Lessons from the Book of Luke

Transcript

As many of you know, I just got back from Israel, and I thought I'd start out with one slide from my trip. We're going to be looking at lessons from the Book of Luke, not Luke particularly, but just a lot of the principles that come out of the Book of Luke. So, but a lot of what Luke writes about came from this area at the Sea of Galilee. And this photo is taken from a kibbutz that I stayed in, and it's sunset over the mountains there, over the Sea of Galilee. And Christ would have spent a lot of time in this area preaching. He would have spent a lot of time in this area thinking and healing and proclaiming that gospel message. And what a backdrop to do that in. When you're in this area, you get a sense I've always felt like Christ's ministry, it was very stressful for him, and I think that's an aspect of it. But I also think that Christ, with his capabilities, he would have been so calm by the environment that he was in from the standpoint of nature with sunsets and sunrises and being on the Sea of Galilee. And just taking all of this in to help calm his spirit, so to speak, at the end of a long day of preaching and healing and instructing. And this spot here is very close to where the Beatitudes would have been delivered from. And we know that multitudes sat down to listen to him, and they were saying, this man spoke like no one has ever spoke to us before. And some of those principles that are brought out in Luke and brought out in Matthew, in the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And that wonderful message of the gospel, whether poor and struggling financially, that gospel message holds a hope, whether it's poor, as he's talking here, just run down by the cares of life. The message of the gospel can build us up. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The idea that life carries with it, at times tremendous heartache.

The gospel message provides comfort, especially the message of the kingdom. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. This idea that through our discipleship, we should be in humility serving each other. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. That idea of being here this morning, being online, being a vessel to soak in these principles, so that we can then impart them to our coworkers, to our neighbors, to each other, to build each other up. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. This idea of forgiving our brother, seven times seven, or indefinitely, this idea of erring to the side of merciful, that there's no law against being merciful one unto another. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. Having a spirit that is easy to get along with, to be a peacemaker, to look for opportunities to bring people together. And one person that comes to mind is our brother Tom Cannon. He had a, and I was texting with Shana about this the other day when I was in Israel, because there were certain things that reminded me of him. And he had this wonderful spirit just to bring people together. He would say things, or he would make you think about something. But his character was just, he wanted to get along with everybody. And when you saw that in him, it kind of, it brought it out so that you thought, yeah, I want to be a little bit more like that, because that's the spirit of Christ, that idea of being a peacemaker. And it's interesting, Shana, you know, reaching out to Shana, sometimes it's hard to do, because it's a tough situation. And she's so appreciative of these stories. So if you have a story about Tom and something in the Bible reminds you, or, you know, we have Eastern Bible School coming up, if there's a story that reminds you of Tom, send her a message, because she loves to hear those stories, and it really does give her some joy. So just something to keep in mind. But that idea of blessed other peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. And that's one of the important parts of our discipleship, to be that calming spirit, to put forward those qualities that draw people in, rather than create walls that push people away. So with that backdrop, we're going to touch on those principles and more that are brought out in the Book of Luke. We're going to look at the account of Christ that Luke gives us, and the principles for our discipleship. The Book of Luke is one of the earliest accounts of Jesus' life. And most scholars believe it's part one of a unified two-volume work called Luke and Acts. So combining those two. And we can look at the opening verses from those books, and this is why they believe they were from the same author. We look at Luke chapter one, verses one through four. It says, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. So Luke is saying, I wasn't an eyewitness, but I spoke to people who were eyewitnesses of these things, the individuals who spent time with Jesus, and now I'm going to write them down for you. He says, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent theophilist, so that you may know the exact truth about the things that you have been taught. So he's building this case that I've talked to everybody, I've investigated these things, and we know he was driven by the Holy Spirit to write what he wrote, but it wasn't without his own research to solidify that these things are true. And if we look at the beginning of Acts, verses one through three, it says, the first account I composed theophilist about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these, he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of 40 days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. So this idea that Luke spoke to the people who were in touch with Christ, all of these things were verified. And both of those openings, they somewhat ring overlapping in their tone and their conciseness. And so early tradition identifies the author as Luke, who was a doctor, and that gets into his writing style as well. In Colossians, it's brought out he looks to have been the traveling companion and coworker of Paul the apostle. Colossians 4, verse 14 tells us, Luke the beloved physician sends you his greetings and also Demas. So this idea of traveling together, working together. Philemon 1, verse 23 brings out, Paphras, my fellow prisoner, in Christ Jesus, greet you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow worker. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you in spirit. So we start to just have this theme very early on from Luke of this idea of working in the truth, working in the truth together. That it's a very active process that we do together. And this is brought out in Matthew, chapter 28, in verse 27, in verse 17, it says, and when they saw him, they worshiped him. This is talking about Christ after he was risen. But some wavered, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. So this idea of teaching nations, working together, as we saw in Colossians there, they were fellow workers in the Gospel, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So this is the message that Christ delivered to the apostles, worked together, and above all, in that message that he delivered, that he's with us until the end of the world, or the end of the age, until his return, Christ will be with us. And that's the message that Luke wants us to, and Christ wants us to hold dear to our hearts today, that he is with us when we're breaking bread here this morning and listening to an excitation. Christ is among us. He's concerned about our lives. He's with us in the ups and downs of our lives, in the trials that we face, and the tribulations that we face, and the joys that we have. And yesterday at the West Aliyah Ecclesia, the topic was angels, and it was really interesting for me. I usually carry that topic like, yeah, we have angels that watch over us in our discipleship. And, but he really brought out to the forefront that we should be thinking about this, that the angels have a specific task, which is to guide us to the kingdom, and they work in our lives. They don't change our free will, but they're in touch with things that go on around us, and they can manipulate activities, but ultimately, we have to make the right choice. And Casey, when she was younger, she would always tell us, yeah, I always slept on one side of my bed because I made a little space for my angel. And, you know, we, of course, we thought that was cute, but it's just that idea that we should be mindful of not only Christ in our life, as he said, I'm with you. I'm with you until the end of, until I return, until the end of the Gentile age. And so are the angels, which created, that God used them to create this earth, and they're intricately involved in our lives. So this idea, you know, Christ will never leave us. We can do nothing by our own strength, with which Jim Sullivan, he's got that as his tag verse, and this idea of working together. And Jim's not here today, you might have noticed, because he's working for the community. He's giving an excitation for Echo Lake today, and it's a wonderful thing, and Jim's excited to do it.

