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Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, March 10, 2024 Withstand Ephesians 6:16-17a Spiritual Doubt v.s. Faith and Salvation 2 Overview Main Idea: Don't wait for the devil to attack to get dressed in God's armor Sermon Outline: 1. Faith isn't for passivity, it's for activity 2. Salvation isn't for insurance, its for assurance 3 Pre-Questions 1. How does this passage of scripture - and the sermon preached from it - challenge your worldview? 2. During this series how have you seen God move in your life? 4 Questions 1. The consistency of spiritual warfare can vary. How might this inconsistency lead us to "leave our armor at home"? Discuss how we can remain vigilant and equipped with the Armor of God in our daily lives. 2. Reflect on areas of your life where you might be passive in your faith. What steps can you take to become more actively engaged in your spiritual journey? 3. Read 1 John 5:4–5. How does this passage inspire us to overcome the world through our faith? Share personal experiences where your faith has helped you overcome challenges. 4. Discuss how viewing salvation merely as an entrance fee can limit our spiritual growth. What practices can help us deepen our relationship with God and grow beyond just meeting the minimum requirements of faith? 5. While justified by faith, we're called to 'work out our salvation with fear and trembling' (Philippians 2:12). How can we balance the assurance of being saved by grace with the ongoing process of sanctification, especially when we know we aren't perfect? PDF Download

For God So Loved The World Sermon Series: It Had To Be Said Nate Harney Executive Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: John 3:16-21 Transcript Well, good morning, church. It's a joy to bring God's Word to you this morning, and I'm going to go out on a limb here. I guess I don't need to present a bunch of neurological or sociological studies to convince most of you of this one basic truth, that there are things in our lives that we believe absolutely and wholeheartedly, and yet we don't live in light of those things that we know and believe every single day of our lives. Here's an example from my life, I'm sure some of you can connect with this, but I think I know the basics of how to be physically healthy. I know there's some advanced things, but I know I'm supposed to eat well, I'm supposed to exercise, and I'm supposed to get some good sleep, right? Those are kind of the basic building blocks. And yet, at least in my life, there are days, and then there are weeks and months, and even let's just say seasons of life, where I don't live in light of what I know and what I believe about how to be healthy. I'm in one of those seasons right now. Many of you know Pastor Ryan has been out on sabbatical for the last couple months. Praise God he's coming back soon, but it's been a heightened level of stress for me and that has come combined with earlier this summer someone introducing me to the McDonald's app. Some of you are laughing harder than others because you know, you know the points and the deals and the freebies. And you know it's been bad season for me. It's been rough. I know I shouldn't be going there and I believe that it's not going to be good for me and I actually have a checkup tomorrow, no joke, and so I think that's all going to be confirmed early tomorrow morning. But I just am not living in light of what I know and believe. So maybe you're a total health nut and so you're not at all tempted by one dollar Big Macs, which that's good for you But there's this is there's this way in every area of life I think think about like our financial health our financial state. We know we got to get a job make some money We know we should reduce our debt. We know we should save and invest. But then there's times where we want something and we don't have money for it, but what are we supposed to do? Just not have it? That'd be crazy, right? So we know we shouldn't, we believe that it would be a bad idea, and yet we get ourselves into a financial state that we know we shouldn't be in. Well, I could go on and on with examples. I think we could all mostly agree on that. There are things we know, there's things we believe, and yet we don't live in light of it. And we are in the middle of a sermon series called It Had to be Said, where we're looking at the quotes from Jesus Christ that changed the world. And I think we would be remiss if we made it through the whole summer and we didn't include the most quoted, most well-known most memorized most held up on Signs at sports events and at concerts you probably know where we're going this morning We're going to look at Jesus's words from John chapter 3 starting in verse 16 and I just want to be up front with you about what we're about to do this morning because I Think nearly 90 some percent of us in this room have probably heard everything I'm going to say before. I'm going to guess most of us here, not all, but most of us believe wholeheartedly the words of Jesus that we're going to look at. don't live each day with a profound awareness, a focus on these foundational basic truths that we hear right from the mouth of Jesus. So what are we going to do? We're going to do what we do as believers. We're going to go back to the scriptures and we're going to be reminded again and again and again of of the truths of God's Word. And so as you're turning to John chapter three, verse 16, we're gonna read through verse 21. And if you are looking in our Bibles that we provide you with, it's page 1,130. But I just want you to know where we're jumping in because we're not just jumping into the life and ministry of Jesus, but actually in the middle of an interaction, of a conversation that Jesus had with a religious leader named Nicodemus. Nicodemus, he's a Pharisee, that means he's just this devout religious ruler of the Jews, and those rulers, those leaders in the Jewish world, they have started to hear the buzz about Jesus. And actually Nicodemus had seen some of his miraculous signs, and so not wanting to make a stir with his friends and his close co-workers, he sneaks away under the cover of the night to investigate Jesus himself And that's where we're jumping in near the end of this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus and this conversation Particularly the section we're focusing on today has gone down in history as the most famous concise Clear summary of the good news of Jesus that ever came from his mouth. So follow along with me as we're reminded again this morning and I hope This starts a pattern of you reminding yourself every morning of the good news of Jesus. So let's read John 3 starting in verse 16 through 21. John 3:16-21 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” You pray with me father as we return to what for most of us is a familiar text It's our prayer this morning that you would by the power of your Holy Spirit. Make this fresh make this new and make this stick in our minds and in our hearts and may it permeate every aspect of our lives. God I pray that we would be reminded of the profound yet basic truth that we find here in John 3 16. We love you Jesus and we pray this in your name. Amen. Amen. So this morning I'm going to challenge you with just a couple short daily reminders that are things I believe that most of us probably know and believe But that many of us don't dwell on day in and day out We don't start our mornings. We don't launch into each day based on this foundation reminding ourselves of these truths That can change today. So let's look at starting at verse 16, and the daily reminder that we can draw from it. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. I dropped into the shall there, I missed the whosoever believeth, but a lot of you have this memorized, you might have it in the older versions, but our first reminder today is that God loves you. God loves you. 1. God loves you. I know when we read John 3, 16, it's often easy to skip towards the end, to skip towards eternal life, and that's so big and that's so massive and it's so important, but we need to be careful that we don't make the mistake of skipping over how we get there in the first place because it all starts with for God so loved the world God loves you and you probably know that it's a basic foundational truth today but back in Jesus's time this would have been seen as an audacious claim by just about everyone roaming the world. Think about outside the Jewish faith, and Jesus is talking to Nicodemus here, we'll get back to him, but think about everyone else outside the world, rampant paganism, beliefs in all different kinds of gods, and one of the uniting factors with all these different beliefs is that most people out there who made us and who are in charge of all this stuff they just must be so annoyed and we must have to appease them with our worship and with our obedience and there's no way they like us let alone love us that was the thoughts of most the world and Jesus shows up God in the flesh God with us on the scene and says for God so loved the world says the one true God the real God the maker of everything the sustainer of the universe actually loves you individually but think about Nicodemus he knew that God loved he particularly was aware of God's love for the Jewish people for God's people that he was leading and guiding that we read about in the Old Testament, but what he probably and so many of those Jewish religious leaders of the day, kind of either forgot about or maybe even neglected a little bit, is what Jesus reminded them of, for God so loved the world. The world. Now let me ask you, I'm guessing there's not many, but here in 2024 in West Michigan, raise your hand if you would be so bold, if you're ethnically Jewish in your background. There might be some, not a groundswell of it here in West Michigan. Now raise your hand if you're a part of the world. And by that, Jesus would have meant if you're a human being, raise your hand. I'd love to see that. And even if you're shy, hold on, keep them up. Keep them up. If you're a kind of shy person, give me at least one of these. Hold them up. If you're raising your hand right now, for God so loved the world, that means that God loves you. We so often forget to dwell on that every single day of our lives. You can lower your hands now. I remember when my firstborn came into the world, when my son Cohen was born. It was a whirlwind adventure, the whole thing. My wife had preeclampsia, so we were in and out of the hospital, and one day we were in the hospital about the whole day. They were debating, do we send him home or not? They sent us home, we got home, and all of a sudden, my wife's water breaks. Boom. We got to head right back to the hospital. So we go to go back down on the road that we just came from the hospital on, and they have shut down that road for construction for the night. Highway 68, we weren't getting to the hospital, and so I roll down my window and I yell out to the nearest construction worker, I say, hey, my wife's in labor, you need to let us through. And he looked at me and walked towards us so slow, like he's heard this a hundred times before, and ninety-nine times, it's not true, but he looked in and he looked at my wife and he said, whoa, your wife is actually in labor. And she was. And so he said, all right, I can escort you through, but, he said, are you having a boy or a girl? You know, we said, we're having a boy. He goes, okay. He said, I'll let you through, but you have to name your child after me. No joke. He said that. And I said, sure, whatever it takes. So, do you know my son, Cohen? You can guess what this construction worker's name is. You know what his name was? Mike. I did. We had already picked out a name. I still feel a little guilty about it, but sorry, Mike. But Cohen entered the world. When we got to the hospital, everything was chaotic and our doctor wasn't there and we loved our doctor. He was actually the head elder at the church I was pastoring there. Just this amazing godly guy, so experienced at helping women bring their kids into the world and he wasn't there. Everything was chaos and finally at the last minute, right before Cohen arrived, Dr. Alexander came in like a hero. He came into the scene delivered our boy he handed him to us and everything was buzzing and people were moving and doing all of their things and I don't know if it was because he was just this godly or because he was a couple months away from retirement But dr. Alexander just said everybody stop quiet and the whole room everybody stopped exactly what they were doing And he said Nate and Bryn look down at your child. He says, you are probably experiencing a love right now that you never knew you were even capable of. And he said, that love you have for this child, he said, that's not I'll never forget that moment. But every day I seem to forget to live in light of that truth. To live knowing I am safe and secure whatever happens because I have the love of God. The love of God is behind me and under me and around me and that whatever I Face in this broken and dark world. I am loved by God Guessing many of you Need to be reminded of that just like I do again and again and again for God so loved the world. But he doesn't stop there and if you have trouble believing that listen to what Jesus says next because he looks at Nicodemus and he says for God so loved the world that he gave his only son We can know God loves us not just because he said he did but because he showed he did he proved it He gave his son his only son to take on the wrath of God in our place God loves you so much that he sent his only son for you has that sunk in I know it's easy For us to go. Hey, well We're a reformed church and we kind of get into the more the the meaty the nitty-gritty, the hard stuff, this is basic, we don't do as much of this lovey-dovey, fluffy stuff. No, this is foundational to the good news of Jesus. And if you've lost sight of the truth that God actually, really, truly loves you, I want you to hold on to that once more. every day, even if it takes waking up and saying to yourself, preaching to yourself, God loves me. I am a loved child of God. If that's what it takes for you to start each day that way, then do it. Make a habit of it. So that's my first challenge for you. A daily reminder that God loves you. But we can't stop there. That could lead to some confusion because Jesus didn't stop there he clarified a couple things and just because God loves the world and he does that doesn't mean that everyone everywhere is automatically safe look at what the rest of verse 16 says for God so loved the world that he gave his only in him should not perish but have eternal life if you believe in him you can experience the love of God both now and forever if if if you put your faith and your trust in Jesus you can receive his loving sacrifice and you get to have eternal life. Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. I don't know about you but when I hear eternal life I just think I always just my mind goes to the quantity of life just living forever life forever with God in heaven and that's certainly an aspect of it but when Jesus would talk about eternal life he wouldn't just talk about the quantity of life we get, but actually the quality of life that comes from following Jesus. Look at what Jesus is quoted saying later in the Gospel of John in chapter 17. He says, and this is eternal life that they know you God the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. If you put your faith in Jesus you can walk into his love with an early earthly entry into the covenantal love of God, a relationship with God that starts now and lasts forever and can permeate every fabric of your being and every aspect of your life and every moment of your days. That God loves you. 2. God saved you. And that leads to the second basic reminder that many of us know, most of us believe, is that if you do put your faith in Jesus, then God has saved you. We often just hear verse 16 when we look at John 3, but verses 17 and 18 bring so much color and so much commentary on what Jesus said in John 3 16 So follow along as I read those two verses Jesus says for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world But in order that the world might be saved through him Whoever believes in him is not condemned But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only son of God. Now there's some back and forth there that Jesus is saying so for clarity I want to just give us all a quick quiz here. It's open books Look at your Bibles look at the words of Jesus and if you'd be so bold answer these questions with a loud yes or no But did God send his son Jesus into the world to condemn the world? No. Did God send Jesus in order that the world might be saved through him? If someone believes in Jesus, are they condemned? But if someone does not believe in Jesus according to his words, Yes. Yes. Because of our deep and our, frankly, our obvious sin against God and against each other in this world, Jesus didn't have to come and condemn because that was our default position in which we all live. Instead, He came to save. He doesn't cause us to sin, but we are responsible for our sin, and because he loves us so much, he sent his son to die and to save us from the dangerous and deadly position we all get ourselves into. I remember when I was younger, a moment with my dad. And when I was younger, I really struggled with a low view of myself. I didn't see the worth that God Put in me by creating me by loving me and I was down on myself all the time and I beat myself up about things I remember one time that I was I messed something up and I was there talking to my dad and I was so ashamed I was so embarrassed about whatever I had done and I remember I started to not just in my head but physically I started to just hit my head and harder and harder because I was so mad at myself And I was hurting so much and Then with my eyes closed. I just felt two big arms wrap all the way around me First to stop me from the harm. I was doing to myself and Next to just hug me my dad Said no stop. He kept saying I love you. That was one of the only times I have in my life that I saw my dad just cry because he saw what I was doing to myself. He saw the position I was in rough shape already what Jesus is telling us here in John 3 17 and 18 is that he loves us so much that even though we were already condemned and don't get confused we are God sent his son to save us if we believe if we in him. It's basic. Most of you know this. Most of us believe this. But do we wake up each day remembering and living in light of it? And in case we today or Nicodemus back then are at all confused about where this condemnation comes from, how it comes about, that's where Jesus ends his conversation here. So read verses 19 through 21 with me as we end out these words of Jesus Jesus says and this is the judgment the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light lest his work should be exposed But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God 3. Come to Jesus. Our last daily reminder is as simple and as straightforward as my first two. It's the offer that many of you Stepped into at one point in your life, but you might be forgetting to do every single day is to come to Jesus. If you are here today and you've never come to Jesus, if you've never stepped out of the darkness into the light, if you've never said, I believe that Jesus came and lived and died, that he loved us so much, that he took our place and the punishment we deserve, if you've never done that today is the day this is the moment and just like that You can have eternal life not just life forever, but relationship with God here and now And for all your days But Many of us have had that moment We are totally Justified we are absolutely saved. We cannot lose our salvation. The Bible says nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. But that's our positional, that's the positional truth, the position that we live in, that we rest in, but practically every day we still make choices to walk in the light of Jesus, to come to Him every single day, or to slip back, to crawl back into the darkness. And it seems crazy that we would do that, right? We know better. We believe that's not the best way, but sometimes that false promise of darkness, that it could cover our sin and our shame, and that the light of Jesus will expose our weakness and our need. Sometimes we fall for that day after day after day. If that's you right now in your life, there's no better time than right now to say, God, I need to start every morning saying, God loves me, God saved me, and now I want to come to you today. I know I'm safe and secure for all eternity, but I want to walk today in your love, in your light, and in your salvation. You can make that change by the power of the Holy Spirit. And what does it actually look like to live in these truths? Because I've been saying that a lot, but practically, what does that actually mean moment to moment, day to day. And I can't probably pinpoint exactly for you, but I know for me there's just this picture of, I thought, I think about my my personal finances a lot and I think, you know, if I had a billion dollars in a bank account somewhere, I wouldn't get flustered by these bills coming in, you know, nothing could kind of really ruin my day. And I think that's true. I don't have a billion dollars in a bank account, unfortunately, but I Have the love of God. Do I live Like the love of God is a present reality in my life day after day or imagine if you Talk to a doctor and they said hey We found out this special pill, a cure, just for you, for your DNA, that anything that could go wrong with you health-wise, it could fix it just like that. You probably wouldn't be concerned day-to-day about little things that happen if you stub your toe or get a paper cut, or even the bigger things you could live with knowing that you're safe and secure. Do we live like that? Do you live like that every day, knowing I have the love of God, I am saved by the grace of Jesus, and that each moment, each day, I can just come to Jesus? That doesn't mean life's going to be easy. It doesn't mean really, really tough things aren't going to happen. In fact, I can promise you that they will. If we have the love of God, and we have our salvation in Christ, and we have a daily reminder that we can come to Jesus, then we can live in confidence, we can live in peace, we can live with hope, we can live with real joy, even in this dark and broken world.

