July 25, 2024 • 27 mins
It is easy to find ourselves divided, and even easier to create these divisions ourselves. Peter, the apostle of Jesus, knew just how badly this could affect us. But he also knew how we could become whole again. Listen in to learn how.
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(00:00):
And we had these divisions that weregoing on in the church. You have
the separation between the Jews and thenon Jews, the circumcised and the uncircumcised.
(00:32):
Good morning and welcome to peace toyou from Peace Lutheran Church in Arvada,
Colorado. We don't have to lookvery far to see divisions and hostility
in our world. Divisions take placein our homes, in our communities,
between political parties, among the nations. Those divisions often lead to hostility and
(00:53):
conflict. It's there any hope forunity. In Paul's letter to the Christians,
in emphasis HEK, he reminds usthat true unity will never be accomplished
through us and our outward actions andour words. True unity can only be
found in Jesus, who changes ourhearts. Today, Pastor Tim Lindhaman explores
(01:14):
Paul's reminder that through Jesus and whathe has done for us, we are
unified as children of God. Nowlet's listen into Pastor Tim's message. As
I mentioned in the introduction this morning, my wife and I were blessed to
be able to get away for acouple of weeks and go on vacation.
(01:36):
And you know, I don't know, eighteen hours of driving up there,
eighteen hours driving back, and aftera while we ran out of things to
talk about, and so we turnedon the radio and we were greeted by
a pastor giving a sermon. Hetold a story about a gal by the
name of Mildred. Now I don'tknow Mildred was a real name. I
(01:57):
doubt it. I'm not even sureMildred was really a real person. And
this is a true story. Butwe've all we all know Mildred. So,
Mildred was one of those ladies thatwas a devout member of her church.
She was regularly there, a goodchurch goer. She went to church
every Sunday, She participated in Biblestudies, she served on the women's ministry,
(02:23):
she even taught Sunday school. ButMildred was also the monitor of morality
in her church, the regulator ofrighteousness, you know what I'm talking about.
One of those people that that alwayshad something to say about everybody else
(02:46):
and how they acted. We allknow Mildred, don't we. And she
became kind of a gossip. Butnow I'm not talking about the kind of
gossip. Where have you heard aboutso and so on? Oh, they
didn't have a problem with such andsuch. It wasn't like that. It
was a little bit more pious,a little bit more spiritual than that.
(03:07):
It was more, you know,we need to pray for such and such
because they have a problem with suchand such. Right, And there were
people that wanted to stay away fromMildred because they didn't want to be caught
up in that. Many of themhad been stung by some of her judgmental
(03:29):
behavior, and so many of themstayed away. Others they thought, well,
you know, you stay close toyour friends, you stay closer to
your enemies, all right, Sothey became her allies. And then she
met this guy by the name ofHenry. Now, Henry was new to
the community. He was I wasa small town. He was new to
the church. He went to thechurch. He became regular, He attended
(03:51):
worship quite regularly, went to theBible studies on a regular basis. He
even quietly became involved in the church. He was kind of one of those
behind the scenes kind of guys,not loud, not flashy, and he
just kind of came and went.One day, he was going to the
grocery store and on his way homefrom the grocery store is kind of late
(04:14):
in the evening. His truck brokedown and he was able to kind of
push it off to the curb.And because it was late, he looked
under the hood. He knew whatthe problem was. He didn't have the
tools, he didn't have the parts, so he would have to wait till
tomorrow. So he decided he wouldjust go home. He grabbed his groceries,
walked home, left his truck therethat night. A little bit later
(04:35):
that night, Mildred was driving by. She's noticed Henry's truck there, parked
right in front of the bar.And the next morning, as she ran
her errand she went back there andlo and behold, Henry's truck was still
there in front of the bar.So the next Sunday, a couple days
(04:55):
later, she goes up to Henry, very pious and says, you know,
Henry, we're going to be prayingfor you. We all have problems
with sin and addiction, don't we, And then lowering her voice but not
low enough that others didn't hear,she said, I saw your truck parked
in front of the bar all nighton Friday night. Henry didn't know what
(05:19):
to do he was speechless. Hejust looked at her, and then eventually
he just walked away. A coupleof nights later, he'd got in his
pick up about twilight, drove hispickup to Mildred's house, parked in the
driveway, locked it up, andwalked home. We all know Mildred,
(05:46):
don't we, And if we're honestwith ourselves, we are sometimes our Mildred's
because what we'd do is we'd lookon the outside of other people, on
their outward appearance, the way thatthey look, the way things appear to
us, and we make judgments aboutthat. And what we know what happens
when we start making judgments, Itcauses divisions between us and that person,
(06:12):
between one group and another group.When when we make those kinds of judgments
based upon outward appearance and we ignorethe heart of the matter. Now,
last week, Pastor Guy read acouple of letters to you, and today
I'm going to read from one ofthose letters, not his personal letter.
