Peace Seymour Weekly Messages

We all carry difficulties of many kinds. All of us have pains that we simply have to learn to deal with. We have misfortunes, sufferings, and all kinds of problems in this world. Even when we have roses in our lives, we always remember our thorns. As good as life is, there are bad things that happen to us. When all we see is our problems in front of us, we can't ever foresee the end of those problems, and that is when God removes those problems from our lives! In unforeseeable ways, God acts to reverse our misfortune, to lift up the lowly, and to bless those that you and I least expect to be blessed! In the face of this unexpected reversal that God gives us in Jesus, we can only laugh with the joy of the good gifts God has given us!

The Gospel can't be preached, unless we acknowledge what the Gospel is an answer to. The problem we have in this world, is that we suffer. We live tragic lives. We have problems that we can't fix. In order to truly understand the Gospel, we have to truly suffer. We have to see our troubles, our mistakes, our sins for what they really are. To hear the Gospel, we must be brought to the end of ourselves. Before the good news of the Gospel, we must hear the news that we are in need of the Gospel. We are in need of a savior. Jesus suffers with us. Jesus suffers for us. In his suffering, Jesus reveals who he truly is. He is the suffering servant of the Lord and the one who does not leave us in the bad news of our sin, but joins us in it. He takes on the fullness of humanity, that humanity may be restored. In the ugly silence of the cross, we see that we truly need a savior. That's just who Jesus is.

Jesus died. His death signifies the rejection of God. The turning away from God's good intentions and desires for us to be our own gods. As a result our flesh and our lives are temporary. We have pain, we experience death. We see the pain in the lives of those before us, like Job, and in our own life. Jesus lives! God has raised Jesus from the dead, that even as we die, we would rise with him! More than that, our pain will be taken away! Even in the knowledge of the resurrection our pain is numbed and feel insignificant compared to the joy of Easter Sunday and the resurrection! We trust, that just as Job said, we will see our redeemer alive! When the pain and sin of this world has it's way with us and we die, we will be with Jesus, and as the world comes to an end, we will rise with Jesus on the last day!

Death is a part of life and a part of this world; though this is not how it should be. God never wanted us or anyone to die. He wanted us to live and be with him for all time. But our sin ruined that reality God made for us. We rejected and rebelled against God in our sin. Jesus himself was rejected, and we as humanity killed him. God uses Jesus' death, in order to save us. Jesus joins us in death. This is a tragedy, and the ultimate rebellion against God, to reject him in flesh and blood, to reject Jesus the Son, and to kill him, as if he was the criminal and the rebel. Yet, God uses Jesus' death, to kill death forever. Jesus dies and because he died, we do not fear death either.

There is much to be afraid of and fear in this world. We fear the storms and waves of this world. We know that while we have trust in Jesus, there is no promise that we will not suffer in this world. There is pain, suffering, and things that can happen to us that we fear. We often rely on ourselves to save us, but our own bravery or ability is not what saves us. In fact it is not enough to save us from the storms and waves of life. Jesus alone saves us. He saves us from sin, death, the devil, and all that we fear in this world. Just as Jesus was with the disciples and watching out for them, we know he is always with us, even if our worst fears come to fruition. We do not have to fear, because Jesus has saved us from this world, he is with us, and he brings us comfort and peace when we fear, and takes our hand to save us from this world.

We are guilty of sin. We feel the burden of our wrongdoing and choices in life. We have to bear the consequences of our actions that include our actions that have hurt us, hurt others, and the punishment for those actions. We feel not only guilt, but also shame over who we are and what we have done. We feel unlovable, ashamed, and we know we are guilty. Though we are guilty, Jesus removes our guilt. He forgives and removes our sin. He takes away our shame by embracing us in our shame in his humiliation in the world and on the cross. He loves us even though we are unlovable, and his love makes us lovable. He creates what is lovely in us, and he frees us from our past that we may go and sin no more, but rejoice in what he has done for us, by taking our shame and guilt away from us.

There are many hurts and sicknesses we deal with in this world. There is acute, surprising, unforeseen hurts and injuries that we encounter. There are also chronic diseases, nagging hurts that won't go away, and life changing events we don't know how to come back from. Life is difficult, it's rough on us, the world is broken and people and things can hurt us. Jesus heals all our hurts. Jesus came not only to save us, but to heal all the hurts and damage that this world inflicts on us. Just as he healed both the young girl who had died, and the old woman who suffered for many years, he heals us from our hurts, both now, miraculously and through those he has called to heal on earth, and ultimately when he comes to remove all our pain and hurts.

It's easy to become lost in this world. Whether we intentionally stray from God, seeking to run from him, or we find ourselves slowly drifting and tempted from him, we all can feel lost. When the things we hope give us purpose and freedom are taken from us, that is when we are lost. We seek other things to rescue us, strengthen us, give us freedom, give us what we desire, but these all fall flat at some point. Jesus was sent to seek and save the lost. He finds and saves the man suffering from demon possession in Gentile country. He finds and saves you by sending his Holy Spirit to you, and saving you from your sin and giving you true salvation and freedom in him. Not only that, but just as he did for the man, he gives you purpose, by sending you out that by his Holy Spirit, he may use you to seek and save the lost with his Gospel promises.

In our world, there is much brokenness. Much is damaged, destroyed, hurt, and killed. Things that can go wrong, often do go wrong. We have worries, fears, and worst case scenarios that often become realized. When they do, we wonder, what next? What are we to do? How do we recover? What's our next step? What now? We do not need to fear what will come next. We know that our God has come, that Jesus has come, to restore all that is broken. To fix what is wrong. To mend all that has been destroyed by sin, death, and the devil. We have hope that what is broken will be restored, just as the widow's son was brought back to life, and the widow back into a hopeful future. We know that Jesus has come, to bring us a hope for our future in him, that all things will be restored.

We can often feel as though we are alone. We are broken people, unlovable, outside the love and affections of others, our friends, family, and even God's love. We despair that we are on our own, attempting to make it through life without the love, support, and help of others. Yet in the church, in God's family, we are never alone. Rather we are invited to the table, that is, to God's table. We are adopted and made a member of God's family. While we were once enemies of God, afraid and hiding from him, we are forgiven, embraced, made at peace with God, and invited to a spot forever at his table, in his kingdom forever. In Mephibosheth's story, we see ourselves, and the love of the King, our heavenly father.