Sermon "In an Unworthy Manner" by Rick Shabi, February 27, 2021

well i mentioned or maybe it was already mentioned that really one week or one month from today we will already have kept the passover back on the friday night four weeks from last night we'll be here on the sabbath day we'll be looking toward the night to be much observed that sabbath evening and we'll be looking at the first holy day so the days of unleavened bread and the passover are upon us and as we as we do every year we will talk about preparing for the passover we already began that um before we before we left for uh cincinnati but want to talk about that more today but let's open with with a scripture that we should always open with around passover time to remind ourselves why we're doing this and the importance of this time that leads up to passover in the days of unleavened bread so if you'll turn with me excuse me again to first corinthians 11. first corinthians 11 we're going to pick it up in verse 23. as the church in corinth you know became a little more uh in their is established in their ways paul could see some things and the way they were keeping the passover and wanted to remind them of what the passover for was for and how to observe it not to let every other ideas come into it but to remind them of how solemn this occasion is how important this occasion is to god as he sees us and it's important to us as we recommit to him to follow him and we use this time leading up to passover to look at ourselves and see are we doing and are we becoming what god wants who god wants us to be verse 23 first corinthians 11 paul writes i receive from the lord that which i also delivered to you that the lord jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me there's always a danger in passover that we've kept the passover 15 20 30 40 50 times then we take that bread that we could take it with a not so not so much in remembrance of christ it is important for us to remember as we've been even rehearsing in the book of hebrews which was written so that we are mindful of the importance of jesus christ the importance of his sacrifice the importance and the the absolutely incredible calling that god has given us that we don't take it as just another thing that we do once a year just part of a ritual but when we take that bread we understand we are taking and saying we partake and participate with jesus christ we are in fellowship with him and as he suffered we put our lives with him and we're ready to suffer with him because we understand he's his savior and we're quite quite thankful for what he's done for us and we are ready to commit to him with our lives and all in all our being in the same manner verse 25 he also took the cup after saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood this dew as often as you drink it in remembrance of me he shed his blood for us he suffered for us he did it all so that you and i would have an opportunity i don't know that we fully understand in fact i know we don't fully understand the love god has for you and me we'll see a few verses here as we enter to enter into the sermon on how much god loves you how guts god loves me and how he writes that in the bible and jesus christ certainly demonstrated his love for us by way he was willing to go through and suffer and sacrifice that we very unworthy human beings might have the opportunity to be with him for eternity verse 26 for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup that's once a year on the passover for baptized members you proclaim the lord's death till he comes therefore verse 27 an admonition from god whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the lord how can we eat that bread or drink that cup in an unworthy manner by not doing what he says to do in verse 28 this is the time to be preparing for passover now if we start thinking about passover on friday morning on the friday evening that we'll be taking it it's too late it's time to be looking for at that now looking at ourselves monitoring ourselves measuring ourselves against the words of the bible looking at ourselves through god's eyes through the eyes of the bible through the eyes of his holy spirit that will lead us and guide us to who he wants us to become if we let that happen and if we do the things that he says part of that as we head on to passover in verse 28 is let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup none of us are worthy to take the passover jesus christ suffered for all of us he made it possible for us it says don't take it in an unworthy manner that means now we prepare for it now we're doing the thing so that when the passover comes we can eat it in fuller recognition of who christ is what we have been called to our renewed commitment to him to follow him with all our heart mind and soul in all the detail that he provides for us verse 29 for he who drinks eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself not discerning the lord's body they're just not getting it is what he says and that is an offense to god none of us want to be an offense to god by the way we do the things that he has called us to do and observing his days the way that he has asked us to do verse 30 says for this reason because people take it in an unworthy manner they're not discerning the lord's body they're not paying attention to it it's not as important to them and as significant to their lives as it should be for this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep before i go on i do want to look at a few verses here about just how much god loves us if we turn back to john 15 jesus christ in his words to the disciples the apostles on that night of passover he compares the love he has for us in a way that should open our eyes to just how important you and i and all the people who follow god who follow god in the way that he has called those that are called and chosen as you heard last week are to him john 15 and we'll pick it up in verse 9. christ says this to his disciples then he says it to you and me today as the father loved