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Religion Vs Relationship Graphic Sermon Series Engage your congregation with our dynamic "Religion Vs Relationship" sermon series graphic. Designed to spark interest and reflection, this graphic helps to visually convey the theme of your series. Key features include: A visually impactful design that captures the essence of the sermon series. Editable text fields to customize with your sermon dates, times, and other relevant details. High-resolution quality, perfect for digital screens and printed materials. This versatile graphic is ideal for promoting your sermon series across various platforms, including social media, church websites, and in-person announcements. Download now to enhance your sermon promotion and connect more effectively with your congregation. Download Files

Bearing the Burden and Beauty Theology Stephanie Delger Podcast Host Mom Guilt Podcast Published On: Human beings are set apart from all of creation in a few different ways. While God simply spoke all other things into existence, this was not true for human beings. Genesis 2:7 zooms in for the creation of human beings and we read, “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” In this passage we see God taking special care during Adam’s creation. God formed Adam’s body, God breathed into his lungs, and Adam became a living creature. The Bible tells us why God created humans so differently than the rest of creation. In Genesis 1:27 we read, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Human beings are unique in this. Nothing else in all of creation was created in God’s image. Not only are humans created differently than the rest of creation, but Adam, the first man, was given specific instructions from God. God speaks and tells Adam that his job is to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth, to subdue it, and to have dominion over it. Essentially, Adam’s job was to look around at what God had created in the Garden of Eden and use it as a blueprint. He was to take this garden and expand it all over the world. He was to physically create followers of God from his own body, who would go out and create more followers of God. Being made in God’s image means that we are to represent God and to point to Him. Just as God reached into the dirt and created Adam, Adam was to use his hands to create and build. Just as God created Adam and gave Him life, so Adam was to from his own body, create life. As God is our ruler and authority, God grants human beings authority over the earth. Being made in God’s image also means that we would be on display so others would think about God. Humans were designed to look at each other and be reminded of God. They were to be a physical reminder of who God is and what He has done. Humans were to reflect God to each other and all of creation, meaning that we should live in a way, act in a way, and speak in a way, that calls attention to God our creator. Our job was and is, to be like a mirror. The job of a mirror is not to draw attention to itself, but to reflect an image. Just like a mirror, our job as human beings is not to call attention to ourselves, but rather to reflect God. When humans look at each other, they should be compelled to worship God. We are an image bearer of God our creator. Sin’s Distortion of Image Bearers If we are all created in God’s image, why is this not our normal, everyday experience? We look around at each other, or look at ourselves and our first thought is probably not to fall on our knees in worship of God. This is not our experience because sin entered the world and when it did, it fractured God’s good design. Like a broken mirror, an image is still reflected, but it’s not completely as is should be. It became distorted. Adam and Eve’s sin muddied God’s reflection in His image bearers. Their actions impacted all of creation and all human beings after them. What happened in this moment is that Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. Satan tempted Eve with the notion that God didn’t want what was best for her. He placed doubt in her mind, through questions, that God didn’t want Eve to be like Him. Satan convinced Eve that she knew better and should not obey God, but rather should listen to her own desires. Eve was no longer content to just be made in God’s image. She wanted to be God herself. Image bearing wasn’t enough, she wanted to be not the image bearer, but the image itself. It’s like rather than being a mirror, Eve and Adam decided that they wanted instead to be a self-portrait. They didn’t want to reflect God to the world, they wanted to showcase themselves instead. They stopped trusting that God was good and they started thinking that they should be just like God . Adam and Eve thought that they knew better and that they could do better than God. They exchanged the truth for a lie. We were never meant to be the image, but rather the image bearer. Jesus’ Redemption Adam and Eve and all humans after them are now sinners. God in his mercy, didn’t give up on them or us. God would have been completely just to leave Adam and Eve in their sin, to make them pay for what they had done. God could have annihilated the human race. He would have been completely justified in doing so. But rather than leave them in their sin, God instead promises them a Savior. While God is cursing Satan who deceived Eve, God promises that an offspring of the woman, will come and defeat him. God says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) God promises that Adam and Eve will not have to live forever, separated from God. God promises that a child, an image bearer, would come from Eve who would defeat Satan. Eve would have never guessed that God would send more than an image bearer, but God himself would come to keep His promise. Jesus is the image of God Jesus is fully God and fully human. Jesus is God incarnate. He wasn’t just made in God’s image, He is God himself. Jesus is both an image bearer (human) and the image (God) himself. Jesus came to fulfill the role, to do that which Adam could no longer do since he was a sinner. Adam, while made in God’s image, was no longer able to perfectly reflect God, his Heavenly Father. Jesus was born to accomplish what Adam no longer could. Jesus is the better Adam. 1 Corinthians 15:47-49 says, “The first man (Adam) was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man (Jesus) is from heaven. As was the man of dust (Adam) so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” Paul speaks here of the reality that while we are made in God’s image, we also bear Adam’s image. We reflect Adam’s image when we rebel against God and choose to do things our way and not God’s. However, all those who have placed their faith in Christ, also bear His image. We are to live in a way that others should be able to see God by the way we live, act, and speak. They should be drawn to us not because of who we are, but because of who we reflect. Jesus, in his famous Sermon on the Mount, tells those who are listening that they are to, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16) An image bearer points to the true image, their heavenly father. This is exactly what Jesus did. We are to live our lives in the way that Jesus himself modeled for us and tells us to live. We don’t have to guess as to what it means to be made in God’s image. We have seen God in Jesus Christ. Our job then, as a Christian, is to go forth and be an image bearer, reflecting the glory of the Lord so that others will be drawn to Him. More Blogs You'll Like Do the Resurrection Accounts Contradict? How differences in the Gospel accounts strengthen rather than undermine the credibility of the resurrection Read More What is 'Probably' Missing From Most Nativity Sets Miracle, Myth, or Meteor? 