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Nurturing Faith Christian Life Stephanie Delger Podcast Host Mom Guilt Podcast Published On: August 15, 2024 My two daughters stood beside me, their young voices blending with the congregation's. As we reached the chorus of "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus," I felt a lump form in my throat. They are young and haven’t yet faced the challenges that accompany a life of following Jesus. But here they were, singing these precious words: "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back... Though none go with me, still I will follow... My cross I’ll carry till I see Jesus.” [1] For years, my husband and I have fervently prayed for our children. We ask for wisdom as we teach them the ways of the Lord. We ask God to continually draw them into a closer relationship with Him. The words they sang are the cry of my heart, and I fiercely pray that my children will truly make them their own. However, if my daughters take these words as their own, it in no way reflects my parenting. It reflects God’s goodness. As Christian parents, we have the privilege of raising our children in the ways of the Lord. The Biblical Mandate for Discipleship Christian parents are instructed by God to teach their children about Him. Right away in Genesis, we see the first parents, Adam and Eve, receive the command to be “fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). When God asks them to multiply, He is commanding both physical and spiritual multiplication. Adam and Eve weren’t simply to have children to populate the earth. They were to raise those children to know and love the Lord. They were tasked with creating disciples, followers of God. Later, we see God instruct His people in Deuteronomy 6:7: “You shall teach them (God’s commands) diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” God desires Christian parents to talk to their kids and show them, both in speech and by how they live, what it means to follow the Lord. When tasked with such an important command, I wish God would elaborate and give us a list of exactly how we should disciple our children. But like many things in life, it’s not that simple. We can’t just follow a checklist and be guaranteed that after everything is checked off, we will have a perfect little Christ follower. When it comes to discipling our children, God is just as concerned with our hearts as He is with our actions. Prayer as a Foundation for Discipleship Raising our children to know and love the Lord must start with prayer. This is such a seemingly simple step that we don’t always stop and marvel at what a gift this is. The Creator and Lord of the universe has allowed a way that we can communicate with Him. He speaks to us through His Word, and we are able to speak back through prayer. Prayer not only allows us to communicate with God, but it forces us to admit our inability to control our lives. Prayer forces us into a humble disposition before the Lord. By praying, we admit that we cannot raise our children by ourselves and need God’s help. Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” In other words, we can do all the right things—read the Bible with our kids, pray with them, memorize Bible verses, and study catechisms with them—but unless the Lord softens their hearts, nothing will happen. God is the builder of the city; God is the one who saves our children, not us. As parents, it is first and foremost prayer and our dependence on God that will help our children come to know and love the Lord. Personal Faith as a Foundation for Discipleship We cannot give what we do not have. If we don’t know and love the Lord ourselves, it will be nearly impossible for us to model and guide our children into a relationship with God. Imagine how difficult it would be to explain what a tree looks like to our children if we have never seen one ourselves. How much more difficult would it be to talk to our children about God being their creator and loving savior if we ourselves don’t know God to be those things? God has beautifully designed us to marvel at amazing things. When I get a good deal on something I found at a store, the first thing I do is text either my husband or a friend and tell them what an amazing deal I just found. How much more should I be eager to share with my children all the amazing things I have seen God do in my life and what I read about in the Bible? Sharing our love of God with our children is a natural overflow of our own personal love for Him. God has designed us to love that which is beautiful. This is why we love seeing shooting stars, colorful sunsets, and majestic deer. We can’t help but take pictures or call for someone else to enjoy them with us. Sharing our faith with our kids doesn’t always have to look like a 10-15 minute family devotional time. Those times are important, but discipling our kids also looks like taking a nature walk and marveling at how wonderful our creator is by admiring Him through His creation. Grace as a Foundation for Discipleship We will fail. We will mess up. But we are still asked to continue discipling our children. There will be times when our children ask questions that we don’t know the answer to. In these moments, we can pause and tell our children, “That’s a really great question. I actually don’t know the answer to that. But let me find out.” If they are old enough, we can sit down with a Study Bible or reliable commentary and read it together to find the answer. Many times, this has made a greater impact on my children than when I know the answer to their questions. The Lord is gracious in allowing us to be a formative part of our children’s relationship with God. This is a privilege and a gift, but we must remember that it isn’t our work which saves our children. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” We are asked to plant the seeds and water them. But we must pray, knowing that it is God alone who gives the growth. This may seem scary, but it is actually gracious of the Lord. We were never designed to bear the burden of someone’s salvation, including our child’s. Discipling our children is a journey of faith and trust in God’s grace. As parents, we are called to plant the seeds of faith in our children's hearts, nurture them through prayer and personal example, and trust in God to bring about growth. Start small and start today. Whether through a simple prayer, a shared Bible verse, or a meaningful conversation, every step you take is a step toward fostering a lifelong relationship with God. If you are looking for more resources on discipling our children, please listen to the Mom Guilt Podcast episode “Mom Guilt: Discipling Our Kids” here . 1. https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/I_Have_Decided_to_Follow_Jesus/ 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

3 Things Every Lead Pastor Wants from His Executive Pastor Ministry Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 21, 2023 I have served in the roles of Youth Pastor, Associate Pastor, Executive Pastor, and now Lead Pastor. As I’ve spent time feeling the unique joys and flat sides of each position, I’ve gotten to see how a strong pastoral team works together, and specifically how each position contributes to the needs of the church. Now, being the Lead Pastor, I’ve come to realize that there are three key things I’d want from the pastors who work alongside me, and I have no shame in saying “especially” the Executive Pastor (or whatever your church calls the second chair). And let me just say, these things I will outline come after core, biblical things such as faithfulness, integrity, and professionalism. With those things firmly established, when the rubber meets the road, it’s these three things I’m looking for… 1. SUPPORT This comes in a number of ways – not just support in the sense of supporting or defending decisions made by leadership, but support in providing wisdom, counsel, and insight. Also, support in the sense that I’ve got guys around me who will have my back when push comes to shove. Working in that sort of environment is what every working person should have from the people they work with. Knowing that not only will a person not gossip behind your back, but they’ll actually put a stop to it is the type of team that does great things! As I mentioned, having spent time as a Youth Pastor, Associate Pastor, Executive Pastor, and now Lead Pastor, one thing I’ve seen is that every position has a unique insight into the church that the other positions do not, and I would say the Lead Pastor must always realize “he does not know it all.” He does not know it all in terms of what’s happening in the world, or in the lives of every single person, or within the finer aspects of the various ministries of the church and this is why he needs the support of those around him to lead in the ways God has called him to. So, yes, I need support in defending decisions that are made, support in helping to inform the decision-making process, as well as support in enacting the vision laid out. As I’m sure you’ll see, this theme of support is woven through the next two… 2. FOLLOW THROUGH I can’t stress this one enough. The less I have to worry about direction and assignments getting finished in a timely manner, the better our team will function. But let’s add a little caveat here; “timely manner” is a highly subjective term. So, a timely manner is defined by the Lead Pastor. It’s the Lead Pastor’s job to clearly define what that means for the team that he leads. No one wants to be micromanaged, and one way to stave this off is to prove, over time, that you can get the job done in the time allotted, if not sooner. So, let’s go one step further – don’t wait for your boss to check in to see if the task is complete, but rather – try to get the assignment done before your Lead Pastor even has to ask. When I hand out a direction, task, or assignment, and it’s completed before I expect it to be, that shows to me I have a team that understands the priorities and honors leadership. If I am surprised at how quickly something was taken care of, or completed, let’s just say that I take note of that! Having a proven ethic of follow-through will only build trust, but it curb the negative contributors to toxic culture such as laziness, carelessness, and apathy. 3. PRAYER Do not think this third point is trite, or simply the “Sunday School answer.” Stated clearly: I do not want to work with people who fail to understand that they need to pray for me. I want my fellow pastors to pray for me because they want to, and they know they need to. When you are truly and consistently praying for someone, your heart becomes invested in them. I want to work with a pastor (or team of pastors) where our hearts are aligned and connected and a key way this happens is when we pray for each other – not just at the beginning or end of a meeting, but in our times of solitude when it’s not demanded or expected out of decorum. What’s Missing? You may be thinking, “Wait, what about things like honor, respect, and trust?” Well, here’s the deal on those: Honor, respect, and trust are earned. If I lead respectfully and honorably in a trustworthy manner, but honor, respect, and trust are not given, then this is clearly a mismatched team, and it’s time to part ways. Yes, I would hope that every church honors and respects the position of Lead Pastor, but it’s demanded upon the man in that position to also earn and maintain the honor respect, and trust that position deserves. Pastors, you do this by upkeeping the biblical standard, keeping Christ first, and loving those God has called you to lead, but as I consider what I need from my Executive Pastor, or pastoral team, support, follow-through, and prayer are easily the three things I need from my team as I earn their honor, respect, and trust. 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

Staff Review Document HR Empower your church staff with our comprehensive Ministry Evaluation Worksheet. Designed to foster self-reflection, open communication, and shared vision, this worksheet is a valuable tool for both staff members and supervisors. By using this document, you can: Reflect on personal and ministry growth over the past year. Identify key priorities and responsibilities. Assess strengths and areas for improvement. Set SMART goals for future development. Facilitate constructive discussions between staff and supervisors. Ideal for annual reviews and ongoing development, this worksheet helps church staff recognize their achievements, plan for future growth, and align with the church's mission. Download now to enhance your staff review process and support your ministry's growth. Download File

PODCAST That's a Good Question "Hell" No, It's Hades: Unveiling the Truths Behind the Virgin Birth and Jesus' Descent December 19, 2023 Jon Delger & Ryan DB Kimmel Listen to this Episode Jon Hey, everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church. This is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. I'm Jon. I serve as a pastor here at Peace, and I also get to serve as the weekly host of this show. You can always submit questions at peacechurch.cc/questions . And today I am here with… Ryan Hey, I'm Pastor Ryan, and I'm the lead pastor at Peace Church. Jon And today we get to talk some Christmas stuff, Pastor Ryan. Ryan Sweet. We do? Jon I mean, kind of. It's related to Christmas. Well, it's Christmas. It's Christmas week. Merry Christmas, everybody. In light of Christmas, we're going to talk about two topics related to Jesus, his birth and his death, and the Apostles Creed. So that's what we're talking about today. We had a couple of questions come in just about the Apostles Creed. So we're going to talk about does the virgin birth matter, which is a very Christmas topic. Then we're going to talk about did Jesus go to hell after he died? Which is a great question, and one I've heard many times, so excited to talk about that. So let's talk first about what is the Apostles' Creed and why do we say it? And we've got here with us today, producer Mitchell, who is also pastoral candidate Mitchell. So Mitch, now that you're in the pastoral candidacy program, you get to answer all the questions. Ryan Yes, and we get to ask the questions. Mitchell Starting with this one. Jon That's right. Awesome. Ryan What is the actual question? Like, what is the Apostles' Creed? Jon Yeah, yeah, yeah.Tell us about the Apostles' Creed. Ryan That's an easy one. Jon Okay, sorry, a harder one. Ryan We'll save it. Question #1: What is the Apostle's Creed? Are there any Christian traditions that don't use it? Jon All right. Sounds good. The Apostles' Creed is just a nice, brief summation of the Christian faith that we've used for centuries. Now, Mitch, there's the big, broad overview question. Now, what's the particulars? When was it written? Who wrote it? What language was it written in? What are the great controversies around it? Is there any Christian traditions that don't use it? How many letters? Mitchell There aren't any Christian traditions that don't use it. Any Christian traditions that fail to even just affirm that, we would call not Christian or heretical. They would be outside of the church. But very, very early in the church, not actually written by the apostles, but very, very early on in the church, just to distinguish what is the basis of Christianity. Jon Sweet. Great summary. I like it. So we say it at Peace Church, before we do the sacraments, we think it's a great just a statement to say that quickly summarizes some of the core parts of the Christian faith, the Trinity, the Atonement, that kind of stuff. And so we say that. It's a great way, I think, to have in our minds and hearts the very core basics of Christian faith. Ryan Yeah, and even in the Apostles' Creed, I love how there's some things are more fleshed out than others. There's a lot of lines given to Jesus, even mentions Pontius Pilate. But yet, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, it just says, and we believe in the Holy Spirit. Yeah. It doesn't really flesh out the theology, what we'd say is pneumatology, but yet still kind of hits the fact that we believe in the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit. So I love the Apostles Creed because it's something we all agree on, at least all those who are truly in the faith, but on the flip, I also love how it's brief, deep where it needs to be, but that doesn't elaborate where there can be differences. Jon Yeah. I also