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A Faith That Is Passed On Sermon Series: A Faith that Endures Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: 2 Kings 2:9-15 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, amen and amen. One thing I can tell you about growing up in the 80s and the 90s like I did, was that we had the best music back then. Unlike this junk, they're producing today. And we had the best movies. So when you have a time when you have the best music and the best movies, put them together and you get the best soundtracks too. Now I know some of you are going to be like, what about The Greatest Showman? Yeah, well what about Young Guns Part 2? Young Guns Part 2, you guys know that movie, that old western, I guess it's old, from the 1990s, about Billy the Kid? John Bon Jovi wrote the soundtrack to it and had that awesome song, Blaze of Glory. I tell you what, as a middle school kid, my life's dream was to go out in a blaze of glory. You know that song, I'm going out in a blaze of glory, take me now but know the truth, I'm going down in a blaze of glory. I remember singing that song as a middle schooler thinking that when my time comes, I want to go out in a blaze of glory, don't think about outlaws dying in a gunfight. I'm going to point you to the prophet Elijah. That man went out in the greatest blaze of glory I think is probably imaginable. And today we're going to close up a series looking at that prophet, the prophet Elijah. He had one of the most dramatic endings of all time. But I'm going to tell you today, I think part of what makes his ending so amazing is not just that he went out, as we'll see, in a blaze of glory, but what happens afterward. So let's take a moment, let's read about it. Would you please turn to 2 Kings, chapter 2? We're going to look at verses 9 to 15 today. We are closing up a series, we've seen Elijah's faith endure so much, and that's really what we've been looking at. How do we have a faith that endures? When it seems like the world is going in such the wrong direction, how do we have faith that endures? We've been looking at Elijah for a case study on how to do this. We see Elijah's faith lasted through drought, years in exile, his life is threatened, and his feeling desperately alone in this world. We see Elijah take a courageous stand in front of the nation and in front of his enemies. His life lasted through wicked kings who hated him. And what we're gonna see is that even though his life here on this planet may have ended, his faith did not. Elijah's faith and mission didn't end with him going to heaven. It was passed on to his disciple, Elisha. Because a faith that endures doesn't just last our entire life. Hear me on this. This is the great left hook of this entire series. A faith that endures isn't just a faith that lasts your entire life. It's a faith that is passed on to the next generation. That's a faith that endures. And I tell you what, Elisha shows us how to do this. He trains up Elisha. And we see for years he pours into this man. And when it comes time for Elijah to be taken away, he knows this is gonna happen. And so as they're walking together, he tries to leave Elisha behind, but Elisha won't leave his side. And that's just a great testament between a teacher and his disciple. Just that love that was there. Elisha would not leave Elijah's side. And so they walked together. And it's about time for Elijah to leave. And we're going to pick up our story right after they both crossed the Jordan River together. And so, with that, would you hear the word of the Lord? 2 Kings chapter 2, verses 9 to 15. When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, ask what I shall do for you before I'm taken from you. And Elisha said, please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. And he said, you have asked a hard thing. Yet if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if you do not see me, it shall not be so. And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it and he cried, My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. And he saw him no more. Then Elisha, then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and he struck the water saying where is the Lord the God of Elijah? and when he had struck the water the water was parted to the one side and to the other and Elisha went over Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha. Amen. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Amen. Let's pray. We'll continue. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, Lord, you are the most high and you are the most faithful. You are faithful to us even as our faith wanes. And so we look to you, we look to you for our hope and our salvation. We do not and cannot look to ourselves, but we look to you, our great God, our faithful Savior, our comforting spirit. Would you help us here and now by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit to hear the truth of these words, the truth of your scriptures, that they would not just encourage us, but shape us and mold us into the image of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray these things. And all God's people said, amen and amen. So Elijah had a faith that not just endured his life, his entire life, but it was passed on. And in this blaze of glory, we see the faith passed on. And for me, that's what helps make it a blaze of glory. And as we get going, here's the main point for us here this morning. A faith that endures is a faith that is passed on to the next generation. Again, that's been the whole lens for this series, how do we have a faith that endures in a world of such opposition? And the last thing we're going to learn is that a faith that endures is a faith that's passed on to the next generation. So already, you faithful Christians in the house, you need to be thinking, who from the next generation are you pouring into? Who from the next generation are you passing the torch to that their faith might blossom and your faith might endure? A faith that endures is a faith that's passed on to or we could put it like this, if your faith dies with you, can we really say it's a faith that endures? So as we look at our passage today, we're gonna pick up three things from the prophet Elijah, three things that he shows us about passing on the faith. To pass on the faith to the next generation, Elijah models that we must show them a faith that they want more of. Show the next generation a faith that they want more of Teach them a faith that relies on God for the answers, We must leave them a faith that the Spirit personally empowers. All right, the first thing Elijah shows us, is that we must show the next generation a faith they want more of. Verse 9, is a super powerful, super popular verse in all the scriptures. You can underline it if you do that in your Bibles. Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you. And Elisha said, please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. This is really simple, people. Elijah asked Elisha, what can I do for you before I'm gone? And Elisha's request is simple. Whatever it is that you have, I want twice that. That is powerful. That is beautiful. Church, who are you showing faith that they would want more of? Church, are you showing people, your kids, your coworkers, your community, your family, your spouse, you show faith that they would not just want, but want more of? A faith they would not just want, but want more of. Because here's my concern. We're showing the next generation faith, not just what they want, but what they want none of. What I'm not preaching right now, I'm asking you. This isn't a pulpit between us, this is a coffee table, and I'm asking you a question that I want you to answer in your heart right now. What is your heart's desire for the next generation? Listen to me. If it is not firstly for them to know the love of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ as they walk in the power of the Spirit. If that's not first, we're in trouble. We're in major trouble. Did you know that the vision statement for this church is all about this? Our vision statement for Peace Church is to see the gospel embraced and then passed on for generations of kingdom impact. Church, we need to have a heart-to-heart for here, right now for a moment. In 1970, 90% of Americans said they were Christian. They've watched trends and they projected out a hundred years from 1970, from 1970 to 2070, a hundred years later, at best 50% will say they're a Christian. But it's more likely probably around 35% will say they're Christians. So my question for you in the house is really simple. What are you willing to do to reverse those trends? Or let me put it this way, what are you willing to give up to see those numbers going in the other direction? Listen, let me just say a few things. Number one, we will not sacrifice the truth. We will not dilute our theology, and we won't compromise on our morals. But we need to have an honest discussion about what preferences and prerogatives we are willing to let go of. Because the model is very simple. Show them a true faith in God that they want more of. If they can't tell that you love Jesus more than your political party, we're in trouble. If you're teaching them that church isn't church unless we're singing the hymns, we're in trouble. If you're showing them that a citizen of heaven equals a citizen of America, we're in trouble. If we're only talking about what we're against and never what we're for, we're in trouble. If you're showing them that you believe politics is more powerful than the Holy Spirit, we're in trouble. I dare you, I dare you to ask this question to someone in your life who's part of the next generation. Ask them this question. What does my faith show you about following Jesus? And would you want not just the faith I have, but more of it? I dare you to ask someone from the next generation who you are investing in, who you know, and ask them that question. And you know what, I'm gonna be nice for a moment. I'm gonna leave it up there. You can snap a picture, you can write it down because I am challenging every person who calls Peace Church home to ask someone from the next generation that specific question and then listen to their answer without judgment. Because the judgment's on you. What does my faith show you about following Jesus? And would you want not just the faith I have, but more of it? because Elijah basically asked Elisha that very question and Elisha said, I want twice what you have. Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. Church, what this means is that we are to pick our battles wisely. The next generation is watching. So I ask you again, what is your true heart's desire for the next generation? We need to pick our battles wisely. for the next generation. We need to pick our battles wisely. And listen to me, if you know me, you know, what's going on in this world sickens me to my core, and don't you think I don't have a bunch of loaded opinions about it, but I know that the next generation is watching, and I would rather win the heart of the next generation for Jesus and lose the culture battle than the other way around. Thank you, me and you, sister. I'm gonna say that again. I would rather win the heart of the next generation for Jesus and lose the culture battle than the other way around. And until that becomes our heart's focus and our mission, I think we're on a trajectory to lose the next generation, which is sad. This is sad because what we have is not just true but what we have is better. And it's better for them. We are the ones who know what truth is. Truth beyond the American context. We are the ones who know what love is. Love beyond romantic relationship. We know what truth in love is. So don't let our opinions outshine our truth and love. Because that's what we are to show. Because to pass on the faith to the next generation, we must show them a faith they want more of. And I know what you're thinking, or at least I know what some of you are thinking, because I know exactly what I'm thinking when I hear things like this. What are you saying, pastor, so we can't make a stand? We can't take a Brother or sister, I say this into the mirror first, but with all due respect, have you even been listening to this entire sermon series? Elijah was only just taking stands. That's literally all he was doing. Every single story we've looked at from Elijah, it's him taking a stand, but hear me and be clear on this. His stand was for the Lord. He was taking a stand for the Lord and his heart's desire was so that the heart of the people would turn towards God, not so that they would know the truth about what's really going on in this world. He wanted the people to return to God. His heart was to take a stand for God, for Yahweh. He was willing as a man to say God's name because that's how much he loved God. How many men in here are willing to take a stand for the name Jesus and actually say it on the job site? We are to take a stand for truth and love in this world. And Elisha shows us this. And our Lord Jesus, He gave us the mission. We are to make disciples. We are to go and make disciples of our neighbors and the next generation a faith that relies on God for answers. Look at verse 10. And Elijah said you have asked a hard thing. Yet if you see me as I'm being taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if you do not see me, it shall not be so. All right, so reminder of what's happening here. Elijah says, I want more of what you have. And so Elijah responds, Elijah, a man so powerful in the spirit, he says, that's not up to me. You need to look to God for that answer. Not me. If God lets you see this happen, there's your answer. And before we go on, I just want to take a moment. I want to point out something else here for a second. I want to point something out to you here. Something special between these two different generations of Elijah and Elisha. In this passage, this is the passage where we see the torch being passed between these two giants of faith. And after Elijah says, look to God for the answer, look what happens in this next verse. Okay, follow me. Look to God for the answer. And then the Bible says, they still went on and talked. Now, listen, I know for many people in the house, that's like a throwaway phrase. That's just a filler, but for me, that's an incredibly insightful and powerful statement. They still went on and talked. If you wonder why the handoff of faith was so powerful, it's because they spent time together. They walked, they talked together, they prayed, they still went on and talked. That's friendship, that's mentorship, that's discipleship. And then look what happens. And as they still went on and talked, behold chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Elijah was literally taken away in a blaze of glory. This man of such incredible faith, this man of the highest highs and this man of the lowest lows, this man who stood against kings and met with God, he was escorted up to heaven with wind and fire. And Elisha, who loved him like a father, got the answer he was looking for. Elisha saw all this happen and look at his response. Look at how much Elisha loved Elijah. And Elisha saw it and he cried, my father, my father. Stop for a second. Stop for a second. Think about what Elisha just saw. Horses and chariots of fire descend from heaven and Elisha's first concern is for Elijah. My father, my father. That's love. That's love. Elijah loved Elisha so much. How could Elisha not love him back as much? He saw this miracle happen and he first cries out to Elijah, My father, my father. The chariots of Israel and its horsemen. And then he saw him no more. Then Elisha took hold of his own clothes and he tore them into two pieces. Because he was sad. He was lamenting. And here's the thing, church, if we do this right, the next generation will be sad to see us go. They won't sit there and think, good riddance, boomers. They'll be sad. They'll be sad to see us go. So don't underestimate the power of love when we disciple and minister to others. Don't underestimate the power of love when we disciple and minister to others. So let's go back to our point. Elisha wanted to be a prophet with twice the spirit of Elijah. You gotta follow what's going on here because it's so awesome. Elijah still tells Elisha he's to look to God for the answer. But if you know your Bibles, you know that Elijah knew that Elisha was going to take his place back in first Kings 19 The Lord said to Elijah you shall anoint Elisha to be a prophet in your place early on Elijah knew what he was doing with Elisha was training up his own replacements and So when he was asked a question that he knew the answer to he still told Elisha to look to God for the answers because we are to train the next generation to look to God for the answers Elijah said if you see if God lets you see me go you have your answer, but you need to look to God That's part of what we do when we train the next generation is we teach them to look to God for the answers to search the scriptures to pray And to be patient on the Lord I'll say it again, to search the scriptures, to pray, to pray and to be patient on the Lord because that reminds them the next generation that we work on God's timeline, not vice versa. Because to pass on the faith to the next generation, Elijah models that we must teach them a faith that relies on God for the answers. And lastly, last thing we see, is that we are to leave the next generation a faith that the Spirit personally empowers. All right, follow what's going on. This is a phenomenal passage here. After Elijah is taken away, go to your Bible, look at verse 13. And Elisha took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him. You catch what's going on right there. I cannot overstate the power of verse 13. If this was a movie, this would be like cue the slow-mo dramatic sequence here. We see the torch being passed. Elijah took up the cloak of Elijah. The Padawan picks up his Jedi Master's lightsaber. That's what's happening here. The torch is being passed. The faith is continuing. We are sitting here today worshiping the same God because Elisha picked up that cloak. When we minister and disciple the next generation, we're doing our part to see the faith continue. Verse 13, And Elisha took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him, and he went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him, and he struck the water, saying, Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?' And when he struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other. And Elisha went over and look at verse 15. "'Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho saw him opposite them, they said, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.'" Let me clarify something here. They did not mean Elijah's ghost is now possessing the body of Elisha. What they're saying is the spirit of Elijah is to mean that the spirit that led Elijah, which is the Holy Spirit, we are to show the next generation what it means to walk in step with the Holy Spirit. Do you know what that means, Christians in the house? We are to show the world love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control because that's the fruit of the Spirit. Do you want to know if someone has the Holy Spirit within them? The first thing you look for is the fruit of the Spirit. I know we want to go right to the gifts, but the first thing is the fruit we are to look for. The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity and I fully believe and I know you do too, that the same Spirit that rested on Elijah and Elisha, the same Spirit was the one who was there at creation, who was at Jesus' baptism, the same Spirit who rose Jesus from the dead, the Holy Spirit is the one who dwells within believers and the church. When people walk in, do they see a congregation going through the motions, or do they see a congregation filled with the Holy Spirit? The Spirit dwells with each of us personally as He empowers our faith, and He dwells with us as a church, guarding us, and making sure that we're preaching the truth in love. And if Christians do anything in this world, Christians are to be the ones who walk and step with the Holy Spirit. And when we think about Elijah, I know that we're quick to go right to the miracles or the fact that he stood against tyrants. But do you know what I think the most meaningful part, the most meaningful thing about Elijah, especially as we've gone through this series and I was reminded of the story, was that for day in and day out, with every breath, this man stood faithful to God. Whether he was alone for three years in exile, or he was standing before the nation, Elijah stood faithful to God. Now that is a testament to the power of the Spirit in someone's life. Are they gonna be a Christian when no one's looking? In the Bible, I think we do see the highlight reel of Elijah's faith. But we also see this all stemmed from a faith that was enduring against every opposition. We see a faith that was enduring through the highs, through the lows, through accolades, and through loneliness. We see a faith that endured to the next generation because it was personally empowered by the Holy Spirit. Church, in your faith, is the Spirit the one leading you. I mean, men, in that heated moment at home, who's leading? In those trying times, who's leading your faith? It must always be the Holy Spirit personally empowering us because the same Spirit who dwells in us is the same spirit who empowers the church that raised Jesus from the dead church. Check this out. When Elisha returns, what was the first thing people saw? The first thing that people saw was that he had the Holy Spirit. What was the first thing that people saw when Elisha returned? That he had the Holy Spirit. The first thing that people saw when Elisha returned was that he had the Holy Spirit. Here's what concerns me. In our world today, you know what the first thing people see? Is whatever you post on social media. That's the first thing they're seeing. So I'm wondering, is it pointing to God? Is it demonstrating that you're walking in the power of the spirits? What is the first thing that people are noticing? It should be that we are operating in the power of the Holy Spirit. Is it? Or is it that we're full of opinions? Opinions that honestly make the next generation roll their eyes. Are you showing them a faith that they want more of? For many of us, I'm not sure that we are. And it's no wonder the next generation is not building upon the faith that we have, but they're beginning to deconstruct it. So let me remind us of what we already know. Church, we worship the King of all creation. We worship the one who not just wrote the laws of physics, but who constantly upholds them as he holds the universe in his hand. Church, do you believe this? We are the ones who know what true and eternal love is. We believe that the gospel is truly the most important thing that people need to hear. Do you believe that? Church, be with me today. Do you believe this or not? Well, I wonder, does the next generation see us putting our money where our mouth is? Church, we know the one who's writing history. We know the one who is writing history. So why are you worried about the next election? And why are we showing the world that we're worried about it? Do you think any of this is a surprise to God? Where do you find your hope and your comfort? When we are to walk, we are to walk not by sight, but by faith in the joy of the Lord. And yet, we become so disheartened by everything we see on the news and social media. I'm telling you right now, faith, joy, and love, that's what should be marking our faith. That's what the people should see when they look at the church. So where is your faith placed? Because here's the reality. You don't need to answer that. Your life shows that. Where is your faith placed? You don't need to answer me, we just need to look at your life. And we need to be showing the next generation a faith that they not just want, but want more of because that's a faith that will endure. Because if we are truly Christians, then we are to want and desire a faith that endures. And a faith that endures is a faith that's passed on to the next generation. Can I get an amen? is a faith that's passed on to the next generation. is a faith that's passed on to the next generation. Can I get an amen?

