Jeff Gokee 7/25/21 Jeff Gokee 7/25/21

The Lord's Prayer

Thank you, thank you. I’m actually having a really hard time. That song, you know, Jesus we love you, Jesus we love you. I’m really struggling in a beautiful way. I do love him. I do sense his presence. I don’t even want to transition. I just want to sit in that moment for a second and just feel it. Do you know how much he loves you? Do you know how much he loves us? Do you? He loves you so much.

Series: Sermon on the Mount
July 25, 2021 - Jeff Gokee

I can’t even imagine what so many of you are going through in this time of your life. But just know he loves you. Please know he loves you. Don’t forget that. Don’t forget that. He loves you. He loves you. He loves you. He loves me. I sense it. I feel it. For so much of my life just longing to find other loves that only he can give me. And man, that messed me up. I hope it messed you up. I hope the love of Jesus messes you up, because it’s messing me up right now. I’m like, Dude, I’ve got to preach. What am I doing?

Matthew 6:7-13

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from the evil one.’

Eight years ago my son was diagnosed with leukemia. Thankfully, last week we celebrated six years off of chemotherapy, which was like a huge celebration for our family. He’s healthy and doing great. Seventeen years old. He’ll be eighteen in a couple of months.

For the first three months his protocol was a certain chemo and that chemo set him into anaphylactic shock. It was very painful, very hard, very scary. So they draw us into this back room and they say, “Hey, without this chemo his chances of surviving drop dramatically. But we have another option and that other option is not approved by the FDA. It’s going to cost you an arm and a leg. It’s going to be very, very expensive, but we think it will save his life.”

Basically, the option was, for three times a week for about six months they had to give him leg shots, deep tissue leg shots right in the muscle. Very painful. So we brought him in for that first one and that happened and it’s so painful, so overwhelming. Now we’ve got to do this three times a week for the next six months. How do we do this?

What ended up happening was, I would show up to the hospital with him and he would start freaking out because he’s thinking about the pain. He’s thinking about the hurt. So I ended up taking laps with him on the inner part of the hospital and just talking to him. “Buddy, you’ve got this. You’ve got this. Come on. Stay focused.”

One of the things Cooper said to us early on in his diagnosis was, “God and I have got this.” Right? So I was like, “You and Jesus. You and God. You’ve got this. Just stay focused in on him. You’ve got to stay loose.” Because if he didn’t stay loose, his muscles would get tight and it would be even more painful. So I’m talking through him, kind of rallying him toward this thing that he has to go through, this difficult thing. Then he’d go in the room and try to calm his heart and get the shots.

I realized something this week as I was thinking about all the study I’ve done around the Lord’s Prayer over the last month or so, and actually diving in deep into the Lord’s prayer is this: I used to think of the Lord’s Prayer kind of like this very somber, quiet thing. I realized this week it’s a rally cry. It’s like a war cry. It’s this anthem that we are in the kingdom of God right now. We are his children. He is our Father and we are coming up against all that our culture is deeming appropriate. When he’s going, “It’s not. That’s the kingdom of this world. I want to invite you into kingdom mentality, kingdom thinking.”

So it reframed the way I was reading and praying through the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a rally cry. Culture shaping, life shaping, day shaping, mind shaping, spirit shaping prayer that Jesus is inviting us into.

I want to tell you this, it’s going to radically change your life, if you don’t just say these words, but really apply them to the way you live your life. This is the kingdom of God life, the kingdom of God prayer that he’s inviting us into.

And much like me taking Cooper around the inside of the hospital going, You’ve got this,” Jesus is going, “I’ve got you. Stay focused. My kingdom’s here. I’m your Father. I’m hallowed. I’m going to take care of your needs. I’m going to provide for you. I’ve got you.”

And it’s a rally cry. So I hope as we go through this together that it is this very personal, somber thing, but it’s also this rally cry that’s coming up against the kingdom of this earth. He is introducing us once again to his kingdom and what exists there.

The Lord’s Prayer is a framework not just for prayer, but for life. I don’t know if you know this but so often we get caught up into the idea that this is a prayer. This is a framework for life and the way that we are to live this life.

Over the last couple of months we’ve been trying to learn what it looks like to live in the kingdom of God. Once again Jesus is providing us a framework through prayer that is actually a wholistic, a whole life thing that he’s inviting us into.

Before we move on, kind of the background of the Lord’s prayer, and we see it all throughout this passage in Matthew 6 — and we talked about it a few weeks ago — what happened is the Gentiles had all these complex prayers to the gods. Basically those complex prayers were filled with uncertainties. So they used all these words more and more, because they’re trying to get the gods to interact with their lives. And of course Jesus says, “Don’t be like that.”

In my mind I had this image of Elijah on top of the mountain, and the prophets of Baal, all day long cutting themselves and saying tons of words. That’s the image that comes to my mind. And Elijah’s kind of mocking them, “What? Is he going to the bathroom? Eh - I guess your god’s asleep.”

This is what Jesus is trying to help his disciples understand. “Don’t be like them. Don’t just continue babbling on and babbling on with this level of uncertainty. I’m here in your presence. I’m Emmanuel, God with You right now. You don’t have to be babbling on. I know what you need. Because I know what you need and I know how I want to love you, I want to present for you a structure in the way that you can live your life and a framework in which you can pray.”

William Barclay, he is a commentator, he says this, and then we’ll move forward. He says:

We need to bring our whole life to the whole of God and bring the whole fo God to the whole of life.

This is so important as we move forward in understand the Lord’s Prayer and what he’s actually inviting us into. It’s all of him. It’s all of him. But it takes all of us. Are we willing to be obedient to who he’s called us to be because of who he is?

So he starts off by saying, “Our Father in heaven…” Right there we have these two beautiful things. “Our Father.” This is love. Then “in heaven.” Power. He is loving. He is our Father. But he is above it all. He is both far away and very near. And we live in that tension. Right? He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the beginning and the end. But he is so near to us right now.

He starts off with our “Our Father in heaven,” and you’ll see this word occur all through this prayer: our. Because I think what happens so often in the Christian life is, it doesn’t say “My Father,” it says, “Our Father.” Jesus is inviting us into the Ecclesia, the Body. This is why Church is so important. Church is not just something you attend on Sunday. It’s who we are because of who he is. And Jesus is trying to help us understand that this myopic way in which we approach him is misguided.

So he starts off by going, “No, this is a corporate declaration, not just an individual declaration.” It’s a corporate declaration. Why? Because it’s resisting and revolting about what Satan wants to do to you and me. And what he wants to do is have it all be about you. He wants the individualism that our culture loves to seep into your mind.

I find it so interesting that the pieces of technology we have in our life are literally drawing us away from one another. We have an iPhone. Right? An iPhone. When I grew up, we had our phone. We only had one phone in the house. How many only had one phone in the house? Now y’all got a phone, individually, in your hand. It’s your phone. It has your preferences. You call whoever you want.

What we don’t realize is that we’ve applied that to our understanding of who God is. And it’s false. He’s our Father. All Satan wants to do is pull you away from the flock, pull you away from the body, because there you are most vulnerable. All throughout Scripture it’s talking about a body with many parts: “A three cord strand cannot be easily broken,” “Where two or more are gathered In his name there’s — what? There’s much power.” Because there’s power in the Body, in the Ecclesia. This is what he’s inviting us into.

The power of the Lord’s Prayer is not just in personal petition, but corporate declaration. This is who we are. This is what we’re praying. This is what we believe.

He then says, “Our Father.” Everything starts here. For over two decades my father and I have been kind of on the outs. I love my father. He’s a good man. But there’s been a lot of hurt. There’s been a lot of pain. What I realized was my view of my heavenly Father has been dramatically impacted by my experience with my earthly father. This is where, for a lot of you, it breaks down.

This is why you struggle with prayer. This is why we continue to struggle to live and be obedient, because we don’t really know him as Father. I know for so many of you, you’ve had really painful experiences with your earthly fathers. They’ve not set a great example of heavenly Father. We know that most of the social problems in our world are as a direct result of fathers who have abandoned families. Fathers who have hurt and abused and all these different things.What we end up doing, whether we know it or not, is start applying that. So this term, “Our Father,” we sort of struggle with. But everything starts there.

A.W. Tozer, a great theologian, says this:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

The Lord’s Prayer starts here. It has to start here. Because if we don’t know him as Father, the rest of it’s not going to follow. The rest of it’s not going to make sense. We’re going to continue to battle in this world. So we really do have to get honest with how do I believe? Who do I believe God to be? Do I believe him to be this distant diety who’s sitting on a rocking chair up in heaven? Or is he my — our — Father?

We have to deal with that. Otherwise the rest of the prayer we’re going to continue to struggle with. Otherwise I’m going to continue as a pastor to hear over and over, “I just don’t feel God. I don’t sense God. I don’t see God. I don’t hear God. I don’t feel God.” Because we’re struggling with who he is as Father.

So the question is do you really believe he is your Father? When we sing, Jesus, we love you, there’s something inside of you that just longs. That’s who he is to us. And it starts here. You have to start here.

And then you have to transition into this next part, which is “hallowed be your name.” Holy is who God is. It’s who he is. Holy is who God is. Isaiah is having a vision of the throne room of God, where the angels are falling on their faces and they say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” And as a result of that, Isaiah says, “I am a man of unclean lips. And I live among a people in the same way.” As a result of understanding that God our Father is holy, holy, holy.

But I think where we’ve moved as a culture is we’ve moved away from that vision, that very sacred vision that Isaiah is inviting us into. We’ve moved to a very sacreligious vision of the holiness of God, where we’ve made him our home boy — like, “Jesus is my home boy,” — where we use the name of God as if it doesn’t have any reverence behind it. As if it isn’t holy. We use it in common phrases.

I think there’s something about us that needs to back up. We need to back up, back into that sacred space. Not a legalistic place, but a sacred place to go, “God is holy.” Our Father, yes, he’s loving, but he is holy. Jesus wants us to pray in a way that says, “Our Father is hallowed. He’s holy.”

R.C. Sproul, another theologian, says:

If you don’t delight in the fact that your Father is holy, holy, holy, then you are spiritually dead…

And I believe that to be true because I’ve experienced it in my life.

…You may be in a church. You may go to a Christian school. But if there is no delight in your soul for the holiness of God, you don’t know God. You don’t love God. You’re out of touch with God. You’re asleep to his character.

Like smelling salts, Jesus is trying to awake our souls, that God is our Father and he is holy, holy, holy. And that should bring a reverence. It should draw our hearts into who he is, his whole character, and that we would desire him deeply in that way; because hallowed, as it’s translated in the Greek, isn’t just about knowing the name of God. Satan knows the name of God. The demons know the name of God. Hallowed is, at least in the Greek, it’s pulling us in. It’s for those who intimately want to know the character and the nature of God and they trust him. This is what it means to live into the holiness, the hallowed ness of God.

Here’s the reality: The holiness of God does not keep us at an arm’s distance. Because who is teaching us to pray this way? Jesus. And where is Jesus? Emmanual, God with Us come to earth. How beautiful! And then Jesus dies and resurrects and who does he send? The Spirit of God who is here right now, near to us. This holy, holy, holy God is not keeping us at an arm’s distance, but drawing us near. But do you want to experience the holiness of God? Because we see, even in Old Testament and New Testament, he’s inviting us into this. But we have to be available to deal with who God is in the invitation that he’s provided for us.

