and I'm not allowed to do that.

It's not a problem.

I'm not soft.

I'm not tough.

I'm not direct.

All right, we're in a new series.

It's called Undisputed.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 17.

1 Samuel 17.

Okay, a word of encouragement.

This series is tied together.

very well in the sense that it's very difficult to get the answers to a lot of the questions that a lot of us have in one sermon.

In fact, you might hear one sermon like this one and think, wow, that's it?

There are other issues along with the major issues that we're going to be covering in this series.

So I want to encourage you, don't give up hope after sermon one.

There are three more to come.

It culminates on Easter when there's going to be a big celebration around this place, okay?

So let me start before you go to 1 Samuel 17.

Let me ask a few questions, serious questions.

Do bad things happen to good people?

Okay.

Now, another answer to that would be there's no such thing as a good person.

Okay.

How about this?

Do Christians ever get sick?

Were there any Christ followers who died during COVID?

Okay.

If you do everything right, if you do the right thing all the time, are you promised an easy, pain-free, struggle-free life?

Okay.

If you raise your children well, are you guaranteed they will never walk away from God?

Okay.

Does Jesus guarantee that your business will always succeed, your children will always be healthy, you will never suffer loss, and your relationships will always endure?

Okay.

Good.

But here's the next question then, and it's the one the world asks all the time.

What good is God?

Hope.

Let's keep going for a moment.

Jesus tells a famous parable in the Sermon on the Mount, where he says there are two kinds of people.

One group of people builds their house on the sand, the other builds the house on the rock, and the foundations refer to upon what truth they're building their lives.

But the interesting thing is, even if you build your life on the right foundation, the storms still come, right?

Some of the most dedicated Christians that I have read about, that we know, have suffered the most tragic storms.

Not just Corrie ten Boom, enduring the atrocities of Auschwitz and Ravensbrück.

Not just Elizabeth Elliot, whose husband was murdered by the very people that God told them to go and bring the good news of the gospel to.

There are Christ followers right now in our church, right in this room, right now, who have been given horrible news.

A cancer diagnosis.

Some of you have lost someone that you loved in the last week, the last two weeks.

We have funerals here all the time.

There are people suffering.

There are people facing financial crisis right now.

There are still others who are dealing with the pain of the loss of a child or grandchild.

So how is it possible that the storms that come into our lives do not crush us beyond the platitudes?

How is it possible?

Because we're mere flesh and blood.

This is a series that answers that question, and there are definitive answers.

And we're going to begin, we're going to have some fun, man, this weekend.

We're going to begin with one of the most popular stories in the Bible, David and Goliath, the Philistines versus the Israelites, arch enemies.

The Philistines want to annihilate the Israelites, but they're growing weary of bloodshed.

So this big dude, Goliath.

Scholars believe somewhere between eight and nine feet tall.

That's bigger than Shaq.

Eight and nine feet tall presents a solution.

He challenges the Israelites to send out their best warrior.

And the two of them will go 10 rounds, motto a motto, and the winner takes it all.

Well, of course he offers this solution.

He's intimidating.

He's nine feet tall.

Now, nine feet is the preacher's version.

He's between eight and nine is the theologian's version.

So he's nine feet tall.

And he's incredibly high tech.

Think about this.

This would be like in the 80s, Shaquille O'Neal, representing the Lakers, speaking with Muggsy Bogues, who played for the Hornets.

Shaquille at his peak was 7'1", 415 pounds.

Muggsy Bogues was 5'3", 137 pounds.

That's the same height as my wife, minus 20 pounds.

Yeah.

Some of us get smart as we get older.

Yeah.

Verse 4 says, a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp.

Champion is the Hebrew word for the man between.

So Goliath stands between the Israelites and the Philistines.

And the idea is that the victory or the defeat of the champion will be transferred or imputed to the entire army.

If you think about it, this is a very cost-effective way to do war.

It's high risk, high stakes, because the losers then become the servants of the winners for the rest of their lives.

Now, go back to Goliath just for a moment.

He's about eight to nine feet tall.

