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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.

Sermon Discussion Questions 1 Title Sunday, June 2, 2024 It Had To Be Said John 4:1-14 Living Water: Woman at the Well (Part 1 of 3) 2 Overview Main Idea: Jesus Reveals He...Gives Eternal Sermon Outline: 1. An invitation (vv7-10) 2. An offer (vv11-14a) 3. A revelation (v14b) 3 Pre-Questions 1. What was one thing from this message (or passage) that surprised you? 2. What would be good questions to ask when reading this passage? 4 Questions 1. Read Jeremiah 2:13. How does this passage help us understand what Jesus is doing in John 4? 2. Imagine you were an Israelite in the 1st century. What would your reaction to this passage (John 4:1-14) be? 3. Jesus is talking to a woman who (culturally) was seen as beyond lost. Who are people who you see as beyond lost? 4. How does this passage and sermon challenge the mold we can put these people who are "beyond lost?" PDF Download

A Psalm of the Sons of Korah Sermon Series: Honest to Goodness Main Passage: Psalm 85 Transcript All right, well, good morning, Peace Church. Pastor Darrell said many of you may remember Ethan Ezekiel, and I thought many is not the right number. There's too many people in this room. So it's nice to meet you. My name is Ethan, and like Pastor Darrell said, my family and I were here at Peace Church from 2013 to 2019. We feel like we became grownups here. This feels like coming home to family, but it's also like coming to that family reunion where you see your nephew or your cousin that you think should be this high and now they're like this tall. And you're like joyful but also a little bit like sad at the same time. And that's where my heart is this morning. I'm joyful to see what God's doing here at Peace Church. In 2021, my family and I, along with another family from Peace Church, Kyle and Ashley Rodriguez planted Union Church. Kyle was a pastoral intern here on staff, and now we pastor Union Church together. We pray for you often. We're praying for you this morning as a church. If you think of it, you can pray for us because in about 10 minutes, our church is gonna be meeting, and the school where we meet doesn't have power. So right now, Union Church is having church in somebody's yard, and you can pray. You can pray for that. I'm sad to be away from them today, but grateful to be with you. This summer, my family and I spent about a week on Lake Michigan, and one day as we were driving along the coast of Lake Michigan through this tiny town, I saw a building that had been renovated, and I'm sure like many of you, I have a little bit of Joanna Gaines inside of me, so I thought, this is cool, and I pointed it out to my mom, who appreciates the same things, and she looked at it and she said, it is cool, but it's also kind of sad. And the reason that she said it was sad, because it was an old church building that had been turned into a brewery. And yeah, to add insult to injury, the name of the brewery was Beer Church. And so it's a place that was once a spot for people to come and worship Jesus, and now it's a spot where people gather to enjoy Jesus' good gifts. And I'm not trying to make you upset about a brewery being in a church because the building, a church is not a building, a church is its people. But it is kind of a clear picture of what's been happening in the Western Church over the last decade or so, more. Over the last 25 years, 40 million people have left the church in America. The Pew Research Center projects that by 2070, which is not as far off as it feels like it should be, that less than half of Americans will call themselves Christians at all. And you don't even need me to tell you those statistics, do you? Because you know the people who are leaving the church. They are your childhood friends, and they're your family members, and they're your college roommates and they're your co-workers. You know the people who are leaving the church. The church is emptying. The church in America is in spiritual decline. And on top of that, we look out at the culture around us and we just see the fragmentation of our culture. We see social and economic inequality. We see the biblical sexual ethic being abandoned over and over and over again. And in so many ways we see our culture falling apart. And it's easy to look at the shrinking of the church and the fragmentation of our culture and to feel embattled and anxious as a Christian. And so the question I want to consider today is how do you talk to God when you are surrounded by spiritual decay? This summer, Peace Church has been moving through the Psalms. You've been asking, how do the Psalms teach us to be authentic in our faith, to have honest to goodness faith in Jesus? And so the question is, how do you live out authentic faith in the midst of a culture that rejects God. When the world around you seems spiritually empty, hey, when the church seems spiritually empty, when your life seems spiritually empty, how do you live out authentic faith? Psalm 85 is for this moment. The Psalm is for the people of God to pray when there is spiritual emptiness in the world and in the church and in our own hearts. And I'd love for you to grab a Bible and turn there, get your eyes on that text. I don't know what page number it's on in the Pew Bible, but if you just split it down the middle, you'll find the psalms and then you'll want to turn to Psalm 85. And as you turn there, I just want to tell you kind of what direction we're going in. We're going to see that the right response to spiritual decline is to ask the Lord for revival. I think this is what the psalm teaches us. God has brought revival in the past, so we can ask for it now and watch for it now with confidence that revival is in our future. And if you're a note taker, that's the outline and we've put numbers on it just to make your brain happy. God has brought revival in the past so we can ask for it now with confidence and watch for it now with confidence that revival is in our future, four parts. So let's look at the book. You ready to look at the book together, Peace Church? Help me feel at home. When we read the Bible at Union Church, the person who reads ends by saying, this is the word of the Lord. And then we all reply by saying, thanks be to God. We say that because we believe it's God's word. We want to train our hearts and our minds to be thankful for that. Okay, so I'm going to read and say that and then you'll respond. Thanks be to God. Psalm 85. Lord, you were favorable to your land, you restored the fortunes of Jacob you forgave the iniquity of your people you covered all their sin you withdrew all your wrath you turn from your hot anger restore us again oh God of our salvation put away your indignation towards us will you be angry with us forever will you prolong your anger to all generations will you not revive us again Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Let me hear what the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints, but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him that glory may dwell in our land Steadfast love and faithfulness meet righteousness and peace Kiss each other Faithfulness springs up from the ground and righteousness looks down from the sky Yes, the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield its increase increase, righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps away. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Would you pray with me one more time? God our Father, we are here for you. We need you. A good sermon without you is not worth having. A nice worship service without your presence is not worth having. So we pray that you'd meet us. I pray, Lord, that you'd help me to decrease so that you might increase. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we look at the psalm and we say the first thing that the psalm teaches us is that when we are surrounded by spiritual decline, we have to come to God, remembering that He has brought revival in the past. This is what the psalmist does. So look down at the psalm with me. Look at verses 1 to 3. Lord, you were favorable to your land. You restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You covered all their sin. You withdrew all your wrath. You turned from your hot anger. Do you hear all the past tense verbs there? We don't know exactly the circumstances that led to the writing of this psalm, but one thing we do know is the history of God's people throughout the Old Testament. We know that over and over and over again, God's people needed rescue, because they had turned away from God and they were bearing the bitter fruit of their sin. And what's clear, every time God's people ask for rescue, is that they look back on God's promises and God's faithfulness to act mightily. They look back on the promises God made to Abraham to be his God and to make of him a people and situate them in the land. They look back on God delivering His people out of Egypt, out of slavery, leading them through the wilderness to the promised land. They look back on the might of what God has done. And when the sons of Korah, this group of Jewish worship leaders in the temple who wrote this song, when they wrote this song, they had many mighty acts of God to look back on. And friends, do you know that every single one of those mighty acts in the past was only a shadow? It was only a foretaste of the great act of restoration that was to come. Every promise of God, every mighty act of deliverance and restoration will found its fulfillment in the coming of Jesus Christ. The Psalm says that God restored the fortunes of Jacob. And in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ came and died for us while we were still weak and dead in our trespasses with nothing to offer him, we were bankrupt. And he restored our fortunes. The psalm says that God forgave the iniquity of His people. He covered their sin in Jesus Christ. Since He took the punishment for our sin on the cross, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Psalm 85 speaks of a God who withdrew His wrath and turned from his anger. And this is an anger that's justly given because we, every one of us, have sinned against the God of the universe and our sin demands the wrath from a just God. But since Jesus Christ shed His blood for His people, we are washed. We are covered. We are saved from the wrath of God. And so, friends, Psalm 85 is for you. Have you ever had that moment of realizing that the life you have been living, that you thought would be so fulfilling and so cool, has led you to disappointment and emptiness? That the path you've been walking down that you thought would lead to your joy has really become flimsy and joyless. The ways that you thought you were killing it for Jesus, you now recognize are tainted by your sin, and they're ugly. In those moments, when we see our sin, it is so easy for us to flip the gospel upside down and Believe that we are accepted by God because we live for God and Then we despair Because we haven't lived for him. And so how could God accept us? But the gospel is not I live for Jesus therefore he accepts me." The Gospel is Jesus paid for my sin and accepts me, and therefore, I will live for Him. And that's where Psalm 85 takes us. It begins with recovering the good news that God in His mercy has acted to be merciful to His people to cover our sin. And the strength of our pleading to God for revival. Hear me, when you call out to God for help, the strength of your plea is not the strength of your faith. Praise God, because we are all weak. The strength of your plea is the faithfulness and mighty deeds of the God of the universe who will be faithful to His people. He has brought revival in the past, and that is our foundation for asking for revival now. And that's what the psalmist does in verses 4 through 6. Look at the book again with me. Restore us again, O God of our salvation. Put away your indignation towards us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Now, when we read those verses, we have to understand what the psalmist is asking for from the Lord. This is where we see the word revive in verse 6. It says, will you not revive us again? The message is littered with the word revival, and that word is kind of a buzzword in the American church today, which means that many of us could use that word and mean different things when we say it. So we have to guard from misunderstanding one another. Some people talk about revival and what they mean is an extraordinary outpouring of the signs and wonders of the Holy Spirit. Other people talk about revival and what they mean is an intense season of gathering together, of worship and teaching and preaching. We're going to have a revival this week. Other people talk about revival, but when you listen to them, it becomes clear what they really are looking for is to go back to a time when secular culture was more comfortable for Christians to exist in. But none of those are the kind of revival is looking for and asking for. Look at verse 6 again. One more time. Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? So what is the psalmist asking for? He's not asking for an outpouring of miracles. He's not asking for an intense worship service. He's not asking to return to Christendom, he's asking for more of God. He wants his people to recover the gospel and that's what revival really is. At its core, revival is a season in the life of God's people when the whole community of believers experience a renewal in their joy in the gospel and and in God. And just like the psalm writer, we need to look out at the ways our culture is falling apart, and to look out at the ways the church falls short, and to look in our own hearts and see our own emptiness, and then pray for more of God. The prayer is not, Lord, give us an experience. It's Lord, stir us up with new affection for you. The prayer is not, take us back to how it used to be. It's Jesus, give us a fresh awareness of your presence. One pastor encouraged his congregation in a way that marked me. I'm going to read what he said to his church. He said, there is a way to fail as a church by succeeding at what doesn't matter. There's a way to fail as a church by succeeding at what does not matter. Where the place is full of people, but it's empty of God's presence. And we're content with shallow religion instead of being hungry for more and more and more of our beautiful God. So the prayer is and has been, Lord, we want you here. And that is what we are asking for when we ask for revival. God, open our eyes once again to your beauty and power and majesty to see our sin and our great need for forgiveness and for us to rest anew in the cross and in the empty tomb of Jesus Christ for us. And revival, friends, is knowing that getting God is better than our circumstances changing. So we pray to him, God, if our suffering continues, if our country goes to hell in a handbasket, but we have your presence, it is worth it, because your dwelling place is lovely, and a day with you in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else. And so we ask boldly for revival now. And then the psalmist frees us because it tells us that we are not the ones to make revival happen. Verse 6 is the core of the psalm. We've read it once but read it again. You will, will you not revive us again? Will you not revive us again? We ask for revival and we trust God for the outcome. The pressure is not on us to make it happen. But the psalmist also doesn't release us to be thoughtless and passive as followers of Jesus. You know, the psalm is calling us to ask God for revival, to trust Him for the outcome, and then to wait, and to wait with a posture of eager anticipation. And I see this in verses 8 and 9. Look at those verses with me. Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints, but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land." So these two verses show us that as the psalmist waits for revival, he is going to wait with an intense anticipation of seeing God work. He is listening to God's Word. He says, let me hear what the Lord God will speak. He is eager to guard against the sin and the apathy that got him here in the first place. He says, let the saints not turn back to folly. And he's calling himself and he's calling others to the fear of the Lord when he says, surely salvation is near to those who fear him. And so let me ask you this, church. Think about your life with God. Think about the posture of your heart toward following Jesus. Are you saying by your actions and by your Let me hear. I am ready to hear from the Lord. Or are you saying with your attitudes and actions, meh, this life isn't great, but it's all I've got, and while I'm here, I might as well plug some religion into it. Are we eager for God? Are we eager to meet with him to hear from him or are we backsliding into our folly even as we come to church? So what do the rhythms of your life and the postures of your heart say is The risen Jesus ornamental to your life Or is he essential? Is he one branch of your busy tree? Or is he the roots and the wood and the bark and the branches and the leaves? When we are not eager for the Lord our Christianity will droop back into folly There's a pastor named Ray Ortland who is the pastor I want to be when I grow up. And he said, when we live with that kind of flabby Christianity, this is what he said, we take our teaspoon and we dip it into the vast ocean of the living Christ. And we hold that teaspoon in our hand and say, this is Jesus. And then we pour that teaspoon into our lives. And we say, that is Christianity. And that whole mentality is wickedness because we were made to marinate our lives in the vast ocean that is the risen Jesus. And that means that when we ask Him to bring us back to Him, that means we structure our whole lives with a posture of waiting to see Him work. We make watching for Him the joyful default mode of our hearts. And the great news is that when we ask God for revival, when we trust Him for the outcomes, and when we wait with a posture of watchfulness, we can have a confidence that the rest of the world cannot understand. This is what sets God's people apart from the rest of the world. Can I tell you one thing that I think is ruining the witness of God's church in America. We are so preoccupied with whose agenda is advancing, and which tribe is sitting in the seats of power in our culture, and it is as if we've forgotten that Jesus told us how the story's going to end. God wins. Amen? The New Testament is clear. Believers in Christ, stand firm in the truth, seek the good of the world around you. And you know what else? Expect suffering in the short term. Expect to be marginalized in the short term. Expect to pick up your cross and die with Jesus in the short term. But do you know what comes with that expectation, that promise from the New Testament? When you pick up your cross and carry it following Christ to Calvary, that means resurrection is on the horizon for you. But I have sat in rooms and I have scrolled through feeds where Christians correctly diagnose the sin of the world. But they do it with such alarmism and fear, with such worry about the where the tides of the culture will go. And so we look at the world around us and we begin to look at it like it's an enemy to be crushed and conquered instead of a mission field to be reached. It perverts the posture of our hearts as Christians. And do you know what happens when we operate with that kind of anxiety toward the world? It means that we cannot make gospel-shaped Christian judgments. It impairs our ability to make wise considerations. And when we are impaired in that way, we are prone to align ourselves with bad actors who promise to win the culture for us, even if they flaunt their own brand of folly and godlessness. Godlessness and all the while Jesus is calling his people to get low Isaiah 5715 I won't be able to quote it exactly but it says something