Mill City 1/3/21 Mill City 1/3/21

Hindsight 2020

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

Good morning Happy New Year yeah my name is Spencer and I'm one of the pastors here uh a year ago right around this time we got to come together as one Church family to worship for the first time so that's something to celebrate it's been a year and uh and last year we launched a sermon called 2020 Vision cuz we were really excited uh we were excited about uh about being a a a family together as a Church family on Mission here in Casey we talked about being missional in this neighborhood and the City of Casey getting to know businesses like we we were excited about all the things that were in front of us.

We were excited about some of the renovations we're going to be able to do to the building and at one point last last year we thought I think we could wrap this thing up by Fall get Renovations done by Fall launch into this school year and uh it's going to be great so I don't know if you're familiar with the with the word 2020 but uh it's not what it used to be that is a concept has changed completely we had our.

First Global pandemic in a hundred years and that was fun uh we uh getting to know neighbors and and knocking on doors and introducing ourselves at one point last year would have been considered violence and uh and then we learned last year that not talking to people was violence that silence is violence the whole the whole year was just confusing in a lot of ways so uh if we could go back a year ago we'd do a little bit differently so the title of this sermon uh before we launch into Matthew next week is hindsight 2020.

If we could go back a year ago and preach a sermon it would be this sermon so here's what we're going to tackle this morning we want as a Church family to take a big step forward in 20121 in maturing on our faith in growing in godliness now I know then I say that that we want to grow in godliness this year that that doesn't seem all that exciting to some that maybe that that uh the some of the New Year's resolutions that you made this year uh weren't some kind of version of of that just this is not a popular thing that you want to grow in godliness to start out the new year.

So I I'm assuming some of us have different things we want to grow in some of it might be related to our faith but growing in godliness is not a concept that's really out in front of us we have goals like wanting to to to maybe lose weight lose some of the covid weight that we got get healthier maybe get more on track with our finances and not have to hope that the next stimulus bill is what rides us through there are lots of good things that we might strive.

For but the reality is is a lot of those things that we might strive for in a new year are temporary they are not Eternal and what I want us to do is to take a step back this morning and see an investment in our eternity is worth it let me ask you how many of us feel stagnant in our faith how many of us feel like we're just kind of going through the motions a little bit feel like we're in a little bit of a low that it's just kind of Cloudy right.

Now and it's just hard for us even imagine taking a big step forward in our faith my hope for us this morning is that we able to take a step back look at all of this and see that growing in godliness is worth our Pursuit that that maturing in Christ is worth it so we're going to look at 1 Timothy 4: 6-10 today and God willing as we walk through this passage it will encourage us to take a step forward in following.

Jesus and becoming more like him so as we walk through this we're we're going to see what godliness is we're going to see why we should want it and how we get there so let me pray for us this morning and then we'll jump in uh father we thank you that we get to start new this year God I pray that you would help us see that godliness is worth our Pursuit that you are worth our Pursuit and that out of this we would respond we ask this in.

Jesus name amen all right so we are jumping into a new testament letter so just me let me give some some quick background so first Timothy was a letter that Paul the Apostle Paul the missionary Paul wrote to Timothy a younger Pastor that he has invested in for many years at this point he has relationship with him he cares about him and the letter is packed with at the very beginning there's some some very strong warnings against false teachings that was prevalent throughout the New Testament Church it's also prevalent.

Today uh there he he reminds them of the Gospel that he was called into he gives them some some uh some uh instructions on how to order the Church how to structure the Church with overseers elders and with with deacons he's walked through all of this and then he shifts gears a little bit in chapter 4 beginning in verse 6 he says if you put these things before the brothers meaning the things he's just talked about already in this letter if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ.

Jesus being trained in the words of the faith and of good doctrine that you have followed have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths rather train yourself for godliness for while bodily training is of some value godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance for to this end we Toil and strive because we have our hope set on the Living.

God who is the savior of all people especially of those who believe all right so we're going to walk through this in three parts uh what why and how so the what big reveal is godliness that's what we're going to be talking about this morning that's what Paul is getting out here is godliness verse 7 he says have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths rather train yourself for godliness now be honest how many of us when we heard the sermon was going to be on godliness and it's a new year has some kind of version in your in your mind that said this is a this is going to be something on how to.

Be a better Christian how how to be a better person how to improve ourselves listen that is partly because we misunderstand what godliness is in the first place we don't have a full concept for what actually godliness is if you go back at chapter the end of chapter three Paul starts to speak about godliness he says in verse 16 great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness all right so and there's a coal in there so he's getting ready to unpack what godliness is he's about to poetically explain here's the mystery of godliness he says he was manifested in the flesh Vindicated by the spirit seen by Angels proclaimed among the Nations believed on.

In the world taken up in glory and if you think man that's what godliness is that's that's not super clear that's partly because we we misunderstand what godliness is because our mind quickly goes to okay godliness is being a better person being a better Christian the ways I need to improve instead of the person we are supposed to behold godliness is beholding Christ that whole mystery of godliness is all about Christ says he was manifested in the flesh that's his life and his death he was Vindicated by the spirit that's the Spirit who raised him to in the resurrection he was seen by Angels that's his exaltation before the Angels he's proclaimed among the Nations.

That's go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations heralded amongst all peoples believed on in the world the gift of faith that Jesus is to the world taken up in glory the eternal glory of Christ it's all about Christ godliness is a matter of focus and fixation focus and fixation on Christ I put it very plainly godliness is christlikeness it is not the Improvement of self by looking within it is a matter of focus and fixation you Behold Him in order that you might become like him that is what he is getting at here you.

See the opposite of of waywardness which is straying from Jesus the opposite of waywardness is godward it's a godward focus I love what ji Packer says in his book knowing God ji Packer was a theologian he was a gift of the Church for for decades he passed away last year but I love what he says in defining godliness in his book knowing God he says godliness is responding to God's Revelation in trust and obedience faith and worship prayer and praise submission and service life must be seen and lived in light of God's word and what happens.

When we hear that is that our mind quickly jumps to okay it's it's it's about trust and obedience it's about faith and worship it's about prayer and praise these are the things that I need to grow in but we miss we miss it because that's not how he starts it he says it's responding to God's Revelation it's first responding to who God is focusing on him fixating on Christ and then out of that the Overflow is Faith obedience trust uh prayer and praise these things that display the fruit of godliness our approach is off it's a little bit like uh a little bit like falling in love.

So maybe maybe you're single and you you want to meet the right guy or the right girl in this year and you say I want to fall in love and let's say you later this year you're at the kitchen table and you're riding uh these well-crafted love letters and they're just they're real poetic and you're thinking about all the intentional language and you've mapped out here here all the date nights that I'm going to do all the romantic gestures you got it all laid out you've got it all planned out.

And then all of a sudden your roommate walks in and says what you doing over there it's like I've fallen in love I mean I've got look at this I've got look at these letters look at everything I got planned out and your roommate says that's awesome who's the girl that's not important I I've listen on the letters I've saved a little space for a name I'll write that in roomate would like weird it's not it's not how that works because none of that makes sense.

If you haven't actually met the girl yet have you even had your heart stolen by the guy if you can't sleep at not because you're thinking about that significant others love letters romantic gestures all the works doesn't make sense all of that flows out of a relationship with the one you love godliness flows out of relationship with God of beholding who he is and out of that the Overflow is some of the fruitfulness that comes with godliness so that's what godliness is we have to we have to have that.

So firmly in our head in order to understand what comes next and we're going to look at uh why and tackling why we should pursue godliness the why is he says value in every way there is value in every way he says have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths rather train yourself for godliness for while bily training is of some value godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Okay so there's two different ways that he shows value the present life and also the life to come so I'm I'm going to tackle those in reverse order let's look at the value in the life to come all right so uh and Jr Packer's knowing God he he walks through this he says that uh that that godliness is a little bit like a dress for rehearsal for eternity he says it's a dress rehearsal for the eternal life to come and the point that he starts to explain that he's getting at is that love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and kindness some of the fruitfulness that comes as a result of godliness he.

Says those are Eternal things those are Eternal characteristics they that reflect the Eternal character of God when you deal in those you're dealing in Eternal things and that's preparing you for an eternity where these things will be perfectly on display before you the the the rest of it fades away right the the rest of the things in life that your riches the the weird Vendetta you have against your neighbor or or your coworker the relational weirdness you have with an old friend that all fades has no place in the Eternal kingdom of.

God but but love and joy and peace and patience some of this fruit that comes out of godliness that's Eternal so his point is pursue that go at get after that those qualities last they're Eternal and they prepare you for in a mysterious way a future Glory where all of this is is is perfectly displayed in Christ and through you in the new Resurrection it's mysterious it's hard to wrap our minds around but this prepares us for the life that is to come it also It prepares us here.

Now and the present life which is a little more uh a little easier for us to to grasp it has value in the present life and this is get this gets confusing because a lot of times when we when we think about the value in the present life our mind jumps to the effort it jumps to that being the end the end goal is doing these things and doing these things better but that's not the end goal in verse 10 he says.

For to this end we Toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the Living God who is the savior all people especially of those who believe the the end goal is Christ and a lot of times when we try to uh grow in this we're going to hold the the the toil and the striving and the result of godliness out in front of us and it's hard because when that's presented as growing these things it doesn't quite capture us like it does.

If God is presented and held out in front of us my wife and I we got to watch uh a Christmas classic this uh this past month and I'm not talking about Christmas Vacation which is the Christmas classic I'm talking about the the easily forgotten uh film with Nick cjun at the family man and you all remember that show hands who who remembers seeing the family man all right so a few of you all right so a lot of times I've been told that I I spoil movies.

So I'm gonna do it again so In The Family Man Nick Cage uh he's this this multi-millionaire Mega businessman uh making deals on Wall Street he's he's got it all and on Christmas Eve he encounters uh he encounters a man he encounters a man Don cheel who plays the guy and uh don cheel asks him he says would you is there anything missing in your life he's like no I'm good he's got the penthouse he's got the money he drives a Ferrari he has it all and the next morning he wakes up in New Jersey in the in a Suburban household with a Suburban family driving a minivan in a different reality where uh he's.

With the the woman he left 10 years ago to pursue all the riches and the dream the dream of of money and everything else so he he freaks out and he drives back to New York City and he finds Don Cheeto who's who's an angel type figure and he says this that you're living right now is a glimpse this isn't the the real reality it's a glimpse it's a little bit like It's a Wonderful Life Christmas Story type thing so you can kind of write in the rest of the movie he goes back home and try to figure out what he needs to do in this Glimpse and uh and he immediately he hates his.

Life he misses the Ferrari he misses the nice things he misses the money and then slowly he realizes that his his family is is so good that his life trying to pay bills is is is really sweet that he's missed out on a whole bunch because he's pursued uh this this this American dream of wealth and and and and financial prosperity then he finally the Glimpse ends he wakes up in his Penthouse and what does he do he he he he tries to find the girl that he left 10 years ago.

So he can re he can capture what he had been missing out on now if you fast if you go back to the beginning of the movie and he encounters Don Cheeto Don Cheeto says here are the things that you're missing no you need to listen you need to give up your life right now you need to go and and find this girl you need to have the middle class life I'm telling you it's great Nick Cage would have said no he just completely passed on it.

Because he had not first experienced what that life is like he had not experienced the goodness that he was missing out on and therefore he would have never chosen that in the first place what the problem is for the value in this present life is when godliness in and of itself the results of it are held out in front of you we don't it's it it's we don't want that it's hard and but the the reality is is that we have to.

First Look to Christ to see the benefit for right now that we have to Behold Him and and focus and fixate on him so that we will see the value in this present life we have to experience Christ first in order that we might make the changes that are necessary that will follow that's why we say all the time that's why we said it this morning we say it every single week Jesus is better than everything else Behold Him he is better.

Because when you believe that then you start to see the fruitfulness of godliness and the value that it has in this present life the reality is if you if you want to be a better wife or a better husband be a better spouse this year if you want to grow in that you first need to focus on Christ when you real when you fixate your eyes and your Gaze on Jesus and you see how good of a husband he is to this bride the Church.

When you see the the the sacrifice and the love and the faithfulness that Christ has towards this Church when you look at that and then you look back at your marriage you go man these are the ways that I fallen short here's the ways I need to repent here are all the things I need to do I want my love to reflect Christ for his Church but it takes focusing on him first and fixating on him if you want to be be better with money this year.

If you want to be better in growing in generosity you first have to look to the author of generosity you have to look at our God who's generous towards us that's what we talk about all the time if you try to muscle change in your finances and your money on your own it's not going to work but if you look at how good our God is towards us how generous he is towards us that he gave up his son for us on a cross.

For us that he calls us into life with him that he pours out blessings upon blessings on us he provides for our needs when you look at how generous our God is towards us then you look back at your money you go take it what do you want to do Lord how do you want me where do you want me to grow in generosity how do you want me to structure this you have to First Look To The God Who is generous you can do this with anything you want to be a better mother or a better.

Father and grow in that this year you first need to look to our God who is a perfectly heavenly father to our his children who provides love and discipline and Grace and when you behold how good our God is toward us toward us you can be a better father you can grow in godliness as a mother as a guardian if you want to be a better employee a better friend a better cooworker if you want to grow in anything this year you.

First behold Christ and you look at him and everything else follows but you got to keep that that as the why in front of you in order to understand and get practical with the how that's the last thing we're going to look how how do we grow in godliness and he says it very explicitly train yourself train yourself he says if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of Faith.

Then he goes on to say have nothing to do with the reverent Sly myths rather train yourself for godliness for our barley training is of some value three times emphasizes train and it's I know a lot of times we try to get behind the text and see what what you know what the Greek word would have said it's the same thing that we would understand today it's athletic training it's physical training effort that's the concept that he's using it is an intentionally disciplined effort with a goal in mind here's the deal as Christians.

For those of us who have trusted in Christ the picture of the Gospel is that you are once dead in sin and you're alive in Christ now you were once old and now you are new the reality is is you've been given legs to walk in this race in following Jesus so you can't earn Christ on your own believe in Jesus the gift of faith you come to life but once you are in Christ as a new creation and you got legs to walk there is an a an aggressive call to training yourself.

For godliness you got to get some some strength in them legs because it's a long race we need to grow in godliness do have nothing to do with the reverent silly myths don't have anything to do with with for them that was weird diets for us that's the Prosperity Gospel and everything else in between have nothing to do with that mess rather train yourself for godliness for our Bly training is of some value godliness is of value in every way he says that bodily training has some value it does.

But our culture really really puts a lot of emphasis on the body especially this time of the year right whether you're on you know the pretty extreme end of the spectrum you love CrossFit or Orange Theory Fitness or some of those cultures and you get after it or if you like doing interpretive dance movements on the elliptical machine at Planet Fitness in between pizza party bites the things that happened there there's a lot of emphas a lot of lot of money and time and energy and focus placed on bodily training and that's fine Paul says it has some value it doesn't have eternal value you know how we know this you're going to die your.

Your body spoiler alert is going to fall apart and you're going to die and all the burpees and the chinups and everything in 150 years dust just it has some value because we treat our bodies as a temple it has no Eternal value so Christian train yourself for godliness deal in Eternal things train yourself for godliness that's the that's that's the focus that we want to grow in is to make an investment in our faith to see the value of that to evaluate ourselves and to grow in godliness every year around this time I I know I've said this in the past I love new years's it's great I love it every year around this.

Time uh I do something called life mapping something I learned from one of my former pastors it's a it's a day a structured time of of getting away of of Prayer of focusing and fixating on Christ and then out of that just asking God how about my life where do you want me to grow what are the things you want me to do in the past few years Matt Freeman and I we both love deer hunting we go away for a day we hunt we spend some time in the Bible and and in word and prayer and I I start to to to.

Look at the different areas I want to grow in I ask God where do you want me to grow what are the things you want me to do and I have this in my journal and I can go back a few years and look at the the areas wanted to grow in in my life mapping and I have about a 30 to 50% success rate which may seem a little depressing but the reality is is that every year I'm making some small adjustments and the next year some that stick I'm I'm I'm adding on to that and I'm making a few more and I'm asking.

God where do you want me to grow what do you want me to do and I'm and I'm adding small bit by bit bit by bit and it snowballs in immaturity it grows and it grows and it grows by starting small and adding a little more this is a marathon faith is a marathon it is not a Sprint that's why Hebrews 12 says run the race with endurance it's a marathon it's not a Sprint now I've never trained for marathon and I have 0% interest in ever training.

For Marathon but when you talk to people who run marathons they're going to say it takes a long time to train you don't do it in a day try to run 26 miles in the first day it does not go well it takes a little bit of running and then a few days later a little bit more and a little bit more a little bit more a little bit more when you add and add and add until you get to the end goal.

So start small if you don't regularly read the Bible if that's not something that's a regular part of your life maybe starting with a 365 I'm going to read all of the Bible in a year maybe that's not the best launching point I'm I'm serious it might not be because you might get into it and Leviticus might take you out we just it it it might not be the best starting point but here's the deal maybe you commit all this year to read one chapter a day to read the Bible every single day read a chapter and the next year maybe you add a little more and the next year you add a little bit.

More and maybe a few years you're reading the Bible every year and you're growing and beholding who our God is and his work have that vision for yourself and be intentional who could you be in a year if you took some small steps towards pursuing and beholding God and and seeing godliness flourish and grow in your life where would you be in five years as a Christian if you made some small steps this year and the next year you took a few more steps and the next year you took a few more steps what would the Overflow be like in the rest of your life right what would it be like.

For your kids if you said you know what I just don't want to grow in godliness I want to impart this on to my children and this year you just started and say you know now one night a week I'm going to sit down with my kids after dinner and we're going to read the Bible we're going to read the Jesus story B Bible we're going to talk about God we're going to try some Gospel fluencing applying the Gospel to my children and you and you started there and the next year you added a little more.

And then you're growing what would your family look like in 10 years if you grew together in godliness what would your marriage look like in 15 years if you took small steps of growing in godliness and the Overflow of that and pursuing your spouse what would the Kingdom look like in 20 years if we said I want to take small steps right now in being hospitable I want to learn my neighbors names for the first time I'm going to get to know my co-workers and actively.

Listen to them and then the next year and the next year what would it look like if we T took small steps in growing in God godliness what would the results look like the hope is as we be the kind of men and women who would own this and invest in our spiritual health and pursue godliness so we want to we want to hold that out this year in front of us as a Church and we're going to try some things.

Listen the main things are always going to be the main things for us and that is probably never going to change we we we we come together right now on Sundays for Gatherings where we worship and then we depart from here as groups and we journey together as groups Gatherings and groups is is probably always going to be the main thing but the reality is is we as we've talked with y'all as we've looked at this for those who want more we want to be able to offer more.

For those who want to to to grow a little more in godliness we want to be able to put that out in front of you so this year we're going to try some things things out we want to grow in prayerfulness as a Church we're going to try some some corporate prayer this year as a Church y'all remember a couple years ago a few of us went to Egypt and we got together and we prayed together we had a whole just one hour of just praying that was great we're going to try some more of that this year coming together.

For corporate prayer we're going to try a couple times this year some conference type weekends we're going to specifically have a Friday and a Saturday where with some intentional structur teaching so for those who want to be trained for those who want to who want to want to grow there's going to be some opportunities to grow in some conference type weekends this fall I'm hoping to launch our our our our recovery Ministry it's something that we've been wanting to do we just we're.

Finally getting ready to do if you're familiar with Celebrate Recovery recovery at other churches it's going to be very similar if if you struggle with anything from from depression to pornography this is going to be 8 to 10 weeks where you can come be a part of recovery and grow together in godliness we're going to do things like the Hope business in a few weeks we're going to launch a virtual bookstore this is going to be a recommended reading list for you know books that we want to uphold say you want to grow read these books and I know that some of you don't like reading.

But I want to tell you something do you know what disciple means means learner which involves reading it just does so figure out if you're an audio learner and you need to listen to books or you just need to train yourself and being Visual and reading books I don't what that looks for you looks like for you but we're going to uphold these are some things if you want to grow in godliness here's some here's some some means in doing this we want to continue to uphold things like we've done in the past we we have 36 Bible verses that we've chosen that our kids walk through that we uphold every month it shows up.

On on the slides most of the time when I'm on the ball and they're they're loaded in proes Center uh but also we put them on our group content so if you want to grow in Scripture Memory there's an Avenue y'all listen we have an Avenue every single Sunday morning at 9:30 it's called Sunday school and it happens two buildings over in the fellowship hall and yes here's the deal I love Sunday school and most of the people who take most part are older members every week we get to teach about.

Jesus in some different uh facet every week we're we're we're we're we're teaching the Bible and what I love about Sunday school is that when I'm there even when I'm teaching it we have older wiser Saints older believers who are it's collaborative it's not like this where I'm preaching and you're listening it's collaborative we're talking and I get to hear the collective wisdom in the room of Decades of following Jesus so we're going to uphold that if you want to grow and you're not in a in a volunteer capacity that takes you up at 9:30 show up we want to grow together in godliness Matt's going to come up and I and I want us.

To take this seriously hindsights 2020 if I could go back a year I preach this sermon the reality is is we don't know what 2021 we we don't know what awaits us listen I saw all of your memes and they were cute 2020 was the worst got it I there's no guarantee that 2020 wants to be better we could have twin pandemics it could be a depression we we have no idea but listen here's the deal the circumstances of this year don't have to dictate how you respond to this year you can pursue.

Behold Christ and out of that you can grow in godliness so I want to hold that out in front of us let's do that no matter what awaits us this year let's be men and women of God who pursue godliness and if none of that makes sense at all and you're like I I don't even know where to start it might be that you need to start by placing faith in Christ to Behold our God you have to realize what he's done.

For us that he went to the cross that he died for our sins and our Rebellion that he conquer death of the Resurrection so that you could have a new life so that you could pursue him and see the benefits of godliness so that you could deal in Eternal things so if you don't know where to start come talk to us we'd love to invite you into following Christ so that you can reap the benefits of pursuing Our God delighting in him we pray.

Father I pray that you would convict us this morning you would help us as Christians respond by beholding you by focusing on you and out of that may we train ourselves for godliness the work is hard but you've given us the Holy Spirit who is in us who wants us to grow deeper in you Lord may you help us grow may you call us to repentance may we pursue you in Jesus name amen one of the things that Spencer said is that we grow.

Mill City 12/6/20 Mill City 12/6/20

The Blood Water Offering

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

So good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors here we are in week two of our gift series we're going to be in 2nd Samuel chapter 23 verses 13 through 17 today a brief story in the old testament you can turn there we'll thought you could fall on the screen behind us we'll be there in a moment when i was in high school i was very excited about uh the xbox 360 which is a gaming system that was going to come out and and i was like i want this.

But it was in the holiday season when it came out and they just said if you want this you're probably going to have to enter into the holiday craze in order to get it and i hate shopping it's just it's not my thing especially around the holidays i just in christmas time i i don't like it but i was like i want this so i'm going to go for it i had really three options at hand to be able to get an xbox 360 the.

First was in the the day that it came out the night before to go out and camp uh which i was never going to do because i don't camp a whole lot anyways i'm certainly not going to do it for a gaming system so that one didn't make sense the second one was to show up the morning that it came out and and get in line very early and hope that you could you know be one of the people that got in line and got one uh the.

Third option uh was to rob somebody to to show up early to find an easy week mark go get a biscuit from mcdonald's come back and then take it from them but i talked it over my mom she said that was not a good idea i might miss christmas in jail so we went with option two so i showed up at five o'clock at target in irmo and i got in line and i was one of the last four people in line to get one of the vouchers that would get you an xbox 360.

So i was excited and then as a few minutes went by more people got in line and there were parents behind me that were excited about getting one for their child who were very disappointed to get a different voucher that voucher was if we get a shipment before christmas you've got one so they still had to stay in line very upset that they were going to get one for their kids and there were a group of younger guys at the very front they had been there since the night before and they were they were talking about their intentions uh what they were going to do with their xbox 360.

Loudly about selling it on ebay for double the price so as these parents who are behind me that you know possibly not going to get one of these for their kid for christmas are hearing these young guys up front talking about selling these online for double the price you can imagine about how that went they were very upset they were starting to argue they were starting to verbally attack the guys i thought we were going to have an arnold schwarzenegger situation from jingle all the way or terminator or predator it was going to get violent.

But that listen we tell stories like that every time around this series because that highlights the insanity of this season every year we talk about pausing for gifts series because we've lost the thread on what christmas is supposed to be and we get all caught up in the holiday craziness the christmas craziness of getting presents and materialism and everything else so we we hit that every year that's why we pause for this series however in having kids now i can at least.

See that when parents go crazy over getting toys for their kids that it's actually a good desire that's just gotten corrupted right i mean the good desire is that you would get your child a gift and on christmas morning they'd be really excited and you'd see their face light up that's that's a good desire that their desire becomes our delight and we get to be excited about it it just goes a little crazy right and people get violent and all the youtube videos that we've seen of how people go a little crazy.

But at its core it's a good desire that's become corrupted and today we get to sit in a story where these uh we're going to look at three soldiers uh these are David's uh soldiers who uh want to get something for David they want to cheer him up and we're going to sit in this for a moment and glean from it and hopefully as we step back from it at the end we're going to see that this actually helps us grow in generosity and growing a normal of.

Jesus so let me pray for us and then we will jump into the story father i thank you that we get to pause every time this year and remember the Gospel and remember that it calls us to walk in generosity God i pray that you would bless this time grow us and shape us and mold us into your image we ask this in Jesus name amen all right so some context because we're jumping into a very obscure passage from the old testament all right.

So first and second Samuel really highlight the rise of David all right the one of the greatest kings in the history of Israel so we're at the end of second Samuel uh and and what this story is doing is in a series of stories that are highlighting some flashbacks and they're flashing back to uh David's 30 mightiest warriors all right so this is a series of stories that are talking about the the baddest of the bad they're called the chief men the 30 mighty men these are the baddest of the baddest warriors that fought.

For David think the expendables but less botox all right so for those of you that have never seen the expendables there you go that these are the baddest soldiers that he's got i'll just give let me give you three different highlights from three different guys that show this one uh soldier his name is jay shabiam which for those of you that are having boys it's a strong name all right jay show all right jay shabiam killed 300 men at one time with one spear all right went toe-to-toe with 300 men with one spear killed them all the.

Second uh uh banaya banaya was one of David one of David's bodyguards so banaya uh went toe-to-toe with a with a lion and a snowy pit all right and he killed the lion one-on-one he also killed an egyptian giant a seven foot five soldier so he killed shaq and he killed a lion all right and that's just to be David's bodyguard all right uh we'll give you one more eleazar eleazar was uh there's a story where he um with the Israelites or they have a barley field they're defending.

But they flee from the barley field when the philistines come eleazar posts up in the middle of the field and defeats all of them by himself all right these are the baddest of the battle these are David's mighty men and specifically in this brief story that we're going to be in today this is three unnamed men we don't know which ones they were i like to think that joe was in this bunch but we don't know all right three of his men and we're gonna pick up in.

Verse 13 and what they did 13 and three of the 30 chief men went down and came about harvest time to David at the cave of adulum when a band of philistines was encamped in the valley of refugee David was then in the stronghold and the garrison of the philistines was then at bethlehem all right so this gives some context for the situation so David uh and his men they are encamped their stronghold is at the cave of abdullah that is about as a few miles southwest of Jerusalem the philistines are encamped throughout uh they are spread out through the valley of refugee and their stronghold is in the town of bethlehem and that is.

Very sad news for David because that is David's hometown that is where he's from and the philistines are his greatest enemy the philistines i mean he has a history with him right remember David and Goliath Goliath was a philistine that's how he made his entrance into being a great military warrior he defeats Goliath there's another story where he goes he wants to marry king Saul's daughter and king Saul really wants to get rid of David because he's a threat so he says go and kill me 100 philistines and and David goes and kills 200 philistines and brings back some some goodie bags which.

For small ears we're not going to go into but you can go back and read the story the philistines hate him all right it is and that is his greatest enemy and they have taken his hometown his land where his home is and and he is deeply dismayed at this it's in caves like the cave of abdullah that we get psalms like psalm 57 there are a few psalms that were written uh in the cave and it's you can connect the dots and think this is probably one of those psalms was written during a time like this in psalm 57 1 he says be merciful to me o.

God be merciful to me for in you my soul takes refuge in the shadow of your wings i will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by he's lamenting he's he's in the midst of storms of destruction uh there's another psalm psalm 142 same thing written in the cave when he says when in 142 3 says when the my spirit faints within me you know my way his spirit is weak he's dismayed you could even say he's probably depressed this is the state of David all right that's the context.

For verse 15 when we hear what David says in 15 and David said longingly oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of bethlehem that is by the gate so some context for this all right the the structure of this sentence i looked at this alongside some commentators this this is not a command okay he's not saying somebody go out and get me some water he is simply expressing a deep longing probably talking to himself oh if someone would get me water from the.

Well specifically the one by the gate in bethlehem all right this could be nostalgia for missing home right i got like if you're traveling abroad and you're like oh i miss my wife's cooking oh i missed my mama's cooking i longed for this all right it could be that the water is better there i remember when my wife and i we moved back from we lived in louisville kentucky when i was in seminary for five years when we moved back we realized something that the water in louisville is actually really really good people rank city waters.

Because they have time on their hands and it makes the top 10 across the country every year i don't know how because the ohio river is gross but they've got some type of filtration system and the water tastes very good and when we moved back here you know the lexington and now we live in lakes west columbia area every summer i don't know if you know this if you live on this side of the river but every summer uh the water tastes they say earthy that ain't earthy it's it's gross it's dirty it's.

Because there's an algae bloom in the lake which by the way that's where we get our water from on this side of the river and every it just it tastes not that great and when i taste the water sometimes i'm like man i really miss the water that i had in louisville that didn't taste like dirty algae i it listen it could be for nostalgia reasons it could be the water in bethlehem takes better than the cave for whatever reason he longs.

For the water that he used to drink at home and his longing does not go unheard verse 16 then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the philistines and drew water out of the well of bethlehem that was by the gate and carried and brought it to David all right so three of his mighty men they hear this and they spring into action they are going to get this water if it is the last thing they literally do they're going to risk their lives.

For this it says they break into the camp now i want to make sure i understood this correctly that they weren't just kind of sneaking in at night what so i looked at the hebrew for the word break and it's a violent breaking which means they fought their way into the camp all right risking their blood probably shedding some of their own blood and shedding the blood of others they got to the well drew the water out presumably defending themselves and they had to get out of the camp which means they probably fought their way out of the camp and ran all the way back to the cave of adul think about that what kind.

Of devotion is that what what kind of what what compels people uh men to do this to risk their lives for a drink of water it's because they loved David they loved him they loved him fiercely they're in the midst of David's depression and his sadness he expresses a a whim a desire oh that i'd have a drink of water and and his very win all right his very longing that he expresses becomes their complete and total devotion that they're willing to risk their lives that's love that is love.

For David that you would risk they'd risk their comfort their safety all for a drink of water you might be thinking well i mean these are his men right don't i mean they have to be obedient that's that's part of it right well here's the deal first off it's not a command as we just said but also obedience is not enough to compel this type of action it's just not in high school i uh i played two sports play baseball and football and my two coaches.

For baseball and football could not be any different my baseball coach was very successful in building a program won lots of state titles partially because he recruited players to come in and then my junior year i guess he stopped recruiting because we weren't very good uh and and he just gave up on us for two years he just he just gave up on us and he he didn't love us we were in we're a means to an end in winning titles and and we just we kind of went through the motions of the baseball season i.

Remember going into my senior year we had not taken the field for actual practice and we had a game five days later we still hadn't taken he was running us to death every day and conditioning i remember specifically one day he had an excuse that they'd been raining a lot but it was very it was dry enough for us to go and practice and and he said all right put your tennis shoes on which meant we were going to run some more and i just i just stared him down i was furious and our team was just we were.

So upset he was was was furious with us he pointed to the state championship banners and said you're never going to win any of these walked on us walked out on us and then we went out and practiced without them all right it was just completely different though the relationship we have with him than with our football coach our football coach loved us and we loved him we would run through a brick wall for him my my sophomore junior season we were not good at all we didn't win a lot of games and we loved him we fought to the finish in every game two very different relationships we do anything.

For our football coach because it was based on love and our baseball coach he was half hearted obedience and that's the difference love versus obedience love produces true devotion obedience just produces the mere semblance of devotion it's not the same love is an all-out response while obedience is just walking through the motions love is the foundation for devote for this type of devotion for these men they love David and it shows up in how they respond to him so they bring this water back to him.

Verse 16 but he would not drink of it he poured it out to the lord and sometimes we read the bob you're like wait what a second if you're just reading through second Samuel you're like wait what he pours out the water seriously oh i mean they went to all these lengths to do this and he pours out the water uh chet and jordan jordan's one of our members chet's one of our pastors they uh they sometimes talk about this restaurant that they met in in lynchburg virginia at liberty and they talk about this restaurant called osaka it's supposed to be like tokyo grill.

But way better and they swear by they they say it is the best and finally jordan he brought me one a plate that was like a day and a half old i heated it up and it lives up the hype it is it is it is great now imagine i walk into the office one day and i see jordan and chet and they're just sad and they're downcast and they just oh if we could just have some osaka we'd feel better and i hear that and i spring into action and i get in my car and i drive five hours up to lynchburg and i get it and i fight traffic and i come all.

The way back and i bring it to them like guys and i put it in place with some covers to make it here it is boom and they take it they smell it and they just dump it on the ground all of it they take the white sauce and just pour it out it's shocking when all that effort for what they got all the effort they fight they risk their lives they shed their blood for what pours out the water say.

But he would not drink of it he poured it out to the lord and said far be it from me o lord that i should do this shall i drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives therefore he would not drink it these things the three mighty men did David realizes that he isn't worthy of this type of devotion he's not worthy of this type of sacrifice these men gave up blood to secure this offering and he's not worthy of it he realizes that the only one who is worthy of this type of offering offering is the.

Lord he takes their devotion he pours it out to the lord this is this is a drink offering all right in the old testament they had they had drink offerings numbers 15 says you shall offer a a third of the hen of one the picture is it's a pleasing aroma to the lord that a drink offering is poured out that's what he takes he takes the devotion and he pours it out this is hear this this is the most honorable thing he could have done in this moment is to take that devotion and turn it up to the.

Lord far be it from me to drink the blood of my men this belongs to the lord this type of love and devotion belongs to God and that's the story real small obscure story from the old testament and it's it's an incredible story to look at how they honored their king like this is incredible so you might be wondering that's neat why are we talking about this in our gift series what does this have to do with christmas here's the deal we won't understand this series we will understand generosity and we won't understand christmas until we understand that we serve a much better king than David we serve a much better king these men got.

To serve David who was a great king and we see the kind of sacrifice and the kind of devotion that kind of love they poured out to him how much more so should we serve the king of all creation how much more should we be devoted to how much more should we love the king who left heaven to come for us to wage war against the enemy who stepped into darkness David in the midst of his despair doesn't have it in him to go out and get this offering he doesn't have it in him his soldiers go out.

For him our savior our king came he's the one that broke through enemy lines for us when he left heaven and he came to earth we sing this season joy to the world the lord has come let earth receive her king and we look at that song we think that's it's cute it's nice because 30 different pop stars have covered it in terrible fashion it's not cute it is a declaration of war joy to why is there joy because the king came.

For us because he stepped into the darkness he stepped into this domain to wage war against the enemy and we've been in the Gospel of Matthew for over a year now and we've gotten to see how good our king is that he came for us they didn't leave us in our darkness they didn't leave us in our sin that he came we got to see as he steps on the scene in in Matthew 4 right when he's being tempted in the wilderness and he goes toe-to-toe with Satan after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting and drinking no food or water and he's a showdown with Satan and he does what adam and eve couldn't.

Do he remains sinless and we got to see how good our king is and that he teaches us the sermon on the mount is beautiful it is the embodiment of wisdom we get to see over and over again over the last year as our king as he healed the paralytic and said rise take up your mat and walk away as he put his hands on the eyes of the blind and gave sight to them we get to see over and over how good our king is and he does all of this on our behalf and it doesn't cost our blood to obtain this gift we're not being sent out to earn this on our own.

As soldiers no now the king lays down his life sheds his own blood and his blood is poured out like a drink offering how much better is our king than David he's so much better and once we understand that once we understand how good it is the king who came for us how sweet how amazing he is then we can begin to understand how we should respond in worship then we can look at the example of these three mighty men and say i i want to respond like that.

And then some because our king is much much better with the hope that one day we'll stand before our king and he'll say well done my good and faithful servant well done my good and faithful soldier that is how our approach changes to opportunities that we have right in front of us you know oftentimes we get every year we do this and we we have these these opportunities to give to something like this and i feel this there's a part of us that looks at this and says all right.

Well what what do i have to give what is it i mean all right my regular generosity okay it's a 10 is that what i have to give all right do i need a budget for forgive project is that is that what i have to give listen i feel that i do but understand this that respond misses it misses on it misses out on total devotion in love it's a different response than us uh instead of just showing a mere semblance of obedience by going through the motions with how we do generosity instead of doing that how about let's chase after the heart of.

God let's let his his desire become our delight and let's run after that i mean what if like what if we caught a mere whisper of the Holy Spirit like these men did they just caught David talking to himself what if we caught the voice of the Holy Spirit saying to go big to to go maybe he starts pointing out stuff right maybe it's the christmas bonus that you get every year maybe it's it's christmas money that you get every year i don't know what that is.

For you but what if the Holy Spirit just started touching on something a mere whisper and that caught our full attention and we said all right what do you want lord what do you want i'm all in i want to be i want to be completely devoted is it this is it more that's a different response when we go after the heart of God that's the type of devotion that God calls us to my hope is is that we catch a we catch wind of that and we'd respond.

Listen when we sent the rockies out i honestly i thought it was a little hasty i did i talked through i sat with chris and was like are you sure right now you don't have all your support raised are you sure like we're right in the middle of the pandemic i wouldn't hurt to wait a few more months and he said no no we've prayed the lord has spoken and we're going chris and danielle like good soldiers heard the Holy Spirit and they said we're all in we're going we're selling everything we're packing up we're moving our kids and we're going and isn't the.

Lord wiser than we the fact that chris a builder shows up right before hurricane decimates the very village that every town that they were going to reach they were obedient because they are devoted and they love God and they're gonna follow his heart anywhere and the desire that we have right in front of us is this project it is fully funding them at a thousand bucks a month it is building some houses down there my hope is that we can join them with the love and devotion that sent them down there that we might.

See Jesus use them to build some houses to make some disciples to raise up some Church plants and to bring light into darkness as our king came and did for us the band's gonna come up and i just want us to sit in that for a moment before we respond and worship i want us not to feel like we have to but to listen to the Holy Spirit and to chase after the heart of God that his desire would become our complete delight and we respond with however.

God calls us to i don't know what that looks like for you my hope is you'd listen my hope is we listen as a Church and that we respond with the type of love and devotion that these three soldiers did for David and then some let me pray father i pray that you would first help us see what you did in your coming what you did on the cross what you did in the empty tomb and that we be so overwhelmed by you that in worship we'd respond and we'd pray and we'd.

Listen and we trust you i don't know what that looks like for us but God i pray that you would speak to us that we take a step of faith in growing in generosity that flows out of a heart that is totally devoted to you we ask in Jesus name amen.

Mill City 11/29/20 Mill City 11/29/20

Giving and Sending

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

So well good morning my name is chet i'm one of the pastors here if you will if you have a Bible grab it go to acts chapter 11. we have every year around this time we do a three week give series and so i'm excited that we get to to start our give series today and announce our give project when i first when we first moved here we moved from lynchburg virginia to here to plant a Church felt called to plant a Church in this area i got a job with sears i had been working at sears in lynchburg i got a job with sears here.

Because i want to be a part of a company that was on the rise and really get in get in on the ground floor and i apparently wasn't that good of a salesman because the store i worked at here shut down but um i i got to work in the hardware department and uh right around leading up into into thanksgiving we would put up uh artificial christmas trees and so our whole like half of the hardware department was filled with an artificial christmas tree lot.

And so i got to be a christmas tree salesman and the people who purchased christmas trees from sears some of them were pleasant some of them you know had peace and joy and holly jolliness most of them however did not i did not know that christmas tree shopping was this stressful or frustrating but i learned people would walk in they'd be looking around i'd walk over and say hey my name's chad it's nice to and they'd say hey this is a six foot tree.

But i need it in eight feet it's like oh well okay let me let me see what i have they they'd say things like um uh these are all balsams i need a fur well all of ours are plastic so um okay i'll see what i can do i had a lady one time she said yes do you have any trees that twinkle and i said um how about how about that tree she said no that that tree is flashing.

Then i was like oh well then well then no we don't have any trees that twinkle um maybe squint take your glasses off i don't know i don't have to tell you one time a lady said you have this tree and i said yes i'll go check in the back and see if we have it and she said you better so i just never came back that's that's not true but people who are buying christmas trees are scary and and it makes sense after i thought about it.

Because you know how you're sitting at your house and you think i'm in a terrible mood and i'm very frustrated i want to go buy a christmas tree that's not that's not what happens the the reason they were there was to celebrate something worth celebrating and i actually think it's a really good picture of what happens to us culturally around this time of year we have something worth celebrating we have something glorious and delightful and joy-filled and hope-filled and then we american it we consumer it and we make it this stressful frustrating has to be about perfection and living up to some ideal and earning something christmas is about our lack of perfection our inability.

To live up to the ideal our complete hopelessness it's one of the reasons why we celebrate with lights because we were in darkness and a light has shown joy has dawned we have something worth celebrating and feasting for but we end up turning it into some sort of a consumer nightmare a beautiful picture of that is is black friday we have a day devoted to thankfulness followed by a day devoted to consuming and getting more and having more and earning more and it's.

And so we end up taking something worth celebrating we make it stressful and so one of the things that we do as a Church family is we have our gift series where we intentionally fight that in our souls that we intentionally as the Scriptures say that where your treasure is they were your heartbeat also that we intentionally take our treasure and send it out the door we intentionally take our treasure and put it towards things that God cares about so that in this season we remind ourselves actively and aggressively and intentionally where our hope lies and what the purpose of this season is.

See the reality for us as we enter into this gift series and as we as Christians enter into this holiday season is not the question for us is not do we like christmas because i think we do i think we enjoy it i think there are times where we where we calm ourselves and we delight in the things that are to be delighted in but i think the question for us is do we believe it when you see a nativity scene is it just cute is it just quaint or is it jaw dropping shocking and glorious that the.

God of the universe would become a baby that he would put on flesh that he would suffer and die so that we might have hope does that captivate our hearts you see because if this christmas is true if it's real if Jesus Christ really came to redeem sinners as he really came to rescue us out of darkness if he really came because there is eternity at stake and we are incapable of saving ourselves then yes we have a lot to celebrate we have a lot to be joyous over.

But we're also called to give up our lives for something that matters that's eternally urgent if we really do believe that he's our only hope and that all those who call in his name will be saved which means that all of those who don't won't and so as we enter into this season we don't want to just enjoy christmas we want to believe it we want to have the reality of God redeeming sinners saving wicked people like you hopeless people like us captivate our hearts.

So that we might follow him faithfully genuinely and as if we really believe this so let's pray and then we're going to read in the book of acts some people who are doing that and then we're going to get to join with them as we introduce our gift project for the year so let's pray God we thank you that because of the incarnation because you became a man so that you might save humanity we thank you that we have hope we thank you that we have something worth celebrating that we have joy that cannot be taken from us that cannot be bought by us.

But that was bought by you and say lord i pray that we would be a people who genuinely believes that and celebrates like we believe it help us to respond in generosity and obedience and faithfulness and lord as we study your word today help um may your Holy Spirit uh captivate our hearts and call us into something more in Jesus name amen so we're in the book of acts today and we're going to be looking at the early Church and so this is believers who have been captivated by this idea who have placed their faith in.

Jesus that he died that he rose again that it was God who had come to join us and to rescue us and to redeem us this idea was not uh normal to them they did not grow up with it it was not something that they were used to it was not something that they had celebrated their whole life this idea came to them as news as new information that they might place their faith in it and their hope in it and follow him.

And so that's what they're doing and sometimes i think they have the benefit of that that for those of us who maybe grew up in the u.s or grew up in the south and this becomes normal when it is not normal that God would become a human that he would die that he would rise from the grave that's not mundane that's not ordinary but i think sometimes we we get so used to it we fail to see it with the eyes they.

See it with and so i hope that we would as we read this today so we're reading about the Church in antioch and we're going to start in verse 25. so uh the the Gospel is uh proclaimed people believe and then there's persecution and then they scatter and as they scatter they go telling this message so they're run out of town literally but as they go they start telling this message to anyone who would hear it's not true to to jewish people who would hear.

And then they they eventually start telling gentile people which is good news for for i think pretty much everybody in this room and they also started right now in antioch they told hellenistic jews which were jewish people by blood but that had adopted a whole lot of greek culture and these hellenistic jews believe and the jewish jews are a little surprised so they send barnabas to go check it out they're like go go see and check and he shows up and he's encouraged he's excited they really believe they've placed faith in.

Jesus and so he celebrates with him and then it says we pick up in verse 25 it says so barnabas went to tarsus to look for Saul now if you're familiar with Paul it's the same guy they're calling him Saul here went to tarsus to look for Saul and when he had found him he brought him to antioch for a whole year they met with the Church and taught a great many people and in antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

So barnabas and Saul are teaching the Church in antioch and they're teaching much of what we would probably see in Paul's letters later which is explain to them what it means to follow Jesus that if this is true what does that mean for your life if he has come to redeem if he has come to save if you are rescued by grace alone by faith in Jesus what does that look like how does that affect you what do you do what do you not do and it's all coming out of a response to the Gospel.

So the message of christianity is not here are the things you need to do and then you can have the Gospel these baptisms were not i finally got my life together now i'm a good person you can see me get dunked in water that's not what this was that's not the hope we have if if the video had said that i just wanted to show everyone i'm great we would have all jumped up and said time out no no no no you don't get to be baptized and even.

If your head goes completely underwater don't even count you're just wet because that's not what this is that's not the hope we have the hope we have is that Jesus redeems sinners that we're broken we can't save ourselves and so he's proclaiming this message and he's telling them this is what it looks like for this to lay claim to your life verse 27 now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to antioch and one of them named agabus stood up and foretold by the spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world this took place in the days of claudius.

So prophets come in the Church to prophesy uh the word of God and to foretell that there's going to be a famine how the baptist feeling right now you okay with that Bible stressing you out a little bit so there are prophets in the new testament Church that are empowered by the spirit to proclaim to tell what's going to happen in the future and they do and God empowers this and they they tell them that there's a famine coming and so it says that they told that this would take place.

And then i love that it says it took place in the days of claudius luke's writing the book of acts and he's just showing his work he's like they told there was going to be a famine and it was this specific famine that took place like if you want to look it up look under claudius you'll find him that's what he's doing so the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in judea and they did.

So sending it to the elders by the hand of barnabas and Saul so let's follow this timeline Gospel is proclaimed there's hope in Christ you can be redeemed you can be saved they believe Paul and barnabas come and teach and help explain what that means and what that looks like then they find out through prophecy that there's going to be a famine there's going to be a natural disaster there's going to be something that comes over the land that makes food scarce and prices high.

And so they just decide as a Church hey we're going to send money to Jerusalem where that's going to be hard hit and they give they send relief according to their ability and this is something the Church has done forever that as uh the Gospel changes our hearts it changes our wallets because as Jesus says our wallets are tied to our hearts so one of the best ways to tell what you love is to see what you spend money on one of the best ways to tell what you care about what you're motivated by what you desire what you want to defend is to.

See what happens with your wallet and so one of the best ways for us to push our heart into places is for us to actively choose to send our money there example if you were going to watch a soccer game you would be uh not interested and that offends a handful of you but for most of you you would be not interested for like seven hours there's no time on the soccer game by the way it just goes and goes they don't tell you.

But if you put five dollars on it or if you do what i do and you bet egg roll station on it because that's the only bet i make egg roll station you'll suddenly care you'll have moved your heart just a little bit just a piece of your heart if it's egg roll station a large piece of your heart but that's that's reality and so that's one of the things that we know is that when we send our money it goes towards things we care about as our money goes.

So do we care like uh my wife and i we had ugly carpet we were annoyed with our ugly carpet but we didn't love our ugly carpet and when our children spilled things on our ugly carpet we didn't care we've replaced some of that carpet and i didn't realize that that was going to make me love carpet and care about it and dislike my children we're talking about painting some of our walls and i had to re-explain this to my wife i said.

Okay we can paint them and i think we should because they look bad but as soon as we do we're gonna suddenly care that our children are holding markers and running down the hall like this why would they do that but we're going to care because that's what happens and so because Jesus has changed our hearts it's not just that we send our money so that we'll care but it's because he's changed our hearts suddenly we're free suddenly we respond in a way differently than we used to this is what he tells the Church in corinthians is he's talking about this exact idea of giving up money he says this in.

Second corinthians 8 9. for you know the grace of our lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sake he became poor so that you by his poverty might become rich that's the Gospel was infinitely rich rich doesn't cover it it's a placeholder word that hides a whole lot of things but he was infinitely rich infinitely glorious infinitely welcomed infinitely worshipped and he became poor it's a song we just sang that he created the world by speaking.

Now he's mute he's going to have to re-learn language he's going to have to be static and he's going to have to learn how to grow and he's become so small and then he's ultimately gonna be crushed he's gonna die he's gonna give up his life and he's gonna do that so that by his poverty we might become rich so then Paul keeps going because he's trying to to raise some money for some issues that are going on that they need to raise some money to to give it's a very similar situation we.

See in acts 11 he says for i do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need so that their abundance may supply your need that there may be fairness so he's calling them to give money and he's specifically saying the same thing we just read in acts 11 which is they gave according to their ability so he's saying to them i'm not saying that you shouldn't pay rent.

So they can pay rent i'm not saying you shouldn't eat so they can eat but i am saying you've been blessed so let's give you're rich right now so let's give because he who was rich became poor so that through him we who are poor might become rich now i love this i think this is a helpful rule this is one of the reasons why we don't in Christian giving we don't do amounts we don't do you have to give x amount of dollars or whatever we we talk more about percentages we talk more about what are you capable of giving that we would give what we're able to give.

But that we would respond with generosity with sacrificial giving that it would affect how we live you see one of the things that we do as americans is we artificially inflate our need we'll say things like yeah i'm just barely paying my bills and my bills are a very large house three different video subscriptions the internet two vehicles a cell phone some magazines two things i forgot i had signed up for but i'm getting billed for right now we've artificially inflated our need and the reality is that we live like kings and queens and there is a call.

For us to intentionally live under our income so that we might be generous we might be ready to share and so he's saying that those of you who have need to to give and that's what they said according to their ability so the disciples determined those who are following Jesus every one according to his ability to send relief to those who are in need this is something the Church has done forever and we're going to get a chance to do today uh chapter 13.

Verse 13 let's keep going in the book of acts so this is we've jumped ahead a little bit a few chapters but that's because uh we're following the story of antioch and so we've read the story of antioch name in the book of acts in chapter 12 it talks about some other things and then it comes back to antioch and it says now Paul no hold on yeah but i lied about what chapter is give me a second this is going to bother me yo fine i won't find it in the Bible oh one through four i just have it typed up wrong here we got it.

Now that we're in the Church at antioch we'll edit that so later when you listen to it online or watch it it'll seem that was like it was great we won't now that we're in the Church at antioch prophets and teachers barnabas simeon who was called niger lucius of cyrene minion a lifelong friend of herod of the tetrarch and Saul while they were worshiping the lord and fasting the Holy Spirit said set apart for me barnabas and Saul for the work to which i have called them.

Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off and so we get to see the generosity of the Church in antioch in two ways one is financially and two is by sending people some of their best people the people who had actually come and taught them for a year straight the people who had helped found this Church and lead it they sent them away and they sent them away because they were obedient to the to the voice of the spirit they listened to the.