think of, sometimes I think of it when we're saying it before communion, I think of this is something that's been said for hundreds of years, and it's just kind of cool. Christians have been... Ryan So I grew up in a church that we said it every single Sunday as part of the close. We'd stand up and we'd say that as, I think, if I remember right, it was the very last thing we said every single Sunday. We would say the Apostles' Creed. Do you grow up with that? Do you grow up at all with anything like that? Jon No, I mean I grew up in more Reformed tradition, so it was more just, it was kind of like what we do now, surrounding the sacraments. I grew up more mainline, but it was one of the things that we said. Jon Alright, so let's talk about two of the topics in the Apostles Creed. Alright, so first question, does the virgin birth matter? Ryan It is critically essential to the Christian faith, to scriptural authority, to the essence and nature and validity of our salvation and testimony of Jesus. So, I think one of the questions that's come up in recent years is what if we found out that Jesus had a dad? It's often one of the questions that come up. Is that right? Jon Yeah, Rob Bell wrote in, I believe it was in Velvet Elvis, he asked that question, what if we found out one day that Jesus actually had a dad named Larry? Ryan Then we can forget the authority of scripture because the Bible says that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And so, you know, if that came about, number one, it's such a weird question to even ask because how would you find that out just through archaeology? But whatever. So going back, it would dismantle everything. I would lose all hope. I would stop being a pastor. The virgin birth is 100% essential to the nature of the Christian faith and everything that springs from it, both from biblical authority to the doctrine of Jesus. And so, you remove the virgin birth, then you remove the fact that Jesus was the God man. You remove the virgin birth, and now Jesus was born into sin like everyone else. And you remove the virgin birth and the nature of our salvation falls apart because Jesus is able to pay for our sins because he is fully God and he is fully man. And the reason we can say that is because he was born of the virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jon Yeah, amen. Should we put pastoral candidate Mitch on the spot here? Mitchell Sure. I was just going to ask, you know, for a while I always wondered why that was a tier one thing, like why we cannot deny that. But learning more about it, we learned that because he was born of a human, he was born by Mary, we know that he is fully man, right? Man has to atone for what man made wrong. And because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, we know that he's fully God. And God is the only one who can forgive sin. And so that's the beauty of that doctrine of the virgin birth. Like I said, it's a tier one level doctrine of our faith. Yeah, it's usually been used in the last hundred years. It was used just to define kind of what mainstream or what liberal theology was. Denying the virgin birth is kind of classic liberalism in theology world. Jon It's one of the ways that you go down that path, denying the virgin birth along with other supernatural miraculous elements. Ryan Yeah, because if Jesus was born of a man and a woman, then he's not God incarnate. He's just another person. Maybe he still went on to be the most influential person of all time, but he's still just a person. And he's not able to pay for sin. Because as Mitchell was just saying, because Jesus is the God-man, fully God, fully human, that makes him able to pay for the sins of people, of all people who would come to faith to him, because he has to be a human to pay for human sin, but no one human could pay for all human sin, only God can do that. So the fact that Jesus is both God and man, as Mitchell was just alluding to, makes him both able to pay for human sin and all of human sin for those who place their faith in him. Yeah. And that is a direct result because Jesus was born of the Virgin, because he is God incarnate, because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Yeah, of infinite value, without sin. Yes. Yep. Yep. And because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that means he was not born into sin like the rest of humanity was. Jon Alright, so let's go on to the second one. I think this one is a little bit more tricky. This one I hear more frequently from people. So the second question is why... Actually, here, let me read exactly how somebody wrote it. They said, If we remove descended to hell from the Apostles' Creed, are we saying that Jesus didn't go to hell after his death? And if he didn't go to hell, how can we say that he took our punishment? Question #2: If we remove descended to hell from the Apostles' Creed, are we saying that Jesus didn't go to hell after his death? And if he didn't go to hell, how can we say that he took our punishment? So I think the person's kind of clinging on. Some churches, including Peace, we say he descended to the dead. So why do we say descended to the dead instead of descended to hell, and how does that affect Jesus takes away our sin? Ryan Yeah, so there's a lot going on with that question, and we're going to hold Mitchell's feet to the fire here on this one here. But I'll just say I grew up with the tradition that said that he descended to hell. And so when I jumped the mainline waters and swam to the lifeboat of Reformed theology, I found out that in our circles now we say he descended to the dead. Which you can clarify this for me, but I believe it goes back to the nature that the Apostles Creed was written in Latin, I think that's correct, and the word there that at once was and often times translated as hell, which we would say death now or dead is the word Hades. And then I think the notion there is that Jesus fully died. He went to the realm of the dead. Whatever that is, that's where Jesus went. And the notion there being like, there's Jesus fully died on the cross. He didn't pass out and wake up in the tomb. That he fully, fully died. And that's what the Apostles Creed is trying to underscore that when Jesus died on the cross he died in our place for our sins and so I think I think number one just to be completely honest with some of the some of the conversations I've had with the Saints, you know other Christians, especially those who are maybe a little more seasoned in life is Moving the language from hell to dead feels like a softening of theology to them. And that's not a trajectory that they want to see. And I respect that and I can appreciate that, that they don't want to see the next generation of church slip into softer theology, liberalism. And so they see changes like that and they think that's an indication of that. Where I think we would say, no, we're actually trying to be more faithful to the teachings of old. And that's actually what it was originally trying to say. Right. Jon Well, and actually going back, our oldest copies, our oldest copies of the Apostles' Creed don't have that line at all. They don't have either. Ryan Oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Mitchell So there's actually six views of this doctrine, the idea that Jesus descended into hell, and only two of them are right. The first one is more of a Catholic teaching. It's that Jesus, when he descended into hell, he was preaching to those in purgatory and that comes from first Peter three. Yep. It's actually in the Catholic confession that this is what this means. So this is something that they ask that he went to hell. He went to purgatory. Yes. Yeah. Yep. So that's that's what they would say. The second is the the idea that he was preaching to the dead. He went to purgatory to preach to the dead of all of those who were before him in the Old Testament that had faith in Yahweh. Ryan But then he had the gospel. Mitchell Yes, and so this is him going back into this weird in-between state and preaching to them. The third is really made popular by Word of Faith preachers like Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, Fred Price, that the idea that Jesus suffered in hell for our sins, that that's where he atoned for our sins. And there's nothing in the Bible that says that. Actually, I would make an argument against that because Jesus said it is finished. Ryan Yeah. And he said, today I will see you in paradise. And that's just it. I mean, I think this goes back to the question of not just theologically what was happening, but actually what was happening between Jesus' death and his resurrection, those three days, what was going on, where was Christ? And sorry, we kind of interrupted. We'll come back to that. Mitchell Yeah, and just anywhere in the Bible, it never talks about Jesus' atonement happening after he died. It's only on the cross and through his body. Jon Right, so I was pointing back to the cross. Atonement happened on the cross. On the cross. Ryan On the cross is when Christ suffered the full wrath of God. Yeah, absolutely. Mitchell The fourth is that he conquered Satan after dying on the cross. This was made popular by Luther, and it's just something that we would say is unbiblical because the Bible never makes a claim that Jesus fought Satan. But everything was conquered by Jesus on the cross. Again, it just points back to that. and reformed people would fall under. These are that Jesus' suffering was a spiritual anguish on the cross. This was actually made popular in the Middle Ages. John Calvin has a really great quote about this. The sixth one is dying and dwelling in the state of death. The Westminster talks about Jesus' humiliation and that Him going under death for a certain time was part of that. And so those are the two that we would say that we could kind of mesh those two together and say, okay, that's probably a more accurate view of what the Apostles Creed is talking about. Also, the Apostles Creed uses some figurative language when it says that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father. They're not literally talking that there's a seat next to God the Father on the right with Jesus sitting there. So it's okay for us to see this. Ryan It's a symbolic gesture of his authority. Mitchell Yeah. And the same way we could talk about Jesus descending into hell. Ryan Yeah, I just think that while our tradition largely uses the word hell, I think to say he descended to the dead fits more theologically and scripturally. Because as you just mentioned, when Jesus was on the cross, he said to the thief on the right, today I will see you in paradise. And so the notion that when Christ died, he immediately went to the side of the father. So that removes the notion that he went to hell without removing the notion that he fully died. When Christ gave up his life on the cross, he went to the dead, meaning he fully died. And so that's where I completely resonate with the older saints who don't want to see us soften our theology and slide into liberalism. But I don't think moving from the word hell to the word dead is an indication of that. In fact, I think it's actually a stronger demonstration of us willing to maintain scriptural authority and write theology when we talk about our faith. Jon Right. So what we're trying to say is that Jesus not only suffered physically on the cross, he suffered spiritually. That he took... Ryan Many people died on the cross, right? I mean, like, dying on the... dying a death by crucifixion isn't enough to atone for your sins. That was part of it, the fleshly suffering of Christ, but there was a spiritual weight that is unimaginable that Christ assumed on the cross when God turned his face away. And I think it was R.C. Sproul, maybe we should double check this, but I think it was R.C. Sproul who said the notion that when the scripture said that Jesus gave a loud cry and then gave up his spirit, that that loud cry was the screams of hell through all eternity consolidated into one scream. And so the notion that Christ suffered fully the full wrath of God on the cross, which is why he was able to say, it is finished. All the work that had needed to be done to atone for our sins was completed by Christ on the cross. And that is our great hope. Jon All the anger, the wrath, the punishment that God has for sin went on Jesus on the cross. And I always, Scripture doesn't explicitly say this, but I always think of that being during the period of darkness, when everything gets dark in the middle of the day and Jesus is on the cross. It's like all the light goes out and God just pours out His wrath. Ryan So one of the, I think, hanging questions then is, what is Peter referring to then? Jon Oh man, 1 Peter 3 is an interesting passage. It's a tricky one. I've held out, personally, thinking about your six views, Mitch, I don't like the— obviously, we don't agree with the Catholic purgatory aspect of that one. Although I hold out that there's a possibility that maybe one way to take it would be that Jesus, you know, did descend and declare his victory. That's, you know, he declared his victory to some beings who were dead. I think that's possibly, you know, the case. We've got, you know, after the resurrection, though, when we have people coming alive and running around Jerusalem. So the timeline doesn't quite match up there. But I think that's a possible meaning of what 1 Peter 3 is talking about. Mitchell It's one of the things, too, that this is a creed. It's not Scripture. So for us as a church to decide that we're going to change words in there is okay. Like, these creeds aren't inherent. Ryan So yeah, the question of what was Jesus doing between his death and resurrection, that's an important question, one that we can search the scriptures for. But we're not going to look for our answer to that in the Apostles Creed. We're going to look in scripture for that. Yeah. Which is a separate issue. I know we want to wed the two, but it's actually it's a separate conversation. Yeah. I fully believe in Christ down on the cross. He ascended into glory after atoning for the sins of the world. And when Jesus said, today I'll be with you in paradise, that's that's where he went until his resurrection. Then he came back, triumphing over Satan's sin and death. Jon Which is what we will do also. I've actually had people ask me too, you know, where do saints go when they die? Is there a holding place in between? Ryan Oh, that's another huge question. Yeah, yeah. Jon No, there's no holding place in between. We go to paradise, just like Jesus said. Yeah, yep. I've gotten, it's interesting about that, I've gotten a number of people from our church as of late, because you know, we're growing and we're getting people from different backgrounds and different traditions and they're wanting to know what is our theology of post-death, pre-return of Christ. And what does that mean? Ryan And so that's something I think we'll have fun getting to at some point. Mitchell I think this can be maybe a bit of a downer talking about death and wrath, but I think that there's a really cool connection to the gospel here. As pastors, I'll back out of this as the pastoral candidate, I'll leave this up to you, but can you connect the gospel and bring this home for us? Jon Well, this is the very heart of the gospel, that Jesus took the death that we deserved. So because of sin, we deserve the wage of death, Romans 6 tells us. And Jesus took that wage on the cross, he bore not just physical pain, but spiritual pain, the wrath of God for our sin. He bore that on the cross and because he did that, we don't have to. We get to receive life. Amen. And for those who place their faith in that truth, we approach death differently and we respond to death differently. We don't grieve as those without hope, but we do so with immense amount of hope. And that's something the gospel offers that you can find nowhere else. That's right. So as you celebrate Christmas this year, celebrate the truth that Jesus was born of a virgin, that he came, he was the God man. And it's so critical that he was because that enabled him to die on the cross, not just for himself, but for our sin. He was able to be the infinitely valuable God and the perfectly sinless man on the cross dying to take away our sins. Praise God for that. Have an awesome Christmas this year. Ryan Yeah, Merry Christmas. Jon You can always ask more questions at peacechurch.cc/questions. Merry Christmas. Ryan Merry Christmas.

