Charles K. Robinson - "Riding the Waves" (November 4, 1973)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(background music) | 0:04 | |
(background church music) | 0:13 | |
(background singing) | 2:08 | |
(indistinct) | 4:03 | |
- | And his tender mercies are (indistinct) | 4:05 |
(indistinct chattering) | 4:10 | |
and not one of his (indistinct) | 4:17 | |
but as with one heart and one voice | 4:22 | |
(indistinct) confess our sins (indistinct) | 4:25 | |
We confess lord, that we have not loved you | 4:38 | |
or our neighbor as we should | 4:42 | |
We have often neglected opportunities (indistinct) | 4:46 | |
sometimes we have done actual harm, | 4:50 | |
our conscious (indistinct) | 4:54 | |
but let us stay blind to your (indistinct) | 4:58 | |
We know that a mere apology will not do | 5:03 | |
we (indistinct) turn from the sins we know | 5:07 | |
we ask you to show us the sins we do not recognize. | 5:11 | |
we resolve to forgive any who have wronged us | 5:17 | |
and to seek reconciliation with any (indistinct) | 5:21 | |
now we beg your pardon, and as we pray | 5:27 | |
(indistinct chattering) | 5:32 | |
(indistinct) | 5:55 | |
This is the message we have heard from (indistinct) | 5:59 | |
proclaimed to you. | 6:03 | |
That God is light, and in him there's no darkness at all. | 6:05 | |
If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, | 6:11 | |
we have fellowship with one another, | 6:16 | |
and the blood of Jesus his son, | 6:19 | |
cleanses us of all sins. | 6:22 | |
(indistinct) | 6:27 | |
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name | 6:30 | |
thy kingdom come | 6:36 | |
thy will be done on earth | 6:38 | |
as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread | 6:40 | |
and forgive us or trespasses, as we forgive | 6:46 | |
those who trespass against us, lead us not into temptation | 6:50 | |
but deliver us from evil, for thy is the kingdom | 6:55 | |
the power and the glory, forever and ever, | 7:00 | |
amen. | 7:04 | |
(background music) | 7:09 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 7:59 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 8:05 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 8:10 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 8:14 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 8:29 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 8:34 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 8:56 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 9:02 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 9:07 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 9:12 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 9:25 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 9:31 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 9:52 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 9:58 | |
♪ Hallelujah, Halle, Halle, hallelujah amen ♪ | 10:08 | |
♪ Halle... ♪ | 10:15 | |
♪ Halle... ♪ | 10:17 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 10:20 | |
♪ Amen. ♪ | 10:25 | |
- | Hear the word of God, as it is recorded | 10:37 |
in the fourth chapter of Philippians, the 12 and 13 verses, | 10:42 | |
"I know how to be abased | 10:49 | |
and I know how to abound. | 10:53 | |
In any and in all circumstances, | 10:58 | |
I have learned the secret in facing plenty and hunger, | 11:01 | |
abundance and want. | 11:08 | |
I can do all things in him who strengthens me. | 11:11 | |
(piano playing) | 11:22 | |
(choir singing) | 11:31 | |
(indistinct) | 12:06 | |
- | We believe in God, who has created and is creating, | 12:08 |
who has come in the true man Jesus, to reconcile | 12:14 | |
and make new. | 12:18 | |
Who works in us and others by his spirit. | 12:20 | |
We trust him, he calls us to be in this church. | 12:24 | |
We celebrate his presence, to love and serve others, | 12:30 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, | 12:35 | |
crucified and risen, our judge and our hope | 12:40 | |
in life, in death, in life beyond death, | 12:45 | |
God is with us. | 12:50 | |
We are not alone, thanks be to God. | 12:52 | |
The lord be with you, | 12:57 | |
let us pray. | 13:00 | |
(indistinct prayer) | 13:11 | |
against the enemies who have wronged us | 14:14 | |
and even against the justice (indistinct) | 14:17 | |
Teach us nevertheless, we beseech thee, | 14:21 | |
(indistinct) | 14:24 | |
To see that each person in his own destiny, | 14:27 | |
that each soul (indistinct) heaven and (indistinct) hell | 14:31 | |
send us back into our own souls | 14:36 | |
(indistinct) | 14:39 | |
