Well, good morning, my friends, and welcome to the Heritage Hour. I’m Mark Gonzales, your pastoral or soul care encourager here in southwest Florida. I’m so delighted to be with you on air, online, and in media ministry for about 35 years now.

So thank you for sitting with me at the feet of the Lord to listen for his heart to touch our hearts. Well, if you’ve been with me, you know that we’re in the middle of a series that I’m calling Soul Care Portraits of God. As you know, I see portraits of God throughout all of Scripture. It’s his way of giving us a vivid picture of his heart, his ways, his character and all.

And in this particular one, we’re looking at how the portraits of God in Scripture that point to Him, His heart, to draw us in, to abide in Him, to bear much fruit. In fact, our working definition for soul care right now that I’ve been sharing with you is that soul care is simply about two things. Our unique, God-given heart wiring and heart wounds. and these are the things the Lord yearns to lovingly reveal and heal to the degree we abide in him to bear much fruit so that’s where we’ve been and where we’re going we’ve done five broadcasts thus far and briefly the first portrait was how he is our soul care shepherd that of psalm 23 the second broadcast was how he is our healing creator our creative designer and creative healer, that is Romans 12 and Jeremiah 17. The third was how he is our creative healer, more specifically, and we broke it down into more bite-sized chunks and more overviews of that huge topic, fascinating topic.

And then the portrait that followed number four of these eight broadcasts is he is our constant conversation, the fascinating reality of that, that we get out of John chapter one. And then last time, I told you to put a gold star by it because this is kind of the big picture. He is our deeper dive. And I’m going to review that in a moment briefly because it’s the last two of five levels, five portraits or five depths in our deeper dive of experiencing God that we’re gonna drill into today.

And so I hope that you’ll be taking notes or you can go to my website at markpg.org. I call it Helping You Hear God Helping You Hear God markpg There all kinds of tools and resources there to help you hear God You know the broadcast archives all of them 27 minutes You can go to that There’s also some quick guides on all kinds of topics, articles I’ve written and stuff.

But anyway, that’s at markpg.org. Also, outlines of these series are there as well.

So today, as we come to number six of the eight broadcasts we’re doing on this, the portrait that I have just just sense would be a great portrait name. All of them have two word combinations as how he is our wondrous mystery. And this is actually following up on last time. He is our deeper dive when we saw the five levels of diving deeper into Jesus to experiencing him more deeply and more intimately.

We talked about how he is our merciful Savior.

Now, that’s our point of entry, our personal Savior. We are like downcast sheep, according to Matthew chapter 9. We talked about the mercy of the Lord who, like a turtle on its shell upside down, so is a downcast sheep upside down. And it’s only the merciful shepherd that comes to rescue us because we’re blind and captive and upside down.

And so he is our merciful Savior. We talked about that. That’s the point of entry, but you don’t stay there. We keep going.

We want to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, right?

So we go from merciful Savior to experiencing him as our gentle teacher as we dive deeper. We looked at Mark 10 there as he likens us into children, his disciples and his followers, wanting the milk of the word at first and the meat. They called him rabbi. We talked about that at length.

We can get stuck there sometimes, sitting and soaking, but we’re called to also serve, help build his kingdom because he is our gracious master. All right. We have merciful savior, gentle teacher, level three, diving deeper there is gracious master and how we are his voluntary bond servants. We are court servants rather than self-enthroned kings of our own kingdom.

And he’s a gracious master, not a task master. And we talked about that at length.

Now, here’s where we’re going today. last time as we continued that five depth swim i shared with you that the final two are called mysteries in the scripture and we don’t go there very often we don’t go that deeply we stay in those shallower waters and but the lord wants us to just keep swimming just keep swimming to experience him as our loving bridegroom or father That number four And then number five our fruitful oneness And I just briefly covered those two, but they are so important because this is where we can find ourselves abiding in Christ and hidden in Christ. And he is our refuge and our fortress and our strength and our joy. It’s swimming into these depths that I want to focus on today. And I’m calling it these final two depths is a great, great portrait of how he is our wondrous mystery.

And that’s what we’re going to cover today. That’s what I can’t wait to share with you today. There’s so much here that makes all the difference. He is our wondrous mystery.

