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What kind of counseling should you expect from your pastor? Christian Life Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 21, 2023 You’re looking for counseling. You want a Christian perspective. Who better to ask than your pastor? However, you know that your pastor has a lot of other things on his plate. He doesn’t just do counseling, he also preaches, teaches, and leads your church. Wait… does he do counseling? Does he charge for counseling? I really need some help. What should I expect from him? I can’t speak for all pastors, but let me try to speak for “the average pastor” on this one. Let me share my standard response when asked for pastoral counseling from someone in my church and suggest some next steps you can take if you are interested in pastoral or Christian counseling. “Pastor, I am struggling, I think I need counseling, can you help?” Each time I hear these words, I have two reactions. First, my heart breaks. I want to respond: “I am all yours, I will do whatever it takes, and I will be with you every step of the way.” I want to solve all their problems and heal all their pain. However, by God’s grace, a second reaction then strikes me. A voice inside my head reminds me: “I am neither Jesus nor Superman, I don’t have all the answers, and I can’t do it all.” Over time, I have come to a few realizations about pastoral counseling: 1) I do a disservice to people by promising too much. Have you ever been promised a lot by someone (doctor, financial adviser, mom, dad, spouse) only to have them not deliver? Would it have been more or less painful for them to tell you realistically what they could do for you, even if it wasn’t all you hoped for? This leads to my next two realizations. 2) I keep people from receiving stronger support when I promise too much. When someone promises to deliver exactly what you need, what do you do? You stop searching for further help. Most pastors are not trained counselors. Sure, we took a couple of counseling classes in seminary, but that is a far cry from being a trained professional. Some pastors may be uniquely gifted, have special training, and feel equipped to provide more than average. However, in many cases, the average pastor is best suited to do triage, not provide full treatment. 3) Giving people realistic expectations from the start is important. When I overpromise or am unclear about what people can expect from me, it leads to broken promises, hurt feelings, strained relationships, and often prevents someone from getting the help they really need. As a rule, I offer people a realistic sense of what they can expect from me, right from the beginning. When asked for pastoral counseling, I let people know that I can offer three things to them: 1) I can listen. Sometimes the best medicine is someone to listen to our story, ask good questions, and let us work our way through the issue. This may sound small, but it is a valuable resource. 2) I can pray. I cannot solve their problems, but God has the power, wisdom, and goodness to do whatever is needed in the situation. I am always happy to pray with people in person or over the phone. 3) I can share Scripture. I still try to be careful here. I am not promising to show you the answers to your problems in the Bible. Scripture doesn’t work that way. God’s Word offers us principles to think through our situation as well as encouragement and hope. I offer 1-3 meetings of one hour. During these meetings, I seek to do the three things listed above, assess their needs, and direct them to further help as needed. Sometimes this means referring them to a professional counselor. Sometimes I direct them to a support group, mentor, or Christian brother/sister to walk with them through their situation. Professional counseling is a great resource and no one should be ashamed to take advantage of it. However, the church should also be a community of people who can help each other (not just the pastor or the professionals). In recent years, some of the best biblical counselors around have created [great resources]( http://ccef.org ) to equip Christians to help each other. “Pastor, I am struggling, I think I need counseling, can you help?” Here is my standard response: I am so sorry to hear that. I would love to hear more about your situation and see how I can help. Because I care about you and want to make sure you receive the help you need, let me share up-front what I can offer as a pastor. I am not a trained counselor. As a pastor, there are three things I can offer you: I can listen, I can pray, and I can share Scripture. I typically meet with people from one to three times to do those three things. During that time I also try to help you arrange further support as needed, whether that is a professional counselor, a small group, or a Christian friend who can walk with you through this time. I would be happy to get together so I can listen to your story, pray with you, and share Scripture. Can I connect you with my assistant to schedule a time to meet? You’re looking for pastoral or Christian counseling, what are your next steps? 1) Ask your pastor what he offers. Don’t hesitate to reach out for help, but give your pastor the chance to be clear about what he has to offer. Consider sending him a link to this article and give him permission to be clear about what you can expect from him. 2) Ask your pastor for a referral. If you know already that you want ongoing counseling, ask your pastor for help finding a counselor. Not all “Christian counseling” is equal, unfortunately. Ask for help finding a Bible-saturated, gospel-centered, Christ-focused counselor who will share God’s Word with you, rely on the Holy Spirit, and use the best of what psychology has to offer. A word to church members and leaders looking on… If your pastor does not offer all the counseling you think he should, it is not because he is heartless, impersonal, or lazy. If he knows how to say “no” to some requests, it is because he knows his strengths and weaknesses and is seeking to help people in the most effective way possible. This is wisdom. Praise God that he has given it to your pastor. 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 Embracing the Mission: A Conversation with Jim Essian November 11, 2024 Jon Delger & Mitchell Leach Listen to this Episode On this episode of That's a Good Question, Jon and I interview Jim Essian, the founder of a church planning network in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas. The goal of our conversation is that Christians would grow in their faith and their hearts would grow in desire to see the gospel advance in their communities. Without further ado, let's jump into this week's episode. Hey everyone, welcome to That's a Good Question, a podcast of Peace Church and Resound Media. You can find more great content for the Christian life and church leaders at resoundmedia.cc. That's a Good Question is a place where we answer questions about the Christian faith in plain language. I'm Jon. I serve as a pastor as well as a part of this show. You can always submit questions at peacechurch.cc/questions . Today I'm here with Mitch, as always, as well as special guest, Jim Essian. Yeah. A few little things about Jim that might be interesting for you as a listener. Jim played many years in the minor leagues and left baseball and felt the call to become a church planter, planted Paradox Church in 2011 in Fort Worth, Texas, where he continues to serve as lead pastor. Jim founded the church planning network, Plant Fort Worth, which has planted 15 churches in the last six years. Also, he's an author of many different books including his last, Send, loving your church by praying, giving, and going. Jim, if you would, I just want to say a special thank you for hopping on and a welcome. If you would, tell us a little bit more about yourself outside of baseball and church planting. What do you occupy your time with now. Yeah, thanks for having me, guys. Absolutely. Married to my wife, Heather, now for almost 21 years. And we've got three girls. Love their ages, 14, 12, and 9. We're just having a blast with marriage and family. And obviously, ministry is a big part of what we do. And our kids and my wife is involved. And so I love where we're at right now. I love loving life. So things are well. Jim, before we get going, you mind tell us a little bit about what made the transition for you from life in baseball to life as a pastor and a church planter? Well, I mean, baseball decides for you, typically. I mean, there's a few guys out there in the world that get to decide what they want to do. But typically, you know, in professional sports, you're done when they say you're done. You know, I could have kept playing and chasing a dream, but after eight years in the minor leagues and I've been married for a couple of years, it was time. And, you know, I'm not going to over-spiritualize it. It wasn't because I was going to move immediately into pastoral ministry. That was not exactly what I had in mind. So that was just the Lord dragging me out of something that I had known really my whole life. You know, my dad was a professional baseball, still is in fact, six decades. And so that was all I knew baseball, but the Lord had something better. And so he dragged me out and here I am. That's awesome. That's how he does it all the time, right? Drags us, kicking and screaming. Oh man, yeah, yeah. He's got a calling for us. Well, on that note, are all believers called to be on mission? This is something you talk a lot about in your book. I'd love to just hear your thoughts about this. Are all believers called to be on mission? And if so, why is it important that all believers consider themselves sent on mission by Jesus? Yeah, I mean, I love the process of writing the book to sort of organize some of those thoughts. You know, we have, as pastors, we have theological categories and then hopefully we're good at taking those theological precepts or ideas or categories and placing them in the hands of our people in a way in which they can actually do something with. And so, the first two chapters of the book are all about God's vision for the world. Why is there a world? Why is there a universe that exists at all? What is God doing? And then the second chapter is God's vision for us. And the big idea there is just that those two things are pretty inextricably linked. That God's vision for the world is to cover the world with the knowledge of His glory. And we are, in part, I mean, we are image bearers of his glory, and then we're called to be witnesses to his glory. And so, yeah, I mean, whether we know it or not, or whether we are intentionally doing it or not, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are on that mission, the mission to make much of Jesus and his glory known. It's really just a matter of how much, how how intentional do we want to live on that mission? And do we know? And I've just found, this is real general, not just specific to the mission of God or the book itself. I found that, specifically in the American church, if we have a problem with the American church, pastors should stop blaming the people and we should start taking responsibility for ourselves as leaders. It is our job to teach them. It is our job to set an example. It is our job to tell them. And in part, the book is written as a way to help pastors help their people see the mission that God has called them to. Yeah, amen, totally. What are some symptoms or what are some side effects of Christians not knowing that mission and trying to live out the Christian life? What are some things that you've seen as a lead pastor in that? Yeah, I mean, we're gonna, I said this yesterday in a sermon, and I'm sure you guys have quoted it as well, D.A. Carson, just talking about how we don't drift towards holiness. We don't drift towards God's mission. We don't drift towards feeling near to God. We don't drift towards a healthy marriage. We don't drift, it's just not the way that that works. We are fundamentally still broken, sinful, learning how to live out our new nature in Christ. And so, yeah, I mean, if we're not moving in that direction, we'll be moving towards something. We were made to be...we were made to be glorious. We were made to desire beauty. We were made to have purpose and meaning. And we're going to find the counterfeit of that if we don't...if we're not on the road to the way God has designed that for us. So, you're going to find yourself chasing after God's stuff and not God. And of course, that's just where we end up wrestling, struggling, and in the places where all of us can find ourselves in. Right. It's like the second law of thermodynamics for spirituality, right? Everything tends towards decay. That's true in the spiritual world, too. If you sit still, you're drifting in the wrong direction. You don't actually stand still. Totally. And there's also just, I mean, there's also a great joy to it. I think we can have a tendency to do, you know, we ought to, and we do, we ought to be doing certain things and a part of certain things, but there's also the promises that there's great joy in all of that. Yeah. You know, Jesus doesn't say, you know, in his parable, you know, hey, good job following the rules. Now, you know, now go to heaven. He says, you know, well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master. A man finds a treasure buried in the field, in his joy goes and sells all that he has that he might buy the field. So there's also, the promise is there's great joy in all of that as well. Yeah, totally. Jim, I loved the way that you opened your book. If you don't mind, I'm going to read actually just the first two paragraphs here quick for everybody just because I loved the way that this started. This is the beginning of Jim's latest book. He says, you are in the midst of a global movement, a movement that is advancing in every culture and place across the millennia, a spirit-filled, gospel-armed people who will not stop or even slow down until we break through the gates of hell and welcome our King and His Kingdom. We will not lose because He has already won." Amen. I love that. I was hooked right away in the first couple of sentences there. So speaking of that, Jim, do you mind just talking a little bit about how is our theology of Jesus' victory through the cross and the resurrection. How does that affect how we think about the church, and especially church planting? Yeah, I mean, I was joking about it with my team this morning in regards to something else. But it was kind of, if you watched the Lions game last night, it's kind of like that. It's like, man, things are not going well, but it just feels inevitable. We just knew somehow they were going to pull it off. And the Christian life is much like that. Here's a free sermon illustration for you guys for next Sunday. Yeah. The Christian life is so much like that. I mean, there are seasons, there are quarters, there are moments, there's time. There's this particular drive where man, it doesn't feel like we know what we're doing. And five picks in one game, I need to stop this analogy, I'm sorry. But you know, there's just, we know, we know that things are going to be hard and there's going to be times where it doesn't feel like it's going well, but to know that we have already won just pulls, like all of the weight gets pulled out from that moment. I mean, it just keeps everything in perspective. And so I do think people in the Reformed camp can have a tendency to not focus on the victory that we have. And instead we're focusing on the depravity of man or something else. Whereas we can learn from the black church or even some of the charismatic churches that we are meant to live from victory first. The battle has been won. And so we know how this thing ends. And Revelation was written to encourage us. We know how this thing is gonna go down. And so that should just give us a lot of confidence when we think about the mission of God, the multiplication of His church, our part in that, our role in that, our money, our prayers. I mean, we're the ones that believe that it's God who saved, so why wouldn't we be the most bold in our proclamation of the gospel? I mean, all of those things should give us a lot of confidence. Yeah, amen. Man, I gotta tell you, this is like, I feel like the tides have turned here. It used to be that all of our analogies about the lion were very negative. That was the most optimistic analogy I've heard. Yes, it brings a choice, that's right. A different season in Michigan. Well, you know, usually I also say that you can only insult the Lions if you're from Michigan. But Jim, you're from Detroit, so it's OK. We'll go with it. I grew up watching Barry Sanders on the 50-yard line, man. Yeah, that's awesome. There you go. That's awesome. Well, hey, so to pivot to talking a little bit more specifically about church planning. So let's tackle this from a couple of different angles. If somebody listening is in a church that is healthy, that is growing, and that is maybe thinking about church planting in the near future, what are some things that they could do to help foster that culture that leads to church planting? Maybe they're a pastor, maybe they're an elder, maybe they're just a faithful member volunteer serving. How can they contribute to the sort of culture that leads to multiplication, planting more churches? Yeah, I mean, a couple of things. One, I think you have to start with vision, which is why that's how I started the book. I mean, I think for anything when it comes to church, when it comes to the mission of God, when it comes to the glory of God, we start with vision. You know, we tell our team this, like we don't want to recruit to need. We want to recruit to vision. And, you know, I need you might get somebody to show up next Sunday or next Saturday or, you know, whatever, but when they are captured by a vision of God, the glory of God, and the mission of God, you have them for life, not just a Sunday. And so I would just always start with vision. You know, that's going to sustain us. That's going to be the thing that endures us in ministry, whether that's vocation ministry, vocational ministry, or not. You know, I've got people in my church, we're about 14 years old now as a church plant, and I've got a couple of dozen people that have been around about 14 years, ministering, leading, serving, and they're not here because I'm some sort of great leader or because, you know, standing in the midst of the churches, ruling and reigning, and they're captured by that vision. So one, you've got to have a vision. It should be the vision that God has. Don't come up with your own. And then two, I think they need to know that this is, like, anyone can get in on this. One of the reasons I, you know, everything I've just told people about this book, like what is the book about, what is the book about, the book is about I am a ex-jock preacher with no seminary degree, no college degree, and I've been able to be on the front lines of Jesus's mission, watching Jesus flex in church planting here in Fort Worth, throughout the country and throughout the world. I've seen churches planted in Brazil. I've seen the darkness pushed back in my city. I've been able to be at the front lines of God's mission, and if I can, then anyone can. And so anyone in our churches can be a part of this, and they can get in on it. And I just think that's amazing, that if you paint this big, beautiful vision of the glory of God and the mission of God and the victory of God, and then you say you can be a part of that, no matter who you are or what you can get in on this, that's a great start. And then from there, I think it would just be championing multiplication. You can't, I mean, there's, I won't remember it, but there's a quote in the book from Tim Keller, because you have to quote Tim Keller if you're going to be able to take it. He says some of the effect of like, if you don't have a multiplication culture and you just go plant a church, it's going to be like, that's almost dangerous to a church. There has to be already a culture of multiplication. This has to be something that's being championed and celebrated. It's a culture that's created where multiplication is just normal. We're going to multiply disciples. We're going to multiply small groups. We're going to multiply leaders. We're going to multiply campuses, services, churches. The gospel is always moving. It's not static, it's dynamic, it's news, it's meant to be shared, it's meant to be moved. And so I think developing a culture of multiplication is really important. Amen. So, you know, so the vision is so exciting, I think, and so easy to grab onto for so many people. But one of the objections that I have heard sometimes that I'm sure you've experienced as well. So we at Peace Church by God's grace, where Mitch and I pastor, we got to plant a campus that will become an independent church just a year ago. And so we saw this as well. Maybe you've heard this before, but people will say, well, man, that means I've got to say goodbye to some brothers and sisters in Christ because either they're leaving to go be part of this new church plant or I'm leaving to go be part of a new church plant. You know, you go from a church that's probably of a decent size, usually when you plant, you're a healthy size and now you're gonna go start this much smaller thing. How have you handled that as a pastor and church planner, helping people go through that, saying goodbye, realizing, man, there are some people that you're not gonna see every Sunday morning anymore. You know, there's some downsides, but obviously there's a much bigger upside. Yeah, totally. Yeah, there's a whole chapter in the book called Gospel Goodbyes for this very reason. You know, if you have a multiplication culture you immediately realize you learn very quickly that that means you're saying goodbye even if you have a small group of somebody in my small group multiplies our relationship is now changing to some degree and you know this is the paradox of the gospel at least one of many, and that's that this goodbye is both a grief, excuse the city noise behind me, but it's both a grief but also a celebration. We are sorrowful yet always rejoicing, the Apostle Paul said. And so we're celebrating because the gospel is going forward, we're multiplying, but we also acknowledge the grief. And that's just kind of one of the things you want to do is just acknowledge, yeah, this stinks, that our relationship's gonna change. This stinks, that you're not gonna go to this church, or you're not gonna be a part of this small group, or you're not gonna go overseas, and I'm gonna be missing my friend. And our relationship is going to change. You think of Paul in Acts 20, when he's leaving the Ephesian elders, and everyone is weeping. You think of the disciples when they finally realized what Jesus is saying, that he's going to go. And Jesus said, sorrow has filled your heart. So there's just an acknowledgement, I think, to the grief that would be healthy and mature and would make sense. All while we understand the joy of the celebration in the multiplication that's happening there. Yeah, yeah, totally. One of the language things we've tried to use is to try to talk about, you know, people are really tempted to say well our small group is splitting or our church is splitting. No, no, it's not a split. It's a multiplication, you know, different math term, right? It's multiplication not division. That's what's going on. Yeah, we started talking about actually our small groups don't even multiply, they just plant. We call them city groups. Just to, again, we want one of our strategies, you know, we have three strategies, preach the gospel, plant churches, and push back darkness. And we wanted people to see that they're actually a part of planting churches, even if they don't go to one of our church plants. Because, you know, it's that multiplication culture that breeds a new church. And so even if they never are a part of one of our church planting teams, or even the lead church planter, they're still a part of church planting. And so I do think language is important. Saying gospel goodbyes, would you say that that's maybe the hardest part of planting churches, or have you seen something else in your experience as a church planter that makes it difficult? Yeah, I think relationally, emotionally, that's the hardest part. No, I think, I mean, it's hard to say what is hard about it because we've just been so blessed by it and it's almost like breathing for us. It's just not something that we, you know, consider a loss at all. Sure. So the hardest part is just the work of, it's the work afterwards. I think the hardest part, I'm really good at starting things, I'm not great at the details, I'm not great at, I'm really good at starting things and handing them off. Plant Fort Worth, the network, the city network here that we started, that's run by Ben Connolly, he's world famous in doing, working for church planning organizations and running church planning residencies, that's something I would be terrible at. So I've got wonderful people that do a great job of all of that, but this is just, you know, it's once the church is off the ground, how do you continue to come alongside that church and it grows, it grows in all the ways in which it needs to grow and should grow. That's probably the hardest part for me personally is, you know, these are all my buddies, but it's a lot of them and it's a lot of work and I've got other work. Yeah. And just, you know, continuing to build that family and our family of churches and caring for these men and their teams and seeing them grow and flourish and get healthy and all of that is, that's a lot of the hard work. It's easy for us to raise up a guy, because that's something the Lord does anyways, and then send him out with, I mean, Caleb, our next church plan, he'll be headed out here in January, here in a couple of months. He's got right now 85 committed. And so that'll probably grow to about 100 or so by the time he gets to January. So that's really easy to just say, this is what we do guys and this is what we're about and so go. And they go. So that part, easy is maybe too strong of a word, but the harder part is how do we get these churches to continue to grow and get healthy? Yeah. Hey, this is Mitchell and I wanted to butt in and interrupt our amazing interview with Jim Essien to bring you an exclusive offer from our sponsors today, Moody Publishers. Outside of them giving us this deal, Moody Publishers has been a resource that I've always run to. They're an amazing group of people that publish great stuff. If you're looking to dive deeper into faith and grown wisdom, discover books that will inspire, challenge, and transform with Moody Publishers. From trusted authors to fresh voices, Moody offers resources that equip you for life's journey with Christ. And now we have an exclusive offer for you. That's a good question, listeners. An offer for you if you use promo code RESOUND40 to get 40% off with your next purchase. Whether you're searching for devotionals, study guides, or impactful reads, Moody Publishers has something for everyone. Don't miss out on this. Visit moodypublishers.com and use code RESOUND40 at checkout. Again, that's moodypublishers.com and use RESOUND40 at checkout. Enrich your faith today. And now let's jump back into our interview with Jim Essien. I wanna ask one more question about those gospel goodbyes. How have you seen that impact the sending church in a positive way? We've done this at so many different stages. It's really, it changes at the different stages of church size that we've been at. Our first church we planted, we were maybe 600, 700 people. And so, that kind of gospel goodbye, and we sent out 100 people with that one. Yeah. So that sort of gospel goodbye, you have a lot of relational ties. And of course we're planting just down the street. So it's not totally, you know, we're never gonna see them again, but it's definitely a thing where these were pastors that were planting that had deep impact in the lives of our people. And so it's not just the people that are going, it's the pastor that is going. They married some of our people, they've counseled them, they've prayed with them, they've cried with them, they've visited them in the hospital, and now in a lot of ways they think of him as maybe their pastor. And for whatever reason, maybe they're not going with him for some, you know, because typically it's geographic. There's a lot of... it can definitely have an effect on, we've had a few instances where it's, you know, that was the person that really pastored me and these other elders, I just don't really know. And so you have, you know, things like that, but all of that is just create shepherding moments. Yeah. Every moment is a shepherding moment is kind of one of the things that we say. And so there's, that's not a bad thing. That's just an opportunity. Yeah, totally. So another experience that we have here in West Michigan, I imagine you can relate to in Texas as well, is that you'll hear people say, well, man, why would you guys plant another church? There's so many churches. You know, there's churches on every street corner, people will say, around Grand Rapids, Michigan, where we're at. You know, why do you think, Jim, why do you think we need more churches in areas that do have lots of churches, and why do we need more churches? Yeah, interesting enough, typically those people, I don't know if you found this to be true, but typically those people are people that have been at a lot of the churches in the city. And so, you know, I would gently push back there and say it seems like you liked, you know, all of the options and you've enjoyed, you know, dropping your feet into different churches and seeing which one fits for you. Man, you know, there's so many ways, so many reasons why it's still right and good to do this that I could probably list off 10. One would just be, again, I would just keep going back to vision. The very nature of the gospel is that it multiplies. And so, in a healthy place, this should just be natural. It's just going to happen that the gospel continues to just move and do what it does. Two, unless, you know, unless, I mean, if a guy wants, if a guy on my team or if a guy comes to me and says, not going to give him my job. He's going to have to go to another church to have my job. And so why would we keep, you know, my, why is the lead pastor role or any role in the church off limits to anyone else? I mean, if God is raising up another great kids minister, if God is raising up another great worship pastor, if God is raising up another great lead pastor, why would we not want to multiply that as well. Three, church closings happen all the time. Four, population growth is happening in certain areas of the country. And so there's reasons for wanting to do that. Another great reason, I'd probably put this at the top as well, is just there's something about a new church that tends to attract new kinds of people, is a little bit stronger in evangelism, is going to just create another expression of the local church in a city that's going to be helpful to the church in that city. And one of the things I love about Plant Fort Worth is that we are a network of churches in one city, Fort Worth, and you look at like the guys on our lead team, for example, you've got Presbyterian Church and Pentecostal Church and Black Church, and you've got this sort of broad swath of the church in Fort Worth. And you talk about unity, like everybody wants unity in the church, that's how you get it. And I just think there's so many benefits to it. Nobody really wants their church to get bigger except for the lead pastor anyways. So it's not just, why are we wanting one church to carry the evangelical, I'm sorry, the evangelistic and discipleship load of a whole city. I just don't understand that strategy, that theology, or that philosophy. Yeah, yeah, totally. Well, and one of the things that we've heard is people saying, well, there's already churches in that place where you're going to plant. Why plant another one in that place? And there's a lot of different answers to that. One would be just that statistically, new church plants have a much higher ability to reach new people than existing longstanding churches do. That's just, we could talk about the reasons why, but the data just shows us that. That if somebody who's not currently part of a church is more likely to attend a brand new church plant than a longstanding church. That's just kind of how it is. From our experience at Church Plant, too, in the most recent plant that we did, we didn't see a ton of people leave other churches and come to that church. It was people who weren't part of a church, and they started coming. Or they were people from the sending church that went with to be part of that. I don't have any data on this. You get a lot of specialized mission as well. You know, there's, you know, I mean, so much of our DNA obviously goes with the sending churches or with the church plants, but they're, you know, I mean, Pillar Church is in a very unique part of Fort Worth and the ministry that Canaan can do there is gonna be much more specific and contextualized than what we could try to do as the mother church in center city Fort Worth. So our church plants end up in very specific, unique neighborhoods with defined geographic boundaries and they have their own different unique ministries that they can emphasize and put energy towards that maybe we wouldn't as just a large mega church in center city Fort Worth. Yeah, yeah, totally. Well, so we've got to talk a ton about church planting, so I think people listening are in different places. Some getting to be part of a church, part of a church plant, which is awesome. Some, maybe not, maybe asking the question, all right, so if I'm not part of a church that is planting or if I'm not part of a church plant, how can I still be part of God's mission, what he's doing in the church? So let me ask you this, Jim. How can the average Christian dream big for the glory of God and for the mission he might have for them? Yeah, that's my, I mean, the last chapter in the book is called Dream Big. And really it's just an opportunity for, again, so I'm going to go back to that question I brought up earlier. If I can get in on God's mission, then so can you. You know, anyone can. And, you know, there's a couple of things. One is just talking about finding your place. So part of the book is also, what is my role in all of this? How do I figure out what God would have for me? And there's local missions, and there's church planting, and there's global missions. And so Dream Big is just really about you sitting before the Lord and actually believing Ephesians 3 is true. That God is wanting to grow your heart in such a way that you would be able to comprehend with all of the saints the fullness of God's love for you and for the church. And that he would then do anything, right? Anything. He would do more than you could ask or imagine because he wants his glory known through the church. That's just Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. And so, the opportunity to sit down and actually pray and sit before the Lord and just say, God, I wanna dream big for how I might be a part of this huge thing that you're doing and to know that you've just promised that you would do more than that. You know, Jesus prays or tells us in what, John 15, John 16, maybe John 14, whatever you pray for, if you pray in my name, I will do. And we, you know, everybody's, you know, everybody's had that, every pastor's had that question asked them, how is it that I pray about things and God doesn't do them? Well, because what he's talking about there is praying according to his will and his word and his promises. And so there's a promise in Ephesians 3.20 that if we are praying that God's glory would be known through His church, He will give us more than we can ask or imagine. And so just dreaming big about your role in the mission of God. And for some of you, it's going to be underwriting. Great ministry and great mission. I've got great stories about over the course of history, the revivals of the church, and you have these great leaders that have been a huge part of these revivals and movements of the church. But there are unknown men and women, typically women, very often they're women, that are underwriting, that are paying for financing those movements of God. Some of you, that's going to be you, and you have no idea what that's going to be like, and it's going to be amazing that God would use you and your finances for his ministry and mission. For some of you it's going to be prayer. I've been saying this for years. I'm going to find out in heaven for sure that some probably single woman who has been so faithful to pray for our church for decades was actually the reason why God did all the things that God did in our church. And we're going to get to heaven. She's going to have a gigantic house. Mine's going to be this little tiny house and hers is going to be a huge mansion and, you know, she's going to have this bottle of prayers in one of her many, many garages and barns. And it's going to be the prayers that she had for the Paradox Church. And that's why I did all that stuff. And so just what does that look like for you to sit before the Lord and just dream big about what He might have you do, the role that you might play for the mission of God. Yeah, amen, that's awesome. Yeah, I've gotten to have that conversation with a few of our senior saints, even here, even in the church. They are so overjoyed that they get to be part of the church planting, not because they're going, but because they get to support it through prayers and through their faithful giving. Yeah, totally. All of us have a role to play. Total. Jim, as we're kind of wrapping up, I've really thoroughly enjoyed your book, Send. Could you tell us a little bit more? We've kind of been teasing around these questions around that book, but could you tell us a little bit more about that book or any other projects that maybe are on the horizon for you that we should look out for? Yeah, I love the book for, again, just it's written to the church member. And so it's meant to serve the church pastor, but it's written to the church member. I've told my pastor friends, we all want so much, we want more for our people. We want them to really be captured by the mission of God and to want more for the Christian life. And it's just hard for us to download and disciple, for me, 14 years of experience in ministry to everyone. So to be able to have a book that is meant to be written specifically to the church member and hopefully doing some of that, that's the way it's meant to serve your churches, your ministries. It's written to the church member. And then, two, I'm really excited about what I hope to be a next project about basically just written to men, a very specific ministry towards men. I started an email newsletter. It's called When a Man is Needed. And I've wanted so much to multiply my ministry here locally to our men, to more just super practical, super easy. But really, the younger generation, I'm 45 now, I just turned 45, the 20s and 30 year olds, men, I know them well, I have conversations with them all the time, and they just need very simple, practical help, and they're gonna go find it somewhere. And so I've just been really excited about doing that with them. And so I started that newsletter recently. It's sort of taken off, and I'm excited about what that's doing, and I hope to write a book about that soon. Yeah, if people are looking to find that newsletter or any other resources, is there a place that they can search to find that information? Yeah, they can just email me. The best way to do that right now would be email. But yeah, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. I post links there about it all the time. Jim at theparadoxchurch.com . I can get them that information as well. Awesome, awesome. That's great. Well Jim, thanks so much for the conversation today. We're so thankful to get to talk and get to share with our listeners. Everybody, thanks so much for listening. Have an awesome week. You can always follow ReSound Media on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Subscribe, follow, like. Have a great week everybody. Bye!