Psalm 9:10 was really helpful for me this week in trying to work through this. It says this:

Those who know your name trust in you,
for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

How beautiful. How beautiful for you and me to have this understanding that he is our Father and he is holy, but he loves us and cares for us and Jesus is inviting us in, to the point where now he transitions and he says, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Whose kingdom? His kingdom. Whose will? His will. Not our kingdom, not our will. His kingdom. His will. We want it to be done. As we read through this we find out something really interesting. We find out there’s something very right that’s happening. We find out also that there’s something very wrong.

I hate that I love McDonald’s. I hate that I love their French fries. Because there’s something so good about it and there’s something that’s so, so very bad about it. Do you know they put sugar in their salt on the fries? Right? To just draw us in. “Come, come, have my magical, delicious brownness in your belly.” But it’s so bad for us. It’s going to clog up our arteries and give us heart attacks. But we’re like, “Arrrh..” Because there’s something very nostalgic about it, at least for me, right?

There’s something very, very wrong that Jesus is exposing, but he’s also talking about what’s right. What’s right is we’ve neglected the kingdom of God. We’ve pushed it away. That’s why we have to invite it in. Our sin nature, our depravity is continuing to push against God’s plan, his kingdom come, his will be done. It’s pushing up against it.

Jesus is like, “We need to invite it in.” So there’s both a negative and a positive here. It’s a problem for so many of us. We talk like this, but we don’t really want it. It’s a very dangerous thing to invite into your life because it’s going to transform you. It’s going to help you and open your eyes to the holiness of your heavenly Father. This is what it means to pray for this.

Here’s the other thing. I find this so interesting. And you’re going to have to allow me to rant for just a little second, okay? I find that, especially during the last eighteen months, honestly, for most of my life, any time when stuff gets hard, everybody’s like, “It’s our time to get out of here.” Our ecclesiology gets all crazy, right? Our end times stuff. We go, “He’s coming back! He’s coming back! He’s coming back!”

And that may be the case. But sometimes we’re so busy trying to get out of here instead of inviting him here. He’s here. This is his kingdom come and his will be done on earth — not get out of here — as it is in heaven. And sometimes we’re too busy trying to get out of here when he’s inviting us to be here with him.

All right. Rant’s over. I feel so much better. Thank you.

The other thing I’ll say around this that I think is really important — Peter’s going to draw this out for us. We tend to always think about the negative things that are going to get us out of here, right? Peter goes, “Do you know what hastens the day of Christ? When believers in Jesus Christ choose to be obedient to the call of Christ.” That’s what hastens the day of Christ. That’s a positive thing. We’re always looking at all the negative. I want you to look at the positive.

As we move forward in this way of thinking, we’re hastening the day of Christ. Instead of going, “Hey, God, get me out of here,” we’re going, “I’m here, baby. I’m going to be obedient to what you’ve called me to do and where you’ve called me to go.” That’s empowering. Do you feel empowered by that this morning? You should be. You should be.

You matter in the kingdom of God and we should be saying, “Please come. Please come. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth. We want to bring heaven here. Not get out of here. We want heaven here. We want more people to come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior through the way that we obey and follow after him.” So maybe this would shift the way we start thinking about “kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

So the question that arises, Are we living in a way that says kingdom come? Are we living that way? Is it impacting every part of your life? The way I’ll describe it is, do we live in a participatory lifestyle? Which simply means this: I know some of you in here are teachers. You start school tomorrow. Glory be to God. God bless you, okay? You start school tomorrow. What would it look like to invite the kingdom of God into your classroom? Come on! What would it look like for us to realize there’s a bunch of kids in there that desperately need to see Jesus through the way we live this out.

You know all these prayers are a daily thing. He’s going to move on to Matthew 6 and he’s going to talk about, “Don’t worry about tomorrow.” This is how we need to live today. So what does it look like to anticipate the kingdom of God today? This has been so convicting to me this week. I’m always thinking about tomorrow, when he’s like, “I’ve only given you today.”

And what does it look like to invite the kingdom of God into your workplace, into your family, into your finances? Get micro on this. We’re always thinking of it on a macro scale. “Come on. Rain it down.” And he’s like, ‘What about your finances? What about your marriage? What about your parenting? What about your job?” Invite the kingdom of God into that to redeem that as it is in heaven. This is what we’re being invited into. This is a declaration to get earth out of us. To get earth out of us.

Paul says, “I’m crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I but who lives in me? Christ! He lives in me.”

This is what it is to invite the kingdom of God, his kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is what he’s wanting us to do.

So now we transition into this other part. But these are more little practical things. But actually, they’re very important things, wholistic things. He says, “Give us today our daily bread.” I find something really interesting. Costco is like Disneyland for adults, right? You walk into Costco and you watch a bunch of adults go, “Whoo! I didn’t know I needed four thousand batteries. I didn’t know I needed six toothbrushes.” And there’s a guy in there selling knives. And you go, “I didn’t know I needed Ginsu knives. I didn’t know I needed that. I do need that.” “I need four trillion bagels for my family.”

All of a sudden we get all — I call it the Costco complex. We get in there and we go, “Whoo!” Right? Nothing against Costco but I think it’s actually framing up for us this very consumeristic thing. It’s exposing something in us. “I want all this.”

How many of you have filled up your Costco cart, paid for it, got in the cart and go, “I over-bought. I overdid that.” How many of you? Be honest before the Lord. All of us have. If you’ve been to Costco, you’ve over-bought.

He’s revolting against this. Why? Because, remember in alms giving, he’s like, “Don’t be like everybody else.” And he says, “Our daily bread.” Which I find again is very interesting. What does it look like for us to simplify our lives. Because there’s a bunch of people in the world that don’t have. What does it look like to remind ourselves to be mercy-minded. That’s what it means to be an alms giver. To go like, “Do you know what’s been done for us? Now I just want to do that.”

See, something like Costco is going to bring that into conflict because all we can think of is more, more, more, more, more. And who is it that’s providing our daily bread? God is providing our daily bread.

This word daily in the Greek is actually one of the most complicated words in the Bible to translate. It’s one of the most complicated words. The reason is because it’s not found anywhere else in Greek literature. So recently they found a shopping list on a piece of papyrus and the shopping list was basically things to do. This word occurred.

Here’s what’s really interesting about this word daily. It literally means, help me get the things that are on my shopping list daily. That’s what he’s inviting us into. It’s a daily reminder that he is the one that provides for us. He is the one that cares.

And it cannot only be preached once or prayed once to yourself. You don’t just pray it once and go, “Hey, once and done.” This is a daily thing.

I went to Kenya three years ago. I go in this dung hut. We walk in and the lady is so excited to see us. So she invites us outside and we walk outside and I was asking about her daily life. “Tell me about your daily life.” She goes, “Well, I get up and I pray every morning, ‘God I need food. I don’t have any food.’ And do you know, some days he does it and some days he doesn’t. And he’s so faithful.”

And she was so happy and we were just so humbled that this connection that she had with her heavenly Father that he was the one that provided for her. She found so much peace in it. I find it so bizarre that, as it relates to our daily needs — and by the way, this is not just about bread. This is about all our needs in our lives — when we bring those before the Lord, this is a submission. This is as humble declaration that, “God, you’re the one who cares for me. You’re the one who loves me. You’re the one who sees me. You’re the one who provides for me.”

We’ve seen God do this all throughout scripture. Manna. A cloud by day. Fire by night. Water. He’s providing for the Israelites to say to us, are we living our lives in a participatory way of going, “You take care of me. You love me. You see me.”

Here’s the thing. God doesn’t need to be reminded to care for you, but we need to be reminded who’s caring for us. God doesn’t need you to go, “Don’t forget to take care of me!” What we need to do is remind ourselves who’s taking care of us. Isn’t that so important.

So as you come to this particular place in the Lord’s prayer, remind yourself he’s the one who’s doing it. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. He is doing it.

Transitions into “forgive our debt as we also have forgiven our debtors.” So convicting. We need to practice what we preach. Remember, this is what Jesus is saying all throughout this. “Don’t be like the hypocrites. Don’t be like the hypocrites. Stop acting.” Remember this from last time? “Stop acting.” We’re acting. Many of us are acting, pretending. He’s like, “Stop. stop. Stop.” We need to practice what we preach because we do for others what has been done for us. Jesus is inviting this into our lives, that we would confess this out loud.

In fact, the literal translation of this, according to William Barclay — this was so convicting for me this week — forgive us our sins in proportion as we forgive those who sin against us. In proportion.

And we would say, “Oh, oh, hold on. Hold on.” Because this is what I did this week. “ Wait. Wait. He’s already paid our sins.” Right? He died and our sins are washed away. We’re white as snow. Right? Yes! Except that he also says, “To whom much is given, much is required.” That those of us who have received that redemption have an expectation to live that out in the spaces and places that he’s called us to. “To whom much is given, much is required.”

We should be known for forgiveness. Is the local church, is the ecclesia, known for forgiveness because of what’s been done for us? I don’t believe so. In fact, Keith Green, many of you might know who Keith Green was. Back in the ’70’s he was this kind of prophetic worship leader. He had a song called Asleep in the Light. I grew up listening to Keith Green and he says this in this line in the song, it always gets me.

O Bless me, Lord, bless me, Lord.
That’s all I ever hear.
No one aches. No one hurts.
No one even sheds a tear.
But He cries. He weeps. He bleeds.
And He cares for your needs.
And you just lay back and keep soaking it in.
Can’t you see it’s such sin?

That’s super convicting. Because “to whom much is given, much is required.” So what does it look like to live like people who are forgiven? That the death and resurrection of Jesus has covered a multitude of sins? Therefore, now, we go out. I wonder what this would look like for you this week. What would it look like — because what I know about the last eighteen months is there’s been lots of division, lots of pain — what would it look like to go on social media and say, “I’m so sorry about the divisive comments I’ve made over the last eighteen months. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.”

And then, what about forgiving people who have an opposing view to what you believe, and forgiving them for the way that they’ve maybe treated you? Can you see how beautiful that would be? That’s redemption! That’s redemptive because we know what’s been done for us. We know that there’s a people out there watching the body of Christ and saying, “Will they actually do and be who he’s called them to be? They speak the Lord’s Prayer but do they really live it out in their lives?”

So this was really convicting for me. And I hope it’s convicting for you. But it’s also beautiful and liberating and freeing. And that’s what he’s inviting us into.

So he ends with this part, “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” People get hung up on the word tempt. Test is probably a better word, because people are like, “Well, wait. Can God tempt me into sin?” No. But if you remind yourself when Jesus was baptized, he was baptized, Father God said, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” And then it says this in the passage, “And then immediately the Spirit of God took him to the desert to be tempted (or to be tested).”

Really, what this prayer is saying is this. It is a humble declaration of our vulnerability. We see how Jesus was tested, how overwhelming and hard that is. What we’re saying is, “Hey, God, “I’m not Job! Please don’t test me. God, I’m not like Elijah. I’m not like Moses. Please. I need your help! Because that overwhelming testing, I need your help.”

This isn’t about winning. This is about God sparing us and asking him to spare us from that testing. And ultimately what this passage is about, what this declaration is about is about rescue. “Deliver us from the evil one. Rescue me from Satan.” That would be a cry of your heart. “Rescue me from my depravity. Rescue me from my sin. I’m not the one who can do it. Only you can do it. I can’t do it on my own. I need you.”