Three Practical Ways to Overcome Comparison Christian Life Shannon Popkin Author & Podcast Host Live Like It's True Podcast Published On: Once after my friend, Angela, visited, my husband asked why I was so grumpy. “You usually love having Angela come,” he said. But I replied, “Yeah . . . I don’t think I like Angela anymore.” My husband was puzzled. “Shannon . . . ” he said. “You love Angela! What’s going on?” It took me a bit to process, but eventually I realized that it wasn’t Angela that I didn’t like. It was being shown up as a mom. The whole weekend, Angela’s girls had sweetly played out in the sunshine, enjoying the pool and crafts and playing pretend. My boys had spent the entire weekend trying to shove each other into the pool and jockeying for attention. They had argued constantly, interrupting each other and trying to outdo each other’s stories—to the wide-eyed surprise of their young female audience. It was a painful weekend for me. I felt like such a “less than” mom—and that’s a really awful feeling. So what did I want to do? I wanted to pull away and sulk for a while. I wanted to make mental lists of why girls are easier to raise than boys. And I wanted to get out my magnifier and find some flaws in Angela’s kids so I could tell myself, “We’re not the only ones who aren’t perfect.” In a moment I’ll circle back and tell you why all of these are really bad ideas, but first, I’m wondering. As a mom, a wife, a housekeeper, a neighbor, an employee, a ministry worker, a friend . . . do you ever feel “less than”? The Wisdom That James Taught If you’re here on Resound Media, you’re probably someone who wants wisdom. You want to make godly choices and avoid temptations and traps. So with wisdom as our goal, I’d like to point you to some verses in the book of James which have helped me with my comparison struggles. James is a letter written by James, the pastor of the Jerusalem church and Jesus’ brother. It was one of the first books in the New Testament to be written; probably within a decade of Jesus’s death and resurrection. When he asks, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” ( James 3:13 ), James knows that the logical answer a decade or so ago would have been the Pharisees and religious leaders. But their “wisdom” led them to murder Jesus—our highly exalted King! James calls for a new kind of wisdom which is stripped of the world’s measure-up way of thinking. Listen as he connects measure-up comparison (in bold) with the wisdom of our enemy (underlined): If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth . This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly , unspiritual , demonic . For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice . ( James 3:14–16 , emphasis mine) Do you see the connection? Our enemy loves these two things, which happen when we measure ourselves against ourselves: Jealousy is when we measure ourselves against someone else and come up lacking (like I did with Angela). Selfish ambition is when we want to be the ones measuring up, and we drive ourselves to outdo others. Both require measure-up comparison, which—as James points out—is rooted in the wisdom from below. Wisdom, whether from above or below, is always saying, “You should do this . . . ” It takes our hand and leads us in a certain direction. Where does our enemy want to lead us? Straight into bondage, and he often uses measure-up comparison to do it. Using my situation with Angela, let’s consider three measure-up messages from below alongside the wisdom from above, which leads us a different way. Three Measure-Up Messages to Reject: 1. You should pull away. The enemy always wants me to pull away from other Christians. Sometimes he tempts me to pull away out of inferiority. Other times he tempts me to pull away in pride and think that someone is “beneath” me. But Jesus desires that we as the Church draw together in unity, always building one another up ( Eph. 4:12 ). Angela is a dear friend, and I’m a better mom because of her influence. She consistently reminds me of what is true and gives me crisp examples of how it looks to live by the wisdom from above. Pulling away from her puts me at a deficit. I need faith-building friends like Angela, and she needs me. We are better together and weaker apart. 2. Her strengths aren’t so great. Any desire to minimize my friend’s successes or strengths is drenched in envy and bitterness—which is exactly what the enemy wants my heart to be filled with. When I’m envious, I might be glancing over at someone else, but my eyes are on myself. When I’m bitter, I tend to see everything with a tainted me-focused perspective. I can’t rejoice in a good thing unless it’s my good thing. In contrast, look at the me-free theme which flows through James’s description of heaven’s wisdom: “The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” ( James 3:17 ). See how selfishness is the opposite of every one of those descriptors? Heaven’s me-free way of living allows me to appreciate my friend Angela and celebrate her amazing parenting skills. Rather than feeling threatened by her, I’m able to learn from her and grow into a better parent myself. 3. My weaknesses aren’t so bad. Notice this part of James’s warning: “If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth” ( James 3:14 ). The natural wisdom-from-below response when I’m feeling “less than” is to puff up and make myself seem “greater than.” I’m tempted to boast about my successes or sweep my failures under the rug. This is what the Pharisees did. They were constantly bragging and making themselves look big in the eyes of other people. Wisdom from above leads me in a completely different direction. God is pleased when I make myself small in repentance and humility. Honestly, Angela’s visit exposed some parenting holes. There were things I needed to work on with my boys, but recognizing this required humility. I needed to first make myself small and say, “Okay, Lord. What are you showing me? How can I grow?” Here’s the thing about humility: God favors it. James says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” ( James 4:6 ). Friend, who have you been measuring yourself against? Which of these measure-up messages have you been entertaining? Hold onto these me-free truths today: ● I need faith-building friends. We are better together. ● A me-free perspective allows me to celebrate others’ strengths, without being threatened. ● When someone’s strength exposes my weakness, it’s an opportunity to humble myself and grow. For more on this topic, check out Shannon’s book, Comparison Girl: Lessons from Jesus on Me-Free Living in a Measure-Up World . 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

See The Light Sermon Series: Light Up the Darkness Nate Harney Executive Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: John 12:12-26 Transcript Good morning church. My name is Nate. I'm the family pastor here Thanks for joining us here in the worship center and in the chapel and the family venue downstairs and online Just want to say welcome. We're so glad you're here. I look forward to studying God's Word with you. Young people these days don't know what is like Well growing up in the church. I remember preachers telling these Young people these days don't know what is like stories. You know, I'm talking about. I remember some of them. One of them that sticks out in my mind was when a preacher said, young people don't know what it's like to have to navigate on a road trip with just your spouse and a foldable map. And I don't know what that's like. And I don't think I want to know. I don't know. Maybe I'm just so used to the GPS stuff, but I don't think that would be good for my marriage. How about this one? I've heard this young people today. They don't know what it's like to not have a remote for your TV So to have your parents treat you as the remote Some of you know what I'm talking about Apparently you'd get sent to go change the channel yourself and adjust this thing called something called an antenna something like that No I know what that is but I didn't have that when I was growing up or this one really stuck out to me because I've heard it said young men, young husbands, young dads don't know what it's like, what it was like to have a baby and to not be a part of the process. You're not in the labor and delivery room, you're certainly part of the process, but you know the end process. Gotta be careful with my words here. The end process. I was told, so correct me if I'm wrong, but you'd wait out in a waiting room, any of you who had kids a long time ago and then you'd meet your kids through a glass window? Is this right? Is this ringing a bell for any of you? I thought that was just in the TV and movies. You know, I asked my grandpa about it. I said, is this really what it was? He said, yeah, that's how it was for me. And I felt so bad for him because that's such a meaningful and beautiful experience walking with your wife through that. And I was explaining that to him and he seemed like he didn't really miss out on too much. He seemed okay that he didn't have to be present for that. He didn't mind the whole glass window thing. Well, I want to fully embrace the circle of life today and I want to share with you my first ever young people don't know what it's like. Are you ready? Okay, here we go. So young people today, they don't know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night, a completely dark room and a dark house and have to navigate something, go to the bathroom go somewhere and not be able to just do this and lead and guide your way some of you know what I'm talking about unless you were really ahead of the curb and you got a flash right right there with you you probably know the dance of darkness that we've all done at some point where you're you know making your way and you know how to get to your bathroom but you're still worried you've hit your shin before and it's not going to happen again so you're doing the whole thing you finally find your way to where you're going. New Sermon Series Well this sermon series that we're launching into this morning, we are looking at the gospel of John and this picture that John and Jesus give us again and again and again, especially near the end of his life, that Jesus is the light of the world. And we don't shy away from here at Peace Church because the scripture doesn't shy away from the reality that we live in a dark world. Sometimes it feels like this is what life is like for us. We're just trying to make it one more step, one more day. We're trying to navigate our way through all this darkness we experience out in the world. And there might be some of you here today who you might not be a follower of Jesus and you might say, I don't know about this whole Jesus as a light stuff, but yeah, I mean, I can relate. Sometimes it feels like, man, it's just hard every day. Or for those of us who do follow Jesus, you might be saying, hey, I know Jesus lights up the darkness, but there's times in this dark, dark world where it just feels like I don't know exactly where I'm going, I don't know how to do this. You might think, how do I stand for the truth of God that I see and believe in in the scriptures when the world out there doesn't even believe truth exists? Or how do I show the love of God, the lavish love poured out that we learn about in the scriptures when so many people today they hear what is biblical love and culturally they've been trained to think of it as hateful bigotry. How do we navigate that? Or you might even be in a season of life like my wife and I are in where we're not just navigating life, but we got kids, we're trying to bring up the next generation and we go, man, it's dark out there. What are we gonna do? Well, in this sermon series, and especially this Holy Week, we are gonna be reminded by looking at God's word that Jesus lights up the darkness. And we are going to grapple, we're gonna wrestle with the harsh reality that it is getting pretty dark out there. But we are going to remember and be encouraged and refreshed by the truth that Jesus shows up in our lives just like he showed up in Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday to light up our world. Today, what we're gonna especially be looking at on this special day, this Palm Sunday, we're going to remember that when Jesus showed up as a light in Jerusalem, he was showing up as King Jesus who came to defeat the darkness. So if you would, we're going to be in the Gospel of John, chapter 12, to start out today. If you could pull that up. Love, if you could follow it in your Bibles or if you have an app there, you can look it up. And where we're jumping into the life of Jesus, where you're turning right now, Jesus has just raised Lazarus from the dead, so a buzz has started. There's a crowd that's starting to gather and follow him. And it only grows from there because Jesus sets his sight on Jerusalem and on the cross. That's where we're picking up. John 12:12-26 So would you read along with me this morning? 12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” 16 His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. 17 The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. 18 The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.” Some Greeks Seek Jesus 20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Prayer Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning that you are the light of the world and that you showed up in Jerusalem as not just the king over all, but the king over our lives. Pray this morning you to illuminate your word to us so you can touch our hearts and transform us from the inside out. We love you, Jesus. We pray all this in your holy name, amen. So our main point for this morning, for this Palm Sunday, is Jesus wants us to see that he is King over all, is King over our lives. So we walk through this first portion of the scriptures, we're going to see the light just start to go on for these different groups of people, these crowds, the disciples, even the religious leaders of the day. And then we're going to look at what Jesus teaches after the triumphal entry and bring it home to look and evaluate our own lives and see if we're following Jesus the way he demands to be followed. So back to the text. If you're looking at verses 12 and 13, that's what we covered with the kids here. Well, remember the crowds are starting to gather and the lights just starting to go on because they're shouting out that Jesus is the King of Israel. Look at verse 12 again. "'The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast "'heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. "'So they took branches of palm trees "'and went out to meet Him, crying out, "'Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord even the king of Israel Now while the crowds were shouting that he was the king of Israel We know that many in these crowds didn't really understand fully what kind of King Jesus was going to be and what he was going to be doing on that trip to Jerusalem a lot of them would have envisioned a political or military leader to liberate them and Jesus liberated them but of something far greater than Roman rule and the different daily things that they battled. Jesus came to give his life on the cross for their sins and we know they didn't fully understand because just days later many of these same people, these same crowds, would change their cries from Hosanna to calls crucify him. The crowds didn't fully understand who Jesus was. But we look and see that the disciples didn't fully get it either. Look at verses 14 and 16. They're also not really understanding what kind of King Jesus is showing up to be. Verse 14 says, and Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it just as it is written, fear not daughter of Zion, behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt." Listen to this, his disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him and had been done to him. So these disciples are watching and Jesus asked to ride in on this donkey and said the traditional royal steed that a king would ride into town on, and Jesus is certainly being humble by riding a lowly donkey, but even more than that, he is intentionally fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. The prophecy that's mentioned right here that we find in Zechariah 9, 9 and 10. And just like the crowds didn't fully understand what was going on, these disciples didn't fully understand either. But here's the difference. Many, most of the disciples didn't end up turning their back on Jesus, even when they didn't understand. Because the crowds were curious. That's not a bad thing, that's a good thing. But the disciples took the next step and they were committed to Jesus. Now for us today, I know that for each one of us sitting here, there is a lot about God's word and there's a lot about God's ways that we don't fully understand. And can I tell especially the young people who are here right now, if you are waiting to fully understand Jesus to get to the point where you're willing to fully follow Him, you're gonna be waiting the rest of your life. You're gonna be waiting till it's too late. I know for me, I'm a pastor, but there are things that I just still I'm trying to figure out that I'm trying to understand. I I know probably the hardest thing historically Traditionally the hardest question that gets asked of Christians of the Christian faith is something that you would see in textbooks called the problem of evil And it just goes something like this It's just this philosophical question of if you guys really believe that God is totally good and he's completely powerful and He's all sovereign. He's in control of everything, then why would he allow evil to exist? If