May the day never come where we take this for granted.
Um, this is truly, if you want to see, um, how pleased God is with you, with what you've done, what you continue to do, how you give, how you serve, all you've got to do is look here. God would never trust a church that was unfaithful with this beautiful gift.
And so God is saying to you and to me and to us as a church, well done, my good and faithful servants. And this is life. This is life. And we exist as a church to provide every opportunity for every child to reach the fullness and the greatness of their God-ordained potential.
And it's our responsibility to partner with these parents. So parents, what an honor that you would choose to dedicate your children in this space, at this place, and at this time. And what I want you to know is you've been given a high and holy responsibility. You really have. Not one that you would ever probably take lightly. I want you to take it seriously, but not so seriously that you feel like it's all on your shoulders. Because it's not.
You conceived these children or adopted these children, but God's the one who created them. And God will honor the fact that he produced this life and provided this life to you. But the one truth that I love to tell these folks that always get here is that there were eight billion people on this planet when your child was born. And yet God willingly knit that child together in your womb.
And of all the people God thought of on this earth to trust your child with, he chose you. He considered your lives to be the safest space on this earth for these children. He considered your home to be the best place they could ever find life and do life and experience Christ. He chose you because he trusts you.
And if he trusted you with the birth of this child, he's going to trust you with the life of this child. And what you've got to do then is just trust Him. I'm so thankful that you're here. I can't believe how many of you I actually married, so I have a little responsibility. Thank you very much for bringing these children into our church as well.
So, let me ask you a couple of questions. Parents, do you acknowledge that these children are a gift from God and that each of them are fearfully and wonderfully made, each of them with a unique purpose and calling from God? If so, reply, "We do."
Do you acknowledge that these children ultimately belong to God and you've been blessed by God with the stewardship responsibility of caring, comforting, protecting, and directing in such a way as the Lord has commanded you? If so, please signify by saying, "We do."
And lastly, do you recognize that the number one priority of parenting is to bring your children to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, that their sins may be forgiven, and that they may enter into an eternal relationship with God our Heavenly Father? If so, please signify by saying, "We do."
Now, church, I would ask you to please stand as we enter into a promised relationship with both the parents and this child. And as I read these statements, I'll ask you to signify by saying, "I do." And it is not wrong for you not to say "We do" if you're not prepared to commit, okay? Just remain silent. That's okay, because you've got to let your yes be yes, your no be no.
But if you are going to commit, we're taking on an abundance of responsibility. And I don't think we should be whispering our response. I think the heavens and these families need to hear us.
So church, having heard the public acknowledgement and commitment of these parents, do we now agree to partner with them by creating an environment where children are prioritized, parents are supported, and Christ is exalted? If so, signify by saying, "We do."
Do we as a church commit to these families to provide an unconditional community of love, comfort, care, and protection for them and their children? If so, please signify by saying, "We do."
And lastly, do we recognize that the number one priority of this church is that every child would hear the gospel, that it's our responsibility to connect them with other Christians and to prepare them to continue the great mission that we've been given? If so, please signify by saying, "We do."
Let's pray together.
Father, this is what you intended. Not a village, a community. A community that is known as your family, your body, your flock, your fellowship. This crazy community of peculiar people, as your word calls us, coming together to do life together. Nobody can do it alone.
And so, Father, we accept alongside these parents the responsibility for doing all that we can with all that we have to make sure that not only these children, but every child we can reach will come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
So, Father, thank you for this gift. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen?
Let's put our hands together and celebrate with these families. God bless you. Congratulations.
And they'll lead you off. You can come on.
God's word together.
Good morning, welcome to Crossland. We are a community of refuge and hope for all people. We're in week four of a series that's going to take us right through Easter Sunday, and it's entitled "Something Greater is Here."
Now we know the Bible definitely proclaims that someone greater is here, and we did in many ways look at that truth the first three weeks of this series. The priest, the prophet, the king, he is greater than every previous priest, prophet, and king, but there's reasons why something greater, and we saw that in the first three weeks.
Today we're going to start looking at some of the more, not just his attributes, but his actions, and the things that he did. Today is going to be a greater healing.
Now, I have no doubt that he was a greater healer. Really, the healings that he performed are spectacular, supernatural, and unimaginable. The quantity of them certainly would put him in a category all his own, but the fact that he raised somebody from the dead puts him in a category that is unlike pretty much anyone else.
