Know Who You Are Pt 1. | Malcolm Smith | Kingdom School (4/12)

well it is my joy to be with you I not only have a very special bond to your posture and Gale but also to this church over the years you have been part of my life those of you that have been here for the last ten years and it's a real honest joy to come back this weekend and I want to share with you if you're going to be with us for the rest of the weekend I might say some things that you might not have heard them before you might not even agree with them but then I mean think about it it would be a terrible waste of money if your pastor brought me here just to say what you already knew and so and if you on top of that if you already agreed with it then there'd be no point in coming here at all and so I want to preface by saying that I have I was plunged into a search to discover the God who is love I was in my early teens and I came into a well I just say a monstrous glorious experience of the Holy Spirit I was raised in London during World War two I lived in bomb shelters from my birth through till the war was over and I came out of there a basket-case mentally and emotionally terrified of people and then the Holy Spirit came upon me in a glorious fashion and I walked out of that prayer room at 3 in the morning and that would be the first week I would preach and have been preaching of a since I was in 1952 and I realized god is love it was you know the the paint just lit out that was it God his love and yet no one seemed to really know that and now that's I still that doesn't fit well in mine else because I was with people who would say of course we know that but it never seemed to resonate him what was said it never seemed to resonate him what happened in the church God his love seemed to be a very nice book on the shelf but when he got down to where the rubber hits the road it wasn't quite like that and I say I was on a journey and it was a journey searching what does it mean that God is love and it took me many places and gradually gradually gradually that they opened up to me and open up the goodness of God and as Alan already said it's the goodness of God that leads to repentance it's the goodness of God that changes lives and that has become my entire message at my age now there's nothing else to talk about and so this weekend we shall talk of how that love actually does resonate in our lives but tonight I want to share well in my mind it fits what I'm talking about the weekend I don't know if it will fit yours but I believe it's the word of the Lord for tonight and so in Matthew chapter 9 Matthew chapter 9 and verse 9 and as Jesus passed on from there he saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax office and he said to him follow me and he rose and followed him and it happened that as he Jesus was reclining at table in the house behold many tax collectors and sinners came and joined jesus and his disciples at the table when the Pharisees saw this they said to his disciples why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners but when Jesus heard this he said it is not those who are healthy who need a physician but those who are sick and ill but go and learn from what this means I desire compassion not sacrifice for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners that is a fascinating to me it's a one of the most fascinating set of verses in the Gospels it's fascinating and arresting because it was Matthew who wrote that that's the Gospel of Matthew well it's Matthew giving his autobiography account of how Jesus called him and that's very important let me say it again Matthew is the one who was called Matthew now later in life is sitting down and he's remembering that moment and he's writing exactly what happened that day you can read Mark's Gospel and he talks about this but he doesn't say it quite as Matthew likewise Luke Luke wrote about this but he didn't say it like Matthew of course not this is autobiography Matthew is saying I'll never forget that moment I'll never never forget as I stepped out of my tax booth and followed Jesus and what he says here has arrested me well actually you know in a long time ago but especially in the last few weeks so Sulekha it's the look that changed Matthew's life here that Jesus looked at him Matthew recorded it it's Jesus saw a man called Matthew and apparently that did it that's it it did it Jesus looked at him with that certain look and Matthew just left his tax booth followed Jesus and became a disciple and then became an apostle you see that's the first time anyone had ever looked at Matthew and saw a man he was a tax collector and I don't know I tried to find an illustration out of today what a tax collector is I do have feelings about the IRS that sometimes parallel this got nothing nothing compared with how they looked at a tax collector you see a tax collector well one was he he was a betrayer of his own people the Roman Empire had come to Israel and they crushed it under their boot and they wanted taxes out of what is now part of the Roman Empire well trying to get taxes out of a Jew huh the Jews knew every angle it took a Jew to get taxes from a Jew and so the Romans said anybody who will go back and take our taxes from your own people that's it and so they put things up for auction and so Capernaum would be up for auction and enterprising Jew would come and he would bid for it and maybe $1000 whatever but he would auction and and the the the Jew would bid and say I'll die that to now become part of the network and so he owns the territory and now he goes to his own people to collect taxes but he's gonna hand over to the Rome you came at they hated tax