September 26, 2024 • 27 mins
When was the last time that you looked around and thought about everything you owned? How about the fact that all of it belongs to God? It can be hard to remember this, and sometimes even harder to concede it. Pastor Guy has a few words for us on this subject in his sermon today.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let me just ask you a question. Don't shake your hand,
don't raise shake your head or raise your hand. You
don't have to say this out loud, but have you
found yourself spending whole large periods, hours and days and
weeks and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Months of your life not even considering that the world
belongs to God?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hello?
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Everyone, welcome to peace to you at Peace luther And Church.
I'm Ruben Holland Beck, and I'm here with Pastor Guy Roberts.
What are we talking about today, Pastor? But we're going
to talk about Jesus.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
You know that seems like a good idea, but it's
going to be kind of a focus in on God,
the Father, and the gift that He has given us
in his son, and what it means to have an
all powerful, all providing God. And this is something that's
I think overlooked a lot by Christians as they lived
their day to day life, and to be honest, I
(01:01):
think it can be a struggle for us. So I
hope today's sermon is a blessing, an eye opener, conversation
starter for life.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I certainly hope so as well. Well, let's hear that sermon.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So a few weeks into this sermon series, Discipleship is life,
and this is me. This is as a senior pastor
here that we're going to do this. We need to
spend some time doing this. And I realized this week
as I was thinking through it, maybe it's good to
explain why me growing up where I did out in Oregon,
in a world that was so contrary and far from
(01:33):
God and his ways, it made me realize something, especially
when I moved back to the Midwest and Nebraska, that
it's important to understand who we are and who we
are because of Jesus, who has made us is we
are His disciples.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And this is true.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
This is not language that we use a lot in
the Lutheran Church, but it's certainly true that you and
I are disciples of Jesus Christ. We belong to him,
we live in him, and we follow him. And so
it's something for us to just kind of be able
to say out loud and just know about ourselves. And
I think, I honestly think it's becoming more and more
important to understand this that because you follow Jesus, that
(02:13):
makes you someone different. So go ahead and turn to
your neighbor and just say you're a disciple of Jesus.
All right, and then now you can say back, thank you,
thank you. Yeah, that's good. So a disciple of Jesus,
it might be good to start with what is that?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Now that we've talked about the world.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And who it is and who we are as because
of this and knowing where we stand in the firm
foundation which we live, maybe it's just good to have
a basic definition. And this came from a Lutheran school
teacher in West Bend, Wisconsin. I had planned a whole
morning of teaching on this where we could define it ourselves,
and he ruined it in the first thirty seconds by
(02:57):
giving a perfect definition.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
And I had to make it up for three hours
after that.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
But I always am grateful because he said this, The
disciple is simply someone who is called by Jesus. Huh.
I thought that's pretty good. And so if you've been baptized,
raise your hand. If you've been baptized, amen, then you
are one who has been called by Jesus. He has
made you his own through the waters of baptism. It
can happen other ways, but it certainly always happens where
(03:24):
He kills and raises to new life. And so you
and this is something we also have to get used
to saying, I was encouraging the promises of grace class
this week, as I did with you last spring, that
you just have to get comfortable with this.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
When someone says I am baptized, or when you say
you are baptized, that means you have been made a
disciple of Jesus. So in your kindest non accusatory way,
turn to the same neighbor and say you're baptized. I know,
now say it back if you I mean, if you
didn't say it back, you should say it back. And
so are you. And this is good news for us.
(04:01):
And now it means something. And this is the second
part of what it means to be a disciple of
Jesus Christ. As you're called by Jesus and you follow him.
Now this is who you are, someone who has been
made something different and now you follow Jesus. That's what
it is to be a disciple. That's you and that's me.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So how do you say this?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
How do you you kind of understand how life is
going to be in him? A disciple is someone who
lives in whose world it's right, God's world, by his
grace following his will. I want you to read it
with me. A disciple is someone who lives in his
world by his grace, following his will.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
This is your life.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
This is what life is like for the for us
knowing that this world belongs to Him, that we live
in his grace and mercy, and that we follow his will.
And for me, when I considered the task of raising
children in the Word, being an educator of mine, especially
a Christian educator, I thought, how do I get to
this place?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
What are the goals? What do I need?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What do I want my kids to know when they
head off to college raising them in the Lord? What
do I want my parishioners to know? And I kind
of boiled it down to these three basic foundationals, standing
upon solid ground, insulating us from the world type truths,
the realities of God. And the first one is this,
it's all his, it all belongs to him.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
The second is is he saves.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It's who he is, it's who he's always been, it's
what he does. He is a God of mercy and grace.
You read through the Old Testament, New Testament, it's the same.
He redeems, he rescues, he restores, He saves. And then
finally the one that's probably the one in my experience
missing most from the Lutheran Church. His will is what's
best not just for us as Christians, but for who
(05:53):
every single person that walks upon the face of the earth.
