Radiant Christ Descends into Our Valleys of Suffering

"Remembering what God did in me and through me is never enough to power what he wants to do in me and through me now. In other words, we don't become dependent on God at one season of our life and just coast along and naturally stay dependent on God. It takes a daily dying to ourselves. And there's a warning here for us as churches that a church can have a history without having a present dependence on the Holy Spirit, that a family can have a tradition of church attendance of reading the Bible and praying before meals without having a living faith. [01:05:33] (46 seconds)  #DailyDependenceOnGod

"Jesus points his disciples towards what? Prayer and fasting, towards dependence, towards holy desperation, towards recognizing that some battles just can't be won by human strength, that there are situations in your family right now that will not be solved by better arguments. And every one of us in this room knows that because we've tried it. That there are addictions that will not be broken by stronger willpower, that there are marriages that will not be healed simply by reading another book on marriage. [01:13:41] (46 seconds)  #PrayerAndFastingDependence

"Most of life is lived down here in the valley. And down here in the valley is where our marriages struggle. Down here in the valley is where nagging anxiety seems to linger. Down here in the valley is where our children wander from the faith of their youth. Down here in the valley is where our prayers seem like they go up and hit the ceiling and then bounce down and land in our lap all over again. Down here in the valley is where our faith collides with living. [00:36:50] (45 seconds)  #FaithInTheValley

"Why? Because fasting doesn't manipulate God. Prayer does not force his hand. And kids, I while you're in the room, I know it's been a lot today. When Jesus says this kind cannot come out by prayer and fasting, can I tell you one lesson that I've learned in my life? It's this, that sometimes I wanna treat Jesus like he's a genie in a bottle, that if I can just pray it the right way, that if I can have a good attitude, that Jesus is gonna come through and do what I want him to do. [01:15:00] (31 seconds)  #PrayerNotMagic

"or God has taken his hand off my life. And that couldn't be further from the truth. Because throughout the scripture, God often does his deepest work in the valleys. David learns dependence when he's living in a cave. Joseph learns faithfulness dwelling in a pit and then in a prison. Paul learns contentment through affliction, and disciples themselves are eventually gonna understand that the cross was not defeat. It was victory just hiding beneath the surface of suffering. [01:01:19] (28 seconds)  #GodWorksInValleys

"So don't miss this. The first exodus delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. The greater exodus will deliver sinners from slavery to sin and death, hell, and the grave. Everything in the Old Testament has been moving towards him. The law points to him. The prophets anticipate him. The promises converge in him. The whole Old Testament finds its fulfillment. This is why Jesus said, I've come to fulfill the law. [00:41:52] (32 seconds)  #FulfillmentInChrist

"the Holy Spirit outlines both of these in one little section to show us something very, very real. Is that Jesus is not just lord over the mountaintop moments in our lives, but he's also lord in the reality of our valleys. That transfiguration that we talked about, it's I mean, it is unbelievable glory. Jesus shining. And one of the authors says it's like it's like his clothes couldn't have been bleached any whiter than they were. He is shining. [00:38:00] (40 seconds)  #LordOfPeaksAndValleys

"Something to do with dependence. Somewhere along the way, maybe the disciples are relying on what they've done before, what they'd seen before, what they tried before rather than on the god who had worked before. And they were so prone to do I'm so prone to do the same thing. We trust our experience. We trust our abilities, our plans. We trust our resources. And then, inevitably, we encounter a battle that reminds us how much desperately we need God. [01:12:50] (31 seconds)  #DependNotExperience