collectors and hate would be a nice word compared with their feelings that the tax collector was a traitor he worked for the Roman army of occupation he purchased he paid money to become the oppressor of his own people tax collectors and of course you had to be a certain kind of a person to do that there had come a time when you'd already sold your soul you're a dead man on the inside to go back to your own people and to take the taxes from the people who already were burdened with tax today we call it tithing that's a nice name huh you in do you realise tithing was a temple tax you were a Jew and so you paid tax to the temple and it was not a tense that that's what we've made it today it was 30% and and taxi attacks they attacks they're 10 10 10 and well that's it I mean 30 percent of your income to go to keep the temple going and now on top of that one of our own people come and they squeeze us for the last time with God and it was worse than that because the reason you purchase territory was because what you did inside that territory was your business and the Romans backed you up you had government authority to steal anything you wanted rarely did they charge the people with the taxes it was a they put in what they wanted on top of that they skimmed it with the authority of the government it was a government-sponsored mafia he came in yes that's the tax collector and when he looked at you his eyes were dead you know those people he doesn't see you as a human he saw you as but a cash cow he's come to milk you again see she was a thing an object that I get money cruel lies no mercy he's no interest in what's happening in your family no interest he's going to close your business down by grasping your tank no interest its money I don't care what happens to you afterwards it's sold his soul for an extra dollar that's that's this guy but of course he was the richest man in town lived in the mansions fine clothes but he was surrounded by bodyguards because uh-huh they had their terrorists there suicide bombers in those days they would code zealots she might have read of them in the New Testament may carry the knife of their arm and they came as close as they dare to a Roman general or Roman soldier and then slid the knife killed the man and of course they were immediately killed themselves but that was worth it in their eyes and the tax collector the tax collector was almost worse than the Roman army and so the zealots were apt to get the tax collector and Mathieu knew it who lived in fear famine fear it says always tax collectors and sinners well the sinners was a way the Jewish people discovers an umbrella word it meant the thugs that looked after Matthew the thugs that came and broke your legs if you didn't pay and it also meant all the prostitutes and so this is Matthew there's no love so he has to hire prostitutes to find some substitute plastic love the Pharisees but they were the deeply religious cults if they brushed up against a tax collector in the marketplace they went home took a bath and wash their clothes they had touched a tax collector in the synagogue every sabbath day they read out the name of Matthieu and then went on to say he is damned in hell he's cursed of God actually they said that if you began to repent today he wouldn't be finished by the Day of Judgment and so he's lost it's over and that's every every Sabbath his name was read out in the synagogue hatred they called him a pig they called him a scavenger dog that lift-off lived off the garbage dumps yeah that's a tax collector and of course then when you're like that you're alone sometime you know you do know there were no TVs in those days you know no internet and when the lights go out and you're alone and you're one of these people you're a Jew remember you were raised under the law you know what guilt is you know what sin is you know huh huh and you might have walked away from it all but when the lights go out and you're left with yourself the shame the guilt Naurang like rats in the basement and Jesus Jesus made his headquarters in Capernaum it's a OB excuse me there's a beautiful town on the shores of Galilee Jesus made his headquarters there Matthew obviously had heard of Jesus there were times when the streets were filled with people being healed was there that he taught it was nor the villages around Matthew had to have heard and had to have heard that he was different his attitude to what the likes of himself was not like the Pharisees so he knew who it was who came to the tax booth whether it was to pay his taxes or whether he just came but he came and that look said Matthew he saw a man they saw a dog they saw filth they saw a pig they saw a cursed man a damned men but the look in his eye Jesus saw a man a man a man with a name know whatever and no one in town ever assumed he had a name they spat when they said tax collector this Jesus saw Jesus saw a man with a name his name was Matthew that look penetrated Matthew to such a point that he's already hovering out of his chair when Jesus said follow me - who knows what then then he left behind a fortune you left behind wealth take it on out of here I'm following the look I'm following the person that saw me see this word here saw Jesus saw a man there there are different words in the language of the New Testament different words for seeing and there this one is interesting Jesus saw a man called Matthew SOI it is much more than just a passing glance it wasn't just looking and seeing that's a tax office and there's a bunch people in there this wood is very specific word it means what does he mean it means to look at you and know you you feel like you'll be in x-rays it's