me and we know god the father loved jesus christ more than we can even imagine we don't even understand that depth of love as the father loved me i also have loved you just as deeply as god the father loves me christ says i've loved you that's how deep that love is that's just how important you and i are to god and all his people i also have loved you abide in my love and then he tells us how to do that in verse 10 if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as i have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love it's there as a basic principle in his own words if we abide in god's love we do what he says to do we keep his commandments not just physically but as in the new testament physically as well as spiritually christ made that abundantly clear as we've talked about many times when his in the sermon on the mount when he says it's not enough that you just don't physically kill your brother you don't even harbor hate against him it's not enough that you just physically don't commit adultery with that woman you don't even lust for her in your heart you weed that out you keep my commandments you live my life in spirit as well as physically if you love me and if you want to abide in my love do this verse 11 these things i've spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full this is my commandment verse 12 that you love one another as i have loved you well we know how much well we don't understand how much but we can imagine how much god loves jesus christ how much jesus christ said he loves us and he tells you and me you love one another that much as well i dare say we could do some examining of ourselves in that area between now and passover and make some commitments and resolutions to god to move forward and learn to become what he says in that verse that we would learn to love one another as god loves us and as jesus christ loves us he repeats this in john 17 in the prayer that he offered before he was arrested you know in john 17 he prayed several times my will father is that day those who you call then in that then in 31 a.d through the through the ages of the people that would become part of his ecclesia his called out ones his church that you would make them one and verse 23 he says this he says i in them and you and me that they may be that they may be made perfect in one that they become as close with each other and with us as you and i are father it's quite a lofty standard quite a ways for us to go something that we can pray to god about and ask them how to lead us how do we get to that i in them and you and me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me knowing how much god loves us no knowing how important it is for him to him for us to be in his kingdom knowing how important it should be for us let's look at this passover coming up let's look at what it says here in first corinthians let's examine ourselves a couple weeks ago when i was here we talked about reconciliation if remember we use christ's own words and when he said in matthew 5 23 if your brother has anything against you go be reconciled to him first leave your gift at the altar be reconciled to him and then come and offer your gift reconciliation the relationships that god wants us to bear with one another to have with one another important thing is we've even seen in these verses we all heard that a few weeks ago i hope that if that touched you if you thought you know there's someone i need to reconcile with whether it's another brother in another church area someone that might have something against me not someone i don't talk to i just don't like whether it's whatever relationship it is that you're working on that it's time to do the things and not just know them god wants us to do what we learn remember it says it's not the hearers that we justified but the doers that are justified before god so when we hear the things that god tells us in his words he expects us to go about in doing them if we understand the calling he gives if we appreciate the calling that he gives if we love him and love what he has offered to us we will go about and do those things and now is the time to begin doing those things and if you happen to be one who receives a phone call from someone i hope that you will take it in the right in the right manner as well in the christian manner and that relationships can begin to be put back together that's what god is looking to see how do they learn to work with one another and reconcile the way he wants us to well that was a couple weeks ago but as we look at today and as we're now a month away from passover let's look at christ's own words and let's let him prepare us for passover this year there are a series of chapters back in the book of luke that if we go through them we will see that they're not only a very good instruction from christ himself on christian living but also a very good test and a very good very good text for us to be looking at to see do i do this the way christ said do i follow his example the way he said he has some of those examples punctuated with pericle parables others are just kind of a mention but every detail in the bible is there so that we learn how to live how to grow and for the next month maybe maybe even look at some things that we can examine ourselves in as we head toward passover so to turn with me back to luke 10 and we'll let christ give this sermon here today from his words as we go through at least chapter 10 more chapters that we'll do in in the weeks ahead you're there at luke 10 verse 1 but i'm going to back us up one verse to luke 9 verse 62. this is the occasion where jesus christ is calling people and one by one they have excuses as to why they can't follow him now and christ tells them you know in luke 6 luke 9 62 he says no one no one having put his hand to the plow everyone in this room has put his hand to the plow whether we're baptized or not we've put our hand to the plow we know we know god has called us we know this is the truth or we wouldn't be sitting here we put our hands to the plow most have been