Follow Me - Shane Willard

all right so if you thought you liked following an actual Bible I want you to look at Matthew chapter 4 and I'd like to just take a second and welcome everybody that's joining us online right now we love you here and I'm so glad that you're a part of what we're doing today today I get the opportunity to open the Bible and I get the opportunity to share from it I love that I don't take that lightly at all the truth of it is is that anytime we read a scripture we want to ask two questions one what happened and two and more importantly what's happening in me right now because of it and so today I want to talk to you about Jesus and the reason is is because it's my first time here and so no matter no matter what our backgrounds are Jesus is what unites us all and so Jesus is I want to recenter us around Jesus now or Orthodox theology for Christianity since Christianity was formed affirms that Jesus was fully divine that in Christ was the fullness of God bodily and we affirmed that here Kingdom City affirms that shane willard affirms that we embrace that that jesus was fully God in flesh and we embraced that and we honor that and we believe that wholeheartedly and I want to give that a full 20 seconds of do okay because we embrace that but Orthodox theology has also said that Jesus was fully human and in his humanity it did not violate his divinity and in his divinity he did not violate his humanity and so what I want to do today is I want to spend the entire morning talking about the human side of Jesus not at the expense of the divine side but there's only so much you could say in one talk because we believe that Jesus was fully divine but here's the problem if we only think of Jesus as divine then we run the risk of having trouble applying what he told us to do to our lives it's like this if I said come on now hey come on hey seriously Jesus commands us to forgive our enemies well if we only think of them as God then we could easily go yeah but he god that was easy for him to do right but wait a minute no no Jesus was fully human teaching humans how to live on this earth and so anytime I preach I want Jesus to get bigger I want the cross to work better I want the resurrection to be central and I want scriptures to get bigger not smaller I want us asking more questions about God not less questions about God okay so this is my goal this morning I want to talk to you this morning about what it meant to be a disciple of a first century rabbi named Jesus and what that means for us Jesus humanly was a first century rabbi now how do I know that I know that because they called him rabbi okay and they didn't just call anybody that that was a special title three people in the whole Bible are called rabbi Jesus Paul Gamaliel that is it that's it you never see rabbi Peter rabbi James or by John never never Jesus Paul Gamaliel why because to be a rabbi was the highest honor to be trusted with teaching Torah was the highest honor they just didn't let anybody do that Jesus was called rabbi for a reason he was rabbi right and he had his basic speaking spot in the temple they didn't just let any redneck do that right and if he showed up in a town with a synagogue they're flooding him with hey rabbi rabbi read us the Torah teach us something and so I want to talk to you about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus because if I asked you are you a disciple of Jesus everyone here would say yes it's all I want to talk about what that means so if you can bring that first slide this is Matthew chapter 4 this is rabbi Jesus calling his first four disciples here's what it says as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew and they were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen now if you're a note taker you want to note that phrase they were fishermen that's gonna come back in a little bit come follow me jesus said and I'll send you out to fish for people now quite frankly that is not a compelling invitation it's weird hey stop fishing for fish and almost send you to fish for people that literally makes since right and the sales pitch isn't that great either follow me now watch what happens this gets weird at once they left their nets and followed him how did Jesus pull that off grown people leaving everything they know to follow a guy whose sales pitch is following how does that even work grown people leaving wives jobs children homes communities and boats to follow a guy who simply said follow me you might be thinking shame he was God they didn't know that that's first second you don't introduce yourself as God and have credibility right there's something else going on here like how does that even work and then he's remarkably successful with this horrendous sales pitch watch next slide he goes four four four with it going on from there he saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and his brother John and they were in a boat with their father Zebedee preparing their nets and Jesus called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him what was Zebedee thinking his entire workforce just quit with no notice you've got grown people leaving everything they know if you're here today and you're