And so he's taken on that idea of Christ is with me. I'm going to work for the brotherhood in the strength and the talents that I have, and it's a great example for all of us. And that's why we've been put into families. We've been put into ecclesias to build relationships, and Phil had put up the Happy Mother's Day, and it's a wonderful day. And the idea of mothers and families and guiding young children, it's such a critical part of our walk in discipleship, and that idea of being a mother, of being a mother in Israel, so to speak, of being a mother in the ecclesia, within the community, is so important, no matter what age we are. And the hugs my mom gives me, they don't change. Like they're the same as when I was 12. It's like that long, you know, firm, you know, I love you. You're my son. I care about you. And it's a wonderful, I'll say example, but it's also, I think that's how Christ feels about us. That's how God feels about us. He's got his arms wrapped around us. He understands the difficulties and the challenges that we go through, and it's that warm embrace that he has for us. And we get a picture of this camaraderie and this idea of working together. Christ didn't send the disciples out by themselves. He sent them out in pairs, at a minimum. And we know that working together with someone, whether it's at a project, at work, you know, most of the time it's easier working, you know, with somebody. Sometimes somebody drags behind, right? But that's where working together in that idea of being joined to somebody, it brings out a more fruitful end result. Two people are more effective than a single person in accomplishing the work of preparing people's hearts for the kingdom of God and the good news about Jesus. And this principle is brought out in Ecclesiastes, chapter four. It says, two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them. And we've all experienced that in life when we've been down. And that right person calls us, they're in tune with our emotions, and we get that phone call or that, you know, hey, can I talk to you for a minute? And they build us up. They say just what we need to hear to get us back on that road to recovery. Get us back on that road where, you know what, this is going to pass, you know, next week and the week after. It's going to be better than the way things are before. It's so critical for us to develop these relationships. Ephesians tells us in chapter four, be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. And so it's this idea of being joined, being supportive, humble and gentle. And I saw a quote that said, the time to teach someone to swim is not when they're drowning. And how true is that, right? I mean, and I know for me, sometimes that's my natural instinct, like with my kids, they do something and I want to be like, listen, what are you doing? It should be this way. But now I'm able to take a step back and say, you know, that's the time to give them that gentle support and to show that humility and to just talk to them about what they're feeling. The time for instruction will come. The time for, you know, giving that lesson will be down the road. But it's not always while someone's going through that difficulty of life. And the Psalms brings out, you know, it's not just this idea of, you know, we want to make it work, but it's this really, this idea of enjoying the process. Psalms tells us how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity, right? And this can be a challenge, but when we're all on the same page exhibiting those qualities, it makes it so much smoother and easier to implement these principles. You know, one of the things that I thought of when I was thinking about teamwork, and I see Steve there, you know, Steve does a lot of bike riding. And he does the Pan-Mass Challenge every year, which is coming up in August. And if you go on the Pan-Mass Challenge, like their initial statement, it says, people come together from all corners of the world to raise funds for cancer research and treatment. And it's a wonderful thing that they do, but it reminded me of what we do, right? We come together from all around the world to raise each other's spirits, to preach the gospel, to build each other up, to essentially heal up the brokenhearted. But beyond that, the one with cycling, and I'm not going to say which one Steve does, but drafting in cycling is a technique where you ride behind. We've all probably seen this on the road, or you see it with 18-wheelers. The cyclist rides close behind the other to reduce the wind resistance, saving energy and allowing for faster speeds. The rider in front creates a wind shadow that reduces drag for the rider behind them. And so you'll watch these riders kind of, they go back and forth. When one rider is feeling pumped up, they're in the front, and the other guy is very close behind, getting a break, so to speak. The rider in front creates a low-pressure area behind them, which provides a draft that the following rider can ride in, reducing the effort required to maintain speed. So they can keep up with the speed that they need to be at. And it says that drafting can reduce the amount of energy needed by 30 to 40 percent. And so by reducing the drag, you can keep up, you can stay in the race, so to speak, and it's a key tactic that riders use, particularly in group rides, to conserve energy so they have energy for those crucial moments. So it's almost like a biblical principle, because when you're strong and I'm weak, I can be built up by you. If I come into the Ecclesia Hall, and it's been a tough week, but then Brother Paul gets up there, and he's got his energy, and he's ready to go, well, then I leave here feeling like, hey, I'm, you know, rejuvenated.

Yeah, go ahead, Chris. Yeah, just another visual, in case we don't have a chance to take in a bicycle race or something, is sometimes you'll look up and see a flock of birds, and you'll all of a sudden see one bird from the back of the flock, you know, fly to the front and take the lead, and how they fly in a wedge, you know, and that's the same thing. They're drafting, okay, making it easier for the others, especially if they have to migrate long periods. So once in a while, you look up, and you get that encouragement. Yeah, thank you for that, Chris. Appreciate it. So, yeah, this idea of just being there for each other, because we know the hills and valleys that naturally come with just the experience of life. A little bit about Luke, he was a physician, which means healer, and I think we see that principle in Christ, where he had the power to heal. He probably obtained his medical education in Tarsus, a school which, at that time, rivaled those of Alexandria and Athens. It may have been there that he first met Saul, so there's this idea that they had a tie-in. At that time, where Paul was at the knees of Gamaliel in Jerusalem, which is brought out, they at least had the opportunity to probably meet while he was becoming a physician. For Saul was a native of the town. He was a Roman, a citizen by birth, while Luke attained that dignity with his profession, and this is from the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine. At this time, they did have a medical board, but there wasn't really licensing exam, so to speak, they qualified healers, which dates back to ancient Mesopotamia, around 2000 BCE. The Code of Hammurabi, which you may have heard of, included specific laws about medical practice, though they were a bit dramatic then today. I mean, you know physicians have, they need to have insurance in case something goes wrong, but back then if a patient died and you were the physician, they might cut your hands off, so it was pretty high stakes back at this time. But it was just, we do see in our society today a little bit of a return back to some of these natural remedies, and some of the natural remedies, which is probably going to be looking around Pembroke for some of these later on today, arthritis or headaches, they would chew willow bark, so you go find a willow tree, get some willow bark. For ulcers and lung issues, mental relaxants, they had pomegranates to lower blood pressure, which is publicized today. An ancestor of lemon and lime, you would put on the skin to remove wrinkles, I mean obviously I'm using that.

That and going in the Dead Sea, that's what I tell Jen, you want me to keep looking good, I've got to go to Israel, got to get in the Dead Sea, the salt's down there. Let's see, what else did they have? And it was referred to as nature's medicine chest, so all of these kind of natural remedies, which are making a little bit of a comeback I think today. Hair of a goat wrapped around the head was for a migraine, I'd like to see that on somebody. But this idea that we're actually told that Luke is a physician, his writing style, he uses the classical form of Greek, which is intended, it's a kind of a higher form of writing, which was to give his writing kind of legitimacy, not only to at this time higher class people, but also the whole world in general, that okay, we have a physician here, he's writing, he's acknowledging these things.

So it was just an indicator that he was at the very highest levels of education at this time in society. Luke 9.1 tells us, which I think is very interesting, because this idea of being a physician, it seemed to me that following Christ would be very enticing, because you have this idea of healing with the gospel message, but also this power to heal. It says in Luke 9 verse 1, then he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. And I think this would have intrigued Luke, and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick, and he said unto them, take nothing for your journey, neither staves nor script, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece.

