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Israel Sermon Series: The Church Never Preaches On... Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Romans 9:1-8 Transcript Awesome. Well, hey everyone great to see you all this morning. My name is John I get to serve as the executive pastor of teaching here at Peace Church Great to be with you whether you're here in the worship center over in the chapel downstairs in the family venue or joining us online Hey, we're in the middle of a series called the church never preaches on You all got to send in topics or questions you wanted to hear about and we here we are to talk about them and this morning I get to address what is the second highest voted question of the series and here it is. Is Israel still God's chosen people? We're going to talk about that this morning We're going to address the question that has been asked in a few different ways I want to just share with you put on the screen a few of the different ways that you all sent in this question that We're going to address this morning Here we go. Is there a difference between Israel and the New Testament Church? Is Israel part of the New Covenant? Will every Jewish person be saved? What is replacement theology? What is Israel's role in the end times? These are hard questions, but we're going to tackle them this morning, and so after this morning it can never be said, the church never preaches on. Is Israel still God's chosen people? So if you've got a Bible, would you please grab that and open with me to the book of Romans in the New Testament, Romans chapter 9. We're gonna be looking at verses 1 through 8. If you're in one of our worship venues this morning and you don't have a Bible, there should be one right around you somewhere. Blacktop, somewhere laying nearby. Grab one of those and follow along with us this morning. Now, let me be clear at the beginning that this is a sermon. This is not a political commentary. I am not that guy. I don't have those skills. If you're looking for a Christian perspective on politics and the news of the day, I'll recommend a podcast that I listen to on a regular basis. It's by a guy named Al Mohler. It's called The Briefing. It's a podcast that comes out every morning. He goes through the headlines of the day and talks about it from a Christian perspective. I think it's great stuff. But I'm not that guy. I'm not an expert in the Middle East. I'm not a military strategist. I'm not even a news junkie. But we're gonna talk about an important theological topic for the church today. Now, many of you might remember going back all the way to October of 2023 in the news, some terrible things happened to the modern day nation of Israel. They were the victims of a horrible act of terrorism in which people were murdered, raped, taken hostage, injured. That's an awful inexcusable thing to happen in our world. The anti-Semitism that we see today happening in our country is an awful inexcusable thing. But this morning, our topic is not the news of the day or the politics of the day. Our topic is theological. How can Christians think about the relationship between the church and the nation of Israel according to the Bible. So what I am is a pastor. And what I have to share with you this morning is God's word. That's what we're gonna dig in to today and answer this question, the question of many people in our church about how biblically is the relationship after the coming life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, after that, how do the nation of Israel and the church relate to each other? Are there two peoples of God or is there just one?Is there another way to be saved apart from Jesus for the Jews? Should we Christians be trying to tell the Jewish people about Jesus or should we just leave them alone? At the end, will Christians be raptured out of this world while God goes back to dealing with Israel? Are we witnessing today modern day fulfillment of prophecy and should we be expecting the end of all things at any time? Regardless of what's going on in the news I think these are questions that Christians should be asking and the Bible gives us answers to them So would you join with me in reading Romans chapter 9 verses 1 through 8 then we'll pray Then we'll get to work Romans 9 here we go. The Apostle Paul writes... Romans 9:1-8 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,[a] my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. Amen. We're going to stop right there for the sake of time. I encourage you later this afternoon to read the rest of that chapter. Some great stuff in there, but we're going to dive into it. Let me pray for us and we'll get to work. Father in heaven, we give you all the glory and all the praise this morning for who you are and for what you've done. God, I pray that you would be with us right now. Open up our minds, our ears, our hearts to hear what you would have to say to us. God, I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit as a broken instrument to bring your word, your perfect word to your people. God may you be glorified in all this and may we be transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus. God, we love you. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, hey, as we get into it this morning, we're going to look at three basic points walking through this text. Number one, we should have a heart for the lost. Number two, we should value God's history. And number three, God never fails. 1. We should have a heart for the lost So would you join me in jumping into that first point, that we should have a heart for the lost. Take a look with me at the first couple of verses of Romans nine. Oh, let me read them again. I'm speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for I could wish that I myself were a cursed and cut off from Christ For the sake of my brothers my kinsmen according to the flesh now you might know that most of the characters in the New Testament most of our main characters that we know of the disciples of Jesus and other people in the New Testament. They were Jews. They were Jewish people the the story of the New Testament takes place in the nation of Israel. The Apostle Paul himself calls himself a Jew of Jews. At one point in the scriptures, he was a Jewish man. He was not just a Jewish man, but he was a leader. He was a Pharisee, a religious leader, a teacher of the Old Testament and of Judaism until Jesus gets a hold of him, until everything changes when he meets the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior. And the Apostle Paul turns and actually becomes one of the major leaders of the New Testament church after before being somebody who persecuted and killed Christians. He actually ends up and goes and writes a majority of the New Testament, part of the Bible. And in the letter of Romans that we're in this morning, at this point, the Apostle Paul has just finished a long section on how amazing it is that God's grace comes to us through Jesus. He's been talking about how you and I have been born into sin. You and I sin against God. We deserve justice as a result of our sins, but Jesus Christ, He came and He lived the perfect life of righteousness that we couldn't live. He died the death for sin that we should have died and He rose from the grave so we could have new life by putting our faith in Him. He's been telling that gospel story and he gets to Romans 9 and he reflects with sadness on the fact that most of his blood relatives have not received this Savior. He says in the passage, I have great sorrow, unceasing anguish. You hear him say that he even contemplates the idea of taking their place if that were possible. Have you ever felt that way? Do you have somebody in your life that you care so much about and they don't know Jesus that you could say with the Apostle Paul, my heart breaks, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish because this person that I care so much about, they don't know Jesus. Do you have a heart for the lost, the way the Apostle Paul has a heart for the lost? Our hearts should break for people who don't know and have a relationship with Jesus. Paul goes on to say that he wishes he could almost, he almost wishes he could take their place. Now you and I know that that's not possible. The Apostle Paul knew that that wasn't possible. There's only one person who can take the place of us for our sin That one person is jesus There's only one way that we can be saved and it's by Jesus, he's the only one who lived a perfect life He's the only one who's of infinite value and can pay for our infinite sin. He died he rose There's only one person who can save us x412 says it this way. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Whether you're a Jew, a Gentile, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, an atheist, there is only one way to be saved, and that's through Jesus. Amen? There's not two, there's not three, there's not four ways to be saved. There's only one, only one who can take away our sin. And the Apostle Paul knows this. This is why his heart breaks, because he knows that there's only one path to salvation. He doesn't say, hey, you know, my blood relatives out there, I'm hoping the best for them. I'm hoping they'll find their own way, their own path to God, their own route to heaven. He's not saying that. He's saying I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish because I know that there's only one way and a majority of my blood relatives have rejected it. That's why Paul's heart breaks. That's why our hearts break, right? That's why we send missionaries across the world. This is why we spend money and send people. This is why people are willing to go across the world and die on the end of a spear to bring the name of Jesus to people who haven't heard it. Because they know that there's no other way for them to be saved. No, there's no other path that they're gonna find. We must learn other languages, translate the Bible, send, go, risk our lives. You and I must go through awkward conversations sometimes with friends or family members trying to explain to them, hey there's only one way and you got to know it and I want to tell you about it and his name is Jesus. This is why we do this. This is why we pray day after day, week after week for people we care about because there's only one way for the lost to be saved, and it's through Jesus. So brothers and sisters, I gotta ask you a question. Who is your one? Do you have a one person in your life that you know, that you love, that you care about, that doesn't know Jesus, and that at least three, four times a week, you're praying, Lord, please change their heart. Lord, please open their eyes, that they would see their sin, that they would see Jesus the Savior, that they'd receive him. That you're regularly trying to invite to church, that you've maybe sat many times with and poured out your heart and explained the good news of the gospel and they're not ready to receive it yet, but you keep trying and you keep praying. Who is your one person in your life? At least one person in your life. That you stay up an extra 5-10 minutes a night and pray for their heart. If you don't have a one, you need one. Every Christian should have one. I got to be honest, for us I think in West Michigan this can be a little harder. I was raised, I grew up in West Michigan, I still live here. Many of us in West Michigan, we've got our family, we've got our close friends that we've had for years and years and years. We get plugged into a church and we serve at church, and it can be really easy for some of us, if you're new to this area, maybe this isn't a struggle for you, that's awesome, but for those of us who have been here a while, we can get that little bubble of people, our family and our close friends and people we go to church with, so that you might be actually thinking to yourself, I don't know if I have any good friends who don't know Jesus. Let me tell you something. If you don't have a good friend who doesn't know Jesus, you need another friend. You gotta go make one. You gotta go to the park. You gotta go volunteer somewhere. I mean, whatever it takes. You need a friend in your life who you care deeply about who doesn't know the Lord. So, brothers and sisters, who is your one? Do you have a heart for lost people? The way the apostle Paul has a heart for lost people. 2. We should value God's history Second point we're gonna see here in the text this morning is that we should value God's history, his story, history, God's story, his story. Take a look at verses four and five with me. He says, they are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs and from their race, according to the flesh is the Christ who is God overall blessed forever. Amen. So Paul's been, I've been talking about the gospel. Then he starts to reflect on his blood relatives. And now he reflects on this sad situation and adds some reasons that it's so sad. He thinks about the amazing history of God's work with the nation of Israel. He thinks about the Old Testament. Thinks about how amazing it is that out of all the peoples on the earth that God would choose one to be his special people. Let me just walk through this list of things that the Apostle Paul lines out. We can spend a whole sermon on each one of these, but I'm just gonna say a few words about each So look at the list with me. He says he says the adoption Do you know that God? Adopted one people out of all the nations to be his special people out Deuteronomy 7 verse 6 is it this way? For you are a people holy to the Lord your God the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured Possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth God adopted one to be his special people. It says, the glory. The Israelites saw God's glory, didn't they? There's some moments in the history of the Old Testament that I wish I could have seen. I think about when God took his people out of Egypt, out of slavery, and remember, they come out to the Red Sea. They've seen the 10 plagues, they've seen all these things. God's brought them out of 400 years of slavery, and now they're standing on the edge of the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army is bearing down on them with spears and swords and chariots. And what does God do? God splits the sea. Nothing can stand in the way of God rescuing his people. And as if that wasn't enough, right, they turn around and the chariots are bearing down on them. And what does God do? God sends a pillar of fire out of the sky to stand between the Egyptian army and his people while they cross. The Israelite people got to see the glory of God. It says the covenants, God made covenants with Abraham, with Moses, with David, the God of the universe doesn't have to, doesn't have to make promises. He doesn't have to sign contracts. And yet he comes down and he meets with Abraham. You remember the ceremony, they cut the animals in half and they walk between them. And God essentially says, uh, so be it to me, I bet my, I put my life on this promise that I will be with you, that I will love you, that you will be my people forever. God didn't have to do that, but he does. The giving of the law. The Israelites received the law of God. He took stone tablets and God with his own finger wrote out the Ten Commandments and gave it to them. The worship. God came down in the temple. The people could go to the temple and God's presence was there with them. That's an amazing thing. The promises. God made promises to the Israelites. He promised Abraham that your descendants will be as many as the stars, as many as the sand on the sea. Says the patriarchs, that's Abraham and Isaac and Jacob before Israel was ever a nation. They were just one family and God was with them. Says the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, it came from the line of the people of Israel. Israel has a special place in the history of God's people. That is undeniable. It's amazing to reflect on all that God has done with them. You and I should value God's history. Brothers and sisters, we can't neglect the Old Testament. Throughout the history of the church, unfortunately, there have been some who have neglected the Old Testament. Maybe you've heard of some of these people, some Christians have said the Old Testament, well, that's for other people, that's not for us. That's not for us. They said, that's a different God, and now we have a new God. That was the God of wrath and justice and all that stuff, and now we have a God of grace. It's not true. Same God, Old Testament, New Testament. God has been faithful to his people for generation after generation after generation. It didn't start with you, it didn't start with me, it didn't start with our moms and dads, it didn't start with our grandmas and grandpas. It goes back over the course of thousands of years that God has been walking faithfully with his people. At one of the passages we're gonna look at in just a minute, we find out that if we have faith like Abraham, then we are children of God and the Old Testament is our family story. When we look back at the Old Testament, we don't see somebody else's story, we see our story. When I go through moments of doubt in my life, when I go through hard times, and I'm thinking, is God still good? Will he be faithful? Will he walk with me even though this is an incredibly hard time? When I have those questions, when you have those questions, one of the things that we can do is look back, not just at our own lives, but look back across the generations at stories of God's faithfulness. I think of Psalm 77, the psalmist is having one of those hard times and he asks Has God forgotten to be compassionate? Has his grace run out? But he finally comes around and he says, I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high. And he spends the rest of Psalm 77 recounting God's faithfulness over the generations well before him. Brothers and sisters, we should value God's history, God's story. 