You won't believe who I am talking about tonight.
Yeah, the Bible, yes.
Jesus, very good.
Some of you guys went to Sunday school, amen.
This is a scary group right here.
I am just going to be honest.
Do you hear that evil laugh?
Yeah, there it is.
I am glad you guys are...
Oh, wait.
When they laugh and I don't know what they said, that is even worse.
Okay, here's what I want you to do tonight.
And this is not going to be good for you introverts, but I don't care.
I want you to talk to somebody.
Here's the thing.
Tell somebody around you or get up and talk to somebody you don't know.
But tell them about a simple fix that got left on...
Let go and then turned into a major project.
Okay?
Meaning if you didn't know...
Here's an example.
If you didn't get your oil changed, all of a sudden you blow a motor, right?
So when did a simple fix in your house get to a point or wherever?
I don't know.
Whatever it is.
Use your imagination.
Think about your history.
Did you ever have a simple fix?
It could have been a simple fix, but it became a major project.
Okay?
All right, everybody.
I heard a couple examples.
Dave, you got one?
You have no idea what we're talking about?
Well, just tell us.
No, I'm joking.
I'm not going to...
Yeah.
Oh, that is a good song.
I had several entries given to me.
One was somebody had a dog that got scratched by a cat and then it got worse and he ended up passing away.
That's a good thing.
Yeah, cat scratch.
Oh, that's a thing.
I thought it was just a song.
That's an actual...
Oh.
Okay.
All right.
Wow.
He just said somebody he knew.
He said,
I'm going to ask you a question.
How did he get scratched?
Wow.
He just said somebody he knew got scratched and they had to amputate the arm.
That's another reason to not like cats.
They're the worst.
Amen.
Yeah, that's...
Yeah.
Okay.
Brother Jim said something about you got to watch Leeks.
That could be really bad.
Somebody said something about...
It's kind of a different question.
The question is,
when have you seen a simple fix turn into a major project?
Right?
Kind of like the cat thing.
You got the water leak that could get really big.
You've got...
I said to give everybody an example.
An oil...
Your oil changed.
You don't.
It's a bad, bad, bad thing.
You ever have...
Does anybody ever have a light, like an engine light thing that goes on your dash?
Have you ever been tempted to be like,
ah, it's no big deal?
Is that a good plan?
That's not a good plan.
No, not a good plan.
Um...
There's a lot of those different ones.
You can think of...
I'm sure think of a lot more.
Unless you live in a home that's been newly built,
there are likely imperfections everywhere.
Often you can find imperfections everywhere.
You look, my daughter...
I'll leave unnamed which daughter it was.
But I was outside...
I was outside for five minutes.
For five minutes.
They...
I can't have nice things.
We can't have it.
No nice things.
I was in the garage.
I come inside and Audrey is going,
I'm so sorry.
She had tried...
We have built in...
Huh?
Oh, I just said her name.
It could have been Milana.
Um...
So...
I was in there and I didn't interrupt.
I did it good.
I wasn't really bad.
But we have two built-in...
bookshelves.
And then...
Cabinet.
Thank you.
It's a big word, cabinets.
Three whole syllables.
Anyway, built-in cabinets.
And all of our board games are under one of those cabinets.
And she was down on the floor,
looking through them because it's kind of behind a...
seat or whatever.
So she wants to get back up from the seat and she used the cabinet door...
to get up and it literally...
She must be strong...
because it ripped the door in half.
It's just completely ripped in half.
So we got to find a cabinet maker.
Anyway, can't have nice things.
But...
wherever you look...
You know when I start to really notice the weird things in my house?
You ever live in a house where the hot is cold and the cold is hot?
Right?
Or there's a light switch that stopped...
Now some of you guys are judging me right now.
I'm not saying this is at my house right now.
But we've all been there.
And you know when you notice...
When do you notice the weird things like that?
You notice it when you have...
company.
When company comes over, you have to go...
Oh wait, in that bathroom...
the cold is hot and the hot is cold.
Or you forget to tell them and you're like in the living room and you're...
Ah!
You know, like oh I forgot to tell them.
Cold is hot and hot is cold.
But you might...
