Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - Youre Not The Boss Of Me Part 6 Undercover Boss

Transcript

Andy Stanley - Youre Not The Boss Of Me Part 6 Undercover Boss · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:01
Speaker 1: So today we are wrapping up the series and we
0:03
Speaker 1: are in part six of You're Not the Boss of Me,
0:06
Speaker 1: And if you've not been with us, the subtitle is
0:08
Speaker 1: how to say No to the emotions that compete for control?
0:12
Speaker 1: Because all of us have certain emotions that compete for
0:14
Speaker 1: control of our mouth and our mood. And Jesus said.
0:18
Speaker 1: Jesus said that what's on the inside of us eventually
0:20
Speaker 1: comes on the outside of us. And consequently, we need
0:23
Speaker 1: to not simply monitor what's going on with our behavior,
0:27
Speaker 1: because all of us are pretty good at monitoring our behavior.
0:29
Speaker 1: We need to develop the habit. We need to develop
0:32
Speaker 1: the habit of monitoring our hearts. So at the beginning
0:34
Speaker 1: of this series, I wrote a little poem. I'm sure
0:37
Speaker 1: most of you committed it to memory, but in case
0:39
Speaker 1: you haven't, here's the little poem I wrote to kind
0:41
Speaker 1: of get our head into this content. I wrote this.
0:44
Speaker 1: It says, our need of supervision may someday come to
0:47
Speaker 1: an end if we silence the toxic voices that come
0:51
Speaker 1: from within that none of us want anybody to have
0:54
Speaker 1: to hold our hand tell us what to do. I mean,
0:56
Speaker 1: after all, we're adults, or we're emerging adults, and you
0:59
Speaker 1: could get to the place. I can get to the
1:00
Speaker 1: place where I could actually kind of just live my
1:02
Speaker 1: life without anybody telling me what to do if I
1:05
Speaker 1: can learn to silence those internal voices that come from within.
1:09
Speaker 1: And Jesus said, it's what's inside of you that eventually
1:12
Speaker 1: comes outside of you that defiles you or messes up
1:15
Speaker 1: your relationship with God, because it messes up your relationship
1:18
Speaker 1: with other people. So learning to monitor what's going on
1:21
Speaker 1: within is absolutely critical to our personal success and to
1:25
Speaker 1: our relationships. While I was doing this series, I I
1:29
Speaker 1: was listening to Tim Ferriss podcast and he was interviewing artists.
1:33
Speaker 1: Amanda Palmer, and she talked about a conversation she had
1:36
Speaker 1: with a friend and she quoted her friend, and I
1:38
Speaker 1: don't think she gave her friend's name, so I don't
1:40
Speaker 1: know who said this, but this was a friend of
1:42
Speaker 1: Amanda Palmer, and I love this quote. Here's what he
1:44
Speaker 1: said that she remembered that I wrote down, if you
1:47
Speaker 1: don't deal with your demons, they go into the seller
1:51
Speaker 1: of your soul and lift weights. That is a great quote.
1:56
Speaker 1: The only thing I don't like about it is that
1:57
Speaker 1: I didn't come up with it. Myself now so powerful,
2:01
Speaker 1: and the imagery is so true. Right, if you don't
2:04
Speaker 1: deal with your demons, those things on the inside of you,
2:06
Speaker 1: not literal demons, but the stuff that just kind of
2:08
Speaker 1: got inside of you because of something that happened in
2:11
Speaker 1: your childhood or something that happened during high school, or
2:13
Speaker 1: something that happened to you, and you're just dealing with
2:16
Speaker 1: that stuff. He so rightly said, If you don't deal
2:18
Speaker 1: with that stuff, it doesn't go away. It does not
2:22
Speaker 1: fix itself, it does not right itself. It goes into
2:24
Speaker 1: the cellar of your soul and lifts weights. It gets
2:27
Speaker 1: stronger and stronger and stronger, and eventually it impacts future
2:31
Speaker 1: relationships as well. And one of the ways that we
2:34
Speaker 1: identify what's going on in the cellar of our soul,
2:38
Speaker 1: and one of the things that one of the ways
2:39
Speaker 1: we become aware that there's stuff in us that's gonna
2:42
Speaker 1: come out of us that we need to deal with
2:44
Speaker 1: before it does, is by paying attention to the emotions
2:48
Speaker 1: that compete for control of our moods and our mouths,
2:52
Speaker 1: the emotions that compete for control of our moods, those
2:56
Speaker 1: dark times where we just go inward or and our mouth.
2:59
Speaker 1: So in this is if you've been tracking along, We've
3:01
Speaker 1: talked about envy, We've talked about guilt, we've talked about anger.
3:05
Speaker 1: Last week we talked about fear, and generally speaking, those
3:09
Speaker 1: things are pretty easy to spot. But today I want
3:12
Speaker 1: to spend a few minutes kind of going in a
3:13
Speaker 1: different direction, and I want to talk about the destructive
3:16
Speaker 1: emotions that actually disguise themselves as virtues. They disguise themselves
3:22
Speaker 1: as good things. They disguise themselves as compassion, as sympathy,
3:28
Speaker 1: as care, concern. They can even disguise themselves as love.
3:33
Speaker 1: Because what you know, because you're an adult, is this
3:36
Speaker 1: that what we consider nice and being nice sometimes isn't
3:40
Speaker 1: really all that nice. And what we consider caring doesn't
3:44
Speaker 1: always feel caring, and love, if you're really going to
3:47
Speaker 1: love somebody, it doesn't always feel loving. And what love
3:51
Speaker 1: actually requires of us, what love actually requires of us,
3:53
Speaker 1: can feel like anything but love. Now, if you're a parent,
3:57
Speaker 1: you know this because at some point, every parent to
4:00
Speaker 1: make their child hate them or just about hate them. Right,
4:03
Speaker 1: if you're gonna be a good parent, at some point
4:04
Speaker 1: you have to do something that makes your child so
4:07
Speaker 1: mad they may even say at some point, Mom, I
4:09
Speaker 1: hate you, or Dad, I hate you, and you have
4:11
Speaker 1: to be willing to face that fury and deal with
4:14
Speaker 1: that fury in order to do the right thing. And
4:16
Speaker 1: in that moment, it doesn't feel like love and it
4:18
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like care. It feels like the opposite. Or
4:21
Speaker 1: if you were raised with good parents, you were on
4:24
Speaker 1: the receiving end of this. Your parents did things, perhaps
4:27
Speaker 1: in some seasons of your life, that made you hate them.