So this idea of not only bringing words of comfort, words of gentleness that soothe, but also these miracles, which were needed at the time to totally transform the planet, to totally transform the way people thought about healing and the message of the gospel. We've got these dramatic healings happening, people being raised, sight being restored, people that can walk now, and then we have this incredible message that goes hand in hand that we have this messiah, we have this savior that is going to bring equality to all people, that's going to raise up the broken hearted, that's delivering a message that's not just for those in elite places, it's for everybody from the least to the greatest. We're all God's children, and this was the message that Christ was bringing forth. And these principles are brought out in Psalms in a beautiful way, Psalms chapter 30, it says, O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.

Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases. So the marrying of these two, healing our soul from the effects of sin and death, ultimately in the kingdom with eternal life, but healing diseases at this time to show that the power was there to bring about a kingdom, the power was there to transform, as it says to go on in that verse, who redeems your life from the pit, the same power that raised Lazarus, this power that raised Christ, who crowned you with steadfast love and mercy. What could be produced in the people at this time from seeing these things? What can be produced in us from reading about these things that are true and right? Well, it heals us. We don't have that physical healing, so to speak. I think the words of Scripture are very calming, and they're finding that more and more you are what you think. If you think you're going to have a bad day, well, you're going to tend to have a bad day. But if you nudge yourself up in the morning, today's going to be a great day. The sun is shining. What can I accomplish today? This is going to be a good day, and if we, through empathy and care for other people, it's hard to complain when you're serving somebody else. And this idea of the mind being a wonderful tool that we can use in a positive sense, and there's so much current knowledge about how we can use the mind to be successful, and I think that's brought out here as well by saying positive things. Michael Phelps, who is a world-class swimmer, I can't remember how many gold medals he has, but one of the things that he would do, he suffered from depression, and one of the things that he would do, every time he walked under a doorway, he would say a positive affirmation to himself. Positive affirmation, that continual of rewiring his brain to say, no, today's going to be a good day. I'm not going to listen to these negative thoughts. I'm going to be about positivity. So Christ, ultimately, he will redeem our lives, whether it be at the resurrection, whether it be if we are alive and remain at his coming, he is going to redeem our lives and provide us with an immortality,

where we can't even imagine the experience we're going to have when we are crowned, as it says, with steadfast love and mercy in these new immortal beings. Psalms 107 says, he sent out his word and healed them. That idea we've been talking about, the healing words of Scripture, that it gives us hope. It puts us in that positive frame of mind. It, in a way, creates that drag effect. Christ is on that head. He's ahead of us, creating that drag where we can keep up and our walk in the truth. It says, he sent out his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love. He's delivered us from destruction. We all know that feeling, where we can feel hopeless, but when we think of the Gospel, when we think about what Christ has done in that steadfast love, that idea that Christ will never leave us until the end of this age, the end of the Gentile age, and that there's going to be a glorious age to come with a righteous ruler. Those words are like dynamite in our lives. They cheer us up. They build within us a spirit of attainability, that we can do this through Christ. Now, there's a lot of records of healing in Luke. We have in Luke 7, Jesus heals the servant of the centurion. He just speaks a word. He says the word, and the centurion is healed. There's really a big tie in there between the physical healing and the idea of the word, the words of Jesus healing us. He raised the son of the widow from death. We have two more classes, so we'll be able to get into some of these things. Luke chapter 8, Jesus heals a demon-possessed man and then raises a young girl from death. In Luke 8, Jesus heals a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and raises Jarius' daughter from death. Luke chapter 4 tells us, now when the sun was setting, just like in that picture in Galilee, I always got to bring it back to my trips to Israel. It says, all they that had any sick, so they knew this about Jesus, with diverse diseases brought them unto him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. It was like so much healing was going on. Yes, we have specific incidents of when Jesus healed, but this is just like a blanket thing. Everybody they brought, so many people with different diseases, and it just brings out this idea that the gospel is for everybody. Christ is going to return and heal a broken world, not just for everyone in this room, but everybody on this planet. Everybody from the poorest country to the wealthiest country. That message is going to go out from Jerusalem of healing, of

support, and of the opportunity to accept Jesus as the Messiah. It goes on to say in that chapter, after Christ healed all these people, it says, and when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place, and the people sought him and came unto him and stayed him, that he should not depart from him. I mean, they're seeing all this miraculous healing. They didn't want him to leave. They didn't want this experience to end. But what did Christ say to them? He said to them, I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for therefore am I sent. And he preached in the synagogue of Galilee. So yes, the physical healing. But they came to him, probably with more sick people, and Christ said, this is wonderful, but I must preach the gospel to other cities also. That's why I'm here, so that this gospel message can

make its way throughout every generation, so that it can make it here to us in 2025. I have to stay true to my mission, which is to preach. And he went to preach in the synagogue in Galilee, which is still there today, by the way.

Transcript

I'll start with a little bit of a funny story. Jen's been bugging me. As you guys know, I go to Israel usually once a year. And Jen's been bugging me. She wants to come. And I've put her off now for seven years. So we planned a trip yesterday to go and get all the details done. And last night, I have this dream that we go to the airport and everything. And we check in. And I go to use the bathroom. And when I come out, Jen's gone. She took all the suitcases, everything, my passport, and she went by herself and left me stranded at the airport. She seemed pretty happy with it when I told her this morning. So that's right. She ended up on a beach in the Mediterranean. Yeah. Great to see you, Jeff, Kelly. Thanks for joining us this morning. So last week, we touched on some aspects of the book of Luke. And we talked about this idea of being fellow servants. And I thought this picture really from The Chosen really kind of brought that feeling out, where we have this camaraderie one to another, where we appreciate and enjoy seeing each other, where we appreciate the opportunities to work together. And we're told in Philemon 1, verse 23, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greet you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers. And so there was this idea that we're all in this together. And it goes on to say, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And this idea of serving brings healing to us, that putting somebody else's needs ahead of our own, it doesn't give us the same opportunity to be in despair. So when we serve and have gratitude, it causes us to think outside ourselves and to be fellow workers. And this was really the idea that's brought out in Luke and in all the gospels. And we talked about last week this idea of Christ being with us, as it's brought out in Matthew chapter 28. I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So during the difficult times of life, during the happy times of life, God is with us, even until his, and Christ is with us, till his return, till the end of this age, till the end of the Gentile age. So we can take comfort and security in an ever-changing, uncertain world. We can count on our rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. We spoke about this idea of being put into ecclesias, that we were put into families. And Ephesians brings out this principle of serving, it says in Ephesians 4, to be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. And so the idea of serving in love, it's not brash, it doesn't, you know, force its way in, and hey, I'm the most important, and let me just show everybody how it's done. And I've gotten caught in this situation a few times, and Jen will say to me, let's put on your Bible school mindset. And I think, you know, at Bible school, it's like, you know, let somebody else go first in line, let that, they're in the lunch line, or let's, you know, make sure every, we all wanna make sure we put on, I don't wanna say a front, but we're all on our best behavior, right? We're at Bible school, we're happy, we're on vacation, we're seeing our friends, we're all working together, where when we're out in, say, the natural environment of getting through our day-to-day activities, we can get a little bit hurried. We can, if somebody cuts us off, we're late to work, and we can get maybe a little bit stressed, and so that idea of being humble, gentle, it, at least for me, can start to take a back seat, so I have to remind myself of that, and I will say Jen's always quick to remind me of that, so she doesn't let that slide. And that idea of working together, being in families, we talked about Ecclesiastes. Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up, but pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. So this idea of being there for each other, in humility, in love, fellow workers, fellow laborers,