married how does that conversation even go hey honey how was your day quit my job you did what quit my job why this guy came by told me to follow him seemed like a good idea right where are you going he didn't say when he coming back didn't say that either I'm just gonna follow him how would that go and what possessed grown people to do this and when I learned this changed my life I'd like to share it with you today for me this made Jesus bigger for me than ever before seemed to understand this we have to understand that every Hebrew boy was trained to be a rabbi let me show you he actually goes five four five would this check this out next like this is the fifth disciple and once again Jesus went out beside the lake and a large crowd tamed him and and he began to teach them and as he walked along he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at a tax collectors booth follow me jesus said and Levi got up and followed him first four disciples fishermen fit disciple tax-collector a guy leaving his lucrative business on the spot because a guy said follow me gotta be something else going on and there is see in the first century the greatest honour for anybody was to be considered a rabbi every Hebrew boy longed to be a rabbi but at the end of the day only the best of the best of the best of the best of the best of the best of the best of the best of the best is the best of the best of the best of the best made it it's sort of like in Perth how many boys grow up wanting to play AFL all of them how many of them are actually ever going to play for the West Coast Eagles none of them at some point everyone's told I'm sorry you don't have what it takes to play at the next level you got to go make a living somewhere else but the best of the best of the best of the best of the best of the best of the best make it to the west coast Eagles that's how it works that's why every 40 year old man in Perth has a back in the day story you know like I'd have made it if it wasn't for my knee you know but we all know you weren't that good it was the same way with being a rabbi everybody wanted to be but at the end of the day only the best of the best of the best of the best of the best made it and here's how they cut them here's how they determine who could be a rabbi and who had to go earn a living at their family trait first thing you had to do to be a rabbi was you had to memorize Leviticus by age six so you had how many of us are just qualified already we're done that's a that's us done right you had to memorize Leviticus by the age of six now if you memorize Leviticus by the age of six it qualified you to graduate to the first school let me show you the names of these schools next slide so the two schools was called the bet so far so if you if you GRA if you memorize Leviticus five six you graduated to the bet safar now because I want you to learn this and science tells me if I get you repeat it you'll learn it even better so with some go West Coast Eagles gusto I want you to say the word bet so far let's do it together ready go bet so far let's do that with a little bit more gusto let's try that again ready go bet so far bet so far just means the school of the book it's it lasted from 6 to 12 so for 6 to 12 you went to the vet safar and in the bed so far you had memorized the entire Torah Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy you had memorized the whole thing at 12 years old you had to prove you had memorized it and here's how you would do it you would sit with an expert the expert would pick a passage at random he would read the passage and when he stopped you had to pick it up word-for-word when you proved you had memorized the entire Torah by the age of 12 that qualified you to take the Torah exam now if you're thinking hang on if to even take the exam you had to memorize the whole book what could they possibly test you on glad you asked the Torah exam was not based on your mastery of content you had to master the content just to take the exam the Torah exam was based on your ability to ask questions about the content in order to keep a conversation about God going the greatness of rabbis was not known for their ability to answer questions and close the conversation rather their ability to ask the right question to keep a conversation about God going think about your Bible when Jesus was 12 years old he was wooing the teachers of the law with his questions not his answers his questions he was wooing them and his ability to keep a conversation about God going now if you well the teachers of the law with your questions you graduated to the next school the next school was called the bet tell mid with that same amount of gusto I want us to try that it sounds like this bet tell mid ready go bet tell mid now bet tell mid just means the school of disciple or discipleship school the Betio mid would last from 12 to 30 it was 18 years long and it was 5 stages for the sake of time and relevance we'll call the stage of stage 1 2 3 4 5 and the idea was is if you graduate from stage 1 you get to go to stage yes and then 3 and 4 and then 5 now at stage 5 every he graduates now this lasted from 12 to 30 so if you've ever wondered why Jesus disappeared from 12 