142: Ben Gallagher - Exhortation: In Order That I May Gain Christ

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   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. And I'm Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week, with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to listen to.

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   And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. This talk is an exhortation by Brother Ben Gallagher from the San Francisco Peninsula Ecclesia. He gave it on Sunday, May 9th, over Zoom. This was suggested by a member of the Ecclesia. And man, I really loved this exhortation. Ben delivered a really tight, concise, and incredibly motivating exhortation.

3. 1:10

   It really felt like a very professional kind of TED Talk style. And I know the brother Ben is a teacher by trade, and I think you can hear that in this. And also, I know something he does interesting stylistically is that I don't think he actually quotes a verse. I didn't re-listen, but I don't have a memory of him actually quoting, or sorry, citing a verse.

4. 1:33

   He quotes scripture all throughout. Which, in listening to lots of talks, and I think I've mentioned this before on the podcast, is kind of an older style. I don't know if Ben is doing this deliberately or not. I haven't chatted with him about it. But it's clearly rich with scriptural references, his exhortation.

5. 1:52

   But no quotes. But anyways, this is, I think, a very classic message. The title is That I May Gain Christ. And he's kind of talking about how our weakness and our failure highlights how much we need our Savior. And how much of the world's mindset is incorrect and really leading to dark places due to its emptiness.

6. 2:15

   And I think this is a really, really, really uplifting talk. And I'm excited to share it. So this is That I May Gain Christ by Brother Ben Gallagher. Good morning, brothers and sisters.

7. 2:28

   So I'm constantly awed by the world that God has created around us. There are many things, as a matter of fact, I wish I could paint, even with a fleeting image, with a fraction of a percent of the majesty and beauty our Heavenly Father has created them with. For instance, how do you explain that feeling when you look at the stars and you realize that you and the other seven billion of you and everything that you've ever been and everything that you will be is just another speckle in the sky?

8. 2:58

   I can't capture in words that exact feeling when I see a baptism, knowing that that person from that moment will never be the same. That at that exact moment, not only am I rejoicing, but I feel certainty that my heart is beating with joy and sync with the creator of the universe. I wish their words were words for the exact shade of blue off the water of the island of Maui or an island like that on a precious clear day.

9. 3:28

   I don't have words for that. You can probably just look at Brother John's background if you want a good idea, but I can't really capture that in the things I'm saying. So the point, though, is the vastness of God in its totality is something that cannot be written or painted or sung or even comprehended.

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    But for whatever reason, in his wisdom, God gave us the ability to feel it. God gave us an incredible capacity to feel him in our life.

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    I also have wonder and awe at the profanity and at the severity, severity of the troubles in this world. I'll give you another example of a feeling that I wish I could put into words, but I can't really do justice to. It's a feeling I can still feel on cue to this day, that when I was 13 years old, I didn't want to be alive anymore.

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    I was rejected and picked on at school. My parents were embroiled in a divorce at home, and I just felt most of all, perhaps, that no one cared. I felt like I was drowning a day at a time, and no one was there to give me a hand up. I wish I had the skill with words to craft a sentence that could properly convey the depth and width and breadth of aloneness that I felt at that time.

13. 4:53

    But I truly don't. Maybe there is someone that could, but the best I can do is say that if you know that feeling, you already know everything you need to know. And if you don't, then I'm not sure a thousand words from me would really do the job. If I had to guess, though, I would wager that many of you don't really need assistance to conjure that feeling of smallness and of helplessness that the world sometimes brings upon our shoulders.

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    It comes in many different ways, in sickness and separation, grief and death, the dissolution of friendship and family, in trauma that we could do nothing about, and in sin that we followed down its dangerous path knowingly every step of the way to ruin. All of these things are different, but in some ways, they feel the same in the end.

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    We sit here even right now, many miles apart, because despite all of our modern technology and humanistic assertions otherwise, the world today is as it has always been, powerful, unpredictable, and totally out of our control. It's beautiful, and it's beautiful, and it's terrible. We don't like to think about our powerlessness because it's frankly terrifying, the extent of that powerlessness.

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    One thing I love about the Bible is it doesn't sugarcoat this. The Bible doesn't talk down to us, pretending a life on this world that is without heartache. In fact, the Bible promises us difficulties.

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    Jesus tells us, in this world, you will have trouble. What a wretched man I am, says Paul. In fact, Paul says that if it's only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied above everybody else.

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    It's hard because the Bible tells the truth, and the truth is, it's not always easy. The world is chock full of snake oil salesmen that will tell you that they can take away those troubles and that hurt and those challenges away forever. It's many different things. A new car, they say. Oh, it's maybe a new job or your career.

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    A new wife. A new body. One really popular one today is a new society that's perfect. Respect and power and fortune. And every time, they say, I promise it'll do the trick this time. I promise it'll take away all of those feelings of aloneness and pain and all of those sufferings. The Bible, on the other hand, does not try to trick us.

