We find new life by repentance and the filling of the Spirit. Denial of self and our old ways bring new hearts of trust. We come to learn of life beyond history into the poetic. We learn to sing as Deborah sang of God’s victory. (2 Corinthians 5:17; Matthew 16:24-25; Judges 4-5)

Speaker: Thomas Schaller, Stan Collins
Date: 2026-09-30
Time: Wed 7:30 pm
Sermon #13214

P. Schaller –

Wow. High school. High schoolers, huh? Emily graduated, but wow! On the guitar. Wow. Awesome. P. Stan is up here with us this week. It’s really great to have him. Wow. Special, special blessing to us and next week – there’s this week, then next week is our leadership retreat and we’re looking forward to that and keep that in mind and in prayer. 

Stan, many of you know him. He’s a missionary many years, decades actually, in Latin America. Does great work. God, the Holy Spirit, really uses him and he teaches and leaders that are raised up. Mature. As you do, you also. Turn to your neighbor and say, You are maturing as you are sitting here tonight. You are maturing in Christ. You are growing in him, in faith and in love and in truth. Wow. 

So, we have seen that in Latin America and praise God for it. Have that in your mind that you know as you live in faith, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit leads you in experience, leads you in victory, in encouragement, and in knowledge of God. We are joined unto the Lord. We are one spirit and we are joined unto the Lord. 

No foolishness. No foolishness. Kind of go like that with your hands and just say like no – turn to your neighbor. No foolishness. No foolishness. Grace, grace be unto that mountain. Encouragement and edification. So, welcome P. Stan. We love you, pastor.

*****

Stan –

Oh, my. Hey! You know what I was thinking? This is going to be the offering in just a couple minutes. My wife and I, we used to, we used to be greeters here, like, let’s see, 1990, 1991, 1992. We were greeters back there and, you know, you guys, some of you guys, how many of you were around back then? 

Okay. So, I’m not going to single anybody out, but we learned that like some people always come in during the first song. Some people always come in during the second songs. You know, I’m telling you, like that experience helped us a lot with missions cuz we decided to always have our offering not first. And I can see that you’re realizing why! Yeah. Yeah. We never did the offering first.

In the book of Job, the last time that Job speaks, right? His last speech starts in chapter 26. It’s a long one. He begins his final words and he says how and he’s not being, he’s being sarcastic, right? He says, How you have helped him who has no power. And I want to say the opposite for you. 

I would say, I would say the same sentence but I wouldn’t say it sarcastically. But I would say to you guys, How you have helped him, me. Like when I had no power. But Job is saying these guys, you’re not helping me. 

How you have saved the arm that has no strength. But I would say it the other way to you, right? Because you, we listen, right? We listen. We come to have the Word build us up and correct us. And then how you have counselled him who has no wisdom.

Who has been that guy without any wisdom? Like all of us, right? We have been that guy without wisdom. But and these guys didn’t help him. But there are people who do help him who has no wisdom and plentifully declared sound knowledge. 

But I don’t want you to read these words right now with that sarcasm. But I want you to hear it from me saying to you, I’m very grateful by the way. I’m very grateful. Yeah. 

Karen and I, we think of you. We honor you. We honor you every time when we pray, every time, every word that we say about you is with honor. I think, I hope, yeah, Job is basically saying like, Where’s your mercy, right? Where’s the finished work? 

And then, but then Elihu comes in and they were, everybody wanted to talk about his sin or the idea of his sin. But Elihu wants to talk about righteousness. And that’s why there’s, why I want to thank you. You listen to it, you hear it, and then it comes out of you. Words of righteousness, words to build the person up. 

It starts in chapter 32, but there’s a verse here in chapter 33. It’s vs. 32. He says, “I desire to justify you.” And I feel that way like when, when I talk with you. When I come up here and I’m with you. Some of you, all of you, different times, some of you I Know better than others obviously. And it’s like that with all of us. 