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Angelic Proclamation; Our King is Born! Sermon Series: Fit for a King Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Luke 2:8-15 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said with all your heart, amen, amen. So, one thing that is always monitored around the holiday time is holiday travel. For some reason, we like to monitor how much people are moving around during Christmas time. So here's the question I have for you. Where are you going for Christmas or for Christmas celebrations? Here's what I want you to do. Take a moment with the people around you, share where you are going for Christmas this year. Take a moment and do that. All right, so as you think about where you're going to go for Christmas, let's just hold on to that thought for a second. We'll come back to it. Today we are continuing our series called Fit for a King as we are looking at the reality that Jesus is not just Emmanuel, God with us, He's not just the Savior, but Jesus is the King of kings who has been born. And so His birth, while very humble in nature, it was still a truly royal event. And I think one of the most grand parts of Jesus' birth that really demonstrate and announce the fact that it was a royal event is with the angelic proclamation. When the angels come and announce that Jesus has been born. And that's what we're going to be looking at today. And here's what I'd say. For those who know the story, you know the humble means by which Jesus was born. I'm hoping that you can hear anew the angelic announcements because I think it's very timely with everything that's going on in our world. And so to look at this very familiar passage, I'm gonna ask you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 2. Luke 2, we'll look at verses 8 to 15. If you are newer to the faith or you don't know the context, let me just clarify for you. As we read this passage, here's what's going on. Jesus Christ had just been born. He had been born in Bethlehem to Mary and Joseph. It was a completely underwhelming event by human standards. He's born in a manger made for animals because as the Bible says there's no place for him in the inn. Bethlehem, while an extremely famous town nowadays, it was a small town and nearby, the Bible says that there were shepherds out tending to their flocks. It's a well-known story and so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna pick up from this point. Jesus has been born and there's shepherds out in the field and that's where we're gonna pick up our story. So would you hear God's Word? Luke chapter 2, we'll read verses 8 to 15. Would you hear God's Word? Luke 2:8-15 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” This is God's word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Father in heaven above, Lord, today we remember, we give thanks that we celebrate the birth of your son, the incarnation of our God and Savior and the King of kings who rules and reigns. And we ask here and now by the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit that you would not only bless our time, but help us to know your truth, that we would receive it into our hearts and into our lives. And we ask these things in the name of the newborn King, in the name of Jesus. And everyone said, amen. So for those of us gathered here and online, as we are here on Christmas Eve, if I give you one thing to think about today and especially tomorrow as we celebrate the birth of Jesus it would be this here's our main point for today what the angels proclaim is what we all need to hear and so as we look at our passage today there's three things I want to draw up draw out from this angelic announcement and it'd be these three things. 1. The truth is found in a moment 2. The miracle is found in the mundane 3. The purpose is found in the message The purpose is found in the message. All right. So as we get going, let's just state the obvious here. I know many people would say that we live in a quote unquote heavily churched area. Many of us grew up knowing this story. Or even if you didn't grow up going to church, it's such a cultural celebration. Many of us just know the story of Christmas by osmosis to some extent. So here's what I'd say to you. If this passage is familiar to you, if you've heard this passage a thousand times, here's my challenge to you, especially if you call yourself a Christian. Do you live out this story as well as you know the story? Do you live out this story as well as you know the story? I recently heard someone say this about the American culture. They said that we are educated beyond our obedience. That we know all this stuff. We have all the Bible studies. We have all the resources at our fingertips. We know everything we can, but we don't actually live it out. We're educated beyond our obedience to God's word. And so again, here's my challenge to you. If you know this story, if you've heard it a thousand times, do you live it out as well as you know it? Are you filled with hope? True hope? Are you filled with hope every single time you hear this? Or are you just filled with nostalgia? Are you challenged by this story? Are you comforted by this story? Does this story inspire you to live more fully to God? You may know this story, but have you truly heard it? 1. The truth is found in a moment So first thing, Christmas proclaims what we all need to hear. The first one is this, the truth is found in the moment. Let's go back to our passage. What we say we know so well, let's look at verses 8, 9, and 10 again. Luke says this, it says, Luke 2:8-10 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. All right. Let me ask you you got to be honest. This is church. Got to be honest here when I read this passage How many of you thought of Charlie Brown? Let me see. Oh, most of you. Okay. All right. Okay. Yeah, you know Whether we think of the Christmas celebration when we read this passage, we're missing something so much. This is an entirely underrated passage. Remember what's going on here. These shepherds were among the lowest of the low, and yet they, they were the ones that God chose to reveal the birth announcement to. They were the first ones to get to hear about the birth of Jesus. These shepherds out in the field, the lowest of the low, the forgotten, and they're the ones who got to hear first the message of Jesus. They were not kings. They were not rulers. They were not social media influencers. They were not rock stars. They were working men. And add to that, they were working the night shift. Nothing but love for third shifters. I worked on third shift for two years of my life. My body’s not wired for it. Two years of my life, I never saw the sun. I just, I can't handle it. But I can tell you this about working the third shift. That crew of people that I got to work with, we were a ragtag group, and nobody was looking to quote us. We were the forgotten, but it was a fun group I worked with. And one thing I can tell you about working the third shift is that we understood that the boss was never going to show up in the middle of the night to say, well done everyone. Keep it up. Boss wasn't walking in at 2 am to give us an attaboy. If the boss showed up in the middle of the night, someone getting fired. No one showed up unless we did something wrong, but I can't imagine being those guys working out at night and God's angel showed up. I can't imagine working third shift and have an angel of the Lord show up to not just tell us news, but the greatest news the world had ever heard. Mary, the mother of Jesus, and I say this with all due respect, she was a nobody by the world's standards. See, in our day and age, where everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame, we live in a world where teenagers' dying wish is to go viral and get some attention. I'm telling you, this is not how God works. God is not impressed by this. He's not impressed by how many likes we get on social media. God's standards are not ours. He goes by his own. Some of you out here, you may feel forgotten, either by your families or by society. But I'm telling you now, it's the lowly, it's the forgotten, it's the mourning, it's the third shifters, it's the people without influence. Those are just the type of people that God reveals big things to. And he calls us to respond. This is how God works. He doesn't wait for the big grand events to reveal his plan. He does it in the moments we'd never expect. This eternal truth that God incarnate had been born, that eternal truth was found in the moments. God does things when we never expect, not just what we don't expect. Like telling a bunch of poor farm boys working the night shift the greatest news the world had ever known. Like a teenager who stands apart not because of her massive social media following. She stands apart because in her heart she is one thing, and that's faithful to God in her simple life. The truth is revealed in a moment, so don't be so preoccupied with the big things in life that we forget to see the way that God moves in the small things. The shepherds were just living life. They were just doing their thing, and that's when everything changed. The angel appeared to them and said, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. See, Christmas proclaims what we need to hear. The truth is found in the moment, and also the miracle is found in the mundane. 2. The miracle is in the mundane Go to verse 11 and 12. Says this, Luke 2: 11-12 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” Christ has been born to you, unto you. He came for us. We celebrate the one who came to save us, to redeem us. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord and this will be a sign for you you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger okay we know this story we know it and because we know it so well I think we've forgotten what we just read an angel shows up with the glory of God shining around them. These men are absolutely terrified. And what's the news? You're gonna find a baby. You're gonna find a baby just wrapped up in swaddling cloths. That's a big grand sign I came from heaven to share with you. What? Don't be so familiar with the story that you forget to know the story. What is going on here? You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths. That phrase there, wrapped in swaddling cloths, is a very wordy phrase in English, but it's actually one word in the original language. You'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying, not in a crib, not in a hospital, not in his mother's arms. You'll find a baby wrapped and lying in a manger. So mundane, but yet a miracle. These guys were working outside in the night shift, mundane, but then a miracle happens. And just think about these guys. I mean, remember, this was a real thing that happened. These guys were just standing out in the field and I can imagine these guys doing what they do every single night. I can see them kind of just leaning on their staff, just talking to one another, just meaningless, mindless conversation like they've had day in and day out. And then something happens. A night where they normally would have just forgotten what happens. Everything, everything changed. A miracle happened in the middle of the mundane. It says, you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. Our Savior was found wrapped in rags. Rags, mundane. The king of kings was not born in a bassinet made of gold in some palace. He was born in a barn, in a manger made for faint farm animals. Now that that word manger there, I found myself this past week as I was thinking about this passage, I found myself doing something that I wonder if you do as word manger I think crib I think the crib that Jesus was born at Chris born in at Christmas time but let me remind you that's not what a manger is a manger here here's here's the definition here a manger is a long open box or trough for horses or cattle to eat from see I found myself being so familiar with this story that when I heard manger, I think that's where Jesus was born. I thought crib. Like when you hear the word manger, you need to think farm animals and hay. That's what Jesus Christ, the Christ was born in. He was not born in a nursery. It doesn't explicitly say this, but Jesus was born in a barn or at least a first century Jewish version of that, whether it was like a cutout cave or just a small little enclosure, but it was a place where animals would eat. I'll tell you this, anyone who's, who spent time in a barn, you probably resonate with what I'm about to say. I grew up spending a lot of time in a barn. If you have to, then you know, something barns are pretty special, magical places. Do you know what I mean? Who's ever spent some real time in a barn? Right? You know those are special places for some reason or not. And one of my favorite lines about barns comes from a book called Charlotte's Web. I'm sure you've heard of it. Anyone read Charlotte's Web or seen the movie? I'm not sure if this line is in the movie, but it's in the book. And line. Here's what it says about barns. It says, It smelled of hay and manure. It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell, as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world. If you ever spent time in a barn, you know what the writer is saying here. But here's what I'm going to tell you. Bad things still happen. But the greatest thing that could have happened did happen. And it happened in a barn. And it's the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. See, barns are awesome places, but cows are born in barns. Horses, sheep, goats are born in barns. People are not born in barns, but our Savior was. And this just reminds us of something incredibly special from the life of Christ, that miracles don't just happen on the mountaintops. Miracles can happen in the mundane. But unfortunately, we are the most distracted society of all time, and I don't think we ever look up from our phones long enough to see it. The angel shows up and he says this. He doesn't announce the birth of Savior to princesses or kings, not to presidents or popes, but rather God speaks to the working man. God does not speak to self-proclaimed boss babes or the guys in the corner office. He speaks to the lowly, and more than that, to the faithful. To the faithful who day in and day out rely on the patience of God as the priority of their life. That they may not understand why God does what he does, but they give themselves to him knowing that he is good. Because Christmas proclaims that miracles don't just happen on the mountaintops, they happen in the mundane. Do you have the eyes to see it or are you too busy scrolling? Look up from time to time and I promise you, you might just see a miracle. Because Christmas proclaims that miracles are found in the mundane. 3. The purpose is found in the message And lastly, Christmas proclaims to us, the angels proclaim what we need to hear, and it's the truth that the purpose is found in the message. So not only does the one angel show up, look what happens. Luke 2:13-15 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” Verse 13 says, And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts. Okay, what's that? I'll tell you what that is. That's the angelic army. The king had been born, so God sent his entire angelic army, a multitude of them, a great number of them, to come and they were praising God. Now before I say and read what they said, remember, this is an enormous army of angels. But I'm willing to bet something here. If you know this story, I'm willing to bet something. In your mind, maybe not everyone, but I think many of us in our mind, when we think about those shepherds, we think about them doing this, looking up. I think for many of us, we just kind of like assume that the angels were in the sky. The Bible don't say that. In fact, the Bible goes at great lengths to clarify these were shepherds out in a field, in fields. I actually kind of think that they actually were on the ground, standing in a royal salute to the birth of the King. I imagine that field full of angels, the angelic army, standing, praising God and announcing this. And what did they come to announce? The birth of the Savior. And let me remind you, this is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. This is the birth of the King. This is God incarnate. How in the world do you announce that? What do you say to that? Like a thousand years worth of prophecy being fulfilled in one awesome, amazing moment. How do you announce that? Well, this is how you do it. God sends his army of angels and they say, glory to God in the highest. I don't think we fully understand the weight of that phrase. The glory of God is the weightiest thing there is. And we have the highest amount of that in the birth of Christ. Glory to God in the highest. This is what the angelic army announced. I can't even imagine what that must have sounded like. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among those with whom He is pleased. That's how you announce the birth of the Savior. See, in our world, at least in our culture, in our society, people are looking for meaning within themselves. We are the culture that says live your own truth. Which I just gotta say is pathetically hypocritical. For a culture to say live your own truth and then what do we do? We turn around and seek external validation from strangers online. We are an incredibly lost culture. If you would just take a step back and survey what we are saying and what we are doing. Live your own truth but make sure everyone online who you don't know validates that. Okay, let me tell you something about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel of Jesus refutes both of that. The gospel does says, no, the truth and the message and your purpose is not found within you, it's found externally, but you don't seek validation from strangers. See, the gospel message, which begins at Christmas. Now listen, while our purpose is found in the gospel message, while the meaning of our life is found in the gospel message, the gospel message is not about us, it's about Jesus. It's the good news given to us. And the good news is about Jesus, who he is and what he's done for us, that he died in our place, paying the penalty for our sin, so that we wouldn't have to. This is the good news. But in the gospel, we find our purpose. And you know the gospel, I'm willing to bet many of you do. But when we look at our lives and the interactions of so many Christians, I want to ask them, and I know this is gonna sound judgmental, but I wanna ask them, do you really know the gospel? Do you have, like, I know you know it up here in your head, but do you know the gospel like in your hearts? Because our lives are a manifestation, our lives are a manifestation of what's in our hearts, not just what's in our head. And I want to ask Christians, has the gospel made the track from your brain of what you can recite to your heart of which you live out? Does it actually change the way you interact with scriptures? Does it change the way you interact with people? Do you know the gospel? Because here's the reality, the gospel starts with Christmas, that God so loved the world that he gave. That's the Christmas story right there. That's Christmas, that Jesus, the son of God, came from heaven, born a baby boy, God incarnate, or as the Bible says, Emmanuel, God with us. And so going back to the notion of God telling the shepherds first, they first got the message. Now, the Bible doesn't say this, but I have a guess as to why God chose to tell the shepherds first. And I think it's found in verse 15. Let's go to verse 15 together. So now, when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ìLet us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. Why did God tell this first to the shepherds? I think itís at least in part because He knew that they would actually respond to the message. They would hear the message and they would actually do something about it. See, the birth of Christ, Emmanuel, comes with the necessity of a response for those who have the ears to hear. And the shepherds show us what the response is. When we hear the Christmas message, what's our response? To go to Jesus. For wherever you are going for your Christmas celebrations, for those who have the ears to hear, for those who have the heart to respond, we go to the manger. We go to our Savior to adore Him, to cherish Him, to worship Him. Our purpose is to know Christ and through Him to know the love of God. You see, I think if the angels went to some royal court and told this to a bunch of officials or princesses or kings, I can imagine they would probably sit there on their high thrones and they would think, wow, this is wonderful news. How wonderful I must be that the angels would tell me. And then they wouldn't do anything with it. But the shepherds, they drop what they're doing and they went to Jesus. Okay, go back to verse 15. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing had it happened. Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that had happened. Making no mention that they just were witness to the angelic army before them. You think they might have said, what just happened? But they said, let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that had happened because they knew what they just witnessed pointed to something even greater. And so here's my question for you. You are now hearing the Christmas message. Are you going to respond like a high and mighty affluent person who thinks you're special because you heard this message, but you're really not going to do anything with it? Or are you going to be like the shepherds who hear the Christmas message and you respond by going to Jesus? My prayer for you is that you understand the beauty of God's love for you in what happened on that Christmas morning. That God sent his son to come to save you. And he did that by living a full human life, perfectly faithful to God, perfectly loving to others. And by doing so, that made him the perfect sacrifice to die in your place for your sins so that you wouldn't have to, so that you could respond and know the love that God has for you, so that you could be brought back to God through the blood of Jesus. That's my prayer for you this Christmas is that you're not just exchanging gifts, but you are being reminded again of what Christmas is. It is your Savior coming for you unto you. So which one are you? The one that's too busy to respond or the one that's going to? The shepherds dropped everything to go to Christ in that moment. And so let me make it clear again, this is what the angels proclaim, that the King has been born and we all need to hear this, that Christ, our Emmanuel, has come for us. And again, Emmanuel means God with us, right? This is a two-way street here. God with us, so we respond by going to him so that we can be with him, so that we can be with God again. So that sin that separates us from God, that is removed in the Gospel. Our Emmanuel comes to be with us so that we can go to Him. So we started this service by asking, where you go for Christmas? The one place we need to go back to is back to Christ. We need to go back to the manger, back to the story, and remember again that the King who has come to save us has been born. And that's what we get to celebrate. So let me remind you what the angels proclaim is what we all need to hear. So go to Jesus. And one of the ways we do that is by responding in worship. So would you please stand as we prepare our hearts to worship. Amen. Would you please bow your heads and let's pray together. Father, we come before you on this Christmas Eve, and I just ask God, in Jesus' name, that here and now by the power and presence of the Spirit, Lord, that you'd give us the heart of those shepherds to respond, to go and see, that we might look upon the newborn King, the one who has been born unto us to save us, that this child would grow into the man who would die on the cross and then triumph over death, triumph over sin, and he would rise again. So Father, I pray that here and now, Lord, as we sing the words of this old Christmas hymn, Father, I pray, God, that we'd sing them anew, we'd sing them true. We pray these things in Jesus' powerful name. And everyone said, amen. And everyone said, amen. Church, let's worship together.

