Episode Transcript
[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hi, my name is Paul, and I'm a member with Restored Church. If you're new, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. We believe that the church is not an event, but a family that you belong to, so we'd love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please please Visit our website, RestoredTemecula Church and click on Contact.
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[00:00:49] Speaker B: All right, everybody, how we doing?
That's good to hear, man.
Yeah, it's finally there. It's like, okay, it's gonna get hot again. But, man, the AC feels fantastic this morning.
Goodness. Vinny drew attention to it. I thought very appropriately this morning during our time of prayer with the kids. But, like, I just. Man, I feel God's presence this morning in a really, like.
I don't know, in a really beautiful way. I don't know if you're. You're feeling the same way that I am, but I feel like he's with us this morning. And the sense that I get is.
I'm gonna get into the word in just a bit, but the sense that I get is that I think God wants to comfort us.
I think there's some of us in the room. Like, you need to be comforted.
Maybe there's nothing gnarly going on with you. That's fine. But I still think God wants to comfort you. Maybe you're in a space where you're like, you're feeling discouraged. You're feeling maybe work's hard. Maybe, like, maybe you're grinding way too hard. I feel like God wants to encourage us this morning and comfort us this morning. And so, that being said, we're going to continue in our series going through Matthew. We've called this series the King and His Kingdom. You guys have heard me say this 76 times. At this point, we are making our way through Matthew, and we're talking about the king and his kingdom. That's the whole point. What is the kingdom of God? And what is his king with a King Jesus? What is he like? When we talk about the kingdom of God, we're talking about the rule and the reign of God on the earth. What does it look like when God gets his way? It's what you and I were made for. We were made to live and grow and be within God's kingdom and human beings thrive under his leadership, under his lordship, under his kingship. That's what we're exploring. So I don't want to waste any more time. Go to grab your Bibles. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 15 this morning.
You can go ahead and put your finger on verse 29. That's where we're going to start. Only a few verses this morning, but very, very powerful verses.
Very, very powerful verses.
And so before I give you a little context of where in the story we're jumping into, I want to spend some time praying just to invite God's spirit to teach us this morning.
Information is one thing. Having God help us connect the dots about reality through the lens of His Word is another. And so that's what I want to ask for. So I invite you to join me in prayer right now.
Holy Spirit, we invite you.
We affirm and acknowledge your presence among us. Spirit of Jesus.
We affirm and acknowledge, Father, that you are active among us.
And the truth is that you couldn't be any closer than you are because you dwell inside of your people.
And so I pray right now just for a fresh revelation, a fresh realization that you really are with us. Mark talked about it already.
You're with us right now.
And so my prayer is that you would grow us in our awareness that you really are with us.
And you look to guide us, to lead us, to serve us, even Jesus. It's wild.
You're looking to transform us with your love and your wisdom and your power and your leadership.
And so our invitation is that you would father us this morning.
Show us more, Holy Spirit. Show us more of the beauty of Jesus.
Jesus, there's nobody like you.
You're wonderful to us.
You're so kind and faithful and generous and you're wise. So teach us. We pray. We love you, Jesus. We pray these things in your name. And all God's people said amen.
Okay, so we're going to jump in here in verse 29. I want to bring you up to speed if you haven't been journeying with us in this series, but where we pick up in the story here, Jesus, he's on retreat, if you will, with his disciples, okay? They're getting away. And what he does is most of Jesus ministry happened around the Sea of Galilee, okay, this lake, if you will, over in Palestine. And Jesus, what he would do is he would go around the lake and he would minister. And where we pick it up here, he's gone north, if you remember. Last week we talked about the encounter he had with the Canaanite woman, the Gentile Canaanite woman. Fascinating, powerful, amazing encounter. But he goes up into Gentile territory, so north of the Sea of Galilee. And he has that encounter, right?
And what he's doing is the reason he's going up there is one, he wants to encounter this woman, which is beautiful. He goes out of his way for this Gentile woman, this non Jewish woman.
