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Is The Bible Really Without Error? Theology Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 4, 2024 Is the Bible really entirely true? Are there really no errors in this long book? Isn’t there an update needed about at least a few things? The Apostle Paul lived a long time ago. Moses lived even longer ago. Surely times have changed since their day? They didn’t know what we know now about the world, right? 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 [1]. Should Christians continue to believe in the inerrancy of Scripture (“inerrant” = without error), or should we give up on this doctrine? What are the consequences if we give up this belief? Does the Bible have errors? Over the years, many critics have claimed to find errors in the Bible. These alleged errors basically fall into three categories: apparent contradictions (“apparent” meaning they appear to be contradictions prior to deeper study), potential conflicts with modern science, and discrepancies over numbers. In addition to these alleged errors, there are also some passages that present theological or philosophical difficulties that some may call errors. While we don’t have the space here to address each of these alleged errors or difficulties, there is an amazing webpage where some great Christian scholars have provided answers to hundreds of these alleged errors. Is the Bible historically reliable? The Bible is not merely a book of philosophical speculation or religious sayings. It is a book of history. The theological truth claims of the Bible are built upon a historical narrative, a story of real people, places, and events. So can we trust the history recorded in the Bible? In order to evaluate the historical reliability of the Bible, we can apply the same criteria used to evaluate the reliability of any other historical document. These criteria include archeological corroboration, attestation from other historical documents of the events described, attestation of eyewitnesses, the nearness in time of the recording of the events to them actually taking place, the consistency between older manuscripts and later manuscripts, the number of manuscripts available, and more. When evaluated according to the standard criteria for historical reliability, we find that the Bible is the best attested ancient historical document we have. For an in-depth study of how the Bible measures up to criteria for historical reliability, there are many helpful articles and books available [2]. What would it mean if the Bible did have errors? In John 3:12, Jesus says - If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? To give up on inerrancy is to give up on the Bible. The Bible tells us about God, ourselves, metaphysical reality, and life after death. If it is wrong about physical things, how can we trust it to be right about spiritual things? We trust someone’s word because we trust their character, and we trust someone’s character because we trust their word. These are inseparable. One of the ways we know the Bible is without error is becauuse it comes from a God who is without error, perfect in his character. If the Bible has real errors (not just alleged errors), then this would give us reason to doubt the God of the Bible or to doubt that the Bible is a reliable source of truth about God. What was Jesus’ view of the Bible? It has become popular in recent years for some to say they follow Jesus but not the Bible. There are at least two fundamental problems with this philosophy. First, the Bible is God’s Word (Jesus’ Word). How can you follow Jesus but not His Words? Second, this is not at all how Jesus spoke about the Bible. Throughout his ministry, Jesus quoted the Scripture (“it is written”) as God’s authoritative word in order to preach, teach, and argue with opponents like Satan and the Pharisees. Jesus said “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void” (Luke 16:17). Jesus not only argued from the ideas of the Bible, he made arguments based upon a single word (Matthew 22:41-46) and even from the tense of a word (Matthew 22:31-32). Every word of the Bible is from God (2 Timothy 3.16; 1 Peter 1.20-21), and thus, God’s Word is without error. [1] https://decisionmagazine.com/gallup-less-than-half-of-evangelicals-believe-bible-is-actual-word-of-god/ [2] https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/establishing-the-gospels-reliability?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADAe-6t5TkzlSL7n1YkLtadRt12uv&gclid=Cj0KCQjw4Oe4BhCcARIsADQ0cskTrhjSucruG9zShkyk1ii8D0FJrJAUyfTGS4vvD7VZdM26UxI-PHcaAiIFEALw_wcB https://www.crossway.org/articles/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-reliability-of-the-new-testament-writers/ Erwin Lutzer, Seven Reasons Why You Can Trust The Bible. Geisler & Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist. Craig Blomberg. The Historical Reliability of the New Testament. More Blogs You'll Like Do the Resurrection Accounts Contradict? How differences in the Gospel accounts strengthen rather than undermine the credibility of the resurrection Read More What is 'Probably' Missing From Most Nativity Sets Miracle, Myth, or Meteor? Identifying What the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ Truly Was Read More Is The Bible Really Without Error? A Closer Look at Scripture’s Reliability, Inerrancy, and Historical Trustworthiness Read More

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, May 26, 2024 What Do I Do With My Guilt? Isaiah 53:4-6 What Do I Do With My Guilt? 2 Overview Main Idea: God had to treat Jesus like us to treat us like Jesus Sermon Outline: 1. Where does guilt come from? 2. What can we do with our guilt? 3. What was done for our guilt? 3 Pre-Questions 1. What challenged you the most from this message? 2. Why do you think guilt and shame are hard topics to address as Christians? 4 Questions 1. What is your "go-to" way of avoiding guilt (deny, distract, become numb)? 2. Read 2 Corinthians 7:9-13. How does this passage help us understand guilt? 3. How should guilt draw us closer to God? 4. How will you allow substitution to invade your life? PDF Download

PODCAST That's a Good Question In God We Trust: Christian Perspectives on Our Response to the Election November 4, 2024 Jon Delger & Mitchell Leach Listen to this Episode Hey everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc. That's a Good Question is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. I'm Jon, I serve as a pastor as well as a host on this show. You can always submit questions to peacechurch.cc slash questions. I'm here today with Mitch. Yeah, I'm feeling patriotic because if you're listening to this when it comes out, it's election day, November 5th, 2024. It's okay if you're listening to this afterwards, it's still going to be applicable to you. But we are having this episode really talk about some of the things that are going on with this election and elections in general. We've already done an episode and a whole teaching video series on the topic of Christianity and politics, and I really highly suggest that you go find those videos. John did such a great job in talking and tackling those issues. And so we're not gonna be addressing that again, but we do wanna address some theological and just some real Christian life questions that relate to the election. So for example, what do Christians do after an election, whether you're a candidate that you voted for won or lost. How does God's sovereignty relate to that and our agency in voting? So I'm really excited for us to jump into that. So let's jump into our first question. And I got to say, it's going to be great for today on election day, but also our leaders are already telling us that we're not going to know the results for several days. So a lot of the stuff we're going to talk about is going to be applicable potentially for a few days, for a while. And also on top of that, I would say, highly suggest that you share this with someone who you feel like this would be applicable for or who might find this episode of value. Because that's also how we get this out is mostly by word of mouth. So we'd love for you guys to share this with someone you know. But let's jump into that first question. If God is in control, does it really matter who I vote for? Or on the flip side of that question, if voters decide, is God really in control? So, I think this is an age-old question, really, about God's sovereignty versus human responsibility. God's in control of everything, and yet you and I think, speak, act, make decisions every day. And so, how do those two things relate, especially in an election? How does democracy itself relate to God's sovereignty? And unfortunately, I've heard a lot of people, even Christians say, you know, God's in control so I don't need to vote, you know, it doesn't matter. But I think that's clearly not what scripture teaches. You know, one of the things that I've said many times is that, you know, I don't think you should treat that, you know, don't take that mindset to your seatbelt when you get in your car, right? And just say, well, it doesn't matter if I wear my seatbelt because God's in control, he'll control if I live or die. Well, he does control if you live or die, but he uses means for an end, right? If he's gonna save your life during a car accident, he might use the seatbelt in order to save your life. So, that's an important decision for which you have some responsibility. And the same thing is true for an election. You have a responsibility. So, I think of some classic passages when we think of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. One of the best examples is, of course, Jesus going to the cross, who's responsible for that action. You and I know that it was God's plan for Jesus to go and to die on the cross to take away our sins and to rise again. But we also know that human actors were at play. We know that the Jews, the Romans, we know that people were involved in sending Jesus to the cross. I think of a classic passage, Acts 2.23 says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. So Peter's preaching during Pentecost, he says Jesus was delivered up according to the foreknowledge of God, and then he also says you crucified and killed him. Okay, so he's saying both things are true. God's in control, it was God's plan, and also you human beings who sent Jesus to the cross are responsible for your actions. Yeah. Yeah. I was just listening to a little bit of Charles Spurgeon today. He was talking about that idea of human agency and God's sovereignty are like the two rails of a railroad track. And that they're separate, right? They're two different things and yet off in the distance they converge together. And so he was saying, you know, how they come together, we don't know, but in eternity, we'll see that kind of touch together. And it is kind of a mystery, but we know God commands us to do certain things. And at the same time, we do know that he's sovereign. And that can be hard, but. Totally, we don't, yeah, there's some mystery in knowing how God's sovereignty and human responsibility come together. But we just, we have the clear teachings from the Bible that both of those things are true at the same time, even if we don't fully understand how they go together. So yeah, you've got a responsibility, Christians, to go out today, election day, and to vote. You've got a responsibility to pray for the Lord, to bring about the outcome that is good for the United States of America, what's gonna lead to flourishing for human beings, what's gonna lead to the furthering, the advancement of the gospel for our country. We love God and we love our neighbors, so we want to pray for what's best for them. We want to vote for what's best for them. Yeah, absolutely. Let's jump into this next question. Will I have to give an account for how I voted? And then this, maybe the follow-up is, what if I don't know everything that someone who I voted for stands for? What if they're some school board members, maybe that I don't know exactly what their position is on things? Right, right, good question. So in general, a couple of passages come to mind. I think of Matthew 12, 36, where Jesus is saying that every careless word we're gonna have to give an account for. I think of passages like Romans 14 that say, each one of us will give an account of himself to God. They give it in Matthew 16, Jesus says, he will repay each person according to what he does. So scripture is pretty clear that you and I will be judged for our words and our deeds, all of them. And I think like voting very clearly falls into, it's one of our words or deeds. It's something that we do. So we're going to give an account to God for how we used our influence, our voice, our vote, this chance to speak into who leads our country. So yeah, we will be judged. Now you brought up the interesting question of what about when we don't have all the information? I think that's where, even going back a step further, you say, well, maybe I had information, but maybe things changed, or maybe that candidate didn't do what I thought they were going to do. You know, so there are different factors that come in. You mean politicians sometimes don't do what they say they're going to do? That's right. Pretty sure. Oh my goodness. So that's the thing, right? You know, we've got to, I think God's going to hold us responsible for, you know, the information we had, the way that we used our wisdom at the time to make the best decision that we could. I think that's true. Yeah, unfortunately I think in some of these local elections some candidates don't supply as much information as we would like. I ran into that and when I went to the polls beforehand I was looking at one of my more local races and I was trying to make a decision and two of the candidates just didn't provide any information online. So I texted a couple of friends who knew those people and I tried to gather as much information as I could, but I was voting on very little information and I was a little frustrated by that. It's hard. I mean, in your case, maybe you knew some people who knew them, but I think in a lot of cases you're just like, I don't even know who this is and what am I supposed to do with that? Right. I had the advantage of living in the community for a long time and knowing some people who happened to know them. So I had that advantage. But yeah, for some people, they just, they had no idea. And so, yeah, I think that's the thing. I think God in his infinite wisdom and knowledge and goodness and justice, you know, knows that, you know, we are not omniscient, that we don't know everything, that we don't have access to all information. And so we've got to make the wisest decision we can with the information we have at the time. Yeah. Speaking of finding good resources, today, it's really exciting that we have, for the first time, a sponsor. We have an ad that we'd love to share with you. If you're looking to dive deeper into faith and to grow in wisdom, we'd love for you to discover books that inspire change and transform you with Moody Publishers. From trusted authors to fresh voices, Moody offers resources that equip you for life's journey with Christ. And right now, we have an exclusive offer just for you. If you use promo code RESOUND40, you can get 40% off your next purchase. Whether you're searching for devotionals, study guides, or impactful reads, Moody Publishers has something for everyone. So don't miss out. Visit moodypublishers.com and use Resound40 at checkout. That's moodypublishers.com and use Resound40 at checkout. Enrich your faith today. Just as a side note, we had an opportunity to look at some resources from Moody Publishers. And man, they've just been super great enriching things for us, whether you're a pastor or whether you're just someone who's a Christian trying to find good resources. It's been really good. You did an interview just the other day for a different podcast, Retiring and Inspiring, with Gene Getz, who's been a great faithful pastor for many, many years, talking about his experience. So great podcast to listen to, awesome author. He had a book that just came out recently, Moody Publishers. I also knew Moody Publishers just released in modern English another version of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. So great resource. So great resources there, moodypublishers.com, resound40 at checkout, 40% off, great deal. Get some great resources. Yeah, we'll put their link in our show notes with that promo code too. Let's jump into this next question. A lot of people say that persecution would help the church grow and bring us out of some sort of lazy cultural Christianity. Should voters lean into that and vote for greater persecution? Have you ever heard someone say that? I have. I've heard that many times actually. Very, very interesting perspective. So yeah, I sympathize a little bit with the feeling because, you know, throughout the history of the church, we have, I think we've spent more time than not being persecuted. I think of the worldwide church. And by God's grace, the church flourishes under persecution, which is awesome. But to say that we should go after that, I think is another thing. We don't have any examples of that in the Bible where the church was like, hey, we think the church will do better if we're all getting persecuted, beaten and killed. So let's go get that. Let's go figure out how to make that happen. Yeah, you're saying the disciples didn't gather around and said, let's think about a church growth strategy and let's figure out how to make the Romans angry. Yeah, let's really get them upset. Yeah, the church has, God's people have been persecuted a lot throughout their history. See if we can take them off so much that they kill us and our families and everyone we know. Right, it makes me think a little bit of, you know, there's been some talk and some studies on, you know, how amazing it is, how resilient children are, even when they grow up in bad environments, you know, a violent neighborhood, a broken home, whatever it is. You know, some of them turn out really well, and they not only survive, but they thrive. They go through adversity, and it makes them a stronger person in their adult life. And that's great. But I don't think anybody's saying, as a result of knowing that, we should on purpose raise our children in violent neighborhoods, broken homes, bad situations. That's not the conclusion. Just because by God's grace, human beings are adaptive and resilient and good things can come out of bad things, doesn't mean that we should make bad things happen on purpose. Yeah. So, and yeah, like I said, we don't have any example of that happening in Scripture. So, no, I don't think that we should on purpose bring about persecution. I think it will likely in our country happen increasingly in the United States of America. We're already seeing, you know, threats on freedom of religion, freedom of speech, those kind of things. And so I think Christians are going to probably face more persecution because of our, because our worldview is so much different from what the rest of the world would say. So we're going to face that anyways. We don't need to bring it about on purpose. Yeah, no, absolutely. Jon, are there any situations in the Bible that help us inform us in this current situation? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Actually, the first thing I thought of when you said that was that we don't have any specific parallel situations to an election, like election day, like we're in right now, because in Israel, in Judah, in Rome, God's people under Assyria, God's people under Babylon, God's people under the Roman Empire, in each of those situations they didn't get to vote in their leader. It wasn't an election. So in that way, this is a unique time in history, a unique place in history that we're, and in the world that we're in, and we thank God for that. We do get to have a voice. We shouldn't waste it, we should use it. So there's that. But there are certainly similar situations where we're looking at leaders, and we're looking at good and bad options, some that go from good to bad, some that go from bad to good. You think of the judges, you think of the kings. I think of one of the refrains in the book of Judges, Judges 21-25, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everybody did what was right in their own eyes. So when we lack... And that's not a positive statement. Right, that's a bad thing. That's not an anthem for expressive individualism and freedom of choice. That's not like, yeah, we all did our own thing and it was great. And it was right, you know. Sometimes I hear that and it's like, oh, maybe that almost sounds like, people could take that as a good thing. Yeah, don't put that on a poster and hang it on your wall. If you've ever read the book of Judges, incredibly dark example of human depravity, of human sin. Right, right. When God's people don't have, or when people in general don't have a good, healthy leader that's leading them in the direction of God's good design for them, yeah, then things aren't going to go well. Yeah. And so, yeah, yeah. In 2024, I've said before, I'll say it again, I wish we had some better choices for candidates. Yeah. I still think that there is a clear choice between the two parties, the two platforms, which one is advocating for things that are at least closer to a biblical worldview. One party is clearly headed away from things that are of a biblical worldview. And yet the candidates themselves, I do wish we had better options. And I think, yeah, throughout the history of the world, I think people have faced that problem many times. Yeah, it reminds me right now at Peace Church, we're going through a Bible study in men's, and women's Bible studies doing the same one through the book of first and second Kings, and looking at some of the different Kings, and it just looks so similar to kind of the situation that we're going through, where you see these kings rise to power, and some of them are good and some of them are bad, and it's just this kind of downward spiral when Israel looks to a man, and men can abuse power. That's part of our fallen nature, is that we typically find something that God's given us that's good, and we find a way to misuse it. And so, you know, you know, sometimes there's good kings, sometimes there's bad kings. But the real mistake that Israel made was not having good or bad kings. It was that they weren't putting Yahweh as their true king. Yeah. I think that brings up a really important point. So if you're, you know, whatever happens today, whatever happens over the coming days, you know, whenever we have the results of the selection of 2024, whatever happens, your vote matters. It is important. You know, I don't want to undermine that. And I want to say whatever the outcome of the election is, God is the one who is ultimately on the throne. Yeah. Jesus is the king over all kings. Yeah, I guess. So that leads me to a question. Say our candidate doesn't win, the one that maybe I'm voting for or whoever the listener's voting for, whatever. If that's something that tears me up inside, if that makes me almost lose control, what would you say to someone like me in that situation? Well, being sad about that is appropriate. In this election, we're facing just a total two worldviews that are very different up against each other. And so, yeah, I mean, I think Christians will either be celebrating or mourning, depending on the outcome. So there's some mourning is appropriate. But like you said, to almost lose your mind or to just lose all hope or something like that would not be appropriate because of this bigger picture that we have as Christians. That our ultimate hope is not in any man or woman and not in any human being on this earth. It's in Jesus. It's in God. He's the one who's ultimately on the throne. Book of Revelation paints a beautiful picture of God being on the throne for all ages. We know that Jesus is going to return and make all things new and right. So as Christians, we have hope. Times might get harder. That's certainly true. We might worry about what's going to happen for our kids, our grandkids. That's certainly true. And yet, one of the things that I think about with our kids is that sometimes I look at things going on and what could be in the future and I worry for them. But you also got to remember God designed them for exactly this time. Yeah. You know, God designed them to be lights in a dark world, whatever is going to come. Yeah. That's that's that's who they are, that's what they're going to be. You know, it's not our job as parents to just fear for them. It's our job to equip them, disciple them, prepare them to go and do God's mission in this world. Yeah, no, that's really good. How do I love my neighbor when we see the world in two opposite ways? How do I love my neighbor when they have a banner or a yard sign of a political candidate that maybe I see as doing something that's wrong? Or if they see one that I have as seeing something that's wrong. Right. Right. In the coming days, yeah, your neighbors might, you know, you might be celebrating or mourning and they might have the opposite result after the selection. So how do you talk to them? Well, I think teepee is probably the first option, right? Toilet paper their house. I hear John that you're pretty good at toilet paper. Oh no. Is that a confirm or deny those rumors? They can step up from my past. Back in high school, I may or may not have partook in that activity many times. I heard your nickname was King Teepee. Oh boy. Well, that was for a different reason entirely. Oh, man. No more questions. That's right. So God calls us to be people of truth and love, right? So our neighbor who sees the world entirely different, who is not living in God's truth, okay? So we got to love them, and loving them doesn't mean compromising on truth. So that can be very tricky in conversations. I think, you know, oftentimes one of the first things you wanna do, especially if it's literally your neighbor, being somebody that you either, that you live near, or that you work with, or somebody that you really do see on a regular basis, not just you run into once. But you see them on a regular basis, you've got the opportunity to demonstrate that even though we disagree entirely on things, that I still treat you with respect as a human being that I still care about your well-being I can still ask How you're doing I can still ask how I can pray for you I can still I don't know bring you gifts or you know do good things for your kids or you know, whatever Yeah, you still be a good neighbor and I think then hopefully that opens the door For some respect when you bring an alternative worldview and a alternative perspective in a conversation about real issues. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's super good. I think oftentimes people can feel even ashamed of some of the positions that they hold on to, like being pro-life. I think that can be something that, no, I think internally they believe that's true, but professing that that's something that they believe to their neighbors can maybe even make them feel like, you know, uncomfortable, but I would just want to say that it feels very uncomfortable. Yeah, I just want to encourage listeners that when you hold to a biblical stance and people reject you or reject what you're saying, it's not rejecting you or somehow thinking less of you, that what you're holding to is truth. And that's something to be proud of. If we really believe true, you know, believing in biblical, having a biblical stance on a political issue isn't necessarily something that's dividing the world. It's trying to come back to the truth, and that's where people ultimately need to come back to. It's not about trying to find a middle ground. If we're going to stand on truth, we have to stand on truth. Right, right. Trying to compromise is not actually the way to go about it. Yeah, you know, so instead of fighting fire with fire, you want to fight fire with water. I think one of the most impressive things that Christians can do with their neighbors, you know, especially this year, there's so much emotion and passion wrapped up in people's positions. You know, especially like on the life issue, you know, if somebody comes at you who is pro-abortion, they're going to come at you usually really strong with strong emotions about how could you possibly restrict the rights of a woman, that kind of mentality. And if you can, you know, if you can, instead of, you know, taking the bait and becoming emotional yourself, if you can stand and calmly, kindly, you know, listen and then respond by, you know, even asking a question like, well, you know, what about the rights of, you know, do you believe that the baby in the womb is a human being? Yeah. Do you think that it's possible they might have rights as well? You know, just, you know, just kind of very kindly, calmly presenting an alternative. And they might not believe you in that conversation, and that's fine. That's not the job, but you're sowing some seeds of truth that might begin to undermine what's in their mind, you know, a false worldview. Yeah. I also think another respectful thing to say is, you know, this is what my God tells me in Scripture. And so this is something that I'm going to be obedient to him on. I know that you might disagree with me on that, but this is something that I believe, you know, what I believe is the God of the universe is telling me and how to live my life and how to operate. And I think if people can't understand that, you know, maybe it's time to find a different conversation partner. Because if they can't respect one of our most fundamental rights in America is freedom of religion. If they can't respect your right to believe in something, in a higher power, that they can't respect your holy text and what it says, even just allowing you to believe that, there's something wrong with the person you're talking to. Yeah, you can appeal to – they would claim that they have a value on tolerance, right? Now, we've talked in other episodes about kind of how the modern idea of tolerance isn't really tolerance, but you could try to at least appeal to that in them that, hey, you know, I have a different worldview here. Can you can you accept that? Can you tolerate that? Yeah, and it's not just a different worldview because I decided I like it, right? It's a different worldview because I believe this is what the infinite God of the universe is telling me to believe, right? And that's, you know, if people can't be charitable in that circumstance, you know, right? And I've had that conversation even about evangelism or hell, you know, saying, you know, somebody gets frustrated with you about you sharing the gospel with them. You can kind of say, well, well, hey, just, you know, just understand it from my perspective for a minute. Yeah. I 100% believe that the Bible came from God and it tells me that if you don't believe in Jesus, you're going to hell. Yeah. So I'm not saying this to you to be mean to you. I'm saying this to you because I believe it. And if I believe it, that I would, how unloving would I be if I don't share that with you? Yeah, absolutely. What would you say to people who say that Jesus came back not to establish an earthly kingdom to establish like a political kingdom, but he came to establish the church and that is a reason not to vote. Is there any truth in that statement? How would you? Well, I was tracking with you until you got to that last part. It's true. He didn't come to establish an earthly nation or kingdom. The church is transnational, it's across nations, it's not one nation. I won't say the joke again. So I was tracking with you until you got to the not vote part. Yeah, so it's true that the church is not one nation, a political nation, but it's also true that we as Christians are called to be good citizens. I think of many passages in scripture like Romans 13 talking about our role in relationship to the state. I think about simple summaries of the law, love God and love neighbor. If we're going to love our neighbors, we've got to participate. When we're talking about officials and laws and things like that that's going to govern our nation, if we love our neighbor, we've got to participate. We want what's best for them. We've got the instruction manual, we've got the blueprint from the architect, from the creator. What's good for human beings? And so how could we as Christians not be involved and give a voice to that? I think even bigger than just our nation, but some of the local elections, right? To love our neighbor, like literally our neighbor, would be to try to vote people who are going to be good people on school boards, good people for some of those local elections who are going to have maybe even a more significant direct impact to you and your community than say the President of the United States might have. Right, we give all of our attention to the President, the presidential race and it's really important. It's important. Yeah, but don't forget on the other ones and remember too that people who start as school board people or you know state representatives or things, they eventually end up in those bigger races. I mean you know you and I get a chance to have a voice on these elections that affect us on a local level. And we're talking about politicians who could have careers that lead them to different places. And so us having an influence in that is really important. Yeah, I think it's a lot like generosity. I've heard a pastor say that he wants Christians to make the most amount of money possible, not because that's a good thing just in general, but because when Christians are the ones who hold the money, they're going to be the most generous with it and in the best way. I think people with a biblical worldview should know best what to do with money. I think also the same is true with voting. I've heard statistics saying that about 50% of Christians aren't going to vote in this election. I think that's crazy to think that we wouldn't come with the best way to vote moving forward. And that we would allow someone else to have that influence in our country, our state and our neighborhoods. Right, you're standing in a circle of people and you gotta make a tough decision. And one of you has the answer from God. And you're gonna say, no, I'll sit this one out while you guys decide. What a silly way to approach it. Yeah, and it's not that everything dies on elections, but why wouldn't we, if you could go back into the book of Kings, why wouldn't we want a good king? Why wouldn't we want to have the right, a good leader for our nation or our state or our neighborhoods? So I think that this is an election that can be maybe anxiety driving for a lot of people. It can be one that can really cause a lot of concern for people. It's unsettling this election, maybe even divisive. How can we anchor our hope as Christians? How can we anchor our hope in Christ? Yeah, well, one of the things that we have to have in mind is the big picture. God created this world good, sin made this world broken, but Jesus is not abandoning us. He is returning to rule and to reign to make all things new. So I wanna just read, this is Revelation 21, a passage I take great comfort in all the time. Here it is. The Apostle John, he's writing his vision that he sees. He says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. And he who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Yeah. So there it is. That's the picture the Bible gives us is that Jesus is on the throne. When he returns, he'll make all things new and God will finally be here fully, completely with us. Praise God. So that's the great hope is that that's what's coming. In the meantime, no matter what happens, you and I have a mission. We gotta remember that we're not here for our comfort, we're here for our mission. Our mission is to go there for and make disciples of Jesus. That's what we're here to do. And so, whether times are good, times are bad, whatever's going on around us, that's what we exist for. That's what we raise our families in order to be able to do. We want to go out and share the message that Jesus lived, he died, and he rose, and that people who are living in darkness and in sin can find hope, they can find eternal life in and through Jesus. Well, hey, thanks everybody for listening. I hope you have a great election day. Make sure you get out and vote and be praying for the Lord's will to be done, for the Lord to use his church to make disciples of Jesus no matter what happens next. You can like, subscribe, and follow us, resoundmedia.cc. Have a great week. Bye!

