WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.640 If you have your Bibles, you can open to Matthew chapter 8. 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:05.200 We're going to start uh reading in verse 5. 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:10.560 But before I do, just want to give a little bit of uh lead up to this. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:15.199 If you've been around this year, you've noticed we've been in the book of Matthew an awful lot. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:22.160 Uh we started earlier in the year in the Matthew 4, which is the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:26.399 And we we took a lot of time to talk about that, and that kind of led up to Easter. 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:31.440 And then after Easter, we went into the Sermon on the Mount and we were in there for a few months. 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:35.679 We really took a deep dive into uh Jesus' teaching there. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:40.880 And as Jesus taught, you know, he says, Hey, I came to fulfill the law, not to abolish the law. 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:47.439 And what he's saying is, I'm gonna teach you some classroom stuff that might feel um disrespectful. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:56.719 It might almost feel like I'm abolishing um what you've heard or what you've believed about the law of God or the Torah, uh, the word of God. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:01.439 And he's like, But I'm not, I'm actually bringing to you what God intended the whole time. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:06.400 And he does a lot in those three chapters, and so we spend a lot of time on it. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:08.000 And then we just decide to keep going. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:20.719 So Jesus pulls a great rabbi move, he gets done in the classroom, and he goes into the real world, and in Matthew chapter 8, he takes a lot of these things that he had been talking about and he starts to live it out in front of them, which is important, right? 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:27.359 Because we come to church, we listen to some verses and some some interpretation, and then we're like, well, what does that have to do with Monday? 00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:28.799 What does that have to do with Tuesday? 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:31.040 How does that show up in my relationships? 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:33.519 How does it show up in how I think in my mind? 00:01:33.680 --> 00:01:35.359 And so Jesus starts to do that. 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:42.159 And we we looked last week at one of the things he did uh we in the Sermon on the Mount, he uses what we call the Torah sampler. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:50.319 So he takes four uh laws of the Torah and he takes them deeper, and one of them like murder, he said, you know, you've heard it said, don't kill people. 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:56.400 He's like, but I say if you don't get your anger under control, you could say things with your mouth that would bring death. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:01.120 And you wouldn't even know it was death because they were still walking around, but something died in that person. 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:02.560 And that that upsets God. 00:02:02.719 --> 00:02:03.599 God doesn't want that. 00:02:03.760 --> 00:02:07.200 And so we got to think deeper than just did I kill somebody or not kill somebody. 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:08.479 It's got to go deeper than that. 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:13.680 And so he uses these four case studies with the intention that we would look at all of the law. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:15.280 613 laws, right? 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.319 He's like, you got another uh 609 to go. 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:26.240 And and so Jesus goes and immediately starts to challenge their beliefs about um cleanliness or purity and impurity. 00:02:26.400 --> 00:02:40.879 So he touches a man with leprosy that according to the Levitical law, if you touch a man with leprosy or a person with leprosy, which again was a range of skin disorders or sores, you were considered unclean for a period of time. 00:02:41.039 --> 00:02:44.319 And so this man hadn't been touched, he hadn't been touched in a long time. 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:50.319 He had to walk around calling out unclean for everybody to hear, so everybody could keep their social distance. 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:54.800 Um he he he was uh somebody who hadn't been able uh welcome into the temple. 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:02.879 He wasn't welcome in in uh the church, he wasn't welcome in the community or even in the home of his family, otherwise they were unclean as well. 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:06.800 So for Jesus to touch him, okay, this is it's really emotional. 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:08.159 I mean, it's a powerful story. 00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:11.520 And of course, he's not doing this uh in isolation. 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:14.080 There's a bunch of people watching this happen. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:17.039 So now, okay, we're about to pick up here. 00:03:17.199 --> 00:03:21.039 Um, and we we briefly mentioned this last week, but we're gonna really go in on this. 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:24.000 This is Matthew chapter 8, verse 5. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:28.400 It says, when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him. 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:36.800 So this would have been a uh like a Roman soldier, like a captain who would have been over a hundred soldiers, and it said, and he came asking for help. 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:44.479 Lord, which by the way, that's a shocker because you have a Roman soldier in Capernaum, which was a primarily Jewish area. 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:52.800 This is a guy who would have pledged allegiance to Caesar, and to call anybody other than Caesar Lord was a big deal. 00:03:52.960 --> 00:04:03.039 And so he calls this Jewish rabbi, somebody who was actually subject, would have been in a lower class, so to speak, would have been seen as beneath him, and he calls him Lord. 