But also he's getting away for really, for two reasons. He's bringing his disciples with him. You see Jesus in and around Galilee. He is experiencing hostility from the Jewish religious leaders, all right? They are increasing in their opposition to him. And so because of that and because Jesus at this point is kind of like a rock star, okay? Not in the sense of debauchery, in the sense of just attention.
The crowds are massive. They're following him everywhere. He loves, if you read the scriptures, you know, he looks upon the crowds with compassion all the time. So he's not anti crowd, but he's fully God, fully man. So God becomes a man. And he signs up for all the human limitations.
That means he has to sleep, he has to get rest, he has to eat, he has to experience these same things that you and I do, these human limitations. He signs up for those because he's so humble and incredible. But part of that is he needs to just get away for a bit.
And that happens oftentimes. You'll see. Jesus withdrew.
He's getting away. He's retreating with his disciples away from the hostility of the religious Jewish leaders and away from the fame and the popularity for just a minute of all the Jewish people, okay, the massive crowds. So he takes his disciples, he withdraws, right? Then he has that incredible moment with the Canaanite woman. He. He's like. He affirms her great faith as a Gentile, which is pretty scandalous, right? He heals her demon possessed daughter.
And then we pick it up here in verse 29. Let's read it.
I'm in the CSB, by the way, says this, moving on from there. We just talked about where, from where there was Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, okay? So he's traveling south along the Sea of Galilee. Now we know from Mark's account that he's starting to go east, okay? So he's going on the other side of, of the Sea of Galilee, the east side.
He went up on a mountain and sat there. Verse 30.
And large crowds came to him. Pause for just a second. Large crowds. How large is the Crowd, it's pretty big. Okay? If you keep reading just the rest of this chapter here, you'll see he's about to feed thousands of people again. Okay, so it says that there's 4,000 men. They didn't count women and children. I don't understand it, but they didn't. Okay, so there's somewhere. But there's somewhere ish. 10,000 ish people, okay? Give or take. All right, so big, big crowd came to him, including the lame. Lame would be people with disabled feet or disabled legs, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. Say many others.
So there's these afflicted people.
Not everybody, but a lot of this large crowd, this crowd of thousands of people are afflicted in these specific ways and other ways, too.
Okay, let's keep reading. They put them at his feet. If you have a pen, underline that in your Bible. At his feet.
And then he healed them.
Verse 31.
So the crowd was amazed when they saw those unable to speak, talking, the crippled restored the lame walking and the blind seeing. And it says they gave glory to the God of Israel.
That's our passage. Okay, this is an incredible passage. All right? You have this crowd of thousands, 10ish thousand people or so. They're seeking Jesus out, okay? They're going after him, and many of them suffering with serious afflictions and illnesses and things. And it says that Jesus heals them.
Now, we read this, and reading about it is one thing, right? But, like, gosh, guys, imagine being there.
I mean, really, imagine being a crowd of thousands of people seeking Jesus. Like, picture it in your mind if you can.
All these people suffering, all these serious afflictions, right?
And Jesus heals them.
Like, imagine one after one, the gasps.
Oh, my goodness. Like, imagine, like, the mother's tears watching her child and the wife's tears watching her husband be healed and the like and the friend. And, like, just, like, picture the reality of, like, the.
I don't know, the, Like, a disruptive environment even.
You have transformation, miraculous transformation happening in an instant. There's gonna be reactions, isn't there?
Whoa. Like, it's insane, you guys. Anybody watch the Chosen?
I've referenced this before. There's a scene in the Chosen that is one of my favorite scenes in all of, like, shows or TV show, like, or movies, like, ever.
And the reason I love the Chosen is because it helps you visualize what it would be like, you know, like, just the visualization of, like, these things, what it was really like, you know? And there's this Scene where Jesus, he. He basically heals and he exorcises a demon out of this guy, right? And it's this intense moment. It's like, it's kind of dark. Cause like the guy's demon possessed and he attacks some of the disciples and it just like, oh my gosh, what's happening? And Jesus like tells the demon, get out. You know, breakthrough deliverance happens. And it's this like tense moment. And John the Baptist is in the background and he just goes, yeah.