What Defiles A Person? Sermon Series: It Had To Be Said Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Mark 7:1-23 Transcript Awesome. Hey, if you got a Bible, would you grab that and open with me to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, that's where we're going to be this morning. We're going to look at verses 1 through 23. A little bit of a longer reading, so I invite you to have a Bible open and follow along with me as we go. We're in the midst of our series called It Had to be Said, the quotes of Christ that changed the world. And if you've read a lot of scripture, you know that Jesus quotes some of them are really Great sayings that you want to just hang on the wall and memorize and look at every day and some of Jesus sayings just punch you right in the gut, but all of them are absolutely true and we need to hear them. Amen Amen, and so we're gonna get into another one of those this morning in Mark chapter 7 as we hear an answer to the question, what defiles a person in an argument between Jesus and the Pharisees. So we're gonna read it, then I'll pray, then we'll get to work. Mark chapter seven, verses one through 23, here we go. Mark 7:1-23 1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.” 14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” This is God's word. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we give you thanks this morning for the truth of your word. God, I pray that you open up our hearts, that we would receive it, that we would be changed, convicted, encouraged to walk with Jesus. God, I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit, a broken instrument to bring your word to your people. And God, I pray that you would be glorified as we hear what you have to say to us. It 's in Jesus' name we pray all these things. Amen. Amen. Well, one of the things that you might know if you're a homeowner is that home ownership comes with home projects. One of those things they should tell you before you buy a house. I usually enjoy projects on our house. I like to problem solve and figure things out, but there's one kind of project that I always hate doing on our house, plumbing projects. I always find that I end up in a tight space and wet It's not what I what I enjoy in the house that we owned before this one that we own right now We had one in particular plumbing problem. The main problem was that our kitchen sink was in the opposite corner of the house from the main drain that went down into the ground And so there was a really long run It would go all the way down one wall and then down the other wall in the basement And so because it was such a long run it would kind of get flat and things would get stuck. And so the kitchen sink would back up and I'd pour some Drano in there and I'd do the snake thing and all that. And I'd do whatever I could to try to approach the problem from the top instead of getting on down in the basement and getting into the, into the pipes and that kind of thing. But inevitably, eventually it got stuck and I couldn't fix it from, from above. So I had to get down in the basement and you slide over those ceiling tiles and you reach up in there. And I know that I'm going to open up this pipe and some stuff's going to come out. And so I sort of plan and prepare. I lay down a tarp. I got a five-gallon bucket and I'm kind of looking at the pipe. I kind of look at the bucket and I kind of calculate. And I'm like, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's in the right spot. This is going to work out. And I go to cut into the pipe and open it up. And of course, I was wrong. I underestimated just how forcefully the fluid would come out of this pipe, and it comes out and it hits the bulkhead in front of it and bounces back right onto me. Because it's like way up here, and I'm standing on a bucket, and I'm up here like this, and it just comes right down on my head. It's like one of those moments where you want to scream, but then I would have to open my mouth and some of the stuff might get in there. Thankful that it wasn't a toilet, but it was the kitchen sink, which some nasty stuff goes down. Lovely experience. Nonetheless, Jesus tells us in this passage that what defiles a person is not the stuff that comes to us from the outside. It's actually the stuff that comes up from inside of us. So that is what defiles a person, makes them dirty, disgusting, unclean. And that is the problem. The main idea this morning is just that it's not what goes in, but what comes out that matters for a person. The key quote comes from verse 15 in the text. Jesus says, hear me, all of you, and understand that there is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him. But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. So this morning, we're going to talk about the source and the solution to contamination. The Pharisees and Jesus each have a different answer to the question of what causes people to become unclean and what is the solution to uncleanness. And so we're gonna look at each of those things, starting with the source. So let's talk about that. Take a look with me at the first couple of verses of Mark chapter seven. It says, when the Pharisees gathered to him with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled that is unwashed All right, so you got some guys come from Jerusalem Which is the central religious hub of the nation of Israel in particular you got Pharisees and scribes So these are the elites the professionals the religious leaders of Jesus's day These are the guys who people look to for religious wisdom and teaching and you got Jesus this teacher who comes on the scene and Is gathering huge crowds to hear him and people love him and they follow him. And so the scribes and the Pharisees come and they're jealous of Jesus. Right? This is a guy who is gathering much bigger crowds to him than they are. He's a threat to their way of life, to their authority, to their position. And so they're jealous of Jesus and they come hoping to trap Jesus, they notice that the disciples of all things don't wash their hands before eating dinner. How many of you force your kids to wash their hands before every meal? It's okay. A lot of you are bad parents just like I am. That's great, that's okay, it's all good. I rarely make my kids wash their hands before dinner. The one time that I usually do is when we go to like the mall or a big store. When they come in from outside, I always say God made dirt and dirt don't hurt. When their hands are all muddy and nasty, you know, that's no big deal. But when you come home from the store and you just got like all that stuff all over, you know, that's the stuff that I worry about. Unfortunately, that makes me a little bit like the Pharisees. It says in this passage that they especially washed their hands after coming back from the marketplace. So they were scared of the germs and stuff they get from other people, namely the Gentiles. So unfortunately, bad for me. I think like that a little bit. But the Pharisees think to themselves, here's our chance to get them. And so they asked Jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Now we're gonna look at Jesus' answer in just a minute, but before we do, we gotta understand the question that the Pharisees are asking. And we're gonna do that by asking two more questions. What are these traditions of the elders that they're talking about. And what do they tell us about how the Pharisees think about the source of contamination? So let's tackle that first question. What are the traditions of the elders? Are they, are they asking about the disciples obedience to the Bible? Is this a Bible command or is it something else? Is it a man-made religious tradition? Well, let's look at the Bible says according to the old Testament, some of the rules about hand washing were for priests. Priests had to wash their hands before going into the tabernacle. If you want to look up some of these passages later, you're welcome to. It's Exodus 30 verse 19, Exodus 40 verse 13, and Leviticus 22 verses 1 through 6. All talk about how the priests have to wash their hands before they go into the tabernacle, the place where God dwelled and where they go in to be with him. The only other passage that talks about the washing of hands is Leviticus 15 verse 11, which does say that anybody has to wash their hands after they've come in contact with a bodily discharge, like blood or something else that came out of the body. Okay, so that's what the Bible says about washing of hands. Those are all the verses. It doesn't say that you have to wash your hands before every meal. Good news for all of us, right? Us bad parents made it through that one. So it's not the Bible that the Pharisees are appealing to is something else. It's the traditions of the elders, man-made religious traditions. Now we'll talk about that more in a minute, but let's talk about the second question of what does this tell us about how the Pharisees think about the source of contamination? The Pharisees invented these traditions, man-made traditions, because of a certain way of thinking, a way of thinking about how somebody becomes unclean, about how somebody becomes dirty, about how somebody becomes not right with God, separated from God, the very problem of the human race. The Pharisees believed that the source of the problem, the source of contamination was not in here, but was out there, somewhere out there. The Pharisees, I would say, are kind of like spiritual germophobes, right? They walked around everywhere with their hand sanitizer and the air purifier and the essential oils and the diffuser and they wouldn't shake anybody's hands and they just said, you know, everybody just kind of stay back, right? I don't want to get near anybody. I don't want to touch anybody. You're sick. I don't want to get near, especially the Gentiles, the outsiders, other people that might get me unclean. Now, in the Old Testament, there were these things called purity laws about how to be ceremonially clean to be able to go into the temple, but the Pharisees misunderstood the point of these laws. They thought the point of these laws were to say that human beings came into this world and they were good, and you just need to keep bad things away from you. But that's actually not the point of the Old Testament purity laws. The point of those laws was actually as a grand visual aid to show that human beings are actually not good, not clean on our own, but in fact we need to be washed in order to be with God. That was the point of the Old Testament purity laws. So the Pharisees read the text, but they came to the wrong conclusion. They believed that the source of contamination was out there, that if they could just keep it away, then they would be good. What they didn't understand, what they failed to realize was that the problem was not out there. The problem was in here. And that's exactly what Jesus goes on to explain and point out to them. He says it most clearly in verses 14 and 15. Take a look with me. And Jesus called the people to him again and said to them, hear me, all of you and understand, there is nothing outside of a person that by going into him can defile him. But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. And if you jump down to verse 21, he gives some examples. He says, for from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come out of a person. So Jesus says, the Pharisees, you entirely missed the point. The real problem is inside of a person. Makes me think of Jeremiah 17, nine, says the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it? The Bible tells us that we have a problem and it's not somebody out there, it's actually in here. Going all the way back to the very beginning of the Bible, human beings are born with a sinful nature. I think at one time, before I was a pastor, during seminary, I was working a job and the guys knew that I was training to become a pastor and so they would ask me sort of tough questions about Christianity sometimes and they'd try to get me and I remember one time, one guy coming to me, and he explained a bad thing that he had done. And he had said, John, I bet you think that that makes me a sinner. And I said something to him that actually kind of startled him. I said, actually, and this is an original to me, you guys have been saying this for a long time, but I said, actually, you're not a sinner because you sin, you sin because you are a sinner. You see, we often get the problem upside down. We think that we come into this world and we're good or we're at least neutral. And then until we do something bad, we're in good shape. And then we do something bad and that gets us messed up. But actually, the Bible tells us that ever since Adam and Eve, ever since our very first parents, they sinned against God and all of their children, which includes are born into this world with a heart that is broken, that is tainted, that is corrupted, that we actually have these two sides of us, a sinful nature and a nature that wants to follow God. The Bible tells us about it in a couple of places. Romans 5, 12 says this, "'Sin came into the world through one man,' that's Adam, "'and death through sin, "'and so death spread to all men.'" Romans 7, verse 21 says this, "'I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, "'evil lies close at hand.'" Doesn't that sound like us? I want to do the right thing, but I also really want to do the wrong thing. Evil lies close at hand, for I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Right, the German folk runs around saying, the problem's out there, I just gotta keep it away, right? I'm just gonna sanitize, I'm gonna purify, I'm gonna do the diffuser, I'm gonna just, you know, just keep it at bay, put up my defenses, keep it away from me. But Jesus says, actually, the real problem is that you have a disease, a cancer growing inside of you. G.K. Chesterton, a famous theologian and writer, back in his day, he got a letter from an editor of a newspaper. The editor had written letters to several famous writers and had asked the question, what is the problem in the world today? G.K. Chesterton wrote back with four words. Dear sir, I am. What is the problem in the world today? I am. The human heart is the problem in the world today. It's not out there somewhere else. The real problem in the world is not somebody else's fault, it's not in somebody else, it's right here. It's me, it's you, it's broken, sinful people. If you've ever looked for a perfect church, you've probably been disappointed. You walk in the door and guess what? If it was a perfect church before you got there, I hate to say it, but once you walked through the door, it became an imperfect church. Right, because it's me, it's you. We are broken, sinful, imperfect people. There's no such thing as a perfect church. There are just collections of sinners, saved by Jesus, trying to follow him. The real problem in your life is not somebody else. It's not your circumstances. It's not where you work. It's not the amount of wealth you have. It's not the family you were born into. It's not the color of your skin. It's not the level of education that you have. It's your heart. You and I come into this world with a heart that is tainted by sin and actually against God. So let me just ask you this question. For what are you blaming? Who in your life are you blaming for your problems? Now I'm not saying that you don't go through tough circumstances. I'm not saying that there aren't other people in this world that are hard on you. But at the end of the day, the root of all of your problems is actually right in the mirror. The root of all of your problems is inside of your own heart. So that leads us to ask the next question. What is the solution? Let's look at both the Pharisees and Jesus' answer to the solution to contamination. All right, so we've already seen about the Pharisees that they believe the source of contamination is out there. And if that's the case, what do they propose as a solution to the contamination? They propose that the solution is a strong defense, right? Fences, walls, keep the contaminants out, outside of there. Rules upon rules. The Pharisees look at God's law and they say, we've got to draw the line even further back so that we don't even get close to that. They want to ensure that they can check all the boxes, make sure they got it all right and all figured out. One type of rule the Pharisees were famous for was their rules about the Sabbath. They had all kinds of rules. You guys know the commandment about the Sabbath is you shall not work on the Sabbath, it's supposed to be a day of rest. The Pharisees said things like, well, that means that you can't walk through a field on the Sabbath because your sandal might clip a grain of wheat and it would fall to the ground and that would be harvesting. And that's work on the Sabbath and you can't do that. They would say things like you can't spit on the ground on the Sabbath day because that would disturb the dirt and that would be like plowing on the Sabbath and that's work and so you can't do that. They would say you can only walk three-fifths of a mile. That's as far as you could walk before it was work. But if you stash some food three-fifths of a mile away, then you could walk to your food and