September 5, 2024 • 27 mins
We must all face the specter of mortality one day, but we often ask ourselves how we can do that well. What does dying well look like? How will we be remembered? Pastor Tim elaborates on this subject and more in his sermon today.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And so I'm bidding you. I'm pleading with you, just
like Moses plugged with the people of Israel.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
To remember, good morning and welcome to peace. To you
(00:30):
from Peace Lutheran Church in Arvada, Colorado. If you had
one last opportunity to share a message with those who
you love, what would you say? Moses in the Book
of Deuteronomy had that opportunity his message, Remember, remember that
you have a God, and remember what he has done
and said. Remember the laws and rules that He has
(00:53):
given to protect you and guide you. Remember he gave
you those laws and rules because He loves you. Remember
and tell tell your children and their children about what
God has done and said, because God loves them too. Today,
Pastor Tim Lindham and explores Moses's final message to God's
(01:15):
people and how we too can remind others, our children included,
of what God has done and said because He loves
them too. Now here's Pastor Tim.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So this morning, I'm going to ask you a question
that may seem a little bit strange, but in light
of our Old Testament reading today, I'd like to ask
you a question I'd pondered for a moment. What does
it mean in your mind to die well? What does
(01:52):
it mean to die well? I would imagine if we
asked the rank and file person down the street, they
would come with all different kinds of answers. Some of
the answers that I've heard over the years, to die
well means to be able to have all your ducks
in a row and your affair set in order so
(02:14):
that your family doesn't have to worry about it. There
are others that, as they were dying, were interested in
resolving conflict between them and other people, particularly their loved ones,
and reconciling. In our world today, we oftentimes hear the
term die with dignity, right, and what does that usually mean?
(02:38):
It means that we want some sort of control or
autonomy in the process of the end of life issues.
And then sometimes we think dying well means to die
with the minimum of suffering and pain. Now, a number
of years ago I was talking with a missionary and
(03:00):
of mine, and as we were talking, we were talking
about the difference in the Western culture versus the culture
in which he worked, and this a missionary told me
that to die well in that culture would be more
of being able to be surrounded by loved ones and
(03:21):
being able to impart a blessing and a benediction to them,
encouraging them to continue on in the faith that they
had learned, and to continue to stand strong upon the
word of God and their faith in Jesus Christ, and
to follow God. It was a benediction. As I read
(03:43):
the words for our Old Testament, reading today, I have
to be honest with you, I was wondering if that
was what was going on in the mind of Moses
as he wrote the words. Now, I'd like to show
you a picture up here. This his picture was takenber
of years ago, when my wife and I were privileged
to go to the Holy Land. Our trips started on
(04:05):
the east bank of the Jordan River in what is
now Jordan, the country of Jordan. Back in the Bible times,
in Moses's day, it was the land of Moab, and
it was in this general vicinity, in this wilderness, that
the events of Deuteronomy take place. You see, the people
of Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for forty years.
(04:27):
They had been delivered from slavery in Egypt. They had
wandered for forty years, and now they were about ready
to go into the promised land. Moses knew that he
was not because of his own personal disobedience to God,
were able to go into the Promised Land. But God
graciously gave him this view from the top of Mountain Nebo,
(04:51):
and you can't see it because of the haze, but
there's a lush river valley down below, and the land
of Israel on the other side. As they were nearing
this spot, Moses began to carefully pass the mantle of
leadership from him to his successor, a man by the
(05:12):
name of Joshua. And through the course of the conversation
in Deuteronomy, he started to share with them the things
that he wanted to them to remember, and the message
of our text today is remember and follow. He started
reminding them as we go in the first few chapters
(05:34):
of Deuteronomy, going through all the things that God had done,
reminding them that he had delivered them from slavery in Egypt,
that he had led them to Mount Sinai, and there
at Mount Signi, also known as Mount Horeb had descended
upon the mountain in the form of fire, and there
he gave his statutes and his laws. How he had
(05:54):
brought them once before to the banks of the Jordan
River and given them a glimpse of the Promised Land.
He reminded them that they had sent in twelve spies
into that land, and all twelve came back and said, yes, indeed,
it's a land flowing with milk and honey. It's fertile,
it's crops are plentiful. Everything is beautiful, just like God said.
