Flipside Christian Church

I just want to add a couple little things
to what's been shared already.

And just as ways of reminder, on the 14th
Valentine's Day morning at 7:00,

you men are invited to a breakfast here
in this place.

We'll have some time just to hang out
together, eat some good food.

A time of competition
to win a really big gift card.

So you can take your Valentine out
to dinner that night

if you're skilled enough in winning it.

And then a little training on on
about what real love is and how to love.

Well.

And so men,
we need you to I, I'm asking you make sure

that we know that you're coming,
so that we can get the food ready.

Do you understand?

You understand?

And so, ladies,
if you're here with your man,

And he doesn't sign up to come,

he doesn't care about
you enough to fight for a gift card.

So just think twice about him.

Okay? So make sure that you do that.

And then the day after that, on Sunday
the 15th, I'm going to teach you,

the six ways in the scripture,

how Jesus
and the disciples shared their faith.

There's six ways in Scripture
that we have to do that.

One of those six ways fits you perfectly.

You probably just don't know what it is,
but it fits you.

You do it well.

You can do it
well if you learn how to do it.

But it but it's not weird for you.

And I want to teach you what yours
is, your style of evangelism,

and help you to learn to do it
so that's on the 50.

You don't have to sign up for
that. Just got to show up.

But you men
have got to sign up for the breakfast.

Is that clear? Yes. Yeah.

I'm gonna ask you to

open your Bibles
to chapter eight of Matthew.

If you don't have a Bible,
look on someone next to you.

If you need a Bible,
stop by the welcome Center.

We've got some for you.

Matthew, chapter
eight comes right after Matthew chapter

seven and Matthew chapter seven
as part of Matthew five six and seven,

which is known as the sermon on the Mount.

It's the longest continuous message

that we have, recorded of Jesus.

It's a profound passage of Scripture.

We spent weeks and weeks
going through those three chapters.

Incredible implications
and incredible insight

from Jesus as the authority
of the Word of God.

About what?

Being a part of his kingdom means.

And now we get to a whole nother section

in the book of Matthew in chapter eight.

Matthew is not recorded for us
chronologically.

Some books of the Bible are.

Matthew is more recorded.

He records Jesus's life and ministry,
according to topics.

And so he's
going to get into a whole new topic

in chapter eight
that will address in just a moment.

But to set up chapter eight, I want to
I want to,

I want to to help us understand
the reality

of what has been going on since creation.

And the fall, what was explicitly seen
in the time of Jesus,

what is still going on in our time
in our world, though we don't see it much.

So we're not aware of it,
and we don't give it much credence.

But I want to share with you
truly what's going on.

What we see
in Matthew eight is the physical

manifestation
of what's happening behind the scenes.

And we

know from
Scripture that this is the reality,

our struggle.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.

Our struggle, our main struggle and fight

is not against that
which is seen and physical,

but we wrestle against rulers
and against authorities

and against cosmic powers
over this present darkness,

against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly places.

The reality.

Is that behind what is seen

is a more real and more eternal

force and power.

That's work.

The Bible says here
Paul says rulers and authorities

and cosmic powers
over this present darkness.

There's a spiritual reality
that's going on right now.

It's been there since creation.

It's seen
explicitly in the pages of Scripture.

We'll see it in Matthew eight.

It's still going on right now
in our world, in our time, and

right now in this place.

We don't recognize it.

We don't know.

We don't see it.

So we don't give it much credence.

In Matthew eight, the the, the

the topic that the the theme that Matthew
is moving into from the sermon

on the Mount, life in the Kingdom
is now the authority of Jesus.

Matthew five six and seven.

This is the life and the kingdom.

Now Matthew is going to deal
with the authority of Jesus

over everything in the physical world
and in the spiritual world,

in the natural and the supernatural.

He's going to say
Jesus has authority over it all

because they're both real.

They both exist,
and Jesus has authority over all. Now.

Chapter eight.

We'll see it in the beginning.

We're only going to get through
part of chapter eight this week.

We'll do with the other part
next week has to do with the rule

and reign of Jesus
over the natural supernatural.

