Speaker 1Hello Bridgetown, Tyler here with my great friend Pete Hughes from KXC, no stranger to Bridgetown Church. And I'm so happy to share with you that he, alongside his wife Bea, will be joining us for our 9th annual Holy Spirit Conference on February 26 and 27 in downtown Portland.
Speaker 2We cannot wait to be with you to spend time unpacking this epic story in John's Gospel, looking at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, where Jesus turns water into wine. And some of what we're seeing in our context, which is super exciting, is that there's been a shaking of secularism and there's an incredible spiritual openness. The Spirit is doing a new thing. We do perceive it. We can't wait to share stories and build faith that God is moving in a fresh way in the Western world. So we can't wait to be with you.
Speaker 1We've already been praying toward the weekend and I'm going to be teaching this year alongside Pete and Bea. All three of us will be hosting workshops, set apart time to wait. We're going to meet on the Spirit and hear God's voice. We'll be led in worship by our own Bridgetown music team, which we're so excited about. You can register right now on our website. We hope to see you there.
Speaker 3Genesis 41, verses 28 to 36. So it is, It is just as I said to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten and the famine will ravage the land. The abundance in the land will not be remembered because the famine that follows it will be so severe. The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God. And God will do it soon. And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country to be used during the seven years. A famine that will come upon Egypt so that the country may not be ruined by the famine. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Speaker 1There's a particular form of script writing known in the film industry as in-media res. And you're definitely familiar with it even if that terminology is new to you. The director will open with the film's final scene and then take you back in time to show you the improbable set of circumstances by which the movie's main character ended up in this particular spot. This was first popularized by the movie Sunset Boulevard all the way back in 1950. Which opens with the cops swarming a Hollywood mansion where there is a dead body floating in the family swimming pool. What? How could this happen? Scene two. Well, here's the story. The end first. David Fincher did that with Fight Club. Christopher Nolan did it in Memento. Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction. And Christopher McQuarrie did it with Mission Impossible 8. Yes, 8. The final reckoning. Still starring the ageless fighter pilot himself. Tom Cruise. In media res. The end first. But how did he get here? That's the question that you should be asking if you've been tracking along with our teaching series through Genesis. Because the last time you saw our main character Joseph, he was on the receiving end of a prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit. But we opened today with that very same guy interpreting a dream for the most. And he was the most powerful ruler in the world. And then acting as the COO of the empire and suggesting a global economic overhaul. What? How did this happen? How did he get here? Scene two. Genesis chapter 40 verse 1. Let me take you back in time to before what we just read. And it came about after these things. Now hang on a second. What things exactly? Well, recall from last week that Joseph, enslaved in the home of a wealthy dude named Potiphar, has a problem that's not really his fault. His employer's wife just can't seem to resist getting frisky with him. He turns her down repeatedly and then he eventually flees with her holding onto his cloak because she tried to jump his bones by force. That was one rejection too many for her. So Potiphar's wife then accused Joseph of adultery. And that's the end of the story. So this is the story of an innocent man being sentenced to life as a foreign prisoner. Genesis and all ancient Hebrew literature for that matter employs poetic form, structure, and pattern as a way to help the reader get the full interpretation of the author's meaning. So pay attention when reading the Bible when you run into repeated patterns. Pay attention when patterns are broken, when they remain. And particularly when a pattern is fulfilled. Joseph, in this new scene, is sentenced to suffering in a pit. And that's a pattern, isn't it? Joseph's been here before, hasn't he? When was it? With his brothers, yeah. Back at the beginning of the story, Joseph's brothers threw him in a pit and sold him into foreign slavery. Now midway through that very same story, years later, Joseph's employer throws him into a pit. And sentences him to foreign prison. The author is writing the story in such a way as to say, Psst, pay attention to this. This is innocent suffering. It's righteous suffering that we're seeing here. Joseph is suffering as a righteous and blameless one. Even a few verses before that. Genesis 39, verse 20. But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was. With him. He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison. And he was made responsible for all that was done. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care. Because the Lord was with Joseph. And gave him success in whatever he did. Twice in a row, we're told that the Lord was with Joseph. Seven times in this chapter, in fact, we're told that the Lord was with Joseph. And now. That very chapter ends with Joseph in a pit even deeper than the pit that sold him into slavery in the first place. All because of righteousness. And even there, the Lord was so with Joseph, the author tells us, twice. Joseph went down to prison and then down again to the inner chamber of prison. It's a double descent. The Lord was with Joseph. A double promise. This story. This story that we're reading this evening is about the most confounding of conundrums. Where is God when it hurts? Where are you, God, when I'm lost and alone and afraid when I'm suffering? Because look, sometimes I get myself into a pit, right? Who hasn't been there? But this time, I'm innocent, even righteous. And what kind of God just watches passively while the righteous suffer? Innocently. Where is God when the divorce papers are served? Or the parents weep at the graveside of their own child? Where is God when the cancer comes back? Or the company downsizes? Or the public school system closes my kid's school? Where is God when the immigrant can't find a home while the greedy has four? Or the entire world is right on the brink of war? That's a question that no one gets to follow Jesus for very long without asking personally and painfully. That's what this story is about. And it answers that question right here in chapter 39. The Lord is with you. With the weeping parent and divorcee. With the cancer patient and unemployed. With the parent of a child without a school. The immigrant without a home. The victim of a war-torn world. You ever go through something really hard and then have a friend send you a text that says, Hey, you're not alone. I'm with you. It doesn't help very much, does it? Great, but you're not. I mean, I'm still here in prison and you're thinking sentimental thoughts about me. The times that we used to share while sipping a pumpkin spice latte at some fancy. Cafe in the free world. A sentimental word from a safe distance holds no weight in a life lived actually outside of Eden, does it? So God doesn't offer a sentimental word from a safe distance. He tells us a story and then he becomes that story. This story that we're reading tonight, it's about the most confounding of conundrums and the most mysterious of redemptions. How God takes the blessing that he promises in one hand and the suffering that the serpent schemes in the other and then combines the two to restore Joseph and all of creation according to his good design. It is about the suffering that Joseph endures in the events of his daily life and the blessing that God gives in that same daily life combined in the hands of God to form Joseph into exactly who he must become to receive the love that God has prepared to give him since the foundation of the world and to give him his unique share in the redemption that God has had in mind since before the very foundations of the world. And it was there, two layers deep underground, two layers deep into God's promise that Joseph met two prisoners who each have two dreams. What's up with all the twos? We don't know yet, but notice the pattern and pick up the breadcrumbs. The two dreams are really similar dreams with polarity. This is what it means, Joseph said to him. Now he's talking to the first dreamer here, the cupbearer. The three branches are three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift your head and restore you to your position just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. But when all goes well with you, remember me. Dream two is a repeated pattern, but with a new wrinkle. This is what it means, Joseph said. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole, and the birds will eat away your flesh. And then sure enough, three days after this, it's Pharaoh's birthday that rolls around, and he starts thinking, man, you know who could really tend bar? It was that cupbearer I threw in prison. We should get him out for my birthday. But man, that baker's sourdough was just always a touch dense off with his head. He's an impulsive guy. In Genesis 40, what we learn is that Joseph is an innocent sufferer made to suffer alongside two criminals, a baker and a cupbearer, both of whom will rise on the third day. One will rise to live, the other will rise to die. Then in chapter 41, the cupbearer and all the excitement of getting his job back forgets the very guy who only asked him, remember me. He forgets Joseph and leaves him there in prison for two years until Pharaoh, his boss, has two dreams, and that jogs his memory. So Joseph gets thrown into a pit for two times where he meets two guys with two dreams, offers two interpretations, and is entirely forgotten for two years until another guy has two dreams. Right? We're laying on the pattern a bit thick now, aren't we, Shel Silverstein? What are you getting at here? We don't know yet. But notice the pattern and pick up the breadcrumbs. So there's this old movie, Sunset Boulevard, and it starts at the end. Cops swarming a Hollywood mansion while there's a dead body floating in the swimming pool. How could a wealthy Hollywood homeowner end up here? And we started today. Look back down at your Bibles with me now. Genesis chapter 1, verse 28. It is just as I said to Pharaoh. But how could a foreign slave end up here? In media res, a storytelling technique