WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.399 Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast. 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:06.959 Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message. 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:13.759 So I titled the message a pretty weird name, but I'm gonna explain it to you in just a minute. 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:15.199 It's Imago Day. 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:17.839 Imago Day means the image of God. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:22.320 It's Latin, so Imago meaning image and day, where we would get the word like deity. 00:00:22.559 --> 00:00:24.320 So it's the image of God. 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:43.200 And this is something that is uh like propagated all through scripture, but uh we see it right at the very beginning of the Bible, starting in Genesis chapter one, in verse 27, it says, So God created mankind in his own image. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:50.000 In the same, in the image of God, he created them, male and female, he created them. 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:57.840 Sometimes, uh, I'm gonna be honest, it's a little bit hard to look around and see the image of God in other people. 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:06.480 Sometimes a little bit hard to believe that in all of our faults and all of our humanity that we do still bear the image of God. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:17.439 Sometimes it's difficult for us to even accept that, knowing all of our faults and all of our difficulties and all of our struggles, to really genuinely believe that we are made in the image of God. 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:26.000 But I think that like the bent that we have towards craving justice is partly due to that. 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:33.359 If someone uh drops a coffee cup on your foot, um, that hurts in a certain kind of way. 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:38.319 If someone takes that coffee cup and throws it at you, that hurts in a different kind of way. 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.439 And there's a reason because we crave justice. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:48.159 And when injustice is committed, and there is no greater injustice than violating the image of God. 00:01:48.400 --> 00:02:05.439 There's no greater injustice than a murder, a senseless murder that takes away the life of a person across all cultures and all beings, we mourn and grieve the loss of life, and that is because I think deep down inside of us we understand that we were all created in the image of God. 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:07.519 Not some, all. 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:10.159 We were all created in the image of God. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:21.599 And so we have this need or this longing for justice, and there have been injustices done by non-believers, believers, the church, the unchurch, all these kinds of things. 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:26.400 There have been injustices that have been done to the image of God all over time. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:31.280 So I want to take you back to uh the year 379 AD. 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:36.879 There's a man named Gregory of Nisa, and he's speaking a message. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:49.520 And uh he's he's gonna tell this message, and I want you to picture that there in the room are people of all different types of socioeconomic class and status and things like that. 00:02:49.680 --> 00:02:55.919 As well in the room are slaves mixed into the same room with slave owners, okay? 00:02:56.159 --> 00:03:00.719 And Gregory of Nisa gets up there and he's gonna speak a message, and there's tension in the room. 00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:03.360 Everyone's like, What's Pastor Greg gonna talk about today? 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:04.560 What's going on, you know? 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.439 And he starts to read from the book of Ecclesiastes. 00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:14.960 And I could read the book of Ecclesiastes in a normal version, and I'll use a normal version of the Bible for the rest of the message. 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:18.639 Um, but I thought it would be fun to read it from the Gen Z Bible. 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:20.080 Have you guys heard about this one? 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:28.719 My kids are Gen Zers, so I do everything I can to relate to them, and they absolutely hate it when I use the words that they used. 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:42.080 So this is mostly to frustrate them, but I'm gonna read part of Ecclesiastes from the Gen Z Bible, and I want you to imagine Sir Gregory of Nisa back in 379 AD getting up there, and this is what he said. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:49.199 So, like, I thought to myself, let's go. 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:57.439 I'm gonna test you by having fun and experiencing all the good stuff, but yo, check this out. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:01.840 It's all pointless in the end, bro. 00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:07.840 I once said laughing uncontrollably is just insane, and what's the point of all this amusement? 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:17.040 So I decided to explore the wild world of partying and alcohol while still keeping maybe some of my brain cells intact. 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:24.720 I just wanted to experience the thrill of doing stupid things just to see if there was any point to it all, you know? 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:30.879 Like, what's the secret to like a fulfilling life on this planet for all the humans out there? 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:35.600 And I was willing to do some serious testing, bro, to find out. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:37.360 I did some awesome stuff. 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:42.319 I built myself sick houses and I started my own dope vineyards, bro. 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:51.600 So I totally created these awesome gardens and orchards, and and I planted a bunch of dope trees in there with everything, all the imaginable fruit, you know? 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:59.120 I created so many sick pools to water the lit trees that I had and help them grow strong, man. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.759 I had like a bunch of slaves, and some of them even had babies, yo. 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:07.920 Oh, guess what, too? 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:13.519 I had like mad livestock more than anyone else in Jerusalem before me. 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:27.920 So in Ecclesiastes, the author, as you as you caught maybe, the author is dealing with an immense amount of pride. 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:33.120 So Sir Gregory of Nisa, Pastor Greg, gets up there and it's like, what's he gonna say? 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:45.839 Because if it's mixed in this room, and right there, uh in a in a world where slavery was common and widely accepted in that, he gets up there and he says, slavery violates our equality. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:50.560 It violates our nature and it violates our dignity. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:52.879 What a display of pride and arrogance. 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:57.040 It's a prime example of someone exalting themselves over God. 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:04.319 He counts as his own what could only be truly considered to be belonging to God. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:12.079 In Genesis, man is given dominion over the plants and the animals, but not over other human beings. 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:17.279 The very image of God belongs to God and to God alone. 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:32.560 And so when someone sees themselves as different from their neighbor, or different or better than someone else around them, whenever they see this, they are subjugating themselves to an immense amount of pride that has led them to this place of self-elevation. 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:36.160 And God has chosen to give mankind free will. 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:44.639 How then do we ever arrive at the place of believing that we can own what God has already made free Himself? 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:53.040 He says in there in the real version of Ecclesiastes, I bought myself male and female slaves. 00:06:53.199 --> 00:06:55.199 How much did he purchase those slaves for? 00:06:56.800 --> 00:07:02.160 It's at least an interesting thought because how can you put a price on the image of God? 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:04.079 Something that's invaluable. 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:10.160 What right does anyone have to put a price on the very divine image of our Creator? 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:16.800 And whatever price the author paid is indicative of the value that he actually places on the image of God. 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:26.000 It violates the idea that they also were given dominion over the earth, and that makes the divinity in that person a mere commodity. 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:34.240 Matthew 16, 25 says, What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:45.759 We think of this as us giving up our souls, but if you were to actually convince yourself that you could own someone else, therefore the price you would have to pay would be to give up the whole world. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:49.759 Who's wealthy enough to make that kind of purchase? 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:57.360 Only God has that kind of power, and you might even also say, not even God. 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:08.240 The reason why is because in a Romans 11, 29, it says that all of the gifts of God are irrevocable. 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.600 So God would not make a slave out of humankind. 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:18.319 It was God who, in the first place, through his own will, called us back to freedom when we were still slaves of sin. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:27.120 And if God has given us freedom and God does not enslave a free person, then who would consider their own authority higher even than God's? 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:32.320 So at this point, you might be breathing a sigh of relief and say this message isn't for me. 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:33.919 I've never even thought about that. 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:36.480 I I don't I'm not that kind of person or whatever. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:39.360 You might be uh disqualifying yourself from this. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:52.639 However, just as it says in Matthew 5, uh it says uh you maybe you've never committed adultery, but I say if you've even had lust in your mind, it's as if you had. 00:08:52.960 --> 00:09:03.200 If you believe yourself to be higher than those around you and have treated people with disrespect, failing to recognize the image of God, then this is for you. 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:13.840 We have to stop and be able to recalibrate our lives to be able to recognize that that every single person bears the image of God. 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:26.080 I went into this beautiful church one time in Israel, and I was just bowing at the altar and I was praying, and I was telling God that I was searching everywhere for him, and I just wanted to find him, and I thought, where are you, God? 00:09:26.159 --> 00:09:27.440 Where can I connect with you? 