August 15, 2024 • 26 mins
As Christians, we have been called to be many things. Unfortunately, we often choose to be the opposite of what we have been called for. Our words and our actions are often opposed to what we were freed to be. Pastor Guy gives us a look at what we should be doing, and how to do it.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
And on it goes. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness of wrath and anger, and clamor and
slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as
God in Christ forgiving.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning, and welcome to peace to you from Peace
Lutheran Church.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
In Arvada, Colorado. Try harder, get better, get yourself together.
This is the mantra of today's world, repeated daily in
our hearts.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Refree ourselves and self actualize.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
This leads to the enslavement in a righteousness that is
always out of reach. Christ has given us a different life,
a life of freedom, a life of victory. He takes
us who are less than, makes us more than. Listen
today as Pastor Guy shares what it means.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
To be free in Jesus. Now here's Pastor Guy.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
So.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
A few years ago, actually ten years ago, I took
a call to Minnesota, and when I showed up there,
it was much smaller, much different, and I realized in
the first time I preached at their eight o'clock service
that being out of the pulpit made them very uncomfortable.
Like when I'd walk around, if I'd get to this side,
all the people just kind of like sway back just
(01:32):
a little bit. And then I'd come over here and
they'd sway back in here. So for the sake of
their comfort, I just kind of moved into the pulpit.
But at ten point thirty I still preached out like
you've kind of seen me do, because that's how it
was in my first church. And then COVID hit and
they were trying to get everything on the screens, you
know the thing, and they just said, please, you move
around too much. Just get in the pulpit and stay there.
(01:55):
Like if you want to walk around in the pulpit,
you can just walk back and forth three feet right,
And so you do that. And it's funny how when
you preach for a while you get to get in
these habits and the like. And so I got really
used to having my sermon in front of me, and
you know, it kind of got lazy, to be honest,
is just like if it was a rough weekend, I
just read it and they were like, okay, that sounds great,
(02:15):
pastor a good job. And then I got here and
there's not even a pulpit, and so I'm like, WHOA,
I'm gonna have to learn how to do this. And
I've learned some other things about my preaching. For example,
I learned that I learned that I always preach the
Gospel lesson, like if we were not doing a sermon series,
(02:36):
I just preach on the Gospel lesson because guess who
it's about. And I want you to hear every Sunday
about who. And so I just go right in there.
And this sense I'm challenging myself to do new things.
I decided this summer I was going to preach on
the Epistle lessons. Let's not get crazy and preach on
the Old Testament, but I'm definitely the Epistle. I'm gonna
preach on these, and they're not as easy. They're fun
(03:00):
for Bible study, but they're not as easy for sure.
And so that's why what I've been doing this summer.
And today, as we gather, I want us to just
stop and ask the Lord to just bless us as
we move forward. Man, So let's pray, gracious Father, we praise,
and we thank you for a chance to be here today,
to learn, to grow and to know who it is
(03:23):
that we are because of who you are. And today
you challenge us through this epistle the Apostle Paul, you
challenge us for what a life lived and you looks like.
And we just pray you bless us as we reflect
on this in Jesus name, we pray comen. So be better,
try harder, get yourself together. That's what I was thinking
(03:44):
this week as I was doing my study. Be better,
try harder, get yourself together. It'd be real easy to
read this epistle Lesson like that, because it kind of
comes across that way to us, especially to us now
there's been something going on in the life of our
culture right now on the TVs? Have you guys been
Have you guys been watching this? Dudd? Is that even
(04:08):
the right song? Okay? I thought maybe that was Star
Wars For a second, I got confused. And so our
family we don't have cable and we don't have TV,
and so we've been kind of resorting to watch little
clips on NBC YouTube, you know, And so I've been
seeing some of this stuff. It's pretty exciting. How have
we've been watching the Olympics? Anyone been glod to it?
Super addicted? Need to pray after church. Okay, sound good.
(04:33):
So it's just it is everything it's supposed to be.
You know this, this be better, try harder, get yourself together.
It's on full display. And there's always these incredible stories.
That's why we watch. And a few of the ones
I've seen, I'm sure there have been more. Is there's
this runner he ran the four hundred, which is one
lap around the track, Quincy something I think his name was,
and he was he was like behind by a lot,
(04:56):
and coming into the last hundred yards, it looked like
every step he was gonna all down. Did anyone see this?
Every step that he looked like he was just gonna biffit?
And yet somehow, miraculously these long strides, he finished first
and got the gold and it was like us say,
you you know, that was so cool? And then and
then that I saw another clip of track and it
(05:19):
was the four by one hundred ladies. Did anyone watch
this one? And those ladies are supreme in their confidence.
They they were something to behold. And again coming into
the end, it's a classic American you know, Rocky uh
type story, come from behind when she gets the baton
Shikari Richardson, Is that her name. Did you get it right?
(05:42):
I don't. We don't have cable. I just this is
a clip. And she gets the baton and she is
in fourth place, I think. And she takes off running
and she comes across the she she gets she passes
everybody and looks over at them like just stares them
down as she's going across the finish line. And then
she comes across the finish line and they show the
classic thing of them looking up at the scoreboard to
(06:04):
see what happened, and she's standing there looking at and
it must have been taken a second. You know how
that happens. And then you know, when they find out
they won the gold, what's the usual response, like, oh,
they cry and they jump up and down and put
the flag on and run around. But not this lady.