(06:33):
I'm going to read Or I'm goingto talk to you a little bit about
a part of the letter that Paulwrote to the Christians in Ephesus last week.
We read some a little bit earlierKent read a little bit more about
that letter, and what we learnedfrom the passages that we read today that
(06:53):
the people of Ephesis, the earlyChristian church there, had a problem with
this whole outward appearance judge kind ofthing, all right. There were divisions
among them, you see. Paulwas writing to this Christian church that was
relatively young in their faith, andsome of those that had become Christians were
gentiles. They had grown up inEphesus, which was known for its worship
(07:16):
of this goddess named Artemis, thegoddess of fertility, and many of them
had grown up in worshiping her,and part of their worship was that they
would do acts of worship in orderto please Artemists, that she would help
them to have children, that shewould bless their crops as they laid the
(07:39):
seed out and they would have aplentiful harvest. And then they would bring
these sacrifices to her to please her. And if things didn't go well,
maybe they couldn't have children, ormaybe they struggled with a bad crop,
they would go and they would bringthese same offerings to her in hopes that
they would appease her and get onher good side. You see, their
(08:01):
whole religion was all about outward appearances. Didn't matter what was on their heart.
It was what they did, andthat's what they were used to.
And then you had the Jews thatwere the other part of the church.
They that knew Jesus, knew God. They had worshiped the same God that
the Christians worshiped, and now theycame to understand that Jesus was the Messiah
(08:28):
that God had promised from way backwhen, and they had come to faith
in this Jesus. But they stillstruggled with you know, we still need
to worship God the way he toldus to worship in the Old Testament.
We still need to do all thoseordinances and those rituals that we are so
used to doing, because our worshipneeds to be onward, outpouring. Now,
(08:54):
folks, don't get me wrong.It's important that we live in obedience
to our God. It's important thatwe do outward acts of worship. But
what the heart of the matter isis what's inside the heart. And these
Jews were looking down upon the Gentilesbecause they're not circumcised, and we had
(09:15):
these divisions that were going on inthe church. You have the separation between
the Jews and the non Jews,the circumcised and the uncircumcised, those that
were considered to be aliens versus thosethat are the chosen people of God.
And Paula is saying, no,no, no, that's not the way
it should be. And these arethe words that Paul wrote. Can we
(09:39):
show that screen for the Bible passageJesus, Paul says, came and preached
peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near,
for through him we both have accessin one spirit to the Father.
What Paula is saying is the heart, pard of the matter is. It's
(10:01):
a matter of the heart. It'snot about outward appearances. It's not about
the things that we do that makethings right between us and God. It's
about what God does for us.It's not about what we do. It's
about what He has done. Andwhen we understand what he has done,
that Jesus came to suffer and todie on the cross, that he rose
(10:24):
again defeating death, that he diedthe death that we deserve, has suffered
the punishment that we rightfully deserve,and he did that in our stead.
When we understand that, then we'rehealed, and we understand that he did
(10:45):
this not just for me, buthe did this for you, that he
did this for everyone. We havea lot of divisions in our world,
don't we. We look around,we have divisions and hostility all around us.
(11:07):
We have groups that don't get alongall right. We have divisions drawn
in the sand, drawn in thesand between the Republicans and the Democrats,
between males and females, between peopleof one skin color and people of another
skin color. We have divisions andhostility that take place all around us.
(11:35):
What can heal those divisions, Jesusas he changes the heart. We have
hostility and conflict everywhere we go,Hostility and conflict between one country and another
country, Hostility and conflict between menand women, between people of different political
(12:03):
parties. We have hostility and conflictin broken homes and broken marriages, and
sometimes we even have that conflict withinour heart as we struggle with what should
be and what is between what weknow we should be doing and what we
find out that we really are doing. And who can bring peace among all
(12:24):
of that hostility and conflict. Jesus, it's a matter of the heart.
