will find it in resting, repentant faith. You will find it entrusting to God who saves, not treaties, put your trust anywhere else, and you will always be anxious and undelivered, like if you trust in money, you will always be worrying about the market, and you will never be truly secure if you trust in politicians. You will be what we see in our culture. You will be consumed by anger and terrified of the coming midterms, whatever is coming up next, and still stuck in a broken world at the end of it. Well, Jude is having none of it. They don’t want this repentance, rest, nonsense. They want solutions now. There will be no waiting quietly, so they’re going to trust in swift horses instead of the sovereign, Holy One of Israel. So in God’s mercy. And make no mistake, it is mercy. It’s the jerk in the wheel back in God’s mercy, Assyria will have swifter horses. God will expose the weakness of Judah’s idols, so that they turn back to him. 1000 will flee. The sight of one, Assyrian the sight of five, the whole nation will run away, so that in the end, only a flag pole remains to show passers by that a nation used to be there. Well, does that attitude sound familiar? Because it does, to me, is we are tempted to trust in politics to produce culture, cultural transformation. And so you back a horse, a swift horse. You think, then you discover there are other horses in the race. Some of them are swifter, and your horse pulled up lame anyway, when the opposition dump comes out, all the “oppo” research the skeletons in the closet, or they make a misstep politically, ruining their chance. Or they’re duplicitous or incompetent or whatever it is, the people we support politically cannot guarantee political victory. It may well lead us into political defeat overall, or even on certain issues. I mean, how many of us have backed somebody because we’re like, well, at least on this issue, I know we’re in the same spot, and then that’s the issue they compromise on to get their signature achievement across the finish line. And you go far better than to trust wholeheartedly and single mindedly in the God who is there, the God who saves and to wait on Him. Spurgeon tells us what that waiting faith looks like. He says, the faith that rests on God alone is alone true. The confidence that relies only partly on the Lord is vain. Confidence, if to wait on God is worship. To wait on the creature is idolatry. To wait is true faith, but to look elsewhere, then would be audacious unbelief. Your faith will be rewarded. That’s the good news. The Lord will accomplish his purposes. Again, we’ve read Revelation together as a congregation. We know how the story ends. Can I tell you what the New Jerusalem is like? There’s no abortion there, there’s no racism there, there’s no poverty there, there’s no injustice there, there’s no pollution there. What do you want? Politically, it’s there. God will make it happen. In fact, it’s even true in this story. If we were to keep reading the rest of the chapter, you get down to verse 31 it says, this the voice of the Lord. That’s it. Nothing else, by the way, just the voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria. God wins in the end. So trust him with your platform, and I’ll give you yet one more reason to trust him. It’s there in verse 18. It is the key to the passage. It’s the hinge verse that moves us from the rebuke in the section we looked at this morning, and then the promise that comes in the rest of the chapter, yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you. The word yet isn’t quite right there. I understand why the NIV translated it that way. It’s not a wrong translation. If you’re looking at the ESV, for example, it begins with a different word. It’s the exact same word that you see in the second part of that verse, it’s the word, therefore, think how that changes this text, you’re unwilling to trust me, the Lord says, Therefore I’m willing to be gracious to you. Because you’re unwilling to trust therefore I’m willing to be gracious to you, because you won’t wait on me, therefore I’ll wait for you, right? Like we won’t wait on Him, we want swift horses instead. So he waits. That’s the word that’s used when it says He longs for it. The word is wait. He continually longs for it and is unfailingly patient with us. What grace? What grace after the rebuke we just read? By the way, that waiting piece, it means, how many times do we cry out, how long O Lord, not always, but sometimes the Lord’s response to how long O Lord might just be whenever you’re ready, like I’m here, shoes, coat, keys in hand, you just tell me when you’re ready to go. I’m waiting on you. But what grace? And we know how true this is. You’ve got any doubt that the Lord longs to be gracious to us. Know this, in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to accomplish our salvation, to deliver us, not from Assyria or Babylon or Persia or Rome or whatever, but to deliver us from the worst power sin that is inside all of us. The God who defeated sin and death at the cross of Jesus, Christ is a god you can trust Blessed are all who wait for Him in repentance and rest and quietness and trust, the quietness and trust of a person who can say, He saved me, he saved me, he saved us, He will save us to the uttermost. He will remake the world. What should we hope in that we should hope in the Lord’s grace, the Lord’s grace. Our big idea, by the way, is nothing new here. It’s just pull those three things together. And we said already, the big idea is this to take away from today, trust in His power, listen to his instruction, rest in His grace. That’s how we approach politics, as the pure in heart. But just by way of application, as we wrap up here, picture with me. The person who is doing that, the person who is really resting waiting on God in quietness and trust. Do you see him there? Do you see her there, sitting in a favorite armchair? You