The Demonstration of the Full Extent of His Love

October 18 - Marty Caldwell - John 13

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.”

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.

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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.

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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©️2019 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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©️2019 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.

Don't Get Distracted

Rob Capaldi (www.capaldi.life)
Series: Ephesians

David Stockton: 

He is apostolic. He has traveled the continents sharing the word of God, trying to spread God’s word and strengthen churches. He’s here to share his gift and his calling with us—his story. He’s been in Ecuador. He’s been in Canada. He’s been in the U.S. and now he’s currently living in Italy, trying to build the church there. I’m so excited to tell his stories. I told him he can’t speak in Spanish, he can’t speak in Italian. He has to speak in English. He could do any of those. He could probably speak Canadian, too, but nobody wants to hear that. What’s up, Roy? Here you go, Rob. Let ‘em have it.

Rob Capaldi:

Thank you, David, for that amazing introduction. I feel like I could just do a mic drop after that and just walk away. See, now, that’s why I wanted a handheld. You can’t mic drop an earpiece. That’s not right.

Thank you so much. I will do like Paul has done in some of the books of the Bible:

Italy brings its greetings to you.

That is definitely true for us today.

Now, for those who do not know me, which is most of you, I am a second-generation missionary. When I was six years old, my parents decided to sell everything, put some of their stuff in a container and move to Ecuador. I obviously didn’t have much say in this because I was six years old. We lived there for a while, church was growing and everything was going great. 

But a little less than three years ago, with my family—I’ve been married fourteen years now, to my beautiful wife that is with me this morning, Karina. My oldest son is Robby, he’s twelve, and Angelina, she’s going to be seven, and my last daughter, Alia, she is four years old—we decided to move as missionaries, as David said, to Italy. I’ll be telling you a little about that story as we advance.

Something interesting happened to me when we were leaving Ecuador to go to Italy. There is this really popular Bible verse that people use when they are going to go somewhere else. You’ve probably heard it before. This verse is Acts 1:8. It’s one you know: 

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere: in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Have you heard that before? Yeah. You’ve heard that, right? So, obviously, we were using that verse when we were leaving Ecuador. “We’ve got to go to the ends of the earth. This is our Jerusalem. We’ve got to go to the ends of the earth. So that’s where we’re going. We’re going to the other side of the world to the ends of the earth.” For us that is Italy.

We get to Italy and the church that received us there, were actually on this missions topic as well. And guess what? They put that verse up and they’re talking about that. And they’re saying, “We need to have a vision to send people to the ends of the earth.” 

And I’m thinking, “Wait a minute. The ends of the … this is the ends of the earth! I just came from Jerusalem. This is the ends of the earth!”

And then it dawned on me. I just realized something. Now, I’m assuming none of you are flat earth believers. But I realized, “Oh my gosh. There is no ‘ends of the earth.’ The earth is round! So, if there is no ‘ends of the earth’—I’m coming to the ends of the earth—you’re gong to the ends of the earth and we’re crossing. Wouldn’t it just be cheaper and easier if everyone just stayed put?”

It’s funny though, because, you see, we all know when Jesus finished his ministry he left. He left the earth. And at that moment, I think that’s one of the coolest moments in the Bible, the disciples are there and they are watching Jesus leave. He’s gone on a cloud. He’s leaving and they’re just watching him. After a little while, he’s actually gone. But you know what the disciples are doing? They’re still just looking up into the sky. Then, all of a sudden, this angel appears among them and he says, “Uh, guys. What are you doing? Why are you looking up in the clouds? It’s time to pick up shop. Let’s go. It’s up to you now.”

If this angel was Italian, he would have said, “Hey, guys, salt in the salt shaker does nothing to the pasta. You’ve got to spread out that salt. You’ve got to get out there. You’ve got to go all around.”

That is God’s heart for us. No, we do not have to stay put. Yes, we have to go all around the world telling everybody about God’s love and everything that he has for us. That has to sound in every tongue, in every ethnicity, in every kind of person. It’s amazing when you hear it from different people around the world in the same place. We’ve really got to grasp that God is not just our God, here let’s say in Phoenix, but he is God of the whole world. So when we have people together speaking in Italian, in Portuguese, in Spanish, and they’re all talking about the same God. That is really power.

