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Parable of the Two Sons Sermon Series: Religion vs Relationship Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Matthew 21:28-32 Transcript Today is the day the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it and you all best rejoice. So let me hear you say, Amen. Amen. So who here agrees with this statement? There is beauty in the simple things. You agree with that? I completely agree with that. One thing is so true for our world is that we over complicate things but there is such beauty in the simple things and listen I know that I'm the lead pastor of a large fast-paced multi-site multi-million dollar church that just went through a huge capital campaign but I'm just tearing out my heart the heart of my heart is for the simple things at the end of the day I want simple. And I think this is part of why I love Jesus so much. He was the undisputed master of showing the beauty in simple things. He was the master about showing the power in the simple things. And this is what he does through the parables. Parables are little story analogies that are told simply, but yet reveal so much power and beauty. Last week we looked at the parable of the prodigal son. Pastor John brought us through that about the two brothers and today we're going to be looking at another parable about two brothers. The other parable of the two sons, the two brothers. If you have your Bibles, would you please turn to Matthew 21. We'll be looking at verses starting at verse 28. So as you're turning there in your Bibles, Jesus gives us this little parable to highlight and to challenge us what it means to believe in God versus actually following God. Jesus gives us this parable to help us to identify if our religious obedience is matched with a true love for the Father. And that's been our sermon series, this quick little two-week sermon series, Religion or Relationship – What Actually is the Christian Faith? faith. So in this story that we're going to read, it's a parable, and what's interesting, here's what you need to know, is that Jesus told this parable in the temple days before his crucifixion. He was in Jerusalem and people had gathered in this time to celebrate Passover. Passover was a Jewish celebration. Now listen, during Passover, Jerusalem could swell to six times its normal size. So it was incredibly packed as people from all over would come to celebrate this religious festival. And now what Passover did is it commemorates God's saving work in bringing the Hebrews out of Egypt. Now, I think what's very interesting is that Jesus gives this parable during a highly religious observance. It's almost as if he's making them think about whether or not they're coming to celebrate Passover out of religious duty or out of love for God. And I'll just let the cat out of the bag right now. Same goes for you here. Are you coming to church out of religious duty or out of love for God? And so let's let Jesus encourage us and challenge us here this morning. With this, would you hear the word of our Lord? Matthew 21:28-32. This is God's word. Jesus says, Matthew 21:28-32 28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. This is God's word. Let's pray. We'll continue. Let's pray. Father God, the fact that you have revealed yourself as our father shows the kind of relationship you want to have with us, oh God. And so I pray, Father, here in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus, by the fellowship and power of the Holy Spirit, that you would help us to see how our faith is more than just a religion. It is a relationship that we have with you, our living God. And it's in your name we pray these things. Amen. Amen. So, church, as we look at this little story here today, I want to give you the main idea. I want you to chew on this one for a little bit. You have a relationship with God. You have a relationship with God when you obey the Will of God. Now, as we look at this little parable, there's a couple things we're going to pull out and discuss as we chew on this here this morning. So here's here's kind of your outline. We have a relationship with God when we obey the will of God as seen in the contrast of the two brothers. The contrast of the two brothers (vv. 28-31) The challenge of the religious leaders (vv. 31-32) 1. The contrast of the two brothers So with the crowd listening and with the religious leaders listening, here's what Jesus says. And I love how he starts out. Now imagine as he's sharing this story here, I'm just going to imagine those religious leaders, just their smug looks on their face, dressed all nice, this air of superiority. And Jesus just comes and he just delivers, just the powerhouse of a parable. He's going to go for the mic drop here, because if actually, if you read earlier, Jesus has already challenged him. He's already put them in their place. And now he kind of just, he goes for the final nail in the coffin. I love how he starts. He says, what do you think? He's like, what do you think here, boys? And then he tells this story. He says, so this dad has a farm and his dad has two sons who are brothers. And he says to the one son, Hey, go out and do your chores. And that son says, no, I don't know about you. I was not allowed to say no to my dad. He says no. But then afterwards he, he goes and changes his mind and he does it. No, no. It says, Jesus says that he changed his mind. The son changed his mind. We'll come back to that. Well, this farmer dad has another son and he says, okay, boy, you go do your chores now. And this little brown-nosing son says, yes, daddy, sure, daddy, I'll go do it, daddy, right away, daddy. But then does not actually do this. Now, here's what I can tell you right now. Here's what I'm willing to bet that I know about you right now. You already kind of like the first son, and you're already really annoyed with the second son. And I'll tell you now, it was probably the same for the crowd when they heard it back in Jesus' day. But I love how Jesus frames the question. So he tells the story, and then this is how he wants them to think about it. He says, which of the two, verse 31, which of the two did the will of his father? He's saying which one proved that he actually respected his dad. Now, hopefully you know this, but this story is clearly meant to teach us about us and God. And I'll just say one of the first things we see right off the bat is that you don't have to be perfect to have a relationship with God. But we do have to obey his will. The whole point here is that Jesus is concerned about which son actually obeys his dad. Notice, notice Jesus does not ask which son loved his dad more. Jesus asked that in a way that's proven by their actions because what's truly in our hearts is shown in our actions. What's truly is in our hearts is shown in the way that we live. I'm not saying we don't mess up. I certainly do. I know you do, but you cannot deny the connection between what's in our hearts and how we conduct our lives. Jesus is telling us a profound truth in this parable. He's saying you don't get to just say you're gonna do your chores, you actually have to do them. He's saying you don't get to just say you love God, you actually have to obey his will. And listen, Jesus said the same thing in John 14. Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey my commands. He's saying you don't get to just say you love God. He's saying that you have a relationship with God when you obey the will of God. 2. The challenge of the religious leaders And then, and then Jesus takes this parable and like a shotgun on opening day, he takes it and he turns directly at the religious leaders. So let's look at the challenge that he brings them. So the religious leaders, they answer Jesus and they say, well it was the first son who did the will of the father. And with the shotgun pointed right at them, Jesus pulls the trigger and look what he says in verse 31 and 32. Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. He goes on to say, for John, speaking of John the Baptist, for John came to you in the way of righteousness, but you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you religious people saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him. Okay, there's so much to unpack here. So firstly, if you're unfamiliar with what Jesus is saying here with the tax collectors and the prostitutes. Let me clarify. During Jesus' time, tax collectors and prostitutes were seen as the lowest of the low, the worst sinners. They were seen as immoral and traitors. So here's the context. In Jesus' day, Rome had basically conquered all of the surrounding world. They were the world's superpower at that time. And they had occupied Judea and Jerusalem, where Jesus lived and ministered meaning if you lived where Jesus did when Jesus did you would have seen Roman soldiers all around as they occupied the land they were foreign rulers and what Rome did was they exacted a tax a high tax on people and so what Rome would do is that they would hire local people to collect the taxes. They would hire Jewish people to collect the taxes, meaning fellow Jewish people would start working for their foreign rulers, collecting taxes for Rome, but if that weren't enough, for instance, here's how it would work. For instance, if Rome said the tax was $50, these Jewish tax collectors would charge $60 and then pocket the 10. And Rome just kind of batted an eye at this. So these Jewish tax collectors would be in cahoots with their occupiers and steal from their own people. This of course was seen as an incredible betrayal. It was dirty, it was corrupt, they were seen as traitors. And this is what Jesus is hitting on when he talks about how the tax collectors are getting into heaven ahead of you. This is a group of people who were utterly despised by the religious leaders. And so prostitutes were just that, and I'll try to keep this PG for us here today. Prostitutes were just that. Women who would give up their bodies in exchange for money to anyone willing to pay. This was seen, like it is today, as purveying a perverse culture of debauchery. So for the people of Judea and Jerusalem, tax collectors and prostitutes were seen as lowest of the low. And yet Jesus is saying to these religious people, he's saying that those sinners are actually getting into heaven ahead of them. Listen, I'm not sure you are fully feeling the weight of how much of an affront that must have been to those ears. Like we just hear this all the time because we read our Bibles all the time. This would have been utterly shocking to them and even highly offensive to them. Now, here's what I'm gonna say to you, church. I know so many people who feel like they're just not growing in their faith. And I'll tell you why I think many people stop growing in their faith. It's because they stop feeling the challenge. They no longer are challenged by the faith. They think they know it all. So let me try to bring a correlation here that might help you feel how much of a challenge this might have been. This would have been like if Jesus was speaking to religious people here today, and he would have told you or me in particular as a religious leader, hey, the drug dealers and the drag queens are getting into heaven ahead of you. Like that's the level of like challenge that they felt that we need to feel. To really discern are we doing this because we're just religiously superior or do we have a humble? Repentant faith as we follow God. Then let me just say something because I want to make something Abundantly clear here. This is very popular to bring this up these days Jesus yes, he did hang out with tax collectors and prostitutes. But why? He hung out with tax collectors, Jesus hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes in order to bring them out of their sin and into the kingdom. Look what Jesus says in verse 32. He says, for John, again speaking of John the Baptist, John the Baptist came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes, what? Believed. The tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. I can't underscore this enough because people in our day, we want to say that Jesus hung out with sinners and prostitutes for no other reason other than the fact that he was just a tolerant person and a staple of progressive inclusion. That's not why Jesus hung out with them. He hung out with them because he loved them. Yes, but he loved them enough to proclaim the gospel to them, to let them know there's room in the kingdom for them if they repent and believe in the gospel. It's the religious who need to be challenged on this. And I want to tell you about a time that I had my own, Oh no, I'm a religious person moment. Number of years ago, uh, when I was the family pastor here at peace church, before I became the lead pastor, I went with our children's ministry team to a conference in Atlanta. And our children's team was composed mostly of women, and at that time I went with our Matt Witte, who is currently our facilities director, but back then he was our bold boys leader, our young boys ministry leader. And so we went, we were the only two guys on the strip with a group of ladies. And so we landed in Atlanta, big airports. And in those bigger airports, if you've ever been there, you know that you often have to take like a little train from your terminal to the baggage claim. You know what I'm saying? Okay, so it's Atlanta, so it's big, it's bustling, it's busy and it's packed. And so we, me and the, all these ladies and me and Matt, we get on this little train and we're just scrunched in, it's packed. And this woman came on the train after us. And again, I'll try to keep it PG here. Let's just say it appeared that she was a working girl. And she was clearly medically altered in her appearance and had no problem dressing in a way to show this off. So on this train, she walks in and me and Matt look at her, and then me and Matt look at each other, and then me and Matt look at the ceiling. Oh, look at that. Carpet on fiberglass. Oh, interesting. We're not looking around, right? We're godly men here. But this short little ride, I noticed also on this train in the front, there was this group of these guys. And listen, I'm a pastor and I try to love everybody, but I'll just tell you right now, these guys just didn't, just something about them, okay? Something about them just rubbed me the wrong way. And they were pointing at her and they were clearly talking about her. And so we got to our stop. And of course, you know, when those things stop, everyone wants to get out the exact same time. So we're all getting like shoved out. And it just so happened that she gets shoved up right next to me. And she's got her baggage claim ticket in her hand. And she's trying to show it to me and she says, do you know where this is? And without even looking at her, I said, no, I don't. Sorry. Truth is, I will just tell you now, I wanted to maintain my self-righteousness. I didn't want the women of our children's team thinking that I was hitting on her. I wanted to be above reproach. I didn't want anyone else judging me for talking to her. So we get off the train and there was like five rows of escalators, all right? And I tried to distance myself and I went and got an escalator and we're going up and I look over at one of the escalators down the way and I see her and that group of guys had just surrounded her and the Holy Spirit just spoke to my heart, broke my heart. And I think the message was something like this. Are you really any better than those guys? It was like God was saying to me, that was my lost daughter, and I brought her to you for help, but you were too concerned about your image to help her. It's like God was saying, you're just like those guys. You only saw her as an object. You saw her as an object to be avoided to maintain your self-righteousness. They saw her as an object to be acquired to satisfy their own desires. Was I really any better than them? I looked over and I saw her surrounded by those guys and I will tell you this time I saw her through God's eyes. I saw her as a human, as someone who Christ came to save. But I didn't think that because I was too worried about what people would think of me. You see, here's how you know if you are a religious person. Do you only see people through the choices they've made or do you see people made in the image of God? Now listen, nobody wants to be the religious person but here's what I'll tell you, it's easier to be that person. And here's what I'll tell you, it goes both ways. See, for religious people on the right, we often avoid sinners so that we can feel self-righteous. But I would say religious people on the left, they hang out with sinners so that people will think that they're inclusive. Either way, religious people use others as a means to an end to build up themselves and their own image. But Jesus provides a true and loving way. Listen to me, he didn't hang out with sinners because he was tolerant and progressive, and he didn't avoid them, even when he was criticized by the religious crowd for doing it. I'll tell you now, that story that I just shared with you haunts me, because I wonder, if I had brought her to the baggage claim, if I had brought her to the baggage claim, could I have brought her to the kingdom of God? Now listen, she was not an attractive person. She's what the Bible calls sensual. And maybe there are some guys in here who probably should have avoided a person like that. But it was a crowded space. And I had an opportunity to be a true witness for the gospel with an opportunity that God literally brought right to my doorstep, but I was too concerned about maintaining my pristine religious image. I'll say it again. Guys like Jesus and John the Baptist, they spent time with sinners because they loved them, but they loved them enough to proclaim the gospel to them, to invite them into something better than the life they were living. And look what happened, verse 32, "'But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed.'" There's the difference, they believe. The tax collectors and the prostitutes, they're getting in front of the line into heaven, not because Jesus thinks they're cool, but because they're sinners who repent and believe the message of the gospel. That's how anyone is getting to heaven. No one is good enough to get into heaven. It is simply and only and wholly and fully the work of Christ. And once we place our faith in Him, that's how we get into heaven. Because when we place our faith in Jesus, the righteousness of Christ is given to us. Not because we earned it, but because God is good and He graciously gives it to us. And the true test as to whether or not a person has repented and believed the gospel, if they're truly sorry for what they've done, is in their changed behavior. Jesus said a tree is known by its fruit, meaning a person is known by the actions, by what happens in their life. Jesus saw the changed behavior of the tax collectors and the prostitutes based on their And Jesus connects them with the Son, the first Son, in the story that we just read. They're the first Son. They first said no to God, but later on they changed their mind and followed Him, unlike the religious people who say yes to God, but they actually don't follow His will. Let me spell this out. Jesus is saying the religious leaders are the second Son. They say they follow God. They say they love God. They say they do God's will but they don't actually do it. You have a religion which is a true relationship with God When you have a when you follow and obey God's will and it's at this point people That you've been listening to Jesus contrast two different parties the first son and the second son, the sinners who repent and the religious people who don't. And it's at this point you have to ask yourself, which one are you? For those who can hear me right now, for those of you in another venue, for those of you listening right now on a podcast in some tree stand. Oh, I'll call anybody out. Don't you worry. Which one are you? Do you follow the right thing to do out of religious duty or out of love for God? Do you sacrifice your preferences to follow God's Will or do you selfishly follow your own wills? Jesus told this parable days before his crucifixion. Before a crucifixion he knew was coming. And when Jesus died on that cross, He died on the cross in our place for our sins. It was our sins that nailed Him there. Jesus took our punishment and we have to ask ourselves, what is our response? To either reject God and go our own way or to repent and change our behavior because we've changed our minds. Listen, I will tell you right now, God is not some distant God. Jesus is not some distant Savior. He is the resurrected and triumphant savior who calls us into relationship With him. This is why the word Reconciliation is such a powerful word for christians because reconciliation means that we've been brought back into relationship with god That's who we are. We are the sons and daughters of the king Remember you have a relationship with god when you obey the will of God. This is such a profound truth and it kind of goes against probably our common notions of what it means to be a Christian. But we have a relationship with God when we stay in His will. Jesus came to pull us back when we stepped outside of His will. But Church, I want you to remember, when we fall short, because we will, and that's not an excuse to fall short. It's just the reality of the world that we live in. When we fall short, remember this, God does not. When our faithfulness waxes and wanes, remember, the faithfulness of God is the greatest there is. Great is His faithfulness towards us. This is why we lean into God. This is why we follow Jesus. Because their love, God's love for us, Christ's love for us, His faithfulness towards us is greater than our own. So, let's prepare our hearts to sing, great is thy faithfulness, because God has yet again shown this church how great His faithfulness is, amen? Amen, would you please stand? Church, I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads, whether you're here or in another venue, would you bow your heads and just reflect for a moment? God has been so good to us. God's been so good to this church. With your heads bowed, I want you just to stand in a moment of gratitude for the way that God's moved in the hearts of this church, the ways He continues to move. And this is because His faithfulness is great, not because we've earned it but because he's good. And so when you sing of God's great faithfulness, do this because you know that he is good. So, Father, we are thankful for the ways that you have moved in this church, but we are even more eternally grateful. The fact that you are God. We are eternally grateful for the gospel that Christ died in our place, for our sins, so that we can be brought back to you, have fellowship with you, and you've sent the Holy Spirit to fill, fuel, and guide your church in this faithfulness. And so, Father, I pray, as we sing these words, Father, I pray that we'd sing them as a church that knows these words are true, that we believe these words are true, because you've shown them time and time again. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Church, let's worship together.