know, Bibles open next to them, because they were just reading and meditating on it. What is that person doing, who is resting in the Lord? Praying, praying. Prayer is the surest mark of trusting in his power, resting in his grace, informed by his word, of course, we would hope And isn’t that what Paul tells us, passage that we had part of read for us this morning. Paul says this to Timothy, I urge then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving, be made for all people, for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God, our Savior, who wants all people to be saved, to come to a knowledge of the truth? I wonder is that the first passage you think of when you think of what it looks like to practice politics as the pure in heart, because it probably ought to be, must start with prayer. In fact, I would challenge you this week, especially if you are overly politically engaged, fast, fast from cable news, fast from social media, maybe just fast from the news as a whole, just completely disengaged from politics for a week, and do nothing but pray for the people in power, for human flourishing and for the space for all people to come to a knowledge of the truth. We can do something after we pray, but we shouldn’t do anything before we pray, and with our priorities quite clear, because, again, why? Why do we pray for kings and those in authority? We live quiet and peaceful lives so that the gospel of Christ Jesus can go forth, so that people can be saved, so that they can come to a knowledge of the truth. We’ve got that priority clear in our mind. We pray in quietness and trust and repentance and rest, and let me reassure you, because you’re like, I don’t know if I don’t know if I can check out of politics for a week. They need me. They need me now more than ever. First of all, they don’t but second of all, we, quote Francis Schaeffer, you need not fear that if you wait for God’s Spirit, you will not get as much done as if you charged a head in the flesh. After all, who can do the most? You or the God of heaven and earth. Let me say it again. Who can do the most your political party or the God of heaven and earth? Trust in His power, listen to his instruction, rest in His grace and prove it in prayer. Let’s pray to him now. Lord, we worship you as Lord and King, the sovereign over all nations in whose good and powerful hands all of history rests, that knowledge alone is enough for us to quiet our anxious hearts and to rest, to come to you in repentance and trust, knowing that therein lies our salvation, the God who is not only powerful enough to rule all nations, but loving enough to make a way from people from every nation to be saved in Christ. So Lord, we confess our sins. We confess the times we have not trusted in you, but have looked to our Egypt’s instead, we repent. We turn to you again. We put our hope in you, and we prove it by praying Lord. We pray for our nation, for the world. We pray for those who are in power above us, locally, the state level, the national level, wherever they are, Lord, we pray that You would give them wisdom, so that they would lead well, so that humanity can flourish, so that there is space for the gospel of Christ to go forth. Would you accomplish that by Your power and for your name’s sake? Amen.

10 May 2026 - 44 min

From Safety to Sending (John 20:19-23)

PODCAST FROM SAFETY TO SENDING April 19, 2026 | Brandon Cooper Brandon Cooper’s sermon on John 20 emphasizes the tension between retreating to safety and embracing risky love in mission. He uses a middle school analogy to illustrate the choice between helping a new student or retreating into a friend group. Cooper highlights Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance to the disciples, reassuring them with peace and commissioning them to mission. He explains that believers are already safe in Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to fulfill their mission. Cooper encourages the congregation to own their unique missions, whether serving international students, assisted living residents, or gym buddies, emphasizing the importance of proactive, missional living. TRANSCRIPT_______________________________________________+ The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy. Good morning church, you can go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to John chapter 20. John 20, we’ll be starting in verse 19. John 20, verse 19. As you’re turning there, put yourself back in middle school days, or maybe some of you are there. And you have to imagine that there is a new student at school, you know, mid year. So it’s a tough shift, already tough transition for this person to come in to a totally new school, new friend groups, all that kind of stuff. And in addition, you can just tell that there’s something a little different about this student, whatever it might be. So it might be somebody from a different place, they got different culture, they got different, you know, habits, all that kind of stuff. Or maybe it’s somebody with a learning difference, special need of some sort, and you’re there in the lunchroom, and you can tell this is a critical moment in that new student’s journey. You know, they’re off to the side, unengaged, nobody around them, and you’ve got a choice to make. As you’re sitting there watching this new student, you can initiate. You can move towards that student, invite them into your friend group, tell them that you’re there to help. You know they need to find stuff in the school, or you’re happy to walk them around, whatever it may be. Of course, that choice carries some risks with it, risk of rejection. I mean maybe even by the other friend groups or something like that, discomfort certainly be risking. And even just time and energy, you may be going, I’m willing to help. And the person says, Great, I need help. And you’re like, Oh, I didn’t mean it, though. So that’s a problem