Search Results

PODCAST That's a Good Question Why Didn't God Keep His Promise to Me?: A Conversation with Shannon Popkin November 18, 2024 Jon Delger & Shannon Popkin Listen to this Episode Hey everyone, welcome to That's Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc. That's Good Questions, a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. I'm John, I serve as a pastor as well as part of this show. You can always submit questions to peacechurch.cc/questions . And today I'm here, as always, with Mitch. And we have special guest Shannon Popkin with us. Hey, it's so good to be here. Yeah. Shannon is an author and speaker. She's the host of the podcast Live Like It's True, which is part of the Resound Podcast Network. So we highly, highly, highly recommend that you go listen to that. And she's also come out with a brand new six-week Bible study called Shaped by God's Promises. And we're excited to dive into a little bit of that and talk about that some more today. Yeah, well I'm so thankful for ReSound Media and the opportunity to collaborate with you guys. So grateful for all that you're doing and just getting the word out about truth and fighting back the darkness. Amen, that's what it's all about. That's why we love getting to be on a team together, going to events together, having to create resources. Yeah. Yeah, it was so fun to have you this summer, you and Stephanie. Yeah, yeah. Came to an event and brought, and then being at TGC, handing out coffee mugs, that was awesome. Yeah, we've been having a blast, yeah. Looking forward to doing some more of that. And Speak Up, you're coming to Speak Up. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Are both of you gonna be at Speak Up? Yeah, probably. Okay, that'll be great. Yeah, it should be fun. Cool. Well, today we're gonna have a conversation kind of around the question of why didn't God keep his promise to me a Question that people ask from time to time a question that probably all of us feel from one time to another You know whether we feel like we should feel that way or shouldn't feel that way I think all of us think that at times of why isn't God keeping his promises to me? So we're gonna kind of talk about that question Shannon You have a great book that kind of talks about that question. You want to talk about that for a quick minute? well, sure, it's a look at the life of Abraham and Sarah and how God entered the scene making these promises to them, but it looks like God wasn't keeping his promises, you know, and so Them grappling with this. How did they respond? You know What did they turn to instead of to God and instead of waiting instead of faith? At times they responded in faith to God's promises that other times they didn't. But I think, yeah, their story is just a great backdrop to contemplate some of these questions that we struggle with too. Yeah, totally. So as we're getting into the topic, can you share just what are some examples, people that you've met or situations that you've been in or thought of, when do people feel this question of why isn't God keeping his promises? Yeah, I think it's like those times in life where there's this great disappointment. We have this expectation of what we expected would happen, you know, who God was gonna be, how he was gonna, how my story was gonna turn out. And there's a divorce or there's a death or there's infertility or a miscarriage. It's like those, we're grappling with disappointment or, you know, it's taking too long. Yeah. We're waiting on a spouse. We're waiting on a baby. We're waiting on our country to respond in the way, you know, sometimes it's bigger scenarios in life, all encompassing, whether it's worldwide things, you know, like the pandemic or, or things that just affect us nationally or affect our community. And it just feels like it's taking so long. Where is God? Why is he not doing what he promised? I think it's sometimes where we land. And so I think the first question that we have to ask is, well, what actually did God promise? And so, you know, we have a Bible that is full of promises from God. It's wonderful. And we, as God's people, we love the promises. But there's a problem when I think we misappropriate the promises and claim, you know, there are some promises made in the Bible that are not for all people living in all different spots on the timeline. Yeah. So it's important that we think through that carefully. Yeah. What would some of those examples be of promises that we can really misappropriate. Yeah, well, can I share a funny story first? Yeah, absolutely. I was reading the little notes in my Bible one time, and, you know, the little study notes at the bottom, and I read it said, many will become pregnant without having sexual relations. And I thought, when is that? I don't remember hearing that prophecy. Well, I looked a little closer and it said, Mary will become pregnant. So I was like, Oh my gosh, I got to wear my glasses. But so like, there's a bad one, you know, maybe like, pull out and hang on your wall or something, you know? Oh, my goodness. But I had a moment of being disoriented, like, where is that promise? And I think, you know, Mary had a promise that she would have a baby. Sarah had a promise that God would make of them a great nation. So by implication, she would become pregnant. But I've heard of a woman speaking to a large group of women saying, claim God's promise to you for a baby. Well, there is a problem when we claim a promise that was given to one person or we turn a principle into a promise? I think that's one that I hear a lot is, you know, train up a child in the way he should go and when he's old, he will not depart. And so then we have these prodigal children and we're claiming the promise, right, that this child will return to the faith. Or and you know, that's a principle. It's not a promise. Or you know, back to like certain people or certain time places on the timeline, God promised specific things to the nation of Israel that, you know, I mean, in a sense, he has promised to us as children of Israel. And yet, you know, there, we have to keep an eye on where, how's the story unfolding. And so, you know, the health and wealth gospel is this claiming God's promises that you'll have, you'll be healthy and you'll be wealthy and that you'll have all of these blessings in the here and now, whereas, yes, you will have all of those blessings as a child of God. And yet, I think sometimes we get the date wrong, right? We claim things now that belong to the there and then. Right now, we live in this darkness, the brokenness of this world. And it's very appropriate for us to go to God and say, why God, how long, oh Lord. And yet to claim a promise that my life here now, that all of these promises will be realized, it just sets me up for great hurt and disappointment. Yeah, I love that when you said we get the date wrong. Yeah, that's exactly it. Sometimes we talk on the show about the already and the not yet. Some of God's promises are just that. There's a sense in which they're already true, and then there's a sense in which they're not yet true. So on the one hand, we are saved from our sin by Jesus, and yet at the same time, we're not yet fully with him in heaven, in the new heavens and the new earth. We don't get to experience the fullness of the blessings of our salvation. And so, yeah, we get the timeline wrong. It is true that we will be one day healthy. We will have everything we could ever desire, namely God, but that's not yet. That's not this life. Yeah. So, yeah, in the back of the Bible study, Shaped by God's Promises, I made lists of God's promises, but I listed them out by here are promises for here and now, and here are promises that are for there and then. And what was interesting to me is looking through all of, and it's not a complete list, but looking through all of the promises for the here and now, we don't really have a lot of tangible promises. You know, so if you're looking for that verse that tells you the cancer is going to go away or the relationship will be restored or you will have the number of children that you were hoping, there is no verse like for the here and now. But we have lots of tangible promises for the there and then. So I was recently talking to a girl who was in a wheelchair, and this was really hard on her husband. He had lost his faith because she had an accident, she was paralyzed, she was living in a wheelchair. And he's doubting, he's one of those people saying like, God hasn't kept his promises to us and to our family. And I said, well, let's just think of it this way. What if you got up out of that wheelchair and you were able to, I had asked her, like, what's the thing that you miss most living in a wheelchair? And she's like, I just want to run upstairs. I haven't been able to run upstairs, you know? And I said, what if you could get up out of that wheelchair and run upstairs a dozen times? Like, would that change your perspective on God? She's like, well, yeah, and I said, well, there is coming a day that the lame will walk the blind will see like there is coming a day where you will get up out of that wheelchair. And so like to judge God prematurely on what you are experiencing in this moment is like you there's great room for you to be disappointed. But it's also a maligning of who God is, you know, to say that he has not been faithful because you're living in a wheelchair. Well, let's wait until we see the full extension of how God is going to respond to his promises in the there and then and judge in that moment how faithful God has been. Like, let's not prematurely judge that. Yeah, I love how you said that God's promises aren't for every person and every time. I think that's such a helpful thing for us to understand because our perspective can be so narrow sometimes in how we see what it means to be a Christian in just our context. As soon as you get out of America, as soon as you get out of some of these more privileged areas, the idea of what it means to be a Christian can become way more clear. I even like, you know, the idea of, you know, not every promise is for every person in every place. I mean, the promise for a child is not for me and Jon. You know, like we're men and stuff like that can't happen for us, right? That would be crazy for us to claim that, right? That was an important biology lesson you just gave us. Hey, actually, Mitch, you were talking earlier about a specific verse that we sometimes misuse in this way. Yeah, I think our favorite verse to misuse and our favorite verse as pastors to come after is probably Jeremiah 29 11, right? That's so easy for us to, I think we see that all over the place. It's on every, you know, it's in Hobby Lobby on every, you know, wall decoration. I know the plans that I have for you, right? Plans to prosper you and to give you, what is it? Yeah, to prosper you and not to harm you, not to harm you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And what's interesting is the you in that verse is it's more like y'all, you know, I know the plans I have to prosper y'all, right? It's collective. So that's one thing. But it's also this is we're talking about Israel. So as pastors, how do you respond to that? And when somebody is quoting Jeremiah 29 11. One of my favorite things to do is I had a professor do this for us in one of our one of our first terminated classes. He had us read Jeremiah 27 through 29. And I remember reading it going, what in the world is this about? Like, I don't understand what we're doing here. And then I got to Jeremiah 29 11. I started laughing because I realized how out of context we pull it because it is clearly about Israel. It's clearly about God's people, a group of people, and not me, Mitchell, sitting here in Middlethorpe, Michigan. It's so much bigger. And so I always like to ask people, why don't you read the chapters around it and just see if you still see it that way. Well, and even Abraham and Sarah and their descendants were still, they died in faith, not having had all of the promises realized in their lives. Like Hebrews 11 tells us that, that they died in faith. They were looking forward to the city that has foundations. I love that part that it has foundations, like, because heaven, it talks about having foundations, right? So they're looking forward to this heavenly city that is different from where they lived. You know, they, they walked a thousand miles. They lived by faith they walked a thousand miles into the unknown and And it was in response to these big grandiose promises from God Genesis 12 God steps into their lives and he says I will I will I will And and they respond to those promises not them making promises to God, but them responding in faith to what God had promised to them. And they go, they go walking into the unknown. And I mean, if I'm Sarah, I'm thinking, I'm probably going to get pregnant on the way, right? And we're going to get there. It's going to be this big unclaimed territory. That's what I would have been thinking. And Abram's going to build us a house. We're going to start filling it with babies. This would be great. never having lived in, you know, living in a tent. The only property that they ever owned was her burial site, right? And so she did not get pregnant on the way. There's this extension. I like to think of God's promises like a set of parentheses, you know, in grammar. You have one parenthesis and you know the second one's coming, right? And that's how God's promises are. If we have the promise, we know the fulfillment is coming. Yeah, often there is this much wider stretch than we were imagining. And so when we start doubting, right? When we're in between that stretch and we start doubting, what God wants us to do is to look forward to that fulfillment and to live as though it will come true. And then I think the harm that we do to our own faith when we claim promises that don't belong to us is by, you know, we're putting down parentheses and we're messing with God's accuracy rate of keeping his promises, right? Yeah, absolutely. That's so good. When my kids were in high school, there was this guy they followed, do you know who Blake Harms is? I think I got his name right. He's from Hudsonville, which aren't you from Hudsonville? And he was a meteorologist. Yeah. Yeah. Well, back in high school, he started doing this thing where he would predict how many predict snow days like. Yeah. And he had this like 95 percent accuracy rate. And so they would watch, you know, are we going to have a snow day? Blake says we're going to have a snow day. You know, and now he, I think, is a meteorologist. But God has 100 percent accuracy rate. Right. He has 100 percent accuracy rate. If he says this is going to happen, you know that you know that you know it will. And yet, look at what happens when we start saying, I know the plans I have for you to prosper you. God says I'm going to prosper. And here, I am in debt, and I can't pay off my student loans. What we start doing is detracting from God's faithfulness, you know, his character. And we don't want to do that because that's not only bad for us, because we're supposed to be these people walking by faith, making these huge, taking huge risks in response, like Abraham and Sarah walking a thousand miles. That's who we're supposed to be. And if we're not sure that we're sure that we're sure that the fulfillment is coming, well, that hurts us. But it also, like I said, it misaligns or it maligns God's character. It detracts from his faithfulness. Yeah, I feel like we forget some of the harder stories in the Bible, too. I think we think about, you know, the Bible is about me. It's for me. It's these promises that I can claim. You know, you look at, you know, the apostle Stephan who gets stoned to death, right? Was that promise for him that he was going to prosper? And to some sense, yeah, but... Yeah, he will. He will prosper. He died, you know, and then you go, you know, going back to the gospel, like, do you think God's promises to himself, you know, does he keep his promises to himself? Well, you know, his son went to the cross and died. You know, was that, was that prospering? You know, yeah, absolutely. Yes. But it doesn't look like. Yeah, I mean that was anguish that was, you know, terrible, but yeah. One of the things I think we get wrong is just collapsing the story. You know, look at like if I looked at my Bible, like let's say this is Genesis 3, and then this is the first mention of the gospel, right? Well, the fulfillment of the gospel is not here's Matthew 27. It's like look at that. Yeah You know this represents a lot of thousands of years Right, and we like to collapse that down go from sin to the Savior all in the same Sentence the same song the same moment, right and we forget all of those thousands of years of waiting And where God did keep his promises. He did fulfill I mean Sarah got to experience just like 25 years of that waiting. But for us, it can feel like an eternity. So I think it's helpful to look at the ways that these people were waiting on God, and it looked as though this could, might never happen. And yet they lived by faith in between, you know, those parentheses, as we do. But, but so two things happen over time. Over time, we see God's faithfulness. You know, we don't learn his faithfulness in a minute. But the other thing is, it changes us in that time frame. When we are walking by faith, believing that this promise will come true, it changes us. Like I mentioned, we take great risks. Our lives have a different focus when we're living focused on God's promises and believing that they'll come true. So we've talked about getting the subject wrong, right Jeremiah or Jeremiah talking about Israel not us We've talked about the timeline one of the other ones that you brought up that I kind of want to go back to for a minute is the genre so Talking about a proverb versus a there's the promise, right? Would you mind talking a little bit more about that about how we because that the one you brought up is when I hear so Commonly because it's such a heartache for parents right when when your child goes astray from the Lord goes astray from you and your family. So you might talk a little bit more about how, how is a proverb and a promise, how are those two things different? Yeah, well, I mean, proverbs are generalities. It's like, these are the truisms of life. They're in general, these are the things that if God has set up his world in a certain way, that if you do this, this will be the outcome. And those are absolutely true. And yet it's different to live by the Proverbs versus to live by the promises. A promise, you know that you know this is going to happen. And so like, for me, I think it's been most helpful in those seasons of life. Like I said, we don't have a lot of promises for the here and now. So then how can I be shaped by God's promises and the waiting when I don't know if my prodigal son is going to come back. I don't know if my daughter who's struggling with her sexuality, which neither of those are true right now in my life, but I don't know if, you know, my husband is going to come back to our family. You know, when those, when I'm grappling with that sort of heartache as a woman, especially when the relationships in my life are strained, well, what do I do? There are, however, you know, I don't have any promises about the outcomes. I do have so many promises, and this is different than a principle in Proverbs. It's a promise that, for instance, God will be with me, that he hears my cries, that he will, I think one of the most important ones for me in the waiting is that I'm forgiven. And I know that maybe doesn't immediately sound like it would bring peace to your heart. But when you're grappling with the hardships of life, I think most often. I don't know if this is how it is with men, but with women, we're like, did I do it wrong? No, did I cause this? Did I get the formula wrong? I raised them this way, or I invested in my marriage or whatever it was. And so like to know that God sees me as a forgiven daughter and that this is not him punishing me because it's not going the way I hoped. Like, knowing I'm forgiven, it just is such, it's so, to cling to that and to know that, that does shape me. That gives me a whole different perspective on the things that I'm asking God for. Yeah. Yeah, along those lines, I think of Romans 8, 1, there's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Yeah. So, when you think about a parent raising a child, none of us are perfect, so we know that our own imperfection played some kind of role. It doesn't mean it's your fault, it doesn't mean it's our fault that your child went astray, but of course none of us did parenting perfectly. But even in spite of that, we come to the gospel and we hear Romans 8 1 and we realize there is no condemnation. I am forgiven in Christ despite this outcome, regardless of how much or how little role I had to play in the whole thing. That is a truth, that is a promise to hold on us, that we are forgiven. It's an important thing to remember, especially for young families and for married couples. I've heard so many parents say when their child is acting up, well, that's your kid. Exactly. Your daughter is... I feel like I've heard that before. Yeah, right? Yeah. Yeah. I've maybe heard that directed at me. That's because my kids' naughtiness is very similar to my naughtiness. So I think, you know, you bringing up young parents, I think. There's sometimes we twist it into like, I'm going to keep my promises to God as I'm raising this family, right? Versus being reminded that he's going to keep his promises to me. We just so often twist that and then when it doesn't go according to my plan, I feel like, oh, I let God down. I didn't keep my promise of being a good wife and mom or a good dad, you know, raising my family in the way that I was supposed to. And yet, like if God's promises hinged on our obedience, I mean, that would be a completely different story. Yeah. Right. Abraham and Sarah did interject some self-reliance into the story, didn't they, with Hagar? And yet, Galatians tells us very clearly this baby born to Hagar was not the child of promise. This was not the product of faith, of them trusting God to keep his promises. This is the product of self-reliance. And maybe it looked like, for a time, that they were keeping their promise to God, you know? It's so interesting in Genesis 16, you know, Genesis 12, God says, I will, I will, I will. Genesis 16, Sarah says, perhaps I can. Yeah. Right. So she's turning to self-reliance and for a while they have this baby. And I think it probably looked like they had done their contribution and that this baby was the result of God's promises and, you know, young parents, man, that was me. I was like, I am going to produce this godly family. And I'm going to, you know, like I was, oh my goodness, I so much self reliance. And so much heartache when my kids didn't follow the way that I had set out for them. And so much heartache when they turned and said, you know what, mom, you are the reason that I, you know, that I struggle with my faith in this. Oh my goodness. But that's self reliance for a time looks like me keeping my promises to God and yet God wants us to know that we know that we know that he keeps he's the promise keeper, not us in the in the equation. It's him keeping his promises to us and so that's that's why Hagar's baby was not the child of promise. God wanted them to know that this was something only he could produce in their lives. Yeah, that's so clearly in line with what our Christian faith is. I was talking with someone who used to be Muslim and they do evangelism to Muslims and one of the things that he brings up is talking about, you know, you can make a good Muslim by brandishing the sword, by, you know, coming down and willing it and, you know, you can teach obedience and you can make a good Muslim that way, but Christianity is the opposite. You can't. There's no way to do that. It's only by heart change. It's only by God. Only God can produce a child of Abraham, right? Even Abraham is there could not produce a child of Abraham. Only God could do that. That story always blows my mind. I recently talked about it in a teaching I did. But, you know, we try to normalize it a little bit. We say well historically that happened sometimes at that time, but it's crazy that you know, Abraham and Sarah are like we can't have a baby. Let's bring in another woman that you're going to go and be with in order to produce a child. I mean, that's a pretty crazy idea. Yeah, yeah. Sinful on a few different levels. Yeah, but I mean this child, I think it's important to tie it to the overarching meta narrative. Like this isn't God just promising a baby to a couple. He's promising the Savior to the world. And so if this is a story of self-reliance, I mean it tempts us into believing that we can keep promises to God, right? And that is just so common among us, like us taking on the burden of self-reliance or control as, you know, as parents. We're trying to control other people into the faith. And God wants us to know that self-salvation is not possible. And so that's what that extension on the timeline with that shows us is they were to the point where it was laughable to think that they would have a baby. And that's when God's like, yep, you can't, but nothing is impossible with me. And so it's, I think when we have little kids, I've, I've felt like it was really possible for me to, you know, like maybe like a Muslim would think to indoctrinate my child into the faith. It felt like, and I don't think it's wrong. I think we should have that mindset of we're training and we're teaching them the truth. And yet, that's maybe in one hand and then the other is complete and utter reliance on God. I can produce what might look like a godly child, but I cannot produce a true child of God. Yeah, you can't force someone to become a Christian. Yeah, it just doesn't work that way. And then back to the idea of promises, like we don't really have, I know this is so hard to grapple with as a parent, but I don't have a promise from God that every one of my kids will follow him. I don't have that promise. There is no formula. But what if there was? What if I did have that promise that if I do X, Y, and Z, my kids will become Christians? what kind of controlling, self-absorbed, obsessive parent would I become? You know, what angry mom, like, pointing at them, my Bible is, like, you will do this. Like, I mean, that's not who I want to be. That's not who God wants me to be. He wants me to be someone who's shaped by his promises of what he will do, where he says, I will, I will be faithful, you know? So that's, it's a hard thing, though, to grapple with. Yeah, before we go any further, we want to let you know about an opportunity that we have with Moody Publishers. But before we even get to that, I want to throw it to Shannon because I think you've got some news about Moody. Yeah, I'm so excited. I just signed a contract with Moody for my next book. Oh my gosh. So book number six I'm getting to work on with Moody. So thankful, I love Moody Publishers. Yeah, both Jon and I have been so blessed by Moody Publishers and the content that they've created. If you're looking to dive deeper into your faith and grow in wisdom, discover books that inspire change and transform with Moody Publishers. From trusted authors to fresh voices, Moody offers resources that equip you for life's journey with Christ. And right now we have an offer for you just for that's a good question listeners. If you use promo code RESOUND40, you'll get 40% off with your next purchase. Whether you're searching for devotional study guides or impactful reads, Moody Publishers has something for everyone. So don't miss out. Visit moodypublishers.com and use promo code RESOUND40 at checkout. Enrich your faith today. It's hard to, you know, teach someone to enjoy love