Sometimes even in the church we fallinto that, don't we, Where we
make judgments based upon outward appearances insteadof looking to the heart of the matter,
(12:54):
and that it's a matter of theheart. So this week, something
happened to me. I'd like toshare it with you. It's something that
made this pastor's heart sing. Andas I walked away, I realized that
(13:16):
it made this father's heart singing,this husband's heart singing, this son's heart
singing. I went to the hospitaland outside This all took place outside the
room of a man that I've knownfor almost thirty five years, a man
that I considered to be a prettygood friend. And I went to visit
(13:41):
them in a hospital and we gotin there. We joked around like we
normally do, and I understood thathe had some infection in his body,
and it looked like he was doingpretty well, and we were talking and
joking around. We shared a Biblepassage in a prayer with one another,
and I gave him the benediction andI said, I'll see you again later.
(14:01):
And as I got up to leave, his son followed me out,
and he closed the door behind himin the hallway, and he said,
I've got to tell you that thingsmay not be exactly like they appeared to
be in the room. Things area little bit more dire than what they
seem to be. This infection thatwas in his body has gone undetected for
(14:22):
a number of weeks and has goneinto the bloodstream. And if it's gone
to the heart, I'm afraid we'relooking at the end of life here for
my dad. And then all ofa sudden he changed the subject and he
(14:43):
said, the other day I askedmy dad, Dad, what do you
believe about Jesus? And now,this man has been in church as long
as I can remember. He grewup in church. He's elderly and sometimes
words don't come easily for him.But he looked at his son and he
(15:07):
said, I believe that Jesus diedon the cross. Why Dad, why
did he die on the cross totake away my sins? And the son
looked at me and he said,I believe my dad knows Jesus. I
had to know. In fact,he said, I've been asking all of
(15:30):
my relatives as I get older.He said, I've been asking all my
relatives. I've asked my brother,I've asked my sister, I've asked my
nephews and nieces. I've asked everyonethe same question because I've got to know.
I've got to know what's in theirheart. And I told you this
made this man's heart saying, becauseas I walked away, I also had
(15:52):
a lump in my throat because Irealized that I need to know too,
to know that my mom knows Jesus, and my wife knows Jesus, and
my children and their spouses know Jesus, and my grandchildren know Jesus, and
my cousins and my sisters and alltheir families know Jesus. I need to
know that because it's a matter ofthe heart. I see you today and
(16:21):
there's evidence that you know that becauseyou're here. But just because you're here,
does that mean that you know Jesusin your heart? I need to
know. In fact, I needto know, and I want to know.
Today I want to ask you,do you know that Jesus died on
(16:44):
the cross? Do you know thathe died on the cross for you?
Do you know that he died onthe cross and the reason he died was
to take your sins away? Doyou know that? Do you know that
on that cross he defeated Satan andsin and the power that they have over
(17:07):
you. Do you know that?Do you know that on the third day
he rose again from the dead,And as he rose from the dead,
he conquered death. And because hehas risen from the dead through faith,
we too shall one day rise fromthe dead. Do you know that?
I need to know? And that'swhy I'm telling you once again today.
(17:30):
I need to know that you knowthat I see evidence of it from our
word appearance, because you're here worshipingwith me. But this is a matter
of the heart. I pray thatyou know that, and I'd like to
(17:55):
ask you to join me today inconfessing that faith in what we know and
what we believe. Could you riseand let's confess our faith in this loving
God, this God who heals,who makes divisions cease. Children of God?
(18:15):
What is it that you believe?I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, andin Jesus Christ, his only Son,
our Lord, who was conceived bythe Holy Spirit, worn of the
Virgin Mary, suffered under conscious pilot, was crucified, died, and was
(18:37):
buried. He descended into hell.The third day he rose again from the
dead. He ascended into heaven andsits at the right hand of God,
the Father Almighty. From thence hewill come to judge the living and the
dead. And I believe in theHoly Spirit, the Holy Christian Church,
(18:59):
the communion of saints, the forgivenessof sins, the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.Good morning, pastor Tim, Well,
good morning. What a great message. And you know, the whole
(19:21):
story about Mildred I thought was hilariousfirst of all, But my mom's name
was Mildred, and mom that Iknow of wasn't a gossip. But I'll
tell you what. She had thefaith of a million angels. So she
was just so so tuned with thelove of Christ. And the matters of
(19:42):
the heart is what you were talkingabout, you know, the well,
the heart of the matter is thematter of the heart, right as I
said. But she had the heartfor Jesus, and she had the heart
for her church and the people thatwent to that church. And she was
just that type of person. Butthere was that, you know, she
I could tell that her faith wasshaken all bit, especially when my dad
(20:03):
got so sick, you know,with cancer and everything. But she came
back and she told me, Hey, what's the worst that can happen here?
