Crossridge Church - September 5, 2021

good morning everyone welcome here i'm so glad to see you on this rainy morning i want to invite you just to join with us and stand as we sing [Music] and all i see is [Music] when all i see is a mountain you see [Music] your love surrounds me there's nothing to fear [Music] with my hands lifted high oh god the battle [Music] you who can be against me foreign [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh god the battle belongs to you you go before us nothing can stand against the power of our [Music] you win every battle [Music] nothing [Music] nothing can stand against the power [Music] with my hands lifted high oh [Music] belongs to you [Music] isn't that such great news the battle is in the hands of our awesome god this morning we're going to learn a new song this morning as well to continue just praising our god who is our hope and our foundation so we're going to sing the verse and we'll sing it again you can join in as you as you learn it but i just want to encourage you if you also aren't comfortable with new songs just listen these are encouraging words and they are true about our god this morning [Music] the gospel of jesus it's the hope of the ages burning brighter and brighter and standing forever the church is building nothing can stop it it's a city that's shining a light in the darkness [Music] no nothing can stop it sing that again the gospel of jesus the gospel of jesus it's the hope of the ages burning brighter and brighter and standing forever [Music] the church he is building nothing can stop it it's a city that's shining a light in the darkness oh nothing can stop it [Music] though christ was dead now surely he is reason yeah he is coming back again and christ will reign in triumph forever [Music] oh praise belongs to jesus his word is the answer [Music] this is our confession this is our conviction we believe what is written we believe what you've spoken [Music] yes [Music] to yeah [Music] praise belongs to jesus [Music] sing hallelujah [Music] hallelujah jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] christ will [Music] forever [Music] [Music] sing or sing hallelujah [Music] [Music] we shall [Music] [Music] sing that christ is [Music] we shout hallelujah [Music] [Music] yes so [Music] [Music] though the nations rage kingdoms rise [Music] not fear for this [Music] is [Music] he is here with me [Music] is [Music] is [Music] this day oh my god [Music] so i may not see what the future brings i will watch and wait for my save your [Music] with the presence [Music] is [Music] all the glory [Music] yes my god is [Music] amen you can have a seat you got me good morning how are we doing all right it's good to be together praise god man we're here in the presence of god and each other to worship this god that we just sang about um who came and who lived for us who died for us and rose again for us to give us new life and we're going to turn our attention to god's word we're going to be looking at matthew chapter 9 this morning so i'll invite you to grab your bibles or your device open up to matthew chapter 9 and we're looking at starting at verse 9. let me just pray for us this morning would you join me in prayer lord god we thank you that we can be here together in the presence of one another and in the presence of your spirit to worship you freely without fear of persecution to open up the bible and hear from you and learn your word and what we're called to do with our lives and how it changes us and shapes us and transforms us god we can do that freely what a privilege that is and so we give you thanks and praise for that and we thank you for who you are and all that you've done for us and all you continue to do for us god and we just ask now that as we turn our attention uh to your scriptures that you would speak uh with power and with clarity to each of us no matter what we're coming in here with uh this morning god what our week was like it might have been hectic for some of us might have been painful for some of us it might have been really joyful for some of us but we just asked that wherever we're at this morning lord you would meet us there and speak to us in the mighty name of jesus we pray amen well i don't know about you guys but something that absolutely uh captivates me and grabs my attention uh is a good redemption story a story of brokenness and pain that turns out to be a story of redemption and greatness and a particular story along those lines that has really captured my attention lately i don't know if you guys have seen it or watched the documentary but the story of tiger woods hbo put out a little documentary a two-part little series just chronicling the life of tiger woods and if you don't know who that is you've probably heard his name he is by far the most famous golfer of all time he was possibly the greatest golfer of all time and you might be like it's golf who cares i'm not a particularly big golf fan but there's something about tiger woods story that is absolutely captivating and this documentary it follows his life and it tells the story of how he rose to fame right from his childhood how his father trained him and raised him up from a baby to be the world's greatest golfer and it tells the story of how he gets everything he could possibly want in the world money and fame he's possibly the biggest athlete most well-known superstar in the world but more than that it tells the story of how he makes some really bad really wrong decisions in his life that absolutely shipwreck his life right at the pinnacle of his fame and notoriety he makes some really harmful decisions that hurt him and hurt other people he has multiple affairs cheats on his wife he develops addictions to gambling into substances he starts partying in vegas and doing all kinds of crazy stuff and he ends up with a dui he ends up being arrested and just making all of these decisions that absolutely shipwreck his life and you might be thinking you're sick sam why do you like watching this but the point is not that he shipwrecks his life i think what captivates me