4:29
Speaker 1: You were so angry with them, and then you look
4:32
Speaker 1: back and you think, wow, I'm so glad they did,
4:35
Speaker 1: because sometimes care doesn't feel caring, and sometimes love doesn't
4:38
Speaker 1: feel loving. But here's where this interfaces with our lives
4:42
Speaker 1: as adults. Fear of rejection, discomfort with conflicts some of
4:46
Speaker 1: you were conflict, diverse, apprehension around confrontation. These are emotions
4:51
Speaker 1: that basically disguise themselves as what as sensitivity and concern,
4:57
Speaker 1: when in fact they're just fear, discomfort, and apprehension. And
5:02
Speaker 1: I already know the answer to this question, but I'll
5:04
Speaker 1: ask it anyway. Do you want fear and discomfort and
5:08
Speaker 1: apprehension to be the boss of you? No? Do you
5:12
Speaker 1: want fear discomfort? Oh? I can't do that. It makes
5:15
Speaker 1: me uncomfortable. I can't do that because it just makes
5:18
Speaker 1: me a little nervous. Do you want those things to
5:20
Speaker 1: be the boss of you? No? And here's the challenge,
5:24
Speaker 1: especially for those of us who are Jesus followers, in
5:26
Speaker 1: order to love other people, in order to be for
5:29
Speaker 1: other people, what other people need us to be for
5:31
Speaker 1: them is We're going to see in a second. In
5:32
Speaker 1: order to be for other people what Jesus actually calls
5:35
Speaker 1: and commands us to be, we have to recognize fear
5:39
Speaker 1: for what it is, discomfort for what it is, our
5:41
Speaker 1: fear of engaging in things that are uncomfortable, for what
5:44
Speaker 1: it is. Call those emotions out and say, you know what, Fear,
5:47
Speaker 1: you're not going to be the boss of me. Apprehension,
5:49
Speaker 1: you're not going to be the boss of me. And
5:51
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna do what I need to do for
5:53
Speaker 1: the sake of this other person, even though it doesn't
5:55
Speaker 1: feel good to me right now. And there's an another
6:00
Speaker 1: emotion that cloaks itself in the mantle of kindness and
6:04
Speaker 1: care and sensitivity, and it's this one. It's indifference. This
6:08
Speaker 1: is a terrible thing. It's not so much a feeling
6:11
Speaker 1: It's not so much an emotion as a lack of
6:13
Speaker 1: a feeling or a lack of emotion where there should
6:16
Speaker 1: be one. It's a lack of concern where there should
6:19
Speaker 1: be concern. And the thing is, we rarely spot in
6:23
Speaker 1: difference in our lives because it's so embarrassing. Nobody is
6:26
Speaker 1: gonna own in difference. Very few people are gonna say,
6:28
Speaker 1: you know what, she's making some terrible to mistakes, but
6:30
Speaker 1: I don't care what happens to her. You know what,
6:32
Speaker 1: he's getting himself in a big mess relationally, but I
6:34
Speaker 1: don't care what happens to him. You know, if that
6:36
Speaker 1: keeps going on in their marriage, it's going to destroy
6:38
Speaker 1: their marriage. But I don't care what happens to them.
6:41
Speaker 1: What we say is this, you know, I see what's
6:43
Speaker 1: going on, but I shouldn't interfere. So I'm gonna pretend
6:48
Speaker 1: like I'm just being sensitive. But in pretending to be sensitive,
6:51
Speaker 1: you are cloaking. You are hiding fear or indifference. Oh,
6:56
Speaker 1: you know, they haven't even asked for my input, So
6:58
Speaker 1: I'm just being sensitive. I'm gonna wait until they ask
7:01
Speaker 1: I'm being sensitive. No, you're not being sensitive. You are
7:03
Speaker 1: hiding your fear in your discomfort with sensitivity. Oh here's
7:07
Speaker 1: our big one, right, Well, that's none of my business.
7:09
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, they're kind of really regret that. Financially,
7:11
Speaker 1: you know what, he's gonna wish he'd never met her. Ultimately, Yeah,
7:14
Speaker 1: that's that's not gonna work out for him professionally. But
7:17
Speaker 1: you know what, it's none of my business. So here's
7:21
Speaker 1: the question. Do you want indifference to be the boss
7:25
Speaker 1: of you? Do you want to be so emotionally neutral
7:28
Speaker 1: because hey, it's none of my business. They didn't ask
7:30
Speaker 1: me that that becomes the boss of you? Or let
7:32
Speaker 1: me flip it around this way. When you need someone
7:36
Speaker 1: and you will if you haven't already, when you need
7:39
Speaker 1: someone to mind your business because you're not doing such
7:42
Speaker 1: a good job minding your business, are you going to
7:45
Speaker 1: want those people, those friends to give into fear and
7:49
Speaker 1: the you know, and discomfort and given to indifference. Are
7:53
Speaker 1: you gonna want them to step up and interfere in
7:56
Speaker 1: your business if it keeps you from making things worse
7:58
Speaker 1: or keeps you from making a big mistake. And the
8:01
Speaker 1: answer is, even though it is so uncomfortable, and again
8:04
Speaker 1: that's the emotion, it is so uncomfortable in those moments
8:07
Speaker 1: that we need people to step up and speak into
8:09
Speaker 1: our lives. We want people to step up and speak
8:12
Speaker 1: into our lives even when it's uncomfortable for them. We
8:15
Speaker 1: want people who are willing to say, to fear and discomfort,
8:17
Speaker 1: you are not the boss of me and difference, you
8:20
Speaker 1: are not the boss of me. I care, and it's
8:22
Speaker 1: because I care. I'm sensitive, and it's because I'm sensitive
8:25
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna step in and say what will appear
8:28
Speaker 1: to be the insensitive and the uncomfortable thing. Now, if
8:33
Speaker 1: you're a Christian, if you're a Jesus follower, you can't
8:37
Speaker 1: listen to those unhealthy voices because there's another voice that's
8:41
Speaker 1: already spoken, the voice of the good Shepherd, whose instructions
8:46
Speaker 1: don't always feel so good. In fact, one day, Jesus
8:50
Speaker 1: is speaking, and I'm gonna give you context in a minute,
8:52
Speaker 1: but here's kind of his bottom line in case you
8:54
Speaker 1: have to leave early. Okay, here's what Jesus said. Hey,
8:57
Speaker 1: if your brother or your sister, somebody you know, oh,
9:00
Speaker 1: this is a relationship. It's not your literal brother or sister,
9:02
Speaker 1: but somebody you're you know, in community with. If your
9:05
Speaker 1: brother or sister sins go and point out their fault,
9:11
Speaker 1: to which you may conclude, you know what, that's reason
9:14
Speaker 1: enough right there to never ever follow Jesus, because I'm