then you could walk another three-fifths of a mile. So they would actually make food stashes so they didn't break these Sabbath laws that they made. Check in those boxes, make sure they get it right. I've never been to Israel but I've been told that actually still today, there are Sabbath elevators in Israel. So when you go in the elevator, you don't have to push the button. It just goes up and it stops on every floor. Now you might be thinking, all right, that's crazy. That's a little absurd, but at least it had good intentions, right? The Pharisees wanted to obey God's law. They just drew some crazy senses around the law Now here's the thing even if it did come from good intentions We are sinful broken people and whenever we stray from God's Word Even with good intentions it lands us in a bad place Jesus is going to point that out to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition. You hear that? Jesus doesn't say, hey, you went too far. Jesus says you actually rejected, violated God's command by your so-called fencing of the law. Verse 10, Moses said, honor your father and your mother. Whoever reviles father and mother must surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father or his mother whatever you would have gained from me is Corbin that is given to God then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother So just to understand what's going on back then kind of like now, but much more so Parents and their older age would depend on their kids, you know today We have some mechanisms like like retirement accounts and things like that so that we can help ourselves out a little bit back then Parents and their older age were really dependent upon their kids to take care of them. Okay, and so the Pharisees said, hey, kids, if you get to that point where you're supposed to be taking care of mom and dad, but you got this nice field, you got this nice house, you got this nice boat, and you don't want to give them up to take care of mom and dad, here's what you can do. This is really holy. You can say, I dedicate this thing to God, which means that you can use it all the way until you die, but when you die, it will go to the temple. And if you do that, if you call it Corbin, dedicated to God, then you don't have to sell it to take care of your parents. Mom and dad have no access to that part of your property. There you go. All taken care of. Perfect. If you want to keep your boat, that's great. You just, you just call it God's. It's God's boat. Quite the, quite the work around religious maneuvering to get around God's intention. You see, the Pharisees may have started with good intentions, but whenever we stray from God's word, we have a sinful tainted heart and it lands us in a bad place that actually violates God's law and not keeps God's law. Now, I think there's another really important point to be made here, and I don't want to skip over this. What the Pharisees did was bad, but that doesn't mean that all rules are bad unfortunately today I've heard people reason this out they said you know the Pharisees they were legalists and the problem was that they followed the rules all rules are bad that's not really how it works unfortunately I think people are throwing out the baby with the bathwater right I think they think that the air of the Pharisees that they tried to follow the Bible's commands they think that the error of the Pharisees is that they tried to take the Bible too seriously. But what does Jesus say? "'If you love me, you will obey my commands.'" Jesus would say, you can't take this book too seriously. The problem isn't that you were trying too hard to follow what God said. The real problem of legalism is not that it takes the Bible too seriously, it's actually that it abuses the Bible. I'll say that's true in at least two ways. Number one, as we saw already, the Pharisees tried to make their own rules. And whenever we try to make our own rules, whenever we stray from God's word because we have sinful broken hearts, it gets us into trouble, even if we have good intentions. So that's the first way, we saw that in the Corbin rule. The second way that legalism abuses the Bible is that legalism tries to use the law to earn salvation. The Pharisees, other people today, even you and I, are tempted to look at God's laws and say, all right, you look at the 10 commandments and you're like, all right, there's 10 boxes. If I can just check these off, then I am a good person. I'm right with God, I'm all set. But you know what, that was not the point of the law. The law shows us God's great and moral character The law does show us God's design for life and how it's best to live But you know what else the law shows us and this is super important the law shows us that we fall short One of the major points of God's law is that you can't do it I can't do it in fact You can't do it. I can't do it. In fact, it shows us that we are unclean and what we need is to be washed. One of the points of God's law is to show us just that, that we are dirty and that we need to be washed, that we need a savior. That's one of the major points of God's law. And that brings us to Jesus' solution to the problem of contamination. Would you look with me at verses 6 through 8? Jesus responds to the Pharisees, he says, he's going to quote the Old Testament, he says, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." Jesus says these rituals, these traditions, these man-made rules, they won't cut it. If outward action is separated from inward heart change, it won't cut it. Outward actions do come out of the heart, but your heart has to change. God wants your heart. We heard earlier that unfortunately the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. So what do we do? What do we need? We actually need a new heart. We need a brand new heart. And praise the Lord, that's exactly what God promises. This is Ezekiel 36, verse 25. God says, I will sprinkle clean water on you. You shall be clean from all your uncleanness. And from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart. And a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh, a heart that's soft, a heart that's been humbled, a heart that knows that it needs the Lord. Friends, the bad news of the law is that you and I can't do it. The bad news of the law is that you and I are contaminated, that the problem's not out there, it's in here. That we have a disease growing inside of us and it's called sin. And that what we need is a new heart. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ, He did live the law perfectly. Jesus Christ, He died the deaths for sin that you and I deserve to die. Jesus shed blood, blood that washes over us. Just as we take a bath and the water washes the dirt off of our skin, Jesus' blood washes the sin out of our heart. When we put our faith in Jesus as Lord and as Savior, we get cleaned. We get saved from our sin. We get made right with God. He solves the problem. We can't solve it ourselves. Only Jesus can solve it. He came and he lived and he died and he rose to give us just that. And that's the invitation he gave that day. It's the invitation that we offer today. That if you come to this place and you find that you can't measure up, that you are dirty, have sin, Jesus offers a cure. The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, but Jesus offers a new heart if you would just receive it by faith in him. This is the good news of the gospel. Amen? Amen. Awesome. Would you please stand This is the good news of the gospel. Amen? Amen. Awesome. Would you please stand with me as we pray and close?

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, July 7, 2024 It Had To Be Said Mark 8:31-38 Take Up Your Cross 2 Overview Main Idea: Jesus' disciples follow the way of the cross, not the way of the world Sermon Outline: 1. Save It vs Lose It (vv34-35) 2. The World vs Your Soul (vv36-37) 3. Shame before God vs Shame before People (v38) 3 Pre-Questions Can you share a moment in your life when you had to make a difficult decision that went against popular opinion or societal norms? What was the outcome? 4 Questions 1. Read Mark 8:31-38. What did Jesus predict about His own future in verse 31? How did this differ from the common expectations of the Messiah at the time? 2. How does Peter’s reaction in verses 32-33 highlight a common misunderstanding about the nature of Jesus’ mission? 3. In what ways does Jesus’ call to “deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me” (v. 34) challenge contemporary values of self-fulfillment and personal success? 4. What does it mean to “gain the whole world but forfeit your soul” (v. 36)? Can you think of examples where this principle is evident in today’s society? 5. Reflect on a time when following Jesus required you to deny yourself or make a sacrifice. How did you respond, and what was the outcome? 6. What are some “crosses” you might be called to bear in your daily life? How can you find strength and encouragement in these challenges? PDF Download

Make Covenant Sermon Series: Take Courage Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: 2 Chronicles 15:8-15 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, Amen. I hope you in the venue and the chapel and online, you said Amen as well. Because I'm very excited about today. I'm excited that we are in the midst of a journey, a spiritual journey, where we as together as a church, coming together around God's Word, seeking His face, following the Spirit to see what He may have for us. We are in the middle, as Pastor John said, we are in the middle of this two-year campaign And we look back on year one we say thank you God for what you've done. It was amazing and Lord we want to see you do even more in year two, and that's why we're pressing into God That's why we are moving forward in faith because we want to see God do something amazing in year two of this two-year campaign So let me ask you this if you want to be a part of expanding God's kingdom if you want to be a part of proclaiming the name of Jesus, would you say amen? Amen. That's what we are about here at Peace Church. And in this halfway mark, we are in the middle of a sermon series, yes, but also spiritual journeys. We study God's word and we seek the Spirit, allowing Him to move in our hearts and our lives. And so, let's get to studying God's word right now. Please open your Bibles to 2 Chronicles, chapter 15. We're going to pick up where we left off last week. If you do want to use the devotionals that were provided, we are excited for you to do that. Go ahead and turn to page 29. In those devotionals you'll find an outline and some fill-ins. Otherwise, page 467 if you want to use the Bibles we've provided. Now as you're turning there, that's your first fill-in. That's your first idea. Here's today's sermon. It's about making covenant, about the covenant with God. So as you turn in there, let's just remind ourselves of the setting Second Chronicles chapter 15 we find ourselves in the year roughly 900 BC. We are located in the southern kingdom known as Judah King Asa. The good king has come to the throne He's been leading for a while. He is coming back to Jerusalem after a massive military victory that didn't look good going in, but they sought the Lord. God provided them victory. King Asa and the army coming back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is waiting there to meet their heroes. They meet and then the prophet Azariah stands up with a very bold, very timely, very important word. Azariah stands up before the king, before the army, before the people. And Ezraiah says, thank you Lord for this victory, but let's continue to press into God. Because it's so easy to forget God when things are going good. And in the kingdom, things were going good. And so Ezariah is like, this is the time to press farther, even more so, into God. And I would say to you, that's a word for us. We look back on year one of this campaign and we raised far more finances than what we thought possible. We've seen God do incredible things. The construction is ahead of schedule. Things are going amazing. It'd be very easy as a people to say, hey, thanks God, you did great. We got it from here into year two. But we're gonna say no. We're gonna continue to bow ourselves before the face of God and ask him to continue to do good work knowing that it is his work and we just get to be a part of it. And so, as a reminder, the devotionals do have spaces for you to fill in if you want to do that. Today's title is Make Covenant. And so, with this, let's open up God's Word, let's read it, and then we'll press in. So would you hear God's Word, 2 Chronicles, Chapter 15, we'll read verses 8 to 15. Would you hear God's word? 2 Chronicles 15:8-15 8 As soon as Asa heard these words, hthe prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded, he took courage and put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from ithe cities that he had taken in jthe hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of the LORD kthat was in front of the vestibule of the house of the LORD. 9 And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, land those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. 10 They were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11 They sacrificed to the LORD on that day mfrom the spoil that they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. 12 And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul, 13 but that whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, oshould be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. 14 They swore an oath to the LORD with a loud voice and with shouting and with trumpets and with horns. 15 And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, pand the LORD gave them rest all around. Amen. This is God's Word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray together. Father God, we thank you for your Holy Word, and we ask that you send your Holy Spirit to help us to know your Word, that we might live out your plan for our lives. And Father, we are thankful, Lord, that we don't stand under the umbrella of the old covenant anymore. We are thankful for the new covenant, the covenant that Christ has ushered in by his life, death, and his resurrection from the dead. And it's in his name that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen. So church, as we walk through this spiritual journey together, as we look at our passage, let me give you one main idea to consider here today, and it's this. In a world turning from Him, God calls us to make covenant with Him. And as we take that truth and we see it throughout the pages of our passage here today, I want to give you three points that we're going to walk through together. Three things, as we talk about in our covenant with God, we are to number one, remove ungodly influence. We are to renew heart-filled faith. And lastly, we'll look at how we are to remember we are gods. Oh, church family, don't ever forget that. You belong, body and soul, in life and death, to your faithful Savior. Don't ever forget that you belong to God. So, first thing we're gonna have some times of extended awkward silence. Just preparing you, just preparing you. Alright, Bible's open, verse 8. So Asa is given a word from God through the prophet Azariah and he responds and Asa responds rightly. Look at verse 8. As soon as Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah, the son of Odad, he took courage, and he put away the detestable idols from the lands. So right there, Asa is laying down the law. He's removing things that are opposed to God. You know what we call this? Cleaning house. Asa is looking at his kingdom, and he's cleaning house. And I don't mean preparing it for HDTV. There are plenty of houses on HDTV that are full of demons. Asa is cleaning house in his kingdom. Remember that, because we're going to come back to this. So Asa, it says he's taken out the idols. Now, idols were those statues and also like little figures that were found throughout the land and in people's homes that were used as objects of worships to fault God. Asa is removing those from the land and from homes. But then look at what it says here. It says, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the Lord. So what's that? So this was this. This was a stand that was made of bronze at the front of the temple where sacrifices were made in offering to God to atone for sins. And the fact that it was broken down just shows how much the house of God was in neglect, but it also shows us symbolically that God's people were in spiritual disarray. They weren't seeking the Lord, they weren't keeping up his house, they weren't making sacrifices, they weren't trying to atone for their sins, they were far from God. And Asa is seeking to correct this. Asa's not just removing the demons from the land, he's preparing the people to worship the true God again. Men in the house, let me speak to you for a moment. Yes, get your family to church, but you also gotta get them right with the Lord, and that starts with you. King Asa stands up and he declares what's gonna happen. He's saying this kingdom is going to be the Lord's. So he clears out the idols and he prepares the people to worship the true God again. Now look at verse nine. It says that, and Asa gathered