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The News To His Enemy Sermon Series: Go Tell It On The Mountain Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Matthew 2:1-16 Transcript It gives me a lot, a lot of great joy to say these two words to you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. So I wonder what was the word? What word did you think of? What word do you think of when you hear Christmas? Do you think joy? Do you think nostalgia? Do you think tradition? Do you think Jesus? What do you think? What is your one word response? You know, when it comes to Christmas there are a lot of different ways that people respond. And as I just said, here at Peace Church, what we've been doing during this Christmas series is we've been looking at the Bible and we've been looking at how different people responded to the news that Jesus Christ was born or was going to be born, and we've looked at how their response helps us to understand how we might respond. What is the best way to respond? Now we've looked at the news given to his mom, given to his dad, Joseph, given to his people, the shepherds, given to his relatives, but every instance that we've looked at so far in Scripture has been a positive example for us. We've seen the Holy Spirit work through different people in a positive way, and it's helped to encourage us to think about how do we rightly respond to Christmas. But today, tonight, we're going to look at the opposite of a positive response. We're going to look at a really hard, negative response as we look at the news given to his enemy, to the enemy of Jesus Christ, as we look at how King Herod responded to the news that a king has been born. So here's what I'd love for you to do. Would you open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 2. We're gonna read a longer than normal section tonight, but hey, this is the crazy crowd and we're gonna get into our Bibles here today. Here's the setting for you. We are looking at how King Herod reacts to the news. Now Herod was not a good guy. Murdered one of his wives, murdered a couple of his sons, just so that he could maintain and hold on to power. He was desperate to hold on to power. And we're going to see how he responded to the news that a king, a new king has been born. So here's the setting. Jesus has been born. And the star that marked his birth has guided the wise men from their country to Judea, to Jerusalem. And when they get to Jerusalem, they're like, so where is he? Where's the newborn king? And nobody has any idea what they're talking about. And so everyone starts getting on edge, everyone's wondering what's going on. And King Herod especially is troubled by this, because Herod is a man who's obsessed with his own power, and he does not want another king in the country. And so with that, let's look at Herod's response. Let's read the gospel according to Matthew, chapter 2. We'll read verses 1 to 16. So would you hear God's word? Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born the king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose, and we have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. And they told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for it is written by the prophet and you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I may too go and worship him. And after listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. And when they, when the wise men saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshiped him then opening their treasures they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod they departed to their own country by another way now when they had departed behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said rise take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And when he rose, he took the child and his mother and departed by night to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophets out of Egypt. I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was tricked by the wise men, he became furious and he sent and he killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all the region who were two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. This is God's very sobering but very powerful word. Let's pray and then we'll continue but let's start with prayer. Father we gather here tonight to glorify you for the birth of your Son and our Savior. On this eve of the celebration of his birth, would you please send us the Holy Spirit to be with us, that we may know your word and by it know your Son all the more this Christmas. For it is in the name of the newborn King that we pray these things and everyone said Amen and Amen. My friends, Christmas is about good news. And so let me give you some good news here tonight. It may be challenging, but it's good news nonetheless. And it's this, the result of Herod's reaction to the news of Christ's birth shows us that Jesus can't be stopped. And so what we're going to do is we're going to take a few moments. Let's do a good old fashioned Bible study. Let's look at Herod's response, Herod's reaction to this news, and then we're going to look at our response. So we're first going to look at Herod's reaction, then we'll see how that might inform our response. So first thing, Herod's reaction to the news of Christ's birth. First thing, he feels threatened. So the wise men roll into town talking about a newborn king, and verse 3, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. He was troubled because he's a man obsessed with rule and obsessed with power. And he sees this prophecy. He sees this news of a new king as a threat to his power. And you know what? I'm pretty sure a lot of us sit here and we think, yup, exactly. That's how it's like. That's what it's like with those who are in power. All they care about is keeping their power and eliminating those who oppose it. And you know what? Yeah, that actually is what's happening here. But don't be too quick to judge, because here's the reality. Jesus does come to upend ungodly rule and power. Herod does not want to give up the authority over Judea, but so many of us do not want to give up authority over our own lives. And Jesus comes to upend ungodly rule and ungodly power. So you better believe Jesus is a threat to the power structures that do not glorify God. He has come to take his throne upon this world, upon his creation, and yes, upon our own lives. Herod understood this in many ways that we don't even. So let's hold that thought, we're going to come back to it. So Herod reacts to the news of Christ's birth by feeling threatened, and the second thing we see is that Herod reacts to the news of Christ's birth by spreading, speaking lies. So Herod hears about this king, and he doesn't know his own Bible very well, so he calls the biblical scholars around him, calls them together, and he asks them, where's this Messiah going to be born? And they say, well the prophets say that he's going to be born in Bethlehem. And so this is what Herod does, verse 8. And so he, Herod, sent them, the Magi, the wise men, Herod sent them to Bethlehem saying, go, search diligently for the child. And when you have found them, bring me word that I may too come and worship him. But we all know that this is a big fat lie. He has no intention of doing that. But listen to me for a moment. The wise men sincerely, genuinely want to worship Christ. And Herod only acts like he does, but he has no intention of doing this. And I want to ask you, how many of us are really that different? For so many people, maybe even you gathered here tonight in front of people, in front of church people, you act and talk a big game. I too want to worship Jesus. But when it comes time to do it, you don't show up. Don't judge Herod so quickly. Herod responds to the news of Christ's birth by spreading death. So God, God in his goodness warns the wise men, don't go back to Herod. Go back to your own country. And they do. Now, we're pretty certain that the wise men came from Persia, which is modern day Iran. So God tells them don't go back. He's not a good guy. It's not going to end well. Go back to your own country. So they do. But when Herod finds out about this, he's absolutely livid. Verse 16, then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children of Bethlehem. This is nothing short of absolute horror. And it shows the utter depth of what one man will do to maintain power. Now listen, there were actually many Herods in the Herod dynasty. It can be really confusing to try and follow this lineage here, but what you need to know is this is not the same Herod that Jesus meets with during his trial right before his crucifixion. That's one of his sons. This Herod, this is the original. This is Herod the Great. This is the OG Herod. This is the Herod that was installed to his kingship by the Roman emperor himself. This was the Herod, the great Herod, who rebuilt the second temple, expanded it, and made it the crowning jewel of Jerusalem, how could a man who did such an amazing thing for God turn around and kill children? Here's how. Because Herod didn't do it for God. Herod built the temple for himself. He did it to garner favor among the people to maintain power, and in this we are seeing the true extent of Herod's obsession with his own power. He's willing to kill innocent children rather than see God's good prophecy fulfilled, even if that means having to give up his own authority. And right there's another challenge for us. How many of us are willing to do things for God, even great things for God, as long as we don't have to give up our own authority? How many people will say things like this? They'll say things like, God, I will do great things for you as long as you bless me and don't tell me what to do with my life. That that's the spirit of Herod. That's the spirit of Herod. This is God. I want to serve you. I'll do good things for you. Just don't tell me how to live my life. That is the spirit of Herod. And I'm telling you, it is alive and well in America. And unfortunately, even in the American church. We love to serve God, we just don't like to follow God. We love to serve God, but we don't like to submit to Him. And so, I'm asking you, would you look into your own soul tonight? I fully recognize on a day like today, I'm speaking to people who I will never see again, and you will never hear me speak again. I am thankful to the Lord on high for the moments I have to be able to share something with you. I hope and I pray is of eternal value. So let me just ask you, would you look in your own soul? Do you have this spirit in you? Because if you do call it out, reject it and embrace Christ, because when you do, you realize that what God has for you is better than what you have for you. And so let's see what that is. Let's contrast Herod's reaction with our response. First thing is this. Where Herod feels threatened, we are liberated. Where Herod feels threatened, we are liberated. Let me ask you a question. Do you know what the Stockholm Syndrome is? Let me explain. The Stockholm Syndrome is this condition where a person falls in love with their captor, meaning a person who has been kidnapped or is held in bondage, they will actually develop feelings of love and protection for the very people or person who keeps them enslaved. It's an unhealthy mental condition. And for so many people in the world, we've developed Stockholm syndrome for our own sin. We've fallen in love with our sin. We love our sin, but sin keeps us enslaved. Sin keeps us away from God and away from the freedom that's only found in the Lord. Christmas, let me remind you, if anything, Christmas is a heavenly invasion where the Son of God left His throne in heaven, stepped into creation, born in that little manger, and He came on a rescue mission to save you, and to save me, to save us from sin, to save us from the grip and the bondage of sin and the reign of Satan. I know we all have lots of different opinions on what sin is, but let me tell you what the Bible says. Sin is slavery, and yet we've come to love it, and we celebrate it, and we protect it. And so when a power comes into our life that wants to free us from that, we, like Herod, we feel threatened. We feel threatened when this power comes in, even if it's a power to liberate us from our sin. Herod feels threatened, my friends, but when we accept Christ, that's liberation. That's freedom from our sin. That's salvation. And with it, we come to know the truth. And that's the second thing we're going to see, is that where Herod speaks lies, we receive truth. If you know your Bibles at all, you'll know that there's actually not a lot of ink spilled talking about the birth of Christ. Of the four Gospels that we have, only two of the Gospels actually even mention the story of Jesus' birth. Talking about Jesus' birth isn't something the Bible does a lot about, but there is this one very rare occasion where Jesus himself speaks about his own birth. You may know what I'm talking about. It's when he's on trial, when he's looking at possibly being crucified and he's standing before Pontius Pilate, the governor, and Pilate calls Jesus aside and Pilate's trying to figure out, should I crucify this man or not? So Pilate pulls him aside and is having this conversation with Jesus. And we see this amazing, amazing interaction. It's in John 18. Here's what it says. Then Pilate said to him, to Jesus, so you are a king. And Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king, but then listen to this twofold response. It's powerful. You say I am a king. And then Jesus says for this purpose, I was born and for this purpose, I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. So on the one hand, Jesus says he is born. On the other hand, Jesus says that he's come into this world. This reminds us that Jesus is both the son of Mary and Jesus is the son of God. But then Jesus follows up with this line, with this next line. And let me tell you, this next line is a line in the sand. I know we like to think about Jesus as that guy that draws big circles around everybody and brings us together. You have to understand that Jesus said things that at times that was nothing short of a line in the sand. And this is one of those. And let me remind you, my friends, Jesus says this to a man who is trying to decide whether or not to kill him by crucifixion. This is how amazing Jesus Christ is. Jesus says this to Pilate, everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice. Of the truth, because Christ is Emmanuel. He is God with us. Jesus is the truth and by Jesus we know what the truth is. That's what we get at Christmas. We get to know the capital T truth that transcends all of our opinions, all of our cultures, all of our societies, all of our language. We get to know the truth that will be true even when we're not here. For Jesus is the truth. Herod responds by speaking lies. We respond by receiving truth. For Jesus powerfully said this line, and if you went to Sunday school, you probably know this line. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth. Anybody know the last one? And the life. And that's the last thing that we see. Where Herod spreads death, we have life. King Herod was the enemy of the Son of God. I'm going to say something hard, but we, until we receive Christ as our Savior, we are also enemies of God. And I know you're thinking, that is a horrible thing to say, especially on Christmas Eve. Hold on a second. It actually, yes, it's hard to hear, but it actually reveals something pretty amazing. That even as we are enemies of God, God still loves us enough to send his Son to save us. Yes, understanding that until we accept Christ we're an enemy of God, that's a hard thing to hear. But with it, you also have to understand, it also kind of shows us the magnitude of God's great love, that even for those who hate God, who revile Him, who spit on Him, who mock Him, God still sent a Savior to save us. That's how amazing God's love is. Romans chapter five, verse 10 says, for while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more now that we are reconciled, how we shall be saved by his life. His life. My friends, it's an odd thing to consider all the things that you've worked for in your life. It's an odd thing to consider all the things that you think you've earned in your life. It's an odd thing to consider all that you have accumulated and yet your very life was given to you. You did not earn it, you didn't work for it. It was given to you, as is the breath in your lungs. But you have to understand that Jesus, Jesus comes to give us so much more life. True and everlasting and eternal life marked by salvation in his name. And the Bible says here, says that we are reconciled. Don't get put off by that word. I know it sounds like a religious word. It simply just means to be reconciled, means to be put back into a right and proper relationship So by the death of Jesus we are brought back into the relationship with God that we should have not as enemies but as friends as Friends of God and even more than that We are adopted By Jesus God adopts us into his kingdom and looks at us and calls us his sons and his daughters And he welcomes us into his kingdom. He welcomes us to His table. That's what we get to have at Christmas through Jesus. Christ came to give His life to save you. True and everlasting life. And we can have this life because Jesus gave His. For the child that was born at Christmas, as we're going to see here and reenact here in a moment, Jesus Christ is the light of the world who came into this dark world to give up his life on a cross and His death on the cross was the payment for our sin Because sin is death but yet in Christ we have life for the death of Christ means life for us So this Christmas remember this especially if I will never see you again, especially if you'll never hear me speak again. If I could leave you with one thing, let me leave you with this. This Christmas, remember that Jesus can't be stopped, not even by Kings, not even by lies and not even by death. Herod tried and failed. Herod lied, and yet the truth still went forth. Herod killed and murdered children, yet Jesus still lived. This Christmas, remember that Jesus Christ cannot be stopped. And this was not the only time that death tried to stop Jesus, but couldn't. Death couldn't stop Christ as a child. And death couldn't stop Him even after He was killed on the cross. For three days after his death, Jesus Christ got up and walked out of his grave. The child that was born at Christmas is the Savior who rose again. That's who we are here to celebrate, because Jesus can't be stopped. Amen? Amen. Amen. Let's pray.