I just got this email from O'Neill,
who is the head of our church

planning movement in Cuba.

I've been working with

O'Neill for two decades now.

And he was one of the first ones
that went through

the Discovery Center that we did in Cuba
to start planning churches there.

He's my right hand guy in Cuba,
and he's just sent this email.

And I want to share this with you

because it ties into this very thing
I'm talking about.

Hello, my beloved brothers and sisters.

I hope and trust in God
that you and your families are well.

We, thank God, are well.

The situation in Cuba
is becoming more uncertain every day.

Thanks be to God first and foremost
and to you for being his instruments.

We have enough money
to buy nonperishable food

and to store some for later,
either for our own use as a family

or for brothers and sisters in the faith
who may need it.

Things are going to start
getting real bad in Cuba real quick.

Here's what I wanted to
communicate to you, though.

While we continue

to extend the Kingdom of God
fulfilling the Great Commission.

Last week,
a married couple, surrendered to Christ.

They practiced witchcraft

and had many packs
and a large number of idols in their home,

but they surrender them all
to be destroyed.

Demonic spirits manifested themselves
in their home at night.

The sofas were moving on their own,
and the children

saw an old ugly woman
walking around their house.

We know that the power of Christ
had freed them from this darkness,

and we have a good team of people
to go into those places

filled with fasting and prayer
and helping them.

Please pray for this couple and for us.

Thank you for all your support.

We love you.

We don't wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against rulers and authorities

and the cosmic powers over this present
darkness.

It's real. We don't see it

like they did in Scripture.

We don't see it like they do
in other places.

The world.

But it's very real.

It's very present, is very active.

And so I'm going to unpack some of it

this morning in Matthew chapter eight.

But before we do, O'Neill

has asked us to pray for this couple
and for them.

So, church, join me in prayer.

Jesus, I thank you

that you have dethroned the evil one

and that you've paraded him around
the heavenly beings and

has it conquered one?

Father, I thank you for your authority.

I thank you

that Jesus, your name, is the name before
whom everything

that has a name must bow in heaven
and earth, and under the earth.

We confess that we believe that.

And I praise you because of it.

In the name of
Jesus, by the presence of the Holy Spirit,

I pray your watch for protection
over this couple.

Thank you for dethroning

the evil
one that they used to give their lives to.

Thank you for setting them
free for your redemption.

Thank you for your mercy and your grace
that didn't allow them to be destroyed.

Thank you for O'Neal and his church
and his people who fast and pray

and do spiritual battle
right alongside them.

I pray your protection over them.

I pray that they are lights
and examples of

both your mercy and grace, and your power
and authority in this world.

We love you. We trust you.

Open our eyes to help us
see the reality of what's going on.

That we will love you and trust you more.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

Here's the big idea

in chapter eight,
and we'll see all three of these

graces.

Free authority is real, and following
Jesus is costly.

That's the big idea in chapter eight
that we'll see.

Grace is free.

And will I say grace is free.

We have to understand grace isn't cheap.

And so following Jesus is costly.

And we're going to see that
in these three instances

in Matthew chapter eight
and the first 22 verses,

we're going to see Jesus heal
three different people.

And so let's just get in us.

I'm going to read you the scripture
and then we'll talk about it.

It's not going to be on the screen.

I want, I want, I want to train us
to bring our Bibles with us.

And so like I said, open
Matthew chapter eight, the first gospel,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

chapter eight.

If you don't have a Bible, let us know.

Welcome, center.

We'll get you one. But here we go.

When he came down from the mountain.

Okay, that's our first clue.

This is after the sermon on the Mount.

He's coming down from the mountain.

Great crowds
followed him talking about Jesus.

And behold, a leper came to him and knelt
before him, saying, Lord,

if you will, you can make me clean.

Let me just tell you about leprosy.

Leprosy still exists in some third world
countries.

In this world,
we've pretty much eradicated it from the

industrialized world,
from first world countries.

But in the third world, it still exists.

And in certain places,
leprosy is horrible.

It starts with nerve damage,
especially in the extremities.

And as the nerves decay and are destroyed.

Numbness, numbness, obviously sets in.