9:18
Speaker 1: not ever ever gonna do that, right. I mean, let
9:21
Speaker 1: me ask you a question. Who does that? People who care,
9:28
Speaker 1: People who decide discomfort's worth dealing with, if that's what
9:31
Speaker 1: it takes to love you. So what I want to do,
9:35
Speaker 1: because this is so stark and in your face, I
9:37
Speaker 1: want to back up a few verses and I want
9:38
Speaker 1: to give you the context because Jesus takes this audience
9:41
Speaker 1: on a little bit of a journey through two or
9:43
Speaker 1: three really important things, and then he finally lands the
9:46
Speaker 1: plane around this whole idea that we are supposed to
9:49
Speaker 1: confront people and sin. And as harsh as that sounds,
9:52
Speaker 1: when you hear the whole conversation at the end, you
9:54
Speaker 1: kind of go, you know what, that actually makes a
9:55
Speaker 1: lot of sense, even though I don't feel like doing it,
9:58
Speaker 1: and even though it is so uncomfort. So here's how
10:00
Speaker 1: the conversation went at that time, and Matthew was there
10:04
Speaker 1: for all of this. At that time, the disciples came
10:06
Speaker 1: to Jesus and they asked a question they said, Jesus,
10:09
Speaker 1: who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And
10:12
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Heaven wasn't heaven out there somewhere. The
10:15
Speaker 1: Kingdom of Heaven was what Jesus was introducing to earth,
10:18
Speaker 1: a brand new value system that was in conflict with
10:21
Speaker 1: the kingdoms of this world. And he says, in this
10:23
Speaker 1: kingdom that you're establishing who's the greatest. And of course
10:26
Speaker 1: the apostles are thinking, are hoping He's going to point
10:28
Speaker 1: to them and say, well, you know, somebody like Peter
10:30
Speaker 1: or maybe somebody like Matthew, and he called the text.
10:34
Speaker 1: Matthew says. He actually called a child to them, and
10:38
Speaker 1: he placed the child among them, So we bring He
10:40
Speaker 1: sees a kid in the audience, says could you come
10:41
Speaker 1: up here a second, or ask this mom or dad?
10:43
Speaker 1: We bring your son or daughter up here. And he
10:45
Speaker 1: sets this child in front of the disciples and they're like,
10:48
Speaker 1: did you not understand the question. We're asking who's going
10:50
Speaker 1: to be the greatest, not the shortest? Okay, We're asking
10:52
Speaker 1: who's going to be the greatest, not the youngest. And
10:55
Speaker 1: Jesus says, I tell you, unless all of you guys,
10:58
Speaker 1: these are his closest followers. Unless you change and you
11:02
Speaker 1: become like little children, you will never even enter the
11:06
Speaker 1: Kingdom of heaven. And he's got their attention. And then
11:11
Speaker 1: he begins this teaching that's gonna land with this uncomfortable command.
11:15
Speaker 1: He says this, if anyone, if anyone causes one of
11:18
Speaker 1: these little ones, And now he's expanding the audience beyond
11:22
Speaker 1: this single child, to anyone who has begun following him.
11:25
Speaker 1: And that's clear because this language is used in a
11:27
Speaker 1: previous passage and in a later passage he kind of
11:30
Speaker 1: teases it out. Now he's not just talking about little kids.
11:33
Speaker 1: If anyone causes one of these little ones who's believe
11:36
Speaker 1: in me, That's why we know he's talking now about
11:37
Speaker 1: the adults that have begun to follow him. If anyone
11:40
Speaker 1: causes one of these new people, these little ones who
11:42
Speaker 1: believe in me, to stumble, that is, to fall down,
11:46
Speaker 1: to get tripped up, to go out of bounds, to
11:48
Speaker 1: get thrown off course. In other words, if anyone who
11:51
Speaker 1: comes along and causes one of these people who are
11:53
Speaker 1: just beginning to believe in me, just beginning to get
11:55
Speaker 1: their life together, just beginning to you know, refocus and
11:58
Speaker 1: recenter their life around me. Anybody that comes along and
12:01
Speaker 1: throws something down in front of them that causes them
12:04
Speaker 1: to stumble or go backwards or lose their way, it
12:07
Speaker 1: would be better for that person to have a large
12:10
Speaker 1: millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in
12:13
Speaker 1: the depths of the sea. It would be better to
12:17
Speaker 1: take a stone that's the shape of a wheel that
12:19
Speaker 1: a donkey you would push around and around and around
12:21
Speaker 1: to crush grapes, to have that hung around a person's
12:24
Speaker 1: neck and to drop them into the sea. Hyperbole. He's
12:27
Speaker 1: making an extreme point. He's making an extreme case because
12:30
Speaker 1: he's making an extreme point. He wants everybody's attention, and
12:33
Speaker 1: he says this. He says, WHOA. I love it when
12:35
Speaker 1: he says whoa, it's like attention police. Woe to the
12:38
Speaker 1: world because of the things that cause people to stumble.
12:42
Speaker 1: In other words, things are going to come along in
12:43
Speaker 1: our lives that cause us to get tripped up. But
12:46
Speaker 1: such he says, such things must come, but woe to
12:49
Speaker 1: the person through whom they come. That this is so
12:52
Speaker 1: important for all of us. He says, it's one thing
12:55
Speaker 1: for somebody to get tripped up because something they couldn't
12:57
Speaker 1: help or something came along in life that you know,
12:59
Speaker 1: there was illness, or they lost their job, or or
13:02
Speaker 1: something they had no control over happened and they, you know,
13:04
Speaker 1: in dealing with it, they kind of lost their way
13:06
Speaker 1: for a while. He said, you know what, that kind
13:07
Speaker 1: of stuff's going to happen, But woe to the person.
13:11
Speaker 1: That is the cause for a person to actually throw
13:13
Speaker 1: something in someone's way, or to get in someone's way,
13:16
Speaker 1: or to cause someone to lose their way. This was
13:18
Speaker 1: Jesus' way of saying the way we say it is. Hey, please,
13:21
Speaker 1: don't be somebody's mistake. Don't ever be somebody's regret. Don't
13:25
Speaker 1: ever trip somebody up in their marriage. Don't ever trip
13:28
Speaker 1: somebody up with their reputation. Don't ever trip somebody up
13:31
Speaker 1: in terms of their professional career or their progress. Don't
13:34
Speaker 1: get in the way. Don't be somebody's mistake. Don't be
13:37
Speaker 1: somebody's regret. Don't be the reason they lost their way.