[A few sentences in Italian and then Spanish]

Okay, I’ll talk English. I’m sorry, David. Plus, I’m starting to sound a little like the candidates in the Presidential debates. We won’t get into politics this morning.

The point is, Jesus’ Body, he left, right? But his Body is still here. The Church, we are the living, breathing Body of Christ, amen? And Jesus still is serving everyone. He wants to do that through us. And now it is up to us to go all around the world. I am a witness, as David said. I’ve been around. Thank God. That is such a blessing. I’ve been to Spain. I’ve been to Switzerland. I’ve been to Italy. I’ve been to Canada. I’ve been all around. And you know what? God is everywhere! 

Don’t believe the news. Don’t believe whatever you hear about Christianity. Let me tell you something. And I can tell you because I’ve been there. God is doing things all around the world. 

If you could leave here this morning with just one thing, please let it be this: Do not get distracted. Do not get distracted from Christ’s love. Bear in mind, English is my first language, but it is actually the language that I use the least. It is a little rusty. So if I say anything stupid, please do not get distracted. 

I would like to bring our attention to Ephesians now. Ephesians 3. Paul, in Ephesians, is giving us this amazing vision of what the church looks like in the future. He’s teaching the Church how it needs to act, and also the individual, how it needs to act in this broken world. But in Ephesians are also these amazing golden nuggets that Paul does. And he does something amazing. He pauses for a second from his teachings, and he says he gets on his knees and he prays for the church in Ephesians. This is what he says in Ephesians 3:14. I’m reading from the New Living Translation. Listen to this. You might be able to receive this as a prayer, because this was Paul’s prayer for the Church, and we are part of this.

14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 

Let me repeat that:

Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 

18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Amen. What makes us complete? What makes us complete in him? It’s experiencing God’s love. And may we never, ever get distracted from that one thing: God’s love through Christ. Christ’s love in us. That’s what makes our roots grow deep and keeps us strong.

Before I got married, when we were about to get married, we went with my mother and father in-law to do some errands. Karina and I were in the back seat. My future mother in-law was driving, my father in-law was in the passenger seat. We were downtown and there was a lot of traffic. We were running some errands. So he jumps out to run some errands and my mother in-law was going to drive around the block to pick him up after he could do something quick.

So we’re in the back and she’s driving. Then, all of a sudden, as she was driving, somebody screams out, “Hey, be careful! Fire! Fire!” Like underneath the car. So she stops the car and jumps out. I also jump out because, you know, I have to show that I’m a responsible person, right? I hope that’s what she thought and that I wasn’t jumping out to save my life. So I jump out and I’m looking under the car and I don’t see anything. I’m like, “There’s nothing here.”

Then this guy comes around and taps me on the shoulder and says, “No, no. It’s in the back. Come and see!” And he touches my shoulder, he pushes me down a little and he says, “Look, look, look!”

So I’m looking at the exhaust pipe. I’m looking around. I don’t see anything. My mother in-law and I were both in the back of the car just looking like that and the guy says, “No, No. Look down. See? See? See?”

And after we’re looking a while, this girl comes up to us and says, “Hey, guys.” And I’m still looking, you know. “They just stole your purse.”

And I’m thinking, “What an idiot!” And so I get up and I’m like, “This can’t be. They just stole my future mother in-law’s purse. I’ve got to do something!”

So I start running. Right? I’m running and running and running. And then, as I’m running, I’m thinking, “What an idiot! Who are you running after? I don’t know what this person looks like. I don’t know where they went. I don’t even know what the purse looks like. I didn’t pay attention.”

And so I stopped and I turned around. I’m bummed out and walking back. And as I’m walking back, because I ran about a block and this is the longest block to walk back. As I’m walking back, I’m thinking to myself, “Wait a second. I saw the thief. I didn’t just see the thief, at least one of them, he touched me! The guy that was tapping on my shoulder, showing me where to look, pushing me down, he wasn’t trying to help me. He was distracting me. He was distracting me, making me look down so that I wouldn’t realize what was actually going on. That guy was in on it. That guy was the thief.”

That sometimes happens to us. We get distracted from what is really going on. We get distracted from what God really wants for our lives and for what God really wants for your life. Let’s not get distracted. You know what? Sometimes we think those distractions are going to be bad things, evil things. No, no, no. This guy was trying to help me, right? That’s why I was listening to him. He was trying to help me. Right? That’s why I was listening to him, because he was trying to help me. But it wasn’t true. So sometimes it can be apparently good things in our lives, but if they distract us from the love Christ has for us, then it’s not necessarily a good thing.