What I love about the Lord’s Prayer is that it starts with a focus on a holy Father who is in heaven and it ends with Emmanuel, God with Us, and inviting us to beg him to free us from evil, which by the way, Jesus would say, “I’m going to defeat evil. I’m going to do that. I have the kingdom of God. I have brought the kingdom of God to earth. I am going to die for the sins of the world because my Father is holy. And because he’s holy he needs a perfect sacrifice and I am going to be that perfect sacrifice for all who are not willing and cannot make it on their own, I am going to be the propitiation for your sins. And I do all of this because he is my Father. And I will do the will of my Father.”

This is a prayer of redemption and rescue, but the posture of our heart should be, “Come, Lord, Jesus, come. I’m a man of unclean lips and I live among a people that are unclean. And we need you. We need you.” This prayer is, “We need you.” It’s inviting us into a right understanding of the kingdom of God and who we are in that kingdom.

Twelve years ago — I told you a little about this a few weeks ago — I went to India FOR the first time. I told you I talked to a bunch of pastors there. And that was a deeply impactful thing. But the other thing that was really impactful is I met a little girl. That little girl, we were going to sponsor. But what transpired as a result of that is we started an adoption process. Her name is Wasunta. Wasunta is a true orphan, abandoned by her mother and father. And she, as a four-year-old, lived on the streets with her younger brother.

The place where I went actually brought her in. So, again, I was just going to sponsor her, but then what happened was we began a two-year process to adopt her. It was a really crazy process. But every year I would go back to India and I would bring people with me because I wanted to be with the pastors and I also wanted a bunch of other people to see and experience what I had experienced in India. The other reason I would go was to spend time with Wasunta. She’s going to be in our home someday so we want to figure out what this looks like. I want to learn more about her.

That second trip I came back, she’s sitting on my lap and we’re eating chicken. If you know anything about the Indian culture that should not be surprising at all. They eat a lot of chick. So she’s sitting on my lap and we’re eating chicken. We get through eating the chicken and she starts eating the chicken bones. I’m like, “Whoa, whoa! Don’t do that.” And she gets angry at me. She takes the chicken bones. She eats them all and leaves.

I look to the guy she’s living with, because we’re paying for somebody to take care of her. And I’m going, “Hold on. What’s going on here? I’m taking care of this little one. I’m sending you money to take care of her and make sure she goes to school. And she’s eating chicken bones. What’s going on?”

And said this. “My friend, this little girl still thinks she’s an orphan. She’s not come to understand that she’s a daughter.”

That just broke my heart. He said, “She’s stealing mangos. She eats so much she gets sick and throws up, because she’s nervous.”

It just broke my heart because there’s no words I can say, nothing I can do. So I come back the next year and Wasunta’s getting older. And she sits on my lap again. And we start eating chicken. I’m like, “Here we go.” You know? And she eats the chicken, she leaves the bone and she runs away. I’m like, “Huh. What happened?” He goes, “Oh, my friend. Your daughter has finally understood she’s not an orphan, that she’s a daughter, and it’s changed the way she’s lived her life.”

Here’s the interesting thing, I think, that applies for us. So many of us are still living like orphans, when this prayer starts off with saying you’ve got a Father and he’s in heaven and his name is holy. And you can pray that his kingdom is come and his will would be done on earth as in heaven. And guess what? He’s got you. He sees you. He knows you. You can pray for your daily bread. You can pray for your sins to be forgiven, and you can pray that you will not be tempted and that the evil one will leave. Because we have the Spirit of God and he lives into us because he is our Father. You are loved.

My question for us, and I would love to end here with this: Do you know Jesus? Do you know him as your heavenly Father? The King of kings and Lord of lords. Because this prayer will transform your life. It is a framework for life but you have to understand who he is and who you are in order to really allow it to be transformational.

So what I want to do is slow down in this prayer. And I want to say this with you. So we’re going to corporately go through the Lord’s Prayer. So say this with me and we’re going to go slow:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed by your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.

And I’ll end as we have historically ended for so many years, all these years of church history:

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory,
Forever and ever.

And God’s Church said: Amen.

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David Stockton 5/23/21 David Stockton 5/23/21

Overcoming Destructive Anger

You guys know what today is? It’s Pentecost Sunday! Woo! It’s the day that we remember when the Spirit of God was poured out upon the Church and everything changed. So, when David asked me to speak on my anger story, I thought, How am I going to tie that into Pentecost Sunday? I will do it! One of the things I want to say is…

Series: The Sermon on the Mount
May 23, 2021 - Kurt Cotter

One of the things I want to say is, David talked about last week, he said that the way we really experience change is we walk in the Spirit. In Galatians 5 it says “Walk in step with the Holy Spirit.”

The way I look at it is, I like to think of Jesus introduced the Holy Spirit in John 14, 15 and 16, and he called him our helper. He called him our comforter, our counselor, our teacher. And he invited us into a relationship with God the Holy Spirit. So I want you to know that what I’m going to share today, it didn’t happen by might or by my power, but by the Spirit of God. He’s our helper.

So I hope you guys will learn how to work with the Holy Spirit and let him give you the power to fulfill what the scripture says. So let’s pray as we open up in Matthew 5:21.

Father, we thank you for your presence that’s here. We celebrate the coming of your Holy Spirit, and we invite you into this room, that you would work in our lives, that you would show forth Jesus through us. And we ask it in your name. Amen.

Okay. Matthew 5:21 through 24 is the scripture I’m going to focus on today.

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

We all know that God looks at the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance. But when he sees inside of a heart of a person anger, it’s a serious issue with God. We can tell by what we were just reading. Here Jesus says, “Yes, you’ve heard it said if you murder someone you’re subject to judgment. But I say if you’re angry with a brother or sister you’re subject to judgment. In fact, if you call them a fool you’re also in danger of judgment.”

Now, I know firsthand about the damage that can happen in relationship because of destructive anger. And the things I spoke out of my mouth to those that I love, especially. I think everyone agrees that, when you first give your life to Christ, you become a new creature. Old things are passed away. All things have become new. And you change, right? But a lot of people don’t realize that even after thirty years of walking with Jesus, he still wants to change us and he wants to transform us into his likeness.

So, how can we change? Jesus is changing us from glory to glory. It says this in 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV), which is not in front of you. But you all know this one.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

So we are being changed as we gaze upon the face of Jesus and behold his glory. He’s changing us from glory to glory. Anybody know what’s in between the glories? A whole lot of painful things to change your life. That’s what I’m going to talk about.

Also, the other verse that’s very familiar to you is Romans 12:2 (NKJV). It says:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So, as we surrender our lives to Jesus every single day, he’s renewing us and transforming us by the renewing of our minds. Our minds need to change. They need to be renewed.

So, today I want to share a practical side of what it means to walk in the Spirit, what it means to see a change by the grace of God, the power of God’s word, as God changed me from having a horrible anger problem.

I’m originally from West Covina, California. I’m one of seven kids. I’m number five and I have a twin brother who doesn’t even look like my brother. He’s four minutes older than me. We’re fraternal twins.

My dad was a World War II vet. He was a marine raider and a gunner in the South Pacific. He went in when he was sixteen. I still have his uniform. He came out and he had PTSD. They called it being shell shocked in those days. One of the issues that a person with PTSD struggles with is a lot of anger. And so I saw it growing up very much.

So, at the age of sixteen, I was the first one in my family to ask Jesus Christ to be the Lord of my life and my Savior. It was during the Jesus People Movement — especially in SouthernCalifornia it was really rocking.

My mom and dad didn’t really like the changes they saw in me. My life changed so radically they thought I was involved in a cult. So my dad actually found, he looked in a law book to see if he could find a law that, if you can’t control your minor, then you can turn them over to the police, to the juvenile authorities. He found one and took me to the police station and he made me promise I wouldn’t go back to church until I was eighteen.

The police officer dropped his jaw on the ground and was like, “What? You don’t want your son to go to church?” He said, “Well, doesn’t this law say this?” And he said, “Yes, Mr. Cotter, it does.”

So I had to promise I wouldn’t go back to church. So during that time I remember the guy who discipled me, Andre Jackson, he stayed in touch with me and prayed for me. Then one day I took a loving stand and I just came down and said, “Mom and Dad, I love you, but I love Jesus more and I want to go back to church.”

So, to make a long story short, my mom beat me. She said, “How would you like a beating for Jesus?” I said, “Go for it.” So she just slapped me. After that, she came with me to church. She found out that it wasn’t a cult. She almost came to Christ that day.

For me, it was like this was real. I saw light and darkness. I knew what it was like to just really give it all to Jesus. So I continued to serve Jesus and ended up feeling a call to ministry. So straight out of high school in 1976 I moved out here to go to Bible college. It was called Sweetwater Bible College and it was part of Sweetwater Church. A couple of years after that, I met my beautiful wife, Faith, who plays the keyboards. You guys know her. The week after I graduated from Bible college, we got married. It was May 30, 1980, which we’re celebrating our anniversary next week.

Fast forward to 1993. We came to Living Streams and I was a youth pastor, believe it or not, here, with our little family. A little after I came on staff here, Faith and my two older kids, Melody and Jason, they were trying to help me see a blind spot. Anybody have blind spots? It got so bad, my anger problem was so bad that Faith was considering leaving me if I didn’t change. So she fasted and prayed and she and my two oldest kids lovingly confronted me on one Saturday.

They said, “You have an anger problem.” I remember I had a bigger problem called denial. It’s not a river in Egypt. It’s a reality and it was in my life. I would say, “You think this is anger? I’m a puppy dog compared to my dad!”

I have this funny thing. I like to talk to the Lord and he talks to me when I mow the lawn. So, on Saturday — I love mowing the lawn. I still do. I did it yesterday. — So I’m out there mowing the lawn after I just lived in denial.

By the way, you guys. We all know the verses that say, “Be anger and sin not.” And we go and say, “Well, Jesus made a whip and drove out the money changers in the temple.” I knew all of that and I used to use it in my denial.

Anyway, I asked the Lord, I said, “Lord, do I have an anger problem?” And I’m over there mowing the lawn. And he said, “Either those you love most are wrong again and you’re right again, or it’s the other way around.” And I go, “Oh, wow! You’re saying I have an anger problem.”

I remember coming into the house and just breaking and crying. I said, “I know I’ve said I’m sorry a hundred times, but this time I want to change.” And I said, “Please, help me.” So I asked them for their forgiveness. This time I knew I had to repent if I was ever going to really, really change. So I camped out in Psalm 51. You guys know the Psalm where David is repenting from his sin with Bathsheba? It’s a place of humility. It’s a place of being broken at the foot of the cross.

So then I asked my family, I said, “So help me understand what I do.” They would let me know that, not only was it my words, but my body language. They said, “You scream at us with your eyes and you get this vein popping out on your neck.” It was also my tone, a condescending tone, angry tone. Fifty-five percent of communication is body language, you guys. Thirty-seven percent is tone. So you’re going to have to work on those parts, too.

One of the things I learned about repentance is that I couldn’t blame anybody. I had to stop being defensive and stop blaming people for it and making excuses. I needed to come to a place where I owned how I made them feel, how my yelling hurt them, the ones that I loved the most.

So Jesus took me on a journey and he started to show me the roots of my anger. One of the roots that he showed me was that I would feel frustrated and I would get pictures in my mind. I would feel like a dog that’s being cornered, that would growl. I remember saying many times, “What do you want me to do?” When I was frustrated. And I couldn’t show frustration with out showing anger. I didn’t know how. That was one of my roots. I had to deal with the frustration in my life.

