September 19, 2024 • 27 mins
This world can shake our faith. It can make us feel directionless and purposeless. It can deceive us, trying to draw us away from the Lord. However, Pastor Guy Roberts speaks in his sermon today about how we can best ground ourselves, and help us to know where we stand.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Only by being firmly rooted and established in Him and
in his faith, just as you are taught abounding and thanksgiving,
will you be up any shot of avoiding the deceit
and the empty philosophies of this world.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning, and welcome to peace. To you from Peace
Lutheran Church in Arvada, Colorado. Our world has become a
place where many live according to a different way, truth,
and life than Jesus. In this new reality, it's easy
to give in and go along, or to give up
on and isolate yourself. Today, Pastor Guy will share what
(00:53):
Jesus means when he says we are called to live
in the world, but not of the world. Today you
will be reminded that because Jesus loves the world, he
has redeemed us his church for the world. Now here's
Pastor Guy.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Let's go and read this together.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
in him, rooted and built up in him, and established
in the faith, just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving.
We pray, Father, we praise, and we thank you for
this chance to be here today again to learn to
(01:35):
grow to be together as a body of Christ. And
to be reminded of who we are, who you have
made us, that we are firmly established and rooted in you.
And we just pray, Father, you now speak to our
hearts and our lives, especially as we leave here today,
that we may.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Be a light to you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
All right, how many of you lived through the fifth
through eighth grade period of life? Raise your hand? Do
you remember those days? In the fifth grade? My family
moved across town, and it was a big town, so
that was effectively like moving to another town. I left
all our friends, all my security, all the things I knew,
and I went to a new school. And I'll never
(02:16):
forget walking in to that new school the first day,
looking around, trying to figure out how this was all
going to work.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
And one of the things that I wanted.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Right away to try to establish was to get some friends,
because this is part of life. You want to get
some people you can do it with and know. And man,
it was a lot harder than I thought it was
going to be because these kids had known each other
all the way along, all the way through kindergarten, and
here I am this new guy. And that's how it
was for me in the fifth grade, the sixth grade,
(02:46):
and the seventh grade, always kind of trying to fit in,
kind of fit in, but not sure if I was
fitting in, get invited to things, and always kind of
just really striving to fit in. And there was just
all this kind of pressure and struggle. Has any of
you gone through something like this before?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I don't think it's just that age group.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You can do this as an adult and the like
in our new neighborhood or with friends you meet and
that you like, and it's just kind of how life works.
And I remember I was put in a place one
time where I had to choose. Finally, I had to choose.
Was I going to follow the ways of the friends
that I had been striving so hard to become friends with,
(03:24):
or was I going to was I going to listen
to my parents? Because I knew that if I went
this way, my parents were going to kill me.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
So that was the struggle.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Do I do what my heart wants to do and
what I want to do, or do I follow my
parents out of fear? And I mean that and all
they were literally ground me forever and my life would
be over. So what's the point? And I remember I
got invited to this super cool thing. Oh man, it
sounded fun. I don't remember what it was. I do
know someone got arrested, but in general, I do remember
that of fuzzy back, and I don't remember what it was.
(03:56):
But these kids were going to go do something. There
weren't going to be parents there. And I was in
the seventh grade on the bus and I got invited.
And I got invited, and I was like.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Oh, I've arrived.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
My parents would kill me if I went and did
that thing and got caught, I would be grounded for
the rest.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Of my life.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
And so I had this this this you know, conundrum
was going home on a Friday. I had the whole
weekend to think about it. And as the weekend went past,
you know, as I saw these two different roads, my
way or my parents' way, I finally just said, you know,
it's not worth it.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I have to find new friends. No, seriously.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
In the seventh grade, I decided that I needed to
go find new friends. And I did and it was
so hard, and I found really good friends that became
my friends throughout high school and who I still talk
to today. And I just remember being in that place
in that crossroads, and this is kind of how life
was for many of us. The average age of our congregation,
at least the membership is forty nine, so at least
for half of us, and probably more than half of us,
(04:59):
this is how life was. We lived knowing what God's
word was for us and having our parents share it
with us, and we got to make these decisions on
a day to day.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Basis as we hit these crossroads.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Am I going to go my way, the way of
sin and selfishness, or am I going to follow His way?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And that's how life was today.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
In this world that we live in, there's a third
thing that our kids have to contend with. It's not
as simple as when we were growing up. They have
to decide if they're going to go God's way or
their way, and then there's a third option where a
bunch of pressure is coming from that they have to
go either a God's way or their way. And so
their struggle is not just against God and his will
(05:42):
for their lives and his desire for them to do
what's best for them, but it's also against the world's way.
And you might think that's the same as our way
or our kids ways in their selfishness, but it's not
necessarily there's God's way, there's the way that I would go.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And then there's this other kind of other way.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And God says to us as his disciples, we read
it here today that He is the Way, the Truth,
and the life.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And so we know that's true. And we are used
to struggling with wanting to go and do our way,
our truth and our life. But what if there exists
a whole other category out there that we don't necessarily
agree with, which is a whole other way, a whole
nother truth, and a whole nother life. And what if
that pressure just gets harder and harder and harder and
(06:34):
stronger and stronger and stronger, and people on our kids
are left in a position to have to decide, am
I going to follow God's way or I'm going to
sadly leave that behind and go this way.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I know, it's crazy, what a weird world we live in.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I presented this a discipleship our next side, Cheryl, thank you.
