Episode 3
The Real Jesus - World Changer (North OC)
What if a stranger interrupted your dinner party? How would you feel and respond? Jesus reveals to us that he's a world changer with his reaction. Listen to part three of our series "The Real Jesus."
Transcript
well, good morning everybody.
Speaker:How we doing?
Speaker:Good morning.
Speaker:I'm actually gonna use this table because it's one of the few tables that, uh,
Speaker:is tall enough for me, so that helps.
Speaker:Well, it's great to be with you all this morning.
Speaker:For those who don't know who I am, my name is Kyle Lsk, like I
Speaker:mentioned earlier, and I help lead the campus ministry, make some noise.
Speaker:Campus ministry.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That was okay.
Speaker:That was all right.
Speaker:. I'm, uh, I'm gonna judge you guys on that one.
Speaker:Let's try it one more time.
Speaker:How about that?
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Can we, can we get loud for them?
Speaker:Let's wake the church up a little bit.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Make some noise.
Speaker:Campus ministry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Well, you know, it's, uh, great to be with you all.
Speaker:I'm very encouraged and excited to be able to preach the word today.
Speaker:Um, you know, like Marcel mentioned, we are going through our series here called
Speaker:The Real Jesus, and we've been talking about how Orange County doesn't need just
Speaker:another church and needs the real Jesus.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:And so, as we've been studying out the Book of Luke together, it's been so
Speaker:impactful and so convicting personally to me, Um, to see the interactions Jesus
Speaker:has been having with certain individuals.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And obviously last week, uh, Marcel preached a, a fire lesson about
Speaker:how Jesus was not religious, but he was righteous and it was very
Speaker:convicting to see how Jesus may call.
Speaker:Uh, he does things that are countercultural, right.
Speaker:He calls the outcasts to follow him.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:The fishermen, he touches the unclean leper and he makes 'em clean.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he calls Matthew the tax collector, who in that society was not looked well
Speaker:upon to follow him and be his disciple.
Speaker:And so today we're gonna look at another, uh, interaction that Jesus has with
Speaker:someone that hopefully, uh, will be convicting to you and inspiring to you.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:With that, I'm gonna go ahead and say we're a prayer, that we're
Speaker:gonna jump right into the passage.
Speaker:Let's bow our heads.
Speaker:Lord, thank you so much for this morning and this time to worship.
Speaker:You we're so grateful to be able to experience to see.
Speaker:To, to be able to, uh, live with and walk with the real Jesus God.
Speaker:We're so grateful that you sent your son Jesus down to this earth to give us an
Speaker:opportunity of salvation, an opportunity to live our lives as new creations.
Speaker:And we're so grateful that Jesus saved us from so much God.
Speaker:And so I pray today that as we dig into your word, remove me from this
Speaker:stage that it's you speaking today, God, that it's not me or my thoughts,
Speaker:but it's you and your spirit.
Speaker:Lord, we love you.
Speaker:We thank you and pray this in Jesus name.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Let's turn our Bibles to Luke chapter seven, verse 36, and the
Speaker:title today of my lesson here.
Speaker:This thing works.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:The real Jesus is a world changer.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:The world changer, Luke 7 36 there reads, and we're gonna read just verse 36.
Speaker:To start says, when one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him.
Speaker:He went to the Pharisees house and reclined at the table.
Speaker:So we're gonna stop for a moment.
Speaker:I want to paint the picture of what's going on here.
Speaker:Can I do that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think it's important for us to understand what's really happening
Speaker:in this culture and this time in this context of the story.
Speaker:Because for us reading it in 2023 with the westernized view of
Speaker:society, we may not fully understand what's really happening here.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:So what's happening here is that it says that Jesus was
Speaker:invited to have dinner With who?
Speaker:Pharisees.
Speaker:Pharisees, right.
Speaker:Last week Marcel mentioned a little bit about who the Pharisees
Speaker:were, and these were sort of the religious teachers of the law, right?
Speaker:They were sort of the, the highest of the highest religious
Speaker:respected officials in that time.
Speaker:And as we see the scripture, as we've been studying out, for those who have
Speaker:been studying it with us, we're seeing, okay, Jesus keeps to an extent opposing
Speaker:Pharisees a little bit here, right?
Speaker:Some of the things he says are sometimes like little digs at at the
Speaker:Pharisees, and so it's interesting.
Speaker:At least in my opinion, to see that the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And then it goes on to say that he reclined at the table.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:So Jesus was ready to have a great meal.