And it's these three truths then that in us from
the world. These are the fireman jacket. These are the
things that keep us from getting burned. These are the
things that keep us on track. Now there's certainly more
than this to learn and grow and know about Jesus.
But if your kids know these three things when they
(06:14):
head off into the world, you're doing pretty good. And
these three things are simply a reflection of God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
The world.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Number one belongs to God the Father, and he has
given his son Jesus Christ, and he saves number two.
And then he has sent his spirit that we don't
walk alone in this world, but we walk by his spirit,
for his will is what's best for us and for
everyone else. So today we're going to focus in on
this one. In the next three weeks, we're going to
(06:44):
hit these three truths and spend a little bit of
time on them.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And we did this with the kids today I was impressed.
He's got the whole world.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
You guys are having a lot of audience participation today,
but that was excellent singing. He's got the whole world,
He's got the whole world. He's got the whole world
in his hands.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And you could keep going.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Right, He's got the brothers and the sisters, and he's
got the teeny little baby, right.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I don't know those are the verses I remember, but
I mean from the time we were little, we've been
taught this in Sunday school and by our parents, and
so we know it. We know that we are firmly
in his hands, that all things in the world belong
to Him.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And yet.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
It's easy to forget, isn't it. Let me just ask
you a question. Don't shake your hand, don't raise shake
your head, or raise your hand. You don't have to
say this out loud, But have you found yourself spending
whole large periods, hours and days and weeks and months
of your life not even considering that the world belongs
to God? Has that ever happened to you? I will
(07:58):
raise my hand. It's funny how easy this is to do,
to kind of assume control, to say I got this God,
or maybe worship of all, not say it at all,
just to kind of live life in the discipleship. Our
day we talked about one of these things. I probably
should have put it in here, but I decided not to.
(08:19):
But I will in this service. When I used to
meet with all these families for baptisms, I'd hear the
same thing over and over and over. They'd come and
I'd say, why do you want to what's what's the deal?
Why are you here?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
What is it that you're looking for?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And they would say, Jesus or God or faith has
been a really important part of my life, and I
want it to be a really important part of my
kid's life.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And at first, when I first.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Heard that, probably even said it, I thought, Oh, that's great,
that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But whose world is this? Whose world is this? Say it?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, you can say it. It's his world. It's all his,
And so we don't live in this world. We're just
a part of our life. Life belongs to him. He
didn't die just for a part of our life. We
can't live with him kind of compartmentalized over here in
his God box.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Even though we like that it's all his.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
We read in today. The Gospel was in the Gospels
from the Book of Acts. And the reason why is
because you don't hear a lot of talking the New
Testament about God the Father. To be honest, you don't
hear a lot about it. But there is one part,
and we read it in the first week of this series.
Is from Acts, chapter seventeen, where Paul is invited into
the Areopagus to preach God's word, to share what it
(09:38):
is that he belongs, what he believes, and he says
some really key things he talks about and starts with
God the Father. He says, there's this statue to the
unknown God. I can tell that you're deeply religious people,
that religion is a big part of your life. But
let me tell you that this unknown God, he exists
and we belong to him. It is not he is
(10:01):
not of our creation. That he has set the boundaries
of the world. And then he says this phrase in him,
we live, and we move, and we have our being.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
What's interesting is he's quoting their philosophers when he says that,
and his poets.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
But what a beautiful way to describe who we are.
That those who.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Live in him and move and have our being in him.
And so we get this kind of a concept that
this is how Paul presents it when he has given
a stage to pagans in a pagan temple, when he
gets a chance to share it all, he doesn't even
mention the name of Jesus, but instead talks about God,
the Father who gave him. And this then is where
(10:46):
we live in Colossians chapter one, as we read today
there it's kind of a I don't know if you
don if you can go back to that passage.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You got, you got the skills, Oh, the glasses are on.
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I want to read this with you together again, because
this is the move that the New Testament makes. And
this is really only understood by understanding that all things
belong to God the Father, that he is the one
who gives. And so in Claussons chapter one, verse nine,
and following it says, and so from the day we
heard you have not ceased to pray for you, asking
that you may be filled with the knowledge of His
(11:22):
will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to
walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleased
into him, bearing fruit in every work and increasing in
the knowledge of God. And then he says this, and
this is where we get to the point. May you
be strengthened, all you disciples of the Church of Class
And this is to you, all you disciples of peace
(11:43):
Lutheran Church of our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
May you be.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, for
all endurance and patience, with joy, giving thanks to the
who Father, who has qualified you to share in the
aherents of the saints and light. And he has delivered
us from the domain of darkness and transferred us rather
from that domain of darkness into the kingdom of his
(12:09):
beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
And then he makes this move and you know the passage.