She knew she belonged there. She saw it. It flashed
(06:27):
on and she goes like this, did anyone see this?
Totally stoneface, no celebration. It was like, yeah, right, that's right,
we won. Yeah. And I thought, Oh, there's a gal
who's been her whole life and striving to be better,
to try harder, to get her life together, and she
(06:48):
has just she has reached the pinnacle and there she is.
And we love this. We love this about the Olympics,
we love this about life. You know, there's only one
shoe that ever goes on sale. Did you know this?
If you've done school shopping, you know this is true.
You go to the Thornton outlet malls and there are
a bunch of shoe places. There's only one that never
has any good sales. What store is it? Nike? Right?
(07:12):
Some when I was a kid, they came out, It's
got the swoosh. I grew up in Oregon, that's where
they're from, and they have the motto just right. We
love this. We've been seeing these commercials. We live this
way and we know what it's like. Be better, try harder,
and get yourself together. And so we live life like this,
and it's not a bad thing. You should try harder,
you should strive to do things and to reach greatness.
(07:34):
We all want this for our children and our grandchildren.
But when you come and you read the scriptures, especially
like an epistle today, you know it's easy to kind
of apply that same standard and then it just won't
make sense to you. It won't make sense to you.
So if you take today's epistole lesson that we read,
and we're gonna read a little bit more of it beyond,
(07:56):
but it says it's easy to approach this. And here
Paul saying to us that sin is something that needs
to be conquered, that life is something for us that
we need to master, and that Jesus has come here
to show us how to do this, and that with
the right amount of discipline and the proper principles and
a whole lot of determination and grit, we can pull
(08:19):
ourselves together if we just try harder, and if we
get better, we'll figure this out. And yet we just
know that we know that's not true. Ah. As I
was reading this and kind of thinking about today, there's
that story in the Old Testament. It's a lot or
it's Abraham and he's talking to God up above the
(08:40):
city of Sodom, and God has said that he is
going to destroy the city of Sodom, and do you
remember the story? And Abraham's like, you know what, if
there's some righteous people in that city and you destroy
them and they kind of get destroyed, and for the
sake of forty God, will you will you relent? And
God says what yeah, for the sake of forty. And
(09:04):
it's like, oh, okay, so Abraham you can just see
him going, oh what about thirty? At twenty, it gets
down all the way down to ten. What if there's
just ten righteous people in this large city? Will you
spare the city? He says, yes, for the sake of ten.
But what happens to the city. It gets destroyed. I'm
(09:25):
convinced God, if Abraham had gone all the way down,
if there's just one righteous person in the city, would
you save it? And God would have said, what, Yeah, yeah,
I would. But in this city there was zero, not
even one. And there have been zero people all the
way from the fall from Adam and Eve into life,
(09:45):
all the way through. There's just only ever been one
person since the fall into sin that's ever been righteous.
And his name is what Jesus now ironic that God
would have spared a whole city, the whole world if
there's one righteous person. But his ultimate act of love
(10:05):
was to pour out all of his wrath and condemnation
of sin on that one righteous person for you and me,
And so for him to sacrifice all of that must
mean that it must have been a big deal for God.
To have to die on a cross must mean that
there's something about us that we just must not forget.
And the way I've been thinking about it is, even
though we should try to be good and we should
(10:27):
try to do these things, we know, and we confessed
even here today, that we are less than what God
created us to be, what He intended for us to be.
We just know this about ourselves. If you come to
eight o'clock service, you'll hear often I'm a poor, miserable sinner.
That's a statement of identity. I am. That's who I am.
There's no illusions here. We're not going to buy effort.
(10:51):
The right principles become righteous. Our righteousness comes from Christ alone.
And even though we are less than, He has made
us more then, more than conquerors through His love and sacrifice.
That's who we are. We are people who are less
than in our sin, but have been made more than
(11:11):
in the blood and victory of Christ. And it's with
that then we approach this epistle Lesson. You got to
have that in place or you won't get it. You'll
just hear it as a set of things that you
need to be to live, to try harder, to get better,
to get your life together. That's what you'll hear it as,
but it's not. This. What I'm about to read to
(11:32):
you is a call from Paul to a bunch of
people just like you and me, living life, to repent again,
to turn daily, every second of every life, going to
the one who gives us hope, that one who has
made us more then, and he's telling us that in
order to do this, you're going to have to abandon
your former ways. And he's going to talk about you.
(11:53):
Not I'm going to read it here in a second,
so I just prepare you. You are a gentile? Did
you know this? I know we have one Jew Jew
here bye by ethnicity. I don't see him though, which
means everyone else here is what. Oh we had one
on last service, Bobby. Yeah, she's a Jewish Christian. That's right.
(12:14):
I forgot about that. I have to apologize to her later,
all right, but everyone else, you're a what? Okay, it's fun.
We've done this before, I think, even since I've been here.
Turn to your neighbor and go, you're a gentile. Yeah,
did they get you? You're a gentile? You look pretty serious.