How to Handle a Difficult Small-Group Member Ministry Rachel Bailey Executive Director Alpha Women’s Center Published On: May 31, 2023 Small group Bible studies are a joy to lead. Any chance to study Scripture in community is a gift. But they can also be challenging to lead, particularly if you have a difficult group member. Perhaps this person has a lot of strong opinions and she’s decided this group is the best place to air them all. Maybe she overshares personal information or always directs the conversation back to herself. She might gossip, revealing inappropriate information about others under the guise of a prayer request. Or perhaps she dominates the conversation, not leaving space for anyone else to speak. Am I making any leaders squirm yet? As I’ve trained leaders to handle these challenging situations , I’ve found three principles helpful. 1. Set Firm Boundaries Establishing standards and expectations from the beginning is loving. This gives something tangible to refer back to when boundaries are tested. And it creates an opportunity to clearly address problems like gossip, talking over one another, or disregarding Scripture. Although boundaries are ideally established from the start, if you’re leading an existing small group , it’s never too late. Look for a natural place to introduce boundaries, like after a summer break, at the start of a new year, or when changing your topic of study . One way to set boundaries is to create a written group agreement and have everyone sign it. Another option is to write it out in an email and ask all participants to reply to indicate they’ve read it. Or you might just have the conversation verbally. Consider the dynamics of your group and what would be most loving and effective in your situation. 2. Extend Grace When you have a difficult member in your group, it can be easy to focus on the challenges he or she creates for you as the leader. Take a deep breath and ask God to help you see the bigger picture. Let’s think through a few reasons someone may be a difficult group member: She’s lonely, lacking other community, and expressing her desire for connection in unhealthy ways. She’s an immature Christian (or not a Christian at all), lacking the fruit of the Spirit. She’s struggling with a mental or emotional disorder which may inhibit her ability to function appropriately in the group. She’s been hurt by a community in the past. What do all these situations have in common? They describe people who need the grace and kindness of God as much as you do. If you discover your difficult group member has one of these deeper concerns, let it inform how you approach her. Exercise wisdom based on her particular circumstances, and seek to extend the same compassion and grace you’ve received from the Lord. 3. Have a Conversation Extending grace doesn’t mean allowing inappropriate behavior to continue unchecked. When a boundary has been repeatedly crossed, it’s time to speak with the person and address the issue clearly . Confronting others makes my palms sweat. Perhaps it makes you uncomfortable too. But lovingly correcting a brother or sister is a biblical call we must take seriously, particularly as leaders ( 2 Tim. 4:2 ; 2 Thess. 3:15 ). Here’s how you might approach the conversation depending on the issue you need to address. Conversation Dominators If someone constantly dominates the conversation, you have the freedom and responsibility as the leader to redirect the discussion during group time: “Hey ____, thanks for your thoughts. Let’s take a moment to hear from ____ about this topic.” In a private conversation with the group member, specifically describe her negative behavior. Encourage her to hone her gifts by looking out for those who are shy or not engaging and to use her voice to cheer on others whose voices aren’t being heard. Toxic Sharers Your group needs to be a refuge for sharing struggles, not a place for gossip to fester. Toxic Sharers may divulge too much information about themselves or others in the group, or they might share other members’ prayer requests with people outside the group. All of this must be snuffed out immediately. Don’t shy away from quickly redirecting the conversation during a group meeting, even if it feels awkward. As with the Conversation Dominator, you should have a private conversation with the Toxic Sharer where you describe her negative behavior. Acknowledge her need to feel seen and heard, and give her examples of appropriate ways to handle sensitive information in the future. One Who Needs to Leave What if you’ve had multiple conversations with a difficult group member and brought another believer with you to confront her, yet she’s still unwilling to change? At this point, we’re talking about blatant disregard for the boundaries and well-being of the group. Set up a time to meet with the person in a public space, potentially with a mediator, and include the following in your conversation: A specific description of the unrepentant sinful behavior A clear request for the person to leave the group, effective immediately A sincere commitment to pray for her It’s important to remember that we as imperfect humans will never adhere to standards and expectations perfectly, whether as group members or as leaders. But by God’s grace, we can seek to maintain a healthy, God-honoring atmosphere in our small groups. When you encounter a difficult member in your group, I encourage you to pray through your approach, seek the wisdom of your pastor or ministry leader, and avoid the pitfalls of inaction or anger. May our good and merciful God be glorified in how we handle the difficult group members in our care. 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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Logan Bailey Logan Bailey is the Discipleship Pastor at Peace Church. He and his wife Rachel have a son. Most Recent Content from Logan Bailey The Lord Is Mine Watch Sermon A Psalm of Solomon Watch Sermon New Year New Life Good morning. How are we doing? I've said it before, I'll say it again, the front row is where the fire is at, but there are four front... Watch Sermon Avoiding the Burnout Trap READ MORE Psalm 23 for the Idolatry-Prone Minister When I was young and excited about starting in ministry, my youth pastor gave me a warning: “too many pastors let ministry become their... READ MORE Offering Teenagers Hope for Their Habits Do you watch TV? Like, a lot of TV? I know I am not the only one who frequently finds myself coming home, sitting on the couch, and... READ MORE How to Plan the Next Youth Retreat with Confidence 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... READ MORE

On The Cross (Part 1) Sermon Series: It Had To Be Said Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Luke 23:34 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it and everyone everywhere, including the venue and the chapel and those online that we all said together, amen. Amen. So church, we do live in a world where there is no shortage of words. English, they say is the most wordy language of all time. And thanks to this thing, for those listening on a podcast later, this is a phone, our phone. Thanks to this thing, we have way too much access to far too much of what's being said in our world. Our world has no shortage of words or opinions. We live in a world where feelings are seen as just as valid as facts. In this world, we have to ask ourselves, when we have access to so much, where can we turn to for words that will cut through the noise? Where can we turn to to find words that are comforting, challenging, and true? Where can we turn to find words that are both timely and timeless? Words that were as much needed as when they were spoken as they are needed now? I'll tell you, there's one place, and that's the scriptures. And we've been doing that this summer as we look at words that cut through the noise, words of Jesus Christ. Again this series has been looking at words simply from Jesus, what's often called the red letter words. Words not just from anyone, but words from Jesus Christ. Words, quotes, that changed the world. And I'll just tell you right now, the words of Jesus that we're going to look at today, they most certainly change the world, but I will tell you right now, they are words that specifically changed me. Coming back from sabbatical, I wanted to preach a message that was deeply personal to me to share some things. As we look at, I think, the words that the Holy Spirit used to cut through my heart, to call me to faith in Jesus. And so if you have your Bibles, would you please turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 23. We'll be looking at verse 34 today. If you want to use the Bibles we've provided, happy for you to do that, that's on page 1124. Again, these are words that Jesus Christ spoke from the cross, and they're words that the Holy Spirit used, as much as I can say this, to cut into my heart and call me to faith in Jesus Christ. They are words that Jesus said after his torture, during his crucifixion. Now, if you know anything about the physiology of a crucifixion, to even speak during crucifixion was extremely painful. And Jesus finds the strength to say the words that we're going to look at today. Jesus said these words as he was looking upon the people, the very people that were doing this to Him. And this is what He said. And so, would you hear the word of the Lord, the words of Jesus? Luke, chapter 23, verse 34. Luke 23:34 And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This is God's holy word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father, we come to you in prayer. We come to you in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, asking that you would be with us today, helping us to know the truth of your word, timeless and timely words that we might know salvation in Jesus' name, that we might, by the blood of Jesus, be brought back into a relationship with you, our good and glorious God and we do pray these things for your glory for our joy and for the good of our neighbor we do pray these things and everyone said all together amen. So father forgive them for they do not know what they do Jesus Christ prayed this for the people who were killing him as they were killing him while he hung on the cross. When I first read these words as an 18-year-old, and I understood what was happening in this moment when Jesus said this, it was like I was on the road of life. And when I read these words, it was like God brought this enormous roadblock and set it right in front of me, and said, this is your path no longer. I have a new path for you to follow the way of my son. Has it been perfect since then? Nope, it's been pretty bumpy and rocky at times. But since that time, confessing my faith in Jesus, I've walked the path of the way, the way of Christ. When I read these words as a high school kid, I will tell you, I lost. My defenses failed me. I couldn't get around these words. Every argument that I had against the Christian faith suddenly became very brittle and hollow. And it was like God said to me, you're mine now, and I have a better plan for you. Now listen, Jesus Christ, as you've heard all summer long, he said some powerful words, he said comforting words, he said challenging words, at times Jesus even said some condemning words, but you know what these are for me? You know what sort of words these are? These are confirming words for me. These words, when you understand what's happening and you understand the moment that Jesus was in when he said this, they are like confirming words. They reveal who he is and what he's come to do. And it shows us why Jesus is so amazing. So as we begin to look at the end of the summer, rather than three points today, I'll keep it easy on you, we'll just do two points today as we look at this wonderful, powerful verse. Two things today. On the cross we see firstly that Jesus prays for sinners, and secondly on the cross we see that Jesus provides for salvation. All right, so let's get into it. First point. Jesus prays for sinners. Keep your Bibles open here today. Verse 34. In these words, Father forgive them for they do not know what they do, we see Jesus doing something remarkable. I've said it before, I'll say it again because you cannot forget this. Jesus was praying this for the people who were killing him as they were killing him. Say what you want about Jesus Christ, but you cannot deny that this man lived everything he taught. Jesus prays for sinners. This is a prayer. So let's talk about prayer for a second. Bump your neighbor and say we're talking about prayer because we're talking about prayer right now. Now I've always said there's two types of Christians. There's those who pray and those who say they pray. And I looked at my life and for a long time I thought to myself. I don't pray enough to really qualify myself as a praying man. There was this one time a number of years back that I was I was leading a mission trip to a place called Switzer West Virginia. Now you people who are West Michiganders, you have no idea where Switzer West Virginia is and there's no reason for you to know where that is. It's in the middle of nowhere Appalachia. Like when you go to the middle of Appalachia and you're lost, keep going and maybe you'll find Switzer. This is where we were at as a group. Now I brought a group down there to help out this little church. Then what happened during the week was there's these three little old ladies who would come to the church every single day and they would make us lunch. And one day we got our morning project done early. So I thought, you know, I'm gonna go help these little ladies get ready for lunch. So I go into their little church and I'm walking down the stairs and I get to their basement and I start walking towards the little kitchenette that they have and one of the women was on the phone and she says, Oh my goodness, yes, we'll pray for that. And then she hung up the phone. Now I know some of you don't know what I mean when I say hung up the phone. See, you know, back in the olden days, in the 1900s, there was this thing, phones were actually attached to a wall and were connected by a cord. And you knew the people who were extremely talkative, because their cord was a lot longer than other people's cord. If you remember, some cords were like 35 feet long, and that's so mom or grandma could talk throughout the entire house and still be connected to the wall. Let me see, who here had a mom or a grandma like that? Who here was a mom or grandma like that? Yeah, okay. So I get down and I'm walking to this kitchenette and she says, Oh my goodness, yes, I'll pray for that. She hangs up the phone. She turns to her friends and she says, so-and-so is going in for emergency emergency surgery right now. And I'm walking up to these three little old ladies and they say, would you like to pray with us? And do you know what went through my head? That Eminem song. This looks like a job for me. Like I was like, I'm here. This is why I'm here. I'm the highest ranking person here. So yes, I will pray. And in my mind, I thought for just a second, I was outlining how the prayer was gonna go. You know how this works around here. We got this really unique way of doing prayer where someone says, okay, why don't you start, and if anyone feels like they are led to pray, go ahead and pray, and then I'll close it up at the end. You know how we do that around here, right? Yeah, okay, so apparently not everyone does it like that. So I'm walking up and they say, would you like to pray with us? And I say yes, thinking this is how it's gonna go. But no sooner did I say yes, than did these three women all start praying at the same time out loud. And I realized in a fraction of a second, I am seriously outgunned here. I've just entered something new. I don't pray like that. The pastors I know, we don't pray like that. I am telling you, it was a deep prayer. It was devoted. It was desperate. It was a prayer pouring out their hearts. It was a prayer that they fully believed that God could heal. It was unashamed because they were all talking at the same time and they didn't care what anyone thought of their prayers. They were crying out to their God. It was a beautiful thing. You know, what makes someone brave is not just what they're willing to do, but what they're willing to do in front of other people. And so let me just throw a challenge out to the Christian men in the house. Pray out loud. Pray out loud with your wife, with your family, with your kids. Jesus Christ was on the cross. You want to talk about an inconvenient time to pray? He is on the cross and he still prays. So when I was in that little prayer circle with these women, I'll be honest with you, I walked away from that prayer time really discouraged. And I was really discouraged for a long time. It troubled me. Because you want to know what I did? I made that the gold standard for prayer. For a long time I was discouraged about my prayer life because I didn't pray like that. Nobody I knew really prayed like that. And I was really discouraged for a long time. Until my understanding of prayer, look to the scripture. When you get to the scriptures, you see something drastically different. See, when I was growing up, I thought prayer was that time that you carved out at some point in the day, and you folded your hands, and you got on your knees, and you closed your eyes, and then you started praying like you were writing a letter. Dear God, how are you today? That's how I thought prayer was. I thought it was simple and like writing a letter and then I experienced these ladies and then I was like, oh wait, wait, no, it must be really big and broad. But then when I started searching more and more of the scriptures, you see something, all that and more. See, when you look at the prayers of the scriptures, you see raw, honest prayers. You see honest prayers. And what I mean is that sometimes people who are praying in the Bible, they're confused about what God is doing or what God is allowing. When you look at some prayers in the scriptures, there's not many of them that are very elaborate or even deeply religious sounding. And yet Christ shows us something beautiful that you can pray even through excruciating pain. Prayer is not a letter to God. Prayer is talking to the Father through the Son in the power of the Spirit and then listening. See, I once thought prayer was patient and on your knees, and I thought it was powerful and out loud. Then I realized it's all that and more. Those ladies will always be champions of the faith in my book, but I'll tell you now, they're no longer the gold standard of prayer for me. You want to know what is? It's this prayer of Jesus that we're looking at today. This is a prayer, mind you. Father, forgive them. This prayer from Jesus on the cross, this is the epitome of grit. It's selfless, it's short, it's faithful. For many of us, we don't pray, we just say we do. And I'm telling you, we are missing out on so much. This is the prayer of our Savior as He was dying. This is what he's praying as he's dying, as they are killing him. It's this prayer, Jesus pleading with God the Father for the forgiveness of the people who are killing him. He's praying this as they are killing him. What sort of man is this? Can you imagine a woman praying for the forgiveness of her husband as he is cheating on her? Can you imagine a 68 year old man praying for the forgiveness of his accountant as his accountant is draining his retirement dry? What sort of man is this? There is something else going on here with Jesus. Jesus is praying for the forgiveness of the people who are killing him as they're killing him. But listen here, it does not end there. It gets even more powerful. See, Jesus Christ, yes, He does die on that cross. He is killed on that cross. He does not come off alive. They take His dead body off the cross and they lay it in a tomb where it lays stone-cold dead for three days. But then, in this little thing we call the resurrection, the Son of God rose again. The resurrection is what makes or breaks the Christian faith. Jesus Christ rose again. And then for 40 days, he continued to minister, and then he returned to heaven. So here's the question, what's Jesus doing now in heaven? Well, aside from ruling and reigning, did you know that Jesus is also praying for you? He prays for us still. Romans chapter 8, verse 34. Jesus Christ, who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. This is take a moment, listen to the rain, embrace it, it's beautiful. Notice here it says, he's at the right hand of God, interceding for us. It doesn't say praying, it uses a special word, interceding, intercession. Now listen, if you're like me and you come from a pretty conservative background, that's probably not a word you hear a lot, but it's a biblical scriptural word that is a way to pray. Now what is intercession? Intercession is praying where we stand in the gap for someone else and we intervene in on their behalf in prayer. And so, when Jesus says, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do, I would tell you that is the greatest in a sensory prayer in all of the Bible. Ten words in English, it was actually only eight words in Greek, and it is a prayer that still changes hearts. Jesus still intercedes for us. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25 says, Therefore Jesus is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Christians, listen to me. Jesus is praying for you right now. Right now in heaven, Jesus is speaking your name to God the Father, and he's praying for you. But this here, right now, this is the point where you ask me, so what? Because here's one of the things I really want us to do as a church, I want us to be able to ask really big, hard questions. We need to be able to express our doubts and have our questions and ask them. And you can ask any question you want here without judgment. We want to have conversations. We want you to bring your questions. In fact, I want you to think about your hardest possible question and then send it to Pastor John. That's what I want you to do. So Jesus is praying for us. Okay, I invite you to ask the question, so what? My friend, here's the so what. Knowing that Jesus is praying for you, I want you to remember this because whatever life throws at you, whatever people do to you, whatever your boss is like, whatever your marriage is like, however hurtful your friends can be, I want you to remember at all times that the Savior of the world is praying for you by name in heaven right now. And let that wash over you and remind you how deeply cared for and loved you are by God. Now, before we get to our second point, I just want to call out something that many of you probably have noticed if you have your Bibles open. If you have your Bibles open, you'll notice that we're not actually looking at one verse today. We're looking at half of a verse today. Verse 34 continues. It goes on to say this, and Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do and they cast lots to divide his garments. So not only were they killing him, but as they were killing him, they were gambling to see who gets his stuff. They were slaughtering him and stealing from him at the same time. And listen to me, not just his stuff, his garments, that means his clothes. For us in the modern age, it's very hard for us to understand how absolutely horrible crucifixion was. It was designed to bring about the most intense, horrendous possible physical pain, while also making you go through the most horrendous psychological torture imaginable. Because one thing you need to know about Romans is when they crucified people, they stripped them naked first, and they crucified them naked. Jesus Christ was naked on the cross, praying for the forgiveness of people who were killing him as they were killing him, as they were stealing his clothes right in front of him. Bring me any other religious leader, because they've got nothing on Jesus. My friend, do not delay. Cast your sin aside, cast your pride aside, and lay it all before the cross, because there is no one like Him. There is no one who has done for you apart from what Christ has done for you. There is no one who will call you like Jesus will, who loves you like He does. What He did for those men is a shadow of what He's done for the entire world, what He's done for you. So do not delay. The cast lots to divide his garments and yet he still prays for them. This is how amazing of a Savior we have in Jesus Christ. Jesus prays for sinners, for you and for me, and he also provides for salvation. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. They do not know what they're doing. Okay, so what were they doing? If they don't know, what were they actually doing? Let's talk about that. See, here's what so many people get wrong about the death of Jesus. So many people, especially in our culture, so many people have this understanding that Jesus was simply this nice guy who was wrongfully murdered and it's so sad what happened to this nice guy by these evil people. Now think about it from their perspective for a second. Think about it from the authority's perspective for a moment, because it's not just what Jesus did that got him killed, it's what he said that got him killed. Let's look at some of these things. Mark 11, verse 26, Jesus said that unless you forgive, you will not be forgiven. Jesus said in John 10 30, Jesus said that he and God the Father were one. They were the same. They were one in essence. Matthew chapter 5 verse 40, Jesus said that someone asks for your coat, you are to give them your shirt as well. Wasn't Jesus living that one out here? John chapter 14 verse 6, Jesus said that He was the only way to heaven, that He was the only way to God the Father. My friends, you don't get to say the things that Jesus said unless you are who Jesus said He was. Church, I will tell you now, it was realizing this that God turned my heart and made me become a Christian. If Jesus isn't Emmanuel, if Jesus isn't God with us, if Jesus isn't the Savior of the world, if the things that Jesus said were not true, then listen to me, then he got what he deserved. You don't get to say the things that Jesus said if they're not true. You don't get to say the things that Jesus said if you weren't who Jesus said he was. If Jesus wasn't who he said he was, then do not call him a great moral teacher. Rather, he was the greatest liar the world has ever known, and he should not be venerated. He should be demonized or at least forgotten. If Jesus wasn't who he said he was, if Jesus was lying, he got what he deserved. But what's beautiful about this is that Jesus took everything he said and he went all the way with it, all the way even to his death. Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do. Jesus knew in this moment that his death on the cross was a pivotal moment in all of human history, but he knew that they didn't realize it. See, they thought they were killing a rebel against Rome. They thought they were killing another common criminal. They didn't realize that they were killing the one who is providing them salvation. What were they doing? They were killing the Savior of the world. But what was Jesus doing? He was the perfect Son of God, and in this moment He is dying for the sins of the world. He is paying the penalty that your sins and my sins deserve. He was taking the punishment that was for us to bear. The world that is around us does not realize this. Some of you sitting here right now, you do not realize what happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross. It was five long years that my wife and I were in the adoption process. But when the time finally came for us to fly to Ethiopia and to adopt our son, we sat nervously in that Ethiopian courthouse and we waited our turn to meet the judge. Now listen, this was one of the greatest moments of our lives. And it was also one of the greatest moments of our son's life, but he had no idea what was happening. But I don't think that negates how monumental of a moment it was for him. Our son did nothing to contribute to the adoption process aside from being born. Yet the adoption, becoming finalized, was one of the biggest moments of his life, and he doesn't remember it. It's like this, Christ dying on the cross is one of the biggest moments of your life, and some of you don't realize it yet. But realizing this and accepting this truth will change everything. It changes hearts. Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do. What were they doing? They were killing the Savior of the world. They were fulfilling prophecy. They were witnessing firsthand the righteous judgment of God being poured out on His Son for the sins of the world. Jesus in this moment is providing salvation for all who will place their faith in Him. Because this is what happened. This is what happened on the cross. Jesus took your sin and took the punishment you deserve so you don't have to. They don't know what they do. Jesus is reminding us how lost the world is. The world doesn't know. The world, back then, those soldiers had Jesus right in front of them. They had the crucifixion live happening right before them, and they didn't realize what was happening. Many people can look upon Jesus, many people can come to church many people can hear the gospel proclaimed and not realize their need for a Savior and It's because we are lost. It's because our hearts are hardened The world is lost and they don't realize who Christ is or what he's done. The world is lost and they don't know what they do This is why Christians should be the most empathetic and compassionate people on the planets. Listen, if someone is lost in the woods and they're trying to find their way home and they're going in the wrong direction, do you hate them for it? No, of course not. Likewise, in this world, when people promote sin, we should not hate them for it. On the flip, we should be empathetic because they are lost, they're going in the wrong direction. Or even more, like Jesus, we should be pleading with God for their forgiveness because they don't know what they are doing. When I see people choose the desires of sin rather than the joy of Jesus, it's not pity I feel, it's not hatred I feel, it's empathy, it's compassion. In some ways it's sadness because I wish they knew that what Christ offers is infinitely better. When I first read this verse as an 18 year old, you want to know what I thought? I was thinking to myself, if I was in Jesus' shoes, if I was on the cross, after a lifetime of pouring out love to these people, and this is what they were doing to me, if I was in that moment, you want to know what? This is where I'd show my cards. This is where I'd show my cards. I'd be sitting there from the cross. I'd take every ounce and I'd say I can't believe you people everything I've done for you I Served you I taught you I've done all these wonderful things for you. And this is what you do for me That's what you do to me. You all can go to hell That's what I would say because I would show my cards as the sinful wretch that I am but you want to know something Jesus does show His cards here. He's showing the world exactly who He is. Jesus shows His cards and it's amazing. When I first read this verse at that moment, I realized what I was doing. I was spiritually blind, living a life of sin, putting myself before God, putting myself before others, wanting to be accepted by the world rather than wanting to be accepted by the creator of the world. This verse spoke deep into my heart. I don't know if you've noticed this, my friends, but it seems like, especially in the last generation, that people in our world have graduated from celebrating sin to finding identity in it. But they do this because they don't know what they do. They're lost. They give themselves to sin. And what we need to know, what we need to be reminded of is that sin is what put Jesus on the cross, my sin and your sin. And it was in reading this that my spirit was broken. It was in reading this that I realized that Jesus was the one worth giving my life to, that He was who He said He was. And so when we repent of our sin on Christ and Christ pays the penalty for us. And because our sin has been punished and not just ignored, this is why we can rightly say and rightly sing as we did in the beginning that justice has been satisfied and all Christians should say amen at this. And not only this, but our sin is taken away as if that wasn't enough, we are given abundant life, and if that wasn't enough, we're given eternal life, and if that wasn't enough, you know what also we get? We get brought back into the family of God. We get reconciled to God and we get to have a relationship with our Creator again, and this is because of what Jesus has done for us. And so, church, when you read these words, many of your Bibles will have these words in red, and it's very appropriate because these truly are blood-stained words, as we see how these words cut through all the noise. Church today we read a quote from Christ that changed the world. My prayer is that it will change you, and that the Spirit will call you into a faith in Jesus. But for those of us who have faith, let me remind you, Jesus prays for us, He provides salvation. And for those of you who are walking with the Lord, is there any, let me ask you, is there any better response to this any, let me ask you, is there any better response to this than to worship? If you agree with that, say Amen. Amen. Would you please stand?

Take Up Your Cross Sermon Series: It Had To Be Said Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Mark 8:31-38 Transcript All right, church, if you grab your Bible, would you open with me to Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8, we're going to be looking at verses 31 through 38 this morning. If you don't have a Bible, feel free to look for one around you. There's one on a table or on a shelf in any of the worship venues. You can grab one of those and turn to page 1073. We're continuing our series called It Had to be Said. Quotes from Christ that changed the world. And this morning, we're going to look at, I think, what is probably one of the most famous and one of the most challenging quotes of Jesus in all of the Bible. I know it's Fourth of July week, it's sunshine. You wouldn't think that this is the time to hear a hard, challenging word from Jesus. But you know what? As I thought about that this week, I just thought, you know what? That's exactly when we need to hear it is when things are going well, when the sun is shining, the Lord gets us ready for when things are not always that way. So would you hear with me Mark chapter 8, we're going to start reading in verse 31. I'll read it, then we'll pray, then we'll get to work. Here we go. Mark 8, starting in verse 31. Mark 8:31-38 31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” This is God's word, amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, this absolute truth before us, this word from you to your people. God, I pray that you would open up our hearts so we would hear it. God, I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit, a broken instrument to bring your perfect word to your people. God, I pray that you'd be glorified and that our hearts would be changed and transformed. Pray this all in Jesus' powerful name, amen. It's amazing how something can seem upside down until you look at it from the right perspective, isn't it? I just had that experience just yesterday. One of my boys was on the couch And he was standing on his head, and he said daddy you're upside down, and I said no son you're upside down Just for fun. I thought maybe we could all experience that together take a look and tell your neighbor What you think you see on the screen here? Is it a squirrel or is it a horse? Try again tell your neighbor what you think you see. Is it a horse? Or is it a man? One more, one more. What do you think you see? I love the crowd participation up here. It's awesome. Is it a lion or is it a mouse? That last one always gets me. In the passage that we're going to look at this morning, our passage starts with Jesus explaining what it means to be the Messiah. Namely, that it means to be killed. At the end of our passage, Jesus goes on to explain what it means to be one of his disciples, namely that it also means to be rejected and to suffer. And in the middle of the passage, we have a scene that connects the two together. We've got Peter, you gotta love Peter. Peter takes the thing that everybody's thinking and he says it out loud. Peter grabs Jesus and he pulls him aside and he says, Jesus, there's no way. You can't die. And Jesus says those same words, get behind me, Satan. And He goes on to explain, and this is I think the key phrase for understanding the whole passage. He says to Peter, for you have your minds set on the things of man instead of on the things of God. You see, what Jesus lays out is two ways. My way and Jesus's way. And he shows us that from the perspective of man, Jesus's way looks upside down. From Peter's perspective, from the disciples perspective, from you and I perspective, the way of the cross looks upside down. But the problem is not with Jesus. The problem is actually that we have the mindset, the perspective of human beings, instead of the mindset and the perspective of God. I think Proverbs 14, 12 sums it up really well. It says, there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Like Peter, all of us from time to time in our lives, we try to pull Jesus aside. We say, hey, Jesus, come over here. Let me tell you, your way is a little upside down. See, I've actually got another way and my way is the right way. I think I got this whole thing figured out. Jesus, let me just explain to you my way and how things should go. Our way makes sense. It looks right to us. Jesus's way looks wrong from our perspective. But Jesus says that's because we have our minds set in the things of man instead of the things of God. That actually our way leads to death, whereas Jesus' way leads to life. So in our passage this morning, the main idea that we're going to see is this, that Jesus' disciples follow the way of the cross and not the way of the world. Jesus' disciples follow the way of the cross and not the way of the world. And we're going to walk through the passage, we're going to see three comparisons in the main quote, the primary quote comes in verses 34 and following, and so we're going to see as we walk through that three different comparisons that Jesus makes as he tries to make his points about the upside-down way of the cross that we are called to. 2. Save it vs. lose it (vv. 34-35) So let's do that. Let's jump in. Let's take a look at the first one here. Save it or lose it. Take a look with me at verses 34 and 35. And calling the crowd to him with his disciples he said to them, if anyone would come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospels will save it. So you have to imagine sort of how the Jews at the time would have seen the Messiah. They would have thought of a Messiah who was going to come and who was going to have only victory, right? A guy who was going to come and be a conquering hero, right? Remember the Jews are under the thumb of Rome. You think of Palm Sunday, you think of them waving palm branches and then celebrating and welcoming Jesus as King, thinking that he was going to overthrow Rome and have this massive victory. You think of even after Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection, you think of what the disciples say in Acts chapter 1. The disciples say to Jesus, right, Jesus is just about to go to heaven, and they still say to him, they still say to him, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Right, they still in their minds even then thought of Jesus as this military political Messiah who only conquers, who only has victories. They can't even imagine the idea of him having defeat. Now you and I are used to hearing about the cross, right? We've heard the story of the cross for so long. It's actually shaped the world ever since it happened. But if you try to get that out of your minds and just think about at the time of Jesus how crazy it would sound that the Son of God would come down to the earth, that he'd be born in a manger, that he'd live as a carpenter's son, that he would suffer, that he'd be hated, that he would die, he'd be tortured, he'd bleed out on a cross. That's crazy. That seems upside down and backwards, I think, from a human perspective. We would think that he should march in and conquer Only victory and in fact that's exactly the temptation actually that Jesus faces a few times throughout his life. I think of when Jesus is out in the wilderness for 40 days at the beginning of his ministry Satan comes to him. Here's Matthew chapter 4 Satan offers this temptation to Jesus says again The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Jesus said to him, be gone Satan for it's written you shall worship the Lord your God alone and him only will you serve. Satan offers Jesus you don't have to go to the cross, you don't have to suffer, you don't have to be rejected, if you just bow down to me you can have the throne. You can have the whole world. You can have the crown without the cross. And Jesus knows that this is a temptation. He rejects it. But you see when Peter comes, Jesus sees the exact same scheme in front of him, right? Peter pulls him aside and he says, Jesus, come here. You don't have to go to the cross. We're not going to let you die. I'll lead a revolt before I let you die on a cross. And Jesus sees this is not the word of my father. This is not the word of a friend. This is the voice of Satan. Get behind me, Satan. Jesus himself knows that he did not come to go straight to victory, he came in fact to suffer even though it sounds crazy to us. Another passage that points out just how crazy I think this sounds to us, 1st Corinthians chapter 1, says for Jews the man signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly, foolishness to Gentiles. But to both, the power of God and the wisdom of God. The way of the cross seems upside down and backwards, but it's exactly why Jesus came. I think of Mark 10, 45, where Jesus says, I came not to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. I think of Hebrews 9, 22, that says, there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus didn't simply come to go straight to victory. Jesus came first to suffer and to pay for our sins. He came to bleed and to cleanse you and I. He came to go to the cross and to take the wrath of his father for our sin. His suffering, his wounds are what lead to our healing, our forgiveness, our salvation. That's the good news of the gospel. That's why Jesus came. After Jesus teaches them why he came and what it means to be the Messiah, the seemingly upside down way of the cross, he goes on to explain to his disciples the seemingly upside-down way of being a follower of Jesus. Just as Jesus couldn't have the crown without the cross in the same ways Christians, we can't have the crown without the cross. Makes me think of a passage, Revelation 2, verse 10, Jesus is speaking to the church in one of his letters. He says, do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you might be tested and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life." Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. Jesus tells his disciples something that is just as crazy as the Son of God dying on a cross. That to follow the Son of God means that you will suffer. That if you want to live, you got to die. That if you want to have eternal joy, you've got to suffer. The cross is not an ornament, it's not a piece of jewelry, it's a symbol of torture and death. That's the symbol that you and I carry around on us, the cross. John 15, Jesus says, "'A servant is not above his master. "'If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.'" Now, some people in the room this morning might be surprised to hear this. Hopefully, if you've been coming to Peace Church for a while, hopefully you're not surprised, but I think some might be surprised to hear this because there are other preachers in the world who preach a gospel that is not this gospel. They want to explain that actually to follow Jesus means that you will always have everything that you want. That if you follow Jesus you'll always be healthy, you'll always be happy, you'll always have all the financial resources you need. But unfortunately that's not what the Bible says. That's not what this passage says. And so just in case you're not fully convinced of that yet, I want to, I want to actually give you a bunch of passages to help you grasp that. I just want that to sink in. I want you to walk out of here fully convinced that Jesus Christ didn't come to give us a life on this earth of luxury, but he actually came to call us to a life of suffering. Here's Romans chapter eight, this is verse 16 and 17. It says, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. If children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ that all sounds wonderful doesn't it maybe you've heard that part of the passage before here's the here's how that verse finishes provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him Jesus says there's no victory without suffering. No cross, no crown. You can't have the baby without going through the labor. Just a few weeks ago I got to be in Indianapolis at that conference that we talked about a minute ago. And as we were going around at that conference at the same time in Indianapolis, were also the Olympic swim trials going on. And so as we go to the restaurants and as we go it was actually right across the street And so we come across some of the swimmers and I could identify the swimmers every time they were tall. They had long arms long legs and they had massive shoulders Walk into a restaurant, but there's a swimmer. There's a swimmer. There's a swimmer. You said these massive shoulders man. I mean, they're just huge I'll tell you what those men and women did not get off the couch one day and say I'm going to go swim in the Olympic trials They would tell you no pain no gain these people suffered They worked out they worked hard in order to be at the Olympic trials. Jesus calls us To pain in order to get to glory a couple more passages Ephesians chapter 1 13 and 14 it says in him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit Who is the guarantee of our inheritance? Until we acquire possession of it You hear what he's saying? What he's saying is that you have an inheritance You have heaven you have you have the Lord you have an eternal life and joy awaiting you But it's not yet It's coming But it's not here yet. In this life we do get tastes of that inheritance. We do get tastes of that eternal joy, but it's mostly spiritual, right? We get forgiveness of sins, we get a relationship with the Lord, we get some earthly pleasures, but ultimately it's ahead of us. Ultimately it's out there in front of us still. Romans 8 24 and 25, in this hope we were saved. Hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. The author is saying that the Christian has hope, but hope means that we don't have it yet. It's not in our hands, it's in the future. Our inheritance is yet to come. By God's mercy, yes, we get some pleasure now, but most of our joy is out in the future. What Jesus promised is suffering in this life and eternal joy in the life to come. So let me ask you a question, brothers and sisters. the Christian life without suffering? Are you trying to live a life of comfort? A life of luxury? Are you trying to follow Jesus but not give up anything? Avoid all the pain? If so, you're not living the way that your Savior lived? If so, you're not living the way that he called his disciples to live? Are you surprised when you face pain? Do you get angry with God when you suffer, whether it's from a broken body or broken people or a broken situation? Do you recoil from the opportunity to make a sacrifice for the mission of Jesus to take the gospel to the world? Dad's in the house. When it comes time in the evening, are you resentful of the opportunity to give up what you're doing and to go in and read a Bible story and pray with your kids before they go to sleep. Moms on Sunday mornings, when you have to get those kids out of bed early to come to Peace Church at 8 a.m. or 9.30 a.m. or 11 a.m., I know it's extremely hard, but do you resent that suffering in order to bring your family to church? Teens, when you go to school and you have that opportunity to look different from your friends, when you know it's going to cause you pain and shame, do you take that opportunity or do you just go the way of the world that doesn't follow Jesus? Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me. 2. The world vs. your soul (vv. 36-37) Number two, the second comparison we have, the world or your soul take a look at verses 36 and 37 with me For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul for what can a man give in return? for his soul So I think the second step here Jesus plays out a scenario he says alright if you chase the world And if you succeed if you gain the world is it worth it What advantage is it if you get the entire world, but you lose your soul? Like in verse 37 he plays out what happens if he gets to the end of your life You've you've lived your whole life. You've you've done all the things. You 've gone the path of the world and you've gained the whole world at the end of your life. Can you trade all the money, all the goods, all the stuff, all the experiences, all the pleasures of the world for your soul? No. Wrong currency. I love our country. I love getting to celebrate July 4. We had an awesome week this past week. I'm so thankful for the men and women who sacrifice and serve to protect us. I'm thankful for the freedoms we have. I'm thankful for the way that we try to offer the American dream. We try to offer that if you work hard you can earn a better life at least temporarily in this world. I love all those things and yet also brothers and sisters You got to know you got to remember the American dream is not what a disciple of Jesus dreams about, hopes for. The disciples dream is not for earthly treasure, it's for heavenly treasure. Unfortunately in our country, and our country is pretty much exclusively where they come from, there are people who preach another gospel. It's often called the prosperity gospel. There are preachers, pastors, who have large followings, who have books, who have podcasts, who you can listen to online, that will tell you that if you just follow Jesus, you will always be healthy, you'll be healed from whatever's going on, you'll have you'll always have the money that you need. If you just ask for specifically what you need, God will always make you happy, make you healthy, make you prosperous. That stuff is out there and it's very popular, but you gotta know, I don't like to criticize other preachers, we don't make a habit of doing that at Peace Church, but you gotta understand that if you're listening to that during the week, that's the opposite of what you're gonna hear on Sunday. That's the opposite of what you're hearing this morning, that's the opposite of what Jesus says right here. Jesus doesn't say, I promise that if you follow me, everything will be great. He says, I promise if you follow me, you will suffer. The gospel isn't about gaining the world. The gospel is about gaining Christ.Think of passages like Philippians 3 verse 8 the Apostle Paul Who suffered much says indeed I count everything as loss Because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my lord for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things. I count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ the world's goods I count them as Christ The world's goods I count them as garbage in order that I would have Christ That's the disciples dream One of my favorite Preachers is a guy named John Piper and one of his most famous illustrations that is getting older now And so maybe we haven't heard it often enough. I want to share it with you. He gives an illustration of it's called the seashells illustration. He tells a story from the 1998 readers digest of a couple The title of the piece was start now retire early He tells the story of an older couple named bob and penny in their 50s that they saved up their money and they retired early And they got to move to florida and now they spend all their time Trolling out in the out in the sea and their 30-foot trawler and they collect shells on the beach and he poses the question when they stand before Jesus what will they have to show him look Lord look at my shells look at my boat that is a tragedy that is a life wasted I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having a good job I'm not saying there's anything wrong with saving for retirement. But if your hope, if your dream, retire early, collect shells, you might be wasting your life. In the words of Jim Elliot, missionary who died at the end of a spear trying to share the gospel, he said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Friends, are you chasing the world? Or are you chasing a life that will mean something for eternity? The upside down way of the cross looks crazy now. It looks like a waste now, but it's the only thing that will matter for eternity. 3. Shame before God vs. Shame before people (v. 38) Number three third comparison that Jesus gives us shame before God or Shame before people take a look with me at verse 38 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him Will a son of man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels." So Jesus takes the same question he poses it in a little bit different way. Whose disapproval do you fear the most? Will it be the world's or will it be God's? I think Jesus makes it pretty clear which one we should choose. He holds out that comparison. He says this adulterous and sinful generation versus he says Jesus, the son of God coming in the glory of his father with his holy angels. Which one of those two things will you fear the most? Which of those two groups will you seek to please throughout the course of your life? The original 12 disciples had to face that choice many times. Peter, the night Jesus is betrayed, he faces three opportunities to either claim that he follows Jesus or deny Jesus. Unfortunately, Peter denies Jesus three times because he's afraid of what might happen to him. The rest of the disciples on that same night, Jesus gets arrested, what do they do? They all run, they scatter, they disappear. Fortunately, we've got a story in Acts chapter four where things get a little bit better. Peter and John, they're preaching the gospel, they get arrested, they get imprisoned, they get released and they get told, if you preach Jesus' name again, we're gonna do the same thing to you again. And they say, we don't care, we're gonna go and we're gonna preach. The Lord had been working in their hearts and they weren't afraid anymore, but they faced that question, will I fear man or will I fear God? Who do I want to please the most? The answer might seem obvious sitting here right now, but what will you do this week? Who will appear bigger in your mind, God or people? The fear of man has a lot of different names. Peer pressure is one of them. The pressure from your peers to do a certain thing, it starts really early. Recently, my wife and I got to watch one of our daughters and her soccer team sitting around talking and you know those Stanley mugs that are really popular that everybody has I didn't know apparently nine-year-old girls already no brand names because one young lady looked at another young lady and started making fun of her because she had a knockoff Stanley mug it wasn't Stanley it was I don't know something else peer pressure starts early. It's another name for the fear of man who do you want to please whose disapproval do you fear are. Are you constantly over committed? Do you have a hard time saying no? People might really love you, but that's something we also call being a people pleaser It means that you're not able to balance a healthy life a healthy schedule because you always want to make other people happy Now that might make a lot of people happy, but it also presents a danger one faced with the choice Will you please the Lord will you please God? Do you ever tell lies? Even little minor exaggerations? Why do we do that? Because we don't want to get in trouble for something or because we want to look really good. We want to impress people. All of these things are signs of the fear of man, as the Bible calls it. And Jesus knows us. Jesus knows that all of us have a tendency to fear people, to want to please people. And so, at the end of this call to discipleship, he says, he calls that out. He says, you're going to face that. You need to make a decision now. Will you fear man or will you fear God? Disciples of Jesus would rather be shamed before man than before their Father in heaven. You see, when the Holy Spirit is at work in your life, when you have spiritual eyes to open, you realize that my way is actually the one that's upside down. That Jesus' way is actually the way that is right. That my way leads to death, that Jesus' way leads to life. That the upside down way of the cross looks crazy in this temporary, so short life, but for all of eternity, the way of the cross is what will make sense. For all of eternity, we're gonna sit there and say, well, yeah, that's the way all of us should have lived. It's the way of the cross. I don't want to look back and regret the moments that I went the other way. Brothers and sisters, my prayer for you this morning is that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of your heart, that you would desire the way of the cross. the eyes of your heart, that you would desire the way of the cross. Would you please stand with me and let's pray to close.

PODCAST That's a Good Question Discipling Our Children: A Conversation with Carl Laferton October 21, 2024 Jon Delger & Mitchell Leach Listen to this Episode Well, hey everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc. That's a Good Question is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. I'm John. I can serve as a pastor as well as a host of this show. You can always submit questions to peacechurch.cc/questions . And today, I'm here with Pastor Mitch, as well as special guest, Carl Lafferton, who is an author and publisher. Some great resources, excited to get to talk with Carl today about some great resources, and especially how we can better disciple our kids, our grandkids, kids in our churches. So excited for this conversation today. Yeah, I'm gonna ask you a little bit more about you, but before that, I'd love to just do a little bit of an introduction. You're a publisher at the Good Book Company. You've got a best-selling book, The Garden, The Curtain, The Cross, God's Promises, and Bible Storybook. You've worked as an editor and a journalist and a teacher and as a pastor, and then you are from London, England, so it's not just a funny bit that you're doing. That's genuinely your accent, and you can correct us on our improper English because I know some British friends of mine always say it's English, it's not, you know, American. So I'll take any sort of feedback you've got for us. You've got a new book this fall, God's Big Promise Bible Story Prayers. So Carl, would you tell us a little bit more about yourself beyond just those details? Well, thank you for that introduction. It's great to be with you. I mean, you guys fought and won a war in order to be able to dictate how the English language ought to be spoken. So I'm not going to tell you how to speak it quite the reverse, I guess. Yeah, so I live in southwest London, have been working at the Good Book Company for 14 years or so and married to Lizzie. And we have two kids, a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old, one of whom is on her full break at the moment. And the other one, her school runs for a bit longer. So she gets a week's less vacation than her older brother. So there's some sadness about that in our house right now. Yeah. Oh, man. And Carl, tell us a little bit about your new book that just came out. Sure. So last fall, we released God's Big Promises Bible Storybook, which is a storybook for kind of two to six-year-olds aiming to tell the stories faithfully in a super engaging way, and also to show that the Bible is one big story of God making and keeping his promises, so that kind of kids understand where, you know, the story of Abraham fits in and where David comes. And most importantly of all, that the cross isn't some kind of weird accident. Actually, it was the plan all along. It's the place where God keeps his promises and so on. So we released that last fall, and we've kind of been building out the family of God's big promises resources since then. And the one that's come out this fall is a book that is aiming to help kids learn to pray in response to scripture or truth. So it has, it maps along with the stories that are in God's Big Promises Bible storybook and each one has a brief synopsis, a verse from the scriptures that encapsulate what's going on in that story and then a very simple prayer in response to the truths of that story. So the idea is that kids are seeing that they can pray wow prayers of adoration, they can pray thank you prayers, they can pray sorry prayers, and they can pray please prayers, but in response to what they're hearing in Scripture. So hopefully setting them up for a lifetime of listening to God speak to them in his words and then praying his word back to him. Awesome. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, so many of our listeners are parents, grandparents, Sunday school teachers, serve in different churches. So this is an awesome opportunity to talk about some great resources and how we can help our kids grow in their walk with Jesus. So Carl, can you just tell us a little bit, what makes you passionate about creating Bible resources for kids? Well, because it's a very simple thing to say, but children are the next generation and one of our great hopes and heart in the Christian life should be that we're raising a generation who are more in awe of the Lord God, more in love with Jesus, more on fire for serving him in this world than we are. And so I get the privilege of getting to write hopefully come alongside parents and churches in their aim of doing that. Kids are little sponges and if we're not discipling them, the world will be discipling them. And so I just think we need to be helping parents and churches to get the word into our kids at an age when they are beginning to form their view of the world and what matters and who they are and so on. So that's why I think it's the greatest privilege of all to get to help teach our kids who the Lord Jesus is. Yes, amen. Yeah, the next generation. And we mentioned already some of the books that Carl has published. If you're watching via video, you can see them laying here on our coffee table, so check those out. But if you're listening just via audio, The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross, my favorite of the books that we've got here, just an amazing book, just outlining. You know, one of the things that I've heard, actually one of our pastors here at the church has talked before about how when he was growing up and going to Sunday school, he didn't realize how pivotal the story of Jesus was. He just thought of Jesus as another character alongside Abraham and Moses and Noah. Just one more story. But realizing, I love that, the garden, the curtain, the cross, just understanding the whole storyline and how Jesus is the climax, the pivotal moment, he is the son of God, he is really the whole thing right there. So does a great job explaining that. Carl, so you've written lots of different resources for kids. Are there any Bible stories that you've left out of the kids' resources that maybe didn't make it in because they're PG-13 Bible stories, a little too old for the little kids? Yeah, I mean, about half of the Book of Judges would come under that category, I guess. It'd be a hard job for your illustrator. It would. And yeah, far too many, prompt far too many questions that parents don't really want to be dealing with a four-year-old. I guess the other one I've never taken on is Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, which kind of I feel like such a beautiful picture of what happened at the cross where there was a father who really did sacrifice his son and his son was the stand-in, there was no other provided. And so in a sense it's a shame, but I think, you know, like, I mean God's Big Promises Bible Storybook and The God and the Curse of the Cross, they're both, you know, I tend to be writing for sort of three to sixes and that's quite young to be getting your head around the idea that God would ask a father to sacrifice his son and that the father would be willing to do it. I have always felt shy of going to that one. Others have and they've done it super well. Maybe I just need to put my big boy pants on sometime, but there we are. Yeah, no, that's good. There's some of those stories. Yeah, good point. The judges One I thought of recently my wife spoke at a conference about Judah and Tamar There's a story that'd be pretty hard to explain to some kids Yeah, yeah, there's some stories in there We are messy broken sinful human beings that God has come to rescue. So and yeah, awesome. Well, hey Let's talk a little about how so as parents, one of the things that we've talked about numerous times on this podcast, and it's really important as we're thinking about these resources, these are resources not just for churches, not just for Sunday school, but for in the home. So, Carl, if you could just share a little bit about your perspective on why can parents not just leave it up to the church to disciple their kids. Obviously, the church is an important part of discipling our kids, but why can we as parents not just say, hey, I take my kids to church on Sundays and Wednesdays and that's good enough and I don't need to do anything at home. So I guess to answer that, one is sheer function of time. So if you're going on a Sunday and a Wednesday, I'm guessing you're spending maximum four, maybe five hours your kids are spending in a church setting. And likely they're spending it as a, you know, in a group. It depends on the size of your church, but five kids minimum, I would guess, up to dozens and dozens, right? And when you think about the amount of time that they are in the home with their parents, even if they're in the public schools, then that's still hours and hours and hours of, you know, one to however many time, depending on how many kids you've got. And so just by that function, always when we're spending our time with kids, whoever we are, whether a teacher or a kids pastor or a parent, we are teaching them something about what is valuable by what we do with them. And if we are never actively and if you like explicitly discipling them in the home, then what we're saying is that actually there are more important things in life than the Lord Jesus. And what we're teaching them is that actually Jesus is something that can be confined to a church setting for a few hours a week. That's where you do your Jesus thing and then the rest of life we get on with what really matters. And if it's not Jesus, it will be an idol. So functionally, therefore, we want to be using the time that we have with our children. And if we're a parent, that's a lot more time than it is if we're a kid's pastor in church. That's the first reason, it's just a sheer function of time and numbers. And then the second reason is scripturally, Ephesians 6, Deuteronomy 6, other places, it's clear that one of the great privileges that parents