Jesus Heals a Leper

Today I'd like to share with you another part in the series that we started a little bit ago as we look at how we are serving in our congregation and the communities that we live in.

Each of us have been gifted and given lots of blessings from God's with different talents, different resources, different abilities. And as we have recognized those and we see what God has given us, many of us have been moved.

We have been moved at different times, all of us have, to serve God in the ways that He has gifted us to help our fellow man. Something I shared in that first message that I shared with you several weeks back is that Christ-centered service demonstrates the greatest level of spiritual conversion because it directly follows Christ's example. That's a phrase I had to think about before in a lot of detail before putting it down to writing and sharing in the previous sermon and this one as well.

Because I don't like to be one who uses extreme words, but I use an extreme word here where I said it demonstrates the greatest level of spiritual conversion. That's a big weightiness when you consider it. But I believe it fits and I sincerely believe and feel it fits because when you follow each of us, follow the footsteps again as we heard in this sermon of our Savior Jesus Christ, God who came to be man in the flesh, all that He did, all the ways that He thought, the ways that He cared for people.

If we can emulate that, we can't in a perfect way as a human form, but if that's the goal that we're shooting for, I believe it does reflect the greatest level of spiritual conversion because we're living our lives as Christ lived His. And so as we continue to think through examples of service, people who've impacted our lives, ways that we have served or others have served, I'd like to do a little example with you today, another little, I'm blanking on the words, a practical example, kind of like Mr.

Stewart shared with us. We're going to have two of those today. I'd like you to think of someone who, when you think of service, this person comes to mind. I'd like you to take a minute to think about it. I'm going to do the exercise with you. I brought a pinup so I can do the exercise with you. It could be someone here in this congregation, could be someone in another congregation that you were part of or that you know. It could be a relative, could be a neighbor, could be somebody you go to school with, someone you work with.

And I really would like you, if you will, write it down, or at least maybe write their initials down. If you don't want to write a full name, at least write their initials so you can note who this person is. Now, I really wanted you to give us some thoughts.

So I'm going to do something that a pastor regularly does. I'm going to stop talking for a moment and let you write this down, and I'm going to do it along with you. And I didn't pre-think this. Each of the three times I've given this, I've wanted it to be fresh. And so I picked a different person each time. Because I want to do this example with you so that it speaks to me as well.

Why is it that this person popped up in your mind? What character traits does this person have in their lives? What impact have they made on you or others that you've seen? And what would be missing if that person was no longer in your life or no longer part of your community or part of your congregation? Now, along with this, I would like you to write down three one-word attributes about this person. Just one-word attributes. So, for example, you could say the person is kind.

That would be one word. Just write down kindness. But I'd like you to think of, as it relates to service again, this person, what are three one-word attributes that you would connect to this person that you would draw out from? And I'm going to pause again as I do the same exercise with you today.

I appreciate you doing this exercise with me today because we're going to think about this a little more as we continue through the message. For today's message, we're going to look at the importance of sensitivity, willingness, and ability as it pertains to Christ-centered service. The attributes and the importance of sensitivity, willingness, and ability as it pertains to Christ-centered service.

In the first part of this series, we explored how we can develop the attitude and actions that follow the example of our Lord and Savior. Let's open our Bibles as we get into the message today to Mark 1 and verse 40. As we look at another example of Jesus Christ interacting with someone that everyone, and let me emphasize, everyone would have avoided at all costs. This is in Mark 1 and verse 40. Someone that nobody would have had anything to do with at all.

And that is not an extreme statement. That is the facts of what we're about to dive into here. Mark 1 and verse 40 says, Now a leper came to him, speaking of Jesus Christ, and pouring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, If you are willing, you can make me clean.

The parallel account to this one from Luke says that, Behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus, full of leprosy. You have to remember that in the parallel account with Luke, that Luke was a physician. He had an understanding of health, of medicine, and things like that. So when Luke himself, as a physician, describes this man being full of leprosy, this meant it was a very bad case, a very extreme case, because Luke knew leprosy and he understood it. So if he, Luke said in his account, he was full of leprosy, it was a very, very severe case. Leprosy was a fear disease because there was no known cure for it, and some forms were highly contagious. It's a skin disease that presents itself with dry, thin, white scales or scabs, either on the whole body or parts of it. You can have a small part of leprosy, or it can envelop your whole body, which is most likely this man. If it says he was full of leprosy, it was a severe case. It's incredibly itchy and very painful. Open sores would develop where infection could set in, because of the scratching or other ways that infection would then set in. As we know from infection that sets in, it's not treated, it can get even worse, and parts of the body...