baptized most of them are uh most of us have god's holy spirit as we've been repented and been baptized and have his spirit in us but everyone here and i'm going to venture to say everyone listening has put their hand to the plow you know what god's will is he says no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of god so we might hearken back as we look at our lives maybe we first understood the truth 10 years ago 15 years ago 50 years ago back at that time we knew to leave the world behind and to look to god and that we were moving forward how are we in that today as we've moved forward as time has passed do we find ourselves looking back at the world going back to some of the ways we did things before bringing the world into some of the things that we do and justifying in our minds that that's okay are we doing things the way god said are we looking at him because he says if we are looking back this is an unleavened bread lesson right egypt when they ran into a few hard times they looked back anyone who has put his hand to the plow and looking back should be coming out of the world that should be the continual progression coming out of the world but if we're looking back not fit for the kingdom of god we can look at lesson number one there and what christ said and look at ourselves where are we in that prospect or in that in that process chapter 10 verse 1 though as jesus christ says this he does have people who are following him and he sends some of those people 70 in this case out to be able to preach the gospel and prepare the way for him for other people chapter 10 verse 1. it says after these things the lord appointed 70 others and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go what they were going to do was prepare the way for jesus christ they were going to go out they were going to preach the word they were going to preach the gospel of repentance they were going to be his agents if you will as he sent out and he would give them power as they went out and they would prepare for the way to come because he would come later but they were the ones who went before his appearance in that city in many many ways you and i are in the same situation today we're here in orlando we all are we are all here in a place that god has put us and we are here as lights to the world of what god's way of life is before jesus christ returns his church would be evident in the world before jesus christ returns his church will be more visible you and i will be more visible will we be lights to the world are we be are we being prepared and are we letting ourselves be prepared to be those lights to be those beacons that the world needs to be those examples of what god's way of life is so people can see the direct contrast between god's way and the way of the world and as we look and as we look around us we can see those two ways becoming more or further and further apart not even in the same realm anymore it seems so you and i are in this way and god calls us and we're sitting here today we're doing things god's way and we are his people that he has called he's made us first fruits if we've been baptized we are living god's way of life he would say you're there in that community today and as he as he advised these people or as he commanded them as they went out he said things that we can pertain to ourselves you know we'll drop down to verse 4. well verse three he says go your way behold i send you out as lambs among wolves he warns them the way's not going to be easy everywhere you go people aren't going to just welcome you with open arms and say wow we've been waiting for you the truth is magnificent we couldn't wait to hear this our our minds are open we just want to be with you no no no he said it's going to be the opposite some we'll see would welcome those p those 70 that went out others would reject it and not want anything to do with them you and i have lived the same things in our life in a very mild manner to date we've had family members we've had friends co-workers whatever it is that we've tried to make understand perhaps the sabbath day holy days why we don't keep pagan originated holy days some people hear it and they receive it okay others flat out reject it and don't want anything to do with it and we learn that's okay it's not god's purpose for everyone's mind to be open today today god is calling those who he wills to call the rest of humanity will have an opportunity to know the truth at another time after the after the millennium so as we look forward in our lives though we're going to feel some of the perhaps unwelcomeness that these seventy went out you know we'll we'll see ourselves more as lambs among wolves in a society that doesn't want to hear god's message at all in verse four he says carry neither moneybag knapsack nor sandals now that's an unusual thing for him to say he's sending them out for a journey it's not like they're going away for an hour or two and coming back but look what he tells them they'll make provisions for yourself have faith in me i can provide everything you need don't do what you 70 normally do don't run home and get your wallet make sure you have your credit cards go to the atm withdraw some money don't do any of that trust in me i can provide everything you need and you know what's interesting among these 70 there wasn't a and aitkin among any of them remember who aiken is a-c-h-a-n he was the one and when they went into a.i who determine or into jericho these thought i can just hide some of these things the spoil that god said not to keep and israel suffered as a result every one of these 70 apparently followed him implicitly okay lord you sent us out you said don't pack a knapsack don't take any money with you and you will provide everything we need what he's telling them is the same thing he would tell us have faith have faith now faith like that doesn't come overnight faith like that didn't come to those 70 and the ones who went before them overnight as they worked with god as they saw jesus christ as they believed in him more and more that