have is to show their children who the Lord Jesus is and how they live and what they say. And so the responsibility, and I would say the gift, of discipling children falls mainly on parents. And I think pastors, churches are there to support parents, equip parents, and to, if you give an extra boost to what parents are already doing in the home. If you want your church to disciple your kids, the best thing you can be doing is discipling them yourselves alongside what the church is doing. Yeah, and as cool as pastors are, I've never heard a kid say, my pastor can beat up your pastor. It's always my dad can beat up your dad, you know. I mean, there's a special place that parents have. Right. That's exactly it. And our children, and I say this with some fear and trembling because I am a father, but our children will see from us as parents what truly matters. And, you know, they learn from very young that pastors are effectively paid to say that Jesus matters. So, of course, pastors are going to say that that's their job. But parents are not paid to say that. And so they will catch from us what really matters in the home far more than they catch it from what their pastors say in church. Yeah. Amen. I remember I've told this story many times at church, but a pivotal moment in my life with my parents was when I went from elementary school to middle school, I had to get up much earlier to get on the bus. I think we started getting up at 530 or something like that. The bus came just after six. So, uh, so at that time I finally was at the point where I would get up early enough, but my dad was still in the house before he left for work. And I remember I would, I would wake up as a, as a young teenager and I'd come upstairs and at 535 45 in the morning, there's my dad at the table reading his Bible. And remember, that was just a huge moment for, you know, I'd never before gotten up early enough to ever see that. And so now seeing, oh, wow, you know, this is, this is for real. This guy gets up really early to read the Bible every morning before we go about our day. So just the impact of seeing that, not just in a pastor, not just in a Sunday school teacher, but in my dad, that had a huge impact on my life. So totally. So one of the things that I hear a lot as a pastor from parents is just, and I experience myself, we've got four kids, nine, eight, five, and four, and it can be a challenge to hold their attention. So, Carl, any tips from your experience about, you know, maybe a five-year-old, a six-year-old, how do you hold their attention while you try to do some kind of devotional work with them? Well, prayer is a good place to start, I guess. Yeah. No, but I mean, I think, well, no, seriously, prayer is a good place to start. I think we've got to know our kids. I think there's a danger that we're always comparing with other families. I don't know what your church is like, but most churches have that family who have five or six kids and they do a half-hour devotional every morning and the kids behave impeccably and the kids can, you know, they're reading Calvin's Institutes on their own just for fun, you know, and we compare ourselves to that family and then we crush ourselves. Whereas actually all kids are different and it's okay to say, you know, my kids are live wires, so five minutes of quality time is going to be a win for us and that's fine. Or to say either, you know, the mornings are the best time for us or, you know, just after dinner or whenever it is, you know, just know your kids. That is an important thing, I think. I think having said that, that setting expectations and setting the environment that gives you the best chance of having a Bible time or a devotional time in which they're actually engaged is important. And so we would say to our kids when they were younger, you know, this is what we do as a family. We never set it as a sort of thing that might be negotiated on, or if you act up, you might not have to do it or whatever. It was just this is what we do as a family. And it's worth setting the environment as well. So I think it's a killer if you're going to say, right, turn the television off now because we're going to do Bible time. And that is not how to help them to sort of actively engage. So again, maybe doing it straight after dinner, in the evenings, or shortly before bed, if your bedtime experience tends to be calming. It isn't in all households, I know that. Just find an environment, find a room that is away from distractions, all those kind of things. It's just worth thinking through. Give your kids the best chance possible to engage well. A couple more things, I think, sound excited about it. If you don't sound excited about doing family devotions, then don't expect your kids to feel excited about it. If you do sound excited, then likely they're going to think this is something that is a fun thing to do. You know, if you've got a three-year-old or a four-year-old, normally, sounding excited about something, they'll get excited. And then I think the last thing I would say is just keep going. If you're expecting a win every day, then you're setting yourself up for feeling like a failure. Do it, keep doing it, stay consistent in it, and you never know what the Holy Spirit is doing. So I think back to our family Bible times, some of the ones where I felt the kids have been least engaged, a couple of months later they've been able to recite something that they read in the scriptures that day. And I'm like, well, you really didn't look like you were listening. And other times, you know, they're there and it's on time and it runs really well and they're listening or seem to be listening and so on. And actually, it doesn't seem to have any impact. So I think, just remember, the Holy Spirit will be doing things that you can't see. But if you're sitting down and sharing God's Word with them, then the Holy Spirit will be at work. Whereas if you're not doing that, then you're not opening up that opportunity for the Spirit to be at work in their hearts. Yeah, amen. Yeah, I liked what you said at the beginning there, but even if it's only five minutes, don't aim for that half an hour. They're not going to listen to a half an hour sermon or a half an hour in-depth Bible study. We're just getting to the place now with our older two, and they're girls, and I found that our girls are much more inclined towards deeper study than our young boys, and they're older. So I'm getting to the place now with them where we can actually sit and have more of a longer discussion about the Bible story. But during that, so usually we'll read a Bible story, and then our younger two will kind of start to wander off while we have a longer discussion with the older two. And at first that would frustrate me a lot, but now I've kind of come to realize that's the place they are in life. That's just kind of how it is with their temperaments, and eventually the other ones will kind of grow and hopefully we'll be able to have more of those conversations. But yeah, those little wins, even if you can only get five minutes of focus time, important. Makes a difference. Yeah. Good. So, as we're trying to teach our kids to read the Bible on their own, to pray on their own. Your newest book is about prayer in specific. And so what are some tips, Carl, about how we can teach our kids to pray? Well, I think that, I mean, coming back to what you were saying about getting up early and realizing that your dad had been getting up early and reading the scriptures himself for years, I think modeling it is the best thing we can do. And I'm very grateful to my wife, who is a great external prayer-er. Prayer-er? Is that a word? Um, it is now. Because I'm British, and apparently I get to say what the words are. Yeah. Yeah, so she is great at giving thanks to God when, you know, when there's a space to park in in the parking lot or when the rain stops, just when we would like it to and all those kind of things. I think particularly when your kids are young, just hearing that informal prayer about our needs and then giving thanks and those kind of things is key. I think modelling it in a more formal way, if you like, so let them hear you pray at bedtime, as you reflect on your day. And that is, I think, kids probably, kids' prayer is probably caught more than it is taught. And again, that's where as parents at home, we have the privilege of modelling it to them. I think it's worth setting a time for family prayers. So for us, from when the kids were very little and even still now, it's bedtime when they're ready for bed and the lights are about to go off, we'll alternate rooms and just get together as a four or three if one of us is away and we will pray. And because we do that and have done that since the kids were little, we kind of, it's just an expectation. Like, nobody, it's a bit like brushing your teeth, like nobody needs to sort of think about it, it just happens. So, however, if somebody's listening and they're not doing that, I would say it's always going to be easier to start that routine now than it is in a year, however old your kids are. So get going with it would be my tip. And then the other thing we've done is we've used some sort of acronyms, so STOP, sorry thank you other people, PLEASE, PRAYERS. And a couple years ago my wife listened to a breakout session at a conference that we'd gone to and the guy who was doing the teaching about prayer in the home said his family had the liturgy that they wrote that they walked through, out that's based on the Psalms. So it calls us to praise God, then calls us to confession, then we remind ourselves of the gospel truths that as far as Jesus from the West, so far as he removed our transgressions from us from Psalm 103, and then it moves us into praying for our needs. And then we end with Psalm 4, in peace I will lie down and sleep, you alone Lord make me dwell in safety. And so the kids now know that they can take us through it if they're in charge as it were. And again, that's just setting a great rhythm of prayer. And the nice thing about that one is when they go away on the school trip or whatever, we encourage, I don't know whether they do it, but we encourage them, hey, you know, you know how to do bedtime prayers, so do it on your own, whisper it to yourself in the dorm room. And so again, just those little, again, it's something I was trying to do in a much simpler way in God's big promises, Bible story prayers, was just show kids, hey, these are the kind of categories that God loves you to speak to him in. You know, wow prayers of adoration, thank you for things he's given you, sorry prayers and please prayers. So, yeah, what I'm saying, I guess I'm saying, model it yourselves, get going with it and have a set time for it and maybe have some kind of either acronym or liturgy or something that you come up with that just anchors your prayers each night. I love that. Yeah, giving them a pattern that they know how to follow, that they can build off of for the rest of their lives. Yeah, love that. Is there any wisdom in saying, is there an age that's maybe too young to start this at? Or maybe, yeah, what would you say to someone who's saying, I don't want to start prayer yet, they're too young for that? Yeah, that's a great question. And again, I mean, I don't pretend to know everyone's children, so I don't know what will work well. But something that we didn't do, but looking back I think I would have done differently is to pray over them each night as you put them, I was going to say put them to sleep, I mean babies who knows when they're going to go to sleep, but you know put them in their crib. And just again get that habit set from the word go. And God's Big Promises Bible Story prayers is written for families with kids aged two to six and again you're just modelling prayer to them over them and they can then learn to copy that. So I'm not sure there's an age that's too young. The thing I would say is with young kids it's always worth giving them the opportunity to give thanks for whatever they want to. And so like my son gave thanks for cars every night from the age of two to four, roughly speaking, and then he diversified into other things, which was very exciting. But again, just showing them how we pray in response to God's Word, but also letting them in their own little lives to pray out of what they are particularly excited about, which might be different than a 40 year old adult. Sure. I do have to ask the follow up. Is that cars the movie or the vehicle car? No, it was the vehicles. He just, he was obsessed with cars for a couple of years there and that's when he wanted to say thank you for every night. And then, fair enough. That's great. Well, I got to ask then, what's his favorite car? Is it an American muscle car? Or is it a European car? He did like Chevrolets, I think, because they're fairly rare on our roads. And so spotting one of those was nearly as exciting as spotting a Mustang, which again, is pretty, pretty rare over here. So yeah, anytime I get a Mustang as my rental car when I'm over in the States, my credibility shoots up a little bit when my son gets one. Oh yeah, I bet. That's awesome. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Very cool. Well, hey, a big part of this show is we like to answer questions about theology and try to make it really clear and plain for people to understand. So actually, since we're talking about kids' resources, I was able to get a hold of a few questions that kids within Peace Church here have submitted for us to answer. So I've got a couple of those, if you don't mind. We'll try to tackle each of these in just kind of a short, concise way. So I've got three of them here. Let's start with this one. Should we be scared of God? Question coming from a kid. I can imagine a kid asking this question, especially after some of the, you might finish a Bible story seeing some of God's power come out, some of God's wrath or anger even towards sin. Should we be scared of God? I think we are called to be in awe of Him. We are called to be amazed by Him. But we don't need to be scared of Him because He is our loving Father. All the reasons, all the wrong things we do that would be reasons to be scared of Him, Jesus dealt with those on the cross. And when God looks at us now, He doesn't see any of those things. So if I was speaking to a child, I would say, no, you don't need to be scared of God, he's your loving father, he loves you to run towards him, that's what prayer is, but do be amazed by him. And so perhaps it's a case of imagining that the President of the United States is the best and kindest, most wonderful person who you've ever met. Now we may need to imagine that, that's fine, but imagine that he were and imagine that you were going to get to meet him. You wouldn't need to be scared of him because you know that he's kind and that he wants to see you and that you're going to have a great time with him. You wouldn't need to be scared of him, but you would be a little bit in awe of meeting him because he's a president and he's so powerful. And so maybe that's the way to think about God. He is our father, but he is also the ruler of the world. And so we're not scared, but we are in awe of Him. I like that. That's really good. Yeah. I'm sure our listeners have heard us talk about this many times, make this reference. I know it's often overused, but in the Chronicles of Narnia, there's that famous scene, right, with the beavers who, I think it's Lucy who asks, you know, when we meet Aslan, you know, is he dangerous or is he safe, she says. And then the beavers respond, well, no, he's not safe, but he is good. And that's the picture, right? God is like a lion. He is so powerful. He's so good towards us because he loves us. But he is powerful. He can be dangerous, especially when you're on the wrong side of him. So yeah, totally. No, it's such a great way to explain it to kids. That's great. All right, another one here. This one could take us in a long spiral, so we'll try to keep this answer concise for kids. But if a kid asks the question, why did God create Satan if he knew that Satan would go bad? What a deep, thoughtful question. Any thoughts, Carl? So I think I would be honest and say, I don't know, and that's okay. God doesn't tell us everything in the Bible that we might like to know. He tells us what he knows we need to know. And so, I mean, if he told me everything, then my brain would explode, because my brain is just a human brain. So I think I want to take the opportunity in a way we have sometimes I find that I find I feel sort of desperate to answer every single question the kid has so that they can keep seeing that hey Christianity like works and it fits together and it coheres and it's true and um but actually good to say to kids sometimes I don't really know and that's okay because faith is trusting God who does know everything, not knowing everything myself, then that wouldn't be faith. So sometimes the Bible isn't going to tell us things, and I'm not sure it tells us why God created Satan if he knew that Satan would go bad. I suppose we firstly, I would want to affirm that the kid has grasped the fact that God knows everything ahead of time, and that's a great thing to grasp. I suppose I want to say that sometimes God does let bad things happen to bring about things that are even more good than the bad thing and we can see that at the cross where that's the most bad, most sad thing that ever happened and yet it's also the place where the greatest good comes about. And so I suppose that because Satan exists, evil exists and therefore Jesus is able to rescue us from that evil and that makes us more excited about heaven where there won't be any evil and it causes us to praise Jesus more than we otherwise would have done because we're praising him as our saviour, our rescuer, rather than simply our ruler. So there are a few things we can say about, well, these are the good things we can see happening was allowed to exist and allowed to sort of prompt the fall. But ultimately, I think I have to come back and say, I don't know a full answer to that question, and that's okay, I trust God. I think that's a great answer. That's fantastic. Yeah, as they get a little bit older, so it's funny, I bet, you know, this question in our house has come back time and again, you know, when they're very young, I remember our kids asking that question and trying to, yeah, keep it fairly simple. We don't have a full answer to this question, but as I'm getting older, they keep asking that question and we've circled back to it. And we've talked about ideas, like you said, like the cross is such a great example of how God uses something horrible and uses it actually for good. I think of Genesis 50 and the way that the Joseph story is described, you know, you meant this for evil, God meant it for good, for sure. So that's great. Great answer. Last one. This is one that a kid submitted. What does God look like? How do we answer that question? Yeah, it was. It's a great question. And yeah, questions like that. I just want to say, how wonderful that you're thinking about these things, keep asking these things. This is what the Christian life is like, isn't it, facing the understanding. So what does God look like? I suppose in one sense, I've got to say we don't know, and the reason we don't know is because words or images couldn't come close to describing how amazing God is. So as soon as we started putting words around it we would be sort of limiting the amazingness of God. And so when God appears in the Bible, he either appears symbolized by something, like often it's fire because fire brings life, but it's also a bit dangerous, you have to treat it carefully, and that brings us back to, shall we be scared of God? Often described in the Bible is like what is around God, so there are amazing things around God, like an amazing throne or a rainbow or a crystal sea or, you know, read the whole of Ezekiel 1. So if that's what it's like around God, then that's like saying, well, how amazing must God be that we can only just describe what's around him. So in one sense, we don't know because he's too amazing. In another sense, we do know in the sense that he became a man and came as Jesus. And we don't know exactly how Jesus looked, but we do know that he looked just like a normal man. It's 52, 53, and we can say that that man is smiling at us. And I think that's probably quite helpful for kids to know that God came as a man and God smiled in love upon us, even despite all our flaws and failures and shortcomings, Jesus came to forgive and to smile. And then I suppose the last thing I'd say is one day you're going to know exactly what God looks like because if you keep trusting Jesus and following him, then one day, the Bible promises you're going to see him face to face. And you still won't have the words to describe it, but you will be experiencing it. And that'll be the most exciting day of your life. And the most amazing thing that you've ever seen will be when you seek on face to face. We could probably add that like Carl and I here, Jesus did have a beard. Oh my goodness. So we could say that. I don't know about Mitch over here, but we'll just get that one in there. Yeah, sorry, I missed that. I have the absolutely key facet of what it looks like to grow into the likeness of Christ. Is there anything on the horizon that you're working on that we should be looking out for? Oh, thank you. Yeah, so in the God's Big Promises family, the next two or three actually big things is one, we're working on an audio Bible. It's like an immersive audio experience. That's super exciting. I'll hopefully be out sometime next year. As well, we're working on some devotions for little kids. So like three to six year olds, just super simple, but again, helping them to engage with the scriptures in a devotional way. And then further down the track comes a Sunday school curriculum for churches. That will be about two, two and a half years from now. So we're slowly building out the ecosystem of God's Big Promises Bible Storybook. Carl, what a great conversation. Thank you so much. Everyone listening, you can find Carl's books at The Good Book Company, especially his newest book, God's Big Promises, Bible Story Prayers. Check it out, great resources to help you as you're trying to teach your kids the Bible as well as how to pray. Thanks so much, Carl, for the conversation. Oh, no, thank you for having me. It's been great fun. Awesome. Well, hey, you can always find resources at resoundmedia.cc. Click and follow, subscribe, and check us out there. Have an awesome week, everyone.