it's the look maybe another better word would be perception he looked at Matthew and he perceived that is he got beyond all the appearances he got beyond everything that Matthew did and everything people said and he looked and he knew Matthew he knew him as he really is he looked down into Matthews soul as God Himself looking into him and God is love and for the first time Matthew felt the eyes of love penetrating him and seeing a man that had been buried under everything people said and thought in his own guilt and wretchedness sorry man but it's more than that it's it's a look of know how an ad it's it's it's the look that is not put off by what they see because they can see into this and they know what's wrong when they got the answer we've got a fellow who's our I guess you call him our ranch manager I don't know a thing about branches and all we do is have a ministry in the ranch but the ranches ranch and so we get this fellow he's an old cowboy oh he's so Texas he he bent over to do something the other day and there was a big pistol out the back of his belt wears cowboy boots whispers he came to us from rodeo he used to ride bulls and but he knows about everything and just a couple of weeks ago suddenly out of the middle of the grass there came this geyser of one of the pipes are broken and our Ranch is at least a hundred years old and probably the pipes have never been seen since and when one goes who knows what's coming next and so we had to dig up and there it was yes rusted pipes that looked every inch of a hundred years old and Randy just stood there and looked and I knew by the look on his face we what what do we do what do we do no he just looked and in that look it says I know what's wrong here relax I got this I got it there was no turmoil there's no anxiety there's no what should we do who should we call it's I got this it's okay you gonna won't go home I got this do you know that kind of look well and everybody says he's God it's it's okay just that look and Jesus came to this man who was a broken man and he took one look and that looked old Matthew everything it was a look that said I know who you really are I see you and I got this I got this it was a look at the hope a look of expectancy he wasn't part of the synagogue that says you're damned in hell for what you're done no it was the look that says I love you Matthew I know what's wrong and I've got it we fix this no wonder he ran after him it's see there's there's energy in the look of you you know you know when someone's looking at you have you noticed at least when it's this saw words that you can feel like burning fire in the back of your neck someone's looking at you in this way do you know what I mean okay some of you do it's you know have you ever looked at somebody and they've turned to see and no expressions be there's an energy in your look whether you know it or not there is a an energy that comes is transmitted in a look that's for sure Matthew new looks Matthew could write a book on how there's energy transmitted in a look he knew he had tasted the look of disgust he'd it felt him like a filthy thing coming over him the repulse when people looked at him when they crossed the road rather walk beside him he knew what a look could do to you a look of rejection in you when people looked at him and they were afraid you know afraid because you're not like me and if you're not like me I'm scared of you you seen that too you see that and you're the most unlike us person we know so we're sort of afraid of you but then we've got reason to be afraid of you because you've come and you're squeezed our family till there's nothing left yes we're afraid of you in fact when we look at you we're looking at you at a pain we look at you at a misery and that's how we define you that's who you are and it all comes out in a look in a look you see and and and Matthew had lived there he felt that and and he knew the depth that a look could go that's our trouble you say and I'm talking about us now when we look at people just when we look at people who thought of this we we see what we think is there I mean I do we ever look to see under the surface to what's really there we look and once we make up our mind about a person that's in we just always think is there and then when we look at the way they are well then the way I look at them it ought to be right you know cuz we're looking very surface and anyway everybody thinks that way so it must be right and we look at people and they feel it of course they do as we look at people within the boundaries of what we know which isn't very much in fact when we look we look what can I put it through the lens of our own selves our own pain our own misery and we see others through through the colored glasses of that we see life like that we see memories of how the like some kind of this person has hurt us in the past and so we we give it to them really we see out of our pain and we see many times with revenge we look at people groups and we identify them as the source of pain we don't see a man called Matthew we see in a blob of people we know who they are and if you go to some churches if someone strange walks in they get the look that you're not part of us you're different to us and therefore you must be going to hell we can see it written all over you as the truth tragically when I was in Africa which we did quite a bit of but I was always the visitor I never sort of got baptized into the jungle and I would always take a guide with me from one of the local villages and early on we were walking I mean early on in my visits to Africa we walk in the jungle trail and he was just a native from one of the