Word of Life Church Podcast

Jesus is a king, the king; and he has a kingdom. To be a Christian is to confess that Jesus is the world’s rightful king and to enter that kingdom by faith and baptism. Our calling is to live as citizens of the kingdom of Jesus here and now, in the 21st century. We don’t live in 2nd century persecution or 12th century Christendom or 20th century modernity. We live in the 21st century postmodern world with its own challenges to the gospel and its unique opportunities to embody the Christian faith. If we can learn to live as a people faithful to Jesus we will be a city on a hill.

God doesn't cause all things to happen, nor does he always prevent bad things from happening. But God does cause all things that happen to work together for good. But God is able to take all the events of your life, the good and bad, the beautiful and ugly, and weave them together in such a way that in the end the whole story is beautiful! Sometimes in the present moment our lives seem to be a confusing, painful mess. But the One at the loom working on the story of your life has a hand of grace. When dark, ugly, and painful events come into our life, we suffer. But never let go of the promise that, in the end, the tapestry of our lives will be beautiful."He will wipe away every tear from their eyes… and there will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. And he who sits upon the throne says this: 'Behold! I am making all things new!'" –Revelation 21

When imperfect people aspire to perfection, the results are disastrous. And when people find themselves in a culture where perfection is expected, (in their family, or church, or job), they are forced to fake it. Perfectionism requires hypocrisy, and requires people to live outside of reality. But Jesus saves us from all of that! Jesus saves us from the pressure to be perfect. This is really good news! When you don’t have to be perfect, you can begin to be good. The glory of God is seen in mercy, not perfection. Jesus has established a temple for the imperfect. Being perfect is not what Christianity is all about. The church is a place where broken people can find acceptance, forgiveness, and healing in Jesus Christ. The house that Jesus builds is a temple for the imperfect. The church is to be a temple for the imperfect, a place where the glory of God is seen in mercy.

We don't like to admit it, but it's not always our weaknesses that get us in trouble. Sometimes it's what we are good at— our strengths, our successes, our victories— that cause trouble to find us. We pray for success, and some of those prayers are answered. But too much success can become a stumbling block. If the Apostle Paul had nothing but success and smooth sailing in his ministry, it would have been his undoing. But Paul suffered, he felt weak, and knew he had to depend on the grace of Jesus. In this way, Paul’s life reflected the contours of the cruciform. Paul would have never achieved the same authority if he had not been subjected to great suffering. Paul gains both grace and credibility because he suffered deeply.

Everywhere Paul went there were riots. But riots were never Paul's doing or desire or intent. Paul didn't advocate for angry, loud, public protest, but just the opposite. He wrote to the Thessalonians that they should “aspire to lead quiet lives." Paul advocates not for a riot Christianity, but a quiet Christianity. In a world that grows weary of the endless noise of ideological anger, the church is to be a haven of quietness and trust, a quiet refuge of peace. Isaiah dreams about what it will be like when righteousness returns to the earth. He write that the effect will be peace and the result will be quietness and trust. The result of righteousness among God's people is not riot and protest, but Quietness and Trust.

In the garden of Gethsemane, the disciple Peter was ready to go to prison and death with Jesus. But when he attempted to defend Jesus from the Roman soldiers who had come to arrest him, Jesus rebuked Peter, telling him to put away his sword and renounce violence. Peter was disillusioned and began to follow Jesus only at a distance. Before being redeemed, Peter would end up shedding some heavy tears. In in our own lives, often deep spiritual transformation happens only through the shedding of tears. Tears are necessary to soften the soul. But Jesus will not leave those tears unredeemed, they serve a holy purpose. Jesus remade Peter after his greatest failure, which caused those heavy tears. God, by his grace, uses our sins and failures to form Christ in us. Before you can be remade, you may have to be undone- and that will involve shedding some tears.

Pastor Derek Vreeland delivers a sermon entitled, "The Useful God".

Jacob swaggered through life with the confidence typical of a con man. He was a success in the shallowest sense of the word. Jacob had a kind of success; but what he didn't have was dignity, integrity, holiness. God was at work in Jacob's life and would bring about holiness in Jacob. The tool that God would use to produce this holiness in Jacob’s life was pain. When Jacob came face to face with real pain he would see the face of God. Transformed by pain, Jacob limped the rest of his life. He had been blessed and broken— and his blessed brokenness gave him a new name and a new life.

Jesus breaks bread and calls it his body. His broken body becomes the source of our salvation This is breaking that is good and that belongs to redemption and resurrection. This is the kind of breaking we're called to share with Jesus. But there is a kind of breaking—a kind of response to pressure—that is not good. After receiving the broken bread, Judas departed into the night to betray Jesus. Judas' journey into the darkness was a response to pressure that is Breaking Bad. Pain, pressure, disappointment are the sources of inevitable breakage in our lives. As humans, you will experience these things. It's part of the human condition. How you respond to these pains determines whether you break good or break bad. We are called to follow the Jesus way of trusting God, and not breaking bad. When we trust God, God is faithful and becomes a source of healing. But when we break bad and try to take control, we inflict our wounds on others. Let's learn to trust in God!

We are to be gospel-centric and gospel-saturated in the life of the church, because the gospel creates a certain kind of culture, shaping how we think and how we live. In order to be this kind of church, we preach the gospel first and morality second. God has saved us and called us to a holy life, but we emphasize the gospel of God's great love first. This life then creates the kind of culture whereby we can flourish in the holy life, where the Spirit continues his work of transformation within us.