The Lie of "Follow Your Heart" Sermon Series: Calling Out Cultural Lies Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Jeremiah 17:9 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, Amen. So as we continue this sermon series, calling out cultural lies, I want to address two quick things as we get going. First one is this. I got a communication in light of this sermon series, and it basically went like this. Oh, here we go. Another self-righteous pastor wanting to call out culture when he should be calling out his congregation Now I got that I immediately thought You clearly haven't heard me preach brother I Have no problem calling out this congregation to live more faithfully and fully To God do you agree with that? Amen. And I start with myself. Which leads to the other thing that I want to say. And I've said it before in this sermon series, but I definitely want to say it again. And that's the reason that we're doing this sermon series, calling out cultural lies. We're not doing this to pick on anyone. See, God, through Jesus Christ, calls Christians to love everyone. We're not called to agree with everyone, but we're called to love everyone. So we love people. And see what these lies are doing is that they're keeping people in darkness. And I don't know about you, but I don't like it when people I love are lied to. So this sermon series is not about picking on people, it's about pulling them out of darkness and into God's glorious light. That's why we're doing this, amen? Amen. Which leads to the lie that I want to discuss today. And I'll just tell you, this lie, this cultural lie, is not exclusive to any one group or any one American demographic or either political affiliation. I've heard people left, right, up, down, black, white, we all have said this probably at some point, and it's this lie. The lie of follow your heart. Now, this will be a hard pill to swallow, but my hope is that coming out of this sermon, you will never again tell someone, follow your heart. And so we're going to look at just one verse today, just one, but I think it's very powerful and I think it sums it all up. So please, if you have your Bibles, would you turn to Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9. Now if you do want to use the Bibles we provided we are very happy for you to do that. Quick reference that's on page 819. But as you're turning there let me just remind us and show us why this nearly 2,500 year old passage is still relevant today. It's helpful if we know the context. So here let me just lay the context as you're finding that passage. This of course was set in the Old Testament. Now this was during a time when God's people were divided into two nations, the northern kingdom called Israel and the southern kingdom called Judah. Now when the prophet Jeremiah comes on the scene, the northern kingdom of Israel has already been destroyed by Assyria and only the southern kingdom, Judah remains, and this is where Jerusalem was. And God sends Jeremiah to tell this nation, he tells them, if you don't change course, you're headed for the same fate as the northern kingdom, except it won't be Assyria that comes to destroy you. It will be Babylon. See, God had made a promise with his people, we call it a covenant, that they would follow him as their God, and he would love them as his people as he called them to be a light in the world. But here's what was happening. They were taking their status as being God's people and they got lazy and they stopped following in his ways. God had told them, take care of the poor, stay pure and distinct from the world around you. But these people were beginning to look only to themselves and they were beginning to assimilate to the cultures around them. And God is like, if you're not going to follow me, why would I protect you? God is saying, if you're going to openly sin against me, why wouldn't I judge you? And so God sends Jeremiah to deliver this message. And Jeremiah is like, listen up, my kinsfolk, we are way off path and it's because our hearts have led us there. Rather than following God, we have followed our sinful hearts. Nothing at all like what is happening today, right? There are so many similarities. But I'm not talking about the culture at large. I'm talking about Christians. Let's look at some of these stats. Only 44% of Protestants attend church weekly. That means on any given Sunday around 55% of the people aren't there Only 5% of churchgoers give 10% of their income and Did you know that if Christians would tie 10% of their income God's Church would have an extra Brace yourself. I hope you had your medication this morning God's Church would have an extra $139 billion annually. Imagine the impact the church could have, because listen to me, that $139 billion is going somewhere, more than likely to Disney, Verizon, and the big three auto companies. Only 40% of Christians pray, 40% of Christians only pray when they are at church. Only 45% of those who attend church actually serve at church, which means the vast majority of Christians are more than happy letting someone else do all the work. Now listen, I'm citing national trends here. I'm citing national trends. Peace Church, I fully believe that we are bucking those trends at every turn. But there are still people who call themselves Christians who only show up sporadically, they only give when it's convenient, they don't serve, and then we all sit and wonder why the church doesn't have more of a positive influence in our society. Because here's the moral of the story, the state of the church is not pointed in a good direction and it's a heart issue. We look back on these people for the Old Testament. We can't believe that they would behave the way that they did But let me ask you are we really any different? In love I ask you are you any different? For those who went to Sunday school, you know how the story ends the people did not listen to Jeremiah or to God and And Babylon does come in and destroys the kingdom and men women or children and children are carted off to Babylon Where they have to live in exile among the foreign people with a foreign culture But at this point in our passage The verse we're gonna read today Babylon hadn't come yet and Jeremiah is warning them He's pleading with them, but they aren't listening. And this is what he says. So would you hear the Word of the Lord? Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? This is God's Word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, that we get to be able to gather here today so freely. Lord, we want to give you glory this morning as we lift up the name of Jesus and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Lord God, we need you to continue to mold and shape hearts more and more into the image of Jesus. For it's in his precious, perfect, and powerful name that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen. So church, the world and the culture and many of us are saying even to our kids, follow your heart. But I'm here to give you this one main idea today. The rebuttal to follow your heart is very simply this. Follow God, not your heart. Follow God, not your heart. And we're gonna look at just one verse. We'll look at some other verses. But we're gonna primarily look at some at one verse today. And we're gonna try and siphon out three things from it. Here is ahead of time. Follow God, not your heart, because our hearts are liars, our hearts are lacking, and our hearts are lost. Alright, first thing, let's see what God's truth says about all of this. Our hearts are liars. Listen to this first part of this verse and tell me that this doesn't fly in the face of everything our culture is saying. Jeremiah 17 verse 9 starts off by saying, the heart is deceitful above all things. I'll tell you this, when I have a bad day, my heart says, go get a box of donuts. My heart says, when someone treats me bad, treat them bad back. My heart says, if someone's going to be snarky to you, be snarky back. I don't know what it is for you, but I guarantee if you followed your heart 100% of the time, your life would not turn out well. Why? Because our hearts are actually broken. I don't mean broken as in your boyfriend dumps you. I mean broken as in they do not function properly. They are broken. They're missing pieces and they're broken by sin. This is why we need God not just to make all things new, but we need God to give us a new heart. Because our heart is broken by sin and because it's broken because it's broken. It's deceitful It lies to us. So no do not follow your heart follow God Why because he wants better things for you than what your heart does But this is so hard this is so Impossibly hard in our world, especially here in 21st century America. There is not much that's not available to you that you don't have the means to get It is so hard to say no to our hearts in the world that we live in Our hearts lie to us and they tell us that what we desire is a good thing when it's not but we must Remember our hearts are broken. They lie to us a Broken clock lies to you about what time it is Even though it may not mean to and our broken hearts lie to us even about what is truly good for us. And let me just remind you of something. I think many times our own hearts can speak sweeter lies to us than even the devil himself. Sometimes we blame the devil when we need to blame our hearts. The heart is deceitful above all things. Listen to me. It's not just that it's deceitful. It's deceitful to you. Your own heart will lie to you. This is why we need to hide ourselves in the Word of God. So follow God, not your heart, because our hearts are liars, but also because our hearts are lacking. Our verse says the heart is deceitful above all things and then it says and desperately sick. This doesn't just mean sick as in your heart has COVID, but sick as in it's twisted. This is why the old King James would translate it like this. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Our hearts are wicked and it's wicked in full. But understand the picture here. It's not just that our hearts are unwell. It's not just that our hearts are unholy. Our hearts are un-whole. It's broken with missing pieces. Our hearts are lacking. They lack health. They lack wisdom and discernment. They lack the righteousness to make decisions that are truly best for us. And one of the biggest things they lack, which is also the biggest reason why we shouldn't trust them, hear me, hear me, especially you teenagers. Our twisted hearts want to serve our own passions rather than God's glory. If our hearts were true and well and trustworthy, they would lead us to do the greatest good. Listen to me, not just the greatest good for ourselves, but the greatest good that there is, which is bringing glory to God. But our broken hearts seek to bring glory to ourselves, but we're not meant for that. We can't handle the weight of glory. It crushes us because we are neither worthy nor able to handle the glory that our hearts desire. Our hearts seek to glorify ourselves. And so what do our hearts do? Our hearts give ourselves to our passions. But when we do that, with an unsanctified heart, giving ourselves to our passions, we don't get glory, we get pain. And when this happens we see the final truth. We need to follow God, not our hearts, because our hearts are lost. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, leading to this both love and hate. It says this, who can understand it? If you've lived any length of time, you can look back and say, I can't believe I did that. If you've lived any length of time, or maybe you're in that moment right now, you're like, I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I'm doing that. Why am I doing this? I know it's wrong. The reason you say that is because your heart's lost. It's lost, it's wandering, it's looking for what it wants, but it doesn't know what it wants because it's broken. And don't forget the context here. Please don't forget the context. This was spoken 2,500 years ago to a different people at a different time, but it shows us that people are the same no matter when, no matter where. This was originally spoken to a people who were called to look at their life and make change or suffer the drastic consequences. God was using Jeremiah to call his people back to himself, back to his plan, which was for their good. He wanted something better for them than what they were chasing after. God was saying, stop following your heart. It's leading to your own destruction. Turn and follow me. Return to me and have life. Church, one of the clearest times in Scripture that we see God say, do not follow your heart, if not the clearest time, comes from Numbers chapter 15, a book of the Bible we rarely get to. Now, I will read it for you, but here's what's going on. At this point in Numbers chapter 15, God is speaking through Moses to the people. Numbers chapter 15, verse 37 on down says this, the Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner. And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord to do them not to follow after your own hearts and your own eyes which you are inclined to whore after who would love to say that in church well God said it verse 40 so shall you remember and do all my commandments and be holy to your God I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord your God. Did you hear that language? I want to be your God. It's all over this. A couple of things from this passage. We see God use some pretty strong language here and it's to wake us up so we can understand the reality of what it means to follow our heart. When we follow our hearts, it's like being a prostitute. You know what a prostitute does? A prostitute gives herself to that which does not love her back. And that's what we do when we follow our hearts. We give ourselves to things that will not love us back. This is why our main idea is follow God, not your heart. Why? Because God will love you back. Because God loves us. And I love how God called his people to put a blue cord on their clothes, a symbol, a constant symbol to remind them not to follow after their heart, but to follow after him. Now listen, I don't know if anyone in here actually has a tassel on their clothes with a blue cord running through it. Maybe we should, but I'll tell you what many of us do instead. We have Christian tattoos. We have WWJD bracelets. We have cross necklaces. We have fancy faith shirts. Christians, listen to me. Yes, adorn yourself with reminders of what God has done. It's actually kind of biblical, but don't do