and worship God by being angry at them, you know. It's, you know, such a great way to hurt someone's view of God by doing that. And I did that, you know. I mean, I'll be the first to say I did that. As parents, haven't we all? I mean, it's such a hard thing. But when you model how much you enjoy God, that's, I think, such a beautiful thing, not just for children, but for anyone we're around. And if I can just have my faith is in God, not myself, right? I have this peace and security and joy because I know I can't, but nothing is impossible with Him. Yeah. Yeah. So, you shared the story earlier of a couple and the woman had ended up in a wheelchair. So coming back to that couple and thinking about that, so how would you counsel them to try to reshape their thoughts on God's promises? How could you, how would you redirect their vision of God's promises? Yeah, so that's kind of what I was trying to do as I was talking to her. I said, like, what if you could get up out of that wheelchair? You know, so I think what I had in mind is like, let's picture the there and then. Like where all of God's promises will come to fruition. And what would it look like to live now the way we'll know with our eyes then, right? Now, faith is not seeing and yet believing. And so I think just imagining and, you know, believing, picturing, I think it's really helpful to picture the new earth, like picture the day where all sickness will be gone and where our bodies will be renewed and where our relationships will be restored and where we will be with God and we will be made new. We'll have no more sinful tendencies. Where you know, like a whole will be made right everything and it's not, you know, it's not the floating in the clouds thing. It's like it's the new earth where we'll get to experience all the things we missed out on here. Like that's one of our promises is that he will restore what we've missed out on here. And I don't know exactly how that works, you know, with opportunities lost, but we can trust that it's going to be good and it's going to be, we're going to know then when we look back at these long stretches of asking why God, why haven't you kept your promises? We're going to, when we're standing on the new earth and looking back at this life, we will know with all of our hearts that God has been faithful, that he has done everything that he said that he would, that he is a promise-keeping God. And that we won't have missed anything, right? That we'll have more than we could have ever imagined. Oh, it's so true, right? Yeah. Let me just ask, what would you say? Like, any thoughts that you would add to that as pastors? Someone who's going through something unthinkable, something really hard. Yeah, I think what you shared is beautiful. I think that's the perspective you want to try to encourage. And in my experience, you know, myself going through some hard stuff, talking with other people who go through some hard stuff, I think we're all sort of ready to hear that at different levels. You know, I think sometimes somebody's just not ready to hear certain parts of that. So it sort of takes a journey to get there. Tim Keller has an awesome book on suffering that was really helpful to me in the midst of some hard stuff. I'm trying to think of the name of it off the top of my head, but Keller's book on suffering, but he kind of tries to take a few different perspectives at it and just think it through from different lenses. Like you've had, like you've done, you know, what if it, you know, what if you did have it, what would that do to the way you think about, you know, how do you think about it if you, you know, from the end, from eternity, from the new heavens, the new earth, some of those different perspectives. One of the things I've tried to try to capture in my own mind is just the overall timeline of Scripture of creation, fall, redemption, and just remembering that I'm in the broken part, the messed up part in the middle. You know, we got the Garden of Eden in the beginning, it was right, it was perfect, it was good. At the end, when Jesus returns, it'll be right and perfect and good. And it's not an accident that I'm in this broken, messed up part in the middle. This is part of the timeline. This is how the story works, is that we're between Genesis 3 and the end of Revelation, you know? The world is broken and sinful, and things are not the way they're supposed to be, but someday they will become right. So, I don't know, for me, that's really helpful, just to put myself in the right spot on the timeline and realize where I'm at. Yeah, yeah, for sure. My husband I went to this restaurant recently and on his birthday and I Asked to use this coupon that they have for half off the entree well It wasn't the right it wasn't his birthday, right and I didn't know how to be on his birthday But what what if like in that interaction? I like started getting out my phone and leaving a Yelp review. Like this is really bad, you know, this restaurant, they don't keep their promises. Well, I just got the date wrong, right? And so I think getting, yeah, finding my place in the overarching meta-narrative, like sometimes I just think we get the date wrong, right? We acclaim these promises and they will come true. There is a second coming, right? And the first coming- And that's a promise we can, you know, bank, right? Yes, that is one of the biggest promises. He's coming back. But Jesus, you know, he did heal people and he did restore relationships while he was here. And there were like little appetizers for the kingdom. And so we get tastes of it now. And he does sometimes do miraculous things in our lives. But all of the fruition will will come in that there and then. Yeah. Would you say that that, maybe even part of getting the date wrong, is how we view Scripture? Yeah. You know, seeing the Bible maybe as a story about us rather than a story that we get to have the opportunity to be a part of. Yeah, well, I mean, if you're living in the broken world trying to create the new earth out of the broken pieces, right? That's, I mean, isn't that sort of egocentric? Isn't that sort of like you're the main character in the story and you've only got like 70 years or so to get this story on track, right? But if you can like lose your life, you know, Jesus says you lose your life to gain it in part of this give yourself up to this meta narrative, right? Where creation, fall, redemption, new creation. Well, then your life has so much more to anticipate, so much. And it's not about you. It's about enjoying him. And you know what? One more thing I just thought of is when we get to the there and then, we won't need faith anymore. Like that's when we'll have the sight. The only time that we get to walk by faith is now. This is, we only have a few short years to walk by faith and to believe that it's true that God will keep his promises. Yeah. For me, I feel like that concept right there is really helpful to me to just realize that something is being done that matters during this hard time. That yes, God has a meaning and a purpose for my suffering. And also one of those meanings and purposes is that I'm being shaped and transformed. My faith is growing, or I think of how James chapter one says it, the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So for me, just that word steadfastness has always meant a lot to me that that I just try to remind myself that's what God is doing in the midst of this hard, hard time, that something is being developed in me that matters, that's important, that wouldn't happen any other way. I know that's valuable. Yeah, that's one of the things I really love about Sarah's story is we see this huge shift in her character in somewhere between Genesis 18 and Genesis 21. 18 is when the visitors come for lunch and they say Sarah will have a son within a year. And then Genesis 21, she has the baby. Well, but she's laughing in the tent at the idea of having a baby. And then by 21, she has the baby. So what shifts? Well, Hebrews 11, 11 says that by faith, Sarah herself conceived a son, had the power to conceive a son, when she considered him faithful who had promised. And so what changed was her considering. Like she didn't consider, she thought the promise had already been kept, you know, by her self-reliance. She saw herself, you know, if you picture those parentheses, she's on the outside looking in, right? She felt like irrelevant to the story, she's worthless. Like having a child at age 89, that's ridiculous. Well, something changed between her laughing, scoffing in the tent and holding that baby. And what changed was her belief that God would do what he promised. Yeah. She took a huge risk. You know, I mean, can you imagine saying to your husband at age 89, after a lifetime of infertility, want to try for a baby? You know, because God said so, like that took, that was a lot of risk and it took a lot of great faith. Yeah. You know, in seasons of hardship, the question that is helpful for me is, you know, what if this doesn't get better? What if this gets worse? Will I still be obedient? Will I still follow? Like, you know, I think a good question to ask yourself before hardship happens is, what if part of God's plan for me is for him to destroy my life. What if it's for me to lose everything? What if that, in that act, God is most glorified? Would I still be faithful to him? Would I still follow him? Would I still love that kind of God? And I think that's a really good question to ask yourself. It's a hard one, you know. Would I still be faithful if I lost my whole family if I lost my health if I You know, whatever it is. I think that's a it's a good question to See where our idols are but also to prepare ourselves for when a hardship comes Yeah, it's not a fun question to think about but well, it's it's sort of like inevitable. Don't you think I mean, yeah Life is not gonna all it's not like it's not gonna all get built up to this beautiful culmination moment on your deathbed. You don't know it's death, right? So, it's not going in the right direction. And so, but not only contemplating on the front end, but all throughout, right? Am I gonna still be faithful? Am I going to be faithful now? Am I going to trust that God will be faithful to me in this, even if, right? That's a really good point. Yeah, it's not a crazy scenario. I mean, that's what happened to our hero, our Savior. That's what happened to Jesus. Yeah. I just always like to ask that question. What if it gets worse? Like, are we going to reject the faith? Am I going to just go, yeah, nah, this is too much for me? And you also said, what if God decides that, you know, I think we like to use the language God allowed this. You know, he allowed this to happen. But the Bible doesn't allow us that, you know, that sort of, you know, softening of it. Joseph, like, look at the story of Joseph, he says God three times, I think it's in Genesis 38, he says, God sent him. That's an active verb, right? He sent him there with good intentions and yet was Joseph gonna be faithful every at every point of the story, you know, he has these it goes up and down the narrative But yeah, I think Joseph had to ask that question Hundreds of times. Yeah, am I going to? Yeah, we've got it very clearly at the end of the story right in Genesis 50 You meant it for evil and God meant it for good. Same word. So the brothers, in the same way that they meant, intended, premeditated and then carried out this plan to put Joseph in a pit and then sell him into slavery. In the same way, God meant it, he planned it, he executed a plan for Joseph to be sent into slavery, but ultimately for it to be for good. Yeah, I mean, that's so clear at the cross, right? And I think it's easier to somehow, easier to say that God did that in the case of Jesus. Like, it's almost like the exception, right? Because he had salvation in mind. But like, yeah, we see it. There's a consistency in Joseph's life and in so many others where we have to back up and consider the overarching meta-narrative. And that's where we see, yes, our God is faithful and we can trust him. Amen. So Shannon, as we are wrapping up, love to ask where people could find their book or if there are any projects that you're working on that you're allowed to share with us. Oh, sure. If you're working on anything that we should be looking forward to. from Sarah on Fear and Faith, Genesis 12 through 21. But I also have a free download that you can do of, it's called Praying the Promises, Pray the Promises, where I've kind of like delineated those different lists of promises for the here and now, promises for the there and then, and inviting you to just fill in the blanks with what your situation entails and praying back to God what he has promised to you. So I'd love for you to check those out. And you can find both of those at Shannonpopkin.com. Yeah, and we'll link everything that you just talked about in our show notes. So the free download and where to go to get that. Yeah, yeah. And also a series on Sarah at Live Like It's True. So if you're interested in some of the stuff we talked about. Yeah, another great podcast at Resound Media. Yeah, at resoundmedia.cc . Well, thanks so much, Shannon. We appreciate it a lot. Yeah, thanks. It's been a great conversation. Thanks everybody for listening. We hope you all have a great week You can always find resound media at resoundmedia.cc or follow like subscribe on social media. Thanks everybody. Have an awesome week!

PODCAST That's a Good Question Spiritual Inquiries: Biblical Insights on Meditation, Hypnosis, and Upholding Beliefs in Relationships May 7, 2024 Jon Delger & Logan Bailey Listen to this Episode So Hey everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and a part of Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc . That's a Good Question is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. I'm Jon, I serve as a pastor as well as be part of this show, and I'm here today with Pastor Logan. Howdy. Great to see you Pastor Logan and also for the very first time introducing him with this title. Hey Pastor Mitchell. Hey everyone Mitch has been serving at Peace Church on staff and as a producer, but was it last Sunday or the Sunday before? Yep, you got ordained as a pastor. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so now you know all the answers to all these questions. Yep, when I pray it matters more all that kind of stuff. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Oh, nice. Awesome. Well, hey, we're excited today to have an episode that I'm just gonna call like a mailbag episode. We're gonna combine together a bunch of questions about very different topics. We're gonna talk about things like yoga, hypnosis, and some other stuff, relationship advice, things like that. Yeah. Should be good. Yeah. So let's get into it. Yeah, ready for the first question. Here it is. Where does yoga fit in your thoughts? Should Christians participate? Can stretching positions be done without the Buddhist spiritual aspect? So I've got a couple questions just to start off with. How about we just say like, what is yoga? Where did it originate? And why might it be bad? Why raise the question? I think that last question is really key. There's the crowd that's listening right now that's thinking, how could it be bad? Yeah. And there's some right now thinking, I've looked into it, how could it be good? Right? And so I think it is good for us to dialogue a bit about like, how could it be bad? What would be the concerns for a Christian to say, I don't want to have anything to do with what yoga is. Well, I just don't want to because I don't like to stretch. I'm kind of out of shape. I asked Brian, producer Brian, if he's ever stretched before, be careful. Well, so my understanding is from, I'm no expert in the field, but a little bit of research, my understanding is that the word yoga actually means union and that the idea kind of originally was to, you know, it comes from Buddhists, it's the idea is to unite with the greater sort of spiritual realm, the Brahman. You know, Buddhism is a pantheistic religion and so God is in everything and so through yoga, you know, we can kind of prepare ourselves to become spiritually a part of God and enter into the divine and some of that kind of stuff. So I think… Is that Hindu too? Maybe. I'll be honest, I don't know the answer to that. I don't know. But the Eastern... Eastern religion, yeah, yes, yes, totally. So I think originally it has some very spiritual connotations, you know, kind of combining the physical with the spiritual. But in the U.S., I think we have, a lot of people practice it just as a physical exercise kind of thing. Yeah, I guess there are, when we use the word, people use it differently and hear it differently. And I think those would be the two most accepted uses of it. One party just thinking, I thought yoga was just certain stretches. Another party thinking, well, Eastern pantheistic monism, like unity is the focus of the religious belief and yoga is the way to be united. You know, there's like that deep religious background to it too. Those are the two primary ways people use the word. And there's some people that don't have any realization that there could be another usage of the word that they're using. Yeah, so I think basically what I've said to people, so I've been asked this question before, and basically what I've said is, I think, Christian's asking, can I do yoga? And I guess what I would say is just don't call it yoga. You know, if you want to do stretching, great, you know, stretching can be healthy and, and um, you know, I've, I've learned some, I do some stretches in the morning cause I'm getting a little older and it's a little tighter in the morning when I get up out of bed. So, uh, I do some stretching, some of which I've learned from yoga videos and stuff like that. But you know, don't participate in the spiritual aspects of it. That's bad. So, uh, one quick story I had, uh, I had a pastor friend mentioned to me that they were, he told me about, he engaged this, he had somebody in his church who wanted to start a Christian yoga class at their church. And he just explained to them, you can have a Christian stretching class, we're not gonna call it Christian yoga. And I think that gets to the point of it, is that if you wanna do stretching and learn some stuff from people who do what they call yoga, fine, but yeah, don't participate in the spiritual aspects of that whole thing. The best practical advice I think we can give for sure. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I just I've known people that have heard there's a religious side to it and they've got what I had no idea. I've also heard people that have an Eastern background that have converted to Christianity. They have family members that are Hindu or Buddhist and things and they've heard that yoga could mean something non-religious and they've gone what I thought it could only mean something religious. And so there's people on both sides of that. I do think practically speaking, that is the best advice we could offer is, hey, let's just not use the word yoga, call it stretching. And if you wanna learn from people that are just doing the stretching side of it, there's maybe some valid stuff there about muscles and how they stretch and things. But absolutely stay away from the religious pantheistic side of it for sure. So let me ask this question. Could a Christian go to a yoga class at their gym, sign up for that, if they're not participating in the religious aspects and rejecting that aspect of it? I have some scripture I'd like to read that I think would be a good answer. Romans 14. I'm going to skip around Romans 14 a bit. As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains. And let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Basically trying to stay over matters of indifference. I've heard it said, I read R.C. Sproul actually recently talk about matters of indifference, and there's sometimes differences of opinions. We don't want to unnecessarily quarrel over things that is a matter of conscience. Because Romans 14, verse 12, each of us will give an account to himself, to God, of himself to God. So I think the most practical thing is let's try to avoid some of the religious stuff. So if someone can do that and avoid the religious stuff, maybe that's okay. But if you can't avoid the religious stuff, then maybe it's best not to I think yeah If you're going to a class and they're saying what one now, let's you know participate in these You know Religious practices and we're you know doing these things in order to connect with our inner. I'm out, you know, it's like okay Maybe that's not a great one. But if it's a maybe if it's a yoga class that is Physically only doing stretching and that's what that meant by it. Yes Yes. Yeah, I would just go back to that. I agree. Yeah, I mean, I've seen some yoga stuff where the person's saying, all right, now we're going to do this move and we're going to breathe in. And as you breathe in, picture yourself joining with the divine, you know, that kind of stuff. That's just not the stuff you want to be a part of. Yeah. All right, let's jump into our next question. I believe hypnosis is wrong. Not being in control of our own thoughts and mind would be against scripture. Having been in counseling, we did participate in mindfulness slash breathing exercises, focusing my mind on things above. Breathing with the breath of life has given me a controlled manner to calm myself, repeating positive and biblical things to calm myself and change my negative and anxious thoughts. For me, there's a difference, and these things have helped me greatly as a trauma survivor. I want to be sure that these are not dabbling in the spiritual world. What would you guys say to that? We'll be right back after this break. Hi, I'm Elizabeth, one of the co-hosts of Mom Guilt, a podcast with new episodes every Monday. Mom Guilt is a podcast about the daily struggles of motherhood. Stephanie and I share real experiences of Mom Guilt and how we have found freedom from that guilt through the gospel. Listen to us on resoundmedia.cc or wherever you find podcasts. I think right away we are spiritual being like the spiritual there's a side of reality that's spiritual so you know dabbling in spiritual isn't necessarily wrong but what this person means is dabbling in like demonic occult sort of thing. Yeah. Did you write notes on this? I read ahead on some of the notes you wrote and you had a really good point. I don't know if it was you or Pastor John. Just the difference between Christian meditation and Buddhist meditation. Yeah. I saw one of you wrote that down. That's a really good point to make. Yeah. I was just going to ask, what is the difference between that because oftentimes we hear meditation or mindfulness and that can mean something in an eastern context, but also the Bible talks about this idea of biblical meditation and, you know, what's the difference between those things? Can we meditate? Is that an okay thing? Absolutely. Blessed is the one who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night. Yeah, right. Meditation is awesome. It's good. Yeah, as I read the question, I've got it right here in front of me, is I sort of see two different things. You know, talking about hypnosis and the person says they believe it's wrong. And I, yeah, I agree. I think, yeah, my understanding of hypnosis is that you're putting yourself in a state in which you can be deeply influenced by something else to even, I mean, I was once at a large event, I think I was in high school, and saw mass hypnosis happen. I don't know if it was real or not. I asked some of the guys afterwards who were part of it, and they claimed it was real. I don't know. Yeah. But where people are being hypnotized and doing things that they normally wouldn't do, acting like animals, making fools of themselves. So yeah, I think scripture pretty clearly doesn't want you to open yourself up to that kind of influence. I even just think of the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5, says that self-control is one of the fruit of the spirit. So being in control of yourself is something God wants for us. The person filled with the spirit is in control of themselves. They're not opening themselves up to demonic influence or even the influence of somebody else without your ability to discern and filter those actions. So that's one thing I see in the question, but also I think mindfulness or breathing exercises doesn't have to be the same thing as hypnosis. I'd say those can be two very different things. I think some breathing exercises for somebody who maybe struggles with anxiety or something like that can be a great thing. I mean, I just personally, yeah, there are moments that I feel stressed out and I will stop and I'll say, I'm just going to take some deep breaths for a few minutes. I don't have any specific maybe exercises that I do, but I would say that's me just sort of taking a pause and you call that meditation, you call it breathing exercises, whatever you want, but I think those things can be really helpful. I would say if you're a deep diver also, breathing exercise is a very good thing for you. A deep diver. It's very good. Fair point. But I mean, I think, you know, everyone enjoys, you know, deep breathing. That's a good calming thing and that's, yeah, that's something that we can, I think a lot of contemporary hypnosis too isn't this kind of older idea of hypnosis, maybe that we see on TV and stuff like that. But a lot of modern, what they call hypnosis is really just getting people into a very relaxed state so that they can maybe remember things better and have that experience in a therapeutic session where you're not under a trance, you're still in control, but maybe you're laying down on a couch and you have headphones on, or something where it's just very relaxed. And I think that's different than, hey, I'm out of control, I don't remember what just happened, I was acting like an animal, versus, no, I was just laying down and I could remember more. Right. Well, and the goal is important, too, so this kind of actually goes back to the yoga thing shares what I would say is a very godly perspective on meditation, which is they're repeating positive and biblical things to calm themselves and change negative or anxious thoughts. Yeah, I mean, memorize scripture and in moments of anxiety, pause, breathe, and repeat scripture. That's a great thing to do. I have two verses I'd like to read that I think are really valuable to the discussion. and just to make that point of kind of a some people would consider meditation kind of in an Eastern Hindu Buddhist way which would be clear your mind empty your mind Buddhism is all about kind of removing desire because by removing desire you remove suffering whereas a Christianity is like let's go through the suffering yeah Jesus went through suffering for us Buddhism meditation is let's empty our mind nirvana is basically a state of nothingness, right? Christian meditation is let's focus on something godly and good. Christian meditation is filling yourself with something not emptying yourself of something. Yeah, absolutely. So the two verses I think of is Colossians 3, 2, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. I think that complements really well with Philippians 4, 8. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, even if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Yeah, yeah. And it's clear that that's what Christ did too, right? He filled himself up with Scripture to the point when he was on the cross. That's what he bled out. I mean, when he was under the most scrutiny of his life, the most anguish of his life, he cried out scripture, right? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's a quote back to Psalms. He's quoting and going back even in his most intense moments. And that's why Christian meditation and filling yourself with scripture is great. Yeah, and to address kind of the last sentence there of the question of you want to make sure you're not dabbling in the spiritual world. With both yoga and hypnosis, that is a real danger. If you're opening yourself up to being influenced and you're not able to discern and filter the influence coming into you, then you have just opened yourself up to the ability to be influenced by the enemy. Ephesians 6 tells us that our battle is not with flesh and blood, but with spiritual forces, evil spiritual forces. And so don't give them the opportunity to do that. Yeah. Reminds me of test the spirits. Yeah. Just about that. Like we don't blindly go into influences. Yeah. All right. So next question. We've gotten a couple of questions and we get these questions quite frequently about the end times, tribulation, rapture, that kind of stuff. And so we do try to do an episode on that every few months. I think I was looking back at the schedule recently and we have. We've done an episode on that every few months. And so we can't keep doing those episodes all the time. So I do want to point people back. If you've been asking questions about the end times, tribulation, rapture, that kind of stuff, February 12 was the last episode we did on that. Also, if you go to Peace Church or if you listen to our sermons at peacechurch.cc , we are in the midst of a series right now called The Church Never Preaches On. And we do have one of the episodes in that series, one of the Sundays, is gonna be on the end times. So that's coming too. So if you're looking for resources on that, I wanna point you just to those things. Yeah, that's great. All right, next question. My significant other and I have been together for almost five years. I've deepened my relationship with God over the last year and have attended every online service on Sundays since the beginning of the year. I would like to attend in person, but he does not want me to go and doesn't want me to go alone because it would quote unquote look weird. I told him although I would love for him to join me, I don't feel weird attending alone. Am I doing the right thing? I pray for him daily multiple times a day. Often I send him a text of what I've prayed for in regard to him. He has sent me texts on hard days asking for me to pray for him or that he has prayed and felt God actively did something that made him believe more. I'm hopeful that without pressuring him, slash giving him an ultimatum, he will find the love slash guidance of God and seek more of it. He will see the changes in me and desire to want the same lifestyle. Who doesn't want all the love and guidance from Jesus? It's the best thing ever. I can remember feeling lonely and unfulfilled. Now I have a best friend and his name is Jesus. We talk all the time. I never feel lonely or unfulfilled. I always feel guided and seen and heard. Should I do anything different other than live my life through Christ, pray for my significant other, and send him those prayers? That's an awesome question. It really is. Thanks for reading the whole thing, Mitch, because I think it was worth hearing the whole thing. Yeah, that's awesome. I love the heart and the direction. I wanna, right away at the beginning, actually jumping off point, I think there's actually two very different answers I would give to this question, depending on a stipulation in here that I caught. There's kind of more than one question, even, in it, too. Sure, yeah, yeah. But right away at the beginning, it says, my significant other. So I just wanna pause there and just say, my answer to this question is totally different depending on what that means. So if we're talking about your spouse, somebody you're married to, we're gonna go, I want to go ahead and address the question both ways, but we'll talk about passages like 1 Peter 3, 1 Corinthians 7, and what it says, what the Bible says to somebody who is married to somebody who's an unbeliever, and how to, and my short answer would be that you're doing all the right things of trying to live a godly life, be a great example, trying to just gently just pray for the person, point the person to Jesus. That's beautiful and awesome. And there's a lot of people that I know that are in that situation and it's tough, it's challenging, but it's a beautiful thing. Now on the flip side, I just want to say if my significant other means a boyfriend or a girlfriend, then my answer is very different. If you are dating somebody who is not a believer, but you are a committed believer, then I would say that you're in a spot you really don't want to be in. I think Scripture is pretty clear about the fact that Christians should be partnering themselves with other Christians, especially the most important partnership in your life, your marriage. You don't want to be unequally yoked, as 2 Corinthians 6 says. That passage talks about partnerships between Christians and unbelievers. And you don't want to be partnered closely, that closely, like a marriage, with somebody who doesn't have the same values, doesn't have the same beliefs. Going in a different direction. Yeah, you're headed in two totally different directions in life. You're pulling at each other in ways that are going to just hurt you. Yeah. Yeah, but this is also if you are dating someone or engaged to someone who isn't actively wanting to lead you in this way This also is the best circumstance for you because you haven't made a covenant yet with that, right? Totally, that's heartbreaking for someone to hear but I think it's the council that the Bible would have us give. Yeah, yeah The person asking this question might be shocked to hear us say this and I get that and that's hard, but we say it because we care about you and we don't want you to end up in a lifelong commitment. That's what marriage is, a lifelong commitment that is going to be extremely painful where you're going to spend your whole life pulling somebody in a direction that they don't want to go on their own. And you'll be pulled in a different direction. Yeah. That is the best for you. Yeah. I'd also say anyone who's telling you not to go to church is asking you to break what God has commanded us, right? Right. Hebrew says that we should not neglect to meet together as that is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near, right? We are commanded to meet together as Christians, to meet together as—so whether, even if this is your spouse and someone's commanding you not to meet, this is an area where you can say, no, I have a higher command and I can, this is something that I can obey the one who I must submit to in all things and that's my God. That's the point, exactly. Like wives are commanded to submit and respect their husbands. Husbands to love their wives. And if your spouse is very explicit about like, I don't want you to go to that movie or that rodeo or that boys night or whatever it's like yeah it's not like because you want to go you have a right love your spouse well mm-hmm but to for your spouse to say don't go to that thing in place that God has told his covenant people to go to on a weekly basis and worship him yeah that is where it would come down to you have a higher calling to submit to God's law and God's Word and so if this anyone yeah, I just got interjected Is this a regular conversation in your household that your wife doesn't want you go to the rodeo? No, I just was thinking of like the did like a No, I did not see that example coming I don't know Kentucky Derby was recently I was just thinking of horses. I don't think they call And bulls and whatnot only trying to think of manly cowboy things uh... Jon way to take a look at the reality i think that i could think about all of my faces are at that's what i have a very creative guy yeah i love that you are not a very very very very very very very very very very yes and i'm trying to get better examples i can't think of a very husband says you don't want to to that underwater basket. Exactly. Yeah. So, I was on a roll. Yeah. Point being, if you are someone that consistently is watching the online service, I think that's awesome. I would say, I hope you feel encouraged and invited to come and worship in person. I do think that's something that God would want for you. If someone's listening, and they're actually unable due to physical needs or something like that to come to a service, then we would love to know. We could have a care, you know, one of our zone elders come, or someone from our care team, our care pastor, come and visit you and make sure that you still get a taste of the community that we're meant to have as Christians. Yeah, and now that I can say this because I am a pastor, but pastorally, this would be another thing is I think I've seen too many women in bad relationships with bad men who aren't going to lead them and they feel this weight, this pressure like I cannot find, I won't be able to find someone else. And I think that's such a lie that Satan wants especially young women to believe or just women in general who are in these types of relationships saying, well this is the best I'll be able to get. I promise you, that's not the case. In fact, even being single, rather than being actively led to do something that isn't godly and to go into a different way would be a better situation than to be in a bad relationship like this. And I truly believe that there will be someone even better than this. And there's two ways that God goes about that right he says either find someone new or you know changing the heart of people who are against him and so obviously that's our prayer that this guy would you know have his heart changed and be transformed by the gospel and right this would be a godly man who could lead lead someone but I also don't want to leave a wife and kids. Yeah, right. Yeah. I mean, you talk about kids like that's the hard part. You think about getting married to someone who isn't a Christian or isn't willing to go to church with you. Man, I couldn't imagine now if you have kids, how much more complicated does that get? Right. You know, this is the family that you're a part of. That is the most important is the family of God and then the physical family that you're a part of next. And so that can be such a hard thing when those two things aren't the same. That's really good stuff, guys. So let's give- Even the rodeo part. Even that part. Even the rodeo thing. I thought it was great. I loved it. My favorite part, actually. So let's talk quickly about if the person is talking about a spouse. Let's just say that that's the case. So I want to just read a passage. This is 1 Peter 3. So this was not an unfamiliar idea situation in the New Testament. The Bible addresses it in a couple of places. So here's one. 1 Peter 3 says, Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word. Okay, so it's talking about wives who are married to a husband that's not a believer. So even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Just by the actions of a godly wife. Yeah. So countless men have come to Christ because of a godly wife. Totally, totally. And it's not saying that you can't use words, by the way. I think some of the things that were listed in the question of praying for them, offering, discussing about going to church, that's all really good stuff. But yeah, just being a great godly wife who loves her husband, who offers prayers. I underlined a couple things in the question here, just that the question asker said that the husband sent texts asking for prayer at a certain point. That's a beautiful turning point. If you've got some kind of relationship with an unbeliever, I've had some of those friendships where all of a sudden it finally does turn to where they're asking for prayer. I mean, something's happening in their heart at that point. That's an awesome thing. Yeah. It's awesome. It's also beautiful to, I can hear the passion in this question asker. You know, she is just loving what Jesus has done in her life, you know, saying, I've got this best friend and it's clear that this, this love is just pouring out of her. And so I want to just commend, like, continue to bring that joy into every relationship that you have. I mean, that's the kind of beauty that is so attractional to people who don't know the gospel. Cool, yeah. Keep after it. Yeah, and this is really hard, but you know. Yeah, and to the questioner, please reach out. And we'd love to talk more with you specifically about your situation. Either a pastor or our women's director and coordinator would love to connect with you as well. All right, let's jump into this next question. What is the biblical stance on loving people who sin or aren't good for you and setting boundaries with them? Quote-unquote, love like Jesus is everywhere and it seems unclear because Jesus did in fact have boundaries. What do you guys think? And a part of me thinks like if you love like Jesus, you're actually going to have a lot of enemies. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. Oh man. I think this is an awesome question. I actually frequently will tell, part of my role is to work with student ministry and young adult ministry and I'll tell both in those two ministries, I'll tell them, I think it's probably most wise for you to have an 80, 20, 90, 10 ratio. If like 80 or 90% of the people I spend the most time with are Christians and 10 or 20% aren't. And it takes a, I actually say it takes a very special person to have a 70, 30 ratio. Yeah. Or a 60, 40. And don't assume that you are that person. Like we need to be primarily influenced by our Christian community and loving and being loved by our Christian community so that we can be filled up to then go and spread the good news and share the gospel. And you mean specifically like your close friends, right? Because somebody might spend a lot of their time at work with unbelievers. But you're saying like 80% of friends, people who are influenced. In terms of your influence, what's the 90 or 80% of your influences? Like the quantity of influence. Yeah, yeah. The weight of it, yeah. So, those are good boundaries. I think that's the start of the conversation about boundaries. Yep. So, what should we do with people who are sitting in, aren't good for you and sitting, how do we set boundaries? What's another way that we could set boundaries with them? I really do love this question. There's so many ways we can take it. And I think you almost alluded to this, if someone, someone might say they're a Christian, but they never go to church, or someone might say they're a Christian, but they don't follow the word and they're actively living in sin. The Bible would instruct us, like assume that they say who they are, believe it, and go to them and say, like, hey, as a brother, or as a sister, I want to bring this to you and point out sin in your life that I'm concerned about. And you can do that lovingly and there's more guidance on that in scripture obviously of making sure that you check the log in your eye and everything. But if that happens and they continually live in sin, the guidance would be to treat them like a non-believer. Yeah, this is a caveat to the start of the conversation as well, yeah. Which means that they're now somebody that you're trying to share the gospel with, turn to Jesus. They're seen as the 10 or 20%, not the 80%. Yeah. I think there are two extremes on this, right? There's a, hey, I'm never going to put any boundaries up with people and let everyone and anything influence me. And then there's the other end that says, you know, oh, you know, the Bible says that, you know, we should avoid such people from 1st Timothy 3 and like the list that that goes before that is like You know, that's that could be anyone right and both groups will claim their loving like Jesus correct, right? So so how do we avoid maybe both of those extremes? to find the truth here well, I think Yeah It's rightly recognized that the quote-unquote love like Jesus is an easy to say motto without a lot of clarity as to what to do. It's easy to self-define too. Yeah, sure. I'm going to love like Jesus. What does that mean? What that means is what I say it means. Yeah, there's a lot of people today using that to make up their own version of what that means. I'm looking for an example, I think of Mark chapter one, by the way, of Jesus setting boundaries. Jesus retreats from healing people and preaching and all that kind of stuff to go alone to be with his Father. So, Jesus does give good examples, I think, of saying, yeah, there's a really helpful ministry that I could do by continuing to stay here and heal people all day and all night, but that's not what I'm going to do. The best thing for me is to go spend time with my Father. So, I think that's a great example. Yeah. So like you said, there are two extremes and maybe I don't have a super perfect answer to this question, but I think maybe the easiest thing to do is just to rule out the extremes. Yeah. That if you spend all of your time, all of your closest friends or majority of your closest friends are people who are don't love Jesus and are leading you in the wrong direction. That's not healthy. If the opposite is true and all of your friends are people that you go to church with that are Christians, then you're existing in a bubble and you're not on mission. So either one of those extremes is not where you wanna be. You talked about this preaching, it was really good. Yeah, I just got to preach about this recently on Sunday. I said actually in West Michigan, where we're from here, it is easier I think for us to end up in a bubble. A lot of people are born here, raised here, they stay here. So if you get involved in a church and you have a great Christian family, then it's really easy to just, the people that you spend time with during the week, on the weekends, year after year, you can end up in a Christian bubble. And if that's the case, then I think what I said was go to a park or somewhere and make new friends. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, if you have a friend that is in that 80, 90 Christian part of your life, the gospel is what you should be chasing after with them. That can be the guiding factor in your relationship with them and that can help set boundaries. And then if they're in the 10, 20, if they're in your friend group and they don't know Jesus, then share the gospel with them. In either way, the gospel is the thing guiding us and how our relationships are oriented and the boundaries that we set. Yeah. I also think Paul set a really good example for us. He got arrested and then he got to proclaim that to, you know, a judge and maybe that's a good option for you if you're in trouble with the law a lot. No, I'm just kidding. You're saying if you're having a problem sharing the gospel, you should get arrested first. Get arrested first. Okay. Yeah. I got you. Very interesting advice. Uh-huh. This is Master Mitchell, by the way. It's 2024, I feel like I have to say maybe this is a joke. I just want to be clear. I'm joking. Good point, yeah. Awesome, well hey, great questions, everybody. Thanks so much for sending those in. Mitch, Logan, thanks for the conversation, guys. Great stuff, great biblical answers to these questions. Hey, you can always subscribe to That's a Good Question at resoundmedia.cc or wherever you find podcasts. You can also follow Resound Media on Instagram to stay up to date on the latest. Have an awesome week. You can find That's a Good Question at resoundmedia.cc or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Four Staff Values Leadership Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 16, 2023 Whenever we hire a new staff member, the final interview is with the Executive Pastor (me) and the Lead Pastor. This meeting is actually less of an interview and more of an interactive speech. Our goal in this meeting is to clearly communicate, one last time, who we are and what it will be like to join this team. We are strictly focused on the most important indicator of success for our staff: culture-fit. My contribution to this conversation is to share four descriptors of our staff. I have shared these four descriptors many times over the last few years, and I think they are values worth sharing. They may transfer directly to your situation or they may inspire thoughts of how to describe your own staff culture. 1) Truth in Love In my experience, most churches fall to one side or the other of the truth-love spectrum. On the one hand, some churches preach the truth loudly, clearly, and heartlessly. They have their doctrinal i’s dotted and t’s crossed. But from sitting in their pews, you would think they care nothing for the world or for helping the world come to understand and appreciate those truths. On the other hand, some churches try so hard to be seen as preaching and demonstrating love that they capitulate to a worldly definition of love that lacks truth. They work tirelessly to care for people and to avoid offending people. But from sitting in their Sunday worship experiences, you wouldn’t know that the Bible teaches some things that are very offensive to our world. At this church, we seek to live out both truth and love the way Jesus did. We speak the truth loud, clear, and unapologetically. We believe that actually, the most loving thing you can do for someone is to tell them the truth. We also care deeply for people and want to make sure that if they are offended, it is by the truth of the Bible and not our careless words or tone. We bend over backward to extend loving hospitality in any way we can. Not only is this true on Sundays, but this is also true in the office. We do not lie to each other about performance or results. We tell the truth and face hard truths. At the same time, we seek to be one of the most encouraging places you could work. We smile, we say please and thank you, we write encouragement cards, we stop and pray for each other, and we drop what we are doing to pick up a teammate who is down. 2) Hopelessly Optimistic I have been part of some workplaces that are cynical and I have been part of some that are downright pessimistic. When management rolls out a new initiative or goal, the staff rolls their eyes - ‘Here we go again, the strategy-to-inspire of the week.’ When things go wrong, they get down and give up. That’s not how we operate here. The people who work here believe in their bones that what we do matters eternally and they would give their right arm to see us accomplish our goals. If an outsider sat in some of our staff meetings, they might think we are crazy. We talk about serious challenges and outlandish possibilities, and then we pray, clap, cheer, and go do it. When things go wrong, we don’t bicker and blame, we solve it and move forward with joy. We are hopelessly, if not crazily, optimistic. 3) Act our Size You may have heard it said - Act your age. Well, we have another slogan here - act our size. Churches of different sizes act differently. Events or systems that make sense for a church of 200, don’t make sense for a church of 2000, and vice-versa. One size is not better than another, they are simply different, and leaders need to recognize that. In a smaller church, you might hold an after-church potluck where everyone brings a dish to share, and everyone chips in to help set up tables and chairs after the service. In a large church with a commercial kitchen, you have to follow health codes, plan to make sure you have enough food, schedule volunteers to arrange seating, and attend the parking lot. In a larger church, most events are planned 12 months in advance, and there is probably a minimum of 6-month lead time for a sizable event. In a larger church, there is a process of approvals to get events on the calendar and to schedule announcements. In a smaller church, you can plan an event on shorter notice and ask the pastor to make an announcement on Sunday. As our staff makes decisions, we remember to act appropriately to our size, whatever that size might be. 4) Scrappy & Stretchy This is my personal favorite. We are a larger church in a smaller town. The Lord has blessed us and provided for us abundantly, and we have absolutely nothing to complain about. And yet, for our staff who meet with staff of other large churches in the city, it is worth realizing that there are some differences, including financial differences. Because of our context, I think of us as the underdogs. We have to be scrappy. We make the absolute most out of everything we have and we are proud of that fact. This breeds innovation and careful stewardship in ministry. We also let our staff know that we have chosen to invest primarily in them. More valuable than a large ministry budget is having an amazing leader. We trust that if our staff is on the job, then it doesn’t matter how much or little they have to work with, they will make it an opportunity for disciples to be made. Because we are also a rapidly growing church, we face continual change. Our staff have to be able to stretch, flex, and adapt. Some of us have moved offices more than 5 times in the last 3 years. Some of our staff work with 4 or more people in an office designed for 1. We take it all with a smile because God is growing his church and we are blessed to be part of it. I hope that by hearing these staff values, you will be better able to see, describe, and protect your own staff culture. More Blogs You'll Like How To Conduct Staff Reviews Read More How To Create A Church Budget Read More Four Steps to Manageable Sermon-Writing Read More