he's good, he shouldn't want it. If he's powerful and in control, then we shouldn't have to deal with it, right? It's a challenge to our faith, but it's a fair question. As a pastor, I've walked with a lot of Christians who have asked a similar question, but in a very different way. Because we don't always just approach these questions in textbooks and technically, philosophically, but I've heard it asked out of pain, personally, intimately, deeply. Questions like, how could God allow my son or my daughter to die? How could he let that happen? Or how could God allow me to have family and friends that don't end up coming to saving faith in Jesus. That I know where their eternity is, and I just can't even comprehend why God would allow this to happen. Can I tell you, whether you're approaching that philosophically or whether it's right in your face just personally, as you're experiencing terrible hardship. As I have studied this, as I have walked with people through their darkest valleys, can I tell you, I don't fully understand either. But what I do understand is that God is good, and he is powerful, and he is in control, and sadly, evil exists. The darkness is real. And we could talk about that at length and I actually really enjoy having that discussion. But the reason I bring this up today is just like the disciples and even like some of the members of the crowd that would go on to follow Jesus, we don't always have to think for myself that there's going to be a day someday when I see Jesus face to face where I'm going to understand a lot of this stuff even more. And I'm going to be able to thank him for giving me faith and sustaining me through the hardest time. And I don't want to be misunderstood here. We as Christians, we as the people of peace church, we love understanding. That's why we study God's Word, but we have faith first and then we seek that understanding This morning if you're a follower of Jesus Have you let your curiosity give way to full commitment? Disciples they recognized that Jesus was King even if they didn't put all the pieces together yet, and they stayed committed to them To him even when they didn't fully understand, but in our next section we're gonna see a whole nother group. We're gonna look at the Pharisees, these religious leaders. In verses 17 through 24, we learn what's going on in their lives. We see that this situation of Jesus entering Jerusalem, the King showing up on the scene, the light coming into the world is causing them tons of stress, tons of anxiety, because they have a grip on power and control in the religious world in that area and they are worried rightfully so that Jesus is about to overturn all that they've held on to so dearly. So in the first verses 17 and 18 we see that these crowds are following Jesus because the signs they've seen and the Pharisees are observing this and we actually know exactly what they say to each other here in verse 19 it tells us. Since the Pharisees said to one another, you see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after them. Because Jesus is clearly presenting himself as a king, he is threatening to overturn their power. And when they say the world is starting to go after him, they aren't wrong. Because in verse 20 and for the rest of our passage, we see that even the Greeks, even the non-Jews in the area, are seeking out Jesus and are asking questions and are trying to seek understanding about who he is. We need to remember that Jesus isn't just king of the Jews, but he is king over all. He is king over everyone. So from the very beginning before Jesus ever hung on a cross, before the grave was empty, he knew what he came for and he showed up in Jerusalem and he showed up in our lives as the light of the world because he wanted to be the Lord and Savior for all who would believe in him. It's been about seven years since my favorite Palm Sunday of all time. Jim's Story And every Holy Week, every Easter is great because Jesus, but this one in particular was made very special by this guy named Jim. And Jim lives in China. So you might be surprised that his name is Jim. That was the American name he went by. He said, I'm not going to make you guys try to pronounce my actual name. Call me Jim. So Jim showed up to the States. He was doing a doctorate program in neuroscience at the University of Stanford. He's the brightest guy I've ever met. Just crazy smart and totally no faith. But the reason why Jim and my paths ended up crossing is another person, this woman named Sandra. And Sandra went to Stanford and she went to our church. And Jim saw something in Sandra that he had never seen before. He was seeing just the authentic shining light of Jesus reflected in her daily life. And so he was asking Sandra questions about Jesus, about what drove her, about her faith. And she got to the point where she said, Hey, you're so curious. Can I just introduce you to one of my pastors? So Jim drove down and he met me and I was so excited to meet with him. We started talking all about it. And I just thought, how neat this guy from China who's, who had very little exposure to the gospel, this guy who's just a brainiac, who's, who's just kind of agnostic, no faith, he's just curious about Jesus. And so we're talking, we're talking, and it hit a certain point where Jim realized that I wasn't fully understanding what was going on. So he decided to explain to me. He said, oh, Nate, I'm not really, personally, I'm not really interested in Jesus. But the reason why I'm studying neuroscience is I'm hoping to be a lead voice, a lead developer in the movement to create artificial intelligence. At this point I'm thinking, where is this going right now? What is this conversation we're having? And he says, so whenever I meet someone that something really stands out, and Sandra is unlike anyone I've ever met, I try to figure out what drives her, what makes her tick, because I want to somehow try to build that into my future AI. So I'm like, you're trying to get me to share the gospel with robots, not with you? I'm trying to figure out what's going on here, right? It's weird. But Jim came back week after week after week, and we talked through all this stuff. I started to see it turn a little bit, where he was asking me technical questions and he was writing notes. But I started to see, he asked it from more of a personal perspective. seven years ago we were talking that night and I just felt that I led to tell Jim I could sense something was going on so I just said hey Jim told me to do something I told a lot of people to do so I challenge you to read the Gospel of John the whole thing I knew he could handle it he's crazy smart so I just said this week read the Gospel of John the middle week I got a call from Jim and he said so I read the gospel of John. I read it in English, and then I want to make sure I was understanding what I was reading, so I read it in Mandarin next. He said, I sat down and did all that. And the next thing he said, just still to this day blows my mind. He says, then I read it a third time, and I believed every word I read that third time. The Holy Spirit did something in Jim's heart and that Holy Week. He came back down from Stanford Stayed the weekend with me. We got him baptized He got to sit at the Lord's table to take communion with God's people on Good Friday for the first time And he celebrated that he has risen on Easter morning You want to know why the Pharisees were so terrified of Jesus showing up in town. It's because Jesus is the King overall. He is the King over everyone. Jesus is the king over our lives As we look at the last part of our passage, the words that Jesus shared with these Greeks and by extension that he shares with us today, I want us to just zoom into the fact that Jesus isn't just the king over all, He certainly is that, but He is the king over our lives. After saying this about Himself, in verse 24, if you're following along, Jesus says this, says, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus says this to us, whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there will be my servant also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Jesus is king over our lives, and this is his message to us. If you're gonna follow me as the king of your life, then just as I did, you walk in the shadow of the cross and you follow me in sacrifice and you follow me in service. Now, as I was reading that for some of us in a modern audience, you might have heard Jesus just use the word hate, that you hate your own life and go, what in the world is going on there? I thought Jesus was all about love, right? Well, in Semitic communication, Hebrew, Aramaic, we often see this love-hate dichotomy used. And while today we use love and hate as kind of these visceral, absolute feelings, raw inside of us, in Jesus's time, this was a common idiom that they would use to communicate two fundamentally different perspectives. So Jesus is basically saying this, you have a choice. You either cling to your own life, you love your own life and try to make yourself king or queen of your own life, or you decide to release it all, to sacrifice to serve and to give it up to King Jesus and to all that he's doing in his kingdom. That's what he's challenging us with today. And it's sometimes easy to talk about these things very theoretically. I understand that. But I want us to get a little uncomfortable today as we just think through these categories of sacrifice and service through some very personal and practical perspectives. So first and foremost, when we see Jesus as King over our lives, we follow Him and His example of sacrifice. Now, we live in a time where our economy is kind of in the toilet, right? And so, a lot of us are thinking about money, we're talking about money, we're worrying about money, we're complaining about money, and there's some reality to that, to the darkness that we live in, but let's think through the two different perspectives we could approach this with. The perspective that Jesus is king over our lives, or the perspective that we love our own lives and we hang on to our own authority. If we approach our money with the perspective that this is my life and I'm in total control, you know what? We're going to be sad, we're going to be bitter, and we are not going to shine in this world. But if we remember that Jesus is the King over our lives, what can be seen as a scary and bad financial economy can instead be views through the lens of Jesus, through the lens of scripture, as an incredible spiritual opportunity. Because when it is darkest out there, we have the opportunity to shine the light of Jesus in the most special ways. If we cheerfully, sacrificially give all that we have, and I'm not just talking about saying we have open hands, but living like it, people will see that Jesus is King, and he's the light that's shown up in the darkness. In my life, my dad was a pastor as I was growing up and I primarily was at two different churches we were at and one was when I was younger, one when I was older, and God was doing some great work in both of those places, very similar to what we're experiencing right now here at Peace Church. And so as those communities of God were growing and seeds were being planted and the Holy Spirit was bringing fruit. We had seasons where we had to do capital campaigns and building projects just to contain all the people that God was bringing. And I remember both times that I went through that with my parents. My dad sat me and my brothers down and two different times he just wanted to let us know, hey I know it's not your money but I just want you guys to be aware, we're clear in our savings account, we're giving everything to the work of the Lord right now. Now I wanna be clear, my parents provided well for me, what all of my needs and even beyond that, but that first time I sat down when I was young, he explicitly said, and that includes the money we've been saving in your guys' college accounts, we just want you to know. And the later time, I was a little older, I was already almost through college, but he said, hey, I just wanna let you know because traditionally this would be the money that would be like the inheritance that we would leave you and we're just gonna just all give it to the work of the Lord. And can I tell you, both times, when I was young, when I was older, when I heard that, I was furious. I know I knew it wasn't my money, but it could be someday, right? And I know that we're not supposed to have the love of money drive us, but let's get real. We've got to pay for stuff. We've got to live in this crazy world, right? I've got to raise kids. And as I was studying this passage and remembering the sacrifice that Jesus gave and his call on our lives that if I your King sacrifice for you Then we better be sacrificing for his kingdom Just something broken me for the first time and I was able to call my parents and just say thank you so much For loving Jesus and being more passionate about building his kingdom than our families I've never been able to say that before, and I'm a pastor. But something special happened when I looked to the words of Jesus and just remembered how our lives are supposed to be just characterized by the sacrifice that Jesus gave for us. Now, I want to share one more. Let's talk about service, because when Jesus is king over our lives, we serve. One of the harder things in life is talking about money, but right along there is our precious time, right? We only have so much time, and we've got to utilize it well, we've got to budget it, we've got to prioritize well. So when Jesus calls us not just sacrifice all we have, but to serve with everything we are, it is a tall order for many of us. But verse 26, our last verse in this section here is pretty straightforward. Here's what Jesus says. He says, if anyone serves me, he must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. It's pretty straightforward here again. If the King over all and the King over our lives showed up as a servant for us, then we better be serving Him as well. So how are you doing right now? Just think about it to yourself. How are you doing at home? How are you doing here at the church? Where are you contributing here? How are you doing out in your community, in your neighborhood, at your workplace? When people look at you, do they see the perspective that you are the one in control of your life? Or do you say, see the light in the darkness that only shines through when we recognize that Jesus is King and we serve selflessly and sacrificially because that's what Jesus did for us? Mark a Neighbor and a Servant I wish I could tell you stories from my life about how I've served selflessly, but honestly, it's kind of something that I struggle with. But thankfully, I have an awesome next-door neighbor. His name is Mark. He loves Jesus, passionately follows him, and he lives the example of a servant after Jesus' own heart all the time. He's helped me at my house more times than I can count, and just throughout the neighborhood if somebody needs something, Mark's there. People see Jesus through Mark. But one day, he showed up at my house, and he asked me for some help and so I thought man I gotta serve Mark you know he does so much for everybody else so I start walking with him and we go the opposite direction of his house I realized what's going on he's tricked me into serving somebody else with him okay here we go so we walk to this house and it's a single mom in our neighborhood and the wind a gust of wind had just blown off a bunch of her siding and it was laying there on the side of her yard. Mark had already set up ladders and a system so that we could put it all back up for her. Can I tell you something? I had driven by and I had seen the siding there. And you know what I thought to myself, oh, poor her, that's the last thing she needs right now. But when Mark drove by, do you know what he thought to himself? It's time to go serve my king, right? That is the perspective that Jesus is calling us to have as we see him as a sacrificial servant, the King over all and the King over our lives, riding in Jerusalem, eyes set on the cross, ready for Good Friday, ready for Easter and the open grave. Now, I wanna end with this. There's been a lot of challenge here and I wanna be abundantly clear that we don't serve or we don't sacrifice Jesus to earn his love or certainly to earn his salvation. We know that that's given through the completed work of Jesus on the cross and in the open grave. But when we do understand Jesus, not fully, but when we're learning about him, we realize that when we follow the King over all and the King over our lives we start to look like him. We start to sacrifice and we start to serve and we start to be an example of light that lights up this dark world. Amen? Amen. Ending Prayer Would you stand with me as we pray? Heavenly Father, this morning as we've looked at your word, we just thank you for what we know is coming. We thank you for the cross, and we look forward to remembering that this Good Friday. We thank you and we celebrate the open grave. We can't wait for one week from today just to celebrate that you are risen God. But this Palm Sunday, I pray you'd be working right now by the power of your Holy Spirit in our hearts. Just help us reflect and evaluate to grow in ways where we reflect the light of Jesus in this dark world. God, throughout this Holy Week, throughout this series, pray you keep just bringing the light to our minds to see you as the light of the world. Light up the scriptures to us and light up our lives, God. We love you, Jesus. We pray all this in your Holy name, amen. We love you, Jesus. We pray all this in your holy name. We pray all this in your holy name. Amen.