(indistinct chatters) | 18:07 | |
Now is it ordinarily easy, | 20:13 | |
to be grateful for not very obvious gifts, | 20:17 | |
from an even less obvious gift, | 20:23 | |
of course not. | 20:27 | |
When one is in (indistinct) | 20:30 | |
immersed in the ills and evils of life, | 20:34 | |
surrounded with apparently meaningless suffering, | 20:39 | |
where there are no obvious gifts to be grateful for. | 20:44 | |
It may seem not only difficult, but stupid to be grateful. | 20:49 | |
The appropriate attitude may seem to be, thanks for nothing. | 20:57 | |
On the other hand however is it, | 21:08 | |
really so much easier to be grateful (indistinct) | 21:11 | |
at the other extreme | 21:17 | |
when one is in abundance and fulfillment. | 21:18 | |
Surrounded by obvious goodness | 21:23 | |
and sitting (indistinct) | 21:27 | |
Logic would presumably answer yes | 21:34 | |
experience I think answers no. | 21:39 | |
The appropriate attitude may seem to be something like, | 21:47 | |
all right I finally got my, thanks to my (indistinct) | 21:53 | |
and now that I'm in control of life | 22:00 | |
I'm going to hang on to it. | 22:03 | |
These responses, | 22:11 | |
ungrateful despair when I'm bad | 22:15 | |
and ungrateful (indistinct) when I'm not | 22:20 | |
These responses are understandable | 22:24 | |
and according to the biblical witness, remarkably calm | 22:26 | |
In gratitude when we're up, in gratitude | 22:34 | |
when we're down, in gratitude when we're halfway up | 22:38 | |
(indistinct) down, easy, understandable (indistinct) | 22:42 | |
And according to the biblical witness, Sam, | 22:50 | |
just where the dot given the possibilities of life | 22:56 | |
for the humanization of light into the image of God, | 23:01 | |
you have radically distorted. | 23:05 | |
Abundance and privation, | 23:10 | |
goodness and evil, joy and suffering, up and down, | 23:12 | |
(indistinct) | 23:17 | |
so go the waves of life. | 23:20 | |
It is the biblical conviction that how we ride the wave, | 23:24 | |
determines who individually and corporately we become. | 23:30 | |
The downs and the ups and the highs not less than the lows | 23:38 | |
constitute ever recurrent crisis or human decision, | 23:44 | |
in which who we now are and who we shall become | 23:51 | |
is put on trial with possibilities. | 23:57 | |
Ungrateful pride when we're riding high | 24:03 | |
and ungrateful despair when we are riding low. | 24:08 | |
These are the human possibility of our autonomously | 24:13 | |
Self-centered pre. | 24:17 | |
They are also recognized or not, temptation towards sin, | 24:22 | |
temptation away from openness toward God, given. | 24:29 | |
By the time Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, | 24:36 | |
he had written quite a few ways. | 24:42 | |
He had certainly had his ups and downs, | 24:46 | |
and he had learned the secret variety (indistinct) | 24:51 | |
and open and relaxed gratitude without crying (indistinct) | 24:57 | |
I know how to be abased, and I know how to file. | 25:08 | |
In any and all circumstances, | 25:16 | |
I have learned the secret of facing, lifting and hunger, | 25:18 | |
abundance, and want. | 25:26 | |
What is his secret? | 25:33 | |
I can do all things through him who strengthens me. | 25:37 | |
That is his secret | 25:45 | |
He has come to know some, | 25:48 | |
he has come to know not only the perfect model and example, | 25:52 | |
but also the perfecting power | 25:56 | |
of one who has written out over the | 26:00 | |
highest press at the bottom (indistinct) | 26:03 | |
of life's possibilities. | 26:07 | |
The one who has wrestled with and won the triumphant victory | 26:11 | |
over the facing temptation of life possibilities. | 26:16 | |
Jesus of Nazareth | 26:23 | |
Who following immediately upon his Baptist for the | 26:26 | |
experience of Supreme exaltation | 26:29 | |
intimate communion with the father and (indistinct) | 26:32 | |
faith that he is number one, | 26:36 | |
God's elect Messiah | 26:40 | |
faced then in the wilderness, | 26:44 | |
the demonic temptation to take over the show, | 26:48 | |
in ungratefully forgetful self exalting PRI, | 26:54 | |
but you've conquered that temptation in grateful humility | 27:01 | |
by radical submission to the soul sovereignty and control of | 27:07 | |
the father's will. | 27:13 | |
Jesus of Nazareth who thereafter | 27:19 | |
(indistinct) shifted breasts props of his (indistinct) | 27:22 | |
right on through the final naiver the final bottom, | 27:29 | |
beginning in disseminate and consummated on the cross. | 27:33 | |