is a centerpiece of our calling, and it goes on to say I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities, for therefore am I sent, and he preached in the Synagogue of Galilee. So Christ pushed forward this message of yes, I'm healing, yes, I'm showing forth the wonders of the gospel, but a big aspect is to preach the gospel, and while we're doing this, Psalms tells us this wonderful mindset to have. It says bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. So this overarching positivity that will assist us, even during dark times, to not forget the benefits, and we have a plaque at home that says if God only provided you what you thanked him for today. So being more mindful of the things that we thank God for, whether it be our health, food, shelter, clothing, our relationships, this ecclesia, the opportunity to preach, looking for opportunities to preach, and ultimately our Redeemer Christ who has redeemed us, whether we fall asleep before the return of Christ, or whether we are alive and remain, we are redeemed, and we are crowned with that steadfast love and mercy as we work together to serve each other and serve Christ. I can't help but throw in a few tidbits from my recent trip last couple weeks to Israel. And this is a photo of a sunrise over the Dead Sea. And you can see the Dead Sea there.

And I just happened to wake up at the right time, and I looked out and saw this, and I thought, wow, this is amazing. And I just want to tie this into our service and that gentle and humble spirit and the type of environment that we create for each other. Because in this photo, you'd never guess that you're in a desert. It's hot, it's dusty, and it can be very oppressive. The conditions are taxing on the body. And without the proper supplies, you risk serious health injury being out in these temperatures. I had the experience of hiking up to Masada. It was extremely hot. And they usually close the hiking trail at 10 a.m. I hiked up in the morning around eight, and it was probably 11.30 when I was ready to come down. The gate was closed, but it wasn't locked. And I thought, ah, I got this. I'm in good shape, I can handle it. Opened the gate, closed it, started hiking down. Felt great hiking down, drank plenty of water, but for the rest of the day, I was toast. I couldn't get ahead of the dehydration. I was just, it was a bad call on my part. And I went to bed early that night just to recover. Woke up the next day feeling okay. But it's this idea of when we're out in the world, we can become drained physically if we're not keeping up with our social aspects within the community, with our Bible readings, with all of those things that sustain us and keep us, say, well-nourished, well-hydrated in the truth. And I think Boston does a really great job in our Ecclesia creating an oasis here. Because in the middle of this desert, with these oppressive temperatures and these conditions that can really weigh you down, you have lush green waterfalls. You have sustaining water that you can go in to cool off. And these sorts of activities protect us from the outside environment. Isaiah 35 tells us, springs of water will burst out in the wilderness. Streams flow in the wilderness. Hot sands will become a cool oasis. Thirsty ground, a splashing fountain. Even lowly jackals will have water to drink and barren grasslands flourish richly. There will be a highway called the Holy Road. And so this idea of working together to create an oasis where we can all thrive, where we can all bring out the best in each other. It's really, it's a wonderful part of our calling to strive for that higher calling in Christ. And we all can play a part working together. Psalms 107 tells us,

he turneth the wilderness into a standing water and dry ground into water springs. And there he maketh the hungry to dwell that they may prepare a city for habitation. And so the fields and plant vineyards which may yield fruits of increase. He blesseth them also so that they are multiplied greatly and suffereth not their cattle to decrease. So by creating this environment, it builds on each other, right? If we're the person who's kind of pushing ahead with this project and we're creating an activity and we're doing these things, it pulls people along to rise to that higher level. And I joke with my kids. I kind of push them along. I'm like, look, dad's a savage. Look, I'm up early. I can do this. And I joke with them about it. But they look at it and say, yeah, dad, you have certain qualities that we wanna show as well. And Megan's not here yet because she's getting her well-needed rest. But she's a hard worker. She gets up early. She works at a coffee shop called Jolly Bean and she works on Saturday morning. She was up at 5.36 and then she worked eight hours and then she came home and she's giving it back to me. She's like, oh, dad, what did you do today? I worked eight hours. What did you do? You don't look like you did much. But it's just that, I think it's that kind of fun, enjoyable spirit that we can have with each other, right? That we can have that deeper relationship working in the truth, working in a family, encouraging each other to strive to live the gospel. That we have this wonderful hope that in a world of eight billion people in a earth, that the percentages of us being here are astronomical. That what it took for Gordon to be sitting there, right? It's astronomical. But yet we're here together to live the truth because God placed us here in a family. And we know that. We know and we live in a world where people think, well, we don't really know. We just kind of showed up here. But when you look at the mathematical equation, it's mathematically impossible for us to arrive here without a creator. And that's the blessing of knowing what we know, that it's such a privilege to know each other. And that's why God's put us here. He wants us to take every dry, desolate, and barren place and turn it into a refreshing place where we can thrive. We want to be that rain, so to speak, to that desert, whether it be in our families, in our neighborhoods. When there's maybe a dark moment in living the truth, whether it's somebody falls asleep or a cancer diagnosis or a health issue, we can be that refreshing rain that brings the beauty out in each of us collectively. Isaiah 49 says, they will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside spring water. And so this overarching understanding that God is in control of all things. He has compassion on us. He cares for us. He loves us. He has a plan and purpose for each one of our lives and that it's not by chance. And that if a certain door isn't open for us yet, it's because God's timing isn't ready yet. He has something better in mind, something more fulfilling, something that will bring glory and honor to His name. And so it requires patience on our part. That chapter in Isaiah 49 goes on to say, sing, oh heavens, and be joyful, oh earth, and break forth into singing, oh mountains, for the Lord has comforted His people and will have mercy upon His afflicted. So He understands our difficulties. He has mercy on us. He intends to have the ultimate mercy on us at the return of the Messiah in clothing each of us with eternal life and joy forevermore with, as we're told, I hath not seen, or even our minds can't comprehend what God has in store for those that love Him. And so this is a overhead view of where I stayed at a kibbutz in the middle of the desert. And there's springs that run through here which allow them to live here and to function and to be quite happy. And it just reminded me of the ecclesial environment which this is us in the, say, society that we live in. And there's a beautiful pool there if you can see that bright water there in the front. This is what we've created. This is what we have the opportunity and the privilege to sustain. And I was talking with one of the residents of the kibbutz.