faith developed so that when he told him to go and don't look back don't go into your household don't come down from your roof just go trust me they had been prepared they had gone through the the opportunities for testing and development and character development and faith building that god gives us all along the way if we're paying attention so when he said go and have faith they simply went if you and i look at our faith today would we are we ready to do that i dare say no i know all of us would want to say yes but would we honestly we can be we need to be we need to be working toward that god will give us the opportunities to build that faith we just have to use that opportunity those opportunities and not just keep doing things the way we've always done them trust him so as we're examining ourselves we can look at this this verse 4 here and ask ourselves are we developing the faith that god would have us develop is my faith as i look at myself honestly do i have more faith in god today than i did a year ago do i have more faith in god today than i did 10 years ago do i trust him more some examinations some examination questions we might ask ourselves he goes on and he has other instructions to this group as well at verse five he says whatever house you enter first say peace to this house and if a son of peace is there your peace will rest on it if not it will return to you so i'll you go out and you talk to the people that are there if they receive your word and they're at peace with you so be it give glory to god but if they're not if they think no we don't want to hear what you have to offer we've got all these other ideas and we're going to do things a different way don't let it worry you go on to another place your peace will return to you in verse seven he gives them something else that's an interesting thing for him to say he's sending them out we don't know how long they were going to be gone but when he sends them out and they find the house of peace where god's word is received where they will listen to what he has to say he says in verse 7 and remain in the same house remain there stick there where you are called where you find peace where you find the truth you stay there he specifically says at the end of verse 7 don't go from house to house now we know that god is building his house and you and me individually he's building his house and you in in us collectively as well there's a temple that he's at work building that's why you and i have to grow together become more at one with one another and with god the father we also have to pay attention to what we're doing as we let god build our houses individually but our houses together there's a training program he puts us in he tells these 70 the same things he would tell you and me stay in the same house don't hop from house to house they did it now it might have seemed reasonable to them well i don't want to wear the people out in this house i don't know how long i'm going to be there maybe i should go someplace else for a week or a few days and give them a spell no stay where god has put you he can't train us he can't develop us in the way he wants if we're hopping from place to place to place from congregation to congregation to congregation week after week after week there's a principle that god is that he's put us in a body and he expects us to grow in that body where he places us do we do that or are we still searching and are we still well it's okay i don't need to pay attention to that command or what god has what purpose he has called us to they did it apparently and as they have gone down through as you go down through the verses we see that you know god did work with them he gave them the power to heal diseases we come down to verse 16 he makes a comment to them as they're going out he says he who hears you 70 he who hears you preach my gospel he he who hears you preach the word o god hears me and he who rejects you rejects me now those are some words we can look at god gives us all the words in the bible every single word is inspired by him every single word and every single detail he expects you and me to be growing in and to begin living in as he opens our minds to understand them he who hears you hears me christ said don't we all want to listen christ he is the only way to salvation he is the only way to eternal life there is no other way there is no compromise there is one way and through one way only and that's jesus christ and through the truth of the bible as he leads us but if we reject him if we say no i don't i don't want to believe that i'm not at peace with that i don't i don't believe that i don't want to hear that in the bible or i don't see that in the bible if you reject that hearing he says you reject me who would want to reject jesus christ but we have to learn to you know we have to learn to accept him no matter what we you know matter how much we might want to not accept a principle that christ has you can keep your finger there in luke 10. let's go back to romans 10 or forward to romans 10. it's interesting that in as his admonition to the 70 begin with have faith in me he concludes with if the people that i send you to hear me or hear you they hear me and in romans 10 17 you know as we work with the word of god and will you study the word of god read the word of god talk about the word of god there's the important part that god has in hearing his word and that's where all of us and his church come into play romans 10 verse 17 so then faith faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god where the word of god is taught hear it hear it and when you receive it you receive him interestingly in john 13 again right after the passover ceremony when christ's last passover in john 13 and verse 20 on passover evening we always read down to verse 17 in john 13. we don't often maybe go through the rest of christ's own words in that section but in verse 20 he says most assuredly i say to you he who receives whomever i send receives me and he who receives me receives him who sent me receive his word