Baking Up Easter Joy Christian Life Stephanie Delger Podcast Host Mom Guilt Podcast Published On: March 28, 2024 Easter is one of my favorite times of the year. Not only does it mean spring is on it’s way, but we get to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior! Every year on Easter Sunday, we come home from church and celebrate by making Resurrection Rolls. This is a fun way to share the joy of Easter with my kids while allowing them to get their hands dirty and put a sweet treat in their bellies. I want to share this tradition with you, in hope that it blesses your family as well. The meaning of resurrection rolls I make resurrection rolls with my kids to remind them that Jesus is alive. We don’t worship a dead Savior, but a Risen Lord! Resurrection rolls allow us to celebrate that on Easter Sunday all those years ago, the tomb was empty! Resurrection rolls are a tasty and fun illustration meant to remind us that Jesus’ body, which was placed in the tomb on Friday, was no longer there on Sunday morning! Resurrection rolls are marshmallows, dipped in butter, rolled in cinnamon sugar, and wrapped in a crescent roll. When this treat is baked, the marshmallow melts, leaving an empty crescent roll “tomb” with no body (marshmallow) inside. Your kids will be delighted to see the “body” they wrapped in the tomb, disappear! Recipe Ingredients: 1 8 oz can of refrigerated crescent roll dough 8 large marshmallows 6 tablespoons butter, melted 3 tablespoons white sugar 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon Directions: Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a bowl and set aside. Place the butter in a bowl and melt in the microwave in 15 second increments until the butter is completely melted. Allow the butter to cool slightly. Dip a marshmallow in the melted butter and roll it in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place the covered marshmallow in the center of a triangle of crescent roll dough. Carefully wrap the dough around the marshmallow. Make sure you thoroughly seal the crescent roll dough around the marshmallow. An unsealed roll will ooze out marshmallow as it melts, leaving a deflated crescent roll rather than a sphere shape. (If they aren’t sealed well, they will still taste delicious, you will just have a mess.) Place the wrapped marshmallows on the prepared baking sheet and bake for approximately 9-12 minutes. I set the timer for 9 minutes then continue to check every minute because there is a short window between golden brown and burnt. Allow to cool before eating, the melted marshmallow sugar is very hot! The Easter story told through resurrection rolls To make and assemble these treats with my children, I set all the ingredients in front of them on the counter. I have each of the kids grab a marshmallow and explain to them that the marshmallow is like Jesus’ body. I have each of the kids dip their marshmallow in the melted butter and roll it in cinnamon sugar. As they do this, I explain to them that after Jesus died on the cross, Jesus’ disciples and friends prepared his body for burial by wrapping his body in burial linens and spices. I then have each child grab a triangle of dough and as they are wrapping the marshmallow in dough, I tell them that after Jesus’ body was ready for burial, his friends placed his body in a tomb with a large stone rolled over the entrance. The people who killed Jesus wanted to make sure that no one took his body, so the stone was huge! I make sure to tell them the stone was really heavy, so they need to seal the tomb really well. I usually help them by checking to make sure everything is pinched and sealed well so the marshmallow doesn’t ooze all over the baking sheet in the oven. We repeat this process until all the dough and marshmallows are used and then I place the baking sheet in the oven. I explain to my kids that after they placed Jesus’ body in the tomb, his friends went home. I ask my kids how Jesus’ friends and followers would have felt after Jesus died. I usually turn on the oven light and let my kids “keep watch” to make sure no one steals the body from the tomb. As my children have gotten older, I also read to them Luke 19:40-42, which says, “ So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.” I like to read scripture to my kids while making these rolls because it shows them that I am not making things up. Reading from the Bible, or having one of my kids read the passage for us, helps them to know their Bible firsthand. They don’t have to rely on someone else to tell them what is in the Bible which equips them to start their own personal relationship with the Lord. When the timer goes off, I bring the baking sheet out of the oven and set it in front of my kids. I explain to them (while the treats are cooling) that some of Jesus’ friends came to Jesus’ tomb to continue getting his body ready for burial. I open my bible and read Luke 24:1-9 which says, “But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.” By this time, the treats have cooled and my kids are able to take their roll and see that Jesus’ body is no longer in the tomb, He has risen! Jesus has risen indeed! Allowing children to use their hands to make these rolls is a fun experience for kids. Giving them the ability to see truths in the Bible, through illustrations like Resurrection rolls, is both delicious and memorable. Jesus has risen! I hope that you are able to use this resource in your home to share the joy of Easter and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. More Blogs You'll Like Is Prioritizing Love Un-Christian? What Does The Bible Say? Read More More Than Meets the Eye Discovering God’s Purposes for Motherhood Read More Mom Guilt and How to Fight It Read More

Andrew Zwart Andrew Zwart earned his B.A. in Education with an emphasis in Literature, English, and History from Calvin College in 1998. After graduating, he spent two years playing music in a local band that released two albums, one of which was nominated for a Jammie award. Newly married in 2000, he and his wife moved to Boston, and he began teaching for the Boston Public Schools system while his wife attended school. After four years, they moved back to Grand Rapids; his wife started a teaching job at Calvin, and Andrew began working for Kuyper’s Student Success Program. Missing the classroom, Andrew decided to return to Calvin to earn an M.A, in Education while also taking Linguistics at M.S.U. During this time, he began to focus his study on the intersection between rhetoric, communications, linguistics, history, and literature–all subjects he currently teaches. Most Recent Content from Andrew Zwart Words of Redemption 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... READ MORE

The Lie of "Christians Shouldn't Speak Into Politics" Sermon Series: Calling Out Cultural Lies Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Jeremiah 29:1-9 Transcript Awesome. Well, great to see you all this morning. My name is John. I get to serve as one of the pastors here at Peace Church. Welcome. Whether you're in the worship center, over in the chapel, downstairs in the family venue, or joining us online, great to be together this morning. We're continuing our series called Calling Out Cultural Lies. We've been talking about popular and witty slogans, sayings, things you might hear out in the world. And as Christians identifying where's the truth, where's the lie, and how are we supposed to live as a result? And this morning, we get to address a very important topic, calling out the lie, Christians should not speak into politics. You may have heard this before. I think it's really no surprise that some of us have heard this before. What are the two things you're not supposed to talk about at family dinner, religion and politics. And here we are today, we're going to talk about both. Bonus. It also shouldn't surprise us when we consider some of the things that our own politicians have said about politics. In the words of Ronald Reagan, the most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government and I'm here to help. P.J. O'Rourke, journalist, said, giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. Some pretty negative things our leaders have had to say about their own profession. Finally, Mark Twain, of course, politicians and diapers must be changed often and for the same reason. If you don't know what that reason is, maybe ask a young parent somewhere near you, they could explain that to you. But we at Peace Church are not people of popular and witty mantras and slogans. We are people of the Bible. Amen? And throughout this series, we've been going to God's Word and considering where is the truth, where is the lie in each of these mantras that we hear in the world? And today we're going to consider the world of politics and a Christian's role in it as we look at our passage, Jeremiah chapter 29. If you've got a Bible, would you please grab that open to it? If you don't have a Bible, we've got some on the shelves or a table somewhere near you. Jeremiah 29. I also want to say, as we launch into this, I am not a political professional or expert. I am simply a man with a Bible And that's what we're gonna get into this morning and talk about what God's Word has to say about this world That we live in a world of politics. So here we go. Jeremiah 29. I'm gonna read verses 1 through 9 then we'll pray Then we'll get to work Jeremiah 29 starting in verse 1 Jeremiah 29:1-9 These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said: 4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream,[ a ] 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord. This is God's word. Let's pray. We'll get to it. Father in heaven, I pray that you would please be with us. Open up our minds, our ears, our hearts to hear what you would have to say to us to be challenged, convicted, encouraged by it. God, I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit. I'm up here as a broken man to bring your perfect word to your people. God, I pray that you would take it and bring it to your people that we would all learn and grow as a result. Father, thank you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Awesome. Well, hey, our main idea this morning is this Christians should seek the welfare of whatever place God sends them. We're gonna look at that main idea in three points as we walk through our passage this morning. First point is this. Number one, you and I are part of this community. Christians, we are a part of this community. I want to unpack for you the first couple of verses, give you some context for what's going on in Jeremiah 29. There's a lot of Hebrew names in there. You might have gotten lost as we said some of those. So let me just give you a sense of what's going on in Jeremiah 29. All right, so in the Old Testament, the people of God are the nation of Israel. And at a certain point, the nation of Israel gets divided into two kingdoms the northern kingdom of Israel the southern kingdom of Judah The northern kingdom of Israel at this point has already been conquered The southern king of Judah has just recently been conquered by the most powerful nation in the world Babylon and now the nation of Babylon has taken people from Jerusalem the capital city of Judah and Exiled them brought them away to Babylon, you know when you were an ancient country and you conquered somebody else You had to kind of minimize their power, right? You didn't want them to rebel against you. So you carried some people into slavery, you relocated some people, you didn't want the hometown heroes to rise up and come back against you. And so a bunch of people, God's people have been taken from Jerusalem and moved over to Babylon and they are now living as what we would call exiles, that our home is in God's heavenly kingdom, and yet you and I are called to live on this earth in earthly kingdoms until we are either called home or until our king comes and rules the earth. And so we share something in common with Jeremiah 29, and so we're gonna hear what this word, what this letter from Jeremiah has to say to us exiles, as well as these people who are in exile. All right, here we go. Starting in verse four, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there and do not decrease. Recently, my wife and I had a good friend of ours, a good friend of mine from college, he's a pastor over in Vermont. Every couple of years, they come over and visit and stay with us. And they came to our house recently and they got there before I did, I was at work. And so I came home and they had been kind of touring our property a little bit already. And it's one of the first things that he said to me when he came up to me is he said, he said, John, I see that you got a garden, you got chickens, you got turkeys you got goats. You got a bunch of kids You must plan on staying here a while. I said you bet I do I plan on being here a while This is my home. I love it here. This is my Community, I think the exact same thing is being said here by Jeremiah build houses and live in them plant gardens Eat their produce have a whole bunch of kids and grandkids settle in Jeremiah selling these people you're in exile. You've been taken away from your home. You've been sent by God somewhere But this is now your home the place where God has sent you. This is your community You are a part of it and that is critically important. He uses a key word here, the word multiply in this verse. It should remind us of the passage going back to the very beginning of the Bible. I think of Genesis chapter one. God created a man in his own image, in the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue and have dominion over it. God's original plan for human beings was that there would be a lot of us. That we would make a bunch of babies, that we would fill the whole earth, that we would cultivate it, that we would shape it after the image of the Garden of Eden, that we would make the whole world settled, a society according to God's good design. That was our purpose as human beings. Now, as believers, we also have the Great Commission, go therefore and make disciples. But as human beings, we also have a call from God to fill this earth and to shape it according to his good design. Let me point you at one more thing here before we move on from this point. Jeremiah 29, the second half of verse 7, we're going to talk about the first half of verse 7 in just a minute. Second half of verse 7, it says, For in its welfare, you will find your welfare. The community that you live in, you are a part of it. You are not or at least should not be in isolation. When good things happen to the community that you're a part of, that will be good for you. When bad things happen to the community that you're a part of, that will be bad for you because you are a part of it. You are not separate, you are a part of this community, of the human race, of this world. Christians over the years have come up with a phrase to talk about this interesting situation we find ourselves in. In the world, but not of the world. You and I live on a spectrum of sameness and separateness. On the one hand, we're not just like the rest of the world. Right, we follow Jesus, and so our behaviors, our thoughts, our actions, who we worship what we believe the truth we stand on is different You and I have an eternal perspective from God our creator and yet we're also Still a part of this community You and I are not supposed to look the same as the world. I could as your pastor I think we push you in different directions at different times Sometimes we're telling you you got to look more different from the rest of the world. You shouldn't live the way that they're living. But sometimes, and this morning is one of those times, I wanna remind us that we are a part of this world, that we're supposed to reject both of the extremes here, that we should be just like the world, and that we should be totally separate. Instead, you and I are called to be right in the middle, in but not of the world. Let me ask you a question If we as Christians in this world are the people Who have this book? the blueprint from the Creator For what human life is supposed to look like for what is good for what is true for what is just if you and I are those people that have this and we say Hands off not gonna participate not gonna be part of this y'all are on your own. What do you think will happen? What will happen to our world if the people who have the good book, if the people who know what is truly objectively, absolutely from the creator is good, if we step back and say, you're on your own, what will happen? I want to give you a reference that's pretty nerdy, I'm going to warn you ahead of time. It's from a great story called Lord of the Rings, books, movies. In that story, the whole earth, called Middle Earth, is at war. People fighting back and forth, good versus evil. And in the midst of it, a little hobbit goes to a great people, the tree people, have been around for years and years and years. They're very wise. They've seen things come and go. They're very strong. They've got a lot of power to them. There's a lot of them. They're great in number. And a wee little man, a wee little hobbit named Mary, asks them to be part of the war of this world. And at first they say no. But then Mary poses the question again. But you're a part of this world, aren't you? Christians, you and I have the wisdom of this book. You and I are filled with God's Holy Spirit. We've been given power to do something in this world. But I got to ask you a question. You're a part of this world, aren't you? If we won't stand for what is good and right and true and just, who will? The answer is no one. You and I are God's people sent to this earth to seek the welfare of other human beings. Let's take a look at that very verse in verse seven. Number two, point, says this, we must seek their welfare. Take a look at verse seven. It says, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Key word in our text this morning, the word welfare. What does that mean? Where does it come from? I want to talk about the root Hebrew word here. It's the word shalom. You've probably heard this word before. Some different synonyms for this word. Peace, welfare, completeness, safety, soundness, health, prosperity, contentment. The word shalom is a powerful, encapsulating word. It means total well-being, physical and spiritual. Now it's absolutely true, and we talk about it all the time here at Peace Church, that you and I are called to preach the gospel of Jesus. We care first and foremost about the souls, about the hearts of human beings. You might ask the question, what could we do to bring about the peace, to bring about the shalom, the welfare of our community? How do we do that? That's the first thing that we go for, isn't it? The Great Commission. You and I are called to make disciples of Jesus. If we want to change the world, we've got to change human hearts. And you know what changes human hearts? It's when people find Jesus, they realize that they have sinned and they put their faith in their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen? We want to change the world. We want to see people's hearts turn to our Savior through the gospel. You and I are also called to live as disciples of Jesus, to live as godly examples in our world. But I want to pose another question to you. Is there anything else that God also calls us to do? Is there any other way that you and I might be called to seek the good, the welfare, the peace of our community. This is where I want to bring in an important word and a question. What in the world is this thing that we call politics? What is it? Before we write it off, before we decide, hey, it's dirty, it's bad, it's evil, it's awful, we don't want any part of it, we've got to decide what in the world is this thing? I want to pose to you a couple of definitions If you were to look this word up today on the internet You'd find this politics are the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area Especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power a little on a cynical side Right about the struggle for power you and I view it that way you and I have struggles with this word couple other definitions Very simple one from Merriam-Webster the art or science of government. Fair enough. Another definition, it's from the Greek poly, meaning many, and tics, meaning blood-sucking parasites. That's not a real definition, but it belongs in the conversation. Sometimes to get a good definition, you gotta go to the really old stuff. 