We've just been through about a month of testing to confirm that I have stage 4
lymphoma and now we're about ready to start treatment. We found out after all
the testing what my treatment plan was going to be and it was going to be the
worst case scenario. Six rounds of treatment, each round would be five days
in the hospital and for five days, I would be 24/7 injected with with
different types of chemo. Going through those six months it was like descending
the stairs, in my mind, to just darkness. The third night of the first week that I
was there, I was laying in bed my whole body was shaking a sweating. I was in
pain. The only thing I can get out was "God help, I won't survive this" and
there's no way I can do six rounds of this and even in that darkness, even in
that lowest point I knew he was there I knew he was present and he gave me just
enough strength to make it through that night it was incredibly difficult not
only because of the drugs but also because I was away from my family I was
not present I was an absent dad for six months but through all of that God was
working the whole time we found out within weeks of being diagnosed three
other families in our community were diagnosed with their own cancer and all
of them connected to us in a way asking us how we were able to walk in the way
that we were to walk through our own devastating news with joy and excitement
and it was Christ we were able to share Christ with them
and then our goal was to show Christ to our nursing staff to love on them and no
matter what we were going through no matter how hard chemo got to put a smile
on my face every time they walk through the door and to love on them as best
that we could and it turned out that our room became a spot where all the nursing
staff wanted to be they wanted to be there not only because it was fun but
because it was a place of rest for them and that's just what Jesus does through
people who are willing not because we're great but because he's great and and his
his truth can break down any barrier in a person's life simply through loving
people the way that he has left us we're in part three of this series called I
choose joy and for the last few weeks we've been on a journey with Kevin
McIntyre and his family as he's shared what it's like to be a young dad with
four kids Stage four lymphoma and battling one during the real challenges
of am I gonna live or am I gonna die and how am I gonna go through this and if
you go ahead and pull out your notes I I'm a friend of Kevin's I know his
father-in-law and mother-in-law far better and we've been friends for quite
a while but I was real close to I read every time on CaringBridge has Kevin
journaled through this process and I kind of followed him with the ups and
the downs and you know this prognosis and then that one and then how he's
feeling and and I wanted to share with you the four things that I learned from
going through this journey with Kevin that I hope will be helpful for you the
first thing I learned was that facing more our mortality is both scary and
clarifying as I would read his journal and as I would hear a little bit of what
you're hearing and be up close to it it just reminded me that I'm gonna die it
reminded me of just life is really short it reminded me of the battle and the
victory that we went through cancer with my wife just reminded me the
second thing was that very few things in life matter very much just as I would
read these journal entries and you know he wasn't worried about remodeling the
kitchen or whether he's gonna get a raise you know he wasn't concerned about
is he gonna get 49er tickets now his fantasy football team wasn't really a
big issue for him right and the same thing it just brought back all those
memories that when we went through cancer how projects demands what people
think what they don't think nothing really matters life is very very simple
when you get really really close to death the third thing is that as I've
listened to Kevin and watched is that C plus P really does equal e our
circumstances plus our perspective determines our experience and as you
listen if you read the journals if you went through it in real time with him
there were ups and downs and he was brutally honest brutally honest about
fears brutally honest about you know doubts and struggles but also it was an
unwavering I'm going to trust God I'm gonna I believe there's a heaven I
believe the Bible's true I believe there's God's character his spirit lives
within me there's a certainty there's a hope and I'm gonna have an upward focus
in an outward focus and I'm gonna use this for God's purposes those nurses are
gonna hear and see Christ other patients are gonna hear and see Christ not
because I've got it in me but Christ in me I watched his life prove that and
finally I think the thing I learned from Kevin is that only an eternal P
perspective can produce peace and joy when facing death I mean when you look
at life through just the lens of now is all there is I'll tell you what you
cannot sustain it in fact this wall for me is a lot like life and these are the
circumstances and you know sometimes they're great but sometimes it's a brick
wall and you know you got a marriage problem here and a single
you want to be married here and cancer biopsy here and you lose your job over
