Written in Red | Week 7 | Pastor Micah Sutton | Five Lakes Church

Uh, we're in our series written and read, and we've been talking through these things called the beatitudes to be attitudes are the beginning of this sermon that Jesus gives called.

We call the sermon on the Mount.

And as he's talking to the people there on that particular day, he's sharing some revolutionary ideas, some things that would have struck them very uniquely, that we would have caused them to, you know, their, their mouths to gape in their eyes to become wide.

And they would have, they would have been like, wow, how is this even possible?

He's at the very beginning of his ministry.

And by the end of his ministry, we see that that he's made all things possible in Christ.

Jesus, all things are possible.

And so he's, he's, he's proving himself to be the answer to every one of the challenges that he brings up.

The goal of Jesus is pretty audacious.

He doesn't have a small goal in arriving on earth.

His goal is to change the world.

He's going to change the world and his world are leading the way we've said the route, that words change worlds.

And if you want your world to change today, change your words.

The words that you speak, they are life.

They are, they are spirit and they are life.

Jesus said the words that I said give to you, those speak to you.

They are spirit and they're life.

The words that you speak will change the world that you live in absolutely 100%.

It is a fact, and Jesus is changing the world.

By beginning this message with these things called the beatitudes.

They all start with the word blessed, which is where we get that from.

And we're in Matthew chapter five.

And I'd like for you to read with me these beatitudes that we've already covered.

And then, then we'll get into the new, the beatitude that we're going to talk about today and kind of teach off of.

And so Matthew chapter five, verse number three, let's read together.

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall become blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

And today we're going to be talking about blessed are the peacemakers for, they shall be called sons of God.

I do courage you to take notes.

I've said it twice now, but I'm saying it a third time.

I encourage you to take notes or take pictures of the screen because we're, we're talking about some pretty, I believe some pretty important and some pretty heavy information.

It's not just because Jesus talked about it because, but because Jesus is well, okay.

It is all it is because Jesus talked about it.

That's pretty important all by itself.

But it's also because we're talking about material and a subject matter that is not often talked about in modern Christianity.

So we've been identifying terms throughout the series and blessed to still means supremely blessed, happy, fortunate.

And well, often I will often I'm thankful today that God desires blessing to be in our life.

And he intends to be the blessed sor of our life.

And then he used the term peacemakers peace.

A peacemaker is one who makes peace.

[inaudible]

Um, I'm glad this is a smart group of people that I'm talking to because that's deep, but it actually goes a step further.

And it means one who cultivates peace agreement and harmony who cultivates it.

So it means that peace wasn't and then someone worked to make it.

So, and that's what he's saying in peace makers.

One who looks at a situation where there is no peace and they impose peace upon it.

They make peace happen.

My father used to be a peacemaker between my brother, sister, and I, he would say this, the following words, and you may recognize this.

Do I need to pull this car

Over?

Nothing good ever happened when dad pulled the car over over nothing.

And so the answer was always no.

And we, as children just stopped doing whatever we were doing that was causing him personal grief.

He was bringing peace to the situation.

These are peace makers.

They what happens.

What's the benefit.

They are called sons of God.

Now the word sons there it's, it could also be translated children of God, but, but in the day that that is being written the day that it's being spoken by the use of the, uh, the male gender here, he is specifically calling it and calling this person in heir because in the day that he's talking of a female, a girl, a daughter would not have had the same power, not have had the same inheritance ability, uh, as the, as the sons would.

And so he is, he is, he is letting us know that his intention is not just that they would be children of, but that they would also be heirs of.

So this is, uh, this is one who is called an heir.

This is not an illegitimate child, could not inherit anything in a deeper sense.

This is one who is reflecting the character of the father.

And so he's saying, Hey, this is, this is one who will be called one.

Someone who reflects me, who reflects my will in the world, who reflects my way in the world.

My mannerisms in the world, in fact, a great insult in the day would be to call somebody a son of Belisle son of Belisle or a son of Satan.

It, it would, it would have been calling them useless and worthless.

My brother, who I love and who I think might love me in return, when he would want to really make me mad as a kid, he would call me Beals.

That's not good.

I don't know anybody who's called Satan on a regular basis.

