https://churchonmain.com/podcast/ en-US ℗ Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO You Belong Here Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO We’re a church that gathers every Sunday on historic Main Street in the heart of Saint Charles, Missouri to study the Scriptures and be transformed by them. Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO kim@churchonmain.com We’re a church that gathers every Sunday on historic Main Street in the heart of Saint Charles, Missouri to study the Scriptures and be transformed by them. no Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/04-12-26_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 33:55 Casey Peterson Easter 2026 https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/04-05-26_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 51:32 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/03-29-26_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:29 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/03-22-26_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 47:54 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/03-15-26_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 51:23 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/03-08-26_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 08 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 39:33 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/03-01-2026_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:49 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/02-22-26_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:06 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/02-15-26_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 46:09 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/02-08-26_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 27:30 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/02-01-26_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:51 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/01-18-26_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 33:47 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/01-11-26_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 11 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 27:51 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/01-04-26_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 43:07 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/12-28-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 28 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 50:35 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/12-21-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 21 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 29:00 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/12-14-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 14 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 46:48 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/12-07-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 07 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:02 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/11-30-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 30 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 54:38 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/11-23-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 23 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 56:17 Doug Hon Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/11-16-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 32:53 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/10-26-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 45:11 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/10-19-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 19 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 37:16 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/10-12-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 12 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 47:19 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/09-28-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 28 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 28:29 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/09-21-25_Casey-1045AM_Audio.mp3 Sun, 21 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 52:50 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/09-14-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 14 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 42:45 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/09-07-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 07 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 52:31 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/08-31-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 31 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 52:08 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/08-24-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:40 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/08-17-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 17 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 34:26 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/08-10-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 37:25 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/08-03-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 03 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:13 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/07-27-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 27 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 37:30 Jerry Cisar Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/07-20-25_Jerry_Audio.mp3 Sun, 20 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 51:36 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/07-13-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 47:14 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/06-29-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 29 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 30:14 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-22-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 22 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 45:47 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-15-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 15 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 42:39 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-08-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 08 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:13 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/06-01-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 46:42 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-25-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 47:17 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-18-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 52:53 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-11-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:07 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-04-25_Doug.Audio_.mp3 Sun, 04 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 34:24 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-27-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 27 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:04 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-20-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 20 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 51:04 Doug Hon Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-13-25_Doug_Edited.mp3 Sun, 13 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:08 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-06-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 06 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 50:00 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-30-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 30 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 51:53 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-23-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 23 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 51:51 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-16-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 16 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 50:33 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-09-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 09 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 47:52 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/03-02-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 02 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:39 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/02-23-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 42:36 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/02-16-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:57 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/02-09-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:37 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/02-02-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 02 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 30:43 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/01-26-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 26 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 19:57 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/01-19-25_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 19 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 39:07 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/01-12-25_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 12 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 42:46 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/12-29-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 54:08 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12-22-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 22 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 39:28 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12-15-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 15 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 50:46 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12-08-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 08 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 51:28 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/12-01-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 01 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 47:36 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/11-24-24_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 12:56 Corey Breneman The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/11-17-24_Corey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 17 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 43:53 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/11-10-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 10 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 49:44 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/11-03-24_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 03 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:43 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/10-27-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 27 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 54:25 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/10-20-24_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 20 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:42 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/09-29-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 29 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 46:42 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/09-22-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 22 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 49:33 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/09-15-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 15 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 56:13 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/09-01-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 01 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:03 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/08-25-24_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 25 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 33:04 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/08-18-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 18 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 52:17 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/08-11-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 11 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 49:30 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/08-04-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 04 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 47:22 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/07-28-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 28 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 52:39 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/07-21-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 21 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 53:13 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/07-14-24_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 14 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 31:25 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/07-07-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 07 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:33 Clayce Fletcher Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/06-30-24_Clayce_Audio.mp3 Sun, 30 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:09 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/06-23-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 23 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 42:56 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/06-16-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 16 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 32:18 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/06-09-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 09 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:34 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/06-02-24_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 02 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 39:42 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/05-26-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 43:44 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/05-19-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 19 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:36 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/05-12-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 12 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:21 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/05-05-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 05 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 43:33 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/04-28-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 28 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:36 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04-21-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 21 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:13 Doug Hon The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04-14-24_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 14 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 33:24 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04-07-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 07 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 45:24 Casey Peterson The Great Recommissioning https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/03-31-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 31 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 46:32 Casey Peterson Spiritual Disciplines for the Sake of the Mission https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/03-24-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:12 Casey Peterson Spiritual Disciplines for the Sake of the Mission https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/03-17-24_Casey_Edited.mp3 Sun, 17 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 49:59 Doug Hon Spiritual Disciplines for the Sake of the Mission https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/03-10-24_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 10 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:17 Casey Peterson Spiritual Disciplines for the Sake of the Mission https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/03-03-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 50:18 Casey Peterson Spiritual Disciplines for the Sake of the Mission https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/02-25-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 25 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 50:05 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/02-18-24_ShareYourHeart_Audio.mp3 Sun, 18 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 53:07 Casey Peterson Spiritual Disciplines for the Sake of the Mission https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/02-11-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 11 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 53:17 Rob & Amy Ellis Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/02-04-24_RobandAmyEllis_Audio.mp3 Sun, 04 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:16 Casey Peterson Spiritual Disciplines for the Sake of the Mission https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/01-28-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 28 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 47:30 Doug Hon Spiritual Disciplines for the Sake of the Mission https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/01-21-24_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 21 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 36:02 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/01-14-24_State-of-the-Church_Audio.mp3 Sun, 14 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 38:48 Casey Peterson 1 Thessalonians https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/01-07-24_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 07 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. 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https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/07-04-21_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 04 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 36:28 Casey Peterson The Book of Exodus https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/06-27-21_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 27 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 45:43 Casey Peterson Topical Sermons https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/06-20-21_Casey_Audio.mp3 Sun, 20 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 51:30 Doug Hon The Book of Exodus https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/06-13-21_Doug_Audio.mp3 Sun, 13 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 36:15 Casey Peterson The Book of Exodus https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/06-06-21_Casey_Audio-Only.mp3 Sun, 06 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 52:18 Casey Peterson The Book of Exodus https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/05-30-21_Casey_Audio-Only.mp3 Sun, 30 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:37 Casey Peterson The Book of Exodus https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/05-23-21_Casey_Audio-Only.mp3 Sun, 23 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:54 Casey Peterson https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Casey_The-Other-Side-of-the-Story_The-Sons-of-Korah-3_8_20.mp3 Sun, 08 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 38:54 Casey Peterson https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey02-16-20.mp3 Sun, 16 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 33:01 Doug Hon https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_2.9.20.mp3 Sun, 09 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 31:16 Casey Peterson https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2220Casey.mp3 Sun, 02 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 32:15 Doug Hon https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_1.26.20.mp3 Sun, 26 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 38:21 Casey Peterson https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/01192020Casey.mp3 Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:28 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Mark_1.12.20.mp3 Sun, 12 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:56 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older God’s Word to the Discouraged Haggai 2:20-23 Preached at Main Street Church on December 22nd, 2019 This is the last message in our series through Haggai called “Building the Kingdom.”  Throughout Haggai’s we’ve seen God’s call to his people to seek his kingdom first through building his temple and his promise to be with them in that.  There are four different prophetic messages in Haggai, and this is the fourth, but it was given on the same day as the third.  The first message was a call to return to God’s work, the second message was assurance that God would be with them, the third message was a reminder to maintain covenant relationship with God, and this last message is God’s assurance to Zerubabbel of his promise of a glorious future.  This fourth and final message is the shortest of all of them, but it packs punch. Haggai 2:20-23: “20 The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, 21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 22 and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. 23 On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.” God Has A Prescription for Discouragement God Has Power over Discouragement God Has A Promise for the Discouraged God Has A Prescription for Discouragement (v. 20) “20 The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month,” God’s prescription for discouragement is his word.  God knew that Zerubbabel was discouraged, and why shouldn’t he have been? He was faced with a monumental task and faced serious opposition and discouragement. So what was God’s prescription? His word. Psalm 119:25, 28,  “My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word!…My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!…Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise; then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word.” The day after Christmas two years ago taking JJ to the ER.  He was dehydrated and the doctor ordered a prescription: An IV and graham crackers.  That is exactly what my 1 year old needed to be rejuvenated back to his normal, energetic self.  God’s word is the life-giving stuff that he doesn’t pump into our veins, but puts directly into our hearts and our hearts pump it through our whole body.  “I have stored up/hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11). Are you discouraged?  Have you stored up God’s word in your heart?  God’s word speaks life.  The new year is an excellent time to start a new Bible reading plan.  Get a theme verse for the year.  Spend time reading the Bible together as a family.  Read it, memorize it, talk with others about it. God’s word is his prescription for discouragement, because of the power of what it tells us.  God Has Power over Discouragement (v. 21-22) God has power over our discouragement.  Why are you discouraged?  If you read God’s word you will find that God has power over whatever is discouraging you.  Zerubabbel was discouraged over external political pressures.  He was basically a ‘nobody king’ with no power or influence.  But God has all power and all influence.  Here’s what he says: “I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 22 and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother.” Sometimes when we’re discouraged, we just need to be reminded of what God is about to do.  In Scripture, the moments of greatest darkness are always followed by the moments of greatest light.  Joseph sunk all the way to prison before he was elevated to second in command of Egypt. The Israelites faced the harshest oppression before God raised up Moses and rescued them. Jesus was crucified and buried before he rose in eternal victory.  Are you discouraged?  God says, if you look in my word, look what “I am about to do…”. God’s word to Zerubabbel here is about his power over all opposition to his eternal purposes, and God has an eternal purpose for your life, and nothing will stand in his way.  He is about to shake the heavens and the earth.  Keep in mind that might be different than what you think.  Zerubabbel never saw the ultimate outcome of God’s word to him here, but he had a promise from God that he could cling to, and that’s the final key.  God has a prescription for discouragement, he has power over discouragement, and finally he has a promise for the discouraged.  God’s Has a Promise for the Discouraged (v. 23) The ultimate death knell to our discouragement in life is the promise of what God will do.  In v. 23 God says, “On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.” God had promised David that his lineage would bring the kingdom of God, and Zerubbabel was part of David’s line.  At this point in history, it didn’t look like God was keeping that promise, but he reaffirms his promise with his word here to Zerubbabel by saying he would make him like a signet ring. A signet ring was the authoritative seal of a king that demonstrated royal authority and ownership.  One scholar says, “Like a king sealing legal documents with his ring, the Lord will set his authentic impression upon the world through his royal representative.  Zerubbabel is the ring placed back on the hand of the divine King.  God’s promise to bless his people and the whole world through the house of David still stands.” (ESV Study Bible footnote on Haggai 2:23, pg. 1747). Oftentimes when we look at prophecies in the OT we think of them as predictions, but God’s prophecies are not predictions, they are promises.  If I tell my son that tomorrow I am going to take him to the zoo and we are going to ride the train around the park and look at the animals, that is not a prediction, it is a promise.  God’s word to us is in our discouragement is not simply a prediction, it is a promise God’s promise to us personally, isn’t that we will be his signet ring authorizing the restoration of his kingdom on earth, but his promise to us is actually even better than that!  God’s promise to us, his church, is that we are active participants in the restoration of his kingdom on earth, and his spirit is with us in the process of realizing his kingdom on earth, and he is about to come again and set up his reign perfectly and eternally on the earth. The Bible is a testimony of proof that God keeps his promises, and we see that here in this text, that God kept his promise to David, and to David’s descendent Zerubbabel, because ultimately, another king would come from that line, about five hundred years later Zerubbabel would have a descendent born in the city of Bethlehem of named Jesus.  Matthew 1:12 and Luke 3:27 which record the genealogy of Jesus both list Zerubbabel as a great great great great great grandfather of Jesus.  God’s promise to the discouraged always takes it’s ultimate shape in the person of Jesus Christ.  God’s promised David that his kingdom would see no end: Jesus was the promise God promised Zerubbabel that he would be like a signet ring in the kingdom: Jesus was the promise God promised shepherds that a Savior had been born in Bethlehem: Jesus was the promise God promised a young virgin girl that she would give birth to the Savior of the world: Jesus was the promise God promises you eternal life, unshakable hope, and everlasting joy: Jesus is the promise.  Conclusion: God has a prescription for discouragement, if you look in his word you will find Jesus God has power over discouragement, the good news of Jesus is the power of God over discouragement God has a promise for the discouraged: Jesus is the promise At Christmas time we celebrate the coming of God into his world to initiate the re-establishment of his kingdom on earth.  Be encouraged this Christmas that the king has come, and he will keep the promise of his word according to his great power.  No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground He comes to make his blessings flow Far as the curse is found https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey12.22.19.mp3 Sun, 22 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 32:04 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug121519.mp3 Sun, 15 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 29:20 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older You Are Building More Than You Think Haggai 2:1-9 Preached at Main Street Church on December 8th, 2019 Our Problem: We underestimate the significance of our work Proposition: Since God is with us we must build His Kingdom This is our fourth message in our series through Haggai which we’ve entitled ‘Building the Kingdom.’  And that is because the prophet Haggai’s message to God’s people in about 520 BC was a call for them to shift their focus from building their own houses and to start building the house of the Lord—the Temple—which ultimately represented the center point of the Kingdom of God because it was the place where he would be present with his people.  The message of Haggai the prophet to the people of God was a call to rebuild the temple in order to mediate the blessing of God’s presence to the world around them, and the message that we are supposed to hear from Haggai 2:1-9 is that we must build God’s kingdom since he is with us.  The title of my sermon this morning is: “You Are Building More Than You Think.” Haggai 2:1-9 “In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: 2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? 4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’” Have you ever felt like you weren’t making any progress?  Like your best efforts in life weren’t accomplishing anything of lasting value?  Like you were just spinning your wheels but not getting anywhere?  Maybe you feel like the work you do at your job doesn’t have any real value to the kingdom of God.  You don’t see how Monday connects to Sunday.  If that’s you, then God has a word for you through the prophet Haggai, and it’s this: you are building more than you think.  The Temple Represented God’s Mission in the World In the OT God commanded his people to build a temple because it represented his mission in the world.  The temple was the central place of God’s special presence, and the mission of God’s people was to mediate the blessing of God’s presence to the nations around them.  You see this in mission in the very architecture and structure of the Temple itself which worked like something of concentric circles expanding outward: The Most Holy Place - At the very center was the Most Holy Place, a cubic shaped room completely lined with gold, and it was the place where only a high priest could meet with God, and God’s glory would fill it.  And one of the demarkations of the high priest is that he would have God’s name written on his forehead.  The Holy Place - Then outside of that you had the Holy place, a place where other priests could minister before the Lord on behalf of the people.  The Courtyard - Outside of that you had the courtyard, that ceremonially pure Jews could enter into and worship the Lord. The Courtyard of Gentiles - Then during Jesus time beyond the courtyard you had another, even larger, courtyard that was known as the Court of Gentiles, and it was the place where anyone could travel to and enter in order to worship Yahweh, the God of the Jews.  The World - Outside of that you simply had the rest of the world. So you can see that the Temple represented the mission of God to fill the earth with his glory through his people.  The high priest would mediate God’s presence on behalf of all the people in the Most Holy place, the priests would mediate God’s presence for people in the Holy Place, and the Jews were to mediate God’s presence to the surrounding nations, and the hub of all this was the Temple. The Context of Haggai’s Message In about 586 BC the majestic Temple that Solomon built was destroyed by the Babylonians, and for roughly seventy years it would lay in ruins until a Persian king named Cyrus conquered Babylon, and gave permission to the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuilt their glorious Temple.  The Jews began work on rebuilding the foundations of the Temple, but they faced opposition from the surrounding nations and the simply stopped work altogether, and were focusing on their own houses, completely neglecting the mission of God.  And this is where the prophet Haggai comes in.  His message of Haggai in chapter 1 was a call for the people to consider their ways, and to return to the work of rebuilding the temple and the mission of God.  And at the end of chapter 1 they obey God’s message from Haggai and picked up the work of rebuilding the Temple. Haggai’s Encouragement: The Lord Is With You In chapter 2 Haggai receives another message from God for the people and this is the message: You are building more than you think.  In v. 3 he says “3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?” Now most of the Jews at this point had no living memory of what the original Temple was like, but the reason Haggai said this is because there were a number of the older people who did have memories of Solomon’s temple, and they could see that in their feeble attempts at rebuilding it with their limited resources it would never even compare the grandeur of the original temple.  Ezra 3:12 tells us about this occasion when it says, “But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid,” They were saying, “There’s no way we’ll be able to do what God is calling us to do! We don’t have the resources.  We don’t have the right leadership.  We don’t have the right tools.  We’re not equipped for the mission God has given us.”  But what does God say in v. 4? “4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts.”  Haggai is telling them, “Since God is with you, you are building more than you think.” And here is what God promises to his people as they make their small attempts at rebuilding a temple that they though would never compare to the glory of the former temple that Solomon built: “Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’” Sometimes God tells us to do things that seem futile or we don’t see the value of doing them.  In fact, most of the time faithfulness in building the kingdom is doing a lot of small, unrecognized things over a long period of time. Let me say that again for you discouraged, but faithful people who need some encouragment: Most of the time faithfulness in building the kingdom of God is not measured by how big, fast, and famous the things we do are, but most of the time faithfulness in building the kingdom is doing a lot of small, unrecognized things over a long period of time.  It is continuing to be kind to that family member or coworker despite their constant criticism.  It’s showing up to work on time day in and day out and then faithfully completing the tasks that need to be done without complaining.  It’s picking up a piece of litter that you didn’t drop.  And when you do those small, unrecognized things over a long period of time, you are building more than you think. God Equips and Enables His People for The Mission In v. 6 it says, “For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.”  The first thing this means is that God would provide the material needs for the Jews to accomplish the building of the temple.  He is giving them assurance that He, as the Sovereign Lord of Hosts, can and will provide for them.  All the silver and gold they need belongs to God, and He will give them what they need.  If God calls you to a task, he will provide the things necessary for you to do it.  It might be different than what you think, but all the resources in the world belong to God, and he knows the best way to use them.  So trust him in those times, because you are building more than you think. But secondarily, this statement of God’s points to the future coming of Jesus, and the completion of his mission in the world, and we get to that more with the next verse. Verse 9 is the most mind blowing statement in this passage: “9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’”  When God said this to his people, the glory he was talking about wasn’t based on the adornments or accoutrements of the physical building they were working on, but he was speaking of a future temple.  A temple not made by human hands.  Jesus Was the Ultimate Expression of God’s Presence The Temple represented the focal point of God’s presence in the world, the special place of his presence.  But in John 1 we are told that God gave us his presence in a new way.  John 1:14 tells us that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, became flesh—meaning he became a human man—and ‘dwelt among us.’  The literal translation is that he pitched his tent, or ‘tabernacled’ among his people.  And that is because the presence of Jesus is the presence of God.  When Jesus came, the blessing of God’s presence was no longer limited to the physical space of the Most Holy Place inside the Temple, but it was found in the person of Jesus.  Which is why in John 2 Jesus said, ““Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.  When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.” Since Jesus has come, the temple was and is no longer the special place of God’s presence, the body of Christ is.  In the Old Testament people knew Yahweh as God in a building, but in the New Testament we know him as God in the flesh.  And the New Testament also tells us that we, God’s people, are the body of Christ, and we are his Temple, he now lives in us, and the blessing of his presence will be mediated to the world through us.  1 Corinthians 3:9 literally says to believers, that now “You are God’s building.”  And in v. 16 Paul clarifies that and says, “Do you not know that you (plural) are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” So in Haggai 2:9, when God says, “9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former,” He isn’t talking about how great a future building will be, he is talking about Jesus and how he will dwell with his people in the new creation.  We know this because there are echoes of Haggai’s prophecy that come to their fulfillment in Revelation 21.  Listen to these words from Haggai 2, and then compare them with what is said in Revelation 21, keeping in mind that Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the ultimate presence of God in the New Testament, not the Temple.  In Haggai 2 God says, “I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. Then in Revelation 21 which describes the new heaven and new earth where we will live with Christ in eternity we read this: “And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.  By its light the nations will walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it… They will bring into the glory and honor of the nations.” God’s Presence Would Be Mediated Through A People, Not A Place When God promised his people in Haggai 2 that 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former,” He was talking about the time when his glory would fill the whole earth, and we will live with God in a restored and renewed creation.  And he was encouraging his people to play their role in rebuilding the temple, because in doing that, they were building more than they thought.  Their role in rebuilding the temple was working towards the glorious future in which we will live with God and his glory will fill the whole earth.  This is why the great commission that Jesus gave in Matthew 28 is reflective of God’s mission that we saw with the temple.  Remember the temple was the special place of God’s presence, and there were the concentric circles of the Most Holy Place, the Holy Place, The Courtyard, the Courtyard of the Gentiles, and then the world outside.  When Jesus came and completed his ministry through his death and resurrection, and the veil in the Temple that separated people from the presence of God was torn in two, he said this, “All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…and behold, I am with you always.” And Acts 1:8 says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The presence of God was no longer limited to a temple, but is found in the midst of God’s people, his church.  And we, as the church, are called to mediate the blessing of God’s presence to the world through building his kingdom, which most often means doing, small, unrecognized things over a long period of time.  1 Peter 2:5 says, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  Every small act of faithfulness that we participate in builds the kingdom that Jesus will ultimately bring to reality when he returns.  That kind word that you say to a discouraged coworker builds the kingdom of God.  A smile to the person behind the cash register builds the kingdom of God.  Speaking tenderly to your kids builds the kingdom of God.  Not cutting corners at work, doing your work with joy and hope builds the kingdom of God.  When you make a cup of tea for your friend—or your enemy! You are building more than you think!  When you let that person change lanes in front of you, you are building more than you think!  When you wash dishes to the glory of God, you are building more than you think.  “Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts…My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.” Or as Jesus said, “Behold I am with you always.”  God called the people of Haggai’s day to the work of building the temple—he was calling them to participate in his mission.  And God calls us to the work of building a different kind of temple, participating in his mission to make the whole earth his temple. Conclusion: The New Heaven and Earth as God’s Temple Revelation 21:1-22:5 describes the new, redeemed heavens and earth as a temple. We are promised that at the end of time the true temple will descend from heaven and fill the whole creation (Rev. 21:1-3, 10, 22). This special presence of God had been limited to the temple, and now the church, but will one day fill all of creation. In fact what we see in the description of the redeemed creation in Revelation 21-22 is a striking likeness to the Garden of Eden.  The new creation is described as “pure gold” (Rev. 21:18), pointing us to the Holy of Holies in the Temple which was covered with gold on the walls, floor, and ceiling. And the point is that in the future, the Holy of Holies will not be limited to a confined space with access granted only to a high priest, but will be expanded to cover the whole earth. The Holy of Holies in the Temple was perfectly cubic in it’s shape, and we are told that the whole city of the new creation is “square” (Rev. 21:16), with its length the same as its width. Again, the point is that now, in a new redeemed world, God’s ultimate plan has come to pass, and the entire creation has become the Holy of Holies, the place where God and man commune. This fact is even more evident in 22:4, which says, “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” In the Old Testament only the High Priest would wear God’s name on his forehead and once a year be in God’s presence, but in the future, “all of God’s people will have become high priests with God’s name on their foreheads, and standing not one day a year, but forever in God’s presence.” When Jesus died on the cross the thick, cherubim-interlaced veil that separated the Holy of Holies was split down the middle (Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). This represented a removal of the cherubim who blocked access to the true life found in Eden. Although the way to the Tree of Life had been restricted, in the new creation the Tree of Life is in the middle of the city, bearing fruit for all who dwell there. Not only did the tearing of the temple veil signify the access to God’s presence granted to believers, but it pointed to the future when God’s manifest glory would not be bound to the small space that was the Holy of Holies, but would fill the earth. That is why the prophet Haggai said, “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts” (Haggai 2:9). So I ask you again, have you ever felt like you weren’t making any progress?  Like your best efforts in life weren’t accomplishing anything of lasting value?  Like you were just spinning your wheels but not getting anywhere?  Maybe you feel like the work you do at your job doesn’t have any real value to the kingdom of God.  You don’t see how Monday connects to Sunday.  If that’s you, then God has spoken a word to you through the prophet Haggai, and it’s this: you are building more than you think.  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey-12-8.mp3 Sun, 08 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 42:09 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug12119.mp3 Sun, 01 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 34:30 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Consider Your Ways: Fruitless Prosperity Haggai 1:3-12 Preached at Main Street Church on November 24th, 2019 The book of Haggai is ultimately about building God’s kingdom.  It looks like it’s about rebuilding God’s Temple, but the main idea is that the people of God must restore God’s temple in order to mediate God’s presence in the world and show the world the kingdom of God.  The reason the book of Haggai is important to us is because it hits on one of the Bible’s main themes that we see from cover to cover, and that is the Temple.  In Scripture the Temple represents the mission of God to fill the earth with his glory. In Ancient Near Eastern culture a temple was a palace of a god.  And, as Goheen said last week, the temple, or the god’s palace, was connected to the palace of the human king, and the god and the human king ruled in the kingdom together, with the human king administering the rule of the god who lived in the temple.  The first place that we see a temple is in Genesis 1 with creation and the Garden of Eden.  During the time that Genesis was written, “anyone reading about something being built by a god in six days or stages would know that it was basically a temple, a dwelling for the god himself.”  And after completing the temple the god would enter the newly constructed house and ‘rest’ there, taking up residence in his new home.  This is exactly what we are told God did after his temple—his dwelling place of creation and the garden of Eden—was completed, he rested on the seventh day; not because he was worn out, but because he was inhabiting his temple.  In addition to this, when a temple was almost complete, an “image of the god himself is inserted into the shrine.  This image…is the mode and means of the god’s presence in the house.”    And, as we see in Genesis 1-2, on the sixth day God put his image bearers, Adam and Eve, male and female, as his vice-regents who would mediate his rule and his kingdom in the world that he made.  Adam and Eve were to represent God’s good rule over all creation.  That’s what God meant when he told them to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. So the Temple of Eden was the place where humans could live with God in his presence, and rule in his kingdom under him. But they rebelled against God’s rule over them, and were kicked out of God’s temple; they lost the blessing of his presence and the curse of sin came on all creation.  The future looked bleak until God appeared to Abram in Genesis 12 and made a covenant with him saying that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him.  And Abram built an altar—or a mini temple—and the place where he did this was called Bethel, which means ‘House of God.’  God would mediate the blessing of his presence through Abram.  Ultimately through Abraham came Isaac, then Jacob, then Joseph moved them to Egypt where the descendants of Abraham—in keeping with God’s promise—increased in number, and were called Israelites after Jacob who was called Israel.  And once the Israelites were liberated from Egypt, God commanded them to built the tabernacle: A portable temple where he could live in the midst of his people, and through which the presence and rule of God would be mediated through the people of God. With the tabernacle of God in their midst, the people of God would show the world the kingdom of God.  In fact, it is in Exodus 19 when God is establishing his covenant with his people that he tells them, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:6).  That meant they were to mediate the presence of God—like priests—by living under the rule of God—as a kingdom. Eventually, God instituted a human monarchy, starting with Saul and then David followed him, and God promised that through David’s lineage, his kingdom would be established forever.  God then used Solomon, David’s son, to build his temple, the place where God’s presence would reside and could be mediated through his people to the surrounding nations.  But the people of God were unfaithful to the covenant that God established with them in Exodus, and the prophet Jeremiah foretold that the Jews would be in exile for seventy years, and then Babylon would be punished and Judah would be restored.  And that is exactly what happened.  The temple that Solomon built was destroyed in about 587 BC by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, and the Jews lived in exile, having been forced from their homeland and the city of Jerusalem, and the temple—the picture of God’s mission and blessing of his presence—lay in ruins. So in 1-2 Kings and 1-2 Chronicles you have the historic narrative of these events unfolding, and in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah you have more detail of what was about to unfold.  After about fifty years of living as exiles outside of their homeland, Cyrus the Persian conquered the Babylonian empire to an end—just as the prophet Jeremiah had foretold—and he gave permission to the Jews to return to Jerusalem—their homeland—and rebuild the temple.  There are two characters who appear in Haggai: Zerubbabel and Joshua.  Zerubbabel was from the lineage of David, and is called the governor of Judah—he was the human king who was to rule under God.  Joshua was the high priest who would minister in the temple.  So many Jews moved back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, but the message that we see in Haggai is that rather than focusing on God’s work and rebuilding the temple, they had spent their time and resources on building their own homes.  In other words, they had been neglecting the mission of God in favor of their own pursuits and interests.  They were building their own kingdoms instead of the kingdom of God.  They were trying to make their own lives comfortable while neglecting the mission of God.  So this is what the prophet Haggai said to them: Haggai 1:3-12 “3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.” If you try to live your life on your own mission, building your own kingdom, and neglect the mission of God, you will live in perpetual frustration.  Even for the Israelites at that time, the problem wasn’t ultimately the neglect of a building, but neglect of what that building represented: the mission of the kingdom of God.  Their problem was indifference to the glory of God manifest in the kingdom of God.  They were failing to uphold the covenant just as their forefathers did, and in fact, in v. 3-11 Haggai is simple referencing a list of covenant curses from Deuteronomy 29 that God said would come upon his people if they failed to keep covenant with him.  Haggai is telling them that they are living in frustration and discontentment because they have neglected the mission of God. Thanksgiving is a time where we can pause and examine our priorities and consider what is really important to us.  As Haggai says in v. 7: “consider your ways.”  So here is a very contextualized and paraphrased version of v. 4-6 that I made for us to consider today: “Is it a time for you to make yourselves comfortable in your subdivisions while the body of Christ suffers division and derision?  Now, therefore, thus says the King of Heaven and Earth: Consider your ways.  You have found many black Friday deals, but they only make you happy for a moment.  Your Thanksgiving meal fills your stomach, but it doesn’t fill your heart, and no amount of drinks can satisfy the deep longing for meaning and connection in your soul.  You put on different clothes, but you are still the same on the inside.  You are dissatisfied in both your work and your wages.  Listen to the God who owns everything and made you: perhaps its time to reconsider what life is really about.”  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/11242019Casey.mp3 Sun, 24 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:53 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/11172019MikeG.mp3 Sun, 17 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:34 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older We’re in This Together Colossians 4:7-18 Preached at Main Street Church on November 10th, 2019 Our Problem: We try make it on our own Proposition: We’re in this together We’re in this with faithful servants We’re in this with forgiven sinners We’re in this with fellow sufferers Our text for today is Paul’s final instructions to the church at Colossae, and it’s a passage of Scripture that many people simply skip over, since we’ve covered all the “good stuff” already, and at first glance it doesn’t appear to have any significance for us. I’ll admit that when I first began studying this text, that’s what I thought.  But everything that God has included in Scripture, he has included for a reason, and as the Holy Spirit opened this passage up to me I discovered that this text actually has a message for us that both very important, and very relevant.  Some have referred to this section of Scripture as something of a group photograph that Paul included with his letter to the Colossian church, and as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Colossians 4:7-18 “7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9 and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. 10 Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him), 11 and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. 13 For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis. 14 Luke the beloved physician greets you, as does Demas. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house. 16 And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. 17 And say to Archippus, “See that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord.” 18 I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.” As Brittany and I have become parents and started taking our kids to parks where they can play I’ve learned the understanding that parents have with each other when we’re at the park.  It’s an unwritten understanding that every parent knows for when you’re in the midst of the wildness and frenetic play at the park, and its this: we’re in this together. When can’t make it on our own.  But this passage, is a demonstration to us that we’re in this together.  Even the apostle Paul, with his divine calling as an apostle and the miraculous signs that he performed, relied on other people—he relied on the church.  No man is an island, no one can do it by themselves, we’re in this together.  In this final section of his letter Paul mentions 11 different people that we’re in this with, and since we don’t have time to look at each one, we’re just going to look at the first three people that Paul mentions, and they are people who represent types of people who are in our church and churches around the world—people that we’re in this together with.  The other 8 people that we can’t get to today, you’ll have to study on your own, but we’re in this with them as well.  The three kinds of people that we’re in this together with are: Faithful Servants Forgiven Sinners Fellow Sufferers We’re in This with Faithful Servants - Tychicus In v. 7 Paul says, “Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts,” Tychicus is mentioned five times in the New Testament.  The first time he’s mentioned is in Acts 20:4, when the apostle Paul is at Ephesus and is planning to go to Macedonia, but he wants to collect some money from the Thessalonian, Philippian, and Corinthian church as a love gift for the believers in Jerusalem so that he can reconcile their relationship with the Gentile believers, and he wants them to have unity.  So Tychicus joined Paul on his trip to Jerusalem.  This shows the kind of man that Tychicus was.  He was a faithful servant; he had a servant’s heart.  He leaves behind his home, his friends, and his fellowship of his church to take a long journey with Paul, which was never a safe thing to do, in order to serve Paul and other believers.  In fact, everyone warned Paul about the danger of what would happen if he went to Jerusalem, and yet Tychicus didn’t bail out.  He stuck with Paul.  A lot of people gave their money, but a few people gave themselves, and Tychicus was one of those.  When Paul wrote this letter Tychicus was still with him while he was imprisoned in Rome.  At the end of the letter that Paul wrote to Titus, who was a Pastor, and Paul said, “When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.”  Which meant Paul was going to send Artemas or Tychicus to fill in for Titus as the pastor of his church so Titus could come be with Paul.  Titus was the pastor of the congregations on the island of Crete, and Paul wanted Titus to spend the winter with him because Paul knew he was coming to the end of his life, and he loved Titus and wanted to be with him during that time.  So he said come be with me, and I’ll send Tychicus to take care of your church.  Tychicus served the Lord by serving believers.  He was a faithful servant.  Tychicus started our as a messenger, and he turned out substituting as the pastor for a great man.  He made himself available, as a faithful servant, and God used him in incredible ways.  In 2 Timothy 4:12 Paul said to the young pastor Timothy, “Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.  When you come bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.”  Paul forgot his coat somewhere and wants Timothy to bring it, along with some books and parchment—the parchments probably being Scriptures.  So Paul wanted Timothy to come be with him, but in order for Timothy to leave the church at Ephesus, Paul would send a faithful servant to fill in for him: Tychicus.  So Tychicus filled in as pastor for Titus and Timothy, two high quality guys.  Anytime we find Tychicus’ name in the New Testament, is faithfully serving, doing whatever needs to be done.  Now where we see his name at the end of this letter to the Colossians he is with Paul in Rome, and will have to cross Italy on foot, sail the Adriatic, cross Greece, sail the Aegean sea, and then walked up the steep Lycus River Valley to Laodicea and Colossae, just to bring this letter to the churches there.  But it wasn’t just this letter to the Colossians that Tychicus was bringing, he was also bringing a letter for the Ephesian church.  Ephesians 6:21 says “Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything.  I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.”  Almost the exact same wording as the letter Paul wrote to the Colossians.  So Tychicus has two letters to bring to the churches in that area, and both of those letters were what scholars call ‘circulal letters’—that is, they were letters to be read in all the churches in that region.  We see that at the end of Colossians here Paul intends his letter to be also read to the Laodicean church.  And the letter to the Ephesians was a very general letter that actually had the address area blank in most manuscripts that we have today.  At the beginning of the letter to the Ephesians it reads “To the church at _________”. And that’s because it was meant to be read at a variety of churches.  But Tychicus wasn’t just carrying the letters to the Colossians and the Ephesians, but he also a letter to a man named Philemon.  In v. 9 Paul said, “And along with Tychicus I’m sending Onesimus.” Onesimus was a slave who ran away from Philemon, but we’ll see more about him later.  So Tychicus was someone who Paul trusted because he was a faithful servant.  He had the job of delivering Colossians, Ephesians, and Philemon, and he wasn’t just the mailman, but he was meant to declare what the letter said and everything going on.  v. 7 says “he will tell you about all my activiites…and he will encourage your hearts”   We’re never told anywhere that Tychicus had any special credentials or training, or pedigree, or heritage.  We don’t know a single word he said, but Paul calls Tychicus this: a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord.  Tychicus was a faithful servant.  He didn’t attain prominence.  He didn’t have any high position, but whatever needed to be done he did it faithfully.  It it weren’t for the role that Tychicus played back then, we wouldn’t be reading this letter, or the letter to the Ephesians, or Philemon.  A couple months ago I met a man with two dogs named Merry and Pippin after the characters from the famous Lord of the Rings stories.  He told me that Merry and Pippin were his favorite characters in the whole story because even though they played a small, seemingly insignificant role, the things that they did were actually indispensable to the ultimate mission.  If it weren’t for the tiny things done by two little hobbits from insignificant families, the fate of the world would have ended differently.  Friends, chances are that God has not asked most of us to do big famous things.  He’s asked most of us to simply be faithful servants.  Your role in God’s grand drama in the world might simply be to pop out from back stage for only a moment, deliver your one line, and then go back stage again, but if you don’t play your role, and if you don’t say your line, the drama doesn’t go as it should.  What lines are you supposed to say in this life?  What role are you meant to play in other people’s lives?  God is the director, and we must listen for his voice so that we can, like Tychicus, be faithful servants when he calls on us.  It might be a certain work God is calling you to.  It might be certain people God has put in your life that rely on you.  We need to be faithful servants, because we’re in this together.  2. We’re in This with Forgiven Sinners - Onesimus In v. 9 Paul says that with Tychicus he is sending “Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you.”  Onesimus was a man with a sinful past.  We learn the most about him in the letter to Philemon.  Philemon was one of the pillars of the Colossians church; his family was very involved, and it appears that the Colossians church actually met in Philemon’s house, so Philemon also must’ve been a pretty wealthy man, and he was a convert of the apostle Paul’s.  Onesimus was a slave of Philemon’s but he didn’t like being a slave, so he ran off. When the New Testament talks of slavery it is not like the slavery that we experienced in this country.  Slavery at that time was more like indentured servanthood, with a contract, and the ability to acquire freedom.  A modern example of this is in the United States military if you agree to serve for a certain period of time, the military will pay for your college, your room and board, your health insurance, and all your expenses.  During your time in the military, though, they tell you where to live, what to do, and there’s a sense in which you are their slave.  But it’s an agreement, not a concept based on ethnicity or personhood.  So Onesimus got sick of working as a servant in Philemon’s house, ran away from the Colossian church, and headed off to Las Vegas.  Well, not really, but he went to Rome, which makes the same point.  He apparently was seeking a life of hedonism and pleasure running away from his responsibilities, and if he got caught, the punishment was execution.  Out of the two million people living in Rome, who do you think Onesimus ran into?  The apostle Paul.  And Paul led this runaway salve to Christ, he had a radical conversion, and now Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon and the Colossian church, telling them to welcome him and take him back not as a slave, but as a beloved brother—as a forgiven sinner.  The gospel breaks down barriers of class and caste and makes us brothers and sisters with equal footing before Christ.  In the letter to Philemon Paul calls Onesimus beloved and faithful, and: “my very heart.”  And I think Paul had a special place in his heart for Onesimus because Paul himself had once been running from God, and had a radical conversion, and it took years before anyone would welcome him into the church because they didn’t trust him.  Now he’s pleading with Philemon and the Colossian church to accept Onesimus as one of them, to trust him, because he is a forgiven sinner.  Now here’s something very interesting about Onesimus: we have a letter written in the first century by a man named Ignatius, who is well known to church historians as one of the early church fathers.  Ignatius was pastor of a church in Smyrna, and he wrote this to the Colossian church: “Since then, in the name of God, I received your entire congregation in the person of Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love, and your pastor.  I beseech you in Christ Jesus to love him and all who are like him.” That statement from Ignatius means that Onesimus actually become the pastor of the Colossians church.  What an ending to the story!  So not only did Philemon accept Onesimus back into his family and the church, but he became his pastor.  One pastor said, “From runaway slave to your pastor, only Christianity is going to do that.”  The church is made up of faithful servants, but it’s also made up of forgiven sinners.  If you’re a believer in Christ, you’re a forgiven sinner.  We need to remember that we’re forgiven sinners, because remembering that helps us to forgive others whom God has already forgiven.  Who might God be speaking to you this morning that you need to welcome back into your life as a forgiven sinner?  God transformed Onesimus, and we are beneficiaries of his story because it shows us that kind of God we have, and how we are to receive forgiven sinners—just as Christ has.  Maybe you feel like Onesimus.  You ran away from the church and the family God gave you, but he’s been working in your life, and you know you need to go back, but you’re scared.  Look at Onesimus.  By the power of the Holy Spirit he was received, and God had quite the fruitful future prepared for that forgiven sinner.  We’re in this together with faithful servants and forgiven sinners.  3. We’re in This with Fellow Sufferers - Aristarchus V. 10 says, “Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you,”  Paul minister at Ephesus for three years, and during that time Aristarchus was with him.  Eventually a riot broke out in Ephesus because of Paul’s teaching, and Aristarchus was seized by the mob.  He was recognized as one of Paul’s friends, and Acts 19 tells us he suffered because of it. When Paul went on his trip to Jerusalem he was imprisoned there, an Aristarchus was with him.  Then in Acts 27 when Paul went on a ship to Rome he was a prisoner on the ship and Aristarchus was with him.  It appears that Aristarchus had been through all of Paul’s imprisonment with him.  He never left him.  He had chosen to be a fellow sufferer with Paul.  Aristarchus hadn’t committed any crimes, he just hung around with Paul, and so he suffered with him.  The word for ‘fellow prisoner’ means something like ‘war captive’ so Aristarchus was a captive like Paul.  The amazing thing is that Aristarchus himself was never imprisoned, but Paul calls him a prisoner ‘like me’ because he might as well have been a prisoner.  He chose to be beside Paul when he was imprisoned.  He chose to take on Paul’s lifestyle as his own, so that Paul would not have to suffer alone. There are some people who don’t do public things that make them prominent, but they might be the most loved because they will bear your burden with you.  We don’t know what Aristarchus did.  We aren’t told that he delivered anything or ministered in any kind of way, all we know is that he was with Paul and stayed with Paul when he was in prison.  He gave up his freedom to suffer with Paul.  Christian Author Dan Allender said, “Find like-hearted kings living in the same direction.  Sign treaties.  When they’re at war, you’re at war.”  We need to be in this with other people who will suffer with us, because no one can do it alone, we were never meant to try to do anything in life alone.  Do you have an Aristarchus in your life?  Do you have someone who will give up their freedoms to suffer with you?  Who have you signed a treaty with that you will go to war with?  What friend of yours, when they’re wounded by the enemy, will you fight for?  We need each other.  Do you know somebody suffering right now?  Be a fellow sufferer with them.  Find out what they need and do it for them.  Spend time with them.  You can’t sign treaties with everyone, only a few.  You’re only human. But who has God put in your life.  Maybe your husband or wife is going through something right now.  Don’t let them suffer on their own and just hope that they’re make it through.  Fight for them.  Fight with them.   In v. 12 when Paul says Epaphras is “struggling” for you in his prayers, in other places that word is translated ‘fight.’  He fights for you in his prayers.  Oh that we would be a church who fights for each other in our prayers.  Oh that God would make us like Aristarchus, willing to be fellow sufferers with each other.  This April we are planning to do a men’s event, and I want to invite each of the men in this church to come on this trip.  We’re in this together, and we need each other.  We need to be in the fox holes with each other.  We need to fight for each other.  We’re in this together with faithful servants, forgiven sinners, and fellow sufferers.  We need all three, and we need to be all three.  The church is not just a voluntary group of people who believe the same thing.  The church is a new community of people, supernaturally brought together in Christ, for God’s mission in the world.  We need each other because we’re in this together.  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey_111019.mp3 Sun, 10 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 34:16 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug11319.mp3 Sun, 03 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:46 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Set Your Mind on the Supremacy of Christ Colossians 3:1-17 Preached at Main Street Church on October 27, 2019 Our Problem: We search for life where it cannot be found Proposition: Since true life is found in Christ we must set our minds on his supremacy. Since true life is found in Christ we must die to ourselves (v. 1-11) Since true life is found in Christ we must commit to his community (v. 12-17) Last week we were in chapter 2 where Paul deconstructs the false teaching that was infecting the first century Christians at Colossae.  He told them not to be taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world.  My goal last week was to contextualize that by deconstructing the human traditions and elemental spirits, and philosophies of our present moment that seek to shape our view of the world.  Consumerism, individualism, utilitarianism, and autonomy, are all packaged together in the post enlightenment narrative of progress. This narrative tells us that advances in technology, scientific knowledge, and individual freedoms will ultimately guide us to progress in every area of life—morally, sexually, and societally—and that progress will inevitably lead us to a utopia if we can just progress beyond old fashioned ways of thinking that hold us back in our quest for utopia.  This narrative smacks of what some scholars call ‘Western Supremicism’ because it arrogantly assumes that the rest of the globe will certainly conform to Western mores to be as ‘woke’ as we are—socially and sexually—if they could just catch up with how much we have progressed.  But all of our progress has led suicide to be “the second-leading cause of death among people ages 10-34” in the United States, an increase in the number of mass shootings, an increase in anxiety levels across all age groups and ethnicities according to a new national poll, and according to a U.N. Report, in 2019 Americans are the unhappiest they’ve ever been, and this is despite a low unemployment rate and the steady growth of income per capita over the last few decades.  Yes, our culture has made progress, but that progress hasn’t taken us where we thought it would.  We’re lost. Our culture is aching for true meaning and belonging—for true life—and that meaning and belonging can only come in a community where Christ has supremacy as King.  In a society where we have convinced each other and ourselves that we are the completely autonomous arbiters of our own individuality, we have eagerly plunged into the ocean of absolute personal freedom only to find ourselves drowning in meaningless.  True meaning, life, and identity can only be found in in the supremacy of Jesus Christ.  No president, or social, political, or economic philosophy possesses the supremacy of authority to lead us into a true utopian kingdom, only Christ possesses that supremacy, and he is the King of the Kingdom of God.  If you are a believer, this is the life you have been called to: Colossians 3:1-17: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” In this passage Paul tells us since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy.  In fact, the key to the whole Christian life, and the life of the church is to set our minds on the supremacy of Christ in all things.  Paul gets very practical with what setting our minds on the supremacy of Christ looks like.  Setting our minds on the supremacy of Christ isn’t some mystical routine that we do in our private devotions.  Setting our mind on the supremacy of Christ is a publicly noticeable, relational outworking of our knowledge of and relationship with Jesus.  And Paul gives us two ways that we must set our minds on the supremacy of Christ: Since true life is found in Christ we must die to ourselves (v. 1-11) Since true life is found in Christ we must commit to his community (v. 12-17) Paul introduces both of these ideas in the first four verses of chapter 3.  “If then you have been raised with Christ,” Meaning, if you have died to yourself, and found true life in Christ, then you must, “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”  The right hand of God denotes complete supremacy, primarily, the authority to make intercession with God the Father.  In Matthew 28:18 Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” And the fact that Christ is seated at the right hand of God implies that his work has been completed.  In the OT the Tabernacle and the Temple were filled with furniture for the priests to utilize in making intercession for God’s people, but one piece of furniture was conspicuously absent—there was nowhere to sit.  That was indicative of the fact that the work of OT priests was never finished— they continually made sacrifices for sin, and that is contrasted with the Great High Priest, Jesus who, according to Heb. 9:12, "entered once for all into the holy places…by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” So Paul is saying, since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy.  “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” He continues this point in v. 2: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Many Christians read this verse through their western worldview and interpret it to mean a distinction between the spiritual and the physical.  They take it to mean, don’t think about physical things like the planet, and your body and material reality, but just meditate on spiritual things like what you think heaven will be like.  That would almost be the opposite of what Paul meant here.  When Paul contrasts “things that are above,” with “things that are on earth” he is not making a contrast between physical and spiritual, but he is highlighting a contrast of supremacy and subordination.  He’s not saying physical things on the earth don’t matter, he is saying that they are subordinate in contrast to the supremacy of Christ, so we must set our minds on the supremacy of Christ.  Paul explained previously in 2:15 that God “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them (above them) in (Christ).”  In 2:11 Paul says, “(He) is the head (above) of all rule and authority.”  So in these first four verses of chapter 3 Paul is not calling us to forget about the world, he is calling us to set our minds on the supremacy of Christ over (above) the world.  Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy.  This gets even clearer in v. 3: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”  Due to the form of our pronouns in English you can’t see this, but each time the word you or your is used in v. 3 and 4, it is plural, which is striking when you consider that the noun for ‘life’ in v. 3 and 4 is singular.  “For you (all) have died, and your (plural) life (singular) is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your (plural) life (singular) appears, then you (all) also will appear with him in glory.”  Which shows us that true life in Christ is found in commitment to Christ’s community.  ‘My’ life is not hidden with Christ in God.  And OUR ‘lives’ are not hidden with Christ in God—OUR LIFE (singular; one life) is hidden with Christ in God. Which means that my life is inextricably connected to your life, and to everyone who has been raised with Christ in salvation.  Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on the supremacy of Christ, and we do that by dying to ourselves, and committing to his community.  The result is that when Christ does return to establish his kingdom on the earth, we will appear with him in the glory of the true utopia of the kingdom of God.  Progress or technology or earthly political power or American liberty will not lead us to utopian glory.  Only when the true King, Jesus returns, “When Christ who is our life appears, then we will also appear with him in glory.” Which is why we must set our minds on his supremacy by dying to ourselves and committing to his community.  The Supremacy of Christ Is Seen in His Authority Over All Things Christ’s supremacy is seen in his authority over all things.  Christ has supremacy over Satan, who can do nothing without his permission.  Christ has supremacy over demons who cowered before the incarnate Christ during his earthly ministry.  He has supremacy over nature, and with a word can stifle storms or call down lightning from heaven. “The foundations of the world are laid bare at his rebuke” (Psalm 18:15) He has supremacy over all wisdom knowledge, “his understanding has no limit” (Psalm 147:5). He has supremacy over sickness, making the lame walk, the dumb talk, the deaf hear, and the blind see.  He has supremacy over animals and plants, causing a giant fish to swallow Jonah, a plant to give him shade, and then a worm to eat the plant.  He spoke through a donkey and shut the mouths of lions.  He has supremacy over kings, raising them up and bringing them low, their hearts like water in the hand of the Lord that he turns wherever he will.  He has supremacy over the nations which are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales before him.  He has supremacy over everything that will take place in the future, declaring the end from the beginning.  He has supremacy over all people, arriving in triumph and glory with all those who believe in him when he returns. And He has supremacy over death, triumphing over it through the cross, and granting life to everyone who believes in Him.  “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Since true life is found in Christ we must set our minds on his supremacy. 1. Since True Life Is Found in Christ We Must Die to Ourselves The first way we set our minds on the supremacy of Christ is by dying to ourselves.  Paul clarifies that with these lists of five.  It was common in first-century Greco-Roman rhetoric to put things in lists of five, and then conclude the list with a summary statement.  It’s like how we have three point sermons.  It just signified completeness; Paul has two separate lists of five in this section. The first list is “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,” which he summarizes as idolatry.  Idolatry is putting something in God’s place, and Paul lists five types of sins that put our desires in God’s place; idolatry.  It is idolatry that warrants God’s wrath—or God’s judgment—and he says, “In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.” Since Christ is supreme, we die to ourselves and idols of our culture. Then he gives another list of five, “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.” And he summarizes these by saying “do not lie to one another.”  This might seem like an odd summary at first, but what Paul is getting at is that our lives used to be characterized by belief in lies.  