Pastors Brian and Jacque Lother
Pastor Brian: Good morning, everybody. It's great to see you. Thank all of you who always watched by livestream. Jacque was texting some of our livestream people who live out of state last night as we were live streaming the radio hour last night. One of them wrote about 30 minutes into the program, "Thank you so much. This is so wonderful." Thank you livestream people for your part of being a part of this community. We really appreciate it. There's a whole lot of stuff going on in the world, isn't there?
I should read some of my news feeds that I get every day from different news outlets. I just get headlines and the more I read the news headlines, the more anxious I become. That's what happens when you feed all that stuff into you, right? If all you hear is bad news, then what ends up happening is our hearts, our spirits become Debbie Downers. One of the things that can happen when all of the things that are happening in our world keep inundating our minds is that we can become fearful. We can start living in a place of anxiety and fear.
I want you to know that this isn't something that's just new to our 21st century culture. There were things to be fearful of all throughout history, all throughout history. And God actually went to great lengths to address his concern about us, his children being afraid. There are many verses I wanna start with one in Luke chapter 1, verse 30, where the angel came to Mary and the first thing he said to her was--
Pastor Jacque: Don't be afraid, Mary.
Pastor Brian: Don't be afraid.
Pastor Jacque: The angel told her, for you have found favor with God.
Pastor Brian: A lot of times we don't realize that we have favor with God, that he loves us. And so we fear the worst will happen. And we have to be reminded in a world that is harsh and cold and full of the fallenness, of shall we say, the sin, the sin of Adam, as well as our own sin, that God's favor is still upon us. His heart is for us, and we ourselves don't have to be afraid. This isn't, of course, the first time that this was stated in scripture. We see another one in Isaiah chapter 35, which was written about 700 years before the angel came to Mary. And he said this:
Pastor Jacque: Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong and do not fear for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.
Pastor Brian: Notice it doesn't say He is coming to destroy the person you don't like. Who is our real enemy? Yeah. The demonic realm. It's all of the schemes of the enemy, that fallen being who once was high and lifted up in heaven. He was gifted above all others, and he became full of pride. There's a really terrible consequence to pride in not just Lucifer's life, but in everyone's life, isn't there? Pride is what virtually was at the heart or root of Lucifer. We call him Satan, who was cast out of heaven. Now, he has been roaming the earth. He is called the God of this world, and he has authority. He has been allowed by God for, for divine purposes, to have a realm of authority.
Now, the good news is that Jesus came and defeated the authority of the enemy and for those who believe in that can have and walk in that same measure of authority over those schemes of the enemy. One of his schemes is to bring fear to us, to bring concern to us. The prophet Isaiah was addressing that even before Jesus came on the scene. And he says this: "Say to those with fearful hearts, be strong and do not fear for your God is coming to destroy those enemies in your life." What is the greatest enemy you have in your life? Well, Satan. He is the greatest enemy you have in your life because he has access to our minds. He can plant thoughts into our minds.
Sometimes, we think to ourselves, where did that thought come from? Have you ever thought about that? Where did that come from? That's not what's in my heart. But that's the access, that's the realm, the battlefield of the mind. We're in this spiritual warfare, in a sense, on the earth. And this spiritual warfare takes place largely just in our minds.
Pastor Jacque: Every negative thought we need to question.
Pastor Brian: That's right.
Pastor Jacque: Every negative thought we need to question. Yeah.
Pastor Brian: When you say to yourself, "I can't do that," God is trying to tell you, you can do that. He really is.
Pastor Jacque: There are times where I am convicted the Holy Spirit is talking to me, but it's gentle, it's kind. I need to listen to those.
Pastor Brian: But when it feels like a sledgehammer pounding on you, that's really not the gentle small voice of the Lord that's trying to urge us into a greater place of trust.
Pastor Jacque: I remember when we were younger and I would just, like in the middle of the night, I would wake up with these thoughts just so horrible about myself and how dumb I was and how I did that wrong and da da da. I really thought it was God talking to me, and I better shape up. I remember telling you and you said, "God will never talk to you that way."
Pastor Brian: Why do you think God would talk to you in a worse way than I would talk with you?
Pastor Jacque: I don't know. I'm so glad I--
Pastor Brian: I'm mean, I love you without my heart. I tried to do my best to treat you and speak respectfully to you and so forth, but as much as I love you, I don't have the capacity to love you like God does. So why do we think that his love is going to be much angrier and much more condemning?
Pastor Jacque: Because our concept of God is we gotta get it right. We gotta get it right. When we really know his deep love for us, that dispels the fear.