so much about the story is that there's something in me this this documentary just leaves it hanging at the end begging this question of can any good come out the other side of this situation is tiger gonna be able to pick himself up and get it together and actually do something good on the other side of this shipwreck that he has made of his life and i think that the reason that stories like this grab our attention and captivate us is because in a way all of us ask that question at one point or another in our lives every single one of us has found ourselves in a circumstance where whether by our own uh decision making or the actions of other people we have found ourselves in a situation where we are down and out maybe we've made decisions that have made a mess of our lives we feel broken we have found ourselves in a situation where we feel broken and we find ourselves asking can god still do something great with my life is this the end i'm at rock bottom am i going to stay here or am i going to get up is god going to pull me up and still be able to do something with my life in and through my life even though i've made such a mess of things and matthew in this story he's going to tell us the story of his call from god where god met him in his circumstance changed him transformed him and then took his life and used him for something great and matthew wants us to see the heart of god in this story that our god the god of heaven the god that calls us the god that we worship is a god who loves to take broken imperfect sinful people and do something with their lives something of meaning something of eternal value he can take the broken he loves to take the broken cull them and do something great with them that's what we're going to see about god and about his heart for us and i hope that it's encouraging to us let's read this passage matthew 9 starting at verse 9 it says this as jesus passed on from there he saw a man called matthew sitting at the tax booth and he said to him follow me and he rose and followed him and as jesus reclined at table in the house behold many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with jesus and his disciples and when the pharisees saw this they said to his disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners but when he heard it he said those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick go and learn what this means i desire mercy and not sacrifice for i came not to call the righteous but sinners i came not to call the righteous but sinners okay we need to figure out what's going on in this passage we need to ask who is matthew so matthew is the one who wrote this gospel so he's telling his own story of how god met him and called him so matthew is going to be one of the 12 who goes and follows jesus around you see that he rose and responded to this call to follow jesus he's going to be with jesus witness the miracles and the life of jesus see jesus walk on water and heal lepers and raise the paralytics and heal the blind and make them see and he's going to see jesus go to a roman cross and die and be crucified be buried in a tomb and then rise again matthew was there for all that matthew writes this account this gospel this book that we read that has literally over the course of history changed millions and millions of lives that has introduced people to who god is and literally changed the course of history through this account that he wrote of the life and the works of jesus but matthew wants us to see that before that before he followed jesus and lived this life before he was the one who wrote this account and saw all these things and witnessed these things what do we see jesus saw a man called matthew sitting at the tax booth and it's really easy for us to just read that and go okay that was his job he was a tax collector you know he worked for canada revenue agency that's a fine job but actually we need to understand we need to grasp this what a tax collector was in this day to the jewish people was the absolute lowest of the low the scum of society the ones who would be shunned from the synagogue not even allowed to worship with other jews they weren't even allowed to give a witness a testimony in a court of law they were outcasts they were considered the worst of the worst the scummiest of the scum the low of the low and that was because they were jews who were working for the romans who were actually in power over the jews and so these tax collectors were jews working for the romans who were to collect the roman taxes from their fellow jews but what they were allowed to do by the romans was to collect way more than the taxes actually were so they could basically charge their fellow jews however much money they wanted and so they were getting there were jews getting rich off of the backs of other jews they were traitors right they were sellouts to the roman empire and as one author says this would be almost on the same level as in the world war as a jew working for the nazis it was that level of just absolutely despising these people these tax collectors they were the worst of the worst the outcasts and that's matthew matthew wants us to see that he when jesus met him that's where he was at he had given his life to scamming his fellow jews his fellow countrymen getting rich he would have been very wealthy getting rich off of their backs off of their pain oppressing them the poor he was like a reverse robin hood kind of he was taking from the poor giving to the rich and getting rich off of it himself that's who he was and matthew wants us to notice here that when jesus meets him and sees him and looks at him what does he see because the jews the other jews all of culture all of society looked at him as the worst of the worst the scum they had written him off but what does jesus see he saw a man called matthew sitting at the tax booth and what does jesus do does he condemn him does he say you are the worst does he keep shame and guilt and condemnation on him no he walks up to him and says follow me that's powerful he doesn't condemn matthew he sees him in all of his