The Lord Is Mine Sermon Series: Logan Bailey Family Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Psalm 23 Transcript I am so glad to be here with you to read God's Word. Today we are looking at Psalm 23. So I'll let you turn there. It's often called the Pearl of the Psalms. But before we read Psalm 23, I wanted to just tell a quick story, the story of a woman named Jessica Hannah. After reading this woman's story, I immediately thought of Psalm 23. That's why I want to open with it. Psalm 23 is about the Lord being our shepherd and when I heard Jessica's story I thought this was someone that knew the Lord as her shepherd. In 2020 Jessica was 14 weeks pregnant with her fourth child when the doctors discovered stage 4 terminal breast cancer. As she sought treatment she refused the abortion. She said, abortion was not necessary at all. My prognosis did not change. My treatment plan did not change. And on May 31st, 2021, Jessica announced the birth of her fourth son, Thomas. Two weeks later, Jessica's scans showed no sign of cancer. She credited little Thomas with saving her life. Had she not been pregnant, she would not have found the cancer. On December 12th, 2022, Thomas was a year and a half old, Jessica's stage four cancer had returned and it was considered terminal. And at that time she said, in my life, as I look back, I praise God for the hard times because those were the times he called me closer to him. This past April, on April 6th, Jessica died peacefully, surrounded by her family, and her husband said that she suffered joyfully without fear. Her kids and her husband saw her as someone who suffered joyfully and without fear. And I am convicted by her confidence. Inspired by her confidence. Her confidence is, yes, a stark contrast to the world around us, but her confidence is a stark contrast I feel sometimes to me. I've suffered and gone through a lot less and complained a lot more. In terms of hardship, I've gone through a lot less and I have felt more hopeless. I want her sort of confidence, her sort of faith because that is what confidence is. The word confidence means with faith. Confidence is having faith, dependence, trust. I'm inspired by her faith. She knew who her God is. She knew who her God is. She knew him. She trusted him. She followed her shepherd, even when she went through the valley. So I want all of us, as we read Psalm 23 together, I want us to think of people like Jessica in our lives. I want us to think of people who know who their God is, that we are inspired by their level of faith and their good shepherd. Today's message is called, The Lord is Mine. And we will see from Psalm 23 that the Lord is my shepherd who leads me, my protector who is with me, and my Savior who loves me. If you haven't opened to Psalm 23 yet, I'm going to read it. And the reason we go to scripture is because in the Bible Jesus says, if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. That's why we go to scripture. And in Psalm 23, it says this, The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.[a] 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness[b] for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,[c] I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely[d] goodness and mercy[e] shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell[f] in the house of the Lord forever.[g] Let's pray Father we pray that you do speak through your word this morning. Jesus, remind us of your grace, remind us of your faithfulness, remind us of your goodness. Holy Spirit, please help us here and now and as we leave here to follow you as you guide us. Amen. Psalm 23, it's a psalm about his reliability. Psalm 23 is also probably the most well-known of the psalms. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid. There is an objective beauty to that possibility of confidence. Even though I walk through the valley, the shadow of death, I will not be afraid. It's my favorite psalm. I know it holds a special place in many of your hearts as well. It was on your grandparents' wall. It was read at a funeral or at a wedding. This has been a powerful word for our church family and I'm right there with you. The peace of God is on display in these words. So I want to read it one more time. It's short enough, we can do that. And I want you to just breathe in the peace of God as this Psalm invites you to have further faith in our Lord, our shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies? You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord is my shepherd who leads me." We have here an analogy of a sheep and a shepherd. And many of us don't have a lot of interactions with sheep unless you do 4-H or you go to a petting zoo. But I think the psalm makes the image really clear and clear enough. We are needy people and we have a shepherd who gives us what we need. My wife and I just got into the chicken world. We've raised quail for a couple years now and we decided to upgrade to chickens and those birds would die if I did not feed them and give them water. I do, so they're alive and well. I remember to feed them and give them water and what they need, I do take care of them. And that's the whole point of this entire Psalm is that God knows what his sheep need. God knows, Psalm 23 is saying he does take care of his sheep. Notice the intimacy here. The Lord is my shepherd, not the world's. Mine. I know his voice. The Lord is mine. I am under his pastoral care, his rod and staff. They comfort me. And also notice who's doing the actions here. It's not the sheep. It's the shepherd. He makes, he restores, he leads. The shepherd's love is on display here for his sheep. He's at work. He makes. I love how the first verb here is such a powerful one. He's not suggesting things. He's not He makes me. It's sometimes good to be reminded that God's grace is not a shot in the dark. His grace is intentional divine providence. It brings results. He makes things happen in the world and in us. When God goes fishing, he's not chumming the water. He just tells the fish, get in the net, and they do. He makes things happen. When God wants to see a result, He makes the change happen. That's why we say things like, "'He is almighty, He is able,' and that is a grace to us, because what He's making us do is rest. He makes me lie down in green pastures." When we use that phrase, He makes me, we usually mean it as a complaint, we shift blame, right? He made me angry. She made me late. But I want you to think of it like this. Think of a good friend who is there for you in just the right way. He made me feel at ease. She made me happier. He makes me lie down in green pastures. Another thing the psalm is saying is that he restores. He restores. The good news this morning is so rich it might be hard to hear it. It's hard for me to say it as clear as it needs to be said. The Bible is saying that God is a God of restoration. And some of you are here this morning and you are in need of restoration. Hear the Word of the Lord. There is good news. You may not be able to hear it, but it's good all the same. It's true all the same. There is hope in Jesus. He filled the oceans with water. He can fill your soul with what it needs. He restores my soul. And also he leads. If you've been a Christian a while, you know, we are not just given insurance against hell, but we are led by Jesus into heaven. We're not just given insurance against hell, but we are led into heaven. He leads us through the difficulties of life in a sinful world and he leads us into the joys of life. Think of a shepherd leading a young flock into a new pasture. They're here, but they need to be there. So the shepherd is leading the flock there. And it's going to be a rough path sometimes. Through the woods, over the hills, through valleys, the wolves are lurking around the corner. The weather can sometimes be rough, but the shepherd is with the sheep. He's feeding them, he's protecting them, he's leading them, he's making sure they rest. And the sheep are cared for. That's what the Lord does for us. And we, as we are led by him, we become different people along the way. We become better people along the way. Jesus leads us and that means that Jesus changes us. We call it sanctification, being made new. He is changing us as he leads us, growing us into the type of people who belong on the new green pastures. In a in a fictional story written by C.S. Lewis Called the great divorce if you've read it already where I'm at It's a fictional story of a bunch of people who had not followed God therefore they were not changed by God They get to visit heaven so people from hell get to visit heaven and when they get there they hate it It seems awful to them the grass is not soft and comforting, but it's sharp. It's hard to stand on. It's unbearable Because they didn't belong there they refused to let God lead them and therefore change them But the people who had been following Jesus For those who had been led by Jesus and changed by Jesus to them. It was comforting It was vibrant But to them, it was comforting. It was vibrant. Jesus led them and made them into the type of people that aren't just able to stand on the grass of heaven but belong on it. Sanctified. That is the hope that we have in God's leading, that we would be sanctified in Him. who we were meant to be as he leads us and as we follow. This room right now could give story after story after story of how we have seen the word of God change people so drastically, we are still shocked by it. And some of you, you might be the person in the mirror you don't recognize because of the power of God's changing work in our lives. We've seen him lead and change our brother, our sister, our spouse, our coworker, our father, and it can take a while, but the shepherd hook of Jesus changes us. And God does it all, this text says, for his name is through flourishing sheep. He intends to make his name great by having a flock that is flourishing. God is our shepherd with a purpose in mind. He intends, God intends to have an amazing flock of sheep that are happy, content, and flourishing. They are two sides of the same coin. God is reminding creation how great his name is through flourishing sheep. Why do you do your job? Make money for security, because it's fun. I don't know. You all do your jobs for different reasons. God has a job. He's doing his job. Why does God do his job? To make his name great. So the greater the joy in heaven, the greater the name of God. Two sides, same coin. And that's what this Psalm is saying. If the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. Because I know my eternity is secure. His reputation is on the line. My eternity is secure. His reputation is on the line. But is that true? Do we really lack nothing? I know a lot of Christians who have, seem to be in active need. We see a range of people inside, outside the church that have a range of stuff. Stuff you see, stuff you can't. We see people that are wealthy and people that are poor. We have high earners, low earners, socially successful people socially challenged, big house, just renting, lots of kids, childless, naturally optimistic, consistently depressed. There are many examples of genuine lack in our lives, whether Christian or not. But the psalm is saying, I could have nothing, and yet if I have Christ, I have everything. Our shepherd will provide what we need to flourish. So it's better to have Jesus than any other abundance. How can we be so confident in him? How can we have so much faith in him? How can we have so much assurance in him? How can you be so sure? Because we know the stakes. We know his reputation's on the line. It says, for his name's sake. So who is this up to, him? Who's doing this, he is. We can have assurance in the promise that no matter what we might feel like we are missing, our eternal security is guaranteed by our shepherd. He intends to bless his sheep into eternity. He died for his sheep. I think he takes our eternal joy pretty seriously. So Psalm 23 kicks off by describing the actions of the Lord and the actions of a good shepherd, he leads, he restores, and the trust and faith of the sheep. So Psalm 23 teaches us to say this, the Lord is my shepherd who leads me. I will rely on him. I will depend on him. I will follow him. And I will trust that he is taking me down the best path for my eternal joy in his glory, no matter how hard it gets. You have a God who is attentive to your needs, leading you for his glory and your joy. Believe the good news, no matter how much bad news, like wolves, you're surrounded by. If the Lord is your shepherd, you lack nothing. The Lord is my protector who is with me. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. This is the poetic core of the psalm, one of the most beautiful lines in all of scripture. And here's the question, if our God is attentive to our needs, then why am I going through suffering? And this is where the Psalm reminds us of what life is truly like. The Psalms do that. They remind us of what life is truly like. And this Psalm here is reminding us of how good God really is to us. God is not abandoning us in our suffering. Instead, he is walking with us through it. Just like he did on the cross, he is taking you through it to the other side where he promises not only to make you more holy, more like him, more as you're meant to be, but also he's going to take away the sin of the whole world and make the whole world as it was meant to be. That's what eternity looks like. The world as we know it without the sin. The vision for eternity is a creation redeemed from sin. He is not abandoning us to sin and sorrow, but he is walking with us through it. And on the other side is a sanctified you and a sanctified creation. God is attentive to our needs, so he isn't leaving us alone in sin, but he is conquering sin in us. We do not overcome our sins or our fears by minimizing them. We do not overcome our fears by minimizing them. We overcome our fears by realizing the greater power that is at work for his namesake and our joy. We overcome our fears and our sin by remembering our protector. So we too can suffer joyfully and without fear if we know the one who is walking with us, a good shepherd, a savior, a good God. One time I was at my house, I was a young boy at the time, and there was a terrible storm. And my father and I were in the living room and lightning struck the house, or the field next door, the house. Lightning struck near the house and it was one of the loudest things I had ever heard, the house shook, my heart raced, I was terrified. And my dad noticed. And he said, son, it's okay. And for a second, I thought, maybe it's okay. Because my dad is with me. The terror of 300 million volts splitting my ears in an instant was calmed by the whisper of my father and my heavenly father is always with me that should make the difference for me no matter my circumstances fear not I am with you even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death even if we have every reason to be afraid. As long as our protector shepherd is with us we can suffer joyfully without fear. The Lord is my Savior who loves me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. So verses five and six kind of give us this new metaphor, the Lord as a host, a banquet, we're guests, but it's also a continuation of the shepherd metaphor because shepherds feed their flock. The Lord, it says the Lord is preparing. You prepare. God is doing something. God is preparing a place for us who have been saved by Jesus. For those in Christ, no matter how dark it gets, there is joy in the morning of our eternity. He is preparing a place for us in the presence of my enemies. The enemies are at the door. They're looking in the window. They're ready to cause destruction, and yet God isn't grabbing his shotgun, he's preparing a table, because his promises aren't at risk. There's actually no threat to his love, he is prepared. He isn't caught off guard by our sorrows. The preparations for our flourishing are seen on the cross of Christ, in the empty tomb where Jesus chose to go through the suffering on our behalf to get to the other side, to get us to the other side. He has begun a good work and he will complete it. And this is what we're offered by our shepherd. This is what we're offered by our Savior and our God to be led, to be protected, to have a promise to hold onto, to be chosen as his, to be welcomed as his, as we also say, the Lord is mine. Christ is our shepherd, our protector, and our savior. And that is consequential. It means something. It changes things. Our eternal flourishing is inevitable. It's guaranteed because he will see to it. That changes our eternity. And if it changes our eternity, it should change our every day. The Lord is your shepherd. That should affect your day. He is yours, you are his. If it changes your eternity, it should affect your day. And if it doesn't affect your day, every day. You're either forgetting or you're not actually following him. Here's the point of it all. The shepherding, the protecting, the saving, the leading, the preparing, the anointing, the restoring, the goodness, the mercy, the love. This is the point of it all, that we would have confidence in our God, no matter the suffering or the fear. That we would have confidence in our God, no matter the suffering or the fear. This is why we point to God's love all the time, because his love changes things. His love is not an arbitrary emotion or wishful thinking. The love of God is tangible, it is an action, it is a promise. He came to us, traveling from heaven to earth, becoming one of us so we could take our place on the cross. Those are not emotions, those are actions. They're not just emotions. The love of a shepherd changes everything for the sheep because the shepherd's actions toward them and for them. The love of God is not arbitrary emotion, it's not wishful thinking. The love of God is an action. It's something that He does. It's something that changes us and I think of mark 10 we could go in so many different places in scripture But I think specifically of mark 10 there's this iconic moment where Jesus is before this giant crowd and It stops him in his place and it says he has he had great compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd He didn't stop at the compassion. He then goes on to teach them, and he feeds them in a way only God can. He begins to shepherd them. The crowd was without a shepherd, and then Jesus came to be their shepherd. It changed their lives. Do we wake up every day knowing and trusting that our shepherd is at work. It's not just thinking well of us. He doesn't just say, I think well of you as if it's some arbitrary emotion, but he promises to care for us and he's at work in our lives. Psalm 23 is an invitation for you to deepen your trust in your shepherd. This Psalm is an invitation to deepen your trust in your God. Trusting God changes how you worship. Trusting God changes how you read your Bible, your Bible habits, your prayer habits. Trusting God changes your marriage. Trusting God changes how you keep moving on after that great loss. Trusting God changes how you view the pain that you thought you couldn't manage. Trusting God changes the way you view that fear that used to cripple you. Trusting God, whatever it is, would you believe that there is good enough news that can change not just your eternity, but your day, every day. You can leave this building with confidence and joy and peace no matter what we're going through because the Lord is your shepherd. I know a young adult who served at camp as a leader this past summer, and he overheard a conversation that one of his cabin boys was having with the other boys. And he overheard this moment of vulnerability where the camper said to them, he was just expressing his fears in life. And he said, I just hope God will forgive me. And that leader pulled that kid aside and said, you just told everyone that you hope God will forgive you. Can I tell you some really good news. Do you know that good news That the Lord does love us That Jesus has done the work to forgive us that he is still working on our behalf for his glory and our joy Repent from putting all your trust in something else repent from putting all your trust in money repent from putting all your trust in money. Repent from putting your trust in anything but Jesus. Your job won't get you into heaven. Your spouse can't give your life meaning. Your wishful thinking can't stop sin and death. If you have a shepherd in anything other than Jesus, then you lack. If you have a shepherd in anything other than Jesus, then you are in great need. Because Jesus is the only one who can save you. He's the only one worthy of being your shepherd. And he can be. Guiding you, protecting you, restoring you, setting a vision, giving your life purpose, leading you into eternal joy forever and every day. If the Lord is your shepherd, you lack nothing. And nothing can change that. I want to end with this final encouragement from Romans 8, keeping in mind the faith that Psalm 23 is inviting us to, keeping in mind that the love of God is promise and action. Romans 8. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised and who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's pray.