(06:21):
But it's also occupied by giants, by great powerful nations
that were already there. And ten of those spies said
we can't do it. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb,
said God will fight this battle. We can do it.
(06:43):
And the people followed the ten. And so God said, okay,
you've been two years in the wilderness. Thirty eight more
years you're gonna be wandering in this wilderness. Nobody from
this particular generation is going to be crossing the Jordan
into the Promised Land. And so now after that forty years,
they come back and Moses is telling them, remember, remember
(07:07):
all of those things, and remember those during that last
thirty eight years, how you would have an enemy. I
would drive that enemy away. You were hungry. I fed you,
you are thirsty. I gave you something to drink. You
lacked for nothing. But not only did Moses tell them
(07:27):
what God had done and remind them of that and
brought that back to their remembrance, but he said, also,
remember what God has said. Remember the statutes in the
law that He gave you on Mount Sinai. And these
are the words that he said. And now, o Israel,
listen to the statutes and the rules that I am
teaching you, and do them that you may live. You
(07:50):
shall not add to the word that I command you,
nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments
of the Lord your God that I command you. He's
telling them. He said, these commandments that I'm given to you,
follow them. Don't add anything to him, don't subtract anything
from them. Just follow them all. Because these commands that
(08:11):
I give to you are not my commands. These are
commands from God, and God, as God mentioned pastor Guy
mentioned in our Children's Message, are given to us from
a God who loves us. And he drives that point
home as he continues on with his words. He said,
keep them and do them, for that will be your
(08:33):
wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who,
when they hear all these statutes, will say, surely this
great nation is wise and understanding people. For what great
nation is there that has a god so near as
the Lord, our God is to us whenever we call
upon him. And what great nation is there that has
(08:56):
statutes and rules so righteous? All all this law that
I set before you today, these statutes, these rules that
God give us, gave us there for your wisdom, there
for your benefit. Therefore, your good God gives them to
you because he loves you. And when you follow those commands,
(09:19):
you're walking with God. You're there by his side, following things.
He's reminding them that they have a God and that
God made them, that he created them. And this creation
is a creation of order. And when we rebel, we
break that order. But when we follow God, he brings
(09:42):
stability in this chaotic world. He shines light into the
darkness of this world. As we follow God, we follow
along with him, and we're close by, and he's close
by us. It sounds like a father talking to the
children that he loves, doesn't it a father who is
(10:07):
leaving behind his benediction, his blessing. As he's talking with
his people, as his people are gathered around, he's telling
them to remember and to follow Now folks, I'm going
to tell you I would not be so pretentious as
to put myself on the same level as Moses. But
God did call me to be one of the shepherds
(10:30):
alongside of pastor Guy, of a people of God. And
so I'm bidding you, I'm pleading with you, just like
Moses pled with the people of Israel, to remember to
remember that you have a God. To remember that you
have a God who made you, fearfully and wonderfully made you.
(10:54):
He's a God of order. Remember that he's a God.
And who would be better to follow who provide for
you better than a God who made it all? It's
his after all, right, all of it. I plead with
you to remember that this God loves you. He loves
(11:15):
you so richly. Who could possibly love you more than
a God who is willing to sacrifice his son to
purchase you back, to exchange his son for you. Who
could possibly love you more? I plead with you to
remember to remember that this God, even though you rebel
(11:38):
and there will be consequences to that, he still loves you.
He still will care for you and love you, and
he will forgive you over and over and over again
as he pursues you and bids you to repent and
turn back to him and see the forgiveness that he offers.
(12:01):
I bid you to remember. Remember that this God comes
to you in his statues and his rules and his promises,
and his plan and his purpose, and he reveals his
heart to you every time you open his word. I
bid you, and I plead with you to spend time
in his word and get to know him and his heart.
(12:22):
I plead with you to remember to remember that every
time you hear those words in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
that you have been baptized, that you have been made
a child of God through the baptismal waters, and that
is your identity. You are a child of God, and
He has worked faith in your heart through the outpouring
(12:43):
of His Holy Spirit. I bid you to remember. Please
remember that our Lord God comes to us. He sent
his son to sacrifice his body and shed his blood
upon the cross, and he comes to us in flash
of blood of holy communion. And every time when we
come to his table, he offers us forgiveness. Remember, but
(13:12):
Moses didn't stop there, did he He went on? Only
take care and keep your soul. Diligently. Remember, lest you
forget the things that your eyes have seen unless they
depart from your heart all the days of your life.