The Lie of "Live Your Truth" Sermon Series: Calling Out Cultural Lies Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: John 8:31-36 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, amen. Amen. Well, if we haven't met yet, my name is Ryan Kimmel. I'm the lead pastor here at Peace. And my family, I'm married to Tiffany. We've got four kids. We have two boys and two girls. Our girls are our oldest and our youngest, and we have boys in the middle. And this past summer, my family and I, we did something for the first time. This past summer we went to family camp together. Now I should actually preface and say it was the first time we did family camp where I wasn't the speaker. We just got to go as a family and just hang out with each other. We went down to Camp Mishawanna. It was a great week of fellowshipping with other believers and worshipping the Lord and having a lot of fun together. The only thing was we decided to family camp during the hottest week of the entire stinking summer, to be honest with you. It was incredibly hot. Now we stayed in a cabin that had kind of air conditioning, but we don't go camping to stay in a cabin, right? We go camping to hang out and do camping stuff. And if there's one thing I'm gonna do when I'm camping, no matter what, is I'm sitting around a bonfire, because that's what you do when you go camping. Except it was like 95 degrees. And so I still sat around the campfire ring without a campfire, enjoying the heat, and our campsite had zippity-doo-dah for shade. The sun was just beating down on us, and I'm sitting there, absolutely miserable, but telling my kids I'm having a wonderful time, I'm sitting there sweating around a campfire without a fire and I'm seriously questioning my life choices at this moment. And so I am sitting there trying to enjoy what I could, sun beating down on me, and I look over to the picnic table and I notice that my youngest daughter's little princess princess umbrella is sitting right there. And because I have no shame, and because my identity is in Jesus Christ, because I was hot, I grabbed that umbrella and opened it up, sat there, my feet upon the fire ring, and joined my week at family camp. Because I'm secure in my manhood, as you can tell here. And I look up and I'm like, no surprise there, Elsa and Anna, yep, you guys know who Elsa and Anna are, you know, from Frozen? If you said no, you just became my hero. Elsa and Anna from the Disney princess movie Frozen. And I'm sitting here with a little shade, a 95 degree summer day, and I look up and I notice that there is something written on this umbrella, and it's written all over this umbrella. Joel, can you tell me what that says? Live your truth. Live your truth. And I looked at that and I said, live your truth, live your truth, live your truth, live your truth. And I realized we can't escape the cultural lies. Live your truth is a cultural lie and we're gonna explain why. Here's the reality, I think for many of us, we think live your truth, especially when you put it on a Disney princess umbrella, it seems so sweet, right? But here's the reality. It seems so innocent, but it's not. It seems innocent because we think that it means you be you and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. We think it means fight the system and pave your own way. And to our American ears, that just sounds so inspiring, doesn't it? But this little statement, live your truth, which is accepted by so many. It's extremely, extremely misleading. It's founded upon lies and falsehoods that keep us in a worldview that we think is empowering, but I'm going to argue today is actually extremely detrimental to ourselves and to our culture. Because here's the lie that's actually underneath this little pithy statement. The lie that's underneath it is, is truth is what you make it and make truth fit for you. Live your truth is the meme version of truth is relative. Live your truth sounds heroic. It sounds inspiring. It even sounds freeing to people who want to throw off the shackles of old traditions, right? It feels freeing, but I'm telling you right now, it's the opposite. It keeps us from freedom. It keeps us from true freedom, and the culture is buying it, and we're giving it to little girls. And it's time it's called out. And that's what this series is all about, calling out cultural lies that so many in our society have bought into. But I want to underscore something real quick. I really want you to hear me on this, because we're gonna hit it hard in this sermon series. But I want you to know that everything we do in this sermon series is done in love. This is a sermon series that's birthed out of love. See, Jesus calls us and commands us to love people, and as Christians we do. I love people. I may not always agree with them, I may not always like them, but I love them. I love people. And I don't know about you, but I hate it when people who I love are lied to. And people I love, the people in this world, they're being lied to. And so you may hear some righteous anger come out during this sermon series, but I'm telling you, it comes from a place of love that wants to protect people from lies so that they can know the truth. And to tell someone to live your truth is telling them to do something that's based in a lie. Truth, my friends, truth is not yours to define. It's actually better than that. It's to be discovered. Truth is not fabricated inside our mind. It's found outside of ourselves. Author Elisa Childers says that live your truth is the mantra of the day. And it's because this is the lie that supports and validates all the other lies that we believe. It's very symbolic that I found live your truth on an umbrella as it covers, because that's what this lie does. It covers all the other lies and validates them. And so, I'm going to encourage you, if you have your Bibles, as we look at the lie of live your truth, would you turn to John chapter 8, the gospel of John chapter 8. As you're turning there, here's what we need to understand, that if truth is ours to define, then we can believe whatever we want. But we know this isn't the case, deep down we know this isn't right, but we hear it all the more. Especially with the election coming on right now, you know that the internet is flooded with debates going on right now. And I was listening to this one debate happening between these two groups of people, and this one woman said to this other woman, in the midst of a debate, this one woman said to this other woman, she said, your truth may not be their truth. And I sat there thinking to myself, what? How are we supposed to discern right and wrong if people respond with your truth may not be their truth. How are we supposed to ever have any sort of social cohesion when everyone is just running in their own directions with their own truth? And so this series is about calling out the lies that our culture has bought into so that we can know the truth and by the truth, as Jesus so famously said, we could know the truth and the truth will set us free. That line is quoted all the time. The truth will set you free, the truth will set you free. It's even quoted in Marvel movies. But what we do is we ripped it out of context to make it mean what we want. What we're gonna do here this morning is we're gonna put it back in context from the one who actually said it to see what he actually meant. So John chapter 8, we find Jesus in the temple. He's debating and he's discussing and he's teaching. And there's his followers there and there's religious leaders there. And the religious leaders begin to challenge Jesus and what he's saying. They're challenging what he's saying and they're challenging his identity, his claims of who he actually is. And when they start turning up the heat on Jesus, do you know what Jesus does? Do you know what Jesus does? Do you think he backs down? No, because Jesus never backs down. This is why I love to follow this King Jesus, because he never backs down. In fact, when the heat gets turned up, you know what he does? He doubles down. That's how amazing Christ is. And so they start challenging him, and rather than backing down, Christ presses in even harder. And so that's what we're going to pick up in our story. John chapter eight, would you hear the word of the Lord? John 8:31-36 31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave[a] to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. How is it that you say we will become free? And Jesus answered them, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, "'everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. "'The slave does not remain in the house forever, "'the son remains forever. "'So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Amen. This is God's word. Let's take a moment. Let's pray and then we'll continue together. Let's pray. Father, we come before you, Lord, and we want to lay claims to the promises and to the teachings of Jesus here that we'll know the truth and by it we'll be set free. So Holy Spirit, we ask that you'd be with us here and now. Open our hearts and minds and ears as we open up your word. Help us to know the truth so that we will be equipped to know when we are lied to and also so that we will be set free for it's in Jesus' powerful name we pray these things and everyone said amen. All right, so I mean at first glance when you start reading this passage here there's some things that immediately jump out that fly right in the face of this mantra of live your truth. One thing that is so clear is that live your truth is not compatible with following Jesus. Jesus, he's so kind to us. Jesus does not place the burden of truth into our hands to discern ourselves. See, he does not put it into our hands for us to make up on our own. The notion of coming up with,the notion of inventing truth, that's too weighty of a thing for us. To tell someone to live their truth is an incredible burden that you place upon people. No, no, no, Jesus doesn't do that. He doesn't put it in our hands. He keeps it in his own hands. He's saying you don't get your own truth. Jesus is saying I will reveal it to you. But here's the reality. We, you and me, you and me and the person next to you, we like live your truth. We like that short, witty, pithy statement. Why? Because we're simple people and we like simple statements, whether they are true or not. This is why so many people's political opinions are formed by memes rather than by reading actual policy. See, we are prone to believe short statements that inspire us rather than the detailed ones that actually make us think. And so the challenge here, the challenge for us this morning, you got to follow me on this. The challenge is this. See, the culture says, live your truth and we eat it up. But if we, the truth bringers, if we want to counter that argument, then it's most tactful if our counter argument is as short and catchy as the lie is. But that's really hard to do. But the beautiful thing is, I think Christ has already done it for us. I think Christ delivers here. The culture says, live your truth, but Jesus responds with this epic and eternal line, no, no, no. The truth will set you free. So we're going to look at our passage to see exactly what Christ means as we look at all this. So our main point here this morning as we think about this, we think about this lie, this lie of live your truth that we said is the lie that validates all the other lies. Here's our main idea here this morning, that truth is not fabricated, truth is found. As we look at our passes, we're going to pick up three things here this morning. Truth is found in the teachings of Jesus, that we'll look at verses 31 to 32. The next thing we'll look at is truth is found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that's verses 33 and 34, and then we'll close it up with verses 35 and 36 by looking at how the truth is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So let's get into it. Truth is not fabricated, it's found. And the first thing we're going to see is that truth is found in the teachings of Jesus Christ. So back to our Bibles. John chapter 8 verse 31. Keep your Bibles open, please. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Okay, now listen, I know that when you come to church, it is much easier just to sit and listen and even doodle on your phone. But I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to think of an answer. I'm going to ask you to share it with the person next to you. And this is for Christians and non-Christians alike. I'm going to give you a question. I'll give you a very brief moment to think, and then I want you to share your short answer with the person next to you. So here's the question. What is a defining characteristic of a true Christian? Think about it. Share your answer with the neighbor next to you. Okay, now I'm hearing a lot of talking going on because my assumption here, and I think I was just proving, was that everyone has an answer for that. Whether or not you're a Christian, everyone has an answer for what you think a Christian should be like. And so, you know, I went to the place that answers every question. I asked Google, Google, what is the defining mark of a true Christian? And here's what the great prophet said. According to the Bible, a true Christian is someone who has received Jesus as their Savior, who trusts in Jesus' death and resurrection for forgiveness, has the Holy Spirit living within them, and lives their life in a way that reflects their faith in Jesus, one who is not ashamed to say that Jesus is Lord, and has a genuine love that rejects evil and seeks peace, and grace to others. Score one for Google. Now, hold on a second here. Before you go and make Google your pastor, let me just say one thing. I wonder, I wonder what you said. Because here's the truth. When you search the Bible, and certainly the New Testament, there are clear defining markers that are said in black and white about what it means to follow Jesus. Pick up your cross and follow Him, and these sorts of things. But while we definitely could pick things together and search Scriptures and point to verses, I wonder what Jesus actually said about it. I mean, the red letters, what does it mean from Jesus' point of view to be a true believer in him? Because if you noticed, he says it in our verse. Jesus tells us what it really means to follow him. He said, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. You are truly my disciples if you abide in his word. If you abide in the word of Christ, meaning if you keep his teaching, if you remain in his teaching, if you stay and stay connected to his teaching, because Christ teaches us truth and what truth is. And so, as we think about this, and we think about what Jesus said, it's not just how you live. It's not just that you believe in the life and death and resurrection of Christ, although those are absolutely mission critical. To be a true Christian, a defining marker of what it means to follow Jesus is that you abide in His word. His word, not your word. His truth, not your truth. I'm sure you notice this, but when Jesus begins this, there's a sequence of things that He says that compound on one another. That's very important. We got to follow what He says here. He says, if you abide in His word, you are truly His disciples. And then if you are truly His disciples, you will know the truth. And if you know the truth, then you are set free. Why? Because the truth is not found within ourselves. It's not fabricated based on how we want to live. Truth is found in the word, in the teachings of Jesus Christ. And a true follower follows his teaching. And what does Jesus say? That this person walks in freedom. But this begs the question, freedom from what? Freedom from what, Jesus? That's a great question. And the people who are standing there, listening to Jesus as he was saying this, they asked the exact same thing. Look what they say. Verse 33, they answered him. We are offspring of Abraham. Again, this means they're of Jewish descent. We are offspring of Abraham. We've never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say we will become free? And Jesus answered them. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. So what does the truth set us free from? From sin. When you hear people quote that, that the truth will set you free, now you know the answer to that. Free from what? Free from sin. So if your truth doesn't bring you to a freedom from sin, if the truth that you listen to doesn't bring you to a freedom from sin, it's not truth. Because truth brings us freedom from sin. Truth is not found within ourselves, it's not found within our grand personal vision for life, it's not found in anything the world has to offer. It's found in what Christ teaches and how he teaches us to live. Because truth is found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So here, here's where it starts to get really thick. Live your truth is a mantra. Now follow me. Live your truth is a mantra for those who want to live their life any way they please. Live your truth is the great rebuttal for a prideful people who don't ever want to be told that they are wrong in their beliefs. Now right there when I said that, I'm willing to bet there are a number of people who can hear my voice. You just, you kind of had an emotional reaction to that. Something just came up within your gut. It was like, wait a second, no, we can't tell people that what they believe is wrong. Let me tell you something, my friend. That's not moral goodness speaking out of you. That's cultural conditioning. You've been culturally conditioned to think you can never tell someone they are wrong in their beliefs. And I know you know it. I got no problem telling any Nazi I meet that what they believe is wrong. We can tell people they are wrong in their beliefs if they are wrong. Now, listen, of course, we need to, as Christians, do this with the utmost charity and love and wisdom and strength and kindness, of course. But if your knee-jerk reaction is, oh, wait, I just can't, oh, no, we can't tell people they're wrong, my friend, you are culturally conditioned. And let the truth bring you to a freedom, a freedom from this. And so, for some of us, that was like a whisper into our hearts. And if you heard that whisper that you can't tell people they're wrong, I'm telling you, that is the spirit of the live your truth mantra whispering to you. But some of you, you don't need that spirit to whisper to you because you openly embrace it and promote it yourself. Live your truth is a guiding principle, not just for those who don't want to hear they're wrong, but it's for those who actually want to live apart from God. But life apart from God is sin, and sin is slavery. Like, shouldn't we, as people, be trying to save people from slavery? Like, isn't that a morally good thing to do, to snatch people out of slavery and save them from that? There's no way for us to do that without some point expressing to them what you believe is wrong, what you believe actually keeps you in sin, and it keeps you enslaved. And I know that's not a culturally popular thing to do, but as Christians, we have to bring the light, and the darkness will recoil from it. But we have to bring the truth, we have to bring it. If we wanna save people from slavery, we need to bring them the truth of Christ, because the truth of Christ is the only thing that'll free us from this. Sin is slavery, but righteousness, righteousness is freedom. See, sin is brokenness, but righteousness is when things are made right, unbroken. And the irony, oh my friends, the palatable irony in all of this is that live your truth, that mantra, that mantra is the straightest path away from truth. And it moves us towards a worldview that is full of lies and dangerous and destructive. So what I want to do for just a moment is I want to take the live your truth and I want to show you how it doesn't even hold up against its own weight, let alone the truth of Scripture. Let's take just a few moments and explain why this lie is so destructive. So firstly, the lie of live your truth, it may excite us, but it keeps us separated. If we are all just living our own truth, then we're not coming under one unifying truth that can bring us all together. And again, I get, I get the whole to each his own mentality, but I happen to think a culture and a people are stronger when we are united. For it was Jesus who said a house divided against itself cannot stand. And as I think about what's going on in this world, I just have to tell you, I think the live your truth, that lie, it sounds like just the type of lie a devil would want a people to believe to keep them running away from each other. Second thing, the lie of live your truth may motivate us, but it keeps us immature. Here's what I mean. We can't grow if we're never told that we're wrong. We cannot grow if we never face opposition or never actually have to defend our own beliefs. And let me just call out my brothers and sisters in Christ here. This is why you need to be sharing your faith, because you're going to come up against some opposition that actually will help you grow in your faith. As people come to you with questions that you may not know how to answer, and you've got to go and find out. But, the live your truth is a lie that keeps us immature. Now, there's so many videos of this on right now, especially right now with our political climate. I know you've seen them, these street side debates, where you've got these two groups debating and you've got one group, one group is presented with reason and logic and facts and all the other group can do is scream. I know you've seen those videos. Do you know what that is? That is a product of the live your life mantra. The product of the live your life mantra is immaturity. Because it's immature to sit there and scream in the face of a healthy debate. Next thing I'll say is this, is that the lie of live your truth may inspire us, but it keeps us lost. Now, let's say you decide to go on vacation to a major city. I don't know why on God's green earth you'd want to do that, but let's just say you go to a major city for a weekend away, and you decide to go out for a stroll and see the city lights. You go out and you start walking around and you realize at one point you're lost. You know you can't just make up your own way back to the hotel. If you try to do that, you'll stay lost and get more lost. Live your truth is just as helpful as make your own path. It sounds inspirational, but it will just keep you lost. Next thing is this is the lie of live. Your truth may influence us, but it keeps us in sin. And that's Jesus whole point here. You do things your own way. You keep following your own path. You keep living your own truth, then you will not know the real truth and you will not be set free. You'll be kept in sin. Live Your Truth is so influential, we even put it on princess umbrellas. It influences us, all right. It influences us to stay in our sin, in our brokenness. And lastly, the lie of Live Your Truth may embolden us, but it keeps us rather than frees us. Live your truth may speak those sweet nothings to your pride, but you will not be led to where you truly want to go. Living your truth is not freedom from family, religious, or cultural expectations. Live your truth is a lie that keeps you from the freedom that your heart truly needs, freedom from sin, because sin is brokenness, but following Jesus sets us right, because that's righteousness. Now, please, my friends, please don't hear righteousness and think of stuffy religious people. Righteousness simply is about living the right way, the way that we were designed to. We are creations made by a Creator who has designed us to live. That's righteousness. Again, simply put, righteousness is about living right according to His design. And I know, I know that flies right in the face of the live your truth, the live your truth mantra. That flies right in the face of that, but all I can say to you is exactly. Amen, brother. Following Jesus leads us to truth, and truth sets us free from sin. Freedom from what? Freedom from sin. And that's called righteousness. Church, but as we think about closing up here, please, you cannot miss the foundation of this. This is the most important thing that everyone misses who loves to quote the truth will set you free. The foundation here is Jesus himself. Jesus said, if you abide in my word, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. Jesus Christ is the fundamental principle of truth that is revealed to this world. Jesus made a bold claim in John 14 when he said, I am the truth. He said, I am the alatheia, the truth. Jesus is the wisdom and the truth that has come into this world. And listen to me, think about it. Just think about it for a moment. What better way for God to make wisdom and truth knowable than through a person, through the person of his son, Jesus Christ, who calls us to abide, abide in his word. Do you know abide is a connection word? It's a relational word. We're meant to have relationship with the one who is himself truth. And this leads to the last part of what Jesus said about how truth sets us free, and it's the gospel. If you don't know what the gospel is, please, please hear me, because truth is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what Jesus says here in verses 35 and 36 helps us to know what the gospel is all about. So when Jesus is talking about those who are enslaved to sin, he paints this picture of a household. And let me ask you, here's how I want you to think about it. What is a household other than a series of relationships? Jesus says in verse 35, the slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. But then he kind of takes a weird turn in verse 36, and almost seems like he's going in a different direction. But you're going to see here in a minute, he ties it all together. So verse 35, he says, The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. Verse 36, So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. So what's going on here? So Jesus is using this to point to heaven, to God's house and God's household. He's saying on earth, a slave isn't truly part of the family, but a son is. Now listen to me, the son has the rights and the authority of the home, but a slave does not. The slave doesn't have the right to set himself free, but the son does. The son can set the slave free. But we, the Live Your Truth people, we are enslaved to sin, and we have neither the power nor the authority to free ourselves. We need the master of our existence or his son to set us free. And God has sent his son to do just that. To give you freedom not to live out your own desires, but something even better. To live out how you were designed. We've talked about this before. When you follow your desires over God's design, you're choosing something lesser. The better thing is to follow God's design. When you choose your own desires over the way that God has designed us, my friends, you are choosing a lesser version of yourself, and God wants more for you than that. We have to follow His design, the way we're meant to be. Life that's free. Let me end with this question. How do we know that Jesus is the one who can do this? How do we know that Jesus is worth putting our trust into? How do we know that Jesus can make good on his claims? How do we know that Jesus is this Son who can set us free? Christians, you know the answer. You should know the answer to this. What is the key point of validation that Jesus is the truth? What is the thing that validates the claims of Christ? I'm telling you, it's not found in rock-solid logic. It's not found in social acceptance. It's not found in majority opinion. The thing that validates the claims of Christ is found in a historical moment. Something that actually happened, a concretely real moment that actually occurred in a real day in history. The thing that validates the identity and the claims of Jesus Christ is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the thing that is the authentication of the true identity of Jesus. The resurrection proves that Jesus Christ truly is the Son of God, that He truly is God incarnate, that His death on the cross really was a sacrifice that atones for our iniquities, and that His words truly do bring freedom from sin. And this is the gospel, and this is where truth is found, that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and on the third day He rose again. That is the actual, objective, factual, historical, and eternal truth. It is such a profound truth, you can hang your entire eternity upon it. And because of this, I'm going to ask you to let go of the lie of live your truth, and place your faith in the Son. The one who the Son sets free is free indeed, because the truth sets us free. Amen? Amen. Amen. Would you please stand?