I apologize, but I just want to say it to you,
(12:35):
and you are in both sense of the means. Not
only are you gentile, you are then you are something different.
Now too, you're gonna hear about your a redeemed child
of God, you which makes you a follower of Christ,
which makes you a Christian, something new. And so it's
not just by ethnicity. This is something that you used
(12:56):
to be a certain way, and now you're not. So
listen to this, he says. Now this, I say and
testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk
as the gentiles do in the futility of their minds.
They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the
life of God because of the ignorance that is in them,
due to their hardness of heart. And what he's meaning
(13:16):
is that they just live as if there's not a
God who is in control of all things, that they
are God and he is not. That's what it means
to live this way, and it's a way that we recognize,
we see all around us, and we recognize in our
own hearts. It says, they have become callous and have
given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind
of impurity, and that is not the way you learned Christ,
(13:39):
assuming that you've heard about Him and were taught in Him,
as the truth is in Jesus. To put off your
old self, which belongs to your former manner of life
and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed
in the spirit of your minds, and to put on
the new self, created after the likeness of God, in
true righteousness and whole lilines. And this is who we are,
(14:01):
people born less than but made more than, those who
live victorious. And so now you have been freed from
your sin, but not free to just do whatever you want.
You have been freed to something higher. More. You've been
freed to imitate Christ, as we heard in the Children's Lesson,
which means your life is not your own, and there
(14:23):
are things for you in this world. And so then
he gets to this place, Well, we'd be easy to hear,
as we just need to try harder and do better.
He encourages people who have repented and turned from themselves,
who have set the old, to become the new that
Christ has made us. And he says, therefore, having put
away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth
(14:44):
with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Now,
I've been a Lutheran long enough, in fact, when I'm
doing these cottage means, I've learned that I've been a
Lutheran longer than a lot of you, and I've learned
something about Lutherans. I don't really know about other churches.
But for us, speaking the truth is hard because it
requires you to say hard things. And I know about you.
(15:07):
If you've ever said a hard thing to someone you
love that didn't ask you to say it, how does
that usually go? He ever done this, it's much easier
and pretty selfish actually, to just be like, oh, that's hard,
I'm going to go over here for a while. But
to speak the truth in love because you love that person, well,
(15:30):
that's not about you anymore. It's about who we live
in the love of Christ. We see it clearly on
the Cross, and we know that that's what we're called to.
And you'll see a theme as we go through these
man that's what God has for us to live in love.
And when you speak a hard thing to someone who
needs to hear it because they're struggling with sin, you
(15:50):
know it's going to come at a cost to you personally,
but it's worth it because you love them and you're
going to see this. It can continue to dine, be
angry and do not sin, do not let the sun
go down on your anger, which is one of the
things that our wedding and someone said, don't go to
bed angry. Did anyone ever hear that before? And then
you get married for a few minutes and then you're
(16:11):
just really tired. Have you ever had this happen? And
you're like tired of talking about it? And we'll talk
about this tomorrow. Except for a lot of times you
don't because you're kind of rested and just sits there
and goes away beautifully magically, like a unicorn comes in,
it takes it and it just disappears. Right, No, just festers,
(16:31):
doesn't it. It comes out in weird places like will
you hand me that orange?
Speaker 5 (16:35):
No?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
I will not your So I'm still mad at you.
That didn't happen. That's a completely made up that actually
has never happened. There's other stories I can tell, and
here it is. This is how life is. And so
you when you marry someone and commit to them in
the love of Christ has been one for you being
may more than you have committed to yourself to not
(16:57):
go to bed angry because you care about them. If
it was just about you, you'd be like, I want
to talk about this. I don't have time for this.
And yet this is the life the Lord has called
us to. It says, don't give opportunity to the devil.
What a great statement to get in there and to
make a mess and to cause bitterness. Let the thief
(17:17):
no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest
work with his own hands, so you may have something
to share with everyone in need. And again, it's not
just so that the person will have fulfillment and not
be a thief, or that he'll somehow be perfect and
stop being bad. It's because that when the time comes,
if you have honest work and these things that the
Lord has provided, you can be generous to others. Let
(17:39):
no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only
such as good for the building up, as fits the occasion,
that it may give grace to those who hear. Now,
I said, I've been a Lutheran for a while. I
think this is true of every church, no matter what
background you come from. I with my super Spidey senses.
I can tell just from looking at people talking if
(18:02):
it's wholesome talk or unwholesome talk. Can you yeah, Like
wholesome talk looks like this, people wide open circle, biting
people in talking, being encouraging, and unwholesome talk is usually
in a circle, right, and everyone's doing one of these.
(18:25):
You know, my browser going up and they're always everything.
There's a serious glancing around every once in a while.