Pastor Brian: There are many causes for anxiety or even fear in our world, aren't there? The wars and conflicts-- What's the war in Ukraine and all of the implications with the sanctions against Russia and what does that mean for a world economy? What does that mean for the people in Africa who get so much wheat from the Ukraine area? And so much of the wheat is not being brought to Africa? What's gonna happen with us and what's going on with North Korea and China and nuclear submarines now being launched all over the world? There are all sorts of these causes for anxiety or even fear in the world, isn't there?
And then of course, our political system in the US is really broken at this time. Nobody can get along with each other. Even parties themselves can't even get along with each other, never mind the two opposing parties that we have in our country. There has never been a greater divide. And I would go so far as to say this: we probably have as great a divide today in America as there was during the Civil War. There are just too many things in place to kind of keep states from seceding today than there were in 1860. But if we had the same kind of loosely fit government as was in existence in 1860, we'd have states seceding all across this country, and we'd be in a civil war all over again. We would be. That's the division.
Those things can create anxiety in our lives, can't they? We have conflicts, we have problems, we have challenges to overcome, some very large, even some smaller. And then at the end of all of those kinds of problems, you have the possibility of a sudden illness happening. We had a friend, a husband of one of our Zumba gals whose husband just passed recently, and just a couple months ago, he was getting a haircut from the same gal that cuts Jacque's hair and my hair. And three weeks later, he was given just two weeks to live. This just kind of came out of nowhere.
These kinds of things happen. Look at all the people who lost their lives during Covid and other things. Look at all the people who lose their lives. They go shopping to buy a Turkey for Thanksgiving and there is a gunman in the store, and they don't make it home. There are all sorts of reasons to have anxiety today, all sorts of reasons.
And then we read, be strong and do not fear. Why? Because God isn't coming. God is here. God is here. That's not your neighbor or a friend or a parent or some newscaster that said it. God himself said it. Don't be afraid. Do not fear be strong. One other thing, as I was reading this portion of scripture and Isaiah, this is not just a message to all of us to fear not it really is a directive for you and I to pass on to other people. What does it say? Say to those with fearful hearts? Good.
It's not just we who might struggle at times with fear. It's a directive for all of us to tell people, you don't have to be afraid because God is here. God is here. That's why the angel said to Mary, "You are to call him Emmanuel." He actually said, and his name is Emmanuel, which means God is with us.
Back when my oldest grandson, who's now 14, we went to our first 4th of July fireworks when he was two. He was just about to be three at the end of the month. And so we are sitting there, and he has never been to a fireworks. All of a sudden, it's dark out and I'm sitting by him and there is this big explosion and a loud bang and the skylights up with fireworks. And he got scared and he said, "Bapa, hold my hand."
I held his hand the whole time and then he calmed down so much so that a week or two later, it was our custom to take care of our grandchildren regularly when they were preschool age and so forth.
He was over and it got pitch blackout during the day. This terrible storm came through. It was thundering and lightning. Cooper said to me, "Bapa, hold my hand and let's go outside and watch the storm," because he knew that he was safe if he was holding my hand.
Why do we forget that when we can hold the hand of the Lord, we can be safe? Do not fear. Do not fear. Let's pass that directive on. Let's not say it arrogantly or without compassion or empathy for people who are struggling with really life issues, things that certainly could cause fear. When everything around us says you should be scared to death. We can courageously and confidently and compassionately say to people, do not be afraid. God is here with you. God is here. God is here to save us. We see that in Matthew 1:21.
Pastor Jacque: And she will have a son and you are to name him Jesus. Which means the Lord saves for he will save his people from their sins.
Pastor Brian: This was the message actually given to Joseph. Joseph was certainly questioning Mary's pregnancy like any of us guys would. God came to Joseph in a dream and said, listen, Joseph, this conception of Mary is of the Holy Spirit. You are to take her as your wife. You are not only to do that; you are supposed to be the earthly father of God. That's what you are supposed to become, the earthly father of God. And you are to give him the name, Jesus. Joseph. Because he will, not could, he will save his people. He will save his people.
What does that mean, God is here to save us? Well, for one thing, I think it means we are being saved from being alone. Isn't it incredible with the invention of this device right here, people are more far apart from each other than ever before? More relationships are breaking down today than ever before, in spite of all of our technology to stay somehow close together.
We watch movies and even movies of World War II, which was not that many years ago, less than a century ago. If a soldier wanted to talk to his fiancé, like my mom and dad, they wrote, I think, over 600 letters to each other. They would number each one because you never knew when a ship would get sunk and your letter would be lost. And she would get a bunch of letters and she would, "I'm missing 33 through 49." But it was really challenging to communicate back then. You could go a week or two weeks or a month or sometimes two months.