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Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, February 25, 2024 Withstand Ephesians 6:14 Personal Distractions vs. Truth and Righteousness 2 Overview Main Idea: We are most vulnerable when we are most distracted Sermon Outline: 1. Attention is the antidote for distraction 2. Truth is the antidote for deception 3. Righteousness is the antidote for dishonor 3 Pre-Questions 1. When you think of righteousness, what are some words you use? 2. How did this sermon inspire you toward worship? 4 Questions Pastor Ryan said that attention is the antidote for distraction. Where are you distracted? How would our culture define truth? How does scripture define it? What does it mean to be righteous? Why does righteousness matter? What gospel glimpses do you see in Ephesians 6:14? PDF Download

Proclaim for the Power of our Testimony (Out) Sermon Series: Proclaim Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Colossians 1:9-14 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 I got a question for you to start off this morning. I want to see how good you are at your own self perception, how self aware you are about yourself. So let me start with a question here. What is obvious about you? Now, I don't mean your appearance. I don't mean like your race, or your skin color, or your hair color. I mean from your life, what is obvious about you. Like for instance, if you were to complete this sentence, if you were gonna say, if you were gonna say and complete this sentence, I'm wondering how you would fill in the blank. If you said something like this, well as you can tell, I'm, how would you fill in the blank, because something is so abundantly obvious in your life, so clear that people can virtually know it right away. Some of you, many of you, I'm seeing a couple of you, it would be something like, as you can tell, I'm a hunter because I wear camo to church and I'm gone every other weekend on a hunt and I have more pictures of dead animals than my kids on my phone. What would you say? Hopefully for me it's things like, as you can tell I love my wife, as you can tell I love being with my kids, as you can tell God comes first in my life. How would you answer something like that? Now, as a pastor, I have many awesome things about my job, but one of them is that I get to hear so many amazing testimonies from people. And when people share their testimony, I learn some fascinating, amazing, wonderful things that people have done and experienced in their life. But I can tell you this, I've never heard a testimony from a true Christian and was surprised to find out they were a Christian. I'll say it again. I've never heard a testimony I've never heard a testimony from a true Christian and was surprised When they said in their testimony that I am a Christian. I'm a Jesus follower Why? Why? Because when you truly follow Jesus It's self-evident or to put it another way when you truly follow Jesus It's obvious. Now listen, whether or not people actually have the language to say something like, oh I can tell that you've repented of your sins and you follow the risen Lord, whether or not they have the language to say that, what's obvious is that something is different about your life. They may not be able to identify what it is, but they can clearly see that you are different from the rest of the world. You follow a different order, you use your money differently, you treat strangers differently. For those who truly follow Jesus, it is obvious in your life. People can tell that something is different. And today we're going to talk about the power of Christian testimony. So if you have your Bibles, would you please turn to Colossians chapter one. Also really praying that if you're part of the Peace Church family, that you have your devotional packets with you. You can follow along in today's message. So Colossians chapter 1, this whole proclaimed spiritual journey that we're going through is a walkthrough of Colossians chapter 1. If you're using the Bibles we've provided, really happy for you to do that. That's on page 1251. Now again, this whole campaign walkthrough of Colossians chapter one, put your bookmark in your Bible. That's what we're looking at every single Sunday. And so if you are just joining us just for context, as you're turning there, here's some context for you. St. Paul, the apostle is the one who wrote Colossians. It was actually a letter that he wrote from prison because he was in jail for preaching the gospel. It's a letter he wrote from prison to this church, to this Colossian church, which was in what was called Asia minor, but we call it by a different name today, Turkey. Now he's writing to this church. He's writing to give them encouragement, to stay the course. He's going to highlight the power of Jesus. He's going to clarify what it means to follow him. But in our section right now, verses 9-14, Paul's writing to help these people understand who they are in Christ, what it means to follow him and what Jesus has done for us. And I'm going to warn you. I'm going to warn you now. I'm warning you here. I'm warning you who are in the chapel I'm warning you who are in the venue morning you who are online and I'm warning you who are listening later on a podcast. I'll warn you now the things he says about being a Christian are things we can not hide They're too wonderful. They're too powerful. They're too life-altering. It's too obvious. And so with that, would you hear the Word of God? Colossians chapter 1, we're going to read verses 9 to 14. Would you hear God's Word? Colossians 1:9-14 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. This is God's mighty word. Let's pray and let's continue. But here's what I ask you to do Bible says lift holy hands in prayer So we're gonna pray together, but I'm gonna ask you at least to raise one hand. Can we all just do that