Jesus Heals a Leper

As we consider the way that Jesus Christ was one who came to serve and not to be served himself, as we consider Christ-centered leadership, Christ-centered service, it is a tremendous example that we have in our Lord and Savior, and that all that he did through his life was to serve us, ultimately even giving his life for you and me and for all of humanity. We see countless times we could spend sermon after sermon series going through the example of him serving mankind. And so service is one of those pinnacle aspects of Christianity that we have been given shown in construction. We have seen the example and that we must continue to build in our own lives. Something I shared in that first message is that Christ-centered service demonstrates the greatest level of spiritual conversion because it directly follows Christ's example. It's one of those pinnacles, again, of Christianity, to develop within us a heart of service towards one another, a mind of service, an attitude of service. And as we continue to strengthen this in our lives, we will be changed, and we will impact and change others as well as we see that Christ did time and time again. I'd like you to do a little bit of an exercise with me at this part of the message. I'd like you to take a minute, and I'm going to do the exercise with you, and to think of somebody, when you think of the word service or the attitude, the heart of service, can you think of someone who comes to your mind, who shows the characteristics, shows the attitude, shows the actions of one who exhibits Christ-like service. I'd like you to take a minute, and maybe somebody in the congregation here, maybe somebody in the Church of God someplace else, maybe someone in your next... could be someone in your community, but I'd like you to consider someone, and maybe you could just write down their name, you could write down a couple of initials if you don't want to write down a full name, or maybe just one initial so that you can just note it. But I'd like you to go ahead and think about it, and to give this a few seconds of thought, and I'm going to do something that you never normally see me do. I'm going to quiet down for a second. I'm going to stop talking. So I'm going to go ahead and write my own. And I haven't given this a lot of pre-thought, so because I want to do this exercise a little bit with you as well. So go ahead and consider someone who you see as that example of a servant, a Christ-like servant.

Some questions to consider. Why did this person pop up in your mind? What character traits does this person have? What impact have they made on your life or others around you that you've seen? And this is an important one, something that we can really take to heart. What would be missing if this person was not part of your life right now? Or maybe they have. Maybe they're no longer part of your life right now, and you are missing some aspects. I'd like you to also, as part of this exercise, to write down three word, three one-word attributes or characteristics about this person describing their service. So not only are they somebody that came to your mind, but write down three reasons why. Three one-word reasons why. Things about them that make them come to your mind in that way. And I'll do the same here. I'll take a second and I'll do the same.

As we continue with the message, we're going to look at today the importance of sensitivity, willingness, and ability as it pertains to Christ-like service. Sensitivity, willingness, and ability, again, as it pertains to Christ-like service. In the first part of the series, we explored how we can develop the attitude and actions that followed the example of our Lord and Savior. Today, I'd like to look at another example of Christ interacting with someone that everyone, and I mean everyone, would have avoided at all costs. This is in Mark 1 and verse 40 as we open our Bibles.

As I like to do, let's transport ourselves back to time, back when Jesus Christ was alive and interacting. Maybe you can imagine yourself as one of His disciples or maybe one in the crowd watching Him interact and teach and talk. Imagine if you were with Him in this scenario, what would be going through your head and what would be going through the emotions of the crowd around as we read this. This is Mark 1 and verse 40. There's two other parallel counts, and there's a sponsor, three, in total that reference this passage here of His interaction. But notice Mark 1 and verse 40. Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, if you are willing, you can make me clean. The parallel count in Luke says this, Luke 5 verse 12, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy, full of leprosy, saw Jesus. In the parallel count with Luke, remember Luke was a physician. He had some understanding of medicine, of knowledge about the human body. So he was one that was familiar with leprosy. He was one that if he saw someone with it, he could understand and could put a definition. Is it a small case or a big case? Luke saw that this man had a bad, full case of leprosy. Leprosy was a fear disease because there was no known cure for it, and some forms were highly contagious. It was a skin disease that presented itself with dry, thin, white scales or scabs, either on the whole body or part of it. It was incredibly itchy and very painful. Often, open sores would develop where the leprosy was at. They would become infected. There would be additional pain due to that and spread of the infection. An leprosy, because of those infections, sometimes would dig almost holes into the skin and down even into the bone and to the cartilage. As it's digging down, it would damage nerve endings, and lepers often would unknowingly damage their fingers, their toes, their noses, their ears, because the sensitivity would disappear. They would damage them. They would stub toes and not realize how bad they'd hurt it. People with leprosy would often lose some of their extremities, some of their toes, their fingers, because of the damage, because of the infection, different things like that. It was a very dreaded disease. It was so dreaded that God spent a whole chapter in Leviticus chapter 13 devoted to this disease of leprosy and this type of a skin disease and how one with it should be handled and treated for protection of the nation as a whole and others around them.