So your pastor is gonna sneak up on them and
all this stuff and what happens. You've seen this, You
know what happens with these words. So the Lord encourages
us here. Paul's saying here that you should have not
unwholesome talk, but wholesome talk, because there's anyone ever said
anything to a loved one and wished you could grab
(18:47):
the word as it's coming out of your mouth, but
you can't because it's a word and there's nothing to
grab onto. And then it hits almost physically. Have you
ever had this happen and you could just see the
spirit deflating in the person you're talking. Has anyone ever
seen this? Okay, it's just me again, So we know
(19:09):
the power of words, it can be so destructive. But yeah,
we also know and we have seen that the power
of the word can be such an incredible gift to
others that those same words that come out of your
mouth can lift up that they can. As it says here,
it says that it may let no corrupting talk come
out of your mouths, but only such as good for
(19:29):
building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give
grace to those who hear. And again the focus isn't
on you getting better, trying harder, but for the sake
of others the love that has been given to you.
And on it goes. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamor and
(19:51):
slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as
God in Christ forgave you. And then it gets to
the children's lesson. Be imitators of God as beloved children,
and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave
(20:13):
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
This love that has been one for you has been
given to you, that you received again this day as
you confessed your sin. That was given to your baptism
is yours. Now you live and dwell in it. You
were less than, but you have been made more than.
(20:33):
And now the Lord has freed you, not for a
life of your own purposes and intents, focused on your
own needs, but for others. And this same love is
what you have to give away. That's the life that
we're called to, a life in Christ. Amen, we pray,
(20:54):
Almighty God, your word is cast like seed into the ground.
Now let the doo of heaven descend and righteous fruit
about on it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Good morning, pastor guy, good morning, thank you for that message.
Oh you're welcome, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
And we are brought up in a world where it's
be better, try harder, get yourself together.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
But we're missing the point here, aren't we We're missing
the point?
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, I mean, what a great time to just know
about ourselves that we want it to be like this.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
The Olympics are the perfect example. Like that is kind
of the thing.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
You strive for excellence, to perfection, strive for gold, and
for us, the hope is that the gold has been
given to us before we begin the race, and that's
a different thing.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
Yes, try harder, get better, get yourself together.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
And like you said, and you're serving that gold. That's
kind of the pinnacle of athleticism and that time, that's
the pinnacle. But the pinnacle for us as Christians is
our salvation, everlasting.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Life yep, given to us in Christ. Yes, it's already
been done.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
And and what an unbelievable love that is. You know
where God gave his son for us to do that.
And it's not that we just don't do anything.
Speaker 7 (22:12):
I mean, there are some things that we need to do,
we need to learn, we need to understand, and we
need to be like you and I had talked about
before about being the kind, gracious, understanding person when we're
talking to others about this.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, and not to get the gold, but to serve
our neighbor, Yes, to love the person the people around us.
And that's a that's a very different life. You've been freed,
but you've been freed to be His servant for others.
And it's just it is the Christian life, So.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
It is, and it's it's it's not easy, It really isn't.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Because I know there's times where I meet people and
I talk to them and I know that there's going
to be some friction, and I.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Say a prayer, yeah, you know, and Lord help me
through this. Send your spirit down, send you spirit down,
and help me with this, because I alone, I'm.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Just a mere human.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I don't I don't do that well very you know,
sometimes for.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Sure, And you know, they're one of the passive things
and encouragements about those who live in this life that
Paul gives is that you should speak the truth to
one another, you know, And I really emphasize that one
in my sermon and my thoughts because.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
That's hard to hear. It's hard.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
It's hard to hear the truth from people, especially if
it's if it's a hard truth to hear that you
haven't asked for, you know. But if that person is
doing it in love because they care about you, that's
what the Lord calls us to.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
And a selfish approach to that would.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Be to remain silent to avoid conflict and not have
to go through that with someone.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
But if you actually cared for them, you would speak
that truth.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And that's probably the thing I've seen in the church
that people struggle with the most with their kids and grandkids,
and you know they would rather they just rather keep
the peace than speak true things. Right, And that's not love,
you know, that's stuff. I mean when you look at it,
that's selfishness.
Speaker 8 (24:06):
And you're approaching them with kindness and love. But and
like you said, you someone don't let any corrupting you know,
things come out of your mouth.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
But and yeah, love has not defined how it's received
by how it's received. Was a big thing I've learned
in the over the years is that love is saying
the thing that the person needs to hear in a
gentle kind as best you can. But because they need
to hear it, and that's that's hard, that's hard to do.
(24:37):
And yet that's what the Lord does, is he sacrifices,
he gives of himself, and that's the same thing we've
been called to and just goes throughout the rest of
life too.
Speaker 9 (24:46):
So absolutely, Well, you know, I know there's a lot
of folks out there that are on church, they don't
have of a church home, and hopefully they're listening to
this and saying I want to be a part of
that love, I want to be a part of that
and learn more about this. Well, please come and join us.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Yeah, we'd love to have you.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Peace Lutheran Church, fifty seventh in Field. We love it
if you are here and Pastor Guy have a great week.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
You as well.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Thank you, thank you for joining us for Peace to
(25:34):
you from Peace Church in Our Bada, Colorado. If you
have no church home, we would be delighted for you
to join us on any Sunday. Our address is five
six seventy 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
(25:56):
can easily access our sermons online at www dot p,
s Lucre dot M, or at Piacearbata 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,
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(26:17):
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(26:37):
Now from the entire broadcast team at PELUPAM Church and Arbada.