He has the most advanced military equipment of the day.

I love these Hebrew narratives, and I love reading those who are experts in Hebrew narratives, because the Bible says in 1 Samuel 17, verse 5, he had a bronze helmet on his head.

wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing 5,000 shackles.

That's 125 pounds.

You've heard of the Iron Dome.

This is the Bronze Dome of high tech.

Verse 6, on his legs, he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.

His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed 600 shackles.

So the tip of his spear weighed 20 pounds alone.

And then the Bible says his shield bear went ahead of him.

Now, very seldom, if ever, do you have a long detailed list or description of what a warrior is wearing.

When I read this text, I almost thought, man, this feels like I'm at a, I don't know, Goliath is on the runway.

Notice his Armani coat of bronze complimented by his Stetson helmet.

and his ensemble.

I mean, why all the detail?

Those who are experts in Hebrew narrative tell us the thematic purpose of his exceptional attention to physical detail is obvious.

Goliath moves into action like a man of iron and bronze, an almost grotesquely quantitative embodiment of a hero.

Goliath, in other words, is the epitome of self-confidence and reliance.

Now, Man, stay with me, especially if you've been a Christian a long time.

Here's the mistake we in the West make when we approach this story.

We say Goliath represents our fears or the giants or the storms that try to crush us, and David represents an inspiring example of how we should handle our fears.

We should face them head on.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

No, no, no, no.

In the Hebrew narrative, David and Goliath represent alternative approaches to heroism.

Two alternative approaches concerning how to deal with these storms that are coming into our lives to destroy us.

So first there's the Goliath approach.

Again, you'll see it in verse 42.

He, that is Goliath, looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him.

He said to David, am I a dog?

that you come out at me with sticks.

And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.

Come here, he said, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.

In other words, Goliath looks at David and he says, I'm big, you're small, I'm high tech.

You couldn't even handle Saul's tech.

Or the way we used to put it in the South at a basketball game, my team is red hot, your team ain't diddly squat.

And then he says, come here.

And I'll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.

So how does Goliath deal with his fears?

He builds his self-esteem by focusing on his assets, and they are impressive.

He visualizes success.

He can't even imagine defeat from this little boy, David.

And then through the power of positive thinking, he banishes his fears.

He boosts his self-esteem with self-talk, reminding himself of his superiority.

When he talks trash to David, folks, He's not talking to David.

He's talking to himself.

He's trying to visualize the victory by thinking about the post-match celebration when he feeds David's flesh to the birds and the wild animals.

Now, here's the thing.

Walk into any bookstore today and make your way over to the self-help section, a multi-billion dollar industry, and this is exactly what you're going to find again and again.

Think positively, banish your fears, visualize success.

This has been the world's way from the beginning.

You banish your fears by convincing yourself that you can do it.

You're the little engine that could.

I think I can.

I think I can.

and you build up your self-esteem, you visualize your success, you bracket out the possibility of failure, failure is not an option, okay?

At the University of Florida website, there is an article that I read, How to Handle Fear.

Let me read it to you.

Imagine yourself in the situation without all those unpleasant consequences that you've been scaring yourself with, and think what will happen.

Imagine you're successful.

Imagine you have dealt with a situation in a successful way.

And as you enjoy the feeling of mastery that comes from having dealt successfully with a situation that has made you fearful, you will become more and more confident in life and certainly less fearful when you approach a situation like this.

Now, there is some truth here, isn't there?

If you've ever played sports.

So when I was playing in college, if I was having a bad game, I would talk to myself and I would remind myself, hey, Jeff, you're an All-American.

That actually works for a while.

I would remind, hey man, you got the goods.

Don't back down.

When I'm playing my buddy Rick Reed in a game of golf and I don't have my A game, then I will self-talk.

And I hate to give this away because he's in the audience, but I know I don't have my ball striking game, so I know I'm going to have to make a lot of putts.

So I will actually talk to myself and I will tell myself this.

I will say there is absolutely no reason on earth this putt should not go in that hole.