An Overview of the End Times Sermon Series: The Church Never Preaches On... Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Mark 13:32-37 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. Very cool. So Sarah Jansen is one of our missionaries. And real quick, can we just say hi, Sarah and family? Because they're gonna be watching at some point today. Right now, let's just say it together. Hi, Sarah. Hi, Sarah. You guys are awesome, awesome. Well, welcome to our final message in our six-part series we've been calling The Church Never Preaches On. If you are just joining us for the first time, here's what happened. We asked our congregation, what are topics that you think the church never preaches on? Either topics here at Peace or across the nation. The church submitted a bunch of topics and then voted on the top six. And today, the last day of the series, we're looking at what was clearly the number one most voted topic that people thought the church never preaches on, which we're going to preach on today. And it's this, the church never preaches on an overview of the end times. Before I became a pastor, I was at my previous job and I had this really awkward and kind of intense conversation with this guy on the job. He came at me, he knew I was a Christian, and he said to me, he said, do you really think that Jesus Christ is sitting up there on some cloud and at some point he's just going to like float down to heaven and we're all supposed to worship him? You really think that's going to happen? And he started with kind of just like a mocking tone and then it got intense and kind of condemning because then he turned and said, you know, you really believe that? And I just was kind of looking at him and then he goes, do you realize how stupid that sounds? So don't tell me you actually believe that Christians, how would you answer? Yeah, I said I do believe that I mean, I don't believe he's just sitting on a cloud but I believe he's coming back I Do believe that and I said I'll give you three reasons why I believe that. Number one, it's because he already came from heaven to earth. That's what we get to celebrate every Christmas, the incarnation, that the son of God left heaven, came to earth, and that baby boy grew into the man that would be the savior of all the world as he died upon the cross for my sins and for your sins. That's the first reason. Second thing is because that man, the son of God who died on the cross in our place for our sins Three days after he was dead. He rose again from the dead which leads to kind of the third point that if the Son of God came from heaven to earth Died on a cross in our place for our sins was dead for three days and then rose himself From the dead if that guy says he's coming back, I'm going to believe him. And I said, you know what, let me give you a fourth reason. And I think this might be helpful for some of you as you encounter some opposition to this. I said, yeah, and I believe this. And here's another reason why I'll give you a fourth reason why. Because I don't believe that the future of this big beautiful universe, I don't believe the future of the universe is just to eventually grow dark and lifeless and slowly expand forever into the infinite void. My heart rejects that. I don't believe that. In my heart of hearts, I know that all of this actually matters. All of this is actually leading somewhere. And I believe you believe that too, if you would search the heart of your hearts. Because the Bible says that God has placed eternity into the hearts of men. There's just something about existence that we know this all actually matters. This is all actually leading somewhere. Not to a vast, infinite void of meaninglessness, but this is actually leading somewhere. This was all gonna culminate in something in my heart of hearts I believe that and I believe you do too and that something is The renewal of all things That something is the return of Jesus Christ. So yes, my friend. I do believe that Christ is coming back. I do believe that the King will return And that's what we're gonna look at today. We're gonna look at what Jesus says about the end times So please turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 13 We'll look at verses 32 to 37 if you do want to use up Bibles that we provided that's on page 10 81 But as you're turning there, I'll tell you this church if there is one issue where Bible loving Bible Believing Christians can have a lot of different opinions. It's in the end times. Now, in Mark chapter 13, we see Jesus speak about the end. He speaks about the destruction of the temple. He talks about the great and terrible time of tribulation, which is a great time of trials and suffering. And then he closes up this apocalyptic teaching by speaking about his own epic return. And this is what he says. God's Word Mark chapter 13. We'll read verses 32 to 37. Jesus says this, Mark 13:32-37 32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake.[a] For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants[b] in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows,[c] or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” Amen, this is God's Word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray father in heaven above Lord for whatever and however the end times unfold I pray that by the power of the Spirit by our faith in Jesus You would help us to stand ready to be alert and awake to be vigilant. Holy Spirit, help us to rightly understand the Word of God today. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen. So church and friends, if there's one thing I could tell you today, one main point as you walk away from this morning, it would be this. Christ has announced that He will return, so we must be prepared And as we consider the end times, let's look at two things from our passage. First one is this We'll see that we don't know when the end will happen So we must stand guard and the second thing is that we don't know when the king will return so we must stay Awake, so let's get into the first part here. 1. We don't know when it will happen, So we must stand guard (vv. 32-33) So Jesus and the scriptures say a lot about the end times but not enough to give us a clear timeline where every single Christian agrees. But listen to me, that's not Jesus' prerogative. He doesn't give us all that we want to know, he gives us what we need to know. And in fact, while Jesus was on earth, he wasn't aware of all the details of the end times agenda, but he was clear on the assignments, and that's a model for us. Listen to what Jesus says here. Keep your Bibles open, verse 32. But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come. Okay, so to be on guard, to keep awake, as Jesus says, this means that we need to live our lives in light of the fact that this is all heading somewhere. And we don't know when it's going to happen. So we're reading from Mark chapter 13 right now, but the counterpart to this passage is in Matthew 24. And in that part, Jesus speaks about how people will eventually forget that he's coming back and they're just gonna start living their lives completely ignorant of the fact that Christ is at work and doing something and is going to return. Talks about how there'll be these people who are just distracted by daily life, rather than keeping awake. These are the people who are more concerned about where their next vacation will be, rather than where they will go after they die. They're not living lives in preparation for the end to come or the fact that Christ will return I don't know about you sound like people of our culture Church we don't know when it will happen. So we must stand guard. So here's the question. What is the it? What will the end times? Actually be like so let's get into this. Let's talk about some various end times, we need to discuss what's often seen as the major components of the end times events. And then people will build their theologies around what the Bible reveals as far as these major milestones. So it's mainly these four big things. Number one, the millennium reign of Christ. Christ, mentioned in Revelation chapter 20. This is where Revelation speaks about a 1000 year reign of Christ on earth. Then the second thing is the rapture. This is clearly, easily, culturally the most popular notion of the end times. Books and movies are produced all about the rapture. And we'll get into this, but that teaching primarily comes, at least the word rapture, comes from what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians, but more on that later. So the millennium reign of Christ, the rapture, and then there's the great tribulation. This is noted as a great time of distress upon earth as the world descends into disorder, chaos, and suffering. Kind of seems like we might be at the beginning of that. I don't know. I'm not a prophet. The return of Jesus Christ. Speaking as the great and final return of Christ that Jesus himself said would happen, the return of Christ is what all the end times prophecies and theologies ultimately culminate in. That forever and however it happens, in the end, Christ will return to usher in the great renewal of all things, wiping away every tear and every pain from which we'll be able to live forever gloriously with our Savior and God for all time. Now, when it comes to those four major components, again, the millennium, the rapture, the tribulation, and the return of Christ, the ways that different end times theologies are formulated is in relation to those as far as what they look like, how they play out, and the order of those things. Now, usually what happens is of those four, there's two pairs that get grouped together. Oftentimes the millennium and the return of Christ will get paired together, we'll talk about that. And then the rapture as it relates to the great tribulation. So let's start with the millennium. In Revelation chapter 20, the apostle Paul, I'm sorry, the apostle John, in Revelation chapter 20, the apostle John is given a vision of what is a 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth. And so when we talk about that, there's three primary theologies or categories that get surrounded around this thousand-year reign. Premillennialism, Postmillennialism, and Amillennialism. So premillennialism basically means that Jesus has a sort of first coming that kind of inaugurates his thousand-year reign on earth which concludes with his final and glorious return that ushers in the new heavens and the new earth Then as you can probably bet Postmillennialism means that Jesus return comes after or post the 1,000 year reign and That 1,000 year reign is typically more ushered in by the church in Jesus while not physically He is still ruling and reigning through his church for this thousand years. And then there's amillennialism. Now amillennialism, like atheist, basically means that there's no literal one thousand year reign. Now clearly Revelation chapter 20 speaks of a thousand year reign of Christ. So what amillennialists will do is they'll say that that one thousand year reign, that's just a symbolic term for an extended period of time. Revelation speaks in apocalyptic literature, not everything can be taken literally. The thousand year reign is just an extended period of time for which Christ is ruling and reigning via his church that essentially started with the life, death, resurrection, but then ascension of Jesus to heaven. The church is ushered in, this is the time of the church, that Jesus rules and reigns through his church through an extended period of time, proverbially called a thousand years, which will culminate in his final return." Now, those are three ways that people begin to end the end times as it relates to the millennium. And I will even say, and if you hold a different view, then you understand that there's various branches even within those views. But another way that people categorize the end times, I'm just going to pause right now and just call out something that I know to be true. There's three groups of people in here right now. One group is bored out of their ever-loving mind. Second group is like, hmm, this is interesting. And there's a third group who are listening ever so intently at every single word to make sure I get it right. I love being a pastor. This is great. Just kidding, I really do. So another way people begin to categorize the end times is they think about the rapture as it relates to the great tribulation. Again, the rapture primarily referenced in 1 Thessalonians 4, but then also as it relates to the great tribulation that's mentioned in places like Daniel 12, Matthew 24, and Revelation chapter 7. For these views, we basically have three understandings because Christians really like the number three. Pre-trib, mid-trib, and post-trib rapture. Now this all has to do with whether or not God will allow his people to go through the time known as the tribulation or if they will be raptured that is taken out to avoid the suffering so one of the more common ones is called pre-trib rapture clearly meaning that the church that Christians are raptured before the tribulation pre-tribulation rapture mid-trib mid-trib is where Christians experience partly or half of the tribulation but then are raptured out so they don't experience it in full. But then of course we have the post-trib rapture, where Christians and the church experience the full tribulation, but then we are raptured at its conclusion. Now as you think about those different theologies, these are already assuming that the return of Christ and the rapture are separate things. Now let me just say this real quick. I might... We at Peace Church, we are from the Reformed tradition. I did not grow up in the Reformed tradition. I grew up mainline. I'm a Reformed convert. You all welcomed me in so graciously. So I didn't grow up in a tradition or a church that I don't ever remember hearing about the end times. And it's often noted that the Reformed tradition doesn't have a great emphasis on it as well. But here's what I've come to find out. It's often believed that the Reformed tradition does not believe in the Rapture. Let me just tell you that's not true. Maybe some individuals don't believe in the Rapture, but this notion comes right from the Bible, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. But the notion here that Reformed people often fall into, not fall into, but believe based on Scripture, is that the Rapture and the return of Christ happen at the same time. So let's talk about this. Okay, the word rapture. I don't know about you, but the very first time I heard the word rapture, because I didn't grow up in a tradition that had a heavy emphasis on it, let's see if you remember this. The very first time I remember hearing that word rapture is from the Wizard of Oz. Remember when the scarecrow says, joy, rapture. Okay, moving on. Watch it later and then you can text me. So the word rapture comes from what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians. Now the word rapture comes from the Latin, but the original Greek word here that Paul wrote in, because remember Paul wrote in Greek, the original word is harpizo. And that means to be caught up. That's the word that Paul uses in 1 Thessalonians. Now, interesting note, harpizo is where we get our English word harpoon. If you think about a harpoon that's thrown down, catches something, then we bring it back up. That's kind of a notion there, that harpizo is about being caught up or being like brought up. So, the common word that we use in our vernacular is often the word rapture. Again, that comes out of the Latin tradition, rather than harpizo, which comes from the Greek. But they mean the same thing, and they originate from the very same passage here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. We're going to look at verses 15 to 18. You can turn there if you want, otherwise I'll read it for you. Here's what Paul writes as it relates to what we call the rapture. Verse 15, For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. Left until the coming of the Lord. So Paul is speaking here about the return of Jesus Christ. Verse 16 for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of a command with the voice of the archangel With the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first then we who are alive Who are left will be caught up? Will be harpid zode will be raptured together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air So that we'll always be with the Lord. The notion there is not that we're all hanging out in the sky, but that as Christ is returning, we will meet Him in the air and we join Him in His procession back to earth from which we will be forever together with Jesus. But I love what it says in verse 18. Therefore, encourage one another with these words, because this is something that we should look forward to. This shouldn't fill us with anxiety or fear. This is something exciting that we should long for. Now, when I read this passage, I know many would disagree, but it seems pretty clear to me that this speaks about the one and only return of Jesus Christ, that when that happens, he will descend from the clouds with the sound of the trumpet of God and will be raptured into the air as part of the welcoming party that comes with Christ in his glorious procession And his return to earth Now another passage people will try to will look to draw from Teachings in the rapture is from first Corinthians 15 and even if that is speaking of the rapture listen what it says in verse 52 Says that this will happen in a flash in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet at the last trumpet. So here's another reason why I believe that the rapture happens at the one and only return of Christ, because there's no explicit teaching in scripture that says Christ will return twice. Some people think Christ will return in a sense, at least partially, to rapture his people or to rule and reign for the thousand years, but then he will return again at the final coming where he ushers in the renewal of all things. Now that seems logical and you can put that together from past decisions in scripture, but you have to kind of insert that meaning because there's no explicit teaching that says there's two second comings of Christ. Every time in scripture we hear about the return of Christ, it seems clear to me that there's only one return. But again, for certain end times theologies to work We have to insert that notion of a first return or a partial return in order to make sense of different end times theologies And timelines, so let's just stop here for a second because My Baptist friends blood is already starting to boil So let me say quick three quick things. We at Peace Church, we are gonna have people in every end time category, and I love that. Because here at Peace we are gospel-centered. That we believe the Bible says that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and our job is to share that message, and that's the focus that we center ourselves around. And from that we can have fun, charitable disagreements on secondary issues. But the first thing is that we at Peace Church, we're going to have people in different end times categories. Secondly, there are people here who come from a tradition that had a significant emphasis on this. I did not. That means that we're going to have people here who are far more read up and far more passionate about this than I am, which leads to the third thing, which is probably the hardest thing, is that people in each category are going to complain that I did not do a good good enough job of defending their position. So I will confess to you right now the point I'm making right now is the point that I believe Jesus was making and it's this that we don't know when it will happen. So we must stand guard. Church, I'm here to tell you I am more concerned with being found in Christ. I'm more concerned with sharing the gospel with my neighbor. I'm more concerned with getting my family right before the Lord than I am excited about figuring out a complex series of passages to delineate how they all work together. Now, here's what's true about every End Times theology, even the one that I personally hold. When it comes to the End Times, what you have to do, what every position has to do, is piecemeal it together from various passages while also at the same time discerning what's literal prophecy versus symbolic versus what's already been fulfilled it's very complex I'm not saying it's bad to do I'm just saying it's hard to do and nor am I saying it's a waste of time at all the Bible is written for us to us and so it's part of knowing our Bibles it's fun to do but it's just hard but I'm saying to you exactly what Jesus himself said About that day and time nobody knows only the Father in heaven meaning I Don't believe any of us will fully understand how this is all gonna work out until after it happens and Then on the backside of this we can all stand together and look back and say, oh, that's how it was supposed to happen. And then we turn around and we worship Jesus and we don't worry about it again. So if you were more concerned about figuring out the end times than you are concerned about discipling your kids or your grandkids or sharing the gospel with your neighbor, then you're not heeding the words of Jesus himself. Which brings us to the second point. 2. We don't know when the King will return, so we must stay awake. So Jesus is given this teaching, then he turns to like this quick little parable. Look at verse 34. Jesus says, it's like a man going on a journey and he leaves his home, but he puts his servants in charge, each with his work and he commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore, stay awake for you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning lest he come suddenly and find you asleep and what I say to you I say to all stay awake so it's clear here in this teaching that Jesus is referring to himself as the master and he's going to leave for a while but he will return he says the master leaves the servants with each quote each his own work to clarify Jesus is the master, we are his servants who are in charge until he returns. So my question for you, my friends and fellow Christians, is are you at work? Are you getting to work? Are you attending to your job? Are you staying awake? The question you need to be asking yourself, Christians, is where are you connected or involved or on mission? Where are you serving the church or ministering in the name of Jesus. The question is, what are you actually doing with your faith? Many of us just keep our faith in our back pocket as our little ticket to heaven. That's not how it works. Your faith is part of an assignment that God has given to you to live out until either you go to heaven or Christ comes back. So my question for you is, what are you doing with your faith? I'm more concerned about that answer than where you stand on end times prophecy. We don't know when Christ will return during the day, at night, towards the morning. What Jesus is saying is that there will be no immediate warning. We don't know when it's going to happen, so we need to stay awake. Of course, Jesus is speaking symbolically here. He doesn't mean we can't actually sleep. What he means is that we can't be found lazy. We can't be found not doing our job. We can't be found not engaged in the mission of Christ or the focus of God. Jesus is saying that we all need to be doing our work. So Christian, my big question for you, what are you doing with your faith? To be asleep means that we're more focused on this life without any notion of preparing for Christ to come back. Christians, do you know that Jesus is returning at any moment? And are you prepared for Christ to come back at any moment? Now, let me give you a little something here. You're gonna hear pastors say that you need to prepare for the return of Christ. Let me tool you with something. Your response to that should be, okay, what does that mean to be prepared? Listen, I'm a simple man, I'll give you a simple answer. Here's what it means to be prepared for the return of Christ. It means that when Jesus Christ does return, that you've done everything that you're supposed to do for Him. That moment that Christ descends and you hear that trumpet call, that you don't think to yourself, oh no, oh no, I didn't do this. I didn't get to do this, or I didn't get to do that. Now listen to me, I'm not talking about visiting the Grand Canyon or going to that trip to Switzerland, to my friends who are in Switzerland right now, actually. This means that you did everything that God had called you to do for Him. If Christ was to come back today, what do you wish you would have done for Him and in His name? Because here's what I'm going to tell you, whatever that is, do that now. The time is growing short. The window is closing. Dawn is breaking. The King is coming back. And you need to be prepared for that. And again, that just means when he returns, you don't sit there and think, oh no, I didn't get to do this. Oh no, I didn't tell my co-worker about Jesus. Oh no. You did everything you're supposed to do. That's what it means to be prepared for Christ to come back. So here's what I'll tell you, because I know some of you are wondering where I personally land in all this. So here's what I'll tell you. Ultimately, I am a pan-millennialist. What that means is that for those in Christ, it'll all pan out. Wasn't going to let you off without a dad joke. But seriously, but seriously, with nobody fully knowing, here's what I say to you, we can each be fully convinced in our own minds with our own research of the Bible about how this will play out. And I empower you, I commend you, search the scriptures, search the scriptures. But if even Christ didn't know how it was all going to play out when he was here, if Christ didn't systematically articulate a clear series of prophesied events and their order, then here's what I'd say to you. When it comes to the end times, all of us need to approach this with abundant humility and charity towards other Bible-believing Christians. I will tell you exactly what I believe. I believe Jesus Christ is coming back and we better be found ready and waiting and working for him. We better be found fighting for the kingdom and preparing for the Christ to return. The very last two, the last two, not just pages, but the last two verses of the Bible for me are so profound and they're so sobering and they give us just a great focus. The last two verses of the entire Bible are this. Revelation chapter 22 verses 20 to 21. He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen. So are we in the end times? Well, practically speaking, I guess how it, how you, I guess it depends on how you mark the start of the end times, but here's what I'll tell you. Every day that goes by, we get closer to the end. Every day that goes by is one day closer to the return of Christ. And we need to be prepared for that moment to happen at any time. And so I say with John, the writer of Revelation, I too say, come Lord Jesus. I am ready. I want him to come now. Yes, it's true. The Bible says there's things that need to happen before Christ returns. I'll tell you now, not all those boxes are checked, but it seems to me like those boxes are getting checked pretty quickly these days. I watch for his return. I long for his return. On the one hand, I want him to come back today to put an end to all this madness. I am ready for heaven. I'm only in my 40s, but I am ready for my eternal home. But on the other hand, I have friends and family who have not yet believed on the name Jesus. And so I am thankful for the time that God has given to us that I might share the gospel. And so I will honor Christ with what he says at the end of our passage. And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake. One thing I'm hearing a lot these days is you're hearing a great call from pastors to the church saying, wake up. It's time to wake up, church. I agree with that in a sense, but here's what I'm saying. This is a call not just to wake up to what's happening politically or culturally. That's important. But to wake up means to realize that the end is near and that we are staying on task. That we're not being lazy, but we're being on mission. The return of Christ is going to happen. Jesus himself said, yes, I am coming soon. My friends, Jesus Christ is the son of God who came from heaven to earth that he might be the final and complete sacrifice for your sin and my sin, our past, present, and future sin. And upon the Christ, Jesus paid the penalty in full so that we might be brought back to God with no longer having that sin barrier between us and God. Jesus smashed that down with his life, death, and resurrection so that we could experience the full love of God through the Son. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the guarantee that his promises are true that our salvation is secure. And also that he is coming back again So repent and place your faith in him because the time is growing short Don't get so distracted by life that you forget what's to come Be found watching be found waiting be found working for the kingdom be found rejoicing in and sharing the gospel Don't be found sleeping or distracted watch Stay awake for he is returning. Yes, our King is coming back Amen Now church, we're gonna close with a song that we don't sing very often here at peace But I think it's a really great song to close our time with And so would you please stand and let's sing glorious day Father we come before you we pray Lord in Jesus name That you would help us by the power of the Spirit by the truth of your word Through your love that we would stand ready Lord that we would do all that you're calling us to do Father not in order to earn our salvation But in response to our salvation and in response to the words of Jesus who himself said he is returning. So Father, we long for that glorious day. And Father, as we sing the words here of the gospel again, I pray God that you would send your spirit to descend upon this church here and now, that we'd lift up our voices in one, in unison, as we cry out that Jesus is King, and as we long for the day, the glorious day of his return. Be with us now, Father, in Jesus' name. And everyone said, amen. Church, let's sing together.