This is kind of what's happened over the last forty years.
Is the church and culture which used to kind of
walk together, you could even call them married, they got divorced,
and the staff and I were talking about this, and
I think they're right. Twenty ten is when the divorce
was finalized, But that's not when the trouble begin. That
(07:19):
trouble begin in your lifetime. It's pretty much everyone hears lifetimes.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
You have seen it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
You've seen the church and the culture who used to
kind of walk together and share common values and these things.
They got to start to get in a fight, and
then they started to be like saying things like I
deserve to be happy, the culture said. And then all
of a sudden, now they're in this period of silence maybe,
and then they get divorced, and now all of a sudden,
the culture is gone. It's out here doing its own thing.
(07:45):
It's got exactly what it wants. Truth is everything that
they wanted to be, and you can be whatever you
want to be. And then there's the church over here
full of people who don't despise them, are sad that
this has happened. And yet we just we have just
gotten to a place and my heart breaks where I
just don't think, especially our children are equipped to face
(08:06):
this world.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
To answer their questions.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Now, when you find yourself in these positions, in these places.
If you've been an adult for a while, your friendships
are established, your life is established. You don't have to
kind of if you don't want to, you can avoid
all the things that happen out there. But for these
youngest amongst us, they're still living firmly in it, and
they're being challenged all the time. And so the question
(08:33):
is like, what are we doing about this? Because there
is two ways to relieve the pressure of walking faithfully
in this world. There's two things that you can do
that will make it go away right away. The first
one is this, you go along with the world. You
just immerse yourself in it. If you say, okay, I'm.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Going to do what you want to do, everyone will
leave you alone.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
You'll fit in, life will be grand. Have you seen
this before, no worries. And then there's another way that
you can leave the pressure is you can tell the
world to go to hell.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Lena, Montana.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
You can just tell him to head right on out
to the northlands of Montana and jump off a bridge,
and you can just sit back and watch.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
If you do those two things, you'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
You will just kind of you'll just kind of live
everything will go smooth, life will be grand.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
But both of those.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Things are unfaithful to our Lord. Both of those things
deny his lordship. If you go along the world you say, God,
I don't care what you say.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I'm going to go the way of this. It's the
easier path for me.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And even though you say to do this, I'm just
gonna do this, and that would be wrong, that would
be sinful.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And the other way is to look at the world
and say, I don't care about you.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The Lord may love you, but I don't love you,
and I don't want anything to do with you. Does
that sound like Jesus? No? Okay, to say some rough
things you ready next night? Our world is one big, old, fat,
hot dumpster fire.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Okay, now you're ready to get personal, and so are you.
I don't know you very well, but I know this
about you. I've been doing this long enough. Doesn't matter
who I sit down with. If you come into my
office and we start talking about life, you're going to
be one big, fat hot The only difference between us
and the world is that our Lord came into the
(10:33):
midst of that fire, has put it out, and has
showed you a different way. And is there to walk
with you every step of every day in the midst
of all of your brokenness and pain, just like he
did today by forgiving you in the name of the
Father's Son in the Holy Spirit, and like he did
with little Bow today by claiming him as his own child,
just as.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
He did with all of you. And this is who
our Lord is. We are not different than the world.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
We are redeemed in Christ Jesus Us, and so our
temptation next slide is the same always. We can either
grab a torch and keep lighting dumpster fires and all
over the world. We can go along with the world
and just light it on fire and watch it burn.
Or next slide, we can just get marshmallows, sit back
(11:17):
and enjoy the fire. Make us more, sit down and go, hey,
that's fun.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
For you guys. Neither one of these are faithful.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
The Lord has called us. It's not even all that hard.
He has called us, then, to be something. We are
his church, We are his body. We are called to
this world and for this world. We are called to
rush in.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
We are His church. Next slide, You and me.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Now, the problem is I believe for the last thirty
forty years and when we got divorced by the culture
and we stopped thinking about this stuff, and the culture
used to do things for us like teach right and
wrong and the Ten Commandments and all this stuff, and
we've just kind of we've just got divorced and been
grieving and wallowing and wishing it was different. And we
forgot to equip our kids. We forgot to insulate our kids.
(12:09):
We forgot to give them the equipment that they're going
to need to face a world that's teaching a different
way and truth in the life.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
And it's something we got to get better at.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Because only by knowing who you are in Christ, only
by knowing who He is and what He's done for you,
only by being firmly rooted and established in Him. Next
sid if you would, only by being firmly rooted and
established in Him and in His faith, just as you
were taught abounding and thanksgiving, will you have any shot
of avoiding the deceit and the empty philosophies of this world.
(12:44):
Only by being firmly rooted in Him and insulated and protected.