here and you're clinically depressed over here and you just keep button
against this wall and you're looking for hope and you're looking for hope and you
lose it and you lose it and you lose it and you lose it and after a while you
just give up and you just start doing stuff that you didn't think you would
ever do because hope is the oxygen of the soul if you don't have hope you die
you can go without food for seven days and water for about three you can't go
without any hope for probably more than three or four minutes will do so what do
you do here's what Kevin did Kevin said I can't take it I don't know what's
going to happen so I'm going to rise above my circumstances and I'm going to
look at Eternity that would just seem temporal circumstances I can't change
but that is true and it's not a picture half-full it's completely full it's
heaven waiting it's Christ it's all of its promises
it's a sovereign God it's this life is not all there is and I can look at that
and I cling to that and it's the anchor of my soul and it gives me the Grace and
the perspective and the perseverance to keep going
it takes an eternal perspective here's the question how when life is crashing
in do you develop that eternal perspective that gives you the kind of
hope that allows you to go through anything that allows you not to give up
not to give in not to get in wordly focus not become a victim not blame
everybody else not blame God but be the kind of person in the midst of you don't
know if you're gonna live or die and there's pain and there's children and
and there's a wife and there's a concern where nurses want to come in and go I
don't know what's going on in this room but we'll hang out here that's the
presence of God that's the power of God that's a joy not a happiness that's a
reality experienced in the midst of crushing circumstances
well if you open your notes we're gonna learn the answer to finding that kind of
hope and the answer is in a very simple yet profound word and it's the key to
eternal perspective and the key word of the lens you need to look at is the lens
of hope and the question to ask yourself when you're really struggling is not
just where is my focus and not just what's my purpose but where's my hope
what's my hope rooted in and by the way when we use the word hope English word
hope has one meaning the biblical word hope is a little bit different when we
use the word hope we often you know I I hope it doesn't rain I hope the 49ers
win I hope I get a good job I hope someday I get married we used the word
hope in a good way but it's almost wishful thinking we hope for something
positive in the future it's a good definition there's nothing wrong with
that kind of hope but that's not the word and by in the Bible the word in the
Bible for hope is an absolute certainty that you can bank on that will never
change Christ's return is the hope heaven is our hope God's promises to our
hope jesus said that I will give you all the grace you need to get through any
situation it's a hope in other words it's the anchor of your soul biblical
hope isn't a possibility it's a guarantee of something unseen the
Apostle Paul will later say that which is seen is temporal that which is unseen
is eternal and it is both a skill and an act of faith to learn how to look at the
unseen hope that sustains you we pick up the story of the Apostle Paul and it is
now his third lesson the context for those that might be just joining us he's
in Rome he's chained to a praetorian guard that changes every six hours it is
not a good situation he's on trial and at the end of the trial he's either
going to be released and found innocent or he's going to be found guilty and
executed and when we pick up the story he's in the situation where I don't know
what's gonna happen imagine more than a little anxiety for
most of us so what's his perspective in facing death it's crazy it's joy
remember last time its joy he actually has a joyful attitude facing death he
has an eternal perspective notice in verse 18 it says yes and I will continue
to rejoice the question is why and how could any individual unless they're
playing just mind games how could you have joy in a terrible situation you've
been betrayed by your friends there's political issues happening in the church
you you're humanly thinking God you sent me to go to all the world and instead
here I am in this prison little did he know that all these letters that he
would write would change the course of history he didn't know that what what
was it that allowed him to have this amazing attitude in circumstances that
would absolutely crush 99.9 percent of the people he gives us two reasons in
Philippians chapter 1 verses 19 to 25 reason number one is that his
deliverance is certain his deliverance is certain underlined the word
deliverance follow along as I read for I know that Vince shall turn out for my
deliverance well how through your prayers and the
provision of the spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation and
hope that I will not be put to shame in anything but that with all boldness
Christ even now as always will be exalted in my body
well how whether by life or by death Paul is completely convinced that he's
going to be delivered now I want to do something with yet it's kind of fun the