like thus says the one who is high and holy I dwell in the high and holy places and With the humble and lowly, you know where God doesn't dwell in the mushy middle and in the mushy middle. And too many of us exist in the mushy middle. And we cannot get to the high and holy places this side of eternity. You know where we can get? We can get low. We can get humble. We can embrace weakness. We can be courageous as they kill us. That kind of confidence is what sets God's people apart from a world that has rejected God. I said at the beginning, it is easy for Christians to feel embattled and anxious when we look out at the world around us. It is. But that feeling of anxiety and embattlement cannot be the posture of our hearts when we ask God for revival. Come back to this psalm one more time. This is the basis for everything I've just said in the last couple of minutes, verses 10 through 13. Steadfast love and faithfulness meet. Righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground. Righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before Him and make His footsteps away. Do you hear how the tone of the psalm changes from asking and pleading to assurance? God will do these things. How does the psalmist have that kind of assurance? How do we have that kind of assurance that God will answer our prayer and we ask Him for revival? I was reading a devotional about Psalm 85 this week and this couple of sentences was too good to leave out. It says, God has proven that He will not let such a prayer go unanswered. How did he prove it? By showing in the fullness of time exactly how righteousness and peace would kiss each other He sent Jesus Christ his only son to satisfy the righteous requirements of the law and in so doing Provide true and lasting peace for any who humbles himself enough to receive it. Jesus has wiped away any reason for God to withhold His renewing grace from you. Oh, weary heart. Oh, person who does not feel like they have enough strength to lift up their eyes to the heavens. Jesus has wiped away any reason for God to withhold His renewing grace from you. And friends, the cross and the resurrection are a foretaste for us. They are a stamp that says this promise is sealed and I will make it happen. They are the foretaste of our sure and steady hope as believers that no matter how dark, how deadly our days become, we can be confident that revival is in our future. And why can we be confident? Because the God who died on the cross for our sins, the God who rose again from the grave for our resurrection, stands in Revelation 21 and He says, Behold, I am making all things new. There will be a day when I dwell with my people and they dwell with me as my people and I as their God, we will be in perfect relationship. I am making all things new. He will revive. He will restore. He will make all things new. And we need not fear. We can only hope with confidence. That is the great hope of the Christian church. That we can remember the good news of the gospel, ask boldly for God to revive the world around us, wait with watchfulness, and then have confidence that it will happen either today or in the next life. It will happen. We will be with Him forever. Everything in this life will be but light and momentary in comparison to that eternal weight of glory. And so as we kind of land the plane, the most urgent application that I could give you is to call you to prayer, brothers and sisters. Tim Keller is a pastor who's studied revival. He says that the united, persistent, kingdom-centered, extraordinary prayer is what the Holy Spirit uses to kindle every revival. It's true. We see it throughout the Scriptures. You look at the book of Acts and all the amazing things that happen throughout the book of Acts and before every single one, the church is gathering in prayer. We see it throughout history united persistent unseen hidden movements of prayer as The precursors to great awakenings and revivals in the throughout the history of the church and so brothers and sisters Will you take the example of Psalm 85 to heart Psalm 85 is is a prayer it's written for us to pray. We pray it. Pray for revival like we see the psalmist pray. Pray remembering the gospel. Pray and ask for revival now. Pray and ask Him to shape your heart with a posture of watchfulness. Pray with a non-anxious confidence that revival is coming. And pray on your own. Pray for it as you sit around your tables. Pray for it when you gather with your small groups. Be united and persistent in prayer for God to renew the world by bringing revival to His church. Pray for your church. Listen, amazing things have happened at Peace Church since I've been left. Maybe that was the key. But don't fall into the trap of believing that this is it, that you've reached the goal. This is nothing in comparison to the life transformation that can happen in the gospel by the power of the Spirit in your midst, county and beyond if God wants to do it. So pray for more. And one way that we can pray together people of God is through singing together. When I was on staff at Peace Church, we had another season of praying for revival, and during that time I wrote a song that the church sang fairly often, and I'm sure none of you remember it. But when Pastor Ryan gave me this text, he said, you will sing this song at the end. So I'd like to teach it to you, not so that we can experience a song together, but so that we can have our voices united in prayer. And the chorus goes like Revive us Lord, breathe your life into these dry bones Revive us Lord, breaking through only you can Only You can revive us. Let's try singing that together. Revive us, Lord. Breathe Your life into these dry bones. Revive us, Lord. Breaking through, only You can revive us, Lord. Let's stand united in prayer together. night mom to say the For you do what there's none that looks for You come down like very stones roll Fear has heard, no eye has seen, no heart perceived, a brother God like you. So we sing and ask more. Please drive home, revive us Lord. Make me prove only You can revive us. For you, O Lord, are the Father, You are the clay, You are the potter. So turning not Your face away, Arouse the works that You have made. We sing, revive us Lord, bring your light into these dry bones. We ask for the sake of His renown. Father, set your spirit down, Make yourself a glorious day, For the sake of your renown Father send your spirit down Make yourself a glorious name And awake, awakens Oh, wake, wake us Revive us, Lord Lead your life into these dry boards Revive us Lord, breaking through only You can Revive us Lord, revive us Lord Amen. Transcribed with Cockatoo