Speaker:But what I wanna make mention of, and I appreciate Eric Enes mentioning this to
Speaker:me, cuz he actually lived in the Middle East for some time, is that they didn't
Speaker:have the classic kitchen table like we do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They were sitting on the ground, right.
Speaker:That, that's, that's a common way of eating dinner in the
Speaker:Middle East or eating a meal.
Speaker:As you sit, as you can see in this picture, sort of on the ground,
Speaker:there's a, a spread laid out.
Speaker:You got some cushions on the ground.
Speaker:This was customary.
Speaker:And so he's almost, instead of reclining like we think in like a lazyboy
Speaker:recliner, no, he's actually sort of laying down on his side, eating this
Speaker:meal, talking with the Pharisees.
Speaker:And so I think that's another important piece to, to recognize it.
Speaker:It shows that he felt a comfortability, a normalcy.
Speaker:Right that he was in this space of, man, I'm just gonna enjoy this
Speaker:meal and have this conversation.
Speaker:I'm gonna have this interaction with the Pharisees.
Speaker:You know, some scholars say that meals like this, when there were the Pharisees
Speaker:were together, that they would actually leave the door open to the dinner.
Speaker:And the reason for that was so that uninvited guests could enter
Speaker:and sit around by the walls to be able to witness and listen to the
Speaker:conversations that were being had.
Speaker:Cuz they may have been very insightful conversations.
Speaker:So this is a very unique setting, right?
Speaker:Typically we wouldn't say, you know, Hey, come over for dinner,
Speaker:I'm gonna leave the door open for whoever wants to just roll in there.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a little different.
Speaker:So I think that's important to also understand.
Speaker:So we see here that the scenery has been set.
Speaker:Jesus is enjoying a nice meal.
Speaker:He's reclining at the table and he's teaching and talking
Speaker:with the Pharisees here.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:So hopefully that helps give you a little picture here.
Speaker:Let's continue reading in the story.
Speaker:Verse 37 there reads a woman in that town.
Speaker:Who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees house.
Speaker:So she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.
Speaker:As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to
Speaker:wet his feet with her tears.
Speaker:Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them.
Speaker:So during this time, it was customary if you invited guests over into your home, it
Speaker:was a customary thing to wash their feet.
Speaker:And so interesting enough, we see here that for some reason, this
Speaker:tradition, this honor, was not completed for Jesus by the Pharisees.
Speaker:There was something that was missed.
Speaker:You know how he's laying down there?
Speaker:He's, he's eating, he's kind of having this conversation.
Speaker:His feet are filthy cuz the roads are dirty.
Speaker:They didn't have paved robes like we do today.
Speaker:And so it's almost as if this woman.
Speaker:Has very easy access to the feet cuz he is laying down in a position where his feet
Speaker:are away from the table and he's sort of eating there, talking with the Pharisees.
Speaker:You know, some, some may say that this woman was attempting
Speaker:to get as close as she could to Jesus without being too close.
Speaker:That the feet aren't necessarily the most intimate thing on someone's body, right?
Speaker:The feet are, are a dirty thing, especially in this time
Speaker:with the dirt all over them.
Speaker:Yet she gets close and wants to, to wash his feet for him.
Speaker:And then it goes on to des.
Speaker:Describe how she did that, that she used her hair, right?
Speaker:That the, that her hair was being used as sort of a towel to clean his feet.
Speaker:You know, in this time hair was considered almost seductive.
Speaker:They covered their hair in the Middle East, they don't show their hair.
Speaker:So for a woman to come in there, And use her hair to wash his feet.
Speaker:It was saying something.
Speaker:And so we see there's a clear tension in the room at this moment.
Speaker:All the attention now has been focused on this interaction
Speaker:between Jesus and this woman.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And an intimacy is being had with Jesus and the woman that is being welcomed.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:You know, this isn't an inappropriate intimacy or an unholy moment.
Speaker:This is actually an act of worship from this woman.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And some may interpret this, I'm sure the Pharisees interpreted
Speaker:this in a completely different way.
Speaker:They're like, what is this woman doing?
Speaker:Which we'll get to in a little bit, but I believe it's really important
Speaker:for us to take a moment to acknowledge the bravery that this woman has to
Speaker:step out on faith and interrupt Jesus.
Speaker:Think of the bravery required to interrupt Jesus in the middle of a meal
Speaker:with all the, the highest officials.
Speaker:Think about that.
Speaker:Yet.
Speaker:Jesus honors it and he welcomes this woman's interruption.