PODCAST That's a Good Question The Deceitful Heart: Why "Following Your Heart" Leads You Astray September 30, 2024 Jon Delger & Mitchell Leach Listen to this Episode 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 can serve as a pastor as well as a part of the show. You can always submit questions at peacechurch.cc/questions . And also, another great teaching resource that came out from ReSound Media recently, Christianity and Politics. We did a class, recently five sessions, four teaching sessions, and one bonus live question and answer time that we took. You can find that at resoundmedia.cc. Some great resources as we are in an election year. Time for Christians just to think through questions like, should we have anything to do with politics? Are we a Christian nation? What would the perfect government look like? Where do we go from here as Christians involved in a political world? So some great questions we tackled, I encourage you to check out that resource. Excited also next week to talk about a cultural line having to do with politics a little bit. But today, I'm here with Pastor Mitch and we're continuing our series. Yeah, yep, I'm really excited. If you haven't seen that Christianity and Politics, you gotta go see it. John explains in a really approachable way how Christians interact with this. It was a great series. The weird thing was he said that we should vote for animals and they should be at the top of our political system. No, I'm just kidding. Is that what I said? Yeah, that's what I took away from it. You know, teach their own. No, it's really good. You should check it out, resoundmedia.cc. But I'm excited to be here today. We're continuing our series on cultural lies, calling out cultural lies. And today, we're looking at the lie of follow your heart, and how that's disruptive for individuals, but also for our society. So here's the first question, John. The phrase follow your heart, in essence means to act on the information that you believe to be true, kind of excluding other influences and things like that. So even outside of a Christ-centered worldview, why is this phrase, why is this philosophy a bad life principle? It's usually a bad life principle to say, I know it all and I'm going to ignore everybody else. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what you're saying, right? You're saying that follow your heart says, I'm ignoring all other input, all other influences, and I'm just gonna go with what's inside of me. And I'm gonna go with that. Yeah, I mean, that seems like a bad way to go. I mean, in general, you wanna learn some stuff, you wanna do some research, you wanna maybe ask other people's opinions. Yeah, follow your heart is kind of an arrogant response, I think, to things, to say, you know what, you're saying this, but actually I'm good. I know everything I need to know. I got it all figured out and I'm just gonna go my own way. Yeah, it's not, I would say it's probably not intentionally arrogant, but the philosophy is itself arrogant, right? It's kind of saying, I've got the best perspective on the world and that's how I'm gonna act. And I think that's silly when we think, when we add God into the mix, that he's infinite, eternal, he's seen everything that was, and he's already seen everything that will be. And for us to say, you know, my perspective is the best, that's a wild idea. It actually sounds a lot like a kid to a parent kind of relationship. I have that conversation with my kids, I know, that I tell them something and they say, well, no, I know better, I'm gonna do it this way. And sometimes I have the opportunity to say, all right, you go for it and watch them struggle or fail. Other times you have to just kinda explain how a son or daughter, you don't have all the answers, mom or dad know a thing or two still. And actually, so to me, the origin of this phrase, follow your heart, in my mind, is Disney. I think of Disney movies first when I think of follow your heart. I know other people are saying it, I know there's other philosophical background to it, but I jump right away to Disney movies. Yeah, because Disney really oftentimes follows the cultural narrative in at least the global West. It adopts, it emphasizes the philosophical ideas or heart of our culture. Right, right. So I checked out, which I looked into some Disney movies that use this line. So from what I could find, it sounded like the closest to actually saying this line is a song from Cinderella 2. It came out in 2002. And Cinderella sings a song that says, Who's to say the rules must stay the same forever? Whoever made them had to change the rules that came before. So make your own way. Show the beauty within. When you follow your heart, there's no heart you can't win. Yeah, and that's the kind of scary thing to hear. I mean it probably sounds better when you put Disney music to it, but just reading that off, that's a scary phrase. Yeah, and as I think about, yeah, so I watched the clip. You can go and find it on YouTube, but you know, watch a little bit of Cinderella too. So you can see the context is she's rebelling against kind of the traditions and standards of the royal family that came before her. And you know, as you're watching the movie, of course you sympathize with her, right? Oh man, there's all these strict rules and traditions about who you can and can't invite to a party and all this kind of stuff. And so you say, well, yeah, that's terrible. She should follow her heart and do what she wants to do and do her own thing, because she knows better. But when you apply that more broadly and realize what it's really saying is that there are no rules or that all rules that came before are not objective or absolute but are just subjective and we should reinvent them with every generation, that's a pretty scary idea. Yeah. It comes from – so we've talked in this series a bunch about relativism, and especially moral relativism. This idea that there are no absolute truths, there are no absolute moral laws, and therefore every generation kind of makes up their own right and wrong. You know, it kind of comes from that. If we believe in a moral absolute, objective right and wrong, and we do as Christians, then this is not a good way to go. No. No, no. And Disney movies, they, you know, everything turns out fine for the characters who explore this this faulty line of thinking because it's a it's a movie. You know, it seems like everything works out as long as you follow your heart. But there's genuine some really big consequences for it. So that's what's interesting to me. I was thinking about I've been thinking a lot about Disney movies. So unfortunately, you know, some of you listening might be thinking, well, why is this guy listening and watching all these Disney movies? But I've got two young daughters, and if you grew up in my generation, you dreamed of the day when your little girl could wear her Disney princess costume and you could dance with her and all those kind of things. So we do the Disney movies, we've watched them, that kind of things. We vet them first and make sure they're okay. There's some that we don't watch. But anyways, I was thinking about Moana this morning, and actually thinking through this, how it plays out. Okay, so Moana doesn't specifically say, follow your heart, but in the beginning of the movie, there's her grandma who's saying, follow the voice within, basically. So dad is saying, no daughter, don't go beyond the reef, out into the ocean. Grandma says, follow the voice within, follow your heart. And so she eventually decides to do so, to go her own way, to go past the reef and disobey dad, which I always pause it and say, girls, if you hear a voice within that tells you one thing, but daddy says different, which one do you listen to? They say, we listen to daddy. And I say, that's right. But think about what happens in that movie. So she follows the voice within, she follows her heart and goes out there. But the only reason it works out is because the magical ocean carries her to the place that wanted her to go. And then she gets on a raft with a demigod and gets going somewhere. So in the movie, actually, the ocean is like a god. You know, it directs everything. It directs the course of everything that happens in the movie, this magical ocean. And so actually, I thought about it, and really, it's a theistic movie. It's actually the premise is that there is an all-powerful God, an all-wise God in control of the whole situation. In their case, it's the ocean. But that's the only reason it works out. So Moana isn't actually following her heart. She's actually following God in a backwards, twisted kind of way. It's kind of funny to me, the self-defeating, self-contradictory kind of nature of that. Yeah, I mean, you just think about even some of the other Disney movies that have come out. I mean, my daughter's going to hate me for saying this, but like Frozen, right? When Elsa gets to the top of the mountain and says, there's no right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free. I mean, that is almost exclusively like that. That should be the expressive individualism. That should be their bumper sticker or their mantra. That's a... And we still let our daughter watch that, but, you know, it's just a... Some of that stuff is pretty in your face when you think about it. Yeah. Yeah, you gotta take away the songs and some of what you're seeing in the story and kind of isolate the words and think about what they actually mean. Yeah. And we're not anti-Disney. Like, obviously, we let our children watch some of that stuff. Some of it. Yeah, some of it. But there is also a good note to say we can't allow some of that stuff to be the main disciplers of our children. We have to, as Christians, we have to be discerning. Yeah, whenever I watch a movie with my kids, we pause it multiple times, and we'll stop and talk about things and say, is that good, is that bad, is that what God wants us to do? Yeah, for kids it can be fun and also a great discipling opportunity for us as parents. Cool, when people use this phrase to justify their own often selfish behavior or actions, what would happen if someone used that phrase in court to defend themselves. Yeah, so you're jetting down the road and you get pulled over and the police officer says, you know, why did I pull you over today? And you say, well, I was just following my heart, officer. I wanted to go fast. You pull a Ricky Bobby, right? And you say, I want to go fast. And so then you end up in the courtroom and you say to the judge, I was just following my heart, judge. Yeah, I don't think that's going to work out. Yeah. It's one of those things, out in the abstract, we think that moral rules are relative, but you get into a courtroom, and I know, you know, we can talk about laws change, and so it's not a perfect illustration of the fact that there are moral absolutes, but it is one example, I think, of where we know that there is objectively right and wrong, and there has to be a foundation for that. But you get in a courtroom and you can't just say, well, hey, I was just following my heart, and the judge says, oh, you know what, that's great, that's okay. Yeah, no lawyer, or at least no good lawyer, would ever use that in court because we know that that's a silly premise, right? But socially, for some reason, we think that that's acceptable. And there's clearly – if we try to bring those two together, we realize that one of those things is wrong and it's not in the courtroom. It's probably how we address social things. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a, you know, when you're thinking through a life philosophy, like follow your heart, you've got to think through multiple different scenarios. And this is when, you know, you think about the courtroom, for example, you think about any criminal, whether it's a thief or a murderer or a rapist or, you know, whatever it might be, just saying, well, I was following my heart. I think I think most of them would say that right. Yeah, whatever they did, they did it for some reason. They had a reason. Yeah, and so they would say that they were following their heart, but that doesn't make it right. Yeah on that on that same idea. There's a book that we've referenced a few times in the previous episode. It's a book called the rise and triumph of the modern self by Karl Truman. There's also a shorter one called A Strange New World. That one might be a little bit easier to read. But in this book, it talks about this idea of expressive individualism. Could you describe what that is as I think it really relates well to what we just talked about with criminals? Yeah, yeah. The idea is that prevalent in our modern culture, We believe that to be a true, free individual is to follow whatever is within and to express it, and that that is truly being authentic, truly being free, truly being human, is to take whatever I feel inside and to express it outwardly. person if I am submitting myself to some sort of exterior, external boundaries, rules, things like that. Yeah. It's almost saying like the highest priority that we can have as a society is to let people be who they want to be and put no rules in place for that. I think historically that's not always been true. Like you see a shift in that with, like if I was gonna ask my great-grandfather why he was a farmer, he wouldn't say it's because it's the thing that makes me the most happy or it's the thing that defines me. He'd say, well, it puts food on the table and it's a way to make a living. And there was a time where it wasn't about the self, that wasn't the most important thing, but it was about if you can provide for your family. And there's other kind of eras throughout history that have different kinds of emphasis like that. But we're kind of in this age of expressive individualism. Yeah, and I think we could talk a long time about how that came about. One of the ways in which it came about, I think generations past, it would have sounded pretty silly to say, you know, they were just like, man, whatever I can do to provide for my family, whatever I can do to best serve my community, you know, you know, why did you become a farmer? Well, because that's what my family did and we have land and that's the way I can provide for my family. Yeah. You know, it is a little, it's pretty luxurious that we can say, well, I just want to be whatever I want to be. Yeah. I'm not saying that, you know, you can, you can pursue whatever career you feel called to. And that's a, that's a blessing, but not everybody in history, not even everybody living today throughout the world has that opportunity. That's a very unique benefit of living where we live today. Yeah. Yeah. So going off of that, this idea of, you know, I need to achieve the, the thing that makes me happy. You were talking about criminals. If we were going to apply this, shouldn't all those criminals be, you know, we can, societally, we can justify their actions then?You could. If you believe follow your heart was the philosophy for life and for justice, then yeah, you could justify just about anything. What does this phrase, follow your heart, assume about the state of humans and their desires and what's at the core of their being? Yeah, I think it assumes, it's very optimistic. It assumes something really good about human nature. It assumes that we have a lot within us that wants to do what's good, what's right, that left to ourselves, we'll go in the right direction, when actually we know by both experience and by God's word that that's not the case. Think of passages like Jeremiah 17, 9, that says, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it. Man, we know that as Christians, we know that the world has fallen and broken ever since Adam and Eve ate the fruit and the world fell into sin in Genesis chapter three. We know from Ephesians chapter two that we were dead in sin before we knew Jesus. We know from passages like Romans three that we were actually haters of God. We were against God before we met Jesus. So, yeah, follow your heart has an extremely optimistic view of human nature, whereas I think the Bible says that apart from Jesus, human nature is not headed in the right direction but the wrong direction. Yeah. Theologically, there's a word that we use as Reformed people. We use the word total depravity. Can you explain what that is, what that doctrine means? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, so some people when they hear total depravity, they think that that means that human beings are as bad as they possibly could be. That's really not what it means. You know, I could be worse. Yeah, yeah. You know, sitting here, I could be a worse person. Yeah. So it doesn't mean that we've all lived out to our most evil potential. Yeah. But what it means is that we are depraved in every aspect of our being, that down to the very heart, that we are broken, that ever since sin entered the world, that we're not living according to God's good design by our very nature, that everything in us wants to go against God's design, against God's will. Some of the scripture I just mentioned outlines that reality. Yeah. So another passage I think of for total depravity is like 1 Kings 8 46, is there is no man who does not sin. Mm-hmm. Like at 1 John 1 8, if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Okay, so scripture is abundantly clear that you and I are sinful people, that we have sin in us. A couple more, just talking about how depraved we are. So one of the other points that I think is sometimes hard for us to grasp, and we could talk a ton about this, is, so Romans 14, 23 says, whatever is not from faith is sin. Yeah. So not only, so it's not just, do you follow some of the, you know, external commandments, like do not murder, but it goes even to your thoughts, your words, your heart. Yeah. What did your actions arise up out of? You know, if I analyze my actions on a minute by minute basis, I'm operating out of some good motives, but pretty much everything I do has also some bad motives. Whether that's from pride or selfishness or whatever it might be. I don't think there's probably any action I take during the day that has, you know, an entirely pure motive. By God's grace, the Holy Spirit's working in me, and I think, you know, the good motives are winning some of the time, or hopefully most of the time. Yeah. But yeah, I think about that passage, and just whatever is not from faith is sin, Romans 14, 23. So, man, we are, total depravity is the right word. We are totally depraved, and that's a hard thing to swallow. That's something we've talked about in past episodes. I think we did a much longer episode on that topic last year. And so maybe we'll do some more content on that in the future, but that's a hard thing to swallow. But I think the point is that scripture paints a very different picture of the human heart than follow your heart. Yeah. It seems like that's, you know, almost an evil way to make mankind. Why would God allow us to live in a way that we have almost everything we do is tainted by sin. It almost seems like we have no hope. Well, yeah, great question. So first of all, he didn't make us that way. God made us good, and then when we chose sin, we rebelled against God, and our very hearts became broken. So we always gotta remember, it's us, it's human beings that brought sin into the world and into our own lives. But then also, God in his grace, he didn't destroy us just then. In Genesis chapter three, he also didn't leave us to ourselves. He began a long rescue mission of coming after us to save us. So from Genesis three to the end of the Bible is that story. And that story is continuing even today. God sent his son, Jesus, to live a perfect life, the life that we are unable to live because of our sinful natures. He died on the cross to pay the punishment for our sin. Romans 6.23 says, the wages of sin is death. Jesus died to pay for our sin. And then he conquered the grave and his resurrection so that someday we too will conquer sin and death and Satan when we arise as well because of faith in Jesus. Yeah, it's the good news of the gospel. Yeah, it's one of my favorite things to talk about. I know it sounds like a weird thing, that that's, total depravity is one of my favorite things to talk about, but it connects to the gospel so clearly. That's right. Yeah. Another passage that you had mentioned to me earlier that I think is important to highlight here, one that maybe many Christians will have memorized or have heard before, Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6, says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. That sounds to me like the opposite of follow your heart. Yeah, it does. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your straight. He will make straight your paths. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of just clear that the Bible is against us being our own person who determines how we should live, how that is kind of an arrogant claim that puts you in the center of of the world. It says that you have the right perspective. And so I want to ask this question. Can someone who adopts this worldview be humble at the same time? It sure doesn't seem like it. Yeah. So maybe the question is, how is this the opposite of humility? Yeah, yeah, well, I think it's humility is always open to somebody else's wisdom. Humility is always saying, I don't necessarily have it all figured out myself. I'm open to criticism. I'm open to new information, things like that. It's not to say that everybody else is always right. You know, that's where the discernment comes in. Yeah, there are some people who are clearly wrong out there. Yeah, yeah, right, right. Shouldn't listen to everything you get. But humility would have the openness to at least hear new information, a different perspective, and to be willing to be corrected. Yeah. Whereas follow your heart is pretty much rejecting all of that. Yeah. How about the idea of how this affects people in society or communally. This idea of follow your heart, how does that actually hurt society? And how is that, again, kind of the opposite of humility? Yeah, well, so I think even more than just being arrogant, it's also selfish, right? It's not built on helping other people. Follow your heart would be all about satisfying your own desires. Whereas we as human beings have a calling to love God and to love neighbor. Yeah. Uh, that's what the Lord tells us. And so we should have our mind fixed on the things that the Lord wants and the things that benefit our fellow human beings. Yeah. Uh, so, and that doesn't always align with what would satisfy our own personal desires. Yeah. Cause if you're going to be consistent in this worldview, when it comes between satisfying yourself at the expense of hurting someone else, you would do the thing that satisfies you. And that's a scary thing to have as a friend or as a spouse, to live in a world where it's, I got to get mine and, you know, sucks if you don't get yours. Pretty, pretty dark view of how we treat each other too. Yeah. So I guess going right off of that, what impacts do you think that this mindset, where personal feelings trump objective truth, has on even just personal relationships and families and communities in our society today? Yeah. It would have a damaging effect on relationships with others. An interesting experiment might be to, at your next family dinner, extended family dinner, I'm imagining, so let's say that you're married. Let's say that you're like me, you've got a wife, and let's say you're sitting with your in-laws at dinner, and just to test out what we all think of, follow your heart, you could say, guys, I just wanted to share with you all that I feel like my heart is telling me that I need a different life partner. And so I just wanted to let everybody know here at dinner today that I'm filing for divorce. I want nothing to do with my children because my heart tells me that there's this other person that I want to be with. And I want to go do that. You know, how do you think they would respond. You know, you got to just play out these philosophies of life, right? I don't—I think they would tell you that there's something really wrong with the way that your heart is telling you to go. Yeah. And I think that's an important realization for Christians is that our hearts are liars. Yeah. Our hearts don't always tell us the truth. They frequently don't. Yeah. Pastor Ryan made the joke recently that when I have a bad day, my heart tells me to go buy a box of donuts. Now, if you have too many bad days, you're going to have way too many donuts, and that's not going to be good for you, right? Your heart is a liar. Your heart doesn't know what's actually best for you. You need God to tell you what's best for you. Yeah. One of my mentors growing up would always say – not would always say, but often say that our feelings aren't always reality. And it's a really good thing to test the feelings, the impulses we have in the moment, because they're not always true. But this phrase, it's used as such a broad brush stroke to justify a lot of things. I think your in-laws would say, probably, not, I know your in-laws, so your in-laws would definitely say that, but I think most people's in-laws, right, if they said something like that, would say, no, no, you can't do that. They would throw that idea of follow your heart out immediately. But when it comes to things like transgender, transgender surgeries or treatments for even minors, right, all of a sudden that idea of follow your heart is exactly the right justification for doing very, very permanent and often harmful things to people. It's a scary thing that we, as a society, we don't even hold this consistently. Yeah, and so, like you said, one example is the damage that it does to the people around you. But also, I mean, I can even speak to that as a pastor. We've seen that even in our own church family, people who have made that decision to follow a transgender lifestyle, leave behind a family, a spouse, so much damage done, unbelievable. But even beyond that, you could also talk about the damage that they're actually doing to themselves. We have data now, this has been going on, it's been a short amount of time, but it's been going on long enough that we do have some data on the mental health of people that go through with things like gender reassignment surgery. It's not good. It doesn't actually turn out well for you as an individual. Yeah. Yeah. And just kind of even going communally, what an awful thing to be someone on the other side of this who's encouraging someone to do something like that. You know, the communities that accept people who would just flat out leave their family to pursue something like this, you know, what an awful thing that there would be someone encouraging someone, say, yeah, it's fine, leave your family, they're wrong, and if they say that you're wrong for doing this, then just cut them out of your life. I mean, that's such an evil thing to say and to believe that that's an okay thing to do. Yeah. So if you could address someone right now who genuinely believes that follow your heart is the key to happiness, what would you say to challenge or expand their perspective? Yeah, one of the things I would do is just ask them the question, every time you followed your heart, has it worked out great? Yeah. Has there ever been a time when you've thought or felt like doing a certain thing was the right thing and actually you found out that that actually wasn't the best thing? Yeah. Do you think it's possible that sometimes your heart is wrong. Do you think that there is maybe a different place to find wisdom that might know better? Yeah. That's what I would wanna do. I would wanna ask some questions and just try to test the theory of life that they're using. Yeah, yeah, I think it's just so dangerous when we wholesale accept something like this. I mean, there are people who have genuine mental disorders that some of those disorders cause impulse control, right? And so to say, follow your heart with people who their impulses aren't always good, are always something that, you know, physiologically, we would say that there's a problem with impulse control. It's something that we can't wholesale accept, because our feelings, again, they're not always the right, initial right thing that we need to do. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's just dangerous to say that kind of stuff to someone who is dealing with some of those things and really an unloving thing to believe in, to put out there. So another place that we can see in scripture where this phrase is critiqued, maybe not outright, but in its whole is critiqued is the book of Judges. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, one of the key phrases in Judges when it says there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And it doesn't turn out good. If you read the book of Judges, boy, one of the most messed up sets of stories in the Bible, some awful things. I mean, we've talked about Judges as being a cycle, basically, of people kind of follow their own desires. It goes really bad, things get really bad, God rescues them by sending a good leader who follows God's ways, things get better, but then people turn back to their own ways and it starts over. It's just this cycle around and around it goes. People follow their own ways, it goes bad, God rescues them, they follow his ways for a little bit, but then they go their own way again, it goes bad. You know, it's just this cycle. And unfortunately, I think that's the cycle that we follow in our own lives a lot. Hopefully as Christians, we're decreasing the amount that we spend on that cycle, but we certainly can. But yeah, that key phrase, there was no king in Israel in those days, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And it does not go well. See, there's nothing new under the sun. You know, this philosophy is not new. It's as old as can be. And Scripture does such a beautiful job of just playing out for us. When humanity chases these different ways of living, man, the book of Judges, so much we can learn from. That is a great book on follow your heart, and this is what happens. Yeah, you even see the pattern of the Judges get worse and worse as the story goes along until it ends with Israel going into a civil war, almost wiping out one of the tribes of Israel and just some really terrible, terrible stuff that happens right at the end of that book. Right, totally, yeah, the quality of even these quote unquote godly leaders that bailed them out goes way down, you know, by the time you get to Samson, for example, a very famous example of the judges, man, you could read, you read the story of Samson, you're like, this is a good guy? Yeah. Yeah, the heroes really decline in goodness. Yeah, it's like this is the best we've got. Yeah, yeah. Definitely not a feeling that maybe we're feeling today in our world at all. I don't think I've ever said, is this the best we've got when it comes to some of our leaders? No. Yeah, right. Yeah. So it's a valid question. Yeah, and I think that you touched on it. You said, this is a tale as old as time to go back to Disney, the Disney phrase. This is something that has been a part of the human heart to say, God, I don't want to define or I don't want you to define what's right and wrong. I want to define it. I think that's the original sin of or the lie that Adam and Eve believed in the garden. It's, you know, I'm going to define what's right and wrong in my own eyes, and I don't want any authority above me. Well, to go back to that, actually, the motivation even underneath that is to say, is thinking that God's design isn't what's best for me. It's doubting God's goodness, saying, actually, God doesn't have my best in mind. I've got a better idea for what's good. You know, that's in Genesis 3, you know, as Eve is hearing the temptation of the serpent, who's tempting her to think, man, boy, isn't that mean of God that he would restrict you from eating from this one tree? And she starts to think, yeah, what's the deal? Maybe God doesn't actually have my best in, maybe that's not what he's got in mind is what's best for me. And so I've got to go my own way. And that's what we get so easily deceived into thinking. Awesome. Well, thanks, Pastor Mitch. Yeah. Thanks everybody for listening, but great to spend some time with. If you've got questions, peacechurch.cc/questions , more great content at resoundmedia.cc. You can follow us online, subscribe, subscribe, follow, and share with your friends. Thanks so much.

PODCAST That's a Good Question Defining Love: Exposing the "Love is Love" Lie Through a Biblical Lens September 24, 2024 Jon Delger & Mitchell Leach Listen to this Episode Hey everyone, welcome to That's 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 Good Questions is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. I'm Jon, I get to serve as a pastor, also get to serve on this show. We love to hear your questions. You can always submit those at peacechurch.cc slash questions. Also, I want to let you know that coming out right now is our class called Christianity and Politics. First two sessions are released now and you can find the next two sessions next week. Christianity and Politics, we're answering some hot topics that have to do with how does the biblical principles that we see in God's word, how do those relate to the political sphere? How do we as Christians interact in a political world? We answer questions like, should Christians have anything to do with politics? What would the perfect government look like? Are we a Christian nation? Where do we go from here? That kind of stuff. I invite you to tune in at resoundmedia.cc . Great resource, especially as we head into the year 2024 and all that it holds for us. I'm here today with Pastor Mitchell. Hey, I'm really excited about this topic today. We're still in a series called Calling Out Cultural Lies, and we're going to look at this topic of love is love, this lie that culture has wholesale adopted. And here's our first question. Some critics suggest that the saying love is love or love is love ideology is rooted in Marxist or Freudian thought. Can you explain these philosophical ideas that might have influenced the modern understanding of love and identity? Yeah, I think that's a great question, because we want to, when we hear a phrase, a catchy mantra like love is love, we want to go to, one of the great places to start is to go to what's underneath it. What are the ideas that are foundational for it and that are lurking underneath? So one of the books that's been big and influential for you and I is this book called The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self by a guy named Carl Truman. So if you're watching via video or on NRBTV, you can see that in my hand right there. If you're listening on audio, you'll have to imagine it. But check it out later, Karl Truman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. Great book, goes through a lot of this stuff. And we use that just as a helpful reference as we think through the ideas underlying this mantra. So like you said, one of those is Marxism. So to try to get a handle on Marxism, so a guy named Karl Marx, one of the major themes of his writings is about class struggle, the upper class and lower class, the bourgeoisie, the proletariat. And today I think we would say the oppressor and the oppressed. So we're in kind of a post-CRT world. That's the common language that we use today. So if you don't know what proletariat is, it's fine. But oppressed and oppressor is kind of what we use today. Right. That's what you'll hear. And that's where that idea comes from. That's rooted in Marxist thought. It divides the world into these two categories and sees these two classes, these two groups as in a struggle. So there's that and then you mentioned the other idea and Truman mentions this idea of Freudianism. Okay, so the psychologist Sigmund Freud who to sum up, I mean, made everything about sex, right? I mean, that's a, you know, as a layman, as a non-psychologist, that's sort of how I would summarize. He sort of made everything about sex. Yeah, he has some pretty bad ideas about sex, too. I mean, just, I mean, even from a psychological perspective, psychology's really wholesale rejected a lot of what he's had to say. And it just went from psychology to philosophy, or like a worldview, which is kind of weird that we reject the science, but we accepted that this is a good thing for us to how we should view society. That is kind of a wild thing in that area of study is that, yeah, psychologists have debunked him scientifically. And yet people still refer back to him. I'm sure anybody listening to this, you've heard of Sigmund Freud and people refer back to him as an authority, but I mean, professionally, he's been sort of debunked as these ideas were not really any good for understanding human beings. And yet we're still going to tap on them and use them when they fit kind of the direction we want to go. I think that's what you've got going on here. So you've got kind of this blending of class struggle, the oppressed and the oppressor, and then bringing in Freud, making it about sexuality, using kind of sexual categories to talk about people wanting to have what they would call sexual freedom. And then they are oppressed by people saying that there are moral norms that you have to stay within. And you might be imagining already people would label Christians as that category. So they say, for example, that the Christians are the oppressor who is telling the LGBTQ person would be the oppressed, who is just trying to do what makes them feel good and what they're happy about, what brings them happiness and we're trying to say that there are moral norms that actually put limits on that. So that makes us the oppressor and then the oppressed. Yeah, like you were saying, Marxism goes after the oppressed and oppressor and Sigmund Freud, his ideas was all about sexual freedom, that the best thing or the highest form of freedom is to have no sexual rules. And so anytime that anyone's putting rules in place, it is it is the greatest harm to people by by marginalizing them by using these rules to to rule over them and that's not what the Bible is saying. The Bible is actually saying the opposite that these rules are for your freedom for for yourself flourishing and we'll get to that in a little bit, but these philosophies are deeply tied to this idea of love is love, but also the LGBTQ movement. Yeah. Yeah. So another important part of it is something we've talked about the last couple of weeks in this series, Calling Out Cultural Lies, is the underlying worldview of relativism, that there isn't absolute truth. So, right, this is, you know, so the oppressor is the person who's using quote unquote truth to oppress another person. So the premise there is that there is no such thing as absolute truth. There is no such thing as absolute moral norms. So the only reason somebody, like a Christian, would try to impose a moral norm on somebody else is to just try to have power over them, whereas obviously the biblical world view would say, no, God created the whole world. God designed it good. God's laws that he lays out for us in his word are good for human beings. They're not arbitrary. They're not mean. They're good for us. And so as Christians, we want to follow those ourselves, and we think the rest of the world ought to follow them because it's actually what's best for human beings. And so we're not trying to oppress people. We're trying to work for people's good. Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't necessarily view it that way. How would you see that idea of Freud's philosophy of sexual expression in human happiness? How has that shaped the way that our society views love, particularly in the context of the LGBTQ plus movement? Yeah. So when you look at love and we look at it in the Bible, there's a lot we could talk about. We could talk about the four different Greek words used to describe love. There's a lot we could talk about what the scripture says about what love is, but in our world, in the culture today, I think love has been largely boiled down to sex. They would say that's at least, maybe at the heart of what it is, or the greatest expression of it, and that the circular definition of love, love is love. That's a circular definition. It's just trying to say that love is whatever you want it to be, and whatever makes you happy, whatever feels good, whatever gives you happiness and freedom, that's what love is. And so the Freudian thought of sex being at the center of everything has, I think, infiltrated the concept of what love is versus what Bible would define love is. Yeah, I even think about going back to that that circular reasoning when that phrase love is love first kind of splashed onto the scene in culture. There were a lot of critics early on of that mantra being too wide, like what's the danger of using that idea of love is love, like where could that lead to? And I mean, what was that originally intended to mean? And what could that mean? Or how is it being used even today? Yeah, when that phrase became really popular 10, 15 years ago, something like that, it was being used to normalize same-sex relationships, homosexual behavior. And it wasn't really being used to advocate for further out forms of sexuality. But today they are. Today it's being used to advocate for normalcy for transgenderism. I'd say it even goes as far as normalizing pedophilia amongst the minors. Maybe I you know that's the problem of a circular definition. Yeah is The problem with a circular definition is not that it has no meaning The problem is that it can mean anything. Yeah, it can mean anything you want it to mean love is love. Gives so much room for you to take it in any direction you want to take it So yeah, it could be about adults and minors. It could be about Humans and animals, you know, it could be about polyamory multiple about humans and animals. You know, it could be about polyamory, multiple lovers. You know, it can go in so many directions. I think that's part of the problem of a circular definition is that it has an infinite amount of meaning. Yeah, and when it has an infinite amount of meaning, logically, it also should not mean anything. Right. And that's the danger of circular arguments. I remember when it first came onto the scene, I was in class with some people and they were talking about this idea of love is love and I just kind of said like I think what you really mean is love is love as long as it's between two consenting adults that are human. You have to still put boundaries on it. At some point there is a place to put a boundary. As a society I think we we've seen that that's that is a good thing to put some sort of laws around sexuality. I think, you know, I don't think anyone here would say everyone should be able to act out sexually in any way that they want. I mean- Right, I hope not. Yeah, I mean, there's some really disgusting things that have happened to people that should be in jail for the things that they've done. Right, right. And so I think, so what you tried to do there was try to put a limit on it, which is helpful. Even in that conversation still, unfortunately, you've got love on both sides of the equals sign. You've got it on the word we're trying to define and how we're using the definition. Let's just bring in some scripture. This is 1 John chapter 4, famous passage about love. I want to just share this and how the Apostle John defined love, and we'll see where we go from there. It says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. So there's a key equation. God is love. Verse 9, in this love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. All right, so the Bible says that actually the best definition of love is God himself. God is the embodiment of love. So if we want to know what love is, we've got to look at God. We've got to see who he is in his character. We've got to see things that he's done and how that displays his character. In the very next verse, there in verse 9, it said we've got to look at Jesus, the embodiment of God, God himself coming down in the form of a man living on the earth. So if we want to know what love is, we got to look at that. There is, yeah, there is a an absolute reality definition to what love is. The Bible says it comes from God. Yeah, and it's so much better than anything that we can ascribe to love because God is infinite, right? So he is an infinite amount of love and therefore he can be the perfect definition of it. He is love because that's part of who he is. Where when we try to put anything that's created and we try to define that by something that's created, it's automatically limited and flawed, right? When we say, this is what this word means, and its root is back in God, it can be the purest form of that definition, which is beautiful. Yeah. One of the things I've heard Christian teachers say before, I've used this definition, others have used it, is that to love somebody is to want God's best for them. Yeah. So it's just playing off that idea that love flows from from God. And so how do you love somebody you want you want what's best for them, but specifically you want God's best for them. So it's not just you know, if I love you, it's not just I want what I think is best for you. It's I want what the Creator knows is best for you. Yeah. So going off of that, if someone's listening to this, and they're not offended enough to stop listening to this, but they're disagreeing with what we have to say. What would you say to them going off of that idea that what we're trying to say here is not, is really trying to provide what God's saying to them? Yeah. Well, I think I could imagine that if somebody is resisting to this, probably what you're resisting to is this idea that somebody else knows what's best for you, that there are limits on what you want to do that somebody else could impose on you. And I get that. I think, even as Americans, right, we have people who talk about liberty and freedom a ton. That feels wrong to us. The idea that somebody else could tell us what to do,could tell us what's best for us. We tend not to like that idea. But it goes back to, he's the creator. It's not me saying what's best for you. It's not a man saying what's best for you. It's not a person, it's God. So I think of when my wife picks up some Ikea furniture and brings it home and asks me to put it together, I'm tempted to take the instructions and throw them out the window and just make it up all on my own. But you know what works best is when I follow the instructions. The person who designed it knows how it works best. And I think the same thing is true for human beings. God designed us, he knows what's best for us. And so, yeah, I know we in our rebellious spirit wanna say, no, I know what's best for me. Well, really, we don't. And we know that, you know, if you're honest with yourself, you look in the mirror, you know that. You can look at decisions that you've made probably even in the last week and say, yeah, I did that, I thought it was gonna be great. It actually wasn't what's best for me. I think we all know by looking at our own lives, from an honest perspective, we know that we're not the best all on our own at making decisions for ourselves. Yeah, I think there are people in our lives too that we just naturally understand that they know some things that are for our benefit. People like doctors, when they say that you've got a broken arm, I usually trust them with that and say they're trying to do something that's good for me and it's OK for me to say you might know more than I do. That's an all right thing. Maybe that makes me a sheep, but you know, whatever. I like not having broken arms. Another question. One of the criticisms of love is love movement is that it undermines the traditional morality of moral values of marriage and the family. How do you believe that this phrase impacts those two institutions? Yeah, of marriage and family. So, I mean, God, right at the very beginning, Genesis 1 and 2 there, establishes that marital love, romantic love, is meant to be had between a man and a woman, and that that love is to be consummated in marriage and that sex belongs within marriage. So, you know, God lays out the institutions of marriage and family and that love, romantic love, at least, is supposed to be happening within those bounds, whereas the love is love mantra takes it out of those bounds. Yeah. And says it's supposed to happen wherever you want it to happen, whatever makes you as an individual feel good. We could go, we could even talk about how, you know, love within the context of marriage and family is designed for the good of other people, whereas love is love is really more selfish. It's really about how can I get the most, how can I get the most fulfillment, the most pleasure, whatever it might be. It's really about me getting what I want rather than fulfilling God's design for human beings or even what's best for other human beings. Yeah, it's kind of the disregard for any impulse control and saying that any impulse that I have is good and right and something that I should be able to act on. And we would say, you look at society, there are a lot of impulses that people have that we just think are flat out wrong. I mean, people who don't use their turn signal, I think that's a terrible impulse, you know, drives me up the wall. But yeah, I mean, I think you look at this even with the Marxist Freudian kind of lens that is thrown on this. You know, we were going to use those words a few times, but they're important because this the LGBTQ movement, some of these groups, their foundational documents go back to these guys, go back to people who propagate these messages. This is not just something that we're saying that's right-wing and trying to call people names by saying Marxist. These are literally things that come from philosophies of Karl Marx. That's a good point. When we say that, we don't mean that in a derogatory sense. We just mean simply the ideas are coming from that place. Yes, R.C. Sproul wrote a great book back in the day, Ideas Have Consequences, or the Consequences of Ideas, I think is how he framed it, and that's exactly, every big idea has consequences, and we wanna just trace it back to where it came from. Yeah, I mean, and some of these, some of the people who are proponents of these ideologies will say things like, families are the worst unit, or used, worst institution because what they do is they impose the governments or the cultural norms of sexuality onto children. And these people again, they think that children should be able and youth, you know, teenagers should be able to act out any sexual desire that they want, that families are imposing these standards on them and that families need to be held accountable by the government, in fact. So one of the interesting things about that is I think, I think that's really not a rejection of standards, it's a changing of standards. You know, what they're saying is, we don't like the family standards that are gonna be put on people this way, so we're gonna impose our own standards. To me, that's always one of the self-defeating ironies of their argument is trying to – they're trying to take away standards, but they're really not. They're imposing just a different set of standards, even in kind of what you articulated there of saying, well, we've got to get the government involved so that the family doesn't corrupt our young people. Well, you're just trading one authority and set of standards for a different authority and set of standards. these organizations that find their ideology in these Marxist ideas, organizations like the Black Lives Matter movement, when they were kind of first burst onto the scene, they had a clause on their website that said that they were anti-family for a while, and they later took that down. But that, at its core, goes back to this Marxist ideology, this Freudian ideology that says families are inherently bad for society, which is I Mean flies completely in the opposite direction of what the Bible says. I mean you see in Deuteronomy 6 verse 7 this part of the Shema But it says that you must teach this to your children, right? There's a command from God to parents and And what that's saying is God's what that implies is that God believes that the family unit is such a good thing not only for kids but for society and that it's a great thing for parents to be the primary disciples or primary guardians and people the people who give boundaries to children that's that's a good thing for society and for for people so there's a growing emphasis on expressive individualism where personal fulfillment is prioritized over communal responsibility. How does this idea of love is love contribute to this trend and what are the the potential consequences for society of believing this? Yeah, so like we were saying a minute ago, love is love focuses very much on self-fulfillment rather than others, rather than others' fulfillment. And God didn't design us that way. So a passage that comes to mind is in 1 Corinthians 6. Let me just read a couple of portions here, starting in verse 9. It says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." So God lays out what his kingdom looks like. It goes on, by the way, to say that we were those people before we received Jesus and received salvation. Yeah. But then further down says, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God? You are not your own for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." So that's kind of, to me, the ultimate anti-selfishness attitude that the Bible gives us, is that we don't actually belong to ourselves. My life is not about self-fulfillment. My life is not about self-realization. My life is about doing what God has called me to do, what God made me to do, doing what glorifies him. He saved my life. He made me, then he saved me. And so my whole life is about him. And he tells me that my life is about loving him and loving others. That's just a summary of the law, right? Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself. So that's what I exist for. I exist to love God and then to love others. So it's not all about me. So love is not love. Love is whatever God says it is. And then as a result of that, or related to that, it's what's good for other people. And again, come back to what we said earlier. It's what's good for other people, not according to me, but according to God. Yeah, it's so interesting that that passage talking about that we're not our own, but that we're bought with a price is in the context of sexual deviancy or trying to chase our own sexuality or our own sexual preferences. It's almost like God knew that this was going to be a conversation or that this is part of the human heart and that this is something that's gonna always be a passage we need to come back to to ground ourselves. Yeah. So can I ask you a follow-up question on that? How would you define what love is love is actually trying to say? What does that actually mean for us right now? When they say love is love, if you're going to put our biblical worldview on that and just cut out the circular arguments, what does that actually mean? Love is whatever I want it to be. Yeah. I mean, that's the – and I think that's our sinful nature coming out, right? We want to define it and we want what we want. Love is whatever I want. And so don't get in my way, don't try to stop me, don't judge me. Let me do my thing. Yeah. It's such a dangerous place to be too, because when you say that, any affront or any criticism of that is an attack on what our culture views as the most important thing, which is your self-identity, your self-image. And that's… Right, and that's where we get the response language of hateful, bigoted, you know, whatever. Yeah, I mean, you try to tell somebody that there's a sexual norm, you're going to get called some things. Yeah. They're going to come back at you, which I think, to me, again, just highlights their belief in absolute moral norms. They're just different norms than what we have. Their absolute moral norm is that you can't tell me what to do. You've got to let me express myself, pursue my own happiness. So one of the things that we saw in the first text that we read in 1 John 4 was that Jesus is our perfect example of love. I think of what scripture says in John 1, so not John's letter, but in the gospel of John chapter one, about Jesus being full of grace and truth. So if we're talking about what love really is, one of the things that's critical to it is truth. We've got to share with people the truth, God's truth specifically. We've also got to do so in a way that's full of grace, full of mercy. And I think those two things are, if we're Christians trying to figure out, well, how do we do love by contrast to the rest of the world? Those are two important words for us to remember. We're supposed to do love according to the truth. You know, if you don't have truth, then you're not loving somebody. But you also got to communicate it in a way that is full of grace, that's full of kindness, that really cares for the other person. What would you say to someone who is confused why some churches would seem to propagate this lie of love is love. That there are some churches who are open and affirming of members of the LGBTQ, not just to come and worship with them, but to be their pastors or to sanction their so-called marriages as a good and holy thing. Yeah. I think, unfortunately, they themselves have become confused about what love is. So they're adopting some of the lies themselves. So they're seeing what Jesus says about loving others, about love your neighbor. And they're equating that with what the world says that that means, which is to accept anything and everything. So instead of using a biblical, it actually comes back to definitions, is why definitions are so important. Underlying ideas of other ideas are so important. The foundations matter. So they're taking something that Jesus says and putting a worldly definition on it and saying, well, Jesus tells me to love people. And the world tells me that to love somebody means to accept them, whatever they do, whatever they believe. I mean, I remember honestly sitting in a meeting of a whole bunch of pastors in a denomination that I was a part of previously and watching pastors with master's degrees in the Bible say, make arguments about homosexuality, saying, well, Jesus just told us to love people. So this should be okay. We should embrace this. We should support this. So I got to, I got a front row seat to watching people abandon what scripture says about sexual norms and about love and how to do love and actually just adopt this whole lie. Yeah, it seems like the most natural thing would be to confront them with what you just read in 1 Corinthians 6. How do they address passages like that? Yeah, unfortunately, I think there's a lot of ways that people have tried to take words like in the text there where it said homosexual behavior or sexual immorality. They've tried to take some of those words and twist them and try to say that the word homosexuality wasn't in an English Bible until 1946. Yeah, one of the things that these churches who affirm these things will say is that the Bible is really not saying homosexuality, it's saying homosexual rape. And on the surface, that looks like maybe that could be the truth. The Greek word there is the word for soft. It was a kind of a not so great name for people who were part of this homosexual relationship, the one who acted like the woman in that relationship. And the danger in taking that understanding of it is that if you're saying it's homosexual rape, really what we're saying is it's the one who was raped is the one who doesn't enter the kingdom of heaven, which is a really awful thing to say. Paul actually uses in other places in the Bible a word he has to make up for male better or someone who takes another man to bed because there wasn't a word for it. It was so normal in culture. It was so widely accepted that, you know, homosexuality is something that Paul is saying all of this is wrong. All of this is sinful and evil. And unfortunately, there are whole denominations, there are whole groups of people in churches who really don't look at that. They really don't do the critical work of trying to explain that or trying to understand that. Just another reason the definitions are important, right? It's becoming a theme. I mean, yeah, so if you want some books to look into a really deep study of it, Robert Gagnon, what's his book called? The Homosexuality in the Bible, something like that? Or a much shorter one, Kevin DeYoung, What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality? Some great books just that they go right into the root Greek words and talk about the meaning of those words. And if you want an even shorter one, I'll toot my own horn. There is an article on Resound that gets into this very idea. Perfect. That's why I could pull that off the top of my head. But that's it. Yeah. Resoundmedia.cc , great resources there. Yeah, so Mitch has written an article on that topic. Yep. I've actually got a picture of a Bible before 1946 or whatever, and it shows the word there for – it uses the word effeminate instead of homosexual, which I think carries the same connotation, but you know, depends on who you ask, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Well, it comes back to the same temptation in the garden. Did God really say? Yeah. And so we've got to be able to study and figure out, is that what God said or is it not? Yeah. So, awesome. Well, hey, thanks for the conversation, Pastor Mitch. Yeah. Awesome, thanks everybody for talking about Love is Love. You can find more great content at resoundmedia.cc. We'll see you next time.