together? Let's raise one hand. Father we thank you for being such an amazing God, an amazing God to us. Lord, this campaign is a weighty and heavy thing that our church is going through. We ask God that you'd sustain us and our world is going through a weighty and heavy thing right now. Over in Middle East with Israel and Gaza, Father, we pray, Father, for innocent life. Father, we pray, Lord, that your peace would transcend. Father, we pray, God, for Israel. Father, we pray that everyone over there, everyone across the world would call on the name of Jesus. We pray these things in his mighty and precious and powerful name. It's in Jesus' name we pray and everyone said, Amen. So first fill in if you've got your devotional packets with you is this. It's the title of today's sermon and here's our title. We are to proclaim for the power of our testimony. We proclaim for the power of the testimony. Everything in this message series is we're proclaiming for something. It's some of the big things that we're doing as a church. And today we're talking about the power of our testimony. Church, why are we expanding our building? So we can have more bricks and sticks? No, it's so that our ministry can expand. We wanna see our building expand so our ministry can expand. And we are being reminded today that we are doing this proclaim campaign so that we can hear more testimonies of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Amen? This campaign is a spiritual journey. If we're going to see God expand our building and expand our ministry, I'm telling you, our church family needs to spiritually prepare for what that means. And that's part of what we're doing. That's why we as a church family are to be doing our devotionals together throughout the week, so that we can all strengthen spiritually in preparation for what God is gonna do in our midst. And so, here's our main idea for today. Here's your second fill in for your, in your outline. Here's our main idea. The truth we profess must be evident in the lives we live. The truth we profess must be evident in the lives we live. Yup, yup, part of what we're doing is raising money. If you want to boil this all down to just raising money, you're missing the entire point. Yes, raising money is a huge part of what we're doing, but it's not the only thing we're doing. We're spiritually preparing for what God is going to do when this money comes in, and that's expanded ministry. If you only are thinking through the lens of raising money, you're missing half of what this campaign's all about. This is a spiritual journey to prepare us all so that when more ministry comes, we are prepared, but we also understand that it starts with us. It starts with us who are here now, and the truth that we profess must be evident in the lives that we live. And so, as we consider that, here's what we're gonna learn from our passage. The evidence of our lives. 1. Our lives must demonstrate discernment. That's what verse nine says. Our lives must produce fruit. Verses 10 and 11 will show that. And we'll close up our passage by looking at this, that our lives must embody gratitude. So let's just dive in right now. Number one, our lives must demonstrate discernment. You know what discernment is? Let me help you understand. Discernment is having a Christian worldview from which we are able to make decisions about what is right and wrong before the Lord. The sermon is about knowing how to conduct our lives according to God's plan. Let's look at verse nine. It says, Paul writes and he says, and so from the day we heard, meaning the day we heard about the faith in this Colossian church, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you. That's great, thanks Paul, thanks for the prayers. But look at what he's praying for. Look what he says he prays about. Verse 9 continues, We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, of God's will, and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He's basically saying this. He's basically saying, I'm praying that you all can demonstrate your faith in the ways that you follow God because you know what God's will is for your life that You seek the Lord God revealed his plan and will for your life and you follow that according to Scripture according to God's Spirit. So let me ask people in this room and other venues you can play along, too I'm curious here Who here is a parent or a grandparent parent or grandparent raise your hand up? I know bent elbows here loud and proud parent or grandparent. Okay, let me ask you a question here. What's a big prayer you have for your kids? Now, I've spent a lot of time in many different churches, being a part of youth ministry, being a youth pastor. I've seen teenagers and the ways that family operates pretty up close for a number of years. And I'll tell you this, it really seems like, just from the way that parents kind of conduct their family life, and the ways that they go about things, and the ways that they hear their kids talk in youth group, it really seems like a big prayer that families have for their kids is that they'll be popular, that they'll make a lot of money, that they'll be good at sports. Really seems like that's a big thrust of teenagers' life these days, at least as far as I've spent time in youth group. But I know this, whether you are a Christian who prays it or just a good parent who hopes this, we pray that our kids will be protected from harm. I mean, every parent wants that. But if you want to pray for something for your kids, I'm telling you right now, what Paul prays for the Colossian Church is a great guide for what we should should be praying for our kids. He's praying that they'll be able to fully follow God because they'll have such godly wisdom that they'll know what the right thing is to do at all times. You won't always be there for your kids, but the wisdom and the intelligence and the faith that you instill in them, that's what they'll bring with them. So are you training and equipping them now? Christian parents, when was the last time you ever pushed pause on a movie or a show to process what you were watching. So that you can help your kids discern what entertainment is teaching them. Have you ever done that? Or are you just letting them fend for themselves and how to process what the world's throwing at them? We need to be teaching and training our kids to have the spiritual wisdom and discernment that the Holy Spirit wants to make available to us, but parents, we are the conduits to bring into their lives. It's the age old giving a fish versus teaching someone how to fish. I can tell you now, we are among the most affluent people who have ever existed. You have no shortage of resources. The toys at your disposal are great and many. I know many of us, we want our kids to have everything. And so we give them everything, but