Speaker:And so one point I wanna make this morning, oh, there's a picture
Speaker:of kind of what's going on.
Speaker:One point I wanna make this morning is that world changers welcome interruption.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:The real Jesus welcomes interruption.
Speaker:He welcomes this woman into this moment.
Speaker:And so let's be honest for ourselves.
Speaker:No one really likes to be interrupted during dinner.
Speaker:No, you right, you.
Speaker:You don't want solicitors going knocking on your door in the
Speaker:middle of dinner trying to sell you something or tell you about something.
Speaker:Or telemarketer phone calls can be an irritation.
Speaker:You know iPhones, now they say spam risk, right?
Speaker:When it's coming in there, you're like, man, I don't want to be interrupted.
Speaker:When we sit down and eat, we want to enjoy our food and our time with our family.
Speaker:You guys with me?
Speaker:Yeah, sir.
Speaker:Can we be real about that?
Speaker:It's important for us sometimes.
Speaker:And so on a, you know, this may be true on a normal evening, but
Speaker:especially at a dinner party, right?
Speaker:So can you imagine an uninvited guest coming into your dinner party?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:The Pharisees are throwing this big dinner for Jesus.
Speaker:They're, they're, they're having this conversation and this woman who it
Speaker:describes in the text as a sinner comes in there probably pretty emotional,
Speaker:maybe a little inappropriate or obnoxious, and it probably irritated
Speaker:some of those Pharisees a little bit.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. But we see that there was a theological moment that was being
Speaker:had between Jesus and the Pharisees.
Speaker:Yet he welcomes such a unique interruption and he ends up using
Speaker:that to teach on something else.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, he uses that moment to teach on something else, and he welcomes
Speaker:the interruption in his life.
Speaker:So I want to ask you this morning, do you welcome interruption into your life?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:It's a unique thing to think about.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:We, our view of interruption is bad, right?
Speaker:We tell the kids, Hey, don't interrupt.
Speaker:You need to, you need to wait.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:But what I'm talking about is the interruption of man, what is the
Speaker:spirit leading me to think and do?
Speaker:And what is he interceding for me in my life?
Speaker:You know, uh, someone brought this up to me.
Speaker:Uh, Eric brought this up to me.
Speaker:The Good Samaritan experiment.
Speaker:Who has heard of the Good Samaritan experiment?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Few of us, right?
Speaker:It's an amazing experiment.
Speaker:It's really convicting and we see that seminary.
Speaker:So what it is, is seminary students had to go prepare a talk
Speaker:about the Good Samaritan, right?
Speaker:So they're in, in training, they're being taught, and they have to go
Speaker:prepare this, this, uh, they're gonna teach on the Good Samaritan, right?
Speaker:So upon arriving to the classroom when they're ready to do their
Speaker:talk, they were told that the class location had been moved elsewhere and
Speaker:only had a few minutes to get there.
Speaker:So you gotta go across campus to the other classroom to be
Speaker:able to do your co your talk.
Speaker:And on the route to the classroom, there was someone that had been
Speaker:placed in their path that was in need, someone who needed help.
Speaker:And the experiment was designed to see what percentage of the seminary
Speaker:students would stop to help the person in need, despite being rushed to the
Speaker:classroom to teach on the Good Samaritan.
Speaker:The stats were pretty sad overall.
Speaker:Only 40% of the students offered some sort of help to the
Speaker:victim in low hurry situation.
Speaker:So what they did was they changed the, the time, uh, hey, you got, you know, 20
Speaker:minutes to get there, says 63% helped.
Speaker:They stopped, they saw him and they helped in medium hurry.
Speaker:So maybe like five, 10 minutes, 45% of the people stopped.
Speaker:But in people who were late, high hurry, only 10% stopped
Speaker:to help the person in need.
Speaker:So what does that say?
Speaker:It says a person in hurry is less likely to help people even if
Speaker:they are going to speak on the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Speaker:So there's something in how we think.
Speaker:There's something about who we are in our DNI DNA as people.
Speaker:There's something that we lack here that Jesus emulates perfectly, that
Speaker:we should imitate exactly like him.
Speaker:You know, however, we see that Jesus takes the moment to be interrupted.
Speaker:And so I think it's important for us to ask, how would you respond if you
Speaker:were at the dinner, if you were in this moment, if you were with Jesus seeing
Speaker:him interact with this woman, what?
Speaker:What would be your response?
Speaker:I know for me, brothers and sisters, it would be, . I know naturally I would
Speaker:probably be feeling a lot of things.