So as we get started, it is our custom. Let’s just go before the Lord and ask him to speak, shall we? Lord, I’m so grateful that you give us the opportunity to dive deeply into your heart, your ways into i mean you yourself we dive into you we dive into jesus lord it’s extraordinary and lord i pray that you’ll help me gosh explain this as best i can today because it’s such a life-changing transformational thing especially in this incredibly tumultuous world in which we live so thank you lord for what we’re about to experience today as we’re sitting at your feed, gazing into your eyes, listening for your heart to speak to our hearts about how you are our wondrous mystery as our loving bridegroom or father and as our fruitful oneness. Thank you, Lord.

We love you, Lord. We pray this in the powerful name of the Lord Jesus Christ, oh, and by his precious cleansing and healing, transforming, empowering, oh, and forgiving blood. Amen. Amen and amen. all right my friends so we’re going to take our journey together again we’ve talked about the five depths and the deeper dive last time we’re going to focus on the final two today and call it a portrait of the lord as our wondrous mystery now to really appreciate the lord himself as our wondrous mystery let’s talk about some of the sober mysteries that the scripture tells us about because when we look at this what I call the sober mysteries it helps us well see the Lord as our wondrous mystery all the more because Jesus specifically told us in John 16 3 if you a note taker here a couple of sober mystery highlights I going to share with you or maybe low lights in one way looking at it.

But Jesus said specifically, in this world, you will have tribulation. That’s a sobering reality. That’s a sobering mystery. What?

We’re supposed to have a savior, an abundant life, and all that business.

But yet he says, hey, you’re going to have tribulation. It’s going to be rough. It’s going to be tough going, tough sledding.

But then he says, but take courage, I have overcome the world.

So that’s John 16, 3. In this world, you will have tribulation, but take courage, I’ve overcome the world.

Now, let me give you two more foundational passages that highlight this one all the more. Over in 1 Peter chapter 4, talking about this fact, this sobering mystery that we will have tribulation. check this out the bible specifically says the lord gave this to us in first peter 4 verses 12 and following he says dear friends when the fiery ordeals arises among you to test you don’t be surprised by it as if something unusual were happening to you instead here we go as you share in the sufferings of the messiah wait wait wait we’re going to have To share in the sufferings of the Messiah. Yeah. Fire ordeals.

Sharing the sufferings. He says rejoice.

So that you may also rejoice with great joys. At the revelation of his glory. What?

Now that’s a mystery. Joy and suffering in the same sentence.

Now verse 14. If you are ridiculed. For the name of Christ. You are blessed.

What? Yeah.

Because the spirit of glory. and of God rests on you. And none of you, however, should suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler.

But if anyone suffers as a Christian, wait, we’re going to have to suffer as Christians? Apparently so. He should not be ashamed, but should glorify God with that name. For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who disobey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is saved with difficulty, what will become of the ungodly and sinner?

So, those who suffer according to God’s will. Wait, wait, wait, wait, what? Suffering according to God’s will. What a mystery.

For those who suffer according to God’s will should… in doing good, entrust themselves to a faithful creator. And there, Peter is giving us that turn that, yes, you’re going to have all these fiery ordeals. Yes, you’re going to be ridiculed. Yes, you’re going to suffer.

Yes, it’s according to God’s allowable will. I don’t think he sends suffering, so to speak. He allows different instrumentation to be used, human instrumentation and all the things of this world. He uses them all.

And he makes good out of all these things.

So there’s suffering in the equation, but entrust yourselves to the faithful creator. There’s the turn, similar to what we saw in John 16, when he said, but take courage, I have overcome the world.

But let me give you that in one more passage, even more graphically in Colossians chapter 1. Let’s go ahead and pick it up in verse 24. Colossians 1. This is phenomenal.

Same theme about suffering and struggle and tribulation, but yet there’s a solution for it. And this is where we get the biggest mystery of all. This is where we move from the sober mysteries to the wondrous mystery, which we’re going to focus on for the rest of the broadcast.

But let me read you this passage. It says this, Colossians chapter 1, 24 and following.

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you. What? There’s the sober mystery. And I’m completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, and that is the church.

I have become its minister or servant according to God’s administration that was given to me for you to make God’s message fully known, the mystery, hidden for ages and just generations, but now revealed to his saints, God wanted to make known to those among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is, are you ready for it? Christ in you, the hope of glory. The portrait I give it in our five depths is the fifth one. we are his fruitful oneness he is our fruitful oneness and we are in him we abide in him christ in you the hope of glory verse 28 we proclaim him warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone mature or complete in christ you’re not complete until you’re one with Christ. He in you.