For God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only son. And here's how Paul describes that
giving over of his son to us. For he says,
he is the image of the invisible God. And he's
(12:29):
talking about Jesus, the firstborn of all creation. For by
him all things were created in heaven and earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
So when Jesus says, all authority and heaven on earth
has been given to me, that's what Paul is talking
about here. All things were created through him and for him,
(12:50):
and he is before all things, and in him all
things hold together.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And he is the head of the body of the Church.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
He is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead,
that in that in everything he might be pre eminent
above and all things in life. For in him all
the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through
him to reconcile to himself us all things, whether on
earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of
(13:17):
his cross.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And so you have this move where God, the Father.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Who gives everything that we've ever experienced good in this world,
gives his son to us. And now the face of God,
the love of God, the providence of God, the restoration
of God is centered right in his son, Jesus Christ.
And if you don't understand this, that it's all his.
If you don't understand and see this, you won't fully
(13:41):
understand what it is that has been given to you
and what it is He wants for you. And so
our lives think, let me see if I can make
this work. The things that you have, and you have
(14:01):
many things, they all belong to who. We read that
today the earth is the Lord's and everything in it
belongs to him. Are endeavors, the things that you seek
to do in life, the work that you do, and
that He provides for you, all of it. Then, as
it says in Filipping chapter two, for it is God
(14:22):
who works in you, both to will and to work
his good purpose. So you're living and your purpose there
is his purpose. It's his and your life, your very life.
Your body is not your own. Look me in my eyeballs.
Your body is not your own. I don't have to
(14:44):
say anything else for you to know how contrary that
is to the world around us. But it belongs to him,
it says, do you not know that our bodies are
temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom
you have received from God. You are not your own?
And read with me, you were bought. And we know
(15:08):
what that price was. We know what Jesus hanging on
the cross in our stead looks like, and we know
what his death and resurrection means for us.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And so we know the costs.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And it was big.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But in through this our life now is his life,
and we wouldn't want it any other way. And as
we confess today, as I shared in the confession, even
the one thing that we contributed to his creation, breaking
it forever our sin, that's not even our own anymore.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
For he purchased it. He purchased it.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And we know then the hope of this, this most
basic of Christian passages, which is John three point sixty
not first grit theids, by the way, for God so
loved the world that he gave his one and only
son to you, to me, Pastor Tim's going to talk
about this next week, means to live in him? Then,
(16:01):
if he is the faith, the incarnate word of God,
what does it mean to live and to follow him
as a gift from.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
God the Father.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
But here today we give our we give our our praise,
and we give our thanksgiving to the one who would
be willing to do this, for we certainly don't deserve it.
But yet his love was so great that he gave
his only son, making us his. So my encouragement to
you as we kind of move through life and faith,
is that you not forget about this, that you say
(16:32):
it whenever you get an opportunity that you attribute to
God the things that are His to have given to us.
That when you receive incredible blessings, make sure you say
the most simple of things out loud so people can
hear it, Thank you Lord. Or when you don't know
where to go, or when you don't where to turn,
know that you don't live in this world along, but
He has come to you and made you his own
(16:52):
and walks with you here today. And plead with him. Lord,
guide me and lead me, forgive me and provide for me.
Say these things out loud that the world may know
to whom we belong, that everything in this world is
Who's is. Let's pray, Almighty God, your word is cast
like seed into the ground. Now let the dew of
(17:14):
heaven descend and righteous fruit about Amen.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
Hello pastor guy, Hey, that was an excellent sermon. Honestly,
I had a hard time actually coming up with questions,
if I'm honest, because there's just a lot of it
that I agreed with. It's like, well, how do I
come up with questions for this? I did come up
with a few, though.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
So, one thing I have noticed is that it can
be difficult to reach out to someone we can't see
or hear it directly when we are struggling. You know, God,
they're not someone who's like right there in front of us.
Do you have any advice on how we can do
better at not treating God like a last resort and
kind of getting around that barrier of not being able
(18:10):
to like directly see or hear them.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah. I mean, that's a really good question. That it's
one that you struggle with as a pastor constantly, because
you know, you can't believe for people. And then as
a father the same thing. You know, you can't believe
for your kids, and and you can't make them like
you can't make people and and so, and you can
do your best to remind them, and but a lot
(18:35):
of times I've found as a pastor, when I say
things immediately, people just feel guilt, you know, especially.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
If they haven't been doing it.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And so, you know, the best way I found to
have this happen, to have people kind of see it,
is to actually personally live it. I mean that I
have to start with myself, because that's really all I
can control. And so this is a struggle now just
for people out there it's not like I've got it
all together. I do the same thing. I live large
(19:05):
chunks of my life without ever thinking about what God
would have for us or what he's provided, or I
receive his blessings and don't even attribute it to him.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
And so it's more of a reminder to me.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And some of the things that I've done along the
way is I've adapted my language. Like I no longer
say things like good luck, because you're attributing all providence
to some other thing other than God. And I know
it sounds like a dumb thing, and we all say it,
but I just.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Don't say that anymore, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I say something like the Lord's blessings on your day,
you know, Or I try to even no one means
when they say good luck that it's not God who's
doing it. But I can accurb our language. That's something
I can control. And with my children, you know, there's
opportunities constantly for me to give attribution to God, and
(19:56):
so I try to do that. And so in my writing,
in all the ways that I might interact with people,
I try to not only for their sake, but for
my sake.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I try to I try to start here.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
And hopefully that that will influence I don't know if
that answer your question, but it does.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah, any follow ups on that or.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Well, you know, sometimes as we get better at these things,
we can kind of use that to also help others
get better at these especially when it comes to attributing
what's been happening in your life that is good to God,
(20:36):
you know, and accepting the things that have been you know,
bad as you know this is still also from God,
but it's something that you know, we have to weather
together and trust that He has a purpose for it.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, So saying the thing out loud that you might
know in your head is a good way. But in general,
I've found if i'm if I'm constantly you know, helping
myself struggle with listen, this isn't your world, this isn't
your life, this isn't your you know, if that's the
kind of reminder, not only does it really pressure on me,
you know, but when people are around you and you
(21:18):
talk that way, you live that way, you know, they
tend to gravitate. I've found they tend to gravitate towards it.