So anyway, as the home ages it settles and with settling sometimes can come...
cracking.
Have you ever seen that happen?
And you might turn around one day and think that the doors don't close as smoothly as they once did.
Or some hairline cracks that are in the corner room.
It's interesting like that.
I was at the Bible college I went to.
There was a crack in the wall and I could see like...
there was a crack in the wall and I could see like...
daylight on the other side.
I'm like I think I want to go...
take this class distance ed.
That's what I was thinking about.
But while there's generally nothing to worry about...
occasionally these types of things are...
symptoms of something much more serious happening...
in the foundation of the home.
In that case you might try and patch the cracks...
or paint over the blemishes...
but they will always return and when they do...
what happens?
Usually they are...
are they better or worse when they return?
When you notice them the next time it's worse.
In a similar way it's not hard to find...
cracks in the world today.
We're bombarded with reports of...
who agrees?
It's pretty bad out there.
Violence, anger, disease...
all kinds of issues.
It's important to note that as terrible as these issues are...
they are really symptoms of a greater issue...
one at the very foundation of who we are...
as human beings.
What is that?
It's similar to the...
what is that?
It's sin.
The ministry of Jesus...
and this is what we're talking about tonight all about Jesus...
the ministry of Jesus...
helps us to understand...
not only these surface level issues...
but it points to the deeper...
issues at hand.
Tonight I want to look at...
a particular passage in...
um...
the Bible and the Gospel of Luke...
where we can see...
how Jesus...
ministered.
And we can follow in the ministry of Jesus...
by noticing how He ministered...
to people.
Now...
we see Jesus...
um...
do a bunch of different things.
Let me ask you a question.
Why did Jesus come?
He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
Do you guys agree with that?
You're Wednesday night, you can agree with that with me.
And He definitely came...
which means He came to...
die...
to be buried in Christ again.
And so there's certainly...
um...
and I've said this before and I think it's just...
if I'm here another 30 years...
you'll probably hear me say it...
about once a week for the next 30 years.
Because...
not only were Jesus' words inspired...
and not only was His...
ministry to die on the cross and rise from the dead...
but even His ministry itself...
was inspired in the sense that...
uh...
He showed us what...
the way to do ministry. He showed us how to live.
Right? That's not the only reason He came.
But man, who's a better example than Jesus?
And Jesus did not...
not everything that Jesus did can we repeat.
Right?
Jesus...
raised people from the dead.
It is not necessarily God's will that we do the same thing.
Right? Obviously.
One day we will raise from the dead,
but He's going to do that for us.
But we see...
Jesus and His ministry and there are things that are
worth following and worth repeating.
The first thing we see...
is that Jesus ministered the people through healing.
If you have your Bible...
Luke chapter...
number...
6 is where we are.
I think I said 16, but I meant 6.
Luke chapter number 6.
And we're going to look at verse 17.
And it came to pass...
I'm slow. Sorry.
And it hit...
He came down with them. Ha, ha.
That was cool.
I read good.
Okay.
And He came down with them and stood in the plane
and the company of His disciples and a great multitude
of people out of all Judea,
Jerusalem, and from the sea,
coast of Tyre and Sidon,
which came to hear Him
and to be healed of their diseases.
And they were vexed
with unclean spirits and they were...
what does it say?
Healed.
And the whole multitude sought
to touch Him
for there went virtue out of Him
and He healed them
all.
What a cool thing.
You see Jesus here ministering
to people through healing.
And just a few things about it.
I'll ask questions.
There's enough of us here.
You guys are willing to talk.
You guys can talk back to me a little bit.
What...
How many people are we talking about?
Is it just a few
or is it a lot?
A lot.
What in the verses...
I'm going to make you guys teach me a little bit.
What in the verses
tells you that it was a lot of people?
The word multitude.
Very good.
Yeah.
There's a great multitude of people
out of
all Judea.
You guys know what Judea is, right?
Judea...
So Jerusalem is the city.
The region around it in the south
is Judea.
So this is...
This would be like saying
people from Finley
and Toledo and all of
Northwest Ohio were coming
to see Him.