Jesus reveals in John 8 that the essence of Satan’s being is that he is a liar and the father of lies, and when we give in to our sinful desires and live according to them, we are demonstrating our trust in the very same lie that Satan told Eve in the garden.  He is saying, we used to live that way, v. 8 “But now (we) must put them all away,” and live and speak in such a way that corresponds with the truth of Christ’s supremacy, and not the lies of our sinful culture.  Setting our minds on the supremacy of Christ means dying to ourselves by putting to death our idolatry, which is our personal desire for things that try to take God’s place, and by putting to death the things in our life that lie to others about who God is.  One of the biggest lies in our culture is that true life is found in unfettered embracing of your personal desires, and living ‘your truth’ with no regard for the supremacy of Christ.  But true life is actually found in dying to our personal desires and embracing the truth of the supremacy of Christ.  It is putting to death my personal individual image that I am trying to construct, and “putting on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”  When we die to our radical individualism that seeks meaning and expression in externals we find true life in the body of Christ.  That’s why Paul says in v. 11,  “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”  When you die to yourself, external things—like ethnicity, tribe, or social status—don’t determine your meaning or your identity, Christ does.  Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy, and we do that by dying to ourselves.  For the last several years I’ve grown tomatoes in my backyard.  This spring I found that one of the tomatoes from last year had fallen off the vine and into a partially open bag of potting soil.  When I went to use the bag this year I discovered a small tomato plant already growing inside of it.  I cut the bag around the plant and left it where it was, and that tomato plant grew to be about 7 feet tall and gave us more tomatoes than any other plant, so many that we were giving them away.  From that one individual tomato came an abundance of life—baskets full of tomatoes from a massive plant—but in order for that to happen, the original tomato and the seeds within it had to die.  Every farmer and backyard gardener knows that for new life to grow, the old life must die.  That’s why Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:24-25).  Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy, and we do that by dying to ourselves. You will not experience the fruit-producing, growth-giving life of Christ unless you die to yourself.  Since Christ is supreme, we must die to our idolatry.  “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  Which means, don’t try to find life in those things, instead, die to them.  “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).    True life isn’t found in expressing my individual desires, but in the supremacy of Christ—I am not my own.  Our culture seductively tells us that giving into our desires and identifying ourselves by our desires will make us authentic people who are being true to ourselves—that is just a repackaged version of Satan’s lie to Eve in the garden.  It’s the lie that says giving into your desire will bring enlightenment rather than enslavement.  Paul says we used to walk in that idolatry, “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.”  Meaning that if you are a Christ-follower, your life must be reflection of Jesus, not your own individuality— “seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”  Dying to ourselves means getting to know Jesus so we look more and more like him, and less and less like the idolatrous, lie promoting world. This doesn’t mean that Christians are perfect-far from it! We are still sinful people in a sinful world, but Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).  We must die to our selfishness with our time.  We must die to any prideful ambitions.  We must die to our insecurity that seeks the praise of people.  We must die to our desire to define ourselves by externals like a social tribe, our economic status, or our personal style.  And the only way to die to ourselves is to set our minds on the supremacy of Christ, who took the wrath of God that we deserved in our place on the cross, and conquered sin and death by rising from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of God with the name that is above every name.  If you have been raised with Christ, set your minds on the supremacy of Christ.  Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy, and we do that by dying to ourselves. 2. Since True Life Is Found in Christ We Must Commit to His Community Paul already made clear in the first four verses of chapter 3 that life in Christ is life in a community.  We have a singular life experienced in a corporate community.  Here he is telling us that life in Christ is not just experienced in dying to ourselves, but life in Christ is experienced by committing to Christ’s community.  He starts by giving another list of five: “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,” Then before his summary statement of this list he interjects v. 13 “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” And his summary statement for the list is v. 14: “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”  Everything in v. 12-14 is a radical expression of commitment to a community.  You don’t show compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance or forgiveness to people you aren’t committed to.  Dying to ourselves inevitably leads us into a commitment to Christ’s community, where we experience true life together.  Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy, and we do that by committing to his community.  Paul solidifies this idea in v. 15 “And let the peace of Christ (have supremacy) in your (plural) hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. (In one community!) And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly (that is, have supremacy in your hearts), teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,” That means, whatever you do, in word or deed, give Christ supremacy in all of it. “giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy, and we do that by committing to his community.  This February Psychology today released an article entitled, “Loneliness: A New Epidemic in the USA” The article read: “Cigna and Ipsos (4) surveyed 20,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, and almost half report feeling alone (40%) or left out (47%). One in four (27%) feel they are not understood. Two in five (43%) feel relations are not meaningful and they feel isolated (43%). Generation Z (those born after about 1995) was found to be the loneliest generation. And social media use alone is not a predictor of loneliness. In all the findings, a lack of meaningful human connectedness is paramount.” Friends, the church of Jesus Christ is perfectly poised to give real community to lonely people.  Our radically individualized, compartmentalized, and hyper-mobile culture has had the unintended consequence of leaving people extremely lonely, and the Jesus intends his community—the church—to be the place where lonely people find belonging, feel understood, have meaningful relationships, and ultimately, experience the family of God.  Our vision at this church is “to see our communities flourish as God intended.”  God does not intend for people to be lonely!  In Gen. 1-2 When God made everything he said it is good, it is good, it is good, it is very good, but there was one thing, before any sin ever came into the world that he said was not good: it is not good that man should be alone! God designed us for community, specifically, for his community, the church.  And being part of a community takes commitment.  We understand commitment in other areas of life.  For instance, if this January you say you want to improve your fitness and lose 20 pounds, we understand that for that to happen you have to commit to something.  You have to commit to a regular workout routine; you have to commit to a regular time to do that routine; you have to commit to a calorie restrictive diet, commit to eating certain amounts—if you want your fitness to improve and your old image to change that takes commitment!  The same goes for community.  If you are lonely, you’ve got to commit to Christ’s community.  You can’t expect to experience deep, meaningful community if you don’t commit time to it; it doesn’t work like that.  We have to commit to getting together with each other.  And you know as well as I do that if we don’t schedule it, it’s not going to happen! We have small groups in our church for the distinct purpose of commitment to Christ’s community, and I encourage you to get involved in one.  Maybe you ought to lead one.  That means people in your house, messes, uncomfortable silences, but if we are going to combat the epidemic of loneliness in our culture we must commit to Christ’s community.  Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy, and we do that by committing to his community.  When Christ is supreme in our hearts we teach and encourage one another, together in community.  When Christ is supreme in our lives we are patient and kind with one another.  When Christ is supreme in our community, lonely people are invited into a vibrant life in Christ.  Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy, and we do that by committing to his community. The only way we as human being can experience life as God intended is if we set our minds on the supremacy of Christ, and we do that by dying to ourselves and committing to his community.  The supremacy of Christ shows us that true life is not found in ourselves, but in him—that we must take our eyes off ourselves and put them on Christ—we must die to ourselves.  The supremacy of Christ shows us that true life is not found by ourselves, but in Christ’s community—and we must take our minds off ourselves and set them on Christ—we must commit to his community.  Our culture has searched for true life by following their own path, and it has left millions of people lost, searching for the way home.  Only when we set our minds on the things that are above—on the supremacy of Christ—will we find the true way to life. When I was about six or seven years old my family and I went on a hike in the high desert mountains behind my grandparents house in onyx California, about 100 miles from Death Valley. About halfway through my brother and I, impatient with the slowness of our grandparents and parents, set off from the group, blazing the trail ahead.  We would stop every now and then to make sure we were still within sight of the group, but soon we went too far up the mountain and we couldn’t see the group, and the wind began howling blowing our cries for help into the wilderness.  My brother and I finally admitted to each other what we had been too scared to admit: we were lost.  I was scared.  I cried a little bit.  After sitting on a rock with my brother and trying to figure out what to do, we saw my grandparents dog.  She had found us.  She was a good dog and always went home, so we decided to follower her.  It was almost like she knew we were lost, and she would go down the mountain a bit and then wait for us to catch up, and continue doing that until we reached the bottom, and ultimately, she did in fact lead us back to my grandparents house where only my grandma was, and our parents and aunts and uncles were all out looking for us.  Eventually they all got word that we were okay and came back to the house.  Fortunately, everyone was so relieved that we were okay that we didn’t get in trouble.  The next time we went out for a hike I had committed to staying close to my grandpa.  No blazing the trail ahead of the group for me.  We were hiking in a different spot than before, and I was enjoying seeing the new territory.  Suddenly my grandpa called my name with the frightening voice of authority that only a grandpa has.  He said, “Casey, that’s why you got lost.  I’ve been watching you this whole time, and you’ve spent our entire walk looking down at your feet.  The only way to know where you are and where you’re going is to keep your eyes up.”  Friends, truer words could not be spoken to our lost culture.  We’ve spent so much time looking down at our own feet that we’ve lost all bearing on where we are, and we don’t know how to get home.  But if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.  Pick your eyes up off your feet and put them on Christ.  Look up!  Look up for direction, look up for belonging, look up for life!  Since true life is found in Christ, we must set our minds on his supremacy in all things.  Let’s take our eyes off of our feet, and put them on Christ. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/10272019Casey.mp3 Sun, 27 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:50 Michael Goheen 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/10202019Casey.mp3 Sun, 20 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 43:26 Doug Hon 2019 and Older Striving to Know Christ Colossians 1:24-2:5 Preached at Main Street Church on October 13th, 2019 Our Problem: We strive for spiritual knowledge outside of Christ Proposition: Since Christ has been revealed to us, we must strive to know him completely Christ is revealed through suffering Christ is revealed through proclamation Christ is revealed through hard work This is the fifth sermon in our series “The Supremacy of Christ,” which is a verse by verse look at the book of Colossians.  Paul wrote this letter to the church in the city of Colossae in about 62 AD while he was imprisoned.  He starts his letter with this short prayer of thanksgiving in v. 3-14, and then a beautiful description of Jesus Christ as supreme in all things in v. 15-23, and then moves into our text for today—1:24-2:5—in which Paul tells the Colossian church the goal of his ministry to them, which is for them to know Christ completely.  In v. 28 he says “(We proclaim Christ)…that we may present everyone mature/complete in Christ.”  His main point in this passage is: since Christ has been revealed to us, we must strive to know him completely. Colossians 1:24-2:5 — 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. 2 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. During my first two years in college I was part of a music ministry group that travelled to different churches and lead the music portion of worship services or for special church events.  I was also part of a campus ministry group that led outreach and discipleship events.  Through those social groups I met a lot of Christians.  You can imagine that many of the college students involved in intense ministry like that were not just your run of the mill Christians, but they were intensely spiritual Christians.  They would be up into all hours of the night talking about Jesus.  They might carry around guitars to spontaneously sing songs about Jesus.  By all appearances, they seemed to be people who really liked Jesus.  They would go to special worship gatherings, and camps, and mission trips and based around Jesus.  But, almost none of them were part of a local church.  In fact, most of them didn’t even go to church.  It was almost like they were so busy doing spiritual things—intensely spiritual and meaningful things—that they didn’t have time to be tethered to the stale, conventional institution of the church.  Fast forward to today.  Almost without exception, those people I knew in college are still not part of any church, and sadly, many of them (some whom I led worship with side by side) have rejected biblical Christianity in preference of some other form of pseudo-Christian spirituality.  Many of them still claim Jesus, but their Jesus is a Jesus who has liberated them from the Bible, and rescued them from the conformity of the church.  Their Jesus is a Jesus who proclaims “self-actualization” and disagrees with anyone who disagrees with them, and leads them on their journey to complete themselves.  And they are staunch defenders of this Jesus.  You might call them “Liberal Legalists.”  They’ve followed the trend of our culture in which more and more people in western society identity themselves as “spiritual” but “non-religious.”  What went wrong?  Why did my friends—who seemed to be such champions of Jesus—fall into such convoluted spirituality? One of the reasons Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians was because the Colossian church was dealing with a similar problem based on false teaching that scholars call “the Colossian Heresy.”  The Colossian Heresy was a mixture of forms of Jewish legalism along with forms of first-century spirituality.  Ultimately the false teaching that was plaguing the church at Colossae said that just knowing Jesus was incomplete.  Christians needed more for their salvation than what Jesus Christ had to offer.  He was a good start, but Jesus wasn’t enough.  Just knowing Jesus was incomplete.  The Colossian Heresy basically said that Jesus was great, but you needed other things in your life to make you a complete Christian. My friends who were so gung-ho about Jesus in college essentially fell into the same way of thinking, and it is a way of thinking that is prevalent in our time.  Their problem is that they knew about Jesus, but they didn’t really know Jesus. As a result they began looking for answers outside of Christ. But in this passage, Paul is saying since Christ has been revealed to us, we must strive to know him completely.  The reason we struggle to live out the Christian life isn’t that we know Christ but Christ is incomplete.  Our problem is that our knowledge of Christ is incomplete.  We don’t know him enough.  Our knowledge of him is not complete enough.  But since Christ has been revealed to us, we must strive to know him completely. In v. 26 Paul says that the mystery hidden for ages and generations God has now revealed to his saints, and the glory of that mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory.  And in v. 28 he says he proclaims Christ so that he may present everyone mature (or complete) in Christ. Paul’s goal here is that Christians might know this revealed Christ completely.  And he goes on to say in 2:2 that he struggles towards this goal of the church knowing Christ completely “to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”  In other words, Paul is saying to the Colossians, your problem isn’t that Christ is somehow incomplete, your problem is that you don’t know him completely.  And what he’s telling the church is that since Christ has been revealed to us, we must strive to know him completely.  And in 2:4 he says, “I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.”  Just like those people I knew in college, a church that is not striving to know Christ completely will not be a church for long.  We must strive to know Christ completely, since he has been revealed to us. This passage shows us that Christ is revealed to us in three ways: Christ is revealed through suffering Christ is revealed through proclamation Christ is revealed through hard work Christ Is Revealed Through Suffering In v. 24 Paul says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,”  Since Christ is revealed through suffering, we must strive to know him completely. When Paul says that he is “filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” he doesn’t mean that Jesus’ suffering was somehow incomplete—that’s the exact opposite idea of the point he is trying to make in his letter, which is that Christ is sufficient and has supremacy in all things. Paul is saying that in God’s grand plan of redemption, Christ’s suffering achieved reconciliation, but his own suffering as an apostle achieves the proclamation of that reconciliation.  Which demonstrates that the mystery of Christ is revealed through suffering.  The phrase “filling up” in the Greek, carries the idea of completion or fulfillment—Paul is saying that his suffering as an apostle fulfills, or completes the affliction of Jesus in the sense that his sufferings reveal the mystery of Christ to the church.  Christ’s suffering redeemed people, Paul’s suffering reveals that redemption to people.  He says something similar in Philippians 2:30 about the affliction of Epaphroditus, where he says Epathroditus suffered, “to complete what is lacking in your service to me.”  One scholar puts it like this: “Paul does not suffer in an atoning manner for the church as Christ did, but he suffers as an apostle like Christ in completing the task of reconciliation that Christ began…Both the sufferings of Christ and of Paul further the act and message of reconciliation.” In Acts 9 God says Paul, “is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.  For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:15-16).  In other words, Paul’s apostolic calling by God was to reveal the mystery of Christ—for the sake of his body, that is, the church—and he would do it through suffering. Since Christ is revealed through suffering, we must strive to know him completely. The mystery of Christ has been revealed through suffering from the very beginning.  Even in the Old Testament the prophets who foretold the coming of Christ suffered.  11 out of the 12 apostles who were commissioned to proclaim Christ as the Messiah gave their lives to reveal the mystery of Christ as the Savior of the world.  There is something about the believers in the crucible of suffering that reveals Christ in us, the hope of glory. A woman once watched a silversmith.  He held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: ‘He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.’ (Malachi 3:3) She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, ‘How do you know when the silver is fully refined?’ He smiled at her and answered, ‘Oh, that’s easy — when I see my image in it.’  Paul rejoiced in his suffering for the church because he knew that it would ultimately produce Christ in us, the hope of glory. Since Christ is revealed through suffering, we must strive to know him completely. Many of you were here several weeks ago when we had our brother Joel from India speak to us.  Recently he showed Doug a video that had been uploaded to Youtube by a Hindu political faction that showed them beating one of Joel’s fellow pastors to death.  Youtube has removed the video since then.  India’s government has just passed a non-conversion law that they are forcing Christian pastor’s and ministries to sign saying that they won’t convert anyone to Christianity.  If they don’t sign it then they will be incapable of receiving any outside funding, and they will be persecuting, pressured, and marginalized.  Our brothers and sisters that we know and love and support in India are suffering.  Why would they even put themselves in a position where they might experience that kind of suffering?  They are doing it for the very same reason as Paul in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”  They have counted the cost, and they know that for the mystery of Christ to be revealed in India, they must suffer.  1 Peter 4:13 says, “But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” Rom. 8:17 says, “if (we are) children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”  Christ is revealed through suffering.  We may not yet be suffering from our government or political factions, but God uses all suffering to reveal the mystery of Christ.  God can use the affliction of cancer.  He can use the affliction of abuse.  He can use the loss of a loved one in your life to reveal the mystery of Christ.  He will not waste a single flame in the fires of suffering—He will use all of it to reveal the glory of Christ.  So when you’re on that hospital bed you can say, “Christ is enough.  He is sufficient.”  So you can stand, like my friend did at his two week old baby’s funeral and say through tears, “The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Friends, God will not waste your suffering, the mystery of Christ is revealed through suffering, and Christ himself is the ultimate example.  The greatest evil ever done in the history of the world—the murder of the Son of God—God used to reveal the mystery of Christ as Lord of all creation.  Since Christ is revealed through suffering, we must strive to know him completely. 2. Christ Is Revealed Through Proclamation In v. 25 Paul says God made him a minister of the church “according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.  Since the mystery of Christ is revealed through proclamation, we must strive to know Christ completely. Paul is saying that God gave him the task of revealing the mystery of Christ to the church through proclamation.  The word ‘proclaim’ in v. 28 literally means “to declare.”  It is synonymous with the word “preach.”  All through the book of Acts this word is used to describe the work of the apostles.  Proclamation is the announcement of a reality—the statement of a fact—and God has chosen in his providence that the mystery of Christ is revealed, not through cleverness or cunning, but through proclamation. When Paul says in v. 25 that he was “to make the word of God fully known,” what he means is to make known where Jesus fits in the Bible and in cosmic history.  Up until that point the Jews had the Old Testament, but they didn’t see how Jesus fit into it and fulfilled, and the job of the apostles was to proclaim and announce to the world that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, and they used the word of God—the OT Scriptures—to demonstrate it.  Peter proclaimed through the OT that Jesus was the Christ, Stephen proclaimed through the OT that Jesus was the Christ, Paul proclaimed through the OT that Jesus was the Christ, and even Jesus himself on his walk to Emmaus with two disciples showed from the OT that he himself was the fulfillment of this mystery.  In Luke 24 Jesus said to them, “‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:26-27). We know that Christ is the revelation of the mystery because in v. 27 Paul says, “To (the church) God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” And then v. 28 he says, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”  Since Christ is revealed through proclamation, we must strive to know him completely. The greatest examples of the kind of proclamation that reveals the mystery of Christ are found in the book of Acts.  If you read through the book of Acts you will find all throughout it various apostles and followers of Christ proclaiming the mystery of Christ, and showing that Jesus is the Christ. Acts 8:5 says, “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.”  The next chapter says Paul “proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’”  But a pertinent example for us is in Acts 17 where Paul proclaimed Christ to the Greek Philosophers at the Areopagus.  In this passage that I’m about to read from Acts 17, Paul is not speaking to Jews with knowledge of the Old Testament, he is speaking to Greek Philosophers versed in Aristotle and Plato.  I want you to notice the things that Paul proclaims to these cultured and sophisticated Greeks: First he proclaims to them that there is a God that we can know: “22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” Second, he proclaims that this God is the eternal, sovereign creator of all things: “24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’” 29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.” Third, he proclaims that the resurrection and impending return of Jesus as the warrant for every person’s repentance and faith in him:  “30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” There is something startling to us about this kind of proclamation.  My fear is that many western pulpits are filled with more pandering than proclamation.  But ministers appointed with the task of revealing the mystery of Christ to the church are not called to pander to their people, but to proclaim Christ as risen from the dead and imminent in his return to consummate the establishment of his kingdom.  We understand, don’t we, that Roman Caesars in the first century did not massacre Christians because they were giving ‘stimulating talks’ that said God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.  They persecuted Christians for proclaiming a divine king named Jesus who possesses all authority and demands complete allegiance from everyone. Look at what Paul says in v. 28, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone.”  How many sermons have you heard of people warning you about Jesus?  But if you look at the apostolic proclamation of Jesus, warning is exactly what they are doing.  Even here in Acts 17 Paul is warning them that Christ has been appointed as the righteous judge by God.  The mystery of Christ is revealed through proclamation, not because our culture responds well to proclamation and that makes sense to us, but because God has appointed that to be the means of revealing the mystery of Christ.  In 1 Corinthians 1:17 Paul says, Christ sent him, “to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom.”  Since Christ is revealed through proclamation, we must strive to know Christ completely. Proclaiming Christ doesn’t mean we just shout about Jesus.  It doesn’t mean you should to go to your friend or family member and spontaneously announce the good news as if you were casting a magic spell.  Proclamation isn’t primarily about our tone or the volume of our voice.  Proclamation means that we keep the supremacy of Christ as the center of our message, and then rely on the Holy Spirit to help us know how we should proclaim Christ in our cultural moment..  In Ephesians 6 Paul asks the church to pray “that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,” (Ephesians 6:19). We need to do the hard work of understanding our cultural moment and people’s particular situations, as Paul did at the Areopagus with the Greeks, but we must resist the temptation to pander to worldly sensibilities that diminish Christ.  The mystery of Christ is not revealed through pandering, but through proclamation of the truth. One way we emphasize the proclamation of Christ at this church is by taking the Lord’s supper just about every single week.  There is an announcement made when we take the Lord’s supper.  It is invitational but it is also polarizing.  And that is because it is a proclamation.  1 Cor. 11 says that when we take the Lord’s Supper “we “proclaim” (same word) his death until he comes.” Our goal at this church is to proclaim the good news of Jesus.  Our mission statement says we exist to experience and communicate the gospel in our communities and around the world.  One way we try to reveal the mystery through our proclamation is in majoring on a preaching style called expository preaching, where we labor to make the word of God fully known.  That’s where we pick a book of the Bible, and we systematically, verse by verse, try to explain it, because we believe all of God’s word is for all of God’s people, and it all hinges on the mystery that is revealed in Christ.  Since Christ is revealed through proclamation, we must strive to know him completely. 3. Christ is Revealed Through Hard Work Picking up in v. 29 Paul says, For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. 2 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face.”  Since Christ is revealed through hard work, we must strive to know him completely. Paul’s use of the word’s toil, and then the word struggling two times right next to each other denotes intense, difficult labor.  The picture is of worker doing heavy manual labor, straining as he does it.  And Paul is saying that his desire for us to know Christ completely takes hard work.  “For this I toil,” and “I have a great struggle for you.”  But It’s God’s power working within him that enables him to do the hard work of helping the church know Christ completely.  Since the Mystery of Christ is revealed through hard work, we must strive to know Christ completely. In July of 2016 Eddie Hall of England set, by far, the world record for the deadlift by deadlifting 1,102 pounds.  A news article chronicling the event said this: “Eddie Hall nearly died after completing his latest deadlift world record attempt…he immediately collapsed afterwards and revealed he had burst blood vessels in his head.  “That nearly killed me,” Hall said in an interview afterwards.  “The pressure on my body was surreal.  I passed our after.  I had nose bleeds.  But I’ve done it, I’m sure it will be in the history books for a very long time.”  When someone asked Eddie how he energized himself for such a surreal lift, he revealed that he imagined that his wife and son were trapped under a car, and that unless he lifted it off of them they would die.  Only that kind of powerful motivation could energize him for the struggle of lifting such a massive weight.  This is the kind of picture that Paul paints of his struggle for the church.  Sweat dripping, veins bulging, every ounce of energy going into that singular effort, to strive for the church to know Christ completely.  But instead of having to resort to grim motivation, Paul says it is God who energizes him and powerfully works in him to perform the task.  God empowers him with his spirit to do the task of helping the church know Christ completely.  Since Christ is revealed through hard work, we must strive to know him completely. I recall once when I was in seminary a faction in our class were complaining to the professor that the books we were supposed to read were too hard to read, too hard to think about, and too hard to understand.  After getting wind of some of these complaints the professor, who happened to be Mike Williams said, “We’re trying to know the infinite, eternal God; of course it’s hard!” In 2 Timothy 2:7 Paul says to the new pastor Timothy: “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”  It’s through the Holy Spirit that we know Christ, but we are also commanded to do the hard work of thinking.  We also know Christ through the hard work of loving others.  That seems to be what Paul is getting at in this text.  He struggles for the church to know Christ in his prayers.  He struggles for the church to know Christ in his preaching.  He struggles for the church to know Christ in the giving of his time, and energy.  Since Christ is revealed through hard work, we must strive to know him completely.  Ultimately, the hardest work involved in knowing Christ, is the fact that you can only get to know Christ completely in the context of of local church.  Look at 2:2.  Paul says he does hard work for the church “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery which is Christ.”  You will never know Christ completely by yourself.  Trying to do church at your house by yourself is a non-sequitur.  You must go to the body to know the body.  Christ is the head of the body, the church.  How silly would it be for me to look for my wife’s head somewhere her body is not.  That would be crazy!  And, if I claim to be part of the body, but I’m not connected to the head, then what does that mean about me?  It means I’m either dead, or in danger of dying.  Christ is revealed through hard work, and that hard work takes place in the body of Christ. Hard work that stresses and strains and sweats as one body working together to achieve one monumental task: knowing Christ completely.  Since Christ is revealed through hard work, we must strive to know him completely. Christ is revealed to us through suffering, through proclamation, and through hard work, and we must strive to know him completely.  There is no greater duty and no greater privilege than knowing Christ.  Paul says the mystery hidden for ages and generations has now been revealed to us (Colossians 1:26).  Peter says that the prophets of old inquired and search carefully to know the mystery of Christ, and that angles long to look into the mystery that has been proclaimed to us.  Since Christ has been revealed to us, let us strive together, to know Christ completely.  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey_10-13-19.mp3 Sun, 13 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 46:09 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/10619Doug.mp3 Sun, 06 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 31:10 Michael Goheen Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Goheen_9-29-19.mp3 Sun, 29 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 38:17 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older The Product of a Heavenly Hope: Love Colossians 1:3-8 Preached at Main Street Church on September 22nd, 2019 Our Problem: We think we need to set our minds on worldly things Proposition: Since the hope of heaven produces love we must set our minds on the things above. 1. Heavenly hope produces love that is publicly evident 2. Heavenly hope produces love that is gospel-based 3. Heavenly hope produces love that is spirit-filled This is the second sermon in our series “The Supremacy of Christ,” which is a verse by verse look at the book of Colossians.  Paul wrote this letter to the church in the city of Colossae in about 62 AD while he was imprisoned, and he starts his letter with this short prayer of thanksgiving in v. 3-8, and here is his main point: Since the hope of heaven produces love we must set our minds on the things above. Colossians 1:3-8 “3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.” This past Tuesday, New York based Union Seminary held a chapel service in which students confessed their sins to plants.  The seminary “posted a photo of the chapel service which showed a student sitting on the ground before several potted plants to offer confession, mainly over failures to protect the environment.” A tweet from the seminary read: “Today in chapel, we confessed to plants. Together, we held our grief, joy, regret, hope, guilt and sorrow in prayer; offering them to the beings who sustain us but whose gift we too often fail to honor. What do you confess to the plants in your life?” Union Seminary was founded in 1836 by a group of Presbyterian ministers and sees itself as rooted in Protestantism. But their vision statement on their website says this: “Union envisions its graduates changing the world by practicing their vocations with dedication that bring a religiously grounded, critical and compassionate presence to the major personal, social, political and scientific realities of our time.” Here is a seminary that claims to be Christian and states that their aim is to train students to lovingly and compassionately bring good to the earth.  Apparently, one way they think they will do that is to make confession to potted plants in their chapel services.  These events are a shining example of what happens when we set our minds on the things of earth instead of the things of heaven.  Here is a seminary that abandoned the supremacy of Christ in all things long ago in order to focus on things that “really matter.”  What is laid before us today in this text—and in the whole book of Colossians—is the resounding truth that the transforming power of God’s love is not brought about by setting our minds on the wisdom or spirituality of the world, but by setting our minds on the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  In v. 4 Paul says, “we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” It is a heavenly hope that unleashes the hands of love in the world.  It is a heavenly hope that brings the love of God to earth.  So in chapter 3 we are told, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” So Paul’s main point at the very beginning of his letter is this: Since the hope of heaven produces love we must set our minds on the things above.  According to Paul, love for the world is not a product of setting your mind on the things of the world.  Love for the world is a product of a heavenly hope—of setting your mind on things above.  And according to Paul in this short passage at the beginning of his letter, a heavenly hope produces three different kinds of love: 1. Heavenly hope produces love that is publicly evident 2. Heavenly hope produces love that is gospel-based 3. Heavenly hope produces love that is spirit-filled Since the hope of heaven produces love we must set our minds on the things above. Heavenly Hope Produces Love that Is Publicly Evident Verse 3 says, “3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Heavenly hope produces love that is publicly evident.  In verse 4 Paul says he and others have heard about their love.  This is the kind of love that impacts people.  It’s the kind of love that people tell stories about and remember.  And then he roots their love in their heavenly hope: “we heard of..the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” Since heavenly hope produces love that is publicly evident, we must set our minds on the things above. Paul wrote this letter to the Colossian church while he was in prison.  The first century saw the beginning of a massive wave of merciless persecution of Christians.  Not only Paul, but many other Christians were dragged from their homes by Roman soldiers and thrown into prisons which were not like the prisons of our day.  Typically these prisons were just stony pits under ground with no sunlight.  There were no beds, no food, and sometimes no water provided.  Unless you had friends or family  who were willing to come and provide those things for you, you most likely were going to die.  This left first-century Christians with a decision to make.  Either they would have to keep their faith in Christ private, or they would publicly expose themselves as Christians by going to help their brothers and sisters in prison, which would result in persecution for them, where their homes would be raided and their reputations ruined.  The author of the book of Hebrews wrote about this very thing to Christians who faced it.  In Hebrews 10:32 he says, “32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” Heavenly hope produces love that is publicly evident.  This kind of publicly evident love that expresses itself despite the consequences, not just when it’s convenient is only produced by a heavenly hope.  What would drive people to this kind of publicly evident love?  What would drive people to publicly forsake their reputation and possessions?  "you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”  It is only a heavenly hope that produces a publicly evident love like this.  Since heavenly hope produces love that is publicly evident, we must set our minds on the things above. Since heavenly hope produces love that is publicly evident, we should talk about the love that we see and hear about in other believers.  Verse 4 says, “we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints.”  If they heard about it, that means someone was talking about it!  We ought to speak glowingly about the love that we see in each other and tell others about it. It’s so easy for us to talk about the negative things we see in people’s lives—their mistakes, bad qualities, and scandals—instead of talking publicly about the love we have seen them display in their lives.  When you get together with other believers, talk about that kind of thing.  Maybe you know someone who gives sacrificially, or someone who uses their spare time to serve others, or who has taken in children through adoption or foster care.  What if our conversations were filled with talk about how people have publicly demonstrated love instead of gossip or rumors or speculation?  Now, it’s possible you might think that talking like this could make people prideful or puff them up.  But look at Paul’s approach to this in verse 3.  He says, “3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,”  Which means that when we talk about the publicly-evident love of other believers, we don’t give thanks to them, but we give thanks to God.  If you look through the New Testament, you will not find one instance of Paul giving thanks to a person for anything that they’ve done.  He always give thanks to God. This doesn’t diminish the person or the work they’ve done, but it actually simultaneously exalts their work of love, and humbles them.  Maybe say, “I thank God for that work you did.” “I thank God for that sermon Doug gave last week.”  That doesn’t diminish his work or the way God is using him, but actually elevates his work and humbles him and encourages him to see that God is using him.  Consider how you can tell other people that you are grateful to God for what he has done through them.  That is thankfulness borne out of setting your mind on the things above. Since heavenly hope produces love that is publicly evident, we must set our minds on the things above. Heavenly Hope Produces Love that Is Gospel-based Paul writes, “3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this (hope) you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,” Paul is saying that the heavenly hope we have—which produces love—is based in the gospel.  So if our heavenly hope is the root, and love is the fruit, the gospel is the soil in which the tree of hope is planted.  You can’t have a tree without soil for it to be planted in, and you can’t have a heavenly hope without the gospel as it’s basis.  The fruit of love is borne out of a gospel-based hope that produces gospel-based love. Heavenly hope produces the fruit of love that is gospel-based. In v. 5 Paul says you have hope laid up for you in heaven, and you heard of this hope in the gospel.  Then in v. 6 he says it is bearing fruit and increasing—it’s bearing the fruit of love. And in v. 23 he says Christ will present you holy and blameless before God “If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel.” Since heavenly hope produces love that is gospel-based, we must set our minds on the things above. In the French historical novel Les Miserables, author Victor Hugo tells a story of ex-convict Jean Valjean who had been just been released from 19 years in a brutal labor camp for stealing bread for his starving family, and 14 more years for numerous escape attempts.  33 years in total.  Jean Valjean’s time as a slave in prison had hardened him and embittered him against people.  After his release no one would take him due to his status as an ex-convict, so he found himself sleeping on the street.  Surprisingly, a benevolent Bishop named Myriel invited the ex-con to have a hot meal with him and stay in a warm, dry bed in his home.  Spurning the bishop’s mercy, Jean Valjean got up in the middle of the night and began filling his bag with the bishop’s silverware.  He was caught by the bishop in the middle of his robbery, so he knocked the bishop unconscious and ran off.  The next day Jean Valjean was arrested and brought by police back to the bishop’s home.  Jean had told the police that the bishop gave him the silverware.  Not believing Jean’s thinly veiled lie about the silverware, the police questioned Bishop Myriel to verify the unlikely story. The Bishop looked Jean Valjean straight in the eyes, still bruised from where Jean had struck him the night before, and then told the police: “Thank you for bringing Jean back here, I’m very relieved.  When he left with the silverware, he forgot to take the silver candlesticks with him.”  The police couldn’t believe what they were hearing, but the bishop insisted that he gave the silver to Jean as a gift, so the police accepted the explanation and left.  Jean asked the bishop why he had done such a thing after he had robbed him, and the bishop said, “Jean Valjean my brother, you no longer belong to evil.  With this silver I’ve bought your soul.  I’ve ransomed you from fear and hatred, and now I give you back to God.” The kind of love that the bishop showed to Jean Valjean is a picture of gospel-based love.  It’s a picture of love based on the redeeming power of God through the cross of Jesus Christ.  Since heavenly hope produces love that is gospel-based, we must set our minds on the things above. Hope in silver doesn’t produce gospel-based love.  Only a heavenly hope can do that.  Only a hope rooted in the gospel can produce love that is based in the gospel.  If we want to have this kind of love then we need to keep ourselves firmly rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We need to remind ourselves daily that we were not ransomed from our futile ways “not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).  We must set our minds on the things above—on the unsearchable mercy of God displayed in the cross of Christ.  Every day when you wake up think about the grace that God has poured out on you in Jesus Christ.  When you pray, thank God for the cross.  Firmly plant your hope of heaven in the gospel of Jesus Christ so that your life will produce gospel-based love.  That’s sacrificial, self-giving, selfless love.  Since the hope of heaven produces gospel-based love we must set our minds on the things above.  Fixating on the things of the world doesn’t produce gospel-based love. Only setting out minds on heaven can do that.  Many Christian aid organizations in third world countries start out with an intensity to bring the good news of the gospel in all it’s fulness to suffering people by sending missionaries to preach the gospel and to serve the people’s physical needs with doctors, medicine, clean water, and food.  But as time goes on, they slowly lose their initial focus on the things above.  They get consumed with the desperate physical needs.  People begin signing up to help who don’t believe the gospel of Jesus but they think it would make them feel good to go help some suffering people.  Soon you no longer have gospel-based organizations, but simply a humanitarian aid organizations. Everything becomes about logistics and maintaining the huge system.  They’ve taken their mind off of their heavenly hope and the transcendant and set their mind on the cares of the world, and how they can simply keep the ball spinning. Love that is based in the gospel says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I live in the body I live by a heavenly hope in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  Gospel based love says, “I will love my enemies.” “I will pray for those who persecute me.” “I will seek to see the supremacy of Christ in all things for the joy of all people, no matter what the cost.”  Since heavenly hope produces gospel-based love, we must set our minds on the things above. Heavenly Hope Produces Love that Is Spirit-Filled Picking up in verse 7 Paul writes, “you learned it (the gospel) from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.” Epaphras seems to be the one who planted the church at Colossae, and here Paul is saying that he has talked about their love “in the Spirit.”  That is a unique phrase, and this is the only time we see it put together like that in Scripture.  Paul is emphasizing that their love is not a product of their own personalities or good qualities, but that it is through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The kind of love that they are showing because of their heavenly hope is spirit-filled love.  Heavenly hope produces love that is spirit filled.  Listen to what Romans 5:5 says, “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  So the kind of love that heavenly hope produces, is spirit-filled love.  When Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 he says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love (joy, peace, patience, kindness…). And then Ephesians 1 tells us why heavenly hope produces love that is Spirit-filled: Ephesians 1:13, “When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,” So, since the Holy Spirit guarantees our heavenly hope, that heavenly hope produces love that is Spirit-filled.  Right after Pentecost the apostles started having trouble in their church.  The problem was that the Greek widows were being overlooked and weren’t being served as much as the Jewish widows in the church were.  The apostles realized that since their church had grown so large, the task was too much for them, so Acts 6:3 tells us they said “Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.”  You see here, one of the characteristics here was that they be spirit-filled.  One of the men they selected that day was a man by the name of Stephen. Stephen was the first Christian to be killed for his heavenly hope.  One day Stephen was explaining to a group of Jews how the Old Testament Scriptures all pointed to Jesus as the Messiah, And Acts 7:54 says, “Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. (Now listen to the description of Stephen)  But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.” And they began throwing rocks at him, brutally murdering him with them, and then Stephen, spirit-filled, setting his mind on the things above where Christ is, at the right hand of God uttered these amazing words of spirit-filled love, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And then he died. Setting our minds on the things above—on our heavenly hope—produces love that is spirit-filled.  It produces love that is not natural to mankind.  Love that can only come from the Holy Spirit.  Stephen didn’t look into the faces of his murderers and say, “these are really good people deep down inside.”  He didn’t look within himself and say, “I can handle this.”  He set his mind on the things above!  He set his mind on the resurrected Christ who has been exalted to the right hand of God!  And it was his vision—in the Spirit—of the glory of the supremacy of Christ that produced spirit-filled love that blessed his persecutors instead of cursed them.  “But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” Friends, this is why we must set our minds on the things above!  The love of God will never be unleashed in our homes and in our communities and at our jobs and in our marriages and around the world by gazing at the things of the world.  We must—in the power of the Holy Spirit—set our minds on the things above, on the supremacy of the glory of Christ if we ever want to experience the power of Spirit-filled love in our lives.  Do you want to demonstrate with your life love that is publicly evident that will be talked about for over 2000 years?  Set your mind on the things above! Do you want to live a life of love that is gospel based and imitates the sacrificial love of Jesus? Set your mind on the things above! Do you want to experience the supernatural power of spirit-filled love that prays for murderers with its final breath?  Set your mind on the things above! Set your mind on the glory of Jesus who is the image of the invisible God.  Set your mind on our resurrected king through whom and for whom all things were created.  Set your mind on this Jesus who was before time began, and who will be at the end of the ages.  Set your mind on the King of Majesty on high who rules the nations and judges with complete justice.  Set your mind on the crucified Savior who bled in your place to bring you to God, and then rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father.  Set your mind on this Jesus! The degree to which Main Street Church displays publicly-evident, gospel-based, spirit-filled love will be in direct correlation to how set our minds are on the hope laid up for us in heaven.  Since heavenly hope produces puglicly-evident, gospel-based, spirit-filled love, let’s together, as one body, set our collective mind on the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/92219Casey.mp3 Sun, 22 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 37:12 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_9.15.19.mp3 Sun, 15 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:40 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Baby Dedication Sunday - 2019 Teach Your Children the Gospel 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Preached at Main Street Church on September 8th, 2019 Our Problem: We forget to teach the gospel to our children Proposition: Since the gospel saves us, we must teach it to our children We must teach our children to repent of their sins We must teach our children to trust God’s word We must teach our children to put their hope in the resurrected Christ 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 contains the most succinct summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The word gospel literally means “good news,” and it is the good news about Jesus that is our salvation.  Since the gospel saves us, we must teach it to our children. “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” A few months ago our family took a trip to the grocery store.  Brittany and I worked together to make sure we didn’t forget the diaper bag, the sippy cups, our wallets, or anything else.  We got both boys into their car seats, got the doors closed, and we were off.  When we got to the store I opened the van door and saw JJ sitting there in his car seat with the seat belt harness loose and drooping off of him.  I had buckled it but I had not tightened it.  It wouldn’t have done him any good if he had needed it.  I had gotten so distracted by so many minor things that I forgot about the most important thing when it came to putting my kids in the car.  I had neglected the one thing that could potentially save my child’s life. I’m sure that anyone who has kids can think of a time they forgot something important.  There are so many things to think about, so many things to remember—diaper cream, formula, extra clothes, bandaids, snacks, sunscreen, bug spray, wipes—the list goes on! There are so many things to remember that we can easily forget things, even things as important as the life-saving potential of a seat belt.  Since that is the case, I want to remind parents today to remember the most important life-saving thing that we should teach our children, and that is the gospel. Paul says that the gospel that he wants to remind us of is, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” And there are three things from this reminder that we must teach our children: We must teach our children to repent of their sins We must teach our children to trust God’s word We must teach our children to put their hope in the resurrected Christ We must teach our children to repent of their sins The first element of the gospel that Paul wants to remind us of, is that Christ died for our sins.  If we want to faithfully teach our children the gospel, we must teach our children to repent of their sins.  That means teaching our children what is right and what is wrong according to God, because Jesus died for our wrongdoing.  Someone said, “Repentance is being so sorry for sin you quit sinning.”  We must teach our children to repent of their sins. A little girl was very mean to her younger brother; she treated him so badly, he went crying to his mother.  When the mother learned what had happened, she said to the little girl, “Mary, why have you let Satan put it into your heart to pull your brother’s hair and kick his shins?” The little girl thought it over for a moment, and then answered, “Well, Mother, maybe Satan did put it in my heart to pull brother’s hair, but kicking his shins was my own idea.” We must take advantage of the numerous opportunities we have when our children are young to teach them to repent of their sins.  Teaching our children to repent should go hand in hand with the discipline of our children.  We need to teach them that when they do something wrong, it isn’t just disobedience to mommy or daddy, but it is disobedience against God.  Our children aren’t just interacting with us with their words and actions, but they are interacting with the living God.  If your child disobeys you, they have not only sinned against you, but they have sinned against God.  If you love your children, you will discipline them, and you will also use discipline as an opportunity to teach your child to repent of their sins.  Sit them on your lap and have a conversation with them.  Let them, with their own words, admit to the wrong that they have done.  Tell them that the thing they did was sin, and then teach them to repent of their sin.  Pull out your Bible and read 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Then teach them how to repent of their sins by modeling it for them.  This is the beginning of teaching your children the gospel, because it teaches them the seriousness of sin.  Your child’s sin is so serious that Jesus had to die for it.  Teach them that Jesus died on the cross for their sin. Teach them the seriousness of it, and in so doing, you will be teaching your children to repent of their sins. Let them see you repent to your husband or wife if you said something in anger.  Let them see you repent to them.  Ask your children to forgive you when you do wrong, and then have them pray with you as you pray to God for forgiveness of your sins.  Let them see your tears, and your contrition.  We must teach our children to repent of their sins. We must teach our children to trust God’s word Secondly, in order to teach our children the gospel we must teach them to trust God’s word.  Two times, in just two verses, Paul inserts the phrase, “in accordance with the Scriptures.”  “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,” and “was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” We could not know the gospel if we did not have the word of God which contains it.  Romans 10:17 says, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  To teach our children the gospel, we must teach our children to trust God’s word. Trust is worthless in itself.  If our trust is not properly founded, it can lead to nothing other than disaster.  One night cars sped along the main highway between Jackson and Vicksburg, Mississippi.  The drivers trusted their cars and the bridges that went over the streams.  They passed over some bridges at fifty or sixty miles per hour.  Everything was lovely, the concrete spans stood firm over the rivers and bayous, and the cars went on their way.  Suddenly, the twin taillights in front of a truck melted into the road and disappeared.  The driver of the truck caught only a glimpse of a black gap in the concrete before he too plunged into the stream below.  Breaking his window he was able to free himself.  He swam ashore, but before he could reach the highway, other cars zoomed smoothly up to the gap and vanished.  Frantically, he tried to flag the others.  Their drivers ignored the dripping, scarecrow figure and sped on into the void.  Each time there was a single booming splash, sometimes followed by a few hoarse shouts and screams. Those drivers put their trust in a bridge that had crumbled.  There is only one bridge that leads to life, and it’s foundation will stand through eternity, and it is the Word of God.  Teach your children to trust God’s word, and to know that it will support and uphold them when the wisdom of the world crumbles.  1 Peter 1:24 says, “‘The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”  In teaching our children the gospel, we must teach them to trust God’s word. The best way to teach our children to trust God’s word is to show them that we trust it.  One preacher said, “We are apt to forget that children watch examples better than they listen to preaching” (-Roy L. Smith).  When a loved one is sick or your family is going through a tough situation, gather your family together to pray, tell your children, “God’s word tells us in 1 Peter 1:7 to cast all our anxieties on him because he cares for us.” This will show your children that you trust God’s word when it tells you to cast your cares on the Lord.  When it’s time to take up the offering on a Sunday morning, let your children see that you trust God’s word about his ability to provide by letting them put your tithe check in the offering basket when it goes around. Your children will know what you trust by what you do. Give place for the reading of Scripture at your house.  Perhaps have a verse of the week that you repeat at meal times.  Make it simple, and reward your child if they can memorize it.  Let your children see you reading your Bible.  We shouldn’t just tell our children that they should trust God’s word, but they should see that we trust it.  Post Scripture around your house. It could be in artistic forms or simply on sticky notes.  Get your child a Bible of their own, and invite them to read it every day.  One of the best gifts you can give to your children is a love for the word of God and a confidence that they can trust it.  It is in the words of Christ that eternal life is found.  Christ died and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. The great theologian John Stott said, “A man who loves his wife will love her letters and her photographs because they speak to him of her.  So if we love the Lord Jesus we shall love the Bible because it speaks to us of him.” Parents, teach your children to trust God’s word. We must teach our children to put their hope in the resurrected Christ The final way we teach our children the gospel is by teaching them to put their hope in the resurrected Christ. The lynchpin of the gospel is in v. 4 of our text today—it’s not simply that Christ died and was buried, but that on the third day he rose from the dead.  We must be diligent to teach our children to put their hope in the resurrected Jesus, because this is the heart of the gospel.  Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Our Savior is not dead and buried, but he lives today and is coming again, and we must teach that truth to our children. One author said, “There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow” (O. S. Marden). I once read in a parenting book that you ought never break a promise you make to a child, because even if you forget it, they won’t.  A trip to Disney land that never happened, that fishing trip Dad promised but work God in the way—even something as small as ice cream after dinner.  If you get your child’s hopes up about something, you had better follow through, otherwise you teach your child not to trust you.  How much more then should we help our children put their hope in the resurrected Christ, and not just superstitious cliches?  Our children will take our words at face value, so we need to be careful with what we say, and teach them to put their hope in the resurrected Christ. Inevitably, at some point in life our children are going to come face to face with the reality of death.  The family pet is going to pass away, something tragic is going to be on the news, or perhaps a beloved family member will die.  These occasions present great opportunities to teach our children the truth of God’s word regarding life and death, and we need to be ready because they will definitely come to us with questions.  We shouldn’t tell our kids things like, “Meemaw is an angel now.” Or, “Uncle John is with us every time we watch a cardinals game.”  We shouldn’t even say things like, “Fido is in the big dog park in the sky now.”  Those kinds of statements only create confusion for children as they grow up and read the Bible because they aren’t in keeping with God’s word, and if what we say differs from Scripture, then we’re teaching our kids either not to trust us, or not to trust the Bible.  When death confronts our children, we must teach them to hope in the resurrected Christ.  We should teach them that Jesus died just like our loved one died—and our children aren’t too young to learn about death; they see it and feel the emotions of it in Disney movies, tv shows, and in their own real life experience.  It is a parent’s responsibility to guide them through it. Teach them that the Jesus you love and worship died, and he died for our sins.  And then teach them that even though he died he rose from the dead three days later.  And teach them that by rising from the dead, Jesus defeated death forever, and will return someday to completely defeat death.  Teach them that death has no ultimate power for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. And if your loved one who passed away was a believer, teach them that one day when Jesus returns Meemaw will be resurrected, and she will be perfectly healthy with her body and mind healed.  Open up your Bible and show your child where the resurrected Christ says, “Behold, I am making all things new.”  Read to them 1 Corinthians 15:49 that says, “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”  Teach your children that just as Christ was raised from the dead, so shall everyone who believes in him be raised from the dead.  Teach your children to put their hope in the resurrected Christ.  Teach your children to trust God’s word.  Teach your children to repent of their sins.  “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, and was raised on the third day.”  Let us teach our children the gospel. Today seven sets of parents have dedicated their children to the Lord, which means they have dedicated themselves to teaching the gospel to their children.  If we are going to teach the gospel to our kids, we must teach them to repent of their sins, to trust God’s word, and to hope in the resurrected Christ.  Fortunately we are not alone, but we have each other to encourage and to hold accountable, and we have the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us.  Someone once wrote a prayer seeking God’s help in this matter that goes like this: Dear Lord, I do not ask That Thou shouldest give me some high work of Thine, Some noble calling, or some wondrous task Give me a little hand to hold in mine; Give me a little child to point the way Over the strange, sweet path that leads to Thee; Give me a little voice to teach to pray; Give me two shining eyes Thy face to see. The only crown I ask, dear Lord to wear Is this: that I may teach a little child. I do not ask that I may ever stand Among the wise, the worthy, or the great; I only ask that softly, hand in hand, A child and I may enter at the gate. -Author Unknown Friends, family, and parents, let us not get so distracted by remembering so many little little things that we forget the most important thing.  Since the gospel can save our children, let us teach it to them. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/9-08-2019.mp3 Sun, 08 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 21:35 Doug Hon 2019 and Older Gospel Living: Welcoming Others for the Glory of God Romans 15:1-7 Preached at Main Street Church on August 25th, 2019 Proposition: Since Christ has welcomed us, we must welcome one another Our Problem: We turn each other away 1. Since Christ has welcomed us, we must welcome others by bearing with them (v. 1, 3-7) 2. Since Christ has welcomed us, we must welcome others by building them up (v. 2-7) Paul wrote the book of Romans as a letter around 60 AD to the church that was in the city of Rome at that time.  In the first eleven chapters Paul gives an explanation of the gospel, and in chapters 12-15 he gives application of the gospel to our everyday lives, which is why we have entitled this series, “Gospel Living: 101.”  Another way to say it would be to say that chapters 1-11 talk about God’s work for us in the gospel, and chapters 12-15 talk about God’s work in us through the gospel.  Over the last two weeks we’ve had the privilege of hearing from Pastor Doug and from Mark Ryan from Covenant Seminary speak to us on chapter 14, and what it means to not pass judgment on each other, but to welcome each other with love.  Our passage today in chapter 15 actually wraps up that message from chapter 14 concluding with verse 7 that says, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” So I’ve entitled this message, “Welcoming Others for the Glory of God.” Romans 15:1-7  “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” 4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” This weekend marks the 3 year anniversary of the first sermon I preached here at Main Street Church.  In that message I shared a story of my memories of recess as a kid.  When I was in third grade I was in a class of about 25 kids, and when we had recess it was just our class.  One of the kids in my class would organize games of soccer, dodgeball, steal the flag, and other games like that by getting everyone to line up against the fence.  He would then pick captains and the captains would pick their teams.  Of course, if you were a captain you wanted to get the strongest team you could, so you would pick the strongest players for your team.  And no matter what game we were playing, there was always one kid who always got picked last.  And the worst thing about getting picked is last, is that you realize that when you’re picked last, you’re not really even getting picked—you are simply ending up on a team by process of elimination.  In a sense, you’re getting turned away from the game.  You’re getting turned away from the team.  A lot of times we treat the church like third grade kids at recess trying to pick all of our cool friends to be on our team, and turning away the weak players who would just slow the team down.  I’m continually tempted to do this.  I want people with all the exact same convictions as me so I can validate myself and my own lifestyle as the best way to live the Christian life and anyone who thinks otherwise is just plain wrong.  But Jesus calls us to a different pattern of life.  He calls us to invite the weak players onto our team, because when he was team captain, that is exactly what he did.  This passage today is saying Since Christ has welcomed us, we must welcome one another. There are two core principles that Paul lays out in these seven verses: bearing and building.  He commands us to bear with one another and build up one another.  And those two ideas are laced throughout all seven verses, and they are anchored in the fact that that is exactly what Christ has done for us.  Since Christ has welcomed us, we must welcome one another, and we do that by bearing with one another, and building up one another. First we’ll look at what it means to bear with one another, and then we’ll look at the next step, building one another up. Since Christ Has Welcomed Us, We Must Welcome Others by Bearing with One Another Verse 1 says, “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” Bearing with someone means being patient with them. The next closest word to bearing with someone is enduring with them.  And Paul draws on that idea in verse 4: “that through endurance…we might have hope“ And then again in verse 5: May the God of endurance…grant you to live in such harmony with one another.” Bearing with someone is to have endurance in the relationship with them.  Having patience.  Playing the long game.  And he says if you’re strong you are obligated to bear with the weak.  Why? Why are we who are strong obligated to bear with the failings of the weak?  Paul gives three interconnected reasons: First, we must bear with one another because that’s what Jesus did.  Look at verse 3: “For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” Second, we must bear with one another because that’s what God’s Word instructs us to do. Look at verse 4: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” And third, we must bear with one another because that’s what God does for us.  Look at verse 5: “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,”  Which means that God endures or bears with us, but enabling us to bear with one another. In other words, Paul is saying since you have a bearing Savior, and a bearing Bible, and a bearing God, you need to be a bearing church.  Bear with one another as Christ bore with you.  Bear with one another as God’s Word instructs you to.  Bear with one another as God bears with you by helping you bear with one another.  Since Christ has welcomed us we must welcome others by bearing with one another. Every other summer that my family was in Korea we would take about a two month trip back to the United States to see friends and family.  When I was fourteen years old I reunited with some friends I had grown up in church with and we had a great time together that summer.  One of my friends was a girl named Ashley who was really the leader of the group.  She was incredibly kind and had an infectious laugh.  Two years later when I reunited with my friends once again Ashley wasn’t there.  I asked them where she was and they told me that several months after I left she was picking up a friend of hers who worked security.  He had a gun in his backpack that wasn’t properly stored, and it went off, firing through her seat directly into her spine, paralyzing her and almost killing her.  Due to her condition she hardly ever got out anymore and her life had been changed permanently.  At that time I lived in Korea which does not allow it’s citizens to possess firearms of any type, and even the police don’t carry guns.  The result is that there is zero gun violence in South Korea.  My experience at that point in my life made me hate guns.  I didn’t want to see one, I didn’t want to shoot one, look what happened to my friend, look at South Korea where there are no guns—I was basically anti-gun.  Eventually I moved to the United States and met my wife Brittany who is from a small town in Missouri.  If you know anything at all about the people of Missouri, you know that people from small towns in Missouri love their guns.  Brittany told me that I was invited to go target shooting with her dad and brother if I wanted to.  I proceeded to relay to her the story of my friend, the great laws in South Korea, and my absolute disdain for guns.  Because of my life experiences, I had a weak conscience about guns.  My feelings about them were raw. Now here is what could have happened.  Brittany and her family could have all slapped on their open carry holsters, cleaned their guns on the dining room table, lectured me about the 2nd Amendment, told me about the difference between gun control on a tiny post-war nation in the 20th century versus gun control in the United States, told me how the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, and on and on and on.  And guess what? They would have had every right to do just that.  But do you know what they actually did?  The next day when I saw them they said, “Brittany said you have a friend who was paralyzed by a gun going off.” I said, “That’s right.”  They said, “That’s a terrible and devastating situation.  We’re so sorry to hear that.” And that was that.  They never brought up guns to me again, they didn’t try to sell me on them or show me the error of my ways, but they bore with me in my weakness.  Instead of pleasing themselves, they bore with me.  Now here’s the thing, because of their patience with me, and their love towards me, my thinking about guns has changed.  But it wasn’t a lecture, or someone proving me wrong that brought about that change.  It was my family bearing with my weakness.  Now, bearing with the failings of the weak doesn’t mean tolerating things the Bible clearly calls sin.  Paul clarifies that at the very beginning of chapter 14 when he says, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.” Another translation is not to quarrel over ‘disputable matters.’  What we’re talking about here are things that are disputable matters. Embezzling money or sleeping with a prostitute are not disputable matters—but whether you buy free range eggs or not is.  And if you want to say, “Okay Paul, what’s NOT a disputable matter?” Simply read everything Paul wrote up to that point.  The gospel is not a disputable matter.  The bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead is not a disputable matter.  The nature of humanity is not a disputable matter. But who you vote for? That could be a disputable matter.  What kind of music you listen to?  Watching R rated movies?  Birth control?  Feeding babies on demand, homeschool vs. public school, women at work vs. staying at home, choosing to smoke, play poker, drink alcohol, go clubbing, vaccinate or not, those things are disputable matters that Paul says, if you are strong, you should bear with the person who thinks you are wrong.  The way Paul designates the weak and the strong here is that the weaker person—the person with the weaker conscience—is the person who says, “you shouldn’t do that.”  And instead of trying to convince that person that it’s actually okay for you to do it and flaunting your freedom, you bear with that person.  You please them, rather than yourself.  You endure with them.  Since Christ has welcomed us we must welcome others by bearing with one another.  That’s what Philippians 2 means when it says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,”. Instead of pleasing ourselves, we are to welcome others by bearing with their failings.  Is there someone you know that really gets tied up in knots over certain disputable behaviors?  Do whatever you can to bear with that person.  That means don’t try to convince them that they are wrong and you are right.  Don’t try to justify your behavior.  If you are actually the stronger person, that means you help the weak, not make them stumble.  A stronger person lifts up the weak, protects the weak, and endures with the weak.  That’s what Christ has done for us, and so we must bear with one another. 2. Since Christ Has Welcomed Us, We Must Welcome Others by Building One Another Up We welcome the weak by bearing with their failings, but that’s not the end.  We also welcome them as Christ has welcomed us by building them up.  Verse 2 says, “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” Another word for “building someone up” is encouraging them.  And Paul uses that exact word in the following verses, and he gives three reasons why we should build each other up.  Since God has welcomed us by building us up, we must welcome each other by building one another up. First, we must build one another up because that’s what Jesus did.  Look at verse 3: “For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” Second, we must build one another up because that’s what God’s Word does for us and instructs us to do. Look at verse 4: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” And third, we must build one another up because that’s what God does for us.  