to 30 and then at 30 he comes out of the wilderness and everybody's going rabbi rabbi rabbi this is why this is what was going on now at stage 5 everybody graduates everybody's now a rabbi the only question is is what kind of rabbi will you be there were two kinds of rabbis there were rabbis with authority and rabbis without Authority now a rabbi without authority was a rabbi just the same and 99.9% of all rabbis were a rabbi without authority but what's about every two or three generations a rabbi would come along so special that they would give him a title a rabbi with authority now here was the difference a rabbi without Authority had to teach the Bible the same way his rabbi taught him so the rabbi that mentored him for 18 years in the ways of scripture and in how to live life a rabbis way of teaching scripture was called that rabbis yoke so a rabbi would pass his yoke down his summary statement of how to live life what he bound and what he loosed what he forbidded what he allowed things like this and that rabbi would pass that down to the next generation and if you graduated as a rabbi without Authority you were bound to teach the scripture the same way your rabbi taught you by passing on his yoke but if you were a rabbi with authority that gave you the right to make up your own yoke so that every yoke in Israel could be traced back to some rabbi with authority think of it as somebody having the right to start a movement or something right so you've got this kind of thing now this is the most important word I'm going to teach you today let me show it to you next slide the word is some mica now this is the word for Authority in Hebrew some mica now we're gonna say that with a lot of gusto because it's really important so ready it sounds like this some mica ready go some mica all right let's try that again ready go some mica no if you want to sound Jewish which of course you do we have to add a little bit of a move at the end of it the move is all right so let's practice that together it just cells like this it's very easy to do all right ready okay that was her ever ever ever okay let's try this all more together ready oh that's good that's good that's good one person was late that's okay ready let's try it one more time ready so in Jewish culture there were rabbis with some mica okay more to get there was rabbis widths Amica and there were rabbis without Sumiko now here's how they determined who had authority and who didn't when you graduated from rabbi school they baptized you the reason is is because they baptized you anytime you change social status so think about your Bible when Jesus was thirty years old thirty he went out to the desert to be baptized now at your baptism you had to have to verbal witnesses to your authority in order to be considered a rabbi with authority think about your Bible when Jesus was thirty years old he went out to the desert to be baptized by John and John says behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world whose sandals I am not worthy to untie witness one John baptizes Jesus and Jesus comes up out of the water as a normal regular rabbi without authority until a second voice speaks this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and there was thunder and lightning and birds and rainbows in other words the father was like if no one else is gonna speak up I will and Jesus walks up out of the water not just as a regular rabbi but as a rabbi with some mica which means he can make up his own yoke and Jesus spends the rest of his life wrecking everybody else's yoke think about your Bible you do not teach as the other rabbis teach but you teach as one with yes it doesn't mean he was yelling and then he was saying something new and fresh you have to have authority to teach something new hey think about your Bible take my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light the key to the phrase is the word my for Jesus to say my yoke he had to have Authority he had to have some mica this is why the jesus' first sermon ever was called the Sermon on the Mount why because it was so well attended he had to climb a mountain to create space that's an amazing turnout for your first preach I've been preaching for years and you're a right nice looking group of people but I hardly have to climb I'm melting to get away from you what would possess people to come from everywhere to hear a guy's first sermon well if there's a new rabbi withs Amica and rumor has it he's changing yokes up and his yoke is easier than the one you've been shackled to people would have come from everywhere to hear this new rabbi speak now the first thing a rabbi would do when he graduated is he would go get disciples because a rabbi not training the next generation is not doing his job he's supposed to be mentoring the next group to take over he's supposed to be teaching them his yoke but this here's what would do so so the new rabbis would go and find disciples where would they find them in the BET Talmud here's what they would do they would go to the bed tale mid and they would find pre-vetted twelve-year-old boys here's what they already knew they've memorized the Bible memorized it word for word they're smart they're disciplined