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:29.279 And I'll never forget what he said back to me. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:31.600 He said, I'm everywhere all the time. 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:33.759 That part's pretty obvious. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:35.600 But the next part he said, Rock to me. 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:38.720 Start learning to see me. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:52.480 And when you look across this room and across every campus, and you you realize that all we need to do to really recognize the image of God is to start looking around and start noticing him. 00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:55.360 Start having the ability to recognize him. 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:59.919 And so we together we make up the body of Christ. 00:10:00.080 --> 00:10:03.120 We make up his image, we carry that image. 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:11.120 Uh in temples of worldly temples, every time they would create a temple, they would put inside there the an image of their God. 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:13.679 Because people needed to know who they were worshiping. 00:10:13.759 --> 00:10:21.519 But in Jewish temples, they never put the image of God in there because they knew that when we all gathered together, we make up the image of God. 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:28.480 In a cursory search of the Bible, I immediately found at least 15 different passages where we're referred to as the body of Christ. 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:32.639 I've heard that there's at least 30, and I tried to count them, and I got tired, and I gave up. 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:34.000 So let me just tell you, it's a lot. 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:35.120 There's a lot of them in there. 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:36.879 I'm just gonna read two of them to you, okay? 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:50.480 Ephesians 1, 22 says, And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:59.120 First Corinthians 12, 27 says, Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:02.080 So then each one of us makes up the body of Christ. 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:09.840 And if only one of us tried to bear that image in and of ourselves, we wouldn't be able to, we wouldn't be able to carry that burden. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:26.159 We can't take it on individually because we would represent an incomplete image, one partly false and always distorted, but yet together, collectively, in all of our diversity, we can come together as a community of believers and restore the image of God in the world. 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:30.559 And each and every one of us has a part and a function to play within that. 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:53.360 Let me read to you first Corinthians 12, starting in in verse 12, it says, Just as a body, though one has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ, for we were all baptized by one spirit so as to form one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free, and we were all given the one spirit to drink. 00:11:53.600 --> 00:12:03.759 Even his reference here, knowing that slavery was in existence at that time and prevalent in that part of the world, recognizing slave and free, was saying that they all represent the image of God. 00:12:03.840 --> 00:12:07.600 And even so, the body is not made up of one part but of many. 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:14.480 Now, if the foot should say, Because I'm not a hand and I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being a part of the body. 00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:22.559 And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 00:12:22.799 --> 00:12:27.440 So we all carry together, collectively, the image of God. 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:34.320 And there's uh as I was reading a book, uh, I began to learn some things, uh, some medical things. 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:41.440 I learned that doctors have been holding out on us on key information that actually very much lines up with scripture. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:53.200 So Paul gave us this very basic version of like if your hand decided it didn't want to be part of your body, but we know so much more now about the individual cells in our body and the way that they work. 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:54.799 And so there's so much in here. 00:12:54.960 --> 00:13:00.000 So uh keep in mind, I'm not a doctor, and this is stuff that I read. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.639 I don't know, and I'm just giving you a disclaimer. 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:08.960 I'm not a doctor, I'm I'm not a theologian, um, I'm uh in Greek it's called a duofus. 00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:10.480 Um that's what I am. 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:18.879 Uh megalos metrios dufuso uh means uh big mediocre duofus, is the translation. 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:19.759 That's me. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:24.559 So being made in his image, we are put together masterfully. 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:31.840 And if you wonder how could each and every one of us bear the image of God, and yet only together we work together in that. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:39.120 I want you to imagine that up here on the stage I had 300 books that each have a thousand pages in them. 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:48.159 Thousand pages is a pretty good sized book, 300 of those books, and the font is tiny because it has to hold three billion different letters in it. 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:48.720 All right? 