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:08.400 He says, My servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly. 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:11.199 And Jesus said to him, Shall I come and heal him? 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:16.800 And the centurion replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my all right. 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:18.639 How do you pronounce that word? 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:20.720 Huh? 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:22.319 Roof? 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:24.720 All right. 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:30.639 This has nothing to do with the Bible or anything, but I just need to know how you pronounce that word. 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:32.800 Because I was in a state one time. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:37.199 I'm not gonna name it, but it rhymes with shmallabama. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:45.680 And I was preaching, and I said roof, and they rebuked me. 00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:46.160 All right. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:49.439 The first day laughed at me, and I was like, how do you say it? 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:50.800 And they said roof. 00:04:52.399 --> 00:04:52.720 Okay. 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:56.399 So let's just, we need to, we need to deal with this now. 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:01.360 How many of you, how many of you say the word is roof? 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:04.399 How many of you say the word is roof? 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:06.079 The roofs have it. 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:07.519 The roofs have it. 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:11.439 Alright, we're just gonna make it official today in Columbus, Ohio. 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:16.399 Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:22.560 Yeah, who would say the roof is on fire? 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:23.920 That's weird. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:25.360 Right? 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:27.040 That's okay. 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:27.839 Thank you. 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:29.759 It's all straightened out now. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:36.879 But just say the word, he says, and my servant will be healed. 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:39.680 Um, this past week I was out, I was out of town most a week. 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:52.879 I was supporting my wife in in an event that she was doing and some work she does outside the church, and um met some people who who kind of tap in online and what into what we do, join us online, and yet they live in another state. 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:57.920 And so um they they were asking, you know, they're they were enjoying the service. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:01.279 Like, what it what a day we live in, by the way, to be able to meet these people. 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:09.600 I uh, you know, anytime I come in contact with somebody, you know, who's who's you know a part of our church from another place, like I just stop and thank God. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:11.839 I'm like, Lord, what a day we live in, you know. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:12.879 It's pretty cool. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:19.839 You know, you think about like um the opportunity to to worship God together, what we just did, and to sing together. 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:25.680 And there are people in their living rooms or on their phones, you know, that are actually you know connecting like in one accord. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:26.480 It's just amazing. 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:29.519 So whenever I uh hear that, I just thank God for that. 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:35.120 And then I thank God for all the people that are connecting that we don't even know, that we never end up meeting. 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:43.519 And and so um they were thanking me and us for for you know putting these things out and for them to be able to connect. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:07:01.519 But then they started asking questions about you guys, and so they were like, tell me like what these people are really like, you know, because I watch online and I'll follow on social media and I'll see these events and I see people getting baptized and I see people at men's night and women's night and all this, and like what is this community actually like? 00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:04.480 Okay, and uh it was a great question. 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:09.680 It caused me to kind of reflect uh and think about it, and then uh I'll give you the summary of my answer. 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:12.720 Basically, I was like, you know, it's kind of a cool place we live. 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:15.120 You know, we live in Columbus, Ohio, which has a culture. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:19.600 Columbus, Ohio is a is a diverse place in a lot of ways, you know. 00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:35.759 So people that live in Columbus are used to working with people, living next to people, uh, going to school with people, eating next to people, uh, interfacing, shopping with people that don't necessarily look like them, think like them, um, that are different than them. 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:37.360 And so people have gotten used to that. 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:46.639 In fact, when you live in environments that are monolithic or homogeneous, everybody votes the same, thinks the same, looks the same, dresses the same, all that's the same. 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:49.839 Okay, you start to formulate opinions about everybody else. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:08:01.199 When you actually become exposed to and you're on teams with people that you didn't necessarily have like upbringing in common, you start to find out these are some good folks, you know, this is a good person. 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:03.120 You know, I really like her, I really like him. 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:11.600 And so so you you find a way to be on a team to learn about people that if you you you maybe wouldn't have naturally normally connected with. 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:15.920 And that's part of part of our city, and I think it it does affect our church. 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:36.480 Um, I I think also um when you think about why people go to church, um, you know, certainly there's the few things like there's like we come here to worship God and we come here to hear his word and to honor God and all this, but uh even outside of that, there are if you kind of could just open up your your your psyche, you you would see there are different reasons people come to church. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:45.200 Some people come because they want to be a part of the kingdom of God, proliferating the gospel to the ends of the earth, and they are evangelistic in mind, they're outreach-minded. 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:50.720 We gotta get out, we gotta reach out to the world, and we gotta spread this thing, and we gotta, okay, go to the ends of the earth. 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:56.960 And then there are some people that frankly, okay, they wouldn't like say this, but frankly, like they're not into that. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:00.159 They actually want the church to be a fortress, okay? 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:02.960 Not as much a mission as a fortress. 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:10.159 Like the world's a scary place, there's lots of nasty sin out there in the world, and frankly, there's too much disruption and change. 00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:12.399 Okay, it's just everything's disruptive. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:16.639 There's disruptive technology, you know, uh artificial intelligence. 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:18.879 I was just starting to get used to normal intelligence. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:23.519 And now you got artificial intelligence, okay, and we got robots doing stuff now. 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:28.240 And so you got that, and then you've got, you know, just all the change just happening. 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:32.799 And so it's like, is there anywhere I can go that looks like it did 50 years ago? 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:35.600 You know, I just want to go somewhere that it doesn't ever change. 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:37.120 And so they look to church for that. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:41.519 So they're not going, I'm looking to, you know, we're we're gonna expand, okay? 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:46.639 We're going, we're gonna bat down the hatches, and I want to come to someplace that's not going to change. 00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:53.840 Uh, there are some people that go to church because they want someone like me to stand up here and be the megaphone for all of their beliefs. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:55.840 They've already crystallized all their beliefs. 00:09:55.919 --> 00:09:59.600 I know what I believe, I know what the truth is, and it's boom, boom, boom, and boom. 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:05.360 And if I get up and say the thing that you you've heard said or that you love, then you're great to shout amen. 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:09.759 And I can't wait to just agree with this dude who says the thing that I want him to say. 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:15.440 But then there are other people that come to church because they want to have their thoughts and beliefs challenged. 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:15.919 Right? 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:19.200 It's almost like uh brake testing uh cars. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:23.759 Like we want to test these brakes uh before we take it out on the road. 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:31.679 Because if I take it out on the road in the real world and these brake tests can't stand up the pressure and they can't stop when they're supposed to, okay, if uh then I'm not safe. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:33.759 And I don't want to find that out going over a cliff. 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:36.320 I don't want to find that out in in a crash. 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:39.600 And so you go, I want to take my beliefs and I want to run them through the ringer, man. 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:42.960 I want to find out do these things stand up to the real world? 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:44.399 And do these things stand up? 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:45.200 Are they true? 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:56.240 So if I'm saying something, or whoever's up here saying something that you may not initially agree with, instead of going, that person's a liar, they're wrong, I'm out of here, you're going, oh, let me think about that, right? 00:10:56.320 --> 00:11:06.720 And some people find, and I think most people in our church find a lot of value, okay, in that because as a humble person, I go, you know what, who's to say I'm not wrong? 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:08.320 I might have a blind spot. 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:15.200 And so if you can introduce, I'm not just gonna take what you say, but I'm gonna listen and I'm gonna think about it, I'm gonna pray about it. 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:25.120 So the culture of our church, as I was telling these people, is you know, I think we have a lot of people that are actually find value in being in relationship with people that aren't just like them. 00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:35.440 And I think they also are people that aren't just gonna take what you say, but they are going to listen, they show up, they like to have their thoughts and beliefs challenged and to see if it stands up. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:44.559 Um and then we started talking about in terms of the the the grace and truth of our community. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:57.679 So, and and and that's what I want to actually talk to you about today, because I think as a as a community, we are a collective of people, we are a community within a community, and so people that come in here are are gonna what what are they gonna experience? 00:11:58.080 --> 00:12:01.519 Like these people that are watching online, they show up and they're they would they're curious. 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:12.639 And probably there are people that live within a stone's throw of here that could show up here that would be kind of curious, like, hey, I like I like what I see online, what is it like really really in relationship? 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:16.960 And I think we have to decide as a community what kind of community do we want to be? 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:31.360 And I think you have to decide as an individual citizen, not just here, but outside of the walls of this church, in your life, everywhere you go, what sort of body of Christ, a kingdom of God citizen do you want to be? 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:35.840 What's it gonna be like to be around you, to be in relationship with me? 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:36.559 All right? 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:38.320 Um, okay, let's think about this. 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:43.759 John 1 says that Jesus came full of grace and truth. 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:49.120 And that's a fun one to think about because it doesn't say he is he was a he was like half grace and half truth. 00:12:49.279 --> 00:12:52.639 It says he was full of both, full of grace and truth. 00:12:52.799 --> 00:13:03.039 So as the body of Christ, it is essential that what our community looks like, how it shows up in conversation and situations, is that we are full of grace and truth. 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:11.600 And and so let's let's actually I'm gonna uh sort of draw this up here on the board, and um, I want us to think about like the extreme ends, okay? 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:23.600 Uh because I think what if we're not careful, sometimes churches pick one or the other instead of embracing what's often the messy and difficult and the tension that comes with both. 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:25.039 All right, but let's just say this. 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:31.039 Let's say we decided, hey, we are we're gonna be super high on grace. 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:39.279 So we're gonna let's just say we got together and we all put our hands in the middle and we said, we're gonna be the most gracious community on planet earth. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:39.840 Okay? 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:52.399 Like if you come in here, unless you're violent, unless you come in here and you're like going after people, okay, we you can you're you're welcome here, and we're gonna be we're gonna be marked by patience. 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:53.279 Right? 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:57.919 Like we're gonna be like real patient. 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:03.200 Like some churches say, hey, look, you can belong before you believe. 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:04.879 You heard that before, right? 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:06.960 You can belong before you believe. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:10.480 But they're like, but then you're like, well, how how quickly do I have to believe? 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:13.919 Because they put you on a timer, you know, okay, it's okay, you can belong here. 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:18.080 But if you don't believe in six months, okay, we're gonna run you out of here, all right? 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:22.240 And and people feel it, like, uh, belief's kind of a funny thing. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:23.360 How do I know if I believe something? 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:38.320 I thought I believe, okay, so they're wrestling through a belief, but oftentimes, you know, people say that, but then it's like you can feel that they have a sense of urgency that you hurry up and check all these boxes of everything you believe so that you can continue to be here. 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:46.320 And I think all people, right, you go into an environment, you start downloading the information of how safe you are there. 00:14:47.039 --> 00:14:48.000 We do that. 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:58.799 I'm trying to figure out what are the written and unwritten rules in this community that will turn this safe community into a lynch mob if I don't abide by them. 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:03.679 And it and so you come in and you do a lot of listening, trying to figure out how safe this is. 00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:18.480 If we decided we're gonna be freakishly patient, and this is gonna be a place of healing, however slow it needs to be, and we are going to be highly committed to safety and security. 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:22.879 You can be honest about who you are, and and again, we've all questioned this. 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:24.320 I do it, we do it, I do it. 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:28.799 Here, I question, hey, you know, at what point are these would people turn on me? 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:38.559 At what point you've been in environments and relationships, if I really talk about, if I really open up these things that are deep down that I'm pushing down, is it gonna how am I gonna be treated? 00:15:38.879 --> 00:15:39.840 What will happen? 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:43.919 Okay, so if we did that, and the way I framed it, it sounds nice. 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:47.120 Hey, we're gonna be the most gracious place in the whole world. 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:49.120 It's like, yeah, Pastor, amen to that. 