The second root was what I call the pressure cooker. I would let all the things, the stressful things people said or did, just build up and build up and build up. Sometimes it was passive aggressive. You know? You just hold it in, thinking, Oh, I’ll be fine. Then, when you least expect it, with those you love most, you explode. And that’s what was happening all the time in my life. And I didn’t like it.

Then, the third root was when I felt disrespected. I think we as men, I think women do too, we like to be respected. Even Ephesians 5 says, “Husbands love your wife as Christ loved the Church, wives respect your husband.”

I was doing all the wrong things to get respect. So there was this thing the Lord began to show me. There’s this principles that, if you believe a lie you get into bondage. But if you believe the truth the truth shall set you free. Right? So the Holy Spirit began to show me the lies I was believing. I know there were many of them.

But one of them happened on one of the Saturdays, I remember, with my two older kids. I don’t know. To me it’s chore day. Right? I’m still old school. So I was like, not only I’m doing chores, but I said to my older kids, “You need to clean your room.” So I told them, “Please clean your room.” Then, an hour later, I went over and checked the rooms and nothing happened in both rooms. So I went back to them and I said, and I turned the volume up the next time, and then I waited another hour and then I checked both rooms. Nothing was done. So this time, I went ballistic and just began to scream at them until I saw them actually go into the rooms.

In my mind I started believing this lie. See? It works! They respect me when I yell at them. But when I came to my senses, I go, “How many angry people do I respect?” Did I respect my dad when he was angry? I became fearful of him. So I was destroying my relationship with my kids, thinking I was getting respect from them.

So I really started to believe, when I came to my senses, that really what kids respect is when they see you with a humble heart lead by example, be honest about your faults, and don’t just sit there and use your anger. That doesn’t get respect.

After that, I started to go through this thing of being accountable to my family. I don’t know why Saturdays, but I decided to ask them to give me a grade. I would say, “How am I doing, guys?” And I remember, Jason, my oldest son, he goes, “I’ll give you a C+.” And I’m like, “Aw. What do I need to do?”

You know, one of the things that really helped me was asking them, because I have this cluelessness. Anybody ever struggle with cluelessness and insensitivity? I didn’t know how I came across to them. So my grade my started getting up to A’s. And God began to work in me.

The other thing was, when I talk to couples, I like to talk about environment in your home. So my relationship with my kids and my wife, at that time, I had walls come between us and I had a picture of egg shells everywhere. It was like, when dad comes home everybody just kind of goes in their room. “Mister Grump’s home again.” So I needed to learn how to sweep up the egg shells, tear down the walls and build an environment that’s like a well-watered garden.

One of the things that I wanted to learn to do is to develop a communication with my family where it was safe for them to open up, even about things that they’re having a struggle with me. I encourage you guys. Provide a safe environment where they can talk about anything that’s maybe bothering them about you.

I learned how to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry.

I mentioned that my dad and the anger I saw in him growing up. I realized I needed to own my anger and I couldn’t blame my dad for my anger problem. But I did realize that I needed to forgive my dad and I needed to honor him that it may go well with me and my days will be long on the earth. Isn’t that the promise of God?

So I asked the Lord and the Lord had me write out a letter to my dad. He had me go on what I call a gold mining trip. I started to remember all the camping trips my dad took me on, and all the fishing trips he took me on, the way he gave one of his kidneys to one of my sisters at UCLA Medical Center when her kidney failed. And he stayed with my mom fifty years. And I wrote it all out to thank him. And you know what happened? I began to have all this unforgiveness go out the door. I was no longer offended.

So the next point is, stay unoffended. The last part of this verse that we just read was telling us that, if we remember someone that has something against us, leave your gift at the altar and go be reconciled to him. So part of my freedom was learning to forgive quickly and be unoffended. You know, when Jesus taught us to pray “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” so, even on a daily basis I take inventory and I say, “Lord, is there anybody I need to forgive? I release forgiveness right now. Open the cage and let them go free. You forgave me a great debt. So I forgive them.”

I found out my dad carried that letter with him until it became a little rag. Then something happened and my mom got Alzheimers later. Soon after that she died. My dad was still in the same house that were raised in in West Covina. He became very feeble and he needed my help. I became the pastor of the family. So I kept going back and forth. It was during that process that we became so close, we were like best friends. And I can tell you my dad gave his heart to Jesus right before he died. It’s so beautiful what the Lord did.

I’m here to tell you — my daughter over there, that’s why I’m crying. Rachel is 22 and she said, “Daddy, I’ve never seen your anger.” God changed me, you guys. I’m here to give you hope. If he can change a grouchy old man like me, he can change you, too.

But if I was to pick the most important thing about my lesson that I learned after being a Christian for many, many years and even a pastor, I needed to repent in order to change. So I would say repentance is a process. There’s a godly sorrow that’s works repentance. And there’s a change of mind. That’s what the word repent means. It means to change your mind and then you turn and the word of God renews your mind and you become a different person.

Bringing you back to the Day of Pentecost — I told you I would bring it back to Pentecost Sunday — when Peter preached the gospel, he focused on the resurrection of Jesus. At the end, with these 3,000 people, they said, “What must we do to be saved?” He said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Then, in Acts 3:19 (NKJV), it says this in another sermon that Peter preached:

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

You know what the word refreshing means in the Greek? Revival. When you repent and you turn your heart, you just surrender. The Holy Spirit begins to bring times of refreshing and a personal revival. May you experience a personal revival in your life today.

God bless you.

DAVID:

All right. Well, again, we came into this understanding that, as we speak about some very specific issues, I mean, our world wants us to focus on lots of different issues of what is making America or making society not great. It’s got our attention all over the place. But Jesus is trying to drill in to some weighty, weighty matters within humanity.

We knew that, as we would do this, it would probably stir up some stuff in our hearts, especially anger. Anger is not a 3%, 10%, 15% of the population type thing, but we probably all have a story whether our own anger produced something that is ugly, painful, or someone else’s anger that has done that to us.

We knew we were going to be doing this, so we wanted to create this time at the end. A little differently, a little more thorough than we usually do. And just ask the Spirit to come and minister his word deep into our souls in a supernatural way. So, Kurt and I, as we prayed and as Kurt prepared and even this morning as I was praying, there are a few things that came to mind that I feel like our people who are listening on line — just because you’re online don’t think you’re escaping this — and people in this room that the Spirit of God really wants to talk to right now. Wants to do something with this message besides just leave you hanging or unsure. Wants to come close. Like I said, we’re moving from a classroom to a hospital at this moment.

If you can hang in there, and if you can kind of try and fight off the birds of pride and the birds of fear that wants to come and nest in your soul, and allow the Spirit of God to come. I know it’s tempting to kind of just shut off and ignore when the Spirit pricks our hearts, to just run. But this is the time to really allow the Lord to come close and see what he has for us.

The first thing that I wrote down was somebody that basically just, in light of last year, they don’t have PTSD, they have PPSD. Post Pandemic Stress Disorder in some ways. The amount of beating they took, kind of like what Kurt was saying, the frustration, the pressure cooker of last year. It could be all of the little things, or it could be some big things like divorce or loss of certain relationships or family dynamics. And you just have found yourself now where, your skin is so thin and you don’t know how to get back to a place where you’re not so frustrated, you’re not so upset, you’re not so easily angered all the time.

What I felt the Spirit said was, that person, if they’ll acknowledge that, if they can receive that, then I’m supposed to minister to them the verse that Jesus said, “Come to me all that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” The Greek word for rest there is anapauō. It says “to cause or permit one to cease from any movement or striving in order to recover and collect their strength.” If we’ll figure out how to, instead of trying to figure it out more or try harder or strive more, if we’ll learn to quiet ourselves and really kind of practice silence and solitude, to try and get away with the Spirit of God like Jesus often did, that, what will happen is we’ll find that refreshing, that restoring, that replenishing. The gathering of strength, the collecting of strength will happen and we won’t be so quickly and easily angered.

The second person, was someone that really, when Kurt was talking about feeling disrespected. This is the person, whether you did it subconsciously or cognitively, you’ve really come now to the place where you are using anger as a tool to get love, to get respect, but it is a lesser and a counterfeit love that is never going to satisfy you. It might scratch an itch, but that’s it. You’ve been relying on anger to produce this and you’ve been using it to think, Maybe I have the power and authority. And it makes you feel better about yourself. But really you’re creating some sort of slavery, not some loving relationship.

In the face of that, I really felt like you were creating — when Kurt said that in this service, it really resonated in my heart — this egg shell environment for the people who you really love. You might not realize it because you don’t walk on egg shells, but everybody around you is, and can’t wait for the day to be away from you.

What’s so beautiful about Kurt’s story is he woke up before his wife decided, “I can’t be here anymore.” By God’s grace he woke up before his kids said, “Forget it. I’m done with this guy. I’m sick and tired of the egg shells he’s created.”

That was beautiful and wonderful and Kurt was able to repent. And Kurt has now, through the help of his kids, but really the Spirit, he gets to that place where, whenever he feels like he needs to act out in anger in order to get the thing done, to get the feeling that he wants, he now stops himself and says, “Okay, God, I’m giving you control. I’m letting you come in.” And when we give control to the Spirit, what happens is he gives us self-control. It’s one of the fruits of the Spirit.

The third thing is there’s someone out there who’s been holding on to offense and unforgiveness. They basically keep drinking that poison helping it will kill the person that they hate. It’s totally foolish. And it’s hard, because sometimes we really do get hurt. Injustice does happen in this life, in this fallen world.

And what Jesus is saying to you is you need to repent and you need to forgive. Not forgive once they sorry in the right way. But forgive because of what Jesus Christ has forgiven you. And to go ahead and write that note. Remember how he just started going on a treasure hunt and wrote down the things his dad did that were good, and all of those things, and trying to see past the other things. Because that’s what Christ has done for us. And that forgiveness slowly but surely took root in his heart and overcame the unforgiveness and bitterness. And that’s a word for you.

Another one is, as I thought of this one I started to weep a little bit, because there are people, again online or in here, that are just stuck. The damage has been done. They didn’t wake up before the wife left and the kids wrote them off. And now they’re alone and they’re angry. And they don’t really believe that anything good can change them. They’re too broken, too shattered.

In 1 Corinthians 12 we’re told that one of the gifts that the Spirit gives us is a gift of faith. I felt like the Spirit was telling me right there as we were singing these songs and I was listening to Kurt, that he wants to give the gift of faith to someone who’s in this situation. That without the Spirit actually quickening their soul in some supernatural way, there is no way that they could actually start hoping again and believing that they can be restored with their family.

But God is speaking to you. The Spirit is drawing near to you. The Spirit is quickening in your soul even now and he’s telling you, “Hey, it’s time to start believing. It’s time to start walking with Jesus, staying close to him and, in time, you will get to see redemption. That which was lost becoming found. That which was broken becoming whole. The years that the locust have eaten being restored to you in some sort of supernatural way.”

As you try and receive this, all of the fear of disappointment, all of the walls that you’ve put up, everything in you is just raging against this gift of faith that the Spirit wants to bring you. Yet, if you let it in, that faith will help you see mountains moved.

And the last thing was new for this service. The skeptic. There are people in here, again, you’ve heard it but you don’t believe it, that God intervenes. What I wrote down was: You don’t know if God intervenes, but you do know that anger controls you.

And God is meeting you here in this moment and he is saying, “Hey, you want to see what I can do? Walk with me and you will see your anger gone. It will not rule you anymore if you surrender your life to Jesus.”