You know, he dies and hegets to be with the Lord?
Is that so bad? You know? So anyway, But you know,
I know that there's some folks outthere, and I'm one of them that
you know, how do we conveythis message? How do we get this
message to the people that we've gota we've got a God that loves us
(20:27):
dearly, and with all the divisionsthat are going on right now, do
we really have to worry about that? Do we really have to do that?
And how do we get that wordout to the people that we've got
a God that can take care ofthis and we'll take care of all this.
Yeah, you know, we weoftentimes do. When we think about
(20:51):
the divisions that go on in ourworld, whether they're in our homes between
a husband and a wife or betweenparents and children in our communities, it's
oftentimes based upon on outward actions,and we depend upon our outward actions to
make things right between us and others, our outward actions to make things right
(21:14):
between us and our God. Butthe fact of the matter is is we
can never do this on our ownright. We can't heal those divisions.
It's not until we all understand thatthrough Jesus, by the power of his
spirit, we have access to God. Right, And that's what Paul reminds
us in this word. He saidthat Jesus came and preached peace to you
(21:37):
who were far off, and peaceto those who were near. And he's
talking to people that knew God andpeople that didn't know God, all right,
And he said, but through Jesus, he he came and preached peace
to all of us, for throughhim all of us have access in one
spirit to the Father. You know, it's it's Jesus who heals sure,
(22:03):
right. It's Jesus who who cameand and worked our forgiveness of sins.
He suffered and died on the cross, suffering our sins in our stead so
that we don't have to, andhe redeemed us, He forgave us,
He brought us back so that thatwe can all be children of God.
And in that we find true unitywhen we understand that through what Jesus did,
(22:30):
that we are are one and unified. And so when that happens and
we all have that like mindedness ofGod, you know, we're we're able
to have respectful conversations. We're ableto forgive, We're able to conduct ourselves
(22:52):
in a way that that exudes truelove and and sometimes you know, we
we struggle with that as human beings. But it's through Christ that this unity
is possible. And it's that unconditionallove that as humans, it's almost impossible
for us to understand that He hasan unconditional love for us, and he
(23:17):
loves us dearly, and sometimes that'sreally hard for us to understand that it
is. And so back to yourfirst question, how do we get that
word out? Well, that's wherethe outward actions and the outward words are
important, because it's through our witnessand through our attitude towards other people,
(23:38):
through our loving actions, that thelove of Christ is shared. And the
most important message that we can sharewith other people is the forgiveness of sins.
Yes, and the feeling of justthe peace that we get through Christ,
the peace that the God offers us. And especially today when there's so
(24:00):
much turmoil, just the word peacemakes me feel this sounds weird, peaceful,
I just you know, it justbrings that peace to you and you
just feel better. You know,you look at things in a different light
and and the God offers that peaceto us and calms us. And you
(24:22):
know I was always I told mySunday school for many many years. You
know, we have a a smallpiece of the world. You know,
we're just this small community. We'vegot this. Now, you as a
pastor, have a much greater group. You know that that here's you talks
to you, confides in you,and you have that ability. But you
know what, as all of usas disciples have a group. And you
(24:48):
mentioned that at towards the end ofyour sermon that it's a matter of the
heart and that you want all ofyour family, all of your friends to
know Jesus, we're not talking tothe thousands of people, just your piece
of this world. Well, thankyou so much, Pastor Tim. We're
spending a little time with us hereand thank you for that message. And
(25:11):
we were just pray that folks thatdon't have a church home will will join
us here at Peace Lutheran Church atfifty seventh in Field in Arvada. And
Pastor Tim, I just have awonderful week in Christ. Same to you,
Thank you, thank you for joiningus for peace. To you from
(25:36):
Peace Church in our bat To Colorado. If you have no church home,
we would be delighted for you tojoin us on any Sunday. Our address
is five six seven five Field Streetin our Bata, Colorado. Our services
are at eight and ten thirty am. Bible classes for all ages are at
nine to fifteen am. You caneasily access our sermons online at www dot
(26:03):
p, s Lucret dot M,or at Pasarbada at YouTube dot com.
Peace to You in Part is alistener supported broadcast. If you would like
to sponsor a broadcast in the future, call us at three O three four
two four four four five four.If you would like a copy of today's
broadcast and no charge to you,contact us at the same number three oh
(26:26):
three four two four four four fivefour. You can access our sermons at
any time by going to our YouTubechannel, peaceharbatatube dot com. Now from
the entire broadcast team at Peace Lupmchurchand Arbada, I am Reuben Holiday and
may the Peace of Our Lord youwith you today and always
And we had these divisions that weregoing on in the church. You have
the separation between the Jews and thenon Jews, the circumcised and the uncircumcised.