So it's you know, you can have real intentional strategies
with people but in general, when you live as if
this was true, then it tends to tends to kind
of just be self evident.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Yeah. And I think that it's important for us to
live as if it is true, because it's all too
easy for some people to become, you know, discouraged by
the idea. I know that, you know, I've at least
on one occasion or to myself, felt a little bit like,
(21:57):
you know, well, you know, do I really have any
like accomplishment with this?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Is this?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Like?
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Do I deserve any of this because it's all belongs
to God?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Ith?
Speaker 5 (22:09):
What?
Speaker 4 (22:10):
How would you say? People? Can you know? Yeah, do
you have any advice on that kind of attitude or
that kind of situation?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, it's easy, I mean we we Uh.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
That's a great point about as far as accomplishments, you
know that do we have any accomplishments?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
If it's all from God? What is mine?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
And and there is that kind of struggle where if
we're really honest with ourselves as Christians, if this is true,
that God is the Lord and creator of all things,
and all things are in his hands, and that He
has given everything that we have and it's his today.
If that's true, then that it would be natural conclusion
(22:47):
to say, well, what do I have to offer? Right,
And and that's kind of leads to a kind of
a broader thing, a bigger thing, you know, the stuff
that we talked about a lot seminaries that if if
God was just God the Father, like if that's all
we knew of him, that would be absolutely terrifying. But
that's not what we have from God. And this is
(23:09):
why him becoming flesh and his son Jesus Christ and
walking amongst us is so important because not only did
he humble himself, humiliate himself and become one of us,
he knows our struggles, he knows our life, he lived it.
And so the good news of the Gospel is that
you've been freed in your freed from the condemnation of
(23:32):
sin and the curse and death and hell, and now
you get to live in the freedom to be free
who He created you to be in the first place.
And so so yeah, for those who don't know Jesus
and don't understand what it is God has done with Jesus,
all of that's true, Like, well, what's it's a it's.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Either terrifying because we can't control God. We can't put
him in our box. We can't. We have no idea
what he's doing or why, or how what his will is.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
But then it's also disheartening because like, what's the point,
Like I'm just a puppet here in the world or something,
And it's not until you see his love and what
he's done and his son that you recognize it's not
like that. And so that would be my answer. It's
a long one, but that's my answer to how you
work with people who are struggling with this is, Hey, listen,
(24:22):
I get it. It's a little disheartening, a little scary,
little whatever it might be. But God is for you
and we know that certainly because of what He's done
with Jesus.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yeah. Another way that I've kind of come to it
in my own mind, and I love to hear your
opinion on it, is that the way that I've framed
it was only one way of looking at it. You
could also approach it from the angle of, well, the
pressure's off on that you no longer need to make
(24:57):
these accomplishments for yourself. You can make these accomplishments just
to make them. Now they're all gods, so they don't
need to be to validate your existence.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Just enjoy it. Yeah, you're free to be exactly what
you're crazy to be.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Well, thank you very much, Pastor Gad. This has been
very illuminating.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Thank you forbidden you guys all have a blessed week
in the Lord and Kent.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
We'll be back next week.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Yeah, as far as I know, Yeah so and but
it was fun to be with you today. Thank you.
Have a good day.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Thank YouTube.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Thank you for joining us for Peace to you from
Peace Church.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
In our bat To, Colorado.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
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(26:03):
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Now from the entire broadcast team at Peace Lupmchurch and Arbada,
I am Reuben Holiday and may the Peace of our
(26:46):
Lord you with you today and always
Let me just ask you a question. Don't shake your hand,
don't raise shake your head or raise your hand. You
don't have to say this out loud, but have you
found yourself spending whole large periods, hours and days and
weeks and.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Months of your life not even considering that the world
belongs to God?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Hello?
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Everyone, welcome to peace to you at Peace luther And Church.
I'm Ruben Holland Beck, and I'm here with Pastor Guy Roberts.
