In an Unworthy Manner, Part 1

Well, I mentioned, or maybe it was already mentioned, that really one week or one month from today, we will already have kept the Passover back on the Friday night, four weeks from last night. We'll be here on a Sabbath day. We'll be looking toward the night to be much observed that Sabbath evening, and we'll be looking at the first Holy Day. So the days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover are upon us. And as we do every year, we will talk about preparing for the Passover. We already began that before we left for Cincinnati, but I want to talk about that more today. But let's open with the Scripture that we should always open with around Passover time to remind ourselves why we're doing this and the importance of this time that leads up to Passover in the days of Unleavened Bread. So if you'll turn with me again to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11, we're going to pick it up in verse 23. As the church in Corinth, you know, became a little more established in their ways, Paul could see some things in the way they were keeping the Passover and wanted to remind them of what the Passover was for and how to observe it. Not to let every other ideas come into it, but to remind them of how solemn this occasion is, how important this occasion is to God as He sees us and it's important to us as we recommit to Him to follow Him. And we use this time leading up to Passover to look at ourselves and see, are we doing and are we becoming what God wants, who God wants us to be? Verse 23, 1 Corinthians 11. Paul writes, I receive from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take eat. This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

There's always a danger in Passover that if we've kept the Passover 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 times, then we take that bread that we could take it with a not so much in remembrance of Christ. It is important for us to remember, as we've been even rehearsing in the book of Hebrews, which was written so that we are mindful of the importance of Jesus Christ, the importance of His sacrifice, the importance and the absolutely incredible calling that God has given us, that we don't take it as just another thing that we do once a year, just part of a ritual. But when we take that bread, we understand we are taking and saying we partake and participate with Jesus Christ. We are in fellowship with Him, and as He suffered, we put our lives with Him, and we're ready to suffer with Him because we understand He's His Savior, and we're quite, quite thankful for what He's done for us, and we are ready to commit to Him with our lives and all our being. In the same manner, verse 25, He also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. He shed His blood for us. He suffered for us.

He did it all so that you and I would have an opportunity. I don't know that we fully understand. In fact, I know we don't fully understand the love God has for you and me.

We'll see a few verses here as we enter into the sermon on how much God loves you, how much God loves me, and how He writes that in the Bible. And Jesus Christ certainly demonstrated His love for us by way He was willing to go through and suffer and sacrifice that we, very unworthy human beings, might have the opportunity to be with Him for eternity. Verse 26, For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, that's once a year, on the Passover, for baptized members, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Therefore, verse 27, an admonition from God, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. How can we eat that bread or drink that cup in an unworthy manner?

By not doing what He says to do in verse 28. This is the time to be preparing for Passover now. If we start thinking about Passover on Friday morning, on the Friday evening that we'll be taking it, it's too late. It's time to be looking for Ep.at now, looking at ourselves, monitoring ourselves, measuring ourselves against the words of the Bible, looking at ourselves through God's eyes, through the eyes of the Bible, through the eyes of His Holy Spirit that will lead us and guide us to who He wants us to become. If we let that happen, and if we do the things that He says, part of that, as we head on to Passover in verse 28, is let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. None of us are worthy to take the Passover.

Jesus Christ suffered for all of us. He made it possible for us. It says, don't take it in an unworthy manner. That means now we prepare for it. Now we're doing the thing so that when the Passover comes, we can eat it in fuller recognition of who Christ is, what we have been called to, our renewed commitment to Him, to follow Him with all our heart, mind, and soul, in all the detail that He provides for us. Verse 29, for he who drinks eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. They're just not getting it, is what He says. And that is an offense to God. None of us want to be an offense to God by the way we do the things that He has called us to do and observing His days the way that He has asked us to do. Verse 30 says this, for this reason, because people take it in an unworthy manner, they're not discerning the Lord's body. They're not paying attention to it. It's not as important to them and as significant to their lives as it should be. For this reason, many are weak and sick among you and many sleep. Before I go on, I do want to look at a few verses here about just how much God loves us. If I turn back to John 15. Jesus Christ, in His words to the disciples, the apostles on that night of Passover, He compares the love He has for us in a way that should open our eyes to just how important you and I and all the people who follow God, who follow God in the way that He has called, those that are called and chosen, as you heard last week, are to Him. John 15, and we'll pick it up in verse 9. Christ says this to His disciples, then He says it to you and me today, as the Father loved me, and we know God the Father loved Jesus Christ more than we can even imagine. We don't even understand that depth of love. As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Just as deeply as God the Father loves me, Christ says, I've loved you. That's how deep that love is. That's just how important you and I are to God and all His people.

