August 8, 2024 • 27 mins
We often times have difficulty finding a balance in our lives, especially when it comes to our faith and our works. If we end up too far on one side or the other, the imbalance can end up sending us into a spiral. Thankfully, Pastor Tim has some advice on how to rebalance ourselves in his sermon today.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It isn't about our works.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's about trusting in somebody who's started for us all.
It's trusting in this Jesus who may sense.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning and welcome to peace to you from Peace
Lutheran Church in our Vada, Colorado. Life is a balancing
act in pretty much every way. We strive for a
balance in our life, eating a balanced diet, keeping our
emotions in balance, balancing our finances, and balancing our time commitments.
What about our faith life? Do we get things out
(00:51):
of a whack when it comes to our relationship with God? Today,
Pastor Tim Lindaman discusses how often we lean too far
one way or another between relying solely on God's grace
and doing the works God has prepared for us to do.
Let's listen in as Pastor Tim explore, is what a
balanced spiritual life looks like as God calls us to
(01:14):
faith in Jesus. Now here's Pastor Tim.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we think and praise you that
you open your word to us, and so Lord, today,
as we open your word, we pray that you would
open up our hearts, that you would open up our
minds and open up our ears, that we might hear,
that we might perceive, and that we might believe.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
In Jesus' name, we pray amen.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
So years ago I was writing an article for our newsletter,
back in the days when we wrote newsletter articles, and
I always would use examples from our children. And this
youth came up to me and he says, I know
why God gave you children, So you have illustration material,
My grandpa, I have more illustration material.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Ago, actually a little over a week ago, we went
to dinner at our daughter's house to daughter and son
in law and their children. And as we drove into
the cul de Sac, we parked and the boys were
out there on their drift bikes and they were eagerly
waiting for our arrival. And they came up to me
and said, Grandpa, Grandma, you've got to see what we
(02:27):
could do.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
All right now, I've got videos. Okay, we're going to
show the first one to you.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I want you to see what they're doing on their
drift bikes. They're trying to balance on two wheels instead
of three, right, all right, now, they practiced and this
(02:54):
was the end results.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
This was the end result.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Pretty good huh, balancing on two wheels all right?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Now, the second grandson said to me, He said, grand Ba,
I could do that all day long. I'm just hoping
that they balance this ambition with some wisdom and ten
years from now they're not going down Wadsword Boulevard doing
wheelies at fifty five miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Life is a series of balances, right, It's a balancing act.
How many of you, like me struggle with time, commitments
and juggling all of the commitments we have, you know,
our work, our home, our spouse, our children, our friends,
our fun activities, all the things we have to do, right.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
It's a balancing act.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
We have balancing acts when we're talking about our health,
all right, that we have enough rest and enough exercise,
balancing between not being naive but also trusting people. We'll
be balancing between ambition and contentment. We balance our checkbook.
(04:15):
We try to read a balanced diet. We try to
be emotionally balanced.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Life is a series of a balancing acts, right, And
the same thing is true spiritually. We struggle balancing our
spiritual life and our relationship with God. And that our
scripture readings today kind of point this out because we
start with a Bible passage that we all dearly love.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
We cling to this one as Christians.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
It comes from Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine,
and Paul reminds us that for by grace you have
been saved through faith, and this.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Is not of your own doing.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It is a gift of God, not a result of works,
So that no one may boast. The reality is is
that we can't work out our own salvation on our own.
We can't even participate in it because we are by
nature sinful and unclean. We are sinners through and through.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
We can't apologize enough, we can't work enough, we can't
study enough, we can't worship enough, we can't do kind
words and kind actions enough.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
To work out our salvation.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
We can't even participate in it because, as Paul points out, we.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Are spiritually dead.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And being spiritually dead, we understand that a dead person
can do not do anything in and of himself. If
there's any hope for a dead person, a person's whose
heart to stop, for that person to survive, it has.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
To come from without. And we need help from without.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And that's what God do, and so he sent his
son Jesus, and that's the free gift.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Again. I'm going to ask you what is this free gift? Jesus? Right,
he's our hope for salvation.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Now, Paul isn't just speaking on his own behalf here.