There are other people in the Bible that did raise people from the dead, but Christ just miraculously did it, and then, of course, raised himself from the dead. But the fact that he is a healer is so important and significant. He's never less than that, but his healings are very different than any other healer has ever performed, any other doctor, honestly, has ever performed.
Christ is not the only healer in human history, but he alone provided a very distinctive healing, and that's where we're going to be today.
Okay, and you know what I'm about to tell you is true, the symptoms and the side effects of the condition when we're sick is always worse than the cause of it, right? If you have the flu, the flu isn't what's bothering you, it's the fever. The fever is the response that something's sick within you. Your throat is throbbing, your body aches, you're sweating, you might throw up. I mean, all of that is happening because you have a source of a virus within you, and immediately, especially with contagious illnesses, it isn't just the physical side effects that you feel that are so collateral to what you have, but it immediately begins to affect everything around you when you think about it.
Your ability to go and move about and be free should be limited. I hope you stay home when you have the flu, but community is out, your family doesn't go anywhere near you, they don't want to touch you, they don't want to talk to you, lock you up in the bedroom and slide a plate of food underneath the door a couple times a day. You don't go to work. I mean, it affects almost every aspect of your life, and that is the reality of illness.
It deeply affects not just the physical reality, but everything around you, and it shouldn't take a lot of imagination for anybody in this room to really be able to connect with that reality. All I got to say is COVID-19.
The collateral effects are still being studied. I did some research this week, and I've got some of my notes over there, but I don't need to read that to you this morning for you to comprehend how significant the collateral consequences of that global virus actually are.
The six-some-odd million people who died, maybe even more than that, terrible. I mean, that is horrible. But that's not the only thing. The effect on the global economy has been wretched. The effect on education, unbelievable. Our teachers are doing a yeoman's work still, trying to figure out how to catch some kids up because, you know, they miss such a big block of time.
And if you're supposed to learn something in third grade, and you miss third grade, and you have to go to fourth grade, now you've got a fourth-grade teacher trying to teach what was in third and fourth. And, you know, it's such an incredible thing. The need for education didn't stop just because the kids weren't able to be educated. It's ever-pressing.
And the mental health crises, off the chain. What isolation and lockdown did to so many people has truly altered them, even to this day, how they live, move, and go about doing life with people. It's unbelievably significant.
Can you, I mean, just imagine if there was, I mean, finally, I guess we got a vaccine. I'm not going to go there. I'll just leave that rest. And maybe there were some drugs that could mitigate the side effects a little bit. But I don't think COVID-19 has been eradicated. You know, it's still out there. It might be, is it 25 now? I don't know. But, you know, it's not gone anywhere, really. It's just run its course through everybody.
Could you imagine a worse disease than COVID-19? You know, the history of it is going to prove that it's probably been the worst pandemic on the face of the earth since World War II. Maybe the greatest tragedy on the earth since World War II. It just devastated and ravaged and wrecked and wreaked havoc in so many, every area of life.
The answer to that is, yes, there is one that is far worse and it's called sin.
Sin. And when you look at something like a global pandemic and, you know, you think and contemplate of all the effects of COVID-19, they are a microcosm compared to the side effects and the collateral damage of sin.
Sin wreaks havoc in every area of the entire planet. Every area of life. It affects and devastates community. It limits people's ability to interact. And social isolation because of sin is epidemic. Epidemic. Just think of people on death row. No more isolating than that.
It has jacked up world economies. It has destroyed individual economies. Sin. And COVID-19, while wretched, nothing compared to sin.
And what we've not been able to do with COVID-19, we've actually are able to do with sin. Can you imagine if you could find something that could step in and cure the condition and eradicate the consequence?
And I'm not just talking about eternal consequences. Like if somebody could come in and heal the condition, that would be great. But if somebody could come in and heal the condition and then begin to remove and release people from the consequences that they've experienced, wouldn't that be spectacular?
And that's why Christ provides a greater healing. He didn't just heal the condition. He actually says, you'll see in Luke 5 today, he's got so much power, he can eradicate its consequences. And not just for eternity, but immediately right now in your living.
And that's what Luke discovered when he put these three stories together in Luke 5 to give us a theology of healing. And it wasn't just about the ability of Christ to heal the condition. It was about Christ's ability to remove the collateral consequences.