Lord and sin and that's one of the things that the Church does that we send financially to help support those in need we we help with the poor we help with believers in other areas and then we send people there are some people called to go and there's some people called to send and i love the way this is written it's not Paul and barnabas saying hey we were supposed to go do this it's the Holy Spirit saying set apart for me barnabas and Saul.

For the work to which i have called them he told the Church set them apart he told the Church these people are supposed to go and the Church is supposed to set them apart the Church is supposed to send them out and we see that as the Church sends them out they care for them financially as they go so before i get to announce our gift project for the year i want to ask these questions i want us to see something in this text really quickly i want you to.

See that God sees and calls specific people for specific tasks that they're praying they're listening and God says these two names not sin two not hey we need some he says sin barnabas and Saul for the work i have uh called them to set them aside for it now are we praying and listening enough to know what he set us aside for some of you are in here and you're like i don't know what he wants me to do when's the last time he fasted prayed and asked him when's the last time you laid it all on the table and you said.

Lord my wallet my time my life my career my relationships the yours what do you want from me can i tell you something i think he'll answer i think it'll be good i think it'll be terrifying i think as soon as he answers you might be like oh no okay i don't i'm gonna go eat a meal and quit praying about this i'm gonna quit fasting and praying it may feel overwhelming at first but these are the kinds of prayers he answers i think sometimes we're just really comfortable with things looking normal.

For us but i think we need to begin to ask lord what do you want from me my job's yours what do you want it to look like my time is yours what do you want it to look like my life is yours what do you want to look like see that's us believing what we say we believe at christmas that Jesus came to rescue us that he owes us nothing because he gave us everything by grace we haven't earned anything.

So that he would owe us anything and so now we are his we've been bought with a price and we owe him everything and so we come to him we ask what do you want what would you have for us so he sets aside specific people for a specific task and the Church is told this and the Church gets to help send and it's a dangerous thing when we listen and obey this begins the missionary journey of the Church that Paul would be sent to plant churches and that the Church would spread through the work of Paul and through the suffering of Paul that.

God had an intentional design for Paul and barnabas that he would see his work done and the reality is he's placed you where he's placed you and he's given you what he's given you and he's equipped you with what he's equipped you and we need to start asking lord what do you want from me and what do you want from our Church okay so it's our gift project and we're gonna spend the next three weeks trying to raise some money for two things one primarily the.

Second one's like a bonus thing you're welcome we have the opportunity to get behind chris and danielle rocky as we prayed about what our giving our gift project would look like this year we began to ask the lord what would he want us to do we felt called to to help them finish out their support so we had the distinct pleasure of God specifically telling members of our Church family to move to to pack up and go and just so you all know that was a labored thing.

For them that chris and daniel came they have two daughters parker and maggie who are six and nine but they came and chris said he was feeling called to Church planning wasn't really sure he wanted to pray and investigate this and he wanted us to pray and investigate it with him and with his family and they came here to try to see what that would look like the more he prayed the more he started saying i don't think it's domestic Church planning i don't think it's in the u.s i think we're supposed to go overseas the more he said that the more his wife was like i'm gonna i'm gonna keep praying.

Because danielle wasn't super excited about that but God knows what he's doing so if you got to know their family danielle is a spanish teacher chris ran a a home renovation and home building company called house healers he mostly showed up to places that were messed up and helped fix things and God specifically began to work in them and told them to go to honduras and to el progresso and to join with this specific team in el progreso hope through him to join them and what they're doing and they felt confirmed in that and terrified and sad and excited and we felt confirmed and sad and excited just as i'm sure this Church felt confirmed.

In the book of acts that antioch they were sad and excited they were like we don't know what the lord's doing but we know he's doing this we don't know what his plan is but we trust him and we're going to miss y'all but they set him aside for the work so i want to show a video one of the uh i'll talk kind of as this video plays here in a second but we'll start it all right this is coming into june 22 another community we working.

So they're in el progresso um it's kind of base of operations forum and in el progreso they do uh kind of a food ministry and some different ministry with with homeless people and then they have a couple of places that they go to and they also minister and this is june 22 that's the name of the town it's named june 22 after the the date when they kind of organized themselves as a town and it's kind of up in the mountains it's a little bit further away from them.

But they go there and they do some vacation Bible school stuff with children and they do um a feeding ministry they take food up there and it's it's a pretty impoverished town but about 40 homes are there they have a president of the town and they they do some ministry there with them we're going to get to see kind of an area where they do some ministry there's a couple other places campo yano they do some work there and um just felt called to this area felt called to join um hope through him and to to help start churches to help serve people and specifically just felt like the.

Lord was calling him to be there and chris wanted to train some people to lead house churches what christianity is there there are some faithful Christians and believers there but there is a good bit of religious legalism some you have to be good enough to earn this and so chris felt burdened to just proclaim grace that God redeems those who cannot redeem themselves and that he's good to us in our sin that he's hoped for us in our darkness and so this is this is june 22.

And so that was kind of their plan going and you could already see the lord at work that uh in his grace he was sending them somewhere that spoke spanish so that uh danielle could speak the language and he was sending one person who taught spanish and three people who don't know spanish and so maybe she could also help teach them and so i asked how that was going and he said it was going okay but the wearing masks makes learning spanish harder.

But this is the area they went to but that the plans got changed a little bit on them uh because of the fact that right after they got there two hurricanes came through so hurricane edda came through and hurricane iota came through and kind of adjusted what they were planning on doing but in just a second you're going to get to see they're coming kind of the end of this and there's going to be a section where they're doing some what they normally do in this area which is getting to spend some time with the children hey mel city um here we are at june 22.

You'll see this is a lot different than campoyano because we don't have our own building to be in we just kind of sit here on this little overhang right next to the kitchen so they're cooking rice and beans over there and they're going to do birthday gifts for all the children and so she says that they were learning that some of the children had moved and they were also trying to catch up on all the birthdays they had missed from covid and that's kind of their plan their plan originally was that.

But then as i said the floods came through and i want to show you this this is uh june 22 as well hey guys so we were finally able to get out to june 22 one of the communities that we work in the road was pretty terrible but we were able to to get through with some uh four wheeling a lot of spots washed out and kind of going back and forth on different sides of the road but we made it through flip the camera around here.

So we've we've muted the rest of it but this is uh that's that neighborhood we just saw him pull down that's the whole area the main road is right over there that and he'll be on it in a second we'll see the kind of the route that they took getting in this is after the first hurricane the second one was worse than and that we don't have any footage from when they went back out but the water was up over completely over that house that you.

See right there they said they were evacuating and putting some of their stuff on this berm up here and that people came and stole some of it but that whole area has just been under water and as they were trying to to get back going they got hit by another hurricane and so our give project this year is to do exactly what we just read in in the book of acts first to send and to send well we want chris and danielle to be able to stay in country to be completely provided.

For they're about a thousand dollars a month short of their financial goals so the first thing we want to do is try to raise that extra thousand dollars in monthly support so that they are uh set for the year and don't have to raise any more support we actually looked and i told chris i said you know you see the lord at work here that he sent them there and chris was thinking he was going to do Church planting work and maybe he will eventually.

But God sent a house healer when there's a lot of houses to heal you could i told him i said if the lord doesn't know what he's doing he really lucked out on this one which is a joke because he knows what he's doing but that we want to help chris be there we want to help danielle be there we want to help make sure that's the where they're living now so they've all across the top of this they just went up and started putting tents um and waiting.

For the water to go back down and waiting to go back and see kind of how they're going to be able to rebuild so the first thing we want to do is for us to intentionally put into our budget to help chris and danielle stay in country we have the opportunity as we mentioned earlier with the lottie moon christmas offering that's for international missions through the southern baptist and that's so that the they don't have to raise support but chris and danielle felt called and they felt called to go and to go quickly and i think we.

See now why and so we want to help make sure that they don't have to keep raising support and so as a Church as the lord has called them to be missionaries from among us we want to help make sure they can stay and the way to do that will be to go to hope through him.org spencer's going to walk us through this in a minute and to put in a gift and to put that you want it to recur monthly and to figure out what that means.

For you some of you that's five dollars and that'll be uh what you can handle some of you it's 50 some of you it can be 250. some of you may look at this next year and you go you know what i'm going to do i'm going to drive a worse vehicle and every time i get frustrated with my vehicle i'm going to pray for some missionaries that are working in another country to proclaim the Gospel that i say i believe in and i'm going to do that.

So that instead of having this payment i can send money some of you are going to have slower internet some of you realize that the person you're dating is expensive and you're going to be single for a year so you don't have to pay for extra meals and gifts for the sake of mission i don't know what it is i don't know what the lord's calling you to do but i do know that we need to pray we need to ask we need to.

Listen the first thing we want to do is we want to raise what will end up being twelve thousand dollars but it'll be monthly we want to raise a thousand dollars a month for them so that they're fully met their needs are met financially so they can just be there and working so they can be full-time doing the work that's going to be full-time work on top of that this is the bonus one if you were like 1000 a month is nothing to me i have tons of money.

Well we're glad you're here and we've got good news for you they also need money to help rebuild june 22. and so for anyone who wants to give to that we would ask that you would prayerfully look at supporting them monthly so that we can keep them there and working but then on top of that we can give to to the work they're doing at june 22 they said that they think they can rebuild a house for about thirty five hundred dollars.

Now thirty 3 500 is not a lot for a house most of us you can't renovate your kitchen for that but these people are living on a berm under a tarp and they think they can go back in and rebuild the houses they want they might say they said it might cost a little more if they're able to figure out how to build them on stilts so that next time it comes through like this it won't be as bad but they're looking to to rebuild about 40 homes that's what they think they're going to end up having to do and they're committed to trying to get that work done.

And so if we have the money to help support that we want to help that as well but first we want to keep the rockies in country and we want to do this not because we have to that's not the good news of the Gospel just pay a certain amount of money per month and the lord will save you the good news of the Gospel is first really bad news you can't save yourself you cannot be good enough you are not good enough you have fallen desperately short.

But unto us a son is given unto us a child is born and all people in darkness has shown a great light and we get to celebrate like other people celebrate when there's joy at a harvest we get to celebrate because we've been redeemed we've been brought out of darkness and we've been set free and that nothing can claim us or take us now we've been purchased with the precious blood of Christ and we are free and we have eternal hope and we get to joining joining him in his eternal mission towards things that matter let's pray.

God we thank you for your grace we thank you for your goodness towards us we pray that we would listen that we wouldn't just think through what we could do but we would ask you what you want from us we would ask you what you have for us that we might join you in things that ultimately matter and that our hearts might look like we truly believe the good news of the Gospel we thank you that we have something to celebrate at christmas and we pray that you would bless this gift project as we try to support your Church on the other side of the globe in.

Jesus name amen

Mill City 11/22/20 Mill City 11/22/20

Triumphant Entrance and the Judgement to Come (Matthew 21:1-22)

Group Guide

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Mill City 11/15/20 Mill City 11/15/20

Anniversary Sunday

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

Get the mask off and maybe you won't have such a funny sound coming through it's good to be with you here this morning it's great to be able to look out and to see this congregation see all the people that were here when i first came to first baptist of casey and to see all the people that are here now since we united our two churches together it is just a joy for me to be able to come back this morning it's a joy to get to.

See the people that i had known for a good while and some of you have known for a shorter while it's good to be back with you it's a joy for me to see what's taking place with the remodeling of the building and the growth in the congregation and it just it reminds me that it's a privilege to be here today it's a privilege for me to be here today because this is a place where God is working and that is just.

So evident we serve a faithful God don't we our God was faithful to first baptist Church of casey starting back in 1912. he was faithful to that Church down through the years he was faithful to Mill City Church starting in 2013. think about that 101 years apart and yet God has been faithful to bring us together and to make us one and to give us the opportunity to serve him here in this place and that is just just so exciting and it's.

So so so much of a blessing to me to be a part of this i mentioned a couple of times just now that God is faithful has been faithful is faithful will be faithful but we need to be reminded of that and so i want to read a passage of Scripture with you this morning that helps point us to God's faithfulness it's first corinthians chapter one we're going to be looking at verses one through nine Paul called by the will of.

God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother sotienese to the Church of God that is in corinth to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our lord Jesus Christ both their lord and ours grace to you in peace from God our father and the lord Jesus Christ i give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ.

Jesus that in every way you were enriched in him and all speech and all knowledge even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our lord Jesus Christ who will sustain you to the end guiltless in the day of our lord Jesus Christ God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our lord God is faithful he called a people unto himself he called a Church unto himself there in.

Verse 2 it says to the Church of God that is in corinth now you run across a similar phrase several places in the new testament the Church of God that's in rome the Church of God that's in ephesus and there's still churches that belong to God that are God's churches the Church of God in colombia the Church of God in kc God puts churches in different places he does that to accomplish his purposes among us you know he put a Church in corinth.

If you know anything about corinth it was a big city it was a prosperous city it was a city that was involved in a lot of trade there were people from all over the world you know but it in a civilization the roman empire that wasn't known very much for its high morals corinth was known as just about the worst it was a terribly play terrible place morally and yet God put a Church there he called people out of that community many of those who had been engaged in all of those immoral practices and had trouble not falling back into them to be his Church there he did it.

For a purpose so that he might have a people there a people of his very own and a people who would reach out and bring others to know the lord Jesus and that's why he put a Church in rome and in emphasis in colombia and in casey so that we might be his people his treasured possession so that we might be involved in his great work of bringing people to know the lord Jesus so that they can have salvation and have eternal life.

So he called the Church the Church in corinth to those sanctified in Christ Jesus now to be sanctified means to be set aside and to be sanctified in Christ Jesus means you're set aside for him you live for him you want to serve him you want to become like him that's what he means to be sanctified and they said call to be saints now doesn't that seem a little strange here is Paul riding a Church where the people came out of terrible immorality and called them saints and we have the idea that saint is some kind of a super Christian.

But that's not the way it is recorded in the Bible saints are believers in Christ strange though you know God does some strange things doesn't he if you look back at verse 1 it says Paul called by the will of God to be an apostle who would have thought that the man that was once named Saul who was a persecutor of the Church who drugged men and women often threw them into prison just because they were following Jesus who consented to the death of others.

Because they were following Jesus why in the world would God call on a man like that to be an apostle but he did and he became Paul and started churches and wrote type the new testament it's amazing why God does isn't it it's amazing what God has been doing here in this place it's amazing what God has done with me grew up as a prideful little kid and a dysfunctional family and he called me to be a pastor he's called you to be a saint.

Now let me ask you a question be honest how many of this of you this week have not sinned with an action or a word or a thought let me see your hand mind's down too we're all sinners and yet God has called us and put the label on us saint how in the world could that happen it's because God took the righteousness of Jesus and gave it to us ii corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 Paul wrote this and he said.

For our sake he God made him that is Christ to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God took the righteousness of Jesus the one who is every way tempted as we are yet was without sin and when he died on the cross all of our sin was put on him and all of the righteousness that he has as the perfect son of God was given to us God has been faithful to make us saints.

And then notice something else he called us to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of the lord Jesus Christ imagine that we're part of the great Church of God the great kingdom of God the great body of Christ and when we go anywhere and meet another believer then we're part of the same family when i was at first baptist newberry we did mission trips and we did you know uh all over the united states and it always kind of surprised me that we could go anywhere and get with a bunch of believers and we felt at home with one another and it was just it was just.

Neat you know to see that people from different colors different backgrounds different areas of the country we had something in common that overcame all of that and we were able to share with one another and and be together we've been made saints we've been sanctified we've been brought together why look at the last part of that verse because of our lord Jesus Christ Jesus is lord he's master he's ruler over all he's boss Jesus is Jesus Jesus means God saves he is the savior he's the one who gives us salvation.

Jesus is Christ he is the messiah he is the deliverer who delivers us from sin and from death and from hell and Paul couldn't seem to get over that could he did you notice that in verse 1 he talks about Christ Jesus at birth to Christ Jesus and the lord Jesus Christ in verse 3 the lord Jesus Christ at verse 4 Christ Jesus in verse 6 Christ in verse 7 the lord Jesus Christ and verse 8 the lord Jesus Christ in.

Verse 9 Jesus Christ our lord boy Paul had a hang up didn't he wouldn't you like to have a hang up like that your hang ups Jesus did you hear that the uh little boy and that came home from sunday school one sunday morning and he said mom i think that my sunday school teacher is Jesus grandmother and she said why do you think that she said all she talks about is him we ought to be talking about Jesus Paul did.

Because he makes all these things possible for us God is faithful and has made us one God is faithful because he has given us all that we need spiritually Paul said in verse 3 grace to grace to you aren't you glad that grace has come your way the free gift of God the giving you what you don't deserve just because God is a giver and wanted to give it giving us even his son and letting them die on the cross for us God's grace his free gift that's given to us unexpected undeserved.

But given grace to you he said at peace peace oh the world searches for peace individual searches for peace it's hard to find peace but when we receive that grace and put our faith in Jesus we have peace the Scripture says therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through the lord Jesus Christ and when we have peace with God then we can be more at peace within because he grants us his peace and we can be at peace with one another.

Because we're serving the same lord and we can be at peace because we know that then we are not condemned any longer and we can be at peace because we have the assurance that God is with us each and every day all right i grew up with two brothers and the the middle brother uh was really afraid of dogs he was just really afraid of a dog so when he was about five or six years old uh he came to his mom and he said our mom and said i wish my daddy was home.

Because there's a great big dog in the yard and so we went out to look at the window to see what kind of great big dog was in the yard and it was a rat terrier about this high but what's always stuck in my mind about that was i wish my daddy was home because if daddy was home then he could feel safe because his daddy would protect him we have God as our father Jesus calls him abba daddy our daddy's home with us.

Because of that we can have peace we can have peace then he's given us something else in verse five he says that you were enriched in every way he enriches us spiritually now Paul said that they were enriched in speech and in knowledge the corinthians were pretty proud of the knowledge that they had of the of the Scripture and proud of the knowledge they had of some things that probably weren't too close to Scripture and they were also proud of some of the special ways that they were able to talk we called it.

Today speaking in tongues but they thought that that was kind of the pinnacle but Paul was kind of reminding them hey this isn't something you produced this is something that God gave you he gave you the truth in his word he gave you the ability to glorify him in a special way so it's not something that just you have it's something that God has given you the blessing and giving it to you as a free gift and then in verse seven he says.

So that you are not lacking in any gift not lacking any gift you know the Church was complete and we here in this Church are complete God has given us all that we need to be able to function as he wants us to function in this community now we may want more people we might want more material resources as a congregation we might want more buildings and then you're getting some of those you know getting some more of those areas but right.

Now God is able to take who you are and use you to accomplish his purposes to use you to help one another grow in the faith to use you to reach out to others and bring them into the faith to use you and help those you bring in to grow in the faith like you are growing in the faith he's given you all that you need he's enriched you in him and all that you need and now notice what he said there.

So that you're not lacking in any gift and then as you wait for the revealing of the lord Jesus God is faithful to give us what we need now to function as he wants us to function as a Church in this community and he is faithful to keep us that way and bless us as we wait his return are you waiting for Jesus to come back do you think about that much probably most of us don't a whole bunch you know there was there was a preacher that looked out the window of the Church one sunday morning.

While sunday school was going on and there were three little boys sitting on the curb outside the Church and he thought i need to go to talk to those boys so he went out and he came up to them and he asked the first one do you want to go to heaven a little boy said yes and he asked the same one do you want to go to heaven and a little boy said hey yes and he asked the third one do you want to go to heaven a little boy said no and the preacher said you don't want to go to heaven.

When you die and a little boy said oh yeah i want to go to heaven when i die i thought you were getting up a load to go now most of us stay busy so busy with our activities now we're not thinking too much about heaven and about what it's going to be but think about it you know sometimes we think about it maybe heaven's a boring place you know that kind of popular idea we're kind of an angel sitting on a cloud playing a harp that would grow pretty old pretty quick i think.

Look at the new testament terms to describe heaven a city think about a city a bustling busy city with all sorts of things going on or a wedding we like wedding we like the ceremony we we like the reception and all that that's taking place with that talks about heaven as a banquet you know and we like to go to banquets and to celebrate something and enjoy all of the good food heavens is an exciting place it's a place where everything is new don't you like new things you know it's it's neat to have new things you get excited about the new part of the building that's going to be provided.

For you for too much longer new is exciting heaven is new God is making all things new we ought to be eagerly waiting for it anticipating for it looking forward to it a little boy in a department store and he was standing staring down at the handrail of the escalator and one of the sales clerks noticed him and went over to him and said son are you lost and he said nope just waiting for my gum to come back some of you know about little boys don't you anticipation are you anticipating heaven are you anticipating.

Jesus come back and you're anticipating how astounding that's going to be several years ago my wife and i joy and i got to go to california with a couple of our friends and different ones of us wanted to see different things and so we drove at the pacific coast highway and we saw the redwoods and we saw the golden gate bridge and we went to yosemite and you know we were just having a great time seeing all of those things but one of the things that stands out to me is we went up to sequoia park you know where the big trees are.

Well we'd seen some big trees because we'd seen the redwoods but i can remember driving up that mountain road and you know there was a regular forest on both sides and then all of a sudden here was this tree that you think how could a tree be that big it was like looking at a crowd of people and then all of a sudden you see one person in the middle of that crowd who's 12 feet tall and weighs a thousand pounds you know it was astounding have you thought about how astounding heaven is going to be to.

See angels to see the new city where the streets are going the walls are jewels where God lives and Jesus lives and there is light and you don't need any other light if you thought about how astounding it's going to be to see the river that flows from the throne of God clears crystal and on every side of it are the trees that are for the healing of the nations and everything's going to be perfect and then you're going to see.

Jesus Jesus in his glory and even in heaven you're going to see the nail prints and remember that he died for you that's what it cost costed dying on the cross we're seeing in the hymn crown hidden with many crowns those wounds yet visible above in beauty glorified and we'll glorify Jesus because he was willing to be wounded for us in the midst of our sin in the midst of our rebellion because he loves us that much and he's going to spread out those hands and he's going to welcome us with the open arms oh it's just just beyond being and imagine the wonder of it you're looking forward you're anticipating you're looking.

For the revealing of the lord Jesus Christ are you waiting for it you know it's sometimes people wait for it but when when they're very sick or they know they're about to die but it should be us waiting for it all the time it's kind of like we we've won a gold medal in the olympics and we're just waiting for the award ceremony for them to place that ribbon with the metal on it around our neck that kind of anticipation because it's going to be.

So glorious and because of Jesus we have won the victory he gives us the victory through our lord Jesus Christ again God is faithful in giving us Jesus and he says something else here in verse 8 he will sustain us to the end sustain us to the end sometimes we get worn out don't we life gets to be such a struggle we want to stop we want to give up we're going to want to say i'm burned out can't do any more.

But again and again we're reminded that God gives us strength in psalm 28 verse 8 he says the lord is the strength of his people he is the saving refuge of his anointed in psalm 46 he says God is our refuge and strength a very present help and trouble in isaiah chapter 40. he says to this he gives us he gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength and not a neat promise that God keeps giving us the strength that we need day by day to cope with the things that life gives us and to continue to serve him he goes on to say in in this chapter.

Of isaiah even young people shall feign and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted but they who wait for the lord shall renew their strength they shall man up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint God gives us the strength to endure he gives us endurance and sometimes with that we can soar we're soaring high like an eagle and boy when it's on engel's wings we're flying through life and sometimes he gives us strength.

So we can run and we can run and can run and not be weary and he gives us a strength for that but sometimes he gives us just enough strength to put one foot in front of the other and keep going he is a faithful God he's going to get us through he's going to sustain us to the end and he goes on to say and we'll be guiltless in the day of our lord Jesus Christ you've been on trial thankfully i haven't.

But i've you know watched a lot of the crime dramas on tv where there's trials you know are you guilty is the defendant guilt or is the defendant not guilty you go through a process to find but if you're tried and if you're found not guilty you can't be retried under our system of justice and for the same crime we've been guilty of sin we've been guilty of breaking God's laws we've been guilty of taking the good things he's given us and using them in the wrong way and yet.

Jesus has taken away our guilt and we've been pronounced not guilty we can go to God and as the Scripture said if we confess our sin he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness forgiven cleansed not guilty so we won't have it again in first thessalonians chapter 5. Scripture says this now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless that is not guilty at the coming of our.

Lord Jesus Christ he who called you is faithful and he will do it God who called us to be followers of Jesus is faithful and all the way to the end we will be guiltless you may not know what your health is going to be like you may not know whether you'll keep your wealth or not but you can know what's going to happen with your soul because if you turned it over to Jesus you know he's going to keep it and it will be in his safe keeping forever.

And when Jesus comes back or when we die and we have to stand before God in judgment he's going to look and see that we've asked Jesus to be our savior and we've been washed by the blood of the lamb we've been our sins cleansed because Jesus said shed his blood on the cross and he's going to say not guilty welcome home welcome to heaven it's given us a place in heaven God is faithful God is faithful says verse 9 by whom you were called into the fellowship with his son aren't you glad you can have fellowship with.

Jesus the son of God something else that's marvelous isn't Jesus the one who was the son of God and he can be our friend he's our companion he's the one who walks with us he gives us his presence he's our good shepherd and we can have fellowship with him fellowship with God's son himself why because God is faithful he's faithful not a lot of faithfulness around today spouses aren't faithful with each other as they should be sometimes parents aren't faithful to provide.

For their children as they should adult children are not always faithful to take care of their aging parents businesses not always faithful to the employees and employees not the businesses always a lot of faithfulness around but God is always faithful again and again he reminds us of that in his word back over the old testament in deuteronomy know therefore that the lord your God is God the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his two commandments down to the thousandth generation or psalm 145 reminds us again of God's faithfulness and in it we read your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures through all generations.

The lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works or in lamentations chapter 3 great promise but this i call to mind and therefore i have hope the steadfast love of the lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end they are new every morning great is your faithfulness and then even in the new testament we were reminded of that again and again such as in hebrews chapter 10 let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

For he who promised is faithful God is the God you can depend upon God is the God who has called you as individuals to be saints and sanctified who has called you as a Church to be his Church here in casey south carolina in cooperation with one another cooperation with others as we seek to make the Gospel known in this building outside this building and around the world God has faithfully called us given us his grace given us his peace given us his supply given us his strength giving us the assurance that he's going to be with us.

Today tomorrow next month next year and forever we serve a faithful God the faithful God who has called you into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ our lord now aren't you glad that you serve such a faithful God amen amen thank you for letting me be with you today it's been a great privilege.

Mill City 11/8/20 Mill City 11/8/20

Healing of a Blind Man (Matthew 20:29-34)

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

Good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors uh here we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 20 verses 29 through 34 so you can go ahead and flip there it'll be on the screen as well uh years ago my wife and i when we got married wanted a honeymoon in italy uh but we did not have the money and then after paying our way through seminary we still did not have the money but my parents were going to italy.

For a mediterranean cruise they're gonna go there for a few days and then cruise afterwards and they said we'll take you i said great and they said one exchange give us grandchildren we'll take you i said deal do you plan on having kids anyways so we got a vacation out that we wanted we also got our oldest daughter it was a win-win but when we were in rome uh we were in rome the first night we showed up my parents their friends they were they were sitting down to eat we went to this restaurant and i just we sat down they they said all right they told the waitress they said you just bring out.

Whatever dishes you want whatever you think is good we want an authentic and amazing italian meal and i was like sweet i've never been a part of one of these things before this is going to be great and the first dish came out it was abundantly clear between the carbs and the cheeses and the spices this was not olive garden this was it took one bite that first dish was like the rest of this meal is going to be amazing and it was it's one of the best meals that we ever had that is what the miracles of.

Jesus uh and his healing stories and everything we've seen the Gospel of Matthew that's what they get to be they are an appetizer they're a foretaste of of greater realities of greater truths that are about to be opened up as he goes to the cross in between commissions out the Church there are four tastes of things to come that's why we talked about this back in Matthew 9 when Jesus heals the paralytic he says but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins he.

Then said the paralytic rise pick up your bed and go home it wasn't just the power of healing a paralytic that pointed to something bigger that the forgiveness of sins the hope of the Gospel that's what these miracle stories do they're a foretaste for greater truths for greater realities they're going to be explored by his disciples but the problem is for us is that there are a lot of miracle stories i mean we've been through Matthew at this point for over a year.

Now we've seen a ton of them and it's just you read them if you read through the gospels it's like oh he healed another person he healed another person another miracle and after a while they start to to lose their luster a little bit we get used to them and we forget the power that is actually bound up in them it's just kind of like oh another another healing story nice let's move on to something else uh the reality is is that miracles are incredible you ever experience a miracle it's incredible they disrupt the natural order of how things are supposed to go i was reading a novel earlier this year by leif enger his.

First novel piece like a river and this is what he says the book has a big theme on miracles and he says this and i love it he says let me say something about that word miracle for too long it's been used to characterize things or events that though pleasant are entirely normal peeping chicks at easter time spring generally a clear sunrise after an overcast week a miracle people say as if they've been educated from greeting cards i'm sorry but nope such things are worth or are noticed every day of the week.

But to call them miracles evaporates the strength of the world of the word real miracles bother people let me say that a miracle is no cute thing but more like the swing of a sword i love that but we just get so used to to saying you'll see a sunrise or a sunset over the mountains of the ocean we say that's that's miraculous the gamecocks beat a ranked opponent it's a miracle we we cheapen the word we we have this sanitized uh uh greeting card version of the word of miracle and the concept of the miraculous.

When the reality it's disruptive it's disruptive like a sword if you experienced a miracle you don't have the categories to be able to to explain what you just saw it disrupts the natural order and that's exactly what God does God when he supernaturally intervenes he disrupts the natural order of things he disrupts a fallen and broken world and then this final miraculous healing story in the Gospel of Matthew that we get to see we will see all of that on full display and we will take a step back from it and as we take a step back we'll.

See that it's not just an incredible healing story though it is that it actually points to a much greater truth about the Gospel so let me pray and we'll jump into the story father i pray that you would help us be present this morning many of us came in in different places different things different burdens got to pray that you'd help us just listen this morning you'd speak to us and i pray that we respond in Jesus name amen all right.

Verse 29 and as they went out of Jericho all right so let me pause and give some context before we are in the ministry of Jesus sometimes when you read the gospels uh it can be frustrating because the stories sometimes seem out of order like you'll read about one story that shows up the beginning of one Gospel and then you read the next Gospel it shows up at the end because a lot of these events aren't in chronological order there's a general beginning with the life and ministry of.

Jesus and there's a general end after the resurrection but the middle gets fuzzy for us and it's because we are our modern postmodern thinkers we we're 21st century people we like our history in chronological order this event than this event than this event and that's not how first century middle easterners wrote history they they told it thematically they placed this story with this story because it taught this greater truth and they put this story beside this teaching because it illustrated this greater truth they just do it differently think christopher nolan.

So an interstellar i heard uh the new tenant movie is like this dunkirk was just shifting all the events around in the end your minds are blown think that and we appreciate more michael bay just straightforward just it's nice sometimes but that they just tell it differently but every now and then every now and then we can actually place one of these stories chronologically and this is one of those stories this story the healing of of the of these two men that we're about to.

See uh and in other gospels they focus on just one of the men bartimaeus it shows up right before Jesus goes into Jerusalem every single Gospel so why is that important verse 29 and as they went out of Jericho a great crowd followed him it's important because at this point we know we are at the end of Jesus ministry three years of teachings and healings and crowds amassing there's more hype and more buildup as he's traveling towards Jerusalem we've been in galilee.

Now the story is descending towards Jerusalem Jericho is one of the the largest big cities before you get to it's only a few miles away from Jerusalem there's this hype and there's this buildup and these crowds are getting excited we're going to see that in a couple of weeks we walk through the triumphant entry when he walks into the city there's a ton of buildup as he passes into Jericho and when he gets to Jericho it felt a little bit like the beatles coming to america steve spurrier coming to columbia circa 2005 like it would have been this this big build up.

And then he would do what he normally does when he shows up to cities he teaches and he performs miracles and crowds just they're getting closer and closer elbow elbow getting next to each other so they can get as close as they can to experience Jesus there's all kinds of buzz wherever Jesus goes he does this thing in the city of Jericho we don't get to read it and then we pick up as they're leaving Jericho verse 30. and behold there were two men two blind men sitting by the roadside.

And when they heard that Jesus was passing by they cried out lord have mercy on us son of David so all kinds of things are happening in the city of Jericho they start to leave Jericho and there's two blind men that are sitting out by the roadside outside the city and they have not gotten to experience Jesus and the city maybe it's because they didn't think that they could navigate their way into the city they certainly didn't have anybody to help them get into the city we saw with the healing of the paralytic they had that man had friends that brought him in to.

See Jesus but no one's actually taking them in to see Jesus and what's happening in the city they are on the outside of all the amazing things that were happening in the city but that honesty with just a glimpse of their life seems to be pretty obvious if they're standing on the roadside and what we know from the other gospels is they were called beggars they're poor they don't they don't have a whole lot of hope they're outside the city asking.

For money asking for food asking for anybody that'll actually help them years ago i was in marrakech morocco and i was in the marketplace one night and there was a blind uh homeless man and he was he would take a few steps he'd hold his hand out and he'd shout something out in arabic which i'm sure was asking for alms since that's one of the five pillars of islam and then he would you know someone would give him money i saw at least one person give him money he'd take it he tried a few more steps and he'd shout out again holding his hands out asking i'm sure.

For money or food and that was his life going out into the markets asking for help because the reality is in cultures like that and the culture that we have in the Bible there was no social security there was no safety net there wasn't a help for for disabilities at all if you didn't have family to take care of you your only hope was the streets to ask and to beg that someone might have pity someone have mercy it would help you.

So they're used to this they're used to being on the outside they're used to missing out on all of the good experiences they're used to being out there asking for things but then Jesus starts to travel outside the city right by them and there's a glimmer of hope and they don't just cry Jesus i want to point out what they say they say son of David son of David that title is packed with significance we talked about this when we walked through the genealogy in Matthew 1 that the Matthew is holds up.

Jesus and his line going back to David because what that shows is that Jesus is the savior king he is the messiah he is the one who is to come there's a lot i mean son of David is very similar for the jewish ear to say Christ when they say that they are calling him out as the savior king son of David have mercy on us verse 31 the crowd rebuked them telling them to be silent no just be silent again probably used to this being out on the outside being rejected the reality is in this culture.

If you were disabled it was assumed that you probably did something to deserve this that your parents did something for you to deserve this that you're cursed so be be silent you don't you don't need to get near Jesus you probably deserve what you have there's this stigma that comes along with the disability and this rejection but i love it they're not going to be deterred they're not going to stop it continues but they cried out all the more lord have mercy on us son of David all the more that's over and over and over and over again son of David son of David have mercy on a son of David they're not going to.

Stop they know that hope is passing by that you are our only hope Jesus son of David don't pass us by i'm tired of being an outsider i'm tired of being poor i'm tired of being looked at as as i deserve this i'm tired of all the stigma i'm tired of being on the outside Jesus lord son of David don't don't pass this by they call out over and over and over again they want to see what they've been missing for all these years.

Finally Jesus stops verse 32 and stopping Jesus called them and said what do you want me to do for you so they're calling out over and over again crowds are telling be quiet they're not going to stop and then Jesus stops and they can hear his voice directed at them probably since his presence coming a little bit closer what do you want me to do for you they have the intention of the most important man they are ever going to meet.

Verse 33 they said to him lord let our eyes be opened they've heard the rumors they've heard about Jesus they've heard all of the rumors of of healing people all the miraculous things he's done lord let our eyes be open we know you we know you're able will you open our eyes verse 34 and Jesus in pity touched their eyes and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him can't see they can hear his voice as he gets closer he approaches these two blind beggars that always get shunned they get rejected that are seen as outcast as sinful as dirty.

Jesus and compassion comes closely and i want you notice what he does he doesn't just snap his fingers and say you recovered your sight it didn't just say you're healed he puts his hands on their eyes just the intimate care that Jesus gives towards people puts his hands on their eyes and they recover their sight i got interested in this interested in this this week there are uh nowadays because of science because of medicine and the advances that we have there are uh ways to cure certain types of blindness and i watched a bunch of videos of people being able to.

See for the first time and i just wanted to show one in particular this is a video of a man who a young man who is uh has been colorblind his entire life and his friends they uh they all pitch in there's there's some new glasses that you can buy that cure certain types of color blindness so they all pitched in the money together and they gave it to them there's no guarantee it was going to work but they give it to him i just want you to catch a picture of what it looks like to.

See something for the first time i remember there was this one yellow leaf on a tree like straight ahead of me and as soon as i put them on like it just popped out like like striking like it wasn't like a light brownish gray color like it was it was yellow oh you're bored today just go on youtube and watch some of these videos people hear him for the first time people sing for the first time it's incredible and he got to.

See color for the first time imagine seeing darkness your entire life and then all of a sudden boom you can see in 20 20 vision i want you to picture what happens here Jesus puts his hands on their eyes and when he moves them the first thing they see with their new set of eyes is the face of God they get to see the face of God and once they see him they look up and they see the blue in the sky they.

See the colors all around them they see their hands for the first time by seeing Jesus and by his power they see everything else it's an incredible story and what do they do after they can see for the first time they get in line and they follow them because the reality is when you experience the power of God the only reasonable step next step is to follow them and off they go with Jesus towards Jerusalem now that story is just a few verses long.

But it's incredible when you just slow down and you picture what's happening here when you look at the details the amount of joy that is in this i also love this story because all of us can connect to it on a much deeper level listen the main mission of Jesus was not come not to come and heal people it was not to come and and heal the blind and raise paralytics that wasn't the main mission that was an appetizer that was a foretaste of a much bigger much more important much more eternal reality he came to give sight to the spiritually blind that is what this story is ultimately pointing to he came to give.

Sight to those who are spiritually blind those who are walking in darkness Jesus is the light that lights up the darkness he came to give us a new set of eyes we see this in in john 9 and john 9 he heals a younger man and and towards the end of it this is what happens in verse 39 Jesus said for judgment i came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind some of the pharisees near him heard these things and said to him are we also blind.

Jesus said to them if you were blind you would have no guilt but now that you say we see your guilt remains Jesus heals this man and then he shows the bigger point here that he came for those who were spiritually blind he came for those who know that who are humble enough to see and recognize their own sin that they might believe and then in that story the pharisee the pharisees recognize they're being called out and i said oh you're saying we can't.

See he says absolutely your guilt remains the whole point is is that if you think that you are good if you think that you see things clearly if you think that your righteousness stands before you before God then your guilt remains you don't get the Gospel he came for those who were spiritually blind Jesus came into the world to heal to give sight to the blind and then ultimately we might follow him but that only happens when you understand the most important aspect of his work was not what happens here in Jericho it is the healing that happens in Jerusalem it is.

When we have our eyes open when we look at what Jesus did for us on the cross when we look at that with the same kind of hope and vigor and longing and desperation that these two blind men did outside of Jericho this deep longing to be redeemed that's the bigger point of what's happening here so my question is firstly have you come to Christ with that type of desperation with that type of just hope and longing have you come to.

Jesus like these two blind beggars did have you come to him saying Jesus i've been an outsider my entire life and i i won't end i want you that i'm tired of being alone that i'm tired of being on the outside that i'm tired of being i'm tired of my sin i'm tired of being separated from you that i won't fellowship with you that i want life with you that i want to follow you have you come with that type of desperation to say.

Lord give me eyes to see and believe the Gospel son of David don't pass me by i want in have you come to him with that type of desperate hope because that is the type of desperate plea that stops the savior and his tracks that is what faith actually looks like it is that kind of plea that opens your eyes that you might behold the face of God be changed by him and never be the same that's the kind of faith that is being pointed out here and the reality is.

If you do not think you're blind if you think that you're doing fine on your own that you've got it all together that you don't need faith that you don't need Jesus you are blind to your own blindness if you think your good works will stand for you that the ultimate way to get to God is just do and do and do and be that you were blind to your own blindness or as uh the song that we're going to close with.

Today says the blind won't gain their sight by opening their eyes you won't gain your sight by trying to do this yourself you won't gain your sight by trying to open your own eyes you need a desperate plea and a hope and a longing for the only one that gives sight for the only one that gives his faith to belief and that's my hope is that if you have never trusted in Jesus that you would be humble enough to recognize your hopelessness outside of him this morning and that you would believe my hope is that we would not.

Look at the miraculous work of Jesus as a small thing as a cute thing but we would see it as a sword that disrupts the natural order of this world and that we would come to him with a desperate hope and the only logical next step is i'm in and i'll follow you wherever that is i'm in for some of you that uh have trusted in Jesus that have a new set of eyes that have been following him i want you to recognize something that though we have a new set of eyes and we can.

See it doesn't mean that we're not prone to some blind spots this idea carries throughout the rest of the new testament we just read some passages that flesh this out first john 2 11 says but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because darkness the darkness has blinded his eyes you following Jesus and you can have a new set of eyes but then you can start you can get a fight with another Christian you can get bitter the reality is is that unless you have reconciled you have a blind spot.

First john says you are darkened and you cannot see straight Revelation 3 17 for you say i am rich i have prospered and i need nothing not realizing that you are wretched pitiable poor blind and naked that's Jesus in a letter to one of the churches in the new testament saying that if you've trusted in riches you're blinded by them in fact you're poor pitiable blind and naked the reality is the riches of this world as we've seen throughout the Gospel of Matthew can blind you from actually seeing and savoring and following.

Jesus in the way that we're supposed to maybe you got some blind spots with riches i'll give you one more second Peter 1 says for this reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge and knowledge with self-control and self-control with steadfastness and step fastest with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection brotherly affection with love for if these qualities are yours and increasing they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful on the knowledge of our lord.

Jesus Christ hear this for whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins the reality is if you're not pursuing a lot of what is here as the fruit of the spirit if you're not pursuing virtue if you're not pursuing Jesus and asking for these things then you're nearsighted you can't see what's right in front of you you need to actually pursue him ask for help and repentance pursue the things he calls us to there there's a lot of ways that we have blind spots and in community groups this week we're going to walk through them my hope is this morning that you.

Would ask God what are my blind spots where am i not seeing the Gospel clearly or am i not believing the Gospel and my hope is do you show up to community group this week with some humility and allow some of the people who love you most in your life to maybe point out some of those blind spots for you matt's going to come up and we are going to close with a song that is right out of this passage and ah you may not be familiar with it i just want you to to.

Listen to the words and i want you to be open and honest for a moment this is a big room i have no doubt there's probably someone who's not actually absolutely trusted in Jesus with this type of desperate plea with this type of desperate faith and my hope this morning is that you would the son of David is here his arms open saying i want you and my hope is that you would you would give in to that type of love that he went to the cross.

For you that you might not be blind anymore that he's offering you sight to believe my hope is that you would trust in him this morning stop running the life away from him stop trying to prove your life with good works my hope is that you would have the humility to recognize your sin and with this type of desperate plea that you would call out son of David give me sight give me eyes to believe and trust in you that i want you that's my hope is that you have the humility that.

God would pierce your heart right now that you would not run from it you would sit in this and respond in faith for some of you that believe in Jesus you got sin we all have got mess and it's serious my hope is that we respond this morning with some humility to recognize that that as this song is sung over to you that you might ask God where am i blind where am i not seeing and believing the way i'm supposed to and may we humbly in repentance ask him to change us that we might have vision that is needed may we respond in faith this morning.

Let me pray God no doubt there's a lot of burdens and struggles and brokenness and mess that we bring to the table this morning God i pray that for those of us that have trusted in Christ that you would start to shed light into some of the darkness in our life there may be folks here that have been holding on to sin they've never confessed they've been presenting themselves as better than they are break them down this morning may they see you and hope in you and trusting you and walking in the light as better than walking in darkness.

God i pray if there is anyone here that does not trust in you may they come to you with this same desperation these two men and may you give them eyes to see and believe and may they follow you forever we ask in Jesus name amen.

Mill City 11/2/20 Mill City 11/2/20

Service, Slavery, and Death (Matthew 20:17-28)

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.

Transcript

Well good morning my name's chet i'm one of the pastors here grab your bibles let's go to Matthew chapter 20. we're working through the Gospel of Matthew when it wasn't coronavirus time we had bibles out for everybody to use we have it up on the screen if you didn't bring one with you today but if you can we encourage you to bring one and we encourage you to have a Bible know your Bible love your Bible but we will have the words up on the screen this morning as we go through Matthew 20 we uh i want to talk i think most people have have played the game i'm about to talk about at some.

Point in your life um depending on your ranking among your friends in the social hierarchy or your age among your siblings depends on how much you enjoyed this game how much you remember it with fondness or without but i think at some point growing up you played a game where someone was king or queen or where you got to be king or queen and everybody else was your servants you you played this game someone talked hey we're gonna play this game and i'm gonna be king and and y'all are gonna do what i say.

Now if you're the oldest sibling you're like oh yeah i love that game if you're second third fourth in line you're like oh yeah i remember that game some of you maybe just played this with um stuffed animals and hopefully if it was just you and stuffed animals then you were the royalty and they served you otherwise you may have self-esteem issues but i remember playing this and i remember you know the idea of having someone who served me was was wonderful i usually started off as a servant i had an older brother and i found that by the time it was my turn you know i knew i didn't mind being a servant at.

First because i knew one day i would rise to power because it would be my turn at some point and i remember when it was my turn usually we had played the game long enough and it was time to move on it was getting kind of boring for my older brother he was like yeah okay well we probably we should do something different so i didn't get to be king often but the idea that wouldn't it be nice if i was great wouldn't it be nice.

If i was at the top wouldn't it be nice if everyone else around me served me never really goes away that desire that undercurrent we pretended at it there but you kind of want that you go through life and you think wouldn't it be nice if i could get this raised wouldn't it be nice if i could be the one with that office wouldn't it be nice if i could just have a situation where everybody around me did what i wanted and we're gonna.

See that that doesn't really go away in our hearts and we're gonna see a situation where Jesus is addressing this in his disciples so let's pray and let's read this together this morning God we thank you for your word we pray that you would bless us as we study it together that we would see Christ clearly and fall more in love with him in Jesus name amen so Matthew chapter 20 verse 17 it said and Jesus and as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem he took the twelve disciples aside and on the way he said to them.

So he's got more people following than just the twelve but at some point he pulls the twelve aside he said then he talked to y'all he said see we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and he will be raised on the third day now he refers to himself as the son of man we saw last week in the section we were talking about he referred to himself as the son of man.

But he made it really clear he was talking about himself so they understood at this point should understand that when he's saying the son of man he was talking about himself and so he says hey we're going to Jerusalem and i'm going to be handed over to be crucified i'm going to be taken by the scribes and the pharisees and i'm going to be giving over to the gentiles that's the romans the non-jewish people i'm going to be giving over to the gentiles and i'm going to be mocked and flogged which is beaten.

And then crucified and then on the third day i'll be raised and so he's telling his disciples this is where we're going and this is the third time he's told his disciples this and it's helpful for us to understand that with as much as Jesus taught he did not primarily come to earth to tell us what he wanted from us i think sometimes we go okay God what do you want from me okay what do i need to do to be.

Okay what do i need to do to be on your good side and the reality is Jesus comes and says no i've come to do something for you that's why the Gospel is good news it's about an event that happened and so he came for us to accomplish something for us to die on the cross for us not so that we might do something for him but first and foremost he comes to do something for us and that is beautiful news.

And so he's telling his disciples and he's bringing them back to it over and over again he's saying look i know i've been teaching you but it's not about your behavior and it's not about what you're going to do it's about what i'm going to do now they wouldn't have understood fully at this point they might have understood he was going to die but they didn't maybe wrap their heads around that he had to die in order to forgive our sins that he had to rise in order to give us hope in him.

But that's what he came to accomplish was not to just teach some things not to just hand off some wisdom if that were the case he could have gone to a cave with his 12 disciples and taught stuff and never run around getting everybody mad at him and never headed into Jerusalem where he knew he was going to be crucified so Jesus came to accomplish something for us this is his purpose i don't want you if you're new to christianity i want you to hear that i want you to understand that.

If you're just visiting today all other religions are going to tell you what you need to do to be okay with God how you get to God christianity is how God got to us other religions are going to tell you what you need to do for God and christianity is about what God has done for us and then we respond after God came to claim us and after he accomplished this for us we respond to it we don't earn or work our way towards it and that's good news we could close the Bible we could pray that could be the end.

Today that's good news it's not though we're going to keep going so he's gonna be raised on the third day then the mother of the sons of zebedee came up to him so the sons of zebedee are james and john uh three of the principal disciples so he had 12 disciples and then he had the three had Peter james and john james and john are brothers at one point they are referred to as the sons of thunder he gave him a nickname maybe thunder was their mom i don't know we're about to.

See then the mother of the sons of zebedee came up to him with her sons and kneeling before him that's Jesus she asked him for something and he said to her what do you want now at first that can seem a little cold but this is she came and said i want to ask you a favor i want to ask you something and one of the ways they would put this a lot of times you see in the Scriptures is like i wanna i wanna i would like.

For you to grant my request so it's similar to if someone comes to you and says hey will you do me a favor you say what is it you don't necessarily just say yes sure any favor you say well what is it what do you want and that's what he says what what do you want what's the request she said to him say that these two sons of mine are to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom.

So Jesus earlier in this chapter had said that or in chapter 19 and then carried over into chapter 20. but he said that the disciples would sit on thrones when he was in his glorious kingdom and sat on his glorious throne they would sit on thrones around him and so this went right to their heart this idea they would get to sit on thrones and so they said hey as long as there's going to be thrones we'd like to talk about the location of ours.

And so the mother of the sons of zebedee comes and says and in the other gospels it just says the sons of zebedee came so they're moms involved but it was easy it's just as true to say it was just them because they were the ones driving this but they got their mom in on it i guess maybe they thought maybe he'll say yes to our mom he doesn't always say yes to us but he's nice to women i don't know i don't know what their plan was.

But they get their mom to come and they ask can we be at your right hand or left meaning can we be the chief among the other disciples can we be right hand left hand can we be supreme that's the request Jesus answered you do not know what you are asking are you able to drink the cup that i am to drink so he looks at him and says y'all don't realize what you just asked you think what you ask is a position of power you think what you ask is a position of strength you think what you ask is a position of authority what you've just asked.

For the closest to me is the closest to suffering can you drink the cup of suffering i'm gonna drink this is when he in the garden the night before the crucifixion he says if if it be your will lord let this cup pass from me this crucifixion this wrath this suffering and so he says to disciples can you handle what i'm going to take there is in some sense Jesus in his glory Jesus raised up is on a cross and his right hand and his left hand are two crosses.

But there will be a time when he's on a throne and his right hand and his left hand will be people sitting on thrones that's what they're asking for but they don't realize that the road to that is suffering the road to that is pain he says you don't know what you're asking for can you drink the cup i'm to drink they said to him it's still verse 22 we are able she says are you able to drink the cup and they say we are able he said to them you will drink my cup.

But to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my father so he says okay you'll drink my cup you'll take on suffering and they do you will join me in suffering for the sake of the kingdom for the sake of the Gospel for the sake of the name of Christ but i can't give that's not mine to grant who sits at my right my left.

And when the ten heard it they were indignant at the two brothers yeah the other ten hear this and they're like seriously that's what the office little conversation was about y'all y'all went and asked for a promotion you want to be the ones that sit closest to Jesus it doesn't say this i think this is most uh more a shot at Peter than anybody else because he was at least in the top three they thought we got a good run at this as long as we can get Peter out i don't know how much bartholomew thought no i'm in the running i don't know we don't hear much about him.

But the other 10 are just frustrated they're like really your goal is to be chief among us your goal is to be the greatest and the reality is Jesus has been addressing this with his disciples this will be the third time now the beginning of 18 they were having an argument about who the greatest was in 19 Peter says hey what are we gonna get Jesus keeps trying to tell them that's not how this works be like a child be humble like a child the.

First will be last he keeps trying to push on them this isn't how this works and we they hadn't learned it's like they weren't even listening to him when he talked they were like they were dreaming about how they could get their mom to come help now i hope so the disciples were very frustrated i hope after Jesus dies after he's raised after they see how this is going to play out i hope that the disciples genuinely forgave them but i also hope that they forever from a posture of pure forgiveness gave them a really hard time about this i hope that they just brought it up.