we're giving them fish without teaching them how to fish. We give our kids, we give our kids the unbelievable, incredible responsibility of having a cell phone before they've demonstrated the discipline to be able to handle the power and influence of a phone. Church, I know you want God to protect your kids. I know you do. But here's what I'm going to tell you It just seems like a lot of us aren't praying for that because here's what I mean The best way to stay protected by God is to stay close to God If you want your kids to be protected by God Then you best be praying that they stay close to God you want protection from God protection is found in the shadow of his wings And that's when we stay close to him if you want God to protect your kids Are you praying that they grow close to God? Are you bringing them close to God if you want God to protect your kids? Are you praying for that? Because here's I'm gonna tell you right now when we train our kids to make God-centered and wise choices That's a form of protection.You 're teaching them to protect themselves from their own bad choices in the ways that you teach and train them To follow God to honor him above all else, to set themselves aside for the glory of God. But here's the question, parents and grandparents, before we teach this to our kids, are we living this ourselves? Does your life demonstrate a godly discernment? You may be asking me, pastor, how do we do that? Pastor, what does that look like? Great question. I'm so glad you asked. Read your Bible. Read your Bible. Get to know God's word. Maybe join a Bible study. Join a small group where you can talk this Christian life out with other Christians. Come to church, not just periodically. That's going to do nothing for you. You want church to mean something? Get involved. Don't just attend. Be connected. Do devotions. We're providing you a devotion for the month that we can all do together Here's the other thing I'd say to you - share your faith with a non-believer. Here's why this is so important because here's what ends up happening Christians end up staying in their own little Christian enclave and you wonder what's really dangerous about that is you can have a false Sense of how strong you are in your faith when everyone around you is a Christian. You want to see where you are at in your faith? Share your faith with a non-believer and listen to the questions and the challenges they bring. That will expose really quickly how strong you are and how knowledgeable you are in your faith. I'm telling you right now, I have a master's degree, I have decades of ministry experience, I'm the pastor of a large, growing church, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. When I talk to a non-believer and they challenge me in my faith and they ask me a question and I don't know the answer I'm like let me get back to you on that one and then I search the scriptures and I consult our elders and I talk to the fellow pastors and guess what and guess what not only do I provide them with an answer but I grow in my faith this is why we need to be sharing our faith with a watching lost world because they will challenge you and by their challenge it will help you grow. We need to be doing this and above all pray, pray, pray because the truth we profess must be evident in the lives we live. And this is shown when our lives demonstrate a godly discernment that we know God and we know his will and we act accordingly. And second, our lives must produce fruit. 2. Our lives must produce fruit This is the focus. Listen to the focus and hope of Paul's next section here, verses 10 and 11. He says, So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy. Real simple here, people, real simple. Christians serve God. Real simple, Christians serve God. And when we do that, the Holy Spirit lets good things happen from that, and we call that fruit, spiritual fruit. So let's make sure we're all on the same page. Let's take this phrase by phrase. Keep your Bibles open here. Verse 10, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him. Okay, this is very clear. If you're a Christian, act like it. This makes God happy and it's honoring to him. Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. If you're a Christian, act like it. Bearing fruit in every good work. Christians in the house, don't answer me, because you have to answer before the Lord. Here's the question, are you serving God? Simply being a nice person and showing up to church every now and again is not what we are talking about. This is about doing things that you know bring glory to God and bring good to other people. I simply ask you, how and where are you serving God? Again, don't answer me. You don't answer to me. You answer to the Lord. But listen to this next phrase, and increasing in the knowledge of God. Here's what I'm going to say to you. You can't just be a workhorse for the Lord. You can't just be a workhorse for God. Here's what I mean. I know my church, I know my community, I know myself. If I was to say to a group like this, if I was to say to you, church, for the next six weeks, we're a little short-handed, I need five guys to come to church early for the next six weeks, and I need you to help stack chairs. By the end of the day I'm telling you I'd have 50 men on that list. But if I said, church, for the next six weeks our church is going through a massive spiritual journey and we need we need people we need men praying. So I'm asking for five men to come to church early for the next six weeks and pray before the service. I I don't think I'd get such a big turnout. Guys, you can't just be a workhorse for God. You have to be seeking Him on your knees, praying and increasing in the knowledge of God. Are you searching the Scriptures? Are you with a group of men helping you to grow in your faith? Ladies, I'm asking the same thing. Teenagers and young adults in the room, I'm asking you the same thing. Look at verse 11, verse 11, so that we are being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might. Okay, this is not just about having the power of believing in yourself. This is not just the power of self-confidence. This is not just the power, so you ladies in the room can say, I am woman, hear me roar. This is more than that. This is the power of God that we are to live in before God. And this is not discovered within yourself. This is not about coming to grips with who you are on the inside. This is an external power that the Holy Spirit places in you through faith in Jesus. And I'm wondering, can you say that you live and operate by the power of God in your life? When you're holding that phone and that temptation comes whether to look at bad pictures or to continue a gossip type thread I wonder do you operate in the power of God and say no in Jesus name I rebuke this because I operate by