brokenness and all of his selfishness you know gaining profiting off of the pain of other people he's given his whole life to this endeavor endeavor he's corrupt to the core but what does jesus see in him not that evil person that he is that corruption he sees who matthew is supposed to be who he wants matthew to be he doesn't condemn him he says these words he gives this undeniable call to matthew follow me into something better i've got something better for you matthew i see that you're down i see that you are making these decisions i see that you've made an absolute mess of your life you're empty you have riches you have gain you have all these things but you're missing what actually matters come and follow me jesus doesn't see who matthew is at his worst moment at the worst lowest point of his life in his worst sin he sees who he wants him to be and he gives this call follow me to better i've got better for you and we need to understand what this call is to follow jesus and we need to see here matthew wants us to see that jesus is the god who brings greatness out of brokenness jesus brings greatness out of brokenness because he sees matthew doing what he's doing living the life that he's living and he calls him into something way better he calls him to leave that life of sin that life of corruption and evil behind and follow him into something way better and it's not a call into something comfortable and easy we need to understand what the call is to follow jesus it's not a call to necessarily health and wealth and prosperity like we get told sometimes matthew already has all that right he's already rich he's wealthy but jesus sees that he's missing the one thing that actually matters the one thing that he actually needs he's missing real life he needs forgiveness he needs redemption this is the jesus who says what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul i think that was the reality for matthew he had gained what in his mind was the whole world but he had forfeited his soul jesus says follow me into something better not into something safe but something that actually means something that is the call to follow jesus it's a call into mission it's a call into adventure it's a call to actually do something with your life that means something right and we need this we need a clear sense of purpose we need a clear sense of mission or else what do we do we just float we drift i was reading this week there's a a very famous psychologist his name is philip zimbardo and you might know him if you're you know psychology at all he's considered the voice and the face of contemporary psychology he did uh what was famously known as the stanford prison experiment but he did a study he wanted to study hundreds and hundreds of young men because what he was seeing what he was finding was that we have a whole generation of young men that are lagging way behind academically that are lacking purpose and mission and motivation in the world and it's a whole generation of young boys young men who are basically just sitting around addicted to pornography and addicted to video games and what he found studying their neurobiology studying their lives was that the reason for this was because these young men lacked a sense of purpose and a sense of mission in their lives they didn't know how to socialize to make friends to go out in the world he was finding that uh the reason that they sit at home and just lock themselves in their rooms and play video games and watch pornography was because their virtual world their virtual reality was more stimulating and gave them more sense of mission and purpose than their real lives outside of these virtual false realities how scary is that we see this time and time again i was also reading a couple of articles this weekend uh of some veterans some war veterans who have come back from iraq and from afghanistan who've just been right in the heat of battle in the thick of it fighting side by side some of them wounded some of them sent home whatever and what we've we found since the world wars they've been studying soldiers who have come home for years and years and years and what is so often the case is that these soldiers come home to the safety and the comfort of their lives back home out of the war and they actually miss the heat of battle they want to go back because every single day they woke up next to their brothers and sisters in the trenches bullets flying over their heads the risk of danger the risk of injury and of death every day but they woke up with a sense of purpose they woke up with a sense of mission that i'm actually here side by side linking arms with my brothers and sisters to actually do something we're fighting for something this means something and then they come home and it's shopping malls and it's saturday cartoons and it's sitting around working an average normal boring job and they miss the sense of adventure the sense of coal even though it was dangerous that's what jesus calls us to he says follow me to a life of this is what i'm doing this is the jesus who who says i'm going to go and build my church and i'm going to march against the gates of hell and the gates of hell will not prevail it's mission he says follow me into this life of pushing back evil and darkness in the world with the light with the truth of god the truth of the gospel that's what i'm calling you to jesus offers us he calls us into this sense of mission this sense of purpose that we can actually do something of meaning with our lives matthew wants us to notice something he does something really beautiful and poetic here at the end of verse 9 jesus says follow me and it says and he rose and followed him look at that word he rose and followed him matthew wants us to notice something here the story if you look in your bibles right before this one is the story you might know it of the paralytic uh who he's paralyzed he's on a mat and his friends want so badly to bring him to jesus for healing that they actually lower him through the roof on this mat so they can get him to jesus and jesus says i see you your