Drinking Deep: The Cup of Endurance

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

One of the other unique distinctives here about Tribe, not only are we a church in a bar, but I really enjoy the conversational aspect of the format of service. Instead of just a sage on the stage, I really want this to be a conversation that we have together. And so if you have questions, comments, or even what I my favorite is connections. So we'll be reading one passage. We'll be talking about one point, but the holy spirit is speaking to your heart about some other place in scripture that you're like, oh, oh, this this reminds me of and it's creating a hyperlink in your brain from one place to another and you feel like it's valuable for the rest of us, we wanna hear it because the more hyperlinks and the more, like, really, like, neural connections that we can make with God's word, the better it sinks in and the better it cements not only in our minds but also in our heart.

And when the word of God is in our heart, that's what transforms our life. You can like win every what did they call them? Bible like There you go. You can win every sword drill and go straight to hell. Right?

Otherwise otherwise, if you're familiar with the bible, otherwise the pharisees would have been the first ones and the quickest to receive their messiah, but they didn't recognize him because the word of God had not penetrated their heart and changed their life. It remained all cerebral for them, far be it from our tribe fam, that that the word of God and the the things that we talk about would only remain up here, but it would make that 18 inch drop from our thinker down to our Yeah. Come on y'all. If you have your bible with you this morning, would you turn to the book of Matthew?

Last

week, we started a conversation that I titled choosing endurance over escape. And there were three passages that we kind of had opened up in different windows on the desktop of our mind so that you can click back and forth between these three passages. And if you're taking notes this morning, you can write the title of our conversation at the top of your notes. Choosing endurance over escape. Choosing endurance over escape.

And let's jump into that first passage because I like to do things conversationally. I'll invite you to read from different places that we're gonna go to today. And so the first place we're going to is Matthew chapter 26, and we're going to read verses 36 through 39. And so we also have a mic in the room. Carla's on the mic, and so if you just slip your hand up, if you have that passage open on your bible, we would love to hear your voice as you read.

Just take a couple of verses, you can read and then pass it off to somebody else to continue reading. Get them Carla.

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, sit here while I go over there and pray. He took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, my soul was crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. He went along on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground praying, my father, if it is possible, will let this cup of suffering be taken away from me.

Quick pause. Underline that phrase in your bible. If this if possible, may this cup of suffering be taken from me. Alright. Keep going.

Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. Not mine.

Very good. Good. Great. Great. Great.

So that page is open on the desktop of your mind. Right? Alright. Let's go to another place. We're going to let's go to Matthew chapter 27.

We'll look at verses 32 through 35.

As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. There, they offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall. But after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Okay. Then one more place. Open up one more page on the desktop of your mind, Mark chapter 15. We'll look at verses 21 through 24. I'd love to hear look at all those.

Oh my gosh. This is pages. That really blesses a preacher's heart to hear those paper pages. I've always said, like, like, just if you're gonna do a Bible app, like, just turn up the volume with, like, the authentic paper crinkle sound that just bless my heart. Mark fifteen twenty one through 24.

Okay. Then they compelled a certain man, Simon of Cyrenian Mhmm. The father of Alexander and Rufus, and he was coming out of the country and passing by to bear his cross. And they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. Then they gave him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it.

And when they crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.

Okay. You probably can see it in these three different passages. And if it's not like like jumping out at you, we're gonna continue to develop this. But we've seen in these two different pat three different passages, two different cups. And as I mentioned a moment ago, the title of the conversation, I hoped to have the entire conversation just last week, but you guys were doing such a great job of making connections and asking questions that now here we are in the second week of this one week conversation.

Drinking deep, choosing endurance over escape. And what we said last week is that in this life, we are offered the choice to drink from one of two cups. One of those cups is what Jesus himself calls as the cup of suffering. And we talked about how our normal default understanding of suffering is something that we all want to avoid. How many of you, like, really actually ultra trail runners excluded, actually love, like, and look forward to suffering?

Oh, goody. Suffering. Nobody does. Nobody does. We all would if we're given the option, would you like suffering or non suffering?