Make them known to your children and to your children's children.
(13:38):
Remember and tell why are you here today? Why are
you here? I would suspect that it's because somebody told
you about Jesus. Suspect that somebody brought you to the
(14:03):
baptismal waters, or told you about it and invited you.
I would suspect that the reason you're here that there
have been a number of somebodies in your life that
cared enough about you to tell you about a God
who had these rules and these statutes and these laws
that are for your benefit, and taught you how to
(14:25):
live a godly life. I would suspect that there were
some somebodies in your life who continue to share with
you the love of Jesus and offer you forgiveness of sins.
I would suspect that there are people that have offered
you their blessing, their benediction. I'd like to share with
(14:49):
you today two benedictions that I experienced this past week.
The first one involves naturally, my granddaughter her, and it
happened this last Wednesday, our daughter had to go to
a parent meeting and her husband was coaching one of
(15:12):
the kids in soccer, and so could you come. My
wife was busy, so she wasn't able to go. Would
you go and watch our kids? And so I went
to the school and I picked them up and we
went across the street to a park and we were
making our way to the playground to play, and one
of our three year old granddaughter's twin was holding my
(15:33):
hand and the other one was behind me with her
older brother, and all of a sudden, I heard the
scream and I turned around and Norah, our granddaughter, was
down on the ground, and when she looked up, she
had blood running down her face. And I ran back
and I checked on her, and her brother was going
crazy because he couldn't stand to see her hurt. And
(15:55):
we got everybody kind of calm down, and we cleaned
her up a little, and I was thinking to myself,
I'm going to be relieved of my grandparent duties. We
got her cleaned up, and I ended up delivering her
to her mother, and when she did, she had grant
her daughter with all these scrapes down the side of
(16:15):
her face. And this rather significant gash on the forehead.
We got it all cleaned up and a bandage put
over top of that gash. And we were walking out
to the parking lot and this woman from the church,
her name is Gloria. I've never met her before, I
(16:38):
don't know too much about her, was talking with Nora
and she said, I'm sorry that happened. And Norah said,
I just wanted to get better. And she said, it'll
get better. And you know who's going to make it better.
Grandpa saved. And she said, you know, your grandpa's a
(17:06):
pretty special guy, but he's not the one that's going
to make it better. Remember, we have a God who
made you, and he made you with this wonderful body
that will heal. It's God who will make you better.
And as we made our way to the cars, I
thought to myself, what a wonderful blessing that woman gave
(17:26):
to my granddaughter. What a wonderful benediction to remind her
that she has a God who loves her. She has
a God who cares for her and provides for her,
and will heal her and will bless her and will
never leave her. What a wonderful benediction, and that woman
(17:49):
is not dying well, she's living well. And then here's
a second one. The very next day, I received an
email from a man who laid his father to rest recently,
and he recalled the last time that he saw his dad,
(18:09):
and these are his words. The last time I saw
my dad, I was on my goodbye tour with the
staff at the rehab center. I told my dad that
I loved him so very much, and I purposefully reiterated
that so that he knew it wasn't just a cliche
of words, and he replied, I love you too, And
(18:35):
with my hands and my head on my dad's head,
I gave him the benediction for the very first time
in my life, and Dad joined me, giving me his
benediction too. And as I walked away with a noticeable
emotional and meaningful voice, I heard my Dad say thank you.
(18:57):
I love you very much. A wonderful, precious, last earthly moment.
That man died well sharing the blessing of our Lord
(19:17):
God with his son and the son with his dad. Folks,
you and I have that opportunity not only to remember,
and I bid you to remember, to spend time in
God's word to remember your baptism, to remember the love
of God. But I also invite you and encourage you
and plead with you to share your benediction with others
(19:41):
so that they too may know Jesus and an almighty
God who loves them. Amen.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Good morning, Pastor Tim.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Well, good morning.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
That's one of those things you don't think of that often,
is you know what is mean to die? Well?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Well?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
It was interesting that my wife and I talked about
that on the way home from church, and I asked her,
I said, what does it mean to you to die? Well?