now. So you can initiate, you can invite and embrace that risk, or you could hold back hope somebody else takes care of the problem. They can they can step out, maybe even just retreat into your friend group and, you know, snicker at the jokes that are being made as well. So you’ve got this pull to safety, and really, if we’re being honest, it’s a selfish safety or the push to a risky love. That’s exactly the tension we experience when it comes to mission as God’s people, because we can step out in faith, but step out of our comfort zone in faith or retreat to safety. We’re being honest. The safety that we retreat to is usually the church community. We can retreat back into our cells because we’re fearful about stepping out, fearful about going out on mission, fearful, by the way, for good reasons. There are all sorts of things that can go wrong when you step out in faith on mission, absolutely so you get that selfish pull to safety, rather than a loving willingness to sacrifice and embrace risk for the sake of others. But here’s the question, What if Jesus could vanquish those fears that keep us, you know, wanting to opt for safety. What if Jesus could vanquish our fears that would change everything? Because then we could be sent out boldly. We could venture boldly for the sake of Christ, His kingdom, His cause, especially if he sends us some help along the way. And so what we’re gonna do this morning is explore the exact moment when Jesus does that for his first followers, when he vanquishes their fears. We’re gonna see how he, even today, meets our needs and empowers us to do what he’s called us to do. So a little bit of context, since we’re picking up in the middle of a story, this is an Easter sermon I get made fun of sometimes by my family, because on Easter, I don’t always preach about Easter, but that’s fine, because every Sunday we preach the resurrection of Jesus. That’s why we’re here on Sunday anyway. But here’s a real resurrection story. So what’s just happened in John 20 Jesus died, he was buried, and then he’s raised to new life by his father and Mary and some of the other women, Mary Magdalene, some of the other women there are there, you know, first break of light on Sunday morning. They’re there at the tomb to anoint his body with spices, what not? Except they find the tomb is empty. They’re a little bit concerned. Mary rushes back. She tells Peter and John, two of Jesus’s disciples, and they’ve got their little race to the tomb. See who gets there. First they go inside. Sure enough, it is empty. He is risen. And then it says in John 20, verse 10, then the disciples went back to where they were staying. So that’s where we’re picking up. Peter and John have just seen the tomb is empty. They’re confused, and they went back to where they were staying. Let’s pick up the story there. But in verse 19, on the. Evening of that first day of the week when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. And again Jesus said, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that, he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. Okay, so what are we gonna see in this short passage here three ways that Jesus helps overcome that pull to selfishness in us, that selfish safety three ways that Jesus vanquishes our fears and instead provides us with peace and power and purpose for his mission. So first way, first part of the sermon here, is safety, right? So we are safe, and this is how Jesus helps us overcome our anxiety. It’s there in verses 19 and 20. Of course, they’re fearful, but it says Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace, be with you. And then he shows them his hands and side. The point here is that we are already safe. We are already safe in Christ. So we don’t need to retreat to safety. We’re already safe in him. So let’s take a look at this. Fear is driving the disciples, as I mentioned, they’ve got the doors locked in the room where they’re hiding out because they’re afraid of the Jewish authorities, afraid again for good reasons like this makes sense that they’re fearful of the Jewish authorities. They just killed Jesus. They want to see this movement stamped out. So yeah, they’ll probably go after the other ring leaders as well in this moment. So they’re fearful for good reason. Now you are wondering, like, didn’t Peter and John share anything about the empty tomb with the other disciples? Like, did that reality change anything for them? It doesn’t seem to have they’re confused, not confident. They’re reeling, unsure, unwilling to risk and again, who can blame them. I mean, to go out and boldly proclaim the Christ that they just killed would seem a little foolish. I mean fear, if you think about it, fear is a certain type of fear, at least, is a God given response to keep us from doing stupid things like fear is a good thing in so many cases. You picture a young child, you know, walking into a an unfamiliar, crowded area that’s just bustling with, you know, grown ups running back and forth we’re at, like Union Station or something like that, child would be right to shrink back. I’m not going to run into this, right? There’s, there’s something in here, going, I don’t think I should be here. I’m not sure I’m safe. What that child needs in that moment is mom or dad to take her hand. I’d say, It’s okay, sweetie, like we’re going, we’re going together here to provide that comfort and confidence. And that’s exactly what Jesus does for the disciples here. So he shows up in their midst. Remember, the doors are locked. No big deal for resurrected Jesus. So that would be a little bit, you know, extra reason for confidence, for trust in Him. He is still physical. He’s going to eat some fish. He’s got, you know, shows them his hands inside and stuff. But he’s also beyond the physical. So he just walks through locked doors. No big deal. So here he is, though he shows up, and when he shows up, what does he say to his disciples? Peace. Peace. The Hebrew word is shalom. It’s richer than our English word peace, because it’s not just the absence of conflict that he’s describing, because actually, there is still conflict, if you think about it, it’s not the absence of conflict, but the presence of God in the midst of that conflict. It’s the knowledge that, because of what Jesus has just done for them, the disciples are reconciled to God, loved by Him, cared for by him. It is the peace that comes with a psalm 23 sort of faith. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths. For his name’s sake, even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. That’s the peace that Jesus is giving to them in this moment. And then, as if to put a punctuation mark on it, he shows them his hands, nail pierced hands, and then his spear pierced side. Did interesting. He doesn’t show his feet. He’s like, Yes, it’s me. I was crucified, but it was me in particular, because I’m the only one where they they stabbed the spear in as well. So they know it really is Jesus. He He’s proving to them he really rose from the dead. He is alive again, which means he has defeated our enemies sin in particular, and then the judgment that we deserve as a result of our sin, the death that we will have to face. So he’s proving that he’s really risen. We can trust him. We can trust him as a result, it’s almost like he’s saying you guys have good reasons to fear, but you have far better reasons to trust. That’s the peace that he gives. That’s the key. Peace comes with a right knowledge, a right understanding of our safety, and step out in faith, because we know he’s got us that changes everything. When you know for sure you’re safe, ask my kids what I’m most scared of they will tell you without hesitation, it’s not heights. It’s my kids on heights. That one terrifies me. They were nodding their heads over there. This is very true. So of course, I took them zip lining in Costa Rica at one point when my parents took it to Costa Rica, and so they were the whole time, because they’re mean. They get that from their mother, okay, not from mean. So they’re teasing me and like, Hey, Dad, you’re freaking out right now, aren’t you, dad, right? You’re freaking out right now because we’re, you know, 100 feet up, or whatever, something like that. The truth was, I wasn’t freaking out because everywhere we went on the zip line, we had, like, double safety precautions in we were hooked in twice. There’s no even if one of them failed, the other one was going to catch us. And so I could say, No, I’m good, I’m good now. Like, that’s the same idea. Jesus has us, we’re good now we’re hooked in to him. Our greatest fear, which is death, is already overcome. Like, I know I’m safe because Jesus conquered the grave, which means I know that I will rise to forever, life in him after my death. That’s what Jesus is saying. So what if the Jewish authorities kill you? What’s the worst that can happen? You got to be with Jesus in glory forever. Like now you know what comes next. This is important, because we all make risk reward calculations all day, every day, just constantly making risk reward calculations. Can I make this light that’s not gonna be worth it? Not gonna be worth the accident, not gonna be worth the ticket, if there’s a cop there or something like that. Do I really want to spend 80 bucks a month on life insurance? That’s not worth it. I don’t want to leave my family in the lurch if something happens to me. Jesus doesn’t eliminate those calculations. That’s just prudence. Anyway. I was just reading the book of Proverbs there, going, Yeah, it’s probably good to think about these kinds of things. So he doesn’t eliminate those calculations, but he reframes them ultimately. Ultimately we risk nothing when we step out in faith for God’s kingdom, because what matters most is eternally secure. Jesus has secured it for us. He guarantees it. It’s the passage that Hannah read for us earlier in first Peter one, in his great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven. For you, our inheritance is secure. What we have in Christ is secure. That changes our calculations. It’s like, putting your money in a bank where you’re going, is it going to be there? Well, yeah, it’s backed by the FDIC. Or you’re starting a business when you got venture capitalists that are funding where you’re like, Okay, I’m not risking my dime here. I’m going to be okay if the business fails. Or rock climbing when you’re on belay where you’re like, Okay, again, we’re hooked in by fall off, somebody still got me. That’s the peace that we need, the knowledge of eternal security and true safety, or else we’ll end up in holy huddles like the disciples here, which Christians do like there’s a reason why we got that phrase holy huddle. It’s articulating something we’ve seen many times before, that retreat to safety, how unwilling Christians can be, maybe, how unwilling we even are here in this room to say, invite new people into our community group. Well, that’s gonna mess with the dynamic, though. You know what? I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to be as open like it’s the same middle school clicks that we started with in the sermon. We retreat to safety, and especially when we consider that there is risk. Still, of course, like go back to rock climbing. It’s great to know. Know that your envelope, somebody is there at the bottom. They got you hooked into the rope and everything like that. If you slip, you can still smack against it, though it hurts, you can get bruised. That’s mission right there. You can get bruised in mission, absolutely, conversation might go badly, but he’s got us. We risk nothing, not ultimately, that is why we need more than just knowledge of our ultimate safety. Important though, that is we need help too, and that’s our second point. It’s a second way that Jesus overcomes this