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Why Church Membership Ministry Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Published On: May 24, 2024 Why do churches have membership? Is this a biblical idea, a practical idea, or an attempt to operate like a country club? Let me share a few reasons I believe many faithful churches around the world continue the practice of church membership. What does the Bible say about church membership? While the Bible doesn’t use the word “membership,” there are many teachings of Scripture that are best lived-out through the process of membership. 1) The New Testament assumes Christians are part of a local church. A majority of the letters of the New Testament are addressed to churches or church leaders, and none of them are addressed to Christians flying solo. In the words of J.I. Packer, “The New Testament knows no such thing as the unchurched Christian.” Membership is how we formally identify ourselves with a local body of believers. 2) Christians are designed to live, grow, and serve in community. The phrase “one another” is used more than forty times in the New Testament (i.e. love one another, forgive one another). These commands don’t refer to how Christians treat people in the world, but each other. Scripture is filled with images of the church as a body (1 Corinthians 12), a building (1 Peter 2), and a flock of sheep (Acts 20). Membership is how we commit to living, growing, and serving together . 3) Church leaders need to know their flock. Shepherds will one day have to give an account for how they cared for the flock of God (1 Peter 5). Membership is how leaders know who it is they are to care for, pray for, encourage, and challenge. The membership process also enables leaders an opportunity to make sure people entering our community have received the gospel and desire to live with Jesus as their Lord, Savior, and Treasure. 4) Membership is what makes the church a covenant community. Covenant isn’t a word we use every day. However, many will be familiar with hearing marriage referred to as a covenant. Becoming a church member isn’t quite the same as getting married, but just like marriage, membership is a relationship sealed by promises. In membership, we make promises before the Lord and to each other to walk with Jesus, help others walk with Jesus, to be faithful to Scripture, to pursue the mission of the church, and to accept correction if we stray in our walk with the Lord. Church membership is a promise that unites us, enables us to provide each other with accountability and support, and enables us to better pursue God’s mission by using our gifts together. Why should I become a church member? 1) Becoming a member is an important way to be faithful to Scripture. As outlined above, the word “membership” may not be used in the Bible, but it is clearly assumed that believers are gathered into local churches and covenant together to walk with the Lord and operate as Christ’s body. 2) Becoming a member let’s church leadership and other members know they can count on you. Promises take a relationship to a deeper level. Becoming a member is making a promise to participate in and support the ministry of the church as well as your brothers and sisters in Christ. Membership is a way to formally declare that you are counting on this body as your spiritual family and that they can count on you. 3) Becoming a member helps the church care for you more intentionally. Becoming a member enables church leaders to know their flock so that they can more intentionally encourage, support, and challenge you as you walk with the Lord. 4) Becoming a member opens the door to leadership roles. Churches want to be sure everyone who represents them in a leadership or teaching role understands and embraces their vision and values. While some volunteer opportunities may be available to anyone who wants to get involved, there are certain roles in a church that require the accountability of membership. 5) Becoming a member allows your voice to impact the future. Becoming a member gives you a voice at the family meeting. In order to speak to big family issues, it is important to know that you are committed to the family and embrace the vision and values. In some churches, membership enables you to vote at congregational meetings where members have a voice in matters such as who will lead the church as elders and deacons, and in the annual budget. A Final Word about Membership Membership in the church is not like membership in a club. When you hear the word “membership,” you might think of a country club or (like me) the wholesale store known as Sam’s Club. However, membership in the church is very different. Church members are not consumers, but contributors. I am a card-carrying member of the Sam’s Club. My membership or relationship with Sam’s Club works like this: I give them money, and they give me stuff. I don’t volunteer to sweep the floor or stock the shelves on Saturdays. I give money, and I expect goods and services. Unfortunately, many Christians attempt to bring this mentality into church membership. They think that if they put money in the offering plate, then the church is there to give them goods and services while they sit back and consume. Church membership is actually the opposite of this. Church membership is a commitment to the mission of the church to make disciples of Jesus. It is a commitment to participate, give, and serve. It is a commitment to serve God and others, not ourselves. 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

Mom Guilt and How to Fight It Christian Life Stephanie Delger Podcast Host Mom Guilt Podcast Published On: I was the perfect mom—before I had kids. I thought I had everything all figured out, and it was going to be great. Fast forward nine months, and I realized how wrong I was. Many friends and family members called and offered to bring over a meal while I adjusted to being a new mom. At first, I declined their offers, letting them know that I had everything under control. But as the days went by, the laundry pile got higher and higher, the refrigerator got emptier and emptier, and my patience with my colicky daughter grew thinner and thinner. I needed help, and things were not going well. I felt that I had failed at being a mom. That was the first time I can remember being crippled by mom guilt. The reason mom guilt can be so hard to fight is that it looks and sounds different depending on the situation or season. But the reactions are always the same. We feel discouraged, hurt, and frustrated as we walk away. We often feel mom guilt for a variety of reasons. Most often, I believe we feel mom guilt because we believe a lie, have misplaced our identity, or are experiencing conviction from the Holy Spirit. When we can figure out why we are experiencing the guilt, it becomes easier for us to become unburdened from it. Believing Lies We often believe the lie that we shouldn’t need help. This can cause us to feel mom guilt in a couple of ways. We either feel guilty for accepting help because it makes us feel like a failure, or we feel guilty for saying yes and letting those helping us see our (perceived) failures. Either way, we feel ashamed and conclude that we are bad moms. The truth is that it is natural and good to recognize our need for help. Accepting help is actually a reflection of the gospel. At the center of the gospel is the truth that all humans need help. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) We can replace the lie of thinking we don’t need help with the truth that all people need help. Needing help doesn’t make us bad moms. Rather, it can remind us how “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) By acknowledging that we need help, we can be reminded that in our deepest, darkest hours, God is there, ready to help us. In a very practical way, he often helps us through the hands and feet of our friends and family members. Recognizing these lies allows us to embrace the truth and release unnecessary guilt. Misplaced Identity Beyond the lies we believe, our misplaced identity can also lead to feelings of guilt. This can happen when we place our identity in motherhood rather than in God. As Christians, our identity and worth are not determined by what we do but by who God says we are. God tells us that “[we] are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.” (1 Peter 2:9) God loves us not because we have done something to deserve it, but simply because He has chosen to. (Ephesians 1:4-6) This means that we do not have to try to prove to God that we were worth saving by being a great mom. Of course, God desires that we love our children and wants us to teach them about his goodness and the salvation he offers. But our motive to do these things cannot be to earn favor with God but should be done out of love for Him and gratitude for all he has done for us. While motherhood is a gift from God, we cannot treat motherhood like it is our god. Our identity is first and foremost based on who God says we are, not on what we do. When we place too much emphasis on being a mom and not enough on being a follower of God, mom guilt can rear its ugly head. Conviction from the Holy Spirit When our identity is misplaced, we might find ourselves acting out of pride, insecurity, or fear, rather than from a place of faith and trust in God. This is where the Holy Spirit steps in. The Holy Spirit gently and lovingly convicts us, reminding us of our true identity in Christ and guiding us to align our hearts with God’s truth. Sometimes, the mom guilt we experience is actually the Holy Spirit revealing areas in our lives where we need to shift our focus back to God. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit was sent to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” (John 16:8) This conviction is not meant to condemn us but to draw us closer to God. We can respond by turning back to God, confessing our need for his guidance, and trusting in his forgiveness. In doing so, we move from guilt to grace, finding freedom in the truth of the gospel. Seeing our sin, we can come to God, knowing that when we ask for forgiveness, he will give it. When we do this, our sins are forgiven. Jesus has paid for them on the cross and bore the full punishment of what we deserved, leaving none for us to carry. We can remind ourself that “As far as the east is from the west, so far does [God] remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) As Christian moms, we can have freedom from the mom guilt or the condemnation we feel by reminding ourselves of the gospel. When God forgives our sins, we are truly free. We can live our lives sharing and teaching our children about the goodness of the Lord, feeling unburdened from guilt through the gospel of Jesus Christ. 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

The Prodigal Son Sermon Series: Religion vs Relationship Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Luke 15:11-32 Transcript Hey everyone, great to see you this morning. My name is Jon. I get to serve as Executive Pastor here at Peace and it's also my privilege this morning to get to bring God's Word to you. So if you got a Bible, would you grab that and let's open up to Luke chapter15? If you don't have a Bible with you, there are some around the room whatever venue you're in this morning. It's great to get to be with you whether you're in the worship center the chapel the family venue or online. Awesome to be together this morning. Luke 15. As you're turning, this week we kick off a two-week series looking at religion vs. relationship. We're going to look at two stories of Jesus, two parables of Jesus that he told about our relationship with God. And the first one here comes in a very popular passage, a very historic passage, the prodigal son. Or the prodigal sons, we'll see as we go through the story this morning how we think about that. So prodigal son, Luke 15, we're gonna start in verse 11. I'm gonna read it, then we'll pray, then we'll get to work. All right, here we go, Luke 15, starting in verse 11. Let's read. It's a little bit of a longer passage, but it's a beautiful story, so hang with me. Let's follow along and let's read it. Luke 15:11-32 11 And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. 12 And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. 13 Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14 And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16 And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate. 25 “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ 28 But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29 but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ 31 And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.' This is God's word, amen. Hey, let's pray, then we'll dig into it. Father God, we come before you this morning and we are thankful for your word. God, we are also thankful this morning for Friends at Peace and for the chance to worship with them. God, we're also thankful this morning for our veterans and their service and their work to protect us. God, I pray that you would open up our hearts now to your word. I pray that you would focus our minds on it. I pray that you would help us to be challenged and convicted and encouraged. God, I pray that you would be with me, a broken instrument to bring your word to your people. I pray that you would fill me with your spirit to do just that and that you'll be glorified in all of it. Praise the son of Jesus, precious and powerful name. Amen. Amen. Well, a number of years ago when I was about 15 years old and learning to drive, I remember my dad taking me out in our 1998 black half ton pickup and going out into the middle of Yankee Springs over near gun Lake. And I remember us driving through these windy roads through the woods. And all of a sudden he pulled off to my surprise onto a dirt road and stopped and he got out of the driver's seat and he came around to the passenger seat and he opened the door and he said son find your way home and I and he pulled me out and he hopped in and he got out his Blackberry if you remember those days I think he played solitaire the whole way home and so there I am 15 I have no idea what I'm doing just learned to drive and I don't really know where I'm at and there's no, you know, out in Yankee Springs there, the roads are going curvy around Gunn Lake, they don't go straight and they don't go through towns. And so I wandered for who knows how long trying to get home and I made all kinds of wrong turns and wrong direction and every once in a while Dad would kind of give me a suggestion and I think being stubborn as I was, I'd probably go the other way just because I wanted to spite him a little bit. So despite all my wrong turns and misdirection and being on the wrong path, eventually we got home and my father was immensely thankful when we finally got home. And I think similarly in this story, we've got two sons who go their own way, take their own paths, make a lot of wrong turns, and the father all along the way is there waiting for them to come home and finally overjoyed when they do come home. And so we're gonna dig into that story this morning. And the main idea I want you to consider in your mind as we go is this. No matter how much bad you've