God's Perspective on the Temptation You Can't Avoid Christian Life Shannon Popkin Author & Podcast Host Live Like It's True Podcast Published On: January 18, 2024 A young woman once asked me, “If I surrender my marriage to God, will He keep my husband from having another affair?” Her eyes searched mine in desperation, and though I wanted to give her comfort, the particular assurance she longed for—a future free of sin’s pain—wasn’t mine to give. I have no idea what the future holds, of course, since I’m not God. And while I know God can keep our husbands and adult children and sisters and friends from affairs—or any number of other sinful traps, when I survey the world I live in, there are people falling to temptation left and right. What then, is our hope? I couldn’t look into the eyes of this young wife and say, “God never puts his children in painful situations.” Or, “Husbands don’t fall for the second time.” But here’s what I could say. Trying to walk life’s path without God would be far more painful and treacherous than walking with Him. Lead Us . . . “Lead us not into temptation,” Jesus offered as the sixth petition in his model prayer ( Matt. 6:13 ). For a long bit, I’ve read this verse with a little mental sketch of a fork in the road with two signs pointing in opposite directions. One path is marked, “Temptation,” and the other, “Right Living.” And I, as a Christian, am asking God to help me pick the correct path: the one that avoids temptation. But this is a false representation of this verse—and life. There is no path that leads away from temptation. Throughout the maze of life, we should assume that there will be slimy pits of temptation alongside every micro turn. Even a Christian who has lived faithfully for decades should not be surprised when she is tempted by sin. It’s been that way from the very beginning. With the juice of the forbidden fruit still on Adam and Eve’s lips, sin fell like a dark, sticky curtain over every square inch of creation. There is no slit (apart from going to heaven) by which we can escape temptation. Our world is completely pitted with traps. Even today, I’m guessing you came across slimy pits of greed, deceit, or lust. Traps abound. People everywhere are falling in. And what is our response? We are taught to pray for ourselves and others, “Lead us not into temptation.” That is, As I walk through this valley with its shadows of evil and doubt, don’t let me slide in. Help me find the sure footing of obedience. To not ask for help from God would be quite presumptuous, don’t you think? We need daily help from our Father. We need him to walk beside us, hold our hands, and keep us steady. Our loved ones, our children, our church leaders, and our friends all need help from the Father. There is not coming a day when, as God-following people, we suddenly look around and realize we’ve arrived, that God has finally led us past all temptation. That place or chapter of life—here on earth at least—simply doesn’t exist. When There’s Zero Chance Pope Francis recently changed the wording of the “Our Father” (or the Lord’s Prayer), which is read in Catholic masses everywhere, to read, “Do not let us fall into temptation,” instead of, “Lead us not into temptation.” And I can see why he wanted to change it. It’s uncomfortable to think of a Father who leads His children right into a place where we could fall, isn’t it? Yet even God’s own Son “was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil” ( Luke 4:1–2 ). Notice that Jesus didn’t wander off the path into Satan’s territory. He was led to a place where He, like Eve, went toe to toe with the Devil. We should not be surprised, then, when we are also led into situations where we must take our stand against the evil one ( 1 Peter 4:12 , Eph. 6:11 ). To be clear, God tempts no one, and He, Himself, cannot be tempted ( James 1:13 ). And this, my friend, is our anchor. If there is zero chance of God being tempted, and there is also zero chance of Him giving even the slightest nudge toward one of temptation’s pits, no wonder He is not threatened by the Devil breathing into the face of one of His children. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we don’t feel threatened by it. Not in the least! We can and should pray, “Lead us not into temptation! Please God, deliver us!” But we pray this because we are aligning ourselves with God’s perspective, not because we’re trying to get Him to see things from ours. Jesus, who saw things both from God’s viewpoint and ours, looked straight into the pit of evil and didn’t fall in. He was tempted, but He did not sin ( Heb. 4:15 ). Rather than falling into temptation, Jesus reversed the curse of sin and put a new storyline into play: one where human beings are tempted, but do not fall prey to sin. Is this the storyline you long for? Do you long for the day when your husband, child, sister, or friend stands against some past temptation? Do you crave this for yourself? This desire for a new storyline is echoed in each of our prayers when we cry out to the Father, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil!” Yes, God Can John Piper recently responded to questions pouring in about a prominent leader who has “de-converted.” Some are asking, “If he could fall away, could I, too?” The short answer Piper gave is yes. Any of us could fall. Not one of us can keep ourselves from falling into temptation. But here’s what gives us hope: God can. Every day, God answers our prayers. He causes drug-addicted prodigals to come home. He causes little girls who were abused to grow into godly women of faith. He causes the eyes of doubting agnostics to awaken to the light of truth. Yes, God can. But the question I struggle with is: will He? I’m guessing that your heart today, like mine, is deeply troubled by the many pitfalls of temptation into sin. Perhaps you have a sister in an abusive marriage. A friend slipping into despondency because her husband was killed in a crash. A son addicted to pornography. A friend’s child who has chosen to transition to the opposite gender. It is good and right for you and me to bundle each of these burdens up and spill them out before the Father. To not do so would be to suggest that He is not able, that He is not God. But demanding that He move in the way that I want is to make the same suggestion. Here’s the truth: He is God, and I am not. But if Not . . . Remember the response of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when Nebuchadnezzar demanded they bow to his statue or be thrown into the fiery furnace? They said, “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us . . . But if not , be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” ( Dan. 3:17–18 , emphasis added). They knew that God could deliver them from evil in this situation. But they didn’t demand that God would. In other words, they let God be God. There was a great temptation for these men to bow. And they deeply desired for God to deliver them from this evil king. But rather than asking God to take their viewpoint, they humbled themselves and deferred to His. And Jesus met them in the middle of the fire ( Dan. 3:25 ). Friends, God does not offer us a sunny path that is completely void of temptation. You can search the world over, and it will not be found. But our Lord will lead us, He will deliver us, and He will be with us in the fire. More Blogs You'll Like Is Prioritizing Love Un-Christian? What Does The Bible Say? 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PODCAST That's a Good Question Divided by Man, United in Christ: A Conversation with Krista Bontrager and Monique Duson February 4, 2025 Jon Delger & Listen to this Episode Hey, welcome to That's a Good Question, the podcast where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. We are a podcast of Resound Media, a place you can trust to find great resources for the Christian life and church leadership. You can always submit questions that we answer on the show to resoundmedia.cc . If you find this resource helpful, please rate and review the podcast so more people can encounter the life-changing truth of God's Word. Also, if you know somebody who can benefit from today's topic or has questions like the ones that we're answering, please share this episode with them. My name's Jon, and today I'm here with special guests, Krista Bontrager and Monique Doussaint, who have a great book that they wrote called Walking in Unity, Biblical Answers to Race and Racism. So today we're gonna talk about a very important and current topic, the topic of race. And I'm excited to talk about things that we hear in the world as well as how they compare to what the Bible itself says. So thanks so much, ladies, for joining us on the episode today. Thanks for having us. Glad to be here. So if you don't mind, start by just telling us a little bit about the book, how you guys came together, what led you to write the book. That's a lot. That could be the whole podcast. I know, right there. Well, I am Monique Dufon. I'm the president and co-founder of the Center for Biblical Unity. I was born and raised in an area called South Central Los Angeles and lived there for the first, like, 15 years of my life and then moved up to a suburb of L.A. where I spent the rest of my time. I've done work in South Africa as a missionary for four and a half years. And after the mission field, as I transitioned back home to the States, I was wondering where I was going to land and Krista and her family offered for me to come and stay with them for three months. Now, if you aren't watching this, maybe you're just listening. I will be completely blunt and open. I am black. I have nothing to hide about that. I'm an African-American. And so, Krista's not. And when she first offered for me to come and stay, you know, with her and her family, her family is all white, I was like, Jesus, like, we've never done this. Like, we've lived on the other side of the world. We've done some hard things. We've never lived with white people before. I am or I was at that time extremely pro-Black. And so the idea of me coming to live with a white family, even though we were friends, was kind of off-putting for me. I had some very different views than what I have now. And I go into some of that in our book, Walking in Unity. But I saw this as really being just these complete opposites. Our cultures were different, not just our skin colors, but the way we address the world, politically, ideologically. All of these things were very different. And so I ended up moving in with Krista for three months, and those three months carried out and turned into four years and 11 months. And during that time, we had very hard conversations on the things that I am extremely passionate about, race, justice, unity, all of those things, able to have different conversations. And the Holy Spirit had to work in her heart about things too. And, you know, as that is happening, we're able to have better, more biblically-based, Christ-centered conversations on these topics. And so before George Floyd in 2020, before the social unrest, Kristen, I thought, hey, you know what, maybe we can start like a small ministry that will help other Christians, you know, to think about some of these things from a biblical position. Maybe we can talk to pastors once, twice a year. We both were working full-time jobs, had no idea that the Center for Biblical Unity would actually take us away from those jobs and become this full-orbed ministry. But here we are today, and I would say Walking in Unity really is a book that chronicles a lot of our friendship, but not from the place of like, hey, you know, come along this fluffy journey. We are really a microcosm of what America has, and the world has been experiencing in relation to conversations around race, justice, and unity. How do we get there? And we outline what the Holy Spirit did in us, the biblical principles, and how we can truly stand from one another as brothers and sisters. Yeah, and real quick, I grew up in Southern California as well, and I'm a little older than Monique, so we're also not only just from different cultures, different ethnicities, but also a bit of different generations. And we have a very remarkable story of an unlikely friendship. But I have two grown children. I've been married to my husband, Bob, for 32 years. And my background is in theology and apologetics. I have served in that capacity for about three decades. And I also homeschooled our kids and was a stay-at-home mom for much of their childhood. And as my kids grew up, kind of at the tail end of our youngest daughter's high school years is when Monique entered our lives and came to live with our family. And it has been an interesting journey that I wasn't anticipating, but the Lord has used our story and our difficulties in our friendship to really help encourage the body of Christ and to drive us back to Scripture for these answers. That's awesome. That's great to hear how your relationship journey led to this and most importantly like you guys shared just walking and learning more and more how to live out the biblical call to relationship. So I'd love to just start with some foundations, some definitions, things like that. Can you guys start by just telling us what is race? You wrote that chapter. Yeah so that's the chapter that I tried to tackle and it's interesting because because historically speaking, the concept of race, of organizing humanity according to particular physical features such as melanin or hair texture, these things were not part of the human consciousness until the Enlightenment. The late 1600s, early 1700s, is where we really started seeing this idea being introduced first into the academic literature and then trickling down to the popular culture. And then in the 1800s, with the rise of Darwinism, certain ideas related to race were picked up by people who were also Darwinists. And then that is where we really started moving into things like eugenics and that sort of thing. So biblically speaking, there is no concept of race. There's no such thing as race. There's no such thing as organizing humanity according to our skin color. The way that the Bible speaks about humanity is either we are in Christ, which means we have a relationship with Jesus and we are in a covenant relationship with him and with the Father through the Son, or that we are in Adam, which means that we are not part of God's people. This is how the Bible talks. And from a New Testament perspective, all humans fall in one of those two categories. Either we are in Adam or in Christ. The Bible also speaks about what we call our common humanity, that we are created in the image of God, and then we come from different nations, different regions, we speak different languages. The Bible talks about empires such as the Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Empire, but it does not talk about race. So one of the ideas that we advocate in the book is that we need to unlearn the idea of race. If we really want to think biblically, we need to unlearn some things and renew our minds according to the principles of Scripture. We'll be right back after this break. Hi, I'm Elizabeth, one of the co-hosts of MomGuilt, a podcast with new episodes every Monday. MomGuilt is a podcast about the daily struggles of motherhood. Stephanie and I share real experiences of mom guilt and how we have found freedom from that guilt through the gospel. Listen to us on ReSoundMedia.cc or wherever you find podcasts. Wow. So that's a pretty earth shattering idea that's so different from what we hear in the world today. I mean, just the way you said it, that according to the Bible, race is really not a concept. That instead, we all share a common humanity. You guys get a lot of resistance to defining the word race that way? We haven't had a lot of pushback about it because we kind of tackle it historically. People are free to look it up and investigate it. It's just different because we have been so conditioned by the world to think about everything in terms of race first. We don't deny that people come from different family lines and different regions and different nations and different ethnicities, but the idea of organizing humans according to skin color not being a biblical concept, once we kind of point it out, people usually say, wow I've never thought about it like that before, you know, but sure. Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense I mean you go to the history you go to the Bible and we find we find the truth So even science with that I you know, the human genome project you could look it up where it just talks about how basically race is nearly genetically insignificant and That there really is even from a scientific perspective just one human race. Sure. So, if we say that the Bible says that actually human beings are all one race, how would you guys define what is commonly called racism? That's a great question. You know, when we think about racism, one of the things I learned early on in my walks with Chris is that there is no verse that says, thou shall not be a racist, which I was like, no, of course it's in there somewhere. But when we think about racism, you know, because the idea of race as we know it today is not in the Scriptures, we need to actually thread through the Scriptures to piece together and pull out what would make up our modern day term of racism. And so we can think about things like partiality based on region of origin, ethnicity, language, nationality, hatred, slander. I started out with partiality, but it's this ethnic idolatry, the ways that we participate with people specifically because of someone's matter of providence, is what we would call it. You know, like God has providentially designed me to have as much melanin in my skin as I do. Now, if you choose to preferentially treat me, you know, a certain way, and that preference might be that I have a preference of hatred towards you. I prefer to hate you rather than to love you. Or I prefer to love you, but then hate the person who has less melanin. You know, these are things that we should not do. We're not supposed to prefer the rich over the great. I would say that we can extend that into, or the rich over the poor, the lower over the great, you know, we can extend that into these ideas of things like skin color. You know, whom I am designed and created by God is who he has designed and created me to be providentially. And I have no say into that. And so when we think about racism, we can think about ethnic idolatry, ethnic partiality, or partiality based on, you know, region of origin, slander, those types of things, biblically speaking. Yeah. So, you know, we're talking about already defining race differently than the rest of the world does, and therefore then defining even the problem different from the way the rest of the world does. So I'm just thinking about some key concepts that we hear people talk about in the world, and I'm sure we'll run out of time before we get to talk about all of these, but I'd love to just hear some thoughts on, I mean, I've got a list here of, you know, some of the common things that we hear every day, you know, in the news, on the radio, just that are, you know, used as definitions of the problem. And I'd love to hear just kind of how the world's definition of them compares to how we think about them. So things like critical race theory, systemic racism, microaggressions, racist versus anti-racist, all these kind of things. So let's just start with critical race theory. I mean, help me understand how does that perspective, what is it and how does it differ from what you guys are explaining as the biblical perspective on race? So when we think about critical race theory, critical race theory is a framework that comes out of the critical theory method. Right before critical race theory was critical legal studies was formed by Derrick Bell. Derrick Bell had students under him who wanted to really hone in on this issue of race and where are we seeing inequalities or inequities actually in relation to race when we look out into like the broader macro culture. Derrick Bell really looked into legal studies. You have to remember Derrick Bell is doing this in the 70s so we've just come out of the the civil rights era. Why are we still seeing such inequities, especially in the legal realm? Derrick Bell, good calls. Like, hey, he noticed something he wanted to look in and see what's going on. His mentees, Mari Matsuda and Kimberly Crenshaw, took what he was doing and definitely applied it specifically to race. They are not the only two, but they are the ones who directly studied under Derrick Bell. There were others who were also present at the founding of critical race theory. What critical race theory and the critical theory method does overall is it really breaks society up into these binary categories. And so you this this is where we hear this oppressed, oppressive language. It takes us and it puts us in our bucket and then it automatically says, well, automatically oppressive toward this minority culture, whatever that is, or this minority group. And so when we think of this in the terms of race, we are seeing there's more white people in America. So we have white people who are now oppressive toward minorities. And critical race theory is investigating and unraveling all of the ways in which the majority culture is oppressive toward minority cultures. And so as we unravel the different ways in which this oppression goes forward, there are some just automatic assumptions built into critical race theory, that racism is always at play. This is a idea that was put forward by Derrick Bell, that racism never truly goes away, but that it kind of shapeshifts and it adapts for the audience or the room that it's in. There's another way of thinking about critical race theory, another tenet would be interest convergence. That it really is when the ending of racism benefits white people, that racism will actually end. There are just a lot of assumptions embedded within the critical theory framework and within the smaller critical race theory framework that as Christians, we would say, we really need more evidence for. Simply because we might have a majority white population in America does not necessarily mean that all minorities are oppressed. Also, I would say that just because there might be inequities within our society does not mean that those inequities are based on either sinful structures or someone else's sinful racist heart. It could be because of preference. We need to do more research and diving. We need to ask more questions before we just adopt a critical theory framework? So Monique, part of her story is that she actually upheld critical race theory for a good chunk of the work that she did in social service for a couple of decades. And part of our story together is through the conversations that we had, she started to become increasingly skeptical that critical race theory as a framework was actually true, and has migrated away from that because of starting to see inconsistencies between critical race theory and the Christian faith. Yeah, if I can, I'll tackle systemic racism. Systemic racism says that, you know, inequities, they are impacted by racism, and we see the impact of this racism because of the inequities. Think about someone like Abram X. Kendi and his book, How to Be an Antiracist. He wrote this book to address the reality that there are inequities. However, the inequities are always white toward minority. We are never looking, A, to see if there's any inequity going the other way, but even before we get there, we have to ask, well, what are other possibilities? Are there any other possibilities aside from racism that could create this inequity. But because we are automatically looking at this binary approach and automatically saying that inequities are due to racism, racism is the only answer we get. And so anytime we see an inequity, we see racism. And then we are expected to step into that conversation automatically ready to fight the inequity and the racist structure. And if I'm not fighting that racist structure, that racist system, that inequity, then I am being racist according to this new definition of racism. And again, what Monique is describing is not the view that we hold. She's simply explaining the world's common view of these things. I appreciate you putting that in there. I don't want people thinking I think that. So, you know, it's one of those things where the world sees a problem and they're trying to diagnose it, but they're trying to diagnose it without the light of God's Word. Right. And so, you know, in each of these systems, critical race theory, systemic racism, you know, each of these concepts, they're trying to, they're seeing problems that we would say this is a part of a fallen broken world. This is a part of sin being in the world, and they're trying to say it's this one thing. I'd love to hear, if we start talking about even solutions. So what kind of solutions then, you guys started to talk about them, what kind of solutions does the world present to this problem, and then how do our solutions to the problem look different? So I guess I can go first. I could talk about the biblical solutions is that we're gonna have to first, as we're unlearning to categorize all humans in terms of race, and we're going to think more biblically about things, we first have to think that our common humanity, or what we call in the book our creation identity, is these are truths that are true for all humans in all times and all places. So things like being created in the image of God and this includes our value, dignity, and worth. That we have been created for a purpose to rule and to reign over God's creation, to multiply and fill the earth, to work side by side as man as male and female, that we've been created either male or female, that we have been created to worship. These are things that are true for all of us, but something has gone dreadfully wrong, and that is sin. And so I think that what we must understand is that whatever problems we have when it comes to tribalism, those are a result of the fall. And in our opinion, what we call racism today is just a form of tribalism. It's, it's, if you go to Africa and Monique's done ministry in Africa, you can have all black people in the room from different tribes and members of those tribes won't intermarry. They won't mix socially. They won't be friends. But everyone in the room is black. What's the problem? See racism is not the real problem. It's tribalism. It's bigger than just race. And we as humans have a tendency to prefer to be with our own, which isn't necessarily a sin automatically that we're raised in a particular culture and we're bound by certain cultural practices and language, shared language. That's not necessarily a sin. But when it becomes a sin is when we engage in what Monique talked about earlier of sinful partiality, of favoritism in certain situations that's unwarranted and undue. And that's where it gets tricky because we want to then try to solve the problem of partiality using the world's solutions rather than God's solution, which moves us into the gospel. That God's solution is that out of the nations, he has created a new people, a people that belong to every ethnicity, every language, but that now are united because they are a spiritual family through his work on the cross. And so then we don't have to engage in this sinful partiality or fear of intermarrying across tribes, because what's the most important thing about who I choose as a marriage partner is that we have oneness in Christ. And that then becomes the center. And so really unity begins in the house of the Lord. Ethnic unity, tribal unity. It's a different countercultural way of living that we say offers a better hope than anything the world has to offer. Yeah, I would say that, you know, that looks very different than what the world is putting forward. I brought up Ibram Kendi earlier, and his ideas of going out and making sure that you are fighting all unjust systems, but those unjust systems are based on inequity, which isn't always a sin. Like you can have inequity, but there might not be sin present causing that inequity. You know, we are told that we should, you know, if you are a white person, you need to divest yourself of your power. We've heard that word a lot in, you know, 2020 through like 2022, and I even still hear it, you know, at times. But this idea that power somehow is bad, that if someone has more power than I do as a minority, well, that is, that's bad, that needs to be overturned, it needs to be readjusted, you know. But what is wrong with power? Like, can we have a better conversation on the way power is wielded? Because that's the biblical principle. We can have people with good power who wield their power for the good of others. The same way we see in the Bible, people who are, you know, in poverty who are not righteous. It's an attitude of the heart, not necessarily, you know, what my pocketbook is filled with or the amount of power that I hold. We, you know, we hear these ideas of justice and doing justice, but justice has been redefined. And so in order for us to understand the parts that Chris is talking about, we need to have a biblical definition of justice and not simply taking the world's definition of justice, which involves things like wealth redistribution. These aren't the ways. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. I know that's a hot, you know, term in the culture right now, but as believers, we need to understand, well, what is diversity, equity, and inclusion? And before we just shun it and say, no, it's not needed, you know, bye. Like, well, what has happened in the past? Why did people think we needed it? I am honestly, I'm not a proponent of diversity, equity and inclusion, but I am a proponent of understanding our history so that we can do better in the future. What we never want to do is correct an injustice that's happened with another injustice. So how does scripture encourage us to love our neighbor, to do justice, to walk and be sought in light in a world that is watching? I think those are some of the questions that we need to ask, but the world does it very differently. I love what you said there, it was so good. The world tries to address it by swinging the pendulum, right, if they see an injustice over here, we're gonna try to correct it by what's actually an injustice over on the other side. Whereas what the Bible has for us is the gospel. Like you guys said, we have the real problem is sin. The real answer is Jesus and his life, death, resurrection, us putting our faith in him and receiving eternal salvation and only through him. Then we can actually find unity in this thing we call the church, the body of believers in Jesus. That's when we get to come together. I love that. Amen. So the gospel is the central solution to the problem. I'd love to talk, since you guys kind of started to bring up some policy things like DEI and other things, I'd love to just hear, do you guys have some quick off the top of your head policies that help, policies that hurt in our world when we are trying to talk about how we deal with race and racism? Yeah, I'll start us off. And I do want to make clear, you know, in our book, Walking in Unity, we do not talk about D.E.I. or critical race theory. These are not themes that are covered in our book. But if people are curious about them, we have tons of content on our YouTube channel, our blog and that sort of thing. But we were simply focusing on laying out our model for ethnic unity and what that looks like in our book, Walking in Unity. But thinking about policy issues, one of the things that we have wrestled with, and put these in the bucket of like, just try on these ideas. These are things that we are experimenting with, having public conversations about, and thinking about. have talked about is blind applicant review, of establishing clear criteria for a job. If we're gonna hire for a position, what are the qualifications, the education, the skills, the talents that we want the person to have? Have that in writing, make an objective standard that all applicants are going to be evaluated by. And then as a hiring manager, when the applications come in, do something in your process, so that you are only evaluating applicants in that first round, by their qualifications, you know, you're not evaluating them by their names, for example, because some names might come with a certain ethnic bias. And we might disallow certain people because of just, there's some research and it's disputed as to, you know, how well established it is. But that names can be a turnoff for hiring managers, they can exclude people simply because of names, addresses, zip codes, where people live. Oh, this is an affluent area. This is an impoverished area. So do what you can in that first round of blind applicant review. We're going to evaluate people based on their qualifications. And then when they come in for their interviews, have the same questions for everybody. And that's not to say that we can't add questions, but we want to have like a baseline of these are our questions, we're going to be as fair and impartial as we can by asking the same questions to every applicant. And you know, thinking about how do we also establish a clear pathway in hiring for promotion and making sure that we are promoting people based on their achievements and we have an impartial system that it's not rigged against particular people from particular ethnicities and and we've seen this happen. And innocently sometimes, the people don't realize in Christian ministry context like, oh, actually our system is rigged to advance only these people or to not advance these people, you know, colleges. Well, we're only tenuring non-white people this year. Well, that's when you're rigging the system against particular people in an unfair way. So those are a few things to think about. Yeah, I like that. That basic principle of impartiality. You know, that's whenever we talk about justice, historically, at least, that's kind of been what we mean, right? Is impartiality. It's one of the main... In scripture, in our country. Yes. Yeah. It's one of the main four pillars, I would say, of God's standard of justice is impartiality. It's mentioned over and over and over in scripture. And so if you want to- And not just for race, like you said, you know, having to do with affluency, you know, just all these different factors, impartiality. Yeah. No, and sadly, like Krista said, we've seen, you know, the impact of partiality and, you know, not just toward or against white people, but of varying ethnicities. And so this is why impartiality is so important and why we do advocate for things like blind applications. A policy that I would say, but where she's like, we could add this, I would say we should take away diversity, equity and inclusion. Diversity, equity and inclusion. And I know, again, it's a hot button concept in the culture right now, but it is not truly acting to advance all ethnicities or all skin colors, all backgrounds. In an impartial way. In an impartial way. Diversity, equity, and inclusion, actually, if we really want to get down to the nitty-gritty of it, it really supports the queer movement. But it hides or acts like it is really meant to bring in all of these diverse, you know, skin tones and ethnicities and backgrounds. And that's not what's happening within the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement. It's not what's written in their books. It's not what the practitioners of DEI are putting forward. And that's, again, not to say 100% of all DEI practitioners, but when you read their textbooks, it's not what many people think diversity, equity, and inclusion is. And so I would say doing away with that and actually getting back to merit-based systems, doing blind applications and allowing for people's merit to speak for itself. The survey or the research that Crystal was talking about was done, gosh, it's probably been more than, the one I studied was more than 20, 25 years ago now, where there were a group of white and black sounding names, and black names were routinely left off of a list, not called back, not given any attention. You know, it's one thing when you have Suzy Smith, but it's a different thing when you have Shaquanda Johnson. And so, you know, if we're not dealing with names, then the person who shows up before you is the person that you're saying really is a good candidate. And there is some case also to be made for godly partiality. And we want to make that clear that not all partiality is sinful. Godly partiality runs background checks and selects out people that might harm children, for example, or people who have had a history of fraud. And so if I'm going to do hiring, I'm hiring someone to come into my mother's home and help take care of her during the day while I'm at work, I want to engage in godly partiality and doing a background check, making sure that this person doesn't have prior arrests for elder abuse. So we don't want to create a setup that in being understood to say that all partiality is sinful. Now some partiality is godly and some of it is sinful when it's based or weighted in an unfair way. You prefer your wife over you know over other women or when we think about hiring at church. That's always a good one to have, you know. You know, like we don't we don't just allow anyone to come into our pulpit. That would be a form of partiality. And so what Krista's hitting on is really important. The idea of godly partiality versus this rogue partiality is what I call it where, well, they have that skin color so I just don't like them. Or, you know, they're rich, so, or they're poor, so, you know, they have that accent. Right, right. And that partiality going back to some kind of objective standard. Yes. You know, whether that be, you know, qualifications that you bring, experience, credentials, you know, whatever it might be, you know, not having a certain history of doing bad things, you know, exactly. Bringing those things back to those specifically. One last question I'd love to ask you before we let you go. This is an experience that I'm sure that so many of our listeners have, which is that you might be sitting at a table, whether it's with family or friends or whoever, maybe even at church, but you're sitting across the table from somebody who has a totally different viewpoint than you on this topic. How do you even begin to have a conversation with somebody that has such a different worldview? Any advice for us? Had someone living under my roof that had a totally different point of view than I did on these issues, I have been in that situation. And I think you have to first start by engaging in generous listening and finding out like, why do people hold these beliefs? What is it about these beliefs that they think is important and valuable and needed in their own lives, potentially. And really figuring out what is this about for this person? When I first met Monique, she was fairly progressive and she had a lot of views that I totally disagreed with. She was sympathetic on two issues related to the pro-choice conversation. She was sympathetic on a number of issues that I disagreed with, not just race, but including race. And it took a lot of listening and it also took risks in asking questions and clarifying and then asking, would you mind if I share my thoughts about this or trying to sense if the other person is willing to listen and engage. And then I would also say not being afraid to stand for truth. And if you have the goal of never making the other person upset or never rocking the boat, you will fail because that's that's just not a realistic goal. You have to know that a hard conversation might happen, but try to be the person who's willing to hold on to the relationship, even if the hard conversation happens. And sometimes you might have to apologize. And that's okay. But I just always set my goal in every hard conversation I had with Monique was, how can I win the next conversation? I would definitely say the James approach to, you know, listen much and, you know, in listening, listen to really understand, like Krista said, I want to take it a step further because trust me, as Krista has laid out all of the good things that you should do, that wasn't always the case, people. And we made a lot of mistakes. There were a lot of mistakes. Yeah. And so what you don't want to do when you have someone who's of an opposite viewpoint in front of you is wanting to just, well, let me tell you why I'm right. Let me tell you, well, this is why you're wrong. Or trying to backdoor trap them. You know, let me, if I say this and then I say that and then I say this, now it's kind of like, you know, I have them pinned in on three sides and I'm just going to close that door and then they're boxed in and they're going to see their error. That doesn't work. And it really doesn't work if you have someone who's a smart mouth anyway. Ask Christa, I'm a smart mouth. Okay? Or a hothead. And so there are ways in which you can be gracious, but there are also ways in which you can really be asking gotcha questions or your pride is really showing. And that's not helpful. One of the best things that I think I've learned in our conversations, because trust me, she was also on the other side of me as I and I'm talking to the person who I completely disagree with. One of the best things to do is to understand why do they think this. And sometimes it's just a thank you for sharing. And then you get up and you walk away. And then you can... Or I used to say like, well, you've given me some things to think about. Let me consider that, or let me do some more research and get back to you. Can I come back to you? Hey, here's my number. Would you be willing to have more? I would love, put yourself in the position of the student, even if you already know. Because you're not learning the framework, you're learning the person in front of you. And I think that's where we fail so often in relationship is that I want to be right, two, I know more than you about this. Three, let's just talk about the framework. When the framework may be here, but this person's reason for advancing this framework might be different. We need to learn who that person is, get into relationship. These conversations are only one had, you know, deepened in relationship. I think a really good example of this that people can watch as a public example is a recent debate or conversation between Wes Hough and Ben Carlson. No, Billy, Billy, Billy Carlson, not Ben Carlson. Carlson, yeah, I forget his name. He was a new, kind of a new ager guy. And Wes just did such a good job of being respectful and asking strategic questions and clarifying things and bringing the Christian position to the table and just doing it in such a respectful way. Now, did they get to the end and they agree? No. There's been huge fallout as a result of that conversation. Kind of broke the internet for a couple of weeks. But I think he put forward such a great example of how to engage with somebody, even when you are coming at it from two totally different world views or positions. I love that. Some wise advice. Appreciate it. Well, Krista and Monique, thank you so much for the conversation. Folks, if you want to find their book, Walking in Unity, Biblical Answers to Race and Racism, great book, super helpful resource. Thank you so much ladies for the conversation. Thanks for having us on. Thank you everybody for listening. Yeah, we hope you have an awesome week. You can always like, follow, and subscribe. That's a good question on resoundmedia.cc. Have an awesome week. Have an awesome week. You can find That's a Good Question at resoundmedia.cc or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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

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

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, March 17, 2024 Withstand Ephesians 6:17B-20 Missional Decline v.s. The Word of God 2 Overview Main Idea: Your effectiveness in spiritual warfare is connected to your depth of spiritual intimacy Sermon Outline: 1. Effectiveness in Spiritual Warfare 2. Deepening your Spiritual Intimacy 3 Pre-Questions 1. The passage mentions the "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." How can we more effectively wield this "sword" in our daily lives and in spiritual warfare? Share a time when the Word of God was particularly powerful in your life. 2. Read Corinthians 10:3-5. How does this passage help us understand spiritual warfare better? 4 Questions 1. The main idea of the message today was, "Your effectiveness in spiritual warfare is connected to your depth of spiritual intimacy." Do you feel like that is true? How do you see that play out in your life? 2. The passage emphasizes the importance of "praying at all times in the Spirit." Discuss how prayer strengthens our spiritual intimacy and equips us for spiritual warfare. How can we cultivate a consistent prayer life? 3. Paul asks for prayers that he may "declare [the gospel] boldly, as I ought to speak." How can we overcome fear or hesitation to boldly proclaim the gospel in our own lives? Discuss ways we can support and encourage each other in this mission. 4. Psalm 1 says that believers ought to delight in the law [scripture] daily. When Jesus was in any crisis he went back to scripture (Matthew 4:4, Matthew 21:13, Matthew 27:46, Luke 4:18-19). What does this show us about how Jesus delighted in scripture? What does that show us about our relationship with scripture should be? PDF Download

Unboxing Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-9 Encouragement During Hard Ministry Unboxing Scripture Mitchell Leach Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Church Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 2 Creating Meaningful Traditions Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Q+A Jon Delger I Didn't Know I Needed the Bible Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Session 1 Jon Delger Withstand: How The Culture War Is A Spiritual Battle Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Where Do We Go From Here? Jon Delger Coming Out of Catholicism | Q & A Kelly Needham | Women's Christmas Party People Pleasing Jon Delger Christianity and Politics: Are We a Christian Nation?