Those consequences that affect your community and your ability to interact with other people. Those consequences that affect you financially, spiritually, familially. You'll see three different stories where it wasn't just getting rid of the condition. If that's all he did, that still would have been wonderful. But that's not what he does.
And what we all have to understand in 2025 is being healed of sin, going from a sinner to a saint, from unrighteous to righteous is beautiful. That's the actual power of the moment that you're healed. But the consequences of being healed are exponentially wonderful if you know what they're there to do.
So today's big idea, you can experience the greater healing. It's hard to believe there's a greater healing than just being, you know, healed of your sin. But there is, okay? Because Jesus not only cures the condition, he removes the consequences.
And that is huge, okay? And, well, let's just go. Luke chapter 5.
While Jesus was in one of the towns, and that is Capernaum that he is in, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. Now, leprosy is in some ways similar to COVID-19. The response was similar. Immediate isolation.
You are not to go into the societal places that other people go. You are literally supposed to be on lockdown. There's a great word for you for 29 to 2020. So, you would get locked down. You were in a community of other people who were suffering the same thing. You were not allowed to have social interaction with people. You couldn't go to temple. You couldn't go to your home. You were basically isolated, socially and physically isolated.
What's different about leprosy and COVID-19, like when people got COVID, generally speaking, everybody around them got compassion, right? It felt bad for them. You knew they weren't feeling good. You knew they were sick. We did what we could do. Tried to help the nurses and the doctors all through it.
When you got leprosy, you were despised, basically. You were considered filthy. And that's why every time you pretty much see it, a leper would say, "Can you make me clean?" They're walking around with a horrible stigma. People looked at them not like, "Hey man, you got a condition I don't want." That's one thing.
But you got a condition that makes you filthy. You're unwanted. Stay away. Don't get anywhere near me. Something's wrong with you. And so there was this social component that went with leprosy that I will show you in a moment provided far greater consequences for the person with it than the rotting, pus-filled, sore, itchy, nasty condition of leprosy. Foul, constant foul odor.
And in some places, they would still let a leper come into town. Certainly not in Jerusalem. And when they did, they had to walk into town with like a cowbell. And they had to ring it as they came and cry out, "Lepper, leper." You talk about degrading.
Can you imagine if you had to walk around saying, "Adulterer, drug addict," and you know what? We still have socially isolating opinions about certain behaviors, don't we? Because the behavior, we just can't get our head around. And therefore, stay away from me.
When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him. This is now a man, look, look, he walks up to Christ, falls face forward. He's immediately violated the law right in front of the lawmaker, right in front of the lawgiver, right in front of the one who enforces, if you will, the law of God. It's the Son of God.
This guy's so desperate, you know, he's now more than willing to go to desperate measures. He can't stand it anymore. So he goes to the one person he must have heard things about and falls on his face, not in pity or sympathy, but in honor.
And we know that because of the first word that comes out of his mouth, "Lord," he is now literally on his face in front of Christ and says, "If you are willing, not are you able." He's already beyond that. He's already conceived in his mind, this is not an ability issue. It's only going to be a willing issue.
And you can imagine this man's mindset. I don't know if you're going to be willing or not. Because, you know, I got this condition and everybody, you know, it's like, I know I stink. I know I look horrible. I know my flesh is just disgusting. I smell. I look terrible. Are you willing? If so, you can make me clean.
You know, what other condition would you ever go to the doctor and say, "Hey, doc, I have fever, my body aches. Can you make me clean?"
Hey, doc, I found a lump. Can you make me clean? Can you imagine? Having any other condition physically and having to go to the medical professionals and say, "Can you make me clean?"
What a devastating mindset you have to live with when you've got a condition, but you're not filthy. Right.
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. There you go. The best way to make a person clean is to violate the very law that says he's unclean. You've got to love Jesus because the minute he touched a leper, he was then put in a similar uncleanness condition, which would put him in the position he'd have to do what the leper's going to have to do in a moment.
But why would you reach out and touch him before you heal him? Because Jesus knew the greatest problem this man has right now is not his condition. It's what that condition has done to him.
This guy hadn't been touched in who knows how long. Not only has he not been around anybody, he hadn't been touched by anybody. I mean, not even a handshake, let alone a hug. Nothing.
So when you see Christ, he knows the layers to life. And you've got to see these conditions as kind of metaphors for sin. We become untouchable. We just, it's possible for us to have lived in such a way that people are, "Dude, you've got to stay away from me."