sins are forgiven and then he heals him he says stand up rise pick up your mat and go home this man who's been paralyzed for we don't know how long he's been paralyzed unable to use his legs jesus looks at him and says get up rise and it's the same language that matthew uses in this story that he uses in that story in that story it says and he rose and went home jesus said to him rise pick up your bed and go home and he rose and went home and then matthew uses that same word in our passage here to describe himself to describe him responding to the call of jesus it says he rose and followed him and what matthew was saying is that just like this paralyzed man was down on a mat unable to walk unable to use his legs he's living this half-life this paralyzed life he's down he's saying i was just like this paralyzed man i was living this life down i was living this half-life i was getting gain and profit and money from my fellow jews and i was rich and i was killing it but i wasn't actually alive i wasn't actually living and jesus called me to get up from that to get up from my sin to get up from my brokenness and rise and follow him into something better and that same call is still alive that same coal is still going out to us and we need to hear that call of jesus that coal follow me rise get up like so many of us we stay down in our sin we feel like we can't go to god we feel like we've sinned our way out of the grace of god we've made such a mess of our lives we're so broken that we can't god's not going to do anything with our lives he can't use us for something great and that's the call to us is no get up rise some of us god has been speaking to us and working in our lives and calling us for a while working through people and circumstances and brokenness calling us get up rise i know you feel down i know you feel like this paralyzed guy like you can't get up like you can't live like you can't move forward to something better with your life get up rise and he rose and followed him and verse 10 says and as jesus reclined at table in the house behold many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with jesus and his disciples and when the pharisees saw this they said to his disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners we see here another thing about the beautiful heart of god we see that jesus pursues the suffering and sinful not the self-righteous he pursues the suffering and sinful we see that jesus loves to be around broken people jesus loves to be around the sinful messes of the world the people who are broken the people who have made mistakes who have made a wreck of their lives these are the people that jesus loves to be around again we need to look at matthew's language here look what it says it says behold he says pay attention look at this i want you to not miss this many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with jesus many matthew wants us to see that he's not a one-off exception he's not like the one sinful broken guy that jesus likes to be around matthew stoke that he's responded to this call to follow jesus he's been given this new life and so he has a little dinner party he invites his tax collector and sinner friends over and he says jesus was reclining with them jesus is kicking back jesus has got some food and some wine probably he's relaxing at the dinner table and it says many tax collectors and sinners jesus surrounds himself with these people who society who the culture around them has written off and wanted nothing to do with these are the people jesus surrounds himself with and these are the people who it says they reclined with him right many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with jesus they were comfortable around him jesus was comfortable around them and this begs the question of what is our concept of who god is and who he wants in his family hey what do we think about god when we think about who god would call who god would want to be around and want in his family who do we think of because look at the question that these pharisees ask the pharisees were the religious zealots the jewish zealots of the time but they defined righteousness as separation from anything that they thought was unclean so they had made hundreds of cleanliness purity laws that they were imposing on other jews if they wanted to be loved by god and accepted by god and welcomed in the place of worship the synagogue all these cleanliness purity rules and laws that they had to follow that's how they defined righteousness separation and so that's why they're so shocked and so offended that jesus would sit and have dinner with these people who they had written off because they were unclean and to have a meal to share a meal sit at a table and share food share wine with somebody was a symbol at that time of identification jesus was identifying himself with these people saying i'm for these people i'm with these people i love these people and to the the pharisees the zealous religious people that was so offensive because they thought that righteousness meant staying away from anything any people that would make you unclean but jesus defines righteousness very differently he defines righteousness as the love of god reaching out seeking after the sinful and the broken and giving them a new heart that loves god and loves neighbor righteousness is seeking the sinful being with the sinful seeking them out to heal them and it begs the question of whose heart does our heart more reflect sometimes in this story the heart of jesus or the heart of the religious pharisees right do we think that it's the outward ritualistic moralistic stuff that we do the religious hoops that we jump through sometimes is that what makes us righteous is that what makes us holy and acceptable in the sight of god or is it our heart and i just think of how this has happened in my life how i've seen this growing up not a lot of my friends were christians still a lot of my best buddies in the world are not christians they're not church people they didn't grow up in the church my my best childhood friend in the