receive the teaching receive christ and receive god to his church he would say listen to my words how many times did christ himself say the people have become dull of hearing how many times have we read in the book of hebrews as we've gone through that don't become dull of hearing don't let the words go in one ear and out the other or just close your mind to it like i've heard that a thousand times before it doesn't apply to me don't let the words just just fall on you like they have no meaning at all let them sink into you as we read them and as we look at the words of the bible in the detail that god gives us okay let's go back to luke 10 continue continue in in there so we learned in verse 17 of luke 10 that the 70 did exactly what jesus christ said and we know that because they come back with joy whenever we do things god's way we have joy whenever we do things apart from god's way our joy is not there it's not complete there's only one way to joy and that will be in concert with god the fruits one of the second listed fruit of the spirit is joy verse 17 the seventy returned with joy they did it exactly the way christ said they didn't worry about things they trusted in him they followed him implicitly they had been developed in that way christ knew they were ready to be sent out and they did it exactly the way he said the seventy returned with joy saying lord even the demons are subject to us in your name in your name and with faith in you we were even able to cast out demons from the people that had those i don't know what that feeling would be like i've never cast out a demon probably no one in here maybe maybe someone has probably in the future we'll come to face to face with some demons as the time for christ's return draws near and we'll have the faith to cast those demons out just like these 70 did as god develops us and as we let him build our faith in him but they're amazed they didn't take credit to themselves they didn't pat themselves on the back and say what a great job i've done we'll see here in a minute they gave credit totally to god they knew it was him but they had yielded to him and they did things exactly the way he said and they had progressed through time to what he wanted them to do as he sent them out christ responds to their comments in verse 18 with an interesting comment of his cell of his own he said to them i saw satan fall like lightning from heaven that's quite a dramatic statement i saw satan fall like lightning from heaven in response to we were even able to cast out demons in your name what did he mean by that when we when we yield to god when we are led by his holy spirit when we let him train us develop us mold us when we give our minds hearts and soul to god and he brings us to where he wants us to be as he sees our hearts are determined to follow him when he sees that our hearts are determined to put the self behind the world behind our own ideas behind our own ways behind that god satan the god of the world falls he falls like lightning when we give ourselves totally to god he no longer has power over us god's holy spirit supersedes any power that satan has of our own selves and without his holy spirit we are powerless against satan but with his holy spirit we can overcome and he no longer has any any power over us unless we give it back to him over time there's a parable later on in a couple of chapters that we'll get to where some people do give him the access back in we don't want to do that now we can look at verse 18 in the end time statement as well because i'm sure as you read that statement you automatically thought of romans or revelation 12 where it says that in the end time satan will be cast down to earth and he knows and it was woe to the inhabitants of the earth woe to the church of god because he knows he has a short time there will come a time when satan no longer has an audience in heaven he is cast down his time is done his kingdom is over satan's time is king in our lives even if it's a little bit out there if we still have him on a little pedestal and we're still giving in to him a little bit little by little satan has to totally lose his influence over us that comes through time and as we do the things not just hear the things but do the things that god wants us to do i saw satan fall like lightning from heaven maybe they scratched their head and thought about that a little bit maybe we can think a little bit about that and how god wants satan to fall like lightning from our lives or fall like lightning from our lives as we completely yield to him verse 19 christ tells us what the power he gives us is behold i give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions not deliberately not doing things just for show and to say look what i can do because i can step on this snake or step on this scorpion i give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you do we believe that do we have faith in god he's not promising there that we will never experience pain he's not promising that we'll never have tribulation he's not promising we'll never have trials but the things of the world that could harm us he can give us protection from we've experienced that in the last year correct as the pandemic of the world i know we have some visitors as the pandemic of the world touched any of us to my knowledge none in this church god can protect us from whatever whatever is there in the world just like he shield israel israel from the plagues of egypt and show them he can differentiate between those of him those who are his and those who are not now that's not making any great claim we thank god for what he does but we understand he does provide and he does protect and jesus christ says you have faith in me you believe in me you trust in me and i will give you the power to overcome even the greatest power on earth outside of god in jesus christ and that's satan that's the power he gives you in me no one else other than his people other than god and jesus christ have that have that power that should encourage us that should inspire us whatever