Different densities of population,
different time frame,
but geographically that's a similar way
of saying it, right?
And from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon,
now
I didn't put this in the
slides, but if you...
In...
Anybody have maps in your Bible?
Okay, look at the map.
I want you to look at the map in your Bible
that shows
Israel.
Okay.
I've got one and it shows...
It's the one that shows
Israel and you see the Mediterranean sea
on the left and then you see
literally... This is one that's the kingdom
of David. You see that?
This is really good for podcasts.
People can...
Okay.
Judea and Jerusalem are
down... If you're looking, you have
a little sea of Galilee
and then you have the Jordan River.
It's on the right side,
on the east side, you have the sea of
Galilee, you have the Jordan River, and
then you have the Dead Sea. Do you see
that on your map? Okay.
You see Jerusalem is down...
It's not necessarily close to the Dead Sea,
but it's down by the Dead Sea.
Do you see that?
And Judea would be the region around that.
Now, Tyre and Sidon, if you have it,
that is
north further...
Probably...
I don't know how long...
That much on my map?
On the
coast, you have Tyre and Sidon, right?
This is...
Tyre and Sidon are not in Israel
proper in terms of...
These would be Gentiles,
foreigners.
It may be Jews out of there,
but the point is, it's not even in the nation.
So these people are coming... Now, here's
what you got to remember.
How do they get there?
You're walking
or you're on some kind of beast.
If you're...
If you're on a beast, you're probably
doing better financially
than the vast majority of people.
Most people are too poor to have
that they're walking, right?
Are you with me?
Even if you're...
If you are on a... Like Mary wrote a donkey, right?
But
some people say that. Anyway,
it says it in a Christmas Carol.
Thank you, Kathy.
I messed up.
But the point is, I know.
Thank you. She's going to hurt me.
Okay.
So anyway, the point is,
it's a long way. Who agrees it's a long way?
Okay. So people finding out about Jesus
from a long way off, they are.
Why?
Because he's healing people, right?
If you have a
medical... Kathy, stop laughing.
If you have a medical
situation where
so many diseases,
so many maladies, there's just
no hope for people.
We live in an amazing
world where so much of what we get sick with,
we don't have to worry about, right?
Certainly there are some things we get sick with
that we do
worry about. But there's things...
People
die of all kinds of things that
back then that were very
treatable today. And so
here's the point.
There were needs that people
had and Jesus was meeting those
needs. Now we
know he didn't meet every need.
We know that there are sometimes where he was
where he literally would walk
past people that had needs to heal somebody
and then walk past them and he didn't heal everybody.
But in this particular
situation
he's healing and it says
all kinds of diseases.
There is also
unclean spirits.
So these are people that are possessed
by demons. They are healed
and the whole multitude
sought to touch him for they went
virtue out of them and healed them all.
Now we...this language
is very much like
giving you an overview or a generalized view
of the nature of that kind of ministry.
But you guys, if you've done
any Bible study at all, you could give
specific stories about all three of those,
right?
Do you remember
when
Jesus gets to the north part
of the Sea of Galilee
to a place called the Caplus
and there was a guy that was in chains
that had been running around
in the cemetery,
the graveyard
and he comes to Jesus and says, Jesus
I know who you are and they have this whole
conversation and Jesus sends
the demons, Legion for we are many.
He sends them into the what?
The swine, remember that?
And then the swine run off the side
into the ocean and they die.
Or into the Sea of Galilee and they die.
And so we know
he healed people with unclean spirits.
There's a boy that had an unclean spirit
that keeps throwing himself in the fire
and the disciples try to heal him
and they can't do it and Jesus goes over
and he's almost like...
You know, and he heals them
and they're like, why couldn't we do it?
This kind of does not come up by prayer and fasting.
We know he cleaned unclean spirits.
We know he healed people of diseases.
We could talk about that.
There's this one, this reference
is of someone who touched him.
And it even says that
virtue went out of him.
There's a lady with the issue of blood.
And the Bible says this is kind of interesting
to an Old Testament things.
It says when the Messiah comes,
the Messiah is going to come
and healing in his wings.
And what we find out is that the wings
is a reference not to wings,
but to the hem of his garment.