villages he carried a gun on his belt but apart from that just a pair of shorts and suddenly he got up pushed me away I fell into the bush and then there was pulled out his gun and shot at the pathway and there he it shot this this snake it was one of the most dangerous snakes in Africa and it was Rob's gonna trade on it and he pushed me out of the way and then shot it I didn't see that I didn't say anything he's still shaken why didn't I see that and we don't know Pasir a little bit more knee shoots into the air and right there in front of us a leopard leaps up I hadn't seen the leopard UNIX or to blended with a sandy bluffin I said there's something wrong with me I didn't see the snake I didn't see the leopard what's the matter with me Sydney right in front of me I didn't see it till I ran away and I'll never forget his words he turns me he says you have city eyes he said I have bush eyes he said I see what's really there you city people don't see what's really there you only see what you think is there do you get the picture Capernaum only saw a blob of betrayal a traitor and no good Jesus had bush eyes he saw who was really there and Matthew felt the energy of that and he wrote how many years later he saw a man called Matthew and that's it Jesus you see Jesus Emmanuel God with us God saw Matthew in the human eyes of Jesus and God saw him and knew him and loved him so Matthew reports in effect he was under the gaze of God's love he was being surveyed by God's love and all it took was a look that was enough to spend the rest of his life to follow that look hmm see when we see the love of God as Matthew saw that love in the eyes of Jesus that love resonates in us it's a great word that's used in the New Testament in 2nd Corinthians 5 Paul said the love of Christ constrains me and it's that word if I could give you a great lesson for one second the word there in Greek is soon echo and I love that that's where we get our English word echo from you know echo when the the waves are crashing on the beach and you're up there by the cliff and the echo of the way eaves slam against the cliff and you are enveloped in the sound Ryan you do have but you don't have see here do but do you know what I'm talking about there this it see the word means the word means it means to hold as you are held in the sound of the echo so you know where the end you know that this isn't whether the sound is the sound the it's an echo of the ocean but the ocean has actually come and held me and that's the idea sometimes it's used to describe a rest when someone's at gotcha I rescued and here in 2 Corinthians 5 we've translated it constrains it means resonates the love of God is not a theory the love of God is not for students to write if true false report on and then put it back on the Shelf the love of God comes and embraces you bear hugs you resonates our every fiber of your being love of God is the realest thing you'll ever confront and know Matthew is caught in the echo is caught in the holding Matthew you're being looked at and that look is the love of God himself to you and holds you okay put it this way for the first time Matthew saw himself through the eyes of love okay have you noticed where we use the expression fall in love yeah well how do you know someone has fallen in love thank God that GUI look on their face you know they're there they're there shining you know weird kind of way and their eyes are sort of not quite here what's happened to them I'll tell you what's happened they have seen themselves through the eyes of someone who loves them and they've never seen themselves through the eyes of love before and they can't get over what that other person sees in them that they've never seen in themselves in fact this one person has seen in them what nobody in their family has ever seen we call that falling in love it's the resonating it's the echo it is that someone someone is loving you and the energy of that love grips you and you see yourself as they see you as you've never seen yourself before when I was Sean Matthew hmm Jesus looked at him with compassion tenderness gentleness oh come on acceptance and there's never known there before he knows what it is when he feels it but he's never known it before he sees eyes that are actually eyes are the hope I can fix this you know I love you I give myself to you so it meant he was valued and worth something to somebody I'm worth something and not as we hope he'll be one day but right here and now you've got to understand this God loves you as is you know he doesn't love you you that love when I'm done with you you'll be fine no he never tells you when I'm done with you just as you are to realize Jesus is perfectly at home with broken messed up blind deaf people those who are blind to truth death to everything of truth Jesus is a that homs II III in in my religious past I was raised to believe you had to get yourself together for God that if you're gonna get something from God you have to clean up your life that is so anti-biblical is anti gospel Jesus is God sitting with us where we are as we are looking into our broken lives and eyes and say I love you and you have value to me to the Holy Trinity you are worse that's Jesus that's the goodness of God and that brings about repentance to tell you to clean up your life doesn't bring about repentance actually it makes me stick my heels in even worse you know certainly don't threaten me with hell I'll come up with something like well I'll have a lot of friends there or something you know you're right it doesn't do a thing God is love the goodness of God leads us to repentance actually I hate that word repentance it's a a hangover