Abe Virella Abe Virella is the host of the Bridge Ministries podcast, which is based in Laredo, Texas. Most Recent Content from Abe Virella

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, November 3, 2024 Obadiah Obadiah 1:1-9 The Warning of Judgement 2 Overview Main Idea: God warns us that he will cut down those who boast in their pride. Sermon Outline: 1. Pride dooms us (vv1-2) 2. Pride deceives us (vv3-7) 3. Pride destroys us (vv8-9) 3 Pre-Questions When you think of the word ‘pride,’ what comes to mind? How do you think pride can impact relationships with others and God? Have you ever experienced a time when you relied on something or someone for security, only to find it wasn’t as dependable as you thought? How did that impact you? 4 Questions In Obadiah 1:3, God points out that Edom’s pride “deceived” them, leading them to believe they were invincible. How does pride impact our view of ourselves and others? Reflect on Proverbs 16:18. How does this proverb help us understand God’s judgment on Edom in Obadiah? Can you share an example of a time when pride led to unexpected consequences in your life? Obadiah 1:4 reveals that God will “bring Edom down” despite their high position. How does this verse show that no one is beyond God’s reach or justice? Read Psalm 7:11. How does this help you understand God’s response to Edom’s actions? How does it change the way you view injustice in the world? Edom felt secure in their strongholds and alliances (Obadiah 1:5-7), but they were ultimately betrayed and vulnerable. What are some “strongholds” people might rely on today that can lead to false security? In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus contrasts building on rock versus sand. What would it look like for you to build your life on a foundation that lasts? The warning to Edom reminds us of the importance of humility and compassion. How can we guard our hearts against the pride that Edom displayed? Read Philippians 2:3-4. What steps can you take this week to demonstrate humility and compassion, particularly in difficult relationships? Obadiah 1:8-9 highlights God’s control over even the wisest and strongest of Edom. How does acknowledging God’s sovereignty help us avoid the mistakes of pride and self-reliance that Edom made? Reflect on James 4:6. How does God’s promise to lift up the humble encourage you to depend on Him rather than your own strength? PDF Download

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, August 25, 2024 It Had To Be Said Luke 23:39-43 Punishment or Paradise 2 Overview Main Idea: Because Jesus Endured the Punishment of the Crucifixion We Can Have the Paradise of Heaven Sermon Outline: 1. When confronted with Christ we can either judge him or judge ourselves. 2. When presented with Christ we can either reject him or accept him. 3 Pre-Questions 4 Questions Contrasting Reactions: What do you think caused the two criminals to respond so differently to Jesus? How do their responses reflect common reactions people have towards Jesus today? Acknowledging Guilt: The second criminal recognizes his guilt and Jesus' innocence. How important is it to acknowledge our own faults in our relationship with God? How does this recognition impact our understanding of grace? Jesus' Response: Jesus promises the repentant criminal, "Today you will be with me in paradise." What does this statement reveal about Jesus' character and His kingdom? How does this promise provide hope for us? Personal Reflection: Have you ever experienced a moment of realizing your need for Jesus' mercy, similar to the second criminal? How did that experience change your relationship with God? PDF Download

Jon Delger Jon is a husband, father of four, and serves as Multiplication Pastor at Peace Church near Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jon earned a Bachelor’s degree in Bible & Theology at Kuyper College, a Master of Divinity in Pastoral Ministry at Cornerstone Theological Seminary, and a Master of Business Administration at Davenport University. Jon also serves as Adjunct Professor of Ministry at Cornerstone Theological Seminary and as Executive Producer of Resound Media. Jon is the host of That’s a Good Question, a podcast on the Resound podcast network. You can find blogs, podcasts, and videos by Jon right here on resoundmedia.cc Most Recent Content from Jon Delger The Problem of Ungratefulness Watch Sermon The Lie of "Christians Shouldn't Speak Into Politics" Watch Sermon Jesus: Lion, Lamb, and Temple Watch Sermon Do the Resurrection Accounts Contradict? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all give different accounts of Easter Sunday. It is beneficial to have multiple testimonies to an important event, but what if those testimonies contradict each other? READ MORE What Is An Elder? While the Bible doesn’t give an extremely specific job description for elders, one thing it makes abundantly clear - character comes first. Elders are not chosen first and foremost for their... READ MORE What is the Gospel? To believe that Jesus is savior is to believe that you cannot save yourself, to confess your sin before God, to have a heart that is repentant, and to trust in Jesus alone to save you. Jesus came preaching repentance (Mark 1:15). READ MORE Beyond the Heart Maybe you’ve been asked the question before - “have you made a profession of faith?” Maybe you are part of a church where occasionally people stand up front and “profess their faith.” What does it mean to make a profession of... READ MORE Is Prioritizing Love Un-Christian? Recently, the Vice President of the United States made a comment that sparked criticism from some Christians. Was he right? Was he wrong? Should Christians prioritize their love for others? READ MORE Is The Bible Really Without Error? Traditionally, Christians have believed that the entire Bible is inspired by God, without error, and true in all times and places. However, in recent years, even many Christians have become less convinced READ MORE When Forgiveness Is Out of Reach READ MORE Why Do We Baptize Babies? What is Baptism? In order to understand why we would baptize babies, we first need to understand baptism itself. In order to understand baptism, we first need to understand a major theme of the Bible — covenant... READ MORE What Is a Deacon? READ MORE Abortion, Freedom, and Life Shouldn’t every woman have a right to choose what happens to her body? Are pro-life supporters actually just hypocrites who only care about unborn lives and not the lives of women or children after birth... READ MORE Why Church Membership READ MORE How To Conduct Staff Reviews READ MORE

Living Water: The Woman at the Well (Part 1 of 3) Sermon Series: It Had To Be Said Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: John 4:7-14 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said with all your heart, Amen. So today, as we do kind of usher in beginning, begin to go into summer, we are starting a new sermon series. We're calling it, It Had to be Said, as we're looking at all summer long. This is going to be a great series where we just get to be reminded of the great and beautiful and profound things that Jesus Christ said. I know that this is a year that brings a lot of anxiety for people. I know there's a lot of trust being lost right now with what's going on in the world. This is what I'm saying to you. Come to church and be reminded of the gospel truth. Be reminded of the eternal things that cannot be taken away no matter what happens out there. So we're going to be looking at the words of Jesus throughout the summer. Why? Because you can't get enough Jesus. He's the risen Savior. He's the Word of God made flesh. He's the way and the truth and the life. And all the church said, Amen. So I have three weeks with you before I go on sabbatical. If you listen to our congregational address, I told you that I will be going on sabbatical for a big part of the summer. So with this summer long sermon series, what I want to do with the three weeks I have with you is I want to do a little mini series to start this entire series. What I want to do is I want to walk through John chapter four with us for the next three weeks. So go ahead and turn in your Bible to John chapter 4 is a very famous passage in. In in in the Bible many Christians know this a lot of Bible studies done on this This is the story of the famous and maybe infamous Interaction that Jesus has with the woman at the well Now as you're turning to John chapter 4, that's again That's where we will be for three weeks and John chapter 4 One thing you need to know is happening is that Jesus' ministry is starting to not just take shape, it's starting to get a lot of notoriety. It's starting to turn a lot of heads. People are taking notice of what's going on with Christ, especially the religious leaders, the Pharisees. They're taking note of what Jesus is doing and saying, and they're not exactly on board. So what you see there is that tensions are beginning to rise, and so what Jesus and company do is for a time they decide just to get out of Dodge and they decide to go up to Galilee now in order to get from where they were they were in Judea Judea is where Bethlehem in Jerusalem were in order to get from Judea to Galilee you actually had a pass through this this land known as Samaria now yes understand as you can see in our scripture the Jews and the Samaritans they did not get along Samaria was a place that the Jews didn't go to. In fact, they would take the long way around if they had to go through there. So take note, Jesus and company, they're leaving a place with religious tension and they're going to pass through a place where they have cultural tension, which is a great reminder for Christians that we are exiles in this world. So before we get to our main passage, we'll be looking primarily at verses 7 to 14 today, but when you look at verses 5 and 6, they say they kind of give they set the context for us. Verses 5 and 6 tell us that so so he meaning Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sikar near the field that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph. Jacob's well was there and then it says Jesus, wearied from his journey, was sitting beside the well and it was about the 6 hour. That doesn't mean 6 p.m. that doesn't mean 6 a.m. The Jews started keeping time at sunup so six hours in is roughly noon. It's about noon, it's the middle of the day. That is a key piece of information when we read this passage. It's the middle of the day and all the while we're gonna find out that there is this woman who's making her way to this well that Jesus is sitting behind. And she's going to go on to have one of the most famous interactions with Jesus in all of history. And so let's read about what happens. And so with that, would you hear the word of the Lord? John chapter 4, we're going to look at verses 7 to 14 as we learn about living water today Hear God's word. John 4:7-14 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[a] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Amen. This is God's word. Let's pray and we will continue. Let's pray. Oh Lord God in heaven, as we look at your truth today from your word, we thank you for these words of our Savior, words that had to be said and we're so thankful that they were. Lord God, by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit, would you be with us here and now that we might not just hear the truth of Christ but we would receive it and be transformed by it into the image of our Savior and it's in his name the name of Jesus that we pray and everyone said amen amen. Alright church one thing here for you this morning one thing for you to chew on it is simply this age-old beautiful truth Jesus reveals that he gives eternal life. Jesus Reveals... He Gives Eternal Life. So as we start this little mini series today Let me give you an idea of what this morning will be structured like as we walk through our passage together With the gift of eternal life we see Jesus First give us number one an invitation verses 7 to 10 will show us this, and then he gives us a revelation, which will close out our passage looking at. All right, my friends and family, let's jump into this. 1. With the gift of eternal ife, we see that Jesus first gives us an invitation (vv.7-10) With the gift of eternal life, we see that Jesus first gives us an invitation. Now I'm willing to bet many of you are very familiar with this passage. If you've been a Christian long enough, you most certainly have done a Bible study on this. You learned about this in Sunday school. I probably I know that many of you are probably very familiar with this passage and that's in some ways there's a danger there. You may think, yeah, I know this. Yeah, I know this. What I'm saying to you is step back and maybe let the Spirit show you some new things. So as we go through this, here's what's happening. This woman comes to the well with her water jar. Now, remember, it's noon. You have to understand the context of this story to really understand its power. She's coming to this to this well with her water jar and it's noon. There's something culturally going on that it's easy for us Americans, if you are an American, to miss. Back then, you did not go to the well in the middle of the day. A group would go in the morning when it was cool to get the water that you needed for the day. This woman is coming alone by herself at noon. And as we already see here, if we're part of that context, here's what you immediately would recognize that I think sometimes we miss. To say that this woman was coming by herself at noon shows us this woman was already ostracized by her community and by her people. She was already rejected. She was a rejected person. She was not popular. She was unloved. She went at noon to be by herself because she wasn't allowed to go with everyone else in the morning. Look at verse 7. A woman from Samaria came to draw water and Jesus said to her, give me a drink for the disciples have gone away into the city to buy food so Jesus is alone with this woman that already a level awkwardness is beginning to show the awkwardness of this moment is thick and it's thickening but Jesus listen here Jesus breaks the silence by asking her for some water and let me just say this to an aside real quick you're a Christian in the house, and you've got someone in your life and you want to have that Jesus conversation with, you want to talk about the gospel, but you're just, you're kind of waiting for that door to open, and you're just, you're not sure, you're just, you're kind of waiting, here's what I want to say to you, follow the model of Jesus and just break the silence and have the conversation. Just do it. The time is now. Jesus broke the silence. Now, what you need to understand here, there's another cultural thing going on that we often miss, is that men generally didn't talk to women, let alone women from different cultures, which is why we see this woman's somewhat shock of a response. Verse nine, the Samaritan woman said to him, oh, how is it that you, a Jew, asked for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria. Then the Bible adds this commentary, for the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans. So with that, we already have a really potent and powerful setup. The situation is really intense right now. This is a woman rejected by her society, comes to a situation where she expects nothing but further rejection. I'm sure as this woman was journeying up to this well, she saw this man sitting there, and I'm sure there's parts of her probably thinking, oh great, I wanted to be alone. How's this going to go? But then Jesus does what Jesus does. He takes the control of the situation and he brings it to a really beautiful spot. So the setup is happening, this woman comes, she's rejected, she's expecting further rejection, but as soon as you add Jesus to any equation, what you need to understand is that Jesus doesn't play by our rules, Jesus doesn't play by the cultural standards. Not during our time, not during His. See, what happens is that we have a culture right now that's emerging that's wanting to bend Jesus to our culture. That's not how it works with Christ. He bends us to his culture of righteousness. Jesus is stepping all over sort of cultural lines right here and right now. Because when you add Jesus to the equation, he doesn't play by our rules. Why? Because Jesus is always in charge. And that's what you see here. Jesus takes charge of this conversation. This woman basically says, I can't believe you're talking to me. And look what he says in response verse 10 Jesus answered her if you knew the gift of God and Who it is that is saying to you give me a drink you would have asked him and he would have given you living water So even here Jesus takes his requests for a drink of water and he turns it into an invitation To her because that's what he's doing here. He's not just dangling the hope of living water in front of her. He's letting her know that something greater is happening. And it's available to her and he's inviting her into it. Because here's something you need to know about the Christ, Jesus, the Son of God. One of the things that we can have in Christ. Because here's what's happening here. He's asking for water, she's not understanding the situation, and Jesus is going to bring it deeper. And we're going to see that every good thing is a shadow of something greater that can be had in Christ. Yes, you can have happiness here on earth for a moment, but it waxes and wanes. But we get everlasting joy in Christ. Yes, medicine can make you better for a time, but guess what? You're still going to die. And yet Christ gives us healing unto eternal life. Any water that you drink will just end up dry, but Christ gives us living water that never runs dry. Every good thing is a shadow of a greater thing that can be had in Christ. How many of you have ever heard the phrase a gift with strings attached? Let me see. I heard some groans, so you probably know what it is. So we're not talking about how this gift is packaged or decorated. A gift with strings attached means that someone wants to give you something, but there's an obligation obligation or an expectation comes with it and that obligation or expectation totally nullifies the joy of the gift itself. Do you know what I'm talking about? Okay, so as a pastor, I often, maybe often is too much, I regularly get blessings from the church in some form or fashion, either a kind word or maybe a gift card to take my wife out to eat or something to that effect. The church loves to bless, but I'll be honest with you, like in my sinful, cynical nature, whenever someone wants to give me something, there's always part of me that kind of recoils and it's like, what's the string attached? Like what, what do I have to do? Now, thankfully, over time, I've