So we'll look at what God gave us instructions.

And how to handle someone who had leprosy. This is Leviticus 13 and verse 1. A whole chapter of 13 and a little bit of 14 talks about leprosy. But in Leviticus 13 verse 1, it said, 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 priest. The priest shall examine the sores on the skin of the 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 the priesthood served in this role, the civil role, as described here, to inspect and to put into quarantine, if needed, one who had leprosy in order to stop the spread of the disease. This also involved the person with leprosy having a specific way in which they were expected to handle themselves. We see this in the same chapter, but verse 45. Leviticus 13, but in verse 45 and 46. Now the leper on which the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare, so you'd have to shave his head, and he shall cover his mustache and cry unclean, unclean.

Verse 46. He shall be unclean all the days he has the sores, he shall be unclean, he is unclean, and he shall dwell alone, his dwelling shall be outside the camp. I think to call a life like this of being excluded and quarantined and having to deal with leprosy a hard life would be a gross understatement. These people were basically the living dead. They had to leave their cities and homes. They had to leave their jobs behind.

They'd have to leave their wives or husbands at home, not to see them anymore. They wouldn't be able to take up their children and give them hugs, to say hello, greet them, grandchildren. They'd be excluded from everybody that they knew.

Many believed that those with leprosy, of such a dreaded disease, many believed those with leprosy were being cursed by God. No one was permitted to come within six feet of a person with leprosy. That was a man-made decision not to come within six feet of a person with leprosy. There are some references to where rabbis or others would carry rocks in their garments in case they encountered someone with leprosy. That person started trying to approach them to seek out healing or to, well, look at me, am I better? Because they would have to be evaluated. Are they allowed to come back in the camp? Again, another man-made tradition where some would carry rocks if they needed to ward off someone approaching them with leprosy. Those with leprosy would come to the mindset of hating themselves and their own lives because of their miserable condition. And again, they had to wear torn clothes, live by themselves. They were excluded from their synagogues, from their temples. They weren't able to go and hear God's word read, to go and have that community of being a believer. And I think maybe worst of all, again, they would have to shout out, unclean, unclean, if anybody was to approach so that they would not get the disease themselves. With all this understanding about this dreaded disease, let's go back to Mark 1 and chapter 40 and consider what did Jesus do next as this man approached him, desiring to be healed.

Mark 1 and we'll read verses 40 through 42. Again, it says, now a leper came to him and pouring him. Notice that word. Let's not just read over it quick. I'm going too fast. 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. In keeping with the law in Leviticus chapter 13 and 14, anyone who would have touched a man or a woman with leprosy would he himself or herself be unclean. That's how it was viewed. They would become unclean themselves. And because of this event, because of this aspect of the law, everyone would have went to extreme measures to avoid interacting with the person with leprosy, even if it meant carrying rocks toward someone off. But Christ saw more in the leper than just his disease. Jesus could see the real value of a person who was simply stricken with a horrible disease. In this moment, in these few verses, we see that Jesus had a sensitivity to the person with leprosy. He had the ability to see who this person was. There was a sensitivity to what the leper was going through. Jesus also had a willingness, a desire to act. He stepped out and he got himself involved. And we also see that Jesus had the ability to bring healing. He had the resources available to help. And so he did. Let's dive a little bit deeper into these three aspects as we consider what Jesus did, as we consider our calling today to serve one another. Again, the first aspect is sensitivity. Jesus showed an unmatched level of sensitivity towards a man with leprosy. I describe sensitivity as the ability to see. You may be wondering how sensitivity and sight are linked. We know God has created us as a being that has vision, has eyes, and we can see things. We can process the light in the room. That light brings an image forth that the back of our eye, the lens, can process and it sends electronic signals of the light interpretation and we have the gift of sight. We have the gift of color sight. And it's an amazing gift that God has given to us and and I hope that none of us take good day goes by that we don't appreciate that. Even as winter approaches, all the leaves have fallen off the trees and the landscape will soon be completely beautifully white.