done, no matter how much "good" you've done, there is always a way home. The three perspectives we're going to look at on this, the three ways or the three paths are these the way of the world, the way of religion and the way home. The way of the world The way of religion The way home 1. The way of the world So we're going to look at each of those three things. Let's dive in. First one, the way of the world. If you look at verse 11 and 12 with me. So Jesus says, there was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. All right. So you got these two young men and you got a dad and the younger son comes to dad and says, I know I got inheritance coming, dad. Now give me my inheritance now. Now I know a lot of us can't identify with that, because I know at least for me, my kids probably don't have an inheritance to look forward to. We're going to use that all up. I know that's kind of how we operate in the modern world, but back then people tended to have a little bit left over and the sons could look forward to some kind of inheritance. So the son comes to him and he says, dad, I know my inheritance is supposed to come at the end of your life, but I actually want it now. Which in essence is to say to his dad, dad, you're as good to me as dead. In fact, I'd rather you were dead. I want my inheritance now. That phrase, give me my share of the property, that word property could also be translated, give me my share of you, of your essence, of who you are. Dad, what you are to me, your value to me is not in relationship, it's not in being my dad, it's in your stuff. It's in the money. And that's what I want out of you. Give me my share of what's valuable to me of you. It's an extremely offensive thing to say. It's a very non-traditional. It's a very painful thing to say to a father. But what's amazing is in verse 12, dad agrees. The verse goes on, and he divided his property between them. He divided his property or his life, his essence himself. He divided it and he gave it to his sons. Dad lets him have what he wants. It actually makes me think of another passage, makes me think of Romans 1 in scripture where God is talking about his relationship to us sinful human beings and it says that us sinful human beings, although we knew God, we did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. Sounds a little bit like the younger son. And at the end it says that God gave them over to the lust of their heart to the impurity of their minds. Sounds a little bit like that doesn't it. God sometimes gives us what we want so that we can find out where that gets us God gives to his son. He lets him have what he want. Try it your way. See what happens. I'll let you have my gifts without having me. It's a heartbreaking situation. I can only imagine as a dad being a father in this situation. My sons come to me and say, I want these things and me saying, you know what? I know it's not going to be good. I know it's not going to turn out the way you want, but I'm going to let you go and have your own way. What happens next? Verse 13, it says that the son packs up and leaves. He gathers all that he had. He journeys to a far country and he spends, he squanders the property, it says, in reckless living, okay? So he gets as far away from dad as he possibly can, different path, different direction, different country. Reckless living, it says, that he has. Verse 30, down at the end, we hear from the older brother that apparently he used it for prostitutes. So the son goes and he lives the way of the world, right? He gets the full experience, all that the world has to offer to those with money. He gets everything that he thought that he wanted. And yet he hits rock bottom and finds out that he didn't get everything that he really wanted. Right at the end of the story, he's he's lying in the mud with the pigs wishing that he could eat what they are eating. And I think this gives us a key point in the story. We think that we know what we want, but it will not satisfy. This is precisely the way of the world, isn't it? You and I, as human beings, our natural disposition is that we think that we know exactly what we want, but it doesn't actually give us happiness when we get there. A few weeks ago, we just had Halloween, we just had Halloween, and went out with my kids in the snow and the rain and all that fun stuff, and they go up to people's doors, and people give them candy. It's an interesting exchange to me. Please give me candy, yes, here's some candy we go home and we dump it out on the floor we always pile the candy and eventually one of my kids that one of my one of my sons there four and three they pick up one and they show it to me they say dad open this for me I've grabbed it from their hand and it says warhead and I say son you don't want this no dad I really want this especially now you told me I shouldn't have it and so I open her up and hand it to him, and all of a sudden you get this face, that big puckered up sour face look, right? He thought that's what he wanted, but it's not actually what he wanted. Or every Christmas, at my in-laws house, I know that if I go there around Christmas time, actually probably starting even now, there's Hallmark movies on the TV all the time. And I've only seen a couple, but I know enough to know that the plot line is exactly the same for pretty much all of them. They're all really the same. Here it is, young lady grows up in small country town, has big ambitions, goes to the big city, gets the big job, makes all kinds of money, but it doesn't satisfy her. She's not actually happy. So around Christmas time she goes back to see family and she meets a farm boy and realizes that's what she really wants. They get married and she is finally happy. And all the country folk of Middleville said, amen, that's right, that's how it works. This is a story of humanity, isn't it? We think we know what we want, but it doesn't actually make us happy. It's not what's actually good for us. And that brings us to the second point of this part of the story, that God doesn't want to limit your joy. He actually wants to give you the greatest joy. I think a lot of people look at this book right here and they say, this is a book of rules. This is a book of a God who doesn't want us to have any fun. But really, This is a book of guidance and love and wisdom from a Father who knows what's best for us. That's what's in this book. Not a God who wants to limit your joy, but a God who wants to give you full and complete joy. One of my favorite movies to watch around the holidays is Jingle All the Way. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the hero. And he spends the whole movie, especially Christmas Eve, out shopping and running around and fighting angry elves and Sinbad and crazy mailmen and all kinds of stuff, trying to get this doll called Turbo Man. And he wants to give it to his son, because his son says that's what he wants, and he thinks that's going to make him happy. And the end of the movie, the son has the line of the movie, Dad finally, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has Turbo Man, hands it to his son, he thinks this is it, makes the day, and then the son actually takes it, and he turns and hands it to another kid. And Dad is just baffled by what's going on. The son says, Dad, why would I want the Turbo Man doll when I got the real Turbo Man at home? Oh, right there. That's a hallmark moment if there ever was one, right? But it teaches Dad the real point, right? The point was not the thing. That's not what he really wanted. What he really wanted was time with his dad. I think the same lesson is true for us. We think that we know what we want, but what we really need is a relationship with the Father. So that's the question I want you to ponder today. What is it that you think you want? And is it what you really want? Are you going the way of the world right now? Can you identify with the younger son, the prodigal son? Are you going out there trying to get everything that the world has to offer, thinking that's going to bring you happiness? Are you out there chasing that down? And if so, ask yourself the question, is it really making you happy? Is it really the greatest thing that life has to offer, or is there something else? And if you don't identify with that wayward son, we got another son for you. We're going to look at him next. 2. The way of religion Let's take a look at the second way, the way of religion. If you look, we're gonna jump past the beautiful part of the story, we're gonna come back to it at the end. Jump down to verse 25 and look at the oldest son with me for a moment. Verse 25, it says, Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing, party going on. He called one of the servants and asked what these things meant, and he said to him, Your brother has come, your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound. Verse 28, but he was angry. He was angry. So we've had the story of the younger son going his own way, partying it up, living it up, spending it all, having a blast. And how does the older son's story open? He was in the field. Younger son partying, wasting, living it all up. Older son doing his job. Working hard day after day, week after week, year after year, doing the good thing, doing the right thing, staying at home, tending to the farm. He's the good son, right? And he comes back and he hears a party going on. And he says, what in the world is going on out there? Your brother is back and he is ticked. He's angry. Why do we call this the way of religion? What is religion? I think religion is essentially an equation. Live a good life, get a good life. If you do this, then you will get this. If you do good things, you will get good things. If you be good, and play by the rules, God will reward you. It's a way to control your life through performance. I think that's what we see in the way of religion. And I think that's exactly what we see in the older son. Take a look at the very next verse, verse 29. Verse 29, he answered his father, look, look here, dad, not a great way to talk to your dad. These many years I have served you and I never disobeyed your command, right? So he says, he says, dad, remember, I'm the best son. I'm the, I'm the, I'm the one who's been doing the right thing the whole time. Okay. I never disobeyed your command yet. You never gave me a young goat. He really wants that goat. You never gave me a goat that I might celebrate with my friends. You never gave me what I wanted. Right? The, the older son is saying, I've been working my butt off the whole time for you. Now it's about time that I get what's coming to me. And how come you're giving it to my younger brother? Right, it actually sounds a lot like the younger brother back towards the beginning of verse 11. The younger brother was saying, right, I want my inheritance that's coming to me. Now the older brother is saying, I want what's coming to me. It's not fair that you haven't given it to me. This is the way of religion. Makes me think actually of an Adventures in Odyssey story where there was these two boys, one who really struggled in school, one who always had an easy time in school, and the boy who always struggled in school, just always did really bad on tests and stuff like that, and he finally gets a good grade on a test, and the teacher gives him ice cream. And the good student over here is just mad, right? He's like, I always get an A on the test, how come I don't get any ice cream? Just lacks that perspective. Just like the older brother, lacks that perspective and doesn't celebrate that this one who has been struggling so hard has finally come and done something well or received something good. Makes me think also of Jesus's parable of the 11th hour worker. Remember that story Jesus tells of all these workers that go out in the field to work and they were all promised a certain wage and some worked all day, but some only worked one hour. And the guys who started early and worked all day at the end are so mad that the master would give the same wage to them as he gives to the 11th hour workers. Not just being happy that this master would be so generous as to bless them. Can't see it that way. Religion is this basic equation. Be good and go to church equals God owes me. You ever thought that way? Maybe not explicitly, but have you ever seen that rise up in your heart? You think to yourself, if I'm good and I go to church, then God owes me. What is your equation? How would you fill in the blanks. I'm good. I go to church. God, how could you possibly let me get cancer? I do all the right things as a parent. I send my kids to the right school. I bring them to church on Wednesday nights. We do devotions at night. Now they've grown up and how could they possibly go and do that? I was a good parent. God, you, you owe me, this should have worked out. I went all these years through this really tough marriage, got all the way through the kids getting out of school, and now this happens. God, what are you doing? You owe me. I've been a good person, I've gone to church, I've done the right thing, and now here we are. What's your equation? How is it that you think God owes you? I'll tell you what, religion doesn't work. God is not a means to an end. God says, I will not be used. You can't use me to get to something else. I must be the end in itself. Unfortunately, I think we're starting to see that the older brother is actually not so different from the younger brother. Neither one of them is actually interested in a loving relationship with their father. They want something from him. They want to get something. It looks a little bit different. They take a little different path, but both of them want something. The younger son, his heart is selfish and he takes the path of rebellion. He says, dad, I just want your money. I'm going to go get money and sex. That's what I want. I'm going to go the way of the world, and I'm going to live that way. The older son is also selfish, but he takes a little bit different path, the path of morality. He says, I'm going to do the right thing. I'm going to do the good things. I'm going to do what you want. I'm going to obey you, but with hopes that the result will still be that I get money and friends and a goat. This is the path that he chases. Right, both of them operate out of a selfish desire, even though they take a path that looks a little bit different, to get there. The younger son wants worldly goods, like money and sex, but the older wants something more subtle and more dangerous. He wants God to owe him. This is the danger of religion. 