It's not his idea. He's reminding us of words that
Jesus spoke.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
As Pastor Guy pointed out, we have Jesus meeting with
this group of people and they're chasing after him because
they want somebody to fill their stomachs, and Jesus is
reminding them that he is the bread of life, that's
what he came for, and they're hungering. They want to
(06:39):
know what this relationship with God looks like. They want
to be in a right relationship with God, and so
they ask him the question, what are the works of
God that we should be doing? What are the works
of God that we should be doing? And Jesus, ever
so subtly, kind of turns it back on them, and
(07:01):
he said, the works of God are to believe in
the one in whom He has sent. It isn't about
our works. It's about trusting in somebody who's done it
for us all.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's trusting in this Jesus, whom he sent.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
It's trusting that he has accomplished it all for us,
once and for all. And the fact is, it's even
God's work that we can believe as he sends his
Holy Spirit. We just confess that in the Apostles Creed,
I believe in Jesus, Christ's only son, our Lord, and
we talked about all that he did for us, and
I believe in the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And this Holy Spirit, what does he do? He calls,
gathers and enlightens.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
His whole church, call me by the Gospel, enlighten me
with his gifts.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
It's all God's work. It's a free gift.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
So then what is it that we read on and
in verse ten, and all of a sudden, Paul changes
his tune a little bit.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
It seems, at least it seems to us, for.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So which is it? Is it?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Like he says in verse eight, for by grace you
have been saved through faith, not of your own doing,
but a free gift of God. Or are we God's
workmanship created in Christ for good works?
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Which God prepared for us? Which one is it? Simple answer, Yes,
it's both of those. We are saved by grace through
faith alone, not by works. It's not anything that we do.
And at the same time, we are God's workmanship, his masterpiece,
(08:54):
created in Jesus Christ for good works that He's prepared
for us.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
But here's where the balancing gat comes in.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
We're sinful and unclean, and in our human nature we struggle,
and sometimes we lose our balance. We lean one way
or the other, and sometimes we lean into the good works.
Right after all, And I've heard this people say this before.
It's too good to be true. It can't work that way.
(09:26):
We've got to do something right, and so we wonder.
You know, there's no free lunch, and so I gotta participate.
I gotta participate a little bit in my salvation. I've
got to do some of it. Maybe not fifty to fifty,
maybe it's ninety nine one. But I gotta lean into that.
(09:46):
After all, if we want anything good in this life,
what do we got to do?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
We got to earn it, right, We got.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
To pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and carry on.
It doesn't come free, So we lean into the gift
good works, and we fall over. Sometimes we lean into
the good works in another way, and maybe you can
understand what I'm talking about. Things are going bad in
our lives, and we wander as God angry with me?
(10:16):
Have I done something to make you angry? Have I
not done things to please Him enough?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And so we lean.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Into our good works hoping that we might be able
to make things right with God.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
But the fact of the matter is, we can't do
anything to help ourselves.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It's the work of God that we are brought to faith.
It's the work of God that we can believe.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And then sometimes we lean the.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Other way, don't we we lean a little into the grace.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We think. You know, it's a free gift. I'm free.
I'm free to do what I like. I could live
anyway I want. Right.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I had a conversation not too long ago with a
young man who grew up in the church.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Not a member of Peace.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Is a young man that I know from another church,
And he had grown up in a fine Christian family.
His parents taught him about Jesus, they had family devotions.
They insisted that he go to worship and Bible study
and Sunday school and youth group. He grew up in
it all and he knew Jesus with all his heart.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And then he left and went off to college, and.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
He was introduced to the freedom of adulthood, if you
know what I mean, not under the wings of mom
and Dad anymore. Could do whatever I wanted right, all
the trappings and the pleasures that this world seems to offer.
And he started living a lifestyle that was contrary to
God's will, contrary to the way that his parents had
(11:48):
taught him. And he was talking to me and he said,
you know, it's okay, Tim, because if I'm wrong, God
forgives me right.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Well, not quite. He had it out of balance, out
of whack.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Because you see, this gift of God, this salvation, this
grace that he offers, is free, for sure, but that doesn't.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Mean it's without not without cost. It may be free,
but it's costly.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
What did it cost our God that we might have
this grace?
Speaker 1 (12:31):
What did it cost our God?