Read it, roll it, hole it.

Okay?

However, what is the problem with this?

The problem is, what if I'm playing Michael Jordan one-on-one?

It don't matter, I'm an All-American.

And I want to tell you something else.

There's a thousand reasons why this ball's not going to go in that hole.

I can tell you every single one of them.

When you attempt to banish your fears by telling yourself that you cannot lose, oh, you can most definitely lose.

I can guarantee you failure is an option.

Bad things happen all the time.

But if you try to banish your fears, what happens is through self-talk, through positive thinking, you end up losing touch with reality.

And then that means you're unprepared because this is a dangerous world.

Bad things do happen.

No one is immune, not even the best of people.

Do you know that even paranoid people sometimes have people out to get them?

You can't tell a barren or in person that nobody's out to get them because this is a dangerous world and somebody might be out to get them.

Now, stay with me.

Unfortunately, I'm telling you, if you'll stay with me, this is going to be so helpful by the end.

Unfortunately, there is a Christian version of Goliath type courage, and it breaks my heart because it sets you up for failure and inevitably desertion where you end up walking away from God or someone.

You cause somebody else to walk away because you've presented to them a God that might be your God, but it's not the God of the Bible.

Where Christians are concerned, Goliath courage is highest self-esteem based on religious superiority.

In other words, I am special, I do good, I do right things, so God would never let anything bad happen to me.

So I convinced myself of my spiritual superiority saying, that I will banish all of my fears through positive confession.

I will visualize success and I will praise God for the victory and the healing before I experience it.

I've been in far too many situations like this in my life.

And I've shared some of those example.

My friend, Tim Price, who Nikki Price's older brother, who taught him the game of golf and taught me the game of golf in Africa, was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

And his church told him, his wife told him, and all the Christians told him, he would not die.

Just go about your life as if nothing has happened.

Forget about the medical treatment.

You will be healed.

And he died.

Maybe unnecessarily.

When I lived in New Zealand, one of the things that frustrated me the most is that the churches that seemed to prevail were the kind that were energetic, which I really appreciated, not the frozen chosen.

So there was energy, but there was also a deep shallowness, if I can use those two words together.

And I tried to warn.

of the shallowness.

Because the thinking went like this.

If I'm a good Christian, I come to church, read my Bible, and I obey God's word, serve in ministry, avoid sin, live a good life.

And especially, they were told by their pastors, if I give my money, then God will never let anything bad happen to me.

The problem is, and I know there are people in New Zealand going to hear this, but evangelism is almost dead in New Zealand.

And one of the reasons is the church has a big problem.

It's problem is that those on the outside see what those on the inside are claiming and they know life don't work like that.

Yes, God can heal.

God does heal.

He does immeasurably more than we could ever ask for imagine.

However, Christ's followers often suffer and die.

And when you claim something else, you undermine the truth of God, the fallenness of the world that the Bible in no uncertain terms affirms.

Moreover, you discount the possibility of a sovereign God allowing storms for eternal purposes.

This kind of positive confession that I hear about is nothing more than Goliath courage.

Build up your self-esteem.

Believe that you're superior in some way.

Visualize the good things.

Name, plain, positively confess, and it will be yours.

Okay, now let's see.

Help me out here, Michael.

Let's see now.

God never lets bad things happen to good people.

Let's see.

John the Baptist, oops, head chopped off.

Young Stephen, bold, preaches the gospel, oops, stoned to death.

Apostle Paul, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, starved, whipped, executed.

And that's even before we get to the apostles, James, decapitated.

Matthew, stabbed to death, struck over the head in Ethiopia.

Mark, dragged to death.

in the streets of Alexandria.

Peter, executed by Nero.

And then there was this guy that was pretty good, Jesus Christ, crucified.

I don't mean to be sarcastic.

It's just the reason Goliath lost is because his self-esteem was far too high.

He never watched Star Trek.

He went in with a shield down.

He banished his fears where he should have been afraid.

You say, Well, why should he have been afraid?

Look at what was standing before him, a boy with a sling.