Have you done everything that you want to do as
you dying? Well? Is it things that you want to
achieve in your life or is it things that you
(20:22):
want for your grandchildren your children, Like Pastor Tim said
in the in the sermon, for your your children, your grandchildren,
to tell them. But have if we died right now,
can we say we die we're dying well, we've done
everything we want to do?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Well?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Of course not there you go, you know, when you
think about it, you know, And what I responded to
you earlier was that's the point. That's the point. Don't
wait until you're on your deathbed to bless your children
and to give them a benediction. Moses didn't do that.
For forty years, he guided them, He kept pointing them
back to God. He kept when they were in trouble,
(21:01):
he said, oh, let's pray about it. You know, when
when we need water, where did he go? He went
to God and asked God to provide water. When they
needed something to eat, he went to God and ask
God to give them something to eat, always pointing them
back to Jesus. And now on his deathbed, so to speak,
he's pointing them back to God. You know, we die
(21:26):
well by living well, by giving people the blessing of God,
reminding them of what God has done, reminding them of
what God has said, reminding them of God's statutes and
his laws, and then when we fail, reminding them of
God's forgiveness and his love through Jesus. That's not just
(21:48):
something we do on our deathbed. It's something we do
throughout our lives. Giving those blessings, those benedictions.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Very good. And like Jesus said, go you therefore and
teach all nations right to go out and tell others.
Tell the story. Go tell it on the mountain, you know,
tell about Jesus. And God and what it's all about,
and that that relationship and the relationship that we have
with them, that he is our father. And you've mentioned
(22:18):
that in your sermon too, about that we have a God,
a God that loves us dearly, and we celebrate this,
we read this, we learn every Sunday, we do this
now during the week. We were supposed to do that too, obviously,
where it's not just for anything. And you've taught me
(22:38):
that one.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Well, you know, Pastor Guy mentioned this a few weeks ago,
that we have a God. Whether we acknowledge it or not,
whether we believe it or not, or we confess it
or not.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
We have a God.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yes, he is our creator.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And as creator, he's the one who set the parameters.
He's the one that designed it all. And anything outside
of his design, anything outside of his will, is sin.
And so there's living within his will and living outside
of his will. He gave us his design, he gave
(23:16):
us his laws and his statutes because he loves us. Yesterday,
I was spending some time with our son and his
wife and their children, and they have a little two
year old and they have rules. Don't step out in
the street, look for cars, be careful how you're riding
(23:38):
that little pushbike, because you're going to run over your
foot if you do it this way. Those rules are
there for her because they love her, because they want
her to be safe. And that's what our God has
given to us. He's given us laws and statutes. He's
giving us guiding us along his paths because he loves us,
(24:00):
because he wants what's best for us.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
And in this day and age, when a lot of
people don't like being told what to do, you know,
it's not so much that you're being told what to do,
it's giving you that guidance that these laws. Stay within
these laws, listen to them. Like we talked about the
ten commandments, and so many times I wonder, you know
which one of the commandments don't people agree with? You know,
(24:23):
He gives us those for a reason, and for some
reason we kind of turn our back on that because
we want to do it our way right.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
And what better blessing can we give to our children
and to our children's children, and to our neighbors and
to our friends, but to remind them and tell them
remember what God has done for you, Remember what God
has said because He loves you, and follow those things
and not only follow, but now you go and tell.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
To learn more about God's love. We just hope that people,
especially people in our listening audience, we'll come and join
us here at Peace Lutheran Church on Sundays right here
at fifty seventh in Field on our vet. If you
don't have a church home, we'd love to have you here.
And we love that you folks are listening. This is
great and there's so much more for you to learn.
(25:16):
And God's love is one of those things that it's
hard for us understand just how much he loves us.