What are we talking about today, Pastor? But we're going
to talk about Jesus.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
You know that seems like a good idea, but it's
going to be kind of a focus in on God,
the Father, and the gift that He has given us
in his son, and what it means to have an
all powerful, all providing God. And this is something that's
I think overlooked a lot by Christians as they lived
their day to day life, and to be honest, I
(01:01):
think it can be a struggle for us. So I
hope today's sermon is a blessing, an eye opener, conversation
starter for life.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
I certainly hope so as well. Well, let's hear that sermon.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
So a few weeks into this sermon series, Discipleship is life,
and this is me. This is as a senior pastor
here that we're going to do this. We need to
spend some time doing this. And I realized this week
as I was thinking through it, maybe it's good to
explain why me growing up where I did out in Oregon,
in a world that was so contrary and far from
(01:33):
God and his ways, it made me realize something, especially
when I moved back to the Midwest and Nebraska, that
it's important to understand who we are and who we
are because of Jesus, who has made us is we
are His disciples.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And this is true.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
This is not language that we use a lot in
the Lutheran Church, but it's certainly true that you and
I are disciples of Jesus Christ. We belong to him,
we live in him, and we follow him. And so
it's something for us to just kind of be able
to say out loud and just know about ourselves. And
I think, I honestly think it's becoming more and more
important to understand this that because you follow Jesus, that
(02:13):
makes you someone different. So go ahead and turn to
your neighbor and just say you're a disciple of Jesus.
All right, and then now you can say back, thank you,
thank you. Yeah, that's good. So a disciple of Jesus,
it might be good to start with what is that?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Now that we've talked about the world.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And who it is and who we are as because
of this and knowing where we stand in the firm
foundation which we live, maybe it's just good to have
a basic definition. And this came from a Lutheran school
teacher in West Bend, Wisconsin. I had planned a whole
morning of teaching on this where we could define it ourselves,
and he ruined it in the first thirty seconds by
(02:57):
giving a perfect definition.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
And I had to make it up for three hours
after that.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
But I always am grateful because he said this, The
disciple is simply someone who is called by Jesus. Huh.
I thought that's pretty good. And so if you've been baptized,
raise your hand. If you've been baptized, amen, then you
are one who has been called by Jesus. He has
made you his own through the waters of baptism. It
can happen other ways, but it certainly always happens where
(03:24):
He kills and raises to new life. And so you
and this is something we also have to get used
to saying, I was encouraging the promises of grace class
this week, as I did with you last spring, that
you just have to get comfortable with this.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
When someone says I am baptized, or when you say
you are baptized, that means you have been made a
disciple of Jesus. So in your kindest non accusatory way,
turn to the same neighbor and say you're baptized. I know,
now say it back if you I mean, if you
didn't say it back, you should say it back. And
so are you. And this is good news for us.
(04:01):
And now it means something. And this is the second
part of what it means to be a disciple of
Jesus Christ. As you're called by Jesus and you follow him.
Now this is who you are, someone who has been
made something different and now you follow Jesus. That's what
it is to be a disciple. That's you and that's me.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
So how do you say this?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
How do you you kind of understand how life is
going to be in him? A disciple is someone who
lives in whose world it's right, God's world, by his
grace following his will. I want you to read it
with me. A disciple is someone who lives in his
world by his grace, following his will.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
This is your life.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
This is what life is like for the for us
knowing that this world belongs to Him, that we live
in his grace and mercy, and that we follow his will.
And for me, when I considered the task of raising
children in the Word, being an educator of mine, especially
a Christian educator, I thought, how do I get to
this place?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
What are the goals? What do I need?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
What do I want my kids to know when they
head off to college raising them in the Lord? What
do I want my parishioners to know? And I kind
of boiled it down to these three basic foundationals, standing
upon solid ground, insulating us from the world type truths,
the realities of God. And the first one is this,
it's all his, it all belongs to him.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
The second is is he saves.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It's who he is, it's who he's always been, it's
what he does. He is a God of mercy and grace.
You read through the Old Testament, New Testament, it's the same.
He redeems, he rescues, he restores, He saves. And then
finally the one that's probably the one in my experience
missing most from the Lutheran Church. His will is what's
best not just for us as Christians, but for who
(05:53):
every single person that walks upon the face of the earth.
And it's these three truths then that in us from
the world. These are the fireman jacket. These are the
things that keep us from getting burned. These are the
things that keep us on track. Now there's certainly more
than this to learn and grow and know about Jesus.
But if your kids know these three things when they
(06:14):
head off into the world, you're doing pretty good. And
these three things are simply a reflection of God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
The world.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Number one belongs to God the Father, and he has
given his son Jesus Christ, and he saves number two.
And then he has sent his spirit that we don't
walk alone in this world, but we walk by his spirit,
for his will is what's best for us and for
everyone else. So today we're going to focus in on
this one. In the next three weeks, we're going to
(06:44):
hit these three truths and spend a little bit of
time on them.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
And we did this with the kids today I was impressed.