Saved From What? Theology Stephanie Delger Podcast Host Mom Guilt Podcast Published On: April 10, 2024 One of my friends became a Christian on a spring break trip with our high school youth group. He came home from the trip and excitedly told his mother, "I was saved!" Concerned, his mother looked at him and asked, “Saved from what? Did you almost drown?” Have you ever heard someone ask, “Are you saved?” Or heard someone declare, “I have been saved!” I want to ask, like my friend’s mother, “Saved from what?” We are saved from sin’s punishment God is Holy. God is completely pure and set apart, untainted by sin. It’s because of God’s holiness that sin must be punished. God cannot simply look the other way and ignore sin. Sometimes we want this though, especially if we are talking about our own sins that we have committed. But imagine what would happen in the human court system if this occurred. Imagine sitting in a court room watching the trial for a man who has been charged with murder. Picture yourself in the audience, watching witness after witness give their testimony of how this man was guilty of murder. Let’s even say that the man himself has confessed to murder under oath. Imagine at the end of the trial, the judge asks everyone to stand for the reading of the sentencing. The judge lists off all the evidence, but then declares him innocent and tells him he is free to leave. There would be an uproar and a cry for justice. And rightly so! A guilty man didn’t get what he deserved and was instead given freedom. Why would we be upset over this happening in the human court system, and yet are fine if this happens in the divine courtroom? Why are we so passionate for justice for a human life, but not with God’s character or goodness? God is holy and He cannot tolerate sin. In the book of Isaiah, we read about a vision Isaiah had where he sees the Lord. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah immediately recognizes God’s holiness. He says “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Upon seeing God’s holiness, his next words are, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” If we are being honest, we know two things to be true upon seeing God for who He is. The first is that God is holy and the second, is that we are not. Sin must be punished. Every single sin that has been or will be committed must be punished. This happens in one of two ways. First, the sinner himself will bear his own punishment. He will spend eternity in Hell, suffering God’s wrath. The second way that sins are atoned or paid for is by Jesus Christ on the cross. A christian is not saved by God ignoring his sin, but by God taking the punishment of sin on his behalf. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” but goes on to say “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Jesus was like a sponge, absorbing all of God’s wrath on our behalf. Jesus is our propitiation, and has atoned for our sins. He, like a sponge, absorbed all of God’s wrath on the cross that was rightly headed our way. This is one aspect of what it means for a person to be saved. We are saved from eternal death Benjamin Franklin once said, “There is nothing certain in this world except death and taxes.” [1] Death is a part of our lives and will continue to be a part of it until Jesus returns. But for a christian, physical death is only the beginning. We see this clearly in a conversion between Jesus and Martha in John 11. Jesus, consoling Martha after Lazarus’ death, says to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25) As christians, we are one with Christ. Just as Christ died and was risen from the dead, so will all those who place their faith in Him. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul speaks of what happens for the believer after their physical death. Paul tells the Corinthian church, that just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so will the believer. The body we currently have is perishable, but the one we will get is imperishable. Worshipping Jesus for what He has done, we will all join as one voice, in our resurrection bodies, singing, ““Death is swallowed up in victory.”“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55) A christian is saved from eternal death. Although we may experience physical death, this in many ways is just the beginning. Christ has saved us from eternal death and we will live forever with Him in Heaven. We are saved from sin’s enslavement We are all born into sin. Jesus shows us a dire consequence of what it means to be born into sin. In John 8:34, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” Before a person is saved, they are a slave to sin. Rather than doing things God’s way, they want to do things their way and make their own rules (much like Adam and Eve in the garden). However, Jesus doesn’t leave us without hope. After Jesus declares that those who sin are slaves to sin, he shares what He has come to do. Jesus declares that He has come to redeem us and set us free from our bondage to sin, and “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36) This does not mean that once a person is saved, they will no longer sin. In Romans 7, Paul writes about the tension that lives within the believer after they are saved. I affectionally call this the “do-do” passage. Paul humbly tells his fellow Christians that their is a war raging within himself. He is saved and is a new creation, but still has a desire or propensity for sin. “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. … For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:15, 19-20) When we are saved, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside us. He helps us in our weakness, giving us both the desire and ability to fight the sin that we were once enslaved to. We now have the desire to follow God. We want to love the things God loves and hate the things God hates. The Bible tells us that this happens because we are one with Christ. Romans 6:6 says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him (Jesus) in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” Being one with Christ is such a wonderful reality for the Christian. We are one with Jesus in his crucifixion; our old self that was enslaved to sin, died with Christ on the cross. When Christ was raised from the dead, so were our desires. We are now a new creation, one that is no longer a slave to sin. Our hearts full of rebellion have been softened and changed into a heart full of worship. Our final salvation The spiritual warfare that exists inside us will not last forever. We live in a tension many theologians call the “already / not yet.” We are saved. This is our reality. When a believer dies, they will see their Savior face to face. They will spend the rest of eternity in God’s presence, worshiping and praising Him for who He is and what He has done. But there is also a sense in which we are not fully saved. On this earth, in the here and now, we are waging war against our sinful desires. The consequences of sin, both for us and for the entire creation, are still evident. Romans 8 says that, both humans and creation are groaning, awaiting the day when the curse will no longer reign. We long for the freedom and redemption that God has promised. We eagerly long for the day when our adoption as God’s children will be complete. This is our hope. This is the reality for the believer. We are not only saved from sin, but we are saved to God. Revelation speaks of Jesus’ glorious return. It says Jesus will ride on a white horse like the commander of an army, and defeat all his enemies. Sin, death, and suffering will be no more. God will once again come to dwell with His people like He did with Adam and Eve in the garden. We will be saved from sin’s punishment and will be able to worship Him face to face. We will no longer be a slave to sin, rather our desires will be truly conformed to those of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord. Come quickly King Jesus! 1. https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/benjamin-franklins-last-great-quote-and-the-constitution More Blogs You'll Like Do the Resurrection Accounts Contradict? How differences in the Gospel accounts strengthen rather than undermine the credibility of the resurrection Read More What is 'Probably' Missing From Most Nativity Sets Miracle, Myth, or Meteor? Identifying What the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ Truly Was Read More Is The Bible Really Without Error? A Closer Look at Scripture’s Reliability, Inerrancy, and Historical Trustworthiness Read More

Who Needs A Doctor? Sermon Series: It Had To Be Said Nate Archer Main Passage: Luke 5:27-32 Transcript Thank you very much for that warm welcome. It really is a special joy to be back here. I was at Peace Church for 15 years and I've been the lead pastor at First Baptist for the past 10 years. And during that time I've been living in a kind of terror that some Sunday I'm going to get up in front of my congregation at First Baptist and start the morning by saying, good morning Peace Church. It hasn't happened yet, but I still live in that terror. But I can get that out of my system this morning. So good morning, Peace Church. So thank you very much. I bring you warm greetings from your brothers and sisters in Christ down the road at First Baptist. And it really is an honor to be with you here this morning. And I'm thankful to Ryan for the invitation. It really is a special joy to be here. And things are changing. I've noticed that. But you know what doesn't change is our message and the mission that God has for us. And I'm thankful, I'm very thankful that our two churches share that same heartbeat about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Word of God and wanting people to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Let's pray together. Father, we come before you and we ask that you would help us to continue to worship you by listening to your word. May you open our hearts to hear what you have said to us through the scriptures, Lord God, words that Jesus has said, and that we would hear this invitation for sinners to come to Jesus Christ. And Lord, I especially pray for anyone that's here that does not yet know Jesus Christ as Savior, that's still on the way, that you would reach into their heart and let them to know that you call them to yourself, Lord God. Lord, speak to us as Christians with our churches and instruct us with your word as far as what you want our churches to be about. So shape us from your word and may everything result in the glory of Jesus Christ, our Savior. In his name we pray, Amen. If you have your Bibles with you, please turn to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 5. We're going to be looking at verses 27 through 32. When Ryan invited me to speak, he asked me to give a message on something that Jesus said, and I thought, that he came for sinners. So the title of this message is Who Needs a Doctor? And in this passage from Luke 5, we're gonna think through some questions. Why did Jesus come? What was the reason? Who was it that he called? And what if you're reluctant to come to Jesus? And also, if all of this is true, what does this say to our churches? What our churches should be and be like. So let's read together Luke 5, starting with verse 27. It's talking about Jesus. Luke 5:27-32 27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. 29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” This is the word of the Lord. And this is what we're gonna be looking at this morning. And the big idea for this message is that Jesus calls sinners because it's the sick that need a doctor. It's not the righteous or the well that Jesus came for, but it's the sick and it's the sick that need the doctor. And spoiler alert, that doctor is Jesus. Think about it this way. Imagine that there's a bad traffic accident on the road and the car is mangled, it's in bad shape, and you go out there and there's somebody that they've survived the accident, but they're in bad shape. And there's blood and there's gore and there's bones in places they shouldn't be, and the person is not doing well, you call 911, the ambulance comes to take them to the hospital, and the person refuses. And says, I can't go to the hospital like this. The doctor is there, and I can't let the doctor see me like this. My hair is a mess. I've got blood on my clothes. I've got injuries. I won't let the doctor see me like this. Let me clean myself up first. Maybe let me spend some time healing and then I'll be ready to go and see the doctor. That wouldn't make any sense. That would not make sense. And it also doesn't make sense to think that you have to clean yourself up first before you go to Jesus. Jesus in this passage is saying that it's the sick that need a doctor, not the healthy. And so let's just start with a point that we can't miss in this passage. The first point that if you are a sinner, go to Jesus. If you are a sinner, you need to go to Jesus. He's the one that calls you, He invites you, He implores you to come to Him. Don't stay away. We don't want to be like Adam and Eve that when they realized that they were guilty, they ran and they hid from God. But so often that's what people do. Because of our guilt, we don't want to be around God. We feel guilty in His presence. But the truth is, He's the only one that can actually deal with our guilt and take it away. And He wants sinners to come to Him. In this passage, notice specifically who it was that Jesus is addressing in this passage. These words are spoken to Levi, who is in the Bible also known as Matthew, and he's a tax collector. And because of that he was despised. I mean he was despised by everyone because he was a tax collector. He was a traitor to his people, and even though he was a Hebrew, he was working for Rome doing this. And let me ask, how many of you, even now, love paying taxes? Let's see those hands. Just, yeah, I love it, it's the best. No, you don't? Okay, not many hands here. But if you hate paying taxes now, you would have hated them even more back in that day. Because the Romans had a system that was called tax farming. And basically how it worked is they would sell the rights to be the tax collector for a certain district. And Rome would say, this is how much money, they would give you a certain amount that you needed to collect for that district, but if you bought the rights to be the tax collector, you would get this money out of people and give Rome what they said that was owed to them, but anything over the top, you got to keep. And so it was a pretty lucrative thing that you would buy this, but then make quite a bit of money getting, extracting taxes from people. And back in that day, there's less financial records, communication, so if you feel like you have been taken advantage of, good luck trying to prove that. And of course if you didn't have enough money to pay what the tax collector said you owed, well, out of the goodness of his heart, he'd be willing to lend you that money at a huge interest rate. And so these tax collectors, they are making bank. They are getting very wealthy off the backs of the people that they're exploiting. And so tax collectors, they were considered robbers by the Jewish Talmud. And they were considered traitors, the scum of society, rich vermin, lackeys for Rome. And in fact, they couldn't even serve as witnesses in the Jewish court because they were considered such sinners and excommunicated from the synagogues. Yet this is who Jesus called in this passage. That Jesus called Levi, Matthew, the tax collector and said to him, follow me. This was shocking. Shocking. What would this be like today? Who would it be that would shock us that Jesus would call those people. I'll let you fill that in in your mind. But it says in verse 28, in leaving everything, he rose and followed him. And we read the passage again, then Levi threw a great feast in his house for Jesus. And so he throws his feast, he invites his friends, and then who's gonna be the friends of a tax collector? Probably other tax collectors, because he's not a super popular guy with everyone else. So other tax collectors, other sinners, they're the ones that would come. So that's who is at this feast that he has with Jesus. And this offended the Pharisees. Remember the Pharisees, they were really good at being good. They were really good at keeping the rules so good that they would have to make up more rules so they could keep those rules too. And they were offended at this, that somebody, supposedly a good rabbi, would be someone that would call a sinner, like Levi, a tax collector, and then hang around him and his sinner friends like this. And it's in that response where Jesus says in verse 31, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." So again, if you are a sinner, go to Jesus. He is calling you. He doesn't want you to stay away. He came for sinners like you and like me and like all of us. Because the truth is, Jesus didn't come for the righteous or the squeaky clean. He came for sinners and that's what we are. We are all sinners. That's what the Bible teaches us. We're all sinners worse than sick. Jesus talks about sin as sickness here, but other places, Ephesians 2 talks about that we were dead in our trespasses and sin. That's even worse. And Romans 3, 23 tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If you're just measuring your goodness against the person next to you, maybe you seem pretty good. But you measure it against God and his law and his standards, we all fall so short. And sin isn't just making little mistakes. At its core, it's rebellion against God, a holy God in our heart. And ultimately, that is what sin is. So do you realize that you need a doctor? Jesus isn't for just those other people out there. I read a story of a man named Ken at the age of 38 who was bitten by a cobra. He had a friend who had a cobra in his tank. He reached up to pick up the snake and the cobra bit him. And his friend said, you need to go to the hospital because you've been bitten by this cobra and this is a venomous snake. And he said, I'm a man, I can handle it. In fact, instead of going to the hospital, he went to the bar and brag into people like, I was just bit by a cobra, not realizing that it's a slow acting venom. And he was able to even get a few drinks in before he succumbed to it and dropped dead. We are all mortally infected with sin. Don't just assume that you're fine. We are not, we are sinners all. On the other hand, if you do know very well that you're a sinner, and some people, they know it, but they want to stay away from that doctor. Again, if you know that you need the doctor, don't wait to get well first. That makes no sense. Here's another implication, I think, from this passage that we need to think about as churches. Church, here's something to realize. If we are churches that are about the calling that Jesus has, and he is calling sick people to himself, then expect to see sick people around the doctor. If Jesus is the doctor and he came for sick, he came for sinners, we should not be shocked when there are sinners that are coming to be around the doctor. We don't want to be like the Pharisees that were upset about this. We need to realize that's who they need. It would be like otherwise going to a hospital and being offended that there are sick people there. Would that make sense if I said, I was going to go up to the hospital and I enjoy spending my time there, but I got up to the hospital and I just wanted to relax and have a good time, but there were all these sick people around. It really wrecked the experience for me, being around all these sick people at the hospital. And what if we thought, well, you know, a hospital, they say it's supposed to be about making you well, but I went to a hospital and it's full of sick people, and what a bunch of hypocrites. Isn't the church something like a hospital for sinners? And if it is, don't be shocked. We don't want to say, we can't have sick people around here. This is a hospital. They don't look healthy. They might mess up the place. They might give our hospital a bad name. Church, if we're doing what Jesus calls us to do, and if our heartbeat is the same as his heartbeat, then don't expect to be surrounded just by perfect people. We need to expect to be surrounded by the people that Jesus called. Second point from this passage, we need to be really clear that Jesus alone is the true physician that saves. Jesus alone, he is the only one, he is the one that we need to point people to. Jesus noticed he was really, really specific about who he was telling Levi to follow. He didn't say, go follow someone, you know, pick the best one that you think. There's lots of options. He said, follow me. And when we read this passage, it's really clear that Jesus recognized that he himself is the physician that he was talking about and saying, sinners need the physician, the sick people need the physician. Sinners need a doctor and Jesus is the doctor. So we need to be really clear and always remind ourselves that Jesus is the doctor, not you and me. But this can be easy for us to forget because, you know, we're pretty great and sometimes things go to our head. I rescued a turtle once. Actually, I've rescued a turtle a lot, because that's the kind of person I am. You know, there's two different types of people in the world. There's people, good-natured, good people, that when they see a turtle trying to cross the road, they stop and they help that turtle. There's that kind of people, and then there's the other kind of people. But I'm one of the good kind that helps a turtle when I see it. And so this one time it was right near our house and I'm driving and I see this turtle in the road so I this was my code. Anybody else have that code? You stop and you help turtles? Okay. And so I stopped and I helped this turtle and I picked it up and recognized, oh this turtle its shell is kind of cracked already. And so I thought it was a good thing that a good person like me, a good natured friend of nature, came to help this turtle. So I took the turtle and I put it on the side of the road Or you know to where it was going in the direction. It was heading. That's what you're supposed to do and I thought to myself And I am a I'm a good person. I was I went back in my car with my heart warmed about my goodness thinking about how I am such a friend of nature and I rescued this turtle and I started driving and Immediately I ran over a chipmunk. Seriously, it was less than 10 seconds. I started driving again, and this little guy darts in front of my car and darts the other way, and then I feel, oh no. And I look back, and all I could do was look back and confirm, yep, he's a goner. And then I got really reflective about this. I was deflated, because I was just thinking what a friend of nature I am and then I kill this other animal. So then I'm driving like, ah, what's the point of this? Is there something I'm supposed to learn from this experience? And I thought, you know, not everything needs to be a sermon illustration. Not everything has to have a deep point. Maybe the point is just animals need to be more careful on the road. But then as I was driving, it just kind of hit me. I am an incompetent savior. I am not a competent savior. I rescue a turtle and then I immediately kill a chipmunk. I am not the hero of this story. I'm an incompetent Savior. And if the world depended on me being the Savior, it is out of luck. If the world depended on me being the hero of the story, it is out of luck. If my self-image depended on me being the Savior and the hero of the story, I am out of luck. Because I am an incompetent Savior, and you also, don't want to break it to you, but are an incompetent Savior. But we know someone that is a competent Savior. We know who there is that actually does save. We are not qualified, but Jesus Christ is. Jesus saves, not great Christians, not great pastors, not great churches. Our job, Christians, churches, is to direct people to Him, to Jesus, the one who came and actually does save, because Jesus is the God-man who saves sinners by dying in their place. That is who He is, and that's why He is qualified, and we are not. I'm a sinner. I have done, I do terrible things. There's still sin in my heart, even with Jesus transforming me and changing me. And so I am not qualified to be a Savior. It would be like somebody that's drowning trying to save somebody else. You're not going to be a good lifeguard if you're already drowning. You need somebody that's not drowning. And Jesus is the one who is innocent, that lived a perfect life. He never sinned in his entire life. And not only that, he completely fulfilled God's law in every detail and everything that was required of him. But not only that, he was the God-man, the only one who has been fully God and also fully human together in one person. This amazing thing. And he needed to be the God-man, 100% God, 100% human, in order to save human beings. He had to be human in order to pay the price on the cross for human beings, but he also needed to be God so that the value of that sacrifice was worthy enough to pay for it. An unlimited amount of people. Anyone at all that will turn to him as Savior is going to find that the price has already been paid and will find that they have a all-sufficient Savior accepting them because the price has been paid on the cross already by Him. Romans 5a says, but God showed his love for us that while we were still sinners, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And only the God-man is the one who could do this. One last point from this passage. That Jesus calls sinners to repentance. Look again at verse 32. And we need to notice the last two words here that Luke includes. He says, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. And then Luke gives us two more words that he records that Jesus said that actually aren't recorded in Matthew 9 13 or Mark 2 17. Luke gives two more words that Jesus said, calling sinners to repentance. We can't ignore these words but we have to be careful to think what does this mean when we say Jesus calls sinners to repentance. Should we think here it is Jesus is saying he's calling sinners to repentance because he's coming to say, those are the people they need to clean up their act. That's not what this means. Also, does calling them to repentance mean you need to beat yourself up for your sins? When I was young, I grew up in a faith tradition that that's how they viewed repentance, as doing penance. Basically beat yourself up for your own sins. And that's not the way to think about it either. That's not what it means. Also, we might think, well, what about being saved by faith alone? Isn't it that you're saved by, you receive the free gift of salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ. So what is repentance? Is it faith and repentance? They're two different things and you need both of these. Well, I wanna, can I give an object lesson that, hopefully will help make sense of this a little bit for you? But for this, I need a kid who's willing to come on stage for this. So is there a kid? What do you guys, you want to come on stage? There's money involved. I'm here to give you money. So if that, you know, changes things here, motivates you a little bit. All right. Hey, thanks for coming up. What's your name? Asher. Asher? All right. Awesome name. Nine. Nine. That's exactly how old I was when I was that age. Cool. Okay, this is a quarter. You've seen a quarter before. This is the head side, where there's a head on it. This is tails. I'm going to give you this quarter, but here's what you have to do. You just have to pick it up. Okay? I'm going to put it on the ground. And all you have to do is pick it up. But, but, okay. But, I want you to pick up just the head side, and you can lift up the head side, but leave that tail side on the ground on the carpet. Okay, go. Remember, just pick up the head. The tail side has to stay down on the, why aren't you, you having trouble? Oh, now you picked up. That's impossible, isn't it? Yeah, I called you up here to do something impossible. So, thanks for being a good sport. Yeah, you can't pick up just half of it. You have the whole thing. Here, you can take this. Thanks for being a good sport. I know it's only 25 cents, but be sure to tie that. Okay, it's two and a half cents. I think this is the way to think about faith and repentance. Faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin. And so we're saved, we receive Christ and his work by one thing, which is faith and repentance. But like a quarter, it has two sides to it. It's just one thing. It's not two different things. But sometimes you see the faith side and some of the repentance. And sometimes in Scripture, it'll refer to faith. Sometimes it'll refer to faith and repentance, sometimes just repentance. But in the same way, if you were walking and you saw a quarter on the ground and it was heads up, you would know that the tail side is there too. If you saw it and you saw the tail side was up, you would know the head side is there too, because it's two sides of the same thing. So when you read scripture and it talks about faith, remember it always means a repentant faith. When it talks about repentance, it doesn't mean beating yourself up for your sin, but it means turning to Jesus Christ in faith as the one that paid the price for your sin. That's what it is. And so in a sense, faith and repentance, they go together because one is referring to what we're turning away from. And it doesn't mean that you've completely cleaned up your life. That's not gonna happen in this life. It'd be great if it could, but it's gonna be a lifelong battle against sin. But it means you're turning your back against your rebellion against God. You're recognizing rebellion against God, that's terrible, I don't wanna do that. You turn your back to it and you're turning to Jesus Christ as your Lord, as the one who is the God-man that came to save you and trusting in him alone. So the faith that saves us is a repentant faith that we have. And this means that there's going to be change that God works in our hearts, in our lives. Because in this, God is giving us the new birth, he's giving us regeneration, he's not saving us because of anything good that we have done, but as we trust him and are given a new born-again heart, that heart is going to have changes in it that the Holy Spirit works in our lives. So repentance, this faith, salvation results in new life in Christ. Notice that Levi didn't keep robbing people. He didn't stay at the tax booth. He left his tax booth. Verse 28 says, and leaving everything, he rose and followed him. When it says leaving everything, we don't think it just means, well, he left the booth for a while. But he decided, I'll add Jesus to my life, but I'm going to keep on this gig of extorting people and being a tax collector. No, he turned his back on that to trust Jesus Christ instead. It's been said many times and I think this is true that God loves you just as you are and he loves you too much to leave you the way that you are. So we're saved the sinners just the way that we are but when we're saved in a new heart, regeneration, being changed from the inside out. And God takes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh. I was listening to Pastor John's message from a few weeks ago, and I was just delighted that he talked about that at the end. I realized I'm going to hit on that in my message too. And that's what is involved in the new birth. God gives us a new heart. There's some implications for us with this. It means you don't just go to the hospital just to hang out. You don't do that. You don't go there just because, well, I really like the food. They have a nice bed. I like the people there. I just like hanging out with the people at the hospital. I like being waited on, hand and foot. They got this little buzzer, you press it and people come and they give you what you want, and it's just great. But that's not the right reason to be going to the hospital. Do some people treat church that way? Do we go to church because we love the amenities? And what if you're not really going there in order to get better? What if you're not going there to see the doctor? What if you don't want to listen to the doctor? Or what if someone's going there just to cause trouble? Because on one hand, as churches, we want to be open to sinners, and we invite them, and they need the doctor. But if somebody was going to a hospital and just going room to room, pulling out people's IVs, and they're there just to cause trouble, then it's different. Then the staff, they have to deal with that. Let me finish with this. This is the implication for our churches. If Jesus is the true physician, then I think it really is true that we can think of the church as a hospital for sinners. It's more than that, but that's something, a way that we can think about it. But what kind of hospital? Is it just a health spa, healthy people go to the hospital to be made More appealing on the outside. Nope. That's not the kind of hospital it is The church is a hospital for sinners that specializes in heart transplants That's kind of hospital we are it's for sinners And we specialize in heart transplants, helping people through the gospel, through the Word of God and the Holy Spirit working through that, and because of the work of Christ, they have a born-again heart, to have new life in Christ. So instead of having their destiny in hell, they can have their destiny of enjoying and worshiping and glorifying God forever in Jesus Christ. That's what we're for. And just as in a church, there's going to be different parts of that. There's going to be diagnosis. You got to diagnose the problem. You have to do the treatment, the actual surgery, and there's a phase of recovery. These are all things as the church we're called to do. I mean, how many of you like having surgery just for fun? You just love just having surgery just for the fun. No, we don't. So people need to understand, be communicated to, why they need this surgery. And so if you're going to the hospital, one of their jobs is to let people know you are in desperate need of this. You are going to die without this procedure. And so as a church, we need to be letting people know the bad news. And that's not unloving. People need to know that sin is sin, and that sin is terrible, and it cuts us off from God and leads to condemnation. And so be thankful that you have pastors here that are willing to call sin for what it is, that are willing to warn sinners that they are sinners, not to rub their face in their sin, but to help them to realize that there is a problem and they need to go to the doctor, and that there is one that is there and calls them to solve this problem. And we use the Word of God and the law of God to convince ourselves to help us realize that we need these heroic measures. And we're about the job of a heart transplant, a salvation, because we are flatlining in sin without Jesus. But God takes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh, like it says in Ezekiel, being born again, regenerated. But then that's not it. There's rehabilitation. Because after heart surgery, you don't just leave right away. It's a process of regaining your strength, getting stronger. And so even as Christians, we don't say, well, I'm saved and I don't need church anymore, because we're in this process of continuing to grow as Christians, to grow in strength, to recover. And rehabilitation comes after the surgery, not before it. This also means that it should give us humility, that we are all here as recovering patients from a heart surgery. We are all sinners saved by grace and this should help us have patience with the other patients that are here. Let me add one more thing. There's some hospitals that are teaching hospitals where they're training other people to be about the work of the hospital and that's also what our churches need to be about. That we're not of the mindset I'm going to go get what I need and then I'm off. But we're there to be trained to be about this work. Jesus is the physician, but we're part of his staff. We're part of this work in helping with diagnosis and leading people to Christ and helping people to grow in Christ and other people being trained to serve as well. Have you had your heart transplant yet? The doctor stands ready. He's calling you. And if you're a sinner, church is the right place to be because the doctor is here. And also the doctor's people are here in order to help you. As brothers and sisters in Christ, let's be about this work together. Let's pray.