Like you said, and Pastor Tim, have a blessed week
this week, and thank you for the message.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
May God bless you all.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Thank you for joining us for peace to you from
Peace Church in our Battle, Colorado. If you have no
church home, we would be delighted for you to join
us on any Sunday. Our addrests is five six seven
five Field Street in our Battle, Colorado. Our services are
at eight and ten thirty am. Bible classes for all
(25:54):
ages are at nine to fifteen am. You can easily
access our sermons online at www dot p s Lucret
dot M or at Pasarbada at YouTube dot com. Peace
to You in Part is a listener supported broadcast. If
you would like to sponsor a broadcast in the future,
(26:15):
call us at three O three four two four four
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(26:39):
Now from the entire broadcast team at p Slupmchurch and Arbada,
I am Reuben Holiday and may the peace of our
Lord you with you today and always
And so I'm bidding you. I'm pleading with you, just
like Moses plugged with the people of Israel.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
To remember, good morning and welcome to peace. To you
(00:30):
from Peace Lutheran Church in Arvada, Colorado. If you had
one last opportunity to share a message with those who
you love, what would you say? Moses in the Book
of Deuteronomy had that opportunity his message, Remember, remember that
you have a God, and remember what he has done
and said. Remember the laws and rules that He has
(00:53):
given to protect you and guide you. Remember he gave
you those laws and rules because He loves you. Remember
and tell tell your children and their children about what
God has done and said, because God loves them too. Today,
Pastor Tim Lindham and explores Moses's final message to God's
(01:15):
people and how we too can remind others, our children included,
of what God has done and said because He loves
them too. Now here's Pastor Tim.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
So this morning, I'm going to ask you a question
that may seem a little bit strange, but in light
of our Old Testament reading today, I'd like to ask
you a question I'd pondered for a moment. What does
it mean in your mind to die well? What does
(01:52):
it mean to die well? I would imagine if we
asked the rank and file person down the street, they
would come with all different kinds of answers. Some of
the answers that I've heard over the years, to die
well means to be able to have all your ducks
in a row and your affair set in order so
(02:14):
that your family doesn't have to worry about it. There
are others that, as they were dying, were interested in
resolving conflict between them and other people, particularly their loved ones,
and reconciling. In our world today, we oftentimes hear the
term die with dignity, right, and what does that usually mean?
(02:38):
It means that we want some sort of control or
autonomy in the process of the end of life issues.
And then sometimes we think dying well means to die
with the minimum of suffering and pain. Now, a number
of years ago I was talking with a missionary and
(03:00):
of mine, and as we were talking, we were talking
about the difference in the Western culture versus the culture
in which he worked, and this a missionary told me
that to die well in that culture would be more
of being able to be surrounded by loved ones and
(03:21):
being able to impart a blessing and a benediction to them,
encouraging them to continue on in the faith that they
had learned, and to continue to stand strong upon the
word of God and their faith in Jesus Christ, and
to follow God. It was a benediction. As I read
(03:43):
the words for our Old Testament, reading today, I have
to be honest with you, I was wondering if that
was what was going on in the mind of Moses
as he wrote the words. Now, I'd like to show
you a picture up here. This his picture was takenber
of years ago, when my wife and I were privileged
to go to the Holy Land. Our trips started on
(04:05):
the east bank of the Jordan River in what is
now Jordan, the country of Jordan. Back in the Bible times,
in Moses's day, it was the land of Moab, and
it was in this general vicinity, in this wilderness, that
the events of Deuteronomy take place. You see, the people
of Israel had been wandering in the wilderness for forty years.
(04:27):
They had been delivered from slavery in Egypt. They had
wandered for forty years, and now they were about ready
to go into the promised land. Moses knew that he
was not because of his own personal disobedience to God,
were able to go into the Promised Land. But God
graciously gave him this view from the top of Mountain Nebo,
(04:51):
and you can't see it because of the haze, but
there's a lush river valley down below, and the land
of Israel on the other side. As they were nearing
this spot, Moses began to carefully pass the mantle of
leadership from him to his successor, a man by the
(05:12):
name of Joshua. And through the course of the conversation
in Deuteronomy, he started to share with them the things
that he wanted to them to remember, and the message
of our text today is remember and follow. He started
reminding them as we go in the first few chapters
(05:34):
of Deuteronomy, going through all the things that God had done,
reminding them that he had delivered them from slavery in Egypt,
that he had led them to Mount Sinai, and there
at Mount Signi, also known as Mount Horeb had descended
upon the mountain in the form of fire, and there
he gave his statutes and his laws. How he had
(05:54):
brought them once before to the banks of the Jordan
River and given them a glimpse of the Promised Land.
He reminded them that they had sent in twelve spies
into that land, and all twelve came back and said, yes, indeed,
it's a land flowing with milk and honey. It's fertile,
it's crops are plentiful. Everything is beautiful, just like God said.
(06:21):
But it's also occupied by giants, by great powerful nations
that were already there. And ten of those spies said
we can't do it. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb,
said God will fight this battle. We can do it.