But that we would all – look what it says. This is the verse when I think about Job 33:32. Ephesians 4:15 says speaking the truth in love, right? That’s the Body, right? Speaking. Speaking. What’s the truth? The truth is like you’re fine. I said to, I did a Bible college class here on Monday night in the Gospel’s class, I think. 

And, you know, and we had a little exercise with the students in there and I said like find some places in the Gospels where Jesus is saying something that is really building up and like causing the disciples to have a lot of peace, right? There’s many statements like that. 

Jonathan Mikkonen said like from John 14 where Jesus said I go, I go to heaven and I’m going to prepare a place for you. How that they had never heard that before. They had never heard that before. And then on that evening that they heard that and they were like, wow! That’s good. He’s going to prepare a place for me. 

But then there’s also places in the Gospels where Jesus says things that are hard, right? Like if you don’t, if you don’t take up your, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me, then you cannot be my disciple, right? There are hard things. 

But how could we ever listen to the hard things if we didn’t hear a lot of the things that tell us that we’re okay, right? Not okay in the flesh. Not okay in the flesh, but that we’re, that we’re, we’re really covered. We’re good. We’re accepted. Don’t you need that? 

Like, and then if you hear that a lot and you heart that a lot, a lot, a lot, and you build yourself up in your most holy faith, right? Say that to your neighbor. Build yourself up in your most holy faith. Go ahead. Yeah. Build yourself up. Yeah. Yeah. Build yourself up. 

If we do that and other people help us instead of, instead of the three friends who actually don’t, there’s no finished work, no mercy. Eliphaz even told him, you lifted up the hands of those who were helpless but that’s not what I’m going to do. That’s terrible, right? But that’s not you. Halleluiah! That’s not you. 

Just what, what are we, what are we actually when we do this and we come and we say amen to the Word of God. This is, this is what, this is the most important thing that we can do is receive the Word and it builds us up and then it gives us a message and instead of just having words or information, then we actually have a ministry. 

We have a ministry when we have grace, when we talk to people about and we and we say you’re going to be okay. Like you’re going to be fine. Yes, we said today in the lunch rap from Deuteronomy 30, there’s seven times in there – because Deuteronomy 30 it says like choose life. Choose life. Obey. Obey. Seven times. But seven times it says “today.” Seven times it just says “today.”

It’s always – obedience is never for yesterday or tomorrow. It’s always just for today. And you say, But I’ve been, I’ve been, I obeyed. I obeyed last week. Yeah, but you, but obey today. This is great. Awesome. But obey today. I’ll do the will of God today. 

And then, but you, someone says like, Yeah, I’ve been, I haven’t been choosing life for the last six months or six years.  Well, you can’t go back and change that, but you can choose life today, right? So, that’s what we’re doing here. We’re just choosing life. That really, I think that’s what it is. We’re just choosing life again today. 

You know, you chose to be here. Come out. Honor God. Hear the Word of God. Agree with the Word of God. You’re choosing life. This is, this book. This is, this is life. This give us – the devil has no wisdom, right? The devil is foolish, but God is wise. Yay, God! God is wise. He has wisdom. If we would just listen, then we will be wise, too. Wouldn’t that be amazing? 

Just that, actually you, you and I, that we have something to say like and we have the heart of Jesus Christ. For the offering, I want to say there’s a guy in the jungle of Peru. His name is Likhi. Likhi. Not Leaky. Not that kind of Leaky, but Likhi. L-I-K-H-I. And it’s a Bible name. Actually, it’s in Chronicles. Yeah. 

So, how many of you named your son Likhi? Yeah, but probably not, right? But he’s a pastor. We ordained him this past LAMCON and he has a ministry in the jungles of Peru and he goes into, even into protected areas. He goes by like a – what do they call that kind of plane? A pontoon, pontoon plane. He lands on the little rivers and he goes down and he goes in. I have pictures. I can show you pictures. It’s amazing. 