And he was commenting on different parts of the land of Israel. You know, it's too busy here. It's these problems over here. But he was so content to be in this oasis. He just said, everything is so peaceful here. It's so, I just love being here. It just raised him to that next level of the enjoyment of life. And so it did. It just reminded me of ecclesial life and not color-coding it. We know that in ecclesial life it's not perfect. But we have the opportunity to make it as good as it can be while we're in these fleshly frames. We all have that, we all have those qualities to either drag somebody down or to raise it up to the next level by showing that care, compassion, love. And we all, we're told that humility. We all have those same qualities where we could maybe not be so humble or maybe not get a little bit agitated with things. So there's that balance on us. There's that, I'll say pressure on us from the scripture to rise to the occasion to create this wonderful oasis that we all enjoy. We all love it. We're all here this morning because we were drawn here to be fed by the waters of life, by the springs of life. And it's just a wonderful place to be. So in Matthew, to continue on with these principles, it says this idea of loving the Lord, this is what drives us. And we're gonna remember Christ in these emblems. We're gonna remember our calling and our service. It says, Jesus said unto him,

thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. So overriding everything that we do in life to remember that idea of loving God. And along with this comes a lot of principles that we talked about the Beatitudes being delivered in this idea of Christ putting forth this radical change, so to speak, love your enemy. Well, why would I wanna do that? Well, because when you show forth the same qualities to an enemy and a friend, you show forward the qualities of Christ. So we're just gonna go through just some of those principles, those principles that show we are loving God not only to ourselves, but also to each other. This idea of repenting, coming to God. And Matthew four tells us from that time Jesus began to preach and to say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So this idea of having a change of mind to come together with a common goal. And Acts continues on this theme in Acts nine, verse 18. But those things which God before has showed by the mouth of all his prophets that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since the world began. So this idea of being refreshed by repenting that through this change in attitude that we're all going to stumble, we're all going to fall, but there's never a closed door to repentance. There's never a closed door to the hope offered through Christ. In Ezekiel chapter 18 brings this out in verse 21. It says, but if the wicked returns from all his sins that he has done and he keeps all of my statutes and he does justice and righteousness, he shall surely live, he shall not die. And we may have had the experience of talking to someone who's in the truth or someone contemplating baptism. And they just have this overwhelming sense of being unworthy that there has to be the perfect condition so to speak that they've thought of before they can get baptized or before they can return to the meeting. And it's just not the case. It's not what we're being told. We're being told that there's always an open door, that there's always open arms, that it doesn't matter whatever it is that we've done, whatever we've gotten involved in, whatever inadequacies we may feel we have. God says, put that behind you.

You're going to live. Turn and be righteous. That's all in the past. And we're told that God puts our sins as far as the east is from the west. In other words, he doesn't even remember them. He puts them to the depths of the sea. We're the ones who hold on to these things. We're the ones who remember. God erases these things from the book of life once we repent, once we return to him. So if you're someone who's struggling with this, if you're contemplating baptism, if you feel unworthy, you shouldn't. You should be encouraged to repent and turn to God because he is always with that stretched out hand waiting for you. And we have that parable there, the two sons. One leaves and spends all of his living. And what happens when he comes back? We have this image of his father pulling up his dress

that he has on, his garb, and running out to meet him. So it's not even a passive, well, I'm going to wait until this person comes to me. God is always seeking to recover all of us. And I think that's a wonderful encouragement as we live the truth. It goes on to say, all of his transgressions that he committed will not be remembered against him. Through his righteousness that he has done, he shall live. And it says, have I delight any means in the death of the wicked declares the Lord Yahweh and not at his turning from his way so that he lives? And God asks the question, I don't have any pleasure in anyone continuing on the wrong path. I take pleasure in them turning. I will put everything behind them.

And I want that person to live. So let's keep that in mind in our walk in the truth. We pause there and see if there's any comments, any thoughts?

Chris Clarke's not here today, so that's going to limit our commentary. All right, this idea that we've talked about of following, following Christ, following our example. This principle's brought out in Matthew four, verse 19. Christ says to his disciples, and he saith unto them, following Christ, following our example. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And it goes on in Matthew 16 to say, then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? But what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? I think this is an important principle in a materialistic age that we live in because we're encouraged to use our lives, use the limited time that we have to pursue material gains. And God doesn't exclude us from material wealth at all.

But if that is our top goal, if that is our number one thing, what shall we gain if we lose our salvation because we placed material wealth

ahead of living the gospel? And it's a good question for us and a good point for us to be reminded of because we're pulled, I think, in our society. It goes on to say, for the son of man shall come in his glory, in the glory of his father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his work. So this idea of, yes, we live by grace, but there's a reward, a reward of life everlasting or a reward of death if we forsake the gospel and forsake our calling. This principle of rejoicing, I really like this one because it's really a hallmark of how we are as a people. I saw so many people walking into the hall today with a smile on their face. And if they didn't have a smile on their face, they were greeted with someone who had a smile and then they had a smile. So it was like this infectious good morning. And that's really what we're called is to rejoice in the fact that we have this wonderful hope. Matthew five brings this out. We're told, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad. Like this is a worst case scenario, right? Everybody's trash talking you. And we're told, hey, rejoice and be glad. You're just living the gospel message out. It says, for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. And it's this reminder, I think, in our day and age, we have it pretty good. We can preach the gospel without persecution. I think for the most part we can express our beliefs. People will listen. It's in maybe not a good way. There's a lot of tolerance. So our view is put out there. People will talk, they'll listen. I've had people say, I never thought about not believing in the Trinity. Oh, I never, I don't really read the Bible. I don't tell me about Jesus. So it's this idea of being glad that we're able to do that. Philippians tells us, therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, this idea of dearly beloved fellow workers in the truth. It says, my joy and crown, so steadfast, I am steadfast in the Lord. I beseech you to be of the same mind. I entreat you that we be true yoke fellow or co-workers, fellow laborers, it says, whose names are in the Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. I mean, who wouldn't rejoice having a name written in the Book of Life? Remember as a kid thinking about that, like we have this idea in scripture brought out where there's a day book that is, how are we living our lives? How are things going? But then there's a Book of Life, and our names are put in there on the day of our baptism. And, you know, Bob Davis, Book of Life, Nancy Davis, Book of Life, right? It's really wonderful because

we're waiting for the return of the Messiah so that we can have the realization of what that means when our name is read from the Book of Life. And everything that we've believed in, everything that we've strived for, building this oasis, building an oasis of the truth in our families is realized at the Judgment Seat because of the sacrifice of Christ, because of what was accomplished in his life, in his death, in his resurrection. So that's why it tells us, rejoice in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious. But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. So this idea of when we're doing these things, when we're living our lives correctly, we have a peace of mind. We gain that peace of mind when we step out of, say, a path that's not really in line with the principles that we know we should be living. When we step away from that, our anxiousness about living the gospel can dissipate. We become at peace. And it says we can't even understand it. It passes it. I think we all know a measure of peace. And it's this idea, my mom would say to me, you know, I don't really, this idea of forgiveness. We can't really appreciate it. It passes our understanding, the forgiveness and the love that God has for each one of us. This idea that Christ is at the right hand of God, that he ever liveth to make intercession for each one of us. It's like a mind blow that we can think about it, but we won't truly understand it, I don't think, until we get into the kingdom and we see everything that was done on our behalf to make sure that you get in the kingdom and that I get in the kingdom and that God's purpose is fulfilled to the ultimate that glory is brought to God's name. And it goes on in that same chapter to say, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praise worthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice, right? And this verse reminds me of how I feel when I leave Bible school. When you're just inundated with the word every day and with positivity and with what we're trying to make our lives about, you kind of get that peak. Our vessels are full and we know we're leaky vessels. That drive home from Bible school when the kids are crying because they miss their friends and you just think like, yes, we did it. And it's like they call it the Bible school blues. Our kids would sit on the sofa and be looking at the schedule. We'd be at evening devotion right now. We'd be like, yeah, all right, we'll go to another Bible school. And you just have such a feeling of peace.