And I think it's so appropriate because it's like, wouldn't you react that way?
Like you see this miracle taking place.
You see the kingdom of heaven triumphing and pushing back the kingdom of darkness.
It's amazing. So I want you to picture that with thousands of people, like three verses here, but holy smokes, man.
Imagine what it must have been like to be there just for. This is one of countless moments of Jesus miraculous ministry.
And it says that this crowd gave glory to the God of Israel.
That is a really, really important note, okay? It's a really, really important detail here because it shows that this crowd, they're not Jewish.
These are Gentiles as well.
They're giving glory to the God of Israel.
So they're not Jews. They're gentiles. We know this because they say they give glory to the God of Israel. And we also know this because of the location. They're also in gentile territory on that side, on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. Okay? So this crowd, they're not Jews. They're gentiles.
This is massive.
This is huge. This is another example of like first century people would have read this and gone, whoa. We read it and we're like, oh, cool, healings. No, no, no. These are gentiles, okay?
Gentiles, they didn't live by God's law.
Like, think about this, guys. Jesus just healed a massive crowd of law breakers.
Thousands of them.
Okay? Right after he delivered a gentile woman's daughter from demonic torment. Again, another lawbreaker, right?
Guys, it makes sense that Jesus would be like miraculously healing the Jewish people, right? These are God's chosen people. His instrument to reveal what he's like to the rest of the world. It makes perfect sense. Jesus showing up, healing the Jewish people. It's God's chosen people, right? They lived by God's law, or at least they tried to.
But these gentiles, they didn't live by God's laws.
They were lawbreakers.
Do you know what that means?
If you're taking Notes. My first point is, when God heals, it's grace.
When God heals, it's grace.
Like, it's undeserved. That's what I mean.
It's totally undeserved.
In 2010, I was leading worship for this college ministry. Actually, it wasn't a college ministry. It was a young adults ministry.
And I'm leading worship for this ministry. And I met this guy, and this dude had spent time in federal prison for some pretty serious crimes. He had been out of prison fairly recently.
And I remember getting to know this guy.
God transformed his life. Beautiful story. Amazing. But I remember asking him, like, I was, you know, very intrigued. Like, you weren't, like, in jail. You were in, like, federal prison. Like, bro, what was that like?
And he was like, it was terrible.
He's like, it was absolutely awful. He goes, everyone was hard.
Like, mean, right?
Like, every dude, there's no smiling, there's no laughing.
Every dude is, like, mean and hard. He goes, at first, it was, like, this huge shock. And this. I mean, he's a. He's a tough guy, but he was like. At first it was Zeus.
It was a shock.
He goes, I would wake up in the morning, every morning, just, oh, God, I'm here again.
Like, I'm in this environment.
And he described, like, a bunch of violence. Like, violence was normal. He's like, these dudes were ruthless.
Like, they were. He's like, you couldn't trust anybody, right?
Everybody in there had done awful things.
And so he started to be like, well, yeah, of course.
Of course they're gonna be unethical. Of course they're gonna be violent. Of course they're gonna be mean, right?
And he described how, like, over time, he stopped being surprised by it.
You know, like, the first month is an adjustment. It's a shock.
And he started to get used to it.
He wasn't surprised by it anymore. Why?
Because he recognized where he was.
He recognized where he was. This guy, he broke the law, and as a result, he's in prison, and he's now literally surrounded by other law breakers.
You with me, Frank? Can I just.
Can you allow me to remind you of where you are?
Every person on the planet has broken God's law. Huh?
Every person on the planet has violated God's rules of love.
You're just like me. We are surrounded by other lawbreakers.
So I just want to. I want to remind you of the reality of where you are.
We're in Temecula. It's, like, comfortable and nice. Despite when it gets to Triple digit heat.