From Darkness to Light Sermon Series: The Reversal Ryan DB Kimmel Lead Pastor Peace Church Main Passage: John 1:1-5 Transcript As we journey from now until Easter, my prayer is that as we go through the book of John together, you're going to see how Jesus upends everything that is bad and makes it right. Jesus brings about the great reversal that we all long for. I think we all know things are not as they should be. I think we all know things are pointed in the wrong direction. And what Christ has come to do is to reverse all that. And that's why we're here tonight. Amen. Amen. So I know a lot of people are like, Ash Wednesday, pastor, are we becoming Catholic? No. Don't worry. Ash Wednesday just provides an opportunity to do something. We're not here to celebrate Ash Wednesday. We're here to celebrate the risen savior. Amen. But it is Ash Wednesday. So what's this all about? Let me just share a few things about that. Ash Wednesday is what is known as the start of Lent. Now Lent is the 40 days that is leading up to Easter, not counting Sundays. Now, neither Lent nor Ash Wednesday are biblical mandates. We're not commanded nor prohibited from celebrating these things. And yes, typically the Catholics own this. But I will confess to you that I think there's something rather helpful about Lent and Ash Wednesday, and it's this. It's the seriousness that it brings to believers as we think about the resurrection of Jesus. It's the seriousness that it brings to believers as we look towards celebrating Easter. I think we often wanna criticize, like Christmas gets a season, but Easter just gets a day. What Lent says is no, Lent says Easter gets its own season too. And that's kind of what we want to do here. That's why we wanted to have a worship night here starting at Lent so that over the next 40 days plus Sundays we can look towards and long towards Easter with a seriousness that that is right for what Easter celebrates. The most important event that has ever happened to date, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a historical fact that actually happens. If it did not happen, I want to do something else with my life. But since it did happen, there is nothing else I want to do with my life. So what's Lent? Now Lent or the Lenten season, there's two theories about its word origin. It either comes from the old English word Lenten, which means the spring or the spring season, or it comes from the old German word that means length in days, which happens during spring. Either way, Lent is a period that leads us to Easter, starting with Ash Wednesday. We know why it's called Ash Wednesday, because 40 days prior to Easter Sunday, not counting Sundays, means that Lent will always start on a Wednesday. But why the ashes? Well, this goes back to the biblical notion of what ashes represents. All throughout the Old Testament, you'll find people covering themselves in ashes when they go through times of mourning or sadness, like the death of a loved one or a time of repentance or other significant loss or or mourning when they are going through dark days. Ashes is what's left over after a fire brings devastation. And so ashes was to symbolize, I am in a state of devastation. I'm going through dark days, things are broken. I'm in a place in my life where things are not whole. Placing ashes on yourself was an Old Testament biblical way to say things are not the way that they should be. If there's one thing that we can all agree on, whatever side of the aisle you are, whatever you believe about this world, one thing we can all agree on is that things could be better than what they are. And we know that because you always You always have a reason to complain. There is always something to complain about, isn't there? That just reminds us that things are not the way that they should be. Sin has brought brokenness into this world. And so Ash Wednesday, in the tradition that our Catholic friends have of placing ashes on our forehead, was a throwback to this practice. That as we start our journey through Lent, that we recognize things are not the way they should be. But, Ash Wednesday, which reminds us of destruction, Ash Wednesday also points to the great undestruction of things. The reversal that is to come. That in Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, which is not just the guarantee of our salvation, it's the promise of our own future restoration. Don't get thinking that your salvation ends the moment you die and you get to go to heaven. There's a future restoration that comes. The gospel is cosmic in its scale, not just personal. Easter is the great reversal of all things, that we can go from ashes to glory. You may be in a moment, in a day or a season of your life where it feels like ashes, like fire has just ravaged your life and all that you have now is to sit in ashes, and maybe some of you are. But you need to understand the gospel will bring about the great reversal, will bring us back to everything good. And that's what this Easter sermon series is about that we are starting here today The reversal how the gospel brings us back to everything good. There's ashes now, but there's glory to come. Amen With that let me say to you. I'm happy to be here with you here tonight as we celebrate the Lord together My name is Ryan. I'm the lead pastor here at Peace Church If this is your first time here very hearty welcome to you, but for the church family It's good to be with you to lift up the name of Jesus together. Would you please turn in your Bibles to John chapter 1. If you want to use the Bibles we provided, always happy for you to do that. That's on page 1127. As we journey through Lent over these next number of weeks we'll be using John's Gospel as our guide through this series because as we look at the life of Jesus you're going to see how he brings the great reversal to everything that is bad and wrong in this world. And actually, we'll talk about this in a little bit, but you found on your seat as you walked in a reading guide as we journey through Lent how you can read reading through John throughout this season. All throughout John's gospel we see Jesus turn mourning to gladness. He turns worry into into worship. And tonight we're going to talk about how he brings darkness into light. And so John's gospel begins by telling us this. And so, for a few moments that we have here tonight, we're going to continue to worship God as we read his word. So if you are able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word? The gospel of John, chapter one, we will just look at the first four, first five verses tonight. Would you hear God's word? In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Amen. Would