So this is just a hope i have i hope that there were times where james said to Peter hey do you know what that last parable was about and Peter was like i don't know if only our mom was here we could ask him i just hope they brought it up some that's just for me it doesn't say that they did but they're frustrated and Jesus is going to step into this situation he's going to help them see y'all are thinking about this wrong.

Now the reality is their request isn't crazy it's not out of the ordinary for us or for them it doesn't seem odd that you would go to your manager or your boss and say hey i know there's room for promotion and i just want to put my name in the hat i think i deserve that hey i know you go to someone who's about to be promoted to from assistant manager to manager and you say hey i just want you to know i'm glad you're getting the manager position.

And when you move up might i be at your right hand can i be assistant manager i just want to put my name in i know you'll be looking to replace that position so don't sit here all bibles smug and be like tischus can't believe they would do that the reality is this is normal for them this is normal for us and it's it's a bit of a plague in our souls that we want to self-promote we want others to see us and value us we want to be exalted we want to be great we want to be.

First we want to be lifted up and so Jesus is going to respond to this verse 25 but Jesus called them to him and said you know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them and their great ones exercise authority over them so he says you you know what this looks like you know you look out in the world and you see people and the rulers of gentiles be non-believing peoples he says you look out you know what this looks like yes we know what this looks like they had seen what great ones did how they were weighted on how they were treated how they were elevated uh it reminds me as i.

Was reading through this the story of uh john adams got to be the first ambassador to england to britain after we had won our freedom from them so it's kind of an awkward position to be in to be representing the new country that just won their freedom from you but he was he was the first one there and as in his writings he got to go meet the king he was gonna have to go meet the king and basically the rule was.

When you met the king you had to walk in when you opened the door you had to bow there's a certain special way you walked halfway bowed again when you got all the way up there you bowed again and then you gave a short speech and you tried to be as flattering as possible in his writings he said i asked the other ambassadors if they were messing with me this is true this is the way this works he was like so i was just making sure they weren't just trying to get one over on make america come do something ridiculous he said no this is what it does.

And then on the way out you bowed and you didn't show your back to the king so you walked backwards when you reached halfway you bowed again he walked all the way back to the door about again and left that there's this idea that wouldn't it be great if there's royalty he says you know what this looks like what royalty looks like what people who are chief and we know what this looks like the ceo doesn't go go on coffee runs the person at your job who makes the schedule often has a really good schedule we know what it looks like.

When somebody's in charge we know what it looks like when someone gets a little bit of power we've seen that play out so that's what he says you know what this looks like you know how they lowered it over them you know how they take it to their advantage you know how they use it for their own purposes and then he says it shall not be so among you so you know that model the the pursuit of greatness striving for greatness wanting to be elevated using it.

For your own purposes uh lording it over other people enjoying the perks and the benefits of your position that's not how it's going to work among you it's not how it's going to work among my people i am i grew up on hand-me-downs so i would get the clothes my older brother had worn sometimes it was nice you'd get something nice and you'd think yeah he hit a growth spurt and you'd start plotting on some of his clothes you'd be like nice i'll get to wear that soon we also did i didn't just get hand-me-downs from older brother we also got hand-me-downs from our cousins.

So we would get together for thanksgiving or christmas and then all the ants would bring big trash bags and dump out clothes and that's how we would shop for clothes you would just we'd have to spend every time we got together family an hour or so trying on clothes seeing what fit taking things and so i had one i had this shirt that was my favorite shirt it was a hand-me-down shirt i had gotten i loved this shirt it was kind of my go-to i'm having fun.

Today shirt this is it's going to be a good day kind of shirt and so i often wore it when i was hanging out with friends and i had this one friend who's my next-door neighbor his name is aaron aaron uh that's how they said it his name was aaron and he said uh one time we were hanging out he said man i need to ask you so what he said why do you always wear that girl shirt i was in like.

Second third grade and i was like do what now he said that shirt that you wear all the time is a girl's shirt i was like are you sure he said yeah my sister has one and i remember going home i could still see it in my mind standing at the dresser looking at the mirror looking at myself in that shirt and i thought no i should have been able to tell no this is a girl's shirt now that you pointed out it's it's pretty girly i even later i never wore the shirt again i later i went to even had to have a conversation with mom i was like hey you know you only.

Have three sons tell your aunts not to put girl clothes in the bags like tell your sisters don't do that to us be great because some people can't tell the difference and then they get embarrassed later i remember being at my uh cousin's house and seeing a picture of her on the wall in that shirt and she looked great in it it's not my style anymore i don't wear that kind of stuff anymore when we approach greatness the same way as the world we're taking hand-me-downs from culture that don't actually fit us that were not actually intended.

For us and we can pretend like they look good but on Jesus people they certainly do not they're not meant for us to treat greatness and power and authority the same way we're meant to look different and that's what he's saying this this should not be so among you that's out of place among my people and then he tells them why he tells him why very clearly he says whoever would be great among you must be your servant and whoever would be.

First among you must be your slave so their questions completely backwards hey can we rise to the top he says if you want to be great be a servant if you want to be first be a slave even as the son of man that's Christ came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many he says the reason this doesn't fit among my people is because it's not how what i came to do as the chief example the one to follow the one to model your life after i did not come to be served.

But to serve that Christ the exalted king of the universe the eternal king humbled himself in the form of a servant and came to serve and to give his life to rescue people and that's why if we follow him but we live as if others are meant to serve us it doesn't work in some ways when we have that attitude what we're saying is that certainly Jesus should have served others but i deserve to be served and none of us would actually say that.

But we might functionally live that way so the reality is you can walk through life before we get there i want i want to point something out that i think's beautiful this is God's plan for power this is his design for strength this is his design for leadership this is his design for greatness that it would be used on behalf of those under you if that makes sense that Christ is exalted above us but he uses his greatness he uses his power he uses his authority to not rise to the top.

But to go to the bottom and to serve everyone this is his picture for power this is his picture for strength this is his picture for your life and your energy should be used in service to others and the reality is we love this every time we see it we respond beautifully to this because we know this is how it was meant to be it's recently a story of a six-year-old boy he's welcome his name was bridger walker he was walking with his sister i think she was three or four he's six and a dog comes out runs and starts attacking them and the six-year-old boy just jumps in front of the dog and i.

Mean the dog messes him up if you look him up it cut his face real bad but his sister doesn't have a scratch on him he's eventually able to get away from the dog he gets his sister to safety he's bleeding his aunt said she was tending to him and he looked at his aunt six-year-old boy and he said i just thought if someone had to die it should be me yes that's exactly what strength is supposed to be meant for he was faster he could outrun his sister like that he could have pushed her in front of him he could have gotten out of the situation he could have gotten to safety he could.

Have left without getting hurt he could have acted as if his sister was there in order to make him safer but the reality was he said no i'm the strongest one i'm the toughest one i'm the oldest one if someone's got to go it's got to be me and that's God's design for leadership it's God's design for strength and it's beautiful and we ought not to reject it but the reality is every day we have so many opportunities to either embrace it or to reject it you can walk through life with the assumption that i'm here to serve or you can walk through life with the assumption that others are here to serve me.

So let's talk through that for a minute if you have roommates do you approach that situation as if you're there to surf as if you're there to make the house better as if you're a servant to all when it comes time to pay bills when it comes time to clean if you're married and you see a pile of dishes in the dish in the sink do you think i'm here to serve i'm so glad my spouse knew that they lived with a servant.

When there's yard work to be done when the child is screaming do you think let's wait and see if my spouse will answer if i stay real quiet because reality is when your child yells they're screaming for a servant they need an attendant i have a a well how old is he two i have a two-year-old he wakes up at five o'clock in the morning demanding service looking for his servants his slaves that live in his house that will tend to him.

Now i have a role as a parent to correct him but the truth is he needs help if he's getting up at five just to go to the bathroom he needs help he's not gonna do that well on his own you guys and i can either serve him right then or i can serve later by cleaning up but when you're at your house and you're facing who's going to do laundry who's going to cook who's going to take out the trash you can live as.

If the other people in your home are there to serve you or as if you're there to serve them is it just at homeless is it work do you enter your job as if you were a servant there to make the place better there to serve your co-workers i don't know your job but i know this about work there is a distinct way in every job for you to go above and beyond for your co-workers and your and your managers and there's a distinct way.

For you to figure out how not to do that and it just depends on the job i used to work sales we did we were 100 commission but then we had to reset the sales floor we had to set things up we had to restock shelves and every time you were doing that you were making zero dollars the only way to make money was to talk to customers so if you're resetting the sales floor and your salesman co-workers running and talking to customers they're making money and you're not my wife's a bank teller it has to do with.

When you close your drawer down because if you're going to leave at five if you start closing your drawer down at five you've helped till five and you won't leave till 5 15. but if you're gonna leave at five and you start closing your drawer down at 4 40 or 4 45 you can walk out the door at five and so i don't know your work but i know there's an opportunity for you to serve i know there's a way for you to to cover shifts and to care.

For your your co-workers i know there's a way for you to show up early or stay late i know there's a way for you to make life working with you better as the posture of a servant and i also know there's a way for you to be extremely frustrated by your coworkers because they're imposing on your time or your paycheck i know there's a way for you to live with your possessions as if they exist to serve others and i know there's a way.

For you to live as if they exist to serve you i know there's a way for us to live with our finances as if they exist to serve others or if they exist to serve me i know there's a way for us to walk through all of life looking to other people looking to our friends looking to our family as if they're imposing on us and as if they have forgotten that they were meant to make our life better some of you have friends that only call you.

When they need something some of you have friends that genuinely want to be around you but they suck the life out of you when they do they're down they distill some of your happiness and when you get the phone call you get to answer the question do i exist to serve am i a servant am i a slave i think one of the immediate responses to this is okay but won't people take advantage of me if i if i walk through my house you don't understand.

If i walk through my house as if i was a servant to my spouse do you not know how much advantage of me they would take do you not know what they would be like if i was at work and i just was there to serve do you know how much people would take advantage of me do y'all know what the word slave means that's a heavy word that greatness in the kingdom is slavery a true slave only lives to the advantage of their owner and it's horrible.

When it's imposed in a pagan world and it's beautiful when it's assumed by a Christian that Jesus came to suffer as a servant as a slave to everyone and he calls his people to do the same of their own will in their own graciousness as he empowers it let's talk about the Church because we can do this in the Church we don't just do it other places one of the best ways to see whether or not we're approaching the Church this way is.

If you say the phrase why don't they versus how can i why don't they fix that why don't they do this kind of song why don't they do this kind of leadership stuff why don't they do this with our group why doesn't my group keep up with people who aren't around why doesn't my group try to share the Gospel with people why don't they make sure that we have enough food every week why don't they know how to shut their mouth.

So that we can leave on time versus walking around with the question of how can i why don't they figure out how to get kids out of the auditorium versus how can i serve in kid city it's a very different question how can i make that better the truth is some of the stuff that we do as a Church family that's genuinely frustrating is genuinely frustrating we do it because we're sinners or we're bad at things some of the things you're most frustrated about are actually things that you're gifted in that.

God has empowered you with some strength some energy some intelligence and you ought to be using it to serve rather than using it as a position to sit and be upset with your servants some of you have moved from Church to Church relationship to relationship job to job and all you have declared with your attitude and your life is that i am displeased with the quality of servants that i have had in my past churches in my past relationships in my past job they did not understand that i was royalty they did not treat me appropriately they failed to live up to my expectations.

If you would like to be miserable walk around as if everybody around you is meant to serve you it's one of the quickest ways to be absolutely miserable if you want to hate your community group show up thinking that they exist for you because they're terrible at it if you want to be frustrated show up on sundays and sit and think why haven't they come talk to me do not acknowledge the fact that you did not go talk to them that might make you end up in a conversation just sit and wonder why they didn't talk to you don't acknowledge that you could give some energy and you could serve just acknowledge that they haven't.

Lived up to your expectations it's a wonderful way to be miserable but it's a terrible way to follow Jesus Jesus's invitation here is an invitation into joy it's an invitation into freedom it's an invitation to be first and to be great and the truth is every time we've ever just been free enough from ourselves to do this we have had great joy i grew up in a Church we would send out mission teams on sunday nights at times they would get to give a mission report some of you have been on mission trips some of you have been at mission report night some of you are just.

Now learning about these things keep listening every single time it did not matter 60 year old man forearms as big as a honey baked ham 13 year old girl wearing my favorite shirt doesn't matter they were all going to say the same thing we went to bless them we were blessed i went to serve them this is what he sounded like honey baked ham guy i was served every single time because for a week for a weekend they were able to get their mind around i'm just going here to make things better i'm not here to get anything out of this i'm just going here to do what the.

Lord wants i'm just going here to serve and it didn't matter what came up it didn't matter what broke down and it didn't matter what went wrong they had already gotten their mind wrapped around i'm here to be a servant and it's really hard to inconvenience a servant looking for an opportunity to serve and so they had tapped into some joy that was meant to operate in the world as we walk as people who believe the Gospel some of you know exactly what i'm talking about you've been on those trips and you thought yeah it was just such a blessing.

And then you came back i came back i went on those trips i came back i walked into hanging out with my group and i thought why are you all the worst because i had similar attitude to me that they were there to get something out versus to put something in that's why Jesus says it's more blessed to give than to receive that we're actually blessed in the giving up we're blessed in the sacrifice that it actually works for us if you don't feel connected here there's a good chance that you aren't serving that you aren't doing something to make things better this is why some of us and this is how this plays out.

When you begin to serve when you begin to live on behalf of others you grow in love for them you grow in freedom you grow in humility you grow enjoy this is why some of you and some of you right now are parents with small children and you need to listen to me but this is why some of you lived this out you had small children and you fell absolutely in love with those children because in your relationship to them you approached it as a servant i'm here to make things better and you did not expect anything out of them and at the exact same time you grew in increasing frustration with your spouse.

Because you expected them to step up on their serving and step up on making things better and they were not living up to your expectations and the truth is if we want some joy and we want some life and we want some love begin to serve now begin to walk around as if you're here to serve you're here to make things better it's an invitation into joy it's an invitation into freedom and you are in the way the reality is we want this to be the case.

If you're clear-headed enough you actually want to live life this way because it's so much more freedom here than waiting for other people to make things better so much more joy here to just operate as a servant you actually want this to be what our Church looks like you want this to be what Jesus people look like you want this to be what ultimately even people if they could just do this outside you want this to be what politics look like the people in power and people with money they use it.

For the sake of others it's what we want and we can't do it you can't do this not on your own see some of us right now are going okay i'm going to i'm going to do it i'm going to i'm going to serve but the only way we know how to do that on our own is to swell ourselves up to make ourselves bigger i'm going to be better by being a servant and the truth is we need to have ourselves conquered we need to be out of the way.

Jesus did not teach this and then not go to the cross he taught this and said follow me as he went to the cross it says the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many a ransom is the debt that is paid to set slaves free Jesus came and said i'm going to pay the debt so that the slaves can go free i'm going to pay this so that you're no longer a slave to sin.

So you're no longer a slave to self and if you have trusted in Jesus and if he has redeemed you and if he has filled you with the Holy Spirit then yes we can actually do this but only as we lean into him and he does it for us only as we follow after him the one who actually was a servant to all and a slave to all so that we might be free and then in our freedom we get to join him you're not going to be able to do this on your own you're not going to do this in your own strength you're not going to be able to do this in your.

Own power you're not going to be able to do this as you look at your own glory and look at how wonderful a servant i am some of you right now serve you do you work hard at your job but you grow in increasing frustration every time you serve with your spouse you grow an increasing frustration with your coworkers because you're not free you're serving but you're not your heart hasn't changed and we need him to change our hearts we need him to go to the cross we need him to die we need him to pay our ransom we need to be set free.

So as the band begins to come back up i want us to do this i want you to take a moment i want you to to focus in not on yourself not on your need to serve not on your need to be better i want you to focus in on Christ i want you to see him in his glory he says he'll be seated on a glorious throne i want you to know that he has a glorious throne where he rules and reigns as the king of all eternity and i want you to know that he gave that up.

So that he could die so that he could serve so that he could sacrifice i want us to be so enamored so captivated by so blown away by his humility and his service for us that we can actually have the freedom to get out of the way to love and to serve others to walk as if we exist for their benefit some of you have not placed your faith in Jesus you have not accepted the freedom that he offers the the payment that he makes.

For your sin for your slavery for your debt you need to trust him and some of you right now don't need to be sitting there giving yourself a pep talk about how you're going to do better you need to go to the lord and say i need you to help me i need me i need you to help me see the cross i need you to help me to see the blood that you shed for me i need you to help me.

See the path of a servant the joy that is in slavery for the sake of others i need you to empower me to be able to do that this is an invitation into freedom it's an invitation into life my encouragement is that we would take now we thank you that you served that you did not come to be served but you came to serve to give your life as a ransom that you set slaves free and we thank you that you invite us into the joy of humility and sacrifice the.

Lord we pray that we would see your glory you know your humility and we will follow after you as you empower us to do so in Jesus name.

Mill City 10/25/20 Mill City 10/25/20

Upside Down: The First are Last (Matthew 19:27-20:16)

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.

Transcript

Well good morning uh my name is chet i'm one of the pastors here grab your bibles go to Matthew chapter 19. we're working our way through the Gospel of Matthew and we're going to pick up right where we left off last week a couple of weeks ago i was uh putting my son to bed he's five and i don't know how we got on the topic but we were talking about heaven and he said daddy can you do you die in heaven i was like no you you have everlasting life which means that we live forever he looked at me and he went even.

If somebody stabs you and i was like no you won't get stabbed in heaven it's a nice place like there are no stabbings in heaven we live forever and he goes okay what if someone cut your head off and i was like what kind of heaven what the so i apparently need to uh be teaching a little better theology at my house but we discussed it that night there are no stabbings or beheadings in heaven it's a nice place there's joy there there's delight there there's reward there and we're actually going to pick up in this passage.

Today where Jesus is answering a question that Peter has about heaven and so let's pray and then we're gonna we're gonna step into kind of trying to understand this uh together this morning God we thank you for your word uh we thank you for the beautiful promises that are in it we thank you for uh your grace towards us and we pray that as we study this today that you would uh wake us up to your goodness to your generosity um and that you would help us move forward in obedience we love you and we praise you in.

Jesus name amen so we're going to be in 1927 and we're picking up what just happened was that a rich young ruler had come to Jesus and he had asked teacher what do i have to do to inherit eternal life so what do i need to do to be saved what do i need to do to be one of the good ones who gets to enter into life and Jesus answers him and they discuss this and Jesus basically helps point out that he's not one of the good ones that it's not something that you earn.

But Jesus at the end of this he says if you would be perfect go sell all that you have give it to the poor and come follow me so that following Jesus with a real life change is what he invited him into and and you think about this it's only a handful of people that Jesus actually looked at and said come follow me and this young ruler walks away sad and they have this discussion the disciples are surprised when Jesus tells them that it's very difficult.

For a rich person to enter into the kingdom of heaven and it seems like most of the disciples have been kind of stuck on this idea that a rich person wouldn't be able to enter the kingdom of heaven but it doesn't seem like Peter got stuck on that idea Peter heard something else Peter heard when Jesus said sell what you have give it to the poor come follow me and you will have treasure in heaven Peter's ears perked up he went treasure in heaven and that's where we pick up.

Today where Peter's like a quick question 19 verse 27 then Peter said in reply see we have left everything and followed you what then will we have don't you love Peter you ever you were sitting in class and somebody raised their hand and asked the question you wanted to ask but you just had talked yourself out of it you were like we probably shouldn't ask that i i'll figure it out later but somebody asked the question and you were like yes answer that question please or you hadn't even thought of the question.

But you were like that's a good one answer that i feel like Jesus just goes hey couldn't help but notice Peter Peter says Jesus couldn't help but notice that you told him he would have treasure in heaven if he gave his stuff away we left everything tell us more about this heaven treasure and you would think that Jesus would correct him but he doesn't Jesus said to them truly i say to you in the new world when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

So he says what will we have and he says in the new world when i sit on my glorious throne you will also sit on twelve thrones now that word that that new world it's uh is one word and it means the renewal when everything's made new so he says in the renewal in the new world in the new creation when everything's made new you will when i sit on my glorious throne and that's what he says he says when the son of man sits on his glorious throne you who have followed me will also sit on glorious thrones.

So he's very clear he's the son of man he gets the glorious throne they get thrones but less glorious apparently so he sits on his glorious throne and they get thrones and so he says in the new world this will happen now you know Peter was like what i thought you were going to say stuff a throne all 12 of us like that's there's going to be some amount in the new world of some authority some power some elevation for them that they're going to be on thrones there's going to be some amount of just.

God fixing what's broken in the world because at this point there aren't 12 tribes but he says in the in the new creation the 12 tribes are back somehow and i don't know exactly how literal we're supposed to take that but he says that you'll sit on thrones when i sit on my glorious throne there are people who will accuse Christians uh if maybe you've ever heard the phrase that someone's so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good that Christians because we believe that things are going to get better later we don't work to make things better.

Now the truth is because we believe things are going to get better later we're called to work diligently to make things better now because he's going to renew everything he's going to make it new and we're called to sacrifice and to make things good good for others now we're called to put up with difficulty now we're called to put up with poverty now we're called to step into difficulty now because we know that our good things are coming that's why Paul says.

If there is no resurrection we we should be pitied more than anybody else because our way of life ought to look really dumb it's not about having things here it's about trusting that there's going to be good things there and that's what Jesus is telling them Jesus is going to be on a glorious throne he will be ruling over this new world in verse 29 he says this and everyone so it's not just the disciples now but it's are the twelve.

But it's all those who will follow him and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake will receive a hundred-fold and will inherit eternal life but many who are first will be last and the last first so let's look at that again he says anyone everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake we'll receive a hundredfold and we'll inherit eternal life.

So all of those everyone who's willing to sacrifice and he specifically says for my name's sake so they're sacrificing for the name of Jesus because there is a way for you to sacrifice for your name's sake and Jesus actually addresses that he says when you give generously don't you know ring a bell in front of you and announce it do it secretly if you want people to know that you're generous announce it and that's your reward you did it for your name's sake.

But there's a way to do it that's for Jesus's namesake which just means that because i'm a believer i'm doing these things and that means that it opens up a lot of avenues for reward if you want to write your name on a big cardboard check and present it next week to the kid city money we're raising it'll be frowned upon but we'll probably let you do it but the reality is because you made a big show of it you gave it to something that we think is good and worth giving to.

But you did it for your name saying but the truth is there is a way to give to kid city to give to our Church family to give to missionaries to give to the person who knocks on your window in five points to give to the oliver Gospel mission to give to your neighbor who you know is having a hard time paying a bill that is for his name's sake the only reason i'm letting this run out of my hands the only reason i'm giving this away is.

For the name of Jesus and there are he lists in this list here houses and lands and he also lists a bunch of relationships and these are things that we're called to give up stuff and relationships let's talk about stuff first some of this is actually having it and then giving it up so selling something we see this in the new testament a lot someone owns property they sell it they give some of the money away they give it to the poor that's what he called on the rich young ruler to do some of us proactively give things up meaning that.

When the money comes in we just hand it off and over the course of our life we gave up a nicer house and some land and a playstation 5. whatever it is we would have spent it on me countless meals at cracker barrel because that's where my money goes it's me eating something usually a biscuit or an egg roll but you give it up you let it come through and you just hand it off and you're saying i'm this money's not going to stick to me i'm handing it off.

For the sake of his kingdom for the sake of his name so that someone might know him so that someone might be blessed or just because i belong to him and i'm called to generosity but it's not just that it's also relationships so that there are times and more so in other cultures but increasingly so in hours where people are going to say if you really believe that if you're really going to follow that if you're going to be that close-minded.

If you're going to be that type of bigot these are things that Christians are called now we can't be friends anymore you're no longer my sister i'm not going to have a child that thinks like that and you choose in that moment to give up a relationship for the sake of the kingdom for the sake of Jesus it doesn't say boyfriend and girlfriend in here but i think it's included that no because i follow Jesus i'm giving this up so that i might have something better and it's both things that we walk away from and things that we just say no to preemptively like children this does not mean oh wait hold on a.

Second i got four children i can just give them away and say it was for Jesus name that become a thread at your house i'm about to bless somebody in Jesus name son go pack your bags no i think this is more older parents who have children who say if you're going to be like that i can't we can't have a relationship anymore you have to co-sign my lifestyle you have to be okay and the parents just said i can't i also think this is people who choose to not be married or to not have children.

For the sake of the kingdom he just talked about this a couple weeks ago that those who are celibate for the sake of the kingdom my grandmother felt called to mission work in africa and she wanted to get married and she wanted to have children but she felt like that if she was going to be a missionary she couldn't and so that was one of the big wrestling points between her and the lord and eventually she just said lord i surrender i'll go i'll never have children that's fine.

If that's what you want me to do i don't want to spoil the story for you that ended up not happening because she is my grandmother she did have children but she thought that's what was going to have to happen and the reality is there are that's a reality for some people lord if you want me to do this i may not be able to have a relationship i may not be able to have the family i want man but i have the house i want we give it up.

For the sake of the kingdom so he says everybody who does that will receive a hundred fold and will inherit eternal life let's look at the 100 fold first he says that whatever you give up it will eventually be worth it now he's talking about in the future in the in the new world whatever you give up here you'll receive a hundred fold there and i know some of you are like whoa so i give up having one acre i could have a hundred acres in heaven and some of you were like i better have children.

Because i don't want to have 200 children in heaven i'm trying to relax when i get there i'll be raising all these kids that's not what he's saying it's not a direct thing he's saying that you'll be paid back handsomely there is reward for sacrifice here beautiful extravagant reward if you had anything that paid you back 100 fold that's a good deal that if that was a sure thing for you i got a message a couple weeks ago from raz bradley and he said.

If you ever get a time machine go back to yesterday and invest in this company and he sent me a little picture of some stocks just blowing up and the reality is we do daydream about that sort of thing what if i was able to invest in coca-cola at this time what if you were able to invest in microsoft at this time and there's such thing as insider trading but let's assume for a second that it's not illegal let's say you had a friend and they told you that you needed to invest all your money right.

Now in amazon because it was about to double it was about to triple what they told you is about to be a hundred times more over the next few years if you invest right now the only thing that would affect you again if insider trading wasn't illegal was the trustworthiness of the source if they worked at the amazon fulfillment center and they were like hey i got a tip let me tell you what's about to happen to the stocks i know some stuff they'd be like.

Well you you pack boxes it's a good job but i don't think they tell you stock tips but if your friend was jeff bezos and he was like we figured it out you need to invest right now because it's about to blow up that's a much more trustworthy source the reality is that our willingness to sacrifice for reward has a lot to do with how trustworthy we think Jesus is our willingness to sacrifice here has a lot to do with how much faith we have you.

See uh i think we've somehow tricked ourselves with an idea that that sounds nice but isn't really biblical that the only way you're supposed to give something up is just from the goodness of your own heart that that's the way it counts that if it's just pure altruism that you have to do it not expecting any reward but Jesus consistently says no hope for expect some reward the reality is it's not just done from the goodness of our heart it's done.

Because we trust him that's what hebrews 11 says now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen that we're convinced that we're assured we're what we're hoping for in verse 6 it says this without faith it is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him the reason you can give up some money the reason you can give up some lands the reason you can walk away from a relationship is that you have faith that what.

Jesus said is true you have faith that he saves sinners you have faith that one day he will renew the world that he rose from the dead and one day we will all rise from the dead and we will have eternal life so us giving things away us being generous is not just we're really good people no yes we believe he's going to reward but we have to trust him in order to believe that otherwise we would just take what was good here.

But hebrews 11 says that he's prepared something better for us and so believers walk out life the way we do because we believe that we trust him that's what we're supposed to do we move forward in faith and he says not just pay back a hundredfold but we'll inherit eternal life that those who follow Jesus will receive life that everyone who's willing to say no to everything else in order to say yes to Jesus will inherit eternal life now the work of that does not save you.

But that is a sign that you have genuinely trusted Jesus that you're willing to say no to everything else to say yes to him that you really do believe he is who he says he is that he really has worked in your heart to redeem you the sign of the true followers of Jesus is that they followed him they gave up everything and followed him and so that is those who do that will be saved those who are surrendering will be saved this is the uh he will not put to shame any who believe in him.

Then he says but and he's going to give a picture he's going to caveat this a little bit because he's he's going to help Peter so he's going to he answers Peter's question you'll sit on the throne everyone will be rewarded beautifully but and he's going to help us understand something that i think changes our attitude a little bit i was hanging out with a pastor friend and we were going to get in a vehicle and he said hey you can you can ride shotgun i said oh thank you i got in the front and we got in the car and he closed the door and he goes i want to ride shotgun in heaven.

I was like he tricked me i'm riding in the back in heaven for all eternity now at least anytime i go anywhere with this guy that's not really how it works it's not this i did that i earned this perfect analogy it's not how that plays out and that's why Peter says but many who are first will be last and the last first and then he's going to tell a story to help us picture this he's going to help drive that point home.

So chapter 20 verse 1 for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard after agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day he sent them into his vineyard okay so far very normal story so far our very uh thing they were very used to would have understood a denarius was a day's wage basically so it's a fair wage he wouldn't worked out with them hey basically.

For us it'd be like if you wouldn't pick somebody and said hey i need some help doing this i'll pay ten dollars an hour plus a little caesar's pizza boom ferris day's wage that's really what that is he goes to the market there's people who would be standing there to do day laborer work they didn't own land they didn't have a set amount of work but they were there for anybody who owned land who needed work done for them to come pick it up he comes he would have walked up known exactly what kind of work he had to do how much money he had how many people he needed.

And when he was said hey i need five and he would have picked they've been a big group hey i need ten you you you you and the people who get picked first in general younger healthier stronger normal verse three and going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market okay so the first time it was probably around six am that's the first hour that's where they start six am the third hour would be nine am and their work day would run from 6 a.m to 6 p.m.

So if you complain about having a 40-hour week job working 9-5 6 a.m to 6 p.m and they got just saturdays off so at least take some encouragement from this story that your job's pretty nice anyway 6 am he goes back out at 9 00 a.m standing idle in the marketplace and to them he said you go into the vineyard too and whatever is right i will give you they make no money agreement they they do not haggle at all he just says earlier he worked out a deal with those people he just says hey go work on my venue i'll pay you what's right.

So they went going out about the sixth hour that's noon 12 p.m and the ninth hour that's 3 p.m he did the same so he saw more people and just said hey go work in my vineyard i'll pay you something fair go work in my vineyard i'll pay you something right people just they win and about the 11th hour he went out and found others standing and he said to them why do you stand here idle all day they said to him.

Because no one has hired us and he said to them you go into the vineyard too okay so this story got weirder and weirder and weirder and weirder first of all the master of the house keeps leaving the house to just go back to the market and just recruit more workers every three hours and he goes from six a.m nine a.m noon three p.m and then he picks up workers at five that's the 11th hour the work day is going to be over at 6.

So he goes and picks up workers an hour before work is to be done and he finds people who've been standing in the in the marketplace for 11 hours and he says why haven't y'all gone to work and they say nobody would let us like nobody picked us up we were trying we've been here for 11 hours trying to work now if you walked in to a middle school gym class and they were on the last round of picks for dodgeball what do you expect to find left to be picked i'm assuming people who don't dodge.

So well and who don't throw balls very well they have other qualities dodgeball's not their game when you walk into the marketplace the 11th hour these aren't your best workers most likely it doesn't say that but that's just fair to be assumed to be understood in this story older younger not as healthy but they've been standing here all day because they need work they need some money and they're happy to take this one-hour offer they've been there waiting for somebody to show up they're happy to take it and they just go yeah they head right into the vineyard to work.

Now this is odd because why would he keep getting more laborers he doesn't work out a deal with them he just keeps adding laborers when he went out the first time you would assume there was a bunch of people he could have picked as many as he won't the story's odd and it's about to get more odd which makes it a really good Jesus story because that's how he tells stories verse eight and when evening came so at 6 pm the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman call the laborers and pay them their wages beginning with the last up to the.

First so the people who just showed up get paid first and when those hired about the 11th hour came each of them received a denarius one full day's wage so they worked up they had been working for an hour it'd be like them counting off tens there you go and paid them a full day's wage verse 10. now when those hired first came they thought they would receive more but each of them also received a denarius yeah that makes sense first of all.

If you're going to pay people like this pay the people who worked first first i'll make them watch the other guys get paid but he does this on purpose i guess they get paid and they're standing in line and they see that the guys who just showed up scraggled out there and worked for about an hour which was mostly just learning what am i supposed to be doing how do i okay cool and then about the time they got into a little rhythm quitting time they got paid to denarius and the guys who've been there all day were like oh we bout to make some money he paid them a full day's wage this is.

About to go really well for us that's what they're assuming and that's not crazy to assume i think i'd have been doing the same thing like oh okay this guy's generous but they each received only also received to denarius verse 11. and on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house saying these last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat but he replied to one of them friend i am doing you no wrong did you not agree with me.

For daenerys take what belongs to you and go i choose to give to the last worker as i give to you am i not allowed to do what i choose with what belongs to me or do you begrudge my generosity so the last will be first and the first last Peter says what do we have Jesus says it's going to be great but here's how you're going to need to approach it you're going to need to be very thankful to be invited and you're going to be need to be very thankful.

For the generosity of the master you need to be thankful to be invited and go do the work and you're going to be grateful for the generosity of the master rather than trying to look and see what other people are doing and how it's all working out and i think this is a direct warning to the disciples who are going to be called first and bear the heat of the day you're going to sit on a throne but guess what it's going to be great.

For everybody it's going to be glorious for everybody there's going to be rewards for everybody and i think this applies to both the section where he says you'll be paid back 100 fold and where he says you'll inherit eternal life i don't think this means for us to push it so aggressively that we that we try to say well this means this exactly and this means that exactly i think some people have done that some people have said that this is trying to give us an economic basis.

For how we ought to run an economy and it's just like i don't think that's what this is i think he's trying to help them understand that in the kingdom it'll be based off the generosity of the master the goodness of the master rather than the good negotiating skills and the effort of the workers so those who negotiated that what they negotiated the master was fair and those who just trusted him were faced with generosity and he's fair and he's generous and the reality is you don't want what's coming to you you want what he generously gifts that's some good news in this.

So i do think that there will be great rewards for those who weren't as great when we get to heaven Peter is going to be gloriously rewarded but if i trust Jesus and follow him in my life so am i i think the u.s is a nicer place to live than first century Israel i think there's a lot of things if i'm reading my Bible right that Peter went through that weren't so great there's a good chance that i'll be gloriously rewarded and Peter's supposed to just be excited at the work of the master and the generosity of the master i know i will be cause i'm one of the ones last called i showed.

Up at the 11th hour just barely learned how to do something and then was like woohoo pay time the same thing goes for those who place faith in Jesus that we will all be redeemed every once in a while i see uh memes and pictures passed around on facebook or twitter where i saw one that showed pearly gates and it said heaven where murderers and rapists enjoy a wonderful life with their victims for all of eternity because they trusted Jesus and i know they meant it as a shot that great injustice.

But i took it as the blessing of beautiful mercy that that's reality that scoundrels are in heaven wicked murderous thieving liars who deserve destruction are in heaven greatly rewarded not because of their goodness but because of the mercy and the generosity of the master who will save to the uttermost all those who come to him that Peter is greatly rewarded in heaven and so is the criminal who died on the cross and trusted in Jesus a few moments before his last breath and that's beautiful glorious news.

For a big ol pack of sinners like us that we have hope for everything we sacrifice we have hope for every time we fight our souls to let something go and to fight for what is better we have hope that he rewards those who seek him and trust him and that we have hope that he is greatly generous to those who just kind of barely get it together we don't want justice we want mercy the reality is that he is a just.

God and that all those who will stand under the weight of their own sin will face the wrath of God but that he has offered in his grace to pay for our sins so that we might be greatly rewarded based off of his generosity not of our not off of our merit when my birthday's coming up i can tell my wife things that i'd like and if i'm real specific i'd like to eat here i'd like for this to happen i'd like.

For us to get one of these whatever she'll do that and it's always nice but if i don't tell her anything she'll come up with something really good because she's very generous and gracious and thoughtful if i just trust in her generosity it works out better for me and the reality is we need to get to work and we need to just trust in his generosity we need to move forward in repentance and just trust in his grace for us who are sinners.

So some of you need to believe i got three ways we're going to respond to this some of you need to believe you need to trust that he does save sinners some of you feel like i am a terrible person i'm the worst i'm a failure i deserve to pay for my sin and if you feel like that praise Jesus you ought to feel like that but have we got good news for you he redeems and he forgives and he gives hope and he gives life.

If you'll just accept his invitation when he walked around to the people who'd been in the in the market for 11 hours and said head to the vineyard they didn't try to talk him out of it they just went some of them limping as they went except the invitation that he offers to redeem broken sinners trust in him he will forgive you he will not put the shame into you calling his name some of us need to get to work we need to serve we need to sacrifice we need to begin to do what he's called us to do some of you need to begin to try to get to know your neighbors and your.

Co-workers so they might hear the Gospel some of us need to begin serving here with our Church family in kid city some of us need to begin serving here with our Church family in kid city and there are others here that need to serve in kid city the reality is there are some of you who the lord's been pressing on you to do something to accept the call to become a leader in training in a group or to get to know one of your neighbors or to share the Gospel with a co-worker to accept the call to be a foreign missionary or to accept the call to say no to something.

So that you can say yes to what is better some of you is pressing on you to be a pastor or a Church planter some of you know you just need to begin to be focused on praying for your neighbors get to work accept the call and trust that he rewards everything you give up some of us need to give some things up we need to quit loving our stuff so much we need to set aside money to hand away to give away some of us need to say no to a promotion.

So that we can keep being good missionaries where we are some of us need to say yes to a promotion but the raise walks right out the door so you're going to work harder and you're going to get the same amount of pay you work because you believe that he rewards those who earnestly seek him and you're going to do it for his name's sake so that at the end of all of this we might gather those who've labored and labored and labored and those who barely got into it those who barely trusted the.

Lord those who were humble gracious obedient servants for life and those who were wicked sinners who barely realized it at the last breath that they needed Jesus to redeem them and we're going to gather around his glorious throne and we're going to sing praises to his magnificent generosity and it's going to be worth it let's pray God we thank you for your grace we thank you that you are glorious and that you are generous and we long for the day that we stand in your renewed world where you have made all things new we pray that you would help us to be faithful diligent and to trust in your generosity towards us in.

Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up if you're willing i'd like for you to ask the lord in prayer as we move into this time if there's something that he's been calling you to do that he would impress it on you if there's something he's been calling you to give up if there's something that he's been asking you to do if you've never placed your faith in him i'd ask you to do that now tell him you trust him that you believe that he exists and he rewards those who seek him that he died.

So that you might have life and you want life asking for forgiveness and grace but let's not sit think about heaven for a moment think about rewards for a moment think about eternity for a moment and then walk right back into all the normal stuff of everyday life and not let it affect us let's take a moment to just ask the lord if there's some changes we need to make so that we might look as if we believe that this is not all there is.

And then let's thing you gotta stand to your feet.

Mill City 10/18/20 Mill City 10/18/20

Self-Righteousness and Riches (Matthew 19:16-26)

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.

Transcript

Good morning man it's good to see this room filled with people worshiping Jesus uh my name is spencer if you weren't here earlier when i introduced myself i'm one of the pastors here uh we're going to be in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 19 verses 16-26 so you can go ahead and flip there we do encourage you we don't we can't hand out bibles right now uh because of the pandemic we're in but if you do have a Bible we encourage you to bring it it's a good practice to have the word of.

God just to read alongside you start on sunday continue through the week it will be on the screen behind us as well so you can go ahead and you can follow along there let me tell you two things uh that will trip you up in following Jesus uh yourself and your money those are two big pitfalls that can derail you from following Jesus so i am a bi-vocational pastor uh it's a you know by meaning to vocation meaning job it's a fancy way of saying i'm i've got two jobs.

Because two job donald just sounds dumb uh but i have two jobs i'm a real estate agent and a pastor i'm part-time here and i also do real estate and i get a front-row seat in those jobs to see how yourself and your money can be your biggest enemy in following Jesus now as a pastor i regularly have conversations with people that's they go along the lines of saying you are not your savior you are not going to save yourself we regularly try to deconstruct the idea that is.

So ingrained in southern culture that christianity is equal to doing good works being a good person and or that you might gain the favor of God that you might get into heaven we regularly battle against that because you'll hear people sometimes they'll say you know what like i right now i'm just i'm not all put together i got to clean myself up and once i get my stuff together i'll be able to to come and be a part of Church again like i just.

But i got to figure my stuff out and it's like no no that's that's that may be a cultural thing that is that is present that's not the Gospel the Gospel says you don't bring your righteousness to the table your good works the table to gain the favor of God so we regularly have to deconstruct that idea that's so ingrained in us self-righteousness ends up being your own worst enemy i'm also a real estate agent and one of the things i get to.

See in real estate is that money can bring out the worst in people i just can't buying and selling a house is one of the biggest purchases that anyone makes and over and over again i'm reminded uh this when i'm representing clients uh i regularly tell my buyers who are buying houses the fun part is going out and seeing the houses getting on zillow and realtor and picking them out walking in seeing it imagine how you can chip and you want to gain it i mean just shiplap everywhere get excited the moment that you go to put a contract i just say.

Look from this point until you get the keys at the closing table this is not going to be fun and just set the bar low and you won't be disappointed because because money is involved and money complicates things right i've seen uh i've seen people all over the map that you wouldn't expect like people that are that are really nice but when when uh money gets involved and and and they don't get everything they were expecting or they're not going to get as much money at the closing table i'd have to pay.

For things i mean i've seen it it can make people very mean and bitter and vicious i've seen Christians get me and i've seen peaceable people get all out of sorts i've seen people just get nasty and i'm not immune to this i've seen in my own heart i've been stabbed in the back but i'm the real estate agent i know what happens in my heart i've missed out on deals that i've worked out on commissions that i've worked out i get this i feel this.

Jesus said back in the sermon on the mount he said where your treasure is your heart will be also and money often reveals this as we uh scatter our heart amongst a bunch of different treasures a bunch a bunch of different things what we are doing is we're emotionally physically and spiritually investing in material things that do not last in this world money and self-righteousness these are two things that will derail you from following Jesus and we get to see this very clearly.

Today in this story where a rich young man comes to Jesus asking about eternal life and both of these are going to show up so we're going to walk through this story together we'll stay out the gate i know we're talking about money that makes everyone a little bit nervous you might have some some bad experiences with churches of money i don't know where you're coming into this but my hope today is that we let our guards down let's just let the Holy Spirit go to work on us.

God willing we can respond uh in the repentance that he requires us to so let me pray and we'll jump into the story father you are good you are so good and these stories from the gospels have been so helpful God i pray that you would speak to us this morning that you would show us what it means to find our hope in Christ alone we ask us in Jesus name amen all right so verse 16 and behold a man came up to him saying teacher what good deed must i do to have eternal life all right.

So i just want to note he's respectful okay we're about to see some self-righteousness in a moment but he's respectful he says teacher all right this is not like the pharisees who come in a posture of arrogance demanding things he he's genuine he teacher show me what good deed must i do to eternal life so he is respectful but his self-righteousness is very similar to the pharisees because he says what good deed must i do what can i do in order to gain eternal life that is religion in a nutshell right most religions have some type of version like this buddhism has its eightfold path follow the path eventually you can lead to the state.

Of nirvana islam has its five pillars submit to allah follow the five pillars jehovah's witnesses have their zero holidays there are a lot of different religions that have different things you do and don't do do this you get in don't and you won't that that's the exchange in religion and that's what Jesus identifies very quickly in this man so Jesus responds verse 17 and he said to them why do you ask me about what is good there is only one who is good.

If you would enter eternal life keep the commandments and when he hears this this is music to his ears because as we're going to see in a minute he's a good dude he's an upright jew he he's honorable he's not adulterous by the world's standards he's a good guy he's the kind of guy that most people want their daughter to marry he's a decent guy not perfect because he wants to know about the finer points the law maybe he's missing out on something and he said.

Verse 18 which ones which commandments Jesus so there's 613 total laws in the old testament there's the 10 big ones the 10 commandments which ones are you talking about because it's possible he may have worn a sweater to passover that had two different types you know cotton and lennon that's a no-no in the old jewish law maybe he missed out the finer points but then Jesus actually sticks to the big ten in the final six commandments he starts listening out.

Jesus said you shall not murder you shall not commit adultery you shall not steal you shall not bear false witness honor your father and mother and you shall love your neighbor as yourself the young man said to him all these i have kept all right so those are six of the final ten commandments all right the first four are vertically focused this is how you worship God the six uh the backsticks are horizontally focused this is how you live with one another and i want to point something out he lists these out.

But when he gets to the tenth commandment all right which is you shall not cover you covet your neighbor's stuff he generalizes it he says i want you to love your neighbor as yourself that's going to be important in a moment but the young man hears this and he's relieved because like i said earlier he based the commandments but he wants to cover his bases he says what do i still lack and that's the posture of self-righteousness okay yes i heard that.

But tell me what else what else do i need to do tell me Jesus what am i what am i missing out on and that is where Jesus really gets to the heart of the matter in verse 21 it says Jesus said to him if you would be perfect which is what he's gunning for if you be perfect go sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful.

For he had great possessions so he takes that tenth commandment generalizing it loving your neighbor and he says you want to be perfect here's what you got to do go sell everything you've got sell the items that you covet give it to your neighbors and then he says follow me come follow me give up the material wealth that is so easy to covet in this world and what he does is he finds the idol beneath the surface he finds what this man actually worships.

Because he's not just a young man he's wealthy and he says leave that all behind come follow me and that's not a small thing that's a huge ask all right that's not just all of his wealth that's his respect that comes with it that's the comfort that that kind of wealth buys it's the status that comes along with that he says leave all of that behind and come and follow me i want you to think about the wealth that you have whether it's a lot or a little i want you to think about what makes you respectable what what brings comfort in your life think about the things that give you status.

And then Jesus comes and says give it all up come and follow me and what he's asking this very wealthy man to do is to follow him y'all he is a traveling ministry where they don't have places to sleep at night sometimes they're camping out there they're they're relying on the generosity of others they're relying on the generosity of different towns for their next meal not only that the establishment hates him the very important religious powerful people in their culture they despise him he's saying leave all of the status all of the wealth all of the things that come with it and follow me that's what he asked of this young man and that's the.

Same question that is applied to anyone that follows Jesus are you willing to give up what you hold most dear that you might gain Christ that you might follow him and for this man it's riches now Jesus is getting ready to teach on riches after this but what he calls this man to do is very specific to him there's no other place in the Bible where God calls someone to give up all of their wealth to follow him this is very specific everyone has to count the cost of following.

Jesus but oftentimes that cost is very unique to the individual and this man is going to cost all of his wealth he's going to have to crush the idol of riches completely crush it give up his wealth and follow him but he can't because he worships his wealth that's what Jesus is getting at the sermon on the mount when he said no one can serve two masters either he'll hate the one or love the other devoted to the one or two or be devoted and despise the other you cannot serve.

God and money that's what he's getting at you worship money and if you want to come and follow me you got to give this up so Jesus navigates right through this man's self-righteousness to help him see the the love of wealth that he's worshipped beneath the surface and a lot of times when Jesus encounters self-righteous people in and as we've seen in the Gospel of Matthew he's dealing with pharisees and sadducees and religious people they're not very relatable to us the pharisees were i mean they're the very embodiment of an uptight Church person just religious judgmental high and mighty that's not relatable to us we we.

See self-righteousness in the Gospel of Matthew it's like okay yeah the pharisees they're the worst but this story makes it way more relatable to us we can identify with this some of us know what it's like to check the boxes of morality am i doing this am i doing that have i checked this box while ignoring some of the underlining sin beneath the surface that we don't want to deal with the Holy Spirit might bring conviction there but we don't want to deal with it we'd rather just have outward righteousness right i mean i hear this from time to time you'll.

See someone that blows up their life and people will say man their marriage looks so good on facebook like they just talked about loving one another called him king she called him queen which see each throne they look they have they went on vacations what happened you'll see it people go i can't i can't belie i can't believe he blew up his business like that all my business dealings were he always seemed like a man of integrity what happened the longer that i follow.

Jesus the more i realize i'm not really shocked by anything the reality is is that no matter how outwardly good you look there everyone's got their junk everyone's got stuff beneath the surface areas we don't want to submit to Jesus we'd rather listen we'd rather cover it up with good works covered up with with outward righteousness we're doing fine i'm fine as opposed to actually dealing with what's beneath the surface that's what happened with this young man here he covered riches of her allegiance to.

Jesus and his self-righteousness failed could not overcome his love of riches and he leaves dismay now he exits leaves dismayed and then Jesus begins to teach on the danger of riches starting in verse 23 it says and Jesus said to his disciples truly i say to you only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven again i tell you it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of.

God when the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished saying who then can be saved but Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible but with God all things are possible y'all ever been in a situation where where you're telling a story like you and your friend or your spouse you witnessed the a situation together and your version of this is a story of just different like they just got a different take on it this happened sometimes in in my marriage we will have some friends over we'll be sharing stories and all of a sudden i'll launch into a story i start telling the story and it becomes very clear not just.

To me but to everyone at the table that my wife disagrees with how that went down she just just go what are you no that you know that look if you don't you will like it that look of just like i can't believe you understood that situation to be what it was that's the look i feel like that Jesus gives when american Christians have tackled this passage i mean man looking down from heaven like are you serious what are they doing like this i mean we have we have butchered this passage in.

So many different ways because as americans we love our riches we love our comfortable lifestyles and man we will find some creative ways to get around the force of this passage the big one is you'll hear some american churches that will say the eye of the needle well actually if you look at the context of the eye of the needle here's what's really happening what's really happening is there's this big gate in Jerusalem and at this big gate there's this small door called the eye of the needle and what what he's actually picturing is these camels would come and they'd have a real tough time getting underneath that door you know what they would have.

To get rid of some of their baggage but once they got rid of their bags they find their way through the door and they make it to the other side that's what's really happening in this passage i heard that the first time i heard that i was in high school my baseball coach he was reading the joel osteen book which never ends well and he was reading it and he's like man this is what i learned about the eye of the camel and i was like oh and i was a new Christian i was like that sounds great.

Listen some of you may know that some of you may have believed that i want to as politely as i can completely dismantle that from being ever away that you can read this passage i want to politely murder that as an interpretation because y'all that listen that enti that type of interpretation is exactly the thing that Jesus is correcting it's exactly what Jesus is correcting so i did some work this week and i wanted to get the bottom of where this eye of the needle gate in the door in the gate legend come from all right.

So somewhere some people think it came from 9th century other people may have think it came from 15th century some look at philosophers like aquinas or anselm but listen you can't source the origins of that theory and i want to tell you there is no evidence that there was ever a gate in Jerusalem with a small little door called the eye of the needle there's none there's no evidence so i went deeper i was like maybe i can look at the greek here.

Look at the word raphas which is needle maybe buried four or five definitions down it says also see gate in Jerusalem tiny door so i did i looked at the greek word got down all the definitions and y'all i'm here to tell you every time sewing needle big camel that one of the biggest animals they'd regularly come across and small the smallest opening you can think of the picture is absurd for a reason it's impossible it's an impossible picture which is highlighted by how he walks through verses 25 and 26 it says.

When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished saying who then can be saved they didn't say oh man Jesus you got to show me how that camel gets under that door they understood it's impossible who then can be saved but Jesus looked at them verse 26 and said with man this is impossible but with God all things are impo are possible he says it's impossible camels don't squeeze through the eyes of needles it's not possible it's going to take miraculous work yet there are.