But, like, I want to remind you of where you are. You're surrounded by other lawbreakers. You and I, we live in a world infected with sin.
And as a result, the world we live in is broken. That means it doesn't function the way it was intended to function. It's not operating the way God created it for it to operate. Okay? We live in a world of cancer and of disease and of blindness and of pain and of pride and of abuse and of trauma and poverty and greed and hate and selfishness.
We live in a broken and fallen world. And in a broken world, anything good that happens is grace.
Anything good that happens is undeserved.
I find it interesting in my own life, I'm trying to think of the right words. It's not improving, but I'm getting less naive and less ignorant.
But it's still there where, like, I get shocked and surprised when bad things happen.
We should be shocked and surprised when good things happen.
Like, don't forget where you are.
Don't forget where you are. You're surrounded by other lawbreakers.
We're in a broken and fallen world.
Things aren't the way they're supposed to be.
Guys, do you see how radical Jesus is in this passage?
I mean, he's healing lawbreakers, they don't deserve it.
Like, he would be just and good if he didn't.
But he's healing lawbreakers. They don't deserve it. But nonetheless, he heals them. And not just a couple of them, thousands of them.
Whenever God heals its grace, friends, whenever God heals, its undeserved.
And just real candid talk, man.
It can be hard when you're praying for healing and God's answer is not yet.
I know many of you. Gosh, I can think, I look around the room and I'm just Like, many of us in the room know what it's like for days and months and years to go by of God, please, like, heal this, heal that, heal this person, heal me, heal me. And his answer is not yet.
Man, that's hard.
They're fired up out there, aren't they?
Revival's breaking out with the kids. Our prayers are working.
Listen, I just want to be sensitive to like, the not yet answer to prayer for healing right for you or for a loved one. I just, but like, little, like, I'm trying to, like, be as sensitive to this and compassionate as possible, but also sober.
We have to remember where we are, though.
We have to remember where we are. We're surrounded by other lawbreakers. We're in a broken and fallen world.
Whenever God heals, it's grace.
Whenever God heals, it's undeserved.
But my favorite thing about Jesus, my absolute favorite thing about Jesus is that he's gracious.
Like, it's not just a attribute of his.
He is gracious. It's part of who he is. He heals the lawbreaker. He get this. He dies for the lawbreaker. That's the gospel, right? He provides even for the lawbreaker.
He loves evil, even the lawbreaker.
There's nobody like him.
There's nobody like him.
I was praying this morning, and I got the sense that there was like, a contingency of us. Like, and this is no shame, but like, some of you, you've been breaking God's laws, right? You've been. You've been disobeying God. You've been resisting his ways in specific ways that, you know, it's not like you're ignorant to it. You're doing things you know you shouldn't do, right?
You're sinning against God in some ways. Maybe how you interact with people close to you, maybe your thought life, maybe the media that you're looking at, whatever. Like, there's these things that you're doing, you know, it's wrong you're doing. You're sinning against God. Maybe you're sinning against others. If that's you, I just want to tell you Jesus is gracious to lawbreakers.
It's who he is.
And his grace. We're going to get into this. His grace has the power.
The grace of God is the most powerful force in all of the universe.
It has the power to transform the worst of sinners into the most grateful and glorious. Really, Saint.
So if you're here and this week's been like, man, I've been blowing it this week. I've been dipping my toes into waters I shouldn't be dipping my toes into. I've been saying things I know I shouldn't have said, but like, man, when my wife did this, I just couldn't. I had to let her have it. Like. Or whatever. Like, if that's you, I'm not trying to condemn you.
I'm trying to get you to look to Jesus because he's gracious to lawbreakers like me. Okay, let's keep going.
So you got this massive crowd of gentile lawbreakers, right?
They come seeking Jesus in their afflictions. And what happens? Look back at verse 30, and large crowds, thousands of people came to him, including the lame, the Blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others.
And it says they put them at his feet and he healed them.
If you're taking notes, my next point is this. Beautiful things happen at the feet of Jesus.