whole world didn't grow up in church he's not a christian and we've been through a lot together through our childhood grew up together all that stuff i love him to death and i went out to trinity western university out here christian university and you're not allowed to smoke or drink on campus you have to sign this community covenant that says you're not going to do that but this is my childhood best friend and he he sees me go off to university and sees me make all of these amazing new friends and people that he wants to meet he's back in edmonton and uh and i just remember we were going on a trip together his little brother played in the whl so we drove down to seattle to watch a couple games and then we drove back and on the way back we were going to sleep in my dorm at university together and he was going to hang out with all my friends most of them are christians good you know shiny nice christian folk and he was so excited to meet them and to hang out with them these are sam's you know new friends his new buddies and uh he had a few he had a few beverages at the game um and uh we got back to the the campus and he's so excited to come and hang out with my friends and meet them um but unfortunately he he walks in and there's couches it's a big common area in our dorm and just full of people and uh he kind of trips over the couches falls over good intro um and he has a cigarette in his mouth and you know he's kind of rough around the edges and he's going hey what's up everybody he's dropping f-bombs a little bit here and there that's he's alberta that's how he speaks and but he's just so excited to meet my friends and they looked at him like he wasn't like i had just brought an alien into our dorm like i just brought e.t into our dorm the look on their faces and just the absolute shock the absolute like this is your best friend that we've heard about and uh he he left and he walked away and he left feeling like okay this is what christians are about i guess these are your christian friends and i got a talking to later from some of the leadership in the in the dorm about hey we're concerned about you we're concerned this is your best friend we're a little concerned how backwards is that right and so i walk away with my best buddy this is his first impression hanging out with christian people and he goes i guess i'm not good enough to hang out with you i guess i'm not good enough i guess i won't be welcomed back here and i think we miss so many opportunities to do what jesus did to surround ourselves with these people who might not look like us live like us speak like us act like us and to come alongside of them and him and i my buddy we we have so many conversations since then about i'm able to come alongside of him and just go no dude i don't think that i'm better than you those people in there who are looking down on you they're not better than you because it's something he always says i guess i'm just not i'm not good enough i can never do what you do i can never live that kind of life that you life i'm just i'm not good enough i'm not good enough i'm not good enough what is our answer to that right is it yeah i guess you're not good enough or is it hey man i'm just as broken as you are i'm just as prone to temptation and to sin and to things that could shipwreck my life as you are the only difference is that god met me in that and i responded to his gracious invitation to be forgiven and made new that's the only difference between us i wonder how many opportunities like that we miss because we're too busy thinking about the externals we're too busy jumping through moral hoops thinking that that's what makes us righteous and my question for us is would anybody ask this question that the pharisees ask of jesus would anybody ask that about our lives why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners do we actually spend time do we hang out with do we share meals with do we do stuff with anybody who doesn't believe what we believe who doesn't live like we live think what like we think look and speak like we think and look and speak like who do we surround ourselves with would anybody ask this question of your life and look at jesus response to the pharisees but when he jesus heard it he said those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick go and learn what this means i desire mercy not sacrifice for i came not to call the righteous but sinners look at that response jesus says you've gotten it backwards i came not to call the righteous or that could be phrased the self-righteous but sinners the sick have need of a physician not the well what jesus is saying there he's not saying you know some people are just you know naturally morally good and they're right they're well they're not sick they don't need me and some people are sick and sinful and they need me he's saying everybody this is the point everybody's sick right we're all sick in some sense we're all broken naturally by our nature we're all broken we're all imperfect what he's saying is some people are able to be humbled they're able to to be humble enough to actually realize it and face it and those are the people that i came for those are the people for which my grace is going to be active in their life in their heart and actually be able to do something with them it's the hard-hearted cold callous religious people who already think they're righteous without me because they do certain ritualistic moralistic things it's those people for whom my grace will be be no good because they think they don't need it i came for those who know that they're sick who know that they're broken who know that they can't clean themselves up enough on their own maybe you guys have heard this or or thought this yourself but something my friends always say is you know i could never come to church with you because i'll walk through the front doors and i'll burst into flames and that was the case with our wedding sarah and i we got married uh here and uh some of my buddies were like where are you getting married oh at my church and they're like oh guess i can't come