Live Like It's True On the Live Like It's True Bible podcast, Shannon Popkin and her guests talk through some of the most interesting and astonishing stories of the Bible—and how to live like each one is true. Each biblical narrative gives you new ways to refute the false narratives of the world, and rehearse what is true. Come be inspired to know the Story, share the Story, and live like it's true! Listen to the podcast 1 2 3 4 5 1 ... 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 ... 100

Proclaim for the Hope of the Generations (Forward) Sermon Series: Proclaim Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Colossians 1:24-29 Transcript Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. Well, biologically speaking, you have two parents, you have four grandparents, and you have eight great-grandparents. But of those eight last names, typically you're only given one of them at your birth, but I dare say that all of them contribute to you in some form or fashion. They all worked to make you who you are. And so I wonder, when you consider three generations out, four generations out from you right now, what about your life, your traditions, your values, do you wanna see continue on after you're gone. The question is, What is your hope for your future generations? What is your hope for the future generations of your church? And even more than that, what are you going to do about it? I'm going to give you an incredibly obvious statement right now. You only have the time you have to make the difference you want to make. I'll say it again. You only have the time you have to make the difference you want to make. If you want to see something continue on, if you want to see change made, guess what? The time is now. You only have the time you have to make the difference you want to make and Church the time is now. As Gandalf said all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. Today at these church we conclude a spiritual journey The campaign continues on for two years. For two years we will continue to give to this initiative and for two years God will continue to grow our church. And as more people come and make Peace Church their home, they will continue to give to this campaign. But the spiritual journey of it ends today as we consider how God is calling us to give. We're going to hear God's word preached to us by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. And then we're going to lay our gifts before the altar as we together, holding hands, commit to see God's plan unfold for our church. So let's finish what we started five weeks ago. Please turn to Colossians chapter one. We're going to conclude chapter one today. As you're turning there, just a reminder, if you are new, here's kind of the context. Saint Paul, the apostle, wrote this letter. It was written to a church. He's writing from prison and he's going to finish chapter one with six powerful verses that remind us of not just God's plan But how we are called to be part of it because if you are a follower of Jesus Then despite whatever you have going on in your life. You are called to be a part of God's plan and so with that Would you hear God's Word? Colossians chapter 1 we will read verses 24-29. Paul writes this, would you hear God's word? Colossians 1:24-29 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. This is God's Word. Let's pray and we'll continue. Let's pray. Fathers, we come before you on this day, the final day of our spiritual journey. Lord, we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit. Would you illuminate your word for us today? Call us into deeper levels of faith, deeper knowledge of your word. God help us to experience more of your love through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we both proclaim and pray. And everyone said, amen and amen. Well, church, as we look back on this proclaim journey that we've been on, each message in this series has been specifically designed to remind us of why we proclaim the gospel Colossians chapter 1 gave us a beautiful roadmap for this if you remember week one We talked about how we proclaim the goodness of God that we can't lose this simple truth that God is good. The second week we talked about how we proclaim for the health of the church that we want to see God's church built up, not just physically with sticks and bricks, but spiritually as God's people grow both numerically bigger, but also spiritually stronger so we can be more effective for our mission in this world. Then the third week we looked at the, we proclaim for the power of our testimony, how there is power when God's people declare who God is and what he's done and how we can see that in our life. And then last week, we lifted up the name of Jesus as we talked about proclaiming for the King of creation that Jesus truly is the only hope for the world. And today, we're gonna conclude with this message that we proclaim for the hope of the generations. So hopefully you have your devotions with you. Hopefully those are fairly filled out. We're gonna look at our last message for today. Again, there's the title. We proclaim for the hope of the generations. And as we look at our passage today, here is our main idea. Here's the main point I want to drive home for you today. We give now so that generations yet to come will know the gospel. We give now so that the generations yet to come will know the gospel. And as we walk through our passage, let's wrap up this sermon series with a nice three-point sermon outline. Here it is for you in the head. 1. We sacrifice so that the church can be built. 2. We testify so that the world will hear the truth. 3. We proclaim because we have the prerogative and we have the power to do so. 1. We sacrifice so that the church can be built. So church, if you're ready to step into God's Word, let me hear you say amen. Amen. So here we go, first thing. We sacrifice so that the church can be built. Look at our passage, it starts out verse 24. Look at verse 24 and 25. Paul writes and he says, now I rejoice in my suffering, said no American ever. Now I rejoice in my suffering for your sake and in my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body, that is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given from me to you. Moral of the story, Paul, Saint Paul, the apostle, not only sacrifices, not only suffers for the sake of the church, but he rejoices in it. Why? Well, because Paul understood something that I think many of us need to understand, that seeing the church built is what ministry is all about. Not just with sticks and bricks, although that's important as we're going to look at, but we minister and we share the gospel so that the church can be built. The church is the people of God. We want to see more people come to know Jesus so that the church can be built and expand. Seeing the church be built is better than staying comfortable. Paul was willing to sacrifice his comfort, his money, his well-being so that the church can continue on. It was that important to him. It should be that important to us. But we need to do a Bible study here on an important phrase that Paul uses. I I don't know if you caught this, but Paul says this, he says, In my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction. Whoa! What's lacking in Christ's affliction? Don't get ahead of this. Here's the reality. This is a simple misreading of the text. If you think that Paul is in any way saying that the suffering of Jesus was deficient, insufficient, or incomplete. Paul did not teach that. Paul did not believe that. That's not what he's saying here. Hear me clearly. What Jesus Christ did on the cross in your place and in my place, dying for our sins, suffering in our place, that was sufficient, hear me, not just for your sins, but all your future sins, and it was sufficient for all the sins of anyone who would place their faith in him. What Christ did was complete. The sacrifice of Jesus is truly all that we need. And so what's Paul talking about? We're talking about this lacking. Here's the reality. The only thing lacking is the actual presentation of Christ's suffering to the world so that they can know the gospel. The only thing lacking is people's knowledge of it. As John Piper puts it, what's missing in Christ's affliction is the presentation of those afflictions to the people for whom he died. And this is what Paul is doing. This is why he points to his own sufferings. He's saying, by my sufferings I can take that and point you to the even greater complete suffering that Jesus did on our behalf. As with all things, hopefully you've listened to me preach enough. You know me when I say something like this, like when you're confused on a passage, I think the number one thing you should do is keep reading. Like keep reading. The Bible has a beautiful way of sometimes explaining itself. So let's continue reading. Let's go on. I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body, that is the church. We know that the church is the body of Christ. But this is why we need to finish the passage. Look at verse 25. Of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you." Paul is saying, I became a minister so that I could present to you what Christ has done for you. And that's a challenge for all of us who call on the name of Jesus. How are you presenting what Christ has done for you to others so that they could know what he's done for them? Church, we do this when we sacrifice so that the church can be built, both physically and spiritually. Because I'm going to tell you this, a stronger church is one that shares the gospel. And that's what we want to do. 2. We testify so that the world will hear the truth. In fact, when you talk about our values as a church, our three-strand DNA, the first one is that we are gospel-centered. At the end of the day, that's really the only message that we have to share is, Jesus died for you. And on the third day, he rose again, and all the church said amen So church if you believe this then give Give like you believe in the message we are proclaiming because here's the challenge if you don't give Then it's just logical and reasonable to believe that well It's because you don't believe in the message that we're proclaiming here And you don't see the need to support it So this is why we give. We give because we believe in the message that we are proclaiming as a church. And in this campaign, proclaim is not just about building a building. I'm going to tell you right now, if there's been one thing I've learned about leading us through a capital campaign is that there are some people who just cannot see past that. All they hear is, you just want a bigger building. No, no. And if you think that about a church, I would leave that church. This is not just about building a bigger building. This is about being able to house all the people that God has been bringing to this church. Last week, our deacons told us they saw five vehicles pull in, not find a parking spot, and then leave. That is intolerable. And so hear me when I'm, I pass you to my heart. This is not just about building a building This is about creating space so people can come and hear the gospel and worship Jesus And if you can't get on board with that then I'm gonna tell you there's two great churches Right to our left right to the south west right to the north of us And if you think we're off the mark, I'm telling you minimal first Baptist with pastor Nate Archer amazing church Head down there and listen to the gospel or pastor Scott up at Caledonia CRC, amazing church, but we got a mission before us, and we are called to take part in it, all of us who call Peace Church home. It's our time to sacrifice. As we've been going through this campaign, I've looked back on so many black and white pictures and I've been so inspired about what the generation before did for us, that we get to experience here now. Yes, I know they did it for God, but I guarantee they had us in mind when they did it. And it's our turn now to do that. If you are listening to it, if you think you're hearing a sales pitch, you don't know my heart. Okay, I got way off my script here, let's get back. Amen. I wanna show you something that I believe is a very positive thing about our church. I want to show you two pie charts of our membership growth over the last few years. The pie chart on your left there, 2022 to 2023, that is our membership growth, not just our attendance growth, that's our membership growth for the last couple years. And as you see there, we grew via membership by 14% through conversion and 86% through transfer. But this past year we saw the start of a, I think, a positive change. That last year our membership growth was 28% by conversion and 72% by transfer. Our transfer growth went down and our conversion conversion growth obviously went up. Conversion meaning profession of faith and adult baptisms. I believe, yeah, amen, praise God. I believe this is a positive indication of our church's membership growth. But let me just speak to you who have transferred here. I transferred here. Please don't hear me saying that's a bad thing. I just like to see when people come to Jesus. And so let me say this to those of you who have transferred here like myself and my family. I am so thankful that God led you to become part of this church family. You are helping us to be the church that God's calling us to be. But whether transferred or converted, if you are a Christian who is called here, then it's not to stay comfortable. It's to get on mission. It's not to sit on the sidelines. If God truly called you here, it's because he's given you gifts to use for his kingdom, gifts that we need to fulfill the mission that God's called us to. I believe it's because he wants your family to get stronger and to grow stronger. It's because he wants you to be part of the Peace Church family. And around here, I will tell you, in this family, everybody got something to do. I don't know about how you grew up, but when I grew up, no one was allowed to just sit on their duff. Like, we all have a job to do. We all have something to do. And right now, the thing that we all have to do, I believe, is to joyfully give and sacrifice to make room, just like the previous generation did for you. We gotta do that for our community. Just like the previous generation did for us, it's our time now to do it for others. If you are new or newer to Peace Church, let me just tell you, I believe God brought you to this church during an awesome, an awesome time. Whether you've been here for five minutes or 50 years, Peace Church is a family, and in this family we sacrifice so that the world will hear the truth. Verse 25 continues, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. Again don't get tripped up on that. Saints just means anyone who follows Christ. Verse 27, to them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles. Again don't get tripped on that word either. Gentiles just means the world at large. It means the nations. To make known the rest of the world, how great are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, I love this passage. It's beautiful, it's complex, and there's a lot of words here that seem like they are held in tension. Fully known, yet mystery, yet revealed, both now, but also the ages to come. The glory of this mystery is also the hope of glory. I think some Christians may get confused and even slightly put off that the Bible speaks about mystery concerning faith. I personally think it's a beautiful thing. There is mystery to our faith. There's deep things about God that humans just cannot know. There's a mystery there. But what Paul is talking about is the notion that for how amazing the Old Testament is, the mystery therein is brought to light in the New Testament It's one story continuously unfolding. And so what is this mystery that's been revealed? What's the Word of God? Brought to light in the gospel or as Paul puts it so beautifully succinctly Christ in you the hope of glory. This is enormous, beautiful, complex, and profound. It's also an oddly accessible truth that for those who place their faith in Jesus, we no longer have to pay for our sins. Rather, we get the fruit of Christ's labor, which is eternal life. And the reason we have the eternal life is because we get the literal life of Jesus in us. We can live forever because Jesus, who will live forever, is living within us. That's Christ in us, the hope of glory. Our destiny is not one of death and destruction and judgment, but it's of life and happiness and joy and glory, if not now, surely in the time to come. And it's the truth, the gospel. This is what we do. This is what we do at Peace Church. We strive and we give and we sacrifice so that the gospel can go forth to our neighbors, to our community, to the world, and to future generations. That there is hope. For however dark the world gets, there is hope. And it's found in the man Jesus Christ. To this we testify, to this we proclaim that Jesus Christ died for our sins and on the third day, rose again from the dead. 3. We proclaim because we have the prerogative and we have the power to do so. And thirdly, we proclaim, because we have the prerogative and the power to do so. Verse 28, I love these three words, how this verse starts out. "Him, we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ, for this I toil, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me." I'll tell you what, Peace Church, if there is anything, if there's anything that we do, it can be boiled down to these three beautiful, simple words. Him we proclaim. That is what we do at the end of the day. We may provide counseling, we may provide financial support for those who are in need, but at the end of the day, this is what we do. Him we proclaim. At the end of the day, all I got for you is Jesus. At the end of the day, I don't got wisdom, I don't got advice, I don't even have prophecy. I just have Jesus for you. Jesus is all I can tell you. Place your faith and hope in Him. His name is all we got. By His name we warn people. By His name we teach people. By His name is wisdom. His name is how we grow. His name is worth the fights. It's worth the struggle. Why? Because we have His power to do so. Our chapter concludes by saying this, for this I toil, struggling. The word there for struggling is actually, it's connected to our word for agony or to agonize. Some Bible translations translate this word as to strive or even to contend. And Paul talks about this struggle or this fight, but he doesn't talk about it from a place of weakness. He talks about it from a place of power. Rather, he says this, he says, with all the energy that he powerfully works within me church what God calls you to do. He will give you the strength to do If you feel like you're weak, then it's because you're relying on your own strengths.Rely on the power of God what God calls us to he will see us through and in this world Our world is rejecting truth, but we are the ones who are going to proclaim it and not just proclaim it but proclaim it with power. We proclaim because we have the prerogative and the power to do so. And this is from the power and presence of Christ in you, working through us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And so it's our time now, throughout human history, this is the time that we have to proclaim the truth. And church, this is why we are in the Proclaim campaign, so that both the generation now that's around us and the generations yet to come will come to know the gospel truth. And I'll say this, men, men in the house, it starts with you in the home. So let me share with you one story of a family from our church that's doing this. And in this family at peace, three generations are represented and they are trying to center their life and legacy on Jesus. So would you please watch the story of the Ross family. "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts and shall sing aloud of your righteousness to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. We are Tony and Laura Ross and we've been attending Peace Church for 20 years now. I wasn't raised in a Christian home and when I met Tony I had already had a son. We were definitely living a worldly life and making choices that were not pleasing to the Lord. Early in our marriage we knew that we were longing for something but we weren't quite sure what it was and so we found a church service on TV and we were watching that and we were starting to learn about Jesus and we decided that we needed to be centered around a community. So we found Peace Church and we were learning from the sermons and the scriptures and we were falling in love with Jesus. And then unfortunately our worst nightmare happened and our son didn't wake up. And he passed away suddenly in his sleep.And that drove us to our knees in anger. We were bitter. We didn't understand why, after all of these years of not knowing Christ and us getting so close to Him at that point in time, why something like this would happen to us. I know that we can experience the Lord on the mountaintops, but I also have learned that we know him in the valleys and we came to know him in our deepest valley. Thankfully, Dustin's grandma, she was able to take Dustin to church when he was a child and he did give us life to Christ. And again, that is one thing that I regret as a mother, is not being able to teach those morals and values to him. Scripture tells us that we are to train and teach our children to love the Lord with all their heart, mind, and soul. And I didn't want to lose another opportunity to do that. So as we started going to church, we heard about this awesome ministry for kids. And Laura started taking the girls to Carraway Street. It was a great program where they learn scripture through song and through puppets and through acting. We found that we were all immature in our faith, we were kind of learning the same thing at the same time and would come home and talk about things together. My mom would wake up every morning and do her devotions, read her Bible, spend time in the Word, and then we saw my dad every night after dinner spending time in his Bible and connecting with the Lord and I feel like that really gave Hallie and I a concrete example of what it looked like to be a Christian. Because we knew how we had grown up away from the Lord and saw the devastation in our lives that it caused, we wanted to make sure not only to pass that along to our girls, but also to work with teens. I feel like that's something that I so admired about you guys, is that you didn't wait until you were super spiritually mature, or you had all this biblical knowledge. We were learning all together at the same time. That has been such a motivator for me to pass on my faith to not only my children, but also the teenagers here at Peace in the Middle School Ministry. Because God is so good and because we know that full well as a family, we now are able to proclaim that to not only each other, but also to the next generation. And that comes through serving and being involved at the church, but also just spreading the love of Jesus to everyone that we come in contact with." Church, here at Peace, we often talk about how families must have at least a three-generation vision, that while we can with the time we have, we want to ensure that three generations out from our families will come to know the gospel and live for Jesus, living out our family values. We want that for our families, but we also want that for our church, a generational vision. And this campaign and this sermon series is about that. And so let me give you one last spiritual and financial challenge. You know we've had one of these each week. Here would be your spiritual and financial challenge as you consider these final moments before you lay your gift at the altar. Are we sacrificial with our finances in ways that we may not be able to experience but our children and future generations will get to enjoy? Let me say it again. Are we sacrificial with our finances in ways we may not experience but our children and future generations will get to enjoy? My sincere hope and prayer is that future generations of the Kimmel family continue to call Peace Church their home. I happen to love this community. I think this is a pretty awesome church. And so when my wife and I considered our gift, we also considered, we want to give for a church and a church building that our grandchildren will be able to enjoy. Now, my oldest is only 16, so I'm not saying I want grandchildren anytime soon, but I am saying we're having that vision in our minds, that we know that what we're giving now, hopefully our grandkids and their children will get to enjoy. What we give now to God through proclaiming, yes, yes, we will get to experience, hopefully in somewhere not too much longer than a year, we'll have a new building to be able to worship and welcome new people. But we're also giving to this campaign to ensure that we do our parts with the time we have so that future generations will have what they need so that they can continue to spread and share the gospel. And so, we give now so the generations yet to come will come to know the gospel. We do this just like the previous generations have done for us, and now it's our time to follow God's call. Amen. So let me give you a detail of what's gonna happen right now. We are gonna go to prayer, but what we want you to do now is to, in these final moments, again, this is for the Peace Church family. If you're new or you're just visiting, we're by no means asking you to partake unless the Lord is gonna call you to do that. But this is for the Peace Church family right now. You have the commitment card that was on your seat when you walked in or maybe you brought yours with you. What we want to do in these next moments is I want to give you a moment to fill it out if you haven't yet. Then we're going to go to prayer and then we'll have a time of offering. You've got some black table stations around the church, around the worship center here. While we go to prayer, some boxes will be set up. When we come out of prayer, when you're ready, you and your family can go and drop your gift off as the Lord leads you. But here's what I want to do. I'm going to give you like 30 seconds right now to fill out the card if you haven't done so, and then we will pray together before we do that. So I'm going to give you a moment right now. If you haven't yet, would you fill out the card that was on your seat? Go ahead and do that right now. So, Again, by just a logistical note, what's very helpful and what's most important is that you mark what you are planning to give over a two-year period, not necessarily at the moment but over a two-year period, that's what's going to be most helpful for our finance team as they accumulate all of this. However you break that down, whether annual gifts or weekly, that's up to you. We don't necessarily need to know that. What we need to know is what God's called on your hearts to give over a two-year period. So we just need that grand total. Again, not expecting it right at this moment, but over the next two years. So we want to go to prayer before we offer this gift. And I want to read to you a passage. 1 Chronicles 29 is the last chapter of that book. And it records when King David was leading the Israelites to give so that the temple could be built. This is before the temple was built, but David is leading the people to give so that the temple could be built. Now, key difference, the temple was where God dwelt in the Old Testament. Now in the New Testament, God dwells not in a building, but in his people. But like the temple, the church building is the place where the church gathers to worship. So it's important for that. So what you see in this chapter is David. David announces, here's what I'm going to give as the king. Here's what I'm giving as someone who loves the Lord, and I'm calling on everyone else to give in kind. So he talks about everything that he's gonna give, and then he says this, and I love this challenge he gives to his people. He says, who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the Lord? He's not commanding, he's offering a chance for people to come before the Lord and to give in response to what he's done for them. And that's what we're saying now. Do not be guilted into this. Do not be tricked into this. Be led into this by God himself. So we're going to go to prayer. And then when I'm done, when you're ready, you may get up and lay your gifts. Would you please grab the hand of the people that you came with today? Father, we come before you on this moment Lord. Father, this is a moment that will come and go but we know Lord This is in many ways gonna help set a trajectory for this church that Father we pray you continue to bless and lead us guide Father we pray as we seek your face. We only want to go where you're calling us We only want to do what you were laying before us. And so Father would your Spirit be present during this time as we lay our gift before the altar and spiritually and physically we give our gifts before you God, you're good and we love you.