we're wrestling with whatever we have to overcome whatever might be lingering in our minds that's just too hard to put behind we can do it god gives us and he wants he gives us the tools to do it and he wants us to do it we just have to determine to do it not just hear it not just want it but two do it verse 20 he reminds us always give credit to god never look to yourself as soon as we start looking to ourselves we absolutely fall nevertheless he says don't rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven and we know how our names are written in heaven when we do god's will when we are yielded and when we when we submit to him fully more and more fully as the days months years and passover observances come about as you go into verse 21 to 24 you see jesus christ he's he's thanking god it says in that hour jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said i thank you father lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes even so father for it seemed good in your sight thank you he was happy to see the effect of god's way of life in these people's lives he wasn't upset that it wasn't the elite of the world who received this knowledge he wasn't upset and thinking why didn't god call the powerful the mighty the wealthy thank you that you've given this to the babes and jesus christ was thankful just when he saw people believing do we feel that same way do we just rejoice in our hearts when we see someone that comes that now understands when someone repents it says there's joy in heaven do we have that same joy when we hear that someone has responded to god after that calling he goes on and he he tells us it reminds us again in verse 23 and 24 just how important and special if i can use the word there really are some words in the english language that are just missing you know when we want to talk about any kind of superlative where god is concerned verse 23 he turned to his disciples and said privately blessed are the eyes which see the things you see do we realize or do we ever contemplate how blessed we are to know what god has given us the certainty which we can direct our lives because we know what his plan is we know what the purpose of mankind is we know the calling that he's given us we know what our future holds we know the power of the holy spirit we know what can be done if we yield to god no one else in this world knows they go around from government to government from this idea from this philosophy all over the place all over the world they have no idea what to do they would give anything to know what you and i know but they don't even know what they don't know you don't think the prophets as you said in verse 24 would love to say i can tell you with certainly what's going to happen in the world absolutely they would love it probably for their own prophet we know it you don't think the kings of the world would love to know hey this is exactly what the plan is this is exactly where we're going they're just they're just swimming in the dark hoping that this way works and this way works and my idea is better than your idea and all the garbage that we hear every day as we listen to the news i tell you many prophets and kings of desire to see what you see and they haven't seen it and to hear what you hear and they haven't heard it maybe we can contemplate a little bit what god has given us the truth he's given us what a comfort it is what a comfort and what what stability it gives us as we look forward from now until the return of jesus christ knowing what lies ahead that with certainty we can survive and we will be there if if we follow him if we yield to him but if we let the world creep in if we start looking at the world and trusting in it that won't be that's not the way to the kingdom of god verse 25 behold a certain lawyer stood up and tested him aren't people always trying to test you hear something and he thinks okay let me just let me just run this by jesus christ and see what he says saying teacher what shall i do to inherit eternal life and christ said to him well what's written in the law same thing he might say to you and me you have a bible you have the word of god what does it say if you want to inherit eternal life what do you do it's there it's not a secret to you and me god has opened all our eyes it's there all we have to do is read it and then do it he said what is written in the law what's your reading of it so the lawyer answered and said you shall love the lord your god with all your heart all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind there's a lot of the word all in that when god uses the word all he doesn't mean most he means all that takes a lifetime that takes a lifetime of learning to love god with all our mind all our heart all our soul and the second command love your neighbor as yourself and christ said to him you've answered correctly do this and you will live you know it do it don't just hear it don't just be able to recite it do it it's of no use if you never do it if you don't make the steps to do it and those who don't do it won't be in the kingdom of god we have to do it we have to learn it we have to acknowledge it we have to repent of the ways that we've been and we have to start doing what god says to do the time is now not like it was even before that we can see what's going on in the world around us it's time to start doing and as we examine ourselves and as we prepare ourselves for passover to see it's time to put the child's toys behind and start doing what god said and looking at ourselves through his eyes and not just our veiled eyes that says i'm quite okay and god has to be happy with me as long as i do this and this and this now he wants all of us he wants us to completely yield to him do this and you will live now first and that that's a a good message to us you know i know what eight nine years ago we went through each one of the ten commandments if you remember if you were here at that time one by one and we talked about the physical aspect and the spiritual aspect of the ten commandments maybe we