Chapel - August 30, 2018 - Jackie Hill-Perry

also before I start I am so honored to be introducing Jackie Hill Perry I personally looked up to her she has really helped me in my walk in the Lord through watching a lot of her videos for those of you who don't know Jackie Hill Perri is a writer speaker an artist whose work has been featured on The Washington Times the 700 club the Gospel Coalition in many other publications since coming to know Christ at the age of 19 Jackie has been compelled to share the light of gospel truth through teaching writing poetry and music speaking of she assigned to humbled Beast Records and she released her album the art of joy in 2014 in her latest album crescendo this year not only that Jackie is a wife to president Perry and a mommy to Eden in autumn now before she comes on the stage she will be speaking tonight for women's ministries located behind the G Rick at 7:00 p.m. please give a warm welcome for Jackie Hill Perry [Applause] can't you hear me oh yeah sorry I'm gonna put my computer on your revelation song notes who's ever notes these are I apologize if it has like coffee on the bottom I'm excited to be here I'm gonna get straight to the text because I think God has a lot more meaningful things to say than I would I think there are a lot of people a lot of different people in the world you got men and women they are obviously incredibly different you have black and white you have Asian and Hispanic you have athletes and musicians you have poets and preachers you have seminary scholars and stay-at-home moms that is not mutually exclusive by the way you have Starbucks lovers and you have people that are delusional thinking that Dunkin Donuts is actually good coffee sorry it tastes like poison with so many unique kinds of people around us you would think that it would be difficult for them to all have some sort of commonality among them but there is one thing that connects us all it is an identity that no matter our color context or coffee preference that makes us this all-inclusive identity that names us all is that of a sinner we are all born being one yet there is even a distinction among sinners and a specific sense you have liars you have murderers you have drunken you have sexually immoral you have proud unloving unforgiving kinds of sinners but and a general for overreaching or marching since you have two simply two kinds of sinners that is you have those who know that they are sinful and you have those who are sinful but believe they are righteous something that I think would be eternally beneficial for us to know today is that the amount of intimacy and knowledge and love that we have with Christ will depend on which way we identify ourselves will be in mark - today in mark - we find that Jesus is building dealing with both sides of this equation mark - starting at verse 13 it says he went on again beside the sea and all the crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them and as he passed by he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth and he said to him follow me and he rose and followed him and as he reclined at table in his house many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples for there were many who followed him and the scribes of the Pharisees when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors said to his disciples why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners and when Jesus heard it he said to them those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners let's pray God I pray that you would use your word to do what it was sent to do which is to show us ourselves show us Jesus so that we may turn and believe in him in Jesus name Amen Jesus has just finished before this chapter has just finished healing a paralytic man and after doing so he starts walking beside the sea the crowd notices him and starts coming towards him for they have either heard of him or have personally seen him do miracles such as when he cleansed the man from an unclean spirit or when he healed many various diseases while staying at Simon's house he'd even done something most wouldn't have done themselves or had the courage to do which is to touch a leper but as soon as he touched the leper the man was a leper no more this crowd knew that Jesus had to pot the power to do what their doctors couldn't so they flocked to him naturally the text tells us that the text doesn't told us that any physical healings were done during this time when the crowd came it says that Jesus chose to teach them instead we may not have been given his sermon manuscript but we can assume that whatever he taught it was all about God earlier in the book of Mark after the baptism of Jesus we are told that Jesus went around Galilee preaching the gospel of God so it is to be assumed that whatever he is telling this crowd it would be the same message as he walks the text tells us that Jesus Jesus noticed somebody it says as he passed by he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus that might seem minor to you but that sentence shows us the kindness of God because it says that he noticed Levi fall we know Levi did not flag Christ down or beg him to stop by his booth without any initiation on the part of Levi God still saw him and Jesus didn't just see Levi with no context to the kind of person Levi was the text says that he saw Levi sitting at attacks books so Jesus sees Levi in action he sees Levi in his usual context which is that of a tax collector and a thing about tax collector is G Jews hated tax collectors like the same way I don't like the IRS sorry if any of your parents work there Bob just not a fan the Jews hated tax collector one being tax collectors one being that they saw them as traitors because tax collectors were Jews who were working