So many american churches that have peddled messages like this we talk about this pretty regularly when it comes up in passages like this the american Church has so many prosperity churches all around our country that peddle messages like this they're trying to squeeze camels through the eyes of needles trying to help you see if you worship Jesus you get the exchange of riches and health and wealth and prosperity it's hot garbage it's not the Gospel and the bigger problem is we export this to africa and to south america into countries that are that are poor they put their hope in a.

Jesus that will give riches we sent the the rockies to honduras uh uh last month that the city that they're in that message is prevalent now it's easy to point out that and it's a big reality in american Church we can point out the kenneth copeland's and the creflo dollars and all the messages that come with that it's a whole lot harder to look at your own heart and examine your own heart when you look at this passage so we're raising money.

For kid city as i said earlier we're trying to it's not a hard sale guys it might be we'll see we're raising money for kid city and uh when we decided to do this i was like man that's great we got we got somebody who's gonna gonna match ten thousand dollars this is great and i was really excited about doing this so that you guys would give i was really excited about the possibility of y'all giving i'm just being honest like my heart was like man i can't wait to.

See the rest of our Church family give this it's been a weird year and the carrie household financially it's like ah i don't know about that and there was this hesitation was like i i don't know maybe i just get through the month and not have to really stare at this not to acknowledge that God calls us to radical generosity yo some of you all know that there's a giving opportunity you're like oh i've been saving for something else i really want those new floors like we do this and y'all i want you to recognize what happens there is that you have taken riches and said.

Now i want that over Jesus i want that over generosity it's a whole lot harder a whole lot easier to cast stones to some of the greatest offenders in our culture that do this it's a whole lot harder to look at your own heart and realize what's going on beneath the surface where does your primary allegiance lie if Jesus called you to give up riches or the pursuit of riches would you do it would you give it up would you give up the comfortable lifestyle that you have would you sell anything would you sell it all what what.

If Jesus called you to do this how about this would you even begin to pray some dangerous prayers that made you vulnerable to be able to do this where is your primary allegiance that's what comes out of this story riches self-righteousness it derailed this young man i'll be very clear it will absolutely derail you as well for much of of southern cultural christianity is very rich compared to the rest of the world we've got a lot more money than the rest of the world and there's also a whole lot of self-righteousness.

So with that being the case given our context i want to take a few moments i want to walk through some diagnostic questions that are not going to be very comfortable but i want us to be open to the Holy Spirit working so let's diagnose riches over Jesus first first question do you involve the lord in your financial goals some of your like financial goals i had a financial goal in my life listen you may not have the most formal financial goals you may have not met with a financial planner.

But you've got some some some loose goals that may be like i don't want to drive this car that's going to break down tomorrow and i'll find you know one i want to save up for one that'll last at least two years or i want to level up from mcdonald's to outback i don't know what that is for you okay but but we all have some financial goals in mind do you involve the lord in that are you prayerfully submitting your finances to the.

Lord asking him to to work through that to to correct you regularly are your first thoughts when you get a raise aimed at what you can get next right you get a few more dollars an hour you get a bump in your salary what's your first thought it's your first thought yes the truck i've always wanted the house i've wanted to move to is it the things that you can get or is it the the first initial response is all right.

Lord you have blessed me with a raise and this job what do you want to do next it's not bad to have a better vehicle sometimes what do you want to do next lord how do you want to use this are you giving generously third question are you giving generously sacrificially we don't use we don't use the language of tithe which i don't have time to go into right now we see more of a sacrificial giving in the new testament are you giving sacrificially and giving generously is a regular part of your budget being given to the.

Lord it's not just giving generously it's regular generosity regularly submitting your finances to the lord are you quick uh do you regularly shut down conviction from the Holy Spirit are you quick to shut down conviction from the Holy Spirit now let me picture that what that is a little bit what i did earlier it's like as soon as you have an opportunity to give a missionary needs uh needs money to go on the mission field and it's just like that i don't know about that i've been saving.

For something i don't really want to go there are you quick to shut down conviction from the Holy Spirit do you have a cynical outlook on churches missionaries ministries and requests for money you have a cynical outlook there some folks will go all right Church is asking for money again what are they how do they want to misuse my money next when let me say very clearly it's not your money to begin with james won every good gift and every perfect gift is from love coming down from the.

Father of lights God stewards us with riches and he calls us to steward in ways that would glorify him lastly no two more if Jesus himself sat down with you to look over your budget or your credit card statements how nervous would you be i say how nervous would you be because i feel like if Jesus actually came home he's sitting on the table you'd have lots of questions but once you've worked through the shock of it you'd be a little bit nervous.

But how nervous would you be if you seriously if he sat down and worth all right let's look at your budget let's look through your credit card statements how nervous would we be lastly and if he called you to make some radical changes would you be joyful or would you be dismayed like this rich young man so as you work through those questions ask yourself the tough question do you value riches over Jesus and his kingdom that's what he's fleshing out in this story and that's what these questions are meant to bring out let's diagnose self-righteousness over grace.

First question do you compare yourself to others in order to build yourself up do you regularly compare yourself to others in order to build yourself up right you can always find somebody else who's a train wreck right you can do the comparison game there's always someone who's doing worse are you regularly comparing yourself yourself to others to build yourself up second is your approach to God a checklist of obedience that when you think about what it means to follow Jesus it's i got to do this and i got to do that and i got to do this and i'm checking off all these boxes word prayer community group this all the way down the line.

So that you might present that to God and say God look at what i'm doing that's self-righteousness that's trusting in your righteousness and your good works over grace third when you're confessing sin in your community group are your confessions shallow so when it's time to confess sin and community group and bear one of those burdens are you the kind of person that goes you know what the week's been okay well you know honestly like i i haven't been reading my Bible enough and uh i really need you know what i you know i need to do i i've got i need to next week i'm gonna i'm gonna have three or four more quiet times.

I'm gonna sit down and read my Bible that's someone do next which listen we regularly say this all the time you need to read your bibles all right the word of God if you want to mature as a Christian you need to read your bibles it's an absolutely appropriate confession but if that listen if that is the only confession you've got come on it's like no no this listen i'm the chief of sinners i get this but i know everyone else has jacked up too you got stuff going on beneath the surface.

And if your confessions are shallow what you are saying is is that i'm doing this well i actually don't want to be vulnerable enough to work through the other stuff and a word of warning if you don't ever work through it it will come up and it will get ugly self-righteousness is a poor cover all right when you do make mistakes you need to try to keep them as private as possible so maybe you do make a mistake maybe you do sin.

But it's basically like moving along it's all right i know i messed up and you don't want to let anyone ever have a moment of correction a moment of coming alongside and asking some tough questions because you you want to keep the appearance of righteous i'm fine i'm fine we have to work through this when you do make mistakes do you feel like you need to make up for those mistakes with more good works he's like yeah no i okay yes i messed up here.

But God look i'm doing this i'm checking this box i'm doing all these other things and you're covering up trying to cover up mistakes since give you one more when you scroll through social media do you keep a running commentary of judgment on everyone else right that's a big one in our culture you can be the political warrior that's like all right yeah you posted that boom and that goes well because everyone's been convinced on facebook of your argument all right do you maybe it's it's it's judging other moms maybe it's uh captain correction you just i mean maybe it's just a posture of just consistently judging other people on facebook to make yourself feel.

A little bit better if any of these questions start to bring up some stuff it is very possible that you struggle with self-righteousness that you are trusting in your own good works and not what God has done for us on the cross and the empty tomb listen self-righteousness and the love of riches are very difficult hurdles to clear to get into the kingdom of God even more so Jesus goes on to say it is humanly hear this it is impossible for a rich person on their own merit to get into the kingdom of.

God you have no shot you do not have the will power to change to muscle change so that you might submit your riches to Christ no self-righteous person no rich person will ever by their own work get in the kingdom of God that is precisely why Jesus came Jesus came and lived a perfect life and went to the cross with that perfection and then conquer death at the empty tomb so that self-righteous people would not trust in their own good works.

But in the good works of Jesus so that people who worship money would say no i don't want that i believe Jesus is better i want him yo God he he loves self-righteous people he does you know how we know this Paul Paul was a self-righteous pharisee and then he meets him in the road he claims him he redeems him and then becomes one of the greatest missionaries that's ever lived and he loves rich people he does let me show you a different exchange a different encounter of how.

Jesus had with the rich man i'mma read from luke 19. i want y'all to listen to this exchange with uh zacchaeus who's a rich tax collector and i want you to notice the difference between the rich young man and his response to Jesus and zacchaeus verse one he entered Jericho and was passing through and behold there was a man named zacchaeus he was a chief tax collector and was rich he said this before Matthew was also a tax collector they were hated by their own people.

Because they were traitors to the jewish people they were jews who worked for the roman government and they were loaded they made their money off the backs of their own people they had lots of money verse 3 and he was seeking to see who Jesus was but on account of the crowd he could not because he was small in stature which some of you that may ring a bell if you were you grew up in the Church there's a children's song about that zacchaeus was a wee little man and a weird little man was he which by the way they don't make children songs like that anymore.

Because they're just straight dunking on his height this is kind of messed up i don't even remember the rest of the words the song y'all might i don't which is what shows that that's the problem making a children's song it's short yay like it's just this just a thought verse four so he ran on the head and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him but he was about to pass that way and when Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him zacchaeus hurry and come down.

For i'ma stay at your house today i love it man i love Jesus comes through prophetic mode looks up in the tree and says zacchaeus the one that everyone hates in that crowd hey coming down i'm having dinner at your place tonight Jesus loves outcast if you feel like an outcast man does Jesus got good news for you look at zacchaeus tells him to come on down verse 6 so he hurried and came down received him joyfully he joyfully comes running to.

Jesus verse 7 and when they saw it they all grumbled he has gone in to be the guest of a man who's a sinner amen we're not even we've already dealt with that verse 8 and zacchaeus stood and said to the lord behold lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i've defrauded anyone of anything i restored fourfold you notice the difference he didn't come to Jesus and say all right let's talk what do i need to do here no the calling of.

Jesus was enough he calls him from the tree and he just just absolutely pierces his heart just destroys him wrecks him zacchaeus is never going to be going to be the same that's the calling of grace that Jesus looks at centers and say come on you are going to you are you are going to be a part of this now and what happens he comes joyfully he says all right i'm in i'm in half my riches where who who's the poor who are my neighbors give it away i know i've defrauded people in this crowd four-fold four-fold i got you he do you.

See the difference he joyfully is changed by Jesus and he joyfully submits his riches and Jesus says all right verse 9 and Jesus said to him today salvation has come to this house since he is also a son of Abraham for the son of man came to seek and save the lost y'all Jesus seeks and saves flagrant sinners and self-righteous people Jesus seeks and saves the rich and the poor but here's the thing you need to experience his grace and be changed by him that's the reality that gets lost here you have to be changed by his grace God's going to work on your heart.

Because we are far too comfortable with with this culture and materialism and consumerism and being wrapped up into riches we're far too comfortable trusting in our own good works and this story is meant to be a shock to the heart that would shake you to your core here's my fear did you receive a story like this and it's like you know you are you're right you're right i really should i you know what that kid city project i'm giving him that i'm doing that that that's what i'm gonna do you know what i i needed to bump we didn't have a conversation about regular giving let's bump that up a few percentage points that's what.

I need to do and again when you come at it like that as guilt does not change your heart it doesn't i try to cover it up with some all right that's what i need to do as opposed to getting on our faces and saying lord i'm greedy i love the riches of this world i am self-righteous and i need your overwhelming grace to absolutely change my heart so that i can walk in repentance it takes prayers like that takes prayers like that saying.

Lord take my life what do you want what do you want God you want me to move to honduras is that what you want follow the rockies and sell everything all our possessions and go you want me to radically change the way i spend what do you want lord you want me to give to missionaries to get to this ministry what do you want from me God how do you want to work in my life i've experienced the riches of your grace here it is take it what do you want to do that is a much different response and that's the kind of response that.

Jesus is looking for in this story and my hope is as we walk out here today we wouldn't think oh cool neat teaching but we would get on our faces we humbly submit to the lord and our sin and say take it all Jesus is better i believe this what do you want to do band's going to come up and i want us to sit for a moment before they start and i just want us to be reflective here that's a tough word i get it it's a tough story my hope is is that we'd sit in that don't don't squelch conviction from the Holy Spirit.

Now let him go to work how do we need to submit ourselves fully and trust in the righteousness of Christ you know it is a tiring pursuit to prove and to do and to try to please God listen you don't have to please God it's by grace that anyone is safe if you trust in the in what Jesus has already done you'll get to experience more of him don't use good works as a cover-up trust in his righteousness money is a difficult subject it's.

So tied and connected to our hearts may we have the humility to recognize that we most likely have trusted in riches and not Jesus and if there's anyone here that's listening to all this and it's like man i don't even know where to start all that sounds great i don't even know where i stand in all of this you're talking about submitting i don't even know what that looks like my hope this morning is that you would see that the God of the universe has you here in this room this morning to hear that he loved you.

So much that he gave up his son that you might have life with him and a life that's so much better than the riches and the pursuit of riches in this world so much better than trusting in your own good works may you fully place your faith in your hope in him let me pray you were so good you have indescribable riches that wait for us in eternity God i pray that you'd help us see that so clearly this morning i pray you'd help us joyfully like zacchaeus come running to you and say what do you want.

Lord i pray we as Christians pray some dangerous prayers and open ourselves up and be vulnerable to see you go to work i pray there's anyone here that consistently struggles with self-righteousness you'd help them see it'll never be enough on your own but it was paid for on the cross they don't have to keep going back to their own good works they can trust in you you've got to pray there's anyone here that does not know you that has not fully believed in you.

God i pray right now just as you called zacchaeus out of the tree you would call them into faith we ask us in Jesus name amen.

Mill City 10/11/20 Mill City 10/11/20

Divorce (Matthew 19:1-12)

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.

Transcript

Well good morning uh my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors of mil City Church of Casey I'm glad you're here this morning if you have a Bible grab it and go to Matthew chapter 19 Matthew chapter 19 we're working our way through the Gospel of Matthew together now if I came to you and asked you who your favorite actor who has ever portrayed Batman is you would think about it but it's not that intense of a question and you would think there's really no wrong answer unless you said Val Kilmer.

But there's really no no way to get this wrong it's not that intense but if I came to you and said okay we're going to discuss your uh position on climate change that that question hits you a little bit differently if I walked up this morning and said all right today we're going to talk about guns immediately it's like okay this is this discussion is a little bit different and you realize that you're entering into a conversation that's been that's happening this isn't something that's just a conversation between us.

But there's a lot of words that have been said a lot of ink that has been spilled this conversation is ongoing and you already know some of the arguments on one side or the other and we're picking up in Matthew where the Pharisees are going to come ask Jesus a question that is just like that it's already a heated debate among the Jewish people so this question is asked and they they're asking him to enter in to weigh in on what your take on this situation that uh people already knew was a debate.

And so that's where we're going to jump in this morning and uh let's pray and then we'll start reading in uh Matthew chapter 19 verse1 God we ask that you would uh give us favor in this time that you would bless this time that we have together as your people to study your word and we pray that you would help us to uh trust you more love you more and to walk out in greater obedience what you have called us to we love you and we praise you in.

Jesus name amen Matthew Chapter 19 Verse one it says now when Jesus had finished these sayings so he just got done talking about Sin and forgiveness He Went Away From Galilee that's the upper part of uh the area he's been ministering in it says and he entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan so he's headed down towards Jerusalem and large crowds followed him and he healed them there so he's continuing his Healing Ministry it's been a while since we've talked about him healing people.

But he wherever he goes he heals he shows the power of God and then in this when he's doing this when he's ministering often the Pharisees and we'll see as we keep going the Sadducees these different groups are going to come ask him questions and it says and Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause Okay so this is a test in that they're asking him to weigh in on a current debate they're asking him to hop in and to say all right where do you stand on this and there sometimes they ask him tests to weigh in on theological debates or.

This one they're looking at a specific passage in the Old Testament they're wanting him to kind of give his answer on sometimes they're trying to trick him they're just trying to trap him but this one seems a little bit more like hey come weigh in on this question and I'm glad they ask it and I'm glad as we read through it we get the answer we get and the response from the disciples we get because it's very comforting to know that this situation was as confusing and as painful.

For them as it is for us this question is relevant today we want Jesus to answer this question the reality is we want Jesus to step in and help us out in all of these difficult areas of life as painful as it can be and for some of us this morning this may be painful it may bring up uh past memories it may bring up current difficulties but we want Jesus like a good surgeon to go to the most broken places and to help sort them out.

For us and so I'm glad they asked I'm glad we get to study it together but Jesus knew the debate they were asking him to weigh in on uh wasn't just this one question but there was an ongoing debate primarily between two Jewish rabbis shemai and H I know two of your favorite rabbis um we have a lot of writing from shemiah and H on this topic and they were zooming in on Deuteronomy chapter 24 and they were trying to weigh in.

For people and say this is how we ought to understand approaching divorce and so when they ask this question for any reason they're asking him to answer where he stands in the shamai halel debate that's really what they're doing so let's read Deuteronomy 24 they're going to reference it later let's go ahead and read it together it says when a man takes a wife and marries her if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house and she departs out of his house.

And if she goes and becomes another man's wife and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hands and sends her out of his house or if the latter man dies who took her to be his wife then the former husband who sent her away may not take her again to be his wife so this is the section in Deuteronomy where they're trying to build out an understanding of how to approach divorce and they're really focusing in on the beginning part.

But it says if when this happens and if this happens and if this happens and if this happens and if this happens then it gives one clear this can't don't do this but there wasn't a lot of teaching in Deuteronomy on divorce so they're zooming in at the beginning of this trying to answer the question how how should we go about divorce they're really asking this passage to answer something it's really not trying to answer but they were zoomed in on it and they were asking.

So this is what they did shemai focused in on where it says some indecency which in the original Hebrew translates a matter of nakedness I would not encourage you to Google that but that is what it says it says some indecency and he read that as sexual sin this is sexual immorality that's the only thing that this would allow you to to find for her to lose uh what is it for find no favor in your eyes if there's some sexual sin that you find that's what his answer was.

So he was really narrow said some indecency means that helle looked at she finds no favor in his eyes and he focused in on the word some there and said that some indecency means any and so helle had these long list of let me give you examples of what it means that you basically don't like her anymore that's what he so he wrote out um if you find someone more attractive that fits the category if uh you just find out find you kind of don't like her anymore that fits the category.

If she consistently burns your food that fits the category it sounds like that's a joke I made up that's in the list you guys this is the stuff he would write out and he would say these are all the things that count and so they come to Jesus that's why they say for any reason who do you stand with can we do this for any reason or is there a specific reason or how do you view it that's the question.

So Jesus answers they're basically saying whose team are you on shemi or H's and they're going to be surprised to find although we shouldn't he's on Jesus's team he doesn't usually join our teams he just says here's how it should be so he answers verse four he answered have you not read my absolute favorite intro to every time he interacts with the Pharisees they had read it and they prided themselves on being the people who had read it but he does this all the time.

When he talks to the crowds he'll he assumes knowledge when he talks to the crowds he'll go you've heard it said he like hey random crowd y'all know the Bible when he talks to the Pharisees he goes oh y'all hadn't read this y'all didn't oh this was the part y'all skimmed through oh I'll catch you up that's what he does so I love that he does that he answered have you not read that he who created them for from the beginning made them male and female and said.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh so they are no longer two but one flesh what therefore God has joined together let not man separate they came in and said hey weigh in on this conversation you know exactly what we're asking about where do you stand on Deuteronomy 24 and he says oh y'all skip Genesis y'all oh yours starts in Deuteronomy no no no let let's go to the let's go to the beginning.

Let me show you y'all didn't read this part this is the part that answers your question and he takes them back to Genesis and he says here's what God intended for marriage and it's a very helpful positive picture of this is what marriage is supposed to be so we're going to run through this fairly quickly to just pull out what he is saying marriage ought to be because he goes to Genesis and says it's not in the law where we get this picture it's in Genesis where he says this is what it's supposed to.

Look like so he says have you not read that he who created them from the beginning so he he anchors it in creation it's he who created them from the beginning meaning that marriage is a creation ordinance bring that up at lunch sometime if you want to impress the people you're with it's a creation ordinance it means that God designed it for all people he instituted in creation before the fall and it's given to everybody meaning it's not just something that Christian Chans do or that only counts.

If you're Christians it's for everybody any marriage is a marriage God designed it for as a good gift for all of humanity so if you have non-believing friends and they're struggling in their marriage it's a marriage we treat it as a marriage we encourage them to follow through with what they're supposed to as a marriage because it's designed for all Humanity he keeps going he says that he created them Ma and made them male and female so he's saying God's original design design was one man one woman.

So it is uh Christian marriage God's design for marriage not just Christian marriage God's design for marriage is heterosexual and monogamous now culturally that's disliked but that's what he designed it to be heterosexual and monogamous that he made one male one female he brought them together and he joined them together for his own purposes and that's God's good design for marriage now I think some of the uh approach to homosexuality by the Church has been uh lacking Grace and so I would say to anybody in this room that struggles with homosexuality struggles with uh same gender attraction you are welcome here the same way that everybody else is welcome here as sinners in need of.

Grace in need of forgiveness in need of Jesus to help us and to change our hearts so we do believe it is a sin to practice homosexuality but we do not believe it is it is some super sin that cuts you out of being able to forgive be forgiven and to walk in openness and repentance the same way that all the other sinners in this room do so you are welcome here but this is God's good intent for marriage that it would be heterosexual and monogamous he says this.

If I can find it therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife it is a primary relationship that when you get married that is now your primary relationship that if you're a wife your primary relationship on earth now is to your husband not your mom not your dad not your children if you're a husband your primary relationship is to your wife not your mom not your dad not your children you are starting a new household together.

So this means and I find this is a bigger issue in younger couples don't bring your parents into your arguments first of all they are not helpful second of all even if they are they ought not to be there because you're supposed to be setting up the new primary relationship that you have this also means that your spouse is not to be compared to your mom or your father this ain't how my mama cooked it well you didn't marry your mama.

Well my daddy used to always could fix a truck well I ain't your daddy but I have a job and I know where Pet Boys is well blam that you get to set up a new primary relationship and there is joy in that and there's difficulty in that but this is now who you are primarily relating to and you are stepping out on your own that he set it up to be a monogamous primary relationship then he says this and the the two shall become one flesh.

So it is a one flesh Union and he follows that up says so they are no longer two but one flesh so this is one flesh Union and this means a couple of different things this is referring to sexual intimacy Paul uses it that way in First Corinthians it does intend to cover that it means that that that is where uh intimacy is supposed to be um hedged in is inside of a marriage covenant but that physical act is a representation a physical representation of an all of life Union an all of life surrender that everything I have belongs to you all of me.

So this is one house One bank account this is all of this comes together and is physically reenacted in this way but it's an all of life Union they have become one flesh and this is also carried out practically in children that's where two become one flesh they show up you have child that is now two become one and it's really cool to see with my children all the wonderful qualities they got from me and then the stuff they got from their mom.

And if y'all know us you know that is inaccurate but you do you see it come together in this way so it's a one flesh Union keeps going he says therefore whatever what therefore God has joined together together all marriages are sealed by God there's a spiritual reality to marriage to this physical intimacy that God seals and makes one and it doesn't matter if you if you just had a notary do it while you were at the bank or if you went to the courthouse.

God oversees marriage whether you stand in front of people and Proclaim that it's in front of God and acknowledge that or you don't it's sealed by God and this is some very encouraging news because for most of us we got married and I mean we were gidy and butterflyyoutube it's turned out to be extremely difficult it turned out to be extremely painful and because of the way our media works because of the movies you've watched because of the books you've read one of the questions that often begins to plague people as they realize that the person they married to is kind of terrible at a lot of things as they start asking is did I.

Make a mistake are they not really the one because you know we've seen enough television I've seen enough television to know that when you find the one everything works out perfectly so since this isn't perfect you must not be the one that's what begins to happen God has joined you together I have very good news for you if you are married you found the one there you're one he intends for you to stay married for it to be good for you to fight.

For it to be good for you to make it good together this is a blessing that God joins us together when we're married and that you have that to stand on there's encouragement in that you don't get to second guess that I make a mistake this is the one so make it good then he says this what therefore God has joined together let not man separate marriage is meant to be a lifelong Covenant it's meant to be a commitment to one another that we do not break and in Jesus's answer that's where he stops in his answer.

When we say what about what about what about his answer is no this is what it was meant to be this is how it ought to work this is what God designed it for and whatever situation we throw at it he say no this is what it was meant to be it was meant to be lifelong and I know there's a there's a uh people started writing their own vows for their wedding which is fine if they write good ones so I've seen some and they' they've read their own vows and I'm like that's beautiful and I've seen other ones and they're just like love notes here's how I feel about you right.

Now and I'm like no no no no no no no nope no nope nope that's a note you give to them the day of your marriage that's not what you stand up in front of everybody and say this is promise time this isn't how I feel right now time no no you're not going to feel like that later not all those feelings not all the time and you can't promise to feel something all the time but you can promise what you're going to do and what you're going to stick to that's this is richer or poorer in sickness and in health time that's why marriages are.

So beautiful when we have a wedding service and they promise this is what it's going to be and I'm stick it out even if it's bad and the reality is that's what we want marriage to be that's what you want that's what you want love to be a feeling that's followed up by a promise that someone sticks to that's what he says it's supposed to be that it's a lifelong Covenant that it's a picture of commitment and this is what it's supposed to.

Look like so that's his answer this is what marriage is meant to be so he says it's not this passage in Deuteronomy that you're talking about it's this section in Matthew verse 7 they said to him why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away okay we read Deuteronomy 24 earlier is that what Moses commanded is that what he said he said if if if if if if they shouldn't get remarried now that was the command was at the end the beginning part was not a command he was just saying as this situation unfolds.

If this situation unfolds this can't happen if we were reading Deuteronomy and it said when two people enter into a Business Partnership and if the partnership goes bad and if one of them stabs the other one then this and later you said now why did why did Moses command us to to stab our business partners when we were mad at them we would say that you read that wrong that's not what that says and you would say yes well the reason we know that's not what that says is that he's already told us we already know that stabbing is bad that's Jesus's response we already know what marriage was supposed to.

Look like you should know that this is not how this is supposed to play out we already have an answer of what this is supposed to be and therefore this is you're you're reading that wrong so this is what he says verse 8 he said to them because of your Hardness of Heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so he says no no no no no Moses was stepping into a messed up situation where there is Brokenness and sin that is not God's good design.

For marriage that's not what it's supposed to look like in the midst of Brokenness Moses gave some regulations he allowed it that's not God's intent so to answer their question of how should marriage work how should divorce work he answers it this is what marriage is supposed to look like and so when they try to push on it he says no that's not what that's meant and then he he takes it even further and I say to you whoever divorces his wife except.

For sexual immorality so it seems like he's lining up with Shmi there he's given the the if there's sexual sin and marries another he takes it further commits adultery so what he's saying is that this consistent divorce this getting together splitting up this first wife second wife he said all that ends up doing is making sin run rampant it's painful and difficult and harmful and Moses stepped in and tried to give some regulations around it but all it does is increase Brokenness and it shouldn't happen it's not the way.

God designed it and for many of us we find ourselves in that situation where we have had a divorce where there was sexual immorality or there wasn't sexual immorality some people in here today with your second spouse and this is a painful thing marriage was meant because it was meant to be so good it is so painful when it goes wrong because it was meant to be something beautiful and a good gift to humanity it is painful when it goes wrong and we're going to talk a little bit as we come to a close this morning on how we get to respond in the midst of some of this Brokenness.

But I want us to follow this story as it goes so verse 10 the disciples said to him if such is the case of a man with his wife it is better not to marry now many of his disciples were young this is a very cynical way to look at marriage oh wait what you got to be married to the same person the whole time I'm I'm not getting married that's their answer that that's that's the response they at least took it seriously they said.

Well it's okay if that's the case then it's better not to marry and he responds he said to them not everyone can receive this saying we'll see that he doesn't mean that this only applies to some people what he means is that some people are meant to get married and some people are are meant to be single that's what he means and we'll see he clears it up at the end not everyone can receive this saying but only those to whom it is given as a gift that's what that's what that's getting at.

For there are Unix who have been made so from birth and there are Unix who have been made Unix by men so he says marriage isn't for everybody and then he moves the the conversation to celibacy a unic is a male who's been castrated for a specific purpose um or some that that had happened prior uh happened at Birth but he's basically saying that there are people who choose to not have any sexual activity or that can't have any sexual activity.

So he looks at his disciples and says yes not everybody has to get married but on the other side you do know you're you're stepping into abstinence and celibacy but he holds it up as as a legitimate answer now I want to make one quick comment here I think sometimes the way Christians treat sexual intimacy people in our culture act like we devalue it that we act like it's bad or we' we've debased it somehow the reality is we value it.

So we place guardrails around it similar to if I found out you had $100,000 in a safe and I said you put it in a safe you're so ashamed of your money that would be silly you'd say no it's valuable and you're a and so that's kind of our answer in this situation is no this is valuable it means more than you think it has more power than you think it's more spiritually active than you think and that's why we guard it.

But he says for there are Unix who have been so from birth and there are Unix who have been made Unix by men and there are Unix who have made themselves Unix for the sake s of the kingdom of heaven so he adds a category they were unfamiliar with which is there are some who have chosen this route for the sake of the kingdom and that's a perfectly valid route let the one who is able to receive this receive it you can be single and a complete full person you can never have physical intimacy with another person and be a complete full person.

Jesus holds this up as a legitimate good way to walk through life Paul doubles down on it Paul doesn't just say it's legitimate and good he says it's actually preferable so we're going to read that real quick First Corinthians 7:2 this is Paul picking up some of this same discussion that Jesus is in but he says but because of the temptation to sexual immorality each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband he explains somehow to fight uh sexual immorality and Temptation even in marriage.

But then he goes in verse six he says now as a concession not a command I say this he's not commanding everybody to get married but he is saying most of you should if you can't control yourself no if you can't control yourself you should I didn't want to leave room for there someone who couldn't control himself that that was okay so all right now as a concession not a command I say this I wish that all were as myself but each has his own gift from.

God one of one kind and one of another so Paul says I wish everybody was like me and could control themselves but a lot of people are really tempted they should get married everybody has a different gift GI from God that's the same thing that Jesus says whoever can receive this receive it whoever receives this gift receive it Paul's saying some people have this gift some another verse 27 he keeps going are you bound to a wife do not seek to be free are you free from a wife do not seek a wife.

But if you do marry you have not sinned if a betroth woman marries she has not sinned yet those who marry will have worldly troubles oh you missed your chance to say Amen but that's cool we'll keep going and I would spare you that this is what I mean Brothers the appointed time has grown very short he's saying that if you get married you your focus changes but we know that there's a Gospel to be proclaimed there's an eternity that is coming he keeps uh explaining this in.

Verse 32 I want you to be free from anxieties the unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord how to please the Lord but the married man is anxious about worldly things how to please his wife and his interests are divided the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord how to be holy in body and spirit but the married woman is anxious about worldly things how to please her husband that's true and that's okay it's.

Okay if you're married you should be concerned about your husband or your wife you're bad at marriage if you're not I mean you learn this some when you first get married with simple things like you walk in the house eating a Snicker bar your wife says oh you got snicker bars and you're like Snicker bar there's no s why didn't you get me one I didn't think about you while I was buying it well y'all are going to fix that you start thinking about each other you work on it this is the way it's supposed to work Jordan satat who's in our Church family got a phone call from a friend from another state who.

Said said hey we're about to go on a foreign mission trip and somebody dropped out do you want to go they're leaving in like 3 or 4 days Jordan worked it out and went if someone had called me and asked that I would have laughed do I want to do what in three or four days I'm not even talking to my wife about that other than a funny anecdote at dinner listen to what this person who doesn't understand how my world Works called and ask it's not easy to do I got small children there are things that you have to consider we don't you ever been stuck in traffic and a motorcycle just goes riding.

Through many Vans don't do that many Vans get straight up stuck in traffic and not bobbing and weaving that's what he's saying is that if you get married you have things that you have to be concerned with you have things that slow you down you have worries and cares and things that you ought to work on and devote yourself too and he said I would save you that and I would let you be wholly devoted to the Lord single people if you are not married you are not freed up to be devoted to video games and Facebook and hobbies.

If you belong to Jesus he's saying no he's given you a gift and even if it's just for a season it's a gift to be devoted wholly to the Lord don't waste it bear appropriately the weight of responsibility of being single and believing that there is an eternity to come just as those who are married ought to Bear appropriately the weight of being married and Care well for their spouse and love Jesus help display that you believe to your spouse and to your children that there is an eternity to come and that.

Jesus matters more but put it on display in a way that shows them love and grace and care and it's a difficult line to walk and single people he says you just get to be freed up that's a thought process you don't even have to walk through you get to be devoted to the Lord so each has his own gift and we find ourselves in different spots this morning if you are currently married your marriage is a marriage I don't care what number we find you on I don't care.

If it's one two three that your marriage is a marriage all marriages are treated like marriages Jesus talks to the woman at the well he says you've had five husbands any minute then he clarifies well this last one's not your husband but every single one that she had had was an actual husband was an actual marriage and if you are married then it is supposed to look right now what it's supposed to look like which is lifelong care Covenant that you give all of yourself to them that you do not withhold that you join together and that you fight to make it good many of us have rented a house before.

And when you rent a house you don't knock down a wall and build an extra room you don't put a deck out back you talk about if I own this house here are the things I would work on if you buy the house maybe you build a deck the reality is some of us are in a marriage and we keep acting like there may be a time that we leave so we're not working hard enough this is your marriage this is the one fight and by the grace of.

God fight and it is a good gift of Grace that he's given you this marriage and he wants it to be good and fight and make it good labor and if you're going to be married for 60 years it's worth 10 that we're really really hard that you work some things out in because he means for you to have a lifelong marriage before him and he gives the grace of his good gift for it to be good single people who have married friends encourage them encourage them to love and to serve don't let them sit and talk bad poorly about their spouse parents do not let your children drag them drag you into their household.

Say no no no leave and cleave bye I don't want to hear it I don't want Christmas to be awkward because I know all the weird stuff that's going on I want to show up free and happy single people you get to display in a way to our world that Jesus is better that our world does not understand we think that you have to have romance that you have to have a significant other in order to be full and to be complete you have the opportunity to display that.

Jesus is better than all of that even if it's for a season some of you it's for a lifetime that you get to hold out I believe there's an eternity to come I believe that Jesus has a bride and it's the Church so I'm in it we have a covenant that I get to lean into I believe that he gives me hope and Grace to work through what I'm in and I can display in a way that the Gospel is good news and that.

Jesus fulfills me and fills me up in a way that you can't in marriage and a way that you can't in a relationship and so while that is your time do it and while you have the freedom and the time devote it to the Lord do not become level 700 on some online video game men you level up in a video game you level down in real life life they are okay as a hobby they are not to have your life devoted to that involves married men as.

Well you have things that are worth carrying the weight of existence for you have things that are to come don't sit and just prepare yourself for a spouse follow and serve the Lord if you are currently in the midst of a divorce if you have been divorced that term or that thought brings up excruciating amounts of pain if it is messy for you there is Grace for where you find yourself there's Grace in Christ that you are fulfilled and complete in him that you can trust him to work in this situation.

For those of you who have lost a spouse for those of you who have walked through a divorce that was of your doing or none of you are doing you are not marked forever you can be forgiven you can walk out in peace and you can have the grace if you allowed to if it fits for you to be married again you can have the grace for that to not turn out like the last one and for some of you if you're not meant to be married again.

If if the Lord does not allow it he will give you Grace to face the singleness that he has offered you and you need to devote it to the Lord he is sufficient and you will be okay and in the midst of pain he does really really good work I love that they bring up Moses and that Jesus says he only allowed that because of the hardness of your heart you know what Moses can't do you know what the law can't do you know what rules and regulations can't do they can't fix our hearts.

Jesus did not come to give us a bunch of new rules he came to fix our hearts he came to step in into the midst of Brokenness and not to outmaneuver them or out clever them he came to have them have the full force of the wrath of God land on him as he took our sin and our pain and our shame on the cross so that we might all be forgiven and we might all receive the grace that we need to move forward.

So wherever you find yourself look to Jesus he is better he is sufficient and he will give you Grace for this moment and the moments to come and if you feel marked by your sexual sin if you feel marked by your marriage history if you feel like it has claimed you and dirtied you and sullied you I want you to know that in Ephesians 5 it says that Jesus loves the Church that he gave himself up for her that he might present her without any spot or blemish or any such thing.

If you have a marriage that you feel like has spot spots and blemishes if you feel like you have spots and blemishes and you belong to Jesus you do not there is no such thing not for those who've been washed clean by by Christ not for those who he's paid the penalty there is no spot or wrinkle or any such thing we are free and we are forgiveness forgiven and there is Grace for what's ahead let's pray God we thank you we thank you that you step into the Brokenness of the world and you don't just give give good explanations you don't just teach us better.

But that you join us in the Brokenness and that you are broken for us that we might have forgiveness and that we might have life that all that we have done wrong and all that has been done wrong to us can be washed away and we can be clean we pray Lord that those who don't have not yet trusted in you for salvation have not yet asked you to clean them that they would repent now of their sin that they would ask you to wash away what they have done and what others have done to them and that they would be brought into your Church as a spotless dazzling bride without wrinkle or blemish we.

Pray for the marriages in this room that are struggling right now that you would give them Grace and energy that they would bear well the ra the weight of responsibility of marriage and that they would make it look the way it's meant to look by your grace we pray for the single people in this room who are lonely who are sad who are frustrated we pray for those who have decided that they are going to spend a life of singleness that you would give them energy and courage that you would help them to feel the grace they need.

For this moment we pray for those who have walked through a divorce or are in the middle of one that they would see you so clearly healing forgiving protecting love loving and coming to rescue because we cannot live up to your standards so you came to pay for our debt and to set us free in Jesus name amen.

Mill City 10/4/20 Mill City 10/4/20

Church Discipline: The Posture (Matthew 18:21-35)

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.

Family Worship Guide

Transcript

Well good morning my name is chet i am one of the pastors here uh grab your bibles and go to Matthew chapter 18. we have been working our way through the Gospel of Matthew and we've spent the past couple of weeks in Matthew 18 looking at uh Jesus's teaching on addressing sin uh in one another he's teaching on the gravity of sin and then how do we address sin with each other and now we're looking today we're kind of finishing this up we said we'd spend three weeks on this and we said we'd talk about Church discipline.

Because that's this concept that we would address sin uh in the Church among one another in one another we said the first week was the purpose why would we address sin why would we go out of our way to do this and we talked about that sin is weighty and dangerous the second week last week we talked about the process of Church discipline how we would um how we go about addressing sin with one another and today we're looking at the posture the attitude behind how we address sin in one another and this is a very important week.

For us i think this is a very helpful teaching and we're going to start with verse 21 where Peter comes up and asks a question because Peter like you just sat and listened to Jesus is teaching on sin and on addressing sin and one thing very clearly stood out to him and so he comes up and he says this is verse 21 then Peter came up and said to him lord how often will my brother sin against me and i forgive him as many as seven times.

Okay so i think sometimes we read this passage in Matthew and we think oh wow it gets really harsh at the end that you would actually break fellowship with somebody but Peter caught the gist of what Jesus was saying was that actually before that ever happens there's three opportunities for repentance to for forgiveness he actually says the goal of it is that you would go win your brother that you would address sin where they've sinned against you they would repent and you would win them back they all would uh reconcile.

And so Peter says okay question though for how long what's the what's the limit what's the appropriate amount of times that i'm supposed to forgive someone they sin against me i address it they repent i forgive them but the thing i've noticed about them is that they do it again Jesus i don't know if you've hung out with any people that's a thing they do and so i i have and i had a question how many times am i supposed to do that and Peter throws out a number he says seven and that's actually kind of a it's a very jewish way to ask this he's talking to his rabbi and he's asking what's the.

Rule how many because they would do that they would say you do this three times you do this this amount of times we do this up to this many times so he comes to Jesus and he asks this is a helpful question because we've just talked through the weightiness of sin the need to address sin and now we need to understand okay but if i address sin and they repent and i forgive them at what point can we stop that process and whether you know it or not you probably have some kind of an answer to this some of you maybe you're running with the baseball policy of three strikes you're out some of you.

Go a little bit under that you do fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me unless you're a fan of george w bush and he eloquently put it this way fool me once shame on you fool me for me can't fool me again maybe that's the system you run with but we have some kind of system of this is how much i'm willing to put up with this and so Jesus answers this question and his answer is wonderful it it's refreshing and life-giving and it's extremely difficult.

And so that's what we're gonna look at so let's pray for our hearts this morning as we look at this passage together God we ask you to soften us to your word to help us to see clearly the beauty of forgiveness both for ourselves and for others we pray that we would walk this out faithfully as you empower us by the spirit in Jesus name amen so Peter says seven and i think that's pretty gracious and Jesus said to him i do not say to you seven times.

But 77 times okay so seven sounded generous Jesus says no not seven seventy seven and some uh a way to translate this is seventy times seven or seventy seven times so it's either 77 or 490 but either way it accomplishes the same thing which Jesus is saying all the times he didn't mean for Peter to go okay 77 sounds hard i'll have to get a little book to write that down and i'm going to keep up someone does something i'm like i'm forgiving you and just.

So you know we're at 37 we're a little we're getting close to halfway that you tell somebody okay but this is 76. you got one more shot of this and we're done and some of you who have been married for a while you're like 77 that was like year five on this thing but he says 77 and reality is you have to be in real relationships for this to apply which is a beautiful thing that the Church is supposed to have that's why he's using the term brother it doesn't mean your actual blood brother he means your brothers and sisters in Christ that we would actually be around each other enough to get on each.

Other's nerves and to sin so much that it actually needs uh unlimited amount of forgiveness this is one of the things we talk to our group leaders about we talk about the concept of we celebrate the mess meaning that if we're going to be real Church family in real life we're going to have real conflict because all of you are real sinners that's actually that's a that's a Mill City Church of kc guaranty we don't guarantee a lot but we guarantee.

If if you're new and you're just hanging out and you're just joining a group i want to i want to make a promise to you if you stay long enough we will sin against you will hurt your feelings we'll do something we ought not to have done and guess what if you stay long enough you'll join us and participate you'll hurt our feelings you'll do things you ought not to have done that's the reality of walking in relationships and that's why we tell our group leaders we celebrate the mess which is that your group is going to have some mess.

If every time your group gets together and we say how are we doing everybody goes fine fine fine fine fine fine okay sometimes that's true you run that out for six months we've got a group full of liars who need to repent they're sinning address it but that's the reality is that we're going to have some mess and this is beautiful when you're the sinner that's exactly the answer we want 77 times uncountable don't keep a record this is actually what.

First corinthians 13 in the the chapter on where he talks about love and what love is and where married couples tried to steal it and they're like no you're not allowed to talk about it unless it's at a wedding because that only applies to us which is silly it was said to the Church it's how love is supposed to work in the Church it says that love keeps no record of wrong it's not resentful that it has no record and that's what he's saying that you would not keep a record of wrongs that.

When you forgive somebody they restart you reset it with them that's the point see Peter's saying okay but that's one that's a tally mark right so they've sinned and i'll forgive them but i'm putting a tally mark and Jesus says no there are no tally marks you forgive them we're reset we're at zero and the reality is when you're the sinner that's beautiful but when you're sinned against that's hard this is a good time for us to have a beautiful double standard where you forgive me unlimitedly and i get to keep count that's how most of us want this to work.

But that's so think about it somebody in your group lies about you they say you said something you didn't say causes some trouble you find out about it you finally trace it back to why are they acting like this and you finally they told me you said this i didn't say that you go to them and you say i didn't say that and they go yeah you're right you didn't i was stirring stuff up i've done this since high school and i'm sorry i'm trying to change please forgive me.

Because they actually repent that's that's how this works they don't just say no no these are people who actually repent like i'm sorry i shouldn't have done that you forgive them and then six months later they do it again so you walk through the process again you find out we did this you forgive them eight months later they do it again now most of us are saying we're not friends anymore this isn't how this like i'm not i can't i'm a fool to stay in this relationship.

Jesus would say no you're one of my people to stay in this relationship if they're genuinely repenting and for most of us we'd say well they're not really repenting because they keep doing it but is that how we treat it when we sin because i can tell you right now i've been married for 10 years and i'm on i'm past 77 on some things and my wife will say we've talked about this and i'll be like you're right and i am genuinely sorry again.

Because you're right that's a really good point i shouldn't do that and i might do it again but i'm genuinely sorry and i don't want to and i'm actively trying to repent but we do that again and when it happens to us when we're the sinner it's like no that makes sense that i'm genuinely sorry and then yes i keep i keep doing that but when somebody else does it would go they're not actually repenting and so for some of us we are holding on to unforgiveness this is too painful.

Look at the damage they've caused well i'll forgive them but i'm not going to forget i'll forgive them but they're not going to make a fool out of me i just don't think i can open myself back up to them i just don't think this can be the way it was i don't think you know i'll still i'll stay in the group but i'm just not going to talk anymore some of us have this with people in our community group some of us have it with some of our Church family members some of us have it with old Church family members from another Church another pastor somebody that we have this that we've held on.

To some of us this is people from high school this is people we grew up with some of us this is a spouse this is a parent this is our children we've got something we're holding on to and we have kept a record now Jesus if we actually did this this would be beautiful but we don't want to this is hard for us and so Jesus tells a story to help cement this idea and to help us understand why this is how this has to work not ought to work has to work this way.

For those who belong to him for those who are in the kingdom so this is what he says verse 23 therefore the kingdom of heaven so this is his kingdom as it advances and what it ought to look like and how this plays out therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants so he's going to pay some back he's going to get back what he's owed when he began to settle one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.

Okay so that's lost on us a talent so a dinari was a one day's wage you worked you got a dinari that was a day labor wage so that'd be minimum wage to 15 an hour kind of like a your day's worth of work depending on the job you had is about a dinari a talent would have been 20 years of day labor so 10 000 talents so 20 years a day labor is 300 to 600 000 10 000 talents is 3 billion to 6 billion dollars it's a silly amount it's insane that this person would owe six billion dollars.

If i'm doing pre-marital counseling and i'm like all right now let's talk about debt how are y'all in credit card debt and the husband's like yeah you know as we're getting married i am bringing in some debt i got some credit card debt okay how much credit card debt do you have 1.2 million dollars in credit card debt i know y'all are in love i look at the girl and i'll be like i'd probably just walk out on this one that's kind of this this number is insane.

If you went back in time one million seconds you would go back all the way to september 22nd of this year if you go back in time one billion seconds you go back to october 4th 1989. that's the difference between a million and a billion this is a silly number when he says ten thousand talents they're like us i don't know what a billion dollars is can't even picture it even that going back to 1989 thing only kind of helped ten thousand talents it's a silly number it's ridiculous this guy owes ten thousand dollars.

Now listen some people get into business they take out a loan and some bad things happen and it doesn't turn out the way they want to this is like wicked gross negligence to be three billion dollars in debt this is insane how much debt this man has accrued and he he's over and abundantly rudely sinfully imposed upon this king he is in debt 25 and since he could not pay right makes sense i'm gonna write you a check don't cash her till monday no he couldn't do that since he could not pay his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had and payment to be made.

So he says that's it i'm collecting everything you own your house every piece of property all of it we're selling it and you're getting sold and your wife's getting sold and your children are getting sold and i'm going to get some of my money back i'm going to recoup some of it not all of it he would not have had that much money to recoup even after he sold everything but the point is i'm going to take it out of your skin it's coming out of you you owe me.

So the king orders that he be sold and that some amount of debt be repaid verse 26 so the servant fell on his knees imploring him have patience with me and i will pay you everything the concept of someone falling on their knees i don't think you've ever seen this have you maybe seen children do it it looks silly if you see it happen in real life if you were at the bank and somebody was on their knees in front of people at the bank holding on to their shirt saying please please don't don't do it you would realize that they had reached a point that they were just broken he falls on his knees.

And he says have mercy be patient i'll pay you back which is a lie he's not going to pay him back he can't pay him back he's saying he'll try out of pity for him verse 27 the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt he doesn't release him and put him on a payment plan he doesn't say okay well you're working for me for free from now on he doesn't he says you're forgiven he says to his guards can't go the guy his scribes go cancel that wipe it clean he's forgiven have you ever almost gotten a speeding ticket you knew you deserved it this is like that.

But six billion times better this moment of freedom of joy of delight that's not hanging over his head anymore he walks out he didn't have to pay back with what he had he has what he has and he owns it now he's not in debt anymore verse 28 but when that same servant went out he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii three months a couple thousand dollars a decent amount but not nearly compared to what he had he owed him 100 denarii.

And so you would think how would he respond first of all he's skipping down the road whistling he sees this guy and you think he'd be like tony because that's a palestinian first gen first century name they used tony you don't owe me anything because he would pass it on right he knows what it feels like seizing him he began to choke him saying pay what you owe what see he walks out some owes him three months worth of work and he sees him and he thinks.

Finally i caught this rat and he grabs him and starts choking him choking him saying pay what you owe the guy gasped out so his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him have patience with me and i will pay you that's exactly what he just said so now he's going to have that moment where he has a flashback his heart changes he refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt when his fellow servants saw what had taken place they were greatly distressed.

So the king forgives this one servant this one this other servant has peers they're on his level he went on level with the king but he's got peers and so he forgives he's forgiven by the king and then he attacks another servant and then the other servants see it and they go tell the king they wouldn't told him all that had taken place verse 32 then his master summoned him and said to him you wicked servant i forgave you all that debt.

Because you pleaded with me and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as i had mercy on you and in his anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt so the king says it's ridiculous you owe me and he takes it right back out of his skin he says no this this this isn't how this is going to work and he throws him in jail and this story this man's forgiven this and it reminds me of the um the movie it's a wonderful life it's a christmas movie it's on every christmas season there's this guy named george and he's just a solid guy he he.

Had had hopes and dreams but he kept just kind of dealing with duty every time duty came up he just handled things that needed to be taken care of and so he's very sacrificial throughout this whole story and he's serving others and he works really hard to serve others and he in the in the story though his uncle is really forgetful they run a bill a business and his uncle loses eight thousand dollars which at that time was a significant amount of money and it's gonna come out of george the main character and it's gonna seem like he embezzled that he stole it and everything's gonna fall apart he's gonna go to jail everything's gonna.

Get foreclosed on he decides that he's worth more dead than alive because he has a fifteen thousand dollar life insurance policy so he goes he's planning on committing suicide the whole story is him realizing that he shouldn't he decides not to he's running back to his home he's just going to face what's coming to him he's going to go to jail but he thinks that's better than suicide and while he was out everybody was worried about him his wife was worried about him his wife runs around town and just goes and tells everybody george is in trouble we need to get money together.

So he shows up last season in the movie he's at his house people just start pouring in and they just start piling money on the table they said we heard you were in trouble we don't know how you got in this debt but we're going to pay it back i mean it's beautiful he walks out on his porch he's just blown away and he sees the sky that we had seen earlier in the movie that he had helped out a couple of times and he says fred and he says fred everybody in the neighborhood came in and helped give money back to me and you owe me 20 you owe it to me they were.

Given out of the generosity of their own heart you owe it to me he jumps off the porch and he attacks him he just starts punching him in the face and it fades to black and hark the herald angels sing plays and it's beautiful and it ends exactly the way you want it to end and that's why it's a christmas classic that doesn't happen at all because you along with him you feel in your heart this beautiful moment while you're watching this of forgiveness and redemption this moment where everything's working back out.

For this guy when he didn't have to and that's what should have happened in this story but this man walked out forgiven and it was completely lost on him it was as if he deserved it i don't know it was as if that's how the king ought to have acted i don't know what's going on his heart but we know that as soon as he saw someone else who needed forgiveness from him he wouldn't give it and Jesus says this as he finishes the story.

Verse 35 so also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart the reason we address sin is that we believe it's destructive and we long for forgiveness and reconciliation we we address sin so that we might forgive and so that we might restore we don't address sin to catch somebody or to harm somebody or to call to collect on their debt we address sin so that we might wipe debt clean this story.