(00:32):
Good morning and welcome to peace toyou from Peace Lutheran Church in Arvada,
Colorado. We don't have to lookvery far to see divisions and hostility
in our world. Divisions take placein our homes, in our communities,
between political parties, among the nations. Those divisions often lead to hostility and
(00:53):
conflict. It's there any hope forunity. In Paul's letter to the Christians,
in emphasis HEK, he reminds usthat true unity will never be accomplished
through us and our outward actions andour words. True unity can only be
found in Jesus, who changes ourhearts. Today, Pastor Tim Lindhaman explores
(01:14):
Paul's reminder that through Jesus and whathe has done for us, we are
unified as children of God. Nowlet's listen into Pastor Tim's message. As
I mentioned in the introduction this morning, my wife and I were blessed to
be able to get away for acouple of weeks and go on vacation.
(01:36):
And you know, I don't know, eighteen hours of driving up there,
eighteen hours driving back, and aftera while we ran out of things to
talk about, and so we turnedon the radio and we were greeted by
a pastor giving a sermon. Hetold a story about a gal by the
name of Mildred. Now I don'tknow Mildred was a real name. I
(01:57):
doubt it. I'm not even sureMildred was really a real person. And
this is a true story. Butwe've all we all know Mildred. So,
Mildred was one of those ladies thatwas a devout member of her church.
She was regularly there, a goodchurch goer. She went to church
every Sunday, She participated in Biblestudies, she served on the women's ministry,
(02:23):
she even taught Sunday school. ButMildred was also the monitor of morality
in her church, the regulator ofrighteousness, you know what I'm talking about.
One of those people that that alwayshad something to say about everybody else
(02:46):
and how they acted. We allknow Mildred, don't we. And she
became kind of a gossip. Butnow I'm not talking about the kind of
gossip. Where have you heard aboutso and so on? Oh, they
didn't have a problem with such andsuch. It wasn't like that. It
was a little bit more pious,a little bit more spiritual than that.
(03:07):
It was more, you know,we need to pray for such and such
because they have a problem with suchand such. Right, And there were
people that wanted to stay away fromMildred because they didn't want to be caught
up in that. Many of themhad been stung by some of her judgmental
(03:29):
behavior, and so many of themstayed away. Others they thought, well,
you know, you stay close toyour friends, you stay closer to
your enemies, all right, Sothey became her allies. And then she
met this guy by the name ofHenry. Now, Henry was new to
the community. He was I wasa small town. He was new to
the church. He went to thechurch. He became regular, He attended
(03:51):
worship quite regularly, went to theBible studies on a regular basis. He
even quietly became involved in the church. He was kind of one of those
behind the scenes kind of guys,not loud, not flashy, and he
just kind of came and went.One day, he was going to the
grocery store and on his way homefrom the grocery store is kind of late
(04:14):
in the evening. His truck brokedown and he was able to kind of
push it off to the curb.And because it was late, he looked
under the hood. He knew whatthe problem was. He didn't have the
tools, he didn't have the parts, so he would have to wait till
tomorrow. So he decided he wouldjust go home. He grabbed his groceries,
walked home, left his truck therethat night. A little bit later
(04:35):
that night, Mildred was driving by. She's noticed Henry's truck there, parked
right in front of the bar.And the next morning, as she ran
her errand she went back there andlo and behold, Henry's truck was still
there in front of the bar.So the next Sunday, a couple days
(04:55):
later, she goes up to Henry, very pious and says, you know,
Henry, we're going to be prayingfor you. We all have problems
with sin and addiction, don't we, And then lowering her voice but not
low enough that others didn't hear,she said, I saw your truck parked
in front of the bar all nighton Friday night. Henry didn't know what
(05:19):
to do he was speechless. Hejust looked at her, and then eventually
he just walked away. A coupleof nights later, he'd got in his
pick up about twilight, drove hispickup to Mildred's house, parked in the
driveway, locked it up, andwalked home. We all know Mildred,
(05:46):
don't we, And if we're honestwith ourselves, we are sometimes our Mildred's
because what we'd do is we'd lookon the outside of other people, on
their outward appearance, the way thatthey look, the way things appear to
us, and we make judgments aboutthat. And what we know what happens
when we start making judgments, Itcauses divisions between us and that person,
(06:12):
between one group and another group.When when we make those kinds of judgments
based upon outward appearance and we ignorethe heart of the matter. Now,
last week, Pastor Guy read acouple of letters to you, and today
I'm going to read from one ofthose letters, not his personal letter.