When at the bottom of the abyss in the final depth of | 27:39 | |
suffering, when the father himself has disappeared | 27:43 | |
and every perceivable (indistinct) | 27:48 | |
He engages the final temptation. | 27:54 | |
The temptation to abandon the invisible | 27:59 | |
threats of memory and hope | 28:04 | |
and to lapse into ultimate despair. | 28:08 | |
But who conquered the last temptation and sustaining | 28:14 | |
nevertheless, | 28:17 | |
his gratitude for in continuing | 28:20 | |
trusting hope in the father, | 28:24 | |
whose space he can now (indistinct) | 28:28 | |
There had been a time and he had called for the new Israel | 28:39 | |
(indistinct) 12 responded | 28:43 | |
A time people heard him gladly and many would follow him, | 28:45 | |
but his own people rejected him, | 28:54 | |
his own family gave him up, the multitude deserted him, | 28:57 | |
his would be followers left him | 29:04 | |
and through bread broken and wine poured out for a last | 29:08 | |
time (indistinct) | 29:12 | |
the new covenant (indistinct) community, | 29:15 | |
the little flock who had remained | 29:17 | |
with him throughout his trials | 29:19 | |
But his disciples also have now forsaken him. | 29:24 | |
One has betrayed him, even Peter the rock had denied him. | 29:28 | |
He is handed over to an inverted community of those who hate | 29:34 | |
and despise him, or simply do not care. | 29:40 | |
And now has he hangs from across, | 29:47 | |
he is cut off from the (indistinct) | 29:50 | |
Yet just literally the one for the many. | 29:58 | |
And he himself must experience and endure in his own way | 30:05 | |
from the inside what others only perceive from the outside. | 30:08 | |
That's the light given through him in the world has gone out | 30:15 | |
and that he himself is utterly stricken smitten by God. | 30:20 | |
Naked impotence now he cannot even move a hand or what, | 30:29 | |
and as he has poured out, | 30:36 | |
inside he must reign the cup of agony, | 30:39 | |
which for the outsiders is inescapably plenty. | 30:43 | |
This guy's made, Jesus, (indistinct) | 30:48 | |
who would save others, | 30:57 | |
himself he cannot save. | 31:00 | |
Thus on the cross itself while he is still living, | 31:07 | |
and hanging, he descends into hell. | 31:13 | |
Entering the perceptual experience of abandonment by God, | 31:18 | |
the God and father who he nevertheless, | 31:25 | |
still continues to invoke | 31:30 | |
and confess in the language of assault. | 31:33 | |
My God, my God, | 31:38 | |
why has thou forsaken me | 31:43 | |
yet (indistinct) | 31:48 | |
Posterity shall serve (indistinct) | 31:52 | |
shall have the Lord to the coming generation | 31:55 | |
and proclaim his deliverance (indistinct) | 31:58 | |
But yet, he in spite of | 32:08 | |
the Nevertheless, | 32:12 | |
here is the final triumph of that grateful | 32:16 | |
faith and love, trust and obedience | 32:21 | |
with which he has lived a (indistinct) lifetime. | 32:25 | |
And with through and despite of the profound sufferings of | 32:31 | |
(indistinct) | 32:36 | |
which is say penetrate our common life in the world | 32:38 | |
right down to the lowest depth | 32:43 | |
of the anguish of hell. | 32:47 | |
Nevertheless, by continuing receptive | 32:51 | |
dependence upon the hidden grace of God, | 32:56 | |
whose faith he can now (indistinct) | 32:59 | |
perfectly to maintain grateful hope | 33:05 | |
that same unswerving | 33:09 | |
faith and love, trust and obedience. | 33:12 | |
(indistinct) Victor. | 33:19 | |
Anticipating the bitterness draining of his cup, | 33:25 | |
even the agony of abandonment by his father, | 33:28 | |
he has cried out in the dark, Abba father, | 33:31 | |
all things are possible to me, | 33:37 | |
remove this cup from me | 33:41 | |
But then, and now when all perceivable mean, | 33:46 | |
fades fast away the purity of his obedience and still | 33:50 | |
say, nevertheless not what I will, | 33:56 | |
but what thou will. | 34:02 | |
When all perceivable community has vanished, | 34:07 | |
the purity of his love and still stay, | 34:13 | |
bothered or gifted, | 34:18 | |
for they know not what they do. | 34:23 | |
When all perceivable power has been taken away from him, | 34:28 | |
the purity of is trust in the invisible power of | 34:36 | |
(indistinct) | 34:41 | |
and still say to the last glimmering hope of a dying fellow | 34:43 | |
(indistinct) | 34:48 | |
Today you will be with me in paradise. | 34:52 | |
And when all perceivable confirmation of his identity | 34:58 | |