that. And then laugh in God's face by following after your own hearts, following after things that won't love you back, no one will love you like the Lord himself. So follow God, not your heart. We can see the folly of following our heart even before the Bible gives us the wisdom not to do it. And so as we've been looking at in this series, we've been looking at how lies, true lies crumble under the weight of truth, but true lies actually crumble under the weight of their own deception if we are wise enough to stop and actually analyze the lie that we're buying into. So let's talk about how the lie of follow your heart falls short of everything it promises. See, the world and even some well-intentioned people and parents will tell us, follow your hearts. And you and I have said this because the heart behind it is at least well-intentioned, but it's very similar to live your truth. It seems good, but it's misleading. Here's what it means. Let's look at this from two different angles here. So, first thing, follow your heart, meaning, what we try to mean is only you know what you want, so go after it. People, people, is it not entirely possible that others might know you better than you know yourself. Is it not often said that part of growing up is realizing that your parents were right? And your pastor. I'm waiting for my kids to get to that point, too, by the way. We need to learn that others can see things in us that maybe we don't see. But listen, it also goes another way. It also goes for the things that we want. Maybe others can see things in what we want more than what we can see. For instance, a girl likes a guy. If others know this gentleman better, isn't that something that she should listen to? Or what about a career? Do you follow your heart or do you listen to the advice of those who may be actually in that profession? Even before we bring the better answer of listening to God, we can already see that following your heart has a number of holes in it. Another angle is this. Follow your heart, people mean, don't follow the crowd, do what makes you happy. Listen, these statements seem nice and encouraging, and it's just what our selfish, pride-centered world wants to hear. But listen to me, just because the crowd isn't worth listening to, that doesn't mean that your heart is. There's a third option. God. I was recently listening to this presentation that this gentleman was giving, and it was on following your heart. And the presenter said some things that I could not disagree with more. He said this. He said, following your heart is the very definition of what it means to be human. Now listen, you have to understand the context from which this man was saying these things. Part of his story was that he was a cancer survivor. He had gotten very sick and was on the brink of death, but he overcame and he got strong and he overcame cancer, which is amazing and commendable and I'm very thankful for it. But that experience tainted his perspective and led him to craft this presentation that he goes around and gives. It led him to give this advice. He said this, he said, the secret to following your heart is one thing. Plan your funeral. The realization of our place in this world, that all of this is temporary, can become a lens through which matters of the heart are most easily viewed. Listen, I think that really deeply resonates with so many people. But if I could summarize how I heard this and why I think it's so popular, I think it'd be like this. I think this is kind of what he was saying. This life is all you got, and soon you will be gone. So follow that passion because what matters is your happiness in this fleeting moment that we call life. We love sentiments like that. I'm even feeling the warm fuzzies here. But let me throw a monkey wrench into this. What if the end of your life isn't the end? What if, yes, life is short, but what if it's not temporary, but eternal? So this puts us at an existential crossroads here. Church, listen to me. If, if the greatest good and the highest purpose is our own personal happiness, I would still tell you don't follow your hearts. But that's not the highest good, that's not our greatest purpose. We were made for more than this momentary life. We were made for more. And not just made for more, I'm telling you, we were made for the most. The greatest good and purpose is the glory of God. And from that, listen to me, from that we get the greatest joy because that's what we were meant to do. We were designed to love God and to worship Him. But when we put our, when we put ourselves first, we will never be happy because you'll never have enough. But if you put God first, that's when the greatest joy comes, because He's more than enough. But we don't get, and I get it, we don't get the greatest joy out of bringing God glory or through worship while we have broken hearts, which is why God says this, says, And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. This is powerful and somewhat graphic imagery of God ripping our stony heart out of our chest and giving us a new heart and a new spirit. But here's what's going on. Ezekiel is pointing to the new covenant which we are now in and it's in this fulfilled promise that we get this new heart and this happens when we place our faith in Jesus and we trust in his life, death and resurrection which we call the gospel and then also we get a new spirit which by the way is the Holy Spirit who fills us, indwells within us so that we could live the life that God has called us to do. But this happens when we place our faith in the gospel of Jesus, Jesus Christ, who gave up his body to death on the cross so that we could have life, so that we could have a new heart. And by his resurrection from the dead and by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, living this new life with this new heart, we can truly not just love God, but truly understand, experience, and receive the love of God, from which we can truly worship into a season and a moment, an experience of joy that our dead hearts could never bring us. A joy that can only be found in God through the gospel of Jesus Christ as we rejoice in Him and we love Him and we worship Him with a new heart given to us by the gospel, as we experience the greatest good which is bringing God glory glory that he deserves Which our hearts were made for And this doesn't happen through following your heart. This happens through giving our hearts to God. And so let's Let's do that now. Amen.

Psalm 23 for the Idolatry-Prone Minister Christian Life Logan Bailey Family Pastor Peace Church Published On: August 7, 2023 When I was young and excited about starting in ministry, my youth pastor gave me a warning: “too many pastors let ministry become their identity.” He explained to me that when we let ministry become an idol, it drains our spiritual health and consumes us. I became terrified that I would make that mistake, and I vowed to fight against the temptation. After a decade of church ministry, I’ve failed miserably. The problem does not persist from lack of caring. I still heed my pastor’s warning and am constantly fighting the temptation to make an idol out of ministry. However, idolatry always finds a way to slither back into my heart. And idolatry is not pretty or godly. I become discontent. I become restless. I become easily irritated with the shortcomings of others, yet blind to my own. I am blind to God’s presence. I am nihilistic. I am pessimistic about the work of the church. Idolatry takes hold whenever I start to treat ministry like it gives my life meaning. This is extremely dangerous. Ministry cannot create purpose; nothing I accomplish could ever do so. Ministry is certainly meaningful, but only as much as it connects us to Something deeper. On those days (or in those seasons of life) when I have made an idol out of ministry, I am forgetting where my true identity and confidence lie. Whether you are a minister or not, your identity is in Christ . It is sobering to realize that idolatry doesn’t happen without our permission. We sadly often fail to depend on Jesus to do what he has promised to do. Psalm 23 is invaluable to me because it has continually reminded me of where to place my confidence. Whenever ministry dominates my heart, Psalm 23 redirects me to the Caretaker of my soul. Simply put, I struggle with idolizing ministry because I forget about Jesus. I lose sense of my identity in Christ because I neglect the Good Shepherd . King David wrote Psalm 23 using two images: the Lord as a Shepherd and the Lord as a host. That makes us the sheep in his pasture and the guests at his table. These metaphors are no accident; it is God’s intention to care to for his people. Psalm 23 reminds us that God intends to: meet our needs, give us rest , restore life to our souls, lead us in righteous God-glorifying living, embolden and comfort us by his presence, heap blessings on us, and prepare a place for us in his house. Psalm 23 reminds us that Jesus intends to care for our souls . He is set on it for the sake of his name and the sake of our good. In Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin and death. In Christ, we can find contentment no matter our circumstances, successes, or failures. In Christ, we have a Shepherd who gives our lives eternal meaning and significance. If Jesus intends to care for our souls, why do we look to our ministries to do it instead? Our ministries cannot sit on the throne of our hearts if Jesus is already sitting there. We won’t be begging our ministries to “fill our cup” if our cups are already overflowing by the grace of our God. This is why Psalm 23 is so important for ministers: if what you need most is to be reminded that Jesus is your Shepherd, then it is what your volunteers and students need the most, too. Despite all our talk about models, philosophies, and vision statements, only Jesus can meet the needs of a soul. Every so often, Psalm 23 has been used by the Holy Spirit to pick me up out of a pit of idolatry and allowed me to once again worship my Savior, the Caretaker of my soul, rather than worship ministry. My ministry (and my overall spiritual health) is always strongest when I am most dependent on Jesus for my identity and purpose rather than what I accomplish through ministry. May it be so for all of us as well. 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

PODCAST That's a Good Question Wrath and Rescue: Unpacking the Mystery of Atonement December 17, 2024 Jon Delger & Mitchell Leach Listen to this Episode Hey, welcome to That's a Good Question, the place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. We are a podcast of Resound Media, a place you can trust to find great resources on the Christian life and church leadership. You can always submit questions that we answer on this show to resoundmedia.c/questions. If you find this resource helpful, do us a favor, rate and review the podcast so more people can encounter the life-changing truth of God's Word. Also, if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode or that has questions like the ones that we're answering on the episode, please share this episode with them. My name is John. I'm here today with Mitch. Yeah. And this week's episode is a really good one. We're going to address something maybe even a little controversial. We're going to be talking about the atonement, but I want to ask this question first. John, is there anything that God isn't able to do? Is there something that limits God's ability? Like a mountain, like can he make a mountain so big that he himself can't move it? Yeah, I think that's maybe one of the ways that we can think about answering that question. But are there other things that God isn't able to do? Like, forgive sin without somebody paying for it? Yeah. Could God have just simply forgiven sin by snapping his fingers and not sent Jesus to die on the cross? Right. Is God able to do that, or is he limited somehow? I think that's a good question. I think that's a great question. And not everybody agrees on the answer to that question. It's true. Which is why today we're gonna talk about what is commonly called the theories of atonement. I'm not a big fan of calling it that because I feel like theories is a weird word. You know, theory feels like, you know, we don't know exactly how it works, so we've got these different theories about how maybe it works. I think perspectives is maybe a better word. Sure, yeah. A view or a lens of what happened at the cross. Yeah. But yeah, historically in theology world, there is three theories or perspectives on what happened at the cross. And they all kind of come back to this question of, yeah, how does God deal with sin? Is sin actually the problem that the cross is addressing? And this is one of those things that I feel like a lot of people assume that all Christians agree on this, but actually they don't. You know, you say, well, John 3, 16, this is like one of the most basic things, you know, that Jesus died for our sins to bring us to Him. And I would agree with that, obviously, that that is basic, that is the gospel, that is core to the Christian faith. But actually, not everybody who calls themselves Christian agrees on this. Yeah, and I hope that if you're listening to this and you're starting to roll your eyes going, oh my gosh, they're gonna make, you know, the cross even something that not every Christian agrees on. Don't stop listening because this is really important not just for understanding more theology, right? This isn't just about us cramming more theology into your head. This is about understanding who God is and that impacts how we worship, right? The more we know God, the deeper we can fall in love with Him. The more we love God, the more we want to know Him. So today we are looking at how Jesus's death and resurrection saves us, right? That's the idea of atonement, right? That's what we call atonement. And so atonement is kind of a weird word. We don't really use it a lot in our everyday language. John, what does the word atonement mean? Yeah, to atone for something is to appease the wrath of usually a deity is kind of the language, you know, it's taken from kind of older language when we talked about appeasing the wrath of a god, of a deity. It's making up for something to take away the punishment or the anger or the wrath or something like that. Yeah. So why do we need atonement? Why is that important as we have this discussion? I think that understanding, why isn't the idea of atonement necessary? Sure. Well, therein lies part of the controversy of