And with the numbness comes paralysis
and deformation of the hands and the feet.

And what ends up happening with

leprosy is the skin develops
these horrible ulcers

that just start spreading
throughout the body, eating the flesh,

which result in great infection
throughout the body.

Eventually it became the entire body
and resulting in death.

There's no cure for leprosy

when someone is in in new chapter
lives was diagnosed with leprosy,

they were forced to wear
old, ratty, tattered clothes.

They were forced to let their hair
grow long.

They had to make it apparent
that this was someone,

who was not to be,

who was to be shunned.

They had to cover their face
for a couple reasons.

One, because as the leprosy spread
on their face, their lips would fall off,

their nose would there, too?

Their mouth would, And so it was it's just
it was just a nasty look.

And it was also to prevent

the idea of

leprosy spreading through respiration.

So they had to wear face coverings,

and they had to shout out
unclean, unclean, unclean.

And they were forced, once
they were diagnosed with leprosy, to move

outside of the city, outside
of the community and a leper colony.

Once that happened,
they were banned from all human contact.

No friends, no family, no loved ones.

They would never feel
the touch of a human again.

They were forced to beg for their food.

They lost not only their health,
they lost all people.

It was often seen when someone had leprosy

as a judgment of God
because of some sin in their life.

Now, that's not why people got leprosy.

I want to be very clear

that all people who had leprosy
is not because God judged them.

Though
there are three instances in Scripture

where because of someone's
sin, God did inflict with leprosy.

So that did happen.

But that's not necessarily the case.

But as a leper,

they suffered physical suffering,

social rejection,
religious exclusion, and moral suspicion.

Can you imagine?

Because they were sick,

the law was they had to stay 150ft away
from everybody.

They couldn't breathe, breathe
the same air.

It reminds me of a hyper,

extreme Covid panic.

The rabbis,
the religious people at the time

to make sure that they didn't
get close to a leper who would have rocks

and would throw them at the lepers
to make sure that they stayed

150ft away.

Leprosy was called a slow motion funeral.

It was horrible.

And I was thinking,
as I was thinking about leprosy this week,

it reminded me, and if you were around
church back in the 90s,

it reminds
me very much of the religious people

in the churches
response to the Aids epidemic.

Because in the early days

of the days of the Aids epidemic,
it was absent by the church.

It was absolutely seen as God's judgment
on those sinful people.

And in great fear,

people lived with great distance
from anybody who was infected with Aids.

And it was a death sentence.

And it oftentimes meant that those people

were ostracized from their community,
from their family,

and from any institution of faith.

If you're old enough in your own church
in those days,

you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I was a youth pastor during those days,

and I felt really convicted
at the state of the church

in response to people who had Aids,
regardless of how they got it.

And so I

decided that I would go
there was a hospital,

a local hospital
that was doing training on how to respond

and how to care for people with Aids
and the families associated with them.

And as a young youth pastor,
I said, I need to be a part of that.

I need to know.

And there was one other lady
in our church, her name was Andy,

and she went with me,
and it was a multi-week thing.

I was Andy and I were the only people from
any church that were represented in it.

In this, and it was not well received
from my church.

Why? Because they were lepers.

That's this.

That's this stigma is the stigma
that associated these lepers.

That's what we're dealing with here.

And I
want you to notice what the leper did.

The leper came to Jesus
and knelt before him.

This was an act of worship.

So he's not coming to Jesus, acting
as if everything's okay.

He knows something's bad in his life.

He knows there's contamination.

Do you understand?

And he knows that he has to submit
like he's

he comes in as an act of worship
and look at what he has.

He says, Lord, what do you say?

What do you say?

If you're he says, Lord,
if you're willing, you can make me clean.

I want you to understand something.

His question is not, Lord,
do you have the power?

His question is not if you can

question is if you're willing.

See for the leper,
the first of the healing here.

The power wasn't the question. Love was.

He didn't question.

If God had the power to him.

He question if he was worthy enough
to be healed by God.

His question was a question of love.

God, am I so far outside of your care
that you're unwilling to heal me?

That's what he's saying.

Why? Because everybody in his world,
everybody is life

and said, you are no longer worthy,

right?