the power of the Almighty that is what it looks like that's what so many more Christians need to stop start acting like and stop operating that we operate with all power according to his glorious might. This is an external power from God that he gives us for his glory and for our good. Again, why is God giving you this power so that you can be confident in who you are feel good about yourself. No, look at what the passage says verse 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might why here's why? for all endurance and patience with joy. In this world, living the Christian life will take endurance and patience. And let me just give us the Middleville translation here, what this means. Endurance and patience. Here's how we might say this in Middleville, that you have grit for the long haul. That you operate in God's power so that you have grit for the long haul. Endurance and patience. Because here's the thing, in this world men you will be ridiculed when you speak the name of Jesus on the job site. Teenagers, you'll be called terrible names when you stand up for Jesus on social media. But guess what? Jesus was called terrible names. Jesus was ridiculed. And so when you stand ridiculed for the name of Jesus, I'm telling you, you stand with Jesus. That's better company, y'all. But with God's power, here's what the beautiful thing is, that we can go through this life, no matter what hardships you face, no matter what obstacles or heartache, God's given us the ability to go through this with grit for the long haul, but not just grit for the long haul, but grit for the long haul, look at with joy. How can you do this with joy? I'll tell you exactly how you can do this with joy, because God is with you. When you stand up for Christ, God's not distant. He's right there with you. The Holy Spirit is alive within you. You can do this with joy because he is with you. And this leads to a life of bearing fruit. Again, what that means is that we show the qualities in our lives that we live for God's glory, for our joy, and for the good of our neighbor. Christians in the house, hear me. Christians, listen up. You don't get a choice in this. This is what we do. This is who we are. This is the life God commands us to live. You don't get a choice in this. We are to serve God and bear fruit in our lives and it must be evidence. So be challenged. Definitely be challenged. Where are you serving God? How are you serving God? Where can you say there's fruit in your life being born because you follow God? And listen to me, if you're sitting right now and you're thinking, I'm a pastor, later on I'm kind of sick, I don't know. Here's what I say to you. That's okay. As long as you do something about it right now. It's okay. As long as you do something about it right now, that you obey the leading of the Spirit and you respond to the moment God's given to you. So here's the first thing I'm gonna say to you, pray. Pray. Second thing is this, if you are truly ready to start showing a level of fruit in your life, to get connected in our church, I'm gonna ask you, after the worship service, go to our welcome booth. There's a gal named Chelsea. I've spoken with Chelsea. She's prepared to have people come and talk to her about how you can get more involved at peace, where you can serve, where you can maybe join a Bible study, or maybe join a small group, where you can take that next step. Again, we want every Christian who calls Peace Church home to be involved. We don't want people just to attend, we want people to be involved. Now let me just say real quickly, if you've come for a place of her or you need a time out, then definitely come and just attend and hear God's word and experience the love of Christ. But that's a very, very, very, very rare few. For most of us, we need to get connected, involved, and grow so that we can bear fruit, so that it's evident in our lives. And this will definitely result in an outpouring of thankfulness, which leads to number three. 3. Our lives must embody gratitude. Look at verses 12 and 13. It says we need to give thanks to God who's qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He's delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, meaning Jesus, in whom we have the redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Let me sum it up for you. We grow in God, we serve God because of who he is and what he's done. And this is the gospel that we have been delivered from our sins. And listen, not just delivered from our sins, but transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. That will be obvious. Not that you're better than anyone else, but that you're different. We've been transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son, and from that we live a life of gratitude, thankful for what God has done. That once we were in darkness, but by the power of the cross, we are now sons and daughters of the King. I'm going to tell you right now, the USA has a president, and I love this country. The USA has a president, but I have a King, and He's whom I serve. And if you follow Jesus, then you are a son or daughter of the King. Listen to me, you are not your failures. You're not your addictions. You're not your criminal record. You're not your past. You know who you are? You are who God says you are. And you are redeemed. Church, this is the type of testimony that we want to see more of at peace. And I want to share with you one such amazing testimony from a guy named Trevor. So would you please watch the screen. Trevor I had this feeling come over me that God was talking to me, telling me not to give up. And this pressure and weight seemed like it was lifted off my shoulders. Before September of last year, I did not know the Bible. I never went to church. I never prayed. My marriage and my business were failing. Everything seemed like they were getting worse every day. In August we had found out we were expecting another child, and September 21st we lost it. It seemed like every day was getting worse, and I didn't want to be around anymore. After we lost the baby, it was the first time in my life I went to my knees, asking God what to do. In the time, I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew I had to go to a church, and we decided to come to Peace Church. I was just going to come and listen. When we came, September 25th, Pastor Ryan came up and the first thing he said was that he had changed his sermon. And the sermon he ended up giving was about what a man should be, what a father should be, and what a husband should be. At that moment, I knew it was exactly what I needed to hear, and I knew I was at the right place. I instantly jumped into the men's Bible study to start learning more and be more surrounded by good Christian men. My life did a complete 180. I continue to grow in my faith every day with