Whether it be sunscreen, whether it be a fireman's jacket
and gear, or whether it be the armor of God
only by living and understanding in Him would you be
able to even walk into that burning dumpster fire world
that's been rolled into a building is now a five
alarm fire, and we can stand back and look, I'm
(13:05):
not going in there, And yet the Lord has called us,
every one of us, to go right in there, shining
his love and grace and mercy, his way, his truth
and the life. Only by knowing who you are and believing,
firmly standing, knowing exactly where you stand, would you ever
be able to have compassion on a world.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Enough to wade into the mess. That's who you and
I are.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
And we can't afford any longer, as His disciples, to
pretend like it's not happening. We can't afford any longer
to just sit back and let it burn. For the
Lord has called us.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He has given us everything that we have, everything that
we need, and now has called us to take that.
So the answer is what are we going to do?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
And I'm excited to see where He leads us as
we have these conversations, what we'll be doing in discipleship.
Our encourage you to come and be a part of
these conversations, reflecting on not just what God has done
for us.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
But where are we living right now? What do people believe?
Why is it so bad? And how can we help them?
Come be a part of that, and.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Together we will see where the Lord will lead. Amen,
we pray, Almighty God, your word is cast like seed
into the ground.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Now let the dew of heaven descend and righteous fruit abound. Amen.
We stand and greet each other as the Church of Christ.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Good morning, pastor guy, good morning. You know we've talked
about this before. You know, we always put God. I
think you talked about putting God on a shelf, you know,
and I do that. We talked about that. You know.
I've been a lifelong Christian and Lutheran and I and
you know it's something that I really could use the
Lord's hand here. I want to do it myself. You know,
(14:59):
I can handle this. So I'm going to take care
of it myself.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, it's sobering to think.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It's it's not even that you make a decision not
to include the Lord in your life and decisions. It's
that you don't even think about it, right, it doesn't
even cross your mind. It's like it's like those kids
who they're like, I got this. I got this, I
got this, and then it just goes horribly wrong and
they go running back behind their dad's legs, going.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Don't got this, don't got this, don't got this. You know,
it's in that.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Don't got this that we finally turned to him, but
it might be maybe better to at the front end,
you know, at least ask him to come with you.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
That's exact, exactly, exactly. Well, you know, we also talked
earlier that I was watching this deal on TV and
it was I forgot what channel it was, but anyway,
they were just talking about what's happening with Christianity. You know,
where are we at? And really when you look at
all the things that are happening now, and you know,
there's been a second attempt on and on Donald Trump's
(15:56):
life and all this kind of stuff, all these things
that are happening, well, actually it's having a counter effect
that I thought it was going to have because it's
pulling people together and there's these huge groups of Christians
that are having these prayer groups that are just praying
for our country and stuff. So it's kind of having
that reverse effect.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
What you think for Christians, regardless of what your political
beliefs are and who you think would be the best
leader for our country. That secondary treating one another like
we are now over politics is certainly turned it into
an idol and led us away from what the Lord
has called us, which is to love our neighbor. And
(16:36):
even more so, you know, we're supposed to love our enemies.
So like let's say even someone was an enemy. Christ
has called us to a different way, which is to
turn your cheek and to live in a relationship love
with even those who disagree strongly with you. And yes,
we are not probably even as Christians setting a good
(16:56):
example in this area either these kinds of gatherings for
unity and that we can still be on the same
team even though we have different, different agreement, you know,
different ideas of who should be leaders. That's that is
a good Christian thing for us to be doing, and
we can we can show a different way, the way
of the Lord, certainly in that.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And there's times I think you had mentioned it in
previous weeks, or you know, when we look at who
we think is best to govern our state or be
the president of the United States, things like that. You know,
God doesn't care what we think. In a lot of ways,
you know, he's got this, he's got it under control. Yeah,
(17:39):
we have our ideas of who would be best, but
when it comes down to it, what do we really know?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, we will have exactly who the Lord wants us
to have. I means, I truly believe that. And that's
why we pray for our president. Even if I didn't
vote for him, I pray for him because I know
that the Lord put him there and he's in charge
of this world too, not just the church.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Oh that's for sure. Yeah, absolutely, Well, you had talked about,
you know, what are the things that we can do,
and you said there's two things really ultimately that we
can do, and one go along with the world, which
I have a personal situation with a friend of mine
that said just that I've had enough. I'm just going
to go along with the world. What difference does it make?
(18:20):
And that hurt. But then you know, the other way
is just, you know, just tell the world just go away.
I've had enough of you.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Jump off a bridge.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Jump off a bridge. Yeah, I've had enough of you.
But what I found interesting is that you said both
of these things are really unfaithful to the Lord. To
think either one of these were not showing faith. It's
kind of like, and maybe you talked about this, you've
talked about it before. As far as worry, worry is
(18:48):
something that's really unfaithful to him, right, And so with
these two items, as far as you know, just go
along with the world or just tell the world to
jump off a cliff like you said, you say that
that's unfaithful to God. Can you just kind of expound
on that a little bit for us.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, both of those are selfish and they relieve the
pressure certainly, like and that's what we feel living in
the world, but not of the world. Is we're just
different and we don't fit in and it we believe
things that are contrary and people get mad at us,
and there's even persecution in the most extreme examples of this.
But when you give, when you go along with the world,
(19:27):
you're giving. You're giving up that the Lord is the
lord of your life and that he's called you to this.