13:40
Speaker 1: When they tell their story and they bring your name up,
13:43
Speaker 1: hope that they don't bring your name up and say,
13:45
Speaker 1: you know, things were going fine until I met and
13:47
Speaker 1: they say your name things were going along fine in
13:49
Speaker 1: our marriage until my husband met and they say your name.
13:52
Speaker 1: Things were going along well at work, and then we
13:54
Speaker 1: hired and they say your name. Don't be somebody else's regret.
13:59
Speaker 1: And how how big of a deal is this whole
14:01
Speaker 1: stumbling thing to Jesus? He keeps going. He says this.
14:04
Speaker 1: Now we've talked about there are things you can't avoid
14:06
Speaker 1: that might cause you to stumble. We've talked about people
14:09
Speaker 1: who cause people to stumble, and now he talks about
14:11
Speaker 1: us getting in our own way when it comes to
14:15
Speaker 1: causing people to stumble. Here's what he says, and this
14:17
Speaker 1: is extreme, and don't leave early. If your hand or
14:21
Speaker 1: your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. Here's
14:24
Speaker 1: the keyword, and throw it away. It's like, okay, literally, no,
14:29
Speaker 1: don't leave early, not literally. Now, the interesting thing was,
14:31
Speaker 1: hundreds of years later there would be a group of
14:34
Speaker 1: Jesus followers who began to take some of these teachings literally.
14:36
Speaker 1: He didn't mean it literally. Here's his point. If there
14:39
Speaker 1: is something you have control over that has the potential
14:42
Speaker 1: to trip you up or cause you to stumble, deal
14:45
Speaker 1: with it. And if your eye, if your eye causes
14:49
Speaker 1: you to stumble, gouge it out. And again here's the
14:52
Speaker 1: word throw it away. In other words, if there's anything
14:56
Speaker 1: in your life that has the potential to get you
14:58
Speaker 1: off course, to create regret, to create a season of
15:03
Speaker 1: your life that you'll wish you could go back to
15:05
Speaker 1: and relive. If there's anything you have control over right
15:08
Speaker 1: now that could potentially trip you up or is tripping
15:11
Speaker 1: you up, he says, get rid of it. And the
15:13
Speaker 1: reason he uses such extreme measures is because God loves
15:17
Speaker 1: you so much he would do anything to keep you
15:19
Speaker 1: from being tripped up, stumble, and fall out of bounds
15:22
Speaker 1: in terms of your moral life, your financial life, your
15:24
Speaker 1: marriage life, your relationship life, any area of your life.
15:28
Speaker 1: He says, this is a big deal, because you're a
15:30
Speaker 1: big deal. This requires extreme response because of how much
15:35
Speaker 1: I love you. And then he says this, it is
15:39
Speaker 1: better for you to enter life without one eye than
15:43
Speaker 1: to have two eyes and to be thrown into the
15:45
Speaker 1: fire of Gehenna. Now the keyword here, he's doing a
15:48
Speaker 1: little linguistic thing around this word thrown. Here's what he's saying.
15:52
Speaker 1: It is better for you to throw things out of
15:55
Speaker 1: your life than for your entire life to be thrown
15:57
Speaker 1: into chaos. It is better for you to take extreme
16:01
Speaker 1: measures while you are still in control, before your life
16:04
Speaker 1: spends out of control and you find your entire life
16:07
Speaker 1: in chaos. The word Gehenna is actually a literal place
16:10
Speaker 1: in the south side of Jerusalem, and hundreds of years
16:14
Speaker 1: before Jesus was teaching the Jewish, the Israelite people, or
16:17
Speaker 1: the Hebrew people at the time, they actually sacrificed their
16:20
Speaker 1: own children to Molak, who was a pagan god, and
16:23
Speaker 1: God judged the nation. So this area of Jerusalem became
16:27
Speaker 1: a place that was considered cursed. Eventually it became the
16:30
Speaker 1: garbage dump, and there was always fires and things being
16:33
Speaker 1: burned all the time. So this was a literal thing,
16:35
Speaker 1: and Jesus was making a very important point. It is
16:38
Speaker 1: better to throw some things away from your life than
16:41
Speaker 1: to have your life thrown into chaos. It is better
16:44
Speaker 1: to throw whatever you can away from you than to
16:46
Speaker 1: have your entire life thrown into chaos, because when your
16:49
Speaker 1: entire life is thrown into chaos, it becomes hell on earth,
16:56
Speaker 1: doesn't it. Have you ever stumbled? Yeah, you've stumbled. And
17:01
Speaker 1: once you've stumbled, and something becomes an addiction, once something
17:05
Speaker 1: becomes irreversible, once something becomes legal, that you wish you'd
17:08
Speaker 1: never gotten involved in and now you can't get out
17:10
Speaker 1: of it without doing something illegal. Isn't it true that
17:13
Speaker 1: you wish you could go back to the time when
17:15
Speaker 1: it began and throw something out of your life. There's
17:18
Speaker 1: some of you that wish you had thrown away a
17:19
Speaker 1: phone number, but you didn't, and you didn't throw away
17:23
Speaker 1: the phone number, and now your life is thrown into chaos,
17:25
Speaker 1: and you wish you could go back and throw away
17:26
Speaker 1: a phone number. You wish you could delete a text,
17:28
Speaker 1: but instead of deleting the text, you responded to the text.
17:31
Speaker 1: You responded to the text, and eventually it threw your
17:32
Speaker 1: life into chaos, and you wish you could go back
17:34
Speaker 1: and throw away the text instead of having your whole
17:36
Speaker 1: life thrown into chaos. I could go on and on.
17:39
Speaker 1: Some of you wish you'd never taken that first drink.
17:41
Speaker 1: Instead of taking it, you wish you had thrown it away.
17:44
Speaker 1: If you could go back, you would throw it away,
17:46
Speaker 1: because it is better to throw that away than for
17:48
Speaker 1: your whole life to be thrown into chaos. Throw an
17:50
Speaker 1: addiction to alcohol or an addiction to anything. So why
17:54
Speaker 1: does Jesus say take extreme measures? Because he loves you
17:58
Speaker 1: extremely for you. And again every parent here understands what
18:02
Speaker 1: we would say to our own children in this same capacity.
18:06
Speaker 1: And then Jesus switches gears just a little bit. He's
18:09
Speaker 1: still on the stumbling things. So here's what he said
18:12
Speaker 1: so far. Look, you know things are gonna come along
18:14
Speaker 1: in life that have the potential to cause you to stumble.