3. God never fails Number three, God never fails. Now we're circling to our main question again here. Take a look at verses 6 through 8 with me. But it is not as though the Word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham, because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as his offspring. So we come back to our main question. Is Israel still God's chosen people? I think as the Apostle Paul is writing verse six, he's probably thinking of passages like 2 Samuel 7 24, where God promises that Israel will be his people forever. Let me read it to you. And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. So the Apostle Paul has in his mind promises like this one. But then he's thinking about the current situation that he's just seen, where Israel has rejected the Messiah who came. Jesus was rejected by his own people. The whole Old Testament is about Jesus. The whole Old Testament is about his coming. And finally when he comes, the Messiah is rejected. What do we do with that? I'll add to it. We have passages in the New Testament that call the church God's people, using language from the Old Testament. This is 1 Peter 2 verse 9. It says, You are a chosen race, this is Peter writing to the church, You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. What do we do with these things? What do we do with the fact that God promised that Israel would always be his people and yet when the Messiah came, they rejected him? And that in the New Testament, the Bible calls the church, the combination of Jews and Gentiles, Gentiles, by the way, is just non-Jewish people. The Bible calls the church, the combination of Jews and Gentiles, his people. What do we do with all that? Well, I think the answer comes in these couple of verses. And I think what these verses tell us is that scripture talks about an Israel by the flesh and an Israel by faith. I think it distinguishes between these two things. If you look at the second half of verse 6, it says, not all who are descended from Israel, okay, descended like bloodline, you know, natural generation, offspring, not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. The Apostle Paul draws a distinction between two references that the word Israel is pointing to. Verse 8 says it even more clearly, this means it is not the children of the flesh, children who have been born, descended down, bloodline, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise, or those who put faith in God's promises, are counted as offspring. Let me unpack this idea by walking through a couple of things. The first one I wanna walk through is this. I think there's a common misconception that people have, and it's okay if you've thought this. I thought this at one point. But a common misconception that people have is that in the Old Testament, people were saved by works, and the New Testament, people are saved by faith. But you and I if we think about it hard we really know that nobody can be saved by works. We think of Ephesians chapter 2 that tells us the salvation is by grace not by works. We think of passages like Romans 3 that says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Nobody can be saved by works. We can only be saved by faith. And actually that's always been the case. Let me let me point you to a couple of passages that say this is Genesis 15 in the Old Testament talking about Abraham says and he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. How did Abraham get saved? Not by works but by his faith. Romans chapter 4 New Testament reflecting on this says it this way, what then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. In the Old Testament people were saved by faith looking forward. Right, the whole Old Testament is actually about Jesus. The whole Old Testament points to man's sin and need for a savior, and that one day somebody would come who would live perfectly, who would die for their sin, who would conquer the grave. In the Old Testament, God's people were saved looking forward to a savior who would come. They didn't know what his name was going to be. You and I, in the New Testament, we are saved looking backwards on a Savior who has already come. And we get to know that his name was Jesus. But both are saved not by works, but by faith, by God's grace. Same God, Old Testament, New Testament. Same thing is true. If you're in a garage, doesn't make you a car. If you're in a church, doesn't make you a Christian. If you have Jewish blood, it doesn't make you a true child of Abraham, the scripture tells us. Let me give you another passage. Galatians chapter 3, another really important passage if you want to study this chapter later on. I'm just going to read to you a few verses out of this. This is verse seven and a few verses after that. Galatians chapter three. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith." What the Bible tells us is that true Israel, the children of God, God's people, are not those of a certain bloodline, but those who share the faith of Abraham. That's what the scripture tells us. Has God's promise for Israel to be his people forever? Has that promise failed? I hope you know that the answer is no. God's promises never fail. What the Bible tells us is that it was always God's plan. It was always God's plan for that promise to be way beyond one single family, one single nation. It was always designed to go way beyond bloodlines. It was always designed to go to those who are of faith. The plan was to save everybody who had faith like Abraham, for God's people to have everybody who has faith in God's promises like Abraham, for it to be people from every tribe and language and tongue. Here's Genesis 12 verse 3. Back Back at very early in the Bible, God promises to Abraham, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. Revelation chapter 7, the end of the Bible, says it this way. The apostle John is having a vision of heaven and of the end of all things. He says, after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, and all peoples, and all languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne it's always been God's plan to bring in people from every tribe and every nation all right now let me let me wind down by answering a few very specific questions I've got four of them. Question #1: Has the church replaced Israel? Number one, has the church replaced Israel? I think a much better word than replaced is the word fulfilled. We just got done saying that it's always been the plan. It's always been the plan for God's people to be so much more than a single family or a single nation, but to be of all nations. There is no denying the incredible special place that the nation of Israel has in the history of God's people. But it was always God's plan for it to go so much further. Let me read you a couple of passages. This is Galatians 3 verse 28. It says, There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to the promise. Most of the New Testament Tons of the arguments in the New Testament are made to explain that the Jews and the Gentiles are not two separate people But in the church, they become one people of God Ephesians 2 14 says it this way talking about Jesus He himself is our peace who has made us both one and is broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. The nation of Israel will always have a special place in the history of God's people, but it was always God's plan for him to have one people made up of many nations. Question #2: Should we share the Gospel with our Jewish friends? Question number two, should we share the gospel with our Jewish friends? We've already talked about the Bible tells us there's only one and it's Jesus. Nobody can be saved by following the Ten Commandments. Nobody can be saved by a sacrificial system sacrificing lambs or goats. Nobody can be saved by their bloodline. The blood of Abraham can't save anybody, but the blood of Jesus can. Salvation was always meant to be by faith in Jesus. Jesus is the Messiah that the Jews have been waiting for for generations. And that's the message that we want to share with them. So yes, if you have Jewish friends, yes, we have a calling as Christians to share the good news of Jesus with them so they can meet the one who is their Savior, the one they've been waiting for and looking for. I think there's some passages in Scripture that maybe point to the idea that there might be a mass revival among the Jews before the end of all things happen. And I sure hope that's the case. That'd be awesome. Many Jewish people coming to see that Jesus is the Messiah they've been waiting for and turning to faith in him. Question #3: Are current events in Israel a fulfillment of prophecy? Number three, are current events in Israel a fulfillment of prophecy? Is the end near due to what we see in the news? Well, Pastor Ryan and I got to address that question in a couple of episodes of our podcast called That's a Good Question. It comes out every Tuesday. You can find it at resoundmedia.cc , but if you want to scroll back in that podcast back to October of 2023, we did two episodes answering that question going into details on passages like Ezekiel 38 and 39 Revelation 20, Jeremiah 30 verse 7 talking about Gog and Magog and all those kind of things. I'm not going to go into the details here. I'm going to simply give you an answer that isn't going to be as exciting as you'd like it to be. Maybe, maybe, is the end near? Maybe. Are the things we see in the news a specific fulfillment of some of those prophecies? Maybe. But you know what Jesus said? Jesus said, I will come like a thief in the night. Jesus actually said, and I don't understand how this is even possible in the scheme of the Trinity, but Jesus said, I don't know. The Son doesn't know the day or the time of my return. Only the Father knows. Let me tell you something, if Jesus don't know, I don't know. And you don't know, right? How do you prepare for a thief in the night? You don't know when he's gonna come, you just always must be ready. That's what Jesus told us. You can't guess the day or the hour of my return, you just need to always be ready. And that brings us to our last question. What should Christians do right now? I've got two things I want to say to you. Number one, number one, don't be proud, but be faithful and fearful. This comes from Romans chapter 11. I think the Apostle Paul, just a few chapters after our passage of this morning, tries to apply this to the church. He says, he's talking about the nation of Israel. He says, they were broken off because of their unbelief. He's using the analogy of branches on a tree. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Those are sober words. Apostle Paul says to Christians, he says, hey, don't assume that because you go to church you're safe. Don't think that because mom and dad had faith you're safe. Don't think that because you do X, Y, or Z, or give, or are a relatively good person in the scheme of things compared to murderers and thieves, don't think that you're safe. The only way to be saved is by a relationship with Jesus. Christians, that's what we need to live by, faith in Jesus. Don't put our stock in a bloodline or in something that we do, but only in Jesus. Number two, what should Christians do right now? We should do the mission that God gave us. Before he left the earth, Jesus told us, "'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, "'baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them. To obey everything that I have commanded you and behold. I'm with you always the very end of the age Jesus gave us a mission make more disciples go and tell go and share There is limited time For us to do the mission God gave us when Jesus returns that mission will be over. It will be done. And there's only one way that people will get to spend eternity with the Lord, and it's when they put their faith in Jesus. So you and I have something to do while we're waiting. Amen? Would you please stand with me and let's close in prayer? Let me pray for us. Father God, we give you all the glory and the praise For what you have done throughout the history of your people God it's amazing to reflect on the history of your people and all that you have done You've been so faithful for generation after generation after generation God we praise you for that and God we thank you for Jesus the Savior who came to fulfill it all we thank you God That you have chosen to save us out of your mercy and grace. May you use us to take that good message of Jesus to the world. It's in Jesus' name we pray. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Live Distinct Sermon Series: Words To Live By Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Proverbs 24:13-22 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made So let us rejoice and be glad in it and everyone said... Hey, church. So here's the question. I want to start here with this morning when you think about your life And those who cared for you, those who invested in you, those who taught you, what did they teach you? What life lessons did they instill in you that you still hold on to today? And not only that but these lessons, did they sit you down and teach you these lessons? Or just by their life, and you observing their life, did they teach you? Because if you're like me, it's going to be a mix of both. It's going to be a mix of both, people actually sharing lessons with me and then me just watching their life. But here's what I'm going to say to you today. I tend to believe that in today's world, those life lessons aren't being instilled like they were. And the reason I'm saying that is because it's hard, it's hard to learn from those around you when your face is always on a phone. Parents and grandparents, I would say now more than ever, more than any other generation before, it takes great intentionality to pass on the wisdom of life from one generation to the next. And part of that wisdom that we need to be instilling in the next generation is that filter, is that process for how we make decisions. Because for Christians, for us to remain distinct in the world like we are called to, part of that distinction comes from the ways that we make decisions, the ways that we process and make decisions. Families in the house, if I were to ask your middle schooler or your high schooler, how does your family make decisions? Would they even begin to know how to answer that question? The intentionality needed to pass on wisdom and life lessons is great because in our world we are so busy and so distracted I would say more than ever before. Nearly 50% of Americans admit, admit to being addicted to their phone. How many more actually are? Of all the stats I'm going to share with you, this next one for me is the most disheartening. 45% of Americans say that their phone is their most valuable possession. Three-fourths of Americans feel uneasy about leaving their home without their phone. On average, we check our phones every four minutes. That's 344 times a day. Sometimes I feel like this is a picture of our culture. If you send someone a text, I bet you can't wait three minutes before you get frustrated about them not texting you back. On average, Americans spend three hours a day on their phone. It's estimated that in 2022, the average American spent a total of a month and a half on their phones. Not eight hours a day, 24 hours a day when you add it all together, a month and a half. And you know what's even sad about that? What's even sadder? That's a 30% increase from the year before. Our time and our focus, let's just say it, it's being wasted. It's being wasted. Here's the hard truth about all this. Christians are no different when it comes to this. When it comes to our time and our focus, are we really that distinct? And yet Christians are called to be distinct in this world. We are called to be a light in a dark place. It's hard to be that light when we model every other statistic that's out there that makes us all gasp and like, where do you think the stats come from? It comes from us. The challenge today is are we going to be distinct or not? We are called to be this in the world. Yes, current trends are We're going to go back, back 3,000 years to look at the wisdom that has stood the test of time. Wisdom from the book of Proverbs. We're in the middle of a series, we're in week four of five of a sermon series called Words to Live By. Wisdom the world has lost as we've been walking through verse by verse through Proverbs chapter 24. You can start heading there now, but I'm just gonna let you know that today the words to live by, the words that we're gonna look at today, are these two words. Live distinct. Live distinct. If you haven't yet, please turn to Proverbs chapter 24 verses 13 to 22. Tell your kids, tell your grandchildren, and live distinctly. As you turn in there, just a word about Proverbs. I love the book of Proverbs, not only because it's a collection of wise sayings, but it's a book that a man wrote to his son that he loves He loves his son and he's trying to teach his son how to live wisely in a foolish world. It's a man Loving his son teaching his son But teaching him in ways that I think honestly Rarely happen these days and so by the power of God's Spirit who inspired these words in their fullness. This is not just a book that a man wrote to his son. This is a book for anyone who wishes to be wise in a foolish world. So Proverbs chapter 24, verses 13 to 22, would you hear the inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient word of God? Hear God's word. Run, eat honey for it is good. And the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste. Know that wisdom is such to your soul. If you find it, there will be a future. And your hope will not be cut off. Lie not and wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous. Do no violence to his home. For the righteous fall seven times and rise again. But the wicked stumble in times of calamity. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased and turn away his anger from him. Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future. The lamp of the wicked will be put out. My son, fear the Lord and the King, and do not join with those who do otherwise, for disaster will arise suddenly from them. And who knows what ruin will come from them both. This is God's word. Let's pray, let's get to it, let's pray. Father God in heaven above, Lord, we ask that by the power and the presence of your Holy Spirit, Lord, you'd make us wise. Lord, that you'd make us wise. Lord, we ask for wisdom. Father, we ask that as we look at the past before us, Lord, you'd lead us to choose wisely. We'd choose what's right and by our choices, we'd let our light shine in the world so the world would see. They'd look at the church, they'd look at those who follow Christ and they'd see something better in us. They'd see people living distinctively and distinctly. And Lord, it's for your glory that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen and Amen. So our passage today says a number of interesting things, a lot of different ways we go with this. But if we're going to point to one main idea that I think we need to hear today, here's what I'd share with you. Part of our distinction, our distinction, between those who follow Christ, the church of Jesus Christ, part of our distinction comes from the wise choices that we make. And so as we walk through our passage, I think we're going to pull out three things here this morning. Number one, have the wisdom to choose enjoyment over entertainment. Have the wisdom to choose humility over jealousy and have the wisdom to choose righteousness over rebellion. You know, our distinction isn't just in these abstract concepts. Our distinction plays out in every aspect of our life. Our distinction is found in the choices that we make, too. In this passage, Solomon is helping us to, is helping to draw a contrast between the wicked man and the wise man. He's drawing a distinction so that his son will see the difference and choose wisely. He doesn't just pull his son aside and be like, boy, you best listen to me or you're gonna get a whooping. He's drawing a picture so that his son can see before him the difference between the righteous and the wicked and that his son will choose what is wise, not foolish. So a very practical question for you. That's also a very philosophical question for you would be simply this. How do you make decisions? Do you have a framework of wisdom that you employ when life's hard decisions come before you? Or do you just kind of like, ah, just take it as it comes, cross that bridge when I get there? The world's watching and we need to have something better than that. How do you make decisions? I'm not saying where you go out to eat. I'm saying the decisions that govern the trajectory of your lives and the quality of your lives. What is your process? What is your filter? How do you make decisions and are they distinct? Is that process distinct from our world and our culture's approach? And then there's the big one. Are you actually training your children in those ways? Are you sitting them down and explaining how your family, based on your values, makes decisions in this world and how we're not going to be like the world, but we're going to be distinct? So we're looking at wisdom today. So, as you consider instilling this in the next generation, my question and challenge for you is to make sure that you are living this out yourself because honestly, I weighed this upon myself and I found myself lacking in a number of areas. So let's together, let the spirit of God work through the word of God so that we might become more conformed to the image of God. So first, have the wisdom to choose enjoyment over entertainment. I'll be honest with you, Peace Church, you feel a little quiet today. And typically that translates into a sense of guilt. When I read those cell phone stats, I'll just be honest with you, the spirit of the room immediately changed. That's something you need to look in the mirror about. I've been doing it. We need to be doing it. I wonder, of those cell phone stats that we read, how many are you guilty of? Now this point that I'm going to make here about choosing enjoyment over entertainment, I think it's hidden in our text, but as I prayed over this text, this just kept coming back to the forefront, especially in light of those cell phone stats. So please, keep your Bibles open. Let's go to verses 13 13 and 14 My son eat honey for it is good and the drippings of the honeycomb are sweet to your taste Know that wisdom is such to your soul Okay, so do you get what's going on here Solomon is telling his son you are to enjoy the truly good things in life Why because the truly good things in life teach us about the truly good things in life wisdom makes life more enjoyable. Just as honey tastes good and makes things taste good, so wisdom makes life more enjoyable. It makes it fruitful and fulfilling, and that is a more enjoyable life. He's saying, let the good things in life teach you about the good things in life. But this isn't happening in our world because our world is choosing entertainment over enjoyment. We are mindlessly being entertained by the trap of consistent scrolling on our phones. We are entertained, but we're learning nothing. We're entertained, but we're wasting time. We're entertained, but we walk away feeling empty. Let me share something with you. That's not enjoyment. That's not living. That's not true enjoyment, which means it's a tool of the enemy, of the devil, to keep you distracted. Seriously, how many of you will spend an hour on social media or scrolling and walk away and think, you know what, that was a really great use of my time. I feel really great about my life choices here today. Nobody thinks that, and yet we all fall prey to it. Why? Now, I know some of you are gonna be like pastor, come on, are you saying that we just can't sit down and relax? Brother or sister, I am telling you, absolutely, you sit down and relax. Rest is godly, we are called to rest. But true rest will make you feel rested and fulfilled. It won't leave you feeling empty. You know, my favorite book outside the Bible speaks directly to this. Tell me if you've heard of this book. It's called The Screwtape Letters. It's my favorite book outside the Bible. It's not that I read that book every year, it's that I'm always reading that book. So if you're unfamiliar with this book, let me lay the context for you real quick. It was written by C.S. Lewis. It's a series of letters, fictional letters, that a demon wrote to a junior demon. And the senior demon is coaching this younger demon on how to lead people astray. So it's written from the perspective of the demonic. And so when it talks about the enemy, it's talking about God. The objective is not to get people to go to heaven, but the objective is to get people to go to hell. And chapter Nine speaks right to the heart of this. I want to read you a section from it. Again, remember, this is a demon coaching another demon on how to lead people astray. It says, never forget that when we are dealing with pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are in a sense on the enemy's ground, meaning God's territory. I know that we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is his invention, not ours. He made the pleasures. All of our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is encourage humans to take the pleasures which our enemy has produced at times or in ways and degrees which he has forbidden. Hence, we are always to try to work away from the natural conditions of any pleasure to that which is least natural, least redolent of its maker, and least pleasurable. An ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure is the formula. Now what Lewis is saying to us is that true pleasure, the truly enjoyable things in life come from God. The devil can't make any true fulfilling enjoyment for us. All he can do is take what God has made good and twist it. Sex is made for the covenant of marriage to be enjoyed in that relationship, but the devil takes it out of that relationship and it wreaks havoc on people and culture. Food is meant to be enjoyed and fulfilled, but the devil takes it and makes us all gluttons. People, we need to be wise to know that true enjoyment is fulfillment. When you are truly enjoying something, it fulfills you. But mere entertainment is emptiness. And all the good things in life, when they are enjoyed in the right way, they teach us about the good things in life because they give more than what they take. Honey tastes good on your lips, but it teaches us so much more. It teaches us about wisdom for your soul. So when it comes time to think about how we spend, yes, our money and how we spend our time, let true enjoyment be your choice, not mindless entertainment. Teenagers let me speak with you for a moment. Teenagers, I am so thankful that social media Social media was not a thing when I was in high school. Is anybody with me on that? Please I am begging you, I am begging you, don't waste your life scrolling on social media. Don't spend your life looking at the fake pictures of everyone else. Live your life. Don't waste your life scrolling. Spend time with your parents. Spend time with your grandparents, and parents, you better be living this so you can model this rather than letting social media do the influencing. I tell you what, church, when I play a game of Clue or Settlers with my wife and daughter, I may lose every stinking time, but I never regret choosing that time over my phone. And you know what, this isn't in my notes, I just feel called to share this. I just wanna empower your parents with some authority that you already have. Do you know what you can do? You can take the phone away. You can do that. And you know what else? You decide when they get it back. Fine. If I'm public enemy number one to the teenagers in the house, you'll thank me later. Have the wisdom to choose enjoyment over entertainment. And I would say you do this by asking one simple question. Here's a filter, here's a way to process the choices you have. Will this leave me feeling fulfilled or feeling empty? Chances are you already know the answer to that. Will this leave me feeling fulfilled or feeling empty? You'll never regret spending time with your family over scrolling on social media. Just like how honey is sweet to your lips, let the choices you make leave your soul feeling thankful. Have the wisdom to choose true enjoyment over mindless entertainment. Point number two, have the wisdom to choose humility over jealousy. Or have the wisdom to choose humility over jealousy. Now over these next six verses, verses 15 to 20, we see a common contrast that's painted all throughout the book of Proverbs. It's between the righteous and the wicked. So go back to your Bibles, and keep them open. Verse 15, lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous. Do no violence to his home. Verse 16, don't miss this. For the righteous fall seven times and rise again. Okay, a quick word on that. Something profound is being stated here. Seven. The number seven is a powerful number in the scriptures. It represents wholeness or completeness in scripture. So what Solomon is saying, he's saying is that the righteous, the righteous can be obliterated. They can be completely killed, but they will rise again. Foreshadow Jesus. By the way, the righteous will rise again, no matter what they face. The righteous fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity. This is a continual message throughout scripture, how those who are righteous and those who are wise will ultimately rise in the end. Even, even when it seems like the fool and the wicked win in the moment. People, when we see people gain money and fortune, and popularity at the moment that is still no cause to want to be like them. Easy for me to say you got to live this because disaster is coming for them but when it does the righteous are not to gloat the righteous are to stay humble because that's what good people do. Verse 17, do not rejoice when your enemy falls do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased and turn away his anger from him." Solomon is saying it's not your job to rain down justice. You stay humble. Solomon is saying let the Lord deal with them. It's not your job to gloat over them. You stay humble. Don't get jealous when you see wicked, evil people prosper for a time because it will not last. No matter what you accumulate on this side of eternity, you can't take it with you. Remember that when you see everyone else getting everything, you stay righteous and humble, because what's waiting for you is better. Verse 19 and 20, fret not yourself because they're evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future. The lamp of the wicked will be put out. What he's saying is don't worry about it when evil gets all the likes and all the love. Don't be jealous of that because it's headed nowhere good. Don't let your righteousness go to your head either. We stay humble in the midst of all of this because we are employing wisdom to choose humility over jealousy. And when you do, here's a question to ask yourself. When you look back on your life, would you rather have spent it being jealous or being humble? At the end of your days, when you look back on your life, would you rather have spent it being jealous of what everyone else has, or being thankful for what you had? How would you rather have spent your life? Because let me remind you, it was Jesus himself who said in Matthew 23, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. So have the wisdom to choose humility over jealousy. Thirdly, have the wisdom to choose righteousness over rebellion. Now I'm gonna warn you, we're gonna hang on to this one because this is an important point. Go to verses 21 and 22, this is so important, don't miss this. Verse 21, my son, fear the Lord and the king, or we might say today, honor God and the government. And do not join with those who do otherwise, for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both. I'm going to warn you, this is a very, very easy passage to misapply and misinterpret. So let's understand what Solomon is saying here. Now, on the one hand, it is easy to think that what Solomon is telling his son is to play it safe and to be dismissive, be submissive. Don't disrespect those who can crush you. But listen here, yes, there is wisdom in obeying authority because that comes from the humility of knowing your place, but nowhere in scripture does it say to give up your morals for the sake of security. The apostles tell the authorities in the New Testament that they must obey God rather than man, even when it means breaking the law. But I think what this verse hits on, I think what this verse hits on is so important because it really pushes back on a popular cultural notion that we have today, and that's one of our cultures idolizing bad boys. Our world and our culture talks about rebellion like it's always a good thing. And what this verse is saying to us is, no, it's not. If your objective isn't first about righteousness, then we're on a collision course with disaster for no reason. If your general outlook in life is to be in opposition to authority over you, then chances are that stems from jealousy or that stems from pride, which means it's leaving nowhere good. And either God or the government will come and strike you down. And this is difficult for us Because you know and I know exactly how our culture works Everyone likes the bad boys and nice guys finish last Just look at who gets all the love and likes on social media And so when you're talking with your son or with your daughter teach them to be distinct in this world to value what is righteous because that is what the wise do. The wise choose righteousness over rebellion, not because we play it safe, but because we do what's right, knowing that those who are wise and those who are righteous, have a future that will last, but that only comes from wisdom and righteousness before the Lord. My question for you is who is teaching this to our children? Who's passing this down? Because they're picking up the complete opposite online. Are we sitting down and confronting this? Is the previous generation doing this for the next generation? Who is setting this example? And the beautiful thing is that when we turn to the pages of Scripture, we see a person who both teaches this and sets this example perfectly. When we look at the life of Jesus Christ, his words were wisdom. His life was always in contrast to those around him. He was distinct. Jesus chose enjoyment over entertainment. Jesus perfectly embodied Psalm 1, which says that his delight, his delight, his enjoyment was in the law of the Lord because Jesus knew that joy comes from the Lord Almighty. Never once in scripture did we see Jesus wasting his time on things that didn't bring fulfillment or fulfillment to those around him or bring glory to God because Christ spent time with God. He spent time with people. He spent time in the scriptures. He spent time in prayer. Jesus always spent his time wisely. Jesus was also the most humble. He didn't come to be served, He came to serve. He told us to follow Him because He was gentle and lowly in heart. He was humble. Jesus knew no jealousy. He never longed for what another person had. He never wanted to be someone else. He didn't stand and gloat over the misfortunes of others. He was not jealous or envious. He was humble. He was gloriously righteous. He didn't seek to rebel for rebellion's sake, whether it was the religious leaders or the Roman government. Jesus sought to do nothing but to be perfectly righteous before God, even when that righteousness put him at odds with those in authority over him. And that ultimately led him to the cross, because Jesus claimed to be something that they could not tolerate God the Son the Savior of the world And so they nailed him to a cross and that was the righteousness of God the judgment of God Because Jesus took our place on the cross, even though he was perfectly sinless Jesus went to the cross in our place Taking our sin and it was righteousness that brought him there It was the love of God being shown that He hung His Son on the cross instead of us. And by His death, judgment had come. But make no mistake, Jesus' death on the cross was not a defeat. It was a victory. The victory that we have in the death of Christ is that death itself was defeated. Because Jesus' death gave way to his resurrection and his resurrection to life again is our promise and our guarantee of new life. And so when we talk about words to live by, our words to live by is Jesus himself who is the word of God made flesh. He is the word to live by because by him we have life. And so as you consider your life choices, I'm telling you right now, you've got one choice to make, and that is to choose Jesus Christ. To place your faith in Him and let the wisdom of God flood your life, let the love of God flood your life. And live a life marked by distinction as we follow Christ, that our choice is about seeking what is wise and what is good and righteous before God. Wise not according to the world a distinction guided by faith in Christ as we have wisdom. Wisdom to choose enjoyment over entertainment. Wisdom to choose humility over jealousy and wisdom to choose righteousness over rebellion. Church, go and be distinct because you live by wisdom, which is the name of Jesus. Amen. Please stand. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads. And if you're like me, if you want and need more wisdom in your life, I want you to just push your hands out like you're going to receive a gift. Father God, we come before you. Lord, we know that you hear the prayers of your children because of Jesus. And so, Father, we humbly ask for wisdom. Wisdom in this foolish world that we would choose what is right and righteous. And, Father, I pray for those who have yet to make a choice for Jesus. Father, I pray that today is the day of salvation, that they may know the love of God that is only available through Christ, that to cast aside their sin and replace their faith in the one who's paid the penalty for their sin. That they may receive love and wisdom to know how to live rightly in this world. And Father, for those who have already made that choice, Father, I pray, Father, that we're ever growing in wisdom. Help us to be wise. Help us to live distinct in this world. And Father, as we come before you now, we ask that your Spirit would fill this place, uniting our souls together, uniting our spirits together as we sing of our good and gracious God. As we sing, a mighty fortress is our God, Father, I pray that it helps us to remind ourselves that it's upon the solid rock that we stand. It's in Jesus' name we pray these things. It's in Jesus' name we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen and Amen.