the three theories. So we'll get into that some more. But yeah, the Bible tells us, Romans 3.23, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So all of us human beings are sinners. We've fallen short of God's perfect standard. Romans 623 says the wages of sin is death. Okay, so there's a standard, there's consequences for not meeting the standard. All of us as human beings have sin in our lives and therefore by our nature on our own without Jesus, we are deserving of death. And so we need an atonement. If we don't want to suffer eternal death, if we want to instead have life and joy with God, be reunited to Him the way it was before sin entered the world, then we need an atonement. Yeah. Is this just a New Testament thing, the idea of atonement? No, this is all throughout the Bible. This is Old Testament. This is going all the way back. You think of the sacrificial system. It was a foreshadow of what was going to be needed ultimately through Jesus. Yeah, this has been around for forever. And this is around even in non-Christian, non-Biblical religions. Think about pagan religions, right? They even have – I think it's just kind of innate to human beings that we have this idea that there is a deity and that we're not perfect, we've done something wrong, and even thinking like it modern-day Orthodox Jews practice the day of atonement, right? The day of atonement is something that we see in the Old Testament If you've ever seen that that holiday on your calendar that says Yom Kippur, that's yeah, but I guess 16 Yeah, that's the Jewish Day of Atonement I always as a kid growing up saw that and I'm like what in the world is that like I thought that it was somebody's Name, but it's a Yom Kippur is the day of atonement, right? Yeah. So it's deeply biblical. It's not brand new in the New Testament. It's something for us. So there are a couple different pictures of what happens on the cross. John, could you walk us through what they are? Yeah. So the three most popular, like I said, theories or perspectives on the cross would be the moral example theory, that Jesus is dying on the cross in order to be our example of what a good moral person does. The Christus Victor theory that Christ on the cross is being victorious over his enemies, he's conquering his enemies. And finally, there is penal substitutionary atonement, which is that Jesus is, so those three words there, penal being like punishment, and then substitution, that Jesus is our substitute, so he takes our punishment as our substitute in order to make atonement for our sins. That's that one. And I'll be honest, whenever you hear, whenever I say the word penal, it makes me think of something other than what it actually means, which is punishment. So I might just for the rest of this episode refer to it as substitution theory. We'll see. When you hear penal, think about penalty. Yeah. I was a youth pastor and asked a bunch of middle schoolers what they thought penal sounded like. And I quickly realized that they didn't- You probably didn't need to ask. They didn't think about like the, like penal corrective system or penalty. They were thinking about a different thing. And you can imagine what they were thinking. So substitution. That's the concept. That's the concept. Yep. Jesus paid our penalty, he was our substitute, and he atones for our sin. So why are these important as we are diving into those? Why is it important for us to understand these things? Is it wrong for us to believe in some of these things? Where's the danger here? Where's the controversy? Yeah, great. So I think the controversy lies in that some people throughout church history have said that we should believe in one of these or two of these to the exclusion of the others, or to the exclusion specifically of one. So the least controversial in this conversation are moral example and Christus Victor. The most controversial is penal substitutionary atonement. So some people throughout church history have said that, yeah, we should understand at the cross that Jesus is being a great example of, you know, you think of John 15, right? Love knows no better than this, that one would die for his friends, right? So Jesus is setting us the best example. He sacrifices himself, he dies for people that he cares about and therefore you and I should do likewise. And that's the point of the cross. Yeah. So that's not very controversial. No. It's also true. Yeah. We wouldn't deny that. Yeah. The problem is when you exclude one of the other meanings. So Christus Victor, same way. I think of passages like in Colossians towards the end of Colossians 2 talks about Jesus triumphing over the rulers, the principalities, the cross is him completing, Genesis 315, that through defeat he accomplishes victory over the evil one, over Satan. So it is Christ's victory. So it is. So Jesus is a moral example. Jesus is having victory. Those things are true. Problem is, people in church history have said, those things are true. But it's not true that he bears our penalty as our substitute to take away our sins. Yeah, absolutely. So there are some people even in modern modern theology that are opposed to the idea of penal substitutionary atonement. One of the authors that is probably more famous, maybe you've heard of him, is Brian McLaren. In his book, The Story We Find Ourselves In, he presents a character who says something like this. That sounds, or penal substitutionary atonement, sounds more like injustice in the cosmic equation. It sounds like divine child abuse. What is Brian McLaren saying? What is he getting after and what does he mean? Yeah, that's a pretty steep claim to say that, yeah, what most of Christianity and, I mean, historically and worldwide, I mean, just most of Christianity has said that this is the meaning of the cross, right? That Jesus dies as our substitute. So he's posing that idea that actually that if that's what it is, that that's God the Father abusing his son Jesus. It's a pretty big claim. Yeah. Yeah, I guess let me ask this question and maybe this would help understand why he might say some of those things. Does penal substitutionary atonement, or does substitutionary atonement portray God as a wrathful God who needs violence in order to forgive? I mean, in some ways, yes. What it portrays is a God of justice. The whole Bible portrays God that way. That God is a God who cares about right and wrong. That there are things that are evil in this world, that there are moral goods and moral bads, and that those who do things on the side of moral bad, that there are consequences. And I think that's innate to us as human beings. We know that inherently. When something terrible happens, we want justice. We want the bad guy to go to jail or whatever it is. Yeah. As long as the bad guy's not us, right? Yeah, right, right. Well, that's the, yeah, there's some irony in our innate sense of justice. Our innate sense of justice has some that's right and some that's kind of warped by it, right? So we especially don't want justice for ourselves. Sure. We want justice for others. So it's true that God is just and that there is consequences for those who are on the wrong side of justice. We should understand God that way. And actually, I mean, I think that's maybe a great place to start is that we have to understand that's a good thing, not a bad thing. You know, one of the, I think I did a video a while back asking the question, what if hell didn't exist? You know, so what if there was no eternal consequences for evil? You know, what if Hitler ends up in heaven? You know, is that right? Is that fair? Are we okay with that? You know a lot of people complain about the concept of hell the concept of eternal punishment But then when you really think I mean what they usually mean is I don't think I should end up in hell Yeah, or I shouldn't get consequences But you know you just you just think boy that doesn't seem right I don't sound like heaven at all if Hitler is there if some of the you know, just the evil People from from earth are there? Yeah, I think if you're a listener hearing this and going man I really don't love that you know we just said that God is a God of wrath who needs this in order to forgive We have to understand that wrath is a good thing that God being a God of wrath is a good thing I would I would let me let me even interject this so I say wrath is a necessary Result of love right I say it that way. So people want to say, well God is a God of love, so he can't be a God of wrath. Well, have you ever had somebody that you love be harmed? Yeah. How did you respond? I think it's right for you to be wrathful. If somebody hurts one of my children, and not by accident, you know, if somebody is harming one of my children, I have wrath. Yeah. And that is appropriate for me as a father to have wrath anger to want justice Yeah, those things are right. So so yeah wrath is a result of love. Yeah, I don't even appeal to our love of superheroes, you know you love the fact that Batman or Superman has wrath when he encounters his you know, the villain, right? We love this because we know that Superman is a good guy who's gonna, he's gonna take care of business, he's gonna institute justice. Because the bad guy's done bad, evil things. He's harming people. Yeah. The problem with us is that we don't love that God is a God of wrath because we're the bad guys. Right. And so it's like, you know, there's some sort of a, you know, I don't know, irony or paradox that we have in ourselves that we're like, yeah, we love this idea of even our superheroes having wrath when it in instituting justice, but as soon as we're like, wait, we might be the bad guy. We're like, no, no, God can't be a God of wrath. We got it. We've got to get rid of that or that's some sort of archaic or antiquated way to view God, but that's not how the Bible talks about God. That's not how God displays himself to us. So God being a God who is full of righteousness and is provoked to wrath against sin is a good thing. So let me ask this question. Is God able to forgive sin without the cross? Could God? Is there something that would limit God? No. And I say that thinking of passages like Romans chapter 3 that talks about God being the just and the justifier. Yeah. So this is from a guy named Steve Chalk, and so he's explaining a different view of the cross that doesn't include this substitutionary atonement that we're talking about. So he says, The fact is that the cross isn't a form of cosmic child abuse, a vengeful father punishing his son for an offense he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement, God is love. If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but born by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus' own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to repay evil with evil." Hachimachi, that's not a great quote. Quite a statement. Yeah. Just to be clear, that's a statement that we would disagree with. Sure, yep, yep, for sure. So I feel like I've already kind of addressed the side of, it's not contradictory to God is love because love results in wrath against those who are harming those who you do love. We were beginning to talk about the justice of God, Romans 3, just in the justifier. Okay, one of the things that they say in there too is that this makes a mockery of Jesus' own teaching to love your enemies, to refuse to repay evil with evil. Okay, why is it that God tells us not to repay evil with evil? It's because he says, vengeance is mine. Vengeance is mine, thus says the Lord. He's going to be the one that settles the score. Yeah. Not us. Yeah. So he's not just saying evil should go off, you know, scotch-free. It's not just, you know, good luck, let it go. It's don't repay evil in this life because I will repay it in the next life. I'm God. That's where the comfort comes. God is a God of justice. I think it's hard, and sometimes this actually makes me frustrated with theologians who really try to deny this idea of substitutionary atonement. Because it is so clear that God's justice is evident, not just in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, right? At the end of time, the saints will gather around as God is pronouncing judgment on everyone who is opposed to him, everyone who didn't turn to him, everyone who isn't saved, right? And he casts them into the lake of fire and the saints gather around and worship God for his righteousness, for his justice. And so if you're having a problem with God being a God of wrath and justice, it's not that, well, you know, we're just distorting one way that the Bible talks about. No, the Bible is pretty clear that this is who God is. The thing that you're offended by is the whole of the Bible, right? Sure. This isn't us distorting this. This is the way that God is portrayed. Yeah, so let's make that case. Because it's a hard thing to swallow, but it's an important thing for us to say, this isn't just our idea. It really comes from the Bible. Yeah, so let's walk through some passages of Scripture and say that. So to your question that you had asked about, can God forgive without the cross? My answer was no, because that makes God a God who is not just. Correct. Somebody has to pay for sin. Yeah. Otherwise God is just winking at sin. Yeah. He's just saying, yeah, that's bad, that's evil, you did that, but oh well. And he shrugs his shoulders. Yeah. Without the cross. Can I give an example here that might help and then we'll get into the passages. I've heard this example before. Like imagine if I come over to your house, John, and as I'm leaving, I actually, you know, I run into the door with my car, right? Your garage door, right? And it breaks your garage door. There's two things you can do, right? You can say, Mitchell, you're an idiot and you shouldn't have hit my garage door and you're gonna pay for it, right? And that would be your right to do that, right? I've broken your garage door and you can demand that I'll pay for it. That'd be justice, right? Or you can say, Mitchell, it's okay. You don't need to pay for it. Like, you know, go ahead and you can go home. And that would be forgiveness, right? But at the end of the day, somebody still has to pay for the garage door, right? Either you or me, right? If I pay for it, that's justice. If you pay for it, that's forgiveness, right? But somebody still absorbs the cost. And so that has to happen with our view of what happens on the cross. We can't just say God could snap his fingers because there is no forgiveness without a debt being paid, without some sort of penalty, some