And it's selfish because you are you're making the pain
and pressure and struggle go away. But you're but you're
saying to the Lord, now you go away. It's basically
what we're saying, I don't I don't need you in
this anymore. And then the other direction in which you
(19:49):
give up on the world is actually the opposite of
what his call to us is is. And it's also selfish,
which is.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I don't have time for you the world right, right,
and just I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So contrary to what Jesus has called us to be.
I mean, he literally gave his life for all of
the world, and every one of us in it is
equally sinful and broken, you know, so that it's not
like we're a better person that has now received this gift.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
We're just redeemed.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
And and so our call is Jesus freed us for
the world and to be in the midst of it
in the in the I think we talk about it
in the sermon as a dumpster fire or burning building.
You know, we're called to wrap ourselves in Him, in
his truth, his way, his life, his love, and rush in.
We are the rescue team and that's that's our job.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
So and that's the faithful way.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
That being said, let's just own that.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
That's really hard.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
And you can see why people go along or say,
you know, go jump off a bridge, but it's neither
one of those.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Are So what I thought about when you were talking
about the dumpster fires and things like that. Coming from
a fire background for many years, and I was a
firefighter and and rescue, I you know, we would go in,
but we had that coat that insulated us. But we
also had the knowledge of what that fire was all about.
What are the characteristics of that fire, What can we
(21:15):
do to fight that fire? What is the best way
to safely fight that fire? And I think that when
I was sitting in the congregation listening to you speak,
I was like, well, you know what if if we
if we do educate ourselves more, if we do go
to a Bible study and things like that and learn
more and more and more, we will be more comfortable
(21:35):
and more I think assured that. You know, we're gonna
it's gonna be all right. The Lord's right there with us.
But we can go into that burning fire and we can.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Help you help, Yeah, you can rescue.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yes, Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah, that's the training.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And no one would send just a rando off the street,
throw a jacket on him and say go put that
fire out exactly, you know, but that's kind of how
we handle it as Christians. You know, we we were
called to do this we kind of know it, but
we've never spent any time really in training of what
is it that I believe? Make sure I'm sure and
certain in this and comfortable enough and confident enough in
(22:14):
the Lord that I can listen to things.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
I disagree with and not be a jerk right right right,
or just give in. So that's one side of it.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
But then on the other side, you would also send
people in that have no idea how burning buildings work. Like,
you got to know the context of what you're going
into in the world we live in.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And so that's at piece.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
That's what we're trying to do, is both talk about
our world, not in a condemnation way, not in the
like they're all, this is how horrible all these people are,
but like, let's understand who we're working with, and let's
understand who we are, and let's try to talk about
what it is that they desperately need.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Because they do need rescue. I mean, that's not whether
they know it or not.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
You know they do. So yeah, and you've said many times,
you know, and we hear all the time, God's got this,
But then you know, there's a lot more to that statement,
and just God's got this. I mean, he's got your back.
He's there. It's like when we go into fires. When
on the fire department, we didn't go in all by ourselves.
(23:17):
You know, we had people that had our backs, and
we we have God has our back, so we can
go into these things, we can go into these conversations
and things and talk to people because God's got our back.
And so many times we're kind of planning those seeds.
We're you know, we're trying to put out that fire.
At the same time give people the knowledge of you know,
(23:39):
you can be part of this.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
And at the risk of beating this analogy into the ground,
I would say that no fire fireman ever expects to
come through unscathed. You know, every fireman gets hurt at
some point. And so then and there, I think we
just need to own that that this, this thing we've
been called to is not safe.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
We will get hurt. I mean probably not not anytime
you're you know.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
In the near future, as far as like physically hurt.
But our emotions are, our relationships are all that when
you when you wade into the fires of people's lives,
you can expect to get burned. I mean, you're playing
a fire, and so so we have to own that too.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
But that is also part of the Lord's call.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
He does not call us to an easy, comfortable, you know,
prosperous life. He calls us to a life of sacrifice
and service to the world around us. And so that's
just part of the deal, you know. But you don't
go in like you don't go in into bathing suit,
you know, do that. No, you're going insulated and prepared
and understood as much as you can before you do it.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
So and what I what I gleaned from what you
were saying too, is that we start this by by
teaching our children, you know, when they're small, and we
raise them up u in that belief that the Lord
is right there and we you know, impress that on
our children, so they're more comfortable as they grow with
talking about.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
And that the world only makes sense through him.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Exactly right. Yeah, pastor guy, thank you so much for that.
And you know, we encourage people that might not have
a church home or people that would like to join
us here at Peace Lutheran Church at fifty seventh in
Field in Oravada. We'd love to have you here and
thank you for joining us today and God bless your
week and you as well.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Thank you, Thank you for joining us for Peace to
you from Peace Church in our bad To, Colorado. 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.