Jesus says that's how it will work if you're forgiven by the father but then you fail to forgive he will call you to pay your debt colossians 3 puts the same idea this way it says colossians 3 13 will be on the screen bearing with one another which i just love that's a command to the Church you ever feel like that's all you do with these people good you're being biblical you're living out what it's like you're bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another forgiving each other as the lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive if you're a believer if you're a Christian you've placed your faith in Jesus you have received lavish unlimited forgiveness far beyond anybody owes you and so we give lavish unlimited forgiveness we are a forgiving people because we are a forgiven people and when we fail to forgive and when we're unwilling to forgive what we are announcing is that we don't actually believe the Gospel that man must not have understood what had just happened that's that's the only way you can read that story and go he just didn't grasp how much his debt had.

Been paid and so when we are unwilling to forgive we actually are holding out that we don't believe in forgiveness we don't believe the Gospel we don't want it we don't understand it i love that it uses the concept of debt because that's actually how sin works it creates real debt if i borrowed five hundred dollars from you and then never brought it up again you would feel that when we were around each other and you would be like i know he remembers he's got to.

Remember right he feels that we're around each other too is he not if you brought it up and i was like oh yes i do think he kind of you know and then you would feel like the reality of sin is that it creates debt when the king says his debt is forgiven we might be confused and say well nobody paid the debt but that's not true who paid the debt the king in this story the king paid the debt when he says the debt's forgiven it came out of him he said instead of me taking it out of you instead of me making you pay what you owe i'm going to take it out.

Of me and that's why we use that language when someone sins against us we say i'm going to make them pay i'm going to take it back out of them and that's an option we only have a few options when somebody sins against us uh tim keller puts it this way he says it's like if i came to your house and i broke a lamp i break your lamp and you say don't worry about it well you have a couple options you can say don't worry about it you can say you owe me a lamp you can take it back out of me right you can say don't worry about it.

But if you say don't worry about it you are willing to go without the lamp that you had so you you pay in lack of light and in the money you spent that is now broken or you can go buy yourself a new lamp but either way you're incurring the cost of forgiving me that's why we don't want to forgive because we have to incur the cost that's why we say things like i don't know just i'm having such a hard time forgiving it hurts yeah it hurts to forgive our model.

For forgiveness is not God magically waving his hands our model forgiveness for forgiveness is the son of God brutally beaten and nailed to a cross forgiveness is costly that's the reality we see in colossians 2 13 it says you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands just leave that slide up there we're going to be here.

For a minute do you realize that when you sin you accrue debt actual debt if you sin against somebody you are taking out of them you are harming them when we sin anywhere against anybody we sin against God and we accrue debt i've heard that they're gonna start having stores where you basically just walk around and you just put the items in your cart and while you put the items in your cart digital technological science adds it up and then you just walk out the door and it charges you.

Now i don't know how all that would work magic is a good guess but i've heard that this is what we're going to do that's a good picture of actually what we've done our whole lives every time we've taken something that wasn't ours every time we've lied about somebody every time we've almost kind of told the truth to manipulate a situation to make ourselves look better to control how about somebody responded to us every time we've been jealous and resentful every time we've sat around and pouted.

Because we didn't get our way every time we've been envious or lustful every time we've willfully participated in sexual sin and debauchery every time we've participated in gluttonous and drunkenness every time we've walked around in this world destroying God's good design and sowing unrighteousness we are accruing debt and the reality is if you're honest with yourself and you think back over the course of your life six billion dollars sounds about right it doesn't seem like a ludicrous number anymore it's like.

If you were charging me for every time i've willfully and sinfully harmed those i love you honestly if you think about the people you love the most and how much you've sinned against them that's the best you can do i desperately love you and i am inflicting severe harm on you that's the best version of us a cruise debt that'd be like if you were the best version of your business dealings would only be bankrupt by four million dollars we have debt by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing it to the cross what was nailed to the cross.

Jesus that's why first corinthians said he who knew no sin became sin second corinthians became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God and our sin debt was placed on Jesus and nailed to the cross and if you believe in Jesus you are forgiven it's wiped clean it's gone he's canceled the record of your debt you're free if you have not placed your faith in Jesus you have debt but he's willing to pay it you can repent of your sin you can come to him you can plead.

For mercy and he'll give it he won't tell you here's how to pay restitution here's how to earn it back he'll wipe it clean that's the beauty of the Gospel and that is why Christians must forgive because we're a people who have been forgiven if anyone was to understand what debt felt like and what forgiveness felt like it should have been the man in this story and if anybody is to understand what debt feels like and what forgiveness feels like it should be Christians you are not a Christian.

Because you are one of the good ones you are not a Christian because you have earned it you are not a Christian because the record of your life is in the positive we are Christians because we had a negative balance that had to be paid with the costly blood of Christ it had to come out of somebody's skin and we stood in line and said not ours please let it be Jesus by the grace of God let it come out of his skin and he was willing to do it that we might have forgiveness and how dare we how dare we say thank you.

Jesus for forgiveness and then look at someone else and say do you know how important i am i can't live with what you've done to me no we're forgiving people because we're a forgiven people and some of you right now need to forgive you have received lavish grace and you are holding debt against somebody and you need to cancel it and you need to take it to Jesus and say you who could forgive six billion dollars i need you to teach me how to how to forgive fifteen hundred i need you to teach me i need you to change my heart i need you to melt me.

So that i might not hold on to this any longer and act as if i don't know you and do you know how beautiful this is that Christians genuinely from their heart can leave this room pick up the phone call their father who they haven't talked to in years and say i forgive you the Christians can leave this room and and work it out in front of their bibles with someone you don't even know how to find or talk to and say.

Lord i forgive them i let it go you know how beautiful it is that we get to walk in family with people who don't keep a record of debt because that's the only type of people you can consistently walk in a relationship with that we would be people who forgive because we're people who have been forgiven don't miss out on that if you need forgiveness come get it and if you owe forgiveness go give it let's pray God we thank you that you forgive sinners that you took it out of your own skin that by your wounds we are healed that you have canceled the record of our debt and may we forgive.

Because we have to if we can't forgive we don't believe the Gospel so lord may we believe the Gospel and may we be a gracious kind forgiving people that put you on display in a way that the world cannot match that we address sin and forgive the world is only able to do one or the other of those they can address sin but not forgive or they can just say let's not worry about it but we get to do both in a way that beautifully displays the cross where you called us out.

For our sin and forgave us and may you work in our hearts today by the power of your spirit to receive forgiveness and to give forgiveness in Jesus name amen.

Mill City 9/27/20 Mill City 9/27/20

Church Discipline - The Process (Matthew 18:15-20)

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.

Family Worship Guide

Transcript

Good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors here we are in week two of three weeks of walking through uh the subject matter of Church discipline that we're seeing in Matthew 18 so if you have a Bible you can go ahead we're going to be Matthew 18 verses 15 through 20 and you can turn there also be along it'll be on the screen for us to follow along so in college i went to presbyterian college up in clinton south carolina and and i studied religion which was interesting.

Because in the religion department the Bible was neat it was a nice book uh wasn't very authoritative uh certainly wasn't seen to be true so my experiences in in that uh major was was quite interesting i remember one class in particular it's called Christian doctrine you might think oh Christian doctrine where you study the Bible and you look at some of the historical Christian doctrines and you come to class and you discuss kind of you know what lines up with the Scriptures.

If you thought that you would be incorrect again the Bible was just kind of an addendum to christianity uh in my studies up there and uh that class in particular uh basically you just kind of came ready to discuss whatever the subject was kind of shooting from the hip however you felt and uh at times i came ready to defend the Scriptures ready to to make a defense for why certain doctrines were true and etc but there were some days that i was just kind of tired and fighting battles like that sometimes is just tiring.

So there's sometimes i came and i was like you know what i think i'm just going to be a little bit more silent this period and i remember one class in particular the subject matter was was the judgment of God and i just i don't have it in me to really debate this today and i stayed silent and then about halfway through the class right kind of the time was most heated the professor looked at me and said spencer do you think we're called to judge anyone this is going to go.

Well so i said well yes and before i could add the caveats before i could really get into my kind of my argument someone there's there's three people in my class i remember they sat in the back row and they would probably consider themselves to be fairly open-minded but by open-minded they meant open to their own opinions and they hated yours and and they really got aggressive about a lot of things and immediately they just kind of they kind of tightened up and one of them just said uh-uh my.

God says we never judge anyone ever and i just said okay and i'll open up to first corinthians five and i just read start to read one passage verse 12 and 13 i said for what have i to do with judging outsiders is it not those inside the Church whom you are a judge God judges the outside purge the evil person from among you and what i tried to get to and some semblance of somewhat got there and they were very upset about is that there's this idea that yes.

God calls us to hold each other accountable there's this expectation in the new testament Church of of collective repentance of correcting one another of rebuking one another at times that that's a form of judgment sure we don't judge outsiders that's what Jesus is getting at in Matthew 7. that's self-righteous judgment but there is this this expectation of accountability for the Church but there is this visceral reaction from them in our class and honestly i think it is really picturesque of how our uh culture reacts to this type of accountability how it reacts to really this subject matter that we're walking through in these three weeks the subject of Church discipline there's this it's within us.

It just there is this reality that culture has affected us we don't like the idea of this but last week we introduced what Church discipline is and i'll define it again Church discipline is the practice through which the Church pursues holiness and joy by addressing and correcting sin and waywardness read that one more time it is the practice through which the Church pursues holiness and joy by addressing and correcting sin and waywardness and as we're walking through this there was three different weeks last week was uh the purpose of Church discipline this week is the process we're going to.

See how Jesus calls us to walk this out and the next week is the posture and as we walk through this to be honest there's a part of us culturally that's not going to like parts of what we're going to walk through today it's just we're just not but i want to press into that i want to help us see that maybe this isn't a subject matter that we just kind of submit to and obey because the Scriptures call us to that maybe actually.

Jesus is doing something here and that this process of Church discipline actually is a means of grace it is a means of grace that binds the Church and keeps us together so that we all might make it to the end and no one might be led astray and that's what Jesus is going for here so let me read the passage all in one clip and then i'm gonna pray and then we'll walk through this piece by piece so verse 15. if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you you have gained your brother but if he does not listen take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses if he refuses to listen to them tell it to the Church and if he refuses to listen even to the Church let him be to you as a gentile and a tax collector truly i say to you whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven again i say to you.

If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask it will be done for them by my father in heaven for where two or three are gathered in my name there i am among them let me pray God we ask that you would speak to us right now and i know that there is probably a lot of different opinions i know there's probably a lot of different even experiences with this God i pray that you would just open up the Scriptures to our hearts and speak to us this morning in.

Jesus name amen all right so again Jesus is teaching he's kind of gone through a little bit of the purpose of what he's getting ready to say and then we launch into verse 15 and instead there's a this is a three-fold process we're about to walk through and here is the first step if your brother verse 15 sends against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone if he listens to you you have gained your brother he says go and tell him his fault we don't like that all right we are a mind your own business type of culture all right you do you and i do me we don't like.

The idea of getting the other people's business we we just don't and we certainly don't like anybody getting and calling out our faults right have you y'all remember uh uh mari that tv show and every now and then they get the kids on there that just were wild and needed discipline and and uh and those kids would just they would just they would say the most outrageous things they you know they try to talk to him they say i don't i go.

Listen to you i do what i want and they just would get really aggressive with lots of curse words about how no one was going to tell them what to do and the reality is is that that's what goes on our own heart we're super polished on the outside we would never act like that but that's truly what's going on when anybody comes to you and corrects you you're like all right tell me how to live my life i'm gonna do me you do you it's just we don't like this at all we're too individualistic to.

See that actually we belong to one another that in the Church we are together we belong to one another therefore we walk this out together in repentance together which means calling one another out and calling out faults within one another but we don't really like that i love what um there's a theologian named john calvin he and his institutes of Christian religion he walks through just kind of a defense of Church discipline it's a little bit of a longer quote but i want to walk through it.

Because i think it's super helpful he says but because some persons and their hatred of discipline recoil from its very name let them understand this if no society indeed no house which even has a has even a small family can be kept in proper condition without discipline it is much more necessary in the Church whose condition should be as ordered as possible what is getting out there is is you may not like the idea of of Church discipline i mean i like the idea of of correcting one of them.

But here's the deal he says no society can function without that society needs order he says no family even a small one can exist and function the way it's supposed to without order how much more so does the Church need this those of us that deal in eternal things he keeps going he says accordingly as the saving doctrine of Christ is the soul of the Church so does discipline serve as its sinews through which the members of the body hold together each in its own place.

Therefore all who desire to remove discipline or to hinder its restoration whether they do this deliberately or out of ignorance are surely contributing to the ultimate dissolution of the Church now as a mouthful but what he just said was is that just as uh the saving doctrine of Christ is the soul of the Church that we have been saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and the empty tomb that as a Church we believe that.

Jesus is better than everything else that we are a Gospel-centered community on mission the things that we uphold that are central to who we are that's the soul that's the heartbeat of the Church but he pushes it further and says that Church discipline is the sin used it's the muscles fibers that bind us together that keeps us together otherwise we dissolve otherwise we don't exist that's a strong statement to say that if we though we believe in the Gospel don't actually walk this out and repentance together we won't exist.

But here's the deal we believe that as a Church we preach this all the time we agree with him we believe as as chet walked us through last week that sin is serious if you weren't here last week i would encourage you to go back and listen to this sermon but what he walked us through to help us see what Jesus was teaching is that sin is very serious we we think it's cute we treat it lightly but ultimately it can lead us to destruction.

Because we believe sin is serious we recognize that repentance is needed and that within us all of us are sinners all of us are jacked up we all need to walk this out in repentance that comes from the cross that ultimately comes from the saving doctrine of the Church and what Jesus has done for us we believe this we that's why we say good news before good advice is the things that we walk out all the all the time together in the Church we believe this and we believe it's actually not only necessary that it's good.

So because we believe this we we take this process seriously in the steps that he lays out so let me read 15 again he says if your brother sins against you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone now he says if your brother sins against you and when you look at luke luke's version of this and his Gospel is even more condensed luke says in verse 17 3 he says pay attention to yourselves if your brother sins rebuke him.

And if he repents forgive him so what we see here is that this is all of sin whether it's against another Christian or it's sin in general the idea is is that if you see a brother or sister in sin that you would go you were to go and tell them their fault because sin affects the whole body of Christ now it's important to see how he says to do it he says go and tell them their fault in private all right this is uh going to them one-on-one this is not you just calling them out in front of other people that's not the process here he says no go and tell them their fault.

In private. we've had some folks in the past have come to us and they've said listen so and so and the Church did this or so and so said this to me and our kind of our initial response usually is okay well have you talked to them first and they'll say well i'm no i've i'm planning to and it's like well why don't you go and talk to them first if that doesn't go well we can we can go from there.

But you need to actually address them in private first a few months back um some of y'all know jeremy powell jeremy powell serves in kid city and if you know jeremy he's he's light-hearted he's goofball um and jimmy's a friend of mine and every now and then we talk he'll come into my office but a few months back he came in i could tell very pretty quickly that it was it was a little more serious he actually came to address me in some sin he came to call me out on an area of sin and me being the good Christian that i that i am i immediately said yes jeremy i receive your rebuke.

I repent and dust and ashes it was a two-minute conversation no um i'm as jacked up as the rest of us and i just kind of said actually jeremy i think i disagree with you and for the next 15-20 minutes we went back and forth and i was like i don't see the way that you're seeing it because there's this guy there's a part of us that just says i do what i want you you come to my office and tell me that i'm sent boy like this is part of us that just wants to bow up at that.

But the flesh started to subside and the spirit started to take over and i finally realized and i after about 15-20 minutes i just agreed i was like dude i think i think you're onto something i think you might be right i repented and offered forgiveness and it was good but here's the deal that was difficult for him it's difficult to address anybody in sin it's also i would say in some ways a little more difficult to address one of your pastors who is in sin.

But he believes the Gospel right jimmy believes that that that sin is serious he believes that it's it needs repentance he believes that forgiveness comes through Christ and he loved me enough to address me in my sin and some of you might be thinking wait a second we can call out pastors and their sin yes yes you can and nadeem babam will be here after service to take to schedule any appointments you have with chet phillips so that you can meet with him this week and address any grievances you have.

Now we're all this we are a Church together and we uh correct one another in sin it's what we do and i'm thankful for brothers like jeremy who uh who are able to to see something that i'm blind to and call it out i remember watching uh i read the story a while back a few years back this nurse was uh watching hgtv she was watching one of those flipping shows and uh and she saw one of the the main characters in the show she she saw his neck and she saw that there was a a tumor and she called this she called the producers she got in touch with the producers and said.

Listen he i know this episode maybe a few months old but i i saw this and he has a growth on his neck and he needs to get that checked out and he did and it was cancerous and y'all because tvs are super clear now that's happened multiple times on reality tv shows and news stations doctors and nurses are watching and they see a cancerous growth on somebody's neck and they reach out to them to see them get help now how messed up would have been.

If she saw that she was like yeah it looks deadly i hope he figures that out how messed up would have been if he if she said you know what i if i call he could get awkward they might they don't know me they i just i don't want to i don't want to just he'll figure it out on his own how messed up would that have been because that's serious like he i mean he could die if he doesn't get the help that he needs they don't catch that soon enough and that's the reality of sin that's what that's what chet was getting at last week he quoted uh james 1 14-15 that says.

But each person is tempted when he's lured enticed by his own desire the desire when is conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it's fully grown brings forth death the idea is that sin starts small but then it metastasizes and it grows and when it's fully grown it will destroy you how much do we have to not love someone how much do we not to care about somebody's eternity that just see them and send that they're blind to and say you know what they'll figure it out that's not my place all right that's that i need to he maybe someone else will address it maybe he'll figure that on his own how much do.

We have to dislike somebody even possibly hate somebody to not actually address sin and their own life when you see a brother in Christ who is flirting with someone who's not his wife when you see a sister who is gossiping about other Christians and the Church when you see someone who and your group just jokes about cheating on their taxes none of that's okay it starts small and it leads to adultery it leads to division it leads to fraud and degree that completely destroys somebody's life our silence and the face of sin means that we're.

Okay with it we are fine with somebody walking into destruction so that's not the path we take that's not the path that Jesus is calling us to he calls us he says to go and address them and and that y'all takes a lot of work because if we follow what he teaches throughout the whole of Matthew you actually have to do some soul work on yourself in Matthew 7 he says uh check the plank in your own eyes so that you may inspect the spect in your brother's eye right some people take that as oh you can't ever call someone out ever it's like no he literally said.

So that you can inspect the spec in your others and your brother's eye but that means that when you see someone who's in sin you've got to do the tough work of looking at your own soul and realizing oh i've got my own sin and then you got then you have to go through the emotional process of repenting then you got to go to your group and you got to repent and walk in the light and that's the whole process then you get yourself up and give yourself up to go and have that conversation.

And then Paul says in in galatians 6 1 he says brothers if any of you is caught in transgression you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness then now you have to do it with gentleness and tack and that takes a lot of effort you see how much effort it takes to call somebody out and sin i mean that takes a lot and then you have to address them and wait for the possibility that that isn't going to go super.

Well that might be awkward or uncomfortable but you got to love somebody enough to be able to to call them out and sin and it's because not only it's a good thing it's we're commanded to do this i want you to receive this the God of the universe commands us to do this it is difficult but here's the deal nine times out of ten this goes well nine times out of ten you are filled the Holy Spirit they are filled with the Holy Spirit you love them they know that you that they love you and it goes.

Well and repentance happens and you gain respect for a brother or sister who went out on a limb to be able to call you uh into uh repentance but for the times it does not go well there's a second step in this process picks up in verse 16. but if he does not listen take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses so this is step two and we honestly sometimes want to bail on this step maybe you go and have a conversation and it just doesn't go super.

Well and it's like ah well i did my part i said my peace i got to figure it out for themselves nope now there's there's a second step here he says go and take one or two others with you that uh that may be established in charge of two or three witnesses that is something you see throughout the Bible from old testament anew there's this expectation that there's some collective authority with two or three witnesses so if you're if you're in a car accident and you're trying to explain this to the police officer and it's your uh your take that's one thing.

But if you have someone behind you who saw the accident and you have somebody on the street who saw it well there's three of you saying the same thing there's some collective authority there that adds some legitimacy uh to what you actually saw and that happens throughout the Bible from old testament news that there's some collective authority and a few that are looking at somebody each filled with the Holy Spirit and saying no no this this is serious and we're all seeing the same thing that you need you need to change you need to repent you.

Remember the Gospel there's grace for this but you got to turn from this there's collective authority there and most of the time when this happens if you've got three believers who love you and love Jesus and they're looking at you and they're saying no listen i'm telling you this is serious you need to see this for what it is most the time they're going to be moved by their their hearts will be softened they'll be moved by the spirit and they'll say.

Okay i i understand and repentance happens but you got to do the tough work to address someone who is in sin even if it takes one or two or three together so for us in our Church we say grab your group leader grab another person in your group and go and sit down with them and address them say you shouldn't be living with your girlfriend you shouldn't talk about other Christians like this and walk them through it with a ton of tact and gentleness and grace and pointing them to the Gospel and the forgiveness that.

Jesus offers that's step two and every now and then when this happens that doesn't go well and that is why there's a step three starts in verse 17. if he refuses to listen to them tell it to the Church and if he refuses to listen even to the Church let him be to you as a gentile and a tax collector truly i say to you whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven again i say to you.

If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask it will be done for them by my father in heaven for where two or three are gathered in my name there i am among them so if the way we're Christian doesn't listen to two three other believers who love them it is brought before the Church now this is why this is really important for us to understand in the middle of all this that the Church here has collective authority together.

Now a few chapters ago Jesus is uh Peter proclaims that Jesus is the messiah and he tells Peter we walk through this that your name is Peter you are the rock in which i will build the Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against you the keys the kingdom are being given to you and the picture here is authority is given to Peter and then it goes on to say whatever you bound bind on heaven will be bound and uh with your bite on earth will be bound in heaven whatever loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven same phrasing right here and that is a statement of authority that what you do.

Here on this earth you have authority here it resounds into eternity which means the Church here has the authority together all right y'all that's why one of the reasons why we're baptist we believe this we don't have popes we don't have solo leaders the Church collectively has the authority together and one of the ways that we display this authority one way that we walk this authority out together is in this process and if someone is unwilling to repent and the whole Church is calling them to repentance.

If they're unwilling to do that he says treat them as a gentile and a tax collector and for jewish ears who heard this when Jesus was teaching it they knew exactly what that meant jews did not associate with gentiles and tax collectors they did not eat with them they did not invite them over they did not have fellowship with them what Jesus just said is that if someone if the whole Church is calling someone repentance and they will not repent there's the door the Church has historically called this excommunication they are removed from fellowship.

Now he teaches this very clearly here and the rest of the new testament is going to display this the clearest case study we have of seeing this is in first corinthians 5. it's the passage i read so many years ago in my doctrines class i'm just going to briefly highlight it because i don't have time to walk through that passage but what happens in that Church in the Church of corinth is that there is a man who has had an ongoing affair with his stepmother and the Church is not addressing it the Church in in some ways is by not addressing it is a little bit proud they're not addressing it and Paul really comes.

Hard in first corinthians 5. and i was going to read you two verses that capture what he calls them to do verse 4 and 5 says when you are assembled in the name of the lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of the lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the lord and as i read earlier later he says purge the evil person from among you that seems very aggressive and very harsh to deliver this man to Satan.

For the destruction of his flesh what is he getting at what he's capturing is really what the parable of the prodigal son captures in luke 15. you remember the story the man rejects his father he rejects fellowship and life with his father with his father he takes his inheritance and what does he do he goes and he spends his his inheritance on wild and reckless living and where does it leave him it leaves him broke starving in a pig pit working amongst pigs which.

For jews is just an absurd picture that a jewish person would work amongst pigs not only is he working amongst pigs he is longing to eat the food that they eat that's the picture of what sin gets you that's the logical end and that is the destruction of the flesh what Paul is commanding in first corinthians is deliver this man to Satan so that he would experience the end of his sin which is the destruction of the flesh so that he might be saved eternally.

So that he might come home as the prodigal son does he comes to his senses and realizes this isn't what i thought it was my pursuit this isn't worth it and then he repents and comes home that is the picture of what it means to be removed from the Church the hope is is they would experience their sin and that they might come home that's the hope let me tell you a story the family their oldest son turns 17 and he starts uh doing drugs start small pot maybe some pills.

But then it starts to progress and as it progresses he starts doing heroin and they realize that their son is heading towards a path of destruction and what do parents do in that situation they stage an intervention and they say son listen you are going to destroy your life we have we have some rehab set up for you we want you to go and get help we love you and then he half hardly goes he walks through the process two weeks in skips out says i'm not doing this goes back to using drugs in and out of the house they're in tears every night as they're watching their son they don't.

See the strung out lost teenager they see their five-year-old boy who's wasting his life he's about to wreck everything and they've got some tough decisions to make do they let him continue pursuing this or they make some tough choices and say you are no longer welcome in this house because all they're doing is shielding him from the consequences of his own actions and what's worse is that his youngest his younger brother a few years behind him has always looked up to him and he's seeing this and it's possible that his younger brother very soon is going to start going down the exact same path what do they do in difficult circumstances like that they stand.

In front of their son they say you are no longer welcome in this house we love you we want you to get help you are not ready to hit rock bottom you are not ready to change but we are here for when you for when you go if you want to come back if you want to come back and change we're here we are waiting for you but you are no longer welcome in this house y'all that is a story that plays out every day across this country that has been ravaged by drugs and it is a modern day parable.

For exactly what the Church faces the reality is is that people are consistently pursuing sin to their own destruction and we have tough decisions as a Church to make are we okay with that that's the question that i have for anyone that doesn't like this are you okay with someone pursuing sin into hell are we okay with someone possibly leading a weaker brother or sister into sin and we discount that we don't think that that that's big that's that big of a deal.

But it is we've seen what happens in our own Church when gossip and slander run rampant i have heard and read and seen in other churches when they didn't check sin when they didn't check someone who had false teaching they didn't check someone who was living in sin and all of a sudden some weaker believers felt prayer that and they left Jesus all together that is the reality that we face as the Church so we tell people you are no longer welcome here and we've had to do this and it's incredibly painful it's incredibly painful every time we do this it is soaked in tears it is a painful process.

But they got to hit rock bottom elsewhere so they can come back home the most unloving thing you can do to someone who is pursuing unrepentant sin who has fallen headlong into this world is to cosign their path to hell with our silence with our apathy or with our cowardice we don't get to sit on the sidelines while someone derails their eternity tough decisions and bold actions are required for us as the Church because the hope is is that they would come home the hope is that they would.

See this as a means of grace that we would stand between them in hell and we call them to come home being on the outside of fellowship it's not good and that's the point it's not supposed to be but if anybody understood that if anybody knew exactly what that felt like it's the very person who wrote this letter Matthew was a tax collector he knew exactly what it felt like to be on the outside he knew what it meant to be avoided you know what i meant to not be invited to dinner he knew what it meant to not be invited to the festivals to seder mills to rosh hashanah or yom kippur to miss.

Out on the fellowship of his own people he knew what it meant to choose a life that was crooked and be outside the fellowship of God and yet the picture of the Gospel is that Christ steps into his path in the midst of his path he calls them into faith and he calls them in repentance and Matthew is brought into fellowship and that is the hope there's so much unknown when someone is sent out of the Church but the hope is and our prayer and our longing is that Christ meets them in the destruction of their flesh he meets them and says come home the hope is that people would come to repentance and we.

Are here with open arms ready to receive them this is a difficult process it is hard for us to walk out but we are commanded to and it is ultimately for the good of our Church may we be a people that is not okay with anyone walking into hell may we stand the path and plead and say don't choose sin don't choose the world i love you i don't care about the things you're going to say to me i don't care about the hurtful things you're about to throw at me i will stand between you and the path to hell.

Because i love you if it takes one or two or three others if it takes the whole Church we will stand in the way because i am not okay with you walking away from Jesus that is the hope and the heartbeat that we want to embody as we live out this command as a Church and it is difficult i am not understanding how difficult it is but it is ultimately for the good for the hope that we would see sinners come home matt's going to come up and he's going to lead us in a song and honestly he's just going to sing over us.

For a lot of it and i want us to absorb this i know it's difficult i know these words are not easy to absorb i know this process is not easy to walk out it takes a ton of grace for a bunch of sinners like us redeemed by Jesus to walk this out and the first thing we have to do in receiving a difficult teaching like this is to check our own hearts because we got sin in our own hearts there might be things that you haven't brought to the light there might be things hidden beneath the surface maybe you don't think it's a big deal and i'm telling you it is whatever that is.

Right now whatever is the one thing you're trying to ignore in your head right now it is a big deal and my hope is is that you would walk in the light of the Christians and you would bring that go to your group this week and be honest and open about the brokenness and the sin that you're living in we need this together we've got to look at our own hearts and we got to repent from up sin but also maybe you are in a group and you've seen somebody else who's living in sin maybe you've seen someone who is pursuing sin and it leads i make an appeal to you it leads to destruction.

And if you see that and you are unwilling to address it then you are showing an incredible lack of love for your brother and sister and i am hoping this morning that you would love your brother or sister enough to stand in the way and say i love you but this is sin and it's going to be hard at times and it's going to be difficult and it's going to be awkward but 10 000 years from now when they've repented and they are singing in the presence of.

God is it are you even going to remember the moment that awkward conversation that took place it's worth it eternity is on the line and we've got obedience to walk out for the good of our Church may we respond to this and the way that Jesus calls us to let me pray God these words are heavy and they are hard to hear because we are hard of hearing but God i pray that you would help us receive this i pray for anyone here that's walking in sin right.

Now that they would walk in the light they wouldn't wait for someone else to address it that they would come in repentance God go to work on their heart right now God i pray for anyone right now that is feeling the weight of this that they need to have conversations God i pray that you would bless those conversations i pray that the person they need to talk to will receive it in repentance got to pray that everyone in our Church will continue to walk this out together making it to the end we ask us all in.

Jesus name amen.

Mill City 9/20/20 Mill City 9/20/20

Church Discipline - The Purpose (Matthew 18:7-14)

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.

Family Worship Guide

Transcript

Well good morning uh my name is chet i'm one of the pastors here if you will grab a Bible and go to Matthew chapter 18. we used to have bibles in the rose if you don't have a Bible we will have the the words on the screen but if you have a Bible go to Matthew chapter 18 we're going to spend the next three weeks walking through Matthew 18 and we're going to be talking about Church discipline if you were to study Church discipline there are places in the Bible that reference it there are places in the Bible that give you examples of it.

But to kind of look at the process by which the Church addresses sin Jesus lays that out in Matthew 18 and this is kind of the go-to passage for walking through how ought we to address sin in the Church body and so we're going to spend three weeks looking at that i want to tell you that first will be Matthew 18 verses 5 through verses 5 through 18 and then we will be looking at Church discipline in the next three weeks we're going to talk through the i'm about to get real baptist on you the purpose of Church discipline that's what we're going to.

Look at today then the process of Church discipline and then the posture of Church discipline so the purpose is why why do we practice this what's the point what's at stake next week we'll look at the process which is where a lot of people usually start which is just how do we do this and then we'll look as we in Matthew 18 at the posture kind of what's our heart as we walk this out and so that's what we'll be doing.

For the next three weeks but i want to read a quick definition of Church discipline it's the practice through which the Church pursues holiness and joy by addressing sin and waywardness so it's the practice through which the Church pursues holiness and joy by addressing sin and waywardness that discipline is uh it comes it brings with it some difficulty it brings with it some intensity it brings with it some correction but it does it for a good purpose so i want to give some examples of where discipline i've seen it in my life and two things that are very important football and chicken.

But disciplined football teams win you don't have a really good winning program not with any level of consistency that is not also disciplined and i've been on football teams that were disciplined and that meant that practice was more difficult but playing for that team was better and i've been on teams that weren't disciplined and practice wasn't that bad but the games were terrible because we lost and it's not fun and the point of being on a team so when you're on a disciplined team.

And when you see a disciplined team you know that there's a lot that goes into that there's a lot that was corrected there was a lot that was changed and there's some people who aren't on the team anymore because they were pursuing discipline but they were pursuing something better and beyond that we see this not just in football but also in important things like chicken there is one fast food restaurant that if they have a line of cars wrapped around the building i will still pull into the parking lot and that is chick-fil-a.

Because those people know what they're doing they are disciplined when popeyes came out with that chicken sandwich which is delicious by the way that popeye's chicken sandwich is amazing but popeyes was not ready for their sandwich to taste that good they just weren't if you see a lion wrapping around the hardee's you know something has gone wrong i'm not getting in that line i'll be there forever but you can get in a line that wraps twice around a chick-fil-a and they'll still get you your food it's crazy.

But they're disciplined that means there's some people who are on the team and some people aren't there's some people that they had to correct there were some things they had to change but it was for a good purpose chicken and the Church practices discipline which is a form of correction but it's for a good purpose ultimately joy ultimately salvation you see that's what we're looking at today is why would we care about this as we talk about the process next week and Church discipline gets a bad rap in the u.s especially where it's this why would we judge people why would we correct people can't everybody just follow their own path and you can follow.

Your own path if you aim to get nowhere in particular but we aim to get somewhere very particular and therefore the Church disciplines for holiness and for for joy and if we don't understand why we don't understand what we're looking at today the next week may seem cold it may seem mean some of the process as we walk through it but if we understand why we actually see that it's beautiful and loving so what's at stake it's a matter of life and death it's a matter of heaven and hell.

Jesus does not mince words as he walks through this passage so let's pray for our hearts that we would take sin as seriously as he does so that we might pursue joy like he wants us to God we ask for your help don't take sin as seriously as we ought we make little of it and therefore we make little of you we take it lightly and therefore we take you lightly and i pray that as we read the words of Jesus this morning that you would strike us with the weightiness and the reality of sin.

So that we might change and be brought into your joy in Jesus name amen chapter 18 verse 5 whoever receives one such child in my name receives me but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea so this is Jesus speaking when he says one such little one he's referring to the verse before it we don't have it on the screen.

But i'm going to read it to you so just listen he says he's talking and spencer looked at this two weeks ago but he's talking to his disciples he brings a child among them and he says whoever humbles himself like this child is greatest in the kingdom of the heaven so he brings a child in and he says this is how you get into the kingdom of heaven he just gave these two examples that you believe and that you humble yourself.

And then when he says one such child he's moving from a physical little child to speaking about those who believe those who have humbled themselves and joined the kingdom so he's not talking about little kids anymore he's talking about believers which makes a difference as we walk out this passage so now when he talks about one such child he's talking about those who have believed and when he talks about little ones he's talking about believers he's talking about Christians so this is addressing sin in the Church he says whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea that is an aggressive statement that should cause us to pull up he doesn't just say it'd be better for you to be dead it'd be better if you had never been born he actually goes into kind of morbid gruesome detail on some sort of like mafia style hit that you would have a millstone tied around your neck and you'd be thrown into the ocean he wants to force us to picture this.

Because he wants to force us to pause and realize the weightiness of tempting someone towards sin now he does not mean this literally in that we ought to say you know what you've been a temptation get in the boat we're going out on lake murray that's not what he's getting at but he does mean this factually in that sin is this serious that we ought to take sin seriously Jesus means this when he says it that we ought to see and to know the weightiness of tempting someone he keeps going.

Verse 7 woe to the world for temptations to sin for it is necessary that temptations come but woe to the one by whom temptation comes we don't pronounce woes very often prophets do but we don't this isn't a phrase we usually use and what he means is sorrow pain destruction is a pun the one who does this that's what woe to the world sorrow pain and destruction is upon the world because of temptations to sin then he says it must come that's part of a fallen world.

But he says woe to the one by whom they come a few examples of this is when mr t says i pity the fool i pity the fool who would do this what he's saying is if that happens pain is coming if you cross this line pain is coming if we were standing outside of a fence and on the other side was a attack of of barking dogs and we said woe to the one who jumps that fence we would all understand in that moment what that meant.

When you cross that line there's pain and destruction it does not go well for you and so he's saying woe to the one by whom temptations come and immediately we should understand that we do not take temptation as sin as seriously as Jesus does some of us need to reconsider how we interact with our friends some of us older brothers and sisters need to reconsider how we deal with our younger brothers and sisters and what we lead them into some of us need to begin to consider how we speak to those in our community groups.

Because some of us flippantly give out counsel when we are not considering the weight of leading someone towards holiness i remember in high school i was often running late for class and i would be moving very very quickly to try to get to class until i saw someone else who was running late for class that was in my same class and then we would both slow down and walk together because as long as you had someone who was in it with you it wasn't going to be as bad he didn't want to be the only person showing up late.

But for mostly might as well add two more minutes to this and some of us are actively tempting others to sin because we want them to co-sign what we're doing and if it's okay for them to do it then it's okay for us to do it and we can feel okay if we'll both participate in this together some of you need to be greatly considering how you interact with your boyfriend or your girlfriend because woe to the one by who temptation comes.

Jesus is not kidding when he says it is deathly serious he takes it with blood earnest dead earnest seriousness and we don't much of our tv shows much of the plot are taking sinful things and making them funny making them light much of the stories we read and things we celebrate are just taking sin and making us become very accustomed to it and think it's normal and nice and fine woe to the world for temptations to sin verse eight he keeps going.

So he's turned from you being a tempter to now talking about you uh as you are receiving temptation verse 8 if your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire and if your eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away it is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Now again he does not mean this literally but he does mean this it's he's using hyperbole he's giving us a very big aggressive word picture so that we would understand the weightiness of the situation but your hand is not actually what causes you to sin your hand participates in your sin but we have temptations outside of us and we have our desires inside of us that lead us towards sin but the reason why he says this is so that we would understand that there are certain things that we ought to be willing to face hurt.

For we all be willing to take some pain for so that we might not be harmed you all understand the difference between hurt and harm when you go to the dentist he hurts you for your good when you eat candy it deliciously harms you does this make sense when you go to the doctor there are times where they hurt you because there's something inside of you that's harming you and they're going to cut it out eventually the harm catches up with us eventually the harm does begin to hurt.

But often the harm doesn't hurt at first and often the help hurts so that we don't meet the harm so what he's saying is we ought to be willing to take on some pain some discomfort we ought to be willing to cut some things and some people off so that we might enter life he takes this deathly serious there's the gravity to the situation james 1 14 says this so it's not that our feet lead us into sin it's not that our hands lead us into sin.

If that were the case just so you all know if you really meant literally this there had been some maimed disciples proclaiming the Gospel the 12 wouldn't have made it out you guys Peter when he cut that guy's ear off in the garden Jesus was a put the ear back on give me your hand Peter your hand made you sin it's not it's not what he means but he means for us to aggressively take it this seriously james 1 14 and 15 says.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire so there's something outside of us that our desire responds to there's some kind of temptation outside of us that we co-sign in our hearts then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death keep that up for just a second there's some things that we're told about sin in Scripture that those who sin are a slave to sin that sin has mastery over us there's this picture that that james gives us that sin starts off small it's conceived.

And then it's born and then we feed it and then it grows and then it brings about death there are some of you in here today who have a pet sin that you are slowly feeding and you are convincing yourself that it is manageable but as long as it stays here as long as i just keep it this it's not as bad as that it's really not that often it doesn't happen that much it's better than it used to be i i quit doing this i don't do that what that guy does and that's awful we have some sort of pet sin and we're confused about what happens sin enslaves us and leads us to.

Death some of you have some baby sins that you need to kick you need to punt your baby sin before it gets too big you need to now you need to take it aggressively seriously i have a two-year-old son yesterday i spent a good bit of my day wrestling with him as i spend most of my time at the house fighting with my children for fun sometimes not for fun but one of the things i really want y'all to know is that.

When i'm fighting with my son and it looks like he's winning i'm pretending i could take him if i wanted to some of you right now have something that honestly you could get rid of but you're letting it grow and some of you right now are telling yourself i could get rid of this so i'll wait a little longer and that's already part of the problem it may be bigger than you think and when it is full grown it will enslave you and it will kill you and you can't you do not have time this is every time we hear that someone had a pet tiger which we're cool with in america america you have.

A pet tiger you have a pet line and then we find out that the tiger bit somebody's arm off or that you know siegfried got attacked or whatever were we shocked every time i hear he's like oh siegfried got attacked by a lion i wasn't like oh what it's like yeah it was a lion man that's what they do and some of you have a sin that is a pet lion that is growing that wants to devour and destroy you and you keep telling yourself that it's cute or that it's.

Okay and it is not and it brings about death so what is at stake here well he says it in verse 8 and 9 if your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away it is better for you to enter life crimpled or lame then so we have life on one side then with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire those are our options held out before us is life i love that description.

Because it's full enough for us to understand what he means life fullness joy delight vibrancy you ever say ah this is the life or man i wish i could just get to this a lot of us are looking forward and saying if i could just get to that if i could just have this then i'd have life i'd finally find it i'd be full i'd be complete and what he says is no that's in the lord and it's held out for you that you might have life.

But the other side is eternal fire which i think we don't talk about often enough i don't know if we fully wrap our minds around that i don't know if we fully believe that he says it's better for this life to be a little more difficult for you to be a little lame for you to limp your way into real life than for you to strut into hell eternal fire that it lasts forever and it is excruciating the terms that the Bible uses.

For hell that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth that there is it's outer darkness that there is a fire that is not quenched and worms do not die meaning there's internal and external torment forever that the seriousness of sin is displayed in the end result of it and the reality is is that sin is not serious because hell is bad hell is bad because sin is that serious you see we look at this and we say who is God to judge and who is he to try to tell me this and shouldn't he just love us and shouldn't he just forgive us sin isn't that big of a deal and really what we.

Mean when we say sin isn't that big of a deal is that God isn't that big of a deal he's not that holy he's not that glorious he's not that worthy of worship he's not that worthy of devotion he's big enough to help me but not big enough to need me to devote everything to him one of the beautiful things about the old testament law is that the punish the punishment fit the crime there were other laws in other places where the punishment seemed way out of proportion with the crime still something to get your hand cut off those sort of things.

But one of the things that was revolutionary about the Bible when it says an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth what it meant was the punishment needs to fit the crime and this God who sets up an equitable system for punishment says that the reality of rebellion against him is eternal hell and it fits the crime hell was made for Satan to be punished in i don't know what cartoons have told you he does not rule there he is destroyed there.

But it says it's prepared for Satan and his angels and that we who join him go with him that is terrible and destructive and we need to understand the weight of unrepented sin because it leads to death and death in eternal hell some of us have not wrapped our minds around that in the way we approach sin some of us have not wrapped our minds around that in the way we approach telling other people about the hope in Christ verse 10.

We're going to pause on verse 10 for a second because what he says here is a little confusing he says the see that you do not despise one of these little ones again talking about believers for i tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven i'm going to read that again see that you do not despise one of these little ones for i tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my.

Father who is in heaven all right so this picture here is that angels actually stand at the very face of God they stand in front of him this is one of the things that gabriel says when he comes and tells john the baptist is daddy which i can't remember is zechariah or zechariah so we'll call him john the baptist's daddy he tells him you're going to have a son and when he says how do i know gabriel says i stand in front of.

God seriously and then he says you don't get to talk anymore until he's born there you go you now have a sign that i stand in front of God and have authority so he's talking about this picture of an angel standing before God these angel these spiritual beings i want to read a few verses to help you understand what angels do it says the angel of the lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them so these angels are sent to protect this is old testament.

But they're sent to protect those who believe psalm 91 11 he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways hebrews 1 13 and 14. this is talking about the excellency of Jesus how he's greater than the angels it says to which of the angels has he ever said sit at my right hand until i make your enemies a footstool for your feet are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation.

Look at that again are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation Jesus says do not look down on these little ones do not look down on these believers do not look down on these that you would earlier talked about don't tempt them don't lead them into sin he says don't look down on them and he says do you not know that God uses powerful spiritual beings to minister and to care.

For them and they stand before God these powerful spiritual beings who serve these believers actually stand in front of the face of God and so what he's saying is do you not see how elevated and glorious angels are they they had that mark in their mind and so he says do you not realize that they serve those who belong to the lord those who are little ones those who are children of God do you not understand that when you deal with a believer you're dealing with a son or a daughter of the king these angels get to stand in front of the very face of.

God and they are sent to serve sons and daughters of the king do not look down on them and here's what this means if you see a prince and they have a royal guard around them they are not a prince because they have a royal guard they have a royal guard because they're a prince so having angels care for us does not exalt us we are exalted and therefore angels care for us but we are exalted because we have our father be the king of heaven through the work of Christ this is immensely encouraging that.

God protects those who belong to him that all of us who are tempted and tried and wayward and who actively desire sin that God has angels around us guarding and protecting us and he doesn't take it lightly because we belong to him if you've placed your faith in Christ so he says don't look down on a believer you fail to understand the position they have in Christ this is not to exalt angels this is not to make us pray to angels it's to make us understand the exalted position we have in Christ as we relate to the.

Father verse 12. what do you think if a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray and if he finds it truly i say to you he rejoices over it more than the other more than over the 99 that never went astray so it is not the will of my father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish sin is a destructive leads towards death and eternal hell.

But it is not God's desire that any of these that belong to him should follow that path and he leaves the 99 to pursue the one that's missing now i don't i'm not super familiar with sheep i grew up in edgefield county i do know that when a cow gets out that's the one they go look for i know that when you call your hunting dogs back the one that doesn't show up is the one you go looking for and you do leave the other ones to go.

Look for it or you risk all of them and send them back out to run again hoping that that one will join it what he's saying is something that was obviously true to them if you have a hundred sheep and one's missing don't you leave the hundred and go look for it yes you don't go look at your account and go oh we only have 99. yes you go i'm missing one and you go look for it and when you find the one you celebrate that's this he says it's not the father's will that any of them should perish do you hear that do you hear his heart.

For you that he desires to redeem and to save i think we read this sometimes and we say well does Jesus really mean that does he take sin that seriously is it that deadly serious yes because he left heaven to come to earth to die on a cross for our place he takes sin deadly seriously he takes it with blood earnest seriousness so much so that he would shed his blood that he would lose his life so that we might be redeemed he's the one who comes searching.

For the one that is lost and some of us have been playing with sin and we need to understand the weight of that we need to understand that we ought to give some things up so that we might have life some of us need to cut off sin where it's growing that it's better if something's tempting you it's better for you to enter into life with no cell phone that gets the internet then to enter into hell some of you it's better to enter into life with no boyfriend no girlfriend than to hold hands as you walk towards destruction some of you it's better to enter into life without that promotion that meant that you.

Had to compromise your morals so that you could have it that you had to play ball some of you it's better to enter into life than to walk into hell wealthy some of you it's better to say no to any type of romantic relationship because your desires lead you astray and it's better to walk into life than to wander off into destruction and as we fail and as we sing Jesus has come to redeem he hasn't come to redeem those who have kept it together he hasn't come to redeem those who have behaved.

Well he wants us to understand the weightiness of sin but the response is to be found by the one seeking you because all we like sheep have gone astray we've all gone our own way and chaste after sin and we need the redemption that is in Christ that he would come searching for us that he would shed his blood that we might have forgiveness and that we might have life as we repent this isn't well-behaved people and bad people this is those who.

See their sin and repent and those who don't and that's why we practice Church discipline because we work towards repentance which leads us into joy he says that none would perish and that he would rejoice that's why because sin leads to destruction repentance leads to joy there's a song that i sing to my boys a good bit my dad used to sing it to me when i was growing up it's one of my favorite hymns it's softly and tenderly and it says that softly and tenderly Jesus's calling calling o sinner come home says why would you linger.

While Jesus is pleading pleading oh sinner come home and when you read this passage i can picture Jesus walking around looking for that lost sheep and he's just calling for it he's not angry he's not trying to scare the sheep he's trying to get the sheep back softly and tenderly he's calling and he's saying come home and some of us right now are holding on to our sin and staying away from Jesus and we are wrong and we are foolish and the end of that is destruction.

But if we repent and we run to him he rejoices he doesn't scold he wraps us up joyfully celebratorily grabs us some of you maybe need to make work more difficult and cancel your internet subscription some of you maybe need to be lonely for a month as you get rid of some friends be awkward for a month as you join a community group and get some new ones who are also sinners but hopefully or at least trying to point us in the right direction some of you need to lose a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

Today so that you might begin to walk towards life we ought to repent because the stakes are high some of us need to risk relationships with those we love as we correct sin in them because we love them enough and we believe the words of Jesus that there is life and there is rejoicing and there is eternal hope but there also is anguish and pain and destruction for all those who run head long away from the lord into their own glory standing fully under the weight of their own sin and rebellion in Christ we have hope that he died.

For sin that he died for sinners and that in him we might believe and some of you need to place your faith in him today you need to confess that you're a sinner and you need to tell him i need you to save me he does not put to shame any who would call on his name you're a lost sheep you're stuck begin to cry out he hears you he comes he's looking for you some of you need to repent right.

Now and place your faith in him and he does forgive and he rejoices and there is hope and there is life and some of you who are Christians need to understand the weight the hope that you have in him and that he desires none of us should perish and you need to repent of some sin that you've held on to it for a long time and you've told yourself it's okay it is not let's pray God we pray that none would perish.

But that everybody in this room would know the weightiness of sin would see the end result and lord we may limp we may hurt we may hobble but let us walk into life as we repent of sin as we change and as we're forgiven but we pray right now in this room those who are wrestling with their sin wrestling with themselves that they would see you clearly that they would hear your voice they would listen to your call and that they would come to you.

And if that's you don't hold back don't fight he's offering you life he's offering you salvation he's offering you hope there is doom and there is destruction on the other side take the sacrifice placed in Jesus's life for you lord we pray that by your Holy Spirit you would call they would answer they would enter life we pray lord that you would help us to repent of sin to confess sin to take it seriously as we take you seriously that you might have.

So much glory so much weightiness that we would see clearly how wicked and depraved we are and that we would see clearly how glorious is the hope in Christ for those who believe because it's about his righteousness and his behavior not ours in Jesus name amen.

Mill City 9/13/20 Mill City 9/13/20

Missions

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September 13, 2020

Triumphal Entry

September 13, 2020

Transcript

Good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors uh here this is a special day we're gonna take a break from Matthew uh because this is commissioning sunday like chet said earlier this is a joyous occasion it's also solemn uh and serious because we get to see a couple and a family that we love dearly leave us and go to make disciples in el progresso honduras so it feels a little bit like a wedding and we get to be the parents we have walked them down the aisle.

Today that we're going to watch them take their vows they're going to commit to doing mission work there and then they're going to depart from us so it's joyous and it's also it's also bittersweet because of how much we love the rockies so this morning we're going to sit in 1st thessalonians 2 and we're going to to glean from that a few years ago chris rocky showed up and he met with chet and he wanted to be a part of a Church that he wanted to either do Church planning or mission work he was discerning this and we said yes we love both of those we want to plant a Church we want to send.

Missionaries so he decided to join us and there were some bonuses that came with it first off there's an awesome family uh and then we found out that chris could play the drums and we never had a drummer and that was exciting and then also danielle could rock the bass and sing so it was awesome well yeah come on which by the way as we're praying this morning please pray for matt freeman because we're losing two key parts of our music team also.

If you want to serve our music team please talk to matt freeman because uh because we need some help all right so he joined us and then he started to to jump in and serve in a few different capacities he joined chet and anna phillips their community group and they were members and they became leaders in training with that process and then they became group leaders uh they've served in a lot of different things chris has gone through our pastor and training process and he's gotten to.

See the good parts of our leadership he's gotten to see the not so good parts of our leadership i've got to see him serve in other capacities he has been he led the charge on meeting felt needs in our in our community on our Church and also uh in in the greater community uh around our Church i've seen him serve in a lot of different ways he has he's gifted in in in counseling and i've seen him kind of operate in that mode he's served in a lot of different capacities.