You know, this church supports missions. What can I say like for the offering? This church supports missions. There’s, I mean, there’s people in my Bible college, in my Bible college who I don’t even know how they, how – I don’t know how do they get like, there’s no road. There’s just a little river and the plane lands on the river and the people come running out and Likhi, P. 

Likhi goes in and teaches them and I don’t know if they have internet there. Maybe. But they’re in Bible college taking classes somehow. And they’re learning and then they – who knows where they’re going to go, right? (Prayer). 

*****

Schaller – Okay. I know it is Wednesday night and when I ask people to stand on Wednesday night, they groan, roll, roll a little bit and then would you stand with me tonight? Would you stand up and show love to your neighbor and give him a high five and say, God is alive. Thank you, Jesus. Yes. Okay. There we go. Hey, pastor! Great. Good to see you. All right.

So, now, let’s do a couple praises to God. Just radical halleluiah! Praise you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. A thousand times. Wow. Good. Yeah. Wow. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Praise God. Amen. Amen. All right. You may be seated. Thank you. 

Thanks. P. Stan. Beautiful message. I’d like you to look at Matthew 16:24 and the message is very simple and it is what is our starting point as believers who are growing in our relationship with God and in our ministry on the street. And as pastor said, in an airplane landing on a river in Peru. In a family, a dad struggling with his family. Or marriage or the wife. And what is our starting point in life? Like how do we think and how do we live? 

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and I want to process this in my heart. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation, a new creature, and old things are passed away.   What old things? 

Old things are passed away. Behold, all – one of the old things is my old way of thinking. My old way of processing life. I have, I have found a new life. I found it by faith, repentance, obedience, submission to God and the Spirit filling me. The Spirit filling you is actually the very nature of God in you. And the Holy Spirit is the person of God that dwells in you. 

So, for you to live in your life of faith is actually putting on the new man. We could say in Matthew 16:24, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself. What is he denying? The old way of thinking. And there is only like one thing I want to say about my old way of thinking. My old way of thinking. This is me and this is my thinking. 

And my old way of thinking was starting with myself. I was #1. That’s where you start. In a way, it’s understandable because I have an – I exist. And the most immediate thing I have in my consciousness is me. That’s the first thing I have. That’s my starting point.

But actually, we learn in the Scripture there’s something else now. And it isn’t me. I’m not starting with me. I am starting as Jesus said, I am denying myself. Vs. 24. I am denying myself the right to start with myself. I’m denying myself. I am starting by faith in with another context. 

Our thinking is actually trusting in God. That’s our starting point. Trusting in God with all my heart. What kind of heart? Our new heart. By our new heart, we are trusting in God with all our heart and leaning not on our own understanding. In all our ways, we are acknowledging him. 

And that’s a new life, new way, new mind, God’s mind, the mind of Christ, starting with the Father. The Father’s mind, the Father’s will, the Father’s way, the Father’s guidance. Jesus, we interview Jesus. He would say I always do what my Father is doing. I please my Father. He’s #1. Not me. I am submitted to him. I’m living in humility before my Father. I have found, I know my Father. Actually, Psalm 22, when I was in my mother’s womb. That’s an argument for pro-life in the womb. Jesus was in fellowship with the Father. Okay. 

Now, vs. 24-25. So, Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah saw the Lord. In the year that King Isaiah died, I saw the Lord lifted up and his train filled the temple. I saw God and the glory of God. In a difficult time. King Hezekiah was a godly king. And in the year that he died, I had an emptiness in my heart. I had a hole in my heart. Isaiah could say, Hezekiah and I were spiritual companions. 

We had purpose. And in the year that he died, I looked up and I saw the Lord high and lifted up. This is how we process our life now. By faith in God. We have lost our life and we have gained his life. In all of our challenges, in our trials, we are looking for God’s guidance. 

I read something interesting that in liberal churches in America where they don’t preach the Gospel, they might invite charismatic people to come into the church and lead a charismatic prayer meeting. They might have a charismatic – something new comes into the liberal church and the charismatics say that you need to know God and the Holy Spirit of God and the way you do is that you believe in Jesus Christ. You repent of your sin and you humble yourself under the hand of God. 