Look at verse 5: “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,”  Which means God builds us up by enabling us to build up one another. So if you’ve got a Savior who builds up, and a Bible that builds up, and a God that builds up, then you should be a church that builds up.  Which in this context, building up means increasing someone’s ability to glorify God.  “5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,” Here’s the point: “6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to Paul’s theology, building someone up means helping them glorify God in unity with other believers—the church.  So that together with one voice they might glorify God.  And this is exactly what Jesus has done for us.  He has built us up into his body—the church, and enabled us to glorify Him because of what he has done for us.  Romans 5:6 says, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Since Christ has welcomed us, we must welcome others by building one another up. There’s a gym down in South County called JD’s gym, and JD, who runs the gym hosts regular strength competitions.  And if you ever go to that gym it’s pretty intimidating at first.  There’s a kickboxing ring in one corner where you might see people practicing martial arts.  There’s 250lb stones that guys will try to lift.  You’ll see women lifting more weight in that gym than most men will ever lift in their life.  And people are grunting and chalk is flying and sweat is dripping and loud music is playing and you get the picture, people here are strong!  And that impression is verified even more by a huge whiteboard on one wall that lists people’s biggest lifts. Now if you’re new to strength training, or you’ve only been doing a little while, or maybe you’ve been going at it a while but you’ve struggled to make any gains, then that place could look really intimidating.  You might be tempted to just leave.  But I’ve seen new people go in there who could’ve been really intimidated, and JD will help them learn how to do the lifts.  And not just him, but everyone there in the gym cheers each other on while they’re working out.  People talk to each other, there is a strong sense of community there, they talk about how it felt when they first started out and how far they’ve come—how much stronger they’ve gotten.  And a huge part of it is because in that gym, they build each other up, because they know that no one is every going to get stronger unless they are encouraged to do it.  Once when I was competing in one of the gym’s competitions I was supposed to carry a sandbag, along with some other heavy objects thirty feet and back as fast as I could.  As soon as I picked up the sandbag I started trying to go faster than I should and I lost my balance and fell right on top of it.  And I had people all around me, from that gym, in front of me on either side of me, and behind me all saying, “Get up! You can do it!”  And I picked the bag up and I kept going and the whole time everyone—people I didn’t know, even people I was competing against—were yelling at the top of their lungs words of encouragement to me.  They were building me up. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Friends, the church ought to be a place like that.  When people come in, the strong ones surround them and help build them up.  They share their own struggles.  They shares stories of their own failings, they give tips for how you can grow, in fact they say hey, why don’t you meet me here on Saturday and we’ll work on your sandbag technique.  The only way we can glorify God together with one voice is if the strong build up the weak and we come alongside each other.  In areas that my conscience is weak I need strong people to build me up and help me glorify God.  And in areas that I’m strong I need to help others who have weak consciences in that area.  1 Cor. 12:22-25 says, “the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.” That means spending time with people who feel differently about disputable matters than you do.  One of the most dangerous things to happen to a church is for it to become homogenous.  That is a recipe for narcissism.  Because if everyone looks like me and thinks like me, it will make me think I’m even more awesome than I already do, and I am not awesome.  God is awesome.  And if I’m in a church where people look different than me, and think different than me, I can see the image of God reflected in them in different ways than I see it in myself and God looks bigger and better as a result.  And you know what else?  When the world sees a group of people that all build each other up, even though there are differences, that makes Jesus look really good!  When you’re willing to bear with the failings of a weaker brother or sister, and then build them up instead of breaking fellowship with them, people see, “wow, Jesus is more important to that person than the president!” Or politics, or education, or any other disputable matter.  And let me say this as a strong word warning to that church that I love the most: Main Street Church, if you break fellowship with another believer over their politics, you are cheapening the blood of Jesus, sullying the name of our Savior, and dragging his bride through the mud while you do it. It turns the question from “How big is politics for them?” To “How small is Jesus for them?”  Your views on politics is a disputable matter; that Christ and his work matters to you more than politics is not.  I’m not saying disengage from politics or political discourse. No, we need that in order to be a faithful witness in our time.  But the cross on someone’s chest ought to always outrank the donkey or the elephant.  And if you know someone who is fixated on their politics more than they are fixated on Jesus, don’t lecture them about how they need to focus on Christ more.  But as this text tells us, bear with them, and build them up.  Affirm the good that they want to see in the world.  Spend time in conversation with them, just listening.  Help them glorify God more by allowing them to see Christ in you.  According to Paul you are obligated to do that. All for the Glory of God We are commanded to bear and to build.  If you’re strong, bear with the failings of the weak.  If you’re strong build up the weak.  What’s the goal of this?  Verse 6: "that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  The goal of being a church that bears with one another and builds up one another is to make God look great. And it makes God look great because He is the reason that we bear with one another.  He is the reason that we build up one another.  He has bore with us.  He has built us up.  He grants us the ability to bear with one another and build up one another.  No credit goes to us.  All credit goes to him.  All credit goes to God.  That’s why Paul concludes this section with verse 7: “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Jesus bore our sins and our failings on the cross, and he has built us up through the empowering of his word through the Spirit.  He bore with us, and he built us up, and we ought to do the same for our brothers and sisters.  Since Christ has welcomed us, we must welcome one another for the glory of God. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/82519Casey.mp3 Sun, 25 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:27 Alan Scotland 2019 and Older Gospel Living: 101 Romans 12:1-2 Preached at Main Street Church on July 7th 2019 The book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul somewhere around 60 AD to the church that had formed in Rome following the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  It is the longest letter to any church in the entire New Testament and most scholars agree that the book of Romans contains the clearest and most thorough systematic explanation of the gospel of Jesus Christ found in the Bible.  Romans 12 marks a major shift in the letter, at which point Paul switches from explanation to application.  In Romans 1-11 Paul gave explanation of the gospel, and Romans 12-15 is Paul’s application of the gospel—where Paul lays out how to apply the gospel to everyday life.  We have spent the last two months doing out best to give explanation of the gospel in preparation for our brand new series that starts today on the application of the gospel from Romans 12-15.  Because of the really practical instruction that Paul gives in Romans 12-15, we have entitled this series: “Gospel Living: 101.”  Today is our introduction to that series from the first two verses of Romans 12. Romans 12:1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” I have something of a confession to make.  Almost ten years ago, I preached this very text, but I preached it wrong.  I preached it like this: “Verse 2 is saying that you need to get new information into your mind about how to live according to God’s will, and not the world.  You need to get your mind renewed with god gospel information.  And verse 1 is saying that if you fix your eyes on the mercies of God, that will give you the inspiration to actually live out that gospel information.  So verse 1 is the inspiration, and verse 2 is the information.”  And I want to say to you today that when I preached it that way I got it wrong.  I want to ask God to forgive me for my error, and I also pray that he will use his word that I did preach in spite of my many failings and shortcomings in handling it.  And I pray that God’s strength will be made perfect in my weakness in attempting to preach it again today.  I want to share a short story that I believe will shed light on my failing ten years ago.  My very first semester at Covenant seminary I took a class called “Communicating the Scriptures.”  It was an intro to preaching class.  They could have called it, “Preaching: 101.”  My Professor was Dr. Bryan Chapell who wrote a famous book used in seminaries and colleges around the world called “Christ-Centered Preaching.”  Every semester Covenant would host a Lecture Series where they would invite a guest speaker in to give a series of lectures on preaching and all of the students who were training to be pastors were required to attend these lectures.  The first one I went to during that first semester turned out to be a bit controversial because the guest lecturer said this: “You have to make the decision when you preach of whether you want to give people information or inspiration.”  And over the weekend following that lecture series, I spent time pondering what kind of preacher I would be.  Information or inspiration.  But I wasn’t happy with either those options, and was simply left unsettled until the following Tuesday at my preaching class with Dr. Chapell when he settled it for me.  He said: “Gentlemen, the point of preaching is not simply to give people information, or to give people inspiration.  The point of preaching is transformation!” The error I made ten years ago when preaching this text was the error of thinking that it was teaching that all we need to live the Christian life is information and inspiration. Modern society believes we can achieve utopia simply through information and inspiration.  What do modern institutions do nowadays if there is some issue in society?  “Let’s raise awareness to inform people of this problem.  Let’s start a conversation to get people information about this.  Let’s have a seminar on sensitivity to this, let’s add this to the curriculum.  Let’s start an education program to fix this issue.  People just need the right information, and that will change them.”  As Maya Angelou said, if you “know better, do better.”  But we know that information doesn’t completely change people by itself, it has to be coupled with inspiration.  We need to inspire people to actually do the right thing.  So we tell inspirational stories about bullying, or inequality, or work ethic, or environmental issues that inspire people to change the way they live.  Many of us approach Christianity the same way.  We think if we get all the right biblical information, and pair that with some spiritual inspiration, we will be able to live the right way.  And when you look at Romans 12:1-2 it almost looks like that is what it’s saying.  “Learn the right information in your mind, and get the right inspiration live it out.” But we don’t just need information and inspiration; we need transformation! What Paul is actually saying in these two verses, is since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, act like Jesus.  In V. 1 he is saying, since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, live like Jesus lived, And in V. 2 he says, since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, love like Jesus loved.  So the key to the Christian life is not information about Jesus or inspiration from Jesus, but transformation into the image of Jesus. God has transformed us to look like Jesus, so that we’ll love like Jesus, so that we’ll live like Jesus.  That’s what we’re going to talk about today. 1. Live like Jesus Lived Look at verse 1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  The word ‘therefore’ points back to the first 11 chapters in which Paul diligently laid out the mercies of God, aka, the gospel. The gospel is the power of God to transform us into the image of Jesus.  So Paul is saying, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, since God has transformed you into the image of Jesus through the power of the gospel, live like Jesus lived, because that reflects his glory.” In Romans 1 Paul demonstrates how we exchanged the glory of God for images resembling ourselves (Rom. 1:23).  Then in Romans 8 he explains how the gospel transforms us into the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29).  Now, in chapter 12 he is saying, since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus (through the power of the gospel), live like Jesus lived. A hobby of mine is powerlifting.  Powerlifting is very simple: the goal is squat, bench press, and deadlift as much weight as you can in a single lift.  And in competitions you get three attempts at each lift.  Powerlifting competitions are kind of a funny thing, because for the most part everyone knows how much weight they can lift before they get there, so there’s usually not a lot of suspense during the competition regarding who is going to win. But every competition I’ve gone to, there is usually that one guy who is at his first competition, and he thinks that somehow, in the inspiration of the moment he is going to be able to lift more than he ever has in his life.  Even though he’s only ever bench pressed 200 pounds in the gym, he’s going to try 300 pounds on his first attempt today.  Or in the middle of the competition he got a valuable piece of information on how to tweak his deadlift form that he thinks is going to help him magically lift 50 more pounds.  And he’ll see other people who have been training for years lifting huge amounts of weight, and it will make him think that the magic of the competition will somehow enable him to as well.  The result is he will fail his first lift and get disqualified from the rest of the competition.  Just knowing information about how to do the lift, and getting some inspiration won’t help you to lift what other people lifts.  You’ve got to transform your body in order to do that.  There is a process of change that has to happen to your body; quite literally a physical transformation.   In the same way, just getting some information about Jesus and inspiration from Jesus won’t enable you to live how Jesus lived.  You need to be transformed into his image.  Verse 1 is saying, since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, live like Jesus lived.  “Because of the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”  Live like Jesus lived.  What did Jesus do? Jesus presented his body as a sacrifice for sin that was holy and acceptable to God, (why did he do that?) for the glory of God in the salvation of sinners.  So if the gospel has transformed you into the image of Christ, Paul is saying, therefore, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, and do it as an act of worship to God because you desire nothing more than for God to be glorified. Living like Jesus lived means giving every part of your life to God.  Paul says, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” When I was a kid I heard a pastor joke that sometimes the last part of someone to get saved was their back pocket.  Now that I’m older I know that for most Christians it seems like the last part of their body to get saved is their tongue.  James said it’s the most powerful part of the human body, and Jesus said that it shows what’s in your heart. Since we have been transformed into the image of Jesus, through the power of the gospel, we are to live as Jesus lived, and that means giving ourselves to God in every way for his glory.  2. Love Like Jesus Loved Look at verse 2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” This verse in some ways is an explanation of verse 1.  Verse 1 says present your bodies as a living sacrifice, and now verse 2 is telling you how to do that. If we’re not careful, we can take this verse to mean, “get the right information in your mind, so you will be inspired to live the right way, instead of living like the world.”  But that is a dangerous path. Here’s why: you can make a list of things that God says are good, and then memorize that list and get it in your mind, and then live that way so you’re not conforming to the world, and you will become an expert, top level, Pharisee.  You can train yourself to live differently than the world.  We can train our children to live differently than the world and even to do things that the Bible says to do, but that is hinging your entire existence on the information of what to do and then getting the inspiration to do it.  And if we focus on that, we will be missing the entire point of non-conformity to the world.  Look at the verse again, Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, (SO) that by testing you may discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The point of living like Jesus lived, is so that we will love what Jesus loved. What do I mean? The key here is the word translated ‘discern’ in my Bible.  This word contains two ideas in it: The first is the concept of testing, and the second is the idea of approving.  It’s the idea of testing with the expectation of approval, so the NIV actually translates the one Greek word with two English words as “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is.”  And the ESV which I’m using also uses two words, “that by testing you may discern the will of God.”  That means that if you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, and you live like Jesus lived, then you will be able to test and approve, or discern, God’s will.  And approving God’s will means loving God’s will.  Someone who has been transformed into the image of Jesus loves the will of God, because of the will of God glorifies God, and no one loves the glory of God more than Jesus, so if you look like Jesus you’ll love God’s glory as much as Jesus did.  Allow me to illustrate: Dredging for gold with Grandpa You can train someone to be able to identify gold without them having an appreciation for it’s value.  In the same way, you can train people to be able to identify God’s will without them actually loving God’s will.  Without them actually appreciating the true value of God’s will.  And Paul is saying here, be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you might LOVE the will of God! Since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, love what Jesus loved, namely, the glory of God that comes about by the will of God.  So Gospel Living isn’t simply learning about how good little Christians are supposed to act.  Gospel Living is being transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to love what Jesus loved.  Consider this: What does it ultimately mean to be like Jesus?  Would it mean primarily to know all the information that Jesus knows?  Would it mean to be as inspirational as Jesus was?  It would mean this: to love the glory of God as much as Jesus does. So the point of God transforming us into the image of Jesus is so that we love the glory of God as much as Jesus does, and if you love the glory of God as much as Jesus does you will live for the glory of God as much as Jesus does, and if we live for the glory of God as much as Jesus does then we will fill the earth with the glory of God as God intended from the very beginning in Genesis 1! So the question is: have you been transformed into the image of Jesus?  Here’s how it happens.  2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image.”  Beholding the glory of Jesus, transformed you into the image Jesus.  Looking at the glory of Jesus makes you look like Jesus.  You become what you behold.  So friends, what do you spend most of your time beholding?  Yourself? What you see on a screen?  You become what you behold. So search for the glory of God in Scripture, in prayer, and in his people.  Through the power of the gospel God has transformed us into the image of Jesus so that we will look like Jesus, live like Jesus, and love like Jesus.  Gospel Living is living like Jesus, and that is what we’re going to spend the next 10 weeks talking about.  How to look, live, and love like Jesus. In the movie Beauty and the Beast there is prince, who due to his self-centeredness is placed under a curse.  And the curse falls not just upon him, but upon everyone in his household.  Because of the curse he no longer looks like a glorious prince, but is transformed into a hideous beast, which exacerbates his selfishness and cruelty.  Everyone in his household is transformed as well, their humanity is removed, and they are turned into objects.  Only true love can reverse the curse, and transform the members of the kingdom back into what they originally were, true humans.    At the end of the movie the Beast faces an epic battle with his ultimate enemy, Gaston.  Gaston tries to kill the Beast and in his final attempt he shoots him, but as he does he falls to his own death.  Surprisingly, the Beast also dies.  All of his household members become dead, inanimate objects.  It appears that the curse has won.  The only thing that can save them now is not information, or inspiration.  They are dead.  They are inanimate.  They need the curse to be broken, and they need transformation.  When it is seemingly too late, Belle tearfully professes her true love for the Beast.  And it is through her love, that the curse is undone, the castle and kingdom are repaired, the beast and his household and transformed into their true human forms once again and even all of the villagers have their memories of the kingdom transformed.  The Prince is now King, and he holds a great wedding banquet in his kingdom to celebrate the removal of the curse, and the love that broke it.  The true love of Jesus is shown in the cross of Christ, where he defeated the curse of sin and our ultimate enemy by dying on the cross in our place.  And the news of that event is the power of God to transform us from death to life.  To transform us into the image of Jesus, into the image of our true humanity that we were meant to be.  Because God has transformed us into the image of Jesus, we should live and love like him.  Additional Notes: the transformation of their life!  That’s what Paul plainly said at the very beginning of this letter in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation.”  It transforms dead people into living people.  It transformers sinners into saints.  It transforms hearts of stones into hearts of flesh, and it transforms a valley of dry bones into a living, breathing army.  The point of the gospel and the point of preaching the gospel is transformation and it is quite literally in the middle of verse 2, “be transformed.”  So friends, gospel living isn’t about getting the right information on how to live a good little Christian life and then getting enough inspiration to actually live it out.  Gospel living is about being transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ!  And that’s what the next ten week journey together is going to be about, and we’re going to start right now.  Here is where the transforming nature of the gospel is so critical for us to understand: The gospel causes sinners who bear the image of sinful Adam, to be transformed into the image of Christ.  Paul said that just a couple chapters earlier in Romans 8:29 “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,” And that’s what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:49 “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”  So in Genesis 1 God made man in his image, **that is SO important.**  Sin shattered that image, and the result that Paul tells us in Romans 1:23 is this: people “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man.”  So instead of mankind reflecting the glory of God by bearing his image, mankind seeks to reflect the glory of ourselves.  But then, Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) came to us.  The word became flesh and we have seen his glory (John 1:14). And on the cross, Jesus ransomed the world from the curse of sin by sacrificially taking the curse on himself, and by rising from the dead he achieved the redemption of sinners.  And now, when the gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit transforms people who were dead in their sin, and makes them alive by restoring the image of God in them and making them look like Jesus.  So in v. 1 Paul is saying, looking like Jesus means acting like Jesus: https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_8.11.19.mp3 Sun, 18 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 27:59 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_8.11.19.mp3 Sun, 11 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 27:59 Doug Hon 2019 and Older Living with Gospel Love Romans 13:8-14 Preached at Main Street Church on August 4th, 2019 Proposition: Jesus has brought in the Kingdom of God we must live with gospel love. What does it mean that Jesus has brought in the kingdom of God? What is ‘gospel love’? Main Point 1: We must live with gospel love in everything (v. 8-10) Main Point 2: We must live with gospel live with urgency (v. 11-14) This message is the fifth in our series through Romans 12-15 entitled: Gospel Living: 101.  Paul wrote the book of Romans as a letter around 60 AD to the church that was in the city of Rome at that time.  In the first eleven chapters Paul gives an explanation of the gospel, and in chapters 12-15 he gives application of the gospel to our everyday lives, which is why we have entitled this series, “Gospel Living: 101.”  Another way to say it would be to say that chapters 1-11 talk about God’s work for us in the gospel, and chapters 12-15 talk about God’s work in us through the gospel.  Today we will finish chapter 13, and I’ve entitled this message: “Living with Gospel Love.” Romans 13:8-14 “8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” One day during my Junior year of high school was different from the rest.  I woke up, took a shower, got dressed, as usual, and started making some toast to get ready for the day.  My mom poked her head out our of her bedroom and asked me what I was doing.  I told her I was getting ready for school.  “At 2:30 in the morning?” She asked.  I suddenly realized that I had not looked at a clock the entire time I had been awake.  If you don’t know what time it is, then you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing. Many Christians feel an inner tension with how they are supposed to live their lives because they don’t know what time it is.  And if you don’t know what time it is, then you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing.  That’s why Paul says, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” So what time is it, and what are we supposed to do as a result? This passage tells us that since Jesus has brought in the kingdom of God, we must live with gospel love.  Main Point 1: We must live with gospel love in everything (v. 8-10) Main Point 2: We must live with gospel live with urgency (v. 11-14) The reason we are to do this is because Jesus has brought in the kingdom of God; that’s what time it is; and as a result we are to live with gospel love.  What we’re going to do is first answer two questions: What does it mean that Jesus has brought in the Kingdom of God? What is gospel love?  Then we’re going to explore how Paul expects us to live with gospel love; namely, in everything, and with urgency.  What does it mean that Jesus has brought in the Kingdom of God? In v. 11 Paul says to the believers in Rome, “You know the time. The night is far gone; the day is at hand.  Put on the armor of light.  Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”  And what Paul is indicating to those early Christians is, “Hey, you guys know that Jesus has brought in the Kingdom of God.  In his life, death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus has ushered in a new age.  The powers of darkness are retreating.  Death is defeated.  The authority of Jesus as the true king of the world is being established.”  The gospel accounts record an instance of Jesus publicly casting a demon out of man, so that everyone was amazed, because they had never seen that kind of power before.  The Pharisees, began to say that he was doing it by the power of Satan.  But Jesus said, “26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:26-28) In other words, Jesus declared that his power over demons, and over disease, and over death were all evidence that the age of darkness was coming to an end, and the kingdom of God was at hand.  And Jesus decisively brought in his kingdom through his life, death, burial and resurrection, establishing his authority as the king over all things, so that at the end of Matthew’s gospel he said “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” And Paul would write in Philippians 2, “God has bestowed on him the name that is above every name.”  And at his return Revelation 19 says the name on his Robe is “King of kings and Lord of lords.”  So Paul is saying, Jesus has brought in the Kingdom of God! You know what time it is; the hour has come to wake from sleep, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.  The Overlap of the Ages - The Already and Not Yet You and I live in a period of time in history that scholars call “the overlap of the ages.”  That is, there is the age of darkness before Christ came, where sin and death ruled, that Galatians 1:4 calls “this present evil age,” and there is the future age where the rule and reign of Jesus are fully realized once he returns.  Ephesians 1:21 calls this “the age to come.”  We live in the overlap of these two ages.  We live in this present evil age, and Romans 12:2 says, literally, “Do not be conformed to this age.”  And yet we also live in the age to come where Jesus’ power is always becoming more of a reality in our lives.  We live in the overlap of the ages.  Sometimes this tension is also called “The already and not yet.”  So this is what Paul means when he says, “The night is far gone; the day is at hand.”  He means that Jesus has brought the Kingdom of God.  That’s what time it is. So if we know what time it is, that being that Jesus has brought the kingdom of God—what do we do?  According to Paul we are to live with what I’m calling “gospel love.”  What is gospel love? The reason I’m calling it gospel love is to give clarity to just what kind of love Paul is talking about since the kingdom of God is here.  He says in v. 9 that the 10 commandments are “summed up in this word: ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  And that command, to have that kind of love, is a command to have gospel love.  Loving your neighbor as yourself is gospel love.  There has been some confusion over this verse, and this command from the Bible, because it tells us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  And right now, and perhaps for a long time our culture has been obsessed with the concept of “self-love.”   This has led some people to say that the reason we don’t love others as we ought is because we don’t love ourselves enough, and if we loved ourselves, then we would be able to love our neighbors, as we love ourselves.  So you really need to love yourself more if you want to love your neighbor well.  That is wrong. That is not what this verse means.  The reason this is wrong is because when people talk about “self-love” what they are talking about is self-esteem.  But people with low self-esteem still love themselves in the sense that is implied in this verse.  When this verse talks about loving ourselves, it is very simply referring to everyone’s desire to be happy.  Everyone always does what they think will make them happy, even if they have low self-esteem. So in the gospel accounts when Jesus gave this command, he is not commanding self-love.  In fact, he assumes that everyone loves themselves in the sense that everyone does what they think will make them happy.  Even people who are contemplating suicide contemplate it because they want their suffering to end.  They want what will make them happy, and they’re suffering here and they’re hurting here, and they love themselves in the sense that they want to be happy. So loving our neighbor as ourselves, is spending the same amount of time, and thought, and energy, and creativity into striving for their ultimate happiness as we do for our own.  Now, if you’re a Christian, you know that the only thing that can every make someone truly happy, is God.  You know that true happiness is only found in the King of the kingdom.  The only thing that can make you truly happy, and satisfied, is God. So if you love your neighbor as yourself, your desire is then for them to find their happiness in the gospel of Jesus Christ, because you know that the gospel is the only thing that can every satisfy them and make them truly happy, and you desire their happiness as much as you desire their own, so you continually strive to love them with the good news of Jesus that they actually can find true, lasting, unfailing happiness in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So that is why I’m calling this kind of love “gospel love.”  Because it is living with a kind of love for people that desires for them to find their happiness and satisfaction in God.  So this passage is saying “Since Jesus has brought in the kingdom of God, live with gospel love. And Paul tells us how we are to live with gospel love: 1) in everything, and 2) with urgency Live with Gospel Love In Everything (v. 8-10) Look at v. 8.  It says, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other,”  This is in the context of what has come just prior where Paul says, “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.” Then he says, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other.”  Some people have taken the first part of v. 8 to mean that you should never, ever, under any circumstance take on any form of debt.  And while there is certainly wisdom in avoiding debt and being a good steward of your resources, this verse isn’t saying you should never incur debts, it means when you do, pay them.  We see this from the context provided by v. 7 that puts owing in positive light.  So it’s not primarily about whether or not you should borrow anything, but it’s about paying what you owe.  This is the context in which Paul then says, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other.”  So if his point is that we are always supposed to pay what we owe, and we are always to owe love, then he is saying that we are supposed to live with gospel love in everything.  Now that might sound basic, but what Paul is saying is actually very profound.  He is saying let everything you do be an act of love, even paying your taxes, paying your mortgage, showing honor to those in authority over you.  Do you see this?  He is saying, don’t just pay your taxes out of obligation, pay them out of love.  Don’t just show honor to an authority figure because you have to, show honor out of love.  This is radical!  He is saying live with gospel love in everything! In other words, don’t limit your gospel love to one area of your life.  As if you’ll live with gospel love on Sunday, but what you do on April 15th has no gospel love.  Or writing your tithe check is an act of live but writing your mortgage check is just neutral.  He is saying, “Live with gospel love in everything.” Now, the only way it is possible to live with this kind of love, is because Jesus has brought in the kingdom of God.  The only way that you can pay your taxes out of love instead of out of mere obligation is if Jesus is your king.  Paul is literally saying here that you owe the government your gospel love, more than you owe them your taxes. So in everything you do, live with gospel love, because Jesus has brought in the kingdom of God.  Verse 9 says, “For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Paul is strengthening his argument that we should live with gospel love in everything, by pointing out that every law God gave had as it’s ultimate purpose, gospel love.  The spirit of the Ten Commandments is that we might find our happiness in God.  In fact, that is the very first commandment “You shall have no other God’s before me.”  Since Jesus has brought in the kingdom of God, we must live with gospel love in everything. Live with Gospel Love with Urgency (v. 11-14) Secondly, we must live with gospel love with urgency.  Verse 11: “11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” It is a reality that the time we have to live with gospel love is running out.  This is an encouragement of hope.  Paul is saying, “you’re almost there!”  Heather Miller just ran her second 100 mile race.  If Paul were there he would be saying, “You’re closer to the finish line now than when you started! Keep going! Don’t stop now!”  And that’s what Paul is saying to us.  He is saying live with a sense of urgency.  You’ve gotta know what time it is.  It’s the fourth quarter, the clock is ticking down, it’s not time to relax.  It’s not time to slow down.  It’s time to live with gospel love!  The city of Rome is described by authors who lived at that time as “a place that provided every virtue and vice known to mankind.”  Most of the residents of Rome were pagan, and would have taken place in the pagan rituals that worshipped the gods of Rome.  Paul describes some of the cult practices here in v. 13, that would have taken place at night.  He is saying, the day has come, those practices are over and behind you, just like you’ve left your former life behind.  Jesus is the king now, not Caesar.  So put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Since Jesus has brought in the kingdom of God, live with gospel love with urgency.  That means, invite the neighbor over for dinner.  Write that letter to that relative.  Don’t participate in the kingdom of darkness, but live with gospel love, and do it with urgency.  The hour has come to wake from your screens, wake from materialism, wake from your addiction to media narratives, because Jesus is the king and his return is one day closer than it was yesterday.  So live with gospel love in everything you do, and do it with urgency.  In C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe there is a wonderful portion of the story when the land of Narnia, which has been under the frozen curse of the White Witch, begins to heal.  Trees bloom…ice melts…flowers reveal themselves.  And whenever someone witnesses evidence that the curse is fading and healing is taking its place, there is a singular pronouncement on that person’s lips: “Aslan is on the move!” But Aslan had not yet appeared.  The White Witch still seemed to be winning.  Frozen waste still covered much of Narnia, but where ever a bird sang, grass grew, or a treacherous heart repented it became increasingly apparent to everyone in the land that Aslan’s rule was expanding, and the White Witch’s was receding.  Although no one had seen him yet, everyone, including the witch knew: “Aslan is on the move!” Like Narnia, our world was not meant to be governed by a curse.  Sin and death are foreigners here who have resided in our home illegally for far to long. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. John 3:8 Jesus came to give “the curse” its eviction notice and to empower his people to be agents of life, light, and love (his body).  We are to share with everyone that a new Kingdom has been established with a new King who does not advance his kingdom through military conquest or economic domination, but rather through gospel love. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/8419Casey.mp3 Sun, 04 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:53 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug7-28-19Romans13.mp3 Sun, 28 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:35 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older The Mark of True Gospel Living Romans 12:9-21 Preached at Main Street Church on July 18th, 2019 This message is the third in our series through Romans 12-15 entitled: Gospel Living: 101.  Paul wrote the book of Romans as a letter around 60 AD to the church that was in the city of Rome at that time.  In the first eleven chapters Paul lays out a thorough explanation of the gospel, and in chapters 12-15 he lays out the application of the gospel to our everyday lives, which is why we have entitled this series, “Gospel Living: 101.”  Today we will finish chapter 12 in this section of 30 different direct commands, that all are different, but also share one thing in common. So the title of my message this morning is, “The Mark of True Gospel Living.” Romans 12:9-21 “9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” What do you think defines the church?  In their book “UnChristian” (published in 2007) David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons worked through loads of research in an attempt to discover why 16-29-year-olds (at that time) had such a negative perception of the church, defining the church with words such as “hypocritical,” “insensitive,” and “judgmental.”  In their study: 87% of 16-29-year olds outside the church defined present day Christianity as “judgmental” 85% defined most Christians as “hypocritical” 75% defined them as “too political” Only 18% said they would consider most Christians “friendly” Only 9% said they would consider most Christians to be people they trust And only 16% would define Christians as those who consistently show love for other people. While it might be tempting to explain away these ideas about Christians, and perhaps, they are not completely justified, the fact is they are accurate at representing how people perceive the church, and ultimately, what they think defines the church.  The one the saddens me the most, is that only 16% said they would define Christians as those who consistently show love for other people.  Love is the number one thing that should define our life as the church, but too often our lives get defined by things other than love.  We might be tempted to define ourselves by our politics, our traditions, or our social status, when we ought to be defined by our love.  This passage is saying that since you’ve been transformed by the power of the gospel, love should define your life.    The true mark of gospel living is love.  So this morning we’re going to first define what love is according to this passage, and then learn how that love should define our lives. First, we’ll look at verses 9-13 which show that love should define your life with believers Second, Verse 14 shows that love should define your life with unbelievers Third, Verses 15-21 show that love should define your life with everyone What Is Genuine Love? Paul starts off this massive list of thirty different ways to love by clarifying what love is.  Look at verse 9 where he says, “9 Let love be genuine.” Literally, “let love be without hypocrisy.”  Love that is hypocritical isn’t love at all, that’s fake love. So Paul is saying, don’t be fake with your love, let love be genuine.  Okay, then what is genuine love?  The answer is in what Paul says immediately after.  “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”  Another way to say it would be “Hate what is evil” or “Loathe what is evil,” and “Cleave to,” or “embrace” what is good.  This means two things: 1) There is an objective, true, unchanging reality of what is good and what is evil.  2) Genuine love is defined by the appropriate response to those realities.  What do I mean? Our society defines good and evil relativistically.  For example: someone might say that it is a good thing to cut a cancerous mass of cells out of someone’s body and to kill the cancerous cells.  But from the perspective of the cancer cells, cutting them out would not be good, because they would then die.  Now this example might seem obvious, but it illustrates the importance of how we define good and evil for less obvious situations in life.  This is important because we tend to define good and evil based on what we like and don’t like rather than on what is eternally true. Paul knows that it is impossible to love genuinely if you don’t have a clear definition of good and evil, because loving someone is doing good to them.  So if you can’t define what good is, then you can’t know if your love is genuine, because fake love would be to do something evil to someone and call it ‘love,’ which is what many people do today.  Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”  So Paul says at the very beginning, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” God defines what is good, and God defines what is evil, and genuine love abhors what is evil and holds fast to what is good. 1. Love Should Define Your Life with Believers (v. 9-13) In verses 10-13 Paul is saying since you’ve been transformed by the power of the gospel, love should define your life with believers. First he says, “10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”  The use of the word “one another” two times here, and the mention of saints in v. 13 demonstrate that Paul is talking about loving other believers.   What we see here is that genuine love towards our brothers and sisters in Christ includes both our attitudes and our actions.  Loving one another with brotherly affection means our attitude that we have towards other believers.  Outdoing one another in showing honor means our actions towards other believers.  So if you’ve been transformed by the power of the gospel, love should define your attitudes and actions towards other believers.  Then he says in v. 11: “11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” Again we see the pairing of our attitudes with our actions.  Our attitude must be defined by zeal and fervency, and our actions must be defined by service to the Lord.  The word zeal means enthusiasm or devotion, and the word translated fervent literally means to boil.  We are to be boiling with passion for the Lord in our attitudes that leads us to serve the Lord in our actions.   So if you’ve been transformed by the power of the gospel, love should define your attitudes and actions towards other believers.  Verses 12 and 13 say, “12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”  If you are rejoicing in the hope you have in Jesus Christ, then you’ll be patient in the midst of tribulation—whether it’s cancer, financial struggles, or marital problems, and your patience will show itself through being constant in prayer.  Your attitude of rejoicing in hope will lead you to actions of patience and prayer, and also to acts of generosity and hospitality.  If you’ve been transformed by the power of the gospel, love will define your attitudes and actions towards other believers. There’s a joke that goes like this: I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump. I ran over and said: "Stop. Don't do it." "Why shouldn't I?" he asked. "Well, there's so much to live for!" "Like what?" "Are you religious?" He said: "Yes." I said: "Me too. Are you Christian or Buddhist?" "Christian." "Me too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?" "Protestant." "Me too. Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist." "Wow. Me too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?" "Baptist Church of God." "Me too. Are you original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?" "Reformed Baptist Church of God." "Me too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?" He said: "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915." I said: "Die, heretic scum," and pushed him off. Too often our relationships with other believers are defined by sectarianism and arrogance more than they are defined by love.  But this text makes it clear that if we’e been transformed by the power of the gospel, love should define our life with other believers.  If there’s another Christian that’s really hard for you to get along with the first thing you need to do is pray for them.  God will use that act of faith by the power of His Spirit to turn your heart towards that person, so that you will feel “brotherly affection” towards them.  Let love define your life with other believers. When we gather together to worship the Lord, be zealous and fervent in spirit for the sake of the other believers you’re gathering with.  Here’s what I mean: if someone goes to a gathering to worship the Christ who rose from the dead and everyone looks like they’d rather be filing their taxes, they’re not really encouraging that person with their attitudes to ‘serve the Lord.’  Especially if that person is going through sickness, or divorce, or getting laid off.  But if they see people who are boiling with passion for God and their whole being is lifted towards God in worship, those people are loving that person by inspiring and encouraging them to join them in their adoration of the King.  This doesn’t just go for our Sunday gatherings, but when you are at someone’s house, or having lunch with a friend.  Let love define your life with other believers. Show honor to believers from other denominations.  Be generous to believers in need even if they’re not from your church.  Be hospitable to brothers and sisters in the faith.  Being hospitable means people are comforted by your presence.  Let’s not make people feel like they have to perform or measure up to a standard, but let’s be generous and hospitable.  Let’s let love define our life with other believers.  2. Love Should Define Your Life with Unbelievers (v. 14) This point is just one verse, but it’s one very, very weighty verse.  V. 14 says, “14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” Paul took this idea directly from Jesus in his sermon on the mount.  In Matthew 5:44 Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  Again, genuine love for unbelievers is defined by both our attitudes and our actions.  Blessing someone is an action, based on an attitude. To bless someone means to hope the best for them.  So you can’t bless someone if you’re attitude toward them is hateful.  You can only bless them if you feel love for them.  This is an outrageous command, because God’s word is telling us that simply enduring persecution, or remaining silent under mocking is not enough.  If we’ve been transformed by the power of the gospel, we are commanded to feel love for and show love to unbelievers who persecute us.  Only someone who has been transformed by the power of the gospel, can do something as impossible as that. When Paul made this statement, it would have been personal to him.  Because Paul was present at the very first public execution of a Christian.  Stephen was something of an early church administrator.  He helped sort out the details of serving the widows and orphans in the church.  One day Stephen was arrested by Jewish officials because he was declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They brought all kinds of false accusations against him and dragged him before the Apostle Paul, who was not yet a believer, and his name at that time was Saul.  Paul was an enemy of Christians, and he sat there with approval as Jewish officials all grabbed large rocks and threw them at Stephens head, beating him with them.  Acts 7:58 says, “They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.  Meanwhile the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.”  And years later as Paul wrote these words in Romans 12, I’m sure he was thinking of Jesus’ words, but I can’t help but think he must have had Stephen’s bloodied face burned into his memory and the words of Stephen echoing his Savior’s.  Acts 7:59 says, “While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep.  And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.” Stephen had been so transformed by the power of the gospel, that even in his final moments as he was being brutally killed, he blessed the unbelievers who were killing him.  He prayed for their forgiveness!  And that prayer was answered by God, when Saul, who approved of the death of Stephen, was also transformed by the power of the gospel, and had his name changed to Paul.  And would then write these words, with the image of Stephen still in his mind, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”  If we’ve been transformed by the power of the gospel, love should define our life with unbelievers in the same way it defined Stephen’s. Blessing those who persecute us means bless the boss who gives you the worst tasks because he knows you’re a Christian.  It means bless your peers who mock your faith.  It means bless the gang members who plundered your home because you were a missionary.  It means bless the government officials who beat you because you for your faith. It means bless the islamic extremists who beheaded your family members. This is a radical love, that we are commanded to show, because we ourselves have been shown the very same radical love in the cross of Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:10 says, “For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.”  If you’ve been transformed by the power of the gospel, love should define your life with unbelievers.  3. Love Should Define Your Life with Everyone (v. 15-21) Verses 9-13 define our love towards believers, v. 14 defines our love towards unbelievers, and v. 15-21 are comprehensive and tell us how love should define our life with everyone. Verse 15 says, “15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” That means our love is empathetic. Love takes the the time to try to understand how someone else is feeling. “16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”  That means don’t be so worried about your reputation or time that you won’t sit down and talk to ’those people.’  Genuine love is humble.  Paul is emphasizing again that love starts with our attitudes, and affects our actions. If you have a humble attitude, you will have humble actions. “17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.” In other words, we should spend more time thinking about how to honor someone who has wronged us than we should thinking about how we can get back at them. “18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”  Paul said this to Christians in Rome who had already been persecuted for their faith, and would be persecuted even more.  But as far as what was in their control, they were to work towards peace.  “19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”  It is never right for anyone to take vengeance into their own hands, because God who is a perfect judge will bring judgment on all evil in the world, either through his judgment of sin in the body of Jesus on the cross, or through the final judgment.  So we are not to interfere with God’s justice, and trust in his perfect judgment.  Our sin was also already judged in Christ when he died on the cross so that we could be forgiven. Here is our job: “20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” The idea is that you’ll make your enemy “red in the face” when they blush from conviction.  So the point of doing good to your enemy is not to embarrass them or make them angry, but to convict them so that they might know something of the love of Christ, and be convicted of their evil ways. Paul clarifies that in the last verse: “21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” As my old pastor Dr. Greever used to say, “It’s never wrong to do the right thing.”  Paul started in v. 9 by commanding Christians to abhor evil and cling to good, and he ends where he started.  We are to do what is good, because that is a demonstration of love, and love is what should define our lives with everyone.  On June 17th, 2015, a white supremacist walked into a Bible study and murdered 9 African Americans.  21 year old Dylan Roof drove to the church, asked to see the pastor, and then joined the Bible study where he was welcomed by the members.  Roof pulled out a pistol and started shooting.  He killed nine of our Christian brothers and sisters in cold blood, leaving another to tell everyone what had happened.  After decades of suffering through segregation, Jim Crow and the civil rights movements, and overt and covert racism for years, if anyone had a right to be bitter, or angry, or exasperated, it was our African American brothers and sisters from Emanuel church in Charleston South Carolina.  But in a shock to the Internet and the media, and everyone who heard the news, people watched, stunned, as Nadine Collier, one of the victim’s family members told Dylan Roof, the murdered these words, “I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you and have mercy on your soul.  You hurt me.  You hurt a lot of people, but God forgives you, and I forgive you too.”  Then Anthony Thompson, the husband of victim Myra Thompson, told Roof, “I forgive you, and my family forgives you.  But we would like you to take this opportunity to repent.  Change your ways.” Emanuel church will forever be defined, not by their politics, or their traditions, or their social status, but by their genuine love, rooted in the love of Christ. Since they had been transformed by the power of the gospel, love defined their life with everyone, even the man who murdered their family members.  The way Jesus has intended the world to know and experience his love is through his church.  Which means the world won’t see the love of Jesus in the cross, if they don’t see that very love in his church.  Jesus demonstrated genuine love in the cross when he suffered and died for sinful people like you and me, to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from it.  And he was buried, and after three days he rose from the dead, conquering sin and death, so that he might restore us to new life.  Jesus bled and died on the cross to unite all believers in him as brothers and sisters, so love should define our life with other believers. Jesus suffered and died for us while we were his enemies, so love should define our life with unbelievers.  And Jesus poured out his life on the cross so that people would come to know him from every tribe and nation and tongue, so love should define our life with everyone.  If we fix our eyes on the gospel of Jesus Christ, and his love displayed for us in the cross, our lives will be transformed so that love defines them.  Let’s be a church that isn’t defined by our politics, our traditions, or our social status, but by the love of Christ that we show to the world. Let’s be a church defined by our love. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/07212019Casey.mp3 Sun, 21 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:05 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey77192.mp3 Sun, 14 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 37:51 Doug Hon 2019 and Older Gospel Living: 101 Romans 12:1-2 Preached at Main Street Church on July 7th 2019 The book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul somewhere around 60 AD to the church that had formed in Rome following the resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  It is the longest letter to any church in the entire New Testament and most scholars agree that the book of Romans contains the clearest and most thorough systematic explanation of the gospel of Jesus Christ found in the Bible.  Romans 12 marks a major shift in the letter, at which point Paul switches from explanation to application.  In Romans 1-11 Paul gave explanation of the gospel, and Romans 12-15 is Paul’s application of the gospel—where Paul lays out how to apply the gospel to everyday life.  We have spent the last two months doing out best to give explanation of the gospel in preparation for our brand new series that starts today on the application of the gospel from Romans 12-15.  Because of the really practical instruction that Paul gives in Romans 12-15, we have entitled this series: “Gospel Living: 101.”  Today is our introduction to that series from the first two verses of Romans 12. Romans 12:1-2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” I have something of a confession to make.  Almost ten years ago, I preached this very text, but I preached it wrong.  I preached it like this: “Verse 2 is saying that you need to get new information into your mind about how to live according to God’s will, and not the world.  You need to get your mind renewed with god gospel information.  And verse 1 is saying that if you fix your eyes on the mercies of God, that will give you the inspiration to actually live out that gospel information.  So verse 1 is the inspiration, and verse 2 is the information.”  And I want to say to you today that when I preached it that way I got it wrong.  I want to ask God to forgive me for my error, and I also pray that he will use his word that I did preach in spite of my many failings and shortcomings in handling it.  And I pray that God’s strength will be made perfect in my weakness in attempting to preach it again today.  I want to share a short story that I believe will shed light on my failing ten years ago.  My very first semester at Covenant seminary I took a class called “Communicating the Scriptures.”  It was an intro to preaching class.  They could have called it, “Preaching: 101.”  My Professor was Dr. Bryan Chapell who wrote a famous book used in seminaries and colleges around the world called “Christ-Centered Preaching.”  Every semester Covenant would host a Lecture Series where they would invite a guest speaker in to give a series of lectures on preaching and all of the students who were training to be pastors were required to attend these lectures.  The first one I went to during that first semester turned out to be a bit controversial because the guest lecturer said this: “You have to make the decision when you preach of whether you want to give people information or inspiration.”  And over the weekend following that lecture series, I spent time pondering what kind of preacher I would be.  Information or inspiration.  But I wasn’t happy with either those options, and was simply left unsettled until the following Tuesday at my preaching class with Dr. Chapell when he settled it for me.  He said: “Gentlemen, the point of preaching is not simply to give people information, or to give people inspiration.  The point of preaching is transformation!” The error I made ten years ago when preaching this text was the error of thinking that it was teaching that all we need to live the Christian life is information and inspiration. Modern society believes we can achieve utopia simply through information and inspiration.  What do modern institutions do nowadays if there is some issue in society?  “Let’s raise awareness to inform people of this problem.  Let’s start a conversation to get people information about this.  Let’s have a seminar on sensitivity to this, let’s add this to the curriculum.  Let’s start an education program to fix this issue.  People just need the right information, and that will change them.”  As Maya Angelou said, if you “know better, do better.”  But we know that information doesn’t completely change people by itself, it has to be coupled with inspiration.  We need to inspire people to actually do the right thing.  So we tell inspirational stories about bullying, or inequality, or work ethic, or environmental issues that inspire people to change the way they live.  Many of us approach Christianity the same way.  We think if we get all the right biblical information, and pair that with some spiritual inspiration, we will be able to live the right way.  And when you look at Romans 12:1-2 it almost looks like that is what it’s saying.  “Learn the right information in your mind, and get the right inspiration live it out.” But we don’t just need information and inspiration; we need transformation! What Paul is actually saying in these two verses, is since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, act like Jesus.  In V. 1 he is saying, since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, live like Jesus lived, And in V. 2 he says, since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, love like Jesus loved.  So the key to the Christian life is not information about Jesus or inspiration from Jesus, but transformation into the image of Jesus. God has transformed us to look like Jesus, so that we’ll love like Jesus, so that we’ll live like Jesus.  That’s what we’re going to talk about today. 1. Live like Jesus Lived Look at verse 1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”  The word ‘therefore’ points back to the first 11 chapters in which Paul diligently laid out the mercies of God, aka, the gospel. The gospel is the power of God to transform us into the image of Jesus.  So Paul is saying, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, since God has transformed you into the image of Jesus through the power of the gospel, live like Jesus lived, because that reflects his glory.” In Romans 1 Paul demonstrates how we exchanged the glory of God for images resembling ourselves (Rom. 1:23).  Then in Romans 8 he explains how the gospel transforms us into the image of Jesus (Rom. 8:29).  Now, in chapter 12 he is saying, since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus (through the power of the gospel), live like Jesus lived. A hobby of mine is powerlifting.  Powerlifting is very simple: the goal is squat, bench press, and deadlift as much weight as you can in a single lift.  And in competitions you get three attempts at each lift.  Powerlifting competitions are kind of a funny thing, because for the most part everyone knows how much weight they can lift before they get there, so there’s usually not a lot of suspense during the competition regarding who is going to win. But every competition I’ve gone to, there is usually that one guy who is at his first competition, and he thinks that somehow, in the inspiration of the moment he is going to be able to lift more than he ever has in his life.  Even though he’s only ever bench pressed 200 pounds in the gym, he’s going to try 300 pounds on his first attempt today.  Or in the middle of the competition he got a valuable piece of information on how to tweak his deadlift form that he thinks is going to help him magically lift 50 more pounds.  And he’ll see other people who have been training for years lifting huge amounts of weight, and it will make him think that the magic of the competition will somehow enable him to as well.  The result is he will fail his first lift and get disqualified from the rest of the competition.  Just knowing information about how to do the lift, and getting some inspiration won’t help you to lift what other people lifts.  You’ve got to transform your body in order to do that.  There is a process of change that has to happen to your body; quite literally a physical transformation.   In the same way, just getting some information about Jesus and inspiration from Jesus won’t enable you to live how Jesus lived.  You need to be transformed into his image.  Verse 1 is saying, since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, live like Jesus lived.  “Because of the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”  Live like Jesus lived.  What did Jesus do? Jesus presented his body as a sacrifice for sin that was holy and acceptable to God, (why did he do that?) for the glory of God in the salvation of sinners.  So if the gospel has transformed you into the image of Christ, Paul is saying, therefore, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, and do it as an act of worship to God because you desire nothing more than for God to be glorified. Living like Jesus lived means giving every part of your life to God.  Paul says, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” When I was a kid I heard a pastor joke that sometimes the last part of someone to get saved was their back pocket.  Now that I’m older I know that for most Christians it seems like the last part of their body to get saved is their tongue.  James said it’s the most powerful part of the human body, and Jesus said that it shows what’s in your heart. Since we have been transformed into the image of Jesus, through the power of the gospel, we are to live as Jesus lived, and that means giving ourselves to God in every way for his glory.  2. Love Like Jesus Loved Look at verse 2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” This verse in some ways is an explanation of verse 1.  Verse 1 says present your bodies as a living sacrifice, and now verse 2 is telling you how to do that. If we’re not careful, we can take this verse to mean, “get the right information in your mind, so you will be inspired to live the right way, instead of living like the world.”  But that is a dangerous path. Here’s why: you can make a list of things that God says are good, and then memorize that list and get it in your mind, and then live that way so you’re not conforming to the world, and you will become an expert, top level, Pharisee.  You can train yourself to live differently than the world.  We can train our children to live differently than the world and even to do things that the Bible says to do, but that is hinging your entire existence on the information of what to do and then getting the inspiration to do it.  And if we focus on that, we will be missing the entire point of non-conformity to the world.  Look at the verse again, Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, (SO) that by testing you may discern the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The point of living like Jesus lived, is so that we will love what Jesus loved. What do I mean? The key here is the word translated ‘discern’ in my Bible.  This word contains two ideas in it: The first is the concept of testing, and the second is the idea of approving.  It’s the idea of testing with the expectation of approval, so the NIV actually translates the one Greek word with two English words as “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is.”  And the ESV which I’m using also uses two words, “that by testing you may discern the will of God.”  That means that if you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, and you live like Jesus lived, then you will be able to test and approve, or discern, God’s will.  And approving God’s will means loving God’s will.  Someone who has been transformed into the image of Jesus loves the will of God, because of the will of God glorifies God, and no one loves the glory of God more than Jesus, so if you look like Jesus you’ll love God’s glory as much as Jesus did.  Allow me to illustrate: Dredging for gold with Grandpa You can train someone to be able to identify gold without them having an appreciation for it’s value.  In the same way, you can train people to be able to identify God’s will without them actually loving God’s will.  Without them actually appreciating the true value of God’s will.  And Paul is saying here, be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you might LOVE the will of God! Since you have been transformed into the image of Jesus, love what Jesus loved, namely, the glory of God that comes about by the will of God.  So Gospel Living isn’t simply learning about how good little Christians are supposed to act.  Gospel Living is being transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to love what Jesus loved.  Consider this: What does it ultimately mean to be like Jesus?  Would it mean primarily to know all the information that Jesus knows?  Would it mean to be as inspirational as Jesus was?  It would mean this: to love the glory of God as much as Jesus does. So the point of God transforming us into the image of Jesus is so that we love the glory of God as much as Jesus does, and if you love the glory of God as much as Jesus does you will live for the glory of God as much as Jesus does, and if we live for the glory of God as much as Jesus does then we will fill the earth with the glory of God as God intended from the very beginning in Genesis 1! So the question is: have you been transformed into the image of Jesus?  Here’s how it happens.  2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image.”  Beholding the glory of Jesus, transformed you into the image Jesus.  Looking at the glory of Jesus makes you look like Jesus.  You become what you behold.  So friends, what do you spend most of your time beholding?  Yourself? What you see on a screen?  You become what you behold. So search for the glory of God in Scripture, in prayer, and in his people.  Through the power of the gospel God has transformed us into the image of Jesus so that we will look like Jesus, live like Jesus, and love like Jesus.  Gospel Living is living like Jesus, and that is what we’re going to spend the next 10 weeks talking about.  How to look, live, and love like Jesus. In the movie Beauty and the Beast there is prince, who due to his self-centeredness is placed under a curse.  And the curse falls not just upon him, but upon everyone in his household.  Because of the curse he no longer looks like a glorious prince, but is transformed into a hideous beast, which exacerbates his selfishness and cruelty.  Everyone in his household is transformed as well, their humanity is removed, and they are turned into objects.  Only true love can reverse the curse, and transform the members of the kingdom back into what they originally were, true humans.    At the end of the movie the Beast faces an epic battle with his ultimate enemy, Gaston.  Gaston tries to kill the Beast and in his final attempt he shoots him, but as he does he falls to his own death.  Surprisingly, the Beast also dies.  All of his household members become dead, inanimate objects.  It appears that the curse has won.  The only thing that can save them now is not information, or inspiration.  They are dead.  They are inanimate.  They need the curse to be broken, and they need transformation.  When it is seemingly too late, Belle tearfully professes her true love for the Beast.  And it is through her love, that the curse is undone, the castle and kingdom are repaired, the beast and his household and transformed into their true human forms once again and even all of the villagers have their memories of the kingdom transformed.  The Prince is now King, and he holds a great wedding banquet in his kingdom to celebrate the removal of the curse, and the love that broke it.  The true love of Jesus is shown in the cross of Christ, where he defeated the curse of sin and our ultimate enemy by dying on the cross in our place.  And the news of that event is the power of God to transform us from death to life.  To transform us into the image of Jesus, into the image of our true humanity that we were meant to be.  Because God has transformed us into the image of Jesus, we should live and love like him.  Additional Notes: the transformation of their life!  That’s what Paul plainly said at the very beginning of this letter in Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation.”  It transforms dead people into living people.  It transformers sinners into saints.  It transforms hearts of stones into hearts of flesh, and it transforms a valley of dry bones into a living, breathing army.  The point of the gospel and the point of preaching the gospel is transformation and it is quite literally in the middle of verse 2, “be transformed.”  So friends, gospel living isn’t about getting the right information on how to live a good little Christian life and then getting enough inspiration to actually live it out.  Gospel living is about being transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ!  And that’s what the next ten week journey together is going to be about, and we’re going to start right now.  Here is where the transforming nature of the gospel is so critical for us to understand: The gospel causes sinners who bear the image of sinful Adam, to be transformed into the image of Christ.  Paul said that just a couple chapters earlier in Romans 8:29 “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,” And that’s what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:49 “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”  So in Genesis 1 God made man in his image, **that is SO important.**  Sin shattered that image, and the result that Paul tells us in Romans 1:23 is this: people “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man.”  So instead of mankind reflecting the glory of God by bearing his image, mankind seeks to reflect the glory of ourselves.  But then, Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) came to us.  The word became flesh and we have seen his glory (John 1:14). And on the cross, Jesus ransomed the world from the curse of sin by sacrificially taking the curse on himself, and by rising from the dead he achieved the redemption of sinners.  And now, when the gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit transforms people who were dead in their sin, and makes them alive by restoring the image of God in them and making them look like Jesus.  So in v. 1 Paul is saying, looking like Jesus means acting like Jesus: https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/8-18-19Mark.mp3 Sun, 07 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:05 Doug Hon 2019 and Older The Meaning of Baptism Romans 6:3-4 Preached at Main Street Church on June 30th, 2019 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” One summer when I was ten years old I went to visit my grandparents in Vicksburg Mississippi.  It was hot and sticky, and there was no question that we were in the South.  I learned while I was there that Vicksburg was instrumental in the civil war.  All over the place were relics and monuments memorializing the battles that happened in those places.  The thing most etched upon my mind were the reenactments.  A few times a day men dressed in authentic wool confederacy and union military garb would act out some of the battles, firing off blanks from their rifles, and my favorite was the loud explosions that you could feel deep in your chest when they would set off gunpowder in real civil war era canons. The sight of bayonets and men pretending to be wounded, the sound of the canon blasts, the smell of the spent gunpowder, the feel of the Southern heat, and the taste of genuine Mississippi sweet tea all left a lasting impression of my mind of the reality and significance of the civil war.  It wasn’t primarily reading the monument plaques, or hearing the tour guide speak that left its mark.  It was the reenactment. Baptism is like that.  It is a reenactment of our redemption.  It is a reenactment of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it represents our identification with him in it.  Baptism is a reenactment of redemption.  The reason we baptize people is because Jesus commanded us to in Matthew 28:18-19.  He said, “All authority and heaven and on earth has been given to me.  God therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Redemption can be summed up as “Going out, and coming in,” and baptism reenacts that.  It is not just deliverance out of sin, and out of death, and out of the curse.  It is also access into the presence of God, into the people of God, and into the power of God.  Baptism reenacts the going out and coming in of redemption.  Romans 6:3 says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” When someone goes down into the water, that represents their identification with the death and burial of Jesus Christ.  It represents the death of their sin nature, the death of their old desires, the death of their idolatry and separation from God.  And verse 4 says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” And when they come up out of the water that signifies their identification with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  It signifies their new life in God’s presence, new life with God’s people, and new life in God’s power. Today, Aly, Lauren, and Tami are publicly identifying themselves with Jesus, through the symbolism of their baptism.  One of my favorite parts of a wedding is the exchanging of the rings.  The couples look each other in the eye, vow to love each other, and then place a ring on the other’s finger.  The ring symbolizes their covenant love for each other.  Everyone knows that simply slipping a ring on your finger doesn’t make you married.  A couple can’t just buy rings for each other and say that they’re married.  The ring doesn’t make the marriage, it simply represents it.  In the same way, baptism doesn’t make someone a Christian.  Baptism doesn’t save anyone.  Baptism doesn’t redeem anyone.  Baptism is simply a reenactment of the redemption accomplished by Jesus.  Baptism reenacts the going out and coming in of redemption.  That means that baptism is only for people who have put their faith in Christ.  Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” So if you have put your faith in Christ, Scripture commands us to identify ourselves with him through the act of baptism. If you have never been baptized, here are some questions you must ask yourself: have you put your faith in Jesus Christ?  