they're determined they're passionate right they didn't have to question their intelligence right they didn't have to do anything the new rabbis would have these pre-vetted twelve year old boys and here's all that the new rabbi would do he would walk into the BET Talmud and he would look and the only question he would ask is do I believe he can do greater things than me and if the rabbi believed that the student could do greater things than him he would ordain him into his rabbi school with two words follow me follow me follow me me follow me every Hebrew boy longed to hear the words of a rabbi say follow me but most of them only ever heard I'm sorry you don't have what it takes to be a rabbi go back and earn a living at your family trade but this rabbi he doesn't go to the BET Talmud to find his disciples he goes to the banks of a lake and he finds some fishermen hang on if their fishermen what does that mean it means they've been disqualified and Jesus the new rabbi whit's Amica stands on the base of that lake and says Simon Andrew follow me and they're jumping out of boats for the opportunity that is the yoke of our rabbi the yoke of our rabbi qualifies disqualified people and aren't you glad somebody would have disqualified me and somebody would have disqualified you I'll think about it think about right think about it first four disciples what was their job fisherman fifth disciple what was his job tax collector hang on where'd he find him at the lake hold on if you're the tax collector at the lake who have you been taxing fisherman in other words we're gonna find out right now if you four have what it takes to follow me can you forgive the guy that's been robbing from you for years and let's go change the world that is the yoke of our rabbi first thing a rabbi would do once he got his disciples is he would teach them how to walk they literally had walking training right remember Jesus said how will the world know you're my disciple unless you're walking like I taught you to walk like if we're not living how our rabbi taught us to live how does the world know anything about Jesus see see we people say all unfortunately they rejected Jesus normally not I don't know that I've ever met anybody that rejected the actual Jesus what normally what people reject is people reject the image of Jesus presented to them and normally what happens is is we add our own yoke to his and call it him and it's just not appropriate right so so here's what they do they would do literal walking training Jewish historians say you could always tell which disciples belong to which rabbi because you could tell by how they walk they even wanted to walk with the idiosyncrasy they even wanted to walk with the idiosyncrasy of their rabbi right and here's what they would do you could always tell who the best student of the day was the best student of the day was the line leader just like today if you were the best of the day you got rewarded by being the line leader and you can always tell who that was because the rabbi's were these special shoes that would throw up dust and dirt and you always tell who the one following the closest behind the rabbi was because he was the one covered in dust from his waist down but this was not dust you wanted to wash off this was dust you wanted to show off it was an honor to be covered in the dust of your rabbi so you would go back to synagogue or temple and you'd be like hey check out my dust right this was an amazing thing right it was an amazing thing and remember there's this one time Jesus says hey if you ever go to a place and they don't accept you just shake the dust off your feet but they're hanging on this is the same guy that said love your enemies and bless those who despitefully use you how do those things go together unless the dust is a blessing and it is in in the first century to be covered in the dust of your rabbi was an honor it was an honor essentially Jesus says even if someone's mean and doesn't accept you still give them the greatest blessing you can possibly do even if it's simply the dust off your feet that is the yoke of our rabbi here's the thing will either be covered in the dust of our rabbi or will be covered in the dust of our own issues the dust of our mom the dust of our dad the desk of our denomination or my personal favorite the dust of that's just how I was always taught as if that's gonna stand the test of time we don't want to be covered in those things because if we're covered in those things that's what we'll cover others in what the hope for the world is people being covered in the dust of our rabbi Jesus Christ all right which leads me to this question unless you've been given special Sumiko and yuck okay unless you've been given special Sumiko and you haven't then you are bound to live and teach the yoke of your rabbi if you call yourself a follower of Jesus how will the world know that we're followers of Jesus if we change his yoke which leads me to this question have we taken liberties in changing his yoke that we don't have like I love the yoke of art there's this one time there was this lady and she was caught in the act of adultery like in the act in the act right now look that is bad that they