I also have loved you. Abide in my love. And then He tells us how to do that in verse 10. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. There, as a basic principle in His own words, if we abide in God's love, we do what He says to do. We keep His commandments, not just physically, but as in the New Testament, physically as well as spiritually. Christ made that abundantly clear, as we've talked about many times. When He says in the Sermon on the Mount, it's not enough that you just don't physically kill your brother. You don't even harbor hate against him. It's not enough that you just physically don't commit adultery with that woman. You don't even lust for her in your heart. You weed that out. You keep my commandments. You live my life in spirit as well as physically. If you love me, and if you want to abide in my love, do this. Verse 11, these things I've spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, verse 12, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Well, we know how much. Well, we don't understand how much, but we can imagine how much God loves Jesus Christ, how much Jesus Christ said He loves us, and He tells you and me, you love one another that much as well. I dare say we could do some examining of ourselves in that area between now and Passover and make some commitments and resolutions to God to move forward and learn to become what He says in that verse, that we would learn to love one another as God loves us and as Jesus Christ loves us. He repeats this in John 17 in the prayer that He offered before He was arrested. You know in John 17, He prayed several times, My will, Father, is that day, those who you call, then in 31 A.D. through the ages of the people that would become part of His ecclesia, His called out ones, His church, that you would make them one. In verse 23, He says this, He says, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that they become as close with each other and with us as you and I are, Father. It's quite a lofty standard, quite a ways for us to go, something that we can pray to God about and ask Him how to lead us to how do we get to that. I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent Me and have loved them as you have loved Me.

Knowing how much God loves us, knowing how important it is to Him, for us to be in His Kingdom, knowing how important it should be for us, let's look at this Passover coming up. Let's look at what it says here in 1 Corinthians. Let's examine ourselves. A couple weeks ago when I was here, we talked about reconciliation. If we remember, we used Christ's own words. And when He said in Matthew 5, 23, if your brother has anything against you, go be reconciled to Him first, leave your gift at the altar, be reconciled to Him, and then come and offer your gift.

Reconciliation, the relationships that God wants us to bear with one another, to have with one another, are an important thing, as we've even seen in these verses. We all heard that a few weeks ago. I hope that if that touched you, if you thought there's someone I need to reconcile with, whether it's another brother in another church area, someone that might have something against me, not someone I don't talk to, I just don't like, whether it's whatever relationship it is that you're working on that, it's time to do the things and not just know them. God wants us to do what we learn. Remember, it says it's not the hearers that we justified, but the doers that are justified before God. So when we hear the things that God tells us in His words, He expects us to go about in doing them. If we understand the calling He gives, if we appreciate the calling that He gives, if we love Him and love what He has offered to us, we will go about and do those things. And now is the time to begin doing those things. And if you happen to be one who receives the phone call from someone, I hope that you will take it in the right manner as well, in the Christian manner, and that relationships can begin to be put back together. That's what God is looking to see. How do they learn to work with one another and reconcile the way He wants us to?

Well, that was a couple weeks ago. But as we look at today, and as we're now a month away from Passover, let's look at Christ's own words and let Him prepare us for Passover this year.

There are a series of chapters back in the book of Luke that if we go through them, we will see that they're not only a very good instruction from Christ Himself on Christian living, but also a very good text for us to be looking at to see, do I do this the way Christ said? Do I follow His example the way He said? He has some of those examples punctuated with parables. Others are just kind of a mention. But every detail in the Bible is there so that we learn how to live, how to grow, and for the next month, maybe even look at some things that we can examine ourselves in as we head toward Passover. So turn with me back to Luke 10, and we'll let Christ give this sermon here today from His words as we go through at least chapter 10, more chapters that we'll do in the weeks ahead. You're there at Luke 10, verse 1, but I'm going to back us up one verse to Luke 9, verse 62. This is the occasion where Jesus Christ is calling people, and one by one they have excuses as to why they can't follow Him now.

And Christ tells them, you know, in Luke 9, verse 62, He says, No one, no one having put his hand to the plow. Everyone in this room has put his hand to the plow. Whether we're baptized or not, we've put our hand to the plow. We know, we know God has called us. We know this is the truth, or we wouldn't be sitting here. We put our hands to the plow. Most have been baptized. Most of them are, most of us have God's Holy Spirit, as we've been repented and been baptized and have His Spirit in us. But everyone here, and I'm going to venture to say everyone listening, has put their hand to the plow. You know what God's will is. He says, No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

So we might hearken back as we look at our lives. Maybe we first understood the truth 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 50 years ago.

But we knew that we were moving well.