He's got the whole world.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
You guys are having a lot of audience participation today,
but that was excellent singing. He's got the whole world,
He's got the whole world. He's got the whole world
in his hands.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And you could keep going.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Right, He's got the brothers and the sisters, and he's
got the teeny little baby, right.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Do you know?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I don't know those are the verses I remember, but
I mean from the time we were little, we've been
taught this in Sunday school and by our parents, and
so we know it. We know that we are firmly
in his hands, that all things in the world belong
to Him.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And yet.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
It's easy to forget, isn't it. Let me just ask
you a question. Don't shake your hand, don't raise shake
your head, or raise your hand. You don't have to
say this out loud, But have you found yourself spending
whole large periods, hours and days and weeks and months
of your life not even considering that the world belongs
to God? Has that ever happened to you? I will
(07:58):
raise my hand. It's funny how easy this is to do,
to kind of assume control, to say I got this God,
or maybe worship of all, not say it at all,
just to kind of live life in the discipleship. Our
day we talked about one of these things. I probably
should have put it in here, but I decided not to.
(08:19):
But I will in this service. When I used to
meet with all these families for baptisms, I'd hear the
same thing over and over and over. They'd come and
I'd say, why do you want to what's what's the deal?
Why are you here?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
What is it that you're looking for?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And they would say, Jesus or God or faith has
been a really important part of my life, and I
want it to be a really important part of my
kid's life.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And at first, when I first.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Heard that, probably even said it, I thought, Oh, that's great,
that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But whose world is this? Whose world is this? Say it?
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, you can say it. It's his world. It's all his,
And so we don't live in this world. We're just
a part of our life. Life belongs to him. He
didn't die just for a part of our life. We
can't live with him kind of compartmentalized over here in
his God box.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Even though we like that it's all his.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
We read in today. The Gospel was in the Gospels
from the Book of Acts. And the reason why is
because you don't hear a lot of talking the New
Testament about God the Father. To be honest, you don't
hear a lot about it. But there is one part,
and we read it in the first week of this series.
Is from Acts, chapter seventeen, where Paul is invited into
the Areopagus to preach God's word, to share what it
(09:38):
is that he belongs, what he believes, and he says
some really key things he talks about and starts with
God the Father. He says, there's this statue to the
unknown God. I can tell that you're deeply religious people,
that religion is a big part of your life. But
let me tell you that this unknown God, he exists
and we belong to him. It is not he is
(10:01):
not of our creation. That he has set the boundaries
of the world. And then he says this phrase in him,
we live, and we move, and we have our being.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
What's interesting is he's quoting their philosophers when he says that,
and his poets.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
But what a beautiful way to describe who we are.
That those who.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Live in him and move and have our being in him.
And so we get this kind of a concept that
this is how Paul presents it when he has given
a stage to pagans in a pagan temple, when he
gets a chance to share it all, he doesn't even
mention the name of Jesus, but instead talks about God,
the Father who gave him. And this then is where
(10:46):
we live in Colossians chapter one, as we read today
there it's kind of a I don't know if you
don if you can go back to that passage.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You got, you got the skills, Oh, the glasses are on.
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I want to read this with you together again, because
this is the move that the New Testament makes. And
this is really only understood by understanding that all things
belong to God the Father, that he is the one
who gives. And so in Claussons chapter one, verse nine,
and following it says, and so from the day we
heard you have not ceased to pray for you, asking
that you may be filled with the knowledge of His
(11:22):
will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to
walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleased
into him, bearing fruit in every work and increasing in
the knowledge of God. And then he says this, and
this is where we get to the point. May you
be strengthened, all you disciples of the Church of Class
And this is to you, all you disciples of peace
(11:43):
Lutheran Church of our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
May you be.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, for
all endurance and patience, with joy, giving thanks to the
who Father, who has qualified you to share in the
aherents of the saints and light. And he has delivered
us from the domain of darkness and transferred us rather
from that domain of darkness into the kingdom of his
(12:09):
beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
And then he makes this move and you know the passage.
For God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only son. And here's how Paul describes that
giving over of his son to us. For he says,
he is the image of the invisible God. And he's
(12:29):
talking about Jesus, the firstborn of all creation. For by
him all things were created in heaven and earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
So when Jesus says, all authority and heaven on earth
has been given to me, that's what Paul is talking
about here. All things were created through him and for him,
(12:50):
and he is before all things, and in him all
things hold together.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And he is the head of the body of the Church.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
He is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead,
that in that in everything he might be pre eminent
above and all things in life. For in him all
the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through
him to reconcile to himself us all things, whether on
earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of
(13:17):
his cross.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And so you have this move where God, the Father.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Who gives everything that we've ever experienced good in this world,
gives his son to us. And now the face of God,
the love of God, the providence of God, the restoration
of God is centered right in his son, Jesus Christ.
And if you don't understand this, that it's all his.