sort of cost. Right, absolutely. So, let me walk through just a couple of passages that I think make this point clear. And again, so then our point is to say that this is something the Bible teaches and we have to figure out how to make sense of it. You know, you can't come to the Bible and just say, the Bible is wrong because it violates my sense of what's right. You know, we have to hear God on his own terms, right? We live underneath the Bible, not above the Bible. Yeah, that would be a pretty dangerous worldview to have. Yeah, that would not be good to be able to say, well, you know what, God says that he's like this in the Bible, but I know better. God wouldn't be like that because that violates what I think about God. I think that's exactly what Adam and Eve did. Yeah, right. They said, I know better. Yeah, yeah. So we sit under the Bible. So we have to hear what the Bible says, God, you know, tell us who he is in his own terms and how it works, and then figure out, make sense of it. Yeah. So let's try to do that. So this is Acts chapter two, this is Peter preaching at Pentecost, and he puts a couple of things together here that I think are important to hear. So this is verse 23. He says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Okay, so he's speaking to a crowd of people in front of him in Jerusalem. Okay, and so on the one hand, he's saying that you all crucified Jesus, you killed him at the hands of lawless men. Yeah, but he's also saying in the same verse that Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. So he says those two things are true at the same time. At the same time, it's true that the Jews killed him. It's true that the Romans killed him and it's true that God killed him, delivered him up to be killed on the cross. Yeah. So, you know, if you say, I can't believe that the Father put Jesus on the cross in order to pay for sin. Well, but the Bible says that. So you've got to wrestle with that and figure out how does that work within what else the Bible tells us about God. Let me share another passage from Acts chapter 4, jumping ahead a couple chapters here. This is starting in verse 27. It says, For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. Okay, so everybody who's involved in the conspiracy to murder Jesus, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place." Okay, so again, Peter does the same thing as he did before. It's to put in the same sentence, you all are responsible for killing Jesus, and this happened according to God's foreknown, predestined plan. The Father did this. I think those are great, and grounding us in Scripture is so helpful because it's how we understand who God is and how he acts. This really got this idea of penal substitutionary atonement was really well-defined in the Reformation era. One of the Reformation documents that we hold to as a church at Peace Church is the Belgic Confession and Article 20 is such a great way of seeing this substitution in our theology. So I'd love to read this. We believe that God, who is perfectly merciful and just, sent his son to assume that nature in which the disobedient was committed, to make satisfaction in the same and to bear the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death. God therefore manifested his justice against his son when he laid out our iniquities upon him and poured forth his mercy and goodness on us who were guilty and worthy of damnation out of mere and perfect love giving his son unto death for us and raising him for our justification that through him we might obtain immortality and a life eternal." It's a little bit wordy, but it's beautiful. And we'll actually link to that article in the show notes. But it just clearly lays out that phrase, that God therefore manifested his justice against his son when he laid out our iniquities upon him. I think there's just such a clear way to see that. This isn't just something that John and I were pulling out of Scripture, but this is something that Christians have been seeing forever. In fact, one of the criticisms of substitutionary atonement is that it is, it was invented or it was created in the, during the Reformation. But there's passages in Scripture that would show us, you know, is that a true thing that this is something that was made up in the Reformation. Right, yeah, I mean I could add to the case we've already been making, I would add passages like Mark 10, 45, that I came not to be served but to serve, Jesus says, and to give my life as a ransom for many, in exchange for many. That's what's going on there. Jesus, you know, Jesus came voluntarily to sacrifice himself for his people. Think of in John chapter 10, no one takes my life from me, I lay it down. Jesus says, Jesus and the Father, the Son and the Father are on a mission together. They are committed together to save their people, to save God's people. Another one, 2 Corinthians chapter five, says he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf. So Jesus went to the cross, took on our sin, he became sin and was nailed to the cross. Yeah. That sounds like a pretty clear passage describing substitutionary atonement, right? Yeah. Are there any other places that you'd see substitution? I'm thinking of one in the Old Testament with Abraham and his son. Yeah. I don't know if you guys have the Jesus Storybook Bible. Yeah. But they have a story of that in there and I can't read it to my kids without crying because it's just such a picture, a perfect picture of the cross. Yeah. Yeah. Abraham and Isaac. Yeah. Yeah. The Old Testament, you know, tells a story in a different way. It tells us through through pictures really through foreshadowing of what Jesus is going to have to do. Yeah. Abraham and Isaac is a great example. Yeah. Like we already mentioned the Day of Atonement. Leviticus 16, you know, the animal sacrifices. The book of Hebrews spends a lot of time in the New Testament talking about how the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament are a foreshadow coming up to Jesus, that the sacrifice of the blood of bulls and goats can't actually take away sins, but it was a picture of what was going to happen through Jesus. Yeah. So I want to be kind, I want to be gracious to those who are maybe struggling with this concept. So if you're struggling, if you're wrestling, you know, sometimes it does take some time to wrestle through this, to see it, to understand it, to grasp it. If it's initially kind of something that you've been maybe trained or maybe just culturally struggle with the concept, so I wanna be generous. But I do wanna say, I think if you ultimately don't land in understanding that Jesus was your substitute, then you haven't embraced the gospel. And thus, you haven't received salvation. That's what we put our faith in. When we say you've got to put your faith in Jesus to receive salvation, when you think of John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him would have eternal life. He gave him over. He delivered him over. Think of Acts 2, Acts 4 that we've already read. Think of Romans chapter 8, verse 32, right? Again, He's been delivered over. If you don't embrace that, if you don't say, I'm taking hold of Jesus, that He has taken away my sins, and I'm not going to pay for my sins in hell. Jesus has paid for them for me at the cross, then you haven't embraced the Savior. Yeah, it reminds me of a conversation I had with someone once where they asked me, what would it look like for us to have a theology where we don't believe in substitutionary atonement? It reminds me of another interview that I saw where someone, a flat earther, was asking a scientist about what would it look like on earth if it was a flat earth? And he just go, he was just like, I don't, it just wouldn't work. And that's kind of where I'm at with this. Like to try to construct a theology that says Jesus did not pay for something. He did not take God's wrath. He did not trade places with me on the cross. He did not get what happened on the cross was not him getting what I deserved. Like, I don't I don't know what that that looks like. I have to discount so much to the Bible. Yeah, totally, no, I totally agree. Let me, because I came across this article earlier, I'll try to, this gave me a little bit of a picture of somebody trying to live that theology without the substitution. So this is an article, a blog, it's available online, written by a children's ministry pastor. So she, let me just, she's writing about Easter. So the piece is called The Trouble with Easter, how to talk and not talk about Easter. So that's already a title right there. Our favorite holiday. So I'll read you some snippets. So she starts, this is the opening, she says, public execution, child sacrifice, rising from the dead, just the kinds of stories you want to tell your kids, right? Yeah, me neither. So she goes on to say, as a children's pastor in a progressive Christian church, so progressive is kind of a label for that type of theology, what we would also call liberal theology, so, and I think they would embrace titles like progressive, she's saying it herself. So she says, Easter is, well, it's rough, for me anyway. I'm responsible for children, and teaching this central Christian story to kids is one of my biggest challenges. No matter what I do with the Easter story, someone is likely to be upset. If I tell it flat out, I not only go against my ethos in regard to nurturing children's spirituality, but I'd also be confusing boatloads of kids and the message of my ministry as a whole." Woof. Man, that's a... So she goes on later in the article and says that there's some things that I don't want to teach. And then she lists some different statements that she doesn't want to teach children. One of them, the first one listed is this, that Jesus died for your sins. Man, you're a children's pastor and you don't want to teach the maybe the most central part of our belief. That's a crazy thing. Just trying to wrap my head around this worldview. So she says, something I don't want to teach that you decide for your sins. She then says, Well, I realize that statement won't psychologically damage every kid. If it damages one, it's not worth using, period. To that end, I can list hundreds of people for whom this sentiment was harmful. We have to find better words and be very intentional with our language. Man, I don't mean to seem dismissive, but man, oh man, I guess that's at least consistent, right? I guess. It's departed from scripture though, right? Very clearly. Yeah. You know, she opened by saying, if I tell the story... That's a really kind way to say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She said, if I tell the story flat out. Okay, so what she, and what that means, she said, if I read the Bible story of Easter... If I read the Bible to children. Yeah, if I read, if I read them the story as it's written in the Bible, then I'm going to offend them. If I tell them that Jesus died for their sins, I might psychologically damage them. So, a pretty wild perspective for us. I think a pretty wild perspective for biblical Christianity, for historical Christianity. Yeah, I think it's borderline heretical. I mean, maybe not. Borderline. I think it's, yeah, it's like, yeah, it's, that is a hard thing for me to be like, yeah, this is a sister in Christ. To say that kind of stuff and claiming to be a pastor, I mean, man, oh man, being able to preach about the crucifixion, being able to preach about Jesus's resurrection is beyond a privilege. It is one of the highlights of my ability to be a pastor. And to say that, and to share that with children, I mean that's even better. Right. To say that we're gonna pull that because sounds weird. I mean I used to work at a church where they weren't allowed to say certain words from stage, they weren't allowed to say things like the blood of Christ, and I just think, man, like what what are you, what are you neglecting your congregation if you can't say that kind of stuff. Yeah. And I know a lot of people want to say, want to think that that's just way over out in some crazy place, but actually I was an ordained pastor in a denomination that had other pastors. I remember reading in writing, one pastor in that denomination that I served in, writing that he found nowhere in scripture that embraced the view of substitutionary atonement. He wrote that in a letter, an email or something like that. He must not have read much of the Bible. Yeah, yeah, right. For sure. But just to say, it's not, this is not in some kind of crazy far off place. You know, I share a denomination with a pastor who believes that. Yeah, no, this is far reaching, the implications of this. I mean, if you're at a church in the United States, more than likely there's somebody in your church who is impacted by this theology, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so while some might be listening and think it's kind of crazy that there would be other perspectives or that we'd even spend time talking about this, I think you've got to know it's so important that we don't lose the core of the gospel. And therefore, we have to continue to talk about it. Somebody might be listening to this and thinking, yeah, this is what I'm wrestling with right now and glad to hear about it. Yeah, and if that's you, please ask us follow-up questions. We'd love to do a part two to this. Yeah. We've got more questions. Yeah, if you're listening and you object or have struggled with this, I'd love to hear further questions, what it is that is a struggle, how we could explain better or more, that'd be great. Yeah, I got a question for you, probably as we wrap up. What do we miss? What do we lose by abandoning this? We, not to be too simplistic, but we lose our salvation. Yeah. We, as human beings, have fallen short of God's perfect standard. We live in sin and we need a savior. And so if we don't, you know, Jesus came preaching the gospel and telling people to repent and believe. You know, if you don't accept that you're a sinner, then I don't know how you can repent and believe in a Savior. He's not just your example. He's not just victorious over his enemies, although both of those things are important. He is also your substitute. Sin is like surgery. We need someone else to take care of it. Yeah. Well, thanks everybody. We hope you have an awesome week. Again, feel free to send in more questions on this topic. Do us a favor and like and subscribe. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. Have an awesome week, everybody. Have an awesome week, everybody. Bye!