That was what they called the wing of his garment.
And so this is a...
potentially, at least at some point,
a reference to people who are literally
reaching out to touch him.
And in faith, and he's...
Virtue had gone out of him and he goes,
what happened? Who touched me?
And the disciples are like, who touched you?
We're in a crowd.
And he's like, what happened?
And the disciples are like,
we're in a crowd, right?
And he turns around and there she is.
So, interesting, this is giving an overview.
But we know that he did all of these.
Now, why does Jesus heal?
Dave?
So, I'll go with that one first.
He heals to show.
And I think that's the fundamental thing.
By his healing, he shows he has authority, right?
And in that authority,
he's giving a message, right?
The authority
gives him credibility
for his message.
So, he heals
at some level
to reveal.
First of all, to reveal his identity.
That he is God,
that he is who he says he is.
And he's giving a message.
That he is God, that he is who he says he is.
Sometimes, to teach a lesson,
right?
This man
that's born blind,
was it him or was it his parents
that said, right?
Neither. This is so that God could get the glory.
And so, he's revealing things
as he heals. There's no doubt about that.
Things about God,
things about the will of God,
and also things about
himself.
But don't miss this, too.
Sometimes, Jesus heals
to heal.
He just cares about people.
He cares about people.
And,
I believe
with all my heart that Jesus still heals.
That God still heals.
Now, there are some that would argue with me,
maybe even in this room,
I don't believe that God
uses the power of God
to heal.
And God
uses human instrumentality
now
to heal in the way that he did with Jesus.
Where people would walk over and touch
and do those other things.
I believe that was something that was connected
to the apostles and the time of the apostles
and substantiated
their message.
That's what I believe.
And there's a lot of reasons that I'm not going to go into all that.
But what I will say
is repeatable, and I think this is important.
I think
I'll use this as an illustration.
There are
there is a
well-worn path
with missions
and missions organizations.
Okay?
That I don't want to be on.
Okay?
And this well-worn path is a path
where
somebody starts an organization
to do missions
especially around a
felt need.
Okay? So they go to Africa
or they go to some nation that's poorer
and they see people who are in
a whole lot of need and pain.
Are you with me?
And this well-worn path
is we will give them food
and in giving them food and being
compassionate, we'll have an opportunity
to also give them
the gospel.
Now as far as I've said now, I'm really into that.
If the person
is so hungry, they can't even
listen to you because they're so hungry.
Get the people some food.
Right?
If they don't have clean drinking water,
get them drinking water.
Are you with me? Who's with me?
Who thinks that's a good thing?
Okay? And we have missionaries.
I have friends from Tanzania
that they started churches
but they also started
a truce center orphanages.
They put in wells.
They did all kinds of stuff.
But what happens sometimes
is the mission shifts.
It shifts from
getting, using the compassion
and caring about people
as an opportunity
to deliver the gospel
to, it shifts
to just getting them food.
It shifts to just meeting
that need.
Which again is noble.
I'm glad that that's happening.
But sometimes, sometimes
what happens is, hey,
if you'll, if you,
and I'm being really honest with you,
if you will say this prayer will give you rice.
If you say
that you get saved, right?
If you get saved,
right? If you just believe in Jesus,
now we'll do this for you.
They call them rice Christians, right?
And there are organizations
and I'm very careful
and very wary of who we end up supporting
and that this is not what's going on.
That they just want to have
a good video
to be able to raise money
to tug on people's heartstrings
and that's what's going on.
Okay? Who agrees? That's not good.
We,
we want to fill their belly
but we also want to make sure
that they understand who Jesus is.
And we want to fill their belly
as just because they need help
but not, and not tie that to
at all,
hey, I want to help you out
and be a blessing to you
irregardless of whether you believe
in my Jesus or not.
Does that make sense?
And how we, and how we do missions.
So, we're going to be
doing what we do missions.
So, here's the thing,
this is why I bring all of that up.
You guys are like, that's really weird.
The reason I'm bringing all of it up is this.
I think
Christians ought to be
compassionate
and we got to do good in the world
and we also got to make sure that our
the most, the least compassionate thing
I can do is give somebody food
and not care about their soul at all.