I don't think Satan likes to be called Satan.

I dunno.

I've never had a conversation with him, but the saying my brother knew that that was going to make me mad.

And so he did it and he was right.

It did make me mad.

It, it, it frustrated me because I didn't like to be called useless, worthless.

I didn't like to be called or associated with something or someone like a demon or an anti God entity, but it was honorable to be called a son of God.

And so here, Jesus is saying those who are bringers of peace into the situation will be reflecting my character, reflecting who I am.

And they will be called the sons of God.

They will be, they will be lifted up in honor in the world around them.

Now, this is a revolutionary idea.

It's revolutionary because it would have been unthinkable in the day that any individual could bring peace or impose peace upon a situation.

It wasn't the individuals that brought peace.

It was the state that brought peace in their case.

It was the Roman state.

Cause the Romans were in power.

The Roman empire was dominating at the time.

And, and so if peace was going to be made, it was done through the edicts of Rome and the, the, the, um, the strength of the Roman army, if you will.

And so, and so you, you find these people listening to Jesus say, no, you as an individual, have the ability to make peace happen in the world, around you, that you have that authority, you have that power.

It was so foreign that even in the life of Jesus, we don't find the people who actually had a problem with Jesus, punishing Jesus, you have the Sanhedrin or the Jewish court that are turned Jesus over to Rome over to pilot.

He was the Roman governor of the region.

And then the Roman governor said, Hey, there's nothing that this guy has done.

That's causes me to think he's worthy of death.

And yet they continue to push him.

And then the crowds get involved, crucify him, crucify him.

And all of a sudden pilots says, all right, well, let's do what needs to be done, but it's not the Jewish people that are imposing peace upon the situation.

They're not the ones that are putting Jesus on the cross.

The Jews were saying, he's a troublemaker.

He's a rebel rouser.

He's one who's causing problem.

And if we get rid of him, we will have peace in the land.

And so it's the Roman soldiers who are dressing Jesus as the Roman soldiers who are taking Jesus to pilot.

It's the Roman court that is condemning him.

It's the Roman people who are crowning him, who are whipping him and who are putting him on the cross.

It's all the peacemaker in that point, at that moment where the Romans, not the individual Jews that Jesus is now talking to.

Not only is it, is he saying the individual can be a peacemaker.

He's also saying that they will be called sons of God.

And in the Jewish context, how in the world could somebody be called the son of God?

The Jews at large, that nation of Israel at large were known.

They knew that they were the people of God, but as individuals being the son of God was something entirely foreign to them.

And then the Romans that might have been listening or the Grecians that might've been listening, they had a cultural context in which somebody could be called the son of God, look at Hercules.

One of the Romans pseudo God's Demigodz.

And, and he was the son of a, of a God and a mortal woman.

And so they would call him a demigod.

They would say he had like tendencies, but in our day to day, he would be called a superhero.

He would be a person that has super powers and, and, and so on.

And so, but that was kind of like stuff of legend that wasn't, you didn't know, somebody like that.

You just heard about this, the, these things, and it wasn't somebody that you had a personal relationship.

So for, to say that somebody was individually, a child of God was something that was completely unimaginable.

But, but now Jesus is saying not only would you have an individual ability and responsibility to impose peace in your life and in the world around you, but you can also be called a child of God.

Christ is offering grace in personal responsibility and purpose and position.

He he's, he's talking about grace in where they sit in the world and he's claiming you and I as his children.

He saying, you are my children.

As we enter into relationship with him through Christ.

And here's our big idea today, big ideas.

You make your father proud when you reflect his purpose, you make your father proud when you reflect his purpose, the Hebrews themselves didn't know really a God of peace.

You, you think about the mosaic law.

It wasn't really a peaceful law.

If you will.

It was, it was based upon judgment.

In fact, the Hebrews had an idea of God, more like, Hey, just do whatever you need to do to knock, take God off.

As long as God's happy, we're good.

But if God's not happy, we're not good decidedly and definitively not good.

So, so let's just keep God happy.

It wasn't until Jesus Christ gave his blood on the cross, paying the penalty for sin, that God has revealed as a God of peace.

As Hebrews chapter 13 tells us that he raised Christ from the dead.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

And all of a sudden, you have, you have the ability to have a relationship with the father to be justified, to be in right alignment with the father today.