would be embarrassing to be caught in that act if it was appropriate because it's not a great spectator sport but to be caught in the act of adultery now you guys know your Bible right what does the Bible clearly say you have to do to someone caught in the act of adultery you must Stone her there was a verse for this right you must don't so they bring her to Jesus now think through it why do they need Jesus they need someone with authority yes yes and they're trying to trick him and they're trying to trap him because he's being real loving and kind and and gracious you know they say Jesus the Torah says stoner we have a verse what's your yoke say Jesus is in a conundrum isn't he does Jesus want to stone the lady no way is Jesus supposed to fulfill the law yeah so what's he do he's a genius here's what he does he says you're right the Torah says stoner so I say stoner there I've kept the Torah but wait a minute I have Sam Iike which means I can make up my own yoke the Torah says Stoner so my yoke says stoner but my yoke also says you can't throw stones unless you're perfect and it says everybody gets tired of holding their stones and Jesus says nothing he set right in the dirt what's he saying says after everybody left he looks at the lady and he says lady just answer my question where are your accusers not what did you do don't tell me about it where are your accusers lady and she looks around and she says they're not here he says good then neither do i condemn you why because the tourist said you had to stone someone caught me out of adultery but the tour also says that you have to have two witnesses to condemn somebody Jesus couldn't make her sin go away so he simply made the witnesses go away which automatically declares a mistrial that is the yoke of our rabbi which is why there's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ it's not that you don't sin it's just they'll never be enough witnesses to condemn you right which is so profound from Jesus as followers of Jesus please hear me now Jesus had a choice he could have been right about one verse in the Bible he could have been and he would have stoned her if he wanted to be right about that one nurse he should have stoned her but Jesus chose to do something more profound than that he chose instead of being right about one verse he chose to fulfill all of Scripture and to fulfill all of Scripture is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you and in being right about one verse we can destroy people but if we choose to fulfill Scripture by simply treating others and we would want to be treated if we were them we could do something more profound than being right we can be kind and we can fulfill the entirety of Scripture and what upholds Scripture better than fulfilling the entire thing think about if you were caught in adultery how would you want to be treated you'd want to be let off the hook and you don't be challenged to change your life it's exactly what Jesus did then I do not condemn you now go and send no right see what we do is we say it in Reverse we say go and send no more so God won't condemn you what no no we say you better repent so God will be kind you better you better get you better get up here and you better repent so God will be kind to you what no it's the kindness of God that leads us to repentance it's two totally different things which leads me to this question the yoke of our rabbi looked at someone caught in the act of adultery and said I don't condemn you could our yoke do that and if not why not and how will they know that we're followers of Jesus if we take liberties with his yoke you know the yoke of the denomination I grew up in if someone committed adultery they would announce it from the stage to embarrass them so that all might fear it's not the yoke of our rabbi see oka some jacked-up white dude from 1880 with severe daddy issues that is not the yoke of Jesus Christ you know I've heard Christians give people life sentences because of a mistake it's not the yoke of our rabbi and then those same people say well unfortunately they rejected Jesus no they didn't they rejected the Jesus you just presented which was actually your yoke you're saying God Jesus viable but actually when you say God you're just saying yourself with a giant megaphone you're making a big giant version of your preference right no no you know the yoke of our rabbi was active in the Old Testament - it's almost like he was always in charge right like in the book I was I was being serious be the in in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 it talks about the heroes of the faith you know by faith Abraham by faith Moses by faith David right by face element if you go read their stories they were all messed up beyond all recognition of stakes by faith Abraham he gave his wife to Pharaoh's Harun if CNN in the internet would have been around back then what would we be saying about Abraham if Abraham was available to preacher next Sunday we welcome him or would we start an Internet blog about their mistakes it's not the yoke of our rabbi by faith Moses Moses was a premeditated murderer I looked this way and that and seeing no one I killed the man and hit him in the sand the problem