I am moving Holliday and may the peace of our
Lord you with you today and always
And on it goes. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness of wrath and anger, and clamor and
slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as
God in Christ forgiving.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good morning, and welcome to peace to you from Peace
Lutheran Church.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
In Arvada, Colorado. Try harder, get better, get yourself together.
This is the mantra of today's world, repeated daily in
our hearts.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Refree ourselves and self actualize.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
This leads to the enslavement in a righteousness that is
always out of reach. Christ has given us a different life,
a life of freedom, a life of victory. He takes
us who are less than, makes us more than. Listen
today as Pastor Guy shares what it means.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
To be free in Jesus. Now here's Pastor Guy.
Speaker 5 (01:11):
So.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
A few years ago, actually ten years ago, I took
a call to Minnesota, and when I showed up there,
it was much smaller, much different, and I realized in
the first time I preached at their eight o'clock service
that being out of the pulpit made them very uncomfortable.
Like when I'd walk around, if I'd get to this side,
all the people just kind of like sway back just
(01:32):
a little bit. And then I'd come over here and
they'd sway back in here. So for the sake of
their comfort, I just kind of moved into the pulpit.
But at ten point thirty I still preached out like
you've kind of seen me do, because that's how it
was in my first church. And then COVID hit and
they were trying to get everything on the screens, you
know the thing, and they just said, please, you move
around too much. Just get in the pulpit and stay there.
(01:55):
Like if you want to walk around in the pulpit,
you can just walk back and forth three feet right,
And so you do that. And it's funny how when
you preach for a while you get to get in
these habits and the like. And so I got really
used to having my sermon in front of me, and
you know, it kind of got lazy, to be honest,
is just like if it was a rough weekend, I
just read it and they were like, okay, that sounds great,
(02:15):
pastor a good job. And then I got here and
there's not even a pulpit, and so I'm like, WHOA,
I'm gonna have to learn how to do this. And
I've learned some other things about my preaching. For example,
I learned that I learned that I always preach the
Gospel lesson, like if we were not doing a sermon series,
(02:36):
I just preach on the Gospel lesson because guess who
it's about. And I want you to hear every Sunday
about who. And so I just go right in there.
And this sense I'm challenging myself to do new things.
I decided this summer I was going to preach on
the Epistle lessons. Let's not get crazy and preach on
the Old Testament, but I'm definitely the Epistle. I'm gonna
preach on these, and they're not as easy. They're fun
(03:00):
for Bible study, but they're not as easy for sure.
And so that's why what I've been doing this summer.
And today, as we gather, I want us to just
stop and ask the Lord to just bless us as
we move forward. Man, So let's pray, gracious Father, we praise,
and we thank you for a chance to be here today,
to learn, to grow and to know who it is
(03:23):
that we are because of who you are. And today
you challenge us through this epistle the Apostle Paul, you
challenge us for what a life lived and you looks like.
And we just pray you bless us as we reflect
on this in Jesus name, we pray comen. So be better,
try harder, get yourself together. That's what I was thinking
(03:44):
this week as I was doing my study. Be better,
try harder, get yourself together. It'd be real easy to
read this epistle Lesson like that, because it kind of
comes across that way to us, especially to us now
there's been something going on in the life of our
culture right now on the TVs? Have you guys been
Have you guys been watching this? Dudd? Is that even
(04:08):
the right song? Okay? I thought maybe that was Star
Wars For a second, I got confused. And so our
family we don't have cable and we don't have TV,
and so we've been kind of resorting to watch little
clips on NBC YouTube, you know, And so I've been
seeing some of this stuff. It's pretty exciting. How have
we've been watching the Olympics? Anyone been glod to it?
Super addicted? Need to pray after church. Okay, sound good.
(04:33):
So it's just it is everything it's supposed to be.
You know this, this be better, try harder, get yourself together.
It's on full display. And there's always these incredible stories.
That's why we watch. And a few of the ones
I've seen, I'm sure there have been more. Is there's
this runner he ran the four hundred, which is one
lap around the track, Quincy something I think his name was,
and he was he was like behind by a lot,
(04:56):
and coming into the last hundred yards, it looked like
every step he was gonna all down. Did anyone see this?
Every step that he looked like he was just gonna biffit?
And yet somehow, miraculously these long strides, he finished first
and got the gold and it was like us say,
you you know, that was so cool? And then and
then that I saw another clip of track and it
(05:19):
was the four by one hundred ladies. Did anyone watch
this one? And those ladies are supreme in their confidence.
They they were something to behold. And again coming into
the end, it's a classic American you know, Rocky uh
type story, come from behind when she gets the baton
Shikari Richardson, Is that her name. Did you get it right?
(05:42):
I don't. We don't have cable. I just this is
a clip. And she gets the baton and she is
in fourth place, I think. And she takes off running
and she comes across the she she gets she passes
everybody and looks over at them like just stares them
down as she's going across the finish line. And then
she comes across the finish line and they show the
classic thing of them looking up at the scoreboard to
(06:04):
see what happened, and she's standing there looking at and
it must have been taken a second. You know how
that happens. And then you know, when they find out
they won the gold, what's the usual response, like, oh,
they cry and they jump up and down and put
the flag on and run around. But not this lady.