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:54.960 So there's stacks and stacks of 300 books, and uh accounting for that is three billion letters. 00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:58.000 That is the code that makes up our DNA. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:08.559 So if even two out of those three billion letters are wrong, that could lead to a disease such as cystic fibrosis, if even two of them are wrong. 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:18.080 So I want you to think about then every 300 books, thousand pages long, three billion letters located in these books, and that makes up our DNA. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:23.440 And yet every single cell of your body has all of that code ingrained in it. 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:30.399 But only when us cells work together in the body do they actually make us a healthy being. 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:42.720 So everything that is needed to carry the image of God lies inside of you, and only when we are together do we actually function properly in order to properly bear the image of God. 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:44.879 Every single cell carries that. 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:49.039 So we bear his image equally. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:51.600 We equally bear his image. 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:58.879 We don't want to defame the reality that we are equal, that we were created equal. 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:11.919 In 1 Corinthians 12, again, it says, on the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker or are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable, we treat with special honor. 00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:15.600 And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty. 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:29.840 While our presentable parts need no special treatment, but God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:33.279 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:37.679 If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:44.639 You could think of organs like the pancreas, the kidney, the liver, the colon, because they may be the most valuable at all. 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:51.440 And although I seldom feel grateful for those parts of my body, they perform vital tasks that keep me alive. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:59.120 I need this reminder because in human societies now we tend to assign more value based on some kind of hierarchy. 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:14.960 For example, uh the best performers receive bonuses and things like that, and and uh fine salaries, and within the corporate world, there's symbols such as titles and office size and stock options and all of these things that signal the worth of that employee. 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:21.200 In the military, a sergeant salutes superior officers and gives orders to those of lower rank. 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:28.159 And I may be uh uh uh I may be tempted at times not to be able to recognize the actual worth or value of someone. 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:34.720 Uh people will joke around and say, like, man, you know, I would quit my job and go be a janitor. 00:16:34.799 --> 00:16:40.480 There, there they might use disparaging words to describe a job like being a janitor. 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:42.080 I've heard it many times over. 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:47.759 We these things are saying, said we might not have as much respect for someone that holds a job like that. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:17:00.240 But if you've ever had to go in for kidney dialysis three times a week, then you might realize that the parts of the body, the cells of the body that clean are as important as any other part of your body. 00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:15.440 We might be tempted to assign status or value to certain types of positions, but a teacher that teaches third graders compared to a pastor, in the end, both of their work will carry the exact same amount of value. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:18.319 We have these parts of our body. 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:22.400 The Bible describes uh that the blood purifies us. 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:26.400 Uh, I read about this and I tried it for fun, and you can do it too if you want to. 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:35.920 Um, but you take like a blood pressure cuff and you put it on your arm and you pump it up to where there's no blood flowing to your arm, and then you start trying to do like any kind of task, make a fist or move your hand around. 00:17:36.079 --> 00:17:43.839 At first you can do it okay, then it starts to get really painful, and then it starts to hurt really bad, and then pretty soon you're trying to rip that thing off of your arm as fast as you can. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:44.720 And why? 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:47.759 You could go, well, there's no blood flowing to that part of the arm. 00:17:47.920 --> 00:18:00.240 No, the reason is because when you're exerting energy, the body is actually building up metabolites, and those are like poison to your body in that moment, and you have to restore the blood flow because what does the blood do? 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:03.359 It purifies all the waste. 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:11.519 So when when God and all of his infinite wisdom said that the blood would purify, literally, that is exactly how it functions in the body. 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:17.039 Every single part of your body carries an extremely important task. 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:19.759 In the book of James, it talks about this. 