was the next day the sand shifted you have this leg sticking of other sin God said you'll do I'll have you right the foundation of all Scripture you'll do temper problem and all you'll do you'll do you do Samson lost a bet and killed 30 people David had 700 women 700 women and yet he still committed adultery and murder to get the one he shouldn't have and do you know what there are Christian denominations that according to their written bylaws would never let David stand on a stage and preach but they'll open a book David wrote call it the Word of God and failed to see the hypocrisy in that by faith Solomon Solomon had a thousand women a thousand women God said I'll have you write the book on wisdom surely you learned something imagine that conversation scuse me sir are you the guy that successfully navigated the affections of a thousand women yes you gotta be the smartest guy on earth let's write a book together why do I say all that I would say that to everybody here who feels they've done something that disqualifies them the yoke of our rabbi has always qualified the disqualified there's this one time there's this guy named Zacchaeus he's evidently short it's up a tree to see what he could see he's thousands of people and Jesus stops the thousands to talk to the one guy that everybody hated and he says hey man I'd rather eat with you the gnome and it says that kiyose was so moved by his compassion that he said hey I'll give half of what I have to the poor and Jesus says that's itself ation has come to this house is Jesus allowed to do that okay okay if I ask you if Jesus is allowed to do something the answer is yes all right so let's try that again is Jesus allowed to do that can you get saved without a temple visit a sacrifice a sinner's prayer an altar call can you get say see see what was what was the only way to be saved in the first century temple ritual who's not allowing the temple tax collectors so Jesus circumvents the entire system of oppressive power and he sees his heart change and he says you know what in my yoke heart change counts heart change over ritual heart change I desire mercy not justice that's the yoke of our rabbi oh gosh I could talk about the yoke of our rabbi till way till tonight's service but you'll get hungry and turn on me like a bunch of rabid dogs I know so I want to tell two more stories um one from the Bible and one from my personal life to sort of illustrate what we're talking about here there's this one time it says and it's a two line sentence it says and Jesus took his disciples to Cezary a Phillipa real easy to read over and Jesus took his disciples to Caesarea filled by a couple things on this first from where Jesus lived acessory of Philippi today is an hour and 20 minutes in a car on a paved road okay this wasn't something this was a couple day walk you this wasn't something you just mosey Don we just happen to pass by Cezary it felt like you had to purposely go there that's first second Cezary of Philip I was the place no Christian would ever go it was a cesspool it was terrible it was debauchery on speed whatever the worst thing going on in Perth tonight is is Nickelodeon compared to Caesarea Philippi Cezary Villa by is Vegas times a hundred it is horrendous and here's why Caesarea Philippi was the headquarters of the worship of the goat God pan actually today Caesarea Philippi is no longer called Caesarea Philippi it's called Panaya the city of pan even to this day it was the headquarters of the worship of the god Pan and I don't want to be graphic I don't wanna be dirty or crass but I do want to be historically accurate okay the goat God pan he was a goat and he received worship through public intimate acts with goats so I'll just leave it like that okay he received worship through this public expression of a fertility ritual with goats okay and you're going man Jesus took his youth group there on a missions trip I would have been fired for sure I went there when I went and studied with the historian I went there and I took a picture of where Jesus was would have been standing machines pictured that says there a Philip I um the reason that picture is of such high quality is because I took it myself photographers everywhere trying to get people's arms in their photos I did it get you some of that now that's about a 200 250 foot straight up rock face there if you could see over to the left there's obviously an open cave a big open cave that was called the entrance and exit to hell they believed that was the the doorway to hell and right next to that is the ruins of the temple of pan that's where pan was worshipped and and sacrificed to and honored and this concept and next to that is a flat platform and it's you guys you can read into this it's called the court of pan and the nymphs so the nympho right so this kind of thing is going on in the public street 24/7 and here's why the people of caesarea philippi were told if you don't worship pan properly by debasing yourself pan will open the doorway to hell and swallow you into it so it's not like they liked it they just thought they had to do it so that they wouldn't get swallowed into hell now Jesus walks into this situation with 12 men can you imagine