Speaker 4 (12:35):
It cost him son, his son who suffered and died
and rose on the rose again from the grave.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
He did that in our stead, taking our place. What
did it cost God? It cost him his son? What
did it cost Jesus, his life, his everything. Our young
adult group on Thursday Night has been studying the Book
of Acts. And every time I read the Book of
(13:05):
Acts and I'm astounded at the disciples.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I astounded that they stick with it all right, because
I stood there to think.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
In one chapter, we've got John and Peter being thrown
into prison, they're flogged, and they're commanded by the governing
authorities to keep quiet. And then another chapter you've got
James beheaded, and another chapter Stephen being stoned to death,
all because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Later on
we see Paul struggling in city after city, thrown into jail,
(13:40):
flogged and beaten, shipwrecked, standing trial for things that escaping
narrowly with his life, over and over again.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Why did they keep on doing this?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
We know that out of those apostles, all of them
were martyred except for one John, and he was exiled
for his faith.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Why did they stick with it?
Speaker 5 (14:04):
Well?
Speaker 4 (14:05):
They knew him, They knew him intimately, they had lived
life with him, they had walked with him, they had
heard him talk.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
They knew who he was, the very son of God.
And one day they saw him, even though they knew
that he was perfect without sin, that he allowed himself
to be taken into custody and carried off to a
fake trial where he was accused of sins that he
never and crimes that he never was guilty of, and
(14:35):
innocent though he might be. They watched him as he
was nailed to the cross. They watched his bitter sufferings
and death, and they knew that why he was dying
on that cross was for them, for their sins, taking
their punishment, their damnation, their death. So they didn't have
(14:58):
to knew, do you? They knew his love. They saw
him heal the leper, forgive the sins of the sinner,
raise people.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
From the dead.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
They watched how he loved the people. They understood why
Jesus was willing to die on that cross, and why
he was willing to take.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Their place, because he loved them with a love that
was so deep, that so sacrificial, that he was not
considering his own self but considering them. They knew the
breath and the length, and the height and the depth
of the love of God that he would sacrifice his
(15:53):
son for them.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
They knew, do you? They knew the joy of the resurrection.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
They knew on the third day as they saw the
grave empty, and Jesus appeared to them behind closed doors,
and then appearance after appearance, had appearance after appearance, said
that death was defeated, that he rose from the dead,
and that because he rose.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
From the dead, that they too, one day would rise.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
From the dead, and that they have an inheritance kept
for them in heaven, an inheritance that it's not perishable.
And the trials and the difficulties on this earth, even
the joys and the pleasures on this earth, are worth
nothing compared to the joy that they knew was stored
up for them in heaven.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
They knew that salvation was theirs. Do you know? And
if you know, then why is it.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
That you and I are not compelled just of that
which we have seen and heard, compelled to respond and
love and thankfulness by doing the things that honor and
please him, those good.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Works that He has prepared for us with the help
of his spirit. And now may we go and do likewise? Amen,
I mean, and now may the peace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the joy of the salvation that he
(17:33):
has given to us, and the pure pleasure it is
for us to serve him, grant you his peace and
his love.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I'd like to invite you at this point, as God's children,
in the joy that He's given to us, to rise
and let's greet each other with that same joy.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Good morning, Pastor Tim, Well, good morning. Thank you for
that message. You know, the Lord has impressed on you
to let us know that we need to find a balance,
you know, with our Christianity. And obviously you know what
you told us, what you talked about, really helped me
a lot. But you know, I'm thinking when we have
(18:26):
like new Christians, people that are new to all this
and they're just learning, they're getting into it, what are
their first steps? What are their first steps in balance
their balance with their Christianity as they're learning this, what
are their first steps?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Well, I think we have to go back to the basics.
And a pastor guy touched upon this in a sermon
a couple of weeks ago, where he told us that
you have a God, whether we acknowledge it, whether we
believe it or not, that doesn't negate the fact that
there is a God and he is our God, because
(19:00):
there is only one God. And then we understand that
this God created this earth and all that we have,
that it's all his right. And so as creator, he
has a design, a master design, and that we need
to follow that master design. And when we live outside
(19:22):
of that master design, we live outside of his order
of creation. And when we live outside of that, it's
called excuse me, it's called sin. And so then we
are in need of a savior. And now in need
of a savior, we realized that he did send a savior,
and that savior is Jesus Christ, who suffered and died
(19:44):
upon the cross and then rose again, defeating our enemies
upon the cross of Satan and sin, and then defeating
our final enemy, death when he rose from the dead.