Absolutely beautiful things happen at the feet of the most. Spectacular things happen at the feet of Jesus.
Things that you didn't think were possible happen at the feet of Jesus.
Like heaven invading earth happens at the feet of Jesus.
Right? Just in this passage, at the feet of Jesus.
Mute people talk at the feet of Jesus. Crippled people are restored at the feet of Jesus. The lame are walking away. And not like walking away from Jesus, they're like walking away, walking like. It's incredible, right? The blind at the feet of Jesus. The blind can see.
And this isn't like symbolic, this isn't metaphoric to try to, like, twist and make you feel good about. Yeah, Jesus can. No, this is like real. Like blind people are seeing.
It's describing literal transformation. Beautiful things happen at the feet of Jesus.
And listen, if you do a survey of the New Testament, it's not just miraculous healings. There's plenty of miraculous healings that we see at the feet of Jesus. I mean, thousands of them here just in this passage. But it's not just miraculous healings. I had a blast going through the New Testament just to kind of grab what kind of things happened at the feet of Jesus. I want to give you some more examples of what happens at the feet of Jesus. Do you remember Jairus, the synagogue leader? Mark, chapter five?
This guy, his daughter dies, and so he seeks Jesus, and he falls at the feet of Jesus, seeking his daughter to be healed from death, which is how do you do and what happens? Jesus raises his daughter from the dead.
Beautiful things happen at the feet of Jesus, right? Do you remember the story of the demoniac? Right. It's multiple accounts in the Gospels, but Luke chapter eight might be my favorite. But the demoniac is this dude. I mean, he is. He's in trouble, okay? He's got a legion of demons inside of him. This guy's cutting himself. He's Christ chained. He's off in the wilderness, right? It's just this gnarly story, right? But what ends up happening is Jesus ends up casting out all of these legion of demons out of this guy.
And then right afterwards, it literally says in Luke chapter eight, he's sitting where? At the feet of Jesus. And it says, in his right mind, at the feet of Jesus.
Our culture doesn't know what to do with mental health stuff sometimes.
And I'm not anti medication. I think there are so many times when it's absolutely necessary, there's chemical imbalances. Is real.
What about the feet of Jesus?
This guy at the feet of Jesus, his mental health is restored. And it's not just like simple. It's serious mental health stuff.
At the feet of Jesus, his mental health is restored. Beautiful things happen at the feet of Jesus. Maybe one of my favorite people in all of Scripture, Mary Bethany.
God, this woman. Luke, chapter seven. If you don't know the story of Mary Bethany, she's the scandalous sinner, okay? Sinning in very scandalous ways, okay?
Do you remember the story?
She comes and she has this Alabama, we sung about it already, which is beautiful.
She's got this alabaster jar of perfume.
And it's not just any jar of perfume. It's a really expensive jar of perfume.
This jar of perfume that she has is worth a year's salary, okay?
It's a lot of money, okay? And so what she does is she ends up breaking this alabaster jar at the feet of Jesus.
You remember the story, right? At the feet of Jesus, she breaks the jar of perfume. And do you remember what happens? She's. It's a room full of people. It's an act of devotion and worship and love to Jesus. But she does this at the feet of Jesus, she breaks his alabaster jar. And Judas is there. Judas knows how expensive that jar of perfume is. And you remember what he says? He goes, what a waste of money.
And there's another guy there, this Pharisee, Simon. And Simon in his mind goes, if this guy Jesus was truly a prophet, he would know how big of a sinner this woman is and he would not want her anywhere near. And Jesus calls the dude out in front of everybody. It's amazing, right? He goes. Jesus basically says to Simon, he goes, her many sins have been forgiven. And he goes, that's why she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little loves little. In other words, he who has been forgiven of little will love little.
She who has been forgiven of much, she loves much.
In Mark's account of the same moment, Jesus says this. He says, truly, I tell you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.
The most historic act of worship and devotion that's been passed down. Jesus is like, wherever the gospel is going to be preached, people are gonna be talking about Mary's act of devotion and worship to me.