pull to selfish safety. Is he makes us strong. This overcomes our inadequacy. It’s there in verse 22 quite short, with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit like, let’s keep going with our rock climbing analogy for a moment here, having somebody holding that rope at the bottom, it keeps you safe. It doesn’t make you better at rock climbing. You could just stand there all day long going, I don’t I don’t have the upper body strength to lift myself up, and so you’re going to need training, or you need to work out. Or, if you’re one of those little kids we climb, you know, rock climbing wall, where we go up family camp in Lake Geneva. And sometimes you can see the counselors at the bottom with the like the five year old or whatever, and they just start going like this, yay. You reach the top. You know, really good. Okay, that’s us with the spirit right there. By the way, that’s exactly what this looks like. But think how that sense of our inadequacy, our inability to do this, holds us back on mission. Like, I think this is our biggest issue on mission. A lot of us would say that first point, I’m with you, Brandon, I’m with you like, I know God’s got this. I’m just not sure I’ve got this. Yes, absolutely, right. There’s this overwhelming sense of inadequacy, incompetence, even, like, they’re going to ask me questions I know I can’t answer if I start sharing my faith, I’ve got no idea how to steer a conversation organically to the gospel or to explain the good news in a way that makes sense and meets people where they are, kind of scratches where they itch. And here’s why I love the Bible, among many reasons that I love the Bible. The Bible doesn’t pretend otherwise. The Bible is not going to lie to you about you the way our culture often does. You’ve got this You go, girl, the Bible says, No, you’re right. You are totally inadequate to do what God’s asked you to do. You have nothing in yourself to get you there, especially with the two main things, God calls us to pursue holiness and mission. How are you doing? Getting yourself holy on your own? Not so good. Same with mission. And Jesus said this himself. John 15, five apart from me. You can do nothing. It’s right when he says that he’s the true vine, we’re just branches meant to be hooked into him. You snip that branch off. You go. I got this. I can do this on my own. What kind of fruit are you going to produce? Nothing. You’re going wither and die. We have to be in him in order to do this. So the good news is, we can, we can be connected to the vine. We have that power available to us. It’s like Jesus is saying, we’re going rock climbing, all right, and I got you, I’m at the bottom, I got you on the rope, kind of thing, so you’re safe. But then Jesus, this doesn’t work in our analogy, but he’s God. He can do what he wants. Okay? He’s like, also, while I’ve got you at the bottom, I’m gonna put you on my back and actually climb you up to the top at the same time, so you’re safe and able strong in him. That’s the only way we’re gonna get there. Paul, the greatest evangelist in the history of the world, said this about himself, like if you’re feeling inadequate, just know you’re in good company. Here he is in second Corinthians, three, verse five, he says, not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. Just think how freeing that is. You don’t have to pretend to be enough. He makes you competent in himself in every area. This isn’t just mission, by the way. Like, how freeing is that? As a parent, you’re going, I’m messing this up. Yeah, yeah, you are. But the Spirit’s going to make you competent to go on or discipleship. You’re trying to help somebody grow in the faith you’re going I’m sure I’m growing in my faith, teaching whatever it might be, God empowers us to do what he’s asked us to do. We are not alone. He does not leave us to ourselves. It’s like when you’re learning to drive how glad. Are you that the instructors in the car next to you, especially if they got that car with the extra brake in it and stuff, and you know, they can just grab the wheel, because that’s how we feel again, most of the time. As Christian, Jesus take the wheel. God sends His Holy Spirit. Jesus breathed on them. He said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you’re in Christ, you have received the Spirit of God to dwell within you. I mean, that’s even better than just having the instructor there in the car next to you. He’s inside you. Your hands are on the wheel. His hands are on the wheel. That’s what that means. He’s also the engine. So you got everything going for you here, but that’s freeing again. So if you were here with us the last couple months, you know, we’ve been in Exodus for a long time. Do you remember Moses when they were on the cusp of the Promised Land, and God was like, I’m not going, I’m gonna send my angel. And Moses said, If you don’t go, I’m not going, if you don’t go, I’m not going, I’m not going, unless you’re coming to and here, in this moment after Pentecost, we don’t ever have to ask that question again. God always goes with us, because he’s within us. We know that he’s always with us. This is John’s version of the Great Commission where Jesus gives His disciples their task, gives us our task for the remainder of history. The most famous one is Matthew’s version, go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded you. But then Matthew, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus wraps it up by saying, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age, which is a strange thing for him to say, as he ascends into heaven, I’m gonna be with you always. Take care now. But we know, if you put it, you know, put John’s alongside Matthew, you get the whole story here. He’s saying, right, I’m physically leaving, but I’m sending my Spirit to be with you always. That’s why we can make disciples of all nations. That’s why we can go