But as they've been discerning this call they haven't they didn't have a where they just knew they wanted to to be uh missionaries and they wanted to go uh finally it was to latin america but they still were just faithful and as one missionary puts it he says serving God is not a matter of location but it's a matter of obedience and you guys were obedient as you discerned the call to where that was going to be then God finally put el progreso honduras on your hearts.

Now you get to go you get to fall in in the same vein as as william kerry as hudson taylor as jim and elizabeth elliott you guys get to go and leave the comforts of of your own culture and go and take the Gospel to a place that needs it so this sermon this morning is for you guys uh it's primarily for you guys uh it's meant to be an encouragement for y'all but as a Church family we get to listen with two sets of ears i love going to weddings especially.

When i like preaching weddings but i also like going to weddings and hearing uh this sermon because i get to have two sets of ears i get to listen because i know that the sermon is directed at the bride and the groom and it's teaching them all how the Gospel impacts marriage the covenant they're getting into all of that but every time i get to listen uh in those uh sermons i get to remember my vows i can remember what i'm called to as a husband and i get to re-up on my commitment in marriage and that's what we could do as a Church family this morning as we.

Listen you get to re-up on your commitment to be an everyday missionary here because the things i'm going to be encouraging them with are the things that we have to and need to apply here in order to be a Gospel center community on mission in casey and around this area so let's listen to that this morning we're going to be in first thessalonians 2 and as we walk through this there's going to be four encouragements that come out of this passage and and my hope is that they encourage you guys and us as.

Well so let me pray and then we'll jump into the passage father uh we thank you that you command us to go and make disciples and that we get to participate and that great commission that we get to go forth whether it's across the street or across the world God i pray this morning that you would make your mission so clear and so beautiful to us we ask this in Jesus name amen all right starting off in verse 1 4 you yourselves know brothers that our coming to you was not in vain.

But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at philippi as you know we had boldness in our God to declare to you the Gospel of God in the midst of much conflict all right so the first encouragement for you guys is to suffer for the Gospel suffer for the Gospel for two reasons firstly because the people of el progresso need the Gospel and the second reason we'll get into a moment it is ultimately for your comfort and joy so let's tackle that.

First part uh Paul and silas uh were missionaries they were planting churches all across uh europe they were in philippi and in philippi they were in imprisoned they suffered and they leave philippi and they uh show up to thessalonica this is in modern day greece they show up to this city and they also preach the Gospel and suffer there and then they get kicked out of this city for preaching the Gospel and then they go elsewhere and this is kind of what they what Paul does he preaches in one place he gets flawed he gets beaten preaches the next place he gets stoned he gets in prison he looks like a madman you often think.

Why does he keep doing this and there's one very clear reason why he keeps doing this because the people that do not know him that do not know Christ need the Gospel there are people dying and going to hell and they need to hear about Jesus and that's what motivates him as he goes from city to city in the midst of his suffering and in a broken world in a broken world that God is bringing about redemption he calls us as uh as his people to get our hands dirty to join him a level one missionary to somalia wrote his he's running on the pseudonym nick ripken.

Because he's protecting his identity but he writes in his book the insanity of God he says suffering is one of God's ordained means of growth for his growth of his Church he brought salvation to the world through Christ our suffering savior and he now spread salvation in the world through Christians as suffering saints that redemption ultimately comes through the cross it comes through Christ suffering on the cross and therefore he calls us to join in him in a world that is broken in a world that uh that rejects the Gospel in a world that is has Satan ruling and opposing the work of Christ he calls us to join as suffering saints and delivering the.

Gospel which has a cost martin luther puts it pretty bluntly he says a religion that gives nothing costs nothing and suffers nothing is worth nothing suffering is a part of the mission in order to gain ground in the eternity he calls us to suffer in the temporary and that's what you guys are being called into now that's eternal perspective and that may be hard to to to remember in the in the short term may be hard to to grasp hold of that to to the suffering that he calls us to.

Because the reality is is that he's going to call you uh to suffer in a lot of different ways firstly and this is mostly for chris maggie and parker you guys are going to have to to learn the language which takes time danielle you're gonna have to learn the nuances of honduran spanish it takes time and there's going to be some suffering along with that there's some reality that you're probably going to maybe get a little sick ben johnson who was a missionary in lebanon.

For 10 years and his uh first year of being there he wasn't used to the food and the water and he lost 15 pounds from being sick and if you know ben he doesn't have 15 pounds to lose and that's that's a reality that you'll suffer sickness you might suffer homesickness because you're going to lose the normality of living in this culture and there's culture shock involved with that that's a process that takes time you're going to suffer the effects of spiritual warfare no doubt.

Because you're coming uh into a place where the enemy does not want you to succeed there will be unanticipated sufferings that you guys face but here's the deal the sufferings that you guys face ultimately get to be converted into eternal salvation and joy and hope and satisfaction in Christ for those who don't currently know him for the people of el progresso that that have not tasted and seen the lord is good your suffering ultimately gets to be for their good so that's the.

First reason why he calls us into suffering the second is that ultimately we get to experience comfort and joy we get experience comfort and joy that comes through Christ i've been teaching my older children to ride to ride bikes and and they asked me as they say what if we fall is it going to hurt and i could tell them no it's not that bad but if you've ever ridden bikes and you've fallen it hurts it does not feel good but i said yeah i tell them i'm honest with them like it's gonna hurt.

But when you finally learn to ride there's there's so much joy on the other side of this there's so much more the joy of riding a bike as a kid it's worth it the pain is going to be worth and that's a little bit of what we're called into as as missionaries laboring alongside each other being sent by Christ that there is suffering involved but on the other side of that suffering ultimately is joy because here's the deal in your suffering you will be stripped of the comforts of this rule you'll be stripped of the of the idols that we run to you'll be stripped of all of that and you'll be forced to find.

Your contentment and joy in Christ i love what john piper says he says this is God's universal purpose of all Christian suffering more contentment in God and less satisfaction in the world i want you to hear that one more time this is God's universal purpose for all Christian suffering more contentment in God and less satisfaction in the world that as you suffer as as you have things stripped away from you comfort stripped away from you you get to be forced into uh leaning into Christ the Gospel gets become more real as you find comfort and satisfaction and joy in Christ there's a missionary in the 19th century his name is john gibson patton he's a.

Scottish presbyterian missionary to the modern day island vanuatu it's in the pacific ocean near papua new guinea and indonesia and he like many people of his time in the modern kind of the beginnings of the modern mission movement he left with his wife and he when they arrived on the island the the natives did not like them they were hostile to him his wife ended up having a child and then she was killed by the natives and then ultimately their baby died as.

Well because she was a newborn did not have a mother so he suffered immensely there there were times where we had to hide in a tree for safety and fear for his uh life but in those moments well firstly he delivered the Gospel of the people of vanuatu and ultimately the whole island came to know Christ in fact to this day it's 93 percent Christian because of his sufferings uh where it turned into eternal hope for an island that did not know him.

But in the midst of all of his sufferings in the midst of everything he faced he said this i had my nearest and most intimate glimpses of the presence of my lord in those dread moments when musket club or spear was being leveled at my life that in the toughest moments you get to have intimacy with God and it's an intimacy that that you really wouldn't get to experience here an intimacy that gets forced through the trials of being a missionary abroad you'll get to experience.

God in some profound and beautiful ways now i don't know everything you're going to face but i know the people of el progresso need the Gospel and you guys are going to go there may be suffering involved but ultimately is for their eternal hope and in the temporary you get to have etern you get to have comfort and joy in Christ that comes through the gift that is suffering and that applies for all of us as a Church family as well the reality is we get a little bit too comfortable here.

God calls us into suffering oftentimes that's the loss of reputation that may be looking like the kind of the weird Christian in the workplace or in school the reality is is that we're called to proclaim Christ no matter the cost because people desperately need the Gospel here but ultimately as we uh share the Gospel and our idols get exposed we don't run to those comforts we get to lean into the Gospel that is why is encouragement in missions so that's the.

First encouragement let's look at the second starting in verse three for our appeal does not spring from air or imperial or impurity or any attempt to deceive but just as we've been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel so we speak not to please ma'am but to please God who tests our hearts for we never came with words of flattery as you know nor with the pretext for greed God is witness nor do we seek glory from people whether from you or from others though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ the.

Second encouragement we get from this passage is to give the Gospel as obedience to God that sharing the Gospel and preaching Christ you can do it from bad motives that's what Paul's defending here he's saying i didn't come to you with bad motives i didn't come to you and preach Christ from impurity or for i'm an attempt to deceive he said i didn't do this to bring flatter to flatter you with words i didn't do this as a pretext for greed.

Because i wanted money from you i didn't do this for personal glory he lays out all these different reasons to help them see that he that he he came with different motives in mind because the reality is you can preach Christ from bad motives you can do it deceitfully that's what false teachers do now i don't think that's going to be a temptation for y'all we wouldn't be sending you out if we thought you are going to take a false Gospel to help progress him.

But the reality is that you've been there and you know that there's a false Gospel prevalent in that city the prosperity Gospel is all over that say the false Gospel that says that God is the mere giver of gifts in exchange for worship so you're gonna have to preach a Gospel that is different than that and guess what that's not gonna be flattering that's that's gonna that's gonna be jarring it's gonna be different than what many of them have heard and with that it's not gonna gain you personal glory you're going to face rejection you're going to be you might be you might be shunned.

For it you might be made to feel even more like an outsider because you are preaching a Gospel that some people do not want to hear and that is a real temptation is personal glory because it's not fun to not be light when you share that's not fun being rejected it's not fun now progressive it's certainly not fun here for any of us to be made to be looked at like you're weird so we don't do it for personal glory and Paul's thing i didn't do it.

For personal glory so what is the motivation he lays it out in verse four he says but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel so we speak not to please man but a please God who tests our hearts you are being sent as missionaries not to please ma'am but to please God your commission the great commission go therefore make disciples of all nations baptize them in the father and son teaching them deserve all they commanded it's from him it's not from man that commission comes from.

God and your ultimate motivation is obedience because that's what you're doing you are going and you're going to make disciples you're going to preach Christ that's the motivation is obeying God which means that evangelism is actually worship it's a response to what God has called you to as you are commanded to live out the Gospel and to share the Gospel with these people which means when you guys are rejected you don't have to feel the weight of that as Christ preaches the ultimate aim or the ultimate truth is that they're rejecting Christ they're not rejecting you you're just being obedient to what.

God has called you to as good soldiers that's what he said Paul says in 1st timothy or 2nd timothy 2 4 he says no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuit since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him your aim is to be obedient to please the God who enlisted you and if you sit in that in that truth you will have the power to stay you have the power to make it through all of the sufferings all of the rejection.

Because hear this ultimately ultimately success for you guys will not be uh measured in conversions without measured in the visible impact of what you do there your success will be measured in obedience and that is huge because listen we don't know what we don't know what is going to happen for you guys we don't you might not see a conversion for years the house churches that you want to raise up chris the leaders that you want to raise up we may not.

See that for quite some time you may be you may have times where you're putting together an email update where you have you're grasping at straws you've got nothing really to report but here's the deal you need to remember this in those moments success is not measured by what you report back to us what you report back to your supporters is it is measured by your obedience to declaring the Gospel you don't fail if you preach the Gospel no matter what happens down there be obedient stand in that truth don't let any other motives get in the way that's the.

Second encouragement for you guys and then we get the third here starting in verse seven but we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care of her own children so being affectionately desirous of you we're ready to share with you not only the Gospel of God but also our own selves because you had become very dear to us if you remember brothers our labor and toil we work night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you.

While we proclaim to you the Gospel of God my third encouragement to you guys is share more than the Gospel share more than the Gospel Paul realized that they needed more than truth they needed to feel the love of Christ he recognized this his metaphor is like a nursing mother to her children he understand they needed to be cared for they needed to be loved they needed to be reminded of how good the Gospel is by them sharing more than more than just the Gospel they shared their own selves they showed their they shared their lives with them.

Because they had become very dear to them because he cared deeply for them Paul and silas leveraged everything so that they might experience Christ and here's the deal chris danielle maggie parker you guys will get the opportunity to share your own lives and i know you all are going to do this because you've done this so well here everyone who's been around you have seen you do this over and over again you've walked with the people in our Church you've loved the people in our Church chris i've watched you walk alongside people who are suffering and just caring.

For them i've seen you respond to felt needs you get to do exactly what you've done here and you get to bring it to el progresso and i love that the life of life discipleship that you've lived out here you get to apply there and it's gonna it's gonna take some time to contextualize that right like you're gonna have to learn the language it matters for them to hear uh that their conversation their own native tongue that's gonna that's gonna mean the world and it's going to take time.

But once you once you get to do that you get to go and do what you've done here you get to go and share and eat meals with them you get to taste all the different ways that you can make rice and beans that you never thought was possible and then guess what you might even get to to bring your own rice and beans and it's probably going to be pretty bland because as i've been told uh by carlos who's a part of our churches on durham uh we we have pretty bland food sometimes.

So it might take a few attempts right but you might actually get good at it and then one day you might bring a dish they're like actually this is pretty good and it's going to mean a lot of them because you learn their culture you learn their food so you get to share meals with them and spend long evenings with them because their hospitality is is bigger than ours you're gonna be tired you get to share these long meals with them you gotta take things that you love here uh to them take pandemic the game not not coveted i know you'll love the game pandemic take pandemic take all the board games that you love.

And teach them board games and spend time playing those with them you get to learn soccer and enjoy uh soccer you you get to pull forth the second best player in the world ronaldo because they seem to really like him down there that was a shot at exactly two people in our Church and i'm completely okay with them you get to share life with them and you get to to live out the Gospel with them you get to love them i'm.

So excited y'all get to do this with them it's going to take time it's going to take investment but it's worth it because here's the deal the way you live out the Gospel and the way that you love them adds seasoning and flavor to the Gospel and makes it beautiful it makes it more palatable for them to hear and believe so take that with you as an encouragement and we have our final encouragement here starting in verse 10. you are witnesses.

God also how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers for you know how like a father with his children we exhorted each of you and encourage you and charge you to walk in a manner worthy of God who calls you into his glory into his kingdom his own kingdom and glory so the fourth encouragement i have for you is to make the Gospel look good make the Gospel look good in the military when you are commissioned in the military it is expected that he or she is commissioned it's expected to uphold a certain level of conduct that's expected as they're commissioned soldiers and as commissioned missionaries as as Christians we have.

A higher code of conduct that we're called to to walk in a way that's above reproach to walk in a way that is blameless he makes this clear to the Church that him and silas uh they lived in a way that was uh that was holy and righteous and blameless he says like a father he exhorted them to do the same to walk in a manner worthy of the one who calls you into the kingdom because here's the deal one of the easiest way to to discredit your message is discredit the messenger.

If you don't live above approach if you don't walk in a way that is blameless people will write you off and guess who knows that the enemy the devil knows this you are going down with a target on your back he wants to destroy the work that you guys are going to do because his aim is to roll over el progresso and take as many people to hell with them and your arrival is an affront to that it is in direct opposition to that.

So in war one of the easiest ways you can take down uh uh uh take someone down into battles you can take out the general take out the commanding officer it you can take out a private but that's not gonna cause more chaos so you have a target on your back and he's gonna want to come for you so how do you uh defend against this how do you protect yourselves and ultimately protect the message that you are leaving to go and preach you do it in the same ways that you've done it here.

For so many years as you follow Jesus in everyday life you come back to the basics of the Gospel you practice what we have taught Gospel fluency applied the Gospel and everyday life you walk in the light in accountability with your team with one another as a family you read and love the Bible regularly take time to to sit and read and enjoy God to pray to live out the disciplines that take care of your own soul so that you will stand firm against the evil one in all of his flaming darts as ephesians 6 says it is doing the basics that you've been doing here and applying them down there and that is why.

For each of these as we walk through them i see that you guys are have been doing these and you are going to continue to do all of these which means that you guys are ready to go you're ready to go and suffer for the sake of the Gospel you're ready to go and and and be obedient to God and proclaiming Christ you're you're ready to share more than the Gospel you're ready to share your own lives you're ready to walk in a way that is blameless in making the Gospel.

Look good you are ready to go and we are mostly ready to send you because this is a bittersweet moment for us your Church family is going to miss you and i just want you to know that we are with you and it is time for you guys to go so go and make an impact for the kingdom go with the knowledge that God is is with you and we are praying for you go knowing that the work that you do resounds into eternity there's a famous missionary ct stud he was a missionary he said only.

When life will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last that's the hope guys that what you do down there would resound into eternity so go knowing that you get to make an impact we are with you we love you and we're going to pray for you this morning and we're going to send you out and may God bless you as you go and make disciples there let me pray God i'm so thankful for this family and what they have meant to our Church.

God i pray that you would send them we know that suffering is involved but we also know that you that we can pray for protection we pray that we pray for protection from the from the evil one we pray for protection from all of of of some of the things that may face them but ultimately God i pray they would persevere i pray that you would use them and some profound ways there God i pray that el progresso would never be the same.

Because they were obedient and they heard the call and they went God we love you we are thankful that we get to go and take the Gospel may you bless the obedience of this family in Jesus name amen.

Mill City 9/6/20 Mill City 9/6/20

Children, Children, What do you see? (Matthew 18:1-6; 19:13-15)

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September 5, 2020

Parable Of The Talents

September 5, 2020

Transcript

Good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors here the thought of me preaching sent my daughter into a rage that's okay jokes don't hurt the sermon's about children um we're gonna be in Matthew 18 and 19 today so go ahead if you have a Bible you can uh go there we're going to be in both of those chapters you can follow along with us on the screen children i have little children i have a five-year-old a three-year-old and a one-year-old and one of the things that i've learned about them is that they're actually fairly humble uh i know that's going to change the older they get.

But for right now they display a lot of humility for instance my middle son my three-year-old uh he has no shame uh we'll uh we'll have people come over to our house and regularly he'll go to the bathroom and when he comes out he's just naked and i've told him i was like buddy you you can't come out of the bathroom naked and he'll go wow i'm like because you because you can't you have to wear clothes that's what we have guests over you can't and he just it doesn't register.

For him uh my oldest who's gotten better about this over time but there have been times where she just has no pride because she would have an absolute meltdown in public and would not care about what anyone else thought which if you know me is a struggle because i don't like to disturb the herd in public at all um it's it's a it's a lie but she doesn't care she's going to work through her emotions out in public uh children are needy they display a lot of humility and that they need and need a need our one-year-old obviously cannot uh exist without her parents taking care of her our our middle son one of his.

Favorite drink is milk and he will ask over and over and over again can i have some milk can i have some milk can i have some milk and i'll say but you can ask me a hundred times i told you you're gonna have milk later not right now and he'll jump into this uh this negotiation strategy will go can i just have just a tiny bit of milk just puts his fingers together just it's just a tiny bit of milk i don't care how cute you.

Look right now you're not you are not getting milk but i've reversed this on him um at bedtime we'll have a Bible story and then i individually put my two oldest um to bed and uh and i'll get on his level and his bed and i'll say buddy you think i love you just a tiny bit and he starts laughing he's he's like no i said no i love you more than you could ever possibly know or imagine then i'll go do you think.

Jesus loves you just a little tiny bit and he's kind of been a punk lately and he said yes i was like you tiny little heretic no no no Jesus loves you the more than you could ever possibly know or imagine and that is the story that we're walking through today Jesus is going to uphold children as an example of humility that is meant to be followed and then he's going to shift gears and show that he values children that the.

God of the universe loves children and then we're going to jump into chapter 19 and see what he just taught in 18 applying to his disciples that children are are worth uh they are valuable and loved and cherished by God and also they display humility in a way that should instruct us as disciples of Jesus so i'm going to pray and then we're going to jump into the story uh father i thank you that you continue to give us these uh incredible stories that display uh truths about the Gospel.

God i pray that you would help us uh be present you would help us receive this you would help us stay focused and and that you would speak to us this morning we asked us in Jesus name amen all right so verse 1 at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven so that's a concern of the disciples we see this in multiple places that they are are concerned about being great in this kingdom that.

Jesus is establishing uh years ago i was a part of another Church while i was in seminary and some of the pastors told a story where one time after the worship service uh the this gentleman came down he's a few years older than them he just kind of said look i love what you guys are doing here and i would love to serve here and before they could launch into here's some different places you could serve he said all right so here's the deal i i have some leadership experience in the past.

So i want to preach here a couple times a month and then he just started listing out all the ways that he could help them and he they just said look man we it sounds like uh that you you're gifted in some leadership what we need right now more than anything is we need someone who can help lead our parking uh outside our parking is a mess and we just need some real leadership there and he just kind of was appalled and he walked away and he never came back and that and and really the response of the disciples here demonstrates the logic of man the greatness is upward status the greatness is is climbing.

The ladder and Jesus is about to take that understanding of greatness and completely turn it onset picks up in verse two he says in calling to him a child he put him in the midst of them and said truly i say to you unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven so he brings a child front and center here's your example unless you become like this child it's not that you won't have kingdom greatness you won't enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now the greek word for for child here is little children you could use a different word uh but he's talking about little children so think five-year-old unless you become like this five-year-old you will never inherit the kingdom of heaven which some of you might be like sweet you mean i can pitch a fit and be petty no he is not talking about maturity of a of a five-year-old he's talking about the humility of a five-year-old have the humility of a child.

So i want to take some time here and reflect on what is childlike humility what is that so there's a few different ways this plays out the first is status humility children don't care about status it's just not something they're concerned with and even more so in this culture this culture doesn't really elevate children as valuable at all it's one of the things that is unique about that culture and other cultures around the world that you don't actually level up and respect until you become an adult.

So in their mind it makes sense while the disciples are going to shoe the children away because they're not worthy of the respect of the presence of Jesus and he said no no you must become like this child which means lower your uh status and your head of what greatness is this is why in a couple chapters he's going to teach in Matthew 20 he's going to say but whoever would be great among you must be your servant he's helping them.

See that up is down the greatness in the kingdom is not what you think it is and your view of status so there's status humility there's faithful humility that children display children trust their parents they do i've been trying to walk through with my oldest uh different parts of who God is and over the last year we've been walking through uh the trinity which is a really easy concept to imagine as an adult much less a five-year-old but we've been walking through this and i'm like he is.

Father and he is he is uh Jesus is the son and he's the Holy Spirit he's three and he's one and he the wheels are turning and it just it's breaking her brain and a lot of times i'll talk about about Jesus and she'll just say no no you can call him God and i'm like yes we heart yes but he's also Jesus i know it's confusing he's three he's one but not in any of that is she distrusting of me she's trying to figure it out she's wrestling with these deeper questions with these deeper truths.

But she's not actually saying no i don't actually trust what he has to say no she's faithful and she trusts me and that's the kind of trust that Jesus invites us to not this arrogant posture that says God has to answer to me that when we delve into some of the greater mysteries and more difficult truths in our faith we do it from a posture of faith realizing there's mystery realizing this is hard to understand but doing it from a position of childlike faith and humility the.

Third picture this is dependent humility children are are needy creatures they are they're just dependent upon their parents when we run out of uh cinnamon toast crunch in our household as my daughter's favorite cereal uh not for a moment does she think you know what bridges come with me and she goes she's not going to go to our refrigerator and reach up maybe get a stool grab the keys and she's not going to convince him to get into the van and let him work the pedals and her work the steering wheel and go down the grocery store and pick up some cinnamon toast crunch and it's not at all in her brain at all no.

She knows that her parents will provide us she comes to us asking with no shame at all knowing that she's dependent upon us and that's what God invites us to with this type of humility that we know that we're not well we believe that we're not self-sufficient in and of ourselves that we would be completely dependent upon upon the lord and his provisions and the things that he does for us and the ways that he works in us there's this dependent humility give you one more picture of humility that children display it is persistent humility children are persistent i realize this pretty regularly.

When i walk home or when i walk home when i drive home this would be a long walk from here when i get home and and it's five o'clock and i i can pretty ge i can gauge the the temperature of the house uh and what's happened during the day pretty quickly sometimes i come in and and i hear mom mom mom and my wife just goes no i'm changing my name i am not mom that is your father you go to him and i realize that it's been a rough day and i'll just say babe no just just go to the bedroom go take a walk i'll handle it from here like i understand.

Because i'm around them a couple times a week for an extended period of time and they ask over and over again and they do more so even with her mom mom mom over and over and over and over again they're persistent there's no shame there they'll ask over and over again and that's what God calls us to in that type of humility that's why he taught in in the sermon on the mount to pray with this kind of we can come to the.

Father with our needs that's why in luke 18 he gives the parable of the persistent widow a widow who comes and asks and asks and asks and that's the picture of how we should be in our humility listen God is not annoyed by your request he is inexhaustible in fact he delights in his children coming over and over and over and over again because it displays the humility that is seen as great in the kingdom of God so different pictures of humility that children display and most of them are very difficult.

For us culturally to accept because culturally we don't value humility we don't i heard one pastor who actually really respect he gave a redefinition of humility that i think was i don't know was meant to be more palatable for our ears but he defined it as not humility is not thinking less of yourself it's thinking of yourself less and it's like man that is pithy and that crushes on some type of inspiration poster in somebody's office but that is not what the Bible teaches the Bible teaches no think less of yourself have a child-like status in your mind be needy persistent dependent which are all cultural values that we don't uphold not at all our.

Culture rejects that type of humility on multiple levels on one level it's kind of baked into the american dream that one of the chief ideals of our culture is achieving greatness through your own hard work through your own blood through your own sweat through your own tears we value those kinds of stories that that you can be self-sufficient make the american dream happen through years of hard work if you're older you've understood that for decades if you're younger you're stepping into the world you understand in our culture that is uh what is value dependency in our culture is weakness.

So on one level that's that's difficult for us to practice humility because our culture does not value it on top of it for a very specific uh generation of of people namely the one that that i am in we were raised as the self-esteem generation which i know for a lot of you baby boomers and upper gen xers you'll like to make fun of us for but i'd like to just go on the record and say you were the one that taught us this.

So you get to share the misery that is now because of that but for real we were we were raised on self-esteem like that you are great that greatness lies within you that you are special and amazing i remember in in middle school uh that we would go to these self-esteem assemblies and all the students were packing together in the gymnasium i remember one get one group in particular there's a bunch of guys and they came out with that message that you are great you can you can do anything you put your mind to.

And then they started like doing crazy stuff like tearing phone books in half which if you're younger they used to have phone books they were really thick with the internet didn't have numbers like you had to even tear these in half and they would break bricks and do all kinds of just crazy things and they say see you greatness lies but then you go out and achieve it and then 9 11 hit us in the face followed by the great recession.

Now the pandemic and how is that going i mean it's crushing to have that on top of this culture that rejects dependency on any level on multiple levels the odds are stacked to get against us and accepting this as a teaching so we need to break free from the culture here and become like children receive this teaching one of the reasons that i love the story of Exodus um there's there's there's a few there's lots of reasons why Exodus is an amazing story from the old testament one of the reasons that i really love it is is.

When they're in the wilderness God is trying to teach the Israelites that i am your God and you are my people and he's doing this one of the ways he does this is that they were slaves in egypt for hundreds of years in a system where they were slaves to a king to a set of pharaohs and when he brings them into the wilderness what does he do he provides manna he provides this daily bread that comes from heaven and what he's doing in the wilderness is teaching you he's teaching the uh the the Israelites that i am your.

God and you are my people i provide for you you are not going back to the system where you were slaves you are my people and i will provide for you and that is the type of Exodus that we need from this culture a culture that scoffs at humility that upholds the myth of the completely self-sufficient person we have got to break free from this and grow in a childlike dependence and humility on our God that is what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples that's what we need to receive as we read this.

And then he makes a shift he shifts from teaching this concept of humility towards what we're about to read next the value of children starting in verse five he says whoever receives one such child in my name receives me but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea so he shifts from humility of children upholding that to no no there's a correction that needs to happen here children are immensely valuable i mean he gives the encouragement that.

If you receive a child that you receive Christ and if you lead one of these little ones the stream it would be better for you to take a great millstone a great weight tied around your neck and to be drowned in the deepest oceans that is the wrath of God as a warning for those who would lead children astray and the reason why is because God loves children he cares for them they are tiny beautiful image bearers that he loves immensely.

Now on one level i think that's easy for us to get on board with culturally we we do a good job of physically caring for children we do probably a little bit too much because children end up becoming idols for us uh but we do a really good job i think of physically getting on board with caring for children uh culturally and it's historically this has not been the case and across the world there's still still cultures that don't actually value children like this i learned this one of the ways i learned this is.

When i was studying abroad i was in india and in india in some parts of the country that are poor you'll see lots of children like packs of children for lack of a better term and all these children are together for a reason because they've lost their parents and if you lose your parents in a culture like that you're on your own there's no one to to care for you and you make it on your own and and Christians have in a in a amazingly positive way impacted western culture we're the ones that started orphanages we're the ones that that emphasize caring.

For the fatherless and the motherless we we have a strong impact on western culture that is why we have social systems that are set up to care for children and that's why in other countries that don't have it we have missionaries to go and establish orphanages and care for children so i think in one sense we really grasp this that children are valuable however especially in western culture we care very little for the spiritual well-being of a child in fact a lot of ways that our our culture is.

For actually tearing down the spiritual will of being of a child and this shows up in a few different ways but one of the ways that shows up is that children and their purpose in society is to ultimately provide for that society that they are the future caretakers of the physical well-being of society so what happens is that we absorb that as the main focus that ultimately raising children in this culture is raising them to succeed materially and contribute to the material flourishing of society.

Let me say that again that raising children in this culture primarily is that children would succeed materially achieve the american dream and contribute to the material and physical well-being of society and there's a few ways that this shows up but one of the main ways it shows up is what is preached as the ultimate key in salvation for children and that is education that is the ultimate goal that education is the solution for children and what happens in our culture is that there's.

So much weight placed on education and not even education for education sense it's actually for building a resume for getting good grades so there's this huge push to make sure that kids make good grades and achieve and make straight days and build that college resume because you got to get scholarships and you got to get into a college you know what else you need you need activities and you need sports and you need clubs and we teach children to do and do and do and go and go and go.

Because what is the measured success of a child that one day that will secure a very good job and they will achieve happiness through the accumulation of material things what Jesus teaches is that those things one day will pass away through must through rust and moth destroying it all the good biblical illustrations that Jesus gives on material things passing away that's the aim of our culture now are education and and sports and activities bad no no there actually can be very good things.

But when that becomes the chief aim what you have done is you've raised a generation of children to find value in what they produce and find happiness and things they can accumulate and there's no eternal aim there and here's the deal it would be better for us to tie a millstone around our neck and be drowned in the deepest waters to let our children become slaves in that system there is repentance that has to happen on our part so let me suggest a different path let's make the primary aim of raising children in this culture to know and love.

God let that be the primary aim for us and our families to know and love God let's read the Bible regularly with our children i mean as the night closes or is the on the morning before school what other rhythm works for your family to open up God's word and say this is who God is this is who our savior is i had a professor in in seminary he he taught something called once a week Gospel talks or or another circle that's called family worship and once we could get together with his uh with his with his kids and he would read the Bible and he would teach and he would talk to them.

He'd ask them what are you facing what kind of problems are you wrestling with that he helped them apply the Gospel and their lives and that's one thing we're trying to work on in our family especially with our language my wife has been pushing me on this because my go-to when the kids make a mistake or mess up i'll just say what's the matter with you this is phrases i heard growing up what's the matter with you and she'll go that's not helpful i know.

When she's been pushing me on how about talking to them in a way that says this what does that reveal about your heart all right you why did you hit your brother why did you steal that toy from your sister what does that actually reveal about your heart and at first i was really resistant because i was like man that seems really over spiritual which i know is bad because i'm a pastor but i finally repented and i was like okay that that that does make a lot of sense.

So i've i've changed it i'm like what's the matter with you and then she gives me a look and i'm like because you know what's the matter with you you have a deceitful and wicked heart there no i'm i'm growing in this i'm being pushed in this the language in which we talk to our children matters and shaping them how they understand the Gospel and also one of the things i think that just gets completely lost in all of this is teaching our kids to be virtuous the virtues of Christ love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control your kid may not make straight a's they may not get into the best of colleges.

How much better they be if they're actually a loving peaceful patient kind and good person who follows Jesus if you teach them to know God to apply the Gospel and to be virtuous here's the deal if you aim eternally the rest will follow that's what the proverbs teaches the proverbs teach over and over again if you teach a child to know God to walk with God to have wisdom the material is going to follow they're going to be okay they're going to take care of themselves there's nothing wrong with not wanting your child to be 30 year old in your basement that's not that's a decent desire.

But if you aim for the eternal the material will follow it doesn't mean they're going to be rich and that's fine because the deceitfulness of riches has has led many to destruction but they will know how to take care of themselves but more importantly they will eternally know God and they will function as virtuous people that's a much better legacy we need to have and value children with an absolute eternal aim these are the two things that Jesus teaches children example of humility that we should embody also value them in a way that has eternity in mind skip 19.

We're going to chapter verses 13 through 15 and we're going to watch him apply this then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray the disciples rebuke the people but Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven and he laid his hands on them and went away so Jesus gets an opportunity to correct his disciples in this moment again culturally children get away this is important.

Jesus and he says no no no no no let them come to me that's value that is applying what he just taught in 18 no i value children he's letting the children come to him this is the picture that we love of Jesus picking up children placing a blessing on them showing that he absolutely loves and values children that's what he's trying to help his disciples see they are valuable and my question for us as a Church is do we see the value of children that's the Church do we get this do we value children like.

Jesus does i get it there's a wide range of opinions about children in our Church i know this because i'm on facebook and there are lots of opinions about children on facebook there's a wide range i know some of you don't really like children like they they're strange and you're they're really hard to talk to sometimes being a group with them and you're like i i don't i don't even think i understand what you're saying okay bye like i understand it can be difficult they can be distractions they can distract and worship they can distract and group sometimes they smell maybe you resent the stage of childhood that you had to go through i don't.

Know what that is for you but you need to be pushed on here you need to be corrected here Jesus values children i don't see i'm not saying you have to be captain kid city but i am saying that you need to value children a way that mirrors what Jesus is teaching you some of you are great and you love kids and you're down in the basement right now and you can't even hear us but some of you love kids some of you love your own children.

But you actually really don't like anybody else's children and you also need to be corrected here because one of the chief aims for us as a Church is to mirror this and to help all children in our Church find their place with Christ so how does that show up how does that show up in community group is your community group a people is your meeting time a place where where you can where y'all receive children and do it well my community group has 16 kids.

Listen we multiplied in january it was 18. we split it down the middle sent patrick and the johnsons off with half of them and now we're back to 16 because people keep having children and things so we we have a lot of kids and and group meeting time is difficult um we'll we'll send them upstairs to have discussion and there are sometimes y'all that for 40 minutes were only interrupted with three major meltdowns and it's not quiet it sounds like like stampeding children upstairs screaming and yelling.

But but sometimes we just we need time for ourselves to be able to discuss the Bible to walk through what's going on life i think that's good but one of the ways i think we fall short and this is on me as a leader i don't think we do a good job of making room at the table for our kids that's hard the most of them are five and under and it's hard to but i want to get to a place where there's there is room in our group.

For actually children to experience Christ i just want to ask you do you see that do you see children as as a mission field in your group are they a hindrance to your group meeting time a hindrance to your group experience that's something i think we need to shift on here it is hard to be groups on mission right now because inviting people into groups during a pandemic it's not the easiest but the reality is that you have a bunch of children in your group that need the Gospel.

And if you saw them as a mission field that we only get them for about you know 18 years together and group if you saw that as a mission field as well and invested in the children in your group you would be embodying this teaching and you'd be making an impact in eternity we need to grow in this as groups when you grow individually and making investments into our children some of you need to serve in kid city you need to serve in kid city even during a pandemic you need to actually go down there and serve and love our children some of you that don't have kids you can you can help parents you.

Can join in helping them disciple their kids you can ask what can i do to help you and helping your kids know more of Jesus y'all you can you can babysit them to make sure parents can go on date nights and and and and work on their marriage so they can be good husbands and wives and good mothers and fathers there's lots of ways that we can partner together in investing in children another level of this is that we can receive children that aren't even part of this Church that you and your family can be a mission force in partnering here this and partnering with your children to be missionaries in their schools and their.

Neighborhoods my wife's family growing up they made sure that their house was the place that kids wanted to come to kids from the neighborhood their parents their other their friends from school they made sure that their uh their house was the spot now part of that was because my mother-in-law really wanted to make sure she could uh control the environment which is why my wife saw her first rated r movie when she was 17 she confessed it it's part of that.

But part of it was this is a home where children can come and experience the Gospel the reality is a lot of my uh my my wife and her siblings their friends weren't believers they weren't a part of churches their parents didn't didn't know and love Jesus and those kids got to come and experience a family that loved Christ they got to come and worship with them on sundays and i want that i want that for our family our kids are are are in school um and they're going to be in public schools there's going to be lots of opportunities.

For for them to to hang out with kids that don't know Jesus and i want to partner with them on mission i want to give them a Gospel missionary lens for their friends i want to invite them into our household i want that for our family that we can partner with our kids on mission so that we can embody this command and receive children like Christ calls us to i'll give you one last level in which we you can grow in this we can grow in a Church and we're trying to do this growing uh in being a Church that cares about orphan care we have multiple families in our Church that are either fostering.

In the foster system because they're kids in south carolina that need homes they need homes they can be loved even more than any homes they can experience Christ there's domestic adoption happening in our Church there's international adoption in our Church and here's the deal not everyone is called to orphan care but we're a Church that is trying to grow in this we all should care about those who are involved in orphan care so that means supporting them if that means getting behind them.

If that means being uh registered people they can they can watch kids that are that are in foster care whatever it is we need to grow in receiving children that desperately need someone who loves them and needs to know their savior there are lots of different ways that we can receive children and if we keep this as a focus in our Church if we strive towards this then one of the things that we will realize is that we will learn from them.

Because it's not only that we'll receive them and we'll see the value of them that also we will see the example of humility that is on display back in verse 14 he says but Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God it's back to what he just taught for such belongs the kingdom of God the kingdom of God belongs to the humble because our savior has open arms on the cross and he invites us in to fellowship with him we don't bring anything to the table even more.

So we bring our sin and our bags to the table but by his grace he opens his arms to receive us but that takes humility the acknowledgment of sin and and brokenness james 4 6 says but he gives more grace therefore it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble here's the deal God gives abundant grace to those who know they needed if you know you're messed up if you know you've got your sin if you know you've got your baggage the beauty of the Gospel is is that our.

God knows that and he's ready to receive you humble yourself and come to him but here is the warning if you think you've got it all together if you think you're well put together if your life is it is in good order if you know i'm not perfect but but i'm fine you need to receive the warning here he opposes the proud he only gives grace to those who acknowledge their need of him and that is in repentance and as the recognition that the only hope we have is coming to him with our sin and our baggage and letting him take it on the cross may we grow in valuing children and from our value.

And spending time with them and loving them may we see a humility that is so needed of us so that we can experience God and enter the kingdom of heaven the ban is going to come up and i want us to take a few moments and reflect on this i want us to grow receiving children i don't know what that is for you i don't know what that is as a part of your group i don't know what that is in your life.

But but this is a command you guys this this is this is not just a suggestion God wants us to receive children there's a great blessing in it my hope is that we would look at this maybe some of you actually need to consider fostering and adopting maybe some of you need to create avenues for children to experience Jesus in your group i don't know what that is for you but my hope is you wouldn't hear this and go oh that's neat cool stuff and move on my hope is that you would hear this and think how can you actually implement uh this truth that children are valuable and worthy of our time and our.

Energy and our effort and our love my hope also is is that we would walk in uh humility maybe ask ourselves where you need to grow in humility do you see being needy and persistent as as a vice as something to be that it's a weakness or do you see it as an absolute posture of humility that God calls us to are you so concerned with status that you've missed the understanding when you become like a child like a servant i don't know what that is.

For you i don't know if it's hard for you to come to the lord and ask for things i don't know if it's if it's difficult for you to humble yourself before God and others i don't know what that is for you but the importance of an absolute child like humility is so necessary not only for us knowing Christ but knowing more of him the more that you grow in humility the more you get to experience our God and that is what he's inviting us into may we grow in this repent where needed and experience these truths in the way that.

God has taught us let me pray God i am thankful that you love children in a perfect way that we have no shot at doing i'm thankful that you humbled yourself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross i'm thankful for the truth of the Gospel that helps us repent of these ways that we failed and our pride and our lack of love for children God i pray that you would grow us and shape us and mold us in your image.

God i pray if there's anyone here who has not humbled himself before you i pray right now this morning that you would reveal yourself in a way that absolutely breaks down the walls of pride and their life and calls them into faith and you ask us in Jesus name amen you guys.

Mill City 8/30/20 Mill City 8/30/20

Death and Taxes (Matthew 17:14-27)

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August 29, 2020

Parable Of The Faithful and Wicked Servants

August 29, 2020

Transcript

You guys can be seated well good morning my name is chet i'm one of the pastors here we are walking through the Gospel of Matthew so if you'll grab your bibles and go to Matthew chapter 17 whenever we set out to walk through a book of the Bible especially one that's longer we kind of have to wrestle with how much time are we going to spend in that book how zoomed in are we going to be sometimes we go pretty quickly sometimes we go a little bit slower Matthew we've walked pretty slowly through it.

But there are times where in order for it to not be seven years of us walking through the Gospel of Matthew we put some things together today we are going to look at three separate stories and we're gonna try to pull out a big idea we're gonna look three separate um sections in the Gospel of Matthew and pull out one big idea and it's gonna take a little bit of work because they're going to be some things that we can't zoom in on we're going to have to mention and keep moving um and y'all know me i'm very organized and my sermons are always super coherent and to the point.

And so i know you know i preach and spencer preaches and when he walks up here and when i walk up here i know when i come up here you lower your expectations a little bit and what i'm saying today is no a little lower no but we're going to walk through these three sections and i think we're going to find them extremely helpful this morning as we do kind of zoom out and try to take one big idea out so let's pray.

And then we'll read starting in verse 14. God we thank you for your word and it's goodness to us it's helpfulness for us and we pray that as we come to it today that we wouldn't just see the stories we wouldn't just see the words but that we would see you that we would meet you in your word today and that you would be glorified and that we would leave this place feeling and knowing more of your love for us through your son in.

Jesus name we pray amen so we're in Matthew 17 verse 14. Jesus has just been on the mountain he has just been transfigured he has shone like the sun a bright cloud wrapped around him and the disciples who were with him fell on their faces and now they're descending back down into ministry into some normalcy for Jesus after this literal mountaintop experience when they came to the crowd a man came up to him that's Jesus and kneeling before him said lord have mercy on my son.

For he has seizures and he suffers terribly for often he falls into fire and often into the water and i brought him to your disciples and they could not heal him that's awful do you hear that this father pleading on behalf of his son and his son has seizures and not only does he have a physical ailment but he falls in water they live near water this is an area near a lake he falls in water there are times where his dad has had to try to keep him from drowning he falls in fire which was a normal part of life.

For them he has to keep him from being burned at this point this child probably does have burns on his body this is painful and there really is very little in life that shows us the brokenness of the world the way that a sick child does there's really very little in life that shows us how failing and fleeting life is like a sick child i've been reading a book by a clinical psychiatrist and he was talking through how people view the objects around them and he said we basically view them based off of their usefulness we don't think about how complex they are we don't think of how important they are and how much there.

Is to them we just think through their utility he said a car is a really good example of this you very rarely think of all the sum of parts of your car you rarely think of how complex it is it is the thing that gets you from here to there but he said as soon as you sit in it and try to crank it and it doesn't crank you suddenly realize this is really complex piece of machinery i'm sitting in it's no longer getting you from here to there and you realize how very little you know about cars you realize that this is a major problem.

For you and then he talks about how this increases our stress that as soon as we hit situations where they don't work the way they're supposed to we're entering into stress how's uh how's 2020 been for you we sat in the car in 2020 and it wouldn't turn over it's like we picked up the phone and called God and we're like hey i keep 2020 is going what does that mean it's not doing what it was supposed to we started this year off.

Because we had to we started this year off with a series sermon series called 2020 vision because if i had grown old and realized we passed the year 2020 and didn't use it in some sort of corny annoying way when we had the opportunity that was never going to come again it would have plagued me so we went with 20 20 vision and i joked to spencer that we're actually going to need to end the year in a series called hindsight's 20.

Because what we thought the year was going to look like not so much and if you'd have told me it was going to play out this way it would have been hard to imagine the same for all of us that it didn't work the way it was supposed to that we're all staring at physical sickness financial insecurity questions about justice and the future of the united states it's a political year we already knew some of it was going to be annoying.

And then it it becomes this and we're it's not doing what it was supposed to and it's been stressful and i think in these seasons and in sickness and in doubt and in frustration it's really easy for us to start asking the question is why does the world work like this why do these type of things happen why is normal so often very very painful and bad and i think nothing shows us that like a sick child but that's normal that there would be sick children.

But why why is that how this works why is the world so broken and i think we come to the lord with that question and so as we read these three sections today we're going to look at that question why is this normal why is this brokenness so much a part of life what is God's answer what does he want from us what is he going to do about it we're just going to walk through that question a bit as we walk through this section.

So he brings his son and has a terrible condition verse 15 lord have mercy on my son for he has seizures and he suffers terribly for often he falls into fire and often into the water and i brought him to your disciples and they could not heal him so Jesus comes down and he's met with this brokenness and the fact that his disciples couldn't do what they were supposed to and Jesus answered oh faithless and twisted generation how long am i to be with you how long am i to bear with you bring him here to me that's not an encouraging response this.

Father says can you help my son in Jesus responses oh faithless and twisted generation it would be hard for the father not to feel like some of that was aimed at him it would be hard for the disciples not to feel like some of that was aimed at them i i believe in general he's speaking to both and he's lamenting the the generation that he's in that there's faithless that there's brokenness that the people of Israel don't believe in him as they should they don't trust him that there's doubt that even his own disciples who were supposed to have it supposed to know supposed to be able to do these sort of things don't that.

Stings a little bit i feel that a little bit do you often feel like maybe that's the lord's response to you how long am i going to be with you how long am i going to put up with you how many times are we going to have this conversation how many times are we going to circle back to this my dad liked the movie butch cassidy and the sundance kid it's an old western it's good um at one point butch and sundance get hired to help guard a guy who's gonna go he picks up money in a little stagecoach.

And then he brings it back up and they're picked to they're hired to protect him as he picks up the money and so they're riding down the hill to go pick up the money and butch and sundance are on the front of the stagecoach and they're talking about okay people could be hiding over here oh they could set up a boat ambush over there and they're really into it they're sitting there with their guns and the guy driving the stagecoach says hey they turn around.

Look at him he goes ain't nobody going to rob us going down the mountain we ain't got no money going down the mountain and they're like oh and he leans back and goes morons i got morons on my team and i probably heard that 1500 times in my life be working with my dad doing something we'd be messing something up he'd kill but hey hey hey and he would explain why what we were talking about was dumb or why it wouldn't work.

And then he would go morons i got morons on my team i feel like that's sometimes Jesus's response to me is trying to be his disciple but not doing what i'm supposed to it's a little bit like how long are we going to do this how long am i going to put up you're on my team but what is going on here he's lamenting this but i looked this up i tried to see if there was anything that he was referencing.

Because Jesus often does because he's the word of God incarnate but he's also he pulls from the written word so often and the only place i could find this phrase this twisted generation is in deuteronomy chapter 32 it's in a song that Moses teaches the people of Israel that this phrase is found in deuteronomy chapter 32 and it's a song and i'm going to tell y'all the song's not super nice it's the last thing Moses teaches the people of Israel before they go he's given them the law he's led them all the way to the edge of the promised land and he says y'all need to learn a song.

God may have taught me a song to teach y'all and the song is about judgment the song is about how they're going to fail the song's about how great God is and how they're going to run from him i was reading through and it reminded me of the song that dwight schrute sings in the office that he said that that all the shrewd children were taught which is learn your rules you've got to learn your rules if you don't you'll be eaten in your sleep and that was the song that they taught all the children and that's what this feels like he says i'm going to teach you a song and the song is.

God is glorious God is good but we're wicked so i want to read some of this is verse 4 of deuteronomy 32 it says the rock his work is perfect all his ways are justice a God of faithfulness and without iniquity meaning he's no sin no fault nothing's wrong with him he's just and upright is he they have dealt corruptly with him they are no longer his children because they are blemished they are a crooked and twisted generation do you thus repay the.

Lord you foolish and senseless people is not he your father who created you who made you and established you verse 20 says and he said i will hide my face from them i will see what their end will be for they are a perverse generation children in whom is no faithfulness they have made me jealous with what is no God and they have provoked me to anger with their idols he teaches the people of Israel what it looks like to follow.

God and then he says learn this because this is what's ultimately going to happen that y'all were meant to be his children y'all were meant to live in relationship hit with him and he hasn't broken faith you have this is the first answer the Bible gives to us as to why is the world so messed up because we're in it and we're sinful we're twisted even our sense of justice is twisted what we believe is right and wrong is so often twisted that as we approach.

God and we plead for him with justice often we don't even know what to plead for because we're twisted we're sinful it's in us from adam it's handed down and even after God gave us the law we continue even though we know what is right and wrong that he's told us we continue to do what is evil and wrong that it's in us and we make it worse i told the sunday school class this story last week but i took my son to go to the doctor to get his blood drawn.

Because he has some food allergies and he's been getting kind of sick and we think maybe he's getting worse or we're feeding him something that he shouldn't have and so we're just getting his blood tested to see how he's doing and if he's progressing and what's going on while we're at the hospital he's sitting in a chair i'm sitting there trying to fill out some paperwork for him we're seeing what's going on with him he turns around in the chair he smiles beautifully at me.

And then licks the back of the chair now he's two but i looked at him he looks a lot like me i thought that's me i've got brokenness in me and i'm actively making it worse and i didn't tell his mama because there was no need for her to lay awake thinking about that i was going to bring it up offhandedly if he had gotten sick oh you know what now that i think about it he did lick a chair at the hospital.

But that's us that we're twisted we're corrupted we were meant to have a good relationship with God and we've rebelled we've run from him and that's the first answer as to why are things so broken that's why Jesus in this moment responds with you twisted corrupted generation y'all should be different but you're broken your hearts are off and it's interesting how twisted our generation is because this man in the midst of his brokenness brings his son to God and he asks.

For mercy he brings him to Jesus he sees Jesus as a representative God he calls him lord he sees him as above him and he asks for mercy meaning you're in a position of power i just need mercy but the reality is our twisted and broken generation doesn't bring sick children to God for mercy we bring them as exhibit a as to why he is unjust and unfair and does not deserve to be God we don't bring asking for mercy as.

If he's bigger than us if he's as if he's just and holy and right in all his ways and that we're wicked and we need mercy and grace from him we bring him and we put him in the uh testimony chair he's got to testify to us as we sit in the judgment seat and we say do you see this do you see this do you see this how dare you but this man comes and he asks for mercy and he receives it.

Jesus verse 18. it says and Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him and the boy was healed instantly and this is interesting because it does tie this spiritual aspect with physical aspect that it was demonic and there was physical healing that happened so Jesus rebukes it he's authority over all that is evil and all that is broken the boy was healed instantly it moves on from there but i i couldn't help but picturing this dad with his son after this moment on a boat catching some fish.

And then cooking him around the fire and the amount of joy in his heart thinking back to Christ and thinking about how good he is that his illness is gone and that he doesn't fall in water and fire anymore that they can have joy and delight around those things that God re-straightened out what was broken in his world verse 19 the disciples came to Jesus privately and said why could we not cast it out and he said to them because of your little faith.

For truly i say to you if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed you will say to this mountain move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you now mustard seed it's tiny i'm holding one in my hand right now i'm not but it doesn't matter you wouldn't be able to see it it's tiny and i think when he said you have little faith i don't think any of them thought yes i have the faith i would have thought yeah.

Okay small you know like a terrier like not huge but i got some faith but he says if you had it even the size of a mustard seed see the reality is it's not about the size of our faith it's not that we grow large in faith and we become powerful in faith in some sort of way that pumps us up it has to do with where the faith is planted it has to do with where the faith is located if they had just tiny bit of faith.