Not in war, not in conflict, but in surrender in a way that had never been before now.

You and I hear about it all the time in modern Christianity.

It's not unheard of it's.

It's pretty common.

In fact, to be told, you're a son of God, you're a daughter of God, and it can become so common that it becomes meaningless.

And I pray that it is never meaningless to us, that our always carries a, a gravity and a weight to know that we are a child of God.

That's a big deal.

It should always be incredible to us.

And Jesus is teaching here is that Jesus is bringing peace between God and mankind.

That was his purpose on earth to bring peace between you and God through his personal sacrifice.

And here he is teaching.

When you reflect the purpose of God, the character of God on earth, like I am doing for you.

You do for others.

God looks at you and says that my boy, that's my girl.

He claims you as his own.

He's teaching.

Blessed are the peacemakers for, they shall be called my boy or my girl by God.

That's the Microsoft and translation.

And I have three thoughts for us today.

Thought number one is this choose to reflect the purpose of your father, choose to reflect the purpose of your father.

It's your choice.

It's mine to reflect our own purpose, our own will, or to reflect the purpose and will of the father.

Jesus was the son of God.

He was the image of the invisible God, according to scripture.

And he walked on this earth, expressing the image and the character of the father in the world around him.

When he, he said, when you see me, you've seen the father.

He said, when you look at me, you're looking at what you need to see in order to be able to understand and have relationship with the father.

And so he's reflecting the plan, the purpose, the character of the father into the world.

And then he calls us his children that God calls us his children.

And so we have the privilege of doing the very same thing.

We reflect the will, the plan, the purpose, and the character of the father into the world around this.

That's what you do.

That's what I do.

Now.

I'm going to say something that's seems a little hard against the Christianity and I'm not judgmental against all of Christianity, but I think that we're a little weak in some areas at times in modern Christianity, because modern Christianity as a whole has focused primarily on the birth that we have in Christ into Christ Jesus.

So we get saved.

And now we are, we've gone from sin to salvation.

We've gone from, from death to life.

We've gone from not being a child of God to being a child of God.

And that is a beautiful, majestic, awesome thing.

And we celebrate what God's doing.

I celebrate the young people who made a decision for Christ this past week.

And I thank God for what he's doing in their lives.

Can we say Amanda, that it's an awesome thing, but just being born.

Isn't the whole story.

I mean, those of us, who've lived a few minutes now.

You're not still the person.

You were 20 minutes after you were born.

You've developed from there.

Okay.

We also highlight the blessings or the benefits of living in God's family.

And so we, we, we celebrate the birth and we celebrate the blessings and the blessings are many.

The blessings are great.

The blessings are awesome, but the blessings, aren't the whole story.

It's like, we're the equivalent of a 45 year old person.

Living with our parents

Are unable

To support themselves, unable to do anything for themselves, always dependent on their parents to do everything for them.

Now, if that's the condition because of issues and situations in life, that's one thing.

But if it's just because I didn't grow up, that's another thing I'm winning friends and influencing people Have at times a what's in it for us attitude about our relationship.

And I think about it kind of like a business owner.

Sometimes a business owner can, can get the idea that the business is there to serve them.

It's there to, to benefit their life and, and benefit their abilities and benefit their family.

And it's not about anything other than that.

And, and there is a benefit, the family of the owner, and there's a benefit to the family of the employees of the business.

But the focus of the business is about servicing a customer.

And if there isn't a good service to the customer, eventually there'll be no benefit to the owner and to the employees because without the customer, there is no business to serve anybody else to benefit anybody else.

Sometimes we can forget the business.

Part of business.

Jesus was focused from the beginning on his father's business.

At 12 years old, Mary and Joseph had been in Jerusalem.

They were traveling back to their hometown and Nazareth and they realized that Jesus wasn't with them.

So they went back to Jerusalem to find out where he was.

They found him at 12 years old in the temple teaching.

And he, they said to him, and this is what my family would say.

What were you thinking?

They didn't say that, but that's what they meant.

And Jesus said to them, why did you seek me?

Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?

Did you not know that I'm here for a purpose?

I've got a job to do.