Let’s pray:

Jesus, this was a lot. I don’t know where people are at in light of these specific things, but I pray that you would bring clarity and, Lord, that you would intervene. I pray specifically for that skeptic who’s listening. Whether it’s in this moment today or somehow they hear this later on on the internet, whatever it is, Lord, I pray that they would know that you’re speaking to them and they would trust you, they would surrender to you, and you would steal their anger away and you’d replace it with your peace. Thank you, Lord.
Lord, we pray that we really would receive everything you want. We want the greater righteousness, Lord, even though it scares us. But thank you for giving us your Spirit that can lead us there. Amen.

Will you guys stand with me as we kind of close with a song here. We have some people up front that would love to pray with you.

One last thing before we go, we have this text number that we’re going to pop up on the screen. We’re going to have this up throughout the next part of this series because we know this stuff can be a little personal and a little intense. We don’t anyone to go alone. We don’t want anyone to feel they have to do this stuff alone. So if you text this number you can stay anonymous or not, but we’re going to connect you with a pastor. And we’re going to connect you with something that will really help walk with you as you go through this journey. Because we want to see the full freedom coming. 602-932-1520

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Guest User 10/18/20 Guest User 10/18/20

The Demonstration of the Full Extent of His Love

This morning I’d like to start with six words from St. Anthony. I count these as my first six words when I wake up in the morning and my last six words when I go to bed at night. I offer them to you as an encouragement this morning. But I actually offer them as a habit every morning and every night. I take these six words. They’re pretty easy to remember and it’s only six: “Behold God beholding you and smiling.”

October 18 - Marty Caldwell - John 13

Now there is irony in this. Because when we insert ourselves into this equation, normally here’s what we do with the formula. “Behold God.” Okay, I’m looking at God in all of his magnificence. I’m looking at God in his word. God in creation. God in the person of Jesus. God on the cross. God in the powerful resurrection. Behold God. But what is he doing? Beholding you. I’m beholding God, he’s looking at me. And this last little turn, “And smiling.”

I think, normally when we think this, when we start our morning or we go to bed at night, very often we behold God beholding you and he’s disappointed. Behold God beholding you and he’s frustrated. Behold God beholding you and he looks stern. Maybe like we should get our act together. I promise you, those are the lies of the evil one, that the best picture take as you behold God who is beholding you and really, he does behold you. And if you’re paying attention, you know what he’s doing? He’s smiling. He’s saying, “My daughter.” “My son.” “My beloved.”

So I offer this as we begin. Behold God. We get to sing together here gathered. Or maybe we’re singing straight into our iPad or our phone, in which case—and I’ve done this quite a bit lately—it’s not good when you’re by yourself—but sing anyway. Because we’re joining the family of God all the way around the world. It’s a delight to sing. And really, in a lot of ways, that’s how we’re recognizing God is smiling on us, when we’re singing to him these promises and these praises. And we’re singing in harmony and we’re singing out loud. And, really, he’s delighted. Whatever the opposite of disappointed is. He’s delighted in his beloved, as we have gathered here or we’ve gathered online. He’s not trying to figure that out. Not really important to him. Are you beholding him beholding you and smiling?

Let’s pray together:

Lord, may we receive—and it is not that easy—may we receive your delight in us. May that be reflected in the wholeness of how we see ourselves as your daughters and sons. May that delight also be reflected as we see one another as your daughters and sons. And may that be reflected in the way that we see a broken and hurting world of people yet to discover that they can be daughters and sons of the kingdom. We need to receive that, Lord, and believe that, Lord, and trust that, Lord, and surrender to that and remember that. So help us. I pray in expectation in Christ’s name. Amen.

This morning in the rhythm of going through the gospel of John together, we hit this, what I think is a crescendo. These five chapters, one of which is a whole prayer, that’s John 17. But John 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 are the gospel writer John looking back. Remember, he’s writing as an old man. He’s remembering some things that maybe have been either un-remembered, or he’s making sure they go on in perpetuity, so that we’re reading about them and experiencing these lessons and actions and prayers of Jesus in his final days before he goes to the cross.

Really, when you read it, it’s five full chapters that John is unfolding for us. And this is the first one, which serves a little bit as an introduction to the other ones, and for sure an introduction to him going to the cross and an introduction to him rising from the dead and an introduction to him pouring out the Holy Spirit for the birth of the Church.

But this is the beginning. And when you think about these chapters, when you put them in context, remember that this is Jesus who is the light of the world. He’s the way, the truth and the life, that’ll happen in the next chapter. He’s the great I Am. He’s raised Lazarus from the dead. He’s come into Jerusalem. And, at height of popularity, there are palm fronds. There are cheers. There are Hosannas. The coming king has entered Jerusalem. This is before all of this happens. And if you will, I’d like to read a few verses out of John 13. This is truly the demonstration of the full extent of his love. And he says this right away in verse 1:

1 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father…

He knows what’s going to happen. He has this in his mind.

…Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.

I would propose to you that this beginning right here doesn’t really end in this action, but actually goes all the way through to Jesus’ ascension, all the way through and beyond the great commission, all the way through to Acts 2 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We’re going on a journey and this is the expression of the full extent of his love.

It starts with this very incredible, ironic action that John 13 unpacks for us.

2 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.

Don’t forget this. What’s going to happen right now, Judas was in the room. The betrayer. And it was known that he was already in the actions of betrayal. I hope this is a comfort to you. It is a comfort to me. For those who have betrayed Jesus with actions or attitudes, he still includes us. That’s the magnificence of our Savior. He doesn’t exclude. Even Judas is included in what’s going to happen now. This says that we are not dealing with the ordinary. We are dealing with the extraordinary Lord and Savior, King of kings, and he is going to do an action including the betrayer.

3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Now, if you read this really fast, you might miss all of what’s going on here. This was the foreshadowing of all that he was about to do. But this one action stood even by itself as a magnificent irony. Think about this. The times in your life where you’re really clear on who you are and what your purpose is—where you are going.

He knows that all authority has been given to him. He knows who he is. He knows he’s going to the Father. He actually knows this great sacrifice that is about to be lived out. And in that way, he shows he’s like no other. Surely not like me or like you. It seems like to me, when you know who you are and you have the full confidence of your authority and the full confidence of your mission, what you are to do, and you are made for this, this is the time that you should pick up the pen and write a book. This is the time that you should blog.

Oh, my gosh. Ramp up your Instagram game, Jesus, because this is a time to go viral here. Show everybody exactly who you are, where you’re going, your full authority. You’re the Savior. You’re the Lord. You’re the King. Show it. Demonstrate it. Something big. Something spectacular. Something to rev up the popularity that we have experienced a little bit of when you raised Lazarus from the dead in 11. And in 12, the whole of Jerusalem comes out, either to cheer or oppose and, mostly there’s a lot more cheering than opposing. This is a time to do something as a demonstration of your power.

And, by the way, this is exactly what he does. But it’s just not the way we would do it. He’s so magnificent. He’s so stunning. He’s so not like us. He picks up a towel and a wash basin. And with the one who had betrayed him, and with the ones who were going to run away in fear, with the one who would soon deny him, even deny knowing him—all of us included—he picks up a towel and a wash basin, and he washes the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel.

All I can say is this is the full extent of his love. This is the God of the universe, the Creator of all in a demonstration of his love. What does he do? He gets down on one knee with this towel and this wash basin and he’s putting water onto Judas’ feet like this and he’s rubbing his feet and he’s putting water onto Judas’ other foot. And, really, this is Palestine. Dirt roads, only sandals. We’ve got dirty feet.

By the way, the culture of the day, whoever was the lowliest servant of all, what job did they get? Foot washing. So if you’re new in the household, or you’re new in the village, and you’re lowest on the totem pole—foot wash. Because the dirtiest, grimiest, lowliest job, the Savior and King of the universe took the dirtiest, grimiest, lowliest job, to wash the feet of the people who would betray, run away, doubt him. Stunning. And really, this demonstration, it does not matter what you have done, the King of the universe not only beholding you and smiling, here’s how he smiles. Like this. He’s washing your grimy feet. He’s taking the lowliest position because this is how much he loves you. This is how valuable you are to him.

And Peter is going to have this little argument. It’s like a proud argument. “No, Lord. Not my feet! Wash the whole thing.” I kind of get that. Peter’s taking charge with what he thinks ought to happen. He doesn’t think any of this should happen. But he’s going to take charge of the “We’re not going to do the feet. The whole body, as well.” And Jesus is not going to have any of it. This is the servant King on his knees, washing the disciples’ feet and really, he’s washing our feet. This is part of how you know this is not a regular religious teacher. He is doing opposite of what we would do. Opposite of what any leadership would tell you. He is on a knee and he’s washing our feet. And remember, this is not the nice feet with socks and shoes. This is the real feet with mud and bunions and dirty nails. Stunning, really. At the height of his clarity and popularity and his reputation, he’s washing their feet. This is just the magnificent Savior that he is.

And then he goes on after this little dialogue with Simon Peter, we’ll start in verse 12:

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them.

I actually think this is a very full question and probably a very quiet moment. Because again, they had just had watched this little argument where Simon Peter was rebuked a little bit. So, “Shh.”

“Maybe we understand. Maybe we don’t. Why don’t you tell us?”

13 "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am.

He’s also the Resurrection and the Life, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the Great I Am. It is rightly so. He has his position over all of creation, over all of time. And yet, this is the action that he takes.

14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.
15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

So not only is he telling us who he is and in this moment of clarity and mission, fraught with what is about to happen, which will be deep suffering and rejection, genuine pain, all because he loves us. He’s offering this to us as an admonition or as marching orders. As, if you will, a way to live. The way to live is as a servant. The way to live is as one who washes feet. And you could say literally, but I don’t think in this culture that’s going to be that common. But what if we became, and Peter says this, “a peculiar people.” His whole point is to make us peculiar people, a peculiar tribe.

What if the main characteristic of this peculiar tribe called Living Streams was that they were known for their serving? They were known for taking the lowliest position? They actually became secret agents of service looking for the smallest and the largest and noticing every place where they could take a place of serving?

And, oh, by the way—this has never been more true—some of the service in this current world that is so divided and dismembered and so vitriolic and so spiteful and name-calling, all of this chaos around—one of the best ways we could demonstrate this servanthood is to be kind, and noticeably kind. I’m just putting you on alert. CIA agent of kindness. It was a CIA agent of the King who took the towel and the wash basin as a demonstration of the full extent of his love.

And I’m telling you, there is nowhere where this is not operative, especially again in this world. And actually a little bit more so in COVID world. So you’re driving up to the Taco Bell, you get a burrito supreme and three crunchy tacos. No I’m not getting a soda, that’s too expensive. And you pull up to the window and you just tell the gal, “I really appreciate the work that you do. Thank you. Be safe.”

I actually don’t think she falls down on her knees and meets the Lord. But I actually believe her spirit is lifted up, because all of us want to be noticed. And if we’re noticed by another human being when it’s unexpected, that’s the glimmer of being noticed by God. The glimmer of beholding God as smiling. And maybe she gets to know him. Or maybe she already knows and she’s kindness right back at you and there’s this connection of the peculiar people, a peculiar tribe that’s known for their service.

I always put love and service together. I really don’t know how you can demonstrate love without service. And I don’t know that you can demonstrate service without loving, at least not consistently. They’re two sides of one coin. This is the demonstration of the full extent of his love. He gives it to us as a way to live. We are to live as servants. This is demonstrated in thousands of tiny, little ways.

