SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning and welcome to Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: If I haven't met you before, my name is Mike, and I'm one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_00: And the beeping is back.
SPEAKER_00: This is like the third time in the last couple months, and of course, it's Sunday, which means the Conservancy employees are all off.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you know how to pick a lock better than Kevin, feel free to hop up during the sermon and go give it a shot.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to turn it off.
SPEAKER_00: I think on the flip side, it's also just it's reminding us.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's what it made me think of.
SPEAKER_00: Um have you ever been into a house that is like too perfect on the inside?
SPEAKER_00: And it looks like nobody actually lives there.
SPEAKER_00: It's weird, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing if you go to a wedding that's too perfect.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this does not feel lived in, and I think it's just reminding us, reminding me, we're imperfect, imperfect people, imperfect place, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: A little bit of mess just means, well, like real people really live here.
SPEAKER_00: So there we go.
SPEAKER_00: There's my little aside.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I'd like to invite you to turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, please don't hesitate to hop up and grab one from the stack in the back.
SPEAKER_00: You can find Matthew 10 on page 765 in the church Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: This summer we're sticking with the traditional lectionary readings on Sunday mornings, with the preacher getting to choose which text or texts to teach on.
SPEAKER_00: And I picked the Matthew texts because honestly, uh it's a passage that I've never heard someone preach on before.
SPEAKER_00: But it's one that I've frequently heard people quote, usually as an excuse to fight a culture war or something, and I've never heard it adequately explained.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, on the one hand, Jesus says, Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I've not come to bring peace but a sword.
SPEAKER_00: I've come to set a man against his father, a daughter against his mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: But the same Jesus tells Peter to put away his sword.
SPEAKER_00: He repeatedly speaks about laying down one's life, even in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Speaks of turning another cheek, the other cheek.
SPEAKER_00: He's referred to as the Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_00: And so it seems we have a contradiction here, which I find utterly fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: And so here we are, Matthew chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: In just a moment, we'll set the context before trying to understand what Jesus means here and then applying it to our lives and our life together.
SPEAKER_00: But first let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious God, thank you for this morning for the chance to gather, to worship, to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the opportunity you're giving me to practice humility and patience.
SPEAKER_00: Even with the beeping in my ear.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray, God, now that as my words line up with your words, that they would fall on ears and hearts ready to receive them and respond.
SPEAKER_00: And gracious God, if I say anything that isn't from you, I pray that those words would quickly be forgotten.
SPEAKER_00: I pray all these things through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been here either of the last two weeks, you might remember what's going on in Matthew's gospel account because we're still in the same scene.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has called his disciples by name, he's set them apart.
SPEAKER_00: He's invited them into his mission, he's empowered them to be sent, he's reminded them that they go in his authority.
SPEAKER_00: He's preparing them for what lies ahead, including, as Pastor Mary noted last week, suffering, persecution, fear.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we ought not be afraid because we go in his name.
SPEAKER_00: We're empowered by his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God knows us and loves us and promises to care for us.
SPEAKER_00: There's a pattern here in these texts.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls and then empowers.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: And then he makes clear the very real cost of following him, followed by the very real benefit.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that last week.
SPEAKER_00: In this week's text, he does it again.
SPEAKER_00: He makes clear the cost of following him while also speaking again to the benefit of following him.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like he knows how quickly we humans try to avoid anything uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like he knows our trouble, the trouble we have with keeping the end in mind, especially when the going gets tough, which it inevitably will, Jesus assures us.
SPEAKER_00: This is no promise that life will be all sunshine and roses.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he seems to be affirming the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: If you want a life devoid of suffering, conflict, or pain, then the way of Jesus isn't for you.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want a life rich in meaning and purpose, a life spent in relationship with God, a life spent seeking the welfare of others that ends in eternal life, it'll come with suffering, but that's the offer.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus says, starting in verse 34, do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I've not come to bring peace but a sword.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned this at the beginning, but the way that I have generally heard this verse used, at least in public discourse, is as a proof text for the culture war.
SPEAKER_00: Has anybody else heard it like that?
SPEAKER_00: Is that what Jesus is saying?
SPEAKER_00: That he came to fight, to dominate, to hand us swords, to win through the power of the sword?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I think.
SPEAKER_00: We know how Jesus won.
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't with a sword, but a cross.