learned that this is not that type of church. This is a church that's just selfless and blesses without expecting anything in return, which is amazing. But I'm going to flip this on its head. Did you know that when Christ offers something, there's always a string attached? But the difference is, is that the strings that are attached to the gifts that Jesus gives, they make the gift even better. Because you want to know what the gift, you want to know what the string is to every gift that Christ gives? It's Himself. And Jesus makes it better. Anything we get from Jesus is always, it's always better when we get to experience it with Jesus. The gift that Christ is giving is living water. Water that she wouldn't have to go and get alone anymore. Water from a well that wouldn't dry out. Water from a well that wouldn't embody rejection from people, but acceptance from God. It was living water that Jesus was inviting to her, and the string attached is Christ himself. For whatever we get from Jesus is better when we get to experience it with Jesus. This woman was rejected and alone. The ladies of the town weren't inviting her to girls' night. She wasn't included on any wine-tasting weekends. You will find no group photos on social media that included her. And yet, Christ was inviting her into something that was only going to get better. And remember what we said. Remember what we said about this passage, you have to understand the context. So much of the power of this passage comes from the context. So remember what's happening here. This woman is in the middle of the day going to the well by herself. Do you know what's happening? Do you know what this well is for this woman? This well is a physical, daily, constant reminder of her rejection. Every single day that she went to that well to get water was just another reminder that no one likes her, that she's all alone, and the people have rejected her. That journey to that well had to be one of the lowliest, hardest moments for that woman every single day, and yet it was in that very space where Christ meets her. In her lowest moment, that's where her Savior was waiting for her. Friends, I don't know what you're going through. I don't know where you find yourself. Some of us need to hear that in our lowest moments, in our loneliest moments, that's where Jesus is waiting for you. So turn your eyes upon Him. This wasn't just an invitation to experience something. Jesus was offering something. That's what we're gonna look at next. 2. With the gift of eternal ife, we see that Jesus first gives us an offer (vv. 11-14a) Keep your Bibles open here. So like most people in the world, she wasn't immediately getting the deeper meaning of what Jesus was saying. Because here's what was happening, she was only filtering Christ's words through her experience. Dangerous, dangerous. I know that's a thing we like to champion in our culture, that we only look through our own experience, but we have to understand there's a world outside of our experience where truth can lie. So she's only filtering what Jesus is saying through her daily normal experience. She's not thinking outside of herself. Because look what happens. In her experience, to get water, you must have a jar and a well. Well, Christ has neither a jar nor a well. Look what she says in verse 11. The woman said to him, Sir, you got nothing to draw water with and the well here is pretty deep. Where do you get this living water? Now whether curious or sarcastic, she begins to probe deeper. She's like, wait a minute. Verse 12, she's like, are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons in livestock." So to clarify for those of you who missed Sunday school, she's pointing back to the Old Testament, to a tradition that said that this was the well of Jacob. Yes, Jacob himself, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that Jacob. She's probably thinking this well has lasted for generations and she's probably wondering living water, huh? Better than this water here that's lasted for centuries? But listen to Christ's response, verse 13. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I give him will never be thirsty again. My friends, what you have here is classic Jesus. This is a classic interaction with Jesus. Here's what happens that you see time and time again in the New Testament, and it's a beautiful picture of it happening here. See, what happens is Christ will say something amazing or he'll do something amazing, and you know what? The cynics and the skeptics will question what Jesus is doing, but you know what you see every time you read the Bible? Jesus never backs down. In fact, he'll use those times of challenge to double down on what he's doing. This is why I love this guy. He doesn't back down he double down he goes on to say verse he goes on to say whoever drinks whoever drinks of this water that i will give him will be never will never be thirsty again whoever that means anyone who drinks this water will never be thirsty again Who gets to offer something like that? Do you get to offer something like that and not be able to deliver on it and still be considered a good person? We'll get to that in a second. Jesus says everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but it's available to everyone and let me remind you. Again, so much powers in the context remember the cultural and societal differences and tension that is between Jesus and this woman could not be more pronounced Could not be thicker and yet Jesus breaks those barriers to invite her into something beautiful. And He's saying it's available to everyone. The invitation is made. The offer is available to all. So if you have not yet placed your faith in Christ, my friend, what are you waiting for? There's no one like Him. He's the only one who can deliver on His promises. He's the only one I will put my faith in. But I get that most of us in this room are probably Christians. Church gathers, I would hope so to an extent. But the question is, Christians in the house, now if you are a Christian, I want you to listen up. Christians in the house, are you making this invitation known? Are you sharing this offer with people in your life who don't know Jesus? If you're not, what are you doing? Every message in this, every sermon for this entire summer is going to be a teaching from the mouth of Jesus himself. I am asking you, I'm telling you, don't let the summer go by without inviting someone to church who needs to hurt needs to hear the words of Jesus I guarantee every Sunday in this Series for this summer. You're gonna hear an amazing teaching from the words of Jesus Don't miss this opportunity to bring someone who needs to hear these words Because there's a truth here that we all need to know, which leads to our last point. 3. With the gift of eternal ife, we see that Jesus first gives us a revelation (v.14b) With the gift of eternal life, we see Jesus first give us a revelation. Go to the second half of verse 14. Jesus says, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Okay, here's where Jesus takes this conversation to a whole new level. And I wonder, have you had that experience with Jesus? Have you had that experience with Jesus where you've listened to his words? You've read his words and it's brought your life to a whole new level Where his words just stop you dead in your tracks the moment where you realize that no mortal man Can say the things that Jesus is saying? If you've heard me preach long enough, you know that for me that happened when I was 18 My senior year of high school, that was the revelation that stopped me in my tracks. This notion that you can't say the things that Jesus said and they not be true and you still be considered a good person. You say the things that Jesus says and they're not true. Listen to me. Not only should you be rejected, you should be hated. You don't get to say the things that Christ said unless they're true. He offered that He Himself had living water that would produce in other people a well of eternal life. My friends, you don't get to say that unless it's true. You either accept Him or reject Him. There's no middle ground with the words of Christ. It says, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. You don't get to offer that unless it's true. This is not just an encounter with a good teacher, my friends, this is a revelation from the giver of life. Have you had that experience? Where the words of Christ just stop you dead in your tracks and bring you to a whole new level. And before we move on, I want to make sure that we are on the same page here. So let's clarify. Christ is saying, you drink physical water and you will be thirsty again. But listen, the living water that Christ is offering is not a replacement for physical water, but it does stand in contrast. What he is offering is spiritual to be inside of us the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water Welling up to eternal life. So let's make this clear that through Jesus the spiritual nourishment that he gives us Becomes an everlasting Well that we need no other religious teacher that he is the only one he is the final one The water in the well that they're standing beside will one day dry up, but the water that Christ Christ puts in us From him this spiritual water. Not only does it never dry up, but it's a well that continues to produce fresh spiritual nourishment spiritual refreshment spiritual renewal forever It's not like we take one sip and we're forever satisfied Okay, this is not just a one-time cup. This is free refills my friend You Dutch people love your free refills It's not that we take one sip and forever satisfied It's that we drink from this well and will never thirst again not because just of eternal satisfaction but because of eternal access The reason that will never thirst again because that water is always available. But for many of us, we've stopped going back to the well. We took our sip one time, we accepted this free ticket to heaven, and we've just gone on our merry way, rather than having that relationship with Jesus that gives us this constant access to spiritual nourishment. I'm willing to bet some of you cried out to Jesus once, but you're wondering why your spiritual life feels so hollow, why your emotional state feels so dry. And I'm willing to bet it's because you've forgotten. You've forgotten that it's not just a one sip and forever satisfied. We'll never be spiritually thirsty again, not because of satisfaction, but because of access. Too many of us have stopped going back again and again to the well of Christ. You thought faith was a cup that you drank from once. My friend, it's a well that we continually drink from. Some of you need that revelation. Some of you need that revelation that Jesus is not a one-time decision. He is a daily decision with every breath we make, with every thought that we have, we take it and make it captive to Christ. Repentance is a daily thing that we're ever turning towards Jesus because He's always there. My friends, summer is here, and I don't know about you, but I'm going to be drinking a lot of pop, I'm going to be drinking a lot of sweet tea, yes, a lot of water, but we need to be drinking from the well of Christ, meaning we stopped praying, meaning we stopped connecting with other Christians, meaning we've stopped worshipping, meaning we've stopped seeking the Spirit, we've stopped using the gifts of the Spirit. Did you know that in our day, to be considered a regular churchgoer, That means you go once a month Once a month is now what is standard for a regular church grower goer Let me just tell you right now. I completely reject that Like this is something that we get to do for an hour or two once a week my friends We need to orient and structure our lives so that this is a priority No, I get some of us have to work and I get some of us have certain limitations But far too many of us use flimsy excuses. You're spiritually dry because you don't come back to the well, and yes, coming and hearing the word preached and worshipping with other Christians, that's part of that well of eternal life that we get to drink from. So don't. Don't take it for granted. Don't fall into the pattern of this world, but adopt a new one where you follow Jesus every day. Now in a moment we're going to sing a song that I looked up. This song is over 250 years old. And actually, just for those of you who are curious, the song we're about to sing, we're about to close with, last month turned 266 years old. And the song that we're going to sing, I think, even after nearly three centuries, has incredibly relatable lyrics. Listen to some of these lyrics from the song Prone to wander Lord. I feel it prone to leave the God I love Here's my heart. Oh take and seal it seal it for thy courts above Come thou fount. Our hearts are prone to wander mine is and so is yours. So if it has, return. Return to the well of everlasting life. Return to Christ. Return to the fount of every blessing. Jesus can offer this because of what he's done for you on the cross and what he's done by triumphing over Satan, sin, and death, by rising again on the third day. You wanna know how you can trust the promises of Christ? You wanna know how these are true guarantees because he truly rose from the dead and That's why we orient our lives around him. Because he is the one who saved us from our sins and he is the one he's the only one who offers eternal life Jesus reveals that he gives eternal life that Christ is producing. So if you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus, my friends, this is the moment that God's given to you. Embrace it as you embrace Him. I'll be here after the service and I want to pray with you. But I look at the sea of faces and I know many of you are walking with Christ. You walk alongside me with Christ. And so this is the time now when we get to respond in worship and declare the truth that we get to hold so dear. So let's do that now. You guys want to sing come thou fount? Amen.

Get Even Sermon Series: It Had To Be Said Aaron Lewis Wayland Campus Pastor Peace Church Wayland Main Passage: Matthew 5:38-48 Transcript Well hey, good morning Peace Church. It's good to be here with you all. I love being able to open up God's Word together over at Peace Church Wayland and so I'm excited to do that with all of you here this morning. And so Matthew chapter 5 verses 38 through 48 is where we're going to be for this morning. And so we're in the middle of our summer series, It Had to be Said. Quotes from Christ that changed the world. Now what we've been talking about in Wayland is that as followers of Jesus, as followers of the way of Jesus, His words matter. Meaning, we must hear His words and they must impact the way in which we live our lives. We don't get to hear what Jesus has to say and then think to ourselves, yeah, no. We don't get to hear the words of Jesus and then think to ourselves, oh, that's too hard. I can't do that. That's asking too much. No, we don't get to choose which of his words we want to follow. And so I must that these words this morning are difficult. Especially in light of what happened last night, these words are difficult. And the title of the message is, Get Even. Get Even. And so with these difficult words, they are going to rub us the wrong way this morning. And so if you feel as if these words are rubbing you the wrong way and you want to send an email, go ahead and do that to pastorryan at peacechurch.cc and he will take that from there. But no, these words are going to rub us the wrong way. We're going to feel collectively, personally attacked. We're going to want to defend our actions or the way in which we've acted previously. We're going to argue with Jesus. Jesus, if you knew my situation, Jesus, if you knew the people that I have to deal with, Jesus, if you knew what they've really done to me, or Jesus, if you would have seen this go down, you would have said these words differently. But let me assure you, he would not have said this any differently. No, these words that Jesus said needed to be heard in his day, and they need to be heard in ours. And it is my hope that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can hear these words, we can feel conviction, we can repent, which means turn the other direction and we can live a fuller freer life so What did Jesus say that was so difficult to hear? What did Jesus say that they needed to hear in his day and we need to hear in ours? Well, I'm glad you asked we're going to read that together Matthew 5 verse 38 through 48 again picking up verse 38, Matthew 5:38-48 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,[a] let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers,[b] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. This is the word of God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you with grateful hearts, grateful for the words of Jesus. Lord, we trust that Christ came into this world to save us, yes, but also to lead us into the abundant life, into a full life, into a free life. So Lord, help us wrestle with these words to that end. Help us to see clearly how we are to live as followers of the way of Christ. And Lord, we ask that the Holy Spirit would be here with us, guiding us in all of these things and understanding His words. And Lord, we ask that the Spirit would shape and mold us into the image of Christ as we wrestle with His words. And it's in His name, Jesus Christ, we pray. And all God's people said, Amen. Amen. All right, so here's where we're going this morning. It had to be said that followers of Jesus express their Savior's heart towards others. They do not retaliate against those who wrong us or are unkind to us. And so to be a Christian, to be a follower of the way of Christ, this is non-negotiable. We don't get to pick and choose whether or not we are called to these actions. But how? What does it mean to express the heart of Christ? What does it mean to not retaliate? Well, number one, we express our Savior's heart by turning the other cheek and being willing to go the extra mile. 1. We express our Savior's heart by turning the other cheek and being willing to go the extra mile. See, in verse 38, we see Jesus gives an antithesis statement. "'You have heard that it was said, "'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'" And so Jesus is going to take this teaching from the religious leaders and he's going to use it to teach the exact opposite meaning that they use it to teach. Jesus says, you've heard it said, you've heard it taught. And now Jesus is about to reveal how they've heard this taught wrong and how they've misapplied this principle. So now the religious leaders get this teaching from the Old Testament law, specifically Exodus 21, Leviticus 24, and Jesus quotes directly Deuteronomy 19, 21 here. And in these Old Testament passages we