And I'll be honest, there was a season in my life it was exactly like that. And I don't blame anybody for looking at the dumpster fire and be like, "And this is what happens."
People who, and you know what you've done, and you might be saved and still be socially isolated because you feel unclean. The Bible has a word for that. It's shame. You're walking around with this sense of, "I'm still filthy. I'm still unwanted. I'm not clean. I did what I did. It was terrible, and I'm terrible."
No, you couldn't be more wrong.
So Christ reaches out and touches him and says, "I am willing. Be clean." Crazy.
I'll be healed. This man needed something more than healing. He needed acceptability. He needed to be put in a position where he was socially acceptable. Not just spiritually well.
Talk about a greater healing. It's powerful. It's powerful. And immediately the leprosy left him.
So he went from unbelievably terrible condition to perfect health right there in front of him. Just like Naaman when he was healed by Elisha.
Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, okay? But go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them."
So what Christ is trying to do for this guy now is now that he's made him clean, he wants him to go take care of what is probably, if not, the single most important thing we lose because of sin. And that is an intimate connection with God.
Go to the temple, young man. Don't go home. You get there, but you'll get to your house. Don't worry about that. You go show your family, but you go right back.
And it isn't a testimony to the priest to rub their nose in it. It's to get him reintegrated because he wasn't allowed to participate in Passover, the holy day of atonement, none of the worship feasts or experiences.
This guy could go nowhere near where the presence of God rested in that temple. And so, yeah, leprosy is a terrible thing to have. But what you see is the collateral consequences of that condition, Christ had as much interest in those as he did in his condition.
And that is true for sinners. He knows there's collateral consequences to sin in our life, to being a sinner, okay? The collateral consequences to sin is that you sin, okay? There's a condition and there's a conduct.
Through faith, Christ heals the condition. Then he begins to deal with the consequences of the conduct. So it's the same word, but one's the condition, the other's the fever.
When you sin, that's a fever. It's an indication that you have something wrong with you. It's sin. When you have a sore throat and body aches, that's evidence that you have a condition. Sin.
Sin produces sin in a life of a person. One's the condition, one's the conduct, okay? Christ has come to take care of both of those, okay? So you experience the greater healing and you can be restored to community.
And sometimes, I think if COVID took anything, it is a desire and understanding the necessity for community. That you have got to do life with other people.
And especially the people of God. Sunday morning, spectacular. Glad so many of you are here today. But it's got to get beyond that. You've got to get into smaller groups with people, okay? You've got to get engaged in our study groups, our Sunday school groups, our life groups, our service teams.
And it's like, I'm not commanding you because we need volunteers. I'm telling you that this is what Christ longs to restore for you. And it will change the quality of your life.
So the very next scene, you'll be very familiar with, I'm sure. As Christ walks away, he goes into a home. And in that home, there are some Pharisees and teachers of the law. They're seated in their chairs because that's the authority position, to be seated.
So they're seated and they're getting ready to do the teaching in the house. And Jesus walks in and he takes a seat. So what you really got now is on one side of the field, you got the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. And on the other side of the field, you got the teacher, okay?
And so they're in this environment. And it's not going to be like a throwdown, but ultimately it ends up there. And in that environment comes a man through the roof.
Because this man is flat on his back. He's paralyzed, okay? No telling the extent of his condition. But his four buddies got to carry him on a pallet. It's almost like a, it's not a mat as much as it is a pallet.
And they each grab a corner because they love their friend. And they care about him. And they know that this is a horrible condition. I mean, you can imagine 2,000 years ago what it must have been like to be paralyzed.
And you've got to imagine in order to understand the depth of this. As the leper had to deal with the filth and the foulness of his skin. So a man paralyzed had to do that with his own personal waste.
He would go to the bathroom on himself. He'd have to have somebody clean him. Today we're like, oh, we'd get home health. They didn't have home health.
This poor guy, he couldn't do anything. He's just flat on his back. Couldn't feed himself, clean himself. I mean, just a terrible way to live. And his friends look at him. And I'm with you. It's like, man, the collateral effect, paralyzing injuries are terrible. But the collateral effect is just awful to get your head around.
So this is what happens. They go and they could not find a way to get into the house. Okay? And there's a reason why they couldn't get in the house. It was the crowd.