Believe The Light Sermon Series: Light Up the Darkness Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: John 12:27-36 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, amen and amen. So I got a question for you. I want you to think about this question. I know maybe it seems like an awkward, clunky question, but why did it come up with an answer? Think about this. What is something that you say that you say a lot, or maybe you say in passing, but it actually carries a tremendous amount of meaning. Think about it. I'll ask you again, what's something that you say, or you say a lot, or you say in passing, but it's something that actually has a lot of meaning. I think maybe the first one that comes to our mind would be, I love you. Right? We say it a lot, love ya, love you, bye, but it carries a lot of meaning. Like if I actually get to choose my final words, like I'm gonna say something about Jesus and then I'm gonna tell my family I love them. Or I asked some of our staff this, and here's another one that someone came up with. We say this a lot, how you doing? Now if we were to actually get a full, honest answer every single time we ask that question, I guarantee we'd be asking it a lot less. You know what I mean? Or Christians in the house, how about this? I'll be praying for you. I will be the first to tell you, honestly, I don't bet a thousand when it comes to actually praying over everything I say I'm gonna be praying over. But church, imagine what would happen in this world if we actually prayed as much as we say we do. Now, I got this next one from our facilities director, Matt. He reminded me of this great Midwestern saying, watch out for deer. You know what we're actually saying, right? I love you so much, you mean so much to me, I don't know what I would do if I lost you. We take that and we shorten it to, watch out for deer. You know, but this next one I'm gonna call out the pastors like myself, especially in sermons. We say something a lot, but it carries so, so much meaning. And it's this phrase here, Jesus died for you. That phrase Christians throw around, and I'm concerned that we don't feel the weight of that statement. When we think about the fact that Jesus died for us, that phrase cannot be overstated. And today on Good Friday, we're gonna talk about this phrase as we specifically remember that Jesus died for you. Now it's cultural knowledge in our context that people know that Jesus died on a cross. Jesus died by crucifixion. So let's talk about that for a second. Crucifixion was among the most horrendous forms of torture and death ever invented by the depraved mind. It was uniquely horrendous in the realm of torture and death. Crucifixion was specifically designed to give you the most intense pain for the longest period of time. It was specifically designed to hurt you as much as possible without damaging your nerves and keeping you conscious for the longest period of time. You know, I'm not going to be the first to sign up to being burned at the stake. That sounds absolutely horrendous, but that didn't last as long as crucifixion did. People who were burned at the stake, their nerves were burned away, and it didn't last as long as crucifixion. Crucifixion is unique in its horror. Even medieval tortures, if you are sick enough to google some of those. Those were absolutely demonic, but they were shock inducing and a person would pass out fairly fast. But crucifixion was uniquely specifically designed to be horrendous for an extended period of time, app for hours on ends. Crucifixion was so horribly painful. The ancients, they actually came up with a new word to help describe the pain a person would feel in crucifixion. Because you couldn't just say, it hurt a lot. Stepping on a Lego hurts a lot. You couldn't just say it hurt really bad. The ancients actually came up with a specific phrase, a specific word to describe the pain a person would feel during crucifixion. It is the term excrucio. It means of the cross. The pain a person would feel and endure during crucifixion was like none other. It was the pain of the cross. It was the pain excrucio. And it's where we get our English word excruciating. And while we maybe have dumbed down that word even, the truth is that the physical pain that Jesus felt on the cross in our place for our sins was in every sense of the word excruciating. And Jesus knew this was what was before him. Jesus knew this was what was coming, but there is so much more to that. So let's talk about this for a moment. Let's look at verses 27 to 36 here tonight. Now as you're turning there, we're going to pick up in our passage right after where Pastor Nate left off from this past Palm Sunday. So in our passage, this is still Palm Sunday, but we're going to pick up where Pastor Nate left off. Jesus is in his final days. He's staring down his final week and he knows it. intimately aware of what exactly is before him. And despite, despite warning and telling his followers and the crowd what was about to happen, they were oblivious to the gravity of the situation, but not our Lord. He knew what was coming. Jesus enters and enters, enters, enters into Jerusalem, received as a king. Fanfare. People loved him and welcomed him. They celebrated him. But he knows that this city is going to turn on him in less than a week. He knows he's going to be killed. He knows how he's going to be killed. But he enters Jerusalem anyway because he's on mission for you and for me. And with the crowd and his disciples around him, this is what he says. So would you hear the word of the Lord, John chapter 12, verses 27 to 36. Jesus says this, now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again. The crowd that had stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said an angel spoke to him. Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now this is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. So the crowd answered him, we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the son of man must be lifted up? Who is this son of man? So Jesus answered them, the light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. Amen. This is God's word. Let's pray. We'll continue, let's pray. Father, on this day, we remember the great sacrifice of our Lord. So, Father, I pray that by the preaching of this passage and by the moving of your Holy Spirit, that we would again feel the weight and the beauty and the truth of these words that Jesus died for us. And we pray these things in your holy name. And everyone said, Amen. So for Good Friday, here's a few things from this passage that we're going to pick up. Jesus wasn't worried about the physical weight of the cross, but the spiritual weight. God wasn't worried about the death of his son, he was going to be glorified in it. Jesus wasn't worried about answering people's questions, but pointing them to the light. So the Bible is a unique book and it says an incredible amount of incredible things and it says some of the most important things the human race could ever hear but it's not shy about telling us about which ones in particular. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Corinthians he says something pretty remarkable. He says this in 1st Corinthians, he says, For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures." Friends, what we're talking about today, the death of Christ is of first importance. See that phrase there, it's a little two-word phrase in English, but the original language Greek that Paul wrote in, he actually used only one word, but that one word was the combination of two words. It was protois, which is the combination of the word before and the word first. So before the first, meaning the foremost, meaning of all the things that are important, this is before all of that. This is of first importance, meaning more important than anything else. The death of Christ is the most important thing there is on your deathbed. The summation of your life boils down to this question. Do you believe Jesus died for you? It will not matter if you've signed all your legal documents. It will not matter if you've got your inheritance in order. None of that will matter. All that matters is do you believe on the name Jesus Christ? Do you believe he died for you? Do you believe that he rose again? Do you believe in the gospel? This is protois. This is of first importance. So let's talk about what this means for a moment. The first thing our passage tells us is that Jesus wasn't worried about the physical weight of the cross, but the spiritual weight. So Jesus enters into Jerusalem, and this is the first thing he says, "'Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? "'Father, save me from this hour? "'But for this purpose I have come to this hour.'" Do you hear our Lord's voice? Do you hear the desperation and the determination in what he is saying here? Jesus is saying, yes, I am nervous. But what am I supposed to do? Tell God, I don't want this to happen. This is exactly why I came to this planet. He is staring at the cross, knowing this is his purpose. This is why he came. Jesus is about to die. A death that in many ways we can say is torture perfected. But listen to me, that alone isn't what troubled Jesus so much. There have been many people throughout history who have willingly gone to a horrendous death for something they believed in and they did it with much bravery. Was Jesus just being a chicken here? No, because Jesus truly understood the gravity of the situation. It wasn't the cross that Jesus was thinking about. It was the wrath of God that unnerved him so much. Jesus knew that it wasn't the physical weight and the physical pain of the cross that was the most horrendous. It was the spiritual weight. Jesus wasn't going to die a good man for something that he believed in. Jesus, the Son of God, was dying for the sins of the world. All of the murder, the hatred, the bigotry, the lust, the gossip, the lying, rape, blasphemy, all of the wicked sins of the world were going to be placed on His shoulders, and He was going to pay the price for all of it. The unmitigated judgment of God was going to be coming upon Christ as he assumed the punishment for your sins and my sins and all the sins of those who would place their faith in him. Jesus was dying for the world. He was dying for you. He was dying for me. And God was going to place those sins upon Jesus and then bring his judgments. Jesus was going to face the unmitigated wrath of God. That is why he said, my soul is troubled. This is what we mean when we say Jesus died for you. That God was going to bring His justice to those sins. Which leads to the next thing, that God wasn't worried about the death of His Son. He was going to be glorified in it. God the Father didn't sit up in heaven, threatened about what was going to happen. God the Father didn't sit up in heaven on His throne saying, Oh no, my little boy, look what they're doing to him. Maybe Mary said that, but that wasn't what God said. And I know this is probably going to be offensive to our modern ears and our modern sensibilities, but God presided over what happened to Christ. This was the wrath of God being poured out, the just wrath of God upon the sins of the world. God wasn't worried about the death of his son. He was going to be glorified in it. Jesus said, Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again God was to be glorified because God's justice was to be had his wrath Against the sins of the world was to be satisfied The sins of the world were going to face their judgment. That's why we call it Good Friday For those of us who believe it is Good Friday, because for those who place their faith in Christ, we know that our sins are paid for and there's no wrath for us. Romans 5 tells us, since we have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved by Jesus from the wrath of God? John 3, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life for the wrath of God remains on him. 1 Thessalonians 5, for God has not destined us for wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus. Good Friday reminds us that our sins have been paid for and Jesus did this for us on the cross. My friends, this means there's nothing that stands between us and God anymore. Our sins are no longer between us and God. Condemnation, judgments is no longer between us and God. For those who place their faith, we only have love and relationship with God again because of Christ. That's why we say this is of first importance. And this is exactly what Jesus was trying to get across to those crowds. He's telling the crowds and he's telling his disciples what's gonna happen, and what do they do? Typical, they respond back with a bunch of biblical and theological questions. But the next thing we see is that Jesus wasn't worried about answering their questions, but about pointing them to the lights. If you have your Bibles open, go to verse 31. Let's look at this exchange between Jesus and the crowds. It's pretty phenomenal. Verse 31, Jesus says, "'Now this is the judgment of the world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Meaning Satan's time as the ruler was coming to a close. What Jesus is saying is that the cross is a victory. It's a victory over sin and it's a victory over Satan. And then he says, and when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. What Jesus did, he did for the world. He said this to show by what kind of death he was gonna die. Jesus knew what was coming. And he knew that his death was gonna be the fulfillment of what he had said earlier when he said that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that those who would believe on him would not perish but have eternal life. Jesus is trying to share the gospel with this crowd, and they snap back with a bunch of questions. Verse 34, so the crowd answered him, we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is the Son of Man? They start firing all these questions, and look at how Jesus responds. He doesn't answer their questions. Verse 35, so Jesus said to them, the light is among you for a little while longer walk while you have the lights lest the darkness overtake you Jesus doesn't answer their questions, but listen to me. He's not overtalking them and he's not talking past them He's trying to redirect them He's trying to point them to the light and that's a big challenge for us I think one of the lessons we need to learn in this is that our questions that we have, God has no prerogative to answer. Our questions that we have may not be indicative of the most important things that God is doing in this world. Jesus tries to cut through all their questions and bring them to what's most important in that moment. The light is about to go out. They need to believe in the light. With the precious little time that Jesus has left. He says this verse 36 while you have the light believe in the light, but listen, why that you may become sons or children of the light. So listen here, Jesus is the light of the world and his lights are about to go out. And so what does he tell them? He says, believe in the light that you may become children of light. Jesus is saying, if the light is to continue beyond my death, it's going to happen through my people, through my church. You need to believe in the light. When you believe in the light, you become the light. The Gospel of John foreshadowed this way back in chapter 1, verse 4, when it says, the life of Christ is the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Church, for those of us who believe, we believe. We have the light. But you need to understand something. Oh, hear me, you need to understand something. In this world, when you shine the light, the world is going to hate you for it. They're going to hate what you say and they're going to hate what you believe. And it's because they are used to the darkness. And when you shine the light, it's going to be blinding to them. And they're going to recoil from it and they're going to hate it. But Jesus is the light. He's the light of the world. And with the time that he had left, Jesus wasn't worried about answering their questions, but pointing them to believe in the light in himself, because his light was about to go out in a death that was nothing short of excrucio. It was excrucio in ways we will never fully understand. Jesus was going to be rejected by the people. He was going to be abandoned by his friends. Jesus was going to be scourged by Roman soldiers. He was going to be whipped with leather, laced with pieces of metal and shards of bone specifically designed to bruise and slice his tissue. He would have been scourged to the point where his flesh would have been dangling off his body like strips of bloody meaty linen. Parts of his bones, his skeleton, would be exposed in places. They were going to take a crown of thorns and press it into his head, piercing his scalp and piercing his forehead. And then they would have made him carry his own cross. The beam of the cross is estimated to weigh at least 150 pounds. And he would have had to have done this with a beaten, bloody, exhausted, and dehydrated body. He had to carry it up a hill. And when he got to the top of that hill, they took nine-inch Roman nails and they drove it through his hands and through his feet so that he would literally be hung on a cross. And on top of all this, they crucified him naked to maximize the humiliation. With the weight of his own body pulling on the nails, tearing the flesh around those nails that held him there, with them there with arms outstretched. It was his own body's weight that was slowly suffocating him. And the crown of all this is that God the Father, Christ's Father, placed on his own son the sins of the world and then poured out his wrath upon those sins as Jesus hung there taking our punishments. Everything you think and believe about the cross you need to understand it should have been you going through all of that but Jesus did it for us in our place. He hung there, listen to me, listen to me, he hung there willingly. He gave himself out of love for this and he hung there experiencing all of this until he said this word these words it is finished do you know what that means when Jesus said it is finished what he was saying was that the sins of mankind your sins my sins were paid in full when Jesus said it is finished what he was saying is that I have done what I set out to do. I have finished the job. He said, it is finished. And then he breathed his final breath and he gave up his spirit and he died. And with his death, that secures our salvation. That secures our eternal life. That secures our relationship with God again. And it's with the weight of all of this that we say these words, Jesus died for you. Amen. Let's pray. Father, for those of us who believe in this room, Father, we are so thankful that on this day we are people who look back on the cross and we also look back on the resurrection. We know that Good Friday is not the end of the story, but Good Friday happens. So Father, we are thankful that our Savior stood strong. Our Savior did what he set out to do. Our Savior saved us. So Father, I pray here and now, as we hear the words of this song, Father, I pray they continue to sink this truth into our hearts. This beautiful words of this song, Father, I pray they continue to sink this truth into our hearts. This beautiful truth that Jesus died for us.