all Judah and Benjamin. Now just a reminder, if you missed last week, we are in the Southern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom was given the blanket name of Judah, but the Southern Kingdom where Jerusalem was encompassed the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin of the twelve tribes of Israel, but not just Benjamin and Judah. Look what it goes on to say, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Sinai, who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him, to Asa, from Israel. Again, Israel, the blanket name of the northern kingdom Heading to the southern kingdom why? Because God was there and God was doing something amazing So they were leaving a place where God wasn't working because they wanted to be where God was working Says when they saw the Lord their God was with him That's when they went so that the people of the northern kingdom were seeing that God was on the move in the Southern Kingdom, and they rightly said, that's where we want to be. We want to be where God is alive and doing something amazing. And God was moving in the Southern Kingdom because firstly and foremost, because God is good and that's what he decided to do. But also you can say it's because the people were being faithful. And one of the ways, church, hear me on this, one of the ways that we show ourselves to be faithful is that we remove ungodly influence from our lives. So let me give you permission, in this modern day, to do some radical things. Some of us seriously need to consider actually canceling the cell phone. I lived through the 80s and I lived through the 90s. I can tell you, there was a time in human history that we did kind of okay where we didn't have cell phones. Don't make the excuse to say that you need it. I think you're resourceful enough to find a way without it if it is doing nothing but providing ungodly influence. Some of us need to actually cancel the cell phone. Or maybe some of us just simply need to get off social media. Listen, it's driving some of you crazy. And I don't wanna make light of this. It's literally driving you crazy. It's bringing to the point where you're not acting rational anymore because you're being so inundated with all the insanity that's out there. Your psyche wasn't meant to handle that. And it's driving you crazy. Some of you need to actually just get off social media because it is an ungodly influence in your life. Preach, brother. Maybe some of us need to cancel those subscriptions to those channels that are ungodly. Some families need to stop binge-watching TV shows and start playing board games and having conversations as a family again. Asa said, we are removing ungodly influence. That is not happening here anymore. As a king, that's what he did for his kingdom. And as people, as men, maybe we need to start doing that for our homes. If we want to be in covenant with God, that means a true relationship with him, built on his promises that he's made to us, then that means that we are in relationship with him, not with the things of the world. And so like Asa, maybe it's time to clean house, but we can't just clean house. In order to do this, we need to open up our hearts to the Lord again. And so in our covenant with God, we need to renew our heart filled faith, renew heart filled faith. And so let's just make sure we're on the same page here or something, about something. According to the old ways of the Old Testament, we see King Asa lead his people into what was then a massive time of worshipping God, dare I say, a time of revival. Verse 10, look what it says. It says, they were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the 15th year of the reign of Asa. I know you don't know what that means. Here's what it means. It was probably actually October of the year 896 BC. Verse 11, they sacrificed to the Lord on that day from the spoil they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. Now listen to this. This is not just about sacrifice and worship to God. This is about covenant and relationship with God. Look at verse 12. And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all of their heart and with all of their soul. That's beautiful. But then we see verse 13. We see verse 13 and we think to our modern ears, there's a massive disconnect here. Verse 12 is all about seeking the Lord and being in a relationship with Him, and we all said, Amen. We love that. But then we look at verse 13. But that whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. Wait, what? Wait, wait, wait, what? Put to death, young or old, man or woman. Again, we wonder, we wonder, how can they go from loving God in verse 12 to killing people in verse 13? And then what we often do is we put our modern spin on it and we say, how could they go from, how could they go to killing people just because they think differently? Listen, you have to understand what was going on. You have to understand what was happening in the cultures that were at their borders. The religions and the culture that were around them were engaging in true demonic worship, incest, orgies, child sacrifice. And Asa is like, we are not going to tolerate that here. We are not going to let that into this kingdom. We're here to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we will not tolerate those evil practices. We will not allow them to creep in and corrupt the society again. And that, the only way to ensure that was to make sure that every heart that was there was given fully to God. He was leading people into a faithfulness and a pure relationship with God between them and the Lord, because this is what it means to renew a heart-filled faith. Now listen to me, be clear, be students of the Bible Don't listen to what people say read what the Bible says in this covenant that Asa was making God didn't tell them to do that That was part of what Asa was doing here. This was Asa's way of ensuring Religious purity moral clarity and national unity, but don't get ahead Listen, we are now in the New Testament the new covenants Our calling now is no less to seek covenant with God But the new covenant is now not restricted to a piece of land or a particular ethnic group What Jesus has done is open to all who will place their faith in him Amen, because Jesus shows us the more fulfilled in eternal and true and better way to relate to God our dedication now to a pure faith My friends should be all the more powerful because we live on this side of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christ ushered in the new covenant, which again is a deeper, even more personal relationship with our father, which leads to the third thing. In our covenant, we are to remember that we are gods. If you're following along in your, in your devotionals, there's a little misprint here, but this is your, this is your final point. So King Asa leads his people into a renewed covenant and a deepened relationship with God. He's cleaning house, but let's finish our passage looking at verses 14 and 15. Verse 14, they swore an oath to the Lord. I love this. Man, I hope you have your Bibles open around. They swore an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with horns. Let me say that again. Loud voice, shouting, trumpets, horns. They were making a racket. Man, that must have been a beautiful noise too. Loud voice, shouting, trumpets, horns. Notice, it does not say, with every eye closed and with every head bowed, no one looking around. If you would like to give your life to Jesus, would you please just raise your hand? Are you kidding me? This is how you enter into relationship with God, with immense praise and thankfulness, knowing that His work is what He has done for us on our behalf. My friends, we should be making a racket here. I'm not saying we go crazy, but I am saying loud voice, shouting, trumpets, horns. And guess what? No one had to die because look at verse 15. In all Judah, in all of Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with their whole desire, all their heart, their whole desire, and he was found by them, and God was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around. Church, this is how it should be. We seek the Lord, we are reminded that we belong to him, we are reminded that he gets the glory, we are reminded that salvation is his and his alone, and we stand in that truth, and you know what we True, rest, peace, shalom, rest. Isn't that what we're all trying to seek at the end of the day? To go to bed after a good day where we can just rest, where we are at total peace, no need to try to please anyone because our satisfaction is found fully and only in God. That's what He was giving to these people. He was giving them rest. This is the power of a covenant with God. And when we think about this from 900 years ago, we have to wonder, well, what does this mean for us here today? And so I want to close up with some questions for our church family in the midst of this campaign. And here's what I'd say real quick. These are questions for our church family. If you are visiting with us, I'm so, so happy that you are here. But I'm going to give some maybe sharper questions for our church family. Because we're in the midst of a journey together and we want to seek the Lord and we want to make sure that we are undistracted and fully committed to where God is calling us. So, here's the question I want to ask with the time we have left. Is the covenant evidence? Now let's talk about this and let's ask this question not theoretically or philosophically, let's think about this practically and real specifically. Here's the first question. Is the covenant evident in your home, specifically your house? So yes, does your home embody the fact that it is a Christian home? A home where the covenant, again, a relationship with God built on the promises that are made, a relationship with the Almighty, is that made clear in your home? If someone were to walk into your home when you were not there, would they be able to say, this looks like a Christian house, this is clearly a Christian family? Because remember, King Asa removed the idols from the land and from their homes, and he rebuilt the altar of the Lord. So listen, listen to this. This is not just about what is in your home, this is about what is not in your home that you have removed the ungodly influence Yeah, yes by all means have Christian decor have your Bibles on your shelf have a cross on the wall have those beautiful Pinterest verses hanging up by all means do all that But remember what Asa so bravely demonstrates in God's kingdom, you can't have an altar to the Lord alongside idols to false gods. And so Christian homes, you can't have Christian decor in your home alongside ungodly imagery and influence. I need you to consider right now what needs to be removed. Where do you need to clean house? Is your home a place of relationship with the Lord or a place of influence from the world? Maybe it's time for some of you Christian parents or grandparents to clean house. Maybe some of you young adults who are out on your own for the first time need to look at wherever you're living and clean house, not so your house can be featured on HDTV, but so that it can be spiritually clean. So you can call it a holy place. Is the covenant evident in your home? Let's also look at this. Is the covenant evident in your life, specifically your calendar? I'm going to say something and I'm going to let there be an awkward amount of awkward silence so that you can truly listen to the Lord here. I can show you what's important in your life by looking at your family calendar. I drink a whole pot of coffee right now if there's one available. I can show you what's important in your life by looking at what's on your calendar. Is it awkward enough for you? Parents, here's what I need you to consider. If this is true, then what I want you to think is what takes up most of your time, and is that truly what is the most important thing? If it's not, why does it take more time than what's more important? Listen, my friends, more than raising money for a campaign, I want to see families be right with the Lord. I want parents showing their kids what truly matters the most. And the way that families order their lives, the way that most families order their life, when you look at many families' calendars, it simply reveals they are not in a covenantal relationship with God. It reveals that they are over-committed. I'll say that again. The way that most families order their life, when you look at their calendar, it reveals they are not in a covenant relationship with God. It reveals that they are over committed. And so we talk about cleaning house. We're not just saying objects in your house. We're talking about obligations you have on your calendar. Sometimes it's time to cancel what's lesser important so you can have more of what's more important. So what does this mean for a family of faith? A family of faith, a family that says they have faith, but they're putting lesser things above more important things, what it shows that they're probably more cultural in their faith than relational in their faith. And it's no wonder that kids are growing up and this next generation is leaving the faith because they never saw it truly embodied in the home. They were never taught about a living covenant with the living God, where God truly comes first in everything. Because that's what it means to be in alignment with God. Raise your children not in a culturally Christian home, but in a covenantal Christian home. And what that means is that you pray together. You actually use words like the gospel. You talk about what it means to bring God glory. You say these things as a family so that you can show your children what truly comes first. So again, Christian families, I ask you, is the covenant evident in your life, specifically your calendar? And if you think I'm overstepping or stepping on toes, I haven't even started yet. Let's get more personal with this last one. Is the covenant evident in your generosity, specifically your checkbook? This is what we've been talking about in this sermon series and this spiritual journey, that until faith has total influence over your finances, you can't say it has total influence over your entire life. By all means, please be generous with your time and your talent. Go out there, serve, serve in the community, serve at church. Please share the gifts that God has given you with your time and talent. But don't try to say that you're generous with your time as an excuse not to be generous with your finances. If you think volunteering is a replacement for giving financially, let me just say this, you cannot make that argument from scripture. This campaign is a call to everyone who calls Peace Church home to get involved and to donate. Be generous, be faithful, be sacrificial so that this church can continue to stand as a testament to the gospel and for God's kingdom for generations to come. Amen? There are many of us in here who are sitting in a room and sitting on seats that the previous generation paid for and now it's time for you to do the same for the next generation. The last generation said yes to the call of God, now it's our turn. And church, we don't want this to happen if it's not God's will. We don't want this to happen if God isn't the one who provides and presides over it. This cannot happen. We do not want this to happen without God and our faith in Him. And yes, this calls for us to take courage and seek the Lord. That's what this series is all about. A God-given courage from the Holy Spirit because we know what Christ has done for us. And we take faith in Him as we take steps of faith to see that the Holy Spirit is already doing something amazing. And so let me just speak from my heart for just a moment. From my heart to your heart, to enter into sacrificial generosity leads your faith into such deeper levels that you will experience God's goodness in incredible and new ways. And so let me ask you this. If you have felt the goodness of God as a result of being financially faithful, would you say amen? I say amen to that too. The chief way I feel God's goodness is through the gospel. But when God fills me with faith to respond, I see Him move. Asa took a stand and said, in this kingdom, Yahweh is Kona, come first. In this kingdom, we are going to put God first. It's time some of us do that with our lives. Take a stand and say, in my life, God is going to come first. Why? Because in a world turning from Him, God calls us to make covenant with Him. To put God first means that you are in a covenantal relationship with Him based on His terms, not ours. But that new covenant is not like the old. The new covenant is not marked by continual sacrifice of animals on a bronze altar It's now marked by the final and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ on a wooden cross. Amen Amen, Jesus Christ not only died on the cross in our place for our sins so that we could live eternally But he did this so that he could usher in the new covenant Which is his promise kept so that we could be an eternal right relationship with God again, and we are reminded of this gospel every time we celebrate communion Which we're gonna do right now Amen Amen Would you please bow your heads and let's prepare our hearts for communion?