18:16
Speaker 1: To look out, don't be the thing that causes someone
18:19
Speaker 1: to stumble, because God does not like people who cause
18:22
Speaker 1: other people to stumble, because he likes the people who stumbled.
18:25
Speaker 1: And then, thirdly, if there's something you're involved in that
18:28
Speaker 1: you can get rid of to keep you from stumbling,
18:30
Speaker 1: get rid of it. It is better to throw certain
18:32
Speaker 1: things out of your life than for your entire life
18:34
Speaker 1: to be thrown into chaos. And then he switches gears
18:38
Speaker 1: and he gets really personal and he says this, and
18:40
Speaker 1: I love this. He says this, what what do you think?
18:45
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be cool to be standing there with Jesus?
18:47
Speaker 1: And he's like, so what do you think? And if
18:49
Speaker 1: you're smart, you don't say anything because you'll be wrong. Okay,
18:52
Speaker 1: you just go I've died on I don't think I'm
18:54
Speaker 1: gonna share my thoughts right now, and you probably already
18:56
Speaker 1: know my thoughts anyway. So Jesus starts this whole conversation
18:59
Speaker 1: off is so cool. He says, Okay, you guys, what
19:01
Speaker 1: do you think? And then he tells a very familiar
19:05
Speaker 1: parable that you have heard before, but probably not in
19:08
Speaker 1: this context. Because one of the things that's important to
19:10
Speaker 1: remember is this Jesus taught for about three years, and
19:14
Speaker 1: he repeated many of these parables and many of these
19:16
Speaker 1: stories over and over and over and over to make
19:19
Speaker 1: sure the people within Judea and Galilee got it. So
19:23
Speaker 1: now he takes a parable that you've heard in one context,
19:26
Speaker 1: he puts it in a different context. Here's what he says.
19:28
Speaker 1: He says, if a man owns a hundred sheep, which
19:32
Speaker 1: to us is just odd, but to them that was
19:34
Speaker 1: the world they lived in. If a man owns a
19:36
Speaker 1: hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, or, to
19:39
Speaker 1: use the word he's going to use throughout this teaching,
19:41
Speaker 1: if one of them stumbles away, if one of them
19:44
Speaker 1: stumbles off, if one of them gets lost or loses
19:47
Speaker 1: its way, will the man or will the shepherd not
19:50
Speaker 1: leave the ninety nine on the hills and go look
19:53
Speaker 1: for the one that wandered off. And everybody in Jesus'
19:55
Speaker 1: audience is like, yeah, that's what you do. You leave
19:57
Speaker 1: the ninety nine and you go look for the one
19:59
Speaker 1: that stumbled away. Way then he says this, and you
20:02
Speaker 1: know what happens next if he finds it. Truly, I
20:05
Speaker 1: tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than
20:09
Speaker 1: about the ninety nine that did not wander off. Now
20:14
Speaker 1: we have all experienced this dynamic in a different way.
20:17
Speaker 1: If you've ever lost a credit card, If you ever
20:19
Speaker 1: lost a credit card and suddenly it's like, oh no,
20:21
Speaker 1: oh no, I've lost a credit card, and you're thinking,
20:23
Speaker 1: you're looking, and you're wondering, and you know what, you
20:25
Speaker 1: take note none of you've ever done this. You've lost
20:27
Speaker 1: a credit card and you get your purse out, or
20:29
Speaker 1: you get your wallet out and you get out all
20:30
Speaker 1: your other credit cards and go, yeah, but I've got
20:33
Speaker 1: these other five. There is no comfort in the five
20:38
Speaker 1: you have when you've lost the one right, when you've
20:40
Speaker 1: lost the one, which one gets your undivided attention, the
20:43
Speaker 1: obedient ones that have stayed in your wattle utter of
20:45
Speaker 1: your purse, or the disobedient one that wandered off into
20:48
Speaker 1: the parking lot, or you left at the bar, you
20:50
Speaker 1: left at the restaurant, or your you know, son or
20:52
Speaker 1: daughter to the mall. You know, yeah, that's the one
20:55
Speaker 1: that you're worried about. And then when you go out
20:57
Speaker 1: on the driveway and you look beside the car door
20:59
Speaker 1: and there's your credit card, you're like, rejoice, the card
21:04
Speaker 1: I have missing is back, and you throw a party
21:06
Speaker 1: because you found your card. Meanwhile, all the other credit
21:09
Speaker 1: cards are like, what about us? We stayed to where
21:11
Speaker 1: we're supposed to stay. We're the good credit cards, right,
21:13
Speaker 1: Because when you lose something of value and you find
21:17
Speaker 1: something of value, your emotions are focused on the thing
21:20
Speaker 1: you lost that then you found. This is what Jesus
21:24
Speaker 1: is talking about. Now this has personal implications for some
21:27
Speaker 1: of you because right now you've stumbled. You've stumbled off
21:31
Speaker 1: in fact, the reason you're listening or watching or the
21:33
Speaker 1: reason you decided to come to church today, which, you
21:35
Speaker 1: know what, I gotta get my life back together, and
21:38
Speaker 1: I'm not sure God will have me. I'm not sure
21:40
Speaker 1: this church will have me. But I'm taking a first step.
21:42
Speaker 1: Somebody told me to watch this or listen to this.
21:44
Speaker 1: Somebody invited me to church today. Here's the great news.
21:48
Speaker 1: Your heavenly Father is more excited about you today than
21:52
Speaker 1: he is about me. And I'm a professional. Okay, Your
21:57
Speaker 1: heavenly Father is more excited about you today then he
22:01
Speaker 1: is about me at this season of my life. That's
22:05
Speaker 1: how much God loves you. In the same way he says,
22:08
Speaker 1: in the same way, your heavenly Father is not willing
22:10
Speaker 1: that any of these little ones should stumble, should perish,
22:15
Speaker 1: should be lost to him. Now, if Jesus would have
22:19
Speaker 1: stopped right here, this is so good, isn't it. It's
22:21
Speaker 1: like we could go, oh man, that is so good. Jesus,
22:23
Speaker 1: I love this. Okay, So you know you don't want
22:26
Speaker 1: people to stumble because you love us. That's great. If
22:29
Speaker 1: anything causes us to stumble, we should be on the
22:31
Speaker 1: look out for that. If anybody causes us to stumble,
22:33
Speaker 1: we should be on the look out for them. We
22:34
Speaker 1: should not cause anybody to stumble. And if there's anything
22:37
Speaker 1: in my life I can get rid of now, I
22:38
Speaker 1: can throw it away. So my life isn't to throw
22:40
Speaker 1: it into chaos that would cause me to stumble. I
22:42
Speaker 1: should get rid of that. This is great. And then
22:44
Speaker 1: it's even better because I'm like the lost credit card.