I'll take non suffering, please. Okay. Very good. Off to the right. We all would choose non suffering.

But when we choose the path of non suffering, we tend to miss out on a vital crucial facet of the nature and character of the Lord and something that is produced in us and through us that can only ever come about by suffering. But when viewed from the outside, when when people go through suffering, it can often be misinterpreted. And I'm not talking about the and we talked about this last week. I'm not talking about the kind of suffering that comes from a result of you stepping on a rake. Right?

There's a kind of suffering where you're like, oh, that looks good. There's a bible says, there's a way that seems right to man, but it ends in death. Right? And you step on that rake and it whaat snaps up, smacks you in the face. That's not the kind of suffering that I'm talking about, but we're gonna continue to develop what kind of suffering I am talk about.

Last week in our conversation, as as we were getting into it, a friend of mine sent me an Instagram reel like, hey, this reminded me of of what we were talking about last week. And I watched the video, and it was really cute. And I'll play it for you in just a moment to help to help maybe come at this topic from a little bit different angle. But disclaimer first, like, social media is a terrible place to get, like, doctrine and theology from. Right?

But as long as we, like, know that and it's just a cute little video that has a mild connection point, then we can appreciate it, the cute video for what it is in its context. So if you have that. That's cute. We talked about that word suffering. When you look at that word in the original language that the New Testament was written in, Greek, we see that the word suffering means this idea or concept of pressing of pressing together pressure, and metaphorically, it has with it the idea of of going through trials and even that word tribulation.

But as an often used tool by the Lord for our growth and development. God loves each and every one of us right where we are. We are his kids, But he is looking constantly and continually, the author and perfecter of our faith, to bring us to a place of maturity. He loves us as his children, but his desire is for us to become sons and daughters that can actually inherit the kingdom of God and handle the word of God and the principles of the kingdom with with skill. And if we're going to if we're going to know our dad, if we're going to grow into maturity, there is suffering that comes with within the package deal of following the Lord.

Can you imagine saying, Jesus, I will follow you anywhere. And Jesus says, that's awesome come on let's go. And then whenever whenever things get hard we're like well I'm just gonna gonna go this way, I'll meet you, I'll meet you up over, I'll meet you up over here. What kind of friend does that? And then we meet him up on the other side, we've dodged it, we've skipped out on suffering, and then Jesus is like, oh there you are.

I'm like, yep right here with you, Let's keep going. And he leads us along. We all love this quiet waters and the green meadows right? What about that valley of the shadow of death? We talked last week how the cup of suffering is the cup of discipline, the cup of staying engaged.

We talked about suffering as you being conformed into the likeness of Jesus instead of Jesus being conformed into your image and likeness. What's convenient for you? We talked about suffering is not giving up. And if you do get knocked down, what? Get back up.

We talked about suffering as trusting the Lord. I don't know what you're up to. I don't know what these next five steps are. How many of you like all five steps before you even do step one? Yeah.

Where the Lord's like, how about trust me with this one? The Bible says in the Old Testament that the steps of the righteous man are ordered. The Bible says that he led Israel by steps and by stages on their journey through the wilderness. Sometimes he even says, I need you to step out without knowing where your next footfall is, and you just have to trust me. Our flesh suffers greatly because our natural minds want to know where where are we going?

What are you up to? And he goes, you just gotta trust me. We talked about why it's important to embrace by putting your yes on the table. Lord, if you have suffering in store for me, for my growth, and for my character, my yes is on the table because I know two things. Number one, I trust you.

And number two, it is for my growth and I see I have a vision or a picture of the finish line. When remember when Jesus said, anybody who gives up or who suffers loss in this life can expect, count on, take to the bank, hold me to my word that they will receive back a hundredfold in this life and in the next. And then he and then he ends that passage with eternal life. Let me read you a quote about suffering. I don't have it on the screen, but I came across this last week.

It's from Charles Spurgeon, and you need to like like listen really hard to get the most out of it. So like squint your eyes or I don't know, maybe just close your eyes. Take some concentration. Alright? Listen to what Charles Spurgeon once said.