And now he has that promise of eternal life. And
then he sends this Holy Spirit to come into our
lives and to draw us into a relationship with Him
(20:05):
through faith. And that's the words that we read today
from Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine, where Paul says,
you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
This is not of yourselves, not by works lest any
mentioned about post. It is a free gift that God
(20:27):
has given to us.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
So the first thing we do is acknowledge God, our God,
the one God that created all of this and created us.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
We acknowledge we have a God. Okay, we acknowledge that
he has He's worthy of our obedience. We acknowledge that
we have sinned and gone against him in disobedience, and
that he has sent a savior to save us. And
then he sent a spirit to draw us into a
relationship with him. Now, this is the whole thing that
(21:00):
the people of the Sea of Galilee were struggling with.
They followed him, wanting this God Who's going to provide
for them and give them all that they wanted and
needed to fill their stomachs. And Jesus says, you know,
I'm here to offer you more. And then they say, well,
what we do to do the works of God? And
what do we need to do? What do we need
(21:20):
to do? And Jesus's response is, this is the work
of God that you would believe in him. We don't
do anything, you know. He calls us by the Gospel
and enlightens us with his gifts, sanctifies and keeps this
whole Christian church on earth. He does the work, and
he calls us to faith, and we're saved by grace
(21:41):
through faith. What he has done for us by dying
on the cross very good.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
And as he said that, you know, and as you
mentioned in the sermon too, that.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Jesus is the bread of life. You know, these people,
like you said, they were hungry, and they're physically they
were hungry. But Jesus is saying, okay, we can fill
your stomach.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Deep down, we all of us have this proverbial whole
in our soul, right in our hearts, and the only
thing that can fill it is Jesus Christ. And so
we try to stuff it with all kinds of things,
food and drugs, alcohol, relationships, possessions, all those kinds of things.
(22:23):
He saves us by grace and faith. And then the
struggle is is that balance. Okay, you know, we still
want to do something, But the thing is, we can't
participate in our salvation. We can't contribute to our salvation,
We can't earn our salvation. We can't please God or
appease God by our good works. But yet he calls
(22:46):
us to good do good works as his followers. So
we then that's where we struggle as Christians, where we
want to lean one too far on the one side,
where we want to do good works to earn or
contribute to our salvation, or to please or appease God,
but we can't. And then sometimes we go the other
way and say, well, God saves me, I can do
(23:07):
whatever I want. I don't have to follow him. I
don't have to follow his commands because he forgives me
me anyway. Either way we cheapen God's grace, either by saying, well,
it's not good enough, I have to contribute, or on
the other side, you know, it's so good I can't
do anything anyway, so I can live with whatever way
I want, and God says no. The balance life is
(23:31):
that you've totally trust in me, and in that trust
and in that faith, you do what pleases me. You know,
if I trust you and you tell me to jump,
if I truly trust you, what am I going to do?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
You're gonna jump?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I'm going to jump right, I'm going to obey. And
if we trust God and he says, have no other
gods before me, remember the seventh day and keep it
holy honor your father and those in authority, don't kill
all those commands. If if we trust him, if we
believe in him, what do we do right, we follow him,
(24:10):
We follow him. That's the balance between the grace and
the good works. It's good works are necessary for the Christian.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Right, it's God's works correct, right, These are God's works.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, the good works are necessary, yes, but they're not
necessary for salvation.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
Absolutely, so well said. And you know what, it's words
like that that are so comforting, especially the direction the
world appears to be taking, you know that, those type
of things that's just so comforting to me. And I
know that there's a lot of folks out there that
maybe don't have a church home and they hear those words,
they hear that, and they want to hear more. And
we hope they want to hear more. We hope that
they join us right here at Peace Losing Church in
(24:49):
Arvada fifty seventh in Field, and we'd love to have
you here. And this is this is such a fantastic
church in that and I have found that just to
learn so much, to learn so much to understand, and
you have to hear it, learn it and digest it.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
We have a great, big God, Yes, great to do God.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Well, pastor ten blessings on your week, and thank you
again for this insight.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
God bless your week.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Thank you for joining us. A peace to you from
Peast Church in our bat To, Colorado. If you have
no church home, we would be delighted for you to
join us on any Sunday. Our address is five six
seventy five Field Street in our Battle, Colorado. Our services
are at eight and ten thirty am. Bible classes for
(25:54):
all ages are at nine to fifteen am. You can
easily access our sermons online at www dot p, s
Lucre dot M, or at Pasarbata 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
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the same number three oh three four two four four
four five four. You can access our sermons at any
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(26:38):
Now from the entire broadcast team at Peace Lupam Church
and Arbada. I am Reuben Holliday and may the peace
of Our Lord you with you today and always. H
It isn't about our works.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's about trusting in somebody who's started for us all.