3. The way home And this brings us back to our main idea. No matter how much bad you've done, like the younger son, you've been living the way of the world, no matter how much bad you've done, or no matter how much "good" you've done, no matter how much religion you've lived in, like the older son, trying to twist God's arm to give you what you want, whichever path you've gone down, there is always a way home, a way back to the father. So let's look at that final and last way, the way home. Take a look at the most beautiful part of the story here. Look with me, jump back up to verse 17, the story of the younger son finally coming home. It says, when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. Let's take a look closer at what he's saying there. I think two really important things happen in these couple of verses. The younger son has an opening of his eyes. It says that he came to himself, living the way of the world brought him to the bottom. I think this is actually one of the advantages of living the way of the world, that it's actually a faster path to an obvious dead end. And when you live the way of the world, it's a faster path to realizing this is a dead end, this is not going to get me where I want. Unfortunately, people who walk the way of religion, those of us who do that, we can go years before we ever open our eyes and wake up and realize what we're doing. So the younger son wakes up, he comes to himself, his eyes are opened. And then if you go down a couple of verses, it says, "'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.'" That's repentance. He realizes that what he's done is wrong. And he sinned against his dad and he sinned against God. "'I've sinned against heaven and before you.'" He has a repentant heart, a heart that is apologetic, a heart that is sorry, and a heart that wants to change and mend his Relationship with the fight with his father. It's a huge step Let's jump to verse 20 the most beautiful passage in the story verse 20 and he rose and came to his father But while he was still a long way off His father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. This is the story of the gospel, isn't it? This is a story of the love of a father. His son has been running the wrong direction, his son has been disobeying him, his son has been living the way of the world, and yet he sees him and instead of sort of standing there, arms crossed, toe tapping, shaking his head, I told you so, look who's come home, the prodigal son returns. None of that. He runs. I mean, they wear robes in these days, right? I mean, like, he hikes up the robe and he runs. He gives a big old hug to the son who's come back. We keep reading, it says he called one of the servants and he says, go and get the best robe, put a ring on his hand, put shoes on his feet, go and kill the fattened calf, let's eat and let's celebrate. This is the love of the Father, no matter how much bad you've done, no matter how much "good" you've done, the Father is ready to receive you when you turn towards him. I heard an interview once of a pastor of a really large church, and the lead pastor got to do the final interview for any staff that were hired at this church, and the lead pastor had just one question that he asked when somebody got to that part of the interview process. One question, final interview, pass, fail. He would ask each staff member, when was the last time the gospel made you cry? When was the last time the gospel made you cry? I know we're tough guys around here, right? We don't cry, we don't show emotion, but do you feel it? Do you think it? Are you on the verge of it? I'm not somebody who shows a ton of emotion. But when I hear this story, and the story of the love of the Father, this is my story, this is your story. This is a story of God the Father who reached in to save us. Now, as you're thinking about this gospel story, and you're thinking about the love of the Father, I think one of the things that you might think at first glance is missing. What's missing? The story of sacrifice. Where's the story of somebody paying for all this? Where's the story of the cross? Where does that come in? Who paid the price for the prodigal son to come home? Now I think from one perspective, the Father pays the price, right? He has to swallow his pride, he loses a bunch of money. But on the other hand, we could really say that the older brother is the one who pays the price. When the younger son comes home and dad rushes out to see him and he says, put a ring on his finger, give him the best robe, kill the fattened calf, let's have a party. On the one hand, it's the father's money, but on the other hand, he's already given his share to the younger son. The younger son's already gotten one third. There's two thirds left. And who do those two thirds belong to? The older son. Dad's really given away more of the older son's inheritance. The older son is the one who's paying a price. And in this story, the older brother is ticked about that. He sees the dollar signs. He knows what's going on. He's angry about this. But in the gospel story, I think the true older son is Jesus himself. The one and only perfect Son of God. The one who really never did disobey his father's command. The one who's been perfect all the way along and the one in spite of his perfection, in spite of the fact that he deserved all the good, and that he had no need to sacrifice at all, he decides to get off the throne, to descend to the earth, to be born in a manger, to live a hard life, to be beaten, to be tortured, to die on a cross for the wayward sons and daughters, for you and for me. The true and greatest eldest son, Jesus Christ, didn't just give up his wealth so the other wayward children could be brought in, he gave up his very life so that the wayward children could be brought in. That's the gospel story. That's the gospel story. If you're in the room this morning and this is news to you, if this is something you've never heard, then I would love to have a conversation with you. This is the very core of the Christian faith. This is the very core of who we are as a church. I would love to chat with you afterwards if you want to come up here and chat with me or chat with somebody in the prayer room. We would love to talk to you more about this good news of the gospel. The story is simple. You and I are sinful people. We're imperfect. We've broken God's law. We deserve eternal wrath. And yet instead of simply leaving us to our own course, God the Father sent His son to live and to die and to rise. So if we put our faith in Him, our sins can be wiped away and He welcomes us with an open embrace. To sit at His table, to live in His home, and to feast with Him. And it's that feast that we're about to celebrate in communion. So let me pray for us. Father in heaven, we thank you for your love. We are awestruck and amazed by this picture and this story of our story, that God, even though we have gone astray, we have gone against you, we have sinned, you reached in, you came after us, and you saved us. God I pray that you would fill our minds and our hearts with longing and anticipation for that day when we will finally sit at the table with you once and forever. And God I pray that you would just fill our minds with a picture of Jesus and his sacrifice as we celebrate communion. as we celebrate communion. In Jesus' name we pray.

Protect Life Sermon Series: Words To Live By Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Proverbs 24:10-12 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made, so let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said extremely loudly, Amen and Amen. So if there's one thing that life, marriage and ministry has taught me, it's that it's easier to speak than it is to listen. Everybody got something to say. Not everybody got a listening ear. And for Christians, this should not be the case. I mean, the good book has told us for 2000 years, something pretty clear here. James one nine says, Know this, beloved brothers, meaning know this fellow Christians, let every person and if you can see this, say it with me, be quick to hear slow to speak. Two thousand years of the Bible have been telling us that. You know, as I said, we are continuing the sermon series today. We're calling it Words to Live By, Wisdom the World Has Forgotten. Last week we looked at how we need to be discerning in this world, and today we're gonna look at what I believe to be a very challenging notion of a call to listen well. Listen well. Please turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 24 verses 5 to 9. If you're gonna stick with us for the sermon series, I hope you do. This is again a verse-by-verse walkthrough of Proverbs chapter 24. So go ahead just put your bookmark in your Bible. If you're unfamiliar with the book of Proverbs, while you're turning there, hear this. It's an Old Testament book. It's really a collection of wise sayings that King Solomon, the son of King David, collected and he probably wrote some of these. But it's clear that this is a book that he wrote for his son. All over the book of Proverbs, he's addressing his son, saying, my son, my son, listen to me, listen to these words, listen to this, my son. It's clear he wants his children to be wise and side note, gonna call us all out here for a moment. This is such a contrast to parents today. Parents today, parents today want their kids to be trendy, cool and well-liked. They want them to go viral. They want them to be athletic. They want them to be intelligent. But how many of you parents can say you are seriously instilling wisdom in your children in a proactive way? That you're sitting with your children saying, my children, my daughter, my son, here's how you'd be wise in such a broken world. How many of you are opening up the book of Proverbs and sharing this wisdom? We are called to share wisdom and to teach our children wisdom, and with that comes a key notion of how to listen well. Do we know how to listen well? And so with that question kind of looming over us, would you hear the word of the Lord? Proverbs chapter 24, verses five to nine. A wise man is full of strength and a man of knowledge enhances his might. For by wise guidance, you can wage war and in the abundance of counselors, there's victory. Wisdom is too high for a fool. In the gates, he does not open his mouth. Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of folly is sin. And the scoffer is an abomination to mankind. This is God's very challenging word. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Thanks be to God. Let's pray and then let's get at it. Let's pray together Father God in heaven above. How amazing are you? Oh God? You are of infinite wisdom and yet you hear us and yet you listen to us Your word tells us that when we worship you and when we follow you you listen to us So father, I would ask this morning that by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit that you would give us ears to listen well, that we might grow in wisdom, to be more like your son and our savior. And it's in his name we pray, in Jesus' perfect name. And everyone said, amen and amen. So as we look at this very challenging and I would say, inditing passage, let me give you a thought for today. And here's your take home. Those who are wise, listen well. Not those who are wise listen well. See the difference there? Do you know that right off the bat in the book of Proverbs, chapter 1 verse 5, it says this, it says, Proverbs chapter 1 verse 5, let the wise hear and increase in learning because the wise person knows they've always got something more to learn. The wise person listens. Jesus Christ himself tells us this in Luke 8 18. He says consider carefully how you hear, meaning how you listen. Why? Because people who are wise are people who know how to listen. Those who are wise listen well. And as we wade into the waters of our passage, we're going to get one coin from two different sides as we break apart our passage. Here's your two thoughts for this morning, listening well is leading. Listening well is leading. The second part of our passage is gonna remind us that listening well is life giving. It's life giving. All right, first thing, listening well is leading. Hopefully you have your Bibles open. Verse five says this, a wise man is full of strength and a man of knowledge enhances his might. Okay, I want you to stop for a moment and I want you to think who is the wisest person that you personally know? Maybe they've passed on to glory, maybe they're here, but who is the wisest person that you have personally, personally known? Number one, I'm praying someone came to mind, which I'm fairly certain for hopefully most of you, someone did, I'm willing to guess that that person is, how do you say, seasoned in life. Maybe their hair is gray, a little salt and peppery. And you know, side note, I spend 10 minutes every morning picking out the gray hairs of my beard. Maybe if I left those in there, you'd all think I was a lot wiser than I am. But you know, when you think about this, like, yeah, when we think about the wise, we think of those who have, who have some life under their belt, right? But even in that, no offense, physical dominance normally isn't their defining feature. So what does the Bible get in that here when the Bible says a wise man is full of strength and a man of knowledge enhances his might? Now like with all things when we come to the Bible and we're unclear, I think one of the first things that we should be doing is, and this is a bonus for you here this morning, keep reading. Keep reading. Because when you do, you'll find something really interesting. Verse 5 is followed by verse 6. And when you read verse six, you'll see this it starts with this very important word for Now just like in English in Hebrew what this was originally written in the word for in Grammar is known as a conjunction a Conjunction is a word that connects two thoughts verse five is explained by verse six Verse 5, a wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might. How or why, you might ask? For or because, for by wise guidance you can wage war. A wise man is mighty because he listens to wisdom. Young men in the house, listen to me. Wisdom makes our strength mean something. And this comes by listening, learning to listen. And as the Bible says, to wise guidance and an abundance of counselors. I'm old enough to begin to realize that our strong backs will fail us, but wisdom will stand the test of time. So listen well. Church, I want to say something. I'm going to say it twice because this is how important I want you to hear this, how much I want you to hear this. Your ability to succeed in the long run is connected to your wisdom to listen well. I'll say it again. Your ability to succeed in the long run is connected to your wisdom to listen well. Men in the house, you may be able by your strength to get people to fear you. But it's by wisdom is how people will respect you. People hear these words, hear these words of scripture, this goes for marriage, business, life, and war. Wisdom is listening well, and listening well is leading. Now I want to hang on verse 6 here, because verse 6 is a very popular verse in the Bible. So let's look at it, verse six. Again, please have your Bibles open if you have them with you. For by wise guidance you can wage war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory. All right, especially for guys like me who are in a leadership position, or if you are in a leadership position, maybe in management, here's what I'd say to you. Everyone needs to grasp this, but I'd say especially those in authority or leadership. Authority or leadership. Wise guidance does not mean popular opinion. Wise guidance does not mean a majority vote. Wise guidance does not mean the easy way. Wise guidance means just that. Guidance that is wise, not mandatory or compulsory. An abundance of counselors. Church hear me on this. The abundance of counselors does not