Apostle Paul I really like him because he has run-on sentences
because I have run-on sentences and the favorite grammatical punctuation in all
of the English language for me is a semicolon that's how you put multiple
sentences together and not have the teacher take off and and so I've written
the notes in a way so you can see the structure of them but let me give you
just his sentence and so what I want you to do is for I know that this will turn
out my for my deliverance put a line underneath that okay you got it and then
I want you to skip down where it says according to my earnest expectation just
underline the word just that and then I want you to skip down a little bit
farther and underline Christ we'll even now as always be exalted in my body his
simple sentence is I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance that
Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body and everything else
is the wise the wherefore is the house and then all those clauses to explain it
but they're really important first of all put a box around the first word says
for I know there's two Greek words for no one as you know by way of experience
powerful word but that's not this word the other word is like you know like
physics you know that water boils it such-and-such degrees or two plus two is
four that's this word in other words there's
empirical facts Paul says I have an empirical fact that doesn't change that
I will be delivered and put a box around the word deliverance we get our word
salvation means to be delivered out of in the Old Testament you know when the
Red Sea parted they were delivered so he says I know for certain I'm going to be
delivered that Christ is going to be exalted I want you to know his
perspective on this he says there's two reasons why I know I'm going to be
delivered one is the responsibility of man and the other is a sod
of God did you pick it up he says I know I'm gonna deliver through a your prayers
and be the provision of the Spirit of God you know despite anybody's theology
anywhere the Apostle Paul actually believed when men and women ordinary
people like us would come to God earnestly in faith and claim his
promises and in our heart at least and get down on our knees and intercede for
the life of another person it actually makes a difference he's certain of his
deliverance and for the provision put a circle of eye on the road provision it's
uh it's an interesting word we get our word are you ready it's weird we get our
word chorus you know like a singing group and historically this is kind of
fun to give you a little background on this because in the ancient world if you
were a very very wealthy person in a smaller town then there was
entertainment and so the theater was very big and they had these outdoor
amphitheaters and if you were very wealthy it was expected that you would
bring a theater group that you would pay the theater group that you would rent
the amphitheater and everything that had to happen for their costumes the group
the entrance everything so that you could entertain the city and it's this
word course over time it came to mean whatever it takes to pull this thing off
all the provision the money the time the energy the leadership everything it
takes to pull something off that's what this word became and Paul says I'm
convinced of my deliverance because you all are praying and the whatever it
takes that the Spirit of God is going to bring into my life but notice he doesn't
think his deliverance is necessarily out of his circumstances he doesn't say that
I'm going to be delivered and I'll be released that I'm going to be executed
that God's going to just deliver me out of it he says I'm convinced of my
deliverance that Christ will be exalted in my body whether I live or whether I
die and then notice he says according to my
earnest expectation it's another very interesting word that has a it's a
picture of someone who blocks everything out and brings a level of focus imagine
if you will the runner and you know what he's like two three yards and everyone's
leaning in on the 100-meter dash and he leans forward the crowd is gone the
noise is gone and it's a word that says Paul saying my eager expectation my
absolute focus in other words I believe in this deliverance I believe because of
your prayers I believe God's going to come through and I have a laser-like
focus in the promises and the character of God and I have a hope jesus promised
I have a hope heavens real I have a hope God's in
control I have a hope God's goodness says that whether I live or whether I
die his highest and best purposes his hope is in the character the promises
and the reality of God's goodness and that the worst that can happen is he
goes to heaven and so he says earnest expectation hope his biggest concern is
that he would be put to shame but he says with all boldness that Christ even
now will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death notice he prayed
that what he would be delivered from is failure to represent Christ well in the
midst of crushing circumstances his biggest concern wasn't whether he lived
or died his biggest concern was Christ's reputation whoa there's three ways in
Scripture that God delivers us and we tend to only think of one so get your
pencil out this will be helpful one day in your life I'm gonna give it God's