that begins at the end, then builds up a story that returns to the end, only to push you, the viewer, a little bit beyond. What you've already seen. Anyone like this man in whom is the Spirit of God. In the original Hebrew, Genesis is written in, it reads, what other Adam could there be who has the Spirit of Elohim? Genesis is a book that began with Adam, filled with the Spirit of God, entrusted with the ruler of the world's authority to distribute the resources of the kingdom on the earth. And now, that same book, Genesis, is drawn to an end with a new Adam, filled with the Spirit of God, entrusted with the ruler of the world's authority to distribute the resources of the kingdom on the earth. Are you beginning to pick up what this author's putting down? The very divine authority shared with humanity before the whole forbidden fruit fiasco is restored in this one righteous sufferer, all so that the resources of the kingdom can be shared with anyone who, as need. Oh, and that powerful authority? It's symbolized in new clothes. Verse 41. So Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. Yet another, so Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Yet another, unconditional love. And God solves that riddle by telling us a story about a guy who suffered righteously and innocently between two criminals, was sentenced to life in a tomb with a baker and a cupbearer, bread and wine personified, through whom he wanted to send a message to all outside of the tomb, remember me. And that guy rose three days later clothed in royalty so glorious that the very people that knew him best, I mean his own brothers later in the story, don't even recognize him at first. And he didn't just rise, he ascended all the way to the right hand of the ruler of all of creation, who then put the rest of the world under his authority. And that guy, filled with the spirit of God, has a plan for how to share the royal abundance of the kingdom with all of the poor and powerless. Oh, and the first witness to the most mysterious of all redemptions, the very first person to see what God was up to through this one righteous, innocent sufferer was a foreign ruler working for the empire. Pharaoh himself, who said, This man is filled with the spirit of God. You know, kind of like the first one to realize who it really was that hung up there on the cross between the two guilty criminals, happened to be a Roman soldier who was working for the empire. Surely, this man is the son of God. Are you picking up what this author's putting down? In Genesis, a foreign ruler from the empire identifies God's spirit incarnated in Joseph, innocently suffering royalty. And in the Gospels, a foreign soldier from the empire identifies God himself incarnated in Jesus, innocently suffering royalty. This story, it's about the most confounding of conundrums and the most mysterious of redemptions, how God takes the blessing that he promises us in one hand and the suffering that the serpent schemes in the other. and then combines them to restore Joseph and all of creation according to his good design. So Pharaoh asked them, can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God? What's the answer to Pharaoh's question, friends? Look, it might be Joseph he's talking about first, but not last, and not ultimately. No, the answer is Jesus. This story is about a God who is perfect in justice and unconditional in love, about the innocent suffering that we endure, and how God offers us more than a kind, sentimental word from a safe distance, but is with me in the pits that I fall into complicitly and righteously. This story is about Jesus, who is falsely accused and unjustly accused, but is with me in the pits that I fall into complicitly and righteously. Innocently and righteously alongside a couple guilty criminals. Jesus, who was, oh my word, clothed by Joseph and laid in the tomb belonging to Joseph. Joseph of Arimathea is such a minor character in the life of Jesus that he never makes an appearance until the very end of the story when they're bringing Jesus's corpse down from the cross. And yet, this minor character is singled out and named by all four of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The gospel authors really, really, really, really, really, really, really want you and I to have Joseph on our minds when Jesus is being stripped of one pair of clothes, put in another, and laid innocently suffering in a pit. And then in the letters of Paul, he goes on to counsel all believers to be clothed in Christ. In Galatians 3, to put on Christ. In Romans 13, to take off the old self and put on the new self. In Ephesians chapter 4, language, if you trace it to its Greek root, is the common language for the taking off and putting on of new clothes. Wear Jesus's life like a cloth. A cloth designed just for you by your father, says Paul again and again and again. And I wonder where he got an idea like that. You know, we all live unique lives and unique stories. But there's got to be a few themes that are common to the life of every apprentice of Jesus, right? I mean, if it's Jesus that I'm clothed in, I should expect that my story is going to include three major themes. Three interwoven strands that are common to the plot of every disciple. If I'm clothed in Christ, then I will know God's voice, take up my cross, and reign in power. That is the pattern that God poetically writes into the life of the unique