Back at that time, we knew to leave the world behind and to look to God and that we were moving forward. How are we in that today? As we've moved forward, as time has passed, do we find ourselves looking back at the world, going back to some of the ways we did things before, bringing the world and justifying in our minds that that's okay? Are we doing things the way God said? Are we looking at Him? Because He says, if we are looking back, this is an unleavened bread lesson, right? Egypt, when they ran into a few hard times, they looked back. Anyone who has put his hand to the plow and looking back should be coming out of the world. That should be the continual progression coming out of the world. But if we're looking back, not fit for the kingdom of God.

We can look at lesson number one there and what Christ said and look at ourselves. Where are we in that prospect or in that process? Chapter 10, verse 1, though, Jesus Christ says this, He does have people who are following Him. And He sends some of those people, 70 in this case, out to be able to preach the gospel and prepare the way for Him for other people. Chapter 10, verse 1, says, After these things, the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them two by two, before His face, into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. What they were going to do is prepare the way for Jesus Christ. They were going to go out. They were going to preach the Word. They were going to preach the gospel of repentance. They were going to be His agents, if you will, as He sent out. And He would give them power as they went out. And they would prepare for the way to come because He would come later. But they were the ones who went before His appearance in that city. In many, many ways, you and I are in the same situation today. We're here in Orlando. We are all here in a place that God has put us. And we are here as lights to the world of what God's way of life is. Before Jesus Christ returns, His Church would be evident in the world. Before Jesus Christ returns, His Church will be more visible. You and I will be more visible. Will we be lights to the world? Are we being prepared? And are we letting ourselves be prepared to be those lights, to be those beacons that the world needs, to be those examples of what God's way of life is so people can see the direct contrast between God's way and the way of the world? And as we look around us, we can see those two ways becoming more or further and further apart.

Not even in the same realm anymore, it seems. So you and I are in this way, and God calls us. And we're sitting here today. We're doing things God's way. And we are His people that He has called. He's made us first fruits. If we've been baptized, we are living God's way of life.

He would say, you're there in that community today. And as He advised these people, or as He commanded them as they went out, He said things that we can pertain to ourselves. You know, we'll drop down to verse 4. Well, verse 3. He says, Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. He warns them, the way's not going to be easy. Everywhere you go, people aren't going to just welcome you with open arms and say, wow, we've been waiting for you. The truth is magnificent. We couldn't wait to hear this. Our minds are open. We just want to be with you. No, no, no.

He said it's going to be the opposite. Some we'll see would welcome. Those 70 that went out. Others would reject it and not want anything to do with them. You and I have lived the same things in our life in a very mild manner to date. We've had family members, we've had friends, co-workers, whatever it is, that we've tried to make understand perhaps the Sabbath day, holy days, why we don't keep pagan, originated holy days. Some people hear it and they receive it okay. Others flat out reject it and don't want anything to do with it. And we learned that's okay. It's not God's purpose for everyone's mind to be open today. Today, God is calling those who He wills to call. The rest of humanity will have an opportunity to know the truth at another time after the millennium.

So as we look forward in our lives, though, we're going to feel some of the perhaps unwelcomedness that these 70 went out. You know, we'll see ourselves more as lambs among wolves in a society that doesn't want to hear God's message at all.

In verse 4, he says, carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals.

Now that's an unusual thing for him to say. Sending them out for a journey. It's not like they're going away for an hour or two and coming back. But look what he tells them. They'll make provisions for yourself. Have faith in me. I can provide everything you need. Don't do what you 70 normally do. Don't run home and get your wallet. Make sure you have your credit cards. Go to the ATM, withdraw some money. Don't do any of that. Trust in me. I can provide everything you need.

And you know what's interesting among these 70? There wasn't an Achan among any of them. Remember who Achan is? A-C-H-A-N? He was the one, and when they went into A.I. or into Jericho, these thought, nah, I can just hide some of these things. The spoil that God said not to keep. And Israel suffered as a result. Every one of these 70 apparently followed him implicitly. Okay. Lord, you sent us out. You said don't pack a knapsack. Don't take any money with you, and you will provide everything we need. What he's telling them is the same thing he would tell us. Have faith. Have faith.

Now, faith like that doesn't come overnight. Faith like that didn't come to those 70 and the ones who went before them overnight. As they worked with God, as they saw Jesus Christ, as they believed in Him more and more, that faith developed so that when He told them to go and don't look back, don't go into your household, don't come down from your roof, just go, trust me, they had been prepared. They had gone through the opportunities for testing and development and character development and faith building that God gives us all along the way if we're paying attention. So when He said go and have faith, they simply went. If you and I look at our faith today, would we? Are we ready to do that? I dare say no. I know all of us would want to say yes, but would we? Honestly, we can be. We need to be. We need to be working toward that.