SPEAKER_00: By making himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, as Paul writes in Philippians 2.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he says that he hasn't come to bring peace, but a sword.
SPEAKER_00: For I've come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need a lot of help on that one.
SPEAKER_00: A person's enemies will be those of his own household.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need much help on that one either, do we?
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves, hold up, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and this one gets to our idols.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my take.
SPEAKER_00: I could be wrong.
SPEAKER_00: So do your own thinking, your own wrestling with others, your own study.
SPEAKER_00: Ask your own questions of God in the text.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I think Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: A life spent following him will not be without conflict.
SPEAKER_00: It won't be without cost.
SPEAKER_00: It won't always be smooth sailing, and there will be times when even those you love the most, parent, child, sibling, may not understand.
SPEAKER_00: Or may stand in opposition to the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To try to drill it down.
SPEAKER_00: There may very well be a relational cost to following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it may be significant.
SPEAKER_00: A couple years ago, I baptized a woman who'd grown up in Iran.
SPEAKER_00: She moved to the States when she was 18.
SPEAKER_00: She started attending Truro, where I was a priest, because her husband had grown up in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And their son was going to the preschool there.
SPEAKER_00: And I ran into her in the parking lot one week and I asked her, like, I just stopped and said, How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: And then I like, I stopped.
SPEAKER_00: And she started telling me.
SPEAKER_00: And then she said, actually, I've got some questions about faith.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think we could talk about that sometime?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Of course.
SPEAKER_00: We met almost every week for the next 10 weeks.
SPEAKER_00: And then I baptized her.
SPEAKER_00: And she can't go back to a ram.
SPEAKER_00: She has family in a Ram.
SPEAKER_00: She can't go back to a Ram.
SPEAKER_00: There's a relational cost, sometimes, to following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Had a similar story of a friend.
SPEAKER_00: Went to college, became a Christian, discerned a call to ministry.
SPEAKER_00: His parents said if you do that, you're cut off.
SPEAKER_00: I heard a similar story of a friend who grew up in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Went to college, discerned a call to ministry.
SPEAKER_00: His parents really wanted him to be a doctor.
SPEAKER_00: Not a lot of money in this work.
SPEAKER_00: He went to seminary, became a pastor, fractured his relationship with his parents.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes there's a relational cost to following Jesus, and it may be significant.
SPEAKER_00: A yes to Jesus is no small thing.
SPEAKER_00: So count the cost.
SPEAKER_00: Would you still say yes to Jesus if it cost you your family?
SPEAKER_00: Would you still say yes to Jesus if it meant a life of persecution?
SPEAKER_00: As we saw last week in verses 17 to 23.
SPEAKER_00: Would you still say yes to Jesus if it meant a life devoid of peace and instead full of strife?
SPEAKER_00: Conflict.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering, pain.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see here in verses 34 to 36.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus takes it still further.
SPEAKER_00: Would you still say yes to Jesus if it cost you your life?
SPEAKER_00: That's because that's what Jesus is asking for.
SPEAKER_00: All of you.
SPEAKER_00: Your very life.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got a Bible open in your lap, underline verses 38 and 39.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever finds his life will lose it.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
SPEAKER_00: A yes to Jesus means a yes to the ways of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It means a yes to dying to self.
SPEAKER_00: It means a yes to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You can't have Jesus without the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't walk in the way of Jesus without walking the road of suffering and dying to self and submitting wholeheartedly to the will of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is asking his disciples to count the cost.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking us to count the cost.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this doesn't happen in your house, but it happens in my house.
SPEAKER_00: One of the conversations we've been having with our boys lately is about taking responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean lately, like we've been having this conversation for the last, well, let's see, my oldest is 15, so since he could talk.
SPEAKER_00: 13 years.
SPEAKER_00: It's really easy, and adults we do this too.
SPEAKER_00: It's really easy to say, I'm sorry for talking back, but isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry for this mistake I made at work, but I'm sorry for not doing what you asked me to do, but I'm sorry for being frustrated with you, but we do this with Jesus too.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I'll obey you on this thing, but I'm gonna do it my own way over here.
SPEAKER_00: I'll come to church on Sunday, be generous with my time, talents, treasures, but I'm gonna do things my way at the office, or on Friday night, or when no one is looking, or when it might cost me a couple hours of sleep.
SPEAKER_00: Or pick your thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Surely none of us do that, do we?
SPEAKER_00: I know I do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is clear.