prayer and studying the Bible. I'm excited to be a part of the Peace Church Wayland Campus and hopefully help other men come to Christ someday as well. Nate All right Trevor, well here we are again. We've asked you to share your testimony before, and we shared it on video. Thousands of people saw it. It was a really powerful moment. And so when we ask you again to come back on camera, I know it's not your favorite thing in the world, but why are you passionate about sharing your testimony? Trevor I definitely don't like being on camera, but if my story can affect anyone who had heard it, I will share it anytime. I'm just so grateful for what God has done in my life and I'm not just going to keep that story to myself, I'm going to share it to as many people as I can so that they can hear about God and also be transformed in their life. Nate Awesome. Praise God, man. And a lot of people think that your testimony is just that story of the first time you came to know and follow Jesus, but we have testimonies throughout our life, walking with Christ. So since you shared your original testimony with us, what are some more ways that God's been working in your life and growing you? Trevor Definitely. I've joined the Men's Bible Study, which helped me learn so much more about God and just building that brotherhood group up and having other men to go to with advice and rely on. But I've also joined the high school ministries and just helping out with the Wayland launch team. My wife and I also started a community group here in Wayland for couples around our age and it's been awesome. We've been meeting every other week throughout the summer and being a part of these groups has helped me build my faith as I learn more about God and who he is and how he helps in other people's lives too. It's been amazing to just be a part of their journey as well. Nate Trevor, so how would you encourage others who don't feel comfortable sharing their testimony, have never done that before, how would you encourage them to use this powerful tool of sharing the testimony or testimonies of our lives? Trevor Well, when I shared my testimony for the first time, it was very hard, and I was very scared of what the group that I was with would think about that, and they were more than welcoming, especially in Peace Church, with the men's groups that we have here, and even some of them were able to share what their past had been like to me. And I know that it can be very frightening to share something so personal, and I encourage anyone who's afraid to share to just be bold, be brave, and even pray before giving your testimony because God will be with you, the Spirit will be with you when you are sharing that testimony, and people will hear it and also be transformed in their life. Ryan Amen. Church, we want to see more testimonies like Trevor's. Amen. Amen. And this is another reason why we are doing proclaim. There's many reasons, but this is why so we can see more testimonies like the one you just saw. Testimonies of people getting saved. You know, Pastor Nate said it in the interview that our testimony is a powerful tool. That's just not a practical reality. That's a spiritual truth that the Bible itself recognizes. When the when the Apostle John is given a vision of heaven, he sees this like worship service happening and he sees the martyrs, these Christians who gave their life for their faith. He sees them celebrating in heaven and they're celebrating their triumph over Satan and this is what it says. It says, and they have conquered him, meaning the devil, they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony for they loved not their lives even unto death. Church, there's power in the blood of Jesus. Amen? Amen. There's power in his sacrifice and there is power when we share that truth in our lives. Here's the thing I need you to know. Testimony is what a witness does. Okay, we're not asking you to be a lawyer or argue anything. We're saying that you as a witness, you just share your testimony to what you've seen God do in your life. Because we proclaim for the power of our testimony. We wanna be challenged. Challenged that the truth we profess, that it's evident in the lives we live.And so every sermon in this series, we end with a focus on a spiritual challenge for our finances as we consider how much God's calling us to give towards this campaign. We're gonna look at our finances through a spiritual lens. And so let me just give you one challenge for you to think about this week. This spiritual and financial challenge. Is our financial testimony, how you use your money. Is your financial testimony declaring to the world that we care about their lost souls? Because make no mistake about it, part of our fundraising is not just to see more bricks and sticks, it's to see more people in heaven. That's part of what we are doing and why we are doing it. Peace Church, did you know that from two years ago until last year, from two years ago to last 400% increase in the amount of adult baptisms. That is amazing. Somebody said yeah, here we go. I Love that but who wants to see that continue Church, let me hear you. Do you want to see that continue? Yes or no? That's why we're doing this. So we're asking you to consider what your part is to play in this If you call Peace Church home, here's what I want you to do. I Don't want you to ask God. How much do you want me to give? I don't want you to ask that. I want you to alter that just slightly and here's what I want you to ask. God, how much do you want me to sacrifice for this? Giving keeps us comfortable, sacrifice makes us uncomfortable. Ask God, how much are you calling me to sacrifice for this. This is why we are doing proclaim so that we can see more testimonies of people like Trevor coming to faith in Jesus. Church, I'm telling you, if you have salvation in Jesus' name, then you have a testimony, and Christians share your testimony. And you know what Christians do? We respond in worship. Amen? Amen. So let's do that now. Would you please stand? Would you bow your heads and let's prepare our hearts to worship. Father, we come before you. Father, we are thankful that our testimony, our salvation is secure because it's about what Jesus has done, not about what we do. So Father, I pray God that you would fill this place with the power and presence of your Holy Spirits, that we would respond as people who are saved, thankful for our salvation in Jesus' name. And Lord, as we sing this old hymn now, blessed assurance. Let it come from voices of your people who are filled with the Spirit, who respond to the truth of our testimony that you've given to us, that because of Jesus, our salvation is secure. Because of Jesus, we have blessed assurance. We pray these things in his mighty name. We pray these things in his mighty name. And everyone said, Amen.