mean everyone with an opinion, because we all have one. So let's just flip this for a moment, because I want to address something that as a pastor, I hear, safe to say, at least on a fairly regular basis. And it's this phrase. I wonder if you've ever said this. They just don't listen. They just don't listen. Have you ever said that? They'll say this about the other person or the other side of the argument, they just don't listen to me. Now church, I'm the one making the argument that most people are terrible at listening, but to make sure that you understand what you are saying when you say the words, they don't listen to me, let me just share some wisdom here for a moment. Just because your spouse, your parents, your pastor, or your boss, just because they don't do what you say or take your advice, that doesn't mean they aren't listening to you. See, people think that the marker of being heard is being obeyed. Listen to me, that's only true for dogs and soldiers. So if you want your relationship to feel like the military or like animals, then you need a two-way communication and you need to understand that just because someone doesn't enact what you say doesn't mean they didn't hear you. Again, I would say this to spouses, children, people who are employed, church members. So it's important to listen well And we're going to talk about this. I want to talk about specifically how we listen. Well, I want to talk for a few moments about active listening How to how to be an active listener? Now if you've ever done premarital counseling with me, then you know how I teach this And if you've ever been married to me, you know how terrible I am at this. Most people think that listening is a passive thing, that listening is doing nothing while you let the other person speak. And do you know how many friendships are broken and how many marriages are ruined because people have that mentality? That's not helpful. When we communicate, and when we listen, we have to be active in this. And I would say that our inability to listen well has led to the political and cultural divide of this country, or at least contributed massively towards it. Listening is not doing anything while letting the other person speak. Listening is an active thing. So let's talk about what we do when we listen with a wise ear, how to listen well, and how to be an active listener. So active listening is listening firstly to understand. When someone is speaking and you're listening, one of the first things you're doing is that you're listening to try to understand this person. What are they saying? How are they saying it? Why are they saying it? You're listening to understand. Also, the other reason that we listen well and we have active listening is not. Active listening is not assuming you know what is going to be said. I don't know if you're like me, but if there are times that you know me and my wife and have friction, we'll call it, she may begin to say something and I will immediately cut her off and say something like, I know what you're gonna say. Apparently, me and Kevin are the only ones. That's not active listening. Active listening is not assuming you know what is gonna be said. And here's the second one, gentlemen. Active listening is not just waiting to respond. Active listening is not just waiting for your turn to speak. Again, if you've done premarital counseling with me, then you know this exercise. I have an engaged couple sit on the couch and they face each other and I instruct one person to share their thoughts or feelings and to be assertive in that. Not domineering or not a jerk, but just assertive. Take ownership of what you want. And so they say, I would like this. I want that. I want more of this. I want less of that. One person. So one person's sharing their thoughts, desires, or opinion. And another person who's listening is to be active listening, actively listening. And this person has a job. And this job is, number one, they need to hear correctly what this person is saying. And so when this person is done speaking, their response is not to immediately give their rebuttal. The first response is to establish that communication has happened. The first job of the active listener is to ensure that they heard this person correctly. So they do that by rephrasing what the person said, not repeating, because anyone can just regurgitate what someone said. You have to rephrase what the person said, which shows that you've internalized it and you understood it. This is also a chance to ask questions and to get clarification because what you want to do is ensure that you have understood what they said and you want to make sure that that person feels understood and feels heard. So once that's established then you can continue to build a conversation and listen to me if you think this sounds clunky in the communication you've just exposed that you're not great at communicating because communication is hard, especially in marriage. And so when we communicate, you need to actively listen. What are they saying? Why are they saying that? And when they're done, what you say is, okay, if I heard you correctly, what I think you mean is X, Y, and Z. And then you give that person a chance to confirm and affirm that. Once that's established, then A, you've done active listening well is leading so men. Men hear me if you want to be the leader in your home in your community in your marriage You must master this And I would say you shouldn't be a leader until you've mastered this ability to listen well. A wise man is full of strength and a man of knowledge enhances his might. For by wise guidance, you can wage war and in an abundance of counselors, there is victory. The assumption there is that that leader knows how to listen. This is not just for kings and generals. This is not just for husbands and fathers. This goes for mothers and daughters, pastors, and for politicians. This goes for progressives and conservatives. This goes for anyone who wants to fancy themselves to be a wise person. Wisdom is listening well, and listening well is leading. And when a leader stops listening, they should stop leading. Hold me to that, people. This leads to the second, or I should say the other side of the coin, that listening well is life-giving. It's how we instill life. Now as we turn our attention to verses 7 to 9, we're going to immediately see a contrast here that Solomon props up. It's a constant contrast that he makes throughout the entire book of Proverbs. You may know it. It's the contrast between the wise and the foolish. Those who are wise and those who are fools. Solomon, as he wrote Proverbs for his son, he's constantly warning his son to put into practice these words of wisdom so that he won't be a fool. He doesn't care if his son is good at basketball, he wants his child to be wise. Now this is important, I wanna remind us of something about the Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs is 3,000 years old. Let me put this in context for you the book of Proverbs was written before English was a language The book of Proverbs was written before the Enlightenment It was written before Rome conquered the world the book of Proverbs was written before Confucius Plato or Aristotle The words here have stood the test of time We are still reading it or at least we should be still reading it, and we still should be challenged and learning from it. How foolish it would be to cast aside this book as having nothing to offer you. In fact, we would all do well to spend more time in the book of Proverbs. And honestly, church, as I envision how this year is going to unfold for our church, there's a reason I wanted to start with the book of Proverbs, we're going to need the wisdom to know how to continue to minister to this broken and wicked culture, and to how to respond faithfully to what God's doing in this world. How foolish it would be to cast aside this book, but some will, some will. And the Bible tells us why. Verse seven, because wisdom is too high for a fool, and in the gate, he does not open his mouth. Wisdom is a lofty thing, and not everyone has the humility to receive it. So let me ask you when was the last time someone gave you godly advice and you took it and you did something with it? Do you have those people in your life sharing those words with you? And do you listen so much that it changed your approach to life? Write this proverb down, it's a good one. Proverb 17:10. I love this. It says a rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool. Meaning, the wise person knows he always has more to learn, but you can't even beat wisdom into a fool. Because wisdom is too high for a fool, verse 7 says. And then verse 7 says something interesting here. It says, in the gate, he does not open his mouth. Now what's that all about? Now, anybody who wants to read the Old Testament understands what the Bible talks about when it talks about the gate or in the gate. It's all over. It's so important. Please don't think of it like a white picket fence with this little door swinging. That's not what we're talking about when the Bible talks about the gate. The gate, as described by Baker Bible Dictionary, is this. In the Old Testament, the city gate has a central role in that city's military, economic, judicial, political, and religious aspects of life. It wasn't just a fence with a door. It was a structure. In the Old Testament, when people talked about the gate, this is what they thought of. They thought of a structure, they thought of a building. It was not just used for protection. The city gate was a building, often two structures with a courtyard space in between them. And in this space is where the official business of the city happened, kind of like modern-day township halls. It was at the city gates where the prophets of old would proclaim the word of God. It was at the city gates where military action was planned, where a city's leaders and elders would convene to make determinations. The gate was not just a passageway, it was a critical meeting space for the life of the city. So the gate is where the official business would happen. Today we might call it the boardroom or the leadership table. And we don't let fools at the leadership table. So when Proverbs says in verse 7, wisdom's too high for a fool, in the gate he does not open his mouth, it's like saying there's no place at the leadership table for fools. When leaders meet, the fool has nothing to say. Not because in wisdom he's listening, but because the fool is out of his league and has nothing to contribute, so he keeps quiet. But here's an interesting thought, but follow me on this. Remaining silent is often the wisest thing to do. Proverbs 17:28 says, "'Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise.'" When do we keep quiet? Because Ecclesiastes 3:7 says, "'There's a time to keep silent and a time to speak.'" So this begs the question, people, when is it wise to keep quiet? Let's look at a few reasons why it would be wise to keep quiet. Reasons to remain silent. First thing is to keep yourself in check. Proverbs 29:11 says, "'A fool gives full vent to his spirit, "'but a wise man quietly holds it back.'" It's wise to keep silent to keep yourself in check, meaning silence is a key indicator of self-control. It's the unwise man who loses control and says things that they need to repent of. And if there's anyone on the hot seat right now, it's yours truly. Proverbs 13:3 says, "'Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life.'" This ties into the whole point that wisdom is life-giving. The second reason it would be wise to keep quiet is as we're talking about because you are active listening because you're listening well. Proverbs 18:13 I would never tell someone the need to get a tattoo but men this might be a good one to put backward on your face so that when you look in the mirror you can read this every single day. Proverbs 18:13 13, if anyone gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. See, the wise person listens so that he knows how to respond. See, if you are speaking before you are finished listening, then chances are you are just emotionally reacting rather than wisely responding. And everyone said, welcome to social media. That is all that happens. Something happens in this world and immediately people start throwing out their thoughts. And I'm thinking, you've had no time to process this. You're just emotionally reacting. You're not wisely responding. So let's not be that people. Ask my wife, she will tell you this is one of my greatest weaknesses. I respond before I listen. I get charged up, I think I know the answer. The alpha comes out in me and I bowl over people because I think that I Know better and here's what God's telling me that I think we all need to learn the lesson meant is this is that you don't know If you know better until you first listen well My mama used to say something and When she would say this to me, she actually had a hand gesture that went with it Tell me if your mama ever did this for you. When I was little, she would say this, zip it. And she's actually like, making a little gesture like my mouth was actually zipping shut. She'd say, zip it. And you know what? I don't want to overstate this, but my mom was saving my life. She was teaching me that sometimes you just need to shut it. You need to zip it. And that leads to kind of the third thing, a reason why it's wise to remain silent. It's to discern whether or not you are dealing with a wise person or a fool. You listen to this person to discern if you're listening to a fool or a wise person. Proverbs 10, 19. When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. Meaning, if a person is rambling, chances are there's guilt or foolishness, but we can only know that if we are wise enough to remain silent and listen. And the reason that we need to know this is because foolishness and folly do not lead to life. Do you know where it leads? To sin. It leads to sin. Verse 8 says something really important to us. It says, whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer. Who here in their life either have children or you have grandchildren who are 10 years old and younger. Anyone? In our venues, online, let me know. Okay, who here has ever been 10 years old or younger? Okay. I'll tell you what, this is what I am so trying to instill into my children, especially my boys. I think the way that we can translate this idea of like, don't be a schemer, I think one of the ways we can say this nowadays, and this is how I say it to my sons, is don't be sneaky. Don't be sneaky. Dad can't stand that. Don't do things behind my back. Don't be sneaky. If you don't want people to know about it, then don't do it. Not because we're trying to seek approval, but because that's a key indicator if something is right or wrong. Do we want people to know about it? Gossiping, backstabbing, or here's something in my time I've seen people do, which is just such a scheming thing, it infuriates me, is they build a coalition. They go and scheme and build a coalition rather than confronting the problem. This is what schemers do. I tell my son, that's not befitting of children of God. That's not befitting of godly men. We don't scheme We stand up and confront if you've dealt like people if you dealt with