Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Robert: Praise the Lord. Tell Jacque, sorry, the new guy has something unscripted. You can get away with that when you are the new guy, right? But it doesn't feel like I'm a new guy.
Jacque: No, you are not.
Robert: Not anymore. Praise the Lord. Well, I'm one of those that when I have something burning in my spirit, I'm not resting until I do it. I just do it. But it's been on my heart all this week. Since I've been here, we've kind of influenced culture at hope a little bit. There are certain things that I'm used to, especially when it comes to pastor appreciation. I like to give flowers while the shepherds are still here. I appreciate them. They've been shepherds for me for one year, many of you, many, many, many, many, many years before that. But it feels like they've been shepherding me for 20 years. You know, as Pastor Jeff and I are under shepherds, we need shepherds too in our life, and we need guidance and support and teaching. We've been blessed. My family's been blessed since we've been here with these wonderful shepherds. For your new brother that's in the house, can everyone please stand then, show appreciation for our pastors and just give them a round of applause.
Brian: Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
Robert: Because it's important that we honor our shepherds. We honor them in our substance and our giving. But it's good to show honor and appreciation for what they do, because we shouldn't take it lightly. We have a gift in this house and we appreciate it very much. So we love you.
Brian: Thank you, Pastor Robert. Thank you everybody. So very kind of you. Thank you so much.
Jacque: It is our privilege. It is just our privilege. We are getting older, and we need to think about when to wind down here someday. But we are just having so much fun doing what we do. So right now, we'll just keep doing it.
Brian: We'll just keep doing it. I believe in making more space for more people, and that's what we want to do. But I don't believe that God's plan for us is to cease being what he called us to do until our days on earth are over. And so we will continue to do what God's called us to do until the Lord takes us home. But it doesn't mean that the way we do it might not need to be adapted a little bit.
Jacque: Maybe we'll do less of it.
Brian: I don't know. Maybe we'll do more of it. Who knows? Maybe we'll do it in a different way.
Jacque: More wonderful people can do it. Yeah. You know what's interesting?
Brian: Just going back a few years when Covid came and hit, the people who are in attendance at hope are actually less now in person than prior to Covid. And yet we are reaching far more people today than we ever did before Covid. That's largely due to our livestream and our online ministry and all the ways that our technical people helped these two older people pivot, and really help us with understanding that the goal is to touch as many people as we can. If God had to kind of change things around a bit for us, for us to do that, then so be it. It was a little uncomfortable going into those growing pains, but I'm so thankful today for where the Lord has brought us.
I'm also looking forward to, as more and more people move into our community, I believe more and more people are going to want to be part of this ministry because this is a place of wholeness and safety and healing, and a place where even though people on the outward look like they are being very prosperous, inwardly, many of them are just dying. And we are here for that. We are here for that. I've recently become friends with a gentleman. He is not part of our church. I met him through another friend, and I began to just listen to his story. His story is unbelievable. The pain that this man has gone through in his life. He was abused as a child then as he was a young preteen. He was abused again. Obviously, the people that he trusted in who were in authority all of that just got torn asunder in his life.
He began to not trust any authority. It didn't matter if it was teachers, police, whoever it was, his bosses, and of course, church leaders as well. And he of course, when you are at odds with anybody in authority, because we all have authorities in our life, don't we? When you are at odds with people in authority, it's going to create a lot of problems in your life. And so he ended up of course, in prison and full of turmoil. A very mainline denominational Lutheran pastor came and held a service one day at that prison and told him that what happened to him wasn't God's will for his life. It wasn't God's plan that he be abused. And that started to open the door in his life.
God brought him actually, to me. I've been able to really bring the love of Christ to him. He tried to take his life four different times. and just this past week, he said to me, "You know, I've been reading the Bible. I've been reading the gospels. You know, Jesus was quite the guy, wasn't he?" That Jesus was quite the guy? And I, I told him, I said, "You are right. It doesn't matter about your past." I preached a sermon on this, but I said, "You know, the view out of the windshield is a lot better and bigger than the view and the rear-view mirror. So keep looking out the windshield instead of looking in the rear-view mirror about the things that have troubled you." Jesus is quite the guy. I like that. Maybe we should make a t-shirt that says that "Jesus is quite the guy."