Do you believe that he died for your sins and that God raised him from the dead?  Do you put your trust in him as your Lord and Master?  Have you repented of your sins and continuing to repent today?  Is there evidence of the purifying work of the Holy Spirit in your life?  Do you experience answered prayer?  Do you find an increased love for the things of God and a hatred for the sin in your life?  Do you have love in your heart for God’s people?  Do you experience the conviction of the Holy Spirit?  If you answer yes to these questions, then you’re ready for baptism! If you answer no to any of these questions, then you’re not ready, and you need to be born again.  You need to seek God in his word and in prayer and put your life at his feet and throw yourself in surrender to his will.  You need to repent of of your sins in humility.  And you need to look to Jesus, who stands ready to save you.  And let me say something to you friend, just because you prayed a prayer one time, or nodded your head when someone asked if you believe in Jesus, that does not make you a Christian.  Making a decision doesn’t make you a Christian, it takes the power of God to remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  If you don’t know Christ, ask him to save you.  And friend, seek him until he does it! Baptism is an act for those who have been supernaturally saved by the power of God.  Baptism does not grant redemption, but it is a reenactment of the redemption that has already occurred in our lives—not because of our own doing—but through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Water Theme Throughout the Bible God shows us his pattern of redemption, and one element of it is deliverance through water.  First, God delivered Noah and his family through the judgment of the flood waters in the safety of the Ark. Then baby Moses, who was placed in the dangerous waters of the Nile River in a mini ark, was delivered from impending death, and brought into life in the King’s palace. Then there was the Exodus, the redemptive event that set the pattern.  God’s people were delivered safely through the Red Sea, while the enemies of God’s people were swept away. The Pattern of Redemption God’s rescue of his people in the book of Exodus set the pattern of redemption for us of going out and coming in.  God brought them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land He brought them out of a land of idolatry, and into true worship He brought them out of oppression, and into freedom As 1 Peter 2:9 says, God calls his people “out of darkness, into his marvelous light.” Baptism is a reenactment of redemption - It is the reenactment of going out and coming in.  In 1954 a girl was born in Korea shortly after the Korean war ended.  She was the offspring of an American soldier who had an affair with a young Korean woman.  He went back to the United states and she stayed in Korea and gave birth to this girl.  And from the very beginning of her life she looked different.  You see in that culture children of mixed races were shunned, they were ostracized, they were considered unlovable.  And this single mom tried her very best but after 7 difficult years she did something that we find unimaginable: she abandoned her girl to the streets.  She abandoned her daughter to the streets and this girl was ruthlessly tormented by the people on the streets.  She was called terrible names the ugliest word imaginable in that culture; “Tuki,” which literally means alien, or worse, it means devil.  After 2 years of living on the streets a nurse by the name of Iris Ericson found this girl living in a garbage dump, and placed her in an orphanage which really wasn’t much better.  Word got out that an American couple was coming to that orphanage to select a little boy from that orphanage to adopt and take back to the states.  So this abandoned girl helped along with all the others to clean up all the little boys, giving them baths and combing their hair, all the while wondering, who would get out of this darkness?  Who would be claimed?  The next day an American couple came to the oprhanage, and this is how the girl described it: “I saw this man, with these huge hands lift up every baby.  I saw tears running down his face and I knew that if they could they would have taken the entire lot home with them.  And then she said, “And then he saw me out of the corner of his eye.  You have to understand that I was 9 years old but I barely weighed thirty pounds.  I was this scrawny kid, I had worms in my body, so many worms that when they got really hungry they would crawl out of my mouth in search of something else to eat.  My hair was white with lice, I had boils all over me, I was full of scars, I was not a pretty sight.  But the man came over to me, and he began talking, rattling away in some other language that I didn’t know; it was English.  And I just looked at him.  And then he took his huge hand and he put it on my face.  That hand on my face it felt so good and on the inside I kept saying, “Oh keep that up! Don’t take your hand away!” But you see no one had ever shown me that kind of love, that kind of affection before.  I didn’t know how to respond so I yanked his hand off my face and I looked up at him and I spit on him.  Then I turned around and I ran way.”  What this unwanted, unlovable girl didn’t know is what that man had said to her in English, you see his exact words were, “I want this child.” This is the child for me.  Did she miss her opportunity? Did she blow her only chance?  Amazingly, the couple came back to the orphanage the next day and they found her, and he said “I want to adopt her.”  And adopt her they did.  They brought her out of Korea and into the United States.  They brought her out of the oprhanage, and into their family.  And they gave her a new name: Stephanie. She took on their name and was identified with them.  They set her free to live life.  No more living in garbage dumps lost to a destitute life of abuse and pain.  Instead, because of the love of a father, Stephanie could live in a new family. She had been redeemed—She had been brought out, and brought in. Baptism is a reenactment of our redemption.  It is a reenactment of being brought out of sin, out of death, and out of the curse, and being brought into God’s presence, into God’s people, and into God’s power.  It is the mark of a new identity.  It is identification with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Friends, what defines your identity today?  Are you still living in the slavery of Egypt? Do you feel stuck as an orphan with no hope?  God has parted the waters for you to cross into the blessing of his presence.  He has given everyone who calls on his name the right to become his children.  John 1 says, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” So ask yourself today: have you identified yourself with the Son of God in his death, burial, and resurrection, in such a way that you can call God your Father? https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/63019Casey-baptism.mp3 Sun, 30 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 24:01 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older What’s Our “Why?” Matthew 28:18-20 Preached at Main Street Church on June 23rd 2019 I want to talk about about why we as a church get involved with things like this.  Our mission statement is: MSC exists to experience and communicate the gospel in our communities and around the world.  Our involvement with our brothers and sisters in India is in keeping with that mission.  The mission that we have as a church is birthed out of God’s mission to fill the earth with his glory. I want to spend the rest of our time together briefly talking about how our mission as Main Street Church is part of God’s larger mission in the world. These are the last words Jesus spoke before after his resurrection from the dead, immediately before he ascended to heaven.  They are the center of attention for all kinds of evangelistic and world missions agencies, as they should be.  Matthew 28:18-20: “18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[b] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  *Prayer for Illumination* In this famous text Jesus tells us three things about fulfilling his mission: What, How, and Why. He tells us what we need to do in keeping with his mission, how we will accomplish is, and why we need to do it. The What is: “Make Disciples” “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” The How is: “God will be with us” “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” And the Why is: Because Jesus is King “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Today I want to talk about the why. What is Your “Why?” German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche once said, ‘He who has a why can endure any how.’ The popular podcast host Dave Ramsey has helped millions of people get out of debt through his books, classes, and call-in show.  Every hour on his podcast he interviews people who put in the hard work and discipline to get themselves out of the bone crushing debt that was controlling their lives, and he during these interviews he always asks them this question: what was your “why?”  Dave asks the people this question because through decades of helping people get out of debt he has discovered that the people who successfully do it always have a crystal clear answer to the question, “why.”  It might be the birth of their first child.  It might have been watching their parents struggle.  It might have been a day when a check bounced on a bill, or they didn’t get approved for that extra credit card.  I recall one couple who went all in on their debt, sold their truck, sold the family farm, sold the old tractor, stopped eating out, and lived on a tight budget so eliminate all their debt.  Dave couldn’t believe how drastic they had been in their efforts.  Then he asked them, “What was your ‘why’?”  The wife, trying to hold back tears, told him that when her sister passed away they had been fostering their nephew who was just a baby at the time, and when they tried to formally adopt him they were told they were ineligible because they were in too much debt.  If they wanted to adopt their nephew, they would have to get out of debt.  He was their “why.”  Once they had their “why”, the what and the how were easy.  The tractor, the truck, the family farm—giving those up was simple once they found their ‘why.’ So the question for us—for our church—is: what is our ‘why’?  Why do we want to experience and communicate the gospel in our community and around the world?  Why did so many of you spend all day up here (and all next week!) setting up all this VBS stuff?  Why are we making an effort to support ministry on the other side of the world?    Before Jesus ascended into heaven he gave us our ‘why.’  He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  …therefore, go make disciples.  Since all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus, our church’s mission is to experience and communicate the gospel in our communities and around the world.  Another way Jesus could have said it is: Since I am the King, go and establish my kingdom.  Or he could have said, “Since I have a right to rule over all things in heaven and on earth, go and lay claim to all of it.”  So our why, Main Street Church, is that Jesus is our King. We want to experience and communicate the gospel in our communities because Jesus is the King of our communities. We want to experience and communicate the gospel in India because Jesus is the King of India. We want to give generously from our hearts because Jesus is the king of our hearts.  We want to see the vulnerable and downtrodden receive love and justice, because in the kingdom of God, where Jesus is the King, he rules with love and justice.  Quoting from the OT in Luke 4:18 Jesus said “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” That’s the kind of King that Jesus is. Our ‘why’ is the fact that Jesus is our king.  Since all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, we make disciples. My favorite movie when I was a child was the Lion King.  It is Disney’s most popular movie ever, and according to Forbes it is the highest grossing entertainment property of all time.  I think the ultimate reason for it’s popularity is because it tells a story that resonates deep within our souls. The movie starts by painting a beautiful picture of life in the animal kingdom, where the Lion, Mufasa is the King over all of it.  Everything is as it should be in the kingdom, life is good.  Mufasa’s son, Simba, will one day inherit the kingdom from his father and continue the glorious reign of his father.  But through a series of lies and malicious actions, Mufasa’s evil brother, Scar, kills Mufasa, and he thought he had killed Simba also.  The once glorious kingdom is turned upside down.  All the animals are in bondage under the wicked reign of scar.  He has set himself up as a false king, and he is a wicked ruler.  There is disease, famine, and darkness.  The only hope for the kingdom is if the true king, the son of the almighty Father, returns to his kingdom and establishes his reign once again.  So in the movie, the Lion king, who everyone thought was dead, returns, and word spreads that the king is alive!   Simba returns to his kingdom that is in shambles, defeats the ruler of darkness, and restores order in the kingdom so that there is life and light once again.  The kingdom once again returns to paradise, all because the rightful king has claimed his place on the throne.  When the true king reigns, he sets everything right.  Our king has come and he has defeated the power of sin and death.  He has been given authority over all things by his father.  And as a result he commands us, his church, to continue his mission in the world of making his reign known.  His kingdom is a kingdom of love, righteousness, and justice for all the nations.  Revelation 5:9-10 says, “9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll     and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God     from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10  and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,     and they shall reign on the earth.” The reason we are involved in India, the reason we are involved here in St. Charles, is because Jesus is the King, and he has established his reign in our lives and when he returns will completely establish it over all things.  He himself said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Our why, Main Street Church, is that Jesus is our King.  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/62319Casey.mp3 Sun, 23 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 20:42 Doug Hon 2019 and Older God’s Word to Fathers Ephesians 6:4 It is Father’s Day, and as such we will turn to the most explicit instruction given to fathers in the whole New Testament.  Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Writer Weldon Hardenbrook and a friend were traveling down a windy mountain road… That instance is an apt illustration of much of our society today.  Many children are lying in desperate need of help, while mostly women struggle on their own to help them.  And a number of men are either not present, or they are too scared to do anything.  In his book “Discipines of a Godly Man” Kent Hughes said, “We live in a time of great social crisis.  Whole segments of our society are bereft of male leadership.  At the other end of the scale, there are strong men who give their best leadership to the marketplace, but utterly fail at home.  We are the men! And if God’s purpose does not happen with the sons of the Church, it will not happen.” Pg. 47 So what I want to do today is inspire the men of Main Street Church to be the difference makers in our families and in our church.  If we do that, we will be the difference makers of the world.  While this message is for fathers, that doesn’t mean it is just for men who have physically had children.  “All men are called to be spiritual fathers, even single males and childless husbands.  Men who are not biological fathers are still called on to devote time, effort, and energy to the guidance and care of the young people around them, comforting and counseling and instructing those who have no dads.  There is a desperate need for the single men and childless husbands of our nation to imitate God, the Father of us all, who is described as a ‘father to the fatherless’ (Psalm 68:5).” Where’s Dad? Pg. 386. Perhaps you’re here this morning and you didn’t have a good father.  Or maybe he wasn’t there at all.  All the more reason for fathers in the church to take on the mantle of responsibility and rise to the occasion.  John Wesley said, “Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon the earth.” Ephesians 6:4 can really be divided into two parts: a ‘do not’ and a ‘do.’ “Fathers, ‘do not’ provoke your children to anger, but ‘do’ bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”  I like the way Kent Hughes divides this up In his book “Disciplines of a Godly Man” and I will share some of that with you today and commend that book to you. There are many ways fathers can provoke their children.  We can provoke our children by being overstrict, or by being inconsistent with discipline.  We can do it by showing favoritism, or simply by making them think that they aren’t good enough.  Colossians 3:21 repeats the same command here with one slight difference.  It says, “Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”  We must not discourage our children or exasperate them in the way we raise them.  But today I want to focus on the ‘do’s’ of the verse.   “Fathers, ‘do not’ provoke your children to anger, but ‘do’ bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” There are three things in the second half of this verse that fathers are to do.  Fathers are to raise their children with Tenderness, Discipline, and Instruction.  Tenderness.  The words “bring them up” mean “to nourish or feed,” as in 5:29 which has the same Greek words describing how a man “feeds and cares” for his own body. Calvin translates “bring them up” as “let them be kindly cherished,” and goes on to emphasize that the overall idea is to speak to one’s children with gentleness and friendliness. Jesus made a whip of cords that he used to chase extortioners out of the Temple, and he poured their money on the ground and flipped over tables.  He called out the injustice of evil men.  But he also held little children in his hands and blessed them.  He touched the lepers of that day who no one else would touch.  He spoke gently to the downcast and abused.  Kent Hughes said, “There is nothing manlier than when men are tender with children. Whether it is holding a baby in their arms, comforting their children, or hugging their teenagers and adult children.” (Pg. 48) Men are to be tender.  I encourage you men, when you encounter little children, crouch down or get down on your knees in order to get down on their level.  You’re big and scary to them.  Use a soft tender voice.  Be like the sheepdog that keeps the wolves at bay but gently shepherd the little lambs.  Men are the ones responsible for keeping evil at bay, whether it be physical danger, or the more subversive spiritual danger.  But that starts with being tender to our children.  According to God it is men who are to “bring them up.”  So men of Main Street Church, let’s commit to “bringing up” our children with tenderness.  Of course that means fathers with their own physical children, but also you men in the church who are single or are married without children. We have a great example of this in our church with Jeff Breneman.  He has been one of our elders, and he has served God with his wife faithfully for years.  He is heading up a project with our brothers and sisters in India to provide for, protect, and teach over 50 little children in India.  That’s a picture of masculinity.  That’s a picture of manliness.  That’s an example of what fathers do.  2. Discipline Next, the verse says fathers are to bring them up in “discipline.” This is a strong word which means “discipline, even by punishment.” Pilate used the same word when he said of Jesus, “I will punish him and then release him” (Luke 23:16). Discipline certainly includes corporal discipline as needed. But it encompasses everything necessary to help “Train a child in the way he should go” (Proverbs 22:6). The tragedy is that so many men have left this to their children’s mothers. Not only is this unfair to the mother, but it robs the child of the security and self-esteem which come from being disciplined by the father.3 Men, do you leave the discipline of your sons and daughters to your wives? If so, that is a sad breach of domestic responsibility. You are not living under God’s Word!  Mom can help, but it is dad’s responsibility.  1 Samuel 3 tells us about Eli, who was a high priest in Israel.  Eli wasn’t a bad man.  He wasn’t full of malice or envy, but Eli failed to discipline his sons under the Lord. Both of Eli’s sons worked in the temple but they were wicked.  When people would bring sacrifices to make to the Lord Eli’s sons would take the best of the sacrifices for themselves, stealing from the Lord.  In addition to this they would sleep with the women who worked in the temple.  They were desecrating God’s holy place.  The result was this word from the Lord: “I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.  And I declare to him that I am about to punish (discipline) his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.”  God punished Eli’s sons by putting them to death, but he held Eli responsible.  I want to take a moment to point something out to both moms and dads here.  Look at the very first verses of Ephesians 6 before we even get to verse 4.  It says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” And then it says, “Father’s do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” This means it is the parent’s responsibility (primarily the Father’s) to require obedience of their children.  If you do not require obedience of your children, then you are letting your children disobey God, and you are responsible for their disobedience. The reason I spank my son is not because I want to control him, and it is not because I want him to do whatever I say.  I don’t like doing it.  It pains me.  But I do it because I love my son too much to let him disobey God.  Proverbs 13:24 says “Whoever spares the rod (of discipline) hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”  Parents, love your children enough to discipline them with control and consistency.  Never discipline when you’re angry.  You always make sure your child knows why they are being spanked, and you always make sure they know you love them.  That is the tenderness.  Fathers, we are responsible to discipline our children and require obedience of them. We must keep them within the circle of blessing and long life by disciplining them if they ever move outside of it by disobeying.  Proverbs 22:15 says, “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.”  3. Instruction Last, there is “instruction”—verbal instruction, verbal warning. The word “instruction” literally means “to place before the mind.” Often this means to confront and is related to the previous topic, discipline. The Greek word for “restrain” in the OT has the same root as “instruction” in Ephesians 6:4. Eli failed to confront his boys. He failed to instruct them about their sin. And because of this, they were destroyed. Kent Hughes said, On discipline/strictness: “Rearing children is like holding a wet bar of soap—too firm a grasp and it shoots from your hand, too loose a grip and it slides away.  A gentle but firm hold keeps you in control.” Pg. 48 Clear instruction, coupled with tenderness and discipline is necessary for bringing up our children.  This means that fathers are responsible for the instruction of their children.  Again, mom can help, but dad is responsible.  One scholar said: “Over the course of 150 years, from the mid-eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth century, American men walked out on their God-given responsibility for moral and spiritual leadership in the homes, schools, and Sunday schools of the nation.” (Pg. 379 Where’s Dad?)  What did he mean? When the industrial revolution began, fathers no longer worked at home but left the home to go work at a separate location. Shortly after that came the advent of the public school system that outsourced the education from the home into the classroom, with the majority of the teachers being women. Churches started modeling their Sunday schools after the public school, and again, most the teachers were women.  The result according to one historian was this: “For the first time in the history of humankind the overwhelming majority of little boys and little girls continued under the direct domination and supervision of ladies until they reached maturity.  This has never happened before in history.  Crusades, wars, migrations, pestilence—nothing for a people as a whole ever before took so large a percentage of young adult and older adult males out of the family context for so much of the waking time of the children.  Most of us have not even noticed this change, nor do we have any idea of its radicality.” (Quoted in Kevin Perrotta, “Why Bother About Modernization?” Pastoral Renewal, vol. 4, no. 11 (May 1980), p 90c-d.) What is he saying?  He’s saying that most children nowadays spend almost no time with a male role model or influence in their life.  In the morning before school they’re with mom.  At preschool they’re with women.  At school they’re with mostly women.  And at church most of the children’s teachers are also women.  Now friends, I don’t need to spend time convincing you of the significance of women in our lives, but what I am hoping to point out is that God has called men to an indispensable role in the lives of children, and we need to be intentional in the role we play in the instruction of our children. A couple weeks ago we had family over to our house and we were spending some time together in the backyard.  A while back I had bought a foam baseball bat for my son.  So while we were out there my dad and brother-in-law and I were teaching my son how to swing the bat and hit the ball.  My dad was tossing the ball.  My brother in law was behind my son catching it if he missed.  And I was adjusting his grip and moving his arms and getting him in the right position.  All of us were helping instruct him how to do it.  As we were doing it I thought to myself how intentional we all were being in teaching my son this basic element of sports.  We were taking specific time with this specific activity and showing him through demonstration and verbal instruction how to do this simple, but difficult thing.  Now if I want my son to be a great baseball player, could I just turn on some Cardinals games and have him watch and hope he gets the gist of it?  Or maybe I could just occasionally give him some random baseball stats?  Maybe just tell him some of the rules of the game. Or maybe I could even take him to Busch stadium every season where he could watch a game in person.  Would that turn him into a great baseball player?  Of course not.  He needs hands on time with dad, coaching, practice, correction, and instruction.  Dads, if we know this to be true, then we can’t expect that just taking our kids to church on Sundays and parroting some biblical principles will be sufficient in making them great disciples of Christ.  They needs hands on time with dad, coaching, practice, correction, and instruction.  As one pastor said, “If I teach my son to keep his eye on the ball, but fail to teach him to keep his eyes on Christ, then I have failed as a father.” What does that looks like? Most fundamentally it means being involved in verbally instructing our children.  We are to teach them what is right and what is wrong.  We have to tell them what God’s word says. Thank you, and Call for men of MSC to teach children’s classes Secondly, it means regularly leading your family devotions and prayer Monitoring and being responsible along with our wives for the input that enters their impressionable minds. Taking responsibility to help assure that church is a meaningful experience. Above all, we must make sure that the open book of our lives—our example—demonstrates the reality of our instruction, for in watching us they will learn the most. Dad, you have profound influence.  Voddie Baucham, What He Must Be: …If He Wants to Marry My Daughter (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009), 22.  Statistics: Fatherless American children are nearly four times more likely to live in poverty than those raised by two parents, and are far more likely to drop out of school, experience emotional and behavioral problems, and commit suicide. You are the answer.  You are the solution.  That is, if you be the man God calls you to be.  Being a Dad means being like Jesus:  A father can be measured based on how much he looks like Jesus “As Adam was the father of a fallen race, so Jesus Christ is the Father of a new race.  In fact, Isaiah’s accurate prophecy concerning Jesus shows that one of the titles to be given to the Son of God would be (Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,) “Everlasting Father” (Isaiah 9:6).  John 14:9 “He who has seen me has seen the Father” Pg. 386 Men of Main Street Church.  Let’s rise to the occasion that God is calling us to.  In time where people are confused about gender and masculinity, let’s reflect the manliness of Jesus Christ.  God commands us in 1 Corinthians 16:13 “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.  Let all that you do be done in love.”  Let’s be those men and those fathers.  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/6162019Casey.mp3 Sun, 16 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 37:04 Michael Goheen Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/6-9-13.mp3 Sun, 09 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 26:45 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug6219.mp3 Sun, 02 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 39:12 Jim Schutz 2019 and Older Gospel Foundations: The True Story of the Church Preached at Main Street Church on May 26, 2019 A Tame Story If a wild bear’s instinct is to hunt and forage for food, then why don’t bears in a wildlife sanctuary break through the fence to do that?  The answer is that tame bears in a wildlife sanctuary have been raised with a different story than bears in the wild.  A bear in a wildlife sanctuary lives out a different narrative than a bear in the wild.  A tame bear is taught a story that says everything will be furnished without fear of scarcity, life will be marked by safety and security, there will be no struggle or competition to breed, eat, or find shelter.  Everything will be provided as long as they follow the rules of captivity.  Theirs is to live out what it means to be tame.  This story is not sought after, it is simply given; it is a consequence of existing in that time and place.  Animals in captivity are an apt example of living out a received story.  There is no bear overlord who sits all the cubs down and informs them how their life will go.  They learn their story simply by living it.  It isn’t taught, it’s caught.  It is passively received by them through their context.  A tame story results in a tame life.  In a similar manner, many in the American church have been content to accept not only a tame cultural story, but the tame life it produces.  Rather than question the status quo, numerous Christians have complacently become characters in a rival narrative. Our Culture Tells Us A Story Robert Webber said, “…the most pressing spiritual issue of our time” is the question “who gets to narrate the world?”  The question for Christians is: Which story shapes your life? The cultural story, or the biblical story?  Everyone lives out a story.  Our recognition of this fact is found in common conversation.  People regularly ask, “What’s your story?” And they implicitly mean, “What events have occurred in your life and how have they shaped you?”  Personal stories such as this are shaped by even larger cultural narratives.  Every culture has a narrative that informs people where they came from, where they are headed, and everything in between.  We receive these stories through media, institutions, and societal structures.  Newbigin says, “The way we understand human life depends on what conception we have of the human story.  What is the real story of which my life story is a part?”  Our greatest difficulty is we are usually not conscious of the cultural story’s influence on our lives. The stories of our culture tell us how life is—or at least how it ought to be.  This is what makes them so powerful.  Cultural stories shape what we think life ought to look like and how we should live.  A recent cry has gone out against classic Disney movies that always present the primary female character in the movie as a powerless damsel in distress simply awaiting a capable male to come and rescue her.  The argument against these kinds of stories is that they present a narrative to little girls that they are helpless to improve their situation or overcome challenges, and they must look to men to solve all their problems.  Whether you agree or not, they accurately understand the power of story. More and more secular media in print and on screens tell stories of life that are contrary to Scripture.  Casual sexual relationships outside of marriage have long been normalized through various entertainment mediums, and now added to that are representations of families with two fathers or two mothers, and the unnatural procreative processes which they must undergo to have children.  The more these kinds of stories are put before us, the more normal they seem, and the more normal they seem, the less we question them.  It’s just ‘the way things are.’  Cultural stories possess the most power not when they merely paint a picture of the way things are, but when they present a portrait of how things might be, or how things ought to be.  These are the stories that shape a societies morals, priorities, and entire way of life.  The ‘American Dream’ is one example of a cultural story that tells us how life ought to look.  We know how the story goes and we want to play our role in it.  We are supposed to work ferociously in the American marketplace in order to have a big house, a nice car, and expensive clothes.  The ultimate goal of all this is to retire early and enjoy a life of leisure and freedom from obligation. Speaking of this American consumerist mentality Susan White has said, “Most of us have made this so thoroughly ‘our story’ that we are hardly aware of its influence.” The Biblical Story vs. Biblical Principles As demonstrated last week, one reason many Christians live out a tame story is because they are ignorant of their true purpose. Lesslie Newbigin said, “If I do not know the purpose for which human life was designed, I have no basis for saying that any kind of human lifestyle is good or bad.”  The fact remains, however, that simply knowing our purpose does not inoculate us from our cultural story.  The only antidote to our cultural story is an alternative one.  We need a story that prescribes and informs a different way of life.  The story of Scripture—taken as a whole—gives us that alternative.  The important thing, however, is that we take Scripture as a whole story with one unified direction and conclusion, and not as fragments of theological truth.  Breaking the Bible up into “biblical principles” or “salvation formulas” is not just sub-optimal, it is dangerous.  Goheen decisively illustrates this danger in his book, The Drama of Scripture: If we allow the Bible to become fragmented, it is in danger of being absorbed into whatever other story is shaping our culture, and it will thus cease to shape our lives as it should.  Idolatry has twisted the dominant cultural story of the secular Western world.  If as believers we allow this story (rather than the Bible) to become the foundation of our thought and action, then our lives will manifest not the truths of Scripture, but the lies of an idolatrous culture.  Hence, the unity of Scripture is no minor matter: a fragmented Bible may actually produce theologically orthodox, morally upright, warmly pious idol worshippers! This is a powerful warning against the hazard of failing to see the Bible as one cohesive story.  A large part of the taming of the North American church has been its reception of a fragmented Bible.  A fragmented Bible does not narrate all of life for us, it merely interjects bits of moral advice into an otherwise tame story.  It is like teaching a tame bear to roar wildly, even though he does not live in the wild.  Bits and pieces of the bear’s wildness remain—you can’t domesticate a bear, you can simply tame it—but the bear’s wildness fits nicely within the confines and rhythms of the wildlife sanctuary.  The reason this is so perilous is because we are experts at synthesizing detached biblical values with our cultural narrative. A fragmented Bible synthesized with culture is what taught American slave owners to “love their neighbors” but somehow had nothing to say about treating their fellow man like property for financial gain.  It teaches the modern businessman that he can relentlessly pursue greater wealth as long as he goes to church and tithes.  It teaches the unbeliever that salvation is a simple prayer to get a ticket to heaven.  It turned the Pharisees into legalists who thought healing on the Sabbath was sinful.  This fragmented Bible makes many American Christians believe they have more in common with unbelievers who share their political ideology than they do with believers who adhere to a different political persuasion.  A disjointed approach to the biblical story fractures the Bible into devastating shrapnel.  Biblical principles alone will not shape our lives, only the biblical story can do that. Scripture Tells the True Story As N. T. Wright has said, the narrative found in Scripture is the true story of the whole world.  Our culture gives us false stories of reality, but the Bible presents not just the truth about how things actually are, but the true story of how things ought to be. God is not just the author of Scripture, but of reality.  He is the only one qualified to narrate cosmic history.  He gives every event its meaning, not us. The world offers a plethora of rival narratives that seek to tame us and keep us in captivity to our culture, but we must not become co-authors of them.  We must learn God’s story so we can enter into it and embody it, that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we might “do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Our Story Begins with Redemption There is a sense in which our story does not begin in Genesis, but in Exodus.  It is not wrong to use Genesis as a jumping off point for understanding reality—indeed, it is the ideal place for such a thing.  But the story of God’s redeemed people commences, not with their coming into existence, but with their redemption from Egypt. It is not until after God liberates his people from Egyptian slavery that he supplies them with the Genesis account. This was no accident.  As Mike Williams said, “God first saves his people, and then he gives them his word.” The reason for this is, “Outside of God’s gracious redemption, we will not read aright his revelation in his creation.”  Until God saves someone they will not know Him or see Him as the author of their existence.  The story of God’s people begins with salvation and is succeeded by explanation.  The story of God’s people begins in Exodus because it begins with redemption. Redemption: Coming Out and Going In It is crucial that we see ourselves as redeemed before anything else because our redemption shapes our identity.  1 Peter 2:10 says, “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”  This verse sounds like it could be applied to Moses and the Hebrews even though it was written to first century believers.  The point is that God distinguishes His people by redeeming them, and the Exodus is the archetype of God’s saving activity.  Williams says, “The exodus was not the first act of divine redemption in Scripture, but it was the event that set the pattern.”  God’s pattern of redemption, very simply put, is this: coming out and going in.  God brings his people out of oppression into liberty.  He rescues them out of bondage and brings them into blessing.  He takes them out of a land of idolatry, and ushers them into true worship.  God calls his people, “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). Redeemed for the Purpose of Worship God’s point in rescuing His people from Egypt was not merely to free them from political oppression and a difficult life.  He did it so they could worship Him.  This is clearly seen in the fact that each time God sent Moses before Pharaoh he was commanded to say the same thing, “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Ex. 7:16, 8:1, 8:20, 9:1; 9:13, 10:3, 10:7).  These purpose statements are interspersed with the alternative, “that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God” (Ex. 3:18, 5:3, 10:25).  The point comes across resoundingly.  There is no question as to why God is redeeming his people; he is redeeming them to worship Him.  The purpose of their redemption, as ours, was that they might rejoice in the glory of God displayed in His powerful acts of salvation.  1 Peter 2:9 tells us God redeemed us, “that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  God’s goal in the Exodus was the same: for his people to rejoice in His glory—His worth.  In Exodus 9:14 God says He redeemed Israel with the plagues, “so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth.”  There is none like the Lord.  No one can compare to Him in his otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness.  He is to be treasured above every trinket, prized over every person, and worshiped exclusively over every false god.  Our Story of Redemption Defines Our Identity Israel’s story gave them their identity and was intended to shape the way they lived.  God was constantly reminding them of this.  Whenever God instated a festival for his people the purpose of it was to rehearse their story.  God always commanded them to remember what he had done for them. “And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt.  Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever” (Ex. 12:17).  Also, any time God gave his people laws he reminded them of their story of redemption, as with the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”  Israel’s story of redemption was the defining factor of their existence as a people, and it was the story intended to characterize everything about their life.  This is illustrated concisely in Leviticus 11:45, “‘For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.’”  God’s logic demonstrated here is plain: “Since I redeemed you, you must be holy.”  God is saying, “Your story is different from all the other nations, so your lives must be different from all the other nations.” Everything about Israel was defined by their story of redemption.  God had brought them out in order to bring them in.  Their festivals, their customs, their laws—in effect, their entire culture—was to be formed by and in harmony with the story God gave them.  In the same way, we the church are God’s people who have a different story from the world around us, and our lives are to be different as a result.  We are not meant to live tame lives in confinement to cultural captivity, but to live in a way consistent with how God designed us.  God has brought us out of darkness, into his marvelous light in order to worship Him; to magnify His worth; to rejoice in His glory.  Ours is not a story of self-sufficiency or self-actualization in the free market through autonomy and individualism.  Ours is a story of redemption by the supernatural power of the living God.  Redemption Takes Us Back to God’s Original Intent The word ‘redeem’ means to ‘buy back.’  The fact that God has redeemed us implies that we are going back to something that once was.  It implies a return to an original state.  When God redeems us He brings us back to His original design for humanity.  Redemption is God’s making us what we are meant to be.  It is His restoring us to fulfill His original mandate not just for humanity, but for all of creation. The Creation Mandate God’s original commission to our first human parents, Adam and Eve, was, summarily, to fill the earth with His glory.  Genesis 1:26-28 (a passage tragically neglected in many churches) says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.  And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” Here God announces that the human race is designed to bear God’s image in the world by exhibiting His dominion over creation.  Bearing God’s image means bearing His otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness.  Bearing God’s image means bearing His holiness, and as a result, displaying His glory.  The next two verses follow, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”  Here we have God’s first commission to the human race.  This is known as ‘The Creation Mandate.’  This mandate was twofold: 1) increase in number (so as to fill the earth) 2) rule over creation.  Mankind ruling over creation is reflective of God ruling over all things.  Mankind increasing in number reflects God’s ability to intentionally create life and multiplies the number of people who reflect his image in the world.  God revealed the Creation Mandate to his redeemed people (through Moses penning the book of Genesis after being delivered from Egyptian tyranny) to show them what his original intention for humanity was.  This mandate has not been annulled or weakened by sin; it was God’s purpose then and it is God’s purpose now.  With respect to this renowned Old Testament scholar C. John Collins says, There is no indication at all that God ever revoked the mandate to fill the earth and subdue it; in fact, God expects man to continue to do just that (as in Gen. 11:1-9, the judgment on Babel).  Further, as Paul argued, God ‘made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, … that they should seek God, in hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him’ (Acts 17:26-27). Adam and Eve were commanded to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”  The point of their multiplication was to fill the earth with more people who bear God’s image.  More people bearing God’s image means more people displaying the glory of God in their dominion over creation.  More people displaying the glory of God by exhibiting His holiness through their obedience means the earth will be filled with the glory of God. As Collins affirms, “Each human being fully expresses his humanity when his life is in tune with the creation ordinances.”  God’s redemption of a people is not intended to remove them from their humanity, but to restore them to it.  God’s redemption restores us to participate in the creation mandate: to fill the earth with the glory of God.  The church is the redeemed humanity that God is using to fulfill His purpose in the world. Sin Disrupted God’s Original Purpose Sin disrupted God’s purpose to fill the earth with His glory.  This disruption was not just the breaking of human relationship with God, but it was the pervasive curse of sin permeating every facet of humanity.  All that God originally declared as good was tarnished.  The creation of mankind in God’s image, which God had called very good (Gen. 1:31), was equally corrupted.  God’s image in His human creatures had been smeared, blurred, dimmed, and broken.  Mankind and all of creation would no longer reflect God’s glory throughout the earth as they ought, because humanity had “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man” (Rom. 1:23).  Rather than reflect God’s image and God’s glory in all the earth, they would seek to reflect their own, “because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25).  Due to the deadly rebellion of Adam and Eve, all of humanity would fall short of God’s ultimate purpose to fill the earth with his glory. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). An Important Point: We must affirm that God could have elected to fill the earth with His glory without people.  Nature displays the glory of God, so God could have retained a universe devoid of humanity that still showed His glory.  We must remember that creation did not sin and fall short of the glory of God, mankind did—creation is merely a victim of the curse.  But God seeks a glory not just from nature’s reflection of His character, but from human worship. This means the kind of glory with which redeemed humanity can honor God is altogether different from the glory of God displayed in creation.  Nature cannot worship God, but redeemed humanity can.  The reason for this is the worship of people who have been redeemed by God shows a different aspect of God’s glory.  For redeemed humanity, worship means showing the full range of God’s glory, including His mercy, love, and grace as revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Ephesians 2:7 says God redeemed us through Christ’s work on the cross, “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”  God saved us to show his glory in the work of Christ.  Neither nature nor angels can know this glory; only those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 14:3).  Nature is not familiar with the glory of being showered with infinite mercy.  Angels do not know what it feels like to be redeemed by the blood of Christ.  Only those made in God’s image, bound by the curse of sin, and then liberated by divine power know that kind of glory, and we display it through worship.  Because of God’s infinite grace manifest on the cross, He has revealed this glory to us so that we have the privilege of worship and are included in His cosmic plan to fill the earth with His glory. God Never Wavered Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God’s goodness made it seem as though God’s plan to fill the earth with His glory could never be achieved.  How could God fill the earth with His glory if those made in His image were enslaved to sin?  How could He accomplish His mission if every aspect of His glorious creation were “subjected to futility” and in “bondage to corruption” (Romans 8:20) because of the curse of sin?  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the answer to this question, and we find the first trace of it in Genesis 3:15. To the Deceiver in the Garden God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  In the very moment that God pronounces the curse to befall creation because of sin, he announces the triumph over sin that He Himself will bring.  Not only does God communicate that Adam and Eve would live to see another day in spite of their sin, but He declares that they would produce more human life through their offspring, and one day, one of those offspring would trample on the head of the Deceiver.  One would come who would stand victorious over sin and its consequences. In the same breath that God pronounces a curse, He promises a blessing.  And in like paradoxical manner, the promised offspring would reverse the curse by becoming a curse himself; “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  There is double bruising, but a singular fatality.  One wound is lethal, the other is negligible.  One bruise results in eternal destruction, the other results in just a few scars.  The offspring who would descend from Eve to accomplish this was Jesus of Nazareth.  God “made (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (1 Corinthians 5:21).  Though all creation would suffer under the curse of sin, the worst curse of all would befall Jesus Christ on the cross as God’s wrath against sin thundered in full force against him.  Yet after dying for our sins, he would emerge with only a few scars, while leaving sin and its consequences completely vanquished.  The Lamb who was slain has slain death.  At Calvary the world witnessed the death of death in the death of Christ.  His heel was bruised as he crushed sin, but sin and its consequences were decisively defeated. The salient point is even in Genesis 3 God did not give up on His plan for His creation.  Even when Adam and Eve sinned, God declared that they would still bear offspring in keeping with his initial commission to the human race: “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.”  Even in conveying what the curse of sin would be, God disclosed that His purpose for the world would prevail. Original Sin, The Flood, and The Tower of Babel Even when mankind’s wickedness became so great on the earth that God “regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart” (Gen. 6:6), he did not turn from his plan, but sent a flood to cleanse the earth of man’s evil.  Instead, God made a promise to Noah that he would preserve him and his family in order to fulfill his ultimate purpose of one day filling the earth with his glory (Gen. 6:18).  While Noah had a fresh start on the earth after it had been cleansed of mankind’s evil, there remained the stain of sin in his own heart.  He planted a vineyard—evocative of the garden—and he sinned by getting drunk.  While the fruit of the tree was the object of Adam and Eve’s rebellion, the fruit of the vine led to Noah’s.  And like Adam and Eve’s nakedness was their shame, Noah’s nakedness and shame were discovered by his sons.  God’s plan to fill the earth with his glory looked bleak, but he would bring it to pass. Even when mankind banded together around the Tower of Babel to glorify themselves rather than God and contradict the Creation Mandate, God would have his way.  At that time they said “‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth’” (Gen. 11:4).  But God would cause his image bearers to “fill the earth and subdue it,” as He originally intended.  So God came down to see their tower, and “the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city…And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth” (Gen. 11:8-9). Though sin made it appear as though God’s mission to fill the earth with his glory would never be achieved, His holiness would be displayed, and he would do it through the creatures He made in his image.  No human limitation, weakness, or sin would shake God from his unswerving purpose.  Not even the most unlikely candidate for fulfilling God’s plan: Abraham. Abraham The very first time we learn of Abraham (at this point, Abram) is in Genesis 12, and God makes it very clear from the outset that his goal is to use Abram to fulfill his original plan for humanity.  He says to Abram, “I will make you a great nation…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:2-3).  Later God says to him, “I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore…and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:17-18).  Not only does this promise bring to mind God’s first commission to Adam and Eve, but it is reminiscent of His declaration in Genesis 3:15 that Eve’s offspring would vanquish the Deceiver of humanity.  Next to Jesus, Abraham is the most important person in the biblical story.  I think many people wonder why God’s promise that Abraham’s offspring would be as numerous as the stars of heaven or “the sand that is on the seashore” would be desirable.  Why would Abraham care about that?  The fact is that God didn’t promise Abraham offspring because he thought Abraham would really appreciate it—he did it in keeping with His own original purpose for the human race to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.”  Abraham was simply the one God chose to fulfill His purpose.  The newly liberated Israelites receiving this revelation through the writings of Moses would have understood themselves to be the very descendants God had promised.  They would have seen where they were supposed to fit in the bigger story of what God was doing in the world. God’s promise to Abraham was proof to the whole world—particularly God’s redeemed people—that God would bring His purpose to pass, and nothing would stop Him, not even Abram and Sarai’s inability to have children. Isaac Despite Abraham’s old age (Romans 4:19 says he “was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old))” and Sarai’s barrenness, God blessed them with a son: Isaac.  Isaac was the son God had promised to give Abraham, and it was Isaac through whom God’s promise of blessing would continue.  Genesis 21:12 says, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named” with the grammatical emphasis being on the words “through Isaac.”  Isaac was the son of promise, and through him God would remain faithful to his covenant with Abraham. Jacob For many modern day Christians who grew up learning Bible stories in Sunday school (or not), the connection of these Old Testament saints to Jesus is anything but clear.  For this reason these Old Testament stories are often turned into the equivalent of moralistic fables used to teach a ‘lesson’ such as why we ought to be patient (unlike Esau who couldn’t wait for the stew) or why we shouldn’t be deceptive (like Jacob who tricked his Father).  However, the divine purpose and placement of these accounts in the biblical narrative is not to teach us how we ought to be, but to teach us who God is.  The goal of these stories is not to show us how we should act, but to show us how God acts.  There is a world of difference in how we read them.  The key is God’s faithfulness to his plan in spite of their sinfulness.  Joseph God placed Joseph in his unique circumstance to preserve his people, the one’s with whom he had made a covenant.  Eventually, Joseph’s family would move to Egypt and multiply in number, reminiscent of God’s original promise to Abraham and his commission to Adam and Eve in the garden.  All seemed to be going well, but the story was far from over. Moses: God’s Instrument of Redemption The number of Abraham’s descendants grew enormously in Egypt.  Exodus 1:7 says, “But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.”  The usage of the same words from God’s Creation Mandate and his covenant with Abraham is no coincidence.  God wants us to see that he remains faithful to his promise and faithful to his plan.  He makes it happen. God’s ‘People’ for the First Time It is imperative to notice that up to this point in the biblical narrative none of the characters are yet described as God’s ‘people.’  They are simply people with whom God interacts.  And they certainly are not considered a ‘nation.’  In Exodus 1:7 we see the first instance of Abraham’s descendants being called ‘the people of Israel’ after Jacob, who was also called ‘Israel.’   But the designation ‘people of Israel’ is an anachronistic identification included by Moses since he wrote the book of Exodus after Abraham’s descendants had been liberated from Egypt and were given the their classification as a ‘people’ by God.   It would be something akin to calling the pilgrims on the Mayflower ‘Americans.’  It is not totally wrong, but we must see that the identification as a people is actually formed by the struggle, not before it.  The most profound moment for Abraham’s descendants comes in Exodus 3 when God spoke to Moses through the burning bush.  First God says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex. 3:6).  God is connecting Moses with his promise through his forefathers.  God doesn’t break promises, and he wants to make that plain.  But the stunner comes next: God said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt…I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Ex. 3:7, 10).  This is the first time that the descendants of Abraham are identified as ‘God’s people’ by God himself.  The significance of this description cannot be overstated.  This shows us that not only is God going to fill the earth with the blessing of his glory, but he is going to do it through a ‘people.’ God had already announced this in Genesis 26:4 when he said to Abraham, “And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”  The offspring of Abraham were the people of Israel, and God designates them as ‘His people’ for the first time in Exodus 3.  God’s plan to fill the earth with his glory involves his people, and He would bring his people out of Egypt to continue his grand story of filling the earth with his glory.  The Tabernacle: God With Us In Exodus 25:8 God said, “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”  God wanted to physically, spatially, and conspicuously dwell among his people—in their midst. The Tabernacle (along with the Temple, which we well get to) is an object of confusion for many Christians today.  I suspect most people simply equate it to a large space where worship gatherings took place similar to a modern-day church building but with less technology.  This perception completely misses the ultimate purpose of the Tabernacle (and is indicative of many Christians’ misunderstanding of their purpose as the people of God).  The Tabernacle was not merely a meeting place for primitive worship gatherings, but it was a divinely designated structure that simultaneously pointed back to God’s original dwelling with mankind in the garden, while also pointing forward to God’s future dwelling with mankind in the New Creation.  The Tabernacle was a physical representation and picture of God’s plan to fill the earth with his glory through restored relationship with his people—that’s why the Tabernacle was such a big deal. One quarter of the book of Exodus is dedicated to the Tabernacle, not because God was interested in needlessly relaying architectural minutia, but because it pointed to God’s ultimate purpose for the world. God intentionally designed these elements of the Tabernacle to illustrate his ultimate purpose and plan to his people.  The book of Hebrews calls the things in the Tabernacle ‘shadows’ of the real which are above (Heb. 8:5), and the author of Hebrews goes on to argue that that is precisely the reason God gave such particular instructions regarding the the construction of it (Heb. 8:5).  The book of Exodus ends in dramatic fashion by describing how God’s glory filled the tabernacle (Ex. 40:17) just in time for the people to celebrate the first anniversary of their deliverance from Egypt (Num. 9:1-5). Just as God’s glory filled the garden of Eden in all that he made, and just as his glory will fill the New Creation, “the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Ex. 40:34).  The Tabernacle was a physical picture of what God had done, and one day would do again: fill his dwelling place with his glory in the midst of his people.  Just as God communed with Adam in the garden, and will dwell again with man in the new Creation, the high priest communed with God in the Most Holy Place.  The Tabernacle was God’s way of directing his people’s gaze towards the future, where they would commune with him in a place filled with his glory.  This beautiful future is demonstrated even more decisively in the Temple. The Temple: The Dwelling Place of God The Temple was virtually the same as the Tabernacle, except it was a permanent Structure.  Like the Tabernacle, painstaking attention to detail, quality, craftsmanship, and symbolism went into its construction.  In fact, the Temple took seven years to build (1 Kings 6:38).  The first Temple (built by Solomon) was destroyed in 722 BC, and the second time the Temple was built it took forty-six years (John 2:20)!  Again, God did not commission his people to a half-century building project simply because he likes impressive architecture, he did it because it was a symbol of their task to expand God’s presence to all nations; it was a symbolic model pointing to the new heavens and earth that would be perfectly filled with His presence.  Here is what I mean: the Temple served as a little earthly model of God’s temple in heaven which would eventually encompass the whole earth.  Like the Tabernacle, it pointed back to the garden of Eden and forward to the new creation, but in an even more profound way. Ezekiel 28 paints a picture of the garden of Eden as the first Temple.  First, the Bible refers to both the garden of Eden and the Temple/Tabernacle as ‘sanctuaries’ of God.  Ezekiel 28:13-14, 16, 18 refer to “Eden, the garden of God…the holy mountain of God,” and alludes to it as containing ‘sanctuaries,’ which elsewhere in the Bible is a plural way of referring to Israel’s Tabernacle (Lev. 21:23) and Temple (Ezek. 7:24; Jer. 51:51), because both the Temple and Tabernacle contained multiple spaces.  In addition to this, Ezekiel 28:13 pictures Adam donning the vestments of a priest, serving in Eden as a holy sanctuary.  If Adam were to be faithful to God’s commission, it would mean gradually expanding the borders of Eden to encompass the whole earth so that God’s glory would be reflected not just in one small area, but in all the earth.  By bearing God’s image in the world, Adam was to mediate God’s blessing to all creation by subduing it as God had commanded him, and as a result God’s presence would be extended throughout the whole earth. Although Adam failed in this, God’s establishment of the Temple and a priesthood reintroduced this original commission.  God’s special presence in the Temple was mediated by priests to the Israelites and the surrounding nations in a way that called back to Adam’s initial task to expand Eden’s boundaries.  This role was not limited to the Levites (the official priests), but was for God’s people as a whole.  In Exodus 19:5-6 God said, “‘You shall be my treasured possession among all people, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’”  If the Temple was a type of Eden—the special place of God’s presence—then the Israelites were those commissioned by God to expand it’s boundaries and mediate the blessing of his presence to all nations on the earth.  G. K. Beale concisely demonstrates that the divine task to expand God’s temple throughout the whole earth was actually passed on first to Noah, then to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob before God assigned it to Israel.  This commission is restated numerous times in subsequent Old Testament passages to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, each time involving 1) God blessing them 2) the command to be fruitful and multiply 3) the command to fill the earth 4) the command to subdue the earth 5) the command to rule over all the earth. Again, God’s purpose for mankind found in Genesis 1 didn’t stay there.  It was restated to Noah, then to Abraham, then to Isaac, Jacob, and ultimately the nation of Israel.  Through repetition God is making it obvious what his mission is. Even more significant is the fact that each time the Creation Mandate is repeated and given to the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), it always involved the building of small sanctuaries (or tabernacles).  According to Beale God’s restatement of the commission to Israel’s patriarchs typically included these five elements: 1) God appears to them (except Gen. 12:8 and 13:3-4 with Abram) 2) They ‘pitch a tent’ (literally ‘tabernacle’ in Hebrew) 3) They are on a mountain 4) They build altars and worship God at the place of restatement 5) The place is often located at ‘Bethel’—the ‘House of God’ (The only case of altar building not containing these elements nor linked to the Genesis 1 Commission is Gen. 33:20).  Beale then points out, “Any time these five elements occur elsewhere in the Old Testament it is in describing Israel’s Tabernacle or Temple!” The continuity in God’s mission is glaring.  Through His constant relationship and work in the people whom He chose, He was gradually unfolding his magnificent plan to achieve his ultimate purpose.  His people were to multiply and bear His image in all the earth.  Most importantly, this duty was not merely for their own sake, but for the sake of the world.  God blessed them so that they would be a blessing, not just to each other, but to every nation—every family—on the earth. Regardless of the clarity of God’s commission, the incessant declaration of his mission, and the unmistakable symbolism of the Tabernacle and Temple, the people of Israel failed to participate faithfully in God’s global vision.  Beale sums it up this way: “Instead of seeing the temple as a symbol of their task to expand God’s presence to all nations, Israel wrongly viewed the temple to be symbolic of their election as God’s only true people and that God’s presence was to be restricted only to them as an ethnic nation.” [Slide] They forgot the story I submit that the reason they viewed the temple wrongly is because they forgot the story.  They forgot the Creation Mandate that had been repeated not only as a commission, but a covenant promise to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  They lost the unfolding story of God’s plan to fulfill his purpose for the world.  Instead they had fragmented and disjointed “biblical principles” telling them how to honor the temple, how they should dress, what they should eat, and how to perform ceremonial tasks.  The Pharisees were experts in “biblical principles,” but they had adopted a tame story, the story of an ethnocentric culture characterized by religious performance rather than the mission of God.  Because of their failure to participate in his mission God sent Israel into exile and darkness, and the darkness of their exile in Isaiah 45 is compared to “the darkness and chaos of the first chaos before creation in Genesis 1 (cf. Isa 45:18–19).”  In a sense, God would start over, and he would do it with a different kind of temple.  God would accomplish his mission and have his glory fill the whole earth despite his peoples failure to extend his temple’s boundaries.  He would send a messiah who would build a new temple, not built with human hands.  In Zechariah 6:12-13 God says, “It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne.” And this temple would not be built by him alone: “And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord” (Zech. 6:15).  This temple would be founded on the offspring God had promised in Genesis 3:15.  It would not be a physical temple, but a spiritual temple comprised of a holy priesthood for the purpose of offering spiritual sacrifices.  The apostle Peter said to believers, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual temple, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4).  The Temple pointed to something greater, but the people of Israel lost sight of what it was.  It was never about the building, but what the building represented: God dwelling with mankind in a place filled with his glory. Paul wrote, “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Cor. 6:16).  We are living stones constituting the new spiritual temple, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone on which we are founded, and the Spirit lives in us (1 Cor. 3:16; 1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 2:21-22; 1 Peter 2:5; Rev. 3:12; 11:1-2). Jesus Established A New Kind of Temple When Jesus came to the earth, John 1:14 literally says he ‘tabernacled’ among us, and that we have seen his glory.  In the Old Testament, God tabernacled in the midst of his people and revealed his glory with a view to their extending the blessing of his presence to the surrounding nations.  Jesus becoming a man and tabernacling amongst mankind had the same end in view.  He took on Israel’s calling to be a blessing to the world—to bring back God’s original good intention to his creation.  Jesus re-established the Creation Mandate, but gave a new iteration of it.  Just as God demonstrated his authority in the garden with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then commissioned his image bearers with the Creation Mandate, at the end of his earthly ministry Jesus confirmed his own authority and then commissioned those who would be conformed to his image with what we might call a ‘New Creation Mandate.’  “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matt. 28:18-20). God’s covenant with his people in the Old Testament was so that they would be a blessing to all nations in the earth, and God’s covenant with us now through Jesus Christ is so that we might be a blessing to all nations, by making disciples.  The glory of God no longer fills a physical temple, but a spiritual temple made up of believers.  We are called to fill the earth with the glory of God, and God has made this possible in Jesus Christ and is in the process of bringing it to pass.  In Christ, God has accomplished the redemption of all things, and has made a way for a new, redeemed creation to encompass his glory.  The Temple of the New Creation Revelation 21:1-22:5 describes the new, redeemed heavens and earth as a temple.  The reason for this is because the temple signifies God’s presence.  Revelation 21 promises us that at the end of time the true temple will descend from heaven and fill the whole creation (Rev. 21:1-3, 10, 22).  This special presence of God had been limited to the tabernacle, then the temple, and now the church, but will one day fill all of creation and become coextensive with it.  It is at this point that “the eschatological goal of the temple of the Garden of Eden dominating the entire creation will finally be fulfilled.”  In fact what we see in the description of the redeemed creation in Revelation 21-22 is a striking likeness to the Garden of Eden.  The new creation is described as “pure gold” (Rev. 21:18), calling us back to the Holy of Holies in the Temple which was covered with gold on the walls, floor, and ceiling.  The point is that now, the Holy of Holies is not limited to a confined space with access granted only to a high priest, but it has been expanded to cover the whole earth.  The Holy of Holies in the Temple was perfectly cubic in it’s shape, and we are told that the whole city of the new creation is “square” (Rev. 21:16), with its length the same as its width. Again, the point is that now, in a new redeemed world, God’s ultimate plan has come to pass, and the entire creation has become the Holy of Holies. This fact is even more evident in 22:4, which says, “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”  In the Old Testament only the High Priest would wear God’s name on his forehead and once a year be in God’s presence, but in the future, “all of God’s people will have become high priests with God’s name on their foreheads, and standing not one day a year, but forever in God’s presence.”  When Jesus died on the cross the thick, cherubim-interlaced veil that separated the Holy of Holies was split down the middle (Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45).  This represented a removal of the cherubim who blocked access to the true life found in Eden.  Although the way to the Tree of Life had been restricted, in the new creation the Tree of Life is in the middle of the city, bearing fruit for all who dwell there.  Not only did the tearing of the temple veil signify the access to God’s presence granted to believers, but it pointed to the future when God’s manifest glory would not be bound to the small space that was the Holy of Holies, but would fill the earth.  In reference to this the prophet Haggai said, “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.  And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts” (Haggai 2:9). This is the marvelous future destined for the people of God.  From the beginning of time God has been moving us toward this glorious destiny.  God’s ultimate purpose is to fill the earth with his glory, and in the new creation, he will do just that.  Just as God’s glory used to fill the Holy of Holies with the high priest, his glory will encompass all creation with a kingdom of priests.  “Behold the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God…And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.  And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:3,22-23). This is the story of which we are a part.  We know where we have come from, and we know where we are going, our role is to participate with God in it.  The Church in the West has been given a tame story that has robbed its hope, misappropriated its power, and subdued its spirituality.  But we have a story that guides our expectations.  We possess an overarching narrative that tells us who we are and whose we are, and we have divine confidence in the triumph of our King.  Our story tells us we are the Bride, not a bridesmaid, and we must act accordingly. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey_52619.mp3 Sun, 26 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 55:51 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Gospel Foundations: The True Purpose of the Church A Tame View of God’s Purpose for the World Tame: God’s Ultimate Purpose Is Relationship with You Many of us have been taught a tame view of God’s purpose for the world.  By ‘tame’ I mean it is limited, unobtrusive, and confined to a small area of life.  Part of the reason for this is the spirit of individualism, autonomy, self-actualization, and ‘lone-rangerism’ that characterizes our culture.  As a result, the most popular sentiment among American Christians today is that God’s ultimate goal in the world is for individual people to have relationship with him.  This view says God’s primary purpose in creating Adam and Eve was for relationship with Himself, sin blocked that relationship, and the Bible is about restoring that relationship through the cross of Jesus Christ.  This is a severely tamed understanding of God’s ultimate purpose.  It makes the gospel a way to improve our individual existence rather than the good news of cosmic redemption.  It is true that God desires to have relationship with human beings, but God’s will for his creation is much bigger than that.  The difficulty with this notion is not that it is entirely wrong, but that it is incomplete. Mike Goheen notes on this point, “There is nothing untrue about this formulation, but when the cross is dealt with only or even primarily in this context, its significance beyond the life of the individual believer is obscured.”  To say that God’s ultimate purpose in the world is human relationship with Himself is to miss the big picture.  God’s design for the world includes human relationship with Him, but that is not the end of it. The idea that God’s ultimate aim is purely for people to have relationship with Him has a variety of troubles, but they can be summarized in two core problems.  First, this understanding of God’s ultimate purpose in the world springs from and produces a tame view of God’s worth.  This view emphasizes the worth of people over the worth of God.  Secondly, this view generates a tame view of God’s creation by severing humans from the rest of creation and consequently diminishing the value of everything else God made.  It is natural that an approach to understanding the world which tames God’s worth simultaneously tames the value of everything He has made.  This view of God’s purpose in the world places humanity at the center of God’s purpose for all of creation, and sees the rest of creation as of minimal significance.  It’s as though all of God’s creation other than humanity is merely a necessary setting for the real drama to play out.  The consequence of these two problems is not only a narcissistic Christianity that indulges a self-focused idolatry, but a view that misunderstands the magnitude and scope of the redemption accomplished by Jesus.  Problem #1: A Tame View of God’s Worth The first problem with the idea that God’s ultimate purpose for the world is human relationship with Himself is that it is based on a tame view of God’s worth.  It emphasizes the worth of sinful humanity rather than emphasizing the worth of God.  It has a sinner-focus instead of a God-focus.  It places the highest priority on people rather than on God.  It turns the gospel on its head by placing ultimate importance on individual relationship with Christ while missing the entire point of that relationship.  This view sees the cross of Christ as the ultimate expression of the worth of human beings who have rebelled against God, rather than seeing it as the ultimate expression of God’s glory.  There was a song just a few years ago that was very popular in mainstream Christian music.  It went like this: You might be the wife, Waiting up at night You might be the man, Struggling to provide Feeling like it's hopeless Maybe you're the son Who chose a broken road Maybe you're the girl Thinking you'll end up alone Praying God can you hear me? Oh, God are you listening? You are more than flesh and bone Can't you see your something beautiful Yeah, you gotta believe, you gotta believe He wants you to see, He wants you to see that You're not just some wandering soul That can't be seen and can't be known You gotta believe, you gotta believe That you are someone worth dying for You're someone worth dying for Someone worth dying for This song is a perfect example of how a tame view of God’s purpose creates a tame view of God’s worth by making the gospel about our worth instead of God’s worth. But the cross is more about the glory of God than it is about the worth of people.  To be sure, people have worth; but their truest worth is found in the fact that they are made by God and bear His image, and when people bear God’s image in the world, they are reflecting His worth, not their own. The crucifixion of Jesus on a cross was not an expression of how much sinners are worth, it was an expression of how glorious God is in the salvation of sinners.  It was an expression of his love, his holiness, his righteousness, and his unsearchable wisdom.  God’s ultimate purpose in the world is not merely for us to have relationship with Him; God wants us to have relationship with him in order to achieve his ultimate purpose—filling the earth with his glory.  It is not to say that having a relationship with God isn’t part of His purpose; it most certainly is.  