And guess what happens in the liberal church? People are born again and they experience a filling of the Spirit and they get very excited about it and then they get excited about the Bible. Does any of that sound familiar? 

Did that happen to us? That we found God to be real when we surrendered to him and started to believe him and deny ourselves. We get wrapped up in God, for the Holy Spirit gives us the new birth and then he fills us and we advance in our faith and of course some of them ask questions to the pastor and the denomination. And maybe some of them leave or I don’t know exactly. That’s not, it was not the point of the article but what or the commentary but it is a reality.

You know, whether you are an unbeliever or a Muslim or a Jew or whatever it is, if you will come to Christ and put your faith in him and repent of your sin and begin to trust him and obey him, then the Holy Spirit manifestation will happen in your heart and you’ll say amen to God.

Then you start to get happy. You’re happy with joy with God and something more than history. This is another good point. More than historical, more than just facts. But now a spiritual poetry happens in your heart. A spiritual poetry we can call it. 

I read that also recently from the book of Judges. Here’s the part that I want to share with you. Judges. We’re teaching this on Wednesday morning. Wednesday mornings. And this morning was on Deborah. Judges chapter 4 and also we didn’t get there but chapter 5. But I’m going to share it with you tonight for a few minutes. 

Deborah. Deborah is the prophetess. She knows from God. God is with Deborah. And she knows what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. She had, she’s a gifted woman. There are three prophetesses in the Old Testament. Miriam and Huldah in Jeremiah’s time and then Deborah. 

And in the northern part of Israel, there is oppression by a ruthless king called Jabin and he has a powerful general who also rapes women. Oppresses the people. Has sex slaves, women that are sex slaves. He’s an oppressor of the Jewish people in the north for 20 years. Jabin is oppressing the people and he has this powerful general, Sisera, with 900 iron chariots. They can slice an army into pieces. It’s like high technology for the day. 

And Deborah says it’s over and she’s calling for Barak. And Barak is a military guy. And she says, We can do it. And I’m calling, I’m calling, I’m asking you to raise an army of 10,000 Jews from the two tribes to the north, Zebulun and Naphtali, and come down here and we will have victory. And she had confidence. 

And Barak said, he said, I will go if you go, but if you don’t go, I’m not going to go. But you go, I’m going to go. Sometimes us men need a woman like that in our life. Sometimes in our church, we need a woman like that, that is gifted like that in our church life. Sometimes in your friendships, you need a woman like that that has some understanding and insight, knows what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. And she was right on. Love it. Love it. It’s beautiful. 

Now, in the story in chapter 4, we have a history of what happened. Chapter 5, and this is my point, chapter 5 has an understanding of the history in a poetic form. 

So, in chapter 5 and we’ll go over this next Wednesday morning and our takeaway from this is if you go in your life and have a history of what happened in your life, it might sound a little bit flat. But if you put God in the picture and you recognize that God’s hand was with you because God is mentioned in the story I think three times. But in chapter 5, he is all over the place in the story. But it’s the same story but it’s told by the Holy Spirit saying what really happened in the battle. 

And by the way, the man, the man that was oppressing women and using women is murdered by a woman, Jael. And also she was a side part to Deborah. Two women that brought down the guy’s downfall. And I rejoice in it. We rejoice in it with the spiritual poetry of praise to God because there’s more to just the plain history. There is the reality of the person of God. 

And that’s what I love about P. Scibelli’s story. You can go through his life story and have a history but be careful because there is a lot more to the history than what you realize. It’s the hand of God. The hand of God is in your life. God is answering your prayer. God is putting your enemies under your feet. You are, you are living this lifetime with a lot going on that we don’t always see. 

And when we talk about our life, it’s kind of like chapter 4. But if God was to talk about your life, it would be like chapter 5. Does that make sense to you? In other words, somebody could say, P. Scibelli and his family moved to Ghana and they lived there for some years and so on. 