PODCAST That's a Good Question Unwrapping Christmas: Lies, Legends, and the Light of the World December 24, 2024 Jon Delger & Mitchell Leach Listen to this Episode so Hey, welcome to That's a Good Question, the podcast 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 for the Christian life and church leadership. You can always submit questions that we answer on this show to resoundmedia.cc/questions . If you find this resource helpful or just jolly because it's Christmas time, please rate and review, share with some friends so that more people can encounter the life-changing truth of God's word. Also, if you know somebody who wants to hear answers to these questions, especially our Christmas questions, be sure to share it with them so they can learn and grow as well. My name is John, I'm here with Mitch. Yeah, and if you forgot someone's Christmas present, maybe the best present you could give them is sharing this podcast with them. That's right. There you go. Lots of Christmas cheer to share today. It is, this is going to be a festive episode. We're diving into lots of questions all based around Jesus's coming to earth that we celebrate at Christmas time, this time of year. So let's jump into it. First question, ready, John? I'm ready. You got your Christmas. For those who can't see visually, I'm wearing a Santa hat. Yeah, Santa hat. And we'll discuss whether that's heretical or not. Yeah, we will discuss if that's heretical or not, but just like Santa, I'm very jolly and very festive and I work very hard just one day a week. So I'm a pastor. Just kidding. All right, here's the first question. Were the shepherds and wise men actually at the manger at the same time? Good question. No, as it would have it, the shepherds receive the news on Christmas Eve and go to join the story to see baby Jesus in the manger, see Mary and Joseph right then and there. But the Magi or the wise men come much later, up to two years later, actually. You follow the story going on in Luke, you look at Herod and when he receives the news and he goes and he actually, awful thing, slaughters baby boys up to two years old. Yeah. Once he finally does get the news, relating to the timeline that the wise men are there and all that whole sequence of events. So unfortunately, our beautiful, adorable nativity scenes where they're all there at one time, unfortunately, it was never quite that picturesque. But all those characters do make their way eventually to see baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph. Yeah, I have the privilege of preaching on this passage on Epiphany Sunday, which is the Sunday after Christmas, and we get to celebrate the wise men coming and being the first people who hear the gospel who aren't Jewish. Yeah, but yeah, they're there much later. Matthew 2 talks about now after the birth of Jesus and then talking about the wise men coming. So it's definitely after. All right, our next question. Does the virgin birth matter and why? Great question. Because we make a big deal about this, right? We talk about it in the Apostles' Creed. It's part of, we talk about this, like it's a tier one thing, right? If you deny the virgin birth, then you're no longer a Christian. Why is that so central to our faith? Yeah, and you're saying that because it's in the Apostles' Creed, you're saying that's what would make you not Christian if you're saying you denied it. Correct. So you're saying, yeah. Yeah, and actually, interestingly, that's something that has been denied by some who would call themselves Christian theologians. Or for some, it wasn't denied, but it was said that it doesn't matter whether it was true or not. It's sort of a practical or functional denial of it. Actually sort of famously, Rob Bell, a pastor who used to be just up the road from us here in West Michigan, wrote a book. And in the book, he posited that what if we learned one day that Jesus actually had a dad named Larry? Interesting name choice for a Middle Eastern carpenter. First century guy. Yeah. Yeah. But let's just say that that happened. And what would that mean? And actually, the argument he made is so contrary to just even the way that you're framing the question is, you know, he said that that's a that we shouldn't view the Christian faith that way that we shouldn't view it as being so fragile that if we just pulled out one brick, I think is the analogy used from the wall that it would all crumble apart. So so yeah, let's talk about the answer to that question. Yeah, yeah, it it very much does matter. So so number one, because the Bible says it, right? The Bible is very clear. It explains it in a number of ways. It uses that word for virgin. When we look at, when we go back to Isaiah chapter seven, and we look at the prophecy of that, and we look at the Hebrew word, and then we look at the way that it was translated into Greek. There are other words they could have used. People have said, well, that word could also be translated as young woman. Well, but that wasn't the common way that you use that word. There was a specific word for that, and so they used the one that would lead us to interpret it towards virgin and then even when Greek Jews Long time ago translated the Old Testament into Greek from Hebrew. They used the Greek word then for virgin So there's a lot of ways that we know. Yeah, yeah a New Testament, right? So so there's a lot of reasons that we know that the Bible intends to say virgin Yeah We also have even you know, the detail that the Holy Spirit gives to Joseph and to Mary about, you know, the conception through the Holy Spirit. Yeah. So I think, you know, I think there's no question that the Bible is trying to tell us that Mary was a virgin and it's going to have a virgin birth. So I think you've got a Bible problem if you're gonna deny the virgin birth. Yeah, that'd be a really strange aspect of the birth story of Jesus that the angel came to Joseph if Mary's not a virgin. Sure. Right? Right. Yeah, like what's, what would be going on there? That'd be pretty hard. Right. So you've got, yeah, so you've got a question about the inerrancy of Scripture there, if you want to deny that. But also then, let's talk theologically. What makes Jesus our Savior is that he is both God and man. And that's what happens to the virgin birth. He is born of a woman, but he is conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yeah. So that God is his father, so that Mary is his mother. It's an amazing miracle that happens. We call it the incarnation when God becomes man. And without that, we don't have the appropriate person to pay for our sins. Yeah. Right? So human beings sin against God, and so a human being has to pay for that sin. Only the God-man can do that. And so we need Jesus to be exactly who he is, and the virgin birth is how that comes about. Yeah, the virgin birth connects both of those things, his deity, him being fully God, and also being fully man. If we remove the virgin birth, he has to be either one or the other, and he can't, again, he can't atone for our sin, right? And if you missed it last week, we talked all about different versions of the atonement theory. Go back and listen to that. That was a great episode. All right, was Jesus born on December 25th? Or maybe the better question is, is it appropriate for us to celebrate Jesus's birthday and sing him happy birthday with a birthday cake and candles and I don't know, I had family members who did that growing up. Oh yeah, for sure, me too. Yeah, and I think that's a great way to, for our kids, we, you know, just help them understand what's going on at Christmas. Yeah, it's Jesus' birthday. Yeah. Totally. Cake and candles, great way to celebrate. It was weird though, because we had to pick someone to blow out the candles and it wasn't, you know, Jesus blowing out, so it kind of felt weird, but I could see that. Yeah. Now, what we know from history is that most likely it was not on December 25th. We don't have any kind of certainty about what the date actually was when Jesus was born. So it's possible, but unlikely that it was actually December 25. So there's a few different reasons that Christmas has been celebrated on December 25. Symbolically, some have come up with the idea that, you know, it's the shortest day of the year and, you know, the winter solstice, right? Yeah, it's the shortest day of the year and from there on forward, there is, you know, growing light instead of darkness. And so symbolically, it's got the beauty of Jesus as the light of the world. And so, from the moment of his birth, light is growing, increasing in the world. So I like that. It's nice. But winter solstice is the time, and that's got a lot of history for human beings of all different kinds celebrating that time. The Romans called it Saturnalia. Other people, we have history of pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. So it was just kind of a time of the year when people of all different kinds of cultures celebrated something. And so I think early Christians were able to just kind of say, well, we need a time to celebrate Jesus's birth. This time makes sense. And I think able to take a lot of symbolism and pull it together and make a beautiful opportunity to make the season about Jesus, our Lord, instead of about idolatry. So is it still wrong to, is it wrong to have a birthday cake and candles and... No, absolutely not. Okay. No, I've heard people say that, that because the history of that date is the winter solstice, is Saturnalia, is pagan worship, that it's actually wrong for Christians to celebrate Christmas on that day. And I disagree. I just, I understand that, yeah, there's some bad history there that is not Christian at all. But that doesn't mean that we can't take that time of the year and say the real thing that we should be celebrating, the real answer to the darkness in the world, to go back to the calendar and the timing and all that, the real answer to the darkness of the world is the light of Jesus. So I think there's beautiful symbolism there. I think there's nothing wrong with Christians taking that date and using it that way. Yeah. I think when you look at history, any day you pick something bad happened on that day. And so, any day you pick there's gonna be something that you're gonna look at and go, oh we probably shouldn't be celebrating on this day. Well, yeah, we got to pick a day to do that. Fun fact, did you know that for a period of time the Puritans actually banned celebration of Christmas? Yeah, they did, yep, I do. Pretty, pretty interesting. Yeah. I think you could dig into in history there, but one of the primary reasons was they felt like it was too Catholic. Yeah. So banned celebrating Christmas. Yeah, it also got pretty crazy. Like the way that early America celebrated Christmas, it got like pretty. So the drunkenness and violence and stuff like that. People got a little wild in their festivities. Time out, time out on Christmas. Yep. Seems like a good title for a Hallmark movie, Time Out on Christmas. All right, next question. Getting into your Santa hat, should we tell our, should Christians tell their kids about Santa Claus? Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have worn a Santa hat for this episode here. How about this, do you tell your kids about Santa Claus? We tell our kids about Santa Claus. We don't tell them that Santa Claus is real. We're pretty clear that Santa Claus is not real. Now, I'm not trying to shame parents on either side of this whole thing. I mean, you know, whatever. I'll be honest, we don't just because he's not real. You know, I don't wanna, this is gonna sound mean to our parents who have chosen to tell their kids about Santa Claus. If you're under the age of, oh yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah, spoiler alert for young kids. If you got the young kids in there, maybe. Yeah, yeah, our huge population of first graders who are listening to. Yeah, that's a good question. Right. No, I mean, it's one of those things. I just, I wouldn't want, I didn't want to go through that period of time when my kids go, wait a minute, you lied to me. Yeah. I didn't want to have to explain that. So, if you're a parent and you've made a different decision, that's the, you know, whatever. I think there's reasons you can come up with to make that make sense. So I'm not against Santa Claus. Saint Nick was a real person. A great dude who did some great things in church history. Yeah, dude, I mean, that guy was pretty hardcore. Saint Nicholas, the history on him, if you like history, that's definitely a guy to go back and research. He did some pretty sweet stuff, but yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's some great history there. I love the symbolism. Jesus is God's greatest gift to us. And so the giving of gifts at Christmas time, you know, symbolically it goes back to the wise men bringing gifts to Jesus. But so there's lots of, I think there's lots of rich tradition there that we can use to point to Jesus. I think that's a great thing. So yeah, we don't do it just because I don't want, I don't want to have that conversation one day with my kids about, yeah, we told you that, but it wasn't true. Yeah. And I, especially one of the things that my wife and I have discussed and thought about is just, I don't ever want my kids to one day be like, well, what else did you tell us that wasn't true? Such as Jesus himself. You know, I just don't want to, I just don't want to get there. That's what happened to me. My parents went like all out on Santa Claus. Like they, I think my dad put ashes on his boots and would like walk on the roof. So it looked like you know Santa coming from the chimney and walking. I mean like the the apologetic that they went through to prove Santa Claus was real. It was so so intense. I remember when I found out I asked you know Santa Claus he's not real, the Easter bunny no not real, Tooth Fairy no, Jesus and my parents like oh wait no no no Jesus is real. Because like in my head, those are all kind of in the same, you know, almost the same category of these characters who are seemingly omnipresent or omniscient and, you know, can go travel everywhere on one day and, you know, know whether you're naughty or nice, you know, that kind of stuff. Well, while we don't tell our kids he's real, we do laugh and joke about Santa Claus. We watch the movies, the Santa Claus, the best Christmas movie, Tim Allen. Claus with an E. Yep, Claus with an E, the best explanation of what Santa Claus is. But I do want to say, by the way, that some of the things around the Santa Claus myth are very anti-gospel. I actually remember one time doing a sermon on this topic. I'm actually, let me pull it up. I don't know the lyrics off the top of my head, but just listen to some of these lyrics from the, what is this, Santa Claus is coming to town? Yeah, I was going to ask, what are some dangerous aspects of Santa Claus that maybe we should help our children understand? But yeah, so you're going right into that. Yeah, I usually teach about this a little bit at some point around Christmas time. But the giving of gifts is supposed to be from grace, not from works. It's supposed to be a picture of the gospel, but unfortunately the Santa Claus thing goes the other direction. It's all about a naughtier, nice list, right? So here's the lyrics from Santa Claus is Coming to Town. It says, you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to town. It's a little concerning, actually. Cried, pouted. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of shame, a lot of guilt going on there. You're on the naughty list. Yeah. And then he gets right to it. He's making a list and checking it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty or nice. Okay, so the gift giving is not actually grace, it's works. If you were good, you get a gift. If you were naughty, you get coal, right? It's not grace, it's very works-based. And then to me, the last verse here is just plain creepy. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. And I think there's just irony in the last one. Sure. Because it's not actually telling you to be good for goodness sake. It's telling you to be good for a presence sake. Yeah. So I think that's the – yeah, those are the dangers I think maybe is if your kids were to think that all of it is superstition, including the parts about God, about Jesus, about scripture that you tell them and then also just the gospel versus the grace versus works Yeah, part of it. Yeah, you can put a false view of Like how gifts are meant to be given I also think that there's just a huge disparity if Santa Claus real is real and how he distributes presents between Wealthy and poor people a little bit scary I remember being a kid and you know looking at my rich friends going how come Santa Claus got them an Xbox and not me? I mean, what the heck like I was good like Well, I'm frozen concert right then your parents got to blame Santa you sure I understand It's super convenient for parents right like we have we have family to a certain extent though I did have somebody say something to me recently and I I jokingly said well no I don't tell my kids about Santa Claus. I want all the credit There you go. I'm gonna spend the money right? Yeah, right. I want the credit. I'm not giving that to somebody else. Yeah. We have family who criticizes us because we also don't do Santa Claus. They said, well, what do you do when your kids are naughty in December? You can hang that over their head saying, you better be good. I think I just saw one of Santa's elves. I'm like, man, I don't want to use Santa as a weapon to manipulate my kids into behaving better. Maybe that's convenient, but like, that stops once they're like, what, in like second grade? Or I don't know what you mean. We don't mess around with Elf on the Shelf or Santa's Not Your Niceness. We just talk about the wrath of God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, don't worry about coal, worry about hell. There you go. Let's move into our next question. Should Christians have Christmas trees? Yeah, so if you go back and study some of the history of the Christmas tree, again, whenever you go into the history of some of these long time cultural symbols, you're going to find different lines of history, right? There's no like 100% approved story of where this exactly came from. We don't have this in Slo Mo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's some different traditions about where this really came from. But regardless of where you look, you're probably going to find pagan background to the idea of the Christmas tree. Some of it... Could you explain what pagan means? I think we sometimes say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great question. Yeah, so pagan basically meaning, you know, opposite of biblical religion. Sure. Sort of worldly religious practices. Sure. Often arising from some kind of worship of something in creation. Yeah. Right? You know, a god of the sun, a god of the harvest, a god, you know, those kinds of things. So when we say pagan religion, that's usually what we're referring to. So yeah, in pagan religion, it was just the evergreen is a powerful symbol, right? It's something that is just always green, always has life, never loses. It doesn't go away in the winter. So there's always, I think, been some symbolism around the pine tree or spruce trees or whatever you use. Just because of that life sort of property to it. There's also, if you go into even going back into some Old Testament stuff, you think of the Asherah poles. I don't know how many people know this, but in the Old Testament, the Asherah poles that Israel sometimes adopted from their neighbors, those were actually... What's the appropriate word I can use to describe this here? It was an image of male genitalia. Yeah. And so it had to do with fertilization, had to do with the god of having fertile crops and all those kinds of things. Reproducing. Reproducing. Yep. Yep. So, and that shape, that symbolism, often using trees or poles to picture it. And so you will hear that there's some history there that maybe the Christmas tree came from an ashtray pole. Yeah. Which is obviously bad. All right. So what does that mean for us? Yeah. We use it or not. Yeah. I tend to think it's OK as long as it's not your intention. Yeah. I think if you're worshipping an ashtray pole and putting up a Christmas tree in your home. Bad. Yeah, that's bad. You shouldn't do that. You definitely should not do that. That's, yeah, that's sin. That's idolatry. It's not good stuff. I don't think, I think most people who put up Christmas trees don't have that background in there. And that's not a prominent background for us today. You know, if we lived in like a culture where most people saw a Christmas tree and thought that, then I'd be like, well, you know, we should probably not do that because even if we don't believe that, we're maybe sending a confusing signal to our neighbors. But, you know, in modern day, the United States, I just don't think people have those backgrounds in their mind. It's so closely associated with Christmas that when you see it, nobody thinks, very few people think, you know, this is pagan worship. They think, oh, that person's just trying to celebrate. I had a seminary professor who was definitely against Christmas trees. Really? Yep. He was hardcore against Christmas trees for the Asherah connection. But yeah, I just don't think that cultural history is near enough or prominent enough for us to really fear that. Well, like Martin Luther was one of the big proponents of Christmas trees. He's famous for being the guy who, at least supposedly, was first to put lights on the Christmas tree. Yeah. He looked up in the night sky on Christmas Eve, saw the beauty of the stars, went home, put lights on his Christmas tree. Yeah. Which is wildly dangerous. My dad was a fireman and I've seen way too many videos of Christmas trees just like going up just like that. I mean, they catch on fire so quickly. So to think that they were putting candles in Christmas trees, or in pine trees. Yeah. Just crazy. But yeah, a little easier nowadays. Next question. Should Christians celebrate Christmas with presents? Yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with celebrating with presents. It's a great, I think you just explained to the kids the symbolism here, that God gave us the greatest gift in his son, Jesus Christ, who came, was born in a manger, lived the righteous life that we couldn't live, died the death for sin that we deserve to die, rose again so we could put our faith in him and have eternal life. So just remind them of the symbolism. Also going back to the wise men, right? The wise men brought gifts to Jesus. Yeah. So likewise, we share gifts at Christmas time. But what about the viewpoint of saying, you know, that's very capitalist of you to say, John, giving gifts, falling into this commercial of maybe very Hallmark holiday kind of thing. Yeah, I guess I could understand that, but it doesn't have to be that way, right? There's nothing, maybe in defensive capitalism, there's nothing wrong with market. The market is not an evil thing inherently. Unfortunately, we are sinful human beings and we can be consumed with greed and use it for all the wrong things. But there's nothing inherently wrong with the exchange of goods. So it's a great thing, giving of gifts. Christmas, the idea of giving gifts, you know, reflecting back to the greatest gift that we were given is such a great symbol, right? I think, if you're using Christmas as a way to, you know, celebrate materialism rather than the birth of Christ, you know, I think you can get, that can be confusing for kids, it can be confusing for a lot of people but sure you know yeah yeah in the gospel yeah you know that's that's the point yeah yeah there's always a way to screw this up right yeah right maybe trying to help our kids realize that's not all about stuff yeah that can be I think a valuable thing for our culture really it's not all about consumerism kids it's not about just trying to get the coolest new toy or whatever it is you know trying to help them remember the symbolism. Yeah. Speaking of ways that we can threaten our children, sometimes when our kids are acting naughty, my wife will say, what if there were no presence under, under the tree, you know, would you still be happy? And to say, you know, their, their answer is, you know, yes, because Jesus is our greatest gift, but sometimes she says that and they go, that's funny. Well, will there be no presents? Well, actually, so I've seen videos of, maybe you've seen some parenting advice videos. I think that is such a terrible practice. Somebody who, they demonstrated that when December rolls around every year, they wrap up a bunch of empty boxes and put them under the Christmas tree. And then when their kids are naughty, they take one and they throw it in the fireplace. That's crazy. Oh man. That's going to be traumatizing for kids. I can only imagine what that would do to a kid. It's like those videos where the Grinch comes out. I see that and I'm just like, who thought this was a good idea? You know? Like scaring two year olds. Like yeah, I don't know. Grinch is a scary character. I'm sorry if you've done that and I've offended you, but don't do that. That's wild. Yeah. All right. Last question, was Jesus born in a barn? Maybe. There's a few options looking at the texts that they could point us to. I mean, just thinking about ancient Israel and just the terrain and the geography, I think there's a lot of likelihood for a cave that that's probably more like where they would have kept animals and where just, you know, just look at the geography of Bethlehem and that kind of thing. I think cave makes a lot of sense. I've heard other people say, you know, look at the etymology of that word and in context and stuff that maybe that's actually more like just a guest room off of a house, a place where maybe animals were kept as well as guests, things like that. Yeah, the word for inn is probably better translated guest room, right? But in a lot of Jewish homes, there was a place for the animals to come inside, which kind of sounds crazy that you'd keep animals in your house. I mean, that's your livelihood, right? So you're going to treat them as well as you can. And so the, you know, one theory aside from a cave is that, you know, Jesus was born in that part of the house where the animals were kept. Right. And that's why there he was placed in a manger, you know, in a trough really. Yeah. Yep. Feeding trough. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we, uh, in the last year or so, we've become a little bit of hobby farmers. We've got some goats. Yeah. So, uh, don't tell my kids, but I'm excited on Christmas. I plan to take them, no, no, no goats in my house. I thought that's where you were going. Oh man, that's not where I was going. No, I'm, oh my goodness. Well, Eden, they are, they're letting stuff go all the time. So no, I was gonna bring the kids out to our goat shed and use that as a little bit of a illustrative tool there. So this is probably what it looked like, smelled like. Not a real great smelling place or goat shed. No, no. I think that's a beautiful picture of the, you know, like the Westminster Confession talks about what, you know, the humiliation of Jesus that he was brought so low. You know, he left heaven, the most glorious place, and put on human flesh. He was born in a stinky room or cave with animals and itchy hay. Yeah, I even think, yeah, there's a song I like that talks about Jesus that he stumbled as he learned to walk upon the ground he made. Just a crazy, the beauty of the incarnation also, I think we have to balance it with understanding that Jesus really, this thing becoming a human was a tremendously humiliating and humbling thing for him. Right. Made low. Yeah, it's amazing. Incarnation is an amazing miracle that we should be awestruck by when we consider that God would become a man, take on flesh, all out of love for us in order to save us from our sin. Amen. Well, we hope that you all enjoy celebrating Christmas time with family or friends, or most importantly, with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Go to a Christmas Eve service, go to a Christmas Day service, worship the Savior for who he is and what he has done. We hope you have an awesome week and an awesome holiday. Merry Christmas, everybody. You can like, follow, subscribe, resoundmedia.cc , Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. Have a great week. Yeah. Bye!