A Faith That Drives Our Lives Sermon Series: A Faith that Endures Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: 1 Kings 18:7-16 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad in it and everyone said Amen and amen The night That I became a Christian The night that I I repented and placed my faith in Jesus. It was during the fall of my senior year of high school Now I had like grown up going to church, but it wasn't until I was a senior that like a group of friends kind of like pulled me in and really shared the gospel with me and told me about this personal faith in Jesus that I could have. And so, one night after youth group, we were hanging out after youth group, they called me out and just said, are you ready to repent and place your faith in Jesus? And I said, yes, and I gave my life to the Lord. Now, the number of friends who were part of that experience was very small. It was a small group of my closest friends who all loved me and loved the Lord and they were ministering to me. It was a very small group. But 25 years later, only half of those group of friends. Only half of those guys are still Christians. I was a youth pastor for 10 years. 10 years I saw these classes, these amazing classes of teenagers, come and go through the ministry. I saw God do amazing things. I saw Him change hearts. I saw kids come onto leadership teams and do great things. And now, ten years later, I'm watching so many of them on social media rejecting the faith, walking away, have no interest in God, or going to church. And at Peace Church, we want to be real and raw. And so I'm just going to be real and raw with you for a moment. These are ghosts to me. These are ghosts that haunt me on a regular basis. And I look at people who I thought had such thriving faiths, are no longer walking with God, don't even care. And I'm haunted by this. And it forces me to ask the question, like what does it take to make faith endure? Endure through the changing values of our culture? Endure through personal pain? How does faith endure when we have questions that we just can't seem to find the answer to? What does it make to have a faith that endures? Today we're starting a series on the Prophet Elijah. And one thing I can tell you about the Prophet Elijah, he's from the Old Testament. He had a faith that endured. He's talked about later on in the Old Testament. He's talked about in the New Testament. He actually makes an appearance when Jesus is dying on the cross. They think he's calling out to Elijah. Elijah has a faith that endures. How can we have a faith like him? His story is monumental throughout scripture. I'm really sad that we have to miss an entire sermon in this series because I want us to get to know this guy. His story is found at the end of 1 Kings and at the beginning of 2 Kings. So I'm going to ask you if you have your Bibles, please turn there now, would you turn to 1 Kings chapter 18. We're going to look at verses just 17 to 16 today. But because I know you may not be in the know about Elijah, we missed a sermon. Let me try to quickly catch us up to speed as you're turning to 1 Kings 18. Here's the back story. This setting comes during the time in biblical history known as the divided kingdom. When God's kingdom, which was united under King David and King Solomon, it's now broken in half. It's divided into two, the Northern kingdom and the Southern kingdom. Now the Northern kingdom is called Israel or Samaria. The Southern kingdom is called Judah. Now our story takes place in the northern kingdom. And one thing you need to know about the northern kingdom, it didn't last that long. It had a series of just terrible kings who brought the kingdom into the ground and eventually Assyria comes in and decimates the kingdom. It's a great lesson that God kind of shows us that if it's the world you want, then the world you shall have and the world will kill and destroy you. And so this story happens during that time before the kingdom is destroyed. Now this story takes place during the reign of King Ahab. Now I already told you that every king in the northern kingdom was a terrible king, but what the Bible says about King Ahab is actually pretty profound. It says that he was the worst king yet. In fact, the Bible says that no other king angered God as much as King Ahab did. This is the setting. And not only was Ahab a bad and wicked dude, he was married to a bad and wicked woman. In fact, this woman was so wicked that her name has now become like a title for for other wicked women. You may have heard of her, Jezebel. So Ahab is married to Jezebel. Now Jezebel was a foreigner. She brought in Baal worship. Worship to a foreign god. So with Ahab and Jezebel together, they demolished the faith in the true God Yahweh of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they set up Baal worship. That became basically a state-sponsored religion, and they're setting up these places to worship Baal throughout the land, and they're calling people to worship Baal. Now this is apostasy. That means they're turning away from the true God to a false God, and this anger at God, because the king and queen were leading so many people astray. They were wicked, they were pagan, and it's in this moment that God calls Elijah. First Kings 17, Elijah comes just out of nowhere. Like like biblically speaking and geographically speaking. He just kind of shows up on the scene. No introduction, just and Elijah came. Now the Bible does say that Elijah came from a place called Tishbe. Now we have no idea where that is. Probably because it was such a small town in a small village that it just kind of got forgotten in the pages of history, kind of like Orangeville. Or our favorite, Freeport. So what you need to know is that in very strong likelihood, Elijah's just a roughneck from the sticks who just kind of comes out to take a stand against a wicked king and trying to spark revival in the land. And Elijah goes on to do crazy, amazing things. So this guy from the sticks just comes out of nowhere. He goes straight to the most wicked king to date. And he tells the king, there's going to be a drought. He brings a prophetic curse. There's gonna be a drought in the land. Now, of course, the king doesn't wanna hear this. This puts Elijah's life in jeopardy. So God takes Elijah and he sends him out into the wilderness and he says you need to stay there until I tell you to come out. And so Elijah goes and he lives by this little brook where he can get fresh water, because remember there's gonna be a drought and a famine in the land, and God has ravens come and bring Elijah food on a daily basis. So during that entire time Elijah had to rely on a daily basis for God to supply his needs. After a amount of time, God calls Elijah to actually leave Israel and go to Phoenicia to this place called Sidon, where he's supposed to stay with this widow. Now, back in those days, if you were a widow, if you didn't have a husband, that meant you were destitute, you were without any sort of safety net. So he stays with this widow, and she doesn't have a lot of supplies, she doesn't have a lot of resources, and she starts to run out of food, and there's this time where God miraculously provides them enough flour and oil every single day for them to have food together. This woman's child, her son, dies and Elijah goes over and prays over him and we see resurrection. These are all like the amazing stories that we're supposed to have talked about on Ash Wednesday, but we can't. But all you need to know is that God's already doing an incredible work, seeing amazing things happen in the life of Elijah. And then after three years, the word comes to Elijah and God says, it's time to go back and have your meeting, your confrontation with King Ahab. Now remember for this three years, there's drought and famine. And at this point, the Bible says that the famine was severe in Israel. So what Ahab does is he calls the administrator of his household, kind of like the manager over his affairs, who was a good and godly man named Obadiah. Now, he says to Obadiah, he's like, man, this is such a terrible famine, even the animals are gonna die. We gotta do something. So Ahab says to Obadiah, okay, you go this way and I'll go this way and let's just keep going until we can find some fresh grass and some water so that we can at least save the animals. So Ahab says, I'll go this way, Obadiah, you go that way. And on Obadiah's journey, that's when he meets Elijah on Elijah's journey back to meet with the wicked king Ahab. And that my friends, is where we're gonna pick up in our story. So would you hear the word of the Lord, 1 Kings chapter 18, verses 7 to 16. 7 And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” 8 And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’” 9 And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? 10 As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. 11 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here.”’ 12 And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you I know not where. And so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth. 13 Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid a hundred men of the LORD’s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? 14 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here”’; and he will kill me.” 15 And Elijah said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the LORD and followed the Baals. 19 Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” This is God's word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Wherever you are, let's pray together. Father, for your glory and for our good, Lord, would you please challenge us today by the story of Elijah and by the truth of your word. Help us to see here and know the gospel in this story that we might be filled with a faith that endures. Please, oh Holy Spirit, would you lead and guide us during this series and during Lent as we prepare for Easter to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? In whose name we pray. And all God's people, wherever you are, said very loudly, Amen. Now in this series, we're going to walk along Elijah and we're going to see throughout this series the markers of a faith that endures. Because here's my sincere hope. I look back 25 years and I see people in my life who are no longer walking with the Lord. My prayer is that in 25 years, everyone who's in here now will have an even more vibrant faith then than you do now. Do you want that? Do you want that, people? I want that, too. So let's learn from Elijah if we can see the markers of a faith that endures. And right off the bat, I think the lesson we can learn right from this first story is this. A faith that endures is a faith that drives our lives. A faith that endures is a faith that drives our lives. If you're new to Peace Church or you're just visiting, here's what I want you to know. We are going to be raw and real here at Peace. And so with that, let me just say this. These days, when someone tells me they're a Christian, I'm like, okay, what does that mean? I can't assume that means anything these days. I mean, we have Christians walking around who don't believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. We have Christians, so-called Christians, who walk around who don't believe that Jesus is the only way into salvation, who don't believe the Bible is God's Word, people who call themselves Christians who are not walking in step with the Holy Spirit. There are people who call themselves Christians who speak so negatively about the church, which is serious business because the church is the bride of Christ. And I don't know about you men, but nobody gets to talk negatively about my wife. Imagine how Jesus our Lord feels. Like when someone says they're a Christian, I'm like, I got one question for you. Is faith the driving force in your life? When someone says they're a Christian, what I want to ask is very simple. Have you repented? Is Jesus Christ the ruling and loving Lord of your life and your soul? Is faith the driving force in your life? Here's what I'll tell you. If it's not, then your faith is misplaced. If faith is not the driving force in your life, then it's misplaced. And when I talk about faith, I mean your personal relationship with God, your belief in Him. If that's not the pinnacle and primary point of your life, hear me, it's misplaced. Correct me if I'm wrong, but God is the biggest thing there is. He's the biggest thing there is, He's the biggest thing in the universe. So how can it be that people say they have God in their life, and He's not the biggest thing in their life? I mean, how can God be the biggest thing there is, and then not be the biggest thing in a person's life? I'll tell you how. Because it's not God that they have in their life. It's an idea of God. And probably a God that they've made in their own image, who obey them rather than them obeying God. A God that they've made in their mind, a God that they've made in their image, rather than a belief in a God in whose image they are made. If you have a relationship with God, but He's not first in your life, then you have a relationship, I would say, with a false God. A God probably you've created. And I'm going to tell you right now, that God will fail you. And your faith will fail then. We are to have a living, breathing, active, driving force in our life, faith in the living God. But so many who call themselves Christians don't. And we see this man, Elijah, who honored and followed God. And what you see about him so quickly is that faith was the driving force in his life. And what I love about Elijah is that in the New Testament, in the book of James, it says something really cool about Elijah. It says Elijah was a man just like us. That is both so encouraging and so challenging. So as we look at this passage in this story, I think we're going to pick up a couple of things today. I wanted to give you three points. I'll go easy on you. I'll just give you two here this morning. Here they are. A faith that drives our lives calls us to follow through. A faith that drives our lives calls us to something costly, and a faith that drives our lives calls us to follow through. I told you we're gonna ask real questions and we're gonna be raw here at peace. So I want to ask you a question, you here in the worship center, in the chapel, in the venue, online, and I want you to answer this in your own heart. What has it taken or what would it take to awaken your faith and move you deeper? What has it taken or what would it take to awaken your faith and move you