people like this, you know, they are toxic Don't be a schemer. Don't be sneaky because the Bible says something that it does not mince words in verse 9 The devising of folly is sin and the scoffer is an abomination to mankind. The devising of folly is sin. Now don't sit there and think, oh come on preacher, are you saying we can't have any fun? Listen here, don't confuse folly with fun. That's what man-boys do. Godly men and godly women know the difference. You know the difference between folly and fun. It goes back to the principle of wisdom Which is the fear of the Lord folly has no fear of the Lord fun on the other hand Fun is part of how we live life to the fullest in Jesus' name Christians should be the most joyful fun people because we know how to have real true fun that gives life Folly has no fear of the Lord, but fun is living life to the fullest in Jesus name and there are sinful hearts that plan and devise folly. And the Bible tells us that only sinful people plan to do stupid things on purpose, so be cautious about what you laugh at on YouTube. Because you just may be encouraging someone to sin. The devising of folly is sin; the Bible says the scoffer is an abomination to mankind. You know the scoffers. I know you do. Right, these are the critical people of the world who complain but don't care to make anything better. They'll tell you everything that's wrong, but they'll never celebrate what's right. They're the scoffers. In the Bible, not me, the Bible says they are an abomination to mankind. They don't make things better, they only make things worse. So, my friends, discern wisely what you are critical of, but have nothing to contribute to. I'm going to say that again. Be careful of what you are critical of but have nothing to contribute to. There is no wisdom in the words of scoffers. They are not life-giving, they are life-sucking. Listen, as the leader and as one of the leaders here, I want to be humble enough to learn from every godly critique that I need to hear it. But so often scoffers are only critical and they just suck the life out of you. They kill relationships, they kill pastors, they kill ministries. But those who are wise, but those who are wise are those who give life by their words, even in words of rebuke. The wise person knows how to rebuke in a way that still gives life. Jesus was the master at this. His words were only life-giving and yet at times we see Jesus push back. We see Jesus rebuke, but he was always life-giving. Why? Because Jesus was the master at listening. He listened to the conversation. He listened to people. Jesus embodied how listening well is leading. He embodied how listening well is life-giving. Jesus is the one who shows us that those who are wise listen well. Of all the reasons I follow this guy, this is definitely one of them. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God the Son, who by his own right didn't have to listen to anyone. There's nothing any one of us could say to Jesus that would add value to what he already knows. Jesus didn't need or have to listen to everyone and yet he listened with intention. He listened carefully. He listened compassionately. His response was always wise. Even his rebuke, his words were life-giving because they always came off the heels of listening. If you want life-giving words, turn to Jesus, which is why we all need to ask ourselves right now, who are you listening to and are you listening to the words of the one who has the words of life, Jesus? I wanna end by kind of just looking at a quick story from the Bible real quick. And this is where Jesus has kind of amassed like a following. And he is talking about, he's introducing the concept of communion. And he's talking about how we need to have his life in us. And Jesus goes like real gritty, real vivid imagery here. He says that we need to have his life in us. And the way that we have that is that we actually eat his flesh and drink his blood. Okay, as gritty and vivid imagery as possible. And there's a bunch of people who are following Jesus, who love him, who are like, whoa. I wanna read to you the response. This is from John 6. It says, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, this is a hard saying, who can listen to it? And after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus turned to the 12 and said to them, do you want to go away as well? And Simon Peter answered him, Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. My friend, my friend's life, true life is found in listening, listening to the words of Jesus, whose words were not just life, but eternal life. This is the gospel that Jesus died on the cross in our place for our sins, but that wasn't the end. In His resurrection, He was raised to new life. This is the promise and the guarantee of our new life, eternal life when we believe in the gospel. And the gospel, you know this, the gospel is the good news. You hear the news, you listen to the news, you receive news. So believing in Jesus is listening and receiving the good news of salvation in His name. And Jesus Himself even said in Matthew 7, 24, Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Amen. Would you please stand. As we prepare our hearts for worship, I want to preface something here for a moment. We're going to sing one of my favorite songs to Old Hymn called Come Thou Fount. And I want to read to you some of the words from this song. It says, Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. We need to sit in a posture where we are reflecting on what God has done for us, what Jesus has done for us, and what the Spirit's doing through us, and we let Him tune our hearts to His goodness, knowing that our salvation is by grace, the grace of God. So as we sing, we're coming into conformity with God's plan for us, with God's good and loving salvation plan for us. So if you are a saved Christian, then you best be singing out loud. And if you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior yet, He's inviting you today, and I'd love to help you with that. Come find me, let's talk. And we can find how you can have life, not just life to the full, but life eternal. So Father God, as we come before you now, Lord, we sing unto your glory in the name of Jesus by the power of the Spirit, we do ask, Lord, that you would tune our hearts to sing thy grace. Fill this place with your Spirit that we may lift up praises to you, our God, who hears and listens because of the blood of Jesus Father you're so good to us and we're so thankful help us now even if we are weak to respond in worship to you God we love you and we thank you we pray this in to respond in worship to you God we love you and we thank you we pray this in Jesus name and everyone say amen and amen

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, October 20, 2024 Take Courage 2 Chronicles 15:8-15 Make Covenant 2 Overview Main Idea: God calls us to make covenant with Him! Sermon Outline: 1. Remove ungodly influence (vv8-9) 2. Renew heart-filled faith (vv10-13) 3. Remember we are God's! (vv14-15) 3 Pre-Questions What comes to mind when you hear the word “covenant”? How does this concept differ from a simple promise or agreement? Reflect on a biblical covenant that stands out to you (e.g., Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, or New Covenant). How did God initiate and fulfill that covenant? 4 Questions Covenants throughout the Bible show God’s commitment to His people. How does God’s covenantal faithfulness provide security in your own relationship with Him? How can reflecting on God’s covenants help you trust Him more in your current challenges? How does understanding that we are part of a New Covenant through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8:6) influence your daily walk with God? What are practical ways you can renew or deepen your commitment to live faithfully within the covenant of grace God offers? Is there an area of your life where you sense God is calling you to “make a covenant” or recommit yourself to Him, such as a new direction in ministry, personal holiness, or community involvement? What steps can you take this week to live out the commitments you’ve made to God in your personal covenant with Him? PDF Download

Gold; Jesus is King Sermon Series: Fit for a King Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: John 18:33-37, Matt 2:11 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And all the faithful said with all their heart, Amen. Amen. So here we are. Yes, the first week of Advent. And I thought we'd, as we continue through this Christmas season, let's start with a little, a little brain game to get you guys, get your minds working here this morning. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to read part of the lyrics of a Christmas song. And as soon as it registers what song it is, tell your neighbor the name of the song. Okay? You don't got to wait till I'm done reading. Just as soon as you recognize the song, tell your neighbor what song it is. Okay, ready? We'll start very easy. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room and heaven and nature sing. What is it? Joy to the world. Very easy, okay, here we go. If you're in first service, you don't get to answer this next one. Next one, here we go. I can see me now on Christmas morning, creeping down the stairs. Oh, what a joy and what a surprise when I open up my eyes to see my hippo hero standing there. I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Did the hippo part not give it away? All right, let's dig a little deeper here. Let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray. And that is, God rest ye merry gentlemen. Alright last one. Who has gotten none of them so far? Anybody want to call out their neighbor and say not one? Okay. Last one. Born a king on Bethlehem plain, gold I bring to crown him again, king forever, ceasing never, over us all to reign. And that is a line from We Three Kings. Did you know that the song We Three Kings is of course based off the story from scripture where baby Jesus or the child Jesus is visited by, well, we three kings, although the Bible doesn't say they were kings and the Bible doesn't say there was three of them. So it's wrong on two accounts. What we have is a visit from what the Bible says the wise men or the magi doesn't specifically say they were kings, although they do give Jesus a kingly gift in the gift of gold. And we're going to get into all the gifts given in this series, but make no mistake about one thing. These wise men knew that Jesus was a king. Matthew 2, verse 2 says this, says, when they came to Jerusalem, they asked, where is he who has been born the king of the Jews. For we saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him." Now, they came with a kingly gift of gold, but here's the reality. I think you don't have to be a Christian. I think it's fairly common knowledge to know what the three gifts were that the wise men gave. Say it with me. Gold and frankincense and myrrh that comes right out of scripture. Matthew chapter 2 verse 11 says, and going into house, they, the wise men, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. They did what they said they're going to do. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. Now, if you listen to the full lyrics of the song, We Three Kings, it says something interesting about each of the gifts that were given to Jesus. The song, what it does, it actually picks up on something that theologians and commentators have been doing for hundreds of years. And that, what they did was they look at the gifts given to Jesus as symbolic of unique aspects of who Jesus is. Gold represents Jesus as King frankincense points to Jesus as God and mer points to Jesus as Savior that's what we're going to be doing with this series over the next three weeks today we're gonna be looking at how gold signifies Jesus as King next week probably the most controversial of all of the messages we'll look at how frankincense pulls out the reality that Jesus is God and then pastor Kevin Harney will join us in a couple weeks and teach us on how Murr shows us that Jesus is Savior. But I need to say one thing and I need to make it very, very clear. Let me make something very clear. Otherwise, my Presbyterian friends will get all over me. So here's what I want to say. The Bible never actually draws that direct connection. The Bible never says gold means king. Frankincense means God. The Bible never actually says that. That's something commentators and Christians have done out of tradition over the centuries. But Jesus as King, Jesus as God, Jesus as Savior are very profound themes in Scripture. So we're going to have a little fun with the gifts as we look at these very real aspects of who Jesus is. But I do need to make a mention the Bible never draws that connection, although the Bible does say Jesus is King God and Savior as we'll look at. So today, the gift of gold and how it points to Jesus as our King. Would you please turn in your Bibles to John chapter 18. John chapter 18, we'll look at verses 33 to 37. Now listen, I know that it's Christmas time. I know here we are the first Sunday of Advent, but rather than looking at the birth of Christ, what we're going to do here today is we're going to look at the end of Jesus' life, actually just hours before he is killed and crucified, when during his trial, Jesus is brought before the governor of Judea, a man I'm sure whose name you've heard before, Pontius Pilate. Alright, so as you turn in there, here's the scene. You really got to get the scene in your mind here. Jesus has been arrested. He's been falsely accused of blasphemy and trying to start a revolt against Rome. Remember Rome had occupied the land. And so what the, so the Jewish religious leaders, they whip up the crowd into a frenzy and the Jewish leaders with this mob, they bring Jesus to the governor during this like fake trial. Why do they bring Jesus to the governor? Well, it's because they wanted to put Jesus to death and they couldn't legally do it. They needed the occupiers. They needed the ruling body to consent to the capital punishment for Jesus. So they bring Jesus to pilot because they want pilot to sentence Jesus to death. And so pilot is standing there and he's got these religious leaders pressuring him. He's got the mob that's been whipped up to a frenzy. And then he has this man, Jesus, standing here, and Pilate's trying to figure out what he's supposed to do. And so what he does is he pulls Jesus into his headquarters and he wants to talk to Jesus to find out what's going on. And that's where we're gonna pick up in our story. So would you hear God's word? John 18:33-37 33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?”35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?”36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”37 Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” This is God's word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father God in heaven above, Lord, we thank you for the start of Advents, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, your son and our savior. Father, we ask here now by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, would you be with us now as we look and see that Jesus is not just born, but he's the newborn King. And it's in his name that we pray. And everyone said, amen. All right, church, here we are. Week one of Advent, and as we look at today's passage, here's a main idea that I want you to bring throughout the entire Advent series, and it's this. Here's your main point for this morning. King Jesus deserves everything from us, yet He gave up everything for us. And to drive this point home here this morning, as we look at our passage, just two points I want to draw from Scripture here this morning. It'd be these two. 1. Our King doesn't answer our questions, rather He tells us the truth. And by the way, that's better. Our King doesn't answer our questions, rather he tells us the truth. 