So, when we break out of here, or even before we break out of here, we recognize, “I know who I am.” If you’re not sure who you are, this is a great place, a group of people to help you discover that. Because here’s what you’ll learn. You’re a son of the King. You’re a daughter of the King. And he loves you. This is how he loves you. And we love you, too. “You’re welcome. Glad you’re here. Stick with us. You know what? We are servants.”

“You don’t have any better jobs than that?”

“No, we do not. We don’t have any better jobs than that.”

There isn’t a better job than that. And when you think about it, he says it right here:

17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

It’s not just a theory. This is a practice. The practice of being a servant. You know what? There are really hundreds, if not thousands, of opportunities every single day in your life—the real one that you live—to demonstrate the heart of a servant. Generally, the heart of a servant is just Jesus’ kind: “I’m serving. I don’t need a thank-you. I don’t actually need to be noticed.”

Because he didn’t get one here. Mostly, instead of a thank-you, he got resistance from Simon Peter. I’m not sure they understood again until much later. But we have a chance to see it in retrospect and understand it again today. What does it mean for me—in my actual, real life today—to be a servant?

This would be a good time for me to get a white board and for people to start shouting out, “This is what that would mean for me today.” And I’d write them down. That would be incredible. Because, if you’re listening, the Lord may be prompting you right now. “I’m supposed to call my mom and tell her I love her.” I don’t really have to tell her, “Hey, Mom, I’m picking up a towel and a wash basin. Did you notice?” Just do and then he says, “You will be blessed.”

This is part of how you listen to the Lord. It’s also part of how you view the world. We’re out there. We’re looking. We’re the secret agents of service. We’re trying to find every place we can. “There’s a chair that’s out of place. I’m going to help move it.”

“Somebody had a flat tire. I’m going to help them.”

“I’m driving down the road and I can see this guy wants to cut in. He zoomed by me a minute ago, so I’m not letting him in.”

Grab a towel. Grab the wash basin. Let him in.

I’m really not saying he will fall down on his knees and pray to receive Jesus. I don’t think that’s true. But think about this. In this world that right now is so divided and so spiteful and so quick to point out flaws—what if we were the ones who were quick to serve? And quick to point out “job well done.” The guy at Safeway stocking the salsa. You walk down, “Man, you’re doing a fantastic job. I really appreciate you. Thanks for the work that you do.”

If we just became CIA agents of encouragement and service to the world. Now, maybe you grab a box and you start to put salsa on the shelf next to him. I dare someone to try that. I’d like to hear the report what would happen. But I do think that’d be very cool. Because that’s what I mean. We’re thinking of some grand thing, and maybe the Lord says, “I want you to move to Ecuador and be a missionary there.” In that case, go and be a servant. But equally, in every dynamic and element of life, are we watching? Are we looking for places to serve?

And then this crazy promise: “You will be blessed if you do this.” I don’t think you’ll be blessed if you think about it. I don’t think you’ll be blessed if you hear a sermon about it. I think you will be 100% blessed if you do it. It’s what happens within your soul. Maybe it’s not noticed by anyone else. But in your own soul there’s a rising up of joy. A rising up of, “I get to be part of the CIA agent team of foot washers and towel dryers for the King of kings and Lord of lords.” Everything that you do might be done as an action or a service unto him. And in this, you will be blessed.

It’s interesting. I want to skip ahead to John 16 because I think this is important, especially as it applies to right now, today. Jesus says at the end of John 16, “In this world you will have trouble.”

Anybody know trouble today? Got it. It’s all of us. For some it might be personal, right in your family. We prayed for some families that are in trouble. Jesus doesn’t say you’re not going to have trouble. In fact he said you will have trouble. That’s not new news. That’s old news. From Genesis 3 on, we’re in trouble. So count on it.

But then he says this great little word that I think is a real good word for right now, especially in the United States, but also around the world. “Take heart.” Take courage. Stand your ground. Remain steadfast. Hold on to hope. Really implied in there. Be a blessing by being a servant is how you take heart. Take action. Take the actions of a servant. But all of those things are peripheral because it says, “Take heart for I have overcome the world.” “You’re gong to have trouble, but I know how the story ends.”

Then one more part of this chapter that I’d like to tie in here. This is John 13:34&35. The glue which puts all of these chapters together:

34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

As we’re heading into this season of evangelism, the thing that I would like you most to relax about is, this is the first word in evangelism: love one another. When I hear your words and I watch your love, the words and the love align. And I want to be in that group. I’ve never known another human being that didn’t want to be in a group that loves each other. Especially one that says, “Come on in and we’ll love you, too. In fact, if you don’t come in, we’ll love you.”

That’s the new people that God is creating. This is the admonition for all of us. Love and service all go together as demonstrations of his love. But the demonstration of his love is to make us into a people that love one another and serve in a broken and hurting world.

Whatever you do, family, neighborhood, university, high school, work, all of these things are operating. Look for places to serve. Look for demonstrations of love. Then, when we do get to gather, or if we’re just viewing online, we’re in this position of loving one another. And this is how the whole world will know that, “You are my disciples. You are this peculiar people that love each other and serve. And you’re secret agents of this service.”

I want to quote Prudentius as I close. Prudentius is a writer that wrote fourth century. He writes about the battle in the human soul. And there’s these two opposing sides within the human soul. He’s talking about the battle every day. He’s brilliant. But he’s a poet, so I always need my wife to translate, “Can you tell me what that says?” So this is a little bit of a paraphrase:

Every day pride and humility meet on the battlefield of the human soul. When humility begins to win, pride turns to shame in order to win the battle.

You can unpack that for the rest of your life. When you feel shame, what is happening? I’m looking at myself again. It looks like the opposite of pride, but it’s actually looking at myself, and this is how pride continues to win the battle. But my proposition—Prudentius didn’t write this. This is a Marty paraphrase. So pride and humility meet on the battlefield of the human soul. And when pride starts to win he goes to shame in order to win. When humility picks up a towel in order to win the battle.

Humility: “No, I can’t fight the regular way. He’s fighting a different way. You know what I’m going to do? I’m getting on one knee. I’m grabbing a towel and a wash basin.” Humility wins the day. And by the way, this battle is going on every single day in our hearts and our souls.

Our souls are being battled for. It’s never been more clear in my mind. The enemy is not the other political party or even the other nation or the other language group or the other “not like me.” The enemy is the enemy. He’s a liar and a deceiver and he’s out to kill and destroy. And he’s out to make us selfish and small, safe and stingy, not servant—opposite. And the King of kings says, “Come with me. And I’m going to make you a servant of all. And by the way, in this you will find joy, and you will find blessing, and you will find hope.”

We’re going to take communion together. Abraham Heschel wrote late 1800’s early 1900’s. He said, “The opposite of remember is not to forget, but it’s to dismember.” So when we remember, we remember what God has done, but we re-member to become a whole fellowship and re-member to become a whole soul. We reconnect. Re-member. First by recognizing what God has done and remembering that, because we’re forgetters. But we’re also “dismemberers.” The thing that most likely happens when we forget is that we dismember. We disconnect from God, we disconnect from others. We hide. We run away. So he offers communion as a reminder and a place to remember.

If you’re online, I hope you’ve been able to find a cracker or some bread; you’ve been able to find some juice or whatever element you can, as we celebrate communion together.

On the night that he was betrayed he took the bread. He broke it. He gave thanks and he said, “This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Let’s take communion.

And likewise, he took the cup. It was very much in the dynamic of this same place that we’re reading in John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. He said, “This cup is my shed blood.” I think the disciples, like many people are going, “I am not sure what he’s talking about.” Well, we know. This is Christ on the cross. The magnificent Servant King dying for our sins, that we might be forgiven and free. So that we might become forgivers and those who set others free. This is the blood of the New Covenant, for the forgiveness of sins. We drink this and remember Christ on the cross.

Lord, take this offering. Help us to re-member. Help us to be those who joyfully, quickly wear a towel and grab a water basin. Help us to be those who love one another so that all men and women might know that we are your disciples and that this is what you do to a community, to a people. And we send this out into the world. Here we are, Lord. Send us. We go as your servants. We go as your towel-and-wash-basin children. In Christ’s name. Amen.

©️2020 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Guest User 11/17/19 Guest User 11/17/19

The Servant Heart

David Stockton
Series: A Beautiful Heart

Good morning. It’s good to be with you guys. Thanks for coming.

We have a special announcement today. We’ve been praying for a while that the Lord would give us vision and direction for Living Streams. And something that’s come up time and time again and has really landed deep in our hearts—and it’s broader than just me, it’s our whole team—we really feel like the Lord is calling us to be a “sending” church.

We’ve been trying to figure out what that means. We’ve been trying to discuss it, pray for it, prepare for it, lean in to it. We finally arrived last year, at some point, at a goal that we want to send out fifty long-term missionaries by 2025. Long term meaning about a year or so, a year or more. We believe in short-term mission trips and all the experiences that can happen, but we really felt the Lord was wanting us to be a place where we cultivate missionaries—to be a sending church in that regard.

We’ve been able to do that. On the organizational side we’ve been planning, preparing, trying to set aside budget and all of that for that. At the same time, it’s been for me to get to know people, to sit with people and for them to say, “We just have this calling or stirring in our hearts about missions.” Or, “We’ve really been thinking about this place int he world a lot. Do you know anything about that?” And I would be like, “Ha ha. I know all about that.”

No, I don’t creep people out too much. But this is Brandon and Kari Gurney. Brandon and Kari have been around Living Streams for a while, been in the internship and on staff for a while, and have served us really well. And both of them, before they were Brandon and Kari, they were just Brandon…and Kari. They both had a little stirring for missions, and it’s sort of what brought them together in some ways as well.

But they’re feeling like it’s time. So we are going to be sending them out as missionaries. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what’s going on?

Brandon:

Like David said (I’m a little sick so forgive my voice), Kari and I are going to be launching in 2020 into Cuenca, Ecuador. That’s a place that we’ve had some connections as a church from the last few years We’re going to specifically be working with their worship department and communications, helping them develop some online ministry to reach out to the surrounding areas that are sort of inaccessible to the gospel but there’s internet still there.

We’ll also be working with some Venezuelan refugees, and a brand new college ministry that a church down in Cuenca is going to be launching. So if you want to learn a little bit more about what we’re doing, how you can support us, how you can partner with us and pray for us, check out the address that’s on the screen right now: gurneysglobal.org. And we’ll also be hanging out in the courtyard afterwards so you can learn a little more about what we’re doing and how you can pray for us too.

David:

It’s a beautiful thing and it’s a little difficult thing too; because these two are a real treasure. They’ve served us really well. I’ve gotten really close to Brandon, in particular. We’ve been able to see him do some really neat things. Kari’s been growing in that as well and been able to bring a real sweetness. So, it’s funny because I’v been praying to the Lord that we’d get to send all the junkers out, but instead we’ve been having to send out the cream of the crop. You know we’ve got the Fritz family over in Italy, serving away. And I’ve been meeting with other families. This one’s hard for me, for sure. But let’s pray for them and bless them, as they’ve served us well. We’re happy to let them go and bless them as they go serve the body of Christ in another place.