Apparently your family didn't love you
anymore.

Your friends all love anymore.

Your faith can be don't love anymore.

You are so contaminated
that you're outside

the scope of human love.

So his question is not about
the power of God.

His question is about the love of God.

There been there.

In verse three and four,
Jesus stretched out his hand.

And what do you do?

He touched him.

He says, I am all right.

I will be clean.

And immediately the leprosy was cleansed.

And you said to him,
see that you say nothing to anyone

but go show yourself to the priest
and offer

the gift of Moses that Moses commanded
for the fruit to them.

Here's what's happening.

This this person

who had been devoid
of any of any human contact.

It was religiously a defilement
for to touch a leper.

And it was also physically
incredibly risky.

This is how leprosy is transferred.

And Jesus, because he has authority,

reaches out and touches the first time

this person has felt a human touch
and who knows how many years

and just says, I have authority over
what contaminate you and I will touch you.

And the moment
he was touched by Jesus, what happened?

His cleansing healed.

Now we have to understand, other than
what's going on in the physical world,

leprosy is a symbol of sin.

Sin and leprosy
are the exact same in this.

It infects a person

and it spreads and it starts to deform.

It starts to decay.

It starts to defile that person
and eventually lead to death.

It's sin.

And when someone acknowledges

how much I have,
how much we've been contaminated by sin,

and when he gets bad enough,
every one of us questions.

God, do you still love me?

You know what I've done.

I know what I've done.

And I've gone so far outside of your
community, of your will, of your plan.

How can you love me anymore?

And even if we understand that

Jesus died on the cross,
his power, the question remains

because of who I am,

can you love me

to understand?

And what did Jesus do?

He validated him and he said,
do you still matter to me?

You're still important to me.

You are never too far gone for me.

And he stretched out and touched him,
and the moment he touched him,

he was cleansed.

The leper did nothing for his own
cleansing.

The leper did
nothing to affect his own healing.

It was simply by the touch of Jesus
and my friends,

this is exactly what happens
in the spiritual world with our sin.

We are so contaminated by sin and with sin

that left to itself,
it will continue to spread and infect

and alter
and eventually lead to our own death.

But if we approach the healer and say,

do you love me
enough and get a resounding yes, I do,

and allow him to touch us immediately
that contamination is cleansed.

Not because we've been good,
not because we've been religious,

not because we've done right,
but because he has authority over it

to understand.

Here's what we got to understand

that grace is greater
than our contamination.

It's by the grace of God

that Jesus healed this man, though he was

deathly contaminated.

I'm so thankful for his grace.

But the key

the leper had to want to be healed.

And then he had to approach

Jesus and ask for it.

There are times in Scripture
when someone who was sick

or ill or dying or whatever,
Jesus will say, do you want to get better?

There has to be an argument
that I'm not good right now.

I am contaminated.

And I want you to make me better.

I want you to heal me.

You get it?

You get it.

Like I'm not afraid to start over.

It's not Super Bowl Sunday yet.

So that's the first healing.

Let's look at the second one
I'm going to read.

I'm going to read verses five through nine
when he had entered Capernaum.

Oh no wait.
I'm gonna go back to verse four.

Jesus said to him,
see that you say nothing to anyone,

but go show yourself to the priest
and offer

the gift that Moses commanded
for the proof of that.

I love that
just like, don't tell anybody what

what what

he said.

Don't, don't, don't like, don't be spread.

Now, can you imagine
if this happened today?

Some pastor

like, has this big he'll.

You know what he would do.

Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute.

Right.

Like take a selfie on my post is like,
my followers are going to go

through the roof.
I'm gonna start a podcast.

Everybody's going to listen to me.

You know, it just is stupid.

And Jesus was like, look, I,
I don't need fandom.

I want followers,

I'm not building a brand.

I wonder what Jesus would say today

to all the hype.

These skinny jeans.

What?

I'm. Yeah, I'm whatever I

it's like, look.

I'm not sending this to the PR department.

I'm not doing selfish about this.

I'm not built.

What does he say?

He says, I want you to leave here
now, after what I've done, and be obedient

to all I want.