then i'll burst into flames when i walk in i was like dude it's an old movie theater like you're in more danger of getting old sticky dr pepper on your shoes and bursting into flames like but this is the thought right it's like i'm not good enough for church i'm not clean enough to come and to sit here and to do this stuff and to sing these songs into to whatever and maybe you've felt that maybe you've heard that maybe you felt that yourself maybe you felt like sitting in your community group or sitting you know in a service or being around christian people maybe you felt like you can't be authentic you can't be raw and real and honest about where you're actually at about what your fears are your doubts your insecurities your sin right maybe you felt you've been going through something maybe you've been struggling you've been giving in to sin you've been you know living in some kind of secret sin or whatever and you feel like you can't disclose it you feel like you can't tell it to anyone why because you'll be judged because they'll think you're not clean enough and you're not good enough and we just need to realize how backwards that is right like if church is not the place if your community group if this body this community this group of people who are defined by the saving grace the unmerited favor and forgiveness of god if a people who are defined by grace are not a people in which other people can feel comfortable to disclose their brokenness and to seek hope and healing and forgiveness for that brokenness and where if it's not the church then where right god never meant to jesus never meant to build a group of people who are just this shiny nice looking comfortable you know group of moralistic people who go through the religious ceremonies and jump through the religious hoops but whose hearts are far from him uh one author has said that you know the church is never meant to be a country club it's meant to be a hospital it's not a country club it's a hospital it's not a place a nice little social club for us to just sit around and have our christian music and our christian movies and our christian little subculture and all of our christian things that we do and have no idea what's going on in the outside world like we're hogwarts or something you know like we don't understand what the culture is doing what the culture is saying we're out of step with the pains and the struggles and the joys and the things that the world is doing things that the world is feeling we're meant to be more like a hospital where people who are hurt and who are broken feel that they can come they want to come people who are seeking answers seeking hope seeking healing who are broken and know that they're broken could come and find that as we point them to the one who has given us grace a guy called ed stetzer who's a he's a missiologist and a church planter and he's been planting churches and studying the world of churches and church planting his whole life he says this a church without broken people is a broken church church without broken people is a broken church if this is not a body of people a community a place full of people who can actually admit that they're broken and sinful and struggle with things and come to find answers in hope then we've strayed from the heart of god the heart of god is for the hurting the sick the sinful the broken rc sproul is a very well-known theologian he passed away a couple years ago just brilliant theologian and pastor and just a beautiful beautiful man um and uh he was he tells a story where he was once asked by a young pastor how can i how can i build my church how can i grow my church and rc says well you could do what most people do you could put all your resources all your time and all your attention into building cooler hipper better looking programs you know with all the shiny gadgets you could put your time and everything into your programs and try to do it better than the church down the road is doing it try to have better programs better little things better worship services the lights and the sounds and the gadgets you could do that and you could probably be successful you could probably more people will probably come or you could build your church the way that jesus built the church and you could go where the pain is you could go where the pain is because that's where the heart of god is isn't that true you know are we trying to just win more people who are already shiny and nice and look and sound like us or are we going where the pain is are we seeking out the people who are broken who are lost who we know are far from god and providing love and answers and hope to them are we going where the pain is jesus says go and learn what this means i desire mercy and not sacrifice because i came to call not the righteous but sinners jesus is quoting hosea 6 6 which says this i think we've got it for i desire mercy not sacrifice and acknowledgement of god rather than burnt offerings he's saying what i desire what my heart is for you my people is to not just have you go through the motions and jump through the hoops he's saying all the religious things you do the outward worship and the moralistic things that you do they're all good but they are meaningless if your heart is far from me i desire mercy what i want is you i want your heart i want you to be so enthralled so captivated by my love for you my grace my forgiveness to you my mercy that i have poured out on you i want you to be so grabbed and captivated by that that it flows into your heart and flows out of everything that you do in your life how you use your time your resources your money your attention your energy mercy because my heart for you look what i did for you remember how in your brokenness and your sin and your situation i met you there i saw you there and i didn't condemn you but i called you to myself i gave you mercy and grace and gave you life remember how i did that for you and be absolutely pushed out into the world with that motivation go and hold out that love and that mercy and that grace go reach a broken and hurting and sick