from the very worst days the most corrupt days of the church if you could even call it a church twelve hundred and twelve hundred they coined that word you know you know what I mean repentance you know what it means in plain plain English repentance means to do tenants over and over and over again right read there is a Latin word Reem means over and over and over penance pen tense which means I've got to try hard I've got to do works I've got to do something to impress God and come back to church make something they said it's not enough two more two more do more grovel scream at him you're unworthy he likes that why why hasn't somebody taken that filthy word out of the Bible the greek word there metanoia means a radical change of mind that's the meaning of the word and everybody who translates the Bible knows that or they stick in the word repentance again Matthew didn't get a message and that you're a screwed up tax collector get your act together and there's hope for you it was just as you are in the act of taking taxes I look at you and I see you and I know you and I love you and I value you and I place Worth on you that's the love of God you see the love of God you've got to get used to Jesus I mean it yeah he does not deal with sin the same way as the 21st century Church does it's quite embarrassing really you know I mean in this case Matthew should have been taught to admit and confess his sin and say this prayer after me you know the sinner's prayer it's not in the Bible but we could still use it and um and having done that I mean good grief he's a businessman he would know to sign the little card and say I promise to follow Jesus right Jesus doesn't do that he doesn't bother didn't mention repentance Corp of course he wouldn't nobody can but um he'll you see was the love of God that changed Matthews mind all the threats of the Pharisees all of the curses of the synagogue all of the disgusted looks of people didn't change Matthew made him very lonely made him hate the synagogue all the more and one look from Jesus one hook and that was enough to change his mind forever he saw a man named Matthew that was enough he was valued he had worth again and forgive me but I learned a lot in Africa and the the Zulu especially the Zulu they I don't know they can walk through the jungle without making a noise they tread on a twig and for them it doesn't crack and and they will come up behind you you know you wouldn't hear them and this is how they say hello they said I see you Malcolm I see you yeah I know it's in the telling it sounds like you know boom I see it's not that it's not that what what they mean is that you have significance to me I I don't miss you in a crowd I I don't see a blur I see you Malcolm you you have shape and form and meaning in my life you you you have a significant place in my life and I got used to it and I like there I see you you're not you're not just a passing shadow you're not what everyone says I see you that's what Jesus did I see you Matthew I see you but I say he didn't minimize sin but honestly gotta get used to this it's it's the same way when the woman caught in the act of adultery and the temple police bring her to Jesus I remember you know he was so bored with him he doodled in the sand until they all left because he said he there's where there was sin cast the first stone you remember that and he keeps on doodling in the sand and then he looked up and he said to the woman where are your accusers she said they left and then Jesus said neither do i condemn you go and sin no more did I hear right and I'm being very serious I mean isn't he going to tell her she was caught in the middle of sin and I just rescued you but you weren't caught in sin and it's about time lady you got your act together no neither do i condemn you I mean I'm not accusing you III thought sin was a crime to be punished Jesus doesn't seem to think so interesting and and the people that were playing his crucifixion Jesus wept over them because they weren't hearing what he said but when they were putting the nails through his hands he said Father forgive them they know not what they do for years I problem with that I said they jolly whoa didn't know what they were doing no I said Jesus they don't they don't know what they're doing but come on did you understand what I'm saying what's going on here Jesus you're supposed to come down heavy on sin he doesn't and of course Jesus is the presence of the Holy Trinity you can't divide the Trinity and so father and Son and Holy Spirit have one mind on this so some there's a disconnect between how the Holy they look as sin reflected how Jesus did and how we do Jesus looked through behavior he looked through right to the heart to the person and you remember the story he told he says it I'm like a pearl merchant and I'm looking for the pearl of great price you you you are the pearl of great price and religion has taught us to put ourselves down and say we're no good were unworthy Jesus says you're my precious pearl I've been searching for you all your life he said it's like a treasure hidden in the field and I'll dye the whole field to get the treasure that's you you're his treasure you're his pearl and then when he talks about actually he was talking then to the Pharisees about tax collectors and about you know the the sheep went astray and the tax collectors knew that's me ah he's talking about me and the sheep that went astray the Pharisees would go after the Sheep with a club and say yes stupid sheep Jesus said it was a lost sheep and then when the younger brother in the other parable goes off in the far country and tell us all that he does and he comes back