It's trusting in this Jesus who may sense.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Good morning and welcome to peace to you from Peace
Lutheran Church in our Vada, Colorado. Life is a balancing
act in pretty much every way. We strive for a
balance in our life, eating a balanced diet, keeping our
emotions in balance, balancing our finances, and balancing our time commitments.
What about our faith life? Do we get things out
(00:51):
of a whack when it comes to our relationship with God? Today,
Pastor Tim Lindaman discusses how often we lean too far
one way or another between relying solely on God's grace
and doing the works God has prepared for us to do.
Let's listen in as Pastor Tim explore, is what a
balanced spiritual life looks like as God calls us to
(01:14):
faith in Jesus. Now here's Pastor Tim.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we think and praise you that
you open your word to us, and so Lord, today,
as we open your word, we pray that you would
open up our hearts, that you would open up our
minds and open up our ears, that we might hear,
that we might perceive, and that we might believe.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
In Jesus' name, we pray amen.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
So years ago I was writing an article for our newsletter,
back in the days when we wrote newsletter articles, and
I always would use examples from our children. And this
youth came up to me and he says, I know
why God gave you children, So you have illustration material,
My grandpa, I have more illustration material.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
Ago, actually a little over a week ago, we went
to dinner at our daughter's house to daughter and son
in law and their children. And as we drove into
the cul de Sac, we parked and the boys were
out there on their drift bikes and they were eagerly
waiting for our arrival. And they came up to me
and said, Grandpa, Grandma, you've got to see what we
(02:27):
could do.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
All right now, I've got videos. Okay, we're going to
show the first one to you.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I want you to see what they're doing on their
drift bikes. They're trying to balance on two wheels instead
of three, right, all right, now, they practiced and this
(02:54):
was the end results.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
This was the end result.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Pretty good huh, balancing on two wheels all right?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Now, the second grandson said to me, He said, grand Ba,
I could do that all day long. I'm just hoping
that they balance this ambition with some wisdom and ten
years from now they're not going down Wadsword Boulevard doing
wheelies at fifty five miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Life is a series of balances, right, It's a balancing act.
How many of you, like me struggle with time, commitments
and juggling all of the commitments we have, you know,
our work, our home, our spouse, our children, our friends,
our fun activities, all the things we have to do, right.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
It's a balancing act.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
We have balancing acts when we're talking about our health,
all right, that we have enough rest and enough exercise,
balancing between not being naive but also trusting people. We'll
be balancing between ambition and contentment. We balance our checkbook.
(04:15):
We try to read a balanced diet. We try to
be emotionally balanced.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Life is a series of a balancing acts, right, And
the same thing is true spiritually. We struggle balancing our
spiritual life and our relationship with God. And that our
scripture readings today kind of point this out because we
start with a Bible passage that we all dearly love.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
We cling to this one as Christians.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
It comes from Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine,
and Paul reminds us that for by grace you have
been saved through faith, and this.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Is not of your own doing.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
It is a gift of God, not a result of works,
So that no one may boast. The reality is is
that we can't work out our own salvation on our own.
We can't even participate in it because we are by
nature sinful and unclean. We are sinners through and through.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
We can't apologize enough, we can't work enough, we can't
study enough, we can't worship enough, we can't do kind
words and kind actions enough.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
To work out our salvation.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
We can't even participate in it because, as Paul points out, we.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Are spiritually dead.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
And being spiritually dead, we understand that a dead person
can do not do anything in and of himself. If
there's any hope for a dead person, a person's whose
heart to stop, for that person to survive, it has.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
To come from without. And we need help from without.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And that's what God do, and so he sent his
son Jesus, and that's the free gift.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Again. I'm going to ask you what is this free gift? Jesus? Right,
he's our hope for salvation.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Now, Paul isn't just speaking on his own behalf here.