When Jacque's uncle was shot down out of his B24 over Czechoslovakia in World War ii, it happened on June 7th, and his family didn't even know if he was alive until Christmas Eve that year, six months wondering what happened to Gene. Today, we know within moments because of these kind of things. We are so close to each other and so far apart, and that's creating so much anxiety, so much depression.
I mentioned recently that suicide is now up again in the United States. And you know what demographic is actually now almost leading that suicide demographic? It's seniors. Nothing left to live for, abandoned a sense of aloneness, fearful. But God has come so we don't have to be alone. God has come so that we can have support and have connection to someone that matters. God calls us into relationship with other people as well. There are others who we can empathize with if they're going through things.
Throughout the years we've had different types of ministries here. But one of the most significant ministries we had was what we call the Widow's Walk. Unfortunately, there have been a number of ladies here whose husbands have passed. They come together on a regular basis. They don't come together to commiserate and tell each other how miserable they are. But they can identify with each other what they've gone through. They're an encouragement to each other.
That's one of the things that's so important and valuable about a faith community: we can identify with each other. We can say to each other, "Man, I messed up too." We can encourage each other. We can have such a positive effect on each other relationally. We can empathize with what others are going through and vice versa. The fearful people can know that they have a relationship and can have a relationship with God right now. They don't have to wait till they die to have a relationship with the Lord.
They're not alone. They have a father who loves them. They may not know why things have happened as they have, but they still know that there is a God that's over it all. Sometimes we just don't know why things have happened. I think someone's left a phone on up here.
Pastor Jacque: It's not his phone.
Pastor Brian: There was a phone that was actually left here last night. Mike was going to bring it back to the owner who's trying to find it right now.
Pastor Jacque: Oh, but this is a time to talk about how great Mike sang last night.
Pastor Brian: Oh yeah. Why don't you do that?
Pastor Jacque: Oh my word! Woo hoo! You've got to tune in just to see Mike sing. He started the second half. That was great.
Pastor Brian: It was good. Mike's a great addition to what we have here. Sometimes, we kind of read scripture and we think that, well, God is just saying to us, keep your chin up. Things are going to work out. God is saying much more than that. Let me tell you what God's saying. He is saying, "I made the earth and the moon and the stars and all the planets. I made this universe and everything in them and everything on them and everything under them. And I can surely handle your issue.
Pastor Jacque: He is bigger than it all.
Pastor Brian: He is bigger than it all. He can handle it all. And so we come to this time of year where we celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's important for us to know that people in our history, past who have walked with God, have also gone through difficult moments and seasons in their life. One of those very well-known people that went through some real tragedy in his life was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He became a giant in literature, one of America's greatest poets.
I remember one time asking who America's greatest poet was, and most of the answers I got was Dr. Seuss. But Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was probably one of America's greatest poets. He said something very interesting. He said, "Oftentimes, we call a person cold, when in reality they're only sad and their hearts are breaking. He was born in 1807. His family actually landed on the shores of this country in 1676. He was very intelligent. He became a college professor at the age of 19. He got married at the age of 24. Life was very good for him. Harvard hired him as a young man to become a professor at Harvard. He had a beautiful home overlooking the Charles River and then this thing that we call illness struck. And within one year, his wife had fallen ill and died.
It took actually seven years for him to recoup from that. And that's okay. Maybe your spouse died 2, 3, 4 years ago, and you think to yourself, is this ever going to go away? Just keep healing at the pace that you heal. I have a personal opinion about grief. I think of grief as something that you would keep in a jar, something like this. And you put it on a shelf. But every once in a while, when you walk by that jar, you've got to take that grief down and just hold it for a while. And then you put it back up on the shelf and go make the bed, do the dishes, vacuum the floor, go to work, come home, take the jar down, hold it for a while, then you put it back up on the shelf because you have to make supper. Because life goes on, doesn't it?
I don't think when you've really loved somebody that there is ever a time for the rest of your life that you don't ever have to never take the jar down again. I experienced that when I lost my best friend when I was 11. He was shot and killed in a hunting accident. I still go back to his grave; I take the jar down and I hold it and then I put it back and I go on. That's how life is.
There are times where we have lost greatly. It took him seven years before he felt that life was even going to be normal again. But he eventually remarried, and he and his wife had five children and life was good again. Life can be good again, even after great loss and tragedy because God is in our lives.
By 1860, which was the beginning of the Civil War, he had found wealth and virtually worldwide fame because of his giftings, his literary genius. Yet at the very moment when you would've thought he would, should be celebrating the joys of his talents and his financial security tragedy actually struck him again. There was a fire in his home. His second wife died in that fire. He was badly burned and trying to save her. It happened on a Tuesday. It was July 9th, 1861.