How to Plan the Next Youth Retreat with Confidence Ministry Logan Bailey Family Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 10, 2023 It came quick. This year’s Fall retreat is just around the corner. Questions fill your mind: Did you forget to sign a contract with the camp? What will your registration process look like? How will you transport everyone? The trip has so many logistical details to sort out, so how are you ever going to find time to write the retreat teachings?! Each year there is a retreat that is your responsibility to plan (or maybe multiple) and each time you feel overwhelmed. You dream of a day when it comes easy to you, but that day seems far away. Here is the good news: there is a way to plan a retreat with joy and confidence! My goal in this article is to share what has been most helpful to me in doing so. What you need is a “planning guide” for your retreat. A Guide to Building Your Guide In simple terms, a “planning guide” is a to-do list mixed with a jigsaw puzzle. More precisely, it is an annotated checklist that guides you as you plan and coordinate an annual retreat or trip. A planning guide is a guide to your planning. With a planning guide, you are empowered to plan a retreat without haphazardly tackling random tasks and avoid the dreadful feeling that you have forgotten something. Below are the steps to craft such a checklist. First Step: Consolidate a List The first step is to make a list of everything and anything that a retreat requires from you. This list will be sloppy but will be comprehensive. Don’t hold back anything! Think through any task you’ve ever done or seen someone do in preparation for a retreat. Give yourself at least a half-hour to prayerfully write down all the tasks you can think of. Before moving to the next step, consolidate the list by removing duplicate or contradictory tasks. Second Step: Add Deadlines Now, take your list and put it in chronological order. Use bolded headers to categorize your tasks by deadlines. Some deadlines might be by month (“Tasks to Complete in August”) or by week (“Tasks to Complete Five Weeks Before), and so on. Imagine this is like putting each task in a box. In an ideal timeline, you will go week-by-week opening each box according to its deadline and tackling those specific tasks. You are giving each task a specific deadline. Third Step: Polish The final step is to do a round of edits. Comb through your checklist and make sure everything is actually something you need to do and that nothing contradicts. You can always edit this planning guide (and you should, as you realize ways to enhance it), but sometimes we don’t notice errors unless we take a step back for review. After this, you’ll have a master checklist that will help guide you as you plan your next retreat! Helpful Tips and Final Encouragement Don’t think too highly of your memory by skipping things that seem obvious. Include every to-do you can think of, even the obvious things. Also, consider breaking up the large items into smaller steps that are spread out (turn “write a manuscript for your teachings” into multiple smaller steps that span the entire planning guide). Creating a planning checklist may feel needless to some, but only to those who neglect organization and forward-thinking. The strength of a planning checklist is that you are basically acting as a consultant to your future self. Now go and plan this retreat prayerfully, knowing that your labor is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). More Blogs You'll Like What Is a Deacon? Exploring the Role, Qualifications, and Purpose of Deacons in the Church Read More What Is An Elder? A biblical definition of those who are called to lead Read More Why Church Membership Understanding the Biblical Foundations of Church Membership Read More

Avoiding the Burnout Trap Ministry Logan Bailey Family Pastor Peace Church Published On: January 15, 2024 We all know how it goes: a new volunteer joins the youth ministry with joy, spunk, and high hopes… and then jumps ship sad and embittered only a short season later. This is the story of burnout. Burnout is the off-ramp for many volunteers in the world of student ministry, and as staff leaders we are all too familiar with it. We’ve all wondered if there is anything we can do to stop it. Can we help a student ministry volunteer avoid burnout? Well, the answer is YES. But the way to answer this question is by asking (and answering) two other questions: 1) What is burnout? 2) What is a student ministry volunteer? What is Burnout? Burnout is what we call the wearisome fizzling out of a once-motivated individual. It is often accompanied by anger or bitterness. A candle can burn nice and bright at first, but a pool of wax can drown the flame. It is heartbreaking to witness and numbing to experience. If someone is on a path towards burning out, the best way to guarantee an eventual fizzle is to not talk about it and not address it. The usual cause of burnout is assumed to be overworking, but mere overworking does not give a full picture of the root rot. If overworking were the problem then the solution would be to just ask less from your volunteers. However, when all we do is ask less from our volunteers we inadvertently communicate to them that we want less of their voices, gifts, and talents. The problem is actually more complicated than overworking (which means we need to change our approach to address it). Burnout does not stem from working on too many things; burnout stems from working on too many of the wrong things. It is a matter of priorities. When we order our priorities well, we are able to manage a larger list of responsibilities. One of the reasons for this is because our stressors correlate with our priorities. Therefore, staff leaders need to give a clear description of role and responsibilities. What is a Student Ministry Volunteer? Staff leaders need to clearly articulate the priorities of a student ministry volunteer and consistently lead them accordingly. This will help avoid burnout in our volunteers because it will keep our volunteers from assuming a faulty or unhealthy list of priorities and stress. The hard work starts with us. Our clear guidelines for a student ministry volunteer leader need to be biblical, thoughtful, and avoid the pitfalls of being too much or too little. Having volunteers in a ministry is a biblical concept. Ephesians 4:12 explicitly refers to the average Christians primarily doing the work of ministry, not just an upper echelon of Christians. All Christians are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:27), which means our volunteers are ordained for our ministries in a general sense. Encourage your volunteer leaders with this truth! And then clearly outline a thoughtful list of responsibilities. At Peach Church we define the volunteer role this way: “Minister as a Volunteer Leader under the leadership of the Staff Leader and within the team of Volunteer Leaders.” It might seem technical, but we are aiming to be accurate. After defining the role, we list two basic responsibilities: attend and support ministry events (meaning, every Sunday night of student ministry and every leader meeting) and be fully integrated into the life of Peace Church (meaning, make relationships with other leaders and students, and pursue numerical growth and spiritual development). In simple terms: “be present” and “be active.” We give that general description to every volunteer. Giving a general description is only the first step. The second step is to define the more unique roles of the ministry. For example, small group leaders need a role description and clear responsibilities. Whoever runs your games or activities needs a role description and clear responsibilities. The snack coordinator needs a role description and clear responsibilities. If someone does it, be clear about the responsibilities and goals. Clarity is especially important in regard to a small group leader (or anyone in a mentorship-like role). We need to be clear with volunteers that they are only responsible for their actions towards students; volunteers are not responsible for the students' actions. Pray for the Lord to move while you stay within your limits! Don’t allow a volunteer to attempt to be the Christ for someone by taking on responsibilities they should not. Burnout Versus Retention We help student ministry volunteers avoid burnout through clarity and thoughtful guidance. Your role as a staff leader is to structure the ministry and show your volunteers how they fit in the vision! In essence, the conglomeration of roles and responsibilities should be like a functional body smoothly working together. But to be clear, this is not “how to have perfect volunteer retention” or “how to convince a volunteer to not leave.” Volunteers come and go, and burnout is actually not the primary reason for departures. In all likelihood, a volunteer who is stepping out has rearranged his/her priorities and student ministry is not on the top of the list. Burnout is not about volunteer retention (if it was, then the conversation would be about rhythms of appreciation and feedback and other retention-oriented things); Burnout is a more fundamental problem. Burnout abducts volunteers from the ministry who would otherwise choose to serve, but can’t. May we help our volunteers serve where they are called through clarity and thoughtful guidance, structuring a ministry that “bear[s] one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). More Blogs You'll Like What Is a Deacon? Exploring the Role, Qualifications, and Purpose of Deacons in the Church Read More What Is An Elder? A biblical definition of those who are called to lead Read More Why Church Membership Understanding the Biblical Foundations of Church Membership Read More

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Words of Redemption Theology Andrew Zwart Asst. Prof. Of Interdisciplinary Studies Kuyper College Published On: February 6, 2024 All too often, when Christians have paused to consider their language use, we only make it as far as a list of words that can, or more likely, cannot be said. More recently, though, as our broader society has begun to recognize the power that words have to shape our lives and thoughts, many Christians have been forced to reckon with language use at a deeper level. I, for one, welcome this change in approach. The good news is that plenty of theologians, philosophers, and writers have thought carefully about this subject, a fact that’s not terribly surprising given that words are their trade. The bad news is that unless you go out of your way to study language, you’re unlikely to discover these treasures. And this is unfortunate since thinking about language, in general, can open new ways to see the world. As I often tell my students, language is probably the most important thing in our lives that most of us never think about. When considering what scripture has to tell us about the nature of language, we don’t have to go very far. Genesis opens with God creating the universe with an act of speech: “And God said ‘Let there be light,” and there was light.” And in case we overlooked this miracle, the gospel of John famously begins with the simple yet powerful statement, “In the beginning was the Word.” John then goes on to write that “Through him [the word] all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” Amazingly, this creative act includes each one of us. God says, “Let us make humanity in our image.” I highlight these echoes between Genesis and John for two reasons. First, it reminds us that being made in his image, we share in his creativity. With nothing but words, God creates the universe ex nihilo--out of nothing--and even as we are awed by this power, we are reminded that God’s good gift of language allows us to partake in his creativity. No, we can’t speak a universe into being, but through language, we form relationships, we dream up new ideas, and we produce culture. Even strict materialists who don’t believe in God recognize that language separates us from every other creature. No other animal can communicate in ways that originate new concepts. In contrast to this, we’re adding brand new words to just the English language every single day, words that both reflect and shape wholly original thoughts. This is incredible, and it bears emphasizing: Words have enormous creative power. The second reason why the idea of imaging God matters is because it reminds us that each of us partakes in this miracle. It’s not Christians or Reformed folk, or Americans. It’s every single person on this planet. The Bible begins with the radical notion that every human being is worthy of respect. Regardless of anyone’s beliefs, history, or social status, their culture, race, or ethnicity, we are called to love them and to treat them with dignity, never forgetting that they share in God’s image. Unfortunately, though, we know how often we fail in this regard, weaponizing language to hurt and to shame others, usually others who differ from us. Each of us knows personally that the statement “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me” is one of the earliest lies we hear. Most of us can testify to the fact that even a thoughtless, off-hand comment can leave emotional scars that last for years. I think about the time my third-grade teacher called me stupid. I’m not making that up. It still bothers me. Sometimes we have been the victims of such carelessness; sometimes we have been the perpetrators. I think about the time I told someone who I loved that I hated them. I didn’t mean it. I “just” meant to wound. It worked. This happened over forty years ago, and it too still bothers me. Yes, words have enormous creative power. They also have immense destructive power. As James 3, verses 9 and 10 put it: “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ” With these truths in mind, then, we recognize the need for Christians to take care with every word we speak. We desire to use language to build each other up, not to tear others down. Today, when language is at the heart of so many difficult conversations, this means that we cloak ourselves in humility, listening carefully to others in order to discern what particular words hurt and which ones heal. Christians should desire to take a posture of charity so as to work towards reconciliation, to witness to a gospel that proclaims God’s saving grace to people from “every nation, all tribes, and all languages.” Empowered by the Word made flesh, the Word that saves, we seek to live lives in which words have redemptive power. So words have creative power; and yes, they can damage and destroy; but they can also be used to redeem. Now I recognize that while this might sound good in the abstract, it can be hard to know how to implement such an approach. When I ask students to imagine what this might mean for their lives, they tend to fall back on the notion that they should avoid certain words. Certainly, I’m not saying that this isn’t worth thinking about, but sometimes I think we limit our thoughts about language to an issue like swearing so that we can avoid examining deeper issues. Let me give a brief example of what I mean by this. One time when I asked this question, a student mentioned how she had noticed that so much of her and her friends’ language tended towards sarcasm. She observed that while, at its best, sarcasm can act as a form of playfulness that strengthens friendships, when it becomes our default mode of communication, it can dull our sense of wonder, even our sense of creativity. Her job, then, was to begin discerning the difference–a task that requires much more effort than dodging certain words. This is just one example. We might also consider how quick we are to demean or dismiss those whom we disagree with. We might ask ourselves, when was the last time we went out of our way to speak an unexpected word of kindness into someone’s life? And could we ever imagine speaking such a word to those with whom we do disagree? If you’re like me, once you start probing, you might discover layers: was that true concern or was it gossip? Wasn’t that omission really just a lie? It’s important, then, to recognize that we will continue to fail. We will sin by what we say and by what we have left unsaid. Sometimes, we’ll fail because we’re being selfish--because in our sin we stubbornly refuse to see others as image-bearers, and we just can’t be bothered to consider how our words might affect them. Sometimes, we’ll fail simply because we are fallen and finite creatures. We will say things out not out of maliciousness, but out of ignorance. The world is complex, and this complexity means that we’re going to make mistakes. And it is because we know that we will err that we must hold both ourselves and others accountable when we use language in ways that distort God’s image in others rather than magnifying it. And yet, we must also strive to be gracious with ourselves and with others when we recognize our transgressions and when we seek to remedy them with contrite hearts. We’re pretty quick, though--all of us--to contextualize, to justify, to diminish. I hope we can do better. I hope too that we can move away from the idea that all we have to do is memorize a list of dos and don’ts. This will require more difficulty and more thought, but I also think such an approach will allow us to live into a fuller sense of community. Ultimately, I hope and pray that we can endeavor to speak in such a way that every word from our mouths testifies to our love for one another, and in turn praises our glorious God. What better use could we possibly imagine? More Blogs You'll Like Do the Resurrection Accounts Contradict? How differences in the Gospel accounts strengthen rather than undermine the credibility of the resurrection Read More What is 'Probably' Missing From Most Nativity Sets Miracle, Myth, or Meteor? Identifying What the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ Truly Was Read More Is The Bible Really Without Error? A Closer Look at Scripture’s Reliability, Inerrancy, and Historical Trustworthiness Read More