22:47
Speaker 1: I'm like the lost sheep. So if I stumble away,
22:50
Speaker 1: you are gonna come looking for me. Thank you, thank you,
22:53
Speaker 1: thank you. Jesus. Give me a jay, you know, be
22:55
Speaker 1: an e. You know this is so great and we'll
22:57
Speaker 1: see you later. Jesus, thanks for that teaching. And Jesus says, no, no,
23:00
Speaker 1: we're not done. Come back because you're my followers, right.
23:04
Speaker 1: We're like, yes, we're your followers. He says, well, you're
23:07
Speaker 1: involved in this process, and I know we don't want
23:10
Speaker 1: to be involved in the process. We want you to
23:12
Speaker 1: do it. He's like, no, that's not how it works.
23:14
Speaker 1: You're involved in the process. So when you see someone
23:19
Speaker 1: you know, when you see someone you care about, when
23:23
Speaker 1: you see someone you love, stumble fall, get tripped up.
23:29
Speaker 1: If your brother or sister, because this is the next verse,
23:32
Speaker 1: if your brother or sister sends wanders off, gets tripped up,
23:36
Speaker 1: you go, you go, and you point out their fault,
23:39
Speaker 1: to which we say, no, no, no, no, we don't go.
23:41
Speaker 1: We pray. We just pray. We pray that somebody would
23:43
Speaker 1: come along, not us would come along. We pray that
23:46
Speaker 1: you would do a miracle we pray that you would
23:48
Speaker 1: send a dream, a vision that something would happen. Jesus says, no,
23:51
Speaker 1: don't pray, go, don't pray go. I made up that.
23:55
Speaker 1: Don't pray, he said, go you go, because we default
23:58
Speaker 1: to pray. In fact, we don't just pray. We go
24:00
Speaker 1: as a prairie request, like, I just need you to
24:02
Speaker 1: pray for my friend. I'm Bill. He's having a real
24:04
Speaker 1: hard time. I'm not going to give you his last name,
24:06
Speaker 1: but it's Bill, and all of you know him. Last
24:09
Speaker 1: name starts the F. Anyway, I don't want to go
24:10
Speaker 1: any further than that. Let's just pray for Bill. And
24:13
Speaker 1: Jesus is going, no, you don't pray, you go, But
24:16
Speaker 1: that is so uncomfortable. I just want to be I
24:18
Speaker 1: want to be sensitive. I want to give him his privacy.
24:21
Speaker 1: Jesus going, you're not being sensitive, you're being insensitive. I
24:24
Speaker 1: want you to go whether you feel like it or not,
24:26
Speaker 1: and don't tell anybody, and don't share a prairie request.
24:29
Speaker 1: And he covers that. He says, you just go between
24:31
Speaker 1: the two of you. You just show up and to
24:34
Speaker 1: our responses, you know, but it's none of our business,
24:37
Speaker 1: none of my business. And Jesus response is, I just
24:39
Speaker 1: made it your business. Their business is your business, because
24:45
Speaker 1: their business is my business, and I love them and
24:47
Speaker 1: I'm sending you. We're like, I don't know if that's
24:51
Speaker 1: the loving thing to do. It's the most loving thing
24:53
Speaker 1: to do. He goes on, if they listen to you,
24:56
Speaker 1: here's some good news. If they listen to you, you
24:59
Speaker 1: have one of them over. Whenever they tell their story,
25:02
Speaker 1: they'll bring up your name and say, then Sally showed up,
25:04
Speaker 1: you know, then Bart showed up, you know, then you know,
25:07
Speaker 1: Phillis showed up, or then you know whatever your name,
25:09
Speaker 1: and then Brandy showed up and we had this awkward conversation.
25:12
Speaker 1: At first, I was so mad at Brandy, and then
25:13
Speaker 1: I realized you're right, and I confessed and I prayed,
25:16
Speaker 1: and I broke up with him or I decided not
25:18
Speaker 1: to do this, or if I decided not to take
25:20
Speaker 1: that job, or I decided not to take out that loan,
25:23
Speaker 1: and you know, I was so mad at her, but
25:24
Speaker 1: then I realized it was the right thing. And forever
25:26
Speaker 1: and ever, you will be a permanent positive part of
25:29
Speaker 1: their story. Right, Like good? Can we stop there? Jesus?
25:33
Speaker 1: Like no, because it rarely works out like that. There
25:36
Speaker 1: are very few happy endings to going to your brother
25:40
Speaker 1: or your sister to point out their sin. Very few
25:42
Speaker 1: times are they going to go you know, you're right,
25:45
Speaker 1: thank you. But if they will not listen, because they
25:48
Speaker 1: probably won't. If they will not listen, well to which
25:52
Speaker 1: we go. Okay. If they will not listen, okay, I've
25:54
Speaker 1: done my part right. I did what you said. I
25:56
Speaker 1: confronted them. It was so awkward. I'm not sure they'll
25:58
Speaker 1: ever speak to me again. But we're right, and I
26:00
Speaker 1: get extra credit, like I'm the best Christian in my
26:02
Speaker 1: whole church. I don't have to go to church for
26:04
Speaker 1: a month because I did what very few Christians will do,
26:06
Speaker 1: right Jesus Like, no, I want you to go back,
26:10
Speaker 1: and this time I want you to take some people.
26:12
Speaker 1: It's like what I mean, Jesus, give it a rest.
26:16
Speaker 1: I mean, I did the most unusual thing. I poked
26:18
Speaker 1: my nose in their businesses. Now take a couple of
26:21
Speaker 1: people with you that know them. Because every matter has
26:24
Speaker 1: to be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
26:26
Speaker 1: I mean, what is this court? I mean, who does this? Seriously?
26:30
Speaker 1: Who does this? Good shepherds You're heavenly Father. People who
26:38
Speaker 1: aren't gonna hide behind sensitivity, and I'm just giving them
26:42
Speaker 1: space and I'm just gonna pray when in fact, you're
26:45
Speaker 1: just scared or indifferent or just too worried about what
26:50
Speaker 1: might happen the consequence, that's who does that. If they
26:55
Speaker 1: still refuse this, like really this goes on? Yeah, if
26:58
Speaker 1: they still refuse to listen, I mean, this is Jesus,
27:01
Speaker 1: come on, this is so it's so uncomfortable, right, If
27:06
Speaker 1: they still refuse to listen, you take it another step,
27:09
Speaker 1: tell it to the assembly. Now. In your English Bibles,
27:12
Speaker 1: you'll find the word church here, which was ecclesia, which
27:15
Speaker 1: should never have been translated to church. But that's another
27:17
Speaker 1: story for another day. The word actually means assembly. And besides,
27:19
Speaker 1: by the time when Jesus was teaching this, there was
27:21
Speaker 1: no church. This church didn't start till after the resurrection.