So I want you to see something at the Feet of Jesus.
This woman experiences radical forgiveness.
And she expresses historic worship such that Christians have been marinating on her act of worship as an inspiration for their own worship for thousands of years.
You sung about it this morning.
Our affection, our devotion poured out on the right.
So you fulfilled prophecy this morning. Just so you know, Jesus said it was going to happen.
Wherever the Gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.
At the feet of Jesus.
Radical forgiveness, historic worship. Beautiful things happen at the feet of Jesus. Can I just give you one more?
The same Mary of Bethany, this incredible woman. Luke chapter 10, right? Mary and her sister Martha. They live together. They're in their house. Jesus is at their house. He's doing some teaching. Little small group action, you know, little Bible study action with God in the flesh. Sounds pretty cool. Jesus is there. He's teaching, right? You guys probably know the story. Martha, what's Martha's deal?
She's all busy and distracted by all the tasks. She's gotta do all the things, right? And she's ticked off because her sister Mary is not helping her host. Well, right? So she's like, Jesus, go tell my sister Mary to help me. I'm doing all this by myself. Right? Mary, she's busy and she's distracted by her many tasks. She's upset with her sister because Mary wasn't. Instead, do you remember where Mary was?
At the feet of Jesus.
It says she was sitting at Jesus feet. And it says she was listening to what he said.
You parents in the room, you know that there is a difference between listening and hearing.
You know, there's a difference between your child listening, listening to you and just hearing what you're saying. Okay? Hearing is about perceiving sound.
Listening is about processing meaning.
Okay?
A child can hear their parent without listening to their parent.
That happens all the time. Some of you right now, you can hear me, but you're not listening.
You're giving your attention somewhere else. You're audibly hearing me, but you're not listening. There's a difference between listening and hearing.
Some of you have been hearing God's word for a long time, but are you listening?
Listening is different than hearing at the feet of Jesus. This woman Mary, she listened to what Jesus said and it radically transformed her life.
And she's the most scandalous of sinners, isn't she?
She's one of the most scandalous lawbreakers.
And yet listening to Jesus words transformed her.
Beautiful things happen at the feet of Jesus.
I want you to see, guys at the feet of Jesus. There's miraculous healing.
Like, listen to me, miraculous healing.
There's resurrection power, there's complete restoration, there's radical forgiveness, there's historic worship, and there's life transforming listening.
Beautiful things happen at the feet of Jesus.
So listen, my whole point for this message, for you this morning, my whole heart, everything, like everything I want you to know is this. Get yourself to the feet of Jesus.
I don't care how long you've been following him. If you're not a Christian, so glad you're here. Get yourself to the feet of Jesus. You've been following Jesus for a year, 2 or 5 or 10. Awesome. Get yourself consistently ongoing. Get yourself to the feet of Jesus. Because beautiful things happen at the feet of Jesus. You've been following Jesus for decades. Beautiful. Keep up the good work. Keep going. Fight the good fight. Endure, persevere. How are you gonna do that?
Get yourself to the feet of Jesus?
You might be like, cool, but how do I do that?
It's not like Jesus is sitting at a mountain nearby where I can go see him and sit at his feet. How do I do that?
All right, I'm gonna call the band up and I'll close with this. There's your cliffhanger, your TED Talk cliffhanger.
How do we do that?
Not like Jesus is chilling over here on a mountain nearby. We can go to him, sit at his feet, right? How do we sit at the feet of Jesus?
Jesus may not be sitting on a mountain nearby, but I assure you, he is sitting somewhere even better.
At the very end of Mark's Gospel, Jesus gives the Great Commission. We reference it a bunch this morning, right? We reference Matthew's account of the Great Commission. Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. Behold, I'll be with you to the end of the age, right?
At the end of Mark. There's a variation. Not a variation. There's an account of Jesus, Great Commission, right? He tells his disciples, he's like, go make disciples. Go preach the gospel to the whole world.