It's not his idea. He's reminding us of words that
Jesus spoke.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
As Pastor Guy pointed out, we have Jesus meeting with
this group of people and they're chasing after him because
they want somebody to fill their stomachs, and Jesus is
reminding them that he is the bread of life, that's
what he came for, and they're hungering. They want to
(06:39):
know what this relationship with God looks like. They want
to be in a right relationship with God, and so
they ask him the question, what are the works of
God that we should be doing? What are the works
of God that we should be doing? And Jesus, ever
so subtly, kind of turns it back on them, and
(07:01):
he said, the works of God are to believe in
the one in whom He has sent. It isn't about
our works. It's about trusting in somebody who's done it
for us all.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's trusting in this Jesus, whom he sent.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
It's trusting that he has accomplished it all for us,
once and for all. And the fact is, it's even
God's work that we can believe as he sends his
Holy Spirit. We just confess that in the Apostles Creed,
I believe in Jesus, Christ's only son, our Lord, and
we talked about all that he did for us, and
I believe in the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And this Holy Spirit, what does he do? He calls,
gathers and enlightens.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
His whole church, call me by the Gospel, enlighten me
with his gifts.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
It's all God's work. It's a free gift.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
So then what is it that we read on and
in verse ten, and all of a sudden, Paul changes
his tune a little bit.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
It seems, at least it seems to us, for.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
So which is it? Is it?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Like he says in verse eight, for by grace you
have been saved through faith, not of your own doing,
but a free gift of God. Or are we God's
workmanship created in Christ for good works?
Speaker 4 (08:30):
Which God prepared for us? Which one is it? Simple answer, Yes,
it's both of those. We are saved by grace through
faith alone, not by works. It's not anything that we do.
And at the same time, we are God's workmanship, his masterpiece,
(08:54):
created in Jesus Christ for good works that He's prepared
for us.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
But here's where the balancing gat comes in.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
We're sinful and unclean, and in our human nature we struggle,
and sometimes we lose our balance. We lean one way
or the other, and sometimes we lean into the good works.
Right after all, And I've heard this people say this before.
It's too good to be true. It can't work that way.
(09:26):
We've got to do something right, and so we wonder.
You know, there's no free lunch, and so I gotta participate.
I gotta participate a little bit in my salvation. I've
got to do some of it. Maybe not fifty to fifty,
maybe it's ninety nine one. But I gotta lean into that.
(09:46):
After all, if we want anything good in this life,
what do we got to do?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
We got to earn it, right, We got.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
To pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and carry on.
It doesn't come free, So we lean into the gift
good works, and we fall over. Sometimes we lean into
the good works in another way, and maybe you can
understand what I'm talking about. Things are going bad in
our lives, and we wander as God angry with me?
(10:16):
Have I done something to make you angry? Have I
not done things to please Him enough?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
And so we lean.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Into our good works hoping that we might be able
to make things right with God.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
But the fact of the matter is, we can't do
anything to help ourselves.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
It's the work of God that we are brought to faith.
It's the work of God that we can believe.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
And then sometimes we lean the.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Other way, don't we we lean a little into the grace.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We think. You know, it's a free gift. I'm free.
I'm free to do what I like. I could live
anyway I want. Right.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I had a conversation not too long ago with a
young man who grew up in the church.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Not a member of Peace.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Is a young man that I know from another church,
And he had grown up in a fine Christian family.
His parents taught him about Jesus, they had family devotions.
They insisted that he go to worship and Bible study
and Sunday school and youth group. He grew up in
it all and he knew Jesus with all his heart.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
And then he left and went off to college, and.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
He was introduced to the freedom of adulthood, if you
know what I mean, not under the wings of mom
and Dad anymore. Could do whatever I wanted right, all
the trappings and the pleasures that this world seems to offer.
And he started living a lifestyle that was contrary to
God's will, contrary to the way that his parents had
(11:48):
taught him. And he was talking to me and he said,
you know, it's okay, Tim, because if I'm wrong, God
forgives me right.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Well, not quite. He had it out of balance, out
of whack.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Because you see, this gift of God, this salvation, this
grace that he offers, is free, for sure, but that doesn't.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Mean it's without not without cost. It may be free,
but it's costly.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
What did it cost our God that we might have
this grace?
Speaker 1 (12:31):
What did it cost our God?