That's not compassionate.
It's good to give them food
but you got to care about their soul, right?
But like, these are not
to put those in competition with each other
is the problem. Does that make sense?
Jesus
cared about people.
That doesn't mean he healed everybody, right?
And he has his reasons for doing what he does.
But he definitely
cared about people.
And if we, here's what I
want us to think through.
We ought to care about people.
We got to care about
helping people out.
We got to care about
making sure that
not only do they
do they
do they know the gospel
that they also have
needs that get met and vice-versa.
So that's a big thing.
Now, number two,
so Jesus ministered to people through healing
and we got to care about people.
Number two, Jesus ministered
to people through hope.
Through hope.
Hope, look at verse number
20, chapter 6 verse 20.
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples
and said,
blessed be ye poor
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Let me get here.
Verse 21,
blessed are ye that hunger
now for you shall be
filled.
Blessed are ye that weep
now for you shall laugh. Blessed are ye
when men shall hate you
and when they shall separate you from their company
and shall reproach you
and cast you out
and cast out your name
as evil for the son of man's
sake.
Rejoice ye in that day
and leap for joy for behold
your reward is great in heaven
for in the like manner did their fathers
unto the
prophets.
Now, here's something interesting.
He says a couple things.
Blessed be ye poor
for yours is the kingdom of God.
What does he mean by that?
He later on, it does talk about
poverty of spirit, for sure.
Yeah.
I think that is definitely an
application, if not the meaning.
To
receive salvation
to be right with God
you have to understand who you are.
Right?
And one of the deceptions of being rich
is to think that you are rich because you are good.
Right?
Even today, rich people just
don't have as many needs.
I have noticed in my ministry
it's easier to get the gospel
to poorer people than it is to richer people.
It just is.
They are way more willing to hear you.
That tends to be the case.
And so, yeah, yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you that hunger now for you shall be filled.
There is this satisfaction that comes
through having your hunger satiated.
Blessed are you that weep now for you shall laugh.
My point here is that Jesus is ministering
through hope.
He is giving them hope.
Here he says, blessed are you women and
shall hate you.
Blessed are you women and shall hate you.
And when they shall separate from their company.
I believe verses 22 and 23
are dealing with
getting cast out of
synagogues.
That's kind of the description here.
Right?
People that believe in Jesus.
He says verse 22 down at the bottom
for the son of man's
sake.
Right?
And he is describing when men hate you
and when they shall separate you from their company
and shall reproach you
and cast out your name as evil for the
son of man's
sake. Rejoice you in that day and lead for joy
for your reward is great in heaven.
For in the like manner did their fathers unto
the prophets.
So, here's the idea.
When
we live in a
post-Genesis 3 world.
You know what I mean when I say that.
In Genesis 3 that's when the curse
comes.
And when the curse comes, what's
true now that wasn't true then?
What do we have now
after the curse that they didn't have before
the curse?
Sin reigning,
death coming upon all men for all
have sinned. What else?
The curse.
How far has the curse found? What kind of
things happened because of the curse?
Thorns and
the bristles on the ground for sure.
Disease,
pain,
sweat of the brow.
Jesus' answer to all these
things isn't just his ministry
where he's walking around healing
people.
Right?
If he was the only one that could personally
individually in his humanity
and his divinity, his hypostatic
union where he's at.
If the only answer to that
was individual, him
doing ministry on this earth
who agrees, there's a lot
of misery and pain and suffering
and disease.
Did you ever read
in the Gospels where Jesus, he's been
doing this stuff all day and he has to
separate himself to go pray.
That's not because he lacked anything
but there was in his humanity this like
there's not enough.
And at some point he says you're going to do
greater things than I am and they're like
are we going to do greater things than you are?
Well because they are going out into all the
world that preach the gospel to every creature.
Okay.
Don't miss what I'm saying.
And here
he is saying
where is
their reward
when people reject them for Jesus?
It says in
verse 23, do you see it?
It's in heaven.
Are you with me?
He's saying
you're going to, in this world
you're going to deal with poor people.
You're going to deal with
being poor.
You people
who are hungry
you're going to deal with hunger on this earth.