And then in verse 19, if you guys can throw up verse 19 for me, at the end of Mark, chapter 16, it says this. You guys have it, great.
So the Lord Jesus, after speaking to them, was taken up into heaven. So he ascends into heaven and it says what? He sat down at the right hand of God.
So Jesus isn't sitting now at a mountain nearby where he could sit at his Feet. Now, where is. According to the Scriptures, where is he sitting now?
The right hand of God.
Guys, do you know what this means?
Throw up. Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 20 through 23. For me, if you wouldn't mind. Thanks.
Listen to this. He, God, exercised His power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above. Get the picture? Far above. Every ruler and authority, power and dominion over every title given, not only in this age, but also in the one to come, now and forever, verse 22. And he subjected everything. Can everybody say everything?
Under his. What coincidence.
And appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his. What?
The fullness of the One who fills all things in every way.
Okay. Do you see it? This is spectacular. Okay. Jesus not sitting on a mountain nearby. Jesus is sitting on his heavenly throne right now. He is seated on his heavenly throne. That means he is still exercising his supreme authority all over the earth. You with me?
He's not dead.
He's alive.
Right?
He's seated on his throne in heaven, still exercising supreme authority. How?
Through his spirit, through his body.
You see it?
His body's you and me. It's the church.
And you might be thinking like, cool, yeah. It's one thing to lay yourself at the feet of Jesus.
He's up on the mountain. I can go find Him.
But I still. How do I lay my. What? He's up there. How do I.
How do I do that?
Listen, you do it the same way that these gentile lawbreakers did.
Friends, laying yourself at the feet of Jesus has always been a posture of the heart.
Always.
It's an act of faith, an act of trust.
It's an act of recognizing this Jesus. He has supreme authority. And I'm going to humbly rely on his grace and his mercy. Here I am. You guys might see me do weird stuff over here where I worship. It's because I live as though Jesus is alive, sitting on his throne.
I live as though he is inhabiting his body through his spirit. And I want to honor Him. And I don't give a rip if people think I look stupid. I don't care. Not because I don't care about what people think. I do care.
But I care way more about expressing devotion to my care. Way more about, I want to please you, Jesus.
It's always been a heart posture thing. Always get yourself to the feet of Jesus.
Do you hear me?
I know life's busy. I know it's summertime. We're cruising.
Get yourself to the Feet of Jesus, friend, Because I'm here to tell you Jesus is still healing lawbreakers.
He's still healing lawbreakers. He's still forgiving lawbreakers. He's still restoring lawbreakers. He's still saving lawbreakers. If you're here and you've been like part of the church and you've been hanging out, I'm so glad you're here. If you're here and you have not yet fully given your life to Jesus and going, I want you to be my savior. I want your body and your blood to cover my sins. But I also want you to be my Lord. If that's you, I need you to hear me this morning. Jesus is still saving law breakers for the joy set before him. He endured the cross. The joy before him was the saving of the lawbreaker. He loves you, man. Receive it with faith in you, in the deepest part of you. I am attaching truth to what Jesus said and what Jesus did for me.
At the chance that there's somebody here, I don't know if there is or there isn't, but the chance that you're here, you've not yet yielded to Jesus, Lordship. You've not given your life to him. I'm telling you, beautiful things happen at the feet of Jesus. Get yourself to the feet of Jesus.
There's an urgency with this because you don't know how much time you have.
How spectacular is it that Jesus is gracious to the Lord. Lawbreaker, it's my story.
And if you're in Christ, it's your story too.
So my hope this morning for you is that like, not if, when you blow it, that your heart would come alive with gratitude because Jesus, he's so gracious to the lawbreaker.
Oh, Jesus, we love you.
I genuinely feel humbled in your presence.
You provide in such gracious ways to all of us and it's your delight.
We don't need to beat ourselves up. We don't need to feel any condemnation. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
So we just wait for a moment in your presence and we just want our hearts to express gratitude to you.
Give it just a moment.
Okay?