(06:43):
And the people followed the ten. And so God said, okay,
you've been two years in the wilderness. Thirty eight more
years you're gonna be wandering in this wilderness. Nobody from
this particular generation is going to be crossing the Jordan
into the Promised Land. And so now after that forty years,
they come back and Moses is telling them, remember, remember
(07:07):
all of those things, and remember those during that last
thirty eight years, how you would have an enemy. I
would drive that enemy away. You were hungry. I fed you,
you are thirsty. I gave you something to drink. You
lacked for nothing. But not only did Moses tell them
(07:27):
what God had done and remind them of that and
brought that back to their remembrance, but he said, also,
remember what God has said. Remember the statutes in the
law that He gave you on Mount Sinai. And these
are the words that he said. And now, o Israel,
listen to the statutes and the rules that I am
teaching you, and do them that you may live. You
(07:50):
shall not add to the word that I command you,
nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments
of the Lord your God that I command you. He's
telling them. He said, these commandments that I'm given to you,
follow them. Don't add anything to him, don't subtract anything
from them. Just follow them all. Because these commands that
(08:11):
I give to you are not my commands. These are
commands from God, and God, as God mentioned pastor Guy
mentioned in our Children's Message, are given to us from
a God who loves us. And he drives that point
home as he continues on with his words. He said,
keep them and do them, for that will be your
(08:33):
wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who,
when they hear all these statutes, will say, surely this
great nation is wise and understanding people. For what great
nation is there that has a god so near as
the Lord, our God is to us whenever we call
upon him. And what great nation is there that has
(08:56):
statutes and rules so righteous? All all this law that
I set before you today, these statutes, these rules that
God give us, gave us there for your wisdom, there
for your benefit. Therefore, your good God gives them to
you because he loves you. And when you follow those commands,
(09:19):
you're walking with God. You're there by his side, following things.
He's reminding them that they have a God and that
God made them, that he created them. And this creation
is a creation of order. And when we rebel, we
break that order. But when we follow God, he brings
(09:42):
stability in this chaotic world. He shines light into the
darkness of this world. As we follow God, we follow
along with him, and we're close by, and he's close
by us. It sounds like a father talking to the
children that he loves, doesn't it a father who is
(10:07):
leaving behind his benediction, his blessing. As he's talking with
his people, as his people are gathered around, he's telling
them to remember and to follow Now folks, I'm going
to tell you I would not be so pretentious as
to put myself on the same level as Moses. But
God did call me to be one of the shepherds
(10:30):
alongside of pastor Guy, of a people of God. And
so I'm bidding you, I'm pleading with you, just like
Moses pled with the people of Israel, to remember to
remember that you have a God. To remember that you
have a God who made you, fearfully and wonderfully made you.
(10:54):
He's a God of order. Remember that he's a God.
And who would be better to follow who provide for
you better than a God who made it all? It's
his after all, right, all of it. I plead with
you to remember that this God loves you. He loves
(11:15):
you so richly. Who could possibly love you more than
a God who is willing to sacrifice his son to
purchase you back, to exchange his son for you. Who
could possibly love you more? I plead with you to
remember to remember that this God, even though you rebel
(11:38):
and there will be consequences to that, he still loves you.
He still will care for you and love you, and
he will forgive you over and over and over again
as he pursues you and bids you to repent and
turn back to him and see the forgiveness that he offers.
(12:01):
I bid you to remember. Remember that this God comes
to you in his statues and his rules and his promises,
and his plan and his purpose, and he reveals his
heart to you every time you open his word. I
bid you, and I plead with you to spend time
in his word and get to know him and his heart.
(12:22):
I plead with you to remember to remember that every
time you hear those words in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
that you have been baptized, that you have been made
a child of God through the baptismal waters, and that
is your identity. You are a child of God, and
He has worked faith in your heart through the outpouring
(12:43):
of His Holy Spirit. I bid you to remember. Please
remember that our Lord God comes to us. He sent
his son to sacrifice his body and shed his blood
upon the cross, and he comes to us in flash
of blood of holy communion. And every time when we
come to his table, he offers us forgiveness. Remember, but
(13:12):
Moses didn't stop there, did he He went on? Only
take care and keep your soul. Diligently. Remember, lest you
forget the things that your eyes have seen unless they
depart from your heart all the days of your life.
Make them known to your children and to your children's children.