I'm thankful you could be thankful that I saved you from a PowerPoint presentation today, because it's not pretty. It's dreadful when you consider the seriousness of it.

Leprosy can also destroy the nerve endings and fingers and toes. If somebody could stub a toe, damage your foot, do something like that, not realize it, then it gets infected, and parts literally can fall off of the body. Fingers, toes, noses. I don't want to get into the graphics of it too much, but that is the truth of what can happen with leprosy.

It was a very dreaded disease, and I think that's an understatement to say that leprosy was a dreaded disease. It was extremely dreaded. To the point that we are... God gave instructions on how someone with a skin disease, specifically even leprosy, how they were to be treated and handled within the congregation, within God's people, and also the responsibility they had. This is from Leviticus 13. Let's turn there and see what God actually left as instructions for someone dealing with leprosy or someone with leprosy within the midst of God's congregation, of his people, of his nation. This is in Leviticus 13 in verse 1. The instructions given by God says, And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, and it has become on the skin of his body, like a leperous sore, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the priests. The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of his body, and if the hair on the sore has turned white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leperous sore. Then the priest shall examine him and pronounce him unclean. So this was a priestly role that the priest also served, but more of a civil role than a spiritual one, to inspect and to put one into quarantine if it was determined that the person had leprosy to stop the spread of the disease from going on among God's people. This also involved the person with leprosy himself or herself also having specific ways and instructions on how they were to handle themselves. Let's look at this further in the same chapter, but in verse 45. So these instructions are given to the one who has leprosy. Verse 45 and verse 46 of chapter 13. It says, Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn, and his head bare, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, unclean, unclean. He shall be unclean all the days that he has a sore. He shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone.

His dwelling shall be outside the camp. To say that this would have been a hard life to live is one of the great understatements within God's word. These people were basically the living dead.

They had no one who really cared for them. They were not able to be cared for by loved ones who didn't have the disease. They were left seeing that infection was setting in. Things were going really, really bad in their lives. And yet this is the life that they were left with as they continued to have to just basically be the living dead. Many believe that those with leprosy were cursed by God. No one was permitted to come within six feet of a person with leprosy. We don't see this in Scripture. This is a man-made rule that they enacted that no one was permitted to come within six feet of one with leprosy. And if you were actually downwind of someone with leprosy, that space was increased to 15 feet by man's law that you should get that stay that far away from someone. There are even some historical references where rabbis would carry rocks in the hem of their garments in case someone with leprosy insisted on approaching them so they could potentially ward them off and keep them away from them. Those with leprosy would come to the mindset of hating themselves in their own lives because of their miserable condition. Again, as we see described in Scripture, they had to wear torn clothes as a sign that they had leprosy. They had to shave their head. They had to live by themselves. And they were separated from being able to go to the synagogue to worship with their fellow believers as God had instructed, or even to the temple to give the sacrifices. They were not permitted to do even those things. The religious rites that you and I appreciate being able to do were cut off from them because they couldn't be around those who didn't have the disease. And I think in my own mind, maybe worse of all, they were instructed to shout out, unclean, unclean, if others were around them to warn them of their own disease.

I think in a loose analogy type of mindset, I think we could say that imagine if God had instructed that if on the Sabbath we were coming together and on the Sabbath day you had sinned, that you would have to come in and pronounce yourself a sinner in order to warn others of your lifestyle, of what you'd gone through. Thankfully, God does not instruct us to do those things, but the leper was instructed to do that. Unclean, unclean! Sorry, it's hard to read through and consider some of these things and put yourself in someone else's shoes and to realize the weightiness of what this disease would have, the impact it would have on someone. But with this background information, let's turn back to Mark 1 and verse 40 and see what did Christ do next. Mark 1 and verse 40. We'll read that first scripture one more time and then continue reading the rest. Mark 1 verse 40, it says, Now a leper came to him, and pouring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, If you are willing, you can make me clean. Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, I am willing be cleansed. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. It's amazing accounts, a short account, but when we consider the weightiness of what words are captured here and the example we have, there's so much we can glean from this short few verses. We know that, as we saw in Leviticus chapter 13, anyone with leprosy would have been unclean themselves, and because of that, everyone would have went to extreme measures to separate themselves as far from this person as possible.