what was going on in their heads it would've been unbelievable the debauchery would have been unthinkable as so much so that Jesus has to focus Peter remember he's like hey Peter hey right here bro right here who do you say that I am Peter shakes it off he's like you're the Christ the Son of the Living God Jesus says that's right and upon this rock will build a church and not even the gates of Hell will prevail against it Jesus went into that cesspool of debauchery and he doesn't even bring their sin up he doesn't condemn them for it he doesn't threaten them with hell that's why they were acting that way in the first place he goes in and he attacks the power behind it he says you're acting like that cuz you're scared of this and Jesus stands over the gates of Hell and says bring it on that is the yoke of our rabbi I used to kickbox I was quite good at it I won the southeastern regionals in America two years in a row I qualified for the US Open I placed high enough in the US Open to qualify for the NASCAR World Championships it's you know if it wasn't for my knee right so um I I back then I could fight now I'm 43 I'm in no interest in fight now it hurts too bad to get hit takes too long to heal and fighting is different when I thought it was kickboxing so you had you stood up and if you clinched a ref would break you now they take you to the ground pull your arm off not interested here's the thing so my mom was one of those moms that was quite proud of me and liked it over the top way you know like like my mom was really proud of me and it embarrassed me but you love it you know it's one of those things and in my house there was a room in my house Dedic it was like a shrine to my trophies right and I was embarrassed but I loved it you know and all my friends from the neighborhood came over and they were looking at the footage of the US Open and looking at the trophies and we were having fight so this guy in my neighborhood he's a freak of nature his name is Kenneth Brown now Kenneth Brown was a freak he I'm 6 foot 2 85 kilos today he was 6 foot 2 95 kilos in the 8th grade like he was one of these guys when we were an elementary school together like we're 10 he had to like shave before recess okay he's one of these guys you know and he shows up come to think of it he might have failed three times or something I don't know but he's huge and he shows up and he says Shade Willard I think I can whoop you I looked at him and I said I think you're right he said no I'm serious I want to fight I said no I'm serious I'm not fighting you you're twice my size you don't fight people twice your size it's a rule right he said I bought boxing gloves to prove I could beat you I said wait a whole boxing gloves you mean we're gonna put our hand in a mitt you can't grab me you can't take me to the ground we're gonna stand up in box he goes yeah I said oh you should have said that you said fight I thought you meant I thought you meant okay no you mean a boxing match I will do that we'll do that that's no problem so all the friends go side you could picture this you know fight fight fight fight they're making a ring you know and I got in the ring with Kenneth Brown and I beat him to death I was fast he was slow I was skilled he was not I was I couldn't hurt him he's twice my size I was just in and out just pop pop pop pop pop pop pop pop frustrating him you know he got mad got little frustrated you know and he thought I'm gonna end this with one clutch he threw a right cross is unlike any right cross I've ever seen in my life let me show it to you in real speed this is how fast it come at me I actually had time to think I'll move now when he finished throwing the punch he left himself in this position let me show you using and never before nor since have I ever had a human being this hard it's a perfect shot if you understand striking it's called striking from the ground up like big muscles late not no big muscles leading small muscles everything compact just just I mean right on the bike never in my life have I hit a human being this hard right on the base of his chin - BAM his head snapped back his knees buckled in retrospect I should have kept hitting him but I never hit anybody that hard in my life so I sort of stood over him and waited for him to fall and he didn't Stuber back caught his balance he looked up at me and now he was mad his face turn red and he said boy is that all you got and it was how many of you know when you hit someone with your best shot and they're still coming you lose I forfeited to Kenneth Brown admitted he was better and walked out the ring you know what Paul says Paul says that the yoke of our rabbi was put on public display at the cross Oh forgive everybody Oh bless those who despitefully use you Oh blessed are the merciful dole obtained Oh can you do that with 39 lashes how about some mocking some scourging some hitting some spitting how about a crown of thorns huh how about some nails in your hands how about how about the inability to breathe how about that come on come on come on come on come on smite us smite us if you smite us you'll break through yogi lose your moral authority for all time you say forgive everybody then forgive us come on