A high character might be produced, I suppose, by continued prosperity, but it has very seldom been the case. Adversity, however, it may appear to be our foe, is our true friend. And after a little acquaintance with it, we receive it as a precious thing, the prophecy of coming joy. It should be no ambition of ours to traverse a path without a thorn or stone. Collectively, we can all say, So last week, we talked a lot about that that first cup of suffering.

What I wanna do today is spend a few minutes looking at that second cup, and I call it the cup of escape. The first cup is the cup of suffering. The second cup I'm calling the cup of escape. And we have a mic in the we have a mic in the room when you have a question or comment. We probably can hear your voice, but we use the mic so that all of our families that are watching the livestream wherever they may be can get to hear and participate.

What do you got?

I just wanted to if I you know, if there's enough time to get in something about my life that has to do with how I felt about the Holy Spirit for me this past week and if there's extra time.

Okay. Does it have to does it have to do with suffering or is it like another testimony of some kind?

It does have to do with suffering. Yeah.

It does?

It does. Yeah.

Give us I hate to do this to you, but give us the fifteen second version.

That's tough. I'll let you go first.

Okay. Alright. Alright. Let's do this. Let's look at that second cup, the cup of escape.

Mark chapter 15 verse 23, we had read it earlier and I think we might have that verse on the screen for the screen. Mark chapter 15 verse 23. They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it. For us today, when we read that passage, it's alien and foreign. Some translation says wine seasoned or or wine mixed with.

Thank you. But this is wine drugged with myrrh, like,

I

don't think I could would even like be able to I don't know what myrrh tastes like. I don't know what it smells like. I I don't know. For for for if you if you wanna know what myrrh smells like, just give Christine's neck or armpits a sniff at the end of I don't I don't I don't know. Know.

I mean, either way, just go for it. But It's woodsy. Oh, alright. Woodsy. Alright.

I'll I'll take that. Myrrh, it's woodsy. So look. If we lived in Jesus' day and we saw or or smelled or even tasted wine mixed with myrrh, we would know immediately what was going on. We would know, and it would it would cause several connections to fire in our brain that we just don't have, and so we need to like stop, drop, set up shop, and and and talk about what this idea of myrrh means.

Myrrh is a fragrant spice, and it was used ubiquitously throughout The Middle East. And it added a variety of purposes and reasons and applications for using myrrh, not only in drinks but in cooking, but mostly as an aromatic fragrance. Mhmm. Now where if you can remember, myrrh most predominantly being used in the story of Jesus? What comes to your mind when you hear myrrh being used in the story of Jesus?

Just tell us.

What did the when where she used the oil? Okay. I don't know if that's myrrh. Frankincense.

Frankincense poured out over him. I but but I love that you're thinking Wise men. Wise men. As one of the gifts brought to baby Jesus. One of them was frankincense, one of them was gold gold, and the other one was myrrh.

Now when else do we see myrrh being used in the story of Jesus? Hint, it's I mean, I almost said it's towards the end, but it's towards the end of one chapter. Where? Who? Yes.

You're exactly right. As a burial spice. I almost said the end, but that's not really the end of the story. That's just where, like, Mel Gibson cut off the story. But myrrh was used commonly as a burial spice.

But we see here in the crucifixion of Jesus that it was also used. When you take myrrh and mix it with wine, there is a narcotic effect that happens. That dulls pain, that helps you to kinda like like check out, it removes you from the current experience that you may be having, it numbs you, helps you to check out, helps you to chill out. And interesting that when Jesus tasted the wine mixed with myrrh, he spat it out. The second cup, the cup of escape is the short cut cup.

And I'll be the first person to be honest with you. I love the shortcuts. I do. If given the option, being able to reach the same destination, my flesh always loves to take the shortcut and skip, if possible, the cup of suffering. And how many times in my life have I been offered the choice between the two cups?