But Christ saw more in the leper than just his disease. He could see the real value of a person who was simply stricken with this disease. In this account, we see that Christ was sensitive, that he had the ability to see what it was like to live as this leper's man. He had a willingness to act. He stepped out, and he got himself involved with this man. And, of course, he had the ability, the resources to give this man and to heal him. Sensitivity, willingness, and ability. We just read through this amazing passage of Jesus healing a man with leprosy, but let's dive deeper into these three aspects as we consider what Jesus did as we are each called to serve one another and to serve humanity today. Again, the sensitivity aspect, what we read. Jesus showed an unmatched level of sensitivity towards the man with leprosy. I described, just previously, sensitivity as the ability to see. You may be wondering how the ability to see is connected to sensitivity. Of course, when we normally think of the ability to see, we think of light that comes into our eyes, and there's parts of the back of our eye near the retina with rods and cones that are able to take the light in and to turn that into an electrical impulse that then travels to our brain, and our brain creates an image of what we're seeing, an electronic image that then gets recorded into our memory. That's what we consider, and that's right to consider that when we consider the ability to see. But another way the word sight is defined is a mental or spiritual perception, or a mental view. You might have said, yeah, I can see in my mind's eye something. We've all done that before. We can have, we can see or have sight of things that are sometimes not visible to the human eye. This usually becomes easier as we grow and experience life, but this doesn't mean that the children that we have here today can't do this as well. It's a gift that God has given into humanity to be able to see things that don't always exist. For example, if a child comes home from school or is out playing in the yard and comes into the house, and they see mom or dad, and something is not right with mom or dad. You can just perceive. You can see it. You realize, I'm going to walk around. I'm going to avoid mom or dad today.

We've all had that experience where we don't know what happened with mom or dad or what's going on, but we can perceive something did, and I'm going to now try to be the best child I can be today, because I don't want anything coming my direction. That's what I'm getting at. Even a child can do that. What about children with their friends? We've seen children in elementary school, middle school, who can go to school, and they know their friends very well, and all of a sudden something's different today. Something's not right. Something's off with a friend in elementary school, and so they say, what's wrong? What's happening today? It's this ability that God has given us, even from children, on up. But as we continue to live life, we get better at being able to perceive these things, mostly because of our own experiences that we go through, and that we can start to see things that are invisible in others' lives. Then, of course, as we continue to grow and become more spiritual, God has given us His Spirit, which allows us to discern or see things that are not perceived with our own physical eyes. There's a passage in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12, that speaks to this ability of the Holy Spirit being able to provide part of this for our lives. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12. I appreciate what Mr. Stewart again shared today about how seeking God's face. We don't have that personal one-on-one where we can reach out and touch God, that He can give us a hug and things, but yet we know He's there, and we know that presence is real, and we can see Him based on His fingerprints in our lives, the impact that He has, the direction that He's provided us to go. And we see that the Holy Spirit is His helper to help us more clearly discern and see things as God reveals them to us. This is in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, and this is that difference from maybe seeing with your eyes, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, that perception that we have through His Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things. You could say he can't see the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish to Him, nor can He know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So we know that the ultimate level of being able to see things that are invisible, God is gifted with the ability to have His Spirit, which can be that discerner of things that are simply not able to be seen. That's why sometimes when people who don't want to believe in God talk about there is no God, and then they question you, how can you have this faith? And you just smile and say, because I know. Well, you can't ever make somebody believe what you believe, but you know in your heart of hearts that God exists, that He loves you, that He's provided a way, that His Word is without error, without fault, and that if we live this way, again, as I really appreciate the split sermons coming together today, that this will impact and change your life. I believe the ability to be sensitive to others, again, is that innate aspect of being human. From a very early age, we see even the toddlers among us and in different places have this ability to be sensitive and to see others going through challenges or things that they may not have. For example, a child sharing their Cheerios with another child. They recognize they don't have something I have. I want to give it to them. Or their toys. I'll share with my toys.