And a very interesting perspective, I say spot on by Joel Green, one of my favorite all-time authors. He's done masterful work on the Gospel of Luke.
Today, if someone came in this room, my sweet, sweet friend over here. Hi, baby. How are you? I'm talking to you. Yes, I am. If I had time, I'd come over here and give you a kiss. I'll catch you on the way out.
But would you not get out of her way if she was coming in the room? Would you give up your seat? You better. Because I'm going to come on down there and whoop you. Right? Who wouldn't?
Someone who's paralyzed, someone who needs a wheelchair, someone in a walker. You better help. That's a decent thing to do. Look at the crowd. We ain't getting out of your way. What?
And that's because in that day, once again, like the leper, what did you do to cause that? I ain't getting out of your way. Dude, that's on you, man. There was no respect.
They once again connected the condition with poor choices. It doesn't say anything about the guy's choices. What it does say is he's got four friends that care deeply about him and a crowd of people who could care less about him.
So these guys, again, desperate situations call for desperate measures. They go up on the roof of somebody else's house and rip it open. We learn it in the Gospel of Mark.
So they go up and they lower him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd right in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, you are healed."
He said, "Friend, you are forgiven." Now, if I'm one of the four guys carrying that mat, I'm looking down at Jesus and saying, "That's not why we brought him. That is not the reason he's here. That's not our intention. We want him healed."
Right. I know you do. And I just healed him.
Hmm. See, Christ has a priority, that there is really a deeper condition. And do we know if this guy sinned? And we don't know that, but we know the ultimate cause of all illness is universally sin from Adam and Eve.
And Jesus looks down at this guy and gives him the ultimate healing. Your sins are forgiven. And we as people, isn't it interesting that when we sometimes, let's just be honest, we've put ourselves in a position where the situation is really now over our head.
And we go to the Lord. We want the Lord to fix it. And the Lord comes back and says to you, "Your sins are forgiven."
That's not why I came. I need a new job. Yeah, but let's talk about why he lost the last one. No, I'm not here for that.
See, he's interested in the totality of who we are as a people. And he knew, and you and I know, to get this guy up off that mat and let him walk out of that house unforgiven, he did nothing for him. Nothing.
Because with those two legs, he's going to walk straight into hell if he ain't forgiven. Right. But he ain't done.
So, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law sitting there began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Great question. That is exactly right.
So, who's sitting in that house? Right. They're in the presence of God Almighty. In him, all the fullness of deity lived in bodily form. The Pharisees are blown away.
So, Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier? To say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk?'"
Well, for the Pharisees, neither of them was going to be easy because they couldn't do either one of them. For Christ, they're both equally easy because he's capable of doing them both.
So, the answer ultimately is, neither. He can do them both. Now, ultimately, when you think about it, not easier to say, but easier to do will be to tell him to get up. Because he's just got to speak a word.
To tell him he's forgiven, he's got to allow himself to be beaten to death on a cross. That's quite costly. Quite costly.
So, Christ wants to be beaten to death on a cross to engage them in a conversation, which is easier, but that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
So he said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat, and walk." Come on, baby, walk. Get up and walk. Come on, you got to go walk.
And tell him to walk. Talk. Tell him to go home. Just like the leper. Don't go to the temple.
What Christ wanted us all to know and him to know, I've just given you the ability to walk straight into what I created you for. I'm giving you the ability to finally go home.
Go where you belong. Live as you're supposed to live. Be amongst your people. I didn't come just to give you the physical ability to walk. I want you to be able to go home.
And what's the ultimate gift of having your sins forgiven? We get to go home. Eternally, beautifully, and wonderfully.
But think about how many people have been so segregated and alienated in their lives from their family, their closest friends, because of their sin.
And the greater need is not to fix and give them the ability to walk, although that's certainly a beautiful healing. But how about to reconnect?
To be relieved of the condition is beautiful. But to think that God is so good, that Christ would then give them the ability to reconnect with their purpose, to walk this path of life that he originally created them for.
And so you see it immediately, just like the leper, he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on, and he walked home praising God.
No, there's no walk here. He went home. He's walking. Now, you would think in telling the story, and you see other, you know, get up, take up, walk moments with Christ as well.
And they do, get up, take up, walk. Okay, John chapter 5, you see him, get up, take up, walk. That's not here. This is get up, take up, go home.