(06:33):
I'm going to read Or I'm goingto talk to you a little bit about
a part of the letter that Paulwrote to the Christians in Ephesus last week.
We read some a little bit earlierKent read a little bit more about
that letter, and what we learnedfrom the passages that we read today that
(06:53):
the people of Ephesis, the earlyChristian church there, had a problem with
this whole outward appearance judge kind ofthing, all right. There were divisions
among them, you see. Paulwas writing to this Christian church that was
relatively young in their faith, andsome of those that had become Christians were
gentiles. They had grown up inEphesus, which was known for its worship
(07:16):
of this goddess named Artemis, thegoddess of fertility, and many of them
had grown up in worshiping her,and part of their worship was that they
would do acts of worship in orderto please Artemists, that she would help
them to have children, that shewould bless their crops as they laid the
(07:39):
seed out and they would have aplentiful harvest. And then they would bring
these sacrifices to her to please her. And if things didn't go well,
maybe they couldn't have children, ormaybe they struggled with a bad crop,
they would go and they would bringthese same offerings to her in hopes that
they would appease her and get onher good side. You see, their
(08:01):
whole religion was all about outward appearances. Didn't matter what was on their heart.
It was what they did, andthat's what they were used to.
And then you had the Jews thatwere the other part of the church.
They that knew Jesus, knew God. They had worshiped the same God that
the Christians worshiped, and now theycame to understand that Jesus was the Messiah
(08:28):
that God had promised from way backwhen, and they had come to faith
in this Jesus. But they stillstruggled with you know, we still need
to worship God the way he toldus to worship in the Old Testament.
We still need to do all thoseordinances and those rituals that we are so
used to doing, because our worshipneeds to be onward, outpouring. Now,
(08:54):
folks, don't get me wrong.It's important that we live in obedience
to our God. It's important thatwe do outward acts of worship. But
what the heart of the matter isis what's inside the heart. And these
Jews were looking down upon the Gentilesbecause they're not circumcised, and we had
(09:15):
these divisions that were going on inthe church. You have the separation between
the Jews and the non Jews,the circumcised and the uncircumcised, those that
were considered to be aliens versus thosethat are the chosen people of God.
And Paula is saying, no,no, no, that's not the way
it should be. And these arethe words that Paul wrote. Can we
(09:39):
show that screen for the Bible passageJesus, Paul says, came and preached
peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near,
for through him we both have accessin one spirit to the Father.
What Paula is saying is the heart, pard of the matter is. It's
(10:01):
a matter of the heart. It'snot about outward appearances. It's not about
the things that we do that makethings right between us and God. It's
about what God does for us.It's not about what we do. It's
about what He has done. Andwhen we understand what he has done,
that Jesus came to suffer and todie on the cross, that he rose
(10:24):
again defeating death, that he diedthe death that we deserve, has suffered
the punishment that we rightfully deserve,and he did that in our stead.
When we understand that, then we'rehealed, and we understand that he did
(10:45):
this not just for me, buthe did this for you, that he
did this for everyone. We havea lot of divisions in our world,
don't we. We look around,we have divisions and hostility all around us.
(11:07):
We have groups that don't get alongall right. We have divisions drawn
in the sand, drawn in thesand between the Republicans and the Democrats,
between males and females, between peopleof one skin color and people of another
skin color. We have divisions andhostility that take place all around us.
(11:35):
What can heal those divisions, Jesusas he changes the heart. We have
hostility and conflict everywhere we go,Hostility and conflict between one country and another
country, Hostility and conflict between menand women, between people of different political
(12:03):
parties. We have hostility and conflictin broken homes and broken marriages, and
sometimes we even have that conflict withinour heart as we struggle with what should
be and what is between what weknow we should be doing and what we
find out that we really are doing. And who can bring peace among all
(12:24):
of that hostility and conflict. Jesus, it's a matter of the heart.