(25:50):
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 s Lucrit dot m, or at Pasarbata at YouTube
dot com. Peace to You in Part is a listener
(26:11):
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 the same number three oh three four
two four four four five four. You can access our
(26:32):
sermons at any time by going to our YouTube channel
peacearbatatube dot com. Now from the entire broadcast team at
p Slupmchurch and Arbada, I am up in holiday and
May the Peace of Our Lord be with you today
and always, and
Only by being firmly rooted and established in Him and
in his faith, just as you are taught abounding and thanksgiving,
will you be up any shot of avoiding the deceit
and the empty philosophies of this world.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Good morning, and welcome to peace. To you from Peace
Lutheran Church in Arvada, Colorado. Our world has become a
place where many live according to a different way, truth,
and life than Jesus. In this new reality, it's easy
to give in and go along, or to give up
on and isolate yourself. Today, Pastor Guy will share what
(00:53):
Jesus means when he says we are called to live
in the world, but not of the world. Today you
will be reminded that because Jesus loves the world, he
has redeemed us his church for the world. Now here's
Pastor Guy.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Let's go and read this together.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
in him, rooted and built up in him, and established
in the faith, just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving.
We pray, Father, we praise, and we thank you for
this chance to be here today again to learn to
(01:35):
grow to be together as a body of Christ. And
to be reminded of who we are, who you have
made us, that we are firmly established and rooted in you.
And we just pray, Father, you now speak to our
hearts and our lives, especially as we leave here today,
that we may.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Be a light to you in Jesus' name. Amen.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
All right, how many of you lived through the fifth
through eighth grade period of life? Raise your hand? Do
you remember those days? In the fifth grade? My family
moved across town, and it was a big town, so
that was effectively like moving to another town. I left
all our friends, all my security, all the things I knew,
and I went to a new school. And I'll never
(02:16):
forget walking in to that new school the first day,
looking around, trying to figure out how this was all
going to work.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
And one of the things that I wanted.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Right away to try to establish was to get some friends,
because this is part of life. You want to get
some people you can do it with and know. And man,
it was a lot harder than I thought it was
going to be because these kids had known each other
all the way along, all the way through kindergarten, and
here I am this new guy. And that's how it
was for me in the fifth grade, the sixth grade,
(02:46):
and the seventh grade, always kind of trying to fit in,
kind of fit in, but not sure if I was
fitting in, get invited to things, and always kind of
just really striving to fit in. And there was just
all this kind of pressure and struggle. Has any of
you gone through something like this before?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
I don't think it's just that age group.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You can do this as an adult and the like
in our new neighborhood or with friends you meet and
that you like, and it's just kind of how life works.
And I remember I was put in a place one
time where I had to choose. Finally, I had to choose.
Was I going to follow the ways of the friends
that I had been striving so hard to become friends with,
(03:24):
or was I going to was I going to listen
to my parents? Because I knew that if I went
this way, my parents were going to kill me.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
So that was the struggle.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Do I do what my heart wants to do and
what I want to do, or do I follow my
parents out of fear? And I mean that and all
they were literally ground me forever and my life would
be over. So what's the point? And I remember I
got invited to this super cool thing. Oh man, it
sounded fun. I don't remember what it was. I do
know someone got arrested, but in general, I do remember
that of fuzzy back, and I don't remember what it was.
(03:56):
But these kids were going to go do something. There
weren't going to be parents there. And I was in
the seventh grade on the bus and I got invited.
And I got invited, and I was like.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Oh, I've arrived.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
My parents would kill me if I went and did
that thing and got caught, I would be grounded for
the rest.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Of my life.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
And so I had this this this you know, conundrum
was going home on a Friday. I had the whole
weekend to think about it. And as the weekend went past,
you know, as I saw these two different roads, my
way or my parents' way, I finally just said, you know,
it's not worth it.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I have to find new friends. No, seriously.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
In the seventh grade, I decided that I needed to
go find new friends. And I did and it was
so hard, and I found really good friends that became
my friends throughout high school and who I still talk
to today. And I just remember being in that place
in that crossroads, and this is kind of how life
was for many of us. The average age of our congregation,
at least the membership is forty nine, so at least
for half of us, and probably more than half of us,
(04:59):
this is how life was. We lived knowing what God's
word was for us and having our parents share it
with us, and we got to make these decisions on
a day to day.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Basis as we hit these crossroads.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Am I going to go my way, the way of
sin and selfishness, or am I going to follow His way?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And that's how life was today.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
In this world that we live in, there's a third
thing that our kids have to contend with. It's not
as simple as when we were growing up. They have
to decide if they're going to go God's way or
their way, and then there's a third option where a
bunch of pressure is coming from that they have to
go either a God's way or their way. And so
their struggle is not just against God and his will
(05:42):
for their lives and his desire for them to do
what's best for them, but it's also against the world's way.
And you might think that's the same as our way
or our kids ways in their selfishness, but it's not
necessarily there's God's way, there's the way that I would go.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
And then there's this other kind of other way.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And God says to us as his disciples, we read
it here today that He is the Way, the Truth,
and the life.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And so we know that's true. And we are used
to struggling with wanting to go and do our way,
our truth and our life. But what if there exists
a whole other category out there that we don't necessarily
agree with, which is a whole other way, a whole
nother truth, and a whole nother life. And what if
that pressure just gets harder and harder and harder and
(06:34):
stronger and stronger and stronger, and people on our kids
are left in a position to have to decide, am
I going to follow God's way or I'm going to
sadly leave that behind and go this way.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I know, it's crazy, what a weird world we live in.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I presented this a discipleship our next side, Cheryl, thank you.