Well, hold on a minute now.

Goliath would have known that a sling is just as powerful as an archer, arrow, or spear.

In fact, a well-trained slinger could propel a stone up to 60 miles per hour.

Roman sources tell us that slings were far more dangerous than bows and arrows.

So it's not true that Goliath didn't see or understand the destructive power of the weapon.

His problem is he lost touch with reality.

He convinced himself he had nothing to fear.

This is called counterfeit courage.

And if you really believe that nothing bad can happen to you, you're out of touch with reality.

You are unwise and you are unready for real life.

Now, remember what I said up front?

It's going to take four messages.

Because right now you're thinking, man, Pastor Jeff, do you have to be so negative?

I'm trying to be a realist and tell you.

that children will go astray, relationships will break apart, relatives will die, Christians died during COVID, the first death is no respecter of persons, and all the positive talk, visualization, banishing our fears do not stop bad things from happening.

Now, you know how the story ends, right?

Well, let me read it.

Verse 48, as the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.

Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead.

The stone sank into his forehead and he fell face down on the ground.

So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone.

Without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

David ran and stood over him.

He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the sheath.

After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.

When the Philistine saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.

So all of Goliath's self-talk and visualization caused him to lose touch with reality.

The reality that David could kill him.

Now, stay with me.

There's something else wrong with Goliath type courage.

And here's the problem with it.

It only works in short term bursts.

Adrenaline is good.

You can do some amazing things with adrenaline, can't you?

When I was a little boy, I ran a paper route.

My dad had bought me the red rider bicycle with the two baskets, one on the right, one on the left.

We would roll those papers up, put the rubber band behind them.

Some of the people are thinking, what's a newspaper?

And we would put it, we would, and I, you know, if I was going to work, I was going to make a game of it.

So this was in the day when you didn't have walls and fences in Tennessee.

So I'd ride my bike, man, and they were like missiles.

Right on the front porch, man, it was beautiful.

I loved it.

It was fun.

But over on Mulberry Street was a Doberman pincher that sat on the porch waiting for me every day.

True story.

His name was Satan.

They named their Doberman Satan.

And every day I threw the paper.

And he would just growl at me.

And I just, I was terrified.

You know, when you're eight, nine, 10 years, you're just terrified.

And then one day, my momentum, I was in a hurry because I had to get to basketball practice.

So I'm going down and I throw the paper.

And you know how when you're going, the momentum kind of makes the paper go somewhere you don't really want it.

And it hits Satan on top of the head.

And he jumped off the porch over the hedge and now he's chasing me.

And I'm terrified.

I got my little bicycle.

I'm on my bike.

And I don't know if God provided this or what, but I'm riding as fast as I can.

And I noticed there is a semi-downed tree because of a storm.

So the tree was bent, and I just started telling myself, I think I can ride up that tree.

I think I can ride up that tree.

I think I can ride my bike right up that tree, drop the bike, and then hang on to the limbs, and he'll never get me.

And I did exactly that.

I rode that bike right up the tree, and I'm hanging on the branches.

And things would have been fine.

Had I not chosen to mock Satan?

Because then I let go to say, yeah, and I fell and he bit me on the ankle and went back home.

Well, the reason I tell you that example is you can muster up all kinds of courage, adrenaline filled courage, but you can't do it over a long period of time.

What do you do when the doctor comes and tells you that you have a fatal disease and it's going to be months before they can fully diagnose it, whether or not it's going to take your life.

Hey, what about the millions of Christ followers all over the world, like Syria and Sudan and India, who love Jesus, serve Jesus, who are tortured, starved, and promised crucifixion?

Adrenaline will not help you there.

Here's the problem.

Most of the acts of courage that we admire do not come from self-assertion and self-confidence.

You know what they come from?

They don't come from the power of positive thinking when somebody says, I think I can, I think I can.

There's a book right now on my desk.

It's entitled Righteous Among the Nations.

I picked it up in Jerusalem two years ago.

The stories are remarkable.

I've not even gotten halfway through them yet.