A Faith That Listens To God's Voice Sermon Series: A Faith that Endures Nate Harney Executive Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: 1 Kings 19:1-18 Transcript Well, good morning Peace Church. My name is Pastor Nate. I'm the family pastor here. It's a joy to be with you this morning. I just want to welcome everyone who's also joining us online and in the chapel and the venue. We're so glad you're here with us. Well, I found that you know, you're starting to get a little older when your primary doctor can no longer help you with everything that ails you. They got to start referring you out to some specialists. Some of you know what I'm talking about. I just did my first visit to an ENT, an ear, nose, and throat doctor, so that was fun. And what they wanted to look at in me is for about a year now, I've just had this constant relentless ringing in both of my ears. I can hear it right now. It's frustrating. It gets on my nerves, so they're trying to help me out with it. And the first thing they wanted to do is do a hearing test. They want to make sure that I'm not experiencing hearing loss. And what I actually ended up telling them when they told me we're going to do a hearing test to see if this is related, I let them know I've been struggling with hearing problems my whole life. I've actually, I always have difficulty hearing. And so, I said, even longer than just a year I've been dealing with this ringing. And even the first couple of years with my wife, she had to learn that I'm not very good at hearing and there was times where it caused a little friction, but we figured it out, we worked through it. But anyway, I did the test and the results came back and they were shocking to me because I found out that I have perfect hearing. I was shocked. I went home and told my wife she was not. She let me know that she had this sneaking suspicion since the first couple weeks of our marriage that I didn't have a hearing problem, that I had what her words not mine, a listening problem. She said a bunch of other stuff too, but I wasn't really paying attention. So I don't. This morning, as we continue to walk with Elijah, we're gonna be seeing in God's word the importance of listening. We are gonna see that the Bible says a lot about listening in general, but in this passage that we're looking at, we're gonna see that a faith that endures listens to God's voice. So this morning, we are in 1 Kings 19. It's not gonna be up on the screen, so go ahead and turn there in your Bibles, pull them up on your phone if you got them. And just as a review, if you weren't here last week, we heard from Pastor Ryan. He preached on the previous chapter, 1 Kings 18. And in that chapter, we know that Elijah had a total showdown with the prophets of Baal, this false god. He went head-to-head with 450 of these prophets. They both built altars and the Lord, the one true God, the one Elijah worships, sent fire from heaven. And so, so much so that they found out the truth about whose God was real, that Elijah actually put those 450 prophets to death. And so Elijah, where we meet him, he's coming down off a mountain both literally and metaphorically. He's coming down from Mount Carmel, but he's been on the spiritual high point. And we're going to meet Elijah at one of the lowest points of this prophet's spiritual journey. Things can change fast. 1 Kings 19:1-3 So we're picking up in first Kings 19. We're gonna be reading verses one through three and then nine through 18. So please read along with me. 1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.” 3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. So pause with me here. Verses four through eight, which we're not gonna read this morning, it tells this beautiful little story of Elijah is exhausted, he needs rest. God provides a meal for him. He rejuvenates and refreshes him. Then Elijah travels for 40 days, 40 nights, and he arrives at Mount Horeb. 1 Kings 19:9-18 That's where we'll pick up in verse nine. Here's where it says, 9 There he came to a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 15 And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17 And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” Prayer Would you pray with me? Father, as we open your word today, I pray that you would open our hearts and our minds and our ears to listen, to listen to what you're speaking to us today through your word. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, if we are gonna have a faith that endures, we need to listen to God's voice and we need to beware of other voices. Look back at the first verse from chapter 19 with me and see what was the voice that Elijah was listening to. As a reminder, I said this before, Pastor Ryan preached on it last week. Elijah has just called down fire from heaven and then he battles and kills 450 prophets of Baal. Keep that in mind as we go back to verse one. So Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So how does the queen respond to this news? Verse two tells us that Jezebel sends a simple message to Elijah, you're dead. Elijah's response to the threat, in verse three we see he's so afraid that he runs for his life. I'm gonna say it one more time. Elijah has just called down an all-consuming fire from the sky. Get your picture of that. And then he kills 450 men. For those of you who are basketball fans here, in the NBA, there are 30 teams, 15 on each roster. If you do some quick math, there are 450 guys in the entire league. Elijah was just able to defeat the equivalent of a modern sports league, and he gets this one message from one voice, and it freaks him out enough that he runs for his life. What is going on here, Elijah? Now, it would be very easy for us to sit back today, read this account, and judge Elijah for his response. How can you let one voice speak louder than the voice of the Lord with all you've seen, with all that God has done for you? It would be really easy to sit back and do that today. But how many of us do the exact same thing over and over and over again, day in and day out? Elijah saw the glory of God partially revealed in some amazing miracles. We here on the other side of the New Testament, we've seen the glory of God fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. T he book of John says that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We know how the story ends. We know the good news. We know revelation. We know that the battle is already won and the victory belongs to the Lord. But how many times do we still listen to so many other voices in our life instead of the Lord's voice as the first voice speaking into our lives? It's hard because in this modern world that is just undergirded and then propelled forward by just almost an endless amount of media and voices and content flowing into our minds, into our lives. I think for the younger people here, the number of voices that speak in your life every day just through social media, just through a different swipe every couple of seconds, another voice, another perspective, another person speaking into your life. Or maybe if you're not a social media person, I think of potentially some of the older generations here, just a 24-hour news cycle. There's always a voice available. We can always access another voice to speak into our life. Voice after voice after voice. We know what Elijah knew back then, that we should be listening to the voice of God before all else. But do we actually stop and listen? If you're newer to peace, you're probably already starting to figure out that whatever pastor is preaching here, we wanna focus primarily on what God is saying through his word. We love the Bible here. We come back to the Bible. We are driven by the Bible. We are all about the Bible. And if you don't know, it's not just because we're obsessed with some random book. It's because we believe that this is the word of God. If you wanna hear God speak, we're gonna come back to this over and over and over again this morning. The primary means that we do that are we open up to God's word and we listen. That is how we hear the voice of the Lord. And that is how we drown out all the other voices that are trying to speak into our lives. So you'll be blessed if you learn today if you take away that we need to beware of outside voices that go against what is taught in God's word. But Elijah found, and I'm sure many of you will relate to this here today, that sometimes the most dangerous voice that speaks into our life isn't coming from the outside, but it's right up here. Look with me at verse nine, and we're gonna see that we, it's not enough just to be aware of other voices, but we need to be aware of our own voice too. Verse nine, says this, Elijah came to the cave and lodged in it, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah? And Elijah responds, I've been very jealous of the Lord, the God of hosts. Elijah speaks from his own perspective. And it's generally true, Elijah was a very faithful man and prophet, but he's not perfect. Look at how he keeps going. He says, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword. Now, as sad as it is, there's truth there. That was happening in Israel but Elijah is starting to let his emotions get the best of him and starting to let that voice in his own head speak over the lords this is an exaggeration this is happening in Israel but not all the Israelites are doing this let's keep going here's where it gets really bad Elijah says and I even I only in last and they seek my life to take it away. There it is. Elijah takes some things that are mostly true and he mixes it in with the voice in his head and the feelings of depression that he's experiencing and the anxiety that's overwhelming him in this moment and it leads him to embrace some half-truths flat out lie. When he says, I, even I only am left, the voice in Elijah's head is saying, you are absolutely and completely alone. Everyone, everyone else has abandoned God and you are all that's left, Elijah. You are completely, utterly alone. Does Elijah really feel this way? We know he does. And the reason we know he does is because God actually gives him another chance. He asks him the same question, he gets a redo, and Elijah gives the exact same answer. He is down in the darkness. He says, verse 14, it could look like a typo if you didn't know, he says the exact same thing. He says I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword. And I, even I only am left. And they seek my life to take it away." The voice in Elijah's head, it's consistent and it's certainly persistent, but it's also just flat-out wrong. How do we know he was wrong? Because the voice of the Lord speaks and gently but clearly corrects him. In verses 15, 16, and 17, God gives Elijah the names of three new allies, Hazel, Jehu, and Elisha. God's saying, Elijah, the voice in your head says that you're alone, wrong. Here are three names, you are not alone. But God doesn't stop with three, does he? Look at the last verse with me, 18, where God provides just this heaping bowl of truth and perspective on the lies coming from Elijah's head. Verse 18 says, yet I will leave, if you're looking at it, how many? 7,000 in Israel, 7,000. All the knees that have not bowed to bail and every mouth that has not kissed him The Lord is saying again Elijah. You think you're the only one who stayed faithful to the Lord You think you're all alone and he just uses the truth to cut through those lies Coming from the voice in his head And he says there are 7,000 in Israel who haven't bent the knee to bail Elijah. You are not alone. So was the voice in Elijah's head telling him the truth? No, it wasn't. But what do we do with that today? We all know that we got voices in our own head, that our own perspective is sometimes off and needs to be corrected. How do we practically turn down the volume of that voice in our own head and just crank up the voice of the Lord. Well, if you're paying attention, you're already going to know where I'm going to go with this one. But I want to tell you something about my life first. There's a sense when I read this account in the life of Elijah that I connect with it, I resonate with it in a very, very personal way. Elijah is completely down in the dumps and he's just dealing with total depression and anxiety. Now I have received, I've never shared this publicly, just hasn't come up, but I'm not ashamed to share that I've received an official clinical formal diagnosis of having depression and anxiety. That's something I battled for years, something I even battle today. Now, when you bring up this topic of mental health, I'm sure for so many of you here, there's a lot of thoughts and questions going through your head as I share this. I'm gonna address two corrections I think that might be needed for some of us today, and I'm gonna give one thing, one takeaway for all of us. So, first of all, I would guess that in a room this large with people coming from so many different experiences and walks of life, that there are some of you who might've just heard one of your pastors say that he has some mental health issues. And you might think, whoa, timeout. Is that okay? Why are you up on stage right now if you're dealing with bigger problems than maybe even I got. I can totally understand if you're feeling that way, but can I go full Pastor Ryan on you for like 10 seconds? I understand that perspective, but if you have that perspective, you're totally wrong. I just want to be really honest with you. You're wrong. And the reason I know that is because the voice of the Lord in the Scriptures, if you look through the Scriptures, it's not just Elijah, but God has a habit, he has a tendency to use the weak and the broken to bring about his purposes in the church and in this world. You can look through all of church history, we can look through all the scriptures. God loves using weak and broken people to do great things for his glory. Now, I'm not talking about the qualifications that we find in scripture that are necessary for all of our pastors to meet. I'm not talking about sin here. I'm talking about weakness and brokenness that we're working through. So I don't want to be heard incorrectly there. But there's another group I would worry about how you would respond to something like this. Because there's a whole spectrum that the stigma that comes with mental health can bring about. I would guess there's some of you in the room and I would lean on thinking it would be some of the younger people here. You might have just heard one of your pastors say, you know, I battle with some mental health issues. And you might be thinking, cool, I want mental health issues. That sounds interesting and unique. I got to tell you, if that's your perspective, and some of you are thinking, who would think that? There's just this strange growing wave among some young people that they think this is there's something cool or fun or unique. Can I tell you it's not cool, it's not fun, and nowadays it's not even all that unique anymore? There's nothing that you would want to pursue about this because the source of it is the brokenness that comes from the fall and from the lies that come from our enemy that fill up our brains. This is not something that I would wish on anyone, but if it is something that you deal with, I just want you to know that there are so many ways that you can receive help. I personally have received help in lots of different ways, but there is one primary way that has made a bigger difference in my battle with this than anything else. And it doesn't just apply for the people in this room who battle in the same way I do or Elijah was in this moment, but I know humanity. I know that for each and every one of us, there are times where you are down, where you're dealing with total sadness, where you are worried, you're dealing with tons of anxieties that come from this life in this world, where there are lies in your head, and it might not be something that you deal with all the time, but if you haven't dealt with it yet, you will sometime. And I want to give us all the same encouragement. There are lots of different helpful and beneficial ways to get help for that kind of thing, but none of them, I wanna be very clear, none of them are as helpful, as important, and as primary as listening for the voice of God that is found here in the scriptures. Here's what I mean by that. In my life, I got three little kids, I got an awesome wife, I got a very important job helping with an amazing church where God's doing great things. And while that is an incredible thing, there's times where it feels like a huge weight. There's times where I feel very afraid and that leads to some of this depression and anxiety that I'm talking about. And in those moments when I'm afraid, Isaiah 41 10 so do not fear for I am with you do not be dismayed for I am your God I will bless you I will help you and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand when the waves of anxious thoughts and depressive feelings are just crashing over my mind. Philippians 4, rejoice in the Lord always. I'll say it again, rejoice. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. When the voices in your head are getting loud and saying lies the only thing that can fully and primarily drown them out is when the voice of the Lord speaks louder. If that's something that you battle with as well, I'm not saying that there's not plenty of other different ways to seek help. And I would love to talk with you about any of those things. I've been talking with a lot of people this morning about that topic specifically. But what I am saying is that for years and years there was this tendency to just tell people read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible and not find any other solutions. I'm not saying that. In fact, I think the pendulum swung a little bit the other way at this point where sometimes, especially for some of the young people in the room, you might be seeking every other source, every other voice besides this one. And this is the most important voice you could have in your life, regardless of what you're battling. If we're gonna have enduring faith, we need to beware of the outside voices coming in. We need to beware of the inside voices that can try to drive us away from God's word that is found in the voice of the Lord. And lastly, we need to beware of noise and novelty. We've been talking about listening to God's voice over the other voices, but we also need to be careful that we're listening to God's voice in the right way, listening for the right things. Look at verse 11 as we're going to see how God teaches us something about this, about his voice in the story of Elijah. Verse 11 says this, "'And he said,' this is the Lord, "'he said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. "'And behold, the Lord passed by, "'and a great and strong wind tore the mountains "'and broken pieces the rocks before the Lord. "'But the Lord was not in the wind. "'And after the wind, an earthquake, "'but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire But the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire the sound of a low whisper When Elijah heard it he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave and Behold there came a voice to him and said what are you doing here Elijah? hear Elijah. Now this is probably the most famous passage that comes out of this chapter of scripture. So you might be familiar with this part of the story. There are the crashing winds and the rumbling quake. There's the burning fire, but God speaks to Elijah through a quiet, ordinary whisper. Even with all of his weakness, Elijah knows the Lord enough to hear his voice. He's listening, he can recognize and identify that still small whisper of the Lord through all the noise happening around him on that mountain. I wonder for us today, if we were on Mount Horeb with Elijah, would we be looking for something in the fire and in the quake and in the wind? Imagine for a moment with me that when I started this message, if I would have said, you know, I had a sermon prepared, but I woke up this morning and God spoke to me. So I got a message to bring to you today. You probably perk up a little bit. I know if I was sitting out there I'd be like, okay, here we go. This is gonna be interesting, right? Well, that's exactly what happened. Now, not in the splashy, flashy ways that sometimes we seek after, but after studying God's Word, I'll tell you, I woke up this morning about an hour earlier than I wanted to, but I woke up early this morning and I opened up God's word. And do you know what happened? God spoke to me in 1 Kings 19. Do you know how I know that happened? Because every time you open God's word, He is speaking. We forget how special these moments are. We forget how incredible it is that we have the Word of the Lord at our fingertips at all times. We can hear the voice of God whenever we want. We just need to open the book and read. And I get it. I'm in the same spot. Sometimes I want the loud, I want the noisy, I want the new, the novel. I want the fires from Mount Carmel. I don't want the quiet whispers of Mount Horeb. You know, I want the show. But is there a chance that if that's all we're looking for, we can miss the quiet and ordinary way that God wants to speak to us every single day of our lives? Could we be missing that? I want you to think about that today. If we wanna figure out how to open our ears to hear the still small whisper of the Lord, I wanna put it very clearly, very simply. You open up this book and you read and you receive the word of the Lord. And I get it, I grew up in the church. I know that the read your Bible message comes off as pretty repetitive. You've heard it before. In fact, probably, it's probably one of the main takeaways in most of the messages you sat through. And here in West Michigan, I know that many of you have sat through a lot of sermons. You know, you're supposed to read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible. So I'm not gonna say that to you this morning. I wanna frame it a little bit differently. My hope and prayer for you this week, whether it's later today, tomorrow morning, or sometime later on, is that you wouldn't just read your Bible, that you would listen to the voice of the Lord. By that I mean read your Bible. This is how we hear God speak in the most primary and fundamental sense. The God who created and sustains the universe loves you and He is speaking to you through His Word. Are we listening? Would you stand up with me this morning? I wanna pray for you. And my prayer for all of us is wherever you're at in life, whether you're on the mountaintop of Mount Carmel or you're down in the depths with Elijah as he's just pouring out his heart before the Lord. My prayer over all of us today is that we would learn to tune our hearts and our minds and our ears to the voice of the Lord that is given to us in his word. Ending Prayer Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that you've revealed yourself to us, that you speak to us. And God, we confess that we don't always seek out your voice we don't always listen, but we know your grace covers that. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you for the cross and the empty grave. And Lord, we pray now that we would become people who just desperately seek after your voice. That we would not have to only discipline ourselves to read our Bibles, but we would delight in seeking after hearing your voice in the scriptures. God, I pray by the power of the Holy Spirit, you would fill each and every one of us to do just that this week. We love you, Jesus, and we pray all of this in your name. Amen.

Be Equipped Sermon Series: Hate Speech Nate Harney Executive Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: Ephesians 4:7-16 Transcript Good morning, church. My name is Nate and it is my honor to be the family pastor here and it is my joy to get to open up God's Word with you this morning. So as a West Michigan raised Bible believing Bible preaching pastor When I was called out for seven years to go serve on the California coast at a church there, I was accused of hate speech more than once. In particular, part of my season there, I worked primarily with college students and I found that when I talked about the topics of sin or God's wrath or especially when the Bible brought up the topic of hell, that the accusations of hate speech just started to roll in. But here's the crazy thing. Of all my time out there, with all the times I was accused of that, the time that I received the most vocal and really vicious accusations that I was speaking hate speech, it wasn't about anything biblical really, it was actually about a person, and a person who's a huge hero in the area I was serving. Well, you're just south of the San Francisco Bay Area. So if you know basketball at all, you might know that many, many people in our church were fans of this team called the Golden State Warriors. And I made the unforgivable sin of saying something negative about their best player, their most famous player. Even if you don't follow basketball, you might recognize him. His name is Steph Curry. He won their team a lot of championships. You can see him holding on to a trophy there. I like this picture. I think it's kind of funny because in the reflection, if you look closely, you can see his wife next to him, but he's not, he doesn't have his arm around her. He's holding onto the trophy there. Here's all that I said. We're preaching through Philippians four and we got to the famous verse 13. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I just briefly mentioned that I found it unhelpful and maybe even a little dangerous that our local beloved basketball hero Curry who was a professing Christian is a Christian and that's awesome but he uses a verse on all of his merchandise but he only includes half of it and I would argue it warps the meaning to mean almost the exact opposite of what it's supposed to mean if you look closely at the hat he's wearing there, if you're not familiar what he puts on all of his merch, his slogan is, I can do all things. Notably left out is the critical second half, through Christ who strengthens me. And while I'm sure he believes that, it doesn't always come through when you only include the first half. Now, needless to say, people were not very happy with me and I heard about it the accusations of hate speech came but I just kept telling them don't shoot the messenger because if you read the Bible if you get to know the God of the Bible you know why it's so dangerous to only include that first half because whether we like it or not no matter what Oprah Winfrey or Joel Osteen or best NBA shooter of all time Steph Curry says. The main message of the Bible is not that you are awesome, and you can do it. The main thrust of the Bible is that God is awesome and that God can do it. That statement on its own that you are not enough, that you don't have what it takes on your own could be easily seen as modern hate speech to many people, but church, we need to hear the truth and love today that we are not enough on our own. You are not enough. You don't have what it takes. On your own, you're not enough to stand strong against this world that just relentlessly seeks to bring you down. On your own, just statistically, you don't have what it takes to persevere, to beat the odds and have a lifelong, healthy, happy marriage. And parents and grandparents, on your own, you are not enough. You don't have what it takes to raise children of light as the darkness of this world closes in on them. On your own you cannot do all things you are not enough and because you are not because you don't have what it takes. We must be equipped Be equipped As we walk through Ephesians 4 right now We're picking up where we left off and we're seeing that living in this time where the world no longer tolerates the truth even when it's brought in love. We're being reminded that left to our own devices. We do not have what it takes But by the grace of God and only by His grace, we are going to be reminded today or learn for the first time that He has equipped us with spiritual gifts. And He has given us each other the church where we can continue to be equipped and He gives us a call and a mission to respond to, to equip the next generation because when truth and love is no longer tolerated, we must be equipped. So if you would open up with me back to Ephesians 4, right where we left off, we're going to be picking up in verse 7 and reading all the way through verse 16. Ephesians 4, 7 through 16. I'll be reading it. Please follow along with me. Ephesians 4:7-16 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, this morning as we open your word, we pray you would equip us and that you would cause us to see what you've already done, what you're still doing, and you would cause us to walk into the mission you are calling us to. We pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen. When truth and love is no longer tolerated, we must be equipped. As we dive into God's word this morning, we're going to be encouraged first, because what Jesus has already done on the cross, and because he is raised again, we are equipped already. But we're also gonna be challenged that there's more to be done. We must be equipped still. It's a continuing process. And finally, we'll see together, especially in this moment in history, in this time, in this place where truth and love is no longer tolerated, it's not enough to just be equipped ourselves, but we must equip the next generation. 1. We are equipped ( Ephesians 4:7-10) So if you go back to verse seven with me, we are encouraged here that we are equipped. Look at what verse seven says, "'But grace was given to not some, "'but each one of us according to the measure "'of Christ's gift.' Therefore it says," and what the it here that Paul is referencing is Psalm 68. It says, "'When he,' and now we know looking back, "'this he is Jesus, when he Jesus ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men then Paul includes here this parenthetical statement in the parentheses here that is in Psalm 68 but he wants to bring total clarity to what he's saying here in saying he Jesus ascended what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions the earth that God came to be with us he who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things so what's going on here Paul brings up Psalm 68 because he wants to point back to this picture of these Old Testament times where good kings would go off to war and if they would come back victorious, they would share the spoils of victory with their people as gifts. So when Jesus descended to come and be among us, he came to fight a spiritual war like none other. And even though we know it looked like complete and total loss as he hung dying on the cross, that's not the end of the story. Three days later, he burst from the grave victorious. And as he ascended to heaven, like the good king that Jesus is, he shared the spoils of war, and he gave each and every one of his followers spiritual gifts. He equipped us so that we can finish the final skirmishes of the battle that he has already won. And if you would be so bold today, whatever room you're in, in the worship center, our venue's online, if you are a follower of Jesus, would you just raise your hand with me for a second? Would you be bold to raise your hand? And keep it raised, don't be shy. If you are a follower of Jesus, if your hand is raised right now, you have been equipped already with a spiritual gift. And along with forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, another amazing thing Jesus won for you, another grace that he gives to each and every Christian is a spiritual gift. You are gifted, you are equipped. Remember this moment. You can put your hands down, talking about spiritual gifts, raising hands, it's getting a little Pentecostal in here. We're a Reformed church, let's bring it back. Our passage today doesn't get into all the gifts. You can look throughout the New Testament. There's places that they list them, generosity and service and teaching and mercy and faith encouragement. The list goes on and on. And I don't know what yours is, but I hope you do because you have one. And more importantly than knowing you have one is taking the next step and actually using it. God gave you a gift so that you would use it. And in this world and at this time when truth and love is no longer tolerated, when this beautiful but exclusive message of Jesus Christ is seen as hate speech by so many, we must be equipped. And here's the good news for you today, church, because Jesus won the war, you already are. You stand equipped right now. You're not enough on your own. You don't have what it takes, but you are equipped by the grace of God. So ask yourself this morning, think to yourself, 1. What are my spiritual gifts? What have I already been equipped with? And if you're able to answer that, ask yourself the natural follow-up. 2. Am I actually using those gifts I've been given to build up the Church of Christ and to share the truth and the love of Jesus with a broken world? And if you're not able to answer that first question, if you go, I don't know what my spiritual gifts are, I take God's word at it that I have something, but I don't know what it is. I would encourage you to find out as soon as you can. And here's how I would go about doing that. There's a lot of tests online and different things you can take, surveys and stuff. Those are fine, but before you do anything like that, I just ask you to do two things. 1. Ask the Christians around you, your loved ones, your friends, family, that are followers of Jesus, what gifts do you see in me? Oftentimes they'll see more clearly in you what you can't even see in yourself. And the other thing I would do, 2. I would just encourage you to just get involved in service, try to use some gifts and see what comes out, because you might be surprised with the areas where you are gifted by the grace of God. We are up against a lot in this world. I'm not going to lie to you about that. And I'm also not going to tell you that you're enough on your own because you're not, but you are equipped. 2. We must be equipped (Ephesians 4:11-16) Our passage continues with verse 11 with a challenge that even though we are equipped already, we must be equipped. There's more equipping to come. So look at verse 11 with me. It says, and he gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelist in the shepherds and the teacher so all the leaders of the church were given for a purpose I look carefully at what verse 12 here says I don't want you to miss it because this is a primary biblically provided job description for what the leaders of a church are supposed to be doing with their time look at what it says in verse 12 it says the church leaders job is to do the work of ministry for the Saints for the building up of the body of Christ right if you're paying attention that's not what it says wrong if you're paying attention you know that what verse 12 actually says is something different than that and something better it's not just the church leaders job to do the work of the ministry but look at what it says it says the church leaders role is to equip the Saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. So, who does the work of the ministry? All of us. Let's make this really clear. Would you just point to the main person that you are responsible for to make sure the ministry is happening at Peace Church? The one person you can control more than anyone else. Don't point to your spouse, please. Don't point to your mom or dad. If you would point to one of the ministers at Peace Church, would everyone just, as a follower of Jesus, would you just point at yourself for a second? Really do it. I know I'm making you do a lot today, but I just wanna grab a quick picture for our church records. File that away as the ministers of Peace Church, praise God. We all do the ministry and it's so important that we get equipped so we do it well because this world is and always has been really messed up and has sought to come against the ministry that God calls us to. Look back at the text with me. Let's keep reading. After we learn that the church leader's job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ verse 13 Says this until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature Manhood until we reach majority to what standard to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ So that we may no longer be and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes. My wife's from Seattle she grew up in a church but a church that's very different than the one you're in right now and when I went to go visit that church for the first time with her something caught my attention right away the first table that I saw in the lobby was advertising was promoting signups for a Bible study and what was advertised was something called a white fragility Bible study and I'm a curious guy I didn't know what that meant and it's kind of fun to be an undercover pastor at another church so I went up and started asking some questions chiefly what is a white fragility Bible study and the woman who was there went on to explain to me that what that just meant is it was a Bible study for white people to be able to learn to acknowledge their own racism and face it head-on and It was kind of that moment where I learned something about myself because they would be considered what's called a progressive Church, and I learned at that moment that I must not be very progressive Because a Bible study just for white people sounded a little racist to me. Okay, I'm in good company. Here we go. Here's the point. Instead of clinging to the timeless truth of God's Word and focusing on the Bible, they were actually bringing in another book that was popular, that had a very powerful but short-lived cultural moment. I haven't even read it, so I won't speak to it. But my wife will tell you that growing up in an environment like that, where she was taught and equipped, things that changed almost overnight, changed with the ties of culture. She said that it was like being in a rudderless ship, just in a raging storm, just with every new wind and every new modern wave changing course, not knowing where you're going, changing what they were believing, changing what they're being equipped with instead of following the unchanging eternal Word of God. And that might be way off in Seattle, right? But is it starting to sound more and more like our daily experience every year that passes by? We're doing this series called Hate Speech because this kind of thinking and this kind of influence and this kind of equipping that happens in our culture is not contained to urban centers or along the coast, but it spreads throughout the country, throughout the world, and it spreads online and into our schools and into our workplaces, and homes, and yes, even in our churches here. So how do we stand strong, and what do we do? Well, let's finish the passage and find out. Verse 15, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love when God's words and his ways are no longer followed when the good but challenging news of the gospel is no longer tolerated we must be equipped, church. And by God's grace, I see it happening here at Peace Church. It happens when we gather all together on Sunday morning and we open up God's Word to be filled up, to be taught, to be equipped. If your only equipping touch point is once a week on Sunday mornings, you aren't gonna have what it takes to face what we're up against. There are so many other ways that you can be equipped here at the church and we don't just put on activities and have programs and events just to have something to do but we seek to be equipped and you can be equipped through a men's or a woman's Bible study those just started up this last week if you want to join a Bible study is not too late just jump right in you can go sign up online I'll give you a heads up, we're kind of old school. All our Bible studies are open to all races, okay? I just want you to know. You can get equipped through joining a community group if you've never been a part of a small group. And I get it. Sometimes that feels awkward. We're gonna gather in a circle and share our feelings with each other. Hunting season's coming. I think I'd rather be in a tree stand, as I know what a lot of us are thinking. Not me, I don't know how to do that. But community groups are a place where we gather in smaller groups in our homes and we get equipped and we equip each other. Those are launching this week, we're launching tons of new ones. If you want to try one out, there's a table in the lobby. You can sign up right there to start being equipped in that way and We have so many equipping opportunities for young adults and we have groups for over 55 ministries We have our friends at Peace Ministry that equips our Friends who are adults with special needs we do middle school and high school on Sunday nights on Wednesday nights We do brave girls and bold boys. We have women's men's marriage conferences, equipping classes, parenting events. And let me just say one more time, we don't just put on programs, but we gather as the already equipped to be further equipped to finish the mission that God has called us to. There is work to do. There's a church that still needs building. There are lost souls out in our community that still needs saving and in this broken Just upside down gospel Intolerant world that we live in Jesus's plan His plan to share himself and his truth and his love with that world who needs it is us. We are the plan. His called and equipped saints. Are you doing all that you need to to be equipped to answer that call? Because when truth and love is no longer tolerated, we must be equipped. 