and sinful world around you with that that's my desire i desire mercy not sacrifice don't do all this stuff if that's not where your heart is it's meaningless don't don't go through all the motions of outward worship if your heart is far from me and you don't care that the people next to you the people down the street your family members are far from god don't know god are living a godless life and are heading to a godless eternity without me if you don't care about those people you've missed the point i desire mercy and not sacrifice that's why he came and so i just want to say god in this season this weird season that we're in that we've been in that we have no idea how long we're going to be in still god is still moving in the midst of it in this call this call of jesus to matthew get up follow me that is still his call to us today he is still calling us wherever we are at right now to get up come to him and follow him so for some of us we're not a christian we wouldn't identify as a christian we wouldn't say that we believe in jesus we're still thinking about this stuff figuring it out asking questions and if that's you if you haven't felt comfortable in church if you haven't maybe been around church much my hope and my prayer for you is that you are starting to see the heart of god that even if you've had bad experiences with people in the church with feeling like you're judged feeling like you're not good enough to be there you're not good enough for god that you would start to see his beautiful heart for you in your brokenness and start to consider over the next few days or weeks or months or whatever it is actually start to consider like matthew getting up responding to this call of jesus follow me in faith and we would love that's why we exist we would love to help you figure out that decision figure out that journey wherever you're at that's why we are here that's why we exist and we're glad that you're here for others of us we might need to check our heart a little bit and see if maybe over time our heart has become a little bit cold and a little bit callous with a religious spirit if we have become more focused on the outward religious things the things that we do than the heart of jesus for lost and broken sinners maybe we've lost that sense of adventure that sense of call that sense of mission that we first felt when we responded to the call of jesus maybe we've lost that and my encouragement to you would be ask god to soften your heart again and ask him who who you need to reach out to who you need to speak to who you need to go to who you need to put yourself around who in your life in your world in your social circles whatever ask god who he would have you reach out to and just offer hope offer love and then for others of us we are following jesus and maybe you feel like you are absolutely stuck in your sin in some kind of habit in some kind of secret sin that maybe nobody knows about maybe in your situation with your life with your marriage with your work whatever it is and you're feeling stuck you're feeling down you're feeling so burdened and so weighed down by your sin here see the heart of christ for you that he is still for you maybe you feel like because of your sin because of something you've done or continued to do you can't go to him that he doesn't want you anymore that you've moved past that you've moved beyond god's saving grace you've moved beyond the point he's just angry at you now he's mad at you he's closed off his face to you see the heart of god he hasn't leaned away from you he leans into you closer in your pain in your sin in your brokenness and he is still for you and he's saying to you rise get up follow me follow me come to me his mercy is new every morning the bible says and so as we close i just want to i just want to read this this is a quote from dane ortland and i think he captures with this analogy he captures well the heart of god for us he tells it this way he says a compassionate doctor has traveled deep into the jungle to provide medical care to a primitive tribe afflicted with a contagious disease he has had his medical equipment flown in he has correctly diagnosed the problem and the antibiotics are prepared and available he is independently wealthy and has no need of any kind of financial compensation but as he seeks to provide care the afflicted refuse they want to take care of themselves they want to heal on their own terms finally a few brave young men step forward to receive the care being freely provided what does the doctor feel joy his joy increases to the degree that the sick come to him for help and healing it's the whole reason he came how much more if the diseased are not strangers but his own family sow with us and so with christ he does not get flustered and frustrated when we come to him for fresh forgiveness for renewed pardon with distress and need and emptiness that's the whole point it's what he came to heal he went down into the horror of death and plunged out through the other side in order to provide a limitless supply of mercy and grace to his people what elicits tenderness from jesus is not the severity of the sin but whether the sinner comes to him that's his heart you haven't moved beyond his mercy beyond his grace your sin is so bad my sin is so bad yeah that's why he came that's why he had to die that's why he chose to come and live the perfect life that you and i could not live that's why he went to the cross suffered and died instead of us and defeated death and rose again so that we would not have to carry that burden of sin that we would not have to feel the effects and live in the consequences of that sin if we respond to that call to get up come to him follow him the great healer the great physician and so as we sing now as we close now and take communion and do these things let it not be ritual let it not be empty but lean in to this god who's leaning into you if you need prayer we don't have official prayers up at the front right now but um come find me come find somebody else pray get prayer for that thing that thing that's on your heart