She knew she belonged there. She saw it. It flashed
(06:27):
on and she goes like this, did anyone see this?
Totally stoneface, no celebration. It was like, yeah, right, that's right,
we won. Yeah. And I thought, Oh, there's a gal
who's been her whole life and striving to be better,
to try harder, to get her life together, and she
(06:48):
has just she has reached the pinnacle and there she is.
And we love this. We love this about the Olympics,
we love this about life. You know, there's only one
shoe that ever goes on sale. Did you know this?
If you've done school shopping, you know this is true.
You go to the Thornton outlet malls and there are
a bunch of shoe places. There's only one that never
has any good sales. What store is it? Nike? Right?
(07:12):
Some when I was a kid, they came out, It's
got the swoosh. I grew up in Oregon, that's where
they're from, and they have the motto just right. We
love this. We've been seeing these commercials. We live this
way and we know what it's like. Be better, try harder,
and get yourself together. And so we live life like this,
and it's not a bad thing. You should try harder,
you should strive to do things and to reach greatness.
(07:34):
We all want this for our children and our grandchildren.
But when you come and you read the scriptures, especially
like an epistle today, you know it's easy to kind
of apply that same standard and then it just won't
make sense to you. It won't make sense to you.
So if you take today's epistole lesson that we read,
and we're gonna read a little bit more of it beyond,
(07:56):
but it says it's easy to approach this. And here
Paul saying to us that sin is something that needs
to be conquered, that life is something for us that
we need to master, and that Jesus has come here
to show us how to do this, and that with
the right amount of discipline and the proper principles and
a whole lot of determination and grit, we can pull
(08:19):
ourselves together if we just try harder, and if we
get better, we'll figure this out. And yet we just
know that we know that's not true. Ah. As I
was reading this and kind of thinking about today, there's
that story in the Old Testament. It's a lot or
it's Abraham and he's talking to God up above the
(08:40):
city of Sodom, and God has said that he is
going to destroy the city of Sodom, and do you
remember the story? And Abraham's like, you know what, if
there's some righteous people in that city and you destroy
them and they kind of get destroyed, and for the
sake of forty God, will you will you relent? And
God says what yeah, for the sake of forty. And
(09:04):
it's like, oh, okay, so Abraham you can just see
him going, oh what about thirty? At twenty, it gets
down all the way down to ten. What if there's
just ten righteous people in this large city? Will you
spare the city? He says, yes, for the sake of ten.
But what happens to the city. It gets destroyed. I'm
(09:25):
convinced God, if Abraham had gone all the way down,
if there's just one righteous person in the city, would
you save it? And God would have said, what, Yeah, yeah,
I would. But in this city there was zero, not
even one. And there have been zero people all the
way from the fall from Adam and Eve into life,
(09:45):
all the way through. There's just only ever been one
person since the fall into sin that's ever been righteous.
And his name is what Jesus now ironic that God
would have spared a whole city, the whole world if
there's one righteous person. But his ultimate act of love
(10:05):
was to pour out all of his wrath and condemnation
of sin on that one righteous person for you and me,
And so for him to sacrifice all of that must
mean that it must have been a big deal for God.
To have to die on a cross must mean that
there's something about us that we just must not forget.
And the way I've been thinking about it is, even
though we should try to be good and we should
(10:27):
try to do these things, we know, and we confessed
even here today, that we are less than what God
created us to be, what He intended for us to be.
We just know this about ourselves. If you come to
eight o'clock service, you'll hear often I'm a poor, miserable sinner.
That's a statement of identity. I am. That's who I am.
There's no illusions here. We're not going to buy effort.
(10:51):
The right principles become righteous. Our righteousness comes from Christ alone.
And even though we are less than, He has made
us more then, more than conquerors through His love and sacrifice.
That's who we are. We are people who are less
than in our sin, but have been made more than
(11:11):
in the blood and victory of Christ. And it's with
that then we approach this epistle Lesson. You got to
have that in place or you won't get it. You'll
just hear it as a set of things that you
need to be to live, to try harder, to get better,
to get your life together. That's what you'll hear it as,
but it's not. This. What I'm about to read to
(11:32):
you is a call from Paul to a bunch of
people just like you and me, living life, to repent again,
to turn daily, every second of every life, going to
the one who gives us hope, that one who has
made us more then, and he's telling us that in
order to do this, you're going to have to abandon
your former ways. And he's going to talk about you.
(11:53):
Not I'm going to read it here in a second,
so I just prepare you. You are a gentile? Did
you know this? I know we have one Jew Jew
here bye by ethnicity. I don't see him though, which
means everyone else here is what. Oh we had one
on last service, Bobby. Yeah, she's a Jewish Christian. That's right.
(12:14):
I forgot about that. I have to apologize to her later,
all right, but everyone else, you're a what? Okay, it's fun.
We've done this before, I think, even since I've been here.
Turn to your neighbor and go, you're a gentile. Yeah,
did they get you? You're a gentile? You look pretty serious.
I apologize, but I just want to say it to you,
(12:35):
and you are in both sense of the means. Not
only are you gentile, you are then you are something different.