I hope we appreciate this ability to see. But another way the word of sight is defined is mental or spiritual perception or a mental view. We can see or have sights of things that are sometimes not visible with our own physical eyes. This usually becomes easier as we grow and experience life, but this doesn't mean that those of all of our ages, our kids and our teens, that you don't have this ability to see things this way as well. I think a great example is I was trying to think of this visual. How can we perceive and sense things that aren't perceived with your eyes necessarily? And I think as a teen, you know when mom or dad is upset in the house. That's not too hard to figure out. There's things going on. There might be a word or two. There might be a huffing of the breath a little bit. So you perceive this may not be the best time to go ask mom or dad for a raise in the allowance. What about with your friends? You can perceive with the classmate at school that something's not going well with them today. You can tell that something at home is happening. Maybe they've broken up with a boyfriend or a girlfriend or maybe their friend isn't treating them the way that they used to treat them and it's hurting their heart. You can just perceive something's not wrong right with my friend.

As we continue living life and perceiving and understanding things that people go through in their reaction, we can see or have a sensitivity to things that previously were invisible to us. On a spiritual level, God has also given us his Holy Spirit which allows us to discern and to see things that cannot be perceived with their physical eyes. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 12. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 12.

1 Corinthians 2 and verse 12. Paul says, 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, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them. Why? Because they are spiritually discerned. You and I have been given an amazing gift of God's Spirit that is a guide for our life, an encourager, a helper, a supporter, a discerner of spiritual things. So that as we go through life and we weigh out the physical, we weigh out the people we interact with, we weigh out our jobs, our schooling, our friends, our neighbors. We can see that through God's Spirit we can discern things that are not visible with just our eyes. We can perceive things that are going on in someone else's life that is a struggle, a challenge.

And God has let us to not only see this with each other, but to understand his word, to spiritually discern, and to dive deeper, and to see things that kind of are behind the words of our Bible, to understand more deeply the intent of these words that God has given us. In regard to the man with leprosy, Christ was able to see and to be sensitive to the life this man had been living up to this point. Christ knew the way this man had been treated based on the custom, the culture, and of course God's instructions. As soon as Jesus saw this man with leprosy, the thoughts that would have went through his mind are all those aspects that we've already considered today. He would have immediately known the condition this man was in, the things he had gone through, the things he had missed, things he had given up. I believe the ability to be sensitive to others is an innate aspect of being human. From a very early age, we often see the sensitivity in toddlers and small children and how they interact with others and other children and even with adults. I think it's beautiful to see when a little kid will share their Cheerios with another little kid, right? They'll break open the top and they're eating them and they walk up and then they're...they might pull their arm back a little bit, but they're kind of like, do you want one too? They can see they're sensitive, that maybe I'm enjoying this, maybe you like it too, or even like a toy or something that they're playing with. I've seen little kids take a toy and actually go give it to another little kid to play with and take their hands off of it and take a step back and kind of look at them like, are you going to play with that? Are you going to have fun with that too? They see that they have something that they can share, something that they can give, and as a small child grows, so does their ability to be sensitive with others. I think it's amazing that when somebody is having a bad day and teenagers can pick up on it and they can do something wonderful for their friend without us parents getting involved at all. They just realize through other people doing nice things for them and the feelings that it brought, the comfort it gave, I want to do...my heart is moving myself to do something for someone else, and so they'll take...they'll give their friend a Starbucks gift card. They'll take them out for lunch.