27:24
Speaker 1: But this common Greek word simply means assembly. And what
27:27
Speaker 1: he's talking to specifically about because these are small Jewish
27:30
Speaker 1: communities who all the center of their lives was the synagogue,
27:34
Speaker 1: and everybody knew everybody, and everybody kind of knew everybody's business.
27:37
Speaker 1: He says, Look if this person continues to reckon ruin
27:40
Speaker 1: their life and maybe reckon ruin other people's lives or
27:42
Speaker 1: their behavior. You actually take them to the community of
27:45
Speaker 1: people that know them and care about them, and you
27:47
Speaker 1: confront them as a community the people who love them
27:51
Speaker 1: and can restore them. And our church is the way
27:54
Speaker 1: we do this is through our small groups. We never
27:56
Speaker 1: bring people in front of the whole church. That would
27:57
Speaker 1: be weird because you don't know them and you don't
27:58
Speaker 1: love them, and they don't know you were you. But
28:01
Speaker 1: multiple times through the years we've had people who needed
28:03
Speaker 1: to be confronted and one went, and then two went,
28:05
Speaker 1: and then it's so cool. I've been a part of this.
28:08
Speaker 1: I say cool, it's actually horrible. It's cool when it works,
28:10
Speaker 1: which is almost never the whole Seriously, the whole community
28:14
Speaker 1: group shows up at their door. It says, we're the
28:17
Speaker 1: community that loves you and we just can't let it go.
28:21
Speaker 1: And I know you don't think it's any of our business,
28:22
Speaker 1: but you know what, we love you too much for
28:25
Speaker 1: it not to be our business. And then Jesus says,
28:30
Speaker 1: and then if they refuse to listen even to the assembly,
28:35
Speaker 1: treat them as you would a gentile or a tax collector.
28:39
Speaker 1: Now I have heard this preach that if you confront
28:42
Speaker 1: them and they refuse to change, you just shun them.
28:45
Speaker 1: That is not what this is talking about. What this
28:47
Speaker 1: is saying, this is so important is see, when you
28:50
Speaker 1: confront somebody because there's something going on in their life
28:52
Speaker 1: where they're hurting themselves, the assumption is that they see
28:55
Speaker 1: the world the way you do. When you confront them
28:58
Speaker 1: and say, you know what, you're undermining your trust with
29:01
Speaker 1: your wife. You're assuming, oh, I care about how much
29:04
Speaker 1: my wife trusts me. When you when you confront them
29:07
Speaker 1: and say, you know what, this is illegal. You could
29:09
Speaker 1: get in big trouble with this. You are assuming they
29:11
Speaker 1: don't want to do anything illegal and they don't want
29:13
Speaker 1: to get in trouble. Every time you confront someone, you're
29:16
Speaker 1: assuming a shared worldview, you're assuming some shared values. Jesus says,
29:21
Speaker 1: when it finally occurs to you that you guys aren't
29:24
Speaker 1: even on the same page, that you don't share the
29:26
Speaker 1: same worldview, you don't share the same values, then you
29:30
Speaker 1: choose a different approach. Then you approach them as someone
29:33
Speaker 1: who doesn't share your worldview and who doesn't share your values.
29:37
Speaker 1: You back off. Now it's not any of your business,
29:42
Speaker 1: because the assumption going in it's my business because we
29:45
Speaker 1: have common ground. Now we get this completely the opposite,
29:50
Speaker 1: because when somebody's doing something that's going to mess up
29:52
Speaker 1: their lives or mess up their family, what we do
29:55
Speaker 1: is we don't do anything. Jesus says, no, you immediately
29:59
Speaker 1: do something, and then eventually you may not do anything,
30:03
Speaker 1: but you don't not do anything until you are sure.
30:06
Speaker 1: You know what I went. We went. The community went. Clearly,
30:10
Speaker 1: they don't care. Clearly, what we want for them is
30:13
Speaker 1: not what they want for them. Clearly, the way they
30:15
Speaker 1: view the world is not the way we view the world.
30:17
Speaker 1: So we're gonna begin treating them like somebody who just
30:20
Speaker 1: has a different worldview. Do we love them? Of course
30:22
Speaker 1: you love them, but you love them differently. Any questions.
30:27
Speaker 1: This is horrible, isn't it? This is terrible? Why would
30:29
Speaker 1: Jesus do this? Because he loves you? If you're here's
30:34
Speaker 1: the whole verse. If your brother or sister, sins go
30:38
Speaker 1: point out their fault just between the two of you,
30:40
Speaker 1: and if they listen, you have won them over. And
30:43
Speaker 1: you do this whether you feel like it or not. Now,
30:50
Speaker 1: Sandra and I, my wife and I have done this
30:52
Speaker 1: so many times through the years. And I'll tell you why,
30:54
Speaker 1: because many many years ago when we were first married,
30:57
Speaker 1: were there were two or three situations where we didn't
31:00
Speaker 1: and we saw what happened, and in one particular case,
31:02
Speaker 1: it was so we were so overwhelmed with grief and
31:05
Speaker 1: remorse that we didn't say something when we knew we
31:08
Speaker 1: needed to say something, but we were afraid and we
31:11
Speaker 1: backed off and we would do what most people do.
31:13
Speaker 1: And we decided all those years ago, you know what,
31:15
Speaker 1: if it ruins relationships, if it ruins relationships, even with family,
31:19
Speaker 1: we will not be silent anymore because love is not
31:24
Speaker 1: silent when there's something that needs to be said. Fear
31:28
Speaker 1: is silent, discomfort is silent, Indifference is silent. Love isn't silent.
31:35
Speaker 1: And I've got to tell you we've done this so
31:37
Speaker 1: many times together and separately. It rarely works out well.