There were thousands and thousands of people who risked their lives to protect Jewish families all over Europe.

Most of them lost everything, including their lives.

They did the honorable thing, and they paid the highest price.

What leads to that kind of courage?

That's what I want to know.

Is it self-assertion?

I can do it.

Positive confession?

Is it visualization that nothing bad will happen if I do the right thing?

Their graves are testimony to their sacrifices.

Okay, Jeff, what is real courage?

Okay, here's what we need.

What we need is not something to help us banish our fears, but something to help us do the right thing in spite of our fears.

That's courage.

You need something to help you to do the right thing.

Even if the right thing does not bring success, even if the right thing brings terrible loss.

Remember Esther?

We're going to do a whole series on her this summer.

A remarkable story.

Her uncle challenges her to go and do the right thing, even if it costs her her life.

Mordecai says, you're going to have to go into the king's palace uninvited, which will probably get you killed.

And you're going to have to admit that you're Jewish.

And you're going to have to inform him that your people have been condemned to death and that only the king can stop the massacre.

She's terrified and rightly so.

The chances are high that this will not turn out well.

But then she looks at Mordecai and she says, pray for me, I'm going in.

If I perish, I perish.

Where do you get that kind of courage?

That's not the kind of courage that says, I can do it, nothing bad will happen.

Failure's not an option.

It's not that kind of courage.

Well, Jeff, what is the right thing?

When these things happen, the storms come, what is the, you say, do the right, what is the right thing?

The right thing is always first and foremost, pray for healing and restoration.

Pray that God brings something immeasurably more into your life.

That's your first step.

But then to trust Jesus for all outcomes, to love and serve him in good and bad, and to pray, not my will, but yours be done.

Goliath's counterfeit courage will not work.

If you're doing something like this, you're not afraid and you're not afraid.

That's not courage.

If you're facing incredible storms and you've psyched yourself up not to be afraid, then you're going to lose touch with reality and you've gotten yourself into some kind of psychological state that is going to cause you to live in denial.

You know what true courage is?

True courage is discovered.

We've said that it's doing the right thing in spite of your fears.

But if you really want to discover true...

Now listen, you put yourself in this story, but don't put yourself where you've been told.

Usually when we go to this story, people will say, Goliath represents our fears, the personification of our fears.

David, that's us.

He represents us.

He's our example of the way we're supposed to face our fears head on.

No, because if you think you're David in the story, That's going to lead to a spiritualized version of Goliath courage, where you tell yourself that if you trust God, nothing bad will happen.

I can promise you, you can trust God and bad things can happen.

Trusting God means that you don't trust him, that everything's always going to turn out the way you want.

It means that he's always going to use everything for eternal purposes.

So what do you do then?

Who are we?

If we're not David and we're not Goliath in the story, who are we?

I'll tell you who we are.

And I'll tell you the Hebrew narrative is meant to communicate to you who you are.

Here's who you are.

You're the knee-knocking people.

You're the terrified ones.

You're the Israelites.

You're not Goliath.

You're not David.

I'm not.

We're the Israelites, God's people.

What does all this mean?

God does not give a frightened people an example.

He gives them a champion.

He gives them a savior.

Can I get an amen?

Man, he does not deal with their fears through inspiration and emulation.

He deals with their fears through substitution and imputation.

You say, what does that mean?

Stay with me.

David is not an example to the Israelites.

He doesn't say, do exactly as I do.

Take all your armor off, collect stones from the brook, and get your sling ready.

When I rush Goliath, you rush everybody else.

He's not their example.

He's their savior.

He's their champion.

He's their deliverer.

Now, to be a champion is a legal thing.

So the closest we have to it in our culture is, I guess it would be a legal advocate.

So if you're going to trial and everything's on the line, you better have a good advocate, right?

As we now know in America, it doesn't matter who's right and wrong.

It matters who has the best lawyer.

If your defense attorney, your advocate, your champion is great in court, brilliant in court, then his victory becomes your victory.

But if they're ineloquent, inept, unbelievable, then his or her loss becomes your loss.