The good news message of Jesus was far less about getting people into heaven and much more about getting heaven into people. Let me say that again. The good news message of Jesus was far less about getting people to go to heaven when they die.
It was much more about a message of getting heaven into those people while they lived. Because this new friend of mine that I was just talking to you about, if the only thing he had to look forward to was going to heaven when he died, there is no hope for him on the earth. The only hope is for him to die. That's where his hope would be. There are many religious traditions that tend to focus on the afterlife more than the present life. Unfortunately, I personally believe that this approach never leads to the best expression of how to truly love in this life. Jesus was all about trying to bring the kingdom of heaven to the earth.
When our focus is about having a destination to go to when we die, then what ends up happening is we start to focus on all the rules on how to get there, rather than how to live life now. Oftentimes, salvation is thought of as an otherworld destination. I remember many times people are hearing people say to somebody, "Are you saved?" Meaning, are you going to go to heaven when you die? Right? Are you saved? Are you going to go to heaven when you die? Salvation has oftentimes been thought of as kind of an other world destination. But I think this often creates a disconnect between this life and the next life because all of the focus is on the next life and not enough on this life. Jesus wants us to focus on what is happening here now.
While Hindus, oftentimes, will not have any concern, for example, for people in a lower cast than them, and the reason they don't is at the end, they all look forward to eventually entering a state where everyone's needs and desires are fulfilled. But Jesus said that I want you to have my joy and have it how?
Jacque: Abundantly.
Brian: Abundantly, not I want you to have joy when you die. This is why with this new friend of mine, we talked a lot about what Jesus has for him right now, to give him hope for this life. Jesus invites us to live what I describe as one unending coherent life, starting now, not just when we die, and he is calling us to live in a continuity between how we want to live for all eternity and how we are, actually, living in the present. Should I say that again?
Jacque: Yes.
Brian: Okay. Okay. Jesus is calling us to live in a continuity, in a consistency between how we want to live in eternity, the things that we desire to have in eternity. What are we looking forward to when we get to heaven? What are you looking forward to when you get to heaven? Those are things that God puts in our hearts, aren't they? But what God wants us to do is he wants there to be a continuity or a consistency between how we want to live in eternity and how we are actually living in the present.
Jacque: So like one thing, when I think of eternity, I think of perfect peace, just peace. But I'm finding more and more I can have that peace here no matter what I'm facing.
Brian: That's right. And the peace is always connected to our trust, isn't it?
Jacque: Yes.
Brian: Our peace isn't necessarily connected to our circumstance, but it's connected to the trust we have in that circumstance where we are going through.
Jacque: Who we trust.
Brian: That's who we trust, absolutely. Jesus raises this question, "Are you living now the way you want to live forever?" Are you living now the way that you want to live forever? I know that we live in a fallen world. I also know that Paul says, "The things that I want to do I don't do. And sometimes the things I don't want to do, I find myself doing." I think if we are all honest, we would find ourselves saying, you know I can identify with what Paul is saying there. There are times where in my heart I want to be this way, and then I find my reaction to circumstances and situations maybe not being like that.
When I find myself not really living in a way that shall we say, brings the kingdom of heaven to the earth, then I take a pause and I find myself praying a simple prayer. That prayer is this, "Jesus, I need more of you. I need more of you. I open my heart to have more of you. I give you this moment so that I have more of you." The reaching for more moments that we have every day at 6:45 have been really helpful to me to implement this whole idea that when I find myself not living in the way that, in my heart, I really want to live like Paul said in Romans, then I just reach out for more of Jesus. Jesus offers this very clear vision of a God who loves his enemies and calls all people into his earthly kingdom of peace on earth.