(13:38):
Remember and tell why are you here today? Why are
you here? I would suspect that it's because somebody told
you about Jesus. Suspect that somebody brought you to the
(14:03):
baptismal waters, or told you about it and invited you.
I would suspect that the reason you're here that there
have been a number of somebodies in your life that
cared enough about you to tell you about a God
who had these rules and these statutes and these laws
that are for your benefit, and taught you how to
(14:25):
live a godly life. I would suspect that there were
some somebodies in your life who continue to share with
you the love of Jesus and offer you forgiveness of sins.
I would suspect that there are people that have offered
you their blessing, their benediction. I'd like to share with
(14:49):
you today two benedictions that I experienced this past week.
The first one involves naturally, my granddaughter her, and it
happened this last Wednesday, our daughter had to go to
a parent meeting and her husband was coaching one of
(15:12):
the kids in soccer, and so could you come. My
wife was busy, so she wasn't able to go. Would
you go and watch our kids? And so I went
to the school and I picked them up and we
went across the street to a park and we were
making our way to the playground to play, and one
of our three year old granddaughter's twin was holding my
(15:33):
hand and the other one was behind me with her
older brother, and all of a sudden, I heard the
scream and I turned around and Norah, our granddaughter, was
down on the ground, and when she looked up, she
had blood running down her face. And I ran back
and I checked on her, and her brother was going
crazy because he couldn't stand to see her hurt. And
(15:55):
we got everybody kind of calm down, and we cleaned
her up a little, and I was thinking to myself,
I'm going to be relieved of my grandparent duties. We
got her cleaned up, and I ended up delivering her
to her mother, and when she did, she had grant
her daughter with all these scrapes down the side of
(16:15):
her face. And this rather significant gash on the forehead.
We got it all cleaned up and a bandage put
over top of that gash. And we were walking out
to the parking lot and this woman from the church,
her name is Gloria. I've never met her before, I
(16:38):
don't know too much about her, was talking with Nora
and she said, I'm sorry that happened. And Norah said,
I just wanted to get better. And she said, it'll
get better. And you know who's going to make it better.
Grandpa saved. And she said, you know, your grandpa's a
(17:06):
pretty special guy, but he's not the one that's going
to make it better. Remember, we have a God who
made you, and he made you with this wonderful body
that will heal. It's God who will make you better.
And as we made our way to the cars, I
thought to myself, what a wonderful blessing that woman gave
(17:26):
to my granddaughter. What a wonderful benediction to remind her
that she has a God who loves her. She has
a God who cares for her and provides for her,
and will heal her and will bless her and will
never leave her. What a wonderful benediction, and that woman
(17:49):
is not dying well, she's living well. And then here's
a second one. The very next day, I received an
email from a man who laid his father to rest recently,
and he recalled the last time that he saw his dad,
(18:09):
and these are his words. The last time I saw
my dad, I was on my goodbye tour with the
staff at the rehab center. I told my dad that
I loved him so very much, and I purposefully reiterated
that so that he knew it wasn't just a cliche
of words, and he replied, I love you too, And
(18:35):
with my hands and my head on my dad's head,
I gave him the benediction for the very first time
in my life, and Dad joined me, giving me his
benediction too. And as I walked away with a noticeable
emotional and meaningful voice, I heard my Dad say thank you.
(18:57):
I love you very much. A wonderful, precious, last earthly moment.
That man died well sharing the blessing of our Lord
(19:17):
God with his son and the son with his dad. Folks,
you and I have that opportunity not only to remember,
and I bid you to remember, to spend time in
God's word to remember your baptism, to remember the love
of God. But I also invite you and encourage you
and plead with you to share your benediction with others
(19:41):
so that they too may know Jesus and an almighty
God who loves them. Amen.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Good morning, Pastor Tim.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Well, good morning.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
That's one of those things you don't think of that often,
is you know what is mean to die? Well?
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Well?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
It was interesting that my wife and I talked about
that on the way home from church, and I asked her,
I said, what does it mean to you to die? Well?
Have you done everything that you want to do as
you dying? Well? Is it things that you want to
achieve in your life or is it things that you
(20:22):
want for your grandchildren your children, Like Pastor Tim said
in the in the sermon, for your your children, your grandchildren,
to tell them. But have if we died right now,
can we say we die we're dying well, we've done
everything we want to do?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Well?