Speaker:I'd be like, why is she doing this?
Speaker:What's I would be questioning, I'd be uncomfortable.
Speaker:I'd feel frustrated.
Speaker:I was like, we're just trying to have a conversation with Jesus
Speaker:and you have to do this right now.
Speaker:What's your problem?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, my prideful nature would be to kick this woman out.
Speaker:Get outta here.
Speaker:What are you doing?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And selfishly enjoy my meal and my guests.
Speaker:I don't know what your response would be, but how many of us miss moments
Speaker:like this because of our selfishness and pride in our daily lives?
Speaker:How often do we miss these moments?
Speaker:How many of us miss the opportunities that God is giving us to imitate
Speaker:him and welcome interruption?
Speaker:You know, what would it look like if we welcomed interruption into our lives?
Speaker:What would it look like?
Speaker:Let's talk about it.
Speaker:What would it look like if you welcomed interruption?
Speaker:Maybe some of the conversations that you'd have at the grocery
Speaker:store would be much more fruitful.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Maybe you'd be willing to listen and take a moment to hear what the, what
Speaker:the clerk has going on in their lives.
Speaker:Maybe the, the person who's homeless on the street, who's in desperate need.
Speaker:Maybe there's something that can connect there.
Speaker:Maybe you're able to help and meet that need.
Speaker:You know, maybe some of our coworkers are crying out for help,
Speaker:yet we're too busy and we never make the time to connect with them.
Speaker:You know, maybe some, some of us, it's, man, we don't associate with
Speaker:certain types of people because they make us uncomfortable.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:Maybe it's the gay person who's looking to learn about Jesus, but
Speaker:never gets an opportunity cuz we feel uncomfortable talking to them.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Maybe it's the person who has completely different political views than you, who is
Speaker:searching for a purpose beyond themselves.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:But you're too closed off.
Speaker:Because you're not welcoming interruption, you know, unfortunately, we can
Speaker:sometimes miss these opportunities because we're too focused on our own
Speaker:needs or we're too busy that we're not willing to welcome people into our
Speaker:lives who may make us uncomfortable.
Speaker:Jesus does this in this moment.
Speaker:It's beautiful.
Speaker:You know, and I wanna share a brief story here of a week of, of a moment
Speaker:that I missed the interruption Jesus was trying to place in front of me.
Speaker:The campus probably has heard this story, but when I was a freshman in high
Speaker:school, I had just become a disciple.
Speaker:And, um, it was my Spanish class, my first Spanish class.
Speaker:I go in there second period, I'm sitting in there, everyone's talking.
Speaker:And there was this really nice guy who was saying hi to me.
Speaker:I was like, wow, this guy's really nice.
Speaker:We started becoming, you know, acquaintances, but in the high
Speaker:school world, he was considered maybe more on the nerdy side.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Maybe more of the quiet, not very cool.
Speaker:And so in my insecure and and selfish nature, I was like, ah, I don't really
Speaker:want to like get too close to this guy.
Speaker:And so I had just become a Christian and I ended up never even talking
Speaker:to him about Jesus and what Jesus had done for me in my life.
Speaker:And I missed an opportunity with him.
Speaker:Well, fast forward four years later, it's my freshman year of college.
Speaker:I go to a college devotional, campus ministry devotional, and
Speaker:Luke who walks right in the door.
Speaker:It's that guy.
Speaker:And he walks in there and he was going to a completely different school than I was.
Speaker:Completely different school.
Speaker:And someone else in our ministry had invited him out to church.
Speaker:He ends up coming out, he starts studying the bible, joins
Speaker:our ministry, gets baptized.
Speaker:He's still faithful to this day.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:He's actually trying to go into the full-time ministry to become a teacher.
Speaker:He's gonna get his master's of divinity.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so I look at that moment and I was like, wow, I missed the opportunity.
Speaker:I missed this interruption.
Speaker:I missed the opportunity to, man, just let me say something, but
Speaker:God never missed the opportunity.
Speaker:God never misses the opportunity, and we see Jesus never misses the opportunity.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Brothers and sisters.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Jesus takes the time to welcome interruption into his life.
Speaker:And so if we want to imitate the real Jesus and be world changers, then we've
Speaker:gotta welcome interruption in our lives.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Let's continue reading the passage here.
Speaker:Verse 39 says, when the Pharisees who had invited him saw this, he said to himself,
Speaker:if this man were a prophet, he would know who was touching him and what kind
Speaker:of woman she is, that she's a sinner.
Speaker:Jesus answered.