You're going to deal with
weeping on this earth.
But if you believe in Jesus
you follow after him
what's going to happen?
Is there hunger in heaven?
Is there poverty in heaven?
There is not.
Is there weeping in heaven?
He's going to wipe away every tear from their eye.
So what he's saying is that you've got hope
and you may deal with
because you believe in me now
you may get kicked out of some synagogues.
You may not
be in the world of the devil.
You may not get credit.
You may have to deal
with a whole bunch but guess what.
When you suffer
you know what you ought to do?
Verse 23
rejoice in that day
and what?
Leap for joy.
You're in good company
with people who are having a good day right now.
Where are they at?
Heaven, where are they getting?
They are getting their reward, right?
They're getting their reward, right?
And so, is there any hope in that?
There's a ton of hope in that, right?
That even though I'm dealing with the curse,
there's a resolution to the curse,
even though I'm dealing with pain and weeping
and sorrow and poverty,
there is a resolution to all of that.
Jesus ministered to people through hope.
And honestly, when we give the gospel to people,
that's what we're giving them.
We're giving them hope.
We're giving them, we can't fill every belly,
we can't pay every bill, right?
We can't do all of that,
but we can give people the hope, the one who can.
Here's the last one.
Number three, Jesus ministered to people
through holiness, through holiness.
What do I mean by holiness?
For holiness is the better expression.
I have it up there.
He wants people to be holy.
Look at verse number 27.
But I say unto you, which here, love your enemies,
do good to them which hate you,
bless them that curse you,
pray for them which despitefully use you,
and unto them that smite,
him that smiteeth you on the cheek,
offer also the other,
and him that taketh away thy cloak,
forbid not to take thy coat also,
give to every man that asketh of thee,
and of him that taketh away thy good,
ask them not again.
And as you would, that men should do to you,
do ye also to them likewise.
I'm gonna keep going.
For if ye love them which love you,
what thank have you?
For sinners also love those that love them.
And if you do good to them, which do good to you,
what thank have you?
For sinners also do the same.
And if you lend men, lend to them of whom
you hope to receive, what thank have you?
For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again.
But love ye your enemies,
and do good and lend hoping for nothing again,
and your reward shall be great,
and ye shall be the children of the highest,
for he is kind unto the unthankful, unto the evil.
Be therefore merciful, as your father also is merciful.
Okay.
It's pretty straightforward, isn't it?
There's not a whole lot of explanation
that has to be done here.
Some things are, there is sometimes a large juxtaposition
between how simple something is to understand,
and how hard it is to do.
Who agrees?
That's this text right here.
Here's basically what he's saying.
People that treat you bad, you treat them good.
People that hate you, you love them.
People that wanna use you, you be kind to them.
Be merciful like I'm merciful, right?
Love your enemies.
I don't even love people I like sometimes.
Right?
Sometimes I don't like some people that I love.
That's exactly right.
I mean, this doesn't need a ton of exposition.
What this needs is, how do I do that?
And there is a little bit of this that like,
it takes the Holy Spirit of God in me
to help me to be able to do that, right?
Especially with some of you people, seriously.
I'm joking.
Jesus is so interesting that at the same time Jesus,
you see in this, in this command,
a law that I can't keep on my own, right?
And who agrees, you can't keep that perfectly.
Anybody here ever get cut off in traffic?
And you're like, bless you.
I hope you have a great day, right?
Is that what you're thinking?
No, okay, yeah.
So we can't hold to this standard.
And yet the standard at the same time
is this really high standard.
Who agrees loving your enemies is a gigantic standard, okay?
At the same time, what is the standard?
Being merciful.
So you have law and grace in the same thing, right?
And he's holding them accountable
to this very high standard.
And he's also saying at the same time, I'm being merciful.
I'm a merciful God.
Does that make sense?
The only way I can do this is if I reflect the forgiveness
that God's given to me to somebody else.
I can't treat Owen, even someone who I like, I like you on.
I don't know you out well, but Cohen, I keep saying Owen,
proving how much I don't know you.
Cohen, I like Cohen and I don't know him super well,
but I like him, right?