Grace in the Gap Christian Life Stephanie Delger Podcast Host Mom Guilt Podcast Published On: “Hey, Mom, I am starting to feel really sick. Is there any way that you could come and watch the kids for me while I lie down?” I was so thankful to have my mother close by. I felt blessed that she was able to come over and watch the kids while I took a much-needed nap. But at the same time, I felt defeated. Asking another person for help felt wrong, even if it was my own mother. I was already annoyed that I was getting sick and my ‘to-do’ list wasn’t going to get accomplished. I felt guilty, I should have been able to handle it. Other moms who don’t have family close by are forced to continue taking care of their kids while they are sick. It seemed like I was somehow cheating. What started as a head cold quickly turned into the flu. The afternoon childcare quickly turned into an overnight stay at Grandma’s house. I sat down in my abnormally quiet home to catch up on my bible study. I read 2 Corinthians 12:9, “ ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” I stopped. Moments like this really make us wonder if God has a sense of humor. Here I was, sick, exhausted, and needing help watching my own children, and God says that I am supposed to boast in my weakness. Yuck. Toughing it out, getting my ‘to-do’ list accomplished, and keeping up with laundry sounds like something to boast about, not needing help from others! At that moment, I was struck that this wasn’t a coincidence. God coordinated this moment for my good. It wasn’t an accident that I read this verse while sick. What does this verse mean, and how am I supposed to boast in my weakness? God’s grace is sufficient The thing I need most in life isn’t physical health. It isn’t the ability to take care of my kids while I am sick. It isn’t being able to drink my morning coffee out of a mug inscribed with “Super Mom.” It’s not even the ability to make a sourdough starter and keep it alive and well. What I need most in life is God’s grace. I don’t deserve God’s grace. You don’t deserve God’s grace. Grace is a gift, and a gift, by definition, means it cannot be earned. It is freely given. God chooses to love and bestow grace on His people not because of what they have done but simply because He has chosen to do so. I am not more deserving of grace when I am on top of my game, than when I need to reach out and ask others for help. God’s grace isn’t dependent on my actions. His grace is given freely, and it is all I need; it is sufficient. Our identity and worth need to be grounded in the Lord and what He has done. When I am weak, my identity and standing before the Lord doesn’t change. This is because it isn’t based on something that I have done. And if it isn’t based on my merit and actions, it means that my standing before the Lord is secure - regardless of what I have or haven’t done. What we do matters, but our actions should flow from a heart of worship, not from trying to earn favor with God or to impress Him. God’s grace is sufficient. My weakness magnifies God’s strength So often, I try to do things on my own. I want to be strong, to persevere through trials and sickness. I don’t want to let things derail my perfectly planned day. I don’t want to be weak, or even worse, for others to see my weakness! Being weak seems like something to run away from, not something to boast about. Asking for help admits that I don’t have what I need. This goes against our individualistic culture. In our culture, we strive for independence and being able to take care of things ourselves. We are taught to try harder and to do better. To ask others for help is looked down upon. We view self-reliance as a goal to be admired above all others. But this isn’t the gospel. The gospel, at its core, is a cry for help. We are a sinner who cannot save ourselves. We cannot try harder or do more to get into Heaven. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We cannot boast about our salvation because it doesn’t come from us. Our weakness, our inability to save ourselves, must be understood. Only then can we cry out to the Lord to save us? Our weakness magnifies God’s strength. We have the opportunity as moms to magnify Christ in our weaknesses. When we are vulnerable and ask others for help, we are showing them that we have limits. We are finite beings who cannot do all things and be all things. We have limits placed upon us, which sometimes include catching a cold. In these moments, I need to not boast in my strength but rather lay it down at the feet of our Savior. I need to admit that, unlike Him, I need to rest. Unlike God, I need to ask someone else for help. Unlike God, I have limits and need to acknowledge them and live within them. How do we boast in our weaknesses? Boasting in our weakness isn’t posting pictures of our overflowing laundry baskets or sinks full of dirty dishes to social media with the caption #BoastingInWeakness. While I appreciate the attempts to be real and seeing moms strive to debunk the myth that we should be able to do it all and be it all, it doesn’t capture the heart of what God is asking us to do. Boasting in our weakness doesn’t mean that we are prideful when we don’t have our lives all together. It’s the opposite of pride. We shouldn’t be prideful or arrogant in our actions but rather seek to humbly point others to the Lord. We are not promoting laziness or a slothful lifestyle. When we are struggling and need help, we need to ask for it. When we do this, the Bible tells us that we will have the power of Christ resting upon us. This is something I desire, don’t you? God is working in us and through us in our weaknesses. When we try to do things in our own power, in our own strength, we are on display. Others look at our lives and might say, “I want to be like her.” But when we are weak and let others see that, they will say, “I want what she has.” We have the opportunity to tell others about Jesus, their Lord and Savior. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses. More Blogs You'll Like Is Prioritizing Love Un-Christian? What Does The Bible Say? Read More More Than Meets the Eye Discovering God’s Purposes for Motherhood Read More Mom Guilt and How to Fight It Read More

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Stephanie Delger Stephanie is the co-host of Mom Guilt, a podcast on the Resound Podcast Network. She and her husband Jon (host of That's a Good Question) live in Hastings, Michigan, and have four children. Most Recent Content from Stephanie Delger More Than Meets the Eye READ MORE Beyond Bluey Embrace your unique calling as a mother. God chose you for your children, knowing exactly what they needed. Your worth isn't based on comparisons but on God's eternal love and the divine role He has entrusted to you. READ MORE Divine Discipline or Unfair Treatment? READ MORE Redefining Helpmate In Marriage We can hear God’s design in the Bible, and yet when it comes time to work itself out in our lives, we think that there must have been some mistake and perhaps we misunderstood or read something wrong... READ MORE Mom Guilt and How to Fight It READ MORE When Mother’s Day Hurts Encouragement for those who face Mother’s Day with a heavy heart, offering a message of resilience and hope. READ MORE Saved From What? READ MORE Bearing the Burden and Beauty Our job was and is, to be like a mirror. The job of a mirror is not to draw attention to itself, but to reflect an image. Just like a mirror, our job as human beings is not to call attention to ourselves, but rather to reflect... READ MORE Nurturing Faith We will fail. We will mess up. But we are still asked to continue discipling our children. There will be times when our children ask questions that we don’t know the answer to. In these moments, we can pause and tell our children READ MORE Grace in the Gap READ MORE Baking Up Easter Joy READ MORE From Ketchup Stains to Salvation Does what I do really matter? How can picking up Cheerios off the floor for the third time today really make a difference in eternity? Being the mother to my four children is one of the best, hardest, and... READ MORE

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Justice For The Fatherless Sermon Series: From Womb To Tomb Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Psalm 82 Transcript The call to stand for life is one of the great calls upon the church for all time, but especially in our day. With that I say welcome to the second half of our two-part sermon series, From Womb to Tomb, as we look at what it means to be pro-life. And before we move on, I must remind us that this is the last online message before we get to meet in person for the first time in our new worship center. Who's excited? Yeah. I couldn't be more excited. But right now, let me start with these words. Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And can I get an amen? Amen. Today is not just the day that the Lord has made. This is also Sanctity of Life Sunday, a day where churches and people who love life pause and recognize that all people, born and unborn, people who are part of your religion or not, people who are part of your ethnicity or not, that all people are made in the image of God, making all human life a sacred thing. And so we do value life, from fertilization to our final breath, from womb to tomb. And that's our call. That's what it means to be pro-life. Last week we looked at our great call to care for our widows. And so on the Sanctity of Life Sunday, we're going to talk about what it means to bring justice into the conversation for what it means to care for the most defenseless among us, the fatherless, the orphans, and specifically today, the unborn and the issue of abortion. So please, in your Bibles, would you please turn to the 82nd Psalm as we look at justice for the fatherless Now Psalm 82 is unlike any other song the Psalms are songs for sure But Psalm 82 at just eight verses long is not a song of praise a sense Thanksgiving or laments It's not speaking to God. It's mostly God himself speaking and as you're going to see in a moment, it is also one of the most confusing, confounding settings of any passage in the Bible. Again, we'll discuss that in a moment. But if there is a theme to this psalm, it most certainly is one of judgment, but more than that, justice. And so, without further ado, would you hear God's word, the 80-second psalm. Psalm. God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah. Give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, you are gods, sons of the most high, all of you. Nevertheless, like men you shall die and fall like any prince. Arise, oh God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit the nations. Amen. This is God's word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father, we need your help this morning. As you call us to stand for the defenseless, for the weak and for the needy, we need your grace, truth, and your spirit as we seek to be people who uphold the value of life from womb to tomb. And we pray this in the name of Him who was also born of a woman, in the name of Jesus, amen and amen. So we are to be pro-life from womb to tomb. And I think a beautiful way that the Bible helps us to think about this is in the Bible's numerous calls to care for the widows and the orphans. Let me remind you of our main idea from last week as we looked at this. Last week we talked about how our main idea is that God's people are to share God's heart to care for those who can't care for themselves. And today on Sanctity of Life Sunday we're going to complement this thought by looking at this one main idea. That God's people are to share God's heart to give justice for those who can't defend themselves. And as we consider God's judging in true justice we're going to see three things from our passage and we're gonna start with this one, as we consider God the God of justice. And this first one is this, that God is the supreme judge. Now, before we talk about the cultural debate surrounding abortion, let's talk about the God overall, the supreme judge. But as we get into our Psalm here, we have to ask what is verse one even talking about? Let's read it again. Psalm 82, verse one, says this. Says, God has taken his place in the divine counsel. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. So what is the divine counsel and what does the scripture mean about in the midst of the gods? So there is so much more than what can be said for our purposes here today. But briefly, here's our options as we consider this. The Bible's either talking about the divine counsel as a group of spiritual and or angelic beings which God presides over, hence the lowercase g, gods, lesser gods, other spiritual beings who are under God's command. That's maybe an option here. And when we look at incredible scenes from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Job and Revelation, this certainly makes it plausible if it's even a fantastic notion or the divine counsel here is a poetic way to talk about the human rulers of the world National leaders may be from Israel or the surrounding nations who God's given authority But did not uphold that call to maintain justice Or maybe God is speaking to all of his people to all the Israelites Meaning that lowercase g gods referred to the fact that God's people were meant to be his agents on this planet But they fail to uphold God's justice on earth. And so God is going to bring judgments. But wait, you may say, if you've read your New Testament, doesn't Jesus quote this song? Does that shed light on this? He certainly does. In John chapter 10, we see Jesus say the epic line, I and the father are one. This was a clear claim to be God and so the Jewish leaders they pick up stones to immediately kill him for blasphemy but Jesus he goes on to defend himself by quoting this song by quoting Psalm 82 and John 10 34 to 36 here's what happens Jesus answered them and said is it not written in your law I said you are gods and then he goes on to say, If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him who the Father sent into the world, you are blaspheming? Because I said, I am the Son of God? Now listen, there's a lot to unpack right there. But what's important to know for right now, is that it appears that Jesus is assuming that Psalm 82 is written to human people. Which leads many people to think that Psalm 82 is about God judging human authorities for their lack of ensuring justice for all. Clear as mud, right? Again, there's a lot, there's much to unpack here. I know this is confusing. So what's, what's the simple answer, Pastor Ryan? Well, what I'd say for us right now is that I think we have to step back and consider if we are asking a question the Bible isn't seeking to answer. Are we looking for details to the detriment of actually missing the actual point? It's not, is it not that the larger idea that whoever the divine counsel is, isn't the point here that God is the Supreme judge who wants to see justice prevail over the earth? Because that's where I ultimately land, at least for our purposes today. Maybe I'll join Pastor John for that's a good question We can talk more about this because it's a fun discussion but ultimately where I land here is that the notion the emphasis here is that God wants justice upon the earth and He is given his