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:28.160 Suppose you're having a meeting and someone was came in wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and then a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:45.200 If you were to show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, Here, here's a good seat for you, but you say to the poor man, either you stand here or sit at the floor by my feet, have you not discriminated among yourselves and become the judges with evil thoughts? 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:49.039 Judging others based on their appearance. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:58.559 In a society that ranks everything from football teams to the best cup of coffee in the world, an attitude of relative worth can easily seep into the church. 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:00.799 But that is not who we are called to be. 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:04.000 We don't function like a military machine or a corporation. 00:19:04.160 --> 00:19:11.759 The church Jesus founded is more like a family in which every single person carries an equal and important role. 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:23.200 And if every cell accepts the needs of the whole body in diversity, but most effective in their mutuality, if every cell accepts this, then the purpose of the body will live in health. 00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:26.720 There's a book again that I read about these medical things. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:28.559 It's called Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:30.720 It's written by Philip Yancey and Dr. 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:31.440 Paul Brand. 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:32.079 And Dr. 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:37.759 Brand tells of the many years that he worked in uh in third world countries with leprosy patients. 00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:45.440 And he worked with these leprosy patients, and he set a young man down that had leprosy, and he was having to deliver some bad news to him. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:50.640 So he set him down, and very seriously, he places his hand on his shoulder and he says, I need to give you some difficult news. 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:53.039 And he tells him the news, and the young man starts to cry. 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:58.160 And in compassion, he says, Son, I know this was difficult news. 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:00.160 Can you explain to me what these tears are for? 00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:02.960 And he said, I don't care about the diagnosis at all. 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:07.839 These tears are because you put your hand on my shoulder and no one has touched me in years. 00:20:10.559 --> 00:20:11.440 Leprosy. 00:20:12.079 --> 00:20:20.960 Not not something we hear a lot about now, but a huge, important, key factor in the Bible that Jesus cared deeply for those that were suffering with leprosy. 00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:29.920 And so, in in our times of physical beauty, being placed at such a premium, someone can become rich and famous simply for the way that they look. 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:38.799 Christians stand out as a beacon of love by countering this cultural norm, by seeing everyone, by by recognizing them. 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:51.440 Now, uh, we've seen like the depictions of Jesus where he he looks like uh uh like a Greek god and he's all ripped and and strong and he's got a long flowing beard, much like I used to have. 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:54.640 Um, and like Jesus, I was persecuted for it as well. 00:20:54.880 --> 00:21:02.640 And um, but we've seen these pictures, and he just looks like he looks beautiful in all of these images. 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:15.119 And in in all of scripture, we we don't really have very much of an uh a depiction of what Jesus actually looked like, but in the Old Testament there was a prophecy about Jesus, and I'd like to read it to you now. 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:17.599 Isaiah 53, verse 2. 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:26.240 He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:36.160 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces. 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:40.640 He was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:51.039 He had no beauty that would attract us to him, yet he perfectly bore the image of God more than any other being that has ever walked the face of the earth. 00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:56.160 Jesus threw aside every trapping that might have given him status through earthly means. 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:59.680 And and this being Palm Sunday weekend, uh I figured. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:05.519 It would be a good opportunity to bring up the moment of his triumphal entry, entering into Jerusalem. 00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:12.240 And in order to tell you about that, I'd like to tell you about a time that we were in New Mexico as a family with Hannah's family. 00:22:12.319 --> 00:22:16.160 And Hannah's brother, we all went on horseback riding. 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:21.359 And as we're horseback riding, um, it was it felt a little treacherous. 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:52.799 Uh what the guide actually got bucked off of his horse, and uh it turned a little wild and it almost made the other horses freak out, but we we held them under control, and then we we went on these trails where there's 1500-foot drops to the to the right of us, and the horse is just walking right along the edge, and we're riding the horses, and and we, you know, we make it, we we all live through this moment, and we get back, and we're at the house later that night, and my brother-in-law Jonathan, he says, You know, I felt really cool when I was riding that horse today. 