And I'm like, that's too much. Yeah. I'm not sure about that way. I'll take and drink deeply from the cup of escape. Would the shedding of Jesus's blood at his scourging and on the cross still have paid for man's sins if he drank from the cup of escape in that moment?

Would Jesus' of Jesus' blood still apply to the forgiveness of sins and the establishment of a new covenant? Would his blood that was already shed and being shed, would it still be effective for us today for the atonement of sin? Yes. He was already bleeding. He was already pouring his life out.

This just could have helped with the pain. Why did he spit it

out? Oh,

alright. Tell us get the mic because it that's what passage is he thinking of?

Isaiah, probably 53. Suffering servant.

Okay. So Jesus perhaps could have had Isaiah 53 at the forefront of his mind, which is titled Isaiah 53 is titled what?

The suffering servant.

The suffering servant, not the just get it done servant.

He was fulfilling the prophecy.

He was fulfilling that prophecy. Right. Oh.

Oh,

yeah. Yeah. Why else might Jesus have spat that wine out after he tasted it to his lips. What are you thinking?

This might be a reach, but when he was praying in the garden and he asked the father to take the cup from him, but he said his will be done. Maybe the father's will was for him to drink the cup of suffering only, and in obedience, he was not to drink the cup of escape.

You're exactly right. Now oh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So

I'm geeking out over here in the bible app, the blue letter Bible.

Now if you're gonna go to a place that I think you're gonna go, I want to be able to say it, but go go go go, and I may call a pause.

No no, I'm just looking because I did an interlinear comparison.

Touch the corner of your glasses.

Yeah. And I don't see him even putting it in his mouth Mhmm. In comparison. So I'm just curious if that's a if that's a translation or what? Because there's several translations just says

he refuses it.

Yeah. He refuses it.

Okay. So when we paint a little bit more full of a picture, what you're saying is perfectly allowable, and and and you're seeing accurately. You're seeing accurately. It could be. Or maybe in a different translation.

So when we drink from the cake the cup of escape, it's the cup that is sparkly. It is the cup that is like, hey, free refills. It is the cup that when we look around the world around us and our friends around us and the people going through things around us, it is the cup that we see most people drinking from. Like soccer moms with their Stanley mugs in the straw. It's the cup that most people or Orangetheory moms.

I don't okay.

She does she's not she's not drinking from

the cup of escape today. Oh, she's got it. That's not

the cup of escape. Wait. Oh, she's just

taking a big pull from it. Oh, I haven't seen Rachel Miller in a while. She shows up and she gets called out. Great. The cup of escape is the cup that is our default choice.

It is the cup that is that is instinctually the cup that we tend to grab for first. The cup of escape is the cup that the rest of the world continually drinks from. I've told you this before, but literally, my senior quote underneath the picture in my high school yearbook was ignore a problem long enough and it will go away. Oh my gosh. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's worked out terribly. And here's something that Jesus knew and saw that today it has been camouflaged from us.

The enemy would love to offer us the cup of escape. Hey. Hey. Hey. You can circle back around to that, but, like, just right, you've had such a long day already.

You've got so much on your plate right now. It's it's it's a bit much. You're not gonna turn a blind eye to it forever, but just like just check out for a little bit. Just this one time. Hey.

You're getting over it, and more times than not, you grab the cup of suffering instead of the cup of escape. But guess what? This one time, you deserve it, the cup of escape. Well, here's what Jesus knew. Here's what the readers of this account knew that is missed by most of us, and it has to do with the Roman Empire and their the way that they sat up and organized and ran cities.

So imagine in your mind's eye you have the the thriving metropolis of Jerusalem. Thousands and thousands of people living in that crowded, busy, bustling city. You have the challenge of sanitation. How do we get all the trash? How do we get all the garbage out?

Well, there was there's this place called the Kidron Valley. It is between Jerusalem and the Mount Of Olives, and down at the end of that valley people would dump their trash and they would burn it. It was just a big burning pile of trash. Jesus used that oftentimes. But not only was there issue of like trash and sanitation, but there was also the issue of like human waste.