We in him. Wow Verse 29 I labor for this striving with his strength that worked powerfully in me Four chapter 2 verse 1 I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and those in Laodicea for all who have not seen me in person. I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, Christ. In him, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

And there it is, my friends. Man, Colossians 1 through 3, I just read you a portion of it.

First Peter about the sufferings. These are two of the deepest and most mysterious passages we have about the sober mysteries of suffering and tribulation and struggle and yet how we can overcome them but only in Christ. And you only can do that if you dive deeper than just him being our merciful Savior. Never lose the wonder and gratefulness of him as our merciful Savior in the shallow waters when you first dive into Jesus. keep swimming gentle teacher is next grow in the grace and the knowledge of the lord jesus christ third he’s our gracious master not just our merciful savior and gentle teacher and we are his voluntary bond servants we get to serve him not have to serve him but if that’s turning into dry and dusty even resentful activity of stuff you have to do you’re missing it because you’re not swimming deeper just keep swimming just keep swimming so let’s look at those final two in more detail.

He is our wondrous mystery because he tells us of the mystery of him being our loving bridegroom and father. And then he tells us the mystery of being our fruitful oneness. Here we go. The scripture tells us over in Ephesians chapter five, verse 31, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

That verse is the climax of the previous verses talking about our earthly marriages. And that’s a wonderful picture of the covenant relationship we have with Christ. That’s the only covenant we have in our culture.

So it’s a great picture of that.

But he goes on to say this in verse 32, this mystery is great, but I’m speaking with reference to Christ and the church. What? Yes. earthly marriage is a great picture of the covenant the lord has with us he is our loving bridegroom we are his beloved bride don ever lose sight of that years ago a soldier was in uh we had several soldiers in our congregation one of them we were at a fellowship came to me he was really struggling i said what’s on your heart man you seem to be down can we take a walk pastor we had a fellowship at a farm one of the church members farm so we walked around the farm and he said, man, I tell you what, I love being a soldier. I love my team.

I mean, my squad, man. I mean, I thrive there, but man, when I’m deployed, I’ve been doing great. When I come home, it is a struggle. And honestly, my wife just keeps nagging on me.

You’re not this and you’re not that, you’re not doing that. And it just gets old and all. And I could tell it was a classic struggle. Many men have this, whatever their profession, but soldiers in particular, I’ve discovered, have this struggle coming back home.

And man, it seems so picky, so pointless in the context of all the heavy things they deal with.

And so I was asking the Lord as he was speaking and just pouring his heart out, Lord, what can I share with him? And this is what came to my heart. I said, well, let me ask you a question for a moment about your soldier. And I I love what you’re doing and what you describe, it’s great.

It sounds like you’re doing a super job. You keep up with your men. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Even between, you know, deployments, I check on them, you know, make sure they’re doing okay at home and all that stuff.

But, man, my wife’s always nagging me to do this, do that, and the other. I said, well, let me ask you a question.

So about your men.

So if you’re out in battle and one of them gets hurt and injured out in the battlefield, I mean, and it’s a dangerous area. I mean, anybody could get shot if they go out and try to get them. And you leave them there, right? what no way no we leave no man behind we do whatever we can to rescue them that’s our comrade that’s our brother yeah no way we leave him behind well what if What you have at home is not a nagging wife, but a wounded comrade in this incredibly fierce battle we call life, tribulations and suffering. Are you leaving out in the field?

Are you doing everything you can to go and drill deep into where are you hurt? How can I carry you? And tears came to his eyes. The Lord spoke to him. and it totally helped him reframe what was happening at home i don have a nagging wife i have a wounded wife and the fact is we all wounded friends we all cry out in our own ways and we don want to be alone And oh to have a partner that is with us always doesn leave us on the battlefield doesn’t check out emotionally, but is there for us.

Well, that’s our heavenly bridegroom, to be sure, who loves you more than you can possibly imagine. His love is unconditional, unbridled, and sacrificing. You don’t have to earn it. He doesn’t give you a guarded love.

He gives you that unconditional, unbridled love. He sees that you are wounded. You have grief. You have resentment.

You have bitterness. He wants to heal you from that. Similarly, in the father metaphor, we have not just a loving bridegroom. He could also be called a loving father.