But that’s the thing, it’s just part of it. When churches hold the view that God’s ultimate purpose for the world is for people to have relationship with Him they end up prioritizing the desires and sensibilities of unbelieving people instead of the glory of God.  The result is ministries and worship practices that center around appealing to unsaved people instead of centering around faithfulness to the demands of the gospel.  A tame view of God’s worth results in tame churches. Problem #2: A Tame View of God’s Creation The second problem with the belief that God’s ultimate purpose for the world is for people to have relationship with him is it engenders a tame view of God’s creation.  It creates an artificial disparity between humans and the rest of God’s handiwork.  In this view, humans are acknowledged as recipients of God’s redemption while the rest of creation is ignored or simply forgotten.  This devalues God’s creation, results in a distorted view of reality, and minimizes the redemptive scope of the gospel.  As Al Wolters has said, “the redemption achieved by Jesus Christ is cosmic in the sense that it restores the whole creation. …this restoration affects the whole of creational life and not merely some limited area within it.” By creation I do not just mean ‘oceans, trees, skies, and seas.’  They are included, but creation also means all of human work and culture; cities and structures, animals and art, technology and institutions.  Christopher Wright says, The final vision of the whole Bible is not of our escaping from the world to some ethereal paradise, but rather of God coming down to live with us once again in a purged and restored creation, in which all the fruit of human civilization will be brought into the city of God (Rev. 21:24-27, building on Isa. 60). …In other words, what will be brought into the great city of God in the new creation will be the vast accumulated output of human work through the ages.  All this will be purged, redeemed, and laid at the feet of Christ for the enhancement of the life of eternity in the new creation. This means that it is not just human souls that matter, but everything else in creation as well.  Colossians 1 tells us, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16).  As one of my former professors used to say, ‘God doesn’t make junk, and He doesn’t junk what he makes.’  The redemption that Jesus achieved on the cross was not just the redemption of immaterial human souls, but, “all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col. 1:20).  Paul says, “all things,” gives a comprehensive list of those things, and then declares that Jesus has accomplished the redemption, not just of men, but of all of it. The notion that God’s ultimate purpose exclusively centers on individual salvation (i.e. restored relationship with God) cheapens the virtue of every other part of God’s creation.  Any notion that what God made is ‘good’ is tamed.  Consider the implications of this view: if God’s ultimate purpose in the world is solely for people to have relationship with him, then what would be the point of painting a picture?  Why would anyone read a novel, let alone write one?  Why take care of animals or the environment?  Why work in any vocation other than something purely ministerial?  Why even get married or have children?  If God’s ultimate purpose is strictly for people to have relationship with him, then aren’t we wasting our time in worldly endeavors with many of things?  If God’s ultimate purpose is merely for people to have a relationship with him, then why would you ever go to the beach?  Why would any Christian attempt to develop new technology?  Wouldn’t that just be sinful waste of time?  Wouldn’t one’s time be better utilized in constant conversation with unbelievers about the death and resurrection of Jesus? This view of God’s purpose in the world necessitates a utilitarian argument for every human endeavor that is not strictly evangelistic.  Missionary endeavors are important and necessary, but they are not why the church exists.  John Piper puts it well in the first sentence of his book on missions, “Missions (evangelistic efforts) is not the ultimate goal of the church.  Worship is.”  The church exists to worship God, and part of the way we are to fill the earth with God’s glory is through the worship that results from evangelism.  Evangelism, however, is a means to an end.  Evangelism is not the goal; Worship is the goal, and worship is rejoicing in the glory of God. Certainly God’s purpose in the world includes evangelism as an integral part, but evangelism is just a component to God’s purpose, not synonymous with God’s purpose itself.  Missiologist David J. Bosch puts it another way, “Mission (God’s purpose) includes evangelism as one of its essential dimensions.” Evangelism is not God’s mission; God’s mission is to fill the earth with his glory, and evangelism is simply an essential dimension of that.  Tragically, a large number of Christians in America hold the position that God’s only goal in the world is evangelistic success (however one might define ‘success’).  This leads to a brand of Christianity that panders to the consumeristic whims of society and simultaneously causes many Christians to feel dejected in their vocations and think their work is a futile waste of time.  Christopher Wright posits the question felt by many believers: “Does such routine ordinary life have any purpose other than to give us opportunities to bear witness to our faith and to earn enough money to have some to spare to give to missionaries and ‘real mission?’”  Many Christians can’t understand how developing software, working in finance, sales, culinary arts, accounting, acting, computer programming, or even as stay at home parents can fulfill God’s purpose for the world.  And truth be told, if God’s ultimate purpose was solely human relationship with himself, then all of these vocations are severely limited in what they could contribute to that purpose.  It is heartbreaking to consider how many Christians have felt this way about their own lives and vocations.  The belief that God’s ultimate purpose is exclusively for people to have relationship with Him is not only biblically misinformed, it is toxic.  It limits the scope of the gospel and leaves Christians feeling either incredibly anxious, hopeless, or both.  God’s purpose is grander than that, and much more beautiful.  We need our view of God’s purpose for the world to be untamed. An Untamed View of God’s Purpose for the World Untamed: God’s Ultimate Purpose Is to Fill the Earth with His Glory A tame view of God’s purpose for the world misses the comprehensiveness of the redemption achieved by Jesus and keeps us from freely rejoicing in and reflecting the glory of God.  When our view of God’s purpose for the world is untamed—liberated from American individualism and autonomy—this changes.  The Bible shows us that God’s ultimate purpose for the world is to fill the earth with his glory.  This is God’s mission.  This was God’s plan in Genesis, and it is his plan in Revelation.  God did not create with plan A and then after Adam and Eve’s sin decide to shift to plan B.  There is no plan B.  God’s will is to fill the earth with his glory, and He will bring it to pass.  The entire story of the Bible is about God’s work in human history to fulfill this aim.  This has always been God’s purpose, and it always will be. Glory vs. Worship The reason I say God will fill the earth with his ‘glory’ here instead of ‘worship’ is because the concept of God’s glory encompasses a broader range than the concept of worship.  We glorify God by worshipping Him, but we do not make Him more glorious by worshipping Him.  God’s glory, then, includes much more than just worship.  Worship is simply the proper response to seeing God’s glory.  To worship God is to rejoice in His glory.  When we rejoice in God’s glory, we reflect His glory.  This is the process: when God reveals his glory to us, we rejoice in it, and that reflects His glory; that is worship.  You can’t rejoice in God’s glory if it hasn’t been revealed to you, and you can’t reflect it as you ought if you don’t rejoice in it. Paul communicates this to us in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord (God’s glory revealed to us), are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (reflecting that glory).” In order to truly understand God’s purpose, we must have a clear understanding of what glory is.  God’s glory is everything that shows his worth.  Put another way, God’s glory is everything that makes him appear great; everything that makes Him beautiful. That means His ultimate purpose is to fill the earth with everything that shows His worth.  This idea is central to absolutely everything in the Christian life.  The ultimate purpose of our lives is to show God’s worth in every aspect of our being.  This is commanded in the New Testament: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). “As it is my eager expectation and hope that…Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil. 1:20). “…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1).  Everything we do in our lives—big or small, in life or in death—has one purpose: to show God’s worth. This raises the question: what shows God’s worth?  How can we see his worth?  How can we see his glory?  The answer is this: God’s worth is most clearly shown by his absolute otherness.  His worth is displayed by his better-ness.  His worth is exhibited by his distinctiveness.  God’s worth is seen in the fact that he is far superior to every other being in every imaginable way. He is more powerful than idols, He is more loving than any person, He is wiser than any philosopher, He has more knowledge than every human mind put together, He is more transcendent than the noblest thoughts.  His glory is displayed by the beautiful complexity of his creation, His mighty acts in history, His unfailing love for humanity, and His unsearchable wisdom in the cross.  God’s ultimate purpose for the world is to fill the earth with His glory—to fill the earth with everything that shows his worth. God’s Glory Revealed in His Creation In biblical terms, God’s otherness, better-ness, and distinctiveness are called his holiness.  When the Bible says God is holy it means he is other, better, distinct.  God’s holiness and God’s glory are inextricably linked; we cannot understand God’s glory apart from understanding his holiness.  God’s glory is his holiness on display.  One way we see God’s holiness on display is in His creation. Romans 1:20 says, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.”  Creation shows God’s otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness.  Nature is one exhibit of God’s holiness on display.  That means creation shows God’s glory.  In fact, Scripture says creation declares God’s glory.  “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).  God puts his holiness on display in the things He has made. God’s Glory Revealed in His Mighty Acts Another way we see God’s holiness even more imminently is in God’s mighty acts in history. One of the best examples of this from the Old Testament is God’s triumph over the false gods of Egypt with His ten plagues.  God’s intention with the ten plagues was not just to annoy Pharaoh enough to free the Israelites, but to put His holiness on display and get glory for Himself.  Each plague that God dispatched on the Egyptians was intended to reveal the Egyptian gods’ inferiority and impotence, while simultaneously highlighting God’s superiority and omnipotence.  God’s holiness (otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness) was displayed in the fact that He was more powerful than the false gods of Egypt.  The result was God’s glory seen by both the Egyptians and the Israelites.  In Exodus 14:4 God says, “’I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord.’ And they did so.” God’s glory is his holiness on display.  God’s glory is His otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness revealed and seen.  In this case, it was seen by the Egyptians.  God Will Ensure that His Purpose Is Fulfilled Since God’s ultimate purpose is to fill the earth with his glory, He is the one who ensures His purpose will come to pass.  Habakkuk 2:14 contains this promise from God: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”  That means that God’s holiness will extend over all things.  Filling the earth with His glory is so central to God’s purpose that He even included it in an oath based on the essence of who He is in Numbers 14:20-23.  God said, “But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers.  And none of those who despised me shall see it.”  In the first verse of this passage God equates the certainty of His plan to fill the earth with His glory with the certainty of His existence.  This is a stunning comparison. God is making it remarkably clear that His purpose to fill the earth with His glory is indicative of who He is.  His very existence as God ensures that all of creation will know His glory.  Everything that God has done throughout the history of the world has had this one goal: to fill the earth with the glory of God, and He invites us into that purpose. Made in God’s Image for God’s Purpose Part of the problem with the tame idea that God’s ultimate purpose is solely for us to have relationship with Him is that it overlooks the supremely important fact that humans are made in the image of God.  The point of being made in God’s image is so we might reflect God’s glory throughout the world in everything we do (while also rejoicing in that glory).  Since God’s ultimate purpose is to fill the earth with His glory, we can fulfill God’s purpose not just through evangelism, but by bearing God’s image in our relationships, our work, our creativity, and every aspect of life as a human being on the planet earth.  We can glorify God not just by singing in church or sharing the gospel with our neighbors, but in every way that we exhibit holy dominion over God’s creation and rejoice in His worth.  We can bear God’s image in the way we treat animals, in the way we intentionally bring life into the world through procreation, in the way we trim weeds back in a garden, in the way we care for hurting people, and even in the way we carefully arrange place settings on a dinner table.  Since we can reflect and rejoice in God’s otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness in all these things, we can glorify God with them, and our purpose as humans made in God’s image is to fill the earth with God’s glory.  God’s Purpose for the Church This brings us back around to our original design: knowing our purpose.  In order to know who we are called to be as God’s people—the church—we must know why we exist; we must know our purpose.  In order to know our purpose, we must know God’s purpose for the whole world.  It is clear that God’s purpose for the world is to fill the earth with his glory, but what does that mean for the church?  This means the church exists to contribute to God’s original purpose—to fill the earth with the glory of God through rejoicing in and reflecting God’s worth.  The primary implication from this is that the church must be holy.  The church must exhibit the otherness, better-ness, distinctiveness of God.  This exact line of thinking is found in 1 Peter 1:15-16 where Peter exhorts the first century church to this very thing: “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” The church’s holiness is what makes her stand out; it is her wedding gown.  Revelation 19:8 says, “It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.’”  Just as a bride’s dazzling white wedding dress makes her distinct from all others at the wedding, the church’s holiness must make her distinct from the world around her.  The church’s holiness shows who she is and whose she is.  This otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness not only makes the church stand out, but it makes her beautiful.  The church cannot be a participant in filling the earth with God’s glory if she is not holy.  If the church cannot be distinguished from the world then she has lost her otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness.  She is no longer holy.  She is salt that has lost its saltiness.  She is a light that has been extinguished.  Instead of displaying God’s worth she detracts from it because of sin.  Sin is the enemy of holiness—it is the enemy of God’s glory.  The reason for this is sin always seeks to diminish God’s worth.  Sin promises to provide what can only come from God and tries to devalue Him.  The untamed church is serious about her purpose in the world, which inevitably means she is serious about dealing with sin.  Her aim is that she might be, “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27). Brian Hedges put it succinctly, “Our purpose in life is to display the worth and value of the God who designed and created us.” As Michael Goheen has said to the church, “You are not just a voluntary community of people who believe in Jesus.  You are the new humanity.”   The church is comprised of people who have been transformed by the power of the gospel to be the new humanity—to fulfill God’s purpose for the world: to fill the earth with his glory.  1 Peter 2:9-12 says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.  Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”  We do not glorify God by blending in with the world, but by standing out from it and illustrating the holiness of God.  We are meant to reveal his otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness through our way of life as a community. All of creation exists for the glory of God.  All of creation will be filled with His glory.  No being exists that is worth as much as God.  No one is like Him.  He is unsurpassed in His otherness-better-ness-distinctiveness.  Revelation 4:8-11 tells us day and night in heaven a cry goes up declaring, “’Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before whom who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.  They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’”  When God’s glory is truly seen, the result is always worship.  When God reveals his glory to His people, they respond by rejoicing in it, and as a result, reflecting it to the world.  The church is called to display God’s glory so every nation might worship Him—so that the whole earth would be filled with the glory of God.  The untamed church knows it’s purpose, and thus prays with the psalmist, “Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!” (Psalm 72:10). God calls the church to be holy not for her own sake, but for the sake of the world.  The untamed church is a church who knows it’s purpose, and her purpose is to fill the earth with the glory of God.  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey_5.19.19.mp3 Sun, 19 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 45:35 Doug Hon 2019 and Older The Most Important Paragraph Ever Written Romans 3:21-26 Preached at Main Street Church on May 5th, 2019 Proposition: Since God justifies sinners through faith in Christ, we must put our faith in Him. The book of Romans is the longest letter in the New Testament written by the Apostle Paul.  It is the most thorough and clearest explanation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and some scholars think it is the most important book in the New Testament. Paul’s main point of the entire letter is that the gospel reveals the righteousness and justice of God.  For the first eleven chapters Paul shows how the gospel has revealed the righteousness of God as it has slowly unfolded through the course of history, and then the rest of the letter from chapter 12 on teaches us how to live in light of the gospel.  On May 19th we are going to start a new sermon series on Romans 12-15 called “Gospel Living: 101” where we will learn how our lives should look if we have truly experienced the power of the gospel.  But before we can learn ‘Gospel Living: 101’ we have to know what is at the heart of the gospel, and that leads us to our text for today in Romans 3.  Chapters 1-3 are the most powerful indictment in the New Testament of the sinfulness of all people and how their unrighteousness has earned the wrath of God against them.  In chapter 1 Paul exposes the unrighteousness of non-Jewish people who suppressed the truth of God with their lives.  And then in chapter 2 Paul moves on to to the Jews and shows that they are potentially even more guilty than the Gentiles because although they had God’s law they failed to obey it.  All of this culminates in chapter 3 where Paul quotes a flurry of Old Testament passages showing the utter sinfulness of all people, whether they were Jew or Gentile.  And then we get to verses 21-26 in chapter 3.  Martin Luther called this passage, “the chief point, and the very central place of the epistle and of the whole Bible.”  And some scholars—who have won my agreement—acclaim this text as, not just the most important paragraph in the Bible, but “possibly the most important single paragraph ever written.”  So after the stinging and frightening indictment of the sinfulness of all humanity, and the wrath of God against sin, Paul writes this: Romans 3:21-26: “21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” We put our faith in the wrong things.  The Gentiles put their faith in false gods that resembled mortal man (Rom. 1:23), while the Jews put their faith in their ability to keep the law (Rom. 2:17-24).  Ultimately, they were both putting their faith in themselves. We do the same thing.  We think that if we try hard enough, or do enough good things, or have good enough intentions then God will understand and accept us.  We think if we do at least 51% good things and only 49% bad things then that will tip the scale of God’s love in our favor.  We think that since God knows everything, he can see our intentions and knows that deep down we’re really good people even if we’ve done a lot of wrong things.  According to a survey funded by Lifeway last year, 52% of people who claim to be Christians say that everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.  Almost the same number of people, 51% believe that God accepts the worship of all religions. What this tells me is that the indictments of Romans 1 and 2 are still very real and fresh today.  Some people put their faith in human nature and people’s ability to be ‘good’, and some people put their faith in the idea that what people believe really doesn’t matter very much at all.  According to this text, where you put your faith is the difference in Heaven and Hell, and tell us this simple truth: since God justifies sinners through faith in Christ, we must put our faith in Him. V. 21: But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— The righteousness of God is the ‘right’-ness of everything he does, and it is right because he does it.  It is the rightness of his character, actions, and judgments. Paul is saying that the righteousness of God has come into focus in a new way since Jesus showed up.  The righteousness of God is now seen in the gospel.  That’s why he says this at the beginning of his letter in v. 16 and 17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,[e] as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” V. 21b although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— So the righteousness that is revealed in the gospel is not totally new and different, it’s just that it has come into focus and into view in the person and work of Jesus. That’s why Jesus said, ““Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matt. 5:17) And “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,” (John 5:39) V. 22: the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. This means that every single person who puts their faith in Jesus will be declared righteous by God. And the point is, every single person, without distinction, look at the next verse: V. 22b-23 For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, The playing field is level.  Everyone without distinction has fallen short of the glory of God. I want to take some time to talk about what that means. We will so easily say that we all sin, or that we are sinners without understanding the weight of what that really means.  We’ve been sold such a cartoonish and fluffy version of God’s love that we’ve forgotten that pure, holy love comes with wrath.  We mention sin without feeling God’s hatred towards sin. We call ourselves sinners and forget God’s disposition towards those who have rebelled against him. God’s Attitude Toward Sin The entire OT makes it very clear that God loves righteousness and hates unrighteousness.  God says, “do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.” (Zech. 8:17) According to Scripture, not only does God hate sin, but he hates sinners also. Ps. 11:5-7 “The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.  Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.  For the Lord is righteous.” Psalm 5:5-6 “The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.  You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.” These passages reveal the strongest revulsion possible in the face of everything that is evil.  God’s heart of righteous love is what caused him to pleading through the prophet Jeremiah, “‘I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’” (Jer. 44:4) But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods.  Therefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day.” And we are commanded in Psalm 97:10: “O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” We find this difficult because we are taught that God is love. But God’s love is not a careless sentimentality indifferent to the moral integrity of the loved ones.  His love is a purifying fire, blazing against everything that hinders God's people from being the very best they can be.  God’s wrath is not an uncontrollable outburst of passion, but it is the reverse side of a holy-love, a flame which sears, but purifies.  The Infection of Sin So when Romans 3 says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” it’s a terrifying statement. We like John 3:16 that talks about God’s love for the world, but we skip over v. 18 that says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Or perhaps we don’t want to hear about v. 36 just a few verse later: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” 2 Cor. 4:4 says, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,” Romans 3 says “No one is righteous, no, not one.  No on understands.  No one seeks God…No one does good, not even one.”  Our sin nature is not a barrier that keeps us from being righteous, even though we really want to be.  It means that we want nothing to do with God or his righteousness. Romans 8:7 says, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.” Just three chapters earlier chapter 5 calls us “enemies of God.” What kind of righteous judgment, then, should come on people who have satisfied every sinful desire? John 3:19 says, “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” This demonstrates the point that we can’t just say, “If only God would appear.  If only he would make himself known.”  Have you not read, “He came to his own and his own did not receive him.  He was despised and rejected by men, one as from whom men hid their faces.”  God himself came to his own people and their earthly king mandated a mass infanticide of all children age 2 and younger.  Jesus cast out demons and they accused him of being possessed by the Devil himself Jesus healed people and they called him a lawbreaker He ministered to outcasts so they accused him of sin He was betrayed by one of his closest friends who had seen him literally give sight to the blind and heal the sick He raised the dead, so they raised him up on a Roman cross. Mocked him, whipped him; crucified him.  Three days later he rose from the dead, and yet they still would not believe. So don’t we dare say, “If only He would appear.  If only he would show his power.”  Jesus himself said, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (Luke 16:31) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God What should become of sinners like me? V. 22b -24a: For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, How can God who is righteous, justify sinners like me? If God is a good judge, and is righteous, doesn’t the righteousness of his character require him to punish wickedness? One of the first times God disclosed something of his character to Moses in Exodus 34, this is what he said, Exodus 34:6-7 “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Some people think that after the serial rebellion of their life they are going to die and stand before God and he is simply going to let them off the hook.  And it’s because they don’t understand the righteousness of God, and since they don’t understand the righteousness of God they don’t understand how evil their sinfulness is.  Adam and Eve sinned once, and because of their rebellion against God He brought a universal curse on every square inch of creation.  Billions of people have suffered and died as a result.  And you think that with your lifetime of sinfulness built up, he is just going to let you go free?  Absolutely not.  So how can this merciful and gracious God—who will by no means clear the guilty—also forgive iniquity and transgression and sin? V. 23-25: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. The only way God could righteously justify sinners was if the righteous penalty for sin was paid in full.  all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, When the word, “Redeem” is used throughout the Old Testament there are three aspects that are in view: There is a captivity which man cannot himself break, so there must be an intervention of an outside Person who pays the price which man cannot pay. (Jn. 8:34; Rom. 7:14) There is a price which man cannot himself pay.  Both inside and outside the NT, the payment of a price is a necessary component of the redemption idea.  (The root word ‘Ransom’ used in Mark 10:45).  When the NT speak of redemption, it means that Christ has paid the price of our redemption. And the price paid must be adequate for the purchase in question; this indicates an equivalence, a substitution. There is a status change that takes place.  Man is brought out of the curse of sin, and into the blessing of God. So how could Jesus Redeem us?  How could he pay the price for our sin?  How could he ransom us from the grip of our sinfulness? V. 25: whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, The word ‘propitiation’ comes from our word ‘propitious’ that means to make favorable. So when it’s used here, it means: A sacrifice that bears God’s wrath against sin, with the effect being that God’s wrath toward us is changed into favor. (Grudem) And we must notice here it says, ‘God put Jesus forward as a propitiation.’  That means God put Jesus on the cross, and then put our sin on Jesus on the cross, and then cursed Jesus on the cross as though he himself were sin.  Isaiah 53 says, “It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “(God) made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Isaiah 53 “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;…But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus suffered the wrath of God in our place, so that we might have the blessing of God. V. 25-26: God put (Jesus) forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. When Jesus took the place of his people on the cross, it showed God’s righteousness, because in the past God had passed over former sins.  God hadn’t punished them right away, and it is because his wrath against sin was being stored up for Jesus on the cross.  This showed God’s righteousness so that he might justify sinners, while still being a just judge.  There is no sin in the history of existence that will go unpunished.  God is perfectly just.  Either that sin will be paid for by Jesus on the cross, or it will be paid for in Hell.  This gospel is a scandal.  The righteous son of God suffering in the place of unrighteous sinners.  It is a stumbling block.  It is scandalous.  But it reveals the righteousness of God.  So those of us who have been saved by this gospel can say, “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes” 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” Hebrews 9:12 says, “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.” Revelation 5:9 says, “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,” Romans 5:9 says, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” How can God be both just and the justifier of sinners?  The Cross of Christ is the answer.  Here is the beauty of the gospel.  On the cross Jesus didn’t just save us from the wrath of God, but he turned God’s wrath towards us into favor.  On the cross, God treated Jesus like us, so that we could be treated like Jesus.  Do you understand? It’s not just that Jesus took your sin so that you’d be innocent.  Friends, in Christ you are more than innocent, you are counted as righteous.  Every spiritual blessing in Christ is yours.  He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.  This means that if you put your faith in Christ, God sees you as he sees his own Son.  Let me explain something to you, Christian  If you have put your faith in Jesus, God loves you as much as he loves Jesus.  Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” God sings over you like a Father sings over a child in a crib.  Imagine the booming voice of God exulting over you in a loud singing.  That is a picture of those who are in Christ because of what he did on the cross, turning back God’s wrath and turning it into favor.  Romans 4:25 says, “Jesus our Lord…was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” He lives to give this blessing to you, and it is to be received by faith.  God put (Jesus) forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith…(and he did this) so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. So put your faith in Jesus today. Every blessing that Christ possesses he now gives to everyone who has faith in him.  So how do you put your faith in Christ? You lay your life down at the foot of the cross and surrender it to Jesus.  It’s not about how big or how small your faith is, it’s about how great the work of Jesus is.  Throw yourself at his feet.  Abandon yourself to Jesus.  Give him your faith.  In Exodus 12 When God’s people were in slavery in Egypt, God had struck the Egyptians with 9 plagues, but there was one more plague before Pharaoh would finally let them go.  God told Moses to tell every family to choose a lamb, one without blemish.  And they were to slaughter the lamb and put it’s blood on the doorposts of their homes.  This lamb would be called the passover lamb. Exodus 12 says, “21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning. 23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you” That night the destroyer came thought, and it says, “And there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where someone was not dead.” Imagine two Israelite men there that evening before it happened.  Let’s say Abel and Abner.  It’s just gotten dark, everything is quiet.  And their standing outside in the street, just about to go into their houses, and Abel says, “Seems pretty scary doesn’t it?” And Abner says, “I’m not scared…God said if we put the blood of the lamb on our doorposts we would be saved.”  The next morning, whose firstborn lived?  Both of them.  Because it’s not about how much faith you have, but who your faith is in.  Did you put your faith in the blood of the Lamb, or didn’t you. Cover yourself with the blood of Jesus this morning.  Put your faith in him And go to sleep assured that he is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/MZ000004Casey.mp3 Sun, 05 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 49:27 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older It Is Finished John 19:30 Preached at Main Street Church on Easter Sunday, April 21st, 2019 “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” The gospel of John was written by the Apostle John, who many scholars consider to be the best friend of Jesus. In John 19 Jesus was put on trial by the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, and everyone there, spurred on by the chief priests and religious leaders, demanded his execution. So pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified. They whipped him, beat him, mocked him, gambled for his clothes, and nailed him to a cross between two criminals. Verse 28 says, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill Scripture), ‘I thirst.’  A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.  When he had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." It’s Easter Sunday, and Jesus is alive.  Do you have any Easter Traditions?  Maybe you dye eggs, or perhaps your family always has an Easter Ham, or maybe your Easter tradition is make sure you wear bright pastel colors on Easter Sunday and take a family picture.  This year Brittany and I took our kids to participate in the age old Easter tradition: the Easter egg hunt.  And JJ definitely stood out from the rest of the 2 and 3 year olds looking for eggs, not because of his egg hunting skills, but because while all the other kids parents had given them festively decorated Easter baskets, his mother and I had given him an Aldi bag.  Who knows, maybe the Aldi bag will become part of our Easter tradition; because you know, different people have different traditions to celebrate Easter, and all around the world, people have different Easter traditions.  When I was 16 years old I spent Easter in the Philippines because I was there for a mission trip, and I got to see some of the Easter traditions there.  The Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia, it’s a group of over 7600 islands in the West Pacific ocean, and it’s actually the 12th largest country in the world by population.  It’s got about 100 million inhabitants.  Great food, great people, and a tropical island climate.  Parts of the Philippines are like paradise. Since I was there for Easter I got to see firsthand some of the Easter traditions, and there was one I encountered that I had never seen before.  Every year on Good Friday, hundreds of people take to the streets of Manila to participate in a practice called self-flagellation.  And what they do is they take whips and whip themselves on the back.  And they take bamboo rods and strike themselves until they bleed.  And they put on crowns made of thorns that dig into their scalps.  And some of them will twist barbed wire around their ankles and their wrists and then tie it to cinder blocks, and they’ll crawl on their bellies on broken glass, dragging the weight of the cinder blocks through it all.  And when they reach the end of their route, some of them will have themselves tied to a cross where they will imitate the suffering of Jesus.  And the question is: why would they do that? A news article that came out of Manila just last Friday says this: “Hundreds of penitents whipped their wounded backs to atone for their sins or secure God’s help for special attention.”  Every year hundreds of people in the Philippines physically beat themselves up to try to earn God’s forgiveness.  They feel so unworthy of God’s love, and so unworthy of God’s forgiveness, that they try to bear the burden of their sin on themselves. I suspect that many of us in here feel so unworthy of God’s love that we try to bear the burden of our own sin in a different way. We might not beat ourselves with bamboo rods, but maybe you beat yourself up with guilt. That thing you said when you were stressed out. *whip* That relationship you didn’t put enough effort into. *whip*  That time when you weren’t there…and you should’ve been. *whip* We might not drag around cinderblocks tied to our hands and feet, but maybe you’ve spent your whole life dragging around shame tied to the mistakes you’ve made and the sin you’ve committed. I can never forgive myself.  My life will never count for anything.  If other people knew the things I’ve done they would never accept me. And you know sometimes as Christians, we can make people feel like they need to pay for their sins before they can come into the church.  Like they need to keep the cinder blocks of their past securely fastened. But friends, that’s not what Good Friday or Easter is about at all.  And that’s exactly what Jesus tells us in these last words he spoke on the cross: “It is finished.” As Jesus hung on the cross John tells us in verse 29: “Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill Scripture), ‘I thirst.’”  Jesus had suffered, he had become cursed on the cross and paid the penalty of sin, and he had been forsaken by his heavenly Father.  Because he had done all that, he knew that all was now finished and said I thirst. “A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.” The last thing Jesus had to drink up to this point, was the sweet wine of the New Covenant that he shared with his disciples at the Last Supper.  Now he drank the sour, bitter wine of crucifixion completely alone. “When he had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ On the cross Jesus declared, “It is finished.” In Greek it is one word: tetelestai It comes from the verb ‘teleo’ which means to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish.  It doesn’t just mean “it’s over” it means, “I accomplished exactly what I intended.” Jesus used this word in the perfect tense, which means it was finished in the past, is still finished in the present, and will remain finished in the future.  The result is ongoing. The word was full of significance and meaning in ancient Greco-Roman culture and was used in a few ways: A servant would say ‘tetelestai’ when asked by his master if he had finished the work he had been assigned. It is finished. A judge would say ‘tetelestai’ when announcing that a sentence of judgment had been completed. It is finished. A priest would say ‘tetelestai’ when telling someone that a sacrifice was pleasing and acceptable to God. It is finished. A bookkeeper would say ‘tetelestai’ to declare that a debt had been “paid in full.” It is finished. A soldier would say ‘tetelestai’ as a battle cry over a vanquished enemy. It is finished. On the cross Jesus said, ‘tetelestai,’ because he finished all of it. Jesus said to his Father in John 17, “I have finished the work you gave me to do.” (John 17:4) Jesus finished the work of a divine servant by living a perfect, sinless life. Paul wrote, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:9) Jesus finished the work of a judge, by taking the wrath of God in our place. The book of Hebrews says “(Jesus) appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Heb. 9:26) Jesus finished the work of a priest by becoming the sacrifice for our sin. Colossians says “God…(has) forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14) Jesus finished the work of a record keeper, by paying all our debts in his body on the cross. Colossians says that on the cross Jesus “disarmed (his enemies) and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them.” (Colossians 2:15) Jesus finished the work of a conquering king by rising from the dead and showing that death could not hold him. On Friday Jesus said “It is finished,” and on Sunday God said, “it is finished indeed!” Where in your life are you acting like the work of Jesus isn’t finished?  Are you living a life based on guilt? Not being there for your family; That conversation you never made time for; That thing you know God wanted you to do, but you were afraid. Are you living your life dragging around the cinder blocks of shame?   That failed marriage from years ago.  Those mistakes you made when you were younger.  That one night stand.  Those times you drank too much.  Those words you said in anger.  Two blocks from here is the St. Charles County Jail.  A month ago I walked up the hill over there to visit a man who had been there for five months, waiting to hear what his final sentence would be.  He had a laundry list of all kinds of charges—all non-violent offenses.  In fact, the reason he had been waiting for his sentencing for so long was precisely because more charges against him kept coming up. But when I saw him, he was in a good mood, because it seemed like his time in the jail was almost finished.  He only had one week left before being released on parole. The week came and went and I never heard from him.  Last Wednesday I got a call from the jail saying that he was still there and he wanted me to visit.  So on Good Friday I walked up a hill to visit a man, a confessed criminal, who was still behind bars because the penalty for his crimes still was not finished.  As we talked on the phones through bulletproof glass I asked him what happened.  He said they had discovered more charges against him from his past and he would be locked up even longer.  And he said, “I just want it to be finished.” Some of you are locked in the prison of shame and guilt that continually tells you that it’s not finished.  And as soon as you think it might be, the enemy drudges up things from your past to pile on to your list of sins. “Remember that thing you did? It’s not finished.”  And you feel so unworthy of God’s love that you have dragged around the shame and guilt of your sins for your whole life.  Jesus commands you from the cross, to let those things go, because he has declared that it is finished. You, Christian, must realize that when the gospel offers forgiveness, it also means you can forgive yourself.  Why? Because what God thinks of you is more important than what you think of you.  Don’t put yourself in God’s place by standing as judge over yourself.  If God has declared you forgiven in Christ then it is not up to you to withhold forgiveness from yourself.  Since Jesus said “it is finished” we must not add anything to his perfect finished work.  God’s Word says in the book of Hebrews: Christ made the sacrifice for sin once for all when he offered up himself. (Heb. 7:27) No more sacrifices: It is finished. Christ secured eternal redemption once for all by means of his own blood. (Heb. 9:12) Your redemption is secure: It is finished. Christ appeared once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Heb. 9:26) Your sin is forgiven: It is finished. We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb. 10:10) There’s nothing you can offer God: It is finished. The final way that the word ‘tetelestai’ was used in the first-century was by master artists.  An artist would say ‘tetelestai’ when he finished a work of art in order to announce: “It’s perfect.  It’s complete.  Nothing else is needed.” Perhaps you’ve noticed this painting up here. The Mona Lisa is said to be the most talked about, most visited, most written about, most parodied, most well known work of art in the whole world.  It was finished by the Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci in the early 1500’s he painted this masterpiece and it is in the Louvre in Paris, visited by people all over the world. You know people have actually tried to damage the Mona Lisa; they’ve tried to vandalize it by throwing acid at it, or different objects, so this masterful work is actually kept in a climate controlled case of bullet proof glass.  Now obviously this isn’t the real Mona Lisa—the real Mona Lisa is valued at 782 Million dollars, making it by far the most valuable work of art in the whole world.  But just imagine I called the Louvre and asked if I could borrow the Mona Lisa so we could look at it and admire it, and they granted me permission, so I brought it here for us to admire. And as I look at it I start to think to myself, “Man I’m glad they let us take it out of the case to take a closer look at it, because as I look at this thing, I think I could definitely make some improvements on it…” *Add various marks and additions to the painting* And as I look at that I might say, “man that looks way better than the original.”  And if I did that to the real Mona Lisa, people all over the world, from every corner of the globe would be in an outrage! They would say, “Casey you’re not an artist! You can’t add to the master, Leonardo Da Vinci’s, work!’  You have no right to add to his perfect work.  Who do you think you are to add to the perfect, finished work of Leonardo Da Vinci? And I can ask you, who do you think you are to add to the perfect, finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ by trying to bear the burden of your guilt and your shame on yourself.  Friend, when you hang onto that guilt, and regret, and shame, and try to make up for your own sins, it’s like taking crayons to the finest masterpiece in the whole world. And it is infinitely worse to add to the work of the atonement of the cross of Christ, then to add to a painting by a man.  Stop dragging around the shame and the guilt for sins that God is able to forgive you of. Jesus didn’t say, “I’ve done my part now it’s time for you to do yours.”  He said, “It is finished!”  And after he finished his work, God raised him from the dead to give the gift of resurrection life to everyone who believes in him.  God gave his son whom he loved to die on the cross in your place, and bear the burden of your sin, and to finish the work of atoning for your sins, so that there is nothing left for you to do.  And the same John that recorded these words of Jesus wrote this, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) There’s nothing left for you to do.  There’s nothing left for you to add.  In Christ, you are redeemed, and it is finished.  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/4282019Doug.mp3 Sun, 28 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:19 Doug Hon 2019 and Older It Is Finished John 19:30 Preached at Main Street Church on Easter Sunday, April 21st, 2019 “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” The gospel of John was written by the Apostle John, who many scholars consider to be the best friend of Jesus. In John 19 Jesus was put on trial by the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, and everyone there, spurred on by the chief priests and religious leaders, demanded his execution. So pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified. They whipped him, beat him, mocked him, gambled for his clothes, and nailed him to a cross between two criminals. Verse 28 says, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill Scripture), ‘I thirst.’  A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.  When he had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." It’s Easter Sunday, and Jesus is alive.  Do you have any Easter Traditions?  Maybe you dye eggs, or perhaps your family always has an Easter Ham, or maybe your Easter tradition is make sure you wear bright pastel colors on Easter Sunday and take a family picture.  This year Brittany and I took our kids to participate in the age old Easter tradition: the Easter egg hunt.  And JJ definitely stood out from the rest of the 2 and 3 year olds looking for eggs, not because of his egg hunting skills, but because while all the other kids parents had given them festively decorated Easter baskets, his mother and I had given him an Aldi bag.  Who knows, maybe the Aldi bag will become part of our Easter tradition; because you know, different people have different traditions to celebrate Easter, and all around the world, people have different Easter traditions.  When I was 16 years old I spent Easter in the Philippines because I was there for a mission trip, and I got to see some of the Easter traditions there.  The Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia, it’s a group of over 7600 islands in the West Pacific ocean, and it’s actually the 12th largest country in the world by population.  It’s got about 100 million inhabitants.  Great food, great people, and a tropical island climate.  Parts of the Philippines are like paradise. Since I was there for Easter I got to see firsthand some of the Easter traditions, and there was one I encountered that I had never seen before.  Every year on Good Friday, hundreds of people take to the streets of Manila to participate in a practice called self-flagellation.  And what they do is they take whips and whip themselves on the back.  And they take bamboo rods and strike themselves until they bleed.  And they put on crowns made of thorns that dig into their scalps.  And some of them will twist barbed wire around their ankles and their wrists and then tie it to cinder blocks, and they’ll crawl on their bellies on broken glass, dragging the weight of the cinder blocks through it all.  And when they reach the end of their route, some of them will have themselves tied to a cross where they will imitate the suffering of Jesus.  And the question is: why would they do that? A news article that came out of Manila just last Friday says this: “Hundreds of penitents whipped their wounded backs to atone for their sins or secure God’s help for special attention.”  Every year hundreds of people in the Philippines physically beat themselves up to try to earn God’s forgiveness.  They feel so unworthy of God’s love, and so unworthy of God’s forgiveness, that they try to bear the burden of their sin on themselves. I suspect that many of us in here feel so unworthy of God’s love that we try to bear the burden of our own sin in a different way. We might not beat ourselves with bamboo rods, but maybe you beat yourself up with guilt. That thing you said when you were stressed out. *whip* That relationship you didn’t put enough effort into. *whip*  That time when you weren’t there…and you should’ve been. *whip* We might not drag around cinderblocks tied to our hands and feet, but maybe you’ve spent your whole life dragging around shame tied to the mistakes you’ve made and the sin you’ve committed. I can never forgive myself.  My life will never count for anything.  If other people knew the things I’ve done they would never accept me. And you know sometimes as Christians, we can make people feel like they need to pay for their sins before they can come into the church.  Like they need to keep the cinder blocks of their past securely fastened. But friends, that’s not what Good Friday or Easter is about at all.  And that’s exactly what Jesus tells us in these last words he spoke on the cross: “It is finished.” As Jesus hung on the cross John tells us in verse 29: “Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill Scripture), ‘I thirst.’”  Jesus had suffered, he had become cursed on the cross and paid the penalty of sin, and he had been forsaken by his heavenly Father.  Because he had done all that, he knew that all was now finished and said I thirst. “A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.” The last thing Jesus had to drink up to this point, was the sweet wine of the New Covenant that he shared with his disciples at the Last Supper.  Now he drank the sour, bitter wine of crucifixion completely alone. “When he had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ On the cross Jesus declared, “It is finished.” In Greek it is one word: tetelestai It comes from the verb ‘teleo’ which means to bring to an end, to complete, to accomplish.  It doesn’t just mean “it’s over” it means, “I accomplished exactly what I intended.” Jesus used this word in the perfect tense, which means it was finished in the past, is still finished in the present, and will remain finished in the future.  The result is ongoing. The word was full of significance and meaning in ancient Greco-Roman culture and was used in a few ways: A servant would say ‘tetelestai’ when asked by his master if he had finished the work he had been assigned. It is finished. A judge would say ‘tetelestai’ when announcing that a sentence of judgment had been completed. It is finished. A priest would say ‘tetelestai’ when telling someone that a sacrifice was pleasing and acceptable to God. It is finished. A bookkeeper would say ‘tetelestai’ to declare that a debt had been “paid in full.” It is finished. A soldier would say ‘tetelestai’ as a battle cry over a vanquished enemy. It is finished. On the cross Jesus said, ‘tetelestai,’ because he finished all of it. Jesus said to his Father in John 17, “I have finished the work you gave me to do.” (John 17:4) Jesus finished the work of a divine servant by living a perfect, sinless life. Paul wrote, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:9) Jesus finished the work of a judge, by taking the wrath of God in our place. The book of Hebrews says “(Jesus) appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Heb. 9:26) Jesus finished the work of a priest by becoming the sacrifice for our sin. Colossians says “God…(has) forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.  This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14) Jesus finished the work of a record keeper, by paying all our debts in his body on the cross. Colossians says that on the cross Jesus “disarmed (his enemies) and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them.” (Colossians 2:15) Jesus finished the work of a conquering king by rising from the dead and showing that death could not hold him. On Friday Jesus said “It is finished,” and on Sunday God said, “it is finished indeed!” Where in your life are you acting like the work of Jesus isn’t finished?  Are you living a life based on guilt? Not being there for your family; That conversation you never made time for; That thing you know God wanted you to do, but you were afraid. Are you living your life dragging around the cinder blocks of shame?   That failed marriage from years ago.  Those mistakes you made when you were younger.  That one night stand.  Those times you drank too much.  Those words you said in anger.  Two blocks from here is the St. Charles County Jail.  A month ago I walked up the hill over there to visit a man who had been there for five months, waiting to hear what his final sentence would be.  He had a laundry list of all kinds of charges—all non-violent offenses.  In fact, the reason he had been waiting for his sentencing for so long was precisely because more charges against him kept coming up. But when I saw him, he was in a good mood, because it seemed like his time in the jail was almost finished.  He only had one week left before being released on parole. The week came and went and I never heard from him.  Last Wednesday I got a call from the jail saying that he was still there and he wanted me to visit.  So on Good Friday I walked up a hill to visit a man, a confessed criminal, who was still behind bars because the penalty for his crimes still was not finished.  As we talked on the phones through bulletproof glass I asked him what happened.  He said they had discovered more charges against him from his past and he would be locked up even longer.  And he said, “I just want it to be finished.” Some of you are locked in the prison of shame and guilt that continually tells you that it’s not finished.  And as soon as you think it might be, the enemy drudges up things from your past to pile on to your list of sins. “Remember that thing you did? It’s not finished.”  And you feel so unworthy of God’s love that you have dragged around the shame and guilt of your sins for your whole life.  Jesus commands you from the cross, to let those things go, because he has declared that it is finished. You, Christian, must realize that when the gospel offers forgiveness, it also means you can forgive yourself.  Why? Because what God thinks of you is more important than what you think of you.  Don’t put yourself in God’s place by standing as judge over yourself.  If God has declared you forgiven in Christ then it is not up to you to withhold forgiveness from yourself.  Since Jesus said “it is finished” we must not add anything to his perfect finished work.  God’s Word says in the book of Hebrews: Christ made the sacrifice for sin once for all when he offered up himself. (Heb. 7:27) No more sacrifices: It is finished. Christ secured eternal redemption once for all by means of his own blood. (Heb. 9:12) Your redemption is secure: It is finished. Christ appeared once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Heb. 9:26) Your sin is forgiven: It is finished. We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb. 10:10) There’s nothing you can offer God: It is finished. The final way that the word ‘tetelestai’ was used in the first-century was by master artists.  An artist would say ‘tetelestai’ when he finished a work of art in order to announce: “It’s perfect.  It’s complete.  Nothing else is needed.” Perhaps you’ve noticed this painting up here. The Mona Lisa is said to be the most talked about, most visited, most written about, most parodied, most well known work of art in the whole world.  It was finished by the Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci in the early 1500’s he painted this masterpiece and it is in the Louvre in Paris, visited by people all over the world. You know people have actually tried to damage the Mona Lisa; they’ve tried to vandalize it by throwing acid at it, or different objects, so this masterful work is actually kept in a climate controlled case of bullet proof glass.  Now obviously this isn’t the real Mona Lisa—the real Mona Lisa is valued at 782 Million dollars, making it by far the most valuable work of art in the whole world.  But just imagine I called the Louvre and asked if I could borrow the Mona Lisa so we could look at it and admire it, and they granted me permission, so I brought it here for us to admire. And as I look at it I start to think to myself, “Man I’m glad they let us take it out of the case to take a closer look at it, because as I look at this thing, I think I could definitely make some improvements on it…” *Add various marks and additions to the painting* And as I look at that I might say, “man that looks way better than the original.”  And if I did that to the real Mona Lisa, people all over the world, from every corner of the globe would be in an outrage! They would say, “Casey you’re not an artist! You can’t add to the master, Leonardo Da Vinci’s, work!’  You have no right to add to his perfect work.  Who do you think you are to add to the perfect, finished work of Leonardo Da Vinci? And I can ask you, who do you think you are to add to the perfect, finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ by trying to bear the burden of your guilt and your shame on yourself.  Friend, when you hang onto that guilt, and regret, and shame, and try to make up for your own sins, it’s like taking crayons to the finest masterpiece in the whole world. And it is infinitely worse to add to the work of the atonement of the cross of Christ, then to add to a painting by a man.  Stop dragging around the shame and the guilt for sins that God is able to forgive you of. Jesus didn’t say, “I’ve done my part now it’s time for you to do yours.”  He said, “It is finished!”  And after he finished his work, God raised him from the dead to give the gift of resurrection life to everyone who believes in him.  God gave his son whom he loved to die on the cross in your place, and bear the burden of your sin, and to finish the work of atoning for your sins, so that there is nothing left for you to do.  And the same John that recorded these words of Jesus wrote this, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) There’s nothing left for you to do.  There’s nothing left for you to add.  In Christ, you are redeemed, and it is finished.  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/EasterSunday-CaseyPeterson.mp3 Sun, 21 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 28:31 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_4.14.19.mp3 Sun, 14 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 29:48 Steve Branco Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/SteveBranco4819.mp3 Sun, 07 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 33:13 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older The Meaning of Church Membership Ephesians 5:25-27 Preached at Main Street Church on March 31st 2019, Covenant Affirmation Sunday (Some material taken from “9 Marks of a Healthy Church” by Mark Dever) Why should anyone join a church?  Two weeks ago my sister and brother-in-law took a trip to Arkansas to canoe the Buffalo River.  No one told them, but at this time of year, the shouldn’t have been canoeing on the Buffalo River.  At this time of year there are rapids, the river is flowing fast, and it is powerful, and the section of the river they were going to be on was the most dangerous section in the park.  But they didn’t know that.  There were a ton of reasons why no one should take a canoe on that part of the Buffalo River, but everyone assumed that they must’ve known those reasons. So no one told them the reason when they gave them the multi-latch high protection life-vests. No one told them the reason when they had to sign the death-waiver in the ranger’s office.  And no one told them the reason they shouldn’t when the pushed off into the ten mile stretch of river and noticed that no one else in sight was in a canoe.  But there were lots of reasons.  They ended up flipping out of the canoe into the frigid water two separate times, losing their packs and soaking their clothes.  They feared for their lives a couple of times when the water sucked them under with its powerful current.  They give credit to God’s grace for protecting them during those times, and fortunately they got out alive, but not without some scrapes, bruises, and a traumatic experience.  They could give you lots of reasons why you shouldn’t canoe that part of the buffalo river. I think a lot of Christians go through life without ever having anyone give them a reason for why they should join a church.  As we go through your Christian journey people just assume that we know the reasons we should be connected to a local church. So Today, I want to give you three reasons why you should join a local church. For Yourself To keep yourself accountable To keep yourself assured For Others To edify believers To evangelize non-believers For God For the sake of his message For the sake of his mission For Yourself To keep yourself accountable 2 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”  In joining a church we put ourselves in a position where we ask our brothers and sisters to hold us accountable to what we say we believe.  We hold ourselves accountable to see if we are in the faith. 1 Peter 5:5 “Submit yourselves to the elders.”  In other words, keep yourself accountable to the pastors and elders of a local church.  If you’re not part of a local church, who are you keeping yourself accountable to? And let me add this: accountability goes two ways. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.  Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”  As a pastor, I really want to know who I’m accountable for, because I’m accountable to God.  When you join this church I know that I’m accountable for you.  To keep yourself assured John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Joining a church won’t save you, but it can help give you assurance that you are saved.   Are you assured that you are in the faith? In Matthew 18 Jesus said what to do if another Christian sins against you.  He said first, try to work it out just between the two of you.  If that doesn’t work, bring two or three other Christians to try to forgive and restore that person.  And finally, if that doesn’t work, he says, “Tell it to the church” (Matt. 18:17).  If you’re not part of a church, how can you obey Jesus’ command here? Not to mention all the other commands throughout the New Testament that involve being connected with a local church.  If you’re not able to obey Jesus’ commands, how can you be assured that you’re actually one of his followers?  How can you be assured that you love him?  Join a local church for yourself: to keep yourself accountable, and to keep yourself assured Back when Brittany and I first got married we realized we needed something in our marriage desperately: a budget.  When you make a budget, you don’t make it for the people you have to pay, you make a budget for yourself.  You make it to keep yourself accountable, and to keep yourself assured that you are using your money wisely.   Most people who follow a strict—Dave Ramsey style—budget will tell you that sticking to a budget is not confining and restrictive, but it’s liberating.  And one of the key reasons to stick to a budget is for yourself—you need it to keep you accountable and assured.  The goal of church membership is not to restrict us from anything, but to keep us accountable to what is best for us and to what we really want, and to assure us that we are headed that way.  Just like you make a budget to keep yourself accountable and assured, Christians should join a local church to keep themselves accountable and assured.  I think a lot of Christians go throughout life sort of aimlessly and feel disconnected, like they don’t have anything giving them direction or grounding their spiritual life, and I think a big part of that is their connection to a local church.  For most people, trying to save money or get out of debt without commitment to a budget is nearly impossible, and in the same way, it’s impossible for your relationship with Christ to be what it is meant to be without meaningful connection to a local church.  Not every church has to have the same kind of membership process, membership covenant, or even refer to the people in their congregation as ‘members,’  but in order for your walk with Christ to be everything God intends it to be, there needs to be a local church that you can say, “those are my people,” “that’s my pastor,” and “I’m part of it.”  Join a church for yourself. For Others To edify others who are believers To ‘edify’ simply means to ‘build up.’  We should join a church to edify—or build up—believers. 1 Cor. 14:12 says “Strive to excel in building up the church” and that everything we do in our worship gatherings should be for “building up.”  Ephesians 4:16 says that when each member of the body of Christ is working together, “it grows and builds itself up in love.”  And Paul says in 1 Cor. 5:11 that believers are to “encourage one another and build one another up.” Joining a church isn’t just about ourselves, but it’s about others.  You have a spiritual gift, and a unique personality to edify other believers in a way that no one else can.  The place where that edification and building up is supposed to happen is the church.  Join a church to edify others who are believers. To evangelize others who are not yet believers Jesus said, “By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  That means that when you love others, it’s not just about those others, but it’s about other others as well.  ‘All people will know you are my disciples if you love one another.’  When we love others in the church, it shows others outside the church whose disciples we are.  Lesslie Newbiggin said, “Do things that will get people asking questions, the answer to which is the gospel.” When you commit yourself to a church full of imperfect people, and you choose to love those people, and sacrifice your time and resources, you’re doing things that will get people asking questions about the gospel.  If people who say they are committed to Jesus aren’t committed to his body and his bride, what kind of message does that send to others who are not yet believers?  Part of the reason to join a church is evangelize others who are not yet believers.  Join a church for others—do it to edify others who are believers, and to evangelize others who aren’t believers yet. Once when I was a campus minister I was having lunch in the cafeteria when an obviously frustrated college student sat down across the table from me.  He had obviously been struggling with whatever had been bothering him, and he finally said, “Where in the Bible does it say you have to go to church?”  I started to answer when he cut me off and said, “I’ve attended a bunch of different churches, and I just don’t feel like I’m learning things, they’re all telling me things I already know.  It’s just a bunch of fluff, and honestly, I feel like church is just slowing me down.” I realize that a statement like that, particularly coming from a college student, sounds very sophomoric, but we have to admit that in some ways he had a point.  If church were only about me getting what I think I need for my life, then perhaps for you, church would be slowing you down. I looked at the student and said, “Maybe the people in your church are going at a slower pace than you, but thats exactly why you need to be there.  Have you ever thought that maybe God wants to use you to link arms with them and pull them along at a faster pace? When we join a church it’s not just about us, but it’s about others as well.  We should join a church to edify other believers, and to evangelize those who aren’t believers yet.  Not only did that student need to commit to a church in order to help edify other Christians, but  his example was hurting his evangelism since he wasn’t showing “all people whose disciple he was by his love for other Christians.”  In fact, he was kind of doing the opposite. [Evangelize] There are a ton of ministries that aim to do evangelism in creative and effective ways, and we should praise God for them, but it’s impossible to faithfully reach our neighbors and the world without being connected to a local church.  Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”  If we really desire to reach others who don’t know Christ yet, our hearts will be with the church, because the church is God’s plan to evangelize the world.  Join a church to evangelize others who aren’t believers yet. [Edify] Use your spiritual gift, the things you’re passionate about, the experiences you’ve had to edify the body of Christ.  That might mean that if the Spirit impresses something on you to edify the body with during one of our gatherings that you come to the front, run it by me or Doug, and then share that with the church, but you know there are so many more ways to edify the church than by public speaking during our gatherings.  Maybe you’re great at praying for people.  Maybe you’re an older saint with wisdom that you can impart to someone younger through a discipleship relationship.  Maybe you have the gift of encouragement and someone needs that from you today.  Maybe you’re good with details and organizing things behind the scenes.  So many of those things edify others in profound ways.  Join a church for others—to edify others who are believers, and to evangelize others who aren’t believers yet. For God For the sake of God’s message God’s message is a message of reconciliation, and he communicates that message through his church. 2 Corinthians 5 says God has given us “the message of reconciliation” and that we are “ambassadors for Christ,” and that “God makes his appeal” through us.  Believers ought to be part of a local church for the sake of God’s message, because it’s impossible to convey the message of reconciliation by yourself.  The message of reconciliation isn’t just a message we give with our lips, but it’s a message we live with our lives.  Ephesians 2 says Jesus has saved us “that he might create in himself one new man…and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.”  When we join a church we are putting God’s message of reconciliation on display for the whole world. For the sake of God’s mission God’s mission is to the fill the earth with his glory, and just as with his message, God intends to accomplish his mission with the church.  Ephesians 2 tells us that in Christ we are being “built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”  The key word there is the word ‘together.’ God uses us to accomplish his mission together, because his mission can’t be accomplished alone.  We should join a church for the sake of God’s mission in the world.  Join a church for the sake of God’s message, and for the sake of God’s mission.  Join a church for God.  As I mentioned last week, taking public transportation in a foreign country can be a unique and panic inducing experience.  An old friend of mine in Korea used to take taxis all the time, but he would get nervous with how fast they would drive, so he asked a Korean friend to tell him how he could get the message across to his driver to slow down.  His friend told him, but the next time he got in a taxi he couldn’t quite remember how to ask the driver to slow down.  He thought it was something like the word ‘salsa.’ The driver started going faster than was comfortable for him, so he figured now would be the time to give his driver the message that he got nervous in fast cars, so he tried politely asking the driver to slow down, he said ‘salsa.”  The driver looked confused, and kept going.  So he said it again.  The driver raised his eyebrows and sped up.  The driver didn’t know what was going on, but his message wasn’t getting through, so he said it again.  The driver started going even faster.  At this point the car was in an all out nascar race with the man in the back yelling ‘Salsa!’ ‘Salsa!’ When they finally arrived at the destination the driver yelled at the man to get out and sped off without making him pay.  When he got inside my friend told his Korean buddy the story of what had happened.  He asked him, “well what were you saying?” I was saying “Salsa.”  That means slow down, right?  A big grin came across his Korean friend’s face.  He had gotten his messages mixed up.  He said, “You weren’t telling him to slow down.”  “What was I saying then?” He asked.  “Let’s just say you were telling him that you desperately needed to get to a bathroom.” When we as Christians say we love Jesus, but aren’t committed to his church, we are actually sending the opposite message.  In fact, we’re actually working against his mission.  God’s message of reconciliation won’t be communicated by people who aren’t reconciled together, and God’s mission to fill the earth with his glory won’t be advanced by people who refuse to fill the church.  What message is your life sending?  What mission are you a part of?  Have you struggled to commit to a local church because of the difficulty of reconciliation with the people in it? Because of reconciliation with God?  Ask God for the strength to reconcile, because he’s the only one who can give it to you.  Maybe you’ve been so focused on your life’s mission that you’ve lost sight of God’s mission.  Are things in your life keeping you from leaning into God’s mission through the church?  Maybe you need to cut some things out of your life.  Maybe you just need to reshuffle your priorities so that God’s mission—‘aka’ his kingdom—comes first. We should commit to a local church for God—for the sake of his message, and for the sake of his mission. The trouble with church is it’s made up of imperfect people, shaped by imperfect preaching and imperfect programs that comes from imperfect pastors.  But thankfully, Jesus who is perfect in his power, his plan, and his purpose, has provided us with the Holy Spirit, and he still loves us, because we are his bride that he will—one day—perfectly purify. Ephesians 5 says, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  1 Peter 1 says that the church was “ransomed with blood of Christ.”  Jesus loves his church.  He loves his bride with all of her warts and wrinkles.  When Jesus restored Peter after being raised from the dead, do you remember what he asked him?  Three times he asked Peter, ‘do you love me?’  And each time when Peter said yes, Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep.’  Which means that your love for the church is a direct correlation to how much you love Jesus.  You’re love for the church is an indicator of your love for Jesus himself, because the church is his Bride. Whenever you start to feel negatively towards the church, and you start pointing out all of her flaws and imperfections—which are absolutely there—imagine Jesus tapping you on the shoulder.  And when you turn to look, and realize who it is, he says, “Hey Buddy, that’s my wife.”  The church is imperfect, but Christ is perfect The church is weak, but Christ is strong The church is broken, but Christ makes whole The church can wound, but Christ can heal The church can be ugly, but Christ makes her beautiful Ephesians 5 says, “Christ loved the church and hgave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by ithe washing of water jwith the word, 27 so kthat he might present the church to himself in splendor, lwithout spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” Join a church for yourself, join a church for others, and join a church for God.  He loves her, and so should we. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey33119.mp3 Sun, 31 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 28:44 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Final Words: Stand Firm in Christ 1 Peter 5:6-14 Preached at Main Street Church on March 24th 2019 1 Peter 5:6-14  “6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 12 By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. 13 She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. 14 Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.” Have you ever taken public transportation in a foreign country? We try standing firm on our own (in our own strength) 1 Corinthians 10:12 “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” In these last 9 verses Peter gives us his final word of encouragement: Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him (Are you standing in Christ?) Stand in Christ When You’re Anxious (v. 6-8a) By Humbling Yourself (v. 6) By Being Watchful (v. 7-8a) Stand in Christ When You Doubt (v. 8b-9) By Resisting the Devil (v. 8b-9a) By Knowing Your Brothers (v. 9b) Stand in Christ When You Fall (v. 10-14) By Trusting in God’s Plan (v. 10-11) By Believing in God’s Grace (v. 12-14) Stand in Christ When We’re Anxious (v. 6-8a) Verse 6 says, “6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. We need to stand in Christ when we’re anxious, and there are two ways we do that: By Humbling Yourself By Being Watchful By Humbling Yourself “6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, Jesus humbled himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, under the hand of God, so that at the proper time, he would be exalted.  