What do we do with it? And so Romans at the being pretty smart and pretty savvy at the at the gates or entry to most major cities, they put latrines. Now their idea of of latrines and sanitation, very different than ours, and privacy and modesty, very different than ours today. And in a lot of places, Roman latrines have been excavated so that you can see, like, oh, there's the city gates, and there's a bunch of, like like, imagine outhouse stalls, but without the dividers in the stalls. Just open seats over a trench that gets washed out and and flushed away out of the city.

Okay. You're picturing it. You with me so far? Now something else that Romans didn't have was toilet paper. But at every latrine, they had they had their equivalent of of toilet paper that was right outside the city gates.

Now let's stop and think. Where was Golgotha, the place of the skull? It was, that's right, right outside the city gates. And it was the Romans way of saying if you're coming into the city, you better do two things. Number one, go the bathroom before you get in the city.

Number two, look at the criminals guilty of capital committing capital crimes, and this is what happens if you mess with the Roman Empire. So while you're sitting down doing your business, you can stare across at victims who have been crucified by the Roman government. Thieves, criminals, and there's Jesus. Romans did not have toilet paper. What they did have were several buckets lined up in front of the retreat latrines with sticks and a sponge on the end of the stick sitting in a solution of wine mixed with myrrh.

The gospel does not tell us that a soldier reached into some latrine water. But from extensive Roman history written about extra biblically, This was the common sanitation practice. You do your bathroom, then you grab the stick with the sponge on it that was been sitting in myrrh with wine, and you clean yourself, and then you put the stick back in the bucket, and then pull up your trousers and off you go into the city of Jerusalem. This is what is commonly believed was offered to Jesus. Jesus in the garden chose the cup of suffering.

We are faced with two cups that we can drink from. The cup of the long, hard, rewarding right way. We can drink from the cup of suffering. We can drink from the cup of discipline. We can drink from the cup of trusting the Lord and allowing him in his good timing to work about his plan for our life, or we can take a big old gulp from the cup of escape.

But here's what many of us fail to connect. That cup of escape is really poo poo water. Right? How many of us, and you don't need to raise your hand because you know how many of us in our life have had can remember a time when we were when we when the road was forked for us, and we're like, of suffering, the cup of endurance, the cup of faithfulness, the cup of of allowing God to work his plan in my life, letting go of control, trusting the Lord, surrender and obedience to the Lord, or with all the neon signs in the flashing and you deserve this and, like, like, you'll still get to the end result, the cup of escape. And we've chosen the cup of escape only to have it make us absolutely sick in the end.

Don't raise your hand but how many of you have avoided the cup of suffering and drank the cup of escape only to find that it was poo poo water? Think about that.

Oops. Sorry.

That's what it feels like.

Brian.

Oh, yes, sir.

On don't wanna take you on a different tangent, but what's the purpose of suffering? If I gotta choose between both those cups, I know why I choose the escape one, but what's the purpose behind choosing the suffering one? I know why Jesus did.

Yeah. That's great. But but for us. I love that question, and I feel like you're lobbing me a softball. James one one, consider it or James one two, consider it pure joy, my brothers.

When you face trials or sufferings of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith, it develops perseverance. And perseverance must be mature and complete so that you'll be lacking what? Nothing. Nothing. He he allows suffering in our life to produce within us something for our benefit and his glory that cannot be accomplished any other way.

He is not a one of those people that cause pain on other people. Say sadist? I don't Sadistic. He is not sadistic. He is not cruel.

He is not vindictive. There are things that he allows in his wisdom that he could easily prevent with his power. But he says in the Old Testament, In the valley of a Achor, I have trouble, the valley of trouble, suffering, trial, tribulation. I have placed a door in a spring of refreshing. We like the spring of refreshing.

We don't like the valley of Achor or trouble. First Peter also tells us, hey. You may have been you may have suffered for a little while, but it will result. First Peter five verse 10, I have it right here. In his kindness, God has called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.

So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation. We all want we all want that firm foundation. We just don't wanna pay the price for that firm foundation. The bible says that Jesus learned obedience through what? The things he suffered.