Or if they see them being bullied, it's beautiful when you see one stand up for another and say, leave my friend alone. This sensitivity continues to grow as each person matures and lives life. And while we can all probably all think of someone who doesn't appear to have a sensitive bone in their body, that might be an extreme statement, but it's one that maybe we've made at times, I think this is an anomaly of a person and most likely developed in their...and they're exhibiting this behavior because of a past trauma, past something else that didn't...that hurt them, that they're struggling with and happened unique in their life. Life is a great teacher, and as we go through experiences, we grow in our ability to have mental and spiritual perception. If you want to have a better understanding of a situation that is unfolding in your life, you want guidance, you want some advice, I always say go talk to some of our senior members and our family here, right? The beauty of living life is the experiences that we go through, the lessons we learn, the things we can perceive and pick up on. Sometimes if I go and talk to some of our older members in the congregation, they'll give me insight to things that I don't even perceive because they are picking up on certain things because of their honed in, their tuned sensitivity as they continue to age. Like that insurance commercial says, they know a thing or two because they've seen a thing or two, right? I appreciate so much this beautiful family that God brings us all to because we've got little ones running around, sharing their Cheerios and laughing and walking for the first time, all the way up to our most senior members who with their full heart loves these little ones and love us and they're our biggest fans. Grandparents are some of the biggest fans in the world. And so it's wonderful as we come together and as we have this sensitivity to one another's needs and we know that every one of us here can be sensitive to the needs of others around us. And as our little children are taught about this by their parents and relatives, they grow and develop into being able to apply the sensitivity more and more on their own, it's a beautiful process to watch and it's one that we can also grow in and experience in our own lives. That's the first aspect. Jesus had a sensitivity to the things going on around him. The second aspect is he had a willingness.

Christ demonstrated with the leper a willingness to help. Previously, we described willingness as the desire to act or stepping out and getting involved. As the desire to act or stepping out and getting involved. We see from scripture that Christ was moved with compassion when he healed the man with leprosy. What is compassion? From Merriam-Webster dictionary, compassion is described as sympathetic consciousness of others distress together. This is the second component with a desire to alleviate it. So it's again sympathetic consciousness. So sympathy is recognizing when somebody is going through a hardship and then you can see it and you can recognize it and you know that's not ideal. That's a challenge that somebody's going through. That's the first part of compassion. Sympathetic consciousness of others distress. But then it adds in with a desire to alleviate it. So it's not just that you see somebody going through a tough challenge, a hardship of life, a trial. But then you're moved, like deep in your core, you're moved to, I wish I could go over and help them. I wish I could take it away. I wish I could free them from this burden. Some synonyms of compassion is commiseration, tenderness or kindness. What I think is most eye-opening is the antonyms, the opposites of compassion. Notice this, callousness, cold-heartedness, hard-heartedness, heartlessness. Notice how many times the word heart was used in those antonyms, those counter words. There's a reason for this. The word compassion here in the Greek means to be moved as to one's bowels or inner core. To be moved as to one's bowels or their inner core. So it's this deep, inward part of feeling towards another person. You could even say it's a deep or heartfelt feeling. So Christ was first sensitive and able to see the circumstance the leper was in, and then he had this inward, heartfelt desire to alleviate the leper's suffering. Again, I believe this willingness to alleviate another person's suffering is an innate ability and attribute of normal human development. As we grow in sensitivity, we normally grow in a willingness to help and get involved. It's strange to encounter another human being that wants to see someone else needlessly suffer. Even if the person has created the situation for themselves and you know they had an exit out, more times than not, our heart is still moved. I wish they didn't make that decision. I wish there was something I could say to help them now steer back on course. I wish there was something I could do to help this person where they're at. Normally, our hearts hurt for others and we wish we could do something to help, sometimes even when it's a complete stranger. You drive by somebody broken down on the highway and sometimes it's just you're not in a position to be able to help for one reason or another, but you're like, that would be difficult to be in right now. I wish that they weren't there. Or we see somebody else going through a physical health trial difficulty. Just go to the hospital, visit somebody in the hospital visit somebody in the hospital and just look around and you'll see all kinds of tragic situations that you can't fix. You can't just go in and solve for other people. But I hope our hearts just hurt for all these people that we don't even know, but we can just imagine the difficulty that things are going through. An example that demonstrates this is found in Matthew 9 and verse 35.

Matthew 9 and verse 35.

