Sermon Sunday

John Piper - Soowful Yet Always Rejoicing

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Better Than I Deserve

I am taking a course through Ligonier Connect called Understanding God's Sovereignty in Suffering. It has been an amazing course so far, and we came to a lesson called "Better Than I Deserve." After watching the lesson's video we are asked to answer a question or two about what we learned.

The first question that was listed was the one that I answered, and I thought it might be helpful to post my answer.

What do you really deserve?

In what ways has God given you things that you do not deserve? Conversely, how has He not given you things that you do deserve?

It is not that God owes me nothing. God owes me something: death. If we say that God owes me nothing it is secretly saying that our standing before God is neither justified or condemned. We are not in this foggy, middle ground of goodness and badness. We deserve death because the wage of sin is death. Our intentional and purposeful sin has separated us from God, but God made a way through Jesus so that what we deserve was taken and nailed to the cross. God has given His children grace, which is undeserved and unmerited by its very definition. We do not deserve a right and justified relationship with the perfect, loving, and holy Father of the universes. 

What I do not deserve is grace. What I do not deserve is to be justified. What I do not deserve is to be seen as blameless, sinless, and forgiven. But, Jesus has given us this in His sinless life, His voluntary and atoning death, and His triumph over the grave. 

We all deserve death, but Jesus sacrificially took our penalty through His death on the cross. We all do not deserve grace and forgiveness, but Jesus gives that to those who trust that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

God is so good to us. God is so gracious to us.

Jacob Luis Gonzales

Leader Lab - Distinct Suffering

This was my Leader Lab sermon from November 10, 2013.

It was centered on Psalm 42: Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

To the choirmaster. A Maskil1 of sthe Sons of Korah.

42 tAs a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

2 uMy soul thirsts for God,

for vthe living God.

When shall I come and wappear before God?2

3 xMy tears have been my food

day and night,

ywhile they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember,

as I zpour out my soul:

ahow I would go bwith the throng

and lead them in procession to the house of God

with glad shouts and songs of praise,

ca multitude keeping festival.

5 dWhy are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you ein turmoil within me?

fHope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation3 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;

therefore I gremember you

hfrom the land of Jordan and of iHermon,

from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep

at the roar of your waterfalls;

jall your breakers and your kwaves

have gone over me.

8 By day the Lord lcommands his steadfast love,

and at mnight his song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God, nmy rock:

“Why have you forgotten me?

oWhy do I go mourning

because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,

my adversaries taunt me,

pwhile they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

11 qWhy are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

my salvation and my God.