Sometimes even in the church we fallinto that, don't we, Where we
make judgments based upon outward appearances insteadof looking to the heart of the matter,
(12:54):
and that it's a matter of theheart. So this week, something
happened to me. I'd like toshare it with you. It's something that
made this pastor's heart sing. Andas I walked away, I realized that
(13:16):
it made this father's heart singing,this husband's heart singing, this son's heart
singing. I went to the hospitaland outside This all took place outside the
room of a man that I've knownfor almost thirty five years, a man
that I considered to be a prettygood friend. And I went to visit
(13:41):
them in a hospital and we gotin there. We joked around like we
normally do, and I understood thathe had some infection in his body,
and it looked like he was doingpretty well, and we were talking and
joking around. We shared a Biblepassage in a prayer with one another,
and I gave him the benediction andI said, I'll see you again later.
(14:01):
And as I got up to leave, his son followed me out,
and he closed the door behind himin the hallway, and he said,
I've got to tell you that thingsmay not be exactly like they appeared to
be in the room. Things area little bit more dire than what they
seem to be. This infection thatwas in his body has gone undetected for
(14:22):
a number of weeks and has goneinto the bloodstream. And if it's gone
to the heart, I'm afraid we'relooking at the end of life here for
my dad. And then all ofa sudden he changed the subject and he
(14:43):
said, the other day I askedmy dad, Dad, what do you
believe about Jesus? And now,this man has been in church as long
as I can remember. He grewup in church. He's elderly and sometimes
words don't come easily for him.But he looked at his son and he
(15:07):
said, I believe that Jesus diedon the cross. Why Dad, why
did he die on the cross totake away my sins? And the son
looked at me and he said,I believe my dad knows Jesus. I
had to know. In fact,he said, I've been asking all of
(15:30):
my relatives as I get older.He said, I've been asking all my
relatives. I've asked my brother,I've asked my sister, I've asked my
nephews and nieces. I've asked everyonethe same question because I've got to know.
I've got to know what's in theirheart. And I told you this
made this man's heart saying, becauseas I walked away, I also had
(15:52):
a lump in my throat because Irealized that I need to know too,
to know that my mom knows Jesus, and my wife knows Jesus, and
my children and their spouses know Jesus, and my grandchildren know Jesus, and
my cousins and my sisters and alltheir families know Jesus. I need to
know that because it's a matter ofthe heart. I see you today and
(16:21):
there's evidence that you know that becauseyou're here. But just because you're here,
does that mean that you know Jesusin your heart? I need to
know. In fact, I needto know, and I want to know.
Today I want to ask you,do you know that Jesus died on
(16:44):
the cross? Do you know thathe died on the cross for you?
Do you know that he died onthe cross and the reason he died was
to take your sins away? Doyou know that? Do you know that
on that cross he defeated Satan andsin and the power that they have over
(17:07):
you. Do you know that?Do you know that on the third day
he rose again from the dead,And as he rose from the dead,
he conquered death. And because hehas risen from the dead through faith,
we too shall one day rise fromthe dead. Do you know that?
I need to know? And that'swhy I'm telling you once again today.
(17:30):
I need to know that you knowthat I see evidence of it from our
word appearance, because you're here worshipingwith me. But this is a matter
of the heart. I pray thatyou know that, and I'd like to
(17:55):
ask you to join me today inconfessing that faith in what we know and
what we believe. Could you riseand let's confess our faith in this loving
God, this God who heals,who makes divisions cease. Children of God?
(18:15):
What is it that you believe?I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, andin Jesus Christ, his only Son,
our Lord, who was conceived bythe Holy Spirit, worn of the
Virgin Mary, suffered under conscious pilot, was crucified, died, and was
(18:37):
buried. He descended into hell.The third day he rose again from the
dead. He ascended into heaven andsits at the right hand of God,
the Father Almighty. From thence hewill come to judge the living and the
dead. And I believe in theHoly Spirit, the Holy Christian Church,
(18:59):
the communion of saints, the forgivenessof sins, the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.Good morning, pastor Tim, Well,
good morning. What a great message. And you know, the whole
(19:21):
story about Mildred I thought was hilariousfirst of all, But my mom's name
was Mildred, and mom that Iknow of wasn't a gossip. But I'll
tell you what. She had thefaith of a million angels. So she
was just so so tuned with thelove of Christ. And the matters of
(19:42):
the heart is what you were talkingabout, you know, the well,
the heart of the matter is thematter of the heart, right as I
said. But she had the heartfor Jesus, and she had the heart
for her church and the people thatwent to that church. And she was
just that type of person. Butthere was that, you know, she
I could tell that her faith wasshaken all bit, especially when my dad
(20:03):
got so sick, you know,with cancer and everything. But she came
back and she told me, Hey, what's the worst that can happen here?
You know, he dies and hegets to be with the Lord?