let's do this together let's worship together lee's going to lead us in communion great thank you sam for that uh great reminder of who god is what he's done for us and what he has called us to we have a chance every week to rehearse the gospel really we do that every time we take the lord's supper together we remind ourselves that we did not come to god on our own or because we had everything together we came to god because he drew us and because he provided a way of salvation for us uh and that's pictured in the elements the communion elements that we partake of week by week i'm gonna read for you this passage from a little bit further in matthew matthew chapter 26 as jesus shares this final meal with his disciples this is what it says now as they were eating jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body and he took a cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink of it all of you for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins i tell you i will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when i drink it new with you in my father's kingdom and the reminder there's several reminders in that passage part of it is that we look back on what jesus has done for us we look back on the fact that we've been granted forgiveness we are part of this new covenant new agreement with god because of what jesus has done and part of it is that we look forward we look forward to the day when we will partake of this with him in heaven and so as we celebrate communion today we do it by taking the the bread in this case the wafer that's on the top of your uh little packet uh and we remember this is the body of jesus which was given as a sacrifice on our behalf as sam has reminded us today so let's partake of that together in the same way the cup symbolizes or represents the blood of jesus that was shed as it says here for the forgiveness of many it's because of jesus shed blood that our slave has been entirely wiped clean jesus does not see us in our own sin he sees us through the righteousness of christ on our behalf so let's partake of the cup together and father even as we've been reflecting this morning on your grace the way that you come to sinners and you call them firstly to a relationship with yourself but also in that calling to to follow you and to make fishers of men so god we pray you would give us our heart around that we probably would we would remember what jesus has done for us and that we would extend uh that same kind of mercy towards those around us lord even now as we continue in worship i pray you would bless this time amen we're going to respond together i'm just thanking the lord for what he's done for us and on the cross so would you stand with me [Music] the mystery of the cross i cannot comprehend the agonies of calories [Music] for me you replied there's a washed away my sin jesus thank you the father's wrath completely satisfied jesus thank you [Music] jesus said [Music] [Applause] by a perfect sacrifice [Music] grace [Music] jesus thank you the father's right [Music] love [Music] my [Music] i want [Music] jesus thank you the father's [Music] is [Music] jesus thank you once your enemies [Music] you can go ahead and grab a seat just a couple announcements for you before you leave here today and then want to send you off and commission you uh the first thing is next sunday we have our fall launch happening it also marks or just about marks the 10th anniversary or 10th birthday of crossridge church so we are greatly excited about that do want to invite you to come back next week some special things happening next week we have breakfast happening after the first gathering lunch happening after the second we do need you to register for that so if you would do that this week i think the cut off is wednesday this week uh just so we know how much food to make and and all of that we'd love to have you join us we know this is a different season somewhat muted in some ways but we want to celebrate as a church god's faithfulness to us over these past 10 years would encourage you to fight invite others to join you also if you know some who maybe just over the course of the last 10 years were part of crossridge maybe they've moved away they moved out to the valley or whatever we'd love for uh for some of them to come back as well and just have a chance to say hi and to celebrate god's faithfulness among us so that's the main thing we want to stress if you have not registered please do that do it today but do it by wednesday for sure then there's a whole bunch of things coming up in the next little while men's breakfast is happening coming up community groups will be getting started one of the things i do want to mention just kind of you know put this out there for you especially in light of the message today is we will be running an alpha class beginning in the first part of october and i want to encourage you to think about someone that you might want to bring out to alpha it's a great format we'll have dinner together it's a chance to ask questions to interact around questions people may have about the gospel or what it means to follow jesus or to come and follow him and so i would encourage you now pray about this think about who maybe the lord would put on your heart to invite out to uh our alpha program it'll be ten weeks ten weeks uh i know i've got two guys that i'm uh hoping to invite to that so you may have some individuals you're thinking about as well so let me just uh read for you these verses at the end of the gospel of matthew because this is how jesus commissioned his disciples and really this is how we are commissioned as well jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given given to me go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit so let's do that let's go and make disciples of all nations let's make disciples of this nation of our community and others have a great week see you next week you

Channel: Crossridge

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Length: 70min 23sec (4223 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021