This is kind of what's happened over the last forty years.
Is the church and culture which used to kind of
walk together, you could even call them married, they got divorced,
and the staff and I were talking about this, and
I think they're right. Twenty ten is when the divorce
was finalized, But that's not when the trouble begin. That
(07:19):
trouble begin in your lifetime. It's pretty much everyone hears lifetimes.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
You have seen it.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
You've seen the church and the culture who used to
kind of walk together and share common values and these things.
They got to start to get in a fight, and
then they started to be like saying things like I
deserve to be happy, the culture said. And then all
of a sudden, now they're in this period of silence maybe,
and then they get divorced, and now all of a sudden,
the culture is gone. It's out here doing its own thing.
(07:45):
It's got exactly what it wants. Truth is everything that
they wanted to be, and you can be whatever you
want to be. And then there's the church over here
full of people who don't despise them, are sad that
this has happened. And yet we just we have just
gotten to a place and my heart breaks where I
just don't think, especially our children are equipped to face
(08:06):
this world.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
To answer their questions.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Now, when you find yourself in these positions, in these places.
If you've been an adult for a while, your friendships
are established, your life is established. You don't have to
kind of if you don't want to, you can avoid
all the things that happen out there. But for these
youngest amongst us, they're still living firmly in it, and
they're being challenged all the time. And so the question
(08:33):
is like, what are we doing about this? Because there
is two ways to relieve the pressure of walking faithfully
in this world. There's two things that you can do
that will make it go away right away. The first
one is this, you go along with the world. You
just immerse yourself in it. If you say, okay, I'm.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Going to do what you want to do, everyone will
leave you alone.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
You'll fit in, life will be grand. Have you seen
this before, no worries. And then there's another way that
you can leave the pressure is you can tell the
world to go to hell.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Lena, Montana.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
You can just tell him to head right on out
to the northlands of Montana and jump off a bridge,
and you can just sit back and watch.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
If you do those two things, you'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
You will just kind of you'll just kind of live
everything will go smooth, life will be grand.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
But both of those.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Things are unfaithful to our Lord. Both of those things
deny his lordship. If you go along the world you say, God,
I don't care what you say.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
I'm going to go the way of this. It's the
easier path for me.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
And even though you say to do this, I'm just
gonna do this, and that would be wrong, that would
be sinful.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
And the other way is to look at the world
and say, I don't care about you.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
The Lord may love you, but I don't love you,
and I don't want anything to do with you. Does
that sound like Jesus? No? Okay, to say some rough
things you ready next night? Our world is one big, old, fat,
hot dumpster fire.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Okay, now you're ready to get personal, and so are you.
I don't know you very well, but I know this
about you. I've been doing this long enough. Doesn't matter
who I sit down with. If you come into my
office and we start talking about life, you're going to
be one big, fat hot The only difference between us
and the world is that our Lord came into the
(10:33):
midst of that fire, has put it out, and has
showed you a different way. And is there to walk
with you every step of every day in the midst
of all of your brokenness and pain, just like he
did today by forgiving you in the name of the
Father's Son in the Holy Spirit, and like he did
with little Bow today by claiming him as his own child,
just as.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
He did with all of you. And this is who
our Lord is. We are not different than the world.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
We are redeemed in Christ Jesus Us, and so our
temptation next slide is the same always. We can either
grab a torch and keep lighting dumpster fires and all
over the world. We can go along with the world
and just light it on fire and watch it burn.
Or next slide, we can just get marshmallows, sit back
(11:17):
and enjoy the fire. Make us more, sit down and go, hey,
that's fun.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
For you guys. Neither one of these are faithful.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
The Lord has called us. It's not even all that hard.
He has called us, then, to be something. We are
his church, We are his body. We are called to
this world and for this world. We are called to
rush in.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
We are His church. Next slide, You and me.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Now, the problem is I believe for the last thirty
forty years and when we got divorced by the culture
and we stopped thinking about this stuff, and the culture
used to do things for us like teach right and
wrong and the Ten Commandments and all this stuff, and
we've just kind of we've just got divorced and been
grieving and wallowing and wishing it was different. And we
forgot to equip our kids. We forgot to insulate our kids.
(12:09):
We forgot to give them the equipment that they're going
to need to face a world that's teaching a different
way and truth in the life.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
And it's something we got to get better at.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Because only by knowing who you are in Christ, only
by knowing who He is and what He's done for you,
only by being firmly rooted and established in Him. Next
sid if you would, only by being firmly rooted and
established in Him and in His faith, just as you
were taught abounding and thanksgiving, will you have any shot
of avoiding the deceit and the empty philosophies of this world.
(12:44):
Only by being firmly rooted in Him and insulated and protected.