We are coming into this season of the year Christmas, where we talk about that a lot, don't we? Peace on earth, goodwill toward men. The spirituality of Jesus actually doesn't allow for separation of the means and ends. You brought me to a podcast that you'd been listening to. I don't want to get too specific here, but it was about a church who grew really largely, but the leadership of the church was extremely abusive. How many of you know that very strong personalities__ Pastor Roberts spoke on this just a couple weeks ago about having charisma without character. I'm paraphrasing here, but having charisma and that kind of power that goes with charisma without character and the damage that that can do. I don't if you want to share just a little bit about some of the things that hit you in that podcast.
Jacque: well, I think the church started out really well. Of course, it had really good intentions to begin with. It was out on the west coast, but it just grew so fast and just became__ it just got away from its roots and the pastors became very controlling
Brian: And they lacked humility.
Jacque: And they lacked humility. And it became, "they had goals and visions and get out of my way because I'm going to meet my goal." I like to listen to those stories. Because I like to say, is there any of that in me?
Brian: So we don't fall down that same rabbit hole.
Jacque: I don't want any of that spirit in me.
Brian: I remember one of the things that one of the pastors said was he was trying to motivate the people to, shall we say, get with the program. I'm paraphrasing here again, but basically, he said either get on the bus or we are going to run you over. I thought to myself, a great missionary statesman from the sixties and seventies preached a sermon at Bethany Fellowship in the early sixties. His name was Paris Reidhead. He preached a sermon called "Doing God's Work God's Way". How many know that it's not just God's work we need to do, but it's the ways of Jesus as Pastor Jeff has been really clearly teaching on, just the way of Jesus and what we do. So it's not just a goal; the kingdom of God isn't just a goal that we have, but the way we achieve the goals are just equally important.
For example, Jesus doesn't view peace as simply a goal to be achieved at any praise. The Crusades were about that, weren't they? The we are going to bring the peace of Jesus at any price at the end of a sword. That's just not the Jesus way. But peace is a lifestyle to be lived in our lives. The actual goal of Jesus wasn't getting us into the realm of heaven as much as it was bringing the qualities of heaven into our daily experiences. That's why he prayed "thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Peace is not a distant goal that we seek, but rather it's a means by which we arrive at the goal of following Jesus and honoring Jesus. When we live now the way God wants us to live forever, we are welcoming His kingdom.
We are welcoming his authority; we are welcoming his way or even ways of living into our world right now.
One of the things that I said to this newfound friend of mine was you can break the cycle. You can break the cycle in your life. You don't have to be abusive, which he hasn't been. He became very much like my father did. My father immigrated to Canada when he was four or five from Poland. Shortly after their family came to Canada, his father left home and abandoned my dad. My dad was the oldest son and he became the man of the home. When he was around 12, maybe 13, somewhere in that age, he went to a meeting, heard about Jesus, and gave his heart to the Lord. That transformed everything in the home and in in his life.
He was very determined to not be the same kind of father to me as his father was to him. My father wasn't at all like his dad. You can break the cycle. Jesus helps us break the cycle in our lives of the consequences of abuse and or abandonment. I said to this newfound friend that you can break the cycle. You are very much like my dad. He actually was breaking the cycle in his life. Jesus was praying that kingdom come, that will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I just have a few scriptures I want to read to you. The first one is found in Luke chapter 4, verse 43.
Jacque: But Jesus said, "Don't you know there are other places I must go and offer the hope of God's kingdom. This is what I have been sent to do."
Brian: Jesus is saying to his disciples and the people who are listening to him, "There are other places I have to go to offer the hope of God's kingdom. And that hope wasn't a place to go when you died. It was a way how to live here and now because the kingdom was going to come to the earth. There is another one in Acts chapter 28. This is the last verse in the book of Acts. It's written by Luke, but it's kind of a reference to Paul. And he says this:
Jacque: He continued to proclaim to all the truths of God's kingdom realm.
Brian: So Paul proclaimed to everybody the truths of God's kingdom realm.
Jacque: Teaching them about the Lord Jesus, the anointed one, speaking triumphantly and without any restriction.