PODCAST That's a Good Question How to Navigate Dating as a Godly Man January 23, 2024 Jon Delger & Nate Harney Listen to this Episode Jon So, Hey everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and a part of Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc . That's a Good Question is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. I'm Jon, I serve as a pastor at Peace Church as well as the weekly host of this show. Jon You can always submit questions at peacechurch.cc/questions . Awesome. Well, hey, after a little bit of a delay, we get to come back to part two of our series talking about marriage. And last time we talked about the woman's role in marriage and what scripture has to say about that. Today we're talking about the man's role in marriage and what scripture has to say about that. And I am here with Pastor Nate. Hey, Pastor Nate. Hey, thanks for having me. Great to have you. Pastor Nate is a family pastor at Peace Church. And here at Peace, we got to just host a men's conference this past weekend as well as talk about it in the sermon and so we are primed and excited to get to answer some questions about what God has to say about men's roles. So, Producer Mitchell, we got some questions. Jon Ready to rock? Mitchell Absolutely. Mitchell What does it look like for a godly man to have strength and gentleness? Question #1: What does it look like for a godly man to have strength and gentleness? Jon Great question. So, yeah, I think Scripture portrays both of those, right? It's got, and they seem like contradictory attributes. On the one hand, you know, Scripture calls us to be men who are strong, capable to provide and protect, but also who are gentle, and especially Scripture describes Jesus as gentle, which I think unfortunately has sometimes led to the interesting pictures of Jesus as this dude with lots of product in his hair and very, maybe a little bit feminized, just kind of a very, that kind of a characteristic. But really, scripture portrays both of these aspects where a man is both strong and gentle. Pastor Nate, what do you think? Nate Yeah, that's great. And gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit, so it's something that when we have the Holy Spirit in us, we should see that growing and gaining root in our lives. And we won't do it perfectly, but men should display the fruit of the spirit. So gentleness is a thing that men should do. And I think that that's a very fair question. I also think that it says something that we wonder as men how you can do both, because I don't think they're mutually exclusive. And I don't think they're exclusive in any way actually I would argue you almost can't have one without the other It's not true strength to not be gentle And it's not true gentleness if it's actually just weakness that you know That's not the fruit of the spirit weakness and and being and power isn't just you know isn't Just intrinsically good, but power controlled well done in a godly way That's what the leadership we need for men in our churches and our homes. So, very practically, I do think that that can be tricky to portray both of those at the same time, because we do live in a culture where sometimes gentleness is seen as weakness, and we live in a culture that sometimes strength is seen as bad, no matter how well you do it or how gentle you do it. But for me, I'll just go to the home. What that could look like for me in my life is sometimes when my kids aren't listening to me, I am tempted to put the gentleness aside and go just really heavy into the strength side. And so sometimes the temptation for me is for that to be my voice raising a lot, my tone going to a place that gets negative really fast, and I'm still learning as a family pastor, what does that look like in my home to make sure it's clear that I'm not going to be stepped all over by my kids and that they're not the ones in charge, it's me, but at the same time doing that with all patience and gentleness. That's a daily learning lesson for me. What does that look like for you in your home, Jon, as you are a father of four? How do you lead with strength and gentleness in your home? Jon It looks very imperfect, I'll tell you that. Yeah, I mean, to go back to one of the things you said, yeah, it's like Jesus, strong and gentle, it's the same guy who both flipped over the tables in the temple when these people are totally disregarding God's word, and also who had little children come up and he prayed over them and said, welcome, bring these little children to me. So same guy, yeah, in short, in my home, it looks imperfect. I think as you talked about being strong and gentle, I think sometimes it's a matter of circumstance. Sometimes you're not both at the exact same time. Sometimes different situations call for different things or even different. You know, I think about each of my four kids and, you know, my four kids, you know, call for different things at different times. You know, some of them, you look at them funny and they start crying, right? You know, so, you know, discipline wise and sometimes, you know, it just takes a look or a strong word, whereas other ones, you know, they don't care. You look at them funny and, you know, they need they need some kind of stronger consequence that sort of teach them the difference between right and wrong. So yeah, it's a tough balance. Nate These are the questions where I always think it's hard for me because I want to be able to give a definitive clear answer. Here's exactly what it looks like. And these, I love that you brought up the distinction we see in Jesus. There are times where he definitely shows more of his strong, clear side. And there's times where he shows more of his gentle side. I even I had I had two different people talk to me yesterday It was sanctity of life Sunday at our church yesterday and so I as a family pastor I got to share a little bit of our position of defending and fighting for life in a culture that has really in some dangerous and grotesque ways turned away from that and devalued life. And I actually had two different people say, well, I don't normally see you like that when you seem to get a little intense there. And they weren't saying, wow, I really saw your gentle side. They were saying, well, I saw you kind of come with a hand of strength more. And so I love that you pointed out that in the life of Jesus, we even see that different situations call for a different emphasis. But what's cool about Jesus is we always see he never completely abandons one or the other but there are times where you see him Leaning into one over the other and so yeah I I love that and hearing how that works in your home with your different kids is is Is very cool because I do think while we none of us know perfectly what that looks like If we're filled with the Holy Spirit, we all have some idea of times where we're not showing gentleness or we're not displaying the strength that we're called to. I just think some of these conversations, if you're listening to this podcast right now, you probably know in your head, I have a little bit of a picture of ways I need to improve on the gentleness side. If you're a father or a husband or a man in a workplace or at a school or I know times where I need to step up and show a little bit more strength in a situation. I would say go from just knowing to doing. Do it. Mitchell Alright here we go. Here's the next question. What are ways in which a man should pursue a woman for marriage through dating? How do you start things off? Question #2: What are ways in which a man should pursue a woman for marriage through dating? How do you start things off? Jon I mean, that's, that's, that's, well, yeah, when I was first starting to figure out the answer to that question, I didn't have a clue, unfortunately. So I think, you know, somebody asking that question, I think, you know, praise the Lord, you're in a godly place to even ask that question. How does a Christian approach dating? And that's, that's, that's a great question to be asking. So I think the short answer is you approach it with all of the high level of character that a godly man should. So meaning, you're approaching dating thinking, not how do I have some fun, not how do I have some short-term relationships here that are a good time, but how do I find a wife? How do I find the person I want to spend the rest of my life with and live the way God has called me to live? Unfortunately, I think in our world, dating usually doesn't mean that, but that's what it should mean for a Christian man is how do I find the wife that God has called me to be with for life? Nate Yeah, and the Bible famously doesn't outline an exact way of dating. You even hear jokes about how, are you gonna follow the Ruth and Boaz method where you go, she goes and lays at his feet while he's sleeping, or are you gonna follow the Jacob and Rachel method where, and you could go on and on, but. Jon Or you send somebody else to find. Nate Yeah. So my focus has always been, as I try to walk with young people through this messy, complicated thing that we want to figure out, what does the Bible, what does it say about this? What does it look like to walk through the dating path? Even some people don't even like using the word dating. But what does it look like to go from single to married in a biblical way. I think there are some principles that are wise and that are logical. I know for a fact that the biblical way to going from single to married does not look like the way that modern culture, without the Bible, depicts it and sees it come to fruition today. Because there is a flippancy that the world brings to it where they say, hey, we're gonna have sex, we're not gonna think about each other's feelings, we're not gonna protect each other's hearts, whatever that looks like, we're gonna date multiple people at once, or we're gonna either date so long that we don't even care about getting married, or so short that we don't even take this marriage seriously. So I know it doesn't look like the world, but what I also know is that I've seen some Christians who I think with good intention have seen where the Bible goes, I don't know where the biblical thing is, but I'm just going to try to do the opposite of the world. I remember one time being told by, I think, a very well-meaning pastor, you should never date anyone unless you know that you're going to marry them. And I took that to heart, and I thought, okay, that's all right. So then when I would meet a young woman, my first thought would be, can I marry this person? And I usually wouldn't know right away because I wouldn't know them at all. And so I think, how do I get to know them? Well, I can't get to know them unless I know I'm going to marry them. So now I'm in a real strange predicament. So I think there can even be kind of a reactive response to go, we want to be the opposite of the world, but I think the biblical wisdom brings us somewhere in between those two extremes. Jon Yeah, I'll tell you what, since having daughters, I'm totally in favor of arranged marriages. I think that's gold. I think they had it figured out back then. Yeah, and actually, I should clarify, so I laughed earlier and talked about how I didn't have a clue when I first started dating. I actually, this is just God's grace. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, but when I was, I actually met and started dating my wife at 13 years old, and now we're married. So that's just, that's God's grace, but I should just clarify. You waited a while to get married first. We waited a little while, yeah. We were maybe 15, no, I'm just kidding. We waited a while to get married, but yeah, I should clarify. That's what I mean when I say at that age, I had no idea what I was doing. It was God's grace that led me through. But yeah, hopefully, and I wouldn't recommend that model to others, but yeah, fear to place. Yeah, I asked that question, how do I do marriage in a godly way? And I think by having the right character, by not sleeping around, by having the right focus on what is the goal, and the goal is to get married, you've actually, I don't want to take us too far down this path, but you actually went to a college and had some friends where it was highly promoted of like courting versus dating. Nate Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Jon Do you mind saying a quick word about that? Nate Yeah, yeah, that's where I'll tell you one story. I had a buddy, I won't use his name, but there was a young woman that was at our Bible school that he thought would make a great wife. Now, he had never spoken to her before and didn't know her personally at all, but what he did is he found through some of her friends, he found out about her parents, and so he called her father and asked her father for permission to date his daughter, or to court his daughter, he wouldn't have used date, and what ended up happening is the dad called his daughter and said, hey, tell me about this guy that's in your life, and she said, I've never talked to that guy, I don't know that guy, and then it ended up actually leading to them thinking that he was some form of a stalker, or it went south really fast. So yeah, this is tough stuff, I guess. But yeah, again, when I just alluded to the truth is somewhere in the middle. I think just some very wise, godly principles for going from single to going to married is to, you know, as you develop some of those relationships, whatever you want to call it, courting, dating, to make sure that—I love what you said. The goal is marriage. I think that's clear. We don't approach this flippantly at all because— Jon I actually, when I was in high school, my youth pastor at the time said an incredibly wise thing to me that has stuck with me. He said, if you're in a dating relationship right now, it will only end in one of three ways. You will get married, you will break up, or you will die. Those are the only ways out of this current situation. And if you think about that, you realize, okay, yeah, I shouldn't really, like, screw around with this. There's only a couple of ways for this to end. And so, you know, just take this seriously and think about, do I want it to end in marriage? Because if not, it's going to end in a breakup or one of us dying. So, yes. Nate And I think that's very wise to understand that's the end, that's the end result. It's either going to be one of those three things, but also there's a process to get there, and if you get to a time where you think, you know what, I don't believe that we are the right fit, where I'm speaking from the man's perspective, because this is kind of what our church has been focusing on. So as a young man, if you think either, A, this is not the right fit, I don't see us being two becoming one, I don't see a covenant of marriage being the right path forward. If you hit that point, I would say now's the time for you to be honest, and it's going to be hard, and it's going to hurt, but you have to have an honest conversation. And if it's not heading towards marriage, I don't think it's fair to continue the dating relationship. At the same time, I also think that it's okay for you to have a little bit of time to try to figure that out, whether that's through some form of dating or courtship or whatever you want to call it, there is a process to get from single to married, and that's okay for it to be processed. I did have a time where I was at an ultra-conservative church and I started dating a young woman and quickly it became apparent that it wasn't going to lead to marriage. So I thought I was doing the godly thing of ending the dating relationship. I try to be really kind but really honest, but I actually ended up getting called in from an elder and saying, why did you ever start this relationship if you weren't gonna see it through. And I actually thought that, I really respected our elders and that man who brought me in is a great and wise man, but as I've gotten older, I disagree with his take on how that played out, because I think it would have been a shame for me to continue a dating relationship into a lifelong covenant of marriage if it didn't seem that God was bringing us together for that one very special relationship, that lifelong covenant of marriage. And so I just say use every piece of biblical wisdom that you can, because the road is tricky, but it's worth it too. If God is bringing you into a covenant of marriage, it is totally worth it as you try to navigate the biblical path to going from single to married. Jon So the tradition of having some time out for dinner to get to know each other before you really decide if this is your spouse for life, that's a good general tradition, and yet unfortunately the world is taking dating to an unhealthy place. So yeah, I think that's kind of our summary. Christians need to figure out that place of, yep, that's a good process to walk through, get to know somebody to figure out if they are the person that you're called to be with for life. Just don't do it in the world's way. Nate Absolutely. Mitchell Sweet. Let's jump into these two questions. What would you say to men who abuse the passage of scripture that asks women to submit? And what would you say to men who would rather give up their call to lead to their wives? Question #3: What would you say to men who abuse the passage of scripture that asks women to submit? And what would you say to men who would rather give up their call to lead to their wives? Jon So the question is saying both sides, right? Men who take the passage and unfortunately land on the side of domineering, of being aggressive, and then the flip side of those who end up being passive. Yeah, so unfortunately I think throughout the history of relationships between men and women I think there has been a lot of that where men have been domineering and aggressive and not shown the sort of gentleness that they should towards their wives. That's true. Abuse has happened a lot throughout history, but it's also happened now. It happens currently right now. So to a man who is abusing scripture in order to abuse his wife, I mean, one of the things I want to say sort of simply is just, hey, look at the context. You know, like read the rest of the Bible. You're really missing it if you're using one verse like that to domineer your wife. You're missing the rest of what the Bible says about how you're supposed to be a loving, serving, sacrificial husband. Nate And I would say the same thing to a husband who's being too passive and not stepping up into leadership. Look at what the Bible says, because I do think that there are times where men on both sides, whether your temptation is to be overbearing and be domineering in a way that goes beyond what the Bible is in any way calling men to, or the opposite, when there's such passivity that it's very clear you are not following the Bible's call to be a leader in your home, to be the head of your home. I believe more guys in both of those boats know exactly what's going on in their hearts than they like to admit. I think there are men who are probably listening to this right now who could say, I know what side I'm more tempted, I'm more likely to err on. And it's easy, whatever side you err on, it's easy to make a caricature and to point out all the wrongs on the other side. I've had seasons where I'm being a passive husband, where I just pat myself on the back because I'm not one of those mean, nasty, bully husbands who are telling their wives they need to submit and being in charge, large and in charge. And I've had times and other circumstances where I am being domineering, but I say, well, at least I'm not being like those passive, spineless guys who don't have, but all to say, at least my own experience, and that's one of the only things I can speak out of when it comes to experience is my own, is I've known in both of those times, I've known what I'm doing. The Holy Spirit has been convicting me, and at the end of the day, what I need to do is get in alignment with the scriptures whether it's either side of an error And I know that sometimes it's tricky there. I'm not trying to belittle this question It's tricky sometimes to know my being too passive here my being am I being is this crossing the line into? Being domineering in a way that the Bible is not calling me to But I think in the majority of cases, the Holy Spirit in us, and as long as we're reading the scriptures, we know the adjustment, we just got to make the adjustment. Yeah, totally. Jon And if you feel like you can't see that, then hopefully you've got some people in your lives you can ask. Ask some brothers, what do you see? Do you think I'm too passive? Do you think I'm too aggressive? I'll also say, because I think a lot of the cultural movement in our world is towards men being more passive, if you find yourself on that side and you're looking for steps to take from being a passive husband to being a more active, godly leadership sort of husband, the first step is not to tell your wife what to do. I think that could be just like a quick caricature that people can get wrong in their mind and be like, oh, I'm supposed to be the leader. I mean, I'm supposed to boss people around. And that's not the first step. The first step, I would say, is to ask yourself, how do I better contribute to the spiritual health of my home? Think about taking a step like, have I read the Bible at dinnertime recently? Have I prayed over my family? Have I asked my wife how I can pray for her? Some of those kind of steps are the first steps towards leadership, leading your family to be a family that's aligned with the Lord, rather than saying, all right, I'm going to start giving out orders. Nate That's very wise. I love the practicality you started with there, too, of getting in community, because having guys around you, I've had guys in my life who have been able to point out which side I'm erring on and help align me to the biblical proper the way of biblical wisdom and because I you know I I I come back to a lot of the Holy Spirit convicts and speaks to you and the eye for me the way that the Holy Spirit convicts me the most is by bringing the scriptures to mind of what biblical wisdom is and so Get around a bunch of guys who are guys that you can say that's what I want to be like, that's the kind of husband I want to be, that's the kind of dad I want to be, that's the kind of man of God I want to be, and get around those guys and get into the scriptures with them and on your own, because that's going to help you to know what true biblical leadership in the home actually looks like. Mitchell Great, I think I've got one more question, if you guys are up for that. Here 's our last question. What would you say to a husband who would say, what if my wife knows more about the Bible than me or is more spiritual than me, how can I lead her? Question #4: What would you say to a husband who would say, what if my wife knows more about the Bible than me or is more spiritual than me, how can I lead her? Jon Great question. I think that's actually become a fairly common occurrence in our world. I talk to a lot of families that are in that situation. Nate I got two things off the bat that I would say. I encounter that conversation a lot.This makes sense, but sadly a lot of the time it is wives