story that each one of us lives. The breadcrumbs that you and I should be dropping behind us through the passing years of our lives. So what does it feel like to wear the royal robes of Jesus? What does it feel like to be clothed in Christ? Well, you should definitely expect to be formed by God's voice. I mean, Jesus himself said plainly in John 10, my sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. The way that we hear God's voice comes through a whole bunch of different mediums, right? It's through the Bible. My immunity, my conscience, I hear God through words of prophecy, even dreams. But particularly in the Joseph story, you and I are reminded that God speaks even in the pit of suffering. That when it comes to hearing God, Joseph shows us God is with me in the pain and winks in the promise. So God's promised favor stayed with Joseph all the way down in the inner chamber of prison. God is with you in your pain. And I'm not talking about a sentimental text from a cozy coffee shop. I mean, in the form of an incarnated God who climbs down into the pit with you. Because in Jesus, you and I meet a God who knows exactly what it feels like to stay all up all night in a bout with anxiety and to be betrayed by someone that he really, really tried to love and be forgotten by the very friends who can't possibly relate to how he feels tonight. In Jesus. We have a God who knows exactly what it feels like to be arrested for a crime he didn't commit and punished for the wrong of another, to suffer in his body, suffer in his mind, suffer in his emotions, to suffer public embarrassment, watch all of his friends keep their distance in the exact moment that he needs them closest, and die slowly, painfully, and far too young. In Jesus, we have a God who can say, actually, not sentimentally, whatever you're going through, right now, I'm with you. God is with me in the pain. And God winks in the promise. Two guys with two dreams, two layers underground, forgotten two years till Pharaoh has two dreams. Two, two, two, two, two. Breadcrumb after breadcrumb after breadcrumb. It's the most obvious pattern in a story full of patterns. So what's up with all the twos? Well, Pharaoh's the fourth character in this story to have two corresponding dreams with one interpretation. Right? There was Pharaoh, and before him the baker and the cupbearer. But who was the original character in the story to have two dreams with one interpretation? Does anyone remember? It was Joseph, wasn't it, Dr. Peter? It was all Joey himself. Joseph had those two dreams about his whole family. Though he was the youngest, the runt, the lowest on the totem pole in his time and culture, the very people with power over him were going to come and bow before him, a divine promise that was then followed by pit after pit, pain on top of pain, so much suffering. How could it possibly be true? But now that God has brought him to his feet, he's bringing that very promise to its long-awaited fulfillment, and Joseph is standing for the first time in the very room where that family is going to gather and bow at his feet. God winks at Joseph. He tips him off. "I remember you. And look, I'm speaking your language, Joseph, the very language of the promise that I'm asking you to keep on believing. In spite of the cross you didn't expect to bear along the way and the pit you never saw yourself being placed in, God is using Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dream as the interpretation of Joseph's own dream, the very dreams that got him into this mess in the first place." God winks. You know, we all get a few God-sized dreams along the way following Jesus. And in my experience, all of us tend to imagine that those dreams are going to come to pass a whole lot faster and cleaner in our heads than they actually do in our lives. But it is those who are willing to keep listening to God through the mystery of waiting and confusion and suffering that get reminded. God winks at us when the long-awaited fulfillment rolls around. So how do I know that it's Christ I'm putting on? What does Jesus' life feel like when his life is wrapped around my shoulders? It feels like being formed by God's voice, and it also feels like taking up your cross. "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me," Jesus said in Matthew 16. The Apostle Paul went so far as to call his suffering a share in Christ's suffering. And particularly in the story of Joseph, this much is made plain to us, that suffering is not just suffering alone. It's not just suffering alone. It's suffering as a whole. Suffering is not an equation, and suffering is not wasted. So look, family, suffering is not just. Joseph's dream, if you and I were to read it in the Hebrew Genesis it was written in, is absolutely covered in the creation language of God's good design from Genesis 1 and 2, being overcome, or more literally, eaten alive by the corruption language of the serpent's lie from Genesis 3. So Pharaoh's got two dreams with one message. Here's the message: the serpent's lie is eating up God's goodness. And I find that helpful, because that means that God is redeeming Joseph's suffering, right? Even his suffering is being woven into the fulfillment of his dream and his God-created, God-given purpose. God is redeeming Joseph's suffering, but God is not the cause of Joseph's suffering. Joseph's personal suffering or the world global suffering that he