people the responsibility to be his agents to see this justice enacted on the planets Why because God is good and that's the second thing that we see first God is the supreme judge, but we also see that God is the righteous judge. So in verse one, we see God assert his authority over all. And then we see God himself speak. Verse two, how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? So here in verse two, for you Bible students, we see here that God gives the thesis statement for his concern that he wants justice on the planet. But in the next verse, in the next verses, God lays out specific directions for this because what ends up happening is that people hijack justice. They hijack the word justice and we want to apply it in our human way. God certainly wants justice but he wants it done his way and so he's going to detail for us what he means by justice. Verse 3, give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. So God wants justice, and listen to me, that's not just a cultural buzzword. Justice is a true biblical word, and Christians should be champions of justice. When people are exploited, it's unjust. When orphans are not taken care of, it's unjust. When orphans are not taken care of, it's unjust. And we're not just to take care of them. The Bible says here to rescue them. Verse four. Verse four says, rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. And right there we see God draw a line in the sand that those who commit unjust acts are wicked. And the Bible says this about them verse 5 says that they have neither knowledge nor understanding they walk about in darkness all the foundations of the earth are shaken meaning they have no moral grounding they are immoral they have no sense of right and wrong but God doesn't just judge the wicked we like when God judges the wicked but he doesn't just do that God also He also judges those who do not uphold justice. Yikes. God says to them in verses six and seven, he said, I said you are gods, sons of the most high, all of you, nevertheless, like men, you shall die and fall like any prince. God is saying, I gave you authority, mission and an identity, but you failed. And so you will fall from your special place that I've given you. And so we must ask ourselves here and now in our day, are we guilty of the same? Have we violated, verse 3, have we denied justice to the weak and to the fatherless? A child in the womb is most certainly weak, and in a sense, it's fatherless, for a father has no rights as to whether or not a woman decides to have an abortion. Our culture has said it's her choice. Listen to me. I love our freedoms in America. I am thankful for those who fought and died to maintain them. We should continue to fight to maintain them. But I have to wonder at times if our freedoms have blinded us to what is ultimately right before God. In our desperation to give women the right to an abortion, have we thus denied children the right to be born? This is the moral dilemma of our time. This is the moral dilemma. Is it an injustice to deny women the right to an abortion or is it an injustice to deny children the right to be born. Our new president, who starts in January, has not taken a true stance on this. His mantra is to throw it back to the states. If we're going to end abortion, the abortions that happen every day, if we're going to bring justice to the weak, to the fatherless and to the unborn, it will not ultimately be through laws. For the justice that we, the church, are to bring isn't something that can only be enforced by the police, by judges, or by the courts. We are to bring and model a greater justice in the world. So hear me on this. The longer that the discussion around abortion centers around laws and access to abortion and women's rights, the longer and the more bitter it will become. This conversation needs to shift from what is lawful to what is loving. Hear me on this. Yes, changing laws will help save the unborn, but changing hearts is how we end abortion. I want to live in a world where if life is an option, then life is always the choice. Because this is right. This is good. And because of the last thing that we see in Psalm 82, and it's this, that God is the final judge. This last verse of Psalm 82 is a dangerous cry. Verse 8, Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations. I don't want God to judge the earth. The US has around 1 million abortions a year. And the state of Michigan accounts for almost 30,000 of those, roughly 30,000 of those. God will not see this as a victorious display of women's rights. He'll see it for what it is, the unjust and innocent death of the unborn, infants who are placed upon the altar of our own rights and ambitions offered in sacrifice of the pursuit of our own self-fulfillment. God will judge those who take innocent life. The Bible says here that God shall inherit the nations because we see this in scripture that the earth is the Lord's and it's his to judge but listen it's not the Father who judges the earth it's the Son. I think sometimes we forget this Jesus Christ is the judge and he will judge with all righteousness for Jesus Christ himself says John chapter 5 verse 22, He says this, For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. I thought Jesus was the all-loving guy. Well, He is. But He's also the righteous judge. God the Father has entrusted the judgment to the Son, to Christ, for it is Him that we will stand before. And Jesus himself says on that day that he will separate people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. It's Christ that will stand before at the end of days. Abortion is a grievous injustice. It's the mutilation and destruction of those who are the weakest. And God will judge the unjust nations that not only allow this, but who celebrate it and champion abortion. My friends, and He'll also judge those who He sent to be His agents of justice, but failed to do so. For those of us who fail to stand for and uphold God's justice, God will bring judgment. The world is wicked, and we have failed, and woe is us. But, but thanks be to God that the gospel does not end with our condemnation, for there is yet hope for all of us. There is hope for all of us, those who have had abortions and those who fail to stand against it, those who are silent in the face of it. For Jesus continues in this very same passage, the very next line, Jesus says this, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word "'and believes him who sent me has eternal life. "'He does not come into judgment, "'but has passed from death to life. "'There is hope, and that hope is Jesus Christ and Him alone. Because of the life, death and resurrection of our Savior, our sins can be atoned for. Our destiny is not lost to the fires of judgment. We can believe in Jesus, all of us, and have eternal life, for His blood covers any and all blood that we've spilt. All the injustice that we've committed in Christ, we see that His grace is greater than all of our sin. Christ saved us when we couldn't save ourselves. And now we are called to be part of God's gospel work in this world, which means spreading His message of love and forgiveness and working towards His justice on earth, because, because God's people are to share God's heart to give justice for those who can't defend themselves. Amen? Amen. Amen. Let's pray.

A Psalm of Solomon Sermon Series: Honest To Goodness Logan Bailey Family Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Psalm 127 Transcript If we have not met yet, my name is Logan Bailey. I am the student pastor here at Peace Church. I oversee our student ministries. I am also the pastor over our young adult ministry and friends at Peace. It is an honor to be with you this morning to read God's word and give this morning's sermon on Psalm 127. Before we get into the message, though, I have a quick announcement. On July 8th, 2023 at 210 in the afternoon in Hastings, Michigan, after nine months of pregnancy and almost two days of labor, my wife and I met our son, Hezekiah James Bailey. If you were on the church prayer chain, then you already knew that because on July 8th, a prayer request went out asking this church to pray for a baby who wasn't breathing. So thank you for your prayers. His name is Hezekiah. We call him Kiah. Kiah had incredible nurses at Helen DeVos in Grand Rapids. We had incredible medical staff at Pennock in Hastings, and we had an incredible prayer team through the brothers and sisters of this church. So thank you for your prayers. This morning, I have the honor of not only preaching my first sermon as a new pastor, but preaching my first sermon as a new dad. Today's sermon is on Psalm 127. We're going to ask three questions. First, we'll look at verses 1 and 2 for the main idea of the psalm. What is this psalm saying? Second, we'll try to make sense of the rest of the psalm. Why does the psalm mention children? This is a very famous psalm for mentioning children, but why does it mention children when children have nothing to do with verses one and two? And then lastly, I hope that we will all ask ourselves what God wants us to do in response to this message. In both my job and now as a father, I feel the heavy weight of responsibility. Responsibility always comes with accountability. I will need to give an account for what I have done and how I have done it and whatever responsibilities you have you will need to give an account as well for the things that you did or didn't do and so we all worry if we're doing enough. That means we all know very well, anxiety. We are all anxious. We don't like that we're anxious, but yet we all keep coming back to anxiety. Anxiety is the heavy, sinking feeling that maybe everything we do is worthless in the end. We worry that the things we do are in vain. If something is in vain, that means it's worthless, it's empty, it means nothing. We worry that the things we do ultimately are in vain, and the things that we care about are important things. And yet, the deeper we care about something, actually the worse our fears and anxieties become. I am not here to tell you that all of our fears are unjustified, because that would be a lie. Jesus doesn't do that. I'm not going to do that. Some of our fears are substantiated. And when the storm is real, Jesus never says to ignore the storm. So I am not here to tell you to ignore your storm because there is a storm that's very real in all of our lives. Our anxiety makes us think that our efforts aren't enough. And the Bible says they aren't. We all have a lot of responsibility in life and we worry if what we accomplish will be enough for our finances, for our stability, for our legacy, for our marriages, for our family, for our health. The Bible enters this conversation and says at the end of the day all of your hard work, everything you do for your family, for your marriage, for your career, for your eternity is worthless. That's what today's passage says. So welcome to Peace Church. We are just being honest this morning, honest to goodness. In this series we're giving each pastor a chance to preach a different psalm by a different biblical author. And this morning we are looking at Psalm 127. Psalm 127 is going to be brutally honest about our fears and anxieties. But please keep leaning in because God does have more to say about our anxieties. As we jump in I want to point out that I think Psalm 127 is the perfect Psalm for me to preach this morning. Not just because it's only five verses and the other pastors had like over 80. But at our wedding we sang a song that quotes Psalm 127. All glory be to Christ by King Scaliatoscope. It opens with, should nothing of our efforts stand, no legacy survive, unless the Lord does raise the house in vain its builders strive. Not only that, but also given I'm a new father, this psalm is a very famous one for how it mentions children, but the Lord actually put an exclamation point on this psalm for us because while my son was being born, the song that was playing quoted Psalm 127. On a playlist 11 hours long and on shuffle. The song that happened to be playing when Hezekiah was born was a song that opens with Psalm 127. It's called Establish the Work of Our Hands by the Porter's Gate. And it says, If you don't build it, we labor in vain. Without your spirit, we stand with no strength. I know my life is passing away, but the works of your hands are what will remain. Let the favor of the Lord rest upon us So as we read Psalm 127 this morning I Pray that we will all remember that Jesus says if you abide in my word You will know the truth and the truth will set you free Psalm 127 1 through 5 Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb of reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. Let's pray. Father, thank you for guiding our time this morning. Jesus, we pray that you soften our hearts, you soften our minds, and Holy Spirit, we pray that you speak through your word. In your name we pray, amen. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Our provision is in vain. This verse mentions building and labor, and so I immediately think of the man who has a reason to build, to provide a shelter, to provide a home. I think of the man who labors to provide food for his family, to provide for those he loves. Build, labor, provide, provision. We attempt it all in vain. This verse says, unless the Lord builds the house, but it is silent on whether or not he does. We all labor. Most of us have jobs. Most of us have projects that we care about. We all strive towards something, whether we physically sweat or not, we all strive forward for some purpose. And so we all know what it means to labor in an attempt to provide for something. We labor as mothers, we labor as fathers, we labor as friends, sons, daughters, students, players, coaches, mentors. Our labors, our provision in the end, the Bible says, is in vain. Those who build it, labor in vain. This verse also says our protection is in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. So here we see the idea of watching. This word watchman is a biblical role that had a particular responsibility for protection. The protection always took a different form at different times, but a watchman was always responsible for protection. Some biblical roles are really weird and hard to explain. This one is super self-explanatory. A watchman is a man who watches. Watch for the enemies coming. Watch for friends coming. A city would have someone at the gate watching. A guard tower would have someone in the tower watching. A field might have someone around the perimeter watching. A simple job but a taxing one because you can't fall asleep. You can't be distracted, you have to be alert, and if you don't do your job, everyone knows. Physical watchmen would have a very important part to play in protecting everyone, but here's where it gets interesting, because the Bible also has spiritual watchmen in Scripture. There are prophets in the Old Testament, they were watchmen for the people, spiritual watchmen. Ezekiel 33, seven, for example, mentions prophets as watchmen, they would stand at the gate and they would watch God's people and then God would speak through them in response to what they watched, sin or disobedience or repentance. So the role of a watchman was to be on constant lookout in order to protect