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:52.240 Well, from a different vantage point, it doesn't look like that. 00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:54.960 To a different vantage point, it looks like sloppy. 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.120 Okay, so this church is sloppy. 00:15:57.279 --> 00:15:59.039 May you just let anybody in there. 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:02.000 And what they would say is, you're worse than the world. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:02.559 Okay? 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:10.799 You're saying that you're more gracious than the world, and that's just a cute way of saying that y'all are full of compromise. 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:13.039 You have compromised. 00:16:13.120 --> 00:16:16.240 You have just let anybody do anything, anything goes. 00:16:16.399 --> 00:16:17.039 Come on in. 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.039 Have you guys read any of Paul's letters? 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:22.799 Have you read anything in Corinthians where Paul's calling people out? 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:24.960 Like, when are you gonna call people out? 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:29.679 And so it looks like sloppy, worse than the world, and compromise. 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.279 All right, so now we say, you know what? 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:32.960 Well, we gotta be people of truth. 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:36.639 And let's say we're like, this was like we're we're heavy here. 00:16:36.720 --> 00:16:38.480 We're not full of grace and truth. 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:43.440 We're we're 90% truth and 10% grace. 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:43.840 Okay. 00:16:44.399 --> 00:16:46.240 What does a high truth environment look like? 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:48.480 Well, it's high standards. 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:50.559 Okay, high standards. 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:53.440 So we say, look, we serve a holy God. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:16:56.720 We serve a holy God and we need to hold high standards. 00:16:56.799 --> 00:16:59.200 And by and we're not afraid to offend anybody. 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:01.039 We'll offend you, it doesn't matter. 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:07.039 By the way, if you were standing in the middle of the road and a car was about to hit you, would you want someone to be patient? 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:08.240 No. 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:10.960 You'd want somebody to shove you out of the road, right? 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:12.720 And you and you're like, why'd you push me? 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:15.759 It's like, you know, congrat congratulations, I saved your life. 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:17.519 You're welcome, okay? 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:20.960 You were standing there, there was a car bearing down on you, and I saved you. 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:27.119 And so you you're calling me judgmental, and you're saying I'm harsh, but I saved your life, and the truth will set you free. 00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:28.640 But first it'll tick you off. 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:31.279 That's what uh Pharrell Williams, he's a theologian. 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:34.079 Uh, he he he said that'll that's what'll happen. 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:37.680 And so I don't mind ticking you off if I can help get you the truth. 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:43.440 And so we would say that, and and then we would be a high, high, high accountability. 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:45.920 Accountability. 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:48.880 Okay, so that means we we're gonna call it out. 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:50.960 We're gonna call this stuff out. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:51.599 Okay. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:53.920 From uh that looks good. 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:55.119 High standards. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:57.279 I think we all want to be people of high standards. 00:17:57.359 --> 00:17:59.519 I think we want to get sin out of our lives. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:09.440 I think we want to, you know, thrive and go to the next level and be all that God's created us to be and fully fulfilling our purpose and all this and accountability. 00:18:09.519 --> 00:18:18.240 And of course, we know, you know, we started talking last week about cleaning house, and so we were talking about the two rooms, and the one room is in disorder, but there's a story behind it. 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:21.039 There's a reason that the lamp got knocked over. 00:18:21.119 --> 00:18:26.480 It was there was a fight that took place, and uh the there's a reason that there was a spill and the stain in the carpet. 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:28.319 This it didn't just happen. 00:18:28.799 --> 00:18:30.640 There was a whole story behind it. 00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:39.359 And so that we had the other room that was in order, and we talked about in order to go from um disorder into order, we got we have to make changes. 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:50.559 Jesus came to save the world from our sin, not just cleaning up the mess, but staying in a clean house, learning how to order our lives in a way where we're not living in chaos all the time. 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:54.319 And a lot of the ways that we do that is through accountability. 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:55.200 It does. 00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:56.720 We need help at this. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:01.680 And sometimes it does take somebody who will speak the truth in love. 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:08.400 Paul says, by the way, in the book of Romans, he goes, Look, I'm talking to you about grace, but don't get it twisted. 