2. Our King doesn't give in to pressure, rather, He fulfills his purpose. And Church, before we get going here, let me just say one thing real quickly. the notion of Jesus as King really just mean to you that Jesus has some sort of authority, but it has no bearing on your life. When we talk about Jesus as King, that means he's in charge, not just of our destiny, but of our daily life. Daily, we lay down everything before him, just as those wise men do. We bow down and worship him. We do this not monthly, not weekly. We do this daily with every moment of our lives. So when we talk about Jesus as King, please remember that means he's in charge, not us. And so, in our world, we don't trust people who have authority. We don't trust mainstream media, and we are increasingly losing trust in our government leaders. Why so much loss of trust? Well, it's because we don't think they're telling us the truth. And it's hard to trust those who we don't think are telling us the truth. And yet, here's one thing our passage tells us. Jesus, what he does is tell us the truth. This is why we trust him. 1. Our King doesn't answer our questions, rather He tells us the truth So let's look at our passage here. Pilate calls Jesus aside. Remember, religious leaders pressuring him, the mobs in a frenzy. Pilate calls Jesus aside and he says, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus, in perfect Jesus fashion, answers his question with, you guessed it, a question. But I'll tell you now, the power behind the questions Jesus asks, we always underestimate. Something very profound is going on here. See, we think that Jesus is avoiding the question, but by doing this, what Jesus is doing is bringing out deeper levels of truth. So Jesus responds with a question, not because he's trying to divert the question, not because he's stalling and not because he doesn't know the answer. Rather, Jesus answers a question with a question to get us to think and not just think, but think deeper. We so often come with just surface level questions, but the wealth and knowledge and wisdom of Jesus is rich and deep and he wants to bring us there. He doesn't answer our questions. He tells us the truth. And so when we ask him a question, he responds with the truth to bring us deeper. So pilot says, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus is like, so are you asking me because that's a question for all of us. Your knowledge of Jesus, is that something you've found? Or is that something you got from someone else? Too often in our world, we are developing our theology from snarky memes. We're getting our notion of Jesus from the comment section on social media, or our news outlets or podcasts, rather than diving into scripture and see who Jesus himself has revealed himself to be. So Jesus says, where'd you get this from? Are you asking or do you get it from someone else? And so Pilate, because Pilate's not in a posture to listen, he immediately snaps back and says, am I a Jew? Am I a Jew? I don't know you. Your own people brought you to me. I don't know anything about you." And then he asked Jesus this powerful and very important question. It's a question that really illuminates what's going on here. Pilate asked Jesus, what have you done? And I love how Jesus responds. I just love how Jesus responds in verse 36, my kingdom is not of this world. He's not answering a question. He's telling the truth. That's what Jesus does. He says, if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. It's like Jesus is saying, I am a king in ways you cannot begin to comprehend. You only think about kingdoms through your earthly way. I have a better and bigger and more spiritual way. Jesus says, I don't play by your rules. I'm not here to destroy cities or to oppress people. And then Jesus shares what he is here to do. But check this out. You have to remember the context here. Pilot is trying to decide whether or not he's going to give Jesus the capital punishment Pilate is trying to figure out am I gonna put this man to death or am I gonna let him go? Pilate seems like he's the one in authority, but yet Jesus is the one who's in charge Jesus will not get bullied here. This leads to our second point. 2. Our King does not give in to pressure, rather He fulfills his purpose. So Jesus says, my kingdom's not of this world. And then Pilate, who still does not see the spiritual significance to what's happening, pressures him more, but Jesus does not give in. Look at verse 37. Then Pilate said to him, so you are a king. And Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king. Okay, now we need to time out here. Like, this is such an important passage that people use to try to say that Jesus is lying or Jesus never spoke the truth or that Jesus never said he was king. It's because people don't understand what's actually happening here. Okay, so Jesus says, you say that I'm a king. See, listen to me. Jesus is not avoiding the question and he's not giving a non-answer. Let's make it clear. Let's make it so clear. Jesus is not denying that he's a king. There's something much larger and immediate happening here. You see, what was going on here was Pontius Pilate was caught in a terrible spot. See, Pilate, he wants to appease the crowd. He's being pressured by the cultural religious leaders at the time, but he also does not want to condemn Jesus if Jesus is innocent. And so Pilate is pressuring Jesus to give him a clear answer. Pilate wants Jesus to say the words, I am a king. And you know what I'm willing to bet? You want him to as well. You want Jesus to say, I am king. You want Jesus to say, I am God. You want Jesus to say, I am a Savior. When Jesus is bringing out something so much richer and deeper than just these surface level answers. There's a profound moment going on here with literally all of humanity hangs in the balance. You say that I'm a King. Now listen, Pilate wants Jesus to say the words, I am a king. Why? Here's why. Because that would make Pilate's job a whole lot easier. If Jesus would just say the words, I am a king, then Pilate would have his proof to accuse him of staging an insurrection against Rome and be able to hand him over to death with a clear conscience. But Jesus isn't going to play ball here. Jesus doesn't give in to pressure. Yes, Pilate had the power to hand Jesus over to death, and it may seem like Pilate has all the control here, but he doesn't. Jesus is the one. Jesus is the one in control. Jesus is the one who's going to tell the truth. He's not going to answer questions. Jesus already said if he wanted to put a stop to this, he very well could have. He could have called down angel armies to stop it right then and there if he wanted. But Jesus, because He's in control, He's allowing this to continue because that is Jesus' purpose. Jesus is on mission, fulfilling His mission. This is why He was born. To die on the cross for our sins. Jesus is allowing this to continue because he is fulfilling his purpose. He is fulfilling his mission, which he was about to do in a matter of hours. So Pilate says, so you are a king. And Jesus says, you say that I'm a king. Again, Jesus doesn't answer our questions. He tells us the truth. He doesn't answer Pilate because he does not answer to Pilate. Pilate says, so you're king then and Jesus is like, if you say that, if that's what you say, and then Jesus gives this beautiful, epic response. And Church, if you think this passage sounds too much like Easter, let me just say right now, this is a Christmas verse if there ever was one. Look what Jesus says at the end of verse 37. Jesus says, for this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Church, our King doesn't give into pressure. Rather, he fulfills his purpose. And you notice, Jesus puts this in two different ways. He says, for this purpose, number one, I was born, and for this purpose, number two, I have come into the world see I think Jesus is pointing both both to his humanity the fact that he was born a human child but he's also pointing to his divinity the fact that he came from heaven to the earth that he came into this world this is why we call Jesus both God and man or as theologians have said throughout the ages he's the God man the God man is represented in that little baby in your nativity set. Now, if you've been at Peace before, you've seen this picture. I showed it before, but this is one of the nativity sets that my family has up in our house. In fact, this one we have set up all year long in our display case. This is a very special nativity set to me. My grandmother hand-painted this set. And so you'll know which one of my children is the favorite because that's the one who will get this when I die. So my grandmother hand painted this set and we have it set up all year long. And when I look at this little child, yes my grandmother painted a Scandinavian child. Jesus was much more brown than what this is reflected of. But either way, that child and the one that you have set up, that's representative of the King. That's the God-man. That's the one who left heaven to come to earth to save you and to save me. This is the Son of God who left His throne in heaven to be born a baby boy in that little manger. He left a seat of gold surrounded by angels to be born in a manger of straw surrounded by farm animals. And He did this for you, and He did this for me. This is our King. He's our newborn King. And let me tell you, our King doesn't answer our questions. Rather, He tells us the truth And second our king doesn't give into pressure. He fulfills his purpose So back to our story what happens? Well, Jesus is before Pilots and Jesus could have given pilot answers to get out of the situation to save his own life He could have said no governor. I'm not a king. I don't know why i'm here. I'm completely in this They're doing this to me. Jesus could have gotten out of this, but he doesn't. And when we see this interaction, people want to say, Oh, Jesus is avoiding the question. Are you kidding me? Jesus could have gotten out of that situation either by calling down angel armies or given the answer pilot wanted to hear avoiding the question, not in the least our King, he's embracing his purpose in this mission. In this moment, his purpose was to bring the truth, the truth that he came to die for the sins of the world, for the sins of his people. And so we all know what happens is that Pilate gives in to pressure, and he sentences Jesus to both torture and crucifixion. And Jesus, our King who deserves everything from us, gave up everything for us. Christ died on the cross for our sins, taking our punishments. The punishment for our sins, the punishment our sins deserve. I wonder, how many times have you seen those movies where you've got this king in his shiny armor, sitting on his high horse, sitting on some hill, wearing armor that will never actually see battle as this king oversees a war happening of his own soldiers fighting battles. You ever seen this? I tell you what, that couldn't be the opposite of our Lord. That is so the opposite. See, Jesus stepped into our place. He left his high horse, he left his throne in heaven, stepped into the battle to fight it for us, to take the victory over our sins. Jesus stepped into the world to win us back, and that first step was being born at Christmas So that nativity scene you best believe that means something That means something amazing For your daily life and for your destiny Jesus being born at Christmas This is our King coming to save us in The King who is in the cradle in Bethlehem is the King who would be on the cross in Jerusalem Hanging there to win us back. So let me leave you with one challenge as we prepare our hearts for both the Advent season, but also communion here this morning. This Christmas, This Christmas, don't listen to the lies of our culture. Don't listen to the ads trying to sell you something. Don't listen to your emotions in the heat of a moment. Don't listen to that inner voice that wants you to believe that what you've done makes you beyond saving. This Christmas, listen to the voice of truth, the voice of your King. When things come and it seems confusing, or things come and it strikes fear into your heart, or you're just filled with anxiety because of the quote-unquote holiday. Don't listen to any of that. Listen to the voice of your King, because that's the voice of truth. Jesus says, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. In our world, to our world, this must be one of the most offensive things that anyone could say, yet Jesus says it to the person who has the power to put him to death and by extension the Holy Spirit says this to us all. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice, the voice of Jesus. So church, listen to him. Listen to his voice. Listen to his teaching. Listen to him and follow him. And so one last time, let me give you lyrics of a song, see if you can figure out what song it is. Again, as soon as you know it, share it with your neighbor. One last time, here we go. Born by people to deliver, born a child and yet a king, born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring. And that song is Come Thou Long Expected Jesus. Church, during this Christmas time, as you listen to Christmas songs, here's what I want you to do. As you listen to Christmas songs, I want you to listen to how many Christmas songs and Christmas carols actually talk about Jesus as King, because it's all over the place. And whenever you hear that, I want you to think during this Christmas, Lord, this is a call for me to listen to the voice of my King, the voice of truth. And as you listen to the voice of your King, be reminded that King Jesus deserves everything from us, yet he gave up everything for us. Amen. Would you bow your heads that we might spend a moment preparing our hearts for communion? Father, we come before you, and just like those wise men did, we want to bow down and worship our King. Father, we come before you here and now, thankful yet again that we can gather as your people. Father, that we might be reminded of the gospel as we touch, taste, and see the gospel through communion. Father, I pray, Lord, as your sons and daughters, we would take this meal with grateful hearts, reminded again that our King came to save us and it started on that Christmas morning. So Father, I pray now by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, would you be with us now, illuminating in our hearts, reminding us again of the great sacrifice of our Lord as we receive with thanksgiving the gift of communion. It's in Jesus' name we pray. And everyone said, Amen. Amen.