That's, I think, how we're gonna feel in the kingdom when we put those things into practice. And the other principle which we've been talking about, letting our light shine. Matthew five brings us out. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. This is the whole purpose of our calling. Second Corinthians tells us, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay in these mortal bodies. So we do it failingly. But it says, we are hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body. So this idea of living out the gospel message. I think that's where we'll end for today and if anyone has any thoughts, any comments? Steve? When you were talking about how joyful it is to have our name written in the book of life, it got me thinking about experiences that I've had in my life looking at lists. And what I mean by that is I remember being in junior high school and trying out for the basketball team. This was like before the internet, right? Yeah. And the coach would put the name of the team on a list and it would be posted at a certain time after school and everybody would flock to the gym to see if their name was there. Yeah. What's your name there? One year it was not, one year it was, right? You know? So just your comment about how joyful it is to know that our name is there, right? It's not a question. If we endure to the end, our name is there. Yeah, thanks for that. In one of your excitations, you made the point of when we get baptized, we get that golden ticket, so to speak, and it's ours to hold onto and to cherish. Yeah, that was Kyle Tucker. He's got a book called The Judaizers. He spoke about that. Nice. Do you value that ticket? Right. If you value it, you'll hold onto it. Yeah, great. Thanks, Steve.

Transcript

We were um we get up yesterday and the sun was out and of course we probably like everybody else looking at the weather app to see like okay when is it supposed to rain and do our outdoor activities so we got some stuff done around the house was about 10:30 sun was still out and we like to go down to the Plymouth waterfront fun to people watch there's a beautiful bike trail the Mayflower is there it's just you know very lively so we said you know what let's just forge on with our day. Let's go down. Let's do our walk and just have fun. Just enjoy the day. We got down there. We went down by the uh down by the Plymouth Rock and went out on the big dock there and then of course it started downpouring and we found this big oak tree. We got underneath the tree and I'm looking at the weather app and it's like, "Okay, rain is supposed to stop in 15 minutes." And we thought, "Ah, we can do this for 15 minutes." And you know, there's some people are getting into their cars. There was a guy who was playing the flute. He packed up and left. And we looked out and there was this family. The the uh mom had one of her daughter's coats over her

head. Everybody was getting soaked except there was this little girl who was probably like five, downpouring. And she is skipping and smiling and just having the most wonderful time. And it just reminded me of how important our attitude is, right? I mean, this little girl just couldn't have been bothered by everything that was going on and was going to make the most of of skipping in the rain. And to her, it was fun. Meanwhile, we're under this oak tree like when is this going to stop? But it the sun kind of was out off and on. We had a wonderful time and uh so we were glad that we went down and we learned a little something by watching you know lest you become like little children shall not enter the kingdom of god. So that mindset we have of being teachable learning and enjoying life through whatever the circumstances might be. You know Paul the apostle he became what he needed to become to preach the gospel and

adapting. I thought that was a good lesson. Um, we started with this photo last week when we were talking about uh the world around us being kind of dusty. uh can be oppressive in the conditions of the world can take a be taxing uh on us physically, mentally and to create within the ecclesia that wellspring of life, the uh water of the word, that uh oasis so to speak uh in the middle of a

wilderness. And these were photos of in Geti where David would have hid from Saul, where the mighty men would have gathered water uh to bring to David. And he was so humbled by it, he just poured it out uh when seeing the effort they put in to get this. But we talked about that environment in the ecclesia that this is an oasis for us and the kabutz where I stayed where it's just a dry land but they created a community and they're very happy self- sustaining and it's a very caring

environment that they live in. And that's what we've created here in this this ecclesia and in the crisadelian community. That's what we attempt to foster

uh through our service one to another. And I thought this week we could um you know continue our thoughts in Luke and begin with a photo of the

sunrise in Jerusalem.

And just that reminder that each day is a new and fresh day for us to begin a new our service uh to rejoice

to recognize the wonderful opportunities that we have uh for each other. We talked about some of those principles. Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, think upon these things, letting our light

shine.

And the idea that uh in Proverbs, if we think about the the sun rising, it tells us in Proverbs

um that at the rising of the sun, just got to find my verse here. Proverbs

4:18, "The life of righteous people is like the sun at dawn. It gets brighter and brighter until the midday. But the life of the wicked people is like a very dark road. They cannot even see what causes them to fall. My child, listen carefully to my teaching and to everything that I tell you. Never forget my words. Keep them safe in your mind. They will give true life to anyone who takes hold of them. They will give health to your whole body. Be very careful to keep your mind safe. The thoughts that you think make you the person that you are.

And I think they're finding how that becomes is becoming more and more true as they learn more about the brain where the more we think about something, if we constantly focus on the negative, it creates connections in our brain. It create creates synapses that tend us to be that type of person. But if we think about the positive, yes, I can do this. Yes, this is possible. What and to focus on the positivity in our life, our brain will make connections in that direction and it can only do so much. So those connections of negativity begin to dry up. The mind doesn't go to those uh thoughts as often. So we can begin this week with with this in mind. One of the principles that comes out of the biatitudes is to be reconciled. And this is this is part of our uh walk in the

truth. In Matthew 5 23 tells us, "Therefore, if thou if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hast ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy

gift." And Luke tells us in chapter 17:3, "So watch yourselves. If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them and if they repent, forgive them. So this this idea of

reciprocal compassion, reciprocal mercy, reciprocal forgiveness that I may be at a time

um have done something to you, but if I receive that forgiveness from you, it's going to snowball, have a snowball effect where if I'm offended, I'm going to be ready to forgive. And that's the example that Jesus set in in Luke 23. where being nailed to a cross he says, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing and they divided up his clothes by casting lots." And so even in the worst of circumstances, the example of Christ was to forgive even those that didn't understand what they were doing at the time. They thought they were doing something good, but meanwhile it was the worst thing that could have been done to the son of