God will give us the opportunities to build that faith. We just have to use those opportunities and not just keep doing things the way we've always done them. Trust Him. So as we're examining ourselves, we can look at this verse 4 here and ask ourselves, are we developing the faith that God would have us develop? Is my faith, as I look at myself honestly, do I have more faith in God today than I did a year ago? Do I have more faith in God today than I did 10 years ago? Do I trust Him more? Some examination questions we might ask ourselves. He goes on and He has other instructions to this group as well. Verse 5, He says, whatever house you enter, first say peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it. If not, it'll return to you.

So you go out and you talk to the people that are there. If they receive your word and they're at peace with you, so be it. Give glory to God. But if they're not, if they think, no, we don't want to hear what you have to offer, we've got all these other ideas and we're going to do things a different way. Don't let it worry you. Go on to another place, your peace will return to you. In verse 7, He gives them something else that's an interesting thing for Him to say. He's sending them out. We don't know how long they were going to be gone. But when He sends them out and they find the house of peace where God's word is received, where they will listen to what He has to say, He says in verse 7, and remain in the same house. Remain there. Stick there. Where you are called, where you find peace, where you find the truth, you stay there. He specifically says at the end of verse 7, don't go from house to house. Now we know that God is building His house and you and me individually. He's building His house and you and us collectively as well. There's a temple that He's at work building. That's why you and I have to grow together, become more at one with one another and with God the Father. We also have to pay attention to what we're doing as we let God build our houses individually, but our houses together. There's a training program He puts us in. He tells these 70 the same things He would tell you and me. Stay in the same house. Don't hop from house to house.

They did it. Now it might have seemed reasonable to them. Well, I don't want to wear the people out in this house. I don't know how long I'm going to be there. Maybe I should go someplace else for a week or a few days and give them a spell. No. Stay where God has put you. He can't train us. He can't develop us in the way He wants if we're hopping from place to place to place, from congregation to congregation to congregation, week after week after week. There's a principle that God is that He's put us in a body and He expects us to grow in that body where He places us. Do we do that?

Or are we still searching? Are we still, well, it's okay. I don't need to pay attention to that command or what purpose He has called us to.

They did it, apparently. And as they have gone down through the verses, we see that you know, God did work with them. He gave them the power to heal diseases. We come down to verse 16.

He makes a comment to them as they're going out. He says, He who hears you 70, He who hears you preach my gospel, He who hears you preach the Word of God, hears me. And He who rejects you rejects me.

Now, those are some words we can look at. God gives us all the words in the Bible. Every single word is inspired by Him. Every single word in every single detail He expects you and me to be growing in and to begin living in as He opens our minds to understand them. He who hears you hears me, Christ said. Don't we all want to listen to Christ? He is the only way to salvation. He is the only way to eternal life. There is no other way. There is no compromise. There is one way, and through one way only, and that's Jesus Christ, and through the truth of the Bible as He leads us. But if we reject Him, if we say, No, I don't want to believe that. I'm not at peace with that. I don't believe that. I don't want to hear that in the Bible, or I don't see that in the Bible. If you reject that hearing, He says you reject me. Who would want to reject Jesus Christ?

But we have to learn to accept Him no matter how much we might want to not accept the principle that Christ has. You can keep your finger there in Luke 10. Let's go back to Romans 10, or forward to Romans 10. It's interesting that as His admonition to the seventh, they begin with, Have faith in me. He concludes with, If the people that I send you to hear me, or hear you, they hear me. And in Romans 10, 17, you know, as we work with the Word of God, and we study the Word of God, read the Word of God, talk about the Word of God, there's the important part that God has in hearing His Word. And that's where all of us and His Church come into play. Romans 10, verse 17. So then, faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.

Where the Word of God is taught, hear it. Hear it. And when you receive it, you receive Him. Interestingly, in John 13, again, right after the Passover ceremony, on Christ's last Passover in John 13, and in verse 20, on Passover evening, we always read down to verse 17 in John 13. We don't often maybe go through the rest of Christ's own words in that section, but in verse 20, He says, Most assuredly I say to you, He who receives whomever I send receives Me, and he who receives Me receives him who sent Me.

Receive his Word. Receive the teaching. Receive Christ and receive God.