That's why I said, go to the priest.

Show him the law of Moses.

Obedience to Scripture, offer
what you got to offer,

and be obedient to the scripture
that's already there.

That's what he says.

When Jesus steps in and does something,

his expectation of those for whom he did
it is their obedience in response.

Do you understand?

So let me get to the second one.

Now, verse five.

But when he had entered Capernaum,
a centurion came forward to him, appealing

to him, Lord, my servant is laying
paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.

And he said to him,
I will come and heal him.

But the centurion replied, Lord, I'm
not worthy to have you come under my roof,

but only say the word,
and my servant will be healed, for I

too am a man under authority,
and with soldiers under me.

And I say to one, go!
And he goes on, come.

And he comes into my servant, do this,
and he does it.

The centurion, this is a Roman soldier.

He's a man in charge of 100.

That's why it's sent the centurion.

So he's got 100 men under him.

And he has the servant who's paralyzed.

Something's wrong with him.

Under Roman law,
the centurion has the right by law

to have that servant executed
because he's no longer of service.

That's what usually happened.

So what we see in the centurion is this.

This man who was outside
the community of faith.

But he has such love for another,

such concern for another,
that rather than execute him,

which is his right by law,
he seeks his healing.

And he goes to Jesus
and he asks on behalf of another,

Will you do this?

He understands the value of another person

and he understands authority.

And so he approaches

Jesus on the basis of his authority.

Now, I want you to understand
the difference between the leper

and the centurion.

The leper came to Jesus and said,

if you're willing.

The centurion said, just say the word.

The leper appeals to Jesus.

His compassion.

The centurion

comes to Jesus,
submitted to his authority.

The leper knows Jesus can.

The centurion knows that

Jesus rules and reigns

vastly different.

One asks for mercy.

The other submits to his authority.

Vastly different.

Both will receive grace,

but they come approaching
Jesus from vastly different perspectives.

Now what I want to share with you
why that's important.

Verse ten.

When Jesus heard this, he marveled.

He was amazed literally
and said to those who follow him, truly

I tell you, with no one in Israel
have I found such faith.

The faith of this non Jew

amazed Jesus when I was studying.

So I'm like,
what was so amazing about this?

He wasn't the one sick.

He didn't have to believe all he did was
go ask Jesus on behalf of somebody else.

This leper was dying.

He knew there was no cure.

He comes and ask on his own self
and has faith to ask you

what was so amazing
about the insurance faith

that was more amazing
than the lepers faith?

Jesus wasn't amazed at the lepers faith.

He was amazed at the centurion's faith.

And he said, this guy
who isn't even a part of the click

has more faith than anybody
who is a part of the click.

It's amazing to me, he says.

What was so amazing?

Here's why.

Because the centurion believed that
Jesus rained,

not just responded.

He believed
and submitted to the authority of Jesus.

He wasn't just looking for Jesus.

His hand.

This insurance just didn't

believe that Jesus had the power.

He believed
Jesus had absolute authority over,

and he put himself
under the authority of God,

who has authority over all the rulers

and authorities and principalities.

See, the leper saw Jesus as the healer.

The centurion saw Jesus as the king.

The leper wondered if he was worthy.

The centurion admitted he was not.

And relied on grace alone.

There's only two times in the Bible
where Jesus was ever amazed,

this time at the faith as a centurion
who understood the authority

of Jesus and submitted himself to it.

The all the other time
where Jesus was amazed is a record

of for us in Mark six
six and a mark six six it says he, Jesus

marveled, was amazed
because of their unbelief,

won at the faith and belief
of the submission of the centurion,

and one of the unbelief of those
who said that they knew him.

And he was amazed

that people could be so close to him
and have so little faith in him.

So, my dear friends, there's

two ways to amaze Jesus.

To understand
and submit to the authority of Jesus

as the authority over all things
physical and and spiritual.

Or to think to

to be close to him
and have no faith in him.

He says, I tell you in verse 11,
I tell you, many will come from the east

and the west, and recline at table
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

in the kingdom of heaven, while

the sons of the kingdom
will be thrown into the outer darkness.