you please remain standing as we say a quick prayer together. Father, on this Ash Wednesday, as we remember the world is not yet as it should be, that death and darkness are still part of this world, but we say this and we also say thanks be to our Savior. Death and darkness are coming to an end through the life, death, and resurrection of our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord God, we are here to worship you and to learn from your word. So please continue to pour out your spirit upon us that we might fully and truly both worship you and learn from you as we grow closer to you. For it's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. For the Christian, the state of the world and the brokenness that we experience in our hearts will always be overshadowed, to mix metaphors, by the light of this truth that Jesus Christ has risen again. And so our main thought here today is simply this, the gospel brings us from darkness to light. And in these opening verses, we're gonna see three critical things that we're gonna walk through together. Mind you, real quick, John's gospel was not written by John the Baptist, but by John the disciple, John the apostle, someone who was part of Jesus' inner circle, who spent an incredibly close and intimate time with our Lord. And so the things he has to say, we really need to take note of. And in these opening verses, we're gonna see three critical things. In these first five verses, we're going to see that Jesus is God, He is Creator, and He is Life. Jesus as God means He's sovereign over all. Jesus as Creator means that He can bring darkness into a...He can bring light into a dark universe. And Jesus as Life means that He is our source and our Savior. They say, they say that the universe is heading towards maximum entropy, that in a trillion trillion years, eventually all light will die out from the universe. And the universe will be left in a cold darkness to ever slowly expand forever into the infinite black void of eternity. That's what we're told will happen. But we are here tonight because the gospel tells a better story. The darkness will not have hold and darkness will not have final say in this universe. It will be broken by the light of Jesus Christ. So we are coming here to worship him. The first thing we want to see here tonight is this beautiful, profound, amazing truth that Jesus is God. God our passage starts out John 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was in the beginning with God now I'll be honest with you when I first became a Christian I had to constantly read this verse ever so slowly because I had a hard time understanding it. It's super confusing I memorized I didn't memorize that's an overstatement I first read the Bible and when I was real little in the King James, but then in my earlier days and with the NIV But now I've switched in the last 10 years or so into the ESV and so I don't know about you But sometimes my mind goes back to what I remember not what I'm reading. You understand anybody know what I'm talking about Thank you sister one person does okay. Thank you. So if this is one of those passages where it's like, okay ESV what are you saying again? Gotta slow down Because it's super confusing but it's actually very powerful. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And if that wasn't hard enough, then verse 2 goes on to say, He was in the beginning with God. It's understandable to be confused by this. But there's no misunderstanding on who the Word is. The Word is not just a combination of letters. The word here specifically is speaking of Jesus Christ. A few verses later, John goes on to say this, that this word, not just an ethereal idea or some sort of philosophy, we get what this word is. John tells us in verse 14, and the word, the word that was with God, the word that was God, became flesh and dwelt among us. And we've seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus Christ. John is clarifying something critical for us here. That Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus never says that He is God. You've probably heard this before, right? True. Jesus is never quoted by saying these words in this order, I am God. Jesus doesn't say that. Do you want to know why? That's way too vague for Jesus. He's going to get far more specific about this. He's not going to leave any question. See, if Jesus had said, I am God, do you know what we would say today? What God? See, we always want to fish our way around things, rather than just confront the actual truth. Jesus shows that he's God. In John chapter 8, verse 58, John 8, 58, Jesus says, before Abraham was born, I am. And for those who know your Bibles, I am is God's personal divine name that he reveals to Moses. I am in Hebrew Yahweh. Jesus doesn't just say I am divine. Jesus doesn't just say I am one of the gods that are out there. Jesus says I am the God of the Old Testament. Jesus doesn't just say I am God, he tells us which God he actually is. Or how about this, in John chapter 10, the crowds are asking Jesus to confirm whether or not he is the Savior. And here's the interaction, John 10 verse 30, Jesus says, I and the Father are one. That's pretty black and white. Notice he doesn't say I am the Father, notice he doesn't say I and the Father are the same thing, he says I and the Father are one Now English-speaking people may be confused by this but in this time in this context the Jews knew Exactly what Jesus was saying and there was going to be major consequences for this Jesus says I and the Father are one verse 31. It goes on to say the Jews picked up stones to stone him They were ready to kill him on the spot for this. And then Jesus answered them, I've shown you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you gonna stone me? And the Jews answered him, it is not for good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you being a man, make yourself God. Anyone who says to you, the Bible never says that Jesus is God, just prove to you they haven't read the Bible. It is the overwhelming clear teaching of Scripture both from himself and what the Bible says about Jesus that he is God incarnate. He is God with us. He is Emmanuel. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God? This is so confusing. Because Jesus is not just the Son of God, He is God the Son, the second member of the Trinity. And what this means, church, is that in Jesus Christ, we are here not just to honor a great man. We're not here just because Jesus is the most prominent religious leader of all time. We're not here because Jesus was a selfless and sacrificial awesome guy. We're here because Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, God incarnate, which also means that he is creator. The second thing we're gonna look at, verse 3, says, all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. You've got to read this stuff slowly, my friends. So not only is Christ the Word, He's not just God, He is Creator God. And what did God create with the universe? How did God create the universe? With a Word. with a word. God created the universe with a word. He said, let there be, let there be lights. God created the universe with a word. And notice, if you've read your Bibles, notice how John 1 feels a lot like Genesis chapter 1. In fact, let me just put these side by side. Let me read John 1 and then I'll read Genesis 1. You listen real closely right now. Tell me how similar these sound to you John 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was in the beginning with God all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness is not overcome it. That's John 1, 1 to 5. Let me read Genesis 1, 1 to 5. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness God called the light day and he called the darkness night and there was evening and there was morning the first day Do you see the similarities here in the beginning? God God's Word God creates God brings light There's a distinction between light and darkness light overcomes the darkness John is clearly pulling these parallels from Genesis 1 so that his readers even us now today will make no mistake. Jesus Christ is God. And that's why we worship him. If Jesus created all things, then my friends, then you can have hope and rest assured that he will recreate all things. He is the one who will bring about the great reversal. If Jesus is the creator God and he is the one that can bring glory from ashes He can bring new creation from destruction. He can bring darkness Into he can bring light out of darkness Jesus brings us from death to life That's the last thing we'll look at Because Jesus is life life. Verses 4 and 5 tell us this, in him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not, say it with me, overcome it. So not only does this Jesus the Creator God bring light into a dark universe, he brings life into a lifeless universe. And darkness and death cannot and will not have the final word. Why? Because Jesus is the word. And I love what the Bible says a few verses later, we already looked at it, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. He came to be with us. And we've seen his glory, full of grace and truth. Jesus became flesh, because the one who lived is himself life. The one who is light brings light to all people. The other day I saw this video, and I heard this guy, he was speaking to this younger couple. It's probably a popular video. Some of you have probably seen this. And this guy says to this couple, he's trying to teach them something. He said to them, if I gave you a million dollars, would you be happy? And they were like, oh yeah, we'd be very, very happy. He says, okay, what if I gave you ten million dollars? How happy would you be? How happy would you be? They said, that would be the best day of our entire lives. He said, okay, how about this? How about, what would you say if I gave you a hundred million dollars, but you don't get to wake up tomorrow morning? And they said, no deal. He said to them, your life, just waking up tomorrow is worth more to you than a hundred million dollars. Why? Because life is priceless. You are priceless. Your life is priceless. My friends, Jesus gives us life, meaning he gives us that which is priceless, that has no price. We can't put a value on it, and he freely gives this to us. And even more than life, he gives us life to the full. And even more than life to the full, he gives us eternal life. And even more than eternal life, he gives us eternal life in the presence of God. The greatest possible thing that there is. He is the light of life. He brings light out of darkness. And the darkness cannot overcome it. I'm going to read that again. Christ brings light from darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. And everyone said, Pastor, what do you mean? Oh, you're going to say amen? You're so much more faithful than me. I'm like, what does that even mean? Pastor, what are you talking about? Listen, that sounds really cool and all, but how does my tomorrow. And let me just say, I think this is why I became a pastor. I heard great things from great preachers, inspiring words, but words that actually practically, I didn't know how to use them practically. And so I asked questions. I think that's what led me to be a pastor. I would hear things like, for Christ brings light from darkness and the darkness cannot come over overcome it. And everyone around me was saying amen and I'm sitting there going what does that even mean? Like that sounds cool and all but how does that help me? My friends here's what it means. It means that Christ is all-powerful. It means that Christ is the reason. It means that Christ shines brighter and better than all the other so-called gods and religious leaders. It means that Christ has come to save you. It means you are not worthless. It means your life is not meaningless. Your life has so much value the creator of the universe stepped into his own creation to save you from your own sin. That's what this means. It means you were created by the very one who came to save you. It means you're not left and lost to the darkness of this world, to its brokenness and to its uncertainty, to its bitterness, division, and hatred. You're not left to that. You're not lost to that. It means that you can know truth. It means you can have hope. It means you can experience God's love. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. What does it mean? Everything. Christ came to bring the great reversal. To bring ash, to bring glory from ashes, to turn darkness into light. And we have this light. The Apostle John could write this because John saw the gospel all the way through. He walked with Christ from the first days. He was there, he was the only one there, of the disciples on Christ's final day. If there's anyone who has the right to say this, if there's anyone who we can believe, it's John the Apostle. Christ came into this world which he created in order to save it by his own life, death, and resurrection from the dead. And through the gospel, we can have this life, eternal life, everlasting life, because Jesus is God, He is Creator, and He is life. Because the gospel reminds us that we can be brought from darkness to light. In all God's people said together, Amen. Amen. In all God's people said together, Amen. Amen. Amen.