1828 Webster's says, "'The science of government, that part of ethics "'which consists in the regulation and government "'of a nation or state for the preservation of its safety, peace and prosperity, comprehending the defense of its existence and rights against foreign control or conquest, the augmentation of its strength and resources and the protection of its citizens in their rights with the preservation and improvement of their morals. Politics as a science or an art is a subject of vast extent and importance. Long, old, but helpful. I want to go a little bit older. Let's go to the root of this word politics. If we go to the ancient Greek, you got a couple of words that are at the root of this word politics. The polis. The polis was the city, the place where people lived. The polites were the citizens, the people who lived in the city. The politika was simply the affairs of the city. If you live amongst a group of people, if you're a citizen with them, and if you ever try to do anything together, then you've been a part of politics. Let me give you an example. Have you ever tried to order a pizza with a group of friends? First you have to decide how are we gonna make this decision, right? Right, you want pepperoni, I want sausage, who gets to decide? Well, I'm paying for the pizza, so maybe it's me who gets to decide. Who gets how much money? You know, if you're paying more money than I'm paying, then maybe you get more of both than I get. In my house, it's not so much about who pays for the pizza, it's about who's gonna whine the most about what was on the pizza. And so in my house, my four kids get to decide what goes on the pizza, even though I'm paying for it. Okay, I've seen amongst them some things that we might commonly see in politics, I've seen some lobbying, right? Some, hey, some negotiating. Hey, I want all pepperoni. If this time you vote for all pepperoni, the next time I'll vote with you for all sausage. Okay? They're making deals. Or they're trying to, they're doing like some under the table kind of things that don't actually have anything to do with the decision, but making some deals to try to swing things their way in the decision. Hey, if you vote with me on all cheese this time, then after dinner you can play with my Batman toy. Anytime you and I try to work with another group of people to decide something or do something, you and I are involved in something called politics. If you're a parent in the room, you might not realize how much you play politics, but if you've ever tried to get your toddler to eat vegetables, then you have played politics, right? If you want your toddler to eat their broccoli, you say, I will give you a dollar to eat your broccoli. And I will give you $5 if you don't tell your mom that I give you a dollar to eat your broccoli. All of us try to work with other people to get something done. We get involved in negotiating, lobbying, trying to decide something. How are we gonna make the decision, what kind of deals are we gonna make to get the decision done, all of us in some way, shape, or form are involved in what we would define as politics. Last point I got for us this morning. So politics is the affairs simply of a group of people. Last point I got for us this morning is this, number three, do not be deceived. Do not be deceived. I wanna take you to the last couple of verses of our passage, verses eight and nine. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name. I did not send them, declares the Lord. In Jeremiah's day, there was false teachers among the people. Jeremiah's still in Jerusalem. He's God's prophet. He writes a letter on God's behalf and sends it to them. But amongst the people there in Babylon, they've got other voices saying, you don't need to settle in. You don't need to love these people around you. You don't need to be a part of this community. These are people that God is against. You and I are going to go back to Jerusalem real quick. It's coming soon. If you read the rest of the chapter, you find out that's not true. It's gonna be years, it's gonna be generations until they get back to Jerusalem. There were people saying the opposite of what Jeremiah is saying and they were wrong. Brothers and sisters, we can't be deceived. As Christians, you and I absolutely believe that the time is short. Jesus could come this afternoon, Jesus could come tomorrow, Jesus could come a hundred years from now. You and I always have to have a fourth quarter mentality, right? the time is short the time is now it's time to make a difference and Scripture also tells us That we have to plan for generations of faithfulness for generations of impact on the world We have to train up kids. We have to care about civilization civilization and society. We have to love our neighbor. So you and I have to have a time is the time is now mentality and at the same time have a long-term mentality. Jesus gave us a mission to make disciples. But the question is, once you've made a disciple, what is that disciple supposed to do? What do you do in the world? I wanna just run a few passages by you that we as disciples of Jesus would encounter in scripture and just consider How might they impact our actions in a world of politics? Couple of passages Matthew chapter 22 famous passage. Jesus said to Jesus asked teacher Which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus says to them you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind This is the great and first commandment a second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. Jesus says you and I are supposed to love our neighbor. If we are called to love our neighbor, which means that we desire God's best for them and we pursue it, do you think that might mean that we might be called to lend our voice, to maybe lend a vote, to issues that matter. When something comes before us at the ballot, for example, in 2022, you and I, as Michiganders, had the chance to vote on Proposal 3, which was an amendment to the state of Michigan Constitution to enshrine abortion as a right. You think we as Christians, who are called to love our neighbors, who know that life begins at conception, that God cares deeply about the lives of unborn people, that our society will be healthier and better if those lives are protected, do you think that you and I are called to just sit back and say, no, you guys are on your own, I'm just going to stay out of it? Or do you think that we might have a role, have to speak to an issue like that? If we love our neighbor, might we have to get involved in a conversation like that? Let me point you to another passage, Micah 6a, Amos 524, a couple of just example passages from the prophets talking about our call to justice. He has told you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God, but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. God says that His people are supposed to be marked by justice, doing what's right, standing up for what's good, protecting the innocent. You and I stand right now, one day away from the one-year anniversary of Israel was attacked, people were murdered, raped, kidnapped, tortured? Do you think that when you and I have a chance to speak, to vote on rules, laws, representatives, do you think that we might need to care about the justice of an issue like that? And then we might bring that into the public square and it might affect how we vote or how we speak or how we participate. Are we just supposed to stand back and just say, no, I'm good, y'all figure it out. Or do we need to have a voice because we are the people that have God's truth, that we know what is good and right and just. One more passage I wanna look at this morning. It's a passage that you can't help but talk about when you talk about politics. Prominent passage in the Bible on how Christians relate to the government. Romans 13.1, let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. God is sovereign. He is the King of Kings. Nothing happens in this world apart from his involvement. Everybody who has power in this world, they have it because of God. And some have taken this passage and said, well, what this means then is that Christians, you're supposed to be subject. You shouldn't speak, you shouldn't do anything, you should just do what your leaders tell you. Now, I've got some questions. I think we've got to think about the words that we're talking about. Let me just take you to the Greek word for be subject. Let every person be subject. The Greek word is hupotasso. You want to speak some Greek this morning, you can say hupotasso with me on three. One, two, three, hupotasso. There you go. Y'all spoke Greek this morning. Beautiful. Well done. That word hupotasso is there in Romans 13.1, used for the word be subject. There's another place that it exists in scripture. We have to take into account multiple passages and think about what this word might mean. Another place that it's used in scripture is Ephesians chapter five. It says, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. Hupotasso. So if in Romans 13, 1 we're going to say Christians, the Bible says that you're supposed to be subject, Hupotasso, to the government, which means that you need to be quiet and to say nothing and to not have a voice and just do what you're told. Man, if you go home and talk about that with your wives over lunch, I don't think that's what scripture says. When we at Peace Church talk about Ephesians 5 or other passages that talk about God's call for leadership in the home, God has called men to that role in the home. And what do we believe about those who submit? We believe that wives are not called to have no voice or to not speak. We believe in fact that wives are called to take all of their talents, all of their wisdom, all of their voice, and come alongside of their husbands and help them as they lead their home. Christians, we must do the same when it comes to our government. You and I are called to take all of our talent, all of our wisdom, all of our voice to come alongside of our leaders and to help them lead according to God's good design. And if we won't, to God's good design. And if we won't, who will? I wanna address a couple of objections I think people might have in your minds as you're hearing some of this. Couple of things you might be thinking as a Christian considering what is our role in the world of politics. You might think politics are a distraction from the real mission. Jesus gave us the great commission, go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Absolutely. That is our primary calling and mission. And you hear about it time and again here at Peace Church. And what is a disciple supposed to do when they live in the world? We make these disciples followers of Jesus. You and I are those disciples, followers of Jesus. How do we live in the world? When we have a chance to speak to an issue, as a disciple of Jesus, are we supposed to just say, no thanks, I don't want to be a part of that, or are we supposed to be involved and say something? Another objection, politics are divisive. They certainly can be. Unfortunately, I think in our country we've lost the ability to have a good discussion where we disagree and yet treat each other with respect. I think that's something that we as Christians could lead the way in regaining, that we can actually talk with people, disagree with people, and yet have respect for each other. I think that's something that we could lead the way in doing. You and I certainly shouldn't imitate the political commentators that we see on TV, the people yelling and screaming and red in the face. By the way, Christians, that's not how we go out there and talk about political issues. Don't take your cues from those people, take your cues from Jesus instead. But sometimes, over the truth, there might be division. There might be disagreement. I think you and I have seen time and again that we must stand for the truth, even when it is hard, even when it does lead to disagreement. Another objection you might hear from people is that politics is a dirty game, that it's full of corruption, that's full of underhanded, terrible things. That might be true. But is the answer for you and I to have no involvement, or is the answer for you and I to try to get in there and fix it? Last one, I've heard people sometimes say, I don't want to have any involvement in politics. We're not needed because God's in control anyway. I would just put this idea before you. When you go and get in your car after service this morning, get ready to go home, and you think, am I gonna put on my seat belt or not? And you think to yourself, maybe I don't need a seat belt because God's in control anyway. I would just encourage you to remember that there are ends and there are means, and God ordains both the ends and the means. If God wants you to survive your car trip home this morning, one of the means that he might use to do that is your seatbelt. Just because God's in control doesn't mean that your actions don't mean anything. They do mean something. You and I have choices and actions and they matter in this world. The disciples of Jesus live in a world that we can't help. It is a political world, a world where people are trying to work together to do some stuff, to get some stuff done, to shape society. How will disciples of Jesus engage in this world? Yes, you and I have a primary calling, and yes, you and I are disciples called to live as a part of this world. That's our main idea this morning, that Christians should seek the welfare of whatever place God sends them. Friends, you and I live in a unique time and place in history. We gotta realize that in Jeremiah 29, the Jews in Babylon, they didn't have a vote. They didn't have a voice. They didn't get to protest or say something or call a representative. They had no voice in the system. In the early New Testament, the Roman Empire, those guys didn't have a voice or a vote. But you and I live in a constitutional representative republic. We do have a voice and a vote. As followers of Jesus, who love our neighbor, who want what's good for society, how could we not use it? How can we not get involved? How could we watch our community decay and do nothing about it? I want to leave you real quickly with a couple of steps that you can practically take today, this week, in the near future. What do you do now as a follower of Jesus? Number one, you and I are called to pray. You and I are called to pray. I think of passages like 1 Timothy chapter 2. Paul says, First of all, then I urge supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings bemade for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet, godly and dignified in every way type of life. God calls us to pray for our leaders, all of them, whether we agree with them or not. Number two, you can get involved by voting. In the United States of America, you and I have been given the privilege, the right to speak. If we are the people who have this book, who know what is good and true and right and just, how can we not speak? How can we not use our vote? The data, the numbers, on the number of Christians that don't vote in every election year is staggering. Brothers and sisters, we're a part of this world and we have to use our voice. Another step you can take, maybe, consider running for office. Now, not all of us in this room should probably run for office, but I think there's some in this room who should definitely run for office. Peace Church is a place that's full of godly, faithful, Bible-believing Christians who are wise, who want what's good for the world. How much better and healthier could our community be if more of the people in this room were serving in public office? Another one, you can volunteer. Every election year, there's an opportunity to serve, to work the polls. You can contact your county clerk, you can contact your township office, get involved, be able to participate and help the process of our society run and operate well. A couple more. You and I can start earlier. One of the complaints that I've heard in 2024, one of the complaints that I've made myself is how can this be the best two candidates that we have in our country? I've heard many people say that time and again, but here's the deal. What if you and I started earlier so that we had more of a voice in who those two final candidates ended up being? This is something that I'm learning and growing in. I think there's something that all of us can learn and grow. If we complain about who the final two candidates are, maybe we need to get involved sooner to have more of a voice in who ends up as those final two choices in the race. Last but not least, you and I can learn more. You and I can keep growing. In the last couple of weeks, we taught a class here at Peace Shares called Christianity and Politics. You can find it at resoundmedia.cc . Five videos, there's a link right on the homepage of Resound Media. You can go there and I wanna encourage you to check that out. It's a great resource. We answered questions like, should Christians have anything to do at all with politics? What would a perfect government look like? Are we a Christian nation? Where do we go from here? We took some live Q&A. I would encourage you to check out that resource.