will become the solution to all that is wrong with the world comes from a different author but even what the serpent intended for evil god will use for good god shouts in our pain c.s lewis famously said and that's true but you've got to understand that the loudest thing that god shouts in your pain is enough or it is finished to put it in the final words of jesus what's finished exactly jesus because it's certainly not his life or mine if it's him that i'm clothed and that's never going to end what is finished exactly death sting is finished that's what's laid in a tomb never to rise and justice of every kind that's what's finished so suffering is not just and suffering is not an equation in the midst of our own suffering many ask why and that sends us on well-meaning searches for some divine equation that we can make solve right well maybe we miscarried because or i must have lost my mom so i could find or oh i was laid off and unable to make rent for a while but that's only because god had to teach me that and genesis is saying no no no god doesn't write suffering equations god doesn't make deals with people the deceiver god does not negotiate with sin god isn't promising to prevent the suffering of his beloved people actually jesus promises that you and i are going to face it but he does promise that through his suffering and my own when i give it into his hands he will bring about the redemption of my person and the renewal of all of creation what god does is take the evil of potiphar's wife that he never willed or wanted and use it in joseph's formation he will even use it to alleviate the suffering of countless starving people across creation through the one righteously suffering person who will listen to him even in the pit and that means ultimately that suffering is not wasted two of the primary motifs that the bible offers you and i for spiritual formation for how god redeems our stories and our souls is the potter's wheel and the potter's fire jeremiah tells us that we are the clay and god is the potter we are formed and shaped in his hands that is a formation process that involves the gentle smooth molding of a lump of clay into a beautiful form but that form is only kept when that beauty that was so gently formed then passes through the refiner's fire both are tools for formation in the potter's hands this story it's about the most confounding of conundrums and the most mysterious of redemptions how god takes the blessing that he promises in one hand and the suffering that the serpent schemes in the other and you works the two together to restore joseph and all of his children and all of his children and all of his children and all of his children and all of his children and all of his children and all of his children according to his good design by the mysterious and wild grace of god which cannot be categorized or limited to any facet of creation or our lives within it god works with both the good and the bad the potter's wheel and the refiner's fire the blessing and suffering of our lives for the sake of our redemption so what's it feel like to have jesus wrap me up in his royal robe it feels like knowing god's voice it feels like taking up your cross and lastly it feels like reigning in power near the very end of his life james and john two of jesus's disciples they stroll up to him with quite the presumptuous question let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory you don't know what you're asking jesus said and then jesus explains that if you're not in fact all 12 of his disciples will sit on thrones judging israel a jesus way of saying you will reign in my power but jesus goes on to sit at my right or my left is not for me to grant these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared and then that language that jesus uses here right and left it only shows up in the story one other time and that's to describe the thieves crucified at his right and left a biblical picture shows us that jesus's throne the one james and john wanted to sit next to him on his throne is a cross and his rule comes by surrender john one of those two brothers then comes to the very foot of jesus's cross next to mary jesus's mother and jesus says to john here john is your mother and then to his mom and here mom is your son which of course makes jesus or i'm sorry makes john one of the what to jesus his brother jesus pulls one of those who wanted to sit on the throne next to him right to the foot of his throne now that he's sitting on it reigning on it and he says essentially to him you can share in my family you can share in my royal inheritance you can sit on my throne and rule in my royal court and this is what it looks like to rule by my power i find it very difficult to talk so much about a guy with a dream that renews the land and time he lives in without thinking about dr king don't you martin luther king jr's life was shaped by the potter's wheel and the refiner's fire and among his sermons which i've slowly paged through for years now reverend king has much to say about his solitary life of prayer both the mountaintops that he met jesus on and the pits of suffering that he found jesus crawling down to meet him in there's this one sermon he preached in particular though where he names the confounding conundrum and mysterious redemption of suffering in a way far more beautiful than i ever could a message that he lived far more fully than