00:22:53.119 --> 00:23:03.039 And uh, so just so we're clear, lots of people got put on a horse, uh, but because he had a child with him, they put him on a mule which sits lowered to the ground. 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:08.960 And Hannah and I just busted out laughing because we were like, You literally think you looked cool today? 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:11.119 And he said, I think I looked awesome. 00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:14.799 I rode that horse so well, I think I looked so cool. 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:18.000 And Hannah goes, I happen to get a picture of you. 00:23:18.319 --> 00:23:22.160 And just to embarrass my brother-in-law Jonathan, I'd like to show you that picture now. 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:27.039 Pretty cool guy right there, right? 00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:32.720 Okay, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, I want you to notice that no one looks cool on a donkey. 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:43.119 When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, he rode in on the kid of that donkey right there, feet dragging on the ground, so low to the ground, his head lower than he would be if he was even standing up. 00:23:43.279 --> 00:23:44.000 That's what he did. 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:47.279 That's how he presented himself as the king. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:50.400 That's the stature, the place that he put himself. 00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:52.160 That's how he operated. 00:23:52.319 --> 00:24:05.279 All through the Bible, we see Jesus, not in the halls of the mansions, meeting with dignitaries and kings and things like that, but in the slums of the difficult people in suffering and pain, and he was right there with them. 00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:18.400 And if if at any point you think that this might uh degrade the divinity of Jesus, let me tell you, you're missing the point of that because he chose to humble himself in that way and walk on the earth in that way. 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:28.640 And and and to to some of us, we might see that as hard to believe or distasteful or things like that, that maybe maybe he didn't look as beautiful as we would like to imagine. 00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:29.920 But let me tell you something. 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:38.400 To someone who is suffering from leprosy and has marks and wounds all over their body, he would have been a sight for sore eyes to them. 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:42.400 Someone they could relate to, someone they could connect with. 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:49.279 He lowered himself in order to meet the needs of the lowest people on earth. 00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:53.119 So we also bear his image by sharing pain. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:58.480 One of the most fascinating things about the body is the way that it processes pain. 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:05.519 And there's this really interesting thing, like the the body knows which parts of us need to feel pain and which parts don't. 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:18.000 Your intestines might feel pain from distension, but if you are having surgery on your intestines, they have no awareness of cuts or burns whenever it's carterized, it can't feel any of that pain. 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:22.400 So there are certain parts of your brain or or your body that don't feel pain. 00:25:22.559 --> 00:25:26.319 So doctors discovered that there's something called referred pain. 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:32.640 And what that means is that maybe if the kidney or the gallbladder is in pain, you might feel it in your lower back. 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:36.799 It calls to other parts of the body and says, Send a warning signal. 00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:39.279 I don't have a voice to say that I'm in pain. 00:25:39.440 --> 00:25:44.079 So other parts of the body begin to report that pain back up to the head. 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:46.799 So catch this. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:53.440 A young doctor meeting with someone and he says, My left arm hurts, or I feel a pain in my throat. 00:25:53.519 --> 00:25:55.680 And you go, Well, what could that possibly be? 00:25:55.839 --> 00:26:04.160 It could be a heart attack happening, but the heart doesn't feel the pain, it's borrowing pain from other parts of the body and reporting it to the head. 00:26:05.359 --> 00:26:13.440 There are voiceless people in terrible pain in our community of believers, and we have to give them a voice and articulate their pain. 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:18.319 This is why we pray to the head of the church and we let him know who's in pain. 00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:25.119 We have to learn to share in each other's pain. 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:27.039 We have to be able to connect with that. 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:29.359 My I asked my daughter if I could share a story. 00:26:29.440 --> 00:26:30.880 She said no, so I'm gonna honor that. 00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:31.680 She has that right. 00:26:31.839 --> 00:26:34.880 But let me let me explain to you the general principle of this. 00:26:35.119 --> 00:26:43.759 Whenever uh she was hurting and sad and was going through a difficult time, all I wanted to do was pick her up out of that and and make her feel better. 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:48.160 So I thought, well, I'll distract her and I'll take her out to her favorite restaurant and take her to a good time. 00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:55.359 And I realized in all the training I've been doing in running my business that people need others to feel their pain with them. 00:26:55.680 --> 00:27:01.519 So I sat down with her and I said, I know you're sad, and I'm sad too, and I'll be sad with you for as long as you want to be sad. 00:27:01.920 --> 00:27:03.599 And when you're done, you let me know. 