We have an account here in the Gospel of Matthew of Jesus's actions, what he did, how he carried himself. It says, then Jesus went about all the cities and villages. Again, Matthew 9, verse 35. Teaching and their synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, all these people gathering, all these people who would listen and follow, and he just imagined going to a huge city and just looking out among the crowd, he was moved with compassion for them. It wasn't just sympathy, like these people have some struggles. He wanted to alleviate their suffering. He wanted to bring hope and healing to all of them. He was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered. He could see the life draining out of them, the hope that was non-existent, the confusion and wandering around of where does life take me, what am I going to do with my life, and what direction am I going to go. Because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. He looked among the group, the crowds, and he knew if they had a shepherd, they would start to redirect. There would be a course correction. And as we sit here and look at society around us, look to consider our neighbors, consider our community, our hearts should be moved with compassion for the decisions and the directions that many are going. The confusion that exists in their life, the lack of a true north, right? Their compass is all out of whack, spinning around with no needle to point them the way to go.

We know we have a direction to go, and that's only through the gift and grace of God. Our compass, our Bibles point us north so that we know where to live, where to go, and how to live our lives. Christ did so much to help others, but he knew he couldn't do everything. These people needed more than he could offer or give as a physical human being, and there are many times that we feel the same. We have a sensitivity and a willingness, but we just can't fix every situation. But because of our inability to help in every situation, we must not allow ourselves to become desensitized and no longer feel for others. Let's look at 1 Peter 3 and verse 8.

There are so many passages we could go to. This is just one. We don't have time to dive into a ton.

As we consider this attitude, this direction in life, this heart we should have, the things we should be doing, the things that should be filling our mind. Consider what Peter shares here in 1 Peter 3 and verse 8. He said, finally, all of you be of one mind, not multiple minds, not different trains of thought, not different opinions. Be of one mind, having compassion for one another. Love as brothers. Be tender-hearted. Be courteous. Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling. That's what so many times that's what we want to do, right? Let's get this. This was not right and I'm going to let them know and I'm going to give them the cold shoulder. I'm going to make sure they know what they did was not okay and they're going to feel it for me. Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing. Have you ever had, have you ever been deserving of a punishment, been deserving of a correction with your boss? Maybe a parent, maybe a boss at work, maybe a teacher. You were caught in a situation that you created yourself and there's no way out and then somebody gave you some of God's grace.

You know what's coming and you're ready for it, you're bracing for it, and then they just kind of take you under their wing and they said, let's go a different direction with this next time. You're not going to get what you deserve. You're not going to be punished for this. Let's just steer away and back, get back on course.

But on the contrary, blessing. Knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing and of course a blessing from God. As we continue to grow mature in age, we must also grow in compassion for those around us who are suffering just as Christ did. This naturally leads us to the third aspect we looked at in the example of Christ with the leper, which is ability. Earlier we described ability as having the resource to give. These resources can be physical, as in physical service here that we do for one another in the congregation, or the resources can be spiritual, often offering encouragement from God's word or in private prayer for someone. In the account of Jesus's interaction with the man of Ephesus, we see the ability that Christ had to stretch out his hand, to touch him. And he expressed to the man verbally, 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 healed him from afar off, right? Because there are examples of him healing others from afar off. And it would have made sense in the situation to say, no, no, no, you stay back. Be healed. He could have done it that way. And nobody would have thought another thing of it. In fact, they probably would have said that was the wise thing to do in the situation, right? But he chose to treat this man in a very intimate way. Christ touched and healed as many people as he could, and many more than are listed in these Gospel accounts. Human touch is so important. And Christ understood that. I want to go to Matthew 25 and verse 14. As we consider the gifts that God gives to all of us, both spiritual gifts, there are spiritual gifts that some of them can act, we can behave in physical ways with others, use those spiritual gifts in physical ways. But sometimes there are spiritual ways that we share in these spiritual gifts as well. I'll try to draw that out as we read through Matthew chapter 25 and verse 14. Because we're given a warning here that if God has given us the ability to do something, He's given us a gift, He's given us a tool, and if we choose not to use that, there is a huge warning offered to us here in Matthew 25 and verse 14. Jesus says, for the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God that we're going after, is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one, he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to each. Notice this, according to his own ability. So we have different abilities. As we are made up of a family, God has gifted us uniquely, every single one of us. Some of our attributes and gifts can be similar to one another, but the combination he has given you is unlike anybody else in this room. Some have five talents, some have ten talents, some have one talent.