And then if God wrote it, he would say, And I called him and I put my hand on Linda and the children and they went with joy and they had faith and they met somebody on the street. And the hand of God moved in their heart when they went to bed that night, and the Holy Spirit manifested himself to that person’s heart and they’ve been in the ministry for 35 y ears as a result of the grace of God. 

Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. You see what I mean? You could take your life. I live in Rosedale. I don’t but someone could say, I got up in the morning. I drove my car. I went to work. And I stopped at Target on the way home, and I picked up some milk and bread and I got home and I ate something. I went to bed. That’s like Judges 4. Not exactly. That’s a very mild version of Judges 4. 

But what I’m trying to say, you can say, I live in Rosedale and it’s a miracle of God that I am alive. I live in Rosedale and I have a house. I live – I can’t believe the goodness of God in my life. The refrigerator is pretty full. My wife and I have prayer at night and angels come and God is talking to my heart about our victory and all of our blessings. 

And then I went to work and on my way to work, there was an angel on the hood of my car. I didn’t see it, but I can say it cuz this is like a poetical version of something very flat. And it’s a life of faith. And my starting point is not me and my mind. It’s rather I’ve lost my life. Now, I’m mixing faith with what I hear and I’m believing these things that are from God. 

That our dear pastor, friend, co-laborer, servant, general in the army of God is with God tonight. And somebody shared with me that they could I imagine him talking with Dr. Stevens. And it touches my heart to think about it. That’s Judges 5 in principle that we actually believe in heaven. We actually believe that we fly away in Luke 16 and Psalm 90 and vs. 10. 

We actually believe that these are words from the mouth of God. We actually believe that a meeting like this has a meaning. It’s recorded in heaven in Malachi 3:16. We actually I believe that we have victory over sin and bad habits. 

Let’s wait there for a minute. Bad habits. Turn to your neighbor and get, just give me an example of one bad – I don’t want to hear any confession. No confessions. Give me an example of one bad habit. 

You know what they say now, the counselors in America? You know what they say? There’s a new addiction in America. Increased addiction. Big problem in America. It’s gambling. Gambling. NFL. I guess some of you guys don’t want – put your head down. Confess your sin right now. NFL and whatever other. I don’t know. 

But I’m telling you, there are bad things that happen in everybody’s life. Everybody has something and it’s oppressive and it’s to put us down. It’s to shut us up. It’s to quiet, take away our boldness, our courage, our faith. We should have contempt for the gods. This is a good word. It’s Psalm 138:1. Contempt for the gods. Small g. 

Who are the gods? They’re nobody. Well, they’re nothing. The gods. There are many gods in our culture. Many gods in our hearts. Many gods. They all start – I start my life with myself. That’s where my gods come from. I start living with myself. I start with myself. I talk about myself day and night. I think about myself day and night. I worship myself. I relate to myself. I complain to myself. And I complain to other people about myself. It’s all about, it’s all about me. 

But this is our freedom. We have found God, the only true, wise God. And we get occupied with him. And we are worshippers of him. I’ve got a little piece, I think. I hope I got it copied here. It’s about a Spurgeon sermon. I think I left it. Is it there? Thank you. I’m trying to – this is Spurgeon.

“I used to know years ago a poor, old laboring man. He was a Methodist of the good old-fashioned school. I never met him or spoke with him without finding that wherever he was, he was always singing. He was up in the morning at half past 5 to get out to his farm work and he sang while he was dressing.”

“He sang as he pulled on his corduroys. He sang as he put on his smock. He sang as he walked downstairs. He sang as he tramped off down the street. And he sang all day as he was at his work. He did not keep on singing while I was preaching, but he seemed almost as if he wanted to. Praise the Lord! Halleluiah!”

By the way, the reason this story touched my heart is because I knew a guy like this up in Maine years ago. And he would pick me up to take me to church as a young man. And he sang all the way to the church and all the way back. He was a singer of the old hymns. 