Speaker:Simon, I have something to tell you.
Speaker:Tell me teacher he said.
Speaker:Two people owed a certain money lender one hi one owed him 500 Denar
Speaker:Denari, and the other 50, neither of them had the money to pay him back,
Speaker:so he forgave the debts of both.
Speaker:Now, which of them will love him more?
Speaker:Simon replied, I suppose, the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.
Speaker:You have judged correctly, Jesus said.
Speaker:Then he turned toward the woman and said to him, do you see this woman?
Speaker:I came into your house.
Speaker:You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her
Speaker:tears and wiped them with her hair.
Speaker:You did not gimme a kiss.
Speaker:But this woman from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.
Speaker:You did not put oil on my head.
Speaker:But she has poured perfume on my feet.
Speaker:Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven as her great
Speaker:love has shown, but whoever has been forgiven, little loves little.
Speaker:That Jesus said to her, your sins are forgiven.
Speaker:The other guests began to say to themselves, who is this?
Speaker:Who even forgive sins?
Speaker:Jesus said to the women, your faith has saved you.
Speaker:Go in peace.
Speaker:World changers.
Speaker:Recognize how much they've been forgiven of, okay, come on, this woman realize
Speaker:how much she had been forgiven of.
Speaker:I found a commentary that talked about how the point of this story of course,
Speaker:is that those who are aware of their great need have a great appreciation
Speaker:for the forgiveness they have received.
Speaker:They have a humility that comes with an appropriate sense of their sinfulness,
Speaker:but those who are blinded by their pride are unaware of how much they need it.
Speaker:So they don't have a proper appreciation for God's forgiveness.
Speaker:You know, and in the campus ministry we've been studying out Matthew, uh,
Speaker:chapter five, the, the Sermon on the Mount, the Be Attitudes, and it's
Speaker:been a great time going through those.
Speaker:And we're, we're really learning some good stuff.
Speaker:But the first one he says there, Matthew five, uh, verse three is he says,
Speaker:blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, right?
Speaker:This idea of being poor in spirit.
Speaker:And so we talked about this with the college ministry at first was like, man,
Speaker:what does this mean to be poor in spirit?
Speaker:Such a unique and different concept.
Speaker:It's not something we usually think about, but what it really means is to acknowledge
Speaker:how much you've been forgiven of and understanding your need for God's mercy.
Speaker:Understanding that and recognizing that it's a sober judgment of yourself.
Speaker:It's to be sober minded and realize, wow, I need grace in my life.
Speaker:And so we've gotta be humble enough church to admit that we are sinful.
Speaker:We've gotta admit it, we've gotta acknowledge it, and we need God's mercy.
Speaker:Otherwise, it says we won't receive the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker:This isn't an option.
Speaker:This is a requirement in a sense that we've gotta be poor in spirit
Speaker:to receive the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker:You know, Jesus forgives the woman's sins.
Speaker:It says, because she had the humility to recognize her need to be forgiven.
Speaker:She had the humility to take us a leap of faith.
Speaker:She had the humility to say, you know what?
Speaker:I'm gonna use my hair.
Speaker:I'm gonna use this perfume that I have.
Speaker:Let's talk for a second church.
Speaker:Can I be real?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Let's talk for a second about the problems that can occur with not understanding
Speaker:how much we've been forgiven of.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Come on.
Speaker:Because this is a weakness for me, I'll be honest.
Speaker:It's, it's a tough thing to recognize.
Speaker:And so some of the problems with not recognizing how much you've been
Speaker:forgiven of is you can be prideful.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And then if you're prideful, you lack compassion.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:, you lack compassion.
Speaker:So too many of us who have either maybe grown up in the church like myself,
Speaker:or maybe you've been around for many years, you've been faithful for many
Speaker:years, but maybe some of us have failed to completely understand our
Speaker:need for mercy, and we get prideful.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:, and we start to lack compassion.
Speaker:Maybe we start lacking compassion for those who have
Speaker:not yet been saved by Christ.
Speaker:The lost.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because we're not in touch with how much he saved us from Yeah.
Speaker:We're not realizing it.
Speaker:We're not recognizing it, we're not seeing it.
Speaker:And so we don't have this overflow, man, I gotta share this.
Speaker:I've been forgiven of so much.
Speaker:I've gotta share it.
Speaker:I gotta spread it.
Speaker:I need my friends to know about this.
Speaker:And so we lack that compassion.