need to do that again to remind ourselves what this way of life that god has called us to and what the ramifications of it are and how we how we might unwittingly wander into something and think that's okay when really it isn't okay it's a violation of the commandments maybe we need to do that and you can pray about that and we'll see where god leads us on that but we have to start doing those ten commandments but you can do that yourself look at them and don't just say i do all those things physically there's a spiritual element don't forget that that's where the examination comes in what do i think what do i do what's my attitude what am i really up to here am i pleasing self or am i completely yielding to god and doing it the way he said verse 29 is something that every single one of us in this room and i include myself have done and continue to do verse 29 the lawyer but he wanting to justify himself said to jesus and who is my neighbor isn't justification exactly what we all do well i think god's okay with that well i didn't do that but this is the reason why and you know my heart is really good it's in the right place i have this issue that no one else has i have this situation that no one else has i have this going on over here i just can't do it exactly the way god says to do it but he understands it because my situation is different i can justify what i do i can justify why i'm not where god wants me to be all of us can justify things right and we've all done it we've all said well okay i heard that someone mentioned it to me i read it in the bible but but you know so as we look at what you know we'll just kind of what was this attorney this lawyer thinking when he repeated you shall love the lord your god with all your heart mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself was he in his mind thinking do i do that do i love my neighbor as myself because remember when the jews were there they didn't love all people they loved each other as humans do not god does but they didn't love the samaritans they didn't love the gentiles they looked at them as lower class who needs anything to do with them so maybe he looked at himself and said well okay who is my neighbor it's just fellow jews right not these gentiles not these samaritans that i have to put up with every day we might do the same thing you fill in the blanks as you examine yourself do we justify some of the things that we do like he did and think oh i know that love your neighbor as yourself well who is my neighbor and christ then goes into something i won't read you know the parable of the good samaritan very well and he shows them our neighbor is everyone if we see someone who's hurt and laying beside the road we help if we see our neighbor next door neighbor who falls down next you know in the middle of the yard we don't sit back and say oh well someone will come and call the ambulance or whatever they do you know we go and help we look at them and we we we help where we can now remember as we discussed a few weeks ago neighbor is different than brother when the bible says brother it's talking about people who have the same beliefs that you and i do just as jesus christ said in matthew 12 46 who is my brother he's the one who does the will of my father just as jesus christ did there are commands you can read them first john 3 other places in the bible when it says brother it tells you what to do and how we bond together with one another and they're our neighbors which is everyone else jesus christ died for all mankind not just for you and me and those who follow him he died for all of mankind and as he loves them we need to come to the point where we love that is not something that happens overnight that happens through the course of our lifetime that we can look at people who will do whatever they do to us and say you don't know what you're doing and when their time comes just ask god that you know they may understand as well so in verse 37 after christ gives in this parable you know christ asked him the question well which one was the neighbor and the lawyer said he who showed mercy on him and jesus said to him go and do likewise do it now you know it build it into your life are we going to be perfect as we begin to build these things absolutely not but we do need to begin building it into our lives and catching ourselves and asking god to help us to become who he wants to become moving on to verse 38. it happened as they went that he entered a certain village and a certain woman named martha welcomed him into her house and she had a sister named mary who also sat at jesus feet and heard his word so imagine the picture here here's jesus christ which of us wouldn't want jesus christ if he was here to invite him into our house what an opportunity to sit down and talk with him would any of us pass that opportunity up the disciples had a tremendous opportunity three and a half years day in and day out they walked with jesus christ they heard him talk they see how he acted mary and martha now have him in their house but martha it says was distracted she was distracted with much serving now it's an interesting thing for christ to observe because certainly it was good of her to invite jesus christ in but as as he was there she was busy about doing all these other things the tablecloth has to look just this way the food isn't looking just the way i want it's not the perfect temperature the silverware isn't perfect there's lint or whatever dust whatever on this table that i forgot to do i've got to do all this everything has to be perfect and she was distracted how many of us can find ourselves distracted every single day we can come into god's throne room right every single day when jesus christ sacrificed for us that veil was torn in two and we have entree into god's throne we can pray to him every single day and be in his audience day and night anytime and he will listen what do we do do we get distracted from time to time when we have when we're in the audience of god when he's listening to us i have to admit i've done it