you know I'm not worthy to be called your son are we getting somewhere it's almost close for an altar call there come on instead the Father Jesus basically said the father's shut up no Nick grab the kid and he says you are my son stop all this whining stop saying I'm unworthy I'm no good you are my son yeah but no i-i've you know whether I was with the pigs right I did that yeah you are my son a lost son but my son a lost sheep of my sheep and sometimes we can even get that wrong don't we lost go among some Christians and you got to learn how to say the word lost got a sneer it out you know what it means he's lost why would somebody learn English lost what is lost number one you can't be lost until you're owned I can't lose your pen I can only lose what's mine so when it says lost it means you are owned you might not know it you might not believe it but you are you're owned lost but not just owned it means that you're misplaced you are mine but you're not where I want you to be close to me you're not functioning as you should be I you're separated from me you're lost but you're precious to me so everything stops I'm gonna find my lost pen but if it's a child that is lost Oh village stops everybody goes out to for lost means the most precious that which is most dear to me which belongs to me is gone missing we all go to find that's lost so take the snare out of religion it doesn't mean that damned in hell it means they're lost but somebody find them they're precious they've great worth you're my treasure you're my pearl of great price all that came through when Jesus just looked at him the energy the transmission of Jesus look was all of that you are my son I know the rest of Capernaum would never believe me but you are my son but you I came in fact that's exactly what he said when the Pharisees came to him and says what are you doing eating with tax collectors and sinners and Jesus was sarcastic he said well you see I'm a doctor and and I I don't waste time on people that are healthy I only come for the sick and I've come to seek and to save that which was lost meaning you guys think you're so jolly right and you wouldn't even hear me if I talked to you I come from but did you notice what I just said Jesus said I don't come for their healthy I come for the sick he's sort of saying matthew has a terrible virus of the soul that has entered into his mind so he cannot think he cannot see he's walking in darkness and blindness in fact it's turned him into a madman to do what in his sanity would never do and I've come to make him whole I've come to heal him in fact he said I am come I am come for the likes of him that's incredible jesus said the Incarnation God joining us humans the sufferings of Jesus the cross of Jesus the burial of Jesus the Ascension of Jesus he said it's all fair talk about looking for a lost jesus said that's I came for this came for this and they all came through in the look and you see that look when you see yourself as God sees you when you are seen in the eyes of God's love that opens your eyes so you now see yourself as beloved you see yourself as God sees you and as God knows you which also tells you what kind of God he really is and he isn't the monster that is in a state of eternal irritation with you but he is a God who loves you he's not petulant he's not a spoiled kid whose glory has been insulted no he just loves you in fact he puts himself in our hands and says I'll take whatever you give and we insulted him and spat at him and he says without a word I take it and I see when he loves me I not only see myself and I see the value of my Creator of haumene God I also see what kind of a God he is no wonder they call it metanoia a radical change of mind you see you've got to see yourself in the eyes of God before you can see anybody else before you can look and see a man called Matthew you have to see that he's looking at you and he's seen a woman and seen a man and he knows your name you're seen in the love of God don't you understand we say we've got a lost people well Jesus said love one another as I have loved you so you'll never be able to love another person till you are bathing in the love that he has for you and then your love for others is an overspill I'll quit with this huh that's a job um because it is hmm in 2 Corinthians 5 we've already been there but let me continue with it he says the love of Christ resonates in me holds me but then he goes on he says but because this is what I've seen this is what love showed me that if one died for all then all were dead and the next verse is going to speak of resurrection he said I realized as a religious Jew I I thought of myself as God's pet I'm his special and you lied your Gentiles forget you he says I the love of Christ came got a hold of me and what did I see in the love of Christ but he died oh oh oh then if he died for all and all they were included in his death then all died the cross of Jesus becomes posnick it covers old time covers all people God came into human and what Jesus did resonates not just to me but to all mankind and said Paul and this is the point he said from that point on I know no human being after the flesh do you know what that means he said if if all were included into Jesus his love all were included into what he did on the cross and when I meet you I don't see you after the flesh that is I don't see you by what clearances I don't see you by your nationality I don't see you in any way by your social standing I don't even see you as male or female when it comes to that he said I see you I see you I see you Malcolm and I I see you as in the embrace of Jesus even if you don't know it I see you being