I'm not just here for no purpose or just to be, or just to be the son of God.

I'm here to get something done.

And I'm working on that right now.

The father's business, we could summarize it this way.

Jesus said for the son of man came to seek and save those who are lost.

That's that was the whole reason Jesus showed up was because you were lost.

And I was lost in the whole world was lost and we needed a savior.

And so he said, I'll be the, I'll be the savior.

And he came to seek and save those who are lost.

That's the business of the father.

It's why Jesus came to earth.

And then when Jesus was leaving this earth, he had died.

He had risen again, the price had been paid and, and now he was giving us the empowerment that would come from the Holy spirit.

And all of this is, is, is happening.

And, and he's giving his last words to disciples.

And then, and then to us as well.

And it's all about the business of the father, Matthew 28, 19 and 20 go make disciples, baptize them in the name of the father, son, and Holy spirit, teach them to observe all these things.

Mark 16, 15, go into the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Luke 24, you are witnesses.

So declare the things that you've seen and heard John 20, 21 as the father has sent me even.

So I'm sending you.

And that's a great thing to hear.

Isn't that awesome until you remember that he had just died on the cross.

The father sent me, that's what I did now.

I'm sending you in the same way he sent me.

It's all about though.

Maybe not.

Maybe there's some business in the business acts chapter one, verse number eight, you'll receive power by the Holy spirit.

And you'll be my witnesses.

You've got a job to do so.

So what's the father's business.

The father's business was to reach you.

The father's business was to teach you the father's business was to baptize you.

The father's business, the father's business was to see you continue to take steps of faith in your own personal wall.

But then the father's business is that once you're saved, it's your job, my job to reach others, to teach others, to see other saved, to see others, take their next steps in faith with Christ and the cycle continues.

It continues to grow and to move and to spread about the earth until everyone can know Jesus Christ as Lord and savior.

Sometimes people say, well, wait a minute.

I don't know if I can do that because you know, I don't know if I know everything that I need to know in order to be able to be a great witness for Christ in the world.

I, you know, I need to first, I need to learn Greek.

Then I need to learn Hebrew.

And then, then I need to, you know, figure out here's my suggestion.

Maturity comes through.

Process comes through process.

Don't wait,

Work, work.

And as you work, you will mature.

It's like somebody coming out of, out of college that come out of college, they have all the knowledge that they, that they can amass in that the years of university, to be able to launch into whatever industry that they're going to go into.

But you and I who've been in industries for some time now know that that when they first get into the industry, they're probably a little behind.

They think that they know it all,

But they don't.

And I don't mean that

And pride.

I mean that they've, they've done all that.

They can to get all the information that they can.

And now they're in the business, but, but in the business, there's a maturing process.

And so somebody that's been in the business 10 minutes has the degree and has the ability to move forward in that area of business.

But somebody who's been in the business for 10 years is going to have a level of maturity.

That's a little different.

They're both working in the process.

They don't wait to say, well, I can't actually go into that career until I have everything that everybody who's ever been in that career knows.

I also have that knowledge.

No, no maturity comes through process and here's my encouragement.

Don't spend all your time gaining knowledge and then go to heaven alone.

Um,

I'm two seconds away from death.

I finally know, and the guy gained all the knowledge that I'm going to gain in this life.

And I'm ready to tell somebody about Jesus, but I'm gone use your time to make a difference.

And I think that's one of the reasons why the scripture teaches humility so often because humility is what allows us to work before being fully matured.

As we are maturing, we're working and we make mistakes.

So humility says, I'm sorry.

Humility says, will you forgive me?

Humility says what I was wrong.

Humility says, I'm working to get it right?

Humility allows us to mature through the process.

And so what's, God's purpose.

It's to bring eternal peace into this world and his children, you and I are moving the process forward.

And that brings us to thought, number two, that peace is only found in surrender to God.

That's the only place it's found.

There is no other option.

And so today God calls us to himself.

He covers us with himself and he commissions us to be witnesses of him to the world.

And what did he give us?

He gave us peace that we both receive and that we share with others.

How did that happen, John?

Chapter 14.

He said, peace.

I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives, do I give to you?

Let not your heart be troubled.

Neither let it be afraid.

Jesus left his peace with his disciples.