The Light Shines in the Darkness Sermon Series: Light Up the Darkness Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: John 20:5-18 Transcript Today, this day, today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, you know, I heard you singing. You're a lot louder than this. So I'm gonna give you one more chance to do, to do something here. And I know that maybe you got prepped for this, but we'll see. He is risen. Yeah, yeah, pretty good. Yeah, we'll come back to that. We'll see if you still got the energy later on. So for me, I grew up around here. I was born and raised, I've spent 90% of my adult life in this area from Middleville, Wayland, Caledonia. These are the roads that I grew up driving and going down. And one thing I can tell you about growing up in an area and staying there is that over time you see things change. You see the landscape change. And there's something, it seems like I've noticed this year in particular that's changed. And maybe it's been changing for a while, but for some reason it just feels like this year in particular I've really noticed this. And yes, I'm nostalgic, and so I get sad about this, but I'm willing to bet when you find out what I'm talking about, too I think part of your heart might be pricked as well The thing that I've noticed that seems like it's changing a lot this year in particular Is the number of old barns that are beginning to fall down? Have you noticed that Like this is the one across the street here from Peace Church Now I've been at Peace Church for 10 years and I take that way here to work every day. And for 10 years I've seen that barn once stand strong, now not stand at all. And as you drive around, I think you see this everywhere, like here's another one. Or here's one just right up the road here from Peace Church. And this next barn is completely gone. You see a mound there that was built for the entrance of the barn and what is particularly hard about that one for me is the barn that once stood there was the barn that I grew up playing in as a little boy. That's my childhood home. And the barn is completely gone. And yeah, I'm nostalgic. But here's the thing I'm going to say. Let me first say this. I'm not criticizing the people who own these barns. This is simply the passage of time. But these barns falling down for me is not just sad, but it's symbolic in many ways. I think what we're seeing in our world is the good old days are gone and a new way of life is emerging. But we have to ask ourselves, is the new life, is the new way that's emerging, is it better? See, these barns falling down makes me wonder, is there anything good that lasts in this world? Is there anything that actually stands the test of time? So let's just move from barns to talk about our lives and our culture for a moment. As things change, how can we ensure that what emerges is better than what we're letting go of. Where can we secure hope that we can trust the future with? Where can we secure ourselves to something that will stand the test of time? Where is that hope? Is there any principles out there that would help guide us into a better future? Is there anything that we can rely on? When things seem to be going in the wrong direction like I think so many things are, when things seem to be getting so dark, is there a light at the end of the tunnel? And what I'm here to tell you is the answer is yes. There is a light. But listen to me. This light is not found in a philosophy. It's not found in a government or either side of the aisle. It is not found in an institution. It's not even found in a grassroots movement from the next generation. The light that we can hope and cling our hope to is found in a historical event. It's found in the resurrection of Jesus' closest followers was this guy named John, and he said something that I think has to do with the test of time, and it's actually going to be our main point here for today. He said, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Christians, that's our hope. Are things dark? Yes, but there is a light that shines, and the darkness has not overcome it. People whatever darkness is out there, it cannot overcome this simple truth that God so loved the world that he sent his son to die on a cross in our place for our sins and whoever believes in him shall not perish but have not just life but flourishing life and eternal life and this is guaranteed because he is risen indeed. Amen. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the light that shines in the darkness. Please if you would turn to John chapter 20. We're going to spend a few moments in verses 5 to 18 today. As you're turning there, let me just lay some context for you. So Jesus Christ has come into this world in hope, in love, in grace, in truth, in authority. He was the light. He was the light of the world But then the unthinkable happens He was killed and his light was extinguished Through a rated-r level torture Jesus faced the most shameful death imaginable. He was scourged and then nailed to a cross where he died and listen to me I know we're on this side of the resurrection, but you have to remember for those disciples when Jesus died They thought that their hope had died with him. When Jesus died, like barns falling down, his followers' hearts had dropped and they thought the good old days are done. There's nothing good that lasts. It's all over. And then, on the third day, some women went to the tomb where Jesus had been laying. And when they got there, they found that the tomb was empty. And they didn't know what was going on. So Mary Magdalene, one of the women, she ran to go tell the disciples this. And when Peter and John heard this, Peter and John ran back. Now, John was a younger man, so he outran Peter and got there first. And we're going to pick up in our passage as John is entering the tomb. So with that, would you hear the word of the Lord? John chapter 20. We'll start at verse five and go to verse 18. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her. Amen. This is God's word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father God in heaven above, today we celebrate the most important day to date in all of history. The day that our savior rose from the dead. The day that death was defeated. The day that hope was made secure, the day that proved promises true. Today is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Help us all to come to know the reality, the beauty, and the power of this fact. We pray these things in the name of the Father, the name of the risen Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, we pray these things. And everyone said amen. So if you look to this world and you see Darkness, if you see something wrong, I want you to understand the g that the bible speaks right to this If you see darkness, you need to understand the bible says something profound. It says the light shines in the darkness of this world And as we talk about the light shining There's a few things from our past that we're going to pick up. First one is this, the light shines on the evidence. Second thing we're going to see is the light shines to those willing to look. Third thing we're going to see is the light shines through those who have seen the light. So first thing, the light shines on the evidence for the resurrection. Now the Bible is a very unique holy book among the world's top religions. The Bible says something very, very interesting about the Christian faith. The Bible tells us that the entire Christian faith rests on the resurrection. That's an enormously bold claim for a religious book. First Corinthians 15, 14 says this, "If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." The Bible itself is saying that if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead then we all are wasting our time If Jesus did not rise from the dead and let's just skip this portion of the morning and get right to baskets and brunch But Because Christ did rise from the dead, this makes this the most important thing we can be doing right now. Getting together to celebrate and worship and lift up this historical fact. When we talk about the resurrection, it's interesting because so many Christians are so very weak at being able to defend the very thing that makes or breaks our faith. But when we talk about the resurrection, we're talking about something that physically, actually, literally happened. And the light shines on the evidence that this did happen. Let me give you three points of evidence here this morning. I wanted to do 10, but our team said, no, you should probably only do three. So because I love you guys, we're just going to do three this morning. We can talk about the other ones later. But three points of evidence for the resurrection. The empty tomb The first one is this, the empty tomb. Aside from the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus himself. This is the most important piece of historical evidence Let's talk about this for a second. I don't know where you are in terms of faith. But here's what I can tell you there is no serious historian Christian or non-christian who denied that Jesus was both a real person and that he was actually killed on a Roman cross. This is taken as historical fact. And there's no resurrection of Jesus if Jesus wasn't dead. Jesus Christ was killed on a Roman cross, which by the way, historically speaking, had a 100% kill rate. There is no record ever anywhere of anyone surviving a Roman crucifixion. Jesus was killed on that cross and then his body was laid in a tomb, dead. And then when it was legally permissible, a few days later, some women went to the tomb where of cleaning up Jesus' beaten, mutilated, dead body. But when they got there, the tomb was empty. The cloths that he was wrapped in were lying there, but the tomb was empty. And even the opponents of Jesus tried to make up a story as to why the body was missing. All accounts that we have for the resurrection say something interesting. They all say that it was women who were the first to the tomb and women to first make this announcement that Jesus had been risen from the dead. But you need to understand something about this. This was from a time and a culture that did not see a woman's testimony as valid. A woman's testimony wouldn't have been held up in legal court. And yet all of the Gospels attribute women as the first to announce that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Why? Why during a time in the culture did the Gospels hang the thing that hangs our faith upon the testimony of women when their testimony wasn't seen as valid? I'll tell you why. Because it must have been true. It must have been actually how it actually happens, that Jesus rose from the dead. Lack of time to establish a myth Which leads to the second thing, just the lack of time that we have to establish a myth. Simply put, the time between the death of Christ and the first accounts of His resurrection, both verbal and written, leaves no time for myth to develop. No sources during that time argue the fact that Christians believe that Christ rose from the dead. They all point to that. We have Roman letters stating this. Josephus, the Jewish historian, records this. There are no early historical documents or contemporary documents from that time that refute this. That Jesus Christ rose from the dead, that Christians believe this happened. All the documentation that we have, the earliest documentation from that, comes from within that generation meaning 20 to 40 years after Jesus rose from the dead and listen to me historically speaking that's immediately simply put there's no time for myth to develop and add to that none of the early documents none of the early account of the resurrection embellish the story with extravagant language which is what historians normally look for to determine if something's a myth. It's actually pretty underwhelming and under remarkable how the Bible talks about the resurrection of Jesus It doesn't embellish it. It doesn't use extravagant language. It just kind of tells us what happened Why because you have to remember that the Gospels record the resurrection of Jesus. They're simply relaying eyewitness testimony of something that actually happened. And not just something that happened But something that led people to give their lives for this. They all gave up their life for this. Jesus Christ died on a Roman cross. This is undisputed. And yet all of his followers, all of his disciples were martyred for their belief in Jesus. All minus John, by the way. He actually did live into his old age, but we have tremendous amounts of numerous accounts of him being tortured throughout his life and surviving those tortures. They were all either tortured or killed. But some of you might say, wait a second, hold on here. Other people are martyred for their religion. Does that prove and validate their faith, their religion? No, no, and here's the key difference. Those other martyrs, they die for ideals taught by someone they know and claim to be dead. But the disciples died, listen to me, not for just a set of ideals. They didn't die just for religion. They died for a man. A man that they said rose from the dead, and they encountered after he rose from the dead. They all knew Jesus died, and yet they died for him. Listen, no one dies for what they know to be a lie. We die for what we know to be true. If Jesus, if Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, his movement should have ended like so many throughout history. But it didn't. Not only did it spread, it rapidly spread. This Jesus movement rapidly expanded throughout the world, not because a good man was martyred and that's an inspiring story. The spark that ignited this rapid expansion of the Christian faith was the resurrection of Jesus. That this man who was killed walked out of his grave. That is what sparked Christianity and the light shines on the evidence that this did happen. Jesus Christ died on Friday, April 1st, in the year 33 AD. And then, on the most important day in history, Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, April 3rd, in the year 33 AD. And because of this historical fact, the light shines in the darkness. Because of this historical fact, we actually have true hope. Because of this historical fact, we can believe in a love beyond a cultural context. Because this actually happened in history. history, but the question remains, do you believe this? A movie came out in late 2021. Now we were still kind of emerging out of COVID during that time. And so this movie kind of flew under the radar, but this movie came out in 2021 and it dealt with the concept of what is real. See, this movie was based around this, this tension about whether or not we are living in the real world or if we're living in a computer-based simulation run by AI machines. And the reality for this movie was that people were actually living in a computer-based simulation run by evil artificial intelligence. But people didn't know this. But the AI machines that were enslaving humanity in this simulation, they realize something about humans. That people ultimately don't care if it's real or simulation. And a conversation happened in the movie that I want to share with you that I thought was just remarkable. So the antagonist, the bad guy, the bad AI machine, was having a conversation with the protagonist, the good guy who was trying to free everyone. And I think what this machine tells this person is so true. He said this, it said this. Humans don't care about facts. It's all about fiction. The only world that matters to them is the one in their head. And you people believe the craziest things. Why? What and makes your fictions real? Feelings. And that came from Hollywood, by the way. Here's what this means for Easter. For so many people, it does not matter the amount of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus I can place before you. For 90% of the people out there, truth and facts don't matter. What matters to them is their feelings on the matter. Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead. The overwhelming historical evidence is undisputed for this. But for so many people, they still say, so what? And then they turn to what they feel about the matter. And you must believe this for yourself. Because the light shines on the evidence, but also the light shines to those willing to look. So back to our Bible, let's go back to our story. The disciples saw the empty tomb. Okay. Peter and John, they rush in, they see his clothes lying there empty. The tomb is empty. And then look what the Bible says. Then the disciples went back to their homes. They looked upon the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, and then they went home. So many people, that is exactly what happens. You're presented with truth, you're presented with facts, you're presented with history, you see the evidence before you, and then you just go home. But not Mary. But not Mary. Look at verse 11. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). The disciples missed this. They just missed this. They missed this because they went home. They were like, wow, yeah, tomb's empty. His clothes are laying right there, but we got to get lunch ready. The in-laws are Yeah, the tomb's empty. That's kind of weird, but we got to make sure the kids get home in time to open up their baskets. They were like, yeah, the tomb's empty, but we got better things to do. The game is on. We got to get brunch ready. But Mary stayed, but Mary stayed and she went back into the tomb, listen to me, she kept looking and Jesus found her. She looked for herself and Jesus found her. I think so many people, which is so sad in this world, I think so many people get their understanding of Jesus and Christianity from critical, uncharitable and cynical voices online. So many people get their perception of Christianity from memes on social media and they don't have the wits to look past that or to see the propaganda for themselves, they won't look past that and look for themselves. Or maybe, which even breaks my heart more, people had bad experiences from church and that's turned them off to the reality of Jesus Christ. So here's what I'm going to say to you. Here's what I'm pleading with you. See for yourself. Look for yourself. Look past the jargon of our world. Look past the cynicism of our world and look for yourself. The disciples saw the evidence and they went home but Mary stood. She wept and she didn't move past the moment. She went into that tomb to see. I love this line. But Mary, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept through her own tears, she looked for herself, and she went into the tomb. Mary kept looking, and Jesus appeared to her, because the light shines to those willing to look. I can put all the evidence before you, but some of you just simply don't care, or you simply don't want it to be true. But for those of you with an open heart who are willing to seek the truth, the light is there. Mary stood in that darkened tomb, and listen to me, this is such a prophetic spiritual picture. Don't move past this. Mary stood in that tomb looking into the dark, but Christ called her name. And so what does she do? She turned from the darkness and she answered Jesus and she turned towards him and she saw the light. That is a picture of our lives and our salvation. We all stand looking into the darkness of this world, into the blackness of our own soul, into our own sin and the depths of despair. But Jesus stands and calls our name. And all we do is turn from that darkness. We repent from our sin and turn towards Christ. And then we see the light, and that is salvation. When the disciples only saw an empty tomb, they just went home. But when the disciples encountered the resurrected Jesus, they willingly went to their deaths for Him. The light shines through those who have seen the light This shows us the last thing, that the light shines through those who have seen the light. So Mary freaks out. She sees Jesus. She freaks out. She runs to give him a hug and Jesus is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down Mary. Hold on. Don't hold on to me just yet. Listen, I've got something to do, you've got something to do, we've got something to do. So right now you need to go tell the disciples that I'm alive. And then Jesus. Jesus, the Savior of the world in the most profound moment in all of human history, Jesus gives her, Mary Magdalene, a woman with such a dark past, with her eyes wet with tears, makeup running down her face, he gives her the honor of being the very first to announce that he is risen. So Mary went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord. She had seen the light and Jesus is telling her, now that you've seen the light you have the light now. It's time to shine the light because the light shines through those who have seen the light and the light is Jesus Christ and the darkness cannot overcome him. The religious leaders could not silence him the Roman Empire couldn't stop him The devil himself couldn't distract him, and death itself could not hold him back. This is our king. See, we all have sin in our lives, and this sin, we all know it. It's the things that we do that we know we shouldn't do. And that sin isn't in any innocent thing. That sin makes us stand condemned rightly before God, worthy of death, worthy of eternal separation from God. And that punishment we all deserve, that's the reason that Jesus Christ went to the cross, so that He would pay it on our behalf, so that we wouldn't have to. He stood in our place taking our punishments, so that we could have life, so that His light, His life, could be in us. And with that light we have eternal life with that light we have restoration and a relationship with God. That very same relationship that sin has broken. Wherever you are. Wherever you are in your belief, whether you are a hardened atheist or you are a hard Christian wherever you are. I Believe God has sent me here to tell you this. He wants you back. And he went at the most extreme lengths to get you back. He sent his son to pay a debt that you could never pay, out of love to draw you back to himself. God wants you back. And I believe he's calling to you now, just as Christ called to Mary, I believe in the most profound love there is, God is calling to you. He is calling to you to turn from your sin, to have freedom from guilt, freedom from shame, freedom from your past, freedom that only comes through Jesus Christ. Friends, the Bible makes it real clear, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you are saved. That's your theological test. You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. So let today be the day of salvation for you. Whether you're coming to Christ for the first time or you're coming back to Him, let today be the day that you find your home in the one that truly, truly loves you. The truth is, everyone here, right now, is making a decision about Christ. You're either going to look upon the empty tomb and go home, or you're going to answer the call of Christ on your name. It's one of those options. Everyone here is making a decision for Christ. So here's what I'd say. We're about to worship, and if you are a Christian who loves the Lord, and you're walking with the Lord, then I am saying right now, let the Spirit fill you so that as we sing, the worship rises to heaven, and it's so deep that it sinks and shakes the gates of hell. If it's time for you to turn from the darkness and turn to the one that truly loves you, if it's time to repent and place your faith in Christ during our next song or after the next song. We're going to have people in this room wanting to pray with you and talk with you and love you and care for you. Whether you're doing that for the first time or maybe there's some of you that you've strayed and you just happened to walk into these doors, someone's wanting to pray with you. We are a church that wants to love you and walk alongside you. So we're going to spend a few moments in worship. And again, if you have claimed the name of Christ and you are saved, so let heaven and hell know it by the way you sing. Amen. Would you please stand? If you are part of the team that's going to be praying, you can make your way over there now. If you want prayer, either to receive Christ, to come back to Christ, or maybe there's just something going on in your life or someone else's life and you want to pray over that, we've got a prayer team ready for you. But for those who are going to stay, let's bow our heads. Let's prepare our hearts for worship. Father, we come before you. Lord, as we think about these barns all falling down, Lord, we know that it's just reminiscent of our world falling apart. And Lord, you are the only one that can save it. So, Father, I pray here and now, Lord, that all of us would turn from the darkness and we would turn towards Christ. Lord, I pray by the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, you'd fill this place. You'd fill the chapel, you'd fill the venue, you'd fill this place. You'd fill your people, Lord, that we would sing and our voices would rise to heaven and we'd sing so deep it shakes the gates of hell. Because our King is alive. Father I pray for those who are seeking prayer. Father I pray that you meet them exactly where they are. Father thank you for them. Thank you Lord for what you've done for us on the cross. Oh praise the name of Jesus. Father fill this place by the power of your spirit that we may worship our risen Savior, your Son. And it's in His name we pray these things. And everyone said very loudly, Amen. And everyone said very loudly, Amen. very loudly, Amen.

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Hell, the Occult, and the Demonic Sermon Series: The Church Never Preaches On... Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Matthew 25:41-46 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it, and everyone said, "Amen." Today, some of you are going to hear things about Jesus Christ that you've probably never heard. Some of you are going to feel a lot different than the one that's so accepted by our culture. In this series, we've been looking at topics that "quote-unquote the church never preaches on," and if you're just joining us, we polled our congregation and they submitted these topics and voted on the top six. Today, we are looking at my least favorite of all the topics, which is this one: hell. So if this is your first Sunday here, welcome. Would you please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 25? This is one of those passages where I just kind of want to scream to our world: "Yes, Jesus Christ actually said this. Yes, Jesus actually taught this." In this passage, we're going to read and get a future epic picture of Jesus himself. It's a vision that Jesus gives to us of himself at the end of days when he returns and sits on the throne as the judge of all the earth. He gathers the nations and separates them into two groups: one that will go to inherit the kingdom of God and go to heaven, and another group that will have the complete opposite. Now, the first group that Jesus speaks to, he says this: "When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was sick, you cared for me. When I was in prison, you came to visit me." And that group responds to Jesus, and I love their honesty, they say, "When did we ever do that?" And then Jesus famously responds with these words: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to the least of these, you did it also unto me." It's beautiful. But then he turns to the other group, and with a similar but opposite conversation, we see Jesus end that interaction much differently. Would you please hear the word of the Lord? This is the section we'll look at this morning, the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25, verses 41 to 46. Again, just to clarify, Jesus is speaking in third person here about his future self. Matthew 25:41-46 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Then he will say to those on his left, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison, but you did not visit me." Then they also will answer, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?" Then he will answer them, saying, "Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. This is God's very sobering word for us here this morning. Let's pray and continue. Father in heaven above, Lord, by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit, please give us much understanding today. And with that, a holy fear as we look at the most terrifying subject of hell. And yet, in the midst of this, would you give us reverence for you? Would you give us comfort in the gospel? Would you help us to understand the truth that for those of us in Christ, it is not hell, but heaven that awaits? We pray these things for your glory, for our joy, and for the good of our neighbor. And everyone said, "Amen." So if you were with us last week, you know we spoke on heaven. Today, we are looking at the opposite of that. With this passage here today, let me give you one thought to consider: Main Idea: hell is the ultimate horror, reminding us that our actions really do matter. As we look at this passage today, here's what we're going to do. We're going to look at two things coming out of our passage, and then we're going to spend some time, like we did last week, looking at some FAQs that came in with this question and this topic when it was submitted. The first thing: hell is the ultimate horror because the punishment is eternal. The second thing: hell is the ultimate horror because the judge is Jesus Christ. Speaking in third person, Jesus says this: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire." See, I truly think that one of the things that makes hell so terrifying is that it is Jesus Christ as the judge who sends us there. Did you understand that? Did you know that? Have you read your Bibles to see this? See, I wonder if there was some level of solace for people as they entered into hell, looking at Jesus with tears in his eyes, sad about what's happening. Friends, that's not the picture the Bible paints. That's not our Lord and Savior. He presides over the sending of people to hell. Jesus is the King who sits on the throne, and for me, this makes it all the more horrifying. I think our culture loves this picture of Jesus in a tie-dye shirt that says, "Be kind." We love that Jesus, but that's not the Jesus of Scriptures. The Jesus of Scriptures is the Jesus who sits on the throne as the King of creation who rules and reigns. Yes, he reigns in love, the perfect and most prime example of love, but he also does it in justice and authority. We want to make God the Father the bad guy from the Old Testament who's mean and angry, but the New Testament is about God's Son who's all loving and kind and welcomes everybody. The Bible doesn't pit the Father and the Son against each other. Rather, we see Jesus make it abundantly clear that he's not just the Savior. Jesus himself says that he's the final judge. Jesus makes this clear in John chapter 5, verses 22 to 23. Jesus says, "For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father." Jesus is the one who both saves us and offers us salvation, but for those who reject it, he is also the judge who sends people to hell. Look at the second part of verse 41. Again, this is Jesus speaking: "Away from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Hell was not made for you. Hell was created for those angelic beings who, while in the presence of God, rejected God. That's who hell was prepared for. It's a place of judgment and punishment and torment, where angel and human alike will both go to suffer for their rejection of God. Jesus is the righteous judge who stands before you and all creation, exposing your works and the actions of your life, revealing to you and to others, and to the Lord, whether you were following him or following something else. Jesus will examine not just the actions, but the motives of our lives, to see if we chose salvation or if we chose stuff, if we chose Christ or if we chose comfort. You say you're a Christian, you say that I'm your Lord and Savior, you say that you follow me, but what about your life shows that you were like me in any possible way? If I can't see one thing in your life reminiscent of what Jesus is saying, then how am I to believe you're following me? This is a dangerous thing for us, especially 21st-century American Christians. We think salvation is that thing we receive, and then we just go on our merry way. Salvation is that thing that we receive, and then we walk in the ways of our Savior, following him all the days of our life. But I want to be clear on something here. It is not our actions that save us; it's who we place our faith in. Christ is the one that saves us. Our actions do not save us, but they do reveal what's on the inside. This is what Jesus is getting at when he says, "Whatever you did to the least of these, you did it unto me." Are you serving Jesus in everything that you do? If we follow Jesus, we'll not just live like him, but Christ himself says, "If we love him, we will obey him." Living like Jesus and obeying Jesus isn't what saves us, but it shows we know where we're going, know who's getting us there, and we're following him every step of the way. If you're sitting there and thinking to yourself, "Alright, pastor, I guess I better start feeding the poor or I'll get sent to hell," that's not the right response, and that attitude is going to get you nowhere. If that's your attitude, Christ will say, "You didn't feed the poor to care for them, you didn't feed the poor to honor me, you fed the poor to save yourself." And that's really what Christ is always rooting out. Why do we do the things that we do? Jesus is concerned that our actions aren't about trying to save ourselves, but are done out of love and joy, in response to what Jesus has already done fully and completely for us. So no, the response is not, "I better sign up for the prison ministry then." Maybe some of you are called to do that. But the number one response is to repent of your sins, accept what Jesus has done for you on the cross, and follow him, wherever that leads you and whatever that calls you to do. What Jesus is saying to the group on the left and the right is not a checklist to make sure that you've checked all the boxes so that you can go to heaven. He's simply trying to expose whether you lived your life in the ways of Christ or not, and if you didn't live your life in the ways of Christ, then how can you say you're following him? My friends, the response is we better repent of our sins and accept what Christ has done because when you see what Christ did for you so generously, that makes you all the more generous. When you truly experience the love of God, someone who's really touched by the love of God, there's no way they don't share that with others. But make no mistake, this is because of what Jesus first does in our lives. Jesus says, "As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me." Jesus is showing us and exposing before us and the entire world whether we are living for Him or for ourselves. Hell is God saying, "If you truly reject me, if you truly don't want me part of your life, then I'll give you what you want. I'll give you existence apart from me and apart from my grace." Hell is the full experience of the lies that our culture is telling so many of us and that so many of you are buying into. So let me share some of these lies, and let's see if you are buying into them. Here's some of the lies our culture is saying to us: "Only you can make yourself happy." Here's another lie: "You do you." Here's another lie: "Be what you want and don't let anyone tell you otherwise." I know that we think those are all really cool statements that will probably get a lot of likes on social media, but if we took half a second to think deeper than what a meme is showing to us, then you'll see what all those statements have in common. These are all veiled ways that our culture is simply saying to you, "All that you need is inside of you. You don't need God. You don't need anyone else." I'll tell you what, that lie of self-sufficiency is really attractive to American Christians. We really love the American dream, that we can work and earn and provide our own way and we don't need anyone else. I'll tell you what, that mentality makes it really hard to accept the gospel. You could do nothing on your own. God had to literally step into the creation He made in order to save you. You are so