Another example that we sometimes see, which is so heartwarming, is a child who's crying, and then another child of similar age goes up and gives them a hug. Nobody asks them to give them a hug. They just realize that they're sensitive to the tears and they know that this will bring comfort and help. It's such an innate aspect of being human that as we continue to grow, that sensitivity grows with it. To where, as I mentioned, a middle schooler could see someone being bullied and say, you know what? I'm going to stand up because that's not right. I'm going to step out and stand up and put myself out there because I don't want to be treated that way and I'm not going to let them be treated. Or even, again, offering that encouragement to someone else who's in need. And the sensitivity continues to grow as each of us continues to mature and live life. Some of the best examples of this I see in our most senior members. Why? Because they've lived along life. They've lived from having the elementary age aspect of sensitivity to grow with all the experiences, all the things that they've gone through, to now see even more clearly this ability to be sensitive with one another. I love that farmers commercial. They know a thing or two because they've seen a thing or two. And because as we continue to go through life, we continue to mature in this way and so does our ability to see, to be sensitive for others and the needs around us.

And it's just a beautiful thing to see as people continue to grow in this ability. And Christ had that ability to be sensitive, to see the needs that this leper had. The second aspect that I'd like to look at is that willingness that he had. Christ demonstrated with that leper this willingness to help. Previously, at the beginning of the message, we described willingness as the desire to act or to step out and get involved. We see from scripture that Christ was moved with compassion. What is compassion? From MiriamWebster.com, compassion is described as sympathetic consciousness, so this mindset of sympathy, of others' distress, together with a desire to alleviate it.

So it's a sympathetic consciousness, this feeling that we have of something's going on in their life that's not right. And we then have an inward feeling connected that we want to somehow alleviate it if we could. That we want to remove that situation, we want to remove them from the situation. It's that combination of seeing and then having a desire, a willingness to do something if it's possible. Some synonyms, which are similar words to compassion, is commiseration.

Of course, sympathy, as we looked at. Tenderness or kindness? These are all synonyms of compassion. But let's look at antonyms. These are the opposites of what compassion is. Callousness, cold-heartedness, hard-heartedness, or heartlessness. I think it's interesting how many times the word heart is used in some of these antonyms in a negative way. The word compassion used here in the Greek is the word splocknesomai. It's got about 12 letters in it, and I'm thankful I'm not Greek. Splocknesomai. This is from Thayer's Greek lexicon. It means to be moved as to one's bowels.

Word bowels have never been my favorite word, but it's part of the definition, so I have to use it.

The bowels were thought of being the seat of a person's ability to have love and pity. This deep inwardness where love and pity existed within a human person. That's the Greek meaning of this word. So it's a deep inward part of feeling towards another person. It's not just you see something, you're like, oh yeah, and it's kind of passing, and you move on, you forget it. It's when you see it, your heart kind of hurts, that you pause, and that you wish there was something that you could do. Is there anything to do? It's not just a fleeting feeling or a passing moment. It's this deep inward heart that says that hurts, and it hurts your heart when you see something like that. Of course, we could say it's that heartfelt feeling. So Christ was first sensitive. He was able to see the circumstances the leper was in, and then he had that inward heartfelt desire to alleviate the leper's suffering. Again, I believe that this willingness to alleviate another person's suffering is an innate ability that God gave us, part of normal human development. As we grow sensitive, we normally grow in a willingness to try to help the other person in their need, or we have that desire if we can. We can't always, but when we can, to alleviate their suffering. Our hearts normally hurt for others, again, as I mentioned, and sometimes we can't do anything to alleviate their suffering, but sometimes we think about how we can. An example that demonstrates this conflict that sometimes we have where we have that willing heart, that sensitive heart, but we can't do it all. We have an example from Jesus again in Matthew 9, verse 35, of this type of a scenario. Matthew 9 and verse 35. And this is an example, again, of Christ Himself being moved with compassion, but there is a limitation on what He could do in some of these instances. He was, while He was God in the flesh, He still had limitations. He didn't just pick Himself up and transpose Himself across the whole world and heal everybody who ever existed. He was limited by space and time. He was limited by the amount of days in an hour, or the amount of hours in a day, excuse me. He couldn't just stay up 24 hours endlessly just doing all these things because it wasn't the will of the Father in that moment for Him to do everything that could be done. And we see this in this example, Matthew 9, verse 35, says, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages. Look at all the things He did do, though. Teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, these are those who came out and heard His voice, these are those who heard the message and were drawn to it, those who wanted to come when He would speak on the different mountains, those who wanted to be fed with the fishes and the loaves, when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered. They were tired, like a sheep having no shepherd.