To his Church, he would say, Listen to my words. How many times did Christ Himself say, The people have become dull of hearing. How many times have we read in the book of Hebrews as we gone through that? Don't become dull of hearing. Don't let the words go in one ear and out the other, or just close your mind to it like I've heard that a thousand times before it doesn't apply to me. Don't let the words just fall on you like they have no meaning at all. Let them sink into you as we read them and as we look at the words of the Bible and the detail that God gives us. Okay, let's go back to Luke 10. Continue in there. So we learn in verse 17 of Luke 10 that the 70 did exactly what Jesus Christ said.

And we know that because they come back with joy. Whenever we do things God's way, we have joy.

Whenever we do things apart from God's way, our joy is not there. It's not complete. There's only one way to joy and that is to be in concert with God. The fruit, one of the second list of fruit of the Spirit is joy. Verse 17, the 70 returned with joy. They did it exactly the way Christ said.

They didn't worry about things. They trusted in Him. They followed Him implicitly. They had been developed in that way. Christ knew they were ready to be sent out and they did it exactly the way He said. The 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.

In Your name and with faith in You, we were even able to cast out demons from the people that had those. I don't know what that feeling would be like. I've never cast out a demon. Probably no one in here. Maybe someone has. Probably in the future we'll come to face-to-face with some demons as the time for Christ's return draws near. And we'll have the faith to cast those demons out, just like these 70 did as God develops us and as we let Him build our faith in Him.

But they're amazed. They didn't take credit to themselves. They didn't pat themselves on the back and say, what a great job I've done. We'll see here in a minute. They gave credit totally to God. They knew it was Him. But they had yielded to Him and they did things exactly the way He said and they had progressed through time to what He wanted them to do as He sent them out. Christ responds to their comments in verse 18 with an interesting comment of His own. He said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

That's quite a dramatic statement. I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

In response to, we were even able to cast out demons in your name. What did he mean by that?

When we yield to God, when we are led by His Holy Spirit, when we let Him train us, develop us, mold us, when we give our minds, hearts, and soul to God, and He brings us to where He wants us to be, as He sees our hearts are determined to follow Him, when He sees that our hearts are determined to put the self behind, the world behind, our own ideas behind, our own ways behind, that God, Satan, the God of the world, falls. He falls like lightning when we give ourselves totally to God. He no longer has power over us. God's Holy Spirit supersedes any power that Satan has of our own selves, and without His Holy Spirit, we are powerless against Satan. But with His Holy Spirit, we can overcome. And He no longer has any power over us unless we give it back to Him over time. There's a parable later on in a couple of chapters that we'll get to where some people do give Him the access back in. We don't want to do that. Now, we can look at verse 18 in an end time statement as well, because I'm sure as you read that statement, you automatically thought of Romans or Revelation 12, where it says that in the end time, Satan will be cast down to earth.

And he knows, and it was woe to the inhabitants of the earth, woe to the church of God, because he knows he has a short time. There will come a time when Satan no longer has an audience in heaven. He is cast down. His time is done. His kingdom is over. Satan's time is king in our lives, even if it's a little bit out there. If we still have him on a little pedestal and we're still giving into him a little bit, little by little, Satan has to totally lose his influence over us. That comes through time. And as we do the things, not just hear the things, but do the things that God wants us to do, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Maybe they scratched their head and thought about that a little bit. Maybe we can think a little bit about that and how God wants Satan to fall like lightning from our lives. Fall like lightning, yeah, from our lives. As we completely yield to him. Verse 19, Christ tells us what the power he gives us is, Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions. Not deliberately, not doing things just for show and say, look what I can do because I can step on this snake or step on this scorpion. I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Do we believe that? Do we have faith in God? He's not promising there that we will never experience pain. He's not promising that we'll never have tribulation. He's not promising we'll never have trials. But the things of the world that could harm us, he can give us protection from. We've experienced that in the last year, correct?

As the pandemic of the world, I know we have some visitors, as the pandemic of the world touched any of us, to my knowledge, none in this church, God can protect us from whatever, whatever is there in the world, just like He shielded Israel, Israel from the plagues of Egypt, and show them He can differentiate between those of Him, those who are His, and those who are not.

Now, that's not making any great claim. We thank God for what He does, but we understand He does provide and He does protect. And Jesus Christ says, you have faith in me. You believe in me. You trust in me, and I will give you the power to overcome even the greatest power on earth outside of God and Jesus Christ, and that's Satan. That's the power He gives you in me.

No one else other than His people, other than God and Jesus Christ, have that power.

That should encourage us. That should inspire us. Whatever we're wrestling with, whatever we have to overcome, whatever might be lingering in our minds that's just too hard to put behind, we can do it. God gives us the tools to do it, and He wants us to do it.