coming to the pastors here saying, what do I do about this situation where I study the Bible a lot more. I know more of the Scripture. How do I lead and guide my husband? But I love that this is a man asking this question. I love it from that perspective. I would say two things. Number one, I'd say you have a challenge ahead because it's time to get into the Word. It's time to learn, get in a men's Bible study, start reading the Word because I love that that man understands that there is something here where you go, hey, there's some practical reality to the fact that it's going to be hard for me to be the spiritual leader in my home if I don't know what the Bible says and if my wife is more well-read on the scriptures, if she wants to discuss theology with somebody, but it can't be me. So there's a practical challenge there. And that's going to take time. That's a process. But start today. Get in a Bible study. Get a study Bible. Set a time in the morning or evening where you get into the Word. Tell your wife about what you're reading. You're going to find most of the time your wife is going to be excited that you're trying, even in a way that maybe if you don't get into the scriptures as in-depth as she does in this season, she's going to love just to hear what you're learning, what you're wrestling with. So that's the first, is like really practically you've got a challenge ahead, and that's going to take time. But I think there's one thing you can do overnight, and that might be just say to yourself, hey, I'm going to learn the more in-depth things of God's word. But I would guess most men who have been around, if you've heard a sermon, if you've read the Bible at all, you know some of the basics, but you're just not putting them into practice. Start that right now. Go, okay, I'm gonna learn some of the biblical foundations of this stuff, but I know doing the dishes for my wife is, at times, and sacrificially helping her with things. I know speaking words of encouragement and blessing to her. I know that's good I know that being calm and patient gentle and strong I know so what's neat is like you probably know more than you like to think I still remember I Grew up with a dad as a pastor and when I went off to start getting my ministry training After the first couple weeks, I came back to my dad and I said dad you never taught me. I'm taking these Old Testament tests and I'm studying systematic theology and you didn't teach me all these terms and you didn't help me memorize all of these genealogies. Like what? You never taught me anything. And I really was actually kind of heated with him. And he said, I taught you a lot more than you realize. Yeah, you got to learn some of the more in-depth stuff, but you know the basics. And that proved to be true over time. I had to get caught up a little bit because I wasn't ever in Bible quiz bowls. And part of it is my dad, even as a pastor, he did not grow up in the church. And so he was kind of figuring it out as he went. What does it look like to, you know, we didn't do, some people would have been shocked to hear we didn't do Bible memorization challenges in our home and we didn't do a 30-minute family devotional time before dinner. But he did. He taught me the basics. I knew the basics. And I think most men, get into a church, start reading your Bible, and in one sense the basics are more simple than you might realize of what it means to follow Jesus, and you have time to learn those complex theological truths that your wife longs for you to be able to talk to her about and be able to lead her in. Jon One of the things I would want to say is just to the mentality, I think, of a man who's in this situation. I think it'd be easy, and I think this probably happens to most men who end up in this situation, you think, all right, my wife is more spiritually mature than me, and so you just kind of shut down. And you're like, well, I've lost the battle, I'm not even gonna try to play this game, I'm just gonna admit defeat and just kind of live in that spot. But that's not the answer. You gotta sort of shift gears in your mind and realize, all right, God has called me to this, even if I'm behind, even if this kind of stinks because I feel sort of made small or inferior to my wife in this situation, you know what? It doesn't matter. God has called me to this and I'm gonna do this. And so turn that corner, get into men's Bible study, start reading the Bible, start praying. You don't have to be a theology genius. You don't need a college degree in the Bible to lead your home, but jump in, embrace it, start learning and growing and practicing, especially the thing, like you mentioned, you probably already know some of the most basic parts of what it means to be a godly man in the home. So jump in and start doing it. Nate Amen, I love that. And so men, hear this message from Pastor Jon and myself. You can do this. You can lead in your home. It'll be challenging, but it'll be totally worth it. But start now. You can do this. And if you're listening to this podcast, you're well on your way. You're trying, you're learning, you're growing. Even if your wife told you to listen to this, you can start doing this. We believe in you, we're here for you, we support you guys. Jon That's right, amen. Awesome, well hey, thanks everybody for listening. Have an awesome week. Have an awesome week. You can find That's a Good Question at resoundmedia.cc or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Missional Decline vs. The Word of God Sermon Series: Withstand Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Ephesians 6:17B-20 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, amen. Amen. So, church, the final instructions that Jesus Christ gave us before he returned to heaven was to go and make disciples. And we call this the Great Commission. That's the Great Commission. about social justice, before we talk about feeding the poor, before we talk about orphan care, we have to talk about what Jesus Christ first told us to do. His mission for us was to go and make disciples. Are we supposed to care for the welfare of the city? Yes. Are we to love the oppressed and the forgotten? Yes. Are we to care for the downtrodden and care for those who are imprisoned? Yes, of course we are, but our primary calling, the one that Jesus gave us, is very simply this, go and make disciples. "Our primary calling, the one that Jesus gave us, is very simply this, go and make disciples" Because, I think I know this and I think you know this, the more people who follow Jesus, the more love and care will happen in this world. A poll found that 75% of professing Christians could not explain what the Great Commission was. And 43% of Christians, only 43%, let's clarify, that's sub 50%, only 43% of Christians believed that missions was about spreading the gospel. The country and our world are going down the drain not because Christians don't love God, not because Christians don't love others. It's because we've forgotten the assignment. We've forgotten what we're actually supposed to be doing. Our mission is to go and make disciples. And so today as we close up our series on spiritual warfare, We're going to be talking about missional decline versus the Word of God. Church, you need to hear me on this. The devil is advancing in his mission because Christians are apathetic about ours. Would you please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians, chapter 6. If you've been with us for the series, you know that's where we are at. So the missional decline that we have as Christians, as you're turning there, let me share a few things, the missional decline that we have as Christians, I believe, is because we're not engaged in the spiritual battle that God has equipped us to fight. We are not on mission. Now, this does not mean, let me clarify, this does not mean that every person is destined to be a street evangelist. Not every single Christian is called to go to a third world country to be a missionary. But it does mean that we are to make disciples, that we are to share the good news with others. But for many of us, we need to simply start with our kids and grandkids. If trends continue, those who say that they have no religious affiliation will reach the majority in America by 2070. And the number of Muslims in the United States is expected to double by 2050. This is all happening while at the same time Christianity is on a steady decrease. And it's because Christians, it's not just because Christians aren't living on mission, as many of us aren't even living for God, let alone fighting the battles of our time. And yet this is what God's word calls us to do. This is what Jesus commissioned us to do. Now, if you're just joining us, we are closing up a series today. And this letter, Ephesians, is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote, and he wrote it from prison. And he's telling Christians in this church called Ephesus, he's telling them about Christian faith and Christian doctrine, and he's also telling about how to live out this Christian life, what the Christian ethic is like. But then he closes up with this very profound call to arms, a spiritual call to arms. Because that's what we are to do. We are to stand, withstand, stand and fight against the evil of our day. And God has given us armor to do this, spiritual armor. And where we have been talking about defensive armor, today we are talking about the weapon that we have. Today, we're talking about the offense. And so with that, would you hear God's word? Ephesians chapter 6, we'll start at the last half of verse 17 and we'll go to verse 20. So would you hear God's word? Ephesians 6:17B-20 And take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the Lord's people. Pray for me also that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. Amen. This is God's word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father in heaven above, would you please be with us now to help us to know and to do your will? We ask that you would continue to send out your holy spirits to be poured out upon us to illuminate the scriptures for us here today that we might live more fully for you and more ready for the battles around us more on mission. And we ask these things in Jesus' precious name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. Church, with everything we have to focus on today, let me give you one thing, one thing that we're going to unpack throughout the morning, and it's this. Your effectiveness in spiritual warfare is connected to your depth of spiritual intimacy. Your effectiveness in spiritual warfare is connected to your depth of spiritual intimacy. We're going to cover a lot here today, so we're actually going to break our time into two different parts here. We're first going to look at our effectiveness in spiritual warfare, and then we're going to talk about deepening our spiritual intimacy. And we've got a lot to cover, time's a waste, so let's get into it. The prevailing over the enemy comes through the Truth (v.17) The power of prayer comes through the Spirit (v.18) The purpose of the church comes through the Gospel (vv. 19-20) 1. The prevailing over the enemy comes through the Truth (v.17) Under our first section, effectiveness in spiritual warfare, the first thing we're going to look at is this. the prevailing over the enemy comes through truth. Ephesians 6, 17 says, and take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And so there it is. Week five of this sermon series, we've been talking about all the pieces of armor, and today we are talking about our weapon. We have the belt of truth, we have the breastplate of righteousness, we have gospel shoes, we have the shield of faith. We have the helmet of salvation and now the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Now, when Paul wrote this, they have the Old Testament and Paul was literally part of the group that was writing the New Testament as he wrote this. But now that we have the complete canon, the completed scriptures, what we're talking about here is the Bible the sword of the Spirit. God's Word is our weapon. God's truth is how we prevail. Many of you know a guy in our church named Mr. Leeman. Mr. Leeman is a member of our church. He was actually my high school gym teacher. And I remember PE with Mr. Leeman. I remember when I was in high school there was this very very popular t-shirt that all the all the athletes would wear And it said it said defense wins games And I remember mr. Lehman one time in PE. He said to everyone Defense doesn't win games Defense is important defense stops the other team from winning, but offense wins games because offense puts points on the board. Now listen God has given us some powerful pieces of armor for our defense So we can withstand the onslaught of the enemy, but our mission is achieved through God's Word We prevail against the devil we prevail against demons we prevail against the demonic Forces influencing our world listen to me Not through love but through truth. Truth in love, of course. Many of you remember that story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by the devil. Who remembers that story? Alright, then you will remember. When Jesus was being tempted by the devil, let me ask you, did Jesus overcome by loving the devil? Did Jesus love His way out of temptation? No, Jesus stood his ground and he refuted the temptations of the devil through Scripture. Jesus Christ quoted Deuteronomy three different times to combat the temptations of the devil. Deuteronomy, which is one of the most controversial books in the Bible, a lot of stuff in there people take issue with, but that was the Bible, that was the book of the Bible that Jesus uses to stand his ground. Jesus overcame the attack and temptation of the devil, not through the power of love, but through the truth of God's word. With every attack, Jesus refuted those attacks by speaking truth. He had it in his heart and he intimately knew the scriptures and so his sword was speaking God's Word. "Now listen, we need to intimately know the Scriptures just like Jesus did. That's how we stand ready with the Word of God. Not because we have the Bible in our hand and not because we have the Bible app on our phones, but because we have the Word of God in our hearts." This is how we discern and destroy the lies of the enemy, through God's Word. This is how we overcome the brokenness of our culture. This is how we discern a godly worldview versus a worldly understanding of the world. We filter these things through God's truth, through God's word. This is why we must know the scriptures. This is why we must apply the scriptures. When you're watching a movie and they're saying things, what does the Bible say about it? What is the biblical worldview? How does that help you interpret the message of this world? We said this before. Here's a great exercise for you. When you're out driving and you see a billboard, I want you to think to yourself, what is the spiritual message behind that? And then you think about that spiritual message and then you compare it to what the Bible says, the Bible's message. This is one of the ways that yes, we wear the belt of truth, but this is one of the ways we destroy the lies of the enemy because we refute the enemy's lies with the truth. I do this with my 16-year-old daughter, she's probably annoyed by this, but we watch a movie or a show together, if they say something that's quote-unquote profound, I'm going to pause it and we're going to have a conversation. How does that line up to what God's truth tells us? Is this a worldly message or is this a godly message? This is how we discern the lies of the enemy, by swinging the sword of the Spirit to cut through the lies, breaking the brokenness of our culture. This is why we must know the truth so we can know when we're lied to because the prevailing over the enemy comes through truth. Speaking scripture, sharing God's truth. And the second thing we see is that the power of prayer comes through the Spirit. 2. The power of prayer comes through the Spirit (v.18) So check this out. Paul goes from talking about the sword of the spirit to talking about praying in the Spirit. Verse 18 says, and pray in the Spirit on all kinds of occasions, pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Not too long ago, I was ministering to this guy and I was trying to share the Gospel with him. And, I could tell the conversation really wasn't going anywhere productive, so I thought, you know, let's just shelve this conversation, we'll revisit it at a different time. And so I said to him, I just said, hey, listen man, I know you're not a praying man, but can I just say a prayer for you? And he said to me, and he was kind about it, but he said to me, he's like, no, no, no, man, I pray, I just do it my own way. Now listen, I know there's going to be some people who are in here and who can hear my voice whose knee-jerk, heartfelt reaction is to say, aw, that's nice, just let him pray in his own way. Now I'm going to say something that I know is going to come across as offensive, but you don't get to pray however you want. You get to pray wherever you want, whether that's in a deer blind or in the minivan, but we pray in the Spirit. Listen, Jesus didn't say to us, just go ahead and connect with God in any way that you want. Whatever way that feels good to you, you just go ahead and do it that way. That is not a Gospel message. That is not In fact, when Jesus' disciples asked Him, Jesus, how do we pray? Do you know how Christ responded? He didn't say, in whatever way you want, in whatever way you feel comfortable with. No, no, no. Jesus, our humble and masterful teacher, what He said to us is like, okay, boys, when you pray, pray like this. And then Jesus taught them, and the scriptures now teach us how to pray that we pray to God through the power of the spirits the Lord's Prayer starts out our father I Love what Paul says here listen to the second half of verse 18. He says with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for the Lord's people Why because we are a church and that means we're a family. We're on mission together and we need to be praying for each other. Please hear me on something. Your prayers are not powerful because you sound eloquent. Your prayers are not powerful even because you sound passionate. Your prayers are not powerful because you sound like a pastor or you sound like a priest. Your prayers are powerful when we pray in the Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit working through us that makes our prayers powerful when we pray in the Spirit through the name of Jesus to God in heaven now 3. The purpose of the church comes through the Gospel (vv. 19-20) Third thing we're look at is this is The purpose of the church comes through the gospel we need prayer But we have to know what our purpose is The purpose of the church comes through the gospel listen to what Paul says here in the beginning of verse 19 Pray also for me. Now, there were three words in there that for many of us who come from a quiet, conservative, reformed background, there's three words in there that we just do not have the strength to utter. Do you know what they are? Pray for me. There are too many of us who don't want other people praying for us. In fact, as a pastor, I get so many prayer requests, and I don't mean to call anyone out here, I'm not calling anyone out by name, but as a pastor, I'll get prayer requests and people will say something like this. I get this every now and again, probably too often. They'll say this, they'll say, pastor, you can pray, but I don't want it on the prayer chain. Listen, I know that it puts you in a place of vulnerability to let people pray for you, but let me remind you what we started off by saying, that your effectiveness in spiritual warfare is connected to your depth of spiritual intimacy. There's no victory without running the risk of getting hurt, and there's no intimacy without vulnerability. I want to ask you, how effective do you think you can really be in fighting the battles before you if you don't have people praying for you? Or let me say it another way. Let me say it like this. If you don't want more people praying for you, then I can only assume it's because you don't believe in the power of prayer. Because if you believed in the power of prayer, you'd want the entire church praying for you. Now listen, I'm a pastor and I get that some things are sensitive and there's a time and a place to let other people know. I get the notion of being sensitive, but far too often it's not about being sensitive, it's about being secretive. Don't do that. Don't do that. This isn't just a corporate gathering. This is a family reunion that we have once a week. And we need to get together and we need to pray for one another. And when you've got things going on in your life, you need to let your church family pray for you. If you don't, you're robbing them of the blessing of praying for you and you're robbing yourself of the power that comes with those people praying for you. And I'll just tell you right now, here's what I've come to realize. If the Apostle Paul himself can ask for prayer, so should we. I knew you had it in you. I'll tell you, I'll go ahead and model this. As your pastor, as your brother in Christ, would you please pray for me? Would you pray for my marriage, that it remains strong? Would you pray that my kids love Jesus and the church all throughout my time as a pastor? And if you want to pray for me, verses 19 and 20 give you a great script if you want to pray for me or any of your pastors. It says, pray for me also that when I speak, words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should, that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. Now don't get tripped up on this word mystery. It's a beautiful word. We see it all over scripture. It's a beautiful word that reminds us that no matter how well of defined theology and doctrine we have, there will always be deep things of God we could never understand. This is one of the things I love about the Christian faith is we get knowledge and wonder. They don't compete with one another. They are two sides of a beautiful coin. But did you notice here in verses 19 and 20, if you got your Bibles open, I hope you noticed this. What does Paul pray for here? Notice he does not pray to get out of prison. He does not pray that the Ephesians will bring equality to their community. He doesn't even pray that all the tithes and offerings will come in. What does he pray for? He prays that he will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. He prays that the church will pray, he hopes that the church will pray for him so that he will boldly declare the gospel. Why? Because Paul knew the assignment. And the assignment was not to get out of your pain and troubles. The assignment was to glorify God by making disciples. We can't do that if we don't stay in step with the Spirit and stay intimate with God's Word. He prays that he'll be effective in proclaiming the Gospel because Paul knew the assignment and Paul knew that he was in spiritual warfare. He knew this was a battle. And Paul wants to proclaim the Gospel not because it's his pet project. Paul wants to proclaim the gospel, not because he's a conservative