It says, and immediately he went on his journey after giving everyone according to their own ability. Then he would receive five talents, went and traded with them, he worked, he put effort in, he took advantage of the ability that he had, and he made another five talents. And likewise, he who had received two gained two more also. But he would receive one, went and dug in the ground, and hid his sword's money. He's going to go protect that. I'm going to just keep it here in my pocket. I'm going to just put it in the ground here. I can put a little rock on top of it so I know where I buried it. It's safe there. After a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Look, I have gained five more talents beside them. His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant, you are faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Then, verse 22, he would receive two talents, came and settled accounts with his master, the same way that the one with five, and showed them to him. Again, verse 23, he said, Well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over a few things. I'll make you ruler over many things. Enter again into the joy of your Lord. Then he who had received one talent came and said, notice his attitude, notice his thoughts and his mind. Lord, he recognized, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed, and I was afraid. I have to acknowledge right now there's been times I've been afraid to use my guess. I was afraid what the other person would think. I was afraid how it would be perceived. I was afraid I would fail. Maybe I'd be ineffective. Maybe I'd embarrass myself.

I was afraid.

He says, and this man says, I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Look! There you have what is yours. But his Lord answered and said to him, you wicked, and notices, lazy servant. He didn't have to add that on there, but he did. It wasn't just that he's a wicked servant. He's lazy. There's an ability. There's an action. There's a responsibility. There is something that needed to be done. He didn't do it. He was lazy. You knew that I reap where I have not sown, together where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has 10 talents. For to everyone who has more will be given, and he will have abundance. This is the part where I think I missed when I was nervous, when I was afraid, when I was concerned with how it would be perceived if I used my gift, if I used my talent. This is the part that I missed. That if I was willing to try to get involved, to work at something, God would not only bless that action, he would give me more. He would show me other ways that my talent can be used, other ways I can be helpful, other things that he would teach me about myself. For to everyone who has more will be given, and he will have abundance. But from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away.

And cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. As we think about the service you and I have been called to give, how can we consider the abilities that God has given to us? That's homework for you. It's homework for me. How can we consider the abilities God has given us? There's a takeaway I'd like us to consider today as we begin to draw near to the end. 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 we've struggled with. But God had a sensitivity to our challenge. He had a willingness to alleviate our suffering, and He had the ability to help us spiritually. Because of the great love of God, He drew us away from our past, and He brought us into His love, into His family, and to His way of life. And as we consider the example of Jesus, we each must put on more of Christ that we read about today and develop this type of Christ-centered service.

At the beginning of the message, I asked you to consider someone that you think of when you hear the word service. I asked you to consider the person, what is it that they exhibit, their characteristics, that ability, those gifts, the things that make them who they are and that they popped up in your mind. The question for us today, what is it that keeps you and me from becoming that person that we wrote down and we thought about at the beginning of the message? What is it that keeps us from becoming that person?

I get it. It's a big order. It's a big calling. It's a big thing to consider. Could I do that? Could I become more like that person? But so many times in our family here, we say that we need more people who are like, fill in the blank. We need more people who are like that name that you wrote down on the list, right? We need more people like that. Or here's another one. Or when a person who was like, fill in the blank, dies or moves away, we feel like there is a hole in the congregation. Have you ever said that or thought that? When a person who was like so and so, who's no longer with us, there's a big hole, big shoes to fill. Or we may say, you know what we read, what we need right now is someone who could fill in the blank. I've said every single one of these questions at different times, or made every one of these statements at different times, filling in different names here and there, different attributes, different needs.

Have you heard these statements before? Again, like me, have you made them yourself? We don't necessarily need more people like the person that you wrote down because we have God that has gifted to each one of us with talents and abilities. And these gifts that He's given to us, they're not just for us.

So I would leave you with some encouragement to be more like the person that you put down and you wrote at the beginning or you thought of in your head.

These are physical examples of qualities that you obviously admire, or you would not have wrote it down. You would not have put this person's name down. You would not have wrote those characteristics down. If it wasn't something that you admired about them, that you saw was made them special, it set them apart, this is a person that you obviously respect or you wouldn't have listed them. This is a person you see living or who did live an active life of service or they wouldn't have come to your mind.