see the principle which is known as Lex Talionis, which means the law of retaliation. Now the law of the retaliation is a legal remedy ensuring the just punishment for a crime regardless of one's social standing. But the religious leaders taught this and misapplied this principle and they taught this principle in much the same way we think They taught something like don't get mad get Yeah We should fight fire with fire. Mm-hmm. I want my pound of flesh. Yeah The religious leaders taught that that was an accurate application of this principle and what Jesus is saying here is that this is not it's It's not about getting even. It's not about revenge. Jesus is telling us that this law, the purpose and meaning of this law, had been twisted to justify or affirm sinful, wicked hearts of men. And the spirit of the law had been lost on the practical application of the law. Now I know you've heard it said, you've heard of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and the way in which we use that today still misses the point of the law as God gave it. God gave the law to limit revenge, personal revenge, to limit and to control angry outbursts from men. Again, God gave this law to ensure that the punishments levied by the courts was just, that it fit the crime, and that it would work as a deterrent, meaning that people would understand what the just penalty is to a particular action and then choose not to act in that particular way, thus limiting crime and keeping people from taking vengeance into their own hands. So why is this important? Because if we're honest, we know that the tendency of the human heart is to strike back, is to get even, is to hit them harder than they hit me. See, and we see this in our culture, right? You hurt me, I humiliate you. You say something mean, I punch you in the nose. You take an eye, I'll take your life." And I know, I know that sounds intense, but that's how people were living in Jesus's day, and that's still our go-to condition of our heart in our day. Now don't raise your hand, but I wonder how many of you felt similarly after news broke last night. You heard what was going on on the news and something rose up within you. Okay, all right, it's time, let's go. But Jesus is saying, that is not how we as followers of Christ are to live. We are not to seek our own justice. We are not to seek our own revenge. See, we are called by the power of the Holy Spirit to crucify our flesh. See, and our flesh will always want to hurt them for hurting me. Our flesh will always want a pound of their flesh as revenge. Oh, but Christian, we are called to something different. We are called to something better. We are called to model and display the heart of our savior. Proverbs 20, 22 says, do not say I'll repay evil. Wait for the Lord and he will deliver you. The apostle Paul, when writing to the church in Rome said this in Romans 12, 17, he writes, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. See in our flesh, our natural desire will be to strike back, to lash out. But what Jesus and the Apostle Paul is calling us to is a greater sense of strength, a greater sense of self-control, one that is not enslaved to the actions and the behaviors of others. No, we stop. We act intentionally, not out of, not uncontrollably. And we act with kindness as Christ did. What is honorable? I think we have to first think about in any and all situations, what would bring the most honor to God? And what would bring honor to everyone involved? I think that's a good question for us to ask. See what Peter had to contribute to this conversation here. 1st Peter 3.9. And remember, in this context, Peter is writing to Christians who have been persecuted, beaten, and killed. So much so that has driven them out of their homes into foreign lands. And this is what Peter followers of Jesus. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling. But on the contrary, bless. What? Are you serious, Peter? Bless those who do evil to me? Bless those who do evil to my family? This is too high of a calling for those who follow Jesus. But listen, I want you to hear how this verse ends. It says, do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. For to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. Listen, followers of Jesus, These words are where peace, hope, and joy are found. This is where our blessings come from. Not in being sinless, but in blessing those who have done evil against us. Blessing those who have been unkind to us. The Apostle Paul continues on in 1 Thessalonians 5 to 15. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. See, the law was given, the law was a principle given by God to ensure just punishment for a crime in a court of law. Not too harsh, not too lenient, but fair. And this allowed people to trust that revenge, vengeance, justice would be found in the courts thus not sought after personally. But therein lies the problem. See the religious leaders and the Jewish people took this principle and taught it as a practical application for personal disputes, for personal offenses, as something that be handled by them individually, not by the courts. See, and this quickly grew out of hand as a regular practice, and it became a personal duty, a matter of honor to retaliate against anyone who had wronged them. So the principle of an eye for an eye had been misapplied and taken as license for personal revenge. And so here are these words that would have shocked those listening. These words would have just hit them extremely hard. But notice verse 39, Jesus continues, he says, "'But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. "'But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, "'turn to him the other also.'" So I wanna pause here and make something extremely clear. This verse is in no way saying that Christians should be pacifists or that we're to sit back and endure physical abuse. That is not what Jesus is saying here. Physical abuse is never to be tolerated. And men, we are never to be passive. Part of our role is to meet and end a physical threat to those we love and those less physically able in our communities. It's part of our job. That's not what Jesus is talking about here. No, Jesus is referencing something that would have been culturally well-known to his original audience. And verse 39 has little to do with physical violence. Brian, can you come up here real quick? So Jesus said that if someone hits you on the right cheek, turn to them the left also. Turn to them the other also. Why so specific? Well, in Jesus's day, just like ours, the vast majority of people were right-handed. So if Brian came up and he was a threat to me, or I wanted to just punch Brian in the face and give him some physical violence, I'm coming up and I'm squaring up like this. And so if my intention is to harm him, I'm like this, I'm right-handed, just like the majority of people. And so if we're like this, I'm going with the jab and bam. And so my right hand hits his left, the left side of his face. That's not what Jesus is talking about here. What Jesus is talking about here is that in our social dynamics, I am so superior in my social standing and I get to humiliate him in front of a crowd of people with no fear of retaliation, with no fear that he's going to come back at me because I am so dominant. That's what I'm trying to display, is I will actually backhand him. And so it's not a physical violence, I'm going to model and display how humiliating it is to be you in front of everybody. Does that make sense? Thanks dude. And so me, in the example as higher class than Brian, I had such little respect and disdain for him, then I would backhand him to show and model and display that disdain. Showing my position of superiority or his worthlessness to everyone present. And so culturally, this is one of the lowest forms of disrespect. And historians will tell us that slaves would choose to be whipped on their back in front of a crowd as opposed to being backhanded because of how low a form of disrespect that was. And our culture, we're familiar with this kind of thing, right, when we say that was a backhanded compliment, or when we say, oh, well, that was a slap in the face. We're not talking about somebody came at us with physical violence to harm us. No, we're saying somebody tried to humiliate me. Somebody was trying to show me their position of authority. So what is Jesus saying here? Jesus is saying that there are gonna be people who say awful things about you. They're going to insult you. They're going to disrespect you. And Jesus is saying that the way Christians respond must be different than the way in which the world around us, around us responds. How do you respond differently? In light of what happened last night, how are you going to respond differently than the world around you? How are you gonna model and display the heart of our Savior through your social media activity, through your prayers when you go before the King in prayer? What's going to be uttered by you? Is it going to be vengeance? Is it going to be God of peace come? How do you respond differently? See, as followers of Jesus, we cannot play into this. We must turn the other cheek. Think of all the ways Jesus was insulted. He was called a glutton, a drunk, a blasphemer, an illegitimate son, a madman, many other scandalous things, and he didn't retaliate. In fact, 1 Peter 2 tells us that when Jesus was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. Follower of Jesus, who do you entrust yourself to? What do you do differently than the non-believing world? And how does that reflect the heart of our Savior? Jesus continues in verse 40, and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And so here again Jesus is speaking against an Old Testament law. He's speaking against a law that said if someone sued you for your your tunic, they couldn't sue you for your cloak, but Jesus is calling the believer to hand over their cloak. What is Jesus doing? Jesus is saying disarm those who come up against you. Disarm those who come up against you. See we're told by the world's standards that if someone comes up against us, we're to make it as difficult as possible for them. That we are to meet them in a tit for tat. They sue us, we sue them. They smear us, we smear them. But again, we do not operate as followers of Jesus. We do not operate the way in which the world operates. We operate according to the words of Jesus, trusting that it's these words that lead us to the blessings, to the abundant life that he came to give us. See, I think we as Christians, we're far more influenced by the world around us than we care to admit. These are the ways that it comes out. And as Christians, we're to be consistently seeking reconciliation in all things. This idea or this passion to do whatever is necessary to bring about resolution to matters of conflict, to live out the calling placed upon the Christian by the Apostle Paul in Romans 12, 18, and if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.See Jesus just continues to hammer home this point He gives two more examples of first 41 It says if anyone forces you to go one mile go with him to to which I know of many of you finally Got one got one. Whoo Thought about my My girls I have all girls in my family wife two daughters and they went to the mud girl run yesterday over in Flint. And they got back yesterday and I sat there, I was working in the yard all day, they get home, I sit down and I listen to my wife, Jessica, tell me about her experience and all the things of the Mud Girl Run, then I listen to my oldest daughter, McKenna, tell me about her experience and all the details of the Mud Girl Run, which was very similar to what her mom just told me. And then I listen to Lila, my youngest, telling me about her experience of the Mud Girl Run and all the details which mimicked the first two and I just thought man I am killing it. I just went three extra miles listening to my wife and my daughter. I'm killing it. That's not what Jesus is talking about here. No, Jesus is speaking about a Roman law that stated that any person could be forced to assist a Roman soldier in anything they needed done, anything they deemed necessary. And so do you remember when Jesus was carrying the cross and he fell to the ground and Simon of Cyrene picked up the cross? Have you ever thought about why he did that? A Roman soldier ordered him to. See, a common thing in this time would have been for someone to be asked by a Roman soldier to carry their armor, but not because they were tired, not because they actually needed the help. The soldier would ask the civilian to carry his armor to humiliate him, to again show place in the social hierarchy to show and display his power. They would carry the armor, they would carry it what's known as a Roman mile or about a thousand paces, which is about a half mile in our measurements here today. And again, this was simply to show their dominance or control over them. So Jesus is saying, someone forced you to go one, go two. Are you beginning to see the radical calling placed upon the life of the Christian? That to be a follower of Christ, we cannot ignore these words of Jesus. We cannot pretend like he's not giving us these commands to follow. We can't pretend like he didn't say them. No, we see this modeled by Jesus too, don't we? That any possible offense is an opportunity to display the grace and mercy and love of God to those who don't believe in it. That for us, the believer, knowing full well that we are children of the King and he has us in his hands, we get to offer mercy and grace to those who don't believe in it. I can't tell you how many testimonies I hear from people say something like this, like I couldn't figure out why they were so nice to me after the way that I've treated them. Or two weeks ago I heard this, it bothered me that they would forgive me when I was so nasty to them. See, what are we as followers of Jesus, what are we showing the unbelieving world? Could you imagine an arrogant Roman soldier coming up to a Christian and saying, hey, carry my armor. They walk that mile. The whole time the Roman soldiers walk in, the Christians carry in the mile, modeling and displaying to everyone who's in control, who's in power and who is to be humiliated. Then all of a sudden the Roman mile finishes up and the Roman soldiers like, all right, you can put it down. And then the Christian says, no, let's go. Let's go another mile. How would that jack with the Roman soldier's head? Are you serious? I'm trying to humiliate you and you can't be humiliated. Not only that, think about if the Christian actually showed a genuine interest in the life of the Roman soldier. How would that completely mess with him? That is the calling of the Christian. That is what we are to do, that we are to show genuine care, genuine love. We are to emulate our King. We are to follow the way of Jesus. Now for time's sake, I'm gonna skip verse 42, but feel free to do your own study on this. I think you'll see it falls in line with the point Jesus is trying to make, but give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you We'll move on to point number two. 2. We express our Savior's heart by loving our enemies by loving our enemies. We express our Savior's heart by loving our enemies by loving our enemies. So let's pick this up in verse 43 says you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven." So Jesus is not saying this is how salvation is to be achieved. He again is correcting a wrong or bad teaching from the religious leaders. Leviticus 19, Moses writes, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord and so the call to love your neighbor The religious leader said no problem with but then they added apart. Let's hate our Enemies and so as followers of Jesus we are we are called not only to love our our Neighbor, but we are called to pray for those who persecute us for those we disagree with. For those who wish to do you harm. I wonder how many of you last night, again, as that news rolled in, this was your initial response to pray for those who wish you harm. So, you know, we think, how can this be possible? How can this calling be so high that we are to pray for our enemies. Well, I want you to picture this, Christian, that God loved you when you were his enemy. I know we don't like that, but it's true. I think most of us, we tend to think of ourselves prior to meeting Christ as kind of neutral in the sight of God, but that's just simply not true. I was his enemy. You were his enemy. And what did God do? He came for us. He rescued us. He redeemed us. He adopted us as his sons and his daughters. He saved us. And so we know from our own lives and our own experience. We know that our Lord loves his enemies. As Romans 5, 8 says, but God showed his love for us that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us. See, God is a God of mercy and grace and he is kind to those who don't deserve his kindness. And we are recipients of his kindness. Amen? And this is what Paul's talking about here. This is a gape love. A love that is only possible as a reflection of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, to be clear here, loving our enemies does not mean we agree with their sinfulness. No, it means that like the Father, because we ultimately care for their souls, we love. As Romans 2, 4 talks about, it's God's kindness, it's his forbearance, it's his patience that leads people to repentance. And we are to follow the example of Jesus as set by the Father. Amen? One last thing I want to leave you with, so we're going to skip down to verse 48. Jesus says, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. You therefore, in light of all that we just talked about, be perfect. The word for perfect here is not about being without sin. It's the Greek word, teleos, and it means to be mature, to be complete, or to reach the goal. And that's what we're after, maturity, to grow in our own faith, to be complete in Christ. That's how all of this is possible. You cannot do this in your own power. See, I think most people tend to believe that what makes Christianity so hard is that we're to be morally perfect. No. What makes Christianity so hard is that we're to act and respond like Jesus. Because Jesus, when we were his enemy, chose to come and he didn't only turn the other cheek, but he gave up his entire body to be beaten. He didn't only walk with us one mile, he walked all the way up the hill to Calvary to be crucified. He didn't only give up his tunic, he gave up his cloak, he gave up his life, he gave up everything. And for followers of Christ to accurately reflect the agape love, the heart of our Savior, it had to be said that followers of Jesus express their Savior's heart toward others. They do not retaliate against those who wrong them or are unkind to them. Amen? Amen? Let's pray.