Whether it be sunscreen, whether it be a fireman's jacket
and gear, or whether it be the armor of God
only by living and understanding in Him would you be
able to even walk into that burning dumpster fire world
that's been rolled into a building is now a five
alarm fire, and we can stand back and look, I'm
(13:05):
not going in there, And yet the Lord has called us,
every one of us, to go right in there, shining
his love and grace and mercy, his way, his truth
and the life. Only by knowing who you are and believing,
firmly standing, knowing exactly where you stand, would you ever
be able to have compassion on a world.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Enough to wade into the mess. That's who you and
I are.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
And we can't afford any longer, as His disciples, to
pretend like it's not happening. We can't afford any longer
to just sit back and let it burn. For the
Lord has called us.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
He has given us everything that we have, everything that
we need, and now has called us to take that.
So the answer is what are we going to do?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
And I'm excited to see where He leads us as
we have these conversations, what we'll be doing in discipleship.
Our encourage you to come and be a part of
these conversations, reflecting on not just what God has done
for us.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
But where are we living right now? What do people believe?
Why is it so bad? And how can we help them?
Come be a part of that, and.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Together we will see where the Lord will lead. Amen,
we pray, Almighty God, your word is cast like seed
into the ground.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Now let the dew of heaven descend and righteous fruit abound. Amen.
We stand and greet each other as the Church of Christ.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Good morning, pastor guy, good morning. You know we've talked
about this before. You know, we always put God. I
think you talked about putting God on a shelf, you know,
and I do that. We talked about that. You know.
I've been a lifelong Christian and Lutheran and I and
you know it's something that I really could use the
Lord's hand here. I want to do it myself. You know,
(14:59):
I can handle this. So I'm going to take care
of it myself.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, it's sobering to think.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It's it's not even that you make a decision not
to include the Lord in your life and decisions. It's
that you don't even think about it, right, it doesn't
even cross your mind. It's like it's like those kids
who they're like, I got this. I got this, I
got this, and then it just goes horribly wrong and
they go running back behind their dad's legs, going.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Don't got this, don't got this, don't got this. You know,
it's in that.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Don't got this that we finally turned to him, but
it might be maybe better to at the front end,
you know, at least ask him to come with you.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
That's exact, exactly, exactly. Well, you know, we also talked
earlier that I was watching this deal on TV and
it was I forgot what channel it was, but anyway,
they were just talking about what's happening with Christianity. You know,
where are we at? And really when you look at
all the things that are happening now, and you know,
there's been a second attempt on and on Donald Trump's
(15:56):
life and all this kind of stuff, all these things
that are happening, well, actually it's having a counter effect
that I thought it was going to have because it's
pulling people together and there's these huge groups of Christians
that are having these prayer groups that are just praying
for our country and stuff. So it's kind of having
that reverse effect.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
What you think for Christians, regardless of what your political
beliefs are and who you think would be the best
leader for our country. That secondary treating one another like
we are now over politics is certainly turned it into
an idol and led us away from what the Lord
has called us, which is to love our neighbor. And
(16:36):
even more so, you know, we're supposed to love our enemies.
So like let's say even someone was an enemy. Christ
has called us to a different way, which is to
turn your cheek and to live in a relationship love
with even those who disagree strongly with you. And yes,
we are not probably even as Christians setting a good
(16:56):
example in this area either these kinds of gatherings for
unity and that we can still be on the same
team even though we have different, different agreement, you know,
different ideas of who should be leaders. That's that is
a good Christian thing for us to be doing, and
we can we can show a different way, the way
of the Lord, certainly in that.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And there's times I think you had mentioned it in
previous weeks, or you know, when we look at who
we think is best to govern our state or be
the president of the United States, things like that. You know,
God doesn't care what we think. In a lot of ways,
you know, he's got this, he's got it under control. Yeah,
(17:39):
we have our ideas of who would be best, but
when it comes down to it, what do we really know?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yeah, we will have exactly who the Lord wants us
to have. I means, I truly believe that. And that's
why we pray for our president. Even if I didn't
vote for him, I pray for him because I know
that the Lord put him there and he's in charge
of this world too, not just the church.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Oh that's for sure. Yeah, absolutely, Well, you had talked about,
you know, what are the things that we can do,
and you said there's two things really ultimately that we
can do, and one go along with the world, which
I have a personal situation with a friend of mine
that said just that I've had enough. I'm just going
to go along with the world. What difference does it make?
(18:20):
And that hurt. But then you know, the other way
is just, you know, just tell the world just go away.
I've had enough of you.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Jump off a bridge.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Jump off a bridge. Yeah, I've had enough of you.
But what I found interesting is that you said both
of these things are really unfaithful to the Lord. To
think either one of these were not showing faith. It's
kind of like, and maybe you talked about this, you've
talked about it before. As far as worry, worry is
(18:48):
something that's really unfaithful to him, right, And so with
these two items, as far as you know, just go
along with the world or just tell the world to
jump off a cliff like you said, you say that
that's unfaithful to God. Can you just kind of expound
on that a little bit for us.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Well, both of those are selfish and they relieve the
pressure certainly, like and that's what we feel living in
the world, but not of the world. Is we're just
different and we don't fit in and it we believe
things that are contrary and people get mad at us,
and there's even persecution in the most extreme examples of this.
But when you give, when you go along with the world,
(19:27):
you're giving. You're giving up that the Lord is the
lord of your life and that he's called you to this.