on mission. But it produces this prayerful dependence and joyful humility in us to know it’s not up to us. We can’t even do it, but he’s got us. It’s a little bit. We’ve got a small basketball hoop in our backyard, and every now and every now and again, you’ve all experienced this. You have small kids in a basketball hoop. They want to dunk, and so you, you know kind of thing that’s us, that’s us on mission, all right, but there is that. There’s joy, like, Look, I just dunked, but there’s also humility. I know I’m not doing this unless dad picks me up. It’s his strength, it’s his glory. So I know if I want to do this, I gotta say, Hey Dad, can you help me out here? But we can do it again. We can. We can dunk in Christ, not me, but you know, other people can dunk. That’s why we can leave that holy huddle, venture into the world, start conversations, asking good questions, way Jesus did, proclaiming His gospel boldly, because we know the spirit within us, strengthening us, going ahead of us, preparing hearts in the Spirit. We are safe. We are strong. That overcomes a lot of obstacles to missional living, except for the worst one, which is our selfishness. And so that’s that last section. Then we are safe, we are strong. We are also sent, and that should overcome our apathy. So Jesus said again, verse 21 Peace be with you, as the Father sent me. I’m sending you. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. So in verse 21 Jesus reiterates peace again. That’s the safety and the strength he’s going you have what you need. There’s your your peace. But then he commissions his disciples. He’s made us safe and he’s made us strong, because we’re going to be sent, this is what we need to go out. And so we should probably go out. It’d be like your, you know, parents buying sunscreen, getting you all sprayed up and everything. You got your your life jacket, it’s all buckled and stuff, brand new swimsuit. You had swim lessons all spring to stay in your basement playing video games all summer like no, we did all that so that you would, you know, swim outside. Jesus finished his work. Says that in John 19 verse 30, he’s on the cross, and He says, It is finished. He died for our sins. He rose again in victory over sin and death. He finished his work. So now our work begins. It is a related work he died to. Procure forgiveness. We go to proclaim forgiveness. He died so that we could be forgiven. We go so that others can be forgiven. That’s verse 23 that’s the connection there. This is what happens through the preaching of the gospel. We offer forgiveness to those who are listening, some will respond in repentance and faith. Others will not. But the point is, the good news is so good, we can’t help but share it. We’re evangelists by nature. As humans, you know this, you can pay attention to yourself and the people around you. How many times people tell you, like, Oh, you got to watch this show. That’s evangelicalism. There’s something good, and I want you to experience it also. You got it. You want tacos? You got to go to this restaurant. Trust me, it’s the same way with us, but it’s so much more glorious. Paul says in Second Corinthians five that the love of Christ compels us. We’re so overwhelmed by the goodness of his love, we can’t help but share it. It propels us outward. Some have said that the gospel ministry is really just a group of beggars telling other beggars where to find bread, and that’s the truth of it. But the point is, you’re going, there’s infinite bread, like I got good news for you come and have why would you not tell them that it’s a beggar saying I was dead in my transgressions and sin, I was without hope and without God in this world under judgment, just condemnation for my sins, a hurtling toward destruction, but God, because of His great love for us, God, being rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved. If that’s my story and your story, we can’t keep that to ourselves. Like news that good begs to be shared if we’re not sharing it, you would almost think we hadn’t believed it if we would keep it to ourselves. And yet, that’s the fleshly tendency, even with the disciples. Well, you see this in the book of Acts. So acts opens. It’s like another version of the Great Commission. Jesus, just before he ascends into heaven, says, look, you’ll receive power from on high. There’s the spirit. You got your safety, got your strength going for you. Okay? And then you’re gonna be my witnesses, and we sent then my witnesses in Jerusalem, where you are, and then Judea, and then Samaria, and then ultimately to the ends of the earth. That’s acts one, verse eight. Now flip the numbers, Acts 81 this is months later. We read this on that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. And if you’re reading carefully, you’re going, why were you still in Jerusalem? Like it took this to get you to Judea and Samaria, never mind the ends of the earth. Like, what was going on, guys? I mean, this persecution. It’s like God, like the mom that goes downstairs in the summertime and says, Get out of the basement shoe. Go outside and play like God is shooing his people here. You don’t get to stay in Jerusalem anymore. Judea Samaria, when we talked about this, ends of the earth, let’s go. I’m not saying you better get moving, or God’s going to bring persecution. Maybe it happens. I’m just saying, Look how easy it is to retreat to safety, to the comfortable, to the familiar. I understand what the early church is doing. I can read myself into that passage, no problem. Why wouldn’t you just sit with the apostles, listen to them teach. I’m just growing in knowledge and understanding. I’m getting fat in Christ. Just gonna keep studying scripture. We got these deep, small groups, beautiful. We all know each other. We can be vulnerable. We can share with each other. We’re doing life together like every day, not like the American church. No, we’re