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The News To His Relatives Sermon Series: Go Tell It On The Mountain Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Luke 1:39-45 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said amen. So here we are at Christmas time and it is a joyful time for so many people. And many of us grew up with Christmas being a very joyful time. So let me ask you this question to get started here today. If Christmas was a joyful time? Or maybe I should ask it like this. Who, who made it such a joyful time for you? Now I'm willing to bet someone just immediately came to your mind, so go ahead and just share that real quick with your neighbor. Who was it that made Christmas a joyful time for you? Real quick, go ahead and share with your neighbor. I think I heard it a couple of times. Let's see if you have the same person that I do. If you listen to me preach long enough, I'm going to bring this person up. Massive, massive impact on my life. But the person that made Christmas such a joy for me growing up was my grandma. My grandma just, she knew how to do Christmas right. We did every Christmas Eve at her house, and she always made it such a fun, joyous, happy time. She just, she did not care if we trashed the house. At least she didn't let us know if she cared that we trashed the house. She always made sure that we only had a great experience at Christmas. It was wonderful. And then, and then I turned 16, and I got my first job and I ended up having to work for the first time on Christmas, Christmas Eve. And I was, and I had to miss part of the Christmas party. Most of the family Christmas party, I, I had a job and I was bagging groceries for people who are too irresponsible to get their groceries the day before I'm there missing grandma's Christmas party. So you can get your pumpkin pie. I'm not resentful at all about it. I've let it go, but I remember getting to her house on that first Christmas Eve, 16 years old. And the party was basically kind of winding down. Party was basically over. And I kind of fell into that whole polar express mentality that you know, when kids are young and little, they hear the Christmas bells, but when they grow up, they no longer hear the Christmas bells. Like, you know, that's where that I kind of fell into that for a while. And then I realized, yes, yes, family can definitely add to the beauty of Christmas or take away sometimes. There are many things to, there's many reasons to celebrate Christmas and there's many things that make it wonderful. But what makes Christmas truly joyous year in and year out is this one simple, profound, beautiful truth, and it's this, that Jesus Christ, the King, is born. That is what makes Christmas such a joyous, wonderful time. And so that's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about joy here today. Everything going on in the world, what we need to be reminded of is that Christ has come, he's on the throne, and we have nothing to do but to be joyous over that. And so let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 1. You heard me talk about my relative, my grandma, and the way that she celebrated Christmas. What we're going to do now is we're going to see how Jesus' relatives heard and received and responded to the news of Christmas as we look at the news to his relatives. So Luke chapter one, jump down to verse 39. We'll be on page 1088 if you do wanna use the Bibles that are provided. Now as you turn in there, just quick context. Last week we learned that Mary has been told that she is pregnant with Jesus Christ, the Christ child, the Savior of the world. And so during her pregnancy, she goes to live off with a relative of hers named Elizabeth. Now, one thing you need to know about Elizabeth is that Elizabeth has experienced her own miraculous pregnancy in a sense. See, Elizabeth in her old age is pregnant for the first time. After a life of being barren, God opened up her womb to be pregnant with her husband, Zechariah. And now she is pregnant. And for those of you who grew up going to Sunday school, do you remember who Elizabeth is pregnant with? John the Baptist. Mary is pregnant with Jesus Christ. And they come together and it's an incredible interaction that we want to look at here this morning. And so, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth. And when she gets there, that's where we're going to pick up on our story. So, I would ask you here now, if you are able, and if you are not, that is perfectly okay. But if you are able, would you please stand for the reading of God's Word. You here in the Worship Center, and of course in our other venues. So with that, would you hear the word of the Lord, the gospel according to Luke, chapter 1, verses 39 to 45. Luke 1:39-45 39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, t“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Amen. This is God's word. Let's start with prayer and we'll continue. Let's pray together first. Father in heaven above or during this Advent season, would you please remind us of the joy that can be had when we remember what Christmas is truly about the birth of our savior and king. Father, please do this by the truth of your Word and by the power of the Holy Spirit, for it's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen and Amen. Please have a seat. So let's have some good news here in this Christmas season. Here's some good news we're going to look at here today, and it's simply this. The reaction of his relatives show us the right response to Christmas is joy. And yes, relatives plural, because it wasn't just Elizabeth reacting in this moment. But of course, John the Baptist in utero is joining the party. So let's look at the reaction and see what's going on here. We're going to first look at how Elizabeth responds to what's going on and we'll see how that's going to inform us and challenge us as we enter into the Christmas season. So first thing, Elizabeth's joyful reaction to Christmas. First thing we see is that Elizabeth is moved by the spirit. I said it last week. I've said it before. I'll say it again for those in the back. When we talk about the true spirit of Christmas, the true spirit of Christmas is not generosity. It's not the spirit of giving the true spirit of Christmas is the Holy Spirit. So we have this interaction between these two pregnant women, each pregnant with absolute pillars of our faith, and the Holy Spirit is all over this interaction. But it wasn't just Elizabeth, it was her baby, John the Baptist, who's also filled with the Holy Spirit. Verse 41, look at verse 41, says this, and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. It's both scientific and scriptural to say that women are pregnant with human babies. You can't be pregnant with one thing and then give birth to a different thing. What you give birth to is what you are pregnant with. You give birth to a human baby. That means you are pregnant with a human baby. And what's beautiful about this story is that this reminds us that God can work with your baby even in the womb. Here in our church family, there have been a number of families, a number of women who have experienced miscarriages recently. And I don't know why God allows what he does, when he does, but I can tell you this. God is present with your baby in the womb. And if you've had a miscarriage your baby is present with God right now and While that may not turn the tides of our emotion Hopefully at some point in our soul That's the seed of joy that we'll be able to experience in full one day the baby in Elizabeth's womb leaped for joy. As we said, this is John the Baptist. When Jesus Christ enters the room, even in the womb of Mary, John the Baptist leaped, Elizabeth shouted. I'll tell you what, those are true markers of celebration. Those are two markers of joy. When it comes to the fact that Christ the King has defeated Satan, sin, and death, I'm telling you, the church should respond with celebration and joy marked by physical movement and loud shouts. I don't know how a church can be filled with the Holy Spirit and stand there like a stone statue. I don't see that at all in scripture. Now, I'm not saying that we bust out the tambourines and banners and run up down the aisles. I'm not saying that, but I am saying men, bow your heads, raise your hand, lift your voice. Christ the King is on the throne. Be more concerned about what God thinks of your worship. By the power of the Spirit, Elizabeth shouts, John the Baptist leaps, this is what we do for the newborn King. But Elizabeth also shows us something else. She's humbled by the moment. It's an amazing moment of celebration when these two people come together. And Elizabeth makes this very profound statement, verse 43, and why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Of course, there's some remarkable things that we see here in our passage. The firstly being Elizabeth knows that Mary is carrying the Christ child. That's a spiritual natural revelation given to Mary in that moment. But the thing I love about this is maybe something a little bit more subtle. I hope to point it out to you right now when it's the level of humility that Elizabeth shows is profound. How many other women would have just been jealous in that moment? How many other women would have said something like, what's so special about you that you get to carry the Savior of the world? But not Elizabeth. You want to know what Elizabeth shows us? She shows us how to be happy for someone else. Elizabeth shows us this because of the humility that is in her heart. Because of the humility that Elizabeth has, she gets to experience the fullness of the moment, and with the fullness of the moment is pure joy. And this happens because of her humility. Pride so often gets in the way of our ability to be joyous or experience joy. But Elizabeth's humility allows her to experience the blessing of gratitude and joy. And because of that, she gets the full experience of the moment. She doesn't let herself, her prerogatives, her pride get in the way of celebrating an incredible moment. She sets herself aside to experience something wonderful. Some of us here, some of us in here, the reason that we can't get more out of Christmas is simply It's simply because we've put ourselves in the way. Our own expectations of perfection, our own insecurities, our own jealousy and pride that we've got this vision of how Christmas celebrations are supposed to go and it's supposed to be perfect, and if the house isn't perfectly in order, then we have a problem celebrating Christmas. If our special Christmas dish doesn't turn out perfect like it does every year, we think all is lost. Or if the family shows up a little late to the Christmas party, now we're all have this anxiety because the food's getting cold. Come on! That's not what Christmas is about. Christmas is about the fact that Jesus has been born. It may not be perfect because you know what? It won't be. And it never will be perfect until Christ returns and makes all things new. So don't let your vision of perfection sour what could be an incredibly joyous time. As long as we celebrate the fact that Jesus has come, please take a cue from Elizabeth. Let humility and gratitude overwhelm you this Christmas. Elizabeth is simply humbled that she gets to be in the presence of Jesus Christ. How much more should we be humbled, church, now that we have the salvation of Jesus Christ. This leads to the last thing that we see from Elizabeth. Elizabeth is blessed by the Lord. Look at verse 44. She says, For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Immense joy for Elizabeth and her baby. And if you read the New Testament, you'll find this word joy actually comes up a lot. Over 60 times we find the word joy in the New Testament. Why? Because joy is to be a marker of a Christian faith. And for around 60 times we see a very common word for joy. It's a beautiful word. Kara is a wonderful word for joy. We see all the time, but there's five times in the New Testament we see a very rare word given for joy that just adds a little extra dynamic. And that's one of the times we see this word is in this passage here when Elizabeth says this baby leaped for joy. This isn't the standard word for joy. The more direct translation for this word would be exaltation. Another way you could translate that for your rednecks is simply wild joy. It is a perfectly okay to say it's just the baby couldn't contain himself. It's a wild joy. It's a moment of blessing. Elizabeth is blessed by the Lord. She feels her baby move. And then so what does she do? I love this. Elizabeth, in her moment of blessing, she bestows a blessing upon Mary when she speaks a blessing over Mary. I'll tell you this, this is one thing I've come to know, is that people who are truly blessed and they know they're blessed, they are a blessing to others. Because when you experience the true blessing of God, you set your pride aside and you realize all that He's done for you, you can't help but share that and extend that to someone else. So here's my challenge for you this Christmas. Bestow a blessing upon someone else if you realize that you are blessed this Christmas. I mean words of blessing. Speak words of blessing. Listen to what Elizabeth says. She says this. She says this blessing over Mary. She says, blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. That's words of blessing over Mary. So you speak words of blessing over someone. And let me just say this to you, West Michigan men, because I'm one too. I know how hard it is for us to actually enter into a moment where we have to set ourselves aside. So I'm going to challenge everyone in here, but I really want to speak to the West Michigan men. Speak a word of blessing and don't try to put in some subtle jab. Be a man enough to enter into a moment and open yourself up and speak a blessing over someone else. Because if you do that and you don't undermine the moment by trying to make fun of them, of them or the moment, if you do that, I guarantee that person will remember those words for the rest of their life. And you get to share something beautiful, like what we see in scripture, which is a blessing. If you've been blessed, be a blessing to someone else. So ask yourself, who can you bless this Christmas? Who can you speak words of blessing over? Elizabeth and her baby show us that joy is the way to respond to Christmas, and blessing others is a way to respond to Christmas. And so, as we think about Elizabeth's beautiful example for us, let's just take a moment and let's just put ourselves in the hot seat, see how we might be able to experience more of the joy that God has for us through the birth of his son. Let's talk about how joy is from the Spirit. Now listen to me, listen to me here in the other venues. This isn't some subtle thing we see in the text. The Bible is clear that when the Holy Spirit works in our lives, he will produce these things, these various qualities called the fruit of the Spirit. We find this list given in Galatians chapter five. And so let me ask you real quick, who here remembers what the first fruit is listed in the fruit of the Spirit? Anybody remember? It's love, love, a defining quality of what it means to be a Christian, that we are people of love. Now, who remembers the second one? Joy, love and joy. Are there two more beautiful markers of what should embody a Christian in this dark and broken world that we are people of love and people of joy. The other night I was watching this documentary on Scientology and none other than John Travolta was speaking about why he loves Scientology. Now there's some question, there's some question as to whether or not he's still involved in it, but during this interview he was talking about his great admiration for Scientology and he he said, you name me another philosophy, religion or technology where joy is the operative concept. Now listen, some of you may be intrigued by that, but I'll just tell you right now, that feels very cultish to me. It feels very culty. So let's make something clear about Christian joy. Christians are not meant to fake it. We're not meant to put on a show. We're not meant to force a smile. Yes, we are to be strong, but we're not meant to be fake. Don't put on a plastic happiness and call it Christian joy. That's not what we're called to do. Christians have a joy that's that's deeper than that. In the last week, literally in the last week, two of our staff members here at Peace Church had family members who suddenly, unexpectedly, tragically passed away. Actually two of our staff members from our Wayland campus. And even though even though Christmas is meant to be a joyful time, mourning will be a definitive marker of their Christmas this year. Other emotions and other ways to respond to what's happening may come to the surface. But the Christian joy is a bedrock. It's found in a truth that can't be taken away based on the circumstance. And the truth is that Jesus has been born. So on the flip, on the flip, though, if we are never joyful, if we're never joyful, then the only thing left to believe is that you're not walking in step with the Holy Spirit. Because to walk in step with the Holy Spirit is to have love and joy. So let's ask the question, what is the base operative for Christianity? If it's joy for Scientology, what is it for Christianity? I will posit to you, it's not love. It's holiness. Holiness is the base operative of what it means to be a Christian, that we are something other, that we're different than the rest of the world. That's what holiness means, that we're called out. And one of the ways we show that we're called out is that we have a love for those who hate us, and we have a joy that can't be taken away by even death. And so, my friends, as we think about this, don't let the holidays list of to-dos keep you from experiencing joy. Don't let it keep you from showing the world what joy looks like. Elizabeth shows us that joy is from the Holy Spirit. It's about knowing God, encountering Christ, and being filled with Him, the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Christmas is meant to be a joyful time because we celebrate the birth of our King. Children being born is such a happy time, isn't it? We get to celebrate that every year with the birth of our savior. So let's show it. Let's leap for joy like John the Baptist and let's shout for joy like Elizabeth. But also let's be challenged by this. Joy is found through humility. Let me say a few things about humility and how we can experience joy through it? Let me give you some ways that pride may be getting in the way of the joy that God wants you to experience through the birth of his son First as you said before If you can't be happy for another person Then you can't experience joy If you can't be happy for another person who gets something that that maybe you want or you think you deserve You'll never experience true joy. Likewise, if you can't be happy unless things are exactly the way that you want them to be, then you've kind of made yourself an idol, number one. But secondly, if you can't experiencing unless they are perfect, you'll never experience true joy. Or how about this one? If you can't find it in your heart to be grateful with all that God has given us with what you have, then you'll never experience true joy. Now, that's not to say that some people aren't dealing with some extremely painful and difficult things right now, but I'd say for the vast majority of us, our lives should be marked by nothing but sheer gratitude. Enjoy. This is the difference with true Christian joy. We can have joy in the pain. We can have joy in the storm, but if you have Christ, then you have all that you need to be joyful. But if you can't be grateful, and again, I'm going to speak to the vast majority of people in here, I recognize some people got some really dark times about them, but I'm gonna speak to the vast majority, and you know who you are. If you can't be grateful with what God has given you, then I suggest you go spend the holidays Or those or the or those who are still captive a year later The vast majority of us in here have nothing nothing to complain about Are things perfect? No, and they won't be until the king returns and makes all things new but many of us have no joy Simply because we've lost perspective But Elizabeth shows us that if we have humility, then we have the ability to enjoy the moment that God has given to us, even when things don't go according to our plans. So be humble. If there was ever, you know this, if there was ever a symbol of humility, just look at your nativity set and that little boy born in a manger, the son of God came and was born in a stable. His life from the moment he was born was marked by humility. The Son of God born in the stable was laid in straw that was already used by the animals. The King of Kings came in a manger, so tell me again what you think you're entitled to? It's a wonderful and joyful thing to celebrate Christmas because it's a great reminder of all that the Lord did for us. Yes, we love the fact that He died on a cross, the pinnacle of our faith, but He was born in a wooden manger to show us something about humility. Christ came in humility. He rose again in victory after His death on the cross so that we could have life to the full. Listen to me, not just a full life, but a joyful life that's marked by faith for so much joy is to be had through faith. That's the last thing I want to look at. Joy is fulfilled in faith. I love the story from Elizabeth earlier when our worship team was practicing. We're going through some things. I told him that I think Elizabeth is the most underappreciated character of the nativity story. She's just amazing. Elizabeth can come to my family Christmas party whenever she wants. But the reason I say that joy is fulfilled in faith is because faith is what gives us perspective for the moment we are in and for the eternity that's around us. Faith gives us the ability to have joy beyond the immediate. Verse 45 says this. Elizabeth said to Mary, blessed is she who believed that there would be Fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord powerful words of blessing over Mary Now there's this man from the 1800s. His name was JC Ryle He was he was writing a commentary on this very story on Elizabeth And he and he takes this verse and he reminds us that if there's one thing that is true for all people of all ages, all races, all religions, it's this, is that all of us will one day pass from this life to the next. And when we do, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. When he's writing about on this verse, this is what It says, it says better a thousand times to be rich in faith than rich in gold. When the great white throne is set, when the dead are called from their graves and receiving their final sentence, the value of faith will at length be fully known. And he says this, men will learn then if they never learned before, how true are the words blessed are they that believes. When we die, and you will die, when we die, we will stand before the throne of God in one of two states. You will stand either naked in your sin and your shame, or you will stand clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I don't long for death, but when that day comes, my joy will be fulfilled in my faith because I have faith in Jesus Christ. I will be clothed in His righteousness. My joy will be complete. Christmas is a joyous time because through Christmas we get to look back in joy on the fact that our King has come and we also get to look ahead in joy knowing that our King is coming back for us. When we look back on Christmas, we see the newborn King. But when we look forward to his coming again, I'm telling you, he will not come again as a newborn King. He will come again as a conquering King. Your path will come before his throne. You may die before he comes back and get there ahead of time, or you'll be here when he returns. Either way, prepare for that moment now by calling on the name of Jesus Christ. Recognize your sin against God. Receive what Jesus has done with you and for you. And be filled by the Spirit so that you could have true love and true joy, peace, patience, kindness, and all the rest of the fruit of the spirits. Have joy. Have joy before the manger. Have joy before the throne. Because remember this, the reaction of his relatives show us the right response to Christmas is joy. If it's not joy that you are experiencing at this Christmas, something else has gotten in the way. And I encourage you to bow before the manger and be reminded that Christ has come to save you and let that fill you with joy, a joy that cannot be taken away this Christmas. Amen. Amen. With that, you with joy, a joy that cannot be taken away this Christmas. Amen. Amen. With that, let's stand and let's prepare to worship the Lord.