plan a God's plan be God's plan see or actually it's more probably accurate to
say our plan a our plan B and our Plan C plan a when
God uses the word deliverance he delivers you out of something he does a
miracle I mean I've had times where we had no money we couldn't pay the rent
there's no way I have no resources and I got a check in the mail from someone
that I've met once years ago for $1,000 and I pay the rent and I go that's a
miracle God delivered me out of it it happened again a missionary from India
actually sent me money during seminary to pay my bills
go figure he delivered me out of it I've had times where we have anointed people
with oil prayed for them and seeing a brain tumor miraculously go delivered
them out of it praise God he still does miracles but we've prayed for people and
three weeks later they've died God's in control he has purposes some of which we
understand a lot of them that we don't deliverance number one he delivers us
out of the adversity or the difficulty number two is he delivers us through
them jot down second Corinthians chapter 12 verses 9 and 10 this is what Paul is
experiencing he tells us that he had this amazing experience and so that he
wouldn't get proud he was given a thorn in his flesh everyone postulates and
guesses is it malaria is it an eye disease we don't know what it is but all
we know is that there was a bad back situation that he was struggling with
and he was in pain all the time and God did not and he prayed I mean Paul's got
a pretty effective prayer life wouldn't you agree and he asked God in faith
believing take it away take it away take it away and God said no no no my grace
is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness and then Paul's
attitude changed and realized sometimes God wants to do a deeper thing in us and
he doesn't deliver us out of it he delivers us through it and as he
delivers us through it he refines us and our faith grows
and our character changes and it's very difficult and he gives us a joy and a
contentment and a peace that's unexplainable externally apart from a
living God doing something inside of you the third way that God delivers us is
unto himself we were talking about this as pastors we were going over the study
earlier this week and one of the guys in the group said you know what's kind of
odd is that in our day we think the worst thing that could ever happen to a
person is they die and that doesn't seem to be Paul's perspective Christ gets
exalted whether I live or whether I die and a little bit later we're gonna read
that he's not sure whether he's going to stick around or die but the dilemma he
thinks it's far better to be with Christ I've had both my parents die of
debilitating painful long diseases I when when when my parents died by the
time they got to where they died it was Lord thank you
to watch them live through what they were living through at that level was
really really painful in psalm 116 says precious and the eyes of the lord are
the depth of his godly ones you see if all there is is now temporal and someone
you love dies I got I got news you got nothing you got nothing but if in fact
there is an eternity if there really is a heaven if what Jesus told the
disciples the very last night that allowed them to hang tough and hang on
no matter what there's an eternity there's a heaven that it's real then
it's pretty interesting it sustains you and it's sad and it's hard and we lose
those that we love and that's why sharing Christ is so important that's
why if you're here or you're watching or you're listening and you've never put
your faith in Christ you need to know that you're going to be in heaven and
that's not that's not something from trying to be a nice little good person
or being a bit moral your sins have got to be completely
covered you have to receive the gift of Christ dying on the cross for you in
your place and turn from your sin repent and ask Christ to forgive you and come
into your life and he will and you can know for sure
the first reason Paul has joy in the midst of these horrendous circumstances
his deliverance is certain and he's certain that by the grace of God he is
going to be faithful he is certain that he's going to be bold in his faith right
into the end and he's certain that whether he lives and gets to go on and
minister more or whether he dies and is immediately ushered into the presence of
Christ that he knows that his hope but the next reason is equally powerful the
second reason that he has this joy is his source of joy is unshakable its
unshakable circumstances go up they go down incomes go up incomes go down
hurricanes come hurricanes go earthquakes come earthquakes go
economies go up the economies go down marriage is a good marriages aren't so
good kids do great things that make you proud kids do some terrible things that
make you sad you're you're healthy and working out and doing a triathlon this
year and next year they get a biopsy report and they got tubes running in you
circumstances up circumstances down you either live your life like a little cork
on the waves of circumstances of the sea of life or you live your life with that
leaning eagerly expectation and anchor of your soul hope that there's a heaven
and there's a God and there are promises and he will sustain me and as I trust