Kevin Harney Kevin G. Harney, pastor, author, and global speaker, passionately inspires believers to deepen their love for God and share Jesus's life-changing message. He holds degrees from Azusa Pacific University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Western Theological Seminary, and leads Shoreline Church in Monterey, CA. His impactful writing includes the Organic Outreach series, 'No is a Beautiful Word,' and 'The U-Turn Church,' alongside numerous small group study guides with renowned authors. Alongside his wife, Sherry, Kevin offers insights on ministry, marriage, and effective church outreach. Celebrating almost four decades of marriage, they cherish their three sons and grandchildren. Beyond his impactful ministry, Kevin enjoys golfing in summer and snowboarding in winter. Most Recent Content from Kevin Harney Faith & Fruit Well, when you say certain names, things come to people's minds and hearts. And there's people in my life that if somebody were to say... Watch Sermon Marriages You may not notice it and recognize it at any given moment, but you'll see the results of it There's a spiritual battle going on There's... Watch Sermon Myrrh; Jesus is Savior Well, I'm pretty sure you've recognized by now that this is a time where a lot of gifts are given and gifts are received It seems like... Watch Sermon

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, December 22, 2024 Go Tell It On The Mountain Matthew 1:18-25 The News to His Father (Joseph) 2 Overview Main Idea: Joseph's reaction to the news of Christmas shows us how we should respond in life: with honor, faith, and action. Sermon Outline: 1. He reacts with honor (vv18-19) 2. He reacts with faith (vv20-23) 3. He reacts with action (vv24-25) 3 Pre-Questions When faced with unexpected or challenging news, how do you typically respond? Do you seek guidance, act immediately, or take time to reflect? What role does trust play in your decision-making process, especially when the path forward is unclear? 4 Questions In verses 18-19, Joseph discovers Mary’s pregnancy and contemplates divorcing her quietly. What does this reveal about his character and his adherence to both justice and compassion? Reflect on Proverbs 3:5-6, which advises trusting in the Lord wholeheartedly. How might this wisdom have applied to Joseph’s situation, and how can it apply to ours when facing difficult choices? An angel appears to Joseph in a dream, instructing him to take Mary as his wife. How does Joseph’s immediate obedience demonstrate his faith and trust in God’s plan? Consider James 1:22, which encourages believers to be doers of the word. How can we emulate Joseph’s example of prompt obedience in our own lives? In what areas of your life is God calling you to trust Him more deeply, even when the circumstances are challenging or unclear? How can you cultivate a heart of obedience like Joseph, ready to follow God’s guidance promptly and faithfully? Are there situations where you need to balance justice with compassion, as Joseph did? How can you seek God’s wisdom in these circumstances? PDF Download

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, September 15, 2024 Calling Out Cultural Lies 1 Corinthians 10:23-33 As Long As It Doesn't Hurt Someone Else 2 Overview Main Idea: Our faith should be to our neighbor's benefit. Sermon Outline: 1. Bring good to others (vv23-24) 2. Bring Glory to God (vv25-31) 3. Bring the Gospel to everyone (vv32-33) 3 Pre-Questions Have you ever heard the phrase, “As long as it doesn’t hurt someone else, it’s okay”? How does that concept resonate with you? Do you agree or disagree with it? What does the Bible say about the importance of loving others and considering their well-being in our actions? Read and discuss Philippians 2:3-4 or 1 Corinthians 10:23-24. How do these passages challenge the “as long as it doesn’t hurt someone” mindset? 4 Questions How do we define what it means to “hurt someone else”? Are there actions that might not seem harmful but can have unintended consequences for others? Can you think of examples from your own life? Do you believe that morality is determined only by the consequences of actions on others, or do other factors (such as personal character, relationship with God) matter as well? Why? What steps can we take personally to ensure that our actions reflect Christ’s love, beyond just considering whether they harm others? How does self-sacrifice and service fit into this? Sometimes, the effects of our actions on others aren’t immediately visible. Can you think of situations where something might not appear to harm someone else, but in the long run, it does? PDF Download

Yes and Amen to the Promise of Justice Sermon Series: Always Yes Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Luke 23:44-49 Transcript If you know if you know that the cross was not the defeat of Jesus, but it was the victory of Jesus Would you say amen? Amen, my name is Ryan. I'm a lead pastor here at Peace Church. I also want to welcome you here this morning this morning I did it. I did it This evening this evening. Hey as you take a seat way and turn to your neighbor and say So you didn't go on spring break either, huh? I do also want to give a special shout out to, yes, the whaling crew that made the trek to come visit us, also for the high schoolers who are packing for their spring break trip, that they're going to be going out with our church tomorrow, praying for all of you guys. So as we get going tonight, as we continue tonight, I want you to put your thinking caps on. I'm going to give you a question. I know it's kind of a hard, awkward question, but I want you to think about this. Here's your question. What is something you want other That you don't want to get Hmm your sinful gears are engaging right now, aren't they? Hard one, isn't it? I'll give you some how about this humbled? We want other people to get humbled, but that's not such a fun pill to swallow for us. What about getting proven wrong? Is there part of you that just likes it when other people get proven wrong, but you never want to get proven wrong? Or it's tax season. How about audited? You want those CEOs to get it, but not us. You know, maybe you're the exception here, but here's something I bet that you want other people to get, but you don't want to get caught. Caught and then prosecuted to the full extent of the law. We call this justice. You know what it's like, I mean, you Michigan drivers, we know what it's like when that snowy, icy day is and we're driving like sane people and then you got that one weird guy in the four-wheel drive truck just plowing right by you, making everyone get all nervous Kevin it's you I know you will you're just thinking I want that guy to get pulled over so bad but when you're going 10 miles per hour over the speed limit you've got a good excuse right because we want other people to get justice not us now justice what is that justice is getting the punishments that you deserve now hear me don't confuse justice with vindication. Vindication, everyone wants vindication. That's when you're proven innocent. "Justice is when you break the law and you get what's coming to you." You know how it is, every now and again, there's some big trial that grips just the mind and the heart of the nation, and we watch this trial unfold. And when that verdict gets handed down, if it goes the way that we think it should go and if justice has been brought, there's just something that just, it reminds us that not all is lost. There's something about when justice is done, when justice is done, we feel wrongs are made right. When justice is done, it makes us, when justice is done, it makes us feel like not all is broken in this world, that there is some good left. See, justice is one of the things that we do like. We just don't ever ourselves want to be brought to justice. Now, Good Friday, what we're going to talk about tonight, Good Friday is about justice. That's what our theme is here tonight. It's all about justice. Good Friday is a day that Jesus Christ died on the cross, but what does that even mean? Do you know why Jesus died on the cross? On Good Friday we see that Jesus went to the cross and on that he took the punishment for your sins and for my sins so that we wouldn't have to. Good Friday is that day where the sins of the world were punished, where the sins of the world were brought to justice. Good Friday, this is why we call it Good Friday, even though it's the day that our Savior died. Because on Good Friday is the day that God's promise of justice was brought. Now, this is the theme we've been working with for this entire Easter series. Need I remind you what we've been kind of looking at? And it comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 19 and 20. It says this, it says, For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, was not yes and no, but in Him it is always, say it with me, always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in Him. 2 Corinthians 1:19-20 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And today we're looking at God's promise of justice and how that was fulfilled also in Jesus Christ. As we look at today, tonight, as we look at the yes and amen to the promise of justice if you have your Bibles, would you please turn to Luke chapter 23? Now as you turn in there and we're thinking about justice Psalm Psalm 9 tells us that God sits on a throne of justice. It was Isaiah 61 where God says that he loves Justice our God is not a God who will tolerate evil forever He will make all things right in the end. Our God is a God of justice, but not in the ways that many of us think. It's better, grander, and more eternal than what we can possibly imagine. And Good Friday puts this all on display. So we're going to read about this moment of Jesus Christ on the cross. So would you hear God's word? The Gospel of Luke, chapter 23, we'll look at verses 44 on down. 44 to verse 49. Would you hear God's word? Luke 23:44-49 44 It was now about the sixth hour,[ a ] and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,[ b ]45 while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. 47 Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” 48 And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. 49 And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things. It was now about the sixth hour. Now let's just stop right there for a second. Let's just clarify something. As we read this, in this moment of Scripture, what we see here is that Jesus has already been arrested. He's already been tried. He's already been tortured and he's already been nailed to the cross and he's hanging there on the cross as we are reading this passage. Now let's clarify here. Now the Jews, what they did back in the ancient world is that they started marking the hour at dawn. And so when it says the sixth hour, it's the sixth hour from dawn, roughly saying about 6 a.m. So when the scriptures say that it was about the 6th hour, that means from 6 a.m. So we're talking basically about noon here and knowing that Jesus was crucified in the third hour, roughly around 9 a.m., this means Jesus at this point in our passage has been hanging on the cross for three hours. Already three hours. With the most horrendous excruciating pain ever invented by the depraved human mind. So back to our passage, verse 44, it was now about the sixth hour and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour while the sun's light failed and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus calling out in a loud voice said, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. Now, when the centurion saw this, saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, Certainly, this man was innocent. And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home, beating their breasts. And all of his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee, they stood at a distance, watching these things. Let's pray and then let's look at this passage for a little bit tonight. Father God, we come before you here on this Good Friday and today we remember the great sacrifice of our son, of your son, and our Savior, the Father. Please do not let the cross just become an ornament in our homes or a decoration for Easter. Help us to remember what the cross is, what happens on the cross. Holy Spirit, we need your presence. We need your guidance. We need your power. We need you as our comforter, as we think about what Christ has done on our behalf. And it's in his name we pray. And if you agree with this prayer, would you say amen? Amen. So friends, here on this Good Friday evening, here's your one main idea for tonight. Main Idea: The cross is God's yes and amen to the promise of justice. As we look at this passage, we're gonna pick up on three things. 1. The cross is where our separation from God was removed. Let's start with this first one here. The promise of justice. The cross is where our separation from God was removed. The cross is where our separation from God was removed. Look at verse 44. It was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. So for three hours, there was darkness while the sun's light failed. Now whether this was a celestial cosmic event with just supernatural timing or it was an actual supernatural event, either way there was darkness covering the land. But I want to focus on that next line because I think that's where we're gonna find something beautiful here tonight. And it says this, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Now the curtain here is referring to the curtain in the temple that was in the innermost room of the temple. The innermost room, many of you probably know, was called the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place. t was the innermost sanctuary of God's temple. It is where God's holy glory and presence would reside. It was so holy that only one priest, once a year, was allowed to go in to make sacrifice. It was the holy of holies. It was the most holy place. And a curtain separated that room from us. Now listen, these weren't the old fancy drapes that you remember from church back in the day. This curtain was 60 feet high, it was 30 feet wide, and it was almost 4 inches thick, the width of a man's hand. This curtain was more like a shield, protecting sinful people from God's beautiful, enormous glory. And that curtain was torn in two. Now when that curtain was torn in two, it was symbolic in the sense that there was no longer any separation between us and God. That because of what Jesus had done, he removed the barrier, he removed the separation, he took our sin and wiped it away so that we could approach God again. But here, listen, we're reading from the Gospel of Luke here but the Gospels of Matthew and Mark both also say that the curtain was torn, but their Gospels add a little detail. It says that the curtain was torn from top to bottom. 60 feet high, 30 feet wide, 4 inches thick from top to bottom. It was like God Himself took that curtain and tore it and welcomed us in. Because our sin has been removed and been paid for. Our crimes against God found their punishment and fulfillment in Christ. And And God is saying there's no more separation. Come home. Come into my presence. Hebrews chapter 10 says this, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh. Jesus is the curtain that was torn. "Jesus is the final and complete sacrifice so that we, sinful people, can enter into the presence of God again. That our sin, which separated us from God, making us unworthy and unable to withstand the presence of God's glory, Jesus' death fulfills the payment, accomplishes the punishment for our own sins. Because the cross was an act of justice that removes our guilt because of the sins we've committed, but only once we place our faith in Christ." The cross is where our separation from God was removed. And the second thing we see is the cross is where our sin against God was punished. 