What a dramatic difference. Because sin has this incredible capacity to destroy your most intimate relationships in life.
And once, once you're forgiven, this is what Christ wants you to do. Go reconnect with the ones. And sometimes I get it, it's just not going to happen.
But for the most part, then reintegrate in a new community of people. But this is why he came, to enable us to walk home to our own lives.
Think about the ability to finally walk back into your own life, if you will, to go home, to where you belong on this planet, to your purposes, and to the plan that he has.
Now, there's one more. And this one is unique to the other two, uniquely different, as you'll see. After this, right after the house, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting in his tax booth.
Now, we know Levi will become Matthew when Christ saves him. He gives him a new name. So, this is the guy who is the author of the first gospel.
His first encounter with Christ, the other two, the leper came to Jesus. The man paralyzed came to Jesus. Now, Jesus is going to him.
And this word, "saw," isn't a glance and be like, "Oh, I'll go over here." It means intentionally seeking out for the benefit of the person.
So, Christ had a laser-like focus and knew about Levi as a tax collector. And Christ walks over to Levi in this tax booth and says, "Follow me."
Now, being a tax collector not much more popular today than it was then. Okay? It is just not a great, "Hey, who do you work for? IRS." Really? You know what I mean?
Nobody likes tax collectors, okay? But in this day, Matthew being a Jewish man and a tax collector had basically sold his soul to Rome. Greed got him.
Because it's one thing to work for the IRS. That's beautiful because they're the American government. It's amazing if you were to go work for, say, a foreign nation's government, set up a tax booth on Scottsville Road.
And every time you passed, you had to stop and pay this guy taxes. And when he collected the tape, it was a $50 fee. That's what we should do to get everybody off of Scottsville Road.
But a $50 fee to go from I-65 to Campbell Lane. Somewhere along there, you're paying $50 to, say, Iraq.
And you got a few Iraqi soldiers behind them just, you know, AR-15s. And like, you pull up, it's like, "You owe us $50." And, "Hey, Matthew, how much do you want to add? 20%."
All right, 20%. You owe $70. What do you mean? Well, if you don't pay, I'll shoot you. It's actually $60.
Matthew was not a mathematician, I promise you. Well, I just ruined that moment. There we go. It was really good up to that moment. Really good.
So, Matthew would use the strong-arm tactics of Rome to manipulate money out of the hands of his own people. They're a nation that has been infiltrated and occupied by Rome.
And what he's lost is his integrity. What he's lost is his identity. What he's lost is his dignity. In many ways, he sold his soul to Rome.
He was more interested in what he could get, more interested in what he wanted. And what he wanted was he didn't care at what cost it was to anybody else. He just wanted what he wanted.
I don't know if there's a better description for drug addiction out there. Expecting everybody around you to pay the highest price for your poor choices.
Getting what you want because you want it, and you'd sell your soul to have it. And truth be known, it isn't just drugs and alcohol. It's every form of sin out there can become so compelling that we're willing to give away our integrity for it.
We're willing to give away our identity and our dignity for it. This is a Jewish man living in a Jewish nation that's occupied by a foreign nation, and he chooses the foreign nation rather than his people.
And Jesus walks right into his life. He says, "Follow me." And Levi got up, left everything, and followed him. Followed him.
And in an instant, everything changed for him. And how do we know he got his dignity back? How do we know he got his integrity back? Because he stopped caring what other people think.
Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with him. What he found, he wanted all of the people that were with him when he was lost to find.
He cared so much about them. Wasn't going to care what the Pharisees thought, because he never did. But he was waiting for him.
But he was going to care deeply about the people that used to live the way he lived? Deeply.
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"
Because this is a statement, like the greatest honor you could bestow upon somebody in that culture was to have dinner with them in their home and sit at a table.
And why would Christ do that? To restore his dignity, his honor, and his integrity. Can you imagine anybody else on this planet sitting down at a table and eating with you, saying more about who you are now than Christ?
We've all got sports heroes and entertainment heroes. And, you know, we think, man, it'd be great to have Taylor Swift come and eat dinner. Why? I don't know. Right?
I mean, honestly, if the president called, he was in Philly last night at the NCAA Wrestling Championships. PA is a huge wrestling state, hence why I wrestled.
And if they called and say, "Hey, Greg Farrell, President Trump has decided of all the citizens, he's going to be at your house tomorrow night for dinner." What? Great. Come on, big boy. Bring that orange hair on down here. I'd love to have you.