Can I have one more

Come on? You and me, we're doing this together. I love you, brother. I

think there's the suffering that Jesus did to pay for our sins. I think the suffering that we're having to embrace is exactly the verse that you just said, Ryan. It's it's there's no other way for us to learn obedience than to follow the father when he says, this is what I want you to do. He's not saying I'm just gonna throw suffering at you. Right.

Because he that he wants us to ask that our joy would be made full.

It's his.

But if I wanna walk with authority as a son, someone that he can trust to follow his will, we have to, at times, know. I'm not just choosing suffering for suffering's sake. Right. I'm choosing suffering because I'm obeying my father. Yes.

And that's a totally different thing. Yeah. Because if I just choose the things that give me blessing, well, big deal. The world does that. That doesn't demonstrate the heart of an obedient son who can be entrusted with authority.

It's only when he asks me to do something that I'm not asking what's in it for me. I'm saying I'm doing it because you asked me. Yeah. And it doesn't have to have anything in it for me. Because then I'm not serving self, but I'm serving him.

Yeah. So good.

It's expensive, but just drop the mic, walk away.

Carla.

Jesus said Jesus said, I'm going to prepare a place for you. And when it's ready, I'll come get you and take you to where I am. And that phrase in the Greek includes the understanding of by the same way, I will take you through the cross. Thanks.

Holy Spirit, like, shaking me over here. Just wanting me to say this. I just

Come on, Mike. A lot

of times that cup of suffering is the more painless way to go is what I've learned. Because, like, it is painful to step out in faith. It is painful to to to trust and to know that this is what God wants me to do and do that when this seems easy and clear. Like, I had an issue sleeping, and marijuana makes me sleep, but it also severs my connection to God. I can't hear God, and I don't dream, and God speaks to me in dreams.

And so it seemed really scary not to do that. But then all of a sudden, when I put my trust in God and I do what he wants me to do and he's able to speak to me in dreams and then he shows me that I can sleep, it it helped me put my trust in God. Yeah. And the problem solved. Yeah.

So that was suffering to go through that trial. Yeah. And to just say, oh, it's just

you again, Satan. Yes. It's good, Mike. Oh, I love it.

It's good, Mike.

I love it. I love it. Hold on just a second. We I think we have a we're at a great moment. And I I always say, like, I wanna I wanna hear from you, but let me just let me just grab a hold of this moment right here.

Let's close our eyes and invite the Holy Spirit to just speak to us. And as each and every one of you are unique in who you are and what you're going through. In the same way, the Holy Spirit will speak to you in a unique manner. For one, it may be comfort or strength in the midst of suffering. For another, it may be an invitation.

Like it says in Song of Solomon, come away with me, my beautiful one, my bride, and let us go onto the mountains of spice or even myrrh. And it will be an invitation to lay down your life. Pick up your cross and follow him. For others, it could be the gentle but firm voice of the holy spirit of conviction saying, baby girl, why are you continuing to drink from the cup of escape? That's poo poo water, and that's not what I have for you.

Let him speak to you. Let him speak to you. Come, Lord. Would it be alright if I pray for you? Please stand up.

Jesus, oh, imagine what if you took the easy way and said, hey, if you really wanna be my follower, you would take the hard way. That's what every other religion in the world does. Some little g god standing up on high. You wanna have right relationship with me? You do this and you do this and it rules.

Jesus is like, hey, follow me. You took the hard way, the better way. Oh, Lord. The the bible says, I have heard you call my name, come and spend time with me, and the cry of my heart is, yes Lord, I'm coming. May we follow you with every choice, every action, every word, every deed.

And if we mess up and we fall down and we blow it, Lord, give us the strength to just get back up and run hard after you. Father, I command a blessing over each and every member of our tribe family here today and those that are watching our livestream. Help us to follow in your footsteps. I command a blessing over everyone here today. We pray these things In Jesus name, the strong son of god and everybody said, amen.

I love you so very much. I want you to have a great week and remember, baby Hanu, you got this.