This reminded me of something in Matthew 13. I’m just going to mention it, you don’t have to go there. There’s a parable that Jesus was teaching. You’ve definitely heard it before. The parable about the farmer planting seeds. The farmer casts out all these seeds everywhere. All these seeds fall on all these different types of soil. 

That’s a teaching in itself. That really shows us the Father’s heart. He’s going to throw seed everywhere. That sounds like a terrible farmer, actually. A good farmer would just throw seed where it’s going to grow. This farmer just throws it everywhere. It doesn’t matter if it lands on stone, if it lands on wherever it lands. But that’s God’s heart. He gives everyone an opportunity. And you might think, “Man, I’m not really good soil. But you know what? He’s throwing seeds at you because he wants you to grow.”

So these seeds fall on different kinds of soil. The first soil wasn’t soil at all. It was just stone. The sun came out and the seed didn’t have anywhere to grow. It burns right up. The second one has a little bit of soil. It starts to grow, but can’t put its roots anywhere. Dries right up, as well.

And then there’s the third soil. This is the one I want to talk about. This third soil terrifies me. At the same time that I’ve traveled everywhere, I’ve seen this third soil around the world, as well, and it terrifies me. There’s a reason why it terrifies me. I’m going to read directly from Matthew 13:22 (NLT): 

22 The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.

Why does this terrify me so much? Because this seed that grows, it doesn’t die. No. The soil is good. It starts growing, but it does not die. It grows among thorns and the thorns let it grow, but it kind of grows bad. It’s not growing properly, so no fruit is produced. You may think, “Thorns, those are like bad people in my life. That’s what those thorns must represent.”

But that’s not the truth. Thorns are just distractions. Thorns are things you worry about. Or thorns are things you really want, like wealth and riches or to be prosperous or whatever. Just distractions. 

You know what happens when you have too many distractions in your life? You forget about the essential thing, which is Christ’s love for you and being in that love. When we lose that, our roots cannot grow deep to where they should be, and we will not produce fruit. We do not want that in our lives. We want to be good soil without these distractions.

What happens then? We can produce thirty, sixty, a hundred times that. It doesn’t matter if you’re thirty, sixty or a hundred. The important thing is that everything that is growing and is healthy will keep on growing and will produce fruit.

I thought I wasn’t a person that would get distracted from these kind of things. In 2016, my life was actually going pretty well. It was going really well, actually. I was super happy with my life. I had my own business. It took a long time to get that thing running, like years. But it was finally up and running. My family was growing. I had a beautiful family. The church—I was ordained pastor a few years prior. The ministry was growing. My ministry was growing. Man, I was loving it. It was going great.

So we decided to purchase a piece of property. So we bought this piece of property and we paid it off. It’s easy to buy things. It’s the paying off part that’s hard to do. So we paid off the property. So we decided to build. Oh yeah. This is like our all-time dream. We’re going to build our own house. That’s like a thing in Ecuador to buy land and build your home. That was our vision. That’s what we want to do. We were living temporarily—which was actually like ten years—in my father in-law’s house. They did not live there, so that was a good thing. That’s when a blessing starts to become a curse, right? When you’re overdoing it. So we were building our own house. This was going to be amazing.

So we start this amazing project. We were on Pinterest, checking out what the rooms were going to be like. We were putting this project together to give to the architect. So the week we had to do all that, it was a Monday morning, I was having breakfast with my wife. We were going over the last details so I could hand this over to the architect. And as we’re going over the details, having breakfast, talking, this idea just flashes through my mind. It gives me goosebumps. The idea was, “Is this the will of God?”

I’m thinking, “Well, come on. I mean, it’s the logical thing to do. We’re advancing in life. We’re supposed to be doing this.” And I’m thinking, and I ask my wife, “Honey, did we pray about this? Because this is a long term project.”

And she’s like, “No, I don’t think we have.”

I’m like, “Man, I don’t feel good right now. Let’s just pray about this.”

So I say a real simple prayer. I say, “Lord, I’m really sorry we haven’t put this into your plans first, but if this is what you want us to do, bless this. If it’s not, just let us know so we can do something else. Just let us know kind of soon, okay? Amen.”
It was as simple as that. Five minutes later—I am not joking—five minutes later I receive a phone call. It was my dad on the phone. And he says, “Son, I was just praying and meditating right now and this thought came to my mind. I’m just going to land it on you. Do whatever you think—but this might be a great time for you to go somewhere else as a missionary.”