A New Day Dawning Sermon Series: Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Lamentations 3:22-23 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made and be glad in it. Amen. Today truly is a new day dawning for Peace Church. If you didn't know this, this year, Peace Church actually turns 60 years old. This June, we're going to have a worship night celebrating that, but we turn 60 this year. But I'll be honest with you. Today feels like a new birth. Today stands as a testament to God's faithfulness to this church. Not just because, as Pastor John said, not just not just because we have more sticks and bricks or more steel and concrete and cement. Or not even because we have more space, what we have is a new opportunity, a new day dawning to do even more ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. That's who we are all about here. Amen. So let's celebrate today for what it is. It's a new day dawning. So let me ask you this. Who here is a morning person or who here is a night person? You're the first service. So I think I probably know, but let me just see real quick. Who's here. The morning people. Yeah. Well, let me see night people. Where are you at night people? I used to think of myself as a night person. I used to be young and hip. I used to go to movies that started after eight o'clock PM. Crazy. If I'm not home by eight o'clock PM, I'm grumpy the entire next day. I, in my old age, I've become a morning person. Here's the point, whether you are. Hear me, every day is a day to be reminded of all that we have through God and Jesus. Whether you enjoy the morning or night, every day is a reminder of God's goodness to us. So let's be reminded of that right here and right now. Would you please turn to the book of Lamentations. Lamentations chapter three, if you wanna use the Bible to be provided, we always have those available for you. Grab those at any point. That's on page 873. Now, lamentations, what even is that word? It comes from the word lament. What is a lament? Lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. You see, the book of Lamentations was more than likely it doesn't specifically say, but more than likely Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah and was written in response to the destruction of God's city, Jerusalem. In 586 BC, Babylon came in and destroyed God's city, Jerusalem. We talked about this a few months ago, if you remember, if you're with us, when we walked through the book of Obadiah. Obadiah was also in response to the destruction of God's city. But what we see here is the prophet Jeremiah looks upon what's happened. He looks at the desolation of the city. In all likelihood, he's probably seeing people carted off into exile. Jeremiah looks at what's happening, and he weeps, and he cries, and he laments over what's happening. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, this is an odd book. Lamentations is an odd book to preach from on what is to be a day of celebration. But here's what I'd tell you. Here's what Lamentation reminds us of. Lamentation reminds us that it's not primarily the circumstances of our lives that causes us to give thanks to God. We give thanks to God for who He is and what He's done for us, and even more so now that we know the light of the gospel of Jesus. So, whether we are lamenting over the fall of the city or we are celebrating a new sanctuary. We worship God for who He is. And so let's read our Bibles. Would you please stand if you are able for the reading of God's Word? The Word of the Lord, Lamentations chapter 3, verses 22 to 23. Would you hear God's Word? word. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Amen. This is God's word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray together. Father in heaven above, thank you for this new day dawning. A day that seemed like it was a long time coming. But father, by your good timing, it is here, here and now we pray, Father, that you would send the Holy Spirit to be with us now as we worship you and as we learn from your word for it's in Jesus name that we pray these things and everyone said, amen and amen. You may have a seat. I'm curious. Have you picked out this seat as your new seat from here on out? I I'm really like right now my mind's really being messed with because I'm seeing nine o'clock people, nine thirty people sit where eight o'clock people sat and eight o'clock people feeling like you're not in the state. I'm just as disoriented as you are. I'm just saying that, OK? So today we're going to study God's Word. We are at the start of a new season, the dawning of a new day. This is a day to think about all that we have in God every day. I want today to be a reminder of what you have every day in God. So let me give you this one main thought to work through here today, and it's simply this. This new day dawning reminds us of what we have every day in Christ, God's love, God's mercy, and God's faithfulness. And everyone said, Amen. So let's spend a few moments celebrating this by being reminded of what we have in Christ. And church, if you know me, you probably guessed I was going to preach from the Old Testament on day one of the new worship service. And so we are. This passage, I want to pull out three things from these two verses. And the first one is this. This new day dawning reminds us of God's unfaltering love. Our passage starts out, always, if you have them, keep your Bibles open. It says this, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. Now, if there's one thing that I need to work on in my life, if there's one thing I really need the Holy Spirit for, and men, you can tell me if you sympathize with this, if there's one thing in my life I really need help with, it's patience. I thought I was a patient man. I thought I was a patient man until I had children. And then I just realized then how annoying it is to have to say the same thing twice. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Like in this day and age where kids' face are in a screen, you're trying to get their attention, it's like trying to get the attention of a rock. Just not gonna happen. So you say, hey kids, go wash your hands, get ready for dinner. Okay, now I have to say it twice. Holy Spirit, now I need you. Kids, go get ready for dinner, go wash your hands. And like they're coming out of like comatose, like what? Don't make me say it a third time. I realized after having kids how annoying it is to have to say things multiple times. I need God's patience. But then I see the Bible and I see how many times God has to repeat himself until we get the message. God can't just say it once, he has to say it multiple times because guess what? You are just like kids with an iPad in their face. You need God to say it multiple times because for some reason we don't listen the first time. The verse says, the steadfast love of the Lord. It says that. And then look at the second half. The second half of this one verse, the steadfast love of the Lord, it never ceases. God's word says it twice. The love of God is steadfast and it's unceasing. Do you hear this? God's love is unfaltering. It's enduring. It's endless. It's unwavering. His love for his people is something that does not tire. It does not grow weak. It does not falter. It's unstoppable. God has unfaltering love. Here at Peace Church, if you are new, hearty, hearty welcome to you. But one thing you need to know about Peace Church is that we will speak the truth here. Amen? Now, listen, we always seek to do this in love. We speak the truth in love. We will not shy away from hard and unpopular truths. But again, I want to emphasize, we always seek to do this in love. So that's the motivation of our heart, to share God's truth in God's love. And so, I just happen to believe it's more loving to be truthful. Anybody agree with me? It's more loving to be clear, even if it's hard to hear. And so let me give you a clear, hard truth that may be hard for some of us to hear this