We just have to determine to do it. Not just hear it, not just want it, but to do it.

Verse 20, He reminds us, always give credit to God. Never look to yourself. As soon as we start looking to ourselves, we absolutely fall. Nevertheless, He says, don't rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. And we know how our names are written in heaven when we do God's will, when we are yielded, and when we submit to Him fully, more and more fully, as the days, months, years, and Passover observances come about. As you go into verse 21 to 24, you see Jesus Christ. He's thanking God. It says, in that hour Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for it's seen good in your sight. Thank you. He was happy to see the effect of God's way of life in these people's lives. He wasn't upset that it wasn't the elite of the world who received this knowledge. He wasn't upset and thinking, why didn't God call the powerful, the mighty, the wealthy? Thank you that you've given this to the babes. And Jesus Christ was thankful just when He saw people believing. Do we feel that same way? Do we just rejoice in our hearts when we see someone that comes that now understands? When someone repents, it says, there's joy in heaven. Do we have that same joy when we hear that someone has responded to God after that calling? He goes on and He tells us, He reminds us again in verse 23 and 24, just how important and special, if I can use the word, there really are some words in the English language that are just missing, you know, and we want to talk about any kind of superlative where God is concerned. Verse 23, He turned to the disciples and said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. Do we realize or do we ever contemplate how blessed we are to know what God has given us? The certainty which with we can direct our lives? Because we know what His plan is. We know what the purpose of mankind is. We know the calling that He's given us. We know what our future holds. We know the power of the Holy Spirit. We know what can be done if we yield to God.

No one else in this world knows. They go around from government to government, from this idea, from this philosophy, all over the place, all over the world. They have no idea what to do. They would give anything to know what you and I know, but they don't even know what they don't know.

You don't think the prophets, as you said in verse 24, would love to say, I can tell you certainly what's going to happen in the world. Absolutely they would love it. Probably for their own prophet. We know it. You don't think the kings of the world would love to know, hey, this is exactly what the plan is. This is exactly where we're going. They're just swimming in the dark, hoping that this way works and this way works and my idea is better than your idea and all the garbage that we hear every day as we listen to the news. I tell you, many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see and they haven't seen it and to hear what you hear and they haven't heard it. Maybe we can contemplate a little bit what God has given us, the truth He's given us, what a comfort it is. What a comfort and what stability it gives us as we look forward from now until the return of Jesus Christ, knowing what lies ahead, that with certainty we can survive and we will be there if we follow Him, if we yield to Him. But if we let the world creep in, if we start looking at the world and trusting in it, that won't be. That's not the way to the kingdom of God. Verse 25, behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him. Aren't people always trying to test? You hear something and he thinks, okay, let me just run this by Jesus Christ and see what he says, saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Christ said to him, well, what's written into law? Same thing he might say to you and me, you have a Bible, you have the Word of God. What does it say? If you want to enter an eternal life, what do you do?

It's there. It's not a secret to you and me. God has opened all our eyes. It's there. All we have to do is read it and then do it. He said, what is written into law? What's your reading of it? So the lawyer answered and said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. There's a lot of the word, all, in that. When God uses the word all, he doesn't mean most. He means all. That takes a lifetime. That takes a lifetime of learning to love God with all our mind, all our heart, all our soul. And the second command, love your neighbor as yourself. And Christ said to him, you've answered correctly, do this, and you will live. Do you know it?

Do it. Don't just hear it. Don't just be able to recite it. Do it. It's of no use if you never do it.

If you don't make the steps to do it, and those who don't do it won't be in the kingdom of God.

We have to do it. We have to learn it. We have to acknowledge it. We have to repent of the ways that we've been, and we have to start doing what God says to do. The time is now, not like it was even before, that we can see what's going on in the world around us. It's time to start doing.

And as we examine ourselves, and as we prepare ourselves for Passover to see it's time to put the child's toys behind and start doing what God said and looking at ourselves through His eyes, and not just our veiled eyes that says, I'm quite okay, and God has to be happy with me as long as I do this and this and this.

Now He wants all of us. He wants us to completely yield to Him. Do this and you will live. Now, first, and that's a good message to us. You know, I know what, eight, nine years ago we went through each of one of the Ten Commandments, if you remember, if you were here at that time, one by one, and we talked about the physical aspect and the spiritual aspect of the Ten Commandments. Maybe we need to do that again to remind ourselves what this way of life that God has called us to and what the ramifications of it are and how we might unwittingly wander into something and think that's okay when really it isn't okay, it's a violation of the Commandments.