In other words, you are in your advocate and your advocate is in you.

His victory or loss is imputed into you, credited to you.

So David was fighting as a champion.

He was the legal representative of Israel.

If he won, his people won.

If he lost, his people lost.

He's not fighting for them.

He's fighting as them.

Come on now, keep going because the light's going to turn on any minute.

So what does it mean when we say that God gave a frightened people, not an example, but a champion, that he didn't save them through inspiration and emulation.

He saved them through substitution and imputation.

Well, yes, somebody saved.

Listen.

Hebrews chapter 11, we're reading this long list of people of great faith.

And the writer says, remember Noah and Abraham and David.

Yes, remember them, but fix your eyes on Jesus.

Look at him first and foremost.

And then we're told he's the author and perfecter of our faith.

Guess what the Greek word is?

Archikos, which means champion.

In other words, David, Moses, even Noah point to the real champion, the undisputed champion, Jesus Christ.

Now listen, listen, some of you may not have ever, maybe you don't, maybe you haven't gotten this yet.

Maybe you're new to church.

Listen, how is Jesus our champion?

He stood in the middle, not only merely between two thieves, but between God and us.

He's our advocate, our legal representative, everything he accomplished.

has been imputed and accredited to our account.

I mean, there's nothing else like this anywhere.

And the more I understand, even though I'm 60 years old, the more I understand this, the more I want to weep that Jesus lived a righteous life and I get the credit.

Where else is that?

Hey, that's a good thing, by the way, because I don't know about you, but I'm morally bankrupt.

Even when I do the good things, my motivations are usually impure.

Jesus paid the debt my sins deserve.

Two ways to be righteous.

Keep the law perfectly, pay the penalty.

I can't keep it perfectly, so Christ paid my penalty.

His death on the cross is credited to me as if I have already paid the penalty for all my sins.

This is the wonderful difference between David and Jesus and every other Old Testament pointer.

David saved his people at the risk of his life, but Jesus saved us at the cost of his life.

Listen, David went into the valley of the shadow of death, but Jesus Christ went into death itself and defeated it.

He went into the belly of the beast and blew it up from the inside out.

You say, okay, Pastor Jeff, what does that do for me?

Okay, thanks.

What does that do for me?

What is your greatest fear?

Come on now.

Now we're at the punchline.

What's your greatest fear?

Loss of wealth, loss of health, loss of life.

All of these are real issues.

But because we have a champion, there's no finality to them.

Ultimate poverty, ultimate loneliness, ultimate death are ultimate tragedies.

But this only occurs when there's cosmic alienation.

But there's no longer cosmic alienation because of what Christ has done, which means Jesus, your champion, has secured your cosmic health and wealth and community and fellowship for all of eternity.

In other words, listen, when you get the gospel, here's what you're going to realize.

You are safe.

It's okay now.

You're secure.

You're safe.

Which is why you may lose your money.

You may lose your love.

She may walk out on you.

He may leave you.

She may suffer.

He may suffer.

You may lose them.

But Psalm 30 says, weeping may tarry, but joy comes in the morning.

Because there's no finality to poverty or loss.

It's temporary at best.

But Jeff, what if I don't get better?

I've been diagnosed.

What if I lose him?

What if I lose her?

What if she walks away?

What if my business crashes?

What if I'm diagnosed with a terminal disease?

Can I tell you something?

All of these things can happen.

Every single one of them.

No matter how many times you come to church, how many times you read your Bible, all of them can happen.

In fact, someday, is it not true that you won't get better?

Someday, someday your relationships will disappear.

And someday your money will be of no good to you.

But you can face these things with great courage because now you know your greatest fear, death itself and the ultimate loss of love and wealth and community and wonder and life has already been defeated.

And that anything you suffer here is temporary at best.

Listen, you will live forever.

You will love forever.

You will experience perpetual wonder in beauty and breath and life with good health all the days of your life.

And until that dawns on you, you will be a terrified, fearful, extra grace required person because you will be a perpetual complainer now.

Finally, what is real courage?