God. Uh Romans 12 tells us, "Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God." So this idea

that all of us are sinners and fall short of that standard set by Christ. And so who are we to say point the fing finger and to take a proud stance against another brother or sister for their shortcoming but rather in view of God's

mercy provide that same and give that same opportunity for mercy to all those in the household of faith. And it goes on to say, "This is pleasing to God. This is your true and proper service. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will." I think so often the

prevailing wisdom of the world is that if somebody wrongs you or somebody hits you so to speak, oh we hit back twice as hard and it's counter to the mindset of a Christian where no we we turn the other cheek. We seek to restore. We seek to by positive good

behavior change somebody else's mind about circumstances that when they might be rushing and and and in a bad frame of mind, we can through principles of the truth get them to see that there is a better way. I recently had a situation with a co-orker. It wasn't anything. He's a he's a good friend of mine and he was having a family situation and he was saying, "I'm so I'm so done with this. I'm these people. I'm so sick of them." And in my view, he was overreacting to the situation, but he couldn't see it. And I said to him, you know, listen, you need to take a step back. You need to kind of check yourself because you're going to make the situation worse. And when everything is said and done with this situation, two, three, four days from now, when you calm down, you're going to be unhappy with the way that you acted and you're going to hurt the people around you. And he got quiet. He didn't listen to me quite yet, but he sent a text a few days later thanking me for my friendship and thanking me for the advice that I gave him.

And I hope to by saying that to to him that he that's the sort of thing that will make him think about a different way to approach a problem.

And we all need that sort of advice at times because we can all get say ahead of our skis with a situation or get excited about something in a way that's not going to be it's not going to lead to a good end result.

Uh Romans 12 tells us, "Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another in love

uh above yourselves." So the idea of humility, never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. And this this friend of

mine few days later he ended up going and having lunch with the person that he had this disagreement with and he texted me about it which is uncharacteristic of of him but he said I had lunch with him today. I gave him a hug and I told him I was out of line and I called him later in the day and I told him you know I think that's a good thing like you guys have known each other for a long time. nothing good is going to come out of being at odds over this and truthfully it doesn't really matter like nobody's winning in this situation. So, I learned the lesson. Hopefully, he learned the lesson and the guy he met with was blown away that wow, he said he was sorry. And it went a long way to healing of the situation. And it goes on in Romans to say, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer, share with the Lord's people who are in need, and practice hospitality."

And the idea of practicing hospitality, spending time with each other, getting to know the needs of our brothers and sisters and our young people so that we truly can share with them so that we can understand where they might have a weakness or a strength or where they might need a helping hand in the right direction or where they can help us. And that's what I've always found. When you set out to be grateful and help somebody else, you end up helping yourself along the way. You end up learning something about yourself that you can then use for the future to to continue to serve. Um, Matthew 18 tells us, "Then came Peter to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times?" Jesus saith unto him,"I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seven times seven." So this idea of not that we're going to we we have that uh scripture that tells us don't cast your pearls before swine. Not that we are foolish about this principle, but that we we don't have this limit, so to speak, that this brother's done this to me or this situation I'm never going to forgive again. It's this idea of keeping an open mind to reconciliation, that reconciliation is possible with the right spirit. And I think that's the idea that

um that Christ is trying to get across to us in our interactions with each other. The the next principle that that um we see is cutting off sin. Uh we're told, "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. So this idea of removing temptation from our

life. There's a brother I

know not in this meeting but he has a problem with the computer. So he got rid of the computer. He doesn't have a smartphone. And as radical as that might

seem, he's removing it from his home so that he doesn't have to deal with that sin. He doesn't have to fight that temptation. And I think that's smart. And it's it's a application of this principle to an extreme for most of us because I need my phone and computer to

uh to function. But in this situation, it applies it to prevent sin, to prevent that uh temptation from even develop. It's not even a thought. Hey, I don't have a computer. I can't go on I can't go on the internet. Um so I think it's a good a good thing for us to think about what areas could we um maybe change that would make us less prone to having a temptation. whatever whatever those areas might be where we'd be more prone to serve

um others than serve

ourselves. The idea of not

only working things out with our brothers and sisters and those uh in our circle, this idea of loving our enemies, we're told in in Matthew as well, you have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of the Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just, and on the unjust. For if he love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the

same. Jen and I heard this talk at a Bible school, I think it was, and the speaker was making the point that it's easy, like it's easy to talk to Bob Davis, you know, easy to talk to him. He always has something positive to say. I don't see Bob Davis and think, no, I want to go talk to him because it's uplifting to me. this speaker was making the point that there are individuals that might seem prickly, that might be a little bit harder to talk to, and do we go out of our way to talk to those individuals to try to build them up? And so, I think this is part of the principle that God's mercy is is an umbrella that covers all people. It's it's over all individuals.

And it is more difficult sometimes. I have people at work that I'd rather just, you know, head the other way. I'm not looking for that water cooler conversation, but is there an opportunity there to preach because they're also a child of God and may open their hearts to the gospel message. Uh and in the idea for if you love them which love you, what re what reward have you? the ID it's a lot more difficult to do something nice or go out of your way for someone who you think may have wronged

you. Uh it goes on to talk to us about laying up treasures for ourselves. says, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be

also." Each and every day we have choices to make. and making that choice to be here today, to be online, to center our days

around the idea and the realization that the kingdom is soon to come. Having that be our driving

force. There was a time in my life when I got too involved

with my work. I was gone early in the morning, home late at night. It was completely my focus. And even to the extent when we bought our first house, I had to sign over power of attorney so Jen could go buy herself to buy the house and to take care of um all of the legal aspects of it because I had to go to work. And it was a really good learning experience for me. I had some things happen in my life and my kids were getting a little older. They were they weren't so young anymore, you know, two, four, six, and starting to miss things. I'm not at their soccer games. I'm not getting home in time. Going to Bible class is a rush. And I had to take a hard look at, okay, what are my priorities?

Is it going to be this job to the detriment of my family in the truth

or am I going to make some changes at work still be able to provide for my family but have a foc refocus myself and fortunately by God's grace I was able to do that I cut my work responsibilities in half um I wasn't making as much money I wasn't doing everything that I wanted to do. But I made those changes in faith and God blessed that for me fortunately and I a whole new world opened up to me where I was home at night. I was able to do my Bible readings with not having half of my thoughts be towards I got to hurry up and get done with this so I can get back to work or I have to have this long commute or I have this business meeting tonight.

We each probably have different challenges like that that we face where we have to make that choice not only on the big things but on the little things. Where do our allegiances lie in terms of our day-to-day activities?