Brian: He is going all over speaking on all of these things that are triumphant when? Now. Yes, triumphant now. There is another one, Mark chapter 1, verse 15.
Jacque: His message was this: at last, the fulfillment of the age has come.
Brian: So this is Jesus talking.
Jacque: It is time for God's kingdom to be experienced in its fullness.
Brian: It is time for the kingdom to be experienced. Who's going to do that? We are. Humanity. As much as God loves the animals, what he is talking about here wasn't for deer and the antelope and they are playing around. This was to be experienced by you and me because we are the apple of his eye.
Jacque: I want to read that line again. It is time for God's kingdom to be experienced in its fullness. Turn your lives back to God and put your trust in the hope filled gospel.
Brian: It is time right now to bring heaven to earth. Do you believe that? It's time right now to bring heaven to earth. The place that God wants his kingdom to land is in you.
Jacque: In its fullness.
Brian: In its fullness. Yes.
Jacque: In its victory.
Brian: Yes. As I was pondering all this, this thought came to me: The kingdom of God has come and it is time for me to repent of all the ways that I am that I won't be in heaven. You ever think about that? The time is right now for me to repent of all the ways. Because you know what, a lot of us are just waiting to get over there and thinking, Well, the all of the things I struggle with will be gone. And to me, when I look at Mark 1:15 where Jesus is saying, it's time for the kingdom to be experienced in its fullness, I don't think that God wants me to struggle with faith or doubt or not having peace, not having the characteristics of the kingdom of God. I know we live in a fallen world. I know that we are all fallen. I understand that. But inwardly, what can we have?
We all know that outwardly we perish, don't we? The scriptures tell us that even though our outward man parishes inward man can be renewed every day. What I believe the Lord is wanting from me is that if I am allowing the fallenness of this world to take residency within me, I need to repent of that. I need to repent of that so that the fullness of the kingdom can come into me. I have a desire; I look forward to heaven. We all imagine what heaven might be like. We just get little snippets of it. We hear people, they have visions, and we see a few things in scripture, but it's pretty vague. But none of us have ever thought that when we get to heaven, we are going to struggle with temptation. Do we? No.
None of us feel we are going to struggle with being angry all the time or full of fear. When we are manifesting or experiencing those qualities that are not Kingdom of God qualities, we need to say, "Father, forgive me. I need more of you. I need you to fill me up with more of you so that the fullness of the kingdom can come to me in my experience." You were going to say something?
Jacque: Oh, I just thought about, I mean, things happen to us.
Brian: They do.
Jacque: People hurt us. I mean, we can't help.
Brian: And we get discouraged.
Jacque: And get discouraged. But when you were talking, I saw one of those little like, I don't know, it's a kid's toy that has a weight in the bottom. [Inaudible 1:10:12]
Brian: And then it comes back up.
Jacque: But then it comes back up. But it might take us, but we know where to go to get reentered. And we are reentered in his kingdom.
Brian: I just want to understand this truth, that the kingdom of God according to Jesus is not a realm we enter when we die. It's not a realm that we enter when we die, but a way of life that we can choose to enter now. Now, we can. Jesus didn't teach his followers to pray, "Lord, help me enter the kingdom of God when I die." Did he? How did he teach his followers How to pray? The kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And every time we align our wills with the will of our Father in heaven, we bring the kingdom of heaven earth. Every time I follow the will of God, I am bringing the kingdom of God to the earth in me. Jesus describes God's kingdom in a kind of a really unique way. And we find that in Luke 13: 20 and 21,
Jacque: Jesus taught them another parable. How can I describe God's kingdom? God's kingdom is like something as small as yeast that a woman kneads into a large amount of dough. It works unseen until it permeates the entire batch and the loaf rises high.
Brian: I picture this bread as like the world and the yeast is us who have the kingdom of God in us and we are in the world. But what does the effect of that yeast have? It doesn't run and hide, does it? It doesn't isolate. It doesn't go to the mountaintop where no distractions can happen. It permeates the whole loaf so that the effect of that yeast slash kingdom will be affected through the whole loaf.