him and that's what Paul does his joy the source of it is unshakable he says
for me to live as Christ temporal eternal to die is gain
if I'm to live on in the body this will mean fruitful labor for me yet what
shall I choose I don't know I'm torn between the two I'm hard pressed from
both direct having the desire to depart and be with
Christ for that is very much better yet to remain on the flesh is more necessary
for your sakes and then it kind of comes to this moment and convinced of this as
I as the Spirit of God is speaking to me as I'm writing this letters I'm
processing he says I know that this will turn out that I'll remain and continue
with you all why for your progress and is this guy like crazy
who's he concerned about your joy in the faith so if you're proud confidence in
me can abound in Christ to my coming to you again for to me to
live is Christ to die is gain Paul lives there's two platforms in life
you look at life from this platform of time or you look at life at this
platform from eternity and he says in time it's Christ and if it's Christ I'm
gonna continue to serve because unlike American Christianity he thinks the goal
of life is to love God and to serve Him and to know him and to enjoy him and to
share that with as many people as you can before you die and to model the kind
of life for you and your friends or if you're married your children so that the
most important thing is not what school you go to not how much money you make
not what you look like what other people think but the most important thing is
that Christ is the center of your heart and life and you are actually reflecting
what he's like it's called his glory everybody and everything revolves around
something it's interesting you know that take a microscope and write you know
you've got the the center of the nucleus and those electrons are going around it
and now they've got super powerful ones and their stuff inside of that things
going around or you know all the planets go around the Sun they found now that
our solar system and our Sun actually goes around an axial star everything in
life goes around something the question is what does your life go around
Paul said my life goes around the living Christ he's my anchor and so if I live
it's for him and if I die it's gain I'm immediately translated
into the presence of Christ no soul sleep no purgatory no waiting I die
instantaneously I'm in the presence of Christ and then he begins to think and
ponder about Wow what should I do I'm hard pressed from both directions he
desires to part and be with Christ I don't think many of us would say that if
we're just honest right see I don't think Christianity was a religion for
Paul I don't think it was a moral statement I don't think it was I want to
do really good in this life and has a lot of good byproducts and produces good
things and and it's important I think Christianity for Paul was a life
transforming moment of a relationship connected to God and he loved God and he
got to know even though he never met I mean we have some visions that he has
but he didn't he didn't meet him face to face as far as we know but the Spirit of
God living in him just like he lives in us who were followers he cultivated that
and he cultivated it by he took that Old Testament and God revealed to him and
those are this is his word and he cultivated a tenderness to hear the
Spirit of God and follow it and and he was always living in community in other
words it was his relationship and he thought you know I had this I've got
this barrier still I still had this barrier I've tasted and I've seen and
he's changed me he's revealed things but I had this barrier it would be better to
be face to face but his heart is one of I want to do whatever you want me to do
and these Philippians they could use some good teaching still they're still
messed up you know these two ladies are arguing with each other and under
pressure they're not doing so well in fact I'm gonna write them pretty soon
about humility and loving each other because they're kind of at each other's
throats
so Lord plan a I'll be with you awesome Plan B I'll stay here as long as you
want I think God must want me to stay notice the secret is his vantage point I
look this up in the dictionary and I loved it it a vantage is a position or
situation more advantageous than opponents that's one definition but I
think the second one has much more application for us a position that
allows a clear broad view understanding a vantage point in other words what you
need to understand it's not just where's your hope
but it's from where are you looking for your hope Paul had been beaten at least
three times left for dead once overnight in the ocean been in prison deeply
discouraged I'm not reading into the text if you read second Corinthians
pretty carefully and look at Acts he's probably clinically depressed at one
point just as almost as almost at the end of his rope and his words knocked
down but not out and then he says this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 because I
think this is the greatest thing that we need out of this passage and in our life
is not to lose heart therefore we do not lose heart but though our outward man is
decaying like Kevin McIntyre's like yours in mine really yet our inner man