And being here today is is a huge wonderful thing that we do for our walk in the truth and our daily readings. The Bible companion doing our readings every day or a reading every day to help uh focus our minds. We found when the kids were little, sitting down and doing all three readings was was

just trying to get through it. They weren't getting anything out of it. and we wanted to get some of the word into their mind before they went to school. And so we would do one reading. We would pick one of the

readings usually New Testament or you know Proverbs, Psalms, something that was easily understandable for them and something we could ask them to pick a favorite verse, talk about it and get a message across to them so that that's what they they had heading out the door rather than 30 minutes, 40 minutes. nobody's really paying attention. We got to, you know, get through all of this. So, I think we all we all have things that we do that remind them, whether it be a Bible verse on the refrigerator or something a photo of something uh that gets us thinking

about what our focus is for the day. And that's why they say in some ways, don't pick up the phone first thing. And that's the worst thing you can do because it just gets you sidetracked. There should be a 15minute window when you get up where you're contemplating, okay, what's the focus for my day? Almost like a business plan,

uh, a business plan for the day.

uh Mark

8:37 tells us says then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. So this idea of what's our focus for the day? Is it just to please ourselves and do everything that we want to do? Well, Christ says we're going to need to deny ourselves for whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone who gains the whole world yet forfeits their soul? But what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me in my words in this generation, the son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his father's glory with the holy angels.

So this idea of our bodies, our souls are tied up in our service to Christ and we know that we'll be resurrected if we fall asleep before the return of Christ. But this idea

of none of us can we can't if if money could buy life, then billionaires would do it. But

mortality hits everyone. And and there's a saying that father time is undefeated. Time will take everybody's life if it goes on long enough. And so that's why the hope of the gospel is such a blessing. All of these um principles are wrapped up in Matthew 6 where in verse 33 where it says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God in his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you." So, patience, service,

welloing, all of these things that we desire in life, God knows what we have, what all of our needs are.

And in John

21:15 with that scene on the beach with

Christ and Peter coming out of out of the water while he was fishing and Jesus says to him, "Feed my sheep." After Christ was resurrected, he's telling his disciples what what's their mission? What is their business plan? It's to feed my sheep. So wrapping all of these principles together to become a disciple of Christ working toward the betterment of everybody around

us. We can pause there if there's any uh any thoughts or

comments. All right.

So feeding, feeding the sheep, feeding each other, putting together a lifestyle that is healthy and strong for the things of the gospel. In Colossians 3, it tells us, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward." Proverbs 16, commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your

plans. Ephesians, serve

wholeheartedly as if you are serving the Lord, not people. And

If we keep that in mind, people will always let us down. Even the those we trust the most just because naturally none of us is perfect. Um but we know that rock of salvation in Christ will always be there. We can always

count on the hope of the gospel message. Luke 14 26 tells us as it relates to service coming to God

wholeheartedly. And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower siteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he hath sufficient to finish this? And in our Wednesday night class, Ray Pratt talked to us about, you know, commandment following and how grace, yes, we have an

overarching principle of grace, but that grace and mercy provided to us creates within us a powerful need to serve God. We want to and Ray started out his class by saying, "I like following God's commandments." And I just thought that was so great because I do too, but it's it's not easy sometimes. So, just the way he said it, like I like to follow the commandments. I think that's a good thing for us to keep in mind, liking to follow the commandments.

Um it's it tells us in verse 33 of that same chapter, so likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

And yes, we need to provide for our families. He's not telling us here to become nomads and just give up everything that we have because then we're not there for each other. Then we're not here today. we don't have the resources. He's telling us to use the resources that we have to serve to forsake the things of the world and embrace the things of the truth. And Luke 12 verse 7 says, "But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." We have so many wonderful verses

that tell us that God feeds the birds. They don't they just go where they go because God has implanted this in them and they they find food. He provides for the liies of the field.

And in Luke, we're being told, "Do you think you're not worth more than a bird or an ox or a or an animal? Of course you are. Of course you are. you're of paramount importance to me. The whole purpose of the sacrifice of Christ was to make sure that we all have a place in the kingdom. So if you see that God is taking care of this creation, that the sun is rising over Stoton and Jerusalem and all parts of the world each and every morning. How much more is it that Christ cares for our lives and each one of us? And that's why Jesus tells us, then Jesus said says to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no storoom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than the birds? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the

rest? This principle that God will provide for us. A lot of these worries, they've done studies on this, that it's over 90% of the things that we worry about never happen.

They're just I don't want to say imaginations, but they never come to pass. We think of things and it's it's not even in God's plan. It never it never plays out that

way. It says, "Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor a spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these."

And we're encouraged to put our trust in God in verse 28. If that is how God clothe the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith? And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after such things, and your father knows that you need them. but seek his kingdom and these things will be given to you as well. It doesn't mean that we're going to have a life free of problems, but we can be of content of mind that ultimately all things work for good to those that love Christ and that love his son.

We're told, "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God." Ultimately, if we're focused on the things of the world, we're laying up treasure for the world, not for our Lord and Savior. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girdded about and your lights burning like that sun rising over Jerusalem. the light of the world, Jesus Christ. Lighting who will soon return to put a light in everyone's heart. We're encouraged in Luke 17 in verse 32, remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. This idea of this life isn't our own. We bought with a price.

And it would be a lot easier just to go to the beach some Sunday mornings, but that's not what we're called to do. We have eternity to look forward to. Um, sometimes it's easier just to put a show on rather than finishing the Bible readings. But we're called to lose this life, to put the things of the gospel ahead of the things that we desire, the things that might be easier to do in the moment

into, so to speak, stack wins for the gospel. Do those things that

are profitable for eternal life. Ecclesiastes 2 24 tells us, "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw that it was from the hand of God." God wants us to enjoy all these things. He wants us to enjoy the fruit of our labor. He wants us the the the

uh sources of income that he's given us. He wants us to enjoy all these things while we're living the gospel out. And we know this is a is a iconic verse in scripture at the end of Ecclesiastes. It tells us, "Having heard everything, I have reached this conclusion. Fear God and keep his commandments because this is the whole duty of man. For God will evaluate every deed, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. So this realization that our lives do matter and the positive things in our life matter

and there is a day of judgment

coming by grace for God will evaluate every

deed and reward us according to our wonderful service in Christ. And that's the day that we're looking forward to. not focusing on the things of this world but rather focusing on our service one to

another in hope of the sooncoming kingdom. So we can end our class there and uh if anyone has any any thoughts or comments.

Mhm. They are part of us. Yes. If there's no no obligation right attached to it. Mhm. Uh so I would prefer to think in my own mind to for my own modification of behavior. Yeah. That I would rather be a whole man. Yes. Rather than departmentalized. Mhm. That my wholeness would be on pleasing God. Yes. And keeping his commandments.

Uh

I think that's what God is looking forward.

Yeah, that's a wonderful point. I like that. I'm not sure where that who told me that that was not part of the original. Yeah, I maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I had heard that as well. And if Brenda, if you're on, Brother Wes used to commonly say that that it was the whole of man was to do the will of God. And that, you know, the idea of a duty like we're called to do it, but rather as you said, these are our habits. This is who we are. It's the whole person we serve. We live the gospel rather than it being something that is we almost have to be persuaded to do, so to speak. Yeah. Yeah. Great point, Bob. Thanks for that. Really appreciate it.