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:11.359 We don't sin so that grace will abound. 00:19:11.759 --> 00:19:14.480 He's like, that would be so foolish for us to go. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:21.920 God is is long-suffering and God is patient and God is gracious, and we get grace in place of grace already given. 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:25.119 Oh, cool, let's just do whatever we feel like. 00:19:25.440 --> 00:19:28.400 He's like, we should just sin our brains out, okay. 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:31.359 No, he's like, that's that's it's immature, that's foolish. 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:31.759 Why? 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:40.160 Because sin, okay, is is is um binding you up, it's creating a prison for you, it's causing you to live in a mess that you're not called to live in. 00:19:40.319 --> 00:19:54.880 And sometimes it takes somebody who loves you enough to hold you accountable and to say, look, you've had the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you've actually come out and said you need to change it, and you're using grace as an excuse to stay stuck. 00:19:55.119 --> 00:20:03.200 So, so there's like accountability is one of the ways that we we end up in a better place. 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:16.960 Okay, but from a different vantage point, you look at this and you go, you know what, I showed up and I just needed somebody to hear me and to help me, and they kicked me when I was down, and so they'd say, you know, that church over there, man, they're judgmental. 00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:19.599 You know, they're judgmental. 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:24.000 And and and so the people uh sometimes end up in church hurt. 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:28.079 By the way, if you're here and you've been hurt by a church, I'm not making light of it. 00:20:28.240 --> 00:20:30.400 Uh I I've been hurt, I've been hurt by church. 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:32.400 I've absolutely been hurt by church. 00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:49.440 Um a lot of times there are people that don't take the time to get to know somebody, don't take time to walk with people, and sometimes, frankly, they get annoyed and frustrated with people and and they end up just polarizing and pushing them out when they needed to listen. 00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:51.279 And there are times that you pull punches. 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:58.160 We often don't treat people the way we want to be treated or treat people the way we would want them to treat our brother or sister or child. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:04.079 And so this stuff does happen, but I've also seen it where somebody knew better. 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:18.319 They had had the conviction of the Holy Spirit, they knew, and and they were allowing grace, okay, to keep them stuck in making a change that they've known for a long time they needed to make, and anybody who brought it up was a hater. 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:26.000 And so, from this vantage point, it looks like legalism. 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:29.279 Now, let's be honest. 00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:37.920 Either one of these ends, you know, these uh categories, like these places, you you churches can become this. 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:38.880 Okay? 00:21:39.519 --> 00:21:46.880 We could become churches that would imagine themselves to be gracious, can become sloppy, worse than the world, and compromised. 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:56.559 And churches that would say we hold a high truth and we're full of standards, holiness and accountability can become judgmental and hurt people and be legalistic. 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.519 We don't pick grace or truth. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:02.720 We are the body of Jesus, which means we are full of both. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:05.359 And it's not as it's not a simple process. 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:08.640 It's often messy, often people are misunderstood. 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:13.759 And yet I believe this is what we should strive for as the body of Christ. 00:22:14.160 --> 00:22:15.119 What does this look like? 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:16.559 Well, let's go back into the story. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:20.559 Now, the the story with a little bit of context is going to really come alive. 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:28.319 In Matthew 8, it says that Jesus enters Capernaum and he sees this centurion, and the centurion comes up to ask for help. 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:34.720 And you we read ahead a little bit ago, we see the this interaction Jesus has with this soldier. 00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:39.279 What really makes the story come alive is understanding context. 00:22:39.440 --> 00:22:45.039 So if you were to go and look up the book of Matthew, right, we we talked about this a couple months ago. 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:56.559 We talked about, remember, I put up a picture of the movie The Princess Bride, and it was like this grandpa is telling his grandson a story about Andre the Giant and Buttercup and all that, the six-fingered man and all this. 00:22:56.799 --> 00:22:59.759 Okay, so you have two storylines going on simultaneously. 00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:03.039 You have grandpa and grandson, and then you got the epic tale. 00:23:03.279 --> 00:23:12.960 It's the same, very similar in the book of Matthew because you have Matthew writing to people, but he's he's writing to people about stuff Jesus said to people. 00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:20.400 Okay, so when you understand what's going on here, it's gonna take on a whole new level of intensity. 00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:25.279 So, Matthew, if you went to study Matthew and you're like, when was Matthew written? 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:27.440 Like the dating of the book. 00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:41.920 The earliest datings of the book, okay, we don't know precisely when, like he didn't date you know his manuscripts, but we know precisely based on uh cult uh some of the context of what he wrote, the earliest writings would be A.D. 