Be great. What's in a lifetime? But Jesus, sitting at your table, he wants to give it back to you.
And here's the thing. It's not so much we lost it, it's that we gave it away. And he's giving it back.
He went straight to the gates of hell and got your integrity. He paid for it and got it back. He purchased your dignity, your honor, everything.
Just like Matthew, you went from sinner to saint in the blink of an eye. Beautiful.
And Jesus answers the Pharisees. They're like, "What are you doing that for?" Because it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
I've not come to call the righteous. I've come to call sinners to repentance.
And this is where it gets hard individually. That the only way to truly begin to experience not only the healing of our sinful condition, but the eradication of those collateral consequences that come with it, is you've got to accept the diagnosis.
And sure, it's very hard to hear somebody look and say, "You're sick. You're not well. You need help." And then we, it's hard, isn't it?
That the Pharisees could never get their head around that. What are you talking about? That's why they would never get well. Because they wouldn't own up.
And this is for whom Christ came. Those who were sick, ill, dis-eased because of sin.
And when you embrace that condition, you realize that Christ came to call sinners. Because that's the condition. That's the cause. That's the conduct.
And you've got to ask yourself, are you done paying? Do you want to lose anything else? Have you not lost enough already?
Do you have to lose one more relationship? Do you have to heap on your life more shame than you already have because you just, you can't even stand to look at yourself in the mirror?
Do you want to, you want to really just, I mean, what little integrity you have left, don't you want to, before you leave this earth, be able to look people in the eyes and know that you aren't who you were, you don't do what you used to do, be able to walk with your head held high and quit looking at your feet because of what you did and what you became because of what you did?
There's only one way. You've got to accept that you need a doctor. That the symptoms that you're experiencing are revealing that there is a deeper condition that is driving you, and it's called sin.
Sin sick. Sin sick. That's it. But there's one who came to eradicate the condition, destroy sin because that's what he did, and then begin to work in our lives to eradicate the consequences of our conduct.
The isolation, the social isolation, the just incredible alienation that happens because it isn't we stay away because we're afraid of what people might think of us, it's because of what we think of us.
And there's only one way to do that, and that is to do what the leopard did. So fall on your face and say, "If you're willing."
It's to do what the man on the mat did. Somebody drug you here kicking and screaming, but you're here now.
And it's to do what Matthew did. Follow him. Follow him. It's time to be clean. Get up. Go home. Follow. Follow.
That's it. Get clean. Get up. Go home. Follow.
And we engage that through faith just like Jesus said when he saw their faith.
Please, why walk out of this room in the same condition you were in when you walked in it? Because if you are, I know what's going to happen. You're going to go to a house, but it's not a home.
It's not a home. Please consider Christ.
Father, we love you and we thank you. There's so much to your word more than just the historical facts that are literal and true. It's not some fairy tale put together that we're trying to, it's not a fable, it's fact.
We're not looking for the moral of the story, it's truth. And I pray for those who need that truth today, Father, who need to experience the fullness of forgiveness so that the condition can be cured and allow the Spirit of God into their life to begin to eradicate the consequences of that condition.
Are you ready today? Are you ready? Then let's just express that. And quietly where you are, you can raise a hand. Just raise a hand. Nobody's looking, every eye closed, every head bowed, please.
And just respond to God. That's all you got to do, just respond. And if that's a little uncomfortable, then just look up here, okay? Nobody will know you're looking except God.
And just look towards the stage. You're not looking at me, you're opening your eyes in faith to see him. Beautiful. That's exactly what you need to do, okay? You're just responding.
Father, you see the eyes and the hands of those that are responding this morning because they want to experience what the leper, what the paralytic, and the tax collector experienced.
Not only forgiveness of their sins but the healing of the consequences and the collateral damages in their life. So, Father, first and foremost, let them know their sins are forgiven.
Now it's time to get up, pick up, and go home. Go to that place where you belong because you do belong. You fit in this world. I promise you, you fit.
Walk into your purpose. Walk away from your pain. He loves you for expressing your love for Him.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Let's put our hands together and thank God for the glory of His Word. Truly amazing text. Luke chapter 5. Go back and read it this week.
May the God of heaven richly bless each and every one of you. Go have a great day. God bless you.
God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
on Mar 23, 2025