“Thanks, Dad. I appreciate it.”

So I hang up and I look at my wife. She’s like, “What’s going on?”

And I’m like, “How about instead of building our dream house, we sell everything and go somewhere else as missionaries?”

See, I warned her before we got married that I was going to do that someday. So she had to say, “Yes.” But she was surprised because she thought it was after we’d retire, or something like that. 

That is exactly what we did. We sold everything. We took six months to really get the confirmation. It wasn’t just from that phone call. So don’t go do anything crazy if you receive one phone call. It took us six months to decide where we were going and all that, and then six months to sell everything and prepare everything. So exactly that same date that we received that phone call and prayed about it, we arrived in Italy one year later.

You know, the thing is that I realize in my life that sometimes we just go into autopilot, you know? It was obvious. I was supposed to advance in life. I was supposed to build a house. That’s true. They are all good things. But they are also distractions. You never know what the Lord wants to put in your path. You’ve got to just give it a second and let him talk to you. Maybe the life he has for you is slightly different than the one you are imagining for yourself.

You might be saying, “Rob, I hear you, but come on. Where do I start this kind of a life that just really trusts in God, that really loves Christ, that understands…? I just don’t know where to start so I just keep going back into autopilot.” If you don’t know what to do, don’t let that distract you from Christ’s love, either. 

When we went to Italy, we actually didn’t know what we were supposed to do. We had no idea. I knew I was supposed to leave and that was about it. It was not like I had this five year plan of where am I going to be in five years? We didn’t not know what we were going to do. But the Lord put this verse in my heart that really got me through hard times. Genesis 12:1

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.

All right. That sounds pretty basic, right? But wait a minute. Listen to that verse. There’s something kind of secret there. This is when you realize Abraham truly was the father of the faith. He had to leave his father’s home to a land that God was going to show him. So, he actually had to leave to somewhere and he did not know where he was supposed to go. You know what that is? Those are steps of faith?

In your life, take steps of faith. They don’t have to start with huge steps of faith. Take small steps of faith. But start putting your faith in action. Because when you need to put your faith in action, you start churching Christ’s love for your life. When your faith is not in action, you don’t really need God’s love. You can do church life. You can do Christian life without Christ’s love. That’s the crazy thing. But you know what that is? That’s a plant growing with thorns around him. That isn’t producing fruit. You’re doing the thing. You’re living the life, but it’s not to its fullest. God does not want that life for you. He wants you to grow to that full plant, tree, whatever, that has tons of fruit. And we need Christ to do that.

You can start with small things, basic things. Ephesians tells us all about it. Start with your own life. Start living good. Get your act together. Start being a testimony for different people, just by the way you live. You don’t have to be a mega evangelist to do that. Just get your act together. Start with that. It takes faith. And it takes love in Christ to really be able to do that. Or serve in any way possible. There’s always something to do at church. Believe me, there’s always something to do in God’s kingdom. It doesn’t matter if it’s sweeping the floor. One door opens the next. You’ve got to start somewhere. Sometimes we only want to start if it’s something big. No, no, no. Start with something small. One thing will lead to the next.  

This wise person told me something that really helped me throughout my life. He said, “If you only want to go in one direction, follow your vision. That’s it. There’s only one direction for your vision. But if you’re willing to serve someone else’s vision, the whole world will open up to you.”

That’s a profound statement. But you know what? That is true. Sometimes in periods, seasons of our lives, we need to be open to follow someone else’s vision. But one door will open up to the next and the Lord will use us. 

Support God’s kingdom. Support a missionary, how about that? I can give you a few names, if you want. At the end of the service, my email and website will be there. Snap a picture, send me an email, say I want to be on your newsletter. We’ll be happy to do that. That’s not the purpose why I’m here. I want to talk about Christ’s love and don’t get distracted from that.

Don’t get distracted even when you’re in a desert. That’s going to come around one time or another. The Israelites were really surprised when that desert came around. They thought, “Promised Land,” but there was a dessert first. Things are going to happen in your life, but don’t let that distract you from Christ’s life. 