deeper? Being diagnosed with cancer, the death of a loved one, being served divorce papers, your nation being pulled into war, disease, death, divorce, destruction, often it takes pain to awaken our faith. But hear me, pain is a product of our broken world and our sinful hearts. What should awaken our faith is the Holy Spirit bringing an awareness of the seriousness of our sin to our hearts. A sin that we know is against the God of all creation. A sin that we know makes us stand condemned before God. A sin that has broken and ruined our relationship with Him. And knowing this, and knowing that even in the midst of our immense sin, sin that makes us worthy of the flames of hell that God in his great mercy and love for us has provided a way back to him but that way back comes at great cost the cost of the life and death of his son Jesus Jesus who died on the cross in our place paying the penalty for our sins, assuming the punishment that should have been ours, realizing that now Jesus has completely taken care of our salvation, there's nothing we can do to add or take away from that, all we can do is just receive it because it's now a free gift, that's why we call it grace because Jesus has done for us in our place what we could not do for ourselves. But here's the problem, and here's what has led so many people to call themselves Christians who really aren't one. In their lives, there's no repentance. There's no awareness and a turning from sin. There's no repentance in our life. Repentance is the right response to our sin. But we don't repent, and then we don't walk in step with the Spirit, and because we're not walking in step with the Spirit, we don't have the gift of the Spirit or the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. I'm not saying you can't be a kind and good citizen, but I'm saying you're not a Christian. Because Christians are the people who bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, who use the gifts God's given us to see His kingdom built. See, Christians are those people who follow Jesus, and to follow Jesus means we are on mission. That is what it means. I think a lot of us Christians, we just, we accept God's free gift of salvation and we sit down. There's no repentance and no walking in step with the Spirit and yet we think we're Christians because we've taken this notion that salvation is free, which it is. We call it grace because grace is connected to the word for gift. Salvation is a free gift we receive. But we've taken this free notion and rather than freely enjoying it, what we do is we take this free thing and we make it cheap. And we put it in our back pocket. We pull it out like a credit card when we want something. We say, thanks for dying on the cross for me, Jesus. And then we go on our merry way, rather than picking up our cross and following Him. And in this, we've exposed that we've forgotten something critical about faith. And that's that a faith that drives our lives calls us to something costly. So back to our story, here's what's happening. Obadiah is a good and godly man. He's working in a wicked administration, but he's a good and godly man. And just a side note, this is not the same Obadiah who wrote the book in the Bible called Obadiah. Those are different people. But Obadiah is a good and godly man. And for three years, Ahab has been on a rampage looking for Elijah in every kingdom all over. He wants to find Elijah so he can kill him. Now, Elijah runs into Obadiah. And he tells Obadiah, go tell your king that I'm coming. And Obadiah is like, you don't know what you're asking me to do. He could kill me for this, like actually kill me. If I say that you're coming and you don't show up, I'm a dead man. You don't know what you're asking me to do. This is serious business. Yeah, because Elijah knows that a faith that drives our lives calls us to something costly. So here's what I ask you, church, who in your life is calling you not just to something more but to something costly that's going to put your faith to the fire to see if it's genuine and it's true and it's been refined? Who in your life is calling you to something costly, someone who will let you know if faith is truly the driving force in your life, rather than just something hanging on the walls of our Magnolia-inspired houses. Elijah is giving Obadiah news that he is to share, news that is a matter of life and death. Who in your life is calling you, not just to something more, but to something costly, something that shows that our faith is alive and at the forefront of our life, not in the background. And being real and honest today, as I thought about this message and sought the Lord in the midst of this, I was asking myself, as the lead pastor of this church, have I been calling this church to something costly? Or have I, in my flesh, been keeping us too comfortable? Have I been challenging this church enough to seek and pursue what is right in this world, even if it brings great cost to your life? Have I been a leader doing that. Here's what I tell you, where I have failed you, Jesus Christ has not. In the scriptures, we see the one who has done this for us and calls us to this. Jesus paid the ultimate cost himself. And now he calls us to pick up our cross and to carry it and to follow him, not in order to receive salvation, but in response to the salvation that we already have. Christ calls us to the great commission. That means bringing the gospel to the end of the street and to the ends of the earth. And he gives us the Holy Spirit to fill us and to fuel us and to guide us as we live on mission for him, to reflect him in every aspect of our life, because faith is the driving force in our lives, strengthening us, strengthening us for the battle that we are in. Obadiah, in case you haven't picked up, Obadiah doesn't want to do this. God calls us to things that we do not want to do in our flesh. Obadiah doesn't want to do this. But Elijah knows that if you have faith as a driving force in your life, that will not allow you to stay comfortable. If you are comfortable, that is because faith is not the driving force in your life. And I'm not talking about the security that we have through faith in Jesus. I'm talking about are you called to things that you may not necessarily want to do for the Lord. Maybe for some of us in here, it's time to start being faithful and generous with our finances. Maybe for some of us in here, it's time to start committing to praying with our spouse. Maybe for some of us in here, it's time to start sharing the faith. And when I say sharing the faith, I mean speaking the name of Jesus to your coworkers. Does your faith call you or cost you anything? Our Wednesday night program for our young boys is called Bold Boys. Our Bold Boys and our Brave Girls program are I think some of the most special things we do here at the church. And every other Wednesday night, we have our Bold Boys program. Now God's been bringing a lot of great change and growth to Peace Church, and last year we realized, hey, we need a part-time position. This ministry is getting so big. We need to hire someone to help lead this on a part-time basis. And quickly, this man kind of like rose to the front as a possible candidate. His name is Samuel Thaler. Now Samuel Thaler is known to a lot of the boys in our program, but they don't know him as Samuel Thaler, they know him as Mr. Thaler. Because Mr. Thaler is the PE teacher at Lee Elementary for TK public schools. Now I liked Samuel. I thought he could be a great leader. I'm thankful he is a Christian in the public schools, but I wanted to have an honest conversation with him. Because here at Peace Church, we are not shy about proclaiming our beliefs that we know are very counter-cultural. And I wanted to have an honest conversation with him, so we went to the Mexican restaurant in Caledonia and I just said, man, I think you could do a great job in this position, but I want to have a real conversation right now. You're a public school teacher. Peace holds some very unpopular, but I believe 100% true beliefs. And I just want to have this conversation now because those could bump into one another and cause some friction. And I just want to have a real conversation now. And I'll never forget what he said. He said, maybe it's time I start feeling some pressure for my faith. And I said, you're hired. You're exactly the type of man that I want leading this program for our boys, which by the way, my two sons are in. You're exactly the type of guy that I want to see disciple my boys. Maybe it's time to start feeling some pressure for my faith. Amen. Church, as you rejoice in your faith and you celebrate what Christ has done, do this, but don't get comfortable. And I can tell you this, one of the things I know about the people in our area, I'm from this area, I'm born and raised, I bleed the same blood. Like, one thing I know about people in our area is don't mess with our time and don't mess with our money. Don't cost me either of those things. The other thing I know about, I'd say specifically the men in our area, is if I was to tell a man in our church, you are lazy at your job, Here's the left hook. But how many are hardworking at their job but lazy in their faith? Which do you think the world needs more of? Which do you think our culture needs more of? Now I believe that if you are hardworking at your faith, it'll lead you to be hardworking at your job because we're faithful in all aspects in our lives. But men, you can't be hard working at your job and lazy at your faith. You've got that backwards. And I'd say also you may be dealing with some idolatry in your life. Now listen, there are a thousand ways that every individual person could be challenged by a message like this. I know that I am. So here's what I'm going to allow to happen. I'm just going to let the Holy Spirit challenge you where you need to in the midst of this. Because a faith that drives our lives calls us to something costly. If your faith is not calling you to something or caution you anything then my estimation is that you're pretty comfortable. And that makes me wonder if you're on mission. That makes me wonder if you're actually pursuing Christ and following your Lord and Savior. Because a faith that drives our lives calls us to something costly. And secondly, a faith that drives our lives calls us to follow through. So Obadiah, back to our story, Obadiah is like, Elijah, you don't know what you're asking me to do. If I tell him you're coming and you don't come, I'm dead. I'm actually dead. He's going to kill me. I've seen it happen. And then Obadiah adds another layer to this story, kind of complicates it, and he confesses something. He says, I've already defied the king and queen. Listen to what the Bible says in verse 13. It says, Has it not been told to you, my Lord, speaking to Elijah, what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, and how I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifties in a cave, and I fed them with bread and water? And now you say, Go tell the Lord, behold, Elijah is here. He will kill me. I'm already on thin ice see what had happened was that this wicked Queen Jezebel she had been clearing and cleaning house she wants to make bail worship the place of that like the worship for the people so she's killing the prophets of the true God and Obadiah rescues a hundred of them hides them in secret splits them up splits them up and then he personally takes care of them during this time. This would have been an immediate death sentence if this had been found out. Obadiah knows he's already on thin ice, but then listen to what Elijah says, verse 15. And Elijah said, as the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him, to Ahab today. And then look at this, verse 16. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him. He did the very thing he did not want to do. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah. The confrontation, the face-off is going to happen next week. So make sure you come back because it's tremendous. So Elijah makes a commitment and then he follows through. He doesn't just call Obadiah to something costly. He puts himself on the line as well. Elijah follows through. So yes, Christians, church, yes, have people in your life who will call you out, who will grow your faith, who will challenge you to something costly. But listen to me, only if they themselves are doing it. It's a two-way street here, people. Make sure that I'm doing it too. Don't allow me to stand up here, elevated by everybody behind a pulpit, telling you to do something I'm not doing in my own life. You call me out as well. Because we are to do this together. We are all to follow through. Only have people who call you out, who they themselves are setting this example in their lives, like Elijah did for Obadiah. I wanna speak to the members of Peace Church for a moment. If you're visiting or not a member yet, you can listen in, but I want to speak to the members of Peace Church. Are you following through with your membership vows? Are you praying? I mean like praying, like pleading praying. Are you a praying person? Are you serving this church? Because the Holy Spirit has given you a gift to be used to build up his church. Are you serving? Where are you serving? Are you financially invested in the ministry of this church? Or are you happy letting someone else buy the heat that you get to enjoy every Sunday? Are you a person who is pursuing Jesus Christ with every breath you breathe? That's who the members of Peace Church are to be. That's the vows. We are comfortable in the sense that we are satisfied in Christ and we are secure in our salvation, but we're not comfortable when it comes to the mission. We get out there and we do the Lord's work because he's called us to. And don't you want a church like that in your community? That's who God has called this church to be and to continue to be. I look back and I think about those friends of mine who were there, who prayed with me to receive Jesus, who are no longer walking with Him. I think about all those teenagers that I went on mission trips with and knelt down in the slums of Tijuana and the backwoods of Kentucky and we prayed and we did the Lord's work, who are no longer walking with Him. I have these ghosts in my life that haunt me and I just am forced to ask the question, what does it take to make a faith that endures? Because here's what I'll tell you, that was 25 years ago. In 25 years, I want every person who can hear my voice right now to have a stronger faith then than they do now because you have