He said, I give you my peace.

And this is the piece that allows him to go willingly to the cross.

It's it's the piece that allows him to willingly go to death.

It's the piece that allows them to, to, to face the opposition of the day in every sphere of influence and yet continue on with the mission.

It's that kind of peace.

But then he says, don't be troubled or afraid.

Well, the only reason that he would have to say that is if there were going to be a reason for them to be troubled and afraid.

So was like, I'm giving you peace, but you're going to have to choose to not be troubled nor be afraid.

Now, when I had thought about a peacemaker in as a younger man, and before I dived into this through study, I was thinking about someone who lives in peace.

I'm a peacemaker.

I'm just at peace all the time.

And everybody around me is at peace all the time.

And my house is a peaceful place and everything around me is peaceful.

And if I'm not peaceful, then something's wrong.

But I was wrong.

The disciples were left in a hostile world to face one battle after and all, but one, as far as we can tell, were martyred for the cause of Christ.

That's not what I consider a peaceful situation.

Notice he said, blessed are the peace makers, not the peace lovers, not the pacifist, not those desiring peace at all costs, but those who insist on peace and make it happen.

And if you look at the history of God's work that we know of everything written in scripture, he's not talking, telling us a peaceful story from the beginning to the end.

And he is God, all mighty.

In fact, the scripture talks about Satan, who is, he was created an angel and he's in heaven.

And he rebels against God.

And when he rebels against God, God kicks him out of heaven.

Now I think that we believe, we think about that as this long protracted war.

It wasn't a long protracted war, Satan rebelled, God kicked him out of heaven.

It was just as quick as that I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, the scripture reads.

And so, and so Jesus takes him out of heaven, but, but he says, I'm insisting that there be peace and heaven.

That, that the angels that are with me, that everyone in heaven is aligned with me.

And that is where this piece will come from in surrender to God.

Anything that doesn't surrender to God is cast out is cut off.

It's there is no peace in that.

And so they're done.

And that's what, that's what God did from the beginning.

And then the Satan and his demonic forces.

They could not fight against God that already lost against God.

And so they did what they could do, and that is attack the thing that God loves.

They began to attack humanity.

And so Satan comes against Adam and Eve and he tempts Adam and Eve in the garden and they fall and they fail.

They do what is wrong.

They follow his lead versus listening to God's law.

And so, and so now there is a war.

There, there is a war at play here, not, not against God and Satan, but a war for the attention and the heart of humanity and sacrifice.

God say thought he was, he had one with Adam and Eve, but then God institutes sacrifice.

And now sin is rolled forward.

As people offer sacrifice to God and their payment is rolled forward.

And, and God continues to build relationship with humanity.

But eventually the scripture says at the right time, the son of God was born under the law.

He went through everything that, that everyone had ever gone through.

He suffered everything that everyone has ever suffered.

And he was born under the law that condemned those who were under the law.

He lived according to the law.

He was perfect, according to the law.

And then he, the sacrifice that the law demanded a perfect lamb, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in order to buy back those who were under the law.

And then in baptism, he did all of that, but it was at baptism that he engages his father's business.

Now, how do we, what do we see happen in that moment?

We see Jesus baptized.

We see the Holy spirit descend like a dove.

And we hear the father's voice saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

This is the father saying, that's my boy.

And I'm proud of him as Jesus engages the business of the father.

Now we might think about Jesus kind of walking around peacefully.

If you see any movies about Jesus, other than passion of the Christ, he kind of looks high through the whole thing.

He's just, and he's, he's not, but, but he he's like walking around like glazed eyes and he's so, so focused somewhere else that he can't figure out what's going on right here.

That's not what Jesus was doing at all.

He was engaged mightily in a war for the people of God.

He wanted people to be saved.

And so he was engaged.

In fact, this is what he says in Luke 12.

Do you think I've come to give peace on earth?

No, I tell you, but rather division from now on and one house, there'll be five divided, three against two and two against three.

They will be divided father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother mother-in-law against her.

Daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.

He said, there's going to be, there's going to be conflict.

The revelation of who I am dawns upon a household, it brings division.

It brings war.

Why?

Why is that true?

Because some will believe in some will not believe some will say Jesus is the only way to the father.