Jacque: And it will rise.
Brian: Yes. It will rise. The world is falling right now. We need to have it rise. The way it rises is for the kingdom of heaven to come into the world through us. Through us. When Jesus invited all people to enter God's kingdom, he was inviting us to live here and now in a manner with a new mindfulness where God's will and God's way held sway in our lives. Jacque and I have been working with another couple, again, not from our church. You might think that we got too many other people we are pastoring instead of this church. But they just kind of land in our laps, and like Pastor Jeff said, we just say yes to them.
They are struggling. They are struggling in their relationship with each other and their marriage is on the rocks. And I said to Jacque, "You know, the problem here is the only way this marriage is going to work is if both of these people say your will be done in my marriage. What is your will?" Let me just say it this way and I'll wrap things up here with this. Jesus does not offer us personal life coaching on how we can build our own kingdoms to be bigger.
Jacque: That was good. Say it again.
Brian: Okay. Jesus doesn't offer us personal life coaching on how to expand our own individual kingdoms. That's not what he does. He offers us something better. He offers us something more loving than that. He offers us to move into the flow of God's spirit. That's what he offers. He offers this to us so that God's will and God's way, as Pastor Jeff has been speaking and Pastor Robert has been speaking, will hold sway in our attitudes and all of our relationships, that his will, will be the primary thing that we are following. Whenever we are willing to follow the teachings of Jesus, choosing his way of love over the temptation to be self-serving, we are helping to bring the kingdom of God to the earth.
Jacque: That prayer that you always pray, that you tell me to pray sometimes: I give everyone and everything to you, God, that just says it in a sense.
Brian: It says it all. It says it all. I want us to like pray this prayer and you repeat after me. I'm going to put a little addition in here in a second. But say after me: thy kingdom come. Just say that with me.
Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth through me as it is in heaven. Let's say it again. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth through me as it is in heaven. Lord, hear our prayer, Yes, hear our prayer, Lord, that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, through me. Thy kingdom come, that will be done Lord, on earth through me as it is in heaven. And in so doing, we will see this yeast start to permeate the dough.
We will see our neighborhoods, our community, and dare I believe, for our state and our nation and our world to be affected by your kingdom coming, your will being done right here in our communities whether we are watching by livestream around the country or different countries in the world, or our own community of Corcoran, Minnesota. But that through me, Lord, your kingdom would come. And that my focus isn't going to be so much on where I go when I die, but rather you coming to earth and bringing this dough-changing ingredient of your kingdom coming and permeating because we are going to be part of our culture. We are going to be part of our communities. We are going to be part of our state. We will be part of our nation. And you are in us. As we are part of our communities and part of our neighborhoods and part of all that we do, we are bringing you and your kingdom to the earth, so that thy kingdom can come and thy will be done on earth through me as it is in heaven. This we ask in your name, Lord. Pastor Robert, would you come?
Robert: Well, Pastor, I got about three sermons from that. So stay tuned.
Brian: All right. I'll look forward to them. I'm thankful I can be an inspiration.
Robert: Hallelujah. Our sovereign God, we come to you asking you as we respond to your word, to redirect our gaze instead of us being found looking up to the sky, Lord, point our sight on here and now out and in our hearts. Father, we pray that we can grasp the true meaning of the sending of your son as your kingdom is established in the hearts of men here on this earth. We pray that we truly exemplify royal ambassadorship. Father, we pray that we become intentional and direct in our minds and hearts to truly emulate our savior Jesus Christ. But it's going to take work, Lord, for us to dig up all of the mud and the things that our minds have been clouded with over the years and through tradition and through religious error.
Father, give us anointing and understanding to take accountability now and not to just skip over our life as if this doesn't matter. No, that's pagan thinking. That's things that you have delivered us from. The apostle Paul would often tell us, Lord, the Gentiles, not to go to their former way of thinking, but to take on the mind of Christ. Lord, show us the mind of Christ so that we can walk in the way. Teach us Lord, show us the way, and let our hearts respond in joy, full of life and expectation, for as your word says, that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. So we thank you for that kingdom here and now, and forever in Jesus mighty name. Amen.