is being renewed day by day for a momentary light affliction is
producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison while we
notice perspective words now look and see while we look not at the things
which are seen but we look at the things which are not seen for the things which
are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal
Kevin McEntire as you will see next week and here next week and as we follow his
life the temptation would be to think what an extraordinary young man and in
in a sense he is but what he would tell you is actually he's not he is a young
man whose life is on the line who stared death in the face and saw the reflection
of Christ coming back and came to grips with whether I live or whether I die
this is how I'm going to live whatever last days God gives me I'm gonna look up
focus and I'm gonna look out I'm gonna leverage this this purpose this
difficulty this pain and this little window thing called time and my purpose
is to help loss people meet the Savior and my purpose is to help those in
Christ to grow up and my purpose is God whatever you want to do and grow in me I
want to get it all let's not waste any of this pain and his hope is what
sustained him and we got some good news in a great story coming next week but
there's a couple questions we need to answer as we close where's your hope and
by the way when you it turning no the answer is not on the last page actually
the answers right here and a little bit here so you ask yourself what really
gets you discouraged ask ask yourself when you're frustrated when you're angry
and when you're mad does your hope in a perfect marriage is
your hope and upward mobility is your hope and what what school your kids get
in or how they're doing in their grades is your hope in your body and how you
look come on this is just us in here don't look at me like that come on now
we all here's the thing God loves us so much he's saying don't be stupid
instruct those who are rich in this present world not
conceded or fixed their hope on the uncertainty of riches Silicon Valley
America the uncertainty of riches but on God who richly supplies us with all
things to enjoy it's not that money's bad it's not that success is bad but
they make really bad gods they make great idols and what idols do is destroy
idol worshipers so the the question for every believer in this room is what's my
life really going around not what I say it's going around or not what I think
it's going around and if you want to know just go home and check your
finances then go check where you go on the internet and then go check where
your time goes and check who are your closest friends or what do you talk
about and you'll know exactly what your life is going around you can sing I love
Jesus and come to church and try and be a good person and your life really go
around a married person your kids your work your money your future and your
stuff and we all do it so God brought us here together on this day to repent of
that for some of you he brought you today to give you the biggest gift
you'll ever receive in your life eternal life you don't have an eternal hobo
you've got temporal stuff and you might be successful you might even be moral
but I'll tell you what AB cancer and a week to live you better have what's on
the other side of this wall and so he just brought you here to say it's really
not that complicated yes you lose control to an all-knowing all-powerful
good God who so demonstrated his love he died in your place rose from the dead
and for 2,000 years has been transforming the world and now he wants
to transform you would you bow your head with me Father thank you for how good
and how kind thank you that you love us god I thank you that as hard his life
has been and as many mistakes as I have made
I've just seen thousands upon thousands upon thousands and myself included
experienced a hope that no difficulty or tragedy or challenge can change and so I
want to pray now for those that would say you know I'm not sure whether I have
eternal life and if that's you I would like you to bow your heart your eyes are
already closed but bow your heart and be as honest as you can be in say Almighty
God I'm the god of my life and I'm running my life and I repent I asked you
now to forgive me of all my sins past present and future
I believe that when Jesus died on the cross he died for my sins and rose from
the dead I accept that gift and asked you to come
into my life right now and then give me the courage to tell someone this very
day lord help me to understand your word as you start to speak to me and God
would you please provide a community of friends to help me grow and if you're a
follower and you realize some of those idols have crept in would you just tell
God no more I need a hope that won't change
I need a future that's secure and then would you covenant with God to tell at
least one person before the Sun Goes Down on this day this is a baby step I'm
taking to make Jesus the center of what my whole life goes around and you
probably need some help to get there I want to give you about Oh what do you
say 60 seconds for you to talk with God and you to decide oh god what will this
look like in my life on this day let me let you talk with your Heavenly Father
you
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