for the oppressive Roman Empire another reason being that most tax collectors were thieves they would charge their fellow Jews more in taxes so that they could take a little bit off the top for themselves so when Jesus saw Levi he was looking at a sinner when Jesus saw Levi he was looking at an outcast but so with that being the case you would have expected him for him to look at him but then look the other way to allow the sinfulness of Levi to cause him to completely reject Levi but Jesus doesn't do what the other religious leaders would have done he does something completely different and incredibly controversial he looks at Levi and says follow me follow me doesn't Jesus know what kind of man this is why would he invite him into his company these two words had not been spoken to too many so it's a privilege for Levi to even hear it from the words of Jesus Pete said it to Simon and Andrew while they were fishing in a sea of galilee after they heard follow me it says that they both left everything he called James and John while they were working as well after Jesus said follow me and they both with their boats and fish and all that left it and followed the Lord isn't it interesting that just as Jesus saw and called Levi while he was working Jesus has done the same to Simon Andrew James and John it shows us that Jesus as good at coming into a life without warning even in the middle of the day while life as usual is going on God will bring it to a complete halt with two words follow me notice there isn't a question mark after these words it's not a suggestion or request it is a command a command that Levi immediately obeys verse 14 says that after Jesus spoke that leave our rose up and followed Jesus Marc leaves out a detail that Luke chapter 5 fills us in on and it says that Levi got up leaving everything and followed him did you hear the additional piece of information that I believe makes this narrative that much more compelling Levi didn't just follow Jesus and returned to his way of life the next day it says that he left everything and to say it another way it means that he forsook oh this is why the words follow me creates great tension in the life of a sinner because the follow Christ means that you have to leave some things behind some relationships some career choices some ways of thinking truth be told the main thing that you have to forsake is yourself do you remember when Jesus told his disciples that if they wanted to follow him they wanted to come after him they had to deny themselves they had to leave themselves behind taking up their cross to then follow him so that shows us that we can't follow Jesus and sin we can't follow Jesus and maintain an allegiance to ourselves our rights our desires our goals anything that keeps you from him must die so that you may follow him and him alone perhaps this could be why some of us in this room have lacked real intimacy with the Lord because we have deceived ourselves into thinking that we can have Jesus and Jesus and immorality Jesus and a little porn Jesus and a little lying I know that might feel very controversial to you but God loves you too much not to expose your idols when he told you to follow him admit that those idols could not come with but Jesus isn't calling any of us to do anything that he hasn't called all of the disciples to do before us such as Levi Levi obeys knowing he is leaving alive he is leaving a lucrative career Levi obeys though knowing that he is leaving a lifestyle of comfort Levi obeys knowing that he is giving up a piece of himself but he does it because there is something clearly about Jesus that makes his obedience worth it that makes everything that he is leaving compare a loss as compared to the worth of knowing Christ after all of this Jesus ends up chilling that Levi's house I don't know how I would feel if Jesus came over I would just start cleaning things that don't even matter I would start cleaning the you know the drawers that have batteries in it I would clean out my microwave and my fridge I don't even think Jesus would going there I think Jesus is the type that just stays in the living room I don't even know if Jesus uses the bathroom but I would clean it anyway because God is here verse 15 says and as he reclined at table in his house he's relaxing many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples Jesus is sitting at the table eating with tax collectors and sinners these people are most likely friends of Levi that he has invited over to share a meal with his new Lord some of the scribes and Pharisees being typically very nosy somehow find out where Jesus is and who he is there with verse 16 says that they then questioned his disciples not him but they questioned his disciples about why he Jesus is eating with this and with sinners now to their defense from the outside looking in I could see why they are so confused by the sight of Jesus sitting with sinners perhaps in the forefront of their minds with Psalms 1 to them it might have looked like Jesus is walking in the counsel of the wicked and standing in the seat in the way of sinners but what they didn't have the eyes to see is that what was in front of them was actually Isaiah 7 coming to pass that this man sitting among sinners was actually the prophesied son whose name was not only Jesus but Emmanuel for he was the proof that now God was among humanity now now in a burning bush was he here nor was he in a temple but he is here in the flesh in the flesh among unclean folk these people in desperate need of atonement we're now sitting down over a meal with the only lamb that they'd ever need when Jesus heard what the disciples said well what Pharisees said to Jesus's disciples Jesus went to them and said this those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners Jesus plays the Pharisees game in his response they have a delusional over estimation of their own spiritual health so he uses a metaphor of the metaphor to talk about their blindness in relation to explaining his mission because they believe that they are healthy that they are clean and if that's the case then they have no need of him or so they think but I think that actually sounds a lot like how some of us including myself think of ourselves often those of us who we know a lot of Scripture we might know more Scripture than most people we take classes in Greek we've grown up with Christian parents we've never committed in the outwardly grievous sins or we go to a Christian College even that somehow these beautifully religious activities have cleansed us of our central nature and have worked to make us right with God but purely on the basis of our own perceptions of goodness to believe this would actually make us no different than the people that Jesus is speaking with it is interesting to me that people who are obvious sinners can actually be the quickest ones to repent versus the kinds of sinners that who believe that because they sin in subtle ways that that actually makes them a better candidate for heaven both the Pharisee and the tax collector who under the same wrath they both had the same fate for the wages of all sin silent and spoken sports out loud or obvious is death but as God's grace would have it Jesus was there on earth in the flesh among sinners so that they could be made right with him Jesus didn't come for perfect people for if he did he would have only been coming for himself there was no staying too dark and no sin too small or big that God didn't have the power to cover and this is what unbelief wants us to forget sometimes when we are dealing with unconfessed sin we feel as if God we cannot admit to God what he already knows but that we cannot let God in on the working of a heart that he already sees if you are dealing with sin today and if you're anything like a human being I'm sure that you are whether you are st. made righteous through Christ or a sinner not yet made right to God know that you are the kind of person that Jesus came to earth for he came for that's his intention sinners there is no idle you have held on to that can actually keep you from his love or his mercy this is the hope of the entire world that they don't have to remain as they are but we all can truly be given a brand new identity do you know what the difference was between the sinners sitting at the table and the sinners pointing their fingers at the table is that God had come for them both but only one side knew that they needed him Levi and his friends were hated in their society they were treated as sinners but the text says that many of them follow Jesus they might have had some messed up lives at one point but at least they knew who to run to to be made clean the Pharisees didn't understand that because they thought that their clothes and their tassels and their knowledge of the Torah might have set them apart in light of God but it actually didn't make them any different than the world if they would have just had the faith to see that Jesus was God and in him being God God is conversing personally with sinners without the help of a high priest that they would have saw that them being sinners themselves at the scene before them was mercy and that mercy had now come down for their rescue that God himself had come to speak with them but they didn't think they needed mercy or Christ the question I have for you is do you do you know that you need God today and I don't mean that intellectually we know a lot about them but do we need them some of you may even be getting beat up by the devil that you stopped believing that God can even help you in your unneeded where you are afraid to tell God the truth you're afraid to say God I feel as if I don't need you but I want to need you that's the same as saying God I don't believe but help my unbelief it's okay to not feel needy just as long as you're aware that you shouldn't stay there it's alright to tell God where you are because the good news is still good news even at this moment that God does come down and help us who sometimes don't feel like we need them but he comes down and reminds us that we do Jesus has made an escape for both the center that knows that they need them and the center's that think that they are just good whichever one you might be this morning I pray that you believe that it is more beneficial to know that you are sick so that you can be made well than it is to believe that you are well remaining sick Jesus Christ is our great physician he is the one that Isaiah tells us was pierced for our transgressions he it is he who was crushed for our iniquities and it was upon him the chastisement that brought us peace and it's through him this Christ that we can be healed that's prayer god I don't know where our hearts are today I know it could be tempting to assume that all that you're learning translates into intimacy but I pray that we would need you that we would leave this place wanting you and that if we don't we would tell you about it that we would trust you with our unbelief that we would believe that you are powerful enough to give us an affection for the invisible God I pray that we would trust you that we would love you and that we grow in the knowledge of you intimately I pray for a deep deep deep love of the Lord today for all these things in Jesus name Amen so I was told I could just tell y'all to go [Applause]

Channel: GraceCollege

Views: 14,673

Keywords: Grace College, Chapel, Jackie Hill-Perry, Community Connection, Christ-Centered

Id: wThIv_oOhv8

Length: 22min 22sec (1342 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 13 2018