i'll find myself and all of a sudden my mind is wandering on something else and i catch myself and think what have i done i'm praying to god and my mind is over here on some other subject that means nothing in the scope of things because we're so easily distracted at times with things that we have to do or is going on or a noise we hear or whatever it is that can be martha was that way you know even in our service with one another we can become so distracted with we have this event going on and that event going on and we're going to coordinate this and we're going to do this and hey next week we have this activity over here we can be distracted with all of that and think oh just by the fact that we're doing all these activities we're serving god are we serving god nothing wrong with all those things but can we get distracted from the truth and the calling that god gave us that we are giving our attention first and primarily to him martha was distracted by many things and she approached christ and she said lord don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone get her in here tell her to come in here and help me she learned a lesson what can distract us family jobs a situation at work that comes up at an unfortunate time when you should be doing something else a pandemic martha martha he said in verse 41 you're worried you are worried and you're troubled about many things worry we heard a sermon that here not too long ago about worry you're worried about too many things martha you're troubled by too many things martha it's okay to do that stuff it's okay to invite people in it's okay to do these things it's okay to want them to look okay but when there's the opportunity to come before god pay your attention to him martha martha you're worried and troubled about many things but one thing is needed and mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her you know even the area of fellowship we could find ourselves distracted you know we've done that now the house isn't quite the way it should be right now so we really can't invite anyone over you know when i go to anyone's house i could care less what the house looks like i could care less about the food i could care less about any of that stuff and i don't mean that flippantly i'm not there for that i'm there to talk with you and i think you feel exactly the same way so on the sabbath and we're going to we're going to finish here in verse 10 and we'll pick it up next week in one chapter 11 and go through more of christ's words because there's plenty more instruction there and christian living and things we can examine ourselves on going forward but you know even in fellowship on the sabbath you know what do we or something that distracts us or keeps us from doing what we need to do i can talk to some of the young people here oh we got to get home right now we got to get home right now because i've got this and that and whatever i can do and my mind is distracted not on the sabbath day not what i need to do we need to realize 24 hours is holy time holy time not time to be distracted by other things in the world god said reserve this time for me and focus on me well let's folk let's let's end there we'll pick it up next time in chapter 11. but let me give you a recap here because we've gone through eight points that i want to draw your attention to that you might write down and you might as as i will as i'm examining myself look at these things and the words that we have heard christ say today and see how we measure up and where we need to be first thing we talked about was faith where is our faith the bible tells us without faith it's impossible to please him simply the bottom line we have to learn to trust in him and give our lives to him that progresses through life it doesn't happen overnight but god will give us every opportunity in the course of our lifetimes to build that faith faith number two love and appreciate the ecclesia the body the house that god has made you part of he's put us all where he wants to wants us to be and he says stay there learn there grow there let me build you individually and let me build you collectively number three do we recognize do we appreciate the power of the holy spirit i might ask ourselves has satan fallen from the pedestal that we used to have him on before we were called he was supreme he was the one we were following where is he today are we still following him the mission is that he will fall from our lives completely number four appreciate the truth take some time to appreciate christ's sacrifice we've talked about that through the book of hebrews it's one of the primary reasons the book reasons the book of hebrews was written appreciate the truth that god has opened our eyes to it is a guard for us it is an inspiration it will keep us from drifting away i remember drifting away can happen ever so slightly ever so slightly number five do and live the ten commandments christ said do this and live number six stop justifying your actions we know what to do just do it when we hear something we haven't been doing acknowledge it turn from it commit to god repent and go forward in acts 17 verse 30 says you know the times of our ignorance he weaks at meaning he doesn't say it's not sin but understands we didn't know but when we know our job is to repent and go forward and purpose in our minds and estab and purpose in our hearts to go forward with god number seven learn to love all mankind and learn to become one i can say with one another number eight don't be distracted don't be distracted from doing god's will being where he wants you to be put him first the very first commandment you know in luke 13 christ says if we don't repent we will all likewise perish this is the time we all repented before we were baptized it's time again to well as it is through all our lives not just before passover but certainly as we examine ourselves repent repent believe christ believe the gospel and yield and commit yourself to him you

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Published: Sat Feb 27 2021