Delegation Without Guilt Leadership Jon Delger Multiplication Pastor Peace Church Published On: November 21, 2023 Pastors, church leaders, and church boards know that they can’t do it all, but how do they delegate important work to others without shucking their responsibility? The primary objection I hear is this - “But that’s my responsibility. I am accountable to God and to other people for what happens. How can I pass it off to someone else?” Let me quickly make the case for delegation and share some practical steps toward delegating. The Case for Delegation in Your Church There is much to be done; you can’t do it all. What are the live options? There are three - work more, do less, or delegate. In a world of overwork, working more is rarely the solution. Doing less in order to do a few things well should be the solution some of the time. Good leaders say “no” to good opportunities so they can focus on the best ones. But what about the rest? What about work that must be done but does not belong on your plate? Work may not belong on your plate for several reasons. Wise leaders are choosy about how they spend all their resources - not only time, but also energy, money, talent, and attention. There is also the question of calling - Is this something I am called to do? Is it something I am called not to do? Is this something someone else has been called and given the resources to do? By the way, we left out a fourth option for handling work that doesn’t belong on your plate - promise to do it, but then never get around to it (or do it poorly) because there wasn’t really room on your plate. Also, not a good option. Where does that leave us? What do you do when your church needs hospitality ministry, but leading that ministry does not belong on the plate of your pastor? What do you do when your church needs someone to keep the books and do payroll, but none of your elders are gifted accountants? What do you do when a gentlemen within your church has the resources and calling to lead a ministry to men, but he’s not a pastor or elder? For a great many situations, the answer is not to work more or do less, but to delegate. At this point, many throw up their hands and feel like they are surrendering to a necessary evil. They believe they are giving work to someone else when it should be done by them. They feel a mixed sense of guilt and fear. This is when we must clearly distinguish delegation from abdication. Abdication is a failure to fulfill a responsibility or duty ( Oxford English Dictionary ). Delegation is to entrust a task or responsibility to another person ( Oxford English Dictionary ). Delegation means entrusting someone else with the work while retaining responsibility for the outcome. This is difficult and important work. How do we do it well? Four Steps to Delegate Well 1) Determine what work to delegate. At any given moment, there are lots of things we could do with our time, but what has God called us to keep at the center? For many pastors, it may be preaching and leadership. For boards, it should be big big-picture vision. Each leader should have a central focus in their role. Each leader should always be working towards doing mostly what only they can do or have been called to do. All of us have to do things we don’t want to do or don’t feel called to do, but we should work towards keeping the main things the main things. Don’t hold onto tasks, projects, or ministries out of guilt. Think strategically. Does this fit into the bullseye of my calling or not? 2) Identify an appropriate person or party to delegate to. If a task or project doesn’t fit into the bullseye of my calling, is there someone else who may be called or capable of taking it? Don’t let “there is no one to take it, or there is no one as capable as I to take it” become an excuse. Find someone and teach them. Don’t let pride or fear win. Don’t overspiritualize. Yes, we have been talking about calling and gifting. However, sometimes work simply needs to be done by someone who can do it. And sometimes, this is precisely how we discover our calling. Other times, this is how we imitate the servant-heart of our savior. 3) Delegate both responsibility and authority in appropriate proportions. You have a task, project, or ministry to be delegated, and you have a person to receive it. Now what? This is where the real work begins. There is a whole world of literature, education, and professionals built around steps 3 & 4 - it’s called management, and it is often done poorly. Think of delegation as a hand-off. Doing it well begins with handing off the right things in the right proportions. Giving a delegated party the responsibility for a project without the authority to make decisions, give orders, or spend funds will result in frustration. Holding all the authority in your own hands while giving all the responsibility to a delegate won’t work either, this is a typical mistake of a poor manager or board. Delegating responsibility and authority in proper proportions is difficult and the amounts will vary with each project, person, and situation. Read some management books, give it a try, and learn from your mistakes. 4) Develop a system for communication, accountability, and support. Once you have completed the initial hand-off, the work is not over. Ongoing communication, support, and accountability are crucial to success. Your delegate will need to be able to ask questions. You will need to give good and timely answers. They will need encouragement and input. You will want updates. You will want to continue to supply vision and direction. The delegate will need to be held accountable for the responsibility placed in their hands. Don’t leave this all to chance. Work out a system for supplying these things. This may include regular meetings or reports. The amount of communication, support, and accountability required will also vary with each project, person, and situation. Do it and work at improving all the time. Make room for feedback on both sides - manager and delegate. Yes, delegation is a lot of work. It has a formal name, its own category of literature, etc. - management. It is often done poorly, but this doesn’t have to be the case. If you want to lead, you must delegate. If you’re going to delegate, think strategically, commit the time, and do it well. More Blogs You'll Like How To Conduct Staff Reviews Read More How To Create A Church Budget Read More Four Steps to Manageable Sermon-Writing Read More

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