God takes us into seasons of discouragement and confusion. These people had real questions. These people were struggling with being second class. They were less than even in their faith. They didn’t know what it meant. They didn’t know how to get answers. They couldn’t just check into the website and get some of Paul’s old sermons. They can’t write them. They have no contact. There’s nothing. This is the second letter we know that he wrote to the Ephesians in five years. What he says is, guys, remember what’s true about you in the plan of God, in the gospel of grace. That, yeah, there are some of you this morning watching here in Collingswood, watching here in Mount Laurel, watching online. Where things have not turned out as you expected in your faith, personal situation wise, family wise, relationship wise, finance wise, career wise, marriage wise, confused, discouraged. Paul says, remember the cosmic eternal plan you’re on. Remember the grace of God that God that what is going on in your life is God’s working in your life.
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Pastor Mark Willey Excerpt From “What the Gospel Says to Discouraged Christians”
Video Transcript:
God takes us into seasons of discouragement and confusion. These people had real questions. These people were struggling with being second class. They were less than even in their faith. They didn’t know what it meant. They didn’t know how to get answers. They couldn’t just check into the website and get some of Paul’s old sermons.
They can’t write them. They have no contact. There’s nothing. This is the second letter we know that he wrote to the Ephesians in five years. What he says is, guys, remember what’s true about you in the plan of God, in the gospel of grace. That, yeah, there are some of you this morning watching here in Collingswood, watching here in Mount Laurel, watching online.
Where things have not turned out as you expected in your faith, personal situation wise, family wise, relationship wise, finance wise, career wise, marriage wise, confused, discouraged. Paul says, remember the cosmic eternal plan you’re on. Remember the grace of God that God that what is going on in your life is God’s working in your life.
He’s doing stuff you never would have thought. I mean, all these mysteries are happening. Nobody could have seen it coming, but he says, I’m looking back and I see all of this is part of what God had purposed to glorify himself through my life, which leads us to the second thing. Paul says in times of affliction, Remember these truths.
Johnny Erickson Tata. Many of you know, she’ll actually be speaking at the Global Leadership Summit, which we’re hosting again this, summer. She’ll be on video. I don’t want you. I don’t want to over promise. but Johnny Erickson Tata as a 17 year old, had a swimming accident that left her, a paraplegic in a wheelchair from the neck down.
And soon after she had had the accident, she attended a group of young people that had had life altering accidents. And one of the girls that was there was a 17 year old high school cheerleader, named Denise Walt, Denise Walters. Denise Walters was a Christian, as Johnny was, and she had been at her high school, and one day going up the steps, running up the steps at her school, her legs just gave out, and she fell, and she went home, and by the next day, she woke up, and she was paralyzed from the waist down.
A week later, she was paralyzed from the neck down. A few weeks later she was blind and they found out that she had a, progressive, rapid progressive multiple sclerosis. She died five years later. She was a gentle, God loving, Christ centered believer. Very quiet, very content in her faith. And Johnny did life with her.
The more she did life with her friend, the more she admired her, but the more she struggled with God. And she said, how did this make any sense? And she said, you know, I’m, I’m an outgoing personality. I, I, you know, I, but this girl, how did this help anything? How did this benefit anything? And Johnny tells the story of being in a Bible study and she was expressing her own anguish after Denise’s death.
And a friend of hers read to her Ephesians 3 10. that Denise was living her life with an audience all the time. She then read to her Luke 15 10, where angels are rejoicing over one sinner that repents. She read her the story of Job, Job 1, where angels are so actively involved in the process of Job’s situation and are actually talking about Job before God.
And Johnny looked at that and reflected on those passages and realized that all that was happening in her life, Denise’s life, and everyone’s life, happens in front of a council of angels and devils, maybe millions. And if you were to tell somebody today that, man, if I could just before I die, if I could just go on, you know, get before a camera and declare my faith and my love for Christ and what Jesus means to me and impact, well,
brother or sister, you’re on camera today, and the camera isn’t just before your neighbors or friends or even all Americans. It’s angelic beings, myriads, millions, pros and cons towards God and His grace. And our response is this. reflecting
how great a God we really have. How I respond. I’ve thought about this many times. How I respond to temptation, which no one will ever know when I’m sitting in front of a computer. How I respond to worries, which nobody would know are actually eating my lunch. And there have been those seasons where I didn’t win the victory.
But how precious are those moments when I’ve been able to say, Lord, Right now, I want to honor you before the audience and say, he’s better. He’s better than this thing. He’s better than my giving way to my worry. He’s trustworthy. I can give it to him. John Erickson, after reflecting on this passage, went to the mother of Denise Walters, and she wrote this statement.
She said, I am sure that the angels and demons looked on with amazement and awe as they watched your daughter honor her savior by praise, trust, and contentment.
You’re never too alone. You’re never too abandoned. You’re never in too lone, too much lonely darkness to not be bringing glory to the one who rescued you, who wanted you. Paul says to these believers, guys, I know I probably sort of, I hit a trigger here when I mentioned that I’m in prison for you Gentiles.
But it was true. It was because of his identifying with them that he had been hated by the Jews and was ultimately in jail. But he said, I love this. It’s for your glory. And my theater stage is a little nine by nine or whatever it is. That’s the cell that in Rome, they actually associated with where Paul was.
My little place. is where I am declaring your grace. You’re there in Ephesus. You’re part of a cosmic plan. You’re not only a part. You’re not only recipients of grace. You are participants in grace declaring the wonder and the greatness of God. He said the gospel made all this happen. The gospel speaks to discouraged people.
It speaks to people that feel alone, that feel confused, that feel second class, that feel less than. And he said, Man, it’s not how God looks at this at all. Remember who he is. Remember who you are. And he says, I hope that you will then not lose heart. Because of heavy things that you’re hearing about my situation,