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Of course not there you go, you know, when you
think about it, you know, And what I responded to
you earlier was that's the point. That's the point. Don't
wait until you're on your deathbed to bless your children
and to give them a benediction. Moses didn't do that.
For forty years, he guided them, He kept pointing them
back to God. He kept when they were in trouble,
(21:01):
he said, oh, let's pray about it. You know, when
when we need water, where did he go? He went
to God and asked God to provide water. When they
needed something to eat, he went to God and ask
God to give them something to eat, always pointing them
back to Jesus. And now on his deathbed, so to speak,
he's pointing them back to God. You know, we die
(21:26):
well by living well, by giving people the blessing of God,
reminding them of what God has done, reminding them of
what God has said, reminding them of God's statutes and
his laws, and then when we fail, reminding them of
God's forgiveness and his love through Jesus. That's not just
(21:48):
something we do on our deathbed. It's something we do
throughout our lives. Giving those blessings, those benedictions.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Very good. And like Jesus said, go you therefore and
teach all nations right to go out and tell others.
Tell the story. Go tell it on the mountain, you know,
tell about Jesus. And God and what it's all about,
and that that relationship and the relationship that we have
with them, that he is our father. And you've mentioned
(22:18):
that in your sermon too, about that we have a God,
a God that loves us dearly, and we celebrate this,
we read this, we learn every Sunday, we do this
now during the week. We were supposed to do that too, obviously,
where it's not just for anything. And you've taught me
(22:38):
that one.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Well, you know, Pastor Guy mentioned this a few weeks ago,
that we have a God. Whether we acknowledge it or not,
whether we believe it or not, or we confess it
or not.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
We have a God.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yes, he is our creator.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And as creator, he's the one who set the parameters.
He's the one that designed it all. And anything outside
of his design, anything outside of his will, is sin.
And so there's living within his will and living outside
of his will. He gave us his design, he gave
(23:16):
us his laws and his statutes because he loves us. Yesterday,
I was spending some time with our son and his
wife and their children, and they have a little two
year old and they have rules. Don't step out in
the street, look for cars, be careful how you're riding
(23:38):
that little pushbike, because you're going to run over your
foot if you do it this way. Those rules are
there for her because they love her, because they want
her to be safe. And that's what our God has
given to us. He's given us laws and statutes. He's
giving us guiding us along his paths because he loves us,
(24:00):
because he wants what's best for us.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
And in this day and age, when a lot of
people don't like being told what to do, you know,
it's not so much that you're being told what to do,
it's giving you that guidance that these laws. Stay within
these laws, listen to them. Like we talked about the
ten commandments, and so many times I wonder, you know
which one of the commandments don't people agree with? You know,
(24:23):
He gives us those for a reason, and for some
reason we kind of turn our back on that because
we want to do it our way right.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
And what better blessing can we give to our children
and to our children's children, and to our neighbors and
to our friends, but to remind them and tell them
remember what God has done for you, Remember what God
has said because He loves you, and follow those things
and not only follow, but now you go and tell.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
To learn more about God's love. We just hope that people,
especially people in our listening audience, we'll come and join
us here at Peace Lutheran Church on Sundays right here
at fifty seventh in Field on our vet. If you
don't have a church home, we'd love to have you here.
And we love that you folks are listening. This is
great and there's so much more for you to learn.
(25:16):
And God's love is one of those things that it's
hard for us understand just how much he loves us.
Like you said, and Pastor Tim, have a blessed week
this week, and thank you for the message.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
May God bless you all.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Thank you for joining us for peace to you from
Peace Church in our Battle, Colorado. If you have no
church home, we would be delighted for you to join
us on any Sunday. Our addrests is five six seven
five Field Street in our Battle, Colorado. Our services are
at eight and ten thirty am. Bible classes for all
(25:54):
ages are at nine to fifteen am. You can easily
access our sermons online at www dot p s Lucret
dot M or at Pasarbada at YouTube dot com. Peace
to You in Part is a listener supported broadcast. If
you would like to sponsor a broadcast in the future,
(26:15):
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 sermons at any
time by going to our YouTube channel peacearbatatube dot com.
(26:39):
Now from the entire broadcast team at p Slupmchurch and Arbada,
I am Reuben Holiday and may the peace of our
Lord you with you today and always
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