The Judgement Is Real Sermon Series: Contender Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Jude 5-16 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said with all your hearts, Amen. So today we are going to look at what is one of the most loaded passages of the Bible. Loaded that is with references and quotes that spark a lot of confusion, debate and speculation. And not only that, but it's loaded because it addresses a very, very unpopular topic, God's judgment. Welcome to week two of our sermon series on the book of Jude. Now, Jude wrote this letter, it's a letter in the Bible, and we call it a book, but it's actually a letter that he wrote to some Christians, and the main thrust of this letter is a call for Christians to contend, to fight, to stand firm for the faith, to have conviction, and to show in every area of our lives. Jude is a brother of Jesus Christ. Now, Jude once was noted to not believe that his brother was the Messiah. But we now see that Jude not only believes, but Jude is a primary advocate for the faith in the early church, even going so far as to write, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a letter that we get to read and be challenged and encouraged by 2000 years later. Today, we're going to see that we're called to contend. Now last week, last week, we looked at how the fight is now. It's not later. The fight is now. It's not a passive call. It's what we are to do with our lives every moment to always be pressing forward. We are to contend. And today, we're going to look at this one notion here. That we are going to contend because the judgment is real. Last week we looked at how the fight is now. Today, the judgment is real. So please, this is going to be a sermon where you're really going to want to have your Bibles open. Turn to the book of Jude. Quick reference, it's the second to the very last book of the Bible. If you want to use the Bibles we provided, that's on page 1308. Happy for you to do that. Otherwise, if you need to, quickly download the Bible app. This is a passage. We're really going to want it in front of you today. Now, I already told you it's going to be the longest section we're going to tackle in this sermon series. We're going to look at verses 5 to 16 today. Now, let me just say one thing real quick before we read our passage. We typically stand for the reading of God's word, but it is a longer section. So if you're not able to do that, then just stand with us in spirits, but I would say to the rest of us, if you are able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word? Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels, who did not stay within their own positions of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulge in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires, served as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner, these people also relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, for they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perish in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs that your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear. Shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by the winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with his ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness that have been committed in such an ungodly way. In all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him, these are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires. They are loud mouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. This is God's word. Let's pray, if you would remain standing, let's pray and we will continue. Father in heaven above, we come before you on this day, glorifying and praising your name, because you are our holy God. Please continue to send the spirit that we might know your word and your will. Father, please guard me from saying things that are untrue and unhelpful. For we pray these things in the name of our only savior, Jesus Christ. And everyone said it with all your hearts, amen, amen. Go ahead, have a seat. Let's just say it now. The truth is, far too many churches are afraid to announce what we're going to talk about here today. Here's the other truth. Far too many Christians will leave a church if it announces the things we're going to preach here today. And it's primarily this, that we must contend for the faith because the judgment is real. It's an odd thing. It's an odd thing that on one hand We want justice. We long for justice. You know what justice is? Justice is when everything is made right when everything is made as it should be we long and we want for justice. But there's no justice without judgment. So on the one hand we want justice, but on the other hand, we don't want God's judgment. Listen to me. Just like how you cannot have God's will without God's timing, you cannot have God's justice without God's judgments. My friends, and the judgment is real. If you believe there's a real standard, if you have a hope that one day things will be as they should be, if you believe in a hope of justice, then you must understand that it will come via judgment. That there is a God in heaven who keeps the standard and he will restore all things. And we long for that. But we have to understand the path towards that is through God's judgment. But make no mistake about who the judge is, my friends. The judge himself is Jesus Christ. Jesus says this, he says in John 5, 22, that the Father, God the Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son, to Jesus. Jude even reminds us of this in this letter. But here is the loving call out specifically to Peace Church. As one of your pastors, in love, I wanna pass to you for just a moment and give you a loving call out. I know that in this passage, there are people in here who are more interested about what I have to say about Enoch than you are concerned about God's judgment. And that needs to get called out and recognized. You are missing the point of this passage if this is your most interested part about what we're gonna say today. Make no mistake, we will address Enoch. But we'll put Enoch in his rightful place, that writing of Enoch in his rightful place. It's under the banner of the overarching notion that God had Jude write this letter for, and that's to announce that judgment is coming, but within that there is a great hope. And so, we're going to examine a few things about judgment, and then, Christians, then we'll talk about Enoch. But first and foremost, there's three things I want to talk about. And the first one is this, that the judgment is real upon all creation. Judgment is real upon all creation. Bibles open, if you can, please. I've only got 30 minutes and we're burning daylights. Let's get through this. In our opening section, three verses, verses five to seven, we see important things that we need to take note of because Jude is painting a pretty grim picture here, but understand it's also a very powerful picture. This is incredible. So the first thing we noticed is that Jude ascribes the actions of the God of the Old Testament to Jesus Thereby helping us to know and to remember and to see that Jesus is the God of both the Old and the New Testament The actions of the God of the Old Testament are the actions of Christ, namely salvation and judgment. So in verse 5, we see that how God's people were destroyed after they were saved out of Egypt. That God saves the people out of Egypt, but the unbelieving Hebrews were destroyed. This verse 5 is referencing Numbers chapter 14. That's verse 5. Verse 6, we see that God's angels are judged because of their pride. These are members of the angelic host who were cast from heaven. That's verse 6. Now verse 7, we see that God punishes the world because of its sin. We see this in the infamous story of Sodom and Gomorrah, when people went against God's decrees for holy sexuality. So verse 5, God judges his own people. Verse 6, God judges the angels. Verse 7, God judges the world. All face judgment because God's judgment is real upon all creation. And the unifying peace among all three of those is simply this, they rejected God and his plan. And with that, they pursued their own personal desires which always leads to sin in God because he is a good and righteous and just God, he will judge sin. And that makes him a good God. He judges sin, whether it's his people, whether it's his angels, or upon the world, he judges and brings judgment because he's just. It's a good and righteous God who holds sin to account. Now, let's take a breather. I know that was a lot. Let's take a breather and just have a heart to heart. Listen, I know that we are just in week three of this awesome new space that God has provided for us. And this is probably not the message that many of us want to hear. But I'm here to tell you, the greatest news to be found can be found and is found in this very passage. If we are willing to wade through some of the hard to hear truths, you'll hear the greatest possible news. So let's be patient and let's sift through what God has revealed, because we're going to see not just hard truth, but good news. So the first thing we realize is that God judges upon, His judgment is upon all creation, which leads to the second part, that God's judgment is real, so be on guard. If you missed last week, let me catch up to speed. If you were here, let me remind you. This whole letter of Jude is written in response to a group of people who had become part of the church, but who were now using God's love and grace as a license to continue in their sin. They were part of the church, and some of them probably were even teachers. And Jude said that judgment is coming for them. And Jude shows us that God's judgment has already come because he's already showed throughout the pages of scripture that it's come upon God's people, God's angels, and God's world. And so Jude's presenting this argument and now it's going to come upon them. He says this in verse 8, Yet in a like manner these people, the ones he's talking about in this letter, these false Christians. These people also relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. It almost seems like he's speaking to us here and now. He's saying, what he's basically saying is that these people are spiritual people, but they're not godly people. And I don't know if you are aware of this, but spiritualism and the occult is massively on the rise. Thanks to the internet and social media and things feeling like they're safe, people are exploring spiritualism, but it's not godliness. And let me just tell you, spiritualism apart from Christ is incredibly dangerous. It's wicked and it's evil and you're playing with demons. And we're gonna see how this argument has continued to be made. So he's saying they're spiritual, but they're not godly. They seek out dreams rather than God's word. They engage in sinful behavior thereby rejecting God's authority and probably locally they're rejecting the authority of their own elders. And then Jude says this quote, let's hang on this one for a second. He says this quote, they blaspheme the glorious ones. Now what's that? What are the glorious ones? Now one might think that Judah speaking about angels and he might be, but Peter uses this very same language in second Peter to clearly speak of demons, meaning these people are playing spiritual, but they're playing with demons, which by the way, spirituality apart from Christ is always demonic, but these people were blaspheming. What is more powerful than them without the covering of Christ. And Jude says, this is wrong and dangerous and he does so and he presents his argument by addressing a section that many of us have been waiting for me to comment on so to announce how dangerous it is what these people are doing this is what Jude says verse 9 says but when the archangel Michael contending with the devil was disputing about the body of Moses he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. Okay, so where's that story in the Bible? Didn't cover that Sunday school, because that story is not in the Bible. That Jude, what Jude is doing here, he's quoting from a text that the Jews would have been very familiar with during this time. It was a writing called the Testament of Moses, or also called the Assumption of Moses. And what it was, it was like a story-like writing about the life of Moses. And the Jews would have been very familiar with it at that time. But listen to me, they did not see it as scripture, nor did they see it as God's word. Now, that does not mean it was not helpful or formative. We will often use narratives that are inspired by faith to help us understand God's word and his will. We do this when I geek out and quote things like the Lord of the Rings. I can pull, or the Princess Bride, yeah. I can pull stories with godly themes to help us better understand and better relate to what's being taught in Scripture. So what's Jude doing here? Here's kind of how I understand it. It's like Judah saying, guys, we do not come to demons on our own. We can only engage them under God's authority. Remember that story from the Testament of Moses? Even the archangel Michael didn't even blaspheme the devil, but simply relied upon the Lord. That's kind of how I understand what's happening here. Now, for sake of time, I'd love to spend more time on verse 10, but let me just kind of summarize verse 10 for you so we can continue. Here what Judah is doing in verse 10 is Judah is talking about how we can recognize false Christians because they are carnal people who follow the cravings of their flesh rather than the will of God's spirit. And it's going to bring their destruction because God will judge them for their sinful acts. Because what they're doing is they're following their own desires rather than God's decrees. And Jude says this in verse 11, Woe to them. Tell you what, if there's three words in the Bible you do not want directed at you, it is woe to them. Woe to them. But then in verses 12 and 13, Jude goes on to list actual other proper Bible stories of people going against God's commandment and receiving God's judgment. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. He cites Cain from Genesis 4. He cites Balaam from Numbers 22. And he cites Korah from Numbers 16. There's your Bible study for later if you want to hear more about God judging people's sin. But Jude warns his audience, and by extension, the Holy Spirit is warning us to be aware of these people because they are not just headed for destruction themselves, but what's happening is that they are corrupting the good things that are happening within the church. Listen to what he calls them, and just imagine you being called out like this. This is what he says about these people. He says, they are hidden reefs, shepherds who only feed themselves, waterless clouds, fruitless trees. Ouch. Do you understand what he's basically saying? He's saying they're dangerous, selfish, and useless. Whoa, whoa, whoa. This does not certainly sound like the everybody's welcome vibe we get from modern day churches, now does it? He's basically saying they're dangerous, selfish, and useless. But listen to me. If you think that's harsh, you have to understand a couple things. First thing is this. As we said last week, these are people who are calling themselves Christians, maybe even teachers, who are not truly following Christ. What they're doing is harming the church, and that cannot be tolerated. But not only that, but secondly, as you'll see in the coming weeks, Jude actually says some incredibly patient and compassionate things towards unbelievers and how Christians are to engage in unbelieving world. You have to come back next week to hear more about that. But the warning is this judgment is coming for people who will use God's love and God's grace as a license to sin. And this, first and foremost, above anything else, this is a call out for you to look in the mirror to make sure you're not doing that first. If you are so discerning to be able to root that out in yourself, then you can help be part of the conversation to make sure that's not happening amongst God's church and Jesus' bride. This is a call to be discerning and a call to be on guard first and foremost for your own heart, but then also zealous and be passionate for Jesus' bride, which is the church. And so, be on guard, but also the third thing we see is this, the judgment is real because so is justice. And finally, we'll get to the book of Enoch. So in speaking about these false or fake Christians, Jude says this, verse 14. He says, it was about these, these fake Christians, that Enoch, the seven from Adam prophesied saying, behold, the Lord comes with his 10,000 of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. How many times can you say ungodly in one sentence? Goodness. So what's going on here? So here's what's happening. Jude is quoting from the book of Enoch, particularly 1 Enoch chapter one. In case you didn't know, there's actually three books of Enoch in ancient literature. But the point he's making is simple. He's saying the fact that these people are in the church should come at no surprise. It's long been foretold that false believers will arise. And likewise, it should be of no surprise that these people are headed for condemnation based on God's abundant history of bringing judgment upon the sinful, which we've already looked at. So we get the point, Jude. Judgment is coming. Jude, you've clearly made this point. But that still leaves many of us with the question, what about the book of Enoch? Well, first off, here's what you need to know. Both the Old Testament Jews and the New Testament Christians neither believe this book or any of the books called Enoch to be canon worthy and included in the Bible. Just like the testimony of Moses, you need to understand these books were not hidden away, they were not kept secret, they were universally seen and known and believed to be helpful in faith, but they were not authoritatively inspired by God. In fact, the book Enoch does a lot of quoting of the Old Testament, thus proving Enoch did not write it. But here's a fair question. Does the fact that the Bible quotes Enoch and the assumption of Moses, does that mean therefore they should be in the Bible? The answer is no. The Bible at times quotes writings outside of itself, but it does not mean that those writings themselves were inspired in their original writing. Rather, it means that God chose to use those words as he inspired the writers of the Bible to compose the scriptures. No one is hiding these books. Go buy them on Amazon if you're so interested. There's no conspiracy theory. They're available if you want to go use them, if you want to go look at them. But you might say Jude seems very specific here. Jude says Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied. Pastor, that seems very specific. Yes, because he's quoting from the book. It's like if I were to quote Aslan, the son of the emperor beyond the sea, I'm not thereby bestowing personhood upon Aslan, I'm simply quoting the Chronicles of Narnia to help us understand God's truth all the more. There's no conspiracy, so let's recap. No, Enoch should not be in the Bible. No, Enoch is not God's word. Yes, Enoch is a helpful book that the early Jews used. No, you don't have to use it. No, there's no conspiracy to keep it out of the Bible. Yes, God can use the writings of Enoch to reveal true things. No, I haven't read it. Yes, you can buy on Amazon. No, I won't buy it for you. And finally, yes, we currently are woefully off topic right now. The topic, my friends, is God's judgments. And we need to focus on the message of Enoch. Jude is warning us that God will set things right, that yes, his justice is coming, the restoration of all things is before us. The universe will not fizzle out into oblivion. God will come and restore things to how they should be. There is a glorious end that we long for. Justice is coming, my friends, but it's coming through judgment, judging the wicked. And if you think I'm not that wicked, I don't play with demons, I'm fairly safe. I would just ask you to listen how Jude goes on to describe these people in the very last verse that we'll look at right now. In verse 16, Jude says this, listen to this list. "'These are grumblers, malcontents, "'following their own sinful desires. They're loud mouth boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage. Let's flesh this out real quick. Grumblers, aka gossips and complainers. Social media. They're malcontents. You know what the word is we use nowadays? Curmudgeons. These are the curmudgeons. If something's going good, they always think it's happening for the wrong reason. They're never happy. There's always something wrong. They're always looking for something to be wrong. They're malcontent. They're not happy. Also says that they're following their own sinful desires, aka modern Americans. The fourth thing he says, they're loud mouth boasters. They're prideful people. They celebrate themselves. Then he says that they show favoritism to gain advantage. Now the old term would be apple polishers, and if you understood that reference, you got gray hair. Jude is painting a picture with these descriptions, and it's this, that these people are self-serving rather than selfless. And that should be a distinguishing mark between Christians and the rest of the world. The rest of the world should be the self-serving, selfish ones. We should be the selfless ones, knowing that all we have, God has given to us so that we might use it for his glory in this world. He's saying they're the opinionated ones, we should be the grateful ones. They're the spiritual and prideful people. We should be the humble and godly people. Jude is saying God's judgment is coming because God's justice is real. Justice will reign, but it will come on the heels of judgments. So if you think that you can look at your life and you're not guilty of any of the things that we're talking about here, I'm telling you, you are blind to your own sin. But I think most people will be honest enough to look at these passages and see remnants of themselves, if not actually feeling like they're looking at a mirror. And what that means is, God's judgment is rightly coming for you. And that means that you should be rightly terrified about this. This is the hard truth. But you must remember in Jesus Christ we have not just hard truth, but we have good news. And that's what we're here to celebrate. And the good news was found in the very first verse we read today. Verse five. Verse five declares that Jesus saves. He is the Savior of the Old Testament. He is the Savior of the New Testament. Jesus is the God in the flesh who lived without sin, making him the perfect sacrifice for sin, that was able to pay our debts, to take our penalty with his death on the cross. And his death led to his resurrection, which is proof that Jesus is who he said he is. And it's proof that through him we cannot just have eternal life as good as that is, but we can have eternal life in the presence of God. That through the blood of Jesus Christ, we are welcomed to God's own table. That there is a seat prepared for us there by the blood of Jesus. It's only through the gospel that you can be saved. In fact, at the end of your life, you need to know that you bring nothing before God except your sin and your shame, and you will stand there naked unless and here's the good news unless you've called upon the name Jesus Christ at which point you're not standing there naked in your sin and shame you're standing there clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and God when he looks upon you he does not see the sin of the world he sees the righteousness of his own son and this is the good news that we can be that can be found in the pages of scripture that Jesus saves. So hear me, if you are a person who's only plain Christian, then leave that life behind right now. Find new and eternal life that can only be found through the love of God in Christ Jesus. If you are a Christian who's contending for the faith, then let me ask you, have you gotten comfortable? If you have, wake up, oh sleeper. The fight is now. Judgment is coming. We need all of the church on the front lines. And one of the ways that we do that is standing shoulder to shoulder. Even in rows, we stand spiritually shoulder to shoulder as we sing praises to God. Because when we lift up our praises to God, we are declaring before the Lord and before the world who is king. And his name is Jesus Christ. You bring nothing before God except all the reasons you should be condemned. So that's why we say, and that's why we're about to sing, that all you have is Christ. You will bring nothing with you from this world. All that you can bring is your faith in Jesus Christ. Christ is all that you have. The thanks be to God, He's all that you need. And that's what we get to worship here, that's what we get to declare to each other and to the world. This is how we contend for the faith, by lifting up the name of Jesus. Amen? So let's stand is how we contend for the faith, by lifting up the name of Jesus. Amen? So let's stand and do that now.