He is now grieving. His oldest son leaves for the military to fight in the Civil War. He gets word that his son has been injured. Well, when he got that word, his son had been injured. They didn't even know where his son was. So now he went on a quest to find where his son was, hospital to hospital to hospital. Finally, he found his son. He starts ministering to his wounds. He is becoming angry because of the divide in our nation, a divide that was probably rooted in greed.
Free labor is a great thing to have if you want to own a business. But I tell you what, it's a black mark on any culture to have that kind of labor. Pharaohs had it. Israel knew what it was like to be in slavery. The pyramids and all the greatness of Egypt was built with free labor. And much of our country's early beginnings was rooted and built on free labor. We call it slavery. That's the better name for it.
This war was really over that issue. When his oldest son was wounded, he found his prayers and his hope turning to anger. Have you ever found yourself in that place where your prayers, your hope, your dreams seem to be dashed? Hope is now dying and what replaces it as anger, frustration, rage. Has that ever happened to any of you? It has happened to me. As he tended his son's wounds, as well as some visiting families that he knew who had lost sons in battle, he began to ask the Lord, where is the peace?
Sometimes, I've found myself asking the Lord those same questions in the world that we seem to be living in today, where is the peace? It was now Christmas day of 1863 and he heard some church bells in the town that he was in, ringing out their old familiar tune. Sometimes, just being consistently there is the very best thing we can do. We don't know who that bell ringer was, but he was there consistently, always there at the right time, the right day, ringing the bells of that church that bell Ringer's name is nameless to us, probably was nameless to Longfellow, but he wasn't nameless to God. God had him ring that bell.
In a moment he began to pen these words. I heard the bells on Christmas day. Their old, familiar carol's play and wild and sweet. The words repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men. I thought how as the day had come, the belfries of all Christendom had rolled along, thundering this unbroken song of peace on earth, goodwill to men. But don't forget the place he was in in his own life.
And then he penned: but in despair, I bowed my head, there is no peace in earth. I said, for hate is strong and mocks the song, a peace on earth, goodwill towards men.
But he didn't end there. The bells kept ringing. It was Christmas day, so they didn't just ring for a minute. They might have rivaled the liberty bell that was rung so much at split. But then pealed the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead, nor does he sleep. The wrong shall fail and the right prevail with peace on earth. Goodwill to men.
Till ringing and singing on its way, the world revolved from night to day, a voice, a chime, a chance sublime of peace on earth, goodwill towards men.
We don't sing that Christmas Carol hardly ever anymore. But as Longfellow was surrounded on all sides by death and hatred, the bells were to him a reminder that God was and is at work. He never slumbers, he does not sleep. And that he had not forsaken his people. And even though this song is rarely sung anymore in our Christmas traditions, it does remind us that no matter what happens, no matter how bleak the circumstances we might be facing, God has not lost control of our lives. God is here. He is faithful, and the bells continue to ring out to this very moment in time and of the increase of his kingdom, there shall be no end. We need to remember that even though as this third verse says, there is no peace on earth for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill toward men.
There is a lot of mockery today towards peace on earth, goodwill towards men. But God is greater. God is stronger. God is here. And the bells continue today to ring out. Hopefully, in your heart that there is peace in your life on earth and goodwill to you. Is God faithful? Does he really mean what he says? Can we trust him? The answer is yes. The answer is yes. And we have reason today for hope. And that reason was born in a manger 2000 years ago. That's why we can hope. I want to finish with just a few scriptures. The first is in Deuteronomy chapter 7:9 where we read this:
Pastor Jacque: Understand therefore that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavish his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.
Pastor Brian: This whole concept of a thousand generations, I'm not even sure there has been a thousand generations from Adam. There may have been. All I know is this, that that's the term that God says His faithfulness is never ending. It's never ending. Then we read in Psalm 145:14- 20. This is good from the Message Bible.
Pastor Jacque: God gives a hand to those down on their luck.
Pastor Brian: You ever feel like you're down on your luck? Just reach out and let that person we know to be Jesus take your hand.
Pastor Jacque: He gives a fresh start to those ready to quit. All eyes are on you, expectant.
Pastor Brian: See, that's actually addressed to God and that's a name that this person is giving to God. All eyes are in you, God, and I'm expecting. I'm expectant of you.
Pastor Jacque: You give them their meals on time, generous to a fault. You lavish your favor on all creatures. Everything God does is right. The trademark on all his works is love.
Pastor Brian: Well, I don't you like that. You know like the Coke bottle has that little trademark on it and whatever, but the trademark of everything God does is love.