has disappeared and no voice from heaven says, | 35:04 | |
"thou art my son" | 35:08 | |
Purity of his faith, | 35:12 | |
and still says as he dies, hanging, | 35:14 | |
bothered (indistinct) spirit. | 35:20 | |
The God we want to worship is the God and father of our | 35:31 | |
Lord Jesus Christ. | 35:36 | |
What might he say to us today | 35:40 | |
If he were to speak to us today? | 35:43 | |
I do not know, | 35:49 | |
but knowing something of the gospel witness and something of | 35:52 | |
my own memory of light on ambivalent responses | 35:56 | |
to God's grace. | 35:59 | |
Let me suggest simply that he might say something like this, | 36:03 | |
"I know you, | 36:10 | |
I created you, | 36:14 | |
I have loved you from your mother's womb. | 36:17 | |
You have pled as you now know from my love, | 36:23 | |
but I love you nevertheless and not the last, | 36:29 | |
and however far you feel, | 36:33 | |
it is I who sustain your very power | 36:37 | |
and I will never finally let you go. | 36:41 | |
I accept you as you are, | 36:48 | |
you are given. | 36:52 | |
I know all your sufferings I have all known. | 36:56 | |
It'd be on your understanding I have always (indistinct) | 37:01 | |
I know also all the (indistinct) | 37:07 | |
But you are beautiful. | 37:18 | |
You are beautiful, | 37:23 | |
more deeply with (indistinct) that you yourself can see. | 37:24 | |
You are beautiful, | 37:30 | |
because you yourself in a unique person that only you are | 37:33 | |
reflect already something of the beauty of my voice | 37:39 | |
in a way which shall never end. | 37:45 | |
You are beautiful also because I and I alone | 37:52 | |
see the beauty you shall become | 37:58 | |
through the transforming power of my love, | 38:02 | |
you shall become perfectly beautiful. | 38:06 | |
You shall become perfectly beautiful in a uniquely | 38:12 | |
irreplaceable way | 38:16 | |
which either you nor I will work out well, | 38:19 | |
because we will work it out together. | 38:24 | |
Your life from now on will be neither simple, nor easy. | 38:31 | |
I will grant you moments of abundant greatness and joy, | 38:37 | |
moments when you will be lifted up very high | 38:43 | |
moments of meaning when you will find yourself | 38:47 | |
on a mountain where the distance | 38:50 | |
bits and pieces suddenly come together in the sense of the | 38:53 | |
(indistinct) | 38:58 | |
The abundant greatness at the moment of the meaning will be | 39:04 | |
priceless for you. | 39:07 | |
Though you may not see it that way. | 39:11 | |
But then you must decide | 39:13 | |
whether you will in forgetful pride, | 39:15 | |
rasp a moment to yourself as though | 39:18 | |
it were your own autonomous possession | 39:21 | |
or whether you will simply open yourself to the moment, | 39:25 | |
receiving it in grateful (indistinct) as a gift, | 39:30 | |
remembering the other and sharing the abundance of your | 39:36 | |
blessing with the neighbor in need. | 39:41 | |
I will to give you paradise, | 39:48 | |
but you will only become finally ready for you when you have | 39:53 | |
fully learned how to live in heaven without wrecking it | 39:58 | |
through self searching (indistinct) | 40:03 | |
When you are exalted with abundance goodness, | 40:08 | |
do not forget to remember. | 40:13 | |
To remember who you are, | 40:17 | |
to remember who I am | 40:19 | |
and to remember others indeed. | 40:23 | |
Remember my son who took upon himself, the life of | 40:29 | |
(indistinct) | 40:34 | |
And though he is exalted now, remains the son still | 40:35 | |
his earthly life was not lived continuously | 40:41 | |
on the high plateau of abundance. | 40:45 | |
Jesus also suffered and you will suffered too. | 40:49 | |
Do not ask yourself whether you deserve to suffer | 40:56 | |
That is (indistinct) Jesus did not deserve to suffer, | 41:02 | |
but he suffered and was cast out, | 41:09 | |
and you too must suffer and be cast out. | 41:13 | |
Only when you have learned how to be grateful in memory and | 41:20 | |
hope even in hell, | 41:25 | |
will you be fully ready to be steadfastly in heaven. | 41:29 | |
You may also awake on (indistinct) | 41:42 | |
Instead of fulfillment, there will be a void, | 41:51 | |
instead of my presence, there will be my absence. | 41:54 | |
From my side I was still be present to you, | 41:59 | |
but you will not perceive our relation to that way. | 42:04 | |
You will perceive my absence | 42:07 | |
that will be crisis | 42:11 | |
of temptation and you will have a choice to make. | 42:13 | |
If you choose wrongly, | 42:17 | |