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:06.880 And I wish I could tell you how the story ended because it would be amazing. 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:10.400 But let me just tell you, we are supposed to sit in that pain with them. 00:27:10.480 --> 00:27:17.839 And I started thinking, what would have happened if I would have taught her that every time she feels pain, the solution is to numb it out by distraction? 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:29.119 We're called to feel the pain of others, to call attention to it, to give a voice to the voiceless, to be referred pain for other people that are experiencing pain. 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:36.000 First Corinthians said that if one part suffers, every part suffers with it. 00:27:36.400 --> 00:27:39.119 Do you know what actually happens when someone has leprosy? 00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:42.319 It's that they lose the ability to feel pain. 00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:49.680 The marks and the bruises and the deformity of their body tends to happen because they don't feel pain anymore. 00:27:49.759 --> 00:27:56.079 So if they were walking and they sprained their ankle, they just continue to walk on it and it gets worse and worse until that leg doesn't work anymore. 00:27:56.640 --> 00:28:06.000 If if they uh in poor countries they could go to sleep at night and wake up to discover that rats or mice have been eating on their flesh and they had no idea while they were sleeping. 00:28:06.240 --> 00:28:09.359 This is the effects of leprosy, is that they stop feeling pain. 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:14.720 Listen to me, I'm terrified that in the church we have a bad case of leprosy right now. 00:28:16.400 --> 00:28:22.799 That maybe we're not feeling pain enough for us to recognize those that are suffering around us. 00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:23.519 And Dr. 00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:26.559 Brand tells a story of a man who couldn't get his sandals off. 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:32.720 He was dealing with terrible leprosy, and so he went over and he thought maybe he's lost the strength in his hands to be able to do it. 00:28:32.799 --> 00:28:37.599 So he put his hand in a handshake form and he held him and he said, I want you to squeeze my hand now. 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:41.359 And soon he was writhing in pain and crying and begging him to stop. 00:28:41.519 --> 00:28:48.640 And what he realized was because that person couldn't feel pain, he also could not feel when he was inflicting pain on others. 00:28:49.680 --> 00:29:00.880 And so if we keep trying to live a life that doesn't acknowledge pain and distracts us and numbs us out, we will fail to be able to feel enough pain to know when we're causing others pain around us. 00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:09.279 That's when we lose our compassion, that's when we lose our ability to relate to those that are suffering and dealing with difficult things. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:13.200 We also bear his image in humiliation. 00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:17.920 Christ suffered three humiliations. 00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:25.519 Now, uh he humbled himself, but humbling is a choice that you make on your own to do that. 00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:28.160 A humiliation is something that someone tries to put on you. 00:29:28.319 --> 00:29:33.200 In no way am I saying that this impacted his overall identity as being God. 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:38.160 But he was mocked, he was ridiculed, people said, How could anything good come from Nazareth? 00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:40.319 People said, Aren't you just the son of a carpenter? 00:29:40.480 --> 00:29:44.000 He was mocked and ridiculed and belittled in so many different ways. 00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:56.720 So the three humiliations of Jesus would be the incarnation that he humbled himself to become a human being, the death, obviously, the crucifixion, he was beaten and spit on and crucified. 00:29:56.880 --> 00:30:01.119 And then lastly, the third humiliation is the one that I want to focus on right now. 00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:02.400 This is what I believe. 00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:05.680 I believe the third humiliation is the church. 00:30:07.920 --> 00:30:15.759 Because Christ, whenever he decided to ascend back into heaven, he said, I want you now to take over my work. 00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:19.680 And we've we've failed many times. 00:30:20.960 --> 00:30:23.119 We've failed to bear the image of God. 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:34.079 If you're a leader of a company or an organization, you know that to delegate a tax task to someone else opens you up to the possibility of humiliation. 00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:39.680 We've been given a grave and serious responsibility. 00:30:40.880 --> 00:30:43.680 He said, It's better that I go now and that I leave this with you. 00:30:43.839 --> 00:30:52.000 We have been given such a serious responsibility, and God chose to delegate the work of his ministry to flawed human beings. 00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:55.519 And we have missed the mark time and time again. 00:31:01.119 --> 00:31:03.200 Scott and Tabby Graham are here. 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:06.319 Um, and I love them dearly. 00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:07.680 They're friends of mine. 00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:17.519 Um, Scott and Scott was my first client when I started my business, and um, the first business uh other than Embrace Grace to bring me in to do staff development. 