Fix your eyes on Jesus.

Look at him.

Was he not human?

Hebrews chapter 2 verse 17.

Was he not tempted in all ways just like us?

You don't think he was subject to fear just like us?

He knew pain.

He knew suffering just like us.

In the garden of Gethsemane, he was shrinking back.

He was afraid.

He said to the father, let this cup pass from me.

He says, I don't want to do this.

I'm afraid.

Yes, he said, not my will, but yours be done.

But he also said, I'm afraid.

You know why?

Because Jesus was realistic.

He knew this was going to be horrible.

He knew that it required great suffering.

But we're told in Hebrews 12, listen, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

What does that mean?

Well, that tells me that when he was in heaven, he could have stayed there and there'd be no pain, no suffering.

And yet there was something among all his wealth and riches that he had.

that he did not have.

Even though he had everything else, there's one thing he didn't have.

And the one thing he didn't have was you.

And in order to get you, he's got to come down and suffer.

And I think...

Somewhere in the mind of God is this idea in the mind of Christ that I want relationships so badly with the people that I love that I'm going to go down and I'm going to suffer.

And the thing that is going to enable me to endure the suffering is I'm going to envision.

Now, there is some visualization.

I'm going to envision the joy of being with them forever after I've accomplished God's work.

That's courage.

I'm going to vision.

envision eating the feast of the wedding supper of the lamb.

I'm going to envision the new heavens and the new earth.

And for the sake of joy, I'm going to endure the shame that comes with the cross.

Folks, courage is not the absence of fear.

It is the presence of joy.

The joy that you have, the assurance of joy, where you know the ultimate end and you always win.

It's not self-confidence, it's self-forgetfulness.

You preach a sermon like this, it's so difficult to know if you're communicating effectively.

And that's where you really have to depend on the Spirit of God to open all of your eyes.

To understand what it is to know that Jesus Christ is the undisputed champion of the universe.

And the undisputed champion takes it all.

And gives it to you.

Now, let me close with a quick illustration that I hope will kind of bring this to life.

And it's from J.R.R.

Tolkien, Lord of the Rings.

And the reason the Lord of the Rings, J.R.R.

Tolkien, has had this enduring appeal is because Tolkien...

actually was a world-class scholar, especially concerning ancient legends.

So he's an expert in Northern European, ancient, old Norse, or old English, or old Icelandic.

And he knew all the myths and he loved them.

The epics, the hero, slaying the dragon, all that he loved.

So he wanted to tell a story about that, but he wanted to write his own story at the same time.

So what did he do?

What addition did he make in his writings?

Hobbits.

Hobbits aren't in the originals.

He adds hobbits.

Why does he like hobbits?

He makes them up.

It's his own invention.

And hobbits represent us.

They're short compared to all the heroes.

They're modern people with modern fears and modern problems.

So when you read the epics, when you read Lord of the Rings, on the one hand, you're in the old world, the old heroic world.

On the other hand...

you're in this world, able to identify with the hobbits because the hobbits are just like us, weak, small, frail, full of fears.

And yet, if you notice in his stories, the hobbits come up with incredible courage.

How is it that the hobbits can run with all these heroic figures?

Where do they get all that courage?

Some of the greatest passages on courage are found in the writings of Tolkien.

And let me give you one example.

There's this place where Sam is.

Frodo's faithful companion has been defending him and at one point actually rescues him out of the tower by saying, here I come, I'm gonna fight, fight, fight, and I'm gonna get you out of that tower, out of danger.

And he does, and he carries him away.

And as they're on their way to the end of the quest, suddenly Sam is terrified, he's scared.

And one night we're told that Sam looks up into the sky.

And these are the words of Tolkien.

He saw a white star twinkle for a while.

The beauty of it smote his heart.

And then like a shaft clearing cold, the thought pierced him that in the end, the evil shadow was only a small and passing thing.

There was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach.

His time in the tower had actually been defiance rather than hope because then he was thinking of himself.

Now for a moment, his own fate and even Frodo's ceased to trouble him.

and he fell into a deep, untroubled sleep.