Now too, you're gonna hear about your a redeemed child
of God, you which makes you a follower of Christ,
which makes you a Christian, something new. And so it's
not just by ethnicity. This is something that you used
(12:56):
to be a certain way, and now you're not. So
listen to this, he says. Now this, I say and
testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk
as the gentiles do in the futility of their minds.
They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the
life of God because of the ignorance that is in them,
due to their hardness of heart. And what he's meaning
(13:16):
is that they just live as if there's not a
God who is in control of all things, that they
are God and he is not. That's what it means
to live this way, and it's a way that we recognize,
we see all around us, and we recognize in our
own hearts. It says, they have become callous and have
given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind
of impurity, and that is not the way you learned Christ,
(13:39):
assuming that you've heard about Him and were taught in Him,
as the truth is in Jesus. To put off your
old self, which belongs to your former manner of life
and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed
in the spirit of your minds, and to put on
the new self, created after the likeness of God, in
true righteousness and whole lilines. And this is who we are,
(14:01):
people born less than but made more than, those who
live victorious. And so now you have been freed from
your sin, but not free to just do whatever you want.
You have been freed to something higher. More. You've been
freed to imitate Christ, as we heard in the Children's Lesson,
which means your life is not your own, and there
(14:23):
are things for you in this world. And so then
he gets to this place, Well, we'd be easy to hear,
as we just need to try harder and do better.
He encourages people who have repented and turned from themselves,
who have set the old, to become the new that
Christ has made us. And he says, therefore, having put
away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth
(14:44):
with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Now,
I've been a Lutheran long enough, in fact, when I'm
doing these cottage means, I've learned that I've been a
Lutheran longer than a lot of you, and I've learned
something about Lutherans. I don't really know about other churches.
But for us, speaking the truth is hard because it
requires you to say hard things. And I know about you.
(15:07):
If you've ever said a hard thing to someone you
love that didn't ask you to say it, how does
that usually go? He ever done this, it's much easier
and pretty selfish actually, to just be like, oh, that's hard,
I'm going to go over here for a while. But
to speak the truth in love because you love that person, well,
(15:30):
that's not about you anymore. It's about who we live
in the love of Christ. We see it clearly on
the Cross, and we know that that's what we're called to.
And you'll see a theme as we go through these
man that's what God has for us to live in love.
And when you speak a hard thing to someone who
needs to hear it because they're struggling with sin, you
(15:50):
know it's going to come at a cost to you personally,
but it's worth it because you love them and you're
going to see this. It can continue to dine, be
angry and do not sin, do not let the sun
go down on your anger, which is one of the
things that our wedding and someone said, don't go to
bed angry. Did anyone ever hear that before? And then
you get married for a few minutes and then you're
(16:11):
just really tired. Have you ever had this happen? And
you're like tired of talking about it? And we'll talk
about this tomorrow. Except for a lot of times you
don't because you're kind of rested and just sits there
and goes away beautifully magically, like a unicorn comes in,
it takes it and it just disappears. Right, No, just festers,
(16:31):
doesn't it. It comes out in weird places like will
you hand me that orange?
Speaker 5 (16:35):
No?
Speaker 1 (16:35):
I will not your So I'm still mad at you.
That didn't happen. That's a completely made up that actually
has never happened. There's other stories I can tell, and
here it is. This is how life is. And so
you when you marry someone and commit to them in
the love of Christ has been one for you being
may more than you have committed to yourself to not
(16:57):
go to bed angry because you care about them. If
it was just about you, you'd be like, I want
to talk about this. I don't have time for this.
And yet this is the life the Lord has called
us to. It says, don't give opportunity to the devil.
What a great statement to get in there and to
make a mess and to cause bitterness. Let the thief
(17:17):
no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest
work with his own hands, so you may have something
to share with everyone in need. And again, it's not
just so that the person will have fulfillment and not
be a thief, or that he'll somehow be perfect and
stop being bad. It's because that when the time comes,
if you have honest work and these things that the
Lord has provided, you can be generous to others. Let
(17:39):
no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only
such as good for the building up, as fits the occasion,
that it may give grace to those who hear. Now,
I said, I've been a Lutheran for a while. I
think this is true of every church, no matter what
background you come from. I with my super Spidey senses.
I can tell just from looking at people talking if
(18:02):
it's wholesome talk or unwholesome talk. Can you yeah, Like
wholesome talk looks like this, people wide open circle, biting
people in talking, being encouraging, and unwholesome talk is usually
in a circle, right, and everyone's doing one of these.
(18:25):
You know, my browser going up and they're always everything.
There's a serious glancing around every once in a while.
So your pastor is gonna sneak up on them and
all this stuff and what happens. You've seen this, You
know what happens with these words. So the Lord encourages
us here. Paul's saying here that you should have not
unwholesome talk, but wholesome talk, because there's anyone ever said
anything to a loved one and wished you could grab
(18:47):
the word as it's coming out of your mouth, but
you can't because it's a word and there's nothing to
grab onto. And then it hits almost physically. Have you
ever had this happen and you could just see the
spirit deflating in the person you're talking. Has anyone ever
seen this? Okay, it's just me again, So we know
(19:09):
the power of words, it can be so destructive. But yeah,
we also know and we have seen that the power
of the word can be such an incredible gift to
others that those same words that come out of your
mouth can lift up that they can. As it says here,
it says that it may let no corrupting talk come
out of your mouths, but only such as good for
(19:29):
building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give
grace to those who hear. And again the focus isn't
on you getting better, trying harder, but for the sake
of others the love that has been given to you.