morning. I'm gonna give you a truth bomb here. Prepare your heart. The greatest movie of all time is the Princess Bride. I don't care what you think. Facts are facts. Jack greatest movie ever produced in cinema. One of the best lines that comes from this movie is when Wesley, he saves princess buttercup. See the princess. I'm sure you've seen the movie. She was forced to be engaged to an evil prince, but she loves Wesley and he loves her. But she thought that Wesley had died at sea years ago. So when Wesley returns and he saves her and he finds out that she's engaged to another man, he says to her, I told you I'd always come for you. Why didn't you wait for me? And she goes, well, you were dead. Do you remember how he responds? You see the movie, remember how he responds? This is amazing. This is the type of romance a man can get behind. He says this, he says, death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while. My friends, that's the gospel truth right there. Death being unable to stop true love is seen most powerfully in the gospel. For God so loved the world that he sent his son to die for us so that we could be cleansed from our sins, that we might know God's unfaltering love. Death only delayed Christ for three days. From the third day after his death, Jesus Christ rose from the dead in what is to date the most important event in all of human history. Death cannot stop true love. When Wesley says this, when he says to her, death cannot stop true love, Buttercup, the princess, responds by saying, I'll never doubt again. My friends, the unfaltering love that God has given us, that we have seen through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, when you understand this, may you never doubt again. May you never doubt God's love for you. The cross is God's great I love you to a world that's rejecting him. Lamentations chapter 3 verse 22 says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. In this we see God's unfaltering love, but our verse continues. Verse 22 continues it says, his mercies never come to an end. Verse 23, they are new every morning. And that's the second thing we're gonna see. This new day, Donnie, reminds us of God's unfading mercy. You don't have to be in a Bible study very long before you come across Lamentations chapter three. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. So back to you morning people who here loves waking up to the smell of a home cooked breakfast. French toast, maple syrup, bacon, sausages, cinnamon rolls. Listen here. I don't know how anyone can wake up in a bad mood when you wake up to the smell of a home cooked breakfast and all God's people said, amen. My friends, you wake up to something even better than a home-cooked breakfast every single morning. You wake up to God's new morning mercies every single day. How could you ever wake up in a bad mood? When we wake up, we wake up to God's new morning mercies. They are new every day. Now, listen here. This doesn't mean that every day is going to be the best day of your life. Certainly not. But what it does mean is that you wake up and the first thing you can know is that God has given you new mercies. Not old mercies, new ones. New ones that you need for this new day. And what's mercy? Mercy is getting what you do not deserve. What we do deserve is God's judgment for our sins, but what we get instead is God's goodness from his heart in the form of mercy. We get mercy from God. What we get is a constant reminder of God's love for us in the gospel and strength through the Holy Spirit. But listen here, don't forget the context of our passage. Don't forget what's going on here. This passage was written after a foreign army came in and decimated God's country, God's people's country and the capital city. This passage was written as men, women, and children were probably being exiled, carted off in slavery, exiled into a new land, something they never, ever wanted, something they feared. How can Jeremiah say in the midst of this? How can he say his mercies never come to an end? They are new every morning. I'll be honest with you. If I was part of that group back then, and this was happening to me and Jeremiah comes on the scene and says, God's mercies are new every morning. I'll be honest with you. I'd be like, hey, yo, Jeremiah, nothing about what you are saying or writing feels true right now. I don't feel God's mercies. In fact, I feel God's absence. My friend, this is where we must remind ourselves of something about God's mercies. And somebody who said it best was Pastor Paul David Tripp. I'm going to read you what he said about this passage. He said, mercy not only meets you in your struggle, but guarantees that someday your struggle will end Mercy is what this sin broken world groans for Mercy triumphs where justice can't if God only offered justice. No one would run to him Isn't it is the knowledge of his mercy that makes us honestly face ourselves and gladly run to him Sometimes these new morning mercies come on days like today, where we stand in joy and happiness and celebration, a day marked by newness and gladness. But sometimes those mercies come on different sorts of days, not on glad days, but gloomy ones. And in those days, we have to remember this one thing, the gospel, the gospel, where God's love, justice and mercy collide. And it's called grace. And we see this through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and therein lies our hope, no matter what the day brings. The gospel shows us this one last thought, that God has unfailing faithfulness to us. It's unfailing. Verse 23 says, great is your faithfulness. Or probably, how it should be said, great is thy faithfulness. It's almost like it should have been written in the old English, right? When Jeremiah's world has literally fallen apart, he is writing a book of sorrow and lament that will echo through the ages. And yet in the midst of this, Jeremiah still says, great is your faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. And yes, it reminds us of that old him. Great is thy faithfulness. Oh, God, my father, there is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changes not thy compassions. They fail not as thou has been thou forever will be great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. Did you know that that him draws his inspiration right from this passage. Do you understand what we are saying, what we are singing when we say, great is thy faithfulness? It's unfailing. It will not fail you, meaning God will never fail or compromise his promises towards us, his love that he's given to us, the hope that he extends to us. Not even death could stop God's faithfulness towards us. We can stand here in a new room that God has most certainly provided for us. We can confidently say, Lord, great is your faithfulness. But I'll tell you now, this new room was built to declare that the tomb is empty. That is why we are here. And if you wonder about God's faithfulness, it is seen through the resurrection of Jesus after he gave up his blood so that we could have life forever more. When Christ died, it was a dark day, but that dark day led to a new day dawning, where three days later, when the love of God, the truth of Christ, and the hope of salvation was made secure in his resurrection. Yes, Peace Church family and friends, I most certainly say to you on this day, this new day dawning reminds us of what we have every day in Christ, God's love, mercy, and faithfulness. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. And then we'll celebrate this love, mercy, and faithfulness by having communion together. And then we'll celebrate this love, mercy, and faithfulness by having communion together. Let's pray 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

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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!! 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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.