And some will say, he's not some will say he's the savior as he's professed to be.

And some so he isn't.

And that doesn't mean everybody's right.

It means somebody's right and somebody's wrong.

And all that manically.

There's a level of division there.

And so you and I, it takes courage for you.

And I to say, I love you.

And Jesus is the only way to the father.

I care about you.

And Jesus is the only way to heaven.

It takes courage and we're at war for the souls of our friends, our family, our community.

And I encourage us.

If it's our own family at risk, we'll fight with everything that we have.

I encourage us to fight for those around us.

Like we would want them to fight for our family.

If it's our family, that's lost.

If it's our family that needs to come to Christ, see Jesus was at peace internally, but he was engaged in a spiritual war.

He gave his life for you and for me.

And then he said, I give you this peace, but let's look at that verse again.

Peace.

I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

That's a transactional piece there from Christ to us.

And then he says, not as the world gives, do I give to you

Peace

That the world gives means that everything has to align with the world.

He said, I'm giving you peace.

That aligns with the father.

It's a piece that allows me to walk through the world, walk through the conflict, walk through the situation, walk through the sacrifice, demanded by the vision of the father, of the business of the father.

And allows me to walk through that, knowing that I'm doing what's right, and I'm willing to pay the price because it's right.

And I have an internal knowing of eternal peace that says it's worth it.

So you and I, we can fight the battle daily without being afraid.

But it doesn't mean it's all externally peaceful when Jesus Rose from the dead and made salvation possible for you.

And for me, it became a very personal war because you have the savior calling for you and you have the enemy calling for you.

You have Jesus on one side, you have carnal nature, the world systems, mnemonic forces all on the other side and everybody's fighting for you.

Everybody wants you.

And then you

Made the decision to follow Jesus.

And, and, and when you did, you said no to all of that, but it doesn't mean they don't stop,

But you know that you found peace in your heart.

You know,

If there's a peace that passes all understanding that guard your heart and your mind, and it, it dwells within you.

Yes, peace lives in you.

But the war isn't over, you're called

For a purpose by God,

We're in God's army.

He says, put on the whole armor of God, not pick up a parasol of praise

And go on a picnic and just exist as a child of God.

Wow.

He said, there's a war that we're, that we're engaged in.

You need to pick up the whole armor of God.

You're in a battle it's war.

Every time someone surrenders their life to Jesus.

But peace comes to that heart it's war.

Every time you let your carnal nature die and surrender to God, but peace comes into your own life.

It's war.

Every time we pray God's will in a situation, but it's ultimately the only hope for peace in this world.

And in the next it's war, every time we engage the enemy, but peace will ultimately rain.

One day, the lion will lay down with the lamb and it doesn't escape.

My attention that the lion, he is the lion of Judah.

And he is lamb slain from the foundation of the earth in one day, what Jesus is and all that he represents will, will not have to be what it's always been.

And we'll see him in an entirely new way and a new understanding in his fullness.

And I praise God for that, but that's not today.

We haven't gotten there just yet.

And so it's easy.

It's easy to back up and fall back in and kind of just relax a little bit and say, well, you know, it seems like God's calling us to something that we'll never see in our lifetime.

And we may not like in every single other beatitude Jesus is calling us to the goal that can't be reached.

And

Yeah,

The vision that can't quite be grasped by our own mind, our own hand, but in every situation with him, the impossible becomes possible with him.

Suddenly it does become possible.

In fact, he's already won the victory at large it's our job today to fight the enemies influence in our own life, to grow in our knowledge of God and to share what we've seen in herd with the world around us, so that others will be saved.

It's not all about us.

It's about the father's business.

My thought number three, is this your fight reveals the father.

It's always special to me.

When my parents tell me that they're proud of me.

Um, I've always had a good relationship with my parents.

And recently it seems like they've told me that they're proud of me more often than they used to.

I don't really know why.

It just seems that way to me.

I also get kind of choked up whenever I'm watching a movie and you see, you know, the kids playing in the, on the field and football or soccer or baseball or whatever sport it might be, or, and, and the, the, the kid does something cool on the field and the camera pans to the parent in the stand and the, and the parents that we were going.

That's my boy, that's my girl.