a faith that endures. Do you want that too? When Jesus Christ was dying on the cross, actively taking the punishment for our sins, standing in the place where we should be hanging. When Jesus was dying on the cross, the last thing he said was, It is finished. Those are three words in English. It was one word in Greek, but in this phrase, do you know what Jesus was saying when he said, It is finished? He says, I have done what I set out to do. He was saying I have kept my promise. I have finished my mission. When Jesus said it is finished, you know what he was saying? He was saying you can follow me because I follow through. And because he does, we can trust him with our lives, every aspect of our lives, from our children to our health to our finances, because he's a God who follows through. Don't be a fake Christian. Don't just claim the name of Christ and faith not be the driving force in your life. Turn to the One who's calling to you. Repent. Turn from your sin. Place yourself in the arms of Jesus, the One who saves you, who invites us in, who stands us up, who cleans us up, who gives us a seat at his table in his house. I want to know, not just from a West Michigan quiet, mm-hmm, I want to know for real, who here knows that they are not a perfect person but they have a perfect Savior? That still sounded West Michigan of you. Who here knows they're not a perfect Savior. Amen. He is calling us to so much more but being comfortable is not one of them. Being silent is not one of them. He's calling us to a faith that drives our lives because He followed through. He's calling us and giving us a faith that endures. Amen. Would you please stand up. If you're looking at your life right now and you're realizing faith is not the driving force, if you're feeling challenged right now, then my prayer is not my words, it's the Holy Spirit working in you. So here's what I'm going to ask. For the people in this room, for the people in the chapel, for the people in the venue, let now be the moment where we let faith take over. Where we pursue Christ, we let it be the driving force in our life, where we develop a faith that endures, and one of the ways we do that is prayer. So make sure you are praying. Come and pray with someone after church, go into our prayer room, pray with someone, pray for someone, but also worship. Right now, if your faith is the driving force or you want it to be, then here's what I'd say, sing. Sing that the world would know who your Savior is. Sing so that the gates of hell would tremble. Sing because we have a Savior who is triumph, who is on the throne. Father, we come before you and I just pray, God, that here and now, by the power and presence of the Spirit and our faith in Jesus, you'd lift up this church to sing praises unto your name. Lord, we are in the house of the Lord, and the house of the Lord is where your people are gathered. That's here and now, so whether they are in the worship center, in the chapel, or the venue, Father, I pray that your church right now would lift up praises, because we are in the house of the Lord, our Lord, our good and gracious God, Savior and Spirit. It's in your name we pray and everyone It's in your name we pray and everyone said amen. Peace Church Sermon

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Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, February 18, 2024 Withstand Ephesians 6:10-13 Present Darkness vs. Spiritual Strength 2 Overview Main Idea: We need the whole armor of God if we are to stand strong. Sermon Outline: 1. We need to be all in because the enemy is all in (vs 10-11) 2. We need the right perspective to identify the true enemy (vs 12) 3. We need the whole armor for the whole battle (vs 13) 3 Pre-Questions What do you think of when you think about spiritual warfare? What kind of things stuck out to you in the sermon that you’d like to address further? 4 Questions In the sermon, Ryan said “The Devil has a specific strategy for you. He doesn’t use cookie-cutter strategies.” How does this impact your perspective on how you must fight? How does knowing our enemy change how we operate in the world around us? After hearing this sermon and reading this passage of scripture, who is God calling you to love that you wouldn’t naturally love? How will you put on the armor this week? When Jesus went to the cross he was most likely crucified naked in our place. How does Jesus’ death allow us to be able to put on the armor of God? How does the Gospel connect to putting on the armor of God? In light of this, how will you respond in worship? PDF Download

Cheyenne Werner Cheyenne Werner serves as the Women's Director at Peace Church. Most Recent Content from Cheyenne Werner Think Tattoo Not Nail-Polish Women’s Bible Study books are as numerous as nail polish color options. But unlike lacquer that can be removed with a swipe of acetone,... READ MORE

Four Steps to Manageable Sermon-Writing Leadership Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 27, 2023 It’s Monday morning. You have to preach on Sunday morning. How do you get from here to there without waiting for that lightning-strike idea, without the Saturday-night cram, and amidst all the other things you have to do this week? For many pastors, that white screen with a slow-blinking cursor is a great source of anxiety. It certainly was for me. Prior to becoming a Lead Pastor, I relished my opportunities to preach. I enjoyed studying, writing, thinking creatively, public speaking, and I had a fair amount of experience for my age. One thing I lacked… the experience of preaching every week (actually it became twice a week for me, two different messages every Sunday morning and evening). I was not prepared for what it would take to generate that amount of material in that amount of time. That’s not to mention, good material. Messages that expound God’s Word, reveal the amazing God of the Bible, assure people with the promises of God, convict of sin, share grace through the cross of Jesus, and lead to action empowered by the Spirit. Initially, I did what many do. I doubted. Why did I become a pastor? I must have missed my calling. I can’t do this. It took some time, but finally, I realized this was not a matter of talent, intelligence, spirituality, or calling; my problem was actually a lack of a system. A system is just a way of doing something that gets you a predictable result every time. If you’re going to do something over and over (like preaching a sermon every week), then it’s worth having a system. You could always be smarter, have more training, have more experience, or have read more books, but the reality is that God has called you to this right now. So let’s quit feeling sorry for ourselves and figure out a system for writing faithful and fruitful sermons week after week. Four Steps to Manageable Sermon-Writing: Idea, Schedule, Draft, Edit One of the myths many pastors believe is that one just sits down and writes a sermon. Of course, this isn’t their own experience week to week, but they assume this is the experience of other pastors (the smarter and more talented ones). The reality is that you can have a more consistent and less stressful sermon-creating experience by breaking down the process and focusing on each step in its own time. One of the breakthrough moments in developing my own system was reading Jeff Goins’ article on his own three-bucket writing system ( https://goinswriter.com/three-buckets/ ). You’ll notice my system utilizes his three steps. Step #1: Generate Ideas All sermons are an exposition of God’s Word, but ideas for a sermon can come from many places: the text of Scripture, the felt needs of your church, relevant topics in your community, the calendar, etc. Be always on the lookout for sermon ideas. Collect ideas throughout your day every day and write them down. Write the main idea, the text of Scripture, and a working title. Identify whether you think this is an individual sermon or a series. Establish a system for collecting your ideas. I use a notes/writing app called Bear ( https://bear.app ). I have a tag called “sermon” with subtags for each of these steps. As the sermon progresses through the steps, I move the file through the tags (like folders). You could use other tools like Evernote, Microsoft Word, or a notebook. Set aside time occasionally to go through your ideas and develop them. Study the text of Scripture just enough to establish or confirm the main idea. You’ll do deeper study when you come to actually preaching that sermon. For now, your goal is just to do enough thinking, studying, and writing to make sure your idea works and clarify it for later use. Step #2: Schedule Sermons are written for real people in real-time and place. A sermon prepared in abstract leads to listeners who only have an abstract idea of what the text means and how it applies. Before developing a sermon further, figure out the time, place, and people to whom it will be preached. I plan sermons a semester at a time (three per year: Fall, Winter/Spring, Summer). For each semester, I create a document containing dates and slots for each sermon. Before the end of the current semester, I make sure to complete the next semester’s document using the ideas I’ve stored up. I also link my series and sermon overviews to that document and share them with other staff or leaders. Putting sermons on the calendar helps you plan concretely, plan around other things happening, and help other leaders plan around you. It also helps you commit to further developing and eventually preaching that sermon (for some of us, the struggle to commit to a sermon idea is actually what keeps us from writing the sermon). Step #3: Create Drafts This is what many might call the actual writing of the sermon. However, as we’ve already seen, sermon-writing does not just happen in a single step. Neither does drafting need to happen in a single sitting or even a single week. Once you know what you plan to preach in the coming weeks, it becomes much easier to collect ideas, notes, illustrations, applications, books, and articles related to that future sermon. Add these to the file you started in Step 1 throughout the weeks prior to preaching. By the time you get to the week of actually preaching that sermon, your work should be more about narrowing your focus than generating material. This is what leads to more consistency and less stress. Take your collected ideas and notes, reread them, and identify the main points of your sermon. Write out your explanation of those points. Choose illustrations and applications for each. Work out an introduction and conclusion. Create a conceptual draft - each point, illustration, or application stated in a single sentence. Create another draft expanding those sentences. Do it again and again until you have what looks like a sermon. Step #4: Edit When I write first drafts, they’re messy. I move from concepts in a first draft to more refined points and eventually to something like a loose manuscript. The more of your week you can spend editing and redrafting rather than generating new material, the better. Don’t be a perfectionist. I’ve often said - sermons are never finished, just preached. Make sure it’s faithful to Scripture, aims at application, and pray for the Holy Spirit’s work in you and your listeners. Once your material is written, practice your presentation. Then go to bed at a decent time on Saturday night. Sermon-writing Managed God has called you to preach. What he has called you to, he will equip you for. You don’t need to be somebody else, you need the Holy Spirit and… a system. You may have realized this system takes planning. It also means working on multiple sermons at the same time. If that frightens you, take baby steps. Start by planning just a few weeks in advance. Even if you don’t work on your draft before the week of preaching, at least you start the week knowing what you will preach. If you want to preach sermons that are faithful to Scripture and bear fruit in your listeners without waiting for lightning to strike, cramming on Saturday night, forsaking your other responsibilities of the week, or being overwhelmed by stress… break down the process. Idea, schedule, draft, edit, repeat. Keep preaching. More Blogs You'll Like How To Conduct Staff Reviews Read More How To Create A Church Budget Read More Four Steps to Manageable Sermon-Writing Read More

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, April 28, 2024 The Church Never Preaches On... Matthew 25:41-46 Hell, the Occult, & the Demonic 2 Overview Main Idea: Hell is the ultimate horror, reminding us that our actions really do matter. Sermon Outline: 1. ...because the judge is Jesus Christ. (v41-45) 2. ...because the punishment is eternal. (v46) 3 Pre-Questions 1. What's a way that the world talks about Hell, that isn't true? 2. The topic of Hell can be uncomfortable. Why do you think that is? 4 Questions 1. How does Matthew 10:28–33 help our perspective? 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. 2. Read Revelation 20:10. Even though the image of the lake of fire is most likely imagery, what does this tell us about Hell? 3. Can you be a Christian and deny the existence of Hell? Why not? 4. How does God's act of pouring out his wrath - on sin and sinners - point us to the Gospel? How does this direct us to worship? PDF Download

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, July 14, 2024 It Had To Be Said Matthew 5:38-48 Get Even 2 Overview Main Idea: Followers of Jesus express their Savior's heart towards others. They do not retaliate against those who wrong us or are unkind to us. Sermon Outline: 1. We express our Savior's heart by turning the other cheek and being willing to go the extra mile. 2. We express our Savior's heart by loving our enemies by loving our enemies. 3 Pre-Questions What initial thoughts or feelings did you have when you heard this sermon on Matthew 5:38-48? 4 Questions In Matthew 5:38-42, Jesus speaks against the principle of "an eye for an eye." How does Jesus' teaching differ from the cultural understanding of justice and retaliation during His time? How do you interpret the instruction to "turn the other cheek" and "go the extra mile"? Jesus calls us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-48). What practical steps can you take to implement this in your daily life? How can loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us reflect the heart of our Savior? Reflect on a time when you felt the urge to retaliate. How did you respond? How might Jesus’ teaching influence your response if you encountered a similar situation today? PDF Download