Maybe we need to do that and you can pray about that and we'll see where God leads us on that, but we have to start doing those Ten Commandments, but you can do that yourself. Look at them and don't just say, I do all those things physically. There's a spiritual element. Don't forget that. That's where the examination comes in. What do I think? What do I do? What's my attitude? What am I really up to here? Am I pleasing self or am I completely yielding to God and doing it the way He said?

Verse 29 is something that every single one of us in this room, and I include myself, have done and continue to do. Verse 29, the lawyer, but he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Isn't justification exactly what we all do? Well, I think God's okay with that. Well, I didn't do that, but this is the reason why. And you know, my heart is really good. It's in the right place. I have this issue that no one else has. I have this situation that no one else has. I have this going on over here. I just can't do it exactly the way God says to do it, but He understands that because my situation is different.

I can justify what I do. I can justify why I'm not where God wants me to be. All of us can justify things, right? And we've all done it. We've all said, well, okay, I heard that. Someone mentioned it to me. I read it in the Bible.

But, you know, so as we look at what, you know, we'll just kind of, what was this attorney, this lawyer, thinking? When he repeated, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself, was he in his mind thinking, do I do that? Do I love my neighbor as myself? Because remember, when the Jews were there, they didn't love all people.

They loved each other, as humans do, not God does. But they didn't love the Samaritans. They didn't love the Gentiles. They looked at them as lower class, who needs anything to do with them. So maybe he looked at himself and said, well, okay, who is my neighbor? It's just fellow Jews, right? Not these Gentiles, not these Samaritans that I have to put up with every day. We might do the same thing.

You fill in the blanks as you examine yourself. Do we justify some of the things that we do? Like he did, and think, oh, I know that loved your neighbor as yourself. Well, who is my neighbor? And Christ then goes into something I won't read. You know the parable of the Good Samaritan? Very well. And he shows them our neighbor is everyone. If we see someone who's hurt and laying beside the road, we help. If we see our neighbor, next door neighbor, who falls down next, you know, in the middle of the yard, we don't sit back and say, oh, well, someone will come and call the ambulance or whatever they do. You know, we go and help.

We look at them and we help where we can. Now, remember, as we discussed a few weeks ago, neighbor is different than brother. When the Bible says brother, it's talking about people who have the same beliefs that you and I do, just as Jesus Christ said in Matthew 12, verse 46. Who is my brother? He's the one who does the will of my father, just as Jesus Christ did. There are commands. You can read them in 1 John 3, other places in the Bible when it says brother, it tells you what to do and how we bond together with one another. And there are neighbors, which is everyone else. Jesus Christ died for all mankind, not just for you and me. And those who follow Him, He died for all of mankind. And as He loves them, we need to come to the point where we love. That is not something that happens overnight. That happens through the course of our lifetime. That we can look at people who will do whatever they do to us and say, you don't know what you're doing. And when their time comes, just ask God that they may understand as well.

So, in verse 37, after Christ gives him this parable, Christ asks him the question, well, which one was the neighbor? And the lawyer said, He who showed mercy on him. And Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise. Do it. Now you know it. Build it into your life. Are we going to be perfect as we begin to build these things? Absolutely not.

But we do need to begin building it into our lives and catching ourselves and asking God to help us to become who He wants to become. Moving on to verse 38.

It happened as they went that He entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.

And she had a sister named Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word.

So, imagine the picture here. Here's Jesus Christ. Which of us wouldn't want Jesus Christ if He was here to invite Him into our house? What an opportunity to sit down and talk with Him.

Would any of us pass that opportunity up? The disciples had a tremendous opportunity. Three and a half years, day in and day out, they walked with Jesus Christ. They heard Him talk. They see how He acted. Mary and Martha now have Him in their house. But Martha, it says, was distracted.

She was distracted with much serving. Now, it's an interesting thing for Christ to observe, because certainly it was good of her to advise Jesus Christ in. But as He was there, she was busy about doing all these other things. The tablecloth has to look just this way. The food isn't looking just the way I want. It's not the perfect temperature. The silverware isn't perfect. There's lint or whatever, dust, whatever on this table that I forgot to do. I've got to do all this. Everything has to be perfect.

And she was distracted. How many of us can find ourselves distracted? Every single day, we can come into God's throne room, right? Every single day, when Jesus Christ sacrificed for us, that veil was torn in two, and we have entree into God's throne. We can pray to Him every single day and be in His audience day and night anytime, and He will listen. What do we do? Do we get distracted from time to time when we're in the audience of God, when He's listening to us?