Philippians 2 says, “8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him” If Jesus humbled himself when he was anxious, how much more should we? Dwight Moody said, “Let God have your life; He can do more with it than you can.” Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We’re Anxious 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Matthew 26 tells us that in the garden Jesus was “sorrowful and troubled.” He was anxious, so he cast all his anxieties on his heavenly Father  It’s not a sin to have anxiety—clearly, Jesus was anxious here—and for good reason.  The issue is what you do when you’re anxious.  Pride tells us to hold onto our anxiety and handle the issues ourselves Humility lets go of anxiety and casts it on Jesus Pride says God doesn’t care about you Humility knows how much God cares Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We’re Anxious The second way we Stand in Christ When we’re anxious is By Being Watchful 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. It means to be vigilant; be aware of oncoming temptations and threats By using the word ‘watchful’ here Peter is alluding to the time he fell asleep in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him to pray with him and he told them "remain here, and watch with me.” but as they waited there in the garden, they were not watchful, and they fell asleep.  When Jesus found them he said, “could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”  Standing in Christ When We’re Anxious means humbling ourselves and being watchful, because if we don’t humble ourselves, we won’t be watchful.  Pride says I don’t need to be watchful because I can handle anything that comes my way Humility knows I need to be watchful because I need God’s help in my life Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We’re Anxious In April 1521 the man responsible for igniting the Protestant Reformation stood before the Holy Roman Emperor.  His name was Martin Luther.  He had been marched to the city of ‘Vorms’ to publicly recant his teachings that said salvation was by faith alone, that people should have the Bible in their own language, and that people should repent and pray directly to Jesus rather than through a priest or a deceased saint.  If He didn’t recant he would  face not only excommunication from the church, but most likely execution as a heretic. He had many reasons to be anxious.  And he spent the night watching and humbling himself before God. Luther stood before the emperor, and after defending his beliefs with Scripture he famously said, “Here I stand, I can do no other; God help me.” As Luther stood before the emperor he stood in Christ by humbling himself and being watchful. In his well-known song Luther wrote these words: Did we in our own strength confide/our striving would be losing/were not the right man on our side/the man of God’s own choosing/Dost ask who that may be?/Christ Jesus, it is He;/Lord Sabaoth His name,/from age to age the same,/And He must win the battle When we’re anxious, we must stand in Christ by humbling ourselves and being watchful. Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We’re Anxious What situation is going on where you’ve been trying to stand alone?  What anxieties do you need to cast on your heavenly Father?  Are you living in a spiritual stupor, or a are you being watchful?  Stand in Christ by humbling yourself before God just as Christ did And be watchful so you won’t enter into temptation. Let someone into your life to help you carry the load of your anxiety.  Confess to a friend what is weighing you down.  Humble yourself. Commit to starting your morning with Scripture instead of a smartphone.  Don’t get drunk on social media and an artificial semblance of life, but be sober-minded, and be watchful Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We’re Anxious In the next two verses we see we must: Stand in Christ When We Doubt (v. 8b-9) Picking up in verse 8 it says, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” We Stand in Christ When we Doubt: By Resisting the Devil (v. 8b-9a) By Knowing Our Brothers (v. 9b) By Resisting the Devil (v. 8b-9a) Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Peter describes the Devil this way because he experienced it firsthand during his sleepy night in the garden of Gethsemane. Satan’s goal is to get you to doubt God.  He wants you to doubt God’s goodness, doubt God’s wisdom, doubt God’s power, and ultimately, to doubt God’s love.  It’s what He did to Adam and Eve, and it’s what he wants to do to you. Our only hope of resisting the devil’s desire to devour our faith is to Stand in Christ When We Doubt. Jesus told Peter in the garden of gethsemane: “pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” But Peter didn’t pray; and Satan preys on the prayerless.  He preys on the prayerless and pounces on pride. Standing in Christ when we doubt mean’s resisting the devil. Verse 9 says: “9 Resist him, firm in your faith,” So the question is: how can you resist the devil and be firm in your faith when you doubt? Here is the key: After they shared the last supper together Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,” (Luke 22:31) This means Satan wanted to shake Peter up just like wheat was shaken, and cause him to fall.  But after telling Peter that Satan wanted shake him, Jesus said these key words: “32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” Standing in Christ when you doubt doesn’t mean you never doubt, it means that when you doubt, your faith won’t fail because you are standing in Christ. Although Peter would doubt God and would fall, his standing in Christ ensured that his faith would not fail.  He is telling us here not to make the same mistake as him, but to resist the devil. Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We Doubt And we do that by resisting the Devil, and by: By Knowing Our Brothers (v. 9b) Peter writes in v. 9: “Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. One of the best cures for doubt is knowing the testimony of our brothers and sisters. There is something about hearing and knowing the struggle stories, suffering stories, and success stories of our brothers and sisters that helps us to stand in Christ when we doubt. When Peter says that we can stand in Christ when we doubt by knowing our brothers, I think he intends to direct us to his own story. In Luke 22 when Jesus told Peter he had prayed for him that his faith would not fail, he also said, “And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Knowing Peter’s story helps us Stand in Christ When I doubt, because we know that we’re not alone.  We Stand in Christ when we doubt by knowing our brothers. Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We Doubt In 480 BC the Persians led a devastating military campaign against the Greeks.  Led by King Xerxes the power of Persian military seemed like an irresistible force.    Fear swept through the Greek city-states with everyone doubting they would be able to stand against the ferocity of the Persians.  No one had been able to resist them. But in order for the Persians to complete their invasion of Greece they would have to pass through the narrow coastal passage of Thermopylae, known as “The Hot Gates.”  Despite the doubt of others, a small group of 300 Spartans and 700 other Greeks led by King Leonidas of Sparta resisted the Persian army—which according to ancient sources numbered over one million. The small band of brothers stood against the Persians and resisted their attacks for 3 days.  Although every one of the resisters ended up giving their lives, the story of their courage reached their Greek brotherhood throughout the land, and emboldened them to stand firm in resisting the enemy.  The following year, a Greek army, inspired by their Spartan brothers, decisively defeated the Persians in their final stand, and ended the Persian invasion. Stand in Christ when you doubt by resisting the Devil, and you just might inspire—or be inspired—by your brothers to do the same. Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We Doubt Have you been resisting the Devil in your life, or has your prayerlessness made you his prey?  Do you know your brothers and sisters so when you doubt you can lean on them? When you find yourself doubting God’s goodness, resist the Devil’s schemes by humbling yourself in prayer.  Be honest with God about your doubts.  You won’t tell him anything he’s never heard before.  Come before him with humility and you will send Satan running.  James 4:7 says “Submit yourselves…to God.  Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.” Jonathan Edwards said, “Nothing sets a person so much out of the Devil’s reach as humility.” Stand in Christ when you doubt by resisting the devil. Maybe you’re not struggling with doubt at this time, but there’s always someone who is.  Let’s be a church that’s intentional about sharing testimonies of God’s faithfulness to us.  Has God blessed you recently?  Did he come through in some way that you never would have expected?  Bring that up at the dinner table.  Mention that in your next conversation.  Share that blessing with your Christian brothers and sisters. Standing in Christ When We Doubt means we stand together with our brothers in Christ. Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We Doubt We need to Stand in Christ When We’re Anxious, Stand in Christ When We Doubt, and lastly, we need to: Stand in Christ When We Fall (v. 10-14) Verse 10: "10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 12 By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.” Peter tells us here that the way we Stand in Christ When We Fall is: By Trusting in God’s Plan (v. 10-11) By Believing in God’s Grace (v. 12-14) By Trusting in God’s Plan (v. 10-11) Peter says, “10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Not only had Peter learned what it felt like to fall, but he learned something about trusting in God’s plan after he had fallen. After he fell and denied Jesus, Peter went back to his old life-plan: fishing for fish instead of for men.  But God had a different plan, and Jesus went to find Peter. It’s almost as if Jesus planned to meet Peter in the same way they first met, when Jesus called Peter to follow him.  As though Jesus wanted to remind Peter that his plan for Peter hadn’t changed.  Jesus himself restored, confirmed, strengthened, and established Peter, and said the very same words as the first time they met on a beach “Follow me.” (John 21:19) Trusting in God’s plan means believing that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.”  Trusting in God’s plan mean’s believing that even if you think Jesus would never take you back, his plan for you has not changed.  Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We Fall Standing in Christ When You Fall means trusting in God’s plan.  It also means: By Believing in God’s Grace (v. 12-14) In verse 12 Peter writes, “I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.” God’s call for you to stand in Christ doesn’t mean you never fall, it means that when you fall, you fall on the rock.  That’s what the true grace of God is.  None of us can stand on our own, which is why we need to stand in Christ.  That’s why we need God’s grace. They key to standing in Christ isn’t about how you stand, but how Christ stood.  Christ humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time God highly exalted him Christ resisted the devil and intercedes on our behalf, praying that our faith may not fail Christ suffered in our place so that we might be restored, confirmed, strengthened, and established by his Spirit.  So Peter says, “this is the true grace of God, stand firm in it.” The perfect life that Jesus lived for us, the death that he died in our place, and the resurrection life that he gives to all who believe in him—this is the true grace of God.” Standing in Christ when we fall mean believing in God’s grace. God’s grace doesn’t mean you never fall, it means Christ will never let you fail. The way we Stand in Christ When We Fall is by Trusting in God’s Plan, and Believing in God’s Grace. Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him When We Fall Judges 13 tells the account of a man named Manoah and his wife being visited by the angel of the Lord who told them that although it was impossible for them to have children, they would have a son, and God’s plan was to use him to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines (Judges 13:5) Well, Manoah and his wife did have a son, just as the Lord had graciously planned.  They named him Samson.  Despite the holy expectations surrounding Samson’s birth, his life was defined by ‘falling.’  He fell in love with a Philistine woman, He fell in love with a prostitute, he fell in love with Delilah.  He fell to his own pride and arrogance, and ultimately, he fell victim to the Philistines, the ones he was planned  to conquer.  Samson found himself chained in a Philistine temple with his eyes gouged out.  He had fallen from grace.  Had God’s plan—announced from his birth—changed?  Had God’s grace run out?  It appeared that way, but they hadn’t.  I wonder if Samson remembered what God’s plan for him was, and started to trust it, against all odds.  One final time, Samson would believe in God’s grace and call on him.  God graciously answered Samson’s cry, and used Samson for his plan that he had announced from the beginning: to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.  Samson pushed the pillars of the pagan Philistine temple over, and defeated the enemies of God’s people.  In the final moments of his life, Samson trusted in God’s plan, and believed in God’s grace. Hebrews 11 calls Samson someone who had faith, because although he fell, he trusted in God’s plan and believed in God’s grace.  Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him Even When We Fall When we fall, our tendency is to give up on God's plan and doubt his grace.  But standing firm isn’t about how we stand, but how Christ stood.  What plans of being used by God have you given up on because you think you’ve fallen too many times?  What area of your life do you think God has run out of grace for you in?  One verse that you ought to memorize is Philippians 1:6. It says, “And I am sure of this: that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.” It means: God didn’t redeem you from your sin and then think to himself, ‘Aw, that didn’t work out.’ He poured out his grace on you because he has a plan that he himself guarantees will come to pass completely when he returns.  If you think you’ve fallen away from God’s plan for you, or fallen outside of his grace, you need to surround yourself with believers who will speak God’s truth into your life and who will remind you of the gospel.  We have a number of small groups starting this month and next month. Consider joining one of those.  Perhaps as I’ve been speaking God has brought someone to your mind that you know struggles to believe in God’s grace for them.  Get coffee with them this week.  Send an encouraging text message to them letting them know you’re thinking of them.  Ask what you can pray for. We need to Stand in Christ Even When We Fall, and we do that by trusting in his plan and believing in his grace. Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him Jesus told a story of two men.  One man was a fool.  The other man was wise.  Both men built houses, but the difference was where each man built his house.  The man who was a fool built his house on the sand, and when the rains fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against his house and it came crashing down and was destroyed. The wise man built his house on the rock.  And when the rains fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against his house, the wise man’s house stood firm.  The way Jesus tells the story, the difference between the wise man and the foolish man was not the strength of the materials they used, or the cleverness of their construction.  The key was where the house stood.  Where do you stand this morning?  Have you been standing on the shifting sands of self-reliance and human pride, or do you stand on the rock of ages, Jesus Christ? In the storms of life the floods of anxiety will come, and the winds of doubt will blow and beat you down until you fall, but in those storms and floods may we be able to say with that great preacher Charles Spurgeon, “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages.” Since Jesus Stood Firm, We Must Stand in Him As Peter concludes his letter: “Peace to all of you who are in Christ.” https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/3-24-19Casey.mp3 Sun, 24 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 37:56 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/031719Doug.mp3 Sun, 17 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:21 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Tom_3102019.mp3 Sun, 10 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 30:12 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older How to Honor Christ When the World Dishonors You 1 Peter 3:8-17 Preached at Main Street Church on February 17th, 2019 1st Peter is a letter written by one of Jesus’ most well-known disciples: Peter.  Peter wrote this letter to Christians in the region of Asia Minor, or modern day Turkey just a couple decades after the earthly ministry of Jesus.  The reason he wrote it was because those Christians were being slandered, ostracized, and vilified by their neighbors and the people in their society.  Peter summarizes his encouragement to them at the very end of his letter in 5:12 when he says, “this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.” Which is why we have entitled this series: ‘Standing Firm in Shaky Times.’ The title of today’s sermon is: ‘How To Honor Christ When the World Dishonors You.’  In Chapter 1 and the first half of chapter 2 Peter reminds us who we are and what God has done for us—that we have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and as a result we are a new kind of people; we are different; we don’t fit the world.  Then in the second half of chapter 2 and into chapter 3 Peter applies that reality to different situations.  He says, “Here’s what that means for you as a citizen, as a servant, as a sojourner, as a husband, as a wife.”  Then, in our text for today—3:8-17—he makes a universal application for all Christians, no matter your station in life, and in he tells them, “Here is How to Honor Christ When the World Dishonors You.”  Right after they shared the Last Supper together, Peter made a promise to Jesus.  He said, “Lord, though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away…even if I must die with you” (Matt. 26:34-35).  I am convinced that Peter really meant that, and that he truly was ready to fight to the death for Jesus.  The reason I think this is because of how we see Peter act just a few hours after he said it.  While Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane, a band of religious officials and Roman soldiers surrounded Jesus and his disciples with lanterns and torches and weapons.  They came, led by Judas Iscariot, to arrest Jesus.  Put yourself in that setting.  It is the middle of the night and there are no electric lights, everyone should be sleeping.  Then in the distance you see torches flickering in the darkness, and they are approaching you.  You hear the clattering of swords and armor as the group grows closer.  In keeping with their military training the Roman soldiers cut off all exits.  Adrenaline starts coursing through your veins, all your senses are heightened.  The hairs on the back of your neck are standing on end.  Fight or flight.  But there’s no way out.  You’re surrounded.  There is no flight option here, only fight.  Peter knew this day would come.  He was ready.  He was prepared to defend his Lord, even to death.  The words he had spoken were still fresh in his mind, “I will never fall away…even if I must die with you.”  This wasn’t combat at a distance that simply involved pulling a trigger, this was hand to hand engagement.  He might have been scared, but he was no punk.  He would stand by his word to Jesus, even if that meant killing for him.  Peter was the first to take action: he drew his sword and swung it at the nearest man’s neck.  He made contact, but the shadows had obscured things and the man had dodged the lethal blow, but he was wounded.  Peter had cut off his right ear.  Before anyone had time to react a voice pierced through the darkness. “No more of this!” (Luke 22:51).  It was Jesus.  John 18:11 says, “So Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword into its sheath;”  Jesus was arrested.  The disciples scattered.  And just a little while later in a courtyard around a charcoal fire, with a bloody sword and rebuke from Jesus hanging in his mind, Peter denied his Lord. Peter tried to honor Jesus by swinging a sword.  He tried to honor Jesus by attacking those who were about to dishonor Jesus.  I think if we’re honest, when the world surrounds us with torches and weapons, ready to put Jesus on trial, too often our reaction is to unsheathe our sword and swinging it at the nearest target.  Like Peter, we’ve made a commitment to Christ, and we want to stand by it.  And in the midst of the torches and weapons on social media, and at protest rallies, and amidst political discussion, and in blogs, and books, and barber shops as Christians draw their freshly sharpened swords ready to baptize them in the blood of the enemies of Christ, the voice of Jesus today penetrates through all of that darkness and says to the church, “No more of this!” Far too often, in our attempts to honor Christ in a world that dishonors us for our faith, we make the same mistake as Peter.  And in this passage of Peter’s letter he is telling us that when the world dishonors you because of your faith, you don’t honor Christ by swinging a sword.  You honor Christ by showing that you have such a great hope that you don’t have to swing a sword. The Main Point of the Passage: Christ Is Our Hope The main thing that Peter is telling us in this passage is that the way we are to honor Christ is by hoping in Him. In 1:3 he tells us that we have been “born again to a living hope” In 1:13 he says, “set your hope fully on God’s grace.” In 1:21 he says God raised Jesus from the dead “so that your faith and hope are in God.” And in our passage today, the key to the whole thing is verse 15: “honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15). The key that Peter wants his readers to get in this passage is that Christ is honored in our hearts when our hearts are hopeful in him.  And because of that, we must honor him when we are dishonored.  Since Christ is our hope, we must honor him when we are dishonored.  So the question is: how?  How do we honor Christ when the world dishonors us?  Peter is the perfect person to answer this question, since he got it so miserably wrong the first time around, and learned from Jesus himself how to respond when we are dishonored.  Here is what Peter tells us: The first way we are to honor Christ when the world dishonors us is by Displaying Our Hope in Christ The second way to honor Christ when the world dishonors us is by Defending Our Hope in Christ.  In order to Display Our Hope in Christ we must 1) feel what Jesus feels, and 2) do what Jesus does In order to Defend Our Hope in Christ we have to 1) fear Christ more than people and 2) give a reason for our hope I am going to go through and attempt to explain how Peter shows us how to do each of these things, and then—as an example—I will give you the reason for the hope that is in me.  We Must Display Our Hope in Christ (v. 8-12) The first thing Peter tells believers in verses 8-12 is that in order to honor Christ when the world dishonors us, we must display our hope in Christ. 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. Everything that Peter is saying here is practical.  He is saying: when you are dishonored, this is how you are to act: you are to display your hope in Christ.  And he gives two ways to display your hope in Christ 1) by feeling what Jesus feels, and 2) by doing what Jesus does By Feeling What Jesus Feels Look at verse 8: “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” First of all, Peter is addressing this to all believers.  All believers at all times are called to embody everything that is in verse 8.  Just imagine if all Christians displayed these things in their lives. The unique thing about this list of five things in verse 8 is that it is not a list of five things to do, but it is a list of five feelings that Christians are supposed to feel.  This might seem contrary to popular thinking: How do you obey a command to feel?  How to do you command someone to feel something?  The answer is: if God can command Lazarus—who had been dead for three days—to stand up and walk, then he can command us to feel things we don’t feel.  The same God who gives the command can give the ability to do it. If we feel what Jesus feels, the result is that we display where our hope is.  Let’s take a quick look at each one of these things: Unity of Mind - this word for mind is not limited to just the intellect and the way we think, but also what we feel.  So unity of mind means being united in the way we think and feel about things.  Sympathy - sympathy means to enter into how someone else feels.  Here is where we get this wrong a lot: sympathy isn’t about feeling the tragedy, but about feeling the way other people experience the tragedy.  If we have unity of mind, this will lead us to have sympathy. Brotherly Love - This is the kind of love that overcomes barriers and disagreements because we are family.  We deeply care about each other as brothers.  This flows from sympathy that is based in unity of mind. A Tender Heart - this literally means “good bowels.”  It means you feel things in your gut.  You don’t have thick barriers up to keep yourself from getting hurt by people, always on the look out for self-preservation, but you are open and responsive to others.  This is the result of brotherly love towards others that comes from sympathy that stems from unity of mind. A Humble Mind - Again, the word mind is not limited to intellect, but is also emotive.  A humble mind puts others first, seeks the best for others and is not self-promoting.  Jesus exemplified this.  All of these feelings are tightly knit together, and the basis of them is Jesus.  Peter saw all of these things displayed in Jesus’ life, and he’s saying: “If we are going to display our hope, we have to feel what Jesus feels, and this is how to do that.”  Look at what Paul wrote to the church at Philippi.  Listen for some common themes in what Paul says in Phlippians 2:1-4: “So if there is any encouragement in Christ…any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition of conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves…Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus.” Paul and Peter are saying the same things to Christians here: they are saying if we want to display where our hope is, then we need to feel what Jesus feels in the way we respond to and interact with people. All of us need more of every one of these feelings.  So here is what we need to do: 1) Repent for not feeling these things like God does 2) Request God to make us feel these things the way he does.  Pray that God would give you these things.  Pray that God will help you to feel what he feels. Here is why it is absolutely necessary to feel what Jesus feels if we are going to display our hope in Christ to the world: If we don’t feel what Jesus feels in the face of suffering and dishonor, we will not do what Jesus does in the face of suffering and dishonor. B) By Doing What Jesus Does Look at verse 9: “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless,” This is the absolute opposite of human nature.  If someone hits you, you hit back.  If someone insults you, you insult back.  And Peter is saying, don’t hit back.  Don’t insult back.  In fact, he is saying, do even more than that, in fact, bless them.  Romans 12:14 says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” I want us to see what this really means here.  It is one thing for you to simply remain silent when someone reviles you for your faith, but it is a completely different thing to bless them. The word bless is the word eulogeo; where we get our word ‘eulogy.’ It means ‘to speak well of.’ And to ask God to ‘cause to prosper, to make happy, to bestow blessings on.’  Peter is saying, “When people hope the worst for you, you are called to hope the best for them.”  This is why Peter led with verse 8 and told us that we need to feel what Jesus feels, because you can’t bless those who revile you, and do what Jesus does, unless you really feel what Jesus feels.  It won’t be genuine. You can’t just say flash a fake smile and say, “God bless you.” That’s not actually blessing them. So when society reviles you and speaks evil of you because of your faith in God’s Word, and your views of marriage, and human sexuality, and raising children, and human life in the womb, and human life in the prison system, and how you acknowledge the reality of racism and injustice, and your concern for people with special needs and the elderly at the end of their life, and words start getting thrown at you: bigot, homophobic, transphobic, narrow-minded, old-fashioned, religious zealot, Bible-thumper… You don’t unsheathe your sword ready to defend yourself.  “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless,” You speak kindly to those people, you honor them as people made in God’s image, you hope the best for their lives, you don’t wish ill-will upon them, you want their relationships to flourish, you want them to experience joy, you bless them.  And here is the key to why we are to do what Jesus does in verse 9: “for to this you were called, [so] that you may obtain a blessing.” Does that make you uncomfortable? Is Peter saying there is something we have to do in order to obtain a blessing? The answer is, ‘yes.’  And Peter has it on good authority to say such a thing. In Matthew 5:7 Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” In other words, ‘If you don’t show mercy, you don’t get mercy.’  The merciful receive mercy, the merciless go to Hell.  James 2:13 says, “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.”  So if you don’t show mercy, you don’t get mercy.  And Peter is saying you show mercy to those who revile you and speak evil against you, “for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” Not only did Jesus say this in the sermon on the mount, but Peter supports his point here by quoting from Psalm 34: 10 For “Whoever desires to love life     and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil     and his lips from speaking deceit; 11  let him turn away from evil and do good;     let him seek peace and pursue it. 12  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,     and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” In other words, Peter can argue like this, because the OT argues like this.  Peter can say, you are called to show mercy to others, that you may obtain a blessing, because that is what God says in Psalm 34. The key here is the word ‘called.’  The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is not of works, it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8) In fact, Peter has already said the same thing at the very beginning of this letter in 1:3, “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.”  Peter is saying if you are a believer, you have been called to do what Jesus does because you have been born again, and the new birth changes you, and that changed-ness is neccessary for salvation. You don’t obtain the blessing unless you do what Jesus does, and you don’t do what Jesus does unless you have been born again. The new birth makes you like Jesus, and looking like Jesus is what it takes to be saved. 1 Peter 2:23 says, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten,”  You, Christian, are called to do the very same thing, and if you don’t, you will not obtain a blessing.  So, feeling what Jesus feels causes us to do what Jesus does, and this displays our hope in Christ when the world dishonors us.  Here is how this displays our hope in Christ: We do not return evil for evil because your greatest hope is that God will not return evil for evil to us. Our lives become a foretaste of what we are hoping for — (v. 15 - being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;) The evidence that we are born of God and will obtain a blessing is that our lives become a picture of our hope.  That displays—vividly—our hope to the world.  The first Christian to ever give their life because of their faith in Christ was a man by the name of Stephen.  Stephen was murdered by a crowd of people throwing rocks at his head.  And as he was being reviled, and having evil done towards him, as he was being murdered, do you know what he said? He said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60).  Why would Stephen say that of the people murdering him?  Why would he ask God to have mercy on them?  Why would he bless them? The reason Stephen would do such a thing is because Stephen’s greatest hope was that that was exactly what Jesus would do to him. When we bless others who revile us, we are displaying our hope to them.  We are displaying a picture of what we hope Christ will do for us.  You must put your hope so genuinely in the blessing you hope to receive from God in the future that it seeps out into your life now. We display our hope in Christ by feeling what Jesus feels and doing what Jesus does.  That displays an unshakable hope that the world cannot explain.  2. We Must Defend Our Hope In Christ (V. 13-17) Once we have displayed our hope in Christ, Peter tells us that we are going to need to defend our hope in Christ.  Peter continues in verse 13 and says, “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.” In verse 13 Peter is saying that typically if you do what is good and what is right no one is going to bother you, but he knows the reality is that Christians will suffer for righteousness’ sake, and he is saying when you do have no fear of the people persecuting you, but fear Christ instead.  By Fearing Christ More Than People So the first way we are to defend our Hope in Christ is by fearing Christ more than we fear people.  That is what Peter is telling us. In verses 14 and 15 Peter is alluding to something the prophet Isaiah told God’s people.  Isaiah 8:12-13 says, “Do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.  But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.  Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” And here Peter is saying, don’t fear the people who persecute you, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. The word ‘fear’ here means, concern, respect, and reverence.  Peter is saying “be more concerned of what Jesus thinks about you than what the world thinks about you.  Worry more about Jesus’ attitude towards you than the world’s attitude about you.  Be more afraid of displeasing Jesus than you are afraid of displeasing the world.” So the way to honor Christ when the world dishonors us is to fear him more than we fear people. V. 15, “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy,” How do we do that? v. 14, “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,” We honor Christ by defending our hope in him, and we do that by fearing him more than we fear people. B) By Giving A Reason For Your Hope Peter goes on to say, “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; Not only do we defend our hope by fearing Christ more than people, but we defend our hope by giving a reason for it.  Christ is honored when we defend our hope by giving a reason for it.  I think probably most of us would be convicted if we asked ourselves, ‘when was the last time someone asked us for a reason for the hope that’s in us?’  And I think the reason most of us don’t have people asking us that, is because most of us don’t do what Jesus does, because we don’t feel what Jesus feels.  The root causes the fruit, and when people see the fruit, they’ll ask about it. “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;” How does that verse make you feel?  Do you feel burdened and weighted down?  Or does it make you feel light and liberated?  I think this verse has been grossly misapplied.  Many people think that this verse means that they need to figure out every answer to every question that an unbeliever might have about their faith, that they need to learn every scientific detail of creation, that they need to read philosophy books about human reason and faith, and that they need to learn how to parse worldview and win arguments and that they need to prepare just what to say in any situation they might find themselves in.  That’s not what this verse is saying. Jesus told Peter and the rest of the disciples, “You will be dragged before governors and kings…” (Matt. 10:19) “And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” So Peter isn’t telling us to memorize ironclad airtight arguments about the existence of God or the reliability of Scripture or the resurrection of Jesus that are impenetrable to counter claims, he is saying “honor Christ in your heart by hoping in Him, and when people ask you why you hope in him, give them your reason!” Example: My Reason I want to model this for you.  A few months ago I met with a person (who had seen the hope in Doug) and they asked me what it was that made us so different. I told them that Jesus had set me free to stop trying to find my happiness in things in the world, and let me find my ultimate happiness in God, and in my best moments, all my joy comes from knowing him, and I know it’s real because I’ve experienced it, and I know him. There are 5,686 ancient Greek manuscripts for the New Testament, but that is not ultimately the reason I trust God’s Word. It’s because as I read Scripture it is self-authenticating, and God’s Spirit confirms the truth of it in my Spirit and works it’s power in my life.  And friend, if you don’t trust God’s word, it’s not as though if there were 5,687 ancient NT manuscripts then you would trust it.  The reason I have hope in the resurrection of Jesus isn’t ultimately because of all the historical evidence recorded by both biblical and extra biblical sources that prove it’s veracity, but I have hope that Jesus is alive because I know him.  The reason I have hope in the power of the cross of Christ is not ultimately because of scientific data or philosophical reasoning, but I have hope in the power of the cross because I have experienced it’s power to change me into someone who looks, and feels, and acts more like Jesus.  “Yet do it with gentleness and respect.” So when Peter says, “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you;” He tells you how you are to be prepared for that, “by honoring in your heart Christ the Lord as holy.”  The more you hope in Christ, the more you honor him in your heart, and the more you honor him in your heart, the more you will be ready to give a reason for your hope.  If you don’t feel ready, if you don’t know your reason, Peter is telling you what you need to do.  You need to give Jesus a higher place of honor in your heart, and put more hope in him. Ask yourself the question: why do you hope in Christ? What is your reason? Is it because in the darkest moment of your life Christ met you there? Is it because God broke through the damage of relationships in your life?  Is it simply that you were reading the Bible as an unbeliever and one day, you met Jesus there? You might say, “You’re using spiritual language.” I sure am, because the reason for my hope is spiritual.”  Peter is telling us how to honor Christ when the world dishonors us.  If we feel what Jesus feels, that will lead us to do what Jesus does, and when we do what Jesus does we are displaying our hope in Christ, and that honors Jesus.  When we display our hope in Christ, people are going to ask us about it, and we will have the opportunity to defend our hope in Him.  And when we fear Christ more than we fear people, Christ is honored in our hearts, and that causes us to be ready to be ready to give a reason for why we have such a hope.  Peter concludes by saying, “[Give your reason] with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.” I think when Peter wrote those words, he had Jesus in mind. “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.” It is the middle of the night.  Torches  are flickering in the darkness, and they are approaching.  The sounds of clattering swords and armor grow as the group gets closer.  Peter’s instincts take over.  He swings his sword and cuts off a man’s ear.  And what stands out to me as I take a closer look at that event, is that Peter never paid for that crime.  He wasn’t arrested, he wasn’t beaten.  He wasn’t put on trial.  But he tried to kill a man by swinging a sword at his neck. He didn’t kill the man, but he maimed him.  He drew blood.  But he didn’t suffer for doing that evil.  Luke tells us that the man whom Peter injured was named Malchus, a servant of Caiaphas, the high priest who would be responsible for putting Jesus to death.  Luke 22:51 says, “But Jesus said, ‘No more of this!’ And he touched his ear and healed him.”  The last miracle Jesus did before his crucifixion was to heal a servant of the man who wanted him dead.  When he was reviled, he blessed.  Peter wounded the man, but he was let off to go free.  Jesus healed the man, but he would pay the ultimate price.  How do we honor Christ when the world dishonors us?  By showing that our hope is that although we deserve to be wounded, Jesus heals.  https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/02_17_19Casey.mp3 Sun, 17 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:13 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2110Doug1Peter16-25.mp3 Sun, 03 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 47:17 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Standing Firm in Our Identity 1 Peter 2:1-10 Preached at Main Street Church on January 27th, 2019 We are in the middle of our series on 1 Peter - Standing Firm in Shaky Times The question of 1 Peter is: how can a Christian people live in a non-Christian society? Written by Peter in the middle of the first century to Christians ostracized by society They became the subjects of slander, animosity, and vilification The official charge against Christians was “hatred of the human race” At the very end of his letter—5:12—Peter says, “I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.  Stand firm in it.” 1 Peter is an encouragement for believers to Stand Firm in Shaky Times Throughout chapter 1 Peter has laid out the reasons why the Christians to whom he was writing ought to stand firm First they must stand firm because they are elect exiles: honored by God/dishonored by society (1-2) Second (we missed this due to snow) they must stand firm because their salvation was guaranteed by God, and their suffering for the sake of Jesus actually confirmed it (3-12) Third, they must stand firm because they had been ransomed from their former life and made holy In all this Peter is building up momentum in his letter to his ultimate point; our text today is the foundation for everything that follows in the rest of the letter. In our text today Peter says “stand firm because this is who you are” The rest of the letter is Peter saying “this is how you should live because of who you are” We forget who we are. Our culture is obsessed with identity - we want to know who we are Genetic testing (for background, diet, fitness) We want to know who we are, where we came from, how we got here, and what it means The reason we’re obsessed with identity is because we’re realizing how important it is Back in 2012 a British News Outlet released this story: “A tourist who joined in the search after a member of her bus party went missing was able to help track the woman down - when she realised it was herself they were looking for. The woman was declared missing from a party touring the Eldgja volcanic region in south Iceland after getting off the party's bus to freshen up. She only hopped off the bus briefly, but had also changed her clothes - and her fellow travelers did not recognize her when she climbed back on again to continue the party's journey. Soon the search began for a woman described as Asian, around 160cm tall, in dark clothing and speaking English well, When the details of the missing person were issued, the woman reportedly didn't recognize her own description and unwittingly joined the search party for herself. After a night-long operation involving around 50 people, the 'missing woman' eventually realized she was the source of the search and informed police. The search began on Saturday, but was called off at around 3am on Sunday morning when the woman, who has not been identified, realized she was the subject of the frantic efforts.” She completely missed the description of her own identity When we read 1 Peter 2:9-10 do we see a description of ourselves, or would we, like this woman, join a search party in hopes of finding a people that match it?  As the church, we can easily forget who we are - Peter is stating emphatically, with all kinds of descriptions: This is who you are!  This is your identity! Our Identity is Based on the Word Our Identity is Based on Who Jesus Is Our Identity is Based on What God has Done Our Identity Is Based on the Word It is the Word that conceived us, and it is the Word that grows us In chapter 1 verse 3 Peter says “You have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” In v. 18 he says, “You were ransomed from your futile ways of your former life” In v. 23 he says, “You have been born again through the word of God that remains forever” And this sets him up for what he says in chapter 2 verse 1: So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, were all things that the believers were encountering from the unbelieving world.  Peter is saying, since you’ve been born again, you live differently than those who have not. Instead: 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— The word translated ‘spiritual’ by the ESV is the word ‘logikos’ and some translations render it “the pure milk of the word.”  The idea is that like newborn infants desperately cry out for and need the sustenance of milk, believers ought to long for the spiritual sustenance that comes from God through his word.  At the end of chapter 1 Peter says you’ve been born again through the living word of God, and now it is his word that will sustain you And the more you consume, and digest, the more you will grow up into your salvation Peter is saying, salvation is something we are moving toward, not merely waiting for Illustration: Judah The Word shapes your body composition - You are what you eat 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. If you have really tasted the goodness of the Lord, you will long for the spiritual sustenance that only he can provide.  If you don’t long for it like a newborn infant, than maybe you haven’t gotten a good taste of it - when babies eat it causes them to bond to their mothers (oxytocin) Are you hungry for the pure spiritual milk of the word?  If you’re not, do you know what you need to do? Taste more of the goodness of the Lord Let the word of God be the thing that shapes you and nourishes you If you don’t long for God’s word as you should, here’s an idea: pick a day this week that you are going to skip lunch, and fast instead, and read this passage: 1 Peter 2:1-10, and as you read through each verse offer a 30 second prayer to help you a) do what it says, b) understand it c) believe it d) all of the above Refuse the taste of food if it will help you taste the goodness of the Lord It is the pure spiritual milk of the word that will lead you on the path of salvation 2. Our Identity Is Based on Who Jesus Is We are supposed to look like Jesus —the Word makes us look like Jesus 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual (after Pentecost word) house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,     a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected     has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling,     and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. Isa. 8:14 predicted this What is all this talk about stones and building with them? Our identity is based on who Jesus is Mark 14:58 “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands.’” (Peter was there for this episode) Mark 15:29 “And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!’” The cornerstone was rejected, and put to shame, so likewise we will be Haggai 2:9 “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.  And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.” 3. Our Identity Is Based On What God Has Done In the OT God’s People are always defined by What God Had Done for Them I am the Lord who brought you out of Egypt —tell this to your children —don’t forget Peter is going to apply a number of OT monikers to believers today 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You are not just a voluntary community of people who believe in Jesus—you are the new humanity The Old Humanity are people who look like Adam, who still live under the control of their sin nature, and who will die But you are those who have been born again by the word, you’ve been shaped by the word to look like Jesus, and God has brought you into a new way of life, and you will live with him forever Our identity is based on what God has done - The Picture of Hosea and Gomer and her children 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Hosea’s children “Lo-ruhamah” ‘shown no mercy’ and “Lo-ammi” ‘not my people’ Anticipated a reversal when his children would be renamed “Ruhamah” ‘shown mercy’ and “Ammi” ‘my people’ God changed their identity; he made them new people based on what he had done through the power of his word because of who he is. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/12719Casey1Peter21-10.mp3 Sun, 27 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 50:43 Michael Goheen Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_07_15_2018.mp3 Sun, 20 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 34:44 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://mainstchurch.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/01_20_19+Goheen.MP3 Sun, 13 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO Doug Hon 2019 and Older Standing Firm in Shaky Times: An Introduction to 1 Peter 1 Peter 1:1-2 Preached at Main Street Church on January 6th, 2019 Today marks the beginning of a 12-week sermon series we are doing on the book of 1 Peter: Standing Firm in Shaky Times — 1 Peter is incredibly applicable and important to the time in which we live; here’s why: The apostle Peter wrote this letter to Christians in the middle of the first century—perhaps just a decade or two after the time of Jesus—because as more and more people experienced the life transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they began to fit less and less in their societies Since they began committing their lives to Jesus as Lord, they stopped participating in the public festivals of their times that honored the gods of their culture, they stopped practicing Roman culture’s sexual ethic, they dissociated their business practices from Roman gods, they had a new definition for God’s ideal for marriage and family, and instead, they worshipped a crucified carpenter whom they claimed rose from the dead. Because they didn’t participate they were perceived as atheistic, and would have been charged with bringing the disfavor of the gods upon their communities. This put them on the fringes of their societies.  They didn’t set our to distances themselves from their contemporaries, but they became the victims of social ostracism, and became the subjects of slander, animosity, and vilification. Examples: A crude graffiti cartoon probably dating from the early second century portrays a young man worshiping a donkey-headed human figure on a cross; the Greek caption mocks “Alexamenos worships (his) God.” A decade or two after Peter’s letter was written—the mid 60’s AD—The Roman Emperor Nero set a portion of Rome on fire (for political purposes), killing a multitude of people.  He and his officials spread the notion that the Christians started the fire, which was used as a false accusation to turn people against them, and the official charge against Christians was “hatred of the human race” Because they did not share the same values, and engage in the same things as those in their society, they were mocked, mistreated, and misused.  This is the reason Peter wrote this letter. At the very end of his letter—5:12—Peter says, “I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.  Stand firm in it.” 1 Peter is an encouragement to Stand Firm in Shaky Times We need the same encouragement and instruction from Peter 1 Peter 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood; may grace and peace be multiplied to you.” Everyone knows Peter; he is the most memorable and most relatable person in the gospel accounts other than Jesus.  Peter was the down-to-earth, hardworking fisherman who became the spokesman for the 12 disciples, and along with James and John was part of Jesus’ inner circle He was devoted and always ready for action When Jesus came to his disciples walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee, it was Peter who solicited the idea that he get out of the boat and also walk on water. When Jesus was up on a mountain with Peter, James, and John, and was gloriously transfigured, and his face began to shine like the sun and revealed his divine glory and Moses and Elijah appeared there with him, it was Peter who had the idea to build shelters for the three of them to stay up there on the mountain It was Peter who was in charge of the preparations for the final passover meal When Jesus washed his disciples feet it was Peter who refused to let Jesus do it, and when Jesus told him if he didn’t he had no share with him, it was Peter who told Jesus to wash his hands and head also When the Jewish officials and Roman guards came to arrest Jesus, it was Peter who pulled out his sword and swung it at one of the the captors heads, narrowly missing the neck and cutting off a man’s ear It was Peter whom Jesus gave the nickname: “Rock,” meaning—firm; unshakable.  Peter was not passive.  He was not soft.  He was committed to Jesus, and it seems to me he wanted to prove it In Matt. 26:33 Peter said, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” But you know how the story goes.  Jesus was arrested, his disciples all scattered just as he predicted, and as Jesus was being beaten, mocked, and accused, Peter—the Rock, the firm and unshakable one—was questioned by a little girl who accused him of being “one of those people who was with Jesus the Galilean.”  And in that moment, Peter—the Rock, crumbled.  The one you could always count on to take a firm stance was shaken, and he denied his Lord. This makes us wonder: why was Peter shaken?  How could the strong fisherman who swung a sword at trained Roman soldiers just hours earlier be so intimidated by a 10 or 11 year old girl?  The answer to this question is the key to understanding Peter’s letter The reason Peter was shaken and fell and denied Jesus, was because despite all the time Peter spent with Jesus, Peter still thought that Jesus’ kingdom would consist of earthly power to triumph over those opposed to Jesus, and in that courtyard when he found himself in a position without any, he didn’t know what to do.  It just didn’t make sense, how could the chosen one of God be arrested and betrayed? How could God’s Son with whom He was well pleased face this kind of suffering? In fact, Peter had always struggled with the idea that Jesus, God’s beloved Son, would suffer. In Matt. 16:21 it says, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.  And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord!’ This shall never happen to you.’ No way, Lord! Don’t forget who you are! You are God’s chosen one, God’s Son, You won’t be killed! If God really loves you then you won’t have to suffer! This sounds surprisingly like what the Devil told Jesus when he was tempted in the wilderness.  “If you are God’s Son, he will not let any harm come upon you.” And Satan even used Scripture to make his point.  Matthew 16:23 says, “But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan! You are a hindrance to me.  For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’” The reason Peter’s faith was shaken when he was confronted by a 5th grade girl, is because his mind was set on the things of man instead of on the things of God. Peter wrote this letter so that we would not make the same mistake as him. ““I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.  Stand firm in it.” The temptations that we are going to face as a church will be to falter and to be shaken when suffering, mocking, and false accusations come against us.  But no matter how shaky things might appear on the surface, God has a plan, and like a rock, we must stand firm. As we look at Peter’s letter we must remember that his goal in writing was not to resolve these things, but to teach God’s people the significance of their suffering, and how to best engage the world when faced with these things. Verse 1: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, A disciple is one who follows, but an apostle is one who is sent.  Peter was a follower of Jesus who was also sent by him with a message, and as an apostle Peter was an authorized agent of Jesus Christ with a message directly from him. To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 1 Peter was a circular letter that would have been carried to each of the regions named in what is now modern day Turkey Here already Peter is showing us what it means to be a follower of Jesus by his use of what seems to be an oxymoron: elect exiles. These Christians weren’t physically exiles in the literal sense of the word, but they were exiles in the sense that they were not at home in the societies in which they lived. Their commitment to Jesus as Lord had placed them on the margins of respectable society. One scholar said, “Their lack of acculturation to prevailing social values marked them as misfits worthy of contempt.” Peter says they are “elect exiles of the dispersion”—again, not that they had literally been dispersed through some political measure, but the word “diaspora” had become a metaphor for social ostracism and other forms of harassment associated with exile Peter is making a few things very clear here, in just these few words at the opening of his letter: First: God is at work in their circumstances Second: Peter does not say or even hint that their affliction is the consequence of their sin or God’s judgment; such categories have no place anywhere in his letter Third: He doesn’t say that God will soon avenge them Fourth: He doesn’t deny the validity of their experience By calling them “elect exiles,” Peter is making it clear that being chosen by God (elect) and facing social ostracism (exiles) are not two incompatible things We often, however, make the same mistake Peter did when he denied Jesus by thinking that these things are incompatible.  We don’t understand how we can be both elect and exiles. The reason we think this is because we tend to measure things the way the culture does.  If I’m popular, and people like me, and I’m successful, and have a lot of money, and things are going well, then God must be happy with me. If I’m a social pariah, and people don’t like me, and I’m not successful in my business endeavors, and I’m poor, and I can’t catch a break, we think God must be displeased with me. Because we think this way, here is the temptation: To embrace the dispositions and practices conventional in the wider world, and then claim that since people embrace us, it proves that we have God’s favor. (It is hard for us to believe that one can have honorable status before God if they are not honored by society) The primary pressure on Christians in our culture right now is to embrace a sexual ethic contrary to Scripture.  The other temptation is to put up strict community boundaries and completely dissociate from society Peter is making it clear, though, that contempt from society is neither a surprise to God nor a contradiction of his plan, just like Jesus’ suffering was not a surprise to God nor a contradiction of his plan. To be elect, or chosen by God for his purpose in the world, also means to be an exile.  The only way to stand firm in shaky times is to set our minds on things of God, and not on the things of man.  To think the way God thinks rather than the way the world thinks. In verse 2 Peter goes on to say: According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood; May grace and peace be multiplied to you. There are three phrases here, each one referencing a different member of the Trinity, and each one significant to our understanding of how we as God’s people can stand firm in shaky times.  Peter is communicating that as God’s people we should stand firm because God has a plan, God has given us power, and God has provided propitiation. 1. God Has A Plan According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, Peter calls these first Christians elect exiles — according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.  In other words, who they are—elect; God’s people—and what they are experiencing—exile—are both part of God’s plan.  People often misunderstand God’s foreknowledge by thinking that it is primarily God’s ability to know what will happen before it happens.  God knows all things, so he certainly knows what will happen before it happens, as Isa. 46:10 says, “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done,” But that’s not what the word ‘foreknowledge’ is referring to. God’s foreknowledge is not about knowing something, but about knowing someone.  It is not a knowledge of prediction, but knowledge of people.  It is a relational knowledge. Romans 8:29 says, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,” The verb ‘foreknew,’ modifies the object, ‘those.’  Those whom God foreknew.  Those people whom God knew in advance.  It’s not that God knew some stuff in advance, it’s that he knew people in advance.  We see this idea of foreknowing most clearly in Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” Peter is saying to us, “God knew you in advance, and he has a plan. God has a plan.”  Peter’s goal in saying this is to comfort the Christians to whom he is writing, because he knows that when things start to go south, and you face suffering, we think that we have irreparably damaged our relationship with Jesus.  When times get shaky, it’s hard to believe that God has a plan and that we are part of it.  God God does have a plan, so we must stand firm. Illustration Peter knew this better than anyone.  When Peter told Jesus that even if everyone fell away, he never would, Jesus knew that Peter would deny him, in Matt. 26:34 Jesus said, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.  Peter said to him, ‘Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!’” And all the disciples said the same.” And here is why God’s foreknowledge should be so comforting to Christians: God’s chose to foreknow Peter, despite knowing in advance that Peter would deny him.  Jesus already knew Peter and knew that he was going to make him his disciple, despite knowing that he would get weak in the knees when confronted by a little girl. But God’s foreknowledge is about his ability to know what will happen, it’s about his ability to know people.  Since God has a plan for his people, we must stand firm. Application If you are a Christian, there is nothing you can do that will make God regret saving you.  If you are going through hard times, if you are suffering, if you find yourself on the margins of society because of your commitment to Jesus, guess what: God has a plan, so we must stand firm. It’s almost like Peter is saying to those early Christians, “hey, Jesus chose me and I’ve still suffered.  Jesus chose me, and I’ve still failed.  Stand firm, because God has a plan.” 2. God Has Given Us Power So not only does Peter say that we are elect exiles “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father,” but he also says, “in the sanctification of the Spirit,” Not only does God have a plan, but God has given us power, and that is the power of the Holy Spirit.  We must stand firm because God has given us power. The word ‘sanctify’ means to ‘make holy.’  A simple way to understand the word sanctify in the Bible is that anytime the New Testament uses the word sanctify, what it really means is to be like Jesus.  To be sanctified, means to be like Jesus.  To go through sanctification means to become more like Jesus.  The process of sanctification means to go through a process of becoming more like Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who makes us like Jesus, and we must stand firm because God has given us the power of the Holy Spirit. Again, Peter’s life is an example of this Illustration I’m going to engage in a little bit of speculation here, but I think it is biblically warranted, and I think what we will see more clearly what Peter means when he encourages to stand firm because God has given us the power of the Spirit.  The times where we see Peter’s most glaring flaws, and weaknesses, and failings was during the time when Jesus was with him during his earthly ministry, and we observe this in the gospel accounts. The other place we see Peter in the Bible is in the book of Acts, and if you’ve read the book of Acts, you know that there is something different about the Peter in Acts than the Peter in the gospels.  I would argue (and I think it would be hard to argue against this) that the decisive difference between Peter in the gospels and Peter in the book of Acts is the presence of the indwelling, courage-giving, ministry-empowering Holy Spirit in Peter in the book of Acts. The delineation between the Peter of the Gospels an the Peter of the book of Acts was Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit.  In the gospels, Peter failed to stand firm, and denied Christ, but at Pentecost, it was Peter who lifted up his voice and declared the mighty works of God.  After Pentecost, Peter had the Power of the Holy Spirit, and it was Peter who stood before kings and crowds and boldly proclaimed Christ as Lord.  It was Peter who was imprisoned for not denying Jesus.  Application And Peter is saying here to Christians, when he says “in the sanctification of the Spirit,” God has given us power, so stand firm! One of the most outrageous things Jesus said is in John 16:7, he said, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you.” Jesus told his disciples that it would be to their advantage for him to leave, because then they would have the power of the Spirit, and since God gave them power, they would be able to stand firm. In Luke 12:11 Jesus said to his disciples, “When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”  In other words, since God has given us power, we must stand firm. Peter is saying that the Spirit gives us the power of Jesus, and his power will help us to stand firm.  When Peter was in the courtyard, he denied Jesus, but when he had the power of the Holy Spirit, he proclaimed Jesus as Lord boldly.  1 Corinthians 12:3 says, “No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ And no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” Since God has given us power, we must stand firm. Peter tells us that we must stand firm because God has a plan, We must stand firm because God has given us power, and finally, he tells us we must stand firm because: 3. God Has Provided Propitiation Hey says you are elect exiles According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, | in the sanctification of the Spirit, | for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood; God has given us the power of the Spirit, according to his foreknowledge of us, so that we would be obedient to the King who provided our propitiation. A propitiation is a sacrifice that appeases the wrath of God and turn it to favor.  When Jesus died on the cross, he was a propitiation for us.  Romans 3:25 says God put Jesus “forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” 1 John 2:2 says, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.  And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” Or as Peter puts it “for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood;” We must stand firm, because God has provided propitiation for us.  The reason Peter references “sprinkling with blood” goes back to the OT when Moses sprinkled the blood of animal sacrifices on God’s people to signify his covenant with them.  But that was the Old Covenant, and Peter is saying that we need the propitiation of the blood of Jesus to enter into a New Covenant with him. We must stand firm because God has provided propitiation for us. Illustration: When Peter denied Jesus he was shaken.  He went back to fishing.  He thought he had committed the ultimate failure.  And the truth is, if Jesus had stayed dead, then he did.  But one day as Peter was finishing up his day of fishing, the resurrected Jesus came to him.  Sought him out.  Found him where he was, in his pit of despair.  Jesus was there on the shore with a meal of fish and bread prepared for Peter.  Jesus was waiting for him.  Jesus asked Peter the question, “Simon, do you love me?” 3 Times Peter was always trying to prove his love for Jesus. Jesus made the point that Peter could stand firm because he had provided propitiation. Propitiation means it’s not about our ability to demonstrate how much we love God, propitiation is about God demonstrating how much he loves us.  We must stand firm because God has provided propitiation. Peter ends his greeting with these words: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Peter, the disciple who told Jesus that he couldn’t be crucified The disciple who tried to advance God’s kingdom with a sword The rock who crumbled under pressure and denied Jesus This Peter, after he understood that God’s ways are different than man’s ways, would never deny his Lord again, and he would never be shaken.  He would stand firm in the face of death. After reinstating him, Jesus said to Peter, “Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.’ (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’” https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey1618.mp3 Sun, 06 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 52:56 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/12232018CaseyGen3.mp3 Sun, 23 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 30:17 Tom Smith 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/12_16_18Doug.mp3 Sun, 16 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 43:49 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_12.9.18.mp3 Sun, 09 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:50 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Four Core Commitments of Main Street Church Ezekiel 36:22-36 Preached at Main Street Church on December 2nd, 2018 My goal today is to convey to you 10 months of collective work by many in this church working prayerfully and diligently in an effort to be faithful to who God is callusing us as a church to be About one year ago Doug and I, along with the elders, began a conversation of reexamining and refreshing our identity as a church.  What is important to us? Why do we exist? What is our goal?  If we are unclear on the answers to these questions then we won’t go anywhere, and we aren’t being faithful to who God has called us to be.  It had been 10 years since we last undertook this kind of endeavor.  A large change of those involved in the original process vs. now Over the last 10 months a strategic leadership of roughly 30 people have gathered four times to take a fresh look at these questions, and seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  Interspersed between these meetings were individual conversations, and dialogue between the elders working to distill ideas from our larger meetings for clarity and direction Conclusions from the Process: Our core commitments - what we value as a church God’s glory, God’s word, God’s mission, God’s family Our mission statement - why we exist MSC exists to experience and communicate the gospel in our community and around the world. Our vision - what God is calling us to Our vision is to see our communities flourish as God intended. I want to convey our core commitments: who we are as a church; what defines us.  These commitments are what shaped our mission and vision.  I am going to use the text we read earlier, because it grounds our commitments as a church in God’s word, and why we are committed to these particular things.  We have an all encompassing core commitment, like an umbrella, with three core commitments that fall under it.  The all encompassing core commitment is God’s glory, and the three that fall under it are God’s mission, God’s word, and God’s family Ezekiel began his ministry began around age 30 (same as Jesus), lasted roughly 20 years, which is how long it took him to record the book; from 593 to 571BC.  Number 4 makes clear that ages 30-50 mark the working life of a priest; even though Ezekiel would not have been able to serve as a priest due to the exile.  It was written several years after the first group of exiles was deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, and only Psalms, Jeremiah, and Genesis are longer.  Ezekiel is concerned with the holiness of God and the sinfulness of God’s people-how can those things coexist The primary purpose of Ezekiel’s message was to restore God’s glory before the people who hd spurned it in view of the watching nations. The clearest expression of this is found in our text today (36:22-23). The only hope/salvation that God’s people have depends completely on God’s gift of a new heart and a new spirit. This passage is a promise of redemption completely by the hand of God It is a promise that has been fulfilled, is being fulfilled, and will, when Christ returns be completely fulfilled Ezekiel 36:22-28 22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.[a] 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. God’s Glory The first thing we see in this passage—and the overarching core commitment of this church—is a commitment above all else to God’s glory. Imagine this like the umbrella from which our 3 other core commitments flow We are committed to God’s glory above everything else because He is. V. 22 “Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.” Isaiah 48:11 God says, “My glory I will not give to another.” Isaiah 42:8 “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other,” Isaiah 43:25 “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,” We are committed to God’s glory above everything else Application: Being Committed to God’s Glory This means we want everything we do to be driven by a passion for God’s glory Our efforts must not be driven by a desire for prestige in the eyes of people Our ultimate goal is not to be respectable and civilized in the eyes of culture Our goal is to make God look great in everything we do by worshipping the way He has proscribed in His word Israel’s problem was that they weren’t making God look great (V. 23) When our praise leaders get up their goal is not for you to think we have a great music or great talent or great style, their goal is for you to see how great God is If we have guests that come in to find out about this community our goal is not for them to think we have a great building or great people, or great preaching, or great theology, or great coffee, but our goal in our worship is for people to be amazed at how great God is All of those things, and more, can and should be used to do that; to glorify God The question you ought to ask yourself at your job, in your family, in your marriage, at the grocery store, in your emails, in your hobbies is this: how can I make God look great? Our overarching commitment as a church is to the glory of God above all things and in all things.  The first way we do this is a commitment to: 2. God’s Word You can’t glorify God apart from his word—because: God has revealed himself in His word — Jesus is the Word that became flesh The only way we know who God is and consequently, how to glorify Him, is by His Word that He has given to us We see this in the context of our passage today.  In v. 26 and 27 we see the promise of a new heart and a new spirit that God will give to his people, but it leaves the question hanging: how will God re-create this kind of community? This community of people who make him look great? The answer is  in a vision that Ezekiel receives in the next chapter that I want to read to you, and we will see is that God recreates with his word. Ezekiel 37:1-10 “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. It was with his word that God created, and it is with his word that he re-creates.  Eph. 2:5 “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ” Rom. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” As a church we are committed to God’s word because it is God’s word that gives life, and thus it is God’s word that He uses to glorify His name. You might notice that Ezekiel’s vision involved God’s word spoken, but it was his spirit that gave power to the word, and you can’t really separate them. Look at what Jesus says about this in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” God’s word and God’s spirit work together to glorify God in us, God’s people That’s why we have two separate commands from Paul, in two separate letters, that are very similar, with the main difference being a command to be filled with the Spirit, and a command to be filled with the word Ephesians 5:18-19 “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” The word of God gives life by the power of the Spirit of God, so we, as a church, are committed to God’s Word.  He has given it to us to find life in Him. Application: Being Committed to God’s Word What this means is we believe that all God’s word is relevant to all God’s people all the time. God’s word shapes us, we don’t shape God’s word God’s word determines truth, we don’t determine what we think is true and then impose it on God’s word One way we want to show that we are committed to God’s word is by doing things like we did this morning where we publicly read it and honor it. God’s word itself gives us an example of this type of honor Nehemiah 8:1-6 “And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. 6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.” This isn’t the only way to show honor for God’s word, but it is a way, and we are committed to God’s word. We want God’s word to be the source and focus of our sermons, and we want God’s word to shape how we worship Him, because we want to glorify Him.  We are committed to God’s glory, and we are committed to His word. 3. God’s Mission We are committed to God’s glory, and from that flows a commitment to God’s word, and next, a commitment to God’s Mission. God’s ultimate mission is to fill the earth with His glory, and the way He has chosen to do that is through creating a community of people who will reflect his glory throughout the whole earth. This is why God chose Abraham - to make him a great nation, and the descendants of Abraham that became the people of Israel, were supposed to be part of God’s mission to fill the earth with his glory, but as we saw in our passage from Ezekiel today, they weren’t doing a very good job of that.  But God does not let human failure deviate him from his mission, that’s what we see in Ezekiel 36. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.[a] 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. Here we see God’s mission to fill the earth with his glory, by creating a community of people who reflect his glory throughout the earth. We see this even more further along in the passage, look at v. 33 33 “Thus says the Lord God: On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, (I will remove you from the earth? No.) I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places shall be rebuilt. 34 And the land that was desolate shall be tilled, instead of being the desolation that it was in the sight of all who passed by. 35 And they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ (what will be the result? That people think, wow God’s people are really impressive? No.) 36 Then the nations that are left all around you shall know that I am the Lord; I have rebuilt the ruined places and replanted that which was desolate. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it. God says He will do it.  God always does what he says he will do, and he will accomplish his mission to fill the earth with his glory, and he will do it through us, his people.  In Num. 14:21 God says as surely as He lives, “all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Application: Being Committed to God’s Mission For us as a church to be committed to God’s mission, means that we also are committed to filling the earth with the glory of God. This means proclaiming God’s word so that more people might know God through the good news of Jesus.  