00:31:17.680 --> 00:31:20.160 And we've become very close friends since then. 00:31:20.319 --> 00:31:39.599 And you may have seen their testimony before, uh, but uh Scott is a former offender, and when he was in prison, uh he was attending one of the campuses and uh the prison campuses, um, which by the way, I've been going to the Michael unit lately. 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:40.400 I love you guys. 00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:41.839 I'm so glad you're watching today. 00:31:41.920 --> 00:31:43.200 I love you guys there. 00:31:46.559 --> 00:31:54.799 So when when Scott tells that whenever he got out of prison, he knew I need to go to Gateway and I need to get my life right, and I need to get into the presence of God. 00:31:55.039 --> 00:32:07.200 And so he walked into the Gateway Dallas campus, tattooed up, reeking of cigarettes, and he's walking down the hallway, probably, I'm assuming, feeling like, do I really fit here? 00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:08.319 Do I belong here? 00:32:08.559 --> 00:32:14.160 And it was Pastor Landon Benjamin, right, that made a beeline right over to him and said, Hey, we want you to know you're welcome. 00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:15.839 Tell me about yourself. 00:32:17.279 --> 00:32:22.960 And that planted him here in Gateway Church because of that encounter. 00:32:23.200 --> 00:32:27.200 Now, Scott leads the prison ministry for the Dallas campus. 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:32.240 He runs businesses that employ people right out of prison so that they can do that. 00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:42.400 He just recently started a nonprofit ministry called Driven Reentry that we're trying to raise money to buy a house so that we can house these guys and put them into good jobs as they come out of prison. 00:32:42.559 --> 00:32:45.200 This is truly seeing the image of God. 00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:57.680 I read this story of a soldier that came back from war and he was terribly disfigured by the injuries that he experienced. 00:32:58.319 --> 00:33:00.079 And he said that he was terrified. 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:05.200 I mean, some of the soldiers who came back like that, their wives and their family left them and abandoned them. 00:33:05.279 --> 00:33:09.279 But but this one particular soldier, when he came back, his wife said, I love you. 00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:10.720 That doesn't change anything. 00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:12.000 I think you look beautiful. 00:33:12.079 --> 00:33:13.279 I'm I'm obsessed with you. 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:20.319 And so he he was able to regain confidence by the way that she looked at him with love and care and compassion. 00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:33.680 But every time he would walk around on the streets, people would divert their eyes, they would avoid talking to him and said, Whenever I would get low, I would realize they were a bad mirror reflecting an image of who I'm not. 00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:39.440 And so I would rush home to my wife as a good mirror, and she would reflect the image of who I really am. 00:33:40.880 --> 00:33:45.119 You have an opportunity to be a mirror to those around you. 00:33:46.640 --> 00:34:06.400 And I hope desperately that everyone that encounters someone that's a part of Gateway Church or any part of the body of Christ, that every time they encounter us, our mirror reflects back to them that they were made beautifully and wonderfully in the image of God. 00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:19.840 The way we do this is pretty simple. 00:34:20.559 --> 00:34:23.519 You don't actually need language to express love. 00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:26.880 You only need language to express hate. 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:31.679 What you need to express love is your actions. 00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:36.719 How when you go out of this place will you treat those around you? 00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:45.599 And how much will you truly recognize their equality and the image of God, the divine image of God that was placed inside of them? 00:34:45.679 --> 00:34:47.840 Will you bow your heads and close your eyes with me? 00:34:56.960 --> 00:35:10.559 Lord, I am blown away, humbled. 00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:22.400 That you saw fit to put a little piece of you inside of each one of us. 00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:30.960 And that you honored us with the task of being your body here on earth. 00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:39.920 Now that your physical body is not here, you have no hands here on earth other than our hands. 00:35:40.559 --> 00:35:46.880 No feet other than our feet, no hugs to give other than the hugs that we give those around us. 00:35:47.760 --> 00:35:58.320 And so, Lord, I pray that we would be incredible stewards of the mission and the work that you've given us to reflect your image. 00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:05.199 And Lord, in that I pray that everybody that sees us would see you. 00:36:06.159 --> 00:36:21.760 That we would set aside pride, status, desire for wealth and recognition and things like that, God, that we would set it all aside, that we would humble ourselves, and that we would walk in true faithfulness to who you are. 00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:28.639 And Lord, we pray that we would reflect your image clearly and accurately to those around us. 00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:42.639 And for anyone here that hasn't received you to live in their hearts, Lord, I pray that you would call them close to you so that they too can bear your image. 00:36:43.039 --> 00:36:46.159 Lord, we pray all these things in your name. 00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:46.960 Amen. 00:36:47.760 --> 00:36:49.039 Thanks for joining us today. 00:36:49.199 --> 00:36:54.639 If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com. 00:36:54.800 --> 00:36:56.559 We hope you have a great week.