doing life together. You read Acts 242, to 47 you see that picture in the early church, and go, Yeah, I’d want to stay there too. Plus, they don’t want to leave Jerusalem. They love the food there. They know where to find everything in their neighborhood grocery store. That’s really tough when you move and it’s not there where it’s supposed to be. It’s wrong aisle. People act the way I expect them to act. That’s the retreat to selfish, safety, comfortable confines. It’s absolutely antithetical to the work of Jesus. Christ, though. I mean, look at Jesus. What did he do? He left home, which was more comfortable than your home, that’s for sure. I mean, he left glory. He left his throne. Took on flesh and embraced discomfort, would be understatement safe to say, for our sakes, when we catch the magnitude of that love we’re willing to leave also not about my wants, not about my desires, those are already met in Christ, Jesus at the deepest level. So I can go there’s a big idea. We’ll just pull the three pieces together. The big idea for today, we’re safe in Christ and strong in the spirit, so we can be sent out without fear and hesitation. We are safe in Christ, strong in the spirit, so we can be sent out without fear or hesitation. Now, an analogy may be helpful here, as we move toward application, as we move toward the here and now. Of it all, this is an unoriginal analogy. I think it might come from JD Greer, so I’ll give him props. But honestly, I’ve heard it so many times in so many different places across decades. At this point, I don’t know where it comes from. Most of us want our local church to be a cruise ship. A cruise ship. A cruise ship is about me and my pleasure. That’s why you go on a cruise. It’s also why you stay on the cruise. You want to leave the cruise. I pay good money for this. I would like to stay right here. I am here to be served, which, again, is not exactly Jesus’s way. Jesus somewhat famously said in Mark 1045, Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom. For many. Most of us want a church to be a cruise ship, and most churches are happy to lean into that wish. So look at cruise ships. You’ve seen pictures of cruise ships before. I’ve never been on a cruise. My wife doesn’t want to go on a cruise. We’re not going on a cruise. Okay? You see pictures of cruise ships. They’re enormous. They’re just like floating cities. You’ve seen pictures of cruise ship with the Titanic next to it. The Titanic is the kids play area on one of the decks on a cruise ship. Like, they’re crazy. Why did they get so big? Because people kept saying, you know, what we could do? You know, it’d be fun to do on a cruise. Like, here’s, I’m going on a cruise. I’m gonna be out in the ocean, in this beautiful area. You know what would be helpful there a comedy club? This does not make sense to me. And again, some of you are like, No, we go on cruises. This is great. You do want to come because I don’t get it. Okay? We need something for the little kids to do so that the parents can have their date night and all that kind of stuff. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. We could do water slides, we could do we and it just gets bigger and bigger. They keep adding stuff that’s church, that’s ministries at a church. You’ve been to churches like this. They got water slides in some of these churches, because people just keep going. You know what we need here? We need a singles ministry. We’ll attract some more people. We have a singles ministry at the church. Certainly got to have a Men’s Ministry and a women’s ministry? Absolutely, we got to have an after school program for the kids. Maybe we could do like an open gym as well, even missionally, right? We’re thinking outside, and still it’s this sense of so we got to add more to our local church. What if we had a coffee shop in our lobby that was open all week long? We could do game night. We could have mops so we can get the young moms together and build them up. And so the whole approach to church ministry then becomes people going to the staff of the church. There’s the people who work on the cruise ship and saying, You know what would be awesome. I’ve got this idea. Make it happen, Captain pastor, whatever your name is, and again, most are happy to oblige. But scripturally speaking, the local church is not called to be a cruise ship. It is more like an aircraft carrier. The church gathering. What we’re doing here is where you come together to refuel, get some repairs done, maybe get some training. It is an imperfect analogy. I will grant that it is true. We are we got a wartime mentality as a church, but we’re running rescue missions, not bombing anybody. So we want to be clear about that with the aircraft carrier. But more importantly, the part where the analogy really breaks down is we’re not giving you your mission either like Kyle and I, Jake and Reeve, we’re just the guys holding the fuel pump, but I got really good news for you. We already talked about this one. You know, who does give you your mission? The Spirit, and He flies with you, so you’re fine. You’re in really good hands there. He’s the captain. So we can go back to the fifth. In the blank that we talked about last week, right? I’m being made to magnify. I’m being built up in Christ so that I can be sent out and we begin to say, Okay, I am sent to serve you fill in the blank. I am sent to serve like you come here for fuel so you can go out and do that ministry. Now we are always going to reach our oikos. Jake prayed about our oikos already. If you haven’t heard that term before, it’s the Greek word meaning household or really the idea is sphere of influence. It’s not the nuclear family. It’s bigger than that. So these are the people that are in your life. You’re gonna rub shoulders with all the time anyway, and you just think, we’re always gonna reach them. You’re always gonna be trying to reach your