But it was put in the right spot not in themselves not in something else not in their ability to to do this well enough that they he but that's what he's frustrated about so he calls him twisted and faithless the two people that he's praised are non-jewish people that he's praised for their faith a centurion and a canaanite woman and he comes to his people and he says i don't get it you're broken you're twisted you're faithless and he looks at the disciples and said.

If you just had a little bit you could pick up a mountain and move it and i love how we approach this passage because we immediately want to go well not really you don't really mean move a mountain and sure okay it's probably no practical benefit in moving mountains and if someone was like i have enough faith watch me move a mountain just for show i doubt they actually have faith in God and would be approaching appropriately handling this but he does mean what he says nothing will be impossible.

If you come to the lord and genuine faith but that's because nothing's impossible for him and if you trust him genuinely and truly and fully he works but trusting him means that the mountain moving is up to him and whether or not he moves the mountain is up to him often we say well i trusted God and he failed me but if we actually trust him we trust him to do what's good on our behalf no matter what even if we.

See it as failure in the moment so we come to him with genuine faith and God works and moves and does and what he wants from us is genuine faith he calls them twisted and faithless and he tells them if he just had faith things would work God would work he would move if we stopped there we could move on and talk about how Jesus is good and ultimately how he moves us towards hope but if i was the disciples and we stopped there i think i'd be pretty discouraged i think i'd be pretty overwhelmed.

But the story gets better the story of Christ gets better his work gets better on our behalf so he says this verse 22 as they were gathering in galilee Jesus said to them the son of man and they know that he's been referring to himself is about to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him and he will be raised on the third day and they were greatly distressed she says the son of man will be delivered in the hands of men that's distressing on its own that he's going to die that he's going to be killed it's distressing that he.

Now uses the word deliverance this is delivered into their hands this first he's told them this twice now but he's going to be delivered maybe brings to mind that he might be betrayed that he might be handed over so this adds extra stress to the disciples but they're also just stressed out about this idea they think he's saying he's going to die now they don't fully understand what he means by he's going to die and he's going to be raised because they're surprised.

When he comes back from the dead let's cut him some slack that's pretty surprising they also at times would uh overthink the things he said so that we read a couple chapters ago where he says beware the leaven of the sadducees and the pharisees and they get in this argument about the fact that they don't have bread and he's like that's not what i meant so he tells them he's going to go to the cross he's going to die and he's going to be raised they don't fully understand it.

But they're distressed but for us that's beautiful news because we understand what he's doing it's beautiful news because at this moment of failure for the disciples he doesn't come to them and go guys you've got to get better or it's not going to work he comes to them and says trust and then he says i'm going to the cross that his plan for fixing why everything is so broken praise the lord isn't on us to unbreak it it's on us to trust him as he goes to work.

For us now the world is broken there's sin it runs rampant there's disease there's wickedness and evil and we come to this we say what's God going to do about it is he going to do anything about it and this is his answer that he's going to come and live and die that he who is the son of God they proclaimed him that then he went up God proclaimed him that from a cloud and then Jesus says i'm the son of man he is the son of.

God but he calls himself the son of man because he's taking our place and going to the cross for us so the world is broken through sin it's affecting everything Jesus has the ability ability to heal we just saw that with that boy but he can't just fix situations he's got to make it to the root of the problem so we have a few options big picture theologically how's he going to fix the world option one that people often put forward is why can't he just forgive everybody.

If we've sinned against him why can't he just forgive everybody and we just read it in deuteronomy because he's right and just and holy and a judge who just forgives everybody is the worst judge ever if you had someone harm you assault you hurt one of your family members they're caught you go to court the testimony is given it's displayed what they've done and the judge looks and says you know what i forgive you and slams the gavel down do you know how soul-crushing that is that's not justice that's wickedness that's evil and you'd be going easy.

For you to say easy for you to wipe this clean what about me i've lost i've been harmed and the reality is the earth cries out to God we have been harmed we have lost now we've been an active part of it but we have been hurt there is wickedness here and he can't just forgive like he somehow magics it away not and still be just now he could do it and be crooked but he can't just forgive all right so there's a legitimate.

Second option i don't know if you guys are going to like it he can kill all of us you want to think about that one we'll talk through the the pros and cons that he can he can be just and destroy all those who are treason us but the reality is his love it'd be hard for him to just destroy all of us and then still be loving his love holds him back and changes his course but he could justly destroy all of us who have wickedly rebelled.

So he does this he becomes a human he goes to the cross he dies he rises and asks us to have faith to trust him and in so doing he displays his love and his justice that he pays for sin that sin will be dealt with it will be paid out and that he offers us grace and redemption and forgiveness through his love so here's the thing it doesn't answer why is everything terrible it gives us the answer that part of the reason things are messed up and broken in the world is that the world is broken and messed up through sin that's part of the answer it's a very generic answer it doesn't give.

Us a specific answer as to why you have this ailment and this person doesn't why that person had nice parents and yours were the way they were why these children are fine and live and you've had three miscarriages it doesn't answer those questions and those are painful questions it doesn't answer the specificness of the brokenness but it tells us a few things that it's not the brokenness that we specifically face is not because God is unjust and the brokenness that we specifically face is not.

Because he doesn't love us Jesus came to die on a cross to display God's justice and his love and to offer us hope so the reason we face the things we face we don't get all the answers but he tells us it's not that he's unjust and it's not that he doesn't love us now this next story i think helps display this it's an interesting picture it's just a little story it's kind of an odd story i i have enjoyed studying it.

But i think it helps us see this picture of what Jesus has come to do on our behalf to to display his justice and to offer us his love and help fix what's broken in the world when they came to capernaum the collectors of the two drachma dracula attacks went up to Peter and said does your teacher not pay the tax so the two drachma tax these aren't roman tax collectors these aren't people who are traders of the state these are people who are taking up a tax that was issued in Exodus chapter 30 by Moses by.

God through Moses and it's four originally for the tabernacle and now for the temple that everybody who is 20 years old and upward would pay a half a shekel which is two drachma let's read that section from Exodus 30 verses 11 through 14 says the lord said to Moses when you take the census of the people of Israel then each shall give a ransom for his life to the lord a ransom is you paying yourself out of slavery out of bondage.

For his life to the lord when you number them that there be no plague among them when you number them each one who is numbered in the census shall give this half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary let's tell specifically what that is and it says half a shekel as an offering to the lord everyone who is numbered in the census from 20 years old and upward shall give the lord's offering i think one of the things we really need to take from this this was a half a shekel 1500 years later they're taking a two drachma drachma tax which is a half a shekel is that.

If we stick with the gold standard we can really help control inflation but there's other things too so they come to him and they they take this tax this is what it is they ask Peter does your teacher pay the tax Peter verse 25 says he said yes and when he came to the house Jesus spoke to him first saying we don't get to find out we don't know why Peter says yes Peter maybe knew that Jesus did this had seen him do it previously we don't know anything about that uh maybe Peter just in the moment said yes and figured he'd sort it out later we don't know.

Jesus talks to him first we don't know if Peter was going to immediately go talk about it we don't know if Peter had forgotten we don't know but Peter says yes they said does he pay the tax and he says yes and then when he went into the house Jesus spoke to him first saying what do you think simon and that's Jesus is kind of set up for i'm going to give you a little test i'm going to ask some questions i think Peter was like all right pop quiz time.

Let me get ready what do you think simon from whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax from their sons or from others and when he said from others Jesus said to him then the sons are free what's Jesus's point his point is Peter walks they ask him does Jesus pay the tax Peter says yes Peter walks in Jesus says hey Peter who do kings tax their sons or others Peter says others Jesus says okay so the sons are free what.

Jesus just said was Peter i'm the son of God i don't have to pay this tax they actually owe me the tax he could legitimately say run back outside tell them when they're done with their collection to bring it to me i'm a true and better temple we're going to tear it down we're going to we're going to build it back in three days and they're not going to worship on that mountain or this mountain they're going to worship in spirit and truth.

Because it's going to move from the temple to me Jesus is the one who who is owed this tax because he's the one who instituted it he is the son of God the king of ages they ask is your master going to pay the tax or not Peter and Jesus talking Jesus basically says so the sons are free i'm the son of God i don't have to pay this tax and he said however not to give offense to them which side note i think is very helpful.

Because he offends people all the time but here he says not to give offense meaning he doesn't offend people just for the heck of it he offends people where they deserve and need to be offended he's not just contrary for for fun i just think that's helpful but he says however not to give offense to them go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel take that and give it to them.

For me and for yourself it's probably one of the most fun little disciple missions that Peter ever got sent on go to the sea catch a fish open its mouth there's gonna be a shekel take that pay them with the fish mouth shekel that's a weird story i like the story i think it's a helpful picture for us Jesus displays his absolute sovereignty over the world did he make the fish eat the shekel did he just know about the fish is he is he just able to know the the stomach whereabouts of all animals like i don't know i don't know he's just displaying his mightiness he says Peter does the son of.

God have to pay a temple tax Peter says no he says okay now that we've established that we'll pay it because this isn't a fight i'm trying to pick go catch a fish pay for me and for you i love this story i think it's memorable i like that Peter had to dig a shekel out of a fish i think it's beautiful that Jesus pays sovereignly miraculously not only for himself but for Peter sovereignly miraculously he pays for Peter and in Exodus it says that this is a ransom.

But it doesn't just say that this this tax is not just a ransom not just buying yourself out of slavery it keeps going in verse 15 and 16 it says the rich shall not give more the poor shall not give less than the half shekel when you give the lord's offering to make atonement for your lives it says you making atonement for your lives atonement is paying back a debt you owe for your wrongness you shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it to the service of the tent of meeting that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the.

Lord so as to make atonement for their lives Jesus just miraculously sovereignly graciously paid a ransom for Peter made atonement for his life and brought him to remembrance before the lord and the thing that he told us before this was i'm going to go to a cross i'm going to die and i'm going to rise again and the reality is the rest of Scripture pulls out and says that when he did that for all those who have faith in him he pays a ransom he pulls you out of bondage and debt to sin he makes atonement meaning he pays back what you owed.

Because you have sinned and you have laid up a great cost and debt in your sin and he brings you to remembrance before the lord that he presents you before him holy and blameless and above reproach so Jesus clarifies i don't have to do this and then he does it not only for himself but for Peter that's what Philippians 2 says it says we're to have this mind among ourselves which is ours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of.

God did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped he's transcendent he glows like the sun but he chooses to join us in humanity he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men so the son of God takes on the name son of man for our goodness because he loves us because he's gracious he humbled himself going from being transfigured where he glows like the sun where he shines in glory to putting on a weak awkward dirty frail stinky human body do you know how much work we do to just not be disgusting around each other some of us more than others.

But he was humble just by putting on a human form and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death not only does he look like a human he takes on actual human form but he goes to death he dies on our behalf for us but not just death even death on a cross so Jesus the son of God who does not have to do this willingly graciously lovingly does this galatians 4 says this.

When the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son so the son of God born of woman so the son of man born under the law so he submits to the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons and because you are sons God has sent the spirit of his son into your hearts crying abba father so you are no longer a slave but a son and of a son than an heir through.

God we're not only ransomed out of slavery but we're made into sons so the son of God became a son of man so that men and women might become sons of God and he did it willingly and graciously because he loves us now the world's broken and it's broken through our sin and that's not a full answer as to why these particular things happen but what we know is that it's not that he's unjust and it's not that he doesn't love us and i love how.

When he goes to the cross he answers his question oh faithless and twisted generation how long am i to be with you how long am i to bear with you if your faith is in Christ the answer to that question is forever he will be with us forever and he will bear with us forever because he graciously lovingly willingly chose to humbly submitting himself to death on a cross so that we might have life in his name and all he asks from us is that we trust him fully forever trust him let's pray.

God we thank you for your grace we thank you that you sovereignly and miraculously ransomed us atoned for our sin and you bring us to remembrance before the lord not in our sin not as slaves but as sons and sons are free we thank you for that freedom that we have in Christ we thank you for the hope that we have in Christ and we pray that we would truly believe fully on you and your work on the cross on our behalf we love you we praise you in.

Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up and we're going to see.

Mill City 8/23/20 Mill City 8/23/20

Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13)

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August 22, 2020

Parable Of The Wedding Feast

August 22, 2020

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So good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors here we're going to be in Matthew 17. so you can go ahead and flip there and follow follow along with us on the screen one of my favorite parts of stories of recounting stories in history is the art of illusion that is illusion with an a not an eye i've been told that i don't enunciate which is certainly an opinion to have but i want you to be confused like i'm gonna do a magic trick.

Now this is illusion with a alluding to something illusion is a phrase or an event that actually alludes to something without having to explicitly tell the whole story so illusion can come in different forms it can be in the form of foreshadowing so if you've ever watched frozen two and thought wow this plot is incredibly confusing it is but as my wife has told me if you just listen the first song maybe have the lyric sheet out in front of you it's the it's foreshadowing it's the key to understanding the rest of the story a lot of times you can have a illusion that goes backwards or even outside of the story itself and in.

Movies they call these easter eggs these are just things that are put there to draw your mind to something else toy story does this they have easter eggs that point to uh the movie the shining so stories can do this going backwards uh in real life these are called inside jokes right you can tell an inside joke you just have to give a phrase and all of a sudden your friend is taken back to a decade before when you're in college to one of those crazy stories they're illusions sometimes you have it in in stories where they go backwards and forward at the same time.

So hamilton does this the musical hamilton so the very last song of the first act is packed with a ton of illusions uh that basically in the last song all these melodies are sung by some of the main characters and it's telling you everything that's happened in the first act hamilton's rise is coming to america his relentless work ethic his uh his marriage and then it comes to this big crescendo finish that ends with the famous line from the musical i'm not throwing away my shot which in and of itself is a double illusion it's a double entendre it points backward to how he came to america also and he's not going to waste his.

Shot also pointing forward to when he's going to waste his he's not going to waste his shot or he's going to waste his shot i got the whole story right you guys um but yeah i get excited about illusions i know you guys seem really excited about illusions but if you do appreciate them and the art of illusion and storytelling our God is brilliant at it and how he wrote the Bible the Bible is packed with illusions to point backwards and forwards i mean you can read different parts of the Bible and it's not giving you explicit stories.

But it just gives you a picture of something that takes you back to something that happened in the old testament it gives you a picture of something that points forward to what is coming and this story in particular today in Matthew 17 is packed with illusions so we're gonna follow this this is uh famously known as the the transfiguration uh so this is what uh how it is famously referred to as we're gonna follow the disciples and Jesus up the mount.

For the transfiguration and we're gonna see the illusions that are packed into this story and my hope is simply this for today that we can appreciate what is happening in this story we can step back from it and be blown away by the glory of the lord that he is worthy of worship because of how glorious he is so let me pray and then we'll jump into the text father i thank you that you have given us these stories from the life of.

Jesus God i pray that you would speak to us this morning that you would help us be present that we would listen and that we would be blown away by your glory we ask this in Jesus name amen all right verse 1 and after six days Jesus took with him Peter and james and john his brother and led them up a high mountain by themselves all right so just some if you weren't here last week or you didn't listen last week this is uh transitioning off of last week's story where uh Peter has a pretty high moment uh he confesses that.

Jesus the messiah the first confession of that type so he's riding high and then shortly after that uh he tries to rebuke Jesus it does not go well Jesus calls him Satan uh and then uses his failure as a means to teach the disciples so Peter's coming off a really low moment and what i love just about this first verse is this is a picture of who our God is that he's gracious that even in Peter's failure he has plans for him that he signs him take him up.

For this this mountaintop experience i love how gracious our God is to those of us who fall on our faces and fail and then he takes Peter and james and john these are commonly referred to as the three Jesus pours into 12 disciples and then more specifically he pours into three there's going to be three major leaders in the new testament Church so he takes them up the mountain this is the story picks up in verse two and he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.

Behold there appeared to them Moses and elijah talking with him and Peter said to Jesus lord it is good that we are here if you wish i will make three tents here one for you and one for Moses and one for elijah he was still speaking when behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said this is my beloved son with whom i'm well pleased listen to him when the disciples heard this they fell on their faces and were terrifying.

But Jesus came and touched them saying rise and have no fear and when they lifted up their eyes they saw no one but Jesus only all right so there's a lot packed into this event so before we jump into kind of the illusions that are happening in this story uh let's just describe what is what is happening so it says he goes on uh takes them up the mount and then he is transfigured that comes from the greek word metamorphoso which is exactly what it sounds like it's where we get our english word metamorphosis he transformed he metamorphosized he uh transfigured he transformed into something else and he uh the transformation is that he shines.

Bright like the sun like white light emanating from his face from his clothes now if you are familiar with uh other stories you might import and say oh that that's cool i know what this is like i've seen transformers i've seen the incredible hulk i've even seen gannon off the gray turning the ground off the white i get this and i just want to detach ourselves from things pictures we might have because this is real life and this situation is incredible they're standing next to.

Jesus and all of a sudden he transfigures and is emitting white bright light like the sun i don't know if you've looked at the sun you guys lately it's bright it will blind you this this light is emanating from him and then all of a sudden Moses and elijah show up you might be thinking oh cool that's neat too like i've seen star wars uh you know episode six where uh yoda and obi-wan show up as force ghosts at the end and reveal himself luke skywalker yay no this is not neat again this would have been equal parts mesmerizing and terrifying all at the same time.

Because Moses and elijah were pretty terrifying figures in their own right incredible men big figures in the old testament did incredible things and and had gravitas like this is a big deal shining bright light white light Moses and elijah appear then Peter suggests that they should mark this occasion with tents which may seem a little bit weird uh it isn't for uh jewish culture tense had some significance uh we we don't really know for i don't really know for sure exactly what this means there's a few different theories uh maybe he's trying to mark this occasion as a memorial which is something commonly they did in in jewish history uh maybe there's some some tie-ins.

The tabernacle and the tent possibly maybe there's some tie-ins to the feast of booths a celebration that the jewish people had and commemorating God's providing out of egypt uh into the promised land it's possible a few of these things but Peter wants to mark this occasion in the midst of trying to mark this occasion God the father speaks a cloud surrounds the mountain and God speaks anytime this happens in the Bible people fall in fear it's a picture of his holiness is.

So powerful that when he speaks to us as sinners people hit the floor and fear and he says this is my son with whom i am well pleased there's a lot happening in this one part of the story so why why does Jesus take him on the mountain why go to all this trouble for all these events what's the significance of what Jesus is trying to communicate in this situation a lot of the significance a lot of the illusions here deal with the two people that show up Moses and elijah they are significant.

For a reason and if you're familiar with the old testament some of the stories some of these pictures are going to start to come to mind so let's look at Moses first and figure out why he's here and what this is pointing to Moses comes out he takes the people of of God out of egypt brings them through the red sea they're wandering in the in the wilderness and then all of a sudden they show up to mount sinai and at mount sinai this is where Moses is going to go up on the mountain he's going to receive the 10 commandments on tablets he's going to receive the law to take down to the people.

And we'll pick it up in Exodus 24 15 and 16 which says then Moses went up on the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain the glory of the lord dwelt on mount sinai and the cloud covered it six days and on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud now that should sound familiar we put the stories side by side which i know may be difficult because we have small screens but if you can't.

See it just stay with me uh the settings are similar so setting matters in the Bible both of these on on a mountain that's meant to draw your mind to okay uh there's some some mountain similarities then you get to even the detail of six days so Jesus waits six days before he takes the disciples up to the mount of transfiguration that's not an accident because Moses had to wait six days before he received from before he met with the glory of the.

Lord it says the glory of the lord dwelt on mount sinai and a cloud covered it it's intentional a bright cloud shadows the disciples and covers them and the glory of the lord called out to Moses from the cloud and in our story today the voice of the lord comes through the cloud it's intentional for a reason he's drawing uh their mind to something else to the events of mount sinai when when Moses comes down the mountain in Exodus 34 it says.

When Moses came down from mount sinai with two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain Moses did not know that his skin the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God aaron all the people of Israel saw Moses behold the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him again the similarities you put them up side by side his the skin of his face shone and his face shone like the sun what happens on sinai is that Moses encounters the glory of the.

Lord so much so so that he absorbs some of that glory when he comes down the mountain his face is radiating bright so much so that they are fearful of him someone said that when he wants to communicate with him in the future he's got to wear a shroud to cover the glory of the lord that was on his face in the same way Jesus face shines like the sun emanating uh the glory of God it's intentional it's an illusion it's meant to take you back to sinai and the question is why why are these events.

So similar what is God doing here and unfolding the story why the comparison to sinai because it is at mount sinai where Moses delivers the law and Moses being present at the transfiguration it is the picture that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law you gotta go back to Matthew 5 which was like a year ago for us when we were in Matthew 5 and it says that that Jesus came to fulfill the law he's the fulfillment of the law he's the fulfillment of Moses that's the picture that's being shown here he's the fulfillment of the old testament law and it's also going to show that he's the fulfillment of the prophets which is why.

Elijah shows up elijah is one of the biggest prophets of the old testament when they when they think of of great prophets he's he's at the top and there's this uh story from first kings uh where where elijah has a mountaintop showdown with the prophets of baal and God uh just absolutely shows up and shows out and elijah thinks that this is going to cause the nation of Israel to repent and they don't in fact jezebel the queen at the time tries to have him killed.

So he runs off he's dismayed and he shows up to mount horeb which is the same a different name for the same mountain of mount sinai and he shouldn't he climbs up mount horeb and on the mountain the glory of the lord comes surrounds the mountain in a storm surrounds the mountain and speaks to elijah and i love the encouragement that comes from that story because he's encouraging elijah a soldier who is who has fought some wars for the lord on the battlefield and being a prophet and elijah's discouraged and what he assures to elijah in that moment is that his work will continue that his work of correcting the people and also pointing to.

A messiah that is coming that is going to continue through elisha and through the rest of the prophets and all of the prophets are doing just that they're correcting the people they're also calling that one day a messiah is going to come and that messiah is right here Moses and elijah right there in front of him elijah represents that Jesus has come to fulfill all of the work of the prophets and when you combine those two pictures together what you have is that.

Jesus is the filament of not just the law but the prophets he's he's the fulfillment of the entire old testament now that's going to take some time to sink in on with the disciples but that's exactly what's happening here these allusions to Jesus fulfills the old testament in the midst of all of this is they're absorbing this God the father calls out and says this is my beloved son with whom i'm well pleased listen to him that's what he says to the disciples which is an illusion in and of itself.

Because that's what Moses says in deuteronomy 18 15 the lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you from your brothers it is him you shall listen the same thing that God tells the disciples listen to him Jesus is the fulfillment of the old testament the disciples encounter uh the glory of the lord and fear on their faces and the story continues in verse 9 it says and as they were coming down the mountain Jesus commanded them tell no one the vision until the son of man is raised from the dead again it's alluding to what is coming.

Verse 10. and the disciples asked him then why do the scribes say that first elijah must come he answered elijah does come and he will restore all things but i tell you that elijah had already has already come and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased so also the son of man will certainly suffer at their hands then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of john the baptist so there might have been a little bit of confusion here elijah shows up.

But he doesn't stay and they're wondering why isn't elijah supposed to come that's one of the prophecies from the old testament is saying that elijah must come first and Jesus makes it clear he did and elijah type figure came it was john the baptist now from this moment forward the entire narrative of Matthew is turning most of the entirety of Jesus ministry in Matthew has been in galilee that's the setting but from this moment forward everything is moving towards Jerusalem everything is moving towards the cross i mean the the significance of walking down the mountain and geographically you have galilee in the north and you have Jerusalem in the south they are literally.

For the rest of Matthew as we go this descending upon Jerusalem everything is heading towards the cross so the transfiguration is the big shift as they move towards the cross which makes the transfiguration not just an illusion that points back to the fulfillment of the entire old testament it's actually going to point forward to what is to come when the old testament finds its entire fulfillment at the cross and even the parallels between what happens on the mount of transfiguration and what happens on the hill of calvary even those parallels show this is going to the cross in Matthew 17.

Jesus ascends up the hill with his disciples they are going to the mount where he's going to display the glory of God but at the end of Matthew he's going to walk up the hill where the glory of the lord is going to be going to be displayed in suffering on the mount of transfiguration there are three of his closest disciples who get to see a glimpse of the glory of God but on the hill three of the closest women in his life are going to.

See him on the cross his suffering and the glory of that picture on the mount his garments glisten like white light but on the hill his garments will be torn and divided and taken as he's left naked humiliated on a cross on the mount there are two men two of the holiest men from the old testament but on the hill there are two thieves two rebels to his left and his right pointing to the very people that Jesus is going to redeem and on the mount.

God declares this is my son but on the hill a gentile centurion soldier a roman soldier says truly this was the son of God a foretaste of the very people that Jesus is going to redeem from the mountain this story is going to the cross where the entire old testament is going to find its fulfillment but you cannot begin to appreciate the magnitude of what happens on the cross unless you can understand the glory of God the glory of God that you get a glimpse of.

For a moment at the transfiguration one pastor puts it this way he says the work of God in the cross of Christ strikes us as all-inspiring only after we have first been awed by the glory of God that we need to be all by the glory of God so that we can appreciate what happens at the cross and that's difficult for us because we just don't have good concepts for for glory we see moments of glory where God reflects his glory in creation like moments that take our breath like we can we can imagine a sunrise or a sunset and all of that over the ocean like you could picture the rockies springing out of.

The great plains or you can look at the pictures of galaxies and quasars that we have from the hubble telescope and be just utterly blown away by the glory of God's creation you can find it in the smaller moments of life like holding your newborn baby for the first time or seeing two people covenant to life together on their wedding day before another there are moments that take our breath away that emanate that show the glory of God but it's just it's hard.

For us to conceptualize this it's it's like reflecting his glory is like looking through a mirror that is dim or trying to understand the power of the sun through frosted glass we just we don't get even close to a full picture of the glory of God on this earth one pastor he puts it this way he says what is the glory of God it is who God is it is the essence of his nature the weight of his importance the radiance of his splendor the demonstration of his power the atmosphere of his presence which which i love that those are big pictures of who.

God is but even words can't do justice to the God who's the author of love and and beauty and and perfection and light and all the attributes that we ascribe to him the God of grace and all the things that we love about who he is that reflect his glory all of that though shines brightest at the cross the momentary glory that we see at the transfiguration is most powerfully displayed at the cross the hill of calvary is a glimpse of the glory that we find in Christ.

But it's not just a glimpse of his glory it is the means by which he will bring us into his glory and that is where all this starts to tie together in the Gospel of Matthew is that ultimately he's going to bring us into this same glory if you go back a few chapters to Matthew 13. Jesus is giving us a foretaste of this Matthew 13 43 says then the righteous will shine like the sun and the kingdom of their father he who has ears let them hear that phrase shine like the sun it is the greek word lampa which is where we get our word lamp from shine lampo like the sun is the.

Same phrasing that Matthew's going to use a few chapters later to show that Jesus face shines like the sun same phrasing and what that shows is that the moment of glory hear this the moment of glory that they got to see at the transfiguration is a foretaste it's a foretaste of what awaits Christians it is what is to come one pastor he describes the transfiguration this way he says it was a foretaste of his glorious human body to come after the resurrection.

When he ascended into his father's right hand so it's a picture of his resurrected glorified body and the reason why this is so important for us as Christians is because in the new heavens and the new earth because for those of us who have believed in Jesus that is the future we get a newly resurrected body that will be like Christ we get to share in his glory now why is that so important for us right now what does that mean as we.

Look at the glory of God what does that mean for us right now as Christians this picture that we see in the transfiguration is a foretaste of the glory that awaits us that we will radiate like the lord in mysterious ways that we can't even possibly begin to understand but this powerful picture is significant because right now we feel the effects of sin there will be a day where we don't feel the effects of sin and our bodies and our souls we won't feel the effects of that in the resurrection.

When we have a glorious body like Christ but right now we do and we feel the physical effects of sin how many of us are are physically suffering maybe you're battling through sickness maybe you're battling through disease maybe you just feel your body physically breaking down maybe you're struggling with some type of chronic pain maybe you have a struggle with with your weight and all the emotional uh struggle that comes with that we feel it physically in this world we feel the physical effects of sin in this world.

Now and it's not just the physical effects how many of us feel the the brutal effect of sin on our souls how many people right now are struggling with depression with with deep sadness this this feeling of just absolute maybe distress in our souls maybe just deep anxiety it's just on our minds all the time how many of us are consistently feeling the burning effects of lust every day just feeling that war that has waged against us how many how many of us are tired of losing our temper on our spouses on our kids on our friends on our family just seeing sin corrupt marriage sin corrupt families sin corrupt friendships how many of us.

Are tired of of of our tongue and our words getting out of control how many are tired of consistently feeling the effects of sin that affects our relationship with God our relationship with others how many of us feel that add iran with the chaos of this year in 2020 and everything that it's come with with broken bodies broken souls and a broken world how many of us feel that i mean i feel that every day i wake up and i have physical pain i have back problems that i don't think will hardly completely ever go away i wrestle with the same sin and temptation every season it's just i i just you feel it you.

Feel the physical and spiritual effects of sin that weighs on us and if you're honest that's everyone in this room we all have our crap we all have our physical bodies that are breaking down until all of us die that is our reality now here is why this picture of the transfiguration is so incredibly important because what it is showing us is a picture of the final state that awaits us that in the midst of suffering we have a picture that we can lift our heads and actually.

See i love what romans 8 says it says 8 16-17 it says the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God if children then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order we might be glorified with him or as the niv says share in his glory for i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us or as one theologian puts it we're not shadows of our former selves we are shadows of our future self and that is a promise.

So Christian i don't know what it is for you in this season i don't know what you're feeling the effects of sin but you get to lift up your head because this moment and all the suffering that we face right now it isn't the final picture we have a final glorified picture that awaits all of us so we can stand firm in that promise we can pick up our gaze and realize there's a glorified state where all the suffering in this present moment will be a distant memory and all the future glory that awaits us will be endless this moment is a drop in the bucket in comparison to the ocean of eternity.

So wherever you are right now in your journey remember that hope cling to that hope own that promise we are mere shadows of our future selves lindsay is going to come up and we are going to to close out and worship and i want us to reflect on this because i know this has been a hard year i know it's been a hard year for many of us i know some of you are battling cancer and some of you are battling sickness and some of you are battling sin i know some of you are absolutely having a tough go of it.

But if you are a Christian this is it that's the final picture the radiated Christ the momentary glimpse we get on the mount that's it for endless glory that awaits us that's our hope may we sit in that hope as we respond in worship this morning if you are not a Christian if you have not placed your full faith your full hope in Christ my plea for you this morning is to realize this momentary suffering pales in comparison to the glory that awaits that.

If you are a Christian if you place faith in him this is the closest thing to hell you're ever going to see the only thing that awaits us in Christ is glorious if you've not placed faith in Jesus my hope this morning is that you would that you would trust him that you would you would pray and receive him right now and that from eternity in eternity and beyond you will be with us in the presence of the radiating king let me pray.

God i pray that your glory would be so clear to us in ways that we we we cannot even begin to understand without you revealing yourself to us God i pray if there's anyone here that has not placed their faith in you that i pray that right now your glory would overwhelm them that as the disciples fell on their faces in fear they would fall on their faces in in fear knowing that sin is real but also in humility that turns to love and following you realizing that there is a glory that oasis that is.

So much better than this world gotta pray there's any Christians here right now Christians that are that are wrestling that are struggling God i pray right now as we respond and worship that you would make your glory so beautifully clear to them that they would have the strength to persevere in this marathon of life that is filled with suffering knowing that an eternal crown of glory awaits us only because of what you accomplished at the cross only because your blood was poured out.

For us they didn't deserve it only because you conquered death of the resurrection to make a way for us to get to you forever God i pray all of this in your name amen.

Mill City 8/16/20 Mill City 8/16/20

Confession and Cost (Matthew 16:13-28)

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August 14, 2020

Parable Of The Vineyard

August 14, 2020

Transcript

Good morning my name is Isaac i'm on staff here with Mill City Church of casey and it's so good to be with you guys this morning as we worship in person and if you're joining with us online we appreciate the fact that you've taken time out of your morning to come together and worship with us um we believe that Jesus is better than everything else in the middle of the chaos that the world is kind of going through right now through pandemics through injustice through political uh powers trying to work it out we believe that.

Jesus is better than all that in our life and the way that we practice that through our daily lives here at Mill City is we join community groups and that's where we live life with each other and if you look up on the screen you'll see a qr code if you're new with us this morning or you're joining online you'll notice that you can scan that qr code and that'll take you to our main website page you can fill out a form that will give us your contact information where you can learn more about us and we can give some information to you um that the the groups is really where we live out that.

Truth where we can be life on life with one another so that when we're going through those difficult things in life so that when the world gives us those difficult things like global pandemic like injustices in the world we get to walk that truth out that Jesus is better than everything else whether or not you're new here or you've been here for a long time you'll notice that there's some construction going on that there are some walls taken out and there's a big open area and we're very excited about the way that.

God has provided for us to be able to update some of the facilities around here and what that does mean is that those main bathrooms down there are not usable and it'll probably be a couple months before they are and so in the meantime this building over here women if you go up the stairs to our offices and take a left there'll be a bathroom there that you can use and men if you go down the stairs and to our kid city area we are not offering kid city right.

Now and so it's safe for you to go down there and there is a restroom down there for you as well i'm going to pray and then we're going to read from psalm chapter 16. God we thank you for the opportunity to come together and worship this morning and we pray that you would prepare our hearts to be able to worship as one as your Church as your bride we pray that as uh spencer comes up and preaches later that you would use your word to impact our life that your spirit would take the truth that you've written and turn it into actions.

If you stand with me we're going to read from psalms chapter 16 preserve me o God for in you i take refuge i say to the lord you are my lord i have no good apart from you as for the saints in the land they are the excellent ones and who is all my delight the sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply their drink offerings of blood i will not pour out or take their names on my lips the.

Lord is my chosen portion and my cup you hold my lot the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places indeed i have a beautiful inheritance i bless the lord who gives me counsel in the night also my heart instructs me i have set the lord always before me because he is at my right hand i shall not be shaken therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices my flesh also dwells secure for you will not abandon my soul to sheol or let your holy one.

See corruption you make known to me the path of life and your presence there is fullness of joy at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness i dare not trust the sweetest is is is i rest on his unchanging grace is is is kindness your your satisfaction if show me who i am is sing this truth with us never be the same myself my sin has been erased foreign amen this is a reading from isaiah 53.

I'm gonna read if you'll just listen with me who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the lord been revealed for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of the dry ground he had no form or majesty that we should look at him and maybe that we should desire him he was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hid their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we have seemed esteemed him stricken smitten by.

God and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed let's continue to worship the sun of God in my place is hallelujah you know is can it be is hallelujah just our voices when he comes when he comes hallelujah God before your throne we proclaim hallelujah what a savior we have nothing else to proclaim hallelujah what a savior hallelujah what a savior.

Jesus we thank you that you came we thank you for your sacrifice on our behalf for the forgiveness of our sins and we thank you that in power you rose from the grave and we get to follow behind you in eternal life we are grateful for that this morning and as your Church here on this earth now we need you to speak to us and to lead us and we ask that you would do that now in the name of Jesus and by the power of the spirit in.

Jesus name amen you may be seated good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors here uh we're back in Matthew gonna be in chapter 16. if you want to turn there uh flip there we're gonna be walking through uh some passages there uh we have three weeks of messiah 2020 i know some of you wanted to go all the way up to election day uh but i know for some of you three weeks was good i was thankful we got to walk through that together as a Church.

But we're back in matthews and go ahead and flip there one of the things that i have appreciated about the merger of our two congregations is now uh we have a wide spectrum of marriages right so we had uh when we were just Mill City not middle school Church of casey we had marriages that were newlyweds five years 10 years up to 20 years now we have 30 40 50 all the way up to 60 years of marriages yeah celebrate that um and the encouraging part of that is we get a wide spectrum of love stories uh and a lot of wisdom that comes with that.

Because marriage is very difficult uh it is hard uh it's it's it's something that takes a lot of effort uh we try to prepare people for this when we do uh weddings here so we we do premarital counseling to get you ready for marriage because reality is is that many of us have a picture of what we think marriage is and what it's going to be and then you stand together at an altar or outside or wherever you get married and you and you confess before.

God and men this sacred confession that i'm covenanting to to have life together to love someone until death do his part and from that sacred confession all the way to the honeymoon somewhere in the first few years that picture of what you had that marriage was uh gonna be is brutally murdered that happens for some people to get back from the honeymoon and it's just i mean it's a drive-by shoot it's just it's it the first year is very difficult for others it takes a few years.

But you added a few crises and a few children and the and what you thought marriage was going to be is just crushed but here's the deal uh for those uh that persevere for those that work through the difficulties the the miscommunication the conflicts all the kind of pain and suffering that come with working through marriage what you discover as time goes on is that you found something so much more you found something better something deeper something more true something uh this this kind of love that as you grow and marriage is what i love be around people have been married.

For 40 50 60 years they are seeing that they've lived that they understand they found something so much deeper and better than what they initially confessed on the day that they got married and that's a little bit of what we get to see today as we follow Peter in this story in Matthew 16 that we're going to see him confess Jesus as the messiah and from this it's going to be a quick honeymoon because what he thought following Jesus was what he thought confession of the messiah and and being a follower of.

Jesus was quickly changes what he realizes is and what the disciples are you learn what we're going to learn today is that it actually requires your life it requires your life in exchange for an eternal life so we're going to walk through this we're going to follow up Peter along as he stumbles through this story but i want us to do this reflectively this morning looking at our own lives maybe you're uh new to following Jesus uh maybe you've been following him.

For a few years but we get to to walk alongside this and see that the call to following Jesus and the call to confess him as messiah is so much deeper and so much better as we'll see in a moment so let me pray and then we'll jump into the text father i thank you that you have given us these stories that instruct us that cut to the heart God i pray that you would help us be present this morning whether in this room or you're listening online i pray that you would speak to our hearts and what comes out of this is true confession true faith true repentance and the denial of self we.

Ask in Jesus name amen all right so we're in Matthew 16 where we left off before we did messiah 2020 uh was Jesus was performing miracles and teachings that he's done so regularly and the religious establishment the pharisees come and they want him to perform a sign show us that you're the messiah perform something for us Jesus and he's like no that's not how this is going to go so they leave here and then we pick up in verse 13. now.

When Jesus came into the district of caesarea philippi he asked his disciples why do people say or who do people say the son of man is so everyone has a take on Jesus the religious establishment does the crowds are trying to figure this out so he's asking who the people say that i am and in verse 14 it says and they said some say john the baptist which is something we know at least herod had feared herod had john the baptist put to death.

Jesus is performing miracles he's thinking maybe this is john the baptist resurrected reincarnated something like this some say john the baptist others say elijah because Jesus performed miracles that were just like the prophet elijah so others jeremiah jeremiah being a prophet from the old testament that spoke hard truths to ears that did not want to hear them just as Jesus is or one of the prophets verse 15 he said to them but who do you say that i am so not just disciples what are the people saying who do you say that i am and who is the.

First to speak up it's Peter nine times out of ten it is going to be Peter Peter is bold he is quick to speak he's quick to act as we saw about over about two months ago we walked through the story of Jesus walking on water it's a terrifying scene they're out in the storm he's walking on water and who's the first to say i want to be a part of this i want to join this miracle it's Peter it's who he is and he speaks up.

First in verse 16 and he says it says simon Peter replied you are the Christ the son of the living God he believes the hype this is whom the old testament the law of the prophets this is this is who it is this is who they have prophesied about you are the Christ you're the son of the living God verse 17 and Jesus answered him blessed are you simon barjona which means son of jonah in hebrew for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.

But my father who is in heaven which highlights a truth about the Gospel he didn't figure this out flesh and blood didn't reveal this to him just like anyone else who believes it is God the father revealing himself who goes to work in our hearts first and he chooses Peter he reveals this to him Peter confesses it and verse 18 we're going to see what comes with this confession and i tell you you are Peter and on this rock i will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it i will give you the keys of the kingdom and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatever you.

Loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ so this is a blessing and it's a prophecy because this is what Peter who Peter is going to be he gets a name change here his name was simon and Jesus says no your name is now Peter which means rock in greek so Peter gets to go around saying he's the rock which has a little bit of a different meaning.

For us but it's a it's a newfound meaning for him that he is the rock he's a pillar in which Jesus is going to build his Church which is a new word for the gospels they haven't heard this word yet that this movement that Jesus is going to build is his Church it's the assembly of God's people and then he gives another blessing that's for the Church the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church which if you step back out of this.

For us as an encouragement a lot of people get worried as american Christians so the culture is turning against the Church turning against christianity there's all these fears swelling about oh what's going to happen and i just want to very clearly point this out the gates of hell do not prevail against the Church as we win read the end of the story Revelation 20 21 the Church prevails because Christ is behind it so that's the blessing that he gives to Peter and it is a blessing.

But there's something for us as protestants that we make this we make this passage fairly weird and the reason why is because we have this uneasy feeling about it because catholics have used this uh this verse and this passage as the foundation for their understanding of one leader of the universal Church the pope and the papal secession the the see the the popes that come out of this Peter being the first pope getting the handlers of the keys of the kingdom as it says here and he's the sole authority and this gets passed down and we get weird about this or we make weird jokes about how he's at the pearly gates and you got.

To solve some riddle to get in because we don't have the the healthiest relationship and i don't think we should make this weird at all so let me for the sake of this if anyone has any catholic background or any confusion about this i want to dispel this that Peter this is not the proclamation that he is the first pope so and if you have more questions about this after afterwards we can stand six feet apart and we can discuss the merits of this part of catholic doctrine all right.

So the reason why is if you read this passage just without any without any Church tradition that comes from the catholic Church you would not come to the conclusion that what this is saying is that Peter is the first pope you would not come to that conclusion you know why because the rest of the Bible you would have to completely rip this out of its context in Matthew you have to rip out the context of the rest of the new testament.

Because the rest of the new testament that comes out of this i mean you're the book of acts the book of acts uh Peter is not the sole leader of the Church you can go to acts 15 when they're trying to solve this crisis of what do we do with these new gentile believers and it's not Peter that makes the call it's collection of people Peter speaks of that counsel Paul and barnabas speak at that council james actually ends up having the final say you don't.

See anywhere in the book of acts that that Peter is the sole leader of the Church you don't see it in galatians 2 when Paul corrects Peter and puts him in his place you don't see it in passages like ephesians 2 20 it says built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets is not built on the foundation of the of Peter it's built on uh Christ that is the cornerstone and leaders and his Church so we don't have to be weird about this as we walk through passages like this we can actually.

Look at this and see that Peter is blessed without incorporating a whole bunch of other stuff into it i mean i've heard some protestants that will look at this and say no no this means Peter his confession is blessed and therefore anyone who confesses like this receives this type of blessing and it's like that's not what the text says it says that Peter is blessed that he's going to be a pillar a rock and the Church just as james and john and Paul and other leaders are in the Church.

So he confesses this and with this blessing it says i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven and what that is saying is he's looking at Peter and he's saying i'm giving you authority and what you do what you bind and loose here on earth has an eternal impact in heaven you've been blessed with this that what you're going to do is going to have an impact in eternity and all you got to do is flip two chapters which we'll get to in about a month.

When you get to Matthew 18 and guess what while Peter gets this first blessing the rest of the Church does as well in Matthew 18 he's setting up the Church Jesus is and he says truly i say to you whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven again i say to you if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask it will be done for them by my.

Father in heaven for where two or three are gathered in my name there i am among them the authority is going to reside in the Church and there's going to be a plurality multiple leaders in the Church Peter gets this first blessing he is going to be a rock a pillar in which Jesus builds this movement so Peter gets receives this blessing he's human so it's it's reasonable to think this might have gone to his head a little bit which might make sense of what happens next.

Verse 21 it says from that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and the third day be raised all right so from this point forward this story along with what we're going to tackle next week in the transfiguration this is the shift in the Gospel of Matthew everything has been happening in galilee Jesus ministry has been in galilee and we're making the shift towards Jerusalem and every step forward is going to be towards the cross.

Jesus is preparing his disciples telling him this is what's going to happen i'm going to be turned over i'm going to die i'm going to be raised and Peter with his newfound authority decides to speak up again verse 22 and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying far be it from you lord this shall never happen to you but he Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan you are a hindrance to me for you are setting your mind on things of.

God but on things of man and man like a rock i mean he falls right back down to reality i mean he he absolutely Jesus rebukes him uh he he re he recognizes that Jesus is the messiah and it comes with this uh this rebuke because what Peter does he takes the lord of the universe aside and says lord far be it from you this is not going to happen so why is Peter doing this why is he taking Jesus aside and trying to correct him it could be.

For a couple of reasons one of the ones we see is in the gospels it's clear the disciples expected that this movement was going to be a political one that when Jesus comes to Jerusalem he is going to set up a an earthly reign in Jerusalem just as the messiahs had attempted to do before just as the great kings of old that he was going to take back the land from the romans and this is going to be a political earthly movement it also could be simply just.

Because Peter's saying i don't no one's going to harm you i'm going to protect you he's not going to do it very well he's going to make an attempt with a sword he doesn't know how to use it he's going to cut off somebody's ear but he's going to make an attempt at at saving Jesus and Jesus comes back with a harsh rebuke get behind me Satan you are a hindrance to me you are not setting your mind on things of.

God but on things of man he could have just said no Peter you're wrong no let me let me show you what no he says Satan calls him Satan you are uh the embodiment of evil uh the accuser the the adversary the one who's at war with the plans uh the good plan of God you are Satan now that's pretty sharp rebuke once you try that in your next argument try that with your spouse so you stop no stop it Satan i don't recommend that.

But if you do come and talk to me we do post-marital counseling as well he says get behind me Satan uh why such a sharp rebuke and the reason is is because if Jesus does not go to the cross if he does not have his blood shed for us if he doesn't take the full cup of God's wrath on him for sinners if he doesn't rise and conquer death and give us new life everyone is still dead in sin and everyone goes to hell and that is the very desire of Satan that everyone would go to hell Peter's got his mind on earthly things this political revolution that.

Jesus is going to come in and he says no no this is way bigger than that i'm here for an eternal kingdom not an earthly one which is what he was offered in Matthew 4 if you could think back months ago at the temptation of Christ what is the last temptation that Satan gives hear the kingdoms you can have it here on earth right now you don't have to keep going you can stop right now and Peter does the same thing and it's satanic it's it's of the devil.

So Peter after just getting called the rock after just getting this blessing he gets humbled and not only that in his humility Jesus is going to use his uh his stumble as an example to teach the disciples which is something only Jesus can do because if like if matt freeman made a mistake and then i just upheld look at this mistake now let me teach off this for it just wouldn't go well but Jesus pulls it off he upholds Peter's mistake here.

Verse 24 and he starts to teach from it he says then Jesus told his disciples if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul what shall a man give in return for his soul for the son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his.

Father and then he will repay each person according to what he has done truly i say to you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom so i want us to look at the logic of what Jesus just taught because it is profound he says in verse 25 for whoever would save his life will lose it whoever loses his life for my sake will find it for what will it profit a man.

If he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul or what shall a man give in return for his soul Peter confesses that Jesus is the messiah but he doesn't understand the nature of what that means he doesn't understand the economy of Jesus kingdom if you try to cling to this world you will lose the next one if you try to gain this life you will forfeit your soul that faith in this kingdom is going to be the repeated denial of self and the taking up of your cross taking up suffering.

For the name of Christ and that should be an absolutely sobering reality for us as american Christians because in our culture there are so many things that vie for our worship for our attention for our attention for our affection for our desires i mean we're literally built on the american dream that so much of our energy and our effort in this life and this country is striving to have financial security striving to make your dreams here on earth good to make your best life here on earth striving.

For security and everything the american dream and everything that money can get you in having a secure life having the comforts of this world our entire economy is built on consumerism on having the next comfort and the next comfort you'll never level up and you'll never get that you you'll always want the next house the next big truck the next newest and nicest things is consistently vying for our attention it's calling us and so many people put so much of their worth.

So much of their life and that and what Jesus just said is if you are willing to do this you will forfeit the next life you do this american dream you can do this with just with sex in general that so much is of our culture is thrown at you as to is to explore it outside of marriage explore before marriage explore the wide spectrum of sexuality it's thrown at us over and over and over again and we as Christians say no what does the culture say oh you are backward you are bigoted you are old ancient puritans prudes.

And so much of what Jesus teaches throughout the rest of the Gospel so much the Bible is going to continue to say is that the denial of self in this area is for the sake of our souls you will go down a roll a road that you will not come back from denying this temporary pleasure and that is what it is is temporary it is temporary pleasure you are exchanging that at the loss of eternal pleasure in God you can do this with anything you do this with acceptance on our culture which has been a big thing as the culture starts to shift against uh the the ideas of the Bible.

So much of of the culture is is is shifting against us and there's this uh there's this desire in us to just want to be accepted to want to be liked to not be the weird one in the workplace not be the weird one uh in your school there's this this pressure that if i can if i will bend to the ideas of culture then i'll be accepted you see it all the time online someone who's been around the Church for years all of a sudden starts posting things that are against the Bible and they get claps people like it's.

So good to see that you've come to this understanding it's so good to see that you've moved away from this there's this thing in us that just wants to be accepted we will do this with any part of what the world offers us we will go after it again and again and again and we'll exchange it all at the loss of our souls many of us are familiar with the old folklore tale about someone making a deal with the devil it's very it's an old folklore tale that i mean ends up being shows up in songs and movies over and over against classics someone uh stumbles upon the devil makes a deal.

For fame for money and we look at those stories and we're like how foolish i would never do that but the reality is you come in this world absolutely doing that that is exactly what we do we will go after anything else we'll forfeit it all or to gain life in this moment right now and Jesus is trying to pick our heads up and see that's insane that is crazy that you would look at this life right now and put so much stock in our life is a moment it's a spec the Bible says it's it's like dew on the grass it's here.

For a moment and then it's gone it is a drop of water compared to the ocean of eternity that awaits us and so much of our desires and so much of our worship and so much of our pursuits is bound up in this moment we're looking at this trying to get as much as we can out of this life he's trying to help us see how insane that is that you would forfeit eternity for worthless pursuits and compared to who he is he's helping us.

See that denying ourselves in light of this eternal logic is the only thing that makes sense that we would deny our version of the good life in exchange for an abundant better life that never ends that we would deny ourselves that we would take on suffering that we would take on suffering in any form that it takes to follow Christ and ultimately it means that you will avoid judgment here's the final picture here of the kingdom being ushered in ultimately judgment is going to come.

But more than avoiding judgment when you deny yourself in this life deny your desires when you take up the cross what you get is God the logic he gives here is for whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it he's helping us try to find him lose this life and when you lose this life you find Christ you find the ultimate author of goodness the perfection of beauty you get eternity with him which means what is this life really worth what are the things that we spend.

So much of our time and so much of our effort and so much of our money and so much of our desires on what is it possibly worth it pales in comparison to life with God you can gain him if you would just lose your life here he's been there he understands what attorney with God is it's the same thing for someone who's been married for 50 years and they understand that persevering through marriage and finding something so much better Jesus stands between eternity and in this moment right here and says i'm telling you it is better deny yourself in this life take up the cross.

And if you do this you will find something so much sweeter so much better and something that's actually eternally good lindsay's going to come up and we are uh i want us to just reflect in this moment and i want us to think through uh what it is that we need to give up what it is that we need to deny what form of cross form of suffering we need to take on the reality is is it could be daunting when you think about doing this denying yourself.

For the next 10 20 30 40 50 years of following Jesus and i know that it can get discouraging it's like how in the world i'm gonna make it to the end and i think a good encouragement from this story is to watch the rest of Peter's life play out because the reality is it's gonna get a whole lot worse for Peter before he gets better the other night that Jesus is betrayed he denies him three times denies him but after.