This means experiencing and communicating the gospel to our communities and around the world This means working with other people in India, and Peru, and the UK to make the glory of Christ known in all the earth. It means we as a church strive to display the glory of God in our work, in our neighborhoods, in our finances, and around our dinner tables. We are committed to God’s mission to fill the earth with his glory We are committed to God’s glory, and from that flows our commitment to God’s word, to God’s mission, and to God’s family 4. God’s Family Our commitment to God’s family means we recognize that we cannot know God’s glory individually; we cannot understand and obey God’s word individually, and we cannot participate in God’s mission individually. God has designed us to know him the in context of each other, to obey his word in the context of each other, and to participate in his mission with each other.  This community of God’s family is called the church.  Ezekiel 36:24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land… 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. God says you shall be my people, not my person.  In 1 Peter 2:9 Peter says, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” If you have been redeemed by the power of God in Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit has transformed your heart, and lives within you, you are part of the new humanity that will live forever with God in a renewed creation, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Being committed to God’s family mean we are committed to each other with all our foibles, flaws, and failures.  It doesn’t mean we overlook those things and pretend they don’t exist, it means we look them square in the face and say, “I love you anyways.” Application: Being Committed to God’s Family Here is why a commitment to God’s family is so important.  First, Jesus said “I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it,” so God’s family is his plan But secondly, we are going to mess up and make mistakes in our commitments to God’s glory, God’s word, and God’s mission.  We aren’t going to do everything perfectly, we are going to make messes, we are going to make mistakes, we might hurt each other’s feelings, but we have to be committed to each other because God has committed himself to us.  This means we are patient, kind, forgiving, gracious, merciful, and selfless It means we love each other as Paul prayed for us to love each other in Ephesians 3, “—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” It means we embody 1 Cor. 13.  It means that when we think of God’s family, we don’t just think of this congregation that meets here, but we think of our brothers and sisters in Dayspring, at Refuge, at Matthias Lot, at the Lutheran church up the road, and the Methodist church a little further.  If we are committed to God’s family it means we are committed to the saints in those congregations as well, because we are all one family, we are all part of the same kingdom, and we all have the same Lord whom we will worship together for all eternity.  1 John 3:17 says, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” The definition of brother here is not limited to people in my congregation, but it applies all people in God’s family.  The church up the road, and the church in India. The church is not perfect, because it is full of imperfect people like me, but the church is the bride of Christ, and he loves her.  So we are committed to God’s family, the church.  Conclusion Ezekiel 36 shows us the promise God has made to make his people a new community that reflects his glory, is recreated by his word, participates in his mission, and becomes his family.  This is the kind of church that we want to be, so let us strive by the power of the Spirit to do it. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CaseySermon12218.mp3 Sun, 02 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:12 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older The True Reason to Give Thanks Romans 8:1-4 Preached at Main Street Church on November 25th, 2018 The ultimate reason to give thanks to God is for the freedom to love and enjoy Him. The letter to the Romans was written by the Apostle Paul while he was in Corinth It is the longest of Paul’s letters, and the most theologically organized Written to the Roman church, primarily non-jew Christians, with some Jewish believers Paul’s main goal was to show these believers that it is the gospel that unites them, it is the gospel that commissions them, and ultimately, it is the gospel that reveals the glory of God to them. Rom. 1:16-17 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believers, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,” Chapter 8 marks the center of this letter, and is something of a culmination of the truth about the good news of Jesus that Paul had put forth in the first 7 chapters, and it says this: Romans 8:1-4: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. I want to talk to you this morning about the true reason to give thanks. Earlier this week, millions of people gathered around feasting tables with family and friends and took part in the tradition of saying what they were thankful for.  This is a wonderful thing to do, but I suspect that sadly, a large number of people are giving thanks for the wrong reason.  But God’s word tells us the true reason to give thanks. The Bible is full of commands and encouragement to give thanks to God. Psalm 30:4 “Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.” Psalm 44:8 “We will give thanks to your name forever.” Psalm 75:1 “We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near.  We recount your wondrous deeds.” Psalm 106:1 “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” Psalm 107:8, 15, 21, 31 “Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” What stands out about these texts and others like them is that the primary concern is not about whether or not you have anything to be thankful for, it is about the fact that you always have someone to be thankful to. The question we should be asking is not ultimately “what are you thankful for,” but “who are you thankful to?” And, “why?” Why are you thankful for that meal, that family, that job, etc.  These four verses in Romans 8 tell us the true reason to give thanks to God If you know the true reason to give thanks to God, your gratitude and your thankfulness will increase infinitely.  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. On the basis of the gospel—the good news of how Jesus sets us free through his life, death, burial, and resurrection—there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. In Greek there are four different verbs for ‘condemn,’ and the verb used here, and also in verse 3 is the strongest form of the word.  It means “to pass sentence upon for a crime” In its use here it implies not just the declaration of judgment, but the execution of that judgment as well 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. That is, the Holy Spirit, who gives life, has set us free from sin and death. The way the Holy Spirit has set us free is in Christ—that is, by applying the accomplishments of Jesus to us. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. What is the law?  The 10 Commandments, and the rest of the OT law. Matthew 22:36, “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’” What is the problem with these laws?  In v. 3 here, Paul is saying that the law is lacking something, that it is insufficient.  What is it unable to do?  While the law can tell you to love God, it cannot actually make you love God So the law is powerless to set you free, instead it enslaves you The law was ‘weakened by the flesh,’—that is, us, in our own strength, we are incapable of loving God as he ought to be loved.  Even though God gave his people his law, they continued to sin.  Outside of Christ, we are all guilty of committing the greatest sin: failure to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. The law could not actually change our hearts to cause us to love God, but God made a way so that we could be set free to actually love God from our hearts. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, God sent Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin The reason Jesus was an acceptable sacrifice to God for our sin is because Jesus never sinned.  In fact, Jesus was the only one who ever kept God’s law perfectly, including, loving God with all his heart, soul, and mind.  And God poured out his wrath on Jesus on the cross, condemning him, in the likeness of sinful flesh—here’s why… 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, Jesus took your condemnation in order to give you his righteousness. God has justified us in Christ, so that we are free to love and enjoy him V. 2 says “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” So the death and resurrection doesn’t just mean we are free from the guilt of sin and the penalty of death, it means we are actually free to keep God’s commands out of love instead of out of fear. In Ezekiel 36 God speaks to his people and promises them that one day they will actually be free, and this is what it will look like “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” So freedom in Christ doesn’t mean that we don’t obey God’s rules, it means we obey them because we are free to. Illustration: Imagine that for my wife’s birthday I buy her favorite chocolate and some flowers I arrive at my home to pick her up for an evening out together and when I come into the house she sees me and says, “you shouldn’t have!” And I say, “Well, since I am your husband, I have to.  It’s the rules.  So I will force myself to spend this time with you tonight since thats what married people do.” Do I seem like someone who is loving out of freedom, or out of obligation? Does that demonstrate how much she is worth?  Now imagine the same scenario When I arrive she sees me and says, “you shouldn’t have!” And I say, “There is no one I love more than you, and there is no one on the planet I would rather spend every moment with.”  God Did What the Law Could Not Do How Does This Relate to Thanksgiving? The law couldn’t make anyone actually love God.  They were enslaved to sin. -which means, loving everything else more than God No matter how hard they tried to follow God’s laws and keep all the rules and love him with all their heart, soul, and mind they couldn’t do it.  Even if they could have kept all the rules, they weren’t really free, because they were not free to love God from their hearts, they needed to be set free in order to have the freedom to love God live a life that demonstrated that love for God. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. That is, we don’t try to love God by just working really hard at it (the flesh) We love God by the power of the Spirit Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” The Goodness of Freedom in Christ What makes our freedom in Christ so wonderful is not ultimately that it rescues us from Hell What makes it so wonderful is that it sets us free to truly love God from our hearts The greatest gift God could ever give you (for you to be thankful for), is the freedom to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Because you will never find anything better than Jesus What Paul is saying here is that Jesus died in your place to justify you, to enable you to love God, and since you could never do that in your own power, he sent his Spirit to help you do what your flesh could never do. The True Reason to Give Thanks The only legitimate reason to thank God for anything that is not God, is if that thing causes me to know, and love, and enjoy God more.  Anything else is idolatry Here’s why the way we celebrate thanksgiving is appropriate: The wonderful smells from a thanksgiving meal that fill a home are given to us by God so that we might know something of how wonderful He is. The delightful taste of the mouthwatering food given to us by God is so that we might know something of how delightful He is. You should not be thankful for your material blessings if they lead you away from Christ.  They have become a curse to you.  If your health causes you to search for joy outside of Jesus, and a sudden sickness refocuses you and causes you to be dependent on Him for your joy, then you ought to be thankful to God for afflicting you for His glory. Every blessing that God gives you is not so you will find joy in that blessing, but so that it will point you to the one who can truly give you eternal joy.  Romans 2:4 tells us that “God’s kindness is meant to lead (us) to repentance.” Acts 17:27 - God intentionally puts people in specific times and places “that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.” According to Romans 1, failure to see God’s as the ultimate source of joy and reason to give thanks is the consummation of rebellion and offense to God. Romans 1:19-21 “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Sitting around a table and saying that we are thankful for turkey or football or family means absolutely nothing if our thanks is based on the joy that the blessing gives us and not the joy that we find in the blesser.  If your foundations for giving thanks is based on finding your joy in gifts, and not finding your joy in the giver, you are guilty of idolatry.  Illustration: My greatest earthly blessing is my wife - I am thankful for her - Why? About three weeks ago, on Brittany’s due date with our second son I called 9-1-1 because she was experiencing stroke like symptoms We were rushed to the Emergency Room in an ambulance where they worked to diagnose what was going on, and their fear was the potential that at any moment there might be a blood clot in her brain that could be fatal I watched them wheel my wife into the room where they would perform a CT scan of her brain.  And I stood outside the door and waited and I prayed. Just a few days before all this I had stood before a congregation and told them that the greatest tragedy that could happen in their life was not for them to get sick, or to lose their job, or to go to prison, or for a loved one to die, but that the greatest tragedy that could happen in their life would be for them to seek their joy in anything that was not God. As I waited and prayed, worst case scenarios of losing my wife raced through my head, and God brought this passage of Scripture, Romans 8, to my mind.    For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. -Meaning: God has set me free, in Christ, from trying to find joy in anything that is not him, even the best things, like my wife. I was faced with this question: If my greatest earthly blessing—my wife—were taken from me, would I still give thanks to God?  Would I still have a reason to be thankful?  Psalm 106:1 “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!” My wife will not endure forever.  My children, my job, my health; all of it will fade and none of it can bring me true joy.  My thankfulness to God is based on the fact that even if every thing is taken away from me, God has set me free to find my ultimate joy in Him, and His love endures forever.  Our thankfulness to God is based on the fact that he has set us free to find our joy in Him instead of looking for it in all kinds of things that can never really give us true joy.  The New Covenant Instituted in Jesus’ Blood At Thanksgiving we sit around tables with a meal, and say what we are thankful for.  This is a good practice.  In fact, Jesus did this very thing, and he sets the ultimate example for us, of what to be thankful for. Jesus gathered around a feasting table with all of his disciples, and… Luke 22:17- “And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, ‘Take this, and divide it among yourselves.  For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” To whom was Jesus giving thanks?  And, why? Jesus was thanking God for doing—through him—what the law could not do; He was thanking God for setting his disciples free to love Him. The Freedom that Christ Gives Us The freedom that Christ gives us is the freedom to find out satisfaction in him It is the freedom to love him from our hearts It is the freedom to find our highest happiness in him, and not follow all sorts of rules and regulations out of fear, but because his spirit is at work in us. God has done what the law could not do.  The true reason to give thanks to God is for the freedom to love and enjoy Him. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/11_25_18Casey.mp3 Sun, 25 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 45:44 Steve Branco 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/11_18_Doug.mp3 Sun, 18 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 24:55 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_11.11.18.mp3 Sun, 11 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 34:27 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/DougHon11418.mp3 Sun, 04 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:42 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey10272018.mp3 Sun, 28 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 38:56 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/10_21_2018_Doug.mp3 Sun, 21 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 25:38 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Is Jesus Your Ticket or Your Treasure? Receiving Jesus or Using Jesus? Matthew 13:44 Preached at Main Street Church on October 14th, 2018 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.  Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys the field.” I last spoke about what the gospel is, today I want to speak about how to receive it FCF: Our culture has made the gospel of Jesus like receiving a ticket instead of receiving a treasure. Based on American consumerism, utilitarianism, individualism, personal liberty, autonomy, and a false view of freedom Sees Jesus as a simply a way to heaven instead of a way to God Sees Jesus as simply a means to eternal blessing in paradise instead of a means to eternal bliss in God himself Sees Jesus as a ticket instead of as a treasure That’s not receiving Jesus, that’s using Jesus. What is the kingdom of heaven? - It is not a place or a people.  It is the rule, reign, and authority of Jesus, the King. Matthew 12:28 “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Matthew 4:23 “(Jesus was)…proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.” Where do we first see the kingdom of God? - In the Garden of Eden God’s authority, rule and reign, were perfectly established; all creation reflected the perfection of God. How is the kingdom of heaven like treasure? - If the kingdom of heaven is the rule, reign, and authority of Jesus, the King, then its worth is based on him.  The value of the kingdom is based on the power of the king.  What makes the kingdom valuable is the king. Why is it hidden? - We do not see it’s worth 2 Cor. 4:4 “The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Matt. 13:13 “Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” Rom. 1:20-22, 25 “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.  So they are without excuse.  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things…they exchange the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” What does it mean to find it? - He sees it. When we truly see God, we see his worth 2 Cor. 4:6 For God… “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” John 14:6-7 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you had known me, you would have known him and have seen him.” Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God.” Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” The gospel reveals it to us. John 3, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. What does it mean to be in the kingdom of God? - To rejoice in the value of God, and use everything in your life to display it’s worth. Is Jesus your ticket or your treasure? https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey_10.14.18.mp3 Sun, 14 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 39:46 Jim Schutz Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/MZ000031.mp3 Sun, 30 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 27:30 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey92318.mp3 Sun, 23 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 34:59 Michael Williams 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doung09_16.mp3 Sun, 16 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:17 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/9918_Doug.mp3 Sun, 09 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 44:17 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older A Reversal of Hopelessness Luke 24:13-35 Preached at Main Street Church on September 2nd, 2018 After Jesus’ crucifixion on Friday he was laid in a tomb.  Normally a dead body would be shown honor by being wrapped and preserved, but since it was a Saturday, which was the Sabbath, Jesus’ followers waited until the next day, the first day of the week: a Sunday morning.  So that morning several women went to his tomb with their spices to embalm his body, but he wasn’t there, and two angels told them that he has risen from the dead; he was alive.  So they went back to tell the disciples, but they don’t believe it; to them it was “an idle tale.” Jesus Has Actually Risen (V. 13-15) Our Hope Is Real 13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, Leaving Jerusalem, heading back home, hopes crushed Emmaus was such a small village scholars have three theories of precisely where it was, but aren’t sure A little less than walking from here to Creve Coeur Lake 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. These things had happened publicly (def. take place, come to pass, occur); not a dream Luke 1:4, Luke’s purpose in recording these events is “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Jesus himself; He was going to walk 7 miles.  The fact that there is so much historical evidence that Jesus was alive and appeared after his resurrection has led some to pose a theory that he actually never died, that he was just in some sort of coma after his suffering, and that he woke up from it. The problem is: everyone knew he was dead; The government knew, they put their seal on his grave and guarded it Contemporary historians recorded it The public all knew it, they saw him die; the Roman soldiers knew it The chief priests knew it, which is why they fabricated the story that his disciples stole his body The man Jesus, who actually died, actually came back to life, and was now walking with these two people for seven miles Jesus has actually risen Not an apparition, not a dream, not a cute idea or a nice notion; Jesus has actually risen, and this is the good news of Jesus Christ. If you don’t believe that the Bible records actual events that actually happened, then you don’t believe the gospel, because the gospel is the news of the events that you deny What does this mean? It means our hope is real. The fact that Jesus has actually risen means that we will actually be resurrected 1 Peter 1:3 “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” Illustration: Ice cream at the top of the mountain When I was young we went on a hike with a large group of our extended family As we hiked up this hot, dry, dusty trail, all of us kids wanted to just turn around and go home; we didn’t see the point One of our uncles heard us grumbling and said, “We’re going to get ice cream.  There’s ice cream at the top.” That seemed pretty unbelievable considering how primitive the area was; no power lines going up the mountain, no roads leading there, but perhaps we just didn’t know As we went we began voicing our doubts, but my uncle continually assured us that the most delicious ice cream waited for us at the top of this mountain.  So we kept going, in the hope of ice cream We finally got to the top and there was nothing there.  We were indignant that our uncle would lie to us so blatantly, and when we interrogated him as to why he said, “I just wanted to give you hope so you would keep going.” The resurrection of Jesus is not merely an empty hope to motivate us to keep going Our hope is a real hope, a fleshy hope, a touch the scars in his hands kind of hope Since Jesus has actually risen our hope is real. And since our hope is real, it actually affects our life Application: Because our hope is real it affects us in real, tangible ways. It causes us to: Sacrificially give to those in need Love people who hate us Deny the lustful urges of our flesh Think and act differently than the society around us Since Jesus has actually risen from the dead, if you put your hope in him you have a real hope that changes absolutely everything about your life Jesus has actually risen, so our hope is real. Do you struggle to actually live out your faith?  What you need to do is fix your gaze on the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.  Real resurrection means real hope which means real power in our lives. Romans 8:11 says “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 6:5 “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” Jesus Has Actually Redeemed (V. 16-27) Our Hope is Here 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. God kept them from recognizing him; why? We will find the answer later in the text. 17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. This verse, along with verse 16 raise the question: why didn’t Jesus just walk up to them and say, “Look, I’m alive!”? Because there is  a lot more to the good news of Jesus then the fact that he is alive.  Consider this: these disciples are very clearly hopeless.  They are leaving Jerusalem—the place they had hoped Jesus would do something amazing in their lives—but instead he gets publically slaughtered They had hoped that maybe this Jesus would rescue the nation of Israel from the power of the Roman government, but instead their religious leaders and the Roman government conspire together to murder him They had hoped that Jesus would redeem Israel, but instead they are leaving Jerusalem behind to go back to their hopeless lives in Emmaus Have you ever felt this way? You ask God for something or you expect him to do something in your life, you’re praying for it, hoping for it, anticipating it, and it looks to you, based on your limited perspective that he has failed. That is the cross. Look at what they say: 18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” There’s that phrase again: have happened; everyone knows what has happened 19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. We need to see something here.  Instead of just showing up and saying, “Look, I’m alive!” Jesus enters into their sorrow with them.  He asks them why they are sad; he asks them what has happened; he gives them opportunity to explain why they feel hopeless.  Jesus is leading them to something; watch what he does next. Cleopas continues: 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Here is Jesus’s process: he doesn’t just gloss over their despair and their hopelessness by jumping directly to the fact that he has risen and that he is alive.  He shows them how he accomplished redemption. In verses 20 and 21 they say, “We had hoped he would be the one to redeem Israel, but instead he was crucified! Instead of bringing redemption he suffered and died!” So in verse 25 Jesus says, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” They totally missed the point of the cross! They totally missed the point of the suffering of Jesus!  They totally misunderstood redemption! This is why in verse 16 God kept them from recognizing him; this is why Jesus asked them to recount the events of his suffering that had happened in Jerusalem: because you can’t understand the resurrection if you don’t understand the cross. They thought that Jesus was crucified before he had a chance to redeem, when the truth is that Jesus couldn’t have redeemed without being crucified Jesus has actually redeemed, and he actually redeemed by actually dying on an actual cross. Illustration: Definition of the Word ‘Redeem’ – Hosea and Gomer The concept of the word ‘redeem’ is from an OT idea regarding the payment of a ransom, particularly regarding slavery. The only way for a slave to be set free from their bondage was for another to redeem them, to pay the price for them, to ransom them.  Verse 27 says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” One such prophet Jesus would have explained to them on that hot and dusty Emmaus road was the prophet Hosea.  In Hosea chapter 3 verse 1 God commands Hosea to go again and look for his wife, who was formerly a prostitute, had entered back into a life of prostitution, and now was committing adultery.  God tells Hosea, go search for her, and love her. And in the same verse it says, “even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and oven cakes of raisins.” In other words, “God loves his people even though they get enamored with stuff, and chase after fleeting things in the culture.” So Hosea’s love for his wife, even though she’s given herself willingly over to the sex trade, even though she’s given herself back to sex slavery, is a picture of God’s love for his people even though we willingly gave ourselves over to sin and the fleeting pleasures that our culture offers us.  And God tells Hosea, go look for her, and find her, and redeem her from that life of prostituting herself to other men that don’t really love her. Go ransom your wife, and the mother of your three children from the other men who would use her and abuse her. And in verse 2 Hosea says, “So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and some barley.”  I want you to picture this?  Hosea enters into the dark alleys of the city where the prostitutes are with their handlers, and there he finds his wife, who he married, who he entered into covenant with to love and cherish, the bride he had committed to love, the mother of his children, And even though she is his wife, because she deserted him, chasing other lovers, in order for him to get her back, in order for him to redeem her, there is a price that has to be paid.  So Hosea pays the price to redeem his wife from her slavery, and from her sin, and from chasing after other lovers And I can picture Jesus on that Emmaus road saying to those two disciples, “You are the adulteress wife! And a price had to be paid to redeem you from your life of slavery! And when Jesus went to the cross, his suffering was the price, his blood was the fifteen shekels of silver!  Even though he created you, even though you were his, even though you had committed to him in a covenant, a price had to be paid, and no one could pay it except the Messiah.  How can you say, “We had hoped that he would redeem Israel but instead he was crucified”? Don’t you see? It was in his crucifixion that he redeemed you.  Friends, the good news is not just that Jesus is risen, but that the crucified Jesus is risen. Jesus actually redeemed, he actually paid a price for us, he actually ransomed us with his blood, so our hope is here.  It is not distant, it is not ethereal, it is not imaginary, our hope is here.  1 Corinthians 6 and 7 say, “You were bought with a price.” Ephesians 2:12-13 “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Because Jesus has actually redeemed, our hope is here.  His blood has brought us near.  We used to have no hope, but now our hope is here.  Jesus has actually redeemed. Application: this means that we are free from the sin in our lives.  Since Jesus redeemed us, we are free from the life of spiritual prostitution that we used to live when we gave ourselves to the highest bidder at every turn. Once Hosea ransomed his wife from her sex slavery, she no longer had to give herself to any man that came by.  She was free because she had been redeemed. She was redeemed for fifteen pieces of silver and some barley—but we have been redeemed by the blood of a crucified king. We are free from a love of money, free from a love of self, free from foolish ambition and pride, Free from lust. We’re no longer taken by what they promise in exchange. Because Christ has actually redeemed us—by paying our ransom on the cross—we don’t go back to our old life, our price has been paid; Christ has actually redeemed us in the cross Romans 6:6 says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”  Verse 11, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Are you struggling with sin in your life? Are you in the grip of slavery to a particular sin?  What will you do, friend? Will you live in condemnation? Will you keep it in the dark where it can fester and grow?  Will you just try to fix yourself by trying harder?  Will you run from God in shame?  Friend, listen to me, stop running from the love of God! Stop heading down that road toward Emmaus in disappointment and disillusionment and turn back towards Jerusalem. Fix your gaze on the crucified one who nailed your sin to the cross so that you would no longer bear it. Run to your Hosea who searched in the darkest places to find you and said, “What’s the price? I will pay it to redeem the one I love.”  Jesus has actually redeemed, so our hope is here. Jesus Will Actually Return (V. 28-35) Our Hope Is Him 28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, 29 but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They finally realized that they had been in the presence of God. They had been speaking with the crucified one who had risen from the dead. 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” Jesus opened their minds to the knowledge of who he was, and we all need an experience like they had, which is why in Ephesians 1:18, Paul tells the church that his prayer for them is that God might give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. They did what they urged Jesus not to do, which was travel in the dark, and they walked 7 miles through the night back to Jerusalem to tell the others that Jesus had actually risen and had actually redeemed. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, 34 saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread The reason Jesus appearance to them is so exciting is not only does it mean that Jesus has actually risen, and that he has actually redeemed, but it means that he has unfinished business, so he will actually return. Those disciples went to Emmaus hopeless, but they returned to Jerusalem hopeful And what was their hope? Their hope was Him. Their hope was Jesus Their hope was that the God who rose, and the God who redeemed, was a God who would return to bring his work to completion. And we have get this straight: our hope for the return of Jesus is not primarily about what he will do, but about who he is. So our hope is not primarily for something, but in someone Our hope is not for a product, but in a person 1 John 3:2-3 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” 1 Timothy 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,” 1 Peter 1:13 “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13 “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” 1 Peter 1:20-21 “He was…made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” Our hope is him.  Our hope is Jesus Christ, and we long for his return. The excitement that these disciples felt that compelled them to recklessly tell others the good news should be the same excitement that we feel, that since Jesus has actually risen, and since he has actually redeemed, we can be confident that he will actually return just as he promised, and it is in Him that we hope. In Revelation 22:20 Jesus says, “Surely I am coming soon.” And we the church respond to him by saying, “Amen. Come Lord Jesus!” Conclusion: A song of hope based on the fact that Jesus has actually risen, has actually redeemed, and will actually return. Our hope is real, our hope is here, and our hope is Him. "Be Still, My Soul" by Catharina von Schlegel, 1697-? Translated by Jane Borthwick, 1813-1897 Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side; Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain; Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change He faithful will remain. Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake To guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below. Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart And all is darkened in the vale of tears; Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart, Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears. Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay From His own fulness all He takes away. Be still, my soul; the hour is hastening on When we shall be forever with the Lord, When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone, Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past, All safe and blessed we shall meet at last. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CASEYSEPTEMBER1.mp3 Sun, 02 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 45:30 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/82618Doug.mp3 Sun, 26 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 36:50 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_08_19_18.mp3 Sun, 19 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 29:47 Doug Hon 2019 and Older A Plea to Parents: Bring Your Children to Jesus - Part 2 Preached at Main Street Church on August 12th 2018 Aims of the sermon What I hope to convince you of God commands parents to lead their family in worship and diligently pass on the faith If you don’t lead your family in worship and diligently pass on the faith to your kids you are in violation of God’s will, and your children will most likely abandon the faith Desired outcome You lead your family in worship You examine your assumptions about what it means to pass the gospel on to your kids “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” -No other Gods; no idols The gospel drives us to be distinct. Ephesians 4:17-24 Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law after Israel’s failure to enter the promised Land.  They came out of a land of many Gods, and were going into a land of many gods, and they were to be distinct.  The way they would be distinct was through faithfulness to the one true God. A God with No Rivals.  “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” We are to be distinct, and to teach our children to be distinct, but we have in many ways started worshipping the gods of the land in which we live.  Some of them are: The God of Academics (“I Just want my kid to get a good education”) The God of Consumerism (“I just want my kid to get a good job”) The God of Autonomy (“I just want my kid to do what makes them happy”) The church has syncretized youth culture with Christian culture: Put off marriage as long as you can - long engagements A disdain for children or large families Modern American dating The priority of kids over the priority of marriage The History of family worship in the Bible (explicit and implicit) Abraham – Genesis 18:19 “For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice,” No ministries or others to turn to, he had to do this himself Isaac said, “Where is the sacrifice?” Moses – Deuteronomy 6:4-7 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one…” Moses speaking to Israel here: Deuteronomy 4:9-11 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.  Make them known to your children and your children’s children—how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’” Joshua – During the time that the OT was written people hardly ever gathered together for congregational worship.  Don Whitney says this, “Even after the tabernacle and temple were built believers did not gather in large groups to worship God as often as is assumed.  Only late in OT history and hundreds of years after Solomon built the temple did the local synagogues develop and people begin to worship God congregationally on a weekly basis.” Family Worship Pg. 19 Near the end of his life, after leading the Israelites into the Promised Land, Joshua said this to God’s people: “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the god’s of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15 Job – “Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.” Job 1:5, and Job did this continually. Job is described in verse 1 of Job as “Blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” And the only description of his blamelessness and uprightness is his righteousness towards his children. The Nation of Israel - Psalm 78:4-7 (Written by Asaph)  “We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.” “He has established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments” God commanded fathers among his people to tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord. When would they have done this? Fathers taught these praises to their children at home Paul – Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Family worship in the Early Church Acts 2:38-39 “‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.’” Acts 10:2; 11:14; 16:15, 31, 34; 18:8 - entire ‘households’ submitting to Christ There were no kids programs or youth groups. Where things went wrong – history of government education The Reformation (Printing Press, 1439, principle of Sola Scriptura) Martin Luther had a catechism for heads of households to teach their children Luther believed that the home must be the initial staging ground for the advance of the gospel; he taught that in each home, parents are priests, and it is their sworn duty before God to set the Gospel before the entire family. In a sermon on Marriage Martin Luther said: “The best thing in married life, for the sake of which everything ought to be suffered and done, is the fact that God gives children and commands us to bring them up to serve Him.  To do this is the noblest and most precious work on earth, because nothing may be done which pleases God more than saving souls.” -Martin Luther, Sermon on Married Life, quoted in Leland Ryken, Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Really Were (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 1986), 239. Sola Scriptura - Literacy followed wherever Christianity went Sunday School founded in 1780 in England in “Scout Alley” Purpose was to teach poor children to read and basic education Religious instruction not part of it 1800-1920 Free public education (Horace Mann) (Established around 1870) Modeled after the Prussian format Rooted in secular humanism Opposed by American Christians for decades (fought against compulsory education) By 1900, two-thirds of high school children were educated at home or the Church 1920-1950 Progressive Education (John Dewey) (Evolution, Assembly Line, age and grade segregation.) Educationally, separating students into age or grade levels is an amazingly harmful practice in that it undercuts any number of non-linear learning opportunities and it breaks down the society of the school. Teachers in public schools should be applauded as they are front-line warriors. The key word is OUTSOURCED There is an expression: ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’  That is not a biblical notion.  That’s not God’s design.  But we have bought into the idea that others can raise our kids better than we can.  “We have come to believe that parenting is a task best left to professionals.” The Church began modeling itself after cultural norms instead of Scripture We can’t escape culture; so every culture will have a different church and ministry expressions, but when the church looks more like its culture than the kingdom of God, we are no longer following Christ How this has affected the church Family worship is virtually non-existent Our children abandon the church in droves Children’s and youth ministries are ineffective **I am just presenting research findings, and we can work together to figure out what we ought to do** Survey of 1000 people age 20-29 from coast to coast, men and women, “Sunday school is actually more likely to be detrimental to the spiritual and moral health of our children.” – Already Gone pg. 38 Mike Yaconelli, co-founder of youth specialties “The curtain must be pulled back.  If we are to keep young people involved in the church and if we are to renew our congregations, we first must acknowledge that many of our current forms of youth ministry are destructive.” Alvin Reid, chair of the Evangelism Dept. at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary said in his book “Raising the Bar” “The largest rise of full-time youth ministers in history has been accompanies by the biggest decline in youth evangelism effectiveness.”  Reid continues “For the past three decades, then, youth ministry has exploded across America, accompanied by a rise in the number of degrees in youth ministry granted by colleges and seminaries, an abundance of books and other resources, and a network of cottage industries devoted solely to youth ministry.  Yet those same three decades have failed to produce a generation of young people who graduate from high school or leave youth groups ready to change the world for Christ.” What we ought to do about it Reclaim parental responsibility for passing on the faith Ephesians 4:11-12 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” -The job of the church is to equip the saints to do their jobs, not to do it for them. “Contrary to popular belief, the home, not the church, has been entrusted with the primary responsibility of teaching children the Bible.” Commit to leading our families in regular worship activities Family Worship Must be Born of Conviction Family Worship Begins with the Head of the Household Family Worship must be scheduled Family Worship must be Simple Family Worship must be natural (God sent them home with you; don’t fake it, be authentic) Family Worship must be mandatory (algebra) Family Worship must be participatory Take steps to be ‘salt & light’ in our community We are to be distinct.  We are to be different. “If I teach my son to keep his eye on the ball but fail to teach him to keep his eyes on Christ, I have failed as a Father.” -V.B. FDF Pg. 20 Learn from and support one another Come to the Parent’s Summit Objections I want my kids to grow up and choose religion for themselves First, there are few things more reflective of our godless culture than that statement. (The Lord our God, the Lord is ONE.) Second, that means “I don’t actually believe this is true.” Third, it is a cop out. It means I don’t want to do anything about it. What if that’s what we said about education? Morals? I want it to be from their heart, not just memorization vii.Do you teach your kids their abc’s? do you teach them algebra? I don’t know where to start This is actually a valid problem, which is why we have our parents summit tonight, so we can work together towards passing the faith onto our kids. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey_8-12-18.mp3 Sun, 12 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 53:44 Doug Hon 2019 and Older A Plea to Parents: Bring Your Children to Jesus Deuteronomy 6:5-7; Luke 18:15-17 Preached at Main Street Church on September 9th, 2018 I want to examine these two passages today—one from the Old Testament and one from the New—and present to you what is ultimately a plea to parents.  And my plea to parents this morning is this: bring your children to Jesus.  Deuteronomy 6:5-7: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Luke 18:15-17: “Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them.  And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.  But Jesus called them to him saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.’” The sermon that I hope to preach to you today has been forming in my mind for the last 9 years.  I served as a youth pastor for three years, ministering to middle and high school students in the city of St. Louis, many of whom had absent parents, and I have been ministering to college students for the last 5 years.  My undergraduate degree from Missouri Baptist University was in Religious Education with an emphasis in youth ministry.  While I was in seminary I studied youth ministry for elective credits.  In addition to my ministry at Main Street Church I currently serve as a part time campus minister at Missouri Baptist University where I interact with college students on a daily basis.  All this has plunged me into study of how to minister to and reach the emerging generation, as well as it has given me opportunity to observe Christianity, or lack thereof, in the life of youth and college students.  According to Barna survey data, three out of four kids end up leaving the church after high school. What I submit to you this morning that the single greatest failure of the Western Church in the last 100 years is the failure to pass along the faith to the next generation.  I recognize the magnitude of that indictment.  And as I preach my sermon, I leave it to you to test it, and see, based on Scripture, whether or not it is true.  We’ve just read Deuteronomy 6:5-7. I don’t know what you think the book of Deuteronomy is about, but the book of Deuteronomy warns against two threats to the people of God.  They are: 1) idolatry and 2) failure to pass along the faith to the next generation. Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”  Never has there been a more explicit command found in Scripture that has been so flagrantly ignored by people who call themselves the church.  And the church is to blame for this sin of omission, due to taking it’s cues from the culture more than from God—but we’ll talk about that next week. The western church has blatantly disregarded God’s command for parents to pass the faith on to their kids, and then we have the gall to wonder why our children are leaving the church in droves!  We have abandoned God’s mandate to pass the faith on to our children.  We have outsourced our duties as Christian parents to an hour once, or maybe twice a week, and that is being generous.   We cannot blindly ignore one of God’s greatest commandments and expect it to go well with us.  I see these books and blogs and articles that attempt to tell us why so many young people are leaving the church.  They blame atheistic professors in universities, they blame the public school system, they blame the church itself and say that the church doesn’t have the right music, doesn’t speak the right language in its preaching, sermons are too long, they’re too short, the church has become too political, the youth ministries aren’t gospel centered enough, the children’s ministries don’t have enough training and on and on and on.  Enough with all that!  Now is the time to face the cutting truth: the primary reason so many of our young people are leaving and have left the church is because their parents did not diligently pass the faith on to them.  They did not diligently “teach these things” to their children.  Now, I want to make something very clear.  There is no ‘magic formula’ for raising godly children.  I’m sure you’ve observed this.  In a family with five children four of them can pursue Christ, while another lives a wayward life.  They all had the same parents and were raised in the same home.  There is no magic formula that guarantees the salvation of our children.  But the Bible gives us very clear commands about teaching God’s word to our children, and it is only by God’s infinite grace that any of our children have been saved and persevered in the church considering what a poor job the church has done in equipping parents to train up their children in the way of the Lord.    The best resources I could find were a few that had an option (again, that is unacceptable) for parents to reinforce what their kids were learning in church on a weekly or on a monthly or quarterly basis.  Parents are not meant to reinforce what the church teaches their kids.  The church should reinforce what the kids are already learning at home.  This is why in the NT there is no such thing as a ‘children’s pastor’ or ‘youth pastor.’  Not that those things are bad, but parents are the ones responsible to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. The primary pattern for the transmission of the gospel that we see in Scripture and in church history is from parents to their children.  We have literally got it backwards.  All the teaching materials I found for teaching kids God’s word focus on Sunday or Wednesday meetings and then maybe offer parents something to supplement at home.  It should be the reverse.  And let me ask this: if you are not faithfully evangelizing your own children, how can you be expected to faithfully evangelize anyone else? Parents evangelizing their children is plan A.  A youth ministry or Sunday school reaching your child is plan B.  So many books and classes and conferences and curriculums talk about plan B as if it is plan A, while no one is talking about plan A. So, now that the problem has been made clear, and now that you can see the direness of the situation I want to take the remainder of our time to talk about plan A.  Deuteronomy 6:5-7 – Intentionally Instructing Our Children I want to draw seven principles from our texts today and in so doing present to you “7 Pleas to Parents.”  I recognize that what I am saying to you this morning cuts deep.  But I beg you, let the Word cut you so that your scar might serve as a warning for the next generation.  Allow God to redeem what has been broken in your life as a testimony to his grace for generations to come.  Mourn your loss, ask God to forgive you if you have neglected any of his commands, and if your children are grown and gone be reminded that what is impossible with man is possible with God.  No sinner is too wicked, no sin is too great, and no salvation is out God’s reach.  Perhaps you are here today and you are not a parent, or you are a grandparent.  These principles also apply to you, just in a different way. First of all, you can support parents as they seek to obey God’s word, and you can join in the discipleship process of their children.  But secondly, and more than that, so many kids come to church without Christian fathers and mothers.  As a member of God’s family, you be the Christian mom or dad that they need in this body of Christ.  Jesus said, “Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”  So as you listen today, remember that in the body of Christ, you are commanded to serve those who need a brother, a sister, a father, or a mother. I know that some of what I have said today has been hard, but I want you to know that I am willing to take that risk because the time for playing games and beating around the bush has come to an end.  It’s time to put your foot down, parents, and say “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”  The Bible says that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and your children are on his list.  If you love your children then this is not something to take lightly as you sip a latte and figure out what to do for lunch.  Let us lay aside our pride, let us admit where we have gone wrong so that today might be that day where we begin to do all that is in our power to lovingly snatch our children from the fires of Hell.    1. A Plea to Treasure Christ Above All Else My first plea is for parents to treasure Christ above all else.  It is no coincidence that immediately before the command for parents to teach their children in Deuteronomy 6 it says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  Parents, treasure Christ above everything else for your children.  Give yourself this quick assessment: what do you hope most for your kids?  What is your ultimate hope for their life?  Is it that they will be a success in business or academia?  Is it that they will find the love of their life?  Is it for them to enjoy physical safety and financial security? If your greatest hope for your children is not that they would treasure Christ above all else, then you hope too little for them!  But this desire for your children is only modeled when you yourself treasure Jesus more than anything in the world.  Your kids know what you treasure.  They know if you treasure sports more than Jesus.  They know if you treasure corporate success or comfort more than Jesus.  One of the most impactful moments of my life was when I watched my parents bring everything out of our house in the suburbs of California onto the driveway and then sell them for unreasonably low prices.  I stood there and watched as my dad sold the Acura that the company had just given him for an amazing quarter.  And they had told us at dinner one evening that we were moving to another country to tell people there about Jesus, and then they demonstrated to us how much he was worth by showing us how little all of their earthly possessions were worth in comparison.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”  Parents, treasure Christ above everything else for children. Bring your children to Jesus. 2. A Plea to Worship as a Family Parents, lead your family in worship.  Do your children see you worshipping Christ outside of the four walls of the church?  Do they even see you worshipping Christ in the four walls of the church?  Dads, do your kids know what your voice sounds like as you sing praises to God for ransoming your soul from the flames for all eternity, or are you too embarrassed to let them hear you?  If so, don’t be surprised then when your child abandons the faith because he is embarrassed of it.  He learned it somewhere.  In my estimation, nothing will have as big of an impact on your children as worshipping as a family.  In the Bible and in history family worship was typically assumed.  Cain and Abel seemed to learn about worshipping God from their father Adam.  Isaac apparently learned about sacrifices from his father Abraham.  In the New Testament we see that upon someone’s conversion they evangelize their whole household.  Less than two hundred years ago if a father was not leading his family in regular worship activities he was subject to come under church discipline because of an abdication of his role as the spiritual head of his own household.  Deuteronomy 6:6-7 says, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” This passage gives us explicit instruction as to how parents are to pass the faith on to their children.  I recognize that just the thought for some parents of leading their families in worship is terrifying to them.  I think that’s actually a good place to start—you should be terrified.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  You are going to lead your family in holy and sacred things.  You are going to participate in something of eternal significance.  Now I want to draw on the text here and suggest some practical ways for doing this.  Three primary components of worship are singing, reading Scripture, and praying.  It could be for five minutes, it could be for an hour and a half, it could be weekly, it could be daily, as long as you make it a priority.  Verse 7 says, “You shall teach [God’s word] diligently to your children.”  That means you can’t expect for your kids just to sort of catch the drift of who God is and hope that is sufficient.  You have to teach it diligently.  That means you prioritize it.  You teach it clearly, penetratingly, directly, and regularly.   You are intentional about teaching your kids who God is and the joy of knowing Him.  Here are some suggestions of ways you can do that: 1) “You shall talk of them when you sit in your house.”  First of all, when was the last time you talked about God’s word in your house?  Here is a clear command to do just that.  As I mentioned, three core components to include in family worship are singing, reading, and praying.  So gather everyone in the living room sing a song or two or as many as you can.  Sing Jesus loves me.  Sing a hymn.  If you don’t know any worship songs then learn some.  Then read some Scripture.  It can literally be one verse.   If your kids are older read a whole chapter or an entire passage.  Talk about what it means and how it might apply.  If you have a study Bible with notes, refer to that.  You don’t have to be an expert, you don’t have to know everything.  If your kids ask a question you don’t know an answer to, and I guarantee they will, just tell them you don’t know.  Then, take each child on your knee one at a time and say a prayer for them out loud so they and all your other kids can hear.  Again, these are not rules, these are simply suggestions of things you can do to lead your family in worship.  Just make sure you do things like this consistently.  Add it into your routine.  One question you might have is how often should you do this?  The elders of our church recently went through a book called Light to the Nation by Dr. Michael Goheen.  In it Dr. Goheen mentioned that he and his wife made the commitment to worship as a family five evenings a week for an hour to an hour and a half.  Now that’s not going to be possible for everyone, but let yourself be challenged.  These are only some of the ways that families must take up their responsibility to nurture their children into the story of the Bible.  It will take prayer, time, commitment, and sacrifice, but what will it profit parents if they gain the whole world and lose their children?  2) Deuteronomy 6 also says we are to talk of God’s word “When you walk by the way.”  We don’t walk places very much but you probably drive just about every day.  When I was growing up, every time my family got in our minivan to go somewhere my parents would have us all bow our heads as my dad prayed a short prayer for God’s protection and blessing over us as we traveled.  Then they would kiss, to our disgust, as you can imagine.  This small action showed us that our parents actually believed that God was present and active even in the menial and routine areas of life like taking a trip to the store in the minivan.  3) We are to talk of God’s word “When you lie down.”  Have a bedtime routine with your kids.  Every night as you put them to sleep pray with them.  Pray with them about what happened that day.  Pray with them about whatever is coming up tomorrow.  Let the last thing they hear before they fall asleep be the voice of mom or dad blessing the name of the Lord. 4)  We are to talk of God’s word “When you rise up.”  Talk about God in the mornings with your kids.  Let them see you reading your Bible and praying in the mornings.  I distinctly remember one morning in high school I came out of my bedroom to find my mom with her Bible laying open on the table as she cried.  She actually was embarrassed that I caught her crying, but she had been reading through the book of Romans and was in chapter 9 that day.  She said, “I don’t completely understand it, but I believe it.”  You can imagine the impact that had on me as I saw the high regard my mom had for God’s word.  She taught me there by her example that just because I don’t understand something in Scripture doesn’t mean I reject.  Rather, I submit myself to it.  Show your children a pattern of worship in your personal life, and lead your family in worship together.  Parents, Lead your family in worship, both by example, and by routine.  Bring your children to Jesus. 3. A Plea for A Discerning Use of Technology Parents, discern how your children use technology.  The best preaching, worship, and education programs of a church simply cannot compete with television, movies, the internet, cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, and the ever-expanding list of technologies that shape our vision of the world.  If you do not make radical, costly, and time-consuming commitment to nurturing your children, their future is bleak. According to a study by Nielsen published in the New York Times, on average, American adults are watching five hours and four minutes of television per day. That doesn’t even include the roughly four hours a day that teenagers average on the internet.  According to the Associated Press the typical American spends 11 hours consuming media every day.  It is ignorant and foolish to think that this is not having an effect on your children.  Friends, I want to challenge you here for your children’s sake.  Do they really need a smart phone or a tablet or an ipad?  You know as well as I do that they are only one click away from pornography.  Do you really need the internet in your home at all?   What is our reasoning behind all of this?  Is it just to “keep up with the Joneses”?  Do your kids actually need a smartphone or do you just want to make sure that they have one since all their friends have one?  I’m not saying that any of these things are wrong in and of themselves, but parents, be discerning with how your kids use technology and how much media they consume.  We must help our children learn how to use technology wisely.  We have to stop kidding ourselves that 1 or 2 hours of church each week can cancel out 77 hours of anti-God media.  If a young boy spent two hours a week learning basketball from Lebron James, the greatest basketball player in the world right now, but spent 77 hours a week eating junk food and playing video games, do you think he would make it to the NBA?  He wouldn’t even be good enough to play in college. What makes us think, then, that two hours of Jesus is enough each week for our children to know the ways of God, especially when their sin nature is opposed to the Christ?  Parents, discern how your children use technology. Bring your children to Jesus. 4. A Plea for Education that sees Jesus as Lord of all of life Parents, find ways to educate your children that sees Jesus as Lord of all of life.  In America, you have essentially three options for educating your children: 1) Send them to public school, 2) Send them to private Christian school, or 3) home educate them. It’s wonderful that we live in a time and place where we have these options.  Whatever education they receive, it is your responsibility.  The public schooling system attempts to separate all religion from education.  This, of course, is impossible, because Jesus is not just Lord on Sunday and he is not just Lord at church.  He is lord of every day of the week and he is the Lord of all knowledge.  All truth is God’s truth.  If you choose to send your children to public school, just make sure that you know what you are getting yourself into.  As one pastor put it, “If we keep sending our kids to Rome, we shouldn’t be surprised when they come home as Romans.” After technology, education is the primary way that the next generation will be shaped.  “Education today—including public, Christian, and home education—is too often committed to serving the gods of economic utility, consumerism, multiculturalism, and technology.  Commitment to finding ways to educate our children in a way that sees Jesus as Lord of all of life is not an option but rather a deep responsibility.  It will require an intentionality and sacrifice that can be sustained only when we realize the importance of our task.” I’m not saying that in order to be a good Christian you must home-educate your children or send them to a Christian school.  First of all, that is impossible for some people even if they would love to do it.  But know this, if you send your kids to a public school, the task ahead of you is going to be difficult, because you will not only have to teach your kids God’s Word, but you will have to un-teach them so much of the falsehood they will learn in a system that has attempted to deny reality by removing God, ethics, and morality from every subject.  I had the privilege of spending a day with Dr. Goheen and his wife during which I asked them about the way they educated their children.  For a few years they sent their kids to public school, but they had already made the commitment to spend every evening in family worship, and the kid’s homeword from the school interfered with that.  So Dr. Goheen went to the principal and said that his kids would not be turning in any homework while attending the school; they would fully participate in class and activities, but they would not be doing any homework, and if there was a problem with that then he would withdraw his kids.  He didn’t get any pushback, he was able to maintain the prioritized time of family worship, and his kids still did better in their classes.  I’m not saying that this is the path for everyone, but what I am saying is that we need to think outside the box with how we educate our children.  Parents, find ways to educate your children that sees Jesus as Lord of all of life.  Bring your children to Jesus. 5. A Plea to Incorporate Children in the Church Parents, teach your children how to worship in church.  I’ll never forget when my dad taught me how to read from a hymnal, skipping down from each stanza one line at a time, so that I could sing in church with everyone else.  Ask your kids what they learned from the sermon.  Teach them to tithe.  Set a pattern of giving for them so that they learn to be generous with the blessings God gives them.  Don’t treat them as second class citizens in the church, in Luke 18 Jesus declared the value of children as worthy kingdom candidates.  Parents, teach your children how to worship in church.  Teach them that the worship of the church involves and includes them.  Bring your children to Jesus. 6.  A Plea to Make Radical Sacrifices Parents, make radical sacrifices to bring your children to Jesus.  I’ll never forget the conversation I had with a man on a plane while I was on a trip to speak to a group of high school students.  The man told me that he used to take his family to church but his son was involved in a snowboarding league that competed on Sundays, so he couldn’t go anymore.  Friends, if your child is involved in an activity that keeps them from gathering to worship with God’s people then they don’t need to be involved in that activity!  Do not allow T-ball to keep your child out of the kingdom of Heaven!  Do not allow your desire for your child to become a professional athlete to supplant your commitment to Christ!  Friends, if your children see that church attendance is not important to you, then why should it be important to them?  You can’t attend church once a month and then be surprised when your kids only show up on Christmas and Easter.  Quit every activity that interferes with church.  No more excuses.  Cut it off.  Make radical sacrifices. What TV shows will you give up in order to lead your family in regular times of family worship.  Write them down.  It will be worth it in eternity. What promotions and financial gain will you have to abdicate in order to maintain an adequate amount of time with your family.  Perhaps you will have to settle for a minivan instead of an SUV, or you won’t be able to buy that jetski, or you can’t take that extravagant vacation in order to send your child to a Christian school.  Be willing to make sacrifices that your neighbors and even other Christians will look at as radical.  Parents, make radical sacrifices to bring your children to Jesus.  Bring your children to Jesus. 7. A Plea for Grace to Overcome Obstacles Parents, pray for grace to overcome the obstacles of bringing your children to Jesus.  All of us need the grace of God to enable us to honor him with how we raise our children.  There are obstacles that get in the way of all of this.  If you’re a single parent may God’s Spirit encourage you today.  Do your best to honor God with what you have.  Remember, the widow who gave all she had, and even though it wasn’t much, God considered that she gave more than everyone else.  Perhaps the hours that you work make it difficult for you to spend any time with your kids.  Pray for wisdom that God would show you what you can do, whether that means spending time with them at unusual hours or getting a different job even if it pays less.  Perhaps you’ve been convicted by what has been said here today and you want to do these things, but you’re afraid and don’t know where to start.  Friends, you have to start somewhere, and better late than never.  You will never regret do something that brings glory to God and is eternally significant.  Start small, one step at a time, prayers before bed, then in the car, then singing together, then reading the Bible as a family.  Just start somewhere.  Pray for grace as you attempt to be obedient to God in the way you raise your children.  Ephesians 6:4 says, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”  Make sure that in all that you do with your children with regard to family worship and instructing them in the faith that it is done with joy.  Don’t turn it into a militant chore that is no fun and your kids hate.  Let your times of worship and even prayer be filled with laughter.  Let your home be filled with joyful dancing.  Sing songs of praise that are lifted up in gladness.  Let your children see you pray with tears, but let them also see you rejoice as you worship your Savior.  Let them see that a life devoted to God is a life of joy, and the reason you want to pass the faith onto them is that their joy might be full.  Parents, pray for grace to overcome the obstacles of bringing your children to Jesus. Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them.  And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.  But Jesus called them to him saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.  Now that I’ve had my own son I can’t read this passage without thinking about what it would have been like for me to be there.  What lengths would I go to in order to bring my seven-month-old son to Jesus, just so that Jesus might touch him.  How far would I be willing to carry him?  What work would I have given up for that day?  What meals would I have been willing to skip?  Put yourself in that position.  Friends, these children did not come to Jesus on their own.  Their parents brought them.  If there was something you could do to bring your children to Jesus, wouldn’t you do it?  Wouldn’t you be willing to climb mountains?  Wouldn’t you be willing to cross rivers and oceans, wouldn’t you be willing to forego meals and shelter if it meant bringing your child face to face with Christ.  I’m not asking you to climb mountains and cross seas.  I’m simply asking you to open up your Bible with your kids.  Pray with them.  Worship with them.  Teach them who God is, and in doing this, you will be bringing them to Jesus.    https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey8518.mp3 Sun, 05 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 58:04 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug20180722.mp3 Sun, 22 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 34:06 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug_07_15_2018.mp3 Sun, 15 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 34:44 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey_7.8.18.mp3 Sun, 08 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:04 Alan Scotland Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/7-2-18AlanScotland.mp3 Sun, 01 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 40:41 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug62418.mp3 Sun, 24 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:34 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/AReversalofRighteousness-Casey-6.17.18.mp3 Sun, 17 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 45:08 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug6-10-18.mp3 Sun, 10 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:01 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/06-03-18Casey.mp3 Sun, 03 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 39:53 Michael Goheen 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/5-27-18Doug.mp3 Sun, 27 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 39:59 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey05_20_18.mp3 Sun, 20 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 58:11 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/51318Doug.mp3 Sun, 13 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 45:59 Michael Goheen Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/4_8_18.mp3 Sun, 08 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 49:57 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Reversing the Curse 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 Preached at Main Street Church on Easter Sunday 2018 Easter is the day we celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and is living today.  And the reason we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead, is it means that we also will someday be raised from the dead. The title of my message this morning is “Reversing the Curse.”  And I want to talk about what the curse is, how Jesus reversed it, and what you should do as a result. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden of Eden, they brought a curse upon all creation.  And the most painful sting of the curse was that now all of humanity would experience the sting of death.  Genesis 3:19 says, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” But Jesus came to reverse the curse.  He came to reverse death. And when he rose from the dead almost 2000 years ago, that is exactly what he did.  And he gives life to everyone who believes in him.  So on Easter, we celebrate that. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 “’O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Death causes pain too intense for words.  Perhaps you’ve experienced that pain.  Let’s look at how Jesus responded to death. Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus, were good friends of Jesus.  Lazarus had been severely sick and Mary and Martha had called out to Jesus, but he hadn’t come in time.  John 11:32 says, “Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’” Mary and Martha had sent a message to Jesus saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”  And the text tells us that Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus.  John 11:33-35 says, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.  And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept.’” When Jesus had an encounter with death, he did not avoid it.  He asked, ‘Where have you laid him?’  And when he saw it, he wept.  Death causes pain too intense for words.  But the text says when Jesus saw them weeping, “he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”  These are the strongest words ever used in the Bible to describe Jesus’ response to something.  “The emotion is the revulsion of everything that is in him against the power of death.”  This shows us Jesus’ posture towards death. He hates it. The Love of Jesus Why? Does Jesus hate death? Why is he so moved when he sees everyone weeping, why is he so angered when he visits the grave of Lazarus?  John 11:5 “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”  Death destroys what God loves.  It destroys his people made in his image.  It is the curse of sin.  And it is the reason Jesus came: to reverse the curse.  1 John 3:8 says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”  Jesus came to reverse the curse.  He came to destroy death. He came so that death might no longer hurt “the one whom he loves.” How Jesus Reversed the Curse The question is: how?  How could Jesus reverse the curse?  The only way that Jesus could reverse the curse, was to become cursed himself.  Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”  That is, he removed the curse from us, by taking the curse on himself.  1 Corinthians says the same thing:  1 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he (God) made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God’s plan to reverse the curse goes all the way back Genesis 3.  Immediately after Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden of Eden, God made a promise that one day a child would be born who would crush Satan and be stung in the process.  It says, “The Lord God said to the serpent…‘he shall crush your head, and you shall strike his heel.’”   On the cross, Jesus crushed the head of the serpent; he destroyed death, but had to endure the sting of death in the process.  When mankind disobeyed God, they were cursed because of sin, but the worst curse fell upon Jesus on the cross.  Jesus reversed the curse by bearing the curse in our place on the cross. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”  “For our sake he (God) made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” On the cross God treated Jesus as guilty, so that he might treat us as innocent. God poured out the curse on Jesus, so that he might pour out blessing on us.  God treated Jesus as a sinner, so that he might treat us as saints.  Jesus suffered the curse of death, so that we might have eternal life. But after enduring the curse, his body in the grave for three days, Jesus was raised from the dead!  And an angel rolled back the stone of Jesus’ tomb and he walked out, alive.  Jesus died, but death could not hold him.  Jesus endured the curse of sin, but he absorbed it completely.  And when he rose from the dead, the sting of death was taken away.  Death no longer has any power.  Death no longer has any authority.  Death has been disarmed, because Jesus is alive, and by rising from the dead, he reversed the curse.  “’O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Once when my sister was nine years old some boys shot her in the arm with an air soft gun.  She came in crying to my dad, pointing to the stinging mark on her arm. After learning what had happened, her father bolted into action.  He went outside, found the boys who had hurt her, and demanded they hand over their weapons.  He began breaking the plastic guns into pieces, while saying “No one hurts my daughter!” Each word punctuated by snapping plastic.  The way he ensured that his daughter, whom he loved, would never be hurt, never be stung by those weapons again, was by destroying them.  And because of what Jesus did on the cross, death has been taken out of the hands of the enemy and destroyed by the hands of the father.  Death has been destroyed.  Death can no longer hurt you.  You may have been stung by it, but the greatest sting would be taken by Jesus on the cross so that death would be destroyed forever. Death has been taken out of the hands of the enemy and destroyed by the hands of the father.  