Brian: I'm so thankful. When we first started this church 25 years ago, one of the first questions was asked, what are you going to call this church? And God just really dropped the name "Hope" into my heart and the word community because we all need to be a part of a community of some sort. But everybody needs hope for something. I'm so thankful that as I read this verse in Mark 1:15, where again it says at last, the fulfillment of the age has come and it is time for God's kingdom to be experienced in its fullness. Jesus was intending for the very nature of the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of heaven, by the way, they are the same thing. The kingdom of God tells you who the main administrator is. The kingdom of heaven tells you where the main point of administration comes from. There have been books written that's thick on the difference between the two. And there isn't any difference between the two. It's like the Biden administration or the Washington government. One tells us who the president is. The other tells us where the main point of administration comes from. So the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are the same thing.
Jesus said he wants the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven to be experienced in its fullness for us. But that experiences within us and that I am so thankful today that when I encounter a person who has experienced horrific abuse and torment and shame and rejection because of all of the domino effects of all of that stuff in their lives, I'm so thankful that I have something more to give them than saying to them, "Well, you know, when you die, you can go to heaven." especially when they are 30 years old and they still have a major portion of their life left to live.
I'm so thankful today that we actually have a hope to offer people. That hope is that the kingdom of God can come in its fullness and transform us in. No matter how deep the wounds are, his love can penetrate to that depth and bring healing and wholeness and purpose so that you can have a life that would be well lived and that when you die, the only place you would fit would be heaven.
Jacque: Brian, I feel like there is somebody, I don't know if you are here today or you have somehow found us online, but you are thinking, well how do I get this? How do I get to be part of the kingdom of heaven on earth? Very good question.
Brian: As Peter said to Cornelius, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou will be saved. And by the way, if you have enough faith and your house, all your family.
Jacque: So all we have to do is believe and invite him.
Brian: Call upon the name of the Lord. Let's do that right now. Father, we call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and we invite anybody here and all those who are watching by livestream to simply call upon the name of the Lord. Just reach out and call on the name of the Lord. Just say, Jesus, I need you. I need you to come in to the darkest places of my heart. I need you to come into the deepest places of my unbelief. I need you to come into the place of redemption that is needed by me and come into my life. I give my life to you and I will follow you and your will the rest of my life.
If you prayed that and said that and just follow Jesus, he will transform you. He will give you hope. He will give you a purpose. I'm not saying that you are going to go home and you are going to find a hundred thousand dollars in your mailbox. But he will give you the strength of how to navigate the rest of your life. Full of victory. Full of purpose and full of love and full of joy.
Jacque: Joy, full of joy. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Brian: Thank you Lord.
Jacque: And if you prayed with us, would you let us know? Send us an email. Let us know and we will pray for you.
Brian: Contact us on our website.
Jacque: We want to pray for you. Yes.
Brian: Contact us on our website too. Let's stand together, shall we? Thank you again for being here today. Thank you for the worship team. Laurie, it was great to have you singing. Thank you. It's always good to have you here. Leanne, always wonderful to have you with us, dear friend. Thank you all who are watching by livestream. So thankful that you are part of our faith community as well. Some exciting things to share with you in the next few weeks. Things are happening with our city and God's favor is upon us and we are partnering with the city on a number of things. We'll share that information at the appropriate time. But things are going really well. Keep praying that everything keeps moving forward. Let's raise your hands together.
Now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine up on you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. May God's will be done. May His kingdom come to the earth through you. This we pray in the name of the Father's Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you.
Pastor Robert and TaQuaris will be serving communion this morning over here to my right, your left. Anybody wants to have prayer at the altar, we will have people praying for you at the altar as well. God bless you. Thank you so much again for all of your love and your sacrifices and all the kindness expressed to us this month. God bless you.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 10-30-22. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.