I have to admit, I've done it. I'll find myself, and all of a sudden, my mind is wandering on something else, and I catch myself and think, what have I done? I'm praying to God, and my mind is over here on some other subject that means nothing in the scope of things, because we're so easily distracted at times with things that we have to do, or is going on, or a noise we hear, or whatever it is that can be. Martha was that way. You know, even in our service with one another, we can become so distracted with, we have this event going on, and that event going on, and we're going to coordinate this, and we're going to do this, and hey, next week we have this activity over here, we can be distracted with all of that and think, oh, just by the fact that we're doing all these activities, we're serving God. Are we serving God? Nothing wrong with all those things, but can we get distracted from the truth and the calling that God gave us that we are giving our attention first and primarily to Him? Martha was distracted by many things, and she approached Christ, and she said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Get her in here. Tell her to come in here and help me. And she learned a lesson.

What can distract us? Family? Jobs? A situation at work that comes up at an unfortunate time when you should be doing something else? A pandemic? Martha, Martha, he said in verse 41, you're worried. You are worried, and you're troubled about many things. Worry? We heard a sermon out here not too long ago about worry. You're worried about too many things, Martha.

You're troubled about too many things, Martha. It's okay to do that stuff. It's okay to invite people in. It's okay to do these things. It's okay to want them to look okay. But when there's the opportunity to come before God, pay your attention to Him. Martha, Martha, you're worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her. You know, even the area of fellowship, we can find ourselves distracted.

You know, we've done that. Now, the house isn't quite the way it should be right now, so we really can't invite anyone over. You know, when I go to anyone's house, I could care less what the house looks like. I could care less about the food. I could care less about any of that stuff, and I don't mean that flippantly. I'm not there for that. I'm there to talk with you, and I think you feel exactly the same way. So, on the Sabbath, and we're gonna finish here in verse 10, and we'll pick it up next week in chapter 11 and go through more of Christ's words, because there's plenty more instruction there and Christian living and things we can examine ourselves on going forward. But, you know, even in fellowship on the Sabbath, you know, what do we... or something that distracts us or keeps us from doing what we need to do? I can talk to some of the young people here, oh, we've got to get home right now. We've got to get home right now, because I've got this and that and whatever I can do, and my mind is distracted, not on the Sabbath day, not what I need to do.

We need to realize 24 hours is holy time. Holy time, not time to be distracted by other things in the world. God said, reserve this time for me and focus on me. Well, let's end there. We'll pick it up next time in chapter 11, but let me give you a recap here, because we've gone through eight points that I want to draw your attention to that you might write down, and you might, as I will, as I'm examining myself, look at these things and the words that we have heard Christ say today and see how we measure up and where we need to be. First thing we talked about was faith.

Where is our faith? The Bible tells us without faith, it's impossible to please Him.

Simply, the bottom line, we have to learn to trust in Him and give our lives to Him. That progresses through life. It doesn't happen overnight, but God will give us every opportunity in the course of our lifetimes to build that faith. Faith. Number two, love and appreciate the ecclesia, the body, the house that God has made you part of. He's put us all where He wants to wants us to be, and He says, stay there, learn there, grow there. Let me build you individually and let me build you collectively. Number three, do we recognize, do we appreciate the power of the Holy Spirit? I'd ask ourselves, has Satan fallen from the pedestal that we used to have him on? Before we were called, he was supreme. He was the one we were following.

Where is he today? Are we still following him? The mission is that he will fall from our lives completely. Number four, appreciate the truth. Take some time to appreciate Christ's sacrifice. We've talked about that through the book of Hebrews, one of the primary reasons the book of Hebrews was written. Appreciate the truth that God has opened our eyes to. It is a guard for us. It is an inspiration. It will keep us from drifting away. Remember, drifting away can happen ever so slightly, ever so slightly. Number five, do and live the Ten Commandments. Christ said, do this and live. Number six, stop justifying your actions. We know what to do. Just do it. When we hear something we haven't been doing, acknowledge it, turn from it, commit to God, repent, and go forward. In Acts 17, verse 30, he says, you know, the times of our ignorance he weeks at, meaning he doesn't say it's not sin, but understands we didn't know, but when we know, our job is to repent and go forward and purpose in our minds and establish and purpose in our hearts to go forward with God. Number seven, learn to love all mankind and learn to become one, I can say, with one another. Number eight, don't be distracted. Don't be distracted from doing God's will, being where he wants you to be. Put him first, the very first commandment.

You know, in Luke 13, Christ says, if we don't repent, we will all likewise perish. This is the time we all repented before we were baptized. It's time again to, well, as it is through all our lives, not just before Passover, but certainly as we examine ourselves, repent, repent, believe Christ, believe the gospel, and yield and commit yourself to him.