In that place there will be weeping
and gnashing of teeth.

And this end to the centurion

Jesus said, go, let it be done to you
as you have believed.

And the servant was healed
at that very moment.

This whole idea

Jesus says, listen, I'm going to blow
this whole thing down to faith.

You came in faith
and you received in faith.

He said, I'm
going to tell you at the end of time

at this great banquet
with all of God's people,

there will be people who think
they get into that because of who they are

and what they've done, apart from faith,
and they're cast out and

weeping and gnashing of teeth and outer
darkness.

Those who are going to sit at that
table are going to come

just like you came
by faith, by faith were saved.

You understand by the grace of God
through faith, it's a gift.

That's what Jesus is saying.

At that moment, he was healed.

Those are to him.

Now look at this third one, verse 14.

Now when Jesus entered Peter's house,
Peter, the disciple,

he saw his mother in law lying
sick with a fever.

He touched her hand and the fever left
her, and she rose and began to serve him.

That evening they brought to him
many who were oppressed by demons.

And he cast out the spirits
with a word, and healed all who were sick.

This was to fulfill
what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.

He took our illnesses and our diseases.

When I was when I was reading this,
I gotta be honest, I gotta tell you,

like kind of where my mind goes sometimes.

I'm. I'm saved.

I'm a Christian,

I love Jesus, and I love my mother in law,
but I gotta I gotta tell you,

I'm reading this
and look at how this reads.

Jesus goes to Peter's house.

Peter's mom in law is fever.

She's she's bedridden.

Jesus walks over and heals her.

In my mind, I think it feels like.

I didn't ask for that.

You don't say it like.

I don't.

Yeah, it's funny, I just
I don't think it happened that way.

I think Peter is very, you know, but
but I just like, you know, guys,

anybody is bunch of cowards.

Yeah.

Look, don't look at what happened.

There's no time healing.

Just just understand.

This is the third healing
one requested healing for himself.

One requested healing for others.

One. There was no request made at all.

What's the pattern?

Watch one.

Jesus touched one.

He spoke a command from a distance.

One he touched and nothing was spoken.

What's the pattern for healing?

Listen.

Yeah, yeah. You're right. Exactly.

Jesus decides
if and who and how he will heal.

There's no system
that directs his decision.

There's no special way to do it.

It's by the grace of God.

And please understand.

Every physical healing will still end in
death.

It's just it's
just push back a little bit.

Do you understand? Yes.

And I want you to notice the response,

the response of the leper.

Be obedient.

Be obedient.

Now, you may not have been before.

Now you start the response
of the mother in law.

Serve.

Please understand

the proper response when Jesus moves in

life is obedience and service.

I know what I've been saved from.

I know God's grace
and I will gladly serve in response.

I'm gonna tell you this
you need to know this.

If you ever asked me to pray for you,

like in a healing way, especially,

this is this is how my prayer goes.

And there's been a lot of there's
a lot of people on my prayer list.

I pray for healing every single day.

But but here's my prayer, father,

as they serve
you and your kingdom, heal them

so that they will continue serving you

and your kingdom.

I don't expect healing for anybody

if they're just going to continue
a life of sin or ignoring the kingdom,

or a life of materialism to spend
the remaining of their days on themselves.

Now God may,

because he is gracious and merciful.

But my prayer for people as they serve
you and your kingdom, heal

so they can continue serving your kingdom
if they're not going to serve you in

the kingdom,

reach them in a way that they will.

And honestly, this is somewhat biblical.

Jesus, when he would peel, people
oftentimes said, you've been healed.

Now go sin no more.

Do you understand?

My kingdom.

First,

let me say this.

I think there's some of you today
that could be healed.

Today?

Why? Because Jesus has authority.

Jesus taught a lot on prayer.

In his sermon
he preached and shows us the value of it.

In Matthew eight,

requesting of Jesus his prayer.

That's what these people are doing.

All three of these healings show Jesus

power and authority in the real world
to heal

through prayer.

So why do we act as if prayer is optional?

And why do we act as if

someone else?

Always must do it for us.

For none of these people was the request

of Jesus
in their own mind, in their own heart.