Is that so bad? You know? So anyway, But you know,
I know that there's some folks outthere, and I'm one of them that
you know, how do we conveythis message? How do we get this
message to the people that we've gota we've got a God that loves us
(20:27):
dearly, and with all the divisionsthat are going on right now, do
we really have to worry about that? Do we really have to do that?
And how do we get that wordout to the people that we've got
a God that can take care ofthis and we'll take care of all this.
Yeah, you know, we weoftentimes do. When we think about
(20:51):
the divisions that go on in ourworld, whether they're in our homes between
a husband and a wife or betweenparents and children in our communities, it's
oftentimes based upon on outward actions,and we depend upon our outward actions to
make things right between us and others, our outward actions to make things right
(21:14):
between us and our God. Butthe fact of the matter is is we
can never do this on our ownright. We can't heal those divisions.
It's not until we all understand thatthrough Jesus, by the power of his
spirit, we have access to God. Right, And that's what Paul reminds
us in this word. He saidthat Jesus came and preached peace to you
(21:37):
who were far off, and peaceto those who were near. And he's
talking to people that knew God andpeople that didn't know God, all right,
And he said, but through Jesus, he he came and preached peace
to all of us, for throughhim all of us have access in one
spirit to the Father. You know, it's it's Jesus who heals sure,
(22:03):
right. It's Jesus who who cameand and worked our forgiveness of sins.
He suffered and died on the cross, suffering our sins in our stead so
that we don't have to, andhe redeemed us, He forgave us,
He brought us back so that thatwe can all be children of God.
And in that we find true unitywhen we understand that through what Jesus did,
(22:30):
that we are are one and unified. And so when that happens and
we all have that like mindedness ofGod, you know, we're we're able
to have respectful conversations. We're ableto forgive, We're able to conduct ourselves
(22:52):
in a way that that exudes truelove and and sometimes you know, we
we struggle with that as human beings. But it's through Christ that this unity
is possible. And it's that unconditionallove that as humans, it's almost impossible
for us to understand that He hasan unconditional love for us, and he
(23:17):
loves us dearly, and sometimes that'sreally hard for us to understand that it
is. And so back to yourfirst question, how do we get that
word out? Well, that's wherethe outward actions and the outward words are
important, because it's through our witnessand through our attitude towards other people,
(23:38):
through our loving actions, that thelove of Christ is shared. And the
most important message that we can sharewith other people is the forgiveness of sins.
Yes, and the feeling of justthe peace that we get through Christ,
the peace that the God offers us. And especially today when there's so
(24:00):
much turmoil, just the word peacemakes me feel this sounds weird, peaceful,
I just you know, it justbrings that peace to you and you
just feel better. You know,you look at things in a different light
and and the God offers that peaceto us and calms us. And you
(24:22):
know I was always I told mySunday school for many many years. You
know, we have a a smallpiece of the world. You know,
we're just this small community. We'vegot this. Now, you as a
pastor, have a much greater group. You know that that here's you talks
to you, confides in you,and you have that ability. But you
know what, as all of usas disciples have a group. And you
(24:48):
mentioned that at towards the end ofyour sermon that it's a matter of the
heart and that you want all ofyour family, all of your friends to
know Jesus, we're not talking tothe thousands of people, just your piece
of this world. Well, thankyou so much, Pastor Tim. We're
spending a little time with us hereand thank you for that message. And
(25:11):
we were just pray that folks thatdon't have a church home will will join
us here at Peace Lutheran Church atfifty seventh in Field in Arvada. And
Pastor Tim, I just have awonderful week in Christ. Same to you,
Thank you, thank you for joiningus for peace. To you from
(25:36):
Peace Church in our bat To Colorado. If you have no church home,
we would be delighted for you tojoin us on any Sunday. Our address
is five six seven five Field Streetin our Bata, Colorado. Our services
are at eight and ten thirty am. Bible classes for all ages are at
nine to fifteen am. You caneasily access our sermons online at www dot
(26:03):
p, s Lucret dot M,or at Pasarbada at YouTube dot com.
Peace to You in Part is alistener supported broadcast. If you would like
to sponsor a broadcast in the future, call us at three O three four
two four four four five four.If you would like a copy of today's
broadcast and no charge to you,contact us at the same number three oh
(26:26):
three four two four four four fivefour. You can access our sermons at
any time by going to our YouTubechannel, peaceharbatatube dot com. Now from
the entire broadcast team at Peace Lupmchurchand Arbada, I am Reuben Holiday and
may the Peace of Our Lord youwith you today and always
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