And on it goes. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
by whom you are sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamor and
(19:51):
slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as
God in Christ forgave you. And then it gets to
the children's lesson. Be imitators of God as beloved children,
and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave
(20:13):
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
This love that has been one for you has been
given to you, that you received again this day as
you confessed your sin. That was given to your baptism
is yours. Now you live and dwell in it. You
were less than, but you have been made more than.
(20:33):
And now the Lord has freed you, not for a
life of your own purposes and intents, focused on your
own needs, but for others. And this same love is
what you have to give away. That's the life that
we're called to, a life in Christ. Amen, we pray,
(20:54):
Almighty God, your word is cast like seed into the ground.
Now let the doo of heaven descend and righteous fruit
about on it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Good morning, pastor guy, good morning, thank you for that message.
Oh you're welcome, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
And we are brought up in a world where it's
be better, try harder, get yourself together.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
But we're missing the point here, aren't we We're missing
the point?
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Yeah, I mean, what a great time to just know
about ourselves that we want it to be like this.
Speaker 6 (21:27):
The Olympics are the perfect example. Like that is kind
of the thing.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
You strive for excellence, to perfection, strive for gold, and
for us, the hope is that the gold has been
given to us before we begin the race, and that's
a different thing.
Speaker 6 (21:41):
Yes, try harder, get better, get yourself together.
Speaker 4 (21:43):
And like you said, and you're serving that gold. That's
kind of the pinnacle of athleticism and that time, that's
the pinnacle. But the pinnacle for us as Christians is
our salvation, everlasting.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Life yep, given to us in Christ. Yes, it's already
been done.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
And and what an unbelievable love that is. You know
where God gave his son for us to do that.
And it's not that we just don't do anything.
Speaker 7 (22:12):
I mean, there are some things that we need to do,
we need to learn, we need to understand, and we
need to be like you and I had talked about
before about being the kind, gracious, understanding person when we're
talking to others about this.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Yeah, and not to get the gold, but to serve
our neighbor, Yes, to love the person the people around us.
And that's a that's a very different life. You've been freed,
but you've been freed to be His servant for others.
And it's just it is the Christian life, So.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
It is, and it's it's it's not easy, It really isn't.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Because I know there's times where I meet people and
I talk to them and I know that there's going
to be some friction, and I.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Say a prayer, yeah, you know, and Lord help me
through this. Send your spirit down, send you spirit down,
and help me with this, because I alone, I'm.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Just a mere human.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I don't I don't do that well very you know,
sometimes for.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Sure, And you know, they're one of the passive things
and encouragements about those who live in this life that
Paul gives is that you should speak the truth to
one another, you know, And I really emphasize that one
in my sermon and my thoughts because.
Speaker 6 (23:22):
That's hard to hear. It's hard.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
It's hard to hear the truth from people, especially if
it's if it's a hard truth to hear that you
haven't asked for, you know. But if that person is
doing it in love because they care about you, that's
what the Lord calls us to.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
And a selfish approach to that would.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Be to remain silent to avoid conflict and not have
to go through that with someone.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
But if you actually cared for them, you would speak
that truth.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And that's probably the thing I've seen in the church
that people struggle with the most with their kids and grandkids,
and you know they would rather they just rather keep
the peace than speak true things. Right, And that's not love,
you know, that's stuff. I mean when you look at it,
that's selfishness.
Speaker 8 (24:06):
And you're approaching them with kindness and love. But and
like you said, you someone don't let any corrupting you know,
things come out of your mouth.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
But and yeah, love has not defined how it's received
by how it's received. Was a big thing I've learned
in the over the years is that love is saying
the thing that the person needs to hear in a
gentle kind as best you can. But because they need
to hear it, and that's that's hard, that's hard to do.
(24:37):
And yet that's what the Lord does, is he sacrifices,
he gives of himself, and that's the same thing we've
been called to and just goes throughout the rest of
life too.
Speaker 9 (24:46):
So absolutely, Well, you know, I know there's a lot
of folks out there that are on church, they don't
have of a church home, and hopefully they're listening to
this and saying I want to be a part of
that love, I want to be a part of that
and learn more about this. Well, please come and join us.
Speaker 6 (25:03):
Yeah, we'd love to have you.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Peace Lutheran Church, fifty seventh in Field. We love it
if you are here and Pastor Guy have a great week.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
You as well.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Thank you, thank you for joining us for Peace to
(25:34):
you from Peace Church in Our Bada, Colorado. If you
have no church home, we would be delighted for you
to join us on any Sunday. Our address is five
six seventy 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
(25:56):
can easily access our sermons online at www dot p,
s Lucre dot M, or at Piacearbata 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
(26:17):
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 sermons at any
time by going to our YouTube channel Peacearbata YouTube dot com.
(26:37):
Now from the entire broadcast team at PELUPAM Church and Arbada.
I am moving Holliday and may the peace of our
Lord you with you today and always
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