If you don't understand and see this, you won't fully
(13:41):
understand what it is that has been given to you
and what it is He wants for you. And so
our lives think, let me see if I can make
this work. The things that you have, and you have
(14:01):
many things, they all belong to who. We read that
today the earth is the Lord's and everything in it
belongs to him. Are endeavors, the things that you seek
to do in life, the work that you do, and
that He provides for you, all of it. Then, as
it says in Filipping chapter two, for it is God
(14:22):
who works in you, both to will and to work
his good purpose. So you're living and your purpose there
is his purpose. It's his and your life, your very life.
Your body is not your own. Look me in my eyeballs.
Your body is not your own. I don't have to
(14:44):
say anything else for you to know how contrary that
is to the world around us. But it belongs to him,
it says, do you not know that our bodies are
temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom
you have received from God. You are not your own?
And read with me, you were bought. And we know
(15:08):
what that price was. We know what Jesus hanging on
the cross in our stead looks like, and we know
what his death and resurrection means for us.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And so we know the costs.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
And it was big.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
But in through this our life now is his life,
and we wouldn't want it any other way. And as
we confess today, as I shared in the confession, even
the one thing that we contributed to his creation, breaking
it forever our sin, that's not even our own anymore.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
For he purchased it. He purchased it.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And we know then the hope of this, this most
basic of Christian passages, which is John three point sixty
not first grit theids, by the way, for God so
loved the world that he gave his one and only
son to you, to me, Pastor Tim's going to talk
about this next week, means to live in him? Then,
(16:01):
if he is the faith, the incarnate word of God,
what does it mean to live and to follow him
as a gift from.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
God the Father.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
But here today we give our we give our our praise,
and we give our thanksgiving to the one who would
be willing to do this, for we certainly don't deserve it.
But yet his love was so great that he gave
his only son, making us his. So my encouragement to
you as we kind of move through life and faith,
is that you not forget about this, that you say
(16:32):
it whenever you get an opportunity that you attribute to
God the things that are His to have given to us.
That when you receive incredible blessings, make sure you say
the most simple of things out loud so people can
hear it, Thank you Lord. Or when you don't know
where to go, or when you don't where to turn,
know that you don't live in this world along, but
He has come to you and made you his own
(16:52):
and walks with you here today. And plead with him. Lord,
guide me and lead me, forgive me and provide for me.
Say these things out loud that the world may know
to whom we belong, that everything in this world is
Who's is. Let's pray, Almighty God, your word is cast
like seed into the ground. Now let the dew of
(17:14):
heaven descend and righteous fruit about Amen.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
Hello pastor guy, Hey, that was an excellent sermon. Honestly,
I had a hard time actually coming up with questions,
if I'm honest, because there's just a lot of it
that I agreed with. It's like, well, how do I
come up with questions for this? I did come up
with a few, though.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
So, one thing I have noticed is that it can
be difficult to reach out to someone we can't see
or hear it directly when we are struggling. You know, God,
they're not someone who's like right there in front of us.
Do you have any advice on how we can do
better at not treating God like a last resort and
kind of getting around that barrier of not being able
(18:10):
to like directly see or hear them.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah. I mean, that's a really good question. That it's
one that you struggle with as a pastor constantly, because
you know, you can't believe for people. And then as
a father the same thing. You know, you can't believe
for your kids, and and you can't make them like
you can't make people and and so, and you can
do your best to remind them, and but a lot
(18:35):
of times I've found as a pastor, when I say
things immediately, people just feel guilt, you know, especially.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
If they haven't been doing it.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
And so, you know, the best way I found to
have this happen, to have people kind of see it,
is to actually personally live it. I mean that I
have to start with myself, because that's really all I
can control. And so this is a struggle now just
for people out there it's not like I've got it
all together. I do the same thing. I live large
(19:05):
chunks of my life without ever thinking about what God
would have for us or what he's provided, or I
receive his blessings and don't even attribute it to him.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
And so it's more of a reminder to me.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
And some of the things that I've done along the
way is I've adapted my language. Like I no longer
say things like good luck, because you're attributing all providence
to some other thing other than God. And I know
it sounds like a dumb thing, and we all say it,
but I just.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Don't say that anymore, you know.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
I say something like the Lord's blessings on your day,
you know, Or I try to even no one means
when they say good luck that it's not God who's
doing it. But I can accurb our language. That's something
I can control. And with my children, you know, there's
opportunities constantly for me to give attribution to God, and
(19:56):
so I try to do that. And so in my writing,
in all the ways that I might interact with people,
I try to not only for their sake, but for
my sake.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I try to I try to start here.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
And hopefully that that will influence I don't know if
that answer your question, but it does.
Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah, any follow ups on that or.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Well, you know, sometimes as we get better at these things,
we can kind of use that to also help others
get better at these especially when it comes to attributing
what's been happening in your life that is good to God,
(20:36):
you know, and accepting the things that have been you know,
bad as you know this is still also from God,
but it's something that you know, we have to weather
together and trust that He has a purpose for it.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, So saying the thing out loud that you might
know in your head is a good way. But in general,
I've found if i'm if I'm constantly you know, helping
myself struggle with listen, this isn't your world, this isn't
your life, this isn't your you know, if that's the
kind of reminder, not only does it really pressure on me,
you know, but when people are around you and you
(21:18):
talk that way, you live that way, you know, they
tend to gravitate. I've found they tend to gravitate towards it.