3. We must equip the next generation Now this is where my role as the family pastor is gonna come out really clear here because as we've been going through this passage, I hope some of you have seen what I see that it's not just enough to be equipped here and now, to equip the church today, but we have to look forward. We have to look into the future. And when truth and love is no longer tolerated, we must equip the next generation. We are equipped so that we can keep being equipped, so that we can grow and teach the next generation, equipping them to stand for Jesus, even in a time where it seems so hard. Many of you who are empty nesters or older parents, you've come up to me, I think as a family pastor, but also as a dad, you see me around the church with my three kids, I got a five, a three, and a one-year-old, and you've said something along the lines, shared this sentiment that, whoo, am I glad I don't have to raise my kids today in this crazy world. And I get it. And even though there's nothing new under the sun and our world's always been broken, for many of us it seems like we're experiencing an ever increasing rapid shift in the intolerance towards Jesus. I know even in my short life, I remember going to public school here in West Michigan and in fifth grade I still remember when my science teacher, Mr. Quinn, said, I feel a moral obligation as an educator to bring you to the best source to learn about the origins of the universe. So we're going to be reading from Genesis chapter 1. That's going to be our textbook today. That doesn't really happen much anymore, does it? But are we gonna just worry about it and wring our hands? Are we gonna reminisce about the good old days and complain and whine about how bad it's getting out there for this next generation? Or are we actually going to do something about it? In a world where truth and love is no longer tolerated, we as God's people, the equipped, need to step up and do exactly what God's Word tells us to do. We need to roll up our sleeves. We need to be equipped ourselves, and then we need to equip the next generation. And the primary place that that's gonna happen is in the home. It's how it's always been, it's how it always will be, but all of us, as the equipped saints, as the ministers of Peace Church We all have a role to play And so I'm gonna do something that I don't normally do I'm gonna bring something very specific to your attention and when they give the family pastor the pulpit They better be ready for me to use it the way I want to use it now I'm just kidding, but listen up I want to be I want to be transparent with you about something. My teams have been spending the summer trying to recruit volunteers to come and be a part of that equipping of the next generation. Kids' ministry, student ministry, all the programs that we offer. And praise God, it has gone so well, and so many of you in the room here have stepped up and so many are serving right now all throughout this building, equipping the next generation, teaching them about Jesus. But there is an urgent need. There is an urgent need right now for more Bible teachers to teach our elementary age students. Very specific. And if I was going to even hone in on it more, we have had tons of women of the church answer the call to teach our elementary students the Bible to equip the next generation and very very few men and I get it life is Exhausting and that's a big responsibility in fact I was at our serve table out in the lobby two weeks ago and a gentleman came up to the table and I was just About ready to launch into my whole spiel about all the different service opportunities And he just cut me off and he said just tell me where the greatest need in the churches and i said amazing we need large group bible teachers for our bold boys program and he said tell me where the second greatest need in the churches seriously i get it here's something amazing god did already this morning though that gentleman before the first service came up to me and he said I've been praying about it. I'll do it I'll teach the next generation God's Word. I'm coming after you next. So, starting ten days from now. We're gonna bring I'll be honest. We're gonna pack 400 kids into this building, many of whom are part of this church who have grown up hearing the good news of Jesus, and many who are unchurched, aren't hearing anything about Jesus in their own homes, but for some reason their parents are bringing them to the program here. And there is an opportunity to step up and to equip the next generation, as you've been equipped to be able to make it in this world glorifying God, bringing honor to Jesus. And there are many of you here who don't even know it yet, but you're going to be a part of that because I believe when God's Word is preached and when the Spirit is moving, God does things. So here's what we're going to do right now. I'm going to ask every Christian man, if you've got a cell phone on you, pull it out. If you're not already reading your Bible on it, if you would be willing to pull it out, I'm just going to ask you to do one thing here. If you would consider, not even considering, do I feel qualified to do this, but first asking, would I be willing to attempt to be equipped to see, would you be willing to potentially step up to teach one time, one Bible lesson on a Wednesday night or on a Sunday morning to the next generation? You wouldn't have to write it yourself. I'd help you with that. We would meet beforehand and I will equip you personally. I'll see it as my obligation. That is my job after all, right? If you would be willing, would you just text that number, equip me. And if not, if you don't feel called to do that, if you're not available or able, if you're doing something else that you've already been called to, just send me a text, not now. But I got to tell you, as you're doing that, after first service, we now have 14 new Bible teachers for elementary-aged kids. The men of this church have stepped up. And women, if you want to text me, if you want to jump in, you can do that too. So many of you have already stepped up. But here's the thing, I got to just tell you, when I was a pastor out in California, about five miles down from our church, there's a world famous aquarium, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And today, and for years, this has been the case, but there is a multi-year waiting list to volunteer at that aquarium. Taking care of and teaching others about fish. We can do better, church. By third service, we're gonna have a waiting list and they're not even gonna be able to teach this year. It's gonna be many years till they get in there. Good job coming to one of the earlier services. Church, Jesus didn't come down to live among us, to be tortured, to be crucified, to receive all the wrath of God that we deserve, receiving it in our place so that He could give us the grace of salvation and equip us with gifts and His Word and the church and a mission so that we could sit on our hands and worry and complain about how bad it's getting out there and not do a thing about it. He equipped us, and He is equipping us, and He calls us to equip the future church for the sake of the gospel all for His glory. In a world where truth in love is no longer tolerated, we must be equipped. Would you stand with me as we prepare to worship? Let's first pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for equipping us already. We confess we do not have what it takes to do what you have called us to, but we know that because of your victory on the cross, because of the empty grave, you have shared the spoils of war with us and you have gifted and equipped us to do exactly what you've called us to. And Father, we confess that we don't do all that it takes to continue to be equipped. And I confess, God, that us church leaders don't do all that we need to do to equip the church. But Lord, help us to put away apathy, to put away fear. Lord, I pray that by your grace in this moment, by your spirit, you would just raise up your church, the equipped, to be more equipped. And especially, God, we pray for our next generations God we pray that we would do our part to prepare them to equip them for all that they'll encounter we trust you to do all of this in your church and in our hearts Lord and we thank you that you are working right now we love you Jesus we pray this in your name. Amen. Good morning, church. My name is Nate and it is my honor to be the family pastor here and it is my joy to get to open up God's Word with you this morning. So as a West Michigan raised Bible believing Bible preaching pastor When I was called out for seven years to go serve on the California coast at a church there, I was accused of hate speech more than once. In particular, part of my season there, I worked primarily with college students and I found that when I talked about the topics of sin or God's wrath or especially when the Bible brought up the topic of hell, that the accusations of hate speech just started to roll in. But here's the crazy thing. Of all my time out there, with all the times I was accused of that, the time that I received the most vocal and really vicious accusations that I was speaking hate speech, it wasn't about anything biblical really, it was actually about a person, and a person who's a huge hero in the area I was serving. Well, you're just south of the San Francisco Bay Area. So if you know basketball at all, you might know that many, many people in our church were fans of this team called the Golden State Warriors. And I made the unforgivable sin of saying something negative about their best player, their most famous player. Even if you don't follow basketball, you might recognize him. His name is Steph Curry. He won their team a lot of championships. You can see him holding on to a trophy there. I like this picture. I think it's kind of funny because in the reflection, if you look closely, you can see his wife next to him, but he's not, he doesn't have his arm around her. He's holding onto the trophy there. Here's all that I said. We're preaching through Philippians four and we got to the famous verse 13. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I just briefly mentioned that I found it unhelpful and maybe even a little dangerous that our local beloved basketball hero Curry who was a professing Christian is a Christian and that's awesome but he uses a verse on all of his merchandise but he only includes half of it and I would argue it warps the meaning to mean almost the exact opposite of what it's supposed to mean if you look closely at the hat he's wearing there, if you're not familiar what he puts on all of his merch, his slogan is, I can do all things. Notably left out is the critical second half, through Christ who strengthens me. And while I'm sure he believes that, it doesn't always come through when you only include the first half. Now, needless to say, people were not very happy with me and I heard about it the accusations of hate speech came but I just kept telling them don't shoot the messenger because if you read the Bible if you get to know the God of the Bible you know why it's so dangerous to only include that first half because whether we like it or not no matter what Oprah Winfrey or Joel Osteen or best NBA shooter of all time Steph Curry says. The main message of the Bible is not that you are awesome, and you can do it. The main thrust of the Bible is that God is awesome and that God can do it. That statement on its own that you are not enough, that you don't have what it takes on your own could be easily seen as modern hate speech to many people, but church, we need to hear the truth and love today that we are not enough on our own. You are not enough. You don't have what it takes. On your own, you're not enough to stand strong against this world that just relentlessly seeks to bring you down. On your own, just statistically, you don't have what it takes to persevere, to beat the odds and have a lifelong, healthy, happy marriage. And parents and grandparents, on your own, you are not enough. You don't have what it takes to raise children of light as the darkness of this world closes in on them. On your own you cannot do all things you are not enough and because you are not because you don't have what it takes. We must be equipped Be equipped As we walk through Ephesians 4 right now We're picking up where we left off and we're seeing that living in this time where the world no longer tolerates the truth even when it's brought in love. We're being reminded that left to our own devices. We do not have what it takes But by the grace of God and only by His grace, we are going to be reminded today or learn for the first time that He has equipped us with spiritual gifts. And He has given us each other the church where we can continue to be equipped and He gives us a call and a mission to respond to, to equip the next generation because when truth and love is no longer tolerated, we must be equipped. So if you would open up with me back to Ephesians 4, right where we left off, we're going to be picking up in verse 7 and reading all the way through verse 16. Ephesians 4, 7 through 16. I'll be reading it. Please follow along with me. Ephesians 4:7-16 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, this morning as we open your word, we pray you would equip us and that you would cause us to see what you've already done, what you're still doing, and you would cause us to walk into the mission you are calling us to. We pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen. When truth and love is no longer tolerated, we must be equipped. As we dive into God's word this morning, we're going to be encouraged first, because what Jesus has already done on the cross, and because he is raised again, we are equipped already. But we're also gonna be challenged that there's more to be done. We must be equipped still. It's a continuing process. And finally, we'll see together, especially in this moment in history, in this time, in this place where truth and love is no longer tolerated, it's not enough to just be equipped ourselves, but we must equip the next generation. 1. We are equipped ( Ephesians 4:7-10) So if you go back to verse seven with me, we are encouraged here that we are equipped. Look at what verse seven says, "'But grace was given to not some, "'but each one of us according to the measure "'of Christ's gift.' Therefore it says," and what the it here that Paul is referencing is Psalm 68. It says, "'When he,' and now we know looking back, "'this he is Jesus, when he Jesus ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men then Paul includes here this parenthetical statement in the parentheses here that is in Psalm 68 but he wants to bring total clarity to what he's saying here in saying he Jesus ascended what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions the earth that God came to be with us he who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things so what's going on here Paul brings up Psalm 68 because he wants to point back to this picture of these Old Testament times where good kings would go off to war and if they would come back victorious, they would share the spoils of victory with their people as gifts. So when Jesus descended to come and be among us, he came to fight a spiritual war like none other. And even though we know it looked like complete and total loss as he hung dying on the cross, that's not the end of the story. Three days later, he burst from the grave victorious. And as he ascended to heaven, like the good king that Jesus is, he shared the spoils of war, and he gave each and every one of his followers spiritual gifts. He equipped us so that we can finish the final skirmishes of the battle that he has already won. And if you would be so bold today, whatever room you're in, in the worship center, our venue's online, if you are a follower of Jesus, would you just raise your hand with me for a second? Would you be bold to raise your hand? And keep it raised, don't be shy. If you are a follower of Jesus, if your hand is raised right now, you have been equipped already with a spiritual gift. And along with forgiveness, salvation, eternal life, another amazing thing Jesus won for you, another grace that he gives to each and every Christian is a spiritual gift. You are gifted, you are equipped. Remember this moment. You can put your hands down, talking about spiritual gifts, raising hands, it's getting a little Pentecostal in here. We're a Reformed church, let's bring it back. Our passage today doesn't get into all the gifts. You can look throughout the New Testament. There's places that they list them, generosity and service and teaching and mercy and faith encouragement. The list goes on and on. And I don't know what yours is, but I hope you do because you have one. And more importantly than knowing you have one is taking the next step and actually using it. God gave you a gift so that you would use it. And in this world and at this time when truth and love is no longer tolerated, when this beautiful but exclusive message of Jesus Christ is seen as hate speech by so many, we must be equipped. And here's the good news for you today, church, because Jesus won the war, you already are. You stand equipped right now. You're not enough on your own. You don't have what it takes, but you are equipped by the grace of God. So ask yourself this morning, think to yourself, 1. What are my spiritual gifts? What have I already been equipped with? And if you're able to answer that, ask yourself the natural follow-up. 2. Am I actually using those gifts I've been given to build up the Church of Christ and to share the truth and the love of Jesus with a broken world? And if you're not able to answer that first question, if you go, I don't know what my spiritual gifts are, I take God's word at it that I have something, but I don't know what it is. I would encourage you to find out as soon as you can. And here's how I would go about doing that. There's a lot of tests online and different things you can take, surveys and stuff. Those are fine, but before you do anything like that, I just ask you to do two things. 1. Ask the Christians around you, your loved ones, your friends, family, that are followers of Jesus, what gifts do you see in me? Oftentimes they'll see more clearly in you what you can't even see in yourself. And the other thing I would do, 2. I would just encourage you to just get involved in service, try to use some gifts and see what comes out, because you might be surprised with the areas where you are gifted by the grace of God. We are up against a lot in this world. I'm not going to lie to you about that. And I'm also not going to tell you that you're enough on your own because you're not, but you are equipped. 2. We must be equipped (Ephesians 4:11-16) Our passage continues with verse 11 with a challenge that even though we are equipped already, we must be equipped. There's more equipping to come. So look at verse 11 with me. It says, and he gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelist in the shepherds and the teacher so all the leaders of the church were given for a purpose I look carefully at what verse 12 here says I don't want you to miss it because this is a primary biblically provided job description for what the leaders of a church are supposed to be doing with their time look at what it says in verse 12 it says the church leaders job is to do the work of ministry for the Saints for the building up of the body of Christ right if you're paying attention that's not what it says wrong if you're paying attention you know that what verse 12 actually says is something different than that and something better it's not just the church leaders job to do the work of the ministry but look at what it says it says the church leaders role is to equip the Saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ. So, who does the work of the ministry? All of us. Let's make this really clear. Would you just point to the main person that you are responsible for to make sure the ministry is happening at Peace Church? The one person you can control more than anyone else. Don't point to your spouse, please. Don't point to your mom or dad. If you would point to one of the ministers at Peace Church, would everyone just, as a follower of Jesus, would you just point at yourself for a second? Really do it. I know I'm making you do a lot today, but I just wanna grab a quick picture for our church records. File that away as the ministers of Peace Church, praise God. We all do the ministry and it's so important that we get equipped so we do it well because this world is and always has been really messed up and has sought to come against the ministry that God calls us to. Look back at the text with me. Let's keep reading. After we learn that the church leader's job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ verse 13 Says this until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature Manhood until we reach majority to what standard to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ So that we may no longer be and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by human cunning by craftiness and deceitful schemes. My wife's from Seattle she grew up in a church but a church that's very different than the one you're in right now and when I went to go visit that church for the first time with her something caught my attention right away the first table that I saw in the lobby was advertising was promoting signups for a Bible study and what was advertised was something called a white fragility Bible study and I'm a curious guy I didn't know what that meant and it's kind of fun to be an undercover pastor at another church so I went up and started asking some questions chiefly what is a white fragility Bible study and the woman who was there went on to explain to me that what that just meant is it was a Bible study for white people to be able to learn to acknowledge their own racism and face it head-on and It was kind of that moment where I learned something about myself because they would be considered what's called a progressive Church, and I learned at that moment that I must not be very progressive Because a Bible study just for white people sounded a little racist to me. Okay, I'm in good company. Here we go. Here's the point. Instead of clinging to the timeless truth of God's Word and focusing on the Bible, they were actually bringing in another book that was popular, that had a very powerful but short-lived cultural moment. I haven't even read it, so I won't speak to it. But my wife will tell you that growing up in an environment like that, where she was taught and equipped, things that changed almost overnight, changed with the ties of culture. She said that it was like being in a rudderless ship, just in a raging storm, just with every new wind and every new modern wave changing course, not knowing where you're going, changing what they were believing, changing what they're being equipped with instead of following the unchanging eternal Word of God. And that might be way off in Seattle, right? But is it starting to sound more and more like our daily experience every year that passes by? We're doing this series called Hate Speech because this kind of thinking and this kind of influence and this kind of equipping that happens in our culture is not contained to urban centers or along the coast, but it spreads throughout the country, throughout the world, and it spreads online and into our schools and into our workplaces, and homes, and yes, even in our churches here. So how do we stand strong, and what do we do? Well, let's finish the passage and find out. Verse 15, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love when God's words and his ways are no longer followed when the good but challenging news of the gospel is no longer tolerated we must be equipped, church. And by God's grace, I see it happening here at Peace Church. It happens when we gather all together on Sunday morning and we open up God's Word to be filled up, to be taught, to be equipped. If your only equipping touch point is once a week on Sunday mornings, you aren't gonna have what it takes to face what we're up against. There are so many other ways that you can be equipped here at the church and we don't just put on activities and have programs and events just to have something to do but we seek to be equipped and you can be equipped through a men's or a woman's Bible study those just started up this last week if you want to join a Bible study is not too late just jump right in you can go sign up online I'll give you a heads up, we're kind of old school. All our Bible studies are open to all races, okay? I just want you to know. You can get equipped through joining a community group if you've never been a part of a small group. And I get it. Sometimes that feels awkward. We're gonna gather in a circle and share our feelings with each other. Hunting season's coming. I think I'd rather be in a tree stand, as I know what a lot of us are thinking. Not me, I don't know how to do that. But community groups are a place where we gather in smaller groups in our homes and we get equipped and we equip each other. Those are launching this week, we're launching tons of new ones. If you want to try one out, there's a table in the lobby. You can sign up right there to start being equipped in that way and We have so many equipping opportunities for young adults and we have groups for over 55 ministries We have our friends at Peace Ministry that equips our Friends who are adults with special needs we do middle school and high school on Sunday nights on Wednesday nights We do brave girls and bold boys. We have women's men's marriage conferences, equipping classes, parenting events. And let me just say one more time, we don't just put on programs, but we gather as the already equipped to be further equipped to finish the mission that God has called us to. There is work to do. There's a church that still needs building. There are lost souls out in our community that still needs saving and in this broken Just upside down gospel Intolerant world that we live in Jesus's plan His plan to share himself and his truth and his love with that world who needs it is us. We are the plan. His called and equipped saints. Are you doing all that you need to to be equipped to answer that call? Because when truth and love is no longer tolerated, we must be equipped. 3. We must equip the next generation Now this is where my role as the family pastor is gonna come out really clear here because as we've been going through this passage, I hope some of you have seen what I see that it's not just enough to be equipped here and now, to equip the church today, but we have to look forward. We have to look into the future. And when truth and love is no longer tolerated, we must equip the next generation. We are equipped so that we can keep being equipped, so that we can grow and teach the next generation, equipping them to stand for Jesus, even in a time where it seems so hard. Many of you who are empty nesters or older parents, you've come up to me, I think as a family pastor, but also as a dad, you see me around the church with my three kids, I got a five, a three, and a one-year-old, and you've said something along the lines, shared this sentiment that, whoo, am I glad I don't have to raise my kids today in this crazy world. And I get it. And even though there's nothing new under the sun and our world's always been broken, for many of us it seems like we're experiencing an ever increasing rapid shift in the intolerance towards Jesus. I know even in my short life, I remember going to public school here in West Michigan and in fifth grade I still remember when my science teacher, Mr. Quinn, said, I feel a moral obligation as an educator to bring you to the best source to learn about the origins of the universe. So we're going to be reading from Genesis chapter 1. That's going to be our textbook today. That doesn't really happen much anymore, does it? But are we gonna just worry about it and wring our hands? Are we gonna reminisce about the good old days and complain and whine about how bad it's getting out there for this next generation? Or are we actually going to do something about it? In a world where truth and love is no longer tolerated, we as God's people, the equipped, need to step up and do exactly what God's Word tells us to do. We need to roll up our sleeves. We need to be equipped ourselves, and then we need to equip the next generation. And the primary place that that's gonna happen is in the home. It's how it's always been, it's how it always will be, but all of us, as the equipped saints, as the ministers of Peace Church We all have a role to play And so I'm gonna do something that I don't normally do I'm gonna bring something very specific to your attention and when they give the family pastor the pulpit They better be ready for me to use it the way I want to use it now I'm just kidding, but listen up I want to be I want to be transparent with you about something. My teams have been spending the summer trying to recruit volunteers to come and be a part of that equipping of the next generation. Kids' ministry, student ministry, all the programs that we offer. And praise God, it has gone so well, and so many of you in the room here have stepped up and so many are serving right now all throughout this building, equipping the next generation, teaching them about Jesus. But there is an urgent need. There is an urgent need right now for more Bible teachers to teach our elementary age students. Very specific. And if I was going to even hone in on it more, we have had tons of women of the church answer the call to teach our elementary students the Bible to equip the next generation and very very few men and I get it life is Exhausting and that's a big responsibility in fact I was at our serve table out in the lobby two weeks ago and a gentleman came up to the table and I was just About ready to launch into my whole spiel about all the different service opportunities And he just cut me off and he said just tell me where the greatest need in the churches and i said amazing we need large group bible teachers for our bold boys program and he said tell me where the second greatest need in the churches seriously i get it here's something amazing god did already this morning though that gentleman before the first service came up to me and he said I've been praying about it. I'll do it I'll teach the next generation God's Word. I'm coming after you next. So, starting ten days from now. We're gonna bring I'll be honest. We're gonna pack 400 kids into this building, many of whom are part of this church who have grown up hearing the good news of Jesus, and many who are unchurched, aren't hearing anything about Jesus in their own homes, but for some reason their parents are bringing them to the program here. And there is an opportunity to step up and to equip the next generation, as you've been equipped to be able to make it in this world glorifying God, bringing honor to Jesus. And there are many of you here who don't even know it yet, but you're going to be a part of that because I believe when God's Word is preached and when the Spirit is moving, God does things. So here's what we're going to do right now. I'm going to ask every Christian man, if you've got a cell phone on you, pull it out. If you're not already reading your Bible on it, if you would be willing to pull it out, I'm just going to ask you to do one thing here. If you would consider, not even considering, do I feel qualified to do this, but first asking, would I be willing to attempt to be equipped to see, would you be willing to potentially step up to teach one time, one Bible lesson on a Wednesday night or on a Sunday morning to the next generation? You wouldn't have to write it yourself. I'd help you with that. We would meet beforehand and I will equip you personally. I'll see it as my obligation. That is my job after all, right? If you would be willing, would you just text that number, equip me. And if not, if you don't feel called to do that, if you're not available or able, if you're doing something else that you've already been called to, just send me a text, not now. But I got to tell you, as you're doing that, after first service, we now have 14 new Bible teachers for elementary-aged kids. The men of this church have stepped up. And women, if you want to text me, if you want to jump in, you can do that too. So many of you have already stepped up. But here's the thing, I got to just tell you, when I was a pastor out in California, about five miles down from our church, there's a world famous aquarium, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And today, and for years, this has been the case, but there is a multi-year waiting list to volunteer at that aquarium. Taking care of and teaching others about fish. We can do better, church. By third service, we're gonna have a waiting list and they're not even gonna be able to teach this year. It's gonna be many years till they get in there. Good job coming to one of the earlier services. Church, Jesus didn't come down to live among us, to be tortured, to be crucified, to receive all the wrath of God that we deserve, receiving it in our place so that He could give us the grace of salvation and equip us with gifts and His Word and the church and a mission so that we could sit on our hands and worry and complain about how bad it's getting out there and not do a thing about it. He equipped us, and He is equipping us, and He calls us to equip the future church for the sake of the gospel all for His glory. In a world where truth in love is no longer tolerated, we must be equipped. Would you stand with me as we prepare to worship? Let's first pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for equipping us already. We confess we do not have what it takes to do what you have called us to, but we know that because of your victory on the cross, because of the empty grave, you have shared the spoils of war with us and you have gifted and equipped us to do exactly what you've called us to. And Father, we confess that we don't do all that it takes to continue to be equipped. And I confess, God, that us church leaders don't do all that we need to do to equip the church. But Lord, help us to put away apathy, to put away fear. Lord, I pray that by your grace in this moment, by your spirit, you would just raise up your church, the equipped, to be more equipped. And especially, God, we pray for our next generations God we pray that we would do our part to prepare them to equip them for all that they'll encounter we trust you to do all of this in your church and in our hearts Lord and we thank you that you are working right now we love you Jesus we pray this in your name. Amen.