Something happens in me.

I love it recently, a person in this faith family who I respect quite a bit.

We were with some people that they respect, I didn't know.

And they were introducing me.

And, and they, they introduced me by saying, this is my pastor.

And I was deeply moved by that.

I didn't show it at the moment in the moment, but I was moved by it because they could have said, this is the pastor of the church I attend.

Or they could've said, this is my friend.

Or they could have said, there's a guy who lives in.

They could have said a lot of things, but they said, this is my pastor.

And it meant something to me.

It meant something to me because these were people, whether it be my parents or this individual, they were willingly identifying with me.

It wasn't a distancing statement that they made.

It was a, it was an inclusive statement.

It was, it was one that brought us closer versus pushed us further away.

And I kind of picture our father in heaven, watching us live our lives.

Now we encounter a situation.

Maybe it's, maybe it's a situation where sin is causing torment either in our own lives or in the life of someone else.

And, and we could walk away.

We could walk away from, we could explain it away in our own lives and say, well, that's just kind of how I am, or that's just the thing I deal with.

Or that's just, or we could say in someone else's life, that's none of my business, or I don't want to impress my faith on anyone else, or that's not my place to say anything or, or probably most frequent.

I don't want to seem weird.

And our father's in heaven and he's watching for our response.

I know that God is all knowing.

Don't misunderstand.

I know that he's all knowing.

And yet he watches and in the life of Abraham one day when Abraham was about to sacrifice, Isaac, God stopped him and said, now I know that you fear God.

It's not that God didn't know that before.

It's just that Abraham kind of confirmed, but God already knew he lived out what God already knew.

And I see it as we keep glancing up, as we're playing on the field of life, we keep glancing up at the stand, seeing where our father's eyes are.

And when we engage a situation in the way that he would, when we reflect him into the world, when, when he sees our character, his character in us and his action through us and his power working in us, when we turn away from sin, when we represent him to someplace else, when we, to someone else, when we address a situation like he would address it, I think he stands up in the stands and I, in my mind is, I don't know if it's actually happens, but in my mind's eye, he stands up and he says, said, angels, Hey, look at that.

That's my boy right there.

That's my girl right there.

Look at what they did.

Look at, look how they, Oh man.

They're, I'm so proud of them.

They did such a great job.

That's my son.

That's my daughter.

And here's the crazy thing about it.

And if you haven't got anything else on set today, get this, please.

It doesn't matter.

In that moment.

If you're winning the game at large or losing the game at large, maybe you did fall to sin.

Maybe you didn't win the person to Christ.

Maybe you didn't convince them to make the right choice in that situation.

And maybe you feel like the world's biggest failure right now, still, your father is proud of you.

He is not as concerned about your wins or losses, as much as he's proud of how you fight, because the battle belongs to the Lord.

He's going to determine the outcome.

You just choose.

Whether you engage in the paddle or not.

And when it's all said, and over you will win in the end, would you bow your heads with me right now?

I don't know if you're feeling like the world's greatest success or the world's greatest failure in this moment, whatever it may be.

If you're in the fight, he's proud of you.

If you're pushing into righteousness, if you're reflecting him in this world, you say, well, I wasn't, I'm not perfect.

Nobody is perfect.

And I thank God.

We don't have to be.

We have to be clothed in Christ's righteousness.

Lord Jesus.

I pray right now that you would give us the courage to step into the business.

You've called us to, you were assigned the business of the father.

And then from day from your early age, you engaged in the father's business.

When you left, you were empowered us in the father's business.

You gave us the power of attorney on earth to reflect and represent the kingdom of heaven on earth.

The father's character, the father's image, the father's purpose.

And I pray that you give us the courage, not to look past our own selves, our own lives.

It's not all about us.

It's about his business and we are blessed along the way.

Your grace is new every morning.

Your blessings are beyond our ability to understand you bless us, but let us not rest only in the birth and only in the blessing, but allow us, allow us to engage in the purpose.

You've called us to the business of heaven.

I thank you and praise you for these incredible people in Jesus name.

Let everybody say amen.

Let's stand feed per partners.

Would you come forward?

If you need prayer for anything at all, I invite you to come forward for prayer.

During this time, as we close this service in worship,