neighbors. If you got family that aren’t in Christ, you’re gonna be trying to reach them, friends, whatever. But could God be giving you a specific mission beyond that, like you’re in a clear little runway where you can land over and over and over again to bring supplies, to bring the hope of the gospel? I just want to give you some examples to get you thinking so that you can own you can own your mission. And we got people who are doing this here already. So some of these examples that I’m going to give you’re going to go, but I know that one, yes, exactly. Okay, you’re going to recognize some people here. So you may be saying, Look, I am sent to serve international students. That’s my group, that’s my people, that’s the ones God has laid on my heart. They’ve got very specific needs. If you ever lived cross culturally, you know what that is like? They also have very specific openness to conversations about the gospel, and probably takes a specific approach as well. And so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m sent to serve international students, or maybe you’re saying I’m sent to serve moms with littles in the house, like exactly what mops tries to do, but mops does it in the church, so the church has to run it. No, just do it. You can do it. You don’t need us for this. You say, I’m going to bring them in. I’m going to offer them help when it comes to parenting. A little farther down the road, I got a little more understanding, or whatever, just experience. So you come in, we’re going to give you some help with parenting. We’ll give you spiritual nourishment as well, and we’re going to look at Jesus has to say about this. You may say, I’m sent to serve those in the assisted living facility near my house, to a tremendous opportunity, by the way, because of how neglected that population is, tremendous opportunity. Also keep in mind it looks different like that is not a cruise ship mentality, because they’re not coming here, a lot of them. So we gotta go there. If we’re gonna reach them, you go, I’m gonna go, I’m gonna do a Bible study, or whatever it looks like in that place. I’m sent to serve the guys in my gym. We have conversations about physical health, and then from there, I’m gonna say, you know, you’re not just a body, you’re a spirit also. We’re gonna have conversations about spiritual health as well. I’m hoping to lead a Bible study with him. I’m sent to serve the ladies in my neighborhood by investing in their lives, investing in a relationship, and then hopefully inviting them into a discovery Bible study, or Christianity explored at class. You can even look at some of our partner ministries that are doing this, where you’re like, I’m sent to serve those who are saddled with debt. That’s why we won Christian kids, poverty debt center here, where I’m sent to serve those who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy situation, like what caring network does. That’s what this looks like to have that aircraft carrier mentality. I mentioned it last week. I’ll say it again. We are developing training starting this fall to help you develop and then deploy on mission between now and then you like take the summer to be praying and asking yourself questions like these, what are the unique needs, where God has placed you? Where do your passions and the world’s brokenness intersect? What special opportunities exist? Where you are like, just as an example, the nations are right here, seven of the toughest groups to reach, toughest countries to enter, have significant populations in the Chicagoland area like that would be one where you’re going, Okay, we’re in Chicago, so we’ve got that opportunity where we are, or what am I already doing, just without a missional intention? How many of you are sitting there going, I don’t have time for this. I would challenge you. I think you’re already spending about six hours on mission every week. You just didn’t realize you’re supposed to be on mission during that time. So what are those moments where you’re like, I’m already here, I’m already in the gym. Why don’t I make this missional? I’ll be watching the World Cup this summer. That’s just that’s on my schedule. Okay? I take days off work. Why would you come to work when the World Cup’s on? But Nick and I are already in conversation to go, okay, you know who else watches the World Cup? Everyone else in the world, except Americans. So we’re gonna hang out with them. We’re gonna host watch parties. We’re gonna provide food. Okay? So I can be on mission when. Doing what I was going to be doing anyway. For me, I write, and so every day I leave the office, four or five days a week I leave the office, I go to the same place at the same time to build relationships the staff and patrons in the place where I write. I’m already there. Let’s just make it missional. That’s the idea. As you answer those questions, pray for direction and resist the temptation to retreat to selfish safety. God saved you, called you, filled you with His Spirit. You have everything you need. You are safe and strong and sent. We are trusting the spirit to stir these passions in you, and as he calls you, we will, this is our promise, right? We will coach and commission you with joy. You’re safe in Christ, strong in the spirit, so you can be sent out without fear or hesitation. Own the mission. Can I just say to I am so glad that after I pray and we sing a song, the next thing we’re going to do is see a baptism. Because if you didn’t need a nudge in this direction, that should be your nudge. This is why we do what we’re doing, so that we can see people brought from death to life in Christ, just picture the people in your life that God has laid on your heart sharing their testimony in that baptismal see. If that doesn’t overcome your apathy, let’s pray.

19 Apr 2026 - 41 min

Cityview Community Church - Sermons

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