Speaker:We lack that zeal.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:I think this can also lead to a lack of compassion that causes us to
Speaker:start pointing our fingers at maybe other churches or other people who
Speaker:are trying to live a life of Christ.
Speaker:And we start pointing to them and start saying, man, they're
Speaker:not living out true discipleship.
Speaker:And we start judging them all, just like the Pharisees do.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:That lacks compassion.
Speaker:Who are we to start judging other churches?
Speaker:You guys with me?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's not our job.
Speaker:That's up to God.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:We cannot become arrogant like the Pharisees and think we're the only
Speaker:holy ones brothers and sisters.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:. We've gotta have the compassion and recognize our own sin.
Speaker:You know, another problem with not understanding how much we've been really
Speaker:forgiven of is we can get critical.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And when we get critical, this leads to becoming judgmental.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Criticalness leads to being judgmental.
Speaker:And so some of us can become critical of the very own church that
Speaker:has helped you learn about Jesus.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And this leads to us being judgmental towards others in the church.
Speaker:Alright.
Speaker:You know, being critical towards the church.
Speaker:Or maybe the leaders in the church or certain practices we do in the church.
Speaker:It shows a lack of humility and empathy for those that are really
Speaker:trying to build God's church.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:We can't be critical.
Speaker:Criticalness does not lead to anything good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's a healthy type of criticalness, but I'm talking about the unhealthy.
Speaker:I'm talking about the the prideful criticalness where it's, man,
Speaker:look at all the problems here.
Speaker:We can't be like John Mayer waiting on the world to change.
Speaker:We gotta be proactive and help things change.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:He just sits there and waits.
Speaker:It's all the songs about, I'm waiting on the world to change.
Speaker:He ain't doing nothing about it.
Speaker:Let's not be like that.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Okay, so the real Jesus brothers and sisters, he, he forgives those who know
Speaker:they need forgiveness, and so let's imitate the humility of this woman who
Speaker:knew she needed the mercy of Jesus.
Speaker:This.
Speaker:Let's imitate that example.
Speaker:Let's recognize that with our lives and a few action steps as we close out
Speaker:Prayer for the week is I want us to ask God to reveal the ways that you
Speaker:can welcome interruption in your life.
Speaker:Start asking God, what are the ways I'm, what are the opportunities I'm missing?
Speaker:Please show them to me.
Speaker:Please help me understand them.
Speaker:Help me see the ways that I can welcome this interruption.
Speaker:And an action step is I want us to ask a trusted friend, what are the
Speaker:ways that I can grow in my humility?
Speaker:Come on, let's get some help in our lives.
Speaker:So let's get some vulnerability in our lives.
Speaker:So let's ask, man.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I know I'm not perfect.
Speaker:What do I need to do to be more humble?
Speaker:How can I implement this idea of being poor and spirit into my life?
Speaker:What do you see in my character?
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:So brothers and sisters, we're gonna in a few moments here, take communion together.
Speaker:Hopefully you can write these down.
Speaker:Take picture, whatever you gotta do.
Speaker:But as we close out and take commune, I want us to remember that disciples
Speaker:of the real Jesus welcome interruption.
Speaker:If you wanna be a world changer like Jesus, let's welcome
Speaker:interruption in our lives.
Speaker:And let's also remember that disciples of the real Jesus recognize their
Speaker:need for forgiveness and how the cross is what makes this possible.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Amen.
Speaker:Let's say a word of prayer.
Speaker:Lord, thank you so much for this morning.
Speaker:Thank you so much for your son Jesus, to be able to see how he interacts with
Speaker:people, to see how he takes the moment and the time to be interrupted and
Speaker:welcome that, and value that and value others above himself is what the, the
Speaker:Bible, uh, says that he values others.
Speaker:He made himself nothing by becoming a servant.
Speaker:And God, I pray that as we reflect on the cross, as we reflect on the
Speaker:communion right now, Lord, that you help us to connect with this idea of
Speaker:realizing our need for forgiveness.
Speaker:God, I know as a, as a young man who's grown up in the church,
Speaker:it's hard sometimes to see that.
Speaker:It's hard to, but Lord, I know I need it.
Speaker:I know all of us need it because Jesus came here not for one, but for all.
Speaker:And God, I pray that as we take the community, we can remember that as
Speaker:disciples, we're called to love you with all of our heart, all of our mind, all
Speaker:of our soul, and all of our strength.
Speaker:And remember that the grace that you've shown us through the cross
Speaker:is the best gift we could ever get.
Speaker:We love you.
Speaker:We thank you.
Speaker:In Jesus name I pray.