But to go to my enemy and to love them, man, that's huge.
That's huge.
And the only way I'm gonna actually do that consistently
is if God does a work through me, like prove it.
This is what happens when people's marriages get restored.
You think love your enemies, right?
People sometimes get to the point of being enemies
and they're married to each other.
You ever know some people that don't like each other?
They don't name names, please don't say anything.
Some people's enemies are the people they're divorced with,
right?
That's huge.
And to love those people, man, that's a work of God.
Here's my point.
God wants to make us holy.
So to do that, he has to actually save us, redeem us,
and then he has to come live inside of us,
and then we have to submit our control over to him.
That's how this could happen.
To do that consistently any other way,
I don't know how you do it.
You can't be, what motivation do you have
to love your enemy?
You wanna see somebody not,
you wanna see the natural way of things,
go to the nursery, right?
What happens with toddlers in the nursery?
I want that.
And what does Cohen do?
He comes over and clocks me with what,
and takes it back.
Who's seen that before?
And you know what keeps that kid from stabbing me
or shooting me?
The fact that he's this big, right?
Aren't you glad that they're little when they're immature?
You know what I mean?
Because if they were like, if they came out six foot three,
that could get really bloody and awful, right?
Like that's God's grace.
So my point is, there's the way that we think,
and there's the way that God thinks.
And for us to love our enemies takes God making us holy
in a process of sanctification, right?
And that's exactly what he wants us to do.
And so Jesus is trying to help these people grow in holiness.
There is a,
there is a way of thinking
that says that Jesus is just all about love
and compassion and kindness and graciousness.
And he certainly is those things.
You guys agree with me?
He's love, he is full of grace, he's full of mercy,
but he's also full of truth.
He's also just and he's holy.
And the ultimate example of that is the cross.
He's so holy that he doesn't let sin go.
And he's so loving that he's the one that takes the blow.
And then he takes his righteousness and puts it on us
because he took our sin on himself.
We beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father
full of grace and truth, truth.
So how should we minister?
We should minister in the same ways that Jesus did.
We should care about people.
We should care about their bodies.
We should pray, we're about to pray.
We should pray, it is good to pray for sick people, who agrees.
It's even good to help them, maybe financially,
maybe physically, who's grateful for doctors and nurses
and people that can help with that.
And that is a great thing.
And we should help people, we should pray for people,
we should believe that God heals
and we should ask for God to heal people.
We should give people hope.
We don't just help their bodies,
we care about their soul and their spirit
and their eternity, we care about them
and we minister through hope.
But we also know that we want to grow in holiness
and we want other people to grow in holiness.
What's the Great Commission?
Going into all the world and preach the gospel
every creature, Mark 16, 15.
Going into all the world and preach the gospel every creature.
Matthew, 2018, authority's given to me in heaven and earth.
Go ye therefore and teach all nations,
matheteis make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
the Son, the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe, to obey,
all that I've commanded you.
And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the world.
So we want people to grow in holiness.
They can't grow in holiness until God makes them
a holy through salvation.
So let's follow him in that.
A couple questions.
What could you do this week to kind of live some of this out?
Is there someone in your life that just needs compassion?
They just need someone to love them.
Someone take them a meal.
I'll mention it after, I'll mention it,
not on recorded podcast here in just a second,
but people that are hurting, people that are,
that could be good.
Who's someone that needs the gospel?
Who's someone that just needs the gospel?
They need the hope of the gospel.
I can't give them the gospel.
Could you just hand them this?
That's better than nothing.
Give somebody the gospel.
And then is there an area of your life
that you're growing in holiness?
Is there something that you, like sin to confess,
something to repent of?
Are you helping other people grow in holiness?
That's what it means to be a disciple who makes disciples.
That's what we're trying to do.
Would you better close your eyes?
We'll pray and then we'll get into our prayer time.
God, I love you so much.
Thank you for your word.
Thank you for Jesus and his example of how he ministered.
God, I pray you'd help us to just follow him
in the way that we live our lives
and the way we impact people.
Thank you so much for all you do
and all that you have done for us.
We love you in Jesus' name.
Amen, amen, amen.
All right, if you...