evangelical. Paul wants to proclaim the gospel because that is the mission. That is what Christ told us to do. That's the purpose of the church. This is what we are to do. This is what we are about. We are a gospel people, and the gospel is the center of spiritual warfare. I know a lot of Christians out there who are doing a lot of good and gospel work, good kingdom work, but they're trying to do it apart from the gospel. Because here's what happens when you step into the gospel, when you make the gospel the heart of what you're going to do, you're going to feel the attacks. The devil, the devil is completely fine with you feeding people, but not sharing the gospel with them. Because the devil is completely fine with you making people comfortable on their way to hell. It's the gospel that makes us enter into the war. It's sharing the gospel is when the attacks come. And let me remind you, this is the message the world needs to hear, and the devil hates. The gospel is this, that God so loved the world that he wasn't going to allow us to wallow in our own sin. But he sent his son to die on a Roman cross, in our place, to take the punishment for our sins. Every time you look at a cross, you need to be reminded that should have been you up there. That should have been you, but Jesus took your place, dying, crucified, naked, taking the sins of the world, taking your sins and my sins. And when he died, that was the full payment for every sin you would have ever committed. And he died, and on the third day he rose again. And his rising from the dead was the guarantee of not just our new life, not just our eternal life, but the promise that we could be brought back into relationship with God again forever. And this is a truth that changes people. This is a truth that highlights a love that the world is longing to hear. This is why it's our mission to make disciples so that they will know the truth and the truth will set them but will never be effective in our spiritual war if we don't put first things first if we don't put the marching orders of Christ as our highest priority if we are to be effective in spiritual warfare then we have to deepen our spiritual intimacy now here's what I mean by this. Not intimate as in romantic, but intimate as in having a deep and personal knowledge, experience, and desire for the things of God. Simply put, too many Christians are not winning the spiritual war because they are too surface level. Too many Christians are shallow Christians. You were baptized as a baby, but you spiritually stayed there. You never grew up spiritually. Far too many Christians, the only Bible they ever actually read are the out-of-context verses printed on our neat decorations that we get from Hobby Lobby. Literally on the surface of our walls, thus ironically showing the surface level Christians are not what God has called you to be. He's called us to deepen our heart for him deepen our love for one another Deepen our passion to share the gospel of the world Deepen God's Word in our hearts. Let me leave you with a few challenges as we talk about deepening our spiritual intimacy first one is this is Does intimate describe your knowledge of God's word? Notice I didn't say academic, notice I didn't say exhaustive. I said intimate. Does intimate describe your knowledge of God's word? As we look at carrying the spirit, I guarantee you are more effective with a weapon the more familiar you are with it. Whether that goes through swords or guns or whatever. As we look at carrying the sword of the spirit, we need to ask, do you even know God's word? If you don't, you may have defensive armor, but you won't win the battles, because truth is how we overcome the enemy. If we're being lied to, if we are being conditioned into an ungodly worldview, if we have an image of ourself or humanity that's not from God, then I'm telling you now, it's truth. That's how we overcome. But don't lose the analogy here. There's a reason Paul chose a sword to talk about the Word of God. Don't lose the analogy here. I don't want to get too graphic, but you have to be up close and personal to use a sword. If you know what I'm talking about. You have to be up close and personal for a sword to do its job. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 says this, it says, For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. Listen, a sword cuts viciously, but intimately. A sword is meant to be stabbed. It is meant to enter into you. It is meant to penetrate you. It doesn't just scrape us, it enters into us. That's how a sword does its job, and that's how the Word of God does its job in the followers of Christ. You can't just have it in your hand. It has to be piercing your hearts. To be intimate with God's Word, the sword of the Spirit, means that you need to let it sink into you, challenging you, cutting out the sin, or as Hebrew says, discerning the thoughts and the intentions of your heart, calling you out when you go wayward or when you want to use the Word of God for your own personal benefit rather than to glorify God, when you want to use the Word of God to shut someone down instead of build them up. The sword of the Spirit can't just be at your side. Even Satan quoted the Bible. Rather you need it to be in a deeper, more personal place. As Psalm 119 says, I have stored up your word in my hearts. The sword of the Spirit can't be just at your side, not even just in your hand. It literally has to be in your heart. So read your Bibles and don't quote the Bible just to win in arguments, but to build someone up, redeeming them from the realm of darkness. And along with God's Word, let's talk about the author of God's Word, the Holy Spirit. Let me ask you this, does intimate describe your relationship with God's spirit? The Holy Spirit is not some impersonal force. He's not the detached power of God. The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God. He speaks, He moves, He, not an it, He fills us, fuels us, working on us from the inside out. We are to lean into Him. We are to have fellowship with Him. Do you press into Him? When you pray, do you do so knowing that the Spirit is present with you? When you are angered or frustrated, do you know that the Spirit is still within you? When you read scriptures, do you know that that's the Holy Spirit speaking to you? Christians, we can't just know about the Holy Spirit. We need to have an intimate fellowship with Him where He works with us, in us, from the inside out, transforming us, not just into a good person, but transforming us into the image of Christ. Christians, remember, if you're not being attacked, it's probably because you're not in the battle. But when you choose to step in, the attacks will come. But greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. This is why we need the Holy Spirit, because when the attacks come, He's our power and He is our comforter. And Jesus told us that we'd be clothed in power. Did you know he was talking about the Holy Spirit? So does intimate describe your relationship with God's Spirit and we'll close up by looking at this does intimate describe your passion for God's message. Does intimate describe your passion for God's message. So today is st. Patrick's Day, and I know there's some debate, but this is this is a green ish shirt So don't pinch me And when it comes to st. Patrick's Day, there's a lot of legend around st. Patrick, but there's There's a lot of fact to We know we know he was a real person. We have some of his writings. He was a real person who lived around 400 ad Now st. Patrick was not originally from Ireland. Did you know that he was actually from Britain? But he did come from a Christian family. And at age 16, what happens is that Patrick was kidnapped and brought into slavery in Ireland, where he was held captive as a slave for six years. After six years, he actually escaped and he returned back to his native Britain. And later on when he was reflecting on this and writing about his time in bondage, time as a slave, Patrick told about how it took bondage for him to realize the power of faith. He went on to say things like that, he went on to describe how it was in his captivity that God captured his heart. Well Patrick did escape his slavery after six years and at 22 he returned back to Britain, but not long after returning home, Patrick had a dream that he believed was from God. A dream that he was to return back to Ireland, not as a slave, but as a missionary. He was to return back to the place he escaped from to bring the gospel. Patrick went on to become the first, he went on first to become a deacon, and then he went on to become the first bishop of Ireland, which was also the first bishop of a country outside the Roman Empire. Patrick was one of the first to bring the gospel outside into the world. Now this is where it gets interesting. That wasn't a cool enough story. Here's where it gets interesting. In his writing, Patrick talks about this conflict that he was having with the Catholic Church, with the central Catholic Church in Rome. See, what Rome had said, Rome had told Patrick that your job as the bishop was to simply care for the Christian community in Ireland. That's what you were meant to do. But Patrick saw his duty to bring the gospel to the pagans of Ireland, as well as care for the church community that was there. This is why I love Patrick. He had the heart of a pastor and the heart of a missionary. But this brought tension between him and the Catholic Church because he was wanting to bring the gospel out there. Why? Because Patrick understood the assignment, not from the Pope, but from the Lord, who we are to truly follow. And I love this quote from St. Patrick. He wrote and he said this, He said, I want my brethren and kinfolk to know my nature so that they may be able to perceive my soul's desires. Let me translate. You see, Patrick had an intimate love for God and for the gospel. And he was willing to be vulnerable with people, he was willing to open up himself so that they could see the deepest parts of who he was and see that the deeper you go into the soul of Patrick, the more you see a love for God and a love for the gospel. Learn from Patrick. To know my nature so that they may be able to perceive my soul's desire. Church , I know there's a lot of battles we wanna fight out there, but I'm telling you right now, we need to stick to our mission, sharing the gospel and making disciples. We need to return to the mission that Christ gave us. So let me just fire off a couple things. Some of you need to start giving. Some of you need to start serving. Some of you need to start praying. Some of you need to start just reading the Bible with your spouse or with your kids. We need to understand that the mission we should have for our lives is the mission that Jesus gave us, that his vision is to be our vision. And did you know that that old hymn, Be Thou My Vision, did you know that that was actually adapted from a sixth century Irish poem that was said to have been inspired by the life of St. Patrick? Church, as we engage the spiritual warfare of our time, I believe, and I think what's going on, will attest to this, that things are only getting darker. But that just means Christians get to shine all the brighter. But we'll never shine if we don't stand on and for and speak the Word of God. We are called to speak the truth, yes, in love. And so we need to enter into deeper levels of spiritual awareness and intimacy if we are not just to understand the battle, but withstand through it. Because your effectiveness in spiritual warfare is connected to your depth of spiritual intimacy. Some of you just need to go back to boot camp and fall in love with God again. Some of you just need to be reminded of the power of the gospel and what Jesus has done for you. Some of you who know that need to start sharing that. Because your effectiveness in the spiritual warfare is connected to your depth of spiritual intimacy. The more that you grow to love God, the more that you understand and experience God's love, the more you will naturally want to share that. And as we talk about being spiritually intimate, one of the most profound ways we can express that is through worship with one another, with the church. So let's start with Be Thou My Vision, a hymn that literally starts out by saying, Be Thou My Vision, O Lord of my heart. Amen. Let's stand and let's prepare to sing that old hymn today. Let's pray. Father, we come before you right now in the company of friends and fellow believers, we ask God that you would fill us now with the power and presence of your spirits, that we would express our heart's desire for you, Lord, that we want our mission to be your mission, that we want our vision to be your vision. So fill us now again with the truth of the gospel, that we may sing of your great love for us, Lord, as we, as people, who you've called a place on mission. Lord, I pray that we'd sing of that mission and that vision right now. We pray these things in Jesus' name. And everyone said, amen. And everyone said, amen. Church, let's sing together.

Jesus Met Them There, Can We? Ministry Vicky Damico Special Needs Coordinator Peace Church Published On: January 2, 2024 Jesus met people where they were, and so can we. Heart-hitting statistics: Estimates are that 80 percent to 85 percent of churches don’t have any level of special needs ministry. (1) Only 5 to 10% of the world’s disabled are effectively reached with the gospel, making the disability community one of the largest unreached — some say under-reached — or hidden people groups in the world (2) More than 90% of church-going special needs parents cited the most helpful support to be a “welcoming attitude toward people with disabilities.” Meanwhile, only about 80% of those parents said that a welcoming attitude was present at their church. (3) The data indicating that 80 to 85 percent of churches lack specialized ministries for individuals with special needs underscores the urgency of establishing targeted outreach programs. To think that millions of families and individuals with special needs do not have access to church programming is simply heartbreaking. A dedicated special needs ministry is crucial as it supports children, adults, and families who often grapple with feelings of isolation and exclusion within a community that should ideally be inclusive. Despite children with special needs attending school alongside their peers and adults engaging in the broader community, churches, with their best intentions, may fall short of meeting these individuals where they are. To effectively support families with special needs children and individuals with special needs, churches can implement programming and classes geared to our special friends. First, there should be an intake process. A process for church personnel to identify the unique needs of the family or the individual with special needs. From there, training volunteers is a key component to a successful special needs ministry. Church personnel can then match special friends with the appropriate volunteers/mentors. Creating sensory-friendly spaces, offering respite care for parents, facilitating support groups for shared experiences, and building an inclusive atmosphere are all key components of a successful special needs ministry. Additionally, churches can extend their assistance beyond their physical confines by providing educational resources and guidance on navigating external systems and services. The potential for churches to demonstrate compassion and support is vast, considering the pressing needs of children, adults, and families undergoing challenges. Acknowledging and understanding these needs is the initial step toward offering meaningful support. (1) HTTPS://WWW.THEGOSPELCOALITION.ORG/ARTICLE/LET-NO-SPECIAL-NEED-HINDER-THE-SPREAD-OF-THE-GOSPEL/ (2) HTTPS://WWW.LAUSANNE.ORG/CONTENT/MINISTRY-AMONG-PEOPLE-DISABILITIES-LOP-35B (3) HTTPS://CHURCH4EVERYCHILD.ORG/2016/02/09/WHAT-ARE-THE-STATS-ON-DISABILITY-AND-CHURCH/#_EDN7 More Blogs You'll Like What Is a Deacon? Exploring the Role, Qualifications, and Purpose of Deacons in the Church Read More What Is An Elder? A biblical definition of those who are called to lead Read More Why Church Membership Understanding the Biblical Foundations of Church Membership Read More

Leading People Away From Christ A Video of That's a Good Question Video Blog Ryan DB Kimmel Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Church Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 2 Creating Meaningful Traditions Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Q+A Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Bible Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 1 Jon Delger Withstand: How The Culture War Is A Spiritual Battle Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Where Do We Go From Here? Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Q & A Kelly Needham | Women's Christmas Party People Pleasing Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Are We a Christian Nation?

3 Tips For Your Easter Series Ministry Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 10, 2023 It’s hard for me to think about Easter without thinking about this verse: 1 Corinthians 15:17 (ESV), “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.” That is a bold claim for a religion – to hang the entire faith on one thing. For Paul, the Christian faith is not just a thing; it’s an actual date in history; it’s a true physical act that occurred: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without it, the Christian faith is “futile” (μάταιος; vain, useless). Easter is the celebration of the moment that literally makes or breaks our faith. But like Christmas, with Easter being something that happens every year, it can be hard to come up with a way to announce the Resurrection in ways that both seem creatively new while still fulfilling our primary call of remaining biblically faithful. And so, as a pastor who is in charge of coming up with each year’s Easter series and theme, here are some tips that I utilize when it comes time to come up with the Easter series. 1. Keep it Biblical! This may seem obvious, but I’ve seen churches try to be so creative with their Easter service, that they look for inspiration from the world instead of the Word. At the end of the day, what matters is not that we are creative, but that we are biblical. If this is not our foundation and first step, it doesn’t matter what comes next. Pastor, remember, that everything you need to share the message of Christ is contained within the pages of Scripture. So, don’t try to outthink the Bible. Saturate yourself in the pages of Scripture, and yet look with eyes aware of the times that are still focused on eternity, and when you do, the Spirit will lead you to the message and a way to communicate it that will speak timely and timeless truths to the people gathered on Easter. 2. Make the timeless timely Knowing you cannot overstate the Resurrection, this central message of Christianity should never be reserved for just Easter Sunday, but on the day ‘when everyone shows up,’ use the timeless truth of the Resurrection to share a timely message that speaks to people’s eternity and to the immediate. So yes, while the message should be biblical, your job is to show people how this is relevant to their eternal soul but also their everyday lives. Jesus was the master at using his immediate surroundings to point to eternal truths. For us pastors, it’s ok to ask what is happening around us – on the news or in the world – that we can use, not just to make a point, but that we can use to point to Jesus. This is how we help people develop a biblical worldview. For instance, we have an upcoming Easter series called “Full Circle; How the story of Easter brings us back to everything good.” Playing on the shape of the circle and the shape of the stone that rolled away, we’ll examine how Easter brings from death to life, from law to love, from surrender to victory – and how this is all possible not because of some religious hope, but because of a specific date in history: the day that Jesus came back to life. These are timeless truths but put in a timely way because people are unsure of what is next, we have a cultural rather than a biblical view of the Christian faith, and we will also announce to all that the only true hope we have is found in Christ. 3. Use your church! If you’re running dry on coming up with an Easter series, try approaching your church with questions that get them thinking – and get you thinking! You don’t have to be the only one coming up with an idea for a series for them, even if you’re the one preaching the messages of the series. I have no doubt God has placed good people around you, so see what insight you can glean from them. Here are some questions that might lead to good ideas: What is one word you think of when I say, “Easter sermon”? What’s your favorite Biblical text that speaks of the Resurrection? Besides tradition, why do you think people are willing to come to church on Easter, but not other Sundays? What questions do you have surrounding the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? Go ask 15 to 20 people one of those questions and see what comes up, what themes emerge, what pages of Scripture are you brought to, and what answers did you not expect? And as you do this, look for how the Holy Spirit may be at work and what He brings to mind – and look how that might be a spark, what jumps off the page and how could this be the seed of an idea that you can flesh out into sermon or series? Last Thing For Your Easter Series And the last thing I would say to you, oh, local pastor, is make sure you preach for your church. Don’t have eyes on preaching to the nation or the world, but recognize God has called you as a shepherd of a local congregation – and how is your Easter message meant to speak to their lives, nourishing them with the world of God? Release yourself from the burden of trying to create a viral sermon series and simply create one that speaks to and builds the congregation God has blessed you with. And remember, this is the most joyous message so enjoy the process!! For a similar article with tips that might also be helpful for Easter, check out our blog 3 Tips for your Christmas Series More Blogs You'll Like What Is a Deacon? Exploring the Role, Qualifications, and Purpose of Deacons in the Church Read More What Is An Elder? A biblical definition of those who are called to lead Read More Why Church Membership Understanding the Biblical Foundations of Church Membership Read More

Session 2 2024 Men's Conference Video Teaching Ryan DB Kimmel Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Church Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 2 Creating Meaningful Traditions Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Q+A Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Bible Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 1 Jon Delger Withstand: How The Culture War Is A Spiritual Battle Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Where Do We Go From Here? Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Q & A Kelly Needham | Women's Christmas Party People Pleasing Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Are We a Christian Nation?