20. 7:22

    It doesn't try to manipulate us. It's not looking to sell us something that will make you happy right now, mortgaging your future for a few brief moments. No, the Bible tells the truth. It says exactly what will happen if you seek after those things. Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher. Utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless.

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    If you really want an in-depth study of how meaningless all of those things are, I'm sure you can read Ecclesiastes for today. No, the Bible doesn't promise freedom from suffering in this life. What the Bible does promise in every situation, in every challenge, every hardship, and every trial, is that there is meaning in that suffering through hope.

22. 8:09

    To those facing sickness and frailty, ailments of the body, listen to what the word of God says. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.

23. 8:31

    They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. They will walk and not be faint. I love that. It's a beautiful promise. But one that so many people in this world are unable to accept because of one key word. Will. Because that one key word indicates future tense.

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    It tells us this is a promise that has to be waited for, endured, fought for. It's not something that will come today or tomorrow or sometimes for a long, long time. And that requires trust. And faith. Because after all, if you don't have faith in God, you just spent a lifetime's endurance on nothing.

25. 9:12

    That's why Paul said we were to be pitied above all men, if not for our hope in Christ. See, the real secret to this promise that future tense is this. Not only are we looking forward to something that we have faith in, but the endurance itself brings fruit to bear. Frailty and sickness are terrible things.

26. 9:38

    But they also have a way of focusing our mind because they reveal the true nature of those slick salesmen of the world selling happiness through fitness and beauty and body and power. We are refined through the suffering because needing to rely on the strength of God because we can see how fragile our bodies really are.

27. 9:59

    It kind of pulls the wool out from our eyes when we have this type of fragility. And the more that lies revealed, the more that feeling of weakness and powerlessness actually becomes our strength.

28. 10:14

    Because in that weakness, in that powerlessness, we realize where true strength lies. The Bible also speaks to those of us facing ailments of the mind. Loneliness and fear and loss, anxiety and sadness are very big these days. The Bible promises that in all of these things, we will find meaning. One of the most difficult parts about this type of suffering, about suffering of the mind, is that sometimes through no fault of our own, it separates us from God.

29. 10:49

    Depression and anxiety and grief, these are messages that our mind sends to itself saying, you aren't okay. God can't take care of you right now. At its core, sometimes that's what anxiety and depression and these things can feel like. That God is not with me, that's loneliness, that God can't take care of me, anxiety.

30. 11:08

    That God, that I won't be happy. But God knows this. God knows that these are things that we struggle with and that we face and that we can't do it without him. Reading out of Romans 8. For those of you who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. The Spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again.

31. 11:33

    Rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. And now if we are children, then we are heirs. Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. Indeed, if we share in his sufferings, in order that we may also share his glory.

32. 11:54

    Listen to those words. And know that you matter. Your pain matters to God. Your suffering matters to God. God doesn't choose words randomly. You are sons and daughters. You are heirs. God knows our name. God knows our wants. And what parent does not care about the suffering of their sons and daughters? It does not mean that parent can't take those sufferings away.

33. 12:19

    It doesn't mean that those sufferings sometimes aren't beneficial to their sons and daughters. But they care. And God is our Father. We are his heirs. He knows our things in the Bible. It says this over and over in a million different ways. God knows our name. God knows our wants. He knows when we wake and when we sleep.

34. 12:38

    Our flaws and every hair on your head. Your suffering is not arbitrary and it's not meaningless. I don't know if God purposefully makes us fearful or alone. And I don't know if God puts these sufferings in our life always on purpose.

35. 12:57

    Even everything in what I was talking about earlier could be easily explained not by some miracle or something by God, but just by the sin and regular everyday imperfection of this world. But I also know for certain that I can feel his presence more than I ever would have been able to because I know what it feels like to be abandoned by everyone else in the world and to cry out, Abba Father, because there was no one else to cry out to besides him.

36. 13:26

    And I know what it feels like to be able to look back and realize that he had never left my side the entire time. It's through the suffering that you can feel God more sometimes. And especially being able to look back and knowing that he was with you the whole time. If you ever feel alone, there's another piece of hope the Bible gives us.

37. 13:49

    Because even if it's hard for you to feel God right now, the Bible promises us a time where his presence will be made perfect in a way that none of us have really been able to fully feel before. Revelation 21. God's dwelling place is now among the people in this time in the future and he will dwell with them.

38. 14:09

    They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. And I don't know about you guys, but boy, am I sick and tired of the old order and I cannot wait for it to pass away.

39. 14:30

    God promises those things of the world will go away if we can hold on. And by looking back at that aloneness and fear and anxiety and seeing his presence, we begin to slowly learn that he keeps those promises. That regardless of how I'm feeling, regardless of whether or not his presence feels strong in my life, I know he is there.

40. 14:56

    Some of us suffer from ailments of spirit. Some of us are wracked, maybe even now at this moment while I'm talking to you by guilt or conscience or shame, by our past or perhaps this private struggle with sin that you haven't been able to let go. Even this sort of suffering has meaning.