It was a crying out of their

need and request for healing.

I'm. I'm telling you, there are people
in this church with little prayer lanyard.

They would love to pray with you and
for you or for your loved ones with you.

Why would you resist that?

It makes no sense to me.

Let me let me wrap up with this.

In the Bible.

Good.

In the Bible, good.

Like, there's so much here

I wish we could talk about this for, like,
the next six hours or so much here, but,

I won't do that, obviously.

Let me let. Okay. Verse 18.

Well, look at what Jesus says now.

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him,
he gave orders to go over to the other

side.

I love how Jesus always walked away from
the crowd

is it's so different than today,

Charlie.

Verse 19 and a scribe,
a religious press came into him

and said, teacher, I'll follow you
wherever you go.

I mean, he sees the hype.
He sees what Jesus do.

And he's like, wow, this is a groundswell.

This is going to be awesome.

And Jesus said him, foxes have holes,
birds of the air have nests,

but the Son of Man has nowhere
to lay his head.

Well, that's not very encouraging.

Another of his disciples came to him

and said, Lord,
let me first go and bury my father.

And you said to him,

I tell you what, you follow me and
leave the dead to bury their own dead. Oh,

does that sound brutal?

Yeah.

You sound just so rough.

He's so harsh.

Listen. What?

Jesus.

Right now
he's talking about the requirements

for a disciple,
not for the requirements of salvation.

We have to understand this
about the Gospels.

You have to understand this about Jesus.

Salvation is free.

It's the gift of God
by God's grace through faith.

Then after receiving the free gift
by faith,

then comes self-sacrifice
and a change of lifestyle.

So he what he's talking about here is
you want to be my disciple.

You become my disciple by grace
through faith.

It's a free gift.

You can't earn it
just like these who were healed.

They didn't earn it. Okay, but now.

Now you want to live like a disciple.

Here's the standard.

Here's the standard.

And he doesn't talk
either of these guys out of following him.

He just says,
I want to be clear about the standard.

You're going to be my disciple.
Listen, I'm.

I got no place to lay my head.

What he's saying is this.

You want to be my disciple, that's great.

But you have to understand that you're
not going to get rich from following me.

Just because you follow me
doesn't mean that your life

is going to get more comfortable.

A disciple means
that your life is not about your comfort

and building your assets.

I don't even have a place to lay my head.

What makes you think
you're going to get to stand?

So he's not saying, don't follow me,
he said, I want you to understand

the standard
not of salvation, but as a disciple. Now

and then he says, let the dead bury
the dead.

That sounds really rough.

Here's
the implication that this guy's dead.

Wasn't dead yet.

What what's behind the statement
is, listen, when stuff slows down

and don't have any more responsibilities,
then I'll follow you.

But right now, man, I got a family,
I got a mortgage, I got a pay.

I got a job
that, you know, has most of my time.

I got these family are big.
I got these kids.

I got to take care of.

Got travel ball.

They I just get all this stuff.

I just don't have margin right now.

And Jesus like, oh, I mean, if that's
where you want to live, that's fine.

Just let the dead bury the dead.

Yeah, because we all know what happens.

I mean, right now, God are like, my
my plate is really full.

And when I get stuff off my plate,
when the kids get where

we're not going to travel,
we're not doing the job, you know that.

Then I will.

But we all know what happens
by the time that comes.

Now we're looking at retirement
and all we want to do is sit back

and enjoy the good life and travel.

We have to understand.

Seek is primary the kingdom of God.

And what that means
is that the Kingdom of God is too big

to fit in our left over spaces.

So just says, look, I'm
not going to talk you out of follow me.

I just want you to
know the standard. If you are

in my king, the standard of

my kingdom
is not the leftover of your life.

You got to carve some stuff
out of your life right now.

So my kingdom, that's what he's saying.

And it comes with cautious horse.

It's not horse.

It reminds me of Nick Saban
Alabama football.

He was he was he was asked all the time
why are you so hard on horse

on your players.

He said I'm not a horse.

We just have a really high standard.

It's not about being harsh
about having a high standard.

Jesus says, listen.