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

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, November 10, 2024 Obadiah Obadiah 1:10-18 The Warning of Justice 2 Overview Main Idea: God's justice is found in His judgement. Sermon Outline: 1. God judges sin of omission (vv10-11) 2. God judges sin of commission (vv12-14) 3. God judges sin to bring justice (vv15-16) 4. God judges sin to bring restoration (vv17-18) 3 Pre-Questions When you think about the concept of justice, what comes to mind? How does our culture’s view of justice compare with what you understand about God’s justice? Have you ever witnessed a situation where someone stood by and did nothing in the face of wrongdoing? How did that make you feel, and what do you think was lost by their inaction? 4 Questions In verses 10-11, Edom is condemned for standing by and doing nothing while Jerusalem was attacked. How does this concept of “sin by omission” challenge our understanding of responsibility toward others? Reflect on James 4:17, which states, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” How can this verse encourage us to be more proactive in our relationships and communities? In verses 12-14, Edom actively participated in Israel’s suffering. How does this show the destructive impact of actions taken against others, even if indirectly? Consider Proverbs 24:17-18, which warns against rejoicing in someone else’s downfall. How can we guard our hearts against this attitude, especially in a culture that sometimes celebrates others’ misfortune? Verses 17-18 describe a future where Israel is restored. How does this promise of restoration after judgment reflect God’s ultimate purpose for redemption? Read 1 Peter 5:10, which says that after we have suffered, God will “restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish” us. How does God’s promise of restoration encourage you in your faith journey, especially during times of hardship? PDF Download

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, May 19, 2024 The Church Never Preaches On... Mark 13:32-37 An Overview of the End Times 2 Overview Main Idea: Christ has announced He will return, so we need to be prepared. Sermon Outline: 1. We don't know when it will happen, so we must stand guard. (vv32-33) 2. We don't know when the King will return, so we must stay awake. (vv34-37) 3 Pre-Questions 1. Before we start, take a moment to humble yourself when we start talking about end times. This topic can be divisive. Our goal in this discussion isn't to leave with a perfectly mapped-out picture of the way end times will be played out. Love your fellow community group members and seek to worship together in unity. 4 Questions 1. When the bible talks about end times, what kind of literature is that? (Hint: it has to do with the word apocalypse) What kind of language is used in apocalyptic literature (literal or metaphorical)? 2. Read Isaiah 11:6–9. How does this help us understand this topic? How is this a reversal of the fall? 3. Read Revelation 11:15–19. How does this help us find comfort and encouragement? PDF Download

Take Courage Sermon Series: Take Courage Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: 2 Chronicles 15:1-7 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, Amen. Church, I fully believe that God is doing something amazing in this world right now. I know that when we look at the headlines, it's easy to get discouraged or maybe even a little distracted. Listen, I'm not saying to ignore the headlines. We need to know what's going on in this world. But I need you to know that that's just that's one part of what God is doing in this world. He is doing so much more than what the news will report to you. Amen? So here's how to say to you, if the King and the Creator of the entire universe is doing a good work and his good plan is unfolding before us right now and he invites you into it, why wouldn't you step into that? Today marks our halfway point in our two-year Proclaim campaign journey. We're going to reflect on the last year because what God has already done has been amazing. As we look to year two, we anticipate God to do even more amazing things. So if you're not part of Proclaim, or maybe you've started coming to peace since we started this journey. Here's what I'm going to say to you. This sermon series and this spiritual journey that we're starting today is your on-ramp. So jump on board. For the next couple of weeks, I'm calling upon the whole entire church to walk through this devotional together. I pray that you do. Everyone has a copy. Not only are there devotionals in there, daily devotionals, but you'll also see that there's the sermon outlines for the next three sermons so you can take notes and follow along. We want you to pray. We want you to seek the Lord. We want you to spend time with Him each day so that together as a church we can look to October 27, the day this all concludes, where we will all be given a chance to either commit for the first time or recommit to what God is doing through proclaim. If you've been around Peace Church, you know he's doing an awesome work. We're going to recount some of that here today and in the coming weeks. But what I want us all to do is before we think about any sort of financial gift in a couple of weeks, right now I want us just to stop and press into God. Can we do that? Let's do that together. So you have your devotional, I know you do. It was on your seat. Turn to page one. Now what we're going to be doing is we're going to be walking through a passage in the Bible together for the next three weeks. It's a little known passage that people don't get to a whole lot. Comes from the book of 2 Chronicles. It's 2 Chronicles chapter 15. This is the story of King Asa. I'm excited to get into it. We're going to look at King Asa and his response to a prophetic word that he gets from a prophet named Azariah. Now if you want to use the Bibles we provided, that is on page 467. You can turn there now. But as you see on your devotional, if you want to follow along, you don't have to do what you want. But your first feeling would be this, and it's the title of today's message. And it's take courage, take courage. As we look at second Chronicles, chapter 15, verses one to seven is what we're gonna be looking at today. As with all things at Peace Church, we're going to use Scripture as our inspiration and our foundation for our path forward. But this is a passage that I know you probably don't get to 2 Chronicles a whole lot, let alone chapter 15. And so coming to this, you may be a little lost as to what's going on. So I just want to take a moment, set the context so that you understand what's happening in this passage. Some of you love the history, some of you not so much but we're gonna talk about the history what's going on here because it's important to lay the context for what's happening so at this point we're clearly we're in the Old Testament at this point in biblical history God's people the Israelites are split into two different kingdoms the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom the northern kingdom was just called Israel of the original twelve tribes of Israel it had 10 of the tribes then we had the southern kingdom The southern kingdom was named Judah. It's where Jerusalem was that and it only had two of the kingdoms now The northern kingdom had nothing but bad Kings nothing, but apostate heretical Kings who Were against the God of the Bible they brought people away from God and his heart. The southern kingdom had a mix of good and bad kings. Now the northern kingdom, because they only had bad kings, they were wiped off the face of the planet fairly quickly. But the southern kingdom endures for a while. Now the passage that we're going to get at happened around 900 BC. King Asa has assumed the throne of the southern kingdom. King Asa great-great grandson of King David You guys know King David Turn to your neighbor and tell him what King David did a Lot is the answer He did a lot killed the Goliath wrote half the Psalms awesome guy Now this is King David's great-great grandson. His name is Asa King Asa comes to power But we need to know is that King Asa is a good king and he's known as a good king. He has kind of a rough ending, but he's known as a good king. But he assumes power, he assumes the throne after back-to-back wicked kings who did not follow Yahweh, who did not follow the God of the Bible. In fact, they set up temples and they set up places of worship to foreign and false demonic gods. But Asa comes in, and he's not having any of it. Asa comes in and he brings it, we call them reforms, but really what he does is he cleans house. He cleans house to bring people's heart back to God. And we find ourselves in chapter 15, but we're introduced to Asa in chapter 14. And one of the things that you see from Asa is right off the bat, he does what we all should do. He seeks the Lord. He does what we just sang about, you know, we sang we surrender all. I'm not sure how many of us actually surrender it all, but this is what Asa does, and this is why we still talk about him nearly 3,000 years later. So Asa begins to rid the land of foreign idols. He's a great leader. He brings social stability to the kingdom. He builds up the infrastructure. He strengthens the army. He seeks the Lord. He calls people to seek after the Lord and God blesses the kingdom with ten years, a decade of stability and peace. But then a foreign army attacks and this army is twice the size of Asa's kingdom. And so Asa has a choice. And what does he do? He seeks the Lord. It's a decisive moment for Asa. He seeks the Lord. He places it all before God and he cries out to God. And so, when this foreign army attacks, that's nearly twice the size, they're outnumbered roughly two to one, God brings victory to Asa and his kingdom. A massive upset, a massive victory. It's amazing. Everyone thought they're going to die, but they didn't. God brought this incredible military victory. And so Asa and his army, they're returning to Jerusalem. They're returning as victors. They're returning still with the blood and sweat of battle upon them. And as they're getting towards the city, the city's there welcoming back their heroes and this triumphant procession because everything's been so much better than what they anticipated. So they're getting to the city and that's where we're gonna pick up. That's where we're gonna pick up in our Bibles. So would you hear the word of the Lord? Second Chronicles chapter 15, we'll look at verses one to seven today. Would you hear God's word? 2 Chronicles 15:1-7 The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded, 2 and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 3 For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law, 4 but when in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them. 5 In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. 