Lord Jesus, we come to you and we trust you and we know that you are sovereign over all things. We know that you have plans in this world. We know that you are preparing and building and purifying a bride for yourself, that’s called your Church. And we pray that, as these two go, that they really would be able to strengthen the church in Ecuador. Lord, that they would be able to get underneath and lift it. That they’d be able to get behind it and push what you’re already doing in those places. We pray that they would be able to spread your word, your word that restores our souls. Your word that brings life and guidance and wisdom. I pray that they would be able to do all of that, not just with their words, but also with their lives, their example, their hands and their feet and their hearts, Lord. I pray that they would be really good at giving body and blood, just like you gave to us, Jesus. That they would go there and they would wash people’s feet—both figuratively and literally. And you would just help good testimonies to come, good fruit to come, and we’d all get to rejoice together. We do pray that you’ll care for them well and bless them as they go. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thank you, guys. Thank you, church for all the support. Thank you for giving your tithes and offerings and gifts so that we can continue to forcefully advance the kingdom, as Jesus said, and be proactive in that way. It’s really a wonderful thing.

Who’s next? Who wants to go next? Some of you sitting in here, you’re going to be going. And I’m excited bout it. And we don’t know each other but we should. I’m looking around. I don’t know who you are. But you know. You and the Lord talk it out and then let me know.

We also have baptism coming up. If you have not been baptized, as Nacho Libre would say. Jesus himself was baptized, and he’s called those who follow him to follow him through the waters of baptism. It’s not just a cute little ritual, but it’s actually a real step of faith and solidifying in your walk with the Lord. If you’re ready to follow Jesus, if you’re ready to say, “Hey, I just want to go Jesus’ way and I want to let everything else go,” that’s all you really need to know. I mean, the rest you’ll learn more about as you go. If you’re interested, sign up for that.

We’ve got a Mexico mission trip coming up.

So, we’re in a sermon series called The Beautiful Heart. It was kicked off last week. The beautiful heart is the humble heart, the servant heart, the grateful heart and the generous heart. It’s so interesting to me. We’re going to be focusing on the servant heart today. As I came in today, I got the bulletin and I knew I was teaching on the servant heart, not a lot of other people did. I think we actually advertised the wrong heart online or something, but it’s okay. We’ll live. But as I walked in, I saw that we are spotlighting one of our staff members, Arthur Le. I just thought the Lord was smiling a little bit, saying, “ha ha,” because, as I was studying all week about the servant heart, you know, looking at the heart of Christ and looking in the Scriptures, I kept thinking about, “Oh, that sounds like Arthur.” On the good side of things. It was like, “Oh, I got a story from Arthur’s life that illustrates exactly what that is.” And then I come in and it was like, servant heart, here, we’re spotlighting Arthur. So if this message doesn’t work today, to help us understand the servant heart, just go find this guy and hang out with him a little while. Bam. Done. You’re going to get it. No problem. Arthur is a total joy and he’s teaching all of us what it means to serve around here.

To get us off on the right foot, the end goal of every Christian is to become Christlike. That’s it. If you what to follow Christ, yes, you get baptized. Yes, you invite him into your life. You make confession and then you follow him. And the whole goal from that point forward is for you to become Christlike. If you ever wonder what’s supposed to be happening, what it means to have good fruit coming out of your life, it’s Christlike. That’s the goal. Whether you’re Kanye or anybody else, the goal is to be Christlike.

It doesn’t matter where you start. It doesn’t matter how un-Christlike you might be, when you follow Jesus, he leads you into a place where you are becoming more like him, more into the image of Christ, more Christlike. That’s the goal.

The name “Christian” actually means little Christ. So what does it mean to be Christlike? This sermon series is all about that. We’re calling it the Beautiful Heart. Jesus had the beautiful heart. And it’s our attempt to answer that question.

We look at the heart of Christ, which is so beautiful. Some would say the heart of Christ is so beautiful it’s irresistible. Oh, how amazing and perplexing it would have been to spend a day with Jesus as he walked among us. To see. To hear. To feel the heart of Jesus expressed in humanity. I mean, you probably would have been, like, “Wow. This is incredible.” And, “Whoa, this is so weird.” Because it was probably so foreign to experience a heart like that.

But I believe Jesus’ heart is summed up well by something I picked up by familymatters.net. It’s actually grace based parenting. It’s this organization that’s trying to help parents parent better. One of the things they do is they say that you should teach your kids what true greatness is. The world is teaching them that to be wealthy, to be powerful, to be popular, those are the things that are really going to be great in life. But we should teach our kids what true greatness is. True greatness is a humble heart, a servant heart, a grateful heart, a generous heart. That’s what’s truly beautiful. I agree with that.

I’m just furthering it to say that I think this is what sums up the heart of Christ and what it means to be Christlike. So we’re unpacking that together.

They said:

A humble heart is a reverence for God and a respect for others.
A servant heart is a willingness to take action in order to help someone else. [Whether they like you or not, or are like you or not.]
A grateful heart is an appreciation for what you have and an acknowledgement of Who has given it.
A generous heart is a great delight in sharing with others what God has entrusted to you.
—familymatters.net

I like how Nathan Bentley highlighted the word “meekness” in his kickoff of the Humble Heart. I think that is a really great word. Strength under control. Powerful and gentle. Jesus himself described his heart this way. It’s always a real positive thing when you can build a sermon series and you can actually have Jesus saying, “Hey, if you want to know what my heart is like, I’ll tell you what my heart is like.”

We have a verse where Jesus actually describes his heart. He says, “To all who are weary and carrying a heavy load…” Anybody? Weary? Carrying a heavy load? Whether it’s your own or somebody else’s? No one? That’s amazing! Liars!

He said, “If you’re in that spot, come to me and I’ll give you pep talk.” Nope.

“Come to me and I’ll give you some construction criticism and help you with your problem solving.” Nope.

He says, “Come to me and I will give you rest.”

What an awesome song that came out of our worship team’s heart as they wrote that. Just resting in him. Resting in him. That’s really what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to abide, remain in Christ. And that alone will cause us to bear much fruit.

He says to link arms with him and learn from him, for he is gentle and humble in heart. Our God, when he described his own heart, he says it’s gentle and humble. And that’s just not what we celebrate. I mean, every song out there is talking about, “Look how cool I am. I’m so bad. I’m so awesome.” You watch these football players. They make about fourteen bad plays in a row, but they block one pass and they’re dancing all over the guy like they’re something so special. We’re like, “Whoa, that’s so cool. Look at their celebration.”

Yet, Jesus describes his heart as gentle and humble. He was not harsh or severe. He was not condescending or provoking. He was not disappointed or crotchety. He wasn’t in a hurry and he was not easily offended. Just like Americans. Just like me as a parent. No. The humble heart of God.

What’s so amazing about the humble heart of God is the humble heart of God is also in connection with the omnipotence of God. So powerful. Creator of all. And yet humble in heart.

When I first started worshiping Jesus with singing—it might sound weird, I mean, I went to church for a long time and never song—but at one point I was awakening to a relationship with Jesus, and I wanted to bless his heart and do things that I thought would please him—and one of the things I read in the Scriptures and I saw other people doing was singing. So I thought, “Eh, what the heck. Let’s give that a shot.” Usually, luckily at our church, it’s loud enough that nobody can hear you. But I just started singing a little bit. There was one song in particular that the lyrics were simple. It said, “O God, awesome in power, O God, gentle in love.” Those two lyrics together of awesome in power and gentle in love, it just endeared my heart to this God that I was beginning to learn about and know. How could someone be so awesome in power and yet gentle in love. Because every person I’ve known that gets power, their heart doesn’t go that way. It goes the other way, with power corrupting.

Yet God, who had all power, was expressing his power in gentleness and love and humility. And the more I got to know Christ, both studying his life, and then experiencing a relationship with him, it just got further and further in that same way. The humble heart of God is so beautiful.

Isaiah 40. I love the way a prophet who was kind of getting a picture, a word from God about this Messiah that was to come later on—the way he describes this God is:

10
See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,
and he rules with a mighty arm.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.

And with all that power, and that mighty arm that he has…

11
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.

I love the way they describe the Messiah. So different from any other Savior that you could imagine.

In another place it describes Jesus as one who “a bruised reed he will never break and a smoldering wick he will never put out,”

Jesus, as he walked full of all that omnipotence that created the cosmos, he walked among us like a lamb with gentleness and humility. He didn’t break anybody. He didn’t hurt anyone. His humble heart was so beautiful.

So what does it look like to have a servant heart. I think the humble heart, once you cultivate the humble heart, it is expressed in the servant heart. Just like when you cultivate a grateful heart it is expressed easier in generosity. So the humble heart leads to the servant heart.

I came up with three points because it’s a good teaching tool, and I forget to do it all the time. But I remembered it this time.

A servant heart is selfless in its motives.
A servant heart is secure in its service.
A servant heart is sincere in love.

We’re going to unpack each one of those as we go. But before we do, I don’t want you to miss this. And I’m going to come back to this at the end because it’s that important. We are upholding these virtues. We’re trying to get a picture of the heart of Christ. As we look at it, we see it as beautiful. We see it as amazing. We see it as what the world needs today. We see it as so different from everything we see. Ultimately, if we’re honest, we see it as something different than our own heart. And we can start to feel a little bummed. Or challenged.

And the question comes, “Well, how can my heart, that is so worldly, that is so selfish, that is so unlike Christ, how can this old heart, this young heart, this hurt heart, whatever it might be, how can it form and change into a heart that is more Christlike?”

And the Bible is very clear on this. And I want to be very clear on this. The only way to become more Christlike is to be with Christ. You’ve got to spend time with Jesus. There are a lot of gurus out there that will tell you a lot of different things. Do some weird stretching. Climb mountains. Stare at your belly button. Whatever it is. You’ll get more in tune with yourself. No doubt about it. And it is good to get in tune with your own soul. But it is not going to form you into the image of Christ. There is only One who knows the image of Christ, and that is the Spirit of Christ. And when we are in the presence of Christ by his Spirit, we are formed. He rubs off on us. We are changed into his image when we are in the glory of the Lord.

And the trick is, you have to do it daily and you’ve got to do it for decades. Being a Christian is not just, “Hey, say a prayer and we’re good. We’ll check in every year or so, Christmas and Easter.” You’re going to have a very un-Christlike heart if that’s what you’re doing. You might be great at church, but you’re not going to be like Christ. It’s a scary thing to be good at church and not like Christ. It’s a daily spending of time in the presence of God, of Christ. And it takes decades. So that’s the challenge to us.

A servant heart is selfless in its motives. Let’s turn to 2 Samuel 17. We’re going Old Testament. We’re going to get another Old Testament character because so often these Old Testament pictures give us such a clear vision of what Christ is trying to teach us in the New Testament In 2 Samuel 17, we’re introduced to a few guys, and I want to highlight on in particular: Barzillai

27 When David [the king] came to Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Makir son of Ammiel from Lo Debar…

Anybody? Lo Debar ringing a bell? Anybody? Yeah? A couple of weeks ago. Mephibosheth. Lo Debar? Yeah. This is the same guy that took care of Mephiboseth before David called him to his courts.

…and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim 28 brought bedding and bowls and articles of pottery. They also brought wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans and lentils, 29 honey and curds, sheep, and cheese from cows’ milk for David and his people to eat. For they said, “The people have become exhausted and hungry and thirsty in the wilderness.”

So we have this picture. An introduction. One of these four characters in particular, Barzillai, because the Bible highlights him in the next couple of chapters. All we know is that David is in a place where, for whatever reason, he and all the people that are with him are exhausted, tired and weary. And these guys, including Barzillai, get together some supplies and they give to the refreshment of David and his men.