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:43.599 60 to 65. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:46.799 The later datings would be somewhere between A.D. 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:48.160 80 and 90. 00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:52.240 So what's significant about that is what happened in A.D. 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:53.039 70. 00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:58.799 Okay, in AD 70, the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple. 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:00.160 Okay, they destroyed the temple. 00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:01.440 Now, here's what happened. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:07.599 If you go back a couple hundred years before Jesus, super famous story of the Maccabees. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:14.799 So you have the Seleucid Empire that came in trying to demoralize the Jewish people by crushing their culture. 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:25.359 So the Seleucid leadership put a statue of Zeus in the middle of the temple, which was like that was an abomination. 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:31.119 The Jewish people are like, the temple is the holiest place on planet earth. 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:34.319 This is where the literal presence of God abides. 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:38.079 So the Seleucid leaders are gonna put Zeus in the middle of the temple. 00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:40.559 It is, I mean, that is some serious stuff. 00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:53.039 So the Seleucids were trying to take over the world, they're spread out, they're military spread out, and the Maccabees, the Maccabees family, um, Judas Maccabeus, Judas the Hammer was his nickname. 00:24:53.279 --> 00:24:57.359 Judas the Hammer, they they they go seal team six on these guys. 00:24:57.519 --> 00:25:08.559 They go in and they take back the temple, they kick Zeus out and uh you know, they light the menorah, and that's where you end up with Hanukkah, the holiday of Hanukkah, celebrates when they took back the temple. 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:10.240 So now these are national heroes. 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:19.839 Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, okay, after that, generationally, pretty much everybody that was naming boys were naming them after the Maccabees boys. 00:25:19.920 --> 00:25:21.440 These are national heroes. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:32.559 So when Jesus shows up, you now have the Romans that have taken over, like what the Seleucids were, and you have zealots that are basically like, we need the spirit of Judas Maccabees. 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:34.559 We need to take back the temple. 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:38.079 And so they're wanting to fire the spirit of Judas Maccabees back up. 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:40.240 And in AD 70, they tried. 00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:42.240 But it was a very different story. 00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:47.920 Instead of them succeeding, the Romans crushed and they destroyed the temple. 00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:50.400 Not one stone was laid on the other. 00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:53.599 I mean, they tore it down and they destroyed the priesthood. 00:25:54.720 --> 00:25:58.720 Okay, the reason I tell you that, now let's go, let's think about Matthew's audience. 00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:02.559 Matthew, we've already established his writing to an exclusively Jewish audience. 00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:06.559 It's okay that we read it, but he wasn't writing it to Gentiles. 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:08.160 He was writing it to Jewish people. 00:26:09.039 --> 00:26:20.240 So however you date it, if you date it in AD 60 to 65, Matthew's writing this story of Jesus interacting with this Roman centurion right before. 00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:21.119 Okay? 00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:23.440 Is this thing's about to spill over? 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:30.240 Or if he wrote it after, it's right after it spilled over and the temple's destroyed. 00:26:31.119 --> 00:26:44.720 And so you could see from the listener how provocative, how hard to receive this story would be that Jesus wouldn't, and that Matthew would tell about how Jesus made a hero of this soldier. 00:26:44.799 --> 00:26:53.440 If you're Matthew, and you you there'd be a part of you that would take a lot of courage to write this because you realize some people are going to shut you down once they hear centurion. 00:26:53.839 --> 00:26:55.599 It's going to feel like propaganda. 00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:01.519 And and yet he puts this in there because he's going, This is you cannot separate this from the kingdom of God. 00:27:01.599 --> 00:27:04.160 You have to understand how Jesus thought and what Jesus did. 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:08.640 Now, it gets even better because Jesus walks up to this guy. 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:10.079 We'll pull the verses back up. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:13.519 He walks up, and the guy says, My servant is suffering. 00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:15.359 He's paralyzed, he's in pain. 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:20.079 And he says, Um, you know, I don't even uh deserve to have you come under my roof. 00:27:20.240 --> 00:27:23.119 Well, look what it says in verse roof. 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:26.960 Verse 7, that was I didn't mean to do that. 00:27:27.119 --> 00:27:28.160 Uh verse seven. 00:27:28.400 --> 00:27:29.920 But no, this is what I want you to get. 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:30.559 Verse 7. 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:33.759 Jesus said to him, Shall I come and heal him? 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:38.640 And then you're gonna see in verse 8 at the end it says, just say the word, my servant will be healed. 