6 They were broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress. 7 But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.” This is God's word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father God, we are thankful for the work that you are doing in our midst. Thank you for the front row seat that we get to see. Give us the eyes to see all the more of what you are doing. Yes, Lord, we thank you for the Proclaim campaign. We do place it before you. We rely on you. The glory is yours and we stand humbled and grateful to be part of what you are doing in this world and in this church. Father, as we begin this spiritual journey, and as we look to your word today, Holy Spirit, would you please illuminate in our hearts your truth here today and for this spiritual journey so that we may be united with what you're calling us to do. And we do pray these things in the name of the risen Savior. In the name of King Jesus, we pray. And everyone said, Amen. All right, church, there's so much that we can draw just from these first seven verses, but we're gonna focus on just one main idea here today, and it is, I'll fill in if you wanna use that in your packets, it's here it is. Here's our main idea for today. In a world turning from Him, God calls us to take courage in Him. In a world turning from Him, God calls us to take courage in him. So, as we learn about what God did in and through Asa and the kingdom, let's talk about how we are to call to take courage today. We're going to look at how courage is about taking a stand. We're first going to see how we are to stand in the spirit, and then we're going to talk about how we are to stand in the contrast. So, first, let's talk about the courage to take a stand, to stand in the Spirit. Prayerfully, you have your Bibles open. Go back to verse one. It says this, "'The Spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Oded.'" So here we are introduced to this prophet named Azariah. He has some important things to say, but let me just say this real quickly. This is the only time we hear from this prophet. You may see the name Azariah elsewhere in the Old Testament. Those are different Azariahs. This is the only time we see this guy here I'm just a this is a side note is a total side note please hear me this this side no is definitely for everybody but I have a special burden on my heart to speak to the men for some reason right now is for everyone but my heart was speak to the guys right now this what this this little this little snippet of Scripture reminds me of is that your entire life, the entirety of your life, could be boiled down and remembered for only one thing you said and did. Ezariah lived a whole entire life. He had an incredible ministry, but we only get one thing. He has just a short little reference in the scriptures, but it's so powerful. Man, you're gonna live a long life prayerfully, but here's what I'm gonna say to you. Your life may be boiled down to just one thing you say and do. So mind carefully what you say and do, because you don't know what people will say. So say good things. Say courageous things. Say powerful things. Say good things. Say things that build up other people. Say things that call people's heart back to God. Keep Ezariah in mind. His entire life was summarized in one thing he said, and yours may be as well. So remember that whenever you come back to this passage. So Ezariah, the Spirit of God came upon him, verse 2, and Ezariah went out to meet Asa and he said to him, hear me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. So while the southern kingdom is given the blanket name of Judah, Judah was one of the two tribes of the southern kingdom. It was Judah and Benjamin. So when Ezariah says, listen up Judah and Benjamin, he's basically saying, I want everyone's attention. This goes not just for the king, not just for the army, this goes for the entire kingdom. And then he gives them a word from God. And Ezariah starts a prophetic speech with a theological truth about God. Here's what he says, continue in verse two. Says, the Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. So Ezariah is telling them to do exactly what he is actually doing in this very moment, standing in the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the prophet and he brings out a bold truth. But I know, and you probably do too, some cynical people are going to be critical of what is said here, but let me just try to understand what's being said here theologically. He says, The Lord is with you why you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. So here's how to understand this theological truth that we're looking at. If you want to leave God, in a sense, he'll let you. But if you stay with him, he'll never leave you. And that's not contingent upon your strength. Your strength will wax and wane. But if your heart is for God, He will never leave you." So church, don't just stand in God's love, although you should and we do. Stand in His spirits, the Holy Spirit, the living and breathing Spirit of God. And the Bible tells us that for those of us in the New Covenant, the Spirit dwells within us because Christians, the time of the Old Testament and the time of the Old Covenant is over and now through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we live in the new covenant and everyone said amen, amen, amen. And where the spirit no longer resides in the building, but the Holy Spirit resides in a people, the church of God, Christians. If you've called on the name of Jesus truly, then you have the Holy Spirit within you. And so it's time for you to take your stand before the kingdom of man and before God. Courage is about taking a stand, to stand in the Spirit, but let's also talk about standing in the contrast. Go to verses 3 and 7. Now let me ask you something. I want to know what you think. Would you say that people on a whole are forgetful people? I think so. I think on a whole we are forgetful people. Except, except for when someone hurts us. Then we never forget that. God being great and merciful to us when we don't deserve it, we'll forget that by the end of the day. But someone hurts us, we'll hold on to that for the rest of our life. We are interesting people, aren't we? God gives us so much goodness that we don't deserve on a daily basis, and yet we forget it before our eyes even fall asleep. But we hold on to hurt. What's with us that we'd want to hold on to hurt and just forget about goodness? And so what Azariah is doing here is he's trying to help them remember something. Because Azariah knows something about the human condition that you all just confessed, we're forgetful people. We forget so quickly. So Ezariah starts out with this theological truth and then he's going to turn their minds to help them remember something. And that's what verses 3-6 are. Verses 3-6 are a quick history lesson. These verses are speaking about a time known as the time of the judges. There's an entire book of the Bible dedicated to this time. It's called Judges. It's a 400 year span in Israel's history when God's people did not have a king. Now, if you've read the book of Judges, you'll know that really the book of Judges is just nothing but this retelling of this constant cycle that happens over and over and over for 400 years. The same lesson is being taught, but the people aren't getting it. See here's what happens in the time of the judges The people they don't have a king. They don't have a leader who's gonna call their hearts to God so it's kind of left to them as a people but these people have times of peace and prosperity and their hearts just kind of drift away from God and They forget God and they forget his love and they forget who he is and they kind of just say to God, I don't need you anymore. We got it. Things are good. And God is like, okay, if you don't want my goodness and I'll take it from you. And then what happens if you know the story, a foreign army comes in and attacks the people. And so what do the people do? They cry out to dad. They cry out to God and God in his goodness. He raises up a judge, a temporary leader who's going to come in and bring about some military stability and some victory and bring people's heart back to God. And there's peace for a time. And then that judge dies. And then what happens? The same thing over and over and over for 400 years. The same cycle. Why? Because we hold on to hurt and we let go of goodness. And we don't remember what God has done. And it doesn't take very long for people to forget God's promises towards us. And so as Uriah, he's reminding them of this history because he's trying to draw a contrast. He's saying our people went for so long through so much times of strife and brokenness, so many times of turning to God and he saves us, he saved them, and then later they reject God. And what he's saying is we are at this moment right now. Because don't forget the context. They're coming back from a military victory. And Ezraiah's like, hold the fanfare, hold the celebration, stop for a second, guys. This is where it all falls apart. If you know your history, this is where it all falls apart. God just brought us a massive victory, so we need to stay with him at all times. Don't get comfortable. Yes, God's going to bring us a time of peace and prosperity, but we need to press into God every single day. Don't forget the history. It's so easy to forget God when things are going good. That's what Ezra is doing. He's drawing a contrast between what was and what is. He wants to make sure that they don't repeat the past, so he gives them a quick history lesson so that he can remind them, we're not that people anymore. Things are different now. The history's changed. We are a new people, so don't fall back into the old ways. He's saying those were terrible times. Don't repeat the past. He's drawn a contrast between the people then and the people now and he does it with these two very powerful words. If you underline in your Bible, I'd encourage you to underline these, the first two words of verse seven. I love this, but you, as arise making a distinction. He's drawing a contrast between what was and what is, between who they were and who they are now. Some of us need to make that distinction in our lives. Some of us need to keep that contrast between who you were outside of faith in Jesus and who you are now that you are in Christ. But you, but what does he say? Look at your passage. But you take courage. Do not let your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded. As Uriah is saying, yes, those terrible times are over, but they can come back in an instant. So stay the course. Be courageous. Don't grow faint. Keep the faith. Men, be courageous. Teenagers, be courageous. Young adults, do the right thing. Keep the faith. God says your work will be rewarded. What that just means is that you be faithful to God, he's going to respond favorably to you. I'm not saying it's all going to go well, but God will do something good. Remember the context. The people and the king, they're returning from a massive victory. The prophet says, you've had a massive victory, but make sure you give all the glory to God because you would not have had that victory without Him. It is His victory. He gets the glory. Don't celebrate yourselves, celebrate Him. Same warning goes for us, Peace Church. We've had an incredible year of year one of this campaign. It'd be very easy to pat ourselves on the back. And I do say a massive thank you to this church for stepping out in such sacrificial faith. But this is God's glory. This is God's work. This is God's story that's unfolding. And thanks be to God that we get to be a part of it. Amen? Church, do you know a key way to know if you are keeping the faith? Do you want to know a key way to know if you are keeping the faith? You have contrast to your life. Contrast between who you were before Jesus and now that you are in Christ and contrast between who you are in Christ and the rest of the world. I'm not saying that makes you a better person, but I'm saying that there's contrast. That's how you know if you're keeping the faith. You want to know how you're not keeping the faith? You blend in. You blend in to how the world operates and how the world thinks. But we are to have contrast in our lives. So is there contrast in your life? Because contrast takes courage. I fully believe that God is pouring out His blessings on this campaign, but far from making us lazy or apathetic, this should make us humble. This should make us prayerful. This should keep us on our knees ever knowing, ever knowing that this is God's work as we rely on Him. And I'm telling you now, as a church, not just individually, as a church, this takes Holy Spirit level empowerment and encouragement. Because we don't have prophets speaking a new word from God. We have the Holy Spirit reminding us of the Holy Word of God. I'm gonna say something, I'm gonna say it once, even though I wanna say it a lot, I'm gonna say it once, so listen up. You don't need a word from God, you need to read the Bible. Lord, I wanna say it again, but I won't. There's lots of word from God in there. And with it, the truth and the encouragement to be courageous in this world. So saturate yourself in the word of God and I guarantee the spirit of God will meet you there. Next week, we're going to look at some of the bolder ways and the bold ways that King Asa and the people respond to this exhortation from Ezariah. But right now, let's just stop for a second and let's consider a challenge. See, Ezariah was called, Ezariah called Asa to respond with courage. So let's talk about how we're going to respond in courage right now. So here's my question for you. Is your courage proclaimed? Is your courage proclaimed? As King Asa lived out his courage, let's consider two ways in this moment we are in, how we might proclaim, that is to make known or put on display the courage we now have in Christ. So here's the first thing I want you to consider. Is your courage proclaimed in your spirit-filled obedience? Now I know that if you're American in the house, we are freedom-loving Americans. We do not like the word obey or obedience. So let's consider it another way. What governs your life? Because the truth is, you obey something. For too many of us, we obey our sinful nature. But we obey something, whether it's a moral code or an elected governor. But only