Romans 8.15 puts it this way, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, Abba, Father. That means Daddy. A good father is one who wants to protect his children, love on his children, that they can thrive. By the way, we know that father wounds are rampant.

Years ago, Hallmark cards offered free cards to prison inmates for Mother’s Day. Man, they just wolfed them up and sent them out. Then Father’s Day came around, they did the same thing, and hardly anybody got any Father’s Day cards. Why?

Because Father wounds abound. I get that. Which is all the more reason we have a Heavenly Father who’s a loving Father that you might not get if you didn’t have a loving Father on earth, but He’s there. And what our loving bridegroom or loving Father wants to do is draw so close into himself that we become enmeshed with him, one with him.

Marriage is about two people becoming one. That’s why we take on the same name.

Now, mr. and mrs., whatever your last name is, your wife takes that on because you become one. Same thing is true in Christ. We just read about it a moment ago. This mystery is great, according to Colossians 1, 26, 28, which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but now has been revealed to his saints.

And that is it’s Christ in you, the hope of glory, so that we may present every person complete in Christ. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. There’s a oneness. There is a unity.

You can call this an intimate union. That’s a good portrait name. You can call it interwoven unity. That’s another great portrait of this.

I’m using the term fruitful oneness. They’re all good, but I do fruitful oneness because we’re also told in John 15, 5, that he who abides in me and I in him, abiding means to marinate, to absolutely immerse yourself, become one with. He who abides in me, I in him, bears much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.

That’s it. To the degree you embrace your oneness with God, you will be fruitful. You will have that intimate union and it will come. Interwoven unity.

It will come because we are new creations in Christ. Wow. Scripture also says we have the mind of Christ. Wow.

Scripture also says we have His abundant grace. Wow. Scripture says we also have eternal destiny. All of this in our oneness with Christ.

In our loving bridegroom or Father. We have a daily wondrous mystery of experiencing him that way, my friends.

So what does this really mean? How can we get this out of the realm of the theoretical theological into real life Well let me tell you about Opal Opal was a woman in her 80s in her church many years ago when I was a young pastor Her husband who had been in the service many years and now honor years, actually had to have one leg amputated and then a few months later the second leg amputated and Opal in her 80s was left to take care of him as best she could. in this world you will have tribulations she knew those legs were not grow back and some people are emotional amputees they have suffered abuse ptsd and suffering beyond the imagination god and his sovereign will allows these things to happen as the consequences of sin all around us but he says, but I’m here and you can overcome all of this, right? In this world, you will have tribulation, suffering. You will have amputees.

You will have PTSD. Things will happen, but take courage. I’ve overcome the world. How does he do that?

By being there for us to dive deeply into the depths of the Lord himself our wondrous mystery It the only way to survive and thrive in the midst of earthly suffering my friends It not possible to just gut it up and press on Opal had to drill deeply into her walk with the Lord to keep her heart focused and have a joy in the midst of the difficulty. Also, to humble herself, to ask for help from her family nearby because she tended to be self-sufficient. She did a wonderful job. I’ll never forget that.

And I could tell you dozens and dozens and dozens of stories like that as a pastor for over 40 years. Everybody has deep, deep wounds. We have deep, deep histories, baggage, unresolved. And we won’t be totally resolved of everything on this earth.

But one day when we get to be with him in glory, it will be.

But in the meantime, the deeper we dive into Him, don’t settle for the shallows of merciful Savior, gentle teacher, and gracious master. And we end up float back and forth from these levels, if we be honest.

But the deeper you swim, if you just keep swimming and experience Him as your wondrous mystery as loving Father or bridegroom as a fruitful oneness and you really embrace that oneness you have with him you have the wisdom of eternity available to you as you listen for the whispers of God. You have the love of the Lord that is unconditional, unbridled, holding you close. That’s where we’re experiencing him as our refuge, our fortress, our comfort, that only He can give in the midst of all the tribulations and all the struggles. He is our wondrous mystery.

I regret that we’re living in a day that we lose our sense of wonder and the depth and the mystery of the Lord. You get satisfied with our hermeneutical constructs and creeds. Those are important, but you don’t live there. That’s the foundation to dive deeper into the Lord and experiencing Him in the midst of the tribulations of this world and had the victory.

Wow. He is a wondrous mystery. Oh Lord, thank you for this. We receive it in Jesus’ name.

Amen. Well, I’m Mark Gonzales.  And out my website at markpg.org!