So it's you know, you can have real intentional strategies
with people but in general, when you live as if
this was true, then it tends to tends to kind
of just be self evident.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Yeah. And I think that it's important for us to
live as if it is true, because it's all too
easy for some people to become, you know, discouraged by
the idea. I know that, you know, I've at least
on one occasion or to myself, felt a little bit like,
(21:57):
you know, well, you know, do I really have any
like accomplishment with this?
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Is this?
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Like?
Speaker 4 (22:03):
Do I deserve any of this because it's all belongs
to God?
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Ith?
Speaker 5 (22:09):
What?
Speaker 4 (22:10):
How would you say? People? Can you know? Yeah, do
you have any advice on that kind of attitude or
that kind of situation?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, it's easy, I mean we we Uh.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
That's a great point about as far as accomplishments, you
know that do we have any accomplishments?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
If it's all from God? What is mine?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
And and there is that kind of struggle where if
we're really honest with ourselves as Christians, if this is true,
that God is the Lord and creator of all things,
and all things are in his hands, and that He
has given everything that we have and it's his today.
If that's true, then that it would be natural conclusion
(22:47):
to say, well, what do I have to offer? Right,
And and that's kind of leads to a kind of
a broader thing, a bigger thing, you know, the stuff
that we talked about a lot seminaries that if if
God was just God the Father, like if that's all
we knew of him, that would be absolutely terrifying. But
that's not what we have from God. And this is
(23:09):
why him becoming flesh and his son Jesus Christ and
walking amongst us is so important because not only did
he humble himself, humiliate himself and become one of us,
he knows our struggles, he knows our life, he lived it.
And so the good news of the Gospel is that
you've been freed in your freed from the condemnation of
(23:32):
sin and the curse and death and hell, and now
you get to live in the freedom to be free
who He created you to be in the first place.
And so so yeah, for those who don't know Jesus
and don't understand what it is God has done with Jesus,
all of that's true, Like, well, what's it's a it's.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Either terrifying because we can't control God. We can't put
him in our box. We can't. We have no idea
what he's doing or why, or how what his will is.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
But then it's also disheartening because like, what's the point,
Like I'm just a puppet here in the world or something,
And it's not until you see his love and what
he's done and his son that you recognize it's not
like that. And so that would be my answer. It's
a long one, but that's my answer to how you
work with people who are struggling with this is, Hey, listen,
(24:22):
I get it. It's a little disheartening, a little scary,
little whatever it might be. But God is for you
and we know that certainly because of what He's done
with Jesus.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
Yeah. Another way that I've kind of come to it
in my own mind, and I love to hear your
opinion on it, is that the way that I've framed
it was only one way of looking at it. You
could also approach it from the angle of, well, the
pressure's off on that you no longer need to make
(24:57):
these accomplishments for yourself. You can make these accomplishments just
to make them. Now they're all gods, so they don't
need to be to validate your existence.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Just enjoy it. Yeah, you're free to be exactly what
you're crazy to be.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Well, thank you very much, Pastor Gad. This has been
very illuminating.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Thank you forbidden you guys all have a blessed week
in the Lord and Kent.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
We'll be back next week.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
Yeah, as far as I know, Yeah so and but
it was fun to be with you today. Thank you.
Have a good day.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Thank YouTube.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Thank you for joining us for Peace to you from
Peace Church.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
In our bat To, Colorado.
Speaker 5 (25:39):
If you have no church home, we would be delighted
for you to join us on any Sunday. Our address
is five six seven five Field Street in our Battle, Colorado.
Our services are at eight and ten thirty am. Bible
classes for all ages are at nine to fifteen am.
You can easily access our sermons online at www dot p,
(26:03):
s Lucret dot M, or at Pasarbada at YouTube dot com.
Peace to You in Part is a listener supported broadcast.
If you would like to sponsor a broadcast in the future,
call us at three O three four two four four
four five four. If you would like a copy of
today's broadcast and no charge to you, contact us at
(26:25):
the same number three oh three four two four four
four five four. You can access our sermons at any
time by going to our YouTube channel peaceharbatatube dot com.
Now from the entire broadcast team at Peace Lupmchurch and Arbada,
I am Reuben Holiday and may the Peace of our
(26:46):
Lord you with you today and always
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Good Game is your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women’s sports. Every day, host Sarah Spain gives you the stories, stakes, stars and stats to keep up with your favorite women’s teams, leagues and athletes. Through thoughtful insight, witty banter, and an all around good time, Sarah and friends break down the latest news, talk about the games you can’t miss, and debate the issues of the day. Don’t miss interviews with the people of the moment, whether they be athletes, coaches, reporters, or celebrity fans.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.