What is happening is David and the people are outside of Israel, across the Jordan river in Lo Debar area, which is without pasture. It’s the wilderness. It’s the desolate place. It’s like Arizona. Just kidding. It’s the desert. It’s way out there. And they were fleeing because David’s son Absalom, who all we really know about was that he was bitter because his father didn’t really deal with his family well. He had some daddy wounds. And he had really long hair. That’s all we know. And yet, he had basically cultivated a coup to overthrow David. He wanted to kill David. He wanted to overthrow David. He did some horrific things to David’s family.

David had to flee. And the people he could gather had to flee for their lives. Because Absalom had gathered all these men, and David, at the time, wasn’t willing to fight his own son whom he loved. So David had fled and had been run out of town. And people had been mocking him. People had been laughing at him. People had been saying, “See, this is what you get for the horrors that you’ve done.”

And so David is out there, feeling shame, feeling betrayed, feeling hurt. And literally had no time to get supplies for the journey. They had been running for their lives so they’re exhausted. And there were these men that came around, men that David had probably interacted with when he was younger and was running for his life from Saul. But they come around. They hear the king is in need and they come around and give aid to him and the people. And Barzillai in particular is mentioned because what happens is, they care for David and then, at some point, however long that period was, there was a war between David’s men and Absalom, as Absalom is pursuing David. And Absalom’s hair gets caught in a tree and he’s kind of hanging there. He gets killed and his men get overthrown. So David is now able to come back to Jerusalem and set up as king again.

As he’s coming back, it says in 2 Samuel 19:

31 Barzillai the Gileadite also came down from Rogelim to cross the Jordan with the king and to send him on his way from there.

So, for whatever reason, those other ones aren’t there anymore. And this is what I love about the servant heart. The servant heart is a thorough heart. All these guys came and basically said, “Here, we’ll help you out in this moment.” But it seems like the other guys went home. I don’t know that, but I do know that Barzillai stayed with David. He didn’t just give him a handout and then leave. He stuck with him. He cared for him. He made sure things were okay.

And even when David was going back, he said, “All right. Well, I’m going to go on part of the journey with you, across the Jordan. And then I’m going to send you on your way.” It’s like, “You came to my house and I’m going to walk you out to your car.” He was thorough in his service, this Barzillai.

32 Now Barzillai was very old, eighty years of age. He had provided for the king during his stay in Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man. 33 The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me and stay with me in Jerusalem, and I will provide for you.”
34 But Barzillai answered the king,

And this is pretty funny. First service was laughing a lot. See what kind of age we’re dealing with here.

“How many more years will I live, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king? 35 I am now eighty years old. Can I tell the difference between what is enjoyable and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of male and female singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? 36 Your servant will cross over the Jordan with the king for a short distance, but why should the king reward me in this way? 37 Let your servant return, that I may die in my own town near the tomb of my father and mother.

So, here’s Barzillai, who’s basically like, taking care. He’s got a willing heart. He’s got a thorough heart. He’s selfless in his motives, because, here the king is basically saying, “Hey, I need people like you with me. You can sit at my table. You can live in the palace. We’ll take good care of you. You can be someone of esteem instead of being a person that lives out here in Lo Debar, that we all make fun of because it’s like Gila Bend.” (Sorry if you’re born in Gila Bend. )

And Barzillai looks at the king and says, “King, look, I’m good. I’m grateful. I didn’t do this to try and get in good with you. I didn’t do this to try and climb some sort of ladder. I know where I’m supposed to serve, king. I know what God has called me to do and it’s beautiful, even if you can’t see that, king. And he tells the king, “This is what I’m going to do. I’m going to take care of you, and I’m going to get you across that Jordan River. And I’m going to send you on your way with you need to get home, and I’m going to get back to the serving that I know I’m supposed to do. And if it’s small in your eyes, so be it.”

I just love the way Barzillai reacts here. On the other hand, he also says, “Why in the world would you try and reward me for something like this? This is what I do. This is who I am. It gives me pleasure to serve you. And ultimately, king, I’m not serving you to serve you. I’m serving you because I serve God. So why would you try and reward me for something that is a joy for me to do?”

That is a servant heart right there, you guys. We found it. That’s the servant heart. That is so un-American. We’re trying to climb every ladder. All of our giving has strings attached. And here’s this Barzillai, who knows what it means to serve. And he has to put the king back in his place and say, “King, what I’m doing is beautiful. What I’m doing is service. And it’s meaningful. And besides, you city boys, I don’t understand all that singing and dancing that you do.”

I love his attitude in all of this. It reminds me, honestly, my grandfather was a Colonel in the air force, my wife’s grandpa was in the army, career. Those guys just got it. They understood service. You would thank them for their service and they would just try and stop you. Because they didn’t do it so that someday they could tell the stories and be praised. They did it because they had a servant heart. This is what I see in Barzillai. He was someone who served with selfless motives.

The second thing: A servant is someone who is secure in their service. John 13 is another passage. It teaches us about how to serve out of security:

13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Thorough in his service, as well.

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist….and began to wash his disciples’ feet…

In John 13, John is basically recounting this story that is not in the other three gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke were all written between 60 and 70 a.d. by those guys. John didn’t write until about another twenty or thirty years later. John was one of the people that was actually there, that got his feet washed. John is writing at the end, saying, “Hey, there are a few more stories that need to be told. And there’s a little bit of a spin I want to put on the stories of what I remember of Jesus.”

He really emphasizes the deity of Christ. So he has these basic elements of the story, and he inserts things like, “Jesus knew that it was time for him to leave the world and go to the Father. Jesus knew that he had come from God and was going to God. So whatever John is writing here, he’s recounting that moment where he’s sitting at the Last Supper with Jesus. He can feel the intensity of whatever is going on in Jesus’ heart. It doesn’t sound like they were too clued in on what was going on with Judas, but it was all happening.

John is writing the story about this moment where Jesus got up from the table, —and whether all of them kind of looked at Jesus when he did that, or if just John noticed that Jesus was doing something different—he’s remembering the look in Jesus’ eyes. He’s remembering the emotion that seemed to be expressed in Jesus’ heart and the pace at which Jesus moved through these steps. And John recounts everyone. It’s almost as if slow-motion was happening.

And John says, “Jesus, knowing that it was time for him to leave the world, knowing that the cross, the betrayal, the pain, the agony, the real test was coming, and knowing that he had come from God and was going to God, knowing that the Father had put all power in his hands to do whatever he wanted, he chose to get up, to grab a towel, and to wash these guys’ feet.”

That’s what he did with his power. That’s what he did in his most important moment. And there was something about what John was saying. Jesus had this understanding, this perspective. He knew he had come from God, he knew he was going. There was a security that Jesus had which enabled him to serve in a way that was so meaningful that John wrote about it years later, after living a life of service. And still today, all over the world, people are washing each others’ feet to show love and service to one another.

Down in Belize, just a few weeks ago, when we were with all the men at the retreat. There were over 60 guys, I felt like the Lord was saying, “Hey, let’s do some foot washing.”

And I was like, “Oh, this is going to be weird. They’re going to be like, ‘What? I’m not toughing that guy’s feet. Ugh.’”

But I said, “All right, guys. We’re going to do a foot washing.”

They were kind of like, “What?!”

Some of them knew, they had heard stories. Some of them hadn’t. So I tried to lighten the mood a little bit by saying, “Okay, now, we’re going to wash each other’s feet. And just because it’s going to feel a little weird, it’s not supposed to. When you hold a guy’s foot and you’re washing it, just don’t look them in the eyes, okay?”

They liked that a lot.

“And then there’s like a twenty second limit per foot. So, as you’re washing it, just don’t look them in the eyes and then make sure you don’t go over 20 seconds. Then switch to the other foot. Twenty seconds and it’s done.”

I was trying to ease it up a bit. It was a beautiful thing to see all of these guys that have a lot of father wounds, that have been hurt by a lot of their male relationships. It’s a tough, dog-eat-dog society and culture. And here they were, washing each other’s feet.

It’s all coming back to this moment where Jesus, out of his security, was able to debase himself, was able to say, “I don’t care what everybody thinks about me. I’m going to serve, because I’m so locked in with the way my Father in heaven feels about me.”

And how do you get that security? Well, same thing. You’ve got to be with Jesus. Jesus knowing where he had come from, knowing he was returning to God, and that’s what we need to do. We need to root ourselves in that security if we want to serve well.

And then last: A servant heart is sincere in its love. Really, there’s no better description of the servant heart, I think, than what happens in 1 Corinthians 13, when it is describing what love is.

Dallas Willard—we’re going to get a bunch of Dallas Willard next year as we try and grow in our understanding of who God is and what he wants—he says that love is to will the good of another. That’s the way he describes it. Basically that’s what love is. It’s not a feeling. It’s not something you can get. True love is when you are willing the good of another. That is what love is all about.

1 Corinthians, you guys know it:

I’m going to say it. Love is patient. Love is kind..I’m going to go through this thing, but a servant heart is these very same things.

4 [A servant heart] is patient, [a servant heart] is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

I really think that’s a key. You know you have a servant heart when someone is treating you like a servant and it doesn’t bother you. It’s never happened in my life. No! When someone treats you like a servant, like, “Go get that for me!” And you’re like, “What did you say?” Again, it’s coming from a place of security. It’s not that you should just allow jerks to run over you and take advantage of you all the time. No, it’s when God’s calling you to love and serve someone, if they treat you like that, you say, “Okay. No problem. I’ll continue to serve you until you start to understand. Until you start to feel what patience and kindness really feels like. Until your heart can be softened by the love and service that I’m offering you. Just like my heart was softened by the love and service of Jesus to me.” So that’s what a servant heart looks like.

So how do we become more selfless? We spend time with the One who gave it all, who called himself the servant of all. How do we become more secure? We spend time with the One who is eternal, immoveable, unchanging, who is called the Rock of Ages.

How do we become more sincere in our love? We spend time with the One who is described as love and the Author of love.

How do we become more humble, helpful, grateful, and generous like Jesus? We spend time with Jesus. Daily and for decades. Daily and for decades. There is no quick and easy fix. It’s every day and it’s every day.

Let’s prepare our hearts for communion as we close—spend a little time with Jesus, allowing him to maybe highlight some things in your life where you’re doing well with this. Just allow him to search your heart and commend you for the things you’re doing well. But then, also, to bring to mind the things that maybe you’re not doing well in. You can spend that time confessing both your sin and mistakes, as well as confessing your forgiveness and wholeness.

We’ll all take this together in the end, but just hold on to the body and blood of Christ and spend a little time talking to Jesus.

Paul writes this to the Philippian church (Philippians 2):

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

And Jesus, we do pause right here, as the world is spinning, as our to-do list is clamoring for our attention, we choose to pause everything, Lord, and to look into your face, and to see into your eyes and into your heart, and to say, “Thank you” for your body that was broken so that we could be made whole. Please fill us with your humility.

Let’s take the bread.

And Jesus, we thank you for your blood that flowed to wash away all of our selfishness. Please do that once again.

Let’s take the cup.

Will you guys stand with me as we close in a chorus and have a little time of prayer up front? If you need prayer for anything, we’d love to partner with you and go before the Lord. This is a lot of information. I’m excited that we have a little curriculum that’s going to be going out to all the Life Groups. You can unpack it a little bit more.

If you don’t belong to a Life Group, we’re going to be launching some new ones in February so you can plugged in. This is more important than enneagram, or Myers Briggs or your PDP report. Whatever you are will be expressed in the most beautiful way if you can get this stuff right. You won’t even have to worry about it.

Let’s just spend time putting the Lord on the highest place in our hearts.

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