that will delay the business to be transacted between us. | 42:19 | |
But even so your choice will not be the last word | 42:24 | |
for your sake I must have the last word. | 42:29 | |
While I am the first and last word, | 42:34 | |
for your sake and for all. | 42:36 | |
If you choose rightly that will facilitate the battles | 42:40 | |
between us speeding up the process of perfecting your faith | 42:44 | |
and terrifying your life. | 42:49 | |
For I am like a refiner's fire | 42:53 | |
that will not be pleasant, but it will be worth it. | 42:59 | |
For I am holy in a way you cannot now understand | 43:05 | |
and the last distortion of unloved must (indistinct) | 43:11 | |
I sovereignly will to give you and all eternal life. | 43:20 | |
But the eternal life I will give you, | 43:26 | |
and only the blessedness and joy for you | 43:30 | |
when you are underneath perfected | 43:35 | |
in unswervingly grateful pain and love (indistinct) | 43:38 | |
When you perceive only my absence | 43:48 | |
then you must choose | 43:50 | |
one choice will be to get along without me | 43:52 | |
and you can do that. | 43:55 | |
You can do that because if that is what you ark for, | 43:57 | |
I shall empower you for a while to do just that. | 44:01 | |
(indistinct) that it is high power you have touched. | 44:06 | |
The other choice will be for you to hold on to me, | 44:13 | |
even when I am no longer there to be held on. | 44:17 | |
If in the darkness, when you are all alone, | 44:24 | |
I am gone and there is only (indistinct) | 44:28 | |
you will not let me go, | 44:32 | |
but continue to wrestle with my impowerful presence, | 44:35 | |
even in my house. | 44:40 | |
If you continue to call me, my God, | 44:43 | |
even when my presence has vanished and you are alone | 44:48 | |
(indistinct) | 44:52 | |
And if you simply will not give up and call it quit, | 44:55 | |
if will not let yourself off by letting me off | 44:59 | |
if you steadfastly insist upon gratefully, | 45:04 | |
remembering our (indistinct) | 45:07 | |
If you remain unswerving faithful | 45:11 | |
the vision of my presence, which I give you now. | 45:15 | |
If you remain obedient to the commissioning obligation, | 45:20 | |
which I (indistinct) | 45:25 | |
if you continue to trust me against all temptation to take | 45:28 | |
the easy (indistinct) | 45:32 | |
if you just go on loving me | 45:38 | |
when you cannot have me and loving your fellow sufferers | 45:40 | |
(indistinct) | 45:44 | |
If you go on stubbornly worshiping me in the night, | 45:48 | |
when there is no light to (indistinct) my face, | 45:54 | |
If you say, | 45:59 | |
though I have a world, | 46:01 | |
and have not (indistinct) | 46:03 | |
I have nothing. | 46:05 | |
Yet I have nothing in the world, but have thee, | 46:08 | |
I have all. | 46:15 | |
Then having been willing to learn what it means to be | 46:20 | |
crucified (indistinct) | 46:23 | |
You shall learn also what it means to be raised with you. | 46:27 | |
For he is the pioneer and perfecter of faith. | 46:33 | |
Whose victory was once or all factored | 46:39 | |
through suffering and temptation. | 46:43 | |
Let us pray | 46:49 | |
(indistinct praying) | 46:55 | |
(background music) | 47:32 | |
(choir singing) | 48:10 | |
(background music) | 52:07 | |
(piano playing) | 53:14 | |
(choir singing) | 53:22 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 55:00 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:05 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:08 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:13 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:16 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:21 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 57:25 | |
(piano playing) | 57:52 | |
(choir singing) | 58:26 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 58:34 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 58:37 | |
♪ (indistinct) ♪ | 58:42 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 58:54 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 58:57 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 59:00 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 59:03 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 59:06 | |
(indistinct chattering) | 59:25 | |
(background music) | 59:56 | |
(indistinct) | 1:04:28 | |
- | Be above you and around you, | 1:04:31 |
beneath you and within you, | 1:04:33 | |
may it shine through you | 1:04:37 | |
(indistinct) | 1:04:39 | |
Amen. | 1:04:41 | |
(background music) | 1:05:17 | |
(background music) | 1:06:34 |