SPEAKER_00: Following him means the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It'll cost you your life.
SPEAKER_00: So count the cost and know what you're saying yes to.
SPEAKER_00: But remember as well, whoever finds his life will lose it.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
SPEAKER_00: It'll cost you your life.
SPEAKER_00: You'll get it all back, and then some.
SPEAKER_00: We don't always experience that in this life, but sometimes we do.
SPEAKER_00: Just about 11 years ago, I accepted a call to serve at Truro Anglican up in Fairfax.
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I lived a mile from the beach in San Diego.
SPEAKER_00: And we lived 15 minutes from both sets of grandparents.
SPEAKER_00: We had two boys.
SPEAKER_00: We're four and two.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've never experienced the blessing of grandparents when you have nearby when you have little ones, oh man.
SPEAKER_00: And we we'd spent the last 10 years.
SPEAKER_00: We'd spent 10 years in San Diego.
SPEAKER_00: And it's where we'd grown up.
SPEAKER_00: The Gennady grew up in San Diego.
SPEAKER_00: We left for college in Texas, we moved back to San Diego.
SPEAKER_00: We'd been there for a decade.
SPEAKER_00: We lived a mile from the beach.
SPEAKER_00: We had grandparents nearby.
SPEAKER_00: And then God said, You need to pack up and move across the country to Northern Virginia.
SPEAKER_00: You need to leave all of that behind.
SPEAKER_00: Leave your church behind, your friends behind, both sets of grandparents behind.
SPEAKER_00: And we did.
SPEAKER_00: Moved across country.
SPEAKER_00: Jenny would probably still say it was one of the hardest things she's ever done.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what happened?
SPEAKER_00: Seven years later, eight years later, my in-laws moved across the country.
SPEAKER_00: And then a year or two after that, my parents moved across the country.
SPEAKER_00: And we've spent the last three years, four years, grandparents even closer than they were before while our boys grew up.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when we offer our lives to God, He He gives it all back and then some.
SPEAKER_00: He gave it all back to us and then some.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes He doesn't do that in this life.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we don't see those blessings even within years.
SPEAKER_00: But the promise is clear.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever finds his life will lose it.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
SPEAKER_00: The promise is, at the end of the day, he promises to give it all back to us, and then some.
SPEAKER_00: Even more than grandparents down the road.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus switches gears.
SPEAKER_00: Surely there will be some relational cost of following Jesus, but just as surrender and you follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Some may reject you, but others will receive you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 40.
SPEAKER_00: And if you have a Bible open in your lap, circle every time you see the word receive.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever receives you receives me.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: The one who receives a prophet because he's a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.
SPEAKER_00: The one who receives a righteous person because he's a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime we see repetition in the Bible, we ought to pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: And here we see it.
SPEAKER_00: Over and over and over again, receive.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you have heard me say this before.
SPEAKER_00: The posture of a disciple of Jesus is like this: open hands.
SPEAKER_00: This is the posture of a disciple.
SPEAKER_00: The way of Jesus is marked by giving and receiving.
SPEAKER_00: We give our lives, we receive a new life.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, when we surrender our relationships and our peace to Jesus, he in turn gives us those who do and will receive us.
SPEAKER_00: And in doing so receive Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is his way.
SPEAKER_00: Receiving and giving and giving and receiving.
SPEAKER_00: Not just because someone is righteous or a prophet, but because the way of Jesus is the way of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Of freely giving and freely receiving.
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 10, Jesus is sending his disciples out to participate in his mission.
SPEAKER_00: He knows they're potentially walking into persecution, suffering, rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Not into an easy, peaceful mission, but a costly mission, one that requires them to take up their cross, surrender their lives, to give themselves away to others.
SPEAKER_00: Giving yourself away in service to others is risky, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Approaching any other person like this is vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: It opens us up to all sorts of rejection and hurt.
SPEAKER_00: It's risky.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Offering yourself for the sake of others.
SPEAKER_00: And when we do it, when we offer ourselves to one another, to our neighbors, our friends, coworkers, well, we certainly give them the chance to reject us, to hurt us.
SPEAKER_00: For sure.
SPEAKER_00: But we also give them the chance to receive us.
SPEAKER_00: To receive Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I have a mentor who used to always encourage me to take the risk and have spiritual conversations whenever possible.