helpless that God had to get up off His throne, come from heaven to earth to do for you what you couldn't do for yourselves. This is why we worship Him. Because He gave up everything to save us. And we are such greedy people. These lies are things that our culture and a generation are buying, hook, line, and sinker. And we think that we can do everything ourselves, that everything we need is inside of us. And the gospel says, "Yes, you're made in the image of God, but something is drastically broken, and you need God's love to come in and make it whole again." But if you want this, if you want to accept those lies, if you want to live your life apart from God, then in the end, you'll get what you want when you hear these words: "Depart from me." The horror of hell starts when you hear those words from the very One who has offered you life, offered you love, offered you salvation, offered you acceptance into the kingdom, offered you heaven, but you chose something else. I'm here to tell you, all roads lead to the throne of Christ. And you either continue through Him as Savior unto Heaven, or you will move away from Him as the judge as you go into hell. And I can't imagine something so sad as what Christ describes here in this passage. And it's not just sad, it's utterly terrifying that the very One who saved you, who offered you salvation and you rejected it, is the very One who then sends you to hell. The ultimate horror. Hell is the ultimate horror because the judge is Jesus Christ. And the second thing: hell is the ultimate horror because the punishment is eternal. Look at verse 46. Jesus says, "And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." Key word here is "eternal." Hell is eternal punishment. And hear me, my friends, this is not because God is some sadist or he's just about malicious torture of his enemies. Hell is the righteous punishment for our sins. I just want to confess something here for a second. I don't want to minimize the struggle some people have with this question. Some people come to this and ask, "How could a loving God send people to hell?" I don't want to minimize that question. I just want to tell you, I never struggled with that question. Because I look at our American justice system, and just because people go to prison doesn't mean we hate them. I never struggled with that aspect of the question. On the flip, there was a part of that question that I wrestled with for a long, long time. It haunted me for a long time, and it was this: "Why would God send us to eternal punishment for temporal sins?" That was the question that made me lose sleep at night. That's what felt like the injustice to me. Meaning, here's another way to put it: "Why is damnation for infinity, for eternity, for sins that we simply committed in this momentary life?" That question plagued me, haunted me, made me question if God was good. Here's what I'd say to you: we know the answer to that question. You know how this works. It works the same way in our justice system. The length of punishment is not contingent upon the length of time it took to commit the crime. If you're very proficient at robbing a bank and you can rob a bank in ten minutes, does that mean that your prison sentence is only ten minutes long? No. We understand how this works. We know that the prison sentence is contingent upon the seriousness of the crime, not the length of time it took to commit it. If you don't think your sins are worthy of eternal punishment, tantamount to burning alive forever, now whether or not it's literal flames or if Jesus is just speaking in ways that we would understand, either way, hell is horrendous and worse than you can imagine. Even if it's tantamount to burning alive forever, if you don't think your sins deserve this, then that shows how little you think your sins actually are, rather than understanding how grievous they are, how much your actions actually matter. Or to put it another way, if you don't think your sins are worthy of eternal punishment, then you've just confessed that you are living according to your own standard, not God's standard. Part of the reason we think so little of our sins is because we think so little of God. We love to talk about the love of God, but we need to think about the holiness of God. It's what far too many Christians don't think about enough: the holiness of God. The only time we see an attribute of God repeated three times in a row is when the scriptures cry, "Holy, holy, holy." We need to think about the holiness of God. I don't want to make something as horrific as hell into something very simple, but you may have heard me say this before because it helps us to begin to understand this. It's fairly simple. When we sin against an eternally holy God, the right and just punishment is eternal punishment. It's a simple equation against God's eternal holiness. So here's what I want you to do. Rather than thinking right now God is unjust for sending people to hell, here's what I want you to do: seriously imagine how holy God must be that to sin against him results in the right, just, and proper punishment being eternal flames. How holy must God be for that to not be unjust, but the just and right response to sinning against Him? If this is inconceivable to you, then I wonder what God you've been worshiping. More than likely a God made in the American image or your own image. God is so immensely holy, it is terrifying. This is why we see the prophet Isaiah, when he enters into the presence of God, say, "Woe is me, I have come to ruin." Because if sinning against God results in the proper punishment being held forever, being burned alive forever, while also being forever consciously aware of what's happening, and that's the proper and right response, and it's in response to God's holiness, I wonder if we've spent enough time considering the holiness of God. It's hard to understand. I know it is. Believe me, it is. This notion of God being so holy that the right and proper punishment is eternity in hell, the notion that God would send people into banishment from His presence into eternal conscious torment forever, I understand why some people come to that point and say, "I'm off the train. That seems too archaic. I can't believe in a God like that." I kind of understand from a human standpoint. But let me remind you what we said in the beginning: Hell is the ultimate horror, reminding us that our actions really do matter. I don't mean matter in just some relative way or some momentary way or some inspirational way that won't last. Your actions actually matter in a spiritual and eternally significant way. You are actually that important. What you do is that important. Don't think so little of yourself. What you do has eternal consequence. You know, it's at this point in the sermon where typically I would probably interject some sort of light-hearted anecdotal story or something to that effect, just to lighten the mood. But I know Peace Church, and you're ready to go deeper, right? If sinning against God results in eternal damnation and that reveals how holy God is, then what does this mean for the six hours that Jesus Christ was on the cross paying for the sins for those who placed their faith in Him? What happened on the cross that was so powerful that it was able to cover an eternity worth of sins? Because it wasn't just the cross. It was who was on the cross and what happened. The Son of God was rejected by God the Father in some way, and the Trinity began to feel a rupture. The punishment was so incredible, the price that was paid so high, and the person paying for it so pure, it was God Himself paying for this, that it was able to cover an eternity of punishment for sins. This is the gravity, magnitude, and wonder of Good Friday, of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This is why we worship Jesus for who He is and what He's done. This is why we place our faith in Him, because there's no one else who was able to do this. He was the only one, because He was fully God and because he was fully man. Fully God made him able to pay for all the sins. Fully human made him able to pay for human sins. This is why we worship him. This is why we bow before our Savior, who is no longer on the cross but now sits on the throne, because he is the King. But my friends, now is not yet time of condemnation. Now is the time of salvation. But judgment is coming. So save yourself from it by placing your faith in Christ, who now with open arms is calling you into His kingdom. Repent of your sins. Place your faith in the hands of the only one who is able to save you. And His name is King Jesus. When you do, you'll be welcomed into the kingdom. Judgment is coming. You think God will allow all this wickedness to continue forever? It will be brought to an end. Judgment is coming, and the only way to stand ready is to stand in the salvation offered to you through Christ Jesus, who offers it to you now. So receive the grace, receive the salvation that you most certainly do not deserve, and understand what Jesus has done for you. Or, you can continue to reject God. You can receive the fact that Jesus has paid for your sins, or you can choose to pay for your sins yourself. If you choose to pay for your sins yourself, then it will literally take an eternity for that to happen. Do you know what I mean by eternity? I mean never-ending. For however long you are in hell, for however many trillions of years, there is still more time left than what's behind you. That's how grievous your sins are. That's how amazing Jesus is, that he was able to cover that by his death on the cross. So receive the grace that is offered to you through your faithful Savior who calls you. Or you can continue to reject Him, and at the end you will get what you've been asking for all along. Hell is the ultimate reminder. Hell is the ultimate horror, reminding us that our actions really do matter. This is dark stuff. I understand. I understand this is hard. This is hard. I will be completely honest with you. I slept very little last night. This is the stuff that haunts preachers. This is the stuff that should haunt you. We are a culture that says we long for justice. This is the ultimate justice happening. When people submitted their suggestions for hell, many times people said it with questions about the occult and some of the demonic things happening around us. What I want to do is spend a few moments with the time we have looking at some FAQs, and whatever we don't get to, I'll have the guys over at our podcast "That's a Good Question" answer the rest. Here's a couple of the questions that came in. What is the occult, and how dangerous is it? Simply put, the occult is a banner term that encapsulates different ways that people participate in it. It's not one specific thing or one specific sect. The word "occult" comes from the Latin word meaning concealment or to conceal. We've taken that and connected it with this weird mysticism that people engage in to try to practice with or participate in spiritually concealed things, which is why it's so often connected with darkness. A popular-level inception of this would be things like tarot cards, Ouija boards, or palm readings. The occult is incredibly dangerous. Before I became a Christian, unfortunately, I dipped my toes in some of these things. The occult is a tool that demonic powers use to make people think that they are enlightened, or getting insight into the concealed parts of nature, or making people think they have some level of control over spirits. But I'll remind you what the Bible says about this in Corinthians chapter 11, verses 14 and 15, that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, so it's no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. People who are practicing the occult think they're experiencing good things or some sort of enlightenment or they're getting a window into something that's true. But here's what I'll tell you: the occult is about concealed darkness, but we are people of the gospel, which is about revealing light. The second question is, "How prevalent is New Age spiritualism or paganism?" From 2011 to 2021, we saw an over fourfold increase in the number of people in the U.S. who identify as pagans. Pagans are people who practice the occult with a specific angle of trying to access the spiritual through nature. That's kind of what you think of when we think of pagans. In the last couple of years, National Geographic, New York Times, NBC News, and others have done pieces on the rise or comeback of witchcraft and paganism in America. What people are doing with paganism and witchcraft is looking to the past and saying the predecessors of paganism and witchcraft were actually on to something. Many of them were killed for practicing such dark things, but people are looking back and saying they were on to something. They take a modern understanding of science and blend it with these ancient practices of occult pagans and witches. They try to combine modern understanding of science with this ancient mysticism, saying they were in tune with the rhythm of nature or connecting it to things like the magnetic fields of the earth, giving a gateway into the spiritual. See how there's this blend of science and spiritism? It's very appealing. For people who practice this, it makes the ancient pagans and witches into martyrs, because many of them were killed for what they practiced, turning them into martyrs for what they were doing, saying they were on to something. It's a form of spiritualism that rejects the authority of God, while boasting in an enlightenment through modern science and delving into the mystery and wonder of the spiritual. I understand why it's attractive, but it's simply demonic. The Bible acknowledged and predicted this would happen. First Timothy 4 says, "Now the Spirit (meaning the Holy Spirit) expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons." First Corinthians makes it clear that pagan rituals are not scientific; they're demonic. "What pagan sacrifice (or you could say what pagans practice), they offer to demons and not to God." One more question: "What power do demons have?" They have limited power. Only God is all-powerful. Before talking about how much power they have, which is hard to quantify in human terms, let's talk about how much power we allow them to have. That's what's going on here. Paganism and spirituality open us up to the power of the demonic. I want to say that demons have as much power as we allow, but let me say this: if you're a Christian walking in step with the Holy Spirit, demons have no power over you. But they can afflict or torment you. They cannot possess you, but they can tempt and terrorize you. Scripture gives us the antidote for this: James chapter 4 verse 7 says, "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Notice we don't just resist the devil and he flees. There's a massive qualifier: we are to submit to God, then resist the devil and he will flee. I wish our culture was as interested in the things of God as in the things of the devil. And yet through all of this, when people give their hearts to such dark things, we see the heart of God, that even in the midst of a people who rejected him, God so loved the world that he sent his son to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, to save us from the darkness we willingly give ourselves to. Christ came to pave the way for salvation, saving us from the full wrath of God rightly due to us because of our sins, a judgment that is coming to give us what we don't deserve: heaven, a seat at God's table. Christ died so we could have life, walk in the light, not darkness, not to play with demons but to walk with the Holy Spirit. So for the glory of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, let's stand and worship. Would you bow your heads? Prepare your heart for worship, considering that you deserve hell but Christ has come to intervene so you could have life to the full, life eternal. That alone should call you to worship. On top of this, we are also saved from the judgment we are rightly due. Father, we come before you thankful for the opportunity to gather in the midst of brothers and sisters in Jesus. We come before you, our victorious King, who does sit on the throne, ruling in love and righteousness. We thank you for doing for us what we couldn't do for ourselves, winning the victory over Satan, sin, and death, and giving us a seat at your table. So, Father, pour out your Spirit so we can worship you in the name of Jesus by the power of the Spirit. And everyone said, Amen. And everyone said, Amen. Church, let's worship together.

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, January 19, 2025 Womb to Tomb Psalm 82 Justice for the Fatherless 2 Overview Main Idea: God's people are to share God's heart to give justice for those who can't defend themselves. Sermon Outline: 1. God is the supreme judge {Psalm 82:1} 2. God is the righteous judge {Psalm 82:2-7} 3 Pre-Questions What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘justice’? How does it relate to helping those who cannot help themselves? Have you ever known someone who didn’t have a father or a stable family? What challenges do you think they faced? 4 Questions Psalm 68:5 says God is a ‘Father to the fatherless.’ What does this verse teach us about God’s character and His care for vulnerable people? How can we reflect God’s heart for the fatherless in our daily lives? Isaiah 1:17 calls us to ‘defend the fatherless.’ What are some practical ways we can live this out as individuals and as a church? What might stop us from stepping in to help the fatherless, and how can we overcome those barriers? Proverbs 31:8-9 urges us to ‘speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.’ How can we be advocates for children without families or stable homes? How can we offer more than just material support and bring hope and love to the fatherless? Ephesians 1:5 says that God predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ. How does understanding our spiritual adoption help us care for others? What role can fostering, adoption, or mentorship play in living out God’s call to care for the fatherless? What is one step you can take this week to help or support someone who is fatherless or vulnerable? PDF Download