Our time in Italy was rough at the beginning. I have never been at the hospital so many times. It wasn’t even for myself. It was for my children, for all these different things, so many things I can’t get into it. But it’s amazing how many problems you can get into when you’re loving Christ. It’s a strange thing. But you know what? He warned us about it. And in that desert, that’s not the time to complain, That’s the time to trust in God.

I woke up the other day with something in my heart that I just wanted to say: You are not your desert. Do not make that your identity. The identity of the Israelites was the “People of  God.” It was not “Desert People.” And that’s the same for us. You are not your financial problems. You are not your confusions. You are not your troubles and your problems. That is not you. You are God’s son and daughter. That is your identity. Always go back to that identity. Because we are not our deserts.

Don’t get distracted from Christ’s love even when the Promised Land, that life that God has for you, looks a little bit different from what you imagined it to be. Those Israelites were surprised when they saw the Promised Land. You know why? Because they thought it was going to be flowing with milk and honey. And that’s true. It was. But there was also another surprise there. A little problem. Spies came back and they said, “Guess what? In this Promised Land, there’s giants!” 

There are going to be giants in our Promised Land. It might look a little bit different. When we went to Italy, oh man, I thought this red rug was going to come out from the airplane when we walked down and everybody would coming running up, “Tell me about Jesus!” And when we got there, it was like, “What are you doing here?”

It looks a little different sometimes than what we imagine. And that’s okay. 

Christ’s love. We should never get distracted from it. And that’s one of the reasons we do communion. And we and start passing that through. The reason we do communion is to remember the most important things in our lives. That is Christ’s sacrifice for us. Remember the love that he has because it is that love, Christ’s love for us, that is what is going to make our roots grow deep and keep us strong. That’s what it is. 

As we pass out the elements, just let God start to talk to your heart for a second. What thorns do you have in your life? What thorns do you need to remove? What distractions do you need to remove? Are you on autopilot, my friend? I think God has a more adventurous life for you than just to worry about bills at the end of the month. Those are all part of our life. That’s okay. But I believe God has so much more for each and every one of us. 

As we pass the bread and wine, we remember about what Christ has done for us. I want to say one last thing about these distractions. Don’t get distracted from Christ’s love, even when you mess up. You know, sometimes a relationship with God seems like this mountain. It’s a huge mountain. We’re building up, climbing up this mountain and, sometimes we feel great. “I’m on top of the mountain. This is awesome!” And then we mess up. 

And we go and do it again. It takes us a while. We’re like, “Great! I’m back in this relationship. Yes!” And then we mess up. 

And then next time, we kind of look at the mountain and say, “Meh. Maybe in a few years.”

Can I tell you something? That mountain doesn’t exist. Ephesians 3:12:

12 Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.

You know, God’s mercy is new every day. You’ve heard about that? You know what that means in our lives? It’s like when we mess up and we say, “God, I’m sorry I messed up.” And then the next day we mess up again. And we go back and say, “God, I’m sorry I messed up again.” And God says, “Again? What do you mean again?”

You see, God’s mercy is new every day. It’s like the first time every time. That’s too big of a love to comprehend. That’s what Paul’s trying to explain. It’s just too big of a love to comprehend. And you are righteous people. You know what righteous people do? Proverbs 24:16:

The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.

If you’ve fell, you’ve messed up in your life in any way, get back up. The ground is not a  place for you. It’s also just a distraction. It’s the thief trying to get you to look at the ground instead of looking up to see what’s really happening. And you know what’s always happening? Christ’s love for you. And that is why we get back up.

And speaking about getting back up, let us all stand, please. 

Father, we want to remember right now, Lord, all the goodness that you have for us. Most importantly, the love that you have for us, Father. 

For I pass onto you what I have received from the Lord himself, on the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” I thank you, Father. I thank you, Jesus, for your body. You were the last sacrifice. Thank you for that love that you’ve had for us. In the name of Jesus. Let us eat the bread.

In the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, “This cup is a new covenant between God and his people, in agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as oft as you drink it. For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.

We thank you, Lord, for this new covenant. A better covenant, m Father. Not by law, but by your grace, filled with your  love. May we remember this every time we drink this cup. That it is your love that we seek. It is your love that keeps us strong, and may we remember that in the darkest times of our life, and also in the happiest, Lord. May we never be distracted and always come back to your feet, Father, and receive that love. Let’s drink the wine.

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Scripture is taken from Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.