Speaker 4 (12:35):
It cost him son, his son who suffered and died
and rose on the rose again from the grave.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
He did that in our stead, taking our place. What
did it cost God? It cost him his son? What
did it cost Jesus, his life, his everything. Our young
adult group on Thursday Night has been studying the Book
of Acts. And every time I read the Book of
(13:05):
Acts and I'm astounded at the disciples.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I astounded that they stick with it all right, because
I stood there to think.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
In one chapter, we've got John and Peter being thrown
into prison, they're flogged, and they're commanded by the governing
authorities to keep quiet. And then another chapter you've got
James beheaded, and another chapter Stephen being stoned to death,
all because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Later on
we see Paul struggling in city after city, thrown into jail,
(13:40):
flogged and beaten, shipwrecked, standing trial for things that escaping
narrowly with his life, over and over again.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Why did they keep on doing this?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
We know that out of those apostles, all of them
were martyred except for one John, and he was exiled
for his faith.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Why did they stick with it?
Speaker 5 (14:04):
Well?
Speaker 4 (14:05):
They knew him, They knew him intimately, they had lived
life with him, they had walked with him, they had
heard him talk.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
They knew who he was, the very son of God.
And one day they saw him, even though they knew
that he was perfect without sin, that he allowed himself
to be taken into custody and carried off to a
fake trial where he was accused of sins that he
never and crimes that he never was guilty of, and
(14:35):
innocent though he might be. They watched him as he
was nailed to the cross. They watched his bitter sufferings
and death, and they knew that why he was dying
on that cross was for them, for their sins, taking
their punishment, their damnation, their death. So they didn't have
(14:58):
to knew, do you? They knew his love. They saw
him heal the leper, forgive the sins of the sinner,
raise people.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
From the dead.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
They watched how he loved the people. They understood why
Jesus was willing to die on that cross, and why
he was willing to take.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Their place, because he loved them with a love that
was so deep, that so sacrificial, that he was not
considering his own self but considering them. They knew the
breath and the length, and the height and the depth
of the love of God that he would sacrifice his
(15:53):
son for them.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
They knew, do you? They knew the joy of the resurrection.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
They knew on the third day as they saw the
grave empty, and Jesus appeared to them behind closed doors,
and then appearance after appearance, had appearance after appearance, said
that death was defeated, that he rose from the dead,
and that because he rose.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
From the dead, that they too, one day would rise.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
From the dead, and that they have an inheritance kept
for them in heaven, an inheritance that it's not perishable.
And the trials and the difficulties on this earth, even
the joys and the pleasures on this earth, are worth
nothing compared to the joy that they knew was stored
up for them in heaven.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
They knew that salvation was theirs. Do you know? And
if you know, then why is it.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
That you and I are not compelled just of that
which we have seen and heard, compelled to respond and
love and thankfulness by doing the things that honor and
please him, those good.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Works that He has prepared for us with the help
of his spirit. And now may we go and do likewise? Amen,
I mean, and now may the peace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the joy of the salvation that he
(17:33):
has given to us, and the pure pleasure it is
for us to serve him, grant you his peace and
his love.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I'd like to invite you at this point, as God's children,
in the joy that He's given to us, to rise
and let's greet each other with that same joy.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Good morning, Pastor Tim, Well, good morning. Thank you for
that message. You know, the Lord has impressed on you
to let us know that we need to find a balance,
you know, with our Christianity. And obviously you know what
you told us, what you talked about, really helped me
a lot. But you know, I'm thinking when we have
(18:26):
like new Christians, people that are new to all this
and they're just learning, they're getting into it, what are
their first steps? What are their first steps in balance
their balance with their Christianity as they're learning this, what
are their first steps?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Well, I think we have to go back to the basics.
And a pastor guy touched upon this in a sermon
a couple of weeks ago, where he told us that
you have a God, whether we acknowledge it, whether we
believe it or not, that doesn't negate the fact that
there is a God and he is our God, because
(19:00):
there is only one God. And then we understand that
this God created this earth and all that we have,
that it's all his right. And so as creator, he
has a design, a master design, and that we need
to follow that master design. And when we live outside
(19:22):
of that master design, we live outside of his order
of creation. And when we live outside of that, it's
called excuse me, it's called sin. And so then we
are in need of a savior. And now in need
of a savior, we realized that he did send a savior,
and that savior is Jesus Christ, who suffered and died
(19:44):
upon the cross and then rose again, defeating our enemies
upon the cross of Satan and sin, and then defeating
our final enemy, death when he rose from the dead.