Pastor Jacque: That's good. God is there listening for all who pray for all who pray and mean it. He does what's best for those who fear him, hears them call out and saves them.
Pastor Brian: Wow. He hears them call out and saves them. And then last but not least, first Corinthians 1:9
Pastor Jacque: God who got you started in this spiritual adventure shares with us the life of his son and our master, Jesus.
Pastor Brian: Now get this.
Pastor Jacque: He will never give up on you. Never forget that.
Pastor Brian: He will never give up on you. Never forget that. Never forget that. Even though this world can grow dark and it can grow desperate, I will not lose hope. Let's just pray that together.
Father, even though this world grows dark and desperate, I will not lose hope. Say that with me. I will not lose hope. My hope and trust are in you.
Pastor Jacque: My hope and trust are in you.
Pastor Brian: You are the Almighty.
Pastor Jacque: You are the Almighty,
Pastor Brian: And you are the ever-living God
Pastor Jacque: And You are the ever-living God.
Pastor Brian: May the truth and reality of your power
Pastor Jacque: May the truth and reality of your power
Pastor Brian: And your faithfulness
Pastor Jacque: And your faithfulness
Pastor Brian: Ever ring loud.
Pastor Jacque: Ever ring loud
Pastor Brian: And fresh in my heart
Pastor Jacque: And fresh in my heart
Pastor Brian: Lord, may the bells that we ring today be the bells of our hearts. May they ring loud and true. May they be reminded. May we, Lord, when we go shopping here in the next few weeks and the Salvation Army is ringing those bells, calling out to people to come and be generous and to give, I pray that, Lord, we will do that and be generous. But I also pray, Lord, that that bell will remind us that God is not dead, that he does not sleep.
For the wrong shall fail and the right will prevail with peace, honor, goodwill to men. I'd like to invite Bill Melchel to come. He sang a song last night, and as we were rehearsing this and I was preparing for this sermon, I just felt like I wanted to conclude this sermon with this song that he sang last night. It's a song that was written by Michael W. Smith, a modern-day contemporary worship leader, wonderfully gifted, has blessed thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of people with his music. This song is one that really stands out to me as one that says this incredible message that we do not have to be afraid, that we do not have to fear for all is well.
[song 1:21:59 -1:25:13 ]
Pastor Robert: As we end in prayer, I just want to take this one question into our prayer. Do you know him? To know him is to have that peace. See, the world mocks it because they don't know him. Without him, there is no peace. The world's idea of peace is different from the peace that comes from knowing him. We heard it out of his own mouth. He said, "The peace that I give is not the peace that comes from the world." The peace that comes from him is beyond understanding.
Why it is beyond understanding is because when the world says you should be down, when the world says you can, you should be depressed, when the world says you should give up because it's going according to its standards, God's peace says no, there is no reason for you to give up because I'm with you and I'm always gonna be with you. And there are promises that come from God's peace. He says those that have their mind stay on him, he will keep us in perfect peace.
My prayer today is, wherever you're having trouble in your life today, let the king of peace enter into that trouble. Don't disqualify him because you don't have the answer. He does. So let the king of peace enter into your trouble. You don't have to understand the who, the what, the where, the how, the why. Just release it all unto him and let him carry you not just through your circumstance, but beyond your circumstance.
See, peace according to the world standards is a temporary band aid that comes to just cover up a symptom of what you're dealing with at the moment. God's peace is something that transcends the moment and it's perfect peace. That means it's a whole piece. It's not a temporary piece. It's an everlasting piece, so it goes beyond your circumstance.
God, we give all of our hurts, all of our disappointments, all of our loneliness, all of our void, all of our doubt, all of our fears over unto you. And we say, let the king of peace enter into our hearts. Lord, we pray this prayer with the utmost of confidence that your will will prevail in our lives. And no matter what is going on around us, we can still walk with our heads held up high, not in heartiness, but we lift up our heads to the heavens in recognition of your provision and your peace in our lives. Thank you, Lord, for being with us, Emmanuel, to solidify our peace and to make us whole. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Pastor Brian: Let's stand together, shall we? Thank you for being here today. Thank you for those of you who've joined us on livestream. For those of you who are in here live, if you'd like to have communion after the service, Jim and Brenda will be at the communion table serving communion. We will have people to pray with you here at the altar if you would like prayer for anything. Let's just lift our hands. Let me bless you today.
Now, may the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace and may you know that he is with you. This, we pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of Holy Spirit, and everybody said amen. God bless you. Thank you for being here today. Have a great day, great week. Remember, all is well because of the baby born in the manger. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 12-10-23. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.