i imagine i ever will king preached from a pulpit a whole lot like this one looking out at the oppressed people of god running the thick of the civil rights movement and he said these words with every ounce of energy we must continue to rid this nation of the incubus of segregation but we shall not in the process relinquish our privilege and obligation to love while abhorring the segregationist we shall i'm abhorring segregation we shall love the segregationist this is the only way to create the beloved community to our most bitter opponents we say we shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering we shall meet your physical force with soul force do to us what we will and we shall continue to love you we cannot in all good conscience obey your laws because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as cooperation with good throw us in jail and we shall still love you send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at midnight and beat us and leave us half dead and we shall still love you but be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer one day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves we shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory love is the most durable force in the world so here's the ultimate victory the mysterious redemption that my suffering can win in jesus kingdom when i put my life all of it into god's hands my suffering like jesus's can become an intercessory action act of love for others joseph didn't just emerged from the tomb victorious after his own suffering joseph's suffering prepares him to alleviate human suffering on a massive scale it prepared him to bring the kingdom to earth in his time and place joseph's suffering becomes bread for the hungry provision for the needy and power for the powerless just like dr king's and just like yours and mine can that ultimately is what it means to be clothed in christ why don't we close in prayer just wherever you're seated maybe if you're jotting notes just set them aside for the moment and bow your head, close your eyes, open your hands, whatever would help you to give your full attention to God, to invite Him to personalize this ancient story. And just reflect prayerfully on this one question. Well, if that's the pattern that God writes poetically, into each one of our lives, then where am I in the pattern right now? Am I hearing God's voice? Am I taking up my cross? Or am I reigning in Jesus' power? And is this a stage in my apprenticeship behind you, Jesus, where the primary way that you're coming to me is I'm hearing your voice? As you sit here tonight, are you listening intently for God? Because God does speak in big dreams, but those are the exception, not the rule. And Joseph had a couple dreams, but between those dreams and the fulfillment of those dreams, lied the pit of foreign slavery, the pit of innocent suffering, and a whole lot, a whole lot, of ordinary passing time. And like Joseph, all of us get a couple God-sized dreams along the way following Jesus. We have divine marked encounters. And then we all tend to imagine that those encounters are gonna become the actual lives we're living a whole lot faster and cleaner than they tend to. So the call for those of you who are hearing God's voice, the call for those of you who are hearing God's voice, is patience. Wait upon the Lord. Wait upon the Lord. Wait upon the Lord. Or am I taking up my cross? Does this story find you tonight in a pit of your own suffering, big or small? Can you hear Him saying to you, I am with you. I am with you. The call for those who take up their cross is trust. Resurrection's coming. This is still gonna hurt. But it's not the end. Death's reign is finished. Resurrection is coming. Trust. Or are you reigning in Jesus' power? Listen, if you find yourself in a season in your spiritual life where you just seem to be bearing fruit, then act. Go for it. Have the faith to live today like the Spirit of the living God. Really is the wind at your back. Like you actually are favored by the God of all of creation. Because what Joseph went on to do after God's wink was turn a powerful empire into something like the Red Cross and bring heaven to earth in the form of suffering's relief. And what Jesus went on to do after His cross is turn the side of death into death's death. Into resurrection. Life at its fullest and a kind of life that never ends. Here is how authority is won in Jesus' royal court. Here is the robe and the signet ring that He dresses you and I in. It is a towel around your waist as you wash the feet of others. Are you finding that your life is exponentially fruitful at the moment? That you, in some way, are reigning in Jesus' power? Then, how do you step even further into that? Will you drop to your knees? You pick up a towel and you wash the feet of whoever happens to be seated next to you at each and every table that you find yourself at.
Speaker 4Thanks for joining the Bridgetown family as we engage in this teaching series. To learn more about the life of our church and how you can get involved, visit bridgetown.church slash welcome. If you're interested in contributing financially to Bridgetown Church, and to our ministry, you can do that at bridgetown.church slash giving. Wherever you're joining us from, we hope this resource blesses you and encourages you to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.
PodcastTranscript AI