And now he has that promise of eternal life. And
then he sends this Holy Spirit to come into our
lives and to draw us into a relationship with Him
(20:05):
through faith. And that's the words that we read today
from Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine, where Paul says,
you are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
This is not of yourselves, not by works lest any
mentioned about post. It is a free gift that God
(20:27):
has given to us.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
So the first thing we do is acknowledge God, our God,
the one God that created all of this and created us.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
We acknowledge we have a God. Okay, we acknowledge that
he has He's worthy of our obedience. We acknowledge that
we have sinned and gone against him in disobedience, and
that he has sent a savior to save us. And
then he sent a spirit to draw us into a
relationship with him. Now, this is the whole thing that
(21:00):
the people of the Sea of Galilee were struggling with.
They followed him, wanting this God Who's going to provide
for them and give them all that they wanted and
needed to fill their stomachs. And Jesus says, you know,
I'm here to offer you more. And then they say, well,
what we do to do the works of God? And
what do we need to do? What do we need
(21:20):
to do? And Jesus's response is, this is the work
of God that you would believe in him. We don't
do anything, you know. He calls us by the Gospel
and enlightens us with his gifts, sanctifies and keeps this
whole Christian church on earth. He does the work, and
he calls us to faith, and we're saved by grace
(21:41):
through faith. What he has done for us by dying
on the cross very good.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
And as he said that, you know, and as you
mentioned in the sermon too, that.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Jesus is the bread of life. You know, these people,
like you said, they were hungry, and they're physically they
were hungry. But Jesus is saying, okay, we can fill
your stomach.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Deep down, we all of us have this proverbial whole
in our soul, right in our hearts, and the only
thing that can fill it is Jesus Christ. And so
we try to stuff it with all kinds of things,
food and drugs, alcohol, relationships, possessions, all those kinds of things.
(22:23):
He saves us by grace and faith. And then the
struggle is is that balance. Okay, you know, we still
want to do something, But the thing is, we can't
participate in our salvation. We can't contribute to our salvation,
We can't earn our salvation. We can't please God or
appease God by our good works. But yet he calls
(22:46):
us to good do good works as his followers. So
we then that's where we struggle as Christians, where we
want to lean one too far on the one side,
where we want to do good works to earn or
contribute to our salvation, or to please or appease God,
but we can't. And then sometimes we go the other
way and say, well, God saves me, I can do
(23:07):
whatever I want. I don't have to follow him. I
don't have to follow his commands because he forgives me
me anyway. Either way we cheapen God's grace, either by saying, well,
it's not good enough, I have to contribute, or on
the other side, you know, it's so good I can't
do anything anyway, so I can live with whatever way
I want, and God says no. The balance life is
(23:31):
that you've totally trust in me, and in that trust
and in that faith, you do what pleases me. You know,
if I trust you and you tell me to jump,
if I truly trust you, what am I going to do?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
You're gonna jump?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
I'm going to jump right, I'm going to obey. And
if we trust God and he says, have no other
gods before me, remember the seventh day and keep it
holy honor your father and those in authority, don't kill
all those commands. If if we trust him, if we
believe in him, what do we do right, we follow him,
(24:10):
We follow him. That's the balance between the grace and
the good works. It's good works are necessary for the Christian.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Right, it's God's works correct, right, These are God's works.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, the good works are necessary, yes, but they're not
necessary for salvation.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
Absolutely, so well said. And you know what, it's words
like that that are so comforting, especially the direction the
world appears to be taking, you know that, those type
of things that's just so comforting to me. And I
know that there's a lot of folks out there that
maybe don't have a church home and they hear those words,
they hear that, and they want to hear more. And
we hope they want to hear more. We hope that
they join us right here at Peace Losing Church in
(24:49):
Arvada fifty seventh in Field, and we'd love to have
you here. And this is this is such a fantastic
church in that and I have found that just to
learn so much, to learn so much to understand, and
you have to hear it, learn it and digest it.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
We have a great, big God, Yes, great to do God.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Well, pastor ten blessings on your week, and thank you
again for this insight.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
God bless your week.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Thank you for joining us. A peace to you from
Peast Church in our bat To, Colorado. If you have
no church home, we would be delighted for you to
join us on any Sunday. Our address is five six
seventy five Field Street in our Battle, Colorado. Our services
are at eight and ten thirty am. Bible classes for
(25:54):
all ages are at nine to fifteen am. You can
easily access our sermons online at www dot p, s
Lucre dot M, or at Pasarbata 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.
(26:38):
Now from the entire broadcast team at Peace Lupam Church
and Arbada. I am Reuben Holliday and may the peace
of Our Lord you with you today and always. H
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