SPEAKER_00: To invite people to consider Jesus and to receive Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he used to say that when they said no or not yet, or ah, I don't know, or that sounds like a good thing for you, I don't know, but for me, he used to always remind me, Mike, they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But when I didn't ask, when I didn't invite, he used to say, when I didn't have the conversation, I never gave them the chance to receive what I had to offer.
SPEAKER_00: I never gave them the opportunity to receive Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I effectively said no for them.
SPEAKER_00: When we offer ourselves to others, when we offer Jesus to others, we give them a chance not just to reject us and what we have to offer, but we give them a chance to receive us and what we have to offer.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is saying in verses 40 and 41, which brings us to verse 42, which I love.
SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is so important, so listen closely.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants to make it clear that saying yes to him comes with big, real costs.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not all dramatic gestures.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's giving or receiving a cup of cold water.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this.
SPEAKER_00: I've been married for a little over 19 years now, and my love for Jenny is sometimes clearly expressed in grand acts of love and service.
SPEAKER_00: Like last fall, I took her on a surprise trip for her 40th birthday.
SPEAKER_00: Grand gesture.
SPEAKER_00: But even more than the big grand acts of love and service.
SPEAKER_00: A marriage is built on a thousand small acts of care and love and service and attentiveness to her and to our marriage over a long period of time.
SPEAKER_00: So it is with following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So it is with any relationship for that matter.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants his disciples to know it.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to know this.
SPEAKER_00: And so he says, give what you can, even if it seems small, a cup of cold water.
SPEAKER_00: Just take that one little step every day.
SPEAKER_00: Have a thoughtful follow-up conversation with a friend.
SPEAKER_00: A little prayer.
SPEAKER_00: A ride to the airport.
SPEAKER_00: An invitation to the pool.
SPEAKER_00: Be truly attentive for a moment when someone speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Set up the chairs.
SPEAKER_00: Put the phone down.
SPEAKER_00: Make eye contact.
SPEAKER_00: Write the note.
SPEAKER_00: Receive from others.
SPEAKER_00: Give to others.
SPEAKER_00: Live open-handedly.
SPEAKER_00: And do it with the small things.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're called to offer Jesus our very lives.
SPEAKER_00: And that's huge and overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: And frankly, most of the time I don't know how to do it.
SPEAKER_00: But I do know how to get Jenny a cup of water when she's already in bed.
SPEAKER_00: And as the cover is tucked tight and is thirsty, I can do that.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Receive from others, give to others, live open-handedly.
SPEAKER_00: The way of Jesus, the way of the cross, does require us to count the cost and make big decisions.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see in the opening verses of our text today.
SPEAKER_00: But the way of Jesus is not all big, dramatic acts of sacrifice and service, but a thousand small acts of giving and receiving, of learning to give and receive grace.
SPEAKER_00: And it takes a lifetime to learn this, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: It's these seemingly, seemingly small acts of service done in service to Christ that form us into his likeness, just as much as the big acts of sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Just as it's the small acts of attentiveness and love that grow in marriage, so the seemingly insignificant acts of service compound, forming us and transforming us when they're done with open hands.
SPEAKER_00: When done in a posture of open-handedness towards God and others, there is no small act in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: When done in a posture of open-handedness towards God and others, there is no small act in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what?
SPEAKER_00: Two big questions, two main takeaways this morning.
SPEAKER_00: First, have you counted the cost of saying yes to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Have you counted the cost of saying yes to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: We need to do this each and every day.
SPEAKER_00: Second, there's an invitation here in the text to a little life of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you notice I do the little with the quote marks.
SPEAKER_00: Because the little acts of grace, a little life of service in the kingdom of God is no small thing.
SPEAKER_00: But it's a big, beautiful thing that compounds forming us into the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So the invitation is to say yes to the way of Jesus, giving and receiving with open hands and open hearts in all the seemingly small and unseen places of our lives that form us in his likeness.
SPEAKER_00: Will you stand and pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Gracious God, would you form us to be this sort of people in our life together with our neighbors, coworkers, friends, classmates, the sort of people who serve and love and give ourselves away?
SPEAKER_00: Oh gracious God, would you unclench our fists?
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to live a life of grace, of open-handedness, giving and receiving for the sake of others.
SPEAKER_00: Would you remind us how great the prize waiting for us at the finish line?
SPEAKER_00: And would you teach us to walk in your ways this day and every day?
SPEAKER_00: Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
unknown: Amen.