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3 Tips For Your Christmas Series Ministry Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 10, 2023 As a pastor who connects with other pastors, there are a few things I know to be true about this most wonderful time of the year. We love Christmas, and when we are honest, we kind of dread it too. We love it because we are celebrating something incredibly powerful, the incarnation of our Lord and Savior. We love it because it’s a great chance to welcome visitors to our church, but we dread it because there is so much work that comes with it. We dread it because when it comes to the Christmas message, it can feel like the same thing year after year… How do we keep the Christmas sermon series both true to the message, but also feeling fresh enough to where we can approach it with renewed energy? Here are some thoughts as we approach Christmas each year… 1. It’s Christmas. Yes, focus on it! You may get sick of preaching the same story year after year, but your church doesn’t get sick of hearing it. Or worse, the over-commercialization of Christmas has turned you off to a Christmas focus. You may be tempted to use this time to focus on something else you’re itching to preach on, but don’t stray from the birth of Christ. Not only is the incarnation a critical aspect of Christian theology, but it’s a tenet of our faith that doesn’t get enough attention, so don’t miss the change to detail this beautiful theology. Christmas is a unique time where the hopeless world is looking for hope, so don’t forget to show the lost world the power of hope that Christmas brings! I spoke to an unbelieving neighbor of mine who went to church (not the church I am pastoring, but a different one) for a Christmas series. She told me she just wanted to hear what Christmas really meant and if hope was possible in this world. But instead of the birth of Christ, this pastor used the Christmas season to talk about Jesus challenging the chief priests. I’ll never forget her words when she said, “I went to church on Christmas to hear what Christmas was all about, but instead I learned that Jesus debated religious people…” This, to me, just sounded like the pastor was using pulpit time to get something off his chest rather than a time to give the people something they needed to hear. This first point is simple: It’s Christmas – focus on Christmas, not because it’s the commercial season, but because people need to hear the Christmas story. 2. Don’t try to be so creative that you forget the actual Christmas message! Here is what I have fallen prey to when I’ve come to write a Christmas series: I get tired of saying the same thing every year at Christmas, so I try to be so creative with the Christmas message that I’ve missed the point entirely. The truth is, there is so much to Christmas that you can be very creative and still share the simple message that God came to earth. Whether through surveying the Old Testament prophecies that point to Christmas or hearing the news of Christmas through each of the major players of the nativity scene, Christmas doesn’t need to be re-envisioned; it simply needs to be retold. Here are samples of some of our previous Christmas series. Vintage Christmas This series is about how the old and already fulfilled prophecies of Christmas still show us something new. We had vintage-themed branding, and we set up our lobby with Christmas trees decorated with the different styles of the decades. Home for the Holidays In this series we blended the Christmas series with a family focus as we looked at how Christmas is not something for your family just to survive, but how it’s a time to thrive. We did an expositional walkthrough of Matthew 1 as we learned how a family can thrive at Christmas when we (and these were the sermon titles) 1) Remember God’s Plan, when we 2) Receive God’s Son, and when we 3) Recognize God’s presence. *Check out the link for details on this series And when it comes time to plan out your Christmas series, remember this last point: 3. Let your soul be filled by remembering the power of the incarnation. If you are not first finding the joy of Christmas yourself by immersing yourself in the Christmas story, I’m afraid you won’t deliver a message that also fills the souls and the hearts of the people who gather at Christmas. One thing I do is I spend time in the Scriptures reflecting on the birth of Christ, and as I survey the stories and prophecies of Christmas, I look for a word or phrase that the Spirit really highlights for me, and I often use that as the seed for a series. For instance, one year I was reading Luke and came to the line from the angel, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” In that simple phrase are a number of powerful statements that we used to blossom into a full series. Using each of these phrases as a sermon theme for each message in the series, we looked at how Christmas is 1) Good News. It’s the root of the Gospel! We then saw how Christmas brings us 2) “Great Joy” and then we looked at how Christmas is an invitation to 3) “All people” to come see and believe in the newborn King. God used this series to bless hundreds of people and it started when the Holy Spirit highlighted those words for me as I sat and read the story of Christmas, being filled personally in my own soul. You cannot pour out what you have not been filled with, so fill yourself with the powerful message of Christmas! So, no matter if you listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, or if you can’t stand it even on Christmas Day, the birth of Christ is a momentous time that we should be eager to announce. I pray these tips are helpful to you, what else would you add? Also, I’d love to hear what series you’ve come up with – contact me and let’s share more ideas. 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

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, November 17, 2024 Obadiah Obadiah 19-21 The Hope of Joy 2 Overview Main Idea: God shakes things up to reveal the hope of joy. Sermon Outline: 1. God changes things to bring conformity to his plan (v19) 2. God redeems people to restore justice to the land (v20) 3. God speaks prophecy to foreshadow salvation to the world (v21) 3 Pre-Questions Think about a time when a major change in your life brought unexpected hope or joy. How did that experience shape your perspective on trusting God’s plan? This ties to the theme of God shaking things up to bring hope and joy. When you hear the word ‘restoration,’ what comes to mind? Why is restoration such an important theme in both the Bible and our personal lives? 4 Questions In verse 19, territories are reassigned according to God’s plan. How does this demonstrate that God’s purposes prevail even in the midst of upheaval? Reflect on Isaiah 55:8-9, where God says His ways are higher than ours. How does this truth help us trust Him when life feels uncertain or shaken? Verse 20 highlights the return of exiles to their rightful places. How does God’s work of redeeming people show His commitment to justice? Read Amos 5:24, which calls for justice to “roll on like a river.” What practical steps can we take as followers of Christ to partner with God in restoring justice in our communities? In verse 21, God’s plan extends beyond Israel to include salvation for all nations. How does this point to the ultimate hope we have in Jesus? Reflect on Revelation 7:9-10, which describes people from every nation worshiping God. How does this promise shape our understanding of God’s global mission and our role in it? How can you respond with faith and hope when God allows changes in your life to conform you to His plan? In what ways can you actively participate in God’s redemptive work in bringing justice and salvation to those around you? PDF Download

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Have Honor Sermon Series: Words To Live By Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Proverbs 24:23-34 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone in every venue said, Amen. My name is Ryan. I'm the lead pastor here at Peace Church. I am blessed to be able to have a front-row seat of what God is doing here. But I want to start off by with this very strong and stark reminder to everyone here. We are here because Jesus Christ rose again. Every other religion's leader is dead, but ours is alive. So here's what I'd say to you, church, don't walk in and don't sit here like dead people. We follow the one who is alive, so you act alive. Are you excited about this day, yes or no? Amen. Church, Jesus is alive, and I know that we are in February and so it seems like Christmas is a distant memory But I want to remind us about what we believe about Jesus that he is God the Son Who left heaven? Came and was born that little boy in that manger. He lived a perfect life So that he could be the perfect sacrifice for our sins So that we wouldn't have to pay the price for our sins. He did that for us upon the cross. And when he went to the grave, he took death with him. But he left the grave and death stayed there so that we could have life. And his resurrection is our guarantee and our promise for a new life in our own hearts, in our lives, in our spirits. And I love what Hebrews 2, verse 9 says about this. I love how the writer of Hebrews puts this. He says, But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, saying that Jesus Christ humbled himself. He left the glory of heaven and was born. He was made lower than the angels. He took on human form. But now, listen to Now he's crowned, he's crowned with glory and honor. And because of the suffering of his death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. What scripture is saying is that Jesus came with a mission. He humbled himself, and when he completed that mission by his death on the cross and his resurrection to new life, and his ascension back to heaven. Yes, he is our humble Savior, but he is crowned with glory. And what was that H word? Did you hear it? Crowned with glory and honor. Honor. And this is available, this salvation is available for everyone who puts their faith in him. But I love what it says here that he was clothed in glory and honor. He was first clothed in humility and coming to earth, but after being victorious, he is now clothed in honor. But the thing about honor is our culture doesn't really talk about that word a whole lot. But we need to. And I want to spend some time today talking about honor. Because Christians, that's what we are called to. As we reflect Christ in this world, we reflect the one who's crowned with glory and honor, and speaking of Hebrews the last chapter verse chapter 13 verse 18 says pray for us for we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things Romans 12 17 says give thought to do what is honorable in the all. So let me ask you a very difficult question. Church, this goes for you. Are you an honorable person? Do you consider honor as a marker of your life and how you conduct yourself in the world? Because honestly, when I look out in our world and I look at the lives of Not sure we're guilty of a lot of honor these days. I mean, people wearing pajamas out in public. Teenagers openly swear without any regard for who's around them. Drag queens reading Story Hour to kindergartners. I mean, you can't even hold a door for a woman anymore without someone accusing you of upholding the patriarchy. It just seems like our culture, in our culture, there's nothing that's universally held in honor or seen as honorable these days. Because everything offends somebody. And so church, we just have to recognize the fact that we're called something different. And as I'm gonna make an argument for today, that something different is to walk in honor. So if you are just joining us today, and I know there's a number of people who are joining us today because of new members and for baptism, so bless you. Thank you for being here if you're visiting with us today. Today we are closing up. We're finishing up a five-part sermon series we've called Words to Live By. Wisdom the world has lost. And this has really just been a verse-by-verse walkthrough of Proverbs chapter 24. So would you go ahead and turn there now? Because we're talking about wisdom right now here at Peace Church because let's just face it in 500 years when they look back at our time they're not going to say that was a group of wise people unless something changes and that something needs to be from and through the church and so as you're turning there let me just say a couple of things. Number one, I'm not claiming to be a wise man. I'm claiming to be a man pursuing wisdom because what I want you to know is that wisdom is available. It's available to us all, and not just conventional wisdom, godly wisdom that has stood the test of time. And it's found in the book of Proverbs. And it's lasted for 3,000 years. The wisdom found in the book of Proverbs predates Plato, predates Confucius and predates English as a language, and yet we're still learning from it. And so, as we close up this series, we're going to look at these verses here. Proverbs 24: 23-34, is the last part of this chapter. And this section really is indicative of what we see throughout the book of Proverbs. It's sort of a potpourri of wise sayings, just seemingly these randomly wise sayings. But as we read this passage together, I'm wondering, could you pick up a common theme? Like what's a thread? Yes, it's wisdom, but is there another thread that's woven through this passage? Let's read it and let's find out together. And so would you hear the word of the Lord, Proverbs 24. We'll start at verse 23 and we'll head to the rest of the chapter. Would you hear God's Word? 23 These also are sayings of the wise. Partiality in judging is not good. 24 Whoever says to the wicked, “You are in the right,” will be cursed by peoples, abhorred by nations, 25 but those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, and a good blessing will come upon them. 26 Whoever gives an honest answer kisses the lips. 27 Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house. 28 Be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips. 29 Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.” 30 I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, 31 and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. 32 Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction. 33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, 34 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. This is God's word. Let's pray and let's continue. Let's pray. Father God in heaven above, Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth, and all wisdom and all truth are yours. So we humbly ask in the name of Jesus that by the power of the spirit and by the truth of your word that you would grant us wisdom this morning, that we'd be people marked by a heavenly honor and godly wisdom in a world of darkness. It's for your glory that we pray these things. Amen and amen. So I'm just going to say right off the bat, today is a meat and potatoes type sermon. Today is just one of those meals that we need to have and just consume to stay healthy and spiritually alive. I know we like to hit on hot topics at Peace Church, and we're not afraid to venture into that realm, but sometimes we just need to have a healthy meal. And I think that's what this section of Proverbs gives us this morning. So again, as we look at this collection of wise sayings, again, there are so many descriptors I think that we could say about this passage, but if there's one thing that I think is a unifying word that hits both the general thrust of this section but also hits at what is severely lacking in our day it would be honor and so the words to live by today if I could give you two words it'd be this have honor for those who walk in Christ have the honor and to have a heavenly honor we need a godly wisdom and that's something that we're going to talk about today. So here's the outline, if you'd like that ahead of time. Here's where we're going with this section. Wise people live honorably. And honorable people create a blessed example, they create a better society, and they create a beautiful life. Blessed example, a better society, and beautiful life. So let's look at our first section here. Honorable people create a blessed example. Christians in the house, you are to set a good example for the church and for the world. Your life, yes, is on display and you need to be setting a good example. Let me just give you a selection of scripture here real quick. 