Do you see what he's saying?

Sam had saved Frodo, but it was defiance.

I can do it.

I am brave.

I will do it.

I will muster my courage.

I'll do it myself.

But this time, as he lays to rest, a thought pierces him like a shaft, cold and clear.

As he looks at all the evil around him, he says, you know what?

There is still light.

and beauty forever beyond its reach.

Even this shadow is temporary.

Joy is coming.

And he said it didn't even bother him anymore.

He didn't even think about himself or even Frodo, which tells me.

that it is possible to have great courage among your greatest fears, whatever it is.

So you're facing cancer.

You're facing financial ruin.

You're facing broken relationships.

You're facing an addiction that's destroyed.

I don't know what it is, but I know we all have a burden to bear, every single one of us.

And I want to be the kind of pastor that tells you it's all going to be okay and it's all going to work out and you're not going to ever have any problems again.

And that would make you feel good, but I would be lying.

And, you know, the Bible says in the last days that preachers like me will say things that will tickle their ears.

Everybody wants to hear a pastor that's going to tell you, don't worry, you're not going to suffer.

Don't worry, nothing bad is ever going to happen to you.

Who doesn't want to be around that kind of person?

But that is a shallowness.

The Bible tells us that when you're facing your greatest fears, when you're champion, when it really resonates with you what Christ has done for you, Then one day, you're going to be resting, and you're going to think of all the challenges in your life.

And suddenly, the thought's going to come across your mind, wow, if the Bible really is true, then the whole universe is a universe of joy and the glory of life.

The whole universe is just filled with joy and glory.

And here we are on this earth, a little speck, a tiny little speck of darkness.

But all of this darkness someday is going to be taken away.

And I'm just stuck in this little speck of darkness, but it's so temporary.

And it's temporary because of Jesus' resurrection.

Because of his resurrection, it means that you're going to be okay.

Now, I can tell you that.

I can tell you, you know what?

It's all going to be okay.

Well, it doesn't feel, but it's all going to be okay.

You know what?

Your family's going to be okay.

Your wife's going to be okay.

Your children are going to be okay.

Your grandchildren will be okay.

We're all going to be okay.

Why?

Because our champion has secured life for us beyond this realm.

Weeping may only tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

And if you could take these truths of the gospel and burn them into your life so that they come to you during times of fear and anxiety.

And you can concentrate on worship and preaching and the Lord's Supper and singing and the witnessing of baptisms.

And you can be reminded week after week that there is another world.

The more you begin to see what kind of real champion you have in Jesus, and you will get to the point where you realize that nothing can hurt you, nothing can harm you.

Nothing.

Because Jesus entered the ring of sin.

Sin, death, sickness, pain, suffering, and loss.

But after three rounds, our champion emerged once and for all victorious.

What did we say not too long ago?

We are Friday people living in a Saturday world waiting for Sunday to come.

That's who we are.

But make no mistake, Sunday's coming.

And our champion will restore all things.

He's not just the champion, folks.

He's the undisputed champion of the universe.

And he's on your side.

Father, thank you for a reminder from your word that there are just no promises where we will never have to experience the pain of a fallen world.

That when sin entered this world, so did death, so did pain, so did suffering.

But you have overcome the world, you have overcome sin and death.

And indeed, in this moment, we are Friday people living in a Saturday world waiting for Sunday to come.

But knowing that Sunday will come is coming for sure.

We now know that although we may suffer, although there may be times of fear and anxiety, it's going to be okay.

We're all going to be okay.

Because of Jesus, our champion, in his name we pray.

Amen.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

If you want to know more about what it's like to be a Christ follower, I want to encourage you to go to oneandall.church.com to get more information, as well as to reach out to us to walk alongside you in this step.

I also want to encourage you to download our One and All app as we have so many resources there for you, like...

our daily devotionals, our conversations, podcasts, as well as the sermons, and to know what is happening here at our church so you can get plugged in.

We hope you have a great rest of your week, and we'll end as we always do with one hope, one life in Christ.