If you want to be my disciple.

There's a standard.

Let those who don't want to live by
my standard do their thing.

Discipleship means
my son and Jesus is going

to say this exact same later
in a few chapters.

Matthew 12,

whoever is not with me is against me,
whoever it is, and gather these scatters.

There's a high standard.

Listen,
it's not that God wants to ruin our life.

He just will ruin everything
that's ruining our life.

That's the standard.

We don't sacrifice to get Jesus,

but because we got
Jesus who sacrificed everything for him.

The standard of discipleship
is the response to grace.

Not so.

That will get grace.

So please understand
this is not about salvation.

This is about discipleship.

Salvation is free because of God's grace
through what Jesus did by faith.

But once we claim
that this is the standard of disciples,

these two missed the invitation.

Apparently they miss invitation.

They'd rather be the guys on the team

who don't want to work and just stand
on the back of the sidelines

and hope they get a ring,
because they're a part of the team,

which is just fine.

But they're content
on the sidelines in the back, hoping that

everything works out.

Which I get it, I get it.

They're on the team.

They got the jersey on that salvation
and it's by grace.

Doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter good or bad.

Like it's by grace.

And I'm really thankful

that God doesn't do cuts

like he does here. You're not good enough.

You're off the team.

I'm so thankful he let some of us
stand in the back on the sidelines.

I'm really grateful.

I mean, is the grace and the Kingdom
is a lot like last football.

Like, we don't do it.

Anybody can come out.
It's all good. Like we don't do cuts.

And you know, y'all get
we all get the jersey.

We all get the you know celebration.

And that's fantastic.

But for

me I don't want to be just a jersey where

that's not enough for me.

And a pray it's not enough for you.

Though these guys missed it.

Listen,
as long as there's breath in your lungs,

there's an invitation.

Peter missed it at first.

Thomas missed it.

At first, all the disciples missed it.

At first.

But Jesus restored them
in order to reengage them.

That's grace.

Jesus doesn't cut

any of us from his team
because we don't play well.

He calls us off the bench
and into the game.

And so we end where we began.

Grace is free but isn't cheap.

The authority is real,

and following Jesus is costly.

Matthew eight is about the King

who touches the unclean,

the king who commands the unseen,

the king who heals, and the king who says,

Will you follow me with your whole life?

And so

it leaves us with the question.

You in?

You in.

I want you to pray with me.

Two groups of people
this passage relates to.

One is those

who are contaminated by sin,

who have not asked Jesus to cleanse them.

And if that's you and you realize that

I invite you in this moment right now.

Through prayer, by faith.

To admit before God.

God, I admit that
I am contaminated by sin.

And I know it's going to destroy me,

and I cannot heal myself of it.

Jesus, I accept what you did on the cross

to become my healing,

and I receive that today.

I accept you as the leader of my life.

Thank you for healing me. Now lead me.

Others of us in this place.

We got the jersey on.

We're part of the team.

By God's grace, through faith,
not anything that we've done.

We've just been accepted onto the team.

And yet we've lived as those content

to stand in the back of the sidelines.

There's a cost to discipleship.

And I would invite us to say, father,

no longer is your kingdom

secondary in my life.

Your kingdom first,

I submit myself

to your authority over my life,

and I ask that you show me your power

and authority in my life.

Thank you for your mercy.

Thank you for your grace.

Help me to walk with you in a way

worthy of your name that I claim.

In your name I pray. Amen.

Listen, I'm proud of you.

I'm proud of you.

Studying the Bible is good,

and it is revealing and refreshing

and liberating
if we let it do what it does.

I want you this week to read chapter

eight in its totality,
because we'll wrap it up next week.

But before we close,
I just want to reiterate

some of you need to approach
Jesus personally

in prayer and by prayer.

And there are people on this campus
who have that prayer lanyard.

Don't be afraid and don't resist it.

Go before the throne of God.

You'll find mercy and grace
to help you in your time of need,

and do it with someone
who can pray with you and over you.

Just like the leper.

Just like the centurion.

Just like the mother in law received.

Friends, please don't resist it.

I know I'm way over. Jeff. Let's sing.