“He was one of the holiest men I ever knew, and I used to account very much for his simple gentleness, integrity, and happiness by the habit he had acquired of constantly singing the praises of God. He worked with some men who were in the habit of swearing, but he kept on singing.”

“After a time, they began to think it was not the right thing to swear. He went among men who were drunk but he never stopped singing. And somehow even among such men, there was a kind of respect for him. I always wish he would have been a Baptist. That would have just been the finishing touch to make him perfect, and then we would have lost him because all perfect people got to heaven at once.” 

Okay. All right. So, anyway, that’s my message tonight.  I want to just say Psalm 1. It shows us, vs. 1-2. What does it mean? His starting point is God. The Word of God is more important than my stuff. The Word of God is more important than my flesh. The Word of God is more important than my opinion. The Word of God is more important than my failure. The Word of God is more important than my own life. 

And if I can meditate on it day and night, I’ll be a different person. I will. I’ll be a different person. I will have praise to God and relate to God. And the presence of God will saturate your life. And people will say, What’s up with you? And you just Say, I don’t know. I’m just, I’m just thankful to God all day long, all the time. 

I have God’s Word and God’s heart and God’s mind and God’s Spirit as my counselor and as much as I can. I think a lot of people way – I got a little phrase. I got to work with P. Steve. You can help me with, what is it? The face dog, Facebook lap dog. I don’t know what that means exactly. Facebook lap dog. 

I can’t believe how people would be on a social media platform reading all that stuff, talking all that foolishness. And when they have an opportunity to meditate on this day and night. And they are, they are somebody’s lap dog. They’re the devil’s lap dog. They sit on the devil’s lap. 

Where are they going to go? They will sow and reap what they sow. They don’t have the starting point. They don’t have a cross. They haven’t denied themselves. They haven’t found the life of the Spirit. They’re not growing in anything except foolishness. 

And it will trap them. It’ll be snares in their eyes. It’ll be an emptiness in their heart, a pit in their soul. It will not bless them. But I’m telling you tonight, and many of you know it. I mean, you do know this for sure. 

Listen. Take a piece of your life like this one. Just take a piece of your life, any part of it, and say, Chapter 4, this is the history. And then go with God and say, This is what really happened. What really happened. And I praise him for that. 

You know, our first daughter born to us, Bethany, the umbilical cord was in the baby in the birth canal wrapped around her neck a couple times. And I remember being in the waiting room and they came out. This was in Finland. And the doctor came out and said, You’re going to have your baby in a few minutes, but we have to do a caesarian section surgery on my wife. 

So, what do, how do I think about that? I am sorry for anybody who has some disability or any – of course. Of course. But I also have to say, Why did that happen? Why was she healthy? Why did that happen? I have poetry for that in my heart. I have praise to God for that. 

And you have those things in your life. And don’t forget it and have it in your heart and have a very vibrant testimony. And even in your pain, in your trouble, like Paul in prison. He would say. This is for the furtherance of the Gospel. And people in Caesar’s household are hearing me and the prisoners are sitting with me and we’re having a good fellowship for many of them have come to Christ. And we’re having fellowship with people.

Do you see what we’re saying? And you learn this in the church. You learn it with your friends. You learn it and stay away from the negative stuff and the, not negative. What’s the word? What am I saying? Do you gossip? Do you like gossip? Stay away. Why do you need that? And any other things that discredit or tear down people. 

I’m sorry. I can’t listen to that and walk away. I’m sorry. I’m not interesting in that and go away. Hang up the phone. You don’t have anything to – don’t talk foolishness and relate to God. Have God first and let God lead you in the Spirit and learn about love and walk with integrity and have some depth in your life. And then you’re drawn to people that have the depths. 

And then you are, have something to give to people that need your love and your friendship and your ministry and your words and your wisdom and your encouragement. Amen. Okay. That’s it. Amen. Would you pray? Pray with me, please. (Prayer)

*****

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