I'd like to ask two of our men to hand out a list, a second list. Two weeks ago, and there's extra copies, okay, I'm getting too fast. Yeah, please do hand it out.

Two weeks ago in the sermon I shared, I shared a listing of service areas within our congregation, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but areas that we have needs, areas that people serve today. And I asked you to take some time and prayerfully consider that list, to go to God, ask Him if there's areas where you could help in our family here on the Sabbath or in our, within our family during the week.

And I asked you to take that list home. I asked our teens to take it. Some, I think some of our teens were here, some of them weren't. I have extra copies of that original description list. There's about 20 copies on the information table, so if you didn't get it, it's over there. If you're online, I can email it out. Let me know. This is the second part that I didn't hand out because I didn't want to maybe put the cart in front of the horse, right?

This is the part that you get the opportunity to put your name at the top of the list and just check off a few of these boxes. Again, there's no pressure. I told it said two weeks ago there was not going to be any pressure for anyone to submit this. There's no pressure for you to just sign up for something that you just because you've now been given this, I have to put my name on it, I have to sign up for something.

If God has not moved your heart, I would rather you not put your name on a list just to do it right now. But if He has moved your heart, if you've considered this, or if you still need more time, take more time. We see these characteristics of Jesus Christ, sensitivity, willingness, ability. Sometimes we need a little bit more time to know what we can do and what we can't do. And there are some service areas that you serve today, right now, that's not on this list. And I don't want anybody to feel like because they don't submit this and check a box, knowing in their heart they serve in other ways that they're not doing their part.

Because that's this is not a guilt trip. This is not a pressure tactic. But I know we have gifts that I can, I'm not going to embarrass myself by starting to pick people and name all your gifts. I can look at every single person here, and God has blessed me so much to be able to be part of your family for five years. And I can pick and tell you certain things I've seen, things I appreciate, things I love about your service.

And they're there. God has given you talents. He's given you gifts, abilities. And when we come together as the body, I should have put this in my notes, I'll have to look at it later, the example Paul uses about the body and all the parts, all the pieces, it's one body, but everybody is doing a different function and every function is important. So if you're moved to today or in the future, please fill out the second part.

Please put your name at the top. I would love it if our teens would also consider that. And some of our pre-teens, we're going to talk about this a little bit in the back room. So just as a primer, we're going to talk a little bit about service with you guys because I need your help. I really do. Everybody here needs your help because we have, again, we're part of a congregation, a family that has been built on a foundation of people serving and helping for generations. And we're all better off because of who's come before us and who's helped when we may not have been able to do much ourselves.

And so as you finish these, you can hand them back to me today or I say if you can give it to Mr. Dunham over these next few weeks, if I'm not here, if I'm absent, and he will collect them and get them back over to me since we live near to one another, it'll be a good way.

And I'd like to compile and do some homework myself with this list to see where we can continue to grow our ability to serve, our ability to help. And again, just know that this list does not limit your ability to serve if you serve in other ways outside of this list, but it is a list of service areas that often you see us with needs in the congregation and ways that we can help. Everything that Jesus did while alive on this earth was based on the will of the Father. Christ came not to be served by those around him, but to serve those who were in need of healing both physically and spiritually.

He expressed and showed true love towards all that he interacted with in doing what was best for each person. Christ was one who had the sensitivity, the willingness, and the ability to serve in a tremendous fashion, and so do we. Every single one of us. Let's finish in Matthew 16 in verse 24.

Matthew 16, verse 24.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, take up the challenges that we have in life, and follow me.

For whoever desires to save his life, we'll lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and we know Jesus came to serve the world, so it would be for the sake of others as well.

We'll find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world? It's everything physically. It goes to the top of the class. Biggest and best CEO, the most richest.

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 glory, in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each according to his works. That's a direct tie-in to Matthew 25 that we looked at earlier. If we were to flip back to Matthew 10 and verse 38, we'd read this, and he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. That's a big statement.

We are God's special and set-apart people called to follow the example of our elder brother Jesus Christ. May we continue to consider how we can grow in sensitivity, willingness, and ability as we seek to serve here in the congregation and others personally.