Jesus hates death, and he hates how it destroys what he loves, so he faced it head on and said, “I will take the sting. I will take the curse.” And the Father said, “I will destroy death” so he put the curse upon his own son, so that you might live. And in doing so he destroyed death and it’s power forever.  Colossians 2:15 says, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”  He took their weapons and broke them over his knee and said, ‘no one hurts my daughter.  No one hurts the one whom I love.’ Why would Jesus endure the curse?  Because he loves you. John 3:16.  The cross is, at the same time, the greatest demonstration of God’s hatred of sin, and death, and the curse, and it is the greatest demonstration of his love for you.  If you believe in him you will have eternal life. The curse says, “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” but Jesus has reversed the curse, so that 1 Corinthians 15:49 says, “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”    Death has been defeated. Death has died.  And everyone who believes in him will be raised from the dead when he returns. So here is the question for you: Will you believe in Jesus and receive his gift of life that he earned by reversing the curse for you? Running from God, or to God? When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the garden, their relationship with him changed, and instead of enjoying a great relationship with God, they ran from him.  They hid.   That’s what sin causes us to do. To try to run and hide from God.  Peter – the one who said he would never desert Jesus, did.  When a little girl pressed him, in his most critical moment, he ran and hid. But When Jesus was raised and appeared to Mary he sent her to tell the disciples, Luke says none of the disciples believed, but Peter ran to the tomb.  Jesus is alive and raised from the dead, so no matter how many times you’ve failed Run to the tomb Run to the resurrected Lord Run to Christ, and believe “’O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Easter.mp3 Sun, 01 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 28:44 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03-25-18_Doug.mp3 Sun, 25 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 43:53 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older Hearing from God John 16:13-14 Preached at Main Street Church on March 18th, 2018 God speaks to us in four ways: God speaks to us through His word God speaks to us through His people God speaks to us through His Spirit God speaks to us through His wisdom John 16:13-14 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Revelation vs. Illumination When we say “God speaks to us,” we are talking about illumination. NOT revelation.  Here is why we need to be very careful to distinguish between these two things: Revelation 22:18-19 “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” These verses at the end of the Bible are saying that if anyone claims to have any revelation from God on the same level as Scripture, they will be damned.  They will be cursed to hell. Revelation is God’s revealed truth.  Illumination is God’s truth revealed. Revelation is God’s Word, aka the Bible Illumination is when God’s Spirit helps you to understand God’s word. 1 Corinthians 2:14  “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” In other words, anyone can have access to revelation, God’s revealed truth, but it takes the illumination of the Holy Spirit to help us actually understand it. When we say “God speaks to us,” we are talking about illumination. NOT revelation. John 16:13-14 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” God has given us all the truth he wants us to have, but he has given us the Spirit to guide us into that truth. 4 Ways God Speaks to Us God Speaks to Us Through His Word The first, and most common way that God speaks to us is through his word. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” This says that Scripture is ‘breathed out by God,’ that is, it is God’s Word, and it is sufficient to equip you for every good work.  God has chosen that the primary way he speaks to us is through his written word, the Bible.  If you truly want to hear from God, soak yourself in the Scriptures.  Memorize verses and just chew on them throughout the day.  Spend intentional time learning the Bible.  If you refuse to hear from God through his Word, his primary means of communicating his will to us, you probably will not hear from him at all. If you’re waiting for God to speak to you through a burning bush like he did to Moses, or through a donkey like he did to Balaam, or through eccentric prophets like he did to Israel, you need to change your approach.  Look at what Hebrews:1:1-2 says: Hebrews 1:1-2 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,” In other words, now that Christ has come as the full expression of God’s will, there is no longer a necessity for extra revelation to be given through prophets.  And since Christ has ascended, he has sent the Helper, aka the Holy Spirit, to guide us into all the truth, or to illuminate God’s word to us.  The primary way God speaks to us is through his Word.  God uses other means to speak to us, but we have to get this clear:  Someone who has not soaked in the ocean of Scripture will not drink much from the streams of the Spirit. Ephesians 6:17 says we are to take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  You can’t expect to have these great illuminations from God if you’ve never spent any time studying the thing you want him to illuminate.  Spend some time reading God’s word each day.  Memorize one of the verses on the sermon notes and meditate on it throughout the day.  Use a study Bible to help you understand.  Get a commentary on a particular book of the Bible and work through it.  All of these things will help you hear God speak to you through his word. God Speaks to Us Through His People The second way that God speaks to us is through His people.  Many of you have experienced this, and I for one hope you are experiencing it right now!  1 Thessalonians 2:13 “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.” Paul is referring to the fact that when he preached the gospel to the Thessalonians, they received the message as God’s truth, and not simply as Paul’s personal opinion.  Romans 10 says, “How can someone believe in Jesus if they’ve never heard of him? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” And then verse 17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  Therefore, God can speak his word to us through His people. It could be through sermons, it could be through conversations, text messages, it could be through a gift of prophecy, which we will get to.  When I was in high school God used the message of a special speaker to convict of my call to vocational ministry as a pastor.  God used one of his people to speak to me.  God can speak through his people in a variety of ways, but one particular way that we see in Scripture is through the gift of prophecy.  The gift of prophecy in the NT, is vastly different than those who were called ‘prophets’ in the OT.  Look at what 1 Corinthians 14 says about prophecy:  1 Corinthians 14:1-5 “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy…the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation…the one who prophesies builds up the church.”  So prophecy is a NT gift that involves telling something that God has brought to mind, and it is always for up-building, encouragement, and consolation.  It is not predicting the future like a fortune-teller.  Anyone who claims to be a prophet nowadays, and goes around making predictions about future events and when Jesus is coming back is earning God’s judgment upon themselves.  Deut. 18:20-22 “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’ When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously.” Friends, don’t waste your time listening to people like that.  The gift of prophecy in the NT is about building up and encouraging the church. There is a view of the gift of prophecy that says, “If it says the same thing as Scripture, why is it needed? And if it says something different than Scripture, then it should be discarded.” I appreciate an approach with a high view of Scripture, but lets apply that same logic to the gift of preaching or teaching.  My preaching or teaching is not God-breathed, like Scripture, but I hope that it is helpful and that God speaks through it and uses it.  In the same way, when someone believes they have a prophecy to share it is not God-breathed, but it is a gift God has given his church for encouragement and building up.  A good example of this is several weeks ago one of our elders of the church here, Mark, felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit during our time or worship to share something that the Holy Spirit impressed upon him for the building up of the church.  A sermon series was borne out of that.  That is one good example of prophecy. Because the concept of prophesy is abused, it is tempting to simply ignore the idea of the gift of prophecy, but we see it in the Scriptures, and it is for our benefit, so we won’t ignore it.  Here is how we are to receive prophecies: 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.  Abstain from every form of evil.” Quenching the spirit would be when someone shares something they believe the Holy Spirit has given them to simply write it off as them being over-emotional, caught up in the moment, or simpy disbelieving that God could speak through someone in that way.  The Scripture says ‘don’t quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies.’ So does that mean we just take everything that is said as God’s inspired word?  No, we are commanded to ‘test everything, hold fast what is good.  Abstain from every form of evil.’  So how do you test a prophecy?  The same way, I hope, you test this sermon.  You compare it to God’s word, you hold fast to the good parts, and if any part was wrong, you abstain from it.  Friends, let us not quench the spirit and deprive ourselves of how God might speak to us through other people by giving them prophecies, but let us not also be simple-minded and accept everything, but let us hold fast what is good.  God speaks to us through his word, and God speaks to us through his people God Speaks to Us Through His Spirit Third, God speaks to us through his Spirit.  John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”  Again here we see that the Spirit gives us illumination, not revelation.  The Spirit will ‘teach us all things, and bring to our remembrance what Jesus has said.’ So it’s not new information.  But the Spirit also leads us as we live our lives.  Acts 13:2 says, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’”  So the Holy Spirit can at times prompt us for particular acts of ministry.  We see this happening in the book of Acts many times, that the Holy Spirit guides and leads the apostles as they carry out their ministry.  When I was a campus minister I once felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to ask a young woman if she had an eating disorder.  It was not something I would have done on my own, and I didn’t have any knowledge of her situation, but I felt a strong constraint of the Spirit that I needed to ask the question.  When I asked it, she confessed that she did have an eating disorder, and that she had never told anyone before.  She got into counseling, talked with her family and pastors, and has journeyed down the healing path since then. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will impress upon you or prompt you, or convict you to do something.  The challenge with this is that we will often talk ourselves out of doing it.  I think that the more we ignore, or say no to the Holy Spirit’s guiding in our life, the more calloused we become and the less sensitive we are to his prompting. How can you know that is the Holy Spirit leading you to do something and not simply some emotional response of your own?  Here is my advice: if you feel led to do something that is by it’s very nature, a good thing, like praying for someone, saying a kind word, reaching out through a phone call, or something like that, then you ought to do it.  Those are low-risk things, that if you do them, are pleasing to God aren’t they?  Now, some things are higher risk, like asking someone serious questions, or big life changes.  Those are areas that may be a bit more challenging.  I would definitely not have asked that girl about her eating disorder if it had not been the Holy Spirit clearly directing me in that. I was constrained by the Spirit.  Another examples is my parents sense of call to spread the gospel overseas in South Korea.  My dad was 45 years old, advancing in his career, had four kids, one who was about to graduate high school, and then myself, only 8 years old.  For my parents to uproot their lives and their family to move to the other side of the globe took a serious sense of the Holy Spirit speaking into their lives.  Issues like that take times of serious prayer, reflection, and conversation. I want to caution you here not to use the Holy Spirit as an excuse to do or not do things though.  It can be tempting to use God as an excuse, and that is a form of taking God’s name in vain.  You are attaching God’s name to your will, and that is wrong.  God speaks to us through his Spirit, and we discern the Spirit’s voice by the Word of God, which are one in the same God Speaks to Us Through His Wisdom So God speaks to us through his word, through his people, and through his Spirit, and finally, here is an important and yet often neglected way that God speaks to us: through His wisdom.  Proverbs 4:11-12 “I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness.  When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble.” Wisdom is: “The art of godly living”  Wisdom is applying the belief that God always chooses the best goals and the means to those goals.  Wisdom is looking at the way God designed the world and how it works, and applying those principles to life in a way that makes sense. Sometimes we want God to give us direction on non-truth issues such as: Who to marry, where to live, what college to go to, what job to work, how many kids to have what car to buy, and things like that.  God’s word will give you some guidelines for some of those things.  God’s people will give you input and advice for those thing.  God’s Spirit will give help guide you, but it is the combination of these three things along with observation of God’s world that make up wisdom, and God speaks to us through that. God might not tell you exactly who to marry, but his wisdom can tell us who is a good candidate to marry.  God might not tell us what house to buy, but his wisdom can tell us that a million dollar mansion on a hundred thousand dollar budget might not be a good idea.  God might not tell you what college to go to, but his wisdom can tell you that you ought to go somewhere that will deepen and strengthen your relationship with him.  God might not tell you exactly what job you should have, but his wisdom ought to play a role in that.  You might want to hear from God about what time you should go to bed.  I don’t think that God’s word alone, or his people, or his Spirit, would give you a specific time, but his wisdom would actually help give you answer.  If you have a certain time you have to get up for work, things you need to do, time you need to eat, and amount of sleep you need to function, God’s wisdom can actually help guide you in things as mundane and common as what time you should go to bed.  God’s wisdom is having an understanding of how the world works, self-awareness, openness to God, in addition to listening to God speak through his word, his people, and his Spirit.  There will come times in your life when you simply need to make a decision, and that’s when you rely on God’s wisdom.  James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.” Aren’t you glad that God has not left us to navigate this life alone, but he communicates with us through his word, his people, his Spirit, and his wisdom?  In Isaiah 30:21 Isaiah prophesied of a time when God’s people would follow his voice forever. When there would be no more sin, no more following the voices of the world, and no more ambiguity of God’s voice. He says,  “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” Friends, God’s word says, “This is the way, walk in it.” God’s people say, “This is the way, walk in it.” God’s Spirit says, “This is the way, walk in it.” And God’s wisdom says, “This is the way, walk in it.” https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/20180318Casey.mp3 Sun, 18 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:41 Michael Goheen 2019 and Older Focusing on the True Battle Ephesians 6:12 Preached at Main Street Church on March 11th, 2018 Our Problem: We tend to focus on the wrong things Proposition: Since we are in a spiritual battle, we must fight a spiritual fight The Public Battle The Personal Battle We tend to focus on the wrong things.  Oftentimes we focus on the wrong battle.  Perhaps some of you came today carrying anxiety, depression, anger, laziness, purposelessness, that has plagued you for some time.  And you’ve looked at those obstacles and you’ve focused on them and you’ve thought, “If I could just…” When in reality, there is an intense spiritual battle going on that we can’t see with our eyes.  Ephesians 6:12 says: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” What is the Spiritual Battle? Demons are evil angels who sinned against God and who now continually work evil in the world. Jude 6 says, “And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—” The purpose of Satan and his demons is to destroy all the good works of God.  Pagan worship thus is characterized by destructive practices. Some people, influenced by a naturalistic worldview that only admits the reality of what can be seen or touched or heard, deny that demons exist today and maintain that  belief in their reality reflects an obsolete worldview taught in the Bible and other ancient cultures.  Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Paul’s use of ‘elemental spirits’ in Greek culture means ‘demonic spirits.’  Even though it is from human tradition, it’s ultimate origin is demonic teaching. Many people in our ‘enlightened’ Western culture who are committed to science as the ultimate authority on all knowledge are actually following demonic teaching.  And they play right into Satan’s snare. Let me give an example: On the ghost hunter shows they never find anything (Satan using Science to keep people from believing in him) The Bible teaches that there are demonic forces, led by Satan, at work in the world at this moment, and that we, as children of God, need to be prepared to stand against them.  We need to focus on the true battle. There are two primary ways we can focus on the true spiritual battle that is going on in the world today, and that is by looking at the public battle, and the personal battle.  The Public Battle What is the Public Battle? Ephesians 2:1-3 says “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  Here Satan is called ‘the prince of the power of the air’ and Paul equates following the course of this world to following Satan.  If you follow the philosophies, the values, and the ethics of this world, you are actually following Satan.  In fact Paul is saying before you started following Jesus, you were following Satan.  V. 3 “3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  This is a public battle, because this is the spiritual battle that is going on in our culture.  This is corporate.  This is a humanity thing.  This is a public battle because in Revelation 12:9 Satan is called “the deceiver of the whole world” In John 14:30 he is called “the ruler of this world” And in 2 Corinthians 4:4 “the god of this world.” So this isn’t about one individual person, this is about the whole world.  This is a public battle. What does the Public Battle Look Like? The public battle is entire cultures worshipping at the feet of false gods. In 1 Corinthians 10:20 Paul says, “What pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God.” In other words, when I would go to countries in Asia and see people offering food and burning incense in front of carved wooden and stone idols, they were actually offering those things to demons.  False gods are really demonic forces. Deuteronomy 32:16-17 “They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger.  They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known.” Demons are behind the worship of false gods.  Psalm 106:36-37 “They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons.” This is in reference to the ancient pagan god Moloch, which was a large hollow bronze statue of a humanoid figure with the head of a bull, and the statue would be heated with fire, and the Israelites would then throw their children into the oven to be burned.  They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, we are told. Here in the West we might think that we have certainly moved far beyond the savagery of ancient uncivilized people.  We may not sacrifice children to Moloch, but every day 3000 babies are sacrificed to something.  Demons are behind that.  The destruction of those made in God’s image. In the Public Battle in America, we have demonic Gods, they just look different than our ancient forefathers.  We worship at the altar of American liberty We pour out offerings to the god of consumerism We dedicate our worship to Sundays spent at the peewee soccer field instead of in church We meditate on the holy word of social media We praise sexual images and sensuality We bow before the authority of education and academia And then we preach the gospel of the American dream to our children: Get good grades so you can get into a good college so you can get a good job so you can make good money so you can buy good things and live a good life.  That, my friends, is a life sacrificed to demons. The public battle in America is not about political control, but it is a spiritual battle. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” The Personal Battle What is the Personal Battle? Ephesians 5:6-8  “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light”  While the public battle is about the battle we face together, the personal battle is about how we wage spiritual war in our own lives.  God’s word tells us here that we are to walk as children of light, even though we were once darkness.  How much power/control do Satan and his demons have? There is no clear instance of casting out demons in the Old Testament Jesus explains that his power over demons is a distinguishing mark on his ministry to inaugurate the reign of the kingdom of God among mankind in a new and powerful way: “But if it is by the power of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you…” Matthew 12:28-29 After his disciples returned and had cast out demons: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Luke 10:18 Very little space in the New Testament is given to discussing demonic activity in the lives of believers or methods to resist and oppose such activity. At the cross God “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.” (Col. 2:15).  Satan hates the cross because there he was defeated forever. Jesus took on flesh and blood, “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” Heb. 2:14 So while Satan and his demons have a great degree of power and influence over the world, they have absolutely no power over the kingdom of God.  How much influence can demons have over me? The short answer is: as much as you give them. But let’s take a closer look at what the Scripture says. We should not think that demons can know the future or that they can read our minds or know our thoughts.  Only God can know the future, which is what makes him God. Isaiah 46:9-10 “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done.” 1 Timothy 4:1 Paul warned that in the latter days some would “depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” Paul thus saw some false doctrine as being demonic in origin. 2 Tim. 2:24-26 Paul implies that those who oppose sound doctrine have been captured by the devil to do his will. The question of demon possession: The Greek New Testament can speak of people who ‘have a demon’ or it can speak of people who are suffering from demonic influence, but it never uses language that suggests that a demon actually possesses someone.  Believers have complete authority over Satan and his demons through Jesus.  1 John 5:18 says “We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keep him, and the evil one does not touch him.” If we have areas of continuing sin in our lives, then there are weaknesses and holes in our ‘breastplate of righteousness’ and these are areas in which we are vulnerable to demonic attack. For example: Eph. 4:26 “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity for the devil” There could possibly be some demonic influence contributing to and intensifying a sinful tendency.  Bad temper, sense of depression, unwillingness to submit to rightful authority, lack of self-control in eating, laziness, bitterness, envy. How do we fight in the personal battle? Ephesians 6 says we have one weapon, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Every time Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, he quoted Scripture to rebuke the lies of the Devil. 2 Cor. 10:3-4 “For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds” 1 John 4:4 “You are of God, and have overcome them; for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”  James 4:7 “Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.” When Jesus came preaching the gospel in Galilee “demons also came out of many” Luke 4:41).  When Philip went to Samaria to preach the gospel, “unclean spirits came out of many…crying with a loud voice" (Acts 8:7).  Jesus commissioned Paul to preach among the Gentiles “that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18).  Paul’s proclamation of the gospel, he said, was “not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” 1 Cor. 2:4-5; 2 Cor. 10:3-4 1 John 3:8 “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the Devil.” Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 1:19-23  “And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly laces, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Luke 10:20 “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” This is our hope, that our names are written in heaven, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  In his famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress is our God” Martin Luther wrote: And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us; The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him. That word above all earthly pow'rs, no thanks to them, abideth; The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth; Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever. The kingdom of God endures forever, and Christ has won the battle.  Let us focus on the true battle that rages on, and know that we are victorious in Christ. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey_3_11_18.mp3 Sun, 11 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 49:17 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/DougSermonMarch32018.mp3 Sun, 04 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 35:11 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/22518Doug.mp3 Sun, 25 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 49:27 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older How to Respond to Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount Matthew 7:28-29 Our Problem: We don’t respond to the words of Jesus as we ought Proposition: Since Jesus is King, we must do his will Doing God’s will means being known by Him Doing God’s will means experiencing His power in your life Doing God’s will means being made whole by His presence “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” My sermon title this morning is “How to Respond to Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount,” and my challenge for you from that is: How will you respond to Jesus?  I have learned that my teaching is insufficient to actually change anyone.  It takes the power of God.  Have you experienced the power of God in your life?  This morning I want to ask you this question: how will you respond to Jesus?  Are you ready to experience the power of God in your life? “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” This verse tells us how the crowds responded to Jesus, and it uses this powerful Greek word that we translate as ‘astonished.’  It says, “the crowds were astonished at his teaching.”  They were dumbfounded.  They were amazed.  That word occurs only 13 times in the NT, and almost every time it’s used it is in relationship to God or something God has done, which is to say, it is a powerful word used primarily to attribute the type of response people have to divine acts. While the word ‘astonished’ communicates a variety of powerful emotional responses to Jesus’ teaching, it does not communicate any commitment of faith, or an experience of the power of God. You can memorize everything Jesus ever said; you can get your master’s degree in theology, you can think that he was a great teacher, and that his sermon on the mount is the height of philosophical and ethical teaching from any religious leader in the history of the world, you can be amazed, you can be dumbfounded, but Jesus is going to make it very clear: just being astonished isn’t enough.  Just being astonished at the teaching of Jesus isn’t enough So back to the challenge we are facing: how will you respond to Jesus?  Perhaps you yourself have been amazed at the teaching of Jesus.  Astonished at his radical commands and the authority he gives them with.  But if just being astonished isn’t enough, how should we respond?  At the end of his Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us:  Matthew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:24 says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” The way that Jesus says we must respond to him is that we do his will. Just being astonished isn’t enough We must do God’s will What does it mean to do God’s will?  When we hear the phrase: “Do God’s will” we immediately jump to this idea of a to-do list of moral tasks, but that could actually not be further from the truth of what Jesus means.  Doing the will of Jesus is different than we think.  In fact, doing God’s will is more about what God does in us than it is about us doing things for God. So, our response to Jesus’ teaching must be that we do God’s will, and I want to spend the rest of our time discovering from Jesus exactly what he meant by that. Doing God’s will means being known by Him (7:21-23) Explanation: The first thing that we learn from Jesus about doing God’s will is that doing God’s will means being known by Him. Look at 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Now at this point we would expect Jesus to give us a list of actions that are God’s will for us to do.  And amazingly, he does give us a list of actions, but instead of telling us to do them, he says you can do those things and it still doesn’t matter if He doesn’t know you.  Look at the next verse: “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me you workers of lawlessness.’” Many people will say, “Lord didn’t we do this; didn’t we do that; didn’t we do your will?” And they will have completely misunderstood what God’s will is: Doing God’s will means being known by him. The key is not: service for Jesus The key is: relationship with Jesus In these three verses Jesus is saying that doing God’s will doesn’t mean checking off a list of spiritual duties, but doing God’s will means being known by him. It means following Jesus, not simply following propositional directives (Matt. 7:21-23) Jesus is saying here that doing God’s will doesn’t mean doing a bunch of things in the name of Jesus(prophesying in his name, casting out demons in his name, doing mighty works in his name), but doing God’s will means being known by him. Illustration: If I march up Pennsylvania Avenue to the gates of the White House, I can tell them that I say the pledge of allegiance every day, know every word to the national anthem, gladly pay my taxes, set off fireworks on the 4th of July, and follow the POTUS on Twitter, but if I say “let me in, I know the President.”  The issue won’t be whether or not I know who he is.  The issue will be whether or not he knows me. You can go your whole life checking off your list of spiritual duties and still never have done God’s will. Doing God’s will means being known by him The key is not: service for Jesus The key is: relationship with Jesus Application: I’m afraid that many people today are listening to sermons telling them to do this and to do that, and after they hear those do-do sermons they go out and do all kinds of things in the name of Jesus, and on the day of judgment Jesus says they will stand before him and they will say Lord didn’t we do this, and didn’t we do that, and the saddest thing of all is that even though they did so much none of it mattered. Because the gospel isn’t about what we do; because the good news has never been about what we do, but about what Jesus has done.    Doing God’s will means being known by him The key is not: service for Jesus The key is: relationship with Jesus Ask yourself this morning: are you known by Jesus? Do you have a relationship with him?  Or have you been content to simply be astonished at his teaching? Doing God’s will means being known by him Doing God’s will means experiencing his power in your life (8:1-17) Explanation: The second thing we learn from Jesus about doing God’s will is not from what Jesus said, but from what he did.  And that is: doing God’s will means experiencing his power in your life. As soon as Jesus finished his sermon on the mount, 8:1-3 says, “When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.  And behold a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.’ And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” Immediately after that in 8:5: “When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, ‘Lord my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.’” Verse 13: “And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.’ And the servant was healed at that very moment.’” And then again immediately after that in 8:14-16, “And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.” My question is: how did those people go from listening to Jesus’ teaching, to the belief that he could heal them? During Jesus’ teaching he never said that he could make sick people better.  He never said that he had power over disease.  He never said that he could liberate people from demonic oppression.  He said love your neighbor, store up treasure in heaven, don’t be anxious, and pray to your heavenly Father. But somehow, a leper, a centurion, a mother-in-law, and many admittedly troubled people got from point A to point B.  Somehow, just by listening to the voice of Jesus, they believed that this man could change their lives, and they experienced his power. So here, Jesus shows us that doing God’s will means experiencing his power in your life. For those who hear the Sermon on the Mount… The question is not: what do I make of this teaching? The question is: what do I make of the one teaching it? Doing God’s will means experiencing his power in your life. Illustration: Story of Danny, wanting to study religion but not be affected by it Have you experienced the power of God in your life, or have you been content to simply be astonished at his teaching? Doing God’s will means experiencing his power in your life. The question is not: what do I make of this teaching? The question is: what do I make of the one teaching it? Application: Questions to discern if we have experienced the power of God in our lives: Has your pattern of life changed? Have the things you’ve most valued changed?  Have your priorities changed? Have you experienced the power of God to reconcile broken relationships? Have you experienced the power of God to break addiction? Have you experienced God’s power enabling you to love your enemy? Have you experienced answered prayer? Have you experienced freedom from enslavement to greed and chasing money? Have you experienced the power of God to break the trend of anxiety? Doing God’s will means experiencing his power in your life. Doing God’s will means being made whole by his presence (7:24-27) Explanation: Doing God’s will means being known by Him, experiencing his power, and the third thing we learn from Jesus is that doing God’s will means being made whole by his presence. Look at the very last thing Jesus says at the end of his sermon in 7:24-27, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” The key to what Jesus is saying here (and what he’s been saying the whole time), what is so critical for us to understand, is that the difference between the foolish man and the wise man was not what they did.  They both did exactly the same thing.  They built a house.  The difference, Jesus says, is the presence of the Rock.  “My hope is built on nothing less…” The building gets no credit.  What we do, gets no credit.  All the credit goes to the rock.  That is what sustains you.  That is what holds you when the wind howls and the floods rage against you.  On CHRIST the solid rock I stand. It’s the rock that matters, not the building of the house. Doing God’s will means being made whole by his presence. So the issue is not: what you should do The issue is: what Jesus has done Everyone is building their house somewhere.   The defining factor is the presence of the rock.  Only the presence of God can make you whole. Application: Any scribe can stand up and give you a list of directions to follow, but Jesus didn’t teach like one of the scribes, he taught as one who had authority. His will is that we know him. That we have a relationship with him.  That we experience him. Doing God’s will means being made whole by his presence. So the issue is not: what you should do The issue is: what Jesus has done Now this seems counterintuitive, but it is incredibly important: each point that we’ve looked at of what it means to do God’s will is passive.  That is, they are not things that you do, but things that are done to you. Doing God’s will means being known by him Doing God’s will means experiencing his power Doing God’s will means being made whole by his presence These are not things that you do, but things that are done to you. And Doing God’s will means being made whole by his presence. So the issue is not: what you should do The issue is: what Jesus has done So the pressing question then is: How can we be known by Jesus? How can we experience God’s power in our lives? How can we be made whole by God’s presence? Do what Jesus said just a few verses earlier: “7 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” -Matthew 7:7-8 Doing God’s will is not about what you can do for Him, but what He can do in you. Conclusion: Luke 10:38-42 records an encounter Jesus had with two sisters, Mary and Martha.  It says, “Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village.  And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching.  But Martha was distracted with much serving.  And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’  But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.  Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’” The issue has never been things that we need to do.  God doesn’t need us to do anything.  He doesn’t need us.  When God put Adam and Eve in the garden it wasn’t about them doing a bunch of things for God.  It was about them being known by God, experiencing God, and being in the presence of God.  When Jesus came to the earth he didn’t come to get us to straighten up because God has a bunch of stuff for us to do, he came to restore what was broken, to re-establish relationship with us, to show his power in our lives, and to surround us with his presence.  The good news of the gospel is about what Jesus has done for us, not what we are supposed to do for Jesus. There is nothing he needs from you.  He doesn’t need your service, he doesn’t need your time, he doesn’t need your busyness.  Choose the good portion that will not be taken away from you: simply sit at the feet of Jesus.  Be like Mary who knew the key was not service for Jesus, but relationship with Jesus Be the Leper who came to Jesus and knew the question was not ‘what do I make of this teaching?’ but, ‘What do I make of the one teaching it?’ Be the wise man who built his house on the rock who knew that the issue was not what he should do, but what Jesus has done.’ How to Come to Jesus There is no record in the NT of Jesus ever turning away anyone who came to him for healing.  He healed them all. But when you come to Jesus you must come to him broken.  If you come to Jesus as though you have something to offer him, you will be turned away.  You must bring him your sin, bring him your guilt, bring him your sickness and your sorrow. After Jesus had healed many sick, and made whole many who were broken, a scribe, or an expert Bible scholar came to him and said, “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.” And another offered to do the same.  And Jesus told them that they didn’t understand the cost of what it takes to follow him. Jesus only takes the broken.  Anyone who comes with ‘something to offer’ is turned away. Because anyone who comes to Jesus with something to offer hasn’t understood the free offer of the gospel.  It’s not about what you can do, it’s about what Jesus has done. You can’t come to Jesus while hanging on to your pride You can’t come to Jesus while hanging on to your future plans You can’t come to Jesus while hanging on to your sin But if you come to him with all of those things exposed before him, you can honestly say, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Why is this so important? The way we respond to Jesus determines everything else in our lives for eternity You can respond to Jesus by simply being astonished.  That isn’t enough You can respond to Jesus by becoming extremely religious and keeping a tally of your moral duties.  That isn’t enough. Or you can respond to Jesus by doing his will: being known by Him, experiencing his power in your life, and being made whole by his presence.  Here is why this is so important: Revelation 12:10-11 says, “10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers[a] has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” In the end, our victory over sin and death is by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. Our victory is not by the blood of the Lamb and a list of theological propositions Our victory is not by the blood of the Lamb and a record of the things we did Our victory is not by the blood of the Lamb and a fleeting decision we made years and years ago No, our victory is by the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross and our experience of his power in our lives that has made us whole and put us in relationship with him. Oh that we would be a church who is not satisfied with simply being astonished at the teachings of Jesus. How will you respond to him today? https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/02-18-18_Casey.mp3 Sun, 18 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 33:19 Mark Ryan Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/02-11-18Mark.mp3 Sun, 11 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:30 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2-4-18Doug.mp3 Sun, 04 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 27:14 Mark Sandford Guest Speaker https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/12818Doug.mp3 Sun, 28 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 43:10 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older How to seek the Kingdom of God FIRST Matthew 6:25-24 Our Problem: We focus on things of little value Proposition: Since God cares for us, we must seek the Kingdom of God first Determine what is truly valuable Recognize that you are valuable Seek what is eternally valuable There is one step to living a life free of anxiety and worry: Seek the Kingdom of God FIRST Determine what is truly valuable (V. 25 & 31) Explanation Read Matthew 6:25 and 31 These verses mirror each other and act as brackets to the passage They both start with the word ‘therefore’ (Jesus has given us a truth, therefore) This passage is directly connected to the passage we looked at last week (v. 19-24) Don’t find your security, comfort, and joy in stuff on earth, but find your security, comfort, and joy in the hope of heaven. So, Jesus is saying, since you can’t find security, comfort, and joy in stuff on earth, don’t be anxious about whether or not you will have those things. He has said: Prioritize treasure in heaven rather than on earth See through a perspective of generosity rather than of greed Practice a lifestyle of serving God with your money THEREFORE, don’t be anxious about those things Then Jesus presents this question in verse 25: “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” What he’s saying is in order to seek the kingdom of God FIRST, you need to determine what is truly valuable. Application Fortunately, Jesus has already given us the tools to determine what is truly valuable, and we can figure that out by asking ourselves these three questions: What do you prioritize? (v.19-21) You prioritize what is most valuable to you What is your perspective? (v. 22-23) You perspective determines your directive What do you practice? (v. 24) Your actions show what you value What do you prioritize? You prioritize what is most valuable to you Jesus told a famous parable about a farmer who sowed seed that fell on four different types of soil.  Some of the seed feel among thorns, and this is what Jesus said about it: “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.” Matthew 13:22 When the cares of this world start to overwhelm you, and the deceitfulness of riches start calling your name, what do you prioritize?  What is truly valuable? Is the kingdom of God your first priority, or is that bigger house, that newer car, that prestigious reputation.  To live a life free from anxiety, we have to seek the kingdom of God FIRST, and that means determining what is truly valuable. So the first way to determine what is truly valuable is to ask what we prioritize, and secondly you have to ask: What is your perspective? Your perspective determines your directive If you live your life with a perspective that security, comfort, and joy can be found in stuff, then you will be enslaved to a life of anxiety. The stock market might crash, you might lose your job, a tornado could sweep through this spring But if you live your life with a perspective that security, comfort, and joy can only be found in the security of the Savior, then you will be liberated from anxiety about material things In Hebrews 10:34 the author wrote to the Hebrew believers in the first century church saying, “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” Talk about a perspective that liberates from worry about stuff! You can take my home on earth, because you can’t take my home in heaven You can take my health on earth, because you can’t take away my eternal life You can take away my possessions so I have nothing to eat, because in heaven Jesus beckons all who hunger and thirst to buy and eat without money and without price!  Is that your perspective? To live a life free from anxiety, we have to seek the kingdom of God FIRST, and that means determining what is truly valuable. The third question we can ask to determine what is truly valuable is: What do you practice? Your actions show what you value. I have been to some of the poorest places in the world, and do you know what they weren’t worried about? What they would eat, or what they would drink, or what they would wear. But do you know who is worried and anxious about what they will eat, what they will drink, and what they will wear?  Celebrities, politicians, the rich.  The more money people have, the more they care about what they will eat, what they will drink, and what they will wear. What you practice, will show you what you value, and Jesus tells us not to worry about material things. To live a life free from anxiety, we have to seek the kingdom of God FIRST, and that means determining what is truly valuable. Transition: The first step in seeking the kingdom of God first is to determine what is truly valuable, but then Jesus takes this a step further and says, not only do you need to determine what is truly valuable, but you need to: Recognize that you are valuable (V. 26 & 28-30) Explanation Read Matthew 6:26, and 28-30 With these illustrations and comparisons, Jesus is trying to make three things as clear as he possibly he can: Your heavenly Father loves you Your heavenly Father provides for you Your heavenly Father guides your life Now Jesus uses two illustrations: birds, and grass. And what he is doing is taking the lowliest living things in God’s creation according to Hebrew customs.  He uses the lowliest of all creatures: birds, and the lowliest of all plants: grass.  And he’s going to make the point that if God values the lowliest things in his creation, how much more will he value the crowning jewel of his creation: mankind.  Your heavenly father loves you V. 26 – “Are you of not more value than they?”  I looked online and the going rate for a bird these days is about $5.  During Jesus’s time birds were sold for half a penny.  Do you have some pennies stuck in the cup holder of your car?  You could be rolling in birds.  Your heavenly father provides for you Jesus is saying ‘your heavenly father loves his creation, it is valuable to him, even birds that are literally a dime a dozen.’ It is incomprehensible how much more valuable you are to him.  To live a life free from anxiety, you have to seek the kingdom of God FIRST, and that means recognizing that you are valuable to God. Your heavenly father guides your life God shows his love and provision by guiding our lives V. 28-30 – If God makes the grass look nice by putting flowers in it, how much more will  he do that for you?  The going rate for birds right now is $5, but you know what the going rate for a blade of grass is?  ZERO DOLLARS.  It’s free.  We walk all over it.  Our dogs go to the bathroom on it.  And yet God dresses it up with flowers because he values his creation.  So after much study of this text, and examining the language, and referring to biblical scholars, I want to make a poignant theological statement to you this morning: You are more valuable to God than grass! To live a life free from anxiety, you have to seek the kingdom of God FIRST, and that means recognizing that you are valuable to God. Illustration Psalm 23 is one of the greatest passages of Scripture that lays out how God loves us, provides for us, and guides our lives.  It says, ‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.’ He loves us, he provides for us, and guides our lives. And then check this out, the next thing it says, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.’  God guides our lives on paths of righteousness for his name’s sake, and sometimes that path goes directly through the valley of the shadow of death.  But we should not be anxious, we should not worry, we should not fear, because we are valuable to God.  To live a life free from anxiety, you have to seek the kingdom of God FIRST, and that means recognizing that you are valuable to God. Friends, Jesus took great pains to demonstrate to us how valuable we are to him, and there was no greater pain he took to do this than to endure the cross that we deserve. There is perhaps no greater way for a child of God to grieve the heart of their Heavenly Father, than to not believe that he loves you.  Because he sacrificed his son to display that love. Romans 8:31 says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” To live a life free from anxiety, you have to seek the kingdom of God FIRST, and that means recognizing that you are valuable to God. Transition: So to seek the kingdom of God FIRST, we must determine what is truly valuable, we must recognize that we are valuable, and finally, we must: Seek what is eternally valuable (V. 27 & 33) Explanation Read Matthew 6:27 and 33 Jesus finally gets to the key of the whole passage: seek the kingdom of God FIRST. That means seeking what is eternally valuable. Actively pursuing and putting energy into God’s desires. So how do we do that?  We do that in these ways: Give God your worries by praying continuously Advance God’s kingdom by giving strategically Reassure yourself by reading God’s word daily As I was preparing this message I really wanted to take seriously Jesus’s command not to be anxious, while also taking seriously the things in our lives that cause us anxiety. If your child is in the NICU, won’t that cause you some anxiety? What if you’re not sure how you’re going to stretch your finances to the end of the month? What if you and your spouse aren’t on good terms and you feel like you’re losing that spark in your marriage?  Are we just supposed to pretend that everything is fine and slap a plastic smile on our faces? Friends, if anyone has sold you that brand of Christianity, I want you to find the receipt and return it for full price, because the captain of our faith, Jesus Christ, has shown us that that is not what seeking the kingdom of God first means. Jesus experienced worse anxiety than any of us ever have or ever will.  He looked down the barrel of God’s wrath against sin face first in the garden of gethsemane, and experienced such anxiety that he sweat drops of blood.  The condition of sweating blood is known as “Hematidrosis” and is caused by mental anxiety and stress that is so severe that it causes the nervous system to hemorrhage the vessels of the sweat glands.  So no, Jesus did not just pretend everything was fine and slap a plastic smile on his face like some TV preacher with slick hair and perfect teeth.  What he did was he brought his anxiety to the throne of God.  It is not wrong for you to experience anxiety.  Anxiety is part of the curse of sin, that things aren’t what they are supposed to be, anxiety is a reaction to our fallen condition before God.  What matters is what we do with that anxiety.  You can either wallow in your worries, or you can signal your Savior. Seek what is eternally valuable by praying continuously.  Even when he was faced with extreme anxiety, Jesus sought the kingdom of God FIRST.  And that is what he calls us to do.  Give God your worries by praying continuously. We can also seek what is eternally valuable giving strategically. Advance God’s kingdom by giving strategically. In what way can you use your money to have the biggest impact for the kingdom of God?  Give strategically to missionaries you trust, to organizations that spread the gospel, and use what God has blessed you with to advance the kingdom of God. And finally, seek what is eternally valuable by reading God’s word daily. Anxiety is after all of us, and we can reassure ourselves by reading God’s word on a daily basis. Write down some verses that comfort you on sticky note and put them in places that you will see them so that you will be reassured of God’s faithfulness. Set a time each day that you will read Scripture. Memorize a verse each week that you can meditate on when worry hits you Start with Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things.” Seek what is eternally valuable by praying continuously, giving strategically, and reading God’s word daily. Conclusion Jesus makes a promise here, after telling us to seek the kingdom of God FIRST.  He says that if we do that: all these things will be added to you. He says, “Don’t be anxious about what you will eat, or drink, or wear, because if you seek the kingdom of God FIRST, all these things will be added to you.”  Now just like we looked at Jesus’s example with his anxiety in the Garden of Gethsemane, I want us to look at his example again.  Because some people can take this verse and understand it to mean that if you seek the kingdom of God FIRST then you will always be fed and clothed.  That is not true.  If you think following God will get you a full belly and fur coat, you are completely mistaken. No one sought the kingdom of God FIRST better than Jesus His last meal was not a joyous family feast, but a solemn supper, sharing bread with the man who would betray him, Judas Iscariot The last thing he had to drink was not sweet and celebratory, but bitter wine mixed with gall in a sponge held up to his mouth as he hung on the cross He was stripped of his clothes, a seamless robe probably made for him by his mother and given to him on his birthday as was the tradition, and instead he was made to wear a crown of thorns.  This is the man who says to you today, do not be anxious about what you will eat, or what you will drink or what you will wear. But seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. How can he say that?  How can he say that all these things will be added to you when all those things were taken from him?  And in that question lies the answer: He can say ‘all these things will be added to you,’ precisely because they were taken from him.  Through his death on the cross Jesus offers food so that you might never go hungry.  He offers living water so that you may never thirst again.  He offers white garments without stain or blemish that you may stand before the throne of God with confidence.  Jesus would exchange his crown of thorns for a crown of gold, and he would exchange his nakedness for a robe.  Revelation 19 says “On his head are many diadems, and he is clothed in a robe dipped in blood…and the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, are following him.” And Jesus would exchange his last meal and his last drink, for the marriage supper of the lamb, where he invites us to dine with him for all eternity! Seek the kingdom of God FIRST, and all these things will be added to you.  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ.” Philippians 4:6-7 “Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.’” Mark 10:29-30 https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CaseyPeterson12118.mp3 Sun, 21 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 39:23 Doug Hon 2019 and Older Storing Up Treasure in Heaven: 3 Ways Following Jesus Changes Our Approach to Money Matthew 6:19-24 Our Problem: We try to store up treasure (that won’t last) on earth Propsition: Since Jesus is our ultimate reward, we must store up treasure in heaven, rather than on earth When we start following Jesus our priority changes When we start following Jesus our perspective changes When we start following Jesus our practice changes Our Priority changes (v. 19-21) When you start following Jesus, your priorities regarding ‘money’ change. We stop prioritizing treasure on earth We start prioritizing treasure in heaven Read Text: Matthew 6:19-21 We stop prioritizing treasure on earth We start prioritizing treasure in heaven Explanation - Priority V. 19 – two problems with treasure on earth Treasures that fade away (moth and rust destroy) Treasures that can be taken away (where thieves break in and steal) (wall diggers) Stop prioritizing these kinds of treasure! V. 20 – treasure in heaven does not fade and cannot be taken away What is treasure in heaven? (i.e. eternal blessings, heavenly rewards, etc.) If I am in heaven, why would I care about having treasure? (Will I need money in heaven? We need to understand what Jesus means about ‘storing up treasure.’ Why do people store up treasure on earth?  (What difference is $1 vs. $1mil?) Because they want security, comfort, and joy Jesus is saying no treasure on earth can actually give you those things We need to change our priorities, and start storing up treasure in heaven That means finding our security, comfort, and joy not in how many dollars we have, but in how awesome a Savior we have V. 21 Then Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  This is incredibly important because God is in heaven. So when Jesus says this, what he is saying is that if you find your security, comfort, and joy in all your stuff then your heart is not in heaven, which means your heart is not with God.  1 Timothy 6:9-10 “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” 1 Timothy 6:17 “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches,( The way Eugene Peterson says this is:  (“Tell those rich in this world’s wealth to quit being so full of themselves and so obsessed with money, which is here today and gone tomorrow.”))  but (set your hope) on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” When we follow Jesus we stop storing up treasure on earth, and we start storing up treasure in heaven because Jesus changes our priorities Illustration - Priority The rich young man – Matthew 19:16-22 “What must I do to inherit eternal life” i.e., what must I do to go to heaven? Jesus said, “Keep the commandments.” He said, “Which ones?” Jesus then picked a few of the ten commandments and summarized them saying love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said, “I have kept all those, what do I still lack?” Matthew 19:21 “Jesus said to him, ‘If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’” Jesus didn’t tell everyone that they needed to go and sell all their possessions, why this man?  This man needed his priorities to change What Jesus identified in this rich man is even though he had worked hard to live a morally upright life and keep God’s commandments, he found his security, comfort, and joy in all of his stuff.  If your heart is with your earthly treasure, then your heart is not with God V. 22 “When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”  The truth is this rich man didn’t have his possessions, his possessions had him Until we change our priorities to stop storing up treasure on earth, and start storing up treasure in heaven, we will be just like him When we follow Jesus we stop storing up treasure on earth, and we start storing up treasure in heaven because Jesus changes our priorities Application What we need to learn from this is HOW to store up treasure in heaven, and how to NOT store up treasure on earth The first, and most fundamental step that you can take is to prioritize giving to your local church When I say prioritize, I mean ‘put it first’ Submitting to Jesus as the Lord of our stuff means he comes first Let me tell you what that looks like for me and Brittany: The first line item on our budget is our giving to our church Mortgage, groceries, insurance, savings, retirement, all that takes a back seat to the priority of giving to our church.  Why? Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, and friend this fickle heart of mine wants to find security and comfort and joy in all the treasures earth has to offer, so unless I prioritize storing up treasure in heaven by giving it away FIRST, I am in danger of having my heart be with my stuff instead of with God. The natural follow-up question is ‘how much?’ How much should you give? Throughout church history, and even back into the OT, the principle for giving to the church that people have followed is called the tithe.  The word ‘tithe’ literally means ‘tenth’ My parents taught me to give ten percent of whatever I earned back to God, who had given me all of it If you don’t know how much to give, my pastoral recommendation to you, as a starting place, is to give ten percent of what you earn back to God. As we’ve seen from the rich ruler, the less you want to give your stuff away, probably the more you should Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your life free from love of money,” Show me someone’s bank statement and I’ll show you what they prioritize Following Jesus changes our priorities when it comes to money The point of this all, is so that you might find your security, comfort, and joy in heaven that will never fade away, and can never be taken away.  When we follow Jesus our priorities change When we follow Jesus we stop storing up treasure on earth, and we start storing up treasure in heaven because Jesus changes our priorities Our Perspective changes (v. 22-23) When you start following Jesus, your perspective of ‘money’ changes. We stop seeing through the eyes of greed We start seeing through the eyes of generosity Read Matthew 6:22-23 We stop seeing through the eyes of greed We start seeing through the eyes of generosity Explanation V. 22 – These two verses seems confusing to us because they are using an ancient expression about the eyes that don’t make sense to us.  But during those times, the way you looked at someone or something represented not only how you felt about that person, but your internal disposition in general “The eye is the lamp of the body,” Jesus is referencing the ancient expression, like we say “the eye is the window to the soul,” He’s not making a scientific statement, it’s just an expression “So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” That word for ‘healthy’ comes from the word ‘generous.’  So ‘If your eye is generous, your whol body will be full of light.’ In other words, if you see things through the eyes of generosity, the rest of God’s truth will permeate your soul.  Your whole body will be full of light. Jesus is saying that a generous perspective is a key to grasping truth V. 23 “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.”  Jesus uses another ancient expression, and we have a similar one. He says “if your eye is bad,” another way to say it is, “If you look at others with an evil eye,”  You know the evil eye?  Deuteronomy 15:9 “Take care lest there be an unworthy though in your heart…and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother,” Proverbs 23:6 “Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy (has an evil eye)” Proverbs 28:22 “A stingy (evil eye) man hastens after wealth and does not know that poverty will come upon him.” So Jesus is saying if we see through the eyes of greed, then we are filled with darkness.  We don’t possess spiritual understanding, we haven’t grasped how God is, we lack enlightenment as to God’s values if we see through the eyes of greed. When we follow Jesus, our perspective of money should change We can either see money through a perspective of generosity Or we can see money through a perspective of greed When we follow Jesus we stop seeing through the eyes of greed, and we start seeing through the eyes of generosity because Jesus changes our perspective Illustration Imagine if we turned all the lights off in this room so it was pitch black, rearranged all the furniture, and then told you to get out of the building as fast as you could.  Everyone would be bumping into each other, tripping over chairs, and getting trampled A perspective of greed is a perspective of darkness, and people get trampled in the darkness.  But when there is light we can see clearly, we can move safely, and we can help each other When we follow Jesus we have a new perspective of money, no longer scrambling around in the darkness, but we see clearly, and have a perspective of generosity When we follow Jesus we stop seeing through the eyes of greed, and we start seeing through the eyes of generosity because Jesus changes our perspective Application A perspective of generosity sees money as a tool to care, not as a treasure to keep Seeing with generous eyes means seeing the needs of others as opportunities to give, rather than as obstacles to be avoided.    The ministry that we are partnering with in India is a perfect example We see the needs in India not as obstacles to our financial independence, but as opportunities to show the love of Jesus.  Seeing with generous eyes extends the reach of our love I might not be able to actually educate children in India, or rescue women from cult prostitution, but I can give my money to enable others to do those things.  What an amazing opportunity! As a church our perspective of money should be that money is a tool to be used in caring for others, not a treasure to be kept for ourselves.  When we follow Jesus we stop seeing through the eyes of greed, and we start seeing through the eyes of generosity because Jesus changes our perspective Our Practice changes (v. 24) When you start following Jesus, your practice with ‘money’ changes. We stop serving money as our God We start serving God with our money Read Matthew 6:24 We stop serving money as our God We start serving God with our money Explanation V. 24 – Jesus uses another ancient expression here that “No one can serve two masters.”  He is not saying that you can’t work two jobs or have two employers, the point he is making is that if someone is truly your master, then you can only be devoted to them.  Otherwise, they’re not really your master. What Jesus is saying is that if you are truly following Jesus, not only does he change your priorities and perspective regarding money, but your practice will change as well.  If you are a follower of Jesus, what you do with your money will be different than what others do with their money.  If your practice of spending and investments look exactly like the practice of people who don’t follow Jesus, then you are serving the wrong master.  You can’t serve both God and money.  Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Following Jesus should radically change our practices of spending and investing When we follow Jesus, we stop serving money as our God, and we start serving God with our money because Jesus changes our practice Illustration Zacchaeus – Chief tax collector Luke 19:8-9 “And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.  And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house,’” When we follow Jesus, we stop serving money as our God, and we start serving God with our money because Jesus changes our practice Application We can’t just say that we follow Jesus, and it not affect what we do with our money, Jesus is either Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all So how should your practice of spending and investing money look different? First of all, you should use your money to advance the kingdom of God That means you should use your money, to the best of your ability, to accomplish God’s will on earth as it is heaven. That means use your money to support the work of missionaries Put your money towards agencies that sponsor children and families in impoverished countries Use your money to support widows and orphans Use your money to richly bless others as God has richly blessed you Your money is a tool to care for others, not a treasure to keep for yourself When we follow Jesus, we stop serving money as our God, and we start serving God with our money, because Jesus changes our practice Conclusion Jesus’s encounter with the rich young man in Matthew 19 ended with the young man going away sorrowful because he had great possessions. In verse 23 Jesus says, “‘Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.’” By most world standards we are rich.  Which should cause us to ask the very same question that Jesus’s disciples asked him, “Lord, who then can be saved?” Verse 26 says, “But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Many of us read this sobering story with sorrow and regret in our hearts as we see a man so possessed by his goods that he refused to give them up Here was a man enslaved by his financial freedom. Here was a man who was seemingly impossible to save But Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” And there is only one thing that can ever give any of us freedom from our enslavement to money.  For us to be free, an even bigger debt need to be paid, a debt that could only be paid by the blood of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Because you see, 8 chapters after Jesus encounter with this rich man, he would die a death on a cross that we deserve, to give a life to us that only he deserves. And it was by the death of Jesus that God would transform sinners enslaved to their money, to saints who give generously.  And after his death on the cross Matthew 27 records that a rich man came to Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. And it says that the rich man took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which had had cut in the rock. And according to church tradition this rich man, known as Joseph of Arimathea, was the very same rich man who had asked Jesus, ‘what must I do to enter the kingdom of heaven.’  And he who had once refused to give up any of his possessions to the poor, now gave his own burial place to a man crucified on a cross. Because you see, it took the death of Jesus on the cross for the rich man to be transformed, so that his relationship with Jesus outweighed his relationship with his stuff, and his possessions, and his money.  And Jesus died on the cross, not for you and I to accumulate treasures here on earth that can fade away and be taken away, but so that our hearts might be with God in heaven. Perhaps you came into church today as the rich young ruler.  My prayer and my hope is that you do not leave sorrowful because you have great possessions, but that you leave as Joseph of Arimathea, who was remembered not for his great possessions, but for his great generosity that he used for the kingdom of God. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/CaseyPeterson1142018.mp3 Sun, 14 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 41:42 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Dr.Peterson172018.mp3 Sun, 07 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 37:59 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older How to Celebrate Christmas Preached at Main Street Church on December 24th, 2017 Our Problem: Sometimes we forget what we are celebrating (Christmas sneaks up on us like that) Proposition: Since Christmas commemorates the coming of Christ, we must celebrate it intentionally. Celebrate Well Celebrate With Celebrate Worshipfully Celebrate Well We ought to celebrate well.  Reason 1: There are times and occasions in life that ought to be celebrated I’m not saying that we should always be celebrating, or always be happy, etc. but when it’s time to celebrate, we should celebrate well. Ecclesiastes 3:4 “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” Reason 2: God commanded his people to celebrate (not about Christmas, but the principle of celebration) Exodus 34:22 “You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks” (This shows us something about about God’s commands not being burdensome) Exodus 12:14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations,” I spent about an hour trying to figure out how many days a year the ancient Israelites spent celebrating and it was too much for me to add up! God built in regular celebrations to his people’s lives (this shows us about God) Reason 3: We have the greatest things to celebrate Every time God commanded his people to celebrate it had a reason; it was because of something He had done.  And the extravagance of the celebration matched the thing they were celebrating.  We are the same way… You got a promotion at work? Let’s go out to dinner. You’re having a baby? Let’s shower you with gifts. You’re getting married?  Let’s get all dressed up and throw a huge party with all the family and friends. God came to earth as a baby?  Put a tree in your house, put lights outside your house, decorate everything, sing songs, eat too many cookies, spend your whole paycheck on gifts for everyone, and celebrate your socks off! God is super in to celebrating, because everything he does is worth celebrating Matthew 22:2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son,” In Luke 15 Jesus gives 3 illustrations of the kingdom of God: Lost sheep, lost coin, lost son.  While the subject matter of these stories varies, the result is the same in everyone, when what was once lost gets found, they throw a huge celebration.  Luke 15:7 “Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Luke 15:32 “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” Application When I say “celebrate well” I mean GO BIG in your celebrating This doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money It does mean intentionally taking time to celebrate Have a special meal, decorate, practice traditions If you don’t have any traditions, make some I’m not saying that to celebrate Christmas you have to do it the traditional way with a tree and gifts and stockings, but you should celebrate the birth of Jesus well. Celebrate With When we celebrate, not only should we celebrate well, but we ought to celebrate with… Reason 1: God has designed us to celebrate with others Our Joy is best experienced when it is shared.  That is part of the reason God has built into our calendar weekly times of meeting together and celebrating Him. Leviticus 23:3 “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation.” The word convocation was most popular around the 1800’s, but a convocation is a large assembly of people; it is a gathering with others Hebrews 10:23-24 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another,” So part of the way God has designed us is that we experience joy the best when we share that joy with others, so we should celebrate with others. Reason 2: There is no such thing as a solo celebration Acts 2:1 “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.” (People who don’t think we should celebrate holidays…) Pentecost was one of the biggest celebrations of the year, and people flooded Jerusalem to be there for it. The more people, the better the celebration. My best memories are of the holidays where I was with more of my family and friends (story of being in Korea with no family around) Acts 2:42, 44 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers…And all who believed were together and had all things in common.” Celebrating necessitates being together. We ought to celebrate Christmas with others Application: Do your best to be with family and friends to celebrate the birth of Jesus If you know someone who has no one to celebrate Christmas with, consider having them celebrate with you If you can’t physically be with people in your life, reach out through a phone call, a Christmas card, or a box of Omaha steaks… Ask God for peace in the messiness of celebrating with others Celebrate Worshipfully Finally, this Christmas I challenge you not only to celebrate well and celebrate with, but to celebrate worshipfully. Reason 1: Everything we do should be done as an act of worship 1 Corinthians 10:31 “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Reason 2: God intends for our celebrations to be worshipful Numbers 29:12 “You shall have a holy convocation…and you shall keep a feast to the Lord seven days.” (Feast of Booths) Example: who is the birthday cake for? (Jesus) Reason 3: God deserves our worshipful celebration Numbers 10:10 “On the day of your gladness also, and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings.  They shall be a reminder to you before your God: I am the Lord your God.” Application: Maybe this means including family prayer or reading a Scripture passage about the birth of Jesus in your family traditions.  If you’re in the home of a family or friend who aren’t believers you don’t need to force these things on them if they don’t want to do them, but you could ask, and you can certainly worship internally. When you eat your Christmas meal think about how we will feast in heaven because Jesus came to the earth as a baby so that he might one day die on a cross for sins so that we could know him and be saved. When you open up your gifts on Christmas morning, as you peel away the wrapping paper think about what a beautiful and sacrificial gift it was for God to give us the gift of his Son. When you sit in the midst of beautiful Christmas decorations rejoice at the beauty that God is going to restore when Jesus returns.  Conclusion: When we celebrate Christmas we should celebrate well, celebrate with, and celebrate worshipfully. And the reason we should celebrate and rejoice is because Jesus has come. There is a popular Christmas carol that tells us this: Joy to the World But something interesting about this song is that one word has been changed in it that has totally changed our understanding of it When Isaac Watts wrote the hymn he didn’t intend it to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but he intended it to celebrate the fact that Jesus reigns and is going to return to the earth someday. So the word that often gets changed is in the very first line of the song: Nowadays we sing: Joy to the world the Lord HAS come, but the song’s original lyrics say: Joy to the world the Lord IS come. Joy to the world the Lord is come / Let earth receive her king / Let every heart prepare Him room / And Heaven and nature sing Joy to the earth / The Savior reigns / Let men their songs employ / While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains / Repeat the sounding joy No more let sins and sorrows grow / Nor thorns infest the ground / He comes to make his blessings flow / Far as the curse is found He rules the world with truth and grace / And makes the nations prove / The glories of His righteousness / And wonders of His love So when we think about how to celebrate Christmas tomorrow, let us celebrate not only that Jesus has come, but let us also celebrate that since he has come, he will come again. https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Casey12-24-17.mp3 Sun, 24 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 23:57 Casey Peterson 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug12-17-17.mp3 Sun, 17 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 48:45 Doug Hon 2019 and Older https://churchonmain.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Doug12-10-17.mp3 Sun, 10 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000 Main Street Church, St. Charles, MO 37:08