carried into death and the grade that's the end of the old you has no moral authority and I see you resurrected with Christ I see no man after the flesh I only see you in the light of the love of God and the finished work of Christ so I see you so I talked to you that's how I pray for you thank you the rest of the weekend to tell you I just meant by that but you see when I see myself in the love of God I see you in the love of God that's what changed my life I don't know how many decades ago I never forget it I was walking out of my study to preach you wouldn't have recognized me in those days I was drooling at the mouth so how I was gonna hang these people over hell I mean they deserved it didn't they bunch of sinners they lost you say you answered and as I walk this is a truth like I'd be telling you alive but I watered the door of my office and I mean I heard within me the voice of the Father he says remember when you talk to these people they're my special I love them be careful how you handle them I turned around and I tore up my notes and I actually burned all my sermons because I realized that I was talking to people that when God the Father Son and Holy Spirit looked at them they said they're my special I love them they're included in the cross I could never again be the raging preacher I had been I'd seen my I saw and it was the first time I looked at my congregation and I saw them I saw them saw them as God saw them I saw them as the cross defines them makes the difference how you pray you pray for people you know well God you know what a sinner they aren't dare I say maybe he doesn't maybe he doesn't want you to hear this how you what she was hiding he sees them through the finished work of Christ when I look at you believers how do I look at you by the grace of God I see you as complete in Jesus I see you seated with Jesus of the I see you as his pearls in his treasure even if you don't see that yourself I'd better see it so that when I look at you you can feel the very transmission of the Holy Spirit saying he saw a woman you saw a man but you have to see it for yourself first to come to a point you see yourself as that precious to God precious to him stop evaluating people by what they look like stop evaluating them by the memories of pain that they bring up stop evaluating people by their behavior stop evaluating people by their ethnicity and just realize they're the beloved of God like you are and then our look and you give looks all over the place you give looks at work and give looks on the street give looks right here those looks will be so potent in love through the spirit that a look can be heard a look can be felt the look can transform a person's life Matthew had a boss boss was the Roman centurions one of those guys was named Cornelius Roman Roman Roman despised by the Jews as much as the tax collector in this particular one wanted Peter to go and share the gospel and when the news came to Peter he says a Gentile and he began the Lord showed him what he thought of Gentiles a mass of crawling insects everything that was foul reptilian that's what he thought they were and the Lord says what I have cleansed don't you call common and when they came and asked him to go to the house of Cornelius Peter reluctantly went he realized God was taking him there and when he gets there and he realizes yeah that's what I thought of this man and the Holy Spirit showed me this man is not common to God he's cleansed him included him and he began to share with him and as he shared the Holy Spirit came down upon the people that's the funniest thing I say in the light of today because Kaneda is interrupted the whole sermon with the Holy Spirit coming upon him and the crowd that gathered in the house and that's very upsetting to the preacher he doesn't have a chance to make his conclusion he doesn't have a chance to say this and Peter stood there sort of like that and then he realized that the man has received the Holy Spirit and he hasn't been baptized who we can't have that with somebody get water the baptizes Chapter three days inactive because you see we we say he can you can't he hasn't said that right he didn't know God's love is bigger than it all Lupita had to be shown his God of love before ever he could be the love of God to the people and that's where we are and if you are a budding preacher forget all the theology and just know that you can look at people with the love of God and transform their lives theology can follow afterward but if all you've got is theology you're going nowhere and I named that know where when you pray for people don't rehearse all their faults see them as God sees them his beloved and confess over them who they really are in Christ and when you see yourself see yourself as you are in Jesus they well I've got to confess my sins well you're a guess or um you know what confess me see there's another Latin word con means with fess means conversation so confess means to say something together with others or it means to say the same thing as others interesting who's conversing with who here if we confess our sins but there's a conversation going on what's the conversation well yeah you're you're you're telling god what a wretch I am well that's not exactly in the scripture is it how about this that you are conversing with God and then you and God tell your sins about the blood of Jesus ha ha I think that's close to a truth we'll see you Friday night

Channel: New Life City

Views: 18,616

Rating: 4.8501873 out of 5

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Id: d8q07rlfmdY

Length: 61min 59sec (3719 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 25 2019