people. So it's not hard to see what modern day watchmen are. We have parents who watch their patients and the tests of their patients diligently in order to give a proper diagnosis. Even something as simple as a lifeguard constantly watching the water. And for us in this room, the watchmen of our church are our church leaders. Hebrews 13, 17 says, and submit to them for they are keeping watch over your souls. But lastly, the Bible encourages us each to be the watchman over our very own lives. To look at your life and be vigilant. The role of a watchman at every level is necessary for protection. Watch, protect. But note the final word of this verse. The watchman stays awake in vain. How many times have you been the watchman over your own life and yet you fall asleep on the job and sinful desires come in and take over without you on the lookout? How many of us have been the watchman over our own lives and yet we fall asleep on the job and we, as Paul says in Romans 7, 15, we do not do what we want, but we do the very thing we hate We are no match for the powers of sin and temptation the Watchman fails the enemy enters the city the Watchman stays awake in vain our Attempts at protection are in the end in vain. It is in vain in vain. That you rise up early, that you go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil. All of our work is in vain. It is in vain. All of our efforts, building, providing, watching, protecting, rising up early, going to bed late, striving forward for the things we care about, working and working and working with the anxiety that we all know, terrified that everything we Everything we do will amount to nothing, and the Bible says it is in vain. Your suffering, your pain, your passions, your accomplishments, your best efforts for your family, for your friends, for your career. Scripture says all of our work is in vain. Unless. Unless the Lord builds the house. Unless the Lord watches over the city. Unless the Lord gives sleep to His beloved. So even our best efforts amount to nothing, save one thing, if God gives sleep to His beloved. And the good news this morning is God does give sleep to his beloved. We can rest knowing that God is also at work. We can rest because he gives to his beloved sleep. The sleep that God gives to those he loves is the restful assurance that is only possible through divine hands. Rest, assurance. The work of our own hands will always amount to dust, but divine hands can reach into eternity. This message is the calm whisper that says, God is at work. He is laboring, He is building, He is protecting. He does not ever sleep. He is always working. He doesn't let any moment go to waste. Rest assured, the Lord is at work. Rest assured. Even when your efforts fail, you can have assurance. The Lord is always working for the good of those who love Him, even through our failures and our sufferings. That's what Romans 8, 28 tells us. He works all things together for the good of those who love Him. So, we can either strive forward with anxious vanity or restful assurance. Vanity and anxiety versus rest and assurance. Anxiety makes a lot of sense unless the Lord is at work. And since God is at work, strive forward with assurance. Since God is at work, our work doesn't have to be in vain. We can have blessed assurance. If you're familiar at all with wisdom literature in the Bible, so what the Bible has to say about wisdom, biblical wisdom, then this core dilemma should sound familiar to you, because this is a question of biblical wisdom. Do we live in anxiety, living on our own power, relying on the results we create, or do we live in assurance, trusting God to be faithful to His promises in the end? This is the question of biblical wisdom. This entire psalm is actually a psalm of wisdom. Who wrote this psalm? Solomon. Solomon is known for his insight into biblical wisdom. So in order to truly understand what this psalm is saying, we need to understand the basics of what the Bible says about wisdom. So I want to point out two things, two very important things in regards to biblical wisdom. First, the Bible says in many places, the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. What does that mean? And there are a lot of opinions on what it means to fear God, but Jesus says it best. In Matthew 10, 28, he says, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Jesus says, be afraid of the one who can damn your soul. We stand before an all-powerful God, and we should stop trying to sugarcoat that or soften it. That is terrifying. We are in an entirely different category than God. God is holy. We are not. That isn't a small issue. That is the most important issue for all of humanity. We are, in our sinfulness, enemies to a holy God. So if you have an ounce of wisdom, you would fear God more than all of your other fears combined. And you would give everything to avoid God's anger. So if you don't take God seriously, you don't take your life seriously. The first step of wisdom is to fear the all-powerful God. To be concerned about his opinion of you. But the Bible does not stop there when it talks about wisdom. Wisdom says we should fear God because it is true that He is all-powerful, but wisdom also says that we are loved by that same God. Psalm 127 calls us beloved. We are the beloved of God. So the Almighty is looking at us with the intention to bless us. Wisdom says God is almighty and God is love. That means that he has promised to bless our work according to his eternal purposes. If you are in Christ, you can rest knowing that the almighty is after your good. So we can either strive forward in anxious vanity, not thinking about God and His work, or we can strive forward in restful assurance and wisdom, knowing that the Almighty has promised to bless us. The good news this morning is that we can have assurance. The all-powerful God calls us His beloved children. It's not just, it's not, we cannot see ourselves as the one in control. It's not just us putting in effort. God is also at work to bless us and bless our work according to his eternal purposes. So we can either strive forward in anxious vanity or restful assurance. That is what this Psalm is saying. That's the main idea. So it's curious why this Psalm then seems to make a strange change in topic and starts talking about children. What do children have anything to do with verses 1 and 2? Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward, like arrows in the hand of a warrior, are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. So children are talked about here as a great thing. Fine-crafted arrows. Children make life better. Better for the warrior, better for the young parent, better for the mature parent. Children are a net positive. But what do children have to do with verses 1 and 2? It can feel a little strange to be talking about assurance and anxiety and wisdom and then switch to children. But this is not strange at all. It is actually a perfect example of what this psalm is talking about. The gift of children is a prime example of the Lord's blessing. As a new parent, I'm beginning to see this very clearly and how deeply true this is, that children are a gift from the Lord. And this applies to the kids in your family, but also the kids in our entire faith family, the covenant children of this community. Our church is blessed by the kids in our kids ministry. Our church is blessed by the students in our student ministry. And so no matter what your circumstances in regards to kids, we all experience that blessing that kids are, that the Lord has blessed his people. And children are a prime example of that blessing, of his building, of his watching, of his provision, of his protection. And this creates an interesting situation for us because how are we going to respond to that blessing? How we respond to the gift of children is a prime case study of choosing anxiety or choosing assurance. As parents, we have a massive responsibility, we have an unquantifiable love, and yet we have no power. We can never force our children to be exactly who we want them to be. It's their lives, their struggles, their choices. So how will we respond? This is the prime case study of choosing anxiety or choosing assurance. Trusting our own efforts or trusting in the Lord's providence. I'm not saying it all work out the way you want it to. It almost certainly will not. I'm saying that God is working all things according to his eternal purposes. And since he, the Almighty, loves us, we can close our eyes at night and leave the heavy lifting to him. Rest in the blessed assurance of his love. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I and my Savior am happy and blessed, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love. We can rest knowing that God is also at work, so we can either strive forward in anxious vanity or restful assurance. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, because he gives to his beloved sleep. God is saying that ultimately the success is on his shoulders and that should feel like a relief because we know we can't handle the weight of it all but he can and he has promised to. Wisdom is resting in that truth. As Jesus says in 15.5, apart from me you can do nothing. If you are in Christ, rest assured, you're not apart from Christ. And He does do the heavy lifting. And if you are not following Christ, please take a moment to consider the eternal weight of your anxious toil. Jesus can give you rest. Church, we can rest knowing that God is also at work. We must not see ourselves as the one in control. Jesus is a better builder. The Holy Spirit is a better protector. And for all of those other anxious fathers out there, the Heavenly Father is a better father. The results of our efforts are on His shoulders because He has promised to do the heavy lifting according to His eternal purposes. As a father, I have a whole new way of viewing the world. I have a whole new set of responsibilities, which means a whole new list of reasons to be anxious. The role of a father is to provide and protect. My anxiety of whether I can is very real. Building the house, watching the city, provision, protection, things that a father wants to bring his family, things a father must do, things a father is going to be held accountable for. And as a father, I was powerless when I sat in a hospital chair next to my exhausted wife and we were told that an ambulance was on the way to take our son. As a father, my fears were becoming true. When the ambulance was going north through Middleville, some of our friends heard it go by, and our community group sent us a text during it all and said, Kaia has never left God's hands in the last nine months, and he won't today either. Kaia has never left God's hands in the last nine months, and he won't today either. That meant the world to me. Not because it was a sweet sentiment, but because it was true. Two days, after two days in recovery, my wife was able to be discharged and could come and see him. And then shortly after that, Kaia was discharged from the NICU. We were headed home. We had felt like we were awake for four days in the whirlwind. The whole experience was incredibly sobering and not at all what I assumed would happen, which I know is very relatable. But the thing that I have been stuck on more than anything else is the fact that we could have lost him sooner than we ever could have prepared for and that that is still true. It is true for all of us and all of our children. The anxiety we have for our kids are real, but it is more real and true that none of us or our covenant children are outside the divine hands of a heavenly Father. I am not saying I understand all that God does or how More true than our fears, that we all can have assurance. God is working. God is working. And the best thing for us to do, especially in the midst of our powerlessness, is to trust in him to provide and protect, most importantly of all, to provide for and protect the eternal life he has promised us in Christ Jesus. He does not say to have assurance so long as things are going the way you think they should. He actually confirms our fears and says the storm is real, you are not enough, but He also says I am enough. Our assurance is dependent on Him and His eternal promises, not our anxious toil. In Matthew 11, 28, Jesus says, "'Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, "'and I will give you rest.'" Jesus is saying, you labor anxiously, eating the bread of anxious toil, but I want to give you rest. Keep building, keep watching, keep working, but rest assured, when you're working, so am I. And my work is never in vain. The message for us today is this, rest. Rest, knowing that the Lord is working. We know assurance when and only when we know that our hope is in Christ. That is restful assurance. That is blessed assurance, knowing that our hope isn't in ourselves, but totally in Christ. And he wastes nothing, not our failures, not our sufferings, not even our weakest moments. He gives to his beloved sleep. He builds the house. He watches the city. Do not eat bread of anxious toil, but eat the bread of life. Live in light of the hope of God's promises and above all, the promise of eternal life in Jesus Christ. If God is involved, which he is, we can have assurance that our work will never be in vain, but will be used by God for his eternal purposes. So, we can either strive forward in anxious vanity, not thinking about or relying on God and his work like a fool, or we can strive forward in restful assurance knowing that the Almighty is at work on behalf of his beloved. So what does this mean for you today? Ask yourself what is the Holy Spirit wanting you to do with this message in your life? Maybe God is encouraging you. He's encouraging you to see his purposes in your life more clearly, encouraging you to pray more purposefully, encouraging you to lean deeper into family devotions and meaningful conversations as a family, or to stop letting you have a bad habit get in the way of where he is leading you. Maybe he's challenging you and challenging your restlessness, challenging you to slow down, especially as summer comes to a close, our calendars get more full, school starts back up, to stop filling your calendar with so much of the wrong things and to start taking your Christian life more seriously. As 1 Corinthians 15, 58 says, this has become one of my favorite verses if you're taking notes, please write it down 1 Corinthians 1558 It says be steadfast Immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord Knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain Peace church your labor is not in vain. In the Lord, your labor is not in vain. Rest in that blessed assurance. Let's pray. Father, thank you for inviting us to this restful assurance, knowing that our hands, the work of our hands will always turn to dust, but the work of your hands can reach into eternity. Father, you are calling us to this for your glory and our joy. Jesus, you are the way, the truth and the life. And so we look to you for assurance and for rest, knowing that we're not the only one's working, but God, when we work, even in our failures and our sufferings, Father, you are also at work and in the Lord, our labor is not in vain. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Transcribed with Cockatoo