Let's count on again, tying back. There was no shepherd with his staff able to corral them together that they could hear and they could be drawn to. And Christ's heart went out for them.

And in verse 37, then He said to His disciples, The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. He recognized, I can't do it all. And there's not going to be enough behind me to just fix and heal everyone. He says, therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. While God was in the flesh with humankind, there were limitations on just how much He could do, even though He did abundantly and He did so much. Sometimes that limitation is there for you and me as well, because we are physical human beings. There are times we feel the same as Christ felt here. He was moved with compassion. We have that sensitivity and a willingness, but we just can't fix the situation. But because of our inability to help in every situation, we must not allow ourselves to become desensitized and no longer have feelings, no longer allow our feelings to go that for one another. Let's turn to 1 Peter 3 and verse 8, and to see some instructions for this specifically. 1 Peter 3 and verse 8.

The Apostle Peter provides instructions to you and me of how we are to love, how we are to have compassion.

1 Peter 3 and verse 8. Finally, all of you, be of one mind, this one-mindedness that we are to have because we have God's Spirit, we are His called out ones, we are His people. Be of one mind, having compassion for one another, that desire to alleviate one's suffering, to love as brothers, to be tender-hearted, to be courteous, not return an evil for evil or reviling, for reviling, but on the contrary, blessings. Did you realize you could give blessings to other people? God says we can when we have this type of mindset, when we're compassionate, we love as brothers, we're tender-hearted. He says, but on the contrary, give blessings knowing you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. As we continue to grow and mature in an age, we must also grow in compassion and a willingness to help others around us who are suffering. This naturally leads us to the third aspect, which is ability. The example that we have with Jesus Christ and with the leper, we see that He was able to help. Earlier we described ability as having the resource to give. These resources can be physical, as in physical service here within our congregation, of giving someone a ride to church, of helping with other things around their home, or it can also be resources that are spiritual, such as offering encouragement, giving them a blessing to someone, as we saw already described in 1 Peter, of offering a private prayer for someone, the spiritual aspect. In the account of Jesus interacting with the man of leprosy, we see He had the ability that the ability Christ had was that He stretched out His hand. He touched Him in a physical way, and He expressed with words, I am willing, and then He physically healed the man. As we consider the ability that Christ had to heal this man, He could have, knowing that understanding of leprosy and the instructions given, He could have told Him, hey, you stand over there, I will heal you, don't worry about it, but you stay where you're at, don't come near here.

But He allowed Him to approach. And not only did He do that, but He touched Him, someone who no one else would have been willing to do. Now granted, in Christ's mind, He knew that it was the will of the Father that this man would be healed. But look at the way that He had this compassion, this tenderness, and then He used the ability that God gave Him to heal Him in a very intimate way. Christ touched and healed as many people as He could, many more than our list, even in these Gospel accounts that we have. And that's why it's beautiful to see that that human element of touch is such a beautiful thing that God has given us when we can reach out and lend a hand and help someone when they have this need. And as we think about the service that you and I have been called to give, how can we consider the ability God has given us to care for one another? So many times we go through our lives with a sensitivity and with a willingness to help, and then we weigh out the ability. What do we have? And God has gifted each one of us with special talents, special abilities. And as we continue to mature and age through life, we see them more clearly because God reveals them to us as we open our hearts to them. As we pray, God, show me what the gifts are that You've given me. Show me the talents that You've provided in my life. Maybe it's not riches. The majority of us are not wealthy people.

So that's not that ability. We don't have the ability to heal as Christ healed. Wouldn't that be nice? I know every single one of us sitting here has seen a child suffering, seen someone else suffer, and said, I wish with my heart of hearts I could heal that person. It's not a gift that God has given us, but what has He given us? What are the sympathetic ways that we can be in tune with another person in their time of need? What is that impact that a simple card makes to someone or a hug? What are these gifts that God has given us that you must figure out in your own ways?