1 Timothy 4:12 speaks to the youth in the church and it says, let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example. You saw that just now With all of our youth making profession of faith and getting baptized and coming to Jesus and declaring their faith They're setting an example for the rest of us 1 Thessalonians 1: 6-7. The Apostle Paul commends the Christians there because he says this you became Imitators of us and the Lord so that you became an example to all believers. Philippians 3:17 says keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 1 Peter 5:3 tells the elders of the church that they are to set an example quote not domineering over those in their charge, but being examples to the flock of course our greatest example is Jesus Christ himself, 1 Peter 2:21 says, For to this you have been called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps. Christians, when we are honorable people, we create a blessed example. And these three verses show us some markings of this. The first thing that we see is that honorable people create a blessed example marked by fairness. Please keep your Bibles open in front of you today. Proverbs 24, verse 23, look at what it says. It says these are also the sayings of the wise, partiality in judging is not good. Brothers and sisters, do you know how much that statement just confronts everything about our world right now? I mean, everyone, both sides of the aisle need to be deeply challenged by this right here and right now. This is about fairness. And you know how this plays out in our society? This plays out by being fair, by looking at the facts of the matter. Not letting our emotions get the best of us, but looking at the facts of the matter. Not that we don't have compassion. We most certainly do. Christians are called to have compassion, but our judgment is not influenced by narrative, by hype, or what is trending at the moment, we are to look at the facts, not show partiality. And let me just say something here that's probably gonna get me somewhere between canceled and crucified. We are not to show partiality to those who are marginalized or to those who are powerful. We are to judge by the truth of the matter because Christians are people of truth. Yes, love. Yes, compassion. Yes, empathy. But we judge not with partiality, but by truth. Wise people who judge fairly because we are people of the truth. So I would say this to you, my friends, be cautious of the news and the media that you get, that they're not partial in their judgment, thereby making you partial in yours. Because wise people are people who are fair. The other marker of being a blessed example, yes, is fairness, but it's also integrity. Keep your Bibles open, verses 24 and 25. Whoever says to the wicked, you are in the right, will be cursed by peoples abhorred by nations. Abhorred means really hated. But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight and a good blessing will come upon them. So our integrity stems from our wisdom and our honor, wisdom, and honor that guard against taking part in what is wicked, even if what is wicked is celebrated and popular or powerful. Rather, we take a stand for what is right in this world even when no one else does. Even when it leads you to be canceled. Because this is called integrity and God blesses that. Which is why we can say we are to be a blessed example. So fairness, integrity, and the third thing we see here is honesty. Honesty. Go back to verse 26. This is an important one to make sure you don't misinterpret here. Verse 26, whoever gives an honest answer kisses the lips. So obviously there's an imagery going on here. This sign of truthfulness has levels of intimacy and love. Because when you don't share the truth with someone, you might be kissing the other end, either out of envy, jealousy, or fear. But we are people who communicate truth, and that's like kissing the lips, which means it must be done in intimate ways, in loving ways. If your truth feels like a slap on the face, you're not doing it right. And I'm not saying the truth doesn't sting, but I'm saying our approach must be like a kiss on the lips. So Christians here's a challenge for us. We need to be able to receive honest critique and we need to be able to give it. Meaning we need to be able to have and handle those awkward conversations that we need to hear and have at times. So, friends, have friends who will have those conversations with you. If your friends never share things that you never want to hear, I wonder how deep your conversations really are. An honest answer is like a kiss on the lips. Let me just say this real quick, and this one is especially I'd say for maybe the married people here. Everything that's said needs to be true, but not everything that's true needs to be said. Wisdom helps to determine when and what you say, especially when you say it. And so when we do speak, make sure it's true and as intimate as a kiss on the lips, meaning it's done in love, not a weak and deceptive way like you're kissing, again, the other end. Because Christians, we are to follow the example we have in Christ. So honorable people create a blessed example marked by fairness, integrity, and honesty. And honorable people also create a better society. If I can say that, I'm going to say that. Let's talk about what we mean. If you want to know if honor is a part of your society and just look at your culture? Do we show that we demonstrate honor? That we value honor? Because honestly, I don't see much of it these days. And I'm not saying there are not sparks of hope out there, we're all still made in the image of God, capable at times of doing great and godly things for one another. But do we even smile at each other anymore? Are we teaching our kids how to act in public? I mean, dads, are you teaching your sons about the respectful nod to another man? What's up? Or, that's what you say to a peer, or to another man out of respect. Because men are to respect other men. Like, are we teaching our kids, especially our sons, like when a lady enters the room, you stand up because we honor women? Do we have honor as a value in our society I think a lot of us will say, well, that feels old-fashioned. Does that make it bad? Don't we want to be a society that has more honor? Honoring others out in public is just another way that we love our neighbor and create a better society. And wise and honorable people know this. Let's look at the picture that Solomon paints for the type of man that he wants his son to be. Again, Solomon wrote and compiled the book of Proverbs. He says he wrote it to his son. Let's break this down. What are some markers of this? Honorable people create a better society marked by responsibility. Look at verse 27. It says, prepare your work outside. Get everything ready for yourself in the field and after that build your house. Okay, so what Solomon is saying here is actually quite simple. Don't overcomplicate this. Yes, he's speaking from an agricultural society, but again, don't overcomplicate this. What he's saying is to take care of first things first. He's saying to live within your means. He's saying to be a responsible person. Live according to the reality of your life. Buy what you can afford. Make sure that your home is relative to your income. Make sure that your farm is appropriate to the amount of land that you own. And listen to me. I know this goes against the American dreamer spirit. I mean, I was that 22-year-old who left everything and moved to Nashville to be a songwriter. This goes against the American dreamer spirit here, but responsible people create a better society. And I am not saying, please hear me on this, I am not saying don't be a dreamer, but I am saying don't be a fool. And sometimes our world confuses those two. I'm not saying don't be a dreamer, I'm saying don't be a fool. Because responsible people build a better society. So, get everything ready and then build your house. Which leads to the second thing. First marked by responsibility, but a better society is also marked by justice. Verse 28, be not a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips. Okay, do you see what this passage is saying here? It's saying don't be a social justice warrior that is quick to condemn everything the media tells you to condemn. It's saying be someone who stands for actual justice in your world. A justice that's not rooted in narrative or talking points, but a justice rooted in truth. Don't be deceptive with your lips. Don't push a false narrative about people or each other. It's like we said earlier, everything that we say needs to be true. It doesn't have to be accepted. But everything we say needs to be true. Because a better society has justice as a defining marker, a justice driven not by deception or bigoted narratives, but justice driven by truth. And I'll tell you what about our society. One thing I know in our world of 24-hour news, we are so quick to hear a story and then jump right to judgment, even though we weren't even there. And I'm not saying that some things aren't obvious at the front, but I am saying that I agree with the Word of God here. Don't be a. Don't be a witness against your neighbor without cause and your assumptions about what you heard are not cause. AKA, don't cast judgment. Let us be honorable people who create a society marked by wisdom, honor, responsibility, and justice, but justice, interesting, goes with this next part, marked by forgiveness. Marked by forgiveness. Look at verse 29. Solomon says to his son, do not say, I will do to him as he has done to me. I will pay the man back for what he has done. So this is interesting here. On the one hand, there's a very clear call for justice, but then right here, there's a clear call for forgiveness. But the honorable wise person can do both and is capable of both. What forgiveness does is it stops the cycle of retribution? The Bible calls us to this take the higher road knowing that ultimately God will tamp God will handle the evildoer this is connected to what Proverbs says early in verse Chapter 20 verse 22 says do not say I will repay evil wait for the Lord and he will deliver you So yes, this is a call to take the higher road, but it's a call to trust God. The evil man does not get away with it in the end. We have the righteous judge who will see to that. Trust God. But we just have to look in the mirror, the mirror of our society, and we have to ask, would we rather live in a society marked by retribution or forgiveness? Look in your own hearts. Would you rather have a life that holds on to bitterness or enjoys the freedom of forgiveness? What would you rather have? Because this final section is a look in the mirror. It's a look in the mirror of our own hearts, seeing if wisdom and honor is there. Because this last section I think shows us that honorable people create a beautiful life marked by contrast, humility, and diligence. First contrast, look at verses 30 and 31. Now I'm gonna tell you before we start reading this passage, this is a very easy one to misapply. So let's just walk through it slowly real quick. It says, I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was overgrown with thorns, and the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Now this may sound like Solomon is looking down on his neighbor, sluggard being, of course, the lazy man. But he's not looking down, he's simply pointing out the obvious to make a point that wise people are in contrast to the sluggards of the world who don't even take ownership of what they have. Honorable people create beautiful life because we take care of what God has given us. Not, oh man please hear me on this, not that we're prim and proper people who keep up with the Joneses who never have dirty windows. That's not what we're talking about here. What we're talking about is not being lazy people. We don't sit on our duffs when there's stuff to do. That's a little bit of a middle proverb there for you. But notice he's talking about a sluggard here, an intentionally lazy person. He's not talking about the single mom working two jobs who can't get around to mopping her floor. It's the sluggards he's drawing a contrast to. And yet, and yet he's humble enough to learn from them. Which is the second marker, humility. In verse 32, he's looking at this slugger, he's looking at this scene, he says, Then I saw it and I considered it, I looked and received instruction. It's not that he walks by him, scoffs at him, says, get a job, and then walks on with his own merry way. He looks, he humbles himself, he looks at the situation, and he says, Lord, what do you want to teach me? He doesn't raise his nose, he doesn't scoff, he looks at this and says, God, what can I learn? I want to be humble enough to learn. And he says, I looked and received instruction. Why? Because honorable people are wise. They create a beautiful life marked by humility, not arrogance, not pride, not entitlement, not self-righteousness, but humility. And humility is many things, but I'll tell you this, humility is the ability to learn from anyone. And that's wise. What we learn, what Solomon learns, and what we need to learn is diligence. Look at 34, 33, and 34. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber and wants like an armed man Basically what Solomon is saying is you let your guard down. You get comfortable with your comfortable life and you could lose it all in a moment In church, I'm here to say to Christians in the house. We've gotten comfortable with our comfortable lives and It's beginning to wash away. And so, the question is, are we going to respond with wisdom and honor or not? Because we are to set an example. We are to show the world that a faith-filled, wise, and honorable life is a beautiful life. It's a beautiful life marked by contrast, humility, and diligence. The question I want to come back to though is what are you living your life by? And is honor part of that? Do you live honorable lives? Because here's the hard truth, here's the reality the Bible tells us. We don't live by honor, we live in a life marked by sin. Following our own desires, not learning from others, but scoffing at them, and doing everything the Bible tells us not to do. We don't have a society that talks about honor. Do you know why? Because we don't want to talk about the opposite of honor, which is dishonor, disgrace, and shame. And yet this is exactly why Jesus Christ came to the world. To take our dishonor and our disgrace. Or to sum it up, he took our sin upon himself, on his own shoulders, as he the shame of the cross. Did you know? Did you know that when they crucified someone, they crucified them naked? Jesus, despite what all the sculptures show, Jesus Christ was crucified naked, and hung up there for all the world to see. See, when we talk about Jesus taking on humility. Like we're not just saying that he was a baby born in a barn. We're saying that this perfectly righteous person was crucified naked, taking your sin and your shame. It should have been you hanging up there naked on the cross for all the world to see. But Jesus took our sin and our shame and paid the price for it so that we wouldn't have to. So that our lives now don't have to be marked by disgrace and dishonor and shame and sin, but it can be marked by righteousness and honor because we are to reflect Christ in the world who took our shame and by doing that was victorious in his mission who is now crowned with glory and honor and that's what he gives to us when we place our faith in him. When we place our faith in Jesus we get his righteousness and now we are to reflect him in the world. So whatever shame you think you have in your life, hear me, Christ paid for that on the cross. So bear your sin and your shame no more. Lay it at the foot of the cross and embrace what Christ has done for you. He did it in love, in faith, in obedience, and in honor. And so, church, as we close up this series and we go forth from here, we need to live differently than the world. And part of that is by having honor. Amen. Would you please stand? Would you bow your heads and pray with me? Father, we come before you here and now. Lord, we come before you. We're thankful, Lord, that Jesus is now crowned with glory and honor because he did for us what we could not do for ourselves. He died the death that we should have died. He paid the penalty that we should have paid. And Father, we agree with Scripture. Help us to live into the passage that says that we are now to look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. Rising victorious is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So, Father, I would pray here now, that we would be people who do cast off our sin and shame before the cross, embracing the righteousness of Jesus, looking to Him for our model of honor, and reflecting Him in this world. So Father, as we sing these words, be Thou my vision. Father, I pray that we do not look to the world, we don't look to the American dream, we look to the Savior for how to reflect honor in this world. Be with us now as we lift up these praises to our precious Savior. It's in His name we pray. It's in His name we pray. Amen and amen.