2. The cross is where our sin against God was punished. Our passage continues. Please look in your Bibles again. Verse 46 says this, then Jesus, crying out in a loud voice, okay at this point, six hours on the cross, crying out with a loud voice, said, Father into your hands I commit my spirit, and having said this, he breathed his last. This is where our Savior dies. He breathed his last after crying out to God, my friends, you will have a final breath. I don't know what your future holds, but I can tell you this, at one moment in the future, you will breathe your final breath. What then? What then? Jesus, even in his last moments, shows us the way. With his final breath, he cries out to God, faithful to the literal bitter ends our Savior was, yet he was dying as a common criminal. Yet he was so innocent, even a Roman soldier who had no affiliation with Jesus, a centurion, looked upon this man, saw what was happening, and not just realized Jesus was innocent, but you see what it says? He actually praised God. You could also translate that saying he glorified God. He knew something miraculous was happening in this moment just by the sheer experience of seeing Christ on the cross and seeing him raise his voice. Jesus was innocent. He was righteous. Jesus was sinless. Yet listen to what 2 Corinthians says, verse 21, it says, for our sake, he, meaning God, God made him, Christ, to be sin, him who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus who was sinless, God placed on Him all of our sin, and then nailed Him to a cross and watched Him die. And that righteousness that was the very fabric of who Christ was, when we place our faith in Him, we get that righteousness now. So that not only are we guiltless before God, we are seen as righteous before God. Did you hear that? You're not just seen as innocent before God, but you're seen as righteous before God. This is the power of the Christian faith. This is the power of what Jesus has done that no other religious leader could even possibly come close to offering you. And this is because, and only because of Christ. God placed on Jesus the weight of our sin, your sin. You know exactly what sins we're talking about. Other people may not, but in the deepest parts of your heart, you know exactly what sins you've committed. And God took those and placed them on his own son. "And Christ paid the punishment for those sins so that you wouldn't have to. So that you could be counted as righteous, and not just that, but you could be brought into the very presence of God with sin no longer separating you. My friends, repent of your sins and place your faith in Jesus. Do not delay. I do not know when your last breath is going to come." In His last moments, Jesus did not rebuke us. He did not renounce God. In His final breath, did you see what it says? Jesus cried out, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. This was not just a nice statement. This was not just a man full of passion in the fulfillment of his mission. Jesus, in case you didn't know, he was quoting the Bible. He was quoting Psalm 31. Even in his last moments, Jesus is showing us how to be faithful to God. He was innocent, and yet justice had been done because the sins of the world were being held to account in the death of Christ. Someone else got your justice. Someone else paid your penalty, and it was Jesus. Jesus has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. And that is cover the cost for our own sins. So here's the critical question. Here 's the question for you. How ? "How is Jesus able to do this?" Now listen to me. You get the Mormons knocking on your door. This is the question you ask them. How is Jesus able to do this? Not just that he did this, but how is Jesus able to pay the penalty for all the sins of the world? There's only one way because it is only Jesus. And my friends, it's because Jesus was not just fully man and fully God. This is the key that unlocks the atonement for all who would place their faith in Jesus. Because here's how it works. Because Jesus was fully man, he was able to pay for the sins of mankind. But no one person could ever pay for everyone's sin. But if you're fully God and fully man makes him literally the only way unto salvation. "It's because he's fully God and he's fully man. This is why we worship him. This is why we trust him. This is why we know that he could accomplish what we could not. This is why Jesus is literally, physically, spiritually the only way." He's the only one who is fully God and fully man Jesus Christ is the second member of the Trinity who literally stepped out of eternity stepped into history when he was born on that Christmas day God the Son took on flesh Received the name Jesus. We call him the Son of God He's the only way and because of that we can lead to this final point, that the cross is where our salvation in God was secured. And everyone said, Amen. 3. The cross is where our salvation in God was secured. Verse 48, and the crowds that assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, they returned home beating their breasts. Now what's going on here? Culturally speaking, this means that they were walking away in grief. They weren't celebrating this from their perspective. They simply thought that something terrible, something shameful that had happened. So they walked away thinking, what a shame. And then they went home. I mean, they thought, well, that's terrible. She seemed like a nice guy. He seemed like he meant well, what a shame. And then they walked home. But not everyone. Did you notice this? There's a massive distinction between the crowd that had gathered and his followers who loved him. Look at verse 49. It says, and all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee, they stood at a distance watching these things. Here's the distinction, my friends. You've got to ask yourself. You can either be part of the crowd that thinks that what happened to Jesus was a shameful thing and then you just go home? Or you look upon what Christ has done and you keep your eyes on Him and you stay with Him. Because the cross is where our salvation in God was secured. Secured because it's Jesus. Even today, culturally speaking, there are many who look upon what Jesus has done on the cross and they think, Oh, how sad. He seemed like a nice guy. He taught some nice things. How sad. And then they go on with their merry lives. But not us. We stand with our eyes fixed on Christ, knowing that Friday gives way to Sunday. Amen. The cross is God's yes and amen to the promise of justice. Why is this good? Because this means that all the crimes you've committed against God, you don't have to pay for. They've been paid for. God is a God of justice and all of our sin, all the wrongdoing, all wrongdoing will be held to account. "We either place our faith in Jesus knowing that he's paid the penalty or you will suffer your own penalty forever because that's how long it will take for you to pay your penalty against an eternally holy God." Either you recognize that you will pay for your sins or you recognize that Jesus already has the cross as a torture device is agonizing beyond belief. It was so painful. It was so painful that the ancients had to invent a new word to describe the pain because you couldn't just say it hurt really bad you Couldn't just say it was really painful So they came up with a new term to describe this unique type of pain. This is where we get the word excruciating excrucio from the cross This was pain of the cross. This was excruciating pain This is what Jesus endured for us and it wasn't just physical torment, it was also psychological humiliation because they crucified people naked. He hung there naked on our behalf. On the cross, Jesus was undertaking the full judgment for our sins. He was assuming the full wrath of God. He was bearing the weight of the sin of the world as it hung on him, as he hung on the cross with those nails tearing literally his flesh. And all the while he was doing this, it was atoning for your sins. You should not sit there and think, what a shame. You should sit there and think, that should be me. That should be me up on that cross, but it wasn't. Not just the cross. Not just you on the cross, but you paying for your sins. But Jesus stands where we couldn't, in the place of our own condemnation. And you may be thinking, you may be thinking to yourself right now, where's God's love in all this? Where's God's love? If you wonder about that, let me just tell you right now. Look upon the cross and you'll see the love of God. Scripture tells us that God demonstrated, demonstrated His own love for us. You wonder where love is in all this? It's probably on the cover of your Bibles, but it's not in the shape of a heart, it's in the shape of a cross. Because the cross is God's great I love you to a world that has rejected Him. This is why we don't scoff at the cross. This is why we don't celebrate chocolate crosses at the dollar store. This is something much more than that. Christ died for us so that our sins could be paid for, so that we could be counted as righteous, and so that we could be brought into a relationship with the living God again, welcomed to His table, not because of what we've done, but because of what Christ has done on our behalf. And that's what we're going to remember when we celebrate communion here tonight, that we get to do this because of what Christ has done for us. Amen? So church, let me tell you today, tonight's about justice, but when we gather on Sunday, it's about grace. And that's what we get to celebrate. Today is Good Friday, but Sunday's coming, but we cannot move past this day just yet. We must remember that Christ offers us new life because he gave up his life. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of God's promise of justice by what he did on the cross, taking the punishment we deserve. And this is why we call it Good Friday. And with that, would you please bow your heads and let's pray. Father, we come before you. We just ask, Father, on this day that you, by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit, you would remind us of the great sacrifice of our Lord, who gave up his life so that we could have life, so that we could have relationship with you, so that we could have righteousness. Father, I pray, God, that as we look upon the cross, we would see your great love for us, God. We would see that our Savior stands above everyone else. We would see that the cross was not a defeat, but the cross was a victory over our sin, over Satan, and over death itself. Father, we sit here tonight thankful for the sacrifice of our Savior. Father, we sit here tonight thankful for the sacrifice of our Savior. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Yes and Amen to the Promise of Mercy Sermon Series: Always Yes Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Matthew 20:29-34 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, amen. Amen. So here's what I want to do. It is Palm Sunday. I want to start by talking about what Holy Week is. Today's the start of Holy Week. And you may be sitting there thinking everyone knows what Holy Week is. You may be sitting there thinking, don't waste time talking about what Holy Week is. We all know. Let's just get to our passage. Here's what I'd say to you. If you think that, you've just exposed how out of touch you are. It is, you cannot assume anymore that the culture at large knows anything about the Christian faith. Those days have passed. I had a conversation with a guy the other day at the store who had a cross necklace, a pretty profound cross necklace, and a cross tattoo on his forearm, all to find out that yes, he knew that the cross had like some sort of connection with the Christian faith, but he didn't know that Jesus died on the cross, let alone why Jesus died on the cross. And this is a dude wearing a cross necklace with a cross tattoo just because the dollar store has chocolate crosses that you can put in Easter baskets. Doesn't mean the world knows anything about the Christian faith. And so let me just say this real quick. If you are here and this is all new to you, or you have no idea what we're talking about, you don't know what Palm Sunday is, you don't know what Holy Week is, you don't know any of that, let me just say this. I'm so thankful you're here. I'm so glad that you're here. I wanna just share with you what Holy Week is because it's something pretty exciting for us as Christians, amen? Amen, so here's what Holy Week is. Holy Week is what they say is like often, like it's often said like the most holy week of the Christian faith. Now, Holy Week culminates next Sunday with Easter. And the reason that's so special for us is because that's the day that Jesus Christ rose from the grave. All right, that's what I was looking for. But before we get to there, we have to wind back the clocks a week to today, which is Palm Sunday. And so here's what happens. Jesus Christ enters into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. This is the culmination of three years of ministry. He's riding on the back of a donkey as the humble king into Jerusalem. We call it the triumphal entry because as Pastor Logan just taught us, much fanfare, much celebration, they're laying palm branches. People are happy to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. Now, this is such a profound story. It's recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So Jesus, our humble king, enters into Jerusalem, but we cannot forget this. It's going to be very important for our story here today. You can't forget this. Jesus enters into Jerusalem, seemingly to celebrate Passover. That's why many people would already gather there. But more than that, Jesus enters into Jerusalem because He's come to fulfill His mission. He's come to die on the cross in our place for the sins of the world. So Jesus enters into Jerusalem, very much knowing he's going to die by the end of the week. So he enters in Jerusalem, that powerful story on the back of the donkey, people welcome him, celebration, fanfare, palm branches, they cry out Hosanna, which means save or to save or savior. And this starts Holy Week. And throughout Holy Week, if you read your Bibles, you see that Jesus gives some very profound teachings while in Jerusalem. But then Thursday comes and Thursday is what we call Maundy Thursday. And this is where we see Jesus have his last supper, his final meal with his disciples. Now we call it Maundy Thursday because that comes from the Latin word for mandate. Because what we see here is that Jesus has the last supper. He institutes the first communion. And with that, Jesus ushers in the new covenant, Jesus gives the great new mandate, which we all know, right, is to love each other. "The Savior of the world, that's His great mandate, go and love one another." After the supper, Jesus is arrested, where the next day, Good Friday, is the day that Jesus dies on the cross for our sins. We'll be celebrating that with a special Good Friday service this week. We'll talk about that later on. I really, really hope you come and join us for that celebration. But on Good Friday, we see that Jesus Christ takes the punishment we deserve when he dies in our place on the cross. And then we have Silent Saturday, the day where Jesus' dead body lies silent in the tomb. So Good Friday is day one, Silent Saturday is day two, which leads us to the third day, Easter Sunday, when we see the single most important event, the greatest miracle to date in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, where he triumphed over Satan, sin, and death itself, rose again, thus proving he was who he said he was and thus guaranteeing everything that he promised us, including our new and eternal life. That's the culmination of Holy Week, which begins today with Palm Sunday. But I'd like to do today, what I want to do today is not necessarily look at the triumphal entry. Pastor Logan helped us look at that today with the kids. I want to look at the story that happens right before that. Right before Jesus enters in Jerusalem, knowing He's going to die, I want to look at the story that happens right before that. This is a story that when you read that story and you are reminded that Jesus is going to die and he knows that, that helps us to read the story and see that it's all the more somber, sober, and special. Our series that we are in for Easter, this four-week series, is called Always Yes. And the reason is because this comes from a powerful passage that we see in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 19 and 20, where it says this. It says, For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, was not yes and no, but in Him it is always yes. For all the promises of God find their yes in Him. All of God's promises find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:19-20 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And in this series, we'll see how on Easter we see the yes to God's promise of grace. On Good Friday, we're going to see God's yes to the promise of justice. But today, on this Palm Sunday, we'll talk about God's yes to the promise of mercy. So if you have your Bibles, would you please turn to Matthew chapter 20. We'll look at verses 29 to 34. Now, as you're turning there, here's what's happening. This is right before Jesus enters into Jerusalem and what he's doing, he's actually, he's leaving Jericho, not the same Jericho you learned about in Sunday school with Joshua. This is a separate Jericho. It 's a place right by Jerusalem. He's coming out of the neighboring town of Jericho, and as he's leaving, with his eyes set on Jerusalem, with his mission in mind, we see a little interaction that's interrupted on Jesus' journey to Jerusalem. That's what we're going to look at today. So would you hear God's word? Matthew 20:29-34 29 And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. 