And it's selfish because you are you're making the pain
and pressure and struggle go away. But you're but you're
saying to the Lord, now you go away. It's basically
what we're saying, I don't I don't need you in
this anymore. And then the other direction in which you
(19:49):
give up on the world is actually the opposite of
what his call to us is is. And it's also selfish,
which is.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I don't have time for you the world right, right,
and just I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So contrary to what Jesus has called us to be.
I mean, he literally gave his life for all of
the world, and every one of us in it is
equally sinful and broken, you know, so that it's not
like we're a better person that has now received this gift.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
We're just redeemed.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
And and so our call is Jesus freed us for
the world and to be in the midst of it
in the in the I think we talk about it
in the sermon as a dumpster fire or burning building.
You know, we're called to wrap ourselves in Him, in
his truth, his way, his life, his love, and rush in.
We are the rescue team and that's that's our job.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
So and that's the faithful way.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
That being said, let's just own that.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
That's really hard.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
And you can see why people go along or say,
you know, go jump off a bridge, but it's neither
one of those.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Are So what I thought about when you were talking
about the dumpster fires and things like that. Coming from
a fire background for many years, and I was a
firefighter and and rescue, I you know, we would go in,
but we had that coat that insulated us. But we
also had the knowledge of what that fire was all about.
What are the characteristics of that fire, What can we
(21:15):
do to fight that fire? What is the best way
to safely fight that fire? And I think that when
I was sitting in the congregation listening to you speak,
I was like, well, you know what if if we
if we do educate ourselves more, if we do go
to a Bible study and things like that and learn
more and more and more, we will be more comfortable
(21:35):
and more I think assured that. You know, we're gonna
it's gonna be all right. The Lord's right there with us.
But we can go into that burning fire and we can.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Help you help, Yeah, you can rescue.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yes, Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah, that's the training.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And no one would send just a rando off the street,
throw a jacket on him and say go put that
fire out exactly, you know, but that's kind of how
we handle it as Christians. You know, we we were
called to do this we kind of know it, but
we've never spent any time really in training of what
is it that I believe? Make sure I'm sure and
certain in this and comfortable enough and confident enough in
(22:14):
the Lord that I can listen to things.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
I disagree with and not be a jerk right right right,
or just give in. So that's one side of it.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
But then on the other side, you would also send
people in that have no idea how burning buildings work. Like,
you got to know the context of what you're going
into in the world we live in.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
And so that's at piece.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
That's what we're trying to do, is both talk about
our world, not in a condemnation way, not in the
like they're all, this is how horrible all these people are,
but like, let's understand who we're working with, and let's
understand who we are, and let's try to talk about
what it is that they desperately need.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Because they do need rescue. I mean, that's not whether
they know it or not.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
You know they do. So yeah, and you've said many times,
you know, and we hear all the time, God's got this,
But then you know, there's a lot more to that statement,
and just God's got this. I mean, he's got your back.
He's there. It's like when we go into fires. When
on the fire department, we didn't go in all by ourselves.
(23:17):
You know, we had people that had our backs, and
we we have God has our back, so we can
go into these things, we can go into these conversations
and things and talk to people because God's got our back.
And so many times we're kind of planning those seeds.
We're you know, we're trying to put out that fire.
At the same time give people the knowledge of you know,
(23:39):
you can be part of this.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
And at the risk of beating this analogy into the ground,
I would say that no fire fireman ever expects to
come through unscathed. You know, every fireman gets hurt at
some point. And so then and there, I think we
just need to own that that this, this thing we've
been called to is not safe.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
We will get hurt. I mean probably not not anytime
you're you know.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
In the near future, as far as like physically hurt.
But our emotions are, our relationships are all that when
you when you wade into the fires of people's lives,
you can expect to get burned. I mean, you're playing
a fire, and so so we have to own that too.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
But that is also part of the Lord's call.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
He does not call us to an easy, comfortable, you know,
prosperous life. He calls us to a life of sacrifice
and service to the world around us. And so that's
just part of the deal, you know. But you don't
go in like you don't go in into bathing suit,
you know, do that. No, you're going insulated and prepared
and understood as much as you can before you do it.
Speaker 2 (24:47):
So and what I what I gleaned from what you
were saying too, is that we start this by by
teaching our children, you know, when they're small, and we
raise them up u in that belief that the Lord
is right there and we you know, impress that on
our children, so they're more comfortable as they grow with
talking about.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
And that the world only makes sense through him.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Exactly right. Yeah, pastor guy, thank you so much for that.
And you know, we encourage people that might not have
a church home or people that would like to join
us here at Peace Lutheran Church at fifty seventh in
Field in Oravada. We'd love to have you here and
thank you for joining us today and God bless your
week and you as well.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Thank you, Thank you for joining us for Peace to
you from Peace Church in our bad To, Colorado. 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.
(25:50):
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 s Lucrit dot m, or at Pasarbata at YouTube
dot com. Peace to You in Part is a listener
(26:11):
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 the same number three oh three four
two four four four five four. You can access our
(26:32):
sermons at any time by going to our YouTube channel
peacearbatatube dot com. Now from the entire broadcast team at
p Slupmchurch and Arbada, I am up in holiday and
May the Peace of Our Lord be with you today
and always, and
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