31:42
Speaker 1: It rarely goes well. Rarely, every once in a while,
31:46
Speaker 1: eventually someone will come back and thank us. But for
31:49
Speaker 1: the most part it doesn't go well. But we do
31:52
Speaker 1: not regret it. And I tell you who I'm so
31:53
Speaker 1: proud of Sandra. I'm more confrontational. You know, I'm kind
31:57
Speaker 1: of geared that way a little bit more than us,
31:59
Speaker 1: I should say, a lot more than her, because she
32:01
Speaker 1: is just she just is so not that way. And
32:04
Speaker 1: through the years, to see her confront family members and
32:07
Speaker 1: to see her confront close friends when something needed to
32:10
Speaker 1: be said and nobody was going to say anything, and
32:12
Speaker 1: clearly nobody was going to say anything. People were just
32:14
Speaker 1: backing off, backing off, backing off, severing ties with people,
32:18
Speaker 1: and Sanders like, no, somebody, if I'm gonna if I'm
32:21
Speaker 1: gonna end that relationship, they must know why I'm ending it.
32:24
Speaker 1: They have to know. And to see her step out
32:27
Speaker 1: of I mean way outside of her comfort zone and
32:29
Speaker 1: some in one case drive to a different city and
32:32
Speaker 1: have me pray. Okay, I'm reading at two o'clock. I
32:33
Speaker 1: want you on your knees at two o'clock pray because
32:36
Speaker 1: this is a big deal. But we just decided love.
32:41
Speaker 1: It's not silent indifference uncomfortable that's what's quiet. That's what's silent.
32:48
Speaker 1: So please don't camouflage. Don't camouflage your fear, your discomfort,
32:54
Speaker 1: your apprehension, and your indifference with concern about making someone
32:58
Speaker 1: uncomfortable who Jesus says, woe to those who cause someone
33:02
Speaker 1: to stumble, But blessed are those who go, And favored
33:06
Speaker 1: are those who declared, you know what, fear, discomfort, apprehension,
33:10
Speaker 1: and difference. You are not the boss of me. Love
33:15
Speaker 1: forbids me. Love forbids me to remain silent. Love forbids
33:19
Speaker 1: me from minding my own business when I notice somebody
33:21
Speaker 1: else needs somebody to mind their business, especially when it's
33:23
Speaker 1: somebody I know. So here's what I want to say
33:26
Speaker 1: to you, and then we're going to close, because as
33:28
Speaker 1: I'm talking, I want to ask you to raise your hands.
33:31
Speaker 1: Somebody's coming to mind, aren't they? And you're like, uh
33:35
Speaker 1: oh somebody, maybe somebody else will go God, I pray
33:38
Speaker 1: that somebody here knows them and will obey this sermon
33:41
Speaker 1: because I'm not going. This is just like you know,
33:46
Speaker 1: Here's what I just want to say to you. Please
33:48
Speaker 1: don't let please, don't let your emotions keep you from
33:52
Speaker 1: doing what you know you need to do. Somebody needs
33:56
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Their future may depend on it.
34:03
Speaker 1: Somebody needs to hear from you, and there are no
34:06
Speaker 1: guaranteed outcomes. And you don't do this because you know
34:08
Speaker 1: it's gonna work. You do this because Jesus commanded you
34:14
Speaker 1: to do it. And the really cool, amazing thing about
34:18
Speaker 1: this principle is this, you see as Christians, and if
34:22
Speaker 1: you haven't heard me say this before, you're gonna hear
34:24
Speaker 1: me say it over and over and over. Many of
34:25
Speaker 1: you have heard me say it before. The thing is
34:27
Speaker 1: this when Jesus, right before Jesus was arrested, he said, guys,
34:30
Speaker 1: I'm just giving you one command, just one. This is it.
34:33
Speaker 1: You don't have ten, just one command. And the command
34:35
Speaker 1: is this. You are to love others as I have
34:39
Speaker 1: loved you. And that's all this is. This is simply
34:43
Speaker 1: doing for others what God through Christ has done for us.
34:47
Speaker 1: This is just one more way to love the way
34:50
Speaker 1: that we have been loved. And we sing about it,
34:54
Speaker 1: don't we don't we sing about it? This is what
34:56
Speaker 1: we sing. We sing there's no shadow. He won't light
34:59
Speaker 1: up mountain, and he won't climb up coming after me
35:02
Speaker 1: writing now what we seeing. I'm so glad that God
35:04
Speaker 1: didn't decide my sin wasn't any of his business. I'm
35:08
Speaker 1: so glad God didn't look at my sin and go,
35:09
Speaker 1: you know, it's really none of my business. I'm not
35:11
Speaker 1: going to interfere right, No wall, I mean the imagery
35:14
Speaker 1: in these lyrics is so powerful. No wall. He won't
35:16
Speaker 1: kick down, lie, he won't tear down coming after me,
35:20
Speaker 1: coming after you. I'm glad God didn't decide to back
35:24
Speaker 1: off when he saw me veer off right, the overwhelming
35:29
Speaker 1: I love it, never ending, reckless love of God. Why
35:34
Speaker 1: is it reckless? Because he didn't do the comfortable thing.
35:38
Speaker 1: He did the reckless thing. Get this. God sent his
35:42
Speaker 1: son into the world to die for your sins, knowing
35:45
Speaker 1: you may not choose to receive the gift. God sent
35:50
Speaker 1: his son into this world to pay for your sins,
35:52
Speaker 1: and he announced forgiveness ahead of time. That's reckless. So
35:58
Speaker 1: for Jesus to ask us to do for others what
36:01
Speaker 1: he throw he then he went to the cross to
36:03
Speaker 1: do for us, that's not unusual. What would be unusual
36:08
Speaker 1: is for us to ignore his grace to us by
36:11
Speaker 1: ignoring our call, his call in our lives to do
36:14
Speaker 1: for others what he's done for us. Chases me down,
36:20
Speaker 1: fights till I'm found. And then here's the imagery. Here's
36:23
Speaker 1: the parable Jesus told leaves the ninety nine in my case,
36:29
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of the time when God chased me down,
36:32
Speaker 1: it wasn't through a dream. It wasn't through a voice
36:35
Speaker 1: in the night. It wasn't writing in the clouds, it
36:38
Speaker 1: wasn't some mysterious thought. It wasn't a voice. One hundred
36:41
Speaker 1: percent of the time in my life when God chased
36:44
Speaker 1: me down, he did it through someone who did not
36:48
Speaker 1: let fear or intimidation or indifference be the boss of them.
36:53
Speaker 1: And I am so grateful, so needs to hear from you.
37:02
Speaker 1: Who needs to hear from you? It's your business because
37:06
Speaker 1: you love them. Love is not silent. Love speaks up.
37:14
Speaker 1: Let love, the love of God and God's love for
37:17
Speaker 1: you be the boss of you. You will never regret that,
37:21
Speaker 1: and you have no idea the difference it might make
37:25
Speaker 1: in somebody's life.