Life and Light Sermon Series: Final Words Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: 1 John 1 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, Amen and Amen. So here we are, summer, finally. Praise the Lord on high. I tell you, I know summer doesn't officially start for a couple weeks, but it starts now, right? All right, so here's what I want you to do. I want you to think, what are two words that come to your mind when I say summer? Okay, don't shout it out loud. Think real quickly because I'm gonna have you share it with the person next to you. What two words come to mind when you think summer? Think about it. Ready? Share with your neighbor What? What'd you do? All right, okay. So, I asked some people this, and here's what I got. I'm going to be curious if you had any of the similar ones. sun, Tigers baseball, beach and water, grilling burgers, yard work, or my personal favorite, no school. Even though I'm not in school, I still get excited that there's no school in the summer. All right, so let me throw a left hook at you. Here's another question. What two words come to mind when you think about what it means to be a Christian? Now, whether or not you are a Christian in the house, and everyone here is welcome at peace, but whether you are a Christian or not, I'm curious, what are two words that come to mind when you think about what it means to be a Christian? Now, I'm gonna share, I asked around, here's some things I got. One person said, following Jesus. Some might say, loving others. Eternal salvation. Glorifying God. Believing truth. Now, what's interesting is, as we start this new sermon series on the letters of John. When we read this first letter, this first chapter, I think John gives us two words that really do summarize what it means to be a Christian. And we're going to quickly see those words are life and light, life and light, life, that our lives in Christ are about having true, lasting, full, maybe not perfect or easy, but eternal life. And also, light, that we walk in the light, we don't walk in darkness, meaning we walk in the light, we walk with purpose, clarity, true destination, that we walk in the light means we show the world something good, right, and pure, that we don't adhere to the world's standards, we hold to a different kingdom as we walk in the light. So let's fully see what John means here. Would you please turn as we look at life and light this morning, would you turn to 1 John chapter 1. And because I know this is not a book that we often get to, let me just help some of you out. We're not talking about the gospel of John. That's a different book. We're talking about 1 John. This is a much closer to the end of the Bible. Go ahead and turn to 1 John, that's on page 1301 if you do use the Bibles that we've provided. John the Apostle Now let me clarify a few things. Let's talk about John for a moment. Now we're not talking about John the Baptist, that's a different guy worthy of a different discussion. We're talking today and through this entire sermon series about John the Apostle, John the disciple, and John, one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus. In all likelihood, John would have been the youngest of all the disciples. In fact, Jesus, Jesus Christ himself, dubbed John and his brother the sons of thunder. They probably had a little edge to them. They're probably little rowdy guys. But what we see here is this younger, rowdy brother has grown now to become a father of the church. Now, John, at this point, when we read the letters of John, he's in all likelihood the last living of the original 12 disciples. All the other disciples have been killed, martyred for their faith. But John himself remains. But listen here, it's not for lack of trying. They tried to kill John. History shows us that at least on two occasions they tried to kill John once by actually boiling him alive in oil, which sounds horrendous, but he survived. And also there was a time when he was forced to drink poison and he survived. And so when they realized they couldn't kill this guy, what the Roman Empire did was they exiled him. They exiled him to the island of Patmos where he was left to die. But it was actually on the island of Patmos that John had his epic revelation and where he wrote down the book of Revelation. Church History So it was still within God's plan. But what happened was the Roman Emperor named Domitian, when the Roman Emperor Domitian died in 96 AD, John's exile ended. a very old man. He then went to spend the rest of his days dying peacefully of old age in Ephesus. Now this is actually somewhat of a fulfillment of prophecy because Jesus says that at the end of the Gospel of John Jesus kind of alludes to the fact that John will probably go to live a longer life but here's the question we're talking about this guy but was he actually a real person. Are we talking about someone from actual history or just from legend here? Well, we're talking about a real person. We've got an abundance of historical records to point to this. Now, when we look at church history for the first and second centuries, we see a lot of prominent figures, not least of which are two men named Polycarp and Ignatius, who wrote a lot and were great leaders of the church. Polycarp and Ignatius were personal disciples of John the Apostle. John personally discipled Polycarp and Ignatius. Now Polycarp went on to disciple Irenaeus, another powerhouse in the faith. Irenaeus discipled Hippolytus. Now I know those sound like weird names to you, but what's important to know is that they cover the first two centuries of church history and church leadership, all stemming from not just John the Apostle but Jesus Christ himself. As we start this sermon series what I need you to understand is that we are not talking about myths or maybes here. The real person Jesus Christ, disciple, the real John the Apostle who went on to really write these letters that we're going to be looking at here today. In all, John the Disciple wrote five of the books of the New Testament. He wrote the Gospel of John, the blockbuster of the New Testament, the most read, most popular book of the New Testament, the Gospel of John. He also went on to write the letters of John, first, second, and third John. That's what we're going to be looking at in this sermon series. And lastly, because of his exile, God used that to have John write the book of Revelation. So five books. But here in this sermon series, we're looking at John's last letters and again he's an old man. He's gone from being the kid brother to the father figure of the church. All of the fellow disciples have been killed for their faith. Only he remains. And he writes what is seemingly an open letter to all of Christendom. Imagine the weight of these words this man felt as he wrote this stuff down. And so with that, would you hear the word of the Lord? 1 John 1. John writes 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. This is God's Word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, Lord, as we begin this series for this first part of the summer, I pray, Lord, as cliche as it may seem, I pray that the summer sun will at all times remind us of the light of your son, the light that we get to walk in. Father, we pray that you would help us by the power of your Spirit to walk in that light, ever reminded of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. Would you help us here and now, Holy Spirit, to hear your truth, that we would be not just transformed by it, but transformed more into the image of Jesus our Savior, because it's in his name that we pray these things? And everyone said very loudly, amen. So church, as we get started today, there's one thing I want to kind of communicate to you. Everything else kind of falls under this, but it would be this here this morning. The life and light of our faith are based not on myths or maybes, but on reality. The life and light of our faith are not based on myths or maybes but in reality. And as we look at this first chapter, we're going to see this theme of things being really broken down. I'll break it down for you like this. Here's your outline for this morning. Our faith is founded in the physically real Jesus. Secondly, our faith is formed by spiritually real fellowship. And the third thing we're gonna see is that our faith is fulfilled through personally real integrity. Our faith is founded in the physically real Jesus So first thing, our faith is founded in the physically real Jesus. Now, as we open up this letter, again, it's this kind of this open letter to all of Christendom. John is clearly speaking about Jesus Christ. So let's look at verses one and two again. But as we do, please, I want you to take notice. Take note of the sensing words. Take note of the physical descriptors, because remember, John was there. He was with Jesus. He saw Jesus. He heard his voice, he touched Jesus, he knew the texture of Jesus' hair, he knew what Jesus smelled like, and he was an eyewitness to Jesus. Listen to this. Listen to the power of these words as we read this first chapter. It says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, we've seen with our eyes, we've looked upon, we've touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest. Okay, so manifest. The Greek word there is pheneru. It means to be made visible. It means to be made known. It means to be manifest. To be seen. This means that even though Jesus is the Word of Life who existed from all eternity past, He stepped into reality into the creation he made and was made manifest and John saw him knew him Talked with him touched him the life verse 2 again the word of life That goes back to the very beginning the word of life was made manifest Jesus stepped into the creation that he created and John says we've seen it and we testify to it and we proclaim it to you the eternal life. So John is being really clear here in these first two chapters or these first two verses. John's telling us something really clear that Jesus who was the Word of Life was made physically real because John is trying to tell us that our faith Jesus. So I'm kind of curious here, this won't go for everybody, but I'm just, I'm curious who here or in one of the other venues was born and raised in the state of Michigan? Raise your hand. Born and raised in the state of Michigan. Okay. One thing I can tell you about us Michiganders is that we're pretty good at pronouncing the weird names of things because Michigan has some weird names of cities and places. So I'm going to see if you know how to pronounce these Michigan places, the names of these places. I'll start very easily. This is a very easy one. Okay. Not Mackinac Island, right? Mackinac Island. All right. Let's step it up a notch. Sheboygan. The junior hire in me giggles every time I hear that word. I drive through Sheboygan, I'm like, he named your city Sheboygan. Okay, alright, alright. Let's go really hard here. Only true Michiganders know how to pronounce the name of this place. Ontonagon. Well done. Well done. Ontonagon well done alright so since we're so good with the weird names of things how do you pronounce the word Gnosticism okay it's not a michigan city narcissism is actually the name of an early heresy a faulty teaching that came from the early church see what happened was it was john near the end of his life as the church continued to grow and expand in the world, Gnosticism popped up. Gnosticism again is a false teaching and what Gnosticism taught was that salvation came through secret knowledge. Gnosticism comes from the word, the Greek word for knowledge. And so coming to know Jesus was like this secret knowledge that would awaken this inner divinity in you and would Bring to light this light that was already inside you but it was a secret knowledge It was a secret thing that happened inside of you now Gnosticism with based on that description now that we know what it is. That is like That's like the anti-gospel That's like the flip gospel people would come in and teach and say, knowing Jesus is a secret knowledge that awakens an inner divinity in you. It lights a secret light in you. Again, this is the anti-gospel. Let's compare and contrast the two. This is the gospel. The true gospel is repenting and putting yourself aside. You turn from your sin and you receive Jesus, His light, and His life. You receive that into you Okay, you like you empty yourself you turn from your sin you empty yourself and you receive what Jesus has into you That's the gospel you receive what Jesus has done through his life death, and resurrection Okay Gnosticism on the flip said that you you you come to know Jesus But that awakens an inner divinity in you and that awakens that secret knowledge inside you that's waiting to be awakened. Now listen, it was a very attractive heresy back then. And I'm telling you, and I'm going to expose to you now, the descendant of Gnosticism is alive and well in our world and in the American church. See, in our world and in our culture, our culture is all about finding yourself. It's all about awakening your true inner self, coming to know who you truly are on the inside, and then once you have that, well then you can attain glory or salvation or whatever we want to call it. Either way, it's nothing short of the idolization of the self. And the fact that we are in Pride Month is just a stark reminder of how easily people fall prey to forms of Gnosticism. That it's all about us and who we are on the inside, expressing that. And so you can see here, as we look at these verses again, John is trying to punch a big hole through Gnosticism and any remnants of Gnosticism that creeps their way into Christian teaching. Let's look at this for a second. So, verse 1 says, that which was from the beginning. Right off the bat, John is telling us, our faith, this Christian faith, predates us. Jesus is before us, he's beyond us. This is all coming from outside of us. It's not within us to be awakened. It predates us. It's from the very beginning, actually. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, we have looked upon, and we've touched with our hands." John is saying, this isn't some secret philosophy. We're talking about a physically real person. This is not an abstract belief. This is absolute. We're talking about something grounded in actual history. Jesus was a real person. Concerning the word of life, this life was made manifest again pointing to the fact that Jesus existed before he lived on this earth that he is the word of life from all eternity and this life was made manifest Jesus who existed from all eternity stepped into the creation that he created and was made manifest this is from outside of us it's not inside of us waiting to be awakened we need something outside of us. Jesus, who was spiritually real from all eternity, became physically real, a physically real person. John is telling us that the light and life of our faith is not based on myths or maybes or philosophy, but on a physically real person who lived and died on our behalf and truly rose again, and his name is Jesus. Our faith is founded in the physically real Jesus. Our faith is formed by spiritually real fellowship He goes on to say, in verse, summarizes, he says this, he says, our faith is formed by spiritually real fellowship. Now this is so key, church, don't lose this. Again, knowing that in many ways John is combating Gnosticism here, he's saying faith isn't some secret thing that you do in your private life that reeks of Gnosticism That's like a descendant of a new veiled form of Gnosticism If you think faith is the secret thing that only you do on the inside He's saying that's not faith he's saying faith is meant to bring us together, not separate us into a bunch of little individuals living our own truth. That we are brought together as a family living out God's truth. He says this, that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you so that you may have fellowship with us. Hold on a second here. Did you catch this? I thought that the message of Jesus was about salvation. Shouldn't he have said salvation here? That's what we've seen and heard we proclaim to you so that you too may have salvation. Well yes, the Bible's clear, that's what we get. But do not forget that what we also have is that we are brought into a covenant family. We are brought in to have fellowship with one another. We have seen this message, we have heard this message, and now we proclaim it to you that you may have fellowship with us. And he goes on to say that indeed our fellowship is with God and with his son, Jesus. John is telling us our faith is not just in ourselves, it's not just for ourselves. As much as the world shows us that idolizing the self and personal identity is the highest good, John is pushing back against that, saying that our faith is meant to be had with each other, but in God. So Christians in the house, Christians who can hear my voice in the other venues, we are meant to go to church. We are meant to go to church. You guys know probably that the attendance rate among Christians these days is not just dismal, it's pathetic. It's absolutely pathetic. And it's only getting worse. Now, I'm kind of preaching a little bit to the choir here because Peace Church bucks the trends almost universally with everything bad that's going on in the church right now, but as members of the larger church out there, we need to recognize that Christians are meant to make a priority of gathering together to worship Jesus and have fellowship with one another. And you know that when we say go to church, that's just a quick, shorthand way that reminds us of something even greater, that we are the church. And so what does that mean? Here's what it means. It means when Sunday comes, and you find an excuse not to come to church, when the church gathers, it means that we're not whole. It's like a family dinner, but not everyone shows up. You know, when family dinner comes, nobody likes to see empty seats. The family's meant to gather. The church is meant to gather. We are meant to have fellowship. Now listen, I know life happens. I'm a father of four. I get it, life happens. But the excuses to not come to church need to be few, and far between, and really valid. Like John is trying to be so clear with us. Faith shouldn't be just part of your life, it needs to be the priority of your life. If Jesus is physically real, then our faith needs to be evidently real in all things. As we have fellowship with each other and with God, and I would say this, I don't think a Christian could ever develop a biblically true, spiritually real faith without one another. Today, you saw, you heard that we welcomed over 50 members to our church family. Praise God, I'm so excited for every single one of these. Our new members are showing us an example of what it means to be committed to a church, to come and gather and worship, to sit under the accountability of the elders, to listen to the preaching, and to worship together. This is what Christians should be doing. And so listen to how John talks about Christians who have fellowship with one another and with God. In verse 4, he says, we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. Don't throw away that verse. This gathering, this completeness of our faith, brings joy. It brings joy. It's joyous and meant to be joyous when the church is healthy and strong and gathers. But he's quick to say this is not our message. It's God's. Verse five says this message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. We've heard it from him. We've heard this message. The message I'm giving to you is the message of Jesus. In him, there's no darkness at all. God's message is what we call the gospel, and it's life-giving. Now, I don't know if you saw it, but in verses 1 to 4, we saw life mentioned three times. Now, as we close out this passage in verses 5 to 10, we're going to see light mentioned three times. And this is important because this is our final point. Our faith is fulfilled through personally real integrity. Now I'm going to say some really challenging and controversial things here. So I want to go back and make sure that we're all on the same page. Let's go back a second here. Let's start over. Let's remind ourselves of where we're at. John, the last living of the disciples, writes an open letter to all Christendom, even to us here today. He's the last living of the disciples and he's trying to ground our faith in the knowledge that we're talking about what is physically and spiritually real. Our faith is formed through true fellowship, through a true connection with each other and with God. And then he takes that whole premise and then in verses 6 to 7 he's going to present an argument to say, essentially, since our faith is real, it needs to be truly evident in our lives. Now listen, I'm like two-thirds of the way through the sermon, and I get at this point like people begin to like to think about what's for lunch. Okay, so I'm going to go back and say that again, because I want to make sure everyone hears what I'm saying and the argument that John is making here. John is essentially saying, since our faith is real it needs to be truly evident in our lives and he does this he makes this argument through a series of if-then statements that he actually frames as if we all right look at verses six and seven let's start there John says if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth verse seven but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Okay, so what's John saying here? He's saying if you're going to say you're a Christian, then you have to stop walking in darkness. If you're going to say you're a Christian, you have to stop playing both sides. You can't walk in the light sometimes and in the darkness sometimes. If you're going to say a Christian, then we only begin to walk in the lights. We've got to stop playing like faith is just part of our life and make it the rightful place that it's the priority of our life. John is saying faith is to be the defining feature of our lives and that's evident because we walk in the light, not in darkness. We don't go back and forth. We only walk according to God's good and righteous way. But check this out. He's saying, while this is true, don't get all high and mighty on yourself. Look what he says in verse eight. It says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. All right, so follow this rhythm real quick. On the one hand, he's saying, yes, we do have sin. But then he's saying, but that's not an excuse to walk in darkness. We are to only walk in the light. Because while sin is part of the equation on this side of eternity, we need to be the people who show the world that Jesus has taken care of our sin. That he's died on the cross and his blood is the spiritual soap that has now washed away our sin. Yes, sin is part of the equation, but it's not an excuse to walk in it anymore. That we are people who walk in the light. We show the world something different. We are now not made perfect, we are made holy. That means we are set apart. We show the world something different. There's a way that the world operates and there's things that the world celebrates that we don't. We do something different. We are part of a different kingdom now. He goes on to say in verse nine, says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all righteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Again, don't forget the backdrop of Gnosticism here. Again, Gnosticism, is this secret knowledge of this divine light within you that needs to be awakened. John is saying, no, you don't have some divine light inside of you that needs to be awakened. What you have inside of you is called sin, and you need to repent of it and reject it and turn toward Jesus. But the good news is that Jesus has paid for those sins, that they're no longer over top of us, that by His death on the cross, as He said in verse 7, the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin. Sin is no longer part of our identity. We are the people who walk in the light now. The blood of Jesus, again, it's the soap that washes away our sins so that we are clean and seen as pure and righteous and holy before God, who welcomes us as his children. And this is because of faith in Jesus, not trust in ourselves. So with that, let me get real controversial here for a second. So let me clarify, because I'm going to get emails after this and I want to be able to forward them emails to you. I want to throw you under the bus, so let's all be on the same page about something, okay? We are not saved by our good actions, but by the good actions of Jesus. Amen? We are not saved by the good things we do, but by the great thing that Jesus did. Amen. We are not saved by our perfect life, but by Jesus' perfect life. Amen. All right. So I want you to say this with me because I want to make sure we're on the same page here. Okay. Don't want to lose you. Say this with me. We are not saved by living good lives. We're saved by the gospel of Jesus. Okay good. Now, we're all square here. So here's the thing. When we place our faith in Jesus, we are saved because of what He's done, not us. We're not saved by being a good person, but by believing in Jesus. And yet, when we place our faith in Jesus, something amazing begins. A transformation process. And it's not just a transformation process. We have a term for it. It's called sanctification. And it's the process of becoming more holy, or more specifically, becoming more like Jesus. When we place our faith in Jesus, we all start a path of becoming more like Him. Meaning, our lives will begin to show more and more that we no longer belong to the world, but we belong to the King. And so, when we say that, do you know what the immediate pushback is? You can't judge what's in a person's heart. Now, I'm going to expose to you that that right there reeks of Gnosticism. That is a descendant of Gnosticism reborn in our time. I'm going to take it to task right here and right now. So it's summertime, so let's use a summer analogy. Now, if I said to you, rather than saying you're saved by believing in Jesus, if I said to you this, let's say this, you're saved by jumping in the water. Okay, so then what we could do then is if we wanted to know who was saved, then we just go around looking for who is wet. Okay, but quickly someone would say, but you're not saved by being wet you're saved by jumping in the water. Well, yes. Yes. Yes Yes, but but if you jump in the water you you get wet you understand how that works, right? Yes, but you're not saved by being wet. You're saved by jumping in the water This is the endless debate of faith and actions through a form of narcissism Because what we want to say is it doesn't matter what is on the outside. All that matters is what's on the inside. That's a veiled descendant of Gnosticism. Jesus Christ is the one who said a tree would be known by its fruit. You don't know what a tree is by cutting it down and looking at the inside. You look at what's on the branches. A tree is known by its fruit. You don't have to dig up its root system, take out a root and send it to a scientist who does a DNA sampling to know what's truly on the inside. You want to know what sort of tree it is, look at the leaves, what fruit is being born. Because what is on the outside is, according to Jesus, reflective of what's on the inside. Now I'm saying this to you because the world is only going more and more dark and it should become more and more evident who is a true believer in Jesus and who is not. The world is not allowing us to ride both sides. The Bible never did, but the world's not either. Today is a day where you need to discern which kingdom are you going to be a part of, the kingdom of the world or the kingdom of the gospel, and stop trying to play both sides. And stop using the excuse that you can't judge what's on a person's inside. That's Gnosticism. No, it will show in your life. I'm not saying you will be perfect. John was clear, sin's part of the equation on this side of eternity. No one, I'm not saying you need to be perfect, but I am saying that we need to be holy because that's who we are in this world. We are set apart and it's because of what Jesus has done for us through God's great love, giving his own son so that we could have new life. Yes, salvation, but new life that's reflected for the world to see again. I'm not saying you're going to be perfect. If you say you have no sin, you're a liar and you make God a liar. But if you have new life, you're going to walk in the light. And it's easy to see who is walking in the light. So this day, we said it, today is the day. Today is the day you need to discern. Are you walking in darkness or are you walking in light? To be reminded of the gospel, we are going to have communion together. Also called the Lord's Supper, and this is a time where we are physically reminded of the beauty of the gospel by eating and drinking. This is a physical act. This is something Jesus taught us to do, that we would be reminded and nourished by the gospel again, the gospel that Jesus died on the cross in our place for our sins, and then three days later, he rose again. He physically died a horrendous, torturous death, which paid the price for our sins so that we can live in light of God's love, pursuing God as he calls us to himself, giving us the spirit to do so. And so we are reminded and nourished by a spiritual reality. That Jesus' life is brought into our lives by faith in Him, and this is symbolized by communion. As we take the bread and drink, we are taking His light and life into us. Amen. Let's prepare our hearts for communion. Please pray with me. Father, we come before you right now. Father, we are thankful that the only perfect one is Jesus. He's the only one able to attain our salvation for us. Father, I pray, Lord, that as we walk out of here, as we take communion and are nourished again by the gospel, Father, we are people who are reminded that every good thing we have is from you, including our eternal life. So, Father, I pray, Lord, that we are nourished by the gospel, not because of what we've done, but because of what Jesus has done for us. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Amen. As we come to the table, we invite all those who are followers of Jesus, who have put their faith in Jesus, and also who are seeking to live lives of obedience, following his way to join us at the table. This is something that Jesus told us to do, and the Apostle Paul continues this notion of communion. And he says this in First Corinthians Whoever eats the bread or drinks a cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord Let a person examine himself then and then so eat of the bread and drink of the cup For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. Paul is not saying only perfect people come to the table, but he is saying people who have rightly approached God Recognize that they are falling short, but we have a good God. And because of that, we'd ask that children who have not yet made a profession, that they would refrain and they would just watch mom or dad or whoever they came with today. Because this is a weighty matter, but a joyous one. And because we can only come to the table by faith, let's stand together and let's profess the words of our faith in the words of the Apostles' Creed. Let's say these words together. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. And as you sit down, look around your seat and you'll find one of these cups that has on the one side the wafer and on the other side drink. And Jesus, just before he went to the cross, he gathered with his disciples to have supper. And he took the bread in front of them and when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he said, this is my body, broken for you. Take and eat. It's a church. Would you taste and remember the gospel? In the same way Jesus took the cup And he said this cup is the new covenant in my blood. And he said this cup is the new covenant in my blood. As often as you drink of it, do so in remembrance of me.

Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 1 Jon Delger Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Church Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 2 Creating Meaningful Traditions Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Q+A Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Bible Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 1 Jon Delger Withstand: How The Culture War Is A Spiritual Battle Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Where Do We Go From Here? Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Q & A Kelly Needham | Women's Christmas Party People Pleasing Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Are We a Christian Nation?