30 And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord,[ a ] have mercy on us, Son of David!” 31 The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 32 And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?”33 They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” 34 And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him. This is God's Word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father God we come before you on this Palm Sunday, as we remember that Jesus not only rode into Jerusalem, into his city as king, but he rode as our merciful Savior, doing for us what we could not do for ourselves as he traded his life for ours. As we look at this passage today, Holy Spirit, we pray that you continue to be with us. Help us to see not just the beauty here, but the power of the truth of who Jesus is, that we might find our rest, our joy, and our salvation in his name, because it's in his name that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen and Amen. So, so, so much we could talk about in this passage, but let me give you this one thought here this morning. It's this. Jesus, our triumphant King, is God's yes and amen to the promise of mercy. Let me just say this. If you don't know Christ as Lord and Savior, if you don't know Him as King and Savior, I hope that today you will see more than just the fact that you're missing out. My prayer is that you'll see your great need for Him and that you'll turn to Him and cry out for Him just as these blind beggars did. As we look at this beautiful, simple passage today, let's look at three things from this passage. First one is this, that broken or blind by sin, we all need to see our need for mercy. Second thing we'll look at is rejected or ridiculed by people, we still need to seek the mercy of Jesus. Everyone say of Jesus. And third thing, determined or focused on mission, Jesus will always stop to extend us mercy. 1. Broken or blinded by sin we need to see our need for mercy (vv. 29-30) 2. Rejected or reviled by people we still need to seek the mercy of Jesus (v. 31) 3. Busy or bound to mission, Jesus will stop to show us mercy (vv. 32-34) 1. Broken or blinded by sin we need to see our need for mercy (vv. 29-30) So let's look at this first part. Broken or busy or bound by sin, Jesus will stop to show us mercy. Third thing, let's go back to the first part. Broken or blinded by sin, we all need to see our need for mercy. Let's clarify what mercy is here. Now mercy, mercy is not getting what we do deserve. "Mercy is not getting what we do deserve." Like when you're speeding and a cop pulls you over and does not give you a ticket, that police officer is being merciful to you by not giving you what you do deserve. What you do deserve is a ticket, but you don't get that. What you got instead was mercy. That's mercy. And that's what we're going to see in our first point here is broken or blinded by sin. We all need to see our need for mercy. So our passage, please keep your Bibles open. Let's look at this again. Verse 29 and they, meaning Jesus and his disciples, and they went out of Jericho, and a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside. And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord have mercy on us, son of David. Now listen, the Bible says here that it wasn't just a crowd following Jesus, it was a great crowd. Listen here. A great crowd was following Jesus, but only two people cried out for Him, cried out to Him. Two people who actually were not part of the crowd. I'm not saying that the crowd didn't have some true believers in their midst. I'm just saying that the Scriptures point out that it wasn't from within the crowd that people cried out to Jesus. It was from without the crowd. Two people who were not part of the crowd that cried out to Jesus. A couple weeks ago, someone sent me this short little video they found online and It was this it was this girl had taken a video of herself now this girl had Jet black hair. I mean dyed black number one jet black hair Which was in stark contrast to her powder white face She had very thick black mascara on she had fishnet gloves on her hands with black painted fingernails it was just a video of herself and over over top of the video was this was this writing this text and it said this Said I love Jesus That's where you go, ah The reason you didn't say aww is because you know something else is coming. She said, I love Jesus, but the church doesn't love me. And it reminded me that even after 2000 years, some things never change. It's entirely possible to have a group of people following Jesus, but the ones who are actually crying out to Him are the ones rejected by that very crowd following Him. What these two blind beggars teach us is that even though they were blind, they were the ones who most clearly saw their need for mercy. This gothic girl on the video was willing to share before the whole world that she loved Jesus. She was more vocal for Jesus than many of you men are on the job site. So you tell me who's tougher. It's easy to get lost in the crowd and forget how desperately you need Jesus. It's easy to come to church and forget how much we are in need of the mercy of our Lord. "So my question for you is, have you forgotten your need for God's mercy? We've forgotten how much we need to be saved from the judgment of our sins." What God should give us is judgment. What God should give us is separation from Him. What God should give us is eternal punishment for our sins, but through Christ we get mercy instead. Now listen, when these beggars cried out for mercy, it's like they were saying, Jesus, we know we don't deserve you. We know we don't deserve your attention. We know we don't deserve your healing, but we're going to cry out anyway for something we don't deserve. We're going to cry out for mercy. These guys were blind because we live in a fallen world, broken by sin. Every aspect is tainted by sin. You know this, whether you're looking in the mirror or out in the world, you know things are not as they should be. Something is wrong. Something is broken. Everyone knows this. But Christianity provides a label for it. It's called sin. Everything from the human heart to the creation around us is broken by sin. We're all affected by this brokenness. It's not just out there. It's in our hearts. All of us have committed sin. But here's the question. Like those two beggars, are you blind enough to recognize that in your sin? 2. Rejected or reviled by people we still need to seek the mercy of Jesus (v. 31) What you need is the mercy of God Because broken or blinded by sin we all need to see our need for mercy which leads to the second thought here Is that rejected or reviled by people we still need to seek the mercy of jesus now listen here The reason this is so powerful is because the person the only person that can actually give you mercy Is the person who actually also has the power to pass judgment and punishment upon you. If they can't give you judgment or punishment, it's not mercy they're showing you, it's just simply kindness. Jesus is the righteous King who sits on the throne, who judges all the earth, and he can pass judgment. This is why we need to seek him for mercy, seek the mercy of Jesus. These beggars, they cry out to the most popular guy in the city and the people around Jesus are like, don't bother him, you bunch of rejects. He does not have time for you. Look at verse 31. Look at this. The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silence, but I love this. Listen to this. But they cried out all the more, Lord have mercy on us. Do not let the world get you down. Don't let the world intimidate you and make you stay silent about Jesus. Cry out to Him, worship Him. Now is the time to cry out even if you are rejected by the cool kids. Because remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5. Listen to what He said in verses 11-12. He said, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Then listen to what he says in verse 12. Listen to what Jesus says. He says, rejoice and be glad. Rejoice and be glad when people hate you because of Jesus. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Jesus saying, when you take heat for following me, that's a blessing. "Some of you Christians are not experiencing the blessing of being mocked for following Jesus because nobody knows you're following Jesus. You're hiding in the crowd that's so-called following Jesus. But we need to be the ones crying out to Him." Sitting in church makes you a Christian as much as standing in the dirt makes you a tree. These guys cried out and the crowd told them to be quiet. And some of you have never had the blessing of being told to be quiet about Jesus because you stay quiet about Jesus. And the crowd rebuked them all the more, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more. So here's a modern day version of what was happening. These guys were posting on their social media about Jesus and they kept posting and they started losing followers. So you know what they did? They started posting all the more. That's what is happening here. Church rejected or ridiculed by people. We still need to seek the mercy of Jesus because the crowd cannot save you. The crowd does not want to save you. The crowd will not show you mercy. So cry out to the one who will show you mercy. Cry out to the one who can show you mercy. 3. Busy or bound to mission, Jesus will stop to show us mercy (vv. 32-34) Because remember this, busy or bound to mission, Jesus will stop to show us mercy. So these guys are rebuked by the crowd. They're calling out, they're rebuked by the crowd, and they cry out all the more, and then look what happens. and stopping Jesus called them. Let's never forget what's actually happening in the story here. I tried to stress it early on, but maybe you've already forgotten. Jesus is leaving his last stop before his final destination of Jerusalem, where he knows he is going to be crucified. His entire life and his three-year mission is coming to its fulfillment. It's coming down to the wire. He's leaving his last stop. I know, you know, he can see Jerusalem in his mind. He is focused on where he's going. It's all coming down to this. And these two rejected people cry out to him and he stops. He was moving and he stops to give his attention to them. You have to remember that Christ is spiritually truly carrying the weight of the world. He knew he was not going to just be arrested. He was going to be rejected by the very people who are about to welcome him. And then he was going to be tortured Roman style. And the Romans were sadistic. He was about to face the most gruesome death ever conceived by the human mind. He was going to die on the cross and he knew this and he's walking out of Jericho, walking towards his death, busy, bound to mission. And yet he stops to turn to two that the world had rejected to give them his full attention. Jesus called to them and said, what do you want me to do for you? And they said to him, Lord, let our eyes be opened. And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed Him. This is why I follow this guy. There's no one like him. Busy or bound to mission, he stops to show us mercy. You'll find no one else like this because there is no one else like this. He is the only way. Let's not forget that while I'm emphasizing Jesus' compassion and His mercy and His empathy here and His selflessness, don't forget here, Jesus is the miracle worker. He did in an instant what no one else was able to do for these guys. These guys weren't able to do for themselves. Only Christ could do this. These blind men were given back their sights. But mind you, it was their very own blindness that led them to see their need for mercy. This was the very thing that led them to follow Jesus. Because Christ is not just a, remember this, Christ is not just a worker of miracles, he's not just a teller of truth, he's not just the greatest moral teacher. Jesus Christ is God. Amen. See, back in the Old Testament, when Moses was speaking with Yahweh, when Moses was speaking with the Lord. Moses wanted to see God. There's this beautiful, powerful interaction that happens. I'll throw it up on the screen. This is from Exodus chapter 33. Moses said, please show me your glory. And God said, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But he said, you cannot see my face for no man, for man should not see me and live. So this is, this is quite fascinating here. Moses wants to see God. He asked God to see him, but God says, you can't see me and live. God saying, I am too spiritual for your physical eyes. I'm too holy for your sinful eyes. But not only this, notice God makes a declaration about himself that's connected with a story about God revealing himself. In this passage, God is talking about revealing himself. He's going to reveal his goodness, but he can't reveal his face, his fullness to Moses because it would kill Moses. But yet even in the midst of this story about God revealing his entirety of who he is. He doesn't mention love. He mentions grace and mercy. These are the things that God promises that will come out of his own nature. We're going to talk about grace on Easter Sunday, but mercy, what we see here in Jesus is the fulfillment of this declaration of this promise that God made about mercy so long ago. And Christ, and in Christ not only do we see mercy, but Christ is the living God. Jesus said in John chapter 14, verse nine, he said, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Meaning the spiritual second member of the Trinity. "God the Son took on flesh, stepped into the world, the Son of God, so that we could look upon Him and not die. Not just look upon Him and not die, but look upon Him and have life, eternal life. And through this also, we see the fulfillment of this promise that God made so many thousands of years ago, that in Christ we have the fullness of mercy." So may you, on this Palm Sunday, not just be reminded of the one who gives you mercy. May you be reminded that this is only found in Jesus Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, our triumphant King, is God's yes and amen to the promise of mercy. What's interesting is about a crowd is that I'd say oftentimes what a crowd is really following is each other. Crowds follow a crowd. But these two guys show us that we don't follow a crowd. We cry out to Jesus. And so if you are a follower of Jesus on this Palm Sunday, as we close in worship, may you cry out. May you not follow the crowd. Because Jesus, our triumphant King, is God's yes and amen to the promise of mercy, the mercy that all of us need so desperately. Amen? Amen. Amen. Let's stand and let's sing and cry out to our God of mercy. Would you bow your heads and let's pray. Father, we come before you on this Palm Sunday. We are thinking about and we are thankful for the fact that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise of mercy, that Lord, that you do not give us what we deserve. What we deserve is judgment and separation and hell, but you give us life, eternal life. You give us a relationship with you. You give us what we do not deserve. And so Father, I pray here and now that the people in this room who are your followers, we would not follow the crowd. We'd be like those beggars and we would cry out to you here and now with all of our breath. Holy Spirit, fill this place. Be our worship leader as we worship the God on high. And it's in Jesus' name we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen. Church , let's worship together. Church, let's worship together.