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:44.400 So read it in English, and we see healed twice in English, so you would assume that it uses the same words, but he doesn't. 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:59.359 When Jesus says, Shall I come heal him, he uses the word therapeutic, which means to provide care or therapy or to nurse someone back to health. 00:28:00.319 --> 00:28:05.039 When he says, Well, you don't even have to do that, just send the word and he'll be healed. 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:08.000 The centurion uses the word for cure. 00:28:08.319 --> 00:28:10.880 In other words, just get it over with. 00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:24.640 But Jesus, then this is where if you're the audience and you just walked off the Sermon on the Mount, you just heard the Torah sampler, and and and Jesus just touched a leper, and you're like, Okay, is he gonna go quarantine for for all the time? 00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:25.839 Like, what's going on? 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:48.480 For then Jesus to walk up to a centurion through Matthew's listener who either just destroyed your temple or is about to, and for him to walk up and say in front of all the people, when the guy says, My servant is suffering, to go, I'll come to your house and nurse him back to health. 00:28:48.799 --> 00:28:52.799 This isn't just I'll walk in, touch him, heal him, and walk back out. 00:28:53.039 --> 00:28:55.440 He's saying, I'll change the bedding. 00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:02.400 I'll sit bedside and hold his hand while he suffers. 00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:07.920 And this is in a culture where these folks were not even going into one another's homes. 00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:11.920 If you were to go into the home of a Gentile, you are now unclean. 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:15.920 Not only ceremonially, socially. 00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:21.359 The big knock on Jesus was that he was friends with these people. 00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:33.680 And so you have Jesus going and offering therapy, offering patience, offering a patient timeline of healing and providing care. 00:29:34.559 --> 00:29:35.920 And of course, the story goes on. 00:29:36.079 --> 00:29:38.400 The centurion goes, you don't even have to do that. 00:29:38.559 --> 00:29:39.839 He's like, I'm a man under authority. 00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:41.200 I have people under my authority. 00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:42.079 I say the word. 00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:44.319 If they know it came from me, it's done. 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:48.799 And he's calling Jesus Lord, and it's just, I mean, it's this is an intense story. 00:29:48.960 --> 00:30:03.039 Jesus is he's in the lesser class, he's a Jewish rabbi, he's underneath, he's subject to the Romans, he was would have been seen as inferior, and yet he's saying, Look, if I have this authority, I I recognize your authority is even greater. 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:04.960 You send the word and the cure will happen. 00:30:05.119 --> 00:30:08.640 And Jesus goes, I've not seen faith like this in all of Israel. 00:30:08.720 --> 00:30:09.440 This is wild. 00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:13.440 This goes beyond culture, this is bigger than this is amazing. 00:30:13.599 --> 00:30:19.519 And again, Matthew writing this to an audience that wouldn't have even wanted to think these thoughts. 00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:25.839 And so he offers therapy and he provides a cure. 00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:41.759 But I think what we see, even with that word therapeucio, what we see is Jesus' willingness to be a part of a healing that sometimes might be really fast and sometimes might be really slow. 00:30:42.160 --> 00:31:04.160 His willingness to go outside of what was gonna cost him socially, somebody who is religiously other, somebody who was politically other, somebody who was culturally other, and to go, I know what y'all's rules are, but I'm I'm I'm going to go and help this person who's suffering, and to be willing to go in that door and to take that heat to do that. 00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:14.319 And I think as a church, for us to do this the right way, it's gonna root it's gonna mean that we are ready and willing to go fast and slow. 00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:17.519 We have to be ready and willing to go fast and slow. 00:31:17.839 --> 00:31:27.839 Sometimes grace, the patience of grace means that I choose my words carefully. 00:31:28.480 --> 00:31:36.160 That I don't take the mindset that I'm just gonna throw the truth out, and if you don't like it, you know, sucks to be you. 00:31:36.559 --> 00:31:38.880 Sorry, you can't handle that's what's wrong with this generation. 00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:39.839 Nobody wants to hear it. 00:31:39.920 --> 00:31:44.960 Look, everything that's said needs to be true, but not everything that's true needs to be said in every moment. 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:54.720 And you know, when you have somebody who you know well enough to love them, you know the moments that you go, you know what, this is not the time for me to say this. 00:31:54.880 --> 00:31:57.680 And you develop a whole new level of compassion. 00:31:57.920 --> 00:32:01.519 Doesn't mean that we're shy about truth, doesn't mean that we lack courage. 00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:04.880 It's it's wisdom in the tension between grace and truth. 00:32:04.960 --> 00:32:11.519 And that means we're gonna have to have a lot of grace with each other because there are gonna be times I might look at you and think you're being way too patient. 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:13.759 Way too patient. 00:32:14.160 --> 00:32:15.680 Where's the cure? 00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:19.680 And yet God may be calling you to a therapeuis. 00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:21.920 So I'm not going to judge you. 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:24.480 But we do, we hold one another accountable. 00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:32.240 We have to be willing to have conversation to be able to talk and to make a pact with one another that we understand that grace and truth is messy. 00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:35.039