What is it that God has gifted you with? And what is it that you're praying for that God will develop more fully in your lives? What are some of those things that you desire so that you will have an ability to help, an ability to do great things in this physical life that you and I live?

In one sense, each of us could be considered a spiritual leper. At different times in life, we have each become disfigured by the ugliness of sin and other problems. But God hasn't had a sensitivity to our challenge. He had a willingness to alleviate our suffering, and He had the ability to help. Because of the great love of God, we must each put on more of Christ and develop this type of Christ-centered service that we see here in this account in Mark. What is it that keeps you from becoming the person that you wrote down and thought about at the beginning of this message?

This is where we circle back around to that exercise we did at the beginning. What is it that keeps you from becoming the person that you wrote down or thought about at the beginning of this message? Obviously, the person you thought of is one who has attributes of service in their lives. That's what I asked you to do. Write down someone who you think of when it comes to service.

There's physical qualities that you admire, you obviously admire, or you wouldn't have wrote their name down. This is a person you obviously respect, or you wouldn't, again, have listed them. This is a person you see living an act of service, or they wouldn't have come to your mind. Again, what is it that is keeping you from becoming that person that you wrote down or thought about at the beginning of this message? So many times, and I've made these statements myself in life, we say, we need more people like fill in the blank. I've said that. I've said that within the church. We need more people like fill in the blank. Or when a person who was like blank dies in our congregation or moves away, we feel like there's a hole in the congregation, right? Or we may say, you know what we need right now is someone who could fill in the blank. I'm standing before you saying I've made these same statements in my own life at times. So, and I get it. It's a big order. I get it. But we must continue to examine the example we have of Christ. We must continue working at becoming a disciple, one who wants to do everything like the person that they are following. Think about the person you want to become and then become like it. We don't necessarily need more people like the name that you wrote down in the congregation because each of us has the ability to become that person, to exhibit those traits, to share in that whatever those qualities you wrote down, those one-word qualities, you can become, you can be that person, you can bring that to our fellowship. Does it take patience? Yeah, we may take patience in some of these things developing. Does it take prayer? Can you pray that God will specifically help you to develop that trait that you wrote down on that other person that you admire, that you appreciate? I encourage you to please pray about those things. Pray that God can develop because this is a fun prayer for God to answer. Why wouldn't God want to answer some of these prayers and allow you to be more kind or whatever was the word that you wrote down on this other person? These are beautiful attributes and beautiful qualities that God wants each of us to develop, and so we can pray for them, and we can ask God to help us become more like the person so that maybe we gain the ability to do some of the things that we saw Christ do and that maybe we feel like I can't do that in my own life. But we can as God develops those traits and those qualities in our lives. Everything that Jesus did while alive on this earth was based, of course, on the will of the Father. Christ came not to be served by those around him, but to himself serve those who were in need of healing both physically and spiritually. He expressed and showed true love towards all that he interacted with, doing what was best for each person in those moments. Christ was one who had sensitivity, the willingness, and the ability to serve in a tremendous fashion.

But you know what? So do we. So do we. As we close, let's turn to Matthew 16 in verse 24.

You and I have been called to a new way of life.

Does it come with challenge? It does. Does it come with hurt at times? It does. It comes with sacrifice? You know the answer. But we have chosen this path because of the goodness of God calling us to it, and we must continue to walk in it. We see our marching orders here that Christ gave us Himself. In Matthew 16 verse 24, a set of part of the marching orders, He says, and Jesus said to His disciples, if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. There's aspects of sensitivity, of willingness, of ability here. If anyone desires to come after Me, do we have a sensitivity to follow after Christ? I know we all do. Let him deny himself and take up his cross. There's that willingness to do things that we normally wouldn't want to do. That sensitivity and that willingness, and then the action part, that ability, follow Me. We see it again in Christ's own words and instructions to you and Me. If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. And then He paints a beautiful picture of the physical versus spiritual. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to His works. We are God's special and set-apart people called to follow the example of our elder brother, Jesus Christ.

May we each continue to consider how we can grow in sensitivity, in willingness, and ability, as we continue to seek opportunities to serve here within our congregation and the communities that we're all part of.