come on come on come on and they beat him and they beat him and they beat him and they beat him and they beat him and they beat him and they beat him and they beat him and he kept loving and forgiving and loving and forgiving and loving and forgiving and loving even so to the point that the guy next to him says please remember me and in Jesus is dying breath he's still thinking about other people that's the yoke of a rabbi which is why any message that says oh if you do something bad Jesus is gonna write blog that is not the yoke of our rabbi I don't care if there's a 25-foot cross over the top of the building the yoke of our rabbi kept loving and forgiving and loving and forgiving and loving and forgiving and loving and forgiving you can't do more to a guy than killing he died if you'll humor me for a second here's what I think happened I think Jesus descended into Hill and he looks Satan right in the eye and he said boy is that all you got was that your best shot you thought you could destroy my yoke by killing me no no no no no no you know what's gonna happen I'm gonna be in here three days and just to annoy you I'm gonna preach the whole time right yeah Peter says that when Jesus was in hell he preached to the dead it also says with Jesus rose from the dead tombs everywhere emptied I wonder where they came from anyway so Jesus yeah I was it is that all you got you thought you could just drove on my yoke by killing me oh no I'm just keep loving and forgiving you know what in three days I'm gonna walk out of here and you're gonna do I'm gonna cook breakfast on the beach for the very person who denied me in my time of need that's what I'm gonna do and you know what also gonna do I'm not even gonna bring his failure up because he'd be he'd be fearing that I'm gonna treat him how I'd want to be treated I'm not gonna put his failure in front of him I'm gonna ask him if he still loves me after all this and if he still loves me after all this we're gonna change the world that is the yoke of our rabbi so let's stop for a second and let's give this some thought if we could quiet the white noise of our week once you pray this prayer underneath your breath Lord Jesus give me the courage to see things different the irresistible urge to respond to what I see if you're serious I want you to pray this prayer underneath your breath Lord Jesus would you reveal to me now where I've changed your yoke where have I taken liberties with your yoke that I'm not allowed to do is there anyone that's not following Jesus because I presented an awful yoke would you please forgive me for changing your yoke I have no right once you've prayed this prayer underneath your breath Holy Spirit would you speak to me about someone that I need to cook breakfast on the beach for who's hurt me where do I need to let it go and show them love without even bringing the failure up is there a text or a email or a coffee that needs to be had with somebody that used to go here who feels weird about coming back because they made a mistake maybe we need to call that person and say hey Kingdom City is a place of fresh start second chances clean slates and the opportunity to write a better story maybe you're here today and you need to trust Jesus for the first time let me tell you what that looks like it means you're choosing to trust Jesus's version of your life story instead of the one you've been writing on your own maybe you can make that decision today the Lord would you let this place be a dwelling place for your name the compassionate gracious slow to anger abounding and love God would you look this way paid you so much let me be part of your weekend I'd like to take a second again and invite you back tonight I promise it'll change your life I also bless you to be people who understand that you serve a God that believes in you more than you believe in him that he believes you could do greater things than him I bless you to be people who understand that Christianity is not about going to heaven when we die it's about saying yes to the infinite possibilities of a life that Jesus taught us to live here now today I bless you to be people who understand that he has entrusted you with his yoke and his yoke is the only hope for Perth Australia Kuala Lumpur Malaysia and ultimately the world i bless you to be people who know that deep inside I hope Jesus got bigger the cross worked better the resurrection essential hope scriptures got bigger not smaller but more than anything more than anything at all may each and every one of you be covered in the dust of your rabbi grace apiece everybody god bless

Channel: Kingdomcity

Views: 9,316

Rating: 4.878788 out of 5

Keywords: Shane Willard, Shane Willard Ministries, mark varughese, christian, pastor, leader, mark, mark varagas, mark varugas, mv, kingdomcity, kingdomcity perth, kingdomcity sg, kingdomcity kuala lumpur, kingdomcity kl, church, preacher, lisa bevere, planetshakers, sunday, sermon, message, speaker, christian speaker, christian sermon, jesus, god, holy spirit, holy ghost, steven furtick, brian houston, pentecostal, online service, conference

Id: -7Jg0KVe1Fo

Length: 45min 45sec (2745 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 15 2019