one form of obedience actually brings the freedom our hearts long for, and that's when we obey God. Jesus Christ said some amazing things. He said some hard things. But he said that if we follow Him, then we'll know the truth, and the truth will set us free. Following Christ leads to freedom, freedom from sin, freedom from having to live up to cultural standards, freedom from societal pressures. Church, what God is doing in our midst is unbelievable. Last year, we announced that our little church here in Middleville, Michigan, we were ranked in the top 100 fastest growing churches in the United States. And there's like over 350,000 churches in the United States. And last year we were in the top 100 fastest growing churches. That was amazing. We celebrated that. We were thankful for that. But we kind of looked at our square footage and we're like, okay, this is coming to an end because we just simply don't have the space right now, which is why we're doubling the size of our worship center, but we said, hey, we don't wanna see people stop coming to faith in Jesus, so let's plant a church in Wayland. So we've planted a church in Wayland, God's exploding that in incredible ways. And then, and then two weeks ago, I got news that for a second year in a row, we made the top 100 fastest growing churches in the United States, that somehow God made a way when space felt so limited. I'm not saying this to brag whatsoever. I'm saying this so that we can all understand the gravity of the weight of decisions that we need to make. And one of the things that we've said at Peace Church is that we don't want to just get big and bloated. We want to stay big and effective and connected. We want this big church to feel like a big family where everyone has a place and feels connected. And so we have a massive push for community groups. That's our small group ministry. You know that where we want people to get together in smaller groups to stay connected. And so we need people stepping up to be community group leaders. Now about a week and a half ago, I was talking to this couple about hosting a community group. I said, hey, would you please consider hosting a community group? And they said something, said some things that kind of broke my heart. They said, we don't want to host a community group because we're scared that people will judge our house. You open up your house to a community group and someone comes in and judges your house, you tell your lead pastor. Now invite them to a couple other churches in the neighborhood. And then they said this, my heart broke for that, and then they said, and we don't want to clean our baseboards every single week. Listen, church, we know that following Christ in this broken world is hard. In fact, it's so hard that Jesus recognizes it. And he even said to us, it's a good thing that he goes back to heaven, because when he gets there, he's going to send the Holy Spirit to fill us and to guide us. And so here's what I'm saying to you. I don't think to say, I don't want to host the community group because I have to clean my baseboards every week. That doesn't sound like a Holy So my question for you is, are you also giving answers that are not Holy Spirit led? When you give an answer to something that is a call from God or a call from your church, does your answer smell like the Holy Spirit? Or does it smell like selfishness or pride or something like that. Here's the question for us. If God has sent us the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us, and we're meant to stay in step with him, then our answers to his call will be informed and fueled by him. And there will be an alignment with him. So the question I have before you is, are you responding in ways that feel like it's the Holy Spirit leading you or comfortability. Christians, does your life courageously proclaim that you walk in step with the Holy Spirit? Because that's what it means to walk in step with the Spirit. That's what it means to have a Holy Spirit filled obedience is that your responses feel like a Holy Spirit level response. Verse one, the Spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Odad, and he went out. I love the simple things. I'm a simple man. I love the simple things we see in scripture. Verse two, those first four words, and he went out. That's just responding. Some of us just need to respond to what the Spirit's calling us to do. And he went out. The Holy Spirit came upon him and he obeyed. Christian, let the same be said of you as we look to a Holy Spirit-led courageous obedience in this world. And so, that's very generic. Let's get actually uncomfortably specific here for a moment. Can we do that? Is your courage proclaimed in your contrast-showing finances? Now, I don't mean proclaimed as in you go out and brag about how much you make or how much you give, even. But in our world, here's what I'd say to you. When we have a faith-based approach to our finances and when God's mission comes first in our lives, that's going to be clear whether we tried to hide it or not. Unfortunately, we live in a society like many others where we venerate those who have a lot of money, but I'll tell you right now, I'm more impressed by those who balance generosity and stewardship. Oh, oh, you paid cash for your truck, did you? Well, that's commendable, but did you rob God to do it? Or did you pay cash for your truck after you gave your first fruits to God and His work in this world? The challenge is very, very simple, my friends. Does God come first in your finances? Meaning, do you give to God before you do anything else with your money? If he's not first in your finances, then he's not first in your life. And this will be hard for some of you to hear, but if God is not first in your finances, then you are not in step with the Holy Spirit or God's will for your life. My prayer is that if when you look around at what God is doing here at Peace Church, you don't first immediately think of sticks and bricks, although we are so excited about what's happening. But this is about building a place where God's kingdom can go forth, and why would you not want to be a part of it? So depending on where you are in your faith journey, let me just give you some specific challenges as we close up. First one is this. Maybe for some of us, it's time just to look at your finances and simply start setting aside God's portion first. Before Uncle Sam gets his, before you think about your bills, before you think about anything else, it's time to sit down and just make a commitment that, God, you come first in my finances. And I'll just tell you, I'm not preaching at you. I want to set the example for this as well. My wife and I, I'll be transparent with you. My wife and I, when we get my paycheck, my wife doesn't have a paying job, but I do, when we get paid, when I get paid, the very first 10%, before Uncle Sam gets his cut, the very first 10% goes back to God's work through the local church without strings attached. We're not going to funnel our tithe to our favorite little accounts. It's a sacrificial gift to God, laying at the altar for Him to do with what He, for Him to do with it what He wants. But it doesn't stop there because we're excited about what God is doing elsewhere in this world. So we give on top of that to other causes that are near and dear to our hearts. I'll share more about that if you want. One of the things that we have a close heart for is the pro-life cause. So we give to pro-life causes. And then on top of that, we also give to Peace Church in other ways. If there's other needs that the church has, not to mention specifically thinking of the proclaim campaign. I am not telling you this to flex or to brag. I'm saying this as your leader to say, I will set the example first. I would never call you to do something that I myself am not also doing, but for some of us, we just tie. Maybe it's time just to sit down and say, all right, Lord, you're going to come first. Now, what does that mean? And then you seek the Lord. Second, maybe it's time to prayerfully commit to giving to the Proclaim campaign for the first time. Maybe you need to go to the Lord and seek the Lord for an amount that he's calling you to give and ask God, Lord, don't give me a comfortable amount. Give me a faith-filled, sacrificial amount to your work through the Proclaim campaign. Thirdly, maybe it's time to renew your commitment so that we can end strong, or maybe for some of you, because you've been blessed or because you look at the blessings that God's been giving to this church, and it's time to not just recommit to your amount, but maybe it's time to consider what it means to increase your amount in your pledge to what God is doing here. But here's what I'm gonna tell you. This is how beautifully personal our God is. He's gonna give a different answer to every single person. The way that God calling you to respond may not be the way he's calling to the person next to you, or the person in front or behind you. What I'm calling you to do, what I'm asking you to do is you, through this spiritual journey, seek the Lord and say, Lord, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to give? How do you want me to contribute to this? And then allow God through prayer and through seeking his word to give you that answer. For wherever you are at, here's one thing I'm gonna tell you, I want this spiritual journey to be a primary way how you discern what God's calling you to do. So engage the spiritual journey. Seek the Lord through scripture. Seek the Lord through prayer. But let me just take one step back real quick. I know some of you are in a financial pinch and you can't even cover your bills, let alone thinking about being generous. Here's what I wanna say to you. We wanna help you get to the point where you've got margin in your life to be generous in the ways that your heart longs for. We wanna help you with that. So please reach out to us. If you are in a financial state of unhealth, we want to get you to a faithfully, financially healthy place. If you are unsure about the Proclaim campaign, again, Pastor John will be in the family room, right behind the Worship Center, after each service in this sermon series, to give a short presentation on Proclaim and to answer any questions that you may have about it. We want you to be informed as you make this decision and you discern what God is calling you to do. But church, we are at a moment where we get to respond to God doing something extremely unique and wonderful. How and why would we not want to respond to that? And before you respond to God's work through a campaign that a church is doing, no matter how wonderful it is, the very first thing you should respond to is the fact that Jesus Christ gave up his life for you. So that you could have life and life to the full, so that you could be welcomed back into the presence of God, so that your eternity could be made secure, so that you could experience the love of God, because you can only experience the true love of God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen? So let's stand now and stand in that love as we sing of it. Church, let me remind you, in a world turning from Him, God calls us to take courage Church, let me remind you, in a world turning from Him, God calls us to take courage in Him. So take courage now as you respond in faith through worship.

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, September 22, 2024 Calling Out Cultural Lies 1 JOHN 4:7-12 The Lie of Love is Love 2 Overview Main Idea: God is love - and we know this because of Jesus Christ. Sermon Outline: 1. Known in our spirit (vv 7-8) 2. Shown in our Savior (vv 9-10) 3. Completed in our connections (vv 11-12) 3 Pre-Questions How does the statement “Love is love” reflect contemporary culture’s view of love? What are the potential dangers of reducing love to a mere emotion or preference, as the phrase might suggest? 4 Questions How does the biblical definition of love differ from this cultural perspective? Refer to passages like 1 Corinthians 13 and John 15:13. How do love and truth coexist in the Bible? Why is it essential that they are not separated? How does the Bible call us to love others in a way that includes accountability and correction (see passages like Matthew 18:15-17)? Why might some people view accountability as unloving, and how can we gently correct this misconception within our communities? How can we lovingly engage with those who hold to the “love is love” ideology while staying faithful to biblical truth? How can the church and its members model a love rooted in truth and accountability rather than mere affirmation? PDF Download