Jesus is raised Peter's brought back into fellowship with him and from this Peter becomes the pillar of the rock that he was prophesied to be that he preaches the first sermon at pentecost thousands come to know Christ and the rest of his life is the daily pursuit of knowing more of God denying himself and taking up the cross to follow him and for us taking up the cross is suffering but for i would want to bet for most of us for all of us it's not going to be the cross it's not going to be a literal cross where we'll be martyred.

But that's exactly what it is for Peter because Peter at the end of his life he goes into martyrdom he goes on a cross upside down and for the last to hear this for the last 2 000 years Peter has experienced nothing but endless joy the presence of God and from the moment he breathed his last breath he's not one step closer to the end of that reality and that is what you're being invited into some of you need to confess.

Jesus as lord for the first time you need to believe in him it's this life is not worth it it will fail you with a savior who will not fail you and my hope and my plea for you this morning is that you would believe in him that you would exchange your life for a more eternal one if you're a Christian and you are walking through sin if you're walking through struggles i don't know where this is for you right now my hope is this week in community groups that you would come ready and honest and open about the things that you pursue that you'd be willing to bring those out in the open.

That you would see those put to death that you would deny yourself for gaining more than him my hope is that someone you would pray some dangerous prayers we have the rockies in our Church who prayed some dangerous prayers and they're going to honduras and they're going to take this message of the Gospel elsewhere the hope is is that the rest of our Church would join in praying dangerously asking what's the cross you want us to bear what suffering do you want from us what do you want from me.

Lord and that may take you across the world it may take you across the street it may mean opening up your wall in some bigger ways it may be denying things i don't know what that is for you but i promise you if you will deny yourself you will gain something so much better and so much more sweet you'll gain God let me pray God i'm so thankful for this story i'm thankful for the example we have in Peter gotta pray there's anyone here who's not confessed to you as.

Lord that i pray this morning they would but right now you would make yourself so clear to them that you would go to work in their heart and for the first time they would confess that you are the messiah you are their only hope and they would believe God pray for us as Christians i pray that we take very seriously this message i pray that we would repent of the things that we have pursued at the cost of you so God help us in our repentance help us in our denial help us believe and gain more of you ask us in.

Jesus name amen together oh to see the oh sinful oh everyday is forgiveness is is we oh to see my name is so amen you may be seated thanks for being with us today if you were here in person or if you joined with us online we're glad that you joined with us for worship today again we as a Church want to live out our faith in community with other believers which is very different right now so some of our groups are meeting in person some of them are meeting in person.

And then setting up a computer where people can get online and join with them virtually but now is a great time to hop in you can go to our community groups page on the website or snap a picture of the qr code if you would like to connect with our groups again for our Church family you can give online or you can give up front here in these slots that are in our front walls you can give before you leave but again thanks.

For being here with us today let me send us out with a word this comes from ephesians 3 beginning in verse 17. may Christ dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God amen you guys have a great week.

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A Better Foundation: Free To Serve

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August 8, 2020

Christ-like Holiness

August 8, 2020

Transcript

Uh which means uh the fact that we believe that Jesus is better the the message of the Gospel that he went to the cross and the empty tomb because of that we get to live in the reality of grace because of that truth we as Christians and as a Church fight to stay rooted and centered in that and one of the ways that practically shows up on a sunday morning is that we are our gatherings are centered in the word so you're going to hear the some Scripture read this morning our songs come from the word of.

God we're going to preach that comes out of the word the word is what keeps us centered in the Gospel our groups do this as well our groups are smaller groups of our Church family that live life together uh in everyday life and also meet uh during the week one of the things we do regularly in groups is we open up the word because God has spoken a lot of times we're trying to figure out and pray and figure out what.

God wants for us which is good but he also has spoken in his word and in our groups we get to be molded and shaped into the image of Christ by studying his word so that's an encouragement for us as a Church not just in groups not just on sunday but to be also be in his word on a regular basis as we seek to live out being a Gospel centered community on mission uh if you are new welcome if you're joining us online.

For the first time welcome we're glad that you are joining us one of the easiest ways to get plugged into our Church is to check out our community groups you can go to our uh our website meal citycasey.com you can look at our community groups page you can fill out a form there and we would love to uh to to reach out to you to tell you about our groups tell you where they meet uh but we're glad you're joining us this morning we hope this morning is a blessing to you.

If you are not new and you call this Church home we invite you to give and to continue to give generously you can give by giving in the gift slots you can also give online as well but we walk out the Gospel in generosity and that is also opening up our wallets all right so just a couple of quick housekeeping tips first all the lights are not on in here and that's for a reason we're trying to keep it cool uh as we are getting ready in the next few weeks to change out the hvac unit that powers this which is a part of our larger construction plans which.

If you walked in you saw it's starting to change but one of the first changes that you'll notice is that that part of the hallway and those bathrooms are off limits so we have a couple different bathroom options if you need to use the restroom in this building right next to us if you are a man you can go downstairs into our kid city space we're not having kid city so you can go down there and use the restroom there for our ladies in that building right there you can also go up into our office and around the corner and there's a bathroom there also.

If you don't want to climb steps our fellow our fellowship hall two buildings over is open uh and you can use the restrooms there there's a men and women's restroom there all right so let me pray for us the guy prepare our hearts for worship and then i'm going to open us from psalm father thank you so much that we get to come and sit under the authority of your word that we get to hear it we get to read it together we get to sing songs from it and you get to mold us in shape as the preaching of your word got to pray that you would meet us here this morning we ask.

This in Jesus name amen if you're able stand i'm gonna call us to worship from psalm oh sing to the lord a new song sing to the lord all the earth sing to the lord bless his name tell of his salvation from day to day declare his glory among the nations his marvelous works among all the peoples for great is the lord and greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all gods for all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols.

But the lord made the heavens splendor and majesty are before him strength and beauty are in a sanctuary would you see with us call for songs fix the and here i am is is one two three we have been justified we have been justified by faker Jesus Christ but solely by his grace we stand once found thy sin and shame now slain righteousness making Jesus is glory of God oh great joy to sing about the lord savior Jesus Christ Jesus oh a reading from ephesians chapter 2 verses 2 12 through 18.

If you would please read the underlying portion portions along with me remember that you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.

So a little bit last week we're going to take another step into that and really it's this if the if government is super supposed to promote what is good and hold at bay what is evil then you have to know what is good and what is evil you have to have an answer for that you have to know what is good and what is right and what is wrong and what is true and what is false we have to be able to answer those questions.

So that in order for us to agree on what government ought to do we have to have a fundamental answer to what is good and what is bad what is right and what is wrong and everybody's got to find that answer somewhere you need to be able to answer that question what is good how do you know or what is good why this is something i learned when i had a three-year-old who would ask why to everything you said and i realized i had a couple of options i could lose my mind seemed like it would be bad.

For the overall joy of our household and functioning i could just tell him to shut his mouth but i went with the third option which was try to make a game out of it and see how many of these questions i can answer and what i found was that if you hit me with a string of why questions long enough we will make it to God the father creator of the universe to the trinitarian God who has made all that we know.

So we stop in the truck and why'd we stop it's a red light why is there a red light and we would go and we would go from invention and creation to the dignity of human life because vehicles should just run into each other why we don't want people to die why don't we want people to die because God created man and woman in his own image he poured dignity and value in them why because he's good because he's trinitarian because he loves and he created humanity why that's it we made it to the end we're going to have to start a new line of questions.

But what i found was that my foundation if you ask why enough i made it back to God and the reality is we have to be able to answer questions that way why is this policy good why is this bad why is this wrong why why why eventually you'll make it back to your foundation you'll make it back to the root of your understanding of how things ought to function and so as Christians we have a different foundation which makes us into a different people.

So we participate differently i usually different three times we'll explain it better as we go but that's where we are we have a different foundation which makes us into a different people so we participate differently we don't look the same as the rest of our culture because we are believers so we just read in verse 13 but jump back up to chapter 2 verse 4. now this Paul is Peter is not directly addressing government and politics what he's talking about is much bigger.

But we're looking through the lens of how we ought to think about government and politics and i think this passage is helpful so first Peter chapter 2 verse 4. as you come to him that's Jesus a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ for it stands in Scripture.

Behold i am laying in zion a stone a cornerstone chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame that's Christ so the honors for you who believe but for those who do not believe the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a stone stumbling at a rock of a fence they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do as Paul's there for a second Christ is our cornerstone and we are being built up off of him.

Now a cornerstone was the chief stone they laid it first and it gave direction and alignment to the rest of the stones so we work our way back to Christ and he gives us direction and he keeps us in line but the rest of the world does not have Christ as their cornerstone does not work their way back to him as their foundation does not work their way back to him as their answer to why why why why why so we are fundamentally starting in a different place than the rest of the people around us even.

If they agree with us on certain things about unemployment benefits or the size of government or how voting ought to work we have a fundamentally different foundation from which we begin that he keeps us in line that he gives us direction and they stumble over they trip over this that they have not placed their hope in Christ they have not seen him as their foundation they're not built off of him those who do not believe in Jesus are starting from a different place and they do not obey and i love that i want to pause.

For just one second and point that out he's our cornerstone and they stumble over him because they disobey the opposite of that is what we do which would be obey yes it hurt to even think about it didn't it we obey i think that's really helpful because it doesn't say they stumble over him because they disagree and we agree they disobey and we obey the reason this is helpful is that as a Christian there is much in the Bible that you might begin in disagreement with that's to be expected you came to Christ.

Because you were a sinner because you realized that there was something wrong about you and the way you've treated people and the way you thought about the world and that you needed to be redeemed you needed to be fixed you needed hope you needed someone to die for you to make you write and then you read something in the Scriptures and you're like well i don't like that of course not you're messed up if you could have perfectly written this down you wouldn't have needed to.

Jesus to die for you there are things in here that we disagree with what do we do we obey that's extremely helpful specifically when it comes to us setting our alignment when it comes to what we ought to vote for and work for sometimes they're going to be things in here that we don't like that we actually like how our culture thinks about it ah i don't like that but i do like capitalism i don't like that but i do like what this professor has been teaching and the reality is they don't have the same foundation we have the same foundation and you have to stay in line with the cornerstone.

So we obey they disobey they stumble over it but here's the reality we use Christ to set for us our line to mark for us what is good what is right what is inbounds what is out of bounds that's what a cornerstone does now he does this in a spiritual way that he redeems us and makes us into a spiritual house but we're talking about our approach to politics our approach to government so this also applies and i think it's helpful.

For us but the reality is everybody is getting an answer to what is justice what's injustice what's equality what's inequality what's right what's wrong they all have to have an answer somewhere they have to have something that backs that up we have a foundation the rest of our world the rest of the us most of whom don't believe that there is a God don't have the same foundation i'd argue don't really have any foundation i want to read a bit from an article this was in the duke law journal it was written by arthur allen left he's a professor of yale law at yale law school and he's talking about law he's talking about where.

We get our laws and how we keep our laws and why do we hold to certain laws and not other laws that's what professor does so he's writing about this and his article is called unspeakable ethics unnatural law what he means about that ethics what's right and wrong law the system of government we have out of that what he means about that by being unspeakable and unnatural he's addressing the idea that there is objective moral law that is not made up by man.

But exists outside of humanity it's unnatural that's what he means by that and it's unspeakable meaning we didn't come up with it as Christians we believe this there's a God he speaks it down to us he gives Moses Moses doesn't go up on the mountain with the elders and they come up with their best idea of what the law should look like God hands him the law and says take it back down he argues that that doesn't exist that all law all ethics all morality all good bad and otherwise is made up by humanity that's the point of his article.

But at least he's honest about it he says this doesn't exist and then he says that's terrifying that life would be better if there was objective morality outside of us but it doesn't exist there is no God there is no objective morality all of it is us making it up that's what he talks about he says that we have to be able to answer what he calls the grand says who he says the ultimate bar room and school yard says who someone tells you you can't do that you can do this this is wrong it says who who puts you in charge who's to tell me what's right and wrong and he says the reality.

Is if we're the ones making it up we have no answer to says who other than says us says the majority says what i think is right we don't have anyone to appeal to there's no teacher in the classroom there's no one that speaks the law down to us does that make sense what he's talking about okay so this is how he ends his article all i can say is this it looks as if we are all we have given what we know about ourselves and each other this is an extraordinarily unappetizing prospect i i agree with him.

If we're all we have that is extraordinarily unappetizing that sounds awful looking around the world it appears that if all men are brothers the ruling model is cain and abel so he's honest he's intellectually honest he says there is no God and then he says step two uh-oh that sounds awful if we look around that's what we've got and it's gonna be bad he keeps going he says neither reason nor love nor even terror seems to have worked to make us good and worse than that there is no reason why anything should only.

If ethics were something unspeakable by us could law be unnatural and therefore unchallengeable so he's saying if it came down from God then it would be beyond us and we wouldn't be able to challenge it but since it doesn't and we've just made it up we're in trouble and this is what we said last week that this is where good government is a good gift to us breaks down that it can't make us good it can't fix us so he keeps going as things.

Now stand everything is up for grabs think about that we're actually watching that play out right now everything is up for grabs because everybody's coming in with a different foundation about what is right is it what the majority says that's why you see all these polls that just say this many americans now believe blank because the idea is that if the majority of us believe it then it's okay there's some people who are pushing for the biggest thing at the back of this is personal freedom or equal opportunity or equal outcome or private property or happiness everybody's got something at the back of of why does this matter says who and we're seeing this play.

Out right now where everything's up for grabs but then he says this nevertheless napalming babies is bad starving the poor is wicked buying and selling each other is depraved those who stood up to and died resisting hitler stalin amin and pol pot and general custer ii have earned salvation those who acquiesced deserve to be damned there is in the world such a thing as evil altogether now says who God help us he says there's no God therefore we're in trouble conclusion not base it's it's like point a point b point green it does not follow that name palming babies is bad it does not follow that standing up to evil is bad or that there.

Is even such a thing as evil it doesn't fit in his logic but he says we know this it doesn't fit that's his whole point says who God help us and he's argued the whole time there is no God i 100 agree with this person except for his foundation he stumbles over the cornerstone and then comes up with a very logical premise out of that and the reality is this last part where he ends and says napalming babies is bad the reason why we currently culturally believe that is that we're riding a 2 000 year wave of judaism and christianity we keep running this out we may not believe that anymore once we stop having.

Objective morality everything's up for grabs everybody's standing on the same footing and eventually it can fall down to who's the strongest who's got the majority who has the most power we're fundamentally coming at this differently than everyone else we believe there is a God there is an unspeakable ethic there is a natural law and it is unchallengeable i buy us and we obey it this is why you'll see that some people will say well we know this is wrong and they're appealing to something that actually doesn't fit in their logical framework.

Because how do they know if they're logical and they'll stick to it my cousin i had a conversation with him and he was saying that logic that the rules were based on who is mostly in charge what the majority believes my cousin the first generation nigerian-american i asked him do you think it was okay in germany because the nazi party was in charge that they eradicated jewish people and black people because they were in charge and he was willing to stick with his logic and he said i guess.

If they were the people in charge i'm not okay with that i don't think that's how this works i think that this guy's right that that is evil and they ought to be stood up against but that's where Christians come from we have a cornerstone that keeps us in line so we fundamentally are coming at this differently and we have direction in the Scriptures that tell us things about marriage about murder about the value of human life about what parents are.

For over and over again in the old testament we're told things in in the leviticus in Exodus leviticus deuteronomy they give personal moral law about lying and adultery but they also give rules about how we ought to interact with each other that the criminal justice system ought not to be bent towards the poor or the wealthy how people in the society are supposed to handle their money how wages are supposed to be handled how business practice sexual sin high interest loans how people treat foreigners how capital punishment works like there's all this stuff that has to do with.

Because God is setting for us what things ought to look like that we get to look to the Scriptures to set for us a guideline not a political platform of what our current people pundits are running and what they say they're going for but we get to look to the word to help keep us in line and it's going to say some things you disagree with it ought to i would argue that if you read if if in your Bible reading it perfectly agrees with you all the time you aren't reading your Bible very.

Well if this never corrects you you're not reading it correctly there's some places where it ought to push you but we're told about how to treat the poor that hard work is good adultery is bad drunkenness is bad gluttony is bad that's in proverbs but then the prophets come in and they say that God's going to judge people for bad business practices and the treatment of the poor or how they care about wealth more than the poor you see we have a lot in the Scriptures that helps give us what our foundation is meant to guide us in and we ought to be people of the book who obey the word and that's going to.

Make us look different from the rest of our culture and it's going to make us appeal to a grand says who that they don't agree with okay but we don't get to change what our cornerstone is so we're coming at this differently so we participate differently so we have a different foundation which makes us into a different people verse 9 keeps going so he says they stumble over this but you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation a people.

For his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light i think if we sat in that verse we might have a amount of political clarity that we lack you're a chosen race in Christ he redeems the race that you're given your current race that you were born into is not primary you're a royal priesthood that we're meant to represent man to God and God to man that's what a priesthood does we're a holy nation and and it doesn't after that chant usa usa or aussie aussie aussie your people.

For his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into a marvelous light that we've been made into a new people because we have a new foundation we've been redeemed and rescued by Christ once you were not a people but now you are God's people once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy don't you love that the primary identifier of us as a people is that we've received mercy isn't that beautiful that you're not going to get what you deserve you're going to get grace that you're loved and you're welcomed and that's foundational.

For us as we walk in Christ he says beloved i urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul keep your conduct among the gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation he calls the sojourners in exiles a sojourner is a traveler who does not live here and exile is someone who does live here.

But this isn't their home i'll be honest with you a lot of times when i listen to political candidates when i think about the future of the united states i feel very at home here and when i feel very at home here i feel very worried about things at times i have a lot of fear that rises up because i feel like i belong here i'm a citizen here my future is at stake and the reality is i'm a traveler and an exile this isn't my home i have a home i'm on my way to it i get to live in a certain way.

Now but i have a home and i'm going to be honest with y'all i love the united states the home i'm headed to is so much better it's glorious it's beautiful i'm redeemed and welcomed i receive mercy there i get to live here as an exile and a sojourner but my home that we're headed to is beyond compare and if we lived like that we're currently trying to help support uh the rockies as they move to honduras to be missionaries and the reality is they're going to show up and it's going to unlock some things in their brain.

Because they didn't weren't born there it's going to free them up in some ways to show up and go oh yeah the main point is to help people love Christ and to make this place better they're not going to show up and be like all right let's start promoting a candidate let's find out who's running for honduras house seat for our area i don't even know if they have a honduras house they may just be like let's pick a new i don't know what they got el presidente spanish i don't know.

But you know they're not going to they're exiles they're sojourners they're here to make this place better to love the people around them and the reality is some of us are far too at home here we fit better amongst our political party and we fit better amongst other americans who were born in a similar place to us who have similar skin tone who have a similar taste in food and music when we're meant to be sojourners and exiles working for good we've been made into a different people three we're back to.

Verse 13 now so we participate differently be subject for the lord's sake to every human institution whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good for this is the will of God that by doing good you should put the silence the ignorance of foolish people we're supposed to be doing good which means we're supposed to have a definition for what is good and it's supposed to be in line with the cornerstone in obedience to the word.

So we're supposed to know our bibles love our bibles love Jesus trust Jesus when we disagree with him and then be actively a part of doing that in the world government is meant to praise good we're meant to do it i think sometimes we think our role is to vote and then they better do it no we're meant to to do it we're meant to be the ones actively doing good and he says this for that's the will of God that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people live as people who are free not using your freedom as a cover-up.

For evil but living as servants of God live as people who are free remember who you are live like it i was growing up i loved the movie Peter pan and then the movie hook came out with robin williams and i loved that movie that movie is like a sequel to Peter pan and it's kind of terrifying because hook Peter pan like marries a lady moves the world forgets he was Peter pan he's just trying to live his life and move on.

But hook's in neverland growing more and more psychotic every day and he comes up with a plan to come to the real world and steal Peter pan's children he's going to abduct his children and this is a two-part plan and it's brilliant it's to get Peter pan to come back and fight him but if Peter pan won't come back he'll just raise Peter pan's children as his own back up revenge and when i watched that i was a little kid and the idea that captain hook could come bust in and steal me take me to neverland like the cartoon is like oh cool i get to go to neverland and hang out with Peter pan.

And then the sequel is like oh no captain hook might just take me to neverland and raise me as this child but the part of the movie that's playing out is that captain hook in neverland kind of makes you forget and captain hook's trying to make these children think they're his and they're these moments where they kind of forget who their father is and so they become really at home in neverland and then there are these moments where they shake out of it and they.

Remember wait wait no i know who my dad is and i actually don't belong here and sometimes i think we're we're having to play that out as we walk through life that there are times where we just feel really at home here and we kind of forget where our home is and who our father is who our allegiance allegiances to and then there are other times where we can kind of shake out of it and go oh no no no no this is actually isn't what is primary.

For me this is what matters the most to me and i'm supposed to be participating very very differently from the rest of the people i'm supposed to be getting my marching orders from here not cnn or fox news not msnbc or npr i can get some information from them they don't keep me in line this does they don't give me my foundation this to us i think sometimes we have to shake out of it but he says you're free so Church family.

For those of you who when you think about politics when you think about november your chest tightens up and fear wells up inside of you you are free your hope is secure your salvation is locked in Christ your future your home participate like someone who is free it doesn't have to work out the way you want it to it doesn't have to work out the way you think it ought to the reality is a lot of times God's good work on earth looks really really bad.

For the people of God God's good work on earth looks really bad for the people of God read this for a little while and remind yourself that he's good even though there are times where it doesn't work out well for the people who love him or know him where they aren't liked where they don't fit in hebrews 11 where they're sown into they have a better hope and a better country you're free and for those of us who because it's so corrupt or.

Because we're so jaded or because we're kind of lazy and just don't care that much we don't participate he says don't use your freedom as a cover for evil your servants of God so do good serve we're free to serve to serve him to fight for what is good to do good amongst the people we live near my parents host a family reunion they've started this couple years back and when we go to our family union we cook a pig we swim in a pond stuff you would assume my family does we all you know i don't know have a big splatoon.

For all the ladies to sit around chew tobacco whatever that part's not true but we do swim in a pond and we were swimming with my cousin and my brothers and i we go down and swim at my parents house some in their pond and so we had grabbed these little floats we knew what they were we were sitting in the water and we're either sitting on a float or you're just standing on one it's just a little like foam surfboard thing and my cousin's there swimming with us and we're all just sitting there floating around talking.

And then one of our little floats shot out from under our feet and we swam over and got it my cousin goes you all have floats we were like yeah and we've been hanging out for a while he'd been treading water for like 30 minutes he was exhausted he got afloat he was sitting there he was like oh he said i kept telling myself if they can do it i can do it if they can keep themselves up i'll keep myself up he said and i was really impressed.

Because everyone saw y'all be talking to both your hands would come out of the water and i thought goodness these guys know how to tread water the reality is as we participate in politics as believers we have something holding us up we have a hope we have a future if it gets rocky if it gets exhausting everybody else around us is going to be freaking out they're going to want us to freak out with them everyone else around us is going to be anxious and tired.

Because they don't have the hope we have and the reality is if all we do is join them we act as if we we deny the hope that we have when we ought to be pointing them to the hope that we have we ought to be proclaiming the excellencies of him who has called us out of darkness and into marvelous light the reality is as we get around people who want to talk to us about how if this doesn't work out everything's going to fall apart you get to say hey guess what i know a story and everything does fall apart and everything does work out and it really just depends on has Christ redeemed.

You or not we get to be the only people who keep our heads when everything else gets difficult we get the own the only people at ease and very complicated difficult painful situations and we ought to be you're free to do good because our hope is set in Christ our foundation is set in Christ and you ought to be able to take your political opinions and ask why why why why why and work yourself back to here and if all your political opinions work back to culture political candidate this seems right to me.

But we don't have it tied off here we have a problem so we ought to be people of the word with the hopes that secure in Jesus who are the only ones who are able to keep our heads because we have a foundation when nobody else does the band's going to come back up we're going to sing to Christ we're going to all be able to keep our heads in the middle of a political season when everybody else is losing theirs take a deep breath you're free and from that position of freedom let's do good let's know what good is and let's be actively a part of it in our culture that's our hope that.

We would grow in that as people redeemed by Christ let's pray God we thank you for your grace we thank you for the love that you have shown us and that you joined us that you might die to redeem us so that we might have a hope that is held secure as first Peter chapter one says because you walked out of the tomb we have a hope that is held secure by your power in the heavens waiting for us so may we be your servants here who are exiles sojourners that do good as people who are free as only we can.

Because this does not have to work out for us here because everything will work out for us in Christ by your spirit lead us to be servants to be free to have hope and to not be swayed by everything that's around us in Jesus name amen would you stand with us as we worship hi is to use oh is he was i stand shall we she oh is oh Jesus paid it he was you may be seated all right a couple announcements before we get out of here.

Today i want to apologize to our people online was not your fault the internet cut out but we're continuing to work on that make that better another announcement dr ken uh was our transitional pastor and was a part of our Church up until this past week so it is a bittersweet announcement he is not wasting his retirement uh he is using it for the glory of God and one of his uh his his his calling his primary calling in retirement is uh to help churches in this area and he accepted the interim position at saluda baptist Church around 378 which is bittersweet.

For us sweet because they are getting a pastor who we love dearly and we know he's going to do a great job bitter because we will not be seeing him as much anymore so we love him uh as pastors we love him this Church loves him we owe so much to him we thank Jesus for him so if you're friends with joy on facebook send a message over uh continue to reach out them how much we love them um but that is the update on that.

If you are not a part of a group we would love you to be a part of a group and chet is going to be down in the construction area to be able to answer any questions you might have and tell you about our groups if you have any questions about our Church he'll be down there uh to answer them uh if you are part of this Church we invite you to give we have the giving slots you can also give online i'm going to close this with a word from.

First thessalonians 5 verses 23 through 24 now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our lord Jesus Christ he who calls you is faithful he will surely do it amen you guys have a great day.

Mill City 8/2/20 Mill City 8/2/20

Good Government

Virtual Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet virtually this week.

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August 1, 2020

Ultimate Authority

August 1, 2020

Transcript

Good morning my name is spencer i'm one of the pastors of Mill City Church of casey so this is our second week in a row where because of some coveted exposure we're being cautious and we're live streaming so you're joining us online welcome uh glad you're joining us uh we as a Church believe that Jesus is better than everything else because this is true we get to be a Gospel-centered community on mission which is really important for us individually and as a Church right.

Now as culture is is raging as there's all types of of chaos whether it's coveted whether it's the economy or right now in a heightened political climate which is why we're walking through this series messiah 2020 that no matter what we are walking through we don't have to shift with the rest of culture we have a hope that is secure we are Gospel center that our hope is completely bound up in Christ crucified and raised from the grave that our hope is eternal and we live as eternal people in this world living out the Gospel together that's the hope that we that we celebrate on sundays as we sing songs and worship as we sit.

On the authority of God's word it's also the hope that we get to be grounded and centered in in community groups so one of the things we have in our Church is we have community groups which are smaller groups of our Church family that that live life together that that meet regularly that open up the Bible that eat meals together when it's not in a season where we have to not eat meals together uh but we do this to live out the Gospel together to celebrate who.

Jesus is to keep us centered in the Gospel as a Church family so if you're new welcome we'd love to invite you into that to connect you to some of our groups one of the easiest ways to do that is to go to our website millcitycasey.com and you can go to our community groups page you can fill out some information and we can connect with you and kind of tell you more about our groups which one might be good for you to check out.

If you are not new and you call this Church home we invite you to give we believe that our response to the Gospel is generosity and we open up our wallets in doing that so if you're part of our Church family you can give online you can also come by during the week and drop off checks at our office so i'm going to uh to pray for us that i'll prepare our hearts for worship and i'm going to call us to worship from psalm 95.

Father i thank you that we get to worship because of your great love because you came and you rescued us and you redeemed us that we get to uh sit in an eternal reality and out of that we get to praise we get to sing songs i pray you prepare hearts for worship prepare our hearts to to be to sit under your word we ask us in Jesus name amen i'm going to call us to worship from psalm 95 it says this oh come.

Let us sing to the lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation let us come into his presence with thanksgiving let us make a joyful noise with songs of praise for the lord is a great God and a great king above all gods in his hands are the depths of the earth the heights of the mountains are his also the sea is his and he made it and his hands form the dry land oh come let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand wherever you're joining with us today let's worship together praise the lord the almighty oh my adoration shelters us under have you not seen how our desires have been granted surely his goodness if this praise to the lord oh let all that is in me adore all that hath life and breath come now with praises before again me again.

Lord now my my life is our first treasure may i reach heavens still be my vision i once was lost in darkest nights first i would refuse to upon display your suffering is hallelujah all i have is Christ hallelujah is my life the truth in any way you choose is is Jesus God all we have to claim before you is Jesus and we're thankful this morning that as your Church we are thankful for the cross of Christ we're thankful that he rose from the grave.

Lord this morning as your Church we pray that you would speak to us that that would be the cry of our heart that all we have is Christ and so we pray that you would reveal yourself through your word that you would speak through chet as he comes to preach in Jesus name amen my fellow americans good morning my name is chet phillips i'm one of the pastors here we are in our second week of our messiah 2020 series we're only doing three weeks on this we're taking a brief pause from the Gospel of Matthew to try to get some sound footing to kind of catch our bearings in the middle of the american political.

Season which seems to be unending at this point but we are in an election year and we wanted to address and begin to ask the questions how as Christians ought we to approach politics how should we think about it what should we do what shouldn't we do and just try to catch our breath and get some firm footing so the primary goal of this series is to help us understand that Christians ought to approach politics distinctly from the rest of our neighbors that we ought to have a distinct approach and understanding to government and two politics.

Because we are first and foremost Christians before we are citizens of any earthly place we said last week that we think we ought to look more similar to believers around the globe than just those who happen to vote like us in our own nation and so that's our goal we've got three weeks to do it what we said last week was that we cannot approach politics in the same way as our cultural allies and those who are across the aisle from us we can't approach it the same way.

Because the way we're currently pushed to approach politics is to have a high amount of fear so that we'll give our sole allegiance to a political party or a political leader and then work with a bit of anger and animosity and venom to conquer our political enemies that ultimately our culture is telling us we need a messiah we need a savior we need someone to come in and fix all of our problems to give us a hope and a future and we already have a messiah we already have a savior we already have a hope and a future we are already citizens of an eternal kingdom.

Therefore our approach to politics has to be distinct and so we just tried to dismantle some things last week and this week we're beginning to build it back up a little bit so we're asking the question is okay if we shouldn't approach it as if we need a messiah and if we shouldn't approach it with this amount of fear and anxiety and anger how should we look at politics how should we approach this is government good should we have a government that's kind of where we're starting it's like what's a what's a baseline approach to an understanding of how the Bible treats government.

Because some of us in christianity and some of in our Church family would want to say well politics is just too corrupt our system is too broken Christians shouldn't participate at all others would say well Christian's primary role is the Gospel and the proclamation of the Gospel and that we're spiritual beings and that we ultimately need to see God work so we just need to preach the Gospel and let the world sort itself out but reality is we're called to love.

God and our neighbors and that does mean that we have to live in the place we are and interact in the place we are i have two sons i have a five-year-old and a two-year-old and the two-year-old is just beginning to speak uh he's just kind of putting some stuff together and there's times where they'll be off playing together and um you hear him laughing you'll hear him play and then all of a sudden there'll just be chaos screaming shouting arguing.

And then i'll hear the pitter patter of little feet down the hall my two-year-olds are running down the hall crying and he his brother's name's archer but he pronounces it shasha or arsha he hasn't gotten it yet but he'll come down the hall and he'll say and i know what he's saying he's looking at me and he's saying father i beseech you without your good governance it's anarchy it's become lord of the flies the strong rule over the week and you must come rule and give some boundaries.

So that we might have life and have it flourishing i look at him and say i understand son but really he's asking for good government and the reality is we all need good government and God designed government to be good for our sake in the garden prior to sin he tells adam and eve that they would rule and have dominion and that they would multiply and flourish but God meant for there to be some guiding principle some rules some leadership prior to sin and we don't outgrow government we aren't saved from government we're actually saved into a government that.

Jesus is a king and we're told in isaiah that his of his government and his peace there will be no end so we're not moving to heaven and entering into this free no government system we're moving in and having a king that God's design for government is good and that we're in the middle now where there is sin and it's meant to function in a certain way and so we need to understand how to approach it so what we're going to try to aim at.

Today is the understanding that government is good because it was instituted by God to limit evil and promote good for the good of those governed the government's good because it was instituted by God to limit evil and promote what is good for the sake for the good of those governed and that as Christians we ought to participate but we ought to participate as those who have an eternal perspective so let's pray and we'll jump in God we thank you for your grace we pray that as we seek to be good citizens of your kingdom who have been placed here that we would be good citizens of where we are with an eternal perspective working towards.

The good of our neighbors we thank you for government and its intended design for us and we pray that we would grow in our understanding and appreciation of it today in Jesus name amen go to romans chapter 13. we're going to be looking at romans chapter 13 verses 1 through 7. this is Paul writing to the roman Church and he's talking to them about how they ought to think about government he's done a lot about how they ought to interact with each other and how they ought to approach the.

Lord but he's talking now about how they ought to approach the being citizens in where they are so it says this romans 13 verse 1 let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God i'm going to read that again for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God therefore whoever resists the authorities resist what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment.

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad would you have no fear of the one who is in authority then do what is good and you will receive his approval for he is God's servant for your good but if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain for he is the servant of God an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer therefore one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath.

But also for the sake of conscience for because of this you also pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing pay to all what is owed to them taxes to whom taxes are owed revenue to whom revenue is owed respect to whom respect is owed honor to whom honor is owed so Paul says that all institutions are instituted by God and that there are for our good for your good and i can feel it even as i'm reading that.

Because i can feel it in myself but i can feel it in us that we we just want to hold on i got a question like there's the the ultimate american question that just rises in us is what about bad governments what says don't don't resist them but but i have what about bad governments what about in algeria where they're shutting down churches what about in china when the government's overreaching when they're saying that you can't even be a Christian when they're rounding them up or arresting them or making them have only certain places and certain ways that they can meet what about.

When there's a king who puts taxes on your tea but won't let you have representatives in parliament what do we do when there's blatant governmental evil and overreach that's the question we want to ask immediately to push back on this because the idea that God is over all institutions that he's working through all of them for our good does not seem like that always plays out that way and there are times where it feels like the government is overstepping we currently in our culture right.

Now have people who are standing against government authority we have those who are marching who are standing in roads and blocking off bridges and protesting we have churches that are saying even though the local authorities have told them they can't meet they're going to anyway and it really depends on which side of the aisle you fall on as to which one you're saying yes and amen and oh how dare you but we currently have this question even playing out with us and it's what do we do.

And so i think we have to answer that quickly before we can get into God's good design one the good news for bad government is that all government is under the authority of God the good news for us in bad government is that all government is under the authority of God which means that it will be judged it will be held to his standards and judged according to his purposes and that even in the midst of bad government God can work good he does this throughout the old testament he raises up leaders he lowers leaders he raises up kings he lowers kings he raises up nations he lowers nations they work at his discretion he.

Can revoke them or install them as he wills and so that those that do evil at times are used for God's purposes even pagan kingdoms the babylonian kingdom was used for God's purposes for his people to to punish them to correct them as judgment on his people but then he sent the persians in to punish and correct the babylonians and to bless his people and God does this throughout history so even in the midst of a place where Christians are in a bad government they can hope and trust that.

God is good over it secondly the primary role for Christians is not to just transform our governmental systems or to seek power but to testify to an eternal truth to testify to an eternal kingdom that's our primary role that's what pastor wang yi who's a pastor in china who was arrested by the communist government he had pre-written this and told his Church to publish it if he had been arrested for more than 48 hours i want to read an excerpt from this he says as a pastor my disobedience is one part of the Gospel commission.

So he's disobeying the government by having house churches Christ's great commission requires of us great disobedience the goal of disobedience is not to change the world but to testify about another world he goes on from that to say that he doesn't believe that Christians ought to be changing the institutions but that they ought to be primarily focused on eternal things he says this all acts of the Church are attempts to prove to the world the real existence of another world the Bible teaches us that in all matters relating to the Gospel and human conscience we must obey.

God and not men for this reason spiritual disobedience and bodily suffering are both ways we testify to another eternal world and to another glorious king so that the primary role of Christians is not just to transform government not to have all the policies that we wish we would have but to proclaim another kingdom and so when there is a bad government we still have a primary role to play in proclaiming another kingdom which does at times mean as weighing ye is walking out some form of disobedience.

For the greater purposes of God but not for the greater purposes of our political candidate party or system of choice if this is attention that you're trying to work out i would encourage you to read first Peter chapter two i would encourage you to read all of wang yi's letter it's called my letter of uh faithful disobedience i would encourage you to read dr martin luther king jr's letter from a birmingham jail as a kind of a starter on how to ought we to think about Christians interacting with governments.

When government's not operating properly but primarily today we're looking at God's good design so we're going to focus on that not when it goes wrong because it does go wrong in sin and we do have hope that God is an authority over it and we'll judge it but what's his good design for government you see government matters because people matter life matters joy matters there's the people around you matter and so God has designed it for us to have government the reality is without government there are those who would say wouldn't it be better.

If the government just wasn't involved wouldn't life be better if there just was no government the answer to that is no it wouldn't without government the strong make the rules the weak are pushed to the side sin reigns every time a even an evil government falls immediately it's not like oh good the government's gone now everybody can be nice to each other that's not what happens when a bad government falls there's sin women are raped children are abducted people are murdered.

God instituted government however flawed for good purposes so this is what he says that we ought to be subject to the governing authorities and even there as he walks this out Christians ought to begin looking different than those around us he says be subject to the governing authorities pay your taxes you ought to pay what is owed to those who tax you it says pay honor oh give honor to those whom it's owed so that Christians ought to be respectful you ought to be able to speak about whoever's in leadership over you in a gracious respectful way even as you disagree with them and that right.

Now just doing that will make Christians look distinct from those in their political party that if we can see the good in others and we can speak to the good and others if we can acknowledge where they're right acknowledge where we're wrong and speak in an honorable way of those that we vehemently disagree with will begin to look more the way he's designed for us to look but see the primary role of of good government is to discourage what is evil and to encourage what is good and he gives more attention on discouraging what is evil that's the basic approach the basic role of government it's that to be under God's authority discouraging evil carrying.

Out God's wrath on the wrongdoer and promoting what is good i mentioned my boys earlier but that's the system primary system of governance at my house i want my boys to grow up i want them to love Jesus but much of the work i'm doing with them is i'm just looking at discouraging what is bad and encouraging what is good and if you're a new parent start there is this behavior good will it help them live in our house does it make me like them is this the type of person i want to be around will this help them live in society encourage that is this behavior bad does this make me not want to.

Live with this person you see children have parents for a reason they're meant to have some governance they would not be better off without you they will make terrible decisions and you're supposed to help them grow into a person that can live in the world very simply at my house one of the rules is if you cry and throw a fit you don't get what you're crying and throwing a fit for it makes my decision easy you don't get to watch that you don't get to eat that you don't get to do the thing you wanted.

Because if i give it to them after they cry and throw a fit what i've taught my children is that in order to be happy they need to be miserable and that's not good for them and the reality is that small scale picture of parenting is ultimately what govern government is supposed to do for us as we are adults and still sinful that they're meant to hold evil at bay and encourage what is good he gives again more attention to discouraging evil.

But let's talk about the encouraging good for a second that they're there for our good this means that governments the Bible doesn't give us a system kings parliament a senate a house of representatives a president voting not voting it doesn't give us that it just says that government was designed these things are instituted for our goods so that there would be some system some oversight and someone who avenges what is wrong and promotes what is good so some of the ways that happens here you can we.

Then get into debates about how big should it be how little should it be how much should they promote how much should they discourage but the reality is under God's authority then there's just some how are they going to practically walk that out as long as they're in line with what God says is good and bad so some examples our government promotes generosity it promotes charitable work charitable organizations don't have to pay taxes our Church doesn't pay income tax we don't pay uh property tax we don't pay tax on the land that we live we people who give money to charitable organizations get tax benefits that's them encouraging things that they think are good our.

Government gives money towards education that's them encouraging things that they think are good that help for human flourishing and that's okay that's inside the bounds of the role of government they discourage evil and there are some places where they they maybe don't discourage it but they least shouldn't encourage it the reality is it's not a it's not against the law to lie if you want to tell people that your benchmax is higher than it really is if you want to tell people that the fish you caught was way bigger than it actually was.

If you want to tell people that you caught a lot of fish when you didn't that's all sin but there's no government control over that but then the government does step in when there are places where people are lying in business or they're lying about a business ben johnson was telling us in lebanon they the government recently took up 40 tons they confiscated 40 tons of expired chicken the chicken was dating back to 2016 that was being sold in markets there they came and confiscated it.

Because the government was like this is unhealthy this is unsafe and you're lying about it and the government's put some restrictions around that and they're discouraging something that's bad it's not good for their people to all be sick with eating bad chicken so they step in and those are some of the roles of government how much how far where those are the things we get to discuss but that's inside the realm of God's good design for government the Bible says that they carry the sword he is the servant of.

God an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrong doer that he does not carry the sword in vain this is one of the primary functions of the government to have a military to have police that's good they're servants of God for our good one of my favorite scenes at the end of the movie the guardians of the galaxy and if you haven't seen it it's like a heist movie but in space one of my favorite scenes is after these criminals who are the main people you're following they save this planet.

And so they tell them that their criminal records have been wiped clean because they saved the planet because they came together and did something good they wiped their criminal records clean and so they're talking to the police officer and one of them says okay well let me ask you a question now that my my slate's wiped clean what if i see someone who has something that i want more than they do and i just take it the police officer says yes that's theft that's that's against the law you will go to jail.

Because that make any sense i want it more than they do and they just kind of push him out of the way and then one of the bigger meaner guys on their team looks at him and goes okay well let me ask you something if someone does something that i find irksome so i remove his spine and the police officer looks at him and goes yeah that's that's murder that's like one of the worst things you can do you would also go to jail and as that's meant to be play out.

For humor but the reality is with no laws with no one enforcing what is good with no one avenging what is wrong the smartest the strongest the meanest often succeed people just do what's right in their own eyes they just take advantage of those who are weak those who are smaller that government is meant to be a good avenger on your behalf in romans chapter 12 the chapter before this Paul's talking to them and he tells them that God is the primary avenger don't be avenged.

When someone does you wrong but leave it to the wrath of God that God is the avenger of all wrongdoing but then in romans 13 he says secondarily God has given the sword to governments to avenge on his behalf for our good my brother is a police officer he's a sheriff's deputy and he is according to romans a servant of God for our good that when someone breaks into someone's home and takes what doesn't belong to them when someone harms someone.

When someone uh because they're bigger physically abuses someone that God has instituted for there to be those who are avengers for the good of those who live in this area that they might have someone to call they might have some resource to go to that God has designed this for our good they're those in law enforcement in our Church family those who've been in military and our Church family and that's a good thing to do they're servants of God for our good.

And so they ought to act as servants of God for our good the the part there that that adjusts how we approach politics and how our politicians act and how our military and police is that they serve God first and foremost and so they ought to act in line with him and therefore work from there so this plays out that that is one of the primary ways that we get to push our government towards what is good is by bringing them in line with the word of.

God and we're going to talk more about that next week and how we we actually get to play that out personally as we interact with our world and as we live out as people who live here but some examples of how this has worked in the past william wilberforce became a believer and he began to push the english government to get to abolish slavery he began to say that you're under God and slavery is wrong so you're out of bounds and what you're allowing and you need to abolish slavery he also pushed.

For uh good treatment of animals because of the same thing he was like no you ought not there ought to be some laws that prohibit this sort of behavior in the u.s one of our greatest thinkers and writers and speakers is frederick douglass who was a freed slave who had no political agency whatsoever could not vote had just earned his freedom had been property most of his life but he began to push he began to speak he began to proclaim he was a amy pastor at one point and he began to push those in leadership and said government ought to be in line with.

God and he pushed for the abolition of slavery he pushed for better rights for women because he said this is what God has designed for us and our government ought to be in line in promoting what is good and holding back what is evil and it worked him and others were able to push to get us to line up with more of God's will and God's good design for us and this is one of the ways that we get to participate as americans you get to vote you get to call your elected officials we live in a place where we have representation that we're supposed to have those who are in our leadership represent us.

Spencer was telling me this week that he had heard that they were getting rid of the adoption tax credit that some of the leaders in south carolina specifically those in the republican party were pushing for this because we live in a primarily republican state and most of our leaders are in the republican party they were pushing for getting rid of the adoption tax credit and so he said he called he called every leader in every in the districts he was in.

So his senators his congress people and he said if you're a republican and you're saying you're pro-life then you also need to be pro-adoption you need to help promote this that's what he called and told them and they ended up not passing it and so two of our pastors right now are in the process of adoption and they get to apply for this tax credit so spencer asked me to tell them on his behalf matt razzier welcome spencer fought for what was good.

So that we might promote what is good in our government and we get to do the same thing that God designed government to be a generic grace-filled good for the world that we're meant to have it and so we ought to be in subject in subjection to it paying taxes honoring those that are our leaders praying for them because God designed this to be good to help us but the reality is while government is good and is meant for our good it does have limitations.

So go back just a few pages to romans chapter 8. so in romans Paul has been walking through salvation he's been walking through our need for Christ by the time we've made it to romans 12 13 and forward he starts giving more practical advice but prior to this he's been giving a lot of theological understanding and so in romans 8 he's talking about the law of God to the law that God gave to Moses and the people of Israel so this is ceremonial law this is the law that of how of his moral law how they ought to relate to.

God this is uh state law how they ought to relate to one another this is the law that God handed to Moses so when it says law here in a second it doesn't just mean the laws we have on the books it actually means the law that God gave to Moses so here's what it says romans 8 verses 3 and 4. for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

For sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit so what Paul is getting at there is that the law that God gave to humanity could not ultimately fix human hearts it could not redeem them it could not change them it was a good law but it could not do he says God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do the reason i want us to.

See this is that if the law that God gave to Moses could not change human hearts i hate to break this to you but we will not pass a law in the united states that will be capable of doing it if the law given to the people of God after the Exodus could not ultimately fix them but was meant to show them their inadequacies and their need for Christ then any law we pass any good we promote any evil we prohibit will not ultimately be able to fix our hearts and this is important.

For us as Christians to understand government was given as a good for us but it cannot ultimately fix what is wrong with us it can hold evil at bay it can promote things that are good but Christ has done what the law cannot do he has come in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin to condemn sin in the flesh Jesus Christ came that he took on sin that he died for our sin so that as we place faith in him we might walk in the spirit not in the flesh that we might be changed internally that our hearts might be changed that we might be made new we touched on this idea last week.

When we read a quote from russell moore but what he was getting at was that we could actually get the the right president the best president the right congress the best congress the right policies the best policies but if we do all of that and get the wrong savior we have failed and so Christians are not looking for a savior we have one but we understand that government is good and therefore we ought to participate and promote it as those who understand it is good.

But it is not ultimate we cannot place all our hopes there we cannot place all our trust there we cannot believe that it will fix us that it will save us it will change everything for us that we know ultimately it's good but it's limited and therefore we participate in what is good but we trust that only Jesus will ultimately save us and change our hearts and so we work towards that end i love this quote from martin luther king jr getting at this idea he says it may be true that the law cannot make a man love me.

But it can keep him from lynching me and i think that's pretty important i love that quote and i think it gets at this idea that we believe that government is good that we ought to have it that it's good to have police it's good to have those promoting what is good and prohibiting what is evil and policing that and overseeing that and caring for that and working towards that that they're servants of God for our good so we appreciate our politicians we appreciate those who are in leadership we pray.

For them and we hope for good ones and we trust that God oversees all of that and that ultimately laws will not fix what is broken in us that we have hope for God to do that for our good through Christ so we participate but understanding the limitations we do not give our full hope and our full heart to it we trust that Jesus will ultimately change us and that we need him over and above the good government that God has given us.

So i want to push on those who are politically apathetic have no desire for it it's such a drain on you you think it's a waste of time i want you to see that God designed it for good and that we need good loss we need good oversight we need good to be promoted and evil to be prohibited and i want to encourage you to begin participating there are some people in our Church who should run for office we should have Christians that are holding public office and they should be Christians there's this idea that they should check their christianity at the door.

But nobody else has to do that the the secular humanist doesn't have to check that at the door in order to help make good laws and so we don't believe Christians should either we think you should go and be a Christian and you should help promote what is good and discourage what is evil and that you should use the Bible because ultimately all authority is derived from God you should use that as a good example of how you ought to do this.

So we think some should run for government run for office we think that those who would say but it's too corrupt and therefore you don't want to participate i would push back and say if it's too corrupt we ought to participate all the more we're given avenues for it as Christians in the united states there are some places where we wouldn't but we ought to push we are to participate we are to seek to have that changed so that this can be a good that.

God has given us you ought to vote and here's the thing about voting it's difficult when we only have two parties and you don't like either of the candidates the reality is if you as a Christian are not allowed to vote for anyone who has holds a policy that you disagree with or you as a Christian are not allowed to vote for anyone who holds a moral position a personal position moral action that you disagree with you will not vote so we need to be able to vote understanding that it is not a full endorsement of the character it's not a full endorsement of everything.

But that we've looked and said we think a good bit of this lines up with the heart of Jesus for the good of our nation and we're going to participate and where they're wrong and where they're off we're going to acknowledge it we're going to push for better we're going to practice different things in our personal life that help make up for the fact that i voted here but now i've got to make sure that i come up with some of the deficiencies here.

So you can vote it's not a full endorsement but then you ought to participate in a way that helps compensate start local if you're having a hard time getting motivated to be involved in politics start local this is something i need to grow in is paying attention to our local officials our local leaders caring about them knowing what they're for knowing what they affect but we ought to be involved in the local politics of our city not just our national politics pray that we're meant to pray.

For those who are in authority over us pray for their good not just pray that they would do what we want them to do but that the lord would use them that he'd give them wisdom that he would guide them that he would save them that we would pray for our leadership and lastly trust Jesus government is good and it's a blessing and we should be thankful for it we should be thankful for those who serve for our good they serve under.

God and his authority but we should ultimately trust him that even where things are bad and difficult and things where things are mishandled because we have sinners filling all the offices in our land we would trust that Jesus is working that he will judge what is evil and that all governments are ultimately instituted through him and therefore work at his will and when they get out of line he can remove them or he can bless them and he works through them.

For his good purposes even though we can't always see them so trust him to change hearts trust him to oversee the government we're in and participate in a healthy way understanding that it's good but it's not ultimate so for those of you who have placed too much hope in our political systems too much hope in a political party i would encourage you again this week to repent to begin to detox to begin to break that down so you might understand that it's good.

But ultimately we need God over top of it we need God down here with us changing our hearts and for those of you who've rejected all of this i'll push you to be involved to be engaged because it's a good gift from God that's meant for our good and for the good of our neighbors let's pray God we thank you for your grace your love towards us we pray that you would bless our nation that you would bless our leaders that you would change their hearts that you would give them wisdom and that they would be good servants of yours to discourage evil to promote good.

For the good of those who live in this land i pray that you would help us to not place too much hope in political parties or political systems but to trust you and we pray that you would help us not to be falsely wrongly apathetic towards something a gift that you have given us that we might be engaged for the benefit of our neighbors oh my God like you there is your grace your love exceeds the heaven's reach my my your faithfulness my my guilt and cross laid on your shoulders in my place you broke my bones glory to your.

Lord all right so uh just a couple announcements before we close out uh if you are are new we'd love to uh love for you to check out one of our groups one of the easiest ways you can do that is go to our website go to our community groups page and to fill out some information we'd love to be able to journey with us as we walk through this series as we uh walk through the Gospel together every week in groups come join us uh we'd love to get you connected there.

If you are a part of our Church just a reminder again you can give online uh by going to our website and you can also give by coming by the Church coming out of the building during the week and dropping off checks i want to close us with a word from hebrews 13. it says now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant equip you with everything good they may do his will working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through.

Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen you guys have a great day.

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