41. 15:20

    Jesus says in Matthew, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the weak in spirit, says Jesus. But how does weakness in spirit, the very thing that separates us from God, no one would deny that we want to be strong in spirit. How does weakness in spirit grant us the kingdom of heaven?

42. 15:43

    I think sometimes this type of suffering is a type of suffering we dismiss because weakness of the mind and body and challenges of circumstance are things that happen to us. It's easy to feel empathy for someone who's had something bad happen to them, who's struggling with mental illness or ailments of the body.

43. 16:02

    But weakness of the spirit, these are things that we do. It's things that we do to ourselves, things that we do to separate us from God, that harms ourselves and that often harms other people. And often it's harder to feel empathy for this type of sin, for this type of suffering. But no matter how it happened, it doesn't matter whose fault it was, separation from God is always suffering.

44. 16:29

    The women of ill repute who came to Jesus, Zacchaeus and the tax collector praying at the temple, the Samaritan at the well and the woman caught in adultery, all of these people made choices to get them to the places of shame that they were, and they deserved it in some senses.

45. 16:48

    And yet Jesus did not see them with contempt or judgment, but rather with empathy. Jesus tells this story. Listen to this story we've heard a million times of the prodigal son. And as you hear it again this morning, just really try to put yourself in the son's shoes as much as possible.

46. 17:08

    Feel the burning of the shame that he feels going back to his father, who the son knows he is hurt deeply, who the son knows he has absolutely no right to go back to after what he has done. And the son, when he came back to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have food to spare?

47. 17:28

    And yet here I am starving to death. I will set up and go back to my father and say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Just make me look like one of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father.

48. 17:45

    But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to his father, father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son, your son.

49. 18:01

    But the father said to his servant, quick, bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and the sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate for this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and now is found.

50. 18:16

    In some ways, suffering of the spirit can be the most instructive type of suffering. We, of course, should never seek this type of suffering. But I'm guessing if you felt that deep shame, I don't really need to tell you what that feels like. But so much more powerful than that, and perhaps another one of those feelings that can't be properly ever put to words, is grace.

51. 18:45

    To truly know to your core that there is not and never will be condemnation towards you and towards who you are in Jesus. I've been talking a lot about finding the meaning in suffering, and perhaps nothing highlights the chasm between the hope of God and the hope of the world more than the suffering we bring upon ourself and others through sin.

52. 19:10

    Because that feeling of absolute grace that saves a wretch like me, that heals a person so completely broken that they've lost hope and finds someone utterly lost, to know that grace, there is a great and deep meaning in that. Because we see who God is through his grace, and we see what the world has done to us through our suffering.

53. 19:32

    And from that meaning and that grace, our hope grows. Paul says again, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits an eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of children of God.

54. 20:03

    In other words, we were and all are subjected to frustration because that's part of the process that frees us. Our hearts are all in the midst of a process of change. As Ted pointed out a few weeks ago, God writes upon our hearts, and he carves our hearts of stone into ones of flesh, and that's just about as painful to us as that sounds, getting your heart carved.

55. 20:33

    And if you're as stubborn as I am, there's a good amount of chipping to do. But as I reflect upon that pain and that suffering, and I look at my own heart, I am an on-wonder of that process, just as much as I'm an on-wonder of the stars in the sky and the ocean and everything else he has done, because I can see how the way he continues to change my heart.

56. 20:57

    I'm not sure if you knew it this morning or whether or not you strapped on your sword and shield and mounted your horse, but you are a conqueror. You are a warrior, a soldier for hope. For the joy set before you, you endure. You slog on through the heat and the cold, through your imperfect body and mind and your spirit, and through every suffering and temptation the world has to offer you, and yet you have continued on.

57. 21:28

    I know this, and I know this of you, because no matter what's going on in your life right now, whatever you are fighting at this moment, you're here with me. You're here with all of us, doing your best to know God a little bit better. You get knocked down by illness and sadness and anguish and sin, and each of those can really do a number on us.

58. 21:51

    But yet you have gotten up again, and because you hold on to that hope with all the power you have left to give. And that's really, to me, some of the greatest meaning in suffering. Because the more you hold on to that hope, the more that you realize it will never disappoint you, and it's never going to put you to shame.

59. 22:17

    And as you continue to hold on to that hope, time after time, after hardship and struggle and being knocked down, something amazing happens. And that's that the hope grows. And it doesn't stop growing. It grows and it grows and it grows until it's so big that nothing in the entire universe, not life or death or angels or demons, present or future, powers or height or depth, or anything else in all of creation can ever separate you from that hope.

60. 22:46

    Because in each and every circumstance, you learn bit by bit that his love will never, ever leave you or forsake you. So with that confidence and that hope that is growing in you, run with endurance the race set before you. You will reach that finish line. You will find joy. You will find peace from every hardship and suffering and grief.

61. 23:11

    Because through your journey and despite all the trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger and sword, despite everything life can throw at you, you are never alone. Because nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Jesus. And someday, that love will carry you home.

62. 23:46

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63. 24:02

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64. 24:31

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